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Mind States
Earthing:The Science of Reconnecting
by David Gersten, MD
Having practiced integrative psychiatry for 30 years, I’ve dealt with large numbers of people who are adult survivors of abuse and neglect. While expressing gratitude as a path to healing is a practice that anyone can consciously do, forgiving is not nearly as easy. Many adult survivors spend their entire lives trying to become whole. They are told to “learn to forgive,” and to “just do it.” But it’s just not that simple. Forgiveness, in my opinion, often involves an act of divine grace.
Exploring the definition and roots of the word “forgiveness” is tricky. The Greek root of “forgive” translates as “to let go, to set free, or to leave behind.” Forgiveness is not about helping someone else off the hook. It’s about letting go of memories that keep us prisoners of the past.
In today’s modern times, we find ourselves running from place to place, hardly pausing to experience nature. Many of us have lost our connection to the earth. What is it about our earth connection that relates to a forgiving heart? What do we “leave behind?” Plastic soled shoes!
Let me define two terms. Earthing is the science of connecting to the earth’s natural, healing bioelectrical rhythms. It is what happens when we are in barefoot contact with the earth. Barefoot Connection™ consists of products that, through our home or office’s grounding system, deliver Earthing to us. They are conductive sheets that allow us to sleep on a bioelectrical field identical to that of the earth.
When we are in prolonged barefoot contact with the earth, adrenal function returns to normal and sleep improves dramatically. Inflammation and the 80 diseases caused by inflammation, such as arthritis, lupus, and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are improved or totally healed. Here’s a brief example. One patient of mine, an 87-year-old woman with severe arthritis, reported that her pain had decreased by 80 percent after sleeping earthed for only three nights. It is common for me to receive an e-mail that reads, “I slept earthed last night for the first time, and had the best sleep I’ve had in 15 years.”
What exactly is Earthing and what does plastic have to do with—anything? When we walk barefoot on the ground or on the beach, we feel good. Why? The earth has natural rhythms, known as the Schumann Resonance, which is like a drum beating ten times per second. The moment we touch the ground, our bodies synch up with the earth’s rhythms. Our circadian rhythms evolved over billions of years within Mother Earth’s rhythms. When we are not in barefoot contact with the earth, our circadian rhythms lose the perfect clock—the earth—which keeps our internal rhythms running harmoniously. When we re-connect with the earth, adrenal stress, exhaustion, and burnout levels improve. In one study, after 60 days of sleeping on Barefoot Connection sheets, all subjects had normal adrenal function.
The second aspect of the earth’s bioelectrical field is a layer of free electrons that covers the earth. When we are in barefoot contact with the earth, billions of electrons per second enter our body. The earth’s infinite supply of free electrons is one of the most powerful anti-oxidants that exist. Free radicals (oxidants) are positively charged particles that strip electrons from healthy tissue in order to become neutralized. After sleeping earthed for about two months, all or nearly all the free radicals in our bodies are neutralized by the earth’s free electrons. Earthing turns off inflammation, which is the explosive discharge of huge numbers of free radicals by the immune system.
Between 1957 and 1960, plastics entered our world. Even the soles of our shoes became plastic, leaving us 100 percent disconnected from the earth’s bioelectrical field. Ten years later, around 1970, inflammatory disease went through the roof, and doctors’ offices filled with a new group of patients suffering from arthritis, lupus, MS, and other inflammatory diseases. Plastic was the final nail in the coffin of our earth disconnection.
Indigenous peoples of the world are in barefoot contact 24 hours a day. That’s the reason that barefoot runners of Ethiopia and Kenya win almost every major marathon. Because they run barefoot every day (except for big events), there is no inflammation in their body. The larger issue is that indigenous people have a strong connection to nature, God, others, and self. We have lost that profound depth of interconnectedness, which has led to enormous suffering.
When we are standing barefoot on the earth, our biorhythms and bioelectrical fields are identical to the earth, and hence we are identical to each other. When earthed, we are all one in terms of our bioelectrical rhythms. We vibrate as one people and synch up in a profound way, becoming one with earth and all humankind.
Lack of forgiveness is due to ignorance. We are innocent and “sinless” about the importance of our earth connection (and disconnection). However, information is power. Since we now know the science, we can let go and forgive the way it has been for decades, thus reclaiming our most fundamental connection. We can forgive our own ignorance, and even the companies that brought plastic into our lives. We now know the truth. Through Earthing, we are now better able to re-connect to God, nature, others, and ourselves.
For more information on Earthing, please visit www.earthfx.net or call 760.778.1200.