I admit, I was thoroughly puzzled by the dangers/disadvantages of earthing and shielding because the two opposing camps confidently make exactly the opposite claims. One camp says earthing shields you from non-native electromagnetic frequencies (nnEMFs) like a Faraday cage. The other says earthing is good in most cases, but can create hypersensitivities.
Seeking the benefits of earthing and shielding myself (which I wholeheartedly agree with), the potential hazards boiled down to two questions:
- Does earthing turn your body into a bigger antenna for nnEMFs to be captured and transported to ground (exiting)?
- Do house grounding wires carry electrical fields, dirty electricity, or magnetic fields to your earthing equipment and you (entering)?
I really needed to know, so I took a deep dive into the science to find out the truth. Here’s what I found:
In one camp are Gaetan Chevalier, Clint Ober, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, James L. Oschman, and (apparently) Richard Feyman. They claim that grounding reflects EMFs away from your body like a Faraday cage. Chevalier writes in the article “Beware of Earthing Misinformation” (link to article) that: “When you are grounded, you become like a Faraday cage and the Faraday cage effect prevents EMFs generated by the electric wires of your home from penetrating your body… there is no voltage that gets into your body when you are grounded… EMFs are reflected away from you… Grounding drops the voltage on your body to nearly zero.” Chevalier claims, “when the body is grounded, the earth’s electric potential… prevents such jiggling [of electrons].”
As evidence, the published study they reference (“Effects of Grounding on Body Voltage and Current in the Presence of Electromagnetic Fields,” by Richard Brown, Phd. Link to study) measures voltage from: (1) an electrical field generated by a lamp or computer, (2) absorbed onto a human body, (3) touching a conductive wire, (4) to a voltmeter, (5) removed through a house ground circuit. They then ground their body directly through earthing products and the meter reading drops from single- or double-digit volts to a tiny fraction of that.
Lots of YouTubers following this methodology don’t seem to be aware that earthing (directly, instead of through a voltmeter) while measuring body voltage creates an alternate path for induced current and voltage to get to ground, thus bypassing the voltmeter and tricking observers into believing that earthing is repelling EMFs. Many earthing advocates use this method: YouTuber #1, YouTuber #2, YouTuber #3, YouTuber #4.
This way of supposedly demonstrating a drop in body voltage by earthing yourself is disingenuous, to put it kindly. Most of the proponents probably don’t realize that the design of their test is faulty, while the people involved in publishing the study either must know, or should know, that their methodology is fundamentally flawed. When you see that they basically created an electrical short that depletes induced body voltage/current, giving them false readings, it’s obvious.
In the other camp are Brian Hoyer, Michael Neuert, Dr. Dean Bonlie, Jeromy Johnson, Brian Richards of SaunaSpace, and now myself. Hoyer, Neuert and Johnson report numerous clients experiencing horrible side effects from grounding through house ground wiring (not the natural way). For example, some say that earthing, without a doubt, caused an electro-hypersensitivity they didn’t have before. I needed to know why this is happening. Brian Hoyer explains to Luke Storey how earthing bypasses the multimeter to give misleading readings (link to video, starting about 1:05). Michael Neuert concurs (link to video).
Brian also explains that high frequency EMFs (in the radio/microwave range) operate differently than low frequency EMFs (emanating from 50-60 hertz electricity). Most EMF-shielding bed canopy fabrics do a good job of shielding you against high-frequency EMFs when ungrounded. Grounding then improves their shielding performance even more.
On the other hand, conductive fabrics only drain low frequency EMFs (i.e., induced AC voltage) when they are grounded. When ungrounded, AC electric fields radiate through the entire canopy, energizing it, and usually carrying dirty electricity. Similarly, commercial buildings (following code) route their electrical wiring through grounded metal tubes to prevent electromagnetic frequencies radiating from their wiring.
Brian goes on to say that conductors such as plumbing pipes can simultaneously carry AC current, dirty electricity, and DC current – each traveling in the direction of lowest electrical potential. Therefore, ground wires and earthing equipment can potentially give you tiny amounts of DC electricity for therapeutic benefit (upstream), while at the same time carrying harmful AC electricity away from you for shielding purposes (downstream). Or, if you’re earthing yourself outdoors in the presence of ground current (current running through terra firma), your body could absorb this voltage when you have a lower electrical potential than the earth.
This explains why some people report excellent benefits from earthing, while others experience severe adverse effects: if you don’t filter out the dirty electricity, you may be exposed to some bad frequencies, along with some good direct current, simultaneously. The questions are: how much dirty electricity and magnetic field do you have around you, what frequencies are they, and in which direction does the voltage/current want to flow?
For context, it’s extremely helpful to understand the difference between electricity (movement of electrons) and an electromagnetic field emanating from that electricity (50-60 Hz EMF) to get what’s going on. To illustrate, we’ll use the analogy of heat vs. infrared light (IR), quoted from The Mitochondriac Manifesto: “Heat is the vibrational movement of atoms and molecules (kinetic). This motion radiates IR light at normal earth temperatures, which you see as colors on a thermal image.
Closely related, but not the same, infrared light is an electromagnetic oscillation with no mass; it’s all photons. It is pure energy that is not heat in itself, but rather it can increase the temperature of materials by making their atoms vibrate. In other words, heat at earth-type temperatures makes matter emit IR frequencies. Whereas, IR becomes heat only after it hits atoms and makes them jiggle.” So IR light travelling through a vacuum in space is not heat/has no heat.
Similarly, electricity – in any live wire or device – radiates an electric field (aka low frequency EMFs). That electric field only becomes voltage or current again, proper, when electrons in matter are present to jiggle. When you’re not grounded, that voltage accumulates in the body, which you can measure with a meter. But when you are grounded, that voltage is transported away from the body via grounding equipment.
The exposure and physiological effect to the electricity > electrical field > electricity is the same compared to ungrounded, but the body voltage measurement drops because the ground path discharges induced AC. Completing that train of thought, electricity itself, as opposed to the field that electricity radiates, can only flow through conductors that are touching.
Earthing conclusions: Question 1: Does earthing turn your body into a bigger antenna for nnEMFs (exiting you)? A: No, it does not increase absorption of high frequency radio waves such as cell phone and Wi-Fi signals. Your body absorbs radio frequencies much the same, whether grounded or not.
Question 2: Do house grounding wires carry electrical fields, dirty electricity, or magnetic fields to your earthing equipment and you (entering you)? A: Earthing products don’t carry enough voltage or current to bring substantial electrical fields, dirty electricity, or magnetic fields into your room that were not already present. However, earthing equipment does create a path to discharge low frequency EMFs that are already present in your room (usually radiating out of your walls).
Normally, a nearby live wire or device induces voltage and current (as well as magnetic field) into you, which has an easy path to ground via earthing equipment (completing the circuit). The worst health effects come from frequencies that your physiology handles particularly poorly, such as dirty electricity and chaotic/bipolar magnetic fields.
To illustrate the difference between high and low frequency shielding, Faraday bags for your cell phone or Wi-Fi router don’t need to be grounded because they break up or block the shape of the high-frequency (very small) waveform, thereby deleting most of the information and deleterious effects of the transmission.
On the other hand, low frequency electric fields penetrate most ungrounded materials and jiggle their electrons, which induces voltage and current into materials such as skin. When a conductor such as wiring conduit or wire mesh captures and discharges that voltage/current before it can reach you, we call it shielding.
Final point: Everyone agrees, earthing through dedicated wiring and ground rod is more effective and safer than through house ground wiring. Half of the reason – the therapeutic aspect – is because consumer earthing equipment always comes with a built-in 100,000-ohm resistor (or, in a few cases, 50K) to prevent electric shocks.
But what this also does is choke down the flow of electrons to the smallest flow possible, while still offering positive benefit. Whereas natural earthing offers full flow of DC electricity (and natural frequencies). Consumer product companies such as Earthing.com have to include built-in resistors to avoid liability.