To honor the life and work of Claude Swanson, PhD  (December 29, 1946 – June 28, 2022), this post will include some of his own words about his lifelong, pioneering research.

Claude wrote,
“There was a tradition in ancient Europe of a special energy which flowed through the landscape. The same energy was believed to flow in all living things. In Chinese medicine it had two polarities, yin and yang. When the quantities and flow of these were in balance, health resulted. When out of balance, illness and misfortune occurred. Traditional Chinese doctors were paid to keep the energies in balance in their patients, just as the feng shui masters were paid to maintain energy balance in the land.

This force has been known by different names around the world for thousands of years but in the West, until recently, science was largely ignorant of it. In 1972, while traveling in China with President Nixon, New York Times correspondent James Reston, developed acute appendicitis and was treated by Chinese doctors who used acupuncture for his post-operative pain. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger talked about it at a press conference and then, after Reston wrote about his experience, Chinese medicine became front page news in America and people became curious about this phenomenon.

For me, curiosity about this hidden force has been part of a long journey to understand the universe. I grew up in a small town in Virginia, and used to watch the stars on summer nights. They seemed so close that I felt I could almost touch them. For me it brought a sense that all the universe is connected, and I wanted to understand it at the deepest level possible. My curiosity led me to MIT where I earned a degree in physics, and then I went on to Princeton for my PhD, also in physics. While at Princeton I worked in the Gravity Group which used new technology to explore the deep structure of the cosmos. Although I studied with some brilliant minds and learned the physics that was available at the time, I was still troubled by what seemed to me a superficial theory of the universe. My intuition told me that something important was still missing.

Then one day I began hearing about remote viewing. It involves the ability to send one’s consciousness out into the universe to bring back information. I also learned of the amazing work of the Princeton PEAR Lab, where they showed that our ‘minds’ can also affect distant objects. It is a connection that does not weaken with distance, and it penetrates virtually every shield. This was the long-range connection I had been seeking. It was evident that the universe is connected at a deep level that has been overlooked in our present science.

My research continued and I discovered the work of Nicolai Kozyrev, a Russian who had begun with studying the evolution of stars. This led to the discovery of a ‘force’ which connects distant processes throughout the universe. It is intimately involved with the flow of time and the efficiency of life processes. He called it ‘torsion,’ but it appears to be exactly the same as ‘chi’ or subtle energy. He and his colleagues developed equations and devices which harness this energy. It has components which move faster than light and penetrate matter. It appears to be the medium by which psychic phenomena and distant healing operate. It is the energy which makes up the aura. It is the missing ingredient behind many phenomena of consciousness and many ‘spiritual’ phenomena which have been largely ignored by Western science.

Much of my effort in recent years has been in learning about these discoveries and comparing them to those of other scientists who have gone before, as I have worked to build up a single unified model for this energy. From the scientist’s point of view, it can be explained when we remember that the so-called ‘vacuum of space’ is filled with energy. The ‘old’ physics considered the vacuum to be just a random jumble of energy with neither structure nor pattern. The old laws of physics include those of quantum physics.

More recently, scientists are learning how to imprint the vacuum with patterns of energy. This is called ‘engineering the vacuum.’ When this is done, new forces appear which did not exist before. Subtle energy or “torsion” can be thought of as such a pattern of energy (a whole set of patterns) in the vacuum. It can cause very real effects. The laws of physics are different when this energy is present and it affects gravity, electricity, magnetism, and nuclear properties, not to mention the growth of cells and the process of healing. We are learning that the mind can impress patterns on this energy. It carries thoughts, and is responsible for mysterious phenomena such as radionics and other aspects of alternative medicine which cannot be explained in the old Western materialistic paradigm. Therefore, subtle energy is key to understanding energy medicine, life processes, and consciousness.

In 2011, Elmer Green said Claude’s book on this research – LIFE FORCE, The Scientific Basis, “…was one for the ages. Physics, religion, and psychology have needed this compendium for decades – and now we have it! I highly recommend it.”

Claude Swanson continued his researches and later went on to write,
“The interaction between subtle energy, mass, and gravity is just one way that subtle energy can affect physics. It also provides an elegant explanation for astrophysics’ biggest puzzle, the nature of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy.’ Astrophysicists discovered these mysterious energies in the motions of distant galaxies and concluded that in some regions of space the force of gravity appears to be ‘too strong,’ that is, stronger than expected based on the amount of matter. Gravity appears ten times stronger than it ‘should be’ in some galaxies. They have ‘resolved’ this puzzle by postulating that an unknown ‘dark matter’ is responsible for the anomaly. Likewise, in some regions of space, masses appear to be repelled from one another, or having much less gravity than would be expected. Physicists have ‘resolved’ this by postulating that a ‘dark energy’ exists that has an antigravity effect and pushes masses apart.

The torsion research of the past five decades predicts EXACTLY that this sort of phenomenon could occur. Further, it provides a far more economical and natural explanation than exotic new theories which postulate new and unknown particles. Torsion energy appears to have exactly the right properties as the basis for future physics theory. It may explain the ability of healers and psychics to project their consciousness and energy over great distances. Presently we are accumulating a great deal of knowledge about higher spiritual planes from Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences (NDEs and OBEs), Remote Viewing and other intuitive heuristic sources.  These are just some of future next steps, of course. In addition, following the guidance of adepts like Sri Yukteswar, in the future we will have access to a much deeper understanding of higher spiritual planes. As our ability to perceive and understand these higher energies grows, their integration into our future physics will evolve clearly and naturally. It is likely that the ultimate understanding of subtle energy will only come from a deep paradigm shift resulting from the integration of consciousness with physics.”

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Claude Swanson was a brilliant, generous, and gentle man. His willingness to follow his deep curiosity, to persevere in his researches which often were outside the boundaries of standard science, has left us a great gift.

He published three books:
THE SYNCHRONIZED UNIVERSE: New Science of the Paranormal, 2003
LIFE FORCE: Breakthrough Physics of Energy Medicine, Healing, Chi and Quantum Consciousness, 2009 and 2010
SCIENCE OF THE SOUL, THE AFTERLIFE, AND THE SHIFT, 2018
This post is an excerpt from two articles Claude Swanson published in the magazine for The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM), in 2011 and 2015, edited by Celia Coates.

The image that leads this post is by photographer and artist, David Lewis.
He can be reached at andersonlewis@gmail.com.

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