This the third post in a six part blog introducing the Lynchburg Parks and Recreation Department’s, “Please Do Hug the Trees” campaign. If you haven’t already done so, make sure to read Part I of The Tree Hugging Hippies Were Right After All before continuing with Part III.

The Limited Human Receiver

Imagine that the ether around us, what we think of as air or empty space, is filled with all the information possible to be retrieved. Let’s say it’s filled with information from the Internet and music that could be listened to. We can’t see this Internet information and we can’t hear the music floating around. But, with the right receiver we can decode that frequency.

With a radio, we can tune into our favorite radio station by turning a dial to a frequency. With WI-FI, we can retrieve information floating in the ether/cloud by using a search engine. But, without that receiver radio or without WIFI channel, we can’t experience that music or learn about that information. To experience the vibrations hiding in the ether or the matter/energy complex, we have to have the right receiver. 

There is so much more outside of what we can perceive with our existing senses (the human receiver), and we have an extremely reduced vision of true reality, about .001% of all that exists. The takeaway here is that the entire physical universe is made up of pure energy and vibration of which humans can perceive only a tiny fraction. 

Electromagnetic Energies

According to Blinded by Science author, Matthew Silverstone, the answer to how the trees affect us physiologically rests in the fact that everything vibrates at a certain frequency. These frequencies and vibrations are more widely known as electromagnetic energies – energies that combine an electric current with a magnetic field – and they have an effect on the subtle energies of Earth and humans.

Use of EM SpectrumThe complete electromagnetic  spectrum ranges from the longest and slowest radio waves to the shortest and fastest gamma waves. Electromagnetic energies can also be visible. But, the electromagnetic energies that form the visible spectrum (light) are only a small part of the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

Visible Light 

The entire electromagnetic spectrum of visible light produces different colors, which are just simply waves vibrating at different frequencies. On one end of the spectrum you have red; on the other end, you have violet. Red has the longest wavelength and the lowest frequency, and violet has the shortest wavelength and the highest frequency.

Solid Matter

Interestingly, what we call solid matter is just energy vibrating at a frequency that we can perceive through our senses. But, solid matter is only solid because that is how our brain interprets the information coming through our senses. [Note: the electromagnetic concept and how it relates to our reality is not one that is easily absorbed.]

Albert Einstein once spoke about the relationship between matter and energy. He said “mass and energy are both different manifestations of the same thing – a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind.”

Human Beings and Our Electromagnetic Energies

brain wavesElectromagnetic energies of human beings are defined as the frequencies of the brain. Brain wave patterns (brain frequencies) can be measured and are reflections of our states of consciousness. The frequency of brain waves can be expressed in cycles per second or hertz (Hz), and occur in the five different states of consciousness.

The five states of consciousness relate to the five types of brain waves. These include beta, alpha, delta, theta and gamma waves. This chart’s descriptions of brain wave activity for each state clarifies that the brain’s delta and theta waves help us connect with information that cannot be perceived through the senses.   In other words, delta and theta brain states help decode the frequencies and vibrations that exist outside of our visible light spectrum.

In my opinion, intuition, gut instincts, and inner “knowing” are generated in these two states. I also believe that these are right brain functions, and although the instincts and “knowing” are real, they are hard to verbalize, which is a left brain function.

More Beta Waves for Developing Children

It’s interesting to note that children’s play occurs in the beta and alpha range, and that children’s play is a right brain function, acting in a critical role in the way the brain develops. “The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain,” says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. “Without play experience, those neurons aren’t changed.” 

At a school, where free play and exploration are encouraged, children can educate themselves under the right conditions. “It is those changes in the prefrontal cortex during childhood that help wire up the brain’s executive control center, which has a critical role in regulating emotions, making plans and solving problems,” Pellis says. “So play,” he adds, “is what prepares a young brain for life, love and even schoolwork.”

When it comes to brain development, time in the classroom may be less important than time on the playground. This is normally the philosophical difference in after school program structure that differentiates recreation and parks sponsored afterschool programs and those sponsored by education institutions and other programs that focus on tutoring and homework.

With the basic Recreation 101 classes, Parks and Recreational professionals understand the importance of play not just in brain development, but in the social, physical and intellectual human growth. Daily balance becomes a mantra with Recreation professionals advocating self- selected, gross motor, imaginative, non -stressful play as a balance to our contemporary school day comprised of sedentary, fine-motor, teacher-selected, goal-directed tasks. Most parents can relate to their child’s stress created in SOL preparation and testing. Now, the educational focus on memorization and how to take tests versus promoting critical thinking, creativity, the arts and physical activity is finally being questioned. The epidemic of obesity and children on pharmaceutical drugs that enhance the ability to sit still and memorize is certainly also suspect. 

What’s the point here? Kids need the good vibrations of play to fully develop their brain- bring on the beta waves.

The Earth’s Frequencies and Their Effect on us

Schumann+Resonance1While childhood play is critical in brain development, the operation of the brain is also supported by certain frequencies that Earth creates, the Schumann resonant frequencies.

These frequencies include the strongest and most important Schumann frequency of 7.83 Hz – the heartbeat of the Earth – which falls in the range that corresponds to the low alpha and high theta frequencies in our brain. What’s even more interesting is that our brain resonates with this frequency, and that it helps us bring our brain into states of deep relaxation equal to that of meditation.

“Because we are not aware that we are walking through a sea of energy all of the time, we do not fully experience the wonderful energies that always surround us. There will, however, always be some benefit. Usually people will be affected by the different energies through resonance to a certain degree… [and this] resonance explains why people feel so much better when they are out in nature,” says Jaap Van Etten, PhD and author of Gifts of Mother Earth: Earth Energies, Vortexes, Lines and Grids

End of Part III: The Tree Hugging Hippies Were Right After All. Stay tuned next week for Part IV of this six part series.

Please Do Hug the Trees, Hug the Trees Lynchburg