----------
From: QuickTime News


Subject: QuickTime News: July 21, 2000

Jennifer Lopez stars in "The Cell" as Catherine Dean, a therapist
who develops a machine to transport herself inside the human mind.
She mind-melds with a comatose serial killer, Carl Stargher (Vincent
D'Onofrio), in an effort to locate his most recent victim. While
Dean takes a surrealistic journey through the murderer's psyche, FBI
agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) sifts through clues in the real
world to pinpoint the victim's whereabouts.

Directed by award-winning commercial and music video producer Tarsem
Dhandwar (REM's "Losing My Religion"), the sci-fi flick opens in
U.S. theaters August 18.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/thecell_trailer.html

---------- From: "Terry W. Colvin"

Reply-To: forteana@...

Subject: M.D. TAKES SURVEY OF UFO SIGHTINGS AND ABDUCTIONS

David Gordon writes he and his wife who are both Medical Doctors conducted a
UFO survey in their practices in 1992 to establish the veracity of UFO
sighting and contact reports to determine the scope of the phenomenon.
George, it gives us great pleasure to have our study published.  There have
been medical gatherings (1) and media publications (2,3,4) in which
respected psychiatric professionals have supported the claims of people who
say they were abducted by UFO's.  Some of these people have been found to be
suffering from a type of post-traumatic stress disorder (3).  A recent Roper
survey of over 5,000 people, whose results were mailed to 100,000
psychiatric professionals, found a 2 per cent potential UFO abduction rate
in the general population (5).  To discover the prevalence of both UFO
abductions and sightings, and to establish the veracity and clinical
relevance of these claims, I undertook a survey of my own HMO practice
members.  One thousand fifty (1050) low acuity HMO members were asked in a
serial fashion at the conclusion of their visit with me, if he or she, the
member, "had ever seen a UFO".  Members with known significant mental
illness were excluded from the survey.  If the member answered in the
affirmative, a detailed sighting report, was taken of the time, place, and
circumstances of the encounter.  Members were asked to sketch the object if
they had seen a structure to the object.  Objects were counted as UFO's if
they had structure or flight characteristics unknown to modern aircraft
manufacturing and propulsion technology (I hold a commercial pilot's
license).  Examples of counted objects: were nocturnal lights exhibiting
non-ballistic motion (sudden Z turns, impossible accelerations and
decelerations ), flying and hovering discs, cigars, triangles, boomerangs,
all of which were described as either silent or emitting a low humming
noise.  Members who had seen a UFO were then asked specifically about
contact with any entities associated with the object.  They were asked about
memory of abduction experience, unexplained missing time, or sudden
translocation of physical position in association with their sighting.

The results were surprising.  Out of 1050 HMO members surveyed, 115 (11%)
reported having had seen a UFO by the criteria listed above.  Only two had
reported it to the authorities.  Sixty (6%) of the objects had been close
enough to be able to sketch structure.  The other 55 (5%) objects had been
nocturnal lights moving non-ballistically.  Eight members (0.8% of the total
surveyed population) related an involuntary UFO contact or abduction.  Four
(0.4%) other members reported visual contact with UFO entities without
abduction.  Most of the members reporting objects or entities were known
personally by me for several years and had no history of mental disturbance.
Furthermore, medical records were available on all of these persons to
confirm this.  If replicable by other health care professionals, the
implications of these data are profound.  They would imply that the
phenomenon of contact with non-earth intelligence is not rare, is occurring
in every health professional's patient pool, could potentially affect
people's health, and is being kept secret by individuals until a special
person in a position of trust and authority, i.e., their physician, directly
asks them about their experience.  Thanks to David Gordon, M.D. Los Angeles,
CA.  1.  Conference on anomalous personal experiences, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, June 1992 (personal communication).  2 "UFO reports
get a going over," David L. Chandler, Boston Globe June 22, 1992.  3.
"Helping Abductees," John E. Mack, M.D., International UFO Reporter,
July/August 1992.  4.  Secret Life.  Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions,
David Jacobs, Ph.D., Simon & Schuster, NY, NY 1992.  5. Roper Survey.
Anomalous personal experiences.  Roper Organization 1992.  Editor's Note:
Next week Eve Gordon M.D. will present her results.  Both physicians are on
the MUFON Board of Consultants.  Assuming these statistics are accurate only
two out of a 115 people reported their sighting to the authorities
indicating only 1 to 2% of the actual sightings are reported.

--
Terry W. Colvin

---------- From: Brian Chapman

Reply-To: forteana@...

Subject: Light May Break Its Own Speed Limit

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Faster-Than-Light.html

July 19, 2000

Light May Break Its Own Speed Limit

Scientists have apparently broken the universe's speed limit.

For generations, physicists believed there is nothing faster than light
moving through a vacuum -- a speed of 186,000 miles per second.

But in an experiment in Princeton, N.J., physicists sent a pulse of laser
light through cesium vapor so quickly that it left the chamber before it had
even finished entering.

The pulse traveled 310 times the distance it would have covered if the
chamber had contained a vacuum.

Researchers say it is the most convincing demonstration yet that the speed
of light -- supposedly an ironclad rule of nature -- can be pushed beyond
known boundaries, at least under certain laboratory circumstances.

``This effect cannot be used to send information back in time,'' said Lijun
Wang, a researcher with the private NEC Institute. ``However, our experiment
does show that the generally held misconception that `nothing can travel
faster than the speed of light' is wrong.''

The results of the work by Wang, Alexander Kuzmich and Arthur Dogariu were
published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

The achievement has no practical application right now, but experiments like
this have generated considerable excitement in the small international
community of theoretical and optical physicists.

``This is a breakthrough in the sense that people have thought that was
impossible,'' said Raymond Chiao, a physicist at the University of
California at Berkeley who was not involved in the work. Chiao has performed
similar experiments using electric fields.

In the latest experiment, researchers at NEC developed a device that fired a
laser pulse into a glass chamber filled with a vapor of cesium atoms. The
researchers say the device is sort of a light amplifier that can push the
pulse ahead.

Previously, experiments have been done in which light also appeared to
achieve such so-called superluminal speeds, but the light was distorted,
raising doubts as to whether scientists had really accomplished such a feat.

The laser pulse in the NEC experiment exits the chamber with almost exactly
the same shape, but with less intensity, Wang said.

The pulse may look like a straight beam but actually behaves like waves of
light particles. The light can leave the chamber before it has finished
entering because the cesium atoms change the properties of the light,
allowing it to exit more quickly than in a vacuum.

The leading edge of the light pulse has all the information needed to
produce the pulse on the other end of the chamber, so the entire pulse does
not need to reach the chamber for it to exit the other side.

The experiment produces an almost identical light pulse that exits the
chamber and travels about 60 feet before the main part of the laser pulse
finishes entering the chamber, Wang said.

Wang said the effect is possible only because light has no mass; the same
thing cannot be done with physical objects.

The Princeton experiment and others like it test the limits of the theory of
relativity that Albert Einstein developed nearly a century ago.

According to the special theory of relativity, the speed of particles of
light in a vacuum, such as outer space, is the only absolute measurement in
the universe. The speed of everything else -- rockets or inchworms -- is
relative to the observer, Einstein and others explained.

In everyday circumstances, an object cannot travel faster than light.

The Princeton experiment and others change these circumstances by using
devices such as the cesium chamber rather than a vacuum.

Ultimately, the work may contribute to the development of faster computers
that carry information in light particles.

Not everyone agrees on the implications of the NEC experiment.

Aephraim Steinberg, a physicist at the University of Toronto, said the light
particles coming out of the cesium chamber may not have been the same ones
that entered, so he questions whether the speed of light was broken.

Still, the work is important, he said: ``The interesting thing is how did
they manage to produce light that looks exactly like something that didn't
get there yet?''

---------- From: "Gordon Rutter"
Reply-To: forteana@...
Subject: Tracking Bigfoot

http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/docs/025107.htm

Audubon Society offers summer camp for tracking Bigfoot

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Students who are bored by microscopes and petri
dishes might find this scientific endeavor -- tracking the elusive Bigfoot
-- a bit more interesting.

Most scientists doubt the beast exists, but looking for it is a good way to
get children interested in science, says Steve Robertson, education director
for the Audubon Society of Portland.

``We don't want to give people the wrong idea, that the Audubon Society
believes there's a sasquatch,'' Robertson says. ``The idea is to use the
Bigfoot as a vehicle to increase children's wilderness awareness skills, to
get them to carefully interpret the animal signs they encounter.''

The weeklong camp, called ``Bigfoot: Fact of Fiction,'' begins Aug. 21.
Students in fifth- through eighth-grade will look for signs of the creature
-- hair, scat or broken branches -- in the foothills of Mount Hood in Oregon
and Mount St. Helens in Washington.

``We aren't expecting to run into a sasquatch, but we'll run into a lot of
other animal signs,'' Robertson said.

If they're lucky enough to find a sasquatch footprint, they'll make a
plaster of Paris mold.

If they actually encounter Bigfoot, they'll have a video camera to capture
it on film.

``We're going to take a real nonbiased look at this, just listen to people,
evaluate evidence as it is presented, and do a minisearch ourselves,''
Robertson said. ``We'll talk about what qualifies as science and what
doesn't.''

Robertson said the class will consider eyewitness accounts, such as a recent
one by a Grants Pass psychologist who reported seeing a Bigfoot while hiking
with his family at Oregon Caves National Monument in southern Oregon.

But some educators say Bigfoot research may not be the best way to introduce
children to science.

``Sasquatch is totally open to speculation. Why not use something we know
exists? . . . Let's go out with cougar, bear or wolf biologists,'' says
Donna Rainboth of Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, who develops
science curriculum for primary and secondary schools.

But Robertson says Bigfoot has an edge when it comes to keeping youngsters
alert in the forest.

``Picture going out looking for a black-capped chickadee in the afternoon;
then picture going out in the woods in the dark at 10 o'clock at night
looking for sasquatch. You're going to be as aware as you've ever been.''

http://www.melvinmorse.com/ARC/N0001.htm

Jim whinnery's Research: FIGHTER PILOT NDEs

Strange to learn that one of the most exciting advances in consciousness
research comes from Jim Whinnery, a flight surgeon for the National Warfare
Institute. Jim and I are on the Board of the National Institute of Discovery
Science together, where I saw videotapes and interviews with test fighter
pilots who have had NDEs.

Well, not actually NDEs. They have "acceleration induced loss of
consciousness experiences". Jim was learning the ability of the human brain
to withstand high G forces by accelerating test pilots in a centrifuge.

He discovered that at the end of their runs, after the pilots lost
consciousness, had seizures, loss of muscle tone, and theoretical stoppage
of blood flow in their brains, then they would have "dreamlets".

These dreamlets sound suspiciously like NDes, including out of body
perceptions, and "I was on a desert island looking up at the sun, it was
very pleasant."

We have all heard adults gushing endlessly over their NDEs, but when you
hear similar experiences in the clipped monotone of fighter pilot talk, it
gives you a chilll.

What this all means, you have to subscribe to the journal to find out. Just
joking. send me your snail mail and I will send you the journal article I
discuss his research in.

Also, you can access the National Institute of discovery Science website,
which has an abstract of his work, I will have it as a link on my site as
soon as I get to it.

For those who get Aviation, Space, and Environmental medicine, look through
your back issues for:

Whinnery JE: Observations on the neurophysiological theory of acceleration
induced loss of consciousness. Aviat Space Environ med 1989 60:589-93

or easier to find: Whinnery JE: Acceleration induced loss of consciousness.
Arch Neurol 1990 47:764-776

Working Paper  

Interpreting Anomalous Experiences:

Maupassant's Le Horla and the Cultural-Historical Transformation of the
Alien.

Al. Cheyne
University of Waterloo
acheyne@...

Draft:
August, 1998

Abstract Making sense of anomalous experiences requires that people draw on
a variety of cultural resources. In Le Horla, Guy de Maupassant presents an
account of a 19th century intellectual who draws on diverse cultural sources
to interpret a confusing array of highly unusual experiences. A focal point
of the story is a vivid account of hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations
associated with sleep paralysis. Such experiences have been implicated as
sources of traditional narratives of alien spirit attacks and abductions
and, more recently, as the experiential foundation of a modern legend of
abduction by extraterrestrial aliens. I argue that one effect of the
increasing availability of popular science in the 19th century was to
provide new grounds and material for explaining bizarre and uncanny
experiences. The resulting accounts did not, however, simply replace
traditional narrative themes with scientific explanations but conflated
them. These hybridized accounts are often most at odds with mainstream
scientific explanations, in part because scientific paradigms change with
time and because discarded scientific accounts often become incorporated
into the cultural tradition.

Complete essay may be found here.

http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/LeHorla.html

http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/currentinterests.html



 (1999). Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 319-337.  

Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Hallucinations during Sleep Paralysis:

Neurological and Cultural Construction of the Night-Mare.

J. Allan Cheyne University of Waterloo acheyne@...

Steve D. Rueffer University of Waterloo  sdrueffe@...

Ian R. Newby-Clark University of Waterloo irnewby@...


Abstract

 Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations (HHEs) accompanying sleep
paralysis (SP) are often cited as sources of accounts of supernatural
nocturnal assaults and paranormal experiences. Descriptions of such
experiences are remarkably consistent across time and cultures and
consistent also with known mechanisms of REM states. A three-factor
structural model of HHEs based on their relations both to cultural
narratives and REM neurophysiology is developed and tested with several
large samples. One factor, labeled Intruder, consisting of sensed presence,
fear, and auditory and visual hallucinations, is conjectured to originate in
a hypervigilant state initiated in the midbrain. Another factor, Incubus,
comprising pressure on the chest, breathing difficulties, and pain, is
attributed to effects of hyperpolarization of motoneurons on perceptions of
respiration. These two factors have in common an implied alien "other"
consistent with occult narratives identified in numerous contemporary and
historical cultures. A third factor, labeled Unusual Bodily Experiences,
consisting of floating/flying sensations, out-of-body-experiences, and
feelings of bliss, are related to physically impossible experiences
generated by conflicts of endogenous and exogenous activation related to
body position, orientation, and movement. Implications of this last factor
for understanding of orientational primacy in self-consciousness are
considered. Central features of the model developed here are consistent with
recent work on hallucinations associated with hypnosis and schizophrenia.

Full Text of this article is available at:

<http://extra.idealibrary.com/production/ccog/1999/8/3/ccog.1999.0404/0404a.
pdf>

----------

The Dana Alliance, a nonprofit organization of more than 185
neuroscientists, was formed to help provide information about the personal
and public benefits of brain research. Today one out of five Americans
suffers from a brain-related disease, or disorder, ranging from cocaine
addiction to learning disabilities from Alzheimer's disease to spinal cord
injuries. Recently, significant advances have been made in brain-related
research, including "imaging" techniques, that allow scientists to study
actual functioning brains; genetic-based research; and the development of
new drugs. This site will help answer questions about brain-related research
and provide information about new developments in that research.

NEWS RELEASE 02/29/00

Contact: Barbara Rich Charles A.
Dana Foundation
(212) 223-4040
brich@...

DANA ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK WITH ACTIVITIES SCHEDULED ON
SIX CONTINENTS

New York, February 29, 2000 --­ More than 1,000 organizations in 41
countries have joined as partners to celebrate Brain Awareness Week, March
13-19, under the auspices of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, the
project's international coordinator.

Millions of people across six continents will participate in the week's
activities, which include public lectures, exhibits, plays, films, and fairs
about the brain. Brain Awareness Week began in 1995 with about 60 partners.
This rapid increase in partners has given a boost to participation by
scientists world-wide, and by the general public.

In the United States, the Dana Alliance will release Update 2000: Brain
Research in the New Millennium, the sixth annual report on advances in brain
research. This year, the report features a "millennium quartet" of
scientists working in areas of brain research that appear will be most
productive in the 2000s. These areas include stem cell research, imaging,
cognitive dysfunction and mental illness, and pain.

The main body of the report details the latest neuroscience studies, from
brain cancer to brain development, looking at what has been accomplished,
and indicating future directions of research.

Elsewhere around the United States, universities, government agencies, local
communities, libraries, museums, hospitals, community centers, and patient
advocacy groups will host events for adults and children. For example, the
National Institutes of Health and the Dana Alliance will co-sponsor
interactive demonstrations and talks about the brain to more than two
hundred elementary and middle school children from Washington, DC area
schools. The event will take place March 15 and 16 at the National Museum of
Health and Medicine/Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Walter Reed Medical
Center in DC.

Rice University is featuring The Reconstructors, a new interactive science
game, which is on exhibit at the Museum of Health and Science in Houston. In
the game, the user enters a futuristic world and discovers medical knowledge
from the past.

In Minnesota, graduate students and neuroscientists from the University of
Minnesota will visit fourth and fifth graders across the state, bringing a
variety of hands-on brain-related demonstrations. There is also a brain fair
in Nashville, and a national brain bee contest for high school students.

The award-winning Dana Alliance radio series, Gray Matters, will air
"Emotions and the Brain," on public radio stations across the country during
the week. The Dana Alliance hosts a web site for the public at
www.dana.org/brainweek, which includes an international calendar, education
resources, publications, and general information about the week.

David Mahoney, chairman and CEO of the Charles A. Dana Foundation and the
Dana Alliance said, "Neuroscientists around the world are making inroads on
the most fundamental cellular level. At the same time, they are beginning to
understand the interrelationships between the brain and the body. The
participation in Brain Awareness Week worldwide reflects people's hope that
the progress being made will translate into treatments and therapies for
themselves and their loved ones."

The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives is a non-profit organization of more
than 190 preeminent neuroscientists, including seven Nobel laureates, whose
commitment is to advance education about the public benefits of brain
research. The Dana Alliance is supported by the Charles A. Dana Foundation,
a private, philanthropic, organization with interests in neuroscience and
education.



Also From: http://www.dana.org/dana/hotnews.html


U RESEARCHER WINS AWARD TO STUDY BRAIN'S INFLUENCE ON THE HEART

(01/25/2000)

http://www.med.utah.edu/pubaffairs/news_detail.cfm?ID=13378

A two-year $100,000 grant has been awarded to Robert L. Lux, Ph.D., at the
University of Utah School of Medicine, for research into possible links
between the brain¹s electrical signals and abnormal cardiac function in
patients at risk of experiencing potentially lethal arrhythmias or sudden
cardiac death. Lux is a professor of Internal Medicine, Division of
Cardiology.

The award, from The Charles A. Dana Foundation, was given under the
foundation¹s Clinical Hypotheses Program in Brain-Body Interaction.

"The influence of the brain on the heart has long been suspected as an
important factor in the cause of arrhythmias in a variety of abnormal brain
conditions," Lux said. "Our study is the first to try to directly link the
brain¹s electrical activity with the electrophysiologic conditions in the
heart known to precede, and possibly even cause, abnormal heart rhythms."

Lux and his colleagues at the U¹s Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular
Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) will study patients suffering from
Long QT Syndrome, a genetic disease in which structural abnormalities occur
in specialized electrical pathways of heart cells. These pathways, known as
ion channels, regulate the flow of tiny electric currents through and
between heart cells. The abnormal function of these channels can result in
unstable conditions in the heart that can lead to serious or lethal cardiac
arrhythmias.

Lux will record simultaneously the electrical signals of both the brain and
the heart of patients suffering from Long QT Syndrome. The award will allow
the U research team to build a computerized recording system that will
measure and analyze the relationship between these complex electrical
signals.

The U research is aimed at improving methods for identifying patients at
risk and for monitoring effectiveness of therapies prescribed for them.

The Charles A. Dana Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organization
with particular interests in neuroscience and education.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Remy
Chevalier Environmental Library Fund
25 Newtown Turnpike Weston, CT 06883

www.remyc.com
www.endsecrecy.com
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

---------- From: Kelly

To: blather@...

Subject: [Blather-talk]: Groups to track paranormal events


http://www.cosmiverse.com/paranormal070502.html

Groups to track paranormal events July 5, 2000 08:10 CDT

More than a dozen paranormal-related organizations have joined together in a
two-year research project to track changes and anomalies in radio/TV
electrical and electromagnetic fields, as they're associated with paranormal
events.

Launched by DestinationSpace.net over the weekend, the purpose of Project
Tune In is to "document and chronicle electrical energies and
electromagnetic fields intrinsic to varied paranormal phenomena (UFOs,
"spook lights," High Strangeness Encounters, and "hauntings") and examine
available data for parallels and diversity and clues," said the
organization.

"Constantly evolving, this two-year study seeks to assemble a
multidisciplinary staff of not only substantial talent, but also of
enthusiasm and energy, including UFOlogists, engineers, students, ghost
hunters, housewives, inventors, paranormal investigators and researchers,
physicians and physicists," said the research organization, which proposed
the formation of an Electromagnetic Working Group to coordinate the effort.

Cooperating in the project are Skywatch International; Citizens Against UFO
Secrecy; Mutual UFO Network organizations in Kentucky, San Diego, and New
York; the Australia UFO Research Network; Dorset UFO Investigations; Ufology
UK; CSETI; North American Metaphysical Circus; and media organizations such
as UFO Magazine, the Laura Lee Show, Coast to Coast AM radio, 21st Century
Radio, and the Zoh Show.

Destination Space said all interested parties are encouraged to submit their
ideas and results of volunteer field investigations and research in the
project. The organization has posted notice of the project on its website at
www.destinationspace.net, including forms for tracking odd electronic and
electromagnetic effects.

Among the data field investigators will be asked to monitor, capture, and
report are:

--The effects of AM radio "quiet frequencies" when genuine UFOs are present,
and in the location of so-called "spook lights" (such as the Marfa Lights in
Texas and Missouri, New York's Reservoir Road; Silver Cliff cemetery in
Colorado

--The effects on track radio/TV interference in UFO "flap" areas;

--Surveys of "electrical noise" and localized radio/TV interference in High
Strangeness or "window" areas such as Sedona, Arizona, the Hudson Valley in
New York, the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington, the San Luis Valley
bordering Colorado and New Mexico in the United States and other
counterparts around the globe.

--A record of AM radio "quiet frequencies" and television interference in
the immediate presence of so-called "haunting events."

The cooperating organizations hope to develop an "experiment database" that
will provide a single repository for cataloging reports and experiences as
they occur. Destination Space said it will issue interim reports in February
and August of 2001 and in February of 2002, with a final summary report on
the project within 90 days of July, 2002.

For those new to paranormal watch and reporting procedures, the organization
provides a list of specifics to be documented during each event, as well as
a mini-reading list to prepare for paranormal event fieldwork. The group
recommends reading "Free UFO Detectors," by Robert A. Goerman, FATE
magazine, April, 2000, Volume 53, Number 4, ppg 22-25. Additional
information also can be found at the Electromagnetic Working Group website
at /hometown.aol.com/trackingterror/myhomepage/diary.html.

Staff Writer Sally Suddock

Sleep Research Online 3(1): 1-4, 2000
http://www.sro.org/2000/gottesmann/1/

Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
1096-214X © 2000 WebSciences


Letter to the Editor
Hypothesis for the Neurophysiology of Dreaming

Claude Gottesmann Laboratoire de Psychophysiologie, Faculté des Sciences,
Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 06108 Nice cedex 2, France



ABSTRACT

During wakefulness, the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for generating
mental activities, is activated by brain stem ascending influences. This is
evidenced by classic electrophysiological field and unitary activities,
gamma range activity and cortical blood flow. However, aminergic ascending
neurons exert mainly diffuse inhibitory influences. These two kinds of
influences together support reflective and rational psychological
activities. During slow wave sleep, both kinds of ascending influences
decrease and the mental content comprises low-intensity thought-like
activities, similar to the waking mode of functioning, although dreams have
been described. During rapid eye movement sleep, the principal dreaming
stage, the cortex is activated but significantly disinhibited since all
aminergic neurons are silent except the dopaminergic ones. We hypothesize
that, in addition to this unusual state, the persistent release of dopamine
associated with the specific silence of noradrenergic neurons could explain
the characteristics of dream mental activity which are somewhat similar to
psychotic symptoms.



CURRENT CLAIM:

The psychotic-like mental activity of dreaming could be explained by the
fact that, during REM sleep, the cortex is activated but is mostly
disinhibited and that, in addition, the persistent release of dopamine is
associated with the absence noradrenaline.



For thousands of years, dreams have fascinated mankind: "An uninterpreted
dream is an unread letter" (Talmud in Freud, 1953). In a similar
perspective, Freud (in Freud, 1975) made dream interpretation the
cornerstone of his theory of the unconscious. Moreover, analogies between
dreaming and madness were emphasized by several philosophers: "the madman is
a waking dreamer" (Kant in Freud, 1975), "dreams are brief madness and
madness a long dream" (Schopenhauer in Freud, 1975). We intend to determine
the neurophysiological background of the mental activity of sleep by
comparing it with wakefulness psychological functioning. This analysis will
focus on the most recent phylogenetic brain level implicated in
consciousness, i.e., the cerebral cortex.

During active wakefulness, cortical electrophysiological field activity
(electroencephalogram) is rapid and low voltage. Many researchers have long
shown that it corresponds to an activated state (Moruzzi and Magoun, 1949),
also identified by unitary cell activity (Evarts, 1962) which shows a high
level of firing. The synchronized gamma range activity centered on 40 Hz
which occurs during attentive wakefulness in cats (Bouyer et al., 1981) and
humans (Ribary et al., 1991) and which decreases in Alzheimer's disease
(Ribary et al., 1991), recently strengthened this finding. Finally, the
cerebral blood flow level and glucose utilization provide a final
confirmation that the cortex is activated during waking (Maquet et al.,
1996; Braun et al., 1998). From the neurochemical standpoint, acetylcholine,
predominantly issued from the basal forebrain (Kurosawa et al., 1989) as
well as the Meynert nucleus in humans, favors cortical low voltage activity
(Kinai and Szerb, 1965). All of these activating processes are sustained by
brain stem ascending influences (Moruzzi and Magoun, 1949; Steriade and
McCarley, 1990). They are crucial. Indeed, their disappearance induces coma.

During wakefulness inhibitory influences are also exerted on the cortex by
subcortical ascending neurons. There are aminergic terminals of brain stem
and hypothalamic neurons which fire during waking. Now, dopamine,
noradrenaline, serotonin (Krnjevic and Phillis, 1963; Reader et al., 1979)
and histamine (Sastry and Phillis, 1976; Haas and Wolf, 1977) mostly inhibit
cortical principal cells either directly, or by depolarizing cortical
inhibitory interneurons. These influences are most often induced by
neurotransmitter diffuse release at varicosities (axon terminal
enlargements). It is worth mentioning that, as early as 1966, Demetrescu et
al. (1966), in a study of thalamocortical responsiveness, described the
coexistence of cortical activating and inhibitory influences during waking.

The mental content functioning of wakefulness is well known. It is
reflective and rational. It controls and integrates sensory information. The
two kinds of influences contribute to the waking teleological adapted state.
The activating influences allow cortex functioning, just as petrol propels
an auto engine, and the inhibitory influences in some way control this
activation, and consequently "normalize" mental functioning. Indeed, the
decrease of noradrenergic and/or serotoninergic inhibitory influences
induces depression psychological disturbances.

The hypnagogic hallucinations that occur on falling asleep were extensively
studied by Maury (1861). They are characterized by "floating sensations,
flashing lights, lantern slide phenomena, fleeting progressions of thoughts
and images" (Foulkes, 1962). However, from Stage 2, cortical spindles and
slow waves progressively appear, cortical neuron firing decreases in animals
and tends to occur by bursts accompanying the slow waves. Gamma range
activity decreases (Llinas and Ribary, 1993), as do the thalamocortical
responsiveness (Demetrescu et al., 1966), and cortical blood flow (Maquet et
al., 1997; Hofle et al., 1997) except for an increase in the visual and less
markedly in the secondary auditory cortex (Hofle et al., 1997). The rather
general cortical decrease in activation is accompanied, on the neurochemical
side, by a decrease in acetylcholine release (Celesia and Jasper, 1966). The
inhibitory influences are also depressed. The firing of the noradrenergic
(Aston-Jones and Bloom, 1981) and serotoninergic (McGinty and Harper, 1976;
Rasmussen et al., 1984) neurons decreases while the histaminergic neurons
become silent (Vanni-Mercier et al., 1984). Only the dopaminergic neurons
continue to fire as shown in rats (Miller et al., 1983) and cats (Trulson
and Preussler, 1984). It can be concluded that during slow wave sleep
activating and inhibitory influences acting at cortical level decrease
together in the same way.

Foulkes (1962) showed that, psychologically, the brain is not silent during
slow wave sleep. He determined that the mental content is different from
hypnagogic and hypnopompic (pre-arousing) hallucinations, and that it is
"less often visual and had a higher degree of correspondence with reality".
This "thought-like" activity somewhat corresponds to Freud's (1900)
"secondary process" which sustains waking physiological controlled activity.
Foulkes (1962), as recently confirmed (Bosinelli 1995), also found dream
contents during slow wave sleep, which could correspond with the activation
of the visual and secondary auditory cortex. However, recent experimental
findings show that dreaming only occurs on REM sleep physiological
background (Takeuchi et al., 1999; Nielsen, 2000).

Rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep), also called paradoxical sleep, which
usually appears following slow wave sleep, is the main dreaming stage. It is
characterized by low voltage cortical activity in animals (Dement, 1958;
Jouvet et al., 1959) and humans (Loomis et al., 1937; Aserinsky and
Kleitman, 1953), which most often does not differ from that of wakefulness.
Neuron firing is as high as during waking (Evarts, 1962) and gamma range
activity occurs (Llinas and Ribary, 1993; Paré and Llinas, 1995). Moreover,
the cortical blood flow is higher than during slow wave sleep. Sometimes it
is even higher than during waking, particularly in the integrative visual
cortex and limbic areas (Maquet et al., 1996; Braun et al., 1998). A
decrease in activation was described in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
as compared to waking (Maquet et al., 1996; Braun et al., 1998); however,
during the eye movements, two teams found an increase of activation (Hong et
al., 1995; Nofzinger et al., 1997). Finally, acetylcholine release is even
slightly higher than during waking (Celesia and Jasper, 1966). Thus, during
REM sleep, the cortex is globally activated, as during wakefulness.

One difference with wakefulness is that, although gamma range activity can
be present, there is no reset by peripheral stimulation. This is also the
case during slow wave sleep (Llinas and Ribary, 1993). Moreover, the late
components of the sensory evoked potentials (which partly correspond to what
are nowadays called event-related potentials and reflect cortical processing
and integration of sensory information) are suppressed (Williams et al.,
1964). These two facts suggested to Llinas and Ribary(1993) that "the
dreaming condition (is) a state of hyperattentiveness in which sensory input
cannot address the machinery that generates conscious experience." It is
worth mentioning that, unlike the associative visual cortex which is
activated, the primary visual cortex is deactivated during REM sleep (Braun
et al., 1998).

The main difference lies in the silence of noradrenergic (Aston-Jones and
Bloom, 1981), serotoninergic (McGinty and Harper, 1976; Rasmussen et al.,
1984), and histaminergic (Vanni-Mercier et al., 1984) neurons. The only
aminergic neurons, which continue to fire, are the dopaminergic ones.
Consequently, the cortex is significantly disinhibited during REM sleep. The
coexistence of cortical activation and disinhibition processes, which had
already been shown by Demetrescu et al., (1966), led us at that time to draw
up psychophysiological hypotheses about the neurophysiological background of
dreaming (Gottesmann, 1967, 1971). What conclusions can be highlighted
today?

During REM sleep, as during wakefulness, the cortex is activated and is thus
able to function. However, during waking, powerful diffuse inhibitory
influences apparently modulate and control cortical functioning. During REM
sleep, these inhibitory influences, and consequently the probable control
they exert, are significantly decreased and could explain the bizarre mental
functioning of this sleep stage. The "manifest content" (Freud, 1900) of
dreams which, according to Freud, is the disguised representation of
previous "latent content" (which cannot obtain access to consciousness since
it would create disturbing anguish), is most often illogical and comprises
irrational event associations. The possible dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
deactivation (Hobson et al., 1998) but more likely the silence of aminergic
neurons except dopaminergic ones, could account for such an unusual mode of
functioning. The frequently observed rapid sequences of mental content could
also result from a disinhibition process. The instantaneous dream of Maury
(1861) provides a classic example. Maury had a long dream in which he was
arrested, sentenced to death under the revolutionary terror regime and later
driven off to Revolution Square, where he mounted the scaffold, etc. He
awoke as the guillotine blade descended. In fact, the bedpost fell at the
same moment on his cervical vertebrae. Although this dream is debatable
because it had occurred 40 years before the narration and Maury was unwell
at the time, the decrease in cortical control could explain the rapid
succession of fantasies.

As already mentioned, the relationship between dreaming and psychotic mental
functioning has long been emphasized. Hobson et al. (1998), found that
dreaming in REM sleep is characterized by "sensorimotor hallucinations,
bizarre imagery...diminished self-reflective awareness, orientational
instability...intensification of emotion, instinctual behaviors," symptoms
often encountered in schizophrenia. The possible deactivation of the
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, when confirmed, could be of importance.
Following Jackson's theory, deactivation of this most recent phylogenetic
brain area could create a deficit in psychological functioning by
suppression of its specific potentialities (negative consequences) and could
suppress control exerted on even slightly older cortical structures
(positive consequences), thus explaining the rich distorted mental activity
characteristic of dreams. It is of interest to recall that the prefrontal
cortex blood flow is not increased during cognitive activity in impaired
schizophrenic patients (Berman et al., 1993).

There is another hypothesis. The leading French psychiatrist H. Ey (1967)
stated, "It is obvious, it cannot be but obvious that dream and madness
spring from the same sources." Indeed, all neurophysiological data show that
the influences generating mental functioning are not induced, but sustained
by the brain stem, i.e., rather old phylogenetic structures. Once again, the
ascending facilitatory influences allow cortical functioning while the
inhibitory ones seem to control these activating processes. The major
decrease in the inhibitory ascending influences could explain the unusual
modalities of mental activities during REM sleep. It is our belief that, in
addition to this cortical unusual state, the persistence of dopaminergic
influences could play a crucial role in the often psychiatric-like mode of
psychological functioning. Indeed, it is known that aside from the
nightmares induced by dopamine agonists (Thompson and Pierce 1999), an
excess of dopamine release (Pehek 1999) leads to psychotic disorders
(Buffenstein et al., 1999). Moreover, neuroleptics used to alleviate
schizophrenia reduce dopamine influence at cortical and limbic levels by
acting on pre and/or postsynaptic receptors (Kinon and Lieberman, 1996).
Finally, new atypical neuroleptics increase noradrenaline release at
cortical levels (Nutt et al., 1997). Consequently, in this activated and
disinhibited cortical state of REM sleep, the specific release of dopamine
and the silence of noradrenergic neurons could lead to fantasies and the
generally irrational mental activities of dreaming, somewhat similar to
those of psychotic diseases (Gottesmann, 1999).



REFERENCES

1. Aserinsky E, Kleitman N. Regularly occurring periods of eye mobility and
concomitant phenomena during sleep. Science 1953; 118: 273-4.

2. Aston-Jones G, Bloom FE. Activity of norepinephrine-containing neurons in
behaving rats anticipate fluctuations in the sleep-waking cycle. J Neurosci
1981; 1: 876-86.

3. Berman KF, Doran AR, Pickar D, Weinberger DR. Is the mechanism of
prefrontal hypofunction in depression the same as in schizophrenia? Regional
cerebral blood flow during cognitive activation. Br J Psychiat 1993; 162:
183-92.

4. Bosinelli M. Mind and consciousness during sleep. Behav Brain Res 1995;
69: 195-201.

5. Bouyer JJ, Montaron MF, Rougeul A. Fast fronto-parietal rhythms during
combined focused attentive behavior and immobility in cat: cortical and
thalamic localizations. Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol 1981; 51: 244-52.

6. Braun AR, Balkin TJ, Wesensten NJ, Gwadry F, Carson RE, Varga M, Balwin
P, Belenky G, Herscovitch P. Dissociated pattern of activity in visual
cortices and their projections during rapid eye movement sleep. Science
1998; 279: 91-5.

7. Buffenstein A, Heaster J, Ko P. Chronic psychotic illness from
amphetamine. Am J Psychiat 1999; 156: 662.

8. Celesia GG, Jasper HH. Acetylcholine released from cerebral cortex in
relation to state of activation. Neurology 1966; 16: 1053-63.

9. Dement WC. The occurrence of low voltage, fast electroencephalogram
patterns during behavioral sleep in the cat. Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol
1958; 10: 291-6.

10. Demetrescu M, Demetrescu M, Iosif G. Diffuse regulation of visual
thalamo-cortical responsiveness during sleep and wakefulness. Electroenceph
Clin Neurophysiol 1966; 20: 450-69.

11. Evarts EV. Activity of neurons in visual cortex of the cat during low
voltage fast EEG activity. J Neurol 1962; 25: 812-15.

12. Ey H. La dissolution du champ de la conscience dans le phénomène
sommeil-veille et ses rapports avec la psychopathologie. Press Med 1967; 75:
575-8.

13. Foulkes D. Dream report from different stages of sleep. J Abnorm Soc
Psychol 1962; 65: 14-25.

14. Freud S. The interpretation of dreams. London: The Hogart Press, 1975.

15. Fromm E. Le langage oublié. Paris: Payot, 1953.

16. Gottesmann C. Recherche sur la psychophysiologie du sommeil chez le Rat.
Paris: Presses du Palais Royal, 1967.

17. Gottesmann C. Psychophysiologie du sommeil. Ann Psychol 1971; 71:
451-88.

18. Gottesmann C. Neurophysiological support of consciousness during waking
and sleep. Prog Neurobiol 1999: 59; 469-508.

19. Haas H, Wolf P. Central actions of histamine: microelectrophoretic
studies. Brain Res 1977; 122: 269-80.

20. Hobson JA, Stickgold R, Pace-Schott EF. The neuropsychology of REM sleep
dreaming. NeuroReport 1998; 9: R1-R14.

21. Hofle N, Paus Y, Reutens D, Fiset P, Gotman J, Evans AC, Jones BE.
Regional cerebral blood flow changes as a function of delta and spindle
activity during slow wave sleep. J Neurosci 1997; 17: 4800-8.

22. Hong CCH, Gillin JC, Dow BM, Wu J, Buschbaum MS. Localized and
lateralized cerebral glucose metabolism associated with eye movements during
REM sleep and wakefulness: a positron emission tomography (PET) study. Sleep
1995; 18: 570-80.

23. Jouvet M, Michel F, Courjon J. Sur un stade d'activité électrique
cérébrale rapide au cours du sommeil physiologique. C R Soc Biol Paris 1959;
153: 1024-8.

24. Kinai T, Szerb JC. Mesencephalic reticular activating system and
cortical acetylcholine output. Nature 1965; 205: 80-2 .

25. Kinon BJ, Lieberman JA. Mechanism of action of atypical antipsychotic
drugs: a critical analysis. Psychopharmacology 1996; 124: 2-34.

26. Krnjevic K, Phillis JW. Action of certain amines on cerebral cortical
neurons. Brit J Pharmacol 1963; 20: 471-90.

27. Kurosawa M, Sato A, Sato Y. Stimulation of the nucleus basalis of
Meynert increases acetylcholine release in the cerebral cortex in rats.
Neurosci Lett 1989; 98: 45-50.

28. Llinas R, Ribary U. Coherent 40-Hz oscillation characterizes dream state
in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1993; 90: 2078-81.

29. Loomis AL, Harvey EN, Hobart GA. Cerebral states during sleep, as
studied by human brain potentials. J Experim Psychol 1937; 21: 127-44 .

30. Maquet P, Degueldre C, Delfiore G, Aerts J, Peters JM, Luxen A, Franck
G. Functional neuroanatomy of human slow wave sleep. J Neurosci 1997; 17:
2807-12.

31. Maquet P, Peters JM, Aerts J, Degueldre C, Luxen A, Franck G. Functional
neuroanatomy of human rapid-eye-movement sleep and dreaming. Nature 1996;
383: 163-6.

32. Maury A. Le sommeil et les rêves. Paris: Didier 1861.

33. McGinty D, Harper RM. Dorsal raphe neurons: depression of firing during
sleep in cats. Brain Res 1976; 101: 569-75.

34. Miller JD, Farber J, Gatz P, Roffwarg H, German DC. Activity of
mesencephalic dopamine and non-dopamine neurons across stages of sleep and
waking in the rat. Brain Res 1983; 273: 133-41.

35. Moruzzi G, Magoun HW. Brain stem reticular formation and activation of
the EEG. Electroenceph Clin Neurophysiol 1949; 1: 455-73.

36. Nielsen T,. Cognition in REM and NREM sleep: A review and possible
reconciliation of two models of sleep mentation. Behav Brain Sci 2000; 23
(in press).

37. Nofzinger EA, Mintun MA, Wiseman MB, Kupfer DJ. Forebrain activation in
REM sleep: a FDG PET study. Brain Res 1997; 770: 192-201.

38. Nutt DJ, Lalies MD, Lione LA, Hudson AL. Noradrenergic mechanisms in the
prefrontal cortex. J Psychopharmacol 1997; 11: 163-8.

39. Paré D, Llinas R. Conscious and pre-conscious processes as seen from the
standpoint of sleep-waking cycle neurophysiology. Neuropsychologia 1995; 33:
1155-68.

40. Pehek EA. Comparison of effects of haloperidol administration on
amphetamine-stimulated dopamine release in the rat medial prefrontal cortex
and dorsal striatum. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 1999; 289: 14-23.

41. Rasmussen K, Heym J, Jacobs BL. Activity of serotonin-containing neurons
in nucleus centralis superior of freely moving cats. Exp Neurol 1984; 83:
302-17.

42. Reader TA, Ferron A, Descarries L, Jasper HH. Modulatory role for
biogenic amines in the cerebral cortex. Microiontopheric studies. Brain Res
1979; 160: 217-29.

43. Ribary U, Ioannides AA, Singh KD, Hasson R, Bolton JPR, Lado F, Mogilner
A, Llinas R. Magnetic field tomography of coherent thalamocortical 40-Hz
oscillations in humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1991; 88: 11037-41.

44. Sastry BSR, Phillis JW. Depression of rat cerebral cortical neurones by
H1 and H2 histamine receptor agonists. Eur J Pharmacol 1976; 38: 269-73.

45. Steriade M, McCarley RW. Brainstem control of wakefulness and sleep. New
York: Plenum Press, 1995.

46.Takeuchi T, Ogilvic RD, Perrelli AV, Murphy T, Yamamoto Y, Inugami M.
Dreams are not produced without REM sleep mechanisms. Sleep Res Online 1999;
2 suppl 1: 279.

47.Thompson DF, Pierce DR. Drug-induced nightmares. Ann Pharmacother 1999;
33: 93-8.

48. Trulson ME, Preussler DW. Dopamine-containing ventral tegmental area
neurons in freely moving cats: activity during the sleep-waking cycle and
effects of stress. Exp Neurol 1984; 83: 367-77.

49. Vanni-Mercier G, Sakai K, Jouvet M. Neurones spécifiques de l'éveil dans
l'hypothalamus postérieur du Chat. C R Acad Sci Paris 1984; 298: 195-200.

50. Williams HL, Morlock HC, Morlock JV, Lubin A. Auditory evoked responses
and the EEG stages of sleep. Ann NY Acad Sci 1964; 112: 172-9.



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by DSP/STTC Grant No. 96/068.

----------

To: ASP-L@egroups.com
Subject: [ASP-L] New article on published on Sleep
Paralysis



http://www.sro.org/bin/article.dll?Paper&1818&0&0

Isolated Sleep Paralysis: A Web Survey

Giorgio Buzzi and Fabio Cirignotta Sleep Medicine Unit, Department of
Neurology, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University of Bologna, Italy

Abstract

Isolated Sleep Paralysis (SP) occurs at least once in a lifetime in 40-50%
of normal subjects, while as a chronic complaint it is an uncommon and
scarcely known disorder. A series of messages written by subjects who
experienced at least one episode of SP, containing more or less detailed
descriptions of this disorder, were collected from the Sleep Web site of the
University of California in Los Angeles between January 1996 and July 1998.
Two hundred and sixty-four messages fulfilling the International
Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD) (Thorpy, 1990) minimal criteria for
SP were analyzed. A wide spectrum of severity was evident, with a frequency
of episodes ranging from one in a lifetime to almost every night, and a
variety of emotional and hallucinatory experiences associated with SP
episodes were reported. Clinical similarities between the recurrent form of
isolated SP and channelopathies (in particular, periodic paralyses) are
discussed. An activation of limbic system structures is suggested in order
to explain some of the most common subjective experiences associated with
SP.



Current Claim: Isolated Sleep Paralysis may occur with a wide spectrum of
severity, including a recurrent form which closely resembles the ion-channel
pathologies, and it is often accompanied by stereotyped subjective
experiences which suggest an activation of limbic system structures.

http://users.jagunet.com/~dgotlib/bae.htm

Bulletin of Anomalous Experience: The Complete Collection on CD-ROM

Bulletin of Anomalous Experience (BAE for short), began in 1990 as a
bimonthly forum for dialogues between for therapists and scientists
interested in the UFO abduction experience, and paranormal experiences in
general. BAE quickly evolved from a 8-10 page newsletter of opinions to a 20
to 36 page newsletter chock-full of original articles of opinion and
research, detailed book reviews of new publications, reviews of mainstream
scientific literature relevant to the study of anomalies, and personal
introductions and brief bios of the participants. Experiencers had their own
section to share their points of view and critique the material.

Hilary Evans, a frequent contributor and supporter, described BAE as
³comfortably treading the narrow path between the groves of academia and the
dust and heat of the marketplace, inquiring and suggesting, not asserting or
insisting.² BAE sided neither with the skeptics nor the true believers;
instead its guiding principle was the conviction that understanding the
abduction experience was an eminently worthwhile scientific enterprise, and
one way to accomplish this was to develop a synergy by inviting the most
thoughtful and diverse thinkers in the field to participate in BAE¹s virtual
³roundtable.²

As I review the five-year, 31-issue collection (over 500 pages in all) I
still think it is unique in the field for its depth and breadth of study of
the abduction experience, the range of opinions expressed (with a high
degree of professionalism), and the regular inclusion of material from
mainstream scientific journals were intended to help readers and researchers
strengthen their knowledge base and critical faculties.

I have decided to archive the complete set on CDROM and offer the collection
for sale. The CDROM contains scanned images of each page of the issue, in
JPEG format. The pages are readable in any web browser, or in image viewers
like LviewPro. An index of all the items in the five-year run is included.

Below are a sample of topics covered in the five-year run:

*    Review of the Fantasy Prone Personality hypothesis

*    The work of Michael Persinger

*    Evolution of public opinion on UFOs by Robert Durant

*    The Extraordinary Encounter Continuum Hypothesis And Its Implications
For The Study Of Belief Materials, by Peter Rojcewicz

*    Alternate World Syndrome by Michael Heim

*    Alien abduction workload

*    Essays by Martin Kottmeyer

*    Symptoms of Alien Abduction? Impressions and Misgivings, by Michael
Grosso

*    Man mounts alien defence in child molestation case

*    Seeing things: The meaningfulness of ³mass hallucination² by Steve
Mizrach

*    Astrology, abductions and NDEs by Robert Kimball

*    Some spiritual resonances in encounter recollections: Cognizance of the
pathology of guild and healing, by Edward Carlos

*    Symbolic messages ­ a study of alien writing by Mario Pazzagllini

*    The men in black experience and tradition ­ analogues with the
traditional devil hypothesis by Peter Rojcewicz

*    Contemporary issues concerning the scientific study of consciousness,
by Imants Baruss

*    Dissociation and memory: A two hundred year perspective

*    Street lamp interference effect, by Hilary Evans

*    A cerebral dominance explanation for transpersonal experiences by David
Ritchey

*    The Italian Martians, an early alien encounter by Hilary Evans


Reviews of the scientific literature included

*    Extensive discussion of the ³False Memory Syndrome² and its
relationship to hypnotic regression and abduction treatment and research

*    Hypnotic regresssion to childhood and infancy ­ a literature review

*    Recent abstracts of interest

*    Dissociated states of wakefulness and sleep

*    Episodic psychic symptoms in the geneneral population

*    The polygraph

*    Exploding head syndrome (it¹s not what you think!)


Experiencer' Section included discussions of

*    How are experiencer¹s needs being met

*    On comparing disbelief of the holocaust to disbelief of anomalous
experiences

*    Symbolic and mythical components of the abduction experience

*    Alien abductions and childhood sexual abuse


Ordering Information

The cost for the CDROM is

*    Canadian and US orders: US$20 postpaid (money order preferred)

*    Outside North America: US$23 by money order only


Send to: David Gotlib 614 South Hanover Street Baltimore MD 21230-3821


Need more information: Email me at dgotlib@...

----------

Discovering Archaeology | January/February 2000

Sounds of the Spirit World Ancient Monuments Wrap Their Mysteries in Eerie
Sound Effects

by Aaron Watson

In a dramatic series of experiments, acoustics expert David Keating,
formerly of Reading University in England, and I found that many Neolithic
monuments possess unusual acoustic properties that give sounds strange,
otherworldly aspects. We cannot know for certain if these acoustic
properties were exploited thousands of years ago, but it seems highly likely
that they were.

And if they were, the effect must have been dramatic indeed. Even today,
reproductions of the sounds of the monuments are stirring-- and vaguely
disturbing.

http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0799toc/7feature2-spirit.shtml

---------- From: Rachel Carthy

Reply-To: forteana@...

Subject: Schrödinger's Cathode Ray

http://PhysicsWeb.org/article/news/4/7/2

Schrodinger's cat comes into view

[5 Jul 2000] In 1935 Erwin Schrodinger proposed a famous thought experiment
in which a cat was somehow both alive and dead at the same time. Schrodinger
was attempting to demonstrate the limitations of quantum mechanics: quantum
particles such as atoms can be in two or more different quantum states at
the same time but surely, he argued, a classical object made of a large
number of atoms, such as a cat, could not be in two different states. Now
Jonathan Friedman and co-workers at the State University of New York (SUNY)
in Stony Brook have demonstrated a macroscopic Schrodinger cat state for the
first time (Nature 406 43). In their experiment a superconducting device is
placed in a quantum superposition of two states: one that corresponds to a
current flowing through the device in a clockwise direction, and another
that corresponds to an anti-clockwise current.

In his original thought experiment, Schrodinger imagined that a cat is
locked in a box, along with a radioactive atom that is connected to a vial
containing a deadly poison. If the atom decays, it causes the vial to smash
and the cat to be killed. When the box is closed we do not know if the atom
has decayed or not, which means that it can be in both the decayed state and
the non-decayed state at the same time. Therefore, the cat is both dead and
alive at the same time - which clearly does not happen in classical physics.

The SUNY-Stony Brook experiment uses superconducting quantum interference
devices (SQUIDs). These are ring-shaped devices in which persistent
currents, made of billions of pairs of electrons, can circulate in either a
clockwise or an anti-clockwise direction without decaying. Their device is
made from niobium, which is superconducting at the temperatures of 40
millikelvin used in the experiment, and aluminium oxide, which acts as a
barrier. A palladium-gold shield protects the device from interactions with
the environment that would otherwise wipe out the quantum superpositions
being studied.

The system can be represented as a potential well with two minima, both of
which contain several bound states, separated by a barrier. Friedman and
co-workers start with a current of about 1 microamp flowing in, say, the
clockwise direction. Next they illuminate the SQUID with microwaves which
excite the system to a clockwise state with higher energy. The system can
now tunnel from the clockwise state into the anti-clockwise state, and back.

The question is essentially whether the system remembers or forgets its
quantum state as it tunnels. To answer this the Stony Brook team measures
the probability of finding the current flowing in the anti-clockwise
direction as the shape of the double-well potential is changed. The results
are exactly as predicted by assuming that the system is in a macroscopic
superposition of states. The difference between the two states corresponds
to a current of 2 to 3 microamps or a magnetic moment of 10 billion Bohr
magnetons, which is "truly macroscopic" according to Friedman and
co-workers.

Reply-To: forteana@...

Subject: Greek Myths: Not Necessarily Mythical

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/070400sci-archaeo-greece.htm
l

July 4, 2000

Greek Myths: Not Necessarily Mythical

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Neither an archaeologist nor a paleontologist herself, Adrienne Mayor has
nonetheless done some digging deep into the past and found literary and
artistic clues -- and not a few huge fossils -- that seem to explain the
inspiration for many of the giants, monsters and other strange creatures in
the mythology of antiquity.

"I have discovered that if you take all the places of Greek myths, those
specific locales turn out to be abundant fossil sites," Ms. Mayor, a
classical folklorist and independent scholar, said in an interview. "But
there is also a lot of natural knowledge embedded in those myths, showing
that Greek perceptions about fossils were pretty amazing for prescientific
people."

Her years of research thus challenge the widely held view that natural
historians in classical Greece and Rome lacked the knowledge to interpret
large vertebrate fossils as organic remains of the past. That conceptual
breakthrough, representing the start of the modern science of paleontology,
was supposedly made by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1806.

Yet much like today's fossil hunters, Ms. Mayor found, ancient Greeks and
Romans collected and measured the petrified bones they encountered and
displayed them in temples and museums. They, too, recognized fossils as
evidence of past life, now extinct, anticipating Cuvier by more than 2,000
years.

Still, the ancients often let their culture-bound imaginations run in
unscientific directions. In her book, "The First Fossil Hunters:
Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times," published in May by Princeton
University Press, Ms. Mayor draws on a close study of classical texts to
show that some of the more impressive and mysterious fossils were used as
evidence supporting existing myths or creating new ones.

The Homeric legend of Heracles rescuing Hesione by slaying the Monster of
Troy, for example, may have a paleontological origin. Ms. Mayor pointed out
that in the earliest known illustration of the Heracles legend, painted on a
Corinthian vase, the monster's skull closely matched that of an extinct
giraffe. Such fossils are plentiful on the Greek islands and western coast
of Turkey and are mentioned in classical literature.

The vase painting from the sixth century B.C., Ms. Mayor concluded, is most
likely "the earliest artistic record of a vertebrate fossil discovery."

Fossils found and displayed in antiquity on the island of Samos probably
inspired the story of savage monsters called Neades, whose reverberating
bellows were said to tear the earth apart.

The Greeks thus had a neat explanation for two perplexing phenomena, the
gigantic bones and the earthquakes that frequently devastated their land.

Other discoveries of huge mammal bones were viewed as confirmation of the
ancient Greek belief in ancestral heroes as 15-foot giants. Mastodon fossils
on Samos were hailed as the remains of the war elephants Dionysus is
supposed to have deployed in his mythic battle with the Amazons.

And where did the idea of the griffin come from? Aristeas, a seventh-century
B.C. traveler, wrote of the gold-seeking Scythians who fought creatures in
the Gobi Desert that resembled "lions but with the beak and wings of an
eagle." These fierce creatures presumably nested on the ground and guarded
deposits of gold. In reality, Ms. Mayor concluded, the griffin "was based on
illiterate nomads' observations of dinosaur skeletons in the deserts of
Central Asia."

Ms. Mayor's success in piecing together the griffin legend encouraged her to
examine other Greek and Roman texts for "the world's oldest written
descriptions of fossil finds," which had been overlooked by most classics
scholars and historians of science. On a visit to Samos, she studied a rich
collection of prehistoric bones and skulls with which the ancients must have
been familiar. She began to put texts and fossils together and saw the
ancients in a new light.

"Just as a fossil is 'petrified time,' so is an ancient artifact or text,"
she wrote. "The tasks of paleontologists and classical historians and
archaeologists are remarkably similar -- to excavate, decipher and bring to
life the tantalizing remnants of a time we will never see."

Although Ms. Mayor's interpretations may draw fire from some scholars, the
response to her book has so far been favorable. John R. Horner, a dinosaur
paleontologist at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., has called it
"the best account ever concerning the real meaning of mythical creatures."

In a review in the journal Science, Dr. Mott T. Greene, a historian of
geology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., praised Ms.
Mayor's "well-documented contention that the ancients constructed their deep
time as we have constructed ours, through the discovery and analysis of the
fossil bones of extinct creatures."

"If they told stories about these fossils that differ from our own," Dr.
Greene continued, "they examined the fossils with the same techniques we
employ today: comparative anatomy, skeletal reconstruction, paleogeography
and museum display."

Art historians think that Ms. Mayor may well have solved the puzzle of the
Corinthian vase depicting Heracles shooting arrows at the head of the
monster of the Troy legend. The vase, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston, had mystified the experts because its monster does not conform to
the conventional serpentine image of Greek sea monsters.

Some experts like Sir John Boardman, an art historian at Oxford University
in England, suspected that the vase was the work of an incompetent artist.
But when Ms. Mayor called attention to the similarity between the monster
and the skull of an extinct giraffe, Dr. Boardman agreed and invited her to
expand on this interpretation in an article, which was published in the
February issue of The Oxford Journal of Archaeology.

Paleontologists also agreed that the skull of an extinct giraffe, possibly
Samotherium, often found eroding out of rock outcrops in the region, may
have been the artist's model and perhaps even the inspiration for the
original myth.

"This vase," Ms. Mayor wrote, "is valuable evidence for the role that
observations of fossilized animal remains played in ancient myths of
monsters."

Dr. Kate A. Robson Brown, an anthropologist at the University of Bristol in
England, thinks that some of Ms. Mayor's fossil-myth connections may be a
stretch. As she noted in the current issue of Natural History magazine,
"Many cultures around the globe have colorful giant lore -- Norse fables and
Australian creation stories come to mind -- without the benefit of rich
fossil deposits."

Ms. Mayor said her study of ancient texts revealed ample evidence of a "bone
rush" among Greeks in the fifth century B.C.

Every discovery of huge bones, it seems, prompted speculation that they
belonged to this hero or that giant. Many of these finds happened to occur,
Ms. Mayor said, at places where the gods and giants of mythology had met in
battle.

She found in a second-century A.D. geography by the traveler Pausanias an
account of the excitement created by the discovery of bones of heroic
proportions that were taken to be those of mighty Ajax, of Trojan War
legend. "Ajax's kneecaps were exactly the size of a discus for the boys'
pentathlon," Pausanias wrote.

"Many scholars are not used to perceiving natural knowledge expressed in
mythological language," Ms. Mayor said. "If the study of fossils was not
mentioned by Aristotle or Thucydides, and it wasn't, then it just didn't
exist for many classicists and ancient historians."

But, in a recent lecture at Cornell University, Ms. Mayor contended that
bones of titanic mastodons at Samos inspired not just myths but
"earthshaking concepts in early paleontological thinking."

The story of the monstrous Neades, she said, "contains the germ of the idea
of extinction" long before Cuvier; these fossils were interpreted as the
remains of strange, oversized creatures that lived before humans, and were
no more. In time, after large Indian elephants became known, the myth of the
Neades was abandoned. The huge bones of Samos were then explained by
invoking the myth of Dionysus and the war elephants in battle against the
Amazons.

As Ms. Mayor said, the first myth showed that the perceptive ancients were
able to relate a fossil species to living animals, well before modern
paleontology. The revised myth of the war elephants showed that they were
responsive to new zoological knowledge, adapting mythology the way
scientists today sometimes have to reshape theory.

----------
From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 8 July 2000


I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS...

...and so do most cognitive neurologists. Andreas Bartels thinks he could be
getting closer to cracking the mystery. Bartels studied brain scans of
volunteers who considered themselves to be truly, madly and deeply "in
love", and was "really struck by how clear-cut" their brain activity was.

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0708/love.html

---------- From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 8 July 2000

GHOSTBUSTER

On the other hand, let's hope Eigler wasn't simply experiencing
"excitability of the temporal lobes" when he came across the atomic phantom.
Swiss neuroscientist Peter Brugger dismisses spooks and sprites as neural
phenomena akin to phantom limbs. He claims that phantom "doubles",
out-of-body experiences, and indeed all ghosts "are probably nothing more
but also nothing less than phantoms of the body"...

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0708/phantom.html

----------
From: "Remy C."

To: "endsecrecy list" <endsecrecy@egroups.com>

Subject: Neurofeedback in Fairfield County

From:
http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/articles/mindcontrol.html

Using Your Head
Control your mind, control your future: Using neurofeedback.
By Jayne Keedle

Shanna Silverberg is a bright, vivacious, outgoing 17-year-old. She bursts
into the room, all smiles. She wasn't always this way. Since her freshman
year in high school, Silverberg had suffered from debilitating migraines.
The blinding, head-splitting pain was so bad she missed 53 days of school
her junior year.

Nothing helped.

"I was on all the medication -- 30 mg of Proval, 1,000 mg. of Depakote and I
was taking Immitrex all the time. I'd had MRIs, CAT scans, all the tests.
I'd been going to therapy. I couldn't get up to go to school. I had trouble
with sports. My grades were much lower than they ever were," she says.

Confounded, her neurologist suggested she see a therapist. Her therapist, in
turn, suggested she try neurofeedback. As the name suggests, this is an area
of biofeedback, which is a technique that measures biological responses and
then "feeds back" that information. A lie detector test would be an example
of how this technology has been applied. In neurofeedback, however,
electrodes are attached to the scalp to measure electrical impulses
generated by the brain while a person "retrains" their brain by playing what
looks like a video game.

While neurofeedback is not widely known, nor widely recognized by the
medical profession, it just so happened that Rae Tattenbaum, one of only a
handful of EEG (electroencephalogram) Biofeedback practitioners in the
state, was in the same West Hartford professional building as Silverberg's
therapist. Silverberg's neurologist agreed it could do no harm to try.

That same week, Silverberg came off all her medication. Her mother was
concerned that she was being overmedicated, says Silverberg, and none of it
seemed to be working anyway.

Silverberg didn't know what to expect that first session at Tattenbaum's
office last November, but she didn't have particularly high expectations.
After taking an hour or two to ask a lot questions in her calm and soothing
voice, Tattenbaum attached a series of electrodes to Silverberg's head.

Reclining comfortably in a leather chair, Silverberg focused on a computer
screen in front of her and concentrated on a game that looked a lot like
Pacman. But this wasn't any ordinary computer game. Instead of steering the
yellow dot around a maze with her hands on a joystick, Silverberg controlled
Pacman with her mind. If she relaxed and concentrated, it moved. If she got
distracted or tensed up, it turned black and stopped. Her charge was to keep
it moving. Tattenbaum, meanwhile, measured her progress on the EEG.

This machine picks up the electric impulses emitted by the brain, measured
in hertz (units of frequency equal to one cycle per second) and separates
them into four categories. The 1 to 4 hertz range, called Delta, occurs
during sleep and sometimes during comas. The 4 to 8 hertz range is called
Theta. Also known as a hypnogogic state, it falls between a deeply relaxed
state and sleep. A relaxed but alert state of mind occurs in the 8 to 12
hertz range and is known as Alpha. Finally, there's Beta, which shows up
from 13 to 30 hertz and is the state of normal, waking consciousness -- very
high frequencies suggest the mind is racing.

Most neurofeedback practitioners concentrate on two types of training. Beta,
which focuses on the left side of the brain in the 15 to 18 hertz range,
makes people feel more alert. Sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) training, which
falls between Alpha and Beta in the 12 to 15 hertz range on the right side
of the brain, makes people feel calm. Typically a hyperactive child will
respond best to SMR training.

The video games are designed to encourage people to produce and maintain
brainwaves within a certain desired frequency, using visual aids such as
colored rocket ships that speed up when the person achieves the right
frequency. To do this, the person simply has to relax, maybe by breathing
deeply, and focus calmly on the rocket ship one wants to "drive." The theory
is that staying within this frequency for concentrated periods of time
"retrains" the way the brain functions, stimulating the growth of certain
neural pathways to strengthen this area of the mind on a more permanent
basis.

Initially, Silverberg says, playing the game for 40 minutes left her
mentally exhausted. After going four times a week, however, Silverberg says
she got better at the games -- she particularly likes one called Jump Box,
which allows her to stack boxes on top of each other -- and she started
feeling refreshed, relaxed, even invigorated.

"It immediately made me feel better. You leave feeling tired, but it was a
much clearer, more grounded feeling," says Silverberg, who now only goes
twice a week. "I started to see a reduction in the frequency of headaches.
It went from consistently every other day to I can't remember the last time
I got one. I don't see a neurologist any more. I'm not depressed anymore.
It's literally changed my life."

That's a phrase you'll hear over and over again talking to Tattenbaum's
patients. Typically, people turn to neurofeedback after finding traditional
Western medicine failed to alleviate their condition or left them with a
permanent prescription for medication they didn't want to rely on.

As with most alternative medicine practices, the mainstream medical
profession has been skeptical. So while people have used neurofeedback to
treat everything from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to
traumatic brain injury, coma patients and cocaine addiction, many physicians
and psychologists question the efficacy of the treatment. How can one thing
be used to treat so many different conditions? Where's the scientific proof
to show that this works and explain why it works?

"I think that it's being marketed more directly to the public, rather than
going through the more rigorous, scientific exploration. That's one of the
hallmarks of quackery," says Steven Novella, assistant professor of
neurology at Yale University who, as president of the New England Skeptics
Society, is dedicated to debunking spurious medical claims made by
alternative medicine. "I don't think it progresses the health of science or
medicine. I'm always open to new evidence, if they can show it works. I
think the burden on any practitioner is to show it's safe and effective
before it's used."

But while most medical professionals know very little about neurofeedback
and therefore remain skeptical, many who use neurofeedback don't care about
the lack of scientific evidence as proof. They've used it. It's worked for
them. That's all they need to know.

Erin Hickey, now 19, credits Tattenbaum with helping her overcome a nearly
crippling anxiety. Some days panic attacks made it hard for her to leave the
house. "It's completely changed my life actually," says Hickey. "Before, in
any social situation, I'd be so afraid to talk. Now, I'm not like that any
more. I didn't even think I'd end up going to college I had such bad
anxiety." Hickey is now a junior at Western New England College, studying
psychology.

Anne Graczyk, a 20-year-old vocal performance major, initially was sent to
Tattenbaum by one of her vocal coaches at the University of Hartford's Hartt
School of Music to help her relax on stage and be "more present" as a
performer. Graczyk says that, prior to doing neurofeedback, she was always
distracted or anxious on stage. "I can't stress enough how much it has
changed my life completely," says this aspiring opera singer.

Tattenbaum has had similar success improving the performance of other
performers from both the Hartt School and from the former Hartford Ballet
with her "peak performance" program, which combines neurofeedback with
guided meditation.

Some people, like Bruce Cowette, a 46-year-old from Torrington, start
visiting Tattenbaum after seeing the change in their children. Cowette
initially brought his 17-year-old daughter Tiffany for help with Attention
Deficit Disorder. First diagnosed at 14, Tiffany had tried everything, from
psychologists to psychiatrists and Ritalin, which made her very moody and
difficult to be around.

"We had exhausted all options; there was nothing else," says Cowette. Then
they heard of neurofeedback and in March decided to give it a try. Tiffany,
who spent much of her earlier school years in special education classes,
went from being a failing student to being two points away from the honor
roll.

Cowette decided to come for help with anger management at the urging of his
wife. He's always had a bad temper, he says, and tended to fly off the
handle with very little provocation. Over the years, Cowette says, his
temper worsened.

"I really was very skeptical about it. Putting these wires on your head,
what's it going to do?" he says. "At the first session, I started feeling a
little different. It was a strange feeling in my head that something
different is happening, something I've never felt before. It took a couple
of sessions to really start noticing that it takes a little bit more for my
temper to get there and for something to start bothering me."

Now, he says, everyone, from his co-workers to his family, has noticed that
he's a lot calmer and more easygoing than he used to be. "Whatever she's
doing has straightened me out," says Cowette.

Tattenbaum is quick to say that she, actually, isn't doing anything. Using
the visual images provided by this neurofeedback as a guide, she says her
clients are actually retraining their brains. She likens it to going to the
gym. Just as people work out to build muscles and become fit, neurofeedback
equipment allows people to exercise their brain, to strengthen areas that
are weak.

Neurofeedback, like biofeedback, has been around for about 25 years, but it
didn't really get much attention until fairly recently. In his book, A
Symphony in the Brain (Atlantic Monthly Press), which came out this spring,
medical writer Jim Robbins offers a complete history of the technique and
offers a cautiously optimistic endorsement of its potential. Like most
people, Robbins' opinion is shaped by one simple fact: he has tried it, and
it has worked where other treatments failed. In Robbins' case, he used
neurofeedback to treat chronic fatigue syndrome.

Most of Tattenbaum's clients say their neurologists, psychologists and
pediatricians have supported their decision to explore neurofeedback as a
treatment. In some cases, they've even been referred there. Most try it as a
last resort only after they've exhausted more traditional treatments. Even
so, some in the medical profession worry that their patients may prematurely
abandon more traditional therapies that have been scientifically proven to
work in favor of neurofeedback, whose success and studies have been, for the
most part, anecdotal rather than scientific at this point.

"I'm not sure I'd recommend it," says Richard Kaplan, director of
neuropsychology at the University of Connecticut Health Center in
Farmington. Recently Kaplan says someone came to him for a second opinion
after being told by a neurofeedback practitioner that he had ADHD and that
it would require 20 sessions, at a cost of $4,000, to treat.

"As it turns out, he probably doesn't have ADHD," says Kaplan. "It doesn't
cost this much to treat ADHD. It seems to be a very expensive approach to
treating ADHD if, in fact, there's nothing there. And we know Ritalin works
for some people. The crux of the issue is, not that it doesn't work, but is
there any science [to support it]? Prove that it doesn't have any side
effects. Prove to me that it works."

There's plenty of research into the way the brain works. We now know, for
instance, that our brains continue to grow and develop throughout our lives
and that neural pathways grow according to the stimulation we receive.

Infants' brains, for instance, develop rapidly prior to the age of 3 and
will become physically larger the more love, affection, nurturing and
stimulation they receive. We also know that even something as simple as
doing a crossword every day can help stave off senility in old age.

Much of what scientists and doctors now know about how the brain works is
the result of fairly recent research. Thanks to new technology and
techniques, we can now map the brain and see, for the first time, exactly
what areas are active and tell, for instance, if a person has schizophrenia
or ADHD.

Despite this recent spate of brain research, few people have studied
neurofeedback. The most stringent scientific studies on neurofeedback,
according to Robbins' book, were conducted by Maurice "Barry" Sterman on its
efficacy in treating epilepsy in the 1970s.

As Robbins describes it, Sterman, a professor emeritus in Neurobiology and
Psychiatry at UCLA who also taught psychology at Yale in 1964, initially
studied four patients with grand mal seizures. Using neurofeedback as a
tool, he trained them to stay in the 12 to 15 hertz range in the
sensorimotor cortex area of the brain.

After going through SMR training, Sterman's four subjects showed a 60 to 65
percent decrease in seizures. In 1974 his results were published in
Epilepsia, one of the top professional journals in the field of epilepsy,
and in 1976, Sterman received more funding to continue his experiments on a
larger sample of eight. This time he ruled out any placebo effect by first
raising SMR and reducing the seizures, then reversing the process by raising
the Theta state, which brought the seizures back, and then raising SMR to
where it was before.

Once again, the results were published in Epilepsia in 1978, and Sterman got
yet more funding, this time from the National Institutes of Health, to
expand his sample size to 24, including a control group. Sterman's results
were also replicated by other researchers, so although he only tested a
total of 37 people -- which is a relatively small sample -- all told, 174
people underwent the training, with 142 showing a decrease in seizures and 5
percent ending up seizure-free. Even a year after the training, the effect
remained.

There have been other studies since the 1970s, but most have been criticized
or dismissed because they didn't include a blind control group, or used
subjects who came in for treatment instead of selecting people randomly.
Critics also say many studies failed to rule out a placebo effect, or didn't
determine what, exactly, was affecting the change that appeared to take
place.

People working with neurofeedback say all this boils down to funding.
Conducting rigorous scientific tests, with double-blind studies over three
years, and brain maps to show improvements, is expensive and, since the
'70s, the medical establishment has not been willing to pony up the money to
conduct these studies.

Still, the availability of cheaper technology has helped neurofeedback,
which dropped off the mainstream medical radar in the late '70s, expand its
reach. In January 1981, the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America
was formed to establish and maintain standards for training and
certification for practitioners. People involved in the industry estimate
around 1,000 to 1,500 people practice neurofeedback in this country today.
Many have been trained by EEG Spectrum, an Encino, Calif.-based company
founded in the early 1990s to develop and market neurofeedback equipment and
software.

EEG Spectrum president Mike Cohen's background is in the technical world,
but he got into neurofeedback after seeing how much his clinically depressed
father benefited from the treatment. These days, he says, the people coming
for training "are primarily psychologists, masters-level therapists, as well
as licensed social workers, and a small, but growing number of MDs."

Still, Novella is understandably wary of any treatment that claims to
effectively treat as many different ailments as neurofeedback does.
"Anecdotal evidence is unreliable to the point of being misleading," he
says. "I think feedback techniques are helpful. The demonstrated use is
stress reduction, but there's no reason to suggest you can affect your
brainwaves to the point you can cure any of these [ailments]."

The potential for using neurofeedback to treat ADHD, however, has attracted
widespread attention and the idea seems to be catching on with educators.
One local school district Tattenbaum declines to name even picked up the tab
for her treatment of a child with ADHD. And one school in Yonkers, N.Y., has
actually brought neurofeedback into the classroom.

In his book, Robbins writes about Linda Vergara, principal of the Enrico
Fermi School for the Performing Arts and Computer Science. She decided her
students could benefit from using neurofeedback after seeing how well it
worked for her son, not only in treating his ADHD, but in improving his
overall behavior and academic performance. What began as a small test, with
eight children using the equipment 25 minutes a day, and eight others in a
control group with no exposure to it, yielded such dramatic results that
parents and the school district expanded and embraced it.

Mary Ann McCandless first read about the Yonkers experiment in Parade
Magazine two and a half years ago. She was particularly interested in its
potential because she handles assistive technology for special education in
the Hartford school district. Since then, she's taken the training courses
offered by EEG Spectrum and is currently learning more about clinical
practice as an intern with Tattenbaum.

"I'm in the process of investigating it for use in the public schools," says
McCandless. "Parents have been very open, very interested. They're looking
for something [their children] could use to control themselves as opposed to
something they could swallow to control them. I, as a parent, would
wholeheartedly support it."

  In an effort to gain greater credibility with the medical profession,
Clinical EEG, the official journal of the EEG and Clinical Neuroscience
Society, asked Dr. Frank Duffy, director of the Clinical Neurophysiology
Laboratory and Developmental Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Harvard
affiliated Children's Hospital in Boston, to review all the existing
research.

In its January issue, Duffy spoke for many when he wrote: "In my opinion,
there are already adequate data to demonstrate that EBT (EEG Biofeedback
Therapy) can work in some clinical conditions. However, it is not known
whether EBT is better and/or more cost effective than existing therapies.
EBT appears to suffer from wide disparities in the quality of clinical
practice, from the lack of established standards, from poor understanding of
its theoretical underpinnings, from the appearance of financial conflict of
interest, and from the absence of blinded confirmatory studies."

However, he concluded, "All of these problems can and should be addressed.
It is a field to be taken seriously by all... In my opinion, if any
medication had demonstrated such a wide spectrum of efficacy it would be
universally accepted and widely used."

Meanwhile, people like Silverberg have all the proof they need.

"It's just made such a difference," she says. "And I think it's significant
that I don't come nearly as much for sessions, but I retain the health that
I worked hard to get."

Copyright ©2000 New Mass. Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

---------- From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 10 June 2000

CYBORG FROM THE SEA

It looks like a wired-up Oreo biscuit and it has been described as being
"laudably perverse". Khepera is an "artificial animal" with two wheels, a
couple of circuit boards and a few neurons from a sea lamprey. And if you're
curious about the implications of this hybrid creature with the body of a
robot and the brain of a fish, it has raised the possibility of "connecting
electronic devices such as mobile phones directly into our brains" and "may
one day allow people to be fitted with prosthetic devices that are
controlled directly by their brains".

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0610/cyborg.html

And there's more good news for neural prosthetics:

GETTING A GRIP

Anyone who has tried drinking after a mouth-numbing visit to the dentist
knows how hard it is to use muscles when there is no sensation to tell you
what they're doing. At the moment, bionic implants can help a paralysed
person perform a simple task such as holding a cup, but just imagine a
device which could restore sensation and allow the patient to adjust their
grip...

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0610/gentle.html

From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 3 June 2000


THE BODY THAT NEVER WAS

Is it possible to feel you have arms and legs even if you were born without
them? Tests on a woman born without forearms or legs have shown for the
first time that such people can experience "phantom" limbs, forcing
neurologists to rethink their theories of how the nervous system develops.

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0603/body.html

From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 27 May 2000

LAUGHING GEAR

- "Humour - it is a difficult concept. It is not logical." Mr Spock, Star
Trek

- Humour is "unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose".
Arthur Koestler, writer

- "It's creative, perceptual, analytical and lingual. If we can figure out
how the mind processes humour, then we'll have a pretty good handle on how
it works in general." Peter Derks, psychologist

MRI scans and EEG recordings are giving us a closer look at how the mind
dispenses comic relief...

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0527/laugh.html

http://www.ufoin.org.uk/



                                         UFOIN Code of Practice

       The Code Of Practice (CoP) was created by a series of meetings
across the UK during l981/2, during which many then established
UFO groups met to self determine standards of ethics, conduct and
responsibility. It advises and sometimes directs upon appropriate
actions when dealing with witnesses, the authorities, other
UFOlogists and the public. This voluntarily agreed Code helps to
preserve common sense, moral behaviour and responsible principles
within a field too often riddled with self interest and lack of
concern for those effected by UFO activity.

The CoP was originally drafted by the following organisations -
UFO Investigators Network (UFOIN), British UFO Research
Association (BUFORA), Northern UFO Network (NUFON), Manchester UFO
Research Association (MUFORA now called NARO), plus several new
defunct associations - NUFOIS (Nottingham), SCUFORI (Swindon) and
PROBE (Bristol). Contact UK also participated in some stages of
the discussions. The Code was offered to the community at home and
abroad and was accepted in a modified form by some other bodies
including the paranormal research team ASSAP.

The Code has since been updated on several occasions by both UFOIN
and BUFORA. The version below was agreed by the founder members of
the new UFOIN in l999. It forms a binding principle of that team's
activities. All UFOIN investigators must sign acceptance and
defend themselves against any accusations brought to the attention
of UFOIN that they are in serious breach of its clauses.
Consequences up to and including dismissal from the team may
follow.

The Code of Practice for UFO Investigators

General

A. The CoP is intended to offer guidance, advice and where
appropriate mandatory actions to preserve rational, objective and
ethical investigation of UFOs and witnesses.

B. The version that follows is agreed by UFOIN to be a binding set
of principles for all team members to follow.

C. The CoP should be adhered to wherever possible by all UFOIN
investigators. Any person may bring to the attention of UFOIN an
alleged breach of this Code by one of its team. Both the
complainant and UFOIN member accused will have the opportunity to
offer a statement to all other UFOIN members, who shall decide by
majority vote on any action deemed necessary.

Definitions

Except where specifically stated, words shall have the commonly
accepted meaning, all cases of doubt to be resolved by reference
to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

(a) Reference to the singular includes the plural, and vice versa.

(b) Must indicates mandatory action on the part of the
investigator.

(c) Shall or should indicates strongly recommended (but
discretionary) action by the investigator.

(d) Desirable indicates preferable action by the investigator.

(e) A original report is the report made and filed by the
investigator and may contain confidential material. An edited
report is one cleared for general distribution and publication,
and may have been edited or rewritten. It must not contain any
confidential material.

(f) Confidential information shall mean information not to be
disclosed according to all existing laws of the land regarding
personal information and its publication, as well as material
deemed confidential by clauses of the CoP itself.

(g) Publication includes UFO and other periodicals, newspapers,
circulars, news media, books, and electronic media (e-mail, web
sites, etc.).

The Code


© UFOIN 2000   enquires@...

                                         UFOIN Code of Practice

     The Code of Practice

This Code Of Practice consists of three sections:

Responsibility to the witness; Responsibility to the public; and
Responsibility to UFOlogy.

1: - Responsibility to the Witness.

1.1 The identity of the witness to a UFO event must be deemed
confidential and can not be disclosed - especially to media
sources such as TV and newspapers - unless specific and recent
consent is obtained from the witness.

Confidential material includes the name of the witness, home
address or place of work, telephone numbers, or other data that
may allow the identity of the witness to be ascertained.

1.2 The witness should be councilled about the potential
consequences of the public disclosure of details such as those
above. Their decision on disclosure or non disclosure must be
regarded as binding.

1.3 Insofar as is practical, all interviews shall be by prior
appointment. If a witness declines immediate assistance via an
interview or appointment then their wishes must be accepted.

1.4 It is desirable that all interviews shall be conducted by two
investigators, and in the event of the witness being a woman or
minor (under 16 years of age) that one of those present is female.

1.5 All requests by the witness (or, in the case of a minor, a
parent or other responsible person) for a third party to be
present during an interview must be honoured.

1.6 If the witness refuses to co-operate in any way, or to meet
another investigator, their decision must be accepted, the option
for further contact resting with the witness.

1.7 An investigator must not enter or attempt to enter any private
property without the permission of the owner, tenant (or occupier)
or authorised agent.

1.8 Any damage to property caused by an investigator during the
course of an investigation (for which the investigator admits
liability) shall be made good by that investigator without the
need to be asked to do so.

1.9 Specialised techniques, or equipment unfamiliar to the witness
must not be used during the interview other than by clearly stated
consent (which should be obtained in writing). The use of any such
aid or aids shall be restricted to interviews conducted by fully
qualified practitioners with a publicly acceptable mandate to use
such methods.

1.10 The witness is entitled to be informed of the conclusions
reached by the investigation if he or she so requests.

1.11 Due consideration should always be given to the health and
welfare of the witness. If it is ever suspected this may suffer by
continued investigation work must be suspended or abandoned
forthwith.

1.12 UFOIN regards the technique of regression hypnosis to be
wholly unsuitable during the investigation of a case. It must
never be used.

If a witness approaches and requests such a method the UFOIN
investigator is obligated to explain the reasons for our decision
not to employ the technique. They must acquaint the witness with
the generally accepted psychological debate regarding its nature,
possible long term effects - such as adaptation of memory - and
our absolute ban upon its use. If the witness insists upon taking
the matter further they should be directed not to any other
UFOlogist but to a medically qualified practioner. If the witness
still then decides to proceed with regression hypnosis via another
source the UFOIN investigation must be concluded.

2: - Responsibility to the public.

2.1 All investigators must co-operate fully with police and any
other official body, particularly in circumstances which may
affect national security or matters of life, death and injury to
other persons.

2.2 If, during any investigation, a situation is encountered which
is, or is liable to become, dangerous to the general public, or
result in damage to property, the investigator must without delay
notify the police or other responsible body and take all
reasonable steps to protect public and property.

2.3 Investigators are reminded that they have no special privilege
and may be required to disclose confidential information to a
court of law. If such matters of jurisprudence intervene other
clauses of the CoP are temporarily superceded.

2.4 UFOIN investigators must at all times weigh their
responsibility to inform the public about UFOs against the often
different requirements of the news media. The issuing of
unsupported statements, expression of theories lacking in evidence
and non objective speculations about cases should be refrained
from. If an opportunity is taken to offer a rational perspective
on the phenomenon via a public forum it should always be recalled
that you are representing both UFOIN and scientific UFO research.
You must strive to do so in a responsible manner.

2.5 The credibility of a witness or colleague should not be
impugned in public unless the evidence and community interest
provides an overwhelming mandate. You should always be prepared to
justify this act, if necessary, to the rest of the UFOIN team.

3: - Responsibility to UFOlogy.

3.1 The free flow of information shall not be restricted for
personal gain. UFOIN investigators will inform colleagues of their
work in progress and allow its use upon publication by other
responsible members of the UFO community. This is subject to the
provision that these other parties reciprocate with due credit to
source. UFOIN members may use information for their own purposes,
e.g. to write articles and books, but must not inappropriately
delay release of information to the UFO community to further such
aims.

3.2 Full credit must always be given to colleagues and other
sources whose work you draw upon, unless they have expressly
requested not to be identified.

3.3 Interviews conducted during an investigation shall - where
practicable - be recorded on audio tape, video tape or other
recording device. However, if the use of a recorder is objected to
by the witness (or other responsible person in the case of a
minor) written documentation should be as thorough as
circumstances allow. This should also be properly transcribed as
soon as possible after the interview.

3.4 All case reports should indicate the persons present, their
status, and their relationship to the witness/witnesses during any
interviews.

3.5 Any information, confidential because of factors inherent
within this Code, must not be made available in the edited report.
Only the edited report should be made available for external use.

3.6 The identity of a witness must be regarded as confidential and
not included in the edited report unless the witness initiates
self disclosure. If any doubt persists protection of the witness
should override all other considerations. To fully protect
witnesses in sensitive occupations, investigators may need to
restrict from some parts of UFOlogy details of the time, place and
other circumstances surrounding the incident - especially those
that might allow the tracing of a witness who has required non
disclosure of their identity.

3.7 The first priority of any investigation must be to allow a
witness to tell their story without intervention. An investigator
should not discuss personal theories regarding the case or the
phenomenon with a witness during the course of the initial
investigation. If such details are discussed at a later point they
should be emphasised as a theory and supported with any objective
evidence available. In the report to the UFO community personal
theories regarding a witness or a case should be clearly indicated
as such and separated from the main facts of the investigation.
---------------------------------------------------------

Declaration of the adoption of the Code of Practice
print this page, complete the declaration and send it to the UFOIN
address

I, the undersigned, have read and understood the UFOIN Code of
Practice and state that:

1. I will conform to its clauses and principles when engaged in
UFO investigations or research;

and -

2. I understand that I may be required to give account to the rest
of the UFOIN team should a breach of the Code be alleged for which
I am held responsible.

Signature

Date:
Full name (printed):


© UFOIN 2000   enquires@...

---------- From: Rachel Carthy

Reply-To: forteana@...

Subject: Everything You Know is Wrong Dept: CalTech finds mechanism that
makes homeopathy work



http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,33749,00.html


Homeopathy -- Dilute And Heal

by Andy Patrizio

3:00 a.m. 15.Mar.2000 PST

With a little help from a scientist looking for a way to clean car engines,
a physician has been able to explain the confounding paradox behind why
homeopathic medicine gets more potent as it's diluted.

Homeopathic medicine, discovered by a German physician more than 200 years
ago, espouses many concepts seen in other forms of alternative medicine --
namely, that the body can and knows how to heal itself.

"Everybody's fine and hunky dory with [homeopathic concepts] until they come
to the part where the more you dilute and shake the substance, the more
powerful it gets and the deeper it reaches," said Dr. Bill Gray, author of
Homeopathy: Science or Myth.

"That doesn't make sense [for most practitioners], because we're used to
thinking in a chemical sense."

Just how the body reacts to varying dosages of medicine is still being
debated. Pharmaceutical and herbal medicines both operate under the notion
that more is more; whether it's aspirin, Prozac, or Echinacea, the more
milligrams per dose, the quicker the cure.

Not so in homeopathy. The "law of infinitesimals" states that the more you
dilute a drug, the more potent it gets. Arnica, for example, can address a
sprain or bruise in low potencies. In high potency, it can adversely affect
a person's mental state.

Remedies are made with one part of the material, which can be a chemical,
element, plant, or even poison, added to nine or 99 parts water. The water
is vigorously shaken after the material is added. Then one drop of that
water is added to another nine or 99 drops of water, a process called
"successing."

The mixture is again shaken and the process repeated. After repeating this
hundreds or even thousands of times, the water is poured onto sugar pellets,
which is how the medicine is administered.

This intense watering down conflicts with accepted laws of chemistry, namely
Avogadro's Principle, which states that any substance becomes untraceable if
it is diluted beyond when a single molecule of the chemical can be found.

Critics point out that homeopathic medicines are diluted far beyond
Avogadro's Number. The thesis of Gray's book is that water gains structure
through the whole successing process.

"The point is, now that modern research shows that water that's prepared
homeopathically is altered in its structure, this water does actually alter
tissue cultures, organ function, and entire animals," said Gray, who has
been practicing homeopathy in the San Francisco Bay Area for 29 years.

Validation of the dilution process came in a roundabout way, thanks to
research by California Institute of Technology chemistry professor Shui Yin
Lo, who was performing experiments on how to improve car engine efficiency.

Lo found that water molecules, which are random in their normal state, begin
to form a cluster when a substance is added to water and the water is
vigorously shaken -- the exact process homeopaths use to create their
medicine.

Lo said every substance exerts its own unique influence on the water, so
each cluster shape and configuration is unique to the substance added. With
each dilution and shaking, the clusters grow bigger and stronger. This
water, which homeopaths call "potentized," is considered "structured water,"
because the water molecules have taken on a shape influenced by the original
substance.

The clusters start to assume a form that mimics the structure of the
original substance itself. So even though the chemical can no longer be
detected, its "image" is there, taken on by the water molecules.

"If these clusters were unique to the original solute, and the observations
are true that they can perpetuate themselves the more they are diluted or
shaken, then the original material becomes irrelevant," Gray said.

The American Medical Association, which stated in its charter it was formed
"to stamp out the scourge of homeopathy," declined to comment on Gray's
book, homeopathy, or alternative medicine.

"We just believe [alternative medicine] needs to be studied more and
patients should keep their physician in the loop. But we don't talk about
one alternative therapy over another," said an AMA spokeswoman.

Dr. Richard Sarnat, a medical doctor and president of Alternative Medicine
Inc. in Highland Park, Illinois, said the theory of clustered water has been
around for some time, but up until now it hasn't been proven. The book could
help further the acceptance of homeopathy by explaining how it works.

"I think year by year, these types of ideas are more readily accepted into
the medical community as a whole," Sarnat said. "Acupuncture in the 1960s
was considered voodoo. Given the full range of things we've researched in
alternative medicine, [electromagnetics] is no bigger a stretch than any
other phenomenon under investigation."

----------
From: "Remy C."

To: "endsecrecy list" <endsecrecy@egroups.com>
Subject: Canada Climates of Change Congress

[This article is reprinted on the endsecrecy list courtesy of Jeane Manning.
It is published in the current print edition of Atlantis Rising magazine on
newsstands now. My hope is that articles like this one and others like it
will build bridges between the new energy research community still shunned
by academia and the still rebellious elements of the conventional renewable
energy community which has not forgotten how difficult it was to see new
technologies like photovoltaics accepted by the mainstream twenty years ago.
History might be repeating itself. Remy C.]

Atlantis Rising magazine
Number 23
http://www.atlantisrising.com

SPACE ENERGY GETS PREVIEW
By Jeane Manning
(author of the Coming Energy Revolution)

An unusual international gathering in Victoria, B.C., Canada -- the
Climates of Change Congress -- illuminated the clash of worldviews
between an industrial-era paradigm and a newer understanding of how the
universe operates. However, there is a beautiful congruence between the
new energy science that is emerging, and old spiritual and mystical
teachings, the audience was told.

The organizers had the foresight to bring together New-Energy
researchers, government employees, university students, climate-change
scientists, ecologists, alternate energy  proponents, aboriginal
leaders, union leadership, a few politicians, a monetary reform
specialist and a renowned economist into one conference center.

There were four speakers in the New Energy segment, but this article
will focus on the far end of the spectrum of conventional/nonconventional
science - a visionary view of the implications of the new science of
zero-point
energy.

Like an ambassador from the future, physicist Mark Comings arrived from
San Francisco where he works with the International Space Sciences
Organization (ISSO). He is on a team of physicists funded by ISSO
founder Joe Firmage, former CEO of US WEB.

"From my point of view, the future is incredibly bright," Comings said.
"The so-called energy crisis has been only a greed-and-ignorance crisis.
However, human evolution can move into a mode of cooperation as one
unified living being, which clearly the biosphere is."

The audience was not a unified being, however. Some sat back with
folded arms on the second day while listening to the New Energy segment
(Dr. Eugene Mallove, Hal Fox, Comings and Manning),  although others
were obviously open to what they were hearing. Subsequent speakers made
such a point of reminding the audience to be wary of technological
solutions, however, that the conference as a whole seemed to throw out
the energy-solution "baby" with the dangers-of-technology bathwater.

As is often the case on the cusp of any scientific revolution, the
emerging science was presented but then ignored. Fox, founder of a new
Emerging Energy Marketing Firm, attended the closing session. He
reported that a "self-proclaimed futurist" summarized the Congress
sessions, devoting most of the summary to one professor and to the
futurist's own presentation about the use of conventional energy
alternatives (solar and wind power).

The 'futurist' had, in Fox's view, entirely failed to grasp
the concept that the developments of new-energy technology offered an
inexpensive solution to the fossil-fuel-burning problems.In an
after-session discussion, it was suggested that he failed to understand
the new technology.  His response was that he didn't believe it.

Fox noted that the futurist had not investigated the new-energy
technologies, had not read available literature on it and had no basis
except for personal judgment to completely ignore the new-energy
concepts that were presented.

Prominent among the many speakers, Hazel Henderson, whose many books
include Building a Win-Win World and Beyond Globalization, talked about
a need to tiptoe away from obsolescent dinosaur fossil-fuel sectors and
politicians who support them and how to invest in sustainable sectors of
a restructuring economy. This requires a new scientific worldview "where
we finally learn that everything is connected to everything else.

Henderson's friend, the former ambassador from Venezuela to India,
arrived for the second day. His view is that OPEC (Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries) has an opportunity to help the
northern-hemisphere countries kick their oil addiction.  Oil prices will
not fall in the near future.

Peter Bunyard, of the British magazine The Ecologist, cautioned that
with the emphasis on fossil-fuel emissions and global warming we tend to
forget ecosystems. As did Henderson, he said that a cheap energy source
is not the answer to global problems.

Dr. Timothy Brennard, former chairman of Shell Oil's operations in China
and Hong Kong, now helps develop wind power for China. He said
communities should express their needs, and that should determine the
best technologies to deliver.

None of the new-energy speakers claimed that inventions would save the
world - instead they recognize that wisdom, commitment and living in
increasing harmony with each other and with all of nature is more
important than mere devices. However, in their opinion new inventions
make it unnecessary to continue burning fossil fuels.

Their view was perhaps lost on many attendees who apparently feel
protective of the existing renewable-energy industries in which they
have invested either money or careers. Dr. Mallove provided the
conference with advance copies of his essay on water-as-fuel, recently
requested by the White House staff at the suggestion of author Sir
Arthur C. Clarke. At the Canadian conference it seemed the media were
oblivious to the paper's importance.  Later, for example, in a CBC radio
report on the conference the reporter commented only on a speaker who
had taken standard solar photovoltaic panels to South Pacific islanders.

This ignoring of new energy science came as no surprise to this
reporter, since for years I have heard,  from the followers of certain
environmental leaders, phrases such as "no good can come from
technology". Their reaction does not allow them to hear that new energy
technologies can be developed to work in harmony with nature, using
completely different approaches than twentieth-century energy
technologies.

However, many young people at the conference responded enthusiastically
to Mark Comings' talk about new science, and besieged him in the
hallways afterward

"Is the whole universe a gigantic zero-point energy device?  Science is
just getting to the point of recognizing that," said Comings. "We're
starting to develop a wide range of actual devices that can tap directly
into that energy. "

"In the physics community," Comings said, "initially the idea of
zero-point energy was merely meant to address a recurring problem in
quantum field , but eventually it was related to an underlying presence
that is necessary for the laws of science and everything to exist."
Everything is supported by this invisible all-pervading energetic field.

Comings prefers to call it the "quantum plenum" to indicate its
fullness, instead of the common term quantum vacuum of space which
falsely pictures an emptiness.

"The energy is really there," he said. "We've been able to extract very
small amounts, but just showing proof-of-concept that the energy is
there opens the door to a wide range of applications."

The basic principle is that we have to somehow create an assymetry or
inbalance in space. If all the fluctuations of space are symmetric and
in balance, nothing manifests.

Devices categorized as zero-point energy technologies fall into a few
basic classifications:

?  Electromechanical devices which in some way create a slight imbalance
in space and draw some of that energy into a circuit for useable
electric current. This strategy sometimes uses rotating copper discs
which are oppositely charged in such a way that they seem to create a
bias in the underlying quantum plenum and can draw out current.

? Plasma devices that seem to be able to tap into the zero-point energy
through nonlinear oscillations in plasma tubes.  Paulo and Alexandria
Correa of Canada seem to have developed a promising direction along
these lines.

? John Hutchison of Vancouver has developed a crystal energy converter
that seems to tap into the zero-point energy and pull out a current,
Comings said.

Using an oscillating crystal, Comings himself once repeatedly
demonstrated an effect that made him a believer. The effect drew twice
as much current out of the system than he put in.

When he witnessed the over-unity effect it was like taking a leap into a
whole new vision of reality - of a radically abundant reality. "When you
start coming to grips with the figures of how much energy is locked up
in every part of space, we start realizing that 'we're not just talking
about a little bit of abundance; we're talking about infinitely more
energy than you could possibly conceive in your wildest imagination."

What does this mean? We don't even need fuel any more. Comings said
that development of these type of technologies would mean that wherever
you are in the universe, you could just draw a current out of space.

This seems too good to be true. In fact, Comings said, stories of the
development of these new technologies are fraught with peril. He
cautioned about bringing such radical abundance into a world that is so
deeply conditioned into a mindset of scarcity and the fear of scarcity -
into a social-economic and political system premised on a core belief
that there's not enough and we need to compete for scarce resources.
Bringing into manifestation a device that demonstrates an enormous
amount of energy just coming out of nowhere would pull the rug out of
that belief system in a profound way, Comings said.
He has witnessed people's peculiar reactions.

Many people see it and are willing to embrace (the new science) because
they're at a place in their personal development where they are willing
to embrace abundance. But the core beliefs of scarcity are so deeply
ingrained in us that very peculiar resistances develop to these kinds of
technologies.

There have been many stories of suppression, destruction of laboratories
and lives threatened for building new energy devices. Comings said he
sees those horror stories diminish over time. There seems to be a
general raising of the level of awareness and willingness to accept the
new.  Also as the crises in the biosphere become increasingly obvious,
the need to move in a direction that brings forth an abundant
alternative is rising very fast.

Everyone can participate in this most exciting scientific revolution,
this change in worldview helped by the new physics of space, he
believes. For example, we all exist in space and can realize that our
bodies and our very being are at every moment pervaded by the
infinitely  energetic field.

The vision of human potential that this new paradigm brings is
staggering. Literally, we are utterly with that energy continuously.
That knowledge resonates strongly with statements that enlightened
beings and spiritual teachers throughout the ages have made - that we
have infinite resourcefulness within us. Comings pointed out that the
superlatives used in Scriptures to invoke the nature of the Divine are
of omnipotence, infinite love, infinite compassion.

ISSO is doing forefront research in showing that overunity systems do
exist. Up to now, the inventions have existed in scattered places.
People who have the creative intelligence to invent such things are
generally far outside the mainstream academic/scientific establishment
and under-funded, Comings pointed out. They work out of garages, buying
materials with what remains from a pension check, for example.

"The process of going from proof-of-concept -- a device that
demonstrates something not understood by the standard framework - to a
prototype that can then be manufactured and mass-produced is a rocky
road.  There is very little support for that. I'm constantly meeting new
people who have been off in their own little domain making all kinds of
incredible breakthroughs with very little support."

ISSO (International Space Sciences Organization) wants to bring
together an alliance of such researchers and get funding moving to the
inventors.

The lack of interest from those who advocate planetary cleanup strikes
Comings as very odd. It seems that these technologies are
answers-to-the-prayer of the environmental movement, because it
literally pulls the rug out from under fossil fuels and makes pollution
absolutely unnecessary.

There is such a wide range of the technologies that should be developed,
including solar and wind power. Comings reported on an aspect of new
energy technology which he sees as exciting - the physics of space is
the new frontier where a profoundly unified view of reality will emerge.

Comings has gone to Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and other
concerned groups and has spoken about the new technologies, hoping to
create an alliance so that all the people could be working together.

The response has been discouraging. A lot of environmental groups are
wary of technology and tend to not want to support this.  However, he
remained hopeful of forming alliances between the people on the
forefront of new energy developments who are marginalized and scattered
and definitely need funding and also need the education to go out -
people need to know that these radical solutions to the world's
environmental problems exist now.  If we play our cards right, a number
of (clean-energy) technologies could sweep the world rapidly.
The public in general is not resisting, but vested interests think they
will lose in a situation where everyone wins. The new paradigm of
zero-point energy, the quantum plenum, sets the stage for an
almost-unimaginable win-win situation.

There is a big "if" involved -- if we have the collective will and
intention, we have the energy to rapidly clean up a lot of the
ecological damage that we've created.

After we had given our speeches, I observed the mixed reaction to
Comings' talk. A man who was considered an environmental spokesman
needled him over the buffet table in the aboriginal longhouse that
evening, but Comings remained unruffled. On the other hand, many others
responded enthusiastically to his vision. When we were trying to get
Comings out of the conference center and to the airport, the fans were
still following him out to our vehicle, wanting to talk with him. One
young woman handed an infinity drawing to him through the vehicle's
window as we pulled away.

This was no personality-cult reaction, because Comings' sense-of-humor
and low key, other-centered manner certainly does not encourage that
reaction. Instead, I agree with him that people react to his message
because they are hungry for a more complete  wholistic understanding of
the universe.

The Climates of Change Congress highlighted the situation we are in.
While new-energy researchers find innovative approaches to tapping a
free source of energy, spokespersons for the older paradigm are
apparently reluctant to hear the news.

http://climatesofchange.com
http://www.isso.org

© Jeane Manning 2000

From: newsletter@...
Date: 13 Apr 2000 00:49:12 -0500

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 15 Apr 2000

WE ARE QUANTUM   Biology has nothing to do with quantum physics. Or has it?
According to physicist Apoorva Patel, "Computation is nothing but the
processing of information, so we can study what DNA does from the viewpoint
of computer science." Lov Grover of the IBM Research Division is impressed
by Patel's radical proposal that the forces of evolution may have solved the
problem of quantum computing several billion years ago. "The quantum search
scheme he shows is very nice," says Grover. "If true, it is another instance
where nature first figured out how to do things better than us."

http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns22341

From _The Philosophers' Magazine_, Summer 2000

The making of the modern mind

Dismissed by most on first publication 25 years ago, Julian Jaynes' theory
of the origins of consciousness is finally gaining some support, writes
Anthony Campbell

Julian Jaynes, a Princeton University psychologist who died recently at the
age of 77, is famous, or notorious, depending on your point of view, for one
book only: 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral
Mind', first published in 1976. Critics at the time were uncertain what to
make of it. Some thought that Jaynes was deluded or a crank, although
others, notably Daniel Dennett, believed he was saying something important.

Jaynes's central idea is that our modern type of consciousness is a recent
development; indeed, that it began no more than 3,000 years ago. In earlier
times human mentality was characterized by auditory and sometimes visual
hallucinations, in which people heard the voices of the gods speaking to
them and telling them what to do. Only when this process became internalised
and recognised as coming from within the percipients' own minds did truly
modern consciousness begin. The minds of 'preconscious' humans were split in
two (the 'bicameral mind'), probably as a result of a dissociation between
the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Jaynes finds evidence of this
in Homer's 'Iliad', in which the characters continually receive orders and
advice from various deities. This, he claims, is no mere literary trope but
is an accurate description of how people really experienced the world at the
time. In support of this view he cites the eminent classicist E R Dodds,
whose book 'The Greeks and the Irrational' provides him with plenty of
evidence for his thesis.

The heroes of 'The Iliad' do not have the kind of interior monologue that
characterizes our own consciousness today. Instead, their decisions, plans,
and initiatives are developed at an unconscious level and then are
'announced' to them, sometimes by the hallucinated figure of a friend or a
god, sometimes by a voice alone. The 'Iliad', Jaynes believes, stands at a
watershed between two different types of human mentality and affords us an
insight into an older mode of being. Once we have begun to see history in
this way, we find the same process at work in the art and literature of
other ancient civilizations: for instance, those of Mesopotamia and of the
Hebrews (in the Old Testament).

Jaynes suggests that vestiges of the premodern kind of mentality are to be
found even today. Artistic inspiration and poetry are in this sense
atavistic.

If Jaynes were writing now he would no doubt point to such modern
enthusiasms as the vogues for speaking with tongues, channelling, or
communicating with angels as further manifestations of the same phenomenon.

Whether one agrees with Jaynes or not, there is no denying that his book is
eminently readable; he writes elegantly and clearly. The first two chapters
provide a brilliant summary of the problem of consciousness and the attempts
that have been made to solve it. Throughout the book Jaynes displays an
impressive grasp of the historical aspects of his subject as well as of the
state of neurophysiological science as it existed at the time he was
writing. He was a polymath, and his book is correspondingly rich in facts
and ideas. Naturally, much more is known about the brain today than was
known a quarter of a century ago, and even then it was possible for
specialists to object to this or that statement in the book. However, this
does not detract from its real significance, which is that it raises a
fundamental question: was there really a radical shift in consciousness at
some time in the past, or did consciousness simply develop, more or less
smoothly, from its origins in our anthropoid forebears?

Hitherto Jaynes has been almost unique in suggesting that consciousness
might be a very recent development, but he is no longer entirely isolated;
others seem to be coming to similar conclusions. One such is the
psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, although he approaches the subject from a
different angle. In an article entitled 'Cave Art, Autism, and the Evolution
of the Human Mind' (in the 'Journal of Consciousness Studies', 1999, vol.6,
pp.116-143), Humphrey draws attention to the striking similarities in style
and technique that exist between the cave paintings of the Upper
Palaeolithic and the drawings of an autistic girl called Nadia. She lacked
language almost completely, yet starting in her third year she produced a
series of remarkable drawings, mainly of horses and other animals, that were
technically far superior to those of normal children. The subjects are shown
in motion, using perspective and foreshortening, and often in three-quarter
profile. Nadia was, of course, quite untutored as an artist; as she grew
older and began to acquire some language the quantity and quality of her
drawings fell off to some extent although not completely. There have been
other autistic children who have shown unusual drawing ability, though
probably none has been as remarkable as Nadia.

There are numerous similarities both in content and in technique between
Nadia's drawings and those of the cave artists. Both, for example, are
mainly concerned with animals, which are depicted with impressive naturalism
and realism, generally in activity rather than at rest. Both also show
certain idiosyncrasies, such as a tendency for figures to be drawn
haphazardly on top of one another. Both, again, show chimeras - features
from different kinds of animals combined into one figure. Humphrey concedes
that these resemblances may mean nothing, but what if they do mean
something?

Many people who have commented on Nadia's astonishing drawings have
concluded that there was a link between her artistic skill and her inability
to speak. Humphrey, too, favours this view, and he wonders whether it tells
us something about the mentality of the cave painters. It is often assumed
that the extraordinary skill evinced by these unknown artists indicates that
they had essentially modern minds and full use of language; in other words,
they were very similar to ourselves. But the case of Nadia shows that this
is not necessarily true. If Nadia could draw in spite of lacking language,
so could they.

Perhaps, however, Nadia's case tells us something even more surprising. It
may mean that someone with a modern mind and full linguistic ability cannot
draw in this spontaneous way at all; perhaps the possession of language is
an actual barrier to that kind of art. It is certainly a remarkable fact
that there was a long time gap between the cave paintings and the
re-emergence of art in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and moreover the art of these
civilizations is quite different from what preceded it. The new art is
rigid, non-naturalistic, lacking perspective. When naturalistic painting and
the use of perspective were rediscovered, in the Italian Renaissance, these
skills were no longer spontaneous but required long training and practice
for mastery. This suggests that the cave artists were functioning in a
different way frorn us today, and that something happened between their time
and our own. Was this 'something' the development of modern language?

Even if the cave artists did lack language, it is conceivable that they were
exceptional within their society and that other members of that society were
fully competent linguistically. This is one possible interpretation of the
facts, but Humphrey prefers the view that language was still fairly
primitive at the time the cave paintings were made. He suggests that speech
in the Palaeolithic may have been used largely for talking about social
relations and lacked names for animals. In that case we would expect to find
many drawings of animals, because the ability to make these would not be
inhibited by language, but few or none of humans.

And this is what we do find: animals are depicted plentifully and vividly
but humans are either absent or appear only symbolically, as stick figures.

Although Humphrey does not mention Jaynes, the resemblance in their ideas is
evident. Both postulate that modern consciousness arose much more recently
than most people have supposed, and, for both, language too is a relatively
recent acquisition. Humphrey places the shift in consciousness as having
occurred between about 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, which is a little earlier
than the date proposed by Jaynes, but the difference is not great.

The neuroscientist Antonio Damasio is another recent writer whose ideas
recall those of Jaynes; in fact, he explicitly refers to Jaynes in his book
on the way human consciousness has arisen, 'The Feeling of What Happens'.
Indeed, he seems to think that the evolution of consciousness may have
extended into even later times than Jaynes suggests, for he maintains that
Plato and Aristotle did not have a concept of consciousness in the way that
we do today. The preoccupation with what we call consciousness is new, he
believes, perhaps only three and a half centuries old, and has only come
really to the fore in the twentieth century.

In 1986 Dennett suggested that Jaynes was wrong about quite a few of his
supporting arguments, especially the importance he attached to
hallucinations, but that these things are not essential to his main thesis,
which may well be right. And he maintains that if this thesis is recast
using the computer analogy it makes a lot of sense. The hardware of the
human brain may perhaps be the same today as it was thousands of years ago,
but there must have been a change in the organisation of our
information-processing system for us to be the way we are today.

Jaynes is, I believe, an unjustly neglected writer, whose time may now have
come. It may well be that he gave us an indispensable clue to understanding
how and when the modern human mind developed.

Suggested reading.

'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind', Julian
Jaynes (Penguin)

'Cave Art, Autism, and the Human Mind', Nicholas Humphrey, in 'Journal of
Consciousness Studies', vol 6, 1999, pp.116-143.

'Julian Jaynes's Software Archeology', Daniel C. Dennett, in 'Brainchildren'
(Penguin)

(Happy Kenneth Arnold / Flying Saucer Anniversary!)


From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 24 June 2000


GLOBAL BRAIN

Is the Net about to wake up? "It will gradually get more and more
intelligent," says Francis Heylighen. The artificial intelligence researcher
believes that the Web will eventually form the nerve centre of a global
superorganism, of which human beings will be just one small part.

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0624/global.html

-=-=-=-=-=--=-

From: newsletter@...

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 1 July 2000

GHOST TOWN

Without fracturing a single brick or spilling a drop of blood, it could
bring a city to its knees. Swift, discreet and effective, it's the e-bomb,
and it's the perfect weapon...

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0701/end.html


-=-=-=-=-=-=-

From: "Terry W. Colvin"

Reply-To: forteana@...

Subject: FWD (IUFO/mind-l) Robokitty and Artificial brain building

< http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000126/A46070-2000Jan25.html >

subtopic: "extermination of the human race"

Professor Hugo de Garis, physicist, lately of Melbourne and now of Kyoto in
Japan, fears that his experiments may ultimately lead to the extermination
of the human race. What do you think?

At the Kyoto Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, Professor de
Garis switched on a machine with which he will build the world's first
neural circuits for a true artificial brain.

In the next 12 months the cellular automata machine (CAM) in his laboratory
will create a device composed of 75million silicon neurons, similar in
capability to those in a human brain.

The neuron networks are built up so that their connections are random, as
they are in the human brain. Most of them fail in production and are
discarded by a system based on Darwin's theory of evolution. Even so, the
circuits are built, tested, accepted or rejected at blinding speed, many
thousands every minute.

When it is finished some time in 2001, this artificial brain or "artilect"
will go into a four-legged robot called Robokitty.

By then work will have begun on the next generation of the artificial brain
which, Professor de Garis says, could be finished about 2007 and would have
more than 10 billion neurons. This would bring it to about the level of a
village idiot but within reach of the 23billion organic neurons contained in
the cortex of a human male (19 billion in a female).

Then comes the third generation, which Professor de Garis expects to be
finished about 2011 - a fearsome creation of 1000 billion neurons, vastly
larger than that of a human.

"By then," says this unconventional Australian, "I expect we'll be in a
debate about whether we should proceed any further.

"Long-term I am very worried about the political impact of brain building.

"Since I am helping to pioneer this brain-building field, I feel a strong
moral obligation to stimulate discussion on this enormous question.

Do we allow the artificial intellects to take over or not?"

Futurologists, such as the American computer engineer and author Ray
Kurzweil, agree with him. While they themselves are riding and driving the
technological revolution, they also see its scary side.

A massively powerful artificial brain could easily develop contempt for its
comparatively puny human makers, says Professor de Garis, who predicts that
such a question could be this century's burning issue.

On one side will be those afraid of the consequences of the science. On the
other those who see it as part of human destiny and who say that if
artilects are created by humans, then humans can set the boundaries for the
artificial intelligence.

Professor de Garis is not so sure about humans retaining control,
particularly when it comes to a silicon brain 40 times smarter than your
average man. These, he says, should be coming out of the CAM machines by the
second half of this century.

Some see parallels with the debate raised by the cloning of Dolly the sheep.

The CAM machine with which Professor deGaris is working was built by
Genobyte, a US company based in Boulder, Colorado. It produces microscopic
modules on silicon chips each of about 1000 artificial neurons. Such
electrical connections in our human brains control our movements, our senses
and, perhaps most ominously when it is seen in an artificial environment,
our emotions and our imaginations.

In his profile on his personal website, the professor says: "My dream in
life is to build artificial brains with billions of artificial neurons, and
see brain-like computers become a trillion-dollar industry within 20 years."

--
Terry W. Colvin

Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage *

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

From: "Steve Puckett"

Reply-To: forteana@... Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 22:15:26 -0500

Subject: Cyborg 1.0 - Kevin Warwick outlines his plan to become one with his
computer

Here is an article about a British cybernetics prof who is having an implant
attached to his nervous system.  In it, he speculates about a lot of
interesting "cyborg" issues.  - Steve

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html

..I will conduct a follow-up experiment with a new implant that will send
signals back and forth between my nervous system and a computer. I don't
know how I will react to unfamiliar signals transmitted to my brain, since
nothing quite like this has ever before been attempted. But if this test
succeeds, with no complications, then we'll go ahead with the placement of a
similar implant in my wife, Irena...

When the new chip is in place, we will tap into my nerve fibers and try out
a whole new range of senses...

-=-=-=-=-=-

Dr. Sinclair is from the Committee on Ethics of the Canadian Psychological
Association. According to Ian Pearson of British Telecom, writing in the
latest issue of The Futurist magazine, "computers (will) surpass human
learning and logic abilities" by 2011 and by 2020 "electronic life-forms
(will be) given basic rights". Yes, that's "basic rights" meaning some kind
of human rights/right to life. FWP.

-----Original Message-----

Date: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 1:47 PM Subject: Ethical Considerations in
Dealing With Humanoid Robots,

http://humanoids.usc.edu


Dear Dr. Sinclair:

I thought I would bring the opinion on the "Humanoids 2000" Conference below
to your attention. Also I think this conference should be of great interest
to many members of CPA. Do you know who I should contact to apprise them of
Humanoids 2000 and the opportunities it presents for psychologists?

Thank you, Franklin Wayne Poley, Ph.D.

http://tane25.epinions.com/book-review-333A-10CA76F6-38BC35A5-prod4


Also see http://users.uniserve.com/~culturex/Machine-Psychology.htm

--
Terry W. Colvin

< fortean1@... >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage *

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

From: newsletter@...
Date: 27 Apr 2000 01:13:34 -0500

Subject: New Scientist Newsletter 29 Apr 2000

HITTING THE NERVE
The first complete artificial eye is due to be implanted into a blind
woman within the next four months. The implant taps directly into the
optic nerve and it is hoped that devices like it could one day restore
vision to many blind people whose retinas have been damaged or destroyed.

http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0429/nerve.html

http://www.usnews.com:80/usnews/issue/000612/mind.htm


The work of David Chalmers has drawn attention to the University of
Arizona's Center for Consciousness Studies.

The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness is one of several
groups to crop up in a now burgeoning field of study.

Journals exploring consciousness, like Psyche, are also becoming more
commonplace.



Who am I?
Introspective scientists are probing the mystery of human consciousness


By Jay Tolson


In the conference center of the National Institutes of HealthÐa sleekly
modernist temple of scientific objectivityÐpassions verge on erupting.
Several scientists and academics attending the May symposium on "Scientific
Approaches to Consciousness" are beside themselves over the claim made by
one of the four presenters, philosopher David Chalmers, that subjective
experience cannot be fully accounted for by the underlying mechanics of the
brain.


Chalmers, whose long Pre-Raphaelite curls seem at odds with his brisk,
no-nonsense Australian staccato, is something of an intellectual impresario
in the world of consciousness research. Now at the University of Arizona,
where he is associate director of the Center for Consciousness Studies, he
has for many years been advancing the controversial position that
consciousness is a fundamental, irreducible phenomenon, like space, time, or
gravity. Though its qualities might be correlated with the anatomy and
chemistry of the brain, Chalmers holds, it cannot and will not ever be
explained by those graybeard sciences.


To the hard scientists in the crowd, that's heresy, nothing more than a sly
rephrasing of Cartesian dualism. Chalmers's view is particularly troubling
to bedrock materialists because of its associations with the soul or even a
nonmaterial human essence. Patricia Churchland, a fellow panelist and a
philosopher from the University of California-San Diego, is among those
taking issue with Chalmers. Consciousness, she argues, is no less
susceptible to reductionist analysis than any other phenomenonÐas long as
we're not hoping for crude, deterministic connections between particular
neurons and specific qualities of mind.


Middle ground? It's perhaps not surprising, then, that the views of the two
practicing scientists on the panel fall somewhere between the positions of
those two philosophers. J. Allan Hobson, the renowned Harvard University
neuroscientist and dream researcher, is largely concerned with how
neurochemical messengers control different mental states such as sleeping
and waking; Christof Koch is a biophysicist at the California Institute of
Technology who has worked with Nobel laureate Francis Crick on the neuronal
basis of visual awareness. Although both Hobson and Koch explore the
physical foundations of mental activity, both tend to be agnostic on whether
scientific explanations will get to the bottom of consciousness itself. As
Koch explains, "We have discovered some of the NCCs [shorthand for neuronal
correlates of consciousness], but it's unclear whether there will be a
satisfactory reductionist account of why this activity and this subset of
neurons give rise to subjectivity. Right now this is the hard problem."

Reaching a consensus on that hard problem, at this symposium or any other,
would be astonishing. But almost as surprising is the fact that one of
America's citadels of science is hosting this debate at all. Ten years ago,
the subject of consciousness could be found only on the fringes of
respectable scientific study. It was not always so. Into the early 20th
century, William James attempted to merge experimental psychology with an
investigation of subjective mental lifeÐ"the field of consciousness," as he
called it. But the behaviorists who took over and ruled the field for most
of this century rejected the Jamesian reliance on introspective dataÐit was
insufficiently scientific, they held. Working with rats in mazes and
salivating dogs, behaviorists treated the brain merely as a box and studied
its responses to assorted stimuli.


But a change has clearly been afoot over the past decade. The scientific
rehabilitation of consciousness is evident not only in the founding of new
associations (the Association for the Scientific Study of a Consciousness)
and journals (Consciousness and Cognition, Psyche, and Journal of
Consciousness Studies) but in an almost endless succession of conferences
and new books. (In the last month alone, four such titles have appearedÐAn
Anatomy of Thought, The Physics of Consciousness, The Private Life of the
Brain, and A Universe of ConsciousnessÐall by working scientists.) To be
sure, consciousness has not lost all the fuzzy associations that once
relegated it to religion and other "softer" disciplines. "Some scientists
still think it's the kiss of death to use the word in grant proposals," says
Chalmers. But whether their work goes under that name, researchers around
the world are exploring the mechanisms that make it possible to experience
seeing a color or to focus on a taskÐriddles that connect, at least in
humans, to the greater mystery of self.


Several factors explain this scientific sea change. Since the 1940s, for
instance, when the British mathematician Alan Turing began to speculate
about the possibility of making computers that are "conscious," almost two
generations of artificial intelligence researchers have come forth with bold
predictions for achieving that goal. AI prophet Ray Kurzweil, the
Massachusetts-based inventor of pattern-recognition technology, says that
computers will exceed human intelligence no later than 2020. Not only that,
he adds, but humans and computers will merge, with human memories being
downloaded into machines and mechanical neural implants being installed in
human brains.


Attending to memory. All such predictions may finally amount to science
fiction, but the real work of AI researchers has helped to spur the study of
human cognition. What is it, after all, that the computer is being built to
replicate? Modeling mental activities after computer processes and vice
versa, cognitive scientists have come up with useful hypotheses about
consciousness: It appears to correspond only to certain brain activities,
and both attention and short-term memory seem to be crucial to it.

What has allowed the neuroscientific community to move forward in
correlating brain architecture and activity with consciousness is a host of
new brain-monitoring and imaging technologies. For example, scientists like
Crick, Koch, and Gerald Edelman have been showing how discrete groups of
neurons, firing synchronously, communicate and collaborate to produce, say,
visual awareness. Just as crucial to understanding consciousness has been
Hobson's work on the role of neuromodulators, the groups of neurons based in
the brain stem that produce and spread chemicals that induce or inhibit
dreaming, waking, and sleeping. More broadly, a number of neuroscientists
have made the powerful case that reasoning cannot be separated from
emotions: Fear, joy, sadness, and other strong feelings are the great
mobilizers and orchestrators of the most abstract reflections of the
conscious mind.


Yet another force behind the consciousness movement has been a growing
confidence in the power of scienceÐparticularly the merger of modern
genetics and evolutionary theoryÐto explain everything about life. But even
some champions of science are wary. In his recent book The Mysterious Flame,
for instance, philosopher Colin McGinn argues that evolution itself has so
designed our minds that we cannot understand or explain intelligence.
Whether McGinn is ultimately proved right, one thing is certain at the
moment: This new breed of introspective scientists is unwilling to give up
the chase.


© U.S.News & World Report Inc. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer | Privacy Policy

----------
From: Kelly

Reply-To: forteana@...

To: fl <forteana@...>
Subject: Is Quantum Evolution The New Science Of Life?

http://207.201.156.159/stories/20001/0204006.htm

Is Quantum Evolution The New Science Of Life?

A biologist from the University of Surrey in the UK, Dr Johnjoe
McFadden,  has put together a revolutionary theory that seeks to explain
the beginnings of life in a brand new popular science book, "Quantum
Evolution."

A clue to understanding life is the realization that its dynamics are
different than those that rule the non-living, McFadden says.

For inanimate objects, the dynamics we see are the product of the
disordered motion of billions of particles; they are a kind of average
dynamics. At the macroscopic level, we see patterns and order, while at
the molecular level there is only chaos.

But life is different. Inside living cells, there is order right down to
the level of the single molecule that determines the form of every
creature that lives or has ever lived: DNA. Living dynamics are not a
product of chaos, but of highly structured actions directed by the
molecular ringmaster: DNA.

This singular dynamic brings life under the sway of that most strange of
sciences: quantum mechanics. Many people are familiar with the
peculiarities of Einstein’s theory of relativity -- bending of time and
space -- but it is less well known that he also helped to found that
other triumph of 20th century physics, quantum mechanics.

And quantum mechanics is so strange that even he could never accept its
implications.

In quantum mechanics, everything that can happen will happen. When an
electron or proton is placed at a crossroads where it can travel to the
right or to the left, it goes both ways.

In quantum systems, fundamental particles exist as ghostly
"superpositions" where they can be in a billion different places at once
or in a billion different states at once.

Physicists don't understand quantum mechanics. Nobody can agree on
what it really means for our view of reality. In some interpretations,
observations by conscious beings make the world "real." In others,
signals travel backward in time to connect every particle in the
universe.

Today, one of the most popular interpretations, and one that has the
backing of Nobel prize-winning physicists, is that there exists a
multiverse in which everything that can happen really does happen -- but
in parallel universes. Although our conscious self inhabits only one
branch of the multiverse -- our own universe -- fundamental particles
inhabit the entire multiverse. It is this property that allows them to
occupy multiple places or states simultaneously: Each place or state is
in a parallel universe.

Quantum mechanics rules the dynamics of electrons, protons and other
fundamental particles. But it has come as a surprise to many scientists
that it also holds sway over bigger systems.

German scientists have recently demonstrated that a single fullerene
molecule, composed of a sphere of 60 carbon atoms (the famous
"buckyball"), can be in two places at once.

Few physicists doubt that as the technology advances, bigger and more
complex systems will be shown to inhabit the quantum world. Fullerene
molecules have a diameter similar to that of the DNA double helix. If
fullerenes can enter the quantum multiverse, then DNA can manage the
same trick.

That the genetic code may inhabit the quantum multiverse has startling
implications. Mutations are the driving force of evolution; it is they
that provide the variation that is honed by natural selection into
evolutionary paths.

Mutations have always been assumed to be random. But mutations are
caused by the motion of fundamental particles, electrons and protons --
particles that can enter the quantum multiverse -- within the double
helix. If these particles can enter quantum states. then DNA may be able
to slip into the quantum multiverse and sample multiple mutations
simultaneously.

But what makes it drop out of the quantum world? Most physicists agree
that systems enter quantum states when they become isolated from their
environment and pop out of the multiverse when they exchange significant
amounts of energy with their environment, an interaction that is termed
"quantum measurement."

Cells may enter quantum states when they are unable to divide and
replicate and become isolated -- perhaps they can’t utilize a particular
foodstuff in their environment. They may collapse out of the multiverse
when their DNA superposition includes a mutation that allows the mutant
to grow and replicate once more. From our viewpoint, inhabiting only one
universe, the cell appears to "choose" certain mutations.

That cells may be able to choose advantageous mutations is heresy for
Darwinian dogma. But experiments performed with bacteria demonstrate
that under some circumstances, that is precisely what they do. Although
these experiments are still controversial, they pose a real problem for
Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Quantum evolution may be the answer.

Quantum evolution may also account for that greatest puzzle of biology
-- how life arose.

Most biologists try to understand this event in terms of conventional
chemistry -- the random chaotic motion of billions of particles. But
even the simplest living cells are extraordinarily complex, far too
complex to have arisen by chance alone.

The astronomer, Fred Hoyle, has described the likelihood of random
forces generating life as equivalent to the chances that a tornado
sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747. The world is
just not big enough to evolve life if it relied entirely on chance.

But if the earliest strivings towards life were not in the conventional
universe but in the quantum multiverse, then these objections do not
arise. Any small primordial pond could generate life -- if its denizens
could slip into the quantum multiverse.

Proposing that DNA or cells choose their destiny may appear nonsensical,
but it is certainly not intended to imply any kind of conscious choice
in simple cells.

However, even classical science has a problem with what we call
"conscious choice," or our free will. According to Newtonian mechanics,
future events are entirely determined by what happened before. We may
believe we make decisions, but classical deterministic science tells us
that we are fooling ourselves. Our destiny and every action we make are
determined by a series of previous events whose ultimate source is the
Big Bang.

Quantum mechanics allows us an escape from this gloomy outlook.
Quantum mechanics systems are not entirely deterministic; interactions
affect how they evolve. Within our own brain, those same quantum
mechanical dynamics that drive mutations may be responsible for what we
call "conscious choice." Mutations and our free will are certainly very
different phenomena, but their directive force may be inherited from a
common quantum mechanical source.

At its most fundamental, life is a quantum phenomenon, this book argues.
We may owe our existence to quantum evolution, it concludes.

Johnjoe McFadden is a Reader in Molecular Microbiology at the University
of Surrey. He took his PhD at Imperial College, University of London,
and has since specialized in infectious diseases, examining the genetics
of the agents of tuberculosis and meningitis.

He has lectured extensively in the UK, Europe, the USA and Japan and his
work has been featured on radio, television and in national newspaper
articles. He is the inventor of several molecular-based diagnostic tools
that are widely used in the UK and worldwide. He was runner-up for the
1997 Wellcome Trust Science Prize for popular science writing.

He was born in Ireland, is 43 years old, is married and lives in
Wimbledon with his wife and young son. This is his first book for a
non-specialist audience.

[Contact: Katie Minton]
06-Feb-2000

----------
From: "nelke"

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/net012.htm

USA TODAY TECH REPORT - on line

05/18/00- Updated 10:33 AM ET

  Scientists share a TASTE for the spiritual
By A.S. Berman, USATODAY.com

  "Science without religion is lame," Albert Einstein wrote, "religion
without science is blind."

Despite such validation from the father of modern physics, scientists who
believe they've had religious or paranormal experiences tend to keep quiet
about them, for fear of being ostracized by those in their profession.

Charles Tart hopes to change all that.

Last year, the Berkeley, Calif., psychology professor  launched a Web site
called The Archives of Scientists' Transcendent Experiences, or TASTE, to
give men and women of science a forum in which to share "spiritual"
experiences among sympathetic members of the scientific community.


The Archives of Scientists' Transcendent Experiences - or TASTE - Web site
gives scientists a forum to share their spiritual and paranormal experiences
among sympathetic members of the scientific community.

These "scientists who've had very moving and unusual experiences can't talk
to anybody about them," says Tart, 63, professor emeritus of psychology at
the University of California-Davis. "As a psychologist, I know it's not good
for people to have important experiences and suppress them."

From the beginning, Tart was adamant that only the experiences of true
scientists and medical professionals would grace the site, he says, in part
because they alone are trained in the art of objective observation.

To date, more than 40 individuals, from astrophysicists to electrical
engineers, have posted lengthy accounts of events otherwise guaranteed to
raise eyebrows among the less sympathetic members of their professions.

Among them:

An Australian electrical engineer who had a prophetic dream of a fatal fire.
An Irish chemist who foresaw the death of a friend.

An Arizona mathematics professor who found himself inexplicably airborne.
Allan Smith, a retired anesthesiologist in Pleasanton, Calif., submitted to
the site a lengthy recollection of what he termed a "cosmic consciousness
event" that took place 38 years ago. In his account, Smith describes in
minute detail how he was overcome that day by profound feelings of elation
and ultimately, a oneness with God.

"There's a real problem with explaining this with words," says Smith, 63.
"It's like trying to explain to a blind person the difference between red
and blue. You can use all kinds of analogies, but it just isn't there."

While sharing spiritual incidents in the mainstream world can leave one open
to ridicule, Smith says doing so in the scientific or medical community can
be even more difficult.

"If I'd talked about this to my colleagues, I think they would feel
threatened ... they certainly wouldn't want to talk about it," Smith admits.

"So basically, I couldn't talk about it."

Not only did the TASTE Web site allow Smith to explain the sights and
sensations of his experience, it gave him a place to analyze how it affected
him both emotionally and psychologically:

"Immediately following return to usual consciousness, I cried uncontrollably
for about a half hour," Smith wrote on the TASTE site. "The time-changes,
light, and mood-elevation passed off ... I cried both for joy and for
sadness, because I knew that my life would never be the same."

The site's creator has been particularly surprised by the number of
contributors - about half - who've opted to share their experiences using
their own names rather than a pseudonym.

"There's a stigma there," Charles Tart says of those who've publicly aired
views at odds with the world as science understands it. Those who do, risk
job termination and loss of tenure at colleges and universities.

"Eventually, I hope to get thousands of experiences" online, he says, "so
the mass is big enough that it can't be ignored," Tart says.

"It proves that scientists have soul."
-----------------------
www.issc-taste.org