Improved pacing thresholds for capturing the heart are achieved by forming a discontinuity in the cardiac tissue of the heart chamber, disposing a pacing electrode at a distance less than a space constant of the cardiac tissue from the discontinuity in the cardiac tissue, and applying a stimulus of a first polarity at an energy insufficient to cause the directly stimulated tissue adjacent to the pacing electrode to propagate a depolarization wave through the cardiac tissue mass of the heart chamber but sufficient to induce a transmembrane potential change at the tissue adjacent to the discontinuity that results in a propagated wave front. Thus, pacing energy is advantageously reduced.