Table of Contents ADDITIONAL WORKS BY CYNDI DALE Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction PART I - ENERGY AND ENERGY HEALING Chapter 1 - ENERGY IS UNIVERSAL WHAT IS SUBTLE ENERGY? TOWARD A DEFINITION OF ENERGY MARRIAGE OF WEST AND EAST MEASURABLE AND SUBTLE ENERGIES: WORLDS KNOWN, WORLDS TO EXPLORE THE STRUCTURE OF THE SUBTLE ANATOMY THE KEY SUBTLE STRUCTURES WHY WORK WITH SUBTLE STRUCTURES? A PRIMER ON ENERGY FORMS OF ENERGY Chapter 2 - BEING AN ENERGY HEALER REQUIREMENTS FOR WORKING ENERGETICALLY BEING A SUBTLE ENERGY TECHNICIAN: SPECIALIZED TRAINING THE POWER OF BELIEF THE HEART-CENTERED ENERGY HEALER THE INTUITIVE HEALER PART II - HUMAN ANATOMY Chapter 3 - THE CELLS CELLS ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS A CELL IS A FACTORY THE MITOCHONDRIA AND THE ELECTROMAGNETIC CELL MITOCHONDRIA AND MICROCURRENTS Chapter 4 - DNA BLUEPRINT OF THE BODY EPIGENETICS: BEYOND DNA DNA AS LIGHT Chapter 5 - THE SKELETAL SYSTEM BONE CREATION BONES ARE AN ENDOCRINE GLAND Chapter 6 - THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM THE FASCIAL SYSTEM HOLDS IT TOGETHER Chapter 7 - THE NERVOUS SYSTEM COMPLEX LAYERS THE BRAIN THE BIOCHEMICAL SIDE OF EMOTIONS THE ELECTROMAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF THE PINEAL AND PITUITARY GLANDS Chapter 8 - THE SKIN SKIN COLOR Chapter 9 - THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM THE HEART THE BLOOD Chapter 10 - THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM Chapter 11 - THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM ENDOCRINE GLANDS AND METABOLISM Chapter 12 - THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM DIGESTION AND THE BRAIN Chapter 13 - THE EXCRETORY SYSTEM URINARY SYSTEM THE LIVER THE LARGE INTESTINE THE SKIN AND LUNGS Chapter 14 - THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM THE MALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM THE FEMALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM Chapter 15 - METABOLISM THE THYROID AND METABOLISM THE ROLE OF ATP, AN ELECTRON TRANSPORT CHAIN Chapter 16 - THE IMMUNE SYSTEM THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM THE IMMUNE RESPONSE Chapter 17 - THE SENSES HEARING SMELL VISION TASTE TOUCH PART III - ENERGY FIELDS Chapter 18 - A PRIMER ON ENERGY FIELDS THE VERITABLE FIELDS THE PUTATIVE, OR SUBTLE, HUMAN ENERGY FIELDS Chapter 19 - TWO UNIFIED FIELD THEORIES THE UNIFIED FIELD THEORY THE ZERO-POINT FIELD THEORY Chapter 20 - THE NATURAL FIELDS VERITABLE, OR MEASURABLE, NATURAL FIELDS BETWEEN VERITABLE AND SUBTLE: WHAT ARE THESE WAVES? NATURAL SUBTLE FIELDS Chapter 21 - THE RADIANT SHINE OF MOLECULES: LOST AND FOUND RESEARCH Chapter 22 - L-FIELDS AND T-FIELDS: THE PARTNERS COMPOSING REALITY? Chapter 23 - FIELD POLLUTION: GEOPATHIC STRESS POLLUTED NATURAL FIELDS: VERITABLE (MEASURABLE) ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM POLLUTION POLLUTION FROM NATURAL PHYSICAL FIELDS POLLUTION FROM NATURAL SUBTLE FIELDS A THEORY ABOUT OUR CURRENT CONDITION Chapter 24 - THE POWER OF MAGNETISM THE BODY MAGNETIC BEING A SEMICONDUCTOR: OUR MANY FIELDS THE POSITIVE—AND THE NEGATIVE HELPFUL OR HURTFUL? Chapter 25 - HANDS-ON AND DISTANT HEALING: PROVING SUBTLE FIELDS AND A NONLOCAL REALITY Chapter 26 - SACRED GEOMETRY: FIELDS OF LIFE BASIC GEOMETRY THEORIES CALLAHAN AND GEOMETRY: FIELD RESEARCH ON SHAPES AND PARAMAGNETISM MAGNETIC FIELD INTERACTIONS WITH WATER: FORMATIONS OF GEOMETRY CYMATICS: SEEING SOUND, THE FIELDS OF LIFE DOES IT ALL START WITH SOUND? Chapter 27 - HUMAN ENERGY FIELDS MORPHOGENETIC FIELDS ETHERIC FIELDS SPECIAL FIELDS THE AURA THE SEVEN RAYS THE ASSEMBLAGE POINT: CLUSTERED ENERGY LINES PART IV - CHANNELS OF ENERGY: CHANNELS OF LIGHT Chapter 28 - THE HISTORY OF MERIDIAN-BASED THERAPY Chapter 29 - AN OVERVIEW OF THE MERIDIAN SYSTEM THE BASICS OF CHI Chapter 30 - THEORIES OF THE EXISTENCE, PURPOSE, AND FUNCTIONING OF THE MERIDIANS BIOMECHANICAL THEORY BIOELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY STANDING WAVE THEORY CONNECTIVE TISSUE THEORY THE DUCTAL THEORY Chapter 31 - THE HISTORY OF MERIDIAN SCIENCE Chapter 32 - THE MAJOR MERIDIANS MERIDIAN NUMBERING AND ABBREVIATIONS PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MERIDIANS 1. THE LUNG MERIDIAN 2. THE LARGE INTESTINE MERIDIAN 3. THE STOMACH MERIDIAN 4. THE SPLEEN MERIDIAN 5. THE HEART MERIDIAN 6. THE SMALL INTESTINE MERIDIAN 7. THE BLADDER MERIDIAN 8. THE KIDNEY MERIDIAN 9. THE PERICARDIUM MERIDIAN 10. THE TRIPLE WARMER MERIDIAN 11. THE GALLBLADDER MERIDIAN 12. THE LIVER MERIDIAN 13. THE CONCEPTION VESSEL (REN MAI) 14. THE GOVERNOR VESSEL (DU MAI) HEAD MERIDIANS Chapter 33 - THE BASIC ACUPUNCTURE POINTS THE FIVE TRANSPORTING POINTS THE FIVE-ELEMENT POINTS THE CARDINAL POINTS OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS Chapter 34 - FIVE-PHASE AND RELATED DIAGNOSTIC THEORIES GENERATIVE INTERACTIONS DESTRUCTIVE INTERACTIONS THE THREE VITAL TREASURES THE SIX ATMOSPHERIC STATES THE FOUR LEVELS (OR STAGES) THE SIX STAGES (ALSO CALLED THE SIX CHANNELS) THE EIGHT GUIDING PRINCIPLES THE TRIPLE WARMER (SAN JIAO, TRIPLE HEATER, TRIPLE BURNER, OR THREE BURNERS) Chapter 35 - THE SEVEN EMOTIONS AND THE CORRESPONDING ORGANS THREE BASIC EMOTIONAL PATTERNS THE SEVEN EMOTIONS AND THE ORGANS QUALITIES OF FOODS THAT HEAL THE EMOTIONS SIMILARITIES: MERIDIANS AND OTHER ENERGY CHANNELS PART V - ENERGY BODIES: CHAKRAS AND OTHER “LIGHT SWITCHES” Chapter 36 - ENERGY BODIES THE KEY ENERGY CENTERS: CHAKRAS AN OVERVIEW: WHAT IS A CHAKRA? THE HINDU CHAKRA MODEL THE TANTRIC CHAKRA MODEL THE TRADITIONAL CHINESE CHAKRA MODEL A WESTERN VIEW OF CHAKRAS THE HISTORY OF CHAKRA KNOWLEDGE Chapter 37 - KUNDALINI, THE UNIFYING FORCE THE KUNDALINI PROCESS Chapter 38 - SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES MEET CHAKRA THEORY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Chapter 39 - CHAKRA SYSTEMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD THE SEVEN HINDU CHAKRAS NADIS: CHANNELS OF ENERGY PRANAYAMA: THE VITAL BREATH BEYOND THE CHAKRAS: THE HINDU LINE-UP OF ENERGY BODIES ENERGY BODIES FROM OTHER CULTURES THE HIMALAYAN BONPO CHAKRA MODEL: A TIBETAN ENERGY SYSTEM THE TWELVE-CHAKRA SYSTEM THE TWELVE-CHAKRA SYSTEM AND THE SPIRITUAL POINTS CHAKRAS AND THE ENDOCRINE GLANDS CHAKRA DEVELOPMENT AND AGE CHAKRA STRUCTURE ENERGY BODIES IN THE TWELVE-CHAKRA SYSTEM Chapter 40 - THE JEWISH MYSTICAL ENERGY SYSTEM: THE ANCIENT KABBALAH THE ROOTS OF THE KABBALAH THE TEN SEPHIROTH HEALING WITH BODIES OF LIGHT PART VI - ENERGY PRACTICES ACUPUNCTURE AURASOMA THERAPY AYURVEDA THE CALLIGARIS SYSTEM—WHERE L-FIELDS AND T-FIELDS FIELDS MEET: SECRETS OF THE SKIN CHAKRA EVALUATION: SHAPE, SPIN, AND SPEED CHAKRAS AND GEMSTONES CHAKRAS AND THE ELEMENTS COLOR HEALING (SEE ALSO COLORPUNCTURE) COLORPUNCTURE DIET AND TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUE (EFT) THE FOUR PATHWAYS APPROACH TO HEALING GEOMETRY AND SOUND IN HEALING HERBS AND TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE HOMEOPATHY KINESIOLOGY, OR “MUSCLE TESTING” MAGNETS AND MERIDIAN THERAPY MASSAGE MERIDIAN DENTISTRY MUDRAS: ENERGY SYMBOLS NUMEROLOGY: QUALITIES OF HARMONY POLARITY THERAPY QIGONG: MOVING WITH THE MERIDIANS RADIONICS: HEALING THROUGH THE FIELD REIKI: CHANNELING UNIVERSAL LIFE ENERGY SOUND HEALING TRADITIONAL CHINESE DIAGNOSIS CONCLUSION NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ILLUSTRATION CREDITS INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR ABOUT SOUNDS TRUE ADDITIONAL WORKS BY CYNDI DALE Books Illuminating the Afterlife: Your Soul’s Journey Through the Beyond New Chakra Healing Advanced Chakra Healing: The Four Pathways Advanced Chakra Healing: Cancer Advanced Chakra Healing: Heart Disease Attracting Prosperity Through the Chakras Attracting Your Perfect Body Through the Chakras The Littlest Christmas Star Audio Programs Advanced Chakra Wisdom Healing Across Space and Time: Guided Journeys to Your Past, Future, and Parallel Lives Illuminating the Afterlife Healing Across Time: Guided Journeys to Your Past and Future Sounds True, Inc. Boulder CO 80306 © 2009 Cyndi Dale SOUNDS TRUE is a registered trademark of Sounds True, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author and publisher. Cover and book design by Karen Polaski Illustrated by Richard Wehrman Printed in Korea Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dale, Cyndi. The subtle body : an encyclopedia of your energetic anatomy / Cyndi Dale. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-59179-671-8 (pbk.) 1. Energy medicine. 2. Healing. 3. Chakras—Health aspects. I. Title. RZ421.D35 2009 615.5’3—dc22 2008031838 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is dedicated to the pioneers of subtle energy medicine, the men and women who persevered (and persevere) to create the visible out of the invisible. And to those who continue to live in the mystery of the unseen. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T he true heroes of this book have been unsung through the ages. I’m speaking of the men and women who trusted their intuition and wisdom and, in a spirit of discovery, discovered and worked with subtle energy anatomy. Joining them have been scientists and researchers who have investigated proof of the subtle. These adventurers are responsible for helping the world accomplish a vitally important objective: the marriage of science and spirituality, of visible and invisible. They are working to create a world we all want to live in. This book is the tangible result of a long-held dream of Sounds True founder Tami Simon. Its appearance here and now is testimony to her belief in that which is good, spiritual, and invisible—and continually transforms into physical reality with the guidance of leaders like her. Behind the project stood an entire staff of key players, including Jennifer Coffee, the project manager and in-house editor for this book. Jennifer coordinated the process of writing and illustrating and helped shape-shift the book into a usable document. Kelly Notaras, editorial director, applied keen insight to cull the mammoth first draft and usher it through its many stages of life. And Richard Wehrman, illustrator, provided the most amazing and true renderings of the energy anatomy ever created. The book took true form under the insightful eye and “red pencil” of Sheridan McCarthy, freelance editor, who undertook the impossible task of making sense of everything I wrote. I cannot say enough about her talents, wisdom, impeccable discretion, and wit—for it truly took a sense of humor to review this material with the perfectionism necessary. (How many editors have to ask questions such as, “How many invisible fields might actually emanate from a seeming infinite number of finite bodies?”) Her work partner, Stanton Nelson, shared extensively in the “heavy lifting.” To Cathy Scofield, my friend and personal editor, a huge thanks. Her dedication to this project included sitting next to me on two (sleepless) twelve- hour flights between Minneapolis and Russia, reviewing my first attempts at writing this discourse, and, once home, staying up all night herself to pick away at my footnotes and thoughts. (I’m not sure she ever wants to see the word chakra again.) A thank-you also to the talented and uplifting Marcia Jedd, who contributed research for and assistance with the physical anatomy section. To this group I add two incredible (and smart) human beings who catapulted me into the discovery stage by providing invaluable resources. The first is Steven Ross, PhD, who not only collected vast amounts of research for me through his organization, the World Research Foundation, but also encouraged me. I’ll never forget one of his notes, in which he told me to trust myself, this project, and the higher guidance managing it. Dr. Ralph Wilson, naturopath, also came on the scene at the perfect time, directing me toward people and resources whose hidden knowledge has been illuminated in this book. Anthony J.W. Benson, business manager, agent, and captain of the helm, deserves a thank-you bigger than words can contain. Ultimately, I owe this book to him, for he is the one who insisted not only that I should write it but that I could. He is the model of a person who merges the invisibility of integrity with the visibility of ethical action. And finally, what mother could complete her acknowledgments without thanking her children? To my son Michael, blessings for being you and for deciding to also become a writer. I now don’t feel quite as guilty about the twenty years he spent in a kitchen that has had papers rather than food in the cupboards, computers on the table, and books on the refrigerator. And to Gabe I offer an apology for the Christmas vacation at Disney World, during which your mother spent a good nine hours a day writing. Thank you for summing up the trip by stating, “Mom, you really need to get a life.” INTRODUCTION “The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.” —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin H ow does a dedicated health care professional become the best healer possible? How might a patient become fully informed—and therefore receive optimum treatment? The answer doesn’t entirely lie in following the established routes of a medically based education. We have only to look at the increasing rates of cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and stress-related conditions to know that the boundaries of healing have to stretch further. The well-worn path of Western allopathic medicine, which relies on measurable evidence of disease, and treatments that can be demonstrated in the lab—relying, in essence, on things that are readily apparent—does not hold all the answers we need. To achieve excellence, we must also consider and work with what is not apparent, with what cannot be seen. We must journey into the complex world of subtle energies. This book is for anyone who seeks to positively engage with the health care profession. This group includes us all, for each of us will participate in the world of healing at some point in our lives, personally or professionally. The primary goal is to help healing professionals who wish to make the leap from being “good” healers to being “great” ones. Just as important, however, is the need of the contemporary “consumer,” the person afflicted with or affected by disease— a lack of ease in body, mind, or soul. The truth is that we all need to understand the information in this book, for it speaks to the self and reality behind the obvious, the stuff that composes the material world. This book is an encyclopedia of subtle energy anatomy, the structures of the energies that underpin physical reality and our physical bodies. It is also a compendium of subtle energy tools and techniques: energy-based methods for making a difference. The goal of this work is to enable energetic shifts—those that affect change in the flow of energy—to create true healing. All medicine is essentially energy medicine, for energy composes the world. And it is important to remember that all known and observable medical phenomena once dwelled in the subtle, or immeasurable, realms. X-rays, bacteria, and even the biochemical effects of aspirin were once unobservable. Many of the subtle energies you will encounter in this book have recently been measured, and we can fully expect that many of those yet to be measured will be one day. In the meantime, we must not let lack of scientific evidence constrain us from working with subtle systems; lack of “proof” has not impeded the effectiveness of the subtle energy practices that have been devised through the ages. To save a patient’s life, to calm the uneasy, or to put a smile back on a child’s face, today’s healers need to draw upon more than conventional wisdom. They need to learn to see into, through, and beyond the obvious to the true causes of health issues. The answers to questions about life and death lie in the unseen, and so all professional healers, no matter their professional affiliations, should strive to become subtle energy professionals as well. What is subtle energy? Underlying physical reality are subtle, or indiscernible, energies that create and sustain all matter. The so-called real world—the one you can touch, smell, taste, hear, and see—is constructed entirely from these energies, which are imperceptible through the five senses. In fact, all of reality is created from organized and changeable systems of subtle energy. To most effectively help someone heal—to aid the sick, alleviate suffering, and bring hope where there is darkness—we must acknowledge and work with the subtle energies that create imbalances and disease. We must work causally, not just symptomatically. When we do, we expand the field of medicine to include the entire picture of the forces at work in illness and health. Until a few years ago, modern medicine was divided into two main categories: Western and Eastern. Western health care, also called allopathic medicine , is mechanistic; Western practitioners seek to alleviate symptoms through scientifically documented methods. We must honor and revere this approach: where would we be without antibiotics or cardiac pacemakers? At the same time, Western medicine has been on the scene for a relatively short time. For thousands of years, what we now call Eastern medicine was dominant. Eastern medicine is devoted to holistic care, which treats the total person— mind, body, and spirit—not just his or her symptoms. In the West, we use terms like complementary or alternative medicine to describe this approach. Elsewhere in the world, Eastern medicine is called traditional medicine. It is the medicine of the culture. Western and Eastern methods seemed diametrically opposed, and the schism between them seemed unsurpassable, until practitioners and patients noticed that the two approaches enhance one another. With this discovery, a new health care process was born, termed integrative care: the marriage between West and East. Western, Eastern, and integrative medicine are all vital paths to healing. But there is another component to truly full-spectrum health care. It is called energy medicine —specifically, subtle energy medicine . With knowledge of it, healing professionals can attain a new level of medical excellence. This is because all diseases are energetic, or related to the flow of energy. The optimum health care approach, therefore, encompasses energy issues. Everything is made of energy: molecules, pathogens, prescription medicines, and even emotions. Each cell pulses electrically, and the body itself emanates electromagnetic fields. The human body is a complex energetic system, composed of hundreds of energetic subsystems. Disease is caused by energetic imbalances; therefore, health can be restored or established by balancing one’s energies. We can’t see all the energies that keep the body healthy, however. Those we can see are called physical, or measurable, energies. Those that we can’t yet perceive are called subtle energies. Subtle doesn’t mean delicate. In fact, science is beginning to suggest that the subtle—the as yet immeasurable—actually directs the measurable and forms our physical framework. The idea of subtle energies is not new, although the term itself is relatively recent. Its roots are embedded in human history. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors developed systems to work with these energies. Over time, they continued to codify and develop these systems, and the healing methods that were based on them, for a very important reason: the systems worked While subtle energy knowledge began intuitively, some of the most exciting work in the field today is happening in laboratories, clinics, institutes, and universities around the world, where history meets research to yield proof Groundbreaking studies using leading-edge equipment, physics, and processes have developed a new set of subtle energy “mystics”: scientists unveiling the mysteries of the energy system. For this reason, each section of this book emphasizes the scientific evidence substantiating the existence of subtle energy structures. This book offers information on many different treatment methods based on subtle systems. At first glance, some of these methods might seem “nonmedical.” What do color and sound have to do with healing? What might