Can You Really Give Off Bad Vibes?

“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

You walk into a room after you hear your roommates arguing and you could practically cut the tension with a knife.  Or, you meet someone for the first time and within a few seconds know whether you are going to love or loathe the person.

The Beach Boys made a song about it, our closest friends know when a new beau just isn’t right, and even our pets can sense them: good (bad) vibrations.

Up until now, these feelings have been purely anectodal, just a hunch we’ve gotten about someone, but science is finally starting to catch up with our own human intelligence, and there is a growing field of research to prove, thatyes, you really can give off bad vibes.

Photo from the Institute of HeartMath

There is a growing field of science called neurocardiology and psychophysiology which studies the initimate relationship between the heart, our emotions, our brain and our immune system.  We’ve been professing the power of the heart for centuries in poetry, literature, and songs, and finally, we finally have some legit scientific proof to backup what we’ve been saying about the heart through the arts: that is far more than just a pump.

The Institute of Heart Math, based in Boulder Creek, California is leading the way in bringing more awareness into the complexities of the heart and how the heart can communicate with the rest of the body, and how the heart can affect our health and happiness.  I stumbled upon the HeartMath Institute earlier this year, and have been immersing myself in their research, which is quite extensive.

One tid bit of research from HeartMath states that:

“The heart generates the largest electromagnetic field in the body. The electrical field as measured in an electrocardiogram (ECG) is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the brain waves recorded in an electroencephalogram (EEG).”

…studies show this powerful electromagnetic field can be detected and measured several feet away from a person’s body and between two individuals in close proximity.

Meaning, your heart is giving off energy, the same kind of energy that an EKG machine in a hospital uses to detect your heart rhythm. This energy is also felt by humans, the only difference is that the EKG machine is able to print off this energy on a fancy graph.

You can even say that as humans, we are living, walking EKG machines, picking up on the energy of the people around us.

At the HeartMath Institute, the researchers set out to determine whether or not the heart’s energy could actually be detected by other people when they were a few feet next to each other or holding hands.  In their study, The Electricity of Touch, their research positively supported this theory, that yes, people within our vicinity can and do sense our heart’s electromagnetic energy.

The data showed “when people touch or are in proximity, a transference of the electromagnetic energy produced by the heart occurs,” the study’s authors wrote.

But what does that mean?

It means that the energy and vibrations our heart emits, does get sensed by other people.  And the energy that is in these vibrations contains information and codes about how we are feeling.

Much the same way that our DNA has our genetic blueprint, our heart waves contain our emotional blueprint.

Meaning that when we are feeling positive emotions, the coding in our heart’s vibrations reflect this, and when we are feeling negative emotions, the coding in our heart’s vibration also reflect this.

This phenomena is called coherence, and it is the effect our emotions have on our heart’s electromagnetic waves.

Positive thoughts = positive vibrations

Negative thoughts = negative vibrations

This theory can help explain why no one likes being around a grump, and why we find ourselves drawn to people who are energetic, lively, and full of joy.  Their positive emotions are being vibrated through the heart and you, the walking EKG machine, picks up on this.

The theory of giving off good (bad) vibes is more than just a saying, a song, or a feeling.  This little heart of ours, does more than just pump blood throughout the body.

It emits a powerful a signal which contains the blueprint of our emotions and thus our thoughts, and whether or not we realize it, we are hooked up to the people around us, non-verbally communicating with each other.

So, what is your heartbeat saying about you?