Electromagnetic Love:
Can We Feel the Wooing?
Sometimes when I hear process theologians speak of God’s luring or wooing presence, I have to ask if this is but a slogan, or if it is something we actually experience — energetically, viscerally, in the immediacy of our lives.
Can we feel the wooing? Can we experience the luring — energetically, viscerally, in the immediacy of our lives?
This is where I find the work being done at the intersection of consciousness and electromagnetism especially helpful — the studies that explore how the heart’s magnetic fields allow us to sense the feelings of others and, perhaps, the intuitive wisdom of the heart.
Might it be that the heart's intuitive wisdom, electromagnetically mediated, is one of the very places where the divine lures are actually felt? I know it sounds wild. But the God who is incarnate in the world is wild, too.
- Jay McDaniel
Can we feel the wooing? Can we experience the luring — energetically, viscerally, in the immediacy of our lives?
This is where I find the work being done at the intersection of consciousness and electromagnetism especially helpful — the studies that explore how the heart’s magnetic fields allow us to sense the feelings of others and, perhaps, the intuitive wisdom of the heart.
Might it be that the heart's intuitive wisdom, electromagnetically mediated, is one of the very places where the divine lures are actually felt? I know it sounds wild. But the God who is incarnate in the world is wild, too.
- Jay McDaniel
1. Cardioelectromagnetic Communication and God’s Love
One way of understanding God's love through the lens of what the HeartMath Institute calls cardioelectromagnetic communication. Cardioelectromagnetic communication is the transmission of information through the electromagnetic fields generated by the heart.
According to HeartMath research, the heart’s field can influence the physiology and brainwaves of others, acting as a carrier of emotional information and, in some cases, synchronizing with the heart rhythms of those nearby.
I suggest that this phenomenon may be one way of understanding how we humans are connected with one another and other living beings on our planet, and one way of understanding divine immanence - understood as a force field permeating the universe - communicates with us. We receive “information” from God — what Whitehead called initial aims — through the subtle dynamics of the heart’s electromagnetic field, guiding thought, feeling, and action toward harmony, creativity, and love.
One way of understanding God's love through the lens of what the HeartMath Institute calls cardioelectromagnetic communication. Cardioelectromagnetic communication is the transmission of information through the electromagnetic fields generated by the heart.
According to HeartMath research, the heart’s field can influence the physiology and brainwaves of others, acting as a carrier of emotional information and, in some cases, synchronizing with the heart rhythms of those nearby.
I suggest that this phenomenon may be one way of understanding how we humans are connected with one another and other living beings on our planet, and one way of understanding divine immanence - understood as a force field permeating the universe - communicates with us. We receive “information” from God — what Whitehead called initial aims — through the subtle dynamics of the heart’s electromagnetic field, guiding thought, feeling, and action toward harmony, creativity, and love.
2. The Mission of HeartMath
The mission of the HeartMath Institute reads:
“to help people bring their physical, mental and emotional systems into balanced alignment with their heart's intuitive guidance. This unfolds the path for becoming heart-empowered individuals who choose the way of love, which they demonstrate through compassionate care for the well-being of themselves, others and Planet Earth.”
One striking feature of this mission is that, for those at HeartMath, the word “heart” is not used merely as a metaphor for the seat of emotion or consciousness. They are speaking of the literal, cardiovascular heart — the physical organ within the human chest.
According to their research, the heart’s magnetic field, the most powerful generated by any organ in the body, extends at least two feet beyond the physical body. This field, measurable with sensitive instruments, appears to carry emotional information that others can sense — whether the energy is coherent and positive or chaotic and negative.
Additionally, they propose that the heart provides intuitive guidance to the person in whose body it resides — a subtle, embodied intelligence that supports decision-making, emotional regulation, and relational connection. In this view, the heart is not just a biological pump but an electromagnetic center of wisdom and resonance, constantly communicating with the brain, the nervous system, and the energetic environment that surrounds us.
“to help people bring their physical, mental and emotional systems into balanced alignment with their heart's intuitive guidance. This unfolds the path for becoming heart-empowered individuals who choose the way of love, which they demonstrate through compassionate care for the well-being of themselves, others and Planet Earth.”
One striking feature of this mission is that, for those at HeartMath, the word “heart” is not used merely as a metaphor for the seat of emotion or consciousness. They are speaking of the literal, cardiovascular heart — the physical organ within the human chest.
According to their research, the heart’s magnetic field, the most powerful generated by any organ in the body, extends at least two feet beyond the physical body. This field, measurable with sensitive instruments, appears to carry emotional information that others can sense — whether the energy is coherent and positive or chaotic and negative.
Additionally, they propose that the heart provides intuitive guidance to the person in whose body it resides — a subtle, embodied intelligence that supports decision-making, emotional regulation, and relational connection. In this view, the heart is not just a biological pump but an electromagnetic center of wisdom and resonance, constantly communicating with the brain, the nervous system, and the energetic environment that surrounds us.
3. Overlap with Process Theology
Are these ideas scientifically valid? That question belongs to the scientists. What is clear, however, is that they are deeply interesting and that they overlap with process-relational philosophy in profound ways.
First, they suggest strong connections between physical energy and emotions, corresponding to Whitehead’s idea that energy itself is a form of feeling and that there can be a “vector transmission of feeling” from one actual entity to another, both within the body and beyond it.
Second, they provide a compelling way of understanding what process philosophers mean by initial aims. These are inwardly felt possibilities, derived from the Soul of the universe — from God — which, if actualized, bring about the most harmonious and fulfilling “satisfaction” available in a given situation.
These possibilities are not received as clear, distinct ideas formulated by a detached intellect. Instead, they are intuitively felt — subtle, inward movements of the heart that guide thought, feeling, and action, carrying the emotional tone of divine desire. They are what a God of love seeks for us, and in some mysterious way, we feel not only the possibilities but also God’s own yearning that they be realized. We feel God’s feelings through them.
First, they suggest strong connections between physical energy and emotions, corresponding to Whitehead’s idea that energy itself is a form of feeling and that there can be a “vector transmission of feeling” from one actual entity to another, both within the body and beyond it.
Second, they provide a compelling way of understanding what process philosophers mean by initial aims. These are inwardly felt possibilities, derived from the Soul of the universe — from God — which, if actualized, bring about the most harmonious and fulfilling “satisfaction” available in a given situation.
These possibilities are not received as clear, distinct ideas formulated by a detached intellect. Instead, they are intuitively felt — subtle, inward movements of the heart that guide thought, feeling, and action, carrying the emotional tone of divine desire. They are what a God of love seeks for us, and in some mysterious way, we feel not only the possibilities but also God’s own yearning that they be realized. We feel God’s feelings through them.
4. Heart’s Intuitive Guidance and Initial Aims
In this light, the phrase “heart’s intuitive guidance” beautifully captures what it feels like to be open to God’s initial aims. The suggestion that these divine possibilities may, in some way, be electromagnetic does not diminish their mystery; rather, it offers a bridge between the spiritual and the physical, connecting the divine lure with the embodied dynamics of the human heart.
For process theologians, it would be misleading and reductionistic to identify God’s initial aims exclusively with the dynamics of the heart’s electromagnetic field, since these aims can also be felt independently of any specific physical medium. Still, it is entirely reasonable — and imaginatively rich — to see the cardiovascular electromagnetic field as one of the channels through which divine guidance is experienced.
As we learn to feel with the heart, we grow into what the HeartMath Institute calls “the way of love” — a path that fosters well-being for ourselves, for others, and for the planet. And as we do so, we awaken to a deeper Love (with an uppercase L) — a Field of Love that underlies the entire universe, present within the dynamics of the physical world even as it transcends them.
For process theologians, it would be misleading and reductionistic to identify God’s initial aims exclusively with the dynamics of the heart’s electromagnetic field, since these aims can also be felt independently of any specific physical medium. Still, it is entirely reasonable — and imaginatively rich — to see the cardiovascular electromagnetic field as one of the channels through which divine guidance is experienced.
As we learn to feel with the heart, we grow into what the HeartMath Institute calls “the way of love” — a path that fosters well-being for ourselves, for others, and for the planet. And as we do so, we awaken to a deeper Love (with an uppercase L) — a Field of Love that underlies the entire universe, present within the dynamics of the physical world even as it transcends them.
5. God as a Field of Love
By a Field of Love, I mean the God of open and relational (process) theology. The word field does not imply that God lacks consciousness or intention; rather, it points to the reality that God is non-localized — more like a pervasive field, present everywhere at once, than like a bounded particle moving through space.
Concepts from physics, such as electromagnetic fields, provide rich metaphors for imagining God without resorting to static images of solid, bounded objects. God is real, but not solid; present, but not confined.
And we, too, are real but not solid. Our existence extends beyond the boundaries of our physical bodies — into our relationships, into the world, and, in a profound sense, into the feelings of God. Likewise, God is relationally expansive, dynamically present throughout the cosmos, experiencing the world in all its beauty and pain.
In this sense, though God does not have a physical heart, the divine reality enjoys a kind of heart-wisdom — a wisdom that feels, that responds, that resonates in the depths of every becoming moment.
Concepts from physics, such as electromagnetic fields, provide rich metaphors for imagining God without resorting to static images of solid, bounded objects. God is real, but not solid; present, but not confined.
And we, too, are real but not solid. Our existence extends beyond the boundaries of our physical bodies — into our relationships, into the world, and, in a profound sense, into the feelings of God. Likewise, God is relationally expansive, dynamically present throughout the cosmos, experiencing the world in all its beauty and pain.
In this sense, though God does not have a physical heart, the divine reality enjoys a kind of heart-wisdom — a wisdom that feels, that responds, that resonates in the depths of every becoming moment.
6. Living the Way of Electromagnetic Love
When we allow ourselves to be guided by this heart wisdom, we participate in what Whitehead calls the creative advance into novelty — the ever-unfolding movement of the universe toward beauty and harmony.
To practice this awareness is to:
To practice this awareness is to:
- Listen to the quiet, intuitive impulses that arise in the immediacy of each moment.
- Cultivate coherence — in meditation, prayer, gratitude, and embodied stillness — to become more receptive to divine possibilities.
- Live relationally, recognizing that our choices ripple through the web of existence, influencing others in subtle but profound ways.