Posted on 09/26/2012 2:28:47 PM PDT by djf
Many believe that conscious awareness originates in the brain alone. Recent scientific research suggests that consciousness actually emerges from the brain and body acting together. A growing body of evidence suggests that the heart plays a particularly significant role in this process.
Far more than a simple pump, as was once believed, the heart is now recognized by scientists as a highly complex system with its own functional “brain.”
Research in the new discipline of neurocardiology shows that the heart is a sensory organ and a sophisticated center for receiving and processing information. The nervous system within the heart (or “heart brain”) enables it to learn, remember, and make functional decisions independent of the brain’s cerebral cortex. Moreover, numerous experiments have demonstrated that the signals the heart continuously sends to the brain influence the function of higher brain centers involved in perception, cognition, and emotional processing.
In addition to the extensive neural communication network linking the heart with the brain and body, the heart also communicates information to the brain and throughout the body via electromagnetic field interactions. The heart generates the body’s most powerful and most extensive rhythmic electromagnetic field. Compared to the electromagnetic field produced by the brain, the electrical component of the heart’s field is about 60 times greater in amplitude, and permeates every cell in the body. The magnetic component is approximately 5000 times stronger than the brain’s magnetic field and can be detected several feet away from the body with sensitive magnetometers.
The heart generates a continuous series of electromagnetic pulses in which the time interval between each beat varies in a dynamic and complex manner. The heart’s ever-present rhythmic field has a powerful influence on processes throughout the body. We have demonstrated, for example, that brain rhythms naturally synchronize to the heart’s rhythmic activity, and also that during sustained feelings of love or appreciation, the blood pressure and respiratory rhythms, among other oscillatory systems, entrain to the heart’s rhythm.
We propose that the heart’s field acts as a carrier wave for information that provides a global synchronizing signal for the entire body. Specifically, we suggest that as pulsing waves of energy radiate out from the heart, they interact with organs and other structures. The waves encode or record the features and dynamic activity of these structures in patterns of energy waveforms that are distributed throughout the body. In this way, the encoded information acts to in-form (literally, give shape to) the activity of all bodily functions—to coordinate and synchronize processes in the body as a whole. This perspective requires an energetic concept of information, in which patterns of organization are enfolded into waves of energy of system activity distributed throughout the system as a whole.
Basic research at the Institute of HeartMath shows that information pertaining to a person’s emotional state is also communicated throughout the body via the heart’s electromagnetic field. The rhythmic beating patterns of the heart change significantly as we experience different emotions. Negative emotions, such as anger or frustration, are associated with an erratic, disordered, incoherent pattern in the heart’s rhythms. In contrast, positive emotions, such as love or appreciation, are associated with a smooth, ordered, coherent pattern in the heart’s rhythmic activity. In turn, these changes in the heart’s beating patterns create corresponding changes in the structure of the electromagnetic field radiated by the heart, measurable by a technique called spectral analysis.
More specifically, we have demonstrated that sustained positive emotions appear to give rise to a distinct mode of functioning, which we call psychophysiological coherence. During this mode, heart rhythms exhibit a sine wave-like pattern and the heart’s electromagnetic field becomes correspondingly more organized.
At the physiological level, this mode is characterized by increased efficiency and harmony in the activity and interactions of the body’s systems. [1]
Psychologically, this mode is linked with a notable reduction in internal mental dialogue, reduced perceptions of stress, increased emotional balance, and enhanced mental clarity, intuitive discernment, and cognitive performance.
In sum, our research suggests that psychophysiological coherence is important in enhancing consciousness—both for the body’s sensory awareness of the information required to execute and coordinate physiological function, and also to optimize emotional stability, mental function, and intentional action. Furthermore, as we see next, there is experimental evidence that psychophysiological coherence may increase our awareness of and sensitivity to others around us. The Institute of HeartMath has created practical technologies and tools that all people can use to increase coherence. Heart Field Interactions Between Individuals
Most people think of social communication solely in terms of overt signals expressed through language, voice qualities, gestures, facial expressions, and body movements. However, there is now evidence that a subtle yet influential electromagnetic or “energetic” communication system operates just below our conscious awareness. Energetic interactions likely contribute to the “magnetic” attractions or repulsions that occur between individuals, and also affect social exchanges and relationships. Moreover, it appears that the heart’s field plays an important role in communicating physiological, psychological, and social information between individuals.
Experiments conducted at the Institute of HeartMath have found remarkable evidence that the heart’s electromagnetic field can transmit information between people. We have been able to measure an exchange of heart energy between individuals up to 5 feet apart. We have also found that one person’s brain waves can actually synchronize to another person’s heart. Furthermore, when an individual is generating a coherent heart rhythm, synchronization between that person’s brain waves and another person’s heartbeat is more likely to occur. These findings have intriguing implications, suggesting that individuals in a psychophysiologically coherent state become more aware of the information encoded in the heart fields of those around them.
(more at link)
bttt
and this we have always known from the word of God for thousands of years. The more science learns the less it knows
What about conjoined people with two heads, two personalities, same body?
That koinkidinkily gives you 11 different dimensions to life ~ which is consistent with at least one version of String theory.
So, what's new?
I have been seeking psychophysiological coherence all my life.
I didn’t read the article. But a FR article from a year ago(?) was how the stomach has “brain cells” in it. Part of the reason why one can have an upset stomach when thinking about something or nervous. Plus that whole “gut reaction” thing.
Ping!
Very, very interesting! Thanks for posting it.
As a musician, my sense of timing is very important to me. I find that, within just a few measures, my heartbeat synchs up with the beat, and stays remarkably steady. I drive drummers who rush,, crazy! As soon as my heart synchs up, I feel a sense of calm, and confidence. Get into great discussions with people who insist that tapping one’s foot is important! Don’t know if this ties in with this research, but it certainly is interesting!
what a load of pseudo-scientific crap, right on the same level as global warming...
Of course there are magnetic fields anytime there is a flow of electrons. We have known this since Michael Faraday told the world about it in 1831. If it makes someone feel better to beleive nonsense like this from some blogger, fine, and you might also enjoy “Five Steps Toward Decolonizing Gaia and Rewilding Mankind” from this Waking Times home page...
Hell, far too many actual brains could use some “brains”...
I’m a Bible-pounding (but cultured...) Calvinist.
But recently I have been reading some eastern medicine stuff.
If you can get beyond some of the terminology that the New Age/pagan movement has co-opted here in the west, it actually makes sense and doesn’t really contradict Scripture in many instances.
Most profoundly, I think the whole idea that your thoughts have a profound influence on your physical well being seems to me to be very strong.
In any event...all very interesting.
(And I expect to have a weak heart and stomach for the next six weeks as this general election unfolds).
I feel in my heart that this isn’t true.
Wait...
well said...and with you on that weak heart and stomach
made up for it by having breakfast at Chick Fil A today. Made a good start to the day
It’s long been known there are various feedback and learning systems in the body. The question here seems to be how sophisticated those systems can be.
For instance, after you learn to tie your shoelaces, your brain doesn’t get involved so much. Your central nervous system and hands themselves “know” how to tie your laces.
An honest skeptic is one thing. Someone who just flat denies something without contrasting/comparing it to what we already know is another.
The Buddhist view is that the heart center is the seat of mind. The brain is just considered a controller of the body. The senses, speech, hearing, sight, touch, taste and so on, are all said to be “consciousnesses” but ultimately there is only one consciousness in a sentient being.
My consciousness starts in my big toe on my right foot. I didn’t know this until one day when I dropped a very heavy brake drum on my toe.
I’ll show you proof.
Goto your toolbox and get out an ordinary wire tester... you touch it to an insulated wire, it tells you if current is flowing through that wire by measuring the electromagnetic field, right?
Take the terminals in your hands, and you can use your mind to make that needle go up, or down.
If it was purely electrical impulses that produced electromagnetic radiation as a byproduct, you would have increased nervous stimuli and arm movement in order to produce an increased field... not just moving it by thinking it.
If you could manipulate your electromagnetic field, then it’s not just a byproduct of your nerve’s electricity... it’s an invisible part of your body that fluctuates at will.
Once you wrap your mind around that, wrap your mind around this: when scientists measure the electromagnetic field of different people in different countries speaking different languages, they ask each person to say words like love, family, hate, mother, father. Though the languages were different the EMF patterns for each individual word were identical across the board. Whether we know how to receive it very well, there is an invisible language.
Add one more interesting fact: scientists discovered that animals that migrate, especially birds, have a unique small deposit of iron between the eyes that seems to help them navigate by reading the electromagnetic lines of the earth. When they wore devices that interfered with receiving this EMF signal, they were lost.
They have not yet studied humans to determine for certain if they possess this unique iron deposit, but the place where it exists in other animals’ bodies corresponds precisely to that area in humans that the people in India call the third eye, that they have always claimed is a spiritual center and has some psychic sensitivities.
And that’s all I’m going to say, and I’m stepping away from the subject.
Except one more thing, and this is for Christians:
What was the one language that all people shared at the building of the Tower of Babel, that they “forgot” when God caused them to have multiple languages?
Now I’m done.
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