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The Energy Body and Its Functions

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

September 2009
1172(1):312-37

DOI:10.1196/annals.1393.019

Source
PubMed

Authors:

Daniel Brown

Harvard Medical School

There are three interrelated levels of a macromolecular energy-information relay system in the human body, each generated by a specific type of semiconductant tissue and each with a specific function. The surface layer of the energy body, generated by fluid connective tissue and known as the ordinary channel system or meridian system in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), functions in the service of immunosurveillance through detection of distress signals and transmitting energy-information regarding immunoresponse. The middle layer of the energy body, generated by semiconductant hard and spongy bone tissue, known as the extraordinary channel system in TCM, functions in the service of longevity and regeneration, as described in Bodhidharma's classic, Bone Marrow Washing. The bone marrow energy-information system has direct relevance to modern stem-cell research on the role of stem cells in regeneration of injured tissue. The deepest layer of the energy body generated by semiconductant nervous system tissue notably the vagus nerve and spinal column, functions in the service of awakening consciousness and in immortality. This system is described in the Tibetan Inner Fire meditations as well as in the Taoist shen breathing practices. There is very little scientific understanding of the central channel system.

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LONGEVITY, REGENERATION, AND OPTIMAL HEALTH

The Energy Body and Its Functions

Immunosurveillance, Longevity, and Regeneration

Daniel Brown

Psychiatry Department, Harvard Medical School, Newton, Massachusetts, USA

There are three interrelated levels of a macromolecular energy-information relay sys-

tem in the human body, each generated by a speciﬁc type of semiconductant tissue and

each with a speciﬁc function. The surface layer of the energy body, generated by ﬂuid

connective tissue and known as the ordinary channel system or meridian system in

traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), functions in the service of immunosurveillance

through detection of distress signals and transmitting energy-information regarding

immunoresponse. The middle layer of the energy body, generated by semiconductant

hard and spongy bone tissue, known as the extraordinary channel system in TCM,

functions in the service of longevity and regeneration, as described in Bodhidharma’s

classic, Bone Marrow Washing. The bone marrow energy-information system has di-

rect relevance to modern stem-cell research on the role of stem cells in regeneration of

injured tissue. The deepest layer of the energy body generated by semiconductant ner-

vous system tissue notably the vagus nerve and spinal column, functions in the service

of awakening consciousness and in immortality. This system is described in the Tibetan

Inner Fire meditations as well as in the Taoist shen breathing practices. There is very

little scientiﬁc understanding of the central channel system.

Key words: energy medicine; immune system; stem cells; bone marrow; piezo electric-

ity; regeneration

The Immune System

The primary purpose of the immune system

is protection. Externally, the immune system

protects the body from invasion by pathogenic

viruses, mycoplasms, bacteria, and protozoa

that have the ability to interfere with normal

physiological processes and thereby cause dis-

ease. Internally, the immune system protects the

molecular integrity of the body, by identifying

and eliminating indigenous cells whose genetic

signature has been transformed by spontaneous

mutation, toxic exposure, or viral infection.

There are two broad specialized divisions of

the immune system, roughly corresponding to

handling external and internal threats to bodily

functioning or bodily integrity.1

Address for correspondence: Daniel Brown, Ph.D., Harvard Medical

School, Psychiatry Department, 997 Chestnut Street, Newton, MA 02464.

danbrown 1@rcn.c om

The B-cell system derives its name because

these lymphocytes are produced primarily in

the bone marrow. B cells are specialized to

handle pathogenic microorganisms. These cells

produce and secrete large protein molecules,

known as immunoglobulins, or antibodies. The

B-cell system is also known as the humoral

system of immunity because it secretes free-

ﬂoating antibodies. These immunoglobulins al-

low for virtually inﬁnite reconﬁgurations of

their ionic bonds. According to the lock-and-

key analogy when antibodies encounter po-

tential antigens of an invading microorgan-

ism a high-speed search is initiated entailing

very many reconﬁgurations of these molecules

until a “ﬁt” is found that interferes with the

physiological processes of the microorganism,

thereby rendering it incapable of causing dis-

ease. The ﬂexible ionic bonding of immuno-

globulins makes them potentially inﬁnitely pro-

grammable, so that conceivably the B-cell

Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1172: 312–337 (2009).

doi: 10.1196/annals.1393.019 C

2009 New York Academy of Sciences.

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Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

313

system could handle most pathogenic organ-

isms encountered in a life time.

A unique property of the B-cell system is that

it possesses memory capacity. After encoun-

tering a new disease-producing microorganism

and going through a high speed search process

of millions of reconﬁgurations of an antibody

until the right ‘ﬁt’ is found, it would be remark-

ably inefﬁcient to have to repeat the same pro-

cess in the future, if the same pathogenic mi-

croorganism were encountered again. B cells

possess a molecular memory of the effective

antibodies for each disease-producing antigen

encountered. Vaccination is based on this

molecular memory system. A vaccination is

simply the use of an attenuated form of an anti-

gen (one that won’t produce the full disease) in

a way that initiates the high-speed search of

molecular reconﬁgurations until an efﬁcacious

antibody is discovered for that antigen. Then,

when a live, fully pathogenic form of the mi-

croorganism is encountered in the future, acti-

vation of the molecular memory makes it un-

necessary to go through the high speed search

once again, and the correct antibody is pro-

duced much faster.

The T-cell system derives its name because

these cells are produced primarily in the thy-

mus. T cells function to protect the molecular

integrity of the body. They do not produce or

secrete antibodies. Therefore, the T-cell system

is also known as the cellular immunity system.

Every indigenous cell type in the human body

has a unique identity as deﬁned by the genetic

material within the cell. That unique identity

is also marked on the cell surface. Each unique

cell type in the body has a characteristic pattern

or organization of receptor sites on the cell sur-

face. Certain specialized T cells have the capac-

ity to read the pattern of receptor sites for any

given cell-type and compare it against a mem-

ory for the normal receptor pattern for that cell

type. If a cell has been damaged by spontaneous

mutation, viral infection, or toxic exposure, the

organization of the receptors on the cell surface

will be correspondingly altered, and therefore

will be detected by the T cells and marked for

eventual destruction by another group of spe-

cialized T cells, the cytotoxic T cells. Cytotoxic

T cells utilize enzymes like lysozyme to bore

holes in the cell wall of the mutated cell, which

then explodes through osmotic pressure. The

specialized capacity of T cells to detect surface

alterations in mutated cells and to eliminate

them has been called a “system of molecular

touch” (personal communication, Melnechuk,

1986).

More recent discoveries have shown that

the T-cell system is enormously complex, with

many types of subspecialized cells. Monoclonal

antibody testing is used to identify T-cell sub-

types based on their unique pattern of recep-

tor marks (called “cluster determination”). T4

cells, now called CD4 cells, for example, have

two functions. Inducer cells stimulate the im-

mune system once a new external or internal

threat has been detected. Inducers initiate ac-

celeration in the rate of cell division of stem

cells and also determine the type of immune

cell needed to be produced for the type of threat

in question. This process of up-regulating im-

mune response in the face of threat is called

immunostimulation. The overall efﬁciency of

the immune system’s response to threat can be

measured with standardized laboratory assays,

such as mitogen response. Helper T cells coor-

dinate the respective action of B cells, T cells,

and other cells in ﬁghting a threat. The appreci-

ation of the central role of helper cells in coordi-

nating immune efﬁciency was the unfortunate

by-product of the AIDs epidemic. HIV specif-

ically destroys T-helper cells. HIV-infected in-

dividuals do not die of AIDS but rather die of

opportunistic infections once the loss of helper

cells reaches a critical level, so that there is little

coordination of otherwise intact and healthy

immune cells types in ﬁghting opportunistic

infections.

CD8 suppressor cells function to down-

regulate immune response after successfully

ﬁghting a threat. Certain specialized types of

T-suppressor cells decelerate the rate of cell di-

vision of immune cells and attenuate inﬂam-

matory response. Other specialized types of

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Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

CD8, the cytotoxic cells, function to eliminate

mutated cells that have been so marked. CD8

suppressor cells play a central role in autoim-

mune diseases, which are characterized by mis-

recognition of a normal indigenous cell pop-

ulation as if it were an antigen, and also by

an unmitigated inﬂammatory response toward

that cell population.2

Natural killer (NK) cells, or CD56 cells, are

an unusual cell type in that they function as

the ﬁrst line of defense against both external

and internal threats. These cells possess high

mobility, high toxicity, but poor recognition ca-

pacity. Because their recognition threshold is set

low, CD56 cells destroy normal cells along with

anything else that appears as a threat. How-

ever, from the perspective of immunosurveil-

lance, there is an advantage to quickly destroy-

ing any kind of threat before it has a chance

to become disease-producing even at the ex-

pense of some normal cells that can easily

re-grow.3

A third major branch of the immune system

is the monocyte-macrophage system. These are

extremely large, slow-moving cells. They serve

as manufacturing plants for many of the molec-

ular products of the immune system. They also

serve to engulf pathogenic cells and cell debris

like giant amoebas, in the aftermath of the re-

sponse of NK, B cells, antibodies, and T cells

to a given threat.

Var e la 4has pointed out the parallel between

the central nervous system (CNS) and the im-

mune system. First, both systems possess a

unique biological signature or ﬁngerprint. Ev-

ery individual brain is unique from all other

brains. Likewise, the immune system marks its

indigenous cell population with a unique sig-

nature, which is why transplanted organs are

rejected by a healthy immune system. Second,

this paper will show that both the CNS and the

immune system share another common feature,

namely a dual signaling system.

The CNS’s dual signaling is well docu-

mented. The CNS utilizes both an energy-

information signaling system and a biochemi-

cal signaling system. Information-relay is prop-

agated in the form of electromagnetic impulses

along the axon through ionic depolarization

(the sodium pump). Once the impulse reaches

the synapse the message is then transported

across the synapse by a biochemical informa-

tion relay system, namely the neurotransmitter

system. Overall, transmission of information in

the nervous system entails toggling back and

forth between energy information transmission

and biochemical information relay.

When it comes to the immune system, a case

could be made that it similarly operates with a

dual signaling system as does the CNS. The im-

mune system’s biochemical information-relay

system is a hot topic in modern immunol-

ogy research. Neuropeptides are to the im-

mune system what neurotransmitters are to

the CNS. Table 1 illustrates the types of im-

portant neurohormones identiﬁed in the past

few decades. Note that the macrophages pro-

duce interleukin-1, which in turn activate the

CD4 cells. Note also that the CD4 cells pro-

duce interleukin-2, which in turn activate the

macrophages. A biochemical picture of the im-

mune system is emerging wherein the complex

specialized functions of various immune cell-

types consist of a highly interrelated network

of biochemical interactions, all regulated by a

group of common reciprocally inhibiting or re-

ciprocally activating neuropeptides.

While neuropeptide signaling in the immune

system is indeed a hot current topic in modern

Western immunological research, a signiﬁcant

problem remains in that modern immunology,

for the most part, fails to acknowledge the pos-

sible central role that an energy-information

relay system plays in immune functioning. By

way of contrast, Eastern indigenous healing sys-

tems, such as traditional Chinese medicine and

Tibetan medicine, primarily describe an en-

ergy signaling system, but not a biochemical

signaling system. If we are to engage in a gen-

uine dialogue between modern Western science

and Eastern healing systems, we must begin

this dialogue with the acknowledgment that, at

least theoretically, a dual signaling system exists.

On a theoretical level at least, the remarkable

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

315

TABLE 1. The biochemical signaling system

Cell system Activator Inhibitor Product

B cells Neuropeptides Corticosteroids Globulins

CD4 cells Interleukin-1 Glucocorticoids Interleukin-2

Endorphins

CD8 cells Histamines ? ?

Macrophages Interleukin-2 Catecholamines Interleukin-1

Migration Neuropeptides Corticosteroids

Immuno-stimulation Thymosin ?

parallel between the CNS and the immune sys-

tem would predict an energy-information sig-

naling system in the immune system as well as

in the CNS. On the level of scientiﬁc evidence,

I will suggest that a considerable body of scien-

tiﬁc evidence exists for an energy-information

system in the body that is both a property of the

immune system, and also of other physiological

systems as well. The remainder of this paper

will address this evidence from the emerging

science of energy medicine.

Energy Medicine

New areas of science ﬁrst evolve as “invis-

ible colleges,” i.e., networks of scientists who

correspond informally around shared ideas.

Eventually, as the fundamental questions are

reﬁned along with the methods to investigate

them, a body of evidence emerges. The newly

emerging ﬁeld is typically heralded by a sem-

inal conference, wherein the basic domain of

inquiry is articulated along with the central sci-

entiﬁc questions to be addressed.5,6The newly

emerging ﬁeld of energy medicine started as far

back as the 1940s, but began its visible career

with a seminal conference, “Energy Fields in

Medicine,” sponsored by theFetzer Foundation

in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1989. The Fetzer

mission statement for the conference stated that

the purpose of the conference was to “open

the door to research into bio-ﬁeld medicine

which investigates the energetic mechanisms of

the total organism.”7Energy medicine is best

deﬁned as:

Energy Medicine is the application of science

to the understanding of energy exchange and

information-relay within the human body towards

the prevention and treatment of disease. Energy

Medicine represents the integration of Eastern

healing traditions (Traditional Chinese Medicine,

Tibetan energy yoga, and Indian energy yoga)

with modern Western scientiﬁc research on human

bioenergy and psychoneuroimmunology.

Since that conference, a professional society

for the study of energy systems was formed, The

International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies &

Energy Medicine, along with several important

textbooks, such as Rosch and Markov’s Bio-

electromagnetic Medicine8and Oschman’s Energy

Medicine: The Scientiﬁc Basis.9

The fundamental idea of energy medicine is

that certain tissue systems in the human body

function as semiconductors that have the abil-

ity to relay energy-information to other sites

in the body. In physics it is well-understood

that certain substances in the physical universe

conduct electromagnetic ﬂow better than other

substances. Conductance is typically measured

by ease of ﬂow, or conversely by the degree

of impedance or resistance to the ﬂow of cur-

rent. For example, copper is much more highly

conductant than rubber, which is why copper

is used to conduct electromagnetic ﬂow while

rubber is used to insulate the wire. Crystals are

highly conductant, or semiconductant, which is

why they have revolutionized technology from

computers to cell phones.

About a half a century ago some West-

ern scientists began to view the tissue systems

in the human body from the perspective of

316

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

electromagnetic conductance. The Nobel lau-

reate Albert Syent-Gyiogyi,10,11 for example,

hypothesized that many tissues in the body

are likely to possess some degree of semi-

conductance because of their proteinase or liq-

uid crystalline structure. If such proteins are

organized into a crystalline structure electrons

can ﬂow through them over long distances be-

tween “common energy levels” in a way that

they can transmit information within certain

energy ranges:

If a great number of atoms be arranged with regu-

larity in close proximity, as for example, in a crystal

lattice, the terms of the single valency electrons

may fuse into common bands. The electrons in

this band cease to belong to one or two atoms only,

and belong to the whole system...agreatnumber

of molecules may join to form such energy con-

tinua, along which energy, viz. excited electrons,

may travel a certain distance....the single catalysts

are connected with different, distinct energy lev-

els and that electrons do not travel directly from

one substance to the other but travel within the

corresponding energy band.10

Much later Ingbar12 argued that nuclear,

cellular, and tissue structure within the body

are all organized as a “complex interweaving

meshwork,” i.e., as “tensegrity systems,” and

Oschman9has shown that such structures

strongly support semiconductance.

Syent-Gyiogyi saw human connective tis-

sue as an example of highly conductant tissue

because of its molecular properties. Shortly,

thereafter, a hot area of research was the con-

ductance of live bone tissue, which generated

numerous journal articles and several textbooks

on what became known as Piezo electrical

theory.13 Nordenstrom14 pioneered the view

that blood plasma and interstitial ﬂuid consti-

tute a “new circulatory system” that was also

highly conductant. He called this the “vascular-

interstitial system.”15 Of course, since the early

days of the sodium pump model, Western sci-

entists had no problem believing that the tissues

of the CNS readily conducted electromagnetic

impulses. What was emerging by the 1960s was

a view, at least in certain circles, that at least

three major tissue systems had the property of

reasonably good semiconductance–the nervous

system, the skeletal system, and the connective

tissue system. While the conductance of the

nervous system is well-known and generally ac-

cepted by most scientists, the conductance of

the skeletal and connective systems is less well-

known in the West. It is exactly the energy-

information relay properties of these latter two

systems that are at the heart of the Eastern

healing systems.

Piezo Electrical and Streaming

Electrical Theory: Conductance of

the Skeletal Tissue System and

Bone Regeneration

Mechanical stress or strain applied to crys-

tal structures such as a quart crystals causes

the crystalline structure to break down, the re-

sult of which is the generation or transduction

of an electromagnetic current as the electrons

are released from the crystalline structure. This

mechano-electrical phenomenon is known as

the piezo electrical effect (“pressure electric-

ity”).9,16 In the 1960s Bassett and his associates

ﬁrst noted that human bone tissue possessed a

crystalline structure, and therefore according to

prediction, should have piezo electrical proper-

ties. He found that bending bone tissue pro-

duced signiﬁcant changes in electromagnetic

currents, with the compressed side of the bone

having a negative charge and the positive side of

bone having a positive charge. Subsequent re-

searchers have found that any dynamic stress of

bone tissue, such as running, jumping, or danc-

ing results in endogenous EM current genera-

tion within the bone tissue. The emerging view

was that human bone tissue was semiconduc-

tant and produced the same classic piezo elec-

tircal effects as well documented for physical

crystalline systems.17–20

Subsequent research demonstrated that two

types of endogenous currents are generated

within human bone tissue: (1) mechanical stress

generates piezoelectrical currents, and (2) the

ﬂow of ions in blood vessels and extracelluar

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

317

ﬂuids generates electrokinetic or streaming cur-

rents within the soft bone tissue.9,20 These latter

streaming currents are especially strong and di-

rectly affect bone marrow cells.21

Becker20 discovered that the molecular com-

position of human bone tissue and its con-

ductance implications are far more complex

than Bassett originally had appreciated. In fact

bone tissue is remarkably similar to a diode.

The bone’s proteinase collagen behaves like

an N-type (piezo electric) semiconductor and

the bone’s apatite (mineral crystal) behaves like

a P-type semiconductor, the combination of

which forms a PN junction or diode. Mechan-

ical stress of bone tissue produces a biphasic

current which switches polarity when alternat-

ing stressing and unstressing of the bone tissue.

The “coherent signal” that is generated “did

more than merely indicate that stress had oc-

curred. Its strength told the cells how strong

the stress was, and its polarity told them what

direction it came from. Osteogenic cells where

the potential was negative would be stimulated

to grow more bone.”20

The more interesting ﬁnding from investigat-

ing conductance in human bone tissue was that

the ﬂow of electromagnetic currents stimulated

bone growth. This phenomenon was known

as Wolf’s law. A century ago Wolf discovered

that bones react to stress or strain by grow-

ing new bone tissue at the compression site,

thereby strengthening the bone tissue by grow-

ing new tissue according to demand. Bassett

and Becker and their associates conducted a

series of experiments to test Wolf’s law. They

hypothesized that stress-induced EM currents

were responsible for osteogenesis of the bone

cells. They applied exogenous EM currents of

varying amperage to both animal and human

tissue both in vitro and in vivo. For example, Bas-

sett et al.18 implanted an electrical device in

the femora of dogs and varied the amperage.

They found that 10 amp and 100 amp, but not

1 amp currents, as compared to a no current

control implant, produced “massive production

of new bone” reaching a peak in about two

weeks. They concluded that the EM current

stimulated “osteogenic activity,” probably be-

cause the current caused “an increase in the mi-

totic rate” of the bone cells. According to their

model, mechanical stress or strain of a bone at

the apatite-collagen juncture produces an en-

dogenous EM current, which in turn causes

osteogenesis, and the formation of new bone

tissue at the site of the stress. This is “true re-

generation” of the bone tissue.20

Bassett, Becker, and others have applied

piezo electrical theory to healing bone frac-

ture. Piezo elctrical theory predicts that stress-

ful fracture of bone tissue produces EM cur-

rents, which then stimulate bone regeneration

to knit the fracture. Numerous studies have

shown that the exogenous application of di-

rect EM currents or pulsed currents signiﬁ-

cantly increases healing time as compared to

control with no EM current applied at least

in certain subjects.19,20 Unfortunately, while a

considerable body of evidence was generated

by piezo electrical research on bone tissue over

several decades, the application of electromag-

netic ﬁelds to bone healing never quite made it

into main stream medicine, despite a number

of promising ﬁndings from randomized double-

blind clinical trials both on non-union and de-

layed union fractures.22–25

A number of other researchers have applied

direct current or pulsed magnetic ﬁeld currents

in the regeneration of injured nerves and/or

restoring functionality.26–32 In fact, exogenously

supplied electromagnetic ﬁelds have been used

in the regeneration of a variety of soft tissue

wounds, e.g., nerve, skin, muscle, and tendon

injury.31,33,34 In some instances the positive

effects of the exogenous currents were com-

parable to the effects of biochemical growth

factors.28

Some researchers have emphasized that the

connective tissue and tendon tissue are also

semiconductant and have streaming electri-

cal properties as does human bone tissue.9,35

Therefore, complex repetitive dynamic move-

ment like dance or Tai Chi, as compared to

simple bending, is likely to have far greater

conductance and regenerative effects on the

318

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

composite of bone, tendon, and connective tis-

sue. These complex repetitive movements in-

volving bones and tendons may be the key to

remarkable physical strength as the meditation

master Bodhidharma discovered in the 6th cen-

tury in a series of exercise he called Te n d o n Tr a n s -

forming Nei Kung. More will be said about this

laterinthispaper.

Even more interesting is the hypothesis that

Becker came to eventually. He found that the

effects of exogenously applied currents to the

outside surface of bone tissue were for the most

part transient, but that comparable currents

applied to the inside of the bone, directly to

the bone marrow, produced far greater regen-

erative effects. Therefore, he ultimately con-

cluded that the main regenerative effect was

not caused by piezo electrical stimulation, but

rather by “continuously stimulating the bone

marrow.” His conclusion offered scientiﬁc sup-

port to a method discovered by the meditation

master Bodhidharma in the 6th century called

Bone Marrow Washing.36 More will be said about

this later.

Electrodermal Mapping: The

Conductance of the Fluid

Connective Tissue System

Prior to the 1950s the technology of skin

conductance was unreﬁned. Rather large elec-

trodes were used to measure galvanic skin

conductance. With the advances in technol-

ogy by the 1950s it now became possible to

use much smaller electrodes for electrodermal

mapping of the skin.37 Nakatani38,39 ﬁrst pi-

oneered microelectrode mapping of skin con-

ductance. Nakatani found that systematically

applying a series of 12v Volt pulses of DC cur-

rent to each of a number of small points on

the skin resulted in signiﬁcant conductance dif-

ferences across points. Whereas most points on

the surface of the skin were low conductant,

from time to time Nakatani discovered “good

conductivity” points. In other words, certain

points on the surface of the skin were highly

FIGURE 1. Measuring conductance of EM cur-

rent at a skin point. (Adapted from Tiller.37)

conductant. Shortly thereafter, similar ﬁndings

were reported in China.40,41

These studies were painstakingly replicated

by Tiller42 two decades later at Stanford Uni-

versity and also by others.43–46 Tiller, for ex-

ample, applied a 10 μampDCcurrent@1–

3v Volts for 1 msec. The exogenous current was

applied as a needle point to a speciﬁc location

on the skin surface and the ﬂow of this current at

the site was assessed. Figure 1 illustrates the fate

of the EM current over time at the site. After an

initial spike or high amplitude ﬂow of EM cur-

rent (called “before polarization BP”) the cur-

rent quickly encounters increasing resistance to

its ﬂow over time, gradually reaching a ﬂoor ef-

fect (called “after-polarization AP”). Tiller and

others have “mapped” the skin surface of the

body electrodermally using this procedure. Like

Nakatani, they found that there were a num-

ber of sites on the skin that were highly con-

ductant. Acupuncture points had signiﬁcantly

higher conductance values than nearby con-

trol points.45 In other words, the BP values

of these skin points were signiﬁcantly higher

than the BP values of most other skin points.

The results showed that there was an array or

pattern of high conductance points distributed

over the skin of the human body. However, with

respect to the histological composition of the

skin no differences could be found between the

high and low conductance sites. McCarroll &

Rowley,43 however, did not fully replicate ob-

served differences between acupuncture and

control points unless the stratum corneum of

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

319

the skin surface was damaged, thereby demon-

strating that the high conductance points may

be at a deeper layer than the skin surface.

Building upon this earlier work Motoyama

in Japan47–49 replicated Tiller’s work. He found

that the location of the signiﬁcantly higher BP

points corresponded almost exactly to the tra-

ditional map of acupuncture points in tradi-

tional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture points

are points of high conductance, or semi-

conductance, within the skin, wherein EM

energy-information relay occurs. Therefore,

the acupuncture/meridian system in tradi-

tional Chinese medicine is not a primitive mis-

understanding of the circulatory or lymphatic

system, as was once thought, but rather a very

precise mapping of energy-information relay

channels within the human body that were dis-

covered over four thousand years before elec-

tricity was discovered in the West.50 Meridians

are high conductance or ﬂow lines of EM cur-

rent between acupuncture sites.

Some evidence exists regarding the rate of

propagation along classical meridians51,52 The

rate of energy propagation varies widely but is

usually within the range of 1–20 cm/sec. Rate

of propagation also increases with acupuncture

treatment.52

Furthermore, Motoyama49 carefully mea-

sured the BP values of all the acupuncture

points across many subjects (Ss) in order to es-

tablish quantiﬁed normative data. He hypoth-

esized that disease is the result of BP values in

excess of expected norms. Consistent with this

hypothesis Motoyama found that degenerative

diseases are typically associated with BP values

signiﬁcantly lower than the normative range

(<50), and that inﬂammatory diseases are typ-

ically associated with BP values signiﬁcantly

higher than the normative range (>82–100).

Motoyama then developed a software system,

the AMI system to rapidly assess the BP values

of all acupuncture points in the body, determine

which points are outside of the normal range,

and identify a protocol of acupuncture points to

treat in order to bring all BP values back within

the normal range. The AMI system functions

much like laboratory assessment in Western pri-

mary care medicine, in that quantiﬁed labora-

tory results are used to identify values outside

of the normative range.

Motoyama also attempted to identify which

tissue system in the body was responsible for

generating high conductance along the merid-

ian lines. He compared the results of electro-

dermal mapping on the skin surface to the

same mapping conducted after the surface epi-

dermal layer of the skin had been stripped

off. There was only a modest drop in con-

ductance. He concluded that the deeper layers

of the skin were responsible for the high con-

ductance, notably the connective tissue. Fur-

ther work showed that ﬂuid connective tissue

is largely responsible for generating high con-

ductance across the meridian system.53 These

ﬁndings supported Syent-Giorgi’s much earlier

hypothesis that connective tissue was semicon-

ductant, only the hypothesis was now given

considerably more precision: the molecular

properties of the ﬂuid connective tissue gener-

ate a semiconductant energy-information relay

system along the lines of ﬂuid connective tis-

sue in the body. These high conductance ﬂow

lines are referred to as the ordinary channel sys-

tem or meridian system in traditional Chinese

medicine. Oschman9says, “The meridians are

simply the main channels or transmission lines

in the continuous molecular fabric of the body.”

(p. 70).

Endogenous Energy Fields

within the Body

Further support of an energy-information

signaling system in the human body was pro-

vided by Nobel laureate Frolich54 in his notion

of cooperative molecular systems. Frolich dis-

covered that certain macromolecular systems in

the body, e.g., enzyme systems, naturally gen-

erate ﬁeld effects and coherent oscillations:

Collective chemical oscillations in which globu-

lar proteins and the surrounding ions and struc-

tured water behave as an entity and oscillate

320

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

between a strongly electrical polar excited state and

a weakly polar ground state. A slow chemical oscil-

lation is connected with a corresponding electrical

vibration.

Frohlich’s work shows that cooperative

macromolecular systems naturally generate vi-

bratory ﬁeld effects of numerous frequencies.

Coherent vibrations occurring at a speciﬁc

site can relay energy-information to other co-

operative macromolecular systems at other

sites within the body. Similarly, Pienta and

Coffey55 added that such coherent vibra-

tions across the body create complex har-

monics, the function of which is to trans-

mit “vibrational information...throughout the

organism...through a tensegrity-matrix.”

Different systems within the body commu-

nicate with each other through high-speed

energy-information relay. Of note here is that

structured water plays a central role in the

energy-information relay. Oschman9has ob-

served that many tissue and cellular systems

use crystalline arrays within which structured

water plays a central role in generating ﬁeld

effects that form a type of electromagnetic cir-

cuitry system connecting all parts of the body.

He further noted, as had Syent-Gyiogyi11 years

earlier, that “The connective tissue fabric is a

semiconducting communicative network that

can carry the bioelectronic signals between ev-

ery part of the body and every other part.”

Again, the ﬂuid aspect of connective tissue gives

it its unique crystalline properties that allows

for semiconductance. Becker56 and Oschman9

have likened the information-relay properties

of the connective tissue system to a second ner-

vous system.

The Effects of Exogenous Energy

Fields on Cellular Systems

Some research has addressed which fre-

quency ranges are most conducive to en-

ergy information-relay within the body. This

research mainly consists of the application

of exogenous electrical and/or magnetic cur-

rents of varying frequencies to cells culti-

vated in a tissue culture system in order to

determine which frequency ranges have the

strongest effects on cellular processes. For ex-

ample, exogenous extremely low frequency

(ELF) currents have been found to: induce

cellular transcription,57–59 activate or deacti-

vate certain enzyme systems,60–62 induce or

inhibit immuno-stimulation,63–67 stimulate the

signaling pathway for T and B cells,68 in-

crease utilization of neuropeptides like inter-

leukin (IL)-2 and IL-2 receptor expression,69

alter cell surface receptor migration and dis-

tribution,70 and stimulate or deactivate cyto-

toxic T cells71 and inﬂammatory T4 cells.61

No effects were found on histamine release

by inﬂammatory mast cells.72 While the re-

sults across studies are not always consistent,

one ﬁnding is clear: lymphocytes tend to re-

spond primarily within select frequency ranges

or “windows,”73 especially within the ELF

range,9,74 but also in the extremely high fre-

quency (EHF) or Giga Hertz range73,75–80 (cf.

Sisken and Walker81 for a review of frequency

ranges).

The Structure of the

Macromolecular Energy Body: An

Integration of Western Energy

Medicine and Traditional Eastern

Healing Systems

We can divide the energy information sig-

naling system in the body into two broad

categories–a macromolecular system, and a

micromolecular system. Oschman9describes

both systems in some detail. The macro-

molecular system includes broad lines of EM

circuitry across the body, such as that gen-

erated by the ﬂuid connective tissue system.

The micromolecular system includes EM cir-

cuitry designed for communication within and

to surrounding cells.9,55 This paper will limit

the discussion to certain macromolecular en-

ergy information systems that are of central

relevance to the themes of this conference,

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

321

namely health-maintenance, longevity, and

regeneration.

According to the model proposed here, there

are at least three important layers to the macro-

molecular energy information signaling system,

and each layer of the body’s overall energy sig-

naling system is generated by a unique type of

semiconductant tissue:

(1) The outer layer of the energy signaling sys-

tem is generated by ﬂuid connective tissue.

This corresponds to the meridian or or-

dinary channel system in traditional Chi-

nese medicine. The primary function of

this signaling system is to serve as a rapid

response signaling system for the immune

system. Given the research on the appli-

cation of exogenous currents to lympho-

cytes, it appears as if the lymphocytes are

set to respond to endogenous energy infor-

mation signals only of certain frequencies.

These fast-acting signals communicate to

the lymphocytes the nature of the threat

and also where and how to respond. In

other words, a fast-acting energy infor-

mation relay system from the outer layer

of the energy body primarily functions in

the service of immuno-surveillance.

(2) A middle layer of the energy signaling sys-

tem is generated by bone tissue, par-

ticularly because of its outer crystalline

composition combined with the inner

structured ﬂuid of the bone marrow. This

system corresponds to the extraordinary

channel system in traditional Chinese

medicine. The primary functions of this

signaling system are regeneration and

longevity, according to ancient esoteric

texts, such as Bodhidharma’s classic, Bone

Marrow Washing Nei Kung.36

(3) A central channel layer of the energy signaling

system is generated by the spinal column

and the vagus nerve. The central chan-

nel runs roughly equidistant between the

spinal column and the vagus nerve. This

system corresponds to the central chan-

nel system in the Tibetan Buddhist bsre

‘pho or energy meditation practices, to the

Indian kundalini yoga system, and to the

Taoist shen system. The primary function

of this system is awakening the mind to

its real nature, or altering consciousness

in an enduring and positive way.

(4) An energy storage or battery system.StoringEM

energy in batteries depends on the physi-

cal properties of the system. In a car bat-

tery, for example, storage best occurs by

constructing the battery to have layers of

substances alternating between high and

low conductant substances. Lead is low

conductant while the acid is high con-

ductant. Cells of alternating low and high

conductant material functions as a capac-

itor. Likewise, certain tissue structures in

the human body are composed of alter-

nating high and low conductance tissue

so as to function like a capacitor.14 Jwing-

Ming,36 for example, an electrical engi-

neer as well as a Chi Kung master, has ar-

gued that the structure of the human gut

is like a large battery. The smooth mus-

cle tissue comprising the intestines is low

conductant, while the massive amount of

connective tissue linking all of the loops

of the intestine together is high conduc-

tant tissue. Packaged together in a small

space, the combination of gut and con-

nective tissue functions like a large bat-

tery. Yang further argues that the tissues

of the upper gut and the dura area of the

brain are also constructed in such a way

as to function like batteries. These three

areas are referred to as the “triple heater”

in traditional Chinese medicine.

The microcircuit energy centers in the Taoist

yoga system82 and the similar chakra system

in Indian kundalini constitute the distribution

of smaller size “batteries” through the energy

body, while the acupuncture points are essen-

tially even smaller “batteries.”37

Overall, what emerges from this integra-

tion of the ﬁndings from modern Western en-

ergy medicine with those of traditional Eastern

322

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

TABLE 2. The macromolecular energy signaling system

Traditional Eastern

Location Semiconductant tissue description Function

Outer Fluid connective tissue Meridian or ordinary Immuno-regulation

channel system

Middle Bone tissue Extraordinary channel system Longevity and regeneration

Central Nervous tissue (spinal Central channel system Awakening consciousness;

cord and vagus nerve) Immortality

Energy storage Gut/brain interspersed with Triple heater Energy information storage

system connective tissue

energy healing systems is a map of a sophis-

ticated, multilayered macromolecular energy

signaling system. Table 2 illustrates this map.

Immuno-regulation and the

Ordinary Energy Channel System

So far we have argued that the ﬂuid con-

nective tissue system serves as an energy in-

formation relay system. Meaningful informa-

tion about biological processes is transmitted

at high speeds along the meridian system to

other areas of the body. Speciﬁcally, the lym-

phocytes are pre-wired to respond to EM sig-

nals of certain frequency ranges, and in that

sense the meridian system plays a central role

in the transmission of information relevant to

immunosurveillance. How then does the im-

mune system recognize a potential threat, and

initiate an energy-information signal of this

threat?

The available evidence suggests the follow-

ing hypotheses: (1) The immune system in par-

ticular, and each individual human body as a

whole, has a unique signature or identity, and

that this unique signature, in part, is preserved

as an energy signature or ﬁngerprint. (2) Any threat

to the body–either an external threat by an

invading pathogen or an internal threat by a

mistake in cell division resulting in an abnor-

mal cell formation that can potentially develop

into a tumor or cancer–is ﬁrst recognized as

adisturbance in the unique energy signature of the

body.83 Using a Star Wars analogy neurohor-

mones, like Jedi knights, are able quickly to

recognize a disturbance in the force way before the

battle begins. Burr believed that faults in the

[energy] ﬁeld could reveal latent illnesses”20,83

(3) The immune system, like the CNS, contains

a dual signaling system–a faster-acting energy-

information signaling system and a slower-

acting biochemical signaling system. There is

a distinct evolutionary advantage to having a

high-speed signaling system that can quickly

detect any disturbance in the energy signa-

ture before a problem develops. These signal-

ing systems send information to the immune

cells about the disturbance. However, these hy-

potheses do not answer the question of how the

immune system recognizes a disturbance in its

energy signature.

Joe Navach’s research on inherent resonance

theory84,85 directly adds the missing evidence.

Navach began his research studying ﬂatworms,

platyhelminthes. He found that if a stimulant

like adrenaline were added to an ampule con-

taining the worm, the activity level of the worm

was greatly increased. An assay system was

developed to measure the change in activity

level in the worm following the introduction

of the stimulant into the medium. Far more

interesting was the fact that the activity level

of the worm also signiﬁcantly increased if the

adrenaline was added to another ampule in

the nearby vicinity not containing the worm.

Navach tried to understand how the worm

“sensed” the presence of the stimulant in a

nearby ampule, when the worm had no di-

rect contact with the stimulant. He reasoned

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

323

that the worm must have an energy-sensing

system that allowed it to detect the presence of

the adrenaline in the vicinity. To test this hy-

pothesis Navach conducted an experiment in

which he shielded the adrenaline ampule with

either a high conductant (copper), low conduc-

tant (lead) shield, or no shield. There was a

30–100% decrease in the expected activity re-

sponse of the worms across trials when lead was

used as a shield, and a 50% increase in expected

activity when copper was used as a shield as

compared to the no shield control condition.

These data suggest that the worms possess a

system for sensing changes in the energy ﬁeld,

even when not in direct contact with the stim-

ulant itself.

Subsequent research showed that ﬂat worms

have high concentrations of a particular class

of neurohormones called pentenes in their tis-

sue. The benzene ring is a unique structure in

biochemistry. In order to solve the problem of

missing two electrons the benzene ring orbits

its electrons across all six carbon atoms. Kekule

discovered this unique structure of the benzene

ring in the form of a dream of a snake biting

its own tail. By spinning the electrons across all

six atoms, a strong ﬁeld effect is created. A pen-

tene is a molecule that contains ﬁve or more

benzene rings, and often a number of side-

chains. These molecules generate remarkably

strong ﬁeld effects. Figure 2 illustrates typical

pentene-based neurohormones; note the un-

usual structure based on a number of benzene

rings strung together.

According to Navach pentenes easily be-

come activated in response to changes in the

local energy environment. Neurohormones are

capable of detecting even subtle changes in

the surrounding energy ﬁeld, and transmit-

ting energy information about these changes in

the form of energy information relay. In other

words, pentene-based neurohormones within

the tissue of the ﬂatworm are capable of detect-

ing the presence of the adrenaline in a nearby

test tube in the form of a disturbance in the

energy ﬁeld. Inherent resonance means that

the neurohormones become activated and gen-

FIGURE 2. Pentene molecular structure. (Used with

permission from Navach.84)

erate an EM energy-information relay in re-

sponse to the detected ﬁeld disturbance.

Navach argues that detection of threats to the

human immune system functions similarly. Any

threat to the immune system is ﬁrst registered as

a disturbance in the ﬁeld by pentene-based neu-

rohormones distributed throughout the body.

Navach and Ackerman have further demon-

strated that pentene-based neurohormones are

heavily concentrated in gut tissue, connective

tissue, and in the brain, and also at acupunc-

ture points. Neurohormone clusters are likened

to a radar detection system, designed to de-

tect disturbances in the energy signature, and

in response, they are induced to resonate, and

then send out a high-speed distress signal in the

form of energy information relay, presumably

along the meridian energy information relay

system generated by the ﬂuid connective tissue

system.86

A yet to be answered question is how this

energy information signaling system interacts

with the biochemical information signaling sys-

tem in the immune system. The work of Jean-

Claude Darras87 has offered some evidence to

explain this. Darras injected a radioactive iso-

tope, thallium, either into the exact site of a tar-

get acupuncture point or a placebo spot in the

nearby vicinity known not to be an acupunc-

ture point (control condition). Darras then took

324

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

a scintograph every 4 minutes. After a delay of

about 4 minutes, the scintograph showed a bidi-

rectional migration of a trace of the radioiso-

tope when the acupuncture point was needled

with the radioisotope, but no migration when

the control site was needled. He found that

no migration occurred if needling occurred

2 mm outside of the acupuncture point. He

then replicated the ﬁndings using a different iso-

tope. In other words, molecular migration oc-

curred regardless of the isotope used, provided

that the acupuncture point had been stimulated

through needling.

In another set of studies Darras found

that stimulation of two successive acupuncture

points along a known meridian line resulted af-

ter a brief delay in a bidirectional ﬂow between

these points, along the meridian line, whereas

no such migration occurred in the control con-

dition. The speed of migration of the isotope

was around 6 cm/min. Inserting the needle di-

rectly into a vein or a lymph vessel rather than

an acupuncture point resulted in a rapid disap-

pearance of a detectable radioactive signal on

the scintograph. These ﬁndings effectively rule

out the hypothesis that migration occurs pri-

marily in the circulatory or lymphatic systems

and strongly suggests that migration mainly oc-

curs along the meridians. Darras concluded

that “a neural compound must play a major

part” in this migration and that migration oc-

curs probably “at the connective tissue level.”

Stimulation of acupuncture points on one side

of the body resulted in detectable migratory

ﬂow also at the corresponding acupuncture

point site on the other side of the body, even

though that acupuncture point had not been

needled. Stimulation of a target acupuncture

point with a laser beam increased the rate of

diffusion of the isotope, but only at certain fre-

quency ranges (optimal frequency 24 Hz).

Because migration didn’t begin for a number

of minutes Darras reasoned that migration was

too slow to be electromagnetic ﬂow, and proba-

bly represents biochemical transport. The best

hypothesis is that the detected migration repre-

sents migration of neuropeptides along the ﬂuid

connective tissue or meridian lines in response

to stimulation of the acupuncture point.

To summarize these ﬁndings, the emerging

East/West view of the immune system is as fol-

lows: The human body has a unique energy sig-

nature or blueprint in the form of an electrody-

namic ﬁeld of life or “L-ﬁeld.”83 The immune

system carries a memory of this unique energy

signature, a memory of a unique EM ﬁeld or

life pattern. Whenever the body is faced with

an external threat like an invading pathogen

or an internal threat like a mistake in cell di-

vision, this threat is ﬁrst detected as a distur-

bance in the unique energy signature. Pentene-

based neurohormones distributed at strategic

sites throughout the body detect this distur-

bance in the energy ﬁeld through inherent res-

onance, and in response generate an energy in-

formation signal regarding the site location and

nature of this disturbance.84,85 This high-speed

energy information signal is propagated along

the connective-tissue-based meridian system.

Along the way, speciﬁc biochemical neuropep-

tides are activated.87 These neuropeptides then

migrate, also along the meridian channels, but

at a much slower rate. Along the way they enter

the lymph and circulatory systems where they

link on to speciﬁc receptor sites on the surface of

the lymphocytes. The information conveyed by

these peptides communicate to the inducer T

cells to initiate immuno-stimulation, and along

the way the peptides interact with certain ex-

isting lymphocytes communicating the loca-

tion and nature of the threat. Following that,

through a process of chemotaxis, these lympho-

cytes begin a process of migration speciﬁcally

to the location of the threat, and thereafter be-

gin to ﬁght the threat in whatever specialized

way the cell uses. The CD56 or natural killer

cells, because of their high mobility, are likely to

arrive at the location of the threat ﬁrst. The B

cells arrive and initiate a high-speed search for

the right conﬁguration of an immunoglobulin

when there is an external threat like a bacte-

ria, and the T cells arrive to detect and mark

mistaken cells for destruction in the case of

an internal threat. Finally, the slowly arriving

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

325

TABLE 3. Summarizes the levels of immune response and the interactions at each level

Level of immune system Treatment strategy

Energy information relay Traditional Chinese medicine, e.g., acupuncture and Chi Kung

Energy/biochemical interface Homeopathy; Aromatherapy

Biochemical information relay Neuropeptide treatment, e.g., interferon, interleukin-1,

interleukin-2, corticosteroids

Biochemical/lymphocyte interface Peptides that target lymphocyte receptors, e.g., peptide-T

Lymphocyte proliferation, Stem cell treatment

migration and response

Herbal and drug treatments that affect immune cell response

macrophages and monocytes clean up the de-

bris and down-regulation of the immune re-

sponse begins.

This integrated view of the immune sys-

tem has important implications for treatment.

The Western approach to treatment empha-

sizes treating the disease per se irrespective

of immuno-status, but sometimes includes at-

tempts to enhance immune functioning af-

ter disease onset. Intensive current research

on neuropeptides reveals the assumption that

treatment can occur at the level of the bio-

chemical signaling system. For example, injec-

tion of signaling molecules like interferon, (IL)-

1, and (IL)-2 have been used as strategies to ar-

rest cancer, however ineffective they have been.

Along a similar line, Pert (personal communi-

cation, 1989) proposed that administration of

peptide-T might compete at the speciﬁc recep-

tor site where HIV links onto the monocyte,

thereby arresting HIV infection of monocytes.

The Eastern approach to treatment is very dif-

ferent. Traditional healing systems target dis-

turbances and imbalances in the energy system

and treat these before a disease actually devel-

ops. From the Eastern perspective treatment

is a failure if a disease has already developed;

treatment is designed to prevent the develop-

ment of disease by intervening at the level of

the energy system.

Some treatments address the interface be-

tween the energy information and biochemi-

cal information signaling systems. For exam-

ple, homeopathy is based on using minute

quantities of a substance, quantities too small

to have a direct chemical effect. Homeo-

pathic substances may operate directly to stim-

ulate energy-information signaling, not a di-

rect biochemical response, within the immune

system.88 Smith89 and Oschman9have ar-

gued that water molecules store “molecu-

lar signatures,” and that the introduction of

minute amounts of a substance induce inherent

resonance and therefore the ﬂow of energy-

information across the system. Likewise, aro-

matherapy may have similar effects. It is

notable that aromatherapy utilizes small quan-

tities of pleasant smelling essences, all of which

are aromatic benzene-based compounds, that

possess the property of inherent resonance.90

How different treatment strategies target differ-

ent levels of immune response is summarized in

Table 3.

Regeneration, Longevity, and the

Extraordinary Energy

Channel System

Piezo electrical theory posits that stressing

the skeletal system initiates an energy infor-

mation relay system. Meaningful information

about biological processes is transmitted at high

speeds by channels generated by bone tissue to

other areas of the body. The mapping of the

ﬂow lines generated by bone tissue was ﬁrst

described in China in the 5th century.

The extraordinary channel system remains

virtually unknown in the West, and also is not

commonly known in many circles of traditional

326

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Chinese medicine. Chan Buddhism was ﬁrst in-

troduced in China during the Han dynasty in

58 A.D. Taoist meditation developed around

the same time. In 527 A.D. the emperor of

China invited the great Indian master to teach

Buddhism. Bodhidharma (called Da Mo in

China) discovered that many of the Chinese

practitioners were physically unﬁt and sickly,

and so did not have the stamina to sustain the

deep concentration required to perfect medi-

tation practice. Therefore, Bodhidharma went

into a solitary meditation retreat for nine years,

wherein he focused his meditation on the prob-

lem of bodily strength, wellness, and longevity.

He emerged from his retreat having written

two works, Yi Gin Ching (Tendon Transforming Nei

Kung)andShii Soei Ching (Bone Marrow Wash-

ing Nei Kung). He developed the Tendon sys-

tem from meditation on animals like horses.

He discovered that horses are able to move

massive weight with relatively small leg muscles

because the strength of the tendons, not the stri-

ate muscles, gives them great force. From this

he created a set of movement meditations that

result in remarkable physical strength based

on developing the energy or “Chi” within the

tendons.36

Thesecondwork,Bone Marrow/Brain Washing

Nei Kung,36 has remarkable relevance to the cen-

tral theme of our conference, namely regenera-

tion and longevity. Through his meditations on

the body Bodhidharma discovered that phys-

ical stimulation of the bones, followed by cer-

tain meditations that directly stimulate the ﬂow

of Chi energy within the bone marrow, when

practiced for a minimum of 100 days, lead to a

remarkable increase in longevity. His text con-

tains two sets of practices. Jwing-Ming36 de-

scribes these practices:

The ﬁrst is leading sufﬁcient Chi to the bone mar-

row to keep it clean, healthy, and functioning prop-

erly, the second is leading the abundant Chi to the

brain to nourish it.

As the passage implies the skilled practitioner

must ﬁrst open an easy ﬂow of energy in the

extraordinary channels, and through repeated

practice learn to store this energy in the battery

system until it is “abundant.”

Bodhidharma maps out eight extraordinary

channels, which are not at all part of the 12

ordinary meridian channels common to tradi-

tional Chinese medicine. Learning to activate

the energy within these extraordinary channels

and then to use meditation to circulate the ﬂow

energy in the two main extraordinary channels

is known as spinning the small heavenly cy-

cle. Subsequently learning to meditate so as to

circulate the energy in all eight extraordinary

channels at once is called spinning the large

heavenly cycle.

Bodhidharma discovered that there was a

direct relationship between the status of bone

marrow and longevity. He believed that ag-

ing begins when the Chi energy within the

bone marrow diminishes or becomes deﬁcient,

and therefore, strengthening the Chi within the

bone marrow arrests the aging process. Some

of the modern masters of Bone Marrow Nei Kung,

who have taught in the West, have added that

bone marrow tissue ﬁlls with fat deposits as we

get older.36,91

The effects of free fatty acid deposits on

vascular tissue are well documented in West-

ern medicine. In arteriosclerosis free fatty acid

deposits progressively ﬁll the inner wall of

blood vessels leading eventually to coronary

and stroke risk. Anti-cholesterol medications

and certain mind-body methods like exercise

and healthy nutrition have been shown to re-

verse the fatty acid deposits in vascular tissue.

It is curious that Western medicine has yet to

apply this fat deposit model to other tissue sys-

tems in the body, and therefore has not consid-

ered that a similar process might occur within

the bone marrow. Fifteen hundred years ago

Bodhidharma, and now his contemporary in-

terpreters,36,91 have advocated that the key to

aging is the aging of the bone marrow, and that

agingofthebonemarrowoccursthroughapro-

cess very similar to that already well understood

in Western medicine to occur in vascular tissue.

If true, the implications for treatment are pro-

found: (1) reversing the fat-based aging of the

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

327

bone marrow revitalizes bone marrow; (2) since

the bone marrow contains red and white blood

cells, including the all-important stem cells, re-

vitalization of these cell populations may have

a direct effect on both longevity and regener-

ation; and (3) certain mind-body techniques,

like those described in Bone Marrow Washing,

directly contribute to longevity and regenera-

tion. Chia and Chia91 state that purpose of the

techniques is “eliminating the accumulated fat

which restricts the production of blood.”

There are essentially three types of prac-

tices described by Bodhidharma to “wash” the

bone marrow. These methods are described

in some detail in Bone Marrow Nei Kung.91

The ﬁrst methods entail either Chi massage,

or frequently hitting the surface of the mus-

cle tissue over a bone until a vibration oc-

curs. This activates the Chi energy within

the bone marrow. These practices take about

30 days. Second, the practitioner conducts the

small heavenly cycle meditation, and eventu-

ally masters the large heavenly cycle medita-

tion. This creates an even ﬂow of Chi energy

throughout all channels of the extraordinary

channel system. Finally, through doing bone

breathing, the practitioner learns to visualize

systematically the ﬂow of energy directly

through the soft marrow in the center of each

bone until generating an automatic ﬂow of

Chi energy throughout the bone marrow of

all bones in the skeletal system at once. “Com-

pression” of the energy during bone breathing

is said “to burn the fat out of the marrow.”91

Building up the strength of this Chi energy

through repeated practice is said to increase

the abundance of the Chi within the bone mar-

row, reverse the aging of the bone marrow tis-

sue per se, and presumably to revitalize the red

and white blood cells and the stem cells to re-

lease their full potential for regeneration and

longevity. According to Chia and Chia stim-

ulating energy ﬂow directly within the bone

marrow makes the blood “lighter and easier

to move,” or in the terms of Western science,

increases the enumeration of circulating stem

cells available for cell regeneration.

TheImportanceofBoneMarrowin

Modern Stem Cell Science and the

Emerging Scientiﬁc View of

Regeneration

The contemporary view emerging in West-

ern science is that the bone marrow cell popula-

tions play a central role in cell repair and regen-

eration. The bone marrow contains two main

cell populations, called progenitor cells, respon-

sible for regeneration. Hematopoietic stem cells

(HSCs) are a type of stem cell responsible for

replenishing most red and white blood cell pop-

ulations. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) or

marrow stroma cells are largely responsible for

replenishing endothelial, bone, cartilage, and

fat cells. There is an additional class of mul-

tipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs) that

potentially can replenish any adult cell type at

least under certain conditions. In a given organ,

for example, the liver, hepatic cells generally

replenish themselves through the normal pro-

cess of cellular transcription. In other words,

the hepatic cells divide and make additional

copies of themselves. However, under certain

conditions, most notably in the face of injury

to the liver tissue, localized stem cells nested

within the liver tissue and/or circulating mi-

gratory stem cells are recruited to replenish

liver cells through a process of “plasticity.”92

Plasticity means that stems cells are capable

of changing their “phenotypic ﬁngerprint” de-

pending on the demands of the local tissue

environment.93 In other words, protean stem

cells transform themselves into speciﬁc types

of specialized cells according to need. In this

conference, for example, we learned how ra-

dioactively tagged engrafted stem cells later ap-

peared as normal hepatic cells in animals (this

conference, Krause, 2006).

One of the primary strategies to study the

behavior of stem cells is to inject or trans-

plant them into a speciﬁc tissue environment

in vivo. According to Bianco et al.93 stem cell

transplantation is the “gold standard” of stem

cell research (see Grove et al.92 for a review

of the main research ﬁndings from stem cell

328

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

transplantation). The main ﬁnding across many

studies is that transplanted stem cells transform

into the speciﬁc cell type demanded by the local

tissue environment. For example, Kopen et al.

injected marrow stromal cells into the brain

tissue of neonatal mice. After several weeks

these stem cells had migrated throughout the

brain tissue. Many had transformed into glial

cells or astrocytes and some had differentiated

into neurons.94 Grove et al. conclude that stem

cells “give rise to mature functional cells of

many tissues” (p. 497), such as skeletal, cardiac,

epithelial, gastrointestinal, pulmonary, pancre-

atic, and CNS tissue. Active replenishment of

cell types according to need by transformation

of a stem cell into a particular cell type, in-

stead of through cell division of that cell type,

constitutes true regeneration.

The second main strategy regarding stem

cell research has been to study stem cell be-

havior speciﬁcally with respect to experimen-

tally injured tissue. Here the results are most

interesting and quite consistent across different

types of tissue injury. Pereira et al.95 injected

bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

with a collagen I marker into radiation dam-

aged mice. The stem cells replicated, migrated

to various tissue sites, differentiated, and af-

terseveralmonthswerefoundasmaturebone,

cartilage, and lung cells. Peterson et al.96 also

studied the fate of transplanted bone marrow-

derived stem cells into the liver of laboratory

rats after the liver tissue had been lethally dam-

aged with irradiation. They found that some of

the bone marrow-derived stem cells eventually

appeared as different types of liver cells, such as

hepatocytes, biliary cells, and oval cells, when

normal hypatocyte proliferation is blocked.

Ferrari et al.97 found that bone marrow-derived

stem cells played a critical role in myogene-

sis in patients with muscular dystrophy, and

that circulating stem cells migrated to the site

of the degenerated muscled tissue, where they

became transmuted into normal muscle tis-

sue cells. However, not all stem cell regener-

ation is positive. Asahara et al.,98 for example,

found that circulating endothelial progenitor

cells were recruited to support neovasculariza-

tion of developing cancer tissue.

The fate of introduced stem cells into ani-

mals with experimentally-induced stroke injury

has been studied in some detail. In one study

bone marrow progenitor cells from male rats

were transplanted into the tail vein of female

rats. Four weeks later ischemia was experimen-

tally induced by occluding a cerebral artery

on one side of the brain. Following the stroke

injury, the fate of the transplanted stem cells

was studied. While these stem cells had mi-

grated throughout all areas of the brain, a sig-

niﬁcantly greater number of stem cells (55%

more) migrated to the ischemic side of the

brain, and most of these cells had transformed

into glial cells and astrocytes.99 The authors

conclude that the evidence suggests “prefer-

ential homing of marrow-derived progenitors

to the site of the injury” (p. 1289). Similarly,

Hess et al.,100 investigated the behavior of ra-

dioactively tagged circulating progenitor cells

following stroke injury. They discovered that

these bone marrow-derived stem cells played a

central role in vasculogenesis, and that some of

these stem cells not only eventually appeared

as mature endothelial cells, and but also as ma-

ture neurons in the damaged tissue area. A se-

ries of studies from another laboratory repli-

cated the Eglitis et al. ﬁndings in that stem

cells migrated and transformed in the brain

tissue.99 However, functional improvement fol-

lowing the stroke depended on how the stem

cells were introduced. Intravenously injected

stem cells proved to be the best method, in that

stem cells are able to readily pass the brain-

blood barrier. When stem cells are directly in-

jected into the brain microenvironment, the

injection itself may cause damage and mask po-

tential functional changes.102 Because the evi-

dence strongly showed that the intravenously

injected stem cells “migrate preferentially to

the ischemic cortex” (p. 1010), Chen et al. hy-

pothesize that preferential migration is likely to

occur based on a distress signal from the injured

tissue. They state, “These cells appear to be re-

cruited by long-range, possibly inﬂammatory,

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

329

signals originating from the degenerating tis-

sue” (p. 1010).

An important question emerging from the

experimental injury research is: how do the

stem cells know how to preferentially migrate

to the injured tissue? The answer in this pre-

sentation is that migrating stem cells follow both

an energy-information signal and biochemical

signal. Azizi et al.103 foundthatbonemarrow

stromal cells injected into the brains of albino

rats not only migrate and have a “high potential

to proliferate in the host microenvironment”

(p. 3912), but also had the capacity to “home

into damaged tissue” (p. 1367). Absent in the

Azizi et al. study and in most contemporary

stem cell research is any discussion of the nature

of the energy information signal that causes the

stem cells to migrate and also causes them to

make a bee-line for the injured tissue.

With the exception of the Chen et al. re-

search,101 which alludes to the possibility of an

energy distress signal emitted from damaged

tissue, and mediated by an inﬂammatory pro-

cess, the great majority of the current West-

ern scientiﬁc research on the “homing” of stem

cells has focused on biochemical signaling, in

the form of “homing receptors” or “adhesion

molecules.” Adhesion molecules, like selectins

and integrins, are very speciﬁc receptor mark-

ers on the cell surface which mediate adhesion

of the given stem cell to a speciﬁc kind of cell.104

These ﬁndings suggest that stem cells migrate

to very speciﬁc “niches” along “different adhe-

sive pathways,” each pathway being mediated

by very speciﬁc adhesion molecules.105

The energy medicine model described ear-

lier in this paper to explain how the immune

system responds to internal or external threat

is also applicable to explain stem cell homing

to tissue injury. The main hypothesis in this

presentation is that tissue injury results in a

disturbance in the unique energy signature or

“blueprint” for the body. Neurohormones are

distributed strategically throughout the tissue

structure of the body. Neurohormones in the

microenvironment of the injured tissue directly

energy signature through inherent resonance,

and transmit a high speed energy-information

distress signal propagated along predictable

connective tissue/meridian lines. This energy-

information signal is transmuted into biochem-

ical information. The stem cells then prefer-

entially home to the site of the injury. The

energy distress signal also initiates expression

of adhesion molecules, which in turn link spe-

ciﬁc receptor sites of the homing stem cells and

injured tissue cells. The distress information

transmitted to the stem cell informs the stem

cell speciﬁcally how to change its “phenotypic

ﬁngerprint” so as to transform itself into the

speciﬁc type of cell needed to repair the injury.

There is at least some contemporary scien-

tiﬁc support for the energy information relay

model for stem cell regeneration. These stud-

ies, however, are limited to experimental inves-

tigation of exogenously supplied EM currents.

For example, Yonemori et al.106 demonstrated

that pulsed electromagnetic stimulation of the

bone marrow in animals in vivo resulted in a

signiﬁcant increase in proliferative activity of

osteoblasts. ELF currents have been shown to

stimulate osteogenesis both in vitro107–110 and

in vivo111,112 Matsunaga et al.113 found that

such ELF electrical stimulation of histologi-

cally tagged bone marrow tissue in vivo initi-

ated the differentiation of mesonchymal cells

into osteoblasts. Landry et al.111 found that

ELF stimulation clearly caused differentiation

of stem cells into osteoblasts, but did not result

in any proliferation of the cells. In osteoblasts

grown in tissue culture ELF treatment stimu-

lated collagen type I mRNA expression and the

synthesis of speciﬁc proteins used in building

the extracellular matrix. The magnitude of the

ELF effects on the differentiation of osteoblasts

and the development of an extracellular ma-

trix were comparable to the effects of several

well-known growth factors.108 Several studies

have demonstrated that exogenous ELF cur-

rents induce stem cells to regenerate as part of

the cardigenesis process.114–116

There are a few studies on the applica-

tion of exogenous EHF currents. Soboleva and

330

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Ignasheva117 studied the effect of EHF currents

on cryogenically preserved and transplanted

bone marrow in mice. Nonthermal EHF doses

stimulated hemopoietic cells and increased sur-

vival rate in transplant donors. Pletnev118 found

that giga hertz irradiation in mammary cancer

patients on chemotherapy offset the otherwise

expected negative effects of the chemotherapy

on red and white blood cells. Exogenous en-

ergy currents stimulated the proliferative ac-

tivity of the red and white blood cells in the

bone marrow. These studies demonstrate the

EHF currents applied to bone marrow cells di-

rectly stimulate the proliferation of bone mar-

row cell populations, provided that the EHF

are not within a frequency range that damages

the tissue.

Across these studies it appears that exoge-

nous ELF, and possibly EHF currents play a

central role in signaling osteogenesis, thereby

raising the question that naturally occurring

endogenous distress currents after injury may

also activate homing to and differentiation

of stem cells at the site of an injury. The

studies with both exogenous ELF and EHF

currents on the stimulation of bone marrow

cells support the observation made ﬁfteen hun-

dred years ago by Bodhidharma, namely that

direct manipulation of the bone marrow is

associated with regeneration. Contemporary

Western stem cell research could very well ben-

eﬁt from the knowledge about energy infor-

mation relay in indigenous Tibetan and tra-

ditional Chinese medicine because this “inner

science” knowledge may provide important ev-

idence about the endogenous signaling system

that stem cells use to home to and then regener-

ate in injured tissues. Virtually nothing is known

in modern science about the endogenous ener-

getic information signaling system used by stem

cells. Very little is yet known about the complex

biochemical information signaling utilized by

stem cells.

Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there has

been no Western scientiﬁc research on bone

marrow washing or any other mind-body meth-

ods designed speciﬁcally to gain mastery over

FIGURE 3. Effects of spinning the small heavenly

cycle meditation on immunoglobulin activity (sIgA).

Gray bars, pre-test; black bars, post-test. (Used with

permission from Feng and Yan.120)

the extraordinary energy channel system orig-

inally mapped by Bodhidharma. From the ex-

tensive work done on reversing fat depositing

within vascular tissue,119 Western medicine cer-

tainly has evolved the technology and set of pro-

cedures that could be readily applied to study-

ing techniques to reverse fat depositing in the

bone marrow and thereby restoring the health

of bone marrow tissue. My hope is that this pre-

sentationinthisconferencewillstimulatesuch

research.

At least one study in China, however, has ad-

dressed the effects of spinning the small heav-

enly cycle meditation on immune functioning.

Feng Li Da and Yan Xuanzuo120 had 30 ex-

perimental subjects practice the small heavenly

cycle for ten 40 minute sessions. Ss in one con-

trol group sat quietly for ten sessions, and Ss in

another control group did exercise for 30 min-

utes over ten sessions. The dependent measure

was salivary immunoglobulin A (sIgA). The

sIga level was found in other studies to be a

reasonably valid indicator of overall immuno-

competence (McClelland, personal communi-

cation, 1987). As Figure 3 shows only Ss in

the experimental group showed a signiﬁcant

pre/post increase in sIga. According to Bone

Marrow Washing circulating the small heavenly

cycle increases the ﬂow of Chi energy in both

the 12 ordinary channels as well as in the two

primary extraordinary channels. Therefore, it

is not surprising that stimulation of the ordinary

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

331

channel system through this meditation had a

direct effect on the immune system because the

ordinary channel system is directly associated

with immune functioning. Unfortunately, the

Feng Li Da and Yan Xuanzuo study failed to

include any dependent measure of the effects of

the meditation on the bone marrow. The ﬁnd-

ings do however suggest that such mind-body

practices directly stimulate the energy systems

in the body, and can produce signiﬁcant and

measurable effects on physiological systems. To

my knowledge no modern scientiﬁc study has

yet addressed the effects of spinning the small

heavenly cycle on cell populations or fat de-

positing within the bone marrow, and certainly

no scientiﬁc studies have been conducted on

the more powerful bone breathing methods.

Overall, Bodhidharma’s Bone Marrow Wash-

ing36 is a remarkable achievement in that

through intensive meditation on the body, Bod-

hidharma discovered ﬁfteen hundred years ago

what contemporary Western stem cell scientists

are just beginning to rediscover, namely that the

health status of stem cells is the key to longevity

and regeneration, and that mind-body methods

can directly alter the signaling system used by

stem cells in the service of promoting longevity

in general and regeneration of damaged tissue

in particular.

Awakened Consciousness and the

Central Energy Channel System

Knowledge of the central channel system is

most developed within the Indo-Tibetan Bud-

dhist tantras as compared to other Eastern tra-

ditional healing systems. Therefore, in order

to foster meaningful dialogue between the Ti-

betan doctors and lamas speaking at this con-

ference and Western medical scientists some

knowledge of central channel system is war-

ranted. Unfortunately, from the perspective of

scientiﬁc evidence there are virtually no stud-

ies on the central channel system, except for a

single case study. In that study a Western sub-

ject proﬁcient in the energy tantras was able

to block both the visible weal and ﬂare, but

also cellular inﬁltration at the site, in repeated

measures a passive transfer skin test to Varicella

zoster. The subject claimed to block the migra-

tion of the immune cells by blocking energy

currents,121 in other words by blocking the en-

ergy information signal for the presence of the

antigen.

Traditionally, the central channel system is

said to run vertically roughly between the

spinal cord and a vagus nerve, and may con-

stitute a ﬂow channel generated by the semi-

conductance of these nerve tissues. According

to the classical description there are also two

other parallel channels that run along side the

central channel. For the normal adult, the ﬂow

of energy in these side channels is said to be im-

pure, and the central channel remains largely

inactive. The practitioner ﬁrst learns to per-

ceive clearly the ﬂow of energy in these side

and tributary channels. This type of practice

is called “vajra body practice” or “subtle body

practice.” Through a series of strenuous physi-

ological manipulations of the breath combined

with deep concentration (“vase breathing”) the

practitioner of tantric energy yoga learns to re-

direct the ﬂow of energy from the two primary

side channels and many tributary channels into

the central channel. Having done so, the med-

itator now engages in “inner ﬁre” meditation.

The act of redirecting the ﬂow of energy into

the central channel is sometimes called “ignit-

ing” the inner ﬁre. Next, the goal is progres-

sively to direct the energy up the central chan-

nel, and in the process to achieve a level of

mastery so the energy ﬂows in a stable way,

under the control of the meditator. This type

of skill is sometimes called “causing the ﬁre to

blaze.” The two-stage process of igniting and

causing the ﬁre to blaze is sometimes referred

to as “mixing and moving” practices. The

Tibetan compound, brse ‘pho contains the terms,

“to mix” (brse ba) and “to move or transform”

(‘pho ba) because the exercises entail ﬁrst di-

recting and mixing the energies from other

channels of the body into the central chan-

nel, and then moving up the central channel

332

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

in a carefully controlled manner until a funda-

mental transformation of consciousness occurs.

This transformation of consciousness is some-

times called “very subtle body practice.” The

quantum of awareness represented by the very

subtle body is said not to be packaged either

in the physical body or in personal conscious-

ness. It is also said to survive physical death of

the body.122,123 These are the kinds of extraor-

dinary meditation practices that the speaker,

Geshe NgawangTsondu alluded to earlier in

this conference when he described the possibil-

ity of achieving the “deathless body” through

full mastery of the very subtle energy and sub-

tle body practices. The primary goal of tantric

energy yoga is to aid the awakening of con-

sciousness to its natural condition. Direct ma-

nipulation of energy in the central channel sys-

tem is said to rapidly remove negative bod-

ily and mental states that otherwise serve to

obscure realization of the mind’s real nature,

namely realization of the simultaneous, non-

dual bliss/wisdom mind.123 Skillful mastery

over central channel ﬂow is also said to increase

the likelihood of establishing just the right con-

ditions to awaken the mind.

However, another outcome of Tibetan cen-

tral channel meditation that is generally not

talked about is at least some allusion to the

fact that advanced mastery of the bsre ‘pho

practices leads to “immortality,” i.e., survival

of a quantum of awareness beyond physical

death. This extraordinary claim is not limited

to Tibetan bsre ‘pho practices. For example, the

second section of Bodhidharma’s Bone Marrow

Washin g text is on Brain Washing.36 These med-

itations were designed to open the upper en-

ergy centers of the inner brain region through

special breathing exercises called shen (“spirit”)

breathing, which when fully mastered enables

a quantum of awareness to “gradually separate

from your physical body”36 (p. 251). As Bod-

hidharma says, these practices help the master

to “disembody and become immortal” (p. 252).

Similarly, in Taoist inner element meditation,

mastery of shen breathing is said to allow the

master “to ascend heaven in broad daylight as

an immortal.”82 (p. 396). Of course, as Western

scientists we have little way of knowing exactly

what the masters of these great Eastern medi-

tation traditions are all referring to when they

speak of true immortality. Certainly, these mas-

ters speak of something far more extraordinary

than anti-aging and tissue regeneration per se.

As Western scientists, in our sincere efforts to

enter the uncharted area of bringing longevity

and regeneration into the domain of legitimate

and respectable scientiﬁc inquiry, we may wish

to divest ourselves of developing hypotheses

and research designs on the topic of immortal-

ity. Yet, if we are to show respect to our Tibetan

friends participating in this conference, we

can’t fully avoid, for example, Geshe Ngawang-

Tsondu’s description of the “very subtle body”

or “deathless body,” whatever that may mean

to us. While contemporary Western science,

for the most part, probably isn’t ready at all to

tackle the issue of immortality, there are at least

some scientists who have found a starting point

for dialogue, for example, Tiller’s work124 on

the relationship between subtle energy, inten-

tion, and consciousness, and Schwartz’s work

on quantum theory and survival of the individ-

ual energy-information system beyond physical

death.125

Summary

I’ve included this paper in the conference

for several reasons. First, I believe that West-

ern research on the immune system has over-

emphasized the biochemical signaling system

and under-emphasized the energy information

signaling system, which is so much the focus of

traditional Eastern healing systems like tradi-

tional Chinese medicine and Tibetan medicine.

Modern Western energy medicine is just redis-

covering an energy signaling system ﬁrst de-

scribed nearly four thousand years ago and

mapped out in detail about ﬁve hundred years

ago. Second, I believe that this overview of the

three layers of the macromolecular energy sig-

naling system provides a conceptual foundation

Brown: The Energy Body and Its Functions

333

to understand exactly where the central chan-

nel system of Tibetan meditation and medicine

does and does not ﬁt into the question of

longevity, so that we might engage in a more

focused dialogue with our Tibetan friends. Fi-

nally, I believe that the extraordinary channel

system and especially the Bone Marrow Washing

practices “cut right to the bone” of the central

questions of this conference, namely regenera-

tion and longevity. Bone Marrow Washing offers

a set of practices promising to reverse the aging

of the bone marrow, to revitalize the red and

white blood cell population and especially the

all-important stem cell population, so the full

potential of these regenerative cells is available

to the organism for growth and/or healing from

tissue injury. I hope that this brief overview will

stimulate well designed scientiﬁc inquiry on the

body’s regeneration and longevity resources.

Conﬂicts of Interest

The author declares no conﬂicts of interest.

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Future Trends of Artificial Intelligence in Human Biofield

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Full-text available

Aug 2019

Human body structure is very complex, which contains various sub-components and makes it a complicated system. There are various activities performed by humans which involves both mental and physiological activities. Additionally, to monitor human health conditions various waves are examined like brainwaves, heart waves and others, which are highly useful in clinical scrutiny. Likewise, there exists an organized field of energy associated with every individual, termed as human biofield. This human biofield comprises of pre-eminent information about one's health and psychological state. Moreover, several studies manifested the evidences of its existence and its benefits clinically together with numerous alliances. This augments the importance of this field and reveals diversified applications in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for humans. Contrary to other biological signals for instance ECG, EEG and other, biofield still is not being mapped i.e. no measurement techniques are available for calculating the impact of Biofield in diagnosis and therapy, due to the uneven characteristics of biofield. This research article deals with the description of hitherto journey of biofield, including its concepts, imaging and applications. Further, this paper also imparts the need of Artificial intelligence stating new opportunities and challenges associated with it. Particularly, this paper highlights the futuristic applications of biofield integrated with Artificial Intelligence.

Experiences of Healing Touch and Counseling on a Bereaved Population: A Grounded Theory

Article

Aug 2016

Grounded theory was selected as a way to develop a theory about the potential adjunctive use of energy healing in the form of healing touch (HT) along with counseling on a bereaved population. Semi-structured interviews were conducted twice with clients and once with the counselors and HT practitioners. Results indicated that the participants agreed that both counseling and HT operated well together to provide bereavement support. The themes of trust, openness, intention, and spirituality within the holistic context seemed to make this model possible. Potential ethical concerns are discussed, as well as areas for future research and clinical applications.

Monitoring the Human Health by Measuring the Biofield "Aura": An Overview

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Full-text available

May 2015

Various life processes in human beings involve physiological and mental activity. Interestingly, electromagnetic field is associated with such activities. Psychological perception of one's environment or a person's thought process induces characteristic electrical impulses in the brain. These signals travel throughout the central, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, creating the unique electromagnetic field of the organism that can radiate out of the body and is termed 'Aura' or 'Bio-energy field'. Thus, this radiation field has the information about the individual's physiological and mental status. Any changes in homeostasis, including parasitic infection, genetic mutation, arterial constriction, etc., will produce a corresponding modification in the bio-energy field that in turn would lead to various diseases. Thus, 'aura' gives the signature of the status of health prior to its manifestation in the physical body. Therefore, human health can be effectively monitored by measuring this radiation field.

Efficacy evaluation of summer acupoint application treatment on asthma patients: A two-year follow-up clinical study

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Full-text available

Feb 2015

fill out a questionnaire evaluating asthma degree, exacerbation frequency, concomitant medications and self-satisfaction. The self-rate and doctor-report outcomes obtained in parallel were evaluated to assess the efficacy of SAAT. A total of 527 asthma patients were initially enrolled in this study, of which 97 elderly patients and those with more severe cases of asthma were lost to follow-up. Thus, a total of 430 patients were valid for analysis using self-rate data. Nevertheless, occasional negative returns were obtained; almost all of the outcomes were rated as "No change", "Moderate effective", or "Very effective". In addition, 80% of the patients were satisfied with this treatment. Moreover, 391 (91.4% ) patients were somewhat improved after SAAT in 2009, and further improvement was observed in 2010. After SAAT, the average asthma-degree score decreased from 5.3 in 2008 to 4 in 2009 and, subsequently to 3.5 in 2010. With pronounced patient satisfaction, SAAT can reduce the exacerbation severity and frequency, concomitant medications and asthma degree. Prolonging the treatment course might enhance the efficacy of SAAT. To evaluate the self-efficacy and satisfaction of asthma patients subjected to summer acupoint application treatment (SAAT). A two-year follow-up clinical study was conducted. Patients with asthma were treated by applying a herbal paste onto the Feishu (BL 13) and Fengmen (BL 12) acupoints on the three hottest days of summer, according to the traditional Chinese calendar, from 2008 to 2010. During a two-year follow-up, these patients were asked to

Numerical Analysis of the Change in Skin Color due to Ecchymosis and Petechiae Generated by Cupping: A Pilot Study

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Dec 2014

Cupping is one of various treatment methods used in traditional medical clinics. Cupping is also used for a diagnostic method and it may cause skin hyperpigmentation. Quantitative measurements and analyzes on the changes in skin color due to cupping are critical. The purpose of this study is to suggest an optical technique to visualize and identify changes in skin colour due to cupping. We suggest the analysis methods of using the digital colour spaces (RGB, L∗a∗b), Erythema index (EI), and Melanin index (MI). For experiments, we selected and stimulated ten acupoints at 80 kPa per minute. The RGB and L∗a∗b colour space were commonly observed to be decreased (p<0.05) after cupping. The EI and MI were commonly observed to be increased significantly (p<0.05) after cupping. To assess various changes in skin colour, we observed the changes for 72 hours. We also obtained the colour changes by using the recovery pattern during the recovery period (p<0.01). We propose that this method can be useful for a visual identification and as a way to improve the identification of skin-color changes.

Changes in Skin Impedance and Heart Rate Variability with Application of Acu-TENS to BL 13 ( Feishu )

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Full-text available

Dec 2012
J ALTERN COMPLEM MED

Objectives: To investigate the change of skin impedance of acupoints along the Lung meridian in response to transcutaneous electrical nervous stimulation over an acupoint (Acu-TENS) over BL13 (Feishu). Design: This was a double-blinded, randomized, controlled crossover study. Settings/location: The study was conducted in a laboratory. Subjects: Eighteen (18) healthy individuals comprised the study subjects. Interventions: The intervention was a session of 45-minute Acu-TENS (application of TENS on BL13, Feishu) or placebo-TENS (similar to Acu-TENS but without electrical output). Outcome measures: Skin impedance at 10 acupoints on the Lung meridian was recorded before and after the 45-minute intervention period. Heart rate variability during the intervention was analyzed from continuous heart rate monitoring. Results: Skin impedance at all acupoints along the lung meridian decreased significantly after Acu-TENS, when compared to placebo-TENS (p<0.05). A significant reduction in sympathetic activity was also observed after Acu-TENS (p=0.012). Conclusions: Acu-TENS appears to modify skin impedance of acupoints along a related meridian and possibly modulates sympathovagal balance.

Biofield therapies and psychoneuroimmunology

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Nov 2010
BRAIN BEHAV IMMUN

Role of Adhesion Molecules in the Homing and Mobilization of Murine Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells

Article

Aug 1998

Bone marrow (BM) transplantation still must overcome multiple difficulties and should benefit from better understanding of stem-cell homing and mobilization. Here, we analyzed the involvement of several adhesion molecules in the two processes by treating mice with monoclonal antibodies against these molecules. Treatment of lethally irradiated mice grafted with isogeneic BM cells showed that at least two migration pathways are important for stem-cell homing to the BM, whereas only one of them is involved in lodging of colony-forming unit–spleen (CFU-S) in the spleen. We confirm that the VLA-4/VCAM-1 adhesion pathway is important for stem-cell homing to the BM only and show that CD44 is involved in CFU-S lodging in both BM and spleen. These results show that entry of CFU-S into the spleen is regulated. The observation that when one migration pathway is altered, CFU-S do not enter the BM via the other pathway may indicate that the two mechanisms involved in CFU-S homing into the BM are linked. The adhesion molecules VLA-4 and CD44 are also implied in the mobilization of stem cells into the blood stream of mice injected once with anti–VLA-4 or anti-CD44. Anti–VLA-4 administration led to a significant increase in circulating stem cells as early as 8 hours after treatment. Stem cells mobilized by anti–VLA-4 comprise cells with high self-renewal potential and thus may be used for long-term reconstitution of the hematopoietic tissue. © 1998 by The American Society of Hematology.

Biological Coherence and Response to External Stimuli

Book

Jan 1988

Herbert Fröhlich

Towards a scientific rationale of homeopathy

Article

Jan 1984

W. A. Tiller

Natural Killer Cells as Antitumor Effector

Article

Mar 1979

Research advances in the electrical specificity of meridians and acupuncture points

Article

Jan 1981

Zhu Zong-xiang

Effect of Radiation on Biological Systems

Chapter

Jan 1989

Marko S. Markov

Recent developments in modern technology have increased the number of devices creating electromagnetic fields which may affect biological systems. Every particular living system is exposed to increasing values of electromagnetic pollution. Thus, the problems of evaluating electromagnetic fields and their various physical parameters have become of great importance. Biotechnology, in the last decade, has made large advances in methods to analyze the effects of different physical parameters of electromagnetic fields on living systems.

Isotopic and Cytologic Assays in Acupuncture

Article

Jan 1989

J. Darras

Comparison of Endogenous Currents in and Around Cells with Those Induced by Exogenous Extremely Low Frequency Magnetic Fields

Chapter

May 1995

Howard Wachtel

Several epidemiologica! studies have led to the suggestion that 60Hz magnetic fields having flux densities of 1 (iT or less could have adverse effects on human health. In this chapter 1 explore the question of whether currents induced by such magnetic fields are likely to be of consequence in comparison to ambient bioelectric fields in the human body. This comparison is accomplished in terms of extremely low frequency current densities at three levels of biological interest: (1) bulk tissue currents, (2) transcellular currents, and (3) extracellular (or pericellular) currents around cell surfaces. At all three levels, current densities likely to be induced by exposure to vertical 60-Hz, 1-fjT magnetic fields are found to be much smaller than currents from biological background sources (such as active nerve and muscle). This conclusion still applies when only endogenous current components in the bandwidth near 60 Hz are taken into consideration.

The machine brain and properties of the mind

Article

Jan 1990

R.O. Becker

Streaming and Piezoelectric Potentials in Connective Tissues

Chapter

May 1995

Laura A. MacGinitie

Stress-generated potentials of bone, cartilage, and tendon are reviewed to identify ranges of physiological electric field magnitudes and to relate these fields to tissue properties such as matrix structure and composition, molecular interactions, and interstitial fluid. The range of physiological field magnitudes may indicate the range of physiological or external field magnitudes that can modulate tissue behavior. Because stress-generated potential magnitudes and frequencies depend on tissue properties, potential measurements may be used to assess normal and abnormal tissue properties. Piezoelectric potentials are generated by loading dry tissues, whereas streaming (electrokinetic) potentials (SPs) and currents are generated by loading hydrated tissues. SPs generated by bending cortical bone are 1 order of magnitude smaller, when normalized to strain, and relax 2-4 orders of magnitude faster than SPs generated by compression of cartilage disks. Estimated maximum current densities at cell sites are on the order of 10 fjA/cm2for bone and 1 mA/cm2 for cartilage. These ranges may suggest that external or environmental fields must produce tissue-level current densities of this magnitude to alter connective tissue behavior. Trabecular bone SPs are smaller than cortical bone SPs. Microscopic measurements of bone SPs and models for SP generation in bone and cartilage indicate that field magnitudes and frequencies depend on tissue properties.

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