Is Your Energy Making You Sick?

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You've probably noticed that many hospitals and health care systems now offer classes on different meditation practices. Why? The medical community has finally accepted the mind/body connection that ancient healers and spiritual paths have known for thousands of years.

This connection is not a vague connection where your mind and energy have little to do with whether you're healthy or not.

It's a direct connection that has a huge impact. Scientists had to see it before they would believe it.

In the book Biology of Belief, Bruce Lipton references early research where scientists studied cells in a petri dish. They were looking for a connection between the health of a cell and its environment. So, they tested out different environments and confirmed that the environment does have a substantial impact.

For example, when the dish is in a "positive environment" (meaning the dish is clean and free of debris), a healthy liver cell will divide and begin to grow other liver cells. Though in a "negative environment" (a petri dish with bacteria and contaminants), that same cell will start to mutate. In extreme cases, a healthy liver cell will even begin to become cancerous in a negative environment.

Next, they started working with energy fields to see what impact these might have. In the initial studies in the '80s, researchers used magnetic fields that they could measure. They set up both positive energy fields and unstable or negative fields. The cells responded just as they had with positive and negative physical environments; only the response came much faster.

The researchers sat at a table and bombarded an unhealthy liver cell in a petri dish with positive energy. In good energy fields, the cell naturally died and divided, creating new cells that were actually healthy. These cells then replicated and began to grow into a healthy liver.

However, when the researchers put negative energy fields around a healthy liver cell, it began to mutate. The cell reacted much faster to energy than to chemicals from a neurotransmitter. With a negative energy field, when it was time for the now-unhealthy cell to die and create a new one, the new cell was unhealthy as well.

In later follow-up studies, scientists brought in people like Qi Gong and Reiki masters as well as people who practice Hawaiian energy work to send positive energy from their hands toward the cells. Next, they asked the practitioners to think angry thoughts, or experience a very negative state, then push that energy toward the cells. Again, they get the same results: The cells could be observed reacting positively to positive energy and negatively to negative energy. And the response was almost immediate.

I know some people still think of energy as "woo woo" stuff. They'll say, "I don't believe that energy practices like Reiki can really help healing." Though scientists actually saw energy's impacts. They may not understand how or why it happens, and the fact that it does happen is no longer in doubt.

Take a step back for a moment and remember that long ago, we didn't think germs existed because we couldn't see them. We didn't yet have instruments that could see them. And, since we couldn't see them, germs like energy seemed like "woo woo" to most people. Four hundred years ago, we set down a path of becoming disconnected from the wisdom ancient traditions knew because we couldn't observe it.

A philosopher by the name of Descartes is to blame. He's been dead for 400 years though, so I would recommend letting it go. Descartes' work said, "If you can't see it or feel it, it's not worth studying." This statement was expanded on by another philosopher, Immanuel Kant, who said, "The only thing worth studying in the universe is substance. Anything without substance is not worth studying."

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What we're discovering now, especially in quantum fields of research, is that there are all kinds of important things going on around us that we can't see and can't feel. Substance is not as solid as we once thought.

Now that you recognize the impact energy has on your very cells, how can you use this knowledge to be healthier? Here are areas to check:

1. Check out the energy in your environment. We all know the difference between being around people who make us feel good and people who make us feel bad or tense, right? To your body, it's the difference between eating a healthy meal and eating one that gives you indigestion. Focus on being around those positive people and eliminate (or at least minimize) the time you spend with those who bring you down.

2. Pay attention to what you allow into your environment. This includes TV you watch, books and articles you read, and your time spent on social media and the internet. Notice how you feel as you read or watch them. Do they help you feel inspired, happy, motivated? Or do they make you feel angry, frustrated, frightened, or discouraged? Every cell in your body is responding to what you choose to bring into your environment.

3. Pay attention to your internal attitude and thoughts. Are you sending negative energy to your own petri dish? Decades ago, medical researchers established a strong correlation between anger and negative emotions, like heart disease, stroke, and compromised immune systems. Your attitude and thoughts emit energy and that energy directly affects the health of your cells.

You may not be able to see the energy that affects your body. But now that you know how important it is, you can support your cells by maintaining a positive energy environment.