Science and the Human Energy Field

by

Ray Bishop, Jr. Ph.D.

Recently, I saw a client who had suffered a bad fall during which she seriously injured her jaw and shoulder. When she asked me to do a Reiki session, I was rather reluctant since this modality is one I employ infrequently and in a rather unorthodox manner. Reiki for me has been about calming the system and gaining information in the context of my primary modality, Rolfing�. When I began the session with a basic face palpation I learned from my Usui Reiki master, the client became very anxious and pushed my hands away. The recent impact had left her so traumatized that any direct contact proved extremely anxiety provoking. After a moment's reflection, I suggested that I do the work off body. This is an approach I never use because I prefer direct contact to effect myofascial changes. What I found was that the torsion caused by the impact could be felt several inches above the face and that by following the movement without direct palpation, it began to slowly release. Once this process completed, my client's system began to relax and more direct work became possible.

That I would ever work this way seemed inconceivable. However, continual exposure and proximity to those who worked with and saw fields created a receptivity on my part, enhancing my perception and sensitivity. In fact, I recall the first time I actually saw an energy field. It occurred during a Rolfing movement demonstration in Boulder in early 1995. After a particularly intense piece of work, the model stood up and there appeared a large swirl of energy which extended several feet above her. The field resembled a slowly arcing oval comprised of large black curved arrows. I had read about color changes and other components of the field that others see, but this was not and has never been a part of my experience. Stunned and mesmerized, I watched this odd cycling of energy for about a minute. Eventually, the client started walking and the image dissipated. After class, I went up to a fellow student who saw fields and described what I had seen. She looked at me dismissively and replied: "Well, of course I saw it, Ray. But what about all the other changes in the field throughout the session?" Somewhat abashed, I realized that one woman's commonplace experience was this man's revelation.

These two experiences were separated by four years of working with bodies and serious study of human anatomy and energetic systems. In that time, I asked myself many questions which led me to reevaluate my safe scientific paradigm. I soon began seeking an academic context for my experiences. First, I looked through the writings of Ida Rolf since I had heard anecdotal stories of her working with fields during her sessions. Unfortunately, she remained conspicuously silent on this esoteric component of her method, motivated I suspect by a desire to gain legitimacy in a hostile environment. If I wanted a scientific context for my experience, I had to look elsewhere.

During my Rolfing training my teachers discussed the work of Dr. Valery Hunt, whose pioneering efforts to measure and quantify changes that Structural Integration (Rolfing) created in human structure and function earned her a special place in the Rolfing community. Her "Project Report: A Study of Structural Integration from Neuromuscular, Energy Field and Emotional Approaches" remains the most ambitious and persuasive undertaking of its kind. One of the studies she includes is I believe the first detailed scientific study of auric Kirlian photographs. After presenting her methodology, she cautiously concludes: "Structural Integration in some way effects the bioenergy toward vibrant higher frequencies that are reflected in a more dynamic pattern of Kirlian photographs."1 In another study, Hunt combined the skills of an auric reader and EMG readings to monitor and record changes in the field after SI (Structural Integration) sessions. She found a high correlation between changes in color and amplitude reported by the auric reader and changes in the galvanic readings of subjects hooked up with bipolar electrodes at their chakra centers. Hunt believed that there were progressive improvements of energy flow upward during the ten sessions. Her evaluation of the data led her to affirm: "SI makes consistent and progressive changes in the auric emissions based upon areas of the body processed during each session."2

In a later book, The Infinite Mind: The Science of Human Vibrations, she presents her theories in a less technical style. Here, she is more expansive and discursive, liberally introducing anecdotes and philosophical speculations. Dr. Hunt covers a wide variety of issues including interesting ideas on human thought and consciousness, both of which she sees in terms of quantifiable fields. At one point, she describes a psychic smelling and rather cavalierly asserts: "All of us can experience an odor coming from a field, regardless of whether its source is a chemical or thought form. This impulse is carried to the brain, activating memory."3 Hunt argues repeatedly that any experience recorded in the body can be read and seen in the fields surrounding the body by a sensitive and receptive observer. 

A more familiar resource for students of auric reading is Barbara Brennan's Hands of Light. In her introduction, she cites several studies including Robert Becker's mapping of a complex electrical field which he calls the Direct Current Control System. Becker believed that this field's shape resembled that of the human body and that its fluctuations corresponded to changes in physiological and psychological systems. She also mentions the work of Dr. Victor Inyushin at Kazakh University in the 1950s on the Human Energy Field. He postulated the existence of a bioplasmic energy field which is renewed continuously by chemical processes. Inyushin noted that despite the basic integrity of the field, pieces of it occasionally broke off and could be measured considerable distances from the subject.4 

Another researcher well known in Rolfing circles is the biophysicist, Jim Oschmann, who, has published an impressive corpus of scientific articles largely devoted to the effects of body work on human connective tissue. He also examines how bodyworkers interact with and alter human energy fields. In his The Natural Science of Healing (1993), Oschmann stresses the importance for bodyworkers of understanding field theory. "For those who use their hands in healing, a basic understanding of the biology and physics of energy fields can be useful, both in explaining their (bodyworkers) daily experiences, and in increasing the effectiveness of their work. For it now appears that the energy fields produced by the human being may be the most powerful stimulus to healing that is available to us."5 Later, he introduces the controversial topic of "biological electronics." Here, Oschmann presents an intriguing theory. "The substance of all matter forms an interconnected electronic communication network extending into every nook and cranny of the body."6 He first discusses the fields produced by electrons and protons and then turns his attention to those created by crystals. An intriguing idea discussed here is the "piezoelectric effect", which is caused by minute electrical charges in crystals. Changes in electrical charge, he speculates, are caused by compression and alteration of individual crystals in large matrices. Oschmann then posits that this low level electrical charge also occurs in individual cells. These fields are in part created by pressure differentials within and outside individual cells.

Once we accept this feature of cells, we can employ it to account for how touch changes connective tissue. Touch and pressure effect cells, altering their charge and thereby altering the charge and nature of fields generated around the cells, organs, systems and the entire human structure. Altering these low level electrical charges through touch helps explain how local changes can effect large-scale structural changes in the fascial net. Finally, Oschmann considers larger fields and how human beings interact with and are affected by gravity.7 Here, his ambitious study interfaces with the work of Dr. Rolf, both providing interesting perspectives on the interaction of the human body and the gravitational field.

All this brings me back to my desire to reconciliation of science and intuition. For me this dichotomy is the essence of bodywork. Coming to Rolfing from a traditional academic background, placing my experiences in a larger context feels as natural as seeing fields is for some. A marriage of intellect and intuition fro me enhances my intellectual and aesthetic appreciation of what I do. There exists a wealth of information available for interested students who, like me, desire a more pantheistic view of what we do. My intention here is to stimulate interest in a poorly understood dimension of our work, to legitimize it and to stimulate further discussion and research.

Notes

1. Valery Hunt, Ph.D., "Project Report: A Study of Structural Integration from Neuromuscular, Energy Field and Emotional Approaches." Sponsored by Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (Boulder, CO: The Rolf Institute, 1977), p. 139.

2. Ibid, p. 159.

3. Valery Hunt, The Infinite Mind: The Science of Human Vibrations (Malibu, CA: Malibu Publishing Co., 1995), p. 117.

4. Barbara Ann Brennan, Hands of Light: A Guide to Healing through the Human Energy Field. A New Paradigm for the Human Being in Health, Relationship, and Disease (New York: Bantam, 1988), p. 20. For more detailed information, see her short bibliography which cites several old studies, pp. 283-85.

5. James L. Oschmann, Ph.D., Readings of the Scientific Basis of Bodywork. The Natural Science of Healing (Dover, NH: Nature's Own Research Association, 1977), p. 82.

6. Ibid, p. 132.

7. Ibid, p. 166.

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