Jurriaan Kamp | June 2005 issue
Are human beings intuitively aware of future events? Stories constantly circulate about people suddenly deciding to take another route home, thus avoiding disaster. Or those who seek contact with a loved one just when that loved one is in danger. Is that intuition? Coincidence? Do these people have access to information about the future? HeartMath wanted to begin to answer those questions and devised the following study involving 26 subjects.
A woman sits in front of a computer screen. The middle finger of her right hand is connected to a sensor that measures her heart rhythm; there are sensors on her head that measure her brainwaves. The screen is black. Following an interval, an image appears on the screen. Then it goes black again. After awhile, another image appears, followed once more by a black screen. This process continues for several minutes.
The images the woman sees are randomly presented on the screen. Neither she, the researcher, nor the computer knows what image will be next. Many of the images depict beautiful, peaceful things: a waterfall, a tree, a cute animal. Every so often, an image of something cruel or aggressive is shown: a car accident, a bloody knife, a hissing snake. Occasionally the subject sees sexually explicit images.
Systematically, approximately 4.5 seconds before a “cruel” image appeared on the screen, a spike appears on the graph measuring heart rhythms; this is not the case before the “calm” pictures. Not only that, but it is the heart rhythm that first shows that a negative image is coming; the brainwaves react a couple of seconds after the heart—but still before the image has actually appeared on the screen.
Rollin McCraty, who leads the research team at HeartMath, speaks of this as one of the most groundbreaking studies conducted by his Institute. “This study demonstrates that people are apparently intuitively aware of future negative events. It also demonstrates that the human heart appears to have access to an information field.” HeartMath’s president Bruce Cryer adds: “Whether or not people act on this intuitive information is another story. We have been conditioned to dismiss our intuitive insights, but the body is designed to provide the ‘hardware’ for just such a process.”
The information field McCraty refers to is the same “Zero Point Field” that was expansively discussed in Ode (November 2003). This recent study by HeartMath is one of the most striking pieces of evidence of the existence of this field, which connects humans and matter. The study shows that intuition is not some touchy-feely talent, but a quality inherent to us all. According to McCraty, “Our study also shows that you can develop your intuitive capacities by paying more attention to them.”
The heart knows the future, is the message from this HeartMath study. And that fact shines a new light on such areas as decision-making, medical diagnoses and relationships. In that perspective, the old saying—listen to your heart—takes on an extremely relevant new meaning.