Guest guest Posted March 20, 2001 Report Share Posted March 20, 2001 Sadhant Singh/Christopher; Perhaps you would be interested in the Insti- tute of Noetic Sciences. <http://www.ions.org> If you click on Research and go to Module 5, you will find this: " Module 5: SUBTLE ENERGIES & ENERGY MEDICINE A clear connection between subtle energies and consciousness has yet to be fully developed. At this stage, there is increasing interest in the study of electromagnetic phenomena within and between biological systems. However, the field of BEM--bioelectromagnetics--overlaps the ill-defined and somewhat controversial area of experience called "subtle energies." Two routes may lead to better understanding of this area: Exploring the ways conscious intentionality may influence subtle energy processes; and exploring the impact of subtle energies and information processes on states of awareness. This topic includes a variety of ostensibly "energetic" exchanges within and between living organisms-from applications of electromagnetic radiation to assist bone growth, to biophoton emission (radiant light energy from living systems), and through attempts to account for the puzzling healing effects attributed to therapeutic touch, homeopathy, and non-conventional energies such as ch'i, kundalini, and prana. Applications of "subtle energies" or "subtle information exchanges" in healing processes appear to take science to the borders where consciousness and biological matter interact. Selected Projects from Module 5" I was intrigued by their mention of kundalini. They also have a profile of Dr. Wayne Jonas who envisions "sensitive computers" that will digitally train afflicted people the techniques of yogic mastery: Wayne Jonas, MD speaks with an easy, confident style. His feet are firmly planted on the ground while his words lift the spirit of the audience as he offers his view on the changing face of American medicine. He is addressing a group of scientists at the recent "Science and Spirituality" conference, which he co-convened. His eyes twinkle as the questions begin: It is clear that he enjoys his work. "What brings you to this field?" someone near the front asks him. "Im here to bridge worlds," he replies quickly. "The creative and the intellectual are really one and the same. We talk about the insights from the spiritual traditions and the rational prowess of science as though they were diametrically opposed, but theyre not divided. Every person has them, every person uses them. And its important to nurture both aspects of ourselves." The audience nods, recognizing a true bridge-making artisan in their midst. They respectfully acknowledge his many accomplishments that help to link the worlds of the intuitive and the rational. Discuss this articleRead recent IONS Review articlesSearch ArchivesJoin the IONS communityIONS HomeAbout IONSContact Us Jonas, who is both a physician and an alternative practitioner, serves on IONS Scientific Advisory Committee where he helps guide the consciousness research program. In addition, he has many significant jobs that take him across the country and around the world. He is a member of the newly appointed White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Here he combines his scientific acumen with a finely tuned political savvy. When he is not attending White House Town Hall Meetings or speaking to international groups of scientists or health professionals, he is Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He works one-on-one with post doctoral students seeking research training. Through his work as teacher, he has begun to formulate a curriculum for what the future of medicine could look likeincluding both health professionals and consumers in a health care system that is inclusive of all aspects of body, mind, and spirit. Perhaps Jonas is best known for his previous role as Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1995 to 1998. Here he managed a $50 million annual research budget in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), helping set the national agenda for medicine in the twenty-first century. He also helped move CAM from the position of an office within the NIH to that of an independent center with a growing budget and an increasingly sophisticated research portfolio. Under his guidance, NIH created thirteen major research centers around the country and supported more than fifty other research projects, including four multi-center clinical trials.Jonas came to the NIH from his position as Director of the Medical Research Fellowship at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where he taught research methods and conducted laboratory research in immunology and toxicology. A Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army, Jonas was formerly Commander and Clinical Director of the 130th General Hospital in Dexheim, Germany. He received his medical degree from Bowman Gray School of Medicine, and did his residency training at the DeWitt Army Community Hospital. In addition to being a board-certified family practitioner and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, he is trained in homeopathy, bioenergy therapy, diet and nutritional therapy, mind/body methods, spiritual healing, electro-acupuncture, and clinical pastoral education. How did a Lieutenant Colonel and conventionally- trained physician come to be a leader in the efforts to reform and expand US medicine? Jonas was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1955, the son of a Presbyterian minister who worked as a hospital chaplain. The senior Jonas actively sought to integrate "Clinical Pastoral Education" into the military in order to help hospitalized service personnel. As a military family, the Jonas lived in various countries, exposing the young man to many cultures and ways of being in the world. It is to his father that Jonas looks when asked how he became a bridge-builder between the spiritual and the scientific. It is to his wife and three children that he looks when asked how he stays balanced amidst his exhausting travel and lecture schedule. Today Jonas is moving in some remarkable new directions. His ambition is to identify the underlying mechanisms that explain the efficacy of complementary and alternative medicines. His goal is to build a research program that develops basic science and clinical research simultaneously. Jonas intends to make use of modern scientific technology to address the mechanisms of action in a wide range of healing modalities. For example, the healer/scientist envisions the development of protocols using gene-array procedures to examine possible genetic expression arising from CAM signals in distant healing. He hopes to discover whether stable-water complexes exist in homeopathic and informational preparations, identified as informational signals that alter cell viability, ion flux, stress protein production, apoptosis and genetic expression in cell lines. Brain-imaging techniques drawn from the neurosciences may be used to help identify possible neural correlates of mind/body and consciousness-related healing modalities in both healthy and sensitive subjects. For Jonas, a useful model for understanding the efficacy of modalities such as homeopathy, distant healing, or subtle energies may lie in the area of communications theory and information biology. "The world can be seen as a giant communication process," he suggests. "In the case of medicine, the current view of the body is grounded in molecular biology." This he equates with the Pony Express system of mail delivery. "Rather than taking the body as some kind of relay system (passing a healing signal from one carrier to the next in some linear process), the body also functions with something analogous to broadband Internet capabilities that allow bodily parts to communicate over long distances almost instantaneously. And one must also consider the possibility of nonlocal characteristics in the biological process, with widely separated parts interacting in ways that dont have obvious physical carriers. Much of what we are talking about has to do with consciousness: being aware of what you do and what you expect to happen."Where will all this lead? For Jonas, there are many potential applications from this information-systems approach to biology. It may be possible to develop "biosensors" in which biological systems are used to detect subtle environmental signals that have previously been undiscovered in conventional medicine. It may even be possible to develop methods for creating "accelerated healing spaces" and products that enhance recovery from specific illnesses. Jonas imagines the discovery of a kind of digital "pharmacology" that may evolve, in which specific treatments are produced and delivered by computer. He also notes that electromagnetic treatments may be developed to improve resistance to degenerative brain diseases and to reduce fatal heart attacks, while scientists discover the underlying mechanism of action in homeopathy and ultralow-dose effects. In all of this emphasis on rigorous science, Jonas recognizes the need for cultural sensitivity in bringing various perspectives together"building bridges" between differing worldviews and models of reality that are represented in the CAM field. His program of research involves a comprehensive mapping of the interface between consciousness and the physical world. For this futurist, the science and society of tomorrow must develop in a more purposeful manner to gain a better, more inclusive form of truth-seeking. In this process, we see that science is not just a matter of discovery, but that we as conscious agents are co-creators of reality. "If people expect that a certain outcome will occur, it will occur more often for a variety of reasons. One reason is that theyre looking for the effect to occur, so theyll notice it more often. The closer you look for something, the more often youll find it. In this way, our values come to the forefront of the scientific process. What kind of world do we want to discover?" Jonas asks. "Its really up to us." Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, is IONS director of research and senior scientist at the Complementary Medicine Research Institute at the California Pacific Medical Center. She has published numerous articles on consciousness studies. " Twenty years ago Yogiji called KY "your personal biofeedback machine". Maybe soon this biofeedback will be available on the web. Keeping Up, -Seanrobb -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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