Roughly 11 years ago I embarked on a study regarding the power of the heart as a primary organizing force in our human existence. Someone had introduced the concept to me, but from a peculiar angle that really didn’t set too well. The material mentioned some scientific research and I began chasing that down.
That this really is a science is not in doubt; see this article, for example.
The key figure was Jan Walleczek of Stanford University. You can still find online copies of his earliest publications on this (“Self-organized Biological Dynamics and Non-linear Control”) if you know where to look, but it’s not light reading. The critical point he makes is that the heart generates a very powerful electromagnetic field that does far more than you might imagine. His paper focuses on how the heart manages the activity and structure inside the body. The heart is also a sensory organ that can process feedback from this powerful field, such as when it encounters the fields generated by other living beings, and apparently some inanimate objects.
The challenge is getting our brains to make sense of what our hearts can tell us. There are several organizations attempting to do this, not least of which is the Heart Math Institute. They do a good job of summarizing the research out there, but because they are stuck in the western model of anthropology, they assume it’s primary application is the emotions.
In western mythology, the heart is the repository of sentiment or emotion. Thus, using all that research obviously means emotional intelligence. However, the West is the only civilization in human history to assume this. Every other civilization and culture assumes that the heart operates in an entirely different realm of being, something the West flatly denies even exists.
Which brings us to the field of Biblical Studies. The entire Ancient Near East assumes the heart is our only viable connection to the Spirit Realm. In the Bible, the heart is the seat of faith, the faculty by which we submit and commit to our Creator. It is the faculty by which we can discern spiritual matters. It can be steered wrong, falling off into idolatry, but God has made His mark on the hearts of the Elect. Sooner or later, they will come to Him in faith.
For our Radix Fidem community, this connection between modern science and Biblical Studies, producing the concept of heart-led living, which is much more than the common western evangelical image of “having faith”. The latter is often portrayed as a mere discipline of the mind, not a full engagement of one’s whole being.
I’m placing a copy of my book, Heart of Faith here in my blog’s media archive for easy download, should you be interested in this subject.
