Earthing_ The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? Part 1

Earthing_ The Most Important Health Discovery Ever.

by Clinton Ober.

Foreword.

By James L. Oschman, Ph.D. Author of By James L. Oschman, Ph.D. Author of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis and and Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance

This book unfolds an amazing story of discovery, a process that you, the reader, will soon experience for yourself as you read through the pages ahead.

It is a rare and humbling experience for a scientist to have the opportunity to explore new ground-and this story is all about ground-and partic.i.p.ate in research that quickly infuses better health and more happiness into people's lives. It has been an exciting and challenging process for me. I was forced to ask questions that had never been asked before. The answers have ranged from fascinating to astounding, and they have shed light on some of the most important unsolved problems in physiology and medicine.

Among the many surprising revelations this book holds is an obvious, fundamental, and yet overlooked answer to the question of inflammation-recognized as the central health issue of our time-that surely will lay the foundation for many academic investigations and doctoral projects well into the future. I say that without equivocation, as an experienced academic cell biologist and biophysicist who has published dozens of articles in some of the world's leading scientific journals. The research in this book puts forward, and from a completely unexpected direction, a powerful reason for the proliferation of inflammation and, most importantly, what we can do about it.

As you read this book, you will quickly learn some profound and life-impacting facts you never knew before about our relations.h.i.+p with the planet we live on. You'll learn, for instance, how electrons play a central role in this relations.h.i.+p. The role of electrons in biology and health has long been my favorite subject. Of special importance in my explorations of the electronic aspects of life was an a.s.sociation during the 1980s with the leading research group studying this subject, consisting of n.o.bel Laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi and colleagues from around the world at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Ma.s.sachusetts. A number of these great inquiring minds were electronic engineers and materials scientists recruited to study a field he created and named electronic biology. electronic biology. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi was considered one of the leading scientists of the twentieth century, and his research and writings have been a continuing source of inspiration and insight. I have published a series of articles and two books on the ways electrons can move about within the human body and the ways various therapeutic methods influence electron motions. The research summarized in this book adds a whole new dimension to our understandings of electronic biology. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi was considered one of the leading scientists of the twentieth century, and his research and writings have been a continuing source of inspiration and insight. I have published a series of articles and two books on the ways electrons can move about within the human body and the ways various therapeutic methods influence electron motions. The research summarized in this book adds a whole new dimension to our understandings of electronic biology.

This book traces the discoveries of Clinton Ober, a pioneer in the cable TV industry, who uncovered the health benefits of Earthing-his term for connecting ourselves to the surface of our planet by sitting, standing, or walking barefoot on the Earth or by sleeping on special conductive sheets and pads connected to a simple metal rod stuck in the ground outside a bedroom window. Clint invented these sleep systems and a number of other devices that help us to restore a vital but previously overlooked connection with Mother Earth.

Many people describe a sense of well-being when they walk barefoot on the Earth. The stories and the research in the book reveal the background, dynamics, and implications of this feel-good sensation, a real experience indicative of something profoundly important that most of us have been missing in our lives. This missing link is so profound in fact that it seems to do away with or dramatically improve so many health challenges common in this day and age: insomnia, the chronic pain of multiple diseases and injuries, exhaustion, stress, anxiety, and premature aging. I was quickly and enthusiastically drawn into this research when I saw how many people experienced a wide variety of health benefits from simply connecting their bodies to the Earth. Especially impressive has been the experience my physician friend and colleague, Jeff Spencer, D.C., has had during the spectacular series of victories of the American cycling teams in the Tour de France. You'll read about Jeff's remarkable story later in the book. These observations were augmented with my personal observations of many friends who benefited from the application of Earthing systems in their lives. When my ma.s.sage therapist began using Earthing with her clients she achieved so many successes that physicians in the area began sending her their most difficult cases to treat. My own challenge was to determine precisely how Earthing produces such benefits and to find a way of explaining this accurately in the language of science.

Our research on Earthing has uncovered what is perhaps the most simple and natural remedy against proliferating, painful, and often deadly conditions, including the diseases of aging, created by various kinds of inflammation. As you will read further on, our hypothesis for how this remedy works is unlike any you have ever heard. In all its ramifications, we think it represents a new healing paradigm.

In short, Earthing restores and maintains the human body's most natural electrical state, which in turn promotes optimum health and functionality in daily life. The primordial natural energy emanating from the Earth is the ultimate anti-inflammatory and the ultimate anti-aging medicine.

For more than a decade, Clint Ober has tirelessly pursued a one-man mission to awaken a skeptical world to a simple and forgotten fact: that the Earth beneath our feet contains great healing energy and that connecting ourselves to this energy is immediately beneficial as well as intuitively and remarkably simple.

As with any new discovery, Clint had to endure skepticism and derision from "experts," some of whom regarded him as crazy. But he persisted and has now gathered significant scientific evidence for his out-of-the-box idea. Moreover, thousands of people who have applied the concept of Earthing in their lives feel, look, and sleep better, and they have less pain.

As we explored absolutely new avenues of research in order to validate the concept of Earthing and determine how it affects the human body, Clint turned out to be a rock solid and dedicated guide to those of us with Ph.D.s after our names. Clint often refers to his lack of education as a scientist, but what he has accomplished shows that determined and inspired individuals can accomplish an enormous amount by teaching themselves what they need to know. I have been continually astonished by Clint's precise and accurate insights that go beyond the conclusions a logical scientific mind would usually develop. I feel that I have been privileged to work with a genuine discoverer and pioneer whose interest in helping others exceeds any personal interest by far.

Steve Sinatra, a Connecticut cardiologist who specializes in integrative medicine and has an interest in electromedicine, met Clint in 2001 and saw great promise for Earthing in his own field of cardiology, as well as medicine in general. Steve encouraged Clint to stick with it and pursue research, particularly the connection with inflammation, which had been recently found to be the probable cause of heart disease.

Persist he did. Eventually, Clint found open-minded experts in the fields of medicine, physiology, and biophysics, and inspired a series of research projects showing that the surface of the Earth is like one gigantic anti-inflammatory, sleep booster, and energizer-all wrapped up in one.

Now, Clint, Steve, and veteran health writer Martin Zucker have teamed up to present the exciting story of Earthing and how it can help all of us Earthlings.

To break new ground means to do something different from anything done before. If ever the term groundbreaking groundbreaking applies to a book, it certainly does here, literally and figuratively. This book is about the ground beneath our feet, and the revelation of a vital electrical continuum between the Earth and the living organisms that dwell upon it. applies to a book, it certainly does here, literally and figuratively. This book is about the ground beneath our feet, and the revelation of a vital electrical continuum between the Earth and the living organisms that dwell upon it.

Walk, stand, and sit barefoot on the ground for a half hour or so. If you have PMS or arthritic pain or a backache or indigestion or jet lag or are just feeling fatigued, go outside (weather permitting, of course) with your bare feet placed directly on the Earth.

At the end of that time you will feel better. And as you feel better, a lightbulb will go off in your head. You will realize that although you live on the surface of the Earth your lifestyle has separated you from the limitless healing energy that, unknown to you, the surface beneath your feet holds. It's there, and always there, and yours for the taking.

PART ONE.

Why We Are Unhealthy-The Missing Link

CHAPTER 1.

Electrical You and Your Electrical Planet Have you ever noticed a subtle tingling or sensation of warmth rising up from your feet during a barefoot stroll on a sandy beach or gra.s.sy field glistening with the morning dew?

Did you feel revitalized at the end of your walk?

If you did, you experienced the Earth energizing your body.

The fact is that we live on a planet alive with natural energies. Its surface teems with subtly pulsating frequencies, a phenomenon unknown to most people. Who regards the sand, gra.s.s, sidewalk, or dirt beneath their feet as an energy field?

But that indeed is what the ground is and always has been.

Put another way, your planet is a six s.e.xtillion (that's six followed by twenty-one zeroes) metric ton battery that is continually being replenished by solar radiation, lightning, and heat from its deep-down molten core. And just like a battery in a car that keeps the motor running and the wheels turning, so, too, do the rhythmic pulsations of natural energy flowing through and emanating from the surface of the Earth keep the biological machinery of global life running in rhythm and balance-for everything that lives on the land or in the sea.

People. People.Animals.Fish.Plants.Trees.Bugs.Bacteria.Viruses.

Throughout history, humans have strolled, sat, stood, and slept on the ground-the skin of their bodies touching the skin of the Earth-oblivious to the fact that such simple contact transfers a natural electrical signal to the body.

Only recently has the knowledge and significance of this connection been explored and explained by scientific experts in geophysics, biophysics, electrical engineering, electrophysiology, and medicine. From them, we are learning that the Earth's electrical energy maintains the order of our own bodily frequencies just as a conductor controls the coherence and cadence of an orchestra. We all live and function electrically on an electrical planet. We are each of us a collection of dynamic electrical circuits. In the living matrix of our complex bodies, trillions of cells constantly transmit and receive energy in the course of their programmed biochemical reactions. Think of them as microscopic electronic machines. The movement of nutrients and water into the cells is regulated by electric fields, and each type of cell has a frequency range in which it operates. Your heart, brain, nervous system, muscles, and immune system are prime examples of electrical subsystems operating within your "bioelectrical" body. The fact is, all of your movements, behaviors, and actions are energized by electricity.

OUR LOST ELECTRICAL ROOTS.

Most people, even in this scientific age, are totally unaware of their bioelectrical nature. Practically no one has the slightest notion of an electrical or energetic connection between his or her body and the Earth. n.o.body learns about it in school. So n.o.body knows that we have largely become disconnected and separated from the Earth. In developed societies, in particular, we have essentially lost our electrical roots. Our bare feet, with their rich network of nerve endings, rarely touch the ground. We wear insulating synthetic-soled shoes. We sleep on elevated beds made from insulating material. Most of us in the modern, industrialized world live disconnected from the Earth's surface. Although it is not something you probably have ever thought about, you may be suffering needlessly because of this disconnect. And you may be suffering severely, and in more ways than you could ever imagine.

As an a.n.a.logy, think of a lightbulb with a loose connection. The bulb flickers, s.h.i.+nes weakly, or doesn't light up at all. Many people go through life with flickering or weak health.

We believe this book is the first ever written about Mother Earth's natural "vibes" and how they keep us healthy and heal us-if we connect to the source. Disconnected, the body seems vulnerable and p.r.o.ne to dysfunction, inflammation-related disease, and accelerated aging-a startling theory just beginning to gather scientific momentum.

This is the subject of our book.

The natural frequencies of the Earth that we speak of are waves of energy caused by the motions of subatomic particles called free electrons. n.o.body has ever seen an electron, but you can think of them in the setting of a beehive. The bees, buzzing around the hive, are like electrons that move around the atomic nucleus in a "cloud" of energy. Another a.n.a.logy used over the years is that of planets revolving around the sun. The nucleus contains protons, with a positive charge, and neutrons, that have, as their name implies, no charge. Electrons have a negative charge.

ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE YOU.

To understand the primordial relations.h.i.+p between bioelectrical you and your electrical planet, consider for a brief moment three types of materials used in electricity: conductors, insulators, and semiconductors. An example of a conductor is the metallic copper wiring in the walls of your house or in the electrical cord that you plug into an outlet from an appliance. The outer waves of electrons in conductors-corresponding in a simplistic way to the outermost bees buzzing around the beehive or to the distant planets...o...b..ting around the sun-are so loosely bound that they easily move in the s.p.a.ce between the atoms. They form a kind of gas around atoms and flow freely throughout the solid conductive material. That is why they are called free electrons. Think of them as free spirits, so to speak, not bound in a relations.h.i.+p with any atom composing the solid material.

In insulating materials, electrons are held in a tight grip by their atoms. There are no free electrons and consequently no current can flow through these materials. Examples of insulating materials include plastic, rubber, gla.s.s, and wood. You can now see why most of the time you are separated from the Earth. Your shoes' soles are made of plastic or rubber, and your house is made mainly of wood. Semiconductors are in between, sometimes conducting, sometimes not. Their electrical conductance is not as good as a conductor but not as bad as an insulator. Semiconductors are the backbone of modern electronic equipment because their conductance can be controlled by the application of an electric field.

Just like the Earth, your body is mostly water and minerals, and both are excellent conductors of electrons. The free electrons pulsating perpetually on the surface of the conductive Earth, fed by natural phenomenon-solar radiation, thousands of lightning strikes per minute, and energy generated from the inner core of the planet-are easily transferred up, into, and throughout your body as long as there is direct skin contact direct skin contact with the ground. with the ground.

h.o.m.o erectus, back a hundred thousand generations or so, didn't know a thing about any of this. Neither did the hunter-gatherers who followed in the human timeline. Neither did the cultivator civilizations working the land about four hundred generations ago. And neither did the more recent Industrial Age incarnations. Even in today's electronic and wireless age, few know about the Earth's br.i.m.m.i.n.g reservoir of energetic free electrons. back a hundred thousand generations or so, didn't know a thing about any of this. Neither did the hunter-gatherers who followed in the human timeline. Neither did the cultivator civilizations working the land about four hundred generations ago. And neither did the more recent Industrial Age incarnations. Even in today's electronic and wireless age, few know about the Earth's br.i.m.m.i.n.g reservoir of energetic free electrons.

Scientists back in the late 1800s first measured the Earth's subtle ground currents at different places around the world, using words such as "tranquil" and "quiet" to describe them. Present-day science refers to them as "telluric currents" and recognizes them as part of a larger system-called the "global electrical circuit"-involving clouds and the entire atmosphere. Geophysicists believe that this bank of almost limitless energy is continuously replenished with free electrons via an average of 5,000 lightning strikes per minute occurring perpetually around the planet. Without getting technical, the electrical potential present on the Earth's surface rises and falls according to the position of the sun. The intensity is more positive and energetic during the day, in support of your daily activities from wake up to shut down, and less positive and energetic during nighttime hours, promoting zzzzzzs. This daily high and low pattern sets in motion and orchestrates internal body mechanisms that regulate sleep-wake cycles, hormone production, and maintenance of health.

PAST CONNECTIONS.

The basic phenomena of electricity were known since antiquity, but electricity was only harnessed for industrial and residential use about 120 years ago or so. The electron itself was discovered only in 1897, so virtually throughout the human timeline n.o.body knew anything about electrons. But there was plenty of knowledge over the eons of time that the ground held special healing energy and was a basic aspect of connectedness to Nature. The Earth was sacred. This knowledge, pa.s.sed down over the generations, has survived in one form or another around the globe. Civilizations everywhere recognized and tuned in to the cycles of Nature for survival and health. They were aware of fundamental rhythms that regulate, for instance, sleep-wake cycles and maintenance of health, and they knew that we functioned in coordination with the Earth's cycles and rhythms. Awareness existed of connectivity among the principles of Earth, life, and health, but expressed in the language of the day.

Qi (p.r.o.nounced chee chee) is a central principle in the long history of Chinese knowledge and is regarded as the energy or natural force that fills the universe. From India's Vedic past comes an equivalent term, prana, prana, meaning "vital force." meaning "vital force."

In the Chinese tradition, Heaven Qi is made up of the forces that heavenly bodies exert on the Earth, such as suns.h.i.+ne, moonlight, and the moon's effect on the tides. Earth Qi, influenced and controlled by Heaven Qi, is made up of lines and patterns of energy, as well as the Earth's magnetic field and the heat concealed underground. And within the Earth Qi, individuals, animals, and plants have their own Qi field. All natural things, in this concept, grow and are influenced by the natural cycles of Heaven Qi and Earth Qi.

Earth Qi is absorbed, without thinking about it, when we walk barefoot, which may explain why it's so relaxing to walk without shoes and why exercises geared toward strengthening the body and relaxing the mind (yoga, tai chi, and qigong, for instance) are often practiced without footwear. A central focus in Chinese practices involves "growing a root" and has to do with opening up communication between the bottom of the feet and the Earth. This process occurs through the "yong quan point," also known in acupuncture as the "kidney 1 point."

The ancient Greeks surely knew something about this concept. Hercules, one of the greatest heroes of Greek mythology, fought and defeated the giant Antaeus, who was renowned as a great wrestler. As the story goes, Antaeus was invincible as long as his feet remained in contact with the Earth, from where he drew his strength. He had never been defeated. Hercules, knowing Antaeus' secret, lifts the giant off the ground and strangles him to death.

Native Americans certainly honored the connection to the Earth. The late Ota Kte (Luther Standing Bear), a writer, educator, and tribal leader from the Lakota Sioux tradition, summed it up this way: "The old people came literally to love the soil. They sat on the ground with the feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the Earth, and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with their bare feet on the sacred Earth. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing."

CONNECT TO THE EARTH AND HEAL.

This book will show you just how soothing, strengthening, and healing the Earth is. It will totally change the way you regard the ground under your feet and your relations.h.i.+p to the planet you live on.

For most people, reconnecting with Mother Earth usually means camping, hiking, gardening, going to the beach, or pursuing some other activity that returns us-in body and soul-to the bosom of Nature. The reconnection we talk about in this book is something different. By reconnection we mean taking off your shoes and socks and sitting, standing, or walking barefoot on the ground, something that is absolutely free and available (of course, where safe and comfortable). The reconnection can also involve the use of conductive bed sheets or floor pads linked by wire to a ground rod outside your house or office, or plugged into a wall outlet with a modern Earth ground system.

Either way, we call this reconnection process "Earthing" or "grounding," terms we will use interchangeably. They simply mean you are connected to Mother Earth. What you are doing is akin to what is well known in the electrical world as grounding, the common practice of connecting equipment and appliances to the Earth to protect against shocks, shorts, and interference. Applied to people, Earthing naturally protects the body's delicate bioelectrical circuitry against static electrical charges and interference. Most importantly, it facilitates the reception of free electrons and the stabilizing electrical signals and energy of the Earth. Earthing remedies an electrical instability and electron deficiency you never knew you had. It refills and recharges your body with something you never knew you were missing ... or needed.

Exposure to sunlight produces vitamin D in the body. It's needed for health. Exposure to the ground provides an electrical "nutrient" in the form of electrons. Think of these electrons as vitamin G-G for ground. Just like vitamin D, you need vitamin G for your health as well.

As you will read in this book, the results of Earthing often translate into a significant improvement-even total transformations-in health and vitality. One patient, a thirty-six-year-old woman with advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), was so happy about her improvement after Earthing that she once ran out of her house, stood in the middle of the street, and screamed to all her neighbors to get grounded. She said she wanted to start the "barefoot revolution" and teach everyone how to get well. She had tried Earthing out of desperation-something someone had told her about-after a doctor advised her to purchase an adjustable bed, a large screen television, and to make herself as comfortable as possible. MS doesn't get better, the doctor told her. In her case it did, and dramatically so.

Another woman spent over five years with debilitating pain, inflammation, fatigue, and sleep problems after a serious car accident. Despite a long career in the health care industry, she found herself locked in an exhausting struggle to regain her health. She went from one pract.i.tioner and treatment to another. "Like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme," she said, "all of the king's horses and all the king's men could not put me back together again." Unable to work, she found herself instinctively drawn to lying in the gra.s.s or walking barefoot on the beach. In 1999, a friend gave her a conductive bed pad. She slept on it nightly, and within months her pain, fatigue, and sleep problems vanished.

"After years of pills and failed costly treatments, all I did was lay down on my bed and sleep!" she said. "I believe our bodies have the ability to recover from almost any condition if we relieve imbalances caused by stress. To do this, we must provide our bodies with essential natural elements, including clean air, proper nutrition and pure water, and the missing link, our connection to the natural electrical rhythms of the Earth."

Earthing at a Glance What is Earthing?

Earthing involves coupling your body to the Earth's eternal and gentle surface energies. It means walking barefoot outside and/or sitting, working or sleeping inside while connected to a conductive device that delivers the natural healing energy of the Earth into your body. For more than ten years, thousands of people around the world-men, women, children, and athletes-have incorporated Earthing into their daily routines. The results have been doc.u.mented and they are extraordinary.

What isn't Earthing?

You are not in any sense being electrocuted. Earthing is among the most natural and safest things you can do.

What happens?

Your body becomes suffused with negative-charged free electrons abundantly present on the surface of the Earth. Your body immediately equalizes to the same electric energy level, or potential, as the Earth.

What do you feel?

Sometimes, a warm, tingling sensation and often feelings of ease and well-being.

Will you feel better?

Usually, yes, and often rapidly. The degree of improvement varies from person to person. The important thing is to make Earthing a long-term addition to your daily routine, and to do it as much as possible so as to gain maximum benefits. When Earthing is stopped, symptoms tend to slowly return.

What does Earthing do?

Observations and research indicate the following benefits from Earthing; we expect many more to emerge with ongoing studies. Earthing: * Defuses the cause of inflammation, and improves or eliminates the symptoms of many inflammation-related disorders.

* Reduces or eliminates chronic pain.

* Improves sleep in most cases.

* Increases energy.

* Lowers stress and promotes calmness in the body by cooling down the nervous system and stress hormones.

* Normalizes the body's biological rhythms.

* Thins blood and improves blood pressure and flow.

* Relieves muscle tension and headaches.

* Lessens hormonal and menstrual symptoms.

* Dramatically speeds healing and helps prevent bedsores.

* Reduces or eliminates jet lag.

* Protects the body against potentially health-disturbing environmental electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

* Accelerates recovery from intense athletic activity.

Even athletes, who operate at the most intense levels of physical human performance, have learned to ground and plug in to the natural energy of the Earth. From a group perspective, perhaps the most dramatic test of Earthing's effectiveness in recent years was demonstrated by victorious American-sponsored cycling teams at the Tour de France. The extreme physical and mental stress in this grueling race often causes sickness, tendonitis, and poor sleep among compet.i.tors. They tend to experience slow wound healing from accidents. In the 2003 to 2005 races, and again in 2007, team cyclists were grounded after their daily compet.i.tion. They reported better sleep, significantly less illness, practically no tendonitis, dramatic recovery from the day's racing, and faster healing of injuries. The practice has now been found to be so beneficial that many top athletes-including swimmers, NFL football players, triathletes, and motorcycle racers-routinely Earth themselves.

Earthing is simple, basic, and powerful. We regard it as a genuine missing link in the health equation, something with astounding potential to do much good for humanity. Connecting to the Earth-either by being barefooted outside or in contact with a grounded device inside-doesn't cure you of any disease or condition. What it does is to reunite you with the natural electrical signals from the Earth that govern all organisms dwelling upon it. It restores your body's natural internal electrical stability and rhythms, which in turn promote normal functioning of body systems, including the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, and immune systems. It remedies an electron deficiency to reduce inflammation-the common cause of disease. It s.h.i.+fts the nervous system from a stress-dominated mode to one of calmness and you sleep better. By reconnecting, you enable your body to return to its normal electrical state, better able to self-regulate and self-heal.

In 1863, the eminent biologist T.H. Huxley stated that "the question of all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of our place in nature and our relation to the cosmos." The content of this book explores that question from the simple perspective that your place in nature, in your immediate cosmos, requires you to be directly and routinely connected to the Earth under your feet.

In the pages ahead, we will explore the health implications of mankind's disconnect and present the unusual story about how the disconnect and the reconnect were discovered. You will read accounts of amazing healing from doctors and people from all walks of life. Most importantly, you will learn how easy it is to reconnect, to get Earthed, and to feel better.

CHAPTER 2.