Dge Cience: You, Too, Might Be Surprised

Edge Science
Number 4 July–September 2010
Current Research and Insights
You, too, might be surprised

to learn that the
motions of the
pendulum are not
entirely explained,
that the human
aura is not just new
age mumbo jumbo,
that a mind can
affect a machine,
that good evidence
exists for
reincarnation,
and that some
UFOs may actually
pose a threat
to aviation safety.
A publication
of the Society
for Scientific
Exploration
EdgeScience #4
July–September 2010
EdgeScience is a quarterly magazine.
Print copies are available from
edgescience.magcloud.com.
For further information, see edgescience.org
CONTENTS
3
Email: edgescience@gmail.com
THE OBSERVATORY
Why EdgeScience? Because, contrary to public The Latest Challenge
perception, scientific knowledge is still full of Billy Cox
unknowns. What remains to be discovered — what
4
we don’t know — very likely dwarfs what we do
know. And what we think we know may not be
entirely correct or fully understood. Anomalies, which
LETTERS
researchers tend to sweep under the rug, should be Readers React to “HIV Does Not Cause AIDS”
actively pursued as clues to potential breakthroughs
and new directions in science.
Publisher: The Society for Scientific Exploration

Editor: Patrick Huyghe
FeatureS
5
Associate Editors: Dick Blasband,
Dominique Surel
Swinging Anomalies
Book Review Editor: P.D. Moncreif Originally proving Earth rotation,
Contributors: Billy Cox, Brenda J. Dunne, Thomas Foucault pendulums now seem
M. Dykstra, Robert G. Jahn, Peter Sturrock, Jim to detect Moon motion
Tucker, René Verreault, Bernard O. Williams René Verreault
Design: Smythtype Design
9
The Society for Scientific Exploration (SSE)
is a professional organization of scientists and Insects and the Speed of Smell Problem
scholars who study unusual and unexplained Thomas M. Dykstra
phenomena. The primary goal of the Society is to
14
provide a professional forum for presentations,
criticism, and debate concerning topics which are
for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately
The Effects of Human Intention on a
within mainstream science. A secondary goal is to Machine Named Murphy
promote improved understanding of those factors Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne
that unnecessarily limit the scope of scientific
17
inquiry, such as sociological constraints, restrictive
world views, hidden theoretical assumptions,
and the temptation to convert prevailing theory
Imaging the Human Energy Field
into prevailing dogma. Topics under investigation Bernard O. Williams
cover a wide spectrum. At one end are apparent
anomalies in well established disciplines. At the
20
other, we find paradoxical phenomena that belong
to no established discipline and therefore may REFERENCE POINT
offer the greatest potential for scientific advance On Memories of Previous Lives
and the expansion of human knowledge. The
SSE was founded in 1982 and has approximately
A review by Jim Tucker of Satwant K. Pasricha ‘s Can the
800 members in 45 countries worldwide. The Mind Survive Beyond Death? In Pursuit of Scientific Evidence
Society also publishes the peer-reviewed Journal
of Scientific Exploration, and holds annual Sidebar: A Scientist Who Now Knows If Human Personality
meetings in the U.S. and biennial meetings in Survives Death Patrick Huyghe
23
Europe. Associate and student memberships
are available to the public.To join the Society,
or for more information, visit the website at The Other Unknowns Patrick Huyghe
scientificexploration.org.
24
President: William Bengston, St. Joseph’s College
Vice-President: Bob Jahn, Princeton University BACKSCATTER
Secretary: Mark Urban-Lurain, Michigan State Three Laws of Intellectual Motion
University Peter Sturrock
Treasurer: John Reed
European Coordinator: Erling Strand,
Østfold College, Norway
Cover image © Matt Collingwood
Copyright © 2010 Society for Scientific Exploration
EDGESCIENCE #4 • JULY–SEPTEMBER 2010 / 3
{ THE OBSERVATORY|
Billy Cox
The Latest Challenge

T en years ago, Richard Haines, former chief of the Space
Human Factors Office for NASA/Ames Research Center,
produced a groundbreaking and largely ignored report called
c ourses, 20 others crossed aircraft flight paths, 24 pilots took
evasive action, and three encounters in the 1950s resulted in
passenger injury. And in the mysterious 1978 case of Frederick
“Aviation Safety in America: A Previously Neglected Factor.” Valentich, both plane and pilot vanished altogether.
Built upon detailed case studies of 56 near misses involving Most troubling to NARCAP executive director Ted Roe
UFOs going back half a century, Haines argued that pilots are the ones that don’t show up on radar, especially the spheres.
attempting to avoid collisions might well overcorrect, with Roe analyzed 120 cases, 44 of which involved spheres over
catastrophic results. U.S. territory Only four of those 44 were painted by ground
Haines’ research evolved into the National Aviation Re- radar, but 15 were categorized as near misses. In four cases,
porting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), and pilots switched on their landing or taxi lights to alert oncom-
in a semantic effort to veer away from the loaded UFO term, ing spheres to their presence. “Given the low survival rate of
his team of volunteer analysts — which include pilots, air traf- aircrews experiencing mid-air collisions and the reported ra-
fic controllers, aviation administrators — agreed on a new ac- dar transparency of many spherical UAP,” Roe warned in his
ronym: UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena. report, “it can not be said with certainty that UAP have not
In April, NARCAP released a 154-page monster follow- been primary factors in past catastrophic air crashes.”
up entitled “Spherical UAO Activity: A Critical Review,” Many of these cases have been on file for decades, but as
which should be mandatory reading for Seth Shostak, Paul NARCAP investigators Carlos Guzman and Alphonso Salazar
Davies, Stephen Hawking, and all the other media favorites report, near-miss spheres dogged airliners over Mexico as re-
who keep trying to convince the public there’s no scientific cently as January. There’s plenty of material here. But getting
UFO data to evaluate. Cautious and restrained, this “Proj- people to take a look is another matter.
ect Sphere” report takes a remarkable look at one of the most “While a proactive approach toward UAP and aviation
commonly reported UFO configurations on the books, sec- safety may cost money and even political support from certain
ond only to discs. Whether seen as glowing balls of nocturnal political bodies,” writes Haines, “can the ongoing state of in-
light or metallic orbs at high noon, the highly maneuverable action and passivity toward the problem of UAP really be justi-
spheres are complicated by their often elusive signatures on ra- fied? If the governments of Chile, France, Peru, and Uruguay
dar scopes, their dazzling spontaneity, and sometimes adverse can establish official study commissions (made up of civil avia-
effects on onboard electronics. NARCAP explores all possible tion, academic, military aviation, and private organizations) to
explanations for these objects, including natural phenomena, investigate the safety implications of UAP, why can’t the USA,
such as plasmas and ball lighting. England, Germany and others?”
The report contains technical reports from a cast of 16 Noting how pilots routinely undergo simulator training
international contributors, one being Dominique Weinstein for relatively rare events such as wind shear, Haines argues
of the French National Center for Space Studies’ UFO study, it’s illogical for the FAA to ignore the documented UAP haz-
GEIPAN. He analyzed 300 cases of unidentified aerial phe- ards. “NARCAP believes that enough is known about the
nomena (UAP) activity reported across the world by military ‘usual’ flight behavior of UAP to be able to plan an effective
and civilian pilots from 1947-2007. In support of NARCAP’s special pilot recurrency flight training curriculum for use in
contention that these encounters pose flight-safety hazards, airline flight simulators,” Haines writes.
Weinstein addresses 39 incidents, or 14 percent, involving Oh really? This is the part where, were this any other is-
electromagnetic effects. Specifically, 15 planes lost some form sue, you’d expect the usual aviation experts to chime in. Except
of UHF/VHF radio communication; nine had their magnetic they won’t. They’ll just ignore it. As usual. Because they can.
compasses screwed up, including one that showed two com- “Knowledge isn’t knowledge unless there’s a social sanc-
passes pointing in opposite directions; seven automatic radio- tion for it,” says Roe. “So this is an experiment, really. Science
compasses went haywire; six planes experienced engine prob- is a slow process.”
lems; five reported varying levels of weapons-system failure; Given our recent history, it’ll take a major accident to grab
and three logged general electrical issues. In all but two cases, anybody’s attention.
the effects were temporary, as systems returned to normal
when the UAP left the vicinity. Eighty seven percent of these BILLY COX is a reporter for the Herald Tribune in Sarasoga, Florida. His
encounters occurred at cruising altitude. Radar data confir- blog, De Void, is “the mainstream media’s lonely UFO web log.” Says
mation, or lack thereof, was available for 146 reports. Eighty Cox: “When I started De Void I was naïve enough to think I could offer
one of those incidents generated radar data, with 15 reflecting myself as a sacrificial bridge across which the mainstream media would
both ground and air radar coverage. stroll and open up a new frontier. It’s three years later, and not one has
Weinstein identified 122 cases involving potential avia- walked across that bridge yet.”
tion safety. Thirty-four incidents involved UAP on collision
4 / EDGESCIENCE #4 • JULY–SEPTEMBER 2010
{ LETTERS |
Readers React to “HIV Does Not Cause AIDS”
Henry Bauer’s HIV denialist article rehashes the Henry Bauer responds:
same old, worn out allegations that have been I’ve studied scientific controversies for more than 30
floating around the Internet for decades. It is years. That’s how I became interested in HIV/AIDS.
true that there are unanswered questions about For about a decade it interested me purely as an-
HIV/AIDS (and many other diseases), but other example of a controversy. Then I came
to deny what has been clearly established across an assertion that couldn’t be true if
based on opinion rather than scientific the mainstream position was correct, and I
evidence is hardly convincing. Bauer’s ref- checked the cited source fully expecting to
erences, for the most part, are to his and discredit that assertion. I was astonished to
other HIV-skeptic publications rather than find, instead, that the published data on HIV
the volumes of scientific studies conducted tests prove the mainstream view to be wrong.
over the past 30 years. In fact, more than a few The letters from Murphy and LeBlanc are typical emo-
of his unreferenced assertions are notably incorrect (see tional outbursts instead of substantive discussion that we
below). Either denialists like Bauer choose to ignore the facts, AIDS Rethinkers and HIV Skeptics face from defenders of
or they truly do not know or understand them. the orthodoxy. Why don’t Murphy and LeBlanc say explicitly
If facts are not important to Bauer, I suggest that he spend what I’ve got wrong in my book, The Origin, Persistence and
some time at a community-based AIDS service organization. Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory? Up to now no one has. Indeed,
I challenge him to look into the eyes of a woman dying of the CDC wrote that I am correct about the regularities and
AIDS who has been infected by an HIV-positive partner and trends displayed in the data.
tell her that HIV is not sexually transmitted. I challenge him Murphy rehashes the same old, worn out, undocument-
to speak with a nurse who contracted HIV from a needle stick ed anecdotes that have been floating around the Internet for
and tell her that there are “no authenticated cases” of occupa- decades. She cannot cite tests approved to diagnose HIV in-
tional exposure. I challenge him to tell the late tennis player fection because there are none; that purported woman with
Arthur Ashe’s widow that he did not develop AIDS as a result an “HIV-positive” partner dying of AIDS could not know
of a blood transfusion with HIV-contaminated blood. I chal- that her partner is HIV-infected–no one could. There are no
lenge him to talk to someone with AIDS who was on the brink authenticated cases of needle-stick HIV infections, so again
of death before beginning “toxic” antiretroviral therapy, who Murphy tells a story instead of citing a documented case.
now is well and holding down a job. And finally, I challenge Duesberg (Inventing the AIDS Virus) and others have pointed
Bauer to confront a woman who bore a child infected with out that hemophiliacs did not experience increased mortality
HIV, because she did not know she was HIV positive and had in the AIDS era until they were fed AZT. Root-Bernstein (Re-
no access to therapy when she was pregnant, and tell her that thinking AIDS: The Tragedy of Premature Consensus) empha-
HIV is “not infectious.” sized that people receive blood transfusions when they are at
As someone who has worked in HIV/AIDS at the Feder- death’s door, without any help from “HIV.” Murphy should
al, state, and local levels since the beginning of the epidemic, I have been at the Rethinking AIDS conference (http://ra2009.
believe it is the HIV denialists themselves who have “damaged org/) to look in the eyes of Lindsey Nagel’s parents, who res-
the health of untold numbers of people.” It is time to stop cued their “HIV-positive” daughter from AZT poisoning by
beating this horse to death and move on. rejecting orthodox opinion and hiding from the HIV/AIDS
—Judy Murphy police. Murphy could also have met many gay men who cred-
Olympia, Washington it their present good health to avoiding antiretroviral drugs
Judy Murphy is a former Deputy Director of Communica- while watching friends succumb to them. As to the Lazarus
tions, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, effect, Murphy could have heard Dr. Claus Köhnlein on why
National Institutes of Health; Office of HIV/AIDS Preven- “antiretroviral” drugs are sometimes useful against fungal
tion, New Mexico Department of Health; United Communi- infections, not against some purported “HIV.” By the way,
ties AIDS Network. Köhnlein, like Dr. Juliane Sacher, has a documented better
record of saving AIDS patients from death than do the anti-
retroviral-drugs-dispensing robots.
I was shocked that you would publish an article entitled LeBlanc says, “there is broad scientific consensus as to the
“HIV does not case AIDS.” Despite the pseudo-science in the HIV-AIDS connection.” Who denies that? But so what? Any
article, there is broad scientific consensus as to the HIV-AIDS familiarity with history of science reveals that such broad con-
connection. Articles such as yours cause a great deal of harm. sensus is often wrong on important questions.
HIV+ individuals who believe your article may 1) defer
life-saving medical treatment, or 2) may believe they do not
have to practice safer sex, causing the spread of the virus. We want to hear from our readers.
Shame on you. Email us at edgescience@gmail.com.
—Denis LeBlanc
Ottawa, Canada
René Verreault
Swinging Anomalies
Originally proving Earth rotation, Foucault pendulums now seem to detect Moon motion
O ne would imagine that a device as simple as the pendulum

would have long ago revealed all its secrets to physics. In
fact, it hasn’t. Despite more than a century of mathematical
experimentally that, contrary to the previous Church belief,
Galileo was right in his claim that the Earth was rotating, not
the sky.
studies by hundreds of physicists and mathematicians, includ- Nevertheless, people in the 19th century found that du-
ing a couple of Nobel prize winners, a few subtle deviations in plicating Foucault’s experiment was not as easy as they had
its motion still seem to escape explanation by both Newton’s imagined. Although the apparently simple instrument be-
and Einstein’s gravitation theories. For the past 50 years in haved roughly as expected during the first minutes after start-
particular, the subject has been mired in controversy. In an ing up, it soon developed all sorts of peculiar deviations that
attempt to understand how and why, let’s look at a short story modern physicists and mathematicians have not yet completely
of the Foucault pendulum. reduced to equations even today.
What is understood
As early as May 1851, Sir George Biddell Airy, Astronomer
Royal, showed that the non-linear restoring effect of the gravi-
tational force gave the pendulum’s bob a tendency to precess
if it pursued an elliptical trajectory. A major improvement in
interpreting the orbits of the bob occurred in 1879 with the
doctoral thesis of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who would lat-
er discover superconductivity and be awarded a Nobel Prize
for it. Throughout his 290 pages of equations, Kamerlingh
Onnes demystified some of the unwanted elliptical orbits as
being due to the lack of symmetry of the pendulum’s suspen-
sion. Even today, a perfectly symmetric suspension has not yet
been achieved. But much effort has been made so that the
deviations can be accounted for by calculation. (Significant
contributions to such an understanding of Foucault’s pendu-
lum have been made by Alexander S. Chessin (1895), John
Hopkins University; William D. MacMillan (1915), Univer-
Experiments first sity of Chicago, whose name was later given to a Moon crater;
After Galileo’s excommunication in 1633 for teaching, ac- Aladine C. Longden (1919), Knox College, Illinois; Martin
cording to Copernicus, that the Earth was rotating under a G. Olsson (1978), University of Wisconsin; Robert Latham
sky with fixed stars, it took a few centuries for someone to (1980), Imperial College, London; Robert A. Nelson (1985),
come up with the first experimental proof of the Earth’s rota- University of Maryland; and by Alfred Bryan Pippard (1988)
tion. In 1851 Jean-Bernard Léon Foucault, working on a lathe from the Cavendish Laboratory in U.K.)
in his cellar, had one end of a slender rod fixed into the lathe. Nevertheless, none of the Foucault pendulums built since
He then noticed that if he manually forced the free end of that 1851 were meant to make precise measurements of the Earth’s
rod to swing in a vertical plane, the rod maintained its vertical rotational speed. Their most frequent use was to serve as an ut-
direction of vibration even if the lathe was slowly rotated by terly simple pedagogical instrument for illustrating some basic
hand. Mentally transposing that rod to a long hanging wire laws of physics or, in a similar way, to decorate museums and
clamped in a fixed position relative to the Earth, he figured out institutes while promoting science to the general public. In
that, from inertia, a swinging mass at the end of the hanging those implementations, the major drawback of the free (or-
wire should behave similarly. If the sky were to rotate about a dinary) pendulum was the rapid decay of its oscillations. In
static Earth, the oscillation plane would retain its orientation 1980 Carl F. Moppert and William J. Bonwick at Monash Uni-
relative to the floor. If, on the contrary, the sky does not move versity stated that even some 130 years after Foucault’s origi-
but the Earth rotates, say in a counter-clockwise direction, nal performance, a run with an ordinary pendulum “takes,
then the oscillation plane would appear to rotate, or precess, at the most, three hours…” It is thus not surprising that, in
relative to the floor in the opposite direction. By observing, in an effort to circumvent the rapid decay and the early onset of
fact, the precession of the oscillation plane, Foucault proved uncontrollable ellipses, physicists and engineers took up the
challenge of designing systems that would sustain nice linear surface when the pendulum is swinging. The suspension losses
oscillations indefinitely. are thus reduced, but at the expense of adding one new de-
Pioneering work in that direction was achieved by Fer- gree of freedom: such a system can twist freely about the rod
nand Charron in 1931 at the Catholic University of Angers, axis. By the same token, the instability and the sensitivity to
France. The pendulum swing was amplified by synchronized external influences are increased. In hindsight, one is tempted
magnetic impulsions (parametric amplification) until the wire to say that in compensation for this increased complexity two
touched the inner part of a friction ring (the Charron ring) unexpected observations occurred: (1) the Moon periodicities
placed a few centimeters below the suspension point. Any lat- in the precession angle of the swinging plane and (2) the so-
eral movement of the wire at the end of the swing was there- called Allais effect in 1954.
fore efficiently damped, so that the tendency to generate ellips- Allais routinely organized a number of nonstop, day and
es was hindered. Practically all sustained pendulums used for night, 30-day-long experiments, where a team of students
public demonstration today incorporate such damping rings in on shifts would restart the pendulum every 20 minutes for
order to maintain suitably large amplitude oscillations. But all 14-minute long episodes followed by 6-minute pauses. He was
in all, it seems that the free pendulum still possesses one good able in that manner to detect the lunisolar periodicities of the
quality that is inherent to many untamed, unstable systems, tides in the time series of the azimuth changes (the precession)
namely some kind of hypersensitivity. at the end of each 14-minute episode. So far, so good. But if,
Speaking of untamed pendulums, a word using Newton or Einstein theories of gravitation, one calcu-
must be said about suspension systems. lates the tidal accelerations exerted by the Moon and the
Every “textbook” pendulum is in Sun on such a pendulum, one comes up with precession
fact a mathematical idealization values approximately 8 orders of magnitude below
where a point mass revolves the observed values. That phenomenon has not
about a fixed suspension yet been explained.
“point.” Such a mathemat- But the cherry on the icing appeared dur-
ical pendulum consists of ing one of those 30-day runs in 1954, when
a point mass (the bob) the pendulum showed a change in preces-
moving on the surface of sion speed by a factor of 5 just as a total solar
a sphere of constant radi- eclipse was passing some 1,300 km away near
us (the pendulum length). Oslo. It is this “eclipse effect” that is nowa-
However real life pendu- days referred to as the Allais effect, and its
lums involve a spatially ex- very existence is controversial. It may well be
tended bob moving about a that the eclipse effect and the above mentioned
mobile instantaneous center sensitivity to lunisolar tide periodicities turn out
of rotation located somewhere to be two completely distinct phenomena. Anyway,
within a strained region of a neither observation has been explained so far. Regard-
clamped wire, which creeps under ing the hypersensitivity of the paraconical pendulum to ex-
traction, or inside the deformed contact ternal influences, Allais was confident enough to predict that
area of an (initially) sharp point or knife edge that no normal long Foucault pendulum should be able to detect
ends up being crushed by compression. These the lunisolar periodicities he observed.
permanent deformations of the heavily stressed Although Allais was able to repeat the observation of
suspension region finally alter an essential char- the eclipse effect during another solar eclipse in 1959, he
acteristic: the putative constant effective length never attained credibility within the physics establish-
of the pendulum. ment, and in 1960 his financial support disappeared.
Thereafter he recycled himself as an economist whose
original theories in economics earned him a Nobel
Where controversy sets in Prize in 1988. Now at the age of 99, his sole consola-
In an attempt to minimize suspension wear, the tion might be the fact that roughly a dozen disciples
paraconical pendulum was imagined by Maurice from physics and mathematics are still chasing eclipse
Allais, a physicist at the University of Paris. His and lunisolar effects, not only with paraconical and
design was a short rigid pendulum (approximately Foucault pendulums, but also with torsion pendu-
1 meter) where the bob is connected to a suspen- lums and gravimeters.
sion ball through a metal bar and a vertical metal
ring. That ball, which is fixed at the top of the
inner ring surface, rolls upon a flat supporting How I became involved
in the controversy
Suspension principle of the paraconical pendulum. The This story would not be complete
pendulum-ring-ball unit rolls back and forth on a flat without explaining how, in 2006, I be-
supporting surface as the pendulum swings. came the latest recruit among those disciples.
As a professor of physics at the University of Quebec at Chi-

coutimi, Canada, I was vaguely aware that, over a 30-year
span, students involved with the Foucault experiment routine-
ly measured precession speeds in “error” by 15-20% with re-
spect to the theoretical value and consequently would receive
a “D” for their untidy work. Then in 2001, when a student
named Sonia asked me to supervise her pendulum experiment,
I decided that this final attempt (as the honors program in
physics at the school was being phased out) should be a sci-
entific beauty. We needed height and quiet. Consequently, I
finally convinced the Bishop of Chicoutimi to grant us the
exclusive use of the cathedral for 36 hours (and by the same
token taking a secret revenge over the abuse that Galileo had
suffered). We then hung a 10 kg mass from the 17.6 meter
high roof structure and made it swing freely for 12 hours with
no significant ellipse until the end. (In a different experiment
in 2006, a more aerodynamic version ran for 36 hours!–not
3 hours–without generating any significant ellipse, while the
cathedral floor revolved by more than one complete turn with
respect to the oscillation plane of the pendulum.) Using my
earlier research experience with remote sensing instrumenta-
tion, the pendulum position was recorded 30 times per second
via a high definition video camera at an accuracy of ±180 mi-
crometers (today ± 20 µm). To sum up, I think that I can claim
without offending modesty that we ended up with a high per-
formance instrument, which may mark a major breakthrough
in Foucault pendulum implementation since 1851.
Conclusion
After applying image processing to the recorded cathedral
Photo credit: Thomas Gooey.

data, it turned out that precession speed variations of ±10 %
were observed, but with a measurement error so small that
there was no room for student untidiness. In addition, the
three most significant lunisolar periods of the tide in the
nearby Saguenay River were also detected with ~10:1 signal to
noise ratios in the waveform of the precession speed variation,
despite Allais’ prediction that a long Foucault pendulum could
not detect the lunisolar periodicities.
To date, all attempts to explain that result quantitatively Goodey’s ball-borne pendulum. The supporting flat surface (not seen)
with known theories of gravitation have failed by many orders is part of a very rigid massive tripod structure. The brass lenticular bob
of magnitude, either by considering the direct gravitational can be observed at the end of the stainless steel rigid rod. Here, the
effect of the Moon on the pendulum, or by considering the suspension ring is replaced by a rigid stainless steel rectangular bar-
gravitational effect of the incoming tidal water mass in the Sa- rod assembly.
guenay River. The subject remains wide open for theoretcians.
It is also interesting to note that, contrary to Allais’ opin- today. Apart from acting as the webmaster of an important
ion, a high performance standard Foucault pendulum may be website on the subject (http://www.allais.info), he has greatly
suitable for detecting such anomalies, which are suspected to upgraded Allais’ paraconical pendulum, now re-christened
be of gravitational nature, although there is no actual proof the “ball-borne pendulum,” by producing a robotized version
of this yet. that can operate unattended for several days. On some occa-
sions his pendulum has also shown lunisolar periodicities and
eclipse anomalies. It must be emphasized that the numerous
Prospective views attempts to duplicate Allais’ results are confronted with the
It was only in 2005 when I looked at the literature before fact that the circumstances surrounding any two eclipses are
publishing these findings that I came across the work of Allais never the same and, even for the same eclipse, different ex-
and his successors. Among the latter, Thomas Goodey may be perimenters are usually stationed in different locations with
considered as one of the most dedicated pendulum researchers respect to the eclipse line.
Photo credit: Thomas Goodey 8 / EDGESCIENCE #4 • JULY–SEPTEMBER 2010
Gathering of pendulum specialists in Maldives for the Jan. 15, 2010 annular solar eclipse. From left to right: Victor Lesanu, demonstrator at the
Suceava Planetarium, Romania; Maxime Verreault, professor of physics at College Ste-Foy, Canada; Ed Oberg, retired from NASA, Australia;
René Verreault, professor of physics at University of Quebec, Canada; Hector Munera, professor of physics at the International Physics Institute,
Colombia; Dimitrie Olenici, director of the Suceava Planetarium, Romania; and Thomas Goodey, independent researcher, England.
The latest episode in this chase occurred earlier this

year with the annular solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 over References
the Maldives. That expedition turned out to be the most Verreault R. and Lamontagne S., 2007. “Télédétection aéro-
important gathering of pendulum specialists ever. It is still too spatiale et pendule de Foucault.” Revue Télédétection, vol.
early to give a final assessment of the results. For instance, the 7, p. 507–524.
recorded data for the 9-meter long Foucault pendulum totals Verreault R ., 2010. “Some Evidence of Lunar Periodicities
1.5 terabytes of video images to be processed. The develop- in the Precession of a Standard Foucault Pendulum,”
ment of powerful software to cope with such experiments is Communication presented at the 29th Annual Meet-
presently well underway. Meanwhile, the research effort goes ing of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Boulder,
on, gathering as much experimental evidence as possible, Colorado, June 10–12. www.scientificexploration.org.
partly by chasing all the available eclipses with the available
instrumentation, partly by designing robotized instruments
that might be operated in concert with different research units RENÉ VERREAULT is a physics
distributed along the path of the forthcoming 2017 eclipse professor at the University of
over North America. Quebec at Chicoutimi, Canada.
On the theoretical side, there might be a light at the end His principal research interests
of the tunnel. Independent research on the properties of light include aerial remote sensing
reported in a survey by Chris P. Duif, a physicist at Delft Uni- and the anomalous response of
versity of Technology in the Netherlands, shows that there is pendulums to positions of celes-
no experimental justification for postulating the speed of light tial bodies. This interest convert-
as a universal constant. New theories of gravitation, which en- ed him into an academic eclipse
compass more observed phenomena than General Relativity chaser twice a year, trying to ac-
does, are being worked out, namely one by Reginald T. Cahill cumulate experimental evidence
at Flinders University, Australia, and another one by Hector while otherwise working on pen-
A. Munera at the International Center for Physics, Colombia. dulum theory.
It is hoped that such theories will finally allow crucial pendu-
lum experiments to be designed around the Earth-Moon-Sun
alignments. Photo credit: University of Quebec
Thomas M. Dykstra
Insects and the Speed

of Smell Problem
H ow do insects smell? The usual answer is: “They smell
with their antennae!” Everyone seems to know this. From
the earliest grades it is taught to schoolchildren who some-
should contradict a textbook and nobody should disagree with
the professor.
Certainly, I felt this way when I graduated from Cornell
times call the antenna “feelers.” We know that if we excise University. I had no reason to question the wisdom of my pro-
an insect’s antennae, it is no longer able to smell. So the topic fessors, nor the textbooks they taught from or maybe even
seems to be an open and shut case. penned. Many years later, I was obligated to research the de-
The textbooks are rather clear about the common thread tails of this theory. It was in looking at the details that prob-
that connects the theory of insect olfaction together. This lems arose for me, and not just me, because there is universal
thread is diffusion. For example, the odorant molecules dif- confusion in the entomological ranks over exactly how insects
fuse through the air. They then land on the antennae. The smell with their antennae. Using hard science as well as logic
odorant molecules diffuse through the external wax layer. and reasoning, let’s look at the details and see if we can explain
Concluding this migratory journey, they diffuse through the where this confusion stems.
tiny pores on the sensillae. Next, they are picked off by an In order to determine how quickly an insect can smell,
odorant binding protein (OBP) and diffuse across the sensillar we need to first defer to the electrophysiologists. These scien-
space, sometimes referred to as the lumen, which is a sea of tists blow odorants across insect antennae and then record the
gel-like material. Without diffusion, the odorant never makes nerve impulses. According to them, insects respond with these
it to the receptor on the dendrite and insects would never impulses between 1 and 10 milliseconds after initial odorant
smell. It is cut and dry. There is seemingly nothing to dispute. exposure. This is such a fast response that any significant de-
The textbooks report this. The professors teach this. Nobody lay would render the insect temporarily anosmic, which means
unable to smell. Because insects are able to smell that fast,
there can be no delays in the system. Only one serious de-
lay would be enough to cast doubt on the current theory of
olfaction.
Allow me to present several.
Trichoid sensilla Odorant molecules pass through the air and are subject
to wind currents. Getting them to land on the antenna is no
small arbitrary feat. But it is nowhere near even this easy. In-
stead, the odorant molecules must land on only a small part
of the insect’s antenna, the sensilla. (see left) This is where
odorant detection is known to occur, not the antenna proper.
If you assume equal distribution of the odorant on the insects’
antennae, then the system is highly inefficient because a good
portion of the odorant will not land on the sensillae at all. In
fact, you could make a good case for the odorant preferentially
Antennal depositing on various parts of the body, much less the anten-
segment nae. The laws of diffusion, which are based on random mo-
Coeloconic sensilla tion, teach us this.
In contrast to this, not only do we know that odorants
preferably land on the sensilla, but 70% of the odorant lands on
the distal half of the sensilla (Kanaujia and Kaissling, 1985),
despite the surface area running between 20-49% of the to-
tal surface of the sensilla. Diffusion alone is not sufficient to
explain this fact. This is the first clue that something is amiss
with current insect olfactory theory.
Once odors are deposited on the sensilla, they must dif-
fuse through the wax layer, which is continuous over the entire
A scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a representative insect

antenna showing two types of sensillae.
nanometers in diameter (Steinbrecht, 1997). These pores are

so tiny as to be very difficult to locate even on a scanning
electron micrograph (SEM). The pores collectively represent
about 1% or less of the surface area of the sensilla (see below).
This fact severely reduces their random tendency to permeate
the cuticle. Some researchers have reported that the wax layer
is continuous over the pores (Steinbrecht, 1997), which just
adds to the problem of odorant transport.
Again, for the sake of argument, let us assume the odor-
ant permeates the cuticle with ease. The odorant now finds
itself inside the sensilla. At this point, everything must stop.
The reason is that the sensillar lymph, or liquid inside the sen-
silla, is predominantly water, and since many of the odorants
are lipids, and thus hydrophobic, the odorant cannot dissolve
in this watery matrix. The odorants, especially the Lepidopter-
an (butterflies and moths) pheromones, collect at this interface
and would accumulate over time. This is a delay the insect
cannot afford.
Unable to overcome the delay, but able to overcome the
solubility problem, researchers discovered odorant binding
proteins. Odorant binding proteins are located in the sensillar
lymph and are known to bind to odorants, essentially irrevers-
ibly. The theory teaches that these large proteins of about 14
kDa (more than 60 times larger than a given odorant mol-
ecule) bind the odorant and may be thought of as “ferryboats”
that solubilize and thus transfer the odorant to the dendrite.
Although this is scientifically possible, there is a temporal is-
sue. The odorant and the binding protein are still subject to
A diagram of the sensilla in cross-section.
diffusion laws.
Diffusion coefficients are a measure of how quickly mole-
body of the insect. Insects have epicuticular waxes that are cules diffuse through a given substance. Diffusion coefficients
predominantly more than 20 carbons in length (McClain et
al., 1985) with melting points starting at 40 C (Gibbs, 2002).
For our purposes, however, antennal waxes have been shown
to be between 35-39 carbons long (Arsene et al., 2004) often
with even higher melting points. Since virtually all the epicu-
ticular waxes will be solid at temperatures in which insects are
active, odorant diffusion must be occurring through a solid.
Admittedly diffusion can occur very slowly through some
solids, but generally no diffusion of note occurs in any solid
whatsoever. It is logical to assume that no diffusion occurs
at all in this wax layer. It would otherwise defy physical laws.
The insect olfactory theory teaches that odorants first embed
themselves in the epicuticular wax layer. But if odorants do
remain in the wax layer for extended periods of time, how do
they ever make it to the dendrites located inside a sensilla? This
is further contradictory evidence that the theory is in error.
But for the sake of continuing this discussion, let us as-
sume diffusion occurs through the solid wax layer. The theory
teaches that the odorant must be transported through tiny
pores in the cuticle (see above). When you and I breathe in
through our nose, we inhale air through two relatively large
nostrils (several millimeters in diameter). This brings odorants
into our nasal passages so that we may be able to detect (smell)
them. Since insects do not breathe through their antennae, no
similar mechanism is known to assist odorants in passing into Representative surface area of a sensilla trichodea on Bombyx mori
these pores. More incredibly, these pores are between 6-65 and the actual number of pores and pore size drawn to scale
are commonly determined in either of two mediums, those coefficient, and that there is no change in temperature or vis-
being air and water. For comparative purposes, water is the cosity over time, then I can calculate a rough, albeit, incorrect
most appropriate medium to use. If I ignore the fact that dif- diffusion coefficient. By completely ignoring all the valid con-
fusion coefficients are given for two dimensions and I make a ditions discussed above, a 14 kDa globular protein will diffuse
linear extrapolation for three dimensions (an illegal move on across the sensillar lymph of a trichoid sensilla (in Antheraea
my part), and if I assume a protein concentration gradient that polyphemus) in about 12 milliseconds (Brune and Kim, 1993).
doesn’t exist, and if I assume a pure water solvent represents What does this all mean? This one step takes more time than
the sensillar lymph in vivo, and if I further assume that the the total time it takes an insect to respond to an odorant (1-10
dendritic sheath does not mechanically cover any part of the milliseconds). Even after substantial and purposeful cheating,
dendrite, and then assume that there are no bound water mol- this estimate is too slow to satisfy the current theory of insect
ecules to the binding protein thus slowing down its diffusion olfaction.
So let us bypass this problem
and assume the odorant reaches
the dendrite still attached to its
odorant binding protein. Some
researchers believe that the odor-
ant binding protein separates, or
dissociates from the odorant, and
others do not. If dissociation does
occur, then the odorant would
bind to a dendritic receptor. If
not, then the whole odorant/
odorant binding protein complex
would bind to a dendritic receptor
and a step would be saved (see top
left). Assuming dissociation, anal-
ysis of an additional step becomes
necessary.
Liquids can often be charac-
terized as acidic, like orange juice,
while others may be considered
basic, like milk. The liquid sur-
rounding a dendrite is very close
to neutral, neither acidic nor basic.
A pH value of 7 is assigned to these
liquids and this is the pH in which
most organisms operate. Fluctua-
tions down to 6 (more acidic) or
up to 8 (more basic) are highly
unusual. Under normal pH values
of 7, the odorant binding protein
dissociates from the odorant on
the order of 100 seconds (not mil-
liseconds). This time period is to-
tally incompatible with the theory.
If, however, the pH is reduced to
5, then dissociation can occur in
9 milliseconds (Leal et al., 2005).
But since a pH of 5 does not exist
in the sensillar lymph, dissociation
cannot occur.
However, a highly localized
pH of 5 can exist at the dendritic
membrane. Although this has not
been shown for insects, it has been
shown to occur in other organ-
isms and so we will assume this is
valid for our insect system. Unlike the sensillar lymph, this So I am unable to adhere to the current theory of insect
pH is membrane bound. Under these conditions then, physi- olfaction on temporal grounds. But there are some additional
cal contact between the molecular complex and the membrane problems related to the temporal dynamics that help to invali-
is practically required in order to instigate dissociation. The date the theory. One of these is the presence of odorant de-
dissociated odorant must then reenter the sensillar lymph and grading enzymes. These enzymes are reported in the literature
further diffuse to a receptor. Diffusion is not strictly a lateral to degrade pheromones (a special type of odorant) in about 15
process, but it would need to be in this case since the odorant milliseconds (Vogt & Riddiford, 1981). These enzymes are
cannot reenter the sensillar lymph. Not only because of the present on the outside of the insect antennae (page 11, bot-
additional time that would be required for this action, but also tom) and would degrade the odorant before it ever enters the
because the odorant could very easily get picked off by another sensillar lymph (Kasang and Kaissling, 1972; Mayer, 1975).
binding protein before it had a chance to bind with the puta- They can also be found on the inside of the sensillae (Ferkov-
tive receptor. It may even get picked off by the same protein ich et al., 1982) serving the same purpose. If the odorant does
that just released it. not immediately bind with an odorant binding protein, it is
Immunological studies reveal the putative odorant recep- likely the odorant will be degraded by one of these enzymes.
tor to be in very low density on the dendrite (Dobritsa et al., If the odorant is eventually released by an odorant binding
2003). So, after dissociation, the odorant would be required protein at the dendritic membrane interface (discussed pre-
to travel a significant distance in order to bind with the puta- viously), these enzymes are available to quickly degrade the
tive receptor. It follows then that additional time, above and now exposed odorant. The presence of these enzymes on both
beyond the necessary 9 milliseconds required for dissociation, the outside and the inside of the sensillae raises some pressing
would be absolutely required. This temporal component has questions about why the insect is working so hard to degrade
not been determined or published, but even an additional 1 the odorant before it can reach the dendrite.
millisecond would make this final step irreconcilable with the As I stated earlier, insects smell very quickly. A large num-
theory. Already, this single 9 millisecond step (maybe longer) ber of scientific articles discussing insect olfaction pay homage
consumes most, if not all, of the time needed to explain the to the extremely sensitive olfactory abilities of insects. Truly
current theory of insect olfaction. My delays are now legion. the insects do possess remarkable olfactory abilities. Unfor-
If the odorant eventually binds with the putative receptor, tunately, as I have shown, there is nothing efficient about the
activation probably occurs on the order of picoseconds, and so system as it is currently described in the literature and in the
this step should not be a rate limiting step in any way shape classroom. The current theory is plagued by too many tempo-
or form. ral problems. It simply is not scientifically valid.
A summary of the time problem in insect

olfaction. Current theory says it happens
in 1-10 ms, but the standard offered
mechnism requires considerably more
time than that.
THOMAS M. DYKSTRA, Ph.D., is the director of Dykstra Laboratories, Kanaujia, S. and K.-E. Kaissling (1985) “Interactions of pher-
Inc., located in Gainesville, Florida. The lab researches the effects of omone with moth antennae: adsorption, desorption and
electromagnetics on life. transport.” J. Insect Physiol. 31(1):71–81.
Kasang, G. and K.-E. Kaissling (1972) “Specificity of primary
and secondary olfactory processes in Bombyx antennae.”
References In: International Symposium, Olfaction and Taste IV, D.
Arsene, C., S. Schulz, and J.J.A. Van Loon (2004) “Chemical Schneider (ed.) Stuttgart: Wiss. Verlagsges
polymorphism of the cuticular lipids of the cabbage white Leal, W.S., A.M. Chen, Y. Ishida, V.P. Chiang, M.L. Erick-
Pieris rapae.” J. Chem. Ecol. 28(12):2627–2631. son, T.I. Morgan, and J.M. Tsurada (2005) “Kinetics and
Brune, D. and S. Kim (1993) “Predicting protein diffusion molecular properties of pheromone binding and release.”
coefficients.” PNAS 90:3835–3839. PNAS 102(15):5386–5391.
Dobritsa, A.A., W. van der Goes van Naters, C.G. Warr, R.A. Mayer, M.S. (1975) “Hydrolysis of sex pheromone by the an-
Steinbrecht, and J.R. Carlson (2003) “Integrating the tennae of Trichoplusia ni.” Experientia 31:452–454.
molecular and cellular basis of odor coding in the Dro- McClain, E., M.K. Seely, N.F. Hadley, and V. Gray (1985)
sophila antenna.” Neuron 37(5):827–841. “Wax blooms in tenebrionid beetles of the Namib desert:
Ferkovich, S.M., J.E. Oliver, and C. Dillard (1982) “Phero- correlations with environment.” Ecology, 66(1):112–118.
mone hydrolysis by cuticular and interior esterases of the Steinbrecht, R.A. (1997) “Pore structures in insect olfactory
antennae, legs, and wings of the cabbage looper moth, sensilla: a review of data and concepts,” Int. J. Insect Mor-
Trichoplusia ni (Hübner).” J. Chem. Ecol. 8(5):859–866. phol. & Embryol. 26(3/4):229–245.
Gibbs, A.G. (2002) “Lipid melting and cuticular permeabil- Vogt, R.G. and L.M. Riddiford (1981) “Pheromone binding
ity: new insights into an old problem.” J. Insect Physiol. and inactivation by moth antennae.” Nature, 293(5827):
48:391–400. 161–163.
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Edge Science
Number 4 July–September 2010
Current Research and Insights
You, too, might be surprised

to learn that the
motions of the
pendulum are not
entirely explained,
that the human
aura is not just new
age mumbo jumbo,
that a mind can
affect a machine,
that good evidence
exists for
reincarnation,
and that some
UFOs may actually
pose a threat
to aviation safety.
A publication
of the Society
for Scientific
Exploration
Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne
The Effects of Human Intention on a

Machine Named Murphy
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies apparatus and playfully attempted to
Research (PEAR) laboratory experi- encourage it to shift its distribution of
mentally explored the effects of human cascading marbles to the right, we were
intention on the behavior of random amused and intrigued by the clearly
physical systems for more than a quar- right-shifted distribution it produced
ter century. Most often this involved mi- in response. During this time a group
croelectronic random event generators of school children looked on, listening
(REGs) that produce a string of random in disbelief as their instructor, whose
binary samples, or bits, at a rate of 1,000 back was to the device, explained how
per second, in trials of 200 bits each. A it would always generate a properly
human operator without any particular centered normal curve. We decided on
or noted “psychic” abilities attempted to the spot that we needed to have such
influence the distribution of the output a machine in our new laboratory, and
of the device as displayed on a computer shortly thereafter we designed and
monitor in accordance with his or her built a version of it in our own engi-
pre-recorded intentions (“higher” or neering school machine shop.
“lower”). The generated data were then Originally, this had seemed like
examined for correlations between the a relatively simple task, but it actually
intentions and the output of the device. took the better part of three years to
PEAR’s “benchmark results,” which complete. During that period it pre-
involved some 840,000 trials per inten- Galton Board on Display at the Galton Laboratory, sented an incessant sequence of tech-
tion by 91 different individuals over a University College, London. “Instrument to nical challenges, confirming Murphy’s
12-year period, showed statistically sig- Illustrate the Principle of the Law of Error or Law “Anything that can go wrong,
nificant correlations between operator Dispersion.” Image courtesy Stephen M. Stigler. will,” and resulting in the device ac-
intentions and the mean counts of 200 quiring the affectionate nickname of
sample trials. The likelihood of the degree of separation between “Murphy.” It even surpassed that law by demonstrating a few
“high” efforts and “low” efforts being due to chance alone was things that couldn’t possibly go wrong, such as occasionally
less than 5 in 100,000, an extraordinarily high degree of signifi- slicing some of the balls in half. There was one memorable
cance. occasion when after our technician had spent several months
While most PEAR experiments involved REGs, other de- unsuccessfully trying to design a funnel system that would
vices, such as a pendulum and a water fountain whose output preclude the balls jamming in the bin counters, he was given
was also random, were also used. Included among these was a warning that if the problem wasn’t solved more expeditiously
random mechanical cascade (RMC) of small polystyrene balls “heads would roll.” As this message was being transmitted,
bouncing randomly down among a set of dowels to end up in one the platform supporting the ball distribution suddenly col-
or another of 19 plastic bins. Designated “Murphy,” this device lapsed and all of the balls that were in the collecting bins
yielded an output similar to that obtained with the REG and crashed loudly to the floor of the storage reservoir, terrifying
other devices. In the following excerpt from their forthcoming the poor man!
book, Consciousness and the Source of Reality (ICRL Press), While our various microelectronic REGs, which permit-
Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne describe Murphy and their ex- ted the rapid accumulation of large bodies of data, ultimately
perimental results: became the workhorses of the PEAR laboratory, it was Mur-
phy, the random mechanical cascade (RMC), that turned out
E arly in 1979, several months before the PEAR lab was

formally established, we had an opportunity to visit the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. There we no-
to be its most popular experimental device, and ultimately, its
best public relations representative. Over the years, numer-
ous TV producers were fascinated to film Murphy for their
ticed and admired a large random mechanical cascade device, programs, and he even appeared on the front page of the New
modeled after the well-known Galton desk design that demon- York Times. In addition, many of the countless school children
strated the development of random Gaussian distributions by who visited PEAR used it as a model for designing their own
the compounding of a multitude of binary events, or what is experiments in probability. More than any of our other devic-
commonly known as the “bell curve.” As we stood before the es, Murphy took on a distinctly anthropomorphic character,
and our operators usually addressed him by name. On one oc-

casion, when the machine was down for repairs for a few days,
one of his operators actually sent him a “get well” card.
Our earliest REG results had clearly posed the categorical
question of whether similar phenomena could be demonstrat-
ed using a broader range of random processors, in particular
with devices of macroscopic scale, and Murphy provided an
ideal opportunity to address this. Ten feet high and six feet
wide, the machine was mounted on a wall in the reception area
of the laboratory, facing a comfortable couch. In operation,
9,000 precision-cast polystyrene balls, ¾" in diameter, trickled
downward from an entrance funnel into a quincunx array of
330 nylon pegs, also of ¾" diameter, mounted on 2¼" centers. Random Mechanical Cascade Bin Populations
The balls bounced in complex random paths through the ar-
ray, colliding elastically with the pegs and with other balls,
ultimately accumulating in nineteen parallel collecting bins
across the bottom. The fronts of the peg chamber and the col-
lecting bins below it were made of transparent plastic sheets so
that the cascade of balls and their developing distributions of
bin populations were visible as feedback to the operators. After
considerable empirical modifications to determine appropriate
combinations of peg spacing, ball inlet arrangement, and ma-
terial properties, the resulting distribution of ball populations
in the collecting bins could be tuned to a good approximation
of a Gaussian distribution.
The entrance to each collecting bin was equipped with a
photoelectric sensor that detected and recorded the arrival of
RMC Cumulative Deviations: All Differential Data.
each ball, and the growing populations of all bins were dis-
played on LED counters below each bin, and graphically on
a computer terminal screen. The disposition of each of the and humidity, which were routinely measured and recorded
9,000 balls in every run was recorded on-line in an appropri- before each run.
ately coded computer file that later could be accessed to yield a The experimental tripolar RMC protocol called for the
faithful reproduction of the complete history of all of the bin operator, seated on the couch approximately eight feet from
fillings for more detailed study, or to calculate statistical prop- the machine, to attempt to distort the distribution of balls
erties of the terminal distributions. In addition, a photograph in the bins toward the right or higher numbered bins (RT),
of the distribution and LED-displayed bin counts was taken or to the left or lower numbered bins (LT), or to generate
after every run. As with all PEAR experimental devices, exten- baselines (BL) with no conscious intention. These efforts were
sive calibrations were performed to provide background statis- interspersed in concomitant sets of three runs, each lasting
tical data and to explore possible sensitivities to temperature approximately twelve minutes. The hundreds of experimental
data sets thus obtained displayed similar anomalies in their
overall concatenations to those achieved in the REG studies,
including strongly operator-specific patterns of achievement.
Detailed tabulations and cumulative deviation and structural
graphs of the results can be found in a number of the archi-
val references. Above we include only the cumulative deviation
plots of all data acquired in an extended sequence of these
experiments.
Unlike the REG experiments, where theoretical base-
lines confirmed by calibration were available for comparison
with the operator-generated data, the internal mechanics of
the RMC were too complex to submit to detailed theoreti-
cal prediction. This forced us to utilize a differential criterion
based upon comparison of the empirical means of the RT and
LT distributions with the local baseline of the same experi-
mental set. This strategy had the advantage of minimizing any
“Murphy,” the Random Mechanical Cascade Machine, Operating in spurious effects of short- or long-term drift in the machine
PEAR Reception Area operation, but introduced the confounding possibility that an
operator might inadvertently influence the empirical baseline to the right or to the left, and it was the compounding of these
distribution as well. binary right/left options that primarily determined the termi-
And indeed, as we examined the overall cumulative de- nal distributions in the bins. To be sure, in this machine the
viation graphs (previous page), plotted as RT – LT, RT – BL, binary right/left probabilities were not simply .50/.50, since
LT – BL differences, an intriguing secondary anomaly ap- the balls did collide with one another as well, and therefore
peared. Whereas it was abundantly evident that the overall their subsequent trajectories were not at all uniform, but none-
RT – LT mean separation was statistically highly significant theless, a synthetic binary quantification could be, and actu-
( = 1.93, z  = 3.89;  = 5 × 10 –5), it also displayed a curious ally was, imposed in the analyses.
asymmetry in the LT direction. Namely, virtually all of the A further step in tracking the ubiquitousness of operator-
compounding RT – LT anomalous deviation was attributable related anomalies, therefore, was to apply similar protocols
to the LT – BL separation alone; the RT and BL evolutions to physical systems that were yet more analogue in character,
were statistically indistinguishable! even to those whose central random processes and outputs lent
For some time we attempted to resolve this asymmetry themselves to continuum representation. All of these experi-
empirically: operators changed their positions on the couch, ments utilized similar tripolar protocols to those followed for
closed and opened laboratory doors, and one mounted a mir- their digital counterparts, and from this array of studies we
ror on the facing wall and observed the reflected runs. One broadened our conclusion that the specific character of the
even stood on his head, but to no avail! It was several years physical random sources employed was not a primary correlate
later, in the course of our study of gender differences, that it of their anomalous responses.
was discovered that this propensity was entirely attributable to When the PEAR laboratory closed in 2007, perhaps the
the tendency of many of the female operators to produce base- most emotionally poignant moment was Murphy’s disassem-
lines that were strongly shifted in the right-going direction, bly. He had played a vital role in our program, both in the
thus producing results that showed a significant deviation in valuable data he had produced and in his contribution to the
their LT – BL efforts, but a null result in the RT – BL. A simi- laboratory’s physical and subjective ambiance. Fortunately, he
lar gender-related trend subsequently was found to prevail in has found a new home with an organization in California, In-
several other PEAR experiments. dex Fund Advisors, whose staff seems to find him just as en-
As in the REG experiments, the total number of runs gaging and instructive as we did.
conforming to the intended direction to any degree was found
to be considerably higher than the chance prediction, so that
once again we concluded that the overall patterns of anoma- References
lous mean shifts of the mean were being compounded from D. Graham Burnett. “Games of Chance.” Cabinet, 34, Sum-
an overall accumulation of small individual anomalous effects. mer 2009. pp. 59–65.
We also again observed some operator-specific dependencies Benedict Carey. “A Princeton Lab on ESP Plans to Close Its
of the results on the secondary parameters of the experiment, Doors.” New York Times. February 6, 2007.
such as the time of day, the volitional vs. instructed assignment Brenda J. Dunne, Roger D. Nelson, and Robert G. Jahn.
of run order, or whether the LED count display was on or off. “Operator-related anomalies in a random mechanical cas-
Perhaps of higher importance, however, was the similar- cade.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2, No. 2 (1988).
ity of many of the individual operator cumulative deviation pp. 155–179.
patterns with those they demonstrated in the microelectronic Brenda J. Dunne. “Gender differences in human/machine
REG experiments. Despite their inherently stochastic charac- anomalies.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, 12, No. 1
ter, the evident gross similarities of their signatures had major (1998). pp. 3–55.
implications for experimental design and theoretical model- Brenda J. Dunne and Robert G. Jahn. “Experiments in remote
ing. Namely, although the observed anomalous effects were human/machine interaction.” Journal of Scientific Explo-
clearly operator-specific and in many cases condition-specific, ration, 6, No. 4 (1992). pp. 311–332.
they appeared not to be nearly so device-specific, a feature Brenda J. Dunne, York H. Dobyns, Robert G. Jahn, and
later confirmed over a much wider range of physical processes, Roger D. Nelson. “Series position effects in random event
scales, and energies. Thus, once again, it appeared that any generator experiments.” Journal of Scientific Exploration,
direct influence of operator consciousness on these widely dif- 8, No. 2 (1994). pp. 197–215.
ferent physical processes, e.g. the flow of electrons in the REG Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne. “The PEAR proposi-
noise diode, or the cascade of balls in the macroscopic RMC, tion.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, 19, No.2 (2005).
are less likely to be direct dynamical mechanisms than more pp. 195–246.
holistic interactions with the statistical information common
to both these systems. Robert G. Jahn is Professor of Aerospace Sciences and Dean, Emeri-
Finally, we might note that although the RMC differed tus of Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science,
substantially from the REG devices in its scale and physical founder of the PEAR Laboratory, and Chairman of International Con-
process, it retained a certain quasi-digital character in the sciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL). Brenda J. Dunne holds de-
manner in which it generated information. Specifically, each grees in psychology and the humanities, was the manager of the PEAR
falling ball, upon collision with a peg, might be diverted either laboratory from its inception in 1979, and is currently President of ICRL.
Bernard O. Williams
Imaging the
Human Energy Field
R esearch converging from many fields indicates that the
body is a complex energy system, not merely a molecular,
clockwork machine of cellular gears and parts that is often es-
intriguing patterns of interpersonal influence on the photo-
graphs. The corona was different when the experimenter and
subject were the same gender, as opposed to when they were
poused in conventional medicine. Albert Szent-Giorgi, early in of different genders. Dramatic differences in the corona were
the 20th century, proposed that physiology should be studied found before and after acupuncture treatment.
from an electrical perspective because biochemistry is gov- Another American researcher of Kirlian photography,
erned by the electrical forces in molecular processes. Robert L.W. Konikiewicz, correctly identified, in double-blind stud-
Becker, in his study of electricity in growth and tissue repair, ies, cystic fibrosis patients and carriers of the gene with a high
overcame much controversy to prove the importance of electri- order of accuracy. He also found that the day of a woman’s
cal currents in living bodies. Using Becker’s principles, broken menstrual cycle influenced variations in the brightness of the
bones that won’t mend spontaneously can often be healed by energy field and that ovulation could be detected.
applying tiny electrical currents across the fracture. Bioelec- Scientific acceptance of Kirlian photography was limited,
tromagnetics is the emerging science that studies how living however, because the type of equipment used in earlier years
organisms interact with electromagnetic fields. varied markedly from investigator to investigator and a wide
The electromagnetic spectrum spans a broad range of range of parameters needed to be controlled for successful use
frequencies and wavelengths, and living systems have evolved of the method. In careful work detailing the physical process-
within the context of this energy spectrum. Claims for the es of Kirlian imaging, William Tiller showed that producing
existence of subtle energy fields in human beings have been enough light for a photographic record on a chemical emul-
widely accepted in various Eastern medical practices for many sion was not a stable process, because it required such strong
centuries, such as the concept of Qi in Chinese medicine and electrical fields.
Prana in Ayurvedic medicine. Such ideas were rejected by
Western scientists because they did not believe objective evi-
dence could demonstrate these energy fields. ElectroPhotonic Imaging
A computerized refinement of Kirlian imaging using video
recording rather than photographic film appears to provide
Kirlian photography the stability, reproducibility, and reliability missing in photo-
This situation began to change in the late nineteenth century, graphic emulsion methods. The new technique, called Elec-
when photographs were made of electrical discharges from troPhotonic Imaging (EPI), also known as the Gas Discharge
living objects when a strong electrical field was present. The Visualization (GDV) technique, comes from the pioneering
term “electrography” was coined to describe these images efforts of Konstantin Korotkov, Ph.D., a physicist at Saint Pe-
explored by the Czech physicist Navratil in 1888, and in the tersburg Federal Technical University. Among his 12 patents
early 20th century by Russian biologist Nardkevitch-Jodko, in biophysics is the device for the GDV technique (#110649),
and by Landel de Morua, a Brasilian priest. In 1939, Semyon which was certified as a medical instrument in January 2000,
Kirlian, a Russian electrician, rediscovered this phenomenon. by the Russian Ministry of Health. In essence, it creates a high
He and his wife Valentina explored the possible significance of intensity electric field around an object that produces a gas
the colored auras or coronas they saw surrounding the objects discharge. This discharge produces photon emissions, so it can
photographed with his electrical stimulation technique. Kir- be photographed. The device is safe for both the subject and
lian photography subsequently became a topic of wide interest the operator.
to European and American investigators. A bibliography com- Specifically, a train of electrical impulses is applied to the
piled in 1994 by L. Wigh listed several hundred publications. test subject for a very brief duration (ranging from 0.1 second
Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson at the UCLA Center to a few seconds) with high voltages in the range of 3,000 to
for the Health Sciences carried out one of the most extensive 6,000 volts, but with very small amperage (a few millivolts) for
early American investigations of Kirlian photography. Their a safe but effective electrical stimulation. With humans, the
project produced more than 10,000 Kirlian photographs, stimulus is applied to the fingertips. Induced by these electri-
chiefly of the human fingertip, leaves, and metal objects. They cal impulses, the subject produces a burst of electron emissions
found that a subject’s energy field was affected by ingesting and optical radiation in the visual and ultraviolet range. These
alcohol, performing yogic breathing, undergoing hypnosis, or particles and photons initiate electron–ion cascades, called a
experiencing emotional states. Moss and Johnson also found sliding gas discharge—a tiny lighting storm. This sliding ionic
cascade amplifies the the meridian system.

optical radiation. The By dividing multiple sectors around each finger tip and
spatial distribution of assigning each sector to specific organs and functional sub-
the discharge is reg- systems, useful clinical information can be obtained with the
istered by a charge EPI. The sector maps around each fingertip were originally
coupled device (CCD) based on a school of Korean hand acupuncture called Su Jok.
video camera and writ- These sector assignments have been modified through clini-
ten into bit-mapped cal experience, first by Peter Mandel in Germany, and further
image or dynamic vid- refined by mathematical analysis using the EPI in clinical ob-
eo files for display and servations during developmental research in Russia.
mathematical analysis. Each of the 10 fingertips are photographed and displayed
Individual Fingertip Healthy Corona The CCD is a very separately. The corona images are mathematically analyzed for
sensitive device origi- display using various color pallets, and presented along with
nally developed for astronomy and is now the basis of everyday the sector analysis for each fingertip. An example of a color
video and digital cameras. sector analysis of an individual healthy fingertip is shown on
Dynamic television recordings of the image glow show the left.
that the emission centers repeatedly appear from the same Each individual sector or portion of the fingertip is con-
points on the skin for each individual person. nected energetically with specific organs and organ systems,
The outburst current is believed to result from the trans- such as the respiratory system, through the acupuncture me-
port of electrons within structural complexes of skin or other ridians. The data of the 10 individual fingertips are collated
tissues, and suggests a connection to acupuncture points and and interpolated, creating an image of the entire “aura” or
Before Acupuncture Treatment After Acupuncture Treatment

full body energy field. Gaps and reduced emissions are quite “noise” correlated with the colors seen at the same locations
obvious in the energy field of an unhealthy person. The full on the body, but there was no direct connection between the
body images on the previous page show the composite field frequencies of the ELF measures and any specific frequency of
before and after a course of acupuncture treatment. The im- visible light for the colors reported by the healers. Future stud-
provement can be seen in the composite image and analyzed ies may be able to reveal connections, if any, between physical
in detail by mathematical image analysis. processes and such subtle observations as clairvoyant healing.
Reliable correlations between EPI indications and con- To date, EPI technology has demonstrated strong connec-
ventional clinical diagnoses have been demonstrated in a wide tions between our conventional understanding of physiology
range of physical and psychological conditions, such as muscu- and the classical Vedic and Taoist explanations of living ener-
loskeletal and respiratory system pathologies, gastrointestinal gies. With the help of this technology, our understanding of
pathologies requiring surgery, infectious diseases, monitoring the multilayered energetic processes of life continues to evolve.
cancer patient response to chemotherapy, and psychological
problems of anxiety and neuroticism.
The EPI has also been used to identify positive traits, such BERNEY WILLIAMS, Ph.D., serves
as personality dimensions of openness and agreeableness, and as the senior editor of Subtle Ener-
monitoring relief from emotional distress during short-term gies & Energy Medicine, the peer-
therapy. Post-surgery recovery progress correlates with EPI reviewed journal of the Internation-
parameters. Assessment of athletes can provide independent al Society for the Study of Subtle
diagnostic measures of their psychophysical reserves, directly Energies and Energy Medicine.
assessing their training progress and predicting potential per- He is also Dean of Graduate Stud-
formance. ies at Energy Medicine University,
EPI assessment provides quantitative measures of avail- and President of Holos University
able energy in the physiologic systems, stress levels, and over- Graduate Seminary. For more than
all vitality. Increasing numbers of clinical studies show that a decade, he has guided a wide
measurement data from the EPI correlate with conditions range of Doctorate and Master
characterized using standard medical diagnostics, as well as degree research projects in energy
assessment methods used in a wide range of complementary medicine and spiritual healing,
medicine, such as pulse diagnosis in Chinese medicine. many using the EPI/GDV as part of the research protocol. More informa-
tion about these research programs can be found at www.holosuniver-
sity.org and www.energymedicineuniversity.org.
The human aura
Does a relationship exist between the information obtained by
the EPI and the aura observed by clairvoyant healers? The EPI
assesses the energetic resources of the individual. Healers who Sources
can see the human aura also assess the energetic resources of Moss, Thelma, and Johnson, Kendall. “Bioplasma of Corona
a person. The relationship between EPI analysis and the aura Discharge,” in Krippner, S. and Rubin, D. Galaxies of Life:
have not yet been studied in detail. An aura is not observed The Human Aura in Acupuncture and Kirlian Photogra-
with conventional sight and the colors reported by clairvoyant phy, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Inc, 1973.
healers do not necessarily conform to the spectrum of visible Hunt, Valerie, Infinite Mind: the science of human vibrations,
light. Malibu Publishing Co. 1989, 1995.
The EPI does record evoked light emissions in the visible Korotkov K and Korotkin D. “On concentration dependence
spectrum, but the image displays do not render the emitted of gas discharge around drops of non-organic electro-
colors directly. EPI displays are based on mathematical analy- lytes,” Journal of Applied Physics, 2001; 9:4732-4736.
sis—combining frequency, amplitude, and the spatial distri- Korotkov, Konstantin. Human Energy Field: Study with GDV
butions of variations. The EPI displays can produce various Bioelectrography. Backbone publishing Co, NY. 2002.
palettes of color-coding based on measured variations in the Korotkov, Konstantin, Williams, Bernard, Wisneski, Leonard,
corona discharges. Each particular coloring scheme is useful “Assessing Biophysical Energy Transfer Mechanisms in
for revealing different details in the information. Living Systems: The Basis of Life Processes,” Journal of
We would not necessarily expect the colors of light evoked Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10 (1), 49–57,
from fingertips by pulses from a strong electromagnetic field 2004.
to conform to the colors seen using a nonphysical clairvoy- Korotkov, Konstantin G., Matravers, Peter, Orlov, Dmitry
ant process. But when Valerie Hunt used electromyography V., Williams, Bernard O., “Application of Electrophoton
to relate the energetic states of the body with clairvoyant ob- Capture (EPC) Analysis Based on Gas Discharge Visual-
servations by healers, there were consistent correlations. She ization (GDV) Technique in Medicine: A Systematic Re-
found regular oscillations in the Extreme Low Frequency view,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medi-
(ELF) range in the “background noise” from conventional cine. January, 2010, 16(1): 13–25.
electromyographic instruments. The frequencies of the ELF
{ REFERENCE POINT|
Book Review by Jim Tucker
On Memories of Previous Lives

S atwant Pasricha is a clinical psy-
chologist in India who began work-
ing with Ian Stevenson (see sidebar) in
a solid command of the language. Ste-
venson later gave new details in a subse-
quent report. He noted that Uttara had
1974 on cases of children who report been accused of having learned Bengali
memories of previous lives. After train- in school, though the evidence for that
ing under Stevenson, she became his was meager. He had also asked a lin-
collaborator and then an independent guist to listen to two recordings made
researcher. In 2009, she completed of Sharanda speaking and singing. The
a long tenure as Professor of Clinical linguist said that her accent was non-
Psychology at the National Institute native Bengali, and, based on the re-
of Mental Health and Neurosciences cordings, he did not hear indications of
(NIMFIANS) in Bangalore, and her archaic speech that others had heard in
book notes that she is the only person conversation with her. Was this a case
in India with training in both clinical of possession by a Bengali spirit using
psychology and parapsychology. She is the imperfect instrument of a woman
sole author or lead author of 17 of the who had never spoken Bengali, or was
previously published papers that appear it a very strange case of dissociation,
in the two-volume work called Can the in which a woman, as in examples of
Mind Survive Beyond Death? multiple personality disorder, suddenly
Pasricha includes a pair of papers in took on the identification and behav-
the book, both having Stevenson as iors of a different person, in this case
first author, covering two of the most somehow even displaying knowledge
remarkable and perplexing cases ever she seemingly could not have acquired
to appear in the literature. The first is in her life?
that of Uttara Huddar, a woman who Another remarkable case described
at the age of 32 suddenly displayed Can the Mind Survive Beyond in the book involves a young woman
a new personality. This personality Death? In Pursuit of Scientific named Sumitra who experienced pos-
did not recognize Uttara’s family or Evidence by Satwant K. Pasricha. sible seizure episodes and then seemed
friends and could not speak Marathi, Harman Publishing House, 2008. to die during one of them. As her fami-
Uttara’s native language. Instead, she ly began grieving and preparing for her
spoke what was eventually understood funeral, she revived and, after a period
to be Bengali, which Uttara did not of confusion, said that her name was
know. She called herself Sharanda and Shiva and that she had been murdered
seemed to come from another time, as she showed a lack of by her in-laws in a place called Dibiyapur, some 55 km away.
familiarity with any tools, appliances, or vehicles developed af- She rejected her husband and her child and asked to be taken
ter the industrial revolution. Sharanda stayed “in control” for to Shiva’s two children. She gave many details that were found
several weeks. Uttara then returned to her normal personality, to correspond to the life of one Shiva Divedi, who was un-
but Sharanda continued to emerge intermittently. known to Sumitra’s family and who had died violently (how
In addition to discussing various locations in Bengal, Sharan- and at whose hand was unclear, though her in-laws were un-
da gave the names of a number of family members, and these der considerable suspicion) in Dibiyapur two months before
were eventually traced to a family that lived in West Bengal in Sumitra’s transformation. Sumitra/Shiva was initially unable
the early nineteenth century. The names and relationships that to recognize her own family and friends around her but later
she gave for her father and six other male members of the fam- recognized 23 people from Shiva’s life either in person or in
ily all matched a male genealogy of the family that was discov- photographs. Her transformation also included changes in her
ered. The genealogy had been published in a Bengali magazine behavior, from “that of a simple village girl to that of a mod-
with a local circulation, but as Uttara had never visited that erately well-educated woman of higher caste and more urban
state, the authors were confident she had never seen it. manners, who could now read and write Hindi fluently.” Ex-
Regarding Sharanda’s ability to speak Bengali, Uttara and cept for a period of a few hours that occurred a year after her
her family said she had never learned it. One of the authors’ transformation, Sumitra/Shiva had remained Shiva constantly
associates, Professor Pal, had four long talks with Sharanda for two years when the investigation was completed.
in Bengali, and he and five other native Bengali speakers all
agreed that despite some imperfections in her speech, she had Continued on page 22
Sidebar
A SCIENTIST WHO NOW KNOWS IF HUMAN

PERSONALITY SURVIVES DEATH
Peer reviewed scientific journals rarely devote an entire issue to provided evidence for “cases of the reincarnation type,” as he care-
the work or memory of one person. Ian Stevenson has been twice fully referred to them. The children studied usually started recalling
honored in this manner. In 1977, most of an issue of The Journal of their past lives between the ages of two and four but would forget
Nervous and Mental Disease was devoted to his work. And the Spring them by the age of seven or eight. Many had clear memories of their
2008 issue of the Journal of Scientific Exploration was devoted to his previous death, which was often violent.
memory. Stevenson published more than 200 articles and several books on
Ian Stevenson was a distinguished scientist, professor, and chair- his research, his magnum opus being the two-volume Reincarnation
man of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, and Biology, which featured more than 200 cases in which children
who is best known for his pioneering work in the scientific study of displayed often strikingly unusual birthmarks or birth defects that
reincarnation, having collected and meticulously researched thou- corresponded to wounds or injuries that killed the person whose life
sands of cases of children who, on their own, seemed to recall a past the child claimed to remember. Stevenson, who retired in 2002, was
life. “Stevenson was an extraordinary human being,” wrote psychol- a founding member of the Society for Scientific Exploration and ex-
ogists Emily Kelley and Carlos Alvarado in their introduction to this emplified the kind of scientist the Society was founded (in 1982) to
special issue, “who put all of his immense capacities and energies encourage. He died in 2007 at the age of 88.
to work on the most important question a person can ask: Who and —Patrick Huyghe
what are we?”
Stevenson was a remarkable scholar who touched the lives of
a parade of philosophers, psychologists, physicists, as well as a
Washington Post journalist named Tom Shroder, who accompanied
Stevenson on two of his last journeys in search of children claim-
ing previous lives and who wrote a book on the experience called
Old Souls. “Neither self-delusion, intentional fraud, peer pressure,
nor coincidence,” wrote Shroder, “could explain how the children Ian
investigated could have known all that they knew about strangers
who’d died before they were born.”
Ian Stevenson was born and raised in Canada, and studied at St.
Andrews University in Scotland and at McGill University in Montreal,
where he received an M.D. in 1943. He became an assistant pro-
fessor of psychiatry at Tulane University in 1950, the head of the
department of psychiatry at the University of Virginia in 1957, and the
Director of the Division of Parapsychology (later renamed the Division
of Personality Studies and then the Division of Perceptual Studies) in
1967. Before concentrating on the work for which he became best
known, he carried out extensive studies of spontaneous telepathic
experiences, on what would become known as cases of near-death
experiences, as well as on cryptoamnesia, cases of apparent xe-
noglossy, “maternal impressions,” and certain types of mediumistic
communications.
Stevenson’s first paper on reincarnation, published in 1960, came
to the attention of Chester Carlson, the inventor of Xerox, who pro-
vided funds for further research on reincarnation and eventually
endowed a chair for him at the University of Virginia. This allowed
Stevenson and his colleagues to conduct field research on reincarna-
tion in Africa, Alaska, British Columbia, Burma, India, South America,
Lebanon, Turkey, among other places. Over a period of 45 years,
he amassed reports of 2,600 individuals who recounted memories
of places, experiences, events, circumstances, and individuals that
Pasricha began that investigation a month after Sumitra/ Susan Blackmore tried to say that Indian reports of NDEs in-
Shiva first met a member of Shiva’s family, her father. She and cluded tunnel experiences, even though they did not. In a pa-
Stevenson ultimately interviewed 24 members of the two fam- per that Pasricha was a coauthor of but which is not included
ilies, along with 29 other individuals for background informa- in the book (Kellehear, Stevenson, Pasricha, and Cook, 1994),
tion. Unless the case is an elaborate fraud perpetrated by a the authors correctly took her to task for this. Of course, a
large number of people for no apparent purpose, Pasricha and tunnel experience is only reported by a minority of Ameri-
Stevenson certainly seem to have documented a case of posses- can subjects as well, so their importance may be overstated at
sion. Of this, they write: “Although we do not dogmatically times. All in all, Pasricha’s documentation of Indian NDEs is
assert that this is the correct interpretation of this case, we an important contribution to the field.
believe much of the evidence makes it the most plausible one.” While all this book’s chapters deal in some way with the
Other chapters in the book focus on cases that provide still question in its title, some of the more interesting ones do so
more compelling evidence of survival. One describes children only indirectly. One examines why so few cases of past-life
in India born with birthmarks or birth defects that appear to memories are reported in South India even though they seem
match wounds suffered by the deceased individual whose life practically ubiquitous in North India. Pasricha presents seven
the child is thought to remember. Though Pasricha focuses cases from South India that reveal features similar to those to
rightly on the marks and defects, I would have liked to have the north, but these represent a paltry set compared with the
heard more about the statements some of the children made. nearly 450 cases she notes in North India. In another paper
Deepak Babu Misra and Ramniri Jatav both apparently gave Barker and Pasricha found a prevalence rate of 2.2 cases per
names and locations matching the previous lives of strangers thousand inhabitants in Uttar Pradesh in North India. While
some distance away, and it would be helpful to know how well no systematic survey has been conducted in South India, when
the history of their statements could be documented. Pasricha used the opportunity during a systematic survey of
Though the book mostly deals with cases of the reincarna- near-death experiences to inquire about past-life memories,
tion type, related areas such as near-death experiences (NDEs) she did not hear about a single case. She explores reasons for
are addressed as well. The three chapters on near-death experi- a disparity in prevalence rates between the two regions. She
ences show the cross-cultural similarities as well as cross-cul- notes that Hinduism is the majority religion in both, though
tural differences in reports of NDEs. One difference between subtle differences exist in some of the beliefs and practices. She
those in India and those in the West is that the Indian ones also suggests that differences in education and literacy rates
are all what Stevenson termed “bureaucratic bungling cases,” (higher in South India) or childrearing practices may contrib-
in which the ill person reports being taken by messengers to ute to the disparity, but she is unable to reach any definite
a man or woman who looks over a book or papers and deter- conclusion. I wonder if genetics may play a role, both in differ-
mines that the wrong person has been sent for. As an example, ences in various regions of a country as well as in differences
the man with the book in one case says in a rage to the mes- across cultures.
sengers: “I had asked you to bring Vasudev the gardener. Our Another chapter details survival cases that were found to in-
garden is drying up. You have brought Vasudev the student.” volve deception or self-deception. Written by Stevenson, Pasri-
In a large survey, Pasricha found that 62% of the individuals cha, and Godwin Samararatne, it tells some interesting stories,
in India who were reported to have died but survived said they including that of a Turkish boy who was named Kenedi when
had had NDEs, far above the percentage in American surveys. he was born in 1965 to a father who admired John Kennedy
She points out that all but one of the Indian subjects had their immensely. Though his few statements about Kennedy’s life
experiences at home, as opposed to the classic American ones only involved information well-known generally–that he was
that occur in hospitals when patients are revived after their President Kennedy, that he lived in America, was married, had
hearts briefly stop. Though this raises the question of whether two children, and was rich–the boy became fully convinced
the Indian subjects were actually at the point of death as op- that he had been the president and remained convinced at least
posed to being merely ill, it is not clear how much difference until he was interviewed at age 20. Another case, which Steven-
that makes. A paper by Stevenson, Cook, and McClean-Rice son helped expose, was a complete fabrication, concocted out
examined the medical records of 40 American patients who of whole cloth by a journalist and published in the magazine
had reported NDEs and found that 22 seemed to have had no Fate. The deception cases all serve as cautions against accept-
life-threatening condition. In another paper, Owens, Cook, ing claims too credulously and as evidence that researchers do
and Stevenson compared the NDE reports of those close to not approach the cases already convinced of their legitimacy.
death versus those who were not and found few differences, Other chapters cover topics such as the role parental guid-
except that those who really were close to death were more ance may play in the cases, phobias that some subjects show
likely to report an enhanced perception of light and enhanced toward the mode of death of the previous individual, cases in
cognitive powers. which no deceased person is found who matches the details
Though the differences in NDEs across cultures may given by the child, and cases in which the child appears to
strengthen the opinions of those who think NDEs are psy- remember a life of someone who practiced a different religion.
chological creations, they weaken the case for a biological ex- All the chapters are interesting, and with Pasricha’s clear and
planation. After proposing a neurological mechanism for how concise writing, easily enjoyed by any general reader with an
the dying mind might produce a tunnel-like visual experience, interest in these topics. Though the book does not provide
a definitive answer to the question of whether the mind can Stevenson, I., Cook, E. W., & McClean-Rice, N. (1989-1990).
survive beyond death, it gives much food for thought. And it Are persons reporting “near-death experiences” really
does provide definitive evidence of Pasricha’s contribution to near death? A study of medical records. Omega, 20(1),
the field, both as Stevenson’s colleague and as a very accom- 45–54.
plished researcher in her own right.
Dr. Jim B. Tucker is an As-

References sociate Professor in the Divi-
Barker, D. R., & Pasncha, S. K. (1979). Reincarnation cases in sion of Perceptual Studies,
Fatehabad: A systematic survey in north India. Journal of Department of Psychiatry and
Asian and African Studies, 14, 231–240. Neurobehavioral Sciences, as
Blackmore, S. J. (1993). Near-death experiences in India: well as in the Division of Child
They have tunnels too. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 11, and Family Psychiatry, Univer-
205–217. sity of Virginia, Charlottesville.
Kellehear, A., Stevenson, I., Pasricha, S., & Cook, F. (1994). He is one of four authors of
The absence of tunnel sensations in near-death experienc- one paper in this book, and
es in India. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 13, 109–113. the author of Life Before Life:
Owens, .1. E., Cook, E. W., & Stevenson, I. (1990). Features Children’s Memories of Previ-
of “near-death experience” in relation to whether or not ous Lives.
patients were near death. Lancet, 336, 1175–1177.
Stevenson, I. (1984). Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xe-
noglossy. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
The Other Unknowns

“There are known knowns. These are things we
“There have been many psychological studies that tell us what
know that we know.
we see and what we hear is shaped by our preferences, our
wishes, our fears, our desires and so forth. We literally see the
“There are known unknowns. That is to say, there world the way we want to see it. But the Dunning-Kruger
are things that we now know we don’t know. effect [our incompetence masks our ability to recognize our
incompetence] suggests that there is a problem beyond that.
Even if you are just the most honest, impartial person that you
“But there are also unknown unknowns. These could be, you would still have a problem — namely, when your
are things we do not know we don’t know.” knowledge or expertise is imperfect, you really don’t know
it. Left to your own devices, you just don’t know it. We’re not
Those are words spoken by United States Secretary of Defense very good at knowing what we don’t know.”
Donald Rumsfeld at a press briefing on February 12, 2002, There is really nothing wrong with that obviously. No one
about the increasingly unstable situation in post-invasion Af- can be faulted for not knowing what he or she doesn’t know—
ghanistan. Rumsfeld’s words were generally regarded as elu- when one has made a serious and honest attempt to know all
sive and arrogant, but some defended Rumsfeld, saying that there is to know on a subject.
it was a profound and rather brilliant distillation of a complex But there is one category that seems to be missing from
philosophical truth, a truth that, we might add, quite well ap- Rumsfeld’s deconstruction of human knowledge. It’s the
plies to scientific knowledge as well. not-so-unknown unknowns. Those are the unknowns that
David Dunning, a social psychologist at Cornell Univer- are brushed aside, or under the carpet, either for contradict-
sity, has given a lot of thought to unknown unknowns as well. ing what’s thought to be known, or simply because they are
In an interview with filmmaker Errol Morris that appeared deemed unworthy of consideration for one reason or another.
on June 24, 2010, as an online New York Times commentary Those can be the most damming unknowns of all. They’re the
called “The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong ones we may one day regret, saying: we actually knew better.
but You’ll Never Know What It Is (Part 1),” Dunning stated: – Patrick Huyghe
{ BACKSCATTER|
Peter Sturrock
Three Laws of Intellectual Motion

Over three hundred years ago, Sir Isaac Newton clarified our We have all engaged in discussions where one person tries
understanding of dynamical processes by formulating his fa- to change another person’s opinion. On rare occasions, these
mous three laws, which read as follows: attempts may be successful, but in general they are not. My
experience leads me to offer for consideration and discussion
the following reformulation of Newton’s laws:
Sturrock’s Three Laws Of Intellectual Motion

1. Opinions tend to remain in a state of stagnation unless
acted upon by an external argument.
Credit: Linearcurves/istockphoto
2. The rate of change of opinion is proportional to the

strength of the applied argument, and inversely proportional
to the intellectual inertia of the person holding that opinion.
3. For every attempt to change another person’s opinion,
that person will make an equal and opposite attempt to change
the first person’s opinion.
With regard to the second law, note that intellectual iner-

Newton’s Three Laws Of Motion tia is weakly correlated with age but strongly correlated with
1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain status.
in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
2. The relationship between an object’s mass m, its accelera- Peter Sturrock is an astrophysicist at Stanford University.
tion a, and the applied force f is f = ma.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Society for Scientific Exploration

P.O. Box 1190, Tiburon, California 94920
Join the SSE today

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Dge Cience: You, Too, Might Be Surprised

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Edge Science

Number 4 July–September 2010

Current Research and Insights

You, too, might be surprised

Publisher: The Society for Scientific Exploration

The Latest Challenge

O ne would imagine that a device as simple as the pendulum

As a professor of physics at the University of Quebec at Chi-

Photo credit: Thomas Gooey.

The latest episode in this chase occurred earlier this

Insects and the Speed

A scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a representative insect

nanometers in diameter (Steinbrecht, 1997). These pores are

A summary of the time problem in insect

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Current Research and Insights

You, too, might be surprised

Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne

The Effects of Human Intention on a

E arly in 1979, several months before the PEAR lab was

and our operators usually addressed him by name. On one oc-

cascade amplifies the the meridian system.

Before Acupuncture Treatment After Acupuncture Treatment

On Memories of Previous Lives

A SCIENTIST WHO NOW KNOWS IF HUMAN

Dr. Jim B. Tucker is an As-

The Other Unknowns

Three Laws of Intellectual Motion

Sturrock’s Three Laws Of Intellectual Motion

2. The rate of change of opinion is proportional to the

With regard to the second law, note that intellectual iner-

Society for Scientific Exploration

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