Hello,
As an add-on to Philip Pogson wonderful breakdown
of the Subject: Intelligence Testing LO22552 , I would like to share
the following perspective for us all to consider by way of posting parts of
an article below.
Is it time to address a "new" Intelligence Quotient (IQ)?
Maybe Heart Intelligence (HQ).
What's the difference with Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and HQ?
>From my perspective, first, it's really about a joint venture between the
heart and the brain. Second,in my opinion, HQ is really the driver (see if
we can use "common sense" and "wisdom" here. It's is the heart that can
finally shut down the noise created by the brain. That's where core (where
did we come up with that word?) values lie.
Please be easy on me...I'm not a scientist...just a regular guy wanting to
care more for people. With all the great assessments and programs out
there , there is still about 30% of us adult population walking around
with hypertension.
Take care,
Dan
danbishop@heartmath.com
831-338-8721
Excerpted Article*******************************************
"Researchers are finding that the poets might have been right: The human
heart is the physical home of love and, perhaps, the repository of the
soul itself."
by Bennett Daviss
Copyright 1999 by Bennett Daviss.
Reprinted courtesy of Ambassador,
the in-flight magazine of Trans World Airlines.
SNIP
.......this 8-year-old, privately funded research enclave are among the
leaders of a revolution that is shaping a radically new understanding of
the biology of love and other human feelings - and, perhaps, of the human
spirit as well.
Their discoveries, reported in prestigious publications such as the
American Journal of Cardiology, show that the heart plays a larger and
more independent role than previously thought in drafting our emotional
blueprints. The heart's electrical signals not only shape the way the
brain thinks about certain kinds of events, but the heart itself may be
able to "remember" emotion-charged experiences.
As a result, scientists say, using the physiology and imagery of the heart
- not the mind or muscles, as do traditional psychotherapy, yoga or
meditation - is proving to be a faster, more direct way to dismantle
destructive emotional habits and free the human spirit that too often is
imprisoned within them.
Some researchers go farther, suggesting there's evidence that the spirit
physically resides within the heart. In his 1998 book, "The Heart's Code,"
consulting clinical psychologist Paul Pearsall makes a case that the heart
is a vault of emotional memories and energy patterns that make us who we
are as individuals.
As partial evidence, he recounts stories of heart-transplant recipients
who have inexplicably taken on the tastes, attitudes and even memories of
their donors - people they knew nothing about. In one example, a man who
received the heart of a woman hit by a train began having recurrent dreams
in which he was driving a truck or train. In another, a woman whose donor
had been shot in the back began complaining of "shooting pains" in her
back after her operation.
After interviewing dozens of transplant patients, nurses and doctors,
Pearsall has come to believe that the heart may well be "the center of our
cellular universe, holding together ... energy ... in the shape of a
soul."
Such ethereal conclusions are rooted in recent research. Rollin McCraty,
HeartMath's chief scientist, isn't ready to make a scientific link between
the heart and the holy. But, as he turns off a footpath and into a lab
humming with computers and electronic measuring gear, he begins to lay out
the physiological evidence that encourages Pearsall and others to connect
the two. Settling into a chair, the slender, soft-spoken former computer
entrepreneur says, "It was only in 1991 that the medical literature
recognized that the heart has its own brain - a network of different kinds
of neurons, identical to many of the kinds of neurons and neural networks
that the brain in our head has."
The brain in the heart and its cranial colleague are connected by the
vagus nerve, a kind of trunk cable made up of thousands of neural
filaments flashing messages continually between the two. "The current
consensus among researchers is that the body's neural system is a
distributed parallel processing operation with different levels of
hierarchy and control," McCraty explains. "In other words, we don't just
think in our heads. That's an antiquated concept."
Nor do we remember only in our heads. Neuropsychologists now view
memories as patterns of energy that groups of neurons can store. "We used
to think that only the brain had the right kind of cells for that, but now
we know the heart does, too," McCraty says.
The heart also has a unique way of making its ideas and memories felt:
it's the body's largest rhythmic generator, emitting an electromagnetic
signal up to 50 times stronger than the ones buzzing around inside our
skulls. That signal - combined with the pressure waves the heart sends
throughout the circulatory system - can either harmonize or overpower and
disrupt the more feeble working rhythms and electrical currents that mark
and govern the brain and other organs.
"Our changing heart rhythms affect our brain's ability to process
information, including decision-making, problem-solving and creativity,"
according to McCraty. "They also directly affect how we feel."
The rhythm of that irresistible throb is the product of two forces. One is
the package of signals the sympathetic nervous system sends to the heart.
The SNS responds to perceptions of threats or stress by shooting
adrenaline into the bloodstream and speeding heart and breathing rates.
The other force is the group of signals the parasympathetic nervous system
sends to the heart. The PNS counters the physiological symptoms of
tension, releasing biochemical tranquilizers enabling us to relax. The
heart itself plays a major role in that relaxation response by making
"attrial natriuretic factor" or ANF, its own unique hormone known as the
"balance hormone." ANF balances or moderates the body's physical response
to stress, easing physical symptoms of panic as tides of tension rise. The
more ANF we make, the more peaceful we feel.
When the body and mind are relaxed, the heart beats in an easy, consistent
or "coherent" rhythm. Over a prolonged period, those relaxed
electromagnetic and pressure pulses "entrain" the weaker electromagnetic
operating signals throughout the brain and body to throb in
synchronization with the heart. This is "flow," a state of relaxed and
energized concentration when you perform at your best. It's like what
athletes call "the zone."
Stress sends the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive and disrupts
flow the way a boat's engine propeller churns the smooth surface of a
lake. Under stress - even positive stress, such as the exhilaration of
getting married or bringing your child home from the hospital nursery -
the heart is more prone to beat in erratic rhythms. If the heart is
beating to the rhythms of unmitigated stress, the overwhelming strength of
its signals can evoke the same choppy, red-zone responses from every
cranny of the body and its emotional circuitry. When that happens, McCraty
explains, we become incoherent. SNIP
The whole article can be seen at
http://www.heartmath.com/Library/Articles/TWA.html
--Dan Bishop <danbishop@heartmath.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>