Gibson Diss

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THE EFFECT OF MUSIC AND FOCUSED MEDITATION ON THE HUMAN

ENGERY FIELD AS MEASURED BY THE GAS DISCHARGE VISUALISATION

(GDV) TECHNIQUE AND PROFILE OF MOOD STATES

SUZANNE SITES GIBSON, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.

Dissertation

Submitted to the Faculty of

Holos University Graduate Seminary

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of

DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY

In

Energy Medicine


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Copyright by Suzanne Sites Gibson 2002

All Rights Reserved


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The work reported in this dissertation is original and carried out by me solely, except for

the acknowledged direction and assistance gratefully received from colleagues andmentors.

SUZANNE SITES GIBSON


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract vii

Acknowledgements viii

List of Figures ix

List of Tables x

List of Abbreviations xii

Definition of Terms xiii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Review of the Literature 6

The Energy Field 6

Human Energy Field 11

Evolution of the GDV Technique 26

Brief Description of Kirlian Photography 32

Micro-Acupuncture and GDV 33

Research Utilizing the GDV 35

Music and Guided Imagery 41

Emotions in Illness 41

Music and Healing in History 47

Music and Emotions 51

Primacy of Sound in Human Senses 53

Principles of Sound Healing 53


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Music and Physiology 59

Music and Healing 66

Guided Imagery and Physiology 68

Elements of Healing Music 71

Chapter 3 Research Methods 74

Participants 74

Design 75

Materials 76

Measurements 86

Hypotheses 87

Chapter 4 Results 90

Chapter 5 Discussion 109

Limitations 112

Future Research 114

Conclusions 116

Endnotes 119

Appendix A: Internal Review Board Application 139

Appendix B: Pre and Post Data, 44 Variables, Three Conditions 150

Condition 1, Music 150

Condition 2, Focused Meditation 158

Condition 3, Checklist of Health Issues and Illness 164

Pilot Study 170

Appendix C: T-Test Data, Condition 1. Music 174


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Appendix D: T-Test Data, Condition 2, Focused Meditation 179

Appendix E, T-Test Data, Condition 3, Checklist of Health Issues and Illness

184

References 189


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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of music and focusedmeditation on the human energy field as measured by the recently invented GasDischarge Visualisation Technique (GDV) the Profile of Mood State (POMS). Once a

week for three weeks 45 participants had GDV and POMS measurements taken beforeand after three experimental conditions: 1) music; 2) music with focused meditation after

viewing a printout of the participants own personal energy field; 3) no music, no focusedmeditation. The results indicate that both music and focused meditation had significant

palliative effects on GDV physiological and POMS psychological measures. The POMStotal score, and subscales of tension and depression scores all demonstrated a

significantly improved mood state. The results of this study lend credence to the salutaryeffect of music and focused meditation as holistic medicine self-care tools both for

maintaining wellness and for cultivating a healing environment. Perhaps both listening tomusic and focused meditation on strengthening ones personal energy field on a daily

basis will join the accepted health care regimens of adequate diet and regular exercise.Both interventions of listening to music and energy field imaging increase the repertoire

of response in self-care -- empowering individuals with readily available methods.Future experiments should focus on improved methodology and designing additional

methods for participants to improve their own wellness.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this dissertation required the support of many others. I would

like to express my gratitude and acknowledge the people who contributed their time andenergetic support.

My thanks to my subjects who volunteered their time to make this study possible.

They were explorers freely committing a random act of kindness.

My thanks to Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D., who encouraged me to follow mypassion in the selection of a research topic; to my department chair, Berney Williams,

PhD., for endless consultation and encouragement; to Robert Nunley, PhD., formentoring me in the earliest stages of this project; to Robert Matusiak, Ph.D.

My thanks to Konstantin Korotkov, Ph.D., for mentoring me, for processing ofmy data and for introducing me to the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, Russia, and theintellectual feast of his international symposium.

My thanks to Dr. Rose Bruce, Edward Krizhanovsky. and Dr. Stuart Tousman forassistance with statistical analysis.

My thanks to my fellow students Janet Dunlap and Michele Bertini for

encouragement and support throughout this process.

My thanks to Pamela Parsons for her mentoring and for giving so generously of

her time as I struggled to master the GDV technique and to Kathy Coffman for reviewingthe final document.

My thanks to Jonathan Gibson, my son, who generously shared his computer

expertise, time, and patient spirit.

I would like to extend my gratitude to my family for their continued support andencouragement throughout this project: my husband, Mark, sons Jonathan and Robert,

daughter Kristi, and my parents Robert and Ardene Sites.


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Table 22 Paired Differences of Means Condition 3: CHII 102

Table 23 GDV Br Condition 3: CHII 103

Table 24 GDV Area Condition 1 and 3: Music and FM 103

Table 25 GDV Brightness Condition 1 and 2: Music and FM 104

Table 26 GDV Anx Conditions 1, 2, 3 104

Table 27 Pilot Study: GDV Anx Aggregate Mean C 1, 2, 3 vs. Pilot 105

Table 28 GDV Anxiety Aggregate of Pretest Means and Pilot Mean 106


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BEO-gram Biological Emission and Optical Radiation Stimulated by Electromagnetic

Field Amplified by Gaseous Discharge with Visualisation by ComputerProcessing refers to the images of the fingertips after computer processing

and display on the computer screen; the gas discharge of the coronaaround the fingertips is now ready for quantitative analysis by the

extensive computer program of the GDV Technique.

CHII Checklist of Health Issues and Illness

FM Focused Meditation

GDV Gas Discharge Visualisation technique.

GDV Area Gas Discharge Visualisation parameter referring to the number of pixels

in the GDV image. The number of pixels, or basic unit making up a videoimage, tends to enlarge after healing interventions.

GDV Br Gas Discharge Visualisation, Brightness parameter. Refers to

the fingertip corona glow of the GDV image.

GDV Anx The anxiety score obtained from the GDV Stress program which

indicates the subjects level of stress.

HEF Human Energy Field

SDL State Dependent Learning

SUDS Subjective Units of Distress

POMS Profile of Mood State

POMS-D Profile of Mood State, Depression subscale

POMS-Tot Profile of Mood State, Total score

POMS-T Profile of Mood State, Tension subscale

Temp Temperature


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DEFINITION OF TERMS

AURA: The energy envelope that surrounds and interpenetrates the physical body. The

aura is made up of all the different energy shells that compose the physical, etheric,

astral, mental, causal and higher spiritual aspects of the multidimensional human form.1

CHAKRA: An energy center in the body which is a step-down transformer for higher

frequency subtle energies. The chakras process subtle energy and convert it into

chemical, hormonal, and cellular changes in the body. Chakra comes from the Sanskrit

word meaning wheel and refers to seven spinning vortices located along the spine.2

CHI: The ancient Chinese term for a nutritive subtle energy which circulates through the

acupuncture meridians.3

ENDORPHINS: A variety of morphine-like proteins that are found in the brain and

nervous system and in the organs of the body. One particular type of endorphin may

mediate pain relief in certain settings.4

ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRULM: Electromagnetic energy is made up of tiny

packets of energy called photons that move in waves similar to the movements of waves

in the ocean. There are many different types of electromagnetic waves from short x-rays

to long radio waves. Together they form the electromagnetic spectrum.5

EMOTION: The affective aspect of consciousness: feeling; a state of feeling; psychic

and physical reaction subjectively experienced as a strong feeling and physiologically

involving changes that prepare the body for immediate vigorous action.6


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HOLISTIC: A synergistic approach which deals with the combined physical, mental,

emotional and spiritual aspects of human health and illness.7

KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY: An electrographic process, pioneered in Russia by

electrical engineer Semyon Kirlian, which uses the corona discharge phenomenon to

capture the bioenergetic processes of living systems on film.8

MERIDIAN: A microtubular channel which carries a subtle nutritive energy (Chi) to

the various organs, nerves, and blood vessels of the body.9

MOOD: A conscious state of mine of predominant emotion; a distinctive atmosphere or

context; aura.

10

NEUROTRANSMITTER: A chemical or protein substance which is released at the

synaptic membrane in order to continue the transmission of impulses from one nerve to

the adjacent nerve.11

PIXEL: The basic unit or picture element that makes up the images displayed on a video

screen.12

QUANTUM PHYSICS: The branch of physics which studies the energetic

characteristics of matter at the subatomic level.13

RESONANCE: The phenomenon of sympathetic vibration between two similarly tuned

oscillators, e.g., the resonant vibration of the E strings of two Stradivarious violins.

Resonance occurs at higher and lower harmonics as well between similar notes in higher

and lower octaves, i.e. middle C resonates with both high C as well as low C).14

THOUGHTFORM: A manifestation of a strong thought or emotion as an actual

energetic structure within an individuals auric field.15


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VIBRATIONAL MEDICINE: That healing philosophy which aims to treat the whole

person, i.e. the mind/body/spirit complex, by delivering measured quanta of frequency-

specific energy to the human multidimensional system. Vibrational medicine seeks to

heal the physical body by integrating and balancing the higher energetic systems which

create the physical/cellular patterns of manifestation.16

WELLNESS: A term referring to health, happiness, vitality, and wholeness of the entire

mind/body/ spirit complex. A state of balanced health which is reflected in continued

learning, growth, and ongoing creative expression.17


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1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The definition of health and healing took on new dimensions with the advent of

the holistic health movement in the 1970s. Some key concepts of the holistic health

movement include the idea that body, mind and spirit each play a vital role in preserving

and creating good health. According to Dr. C. Norman Shealy, one of the pioneers in

energy medicine, holistic medicine is based on the fundamental principles that emotional,

psychological and spiritual stress affect the body18

This study is an exploration of how

music affects both emotions and the energy field of the body.

A second key concept is that active participation and personal responsibility for

ones health is essential. Dr. Shealy states health is the result of a commitment to live a

more conscious life -- to become more and more responsible for ones emotional health

and well-being.19

The combination of a well cared for body with adequate sleep, careful

diet, regular exercise and proper breathing joined with a curious, clear, sharp, positively-

focused mind coupled with a joyful contented spirit and a strong sense of purpose

optimize the natural healing abilities of the body. Healing is not a passive event,

according to medical intuitive Caroline Myss, but rather requires action.20

Listening to

music and focused meditation explored in this study are actions a person can easily add to

ones repertoire of responses.


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A third concept of holistic medicine is that our thoughts and intentions affect our

physiology and that they deserve at least as much attention as the physical symptoms.

Thoughts (very high frequency energy) translate into matter in the form of

neurochemicals (lower frequency, denser energy). The late Edgar Cayce, who is perhaps

the best known psychic in America, and one who laid the groundwork for the holistic

health movement, expressed the thought that what we think is what our body becomes.

Dr. Caroline Myss describes this process as our biography becomes our biology. 21 In

other words, what we think and feel on a daily basis, affects our physical body. If the

thoughts and attitudes with which we bathe our body are negative over a period of time,

they will likely evolve into physical symptoms of disease. In this study, we see signs that

even briefly bathing our energy field with music and focused attention can demonstrate

shifts to a more positive state as measured by the POMS and GDV.

Dr. Carol Schneider and Dr. Wayne Jonas noted there are four kinds of treatment

outcomes in their presidential address to the International Society for the Study of Subtle

Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM).22 The first kind of healing outcome is a cure

-- the elimination of disease. The second kind of healing outcome is care -- reflected in

better symptom management. Empowerment is the third kind of outcome; this is

characterized by better understanding of the disease. The fourth kind of healing is

enlightenment, which consists of a realization of the value and purpose of ones life.

This study addresses the second and third levels of healing outcome, care and

empowerment.


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Table 1

Four Types of Treatment Outcomes

Type of Outcome Definition

Cure: Elimination of the disease

Care: Better management of themagnitude or consequences

of the symptoms

Empowerment: Better understanding of thedisease and increased skill in

self care

Enlightenment: Realization of the value and

purpose of ones life.

Music has soothed the souls of humanity for thousands of years. More recently

guided imagery and focused attention have emerged as a treatment tool. Fueled by

research on the efficacy of intention, the credibility of imagery combined with music

portends to be a potent therapeutic tool. Dr. William Tiller, Stanford University

professor emeritus, has demonstrated that focused human intention on a physical device

can robustly influence a specifically targeted experiment; for instance, the level of pH in

water. Tiller postulates this information requires a shift from the currently prevailing

paradigm that such a meaningful interaction of human intention on inanimate or animate

objects simply does not exist; he raises the question that perhaps this data indicates a

cosmological change in human consciousness.23

Researchers at Princeton University independently demonstrated that thoughts

affect instruments that generate random numbers. The effect of focused attention was


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strongest when the groups attention was focused, and when the group was sharing an

emotional experience.24

Dr. Konstantin Korotkov invented the GDV25

in 1996; it allows quantification of

the human energy field. For thousands of years the energy field has been intuited and

described qualitatively, and now with this technological advance, the energy field can be

quantitatively described for the first time. Because this technology is so new, there is a

dearth of research data available. This study is an attempt to contribute to the literature

of how the energy field is affected by music, imagery and focused attention.

The GDV device provides an accurate, exact and reproducible method of the

analysis of energy-informational state of the human being and allows us to study the

influence of various factors on this state,26

i.e. allows us to study the effects of

subtle energies such as music and focused meditation on the energy field of the subject.

The invention of the GDV extends our senses in the same way that the microscope and

telescope allowed scientists to see things that were not previously possible, and perhaps

not imagined. It is probable that both music and guided imagery affect the HEF because

studies have shown that music and imagery have the ability to influence a persons

emotions and physiology.27 28 29

Music and imagery are two powerful tools that influence the emotions and

thereby the energy field. Music has long been known to soothe emotions, and more

recently the efficacy of imagery in eliciting physiological responses has been

demonstrated. The ability to improve ones mood is a powerful way to enhance ones

health. The larger ones repertoire of healing tools, the better care an individual can take

of oneself. According to the literature, negative emotions contribute to the evolution of


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disease whereas positive emotions are prophylactic and even curative. Demonstrating the

salutary effect of music and music combined with the imagining of ones own energy

field with the intention of increasing its area, density, and brightness may encourage

people to incorporate these tools into their own daily self-care routine. The prophylactic

use of music may become a tool to soothe and dissipate daily emotional burdens, thus

preventing the accumulation of stress in body tissue; or, become a tool to strengthen the

energy field so that negativity in the environment may not penetrate to the physical body.

The objective of this study is to explore how music and music with guided

imagery affect the Human Energy Field (HEF) or aura as measured by the Gas

Discharge Visualisation (GDV) technique and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). The

imagery script was carefully and intentionally scripted to smooth, enhance, enrich,

brighten and enlarge the HEF. These qualities of the HEF have been associated with a

healthy aura as intuited by clairvoyants such as Dora van Gelder Kunz.30

A lower score

on the POMS total score and a decreased score on the subscales of tension and depression

would indicate the subjects experiential shift mood of personal energy in a healthy

direction -- reduced experience of negative emotions and increased experience of positive

emotions. Positive emotions are known to facilitate healing.

This study purports that listening to music alone and listening to music with

focused meditation are both positive actions in self-care and contribute to creating

conditions which foster healing. The ability of music to reduce depression and tension as

measured by the POMS and GDV gives further evidence of the salutary effect of

listening to music and imaging a stronger energy field.


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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

THE UNIVERSAL ENERGY FIELD

The dialog begun by Plato and Aristotle continues today: What is reality?

Aristotle asserted that reality consists of only what comes into the mind via the five

senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. Plato maintained that the physical

world was only a shadow of the spiritual world. Aristotelian thinking -- if something is

real, one of the five senses must perceive it--has dominated western scientific thinking.

Platonian intuitive thinking -- there are intelligent forces beyond our five senses -- has

been much more rare and less credible in western thinking, but common in eastern

thinking. As measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, eighty-eight per cent of the

population falls in this category of Aristotelian thinking style, whereas only twelve

percent fall into the Platonian intuitive-feeling type.31

From our current vantage point, as

one looks back on the evolution of medicine, one could say that Greek Medicine evolved

along the thinking of Aristotle and Chinese medicine evolved along the thinking of Plato.

The two approaches are in interaction and beginning to merge into a new field of energy

medicine. Dr. Richard Gerber suggests the term vibrational medicine.32

This

convergence accelerated with President Nixons visit to China in the 1970s and hence our

exposure to the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture. As western physicians gathered

data regarding the efficacy of acupuncture, acceptance gradually evolved into recognition


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by the National Institutes of Health of acupuncture as a legitimate intervention, although

for limited application to such ailments as chronic pain.

The paradigm of Newtonian physics has prevailed in western scientific thinking.

In this framework, the body is viewed as a complex machine. The prevailing idea is that

a diseased organ can be surgically removed or targeted by a particular drug. The

chemical basis of the body is the focus of attention in Newtonian medicine with

astounding discoveries in the field of neurochenistry, and in discoveries of miracle drugs

both to fight infections and stabilize moods. But as important as these discoveries have

been, they are only a part of the equation for healing. The animating life-force (Chi),

which is the basis of acupuncture, has not been considered in the Newtonian paradigm.

Newtons laws dealt primarily with the force of gravity, but they could not explain the

forces of electricity and magnetism, which were discovered later. Gerbers view of the

new Einsteinian paradigm does consider this life force (Chi) and views matter as energy;

this contributed to new ideas of what constitutes health and healing. The basic idea of the

Einsteinian paradigm is that a subtle energy system (Spirit, Chi, Life Force) is affected by

emotions, the level of spiritual balance, nutrition and environment. All of these factors

contribute to the health or illness of a person. Repatterning the energy fields then

becomes the focus of treatment.33

In Newtonian physics, matter was perceived as solid. In quantum physics, matter

is now known to consist of particles and waves. David Bohm, innovative physicist and

physical theorist, hypothesizes that the world is a vast ocean or sea of energy which he

calls the implicate order because it cannot be seen or measured; it is potential energy

with the possibility of taking form. The world we can see and measure is the explicate


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order. Space and time are part of the explicate order because they require that someone

be there to measure them. The superimplicate order interpenetrates and directs the

implicate order. Bohm posits matter ranges in density from the most solid to the most

subtle. The most solid states of matter are all visible forms including our body. The

most subtle include thoughts and consciousness itself.34

Bohms theories are a

springboard for holistic health practitioners linking the influence of thoughts on health.

Many holistic health practitioners believe that what we think about gathers energy, and if

the thought collects enough energy it can manifest, that is, become visible in the physical

form as in a negative thought influencing neurochemicals. This is in contrast to what

Gerber calls the Newtonian model of medicine which views disease as originating in an

organ or system within the body. Understanding the interaction of what Gerber calls

Einsteinian (energetic) and Newtonian (chemical) models of medicine is a challenge for

todays scientists and health care providers.

Belleruth Naperstek, a social worker and pioneer in the field of guided imagery,

interprets some of Bohms very complex concepts as follows:

We are nothing but vibration in a sea of living, intelligent energy, -- that

although we are disguised as separate, solid matter, this appearance ofsolidity is only how we appear in the overt, concrete order of manifest

reality; at a deeper, truer level, we are all nothing but interconnecting,interpenetrating energy fields, transcending time and space, each vibration

containing everything in the universe, each subatomic bit of us a hologramof all that is. This is why we can experience instantaneous, direct

knowing.35

The human energy field exists within the universal energy field -- sometimes

described as a sea of energy that surrounds and permeates everything. The Chinese

tradition calls this life force Chi, the Japanese, Qi or Ki, and in India ancient Hindu


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texts refer to subtle energy called Prana. Chi is thought to enter the body via the

charkas and Prana. Examples of this field in action citied by Donna Eden, a holistic

health practitioner and author ofEnergy Medicine, include the gardeners green thumb,

a force that helps plants grow; prayer, a force known to speed healing and the force

which flows from a healers hands and relieves suffering.36

In summary, some basic assumptions about the universal energy field are that it

permeates all space including animate and inanimate objects. This field connects all

objects to each other. Currently, technology like the GDV is emerging which for the first

time in history allows scientific measurement of the etheric body, the layer of the energy

field closest to the body. Dr. Barbara Ann Brennan, formerly a research scientist for

NASA who holds a Masters degree in Atmospheric Physics, and currently founder of the

Barbara Brennan School of Healing, notes the organizing effect the human energy field

has on the body. She posits that any change in the physical body is preceded by a change

in the energy field.37

This paradigm-shattering concept is beginning to edge its way into

healing practices and offers new options for maintaining health by having an individual

consider their own energy field.

Brian Snellgrove, a British healer and researcher and author of The Unseen Self:

Kirlian Photography Explained, has worked extensively with Kirlian photography for

over twenty-five years. Figure 1, the illustration of the electromagnetic spectrum on the

following page, brings together an enormous amount of data.38 39 Figure 1 allows us to

see that our human senses take in only a fragment of the total known spectrum.


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Figure 1. The Electromagnetic Spectrum

According to Huffman, Vernoy and Vernoy, Electromagnetic energy is made up

of tiny packets of energy called photons that move in waves similar to the movement of

waves in the ocean. There are many different types of waves from short x-rays to longer


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radio waves. Together they make up the electromagnetic spectrum40

The

electromagnetic spectrum is the radiant energy generated by the sun.41 The orderly

arrangement of radiation according to wavelength or frequency is called the

electromagnetic spectrum.42

Visible light is only a small part of the spectrum. As

scientists develop more precise tools for measuring the electromagnetic field, more of its

unknown qualities will be exposed and tamed. An example of technology devised in the

past century that has become an accepted tool of western medicine is the

electrocardiograph (EKG) which measures the minute electrical potentials occurring

during a heart beat. Wilhelm Einthoven, a Dutch physiologist, invented the EKG. He

first published his ideas in 1907 and received the Nobel Prize in 1924 for his

investigations of the electrical currents of the heart. It was many years before this

innovative idea that the heart had electrical properties became accepted and integrated

into standard medical practice. The electroencephalograph (EEG) measure electrical

voltages produced by neurons in the brain.

THE HUMAN ENERGY FIELD

The human energy field is described as a cloud of multicolored light, a colorful

mist, which surrounds and emanates from the body and is usually not discerned by most

people. Webster defines an aura as an invisible emanation or vapor or a particular

atmosphere or quality that seems to arise from or emanate and surround a person or

thing.43 It is a vibrational field unique to each person and is thought to contain

information concerning the health of the physical body, and reflects a persons

well-being.44 45


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Until recently the evidence supporting the existence of the human aura has been

from qualitative information only provided by gifted sensitives and clairvoyants who

could intuit the aura. Written description of what may be the aura occurs in biblical

accounts in both the Old and New Testament. Moses, as he carried the Ten

Commandments down from Mount Sinai, was described as glowing: the skin of his

face shone because he had been talking with God.46

At his conversion, St. Paul was

described as emanating a brilliant light47and Jesus at his transfiguration was described

with glistening intensely white garments.48

At Pentecost, tongues of fire rested on the

heads of each of the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

49

These

tongues of fire may reflect activity at the crown chakra, a download of cosmic energy,

transmitting energy extraordinary gifts to these previously everyday people.

The human energy field has been portrayed world wide in art. Russian icons

dating from the 6th

century depict the energy field with light emanating from the heads of

holy people. European artists, as well, portray Jesus and saints with light emanating from

their heads in halos. In Hebrew this light was known as Shekinah, or luminous Presence

of God.50

Four types of auras were portrayed in medieval paintings: theNimbusand

Halo emanate from the head, and theAureolaand the Gloryemanate from the total body

and are less commonly illustrated.51

In ancient eastern traditions, the crown chakra (one

of seven energy centers in the body to be discussed later) is considered the portal through

which cosmic energy enters the body. Holy people were considered to transmit more

than a normal amount of cosmic energy and thus the glow of the halo.

Pythagoras perceived the human energy field and was the first to record it in

western literature about 500 BC.52

But, this idea had been known worldwide for


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thousands of years, most notably by the eastern traditions where the energy was called

Prana in the Vedic texts and Chi in the Taoist texts. In the 16thcentury Paracelsus

described the aura:

The vital force is not enclosed in man, but radiates round him likea luminous sphere, and it may be made to act at a distance. In these semi-

natural rays the imagination of man may produce healthy or morbideffects. It may poison the essence of life and cause diseases, or it may

purify it after it has been made impure, and restore the health.53

In more modern times, in the 1800s and spilling over into the early 1900s,

investigators in Austria, Germany and England independently were exploring the various

phenomena of this vital force. Austrian born physician and natural scientist Franz

Mesmer postulated a theory called animal magnetism to describe the healing energy he

noted coming from his own hands. Mesmer worked with magnets as a healing modality,

but gave up magnets after he discovered that energy emitted by his own hands could have

similar therapeutic effects. It would be more than a century before this energy radiating

from his hands could be measured. The world was not ready for his idea and he was

ridiculed by the medical establishment of his day.54

In Germany, the chemist Baron von Reichenbach discerned the energy field and

called it the odic force after the Norse god Odin. Von Reichenbach engaged over 200

sensitives, clairvoyants, and scientists including physicians, mathematician to make

observations about this odic force emanating from magnets and humans. From his

observations, he concluded that the left side of the body was a negative pole and the right

side, positive, suggesting the ancient Chinese concept of yin and yang. The clairvoyants

described the energy field surrounding the body and noted particularly that the energy

flowed from the fingertips.55 This observation is consistent with the ancient Chinese


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One of Burrs colleagues, Dr. Ravitz was one of the first to document that the

emotion of grief caused the voltage gradient to rise to 14 millivolts for two and a half

minutes for a subject under hypnosis. As previously noted, generally voltage gradients

range between two and ten millivolts. With this innovative experiment, Ravitz was the

first to document that the mind is reflected in the energetic field.63

Valerie Hunt, a kinesiologist at UCLA, was the first to attempt to document

charkas electronically in 1978.64 Hunt and her associates collected data as subjects

underwent a protocol of Structural Integration (also known as rolfing, a special type of

massage, designed by Ida Rolf), while simultaneously Rosalyn Bruyere, a clairvoyant,

described change she perceived in the colors of the aura. Hunt found that the waveforms

on the oscilloscope correlated with colors reported by Bruyere. EMG (electromyography)

electrodes which measures electrical outputs of muscles were place over body regions

Hunt believed appropriate for each chakra. Hunt found that each chakra emitted a specific

color frequency. Rolfing produced emotional reactions in the subjects, which affected

the color of the aura. Thus, a hint of a connection was established that there is a

relationship between emotional states and the colors of the charkas. Ancient Chinese

medicine and western science joined hands. Knowledge known for five thousand years

by the Chinese began to gain credibility with western scientists. Hunt and Bruyere

discuss their seminal work in detail in their booksInfinite Mind65

and Wheels of Light,

respectively.66 This investigation needs further elaboration.

Hunt believes that there are two primary electrical systems in the physical body.

One is the alternating electrical current -- the biological system -- of the nervous system

and the other is the newly discovered electromagnetic system, or aura. According to


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Hunt, the electromagnetic system vibrates at a frequency eight to ten times faster than the

biological system. The electromagnetic system is both smaller in amplitude and higher in

frequency than the biological.67

These extremely high frequency (EHF) biological

frequencies were first studied in Hunts labs at UCLA

Leadbeater tells us that the physical body needs food, air and vitality (Chi/ Prana/

Ki/ Qi) for life to be sustained. He posits that in an underdeveloped person, the chakras

are sluggish and in a more highly evolved person they pulse and radiate light indicating

greater amounts of energy passing through them68

reminiscent of the halo of Jesus and

the saints, which indicates excessive spiritual energy around the crown chakra.

Leadbeater notes that crowns or special headpieces are worn by deities or saintly, holy

people to symbolize their more highly evolved state.

For forty years before his death in 1945, Edgar Cayce, the remarkable American

psychic who recognized the role negative emotions play in illness, wrote that seeing

colors around people was an ability he always possessed. He believed that our eyes are

gradually gaining in power and that one day we may perceive even more colors.69 Cayce

held white to be the perfect color and that when our souls are in perfect balance, we will

emanate an aura of pure white.70

The most well known example of this is the typical

rendition of angels in garments of white.71

The clairvoyant, Dora van Gelder Kunz, contributed to the literature of aura in

health and illness in her beautifully illustrated book The Personal Aura.72Van Gelder

Kunz collaborated with physician, Otelia Bengtsson, and artist, Juanita Donahoo, to

convey her rich perceptions of the energy fields of variously ill persons, which she

perceived clairvoyantly. The observations were done in the 1930s, but were not


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published for 55 years. Van Gelder Kunz is another early proponent of the primary role

of thought and attitude in maintaining our health and well being. In the illustrations of

her descriptions, she documented the negative effects of negative attitudes on health.

In the 1960s Dora van Gelder Kunz along with Dr. Shafica Karagulla, a

neuropsychiatrist, teamed as researcher and observer in examining the role of the chakras

in health and disease in 200 subjects. In the first step, they observed the etheric body of

healthy subjects for two years. The etheric body is the auras layer closest to the body

and from Kunz observation, extends out about five centimeters. In the second step of

the study, Kunz focused on the etheric level of ill subjects and described the charkas and

the functioning of the endocrine glands. Kunz observed each subject for up to three

hours from a distance of twenty feet. She did not speak with the subjects and often could

not see their faces. Karagula reviewed the medical charts for details of the subjects

illness.73

When Karagulas data from the medical charts was compared with Kunz

observations, a link could be made between the charkas and the endocrine system. For

instance in all nine cases which involved the surgical excision of the pituitary, Kunz

observed abnormalities in the brow chakra and observed an absence of etheric energy in

the core of the pituitary gland.74

Kunz and Karagulla developed an outline for assessing

characteristics of the etheric body that indicate health and illness.75

Their findings,

briefly summarized:


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Table 2

Characteristics of Human Energy Field

in Health and Illness

Measure Health Illness

Color Pale violet or bluegray Murky

Brightness Luminous DullMotion Rhythmic, but speed may vary Dysrhythmic

Form Size, shape and symmetry Small, asymmetricalAngle At right angles to the physical body Droopy

Elasticity Ability to expand and stretch Poor elasticity

Texture Firm and fine Coarse, porous, broken, thin

Kunz and Karagula conceived of the chakras transducing or converting the

cosmic or universal energy into energy at a frequency that nourishes each endocrine

system.76

Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, who holds doctorates in both psychology and

philosophy and is the inventor of the AMI (Apparatus for measuring the Meridians and

the corresponding Internal organs), calls the chakras intermediaries for energy transfer.

He also posits that as the chakras are activated, man not only becomes aware of higher

realms of existence, but gains ability to enter the higher realms.77 Once the cosmic

energy enters the body through the chakra energy center, it is transported throughout the

body by the energy meridians or nadis. Motoyama is one of few to identify nadis of the

physical body and acupuncture meridians as essentially the same.78

The meridians are

channels through which vital energy (Chi, Ki, Qi, prana) flows to each body system. The

meridians were intuited by both ancient acupuncturists, as they treated patients, and

yogis, who discerned the meridians through meditation.79

There are twelve major

meridians with the terminal points located on the fingers and toes. These points are

known as sei or well points and this is where Chi/Ki/Qi enters and leaves the


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meridians. According to Motoyama, the energy level at the sei points reflects the

condition of the meridian, and each meridian reflects a particular body organ.80

Motoyama notes that the original source of the previous information is The Yellow

Emperors Treatise on Internal Medicine,the oldest text of Chinese medicine.

The twelve meridians are divided into Yin and Yang energy. The energy of the

Yang meridians flows from the upper part of the body to the lower (positive potential).

The Yin meridians flow from the lower to the upper (negative potential).81 The twelve

regular meridians are the lung, large intestine, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine,

bladder, kidney, heart constrictor, triple heater, gall bladder and liver. These meridians

do not exactly reflect the organ whose name they carry. Each meridian starts or ends at

the tips of the fingers or the tips of the toes. Motoyama includes two recently discovered

meridians of the diaphragm and stomach.82

When Chi flows freely, the body is healthy; when energy is not flowing freely,

illness develops. Yin and Yang are two concepts of Chinese medicine that describe the

two polar forces of Chi. Yin refers to the qualities of dark, cold, female, negative while

Yang refers to the opposite qualities of light, warm, male and positive.83

Motoyama

notes that Yin is associated with qualities of the latent, dark and unexplained aspect of

things whereas Yang has the opposite qualities of patent, bright and exposed nature of

things.84

When Yin and Yang are balanced, the body is healthy. Excessive Yang energy

generates excessive organ activity and excessive Yin results in under functioning of the

organ. Yin, at its extreme, moves to Yang and Yang, at its extreme moves to

Yinalways flowing and changing.


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Table 3

Qualities of Chi: Yin and Yang

Chi: Yin Yang

Quality: Dark Light

Cold WarmFemale Male

Negative PositiveLatent Patent

Unexplained Exposed

Motoyamas AMI device, consisting of 28 electrodes which attach to the terminus

of acupuncture points, measures the electrical differences between the left and right

meridians. If the meridian pairs are out of balance, i.e. have different outputs, this

indicates a disease in the organ that corresponds to that meridian.85

Motoyama in Japan

and Dr. Ion Dumitrescu, a Russian physician, independently established a link between

energetic meridian imbalance and organ pathology.86

.

Caroline Myss, explores the chakras and the symbolic powers of the seven energy

systems in her seminal bookAnatomy of the Spirit. She proposes that each center

contains a universal spiritual life-lesson that we must master if our consciousness is to

evolve.87

According to Myss, the lessons of each chakra are:


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Table 4

Chakras and Corresponding Lesson

Chakra Lessons

First/Root: related to the material world

Second/Genital: related to sexuality/work/physical desireThird/Solar Plexus: related to ego, personality, self esteem

Fourth/Heart: related to love, forgiveness, compassionFifth/Throat: related to will and self-expression

Sixth/Brow: related to mind, intuition, insight, and wisdomSeventh/Crown: related to spirituality

Myss elucidates the role of mental and emotional influences with each of the

chakra lessons and notes a correspondence to illnesses associated with these negative

emotions. For instance, she notes that the major emotion behind breast lumps is hurt,

sorrow, and issues with nurturance.88

Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz, psychiatrist and medical intuitive, describes the seven

emotional centers of the body and their contrasting set of emotional challenges in her

bookAwakening Intuition.89 Schulz states that the more these emotions are balanced, the

healthier the individual. The issues to be balanced in the first chakra are sense of self

versus sense of belonging; independence versus dependence; self-sufficiency versus

helplessness; fearlessness versus fearfulness; trust versus mistrust. Schulz believes that

unresolved issues emerge in disorders of the blood and bones as well as the immune

system, spine and hips. In Schulzs opinion these body systems carry the emotions and

memories of early family experiences. Caroline Myss, identifies physical dysfunctions of

chronic lower back pain, sciatica, varicose veins, rectal tumors, depression and immune-

related disorders with this first chakra.90


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The second emotional center according to Schultz contains memories related to

our drives: how we pursue what we want in life and how we establish relationships

separate from our family of origin. Emotions related to these issues are stored in the

reproductive organs, the kidneys, bladder, urinary tract, lower gastrointestinal track and

the muscles of the lower back. Schulz believes unresolved issues cause disorders in these

organs.91

The third emotional center is concerned with issues of responsibility and self-

esteem. Schulz states that memories related to these concerns are stored in the organs of

the gastrointestinal track that includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines, upper

colon, liver and gallbladder. Emotional issues of this center relate to adequacy versus

inadequacy, responsibility versus irresponsibility, aggressiveness versus defensiveness

and competiveness versus noncompetitiveness.92

Myss notes that arthritis, gastric ulcers,

diabetes, liver dysfunction, and adrenal dysfunction are disorders associated with this

third chakra.93

The fourth emotional center involves the heart, lungs and breasts and relates to the

emotional issues of intimacy and nurturance. The emotional expressions are passion,

anger, rage, hate, hostility, joy, exuberance, stoicism, grief, courage, and loss. If we are

unable to fully feel and appropriately respond to emotions linked to the emotional life of

our relationships, we become vulnerable to illness in the heart, lungs, breasts, and

esophagus.94 Myss notes physical dysfunctions of congestive heart failure, heart attack,

breast cancer, lung cancer and bronchial pneumonia are all related to the fourth chakra.95

The fifth emotional center is related to balance between the issues of self

expression or listening to others; between actively advocating for what we want or


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passively waiting for things to come; and between imposing our will or being imposed

upon by anothers will. The body organs, which are vulnerable to these unresolved

issues, are the throat, the thyroid and the neck.96

Myss notes that the physical

dysfunctions associated with this chakra are raspy throat, chronic sore throat,

temporomandibular joint problems, scoliosis, laryngitis, swollen glands, and thyroid

problems.97

The sixth emotional center relates to how we see the world, interpret the world

and act upon the world. The task is to seek balance between wisdom and ignorance,

rationality and irrationality, rigidity and flexibility. The body organs that are vulnerable

to imbalance with these issues are the sensory organs of the eyes, ears, nose and brain.98

Myss notes the physical dysfunctions of this chakra energy result in brain tumor,

blindness, deafness, seizures, and learning disabilities.99

The seventh emotional center is related to the issue of purpose in life. The

balance to be achieved here is between a sense of purpose and an ability to accept

uncertainty, between a belief that one can influence life and at the same time accept that

things happen as they should. The illnesses which affect this emotional center involve

the muscles, connective tissues and genes.100

Myss notes physical dysfunctions

associated with seventh chakra issues as energetic disorders, chronic exhaustion, and

extreme sensitivity to light, sound or environment.101

Clairvoyants discern a multilayered auric field commencing with the etheric layer,

closest to the body. Most recently, Barbara Brennan, one of the worlds most gifted

healers and founder of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, describes the seven layers

of the human energy field. She perceives each of these layers as interpenetrating each


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other, but each with its unique frequency; she describes each successive level being of a

higher frequency or higher octave. The physical layer is adjacent to the body, with

each successive field extending further from the body in an egg shape.102

Table 5

Anatomy of the Aura

Level Life Experience

1. Physical pain and pleasure, safety2. Emotions concerning feelings about oneself, confident

3. Mental/rational world strong clear mind; interested in learning4. Relationships strong good relationships

5. Divine Will within level of divine love6. Divine love spiritual ecstasy

7. Divine mind, serenity feeling connected to the universe

Dr. William Tiller, material scientist and Stanford University professor emeritus,

proposes a theory of a coherent group energy field (i.e. a group with a clear intention has

the energetic power of the square of the number of coherent people involved). If the

energy of one person were one volt, the energy of two people would be four volts and the

energy of five thousand people would be five thousand times five thousand or twenty-

five million volts.103

Each individuals energy field bears informationmoral, mental,

emotional, religious; when like minded individual fields merge, there is tremendous

power.104

The journey of the past thousands of years of intuited information about the

human energy field is beginning to get precision. The GDV is a tool with the potential to

contribute significantly to the advancement of knowledge concerning the human energy

field.


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EVOLUTION OF KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE GAS DISCHARGE

VISUALISATION TECHNIQUE

The Gas Discharge Visualisation technique is based on Kirlian photography also

known as bio-electrography. George Christoph Lichtenberg, a German professor of

physics at Gottingen University, experimented with the effect of electrical discharges and

found that they created patterns on film. In 1777 he observed patterns produced in resin

dust by electrical discharges and was the first to observe a corona discharge from a

human hand.

105

Prior to 1900 Yakub Narkevitch Yodko was the first to observe that

pictures of healthy people and unhealthy people varied. Yodko also studied people under

varying conditions including fatigue, excitement, as well as both asleep and awake.106

Unfortunately, Yodkos records were destroyed in the Russian revolution

After arriving in the United States from Serbia in 1884, Nicola Tesla conducted

many experiments with high voltage photography and demonstrated the luminous

discharges around the body.107 In 1891, during a public lecture, Tesla demonstrated a

vivid and startling corona luminescence effect:

All around me the electrostatic force makes itself felt, so great isthe agitation of the particles, that you may see streams of lightdue to a

potential of about 200,000 volts, alternating in rather irregular intervals,sometimes like a million times a second. A vibration of the same

amplitude, but four times as fast, to maintain which over 3,000,000 voltswould be required, would be more than sufficient to envelop my body in a

complete sheet of flame. But this flame would not burn me up; quitecontrarily, the probability is that I would not be injured in the least. Yet a

hundredth part of that energy, otherwise directed, would be amplysufficient to kill a person.

108


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Tesla was immortalized in the 1980s when his name was designated as the unit of

magnetic field strength utilized by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners; one

Tesla is equal to 10,000 Gauss (unit of measurement of magnetic flux density). Tesla

obtained over one hundred patents for electromagnetic devices including the high voltage

Tesla coil that bears his name.109

Professor Alexander Gurwitsch, a Russian researcher in the 1920s first described

emanations given off by onion shoots that had the capacity to cause mitosis in other

onion shoots. This observation stimulated the Russian researcher Wlail Kasnatschejew in

the 1960s and 1970s to further pursue these findings and he concluded that cells

communicate information via ultraviolet light. With a clever research design he clearly

demonstrated that sick cells could make healthy cells ill depending on whether the

flasks containing the cells were quartz (which allows transmission of ultraviolet light) or

regular glass (which does not transmit ultraviolet light).110

Dr. Fritz Popp expanded on the research of Gurwitsch and Kasnatschejew over a

twenty-five year period in Germany. He developed very sensitive equipment to measure

the light or biophotons given off by living systems. His equipment was so sensitive it

could measure an emanation of a firefly at about 10 kilometers (one kilometer equals 5/8

of a mile).111

In 1939, Semyon Davidovich Kirlian, known as the best electrician in the

Russian village of Krasnodar, was called to repair some technical equipment at a research

institute. While there, he chanced to observe a demonstration of a high-frequency

instrument for electrotherapy. When he saw the spark between the electrodes and the

patients skin, he wondered what would happen if he put a photographic plate between


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scientists and lay people alike. Korotkov investigated this subject with the GDV and

concluded that the phantom leaf phenomenon could be explained by real physical

processes.117

News of the Soviet research in the field of Kirlian photography, including the

Phantom Leaf Effect, reached the United States in 1970 when authors Lynn Schroeder

and Sheila Ostrander published the results of their 1968 tour of Russia, Bulgaria, and

Czechoslovakia where they explored psychic research in laboratories from Prague to

Moscow.118

In 1970, after reading Schroeder and Ostranders account of Soviet research in

Kirlian photography, Dr. Thelma Moss, a psychologist at UCLAs Neuropsychiatric

Institute visited Russia. She was fascinated with the idea of recording on film the energy

fields emanating from all living things and wanted to meet these pioneering researchers

first hand. She did not meet with Semyon and Valentina Kirlian, as their location in

southeastern Russia was too remote. Dr. Moss did meet with Viktor Adamenko in

Moscow for several days. As a child, Adamenko lived next door to the Kirlians and

participated in their experiments. Adamenko presented Dr. Moss with papers he wrote

with another Russian scientist, Viktor Inyushin, in which he described dramatic changes

in the Kirlian photographs. These changes resulted from different states of consciousness

including hypnosis in a variety of states and of emotional and physical arousal.119

Adamenko was preoccupied with the subject of acupuncture and its relation to Kirlian

photography. In conversations with Moss, Adamenko spoke of a possible correlation

between the invisible energy field described in Chinese medicine and the invisible


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interactions between man and objects.124

Although psychotronics is not a term that

gained popularity, the field of bioelectrography was launched.

Electrophotography developed independently in at least two other countries. The

Scottish scientists, Dennis Miller and Ted Smart, discovered electric photography. Miller

and Smart focused their research on air, not leaves, seeds, fluids or fingertips, as had been

the focus of the Kirlians. The Brazilian scientist Henry Andrade independently made his

own electrical photographs in the early 1960s.125 Researchers without access to each

other were simultaneously exploring the energy field and refining scientific instruments

to quantify what they were finding.

In 1973, William Tiller and David Boyers researched the subject of corona

discharge patterns and Kirlian photography. n the process the pair duplicated some of the

Soviet research. Tiller and Boyers focused on investigating metallic electrodes rather

than living systems. The United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research sponsored

their work. Tiller and Boyers concluded that

Although it now seems possible to account for the majority of the

strange color effects observed in Kirlian photography, one cannot becertain that this is the only or the proper explanationKirlian

photography experiments must be done more carefully than those in thepast, if we are to use this as a tool to learn truly new information about

changes in energy states of living systems... it is probably moreappropriate to use the name corona-discharge photography.126

In the 1980s, Peter Mandel, a German naturopathic doctor, developed an intuitive,

but now well documented method of interpreting the bio-electrographic images for

medical diagnosis. Mandel based his interpretations on the analysis of the corona of

fingertips and toes in relation to their function as endpoints of the meridians of traditional

Chinese medicine and German neo-acupuncture developed by Voll.127

Korotkov utilized


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the framework devised by Mandel as a basis for interpretation of the GDV computer

constructed aura.

The scientific community has been slow to accept Kirlian photography as a

legitimate tool. Because of the widely disparate types of equipment used to create the

images, results have been inconsistent. Lack of rigorous scientific standards has hindered

the acceptance of Kirlian photography. The United States National Institutes of Health

now has a division of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to gather data on subtle

energy interventions. In November 2000, the International Union of Medical and

Applied Bio-Electrography held its 5th official congress in Curitiba, Brazil and agreed to

promote the scientific status of bioelectrography by way of thorough scientific research.

Dr. Konstantin Korotkov was unanimously elected President of the IUMAB for the term

2001-2004.128

The formation of the IUMAB is another step in formalizing the study of

the energy field and demanding more standardization so information can be more readily

compared and built upon. This standardization will give researchers a common language

and accelerate progress in further understanding Kirlian photography and what it is

actually measuring.

Brief Description of the Kirlian Photography Process

Technical description of the Kirlian process is beyond the scope of this paper.

Harry Dakin describes the process in detail in his bookHigh Voltage Photography.129

Gerber gives a description, which provides basic information that is not overly technical:

The basic principle behind Kirlian photographys ability to

produce images on film is the corona discharge phenomenon. Mostscientists who have studied Kirlian systems have agreed upon this fact. In

the simple electrographic apparatus there is a high-frequency powersource connected to an electrode beneath a sheet of film. A high-


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frequency current, sent to the hidden electrode, creates an electrical field,which bathes the photographic film. The film surface becomes charged at

a high electrical potential. When a finger or other grounded object isplaced upon the film, it provides a pathway for electrons of high potential

(on the film surface) to travel to low potential (ground, or earththe

ultimate electron sink)Energy always flows from high to low potential.The electron trails, created by torrents of electrons jumping from the filmto the grounded object, create the beautiful corona discharge, which is

captured (in total darkness) on the photographic film. The imageproduced by this technique is called a Kirlian photograph. The pattern of

electron streamers around the object, as well as the colors captured onfilm, appear to contain varying amounts of diagnostic information about

the photographic subject.130

MICRO-ACUPUNCTURE AND THE GDV

Acupuncture has been practiced for more than 5,000 years. Micro-acupuncture

was rediscovered in the 1950s when Dr. Paul Nogier, observed that the acupoints of the

ear were reiterative of the anatomy of the whole body, that is, the acupoints of the ear

correspond to specific body organs.131

Other body parts such as the foot, hand, nose and

orbit of the eye have been observed to correspond to body parts also.132 For instance,

stimulating a spot on hand, foot or nose could balance energy in a particular organ.

Dr. Ralph Alan Dale, Director of the Acupuncture Education Center in Surfside,

Florida, defines micro-acupuncture:

Micro-acupuncture refers to the energetics (Qi) of an anatomic

region such as the face, philtrum, ear, hand and abdomen. Each part of thebody functions as an energetic microcosm with a diagnostic and

therapeutic potential relating to the physiology and Qi of the body as awhole. These micro-acupuncture systems are manifested through micro-

acupoints and micro-channels (meridians) whose topologies reflex asholographic reiterations of the bodys anatomy and of the vital energy (Qi)

configurations of traditional Chinese acupuncture. A hologram is a threedimensional image of a given object which contains the information of the

object in itself and in every part of itself.133

In 1973, Dale began to explore what other body parts in addition to the ear might

have holographic qualities. He found evidence of more than 30 body parts with this


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characteristic. He notes the implication of this finding is that each part of the body might

contain the energetic information of the whole organism. 134

Micro-acupuncture had been intuitive until 1951 when Paul Nogier began his

scientific explorations in auriculotherapy, later referred to as auriculomedicine. The first

hologram he discovered was the inverted fetus: when looking at the ear, the earlobe

represents the head of the fetus, with the body curled around the earlobe. Nogier first

showed the distribution of the auricular reflexes as reiterations of the anatomy in the form

of a fetus in the womb with the head acupoints in the inferior position that is in the

lobule. The viscera (Zng-Fu) were localized in the two conchae, and the extremities in

the superior portion of the ear.135

Dale evaluates Tae-Woo Yoos Koryo Sooji Chim (hand acupuncture), as the

most remarkable, detailed and clinically useful of all the micro-meridian systems.136

Yoo developed his system in 1971. Yoo identified the micro-meridian correspondences

of all 14 principal meridians and equivalents for most of the 361 traditional acupoints on

these conduits.

In the hologram of Yoos hand system, the middle finger corresponds to the

head.137

This is a point of difference from Jaw Woo Parks Su Jok acupuncture, which

bases its system on the thumb corresponding to the head.138

Both practices appear to be

effective, although the work of Park is much less known in the United States. Park, a

Korean acupuncturist, is highly regarded in Russia where he has lectured widely and has

a large following of practitioners. It is necessary to continue to collect empirical data on

the micro-acupuncture of the hand and particularly the fingertips to define exactly what is


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being reflected and what precisely the Kirlian photographs of the fingertips are

measuring.

Micro-acupuncture establishes the concept that vast amounts of information are

contained in the fingertips; Motoyama with the AMI and Korotkov with the GDV

pioneered in measuring and analyzing this data with scientific instruments.

RESEARCH UTILIZING THE GDV

The GDV provides an accurate, exact and reproducible method for the analysis

of energy-informational state of the human being and allows us to study the influence of

various factors on this state.139 Images of the fingertips are taken with a table top camera

which feeds the data into a computer which process the image into a BEO-

gramprintout of the total energy field.

Korotkov140

studied the effect of a healer -- V. Soultanov -- on a patient over a

two-day period. A baseline image was taken of the patients thumb after a hard-working

day. The corona was broken (small gaps) and jagged (deep crevasses). After a short

healing session, another photo was taken which showed some change. A second healing

session brought more changes and after a 45-minute period the aura stabilized with

smoothed edges and very few gaps. The patient reported moving from a state of stress to

one of ease and well-being. Another image taken twenty hours later revealed that the

pattern remained in the healthier state. The computational capability of the GDV then

processed the data from the three images -- baseline, after first healing session, after

second healing session -- and quantitatively displayed the results in a graph, which


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Chumaks fingers in a passive condition as a baseline and then he repeated the GDV

images after Chumak intentionally focused on activating the energy stream through his

hands. The baseline revealed a normal healthy strong positive energy condition. In

comparing the before and after pictures, the average increase in area of the GDV images

was 200%.

Korotkov144

conducted a study of GDV images of two water samples: a controlled

sample and an experimental sample irradiated by Chumak (that is, Chumak focused

intention on the water for five minutes). Two 200 ml bottles of tap water were utilized,

one the control and one the experimental. Immediately after the five minutes of

Chumaks influence, 10 GDV images of 20 ml of water from each bottle were taken. The

difference of the average area of corona discharge between the irradiated and control

water was over 300%. Chumaks focused attention dramatically increased the GDV

area parameter. This increase in GDV area typically appears after healing interventions.

In a third study with Chumak, Korotkov145

took a series of GDV images of

Chumaks right forefinger in a passive (baseline) condition and then in the condition

intentionally shifting his consciousness. This was done over a course of 34 minutes. The

graphed results show the GDV current changed from 1 to 7 during these 34 minutes. The

baseline measured in a range around 4. Chumak was then asked to increase the signal

and maintain it. After two minutes, the signal increased to 6 and remained at that level

for three minutes. Chumak then offered to simulate the state of death. The signal then

gradually dropped to zero for minutes 22 to 29. During this time Chumak physically

turned absolutely pale. He was then asked to return to a normal level of consciousness.

His signal then increased to 2, which was about half of the original level. At minute 33,


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his level climbed to 3 almost back to a baseline of 4. The GDV was able to measure a

previously unmeasured phenomenon.

In yet another experiment Korotkov146

took GDV measurements on Chumak

positioned in one room, and a young woman subject, whom he did not know, in a second

room. The task for Chumak was to change the condition of the young woman as

measured by the GDV, to correlate with the condition of Chumak. The measurements

were taken over a period of ten minutes. Graphs were prepared of the signals for both

people and compared. The results demonstrated that the changes in Chumaks condition

influenced the state of the young woman. The correlation of Korotkovs results was

further demonstrated by the EEG signals of the young woman and Chumak as measured

by Koekina.147

To obtain instantaneous quantitative measures of how the human mind influences

healing processes, Koroktkov and T. Chalko148

conducted an experiment in which the

subject (Chalko) performed two types of mental exercise: meditation and concentration.

This experiment was repeated numerous times over two years with similar findings.

Following is a description of one of the experiments. Images of the forefinger of the

right hand of the subject were taken at one-minute intervals for nine minutes while the

subject meditated. The bio-energy field level intensity -- increased with time until there

was a 60% increase at 9 minutes. The gaps in the finger corona gradually filled in,

indicating greater balance and harmony. It was noted that the benefits of meditation

began to be reflected by the GDV after 8 minutes indicating that it takes time for the aura

to become harmonious and gap free. The second type of mental exercise investigated

was concentration. In this exercise the subject focused on an image at eye level two


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meters distant. Images were recorded of the subjects middle finger of the right hand at

one-minute intervals for eight minutes. The aura energy doubled during this time and

initial gaps in the bio-energy field (as reflected in the finger corona) gradually closed.

Both exercises induced dramatic positive changes in the aura and its distribution, but the

concentration exercise was more effective.

E. Anufrieva, V. Anufriev , and M. Starchenko, researchers at the Institute of

Physics of the Ural Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Ural Center for

Energy Saving and Environment have produced Beo-grams demonstrating that thought

and the heart are interrelated; they explored the possibility of thought effecting the

cardiac rhythm. In the United States the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) explores

this mind body connection of thoughts affecting physiology. For two years this group of

researchers conducted research on 50 practically healthy subjects. The subjects focused

on sending a loved one the thought, Let the world be well. GDV images were taken of

the sender of the thought and the recipient of the good will. The researchers found that

the energy of the sent thought appeared instantly on the emanations from the left little

finger, and received by the loved one at the heart sector of the right little finger. This

emanation was registered in a period of 1-2 seconds from distances of 1-2 meters to 1500

kilometers. The researchers found that both thinking good thoughts (wishing others

well), and touching a loved ones hand generated a transformation of the aura --

enriching it with energy, making the aura smoother, brighter and also filling the holes in

the auric field. The authors conclude that they were able to measure the effect of thought

on the aura, which changed its energetics and hence influenced the physical state. They


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further conclude that being an altruist is beneficial for health. The researchers urge each

person realize the power of ones own thoughts.149

Carolyn Howell, practitioner at the Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy

Education in London studied 11 people with HIV150

attending weekly Tai Chi classes

lasting sixty to ninety minutes over a period of eight months. A short comparative study

was undertaken to measure changes in the energy field by taking GDV images of the ten

fingers before and after Tai Chi class. The author found that the pre- and post- images

showed a significant difference in the participants energy field -- from weak,

fragmented images toward a brighter and more unified shape.

Trampuz, Kononenko and Rus,151researchers at the University of Ljublyana,

Slovenia, investigated the effect of The Art of Living Programme (AOL) on the

biopsychological status of its participants as measured by the GDV. The AOL

Programme consists of a six-day seminar, which provides participants with basic

knowledge, techniques and skills for improving health, cognitive effectiveness and ability

in coping with stress. The researchers found that there was a statistically significant

difference in before and after measurements in an experimental group in the GDV

parameters of area, shape, fractal dimension and brightness. None of those parameters

differed significantly in the control group. They concluded that an AOL basic course

significantly improves the psychophysical state of a person.

In a second study by Trampuz, Kononenko and Rus, 152the researchers took

measurements before and after a two-hour AOL course, and found that the GDV

parameter of area of the corona differed significantly between the two groups. In the

third study, the participants in the AOL program were compared to a control group (those


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Ph.D., with her identification of the opiate receptors later described in The Molecules of

Emotion (Pert 1997),155 and Kenneth Pelletier, M.D. at Stanford University with Mind As

Healer, Mind As Slayer.156

These seminal thinkers helped to elucidate the role of

negative emotions, negative thoughts and stress on health.

Emotion, as defined by Webster is an affective aspect of consciousness and a

state of feeling. Emotion is a psychological and physical reaction subjectively

experienced as a strong feeling and physiologically involving changes that prepare the

body for immediate vigorous action.157

Early in the 1900s Walter Cannon, Harvard physiologist, observed the fight and

flight response of the body to stress. He identified physiological changes in the body

during stress that include the arousal of the sympathetic nervous system characterized by

increased heart rate, blood pressure, body metabolism, breathing rate, blood flow, and

release of hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline or epinephrine and

norepinephrine.158

Herbert Benson, M.D., identified the relaxation response, the state of the body

at rest. The relaxation response is characterized by decreases in heart rate, blood

pressure, body metabolism, breathing rates, blood flow to muscles. Interestingly, Benson

made his discovery in the same research rooms at Harvard where Cannon had made his

observations about the survival instinct of the fight or flight phenomena decades

earlier. Benson states that the relaxation response is even more important to the survival

of our bodies than the fight or flight response because the relaxation response can

prevent and compensate for damage done to our bodies by the too frequently elicited

stress response.159


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In 1975, when Benson first published his ideas about quieting the body, the

concept that stress had a role in illness was not well accepted. As people began to equip

themselves with knowledge about this new theory of the relaxation response, the

consciousness of the nation began to rise; the idea of being an active partner in ones

wellness began to grow. This tool -- relaxation response -- could be self-administered.

This tool could take many forms including Transcendental Meditation, prayer, yoga,

Qigong, guided imagery, visualization and listening to music. The room to this healing

place has many doors.

Initially, Bensons work was discredited as merely the placebo response. This

is a western medical term for a response when either nothing or sugar pill was given to a

patient and yet a therapeutic physiological response occurred evidently by the patients

belief in the efficacy of what he was receiving or doing, later called the faith factor and

remembered wellness. Benson eventually demonstrated the relaxation response

produced physiological changes that could be measured and repeated whether one was

skeptical or not; he also noted that belief in the process could enhance the outcome. This

observation allowed and gave permission to the patient to engage the power of his own

spiritual beliefs to enhance ones healingone could enter the relaxation response either

through a secular door or a religious door.

According to Benson, there are a number of conditions that are exacerbated by

stress, and to that extent the elicitation of the relaxation response would be helpful in

reducing or eliminating the condition:

Angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmias, allergic skin reactions, anxiety,mild and moderate depression, bronchial asthma, herpes simplex, cough,

constipation, diabetes mellitus, duodenal ulcers, dizziness, fatigue,hypertension, infertility, insomnia, nausea and vomiting during pregnancy,


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nervousness, all forms of pain, postoperative swelling, premenstrualsyndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, side effects of cancer, side effects of

Aids.160

The field of psychoneuroimmunology focuses on the interaction of the brain with

the bodys immune cells. The seminal work of neuroscientist Candace Pert in the 1970s

elucidated how neuropeptides, such as endorphins, in the brain produce changes in

mood.161

John Diamond, M.D., describes the primacy of the thymus gland as the link

between mind and body and the first organ to be effected by stress and mental attitudes.

Vibrant and positive health is linked to a healthy active thymus gland.

162

It was Dora van

Gelder Kunz who discovered the connection between the thymus and the immune system

in 1959; (the data was not reported in the medical literature until the 1960s).163

Diamond

identifies two primary emotions: love and hate. He associates positive emotional states

of faith, trust, gratitude, and courage with love and negative emotional states with fear,

hate and envy. Diamond notes affirmations that he believes activate the thymus gland

and recommends that these be repeated several times a day:

I am full of love.

I have faith, trust, gratitude and courage.164

Dr. Diamond believes these affirmations can contribute to calming the emotions

and that this has a direct impact on the functioning of the thymus gland so essential to

immune functioning.

The role of stress in illness has received increasing recognition since the 1970s.

Dr. C. Norman Shealy identifies six sources of stress, which impair the body.


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Table 6

Sources of Stress That Impair the Body

Physicalfractures, cuts

Chemicalalcohol, nicotine, caffeine

Electromagneticradio, TV, computers

Mentalworry, frustration

Emotionalfear, guilt, anger, anxiety, depression

Spiritualmoral issues, existential questions.165

William James, a Harvard professor of psychology for over thirty years, and

author of the 1916 classic The Varieties of Religious Experienceproposed the harmful

effects of doubt, fear and worry and the healing effects of courage, hope and trust.166

The role of emotions in healing stepped into the spotlight of scientific inquiry

with the publication of Norman CousinsAnatomy of an Illnessin 1975 in which he

posed the question: Is it possible that love, hope, faith, laughter, confidence and the will

to live have therapeutic value?167

He stimulated the medical profession to examine if

these positive emotions could have a salutary physiologic effect. In 1964 Cousins fell

gravely ill with a serious collagen vascular disease i.e., a disease of the connective tissue.

When his doctor told him he had a one in five hundred chance of recovery, and the

likelihood of returning to his job at the Saturday Reviewliterary magazine was remote, he

avidly began to embark on his own treatment strategy with the support of his physician.

He devised a plan for systematic pursuit of the salutary emotions.168

From his vast

readings in the field of health, Cousins was well aware that negative emotions produce


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anger, guilt or depression, no matter what the cause!173

Dr Shealy states the key to

good health is attitude, that is, ones belief in the ultimate goodness of the universe. 174

The negative emotions of fear, anger, and guilt drain our health; the antidotal emotions

which support good health are joy, laughter, happiness, serenity, peacefulness,

optimism, forgiveness, patience, tolerance, compassion and love -- a desire to do good

and to help others.175

MUSIC AND HEALING IN HISTORY

Music and healing have been closely connected from ancient times. The ability of

music to affect both emotions and matter has been described since mythic times as

exemplified by Apollo and Orpheus. In mythical times, Apollo, a major god in Greek

and Roman mythology became a patron of musicians and poets; he also had healing

powers, as did his son Asclepius. The marble sculpture Apollo Belvedere176

is a replica

of a much older bronze sculpture, which depicts Apollo with a lyre and a serpent, both

symbols of music and healing powers.

The power of music to influence the mind was known in ancient times. An

ancient Spartan custom involved using flute music to remove the spirit of anger from

their fighting men when they returned from battle.177

An early reference to the ability of

music to relieve pain is from Plutarch, on the authority of Aristotle, who referred to the

custom of playing flutes while Etrusrian slaves were flogged in order to alleviate the

pain.178 Cleinias, a Pythagorean, and famous for his exemplary conduct and character,

played his lyre whenever upset or angry in order to calm himself.179

Homer

recommended music to alleviate negative emotions such as anger, worry and fear and as

a means to elevate soul and body.180


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decades to the formation of support groups for many different problems, both physical

and mental.

Pythagoras believed that if one listened to music on a daily basis it would improve

and enrich ones health.184

Pythagoras, used music to dispel psychic traumata among

his disciples i.e., worries. He believed that the effect of daily diatonic chromatic and

harmonic melodies would eliminate negative emotions and restore his disciples to a calm

condition just as if the music was medicine185

Plato and Aristotle believed that music had an important role in a well-ordered

state and that music in fact helped to civilize. Polybius compares the Arcadians with

their high reputation for virtue with the Cynaetheans who were known for their depravity

and cruelty, even though they were of Arcadian stock. He attributes this disparity to the

fact that the Cynaetheans had rejected the musical heritage of their forefathers -- a

resource to soften the harsh living conditions. Polybius concluded that the only hope

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