The Heartbeat of Intelligence

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Appendix A

Appendix B

References

About the Author

Preface

Passion and Joy, Goodness and Beauty, Love and Compassion, are the birthright of every human being, built into our genes and intended by Nature to speak in every beat of our heart. Why then do so few of us experience these wondrous qualities in ourselves and in our lives?

The first half of this book presents an exploration into two of the most important but little understood reasons why we are not realizing our full potential, and how that lack has led directly to the greatest dilemma in human history: the possibility of our own extinction as well as the possible destruction of our planet.

The second half of the book presents important and vital steps, all steps of lightness, joy, and beauty, which we can take to turn the situation around and begin fulfilling our destiny; which is to return to the evolutionary path intended by Nature, a path from which we began to stray thousands of years ago by choosing to follow a siren call which has instead led us on a long path of heavy, dark and painful steps.

The delightful steps of return will not only help us make several evolutionary leaps forward, but will also help us save our beautiful planet. All of this can be done in less than a generation.

Drawing on the research and writings of a broad spectrum of New Consciousness thinkers, my purpose has been to weave together a tapestry of seemingly disparate subjects which, when brought together, actually reveal not only their connectedness and relevance, but also show us the steps we can take back to our evolutionary path. These subjects include the mysterious connection between the heart and the human brain; the theory of the Universe as a hologram; Synchronicity as an acausal law as valid as the laws of physics (and the law by which we will live in the future); Nature Spirits; the theory of morphogenetic fields; neoteny, (the retention into adulthood of juvenile characteristics as an evolutionary advantage); and David Bohm’s theory of the explicate and implicate orders of energy.

Woven together these subjects suddenly reveal Nature’s unmistakable intention that, besides brain intelligence, a second level of intelligence should exist; heart intelligence, designed by Nature to provide a balance of wisdom to the nearly infinite potential of our human intellect.

The mysterious manner in which both the brain and the human heart each access the same higher, non-local, Infinite Consciousness, one cognitively and the other emotionally, reveals Nature’s astonishing evolutionary intention for the human race.

Chapter 1

THE AWAKENING

As I sat quietly listening to the music with my eyes closed, I became aware at some point that the music was no longer entering through my ears and my head, but was going directly into my heart. It felt as though my heart were filling with the music and I found myself entering into a sweetly ecstatic state.

The Heartbeat of Intelligence

There is a mysterious connection between our heart and our brain, a connection which only recently has come to light. That connection involves something many people will find strange and startling; that the brain is not our only source of intelligence, that we have another kind of intelligence which nature intended to act in biological dynamic with our brain intelligence: the intelligence of the heart.

Intelligence of the heart is not just a pretty metaphor for love. The heart literally has its own intelligence arising from an actual, biological process just as real, and just as important as that involving our brain intelligence. In fact, it will become obvious as we move through the material in this book that heart intelligence was intended by Nature to evolve along with our brain intelligence. It was designed by Nature to give the intelligence of our brain a holistic view of its world as well as a humane, compassionate ground on which to base its world views and decision-making.

Even though the heart/brain dynamic has been thoroughly researched and verified, the findings have largely been ignored by the medical and scientific communities. My own introduction to the idea came from reading Joseph Chilton Pearce’s book, Evolution’s End; Claiming the Potential of our Intelligence.¹

Pearce is an author and researcher into human intelligence, creativity, and learning. His findings and writings are mind expanding and have had a great impact on my thinking, as has the work of many other researchers, including anthropologist Ashley Montagu, in particular his book, Growing Young, a myth-exploding, mind-expanding journey into human evolution and consciousness.²

While some scientists still cling to the idea that our human brain is the only source of our creative thinking, many others such as Pearce and physicist David Bohm, as well as biologist Rupert Sheldrake, to name just three of today’s great thinkers that appear in the pages ahead, are beginning to understand that there is a higher, non-local or universal intelligence to which our highest brain has access. But what will seem strangest of all to many people is the idea that the heart also has access to that universal intelligence and is not just a simple pumping machine. In Chapter 3 we will learn just how complex the heart is and how equally complex is its connection to the brain. When this relationship is understood, a great deal of re-thinking will have to be done about the practice of heart transplanting.

Reading the works of Pearce, Montagu, and other explorers in the heart/brain/mind field has shown me that the heart can only access that higher, universal consciousness through Love, which ideally should begin in the uterus with the love bond between the mother and the forming infant and, also ideally, continue through childhood. When that love is not there, or not strong, the heart cannot open, that is, it cannot function the way it was biologically intended, and the connection to a higher consciousness which Pearce calls creative consciousness cannot be made.

However, when mother love is strong and the connection is made, the developing young heart will always absorb from that higher level of consciousness feelings of well-being, self-worth, and love toward those close to it, as well as good intentions toward all others because it is biologically preset to do so.

In a recent Los Angeles Times extensive four-part series on the latest in brain research it was stated that:

every newborn usually starts life with its brain’s neural circuitry preset to feel emotional well-being.³

Through a hormone called ANF, the heart (ideally) directs those feelings of well-being and love to the limbic system, which is our emotional brain, the middle brain in our three brain system. The limbic system then uses these emotions to overlay and transform sensory signals from the lowest, so-called reptilian brain, as well as thought signals from our highest, human brain, into higher, humane actions and thoughts, allowing the child to grow (again, ideally) into an intelligent, vibrant, creative, caring, and socially aware adult. As we will learn in the pages ahead, the brain cannot know love unless the heart does.

But what is even more astonishing is that, when this ideal heart connection is made, it can set the stage for the human organism to live a much, much longer life span in the biologically youthful state that Ashley Montagu calls growing young or neoteny; the time-extension in development of youthful traits.⁴ (See Chapter 4).

As we explore the mystery and reality of these biological processes, the truth of the absolute necessity for the survival of the human race, of the proper heart connection in all human beings, will become clearer and clearer.

Pearce’s writings evoked such a strong response within my own psyche that I asked myself, almost despairingly, (for I did not receive strong mother love as a child) how, if the heart connection hasn’t been made in childhood, can an adult make that connection later in life, after the heart has formed? Is it even possible?

Long ago I gave up the belief in coincidence and embraced the more meaningful theory of synchronicity, not realizing at the time what a profound role it would assume in my future and, in fact, the future of the entire human race. (See Chapter Six). What occurred the day I asked that question was one of the most synchronous happenings of my life. First, I received in the mail from my sister an audio tape of the music of Hildegard von Bingen, a Thirteenth Century mystic, titled Canticles of Ecstasy, by the group Sequentia.

The tape is aptly titled because, later that evening, as I sat quietly listening to it with my eyes closed, I became aware at some point that the music was no longer entering through my ears and head but was going directly into my heart. It felt as though my heart were filling with the music and I found myself entering into a sweetly ecstatic state.

Suddenly, my entire body began to gently vibrate. I could literally feel it in every cell. It was one of the most remarkable and beautiful experiences of my life. The vibrating lasted only a minute or so, but when it stopped, the answer to my question poured into my consciousness. I knew also that what I had just experienced was part of the answer. (Only later did I realize that, synchronistically, all of this took place on Valentine’s Day).

Because it is my habit to chronicle in my journal every unusual experience or dream I have, I later began to write it all out. But as I wrote, more insights about the heart connection began to unfold in my consciousness.

I wrote until too tired to hold my pen. The next day as soon as I had free time, I sat down to finish my chronicle. I soon realized that I was premature in thinking I was going to finish the writing. The information just flowed as long as I was willing to write.

It soon became apparent that, if I chose, I could write a whole book on the subject of the heart connection.

I knew it would be useless to undertake such a project without some scientific verification of at least most of the ideas unfolding for me. It was a daunting prospect. However, what historian Arthur Koestler playfully called the library angel,⁵ came to my aid. As the ideas unfolded just the right book or paper would synchronistically come into my hand, or I would be led to the library and find just the right book to verify what I was receiving. The end result was that ninety percent of the ideas in this book have been successfully documented.

Only later, after my heart opening, did I come across a book by music educator and musician Don Campbell titled, The Mozart Effect, in which Campbell writes about the miraculous role certain kinds of music can play in our lives; healing mind and body and opening our creative spirit to a higher potential.⁶

Understanding of the heart connection continues to this day to unfold and this book is an attempt to share that understanding in the hope that many who read it will succeed in experiencing their own heart opening and make their own beautiful, unique heart connection.

Chapter 2

THE LIMBIC DYNAMIC

It is the dynamic between the heart and the brain, in particular the limbic system, which determines, ultimately, the quality of our intelligence