by Gregg Braden
Figure 2. Illustration showing the shape and relative size of the energetic field that surrounds the human heart. (Courtesy of the Institute of HeartMath.)
The experiments were conducted between 1992 and 1995, and began by isolating human DNA in a glass beaker16 and then exposing it to a powerful form of feeling known as coherent emotion. According to Glen Rein and Rollin McCraty, the principal researchers, this physiological state may be created intentionally by “using specially designed mental and emotional self-management techniques which involve intentionally quieting the mind, shifting one’s awareness to the heart area and focusing on positive emotions.”17 They performed a series of tests involving up to five people trained in applying coherent emotion. Using special techniques that analyze the DNA both chemically and visually, the researchers could detect any changes that happened.
The results were undeniable and the implications were unmistakable. The bottom line: Human emotion changed the shape of the DNA! Without physically touching it or doing anything other than creating precise feelings in their bodies, the participants were able to influence the DNA molecules in the beaker.
In the first experiment, which involved only one person, effects were produced by a combination of “directed intention, unconditional love and specific imagery of the DNA molecule.” In the words of one of the researchers, “These experiments revealed that different intentions produced different effects on the DNA molecule causing it to either wind or unwind.”18 Clearly, the implications are beyond anything that’s been allowed for in traditional scientific theory until now.
We’ve been conditioned to believe that the state of the DNA in our body is a given. Contemporary thinking suggests that it’s a fixed quantity—we “get what we get” when we’re born—and with the exception of drugs, chemicals, and electrical fields, our DNA doesn’t change in response to anything that we can do in our lives. But this experiment shows us that nothing could be further from the truth.
THE INNER TECHNOLOGY TO
CHANGE OUR WORLD
So what are these experiments telling us about our relationship to the world? The common denominator among all three is that they involve human DNA. There’s absolutely nothing in conventional wisdom that allows for the material of life in our bodies to have any effect whatsoever on our outer world. And there’s also nothing to suggest that human emotion can in any way affect DNA when it’s inside the body of its owner, let alone when it’s hundreds of miles away. Yet this is precisely what the results are showing us.
When we think of each experiment on its own, without any consideration of the others, it’s interesting. Each one shows us something that appears to be an anomaly existing beyond the bounds of conventional thinking, and some of the findings may even be a little surprising. Without a greater context, we might be tempted to put the experiments into the category of “Things to take another look at on another day … one far, far away.” But when we consider the three experiments together, something no less than paradigm shattering happens: They begin to tell us a story. When we look at each experiment as a piece of a bigger puzzle, that story jumps out at us like the hidden images of an Escher drawing! So let’s look a little deeper… .
In the first experiment, Poponin showed us that human DNA has a direct effect on the vibration of light. In the second—the military experiment—we learned that whether we’re in the same room with our DNA or separated by distances of hundreds of miles, we’re still connected to its molecules, and the effect is the same. In the third experiment, the HeartMath researchers showed us that human emotion has a direct effect on DNA, which in turn directly impacts the stuff our world is made of. This is the beginning of a technology—an inner technology—that does more than simply tell us we can have an effect on our bodies and our world … it shows us that this effect exists and how it works!
All these experiments suggest two similar conclusions, which are the crux of this book:
1. There is something “out there”: the matrix of an energy that connects any one thing with everything else in the universe. This connective field accounts for the unexpected results of the experiments.
2. The DNA in our bodies gives us access to the energy that connects our universe, and emotion is the key to tapping in to the field.
In addition, the experiments show us that our connection to the field is the essence of our existence. If we understand how it works and the way we’re connected to it, then we have all that we need to apply what we know of the field to our lives.
I invite you to think about what these results and conclusions mean in your life. What problem can’t be solved, what illness can’t be healed, and what condition can’t be improved if we’re able to tap the force and change the quantum blueprint where all of these things come from? That blueprint is the previously unrecognized field of energy that Max Planck described as the “conscious and intelligent Mind.”
THE DIVINE MATRIX
The experiments show that the Matrix is made of an energy form that’s unlike any we’ve ever known in the past—that’s why it took so long for scientists to find it. Called “subtle energy,” it simply doesn’t work the way a typical, conventional electrical field does.
Rather, it appears to be a tightly woven web, and it makes up the fabric of creation that I’m calling the Divine Matrix.
Figure 3. The experiments suggest that the energy connecting the universe exists as a tightly woven web that makes up the underlying fabric of our reality.
Of the many ways we could define the Divine Matrix, perhaps the simplest is to think of it as being three basic things: (1) the container for the universe to exist within; (2) the bridge between our inner and outer worlds; and (3) the mirror that reflects our everyday thoughts, feelings, emotions, and beliefs.
There are three more attributes that set the Divine Matrix apart from any other energy of its kind. First, it can be described as being everywhere all the time … it already exists. Unlike a broadcast from a TV or radio station that has to be created in one place before being sent and received somewhere else, this field seems to be everywhere already.
Second, it appears that this field originated when creation did—with the big bang or whatever we choose to call the “beginning.” Obviously, no one was here to tell us what was present before, but physicists believe that the massive release of energy that jolted our universe into existence was the very act of creating space itself.
As the Hymn of Creation from the ancient Rig Veda suggests, before the beginning “not even nothing existed then, no air yet, nor a heaven.” As the existence of “nothing” exploded into the “something” of space, the stuff between the nothing was born. We can think of the Divine Matrix as an echo of that moment when time began, as well as a link made of time and space that connects us with the creation of everything. It’s the nature of this ever-present connection that allows for the nonlocality of things that exist within the Matrix.
The third characteristic of this field, and perhaps the one that makes it so meaningful in our lives, is that it appears to have “intelligence.” In other words, the field responds to the power of human emotion. In the language of another time, ancient traditions did their best to share this great secret with us. Inscribed on the temple walls, penned onto timeworn parchments, and engrained into the lives of the people themselves, the instructions that tell us how to communicate with the energy that connects everything were left by those who came before us. Our ancestors tried to show us how to heal our bodies and breathe life into our deepest desires and greatest dreams. It’s only now, nearly 5,000 years after the first of those instructions was recorded, that the language of science has rediscovered the very same relationship between our world and us.
The energy found in these experiments (and theorized by others) is so new that scientists have yet to agree on a single term to describe it. Thus, there are many different names that are being used to identify the field that connects everything. Edgar Mitchell, the former Apollo astrona
ut, for example, calls it “Nature’s Mind.” Physicist and coauthor of superstring theory Michio Kaku described it as the “Quantum Hologram.” While these are modern labels for the cosmic force believed to be responsible for the universe, we find similar themes and even similar words in texts created thousands of years before quantum physics.
Dating to the 4th century, for example, the Gnostic Gospels also used the word mind to describe this force and how “from the power of Silence appeared ‘a great power, the Mind of the Universe, which manages all things… .’”19 As different as the names sound from one another, all of them appear to be describing the same thing—the living essence that is the fabric of our reality.
It’s this mind that Planck made reference to in Florence, Italy, in the mid-20th century. During a lecture he presented in 1944, he made the statement that in all probability was not even fully understood by the scientists of the day. In prophetic words that would be as groundbreaking in the 21st century as they were when he spoke them, Planck said:
As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as the result of my research about the atoms, this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. . . . We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.20
Beyond any reasonable doubt, the experiments and discussion of this chapter show us that Planck’s matrix exists. Regardless of what we choose to call it or which laws of physics it may or may not conform to, the field that connects everything in creation is real. It’s here in this very instant—it exists as you and as me. It’s the universe inside of us as well as the one that surrounds us, the quantum bridge between all that’s possible in our minds and what becomes real in the world. The matrix of energy that explains why the three experiments work as they do also demonstrates how the positive feelings and prayers within us can be so effective in the world around us.
But our connection to the Matrix of all matter doesn’t stop there … it continues into the things that we can’t see. The Divine Matrix is everywhere and everything. From the bird that’s flying in the air high above us to the cosmic particles that pass through our bodies and homes as if we were empty space, all matter exists within the same container of reality: the Divine Matrix. It’s what fills the emptiness between you and the words on this page. It’s what space itself is made of. When you think about the Matrix and wonder about its location, you can rest assured that wherever space exists, there is also subtle energy.
SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Like the great secret that everyone suspects but rarely talks about, through the Divine Matrix we’re all connected in the most intimate way imaginable. But what does that connection really mean? What does it imply to be so deeply enmeshed with our world and one another’s lives that we share the pure quantum space where imagination lives and reality is born? If we’re truly more than simply casual onlookers watching as our lives and the world “happen” around us, then how much “more” are we?
The previous experiments demonstrate that there’s a power within each of us that’s unlike any ever created by a machine in a laboratory. It’s a force that’s not bound by the laws of physics—at least not the ones we understand today. And we don’t need a lab experiment to know that this connection exists.
How many times have you gone to call someone on the phone, and found that he or she was already on the line when you picked up the receiver … or when you dialed the number, you discovered that the line was busy because your pal was calling you!?
On how many occasions have you found yourself enjoying time with friends in a busy street, mall, or airport, only to have the eerie feeling that you’ve already been in that place or with those people before, doing exactly what you’re doing at that moment?
While these simple examples are fun to talk about, they’re more than random coincidences. Although we may not be able to prove scientifically why these things happen, we all know that they do. In such moments of connectedness and déjà vu, we find ourselves spontaneously transcending the limits imposed by physical laws. In those brief instances, we’re reminded that there’s probably more to the universe and us than we may consciously acknowledge.
This is the same power that tells us we’re more than just observers in this world. The key to experiencing ourselves in this way is to create those experiences intentionally—to have our transcendent insights when we want to have them, rather than just when they seem to “happen.” With the exception of a few gifted people among us, there appears to be a very good reason why we’re not bilocating, time-traveling, and communicating faster than the laws of physics permit: It all comes down to what we believe about ourselves and our role in the universe. And that’s what the next section is all about.
We’re creators—and even more than that, we’re connected creators. Through the Divine Matrix, we participate in the constant change that gives meaning to life. The question now is less about whether or not we’re passive observers and more about how we can intentionally create.
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN
IMAGINATION AND
REALITY: HOW THE
DIVINE MATRIX WORKS
CHAPTER THREE
ARE WE PASSIVE OBSERVERS
OR POWERFUL CREATORS?
“So, why is the universe as big as it is?
Because we’re here.”
— John Wheeler (1911– ), physicist
“Imagination creates reality… .
Man is all imagination.”
— Neville (1905–1972),
visionary and mystic
In 1854, Chief Seattle warned the legislators in Washington, D.C., how the destruction of North America’s wilderness had implications that would reach far beyond the current time and threaten the survival of future generations. With a profound wisdom that’s as true today as it was in the mid-19th century, the chief reportedly stated, “Man did not weave the web of life—he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”1
The parallel between Chief Seattle’s description of our place in the “web of life” and our connection to (and within) the Divine Matrix is unmistakable. As part of all that we see, we’re participants in an ongoing conversation—a quantum dialogue—with ourselves, our world, and beyond. Within this cosmic exchange, our feelings, emotions, prayers, and beliefs at each moment represent our speaking to the universe. And everything from the vitality of our bodies to the peace in our world is the universe answering back.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO
“PARTICIPATE” IN
THE UNIVERSE?
As mentioned in the last chapter, physicist John Wheeler suggests that not only do we play a role in what he calls a “participatory universe,” but we fulfill the primary role. The key to Wheeler’s proposition is the word participatory. In this type of universe, you and I are part of the equation. We’re both catalysts for the events of our lives, as well as the “experiencers” of what we create … these things are happening at the same time! We’re “part of a universe that is a work in progress.” In this unfinished creation, “we are tiny patches of the universe looking at itself—and building itself.”2
Wheeler’s suggestion opens the door to a radical possibility: If consciousness creates, then the universe itself may be the result of this awareness. While Wheeler’s views were proposed later in the 20th century, we can’t help but think back to Max Planck’s 1944 statement that everything exists because of an “intelligent Mind,” which he called “the matrix of all matter.” The question that begs to be asked here is simply: What Mind?
In a participatory universe, the act of focusing our consciousness—of us looking somewhere and examining the world—is an act of creation in and of itself. We’re the ones observing and studying our world. We’
re the mind (or at least part of a greater mind), as Planck described. Everywhere we look, our consciousness makes something for us to look at.
Key 5: The act of focusing our consciousness is an act of creation. Consciousness creates!
In our search to find the smallest particle of matter and our quest to define the edge of the universe, this relationship suggests that we may never find either. No matter how deeply we peer into the quantum world of the atom or how far we reach into the vastness of outer space, the act of us looking with the expectation that something exists may be precisely the force that creates something for us to see.
A participatory universe … exactly what would that entail? If consciousness really creates, then how much power do we actually have to change our world? The answer may surprise you.
The 20th-century visionary from Barbados known simply by the name of Neville perhaps best described our ability to make our dreams a reality and bring imagination to life. Through his numerous books and lectures, in terms that are simple yet direct, he shared the great secret of how to navigate the many possibilities of the Divine Matrix. From Neville’s perspective, all that we experience—literally everything that happens to us or is done by us—is the product of our consciousness and absolutely nothing else. He believed that our ability to apply this understanding through the power of imagination is all that stands between us and the miracles of our lives. Just as the Divine Matrix provides the container for the universe, Neville suggested that it’s impossible for anything to happen outside the container of consciousness.
How easy it is to think otherwise! Immediately after the terrorist acts of September 11 in New York and Washington, D.C., the questions that everyone was asking were “Why did they do this to us?” and “What did we do to them?” We live during a time in history when it’s so easy to think of the world in terms of “them” and “us” and wonder how bad things can happen to good people. If there is in fact a single field of energy that connects everything in our world, and if the Divine Matrix works the way the evidence suggests, then there can be no them and us, only we.
