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What is your earliest childhood memory?
My mother says that when I was born I was smiling with such a big smile. Right fresh out of her belly: first mission accomplished! I guess… I was so happy about it.
The one in the photo it’s me, a few hours after being born. Can you see it? I was already wondering… What is this all about? I can’t remember…
Some say that we live life as we are born. Here I am. With a big smile, wondering, and looking for temporary answers to the BIG questions in life.
Did you know that the heart forms and starts beating before the brain begins to develop?
Right after the spermatozoon and the ovum became one, cells started to multiply and you became… a heart.
The cardiovascular system is the first system to form and function in an embryo, and the heart is the first functional organ.
As Dr. Gerald D. Buckberg explains in his 2001 public lecture at the 81st American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) annual meeting, it was Spanish cardiologist Dr. Francisco Torrent Guash the one who connected the dots to fully understand the significance of the human heart’s shape and embryonary development.
• On day 20 the human heart’s cardiovascular system mirrors (has the shape of) the one of a 1 billion years old worm.
• On day 25 it mirrors 400.000.000 years old fish.
• On day 30 it mirrors 200.000.000 years old amphibia and reptile.
• On day 50 it mirrors 100.000 years old aves and mamarian.
Isn’t it fascinating?!?
Well, there is something else. The shape of your heart, the one in the middle of your chest, is different from what you might believe. The (true) anatomy of the human heart: one single muscle, folded in a helical structure.
After more than 500 years of debate, it was Spanish Cardiologist Francisco Torrent-Guasp the one who found out how to unfold the heart. This is its true shape:
The double helix (double-folded spiral), like the heart anatomy, is a very common shape in nature, in plants, in animals, and in the whole universe. Yes, it is the shape of galaxies and our DNA information molecules, this is the instructions stored inside each of your body cells.
Looking at the heart’s shape and its development we have to acknowledge that, literally, the whole planetary evolution is contained at the heart of who we are.
Remember, when you listen to your biological heartbeat, each and every being on this planet and the whole universe is resonating within it.
“One of the most important things needed for the development of humanity is to understand that the heart is not a pump.” — Rudolf Steiner – Austrian scientific, literary and philosophical scholar.
Already Leonardo Da Vinci had speculated about it, as his heart studies illustrate.
Imagine for a moment that the organ beating in your chest isn’t merely a mechanical pump—but a masterful conductor, orchestrating a profound symphony of life. Your life.
Today, science confirms what Rudolf Steiner and Da Vinci understood long ago: the human heart is far more than a blood circulatory mechanism. It is the most powerful energy generator within your body—pulsing at the center of your chest in a universe made of energy.
The heart, scientific research demonstrates today, is a flow regulator.
The heart’s shape, a double helix –like the DNA and the faraway galaxies in the infinite universe– acts as an energy vortex, managing the energy within your body and connecting you with the energy that makes up the everything else.
The heart, your heart, is to be regarded as an energetic doorway for you to intentionally modulate the universal creative energy here on Earth.
This is to support you in effectively transforming your visions and ideas from intangible imagination into tangible reality.
The latest contemporary scientific research also confirms that the biological human heart is to be recognised as a source of intelligence, with its own neural system, able to remember, make decisions, and process emotions, independently from the brain in our head, as we will further explore in this journal.
The heart, your heart is a stable compass in a world in flux. An unshakable reference in times of uncertainty.
Your ethics, your emotions, your biology and your spirituality are all part of ONE interdependent energy and information system beating at the center of your chest.
That is what heart-based leadership is all about: understanding and practicing leadership from the perspective of your most intrinsic humanness.
In order for the heart to pulse, it needs a sort of spark plug, an electrical impulse, that keeps the heartbeat rhythm. The electrical impulse starts on the right side of the upper chamber in an area called the sinus node. The sinus node is the pacemaker of the heart and controls the heart rate.
Yes, you are right, in observing in the illustration that the sinus node of the heart is in the center of your chest a little bit to the right. Might this be the so-called spiritual heart?
Ramana Maharshi, Indian Hindu sage and jivanmukta (liberated being) said:
“The godly atom of the Self is to be found in the right chamber of the heart, about one finger-width distance from the body’s midline. Here lies the dynamic Spiritual Heart. It is called Hridaya and is clearly visible to the inner eye of an adept on the Spiritual Path. Through meditation, you can learn to find the Self in the cave of this Heart.”
You are invited to stop and observe:
Place a hand on your chest. Close your eyes. Take some deep and slow breaths.
Can you feel the whole universe beating at the center of your chest?
Boom Boom Ba Boom.
Open your heart and connect with that deep and infinite sense of universal faith.
Yeah! In the beginning, it was heart.
That is the journey that for millennia mystics and ancient cultures have been inviting us to take.
What if the door to connection with infinite universal existence was right in the center of your chest?
What if in intentionally living and leading from the heart you would be able to unfold your true creative potential to generate a positive impact in the world?
What if joy, inner peace, happiness, and love were already inside you to be found?
This is what this journal is all about.
You are invited to join.
There is more to explore and re-discover.
This is The Journey to the Heart.
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Bibliography
Rushmer MD, Dr. Robert F.; Blandau MD, Ph.D. , Dr. Richard J.. Heart embryology video, 2011 (9:34 mins). Extracted and restored from “Congenital malformations of the Heart Part 1”. University of Washington School of Medicine, 1951. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DIUk9IXUa Accessed August 2, 2022.
“Ancestral Movement | Spiral Anatomy.” Accessed August 2, 2022. https://ancestralmovement.com/spiral-anatomy/.
“Gerald D. Buckberg, M.D.” Accessed August 2, 2022. https://www.geraldbuckberg.com/about-gerald-buckberg/.
Gerald D. Buckberg M.D., “Basic Science Review: The helix and the heart”. The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Vol. 124, No. 5, Nov. 2002.
Wagner, Michael, and M. a. Q. Siddiqui. “Signal Transduction in Early Heart Development (I): Cardiogenic Induction and Heart Tube Formation.” Experimental Biology and Medicine (Maywood, N.J.) 232, no. 7 (July 2007): 852–65. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17609501/
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Helix and the Heart Lecture: Presented by Gerald Buckberg at the 81st AATS Annual Meeting. (49:45 mins). 81st Annual Meeting of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wCKaUzoM-U.
Männer J. When Does the Human Embryonic Heart Start Beating? A Review of Contemporary and Historical Sources of Knowledge about the Onset of Blood Circulation in Man. J Cardiovasc Dev Dis. 2022 Jun 9;9(6):187. doi: 10.3390/jcdd9060187. PMID: 35735816; PMCID: PMC9225347.
HRIDAYA: Sanskrit for Heart. (n.d.). Pepper Keen Lewis. Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://pepperlewis.com/articles/hridaya-sanskrit-for-heart/1665/
The Heart’s Electrical System. (n.d.). Ucsfbenioffchildrens.Org. Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/Education/The Hearts Electrical System
Heart of Sanskrit with Anuradha Choudry. (n.d.). Yoga Anytime. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://www.yogaanytime.com/class-view/245/video/Yoga-Heart-of-Sanskrit-by-Anuradha-Choudry
Anon. n.d. “Blood Circulation and Heartbeat — Mental Perception through the Lens of the Eye — GA 350. Rhythms in the Cosmos and in the Human Being — Rudolf Steiner Archive.” Retrieved February 24, 2025 (https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA350/English/SOL2024/19230606p02.html).
Parents For Healthcare Rights (Director). (2020, March 14). The Heart Is Not A Pump! [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUCBEKO3IJc
Image 1: Illustration: Cell reproduction and human heart development in the human embryo. ClipArt ETC. The University of South Florida.
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