An interview with Gregg Braden and Howard Martin By Linda M. Potter
Can mass human emotion, whether positive or negative, be detected in the earth’s energetic fields? Are our thoughts and feelings shaping the future of our planet? Can our prayers and meditations “save the world” and its people as we transition into the changes being ushered in by 2012?
The answers to these and other provocative questions may lie in the work being done through a new, groundbreaking project called, The Global Coherence Initiative (GCI). An innovative experiment launched by the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California, this science-based initiative endeavors to unite “millions of people in heart-focused care and intention to shift global consciousness from instability and discord to balance, cooperation and enduring peace.”
The central hypothesis of GCI is that the magnetic fields of the earth are impacted by mass human emotion, both positive and negative. To test this hypothesis, HeartMath has developed a Global Coherence Monitoring System (GCMS) which will measure changes in the earth’s magnetic field and ionosphere. Through the data provided by GCMS, scientists will be able to study “the relationship between the earth’s fields, collective human emotions, behaviors and planetary changes.”
How important is this work? Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, tagged GCI as “perhaps the greatest experiment in the history of the world.” Why? Because, it is becoming increasingly clear that humanity is at a cross-road where both chaos and new order are emerging simultaneously. That means, explains Howard Martin, Executive Vice President of HeartMath, we are facing “a pivotal time for the human species and the planet itself.”
Martin and HeartMath have teamed up with Gregg Braden, the New York Times bestselling author of the Divine Matrix and Fractal Time, to address this unprecedented time in earth’s history.
Braden explains, “In the last five years, I’ve had an opportunity to be on every continent on earth (except Antarctica) and there’s a universal sense everywhere we go that something’s up.” Is that “something” related to the impending 2012 transition that has been the subject of prophecy for more than two thousand years? Yes, says Braden, but perhaps not in the way many of the “end-of-the-world” prognosticators may think.
December 21, 2012, Braden explains, is a, specific date, an astronomical marker that was identified by the ancient Mayan astronomers as the end of a cycle that they say began in 3114 B.C. What makes this particular time period so significant is that it is not only the end of one specific 5000 year cycle, but it is also the last of five cycles that mark the conclusion of the precession of the equinoxes “where the slow wobble of the earth carries us through all 12 of the zodiac signs.” This rare occurrence happens once in 26,000 years, he says.
That means, adds Braden, that we are in a rare alignment with a powerful source of energy in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Furthermore, scientists have confirmed that earth is influenced by the magnetic field of this energy.
What this means for humanity is unclear. Predictions for the 2012 alignment have ranged from a cataclysmic final chapter in earth’s history to the emergence of a new age of peace and prosperity. We’ve actually already witnessed some of the 2012 fallout, Braden says. “What few people realize, is that we entered the 2012 zone of alignment right around 1980 and will leave that zone right around 2016. By the time we reach 2012, we are well into whatever we’re going to experience.”
For those prophecies that warned of extreme weather conditions and catastrophic natural disasters – it’s already happening, he says. “We’re already experiencing forest fires raging out of control for months at a time on multiple continents. We’re already experiencing storms and surges that are wiping entire communities off the face of the earth along coastlines. The greatest challenges that human civilizations have ever faced are converging on a single generation. We’re faced with problems that have got to be solved within the next 8-10 years for us to survive.”
Howard Martin elaborates: “We’re at a place in our history where the stress and emotional discord have reached a threshold where we can’t live this way anymore. Systems are beginning to collapse. The way we’ve done things in the past that have served us to a certain point are not serving us now. How are we going to figure it all out? We definitely can’t do it by approaching things with the same logical, linear intelligence that we’ve used in the past.”
“We’ve been operating in what we could call third dimensional intelligence; separation duality, survival, etc. are the rulers of that kind of thinking. But many people have moved beyond that thinking now into the fourth dimension. That is characterized by more thinking for the wholeness of things, beginning to remove separation, beginning to bring the values and qualities of the heart to the forefront – qualities like appreciation, care, compassion, forgiveness, nonjudgment.” Wholeness thinking happens when we experience coherence. Coherence is a highly ordered state. On the biological level, says Martin, “there is synchronization of all the major bodily systems.” And on the physical level, coherence is driven by the heart [the strongest magnetic field in the body] – a heart that sends powerful healing commands to the brain and the rest of the body.
Braden adds, “Coherence is about creating an experience or feeling in the heart that literally tunes our heart and our brain energetically… it’s about creating in such a powerful way that it allows us to link or couple with the fields of the earth that are undergoing that change we’re seeing as we move into the end of this cycle.” “To create that space [of coherence], what we’re guided to do is what our most cherished spiritual traditions have always invited us to do — live from a place of gratitude, appreciation and compassion. What our science is now telling us is that when we achieve that, those fields work collectively to smooth the chaos of a changing world brought about by the cycles.”
Can the stress waves created by 6 billion people in the presence of these changes be offset by the coherence waves of relatively few people who know how to live in their hearts? HeartMath believes so. The Global Coherence Initiative is designed to demonstrate just that.
Currently, over 14,000 people have joined in the effort. Gregg Braden and Howard Martin have come together to provide talks and workshops that teach people how to achieve the personal coherence that is the first step towards creating that greater global coherence. On October 15, Braden and Martin will present: “Welcome to 2012 and Beyond – The Global Shift Has Begun!” in Vancouver, BC. Proceeds from the event will benefit The Global Coherence Initiative. For more details, visit www.BellaSpark.com.
Linda M. Potter lindampotter@comcast.net 2088 River West Dr. Windsor, CO 80550 970-686-2721 Linda M. Potter is a freelance writer, licensed spiritual counselor, popular speaker and published author. Her talks are based on her book and column, If God Would Only Give Me a Sign. www.lindampotter.com
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© 2012 BellaSpark