The idea at the heart of Earthing — that being in contact with the earth is good for us — is far from new. In fact, for most of human history it was simply a way of life. People walked barefoot, wore leather, and slept on the ground or on animal hides, all of which kept them in easy contact with the earth beneath them.
Written records of this wisdom are scant, and a proper history would take some real anthropological detective work. But traces of it appear again and again across cultures and centuries.
Ancient roots
In Chinese thought we find Qi (pronounced chee), the natural energy said to fill the universe. Earth Qi — the lines, patterns and magnetic field of the earth itself — was understood to nourish every living thing. It’s absorbed, the thinking goes, simply by walking barefoot. Which may be why it feels so good to kick off our shoes, and why practices like yoga, tai chi and qigong are so often done with bare feet.
Native American cultures held a deep respect for the earth, too. The Lakota writer and leader Luther Standing Bear put it beautifully: “The old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with their bare feet on the sacred Earth. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing.”
A natural-health revival
In late-1800s Germany, a natural-health movement was taking shape. One of its leading figures, Adolf Just — often called a founder of naturopathy — championed barefoot walking and sleeping close to the ground. In his book Return to Nature! he wrote of what he called “earth power”: “The feet are in a certain sense for man what the roots are for plants. Man draws vital energy and strength out of the earth through his feet.”
Others followed the same thread — the French agronomist Matteo Tavera, who wrote of the “electric nutrition” living things draw from the ground, and a number of French biophysicists who studied grounding in the 1920s and 30s.
The work of Clint Ober
The modern story of Earthing begins, of all places, with cable television. Clint Ober spent 25 years in the American cable industry, where a crisp picture depends on shielding that’s grounded to the earth — letting the earth absorb and balance stray electrical charge.
After retiring, Ober began to wonder whether the same principle might apply to the human body. Most of us, he realised, spend our days in synthetic-soled shoes and raised buildings, insulated from the earth’s natural charge. That simple observation set him on a path of experiment and research that continues today.
In 1998 he tried it on himself, rigging up a conductive pad on his bed connected to a rod in the soil outside — a way of feeling as though he were resting barefoot on the earth. He found he slept more easily and felt more comfortable. Curious, he set up his friends’ beds the same way, and they described much the same thing: better rest, and a greater sense of ease.
In 2000 he ran a small, more careful experiment — 60 volunteers, half genuinely grounded and half not, without knowing which group they were in. The early results, around sleep and comfort, were encouraging enough to spark formal research that has grown ever since.
Research today
That research continues around the world. Two Polish doctors — the cardiologist Karol Sokal and his son Pawel, a neurosurgeon — have run a series of studies on how the earth’s natural charge may influence the body’s everyday functioning, publishing their work in a range of medical journals. Since Ober’s first experiment, a couple of dozen studies have followed, and there is still much to learn.
What’s striking is how old this idea really is. Modern science is, in many ways, simply catching up with something people seem to have understood — and felt — for a very long time.