ADEPTS #14 BIOELECTRICITY

BIOELECTRICITY: A FRAMEWORK

By William C Bushell, PhD

Before proceeding to a more detailed analysis of the mechanisms basic to endogenous human  bioelectricity and their potential manipulation by adepts (see the last installment of this series, and previous ones), we should actually first lay out some more general points that, together, constitute a necessary overarching multidisciplinary and cross cultural scientific framework.

In the first place, we acknowledge that the program of the scientific and scholarly study of adepts has included an important focus on their use of bioelectricity (again, this term is used heuristically as shorthand for a range of such forms of related energy, including bioelectromagnetism; and also as at least as a rough, operationally-defined equivalent of Asian terms such as qi, prana, etc), for at least the last 20 years (reviewed in Bushell 2009; Bushell, Olivo, Theise 2009). The role of bioelectricity in the achievement of the highest levels of human optimal health and functioning – ie, in the attainment of the level of adept, as defined – has in fact been established in our previous publications. However, it must be here strongly emphasized that it is only recently that the profound significance of bioelectricity in the fundamental life sciences, and the science of health, has begun to be more fully realized, and begun to be understood in some scientific detail (eg, Adams et al 2019). And hence, the profound implications of this revolution for adept science are being more fully appreciated, understood, and integrated into the ever-evolving scientific model (see, in particular, Bushell et al, in progress).

Such scientific details, implications, and ideas will be outlined in the installments to follow, and here we will provide a brief schematic overview of some of what is ahead.

As the persistent reader will learn, adequate types (ion channels, etc) and levels (voltage, etc) of bioelectricity are associated with the following (and see below Adams et al 2019; Bushell et al 2009, in progress; De Loof et al 2013; Sen et al 2020; Tyler 2017; and more to come in next installments):

• tissue integrity and viability, across categories of tissues and organs
• optimal healing of wounds and other lesions, and tissue regeneration
• the absence of excessive, destructive levels of inflammation
• the absence of cancer
• the absence of harmful infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc)
• optimal functional systemic energy levels
• optimal health and functioning
• enhanced longevity, potentially including life and health span

It will be seen that these properties are associated with what Becker has famously called (citing the poet Walt Whitman), The Body Electric (Becker & Selden 1985), when it is functioning optimally. And, moreover, it normally tends not to be functioning optimally, a matter we will also eventually consider. Particular forms of adept practices, however, can lead to the “correction” of sub-optimal functioning, and to the attainment of adept levels of optimal health, functioning, and presumably, of longevity.

References

1. Adams DS, Djamgoz M, Levin M, Zhao M, Rajnicek A, Nuccitelli R, Arcangeli A, Kramer R, Bates EA. The Bioelectricity Revolution: A Discussion Among the Founding Associate Editors. Bioelectricity. 2019 Mar 1;1(1):8-15. doi: 10.1089/bioe.2018.28999.rtl. Epub 2019 Mar 18. PMID: 34471803; PMCID: PMC8370260.
2. Becker RO, Selden G, 1985. The Body Electric: Electromagnetism And The Foundation Of Life. NY: William Morrow.
3. Bushell WC. Preface, Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 Aug;1172: 1-361.
4. Bushell WC, Olivo E, Theise ND, eds. Longevity, Regeneration, and Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 Aug;1172: 1-4.
5. Bushell WC et al, in progress. New and Old Discoveries in Human Performance Science and Human Biology: Adepts, the Interstitium, and New Models in Human Bioelectricity/Bioenergetics.
6. De Loof A, De Haes W, Boerjan B, Schoofs L. The Fading Electricity Theory of Ageing: the missing biophysical principle? Ageing Res Rev. 2013 Jan;12(1):58-66. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2012.08.001. Epub 2012 Aug 23. PMID: 22940501.
7. Sen CK, Mathew-Steiner SS, Das A, Sundaresan VB, Roy S. Electroceutical Management of Bacterial Biofilms and Surgical Infection. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2020 Oct 1;33(10):713-724. doi: 10.1089/ars.2020.8086. Epub 2020 Jul 10. Erratum in: Antioxid Redox Signal. 2021 Mar 1;34(7):589. PMID: 32466673; PMCID: PMC7475090.
8. Tyler SEB. Nature’s Electric Potential: A Systematic Review of the Role of Bioelectricity in Wound Healing and Regenerative Processes in Animals, Humans, and Plants. Front Physiol. 2017 Sep 4;8:627. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00627. PMID: 28928669; PMCID: PMC5591378.