Science of the Heart... Heart-Brain Communication....Resilience, Stress and Emotions

About HeartMath Institute 

HeartMath Institute (HMI) is an innovative nonprofit research and education organization that provides simple, user-friendly mental and emotion self-regulation tools and techniques that people of all ages and cultures can use in the moment to relieve stress and break through to greater levels of personal balance, stability, creativity, intuitive insight and fulfillment. 

HMI research has formed the foundation for training programs conducted around the world in many different types of populations, including major corporations, government and social-service agencies, all branches of the Armed Forces, schools and universities, hospitals and a wide range of health-care professionals. The tools and technologies developed at HMI offer hope for new, effective solutions to the many daunting problems that society currently faces, beginning with restoring balance and maximizing the potential within each of us. 

HeartMath Institute’s Mission (HMI) 

The mission of HeartMath Institute is to help people bring their physical, mental and emotional systems into balanced alignment with their heart’s intuitive guidance. This unfolds the path for becoming heart-empowered individuals who choose the way of love, which they demonstrate through compassionate care for the well-being of themselves, others and Planet Earth. 

Introduction 

New research shows the human heart is much more than an efficient pump that sustains life. Our research suggests the heart also is an access point to a source of wisdom and intelligence that we can call upon to live our lives with more balance, greater creativity and enhanced intuitive capacities. All of these are important for increasing personal effectiveness, improving health and relationships and achieving greater fulfillment. 

This overview will explore intriguing aspects of the science of the heart, much of which is still relatively not well known outside the fields of psychophysiology and neurocardiology. We will highlight research that bridges the science of the heart and the highly practical, research-based skill set known as the HeartMath System. 

The heart has been considered the source of emotion, courage and wisdom for centuries. For more than 25 years, the HeartMath Institute Research Center has explored the physiological mechanisms by which the heart and brain communicate and how the activity of the heart influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition and health. Early on in our research we asked, among other questions, why people experience the feeling or sensation of love and other regenerative emotions as well as heartache in the physical area of the heart. In the early 1990s, we were among the first to conduct research that not only looked at how stressful emotions affect the activity in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hormonal and immune systems, but also at the effects of emotions such as appreciation, compassion and care. Over the years, we have conducted many studies that have utilized many different physiological measures such as EEG (brain waves), SCL (skin conductance), ECG (heart), BP (blood pressure) and hormone levels, etc. Consistently, however, it was heart rate variability, or heart rhythms that stood out as the most dynamic and reflective indicator of one’s emotional states and, therefore, current stress and cognitive processes. It became clear that stressful or depleting emotions such as frustration and overwhelm lead to increased disorder in the higher-level brain centers and autonomic nervous system and which are reflected in the heart rhythms and adversely affects the functioning of virtually all bodily systems. This eventually led to a much deeper understanding of the neural and other communication pathways between the heart and brain. We also observed that the heart acted as though it had a mind of its own and could significantly influence the way we perceive and respond in our daily interactions. In essence, it appeared that the heart could affect our awareness, perceptions and intelligence. Numerous studies have since shown that heart coherence is an optimal physiological state associated with increased cognitive function, self-regulatory capacity, emotional stability and resilience. 

We now have a much deeper scientific understanding of many of our original questions that explains how and why heart activity affects mental clarity, creativity, emotional balance, intuition and personal effectiveness. Our and others’ research indicates the heart is far more than a simple pump. The heart is, in fact, a highly complex  information-processing center with its own functional brain, commonly called the heart brain, that communicates with and influences the cranial brain via the nervous system, hormonal system and other pathways. These influences affect brain function and most of the body’s major organs and play an important role in mental and emotional experience and the quality of our lives. 

In recent years, we have conducted a number of research studies that have explored topics such as the electrophysiology of intuition and the degree to which the heart’s magnetic field, which radiates outside the body, carries information that affects other people and even our pets, and links people together in surprising ways. We also launched the Global Coherence Initiative (GCI), which explores the interconnectivity of humanity with Earth’s magnetic fields. 

This overview discusses the main findings of our research and the fascinating and important role the heart plays in our personal coherence and the positive changes that occur in health, mental functions, perception, happiness and energy levels as people practice the HeartMath techniques. Practicing the techniques increases heart coherence and one’s ability to self-regulate emotions from a more intuitive, intelligent and balanced inner reference. This also explains how coherence is reflected in our physiology and can be objectively measured. 

The discussion then expands from physiological coherence to coherence in the context of families, workplaces and communities. Science of the Heart concludes with the perspective that being responsible for and increasing our personal coherence not only improves personal health and happiness, but also feeds into and influences a global field environment. It is postulated that as increasing numbers of people add coherent energy to the global field, it helps strengthen and stabilize mutually beneficial feedback loops between human beings and Earth’s magnetic fields.

Chapter 1

Heart-Brain Communication 

The heart communicates with the brain and body in four ways: • Neurological communication (nervous system) 

• Biochemical communication (hormones) 

• Biophysical communication (pulse wave) 

• Energetic communication (electromagnetic fields) 

Traditionally, the study of communication pathways between the head and heart has been approached from a rather one-sided perspective, with scientists focusing primarily on the heart’s responses to the brain’s commands. We have learned, however, that communication between the heart and brain actually is a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialogue, with each organ continuously influencing the other’s function. Research has shown that the heart communicates to the brain in four major ways: neurologically (through the transmission of nerve impulses), biochemically (via hormones and neurotransmitters), biophysically (through pressure waves) and energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions). Communication along all these conduits significantly affects the brain’s activity. Moreover, our research shows that messages the heart sends to the brain also can affect performance.

Some of the first researchers in the field of psychophysiology to examine the interactions between the heart and brain were John and Beatrice Lacey. During 20 years of research throughout the 1960s and ’70s, they observed that the heart communicates with the brain in ways that significantly affect how we perceive and react to the world. 

In physiologist and researcher Walter Bradford Cannon’s view, when we are aroused, the mobilizing part of the nervous system (sympathetic) energizes us for fight or flight, which is indicated by an increase in heart rate, and in more quiescent moments, the calming part of the nervous system (parasympathetic) calms us down and slows the heart rate. Cannon believed the autonomic nervous system and all of the related physiological responses moved in concert with the brain’s response to any given stimulus or challenge. Presumably, all of our inner systems are activated together when we are aroused and calm down together when we are at rest and the brain is in control of the entire process. Cannon also introduced the concept of homeostasis. Since then, the study of physiology has been based on the principle that all cells, tissues and organs strive to maintain a static or constant steady-state condition. However, with the introduction of signal-processing technologies that can acquire continuous data over time from physiological processes such as heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and nerve activity, it has become abundantly apparent that biological processes vary in complex and nonlinear ways, even during so-called steady-state conditions. These observations have led to the understanding that healthy, optimal function is a result of continuous, dynamic, bidirectional interactions among multiple neural, hormonal and mechanical control systems at both local and central levels. In concert, these dynamic and interconnected physiological and psychological regulatory systems are never truly at rest and are certainly never static. 

For example, we now know that the normal resting rhythm of the heart is highly variable rather than monotonously regular, which was the widespread notion for many years. This will be discussed further in the section on heart rate variability (HRV). 

Figure 1.1 Innervation of the major organs by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Parasympathetic fibers are primarily in the vagus nerves, but some that regulate subdiaphragmatic organs travel through the spinal cord. The sympathetic fibers also travel through the spinal cord. A number of health problems can arise in part because of improper function of the ANS. Emotions can affect activity in both branches of the ANS. For example, anger causes increased sympathetic activity while many relaxation techniques increase parasympathetic activity. 

The Laceys noticed that the model proposed by Cannon only partially matched actual physiological behavior. As their research evolved, they found that the heart in particular seemed to have its own logic that frequently diverged from the direction of autonomic nervous system activity. The heart was behaving as though it had a mind of its own. Furthermore, the heart appeared to be sending meaningful messages to the brain that the brain not only understood, but also obeyed. Even more intriguing was that it looked as though these messages could affect a person’s perceptions, behavior and performance. The Laceys identified a neural pathway and mechanism whereby input from the heart to the brain could inhibit or facilitate the brain’s electrical activity. Then in 1974, French researchers stimulated the vagus nerve (which carries many of the signals from the heart to the brain) in cats and found that the brain’s electrical response was reduced to about half its normal rate.[1] This suggested that the heart and nervous system were not simply following the brain’s directions, as Cannon had thought. Rather, the autonomic nervous system and the communication between the heart and brain were much more complex, and the heart seemed to have its own type of logic and acted independently of the signals sent from the brain. 

While the Laceys research focused on activity occurring within a single cardiac cycle, they also were able to confirm that cardiovascular activity influences perception and cognitive performance, but there were still some inconsistencies in the results. These inconsistencies were resolved in Germany by Velden and Wölk, who later demonstrated that cognitive performance fluctuated at a rhythm around 10 hertz throughout the cardiac cycle. They showed that the modulation of cortical function resulted from ascending cardiovascular inputs on neurons in the thalamus, which globally synchronizes cortical activity.[2, 3] An important aspect of their work was the finding that it is the pattern and stability of the heart’s rhythm of the afferent (ascending) inputs, rather than the number of neural bursts within the cardiac cycle, that are important in modulating thalamic activity, which in turn has global effects on brain function. There has since been a growing body of research indicating that afferent information processed by the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (heart-brain) can influence activity in the fronto cortical areas[4-6] and motor cortex,[7] affecting psychological factors such as attention level, motivation,[8] perceptual sensitivity[9] and emotional processing.[10] 

Neurocardiology: The Brain On the Heart 

While the Laceys were conducting their research in psychophysiology, a small group of cardiologists joined forces with a group of neurophysiologists and neuroanatomists to explore areas of mutual interest. This represented the beginning of the new discipline now called neurocardiology. One of their early findings is that the heart has a complex neural network that is sufficiently extensive to be characterized as a brain on the heart (Figure 1.2).[11, 12] The heart-brain, as it is commonly called, or intrinsic cardiac nervous system, is an intricate network of complex ganglia, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells, the same as those of the brain in the head. The heart-brain’s neural circuitry enables it to act independently of the cranial brain to learn, remember, make decisions and even feel and sense. Descending activity from the brain in the head via the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the ANS is integrated into the heart’s intrinsic nervous system along with signals arising from sensory neurons in the heart that detect pressure, heart rate, heart rhythm and hormones. 

The anatomy and functions of the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and its connections with the brain have been explored extensively by neuro-cardiologists.[13, 14] In terms of heart-brain communication, it is generally well-known that the efferent (descending) pathways in the autonomic nervous system are involved in the regulation of the heart. However, it is less appreciated that the majority of fibers in the vagus nerves are afferent (ascending) in nature. Furthermore, more of these ascending neural pathways are related to the heart (and cardiovascular system) than to any other organ.[15] This means the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. More recent research shows that the neural interactions between the heart and brain are more complex than previously thought. In addition, the intrinsic cardiac nervous system has both short-term and long-term memory functions and can operate independently of central neuronal command. 

Figure 1.2. Microscopic image of interconnected intrinsic cardiac ganglia in the human heart. The thin, light-blue structures are multiple axons that connect the ganglia. Courtesy of Dr. J. Andrew Armour. 

Once information has been processed by the heart’s intrinsic nervous system, the appropriate signals are sent to the heart’s sinoatrial node and to other tissues in the heart. Thus, under normal physiological conditions, the heart’s intrinsic nervous system plays an important role in much of the routine control of cardiac function, independent of the central nervous system. The heart’s intrinsic nervous system is vital for the maintenance of cardiovascular stability and efficiency and without it, the heart cannot function properly. The neural output, or messages from the intrinsic cardiac nervous system travels to the brain via ascending pathways in the both the spinal column and vagus nerves, where it travels to the medulla, hypothalamus, thalamus and amygdala and then to the cerebral cortex.[5, 16, 17] The nervous-system pathways between the heart and brain are shown in Figure 1.3 and the primary afferent pathways in the brain are shown in Figure 1.4.

Had the existence of the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and the complexity of the neural communication between the heart and brain been known while the Laceys were conducting their paradigm-shifting research, their theories and data likely would have been accepted far sooner. Their insight, rigorous experimentation and courage to follow where the data led them, even though it did not fit the well-entrenched beliefs of the scientific community of their day, were pivotal in the understanding of the heart-brain connection. Their research played an important role in elucidating the basic physiological and psychological processes that connect the heart and brain and the mind and body. In 1977, Dr. Francis Waldropin, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, stated in a review article of the Laceys’ work, “Their intricate and careful procedures, combined with their daring theories, have produced work that has stirred controversy as well as promise. In the long run, their research may tell us much about what makes each of us a whole person and may suggest techniques that can restore a distressed person to health.” 

Figure 1.3. The neural communication pathways interacting between the heart and brain are responsible for the generation of HRV. The intrinsic cardiac nervous system integrates information from the extrinsic nervous system and the sensory neurites within the heart. The extrinsic cardiac ganglia located in the thoracic cavity have connections to the lungs and esophagus and are indirectly connected via the spinal cord to many other organs, including the skin and arteries. The vagus nerve (parasympathetic) primarily consists of afferent (flowing to the brain) fibers that connect to the medulla. The sympathetic afferent nerves first connect to the extrinsic cardiac ganglia (also a processing center), then to the dorsal root ganglion and the spinal cord. Once afferent signals reach the medulla, they travel to the subcortical areas (thalamus, amygdala, etc.) and then the higher cortical areas.

Figure 1.4. Diagram of the currently known afferent pathways by which information from the heart and cardiovascular system modulates brain activity. Note the direct connections from the NTS to the amygdala, hypothalamus and thalamus. Although not shown, there also is evidence emerging that there is a pathway from the dorsal vagal complex that travels directly to the frontal cortex. 

The Heart as a Hormonal Gland 

In addition to its extensive neurological interactions, the heart also communicates with the brain and body biochemically by way of the hormones it produces. Although not typically thought of as an endocrine gland, the heart actually manufactures and secretes a number of hormones and neurotransmitters that have a wide-ranging impact on the body as a whole. 

The heart was reclassified as part of the hormonal system in 1983, when a new hormone produced and secreted by the atria of the heart was discovered. This hormone has been called by several different names – atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and atrial peptide. Nicknamed the balance hormone, it plays an important role in fluid and electrolyte balance and helps regulate the blood vessels, kidneys, adrenal glands and many regulatory centers in the brain.[18] Increased atrial peptide inhibits the release of stress hormones,[19] reduces sympathetic outflow[20] and appears to interact with the immune system.[21] Even more intriguing, experiments suggest atrial peptide can influence motivation and behavior.[22] 

It was later discovered the heart contains cells that synthesize and release catecholamines (norepinephrine, epinephrine and dopamine), which are neurotransmitters once thought to be produced only by neurons in the brain and ganglia.[23] More recently, it was discovered the heart also manufactures and secretes oxytocin, which can act as a neurotransmitter and commonly is referred to as the love or social bonding hormone. Beyond its well-known functions in childbirth and lactation, oxytocin also has been shown to be involved in cognition, tolerance, trust and friendship and the establishment of enduring pair-bonds. Remarkably, concentrations of oxytocin produced in the heart are in the same range as those produced in the brain.[24] 

Chapter 2

Resilience, Stress and Emotions

As far back as the middle of the last century, it was recognized that the heart, overtaxed by constant emotional influences or excessive physical effort and thus deprived of its appropriate rest, suffers disorders of function and becomes vulnerable to disease.[25]

An early editorial on the relationships between stress and the heart accepted the proposition that in about half of patients, strong emotional upsets precipitated heart failure. Unspecified negative emotional arousal, often described as stress, distress or upset, has been associated with a variety of pathological conditions, including hypertension,[26, 27] silent myocardial ischemia,[28] sudden cardiac death,[29] coronary disease,[30-32] cardiac arrhythmia,[33] sleep disorders,[34] metabolic syndrome,[35] diabetes,[36, 37] neurodegenerative diseases,[38] fatigue[39, 40] and many other disorders.[41] Stress and negative emotions have been shown to increase disease severity and worsen prognosis for individuals suffering from a number of different pathologies.[42, 43] On the other hand, positive emotions and effective emotion self-regulation skills have been shown to prolong health and significantly reduce premature mortality.[44-49] From a psychophysiological perspective, emotions are central to the experience of stress. It is the feelings of anxiety, irritation, frustration, lack of control, and hopelessness that are actually what we experience when we describe ourselves as stressed. Whether it’s a minor inconvenience or a major life change, situations are experienced as stressful to the extent that they trigger emotions such as annoyance, irritation, anxiety and overwhelm.[50] 

In essence, stress is emotional unease, the experience of which ranges from low-grade feelings of emotional unrest to intense inner turmoil. Stressful emotions clearly can arise in response to external challenges or events, and also from ongoing internal dialogs and attitudes. Recurring feelings of worry, anxiety, anger, judgment, resentment, impatience, overwhelm and self-doubt often consume a large part of our energy and dull our day-to-day life experiences. 

Additionally, emotions, much more so than thoughts alone, activate the physiological changes comprising the stress response. Our research shows a purely mental activity such as cognitively recalling a past situation that provoked anger does not produce nearly as profound an effect on physiological processes as actually engaging the emotion associated with that memory. In other words, reexperiencing the feeling of anger provoked by the memory has a greater effect than thinking about it.[51, 52] 

Resilience and Emotion Self-Regulation 

Our emotions infuse life with a rich texture and transform our conscious experience into a meaningful living experience. Emotions determine what we care about and what motivates us. They connect us to others and give us the courage to do what needs to be done, to appreciate our successes, to protect and support the people we love and have compassion and kindness for those who are in need of our help. Emotions are also what allow us to experience the pain and grief of loss. Without emotions, life would lack meaning and purpose. 

Emotions and resilience are closely related because emotions are the primary drivers of many key physiological processes involved in energy regulation. We define resilience as the capacity to prepare for, recover from and adapt in the face of stress, adversity, trauma or challenge. [53] Therefore, it follows that a key to sustaining good health, optimal function and resilience is the ability to manage one’s emotions. 

It has been suggested that resilience should be considered as a state rather than a trait and that a person’s resilience can vary over time as demands, circumstances and level of maturity change.[54] In our resilience training programs, we suggest that the ability to build and sustain resilience is related to self-management and efficient utilization of energy resources across four domains: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual (Figure 2.1). Physical resilience is basically reflected in physical flexibility, endurance and strength, while emotional resilience is reflected in the ability to self-regulate, degree of emotional flexibility, positive outlook and supportive relationships. Mental resilience is reflected in the ability to sustain focus and attention, mental flexibility and the capacity for integrating multiple points of view. Spiritual resilience is typically associated with commitment to core values, intuition and tolerance of others’ values and beliefs.

Figure 2.1. Domains of Resilience.

By learning self-regulation techniques that allow us to shift our physiology into a more coherent state, the increased physiological efficiency and alignment of the mental and emotional systems accumulates resilience (energy) across all four energetic domains. Having a high level of resilience is important not only for bouncing back from challenging situations, but also for preventing unnecessary stress reactions (frustration, impatience, anxiety), which often lead to further energy and time waste and deplete our physical and psychological resources. 

Most people would agree it is the ability to adjust and self-regulate one’s responses and behavior that is most important in building and maintaining supportive, loving relationships and effectively meeting life’s demands with composure, consistency and integrity.  

The ability to adjust and self-regulate also is central to resilience, good health and effective decision-making. [55] It is a key for success in living life with greater kindness and compassion in all relationships. If people’s capacity for intelligent, self-directed regulation is strong enough, then regardless of inclinations, past experiences or personality traits, they usually can do the adaptive or right thing in most situations.[56] 

___________________________ 

We are coming to understand health not as the absence of disease, but rather as the process by which individuals maintain their sense of coherence (i.e. sense that life is comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful) and ability to function in the face of changes in themselves and their relationships with their environment.[57] 

___________________________ 

It has been shown that our efforts to self-regulate emotions can produce broad improvements in increasing or strengthening self-regulatory capacity, similar to the process of strengthening a muscle, making us less vulnerable to depletion of our internal reserves.[56] When internal energy reserves are depleted, normal capacity to maintain self-control is weakened, which can lead to increased stress, inappropriate behaviors, lost opportunities, poor communication and damaged relationships. Despite the importance of self-directed control, many people’s ability to self-regulate is far less than ideal. In fact, failures in self-regulation, especially of emotions and attitudes, arguably are central to the vast majority of personal and social problems that plague modern societies. For some, the lack of self-regulatory capacity can be attributed to immaturity or failure to acquire skills while for others it can be the result of trauma or impairment in the neural systems that underlie one’s ability to self-regulate.[58] Therefore, we submit the most important skill the majority of people need to learn is how to increase their capacity to self-regulate emotions, attitudes and behaviors. Self-regulation enables people to mature and meet the challenges and stresses of everyday life with resilience so they can make more intelligent decisions by aligning with their innate higher-order wisdom and expression of care and compassion, elements we often associate with living a more conscientious life. 

Our research suggests a new inner baseline reference can be established by using the HeartMath (HM) self-regulation techniques that help people replace depleting emotional undercurrents with more positive, regenerative attitudes, feelings and perceptions.

This new baseline, which will be summarized in a later section, can be thought of as a type of implicit memory that organizes perception, feelings and behavior.[5, 59] The process of establishing a new baseline takes place at the physiological level, which is imperative for sustained and lasting change to occur.

A growing body of compelling scientific evidence is demonstrating a link between mental and emotional attitudes, physiological health and long-term well-being: 

60% to 80% of primary care doctor visits are related to stress, yet only 3% of patients receive stress management help.[60-62] 

In a study of 5,716 middle-aged people, those with the highest self-regulation abilities were over 50 times more likely to be alive and without chronic disease 15 years later than those with the lowest self-regulation scores.[63] 

Positive emotions are a reliable predictor of better health, even for those without food or shelter while negative emotions are a reliable predictor of worse health even when basic needs like food, shelter and safety are met.[64] 

A Harvard Medical School Study of 1,623 heart attack survivors found that when subjects became angry during emotional conflicts, their risk of subsequent heart attacks was more than double that of those who remained calm.[65] 

A review of 225 studies concluded that positive emotions promote and foster sociability and activity, altruism, strong bodies and immune systems, effective conflict resolution skills, success and thriving.[66] 

A study of elderly nuns found that those who expressed the most positive emotions in early adulthood lived an average of 10 years longer.[67] 

Men who complain of high anxiety are up to six times more likely than calmer men to suffer sudden cardiac death.[68] 

In a groundbreaking study of 1,200 people at high risk of poor health, those who learned to alter unhealthy mental and emotional attitudes through self-regulation training were over four times more likely to be alive 13 years later than an equal-sized control group.[69] 

A 20-year study of over 1,700 older men conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that worry about social conditions, health and personal finances all significantly increased the risk of coronary heart disease.[70] 

Over one-half of heart disease cases are not explained by the standard risk factors such as high cholesterol, smoking or sedentary lifestyle.[71] 

An international study of 2,829 people ages 55 to 85 found that individuals who reported the highest levels of personal mastery – feelings of control over life events – had a nearly 60% lower risk of than those who felt relatively helpless in the face of life’s challenges.[72] 

According to a Mayo Clinic study of individuals with heart disease, psychological stress was the strongest predictor of future cardiac events such as cardiac death, cardiac arrest and heart attacks.[73] 

Three 10-year studies concluded that emotional stress was more predictive of death from cancer and cardiovascular disease than from smoking; people who were unable to effectively manage their stress had a 40% higher death rate than non-stressed individuals.[74] 

A study of heart attack survivors showed that patients’ emotional states and relationships in the period after myocardial infarction were as important as the disease severity in determining their prognosis.[75] 

Separate studies showed that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who impulsively vent their anger as well as for those who tend to repress angry feelings.[76, 77]

Cognitive and Emotional System Integration 

Dating back to the ancient Greeks, human thinking and feeling, intellect and emotion have been considered separate functions. These contrasting aspects of the soul, as the Greeks called them, often have been portrayed as being engaged in a constant battle for control of the human psyche. In Plato’s view, emotions were like wild horses that had to be reined in by the intellect and willpower. 

Research in neuroscience confirms that emotion and cognition can best be thought of as separate but interacting functions and systems that communicate via bidirectional neural connections between the neocortex, the body and emotional centers such as the amygdala and body.[78] These connections allow emotion-related input to modulate cortical activity while cognitive input from the cortex modulates emotional processing. However, the neural connections that transmit information from the emotional centers to the cognitive centers in the brain are stronger and more numerous than those that convey information from the cognitive to the emotional centers. This fundamental asymmetry accounts for the powerful influence of input from the emotional system on cognitive functions such as attention, perception and memory as well as higher-order thought processes. Conversely, the comparatively limited influence of input from the cognitive system on emotional processing helps explain why it is generally difficult to willfully modulate emotions through thought alone. 

There can be differences from one individual to the next in these reciprocal connections and interactions between the cognitive and emotional systems that affect the way we perceive, experience and eventually remember our emotional experiences, and how we respond to emotionally challenging situations. Unbalanced interactions between the emotional and cognitive systems can lead to devastating effects such as those observed in mood and anxiety disorders.[78] 

Although there has been a historical bias favoring the viewpoint that emotions interfere with and can be at odds with rational thinking, which of course can occur in some cases, emotions have their own type of rationality and have been shown to be critical in decision-making.[79] For example, Damasio points out, patients with damage in areas of the brain that integrate the emotional and cognitive systems can no longer effectively function in the day-to-day world, even though their mental abilities are perfectly normal. In the mid-1990s, the concept of emotional intelligence was introduced, precipitating persuasive arguments that the viewpoint of human intelligence being essentially mind intellect was far too narrow. This was because it ignored a range of human capacities that bear equal if not greater weight in determining our successes in life. Qualities such as self-awareness, motivation, altruism and compassion, but especially one’s ability to self-regulate and control impulses and self-direct emotions were found to be as important or more important than a high IQ. Those qualities, more so than IQ, enable people to excel in the face of life’s challenges.[80] 

It is our experience that the degree of alignment between the mind and emotions can vary considerably. When they are out of sync, it can result in radical behavior changes that cause us to feel like there are two different people inside the same body. It can also result in confusion, difficulty in making decisions, anxiety and a lack of alignment with our deeper core values. Conversely, when the mind and emotions are in sync, we are more self-secure and aligned with our deeper core values and respond to stressful situations with increased resilience and inner balance. 

Our research indicates that the key to the successful integration of the mind and emotions lies in increasing one’s emotional self-awareness and the coherence of, or harmonious function and interaction among, the neural systems that underlie cognitive and emotional experience.[5, 58, 81] 

As will be discussed in more detail in a later section, we use the terms cardiac coherence, physiological coherence and heart coherence interchangeably to describe the measurement of the order, stability and harmony in the oscillatory outputs of the body’s regulatory systems during any period of time. 

An important aspect of understanding how to increase self-regulatory capacity and the balance between the cognitive and emotional systems is the inclusion of the heart’s ascending neuronal inputs on subcortical (emotional) and cortical (cognitive) structures which, as discussed above, can have significant influences on cognitive resources and emotions. Information is conveyed in the patterns of the heart’s rhythms (HRV), that reflects current emotional states. The patterns of afferent neural input (coherence and incoherence) to the brain affect emotional experience and modulate cortical function and self-regulatory capacity. We have found that intentional activation of positive emotions plays an important role in increasing cardiac coherence and thus self-regulatory capacity.[5] These findings expand on a large body of research into the ways positive emotional states can benefit physical, mental and emotional health.[44-49] 

Because emotions exert such a powerful influence on cognitive activity, intervening at the emotional level is often the most efficient way to initiate change in mental patterns and processes. Our research demonstrates that the application of emotion self-regulation techniques along with the use of facilitative technology (emWave®, Inner Balance™) can help people bring the heart, mind and emotions into greater alignment. Greater alignment is associated with improved decision-making, creativity, listening ability, reaction times and coordination and mental clarity.[81] 

For further reading on the subject you go here

https://www.heartmath.org/research/science-of-the-heart/

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Intentional Destruction of Life on Earth

Intentional Destruction of Life on Earth 

J. Marvin Herndon, Ph.D. 

Transdyne Corporation, San Diego, California, USA 

Mark Whiteside, M.D., M.P.H. 

Florida Department of Health, Monroe County, Key West Florida, USA

The title might suggest that this is a fictional work about an invasion from outer space. Wrong. It is a true recitation of forensic scientific and medical investigations of a near-global, near-daily conspicuous activity whose actual nature and intent is cloaked in secrecy and disinformation

Anyone with a deep connection to nature can see how badly the natural world is suffering. Gone are the days of lush green forests and hillsides, clear blue skies, and star-studded nights with the Milky Way Galaxy clearly visible. Fields and roadsides no longer bustle with insect life and each spring and fall migration brings fewer and fewer birds. An overturned rock that once revealed an entire community of living organisms is now barren beneath. The summer heat has become unbearable, and you can feel the burn of the sun on your skin. Forests are disappearing and remaining trees display thinned-out foliage with trunks and branches scorched and damaged by the sun and runaway fires. Coral reefs are dying everywhere, and the oceans are grossly polluted and brimming with harmful algae blooms. There is widespread desertification of the land and brownification of the world’s surface waters. Anyone looking up can see the awful chemical trails fanning out to create a milky, sun-blotted sky must realize we have made a real mess of things and are in serious trouble. 

Elders among us may remember with fondness bygone images of unmarred nature. The richness and diversity of life on Earth is disappearing at an incredible rate. Beyond the explosion of species extinction, there are massive population declines of both plants and animals with cascading effects on ecosystems necessary for our continued existence [1]. Human activities have destroyed over two-thirds of the world’s wildlife in just the past fifty years [2, 3] and there is no end in sight. Few scientists have found the courage to sound the alarm about our dire situation [4] and fewer among those realize that much of our current environmental crisis is deliberately caused.

In 1962, Rachel Carson [5] published Silent Spring to alert the public of the devastating environmental effects of the pesticide DDT and other toxic chemicals whose manufacturers were lying about their safety. Silent Spring, widely read in part as the result of being serialized by The New Yorker and selected for Book of the Month in October, began to open people’s eyes to the harm these chemicals pose to the environment. Concerned citizens became environmental activists, some forming organizations to educate, politicize, and litigate for a clean, healthy environment.

For decades, environmental organizations garnered large sums of money from the public, as well as from foundations and government agencies. Now, in 2021, not only is the environment immeasurably worse than it was in 1962, but we have already entered an unmistakable phase of biosphere collapse. The herbicide glyphosate [6] is the DDT of the 21st century, and that is not all. Unbeknownst to all but a few enlightened citizens, deliberate environmental degradation and ruination have become covertly institutionalized on an international level. Even when brought to the attention of mainstream media, elected officials, government agencies, national scientific academies, environmental organizations, medical publishers – to name a few – these organizations refuse to acknowledge any evidence of the intentional assault on our global environment. Worse, there are deliberate attempts to deceive the public of the concomitant health risks posed by such deliberate, ruinous activity.

In the same decade as publication of Silent Spring, humans for the first time ventured into space and viewed Earth as an island in the great void of outer space. From that view sprang awareness that ours is the only planet in the solar system capable of sustaining human life. In the early 1970s, James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis [7-9] co-authored the Gaia hypothesis likening Earth to a biome made up of a vast number of interconnected and interacting physical and biologically based processes. 

Life on Earth is perilous even without adverse human activity. In the geologic past there have been at least five major episodes of large-scale species extinction [10]. Natural disasters alone pose great risks to humanity, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, storms, and changes in the geomagnetic field that potentially increase threats from the onslaught of the solar wind. Nevertheless, interactions by and between myriad natural physical and biological processes have made life possible on this planet for several billion years. This complex and delicate balance in nature is now under threat from human intervention that, if unchecked, will almost certainly lead to the extinction of Homo sapiens. 

The challenge for humanity is two-fold: At one level, humans need to become good stewards of their only home planet, living and working in ways that are harmonious with and non-toxic to the natural environment. Much has been written on this subject, but little progress is being made [11-13]. At another level, humans need to become aware of and put a stop to deliberate, covert actions that are aimed at destroying the natural environment for political gain. That is the subject of this review. 

At least as far back as the 1990s, concerned citizens had started to notice white trails that stretched across and dimmed the sky, diffusing briefly to resemble cirrus clouds before making a white haze. As time passed, these jet-laid white trails became more frequent and were observed over wider geographical regions. By 2012 these trails had become a near-daily, near global occurrence. (Figure 1)

Concerned citizens had many questions: What substances were being jet-sprayed to form the trails? Why was this being done? What were the risks to human and environmental health? What was the legal justification? Inquiries to authorities inevitably were met with the same response, namely, these are contrails, harmless ice crystals from the moisture in jet’s exhaust [15]. Nonsense! The jet-laid trails, which some refer to as chemtrails, behave quite differently than contrails [16]. 

Ice-crystal contrails tend to persist for more than a few seconds (or sometimes minutes) only when there is considerable moisture in the aircraft exhaust and the ambient atmosphere is both cold and humid. Commonly, especially with modern fan jet engines, ice crystals from exhaust evaporate quite quickly becoming invisible gas, not remaining as a haze to scatter sunlight. 

Additional observations and scientific measurements demonstrate quite conclusively that chemtrails are not contrails [17]. 

Like many concerned citizens, we too wanted answers about the chemtrail phenomenon, and realized that we were getting disinformation or no information at all from various authorities. It was a major concern to us that the scientific and medical communities in the United States, British Commonwealth nations, and the European Union turned a blind eye to the deliberate jet-emplaced air pollution. Clearly, something was badly amiss and potentially devastating on a global scale. 

Meantime, some concerned citizens had taken samples of post-spray rainwater, and had the samples analyzed at commercial laboratories and posted the results on the Internet. Most individuals only requested aluminum analyses, some also requested barium, while a few requested analyses of aluminum, barium, and strontium. In response to the findings, one widespread published explanation, presumably made to mislead or deceive people, is that chemtrails consist of the oxides and/or sulfates of aluminum, barium, and strontium, which are relatively harmless substances because they are practically insoluble in water. That explanation, however, is contrary to peer-reviewed analytical data that shows aluminum, barium, and strontium are in fact dissolved in rainwater! 

Some unknown powdered substance, covertly jet-sprayed into the lower atmosphere (troposphere), produces chemtrails. This substance reacts with moisture, causing some of its chemical elements to be extracted into atmospheric water. But what substance? Sprayed by whom? And why? Clearly, forensic science – scientific detective work – was needed. 

It soon became clear that many million metric tons of this unknown substance were being jet sprayed into the atmosphere annually, but there were no obvious sources for such massive quantities of aerosol pollutants, no conspicuous production facilities. Yet somewhere massive scale production had to be taking place. The unknown substance had to contain aluminum – found repeatedly in all rainwater samples taken – and was clearly not a natural product, such as desert sand, because the Earth’s surface aluminum is generally chemically combined, locked up tightly, with oxygen and does not dissolve in rainwater. 

Throughout the academic scientific literature there are numerous references to a toxic waste produced by industrial coal burning called coal fly ash [18-20]. The annual global production of coal fly ash reported in 2014 was 130 million metric tons [21]. This could be a sufficient supply to jet-spray as an aerosol on the scale observed. Notably, a Spanish laboratory’s experiments were conducted in 2005, mixing coal fly ash with distilled water for 24 hours. The results showed that at least 38 elements were partially dissolved in the water [22]. The dissolved elements included aluminum, barium, and strontium. Bingo! 

In response to an urgent call by Indian scientists in 2015 [23] for assistance to understand the geological association of highly mobile aluminum with human health in the Alluvial Plain of the Ganges River, one of us (JMH) showed [24] that Internet-posted pairs of elements, aluminum/barium and strontium/barium measured in rainwater were similar to corresponding element pairs extracted into water from coal fly ash in the experiments conducted by Spanish scientists. Published in 2015, the Current Science paper was the first  article in the scientific literature that not only mentioned “chemtrails” but provided the first scientific evidence that toxic coal fly ash was the main substance being jet-sprayed into the lower atmosphere to produce chemtrails. 

Perhaps the best evidence of the Current Science paper’s correctness was the immediate demand for retraction delivered not only to that journal but soon thereafter to two public health journals that also had peer-reviewed and published subsequent work by Herndon on the adverse health impacts of deliberately aerosolized coal fly ash. In the latter instances, The US editors retracted the papers without allowing the author to see or respond to the complaints[25]. Such behavior is outrageous. Only about 1 in 15,000 peer-reviewed, published scientific articles is retracted, and that only occurs after the authors are confronted with the allegations of wrongdoing and are given the opportunity to defend themselves.

The concerted efforts to suppress publications warning of the public health risks of jet-sprayed coal fly ash was a clear indication that those who order or otherwise participate in the jet spraying operations know the health risks involved and want to hide them. 

This was just the beginning. Much more scientific detective work had to be done. It was at this point that the present authors (JMH and MW) began their collaboration to bring together scientific and medical knowledge in a more comprehensive forensic investigation and framework. Along with occasional associates, we began a number of scientific and medical investigations. As described in this article, the discoveries we made provide compelling evidence of the wholesale pollution of our atmosphere with coal fly ash and show how it alters our planet’s physical environment to the detriment of all life, including the devastating effects on virtually all lifeforms, including humans. Moreover, we discovered the greatest secret of all, the “legal” pretext, and true intent of the environmental modification. 

Not content with using Internet-posted rainwater analyses, we personally collected or arranged for the collection and commercial analyses of post-spraying samples of rainwater and snow. The analytical results for 10 element pairs are shown in Figure 2 along with the previously mentioned Internet-posted pairs.

Figure 2. From [26], showing the similarity of element ratios measured in rainwater and snow with the range of comparable element ratios measured in the laboratory lixiviate of waterleach experiments [22, 27]

Falling snowflakes trap and bring down particles jet-sprayed into the lower atmosphere. Taking a sample of the snow, allowing it to melt, and then to evaporate left a residue that could be analyzed and compared to the range of values measured in various samples of coal fly ash. (Figure 3) In areas, such as northern USA and Canada, snow mold sometimes grows atop grass beneath snow. As the snow starts to melt, the particles it trapped are released and may be trapped again on the underlying snow mold. Figure 3 also shows analytical values for element pairs from snow mold and for particles dropped from an aircraft and collected where they fell on an automobile in Encinitas, California (USA)

Figure 3. From [28], comparison of analytical results with the ranges of European [22] and American [27] coal fly ash samples

Air pollution, the world’s leading cause of environmental human fatalities, is a major contributor to noncommunicable disease. Aerosolized coal fly ash, a particularly hazardous form of air pollution, pours forth from numerous smokestacks in India and China. However, citizens of the United States, the British Commonwealth, and the European Union live in a fools’ paradise. They have been led to believe that coal-burning utilities in their countries trap this very toxic substance so it does not exit smokestacks and directly pollute the air. They do store the exhaust precipitates as solid waste, but then the utilities surreptitiously supply the coal fly ash to be covertly jet-sprayed into the very air people breathe, and indeed profit from that diabolical activity.

Coal fly ash has thus become a toxic environmental nightmare consisting mainly of tiny spherical particles. (Figure 4) These particles contain concentrations of the most hazardous chemical elements in coal, each of which can harm the natural environment in numerous ways. For example: Aerosolized coal fly ash contaminates the environment with mercury, one of the most toxic poisons known, and known to move up the food chain [29]. Chlorine from aerosolized coal fly ash, lofted into the upper atmosphere (stratosphere), destroys Earth’s ozone layer, and exposes all surface life to the deadly ultraviolet radiation from the sun [30]. Contaminating the environment with the massive quantities of iron contained in coal fly ash upsets the delicate iron balance in nature and in the bodies of exposed biota [31, 32]. 

Figure 4. From [16]. Polished section of coal fly ash embedded in epoxy

Aerosolized coal fly ash’s ultrafine particles and nanoparticles can enter the blood stream through the nasal bulb or through alveoli in the lungs. These particles can collect in the brain [33, 34] and in the heart [32]. When exposed to body fluids, coal fly ash can release a host of toxic chemicals including neuro-toxic, chemically mobile aluminum, and carcinogens such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, as well as the ash’s radioactive elements. The elements from coal fly ash may produce many toxic effects, including decreased host defenses, tissue inflammation, altered cellular redox balance toward oxidation and genotoxicity which can lead to chronic lung disease [35], lung cancer [36], and neurodegenerative diseases [33]. 

Particulate pollution has multiple, serious adverse consequences on environmental health. Several lines of evidence now point to particulate pollution as a possible co-factor in the COVID19 Pandemic, specifically, as a potential means of viral transport; as a co-factor in exacerbating susceptibility and mortality, and in diminishing immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus [14, 37]. The association of particulate pollution with the COVID-19 Pandemic is a wake-up call to humanity that foreshadows even greater global devastation through undisclosed particulate pollution. 

Humans are not the only life form adversely affected by jet-emplaced coal fly ash. Plants, trees and indeed whole forests are harmed by coal fly ash chemtrails in three main ways. Plants and trees are damaged by chemtrail-caused drought and poisoned by the chemically mobile aluminum added to atmospheric water. They are also damaged by the increased levels of harmful solar ultraviolet radiation caused by chemtrail-destruction of ozone, which shields life against dangerous ultraviolet radiation. Orchards and agricultural plants are affected similarly [38]. 

Atmospheric manipulation that utilizes aerosolized coal fly ash is a primary factor in the extent and severity of forest fires in California and elsewhere; other adverse effects include exacerbation of drought, tree and vegetation desiccation and die-off, and the unnatural heating of Earth’s atmosphere and surface regions [16]. Forest combustibility is increased by moisture absorbing aerosolized particles that damage the waxy coatings of leaves and needles, reducing their tolerance to drought. The aerosolized coal-fly-ash-chemtrail climate manipulation greatly increases the potential for forest fire ignition by lightening. Wildfires dramatically worsen baseline air pollution, emitting harmful gases and volatile organic compounds, and they both concentrate and re-emit toxic elements and radioactive nuclides over wide areas. The type of air pollution created by wildfires is associated with increased all-cause mortality worldwide, with the greatest impact on respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

Wildlife species are suffering a precipitous global decline [1]. Aerosolized coal fly ash is a significant factor in the catastrophic global decline in the populations of insects [39], birds [28], and bats [40]. Insects can ingest and/or accumulate toxic coal fly ash on their body surfaces which then birds and insectivorous bats consume. Coal-fly-ash-chemtrails disrupt the natural environment, modify habitats, and adversely affect the natural life cycles, upsetting the complex and delicate balance that makes life possible on Earth. Even marine environments are affected; for example, chemtrails cause shifts in the global plankton community balance in favor of harmful algae and cyanobacterial blooms in fresh and salt water [31]. And corals are harmed by increased levels of solar ultraviolet radiation [41]. 

As we discovered the multiple, ramifying consequences of chemtrail coal fly ash on the environment, and on human and environmental health, one nagging question remained: Why? Why was the spraying occurring, occurring worldwide without let-up, year after year? 

Humans are opportunistic creatures. For example, many, lacking a moral compass, might capitalize on the consequences of the chemtrail assault on the environment by acquiring farmland from farmers whose crops were ruined by chemtrails, or real estate destroyed by rampant forest fires. These are merely examples of consequences, not their cause. Why would supposedly civilized people keep silent and allow the wholesale destruction of human and environmental health? Why is this happening? What is the supposedly legal basis? And, what entities are responsible? These questions also shaped our forensic scientific and medical investigation. 

In 1968, in the same decade Silent Spring was published, geophysicist Gordon J. F. MacDonald published a book chapter entitled “How to Wreck the Environment” [42] in which he described how one nation might trigger the forces of nature to wage environmental warfare on an enemy nation. Fifty years later we reviewed that work in light of technological advances made since it was written [43]. 

The aerial chemtrail assault with all its secrecy and disinformation now began to make perverse sense: It is a form of environmental warfare, seemingly waged on behalf of a future globalized civilization, a new civilization to be born of the ashes of a new form of world war. We discovered the clever, but deceitful and deceptive 1978 United Nations ENMOD Treaty, a Trojan horse legal agreement designed to cause sovereign nations to wage covert environmental warfare against their own citizens and against citizens of other sovereign nations [44-46]. 

As we revealed [45], the 1978 “Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques” [ENMOD] obligates signatory nations to fundamentally compromise their own sovereignty and to bring about widespread, permanent agricultural devastation. Instead of prohibiting “Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques”, as its title suggests, ENMOD obligates signatory nations to participate in unspecified “peaceful” environmental modification activities performed by unspecified entities, under unspecified circumstances, without limitation to harm. Whether harm is inflicted on a nation or a region’s agriculture, its environment, or on the health of its citizenry does not matter from ENMOD’s international legal point of view because its intent is “peaceful.” 

Regardless, large-scale environment modification cannot be construed as “peaceful.” It is instead fundamentally hostile.

 The veil of ENMOD deception was pierced by applying precise knowledge of contract law to ENMOD’s Articles [45]. The highly secret “peaceful” environmental modification project activity was discovered by an accidental release of material from an aircraft in 2016 [47, 48]. 

Further proof that global warming is an environmental modification (geoengineering) goal was provided on or about February 14, 2016, when an oily-ashy substance was accidently released by an aircraft and fell on seven residences and vehicles in Harrison Township, Michigan (USA). The “air-drop material” was found to consist of an assemblage of plant material mixed with coal fly ash and salt. The splatter pattern on the vehicles, ground, and rooftops in Harrison Township resembled the cryoconite holes observed on ablating glaciers. The “air-drop material” appeared to have been modeled after natural cryoconite, with coal fly ash

imparting the dark gray color that absorbs sunlight, melts glacial ice, and contributes to global warming [47-49]. (Figure 5).

Figure 5. From [48]. Upper Left: Air-Drop Distribution; Upper Right: Cryoconite-hole Distribution in Glacier; Lower Left: Air-Drop Synthetic Cryoconite; Lower Right: Natural Cryoconite

We regard it a near certainty that the highly secret ENMOD “peaceful environmental improvement,” sanctioned and, indeed, even mandated by the treaty, is to melt Arctic ice to open sea lanes above the Arctic Circle. Altering Earth’s natural environment on such a scale is not “peaceful,” whether the goals are commercial or military. The true nature of this United Nations ENMOD sanctioned activity, we allege, is the conduct of covert environmental warfare against established nation states, including Western states, their citizens and their culture in favor of a supranational, global regulatory regime whose oversight will encompass a fully globalized economy dominated by multinational mega-corporations [44-46]. 

ENMOD’s purpose is to subvert the authority of individual nation states. 

What other evidence points to direct United Nations involvement? 

For nearly four decades, the United Nations through its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been extracting vast sums of money from wealthy nations to promote the idea that climate change – global warming – is caused by anthropogenic fossil-fuel-produced carbon dioxide. The goal seems to be to control or shut down fossil fuel use in favor of renewable energy sources to ameliorate global warming. Yet through its ENMOD treaty the United Nations has simultaneously sanctioned secret activities that in fact cause global warming [50-56]. This must be the greatest scientific fraud ever perpetrated. 

A “prospectus,” in a medical or public health journal, is a short article that provides early warning of a potential health crisis. We submitted just such a prospectus to the United Nations’ Bulletin of the World Health Organization warning of the potential health crisis posed by aerosolized coal fly ash being jet-sprayed into the lower atmosphere. That prospectus was rejected without review by the Bulletin of the World Health Organization [57].

The immediate rejection of this review points to United Nations involvement in the global environmental modification activity. There are other bad actors as well. In 1968, MacDonald [42] accurately forecasted the military’s decision to weaponize the environment for national purposes. He failed, however, to realize that sovereign nations and their militaries, mainstream media, tech giants, super-rich elites, and complicit government agencies, could and would be co-opted by a secret international agreement to wage de facto war on planet Earth and its biogeochemical processes. In order to undermine those individual states’ authority to protect their own biota and natural environment, ENMOD coerces them to participate in non-disclosed, wholesale global modification. 

Unless and until politicians, news media, scientists, and others in our society face the truth of what is happening before their very eyes and collectively demand a halt to these covert technological activities, we will continue to charge full-speed-ahead into the first anthropogenic-caused mass extinction. 

People throughout the world are in dire need of means to protect themselves and their families – and indeed, all life on Earth – from ruthless transnational technological assault. The wellbeing and very existence of humanity is at stake. In the United States our personal freedoms and properties are protected from government excesses by the Bill of Rights, but Americans and other members of the world community are not protected against multi-dimensional, transnational technological excesses. In the United States we desperately need a set of new Constitutional Amendments that collectively form a second Bill of Rights, a Technology Bill of Rights, to protect our freedoms, and our right to clean air, water, soil/agriculture/food, and to protect the planetary environment from deliberate perversion and alteration via large-scale environmental modification or geoengineering. Such a new Technology Bill of Rights could serve as a model for other sovereign nations [58]. Nothing less than a cultural awakening and a new, morally grounded humanitarian, scientific revolution will be needed to bring this system of technology protections to fruition. 

Without it we are doomed

all sources for this paper can be found at the end here

https://mcusercontent.com/b69c3312f3e5ff587cb5874f8/files/2cd0eb23-b829-df25-332e-2c64d3f7a534/ASSRJ_10597docx_Article_7_21.pdf