Chapter 4 Human beings as complex, dynamic systems of energy

Historically, much of the conventional medical research and meaning of health was determined by what the physical body was doing on a chemical and structural level. There was the recognition that thoughts and language play a role in disease, but the interpretation, all too often, started and ended with cellular processes. Human beings were viewed using mechanistic and dualistic concepts; they were treated as separate from their external environment, and the mind was viewed as separate from the body.

These old beliefs were challenged for years as there were many unanswered questions. For example, the speed of communication could not be explained by the key and lock analogy that was used to explain communication across cellular membranes. There was no clear explanation of how the body was able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, how language, thoughts, and emotions elicited specific physiological changes, or how the environment or social factors impacted health. There was also little knowledge of how memory was stored or retrieved or what initiated or controlled functions such as growth, development, or longevity (McTaggart 2002).

The perception and understanding of how human beings function and survive has been broadened and continues to expand based on new discoveries. Systems theory supports the concepts of vitalism and holism and provides a framework for explaining the complexity and dynamic interconnectedness of all aspects of life (Capra 1996). The discovery that electrical fields of energy are the foundation of life provides increased knowledge about cellular communication and how endogenous and exogenous factors affect health (McTaggart 2002). Together, these theories provide a model that supports the principles used in the naturopathic assessment of symptoms and diseases.

This chapter explores human beings as complex, dynamic systems of energy. The aim is to provide a sense of the complexity and intrinsic nature of human beings, an appreciation for the organizational structure, and the relationships that exist. What becomes evident is that one aspect cannot be separated from another, and to assess health and disease you have to understand the tangible and the intangible aspects of human beings, the environment that they live in, the universe at large, and the interplay that occurs as things interact and change.

WAVES OF LIGHT ENERGY

The fundamental basis of life is electrical fields of energy. Everything in the world, regardless of how dense it is, or whether it is tangible or intangible, is composed of electric charges that interact with other energetic fields (Haisch et al 1994, Hunt 1996). Human beings are not simply biochemical beings, but energetic and informational beings that interact and communicate on a constant basis both within themselves and with their external world (Oschman 2003).

The presence of electrical fields around living things was first studied in the 1940s by Harold S. Burr, a neuroanatomist from Yale University (Burr 1972). He discovered that all sorts of organisms, from molds, to salamanders and frogs, to humans, possess an electrical field. He also discovered that the electrical fields change with stages of growth, seasons, sleep versus waking, and between health and disease (McTaggart 2002).

In the 1970s and 1980s the researcher Fritz-Albert Popp was studying the effects of electromagnetic radiation on living systems. What he revealed was that all living things – from the most basic of plants or animals, to human beings – emitted a permanent current of photons and that these vibrations of light are a major component of the communication system of the body (Oschman 2003). What he also discovered was that the number of photons that an organism emits is linked to their position on the evolutionary scale and to their degree of health. The more complex and healthy an organism, the fewer photons they emit. Hence, rudimentary animals and plants have a very high frequency of electromagnetic wave, within the visible light range, whereas humans emit much far photons (Popp et al 1992, Hunt 1996).

Both the tangible and the intangible possess an electrical field that emits light. The frequency of electrical fields that correspond to the biochemical and biological processes in the body, are detectible as frequencies that belong to one or more radiation bands in the electromagnetic spectrum (Sylver 2008). The electromagnetic spectrum represents the different energy ‘oscillations’ and wave patterns that comprise our known universe (Fig. 4.1). It ranges from the slower-moving, lower-energy electrons of electrical current to the faster-moving, higher energy photons of visible light and other wavelengths.

Fig 4.1 The electromagnetic spectrum.

With permission from Sylver N 2008 The Holistic Handbook of Sauna Therapy. Townsend Letter, February/March 2008.

The different fields of light energy interact and are linked by electromagnetic energy. This interlinking creates a coalesced wave form that holds the properties and qualities of each component and has its own unique vibrating light energy. This ability of waves to interact, to store and carry information is the means of cell-to-cell communication and occurs in response to internal and external signals (McTaggart 2002, Oschman 2003).

Human beings emit a coalesced light vibration that represents the whole person, and an individual light vibration for each organ system, down to a specific light vibration for each individual cell, tissue, molecule and atom. The interaction and coalescing of the energetic fields of light establishes the foundation for life and for bodily functions. In essence, human beings are simply a networked collection of energy that functions as a unit within a larger sphere of energy.

The more a wave pattern manifests as a tangible structure the more slowly it changes; the more intangible, the more quickly it changes. For example, thoughts and moods are intangible and can change very quickly; organs and tissues are tangible, they continually change and regenerate, but more slowly – sometimes to the point of looking fixed in their structure. Because wave patterns hold the accumulation of all the information that they have encountered, they provide the body with the ability to remember how to look and act, to remember past events, and to remember how to perform different tasks (McTaggart 2002). Wave patterns provide a much more complete explanation of how the body is able to manage multiple, complicated tasks in different parts of the body instantaneously.

All wave patterns have a characteristic frequency, amplitude, wavelength, and phase (Fig. 4.2) (Sylver 2008). As wave patterns encounter each other (called ‘interference’), the way in which they overlap influences the impact of the union. If the wave patterns are in sync – that is, they are in phase with each other, the impact is additive and will be reflected in the new waveform having an amplitude that is greater than each individual wave’s amplitude – like increases like. Two waves are said to be in phase when they are both, in effect, peaking or troughing at the same time, even if they have different frequencies or amplitudes. Getting ‘in phase’ is getting in sync (McTaggart 2002). This type of encounter is called ‘constructive interference’ (Fig. 4.3). If the wave patterns are opposite – that is, one is peaking while the other is troughing, the two wave patterns will tend to cancel each other out – opposites balance. This type of union is called ‘destructive interference’.

Fig 4.2 Wave patterns. (a) Wavelength; (b) amplitude; (c) peak; (d) trough.

Fig 4.3 Constructive interference. Wave III is the additive effect of wave I plus wave II.

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