02Established

The Coherent Heart

Cardiac bioelectromagnetics and heart-rate variability

Cardiac electrical activity produces the body's largest rhythmic electromagnetic field. Heart-rate variability, meanwhile, gives us a clean window on autonomic regulation — and on what 'coherence' actually means as a measurement.

What is established

The heart generates a magnetic field detectable outside the body with sensitive magnetometers. It is many orders of magnitude weaker than the Earth's ambient field.
Heart-rate variability (HRV) reflects autonomic regulation and is standardised in the clinical literature.
Slow, regular breathing near 0.1 Hz produces a high-amplitude rhythmic HRV pattern. The HeartMath literature calls this 'coherence', and the pattern is reproducible.

What is proposed

That a coherent cardiac field measurably affects other people at a distance. Reported effects are small and not consistently replicated under blinded conditions.
That group-scale or city-scale coherence shifts collective behaviour or health outcomes.

What remains open

Distinguishing field effects from expectation, attention and the breathing itself.
Pre-registered designs with magnetically shielded controls and adequate sample sizes.