Christian Answers for the New Age

What Earthing is Not

EARTHING (or Grounding) just won’t die and continues to kick up dirt drawing a lot of attention. Let us be clear first on what Earthing is not. It is not:

Liking to walk barefoot outside

So What Is Earthing?

Earthing is based on specific beliefs in:

• A supposed “energy” of the earth that is healing (similar to the New Age beliefs about crystals, power in plant essences, and other things in nature). This may be based on Vitalism, a belief that a life force is in creation that can be accessed for healing

• Evolution — that man once walked barefoot and therefore is meant to walk barefoot and connect to the earth

• A pseudo-science claim about “free-flowing electrons,” “negative charges,” and “electric signals” that allegedly are healing to the body

These beliefs have no factual support and have been debunked.

Pseudo-science is the backbone of much of New Age “healing” but it uses scientific words and language to make it sound credible. But there are actually no facts or science supporting these views.

The Earthing book that spawned an industry has been roundly criticized and refuted for its pseudoscience. This is no surprise since Earthing was a New Age thing before it was noticed by others. Anything popular from the New Age  with claims of healing or spirituality is always a sham and, in the hands of some (not necessarily New Agers) who want to make money, a scam.

The reason New Age “healing” is always invalid is due to the New Age worldview that sees everything as spiritual. Therefore, there are hidden spiritual causes and effects for illness and for ways to treat illness.

The New Age and the occult yearn to be accepted as credible, and the world of science is often where those attempts are made. However, by definition, the occult and New Age beliefs can never be scientific because the worldviews themselves preclude that.

Both the occult and the New Age:

• Deny the existence of objective truth

• Reject applying the scientific method  or objective data to their methods

• Cast aspersion on the use of logic

• Are hostile to credible uses of medicine

Not People I Would Take My Dog To

When something new is suddenly the rage and seems to answer a lot of complex issues, or claims to cure many illnesses, or offers a technique with a big spiritual benefit, watch out! It is probably bunk.

Always examine things in light of truth: Objective data and if applicable, God’s word. You will often find questionable people behind such trends. For example, behind Earthing you find these people:

“Ober, the inventor of earthing, is a layman from the cable TV industry. Of course. Dr. Sinatra is a cardiologist who encouraged Ober, who specializes in so-called “integrative medicine” (which integrates superstition with science) and is a “certified bioenergetic psychotherapist.” Naturally. Zucker is a writer. Oschman is a notorious proponent of energy medicine who believes there is a scientific basis for it; most reputable scientists disagree.”

So we have a layman from the cable TV industry, a New Age doctor who calls himself a “bioenergetic psychotherapist” (watch out for words beginning with “bio” in the alternative health field), and an advocate for energy medicine (which is occultic and New Age). These are not people I would take my dog to.

“Earthing is the usual sort of pseudo-science that only gets published in “alternative” journals, because the “studies” they produce only have the veneer of science. They simply don’t know what they are doing, scientifically. They don’t know how to properly provide controls; they don’t know how to do the statistics properly; they do their “experiments” in ways that get the results they already believe in.”  – From “Eye on Ions” by Bob Neinast

Does the Burning Bush Mean Earthing is Valid?

Exodus 3:5 has been used to argue that this verse supports belief in Grounding or Earthing.

“When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said also, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” Exodus 3:4-6

Exodus chapter 3 is when Moses encounters the presence of God in the burning bush. The ground is holy only because the Lord is making his presence known to Moses in that specific spot. What is holy is the Lord, and the ground is only holy because of the presence of the Lord. The earth itself has no sacred energy or powers.

Misusing scripture to support New Age beliefs is a serious error and is a mockery of God’s word.

The ground at the burning bush supports Earthing/Grounding no more than does the thunder and lightning on Mt. Sinai support Earthing. In both cases it is God’s presence that makes a place holy because God is holy, not the ground itself.

Notice that Moses even hides his face at the burning bush. There is nothing in the earth or land that is holy because it was cursed by God when man sinned (Exodus 3:17, 18), and is corrupted.

Additional Information

“One of the most egregious errors is the representation of electromagnetic fields.”

The Pseudoscience of Grounding/Earthing:

“Completely blowing the physics aside, Ober and his accomplices then go on to butcher biology. The earthing site claims, as in the quote above, that inflammation is caused by free radicals. This is simply not true. The relationship between free radicals and inflammation is a complex one. It is probably more true to say that inflammation (which is caused by specific cells and proteins produced in an inflammatory response) causes the production of free radicals, which are used to cause cell damage. Free radicals are part of the weapons the immune system uses to damage invading organisms, for example. This also causes damage to host tissue as a necessary byproduct. Abnormal inflammation, of course, can primarily cause tissue damage.

Further, reducing free radicals is not a panacea. Free radicals are part of normal physiology and are used not only as part of the necessary function of the immune system but in many regulatory systems. Suppressing free radicals may therefore cause more harm than good.”