I am energy. You are energy. We are all energy.
Wait, don’t go! I promise I haven’t turned into an annoying smelly hippy!
Nonetheless, I maintain the above statement as truth. A little while ago, I wrote a blog post about the differences between practicing on your own and practicing among a group, particularly as it pertains to qigong. The post came about from a student’s question who was pondering why his own practice felt so different compared to what he experienced in the weekly class. If you’re looking for the simple explanation of why that is, I encourage you to read that post. But if you’re already aware of that and keen to learn a little about the science behind it, then read on. Like I said, I promise I haven’t become any more of a weirdo than I already am.
We are all (whether we know it or not) blessed to be human beings inhabiting these incredible and fascinating bodies of ours. We are all made of matter. Inherently, by being made of matter and possessing mass, we also have an equal amount of energy, as Einstein summed up with his famous equation, E=MC2. The sum total of our activities every day means that our bodies generate electromagnetic fields. They do this in doing everything from folding the laundry, digesting food, going to the bathroom, and as a result of every metabolic function within us.
While all of our organs generate electromagnetic fields, our hearts and brains put out the largest EM fields, as measured by EEGs and EKGs. Of the two, the heart puts out the strongest EM field. Smile from the heart, indeed! Not only are we continuously producing these fields, but we can also influence other people’s fields. Research examining the patient healer relationship shows how the patient’s heart and brainwaves literally synch up to the healer’s, creating a resonance bond between the two. So, you begin to get a sense of why practicing in class is often so much more powerful compared to your solo practice. But wait, there’s more! A study done on qigong practitioners in Japan in 1992 showed that, using a magnetometer, the heads, bodies, and hands of qigong practitioners emitted an EM field 1000 times stronger than the heart. That’s right. 1000. Consider that as a little food for thought if your solo practice doesn’t seem to be powerful. Now consider that measurement in a group of people. Then you really get a sense of why there’s such a difference between practicing alone and with a group. There’s benefits and reasons to both.
I’m grateful to Cosmos Qigong for helping me overcome my own health issues so that I even have the bandwidth to consider how qigong works within my own body from the perspective of physics. I also understand that meditation can seem a little too woo-woo for some people, so I strive to try and explain some of this phenomenon from the standpoint of science. Plus, it’s really cool when you start to see what exactly is happening! Heath, healing, mental clarity, internal force, inner peace, that’s the icing on the cake!