Energy cardiology: A dynamical energy systems approach for integrating conventional and alternative medicine

The conceptual chasm separating conventional medicine and alternative medicine can potentially be overcome by deriving hypotheses from modern systems theory and applying them to biophysical energy - what we call a dynamical energy systems approach. In this paper we present five such hypotheses, using the heart, the largest generator of electromagnetic energy in the body, as a model system. Living systems are defined here as dynamic organizations of intelligent information expressed in energy and matter. When the biophysical consequences of organized energy are considered, far-reaching implications for the role of the heart in health and healing unfold (for example, the heart, in concert with the brain, may be the major organizer and integrator of coordinated cellular functioning in the body). Procedures for measuring cardiac synchronized energy patterns are explained, and novel experimental predictions are illustrated (for example, that cardiac synchronized energy patterns may interact between people and be involved in certain therapies). Applications of energy cardiology hypotheses for conventional and alternative medicine are challenging, testable, and controversial. In the case of mind-body medicine, this approach both illuminates and expands the central role of the mind in health.