Harmonyum und Biofeld

What are Biofields?

Harmonyum includes multiple forms of treatment that can be given in person or from a distance.  In-person treatments may be performed with or without physical contact (light-touch to no-touch).  Distance sessions occur when the practitioner and recipient are not located in the same physical space during the treatment session.

In-person and distant healing may operate via different mechanisms.  In-person healing may involve electromagnetic fields that diminish over distance by an inverse square law.  These same electromagnetic fields are unlikely to be involved in healing across large distances.₁

Electromagnetic fields generated by living systems are proposed to be part of “Biofield physiology . . . an overarching descriptor for the electromagnetic, biophotonic, and other types of spatially-distributed fields that living systems generate and respond to as integral aspects of cellular, tissue, and whole organism self-regulation and organization.”2

Biofields in Humans

Every region of the body generates biofields from electromagnetic and other sources of energy that can encode information and influence the action or state of cells and tissues capable of responding to these biofields.²

The most well-known biofields in living systems are the endogenous electrical and magnetic fields generated by the heart and nervous system and characterized via electrocardiography (ECG), magnetocardiography (MCG), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG). ² The electrical fields of the heart are also reflected in heart rate (HR) and rhythm.³

The therapeutic effects of several forms of complementary medicine are proposed to occur via influencing the function of an individual’s biofields.  This has most often been studied through HR and Heart rate variability (HRV).^4-7  

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) function as Biomarker

HRV is the variation in time between consecutive heart beats.  HRV is an important tool for investigating the interplay of the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system.  Increased high frequency HRV is thought to reflect increased parasympathetic activity, and increased low frequency HRV is thought to reflect increased sympathetic activity.⁸ 

HRV is related to physical and psychological health.  Decreased HRV is consistently seen in conditions with autonomic dysfunction such as neurological disorders, diabetes mellitus, chronic renal disease, heart disease, and cancer.^9,10 It is also seen in individuals experiencing chronic stress due to physical or psychological conditions,¹¹ and in chronic pain conditions.¹2 

The physiological mechanism(s) by which a practitioner might influence another’s physiological state through biofield therapy in any form is unknown.  It is postulated that biofield therapies facilitate their effects through practitioner repatterning of the recipient’s energy field, the transmission of universal life energy, and the collaboration of practitioner and recipient in the healing process.¹³