HAROLD BURR'S BIOFIELDS MEASURING THE ELECTROMAGNETICS OF LIFE

Abstract

In 1937, Harold Saxton Burr, Ph.D., a Professor of Anatomy at the Yale University School of Medicine, began a series of experiments that sought to measure and characterize the "bio-magnetic field" associated with living organisms. Burr steadfastly believed that life nor only exhibited electromagnetic properties, but that these same properties were, in his words, "the organizing principle" that kept living tissue from falling into a chaotic state. He provided incontrovertible evidence for this belief both with sophisticated electrical measurements, and also by being the first person to demonstrate the extraordinarily significant hypothesis that the appearance of physical illness (cancer, in this case) occurs after a measurable change in the organism's electric field. This paper reviews Burr's electromagnetic measurements from the perspective of its author's background in electrical engineering. It provides an overview of the many technical challenges Burr had to overcome in making precise electrical measurements ofbiological systems using technology that is considered primitive by today's standards. The instruments that Burr devised are remarkable for their time, rivaling in their pioneering genius Burr's revolutionary contributions to the scientific understanding ofthe organizing principles animating all life.