Biofield Science and Healing: An Emerging Frontier in Health and Medicine

Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP, Shamini Jain, Ph.D, David Muehsam, Ph.D., Richard Hammerschlag, Ph.D., John Ives, Ph.D., Wayne Jonas, M.D., Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D., Daniel Vicario, M.D; Rauni Pritten King, RN, MIH, CHTPI, & Erminia Guarneri, M.D., FACC

 

We live in an age of unparalleled technological and scientific progress, juxtaposed with a cascading array of poor social, health, and environmental choices that could bring our species to the brink of catastrophe. Within the past 100 years alone, we have created significant advances in technologies to better control disease outbreaks, extend our lifespan, enhance global communication, increase our work productivity, and improve our overall quality of life.  At the same time, we face major healthcare crises including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental illness. Despite our best efforts and technological advances, we have not yet conquered these and other life and health challenges. In addition, health disparities are increasing and the 100-year rise in life expectancy is flattening. This continuance of human suffering, in the face of all our advancements, is leading to substantial and exponentially growing costs to individuals and to society.

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Chopra Foundation co-sponsors new article on the science of healing – bringing focus to the emerging field of energy and biofield medicine

Leading scientists in major U.S. universities collaborate with clinicians to publish cutting-edge scientific thinking in healing

San Diego, CA:  What is the vital force behind all existence? The first Biofield Science and Healing Conference sponsored by leading not for profit organizations in integrative health, healing and medicine,  The Chopra Foundation, Samueli Institute, Miraglo Foundation, and Institute of Noetic Sciences, addresses this question  in  “Biofield Science and Healing” in a Special Issue of a peer-review scientific journal, Global Advances in Health and Medicine.

 

“We need to move beyond studying the body as a physical machine,” said Dr. Deepak Chopra, Founder of the Chopra Foundation and coauthor with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi of Super Genes.   “Deepening our scientific understanding of the role of consciousness and the biofield in health and healing will help to create a radical shift in medicine that will relieve unnecessary suffering.”

 

This special issue explores the following questions and more:

 

  • What is Global healing traditions such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda?
  • Do energy healing therapies like Healing Touch and Reiki really work?
  • Can healing intention improve health outcomes?
  • What is the scientific evidence for these practices, and can our present scientific and medical models be expanded to account for these healing approaches?

 

In these papers, researchers from top universities, healthcare providers, and healers discuss the science behind biofield healing practices and offer perspectives from physics, psychoneuroimmunology, technology, clinical research, and medicine.

 

“This Special Issue is groundbreaking because it reflects the importance and the willingness of scientists to meet side-by-side with healers and healthcare practitioners, to learn more about how healing works and translate that to healthcare practice.”, said Dr. Shamini Jain, Assistant Professor at UC San Diego, Founding Director of the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI).

 

The Special Issue, published by Global Advances in Health and Medicine, released November 17th and can be assessed at http://www.gahmj.com/.

 

 

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Sleepout to Support the Homeless Youth

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On November 19, 2015,  Board of Director Chris Clarke joined thousands nationwide and slept outside the Covenant House crisis center in New York to support homeless youth.  Please read his story.

 

Why Don’t We Know We Are Enlightened Already?

By Deepak Chopra, MD

“Enlightenment” is a word that has gotten so entangled with vague confusion that many people have given up on it. I don’t mean the classic seeker who hungers for God, Nirvana, or higher states of consciousness. There isn’t an accepted definition of enlightenment that allows for a general discussion where everyone knows what the topic is. Behind this apparent fuzziness, however, the concept of enlightenment has evolved tremendously over the past few decades, and in that time the possibility of being enlightened has come closer and closer to everyday experience.

Forty years ago enlightenment was inevitably associated with “Eastern mysticism,” a phrase that appears in the subtitle of Fritjof Capra’s famous book, The Tao of Physics. Meditation was associated with religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. Enlightenment was a spiritual attainment for Indian gurus or monks sitting in Himalayan caves. The fact that meditation is now a common practice in the West, with many research studies proving its benefits in terms of mind and body, shows how much the landscape has changed.

The next major change, which could bring a seismic shift in our worldview, would bring enlightenment into daily life the way that meditation is comfortably established in daily life. I’ll devote the next few posts to exploring how enlightenment affects everyone, not just a select few living under exotic circumstances. We can begin with the most obvious question you can ask yourself. Are you enlightened already?” This may seem at first like an almost absurd question. If there are ancient traditions for reaching enlightenment, a project that can take a lifetime’s effort and discipline, it must be impossible that a normal person going about his everyday life could already be enlightened. (more…)