Exploring the mysteries of the heart is one of my favorite subjects—from the spiritual understanding of how significant the heart is, to the amazing research and reports from those who have received heart transplants that has come forth about the heart.  

I want to continue from our last episode when we talked about the heart space and how the heart chakra, or spiritual center, is a doorway to your divine self, the I AM Presence.

Exploring the mysteries of the heart has to be one of my favorite subjects. From the spiritual understanding of how significant the heart is to the amazing research that has come forth about the heart. This is an exciting episode.

We know that our heart certainly is more than a physical organ. From a spiritual perspective, it is where the spark of your Divine Self resides as an actual energy field of extraordinary love, wisdom, and power. We call these three qualities the threefold flame due to the triune nature.

Part of the mastery of life is balancing these three qualities of power, wisdom, and love. It's where we experience the divine and strengthen our connection to our I AM Presence. It is literally the fire of God within you.

I love the way the Christian theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart describes it. He says, “God's seed is within us. There's a part of us that remains eternally in the spirit and is divine. Here God glows and flames without ceasing.”

That so beautifully describes the divine spark or the flame that burns within our heart and sustains us in the physical world. Sustained by that part of us that remains eternally in the spirit and is divine, the I AM Presence.

It also reminds me of the answer Jesus gave to the Pharisees who were always trying to trap him with their questions, to not look over here or over there because the kingdom of heaven is within you. The heart where this flame resides is that gateway to your true nature, your divine consciousness.

That threefold flame within your heart is an affirmation of the I AM THAT I AM. I AM above as I AM below. God in spirit and God in matter. Balancing these three attributes, love, wisdom and power, is a major part of our spiritual journey. The balancing action is so important.

Take for instance the person who's in a position of great power and is very intelligent but lacks the development of love. This imbalance can produce anything from the cruel parent to the dictator that engages in genocide. Or the person who may be extremely intelligent and uses that intelligence in constructive ways but is unable to have meaningful relationships or connect heart to heart or to freely love. Or, the person who's full of love and helps others all the time but doesn't really get around to fulfilling their own divine plan because they lack direction, the power element, or because they have become a victim, once again lacking sufficient development of divine power and wisdom.

We can look at ourselves and see where we might need to further develop these core qualities. Do we speak with sharp words? Do we criticize or judge others? Do we get overwhelmed or depressed with the responsibilities of life, or having no direction in life? Meditation upon the heart and being in the Presence is one way to establish our balance and equilibrium. Setting our intention with mantras, prayers, or decrees is a powerful way to raise our vibration.

Chanting the primordial sound of the OM takes us inward to connect with our Source. Our heart is also where divine alchemy takes place, turning the lead of human thinking and feeling into the gold of divine wisdom and presence. It is where you transcend time and space and have no limitations.

A sacred place that you can “go” at will, whether you're going about your day, facing a difficult situation, or in deep meditation. It's a matter of choice and will to place your conscious attention in your heart. In your heart space and make that conscious connection with your higher self.

When you're aligned in your heart, it is the perfect meditation. You are in the Presence, the source of your intuition and higher consciousness. You can ask specific questions for which you're seeking answers.

As we covered in our last podcast, those answers can come to you in many different ways, whether it's a thought, a picture, a feeling, or the still small voice that speaks to you. It may be an immediate answer, or it may come through someone else or through circumstances in your life. But an answer will come if you remain open and attuned.

Scientific research on the heart in recent years has established its intelligence and recognizes it as a source of intuition and perception. One organization that has conducted an abundance of research and has developed some simple techniques is the Institute of HeartMath. It is a non-profit organization in California dedicated to helping people establish heart-based living and global coherence.

Then some of the things that they do a lot of research on are stress, emotions, heart intelligence, and coherence. What they mean by coherence is when your physical, mental, and emotional systems are synchronized and the heart and brain are working together like two systems that mesh into one.

They measure coherence by your heart rhythm patterns. The more balanced and smooth your heart rhythms are, the more in sync or coherent you are. At that point, your stress levels are reduced, your energy levels increase, and the brain in your head and the brain in your heart are working together.

We've pretty much been taught that our brain is the master organ of our body. However, the research is showing that it's really the heart that's the master organ. It has its own intelligence separate from the brain. The heart is the first organ to be formed in the human body. Even today, scientists do not know what makes the heart begin to beat. When you think about it, we can live without a functioning brain, but we cannot live without a functioning heart. When the heart stops beating, that's the end of life, unless we can stimulate the heart and it begins beating again. Spiritually speaking, we know that when the I AM Presence, which is anchored within the heart, withdraws from the physical form, then we have physical death.

So, heart-centered living means that your actions, interactions, and decisions in everyday life come from the intuitive wisdom of your heart, which is in sync with your brain. This produces that balanced state. You have the constant connection and attunement with your heart and inner being, and your consciousness dwells in your heart space. As a result, you experience deep joy and equanimity, a beautiful balanced state of being.

Now, HeartMath's laboratory research has also shown something very interesting, that when we are in this state of coherence, it is not an idle state. It actually reaches out and influences and supports others in many beneficial ways. Your heart radiates an energy that benefits people, animals, and the environment simply by your presence. When individuals are living from their hearts, the entire planet is affected.

So, we can see the possibilities of how our world can change through heart-centered living, when the heart and mind are acting together. When you have millions of people living this way, a golden age is no longer a far-fetched notion. Also, when your heart is putting out negative energy, you can see also how those around us and the world are affected.

The spiritual teacher Elizabeth Clare Prophet, who wrote The Path to Immortality, calls the heart “the fount of man's being,” and says that if the motive of the heart is pure, man's energies will flow from the heart in a pure stream and return to him in like manner. If the motive of the heart is impure, the energies that flow from the heart and the other chakras will likewise be impure. The pure in heart see God, because there is an unbroken stream of light that flows from the pure heart to the heart of the one Source of all life.

From another tradition, Lama Surya Das, in his book Awakening the Buddhist Heart, calls the Buddhist heart the “luminous spiritual jewel.” What a beautiful thought form to meditate on your heart and visualizing it as a luminous spiritual jewel. The Dalai Lama refers to this luminous jewel as the “good heart,” representing our own inner goodness, our most tender, compassionate, and caring side. In fact, he always says that his religion is loving kindness.

So that fire, that jewel of our God Presence, is who you truly are. We must always keep this in mind. In reality, we are radiant spiritual beings made in the image and likeness of God, evolving in this physical realm. And we aspire to become fully aware and conscious of this reality.

Paul Pearsall, author of The Heart's Code, which is a fascinating and eye-opening read about the role of the heart, and how the heart actually thinks and remembers and communicates with other hearts, and how it helps regulate immunity and contains stored information that continually pulses through our bodies.

In his book, he recounts an amazing experience he had when he was speaking to an international group of psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers that were meeting in Houston, Texas. He was sharing his ideas of how we have cellular memories and how the heart thinks. At the end of the presentation, one of the psychiatrists came up to ask him a question and tell him a story about one of her patients.

She said that she had an 8-year-old patient who received a heart transplant from a murdered 10-year-old girl. Her mother brought the girl to her when she started screaming at night about her dreams of the man who had murdered her donor. Mother said that the daughter knew who it was.

After several sessions with the girl, the psychiatrist couldn't deny any more the reality of what the girl was telling her. So, she and the mother finally called the police, and using the descriptions from the little girl, the murderer was found. He was easily convicted with the evidence the child provided, the time, the weapon, the place, the clothes he wore, what the little girl he killed had said to him. Everything the heart transplant recipient reported was completely accurate.

This is an amazing and moving story. Dr. Pearsall has many such documentations in his book. He says that some of the patient's stories are dramatic because some people who have heart transplants are very sensitive. They call them cardio-sensitives. Not all transplant patients have this kind of sensitivity. But he says almost every patient he talks with has some feeling or sensation as a result of the transplant.

There is so much more to our hearts that science is just now discovering, and which our spiritual and mystical traditions have long understood. Our heart is the citadel of our consciousness, so there is great impact when it's transplanted into another, whether the recipient is aware or not.

Another interesting report is from Charles Siebert, a writer on medical and health issues. He said that while preparing to write a particular article, he had the opportunity to attend a Valentine's Day party for heart transplant recipients. Over 100 recipients attended, and he said that almost every recipient reported spiritual memories or feelings of the energy of their donor.

He said that all the people he met at the party spoke in the same reverent tones about the angel in their chest, about this gift, this responsibility they now bear, and the little prayer they say to the other person inside them. It was as if they were part of a strange new cult, the tribe of the transplanted.

Now another amazing story in Paul Pearsall's book is about a couple who had gotten in a car accident, and the husband was killed, and he donated his heart for a transplant. They had been arguing about something silly right before the accident, and had been sitting in resentful silence. Years later, the wife, who is a practicing family physician, wanted to meet the recipient of her husband's heart. Dr. Pearsall arranged a meeting to take place in the hospital chapel. However, the recipient, who was a young Hispanic man, did not arrive on time. In fact, he was so late that Dr. Pearsall was ready to ask the wife to leave, as he knew that, you know, sometimes these meetings are sensitive, and the young man may have changed his mind.

But then, an interesting thing happened. The wife said she couldn't leave because the recipient was in the hospital. She said she felt him come in about 30 minutes ago, and she felt her husband's presence. She couldn't believe that she was saying this to him, but she felt her husband's heart was in the hospital. So they waited, and just a few minutes later, the young man and his mother entered the chapel, apologizing for being late. They said that they had gotten to the hospital a half an hour ago, but they couldn't find the chapel. Well, after introductions and some small talk, the young wife, who's normally quite shy, blurted out her request.

She said, “This embarrasses me as much it must embarrass you, but can I put my hand on your chest and feel his, I mean, your heart?” The young man looked at his mother, put his hand on his heart, and then nodded his head. As the wife reached forward, he unbuttoned his shirt, and she gently placed her hand on his bare chest. Dr. Pearsall said that what happened next transcends our current view of the brain, the body, heart, and mind, but happens in various forms for those who have transplants or the families of the donors.

The wife's hand began to tremble and tears rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes and whispered, I love you, David. Everything is copacetic. She removed her hand and hugged the young man, and they both sat down and held hands in silence. The mother of the young man later told Dr. Pearsall that her son uses the word copacetic all the time now, but never used it before he got his new heart. Mother didn't even know what the word meant, but she said it was the first thing he said to her after his surgery when he could talk.

The wife overheard this comment and said that the word copacetic was their signal that everything was okay. Every time they argued and made up, they would both say that everything was copacetic. Then after that experience, the young man shared story after story of the changes he experienced after his transplant.

He was a former vegetarian and very health-conscious, but he said he now craves meat and fatty foods. He was a former lover of heavy metal music, but now loves 50s rock and roll. He also reported recurrent dreams of bright lights coming straight for him. The wife confirmed that her husband loved meat, was a junk food addict, had played in a Motown rock and roll band while in medical school, and that she too dreams of the lights of that fateful night. Truly, our hearts are our sacred center.

We've been talking about the heart and its magnificent spiritual properties, and I'd like to take this opportunity to experience together just what we mean by being in your heart and heart-centered living. As I mentioned earlier, you can consciously enter your heart space or heart feel at will and let your consciousness remain there. The ideal situation is to regularly practice being in your heart so that when you do encounter challenges or traumas of any kind, you're not knocked off balance and you can respond from your heart. Just recounting the story of the experiences of those who have had heart transplants can put you into your heart space.

So you can simply recall a moving experience or memory that invokes love and compassion and go from there. You can also meditate using music or simply put your attention on your heart. You can simply place your attention there or imagine a sun emanating within your heart. Some of the saints have had such intense fire and light within their hearts that it showed through their clothing.

 Once in your heart space, you'll feel its balance and peace as you dwell in the timeless now, and simultaneously you can feel its power, its wisdom, and the incomparable love. In fact, when you're facing a tense situation, such as when energy is coming at you from someone's anger, you can consciously focus on your heart and intensify the light by, in response, projecting love and compassion from your heart. This is what Jesus meant by loving our enemies. This does not come naturally to us, but when developed it gives you a mastery over life.

Love is also your protection as a shield of light and love in times of stress, as love is the irresistible force, and thus we have heart-centered living.

In our next episode, we're going to explore whether or not there is only one life we live on this earth. Until then, keep an open mind, a generous heart, and a powerful spirit.

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