The Body Isn't A Machine, It’s A Field?! What Complexity Theory Reveals About Health and Healing
Dr. Neil Theise, a pathologist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, is one of the many emerging physicians and scientists openly challenging the dominant materialistic paradigm of health.
In a recent conversation hosted by the Consciousness and Healing Initiative, he states that:
The human body is not a machine. It is a self-organizing, living field.
Complexity Theory
In Western medicine, the body is often treated like a collection of parts.
Each organ has its specialist. Each disease has its own drug. Etc etc.
But in his book, Dr. Theise proposes a different view, grounded in complexity theory, which studies how systems organize themselves.
Think of flocks of birds, ant colonies, or weather patterns.
In these systems, no single part is in charge.
Instead, order emerges from local interactions between many agents.
Dr. Theise says the human body works the same way.
Cells communicate, adapt, and self-regulate.
No single cell controls the body, yet coherent patterns like heartbeat, immunity, emotion, and healing emerge.
These emergent patterns show that the body is more than its parts. It is a complex adaptive system.
This means healing doesn’t need to be forced or managed from the top down.
It can arise spontaneously when the system is nudged into a new pattern of coherence.
Healing as Electrical Signals
One of the most striking things Dr. Theise said during the interview was this:
“The healing interaction begins before you enter the room.”
At the electromagnetic and quantum level, our bodies are not isolated objects. They are constantly interacting with the energy fields of others.
For example, in March 2018, Dr. Theise co-authored a paper in Scientific Reports describing a previously unrecognized structure in the human body: the interstitium.
This fluid-filled network of collagen runs beneath the skin and around every organ.
Its structure may have profound implications for how energy flows because collagen within it is piezoelectric. That means it generates electrical signals when mechanical pressure is applied.
This means that motion, breath, pressure, or even subtle touch could generate bioelectric activity throughout the fascial matrix, not just through the nervous system.
This provides a biological basis for how energy might travel through the body.
It offers a physical substrate for what many healing traditions call the biofield.
Healing As Resonance
Healing can also begin through presence, attention, and intention.
This is called entrainment.
Two systems that come into proximity can begin to synchronize. This has been observed in brainwaves, heart rhythms, and even cell cultures.
The body, in its complexity, is always seeking coherence. When exposed to a coherent field, it can reorganize itself.
This explains the power of therapeutic presence. When a healthcare practitioner or another healer holds space for a client, Dr. Theise explains that their fields begin to entangle and self-organize, creating one coherent system. This is another aspect of healing.
Consciousness Comes First
At the core of this new framework lies a deeper question: what role does consciousness play?
Dr. Theise outlines three views:
The brain produces the mind.
Consciousness emerges from complexity.
Consciousness is fundamental, and the physical world arises from it
And he supports viewpoint #3 as it aligns with insights from quantum mechanics, emerging contemplative research, and Eastern philosophies.
It also explains why belief, emotion, and intention are not side effects but central factors in healing.
If consciousness is the ground of being, then awareness itself becomes a healing tool.
Objective Matter with Subjective Experience
We are living in a moment of rising chronic illness, spiritual disconnection, and a medical system struggling to keep up.
Many people are looking for healing methods that treat the whole person, not just symptoms.
Dr. Theise’s viewpoint offers that bridge, giving us an evidence-based way to understand healing not as a mechanical process but as a relational one.
The implications are far-reaching:
It gives validation to the work of energy healers, meditation teachers, and spiritual practitioners.
It reminds us that the body is more than chemical reactions.
It brings love, intention, and presence back into the healing equation.
It invites us to reimagine science as something more human, more whole.
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Thank you,
Dr. Jason
As an energy worker since 2000, it’s so fun to see science catch up to miracles experienced and deeply known.
The body is a complex system made up of many layers and dimensions, each with its own unique environment. It also exists within a larger, equally layered and multidimensional environment.