The Heart in Ancient Wisdom at Intersection with Modern Cardiac Sciences, Part III
We believe this definition is the most accurate and comprehensive description of the human heart and its higher cognitive functions describing its cellular memories and responsibilities for the later day and illustrating its role in human consciousness and upper cosmic connections.
In the current era there is great and historical move to link back to the ancient wisdom of heart views but with the flavor of scientific evidence utilizing the technical advances, discoveries and observations.
Scattered scientific groups and individuals started to explore the new discipline of neurocardiology [22-29], heart energetic fields and other related disciplines. But the most important scientific breakthroughs in this direction were related to Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and its different frequencies and the heart capabilities to communicate with the biology around the planet and the far away galaxies [30-33]. Rev. Stephen Hales (1733) was the first to note that pulse varied with respiration and in 1847 Carl Ludwig was the first to record Respiratory Sinus Arrhythemia. With the measurement of the ECG (invented in 1895) and with the emergence of modern signal processing in the 1960s and 1970s, the relationship between HRV and human body in health and disease became more cospicious. The irregular behavior of the heartbeat is readily apparent when HR is examined on a beat-to-beat basis, but is overlooked when a mean value over time is calculated. These fluctuations in HR result from complex, nonlinear interactions among a number of different physiological systems. HRV is thus considered a measure of neurocardiac function that reflects heart– brain interactions and autonomic nervous system (ANS) dynamics [34,35].
The Human Heart as Emotional Organ
The perspective to the human heart as emotional organ is a breakthrough that was not possible without HRV science. The ability to perform quick heart focused breathing to initiate cardiac coherence state is remarkable discovery in the field, after which large number of research and publications start to infiltrate the main medical arena. Coherent heart rhythm can be defined as a relatively harmonic (sine-wave-like) signal with a very narrow, high-amplitude peak in the LF region of the HRV power spectrum and no major peaks in the VLF or HF regions (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Heart rhythm coherence ratio calculation: high-amplitude peak in the LF region of the HRV power spectrum and no major peaks in the VLF or HF regions. (Rollin McCraty, et al. The Coherent Heart, Heart–Brain Interactions, Institute of HeartMath).
The term psychophysiological coherence is a distinctive mode of function driven by sustained, modulated positive emotions. At the psychological level, the term “coherence” is used to denote the high degree of order, harmony, and stability in mental and emotional processes that is experienced during this mode. Physiologically speaking, “coherence” is used here as a general term that encompasses entrainment, resonance, and synchronization - distinct but related phenomena, all of which emerge from the harmonious activity and interactions of the body’s subsystems. The complexity of heart functioning in physiological as well as psychological and emotional aspects was disclosed clearly with the advances to understand the complex regulation of HRV. An optimal level of HRV within an organism reflects healthy psychophysiological function and an inherent self-regulatory capacity, adaptability, or resilience [35-41].
The importance of HRV as an index of the functional status of physiological control systems was noted as far back as 1965 when it was found that fetal distress is preceded by reductions in HRV before any changes occur in HR itself [42]. In the 1970s, reduced HRV was shown to predict autonomic neuropathy in diabetic patients before the onset of symptoms [43-45]. Reduced HRV was also found to be a greater risk factor of death post-myocardial infarction than other known risk factors [46]. It has clearly been shown that HRV declines with age and age-adjusted values should be used in the context of risk prediction [47].
A number of studies have shown that reduced HRV is associated with measures of inflammation in subjects with no apparent heart disease [48].
In the last fife decades the science of HRV gained exponential developments.Many thanks to Richard Gevirtz, Rollin McCraty, Karl Pribram, Joe Kamiya, Don Singer (who coined the term HRV), David Joffee, Fredric Shaffer, Robert Nolan,Paul Lehrer and others who contributed to our new HRV understanding and endorsed to us the keys to navigate in opening its remaining closed doors.
Land mark of the scientific advances in the field started in the early 1990,s with the establishment of the HeartMath Institute (HMI) by Doc Childre as a director and Rollin McCraty as chief scientist and their successful group in Boulder Creek, California. Much of the scientific understanding of the heart central role in human psychophysiology would not be reality without HMI contributions to the scientific communities. HMI research suggests the heart is an access point to a source of wisdom and intelligence that we can call upon to live our lives with more balance, greater creativity and enhanced intuitive capacities. All of these are important for increasing personal effectiveness, improving health and relationships and achieving greater fulfillment. For more than 30 years, the HeartMath Institute Research Center has explored the physiological mechanisms by which the heart and brain communicate and how the activity of the heart influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition and health.
The King of Organs
King of Organs (KOO) International Conferences for Advanced Sciences established by Abdullah Alabdulgader in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia is the first scientific congress of its type exploring the non- pumping functions of the human heart, heart intelligence, and the spiritual heart. This new scientific direction is a real call for scientific revolution [49]. Five International conferences were hold in 2006,2008,2010,2012 and 2019.The KOO conferences were hold with academic and research partnership with HMI since 2007. Thanks to King of Organs heroes: Rollin McCraty, Paul Rosch, Franz Hlberg (founder of chronobiology science in modern medicine), Elchin Khalilov, Zglool Alnajar, James Lynch, Zuhair Alhalees, Cornelissen Germaine Irving H. Zucker, Jmes S. Gordon, Jeffrey L Ardel, Neha Sangwan, Jack Ginsberg, Peter Ganger, Alfonsas Vainoras, Minvidas Ragulskis. Helane Wehhbeh, Carlo Ventura and others, In 2012 KOO was awarded the Gold Medal for scientific advances being able to open new field of heart sciences especially related to the intimate relationship between human heart, solar eruptions and cosmic rays. This was a reality after the successful cooperation with HMI and its great project called the Global Coherence Initiative (GCI). The (GCI) is a science-based, internationaleffortthatseekstohelpactivatetheheartofhumanity and promote peace, harmony and a shift in global consciousness. GCI is working in concert with other initiatives to help realize the increased power of collective intention and increase consciousness using a scientific approach that conducts groundbreaking research on the interconnections between humanity and Earth’s magnetic field environment. The first station was in HMI and the second being in the counterpart hemisphere of the planet under the care of King of Organs Foundation in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia.
The personal relation of Abdullah Alabdulgader with his Heart Brother, Rollin McCraty was reflected to the scientific arena. They were able to perform the longest record in human history of the activity of human heart synchronized with solar activity and cosmic rays. This record extended for 24686 hours, long exceeded the one-week similar record done by our spirit father and great teacher the later Franz Halberg, the founder of chronobiology in modern science. This scientific milestone was published in nature scientific reports [50].
Great Barrier Reef Corals from The Great Barrier Reef of Australia (1893) by William Saville-Kent (1845-1908).
In this longest synchronization study in human history, we examined the relationships between solar and magnetic factors and the time course and lags of autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses to changes in solar and geomagnetic activity. HRV measures were correlated with solar and geomagnetic variables using multivariate linear regression analysis with Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons after removing circadian influences from both datasets. Overall, the study confirms that daily ANS activity responds to changes in geomagnetic and solar activity during periods of normal undisturbed activity and it is initiated at different times after the changes in the various environmental factors and persist over varying time periods. Increase in solar wind intensity was correlated with increases in heart rate, which we interpret as a biological stress response. Increase in cosmic rays, solar radio flux, and Schumann resonance power was all associated with increased HRV and parasympathetic activity. The findings support the hypothesis that energetic environmental phenomena affect psychophysical processes that can affect people in different ways depending on their sensitivity, health status and capacity for self-regulation [50].
In another paper, we published the results of a study on the effect of the Heart Lock-In meditation technique on the synchronization between heart rate variability and local magnetic field activity [51]. A technique based on the near-optimal chaotic attractor embedding was applied in order to evaluate the geometrical synchronization between analysed time series. The results demonstrate that optimizing HRV to reach cardiac coherence using Heart Lock- Intechniquehadastronginfluenceontherelationshipbetween cardiac and geomagnetic activity.
In another work, we documented that coupling between geomagnetic activity and the human nervous system’s function was identified by virtue of continuous monitoring of heart rate variability (HRV) and the time-varying geomagnetic field [52]. A time series correlation analysis identified a response of the group’s autonomic nervous systems to various dynamic changes in the solar, cosmic ray, and ambient magnetic field. There were significant correlations between the group’s HRV and solar wind speed, Kp, Ap, solar radio flux, cosmic ray counts, Schumann resonance power, and the total variations in the magnetic field. In addition, the time series data were time synchronized and normalized, after which all circadian rhythms were removed. It was found that the participants’ HRV rhythms synchronized across the 31-day period at a period of approximately 2.5 days, even though all participants were in separate locations. Overall, this suggests that daily autonomic nervous system activity not only responds to changes in solar and geomagnetic activity, but is synchronized with the time-varying magnetic fields associated with geomagnetic field-line resonances and Schumann resonances [52].
Those publications [50-52] are the strongest scientific evidence in human history to document that the connections of the human heart to the planet and the universe can be optimized when we are in peace with ourselves and environment as described by the coherent state.
Author
Dr. Alabdulgader, a senior congenital cardiologist/electrophysiologist, has obtained multiple board certifications and memberships from prestigious medical schools and universities in record time (1991-1995) and established a major cardiac hospital funded by his Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz.
He established the first registry of congenital heart diseases in the middle east which was followed by a nationwide registry and was credited for being the first to described a new congenital anomaly of the heart in 2005. He established a series of international conferences (King of Organs) for advanced cardiac sciences in 2006 which is the first medical conference that explores topics related to the information processing and energetic role of the heart.
Dr. Alabdulgader believes that we are at the start of a true revolution in the history of medicine, and his understanding of the broader role of the human heart in ethical, religious and social contexts has drawn major media attention. He was recently elected as a member of the scientific board of the International committee on Global Geological and Environmental Change.
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Note
This is the third part of an article first published in "Cardiology & Vacular Research". Alabdulgader A. The Ancient Wisdom at Intersection with Modern Cardiac Sciences. Cardiol Vasc Res. 2021; 5(1): 1-13.