Electromagnetism, Subtle Energies and

Health

David Pratt

October 2017

Contents

1. Electromagnetic medicine: the past

2. Biolectromagnetic medicine today
3. Electromagnetic organisms
4. Electromagnetic environment
5. Electropollution
6. Earthing
7. Subtle energies and the ether
8. Prana, acupuncture and homeopathy
9. Beyond sledgehammer science
10. Global harmony
11. Sources

1. Electromagnetic medicine: the past

Ancient papyri indicate that the Egyptians used electric catfish in the Nile River to
relieve pain. The ancient Greeks used these fish to numb the pain of childbirth and
surgical procedures. The 1st-century Roman physician Scribonius Largus used live
torpedo fish to treat gout (inflamed joints), and wrote that headaches and other pains
could be cured by standing in shallow water near these electric fish. In the following
century, Greek physician Claudius Galen applied electric fish to the skull to relieve
headache. The use of live torpedo fish for headache and joint pain persisted throughout
medieval Europe and was advocated by leading Muslim physicians.

The most powerful source of electricity was the enormous South American eel. After
they were introduced into Europe in 1750, people flocked to be treated, especially those
suffering from arthritis. The use of electric fish declined following the invention of the
Leyden jar (which stores static electricity) and Volta’s primitive battery, which provided
more accessible sources of electricity. Physicist Giovanni Aldini, Benjamin Franklin and
others championed the application of stored electricity to treat severe depression and
other psychiatric and neurological disorders. Electric induction coils were widely used
for medical therapy during the second half of the 19th century, e.g. for treating abnormal
heart rhythms. By the beginning of the 20th century, electrical devices were being used
to treat a wide range of neurological, emotional and physical disorders, but there was
fierce opposition from orthodox medicine because there was no compelling theory to
explain how they worked.

The use of magnets for therapeutic purposes also goes back to ancient times. The
Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine – traditionally said to have been written
around 2600 BCE but now widely believed to date from around 300 BCE – mentions
applying magnetic stones to acupressure points to reduce pain. Traditional
magnetotherapy is still used in China today. Ancient Aryurvedic texts recommend the
use of lodestones, as did ancient Egyptian physicians and early Buddhists. Greek
physician Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BCE) used lodestones to cure sterility, while
Galen used them as a purgative. Magnetic rings and necklaces were sold in the
marketplace in Samothrace around 200 CE to treat arthritis and pain.

In the 10th century, Persian physician Ali Abbas wrote in his Perfect Book of the Art of
Medicine that lodestones could cure gout and spasms. The first major treatise on
magnetism, written by Peter Peregrinus in 1289, stated that lodestones could be used
to treat gout, baldness and arthritis, had strong aphrodisiac powers, and could draw
poison from wounds. In the early 1500s, Paracelsus, the Swiss physician, alchemist,
astrologer and philosopher, used magnets to promote healing and treat a variety of
diseases, including epilepsy, diarrhoea and haemorrhage. In the early 17th century,
Flemish physician Johannes Baptiste van Helmont, a leading follower of Paracelsus,
and Robert Fludd, an alchemist and Rosicrucian, also used magnets to treat patients.

German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) began treating patients with
magnets in the 1770s. He reported curing a patient suffering from uncontrollable
seizures and other nervous system complaints by feeding her iron filings and applying
specially shaped magnets over affected organs. Mesmer soon concluded that his cures
really involved the transfer of a subtle fluid or life force, which he named ‘animal
magnetism’ (see section 7).

In the United States, magnetic therapy flourished in the second half of the 19th century.

Magnets, magnetic salves, and liniments were dispensed by traveling

magnetic healers and were readily available at food and grain stores. By the
turn of the century, mail-order catalogues offered magnetic soles for boots ...
as well as magnetic rings, belts, caps, girdles, and other apparel that could
cure anything from menstrual cramps to baldness and impotence. (Rosch,
2015, 17)

In the US, the widespread use of electromagnetic therapies came to an end after the
publication of the 1910 Flexner Report on Medical Education, initiated by the American
Medical Association. It labelled such therapies as abuses of medical practice and
banned them from official use. This restriction remained largely intact until the end of
the 1990s. Since then there has been a strong resurgence of bioelectromagnetic
medicine.
2. Biolectromagnetic medicine today

There are several diagnostic applications of electromagnetic medicine. For example,

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures the body’s magnetic fields for the
diagnosis of physical abnormalities, while the electrocardiograph,
electroencephalograph and electromyograph record electrical heart rhythms, brain
waves and muscle properties respectively. Electroconvulsive shock therapy has been
used since the 1930s and is still the most effective treatment for severe depression, but
no one knows how it works. Pacemakers and defibrillators have also been used for
decades and have saved countless lives.

The past few decades have seen the development of devices for very low-intensity and
low-frequency electric or electromagnetic stimulation. For example, in various countries
specific electromagnetic devices have been approved for promoting the healing of bone
fractures, and for treating liver and kidney tumours, sports injuries, osteoarthritis, pain,
anxiety, depression, insomnia, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

Most of these devices are nonthermal in character, meaning that they do not work by
generating heat. There is in fact no clear understanding of how they work, and that is
one of the reasons why it has taken so long for them to be even partially accepted by
orthodox medicine. Paul Rosch, editor of Bioelectromagnetic and Subtle Energy
Medicine, writes:

In addition to a lengthy history of quackery and fraud, another criticism that

has hampered wider acceptance of bioelectromagnetic approaches is the
inability to identify the mechanisms of action responsible for any benefits. ...
How weak environmental electromagnetic energies as well as those
generated internally can produce nonthermal biological effects, is not clear,
as the absence of detectable heat exchange would appear to violate the
laws of thermodynamics. (Rosch, 2015, 18)

Electrostimulation is still based on a trial-and-error approach; it is impossible to predict

the optimal dose.

Bone and wound healing

It is now accepted medical practice to use weak electric currents and weak, pulsed
electric and magnetic fields to enhance the healing of bone fractures. Pulsed
electromagnetic fields are also used to enhance wound repair and healing (BioInitiative
Working Group, 2012, section 17).

The currents used are remarkably small, even as low as tens of nanoamps (billionths of
an amp; nA). There is no credible physical explanation for the positive therapeutic
effects achieved. In the 1980s it was discovered that magnetic fields as weak as a few
microteslas (millionths of a tesla; µT) were capable of affecting biological systems, and
this is now known to be true of fields as low as 40 nanoteslas (billionths of a tesla; nT)
(Liboff, 2015a). For comparison, the strength of the geomagnetic field at the earth’s
surface ranges from 25 to 65 microteslas.
Brain stimulation
Electrical stimulation of the human brain for therapeutic purposes was first performed
over 50 years ago, and there has recently been a sharp rise in its use.

The dramatic benefit of the technique in the treatment of severe movement

disorders, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), essential tremor, and
dystonia, has spurred its use in a number of other disease conditions. These
include epilepsy, chronic pain, and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), treatment-resistant depression, and
Tourette’s syndrome ... (Baxi et al., 2015, 213)

Several specific techniques are used.

Cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) is a form of noninvasive brain stimulation that

applies an electric current across the skull. Nowadays, the electrodes are usually
clipped to each earlobe, though some devices still direct the current across the temples.
CES is used to treat conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain. It is less costly than other neurostimulation
techniques, and can be safely used by patients at home. Unlike drugs, it has no adverse
side effects or addictive tendencies. Older devices used frequencies ranging from 100
to 4000 hertz (Hz) and currents of up to 8 milliamps (mA), while more recent devices
use frequencies as low as 0.5 Hz and currents as low as 100 microamps (µA).

While the exact mechanism of CES remains unclear, the same is true for
pharmacological interventions used to treat mood disorders, and it seems
likely that both have similar effects on neurotransmitters or other relevant
mechanisms. (Kirsh & Marksberry, 2015, 194)

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an invasive and costly brain stimulation procedure
which involves implanting a device in a targeted area of the brain or central nervous
system. Frequently used noninvasive brain stimulation methods include transcranial
direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS
uses magnetic coils to produce powerful but brief magnetic fields that induce electrical
currents in the brain (Kirsch & Marksberry, 2015; Roth & Zangen, 2015). In 2013 the US
Food and Drug Association (FDA) approved deep TMS (dTMS) for drug-resistant
depression in adults. In the European Economic Area, dTMS has CE marking for
Alzheimer’s disease, autism, bipolar disorder, chronic pain, major depressive disorder,
Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, smoking cessation, and schizophrenia with auditory
hallucinations.

There is evidence that dTMS can improve learning skills and memory. A 2014 study
found that 20 minutes of dTMS resulted in an improvement in learning skills that lasted
five hours. Oxford University researchers have demonstrated that dTMS can improve
the maths skills of adults and of children as young as eight.

Electrodes are placed in a tightly fitted cap worn around the head that can
be targeted to specific areas of the brain or applied generally, and are
powered by an ordinary 9 V battery. ... The Air Force has been using it to
reduce the time needed to teach drone pilots how to identify targets in radar
 images and the Department of Defense utilizes it to train snipers.

The Focus v1 is a transcranial direct current stimulator that uses a headband

with electrodes that are placed over the right and left temples. It also claims
to improve concentration and focus and can be purchased by gamers to
improve their skills for less than $250. ... The amount of current delivered to
the frontal cortex is only 2 mA, much less than a 9 V battery, but little is
known about possible adverse long-term effects. (Rosch, 2015, 609)

Since such devices do not claim to diagnose or treat disease, they do not require
approval by medical watchdogs. Some researchers have predicted that brain implants
to improve cognitive skills will someday be as common as plastic surgery is today. This
raises thorny ethical issues.

Ultrasound, consisting of mechanical vibrations above the threshold for human hearing
(>20,000 Hz), is a less frequently used brain stimulation technology. High-intensity
focused ultrasound (HIFU) now has numerous applications, including treatment of
benign and malignant tumours, neurological disorders and movement disorders (White
& Jolesz, 2015). The acoustic energy of ultrasound waves is concentrated within a
target area to deliver heat at depth without affecting overlying skin and healthy tissues.

Nerve stimulation

Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) devices are among the most common
forms of electrical (rather than chemical) pain relief, particularly in those suffering from
acute, chronic inflammatory conditions. Many studies have demonstrated the ability of
specific types of electric fields to effectively treat pain in those suffering from arthritis
and fibromyalgia (Blank, 2014, ch. 14).
 In 2014 the FDA approved Cefaly as the first transcutaneous nerve stimulator for
preventing migraine
headaches in adults. It uses a battery-powered headband-like appliance that sits across
the forehead. (cefaly.com)

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) involves delivering electrical impulses to the vagus
nerve, often via a device placed under the skin on the chest wall. The vagus nerve is
the neural superhighway, and is associated with many different functions and brain
regions. VNS is mainly used to treat certain types of epilepsy and depression.
 NEMOS is a noninvasive VNS device that received European Union approval for the
treatment of epilepsy and depression
in 2010 and for pain in 2012. It stimulates the auricular branch of the vagus nerve via a
discrete ear electrode. (nemos.uk.com)

VNS has been found to inhibit inflammation, and this has created interest in using this
approach for treating inflammatory diseases, ranging from arthritis to congestive heart
failure. Anti-inflammatory drugs, which often have undesirable side effects, could be
replaced by specific types of vagal stimulation, which are more precise and much safer.

Cancer

Electrochemical therapy (ECT) can be used to treat tumours. Electrodes are inserted
into a tumour and the current arouses strong chemical reactions, causing tumour cells
to degenerate and die. This treatment is simpler and loss costly than surgery, causes
fewer complications and is just as effective in certain instances (Li & Xin, 2015). While
ECT is effective in destroying cancerous tissue, its effect on normal tissue is much
milder. In Europe in particular, ECT is increasingly accepted for routine clinical use.

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields can also be used for treating cancer.

[T]he growth of cancer cells may be effectively blocked when exposed to low
and safe levels of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which are
amplitude modulated at specific frequencies identified in patients with a
diagnosis of cancer. This novel therapeutic approach is potentially paradigm
changing as it appears to only affect tumor cells without collateral damage to
noncancerous cells. (Pasche et al., 2015, 303)
Pulsating magnetic fields, too, have proved effective in treating various malignant
tumours, as well as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid disease, discoid lupus and multiple
sclerosis cardiomyopathies (Pallares & Rosch, 2015).

In less developed, ‘primitive’ societies, people tend to be relatively or wholly free of

cancer. Paul Rosch describes cancer as a disease of adaptation to civilization caused
by faulty intercellular communication and a lack of a feeling of control.

[T]he feeling of having little or no control is always distressful. That also

happens to be a good definition of the cancer cell. It is a cell that is out of
control because it does not communicate properly with its neighbors or the
rest of the organism ...

Anecdotal, but irrefutable reports of cancer cures from shrines, faith healers,
laetrile, coffee enemas, acupuncture, macrobiotic diets, and other alternative
treatments are difficult to explain. There are numerous reports of cancer
regression through the use of various stress reduction or mind altering
techniques, including intense meditation, visual imagery, and hypnosis. Yet,
like spontaneous remission, all these cures are extremely rare, and benefits
are entirely unpredictable in any given patient. Here again, having a strong
faith in anything the individual believes in that provides a sense of control
might be the reason. [There are] numerous reports of reactivation of dormant
cancer following an extremely stressful event, particularly the loss of a loved
one ... (Rosch & Nordenström, 2015, 86-7)

Many lower forms of life are able to regenerate an injured or lost limb. Rosch suggests
that cancer is ‘an attempt by the human organism to regenerate tissues and organs and
even limbs, as lower animals are able to do spontaneously’. Studies show that the onset
of malignancy often follows the death of a spouse or loss of some other important
relationship, and he argues that this might initiate a similar stimulus to regenerate new
tissue, but instead of serving a useful purpose as it does in lower life forms, it results in
tumour formation and is potentially lethal.*

*G. de Purucker sets out a theosophical perspective: ‘[W]e should understand cancer better if
we realized that all growths, malignant or benign, are physiological memories of the method of
propagation which the early third root-race used unconsciously. Then such growths were
normal and natural; now they are abnormal at best and malignant at worst’ (Fountain-Source
of Occultism, 409). The early third root-race, consisting of very ethereal, nonselfconscious
beings, reproduced by budding: vital cells were exuded from the outer parts of the body and
collected together to form huge eggs. In some cases, these vital germs or buds, when freed
from the control of the human life-essence, developed into other animal stocks, each cell
being a storehouse of unexpressed types (see Evolution in the fourth round). The ability of
some organisms to regenerate lost or injured body parts is a more limited manifestation of
cells’ former power of self-expression (see Astral bodies, section 8). The ultimate causes of
disease are our own thoughts, feelings and deeds in this and former lives (see Health and
disease).

Some devices
Seqex is a magnetotherapy device that administers customized, controlled,
pulsed or variable electromagnetic fields at extremely low intensities and
frequencies either over the entire body or locally. It is used to treat disorders
and diseases of the muscular and skeletal system. (seqex.it)

SKY-303Y, a bioelectricity resonance unit. Bioelectricity resonance

technology (BERT) is designed to correct abnormal bioelectric signals and
apply the corrected signals to patients. Imbalance in muscular bioelectricity
results in symptoms like muscle strain, stiff neck, lower back pain and similar
afflictions. A frequency of 25, 50 or 100 Hz is chosen and a current of
between 3 and 25 mA is applied using electronic pads on opposite sides of
the diseased area. The device can reportedly be used for all diseases
relating to the nervous system, muscular system, glandular system and
immune system (Wang et al., 2015). (21who.com)
 The SCENAR (self-controlled energo-neuro-adaptive regulation) device
reads the resistance level of the skin and, when it recognizes an injured or
diseased area, it delivers a tightly controlled dose of electromagnetic
radiation, which stimulates the production of regulatory peptides or
neuroproteins and elicits a healing response (energy-medicine.org). It was
originally designed to help keep astronauts healthy during space flights.
According to a survey among 3000 Russian medical practitioners, SCENAR
is credited with: 79% improvement in the musculoskeletal system, muscle
injuries, and diseases such as arthritis, sciatica, lumbago and osteoporosis;
82% improvement in many circulatory disorders, including strokes,
thromboses and heart failure; 84% improvement in respiratory problems;
and 93% improvement in eye conditions and diseases of the digestive tract
(Philips & Philips, 2012).

Light

That sunlight can help prevent and combat illness and enhance health has been
recognized for thousands of years. Many ancient cultures worshipped the sun as a god,
and used its full spectrum of light to treat physical and mental problems. In recent
decades, on the other hand, there has been a concerted campaign to make people
afraid of the sun. However, moderate exposure to sunlight can improve bone health,
heart health and mental health, prevent many common cancers, alleviate skin disorders,
and decrease the risk of autoimmune disorders, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
Sunlight nourishes the body and regulates many of its biological rhythms.

In the 19th century, light was used to treat conditions ranging from inflammation and
paralysis to tuberculosis. Towards the end of that century, it was discovered that light
was an effective anti-bacterial agent and could also cure rickets (by stimulating
production of vitamin D). Nowadays, light therapy is commonly used for treating skin
conditions (e.g. psoriasis), sleep disorders, vitamin D deficiency, seasonal affective
disorder and other types of depression. Blue light can successfully treat neonatal
jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia) and reduce pain in people with rheumatoid arthritis, while
red light can effectively treat migraine headaches (Liberman, 1991, ch. 4). Low-level
near-infrared light can significantly improve wound healing; it increases the rate of
tissue regeneration and reduces inflammation and pain (Ives & Jonas, 2015).

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) involves injecting a photosensitizing agent into the

bloodstream that accumulates in cancer cells and destroys them when activated by light
of a specific wavelength (Liberman, 1991, ch. 9). This technique has a higher success
rate in treating localized cancers than conventional treatments. Its main limitation is that
the light needed to activate most photosensitizers cannot pass through more than about
1 cm of tissue, which means that tumours that are too deep or large cannot be treated.
PDT is also used for skin disorders and eye ailments.

Light-emitting diode (LED) technology was developed towards the end of the last
century. The Celluma LED light therapy device uses three wavelengths of light to treat
various disorders depending on their location and depth. The FDA has approved its use
for acne, muscle and joint pain and stiffness, muscle spasms, arthritis, and
compromised local blood circulation.

Celluma device. (theworkshopedmonds.com)

Hot lasers generate heat and are used to burn or cut tissues. Cold (low-level) laser
therapy systems produce far less power and, like LEDs, are available in different
wavelengths, each having different effects. Green lasers are used to heal surface
wounds. Red lasers are used for surface conditions like burns, acne and hair
restoration. Infrared and near-infrared lasers penetrate much deeper and can help heal
muscle, ligament or even bone. In 2002 the FDA approved the use of low-level laser
therapy for pain relief. Cold laser acupuncture (usually red) has the advantage that an
acupuncture point only has to be stimulated for 5 to 50 seconds, compared with 20
minutes if a needle is used, and since the skin is not punctured there is no risk of
infection (Rosch, 2015, 610).
Dark side
Paul Rosch notes:

Permanent magnet and electromagnetic therapies are now riding the crest of
a tidal wave of interest in ‘alternative’ and ‘complementary’ medicine.
Unfortunately, charlatans, entrepreneurs, and misguided zealots with
worthless devices and unfounded claims still abound. (Rosch, 2015, 18)

Abraham Liboff, a pioneer of bioelectromagnetics, writes:

These advances and opportunities [in bioelectromagnetic medicine] also

have a dark side, providing new areas for quacks and charlatans that
specialize in electromagnetic ‘cures’ to prey on the sick. For example, we
have already seen devices based on ‘picotesla [a thousand-billionth of a
tesla] stimulation’ marketed without regard to the need to shield or correct for
more intense, local magnetic fields. Electromagnets directly purchased from
physics supply houses have been touted as ‘molecular energizers’ to help
combat brain cancer. (Liboff, 2015b, 383)

He goes on to refer to ‘nonsensical claims that diseased cells can be “blown up” at
certain frequencies, or that the entire array of human disease is traceable to specific
parasites, each of which has its own unique susceptibility to a given frequency’.

Caution is certainly called for, but it works both ways: the history of science clearly
shows that theories and claims published in peer-reviewed journals are not necessarily
correct, and that theories and claims that peer-reviewed journals refuse to publish are
not necessarily false.

3. Electromagnetic organisms

All organisms are electromagnetic. There are electric currents in every cell and
coordinated currents throughout the body. Electric currents generate electromagnetic
fields of varying frequencies, amplitudes and wavelengths. The body emits ultraweak
photons, often called biophotons. Normally they are emitted in a symmetrical pattern,
but this is not true for individuals with chronic diseases such as diabetes and arthritis.
Death is commonly defined as a flatline electrocardiogram or electroencephalogram –
i.e. no electrical activity in the heart or brain.

Organisms’ electrodynamic field – named life-field or L-field by Harold Saxton Burr in

the 1930s – changes slowly, increasing in strength until adulthood is reached and then
gradually declining with age. The fields are maintained by electric currents in the body,
forming closed circuits. These fields were confirmed by various researchers, including
Robert Otto Becker (1923-2008), who also documented changes in electric polarity
during wound healing and limb regeneration in animals and humans.
 L-fields of humans and salamanders. (Becker & Selden, 1985, 95, 98)

Electric potential changes at the cut end of the stump after amputation in a salamander
(top),
which regenerates its amputated limb, and in a frog, which does not. (Becker & Selden,
1985, 73)
Becker realized that electromagnetic fields, when used with the correct polarity, at the
right time and place, and at the extremely weak levels characteristic of living organisms,
can help heal wounds and fractures, and even regenerate severed fingertips and
nerves. But exposure to inappropriate electric fields is likely to cause abnormal growth
and cancer (see section 5).

According to orthodox biology, communication within the body takes place at a

chemical/molecular level. Signal molecules – such as hormones, neurotransmitters,
neuropeptides or pheromones – are believed to move about randomly until they bump
into a receptor site with an appropriate shape, much like a key fits into a lock. This
theory faces a major problem:

The random meeting between hormone and receptor, or enzyme and

substrate, taking place in a sea of other randomly moving molecules, has a
statistical probability approaching zero ... Under these conditions, the
simplest biological event or step in a metabolic pathway or regulatory
process should require some thousands of years to take place. [But] living
processes are simply too fast and too subtle to wait for molecules to wander
around aimlessly until they happen to bump into the right targets.
Electromagnetic or vibrational signaling is not only physically possible; it is
the ideal mechanism for the rapid and precise communications taking place
in living systems. For this model, electromagnetic resonance, not shape, is
crucial. One can envision a web-work of electromagnetic signaling
processes extending throughout the body, enabling the coordination of a
wide diversity of functions and processes. (Oschman & Oschman, 2015,
465)

There is strong evidence that insects’ antennae act like radio antennae and detect the
electromagnetic signals produced by vibrating pheromone molecules (sex attractants).
The zigzag flights of moths and butterflies may be a scanning process, using direction-
finding antenna arrays. The molecular frequency model for the sense of smell (olfaction)
implies that a similar class of vibration receptors is at work in olfaction, hearing and
vision.
A moth’s antennae (top) resemble a log-periodic antenna.
 Why is a moth attracted to its destruction by a candle flame? It turns out that a candle
produces infrared emissions corresponding to the emissions of pheromone molecules.

A ‘free radical’ is any atom or molecule with a negative charge, due to its having an
extra electron. Free radicals of the oxygen and nitrogen species might play a key role in
atomic-level signalling within and between cells, in addition to chemical reactions
between biomolecules.

In their brief lifetimes, free radicals are sensitive to imposed magnetic fields,
including microwave fields. Free radicals are involved in normal regulatory
mechanisms in many tissues. Disordered free radical regulation is
associated with oxidative stress diseases, including Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s diseases, coronary heart disease, and cancer. (Adey, 2015, 28)

Water, too, appears to play a vital role in electromagnetic communication. Gerard

Pollack (2015) discovered that, in addition to its solid, liquid and vapour phases, water
can exist in a fourth, liquid-crystalline phase, also known as exclusion zone (EZ) water
(H3O2). It enters this state by absorbing infrared energy from the environment. Such
water carries a negative charge and acts like a battery to supply energy to cells. By
volume, two thirds of our cells’ content is water, and most of this water is liquid-
crystalline water.

Research by Mae-Wan Ho (2015) shows that ‘all the liquid crystalline molecules in the
cells and tissues of the body are aligned, and more importantly, moving coherently
together’. In fact, ‘the entire organism is electrically polarized from head to tail, behaving
optically as a single uniaxial crystal, like quartz’ (99). This allows molecules and cells to
communicate by means of electric and electromagnetic signals, by resonating to
common frequencies. She argues that liquid-crystalline water embodies and generates
organisms’ electrodynamic life field. It also enables ‘proteins and nucleic acids to act as
quantum molecular machines that transform and transfer energy at nearly 100%
efficiency’ (93).

Some exaggerated claims have been made about the electric L-field. Burr believed it
could explain morphogenesis – i.e. how a developing organism acquires its specific
form. Since the L-field is generated by a physical organism, it clearly cannot provide a
blueprint that explains how a developing organism acquires its shape. In the
theosophical tradition, the template for the physical body is provided by the astral
model-body (see Astral bodies). Ho suggests that the morphogenetic field is ‘written’ in
liquid-crystalline orientation patterns. But what determines those patterns in the first
place?

According to the emerging electromagnetic paradigm, illness results when the

electromagnetic fields of living things are disrupted, and balance can be restored by
applying electromagnetic fields with intensities far below levels that would produce heat.
As already noted, electromagnetic fields can either heal or harm. The health effects
depend on whether static or changing fields are applied, the intensity and duration of
exposure, and in the case of alternating fields, the oscillation frequency. As Paracelsus
recognized, dosage is a key factor: ‘Poison is in everything, and no thing is without
poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.’
4. Electromagnetic environment

Life forms on earth have evolved in a specific electromagnetic environment. The earth
has a slowly migrating static magnetic field. There are also much weaker, oscillating,
low-frequency electromagnetic fields arising from two main natural sources:
thunderstorm activity in the tropics; and – to a lesser degree – solar magnetic storms.
Schumann resonances are electromagnetic standing waves that exist between the
surface of the earth and the inner edge of the ionosphere, 75 km up; they are excited by
lightning flashes, of which about 50 per second occur worldwide. Resembling an
atmospheric heartbeat, the resonances range in frequency from 3 to 60 Hz; the
strongest peak is at 7.8 Hz, with others at around 14, 21, 26 and 33 Hz. Evidence
suggests that humans and other organisms synchronize their biological rhythms to the
Schumann frequencies.

Electromagnetic waves (shown in blue, green and red) created by lightning

flashes circle around the earth, creating the Schumann resonances.

Given that the total geomagnetic field intensity ranges from 25 to 60 microteslas (µT),
it’s hard to see how biological systems can be affected by changes in this field of 0.2 µT
or less connected with solar/geomagnetic activity. Nevertheless, the strong correlations
between these terrestrial and solar factors and human health and behaviour suggest
that they can. This supports many ancient cultures’ belief that their collective behaviour
can be influenced by the sun and other external factors and cycles.

Increased solar activity can disturb the biological rhythm of humans and
exacerbate existing diseases. However, deviations are observed for some
individuals, which can be due to the individual’s adaptive ability. Increased
solar activity and geomagnetic activity is also correlated to a significant
increase in heart attacks and incidence of death, myocardial infarction
incidents, a 30%-80% increase in hospital admissions for cardiovascular
disease, cardiovascular death, depression, mental disorders, psychiatric
admission and suicide, homicides, and traffic accidents. Birth rates were
observed to drop and mortality to increase during increased solar and
geomagnetic activity (GMA), and migraine attacks can be triggered.
Persinger and Halberg have independently shown that war and crimes were
correlated to GMA. ...

On a larger societal scale, increased violence, crime rate, social unrest,

revolutions, and frequency of terrorist attacks have been linked to the solar
cycle and the resulting disturbances in the geomagnetic field. ...

Solar activity has not only been associated with social unrest, it has also
been related to the periods of greatest human flourishing with clear spurts in
architecture, arts and science, and positive social change. (McCraty &
Deyhle, 2015, 414-5)

Changes in geomagnetic conditions appear to most strongly affect the rhythms of the
heart and the brain. To explain how solar activity can exacerbate certain medical
problems, it has been suggested that changes in the geomagnetic field caused by solar
storms disorient our hormonal systems and disrupt our biological clock (Liboff, 2015c).

5. Electropollution

There is mounting concern about potential adverse health effects resulting from ever-
increasing exposure to electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by mobile phones
and other wireless communication devices, and to electric and magnetic fields produced
by power lines and electrical devices and equipment. Some people suspect a link
between electromagnetic field exposure and their health problems, ranging from mild to
debilitating.

Mobile and cordless phones emit radiofrequency (including microwave, MW)

electromagnetic fields (EMF) and also extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields
from the battery. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of
the World Health Organization (WHO), classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields
as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B)’ (2013). It classifies extremely low-
frequency magnetic fields, too, as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’, while static electric
and magnetic fields and extremely low-frequency electric fields are ‘not classifiable as to
their carcinogenicity to humans (Group 3)’ (2002).
This is a hotly debated topic. While the industries concerned emphasize that there is no
conclusive proof of harm, evidence pointing to adverse health effects continues to
accumulate. Peter Blank (2014) writes:

Long- and short-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation can harm DNA

in your body, leading to cell death and cell mutation. These effects are seen
across the EM spectrum – not just from ionizing radiation like ultraviolet and
X-ray, but also from non-ionizing radiation including cell phone MW
transmissions and even the extremely low frequency EMF from power lines.
(ch. 4)

Multiple separate studies indicate significantly increased risk (up to two and
three times normal risk) of developing certain types of brain tumors following
EMF exposure from cell phones over a period of many years. One review
that averaged the data across 16 studies found that the risk of developing a
tumor on the same side of the head as the cell phone is used is elevated
240% for those who regularly use cell phones for 10 years or more. (ch. 1)

[L]evels of EMF thousands of times lower than current safety standards have
been shown to significantly increase risk for neurodegenerative diseases
(such as Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease) and male infertility
associated with damaged sperm cells. (ch. 1)

For an overview of the scientific literature and a detailed assessment of the risks, see
the BioInitiative 2012 Report.
Children are at greater potential risk than adults because of their thinner skull bones,
and the higher conductivity and sensitivity of their developing brains. Regarding the
risks of mobile phone use, the European Environment Agency writes:

There is sufficient evidence of risk to advise people, especially children, not

to place the handset against their heads: text messaging, or hands-free kits
lead to about ten times lower radiation levels, on average, than when the
phone is pressed to the head. (eea.europa.eu)

In addition to maximizing our distance to EMF-emitting devices, personal EMF exposure

can be minimized by turning WiFi devices off when not in use and using wired
connections rather than wireless ones where possible.
The large-scale Interphone study (2000-2012), initiated by the IARC and partly funded
by industry, examined whether there was a link between mobile phone usage and four
types of cancer: glioma and meningioma (brain tumours), cancer of the parotid gland (a
type of salivary gland), and schwannoma (tumours of the acoustic nerve). It concluded:

Overall, no increase in risk of glioma or meningioma was observed with use

of mobile phones. There were suggestions of an increased risk of glioma at
the highest exposure levels, but biases and error prevent a causal
interpretation. The possible effects of long-term heavy use of mobile phones
require further investigation. (interphone.iarc.fr)

The study had serious flaws. For example, it looked at only four types of cancer,
whereas scientific research has linked radiofrequency and microwave exposure to many
types of cancers (including leukaemia, melanoma and lymphoma), as well as other
negative health effects. It covered a period of only 10 years, whereas brain tumours can
take up to 25 years to develop. It excluded children (a high-risk group), and adults up to
30 or aged 60 and older. It was restricted to cell phones, which means that individuals
who used cordless phones did not count as having been exposed, even though they
face similar risks. People in rural areas were underrepresented in the study, but they are
exposed to the most powerful electromagnetic radiation from their phones.

Studies on animals show that ants lose their ability to forage when exposed to
radiofrequency signals such as those from wireless equipment like mobile phones and
Wi-Fi routers, and can die (Cammaerts et al., 2013; Cammaerts & Johansson, 2014).
Electromagnetic fields have been found to interfere with the ability of birds and bees to
navigate (Blank, 2014, ch. 1). Electromagnetic fields also impair the reproduction of fruit
flies (Margaritis et al., 2014).

Unlike ionizing radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays, radiofrequency waves cannot
break chemical bonds or cause ionization in the human body. Nor are the exposure
levels high enough for them to cause tissue heating. The mechanisms involved in any
carcinogenic or other adverse effects must therefore be nonthermal. For example,
radiofrequency electromagnetic fields can increase free radical activity in our bodies,
which could lead to DNA damage.

It is noteworthy that the wireless industry has not been required to do any premarket
testing or postmarket surveillance on the health effects of its products. The US
government no longer funds research into this issue. Peter Blank writes: ‘The wireless
industry funds studies that produce results in line with their interests, and attacks and
defunds those scientists who produce results contrary to their interests’ (2014, ch. 8).
One survey found that 27% of industry-funded studies demonstrated that
radiofrequency exposure has a biological effect in humans, whereas 68% of
independently funded studies found such effects. A review of 23 studies examining the
link between mobile phone use and tumours concluded that the 10 higher-quality
studies showed an association, while the lower-quality studies did not. The latter studies
failed to meet scientific best practices and were primarily industry funded (Blank, 2014,
ch. 8).

150 years ago there was no mains electricity and the only high-voltage phenomena
were lightning discharges. 100 years ago mains electricity using alternating current was
in its infancy but it is now ubiquitous. The childhood leukaemia peak at ages two to four
which emerged in the US in the 1930s correlates with the spread of residential
electrification in the first half of the 20th century (Milham, 2015). This pattern remains
absent in areas of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, where people are not
exposed to electromagnetic fields from the power grid. Draper et al. (2005) found a 70%
increase in childhood leukaemia in England and Wales for those living within 200
metres of 275 and 400 kV powerlines, and a 23% increase for those living 200 to 600
metres from the powerlines. They stressed ‘the uncertainty about whether this statistical
association represents a causal relation’.

A major form of electromagnetic pollution associated with the power grid is said to be
‘dirty electricity’ – high-frequency voltage transients which are superimposed on the
mains frequency of 60 Hz (in the US) or 50 Hz (in Europe and much of the rest of the
world). Dirty electricity is caused by equipment that interrupts the electrical current flow,
generating a voltage spike. This includes light dimmers, energy-saving light bulbs
(CFLs), smart meters, wireless equipment, and electrical devices in the home and on
the grid that have a switch-mode power supply (i.e. most modern electronic equipment,
such as computers, copiers and air conditioners, and all transmitters, including cell
towers). Dirty electricity is distributed throughout a building on the electric wiring. It
radiates into the living environment and interacts with the body. Links have been
claimed with many different health and wellbeing effects, and there is a growing industry
selling measurement and filtering equipment (emfanalysis.com).

A 2016 study of peer-reviewed literature on dirty electricity (DE) concluded: ‘The

available evidence for DE as an exposure affecting human health at present does not
stand up to scientific scrutiny’ (De Vocht & Olsen, 2016). Some researchers, however,
blame dirty electricity for the current epidemic of diseases of civilization, including
cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes (Milham, 2015). The Old Order Amish in
North America, who live without electricity, have less than half the cancer incidence of
the US population and about half the type 2 diabetes prevalence as other US citizens.
Cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and suicide are also less common among
the Amish. Of course, this fact alone does not prove that electrification is the main
cause.

Some individuals are more susceptible than others to electromagnetic field exposure
and report symptoms like fatigue, restlessness, sleep problems, concentration
difficulties, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitations, digestive disturbances, rashes,
tinglings and burning sensations. This is known as electrosensitivity or electromagnetic
hypersensitivity (EHS); the latter term implies that we are all electrosensitive to some
extent. According to the World Health Organization:

A survey of occupational medical centres estimated the prevalence of EHS

to be a few individuals per million in the population. However, a survey of
self-help groups yielded much higher estimates. Approximately 10% of
reported cases of EHS were considered severe.

There is also considerable geographical variability in prevalence of EHS and

in the reported symptoms. The reported incidence of EHS has been higher
in Sweden, Germany, and Denmark, than in the United Kingdom, Austria,
and France. (WHO, 2005)

In Sweden, EHS is considered a physical impairment and recognized as a disability.

However, most countries tend to treat EHS as largely psychosomatic rather than an
‘allergic’ reaction to electromagnetic fields (powerwatch.org.uk).

Most safety regulations set ‘safe’ levels of electromagnetic exposure that are up to
thousands of times higher than those that have demonstrated negative health effects in
scientific studies. This is because they assume that levels of nonionizing radiation that
do not cause heating in human tissue are safe. They fail to consider nonthermal health
effects, multiple simultaneous exposures, and cumulative exposures over a lifetime.

6. Earthing

There is a continuous flow of electrons from the sun to the earth’s ionosphere, and from
there to the earth’s surface via lightning strikes. As a result, the earth’s surface has an
abundance of electrons that give it a negative electrical charge. For much of human
history people have walked barefoot or used footwear made of animal skins, and slept
on the ground or on animal hides. Being earthed or grounded had various health
advantages.

Through direct contact or through perspiration-dampened and electrically

conductive animal skins used as footwear or sleeping pads, the ground’s
abundant free electrons were able to enter their bodies, which are
electrically conductive. Through this mechanism, every part of the body can
equilibrate with the electrical potential of the earth, thereby stabilizing the
electrical environment of all organs, tissues, cells and molecules, and
providing a key ingredient needed for the operation of the immune system.
 (Oschman et al., 2015, 429)

Our modern lifestyle has increasingly separated us from contact with the earth’s
electrical field and free electrons. Traditional leather soles made from animal hides have
largely been replaced by shoes with insulating rubber, plastic or composite soles. We no
longer sleep on the ground. Our houses have insulating floors made of wood or acrylic,
and carpets are made from synthetic materials that are nonconductive and can cause
buildup of harmful static electrical charges on our bodies. Other lifestyle changes
include the rise of fast-food, computers and mobile phones, and spending more time
indoors.

Some researchers believe that the modern disconnection from the earth’s surface could
be a major factor in the recent dramatic rise in stress-related chronic illness, immune
disorders and inflammatory diseases. There are many reports of earthing alleviating
autoimmune disorders, reducing cardiovascular risk, improving sleep and reducing pain
(e.g. from injuries or arthritis). Sleeping grounded increases the levels of melatonin, the
most important hormone produced by the pineal gland. Melatonin supports the immune
system, promotes deep, restful sleep, slows cell damage and ageing, improves energy
and may even inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Grounding the body appears to reduce
inflammation because the electrons from the earth that enter the body have an
antioxidant effect, neutralizing free radicals at sites of inflammation.

Left: If you are standing outside on a clear day, wearing shoes or standing
on an insulating surface (like a wooden or vinyl floor or asphalt), or sitting in
a car with rubber tyres, there is an electrical charge of some 200 volts
between the earth and the top of your head. Right: If you are earthed or
grounded, your skin and the earth’s surface form a continuous, negatively
charged surface with the same electrical potential; the top of the head is at 0
V, and the positively charged area is pushed up and away from the body.
Any person, animal or plant in direct contact with the earth creates this
shielding effect. (Oschman et al., 2015, 436)

In addition to walking outside barefoot, there are grounding shoes and flip-flops
available to connect people walking on natural terrain with the earth. Another earthing
method is to place a grounding sheet on a bed or a grounding pad under the feet or
wrists, and to wear conductive straps around the ankles or wrists. Grounding essentially
eliminates the ambient voltage induced on the body from common electricity power
sources and can reduce the potential consequences of electropollution in offices.

7. Subtle energies and the ether

‘Subtle energies’ has different meanings. It is sometimes used to refer to physical

energy fields (e.g. electromagnetic waves) that are very weak, but it can also refer to
ethereal, nonphysical grades of energy-substance. This includes a life force, known by
different cultures, traditions and researchers under a variety of names: e.g. ka (ancient
Egypt), pneuma (Greece), spiritus/anima (Rome), prana/ojas (Hinduism), lung (Tibet),
qi/chi (China), ki (Japan), nephesh (Judaism), animal magnetism (Franz Anton
Mesmer), odic force (Karl von Reichenbach), élan vital (Henri Bergson), and orgone
(Wilhelm Reich). Some researchers believe that the ‘corona discharge’ of living
organisms and inanimate objects revealed by Kirlian photography (high-voltage, high-
frequency electrophotography) may be a manifestation of this life energy (see Astral
bodies, appendix 2).

All mystical traditions and religious philosophies recognize the existence of subtler
realms, which are invisible to our normal senses, but not to the inner eye of a seer or
even an undeveloped psychic. In the 18th and 19th centuries most scientists accepted
that there was an ether of subtler substance underlying the physical world, which helped
explain light, heat, electricity and magnetism.

However, the ether went out of fashion among mainstream scientists with the rise of
relativity theory and quantum theory in the early 20th century (see Space, time and
relativity). Instead of trying to understand physical matter-energy as manifestations of a
subtler level of reality, orthodox scientists now try to understand them in terms of
mathematical abstractions that exist only in their imaginations: e.g. zero-dimensional
point particles, one-dimensional strings, and ‘probability waves’ that magically ‘collapse’
into physical particles whenever we make an observation (see The farce of modern
physics). However, individual scientists have continued to explore the notion of an ether.

According to the theosophical tradition, or ageless wisdom, the ether of physics

corresponds to the three highest states of matter on our physical plane (the lower four
being: solid, liquid, gas and plasma), and it is merely the borderland of the endless
planes of reality that lie beyond – all of which are composed of consciousness-
substance of different rates of vibration, and occupy (and in fact compose) the same
boundless space (see Worlds within worlds).

Nowadays, many researchers who accept that subtle energies are required to explain
psychic phenomena and certain types of healing reject the concept of an ether as
obsolete, and try instead to explain subtle energies by invoking extra dimensions of the
physical world, or quantum entanglement, i.e. instantaneous ‘nonlocal’ connections
‘beyond space and time’ (see Psi wars). In fact, many researchers are looking for ways
to explain acupuncture, homeopathy and manual healing methods without appealing to
subtler, nonphysical energies of any kind; they prefer to invoke conventional
electromagnetic fields (including the universal quantum field) and bioelectricity (Mayor,
2015).

Investigation and application

Swiss-born occultist and physician Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von

Hohenheim (1493-1541), popularly known as Paracelsus, anticipated many elements of
modern conventional and alternative medicine (Wood, 2004). He is known as the
founder of iatrochemistry (chemical medicine) and the father of pharmacology. Standing
in the theosophic tradition, he held that, in addition to our physical body, we have an
ethereal ‘sidereal body’, through which our higher, spiritual nature works. He also
recognized a universal life force, the spiritus vitae or archaeus, which he described it as
an ‘inner alchemist’ that maintains and repairs organisms in a dynamic fashion.

He spent much of his life wandering around Europe healing the sick and gathering
information from people of every walk of life. He performed seemingly miraculous cures
on many patients who had been pronounced incurable by leading doctors, a fact
testified to by Erasmus. He used a variety of healing methods, including magnets and
talismans. In his remedies, he applied the ‘law of similars’ or ‘like treats like’ – a principle
known since ancient times (e.g. to Hippocrates) and forming the basis of modern
homeopathy. Like all ancient cultures, he recognized correspondences between the
macrocosm (universe) and the microcosm (individual). H.P. Blavatsky describes
Paracelsus as ‘the greatest occultist of the middle ages’, ‘a clairvoyant of great powers’
and ‘a distinguished alchemist’ (Theosophical Glossary, 248-9).

Viennese doctor of medicine Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1814) drew inspiration from
reading Paracelsus, and in the early 1770s he began treating patients with magnets. He
soon came to the conclusion that a magnet was merely a medium through which a
healing fluid acted. He found he could also achieve cures simply by touching or moving
his hands over his patients or staring into their eyes. He called this subtle force ‘animal
magnetism’, which he distinguished from mineral magnetism. He believed that animal
magnetism was subject to the influence of the heavenly bodies and worked through a
subtle, universal, all-pervading fluid (the ether). Mesmeric healing was believed to
remove blockages and restore the balanced flow of animal magnetism within the body.

From 1773 to 1778 Mesmer travelled around Europe demonstrating his new methods in
various places from Switzerland to Bavaria. In 1778 he set up practice in Paris, and
over the next few years his fame and the number of patients he treated grew rapidly.
Charles Deslon, Doctor Regent of the Faculty of Paris, became his first student and
later a partner. In 1784 they treated 8000 patients. To treat groups of patients, Mesmer
used a baquet, a vat 6 or 7 feet in diameter, containing glass fragments, gravel, stones,
sulphur and iron filings, and filled with water – which were charged with animal
magnetism. From the top of this tank projected metal rods which patients pressed
against afflicted areas of their bodies, triggering the mesmeric ‘crisis’, during which they
sometimes suffered convulsions, spoke in strange voices, or fell into a cataleptic state
or coma. Mesmer would walk around fixing patients with his intense gaze and
sometimes stroking them with his ‘magnetized’ wand. The poor were allowed to use one
of his baquets free of charge, but seats around the other baquets had to be reserved far
in advance and cost about the same as an opera ticket (Turner, 2006; Bivins, 2007).

An example of Mesmer’s baquet. (cabinetmagazine.org)

Later versions of the baquet also contained a Leyden jar, which meant that the
projecting rods could deliver a powerful electric current. Mesmer stated that ‘the magnet
and artificial electricity have, with respect to diseases, properties common to many other
agents presented to us by nature’ and that ‘if the use of these has achieved some useful
results, they are due to animal magnetism’ (Mesmer, 1779).

Mesmer’s success in curing everything from deafness to paralysis infuriated the medical
establishment, and in 1784 he was investigated by a commission of leading scientists. It
declared that it could find no evidence of a previously unknown subtle fluid and that any
cures must be entirely due to his patients’ imagination. The French Société Royale de
Médecine concurred in a separate report, but one of its committee members
acknowledged that Mesmer’s methods were effective and that some kind of subtle fluid
may play a significant role in maintaining health; he pointed out that imagination could
not explain why some patients went into convulsions if a rod or finger was pointed at
them from a distance of six feet even when they could not see it. Mesmer, however, was
branded a quack and a charlatan, and his popularity began to wane. (See Isis Unveiled,
1:171-7; Blavatsky Collected Writings, 12:214-28; King, 1992, ch. 2; Inglis, 1992, ch. 16;
Mayor, 2015.)

H.P. Blavatsky says that Mesmer rediscovered the ‘magnetic fluid’ in humans, and that
the Order of Universal Harmony, which he founded in 1783, taught not only animal
magnetism but also ‘the tenets of Hippocrates, the methods of the ancient Asclepieia,
the Temples of Healing, and many other occult sciences’. She also says that the Council
of Luxor ‘selected him – according to the orders of the “Great Brotherhood” – to act in
the 18th century as their usual pioneer, sent in the last quarter of every century to
enlighten a small portion of the Western nations in occult lore’ (Theosophical Glossary,
213-4).

Mesmer’s clinical practices had nothing to do with hypnotism, in which the hypnotiser
subjects a person to his or her more powerful will. However, some of Mesmer’s
followers did use hypnotism. In 1843, Scottish physician James Braid sought to clean
up mesmerism’s tainted reputation by changing its name to hypnosis (after Hypnos, the
Greek god of sleep). He postulated that mesmeric manifestations were due to a mental
force, not magnetism or a mysterious fluid. Nowadays ‘mesmerism’ is widely confused
with hypnotism.

In the 1840s Mesmer’s work came to the attention of a prominent young German
physical chemist, Karl von Reichenbach, the discoverer of creosote and paraffin. He
began working with sensitive young women who were to some degree clairvoyant and
could perceive the energy surrounding a powerful magnet. The north pole of a magnet
seemed to emit a blueish flame associated with a cool feeling, while the colour
streaming from the south pole was yellow-reddish, associated with warmth. He called
the energy concerned odyle, od, or the odic force. The sensitives also saw colours
around certain crystals and experienced a range of sensations when touching them.
The odic force was particularly strongly associated with living things. Despite thousands
of well-documented experiments, his findings received a frosty reception from
conventional scientists, so he abandoned paranormal research and returned to
chemistry and metallurgy, but too late to save his reputation. (See King, 1992, ch. 3;
Milton, 1994, ch. 5.) H.P. Blavatsky calls the odic force an ‘auric or magnetic fluid’ or
‘auric light’, which emanates from and surrounds all animate and inanimate objects in
nature (Collected Writings, 12:210, 396, 526).
Massage and other manual therapies have existed in all cultures, and are closely allied
to ‘mesmeric’ or ‘magnetic’ healing, in which the healer transfers bioenergy to the
patient and manipulates the patient’s own bioenergy. In the late 19th century, the
founder of chiropractic, Daniel David Palmer, was originally an ‘energy healer’ or
‘magnetic healer’ in the tradition of Mesmer, as was the founder of traditional
osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still. Still reasoned that manipulating bones and joints helped
the body function at an optimal level and enhanced its ability to heal itself. Palmer found
that physical manipulation of a patient’s body (especially the spine) produced better
results than the simple ‘laying on of hands’.

Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) trained as a doctor in Vienna and became a prominent

member of the psychoanalytical movement. In the 1920s he joined the communist party,
preached free love, set up street clinics offering sex therapy to working class people
and fell out with Freud over matters of doctrine. He left Germany just as the Nazis
began burning his books, and moved to the United States. He believed he had
discovered a universal form of nonelectromagnetic, etheric energy – which he named
orgone energy (Lucca et al., 2012). He held that it could be concentrated in metal-lined
enclosures, or orgone accumulators (ORACs), and that the orgone concentration could
be increased by surrounding the inner metal box with several alternating layers of
conductors and insulators.

In 1956 the Food and Drug Administration obtained a court injunction which ruled that
orgone did not exist, that all books and journals containing detailed discussions of
orgone should be destroyed, and that related devices should be dismantled or
destroyed. The FDA proceeded to incinerate all of Reich’s books mentioning orgone.
Reich was later imprisoned for contempt of court, and died in jail in 1957. The FDA
continued to burn his books until the early 1960s.

One of Reich’s key discoveries was that the temperature above the top of an ORAC
was significantly higher (by up to 2°C) than in the ambient air. In 1941 he discussed this
with Einstein, who reacted by saying that, if true, this thermal anomaly would be ‘like a
bombshell in physics’. This is because according to the second law of thermodynamics,
heat energy is only supposed to dissipate – not spontaneously accumulate. Einstein
confirmed the temperature difference, but later dismissed it as an artefact caused by
normal indoor convection currents. Reich easily refuted this, but Einstein wasn’t
interested. A rigorous replication of this experiment was reported by Canadian scientists
Paulo and Alexandra Correa in 2001. They verified that even under the most
disadvantageous conditions, a small but significant thermal anomaly persists, pointing
to the existence of an anomalous flux of nonthermal energy (see Space, time and
relativity).

By building on the work of Reich, and on earlier discoveries by Nikola Tesla (1856-
1943), the Correas (2001, 2003, 2006) have developed a detailed model of a dynamic
ether (aetherometry) and various technological applications. According to aetherometry,
the two main components of the ether are:

Electric radiation, which instead of being monopolar (like electrons and protons) is
ambipolar (meaning that the electrical charge constantly oscillates between
positive and negative); it propagates as longitudinal waves (whereas
electromagnetic radiation consists of transverse waves), and can travel faster than
light. The sun does not emit electromagnetic radiation, but ambipolar radiation,
 and photons are transient etheric vortices produced when matter particles shed
this energy. Tesla also discovered this type of electric radiation, and referred to it
as alternating current of high frequency.
Latent energy: nonelectric energy with antigravitic properties, loosely known to
chemists and meteorologists as ‘latent heat’ (whose true nature remains
unexplained by orthodox science). This is responsible for the temperature
anomaly discovered by Reich.

In the late 18th century, Luigi Galvani, a pioneer of bioelectromagnetics, performed a

number of experiments that led him to conclude that nerves were conduits for ‘animal
electricity’, which he distinguished from artificial electricity (generated by friction) and
natural electricity (e.g. lightning). He found that applying an electric current produced by
a Leyden jar or electricity generator to the legs of a dead frog caused its muscles to
contract. Furthermore, this twitching occurred even if its legs were not directly
connected to the source of the electricity. On one occasion, for instance, the leg of a
dead frog twitched when an assistant accidentally touched its sciatic nerve with a
scalpel at the same instant that a spark leaped from one of the electrical machines
being operated across the room. In another experiment, frog legs were suspended from
an iron railing with brass hooks during a thunderstorm and the muscles were seen to
contract during a lightning flash (Becker & Selden, 1985, 62-4; corrosion-doctors.org).

Some of Galvani’s experiments.

The Correas (2002) argue that the latter cases are explained by the fact that sparks
discharged at a distance by a generator or by lightning emit ambipolar radiation, which
was picked up by the assistant’s body or the iron railing and conducted to the frog via
the scalpel or the brass hooks, causing a burst of electrical activity in its nerves and
muscles. Official science, however, has focused ever since solely on the role of physical
(‘massbound’) charged particles and electromagnetic fields and has systematically
ignored evidence for the role of etheric (‘massfree’) ambipolar electricity in the pulsatory
activity of living systems.

The Correas (2002) contend that ambipolar radiation also plays a role in Kirlian
photography. No ‘bioplasma aura’ appears in a Kirlian image if the process is carried out
in a vacuum. The ambipolar radiation emitted by the Kirlian induction coil interacts with
the ambipolar electric field of the object being photographed, but no light can be
produced and captured on film unless there are matter particles available to capture the
radiation and release it in the form of photons.

8. Prana, acupuncture and homeopathy

Prana and yoga

In Hindu philosophy vital energy is called prana, of which there are several types, each
with a different bodily function. The various pranas, or vital essences, are streams of
psycho-vital-astral substance. G. de Purucker writes:

Even in mediaeval Europe – which of course drew its ideas from ancient
Greek and Roman writings – pretty much the same conception of the human
body, as being an entity infilled with vital spirits and with humors, prevailed
until a relatively recent time, when these were rejected by medical science,
which laughed at the superstitions of our forefathers. Nevertheless, these
vital spirits and humors corresponded, however imperfectly, to the pranic
fluids of ancient Hindu teaching – considered to be both ethereal essences
and physical humors. From early mediaeval times up to the recent present,
medicine consistently taught that normal physical health in the human body
was maintained when these vital spirits and humors were operating in
equilibrium, and that disease and even death were products of their
malfunctioning. (Fountain-Source of Occultism, 556)

Prana flows through the body in channels known as nadis. Yogic texts mention 72,000
nadis, but this is because every artery, capillary and vein can be called nadis of the
blood. There are three main nadis for vital energy: sushumna, ida and pingala. The
sushumna runs through the centre of the spine, beginning at the chakra at the base of
the spine and ending at the chakra at the top of the head. The ida and pingala also
begin at the base of the spine. They are commonly said to wind around the sushumna
like a helix, crossing at the chakras, with the ida ending at the left nostril and the pingala
at the right nostril. Sometimes they are said to terminate at the chakra between the
eyebrows but to be connected to the left and right nostrils (Staples, 2015). Purucker
states that the spinal column is ‘the foundation of the pranic vitality of the body, driven
by the kama [desire principle] of pingala and more or less controlled by the higher
manasic [mental] or directing attributes of ida’ (Fountain-Source, 462).

The seven chakras (‘wheels’) are energy centres or vortices in the astral model-body
and form part of the subtle energy system located along the sushumna. Although they
are not physical structures, they correspond to the location of various organ or glandular
systems or nerve plexuses. Different writers assign them different locations. A typical list
is the following (Staples, 2015):

1. Muladhara: located at the perineum and corresponding to the coccygeal nerve

plexus and the organs of elimination.
2. Svadhisthana: located at the genitals and corresponding to the sacral plexus and
the reproductive organs, kidneys and bladder.
3. Manipura: located at the navel and corresponding to the solar plexus and the liver,
gallbladder, spleen, small intestines, stomach, pancreas and adrenal glands.
4. Anahata: located at the heart and corresponding to the cardiac plexus and the
heart, lungs and thymus gland.
5. Vishuddha: located at the throat and corresponding to the laryngeal plexus and
the trachea, throat and thyroid gland.
6. Ajna: located in the brain between the eyes and corresponding to the cavernous
plexus and the pituitary gland.
7. Sahasrara: located at the crown of the head and corresponding to the pineal
gland.

The ajna chakra is sometimes called the ‘third eye’. However, the third eye is actually
associated with the pineal gland and the seventh, crown chakra. The pineal gland is all
that remains of the third eye that, according to theosophy, was possessed by the
ethereal third root-race. In some lower vertebrates the pineal gland still has a well-
developed eyelike structure, while in others it functions as a light receptor (see Sex and
sexuality, section 7).
 Symbolic representation of the nadi and chakra model. In yogic texts, the chakras are
referred to metaphorically as
lotuses, and each chakra has a certain number of petals, with the crown chakra being
described as a thousand-petalled lotus.

G. de Purucker (who places the fifth chakra in the forehead between the eyes, and the
sixth in the pituitary gland) writes:

[T]hese seven chakras are the foci or knots or condensations of the seven
differently functioning pranas or vital streams in the human physical vehicle,
each prana having its respective chakra. Although only five pranas and six
chakras are named exoterically, actually there are ten or even twelve pranas
in man’s constitution, and they find their respective outlets or functional
organs in ten or twelve seats in the human body. (Fountain-Source, 461)

Pranayama is the control of the movement of prana through the use of breathing
techniques, the main ones being long deep breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and
fast breathing. In combination with various postures, pranayama can reportedly clear
the energy channels of any blockages so that energy may flow along the sushumna.
Kundalini, the highest form of prana, is said to flow through the sushumna and to
normally lie dormant at the base of the spine. Rousing kundalini so that it rises up the
spine is a practice associated with the achievement of higher states of consciousness,
but should only be undertaken under the guidance of a teacher.

There is a lot of emphasis in New Age circles on opening the chakras, awakening
kundalini and gaining psychic powers through hatha and tantric yoga practices,
particularly through pranayama and concentration on the chakras. However, there is a
risk that such techniques may disturb the flow of pranic forces, with adverse effects on
physical and mental health. The safest way to open the chakras is by living a pure and
ethical life (see Yoga and enlightenment).

Yoga was originally designed as a path to spiritual enlightenment; yoga literally means
‘union’, i.e. union with our spiritual-divine self. The physical exercises alone can
certainly help people relax and combat stress. There is firm evidence that this limited
form of yoga can help with back pain, chronic pain, diabetes, depression, fibromyalgia,
osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. In the US, yoga is being offered at places like
cancer centres, while the Department of Veterans Affairs includes yoga in its post-
traumatic stress disorder treatment programmes.

Chi and acupuncture

The first known written reference to acupuncture as a therapeutic method in China

dates from the 1st century BCE, but its roots can be traced back over 5000 years.
Acupuncture still forms the basis for medical care in China and is integrated into many
of its hospitals employing Western medicine. It is also widely practised in Japan and
North and South Korea.

According to Taoist philosophy, a subtle energy called qi/chi (pronounced: chee) flows
through certain pathways in the body. There are 12 main channels or ‘meridians’
(jingluo), and qi takes one day to flow through them all. There are also eight
‘extraordinary vessels’ connecting the major channels and the organ systems; the
governor vessel meridian corresponds to the sushumna. Illness occurs when the flow of
qi is blocked or there is a disturbance in the balance between its complementary yin and
yang components.
 The Chinese character for qi represents breath or vapour rising over rice. As well as
denoting
vital energy, qi can also denote the air or ether filling the sky, or the basic substance of
all creation.

Yang and yin represent complementary, interdependent opposites. For example, they
correspond, respectively, to light
and dark, male and female, spirit and matter, heaven and earth, sun and moon, day and
night, hot and cold, fire and water.

There are 361 acupuncture points associated with the 12 regular channels and eight
vessels, as well as numerous additional points derived from clinical experience (Ergil,
2015). The areas around acupuncture points are particularly rich in nerve bundles and
small blood vessels. The Chinese word xue, which is usually translated as ‘point’,
actually means ‘hole’. Acupuncture points or holes are locations where qi can be
influenced by the insertion and withdrawing of needles, the application of heat
(moxibustion), massage, electrical currents, laser, or a combination of these methods,
with a view to restoring proper energy flow and good health. The Chinese term for
acupuncture (zhen jiu) means ‘needle moxibustion’. Moxibustion, an apparently older
practice, involves burning dried, powdered mugwort leaves either on or close to the
skin. The Chinese also have a system of massage, manual acupuncture point
stimulation and joint manipulation – known as tui na.

19th-century acupuncture chart. (bl.uk)

When circulating in the body, qi can cause sensations of heat or tingling. There is a
close connection between qi and blood; blood is considered to flow with qi and to be
conveyed by it. Similarly, blood (and plant sap) can be seen as condensed prana
(Fountain-Source of Occultism, 463).

Qigong (chi kung) is similar to yoga in many ways. It includes a broad set of practices,
including postures, slow movements (e.g. tai chi), rhythmic breathing, meditation,
massage and non-contact treatments aimed at regulating the movement of qi in the
body. It is practised for the purpose of martial arts training, recreation, relaxation,
healing, or spiritual development. Internal qigong focuses on self-care and self-
cultivation, while external qigong involves treatment by a therapist or qigong master who
directs or transmits qi. The latter practice resembles many other energy therapies that
use gentle hand techniques to help repattern a person’s energy field and accelerate
healing – such as reiki, healing touch and therapeutic touch. Such methods have been
shown to promote wound healing, reduce pain, alleviate anxiety and stress, promote
relaxation, and enhance a sense of wellbeing.

Scientists have been unable to verify the existence of qi, yin, yang, meridians and
acupuncture points by physical means. Some researchers have proposed that qi may
be the same as electromagnetic energy, with yin and yang being negative and positive
electricity respectively (Rosch & Nordenström, 2015). Acupuncture points and channels
are sometimes said to be areas of lower electrical resistance than the surrounding skin,
but there is no consensus on their electrical properties (Niemtzow, 2015; Ergil & Ergil,
2015).

Puncturing the skin with needles has measurable neurophysiological effects, and
acupuncture’s ability to control pain is at least partly due to the fact that it triggers the
release of opiates. However, some experiments indicate that an acupuncture needle is
just as effective when it is merely held over the appropriate point, without puncturing the
skin (Micozzi, 2015, ch. 2).

Acupuncture has been used in Europe since the 1780s. It has proved effective for the
following conditions: adult postoperative and chemotherapy-induced nausea and
vomiting; postoperative dental pain; addiction; stroke rehabilitation; headache;
menstrual cramps; tennis elbow; fibromyalgia; myofascial pain; osteoarthritis; low back
pain; carpal tunnel syndrome; and asthma (Ergil & Ergil, 2015). Its effectiveness for
treating acute and chronic pain is widely recognized in the West and has been
confirmed by several systematic reviews (e.g. Dalamagka, 2015). Acupuncture is also a
comparatively safe therapy.

The Battlefield Acupuncture (BFA) technique is an auricular (ear) acupuncture

procedure developed in 2001 by then Air Force Colonel Richard Niemtzow MD. The
technique uses semi-permanent needles 2 mm long that can stimulate an ear point for
three to four days, providing pain relief before they dislodge. Ear acupuncture or
auriculotherapy works because different groups of cells in the ear represent different
parts of the body. BFA employs five points in the ear, which are needled in a particular
sequence.
 BFA acupuncture points. Omega 2, for example, is known to be very effective for
headaches and pain in the neck, upper shoulder, and upper and lower extremities.

BFA is applied if the use of opioid painkillers is too risky or if current medications and
other therapies are not working. Hundreds of American military physicians and Special
Forces have been trained in the technique. It is the most popular and successful ear
acupuncture technique for pain in the US military, and has changed the opinions of
many sceptical healthcare providers. A 2011 study of wounded soldiers being
evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan found an average 30-46% reduction in their pain
one hour after treatment with BFA. The technique is anecdotally effective in about 85-
90% of pain cases. $5.4 million was made available to develop a BFA programme
across the armed forces and the Department of Veterans Affairs (Niemtzow, 2015).

Homeopathy

Homeopathy was developed by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician, at the end of

the 18th century. It is based on the law of similars: a substance that causes the
symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure sick people with similar symptoms.
Homeopathic medicines are made from plant, chemical, mineral or animal sources. To
increase their potency, the original material is diluted many times, and is shaken
vigorously (succussed) after each dilution.

Homeopathy quickly spread to other countries, owing to the impressive results achieved
in treating 19th-century epidemics such as cholera, typhus, typhoid, yellow fever, scarlet
fever and influenza. Today, over 200 million people worldwide use homeopathy on a
regular basis. Homeopathy is included in the national health systems of several
countries, e.g. Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom (hri-research.org). A 2011 report commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for
Public Health concluded that homeopathy is clinically effective, cost-effective and safe
(hri-research.org).
A systematic review by Mathie et al. (2014), which analyzed only the highest-quality
randomized controlled trials, found that homeopathic medicines prescribed during
individualized treatment are 1.5 to 2.0 times more likely to have a beneficial effect than
a placebo (sugar pill). Homeopathic remedies have proved effective in treating, for
example, childhood diarrhoea and ear infections, upper respiratory tract infections,
allergic reactions, influenza, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, vertigo, and side effects
of conventional cancer treatments. A homeopathic medicine can prevent E. coli
diarrhoea in piglets – which are unlikely to be influenced by the placebo effect (hri-
research.org).

The main reason why orthodox medicine dismisses homeopathy is that the liquids used
to make many homeopathic medicines are diluted by factors many orders of magnitude
greater than Avogadro’s number (6.023 x 1023, defined as the number of units in one
mole of any substance); dilution factors of 1060 and 10400 are routinely used. This means
that, theoretically, the liquid should no longer contain any molecules of the original
substance and should therefore have no biological effect. Or as a prominent US journal
put it: ‘If homeopathy is correct, much of physics, chemistry, and pharmacology must be
incorrect.’

In 1988 Jacques Benveniste, a prominent immunologist, reported in a study published

in Nature that white blood cells called basophils, which control the body’s reaction to
allergens, can be activated to produce an immune response by solutions of antibodies
that have been diluted to such an extent that no antibodies remain. The water
molecules appeared to retain a memory of the antibodies that they had previously been
in contact with, but only if the water was violently shaken after each dilution. Three other
labs replicated Benveniste’s results before his article was accepted. Benveniste had
also agreed that a committee could visit his own lab to replicate the experiment, but
instead of being composed of scientists, it consisted of Nature’s editor and ‘The
Amazing Randi’ – well-known debunkers of anything ‘heretical’. Not surprisingly, the
experiment failed, and Nature published another paper accusing Benveniste of self-
delusion, and denying the validity of the ‘memory of water’.

Benveniste’s government laboratory was shut down and his funding was cut off, but he
continued his research at DigiBio, a Paris-based company funded by homeopathy
supporters, until his death in 2004. He proposed that biomolecules communicate by
emitting low-frequency electromagnetic signals. He reported that he was able to record
these signals digitally, and that by playing them back to cells in the absence of the
molecules themselves he could reproduce their biochemical effect (spiritofmaat.com).

The next major development came in 2009, when Noble Laureate Luc Montagnier and
his team reported that some bacterial DNA sequences were still able to induce
electromagnetic waves at high aqueous dilutions; again, the samples needed to be
vigorously shaken (‘vortexed’) for the electromagnetic effects to be present. The team
proposed that aqueous nanostructures form in the samples during the dilution process
and are responsible for the electromagnetic signature (avilian.co.uk).

In a 2010 interview, Montagnier was asked about homeopathy and stated: ‘What I can
say now is that the high dilutions are right. High dilutions of something are not nothing.
They are water structures which mimic the original molecules.’ He called Benveniste a
‘modern Galileo’, and added: ‘I am told that some people have reproduced Benveniste’s
results, but they are afraid to publish it because of the intellectual terror from people
who don’t understand it’ (huffingtonpost.com).

Using electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction and atomic spectroscopy, a team
of Indian scientists has confirmed that certain homeopathic remedies made from metals
still contain nanoparticles of the starting materials even at extremely high dilutions
(Chikramane et al., 2010).

On the basis of findings such as these, Shahram Shabhabi (2015) suggests that highly
diluted homeopathic remedies contain aqueous nanostructures that produce ultra-weak
electromagnetic waves; when resonated by electromagnetic waves produced by
adjacent tissues, higher-energy electromagnetic waves are produced, which are
assumed to be very similar to at least some of the waves produced by molecules of the
original (undiluted) substance. How these waves have a beneficial effect has still to be
explained.

There are many uncertainties and unknowns in this attempt to explain homeopathy in
terms of purely physical mechanisms. The ‘memory of water’ has not been fully
explained, just as no one has convincingly explained our own memories in terms of
‘memory traces’ in the physical brain. (In fact, conventional science cannot even explain
why the two gases hydrogen and oxygen become liquid water at room temperature.)
From a theosophical standpoint, memories are imprinted on the subtler energy-
substances that interpenetrate our physical world.

An alternative explanation of homeopathy is that the subtle energies of homeopathic

medicines stimulate our natural self-healing ability by acting directly on our subtler
bodies (see Vaccination and homeopathy, section 9). This is in line with Hahnemann’s
own point of view. He believed that the physical body is animated by a ‘spirit-like vital
force (dynamis)’, which reigns supreme when a person is healthy, but causes
disharmony and disease if it becomes ‘pathologically untuned’ and disturbed. He argued
that the potentization of homeopathic remedies refines and ‘spiritualizes’ them, enabling
them to enhance the vital force (Gray, 2013).

9. Beyond sledgehammer science

Orthodox scientists often adopt a sledgehammer approach in their efforts to unravel the
secrets of nature. To understand what matter is made of, they spend hundreds of
millions of dollars every year conducting experiments with ever more powerful particle
accelerators, in the hope that if they smash matter particles together violently enough,
they’ll increasingly merge into one and regain the unified state that supposedly existed
just after the mythical big bang. However, there is not a single realistic mainstream
theory of what electrons and protons actually are, and scientists are unlikely to become
any wiser by studying the debris produced by smashing these particles together at ultra-
high energies.

Another example concerns nuclear fusion. According to mainstream science, the only
form of nuclear fusion possible is thermonuclear fusion, or ‘hot fusion’, which requires
extreme temperatures and pressures to force two positively-charged nuclei to merge. All
efforts to harness hot fusion as a source of energy have so far failed, despite billions of
dollars being thrown at the problem. At the same time, orthodox scientists have been
very reluctant to accept evidence for ‘cold fusion’ or low-energy nuclear reactions
(LENR), which appears to involve a subtler process similar to that used by a catalyst.
Moreover, since the 1960s various researchers have established that in plants, animals,
humans and even minerals, common elements can be transmuted into heavier or lighter
elements without the need for extremely high temperatures and pressures. Nature
apparently has gentler ways of achieving transmutation and other nuclear reactions
than the violent methods that mainstream science is so obsessed with (see The energy
future (New energy); Mysteries of the inner earth, pt. 2).

Experimenters like Nikola Tesla, Wilhelm Reich, and Paulo and Alexandra Correa have
shown that it is possible to knock gaping holes in the edifice of orthodox science with
relatively simple, small-scale experimental setups involving electroscopes, Tesla coils
and orgone accumulators. The results of such experiments point to subtler grades of
energy-substance underlying the physical plane. Mesmeric healing, acupuncture and
homeopathy are examples of medical treatments that manipulate our own subtle
energies in a gentle manner to promote healing, and stand in stark contrast to the
modern fixation on using ever greater quantities of powerful, toxic and dangerous drugs
to mend the body.

Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-ray or gamma-ray radiation to shrink tumours and
kill cancer cells (and neighbouring healthy cells), causing a variety of side effects. As
explained above, low-frequency electromagnetic fields and weak electric and magnetic
fields can also have biological effects, both beneficial and harmful, and much remains to
be learned in this respect. To truly understand electricity, magnetism and
electromagnetic radiation, scientists will have to make a concerted effort to study the
ether – the gateway to the astral, mental and spiritual worlds that lie beyond.

10. Global harmony

Research shows that when people experience negative emotions, such as anger,
frustration or anxiety, their heart rhythms become more erratic and disordered, whereas
when they experience sustained positive emotions, such as appreciation, love or
compassion, their heart rhythms become more ordered and coherent, and there is also
greater coherence between their heart rhythms, respiratory rhythms, blood pressure
oscillations and the brain’s alpha rhythm activity (8-12 Hz). This occurs because all
these subsystems are vibrating at the resonant frequency of the system as a whole
(McCraty, 2015).
 Heart rhythm pattern of a person making an intentional shift from a state of
frustration to a feeling of appreciation by using a positive emotion refocusing
technique. There is an immediate shift from an erratic, disordered heart
rhythm pattern to a smooth, harmonious, sine-wave-like (coherent) pattern.
(McCraty, 2015, 128)

Coherence at the social and global level arises when the relationships among
individuals are synchronized and harmonious. Rollin McCraty writes:

Anyone who has watched a championship sports team or experienced an

exceptional concert knows that something special can happen in groups that
transcends their normal performance. It seems as though the players are in
sync and communicating on an unseen energetic level. A growing body of
evidence suggests that an energetic field is formed between individuals in
groups through which communication among all the group members occurs
simultaneously. ...

Improvements in clinical status, emotional well-being and quality of life have

also been demonstrated in various medical patient populations in
intervention programs using coherence-building approaches. (2015, 129)

The heart’s electromagnetic field can be detected by nearby animals or the nervous
systems of other people. In one experiment, when a mother focused attention on her
baby, her brainwaves synchronized to the baby’s heartbeats, even though they were not
in physical contact. In another experiment, a woman sat in a corral with her horse,
without touching it. When she consciously shifted into a coherent state, the horse’s
heart rhythm shifted to a more ordered pattern. McCraty suggests that ‘the
electromagnetic energy generated by the heart acts as a synchronizing force within the
body, a key carrier of emotional information, and a mediator of bioelectromagnetic
communication between people’ (2015, 138).

McCraty & Deyhle (2015) postulate that ‘the earth’s magnetic fields are carriers of
biologically relevant information that connects all living systems’ and that there is ‘a
global information field that connects all living systems and contributes to a type of
global consciousness’.
 [A]s humans have brain and heart frequencies overlapping the earth’s
magnetic field resonances, they are not only receivers of biologically
relevant information, but they can also couple with the earth’s magnetic
fields and thus feed information into the global field environment. (420)

[A]s enough individuals increase their personal coherence, it can lead to

increased social coherence (family, teams, organizations), and as increasing
numbers of social units (families, schools, communities, etc.) become more
coherently aligned, it can in turn lead to increased global coherence, all of
which is facilitated through self-reinforcing feedback loops between humanity
and the global field environment. (422)

This theory is rather narrow as it deals only with what is happening on a physical level.
Mind and consciousness cannot be reduced to electrochemical activity in our brains or
to electromagnetic fields. A wide range of paranormal and mediumistic phenomena and
evidence for reincarnation point to the existence of inner, subtler levels of reality,
including subtler elements of our own constitution. Attempts to explain away some of
these phenomena in terms of quantum physics are contrived and unconvincing (see Psi
wars). Electromagnetic connections between people are a reflection of the connections
that exist on more ethereal levels.

In theosophy, the astral plane or ‘astral light’ is said to comprise several spheres of
increasingly ethereal matter surrounding and interpenetrating the physical earth. Its
higher reaches merge into the akashic or spiritual realms. The astral plane is sometimes
called ‘nature’s picture gallery’, as it contains a record of everything that has ever
happened on earth. It records thoughts, emotions and deeds of every conceivable
quality and forms part of humanity’s collective consciousness.

Humans’ astral model-bodies and lower minds are composed of astral substances of
various grades, while our reincarnating soul and spiritual-divine self are composed of
more refined substances. Our minds attract ideas, thoughts and images from the
general thought-atmosphere or memory-field of the earth, and send them out again in
modified form. Thoughts, emotions and desires are elemental energies that assume a
particular form and persist for a period corresponding to the intensity of the originating
thought. Groups of humans – families, nations, races, and religious, social and political
movements, etc. – build up collective thought-forms, some of which may assume a
powerful life of their own.

The connections and communications taking place on subtler levels of reality help to
explain the behaviour of societies of termites, ants, wasps and bees, which have been
likened to superorganisms. They help to explain the behaviour of shoals of fish, flocks of
birds, and herds or packs of animals, whose coordination sometimes defies explanation.
And in human society they throw light on such things as crowd behaviour, panics,
fashions, crazes and cults.

As Hippocrates once said: ‘There is one common flow, one common breathing. All
things are in sympathy.’ Through kind words, selfless deeds and uplifting thoughts,
everyone can help to elevate humanity’s collective consciousness and contribute to a
more peaceful, harmonious and healthy world.
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