At the Heart of the Matter

Our effect on one another can go much deeper than brain waves, right to the heart of our genes. Here’s an astounding study of how the heart, intention and DNA can be entangled. The following is one of a range of studies conducted by researchers at the Institute of HeartMath in California as they sought to determine what kinds of states increase or decrease the effectiveness of the direct effect of intention on our bodies. They have found that “heart coherence” and overall internal body coherence (how well all of your organs and systems are working together or communicating with each other) increases the effectiveness of intention. (This topic is covered in more detail in the Healing section of this website.)

It has long been known that our hearts don’t beat in a monotonous regular rhythm but display a wide range of beat rates. This heart rate variability (HRV) is a good indicator of health. People with greater HRV tend to be healthier than those with less variability. In addition, the overall patterning of the heart’s rhythm can vary along a spectrum from disordered to ordered (also called “coherent).” HeartMath researchers found that emotions profoundly affect the heart’s dynamics and its state of coherence, such that negative emotions (e.g., hopelessness, anger, jealousy) lessen the heart’s coherence and cause disorder in the coordination between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. Conversely, positive emotions, especially appreciation and gratitude, increase heart coherence and the coordination of body processes and systems. The scientists at HeartMath developed a focused heart-centered “meditation” technique that has been shown to increase heart coherence, and if practiced consistently over time can also increase overall internal body coherence.

The findings by HeartMath researchers have led them beyond the study of health into the intriguing realm of psi research, for it turns out that our hearts are powerful “resonators” of energy. When our heart is in a highly coherent state, we are better able to use our focused intention to affect matter, including our own bodies and those of others. Explore some of HeartMath’s experiments.

In one series of experiments, HeartMath investigators were testing to see if intention could affect the shape of DNA. “Conformation” is the technical term for the shape of a biological molecule, and in this experiment, the aim was to see if it was possible to use intention to wind or unwind the two strands of the DNA helix. (See “Modulation of DNA Conformation by Heart-Focused Intention,” which is listed in the Resources section, for all the details, which are too complex to go into here.) Two groups of subjects were recruited: one group was taught the HeartMath heart coherence meditation technique (we’ll call then the “heart group”) and the other group—which would serve as the control group—was not. The heart group would undertake three different kinds of trials:
• one in which they were in a heart-coherent state and tried to influence the shape of the DNA in a specific way (to either unwind or wind it)
• one in which they were not in the heart-coherent state while they tried to influence the shape of the DNA
• and the final one in which they were in the heart-coherent state but did not try to influence the shape of the DNA
Monitoring equipment, such as ECG readings, were used to determine when the individuals had entered a heart-coherent state. The control group was asked to simply relax and use their intention to try to change the shape of the DNA. The particular task (wind or unwind the DNA strands) for each trial was assigned in a double-blind, randomized way.

DNA samples were prepared (called “identical aliquots”) under controlled conditions and in ways that guarded against environmental and other influences changing their shape. The prepared DNA samples were each placed in a sealed test tube, and then each test tube was placed in a beaker so that no one had direct contact with the sample. The test subjects were allowed to hold the beaker containing the sealed DNA sample during each intention trial.

The results showed that DNA is subject to the influence of our minds and changes according to our specific intention (wind or unwind). Plus, our intention coupled with a state of heart coherence produces a greater effect.  In some trials the mean change in the DNA from its baseline state/shape was 10.27 % (p < 0.01). Some of the largest effects changed the DNA’s shape by up to 25%. The control group, however, showed no effect beyond chance odds. 

This series of studies provided a wealth of intriguing data, among them that strong internal decoherence, such as with extreme negative emotions, appears to also have an effect. In the study one of the control participants came to his session enraged and deeply frustrated. During this trial he was unable to focus his intention, but his highly charged energy state appeared to have an effect, as the DNA strands not only unwound (which turned out to be the intention for that run), but also displayed a shift in the absorption curve. 

The implications for this kind of study are staggering. They call into question what medical science claims about the effect of genetics on our health. We are not at the mercy of our genes, as we have been told, but are able to affect our bodies in profound ways, even at the level of our DNA. We have powerful healing capacities that are as yet largely untapped. This subject will be discussed in more detail in the Healing section of this website.

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As we said, the evidence is in. There are too many different types of studies on wildly different kinds of living and non-living systems that show focused intention affects the material world—they can no longer be discounted. When combined as a body of evidence, these different types of experiments, carried out by dozens of researchers over decades, stand as a testament to the still largely untapped potentials of human beings and of our influence upon the world and interconnection with it.