This is an original writing by me (@JimmyMack). This is the long version for those who want to know about the dangers of earthing devices in greater detail. It’s a bit technical, but written so most can follow it with ease while learning some important stuff.
As an Electrical Engineer, I have done several years of research into protecting myself from EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) and EMFs (Electromagnetic Frequencies). I have been electro-sensitive for the past few years, and have a constant ringing in my ears while home. While my colleagues say it's Tinitis from exposure to these fields over the course of my career, I would say it is because I have a much higher sense of awareness as I have raised in consciousness, and thus more sensitive to unnatural frequencies. I think most people, especially children are, but don’t know it.
Earthing in it's simple form is to have a physical body connection to the earth. If you walk barefoot through the grass or in a creek bed, you're earthing. Going barefoot is quite possibly the healthiest activity you can do. Think about this: The soles of your feet have nerve endings that connect to every organ in your body (research: reflexology). When you stand on the earth barefoot, you connect your whole body system to the very much living being known as Mother Gaia (Earth's spiritual name). If You've seen the movie Avatar, you'll remember when the blue people plug their hair braids into the tree of soles. We're kind of doing that to a degree. Mother Gaia has a heartbeat called commonly known as the Schumann Resonance. It is physically tracked and the data displayed a few websites, one in particular - The Heart Math Institute. Gaia is a VERY powerful being, more powerful than we know...and more powerful than we give acknowledgment and thanks for. We live on this earth and everything physical including our bodies comes from her, so it's not hard to understand that when we connect to her physically, we can exchange energies, re-balance and heal ourselves.
Ok, here's the premise of the post: When I discovered products such as earthing bed sheets and pads (which in the case of sheets are cotton fabric with fine silver threads woven throughout. A clip or metallic button snaps onto a cable, then connects to the earth ground in a nearby AC outlet. The 2 blades for the hot/black and neutral/white are missing, so it's only the 3rd round prong that is connected. Now, understand this: Within the wiring of a typical modern home or office, the earth ground is bare copper and passes through a buss in the breaker box where all of the bare earth wires are bonded together. That buss is connected to an 8' copper ground rod that is driven deep into the ground somewhere outside, usually the meter. In many cases, another line from that buss connects to the nearest copper water pipe. A typical AC circuit requires two conductors to function - 1) always a 'hot' wire which comes FROM the power company, and 2) a neutral which RETURNS TO the power company. 2A) a ground wire also does the work of the neutral but instead of returning to the power company via all of the wire and overhead lines, it uses the earth to find it's way back to the source, thus completing the circuit rather magically. This is why touching an energized hot wire and also touching earth in any way will shock the hell out of you, because you are part of the circuit as it gets completed. If you were wearing Crocs, thus insulating yourself, you wouldn't feel a thing.
The earth ground serves a vital function however - to take overloads and shorted circuits immediately away and diffuse them into the earth right nearby. A lightning strike is a common example of where the earth ground wiring does its job. THE EARTH GROUND CIRCUIT SHOULD BE A SEPARATE INDEPENDENT SYSTEM NOT CONNECTED TO THE POWER COMPANY.
Here's where we start having problems... First (considering all of the wiring is correct), most state, county and city electrical codes require electricians to bond the neutral and the bare copper earth grounding busses together in the breaker box. It's done by a jumper or a little green screw that makes the bond if screwed in tight. Again, since the neutral and earth ground can serve as the return to source, Why would they require this? Their take: because it physically works and keeps the neutral from being heavily burdened by sharing some of the round trip with the earth. (*In the early days of AC electricity, the utility companies used undersized neutrals in the grid, and with more and more circuits, light bulbs and appliances being made available, it was very common to have utility fires on poles as the undersized neutrals burned up, so they found a more convenient way to complete the circuit.) My Take: Complete disregard and ignorance for polluting the earth (and us) with stray voltage and signals.
A few years ago a Wisconsin dairy put an urgent request on the internet asking for any insight as to why their cows stopped producing milk all at the same time. After posting more details to readers questions, an electrical engineer stepped forward to pay a visit to the dairy. He found that a recently installed milking machine was wired backward and was injecting a little bit of voltage into the ground around the area. The cows were being electrocuted just slightly but it was enough of an un-natural event that it triggered a hormonal response to stop producing milk. Interesting that could happen to an animal with hooves. Unfortunately, little trickles of voltage are being leaked into the ground all throughout a power grid - which is practically everywhere. Can you guess what the main culprit is? Yep, it's the neutral-ground bond sending just a trickle of voltage into the earth though any grounding device (like an 8' copper grounding rod). It is becoming more common to see a 'trickle' of 1/2 volt or as high as 4 volts (not anywhere close to feeling a zap from it). That little trickle contains not only voltage, but disharmonic frequencies.
With the nationwide government mandated rollout of the so called 'smart grid', most power companies in the US have upgraded their infrastructure to allow the transmission of all sorts of data using the existing power lines, which go right into your home, through the walls, floors and ceilings - any place a wire is connected to the system. I won't speak of the smart meter issue here as it's a whole post unto itself, but will say that they are a big part of the problem and have been proven to cause many problems to many people. Doing some basic web searches for the problems associated these meters will reveal a tremendous amount of discussion...and controversy over the potentially sinister use of the smart grid by our government.
This new data transmission system allows the power company to become a massive computer network. Data is transmitted back and forth relaying information such as usage for billing (no more meter readers), system status, fault repair, etc. This is called powerline communication or broadband over powerline. Sounds pretty cool and efficient aye? Several cities are now offering blazing fast internet service (again, right over the existing power lines). Now, let's move to the customer to tie this all together.
Today, many of the powered devices and some appliances found in the average home actually contribute to creating dirty electricity. Common everyday items like computers, TVs, monitors, stereos, internet routers, phone chargers, all sorts of appliances, compact fluorescent and LED bulbs, all add to the problem. They basically create junk noise that disrupts the natural harmony and order in an electrical signal. Here's an example as to this happens:
You plug a cell phone charger into the outlet and the household AC current is converted to DC which is the type of current almost all devices with rechargeable batteries require. You can see a visible representation of AC electricity on a special scope. In a clean electrical system, you would see a sine wave pattern that looks like a roller coaster. Perfect symmetrical lines and curves, troughs and crests. This is the carrier wave. Looking at DC current, you would see a square wave - a sine wave with squared hard right angles - up, right, down, right, up. No curves. As it turns out, those two waves don't mix well, so when converting the sine wave of AC into the square wave of DC, it creates disharmony represented by a sine wave with lots of spiky lines jumping up and down kind of like hairs, simply speaking. LED and CFL lightbulbs may be more energy efficient than conventional bulbs, but they are some of the worst contributors to the problem for the same reason as above: convert AC to DC through a transformer at the base of the bulb. Since we share the same wiring infrastructure with our neighbors, street and entire subdivision, and we all create dirty electricity, we share it with each other. The more devices of this nature plugged into the system, the dirtier the electricity becomes. Multiply the number of chargers, bulbs, devices, TVs, hair dryers, blenders, power supplies, etc. by the millions, each polluting in its own way, then factor in the injection of data, frequencies and God knows what else the power company adds to a system where they don't belong, then you might comprehend just how toxic the grid has become.
So, the power companies are partly at fault through their greed, intention, misinformation and lack of concern, and the customer is partly at fault for just as much if not more pollution, albeit through lack of knowledge and sometimes ignorance.
So, about that earthing sheet (or any similar intended product), you plug it in and connect to the ground......which is CONNECTED TO THE NEUTRAL..... See where I'm going with this??? You crawl under the sheet for a great healthy night of grounding sleep. But wait, you're now BATHING in toxic electro-sludge. All of those dis-harmonic and stray frequencies from one end of the spectrum to the other - MegaHertz and GigaHertz, all penetrating every cell in your body at extremely close range. You're literally cocooned in that poison. I wouldn't be surprised at all if prolonged use causes MegaHurts in you.
I can't write about the problem without presenting the following potential solution (albeit not always): The proper way to earth while inside your home is to place or install a separate conductive ground rod into the ground away from the other one (as far away as you can get from any electrical meter or panel on your property (including your neighbors). A length of copper wire would connect to the rod with a clamp of some sort, and enter your building through a drilled hole, window opening, etc., and terminate to your device. Using this method could be a major step for the better...however there's one final catch… Stray currents and frequencies are being put into the earth and radiate through it. Even moving to the furthest point on your property away from your electrical system may start to encroach on your neighbor’s, therefore it’s nearly impossible to escape it unless you live in rural America and have a lot of property where you can get far enough away from power systems and lines. The further away you go from the concentration, the safer it could be.
Ultimately, the best and safest place to ground is by going to a lake shore, beach, forest, mountains, creek – anywhere in nature without a lot of power nearby. Walking barefoot through a community park is considerably safer than using a product plugged into your home. My advice: skip the devices and double your time barefoot in nature.