pages, softcover, $49.95 J ames Oschman originated the concept of the living matrix, defined as the continuously interconnected molecular network composed of the connective tissues, cytoskeletons, and nuclear matrices throughout the body. In this book he details evidence that the living matrix is a high speed, body-wide energetic communication system that includes all of the body's classic systems. This network integrates numerous functions, including growth and wound healing. In an analogy with the computer, the living matrix is the body's operating system. Various kinds of energy, including sound, light, electricity, magnetism, heat, and elastic vibrations, serve as signals for integrating and coordinating a variety of physiological activities. Peak experiences in the therapeutic setting and in human performance, Oschman suggests, take place when the matrix is functioning optimally, a state he refers to as systemic cooperation.Oschman's scholarly explorations in this, and in his previous book, Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis (Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 2000) have helped demystify energetics and energy medicine. The development of objective methods for measuring energy fields in and around the body have been key. Long regarded as a fanciful new age hallucination, bioenergy fields in the space around the body are now in some cases used by physicians to diagnose disorders and make therapeutic decisions.The demystification process involves understanding various emergent concepts such as semiconduction, piezoelectricity, liquid crystallinity, biologic coherence, soliton waves (need to define this in a phrase), systems theory, biologic water, holography, and quantum coherence. These are key aspects of the living matrix that enable it to function as a body-wide regulatory system. While not widely discussed in academic biomedicine, Oschman believes that an understanding of these concepts can lead to breakthroughs in both theory and clinical practice.To explore and expand on the living matrix concept, Oschman focuses on the interfaces between different disciplines. Hence concepts in whole-systems theory, complexity theory, neural networks, biophysics, and biophotonics are playing key roles in the evolution of clinical methods. For example, one of the semiconductor properties of connective tissue is piezoelectricity or pressure electricity. Because of piezoelectricity, every movement of the body generates a variety of oscillating bioelectric signals that are conducted through the living matrix. The relationship between the living matrix and the meridian system of East Asian medicine is a major theme in the book.Previously mysterious phenomena, such as those observed in peak athletic or artistic performance and in the martial arts, are demystified by the presence of non-neural pathways within the body that conduct and interpret information far faster than the nervous system. According to Oschman, the continuum pathway through the living matrix enables sensory inputs to give rise to quick muscular respons...
