The heart is the site of emotions (egbe). So, Yoruba tell us indirectly that emotions are the effectors of the possible alignment between character and destiny, and even more indirectly that alignment depends on the management of emotions that comes from the relation between conscious and unconscious minds. It is at the level of the heart that this relation can be improved. Esu inside the heart represents our analogic mind that is that part of unconscious that behave through the analogy, not through the logic thought.
That is the reason why Esu is the vector of change and in particular of unpredictable change, the trickster who challenges us with analogy and out of logic expectations. Furthermore, the heart is highly symbolic for the influence of personal and collective Ancestry, the left part representing the male ancestry and the right part representing the female ancestry. The ancestral energy that flows inside (blood) is the vital flow over which we rest. Therefore, Ifa indirectly speaks about the influence of one’s Ancestry over his/her emotions, and over the possibility to align his/her character to destiny. Yoruba say we are here because we rest over the shoulder of our Ancestry. We can consider Ancestry as a sort of collective and individual emotional Unconscious that influences our choices and our destiny.
The heart is then the source of a powerful electromagnetic field that is well wider than the brain generated electromagnetic field, extending out of the body for at least 80 cm-1 meter, in form of toroid. That electromagnetic field is also used in diagnostic Medicine to recreate the three dimensional shape of the heart through dedicated machines, so called SQUID (superconducting quantum interference devices. The electrical field as measured in an electrocardiogram (ECG) is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the brain waves recorded in an electroencephalogram (EEG).” The heart electromagnetic field extends up to several feet away from the body in a 360-degree radius.
One’s heart also communicates with one’s brain (via the nervous system with an autonomous neuronic plexus, hormones, pulse waves, and electromagnetic fields) and with the brains of other individuals (via pulse waves and electromagnetic fields), according to McCraty, Tiller, & Atkinson (1996). The brain emits its own electromagnetic field and waves of energy (known as alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and theta waves, each of which results from different states in brain functioning). The heart’s electrical field, however, is almost 60 times greater in amplitude than that of the brain and is more than 5000 times greater in strength than the brain’s electrical field (McCraty, Tiller, & Atkinson, 1996). The heart also sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.
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