Project Vision 21

There is little doubt about the importance of dialogue—real dialogue, the kind that opens new horizons, not merely a succession of alternating monologues—in the present and future lives of human beings. Yet there is a dialogue that is seldom discussed in everyday life: the dialogue between the heart and the brain.

In the seventeenth century, Blaise Pascal observed that “the heart has reasons that reason does not understand” (Pensées, 277). And in the last century, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in The Little Prince that “One sees clearly only with the heart; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” In this century, scientific studies seem to confirm the intuitions of both the philosopher and the writer.

For example, the report Science of the Heart (HeartMath Institute, 2015) maintains that there is a “continuous bidirectional communication” between the heart and the brain, described as “a dynamic, ongoing, two-way dialogue in which each organ continuously influences the function of the other” (Volume 2, Chapter 1).

The document explains that the heart communicates with the brain at neurological, biochemical, biophysical, and electromagnetic levels. And this communication (which largely flows from the heart to the brain) has a direct influence on our perception of reality and on our behavior—something firmly established by physiological studies.

From this perspective, the “heart” is not merely an organ that pumps blood nor a metaphorical reference to feelings or emotions. Rather, it is the threshold between perception and action, the point at which understanding becomes grounded in relationship with others. Its dialogue with the brain deserves our full attention.

This perspective led me to reflect on the concept of the “open heart,” which, together with the “open mind” and “open hands,” forms part of the fundamental disposition in Theory U, a theory of change developed and disseminated by Otto Scharmer (MIT). In Theory U, the “open heart” represents an affective reorientation toward empathic resonance.

When this reorientation occurs at the cognitive level (“open mind”), habitual judgment is suspended. When it occurs at the level of the will (“open hand”), the capacity to act from the emerging future is activated.

In other words, the open heart enables an empathic awareness that, in turn, makes it possible to be present to the opportunity that is emerging. Human transformation, therefore, occurs when cognition (brain) ceases to dominate and becomes integrated with relational attunement (heart) and contextualized intention (hand, body, will).

And everything begins with a constant dialogue between the heart and the brain. We are not losing heart–brain communication; biologically, that would be impossible. But I would venture to suggest that we are losing our ability to listen to the integrative signals of that dialogue.

Chronic stress, hyper-cognitive environments, digital overstimulation, and emotional suppression, among other factors, disrupt autonomic regulation and emotional–cognitive integration.          

Our deep and ancient internal dialogue has become dysregulated. We find ourselves disoriented, increasingly unable to create meaning or to understand reality.