For thousands of years, among virtually all cultures, the heart has been considered the source of courage, wisdom, and love. In 1991, stress researcher, author and consultant Doc Childre founded The Institute of HeartMath (IHM), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and education organization with the singleminded mission "to study the physiological mechanisms by which the heart communicates with the brain, and the heart's influence on information processing, perception, emotion and health."

In the intervening decade, the Institute of HeartMath has conducted and published dozens of studies on the extraordinary power of the heart to relieve stress and create overall health, personal balance, creativity, intuitive insight, and fulfillment.

We spoke to HeartMath cofounder Howard Martin to learn how we can apply the HeartMath discoveries and understandings toward healing the energies in our world that are tending toward war.

Diane: How did the folks at HeartMath get interested in studying how emotion affects the heart?

Howard Martin: Doc Childre is the founder of HeartMath. Thirty years ago he began trying to find ways to increase performance and quality of life as well as improving the overall well-being of society. He figured out that the heart had a lot to do with all that, and he took it out of the metaphorical and spiritual context and began to explore the possibility that the heart is the source of intelligence for any given system.

In the 1990s, after twenty years of research, he decided to put those things out to the public. He organized HeartMath, and with people that he knew and associations he had made along the way, he was able to bring in and attract professionals from a variety of fields: business, education, science, and medicine. He began to formalize his work, first through writing books and then through advanced scientific research on the effects of positive emotional states on physiology and through mapping out the communication pathways that exist in the human system between the heart, the brain, and the rest of the body.

I've know Doc for thirty years, and he told me something at the beginning that is now very obvious: He said that by the time we got to the turn of the century, stress would be at an all time high, globally speaking, and that people would need a practical way to handle this state with poise and grace. Doc's focus all along was to help people be able to make the shift from head to heart.

Diane: Was he observing human nature, or did he think this type of stress would come as a result of technology?

Howard: He was observing the underdeveloped emotional capacity that we have as humans at this time.

A quickening is taking place. Evolution is an accelerating process and is moving at a much faster pace than ever before. As one example, the influx of new information into the world doubles every eighteen months. This is phenomenal to me.

So if you take this speed of change and you overlay it on top of the human species, which is still operating emotionally as it has for a thousand years — without a new level of emotional maturity, or an increased ability to manage this emotional roller coaster ride — then you've got the seeds for some problems.

We've evolved mentally, and this is reflected in technology. And certainly there has been a lot of physical development, with longevity increasing in Western society. But if you look at our emotional capacity, to me it's obvious we haven't developed there as much. We still get upset over the same things. Our little vanities get ruffled. We get hurt, we blame, we judge, we hate, we resent, and we occasionally love and occasionally care, and we stay oversensitive. All these different things are sort of endemic to how the human species operates.

Again, when you're looking at change coming as quickly as it is, and we are still operating emotionally with a less than optimal emotional capacity, then there are going to be problems.

Diane: How did you get involved in this work?

Howard: I was a young man when I met Doc and became a firm friend. Even though he was only a few years older, he was a lot smarter than I was in my early 20s.

I became interested back then in spiritual development and self-improvement: doing yoga, reading the books, doing the meditations, going on a vegetarian diet... I stuck with it, and one thing led to another. Like most of your readers, I imagine, I've been through many different careers and life experiences. I'm not totally attached to any particular system. I'm a heart man.

Diane: The work of HeartMath seems to take spiritual truth and prove that the principles are actually active in the physical world.

Howard: Yes. Well, Doc says it's about taking it "from the sky to the street" — from the conceptual to the empirical, without de-spiritualizing these beautiful concepts that we love.

At the same time this is an empirical world. The research at HeartMath has shown the heart to be more than a blood pump. We know it actually communicates, and we have mapped out these communication pathways. Being able to show that there is an empirical understanding for what the ancients have said for thousands of years represents a very important step, because it allows people to believe in things that they intuitively know already.

Diane: I was reading on your website about the example of what is happening when a person walks into a room and somehow perceives that a fight or some strong emotion has just taken place between its occupants. I've actually had this happen, and I always thought it was my "intuition" that picked up those signals. But I never asked what it was, exactly, that I was perceiving. Now I'm given to understand that the heart is actually sending out measurable frequencies that can be "read" by another person.

Howard: Yes. We know that we emit electromagnetic energy from the heart, and it is very measurable. We also know that the electromagnetic content of that field changes relative to our emotional state.

When we are frustrated or angry it produces a very incoherent signal. Conversely, when we are feeling loving, appreciative, and caring those kinds of positive emotional fields becomes more ordered.

Diane: How does this concept apply to the escalating situation in the Middle East, for instance?

Howard: The whole world is in a chaotic state right now. The speed of change is accelerating and it's pushing the whole world to a new understanding. To be honest with you, I think it is likely to get worse before it gets better. I'm very hopeful, but I'm also pragmatic, and I believe we've got more change to go through.

This chaotic state is creating a tremendous momentum of fear and insecurity. Whether it's the terrorist threats or the sniper in Washington, DC, or the fear of losing our job, or wondering whether our kid is on drugs or not — these are realities we all must face. And there is potential for a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety. So what it's going to take is to be able to manage ourselves more coherently in the midst of all this, and develop a level of self-security.

In my opinion, the development of self-security is a heart-based process. To begin with, we've got to stop blaming everyone else and our external situations for whether we are peaceful and happy or whether we are not. If we are self-responsible human beings, we've got to do that.

If the social structures around us begin to crumble as the chaos increases, it will force many of us to take a deeper look and to recognize that it's really a game between us and ourselves. We are self responsible and we have to grow.

We are an adaptable species, and we're evolving all the time. I believe we will grow to the challenge. But what does that opportunity really mean? To me, it means developing self-security. And it has to be heart based.

In the past, the heart has been said to be a source of wisdom and intelligence. But the heart is evolving just as the rest of our human self is evolving. There is a new intelligence emerging in the human species, an intelligence that is heart directed — that comes from a combination of heart and brain synchronizing into coherent states. This creates a new level of intelligence that gives us the ability to solve problems, see the bigger picture, and especially to develop the emotional self-security necessary for living in a fulfilling way in these times.

Diane: So let's focus on the world situation as it exists now — Let's say that we were able to apply the HeartMath technology and understandings to the Middle East crisis. What can we do about that situation in order to change it?

Howard: The first thing we have to recognize is that we may not be able to change it. All we can do is put out love and care. Drop our expectations about it — come to a neutral positioning on how we see it — and let it unfold in its own way.

Another idea comes from a HeartMath term called "over care": caring that has become a burdensome sense of responsibility. When "over care" happens, the extra emotional drain coming from that burdensome sense of responsibility compromises the overall effect of our love and care. The result is that our care becomes sentimental and watered down.

So whatever we can do to influence the Arab/Isreali conflict — and believe me, I'd like to see it resolved — we must do that from the most coherent and powerful place we can come from, and not from a mushy, overly sensitive, over-dramatized sense of care.

Diane: So what I'm hearing you say is that there are different levels to the emotions we have, right?

Howard: Absolutely. It's almost dimensional, in a sense. For instance, we can care so much about some things that care becomes worry.

There is a pristine level of care that unfolds when you begin to depersonalize what you're caring about and don't overly identify with it. And it's not about repressing emotion. It's about channeling and managing that emotion in a whole new way.

I'll honestly say, the understanding of care — and any of those higher emotional states like love, appreciation, and compassion — is a lifelong process for me. There is no end to understanding these things. If I ever get to the point where I think I've got care figured out, then I'm in big trouble. The understanding of these emotions goes on and on. There is something to learn every day.

We must understand that we can't change everything. All we can do is put out as much care and love as we can to any given situation, and then back off and let things unfold as they will.

The Arab/Isreali situation is a very complex issue. There have been thousands of years of conflict. In many ways, and certainly in the last 100 years, there have been a tremendous number of occurrences that people might take issue with. But we still have to acknowledge the fact that all the people involved are doing the best they can. They are coming from where they think they have to be coming from.

Diane: If you had the opportunity to stand in each one's shoes, you'd find an understanding for the positioning of both parties, I'm sure.

Howard: Yes. We have to put ourselves in their shoes. We have to ask, If I were in the same situation, how might I react? So I don't have any judgment for these people on either side. My wish is that they will find a way to resolve this, and I'm hopeful that they will.

But I think it's going to take a little time. I try to watch and observe from that neutral position. It doesn't mean I don't care, it just means I'm not getting into the same emotional turmoil that started the situation in the first place.

Diane: What about the idea of "resonance" — that we can bring others into a higher vibration through putting out that vibration ourselves? If we could get enough people in the higher octave of care, with our understanding of how the heart works, could we possibly create a global shift?

Howard: I believe so. It is obvious that thoughts and feeling put out energy. In the last chapter of the book I co-authored with Doc Childre, called The HeartMath Solution,[1] we talk about the "consciousness climate." The premise is that everything, including thoughts and feelings, is energy.

We live in a tremendously energetic environment created from the collective thoughts of the six billion people living on the planet. A lot of those thoughts and feelings are obviously incoherent, and that creates a very strong energetic momentum toward hate and fear.

But if we apply the laws of physics, we will understand that it takes only a little coherence to offset a lot of incoherence. I believe if enough people live in coherence, they can create an energetic shift.

So it does comes down to what we do as individuals. Our major contribution is to keep asking ourselves, How am I thinking and feeling? What am I putting out to the world? What am I contributing to the energetic environment? Am I contributing chaos or peace? These are simple questions, but worth asking, because every time we find ourselves getting frustrated or upset, feeling resentful or down, being judgmental or blaming, we're contributing to the momentum of incoherence. It's not "bad." But it's not the most efficient way to live.

No one can do this for us. It's the era of self responsibility. It really always has been, but now more so than ever. There's no way to bail out of this one.

Diane: When I was doing my research for our interview I saw the graphs on the HeartMath website showing the difference between coherent and incoherent emotion. It's amazing!

Howard: Yes. For instance, you can't measure the energy of a thought, that's not possible yet, but you can measure how a thought or feeling affects the body. You can see changes in the autonomic nervous system and in the hormonal system.

The research at HeartMath is now moving forward in the area of human energetics. There will be new information released from HeartMath about this in the future.

Diane: It sure seems as though we are going to have to learn to do something new, that's for sure.

Howard: Yes, but it's exciting for me, because it puts us in a new capacity for self-empowerment. That's what people say they want, and the opportunity really is here to have that. But it has to be manifested in a very pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts kind of way, starting with how we manage our thoughts and feelings.

Diane: I spoke with the futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard recently, and we were mentioning that the media reports a high percentage of Americans supporting the idea of going to war against Iraq. We both said that we've never met anyone who felt that way. So either our worlds are very small, or the media is lying to us. In your travels what you do find?

Howard: Well, sadly, I am running into people who are buying into this idea. I am seeing the polls reflected in my travels, and it is shocking in a certain way. But keep in mind, I'm not hanging around people who are spiritually inclined. I spend a lot of my time in business meetings within corporate America. I find wonderful people there, but their natures are banded a little differently. They have a different set of values. But no less heart.

What I'm hearing a lot is,"We've got to do this, Saddam Hussein is a threat," and, "We've go to go to war to protect our nation" — and it is all coming from a fear-based perspective.

Almost everyone knows there's more to this whole thing than any of us can see. We're puzzled by that, but at the same time there has been rhetoric and programming through the media for months and months, and I'm beginning to see consciousness beginning to shift that way. It's sort of mass hypnosis. It shows how consciousness can be influenced at a mass level.

For instance — I haven't had a chance to substantiate this yet — but in my travels, a fellow told me there was a 900-million dollar budget to promote the war, and they've been working to build the momentum toward this.

Diane: Could the outer war be a reflection of the inner war — the conflict between the heart and the head?

Howard: I think so. And that is a great metaphor. I think the outer wars are outpicturings of the internal wars that go on in our unconsciousness. I even see that internal war overlaid on areas like the ecology, for example, all being influenced by our thoughts and feelings on a mass level.

Diane: Many teachers have been saying this for thousands of years, and I think its pretty neat that we now have the hard scientific data which shows that it is the truth: The effects of our thoughts and feelings are measurable, and they do make a difference in our reality.

Howard: Yes, science is now becoming an ally in understanding things we've believed intuitively. Science is an empirical process, so we have to be honorable to what science actually shows us. And what it shows us about the heart is that it does more than pump blood. It does have an impact on how our brain and the rest of the body functions. It's the maximum controller within the entire human system.

When we listen to the heart and learn to follow it, when we access the intelligence that resides in the heart, we really do come into a new understanding of life, of ourselves and others. We can see the big picture, we can relate to others in a different way. We can see our way through the times we live in now, and we can ride these waves of change with poise and grace rather than being sucked down into the spiral of incoherence.

It all comes from the heart.

Diane: Thank you, Howard.

Since its inception, the Institute of HeartMath has made significant, innovative contributions to bettering the course of education in America. Programs incorporating HeartMath tools and technology have been introduced at the elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels, and have been demonstrated to improve emotional well-being, classroom behaviors, learning and academic performance. For a detailed overview about the Institute of HeartMath, . To order HeartMath materials, including its newest book, Overcoming Emotional Chaos: Eliminate anxiety, lift depression and create security in your life, by Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman, please . Many studies have been and are continually being done on anger, stress, frustration, and the emotional climate of revenge, showing how these emotions affect the body. For a time-saving, up-to-date resource for locating these kinds of research studies, please visit .