TRUE SELF
WELLNESS & HEALING
'Thought to Energy to Wholeness'
"Adjusting the frequency of our bodies from the smallest level first, causes change within our bodies that can then be seen at the physical level."
What is energy medicine and vibrational medicine?
Vibrational medicine, or energy medicine, is based on the utilization of electromagnetic energy and subtle energy (Qi/Prana/ life force energy) as a tool to cause change within the body. Energy medicine begins to cause change at the quantum level within atoms. This, in-turn, causes change within the chemistry of the body, cells, tissues and organs. There are many different types of vibrational, or energy medicine utilized in both western and alternative medicine. Some include acupuncture, acupressure, Reiki, homeopathy, vibrational sound healing, hydrotherapy, laser therapy, the list goes on.
Why does Energy medicine work?
Western medicine, built upon the Newtonian model, views the body as just a glorified machine, with one-dimensional physical bits and parts to fix, replace, or modify. Vibrational medicine sees the body as a network of energy fields which interface at a quantum level to form the physical body. Einstein’s Special Relativity Equation, which shows that that all matter is energy, forms the foundation for human beings being viewed as energetic systems, rather than just matter, or physical bits and pieces. Energy has a vibrational frequency. Matter is energy, and therefore has a vibrational frequency. Adjusting the frequency of our bodies from the smallest level first, causes change within our bodies that can then be seen at the physical level. This level of healing is often thought of as less invasive, less traumatic, and with far fewer side effects.
It may not be easy to see the body as a network of interwoven energy fields unless you look at the body as parts of a whole. Functioning organs working together in a dynamic interwoven dance are made of cells which work together and communicate at close and far distances within the body. These cells are made of molecules, such as DNA which contain information, and these molecules are made from atoms. The particles within atoms are energy which has a vibrational frequency. It is at this electromagnetic and subtle energy level where vibrational/energy medicine does the work; causing change at the most ‘basic’ levels which interact in a “hierarchy of subtle energy systems that coordinate electrophysiologic and hormonal function as well as cellular structure within the physical body. It is primarily from these subtle levels that health and illness originate”, [Gerber, 2001].
-Nicole Wilson, 2019
1. Gerber MD, Richard, (2001). ‘Vibrational Medicine’. Rochester, Vermont, Bear & Company.
Science Measures the Human Energy Field
Jim and Nora Oschman
Reiki.org 2019
Energy is a theme that permeates many areas of complementary health care, including Reiki. For historic and emotional reasons, two key words have not been mentionable in polite academic research society: "energy" and "touch." Hence it is not surprising that Reiki therapy has been neglected by mainstream biomedical science.
This picture is changing rapidly because of exciting research from around the world. The tale of how concepts of "healing energy" have swung from suspicion and ridicule to respectability is one of the most fascinating and clinically significant stories that can be told.
As in many other areas of investigation, what we were absolutely certain about 20 years ago has changed dramatically. For example, in a few decades scientists have gone from a conviction that there is no such thing as an energy field around the human body, to an absolute certainty that it exists. Moreover, we have begun to understand the roles of energy fields in health and disease. Most people are simply not aware of this research, and persist in the attitude that there is no logical basis for energy healing.
The main reason for the change in outlook is that sensitive instruments have been developed that can detect the minute energy fields around the human body. Of particular importance is the SQUID magnetometer (1)which is capable of detecting tiny biomagnetic fields associated with physiological activities in the body. (Figure 1) This is the same field that sensitive individuals have been describing for thousands of years, but that scientists have ignored because there was no objective way to measure it.
To summarize the discoveries that have been made, the editors of a new international journal commissioned a review of the concept of "healing energy" (2). While we have been researching this topic for some 15 years, the preparation of an in-depth review led to a thorough reexamination of the subject, with some unexpected conclusions.
For the most part, key discoveries are not being made by scientists studying methods such as Reiki, TT and HT. Instead, traditional scientists, following customary logic and scientific methods, have begun to clarify the roles of various kinds of energy in the healing process. Hence the picture that is emerging has the same scientific foundations that underlie modern clinical medicine. For details, see our published articles (3).
The human energy field:
It has long been known that activities of cells and tissues generate electrical fields that can be detected on the skin surface. But the laws of physics demand that any electrical current generates a corresponding magnetic field in the surrounding space. Since these fields were too tiny to detect, biologists assumed they could have no physiological significance.
This picture began to change in 1963. Gerhard Baule and Richard McFee of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY detected the biomagnetic field projected from the human heart. They used two coils, each with 2 million turns of wire, connected to a sensitive amplifier.
In 1970, David Cohen of MIT, using a SQUID magnetometer, confirmed the heart measurements. By 1972, Cohen had improved the sensitivity of his instrument, enabling him to measure magnetic fields around the head produced by brain activities.
Subsequently, it has been discovered that all tissues and organs produce specific magnetic pulsations, which have come to be known as biomagnetic fields. The traditional electrical recordings, such as the electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram, are now being complemented by biomagnetic recordings, called magnetocardiograms and magnetoencephalograms. For various reasons, mapping the magnetic fields in the space around the body often provides a more accurate indication of physiology and pathology than traditional electrical measurements.
Pathology alters the biomagnetic field
In the 1920’s and 1930’s, a distinguished researcher at Yale University School of Medicine, Harold Saxon Burr, suggested that diseases could be detected in the energy field of the body before physical symptoms appear. Moreover, Burr was convinced that diseases could be prevented by altering the energy field.
These concepts were ahead of their time, but are now being confirmed in medical research laboratories around the world. Scientists are using SQUID instruments to map the ways diseases alter biomagnetic fields around the body. Others are applying pulsating magnetic fields to stimulate healing. Again, sensitive individuals have been describing these phenomena for a long time, but there was no logical explanation of how it could happen.
Projection of energy from the hands of healers.
In the early 1980’s, Dr. John Zimmerman began a series of important studies on therapeutic touch, using a SQUID magnetometer at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. Zimmerman discovered that a huge pulsating biomagnetic field emanated from the hands of a TT practitioner. The frequency of the pulsations is not steady, but "sweeps" up and down, from 0.3 to 30 Hz (cycles per second), with most of the activity in the range of 7-8 Hz (Figure 2). The biomagnetic pulsations from the hands are in the same frequency range as brain waves and scientific studies of the frequencies necessary for healing indicate that they naturally sweep back and forth through the full range of therapeutic frequencies, thus being able to stimulate healing in any part of the body.
Confirmation of Zimmerman’s findings came in 1992, when Seto and colleagues, in Japan, studied practitioners of various martial arts and other healing methods. The "Qi emission" from the hands is so strong that they can be detected with a simple magnetometer consisting of two coils, of 80,000 turns of wire. Since then, a number of studies of QiGong practitioners have extended these investigations to the sound, light, and thermal fields emitted by healers. What is particularly interesting is that the pulsation frequency varies from moment to moment. Moreover, medical researchers developing pulsating magnetic field therapies are finding that these same frequencies are effective for ‘ jump starting’ healing in a variety of soft and hard tissues, even in patients unhealed for as long as 40 years. Specific frequencies stimulate the growth of nerves, bones, skin, capillaries, and ligaments. Of course Reiki practitioners and their patients have daily experiences of the healing process being "jump started," and academic medicine is now beginning to accept this therapy as logical and beneficial because of these new scientific findings. In Figure 2 we have bracketed portions of the signal that correspond to the frequencies used in medical devices that stimulate the healing of particular tissues. Individual differences in energy projection and detection.
To study the projection of energy from the hands of therapists, scientists must first recognize that there are huge individual differences between people. Repeated practice of various techniques can enhance the effect.
There are logical neurophysiological and biophysical explanations for the roles of practice and intention. [Editors note: It would be interesting to use these detection techniques to measure the effect of a Reiki attunement on the strength and frequency of biomagnetic energies coming from the hands and also to measure how theraputic frequencies may change when treating various conditions in the body.]
It is not widely understood that "brain waves" are not confined to the brain, but actually spread throughout the body via the perineural system, the connective tissue sheathes surrounding all of the nerves. Dr. Robert O. Becker has described how this system, more than any other, regulates injury repair processes throughout the body. Hence the entire nervous system acts as an "antenna" for projecting the biomagnetic pulsations that begin in the brain, specifically in the thalamus.
Moreover, waves that begin as relatively weak pulsations in the brain appear to gather strength as they flow along the peripheral nerves and into the hands. The mechanism of this amplification probably involves the perineural system and the other connective tissue systems, such as the fascia that are intimately associated with it.
Conclusion
In this brief summary, I have shown how some of the experiences of energy therapists have a basis in biology and physics. After centuries of neglect, energetic therapies can take their appropriate place in clinical medicine. The great discoveries of biologists and of sensitive bodyworkers are being integrated to give us a deeper understanding of life, disease, and healing. Science cannot take away the ultimate mystery of life, nor can it detract from the spiritual componet of healing. We believe that research on the energy therapies can lead to much a more complete understanding of life, desease, and healing.
References:
(1) SQUID is an acronym for Superconducting Quantum Interference Device.
(2) Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Harcourt Brace & Co., Ltd., Edinburgh.
(3) A list of our articles may be obtained from Nature’s Own Research Association, P.O. Box 5101, Dover, NH 03821, USA, Phone, 603-742-3789, Fax 603-742- 2592,
e-mail: JOschman@aol.com
Jim and Nora Oschman are directors of Nature’s Own Research Association in Dover, New Hampshire. Jim is one of the few academic scientists who has focused on the scientific basis for various complementary or alternative medicines. Jim and Nora have written dozens of articles describing the physiological and biophysical mechanisms involved in a wide variety of therapeutic approaches.
"in a few decades scientists have gone from a conviction that there is no such thing as an energy field around the human body, to an absolute certainty that it exists."
"...a distinguished researcher at Yale University School of Medicine, Harold Saxon Burr, suggested that diseases could be detected in the energy field of the body before physical symptoms appear. Moreover, Burr was convinced that diseases could be prevented by altering the energy field. These concepts were ahead of their time, but are now being confirmed in medical research laboratories around the world."
"Dr John Zimmerman measured....a huge pulsating biomagnetic field emanated from the hands of a TT practitioner (therapeutic touch- similar to Reiki) ..... The biomagnetic pulsations from the hands are in the same frequency range as brain waves and scientific studies of the frequencies necessary for healing indicate that they naturally sweep back and forth through the full range of therapeutic frequencies, thus being able to stimulate healing in any part of the body."
"medical researchers developing pulsating magnetic field therapies are finding that these same frequencies are effective for ‘ jump starting’ healing in a variety of soft and hard tissues, even in patients unhealed for as long as 40 years. Specific frequencies stimulate the growth of nerves, bones, skin, capillaries, and ligaments."
Aura Cleansing:
Kick-Starting Self Love
The aura is a “subtle manifestation of everything that you are”, Sadhguru, 2015. Our thoughts, experiences, addictions, preferences, emotions, interpersonal interactions, spiritual connections, physical and mental state of health all influence each individual’s unique aura as an energetic extension of the physical body. The physical body chemistry manifests in the aura, and the aura, in-turn, causes change in the physical body. Energy and matter are one in the same.
That which you manifested in the past may be still hanging around and not loving you, so that you may not become what you want to be. “If you want to take anything to a higher possibility, first you must purify”, Sadhguru, 2015. Purifying the body and mind helps kick-start change, riding the body and mind of that which is limiting and damaging. Purifying the aura similarly assists in transformation of the self on all levels of spirit, emotion, thought and physical health.
-Nicole Wilson, 2019
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Sadhguru, Manakaram. Personal interview, 2015.
A (Very) Brief History of Usui Reiki
Usui System of Reiki or Usui Shiki Ryoho, was founded by Dr Mikao Usui born in Japan in 1865. While finishing his studies at a traditional Japanese Tendai Buddhist Monastery, Usui also mastered Samurai swordsmanship and Kiko, the Japanese form of Chi Kung. Usui was interested in different types of medicine, energy movement and religions, reading widely on all subjects. Usui sought an approach for healing which didn’t deplete his own energy, and he devoted many years searching for a system. As part of his search, Usui traveled to China and the West to study their medicines and disciplines. He undertook a great many different types of work, eventually leading him back to Buddhism. Usui became a Tendai Buddhist monk and lived in a monastery near Mount Kurama, where he continued his studies.
It was whilst he was living at the monastery, that Usui decided to attend Isyu Guo, a 21 day training course, to seek enlightenment. This involved living in a cave on Mount Kurama and fasting, meditating and praying for the days. On the morning of the 21st day, Usui experienced a mystical event ‘seeing’ ancient Sanskrit symbols, which he acknowledged would help him develop the healing system he was looking for. After this event, Usui set up a clinic in Kyoto, where he began to heal and teach people.
The success of this clinic, allowed Usui to travel all over Japan, taking his Reiki with him. As well as teaching others how to heal themselves. Usui’s main teachings were very focused on how to heal yourself, first and foremost, which continues today in the First Degree of Reiki (Reiki One). His belief being that to be able to heal others, you first need to have healed yourself. By the time of his death on the 9th March 1926, Usui had trained around 16 Reiki Masters to guarantee that the Usui healing system would live on.
Dr Mikao Usui 1865 – 1926
Understanding Medical Intuition
By Nancy Clark
Aug 12, 2012
Humans have the capacity for accessing information without direct observation, knowledge or understanding. Intuition is an immediate knowing without going through the normal analysis of the left brain. It all begins in infancy – long before children can think in words. One example is the child who speaks in complex sentences without learning grammar.
There are three types of intelligence. The first is instinctual and it is inherited or hardwired into our body’s computer at birth. The second is sensory intelligence. Jung described this as the ability to think logically. This is the domain the left brain that operates in time and space.
Third is intuitive intelligence and it seems to operate in a non-physical realm. It will instantly give you the correct answer to a complex problem when the left brain cannot come up with a solution. Rupert Sheldrake, the British biologist, has done many experiments with animals and intuition. It seems when one type of animal learns a new behavior, the rest of the species tap into what he termed the “morphogenetic field” and acquire that skill. Many studies indicate that intuition exists outside of time and space so that humans, like Sheldrake’s animals, can access fields of new information. As more people develop medical intuition, the possibility for others to access that information increases.
This leads us to the area of medical intuition. It has been stated that this innate ability goes all the way back to the recorded notes of Pythagoras (500 BCE) but it has only been in the past several decades that the term “medical intuitive” has come into public awareness. It is interesting that most of the original medical intuitives had no medical backgrounds. They discovered their gifts by accident.
Frequently, medical intuitives spontaneously begin to see inside the body. They describe the experience as suddenly seeing a picture in their mind’s eye that is similar to looking at a three dimensional x-ray. The important difference between a normal x-ray and what the medical intuitive sees is that MIs do not see disease. Nor do they use their physical vision but rather see into a higher frequency using clairvoyance (clear seeing). Using this higher vision, it is possible to detect physical problems by seeing disturbances in the energy fields that surround as well as penetrate a person’s body. The image is then evaluated to discover health related issues. As their visions continue to evolve, MIs begin to see all the organs, glands and systems in the physical body.
Sight continues expanding on different levels and eventually the medical intuitive is able to see scenes from the childhood of the client. Energy blockages appear to begin at early ages and they eventually build into physical problems. These initial situations or experiences may seem unrelated to present day problems but they are the root cause.
Another component in the multiple talents of the medical intuitive is the ability to link illness to an individual’s thoughts and emotions. It is a fact that emotional triggers cause dis-harmony in the energy body and then filter down to the physical body. A balanced, healthy body is the result of clients discovering previously unresolved mental and emotional problems and working to harmonize them. Most MIs focus on the cause rather than apparent symptoms.
When did the United States begin studying medical intuitives? It began over thirty-five years ago when a psychiatrist named Dr. Gerald Jampolsky learned about the psychic diagnostic abilities of Annette Martin. She was tested in front of a panel of twelve physicians. To their amazement, Martin was accurately able to diagnose the physical and emotional states of four of Jampolsky’s patients. Additionally, she named the cause of each of their medical conditions. Over the next five years, he worked with Martin and showed a documentary film of her at medical conferences all over the country.
Since that time we may have heard and seen people like Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz and Dr. Judith Orloff who are both intuitive medical doctors. However, the great majority of medical intuitives, like Carolyn Myss, have no medical background. Her work with Dr. Norm Shealy led to his coining the term “Medical Intuitive.” To Shealy, it meant someone who was an excellent psychic and also had scientific inclinations. He added credibility to the term by conducting years of double blind studies with Myss.
It seems that today more and more MDs, DOs and DCs are collaborating with medical intuitives. By utilizing their skills at clarifying specific issues, MIs can discourage unnecessary medical interventions. There is an emerging medical understanding that illness is mental, emotional and spiritual as well as physical. This means looking at causes beyond the physical. It is also understood that when the higher frequencies of the electromagnetic field are balanced and in harmony, the immune system produces health in the physical body. The role of medical intuitives is now being more widely accepted, indicating their value to the community will continue to increase in future years.
What Research is (NOW) Saying about Effects of the Moon on Human Behavior and Mental Health
Nicole Wilson, True Self Wellness And Healing, March 2020
For centuries people have had theories about the effects of the moon on human behavior. Multiple studies have tried to prove the link of lunar patterns on a variety of issues, from health to crime rates, with no theory proving solid within wide research. Though it is not conclusive, two psychiatrists, Wehr and Avery, are beginning to gather data on the moon’s possible effects on bipolar patients, and have noticed some interesting consistencies.
To understand possible effects on humans, here are some ways in which the Moon influences Earth:
Full Moon– around every 29.5 days
New Moon– 14.8 days after full moon
Tidal rise and fall– every 12.4 hours
Height of tides– roughly two-week cycles–14.8 day “spring-neap cycle”, driven by the combined pull of the Moon and Sun
Declination Cycle– every 13.7- days– driven by the Moon’s position relative to Earth’s equator
Supermoon– every 206 days– when the Moon’s elliptical (or oval-shaped) orbit brings it particularly close to the Earth
Wehr and Avery’s patients appear to be synchronizing with the two week cycle of the height of the tides. They have noted that IF patients switch from depression to mania, it will tend to occur during this phase, about every 13.7 to 14.8 days. However, this does not imply that depression always switches to mania during this phase. Further, every 206 days the regular mood rhythms are interrupted, correlating to the Supermoon cycle (Geddes, 2019). More information and studies are required, and there is no solid evidence as to what may cause these changes, such as increased light or magnetic pull. However, this information could potentially prove useful to individuals looking to know more about their own behavior and moods, and how to flow with the lunar natural rhythms.
Works referenced:
The mood-altering power of the Moon. Geddes , Linda, BBC Future, 31st July 2019. Accessed from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190731-is-the-moon-impacting-your-mood-and-wellbeing
Nurturing Our Own First Chakra: Growing Adult and Finding Safety in Times of Threat
Nicole Wilson, B.S., Reiki Practitioner-True Self Wellness and Healing
April 14, 2020
The recent global challenges of a pandemic are certainly testing each of us in unique ways. As a collective human unit, we may all be feeling the effects on our first chakra, whether we are aware of it or not. Signs there are energy blockages, deficiencies or stagnancy in the first chakra include depression, anxiety over survival issues and feeling unsafe, as well as problems with lower parts of the body such as legs, feet, hips, sciatica, or elimination problems. More specifically, deficiency in energy flow through this center can cause feelings of being insecure, disconnected, restless and listless. Signs of being overactive and having built up or stored energy can cause materialism, greed, competitiveness, overeating and anger. We may also notice an ebb and flow between deficiency and build-up of energy in this center of our bodies as the state of the pandemic changes for the world and individually on a daily basis.
What does the pandemic have to do with our root chakra? Our root chakra (Mūlādhāra) is a center for the energetic frequencies of stability, grounding, nurturing, safety and support. This energy center is representative of our basic starting point in life which allows us to expand into higher levels of awareness and productivity. From the very beginning of our being, hopefully and ideally, we were surrounded by a nurturing and supportive unit dedicated to our well-being and safety, preparing us with a solid foundation for further individual development of personal potential. On a daily basis, as we have grown, our first chakra is our source for actualization of our full range of possibilities as a person. This is also the basis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which at the lower fundamental level, proposes that we must first feel safe and provided for with basic needs of food, love and support- physically, mentally and emotionally, in order to continually grow and sustain self-actualization. Our very root has been shaken and threatened by this pandemic. On a global and personal scale we have been threatened in different degrees with safety, uncertainty and lack of basic needs. Areas where we have perhaps felt uncertain before may now be amplified, that sense of lack of safety may now be even more eminently threatened or questioned.
Our energy center representative of a nurturing family unit or base from which supportive safety comes is earth energy, Mother Earth, GIA. We are connected, like an umbilical cord from a baby to its mother, from our root chakra to this universal collective wise and compassionate energy center. You may have drawn a sense of grounding and safety from this Mother Earth through practices such as hugging a tree, gazing awestruck into an amazing nature setting, or using grounding techniques. One such grounding technique that many utilize is a visualized grounding cord through which energy is sent to the earth to cleanse as an energetic equivalent of letting ‘mommy take care of the problem’. This Mother Earth energy center is incredibly efficient at taking our unneeded and unhealthy energy and transmuting it into loving energy that is healthy and useful for ourselves and the planet.
The problems that we currently have with the pandemic have multiple sources proposed. No matter what theory you subscribe to, it still causes an unsettling feeling of being unsafe, and being abandoned by that which should be nurturing us and keeping us safe. Perhaps you feel the earth is turning against us due to all the hurtful things we are continuing to do. Perhaps you feel the government is not doing a good enough job keeping us safe. Perhaps you feel you have not been provided for enough in monetary areas of life, and so you are now in a further compromised position. The bottom line is, more so than ever perhaps we are feeling threatened, unsafe, uncertain and unsupported.
What can we do to help support ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally and actualize ourselves in a higher energetic frequency? As adults we have choices on how to deal with these feelings of lack of support, as well as how to handle our energetic frequencies in response to the situation. We can choose to surrender or take charge. Both choices are enacting responsibility for our health and well-being. Both choices are equally beneficial. Both choices will depend on each person and each circumstance. Neither choice is better, more advanced, nor of higher frequency than the other. Both choices are also possible at the same time. Life is a choose-your-own-adventure, you get to choose what is right for you.
Choice to Surrender: As mentioned, Mother Earth is excellent and proficient at handling our baggage. When we surrender and allow our Mother Earth to nurture us with loving energy, and release the energy within that is stuck or limiting us, we become balanced with flowing healthy, helpful energy throughout our being. Practices such as grounding, meditation, visualizing energy flow, and Reiki can help to both release unblock energy that is causing stagnancy or a build-up of worry, fear and anger, as well as help to increase and invite energy flow where there is none, causing a decrease in the feelings of lack and helplessness. These practices can help re-connect us with our source energy, and the energy of Mother Earth in order to truly feel the sense of being loved, cared for and supported. This sense of nurturing safety and abundance can then come from the inside filling us up with connection, love, and support.
Choice to take charge: At a certain point within different areas of our lives, we may choose to take over our own healing in a more active role. This may also be true of our root chakra health. Though the root chakra is representative of a collective unit providing our safety net, we may also provide this to ourselves. We may be the source of our own safety, stability and basic needs of security and love. Ideally, we come to a point where we realize it is sometimes necessary and very healthy to not lean on others for constant support, to realize that we have been given the tools and knowledge, or can create or discover the tools and knowledge, to be our own source of support. This may not be the best mode to live within all areas of our life, nor at all times, because this self-sufficiency can create a lot of distance and lack of flow between ourselves and others. However, if utilized mindfully, taking charge of our own safety can create a strong sense of self confidence and stability. Practices that can help develop a sense of support can include evaluating our lives and choices we have personally made to bring us to a position where we feel unsafe. There may have been a lot of outside factors that brought us to this point, however, setting those aside momentarily, and realizing what we might choose to do in the future can be empowering. For instance, we can clean up our house, perhaps rid our surroundings of things we may be hoarding in order to cling to a sense of abundance, or clean up things within our house that may be threatening our safety or sense of well-being. We can finally tackle our financial situation and realize new choices that we can make in the future for spending wisely. We can also reach beyond our own personal situation globally to take charge by evaluating how we can take action for our planetary sense of safety, such as becoming more politically active, joining clean-up efforts, or getting serious about living more sustainably in a truly supported way. These are just some examples, which may not apply to you, and you inevitably have even better ideas which you know will fit your life and help bring true grounding, stability and safety, even in small areas of life, which will make a large overall impact.
We all are feeling the impact of the pandemic in different ways, but undoubtedly one of the best ways to help ourselves and others is with self-love and self-care. These acts are the path to being the fully actualized and healthy adult we envision for ourselves. We can get to the root of why we may be feeling distressed by evaluating how our sense of safety is perhaps being threatened and choosing to surrender our safety to a higher power and/or take action by bringing in energy vibrations of security and stability. Whichever you choose for yourself I commend you for choosing to be nurturing with yourself.
Energy Medicine Gets Serious
Exploring a new force in health and healing, both doctors and wellness practitioners are uncovering the potential of electromagnetic, light and sound interventions to heal your ‘energy body.’
By Beth McGroarty
With Joanne De Luca & Janine Lopiano, co-founders, Sputnik Futures
When people think “energy medicine,” they think “the wellness world”: all those practices, whether acupuncture, chakra balancing, reiki, qigong or sound baths, that focus on healing the human “energy body.” It’s a striking fact that Western medicine and ancient medicines, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda and shamanic traditions, have revolved around a radically different model of the human body and healing. Western medicine has embraced the anatomical and biochemical model: innovating for that material body of flesh and blood. The major indigenous medical systems—even though they were, quite fascinatingly, separated by thousands of years and miles—independently devised healing approaches squarely based on the body as an energy field. They posit that a vital energy (whether “qi” in TCM or the doshas in Ayurveda) controls the processes of our bodies and brains, and that health and healing come from manipulating the flow of energy that courses through our bodies at specific energy points and balances the body’s electromagnetic field (which extends beyond the skin).
In modern Wellness Land, of course, nothing has been trending more furiously than ancient energy medicines, whether Ayurveda or shamanism. The desperation with which people seem to be trying to “fix” their energy is only matched by the skepticism of critics, decrying all this NewAgey, out-there wellness. Better to think like an anthropologist, and ask, what are people seeking so fervently…and why?
And whether you’re a believer in acupuncture but laugh at crystal-mania, medicine—which ignored the “energy body” for a century—is now validating that we are very much a complex electromagnetic field, immersed in other complex environmental, electromagnetic fields. A real paradigm shift is underway, with more scientific researchers (whether from Harvard or NASA) rapidly discovering that the body is indeed a complex biofield of electromagnetic frequencies and light waves that serve as “control central” for our physical and mental functioning. It’s shaking up entrenched thinking in biology. Scientists are also uncovering the ways that the entire world is electrodynamic: We’re surrounded by both natural—and increasingly man-made— frequencies that constantly change human cells. We’re at an interesting moment: where the medical world and “ancient wellness” are finding some common (at least in principle) theoretical ground.
The future: the medical, technology and wellness worlds all innovating new tools to optimize the human energy body. Joanne De Luca and Janine Lopiano, co-founders of future-forecasting consultancy Sputnik, who’ve researched the many new directions in energy medicine for years, note: “The future of medicine is understanding the crucial relationship between the material and ‘field’ aspects of the body, and adjusting human frequencies—and light, sound and electromagnetic interventions are crucial here—to prevent illness and boost health.”
Or, as Anna Bjurstam, wellness pioneer, Six Senses, and a keynote speaker at the 2019 Global Wellness Summit (GWS) on how energy medicine is now moving far beyond “woo woo,” puts it: “Indigenous people have been the knowledge-keepers of energy medicine for centuries, but the scientific community is now taking it seriously, so the world will listen. The invisible will become visible, and energy medicine will become as important as wellness itself.”
Anna Bjurstam, GWS 2019
This trend takes many directions. Medicine will be disrupted by discoveries about the bioelectric “language” that cells use to coordinate so many of our biophysical processes and will invent new technologies to positively impact/regulate the body’s “command central” electromagnetic fields. Frequency therapies (using sound, light and electromagnetic interventions) will rise in the wellness world. (Note: This year’s “Wellness Music” trend, exploring how music is being reinvented as a precision energy medicine, is very much a chapter of this trend.)
As humans get increasingly bombarded by man-made electromagnetic frequencies in our hyper-networked world (Hello, 5G)— anxiety over this potentially dangerous energy will rise, as will new solutions designed to shield us from the biophotonic blitz. And more wellness centers and travel destinations will go “high energy”: serving up even more ancient energy medicines; more high-tech, biohacking technologies to upgrade our energy field; and more blending the best of both ancient and modern solutions. In sum, energy medicine is about to get far more serious.
DISCOVERIES ABOUT THE “ENERGY BODY” WILL DISRUPT MEDICINE
Tapping into our electromagnetic fields has been critical in medicine for years, whether electrocardiograms/EKGs for the heart or MRI scanning. But electrifying new insights will keep coming around bioelectricity, or the “organized lightning” that our cells use to grow and communicate. Biologist Michael Levin[1] at Harvard’s elite Wyss Institute states: “When cells and tissues are alive, there’s a bioelectric potential between the inside of a cell and the outside…So… bioelectricity is the spark of life. But more importantly, the bioelectric potential is not just a byproduct of living; it is a medium that cells exploit to communicate with each other and to form networks that are much more than the sum of their parts.” The future of medicine is scientists like Levin uncovering the bioelectric “language” that cells use to coordinate everything from their own regeneration to cancer suppression.
There’s a flurry of new directions in energy medicine coming from the scientific world. Just a few examples…
Biophotonics: Light Technologies to Transform Human Health
Decades ago, German physicist Fritz-Albert Popp identified biophotons, which are particles of light that radiate from the cells of all living things and, with laser-like coherence, transmit cell-to-cell information[2]. Scientists theorize that this biophotonic “web of light” may be responsible for the overall regulation of our biological systems. The future: using coherent light (lasers or lighted crystals) to positively impact tissues and organs, but also to modulate the body’s energetic system, the bedrock of healing. European physicians, such as Dr. Bodo Kohler, are putting biophotonic findings into clinical practice with bioresonance therapy, whose goal is to harmonize the biophysical fields of the body. The NES miHealth platform’s mission: use bio-electro stimulation and magnetic fields to transmit info to the body at frequencies that match specific parts of the body to activate self-healing.
Pulse Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF)
NASA scientist Dr. Thomas Goodwin found that tissues exposed to the correct pulse electromagnetic field (PEMF) see a 300 percent increase in mitochondria, the energy plants in cells responsible for aerobic capacity and restoring tissues to wellbeing[3]. PEMF frequency healing is now being used in more hospitals and wellness destinations, and an explosion of use-at-home technology devices—whether Oska Wellness or Nevro— are using PEMF neurostimulation to try to tackle pain and inflammation.
Optogenetics
Neurobiologists are creating new “optogenetic” tools, which excite neurons using light, to allow them to map the brain’s connections and activate and silence brain circuits. These tools look to one day be used to treat pain, blindness, epilepsy and depression[4].
Electroceuticals
Big Pharma will take big notice of the big implications of an emerging branch of medicine called electromagnetic pharmacology[5], where wirelessly activated treatments and medication can be switched on/off remotely. Imagine radio waves that activate insulin production, the immune system or gene therapy—or even next-gen drugs that get activated by smartphone apps.
MANAGING NEGATIVE ENERGY
Electromagnetic pollution anxiety & solutions will grow
Humans buzz naturally at a 40-hertz frequency but never have our bodies been so bombarded by man-made electromagnetic frequencies—whether from cell phones, base stations, appliances, power lines, Wi-Fi routers or security systems. As Sputnik’s researchers note: “We now live in an intensely wireless, networked world and are immersed in an invisible sea of signals, with our bodies just another conduit. As the Internet of Things (IoT) peaks in the next five years, electromagnetic pollution will become the new public health issue. Both anxiety and solutions will rise[6].”
Electromagnetic pollution will only surge. The next-gen cell network 5G being rolled out (where basically everything becomes an IP address) requires far more cell towers bunched together, and it will unleash an unprecedented storm of higher-energy photons streaming through our dwellings and bodies. Climate change and extreme weather are disrupting the Earth’s electromagnetic field. And experts argue that proliferating technology is overburdening our aging electrical infrastructure, exposing us to high-frequency electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) called “dirty” electricity.
When you dive into the science of cellphones’ impact on human health, it’s a contradictory mess. The World Health Organization classifies wireless radiations as a class 2B carcinogen[7], while the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states there’s no definitive scientific evidence. The studies on electromagnetic pollution’s impact on human health overall shrilly disagree, and it could be because they have relied on observational data. But public health experts and watchdogs (Europe is out in front) will increasingly demand careful testing of how all these artificial frequencies impact human cells, and whether electro-pollution is triggering stress and disease.
The future: Experts (such as stress doctor, Wendy Hurwitz) argue that all of our devices will and must become compatible to the human energy field. Architects will build homes, schools, workplaces and smart cities designed to maintain a healthy human energy field, just as they now build for sustainability. Engineers will devise solutions that help shield us from dangerous EMFs. Geo-location-based apps will identify areas of high geopathic and energy stress.
Wellness resorts and real estate developers are already making moves to shield people. At Germany’s Villa Stephanie, a flick of a button copper-lines your room, so all electricity and Wi-Fi signals are blocked[8]; all rooms at Germany’s Lanserhof Tegernsee also block Wi-Fi and electro-smog with a single switch. San Francisco-based wellness real estate developer Troon Pacific’s luxury homes have shielded cables in all bedroom walls (close to where beds will be placed) to block exposure to electromagnetic fields. They also have the Wi-Fi system plugged into Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches, so when you flip off the lights at night, you also turn off all Wi-Fi signals.
MORE “HIGH ENERGY” WELLNESS DESTINATIONS
More ancient energy approaches, more futuristic energy biohacking – and more combining both
In the wellness world, programming around ancient energy medicines has risen so powerfully that it sometimes feels there are now as many sound baths and shamans as spas. The hunger and the willingness to travel for that energy upgrade will only intensify.
We’ll see even more ancient energy medicines at the buzziest new wellness destinations. New York City’s newest wellness mecca, The Well, with its East-meets-West team of doctors and healers, not only offers TCM and Ayurvedic programs but also a “vibrational energy healing” track. New-to-us ancient energy medicines will define new destinations, such as Malabar Lu Jong Retreats (in Africa and Spain), grounded in the Tibetan Buddhist energy practice of Lu Jong.
More wellness centers will go all in on the highest-tech energy medicine, such as Los Angeles’ biohacking centers, Upgrade Labs, where you can experience the latest light, vibrational and electromagnetic interventions, including PEMF therapy, vibrational plates, red and infrared light treatments and electric brain stimulation.
Design features in Troon Pacific luxury homes include Wi-Fi systems plugged into PoE switches, meaning all Wi-Fi signals turn off with lights at night.
Ahead-of-the-now wellness destinations, which function more like experimental labs than mere “properties,” will increasingly blend ancient energy medicines with cutting-edge energy technologies. 1440 Multiversity, a new, fascinating, part wellness resort, part “wellness university” in the Santa Cruz redwoods near Silicon Valley (think: a neo-Esalen-meets-Stanford for tech professionals seeking a little more meaning in life), has a faculty of 400 experts and a packed lineup of workshops heavy on energy medicine. And whether a shamanism or sound healing workshop, they typically unite doctors, PhDs, top wellness practitioners and ancient + modern energy healing techniques.
Six Senses Resorts has been making eye-opening ancient + modern energy medicine moves. The brand’s recent “Grow a New Body” program—dubbed “neoshamanism”—brings together the latest thinking/technologies on the energy body from biology and neuroscience with ancient shamanic energy upgrading practices[9]. Designed by leading doctors and Dr. Alberto Villoldo, a medical anthropologist who has studied shamanic healing practices for 25+ years, the program deploys many approaches to fix your energy body: on the modern side, energy-medicine evaluations with doctors, light therapies, IV infusions, altitude training and ozone and oxygen therapies. Shamanic approaches include a mitochondria-boosting, phytonutrients-rich diet; fasting; plant medicine; and intensive spiritual work to clear negative energy, entities and emotions.
Six Senses NYC (coming early 2020)—part wellness resort, part wellness residences, part membership club concept—will rewrite what an urban wellness community could be. And while it’s hard to grasp all its planned wellness offerings, their energy bio-hacking + ancient energy medicine mix is pretty head-spinning: from PEMF therapy, light therapies, chakra balancing, transcranial direct brain stimulation, vibrational plates and pulse massage, etc. All seamlessly delivered as you hang out: How about a little ITENs electric therapy on your shoulders over dinner, while your grounding-sock-covered feet rest on negative ion plates?
ENERGY FUTURES
Science is now validating some crucial ancient energy medicine principles. For instance, scientists at Seoul National University have confirmed the existence of the body’s meridians, which they call the “primo-vascular system” and see as a critical part of the cardiovascular system, as well as the physical basis of the Acupuncture Meridian System (these acupoints are, of course, the key to the energetic effects of shiatsu massage, qigong, tai chi, yoga postures, etc.)[10].
We’re at a pivotal, powerful moment with energy medicine. In the coming years, there will be a rush by medical and technology companies to further crack the code on how energy networks organize our bodies and brains, and they will use that knowledge to design interventions into our electromagnetic and biophotonic fields to prevent disease and boost physical and mental health. It will create entirely new medical approaches, new products and new business models.
Both “wheat” and “chaff” will appear in consumer markets, as energy healing is particularly susceptible to exploitation and quackery. Hard science will validate some ancient energy approaches and invalidate others. Ancient energy medicines will teach Western medicine a few things, and scientific breakthroughs will point the way to new directions in wellness. New common ground leads to new conversations.
The wellness world focuses more on self-awareness and emotional and spiritual healing and connectedness, but, as physicists, biologists and neuroscientists uncover the mechanics of human energy fields—how they mesh with other people’s energy fields, and how we all mesh with the energy fields of the universe—the new energy medicine may solve a pesky little mystery that’s been preoccupying humans for millennia…consciousness, itself.
“Energy futures” in health and wellness? A very strong “buy.”
ENDNOTES
[1] The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, 2016.
[2] Extra Time: 10 lessons for an aging world by Camilla Cavendish, 2019.
[3] Japan begins to embrace the 100-year life by Leo Lewis, Financial Times, 8 August 2018.
[4] Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, 2016.
[5] Kintsugi Wellness: The Japanese Art of Nourishing Mind, Body, and Spirit by Candice Kumai, 2018.
[6] The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo, 2010.
[7] Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest-Bathing by Dr. Qing Li, 2018.
[8] Incense listening in Japan: as intricate as a tea ceremony – how you take part in a session by Lucy Dayman, South China Morning Post, 15 April 2019.
[9] Is Social Capital Good for Health? A European Perspective by Lorenzo Rocco and Marc Suhrcke, 2012.
[10] The Role of “ikiiki (Psychological Liveliness)” in the Relationship between Stressors and Stress Responses among Japanese University Students by Yoshiyuki Tanaka and Akira Tsuda, Japanese Psychological Research, Volume 58, No.1.71-84, 2016.
Copyright © 2019-2020 by Global Wellness Summit.
If you cite ideas and information in this report please credit “2020 Wellness Trends, from the Global Wellness Summit”.
For more information, email beth.mcgroarty@www.globalwellnesssummit.com.
Yantara Jiro - Harmonic Overtone Meditation 和諧泛音靜心
Sept 1, 2020
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