CROSS CURRENTS
The Perils of Electropollution; The Promise of Electromedicine
Robert O. Becker, MD.
Los Angeles: Jeremy Tarcher Publishers, 1990
326 pp., $19.95
Some three decades ago an ambitious young orthopedic surgeon, intrigued by the mystery of limb regeneration, cut open a salamander and determined low-level electrical current to be the controlling factor in regenerative growth. The finding initiated a trial of experimentation leading to substantial upgrading of energy's role in physiology - as well as growing recognition of the earth's electromagnetic (ELM) field as an environmental variable.
For decades modern science has recognized the importance of electrical energy to normal functioning of the heart, brain, and nervous system. But current research postulates a more systemic role involving regulation of important body functions, including cell growth, as well as immune response. Science has also long known that around every electrical current, no matter how minute, exists both an electrical and magnetic field. Furthermore, any electromagnetic field can be influenced by other such fields. And here lies a controversial, potentially disturbing conclusion about modern civilization. Namely, that all life is electromagnetically sensitive, drawing cues such as cell division from the earth's natural ELM field. But man in the twentieth century has drastically altered the ELM environment to the possible detriment of all life.
In Cross Currents (The Perils of Electropollution; The Promise of Electromedicine), Dr. Robert Becker provides both historical backdrop to this ongoing scientific revolution, as well as an overview of the latest developments. Thirty-five years since his salamander experiment Becker is widely acknowledged as a pioneer in what is commonly called energy medicine, a field comprising researchers in physics, biology, physiology, and medicine.
As in Becker's first general interest book, The Body Electric (coauthored with Gary Selden), great pains are taken to interpret the scientific record in laymen's terms. In fact, fully a third of this new book is material refashioned from The Body Electric, which was largely a chronological account of Becker's own scientific work, from the salamander discovery to its adaptation for healing fractures in human limbs, to initial experiments on the dangers of living and working in proximity to high voltage electrical power. Such dangers are now commonly referred to as "electropollution."
But Cross Currents is in many ways a more ambitious and successful attempt to reach a general audience with important scientific information. "It is no more surprising, " writes Becker, "that life developed organs to sense the [earth's] geomagnetic field than organs to sense light." He goes on to overview dozens of fascinating experiments done around this fundamental point.
For one notable example, Becker describes the work of Abraham Liboff, a physicist at Oakland University in Michigan. In a 1983 report, Liboff demonstrated the effects of varying magnetic fields on cell division, a result with profound implications for both normal and carcinogenic growth. In other words, exposure to fields of
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