31

RADIATING LOVE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE

HEART IN INDIGENOUS AND GLOBAL HEALING

Steve Edwards
University of Zululand, South Africa
sdedward@telkomsa.net

ABSTRACT
Heart and breath based meditation, prayer, contemplation and related actions are time
tested, evidence based healing methods. The goal of this conceptual article is to review
some essential roles of the heart in indigenous and global healing, with special reference
to Africa. As indigenous healing has been the traditional province of the major religious,
wisdom and spiritual traditions, such as ancestral consciousness, Shamanism, Hinduism,
Vedanta, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, discussion is focused on the
heart as centre for such core healing variables as consciousness, spirituality, ubuntu,
energy, coherence, care, compassion and/or love.

Keywords: Heart, indigenous healing, global healing, consciousness, spirituali-

ty, coherence.

INTRODUCTION
This conceptual review was originally motivated by reflections on the effective-
ness of a local, indigenous African breath and heart focussed, meditation work-
shop, codenamed SHISO, in facilitating significant improvements in spirituality
and health perceptions as well as various other transformation experiences in
participants. The workshop was developed around the concept Shiso, an ancient
isiZulu respectful (hlonipha) term for a human being (Doke and Vilakazi, 1972),
which became an acronym for a particular healing method, standing for spirit
(uMoya), heart (inhlizyo), image (umcabango), soul (umphefumulo) and oneness
(ubunje) (Edwards, 2012). The effectiveness of this indigenous method ap-
peared to be tapping into some universal healing processes such as removal of
unwanted obstructions, release of life forces, and transformations from illness or
disorder, to new contexts, conditions and states of integrated wholeness, health,
well-being and flourishing life. The method, combined with many years of per-
sonal, cardio-respiratory based, spiritual practices as well as research collabora-
tion with the Institute of HeartMath (2014) prompted reflections on the integral
role of the heart in indigenous healing.
A further, global motivating theme was the need for consciousness transfor-
mations in the form of changes of heart and related actions for the many prob-
lems confronting planet earth. Planetary threats of nuclear war, international
terrorism, global warming, overpopulation, unemployment, poverty, illness,
injustice, corruption, crime and violence continue to be the order of the day. Most
people are locked into an ongoing subsistence and survival struggle, which eats
up much precious energy, distorts consciousness, causes illness and exacer-
bates disorder. The global village desperately needs healing. This healing needs
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32

to represent all planetary inhabitants, as individuals and members of families,

groups, communities and nations. This implies sufficient consciousness, care
and collaboration by contemporary humanity in their considerable geographical,
historical, religious, political, economic, cultural and other diversity. It implies
comprehensive, equitable and effective approaches (Edwards, 2016; World
Health Organization, 2013).
Indigenous and global healing has been the traditional province of the major
religious, wisdom, indigenous knowledge and spiritual traditions, such as ances-
tral consciousness, Shamanism, Hinduism, Vedanta, Taoism, Buddhism, Juda-
ism, Christianity and Islam. Although estimates will surely vary, according to one
source on world religions, almost three quarters of the population of planet earth
have either Christian (thirty-four percent), Muslim (twenty-four percent) or Hindu
(fifteen percent) beliefs (McGloughlan, 2007). However, many will aver that such
traditions have failed, not least because of the continuing conflicts among and
between the traditions themselves. Certainly, contemporary violence involving
fundamental Christian and Islamic extremist groups seems like some form of
bizarre compulsion repetition of Holy Land Crusades and wars that occurred
nearly two thousand years ago. On the other hand, many still hope that ongoing
international meetings between genuine religious leaders and health organiza-
tions will bear healing fruits such as those of peace and love. The heart plays an
integral role in life, let alone healing. Furthermore, holistic, integral, healing
inevitably implies more than any sum of, or interaction among, healing variables
in diverse contexts. Thus this presentation is necessarily limited to the heart as
centre for such core variables as consciousness, spirituality, ubuntu, energy,
coherence, care, compassion and/or love with their related outstanding poten-
tials for global healing (Edwards, 2016; Rogers, 1980).

THE HEALING HEART

Over the centuries, the heart has been recognized as a centre and source of life,
health and healing in many cultures. Its autorhythmic beating in the unborn
foetus before brain formation, its continued beating after brain death, and its
transcultural associations with emotional, physical, energetic, intellectual and
spiritual life, are well known. Just as the physical heart occupies a central loca-
tion in the human anatomy, so the heart is metaphorically associated with such
human qualities as sincerity, genuineness, morality and integrity, as conveyed by
the phrase, “speaking from the heart” (Childre and Martin, 1999). In South Africa,
the Truth and Reconciliation commission hearings provided a transparent exam-
ple of this integral role of the heart in healing. In the public eye, some justice was
seen to be done. Although the various forms of injustice, oppression and vio-
lence that were perpetuated through the nefarious Apartheid system could never
be undone, the court, public and many victims of various forms of violence were
given the opportunity to intuit, assess, evaluate and ultimately judge genuine-
ness in atonement offered by perpetrators, who in turn could receive forgiveness
by victims (Gobodo-Madikizela, 2008).
 RADIATING LOVE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE HEART IN INDIGENOUS AND GLOBAL HEALING
33

Ancient heart focussed healing probably developed many thousands of years

ago in Africa, predating, informing and influencing later systems developed in
India such as the Vedanta and Chakra. In ancient Egypt, the heart was originally
viewed as the organ for blood, emotions and consciousness (Bryan, Smith and
Joachim, 1974; Nguyen, 2013). It was believed that feelings of anger and sad-
ness were the result of the heart closing itself off from its vessels (Bryan et al.,
1974). The heart was mummified in the body after death, so that it could be
weighed against the feather of Maat in judgement for possible sins against the
gods (Nguyen, 2013). This also implies the view of the heart as an organ of
consciousness and conscience. A famous vignette, in the Egyptian Book of the
Dead, is the judgement of the deceased before being permitted to enter the
afterlife. The papyrus of Ani features Ani and his wife bowing respectfully to-
wards the gods, as Ani’s heart is weighed in the balance scales by the jackal-
headed Anubis against the feather of Maat, the Goddess of truth, balance, order,
harmony, law, morality and justice. Ammit the Devourer, looks on as Ani speaks
to his heart, telling it not to testify against him like a bad conscience (Hood,
2009).
Various physical, metaphorical, transcultural and transpersonal meanings,
attributed to the human heart, appear to have layers of increasing depth (Childre
and Martin, 1999). Traditional Zulu meanings of the heart are remarkably similar
to Ancient Egyptian views. Doke and Vilakazi (1972: 330) note the following
three layers: (a) as physical organ, (b) as seat of emotions, feelings, hope,
courage, desire and appetite and (c) as conscience, will or patience respectively.
For example, as physical organ, the heart beats (ukushaya kwenhliziyo); as seat
of emotions, the heart may feel quite content (inhliziyo ithe cosololo) and, as
conscience, the heart may prompt one (walalela inhliziyo).
Indigenous, local, cultural perspectives on health and healing include and trans-
cend World Health Organization focus on biological, psychological and social
health and well-being (World Health Organization, 1946) with more emphasis on
dimensions of spirituality, community, ecology and morality (Benson, 1996;
Edwards, 2011; Wilber, 2007). Health is viewed as a holistic, coherent, dynamic
integrity of various interacting energies, components and contexts (Childre,
Martin, Rozman and McCraty, 2016; Wilber, 2000). Holistic health thus essential-
ly includes all these energetic processes, with their diverse arrays of vibratory
activity corresponding to dynamic, organ systems and correlated environmental
resonant frequencies, all of which are orchestrated through the heart (Bohm,
1993; Childre et al., 2016). In practical terms, to heal means to make whole, to
restore to health, integrity and/or oneness that which was ill, broken and/or
fractured, and synchronize those diverse, vibratory, energies and rhythms, so
immediately evident in heart beats and breath cycles. This implies an ongoing,
energetic transformation process of healing moments, events, or movements
towards perfect health in all vertical dimensions: physical, mental, spiritual,
ecological and cosmological; and along all horizontal dimensions: individual,
interpersonal, familial, communal and social. Holistic, integral, global and ecolog-
ical perspectives include involving and evolving, ascending and descending,
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34

converging and diverging transformations from unity to diversity and vice versa
(Wilber, 2000). In everyday healing, various studies overwhelmingly endorse the
value of heart focussed breathing, while cultivating positive emotion from the
heart area (Childre et al., 2016).

THE CONSCIOUS HEART

Studies in psychoneuroimmunology are increasingly providing evidence for what
sages, yogis and divine healers have intuited for millennia; the effectiveness of
heart centred consciousness and intentionality. Consciousness appears to
function as a vast information network linking physical, mental and spiritual
realms, as it oscillates in feedback and feedforward spirals among levels tradi-
tionally referred to as matter, body, mind, soul and spirit (Chopra and Simon,
2004; Wilber, 2000). Emotions form one connecting pattern. For example,
emotional currents are fuelled by atmospheric negative ions, cardiorespiratory
activity and contemplative prayer. From a neuropsychological perspective,
consciousness particularly includes respiration, blood pressure, heart beat,
medullary reticular activating system, thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system,
cerebral cortex and prefrontal lobes for recycling and/or action via sensory-motor
region, parietal lobe and basal ganglia (Childre et al., 2016).
African consciousness has always recognized that we are one undivided reality
(Bynum, 1999; Myers, 1993; Ngubane, 1977). In Zulu this Oneness (ubunje)
includes void (ubuze), silence or emptiness (ukuthula), original One (uMvelin-
qangi), ancestors (amadlozi), plants, animals, people, huts, kraals and every-
thing else. Our humanity (ubuntu) reflects that communal humanization and
socialization process whereby we become people through our relationship with
others (umuntu umuntu ngabantu). Our diversity reflects our interrelatedness
(ubunhlobonhlobo). Nowhere is this more obvious than in ancestral conscious-
ness, where knowledge of that integrated body of living-dead, spiritual communi-
ty continues to nourish living descendants with communal spirituality. This
ultimate non-duality has come to be described by Huxley, Wilber and others as a
perennial philosophy or psychology, reflecting a spectrum of consciousness
(Edwards, 2011; Huxley, 1958; Wilber, 2000).
Ancestral consciousness forms the essence of most spiritual and/or religious
traditions. In Zulu culture, the intimate relationship between the living and the
dead is revealed through the importance attached to the concepts of umphefu-
mulo (soul), the shadow (isithunzi) and conscience (isazela). The term uMoya
(Spirit) is typically used to characterize the universal yet unique, indigenous
origins of spiritual healing practised in Africa. Indigenous views on survival, life
and health are inextricably related in the emphasis on ensuring proper relation-
ships with the community of ancestors, Creator and/or God. People work at this
relationship through ceremonial and ritual gatherings to prevent illness and
promote health. The term umsebenzi connotes many meanings including work,
love, ritual, and ceremonial gathering. Such gatherings generally constitute
communal, spiritual labours of love in order to appropriately remember revered
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35

ones, as well as facilitate their provision of spiritual protection and social support
for the collective (Edwards, 2011).
Other indigenous knowledge systems have similar beliefs and practices. The
Vedanta system also advocates union with the divine. Yoga postulates that life-
energy flows up and down the spine. The chakras are associated with particular
anatomical locations of the spine and brain, plexuses of the nervous, endocrine
and other human functional systems, as well as colours, sounds, patterns and
symbols (Judith, 2004). As Wilber (2009) notes, the significant point is not the
location of the chakras but various modes of consciousness that take subtle
energetic regions as appropriate outlets, when greater consciousness becomes
liberated from lower, limited and bounded modes of energetic awareness. As
central point, the heart chakra (anahata) expresses unconditional love for spirit,
consciousness and all creation (Judith, 2004). Similar recognition is given to the
central, balancing and harmonising function of heart consciousness in other
spiritual traditions. Taoist chi-gung emphasizes subtle consciousness/
breath/energy exercises in relation to the central (heart) tan tien. The Buddhist
heart sutra regards ultimate enlightenment as the union of emptiness and form,
realized through loving kindness meditation and action (Reid, 1998). Judaic and
Kabbalah energy spheres (sefirot) pivot on heart (tiffer et) beauty, balance and
harmony (Childre and Martin, 2000). In Christian Heychastic traditions, as well
as Islamic Sufi traditions, the Prayer of the Heart involves heart focussed, con-
tinuous repetition of a phrase, or name of a Deity (Louchakova, 2007a, 20007b;
Louchakova-Schwartz, 2013). Centring prayer has recently been popularized by
Keating (1997). Institute of HeartMath (2014) research has furthered understand-
ing of the heart’s intrinsic nervous system and extensive electromagnetic, bio-
physical, hormonal, and neurochemical connections. It seems that the human
heart, in all its interior, exterior, breadth, depth and height, is at last receiving due
recognition as focal point of consciousness and spirituality.

THE SPIRITUAL HEART

As a transpersonal image for meditation and moral actions, the “spiritual heart’
should be interpreted as including and transcending all other heart functions;
physical, emotional, energetic, mental, psychological etc. In addition to all its
usual connotations, ranging from observable breath through ethereal soul to
ineffable spirit, the term “spiritual” also honours the above mentioned, intricately
interconnected, neuropsychology in all local and non-local effects. The intuitive
gestalt, as well as preverbal, felt sense of the physical, energetic heart is appre-
hended in early phases of meditation, providing a source of, or springboard for,
the basic goal of all such meditative traditions, general ethical behaviour and
specific moral actions.
St Mark’s Gospel (12: 28-31) is particularly action orientated with regard to the
explicit communication to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and to: “Love your
neighbour as yourself.” In this context, it is important to distinguish between
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36

physical heart, energetic heart and causal or spiritual heart centres for immanent
and transcendent consciousness (Wilber, 2000). Judith (2004) has defined soul
as the individual expression of spirit and spirit as the universal expression of
soul. Reid (1998) opines that all spiritual healing traditions, African, Eastern and
Western, converge on two basic beliefs. Firstly, the energy, will and/or intention,
that created the universe and all life, is guided by a set of primordial principles,
often called wisdom or truth, that transcend all cultural definitions. Secondly, the
universal energy of creation is motivated and accompanied by that compassion-
ate empathy for life called love. Reid (1998) opines further that the three insepa-
rable virtues or forces of the universe, i.e. wisdom, love and power, require
constant balance and harmony. Power without wisdom is destructive, power
without love is cold, love without power is impotent, wisdom without power is
useless. In isiZulu, we speak of uNkulunkulu, uthando and amandla.
Myers (1993) has articulated fundamental philosophical assumptions of ancient
African healing. Everything is spirit manifested, where ‘spirit’ is known in extra-
sensory fashion via energy/consciousness/God and an extended self-concept
which, includes ancestors, the yet unborn, all of nature and community. Spiritual
healing logic embraces polarities yielding “both/and” conclusions, with axiology
and ‘ntu'ology’ respectively emphasizing the value and interrelationships of
communal, human, spiritual networks. This is an essentially holistic worldview
that has become increasingly valued and recognized in modern forms of healing,
which take into account the influence of relativity and quantum theories, the
uncertainty principle and a holographic universe with dissipative structures. This
implies a positive view of illness as a necessary re-ordering of a system grown
increasing coherent and complex, with greater instability and potential for novel
restructuring interactions, including perfect health through the harmonization of
all forms of energy (Chopra and Simon, 2004).
Intuition forms a core component of spiritual healing. Ancestral consciousness is
experienced by African Zulu isangoma (ukubhubhula kwedlozi) in intuition
(umbilini) and divine healing (vumissa/ukwelapa). Patanjali’s’ forth limb of yoga,
pranayama, is experienced as focussing postural asanas and subtle energy
system to prepare the yogi for higher stages of meditation (dharana, dhyana)
culminating in Unity Consciousness (Samadhi). In yoga and chi-gung, breath is
recognized as the bridge between mind and body, conscious and unconscious,
interior and exterior, which, used consciously, acts as a second heart, driving
subtle energy via the diaphragm, with its action of resonating with heart rhythms
in such practices as kundalini and the microcirculation of the light respectively
(Reid, 1998). In Buddhism, the ultimate union between emptiness and form in
the heart sutra may be accomplished through focussed heart breath meditation.
Healing through prevention of suffering and promotion of compassion and love
are specifically pursued in Buddhist tong glen and Bhakti Yoga. Christian Hesy-
chists and Sufi dervishes adopt similar prayers of the heart and related practices
(Louchakova, 2007a, 2007b, Louchakova-Schwartz, 2013). HeartMath theory
postulates cardio-respiratory, resonant phase-locking, producing a dynamic,
 RADIATING LOVE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE HEART IN INDIGENOUS AND GLOBAL HEALING
37

rhythmic Morse or genetic code type information system radiating personal,

social and global coherence.

THE COMMUNAL HEART

The communal heart is strikingly apparent in San or !Kung healing groups, who
achieve healing through rhythmic drumming, dancing and transcendent con-
sciousness. Healing intuition is experienced by healers in the form of a lower
abdominal “gut feeling” called gebesi, which is critical to the experience of !kia as
healers unwind in the dance, open themselves (hxabe) and pull the sickness out
(twe) of community members (Katz, 1982). This gebesi experience is similar to
that described as umbilini by Nguni people and kundalini amongst some yogic
practitioners (Khalsa, Newberg, Radha, Wilber and Selby, 2009). San healers
also describe an experience known as kowhedili, which refers to an aspect of
!kia where there is much pain experienced as they expel sickness from them-
selves (Katz, 1982). These deep transpersonal connections are inextricably
related to the drumming sound of energy (n/um) and altered consciousness (!kia)
in a mutually facilitative pattern of healing, which thus becomes a shared re-
source for all members of the community.
Originally, an African Nguni term, ubuntu has become an international philosoph-
ical concept and fundamental method of promoting social coherence and health
(Edwards, 2011). The demise of formal Apartheid heralded South Africa’s trans-
formation from political polecat to political showcase. The slogan “we are one”
(simunye) conveyed a timeous realization of the unity (ubunye) that can result
from collaborative action. Despite ongoing political struggles, violence, illness,
corruption and crime, transformation continues in the experience of new genera-
tions of people growing up together from childhood in freedom. Other African
language equivalents are Botho in Sesotho and Hunhu in Shona. All connote
interconnected, heart felt, sense of community and realization that meaning in
life is only possible through human relations and quality dialogue. Through its
emphasis on essential humanity and human essentials, ubuntu is thus con-
cerned with fundamental structures of being human, without which humanity
would not survive in its present form, that is the giving, receiving and sharing of
human care, support, companionship and healing. This is a foundational theme
for all the caring, helping professions such as nursing, medicine, psychology,
social work and theology (Edwards, 2011).
In contemporary Nguni culture, the collective responsibility for harmonization
through ubuntu includes receiving intuition via dreams and/or visions from the
ancestors, who form a living dead, spiritual community (abangasekho). Ances-
tors are also referred to as shades (izithutha) or conduits that connect human
beings in general to God and/or Godhead. uNkulunkulu, literally translated
means greatest of the great (Mkhulu Mkhulu) whose Greatness is reflected in
omni-presence, omnipotence and omniscience. Divine healers typically experi-
ence their ancestral call through dreams, which continue to inform healers
throughout their spiritual conversion (ukuthwasa) process and subsequent
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personal and communal healing (Edwards, 2011). The SHISO heart breath
based healing method was mostly based on indigenous healing practices of
divine healers (izangoma) and African Indigenous Church (AIC) faith healers
(abathandazi).
Easter holds special significance for all Christians as marking the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. For South Africans, Easter is a special time indeed
as the vast majority of the population belong to some form of AIC (Edwards,
2011). AICs deserve special mention for their role as buffer in preventing violent
civil war between warring political groups during and after the Apartheid strug-
gles. AICs provided continued care for many Truth and Reconciliation sufferers
and continue to promote communal spirituality and practical public health in the
form of food, money, surrogate family and work to anyone who asks for help.
AIC meetings can be found at any time throughout Africa. In their bright and
symbolically coloured clothing, groups gather wherever convenient, at the river
or the mountain, near the sea, at a vacant plot in town or at the bus stop. Spiritu-
al energy (uMoya) is invoked through bible reading, prayer and singing in a
healing circle, a religious ceremony which includes rituals, music, drama and
dance and everyday practice of ubuntu (Edwards, 2011).

THE ENERGETIC HEART

Ancient Egyptian views on healing were based on the vision of a harmoniously
interrelated universe suffused with the energies of heaven and earth. The sun
god Ra radiated cosmic forces of light on microcosmic humanity, whose ultimate
purpose in life was to become enlightened, through opening to the light, then
channelling, distributing and merging this light with earth energy, which was
symbolised in the form of a rearing serpent. Successful energy channelling was
depicted in Egyptian paintings and sculpture as a snake rising from the forehead
of enlightened persons. Consequently, the medical profession adopted the
Caduceus, which includes two entwined serpents, as healing symbol. The vital
energies of heaven and earth were believed to merge in a vital human, spiritual,
energy body called ka. The aim of the Egyptian Mystery System, some five
thousand years ago, was to educate and to enlighten humanity with regard to
such beliefs and practices. Healers recognised cycles of the sun, seasons,
especially those related to the flooding of the Nile, and other rhythms of life,
music and movement (Myers, 1993).
For millennia, indigenous healers in Africa, India, China and other areas of
planet earth have practised various forms of heart breath energetic healing. Still
sitting and moving forms of co-ordinated behaviour provide the foundation for all
forms of healing and transcendence as exemplified in alpha conditioning, bio-
feedback, transcendental meditation, !Kung healing dance and Tai chi (Edwards,
2011; Reid, 1998). Heart felt experiences, that have been bodily re-experienced
as anchors, provide a phenomenological foundation for various forms of image-
ry, light, sound, colour, touch and movement used in counselling, psychotherapy,
illness prevention, health promotion and various other forms of healing (Ivey,
 RADIATING LOVE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE HEART IN INDIGENOUS AND GLOBAL HEALING
39

D’Andrea, Ivey and Simek-Morgan, 2002). A central thread running through all
traditions, ancient and contemporary, is healing through the coherent energy of
love.
Along with its practical value in preventing illness and promoting various forms of
health care, popular in the global village inhabiting contemporary planet earth,
the conscious use of energy in healing also has the theoretical potential to
integrate common components of health care (Katz, 1982; Reid, 1998). This
includes a variety of ancient and modern healing practices, using freely accessi-
ble transpersonal energy, which is given various names in traditional contexts,
e.g. n/um (San), prana (Hindu) and tao (China). Contemporary integral scientific
views resonate with the phenomenological insights of the ancient sages. For
example, Wilber’s (2000), integral theory includes a dynamic systemic approach,
which embraces concepts of holism, which refer to relatively autonomous
whole/parts or wholes that are part of other wholes, all defined by a “logic of
coherence” or the coherent pattern they display. The dynamic systemic research
of McCraty, Atkinson, Tomasino, and Bradley (2009) indicates that, of all the
bodily organs, the heart, with its independent, intricate nervous system, gener-
ates the most powerful, comprehensive, rhythmic electromagnetic field, whose
information patterns establish vast interconnections within and between people
and various other environmental energy fields. The analogy is invoked of the
orchestra conductor who synchronizes energetic information from nerve impuls-
es, neurotransmitters, hormones, pressure waves and electromagnetic field
interactions.

THE COHERENT HEART

The HeartMath Institute, a local indigenous healing initiative founded in Califor-
nia in 1991, has become global in application. The institute has pioneered
integral, heart focussed research in neuroscience, cardiology, physiology, bio-
chemistry, bioelectricity, physics and psychology. Research is typically integra-
tive, dynamic and systemic in approach. A central vision and mission is of
scientific research to facilitate personal, social and global coherence (Childre et
al., 2016).
Coherence is a key concept in HeartMath research. In addition to its usual
linguistic usage as in a consistent, intelligible argument, or entity whose parts are
related in a logical, orderly way, the term “coherence” has specific meanings in
physical science. These include: global coherence where the emergent whole is
more than and qualitatively different from the sum of its parts: auto-coherence as
a uniform pattern of cyclical behaviour, as in the sine wave; and cross-coherence
as, for example, when oscillatory systems in the body, such as respiration and
heart rhythms become entrained and oscillate or resonate at the same frequen-
cy. From a physiological perspective, the brain, heart and intestines contain
biological oscillators known as pacemaker cells, whose rhythms can be altered
through conscious intentionality (McCraty et al., 2009). The umbrella concept of
coherence refers to a psychophysiological mode that encompasses entrainment,
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40

resonance, and synchronization — distinct but related phenomena, all of which

emerge from the harmonious activity and interactions of the body’s subsystems.
The coherent mode is reflected by a smooth, sine wave-like pattern in the heart
rhythms and a narrow-band, high-amplitude peak in the low frequency range of
the heart rate variability power spectrum, at a frequency of about 0.1 hertz,
which is also the resonant frequency of the planet. In practical healing terms,
positive emotions and heart focussed breathing at about 5-7 breath cycles per
minute facilitate vast interconnectivity (Childre et al., 2016).
In 2008, the Global Coherence Initiative was launched to promote global health
and well-being through heart-focused care. In pursuit of this mission a global
network of ultrasensitive magnetic field detectors are being installed strategically
around the planet to provide data on relationships involving physical, animal,
human, planetary and cosmic ecologies. At present five sites are operational,
one of which has been installed at a private game reserve in Zululand (Edwards,
2016). Conceptual and practical implications of this initiative with special refer-
ence to global healing can be found on the websites: http://www.heartmath
southafrica.co.za www.Heartmath.org and www.glcoherence.org. Although heart
based practices to advance global healing have existed for millennia, it is argued
that never before have these been as scientifically grounded as is the case in the
Global Coherence Initiative.

CONCLUSION
The heart plays an integral role in life, let alone healing. Thus holistic, integral,
healing inevitably implies more than any sum of, or interaction among, healing
variables in diverse contexts. This presentation was necessarily limited to indig-
enous knowledge on the healing heart as centre for consciousness, spirituality,
ubuntu, energy, coherence, care, compassion and/or love with their related
outstanding potentials for global healing. Reflections illuminate an ancient tree of
heart based healing, rooted in an undivided world of plants, animals and indige-
nous healers whose holistic, therapeutic knowledge and intuitions was recog-
nized and sanctioned by their local communities. Branches such as yoga, chi-
gung, kabbalah, meditation, prayer and HeartMath, which use holistic heart
focussed techniques, reflect original meanings of healing involving transfor-
mations from illness to states of integrated wholeness, health and integrity.
Flowers receive continual nourishment from various wisdom, knowledge and/or
spiritual traditions. Heart-centred practices for global healing occur in ancestral
reverence, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam. For
example, as mentioned above, Christian traditions have long practised the
prayer of the heart as in the Hesychast method of the Jesus prayer, where
recitation of the prayer is associated with the physical rhythm of breathing and
the heart beat.
This article began with reflection on the effectiveness of the SHISO African
breath and heart focussed meditation. In conclusion, reflective practice typically
reveals that in heart felt, unity consciousness, everything profoundly intercon-
 RADIATING LOVE: REFLECTIONS ON THE ROLE OF THE HEART IN INDIGENOUS AND GLOBAL HEALING
41

nects. Love unfolds, forms empty, hearts breathe, individuals and collectives
harmonize, fractures heal and apprehended intuitions guide healers as to holistic
ways of preventing illness, subverting violence and promoting health. Many
spiritual traditions recognize a non-duality or oneness, interlinking the manifest
diversity of forms. Global travel, telecommunications and the internet have
facilitated the scientific study as well as theoretical and practical integration of
such knowledge, wisdom and spiritual traditions. HeartMath scientific studies
have provided empirical support for the vital role of the heart in healing and
interconnectedness. From an ultimate, spiritual perspective there always already
seems to be perfect health from which we humans inevitably stray by virtue of
our imperfect humanity. This paradoxically, continuously re-engenders the
opposite cycle to regain that state from whence we began, to return home, to
rediscover the heart of health and healing. Heart and breath based meditation,
prayer and contemplation, and related actions, are time tested, evidence based,
healing methods, practice of which typically leads to greater consciousness and
love of all sentient beings on planet Earth and the cosmos for the foreseeable
future. Consciousness reveals each beat and breath is a link to One who has
been called many names: uNkululunkulu, God, Brahmin, Tao, Allah, whose
divine, healing, rhythmic, heart breath gently whispers: “Please let me lead you
to the land of light, love and life.”
 INDILINGA – AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS Vol 16 (1) 2017
42

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