Creating "Joy Theory" 5.0: The Heart

The idea of the human biofield came out of left field tonight while watching the documentary "Through the Wormhole," episode 7. It's the emerging science of measuring the electromagnetic fields and infrared radiation emitted by the body such as the brain, which emits a small field, and the heart, which emits an electrical field 60 times greater than that of the brain and a magnetic field 100 times more powerful, extending out 3 feet from the body. The heart is actually wild, this information blew my mind. You can read about the heart here even though it's 104 pages so keep that in mind (I read about half of them) or just read my key takeaway summary.

Taken from here.

Before elaborating on the findings, I want to say a few things. First, the journal that published this study is an independent publisher which means that their articles do not need to be peer researched before publication. Generally, that is not a good sign as far as trustworthiness is concerned. But, I asked google about them and they said they are cool research wise. Second, ironically as the article started discussing the soul and the heart in junction, I experienced a subconscious repulsion. The irony is not lost on me, but I write this to demonstrate my own subconscious biases against spirituality being a part of science. Being skeptical of spirituality runs deep... and it's still incredibly surprising to keep finding science that substantiate spiritual claims.

Here is my summary of key points from the article:

1. The heart is stronger than the brain in terms of influence. "The neural connections that transmit information from the emotional centers to the cognitive centers in the brain are stronger and more numerous than those that convey information from the cognitive to the emotional centers. This fundamental asymmetry accounts for the powerful influence of input from the emotional system on cognitive functions such as attention, perception and memory as well as higher-order thought processes. Conversely, the comparatively limited influence of input from the cognitive system on emotional processing helps explain why it is generally difficult to willfully modulate emotions through thought alone." The heart is often referred to as the heart brain for this reason.

2. The heart produces hormones including oxytocin, the love chemical, equally as much as the brain does. Emotions, besides being stronger than thought, are tied physiologically to the biological processes of energy. "Emotions and resilience are closely related because emotions are the primary drivers of many key physiological processes involved in energy regulation." Negative emotions literally influence energy regulatory functions in the body negatively.

3. Coherence is when two wave states become synchronized albeit at different frequencies. In other words, they become more symmetrically and harmonically patterned. Coherence has overwhelmingly positive effects including enhanced cognitive functioning such as clearer thinking and better decision making, emotional resilience and stress management, and increased physical and emotional well-being. All of the top 5 positive emotions (peace, joy, hope, love, and gratitude) enhance heart-brain coherence with peace being the only one that significantly impacts it which you read about here. I still don't think peace should be the focus of the theory because for myself I feel much more energy when I'm joyful than when I'm peaceful. True peace would be an attainment of a homeostatic state of joy.

   

   What coherences looks like.

4. It's scientifically verified that heart and brain rhythms synchronize among groups of people. This is generally triggered by synchronized activity such as choir or drum circles, emotional closeness and connection, having a shared focus or experience, and experiencing positive emotions. In other words, whoever you are around quite literally changes your physiology based on their electromagnetic output and group synchronization. This can also account for automatic magnetic and repulsive responses to people.

5. Here is a list of how emotion based interventions have impacted health and well-being:

This underscores the importance of my ideology that healers MUST HEAL THEMSELVES. If healers are bringing in higher frequency emotional states as their homeostatic norm, then patients will literally be the better for it psychologically and physiologically! Clients will synchronize to higher heart functions which will in term impact brain functionality the more healed the healer is. Besides helping the healer be more creative and better at problem solving and all that stuff that is also pretty damn important to healing. Kind of wild to see that science literally supports the idea that the best tool for healing is the healer themselves.

More evidence for emotion being the key to create impactful long-term change.

Theory Development:

1. Joy is not always the optimal emotion, specifically when it involves pain by means of a loved one (death, loss, rejection, etc). Joy and hope have similar overall impacts on physiology so they can be used interchangeably based on what makes sense.

   1. This will be incorporated into the final version of Joy Theory because of how well it worked.

2. Orienting healing first inwardly towards the self based on triggers and then expand that feeling outward to others.

   1. This will be incorporated into the final version of Joy Theory because of how well it worked.

3. Merge Joy Theory with Eye Consciousness Theory. Get as many working mechanisms going as possible simultaneously.

   1. TBD

4. Envisioning daily routine is an option, but probably not one that I will use often.

   1. This will be included into the final version of Joy Theory as an extra option should it be needed or make sense.

5. Try using light based on the electromagnetic spectrum and the electromagnetic field coupled with either visual meditation techniques or LED lights. Will look into LED lights. Use step based progression through the electromagnetic spectrum starting with the color that feels intuitive.

   1. There is a solid basis for this working as visually meditating on light has helped clients process emotions in the past. The step based approach is new and will require testing but it should work theoretically as it follows the same idea as emotion and the two are correlated given that the heart is electromagnetic.