In this article we will explore how can humans regenerate body parts using an area of research known as bioelectricity. Also along with this line of inquiry we will discuss what research scientists have done in bioelectricity as a solution to human regeneration.
A lot of research has gone into genetic and stem cell regeneration but bioelectricity has taken a back seat and has not been considered a credible area of research. However, recently some scientists are investigating this more deeply and how it can help in provide real answers to regrowing body parts including the regeneration of lost arms and legs.
Early 1990s
The first time I heard about the possibility of humans regrowing limbs, is in reading about the existence of the etheric body. This was in a book about Out Of Body Experiences and how the authors discussed the existence of this electromagnetic cape that surrounded and interpenetrated the body. Outlining how it can separate from the physical during sleep and in deep meditative states, allowing the consciousness of the person to go in and out of body trip.
It was here that I first came across the research of Dr. Robert O. Becker, whom was scientifically studying the concept of electricity and electromagnetism as part of the make up of the human system. This scientist was an orthopedic surgeon whom advocated and did intense research that electrotherapy can stimulate bone regrowth and tissue regeneration.
Dr Robert O. Becker’s Initial Research
Becker’s original work observed the phenomena known as the “current of injury.” This is the electrical potential that can be measurement of an amputated stump in an animal. When surgically removing a limb from an animal in the lab, he could measure the changes of the electrical patterns at the stump over several days as it went through healing and repair.
In studying the complex regeneration of tissues, Becker was able to identify the repair mechanisms between salamanders and frogs during healing of injuries. Frogs and Salamanders are in the evolutionary genetic stage part, however, salamanders can regrow limbs while frogs are not able to do so.
This shows that frogs have lost the ability to regenerate during the evolutionary process on their genetic journey in the amphibian family tree. The scientist was keen in looking at the electrical changes during the ‘current of injury’ with the stumps of salamanders that could regrow their legs and with frogs who could not.
So Becker would amputate the limbs of salamanders and frogs. He would use electrodes to measure the electrical potential at the point of healing. The frogs would show a positive electrical potential that would eventually drift to a zero or neutral potential as the stump healed over. I created the following diagram to highlight this explanation.

In the case of the salamander, the electrical potential at the stump would be the same like the frog initially. However, this positive polarity, would then switch to a negative vibration during the course of healing. This electrical negative potential would then drift to a zero or neutral point during a period of days, as the salamander grow back a new leg.
So the only real difference in these measurements was that the salamander had a swing of positive to negative potential during limb regeneration. Becker wondered what would happen if artificially inducing a negative electrical potential at the frog’s healing stump would change the outcome of repair.
To Becker’s amazement when he applied this the frog’s amputated stump regrew a new leg!
The Electric Body
This is only a partial glimpse of Robert O. Becker’s research and the reader is highly recommend to read up his significant findings in his book The Electric Body. This book covers 30 years of his research and study of what causes limb regeneration with some species.
Looking at his research I would say the electric body is the reason that amputee’s experience what is know as the ‘phantom limb’ where they still experience the missing body part as still being there after it is lost. It is not an illusion. It is because on the etheric level the body part is still there until the electric body adapts to the new situation. Thus the so-called ‘phantom limb’ experience disappears.
We can photograph this electric body today with Kirlian Photography (invented by a Russian scientist) the can image these energy fields. This has been done with plants where the limb of the plant has been lost, yet the energetic level of the limb is still there.
Unfortunately Becker’s research was largely ignored and shunned by the Scientific Establishment Bureaucracies and ignorant scientists. Along with the battle with the scientific community at large that he and is colleges had to deal with since their research went largely unfunded.
The research in ‘The Electric Body’ was a result of going public with Becker’s findings as he was unable to get his research published and accepted in Scientific papers. His research was published at a time before Stem Cell research became popular and perhaps some aspects of his research is superseded by more recent research. However, his work is clearly ahead of his time in understanding bioelectricity and regeneration.
Becker’s points to the day of organ, spinal cord and limb regeneration. He argues that Electricity is vital to life and an important ingredient in the healing process of all life forms. Becker also gave warnings of electromagnetic pollution (radiation) that we are now experiencing with the mobile (cellular) phones and wireless technologies. This is now becoming of a great concern with increasing number of scientists and the health related issues.
Bioelectricity Reborn

The good news is that more scientists in the field of regeneration are now more sympathetic to research like Becker and how bio-electricity is an important part of the jigsaw in understanding human regeneration.
One such scientist is Michael Levin, whom is the director of Tufts University’s Center for Regeneration and Developmental Biology in Medford near Boston. He believes that bioelectricity will help us find important clues in understanding the regeneration process and he feels that limb regeneration will happen in our lifetimes.
Levin’s research is perhaps little known in the wider community may be due to the fact that most pioneers in regeneration feel that the answers are in genetics and stem cells. Of course such research has led to amazing discoveries and achievements already. Including wind pipes, new bladders, regrowing of finger digits and soon trials will be underway for blood regeneration based on patient’s stem cells.
The later being a powerful solution to blood donor shortages. Plus let us not forget that eventually a patient can have a new organ replacement such as a kidneys regrown in the lab based on the patient’s own stem cells.
Is this all a pipe dream? But why?
- If tadpoles can regrow lost tails;
- If a decapitated flatworm can regrow a new head;
- A lizard can escape its predator by shedding its tail;
- If the axolotl Mexican salamander can regenerate everything from regrowing new limbs, its spinal cord, and even parts of its brain, all without any evidence of scarring.
Then as scientists leading this field of study say, why can’t humans? Even some mammals have the ability to regenerate, such as a reindeer can regrow their shedded antlers. Interestingly, in some cases rats can grow back a new leg that was lost.
Humans do have some regenerative abilities also. For example, young children whom have a slice of their finger tip lost, that finger tip will grow back. This ability in children starts to disappear around the age of 12 and beyond. Medical intervention would be required for adults and now developments with extracellular matrix technologies can now stimulate partial or full regrowth in an adult if the tip of the finger is lost.
However, regenerating a small body part is one thing, but if you want to regrow back a whole lost limb? Perhaps there is a way to regenerate damaged retinal tissues. Or regrow an entire eye?
Well my friends there is a good news on the horizon! Scientists like Michael Levin feel this is where we are heading and does not think this is just science fiction and outlandish fantasy. In fact Levin reflects he may be on the verge of a breakthrough to do just that.
He proposes that the key to regeneration, in helping to unlock the hidden codes, is to be found in the electrical signals that are transmitted among our cells. This is very much like a computer matrix program or a sequencing of binary codes of 1s and 0s stored on a computer hard drive.
In manipulating these signalling pathways he has been able to produce results of four-headed flatworms. Continuing with experiments down the line he could make regeneration in humans a reality.
The Electrical Web Of Life

Michael Liven whom is a Russian scientist born in Moscow, heavily researched Dr Robert O. Becker’s work The Electric Body in his early days and traced down all the papers and findings that the book referenced and documented. The end result was an extensive bibliography study into bioelectricity allowing Levin to have a solid background of the methods and ideas proposed by the handful of open minded scientists that continued this field of study in the 1970s and 80s.
It is strange that electricity has been so badly neglected, because it is the essence of life. You will find it everywhere in our bodies, with ions flowing in and out of our cells. You will see electrical pulses flowing down our nerves. The truth is we are walking talking electric circuit boards.
The significance of electricity is well acknowledged when it comes to our nervous system and the heart processes. However, many scientists still today see this body of research as Frankenstein mind set.
For bioelectricity to be seriously revived into the mainstream (and it is heading there now) would require those whom have a vision and forward thinking, not concerned how their passions would appear to others in their field. In other words, taking a few risks, stick out of the box and not follow convention!
Research at the Levin Lab
At the department of biology in the Levin Lab where Michael Levin and his team, at the Tufts University, we will explore some of their observations in limb regeneration.
Regrowing Body Parts
There are a number of species that can regrow lost limbs, such as the Mexican Axolotl and the lizard can shed its tail when being attacked by a predator. When this happens and it escapes the lizard will regrow its tail again.
Insects like cockroaches, have the remarkable ability to regenerate their legs just like the starfish and lobsters. The Zebrafish can regrow their fins if lost and they can also regenerate their hearts. A deer will regrow its antlers with large amounts of bone, nerve and skin each year.
Regenerating The Same As The Lost Part
Species that can master regeneration do not always regrow with perfection. The salamander is the jewel in the crown that can always regrow a limb with complete perfection every time.
The tadpole however, can regenerate their tails well but with a few missing nerve types. The ultimate heroes that gives the Newt and the Axolotl a serious run for their money in the regeneration competition of perfection would be the Planaria Flatworm.
Scientists have studied them and they can regenerate with complete perfection, they can regrow any part of the body including their head. In a recent article I wrote up about the weird world of the planarian worm, they can regrow their heads while still retaining their memories prior to decapitation!
Regrowing Legs in Young Frogs
Several years ago the Levin Lab were studying the bioelectrical signals that change in the distribution of the cellular resting potentials within a tissue or organ, which allows young tadpoles to regenerate their tails.
The team discovered that two essential components on the surface of the cells at the wound were required to configure a bioelectric state, stimulating regeneration.
A Proton Pump, this pumps hydrogen ions out of the cell surface. A specific Sodium Channel, that allows sodium ions to flow across the cellular membrane.
This bioelectrical state was an important part of the process to allow cells to multiply up to a point where it was enough to rebuild the structure. Along with allowing genes that are important for the regeneration process to be enabled. Allowing the nerves to develop down the correct path of the new growth.
Limb Regeneration in Older Frogs
The work that Levin’s team is doing is to initiate a ‘leg building module.’ Over the past 10 years their research has shown that such modules are encoded in a matrix of cellular resting potentials over the body’s tissues. It is this pattern that holds and determines the encoded data of which organs and tissues are made and their location.
The team first used gene therapy to allow a proton pump build from yeast, which would trigger the regeneration bioelectric state in older tadpoles. Older tadpoles cannot normally regrow their tails. So this method forced the regrowth of tails, complete with the spinal cord.
A medical cocktail of drugs was created that stimulated the same state with gene therapy. Now when they gave the same set of drugs to froglets, they got fascinating results, with the regrowth of hind legs.
Can this be Applied to Humans?
According to Michael Levin’s research the answer is yes. However, there are a number of factors surrounding this research that needed to be addressed and understood first.
Similar animals along with humans share most cellular biology pathways. This includes the pattern formation mechanisms, which is the basic step by step processes, required to regenerate complex body parts such as the heart.
The most fundamental and essential mechanisms of bioelectricity is likely to be similar to.
It was back in 1843 when the physiologist Emil du Bois-Reymond first used a galvanometer to measure currents in human skin and wounds. Since then they have been used for hundreds of experiments on animals by scientists.
Levin’s team points out that these currents play an important role in healing.
In important collaboration work with other scientists that Dr. Levin works with at Tufts University. It was discovered that the resting potentials across the cell’s surface can control how they can differentiate into other types of cells.
However, the real power of this approach is not in how single cells are controlled, but an insight into how bioelectric communications among large groupings of cells, are directing the growth of complex structures.
What is needed for Humans Regrowing Lost Limbs?
There are two things needed.
- Hacking the bioelectric matrix binary code, which will allow scientists to understand the mapping of bioelectrical patterns into the development of specific organs. The goal is now to figure out these patterns that are encoded with the instructions of ‘making a limb’ signals.
- A potential delivery vehicle is needed that will impose the right bioelectric states on the cells in the wound or injury. So the road map ahead, that would eventually allow regrowing of lost limbs in humans is to figure out the correct signaling and then imposing the right delivery vehicle.
A delivery vehicle would be a wearable bioreactor that creates an aqueous environment like amniotic fluid. Thus allowing appropriate ion currents causing the injury to be stimulated into regeneration.

In perfecting the signaling, this would someday allow this to be used in serious limb injuries, most likely starting with regrowing fingers, toes, hands and feet.
Other Scientists Working In This Area
There are very few scientists working in this area of bioelectrical research for human regeneration but this will likely change. One particular group of scientists in Scotland have been working with bioelectrical systems in limb regeneration research.
Dr Ann Rajnicek at Aberdeen University points out that the importance of the role of electricity of regeneration and tissue repair has been greatly overlooked by researchers. She and her team have been demonstrating the effects electricity has with flatworms.
She also points out that if you try to sell the idea of the importance of electricity for research into regeneration then you get a cool response from funding agencies.
Most of the those approval organizations providing the funding, want to stay away from bioelectricity in fear of “pseudo” science and feel the answers lay in biochemical mechanisms.
I will likely do a separate article in the future about Dr Rajnicek’s research and other scientists like her.
Final Thoughts…
What are your thoughts on this article? Are you a Scientist? Do you agree with this area of research and is it something that deserves bigger focus and recognition in the pursuit of science?
Leave your comments below. I love to hear from you.
Hello. I am very much happy to hear about regeneration of body parts through bioelectric. I am really sorry that i am not a scientist not even a doctor. I am just a mother of 6 year old boy who lost half of his great left toe while running inside the house, and crushed by the suddenly closing door. We have restored stem cells also but of no use. May be he was too young 3 year old when he lost his half toe. We live in India.
Could u please help anyway in this regard.
Thank you.
Hi Shashikala,
I am sorry about your little boy’s injury. Can you discuss what short of damage his toe experienced? If some of the nail is still remaining then he may be eligible for the use of Extracellular Matrix (ECM) in Powder form. Pig’s bladder has ECM in great abundance and so scientists extract it from the bladder of a pig and strip out remains of pig DNA and just left with the matrix. They can then use this in a variety of uses from scaffolding techniques to regeneration of finger tips.
I wrote up about some of this research here. However, this technology only works to stimulate regrowth of finger tips (and I assume toes as well) providing some of the nail bed is still there. If too much of the digit has been lost beyond the nail and certainly beyond the first joint, then this technology will not work.
In any case it would be up to Physician to determine if it will work. Also not all surgeons are aware and/or trained in the new technology.
Please get back to me when you have read this and I will see if there are some potential contacts whom can give you more information.
Thank you for reaching out to me and I will do my best to help.
Thanks,
Alexander.
Hi Shashikala, feels sorry to hear about your son, but one great news i too live in India and there is one Doctor in India who can help you, he has regenerated one toe of person who lost it due to Diabetes, and has experience doing this,
His name is Dr. B. M. Hegde
B. M. Hegde is an Indian medical scientist, educationist and author. He is a retired Vice Chancellor of the Manipal University and the head of the Mangalore Chapter of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
He got Padma Bhushan (2010)
Please approach this great person he will be able to help you…..
You can try to use this system: http://www.google.com/patents/US5814094 I use it on a post operative wound, it seems to work well but it is a hassle. You take a battery, take the correct voltage for the wound (check a voltage divider circuit, buy a breadboard), apply the Silver wound dressings (from Argentum Medical, they have even for digits), and follow the instructions. Wires on toes will be difficult with a small child but like we say, where there is a will there is a path.
Hi, I am a fan of Robert O Beckers work and this is the first time I have come accross anyone who has carried on the work. There is a lot more potential in this research than just limb regeneration, it is the most probable route of extending life indefinitely through regeneration in general. I would like to know who the researcher in Scotland is and what results she might have come across.
Many thanks
Raki
Hi Raki,
Thank you for your thoughts on the work of Robert O Becker’s research and for reading my article. Becker’s material is now starting to get a lot more recognition in this field of human regeneration. I have updated my article to refer to the scientist in Scotland that you were asking about.
Dr Ann Rajnicek from Aberdeen University is a strong advocate of the important of electricity has to play in tissue repair and regrowth. I have included the article from the UK Daily Mail below where they covered this research.
Frankenstein’s dream brought to life as scientists say electricity could be used to regrow limbs
If you need any further information please let me know and I would be happy to help. What kind of research are you focusing on? Do you specialize in regenerative medicine or another field?
Thanks,
Alexander.
I really mean it, this research is the most important and fundamental research that needs to be done, the implications are much much greater than even Becker realised. It’s absolutely incredible that no more real progress has been made, but humans are like lemmings I guess and tend to all run in the same direction
I agree with you, this research is very important and it is really good that scientists are giving it more recognition now. Also another important factor is the phenomena known as phantom limb syndrome. Where the amputee still feels the limb and sensation after it is lost. This also includes pain, tingling and burning sensations. The idea that it is their imagination is not correct and I think it can be proven.
Limb regeneration and the etheric body could be an important key of understanding how Bioelectricity plays an important part in human regeneration. Another important part is photographing using the Kirlian method, which has been tested with plants. Perhaps the same could be done to humans immediately after injury? I will be writing up a separate article about all this.
The AXION micro5 is an FDA CLass II device, approved since 1991. We are strong supporters of Becker’s work as well as Wing’s and Cheng. Learn more at http://www.axionmicro.com
Thank you Joseph for sharing this information and yes Becker’s work is very important. Hopefully more researchers and entrepreneurs will come forward with their ideas and inventions to break the mold in research and development.
Hii my name is Ankur
I m not a scientist or doctor
But regeneration of body part is my dream
I would like thnx to u for giving this knowledge
Hi Ankur,
Thank you so much for your nice compliments and thoughts! It is my heartfelt passion to make this a reality in our lifetimes. I can then have comfort knowing that I have helped made the world a better place, playing some part in contributing to making this a reality. So we can be in a better place to help people regenerate transforming their lives.
This website is made for people whom have had such life changing traumatic injuries. It is important to think big and dream big as that is where true success operates, the risks are higher but the rewards are even greater.
Blessings to you and please do keep in touch here, a new free sign up form for Human Limb Regeneration will be available soon as a way for people to stay in touch and receive free updates.
Thanks,
Alexander.
This is fabulous! I’ve read Becker’s “The Body Electric” (written in 1985!) and was so disappointed his work wasn’t taken seriously and funded. We should be a lot further along than we are but it seems science is being a bit egotistical in thinking human intervention (e.g. surgery) is required. As I recall, even sutures intefered with Becker’s gut regeneration experiments! I think bio electricity must be part of the answer to regeneration. As you said, “It is strange that electricity has been so badly neglected, because it is the essence of life.” Perhaps not so strange when one considers there’s more $ to be made in surgery and pills.
Hi Marjorie,
Thank you for your thoughts on Becker’s work into human regeneration. I believe he had lots of issues with getting the establishment to take his work seriously and he commented that he was being undermined or even sabotaged.
His work is truly profound as it gives the Scientific basis of how psychic and healing phenomena can occur, such as acupuncture. I think other scientists have shown that the meridians that flow through the body can be seen on the computer screen using a special method.
Unfortunately the current scientific establishment seems more focused and only interest in funding scientists whom would support the big pharmacy who make millions. So yes you are absolutely right.
Perhaps one day scientists can fund their work independently without relying on government grants, who may have a taboo of certain areas of research if a scientist wants to go down a particular path.
Thanks,
Alexander.
Hi, I don’t get why Levin gets so much credit since Becker proved human limb regeneration could be done (AFAIK fingers and huge wounds were healed perfectly with the silver micro current system). Is it because of the Flexner report in 1901 that everything non dealing with drug therapy was discredited? In other words the pharma industry got carte blance?
I was given Lovenox for a blood disease and began allergic to it which resulted in HIT. I lost my left leg above the knee and my four little toes on the foot. I had to have my blood cleaned from the antigens from the Lovenox 17 times. I had a 5% chance to live. I feel my whole leg and my toes but they are now there. Can you help me?
I was given Lovenox for a blood disease and became allergic to it after 2 1/2 yrs, which resulted in HIT. I lost my left leg above the knee and my four little toes on the right foot. I had to have my blood cleaned 17 times to remove the antigens and I am still positive 2 1/2 years later. I had a 5% chance to live. I can feel my whole leg and my toes but they are not there. Can you help me? It has been a living hell and I lost my mom two weeks after being let out of hospital. I was there for 6 months.
Hiii my name is Karthik I’m not a doctor or medicine student,I’m a electrical student.I would like to congrats for ur great and useful research.im so happy because of knowing that regeneration of limbs and body parts.Because I lost my half of my toe while doing journey in bus,when I went to hospital and asked doctor is it possible to regenerate of my toe, he said no I was searching for this answer from past 3 yrs unfortunately I saw a TV show of sci- Fi science about regrowth of fingers and toes by using ECM powder from pig bladder, and knowing about regeneration of body parts from you with the of this website. I would like to thank u for sharing this knowledge to everyone and I wish this technology has to come available in everywhere and for everyone as soon as possible..
Thank u
Karthik.
Hi,
My mother is a diabetic patient and two weeks ago her second toe from her right foot was amputated due to a broken glass injury. I would like to know if using one of the powders mentioned can regrow her toe?
Hello, I’m Seth. I will start by saying that this is a very inspiring read! I’m not a doctor, or physician, or even an electrician. I am interested in human health and the body’s ability to heal and regenerate itself. That being said, The Electric Body and electromagnetism appears to be the most fruitful field of study.
I’m a Reiki practitioner. That alone is enough to bring out some skepticism, but I believe there is something to it. I’ve never thought of Reiki as God moving through me. Instead, I feel that Reiki somehow incorporates electromagnetic fields around living beings. Utilizing these fields consciously and properly can stimulate the body into healing itself.
Thanks again for the read! I can’t wait to see what the future holds in terms of limb regeneration technology!
Sincerely,
Seth
I believe this is possible similar research has been done with acupuncture showing electric fields . I am not in the medical profession. I think this work deserves some attention.
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for your comment and those are interesting points you made. Acupuncture is certainly related to the research into Bioelectricity and effecting the meridian lines around the body. Where these electrical flows intersect you get a vortex.
I believe that Dr. Robert O. Becker acknowledged acupuncture as part of his work. And I think acupuncture and the meridian lines act very similar to a computer circuit or motherboard and the acupuncture needle is like the soldering iron used to repair the motherboard where the electrical circuits are not flowing correctly.
This is one way of looking at it. Plus also looking at research into the etheric body.
I do agree with you more research needs to be done into the bioelectric side of the human and not just the genetics.
The good news is that more scientists are starting to look at the bioelectric aspect of the human for regeneration.
Here are some articles where I discuss research on regrowing limbs and body parts with bioelectricity:
Has Human Limb Regeneration Arrived? Scientists Regrow Frogs Legs Wearing A Bioreactor Device
New Insights Into Cell Regeneration and Bioelectric Communication
How Can Humans Regenerate Body Parts With Bioelectricity?
Let me know if you have any further ideas, information or comments on this. I will certainly be writing more about the electric fields.
Thanks,
Alexander.
I would like to help with research on bioelectricity.
i made my visit to this website when i got really optimisitc and interested to the bright side of regeneration process ,i was wondering with this non-parchialistic idea on next-generation sequencing of axolotls gene which enables it to regrowth of its spine and some brain parts. i wondered if cross species genetics works , this scaffold would be really amazing in human trials.
sir alexander , i was really impressed by your works and contribution towards regeneration with bioelectricity . and sir i am just a teenage kid of age 14 and wanna link with your through conversation and i’m willing to seek as much expertise from you. and sir please converse and send research papers to my mail.and if you saw this writting ,please send a start conversation message or a “hi” to my mail .
sir ,i’m bharani kumaaran studying class 9. my mail account is “bharanihopes@gmail . com”
i wonder what i should fill in the website. i just copy pasted another website link cause i didnt make my own website except in Html . so sir i pardon for this wrong doing of coping another website link.
I’m reading “Going Somewhere: Truth About a Life in Science,” by Dr. Marino. Biology seems to be catching up, they found the little capacitance organelle…turns out it was some symbiotic prokaryote! I imagine regrowing tissue takes a beautiful cocktail of phospholipids, nucleotides, and a regular carbon-rich primordial soup. But, the key thing you cannot get away from is the tremendous requirement for energy *Strongly Declarative Music* MITOCHONDRIA!!! The original generation process is done in a sensory deprivation environment, why not the regeneration process? I can see a beautifully crafted sensory deprivation tank, highly salinated, with the primordial goop and electrodes. This is the twenty-first century, damnit! Why don’t we have this technology? Or do we?