Biomagnetism in Health and Disease

It is a basic law of physics that when an electric current flows through a conductor, a magnetic field is created in the surrounding space. The circulatory system is an excellent conductor of electricity because of its high salt content. As the circulatory system transports blood and nutrients to every cell and tissue the electricity that originates mainly from the heart flows everywhere in the body (Oschman 2000). The electricity that flows through the human system is always accompanied by a magnetic field. Thus, the human body produces electromagnetism that consists of the electric field and the magnetic field. Research on the electromagnetism of the human body is underway in medical and academic research centers around the world. One pioneer in this field .Dr. Harold Saxton Burr who obtained his Ph.D. degree at Yale in 1915 and became a full professor at Yale School of Medicine in 1929. Dr. Burr conducted a series of important studies on the role of electricity in development and disease.

The results of his research was published in many scientific journals of his day. He summarized his findings in a book entitled Blueprint for Immortality: The Electric Patterns of Life (Burr 1972), which was also published under the title The Field of Life. He postulated that energy fields are basic blueprints for all living things. These fields reflect physical and mental conditions’ and are therefore useful for diagnostic purposes. Dr. Burr was convinced that all living things are formed and controlled by energy fields that can be measured by standard detectors. A complete listing of Burr’s articles can be found in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine (Burr 1957). Although his reasoning was sound, The concepts and methods articulated by Dr. Harold Saxton Burr was not accepted in clinical practice during his lifetime. However, a more recent study in Rome, which explored the biomagnetic fields produced near the heads of patients with epilepsy has confirmed Burr’s concepts. Tumors which caused epileptic seizures in these patients were not detected by electroencephalogram (EEG) or Computer-aided Tomography (CAT) scan, but were detected by biomagnetic recordings (Modena et al, 1982).

Magnetoencephalography is already being utilized to improve the accuracy of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain mapping (Beisteirner et al, 1997). Furthermore, every event in the body, either physiological or pathological, has been shown to produce electrical changes as well as alterations of the magnetic fields (auras) in the spaces around the body (Brewitt 1996; 1999).

References 1. Oschman JL. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingston, 2000. 2. Burr HS. Harold Saxton Burr. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 1957; 30: 161-167. 3. Burr HS. Blueprint for immortality. CW Daniel, Saffron Walden, 1972. 4. Brewitt B. Quantitative analysis of electrical skin conductance in diagnosis: historical and current views of bioelectric medicine. Journal of Naturopathic Medicine 1996; 6: 66-75.