Compassion and the Universal Meaning of the HEART

by Dorothea Fuckert M. D., Certified LBL Hypnotherapist

LBL is releasing and reinforcing compassion and love as the most precious attitudes of human existence. They are inspirited in the session in various ways and in different aspects. Clients receive compassion and love from their personal guides, spirit helpers and/or directly from Divine Source. All heartfelt states are seeds to be cultivated in the heart towards humanity’s evolution, for the soul’s essence is residing here.

Anatomical Facts and Physiological Research

The Institute of Heartmath (HM) documented the heart’s electromagnetic field surrounding the whole body, extending at least 15 feet in every direction, 5000x stronger than the brain’s electromagnetic field, and they published impressive graphics of it. This electromagnetic field reflects and influences all body cells and affects people’s moods, feelings and attitudes whether we are conscious of this phenomenon or not. It is interacting with and is affected by everything which has an electromagnetic field: all other living beings, animals, plants, the Earth, Sun, Moon and space. HM assumed cautiously that the electromagnetic field could be caused by a primary bio-energy field. Ancient wisdom schools had called this life force Qi (China), Ki (Japan), Mana (Hawaii and Polynesia), Prana (India), Od (Karl von Reichenbach), Elan Vital (Henri Bergson), Orgone (Wilhelm Reich) and others. Modern physics is trying to detect this so-called ‘vacuum energy’ or ‘zero point field’, names which express as clearly the materialistic-mechanistic worldview of current sciences with the heart being viewed merely as the pump.

HM states that 40,000 neurites (extensions of the neurons building networks with neurons of other body parts) extend from the heart to the brain. This has been a known anatomical fact since the end of the 19th century. There are many more neuronal pathways from the heart to the brain and nervous system than the other way around. The quality of information signals from the heart has a profound effect on the brain functions, especially on mental clarity and on the interpretation of emotional experience. The heart is able to reduce stress, anxiety and the feeling of being overwhelmed as it is regulating and synchronizing all other body organs. HM states that it is also a hormonal gland, producing oxytocin (the hormone of pleasant body contact and bonding as well as a neurotransmitter) and other neurotransmitters. Up until now, the heart is known to only have receptors for oxytocin and neurotransmitters.

Heart Brain Coherence – Heart Intelligence

HM introduced the term “physiologic coherence” to describe the degree of order, harmony and stability in the various rhythmic activities within living systems over a given time. Coherence is defined by efficient or optimal functions in contrast to an incoherent system whose functions reflect stress and inefficient energy utilization. Heart coherence is found to be an orderly sinus-wavelike heart rhythm with an optimal HRV at a frequency of 0.1Hz (HRV = heart rate variability. The heart rate itself does not correlate with coherence). There is evidence that recalled positive emotions and heartfelt attitudes like compassion, gratitude or appreciation, in contrast to anxiety, frustration or anger, are reflected in a coherent heart rhythm pattern. This then correlates with a general state of well-being, with improvements in physical, emotional, cognitive and social functions. HM expanded their research to include social and global coherence, coherence in families, teams, organizations, companies and collectives. For instance, focusing on the heart works very well with children in schools or in other difficult life situations.

The fact that the heart region has the most physiological connections to all other body organs and that it regulates and synchronizes them through vessels, nerves and hormones, have led to the terms “heart brain” and “global coordinator”. Meanwhile, there is some solid scientific research on the positive effects of “heart coherence” (also called “heart brain coherence”, “heart intelligence” or “coherence”) on human health, well-being, inner balance, cognitive capacities and social functioning. Plenty of data from the HM’s 25 years of research, give evidence that compassion, gratitude, care and appreciation, such as for a beautiful sunset, are inducing “heart coherence”. A number of studies confirm that such states contribute essentially through heart coherence, to physiological, emotional, social and spiritual resilience. Resilience is defined as a system’s ability to adapt in the face of difficult or adverse conditions.

The effects of heartfelt states are more pronounced, the stronger, more intense, regular and enduring they are. A sustained coherence is reached only through an elevated base line which reflects the regularity, easiness and intensity of heartfelt states. To differentiate, I will spell the organic heart in lower cases and the energetic-spiritual HEART in capitals. HM is also confirming the ancient knowledge that the HEART provides access to inner wisdom, creativity, higher intuition and spiritual guidance. A summary of their research with an extended list of scientific studies can be found here: “Coherence – Bridging personal, social and global health” by Doc Childre/Rollin McCraty, in: Alternative Therapies, Vol. 16, No. 4, 2010.

The Energetic-Spiritual HEART as Seat of the Soul

Most people imagine feeling compassion, love and other heartfelt states directly in the heart organ while they point to the middle of the chest. This is not actually the case because the anatomical heart is situated mainly on the left side of the breastbone. At this location we may only sense our heartbeat, especially when it is occasionally faster or irregular. In fact, we sense heartfelt states directly in the middle of the chest, in and around a dense network of nerves of the central and autonomic nervous system, called ‘plexus cardiacus’. Naturally, this is closely connected to the anatomical heart and its blood vessels. In early embryonic developmental stages there is already a lively pulsation in the chest through vessels and nerves, even before the heart as an organ is developed.

The ‘plexus solaris’ or ‘solar plexus’ is another dense network of nerves in the upper abdomen. All larger plexus of the body are connected with corresponding hormonal glands and organs. They are also correlated to the main chakras which are energetic vortices in the human bio-energy field (aura), with specific functions of processing and transforming energies into/from the physical body to enhance mental, emotional, social functioning as well as spiritual development. The heart chakra is not only correlated with the plexus cardiacus but also with the thymus gland under the breastbone, a main productive organ of the immune system.

When we feel compassion and love in the chest, there might be a pre-felt sense of the heart chakra becoming warm and open. Emotional states are felt in the body’s neural plexus, while they are intuited and expressed energetically through the chakras. Compassion and love can be sensed as energy flow from the HEART towards others; thus the term ‘e-motion’ (emovere, lat.) is objective as it means that something is really moving outwards. Receiving love, i.e. perception and acceptance of being loved, is sensed as an inward flow with a warm filling up of the HEART. Our natural longing to reach out towards others and into the world is an objective flow of the primary bio-energy from the chest outwards, whereas a painful loss with grief and sadness (not depression) is an energy withdrawal from what is seemingly lost, turning away from the world and back inwards, leading to a painful energetic contraction in the chest.

The HEART as the Synchronizer of the Organism

The HEART’s spiritual functions have been well-known for thousands of years in old wisdom schools like the Indian Veda, Chinese Qui Gong, Tibetan medicine, in some Native American cultures and even later in Christian mysticism. The HEART is generally understood as the seat of the mind, responsible for soul consciousness. In viewing the Soul as an individual being of light energy incarnated in a physical body, its center is the HEART, while it expands into the whole body and extends widely beyond the body surface. I sometimes call the HEART the Soul’s “living room”.

The brain, especially the neo-cortex, is not much more than a switching station for processing information. There are a number of documented cases of people having only a minimum anatomical brain yet functioning absolutely normally in every way. The crown chakra has its own specific function for spiritual evolution through states like patience, decency, benevolence, abundance, enlightenment and wisdom. Through a fully developed crown chakra we will eventually reach a state of all-consciousness while through the fully developed HEART we will hopefully arrive in a state of all-compassion and all-love. An anatomical fact is that the heart chakra-related thymus gland and the crown chakra-related pineal gland “normally” atrophy from childhood until adulthood. I wonder how this anatomical phenomenon came about? Some adolescents, who were born after 2000, are said to have pineal glands of 3 cm in diameter in contrast to the pea-sized one of adults, but I don’t know if this has been properly verified.

The Central Function of the HEART for Humanity’s Evolution

Whether we perceive heartfelt states in the chest or not, their signals are transferred from here through neural pathways to various brain centers where they become mentally processed, and to other neural plexus and organs. There is a marked difference whether we have compassion in our mind only or if we feel it also in our HEART. Our spiritual connection is much broader with a wide open, feeling HEART. Here we are in a “wideband-channel” with our Higher Self, spirit guides and helpers, other dimensions and the Divine Source, because we are vibrating at a much higher frequency, and thus we are able to optimally receive and utilize this connectedness.

Being immersed in a heartfelt state means being in “no-time”, not in the past or future, not in thinking or judging, but stepping into the 5th dimensional reality, being fully present and surrendering to the now-moment. Eckhart Tolle describes wonderfully and in depth this “state of presence”, and how we can induce it by conscious breathing and attentive sense perception while listening, watching, playing, meditating, etc. In this “here and now” state of the HEART, we are also in an optimally receptive state.

The highest human values are functions of the HEART: compassion, love, appreciation, brotherhood/sisterhood, purity, truthfulness, forgiving, peace, joy, bliss, tolerance, freedom and more. Every language has idioms for the HEART’s universal meaning. For instance in German: “My heart” (my darling), “my heart’s love” (the most beloved one), “band of heart” (heart connection), “hand on heart” (speak honestly), “having the heart on the right place” (a genuine, sincere person), “one heart and one soul” (a dearest, closest relationship or friendship), “to take heart” (to take courage), “the heart’s intention, longing, truth, wisdom, calmness, freedom, joy…”, “peace in one’s heart”, a “heart to heart talk”, “heart’s blood”, “listening to the heart’s voice”, “go out, my heart, seeking joy” (folk song). And a quote from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Cultural and religious traditions tried to preserve the old knowledge that a gentle touching of the HEART by two fingers, one palm or the side of hands can induce a state of compassion and connectedness. However, since gestures such as the Christian crossing one-self, the ‘Wai’ or the ‘Namaste’ are generally no longer accompanied by true feelings in the HEART, they become empty and their positive effects diminished until nullified. An aware, gentle self-touching of the middle of the breastbone is a helpful tool to focus one-self into the HEART, to activate and intensify feeling states like compassion, love and connectedness. During hypnotherapy and LBL sessions we are anchoring some of these resources by encouraging clients to touch their HEART.

Our Human HEART – The Great Healer and Unifier

Heartfelt attitudes such as compassion are evolving through life experiences, most often through one’s own or other’s suffering. Self-compassion is also based in the HEART and is directed into one’s body, especially into the lower half with the first three chakras viewed as the female chakras. As this has been neglected and repressed for thousands of years, a “pain body” (E. Tolle) has developed over many incarnations. There is an evolutionary need to focus self-compassion, unconditional acceptance and loving care into our pain body and shadow aspects, especially into the sexual chakra, genitals and reproductive organs, root chakra and excretory organs. An LBL session facilitates the healing process to a high degree, transmitting compassion, forgiveness and peace from the spiritual realm into the HEART, and from there into the human self and body. These are essential contributions to collective peace. After all, the Soul’s intent is to embody its physical existence, to enlighten each cell and material atom and to bring “Heaven down to Earth”.

Another essential aspect of heartfelt self-compassion and self-love is to allow for the freedom and the truth seeded in the HEART. While most often it expresses a heartfelt “Yes”, it needs to voice a clear and forceful “No” whenever this is genuinely felt. True love without freedom is impossible. Freedom, truthfulness and honesty of the human HEART are precious gifts as necessary tools to develop authenticity, emotional closeness, intimacy, lasting friendships, love relationships and collective bonds. These important aspects are quite often neglected or even denied on the spiritual path.

LBL is Elevating the Baseline of Being in Heartfelt States

The HEART is our greatest hope in serving as the “transmitter” of Divine love and light in the human body. LBL opens the HEART, elevating the base line of its frequencies towards receiving and expressing love, compassion, connectedness, forgiveness, self-compassion, self-love, freedom and peace in a sustained way. The experience of being an immortal soul, a unique spark of the Divine light, receiving unconditional acceptance, wisdom and guidance anchored in the session, can always be recalled and activated later along the person’s life path.

With a balanced HEART chakra the energy of love flows freely and continuously from and into the heart chakra. Based on this balance of giving and receiving love, a state of falling in love with the collective “We All” will evolve. We will then step beyond thoughts and feelings, and arrive in a state of “being love”. Hopefully, we will arrive in this connectedness with all others: with nature, the cosmos and the whole of creation. The HEART is the great healer and unifier of humanity. It is elevating and catapulting us collectively into our universal higher-dimensional existence (the so-called “ascension” or “light body” process). Whatever brings us more deeply and enduringly into our HEART will enhance the evolution which is under way. The LBL experience can be a huge step in this process; it can be like a quantum leap in consciousness. ♦

Dorothea Fuckert, LBL Hypnotherapist

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