Anomalous Results in a DC Potential Study: Implications for Promoting Health and Well-being in Adult Development
Maria Syldona, Ph.D.
Research in fields such as psychology, psychoneuroimmunology, and the neurosciences have established that the mind affects the body, promoting states of health and well-being as well as of illness. In childhood and early adolescence, as the biological or physical development completes itself, the mind simultaneously goes through its own developmental stages, and seems to play a part in overall human developmental stages. After these milestones are reached, in essence, human development is considered to be basically complete, and less research has typically been done at this point of seeming completion. Therefore less is known about human development beyond the mental (supra-mental), and beyond the primarily biological development that occurs in the earlier years of life. As a result, relatively little is known in Western culture about the stages and states of adulthood and their possible effects on health and well-being. Gaining greater scientific understanding of both ordinary and atypical adult developmental processes and their effects on this growing adult population may be one of the greatest and most important challenges of the century.
The British Royal Academy recently called for interdisciplinary collaboration between the sciences and humanities in an effort to understand major paradigmatic challenges. Consideration of cross-cultural traditions and sciences in service of solving these challenges could prove fruitful as well. With respect to adult development and well-being in many other cultures, the ‘elders’ are those who are in possession of many of the kinds of ‘anomalous abilities’ studied by, or of interest to, SSE members. Many of them are the ‘seers,’ the ‘healers,’ those that know the science of influencing the weather, or possess other non-ordinary talents. These cultures all have an understanding of some supra-mental, psychology cosmology, or psychospiritual aspect inherent in human beings that manifests frequently in adulthood, or advanced adulthood.
Research integrating tenets of Eastern psychospiritual traditions and Western science could also be of value in facing the challenges of promoting health and well-being in adult development. Such integration provided the basis for a study of healing meditation states that produced data of real-time dynamic fluctuations in DC potential measurements. It was hypothesized that bioelectricity, as DC potential current measurements, taken from on and off acupuncture points is both a direct and an indirect measure of prana (chi). Anomalous data from an adult subject who reported spontaneous experiences that met traditional criteria for a Kundalini experience is presented. According to Eastern science traditions, Kundalini processes represent the stage of adulthood, accompanied by the potential for supra-mental or psychospiritual development. The DC potential data taken during this event exhibit an anomalous pattern compared to others obtained in this study, and also appear to corroborate descriptions in Yogic sciences of energy-based phenomena which can take place during Kundalini activation. The results likely represent an electrophysiological signature of Kundalini activity. Since the apparently anomalous data fit the theory which accounts for this data, it serves to confirm the hypothesis.
Bio: Dr. Syldona’s interdisciplinary background encompasses science, engineering, psychology, education, and Eastern psychospiritual traditions, at institutions including: Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, and Brown Universities and SUNY Stonybrook. She is Founder/Director of the Institute for Human Psychospiritual Development in Colorado. Contact: [email protected].