(or: ‘The Power To Light Up’ – Part 4)
This article suggests a straightforward method to quickly transform both your own world and that of others in ways so far-reaching, that you probably can’t even begin to imagine its profound (potential) transformational effects because of its perceived simplicity.
It’s the simplest thing to do, and it has endless personal benefits for anyone who does it with at least a minimal degree of genuineness.
But before we get to the actual ‘how to,’ let’s first put this whole thing into context.
Matters of the Heart
Let me begin by asking you this:
Have you ever paid attention to the words we use when referring to feelings and emotions of gratitude, appreciation, love, passion, and so on?
We say things like:
- “It’s coming from the heart.”
- “A heartfelt thank you!”
- “I love you with all my heart.”
- “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
- “I put my heart into this.”
Or:
- “It broke my heart…”
- “It’s a real heartache…”
So in this context, what is this ‘heart’ we keep referring to really?
Let’s explore…
The Human ‘Heart’
The human ‘heart’ is actually very much misunderstood:
- Most people see it as nothing more than a muscle that mechanically pumps around blood to circulate it around in the body through all its veins and capillaries.
- Others have a more expansive vision of it, and refer to it as the ‘heart chakra’, which – according to tantric and yogic traditions – is the central ‘spinning wheel’ in a larger system of subtle energy vortexes that permeate the various physical and ‘energetic’ layers of our bodies.
Either way, few people have a really clear and tangible image of what the heart really is and does, and its crucial importance and impact on the overall state of our ‘mind / body’-system on all its various levels.
So let’s go over a few interesting facts about the ‘heart:’
- We all know how changes in emotions are accompanied by predictable physiological changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and other bodily functions.
In this context, for the longest time it was assumed that it was only the brain that was responsible for the bodily reaction to a certain stimulus by interpreting the environmental incentive and signaling the response it deemed appropriate via the central nervous system.
However, research has shown that the heart actually has its own logic, which often turns out to deviate from the ‘regular’ direction of communication in the central nervous system that goes from the brain to the body.
Later on, neurophysicists discovered a neural pathway and mechanism through which the heart is able to inhibit and/or facilitate the brain’s electrical activity, and thus influence the way we perceive the world, make decisions, and other cognitive processes that determine how we react in response to environmental cues [2]. (<-- The latter process is explained in more detail in the second study guide in the ‘Crack Your Egg’ introduction series.) - Later research has shed light on what has become known as the ‘heart brain,’ a complex and sophisticated nervous system that’s intrinsic to the heart and consists of around 40,000 neurons called ‘sensory neurites.’ With this nervous system of its own, the heart can independently learn, remember, feel, sense, and make functional decisions without involvement from the brain [3, 4].
- Another study on the heart revealed that it not only communicates information physically to the brain through the extensive neural pathways mentioned above, but also through electromagnetic field interactions.
According to Rollin McCraty, Director of Research at the Institute of HeartMath, it turns out that the heart’s electromagnetic field is the most powerful and most extensive one in the human body, and about 5,000 times stronger than the electromagnetic field of the brain.
With sensitive measuring equipment called ‘magneto-meters’ it can be detected several feet away from the body, of which the image below gives a schematic impression [5]:
- Moreover, today we have concrete evidence of a subtle, yet highly influential electromagnetic or ‘energetic’ communication system that operates just below our conscious awareness.
Research by the Institute of HeartMath has shown remarkable evidence that the heart’s electromagnetic field can transmit information between different people. At the time of writing, such energy exchange has so far been measured between individuals who were standing up to five feet apart.
McCraty proposes that energetic interactions through this field contribute to certain ‘magnetic’ attractions and/or repulsions that may occur between people, and may thus also significantly affect social relationships [6].
It has also become clear that one person’s brain waves can synchronize with another person’s heart. This happened most notably when a person was generating a coherent heart rhythm, suggesting that when our ‘mind / body’-systems are in a harmonious state, we may become more aware of and attuned to the information encoded in the heart fields of those around us. - In addition, the heart turns out to be more than just an organ in other respects too: it appears to operate as an actual endocrine gland that secretes hormones with various important functions.
One of these hormones is called ‘Atrial Natriuretic Factor’ (ANF), which significantly influences our bodies’ blood vessels, kidneys, adrenal glands, and a large number of regulatory regions in the brain.
The heart also contains cells known as ‘Intrinsic Cardiac Adrenergic’ (ICA) cells, which release noradrenaline and dopamine neurotransmitters.
Moreover, it secretes a hormone called oxytocin, which is commonly referred to as the ‘love hormone’ or ‘bonding hormone.’ This hormone is involved in childbirth and lactation, as well as in cognition, tolerance, adaptation, complex sexual and maternal behaviors, the apprehension of social cues, and the establishment of enduring pair bonds. - Furthermore, an interesting fact came out of research by David Vesely, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida, as well as chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa (at the time of writing).
He discovered that heart hormones were able to get rid of up to 97% of all cancers in cell cultures within 24 hours [7]! - Additionally, the Institute of HeartMath has established that the heart plays a fundamental role in stabilizing and destabilizing emotions, and harmonizing and disharmonizing the interaction between itself, the central nervous system and the brain. When these three systems are out of synch, we ourselves feel completely incoherent (<-- or in scientific jargon: like crap) [8, 9].
- Beyond all the above, considerable research has demonstrated that low-vibrational emotional states generate imbalanced heart rhythm patterns. This, in turn, distorts the relationship between the heart, the central nervous system and the brain. As a result, all proverbial hell can break lose mentally, emotionally and even physically.
In fact, this is how stress and other emotions can cause heart attacks, and why people can actually die from a ‘broken heart.’ The emotional impact of a particular traumatic or shocking experience can trigger severely incoherent heart rhythms. This is also what underlies so-called ‘heartache.’
To wit: love, compassion, caring and appreciation have been shown to do the opposite: they actually lead to coherent heart rhythm patterns, of which the graph below gives an impression:
- To conclude this enumeration of facts on the heart (at least for the time being), another interesting finding is that the heart is involved in the processing and decoding of intuitive information.
Its electromagnetic field turns out to be directly involved in intuitive perception through its coupling with an energetic information field that resides beyond the boundaries of space and time [10].
And brace yourself for this one:
Other research revealed evidence that both the heart and the brain receive and respond to information about a future event before the event actually happens!
Even more surprisingly, the heart appears to receive this intuitive information before the brain does [11, 12].
That’s why we say “I knew it in my heart” and “follow your heart.” This is where we actually feel ‘intuitive knowing;’ when we intuitively know something, we don’t sit down and think it through. We just know it; it’s there, in an instant.
With this type of knowing, there’s no need to ponder the ‘ifs,’ ‘buts,’ ‘pros,’ ‘cons,’ etc. in an attempt to try and work it all out on an intellectual level – that’s what the mind does with the help of the brain. By contrast, the heart knows instantaneously.
There’s a lot more to be told about the heart, but what we’ve covered clearly illustrates how the human heart is much more than a muscle that merely pumps around blood in the body.
Evidently, it has a huge impact on the overall ‘vibrational state’ of our ‘mind / body’-systems, and influences our health, our ability to tune into our capacity for intuitive knowing, and even our subtle connections with other people and ‘life’ in general. It actually has perceptive and ‘broadcasting’ abilities of its own.
And that brings us to a related area of interest…
Hypercommunication
It’s not just the heart that plays a central role in the ‘subtle’ connection and communication with others and the world around us.
There’s a phenomenon known as ‘hypercommunication,’ which basically comes down to a phenomenon where individual minds connect on a ‘psychic,’ intuitive level to form a joint communication network.
To get a clear understanding of how this works, think of an ant colony, which appears to be coordinated through a particular form of this type of subtle communication:
- When a queen ant is separated from her colony, the worker ants continue to build and construct the colony as if nothing ever changed, and as though they have some sort of blueprint for what to do. It doesn’t really matter where the queen ant is, as long as she’s alive.
- However, when the queen ant is killed, then all work in the ant colony ceases, as if nobody knows what to do anymore because the blueprint they used to be able to access has been taken offline.
So apparently, there’s some type of communication going on between the queen ant and the worker ants on ‘subtle’ levels that we’re unable to directly perceive.
They don’t need to be in physical contact or proximity for this communication to occur; it takes place on a more ‘energetic’ level, outside the bandwidth of our threedimensional reality’s frequency range.
Because of this aspect of ‘non-locality,’ a different way to describe such ‘hypercommunication’ could be ‘quantum communication.’
The research into the heart mentioned above suggests that aside from on a ‘physical level’ alone, we humans can connect with each other through this kind of quantum communication as well (<– for example: when one person’s brain synchronizes with another person’s heart).
And to add to that, contemporary research into the nature of DNA suggests the same thing [13]:
- Russian biophysicist and molecular biologist Pjotr Garjajev has found that the 90% of DNA (probably even more) that’s often so ludicrously explained away as ‘junk’ (as if more than 90% of this stuff is all there for nothing) does indeed have complex properties.
- According to him and his team, DNA is not merely used to coordinate protein synthesis in our bodies (<– which is what the 10% that mainstream science focuses on is for). Instead, the other parts of our DNA seem to actually be used as a medium for storage and reception of information and for hypercommunication.
- Garjajev and his group analyzed the vibrational response of DNA and concluded that it can function much like networked intelligence, and that it allows for hypercommunication amongst all sentient beings. They demonstrated how DNA operates through resonance and vibratory frequencies, and how it can be modified through the impact of external frequencies.
There’s a lot more to say about Garjajev’s studies, and truth be told, it doesn’t seem like they’ve been replicated at the time of writing this article. Nevertheless, it could be a first stepping stone towards the scientific explanation for some pretty amazing phenomena (such as spontaneous remission and self-healing, remote acts of healing, intuition, etc.).
Either way, the information about the heart and DNA outlined above clearly illustrates our inherent ability to mutually connect and influence the world around us in subtle, yet truly astonishing ways that we may not always realize because it takes place on levels outside of our conscious awareness.
This ability allows us to pull off surprising feats that might be regarded as almost ‘magical’ from our common perception of reality… both for ourselves and others… especially when we consciously join, connect and align on a more collective level.
To illustrate this, check out examples like these:
- You’ve probably heard of the group of transcendental meditators in Washington D.C. that collectively focused on the intent to increase their mental and emotional harmony, thus contributing to an overall decrease of stress in the area.
The study was just a temporary experiment involving 4,000 meditators, but still it turned out to significantly decrease in Washington D.C.’s crime rate during the experiment.
But moreover, based on the study’s results, the long-term effect that a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the meditation program would have, was calculated to be a 48% reduction in the number of homicides, rapes, and assaults in the District of Columbia [14].
That’s huge, especially considering the fact that nobody really did anything but to meditate and work on their own mental and emotional harmony to elicit this effect!
- And then there’s the ‘Global Consciousness Project.’ This endeavor was initiated in 1998 out of Princeton University to study the impact of human consciousness on the ‘real’ world.
The project uses so-called ‘random event generators’ (<– ‘electrogaiagrams’ or EGGs) that are installed on every continent and with nodes on more than 50 locations. The goal is to observe if human consciousness can influence the outcome of random events.
The project still continues till this day and has concluded so far that…:
“The results are evidence that the physical world and our mental world of information and meaning are linked in ways that we don’t yet understand.” [15]
Or maybe we actually do understand it. As you can read in the second study guide of the Crack Your Egg Introduction Series, experiments have demonstrated that DNA can imprint information into energy fields (<– referred to as the ‘DNA phantom effect’), and the explained ‘hypercommunication’ could be a valid clarification of this ‘link.’
So in summary, it seems like we can communicate and connect with each other through heart and DNA transmissions, and probably on deeper levels of consciousness as well.
It appears that we’re all seamlessly connected to everyone and everything else, which offers fascinating and mind-boggling opportunities to ‘pull’ and ‘create’ amazing things into our experience, at least once we take conscious control of our energy fields and their ‘hypercommunicative’ broadcast.
This way, we can establish amazing transformations in both our own lives, and the lives of everyone else.
Let’s explore how…
How To Get More Of What We Really Want
To deliberately influence our lives, realities and destinies in order to get more of what we really want out of life, as a prerequisite we need to establish inner coherence and harmony, thus automatically establishing more harmony in other people and the world around us as well.
Such integrity is the basic state from where we can ‘manifest’ increasingly rewarding experiences and build such forward momentum as to instigate ‘upward spirals’ of ever-growing positivity.
So how do we get into such a state of integrity, coherence and harmony?
There are various aspects and caveats to the process (<– outlined in detail in the Crack Your Egg Program), but in short it requires a shift in consciousness. And there’s an extremely simple way to instigate one. Look at it this way:
- Physicists know how a wave can propagate itself quite far through a medium. Think about throwing a stone into a pond; the resulting waves will continue to affect the water long after the stone has sunk to the bottom.
We experience something like this every day through all the negativity that’s constantly imposed upon us, for example through the constant fear mongering of the mass media.
The repetitive stings of ongoing reports that almost invariably communicate the implicit message that we need to constantly be on guard for bad things to happen and distrust other people keeps the great majority in the same state of mind that merely originates ‘waves of negativity’ that cause the kinds of events reported through this ‘news.’
While such a current keeps propagating and more people pick up on it, it merely grows stronger, much like the amplitude of a wave grows when multiple waves resonate and synchronize. Before we know it, things get worse and worse.
- In this context, it’s worth realizing that everything we think, say and do makes waves in the collective human mind in a way that’s akin to throwing a rock into a pond. For example:
So how you treat other people in the supermarket, at the office, at the bar, or wherever may not appear to be revolutionary… but it is. It starts with the little things, and before you know it, the small waves you make can turn into a tidal wave of consciousness transformation impacting the whole of humanity.
This is akin to what’s dubbed the ‘Butterfly Effect:’ a butterfly that flaps its wings on one side of the world might ultimately be the source of a typhoon on the other end of the world.
You can instigate such a process to your own benefit and to the benefit of many others. And if momentum does build indeed, it can mark the beginning of a tidal wave of a consciousness shift.
How?
Simply by throwing a small (symbolic) rock into the pond of collective human mind.
Making Waves In The Collective Human Mind
Here’s an extremely simple way to instigate a shift, both in your own world and that of others:
- Give another person a compliment. Be sure it’s genuine and comes “from the heart.” Make some waves this way, and deliberately spread the good vibes.
This will not only instigate a current of ‘pleasantness’ that will eventually return to you in a shape that’s much more powerful than the one you started, but it’ll also implicitly make you focus on what’s good in your world right now, and thus automatically put you in a ‘positive vibe.’
Do this once every day, at the very least. But realize there’s no upper limit to the frequency, provided you do it genuinely and ‘from the heart.’
And secondly, by the same token:
- Every time someone gives you a compliment or does something nice for you, say “thank you,” and mean it. In addition, immediately affirm to yourself: “I deserve this.”
Much of what you ask for is delivered through other people, so be ready to receive it that way. Responding as described above is a simple way to learn to open yourself up to receiving the good things in life, which happens to be something a lot of people struggle with and one of the main reasons they never seem to be able to ‘manifest their desires.’
Don’t act as if you don’t deserve it or say things like “oh, it was nothing” or “I can’t accept this,” because you can, and you will, and you need to train yourself to do so as quickly as possible if this is a challenge for you and you want your life to get better.
If done genuinely and consistently, a routine as simple as this can make a huge difference for yourself, those around you, and even the world in general:
- For one, giving out genuine appreciation and gratitude works wonders in generating harmony in the ‘vibrational state’ of your own ‘mind / body’-system. It’ll expand your heart and increase the power of its electromagnetic field.
- We’ve also seen how this in turn positively impacts your health, your ability to connect with others, your capacity to tune into your inherent intuitive perception, and the nature of your life experience in general.
- Finally, we’ve seen the limitless potential for such coherent and harmonious vibes to spread out to the rest of humanity… even to those way beyond your physical proximity.
And the best thing is that it’s the simplest thing to do. So let me do the honors of kicking this thing off:
You, my friend, are amazing! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of the experience. I think you’re awesome. There’s a magic running through your soul, I believe in you, and I can truly see great things happening for you!
Now go out there, make some waves of your own, and spread the good vibes!
P.S. Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below, and share this article with others you think might benefit from and/or enjoy it.
P.P.S. One last thing: Here’s a short film that became popular a while ago, which makes up an entertaining illustration of the contents of this article (<– IMHO it starts off a little cheesy, but the story takes off after about four minutes in and is definitely worth watching):
References:
[1] Lacey, J.I. and B.C. Lacey (1978), “Two-way Communication between the Heart and the Brain: Significance of Time within the Cardiac Cycle,” American Psychologist, pp. 99-113;
[2] McCraty, R. (2002), “Influence of Cardiac Afferent Input on Heart-Brain Synchronization and Cognitive Performance,” International Journal of Phychophysiology, Vol. 46 (1-2), pp. 72-73;
[3]Armour, J.A. (1991), “Anatomy and Function of the Intrathoracic Neurons Regulating the Mammalian Heart,” in: Zucker, I.H. and J.P. Gilmore (eds.), Reflex Control of the Circulation, Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, pp. 1-37;
[4] Armour, J.A. (1994), Neurocardiology: Anatomical and Functional Principles, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, pp. 3-19;
[5] McCraty, R., Bradley, R.T. and D. Tomasino (2004), “The Resonant Heart,” in: Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, 5, pp. 15-19 (PDF);
[6] McCraty, R. (2004), “The Energetic Heart: Bioelectromagnetic Communication within and between People,” in: Rosch, P.J. and M.S. Markov (eds.), Clinical Applications of Bioelectromagnetic Medicine, New York: Marcel Dekker, pp. 541-562;
[7] Vesely, D.L. (2012), “New Anticancer Agents: Hormones Made within the Heart,” Anticancer Research, Vol. 32 (7), pp. 2515-2521;
[8] Rein, G., McCraty, R. and M. Atkinson (1995), “The Physiological and Psychological Effects of Compassion and Anger,” Journal of Advancement in Medicine, Vol. 8 (2), pp. 87-105;
[9] McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Tiller, W.A., Rein, G., and A.D. Watkins (1995), “The Effects of Emotions on Short-Term Power Spectrum Analysis of Heart Rate Variability,” American Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 76 (14), pp. 1089-1093;
[10] Childre, D. and R. McCraty (2001), “Psychophysiological Correlates of Spiritual Experience,” Biofeedback, Vol. 29 (4), pp. 13-17;
[11] McCraty, R., Atkinson, M. and R.T. Bradley (2004), “Electrophysiological Evidence of Intuition – Part 1: The Surprising Role of the Heart,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol. 10 (1), pp. 133-143;
[12] McCraty, R., Atkinson, M. and R.T. Bradley (2004), “Electrophysiological Evidence of Intuition – Part 2: A System-Wide Process?” Journal of Alternative and complementary Medicine, Vol. 10 (2), pp. 325-336;
[13] Fosar, F. and F. Bludorf (2001), Vernetzte Intelligenz, Omega-Verlag, Düsseldorf, Germany;
[14] Hagelin, J.S., Rainforth, M.V., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Cavanaugh, K.L., Alexander, C.N., Shatkin, S.F., Davies, J.L., Hughes, A.O., and E. Ross (1999), “Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project June-July 1993,” Social Indicators Research, Vol. 47 (2), pp. 153-201.
I have seen this video several times anmd I still smile all the way thru it everytime.
Henk, you are great!
THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY AWESOME VIDEO!!! I have been a very positive with so many of my outside personable interactions with other people. I have been told by some people that they do not know why I am such a positive person. My response is that we all have a choice in our lives. This video brings it back alive for me as well. There are times whereas, I am so positive for others, that I forget to validate myself from within myself. Everyone needs to KNOW THE PERSONAL VALIDATION INTERNALLY WITH ONESELF begins the “Butterfly Effect” within themselves and is exponentially spread with our world. Each person may not realize to who or how this effect is given or received to BUT INTERNALLY EACH NEEDS TO KNOW THE EFFECT IS FOREVER!!!!!! I LOVED THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What an “upper!”
beautiful write up 🙂
Reading this article, and watching the “Butterfly” video has brought up heartfelt feelings, and a wave of love and compassion toward mankind. Thank you for sharing, this is the kind of information we need to be reminded of regularly!
Thank you for the information. I have read the book “Wisdom of the Heart” by Gregg Baden. I have adopted this philosophy with myself and others. Oh boy!! it does work. The other powerful aspect, when in doubt about a person, event.. ask the heart, the response is instant.
Fabulous info and transmits so much courage, as well, to keep going and kick up tsunami waves of Love and trust and positive thinking! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Thank you for this amazing piece of article. God bless you and you continue ‘kicking’ of such waves.
My brain shut down, to the point where I forgot about my heart.
When you feel it in your heart-your brain just …goes along with it!
How did you get so smart Henk?
And that validation can save the nation. Much love to all
Thank I would like to wright a poem MY heart is like at candle that shines in the darkness that light a firer that burns like a star that turns to light a firer in your heart that is warm with love and light for you cannot light a firer if the heart is cold and damp love to love light to light.LOVEand LIGHT