A psychiatrist told the following story at a professional meeting in Houston:
“I have a patient, an 8 year old little girl, who received the heart of a murdered 10 year old girl. Her mother brought her to me when she started screaming at night about her dreams of the man who had murdered her donor. She said her daughter knew who it was. After several sessions, I just could not deny the reality of what this child was telling me.
“Her mother and I finally decided to call the police and using the descriptions from the little girl, they found the murderer. He was easily convicted with evidence my patient provided. The time, the weapon, the place, the clothes he wore, what the little girl he killed had said to him....everything the little heart transplant recipient reported was completely accurate.” (from The Heart’s Code by Paul Pearsall)
A 52 year old male heart recipient used to love classical music; now he puts on headphones and cranks up loud rock’n’roll music. His donor was a 17 year old boy killed by a hit and run driver.
A 47 year old female heart recipient has shooting pains in her back after surgery; she also occasionally wakes from sleep this these same pains. Her donor was a 23 year old male shot in the lower back during a robbery.
All of this means our emotions and thoughts are registered in our hearts, in its cells. The stories above, while some of the more dramatic in literature, are representative of the research with heart recipients and their experiencing of feelings and sensations from the donor heart.
Our heart beats 100,000 times a day moving 2 gallons of blood per minute through our body. It produces 2.5 watts, generating 40-60 times more electrical power than our brain. It has its own network of nerve cells and centers that enable it to act independently, learn, remember, and produce feelings of the heart.
The message for us is clear: what kind of heart do you have? “I don’t know whose heart I got, but it sure is a relaxed one. I’ve never felt calmer and people seem to be more relaxed around me and drawn to me more”. (reported by a heart transplant patient to Dr. Pearsall).
What are you sending to your heart? Angry energy causes our heart rate to increase and shoot platelets through the arteries that nick the walls which allows plaque to adhere.
Cardiac psychologists and cardiologists note significant changes in one’s cardio functioning to gentle, caring connections, to less hostile interactions with others. Poetry and literature have been pointing out to us that the organ most affected by our emotions is our heart.
What is your heart saying to you now? What do you need to say to your heart?
Here is simple exercise that immediately changes your cardio functioning and your emotional field as witnessed on biofeedback programs:
1. When you are feeling anger, frustration, or irritation, immediately STOP what you are doing and focus on your breathing. Just follow your air in and out. Let your breathing slow and deepen.
2. Next, pretend you can breathe in and out of your heart, anyway that works for you. Just keep your focus on breathing in and out of your heart.
3. Finally, begin to thank your heart for being there all day long for you.
Sentences might be:
Dear Soul of my Heart, I love , honor, and appreciate you!
Thank you for continuing to beat all day for me without my having to remind you
Thank you for keeping me alive to experience ¬¬_________________
Thank you for doing your job so well
Thank you for ___________________
Thank you Thank you Thank you
There is only the NOW in which to make a change.
Dr. Jonas’s degrees in music and behavioral medicine emphasize the mind/body/spirit connection. In her counseling and sound therapy practice at the Inner Harmony Health Center in Walland,TN clients focus on all aspects of their selves, for Dr. Jonas believes, as do many others, true healing only takes place when all the facets of a person are addressed.
Before coming to Tennessee, Dr. Jonas taught at the Universities of Mass. and Conn., worked in a general hospital, a rehabilitation facility, a women’s health clinic, and in a surgical practice. She has done definitive research on music and sound’s effects on physiology and emotion with one day surgery patients; co-authored a Cardiac Healing Tape and a Relaxation tape with the Monroe Institute; produced several other healing tapes/CDs as a result of her research and experience with a variety of patients; one of which was chosen by National Public Television as a premium for their pledge drive; and she is a frequent presenter for a wide variety of groups and conferences. Her guide to passive music therapy, “Take Two CDs and Call Me in the Morning” is widely used by hospital practitioners, teachers, and those interested in using music and sound to enhance their endeavors. She has contributed a chapter on the use of Music Therapy in Physical Rehabilitation for the Baylor school of Medicine’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: The Definitive Approach.
She also trains teachers, healthcare workers, and business personnel in the uses of music, sound and HeartMath biofeedback for stress reduction and to increase whole brain learning, healing, and productivity. One of her specialties is training nurses in passive music therapy for use within hospitals. She is a 25-year faculty member of the Creative Education Foundation from which she received their Outstanding Leadership Award in 1993.