What is bioenergy and is it possible to "correct the biofield"

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Qigong books, magnetic bracelets and bioresonance devices are all in a landfill.

What is bioenergy

There are several interpretations of this concept.

Bioenergy as a branch of biology

In biology, bioenergy is studied by V. P. Skulachev, A. V. Bogachev, F. O. Membrane bioenergy. M. 2010 processes of transformation of external energy resources by living organisms into useful work. Simply put - how animals or plants use air, food, light and other sources of energy for growth, development, metabolism, and so on.

This section, for example, studies cellular respiration, fermentation and photosynthesis, that is, metabolic and enzymatic processes, without which, in principle, the work of living organisms is impossible.

Back in the early 20th century, British biologist John Haldane identified V. P. Skulachev, A. V. Bogachev, F. O. Kasparinsky. Membrane bioenergy. M. 2010 life as a way of existence of self-reproducing structures due to the influx of energy from the outside. However, the roots of this idea go much further: Leonardo da Vinci compared animal nutrition to burning a candle.

Domestic scientists Vladimir Engelgardt and Vladimir Belitser discovered phosphorylating respiration of cells, which was introduced by V. P. Skulachev, A. V. Bogachev, F. O. Membrane bioenergy. M. 2010 a significant contribution to the development of bioenergy.

The appearance of the word “bioenergy” itself is associated with the publication of several works of the mid-1950s - early 1960s. Among them are articles by Nobel Prize winners James Watson, Peter Mitchell and Albert Szent-Gyorgy.

The name “bioenergy” was suggested by V. P. Skulachev, A. V. Bogachev, F. O. Kasparinsky. Membrane bioenergy. M. 2010 Soviet scientist Vladimir Skulachev in 1968 at the international congress of biochemists in Italy. The term began to be used to refer to the section of biology that studies the energy supply of organisms. From that moment on, bioenergy began to develop as a full-fledged scientific discipline with its own journals, conferences and an international organization.

In addition to biologists, the term is used by power engineers. This is what they call the process of obtaining energy from renewable biofuels, such as ethanol from vegetable sugar or diesel from various biomasses.

Bioenergy as a direction of alternative medicine and psychotherapeutic practice

The word "bioenergy" also denotes the theory and practice of physical and psychological therapy, based on the work with a certain special energy.

Often in the literature, especially in foreign, you can find the term "energy medicine". It is broader and denotes any form of alternative medicine or pseudoscience that focuses on healing and prevention using any form of energy. In this case, therapy can be contact and non-contact.

A variety of practices can be hidden behind energy medicine:

• acupuncture and acupressure;
• laser, light, magnetic, bioresonance therapy;
• orgone therapy - treatment with "universal orgonic energy" allegedly transmitted from person to person;
• treatment with the touch of the palms, the energy of the pyramids;
• vibration, multidimensional medicine;
• qigong, reiki, karma diagnostics, cosmoenergy, polarity therapy, spiritual healing;
• Tantra;
• yantras - Buddhist symbols and amulets that are used along with mantras during meditation;
• healing with animal energy and so on.

Many different ailments are offered to treat with the help of such practices: from stress to cancer; these techniques have even penetrated veterinary medicine. Supporters of energy medicine believe that diseases (physical or psychological) arise in the energy (aura) of a person and they can be dealt with by manipulating some kind of "vital force". For example, “free” from negativity or “remove blocks”.

Key concepts in such practices are "bioenergy" and "biofield". In some interpretations, they cannot be recorded with measuring instruments, and only individual people can feel or see them.

The followers of parascientific bioenergy are trying to revise or expand the prevailing scientific picture of the world. In their concepts, they often combine the traditional beliefs of the East, concepts and terms of cell biology and biochemistry, classical and quantum physics.

In addition to supporters of alternative medicine and non-traditional psychotherapy, the term "bioenergetics" was also adopted by psychics, and from them it got into the press, on TV and in the media. This was actively opposed by Vladimir Skulachev - the one who at one time proposed a scientific interpretation of this biological concept.

What is the concept of biofield in bioenergy

Attempts to discover some kind of universal energy, "life force" governing all living things, have been going on for a long time. In the 18th century, German physician Anton Mesmer decided that electromagnetic interaction was ideal for this role. According to his concept - mesmerism, there is a certain "animal magnetism" in the human body, which can be transmitted and thereby cured for all diseases.

The term "morphogenetic (biological) field" was first introduced into circulation by the Russian and Soviet biologist, Professor Alexander Gurvich. He outlined his developments in the work of A. G. Gurvich. Biological field theory. M. 1944 1944 "Theory of the biological field". Gurvich was looking for superweak electromagnetic energy flows emanating from living organisms, and found that onion root cells emit ultraviolet light.

In the 1970s – 1980s, the term “biofield” spread among Soviet psychics and parapsychologists, and then became widespread.

In 1992, the Office of Alternative Medicine at the US National Institutes of Health defined the biofield as "a massless field, not necessarily electromagnetic, that surrounds and permeates living bodies and affects them."

The current pseudo-scientific views on it are based on the idea that living organisms generate energy fields and respond to them. That is, in fact, we are talking about the very "energy of life", supposedly existing inside and around a person and permeating all living things.

Supporters of its existence understand by the biofield electromagnetic activities, mainly the energy of interaction. They cite as examples:

• magnetic fields generated by the heart;
• limb regeneration in some animals, associated with electromagnetic pulses;
• resonance and Brownian motion of cells;
• the impact of solar flares on human health.

The followers of the biofield concept believe that it participates in biological interactions and regulates them, and is also capable of containing and transferring vital information. They compare it with that contained in the structures of DNA and RNA, however, they consider it inexplicable from the point of view of reducibility (the possibility of interpreting complex phenomena in terms of simpler ones). In their interpretations, the biofield becomes a kind of bridge between mind and body.

Homeopathy, chiropractic and osteopathy are also based on the concept of vitality.

Justifying the ability of the biofield to instantly transfer information, some proponents of bioenergy cite data from quantum mechanics. They believe that a change in the indeterminate state of one particle leads to the opposite state in another particle, regardless of how far away they are from each other. However, this bioenergetic approach to the laws of quantum mechanics is controversial. The appeal of esotericists to the views of Albert Einstein is surprising among researchers.

Why is it impossible to "correct the biofield"

The concepts of bioenergy and biofield are criticized by members of the RAS Commission for Combating Pseudoscience. They call parascientific bioenergy dubious and untested, and their experiences laughable. Academics put this area of knowledge on a par with astrology, palmistry and extrasensory perception.

There is no evidence that energy practice methods work. Their theoretical foundations are implausible, their studies do not correspond to scientific methodology and do not give reliable results, and their positive effects are explained by already known psychological mechanisms. For example, cognitive-behavioral therapy methods have been found in these concepts.

The failure of parascientific bioenergy has been repeatedly confirmed by both randomized and randomized trials. The "action" of bioenergetic treatment arises from either real improvement in the condition unrelated to therapy, or because of the placebo effect.

According to one of the bioenergetic theories - the therapy of polarities by Randolph Stone, health depends on the number of positive and negative particles in the human electromagnetic field. Changing its proportions supposedly can get rid of any ailments, even cancer. However, the American Cancer Society has not found scientific evidence for this.

Often, for example in the case of bioresonance therapy, a false concept can hide its true essence under complex but pseudoscientific terms that resemble the names of real medical practices. Together with the empty, but loud promises of individual "healers", this has become the reason that some of the bioresonance devices are banned for sale in the United States.

In this sense, the story of Why are Canadians hanging their hopes on this machine is indicative? CBC bioenergy device EPFX (Electro Physiological Feedback Xrroid), which the creators sold for 20 thousand dollars. The device was approved as a tool for assessing stress reduction, but vendors touted it as a remedy for anything, even the most serious illnesses, including cancer and AIDS. Several people who used it died due to the fact that they did not receive treatment on time. The device was banned from selling in the United States. Nevertheless, such devices are still sold all over the world.

At the same time, "therapists", declaring that their theories and practices are interdisciplinary, often get confused in concepts, not knowing, for example, the difference between quantum and electromagnetic fields.

Disruption of energy metabolism in the body can indeed cause diseases, such as mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, which affects the brain, muscles and nervous system. However, the main reason for this disease is not that the work of the biofield is disrupted, but in genetic mutations of mitochondrial RNA and DNA transmitted through the female line.

The causes of other diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, caused by impaired energy metabolism in the body, are also associated with genetic characteristics, and not with the flow of "life force". To combat such ailments, mitochondrial treatment is used - taking vitamins and special drugs.

The concepts of biofield, aura and other types of mystical energy are popular among people who do not want to put up with a materialistic view of a person, as well as among those who are not helped by standard methods of treatment. This is used with pleasure by various charlatans (psychics, gurus, trainers), among whom, however, there are certainly those who believe in their abilities.

However, science does not find confirmation of these views. The cells of human flesh are composed of the same subatomic particles as, for example, a stone in the desert. These particles interact by exchanging absolutely identical photons and gluons, and there is no esotericism in this. And the electromagnetic radiation of the human brain is no different from "inanimate energy", and it can be simulated on a computer.