Looking at EMFs and radiation through an Ayurvedic lens is something I am passionate about! So thank you for this question.

What DOES Ayurveda say about EMFs, or electro magnetic frequencies (WiFi, mobile phone radiation, 4G, 5G...)?

What are Electro Magnetic Frequencies (EMFs)?

EMFs are the varying pulsations of waves emitted by an object. Aka radiation.

We live in a field of EMFs. Some are natural and some are man-made. Our heart beats via electrical pulsation, as does the world. There is a field that covers the Earth, pulsating at a specific frequency allowing the natural world to exist and be protected.

Then there are the manmade ones: radio waves, micro waves, mobile phones, wifi, 4G, and 5G masts etc.

The distinction between those EMFs that are man-made and those that are naturally occurring is important. Ayurveda wants people to be in a natural state of balance, it wants them to be resonating with the natural world. It finds all its answers to health and healing in the natural world. It is repelled by energies that are dissonant and therefore chaotic and attracted to those that are natural and in balance.

But Ayurveda also takes into account the time and place that you are born: it acknowledges that everything is always changing and it finds ways for us to adapt to whatever our environment is saying in that moment... It is a Living Medicine after all!

How does Ayurveda measure anything? Through qualities and their effect on the doshas:

Qualitatively speaking, man-made EMFs reside in the ether and air, are subtle, sharp, penetrating and heating. They are erratic and changeable, they are invisible and require a source of energy and hub.

These qualities translate as being vata and pitta imbalancing, as well as compromising the stablising, protective qualities of kapha dosha.

And by looking at the whole picture:

One of the major philosophical differences between the science of Ayurveda and that of modern western medicine is the concept at looking at ‘the whole picture’ rather than looking at one constituent part under a microscope, while not necessarily considering how it might affect its surrounding parts.

When I research safe limits and measurements of any EMFs, I can only find the levels and frequencies put out by one phone, hub or mast, and they are all guesstimates. I have yet to find a look at the cumulative effects of many devices filling one portion of land, and how that might affect a human being living amidst it.

How man made EMFs affect the mind and body

There is the physical body:

• EMFs increase heat in the body, blood and muscular system and this is a precursor to inflammation

• EMFs have the ability to penetrate cell walls. Because of the sharp penetrating nature of these waves, they have the ability to pierce through cell membranes. As the mass of these radio micro waves become denser, they can denature the cells, as well as the atomic binding between compounds. The atomic binding between electrons and neutrons could become weaker and weaker (in a similar vein to the protective kapha sheathing of the body’s organs).

• EMFs affect the nervous system, which is also electric in the way that it travels and communicates with the rest of the body. It is subtle and made up of ether and air element. There is a chaos inherent within any man-made wave in comparison to a wave found in nature. So EMFs will cause imbalance in the nervous system.

• EMFs affect the Voltage Gate Calcium Channels (VGCCs), (see this paper here for explanation) but in short: they take away the guard at the gate of the cell wall of cells in the brain who decide who can enter and who cannot. Meaning there is no discernment between things that should be allowed into a cell and those that should not. This increases calcium intake and is thought to lead to depression, Alzheimers and some cancers.

• EMFs exacerbate the sympathetic nervous system, meaning people are more likely to be in a fight or flight state and will find it harder to come into the rest and digest mode (parasympathetic state).

• EMFs can heat up the reproductive system, leading eventually to infertility and low sperm count.

How EMFs might affect the mind

That EMFs are vata and pitta increasing, means that they could make people feel frustrated and angry. As well as anxious, depressed, and unable to sleep. The nature and spaces that these frequencies inhabit (the ether and air) are the spaces our mind exists in, so they can add to the load on the mind.

I would argue that EMFs compromise the consciousness of a living being: their ability to connect with something beyond the physical. I see living beings like cells with cilia, those tentacles reaching out into the world and allowing them to be in touch with that which is subtle: the whistle of the trees, the sun setting, the feeling of love and affection for another. I feel that these crude frequencies that pollute the air and ether, mean our tentacles need to retract. Does this mean our experience will be less subtle? Does this mean we will need more crude stimulation. 

Firstly, we need to remain steadfast in the knowledge that we are here now and this is what is happening, there is little we can do about it, so we should not worry ourselves and add to the mental and physical stress load.

That being said, some tips to lower exposure:

• Turn off your wifi in your home and use ethernet and plug in instead
• If you cannot do this, make sure your wifi is off at night to help you sleep properly
• Go out into the trees and nature as much as possible, this is the absolute opposite and therefore antidote to the chaos of EMFs
• At night and before bed, earth yourself on the grass outside, go with bare feet onto the earth / grass and feel all the chaotic frequencies that you do not need leaving your body through your feet
• Try to limit the amount of smart systems you have in your home, the simpler, and more analogue the make up of your house, the better!
• Don’t wear a smart watch!
• Don’t use EarPods - they are using your body as the antennae :-(
• Keep your mobile phone away from your body - Apple’s small print even tells you not to hold a phone within 30cm of your head and body! Talk on loud speaker with the phone on a table near you.
• Get in resonance with the earth, the trees and each other, not those polluting systems that we are sleep walking into
• Mediate and stay in touch with the subtle aspects of your consciousness and experience of being a living being in this world

By Selina Van Orden

Selina is an Ayurvedic practitioner living and working in the UK, she is the advisor to Pior Living, for more information atyourbest.one