An Introduction to the Role of Electro-Magnetic Energy in Trauma & Healing
The central nervous system consists of a large collection of nerves that start from the brain and extend all the way down the spine out into the various limbs and organs.
These nerves transmit tiny electrical impulses back and forth from corresponding areas in the brain governing various biochemical functions in the body and cell health amongst other things.
“Magnificent is the Creator, Who sends the spinal cord, which is a part of the brain, down to the lower part of the body” — Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Canon of Medicine
Just some of the functions of the cluster of nerves around the pelvis for example — known to some as the sacral region — are, the governance of kidney function, functions relating to fertility, hip mobility and movement of the legs.
“A voluntary movement of organs can be completed only by means of an impulse which comes to them from the brain through nerves.” — Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Canon of Medicine
These collections of nerves form a series of clusters that are specific to each region of the body and are known as energy centres.
There are seven main energy centres in the body (amongst many smaller ones) each forming an electromagnetic field and operating at a particular frequency range.
Each electromagnetic field creates a clockwise circular motion of energy in each area. This is what the ancients in India referred to as a ‘Chakra’; from the Hindi word ‘Chakkar’ I.e. to ‘go round’, denoting a circular motion (of the electromagnetic field).
When these nerves — and therefore the electric impulses — function incorrectly or sub-optimally, the electromagnetic field weakens or stops emitting a discernible signal altogether. This is known as an unbalanced or blocked chakra and paves the path for illness or disease as a result of biochemical dysfunction stemming from an underlying electromagnetic dysfunction. The electromagnetic informs the biochemical, and since these nerves correspond to various areas of the brain, by definition, they also affect cognitive function.
At this point, fixing medical or cognitive issues at the biochemical level (medicinally or otherwise) is not only, often ineffective, but, often results in either a transmuting of issues or temporary relief only.
In her audiobook “Energy Anatomy”, Caroline Myss argues that for biochemical healing to take place, the electromagnetic must precede the biochemical. I.e. the functioning of the electric impulses must be corrected for any biochemical work to be effective and thus also argues that this is why most people don’t heal despite trying many things.
This is an area Myss refers to as “energetics”.
When the sacral chakra (the energy centre around the pelvic area) becomes blocked or unbalanced for example, not only can this result in back pain, fertility issues or urinary infections but it can also lead to a decline in creativity in the individual since the nerves in this region are connected all the way back to the creative centres of the brain.
In my personal, albeit limited and only anecdotal observation, I have often found that entrepreneurs with personality traits and behaviours that suggest a disturbance to the electrical impulses in their sacral region are rarely as successful or as driven as those with a balanced and correctly functioning one. Since entrepreneurship requires great problem solving ability, it in turn merits great creativity. Thus if the sacral chakra is blocked, creative cognitive function is also impaired.
On the other hand, a blocked Solar Plexus chakra can result in digestive issues biologically and eating disorders psychologically — and like this, each chakra, I.e. each energy centre has commonly known biological and psychological patterns. The root chakra, for example, is related to anxiety disorders, the heart chakra to depression and the crown chakra to sleep disorders.
What blocks these energy centres or prevents them from functioning correctly more often than not is: Trauma.
The Role of Trauma
In his book “Waking The Tiger’, Dr. Peter Levine explains that human beings and animals often exhibit a third state as a response to trauma instead of the commonly known fight or flight responses. This is the state he refers to as ‘immobility’ or what you and I might also refer to as ‘freezing’.
Dr. Peter Levine, who has worked with trauma survivors for twenty-five years, says the single most important factor he has learned in uncovering the mystery of human trauma is what happens during and after the freezing response. He describes an impala being chased by a cheetah. The second the cheetah pounces on the young impala, the animal goes limp. The impala isn’t playing dead, she has “instinctively entered an altered state of consciousness, shared by all mammals when death appears imminent”. The impala becomes instantly immobile. However, if the impala escapes, what she does immediately thereafter is vitally important. She shakes and quivers every part of her body, clearing the traumatic energy she has accumulated. (Levine and Frederick, Waking the Tiger, p. 16)
Where human beings differ from animals however (as Dr Peter Levine explains) is that human beings have not consciously learned how to discharge this negative traumatic energy. For the animal, this process is autonomic but for the human being this negative energy remains lodged in the body forever until such a time it is actively discharged, even if that takes place decades later.
Ironically, the human being may even forget the traumatic event a few years (or even just a few months) later, but the nervous system will not. It will continue to be disturbed by this trauma and present issues until the trauma is addressed and discharged.
In a nutshell — and as a gross generalisation — trauma is ever-present where the subject (the human being) interprets any given event in their reality in opposition to the will and wisdom of the universe at that moment in time.
Say a guy has a car accident but walks away uninjured, he has two choices in the moment. He can either choose to be really upset about about the damage to his car and being late for work, or he can align himself with the will and wisdom of the universe, think the best of it and say to himself “it could’ve been worse” and recognise he gets to skip half a day of work. The choice is his. How he chooses to interpret the reality before him is up to him. One of those responses will result in sustained psychological trauma — the other will not.
It is not trauma in of itself, it is the response to the trauma that matters.
Note that: a traumatic event doesn’t necessarily have to be something extreme. Being attacked by a bear or being thrown into the ocean off a cruise ship would be incredibly traumatic for practically everyone, but for a child, something as simple as being sent to the principals office to be disciplined for something he didn’t do can also be very traumatic (which also why many of our traumas stem from childhood as we don’t have the requisite skills to do deal with the trauma at the time).
Any judgement of an event that is in opposition or in resistance to the will of the universe will generally give rise to negative energy ready to lodge itself in the body for a lengthy period of time. Where in the body it lodges itself depends on the type of emotion experienced at the time of the event. Going back to the example of the child sent to the principals office, if he experiences emotions of shame in the moment, then this concern related to self-image may dampen the signal in the solar plexus chakra. On the other hand, if what he feels most keenly is jealousy and resentment in that the other kids get to play outside while he has to sit in the principals office, this negative energy may affect the sacral chakra.
Each type of emotion in concert with each chakra has its own electromagnetic frequency.
Of course, on the rare occasion the child may somehow find a way to reconcile the events taking place and console himself in thinking the principal is merely doing his job and he’s better off sat indoors instead of playing out in the cold running the risk of catching one (a cold). At this point, the chances of any negative energy lodging itself in the body are next to none. This is also why some people are emotionally paralysed by certain events while others are not.
The internal response differs from person to person based on their beliefs and world views and therefore the effect on the electromagnetic energy also differs from person to person.
Thus, the key to healing at a mental, spiritual and biochemical level is to discharge the negative energy from trauma.
Healing Methods
There are a number of ways this negative energy can be discharged from the body. Dr Peter Levine encourages a technique he describes as “Somatic experiencing” which takes its lessons from the animal kingdom and thus uses physical stretches and movements to discharge the negative energy.
Dr Bradley Nelson makes use of actual magnets and encourages people to rub the magnets over the body while tuning into traumatic events psychologically in order to discharge the negative energy as part of an emotional release process.
My personal favourite method is much more simple and takes lessons from timeline therapy by re-calling traumatic events (but not re-living them) and making a new decision or judgement upon the event in order to reset it so to speak.
So by way of simple demonstration: Say I was the adult that had a traumatic experience with the principal’s office as a child. As an adult I could now go back to that event in my mind and change my response to that event as if I was living in that moment again, and that very act, when done with sincerity and intention, would be enough to discharge the negative energy.
In the Abrahamic religions the spirit plays an important role in the psyche of the individual and by process of deduction it would seem that the spirit is responsible for the electric impulses that take place in the body; the role of the brain in this paradigm is merely to serve as a central processing and communication unit and thus the healing method differs.
In the Muslim faith it is believed that chapters and verses from the Qu’ran have healing properties and therefore recitation of these verses is used as a method to first heal the spirit and therefore the electrical impulses in the body. Further study of the literature would also suggest that there are additional chakras within this paradigm located around the chest and the head. Four chakras in fact that relate to and form the bridge between Mind, Ego, Heart and Spirit where certain spiritual practices are used to clear the dirty energy and turbidity if you will from these chakras.
For example, Dr Javed Ahmed has been able to dramatically improve the success rate in his ICU ward by playing a specific chapter from the Qu’ran on the speakers while treating patients in the ICU. It is understood that he provided consulting services to a Professor Mark Bellamy who was the former head of the Intensive Care Society in Leeds who also used this method for his patients, although this information has not been transmitted by Professor Bellamy officially on public record as far as I can tell but it has been reported by a few sources.
The Discourse
It is unfortunate that the discourse around chakras and associated healing methods has been subject to much ridicule and cynicism over the years especially since the scientific community has been taking subtle energy quite seriously for quite some time.
Bruce H. Lipton, PhD, is a former medical school professor and research scientist and author of ” The Biology of Belief. ” It is groundbreaking work in the field of New Biology. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. His work was a major breakthrough showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.
It also doesn’t help that the use of healing methods such as Crystal Healing stones carry a negative connotation due to their association with pseudo-science and magic, whereas, at its root they have a perfectly sound and rational basis as Annie Tarasova masterfully explains:
“Our entire body system is just energy that shows up in different densities and patterns. Our thoughts and emotions are connected to our physical bodies and have a density of their own. When these patterns of energy work in a balanced way then we experience health, however, these energy patterns can be disrupted which results in poor health from headaches to serious disease(s). Crystals are thought to be the most stable form of matter in the universe due to how they are formed within our planet. Crystals form in the earth’s crust over millions of years with high pressures and heat, making them objects with the most energy.
Each step in the formation of a crystal contains energy. The crystal’s journey begins deep below the planet’s surface where lava and hot fluids circulate. Crystallisation occurs when layers of the planet’s mantle fracture — which allows heated gases and liquids forced by high pressure — rise towards the surface.
Elements such as water, oxygen, iron, potassium, sodium and magnesium are also present and in the process they merge and dissolve with other elements being pushed to the surface. This mixture rises and passes through cooler, less active layers of rock [thus] crystals begin to grow in the rocks cavities and crevices. Crystals will form depending on the mixture of elements and the environment present. Growth, shape, colour, hardness and size depends on temperature, light, water, pressure, time and space (etc). Crystals are alive like anything else in the universe and work with the human energy field and are able to absorb, move, shift or diffuse energy within the body.”
Below is an actual report (shared with full consent) from a bioresonance machine of the energetics present in a Clear Quartz crystal.
All in all, while I don’t proffer that the science of subtle energy/energetics is a silver bullet on the path to healing, it does open many of us to the possibilities of being able to experience the freedom and bliss of good physical and mental health for ailments and issues that have been lingering for a long time with no end in sight but this can only happen if we choose to explore this area with an open mind.
All that said; since this article is merely an introduction where expanding further on each part of this discussion is beyond its scope, I have outlined some further reading resources below.
Enjoy!
Further reading
- Energy Anatomy by Caroline Myss
- The Emotion Code by Dr Bradley Nelson
- Waking the Tiger by Dr Peter Levine
- Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
