Earthing

[bram]

Does anybody have any experiences (positive or otherwise) with Earthing/ Grounding? I read the book 'Earthing' by Clinton Ober, and it made a lot of sense.


The anecdotal evidence is pretty convincing; that by grounding yourself or connecting yourself directly to the earth (instead of wearing rubber soled shoes all the time) you can affect a number of inflammation related health problems.


I tried it for a couple of weeks, but I didn't notice any changes. My wife suffers from 'frozen shoulder' syndrome, and it didn't have any clear impact on this either.


Would love to hear of anybody else's experiences...

[conk]

I bought a bed sheet with silver fibers sown in and connected that to my ground plug. Slept on it for 4 months with no results. I'm not giving up, however. I intend to get a true ground by driving a 9 foot rod into the ground and connecting a wire to my big toe (or some way that is more comfortable). The theory sounds rock solid, so I'm not going to quit just yet. I think there may be stray or anomalous frequencies or energies coming from the dirty electrical ground plug.

[Camilo]

Posted by bram (here)
Does anybody have any experiences (positive or otherwise) with Earthing/ Grounding? I read the book 'Earthing' by Clinton Ober, and it made a lot of sense.


The anecdotal evidence is pretty convincing; that by grounding yourself or connecting yourself directly to the earth (instead of wearing rubber soled shoes all the time) you can affect a number of inflammation related health problems.


I tried it for a couple of weeks, but I didn't notice any changes. My wife suffers from 'frozen shoulder' syndrome, and it didn't have any clear impact on this either.


Would love to hear of anybody else's experiences...

Try walking bare footed on the grass for a few minutes early in the mornings. You'll experience miracles in a short time, as your body will absorb electromagnetic currents from the earth, which will unblock your own electromagnetic stuck energies.

[Daughter of Time]

Bram,

I put a lot of faith into Earthing and bought Ober's book and bed sheet and pad. What he says makes a lot of sense but i experienced absolutely no improvement for my insomnia at all! Not one bit!!! And I slept on it for six months. I gave up.

Walking bare footed on the grass in the mornings is a wonderfully balancing thing, but i live in Canada, and that's possible only a few months out of the year.

Wearing shoes without rubber soles, which Ober highly recommends, is not helpful either as the cement on sidewalks is very hard. i find that shoes with rubber soles absorb the impact of hitting the cement we must walk on when living in a city.

All in all, the $200.00 I spent were wasted and worst of all, it was a great disappointment.

[Hervé]

Posted by bram (here)
[...]

... My wife suffers from 'frozen shoulder' syndrome, and it didn't have any clear impact on this either.

Try a visit to this thread: Liver detox (from av1) and read Andreas Moritz's book "THE_LIVER_AND_GALLBLADDER_MIRACLE_CLEANSE" in which you'll find that "Frozen shoulders," "Lower Back Pains" and "Stiff Neck" are most usually connected to liver troubles...

Then, those liver troubles are most usually connected to a poor diet leading to a break down of one's guts workings... and the rest of the connected organs and which is addressed in this thread: The gut of most disease... NOT what you think!

[Nick Matkin]

Posted by conk (here)
I bought a bed sheet with silver fibers sown in and connected that to my ground plug. Slept on it for 4 months with no results. I'm not giving up, however. I intend to get a true ground by driving a 9 foot rod into the ground and connecting a wire to my big toe (or some way that is more comfortable). The theory sounds rock solid, so I'm not going to quit just yet. I think there may be stray or anomalous frequencies or energies coming from the dirty electrical ground plug.

If you believe in all this electrosensitivity stuff, then surely, since your plug's ground wire is adjacent to the mains-voltage wiring for tens of yards all over the house, don't you think any of the electric field will be induced into the ground wire and released into the magic blanket? Seems to me like an example of a product taking advantage of the public's ignorance as to how the wiring (or anything slightly technical) actually works.

How much did they charge you for this sliver-fibre blanket?

If you really think you'll get a benefit from grounding your toe (and you REALLY think that?) then use a separate grounding point, like a three-foot copper pipe banged into the ground outside your house and away from any electrical wiring, and run your connecting wire from that to your toe, or whatever.

But as someone who has been working with radio and electrical systems for decades, I must tell you that there is NO evidence that electosensitivity is anything other that psychosomatic. But the brain is a most powerful organ; if it convinces you that you feel better when you do this or that ritual, then you will feel better.

As for walking barefoot "as your body will absorb electromagnetic currents from the earth, which will unblock your own electromagnetic stuck energies" what pseudo science is this based on? Does anyone believe this mumbo-jumbo and if so based on what?

I guess it's harmless and free, and I dare say I'd feel a little refreshed after walking barefoot around the garden before getting dressed each day. As to unblocking my "magnetic energies" - really...

Nick

PS: I am a victim of having my brain boiled dry after years of indoctrination from the kind of science that keeps you warm, fed and able to read this.

[Spiral of Light]

With apologies to the skeptics here, I have to report that I have been using a grounded sheet on my bed and a grounded mat with my computer for almost a year.

My sleep has been much more sound and pain-free.

Maybe grounding doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me. Prior to using these grounding tools, pain caused by fibromyalgia kept me tossing and turning all night long. That is no longer happening. I'm a believer.

[bram]

Hmm, thanks for the contributions. As usual, a split opinion on this issue. A couple of points though:


I agree that the EMF will leach into the earth wire- but surely it will run to ground, that's the whole point isn't it? If you connect a voltmeter to yourself indoors, you will generally be running a small voltage- between 5-20 volts, but when you ground yourself this drops to zero.


Second, I absolutely accept the cleansing thing, and I totally get that lower back pain links to liver problems. But frozen shoulder? How do liver problems manifest in the shoulder joints, and why here and not any of the other joints?

[Nick Matkin]

I have known dozens of people (including me) who work in high 50/60 Hz mains frequency EMF fields working with power distribution and also those who work in incredibly high RF fields at transmitter sites. I do not know the continuing health history of all these people, but I do know that none of us appeared to suffer any vague health problems that cleared up when we left site for days or weeks during holidays, etc.

Yes, the earth wire does run adjacent to the mains current-carrying wires, and yes in a fault condition it does return the current to earth. There's nothing special about the earth in this context - it is used as part of the mains power distribution system at both the substation and home. We are all bathed in electromagnetic fields in our homes which is absorbed/re-radiated by our bodies.

Proof: An experiment - try this if you are technically inclined. Find any audio amplifier - preferably a battery-operated one where you can't possibly hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing! The amp section in a portable radio will do. Touch the centre connection of the volume control or the inner connection of any aux/phono input if it has one. You hear that loud buzz? That's the mains power electric field being picked up by your body as an antenna. So what? Well it's not dangerous, people have been living with it since we started distributing electricity. It's tiny, tiny, tiny, but the amp is very sensitive so you can detect it. If you were to touch the ground/earth wire at that same point it would be MUCH louder because of the induced EMF into the ground/earth wire from the mains. (PLEASE don't do this if you don't know what you are doing!!)

As to connecting a voltmeter to yourself indoors... the only possible measurements are between two different potentials. How are you measuring this and with what equipment? Are you measuring AC or DC? If you measure between say your hand and an earthed water pipe, you may measure a DC static voltage picked up by your clothing even if it's all natural fibres (now - there's something else to worry about!), but it's unlikely you'll get a meaningful reading without laboratory test equipment.

All this anecdotal evidence that grounding or screening the body makes some people feel better does not amount to proof of anything. Like I said, the brain is a very powerful tool, able to convince us of many things. However, if the evidence really does stack up, then anecdotal evidence is a good starting point for investigation. At the moment I just don't believe there is any...

I'd save my money and not get swept along with the manipulative advertising hype.

Regards,

Nick

[Gemini]

You may want to read Dr. Mercola's fresh article on grounding. It is very scientific and provides solid evidence that Earthing does work. Here's an excerpt:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=v_z0HXOUSYQ

Do you notice you feel better when you walk barefoot on the Earth? Recent research has explained why this happens.

Your immune system functions optimally when your body has an adequate supply of electrons, which are easily and naturally obtained by barefoot contact with the Earth.

Research indicates that electrons from the Earth have antioxidant effects that can protect your body from inflammation and its many well-documented health consequences. For most of our evolutionary history, humans have had continuous contact with the Earth.

It is only recently that substances such as asphalt, wood, rugs, and plastics have separated us from this contact.

It is known that the Earth maintains a negative electrical potential on its surface. When you are in direct contact with the ground (walking, sitting, or laying down on the earth's surface) the earth's electrons are conducted to your body, bringing it to the same electrical potential as the earth. Living in direct contact with the earth grounds your body, inducing favorable physiological and electrophysiological changes that promote optimum health.

There is an emerging science documenting how conductive contact with the Earth, which has is also known as Earthing or grounding, is highly beneficial to your health and completely safe. Earthing appears to minimize the consequences of exposure to potentially disruptive fields like "electromagnetic pollution" or "dirty electricity."

Some of the recent evidence supporting this approach involves multiple studies documenting Earthing's improvement in blood viscosity, heart rate variability, inflammation, cortisol dynamics, sleep, autonomic nervous system (ANS) balance, and reduced effects of stress.

Read more here.

[Nick Matkin]

Very interesting video. Thank you Gemini. Clint Ober seems to know what he's talking about - unlike his irritating side kick Dr. Mercola.

Ober made one clanger though by saying one hertz is "the time taken for a frequency [?] to go around the Earth". Nonsense, it is one cycle (of anything) per second. Look it up. I'm assuming he's just trying to keep things very simple so ended up being inaccurate by oversimplification.

He didn't say, but one side of the test meter must have been earthed (to a water pipe as I suggested above?) to measure the voltage. Another very obvious omission was the mention of current THROUGH the body. It's current that electrocutes people, causes damage. A healthy heart can be stopped by 50 to 100 milliamps. No mention of what biological effects a few microamps from volt or two would have biologically. I'd guess none.

I was very surprised to learn from the video that American homes were often build without an earth wire upstairs. Kind of makes sense I suppose as in those days it was only for lighting. Nevertheless, metal lamps have always been used in bedrooms and for safety should be earthed.

I'm not at all convinced by the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo in the text below the video. "Dirty electricity", "anti-oxidant effects", "research indicates" and "recent evidence" without citing these studies... It clicked on the "read more here" link. Nothing useful.

Regards,

Nick

[The Truth Is In There]

the body works through electrical signals, many of which in the region of micro or nano volts, and is being influenced (or rather, disrupted) by unnatural em-fields all around us that are created by ac current, or radio, tv, cell phone signals etc. the results of this influence or of getting grounded regularly may not be immediately noticable but in the long run i have no doubts that grounding offers many benefits. as for short term benefits, there are plenty of photos in clint ober's book that show how blood platelets unclump or inflammation gets reduced after no more than half an hour of connection with the earth. i find this quite convincing and i'm happy with my earthing sheet and mats.

[eileenrose]

I've been using all the Earthing products for 6 months now (each month buying something new to add on to existing purchases....so started simple and then got more complicated....). Wouldn't be alive today if not for these products.

The bed sheet doesn't work as well as you might think. Not saying it doesn't help. Just saying.....it depends on what you are expecting it to do. As the entire surface area (I suppose) is being plugged into one socket verses say, the mat, which is what, 20x smaller, also being in one socket (juice from one), verses the tiny patches, 20x smaller than the mat (so highly effective).

So does that make sense?

I will give you an example. I had a stomach ache. I stuck a patch (added a couple for hopefully added benefits), the stomach ate immediately left (not joking...but it was being caused by sensitity to EMF.....so not caused by acid reflex....so note the difference.....as there is one).

So I am using the products solely because I am emf sensitive and stuck sleeping next to a Huge solar inverter (just put up near my room's wall....already can't sleep in my regular room,...it has a smart meter attached to it (what caused my EMF sensitivity to begin).

In order to sleep (at all, and not start throwing up...I get not only headaches (immediately), dizziness-ness, but stomach upset (sensitive stomach already)), I put one mat on my head (stops the headache), one mat over my chest, plus a patch (so my heart stops racing), one patch (plus extras for good measure attached,...so a make a flower petals of patches...but just plug one into a socket) to my stomach. I sleep on the sheet they provide as well. All together, I sleep.....alright....actually, better than I did before I got emf sensitivity (as long as I am buried under all of these.....luckily, I sleep so much better, I don't need to move around).

---
I have all kinds of interesting tidbits, just PM me with questions (anyone). Love these products (used correctly).

¤=[Post Update]=¤

and....the patches are healing up areas of my body that were hurt from stress conditions, sprains/strains.....as well (added bonus). I even put patches on my sinus areas/forehead and nose (though watch the nose, easy to scratch the eye...so wear a eye patch to protect the eye ball)....which keeps my sinuses in check (I get colds continuously and have a permanent sinus infection....just the way it is. Nothing clears it up. Zero. Tried it all. So I just live with it). I mean it just seems to stop colds in their tracks (along with yin chao useage or pe min kan way, depending on symptology)

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Another example, I put 4 Earthing patches (two plugged in) on my neck all night as well (yes, I look....to comical for words...and who gives a rat's ass....it cures the pain). I've done this for over 2 months. So that is 12 hours a day (I sleep....a lot....very meditatively...it is perfect for me....hard to explain briefly), for 60 days. My neck headaches (another very old injury) are disappearing like never before and for the first time, ever, I've been exercising my neck (it needs stretching out these days....very constricted). so they are working. Just really really slowly.

[Nick Matkin]

There really seem to be people who say they manifest very obvious symptoms when exposed to various forms of electromagnetic radiation, be it UHF/EHF from wifi and smart meters, "dirty mains" from DC to AC inverters in solar panels, etc, or just normal 60 Hz (Americas) 50 Hz (everywhere else) mains EMF fields.

There seem to be sufficient suffers on this forum alone to gather a group together, approach a university and get some biology/physics students to carry out a thorough and complete study. There's no need of course to limit the study to this forum, the internet can gather sufferers from far and wide. So, how about this:

1) Surely there must be PHd students somewhere gagging to blow the lid off this one way or the other. The kudos for being identified as the team that actually pinned down the field strengths, frequencies and symptoms would be immeasurable, opening the way to understanding all kinds of physiology up to now completely unknown.

2) On the other hand, if sufferers couldn't actually tell if they were sitting in any EMF filed or not - beyond chance - that would also help sufferers to look elsewhere for the true cause of their symptoms.

Has this not already been done?

Regards,

Nick

[pugwash84]

There is no better feeling than walking through the grass barefoot especially when the grass is fresh morning grass and all dewy. I hate wearing shoes all the time, it makes me feel caged in. My husband is always telling me to put shoes on encase I stand on something like glass. I was on holiday camping years ago and I never wore shoes for 2 weeks. My feet were gross and I had very hard skin on the bottom of them because they had adapted to walking with no shoes on. However I felt so healthy and I felt more connected to nature than I have ever done in my life. I felt connected to the earth and I felt free.
I do not think you need to buy expensive things to help with this just walk around your garden barefoot in the morning or if you can paddle in the sea and walk on the beach, these things are worth experiencing and some people are so obsessed with other things they don't experience these things enough. xxxxx Beauty in earth xxxx

[genevieve]

I agree with pugwash84 that there's no need to buy expensive things (e.g., the Earthing sheet). I bought the bands (3 in one package, $48, IIRC) and sleep with the wrist band on.

I also agree that walking barefoot outside is ideal, but not always practical.

I've been using the Earthing bands for about six months and haven't noticed any difference, but I'm doing it as a preventive, not a cure.

The science makes sense to me, so for $48 or so, why not?

eileenrose:
Have you tried sleeping with just the wrist band?
If so, did it not make as much difference to you as the patches do?


Peace Love Joy & Harmony,
Genevieve

[aviators]

A year has gone by since the last post!
I just watched this Documentary over the weekend and found it interesting and uplifting.

"Grounded" is an independent feature film about what is considered by many authorities to be "The Greatest Health RE-discovery of All Time". The concept was tested on the people of Haines, Alaska , (population 1,700.) Now showing on Youtube for free for a limited time.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgwF0tpioTU

Makes a lot of sense to me. Perhaps this is why working in the garden and earth feels so therapeutic.
Does traveling by car or plane make you feel ungrounded ?
Grounding or Earthing could be underrated.
With all the EMF's we are exposed to we should be studying this subject closely.

[Carmen]

I watched the film too Aviators. It is very interesting! I've been padding around barefoot in my garden ever since! A wonderful sense of freedom. It's spring here so the weather is very conducive to bare feet.

[Earth Angel]

my husband and I got two earthing mats from Earthing, we put them in the bed at calf level.....they can be a bit annoying but I didn't want to go for the $200 sheet just yet.....we find that we fall asleep almost immediately upon getting into bed...my husband says he has better dream recall as well. I am thinking of getting a half sheet as the mats can be a bit annoying in the bed. I had pain in my foot and ankle and that disappeared almost immediately. I still have pain in my elbow but that has not improved.

[Robin]

Hey guys,

Earthing is a very real thing, but the materialism side of it is contradictive and misleading. Why would a philosophy that sponsors connecting with nature and embracing minimalism also sell products that keep you inside?

The purpose of Earthing is to go outside, lay in the grass, and feel the constant flux of energies enter and leave your body to join with the energies of other organisms. It is a form of meditation...but so much more.

My take on Earthing is that one can train themselves to feel the energy of the totality of the universe...of Earth. Everything is made up of energy, but in different vibrations and forms. Our bodies are made up of one frequency of energy while other organisms are made up of different frequencies.

The way I see it is that Earthing trains you to lose yourself in the midst of everything...to become one with nature. As you sit or lie down in the grass, for instance, the ants and flies that crawl on you are exchanging different frequencies of energy with you. It is a way to become integrated in the perpetual balance of the cocktail of energetic frequencies that life is. It is a way to lose yourself, to lose individuality, and to become one with everything.

I find it appalling that "Earthing mats" are marketed so people can participate in the meditation, ironically, in an enclosed cage (house) that excludes all of nature. It's just a way to keep you inside, and I may go as far as saying to keep you on a lower vibration. I would also make the claim that the mats were contrived by the same people that fluoridate our water, put GMOs in our food, and bombard us with advertisements and subliminal messages in commercials after marketing televisions...

I would highly suggest to everybody to not purchase these Earthing items. It is purely psychological. You "feel better" because your mind tricks you to believe so because of advertising (think: placebo effect). Just go outside! Everything a human could possibly need is provided by nature...outside. Just like everywhere you see a plant that could poison you, you find one that heals you. Please, I beg of you, the only true form of Earthing is stepping outside. Everything else is a hoax.

Tom Brown has a great passage in his book that describes the four states of mind one can achieve when connecting with nature. I highly suggest all of the works of Tom Brown!

The Nature State of Mind (taken directly from Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Awareness and Tracking)

It has taken years for me to understand the implications of Stalking Wolf's lectures on the various levels of consciousness. Trying to teach others what he taught me has been one of the most difficult challenges of my life. However, the explanation has become easier in recent years because of the discoveries of modern science. It is now widely recognized, for example, that there are four basic levels of consciousness -- called Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta -- and these, I believe, roughly correspond to the levels of awareness that Stalking Wolf was talking about.

Conveniently, each level has certain characteristics. First is Beta, which most of us consider a normal waking state. To my way of thinking, though, Beta is quite abnormal. It is characterized by movement, activity, and surging thoughts. The mind is preoccupied, often agitated and in a state of flux. In the extreme, Beta is aggressive and belligerent. It would be very difficult to fully experience nature in such a state. A person who is agitated may be prepared for sudden action, but he or she cannot concentrate on shifting patterns and sounds or absorb subtle nuances of smell and bodily sensations. Such things can only be experienced when the mind is relaxed.

This relaxed state is called Alpha. It is characterized by internal calm and quiet. It is the state in which one is free of tensions and anxieties, unconcerned with the body, and alert to new stimuli. Science has found Alpha to be the mental state that is most conducive to learning. The mind is concentrated and sensory perceptions are greatly heightened. The body is relaxed. Healing powers are increased. Although most of us probably experience Beta more often, I consider alpha to be the most natural state of waking consciousness. Not coincidentally, it is also the state of relaxed alertness that most people reach after several days in the woods.

The third state of consciousness is called Theta. Since it is normally reached in the moments just before sleep, most of us don't experience it vividly enough to remember it. But with discipline, it can also be attained while fully awake. It is characterized by extremely heightened senses, intuitiveness, and even paranormal activity. It is the state of awareness in which artists, philosophers, scientists, and inventors make their greatest creations and discoveries. It is also the state in which you may automatically solve various problems of daily life. In nature observation, Theta is the state in which a person opens up to wordless communications and intuitively senses the patterns and connections in the flow of life.

Finally, there is Delta, the deepest state of consciousness. Very little is known about this state, since very few people are able to reach it while remaining awake. Modern science describes delta as a deep dreamless sleep, but yogis and other masters who have reached it through deep meditation has described it in much the same way Stalking wolf described the vision of oneness. I believe it is the area of consciousness approached by a shaman. For those who have experienced it, there is not sensation of separateness, but a blending of the self with all things. The vision is powerful and overwhelmingly beautiful, and it is only reached through extreme sacrifice and asceticism.

It is interested to catalog these different levels of consciousness, but it should be remembered that they are not entirely separate from each other. Like the fives senses, they operate simultaneously and are bound together so intimately that it is often difficult to tell them apart. It is very possible, for example, for the mind to be deeply relaxed or even experience an intuitive flash while the body is engaged in physical activity. It should also be remembered that it is not necessary to understand these different levels of consciousness in order to experience them. They are the birthright of every human being, and what they have to offer is beyond words.