Tag: benefits of remote viewing

The HeartMath research team has identified and named what is now known as the heart’s coherent state. It is important to note that, as McCraty points out, the heart coherent state is a well-defined and measurable state that is fundamentally different from a state of relaxation and from most meditative states that require only a lowered heart rate and not necessarily a coherent rhythm.

This state, which reflects a type of optimal function, is technically called physiological coherence, but it is also being referred to in the literature as heart coherence, cardiac coherence, or resonance. The important point is that this is a specific functional psycho-physiological mode that can be objectively measured by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. Heart rate variability is a measure of the naturally occurring beat-to-beat changes in heart rate.

“It was really Doc Childre who first used the terms ‘heart intelligence’ and ‘coherence,’ at least that I know of,” says McCraty. “He was using this language when I first met him in 1987, but it took us a few years of doing the research to really start to understand just how appropriate these terms really were.”

McCraty and the research team then began to understand that there is a physiological reason that our emotions are reflected in the heart’s rhythmic patterns, and this took the perception of the heart being involved in our emotions out of the metaphysical realm and grounded it in basic emotional physiology. This set the stage for their later studies on intuition.

McCraty found compelling evidence to suggest that the heart’s energy field (energetic heart) is coupled to a field of information that is not bound by the classical limits of time and space. This evidence comes from several rigorous experimental studies that investigated the proposition that the body receives and processes information about a future event before the event actually happens. One of these studies, conducted at the HeartMath laboratories, showed that both the heart and brain receive and respond to pre-stimulus information about a future event. But even more surprising is the finding that the heart seems to receive the intuitive information before the brain. They also found that study participants in a positive, emotion-driven, coherent state prior to the experimental protocols proved to be significantly more attuned to the information from the heart than those who were not in such a state. This suggests to McCraty that the heart is directly coupled to a subtle energetic field of information that is entangled and interacts with the multiplicity of energetic fields in which the body is embedded—including the quantum vacuum.

That the heart appears to receive intuitive information before the brain should not be all that surprising, says Mc-Craty. It just confirms what people mean when they speak of the intuitive heart or heart intelligence. The energetic heart is coupled to a deeper part of ourselves. When we are heartcentered and coherent, we have a tighter coupling and closer alignment with our deeper source of intuitive intelligence. In a heart coherent state there is an increased flow of intuitive information that is communicated via the emotional energetic system to the brain systems resulting in a stronger connection with our inner voice and allowing us access to the largely untapped potential for bringing our mental and emotional faculties into greater balance and self-directed control. Practicing shifting to a more coherent state increases intuitive awareness and leads to shifts in perception and worldviews from which better informed and more intelligent decisions can be made.

The heart’s electromagnetic field, by far the most powerful rhythmic field produced by the human body, not only envelops every cell of the body but also extends out in all directions into the space around us. The cardiac field can be measured several feet away from the body by sensitive magnetometers. Research conducted at HeartMath suggests that the heart’s field is an important carrier of information.

“We propose,” says McCraty, “that the electromagnetic fields produced by the heart form a complex energetic network that connects the electromagnetic fields of the rest of the body. In doing so, the heart’s energetic field acts as a modulated carrier wave that encodes and communicates information throughout the entire body, from the systemic to the cellular levels, and even conveys information outside the body between individuals.

“The concept of an energetic information field is not a new one. Indeed, many prominent scientists have proposed models in which information from all physical, biological and psychosocial interactions is enfolded as a spectral order outside the space/time world in the energy waveforms of the quantum vacuum. Holographic principles form the basis of most of these theories and have been used to describe how information about the organization of a whole is nonlocalized—enfolded and distributed to all parts and locations via the energy waveforms produced by interactions in the brain, social structures, and the universe. We adopted a holographic perspective to describe how energy waveforms generated by the heart’s electromagnetic field encode and distribute information about all structures and processes throughout the body from the cellular level to the body as a whole.”

After deep reflection, McCraty’s continuously evolving vision took the concept of coherence and energetic fields to the macro level of the planet—and the very edge of science. “Coherence,” he says, “is a state of energetic alignment and cooperation between heart, mind, body, and spirit. In coherence, energy is accumulated, not wasted, leaving you more energy to manifest intention and harmonious outcomes.”

In the hopes of helping to generate more coherence throughout the world, McCraty also helped start the Global Coherence Initiative, a science-based, co-creative project to unite people in heart-focused care and intention, to facilitate the shift in global consciousness from instability and discord to balance, cooperation, and enduring peace. The idea is to unite individuals who will use heart coherence with specific intentions in order to raise human consciousness at the global level. A good idea, indeed.

McCraty, R., “The energetic heart: Bioelectromagnetic communication within and between people,” in Bioelectromagnetic edicine, P.J. Rosch and M.S. Markov, Editors. 2004, Marcel Dekker: New York. p. 541–562.

McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Tomasino, D., & Bradley, R. T, “The coherent heart: Heart-brain interactions, psychophysiological coherence, and the emergence of system-wide order.” Integral Review, 2009. 5(2): p. 10–115.

McCraty, R., Childre, D, “Coherence: Bridging Personal, Social and Global Health.” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 2010. 16(4): p. 10–24.

McCraty, R., M. Atkinson, and R.T. Bradley, “Electrophysiological evidence of intuition: Part 1. The surprising role of the heart.” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2004. 10(1): p. 133–143.

McCraty, R., M. Atkinson, and R.T. Bradley, “Electrophysiological evidence of intuition: Part 2. A system-wide process?” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2004. 10(2): p. 325–336.

McCraty, R., et al., “New Hope for Correctional Officers: An Innovative Program for Reducing Stress and Health Risks.” Appl Psych and Biofeedback, 2009. 34(4): p. 251–272.

McCraty, R., et al., “The effects of emotions on short-term power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability.” American Journal of Cardiology, 1995. 76(14): p. 1089–1093.