The Human Energy Field in Relation to
Science, Consciousness, and Health

By Gloria Alvino

1. INTRODUCTION

"If we do not expect the unexpected, we will never find it." - Heraclitus

The science and art of medicine that was initially one, and then split into two, are now approaching reunion. The healing science that became traditional medicine and alternate medicine is slowly becoming the healing sciences. The history of this topic is extensive -- extending back thousands of years.

5000 years ago, ancient spiritual tradition of India spoke of a universal energy called prana. This universal energy is the source of all life. The breath of life moves through all forms to give them life. Yogis work with this energy with breathing techniques, meditation, and physical exercise to produce altered states of consciousness and longevity.

3,000 years ago, the ancient Qigong masters in China were practicing their meditative discipline to balance and invigorate the human energy field. They called this vital energy that pervades all forms, both animate and inanimate, Qi The Qi is the vital energy of the body; while gong means the skill of moving this Qi and working with it. Practitioners use mind control to move and control the Qi to not only improve health and longevity, but also to enhance awareness, psychic powers, and spiritual development.

The ancient Qigong masters also developed Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and the martial arts. In addition, they made the first model for acupuncture. Acupuncturists insert needles, or use moxa, or put magnets at specific acupuncture points to balance the yin and yang of the human energy field. When the Qi is balanced, the entity has good health. When the Qi is unbalanced, the entity has poor or impaired health.

The Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical teachings written about 538 B.C., calls these energies the astral light. Later on, Christian paintings and sculptures show a halo around the head of Christ and other spiritual leaders. Similarly, we see this halo on statues and paintings of Buddha, and also see energy or light coming from the fingers of many of the gods of India. In fact, there are references made to the phenomenon of the human energy field (HEF) or the aura of the body, in 97 different cultures, according to John White in his book "Future Science."

The history of medicine similarly reflects a fascination with the observation of the HEF and its study. Back in 500 B.C., the Pythagoreans believed that there is a universal energy pervading all of nature. They taught that its light could effect cures in sick patients.

In the 1100's, Liebault said that humans have an energy that can react on someone else's energy, either at a distance or close by. According to Liebault, a person can have either an unhealthy or a healthy effect on someone else -- just by being present. The HEF of one person may be harmonious, or it maye be discordant with another. The HEF of one person may be nurturing, or it may be draining to the HEF of another.

In the 1800's, Mesmer, the father of modern hypnotism, suggested that a field similar to an electromagnetic field might exist around the human body. Mesmer suggested that the power of this electromagnetic field, which he believed behaved as a fluid, might also be able to exert influence on the field of another.

In the mid-1800's, Count Von Reichenbach spent 30 years experimenting with the human energy field, whcih he called the odic field. He found that this field showed many properties which were similar to the electromagnetic field described by James Clark Maxwell in the early 1880's.

However, Von Reichenbach also showed that with the odic force, like poles attract. In other words, like attracts like. In his work, "Physico-physiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism, In Their Relation to Vital Force", printed in New York in 1851, Von Reichenbach showed that electropositive elements gave his subjects feelings of warmth, and that this produced unpleasant feelings. In the reverse, electronegative elements produced cool and agreeable feelings.

He also found that the odic field could be conducted through a wire. It traveled slowly at 13 feet per second. This speed depended on the density of the wire rather than its conductivity. He showed that part of this odic field could be focused like a light through a lens, while another part of this odic field would flow around the lens, like a candle flame flows around something placed in its path. Air currents would also move this part of the odic field. This suggests a composition similar to a gas. Von Reichenbach's experiments suggest the odic or auric field is energetic, like a light wave, and also particulate, like a fluid. Also, he showed the right side of the body as being a positive pole, and the left as negative. This agrees with the ancient Chinese principles of yin and yang.


2. MODERN STUDIES OF HEF

HEF Photography

Walter Kilner - Interest in the HEF was mounting in the medical community in the 1900's. In 1911. Walter Kilner, M.D., from St. Thomas Hospital in London, reported on seeing the HEF, or aura, as he called it. Looking through glass screens stained with dicyanin dye, he saw a glowing mist around the body in three distinct zones:

1. A 1/4 inch layer closest to skin;

2. A more vaporous layer, 1 inch wide, streaming perpendicularly from the body;

3. A delicate exterior luminosity with indefinite contours, about 6 inches wide.

In his work "The Human Aura" published in New York, 1965, he states that the appearance of the aura differs from person to person, depending on their physical, mental, and emotional states. Kilner actually developed a system of diagnosis based on the consistent differences he found in persons suffering a particular disease. He successfully treated many conditions, including epilepsy, liver disease, tumors, appendicitis, and hysteria. Research based on his work continues to this day in Europe.

Semyon Davidovich Kirlian - In 1939 in Krasnodar, near the Black Sea in Russia, Semyon Davidovich Kirlian, an electrician, and his wife, Valentina Kirlian, a teacher and journalist, became fascinated by the sight of a tiny flash of light which ocurred between the electrodes of an electrotherapy machine and the skin of a patient. Other Russian scientists had also noted this energy, but ignored it.

The equipment and procedures they finally developed were to record on film this luminous energy emanating from the physical body -- the HEF. They invented a new type of photography, and had more than fourteen patents. The original system photographed static images of fingers or leaves. Next, they developed a special optical instrument to observe the motion of this luminous phenomenon. Now they saw the hand as either flashing, sparkling, steadily glowing, or as diminishing particles of light. They also showed the difference in the HEF of a human being harboring a disease that had not yet manifested symptoms!

Radionics - Dr. George De La Warr & Dr. Ruth Drown built instruments to detect radiation from living tissues, and developed Radionics, a system of detection, diagnosis & healing from a distance, using the human energy field. They took photographs using the patient's hair as an antenna. These photographs showed internal diseasees, like tumors and cysts inside the liver, and cancers within the brain. The study of Radionics continues today in England. Reference "Biomagnetism" and "Using Sound Waves To Probe Matter" by De La Warr in England 1965 and 1967.


HEF Microscopic Studies

Dr. Wilhelm Reich, colleague of Freud, in the early 1900's, studied the universal energy field which he called "orgone" in his 1942 book, "The Discovery of the Orgone." He studied the changes or imbalances in the orgone flow in relation to physical and psychological disease. As a psychiatrist, he used traditional methods of analysis in combination with methods of releasing these blockages of the orgone energy, or Qi as Easterners would call it.

Reich built an "accumulator" to concentrate this orgone or energy. With the accumulator, he charged a vacuum discharge tube. This tube then conducted a current of electricity at a potential lower than its normal discharge potential. Reich claimed to increase the nuclear decay rate of a radioisotope by placing it in his orgone accumulator.

During the 1930's to 1950's, Reich experimented with these energies using the latest instrumentation of that time to observe the energy fields of animate and inanimate objects. He used a high power microscope to observe the energy field of microorganisms and human blood cells in the laboratory.

Gustave Naessens - Another more current development to consider is the work of the French microbiologist, Gustave Naessens, now continuing his research with his wife Francoise in Canada. In his hematology studies, Naessens observed in the blood, tiny particles too small to identify with conventional microscopic equipment. He invented a microscope which he called the somatascope. It has a magnification of 30,000 times, and a resolution of 150 angstroms to study these particles of dancing light.

His somatid theory states that cell division cannot take place without the presence of this tiny life force or energy particle that he calls the somatid. Naessens "believes that the somatid is the original spark of life, the pinpoint where energy condenses into matter." According to Naessens, the "somatid represents the manifestation of cosmic energy in a tiny, moving dot of physicality," as printed in "A New Answer to Cancer" in 'Well-Being', September/October ,1993.


HEF Light Emissions Studies

Bio-Energetics - Dr. John Pierrakas and Eva Pierrakas have developed a system of diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders based on visual and pendulum-derived observations of the HEF. The information from these observations combined with body psychotherapeutic methods eventually developed into Bio-Energetics. The process called Core Energetics was delineated in a publication "The Core Energetics Process", in 1977.

Dr. Pierrakas work suggests that the light emissions from the human body are closely related to health. There is a need to quantify these light emissions with reliable, standardized light measuring instruments to make this available to the medical profession for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Richard Dobrin, Dr. John Pierrakos, and Barbara Brennan -- published "Instrumental Measurements of the Human Energy Field" in 1978. They measured the light level of a wave length of around 350 nanometers in a darkroom before, during, and after there were people in that room. Results show a slight increase of light when people are in it. When someone feeling exhausted and full of despair was in the room, the light value actually fell. With a colorizer they were able to show part of the auric field, or the HEF, on black and white television.

Hiroshi Motoyama - has measured low light levels coming from people who have practiced yoga for many years. He did this with a movie camera in a darkroom. Also, he studied the strength of a sender's and a receiver's energy meridians before and after treatment. Most of the time, the sender's energy level dipped and then rose again. Also, the energy at the heart chakra of the sender or healer increased after treating a patient. Refer to his publication "The Functional Relationship Between Yoga Asanas and Acupuncture Meridians" 1979 for exercises that he has developed to impact on the HEF.

Dr. Valorie Hunt - and colleagues at UCLA, published "A Study of Structural Neuromuscular Energy Field and Emotional Approaches", which is a study of the effects of Rolfing on the body and the psyche. She placed electrodes on the skin to record the low millivoltage signals from the body during rolfing sessions. Rosalyn Bruyere observed the auras and recorded her observations of both the rolfer and the patient. Breyere's observations were recorded on the same tape as the electronic data. She described the color, size, and energy movements of the chakras, and auric clouds, or HEF, involved.

Scientists then mathematically analyzed the wave patterns recorded by a Fourier analysis and a sonogram frequency analysis. The wave forms and frequencies reported by Rosalyn Bruyere correlated specifically with the colors reported. When Breyere saw blue in the HEF at a specific location, the electronic measurements would always show the characteristic blue wave form and frequency in the same location.

Hunt repeated this experiment with seven other aura readers. Each of the seven also saw auric colors that correlated with the same frequency wave patterns. In 1988, the results of their research showed these color and frequency correlations. Dr. Hunt says, "Throughout the centuries in which sensitives have seen and described the auric emissions, this is the first objective electronic evidence of frequency, amplitude and time, which validates their subjective observation of color discharge."


HEF Electromagnetic Field Studies

Dr. Robert Becker - of Upstate Medical School. mapped a complex electrical field on the body that was shaped like the body and the central nervous system. He named this field "The Direct Current Control System" in his publication of the same name in 1962. He found that this field changes shape and strength with physiological and psychological changes. Continuing his experiments through 1979, he found particles the size of electrons moving through this field.

Dr. Zheng Ronliang of Lanzhou University in China, in "Scientific Research of Qigong", measured the Qi radiated from the human body by using a biological detector made from a leaf vein connected to a photo quantum device. He studied the Qi emissions of a Qigong master, and the energy field emanations of a clairvoyant.

The energy pulses emanating from the hands of the Qigong Master are very different in nature from that of the clairvoyants. At Shanghai Atomic Nuclear Institute of Academia, Sinica, it was shown that some vital force emanations from Qigong masters seem to have a very low frequency fluctuating carrier wave. Sometimes, Qi was detected as a micro particle flow with a particle size of 60 microns in diameter, and velocity of 20-50 cm/sec.

Dr. Dejan Rakovic and Gordana Vitaliano MD - have conducted extensive experiments in Yugoslavia studying the biophysical nature of consciousness. Dr. Vitaliano is now in Boston, where she founded the Mindwaves' Institute. Dr. Vitaliano's primary research program is Neural Networks, Brain Waves, and Ionic Structures: A New Biophysical Model for Conscious Systems Processing.

In papers published in the January, 1, and January 15, 1996 issues of 21st Link, Dr. Racovic & Dr. Vitaliano discussed the possibility of HEF being associated with a low dielectric ionic structure with embedded ultra low frequency electromagnetic field. They also discussed the development of a new consciousness-exhibiting, brain-like biocomputer which would have a similar ionic neural network.


HEF Bioplasma Studies

Russian scientists from the Bioinformation Institute of A. S. Popov All-Union Scientific and Technical Society of Radio Technology and Electrical Communications, began a crash program on extra-sensory perception in 1965. They started to use the methods of physicists with their experiments on telepathy. The scientists of this Popov group later announced the discovery that living organisms emit vibrations at a frequency of 300 to 2,000 nanometers. They called this energy the biofield, or bioplasma. They showed that the biofield was stronger when people were more successful at transferring their bioenergy. These findings were confirmed at the Medical Sciences Academy in Moscow, and are supported by research in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.

Since the 1950's, Dr. Victor Inyushin at Kazakh University in Russia has also done extensive research in HEF. He suggests the existence of a bioplasmic energy field composed of ions, free protons, and free electrons. He suggests that the bioplasmic energy field is a fifth state of matter. (The four states are solids, liquids, gases, and plasma.) Inyushin's work shows that the bioplasmic particles are constantly renewed by chemical processes in the cells and are in constant motion. There is a balance of positive and negative particles within the bioplasma that is relatively stable. A severe shift in this balance causes a change in the health of the patients or organism. At the same time, in a healthy being, some of this energy or bioplasma is radiated into space. Refer to four of his works: 1. " Questions of Theoretical and Applied Biology," 2." Possibilities of Studying Tissues in High Frequency Discharge," 3. Biological Plasma of Human Organism with Animals," 4. "On the Biological Essence of the Kirlian Effect" 1967-1970.


HEF Studies - Conclusion

Modern science tells us that the human organism is not just a physical structure made of molecules; but like everything else, is composed of energy fields. We are constantly changing, ebbing, and flowing, just like the sea. Scientists are learning to measure these subtle changes. The human energy field is the frontier for modern research, and the development of new diagnostic and treatment systems.

We are constantly swimming in a vast sea of life energy fields, thought fields, and bioplasmic forms, moving about and streaming off the body. We are vibrating; radiating bioplasma itself. People have recognized this phenomenon in the past. Now we are rediscovering it. This is thus not a new phenomenon; but rather, a new observation, a growing awareness, a new perspective, and a renewed interest in studying the intricacies of the unknown.