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From: Esalen Center for Theory and Research
Date: 1/21/2001
Time: 2:51:51 PM
Remote Name: 204.116.134.62
Source: Esalen Center for Theory and Research "Subtle Energies and Uncharted Realms of the Mind": an Esalen Invitational Conference, July 2nd to 7th, 2000
Biology and Spirituality: the VAS Technique John Ackerman, M.D.*
In his presentation, John Ackerman described the history of VAS (vascular autonomic signal) research and entertained questions on future studies of this technique.
He defined VAS as "one of the many physiologic responses that help to maintain homeostasis after some perturbation in the energy field". According to Ackerman, VAS is a composite of the cardiac pulse wave, the arterial contraction and the arterial elastic recoil, forming an "instantaneous tonal change in the walls of the arterial system in response to a signal that current scientific instrumentation has been unable to detect so far."
Ackerman then described a technique for evaluating the response of an organism to various compounds (such as food, herbs or medicine) by testing the response of the vascular tone when such objects are introduced in the peripheral electromagnetic field of the body. He cited a study performed by Navach in the mid-80's correlating the area under the ultrasound recorded arterial pulse wave with clinically observed reactions such as drug allergies, and gave other examples of similar non-local phenomena that have been documented in the animal realm. Various shielding mechanisms were described, together with the effects they produced on the outcome of these studies.
Ackerman then moved on to describe the so-called "Navach compounds" -"previously unknown compounds in the human body, in other mammals and even in other phyla that have aromatic nuclei with the capacity to oscillate when induced electromagnetically". Navach, who first discovered them, believed the compounds were related to acupuncture points described in Chinese medicine and served to facilitate the flow of information between acupuncture points along meridians up to the thalamus, by electromagnetic induction. Navach made various observations about the intensity of the electrical signal along the meridians and further speculated that these compounds play a role in the transfer of information from DNA to RNA and the acceleration of the healing response. He called these compounds neurohormones, and described a mechanism of induced polarization which functions as an information relay point. Ackerman noted analogies between Navach's studies and research being done at the Institutes of Biophoton Research in Germany and China, and proposed a pilot study that would bring together scientists from the arenas of physics, molecular biology, traditional Chinese medicine , Western medicine and parapsychology.
(Synopsis by L. Sidorov. For more details on this presentation, see original write-up at www.esalenctr.org)
*John Ackerman, M.D. is the Director of the International Joseph H. Navach Project at the University of Arizona - Tucson