The Ocean Beneath the Waves
- Coastal Functional Medicine
- Jul 28
- 6 min read
What physics, the heart, and one skeptical historian can teach us about healing
If you've sat in my office, you've probably heard me talk about shadow work, meditation, or trusting your own intuition, and maybe wondered whether any of that has a foundation beyond "it feels true." This month, I want to walk you through some of the thinking behind that trust, drawn from a physicist, a self-taught scientist of consciousness, a heart-research institute, and—perhaps surprisingly—a historian known for his skepticism.
We Are Not as Separate as We Look
David Bohm was one of the most respected physicists of the last century, a colleague of Einstein's who spent much of his career trying to reconcile relativity (which describes the very large) with quantum theory (which describes the very small). Out of that work came an idea he called the implicate order.
Picture the ocean. What we experience as separate things—you, me, the chair you're sitting in, the trees outside, the stars in a galaxy we'll never see—are like waves on the surface. They look distinct. But underneath, it's all one continuous body of water. Bohm proposed that at the deepest level of reality, everything is enfolded within everything else, the way a hologram contains the whole image inside every fragment of the film. He called this hidden, unmeasurable layer the implicate ("folded-in") order, and the everyday world of separate, solid-looking things the explicate ("unfolded-out") order—with a superimplicate order organizing how one becomes the other, somewhat like sheet music informing a sound that already exists as vibration.
This deeper order doesn't live inside ordinary space, so it doesn't follow the usual rules of here vs. there or now vs. later. Physicists call this quality nonlocality, and it's a real, measurable feature of the quantum world. Bohm took it a step further, speculating that our felt sense of being a small, separate self, locked into one single "now," may be more a habit of perception than the deepest truth about what we are.
The Body as a Doorway
If Bohm gives us the “what,” a living, intelligent field underlying everything, then Itzhak Bentov, in Stalking the Wild Pendulum, offers a “how”: an accessible image of how a body made of blood and bone might touch that deeper field.
Think of a pendulum. It moves fastest at the bottom of its swing and comes to a complete, brief stop at each end before reversing direction. Bentov invited us to picture the rhythms of the body, the heartbeat and the breath, the same way: oscillating, with tiny moments of stillness woven between each swing. His poetic leap was to suggest that, in that instant of stillness, a kind of doorway opens, leading out of ordinary time and into the deeper, nonlocal field Bohm described.
It’s a beautiful image for something meditators have described for thousands of years: that stillness, not effort, is where the sense of separateness softens. I’d offer it to you as exactly that, a metaphor for a real, repeatable experience, rather than a literal mechanical proof. The image doesn’t need to be taken as physics for its usefulness to hold. And on the one point that matters most clinically, Bentov and Bohm agree completely: meditation reliably quiets the nervous system, and that quieting is where people consistently find room to reprocess what they’ve been carrying.
What We Can Actually Measure: The Heart
This is where the story moves from metaphor into data you can watch happen in real time.
Researchers at the HeartMath Institute, led by Rollin McCraty, have spent decades studying heart rate variability (HRV), the natural, healthy variation in time between heartbeats. When someone practices slow, heart-focused breathing (about six breaths a minute), the heart rhythm often settles into a smooth, wave-like pattern called coherence. In the largest study of its kind, involving 1.8 million recorded sessions, this coherent rhythm appeared most often around 0.1 Hz and was consistently linked to greater emotional stability. Meanwhile, agitated emotional states produced a more scattered, less coherent pattern.
In plain terms, when you slow your breath and settle your heart, your physiology visibly organizes itself. That organized state is where regulation, clarity, and resourcing tend to live. This is the piece of the puzzle with the strongest scientific footing, and it’s the direct physiological ally of the meditation and breathwork we build into our sessions together.
Why Trust Your Own Experience
Yuval Noah Harari has built a career studying how difficult it is, in an age of information overload, to know what’s actually true from the outside, whether through argument, ideology, or even secondhand science. His work offers something like a permission slip: maybe one of the few reliable paths left to truth isn’t more information. It’s direct, disciplined attention to your own mind and body.
That’s the invitation underneath everything we do together. You don’t have to take Bohm’s physics or Bentov’s pendulum on faith. You’re not being asked to adopt a belief system. You’re being invited to notice, through meditation, journaling, and body-based work, what actually happens when your own nervous system settles. That noticing is yours. It was gathered firsthand, in your own body, which makes it something no one can hand you and no one can take away.
A note in the spirit of the honesty this work deserves: Bohm’s implicate order is a respected but genuinely debated interpretation of quantum physics, not settled fact. Bentov’s pendulum is a metaphor, not a proven mechanism. The heart-coherence research is well-replicated science. None of that changes what matters most: the calming, regulating effect of these practices is real and repeatable, whichever map you use to understand why. |
HEALTH ALERT
Cyclospora: What Our CFM Patients and Readers Should Know About the Recent Outbreak |
 You may have already heard reports in the news about the recent multistate Cyclospora outbreak linked to certain iceberg lettuces products. As public health officials continue their investigation, here is a clear quick overview of what to know about Cyclospora, the symptoms to watch for, and the latest outbreak updates. What is Cyclospora?
Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that can contaminate food or water. Consuming contaminated food or water can cause an intestinal illness called cyclosporiasis. In the United States, outbreaks have been linked to different types of fresh produce (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2026).
What are the symptoms?
The most common symptom is frequent, water diarrhea. Other symptoms may include:
Symptoms typically begin about 1-2 weeks after exposure. Without treatment, they may last for several weeks and can sometimes improve before returning (CDC, 2026).
Recent outbreak update
The FDA and CDC are investigating a multistate outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico. As of July 19, 2026, about 1,644 illnesses and 94 hospitalizations had been reported across five states, with no deaths (U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2026b).
Certain Marketside iceberg salad and shredded lettuce products with "Best if Used By" dates from July 18 through August 3, 2026, have been recalled. Additional recalled products were distributed to restaurants and food-service businesses. Because the investigation remains ongoing, consumers should continue checking the FDA's outbreak page for updated product and distribution information (FDA, 2026b). What should you do?
Sources and Further Reading: - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2026, July 14). About cyclosporiasis. https://www.cdc.gov/cyclosporiasis/about/index.html
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2026a, July 16). Cyclospora. https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborne-pathogens/cyclospora
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2026b, July 19). Investigation of 5-state outbreak of Cyclospora illnesses: Iceberg lettuce (July 2026). https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigation-5-state-outbreak-cyclospora-illnesses-iceberg-lettuce-july-2026 |
HEALTH OBSERVANCE
World Brain Day 2026: Brain Health, Access for All |
 Observed annually on July 22, World Brain Day is a global initiative led by the World Federation of Neurology. The 2026 theme, “Brain Health: Access for All,” highlights the importance of making timely neurological care, essential treatments, reliable health information, and brain-health resources accessible to everyone.
Brain health is closely connected to overall health. Regular physical activity, restorative sleep, balanced nutrition, meaningful social engagement, and appropriate management of blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol may help support cognitive and neurological health throughout life.
Persistent or worsening changes in memory, thinking, balance, movement, mood, or headache patterns should not be ignored. Early medical evaluation may help identify contributing factors and guide appropriate care.
Sources and Further Reading: - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025, August 13). Physical activity boosts brain health. https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity/features/boost-brain-health.html
- National Institute on Aging. (n.d.). Cognitive health and older adults. https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/cognitive-health-and-older-adults
- World Federation of Neurology. (2026, June 23). 2026 World Brain Day dedicated to brain health: Access for all. https://wfneurology.org/activities/news-events/wfn-news/world-brain-day-2026-brain-health-access-for-all |
