Our Intelligent Hearts: A Gift from The Universe

Our beautiful hearts are intelligent, emotive, energetic, and intuitive.
They communicate with the world around us.

     As we experience spiritual awakening, we frequently read statements like "we are all one", "we are all connected", and "As above, so below". We learn about The Field, that web of invisible energy that holds together literally everything in our Universe. We read that the Universe is "holographic". While these statements may ring true for us on an intuitive level, we are not all physicists and we have difficulty understanding how such hypotheses apply in our physical world.

     The research discoveries at the Institute of HeartMath during the past twenty years may help us better understand our connectedness and much more. Quoting from the website HeartMath Mission Statement: 

     "HeartMath's mission is to facilitate a fundamental shift in health, well-being, and consciousness. The focus of its triple-bottom-line mission is people, planet, and profit". 

     Regarding the history and structure of the HeartMath organizations: 

     "HeartMath was founded by Doc Childe in 1991 out of a deep care for people and the planet, and a desire to develop effective and scalable methods and technologies to help people self-regulate emotions and behaviors. HeartMath includes the nonprofit Institute of HeartMath, the for-profit HeartMath, Inc. (Quantum Intech, Inc.) and its operating company HeartMath LLC." 

     Most of us were taught in school that the heart is an essential muscle that pumps blood to nourish our bodies. Emphasis was directed toward the brain where the essence of our being, our consciousness, and our individuality reside. 

     Through the work of HeartMath and other researchers in the new field of neurocardiology, we now understand that the heart is so much, much more. It has exquisite abilities and a role in our lives few would have guessed twenty five years ago. 

     I first learned about HeartMath in 2009 through the writings of Gregg Braden and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). Through HeartMath website articles, emails, newsletters, web training, and excellent YouTube videos (short but powerful messages), the not-for-profit Institute shares the results of its research. 

     "It helps people of all ages connect with the power and intelligence of their hearts and self-regulate emotions to reduce stress, rebalance, and rejuvenate." 

     HeartMath provides practical tools through the communication methods above for helping people cope with the extremely complicated and stressful environment we experience in today's world. 

     One of HeartMath's recent YouTube videos, Science of The Heart, tells us about the energetic field of the heart : 

     "The human heart emits the strongest electromagnetic field in our body. This electromagnetic field envelops the entire body extending out in all directions, and it can be measured up to several feet outside of the body. Research from the Institute of HeartMath shows that this emotional information is encoded in this energetic field. HeartMath researchers have also seen that as we consciously focus on feeling a positive emotion - such as care, appreciation, compassion or love - it has a beneficial effect on our own health and well-being, and can have a positive affect on those around us." 

     A second YouTube video, Mysteries of The Heart, summarizes the most intriguing findings that have resulted from the twenty years of HeartMath research:

"Did you know that... 

• your heart emits electromagnetic fields that change according to your emotions? 
• the human heart's magnetic field can be measured up to several feet away from the body? 
• positive emotions create physiological benefits in your body? 
• you can boost your immune system by conjuring positive emotions? 
• negative emotions can create nervous system chaos, but positive emotions do the opposite? 
• the heart has a system of neurons that have both short and long term memory and their signals sent to the brain can affect our emotional experiences? 
• in fetal development the heart forms and starts beating before the brain is developed? 
• a mother's brain waves can synchronize to her baby's heart beats? 
• the heart sends more information to the brain than vice versa? 
• positive emotions help brain in creativity and innovation problem solving? 
• positive emotions can increase the brain's ability to make good decisions?" 

     Authors and researchers Rollin McCraty, PhD, Raymond Trevor Bradley, PhD, and Dana Tomashino, BA, affiliated with the Institute and other organizations, have published an interesting article "The Heart Has Its Own 'Brain' and Consciousness" on the Mindful Muscle Blog. They present several interesting proposals that indicate the direction of future research.

• Recent research indicates that conscious awareness does not reside in the brain alone, but actually emerges from the brain and body working together.
• The "heart brain", the nervous system within the heart, enables the heart to learn, remember, and make functional decisions independent of the cerebral cortex.
• The electrical component of the heart's electromagnetic field is about 60X greater in amplitude than that of the brain. The magnetic component is approximately 5000X that of the brain and is detectable several feet away from the body.
• The authors propose that the heart's electromagnetic field acts as a carrier wave for information, a global synchronizing signal for the processes of the body as a whole.
• The rhythmic beating patterns of the heart change dramatically as we experience different emotions. Anger and frustration, for example, are associated with an erratic, disordered, and incoherent pattern. Love and appreciation, by contrast, yield a smooth, ordered, coherent pattern in heart rhythm.
• Sustained positive emotions appear to give rise to a distinct mode of functioning which the authors called psychophysiological coherence (Definition of coherence: a logical or natural connection or consistency). 
• Important in enhancing consciousness, intriguing results also suggest that psychophysiological coherence may increase our awareness of and sensitivity to others around us.
• Electromagnetic communication operating just below our conscious awareness likely contributes to the "magnetic" attractions and repulsions that occur between individuals, playing an important role in communicating physiological, psychological, and social information.
• The authors infer that the nervous system acts as an "antenna", which is tuned to and responds to the electromagnetic fields produced by the hearts of other individuals.
• New data also suggests that the heart's field is directly involved in intuitive perception, through its coupling to an energetic information field outside the bounds of time and space.

     I have barely scratched the surface of the information contained in the above research report which I encourage you to read in its entirety. The findings have implications for our societal connectedness that is consistent with quantum holographic principles.

     Drawing upon the results above, the Institute of HeartMath has launched a new project, the Global Coherence Initiative, "a science-based, co-creative project to unite people in heart-focused care and intention, to facilitate the shift in global consciousness from instability and discord to balance, cooperation, and enduring peace". If you are interested in participating in this world-wide effort to heal our planet and its peoples, click on the link for more information.

     As the authors of the blog article reiterate in conclusion, "It is through the intentional generation of coherence in both heart and social fields that a critical shift to the next level of planetary consciousness can occur--one that brings us into harmony with the movement of the whole".

     That final statement potentially ties all of the pieces together, our interconnectedness, the holographic universe, and the consciousness shift we are now experiencing.