First of all I am an extremely skeptical person to anything and everything. My mom is a major naturalist and knows a lot, but sometimes I feel she gets all her information from only one source with an agenda to sell a product. She was told she would die probably 20 years ago from her cancer if she didn’t do chemo. She refused and chose to fight it naturally through many methods and doctors were amazed at how well she did. In 2021, the cancer began to win and she was told she would die in 6 months if she didn’t do some form of treatment. She was too weak for chemo then so the only choice was a VERY expensive drug called Imbruvica. She went through complete hell starting the drug and I had to move in with her to take care of her, but then she regained her health and now is on a dosage SHE feels is right for her body and blood tests show she is doing well. Now four years later her spleen is beginning to have problems.

All that to say she is always looking into natural healing energy. She bought and uses a healing mat that uses heat and crystals to supposedly heal. She swears by it. Now she is wanting to buy a “grounding mat” for herself and me. I watched the documentary she pointed me to for the guy who discovered this and invented the mat and to me the argument is logical. The show is on Amazon Prime and called “Down to Earth” “The Earthing Movie” and the inventor is named Clint Ober.

Essentially he discovered that we are not grounded to the earth due to wearing shoes and that being grounded has healing properties. The concept is to walk barefoot on soil to be grounded or buy a grounding mat that you put whatever part of your body on such as bare feet while seated at a desk and the mat is plugged in to the grounding port of a properly grounded plug. Supposedly you will be able to test all this with a multimeter of your to see if your body current not grounded and or being grounded.

I ordered a new multimeter as mine is broken since my mom is buying us these mats so I can test it to see if it is really grounding a person.

I am curious if anyone else has heard of this or does this. Sometimes I feel my mom can be a little too naturalist, but also she has proven she knows what she is doing.

We had a thread on earth grounding bedsheets about 18 months ago. The earthing mat would be as ineffective as earth grounding bed sheets.

I didn’t know there was an old thread on this. At least it is not a crazy expensive item so I will try it out and measure to see if it really grounds you and then measure to see if my blood pressure improves. Guess we will see.

Now that I read that thread, I see what the majority of people’s opinions are. Doctors also told my mom she could never live 10 years without chemo.

I guess with that, I respectfully ask people to not post tinfoil hat type ideas about the concept. I am asking for legit experience one way or the other whether good or bad and not just if you think it is junk science. As stated, I am a super skeptic, but I also keep an open mind seeing what my mom has done with natural alternatives and heck, some of that could just be the power of the mind believing in something.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: StorminNormin,

As a measure of safety, I'd adivse your Mom to follow Skins' advice from pg 2 of the other thread and not use it during lightning storms or have anything electrical (e.g. plugged in cell phone) on the mat:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
No clue about the benefits, I would personally not want to be grounded. Not that it's likely, but, what if your lamp or cellphone charger had a fault or reverse polarity in it? You're all comfy being the path to ground; getting your electrons discharging; and you touch something energized. That does not sound fun to me.

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Also if you live in an area subject to lightening I'd Google "side flash/strike lightening,"

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quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
As a measure of safety, I'd adivse your Mom to follow Skins' advice from pg 2 of the other thread and not use it during lightning storms or have anything electrical (e.g. plugged in cell phone) on the mat:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
No clue about the benefits, I would personally not want to be grounded. Not that it's likely, but, what if your lamp or cellphone charger had a fault or reverse polarity in it? You're all comfy being the path to ground; getting your electrons discharging; and you touch something energized. That does not sound fun to me.

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Also if you live in an area subject to lightening I'd Google "side flash/strike lightening,"

...

Agreed and Jesse knows what he speaks of when it comes to electricity!! I have already tested all of her and my outlets to ensure the ground is properly grounded. Thank you for the feedback Todd! I appreciate It.

Dr. Sinatra's book, "Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!" ....go bare foot as long as you don't have stinky feet!

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
Dr. Sinatra's book, "Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!" ....go bare foot as long as you don't have stinky feet!

I will check the book out. My mom and I laughed as we said here in Texas is the last place you want to be barefoot in the grass with fire ants, chiggers, fleas, spiders, etc. If it really works, I would would rather have a mat at a desk while I work.

Early in my career I worked about 10 years as an electronics technician. Some of that stuff, not all, but some, is sensitive to static charges. We had mats both under our chairs and on top of the benches that were grounded, plus a strap on our wrist that was connected to the bench mat. All to reduce the possibility of us picking up a static charge and then zapping the device we were working on. The mats were some kind of synthetic rubber, impregnated with something (sorry, don't recall what) to make it slightly conductive. The idea was to have any static charge that accumulated in your body, travel through the strap and the mat to ground instead of into the equipment you're working on. So, that much of it I believe in.

On the other hand, we were never asked to work barefoot, or to suspend working when thunderstorms were in the area. Whether there's any potential health benefit to grounding your body, I can't say, but I've never heard of that before.

Yes, grounding is real, BUT you don't need a mat to ground, just a patch of grass.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
On the other hand, we were never asked to ... suspend working when thunderstorms were in the area.

Much different than the mat you were using. These earthing products such as mats and sheets are plugging into an electrical outlet and using its ground.

Here are several of Dr. Sinatra's video's:



Sleep Well and Lose Weight | drsinatra.com




Dr. Stephen Sinatra talks about Bioenergetics, Earthing and Grounding

As in, copper bracelet attached to a copper pipe, yes. (Electronics hobby as a kid.)

As in, time with the ocean/nature, also yes.

Time praying/at church, yes.

Time with random rocks/mats…. No.

Man needs a connection with God - but the more “monetized” the connection is, the less likely it is to be valid.

We worshipped in nature, long before churches. (Mount Sinai, etc)

Where's the Bruce Willis/John McClane endorsement?

I think there is an awful lot about the way our bodies work that we have no concept of. I think we understand far less than we think we do and we should have more humility about it all… and I also think people are people are out to make a buck… as someone else mentioned, a patch of grass will do great. I tend to think that is likely the best way to approach any benefit to grounding, and again I say that because we simply don’t know much.

The benefit of grounding, to whatever extent it exists, is likely not solely the “electrical grounding” portion of it, but likely something far more complex and working in some way we have no grasp on whatsoever. I suspect the process is just not about the movement of electrons, but some other process entirely.

I’m open to a lot.

You CANNOT test the effectiveness of your residential ground with a multimeter .

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
You CANNOT test the effectiveness of your residential ground with a multimeter .

I used an outlet tester to make sure the outlet was properly wired.

My test of the mat will be with a grounding rod I pounded six feet deep into the ground.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
You CANNOT test the effectiveness of your residential ground with a multimeter .

I used an outlet tester to make sure the outlet was properly wired.

My test of the mat will be with a grounding rod I pounded six feet deep into the ground.

Trying to understand what you are doing. are you grounding the mat to both the ground rod that you installed plus the 3rd prong house ground?

I would never install an axillary ground rod at my house unless it's tied to the main house ground with a very heavy wire, which is what NEC would require.

if you have 2 separate grounds that are not tied together, then you may create a dangerous situation. Imagine you have your feet on the ground mat tied to your ground rod, and then touch something else like an appliance in your house that's on the house ground. If there is a potential difference between the two grounds, then zap. That's why NEC requires the 2 be tied together with a heavy wire.

How will you measure the soil resistance ? Six feet of ground rod driven into sandy soil is not really a " good ground " .
https://www.testequity.com/pro...tent=Product%20Pages

This is just an example of how complicated " Earthing / Grounding " can actually get .

Oh great, another something which my wife will decide she absolutely requires in order to live another 10 years.

And something which she will push for me to use also.

no offense to the OP as it is probably something that is actually good but my wife and snake oil...

(and yes, she still has magnet bracelets)