Part 7 (1/2)

Figure 8-6. Electrode patches.

After experiencing quick pain relief, several partic.i.p.ants in early grounding studies referred to the patches as ”magic pain patches.”

Some individuals, seeking concentrated relief for local pain (for example, in the arm, shoulder, or knee), have wrapped their grounded sheets or bed pads around the affected area. This is similar to using a grounded electrode patch and sticking it on or near a wound or a site of pain. (Figure 8-7) Body and Knee Bands [image]

Figure 8-7. Velcro body bands.

We regard the grounded electrode patches as more of a re search tool or a potential clinical aid that physicians may consider in the treatment of pain. For home use, we think that grounded Velcro body bands, wrapped around the waist, wrist, or knee, will be much more practical.

Earthing Pet Pads A prototype pad for pets has been tested and found to provide improvement of pain, energy, stamina, flexibility, stress, and old injuries. See Chapter 15 for more details. (Figure 8-8) Pet Pads [image]

Figure 8-8. Dog on conductive pad.

Auto Seat Pads A seat pad like this helps ease driver tension and fatigue. Is it a possible remedy for ”road rage?” The pad is connected to the metal frame of the vehicle, providing a semi-Earth ground. See Chapter 14 for more details. (Figure 8-9) Auto Seat Pad [image]

Figure 8-9. Conductive auto seat.

CHAPTER 9.

A Dozen Years of Earthing: Clint Ober's Observations Since 1998, I have been invited into the homes of probably several thousand people and reconnected them to the Earth. I have grounded newborns, kids, young adults, midlifers, seniors, and centenarians, and individuals deathly ill for whom the medical system had no more fixes to offer. Some understood what I was doing. Most didn't. They just understood later that they felt better and had less pain.

Earthing produces an amazing gra.s.sroots ripple. ”Can you please do this for my mother or sister or father or friend?”

I've heard that many times from people who suffered for years with severe pain. Anyone who goes from pain to less pain or no pain, from fatigue to energy, from lack of mobility to more mobility, wants all their loved ones and friends to feel the same way.

”Oh, my G.o.d,” they will say. ”I didn't have to do anything. I didn't have to change my diet or exercise or take a pill. Just go to sleep.”

That's what one tells the other, and so the news of Earthing has spread. One woman with MS, who suddenly felt like a new person after grounding herself, told me she wanted to start a ”barefoot revolution” and get everybody grounded.

I remember one case in which I grounded a mother at the request of her daughter, whom I had previously grounded. The older woman had suffered from chronic pain in the hips for more than ten years. I placed two grounded electrode patches on her feet. After about twenty minutes or so, she said she had to get up to go to the restroom. So I took the patches off. As she raised herself off the chair, she let out a scream. I got a real scare. I thought something had gone wrong.

”No,” she said, ”my pain is gone.”

Dramatic as that sounds, I've heard it many times over the years. It is simply a common refrain of people being reconnected to the Earth after being disconnected perhaps for a whole lifetime.

The degree of gratification I have had seeing people lose their pain and feel better is beyond description. This is what has kept me going every day on an adventure that has been exhausting, challenging, and at times, quite lonely. My joy has trumped the fatigue and time involved in trying to educate people about Earthing. Again and again, I have witnessed sick and pasty faces turn warm and pink within minutes after someone is connected to the Earth.

After all these years, it is clear beyond any doubt that Earthing is safe and that many conditions and symptoms respond positively to the natural energy of the Earth. It is also clear to me that this connection with the Earth is the the missing link for restoring red-bloodedness, hardiness, and health back into a society where the level of all of those has been plunging in recent years. missing link for restoring red-bloodedness, hardiness, and health back into a society where the level of all of those has been plunging in recent years.

People often ask if Earthing will help them with certain health symptoms.

Just as you can't direct healthy food, air, or water to create specific desired results in one function or part of your body, your body takes the natural energy from the Earth and uses it as needed. Often, people tell me of surprising ”side benefits.”

I strongly believe also that Earthing is not just to remedy health issues already present, but also to a.s.sist our bodies in staying healthy. I have come to think of this as about the most natural form of prevention and anti-aging medicine you can find.

Neither I, nor the researchers and doctors I have worked with over the years, have a full understanding of the depth of physiological changes that occur with Earthing. The research is barely ten years old. I feel we are scratching the surface of a great new paradigm that hopefully others, with greater resources, will be inspired to explore.

This I do know: consistently reconnecting with the Earth restores a natural source of energy to your body that has been missing in your life. This missing energy may be the core cause of chronic inflammation and pain in your body, a malfunctioning nervous system, or some unresolved personal health issue. When you reconnect, and stay reconnected, all kinds of wonderful things happen.

My observations over the years attest to a seemingly boundless potential for Earthing to help prevent and alleviate both common and uncommon health issues.

COMMON SYMPTOMS THAT IMPROVE.

In general, people feel a greater sense of well-being when they are grounded. The sicker the individual, the more striking the gains. Older folks rapidly feel the spark of improved circulation and energy. Color, vitality, and outlook on life are transformed. Swollen joints and varicose veins subside. Some with many health issues are frequently different people after just a week or two of Earthing. Sure, they will still have those same issues, but they are getting better. One or more sources of pain are being reduced. They become more functional. Often they have told me, ”I have my life back again.”

Many women with menstrual issues have confided to me-a man and a stranger in their lives-that their periods are smoother after they started Earthing. I was once speaking at a health conference and was having a chat with a doctor and his wife afterward. I noticed that the wife had a painful look on her face. I asked her if she was okay. She said openly that it was PMS. I asked her if she would let me see if grounding could help her. I sat her down nearby, where I was demonstrating Earthing, and applied a grounded electrode patch for fifteen minutes on the palm of her hand. At the end of that time, she had a different look on her face. She said most of her discomfort had cleared up. The next day the doctor called me to say that his wife had felt so good that she was exercising on the mini-trampoline in their home. Usually, he said, she was down for a week.

Women in midlife often describe less discomfort from typical hormonal swings with grounding.

The main thing I have seen with children is a rapid calming effect. After grounding kids, parents are usually quite eager to have them traipsing around barefoot in the backyard. Nowadays, the first thing a kid will do in the morning is put on his or her shoes and the last thing at night is take them off. So they are ungrounded pretty much all the time, and this contributes, I believe, to a lot of the new health and emotional problems that kids have today, and it's another factor to add to the list of causes such as junk food, lack of exercise, and being exposed to EMF pollution from long hours of television, computers, and video games.

Many experts are saying that kids-and adults as well-need to get out in Nature more and are healthier and better adjusted if they do so. Stress levels fall within minutes of seeing green s.p.a.ces, one authority said. I second that, and I would add one more thing: whether you go out into the countryside or your own backyard, go out barefooted wherever safe and possible. The stress level will drop even more.

Earthing helps circulation. That's obvious to me from seeing countless grey faces brighten up with color from better blood flow. The first thing I've noticed-within minutes-with a lot of people is a change in their color. There's more color in their face or extremities. If the extremities are cold, they tend to warm up. ”There's something going on down there,” people have often told me after ten or fifteen minutes.

People who sleep grounded are calmer, more energetic, and less stressed during the day. They wake up with less stiffness and soreness in the morning.

People with asthma and other respiratory ailments like bronchitis and emphysema breathe better. I've seen this often with children who have asthma.

Headaches often become less intense and frequent, and sometimes go away altogether.

If you have heartburn, go outdoors and plant your feet on the ground for twenty minutes and see what happens. Heartburn and acid reflux benefit from grounding.

Earthing has a stabilizing effect on the nervous system. One striking example of the healing potential on the nervous system was described to me by an acupuncturist who reported that after sleeping Earthed for a year, the mild and infrequent partial seizures she'd had for fifteen years seemed to have stopped.

If you have constipation, grounding may make you regular. It has done so for many people. Some individuals have told me they were able to discontinue having to take laxatives.

I have seen many people with debilitating arthritis who have dramatically improved. I saw this right from the very start.

For individuals who are bedridden, a grounded bed sheet can reduce or eliminate bedsores. Hospitals need to ground their patients!

Eczema and psoriasis improve. So does dry skin. And dry, itchy eyes.

Food and pollen allergies improve and sometimes even clear up. Faulty immune systems seem to work better. By connecting with the Earth, it's as if you press a b.u.t.ton on the immune system-like on a computer-that switches disabled to enabled. I know this from firsthand experience. Years ago, when my kids were growing up, they would bring every virus and bug home from school, and I would inevitably catch what they got. In the twelve years since I became grounded, I've had a few colds but that's about it. I used to suffer from pollen allergies, with a particular sensitivity to juniper. When the junipers blossomed, I would have difficulty breathing for weeks. Certain foods would cause red blotches on my throat. If I ate strawberries, I would break out with something like hives. Oranges gave me canker sores. There were long stretches of time when I was living off drugstore allergy remedies just to be somewhat comfortable. One doctor told me to stop eating wheat and grains with gluten. I don't have any of that anymore. I eat everything. I don't have any problem with juniper or pollens.

HOW FAST DOES EARTHING WORK?.

There's no guarantee you will have an overnight healing like some of the people in the stories you will soon read about. It may take a while. You won't know until you give it a chance and do it-and stay with it. But I'll tell you this: I have seen plenty of people near death make comebacks that surprised their doctors, or who experienced a better quality of life before they pa.s.sed away. And people who stay grounded just don't get sick-or as sick as they might normally do. They heal and their energy comes back faster.

People who ground themselves usually say they feel better within an hour, in many cases twenty minutes, whether they are walking or sitting barefooted, or are connected to the Earth through a bed or floor pad, sheet, electrode patch, or grounded shoes. The research shows instant changes in physiology and significant improvements in the body's electrical activity inside a half hour or forty minutes.