From The Mitochondriac Manifesto.

Earthing has been called one of the greatest health discoveries ever

That’s because “earthing” (aka “grounding”) gives you oodles of a vital resource your body needs to live, heal, and resist aging: electrons. Yet it was considered woo-woo pseudo-science prior to 2010. Indeed, when you learn what earthing does in and for the body, you can’t help but agree with its devotees: grounding is a basic nutrient that keeps us healthy when we’re well, and heals us when we’re sick. Call it vitamin ‘G’.

As we now know, biology uses electrons to maintain itself. And the earth is our best source to get them. Unfortunately, modern society’s infatuation with creature comforts such as rubber-soled shoes, artificial flooring, and air conditioning give us every reason not to go outside and touch real earth. Amenities like these help us avoid the smallest discomfort in the moment. But they also separate us from a biological resource we can’t live without.

Of course, we can get electrons from other sources. But they all come at a higher cost biologically. So, considering what it does for us, earthing has to be Nature’s most under-appreciated method of acquiring electrons, redox potential, and healing capacity (virtually the same thing).

Indeed, earthing benefits the human body so profoundly even former skeptics now consider it a secret source of healing and vitality.

Although used interchangeably by most people (including myself), it is helpful to distinguish the term “grounding” from “earthing” because grounding, technically, is the removal of excess (unwanted) static charge to the earth via conductive wiring, while earthing is the addition of electrons into the body for therapeutic benefit. They are similar activities, employed for two different purposes.

What on earth is earthing?

Coined by its modern researcher/developer Clint Ober (retired cable industry executive), earthing is the practice of physically connecting directly to the earth and receiving its infinite flow of negatively-charged electrons. Walking barefoot on a beach, or using a specially-designed conductive device, are two such ways to deliberately ground yourself.

This gives you a variety of impressive health benefits, yet its mechanisms of operation are so subtle in the body that you may not feel it in action unless you pay close attention to the ‘before’ and ‘after’ sensations. That’s because, like many natural healing methods, earthing is not jarring to the body. It doesn’t feel artificial and forced like drugs and mainstream modalities usually do (are designed to do, actually).

Instead, it’s 100% in alignment with the way your body is supposed to operate. So you hardly notice it unless you know what to expect and go looking for it. What’s more, it’s inexpensive or free. It works fast. You never develop a tolerance, or intolerance, to it. And it’s simple as can be.

The value of earthing

Every living thing, including human beings, draws energy from the earth’s electric and magnetic fields through its feet, paws or roots. As long as there’s been life on earth, those life forms have charged up their “biological batteries” with electrons delivered through direct earth contact, a natural water body, or some means of conduction.

But that’s the key: whether plant or animal, you have to be touching the earth, or connected through an earthing device, to receive its nurturing benefits. Unfortunately, six decades ago, people started wearing rubber-soled shoes and spending most of their time indoors, disconnected from the earth. Out of the same ignorance, we started insulating our pets and livestock as well. “Coincidentally,” that’s when chronic, degenerative diseases started taking off.

Before that, we went outside and played in the dirt. We swam in lakes and drank from streams. We wore leather-soled shoes (which are moderately conductive). Many worked outside in the fields. We even lived in homes with dirt floors, ages ago. And we were much healthier then.

So is electron deficiency and the rise of chronic disease really a coincidence? I say no. Separating ourselves from the earth’s energy blocks the flow of health benefits we used to get when we lived in harmony with Nature.

What happens in the absence of earthing?

Being disconnected from the earth for long periods of time (days, months, or even years) doesn’t necessarily make you sick or kill you right away. You just aren’t as healthy and energetic as you could be. This makes you more susceptible to poor circulation, low energy, unproductive sleep, stress, slow wound healing, hormone imbalances, rapid aging, and weight gain. Your mood suffers, and you aren’t at your best mentally.

Earthing’s biggest benefits

Electron donor. Earthing remedies an electron deficiency we all suffer from in our modern insulated culture. Earthing builds redox potential.

Antioxidant. Earthing is like a limitless antioxidant (reductant, actually). That’s because earthing uses electrons from the earth’s infinite supply to neutralize free radicals that are responsible for cellular injury and aging, when they go unchecked. Alternatively, food sources, as good as they are, have their limitations.

Anti-inflammatory. Building up your supply of electrons and redox potential extinguishes inflammation.

Blood thinner. By increasing negative charge, earthing increases the zeta potential of red blood cells by 270%, which is a fancy way of saying earthing makes red blood cells repel each other with negative electrostatic charge, instead of clumping together (called “rouleaux” formation). So, instead of your blood being thick and viscous like motor oil, it’s thin and easy-flowing like red wine. This makes it easier for blood to get into tiny capillaries under one blood cell-width in diameter that might otherwise clog from clumping (very common today, for a variety of reasons).

Most of the time, thinning the blood reduces blood pressure as well, because the heart doesn’t have to work as hard. Thinner blood also improves oxygenation, nutrient delivery, and waste removal. These markers of health are virtually synonymous with life itself. If your body can’t do these things well, you either have a medical condition, or you’re prone to coming down with one. So it only makes sense: increasing blood flow, oxygenation and nutrient exchange improves health across the board.

For these reasons, earthing is scientifically shown to:

• thin the blood, reduce blood pressure, and improve circulation
• reduce chronic inflammation and its plethora of adverse effects
• decrease pain from a variety of sources
• improve sleep in most people
• increase energy levels
• reduce stress and promote calmness by cooling down the nervous system and lowering cortisol levels
• normalize the body’s biorhythms
• reduce muscle tension and headaches
• decrease hormonal and menstrual symptoms
• speed healing and prevent bedsores
• reduce or eliminate jet lag
• accelerate recovery from intense exercise
• slow the aging process.

How strong is earthing?

The effects are strong enough that most people who try earthing see obvious, significant improvements in their life – such as reduced pain, improved sleep, more endurance, faster recovery, or better mood. Many of these effects can be objectively verified by tests such as thermal imaging. And the benefits often begin the first time you earth yourself, continuing for as long as you earth yourself on a regular basis.

How grounding works

For a little background, electrons move from areas of high electrical charge, towards areas of lower charge.

The earth has an effectively infinite supply of electrons that it gently pushes into everything that’s physically connected to it through some sort of conductive medium, whether natural or man-made. Sunlight striking earth then increases electron flow when you’re grounded. Other times, the earth receives electrons from sources of higher charge in brief instances, like static electricity. In other words, grounding moves electrons in whichever direction has a lower charge.

Intentional grounding is thought to have originated in ninth century China, soon after the invention of gunpowder. Workers manufacturing ammunition and fireworks learned to be extremely careful to dissipate static electricity through conductive grounding straps, before handling the gunpowder they were making. Otherwise, they experienced oxidation so rapid they would not soon forget it (aka an explosion). Same thing with oil and petroleum workers. This is where the term “grounding” comes from.

Purging surplus energies for their own reasons, the cable TV industry learned decades ago how to produce crystal-clear picture and sound by shielding their cables with a grounded casing that carried unwanted EMFs out to ground. We used to see these stray EMF signals as “noise” in our picture years ago, but it rarely happens today because they’ve pretty much perfected grounding in wired communications.

Nowadays, most electrical systems are designed to deplete excess charge into the earth before this “static electricity” has a chance to damage sensitive electronics in the home, or harm patients undergoing open heart surgery, as examples. In other words, the electrical system of buildings and gadgets are “grounded” through the third prong of electrical wiring. This connects to a metallic ground rod stuck in the soil beneath the structure to dissipate static charge through wires, directly into the earth.

Fortuitously, this also provides a path for electrons to travel upward to therapeutic devices (and you) that are plugged into that third prong. So, today, dozens of companies make and sell earthing products, such as bed sheets, pillow cases, conductive mouse pads, foot pads, flooring, and lots of other configurations.

But the problem is, dirty electricity and nnEMFs are captured and transported through electrical wiring like an antenna. This can bring alien electric and magnetic fields right into your living space. There are ways to ground yourself safely with an earthing device through the third prong, but you need to shield your space from electosmog, and filter out the dirty electricity first, which may require the assistance of an EMF remediation specialist.

So Nature’s way is still the best way

• As a general rule, most materials made by Nature are good to great conductors, while most artificial materials are poor conductors, if at all.
• At one extreme, you can earth yourself Nature’s way by touching bare skin to grass, sand, rock, clay, or dirt.
• At the other extreme, wood, asphalt, plastic, and most man-made materials are insulators. They do not conduct electrons.
• Between the two extremes, cement and moist clay are slightly conductive when they contain moisture.
• The more moisture in or on a material, the easier it is for electrons to flow through them.
• Grounding works to some degree through cotton or wool socks – more so if there’s any moisture in them.
• Specially-designed shoes that conduct electrons to the feet do an excellent job of keeping you connected. Rubber-soled shoes: not at all.
• The ultimate earthing experience is taking a dip in an ocean, lake, or Water can absorb massive amounts of electromagnetic energy, so it shields you from nnEMFs like a Faraday cage. That gives you full electron flow, with no foreign frequencies.
• Lastly, sunshine (the positive “anode”) hitting the earth (the negative “cathode”) stirs electron mobility. So physically touching earth on a sunny day gives you the very best grounding for your efforts.

What does earthing feel like?

It’s funny but sad that we even have to describe what it feels like to be connected to the earth, because it should be as familiar to us as living and breathing. But that’s “progress” for you.

The physical sensation you get from earthing is easily deniable. You almost have to consciously pay attention in order to feel what it’s doing, but its effects and health benefits are not so easily dismissible.

When you set your feet on slightly moist grass, or put your hand on a grounded earthing pad, most people notice a warm, tingly sensation where the flow of electrons enters the body. It’s a warm, fuzzy feeling most people say is mildly stimulating. That’s the nurturing effect our bodies are designed to receive several hours per day. Yet we’ve led ourselves astray since we started isolating ourselves from the planet.

The quick and easy way to experience what earthing feels like is to touch a metal faucet. Almost all bathroom and kitchen faucets are grounded because many plumbing pipes are metallic and run straight into the ground. That’s one reason showers feel amazingly refreshing: You’re getting drenched with massive quantities of negatively-charged water particles. Same thing with throwing water on your face directly out of the tap for a quick ‘pick-me-up’ – lots of negatively-charged particles. Unfortunately for many people, those are the only times they get to experience the benefits of earthing today.

Earthing summary

Earthing is an outstanding way to increase circulation, healing efficiency, sleep quality, and energy level. It’s a potent way to reduce inflammation and increase redox potential. It’s among the cheapest, most beneficial practices you can do for yourself. However, as of 2022, the challenges to earthing yourself as Nature intended have grown considerably.

Risks

Over the past 5–15 years, electrosmog, jump conduction, and ground current have become legitimate risks that make it harder and harder for you to ground yourself safely. Earthing, in principle, is still great for you. But now nnEMFs are corrupting the process – basically using you, and your equipment, as a low-resistance path to get to ground.

Electrosmog: (Unwanted) electromagnetic fields. Jump conduction: Transference between conductors of static electricity from nnEMFs. Ground current: Stray electricity in the ground underneath you (not good). Dirty electricity: Unwanted spikes, surges, and frequencies riding the power lines (below the frequency of wireless communications).

To illustrate, which would you rather have: electromagnetic frequencies pass through you to get to ground, as earthing methods do? Or to have them hit you and stay in the body? The answer is neither. Passing nnEMFs out to ground may sound a little better for you. But, ideally, you don’t want any nnEMFs to be hitting you in the first place, because any electromagnetic pollution touching you can’t not harmfully affect you.

Word to the wise: A building’s electrical system picks up ambient high-frequency EMFs like an antenna, in addition to low-frequency dirty electricity riding the power lines. It sends those frequencies throughout a building’s wiring to every grounding port on a circuit (the third prong). In doing so, earthing equipment can inadvertently transmit nnEMF pollution into you. In fact, Dr. Dean Bonlie actually measured earthing equipment increasing the amplitude of nnEMFs going into a person’s body by 300%.

Earthing Rx

By far the best way to ground yourself is to get outdoors and touch the earth with bare feet and hands. In most places that’s still a good idea. However, it might not be that way for long – particularly as 5G ramps up and stray electricity pollutes the land as ground current.

The second-best way to earth yourself is through a dedicated ground rod and wiring, placed as far away from electrical service panels as possible (such as a smart meter). Much more problematic is earthing yourself through your home’s ground wiring. It’s almost never free of unwanted frequencies. Bottom line: Whether through dedicated earthing equipment, or through your house grounding wire, you can earth yourself indoors safely when electrical body voltage is under 0.1 volts on your skin, and when radio frequency fields are under 0.001 microwatts/cm² (peak). If your room exceeds these levels, earth yourself with caution.