According to one study, a person has on average 4,000 distinct thoughts every day. An astonishing 96% of those thoughts are repetitive and made of recycled material concerning routine, daily life activities. Up to a third of the thoughts are unwanted and uncontrollable. Other researchers have estimated that the percent of negative thoughts could be much higher, going up to 80%.
Evolutionary biologists explain that negative and repetitive thought patterns make perfect sense from the perspective of biological survival. The ‘caveman brain’ helped our distant ancestors survive, by automating their routine tasks and by nudging their alertness towards life-threatening dangers from predators and the harsh environment. Threat-detection genes have been passed on transgenerationally, and amplified by the process of natural selection.
Ironically, this ‘caveman brain’ has now become a health risk factor for the modern man. A constant state of fear and alertness produces high beta brainwaves, a neurological signature of the survival mechanism. Research has found that anxiety and stress increase the risk of death by 20%. Living in a whirlpool of negativity, anger and grief triggers the secretion of two primary stress hormones, adrenaline (the fight-or-flight hormone) and cortisol (slow-burning, long-acting hormone that can lead to chronic states and widespread damage in the body).
Moreover, it is not always necessary to experience a stressful situation is real time, in order to trigger release of cortisol. Thoughts have power to arouse strong emotions. The body cannot make a difference between a real threat and an imagined one. Each time we perceive or imagine a stressful situation, our brains are signaled, driving high the levels of stress hormones.
To counteract this eroding effect of worrying thoughts which flood the mind, and to reset the stress hormone levels in the body, one can meditate, practice mindfulness or follow any other psycho-spiritual discipline.
EEG scans show that the brain is at efficiency peak when neurons fire in synchronicity and the brain regions and neural groups are in a state of coherence. The power of the mind over matter is exhibited only when the brain coherence is not disrupted by stress. Stress also drains over 70% of the blood from the prefrontal cortex, depriving us of our critical thinking skills. This is known as ‘brain fog,’ a state of clouded judgment and diminishing capacity for rational thinking.
The coherent mind is a sharp, focused mind, capable of greatness. Dr. Yan Xin, a qigong master, has demonstrated multiple times in the presence of physicists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences an ability to alter the decay rate of the particles of a tiny object made of radioactive material. By projecting his qi energy, In 50 separate experiments he has been able to either slow down or speed up the decay rate. He was effective while being in close proximity to the object, as well as while working over 2,000 km away from the experimental setup.
Several experiments in local and remote healing have confirmed alterations of the magnetic fields around patients. In 2011, the Kronn-Jones experiment demonstrated a 25% decrease in the electromagnetism of substances infused with ‘subtle energy.’
Dr. McCraty writes about an important process of heart-brain synchronization, which leads to heightened creativity, intuition and performance. He explains that the heart-brain coherence is a naturally-occurring state which happens when the brainwaves are synchronized with the heartbeat patterns.
An experiment conducted by the HeartMath Institute demonstrated that the DNA molecule can be altered through intentional focus directed while being in a coherent heart-brain state. Similarly, Dr. Yan used his qi energy to demonstrate disintegration of cancer cells through the power of coherent mind.
Many proponents of nonorthodox healing techniques adopt the language of quantum physics to explain the way in which an intent, coupled with a coherent state, produces a healing effect. The two major principles they employ are the observer effect and quantum entanglement. The observer effect states that the very act of observing causes ‘the swarm of possibilities’ (all possible outcomes) to ‘collapse’ into a particular one. In the words of Dr. Amit Goswami, ‘The agency that transforms possibility into actuality is consciousness.’
Psychologists often warn us of the expectancy effect (expectancy bias): when we expect to see a particular outcome (or a given result), its likelihood increases. The very act of hypothesis formulation can lead to a cognitive bias (partiality) and selective reporting in the process of analyzing data. There are many examples of how the expectancy bias can affect one’s life. Students who are constantly reminded of how difficult a particular course or activity is, typically underperform. Patients who believe that an illness is incurable and lack faith in ‘miracles,’ often decrease their life expectation and prospects of healing. The fact that 70% of the findings published in international, peer-reviewed science journals are not replicable (as reported by ‘Nature’) is an indicator of how strongly scientists’ beliefs shape the results of their own research.
The second quantum principle, entanglement, is a phenomenon where two quantum particles which originate from the same place remain entangled even at a great degree of separation. Therefore, Albert Einstein famously described entanglement as a ‘spooky action at a distance.’ While entanglement traditionally applied only to the realm of the small (subatomic particles), recent research has shown evidence that quantum effects can also be observed in larger systems. For example, a 2013 research has concluded that the human sense of smell detects molecules based on their quantum energetic signature. Neuroscientists have also described the process of phase locking, in which neural regions of the brain, possibly synchronized by quantum level communication, fire in coherence.
Finally, it is important to stress the cumulative effect of coherent individual intentions. The shared experience of groups, communities and the humanity at large, is an expression of collective global consciousness (or Jung's collective unconscious). The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) uses random number generators (RNGs) to record moments/events of peak collective experience. The RNGs recorded statistically significant deviations shortly before the occurrence of high-impact events, racing from the 9/11 attacks to celebrations of the International Peace Day.
Dr. Gregory Matloff proposed his theory of a ‘photo-consciousness field,’ a medium which links our individual, local minds to the universal, cosmic, nonlocal mind. When we, as single individuals, achieve the state of personal coherence, we align our local minds to the cosmic mind, and positively contribute to the state of global coherence. This is our individual contribution to the wellbeing of humanity and Planet Earth. At the same time, by synchronizing with the nonlocal mind, we overcome limitations, deepen our perception, become more creative, and improve at problem-solving skills.
~Based on the book ‘Mind to Matter’ by Dawson Church~