Bioelectro-magnetics is the study of how living organisms interact with electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic spectrum includes a wide range of radiation, from low to high frequency. These forms of radiation include electric currents, heat, radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x rays, gamma rays, and cosmic-ray photons.

The field of bioelectric medicine (BEM) has an untapped potential for both diagnosis and treatment of illness for three reasons. It is:

a) sensitive to subtle organic change

b) very quick to use

c) comparatively easy to use, once the technical irregularities are overcome

The study of bioelectro-magnetic medicine could provide the conceptual framework that may explain how acupuncture, homeopathy, and healers produce effects that cannot be explained by conventional medicine.

Nonconventional therapies are based on experimentation, observation, and description, but not necessarily on theory. Having a workable theory for how bio-electric medicine works would contribute possible methods for proving effectiveness as well as opening up additional uses for it.

For example, bioelectric medicine is already being used for bone repair: developing treatments for osteoporosis might be a logical next step. Early diagnosis of major illnesses may make it possible to provide much earlier effective natural treatment. One such possibility is being researched by Barbara Brewitt, Ph.D., a research associate at Bastyr University.

Measuring Acupuncture Points
The permeability, or conductance, of an electrical charge on skin at acupuncture points is two to six times stronger than on skin adjacent to those points. According to Dr. Brewitt, certain diseases are associated with even higher conductance. The early stages of cancer and chronic viral infections, such as Epstein-Barr and HIV, show this characteristic pattern at the acupuncture points relating to lymphatics, joints, and connective tissue. On the other hand, terminal stages of cancer and AIDS are associated with lower than normal electrical conductances, particularly at spleen points. Such findings emphasize the importance of developing more reliable electro-dermal screening (EDS) instruments.

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Difficulties in Using EDS Instruments
Dr. Brewitt points out that there are three variables which cause scientists to hesitate in using electro-dermal screening instruments, even though they have been available for many years.

1. Different instruments vary in the amount of voltage they apply.

2. The instruments measure the points for varying lengths of time, which then register as different readings.

3. Knowing the exact point location and being able to exert consistent pressure are both important to collecting consistent data. Therefore, the skill and reliability of the operator affects the reading of the instruments.

The full potential of bioelectric medicine cannot be achieved until devices are developed which are more consistent in what and how they measure.

Electrical Fields Outside The Body
Electric fields produced outside of the body can be natural, such as those from another living being or from the earth's geomagnetic field. Artificial external fields include those created by power lines, radio broadcasting towers, or medical devices. Some of these artificial fields have been blamed for electro-pollution and causing health risks.

High energy fields are able to dislodge electrons from an atom or molecule. These are the forms of radiation known to be harmful, such as x-rays. This characteristic of dislodging electrons is called `ionizing'. There has been concern in recent years that long-term exposure to non-ionizing fields may also have health risks. Examples receiving publicity recently include children living in homes under power lines developing a higher incidence of leukemia; and pregnant women, working daily at computers, having riskier pregnancies.

Regeneration
The discovery that oscillating non-ionizing electromagnetic fields in extremely low frequencies can have beneficial effects is the foundation of bioelectric medicine. According to the panel who wrote about bioelectro-magnetism for Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons, the applications for nonthermal, nonionizing electromagnetic fields include bone repair, nerve stimulation, soft tissue wound healing, treatment of osteoarthritis, electro-acupuncture, tissue regeneration, immune system stimulation, and neuroendocrine modulations.

It has also been found that specific frequencies have specific effects on specific tissues, just as drugs do. One theory about how it works is that the cell membrane receptors respond to the electro-magnetism, influencing the cell's inner processes. Research in the area of nerve regeneration has already brought great hope to people suffering from spinal cord injuries.

Richard Gerber, M.D., author of the definitive text on energetic medicine, Vibrational Medicine, discusses the pioneering experiments of Dr. Robert O. Becker, an orthopedic surgeon in New York. Becker was interested in the fact that salamanders are able to regrow limbs while frogs, only one evolutionary stage away from salamanders, have lost this potential.

He measured the electrical differences between the two animals at the stump of a limb and discovered that both the salamander and the frog showed a positive potential. However, the salamander's stump soon reversed in polarity to a negative potential, which gradually returned to zero over the days that it regrew a new limb. When Becker artificially used a negative potential on the frog's healing stump, to Becker's surprise, the frog grew a new limb!

How Is Electricity Affecting Organisms?
One of the profound questions raised by bioelectric medicine is whether electrical stimulation is affecting cellular function or whether it is affecting the holographic potential of the body's subtle electrical field. Scientist Rupert Sheldrake describes the idea that there is a kind of memory in nature, something like a collective memory expressed through `morphic fields', which are thought of as existing within and around each organism. Sheldrake points out that the idea of morphogenetic fields was already known in biology. It's not his invention. He describes the possibility of invisible patterns underlying the growth of organisms, nervous systems, or instincts. Whether such fields exist and whether they are related to the subtle electric fields are questions still being researched.

Morphic fields might also be described as fields of habit set up through repeated activity. In humans, they might develop through habits of thought and speech. The more a particular thing is thought or done, the easier it is for others to learn. It is an evolutionary concept but not all that is involved in evolution. It is a kind of natural selection. According to Sheldrake, successful ideas get repeated, "then through repetition they become probable, more habitual." Morphic fields seem to organize self-organizing systems like molecules, ecosystems, or plants.

There is a phrase to describe this -- something seems to be `in the air'. Similar fashions or inventions may be designed simultaneously by two people living thousands of miles apart. We don't know what is going on, but morphic resonance could help explain it. Sheldrake describes the phenomenon of morphic resonance being observed in laboratories. When a new kind of crystal is designed, it tends to be very difficult to form. As the chemistry is repeated in labs all over the world, however, it may become so easy to form that it begins contaminating other substances and can become problematic. Scientists assume there must be a mechanistic explanation but it's never been proven.

Morphic resonance could explain some of the events of the past and give us new tools for the future. Bioelectricity may be the tip of a morphic resonance iceberg. Through these subtle energies, we may learn how to choose or influence already-existing probabilities for the purpose of improving health and healing.

Dr Brewitt can be contacted through Bastyr University. Phone 206-823-1300.

For those interested in subtle energies, contact:

The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine, at 303-278 2228. They publish a peer-reviewed journal, Subtle Energy, and a membership magazine, Bridges, and sponsor an annual conference in June with research presentations as well as experiential workshops.

Dr. Richard Gerber is currently working with the World Research Foundation in Sherman Oaks, CA at 818-907-5483 to create a multidisciplinary healing research center and information exchange.

Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. is author of A New Science of Life and Seven Experiments That Could Change the World. Visit hiswebsite at http://www.sheldrake.org

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