Devon Hornby, LMT, ABT
We’ve long been taught that the heart is a mechanical pump—a pressure valve that pushes blood through miles of vessels like a hydraulic machine. This idea, while useful for certain models of circulation, is limited. It misses the remarkable intelligence of our bodies, the deeper rhythms of life, and the actual sequence of events that shape the human embryo.
In the earliest stages of development, blood begins to move before the heart is fully formed (Taber 2001; Brill and Cohen 2001; Pape and Wigglesworth 1978). This circulation is not driven by muscular contraction but by resonance, charge differentials, and the inherent motion of fluid. The movement appears to arise from the field itself—a kind of organizing principle that guides both structure and function.
Spanish cardiologist Francisco Torrent-Guasp spent decades dissecting hearts and discovered something the textbooks had overlooked: the heart is not a collection of chambers but a single continuous band of muscle folded into a helical spiral. He called it the Helical Ventricular Myocardial Band (Torrent-Guasp 2001). This structure doesn’t “pump” in the traditional sense. Instead, it creates a vortex-like action, producing suction and torque to enhance blood flow (Buckberg et al. 2008).
If this is true, then circulation is not merely about pressure, but about wave dynamics, resonance, and flow. Blood is a living fluid. It moves in spirals, obeying principles of coherence that resemble natural phenomena—from the spiraling of galaxies to the rotation of weather systems.
In biodynamic craniosacral therapy (BCST), practitioners attune to these same deep tides. The “long tide” and “mid tide” felt in a session are believed to be expressions of these original ordering forces that guide embryological development and sustain health throughout life (Jealous 2010; Sills 2004; Brierley 2012). BCST doesn’t manipulate tissue; it listens to the body’s own subtle organizing intelligence.
Interestingly, the electromagnetic field of the heart has also been well documented. The HeartMath Institute has shown that the heart generates a toroidal electromagnetic field that can be measured several feet from the body (McCraty et al. 2009). This field modulates and is modulated by emotion, breath, thought, and the nervous system. It even syncs with other people’s fields in states of empathy or coherence.
Recent research also shows that slow, conscious breathing affects the vagus nerve and helps regulate heart rhythm, creating coherence in both the cardiovascular and nervous systems (Russo, Santarelli, and O’Rourke 2017).
What if our view of the heart could evolve to include this science—alongside the traditional model? What if we imagined the heart not just as a machine, but as a resonating center—a gateway between physiology and perception, tissue and field?
When we work with the body through gentle awareness, presence, and respect for these natural rhythms, something opens. The system reorients. Health re-emerges, not through force, but through resonance.
Not a pump. A vortex. A tuning instrument. A field.
References (Chicago Author-Date)
Brill, R. W., and E. A. Cohen. 2001. The Embryonic Development of the Cardiovascular System. In Cardiovascular Physiology.
Buckberg, Gerald D., Francisco Torrent-Guasp, David C. Coghlan, and Oscar N. Hoffman. 2008. “The Structure and Function of the Helical Heart: A Review of Torrent-Guasp’s Model and Its Implications for Clinical Practice.” European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery 33(3): 401–408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcts.2007.11.021.
Brierley, James. 2012. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Volume 1: The Heart of Listening. East Sussex: Lotus Publishing.
Jealous, James S. 2010. The Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Primer. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
McCraty, Rollin, Mike Atkinson, Dana Tomasino, and Raymond Trevor Bradley. 2009. “The Coherent Heart: Heart–Brain Interactions, Psychophysiological Coherence, and the Emergence of System-Wide Order.” Integral Review 5(2): 10–115. https://www.heartmath.org/assets/uploads/2015/01/coherent-heart.pdf.
Pape, K. E., and J. S. Wigglesworth. 1978. The Fetal Circulation: Normal and Abnormal. Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers.
Russo, Marco A., Domenico M. Santarelli, and David O’Rourke. 2017. “The Physiological Effects of Slow Breathing in the Healthy Human.” Breathe 13(4): 298–309. https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.009817.
Sills, Franklyn. 2004. The Polarity Process: Energy as a Healing Art. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Taber, Larry A. 2001. “Biomechanics of Cardiovascular Development.” Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering 3: 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.bioeng.3.1.1.Torrent-Guasp, Francisco. 2001. “The Structure and Function of the Helical Heart and Its Buttress Wrapping. I. The Normal Heart.” Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 13(4): 301–319. https://doi.org/10.1053/stcs.2001.29845.