1991 scientists made a discovery, headway that really opened the door to this
conversation. They discovered in every human heart 40 000
or so, specialized cells configured in a way that creates a neural
network in the heart, it's they're brain like cells, but they're
not in the brain, they're in the heart. And it's actually called "the little brain
in the heart." What they found, what the scientists discovered,
is that these cells think independently of the cranial brain,
they feel and they remember. And what that means is that every experience
that we have, even this one right now, I'm registering this experience in 2 places.
This is a good experience so it's not a problem, I'm registering it in my cranial mind as well
as in my heart. But if we were having a trauma, it would still
be registered in both places and if I tried to heal that trauma only through
thinking about it or talking from my mind, it might feel incomplete.
The healing may feel incomplete. And the reason is because I've only addressed
what happened in here, I haven't addressed what happened in here.
Now we know this intuitively. I did an experiment a few years ago in every
culture I went to and every age group, I asked little kids.
I said, "Where are you sitting right now?” “Show me where you're sitting",
and people say, "I'm sitting right here", they say right here.
Or you ask the indigenous people, "Where do you live?" "Well this is my home."
And almost instinctively we know that the heart is the seat of our existence,
it's the seat of our being, you don't see them hitting their head
or their arm or something else. So we talk about heart intelligence,
what we're talking about is the ability for these neurons to...
us to communicate with the neurons in a way that is meaningful to those neurons.
These neurons are linked to a wisdom, to an intelligence,
that is right for us. Mine is right for me, yours is right for you.
And any question that you ask this intelligence, it will answer you in a way that will serve
you in that moment. It'll never tell you to do anything dangerous
or anything that would hurt anyone else. I'll give you a perfect example, I was in
Australia over 9/11. Couldn't get back in my own country, till
the flights were flying again. And when they did fly, I was in Sydney, Australia
and there was a Boeing 747, that's a big plane, with fewer than 20 people
that were gonna come to the US. And there was... at the ticket counter, we
were at the gate to board and the agent said, "There's so few people
we're not gonna board by boarding rows, you can board this plane if you want to, go
to America", and I said, "Well you don't sound very encouraging",
she says, "I don't know what happened in that country", she says,
"but this plane's gonna go there, if you wanna go there,
I don't know if it's gonna happen again, I don't know if it's over,
but if you wanna get on the plane, get on the plane..."
and really didn't instill a lot of confidence in me or the other people that were there.
I said "Hold that thought, just wait a minute" and I stepped around the corner.
And there’s a technique where you can literally touch your heart, like this,
and when you touch your heart, your awareness will always go to the place
where you feel the touch. So you can call your tension into your heart
centre, in this way, and you slow your breathing, just a few breaths
slower than usual. When you slow your breathing, it tells your
body that you were safe, you're in a place that's safe. And when you're
safe, and you feel safe, it's a switch, it's like an emotional trigger that frees
the rejuvenating in a healing chemistry in the body
because the stress and survival chemistry is not needed if you feel safe.
So when you slow your breathing and focus in your heart,
that is the doorway, and then shamans will do this all the time, monks, nuns,
you see them do this all the time, to that heart intelligence.
And I ask my heart, "My heart, is this a safe flight for me to take",
because my head, if you ask your head, this is so interesting scientifically,
because the brain's a polarity organ, left and right brain
and there's always gonna be a right and wrong, good and the bad, success/failure,
and if you ask your brain a question under pressure,
your brain will go through the logic and ego loops
that will keep you from making the answer. When you ask your heart, the heart's not a
polarity organ, so you consciously free yourself from those
loops into what is called heart intelligence. And generally your heart will answer,
your heart knows you very well, it's been with you a long time.
Your heart will answer before you even finish the question.