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Energy Medicine
Book reviews
327
Energy Medicine The scientific basis Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh 2000 (ISBN 0 443 06261 7). Illus. 275 pages by James L Oschman £19.99 With a BSc in biophysics, a PhD in biology, and several postdoctorate research Fellowships, this author is well qualified to write a truly pioneering book that collates research-based evidence to support the concept of the body as an interconnected web of informational vibrations and frequencies. Spectral analysis shows that molecules interact through their ‘fingerprints’ of opposite charge and resonant field frequencies; the ‘lock and key’ of mechanical analogy is useful but obsolete.
The Earth’s magnetic field
Schumann resonance
Pineal gland and magnetite bearing tissue
Brain
∞
Perineural system
Projected biomagnetic field
Injury repair
Summary of pathways involved in magnetoreception, regulation of brain waves and therapeutic emissions from hands of therapists. Micropulsations of geomagnetic field, caused by Schumann resonance, are detected by pineal and magnetitebearing tissues associated with the brain
As highly structured entities, cells can be modelled as solid state electronic systems with frequency ‘windows’ that can both receive, amplify and act upon incoming signals and respond as frequency transmitters. Cytoskeleton arrays project from the cell surface to enter and sense the changing properties of the extracellular medium. The molecular lattice structure of the triple helical collagen fibrils, surrounded by lattice sheaths of ‘bound’ water molecules, acts as a network of proton conducting pathways throughout the body, connecting everywhere to everywhere else as an informational living matrix. These molecular arrays, with their ‘liquid crystalline’ semi-conductor properties, also generate the piezoelectric potentials that are common to all body structures. The whole body is continually swept by the wide range of electrical and magnetic field frequencies generated by the brain, the heart, and the striated and smooth muscle systems. The 3-5 watt contractile power of the heart, for example, sends rhythmical electrical potentials flowing along the vascular system and generates pulsing magnetic fields that can be detected some four metres distant from the body. Concepts of tuning, resonance, and entrainment apply to the informational interaction between cells, organs and tissues. Health, trauma and disease can be interpreted in energy frequency profiles, and there is a branch of electromedicine, known as bioresonance therapy, which both diagnoses and treats on this basis. In sum, the body hums with bioelectric currents, electromagnetic fields, frequencies, vibrations, and energies in endless transformation. The physical structures of the body comprise a continuous tensional network of tendons and connective fibres supported by discontinuous sets of compressive struts. Such structures are known as tensegrity systems after Buckminster Fuller, and have considerable clinical implications concerning the effects of trauma on functional integrity. The physical forces of gravity and movement shape the tensegrity system which, in turn, acts as the informational circuitry of the body through its bioelectric properties. The three main branches of physiotherapy – tissue man-ipulation, electrotherapy and exercise therapy – all interact with the living matrix, and concepts based upon energy medicine research add a much-needed dimension to our understanding of their effects. Most of the complementary, or bioenergy, therapies regarded as ‘fringe’ by orthodoxy, are founded upon energy medicine concepts and research, and Dr Oschman reviews many of them, including acupuncture, healing, homoeopathy, myofascial release, magnetotherapy and vibrational medicine. With a foreword by Candace Pert, of psycho-neuroimmunology fame, this book of 16 chapters, with titles such as ‘Measuring the fields of life’, ‘The circuitry of the body’, ‘Therapeutic entrainment’, ‘Gravity, structure, and emotions’, and ‘The electromagnetic environment’ presents physiotherapists with a host of fascinating and clinically relevant insights into ‘the living matrix’ of body and mind. Some interpretations of the data are provocative and controversial, but that is the excitement of ‘cutting edge’ research and speculation. Robert A Charman FCSP DipTP
Physiotherapy June 2000/vol 86/no 6
327
Energy Medicine The scientific basis Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh 2000 (ISBN 0 443 06261 7). Illus. 275 pages by James L Oschman £19.99 With a BSc in biophysics, a PhD in biology, and several postdoctorate research Fellowships, this author is well qualified to write a truly pioneering book that collates research-based evidence to support the concept of the body as an interconnected web of informational vibrations and frequencies. Spectral analysis shows that molecules interact through their ‘fingerprints’ of opposite charge and resonant field frequencies; the ‘lock and key’ of mechanical analogy is useful but obsolete.
The Earth’s magnetic field
Schumann resonance
Pineal gland and magnetite bearing tissue
Brain
∞
Perineural system
Projected biomagnetic field
Injury repair
Summary of pathways involved in magnetoreception, regulation of brain waves and therapeutic emissions from hands of therapists. Micropulsations of geomagnetic field, caused by Schumann resonance, are detected by pineal and magnetitebearing tissues associated with the brain
As highly structured entities, cells can be modelled as solid state electronic systems with frequency ‘windows’ that can both receive, amplify and act upon incoming signals and respond as frequency transmitters. Cytoskeleton arrays project from the cell surface to enter and sense the changing properties of the extracellular medium. The molecular lattice structure of the triple helical collagen fibrils, surrounded by lattice sheaths of ‘bound’ water molecules, acts as a network of proton conducting pathways throughout the body, connecting everywhere to everywhere else as an informational living matrix. These molecular arrays, with their ‘liquid crystalline’ semi-conductor properties, also generate the piezoelectric potentials that are common to all body structures. The whole body is continually swept by the wide range of electrical and magnetic field frequencies generated by the brain, the heart, and the striated and smooth muscle systems. The 3-5 watt contractile power of the heart, for example, sends rhythmical electrical potentials flowing along the vascular system and generates pulsing magnetic fields that can be detected some four metres distant from the body. Concepts of tuning, resonance, and entrainment apply to the informational interaction between cells, organs and tissues. Health, trauma and disease can be interpreted in energy frequency profiles, and there is a branch of electromedicine, known as bioresonance therapy, which both diagnoses and treats on this basis. In sum, the body hums with bioelectric currents, electromagnetic fields, frequencies, vibrations, and energies in endless transformation. The physical structures of the body comprise a continuous tensional network of tendons and connective fibres supported by discontinuous sets of compressive struts. Such structures are known as tensegrity systems after Buckminster Fuller, and have considerable clinical implications concerning the effects of trauma on functional integrity. The physical forces of gravity and movement shape the tensegrity system which, in turn, acts as the informational circuitry of the body through its bioelectric properties. The three main branches of physiotherapy – tissue man-ipulation, electrotherapy and exercise therapy – all interact with the living matrix, and concepts based upon energy medicine research add a much-needed dimension to our understanding of their effects. Most of the complementary, or bioenergy, therapies regarded as ‘fringe’ by orthodoxy, are founded upon energy medicine concepts and research, and Dr Oschman reviews many of them, including acupuncture, healing, homoeopathy, myofascial release, magnetotherapy and vibrational medicine. With a foreword by Candace Pert, of psycho-neuroimmunology fame, this book of 16 chapters, with titles such as ‘Measuring the fields of life’, ‘The circuitry of the body’, ‘Therapeutic entrainment’, ‘Gravity, structure, and emotions’, and ‘The electromagnetic environment’ presents physiotherapists with a host of fascinating and clinically relevant insights into ‘the living matrix’ of body and mind. Some interpretations of the data are provocative and controversial, but that is the excitement of ‘cutting edge’ research and speculation. Robert A Charman FCSP DipTP
Physiotherapy June 2000/vol 86/no 6