Introduction

Medical science is only beginning to explore the electrical nature of the human body. Zhang described the biofield as the “electromagnetic body”: a complex, ultraweak field of chaotic standing waves that forms energetic anatomical structures such as the chakras and acupuncture meridians (Zhang, 1995, 1996).

The biofield is made up of the fields produced by the body’s ions, molecules and cells. These charged particles condense into the physical body we can see, while their electron clouds extend into space and interact with the fields around us.

In The Electro-Dynamic Theory of Life, Harold Saxton Burr and Filmer Northrop argued that the relationship between field and particle runs both ways:

“The microscopic physicochemical constituents do determine the character of the field. No one cognizant of modern physics and physiological chemistry can deny this. But this relation between field and particle is not, as traditional modern scientific theory has assumed, an asymmetrical or one-way relation. The field both determines and is determined by the particle (Burr and Northrop, 1935).”

They add that “the field also conditions the behavior of the particle.” If so, the electromagnetic environment we live in could reinforce or destabilize the biofield and, in turn, change the body’s physiology. Changes to our homes and communities may therefore change the people who live in them.

Beverly Rubik’s paper The Biofield Hypothesis: Its Biophysical Basis and Role in Medicine describes the biofield as follows:

“This paper provides a scientific foundation for the biofield: the complex, extremely weak electromagnetic field of the organism hypothesized to involve electromagnetic bioinformation for regulating homeodynamics. The biofield is a useful construct consistent with bioelectromagnetics and the physics of nonlinear, dynamical, nonequilibrium living systems. It offers a unifying hypothesis to explain the interaction of objects or fields with the organism, and is especially useful toward understanding the scientific basis of energy medicine, including acupuncture, biofield therapies, bioelectromagnetic therapies and homeopathy. The rapid signal propagation of electromagnetic fields comprising the biofield as well as its holistic properties may account for the rapid, holistic effects of certain alternative and complementary medical interventions (Rubik, 2002).”

For much of the past century, medicine has focused mainly on the mechanical and chemical aspects of the body. Yet researchers before and during this period studied the electromagnetic body extensively. Their work was limited by technologies not sensitive enough to detect minute changes in and around the body. Recent advances now allow the biofield to be explored in far greater detail.

What we understand so far is that the biofield consists of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields, as well as subtler energies not yet defined. This page explores the properties of these fields, how they relate to the body’s anatomy and health, and the technologies used to measure them.

Electric Fields

An electric field is the region of space around charged particles, defined as the electric force per unit of charge. Field lines run outward from a positive charge and inward toward a negative one: like charges repel and opposite charges attract.

Electric fields alter the molecular and atomic configurations of dielectric substances; all atoms become polarized when placed in an electric field (Adey, 1981). When a strong electrical discharge around an electrode ionizes the surrounding air, it creates a region of plasma known as a corona discharge.

In this clip from Richard Hammond’s series Invisible Worlds, a camera captures the corona discharge on a high-voltage power line and its interaction with a helicopter.

Electricity in the body

In the body, electricity flows as ions (mainly calcium, potassium, sodium and magnesium) that move in and out of cells in response to stimuli such as touch and sound. These currents begin at conception and appear to guide the development and differentiation of cells in a growing fetus (Maleskey, 1985).

Intramembranous proteins (IMPs) span the cell membrane. On the outside, glycoprotein strands sense electric fields and act as receptor sites for chemical signals. On the inside, the proteins connect with enzymes and the fine filaments of the cytoskeleton.

Each tissue’s passive electrical properties shape how its cells respond to an applied field, and these properties can change as disease alters the tissue’s structure (Bassett, 1993). There is also evidence that strong direct-current (DC) fields may increase bacterial mutation rates (Adey, 1981).

The heart’s field

The electric fields of the heart and brain have been studied with highly sensitive equipment. The HeartMath Institute found that the heart’s electric field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the brain’s (McCraty, 2004). HeartMath co-founder Howard Martin describes how emotion shapes this field in Discover the Ultimate Power of Your Heart:

“The electrical energy produced by the heart radiates outside the body into space. The heart’s field is not static. It changes, depending on what we are feeling. For example, when we are feeling emotions like anger or frustration, the frequencies in the field become chaotic and disordered. On the other hand, when we are experiencing emotions like compassion, care, appreciation or love, the frequencies in the field become more ordered and coherent. In a sense, through the electromagnetic field created by the heart we are literally broadcasting our emotions like radio waves (Martin, 2009).”

This may explain why we can “sense the tension in the room” after an argument: the chaotic field is tangibly felt. When one person deflects what another is saying, tension builds and the speaker feels unheard. When a listener stays grounded and neutral, the other person can release their emotional charge, which is why being a good listener helps a friend who needs to vent.

Regeneration and healing

In the 1960s, Robert Becker compared the electrical activity at amputation sites in salamanders, which regenerate limbs, and frogs, which do not. A salamander’s stump first becomes strongly negative (a wound potential), reverses to positive within a day or so, then returns to negative a few days later. A frog’s stump shows only the first two stages (Becker, 1960, 1961).

This work led to Becker’s landmark book The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life (Becker and Selden, 1985). Becker and his colleagues stimulated bone formation and healing in fractures that would not mend by placing low-current DC electrodes at the fracture site. They also reported inducing articular cartilage by similar means (Becker, 1961; Oschman, 2000).

Healers’ hands

Voltage changes have also been measured in practitioners who heal with their hands. In studies of non-contact Therapeutic Touch, 6 of 14 experienced practitioners produced voltage surges of 4 to 221 volts (median 8.3 V), lasting 0.5 to 12.5 seconds (median 3.6 s). The surges became more frequent during sessions with a patient (Green et al., 1991; Joines et al.). These findings encourage further study of the electric fields of healers and qigong masters.

The halo effect

In Tissue Interactions with Nonionizing Electromagnetic Fields, William Adey writes:

“A body in an otherwise uniform electric field distorts the field so that electric gradients at the surface of the body are markedly increased. For humans in the erect position close to the ground in a vertically oriented field, this enhancement is maximal around the head. Thus the body presents an equivalent area at the head substantially larger than its physical cross section. This is associated with an increase in the displacement charge per unit area in the field surrounding the head. The capacitance to ground is maximized when the person stands on the ground and minimized when he is suspended far from the ground (Adey, 1981).”

This stronger electric field gradient around the head may be an aspect of the biofield that clairvoyants perceive and that artists have long depicted as a halo or nimbus of light.

Magnetic Field

Unlike electric fields, whose lines run from one charge to another, magnetic fields form closed loops.

Magnetic fields surround magnets, but they are also created by moving electric charge. Ampère’s Law states that wherever there is an electric current, there is a magnetic field, and a moving charged particle produces a magnetic field at right angles to its direction of motion.

Magnetism in the body

Cells generate tiny electric currents as charge flows and membrane potentials shift in response to stimuli, and these currents produce tiny magnetic fields in the surrounding space. Voltage-gated ion channels open and close in response to the voltage difference between the inside and outside of the cell.

“Magnetic properties of matter can be traced to charge motion, whether over long distances, as in the flow of conduction electrons, or in charge motions close to or within an atom or molecule. Each orbital electron can be considered as providing its own magnetic moment of the atom. An orbital electron also possesses an intrinsic magnetic moment since it can be considered as a charge spinning about its axis. The nuclei of most atoms also have magnetic moments, which are about one-thousandth as large as the orbital and spin magnetic moments. The magnetic moment of an atom as a whole is the sum of the three moments. An imposed magnetic field tends to cause the magnetic loops within each atom and molecule to align with the imposed field. This paramagnetic effect of alignment in the presence of an external magnetic field is therefore greater at low temperatures. On the other hand, thermal motion tends to dis-align them (Adey, 1981, p.438).”

Measuring the body’s magnetic field

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses the body’s natural magnetic properties to produce detailed images of any part of the body. It relies on hydrogen nuclei (single protons), which are abundant in water and fat. In the scanner’s strong magnetic field, the protons align along the scanner’s axis. Pulses of radio waves then disturb this alignment, and the signals the protons give off as they realign are recorded to build the image. The MRI does all this at a distance from the body, within the biofield.

The SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) is an extremely sensitive magnetometer. It can measure the biomagnetic field of a single heartbeat, a muscle twitch or a pattern of neural activity in the brain. In 2004, Rollin McCraty of the HeartMath Institute presented research comparing the magnetic fields of the heart and brain:

“… the magnetic field produced by the heart is more than 100 times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain, and can be detected a number of feet away from the body, in all directions, using the SQUID-based magnetometers (McCraty, 2004).”

Highly sensitive gaussmeters, with a resolution of 0.001 gauss from DC to 20,000 Hz, have also measured the magnetic fields of practitioners who heal without touch (Joines, W.T., et al.). As technology advances, the subtle energy exchanged between a healer and the person being treated is being studied in more depth than ever. Healing intention without physical contact is a fast-growing area of research because it offers a gentle approach to regaining wellness.

Magnetite and navigation

Biologically produced magnetite has been found in single-celled and multicellular organisms (Frankel et al., 1979; Torres de Araujo, 1986), in humans (Lowenstam, 1962; Gould et al., 1978; Walcott et al., 1979), and in the Precambrian fossil record (Chang and Kirschvink, 1989). Human brain tissue contains at least 5 million single-domain magnetite crystals per gram, in clumps of 50 to 100 particles (Kirschvink, 1992). In pigeons, guinea pigs and rats, about 20% of pineal cells respond to changes in both the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field (Semm, 1981, 1983). Exposure to changes in the Earth’s magnetic field may therefore influence migration.

Research into the biological effects of changes in the Earth’s magnetic field has been going on for decades. Experimentally reversing the horizontal component of the Earth’s magnetic field significantly decreases the production and release of melatonin, the pineal hormone that powerfully influences circadian rhythms, and reduces the activity of the enzymes that make it (Welker et al., 1983).

Electromagnetic Fields

In electromagnetic (EM) theory, it is well established that rapidly moving charges are a source of electromagnetic radiation (Plonus, 1978). Radio, television, Wi-Fi and smart meters all transmit through antennas on this principle. The cells of the human body also communicate with each other through EM fields. William Adey studied how extremely low frequency (ELF) fields affect signaling across cell membranes:

“However, much recent research has shown that imposed weak EM fields in the ELF spectrum below 100 Hz at intensities in the pericellular fluid many orders of magnitude weaker than the membrane potential gradient can modulate actions of hormone, antibody, neurotransmitter and cancer promoting molecules at their cell surface receptor sites. Similar sensitivities have been observed for radiofrequency fields that are amplitude-modulated at ELF frequencies. These modulating actions of EM fields suggest highly cooperative processes in the underlying physical mechanisms (Adey, 1987).”

Cell signaling

Adey identified three groups of enzymes inside the cell that respond to signals initiated at the cell membrane by EM field exposure:

1. membrane-bound adenylate cyclase, which activates protein kinases by converting ATP to cAMP (Luben et al., 1982; Luben and Cain, 1984);

2. cAMP-independent protein kinases, which act as messengers; and

3. ornithine decarboxylase, which is essential for growth in all cells through its role in making the polyamines needed for DNA formation.

All three responses were calcium-dependent and occurred with or without hormonal stimuli (Adey, 1987). Applying EM fields at radio and microwave frequencies has become a unique tool for studying normal and abnormal growth (Fröhlich, 1978; Grundler et al., 1977), cell-mediated immune responses (Szmigielski et al., 1975) and communication between brain cells (Adey, 1975).

Cellular antennas

Researchers are only beginning to explore how different parts of the body communicate electromagnetically. Berbari and colleagues describe the primary cilium as a complex signaling center: fluid moving past it and its mechanosensory activity can strongly influence how the cell responds, and cilia also help sense pressure, touch and vibration (Berbari et al., 2009). Besides receiving vibrational information, the cilium may also transmit information about the state of order or disorder within the cell.

In The Biology of Belief, Dr. Bruce Lipton extends this idea, describing cell receptors that respond to light and sound as well:

“Receptor antennas can also read vibrational energy fields such as light, sound, and radio frequencies. The antennas on the energy receptors vibrate like tuning forks. If an energy vibration in the environment resonates with a receptor’s antenna, it will alter the protein’s charge, causing the receptor to change shape. Because these receptors can read energy fields, the notion that only physical molecules can impact cell physiology is outmoded. Biological behavior can be controlled by invisible forces as well as it can be underpinning for pharmaceutical-free energy medicine (Lipton, 2005).”

Emotion and the body

In Molecules of Emotion, Candace Pert explains how neuropeptides and their receptors form the biochemical basis of emotions, beliefs and expectations, shaping how a person experiences and responds to the world:

“Your subconscious mind is really your body. Peptides are the biochemical correlate of emotion… They provide the body’s most basic communication network… This means that emotional memory is stored throughout the body… and you can access emotional memory anywhere throughout the network (Pert, 1997).”

The field of psychoneuroimmunology studies how psychological and neurological states shape patterns of disease. For example, a stressful childhood predicts inflammation later in life (Danese et al., 2016), and higher depression scores, higher C-reactive protein and lower heart rate variability are each independently, and additively, associated with metabolic syndrome (Chen et al., 2016).

Radio and microwave effects

Altered brainwave (EEG) activity has been reported during and after prolonged exposure to low-level radio and microwave fields (Servantie et al., 1975; Bawin et al., 1973; Takashima et al., 1979). In William Bise’s study of volunteers, alpha waves fell by 20–50% and became desynchronized, and larger slow waves appeared while radio-frequency signals were on (Bise, 1978). Some of his EEG data is shown below, and the full paper is on our Additional Research page.

Eastern European and Soviet researchers use the term “radio-wave sickness” for a group of clinical syndromes seen in people exposed to EM fields at work (Silverman, 1973; Sadcikova, 1974). Microwaves have also been found to affect the hypothalamus and bacterial growth (Gordon et al., 1974; Adey, 1981).

The Earth’s fields

In Tissue Interactions with Nonionizing Electromagnetic Fields, Adey also describes the natural EM fields of the Earth:

“There is a continuous spectrum of natural environmental EM fields of terrestrial origin from DC to about 3 kHZ. Some change markedly with altered weather patterns. Others are related to the earth’s geomagnetic field. This is influenced by particle radiation reaching the ionosphere from solar flares during years of high sunspot activity in the 11-yr solar cycle. In fair weather, the steady atmospheric electric field is about 150 V/m but may increase to 10 kV/m in thunderstorms. (…) The earth’s magnetic field of 0.5 G may be increased several fold during these storms, particularly at high latitudes. There is a series of resonances in this background spectrum at frequencies between 8 and 32 Hz. These Schumann resonances arise as a cavity resonance between the earth’s surface and the concentric conducting shell of ionospheric particles at heights between 80 and 200 km (Adey, 1981).”

The fundamental Schumann resonance, about 7.83 Hz, is often called the heartbeat of the planet. This frequency and its harmonics are thought to help maintain the rhythms of the body’s cycles. The 7th, 8th and 11th harmonics are used in Biofield Tuning, which you can read more about on this website.

Dr. Valerie Hunt reported that when ambient electromagnetic fields were removed from a shielded “mu” room, participants “went to pieces,” with emotional breakdowns that had no apparent internal cause. When the fields were restored, they felt fine again, suggesting that EM fields help the body maintain its coherence and “togetherness” (Hunt, 1996).

Torsion Fields

“Torsion fields” is one of several names given to the more subtle aspects of the biofield. Others include orgone, od, tachyon, aether, Tesla waves, scalar waves and the zero-point field. There is no scientific consensus on these subtle energies. Torsion fields have been proposed as the medium for distance healing, which appears to occur instantaneously, something some researchers argue conventional electromagnetic signals could not explain. For more, see this one-page abstract by V.I. Horejev and L.A. Baburin, “Transfer of Information by Means of Physical Medium of Superweak (Torsion) Fields (Telepathy Analog).”

Nuclear physicist and astrophysicist Dr. Elizabeth Rauscher developed a unified field theory at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971. In it, she expanded on Einstein’s field equations to include the torsion created by the electron’s spin, as well as time. Although an electron’s mass is tiny compared with the nucleus, it still plays an important role in how the atom moves, much as the Moon, though far smaller than the Earth, drives the ocean tides and steadies the tilt of the Earth’s axis. Rauscher recognized the limits of the two-dimensional oscilloscope screen: rather than a sine wave moving only up and down, she proposed that the wave may actually travel in a spiral, because of the speed and phase angle of the electron’s rotation (Rauscher, 1971).

Infrared/Thermal Changes

Molecular vibration and infrared light

According to kinetic theory, molecules are in constant motion, and their average kinetic energy is directly proportional to absolute (Kelvin) temperature. The frequency at which a molecule vibrates depends on the strength of its bonds and the mass of its atoms. The vibrational frequency of a covalent bond, ν, between two masses, m₁ and m₂, can be calculated with the following equation:

where f is the force constant, which is proportional to the strength of the covalent bond, and c is the speed of light (2.998 × 10⁸ m/s).

Stronger bonds vibrate at higher frequencies. A molecule moves between vibrational energy levels by absorbing or emitting infrared radiation, so a substance’s infrared spectrum directly reflects the vibrational frequencies of its bonds. The greater the change in charge distribution as a covalent bond vibrates, the stronger its infrared absorption. Bonds to hydrogen vibrate at higher frequencies because of hydrogen’s low atomic mass.

Heat and chemical reactions

Exothermic reactions, such as many of those involved in inflammation, release energy as heat, light or sound. Heat flows out of the reaction into its surroundings, enthalpy decreases, and such reactions often occur spontaneously. Endothermic reactions, such as photosynthesis, absorb energy: heat flows into the reaction and enthalpy increases. As a rule of thumb, biological reaction rates roughly double with every 10 K rise in temperature, and quadruple with a 20 K rise.

Inflammation and thermal imaging

Inflammation is marked by signaling proteins such as interleukins, soluble vascular and intercellular adhesion molecules (sVCAM-1, sICAM-1), soluble E-selectin and C-reactive protein (CRP). An inflammatory response increases blood flow and metabolic activity in the affected area, producing heat. The body regulates this heat through sympathetic nerve fibers that control blood vessel dilation and sweating at the skin’s surface. These hot (hyperthermic) patterns can be seen with infrared, or thermal, imaging calibrated to the normal human range. In cooler (hypothermic) areas, blood vessels constrict to reduce blood flow, as can happen with nerve damage, fluid retention or redirected circulation.

The heat radiating from the body, outside the visible spectrum, is like the Earth’s thermosphere and is considered a component of the biofield. Temperature shapes the “weather” around the body, and it is one of the first measurements taken at a doctor’s visit to check for fever.

Visible Light

Biophotons

Sir Isaac Newton’s emission theory held that light is made of tiny particles given off by a radiant body. The first reports of biophotons, light emitted by living things, came from Russian researcher Alexander Gurwitsch, who studied the weak ultraviolet radiation given off by onion roots (Gurwitsch, 1923). In the 1970s, German scientist Fritz-Albert Popp and others across Europe began investigating biophoton emissions from the human body (Popp, 2002). Later researchers found that biophotons appear to create a holographic, coherent electromagnetic field throughout the body, using EM frequencies for instantaneous communication (van Wijk, 1992; Tillbury, 1992). Human tissues have also been shown to radiate in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum (Rahn, 1936; Konev et al., 1966).

In Life Force: The Scientific Basis, Dr. Claude Swanson defines biophotons this way:

“Biophoton: In modern quantum theory, light occurs in small packets or particles of energy called photons. In living processes, certain specific types of photons are emitted and received primarily by the DNA, as well as a few large biomolecules. They serve as a function of communications, stimulation of biochemical reactions, and coordination within the body (Swanson, 2010).”

Physicist Herbert Fröhlich showed that many biomolecules act as emitters and receivers of electromagnetic energy (carried by biophotons) and of vibrational energy (as in the primary cilium), providing the frequencies that allow specific reactions inside cells. Because much of this emission and reception is thought to happen through DNA, biophotons may synchronize activity across the whole organism, a phase synchronization that plays a key role in cell communication and coordination. These signals may travel through the acupuncture meridians or the nadis described in the Vedas.

Light and the biofield

The human biofield may also interact with photons, the “energy packets” of light, sometimes called “subtle energy photons.” Ambient light passes through the field both on its way to the body and as it reflects back off it. Physics describes two ways electric and magnetic fields can affect light: the Faraday effect, in which a magnetic field rotates polarized light, and the Kerr effect, in which an electric field changes a material’s refractive index. Together, these suggest the biofield around the body may influence the light passing through it.

Light as medicine

Light affects the body in many ways and is now used in medicine. Dr. Seth Pancoast’s Blue and Red Light; or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine (1877) and Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt’s better-known The Principles of Light and Color (1878) sparked research into light as a treatment for disease.

In 1920, Dinshah Ghadiali, a Zoroastrian immigrant to America, developed Spectro-Chrome Metry, a system describing the effects of shining colored light on the body. Green, in the middle of the visible spectrum, is used to balance the body. In Dinshah’s system, magenta is the counterpart of green from the opposite polarity, scarlet the counterpart of turquoise, and purple the counterpart of lemon.

Dinshah described the rainbow as a toroid, with scarlet, magenta and purple completing the familiar sequence from red to violet. Each color produces a specific response in the body. Red, with the longest wavelength and lowest frequency of visible light, is a “hot” color next to infrared, so it was used to stimulate an underactive organ. Violet, a “cold” color next to ultraviolet, was used to calm an overactive one. Dinshah also divided the electromagnetic spectrum into octaves, designating the highest (the 64th, beyond cosmic “delta” rays) as magnetism (Ghadiali, 2003).

In 1951, Russian scientist S.V. Kravkov found that red light stimulated the sympathetic nervous system while blue stimulated the parasympathetic. Robert Gerard later confirmed that the autonomic nervous system and visual cortex were significantly less aroused by blue or white light than by red (Gerard, 1958).

Lasers and photobiomodulation

Laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. In 1965, Paul McGuff, M.D., used ruby lasers to destroy tumors in rats and humans (McGuff, 1965). Low-level laser therapy, now called photobiomodulation, has been used clinically since the late 1960s, and research into how cells, tissues and organs respond to different wavelengths of coherent light has continued for decades. For example, stem cells derived from fat tissue showed faster growth and higher mitochondrial membrane potential after exposure to 532 nm green laser light (Anwer, 2012), and red and near-infrared light delivered through a helmet has been studied for healing and protecting injured brain tissue (Hamblin, 2016). Tiina Karu’s research into how cells respond to different colors of laser light, much of it available on ResearchGate, is highly recommended.

Plasma and Bioplasma

Plasma, an electrically charged (ionized) gas, is the most common state of visible matter in the universe. Some researchers go further, describing a universe that is not an empty vacuum but filled with electrically active plasma. Physicist Donald Scott describes how plasma behaves:

“Plasma is described as forming twisting filaments, cells, and sheaths. The sheaths are formed at the outer boundaries of the plasma field. They are called double layer (DL) sheaths, and have a higher electrical charge than the ambient plasma within the boundary defined by the sheath. When plasma in arc mode (like lightning, or a plasma welder) travels across distances in space, it forms helical twisting filaments called Birkeland currents that spiral around each other (Scott, 2006). “

The Sun is a dense plasma surrounded by a vast, diffuse bubble of magnetized plasma, the heliosphere, with an outer boundary layer. The Earth has its own plasma envelope, the magnetosphere. In the same way, the human body appears to have its own “atmosphere” and outer boundary.

Beginning in the 1960s, Dr. Victor Inyushin of Kazakh State University (in what was then the Soviet Union) carried out extensive research on what he called the human energy field. He proposed a bioplasmic field made of ions, free protons and free electrons, and described bioplasma as a fifth state of matter, after solids, liquids, gases and plasma. In Inyushin’s work, bioplasmic particles are in constant motion and continually renewed by chemical processes in the cells. The balance of positive and negative particles within the bioplasma is relatively stable, and a severe shift in that balance brings a change in the health of the organism.

Barbara Brennan, a former NASA research scientist and world-renowned energy healer, also describes the human energy field as a “bioplasma” and sees trauma as “frozen,” or stuck, energy within it (Brennan, 1987).

Atmospheric Layers of the Biofield

Layers in ancient traditions

The Earth’s atmosphere forms distinct layers that differ in gas composition, pressure and temperature as it thins out into space. With the Earth’s atmospheric layers well established, it is time to explore the subtler layers of the human “atmosphere” described in ancient writings. Traditional Chinese Medicine describes three treasures, jing (essence), qi (energy) and shen (spirit), associated with the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of a person.

The Vedic tradition, in the Taittiriya Upanishad, describes five koshas, or sheaths, that surround the true self (atman) like nested layers, from the densest to the most subtle:

1. Annamaya kosha, the food sheath: the physical body, built and sustained by food.

2. Pranamaya kosha, the energy sheath: the vital body through which prana, or life force, flows, governing breath and the body’s functions.

3. Manomaya kosha, the mind sheath: thoughts, emotions and sensory perception.

4. Vijnanamaya kosha, the wisdom sheath: intellect, intuition and discernment.

5. Anandamaya kosha, the bliss sheath: the subtlest layer, closest to the true self, experienced as deep peace and joy.

Practices such as yoga, breathwork and meditation are traditionally used to bring these sheaths into balance, moving awareness from the outer layers inward toward the self.

Many modern energy-healing traditions describe seven interpenetrating layers of the biofield: (1) the etheric body, (2) astral body, (3) mental body, (4) causal body, (5) celestial body, (6) ketheric body and (7) the soul.

The Khore, from the esoteric literature of the Zoroastrian tradition, describes nine layers of the human body (Shroff, 1980):

1. The skeleton: the densest physical layer.

2. The organs, systems, muscles, flesh and skin.

3. An etheric, fluid-like substance that flows in and out of the skin. Part of the physical biofield, it removes etheric toxins, expelling toxins and excess energy directly through the skin, by perspiration or through acupuncture points, rather than through the kidneys, bladder or bowels.

4. The aura: the gross outline of the body’s energy plexuses, or chakras, can be seen here. The etheric field of the aura is the densest of the energy bodies, closely tied to the physical, and is thought to extend up to 2 cm beyond the skin.

5. The mental body: life force carrying physical gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, along with vibrational currents.

6. The astral body: carries emotional desires and the most intimate thoughts, which are translated through the soul.

7. The nine-light-layered soul: nestled in the heart chakra and ultimately responsible for all physical, biological and chemical functions.

8. The celestial body: spiritual awareness of the Divine Universal Natural Laws, the soul’s self-creating journey back to the Godhead and Stardom.

9. The etheric body: the spiritual connection of the soul with the Godhead.

Modern research

Sound and biofield researcher Eileen McKusick, M.A., has put forward the Biofield Anatomy Hypothesis: that mind and memory are held in standing waves in the diffuse magnetic field around the body. In her work, specific memories appear to be stored in specific regions of this field, up to five feet or more from the body. McKusick proposes that traumatic memories create incoherent oscillations in the biofield that can lead to dysfunction in the physical body, and she reports being able to locate and modulate chaotic patterns linked to specific events or periods in a person’s life. She theorizes that the field’s standing waves are held in place by a double-layer plasma membrane at its outer boundary, like a cell membrane, or like the Earth’s magnetosphere and the Sun’s heliosphere. In Tuning the Human Biofield, she describes finding zones about 4 inches and 10 inches from the body where the tuning fork seems to meet denser energy, like a high-pressure system (McKusick, 2014). You can read more in the Biofield Tuning section of this website.

In The Loom of Creation, Dennis Milner describes observing distinct biofield layers, with geometric patterns of biophoton emission at different levels, evidence of a subtle structure of light around the body (Milner and Smart, 1976). Milner, a pioneering researcher in London in the 1970s, used an electrographic technique similar to Kirlian photography.

Vital energy

Vital energy underlies many ancient and integrative healing practices and goes by different names: qi in China, prana in Ayurvedic medicine, ki in Japan and rooh in Unani medicine. Cultures and religions around the world have depicted this energy around the body in paintings, wood carvings, and metal and stone statues. It is also the energy said to move the Egely Wheel, a device designed to detect chi.

Acupuncture Points

Acupuncture points are said to stimulate and release the flow of chi along the meridians. They have been needled, stimulated and monitored by millions of people around the world, and research suggests they correspond to real anatomical features. Langevin and Yandow found that acupuncture points and meridians tend to lie along the connective tissue planes between muscles, and they imaged the tissue beneath acupuncture points using ultrasound and microscopy (Langevin and Yandow, 2002).

Robert Becker measured increased DC electrical conductivity at acupuncture points, with skin resistance differing by up to 70,000 ohms between acupuncture points and the surrounding skin (Becker, 1976). Galvanic skin response devices are often used to measure the electrical activity of acupuncture points and help assess a person’s health. The Apparatus for Meridian Identification (AMI), developed by Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, measures electrical activity at the Jing-Well points at the tips of the fingers and toes (Tsuchiya and Motoyama, 2009). The electrodermal characteristics of these points, their conductance and polarization, are analyzed to assess pathology and overall wellbeing (Deadman, 1993).

India’s traditional systems describe similar points. Ayurveda describes marma points, and the Siddha medicine of South India describes varma points: vital energy points where stimulation can support wellbeing but injury can be harmful. Some marma points overlap with Chinese acupuncture points, while others are entirely different.

Meridians/Nadis/Primo-Vascular System

Ancient maps of energy channels

Ancient Indian philosophy and Ayurvedic medicine hold that, in addition to the physical body, there is a subtle body made up of energetic structures, including the chakras, nadis (energy channels), pranas, vayus and koshas (sheaths). The seven-chakra model familiar in the West was popularized by C.W. Leadbeater (Leadbeater, 1927). Traditional Chinese Medicine has mapped the meridian system in detail and has used it to support health and wellness for thousands of years.

Vedic and yogic texts describe a network of 72,000 nadis, the channels through which prana flows, used to assess health and improve vitality.

The primo vascular system

In the 1960s, North Korean researcher Bong Han Kim reported thin, thread-like ducts, later called Bonghan ducts. Professor Kwang-Sup Soh of Seoul National University went on to study them with modern dissection techniques, finding these ducts inside blood vessels (Lee et al., 2004), inside lymphatic vessels (Lee et al., 2005) and on the surfaces of organs (Lee et al., 2004b; Lee et al., 2004c; Shin, 2005). According to Kim, the Bonghan system develops in the embryo earlier than the blood and nervous systems. Soh renamed these thread-like structures the primo vascular system (Soh, 2010; Stefanov, 2013), which may offer a physical basis for the meridians and nadis described in ancient Chinese and Vedic texts.

Meridians in thermal images

Researchers in China and Germany have combined infrared (thermal) imaging with moxibustion, the application of heat to an acupuncture point, and captured thin lines of thermal activity running along the associated meridian (Lan et al., 2016; Schlebusch et al., 2005).

Chakras/Dan Tiens/Nerve Plexus

Dan tiens

Chinese medicine describes three main energy centers, the dan tiens, which store qi and send it out from the taiji pole, the body’s central core (Johnson, 2000):

• The lower dan tien, in the lower abdomen, relates to the energy field of the physical body.

• The middle dan tien, in the center of the chest, relates to the emotional field surrounding the physical body.

• The upper dan tien, in the center of the head, relates to the spiritual field surrounding both.

Chakras

Yogic tradition describes seven major chakras: spinning vortices of energy along the midline of the body. Each spins at its own frequency, from the slowest at the base to the fastest at the crown. The chakras are said to draw in energy from the universal energy field and distribute it through the nadis to the cells of the body. They also open to take in solar and cosmic vibrations and to release etheric toxins. Each chakra acts as a transponder, converting lower frequencies into higher ones and back again. Yogic and tantric texts describe the structure and function of the chakras and nadis in detail.

Chakras and anatomy

In the body, the chakras lie close to the major nerve plexuses along the spine and to the endocrine glands. Thoughts, emotions and hormones all change electrical activity at these plexuses, which in turn alters the subtle field around the body. The seven major chakras are also linked to the seven notes of the musical scale and the seven colors of the rainbow. Some writers have also linked them to the seven heavenly virtues and the seven deadly sins.

Biofield Detection

Lecher Antennae

Austrian physicist Ernst Lecher pioneered high-frequency measurement in 1888 with Lecher lines, a method for measuring the wavelength and frequency of electromagnetic waves. A Lecher antenna is two parallel conductors that act as a transmission line, detecting very-high- and ultra-high-frequency waves. A sliding bar tunes the antenna to a chosen frequency, and it responds when it meets a matching signal. Practitioners use it to detect the ultra-high-frequency waves the body emits and to assess the depth and symmetry of the biofield (www.innovativemedicine.com/lecher-antenna).

Color Screens

In the early 1900s, Dr. Walter J. Kilner, a physician at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, developed color screens to observe three layers of the biofield:

• The etheric double, extending less than a centimeter from the body and following its contour.

• The inner aura, with a “rudimentary structure, being striated”.

• The outer aura, more diffuse than the other layers.

The screens were thin glass cells filled with coal-tar dicyanin dye dissolved in alcohol. The observer looked through a screen at a bright light for 30 seconds or longer, then at a person standing in front of a black background. Kilner believed this saturated the eyes to one color and made them more sensitive to others, including near-ultraviolet light. He also observed that people could project rays from the aura by will (Kilner, 1965).

Chakra Measurements

Dr. Valerie Hunt, a professor of kinesiology at UCLA, used microvoltage sensors to detect peaks of high-frequency electrical activity on the skin over the chakras. She filtered out the 250 Hz motor-nerve frequency to reduce artifact. The resulting frequency spectra showed patterns, not random noise. She later studied people who reported clairvoyance and found that the measured frequency patterns correlated with the colors they described. Her book The Infinite Mind gives further details and data.

The sensors in Hunt’s instrument went off the market, so the system was rebuilt from scratch. In 2014 it was re-engineered for Kimberly Schipke, M.S., as the Biofield Visualization Recorder. It is sensitive enough to pick up electric fields from laboratory electronics and power lines, so recordings are made in remote locations. Sensors placed on either side of a chakra record microvoltage changes as the person focuses attention on that area in meditation. The display graphs the microvoltage reading at each nerve plexus or chakra.

Biomedical engineer, Kimberly Schipke, M.S. taking Biofield Visualization Recorder readings outside the World Peace Centre in Pune, India (Schipke, 2015).

Biofield Visualization Recorder output for microvoltage chakra measurements (Schipke, 2015). Image courtesy of Kimberly Schipke, M.S.

Tuning Forks

Medicine already uses sound therapeutically; lithotripsy, for example, breaks up kidney stones with acoustic shock waves. John Beaulieu and colleagues propose that the pure tones of tuning forks and singing bowls stimulate the body to release nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels and promotes relaxation (Salamon et al., 2003). Tuning forks can also locate the outer boundary of the biofield, much as Lecher antennae or dowsing rods do. A fork sounds louder in a region of greater electric charge than in a more diffuse part of the field. Used like sonar, it pings the space around the body to find areas of dissonance. Introducing a coherent frequency into an incoherent area prompts the body to “auto-tune” itself, often producing relaxation (McKusick, 2012). Read more in the Biofield Tuning section of this website.

Infrared/Thermal Camera

Early thermal imagers showed temperature patterns but were not calibrated to measure specific temperatures. Today’s military-grade radiometric cameras measure absolute skin-surface temperature at high resolution, making quantitative thermal analysis possible in biofield research.

Thermal imaging is best known for breast screening. As a tumor grows, it outstrips its blood supply and forms new vessels. The tumor’s high metabolic activity shows up at the skin’s surface as a thermal asymmetry with linear vascular patterns, which can appear before a change is visible on a mammogram. Because it needs no compression, thermal imaging is also used to monitor women with breast implants for rejection, material fatigue or infection.

Thermal imaging is also useful for studying energy-based therapies such as acupuncture and qigong. The images below follow an acupuncture treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee over 30 minutes, showing its effect to both practitioner and client.

The next images show the hands of a qigong master before and after she focuses her intention on raising qi (energy and heat) in her palms, a striking demonstration of focused intention.

Kirlian Photography

In 1939, Soviet electrician Semyon Kirlian discovered by accident that an object on a photographic plate exposed to a high-voltage electric field produces an image surrounded by a corona discharge, or “colored halo.” The sample sits on a transparent plate charged with high voltage, which ionizes the surrounding gas and stimulates the release of biophotons, much as neon glows when electricity passes through it. A hand placed on the plate shows a glowing outline whose density and fractal patterns vary. Industry has also used the technique to test the quality and vitality of ingredients before products go to market.

Tri-Axial Meter

A tri-axial meter detects electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields. Sensitive models are used to survey homes, offices and other places where people spend much of their time. Old wiring and appliances give off fields that can affect people in different ways. A microwave oven, for example, can leak radiation, and the meter shows the change in the kitchen while it runs. In apartment buildings, a person may be within range of 20 or more wireless networks at once, exposed to their signals even while resting. These meters make the invisible fields in a home measurable, so people can make informed decisions about reducing them.

Conclusion

The biofield is an exciting frontier with vast research potential. As this page shows, it can be described in the language of physics, as the electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields, infrared heat, biophotons and plasma that the body continuously produces. It can also be described in the language of the world’s healing traditions, as the auric layers, meridians, nadis, chakras and dan tiens. These two descriptions increasingly point to the same structures. Acupuncture points line up with connective tissue planes and show distinct electrical properties. The primo-vascular system offers a candidate anatomy for the meridians. And the chakras lie close to the body’s major nerve plexuses and endocrine glands.

Instruments now make the biofield measurable rather than only felt. Microvoltage sensors over the chakras, radiometric thermal cameras, biophoton detectors, Lecher antennae and tri-axial meters each capture a different aspect of the field. Together they show that thought, emotion, intention and therapeutic touch produce measurable changes in the body’s physiology.

Cross-disciplinary research is deepening our understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the human biofield, and new technologies continue to detect ever more subtle signals from the body. A growing body of evidence points to our fundamentally electrical nature. Because fields carry information almost instantly and act on the body as a whole, biofield therapies and technologies promise a gentler, more effective approach to supporting health.

Physics trumps chemistry.

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” (commonly attributed to Nikola Tesla)

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