Humans are made out of energy and sustained by energy. Our bodies are ever-changing, dynamic fields of energy and vibration, not static physical structures. Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., author of The Biology of Belief (Mountain of Love/Elite Books, 2005), writes that when we truly understand the effect of thoughts, emotions, and energy on the body, "we will no longer fractiously debate the role of nurture and nature, because we will realize that the fully conscious mind trumps both nature and nurture. And I believe we will also experience as profound a paradigmatic change to humanity as when a round world reality was introduced to a flat-world civilization." I couldn’t agree more!

The truth is that our bodies are holograms in which every part contains information about the whole. We know from quantum physics that at the subatomic level, matter and energy—which can also be called spirit—are interchangeable. The best expression of this that I have heard is that matter is the densest form of spirit and that spirit is the lightest form of matter. We can view our bodies as manifestations of spiritual energy. Our mind and daily thoughts are part of this energy, and they have a well-documented effect on matter and our bodies. The quality of our daily thoughts and emotions actually sets up an electromagnetic field around us (and every cell in our bodies) that attracts to us our vibratory equivalent. This tendency is known as the law of attraction and is the most fundamental law that governs the universe. Like is attracted to like. As we vibrate, so we attract. Or to state it more simply, birds of a feather flock together!

Psychological and emotional factors influence our physical health greatly because our emotions and thoughts are always accompanied by biochemical reactions in our bodies, which are mediated by cell membranes, which are the actual "brains" of each cell. The mind/body continuum can be adequately understood only when we appreciate ourselves as an ever-changing energy system that is affected by, and also affects, the energy surrounding it. We don’t end at our skins. This fact has been beautifully illustrated by the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher who has done groundbreaking work on the effect of emotions on the crystalline structure of water. In his book The Hidden Messages in Water (Beyond Words Publishing, 2004), and also in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know!? Dr. Emoto documents the effects of different emotions on the structure of frozen water crystals, showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the energy of loving appreciation creates the most profoundly beautiful crystalline patterns. Given that our bodies are over 70 percent water, Emoto’s research has profound implications for health. How we think about, talk to, and feel about ourselves creates an imprint on our cells that affects not only us, but also everyone around us!

Though we cannot see this vibrational energy that makes up the body/mind and sustains us, it is nevertheless a vital part of us. It is the life-force that keeps our hearts beating and our lungs breathing even when we are asleep. Anyone who has had the experience of being with a dying person will tell you that after the moment of death, something changes. Though the physical body is still present, the person they knew is no longer there. Their life-force has gone elsewhere.

Vibrational fields interact within an individual person. They also interact between one person and another, and between one person and the world in general. These interactions, whose existence is well documented, are important for lifelong human growth and healthy development. Even accidents, which we think of as "random" events, have been shown in a number of studies to be related to the emotional and psychological states (or vibrational fields) of the "victims." So in the language of vibrational systems, it appears that the vibrational field of certain individuals interacts with the environmental vibrational field in a way that increases their incidence of accidents.

Clearly, human interactions have profound effects on health. These effects can be either positive or negative, depending upon the state of mind of the people involved in those interactions. When we begin to appreciate ourselves as vibrational fields of energy with the ability to affect the quality of our own experience, we will be getting in touch with our innate ability to heal ourselves and create health every day of our lives.