living the field - What Doctors Don`t Tell You

LIVING THE FIELD
EARTH ENERGIES
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LIVING THE FIELD
Contents
Earth
Energies
Lesson 1 Do humans have a special antenna?
1
Lesson 2 Attracted to the earth’s magnet
5
Lesson 3 Listening to the earth’s heartbeat
9
Lesson 4 On a clear day, you can see forever
13
Lesson 5 Here comes the sun
17
Lesson 6 Keeping in step with the sun
21
Lesson 7 When lightning prevents enlightenment
25
Lesson 8 Basking in the light of the full moon
29
Lesson 9 The Mars effect: it came from outer space
33
Lesson 10 The silent music of the heavens
37
Lesson 11 The moment of truth: a planetary affair
41
Lesson 12 Jamming the geomagnetic ‘God spot’
45
Lesson 13 Navigating without a compass
49
Lesson 14 Something negative in the air
53
Lesson 15 Whorls on fire
57
Lesson 16 The black streams beneath our feet
59
Lesson 17 Rock of ages, dream for me
63
Lesson 18 Life in a line
67
Lesson 19 Coming to a crossroads
69
Lesson 26 Telegrams from Mother Earth
73
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Earth
Energies
LIVING THE FIELD
LIVING THE FIELD
Do humans have a special antenna?
P
sychics and many traditional cultures have maintained that human
beings have a special connection
with the earth and, as the earth and the
planets wax and wane, so we do too.
Is there any evidence for this, and if
so, how can we maximize our ability to
tap into the earth’s energies? If we are
‘sucking’ up other photons or indeed electromagnetism from other sources, is there
a single part of the body, which serves as
our antennae? Any oriental mystic will
tell you the answer lies with a tiny gland
buried deep in the brain which functions
as the body’s conduit to psychic energy
and the universal cosmos.
The pineal gland has been called the
‘Oracle of Light’ or the ‘third eye’ in animals because it lies close to the skin in
birds that can distinguish day or night
without the benefit of sight. Scientists
believe that, in animals, this gland acts
like a receiver to monitor EM fields and
help align the body in space. Indeed, it
was once postulated that, in many animals, the gland contained magnetic material. Changing the direction of magnetic
fields around the heads of birds, for
instance, alters their ability to orientate
themselves.
In several categories of animals—reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish—the
pineal sits atop their heads and has certain
characteristics redolent of a third eye. The
pineal gland of the western fence lizard
(Sceloporus occidentalis) is plainly seen
from an opening in the skull and has an
optical lens. Under high magnification, a
cornea, retina and lens are also visible. It
reacts to short and long wavelengths of
light. Nerves connect this lens to the rest
of the pineal and the brain.
The sea lamprey (Petromyzon mari nus), the lowest form of vertebrate, but
with evolutionary significance, possesses
two pineal glands visible on its skull,
above the brain. It may well be that, in
higher vertebrates; the gland has receded
from atop the head to the center of the
brain.
Earth
Energies
Lesson 1
The pineal gland, or ‘epiphysis’, is a
cone-shaped pea that sits on the roof of
the third ventricle of the brain, directly
behind the root of the nose, floating in a
small lake of cerebrospinal fluid. Because
it lies in the center of the brain, neurosurgeons and radiologists have found it a
useful landmark for brain surgery.
But until relatively recently, it was the
subject of much lore as the gateway into
the soul or the higher realm, the memory
valve, an energy vortex, the main tap for
vital fluids and even the source of mental
illness.
René Descartes is often quoted as
claiming that the pineal gland is the seat
of the soul. What he did postulate was
that the gland is a unique meeting point
between body and soul, the only place
where the soul “exercised its function in a
more peculiar way”.1 After Descartes,
however, the gland was consigned to the
neurological dustbin, regarded by the scientific community as an evolutionary
leftover, the appendix of the brain.
Then, in the 1950s, Aaron B. Lerner
at Yale University isolated a peculiar
hormone produced by the pineal and
dubbed it ‘melatonin’. Julius Axelrod, an
American pharmacologist, neuroscientist
and eventual Nobel prizewinner, went on
to discover the importance of this gland
as our body’s biological clock.
The pineal gland has been called a
‘window of the brain’ because, as with all
midline structures bordering the third and
fourth ventricles of the brain, it doesn’t
have a blood–brain barrier.2
Instead, it relies on a constant supply
of blood via a particularly rich vascular
network, considering its minuscule size.
The late Italian Brunetto Tarquini,
head of Internal Medicine at the
University of Florence, considered the
pineal gland the most bathed with blood
of any organ of the body besides the
kidneys.3
Thus, it is being constantly nourished
with oxygen and nutrients, particularly in
very young children.
1
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Energies
Lesson 1
LIVING THE FIELD
Another interesting aspect of the
pineal gland is that it sits uniquely alone
in a place—the brain—whose other parts
are always found in pairs.
The pineal is the first gland formed
in a fetus, distinguishable a scant three
weeks after conception, suggesting that
it possesses a central role in the body.4
Although its full function is still poorly understood, in some scientific quarters,
it is thought that, rather than being simply
another endocrine gland, the pineal may
be the ultimate master switch in the brain,
even controlling the pituitary.5
In all higher vertebrates, including
humans, the pineal gland secretes melatonin, a derivative of the amino-acid tryptophan. Production of this hormone is
stimulated by darkness and inhibited by
light, so its production peaks in the early
hours of the morning. The pineal converts
serotonin from dietary tryptophan into
melatonin using enzymes, including
light-sensitive hydroxyindole-O-methyl
transferase (HIOMT). The pineal has
been called a photoneuroendocrine transducer, through which a neural signal with
environmental information is converted
into a chemical message—in this case, to
switch on or off the production of melatonin.
Melatonin acts as a kind of master
clock, regulating our sleep/wake cycle
and retarding the ageing process.
However, it also appears to function in
regulating growth and other aspects,
including mental stability. Low levels of
melatonin have been implicated in cancer,
sexual dysfunction, hypertension, epilepsy and Paget’s disease. The pineal is also
involved in psychic health as well as
timekeeping. New evidence shows that
a malfunctioning pineal gland may be
related to epilepsy, schizophrenia and
even autism.6
Although scientists realize that the
pineal is light sensitive, it has always
been assumed that the light or darkness
enters as usual from the rod and cone
receptors in the eye retina and makes its
way to the gland via the sympathetic
nerves.7
The conventional wisdom is that a
small percentage of the impulses from the
optic nerve are detoured to the pineal
from the visual pathway, and it is this
input, which controls the production of
melatonin. However, the pineal gland
appears to be far more complicated than
electrical nerve impulses or chemistry.
Evidence from animals suggests that this
gland itself senses light.
Axelrod ran a series of experiments to
determine exactly what controlled melatonin production. He found that when rats
were kept in constant light, the sero-
The vibrating beacon
It’s long been known that the pineal gland ‘hardens’ with calcified tissue, much like
teeth and bones. These strange calcified deposits, usually between 3–5 mm, begin
appearing at adolescence and form a cluster of what it often called ‘brain sand’. By
adulthood, between 33–76 per cent of the gland has calcified.
A recent study found asymmetrical crystals in the pineal gland, which are ‘piezoelectric’—that is, they send out an electric voltage, a vibration that creates electromagnetic waves.1
When placed in an electrical field, piezoelectric crystals are compressed. This study
postulates that whenever a person is exposed to an EM field, such as that in the earth,
the gland vibrates, sending out EM signals to the rest of the body. This is similar to the
skulls of dolphins, which are set up like parabolic antennae to create two types of
sound: one for investigating its environment; and the other for communicating.
1
2
Biochem Bioenerg, 1996; 41: 191–5
tonin–melatonin rhythm disappeared; in
rats kept in constant darkness, the serotonin rhythm was normal. Apparently,
some other mechanism—an internal
clock, perhaps—was doing the driving.8
Another study in blind mice born
with no retinal light receptors showed that
even without the ability to ‘see’ light with
their eyes, the mice responded to it—their
biological clocks turned on production
of melatonin at night and turned it off at
daybreak. Even more astounding, some of
the mice had a defective visual pathway,
so light information was being processed
through some other mechanism. The
study authors admitted that some sort
of ‘unconventional’ photoreceptor was
involved, but continued to insist that it
was in the eyes, and not some gland
buried deep in the center of the brain.9
Some researchers have proposed that,
as the pineal has similar genetic information to that of the eyes and its own system
for transforming and communicating
optical signals, that it very likely can
sense and transmit light.10
Most mammals continue to produce
melatonin in their 24-hour rhythm even
when kept mostly in artificial light, as do
people in areas such as the Antarctic,
which has no daylight in winter. And certain people who don’t secrete melatonin
whatsoever don’t appear to suffer any
adverse effects.
Tarquini, fascinated by the prospect
that human beings are connected to
earth’s and other planetary rhythms, discovered an amazing pattern. The pineal is
not simply following circadian rhythms,
but other rhythms as well.
On comparing healthy women with
those with breast disease, he discovered
that healthy women had a similar annual
rhythm in circulating prolactin. The same
signature annual rhythm was not found
in the women with breast disease.11
In one study, blood samples were
taken from healthy women in the Channel
Islands and stored. The women were then
followed to see who developed cancer.
Blood samples from those who did and
did not develop cancer were examined
for prolactin and TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone). Again, the healthy women
showed an annual cycle—a rhythm
absent in the women who had gone on to
develop cancer.12
Tarquini also discovered pronounced
weekly (circaseptan) rhythms in neonatal
blood pressure and heart rate. Indeed, he
found that these rhythms were predominant during the first month of an infant’s
life, suggesting that, as humans arrive on
the earth, they “lock into the . . . sevenday harmonic of the planetary geomagnetic disturbance”.13
Tarquini also revealed an association
between heart-rate variability and the
stage of the solar cycle. His studies show
something extraordinary—that melatonin
is being produced according to two impetuses rather than single one: light by day,
but also geomagnetics at night.14
Something more profound than light
is having an effect on life.
Lynne McTaggart
Earth
Energies
Lesson 1
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Earth
Energies
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LIVING THE FIELD
Attracted to the earth’s magnet
S
cientists have long understood that
the earth is, in effect, a giant magnet surrounded by a magnetic field,
which is constantly in flux due to its interaction with the magnetic fields of other
planets, solar particles and the constant
jostling of its own molten inner and outer
cores. The field encircles the earth like a
doughnut in a region of space called the
‘magnetosphere’, kept in place by the
solar wind. The earth is, in effect, a dipole
magnetic, with north and south poles.
Usually, this field has a force of about
0.5 gauss or 50,000 nanoTeslas—about
1000 times weaker than that of a typical
horseshoe magnet.
The received wisdom has always
been that this tiny magnetic field has
little effect on our biological processes,
particularly as we are exposed too much
stronger electromagnetic fields (EMFs)
and geomagnetic fields (GMFs) every
minute of our lives. But mounting evidence finds that natural EMFs and GMFs,
particularly those of extremely low frequencies (ELFs), can have a pronounced
effect on all sorts of living things, from
single-celled organisms to complex multicellular structures like humans. This
faint charge appears to profoundly influence virtually all biological processes: the
manner in which plants grow or enzymes
function, an animal’s ability to move or
orientate itself in space, even our own
health and the depth of our intuition.
Geomagnetic ‘hot spots’
The GMFs of the earth aren’t constant
across time and space, but differ in different regions of the earth and at varying
times. Any changes in our solar system—
activity of the sun, movement of planets,
the daily oscillation of the earth in its
rotation, even the presence of groundwater or ore deposits—can alter the strength
of the earth’s GMF on a daily basis.
Typical disturbances cause changes of
50–200 nanoTeslas, but large solar storms
can whip up changes of up to 1000
nanoTeslas at the earth’s surface, causing
Earth
Energies
Lesson 2
frequencies of from 20 !Hz to 10 Hz.
Furthermore, GMFs aren’t constant
around the earth, but are found in certain
‘hotspots’. Horsund in Poland sits within
a region with the highest variation in
GMF on earth—more so even than at
either pole—and an area in northeast
Brazil known as the ‘South Atlantic
Anomaly’ also has abnormally high
GMFs.
The human antenna
But if we are being constantly bombarded
by the EMFs and GMFs of modern life,
how are we able to tune into the earth’s
faint magnetic charge? A fair body of
research points to the pineal gland as the
central antenna for animals and human
beings.
Scientists believe that, in animals, the
pineal gland acts like a receiving mechanism that is capable of monitoring magnetic fields and helping to align the body
in space. Changing the direction of magnetic fields around the heads of birds, for
instance, alters their ability to orientate
themselves. It has always been thought
that birds navigate by the position of the
sun or planets, but studies with salamanders, newts, birds and flies all show that
they are able to pick up a shift in the
direction of the earth’s magnetic field.
Indeed, evidence from three different
types of research—animal orientation,
physiology of the pineal gland, and physiology of brain opioids—all suggest that
a living creature’s ability to pick up
magnetic fields is related to at least two
processes: some sort of internal compass
containing magnetite, and a ‘photoreceptor’ feature linked to light sensitivity.1
We humans may have a vestigial ability of our own to navigate by the pineal
gland without our senses. Studies with
university students have revealed an
innate ability to sense direction even
when blindfolded—so long as the blindfolds don’t contain magnets.2
The late Italian biologist Brunetto
Tarquini discovered that melatonin, the
5
Earth
Energies
Lesson 2
LIVING THE FIELD
main hormone of the pineal that governs
our circadian rhythms (sleep–wake
cycle), is produced according to two main
impetuses: light by day, but geomagnetics
at night.3
Other research has found that our
bodily processes respond to half-yearly
geomagnetic fluctuations.4 that correspond to the equinoxes and to certain
GMF activity, suggesting that, besides
light (which is, after all, an electromagnetic frequency); our pineal appears to
respond to the earth’s geomagnetic frequency as well.
Further research has shown that, when
the earth’s GMFs are shielded, our circadian rhythms are destabilized even in the
presence of ordinary light/dark conditions. This suggests that the earth’s magnetic field may be more central to our
ability to tune into our world than light.5
Some have postulated that the pineal
gland of mammals possesses a small
GMF ‘window’ during which it is most
responsive,6 and other GMFs and EMFs
can affect human health by altering the
production of melatonin.
If our master switch is profoundly
affected by the earth’s own magnetic
pulse, this could have a profound impact
on human health and behavior. As the
body’s central engine is frequency, in the
form of a complex network of quantum
energy fields, any changes in the earth’s
electromagnetic activity could profoundly disturb the body’s most basic internal
mechanisms.7 Geomagnetic storms have
even been postulated as a trigger for the
return of cancer.8
With its central hormone melatonin,
the pineal gland not only regulates our
sleep/wake cycle and governs the aging
process, but also appears to act as the
master gland, orchestrating the entire
endocrine system, and regulating growth,
reproduction and other aspects, including
mental stability. Besides cancer, low levels of melatonin have been linked to an
array of physical problems—from hypertension and epilepsy to osteoporosis. The
pineal gland also has been found to be
involved in psychic health (see box
below).
Orthopedist Robert Becker, who carried out countless experiments of EMFs
and health, found a link between violent
solar storms, which create large magnetic
fields, and admissions to mental hospitals.9 More recent studies show similar
results: GMF variations correlate with
psychiatric admissions.10
James Spottiswood, of Science
Applications International Corporation
and a well-known psi researcher, has
showed correlations between the geomagnetic fluctuations in the earth and the
Are mental disturbances a Field effect?
Increasing evidence shows that the performance of the pineal gland may be linked
with the state of our mental health. Scientific evidence shows that an overcalcified, poorly
developed or poorly functioning pineal gland may be involved in cases of schizophrenia,
epilepsy, mental illness of late onset following multiple sclerosis, and other illnesses such
as bipolar disorder (manic–depression) and even autism. Patients requiring surgical
removal of a pineal gland often develop seizures.
We also know that people who have had attachment traumas and problems of
abandonment have abnormally low levels of melatonin production, as the pineal gland
and melatonin control hormonal cues for touch and cuddling.
It may well be that our ability to engage with the world relates to our ability to tune
in to the earth, for which we need a fully functioning antenna. Schizophrenics and others
with so-called mental illness may simply be suffering from quantum frequency overload—
too large a reception into The Field.
6
timing of epileptic seizures. In his studies,
the earth’s GMFs were significantly
higher on seizure days than on the days
before seizures and slightly higher than
10 days before.11
Besides health, changes in the earth’s
heartbeat may also affect our behavior
and performance. The key element appears to be change rather than activity
per se. Some studies show that the greater
the ELF variation, the greater the number
of traffic violations and industrial accidents.12 Other studies have found that
fluctuations in the earth’s GMFs correlate
with strange behavior.13
The earth’s daily activity may even
affect our ability to perform on the job or
at home. Dean Radin, the psi researcher
who has spearheaded many studies relating to the effect of GMFs, has demonstrated that, for people involved in skilled
physical performance such as bowling,
geomagnetic fluctuations the day before a
match accounted for 41 per cent of the
variance in the bowlers’ scores.14
A number of psi researchers have
found that when the earth is ‘calm’ and
GMF flux is at an ebb, the human ability
to tap into the Field increases.15 Studies
carried out or amassed by Dr Radin show
that even minor environmental changes—
from slight variations in the weather to
solar patterns—may have a profound
effect on a person’s extrasensory perception or remote-viewing ability.
Psychokinesis (using the mind to
affect inanimate objects) appears to increase when the earth’s energy is agitated.
By the same token, our ability to carry
out remote viewing, receive or send using
ESP, or deduce information precognitively all may increase when the earth’s
GMFs are calm.
The noted parapsychology researcher
Stanley Krippner found, in studies of ESP
and dreaming, that participants could best
transmit images that were incorporated
into a partner’s dream’s when the earth’s
GMF activity was relatively quiet.16
Other scientific studies also suggest that
the human mind is at its most receptive
when the earth is ‘quiet’.13 There is even
evidence of geomagnetic activity when
channeled discarnate beings such as
Ramtha ‘arrive’ through their channeled
‘other’—activity that settles down on
their departure.17 It is not yet clear
whether the ‘arrival’ of such a being causes the flux, whether the flux itself facilitates the arrival or whether, as is most
likely the case, both are profoundly interconnected.
But other research has not shown a
connection between Field effects and
GMFs, suggesting that the link between
the earth’s energy and ourselves is more
complex. Some studies demonstrate that
the success of ESP depends on the time of
day and the orientation of the participant
in relation to the earth and the rest of the
galaxy.18 The best results (an increase in
effect size of 380 per cent) occur at
around 1 pm in the afternoon local time,
the midpoint in the sun’s daily journey.
Other peak times are every 13.8 days,
which correlate to roughly twice the sun’s
rotation, the usual time of modulations in
solar wind.18 This suggests there is a
subtle link between ourselves and the universe that varies according to position in
relation to the heavens and the fixed
stars—a notion not unlike astrology.
It is interesting to note that children
possess very high levels of melatonin.
Such high melatonin production might
feed the pineal gland and possibly
account for the greater receptivity of children to Field effects like ESP, out-of-body
experiences and so-called past lives.
It may well be that our human potential is at its greatest when the earth, the
stars, the moon and the sky are in energetic harmony. To Live The Field, timing,
in relation to the earth’s energy, is critical
for human consciousness to be at its most
expansive. It is highly likely that traditional cultures had some greater understanding of this energetic harmony that
we can learn from.
To check the daily activity of the
earth’s ‘aa index’, see the British
Geological Survey’s www.geomag.bgs.
ac.uk or see http://horsund.igf.edu.
Lynne McTaggart
Earth
Energies
Lesson 2
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Energies
Lesson 2
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1
2
J Exp Biol, 1999; 202: 891–908
J Soc Psychic Res, 1993; 59 (830):
1–15
3 In vivo, 1997; 11: 473–84
4 Phys Aur Phenom, 2002; Proceedings
of the XXV Annual Seminar, Apatity:
161–5
5 Int J Biometerol, 1973; 17: 227–32
6 Brain Res, 1988; 448: 325–30
7 J Pineal Res, 1990; 9: 259–69
8 J Sci Explor, 1992; 6: 208
9 Becker R. The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life.
New York: Quill, 1985
10 Percept Mot Skills, 1992; 74: 449
11 Epilepsia, 1993; 34: 56
12 Tromp SW. B i o m e t e r o l o g y. London:
Heyden, 1980
13 Radin D. The Conscious Universe. San
Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997
14 Radin D. Evidence for relationship
between geomagnetic field fluctuations
and skilled physical performance.
Presented at the 11th Annual Meeting
of the Society for Scientific Exploration,
Princeton, NJ, June 1992
15 Percept Mot Skills, 1989; 68: 1243–54
16 J Sci Explor, 1996; 10(4): article 3
17 J Am Soc Psychic Res, 1998; 92 (1):
1–24
18 J Sci Explor, 1997; 11(2): 1–17
LIVING THE FIELD
Listening to the earth’s heartbeat
R
esearcher Serena Roney-Dougal
has gathered together some of the
most compelling research into the
biological means by which the geomagnetic flux of the earth might cause the
pineal gland to allow us to ‘tune in’.1 It’s
well to remember that the pineal creates
hormones from serotonin and tryptamine,
its precursor, and that the pineal has the
greatest concentration of serotonin of any
place in the brain.
According to recent neurochemical
research, the pineal gland also produces
the ‘neuromodulator’ chemicals—–called
beta-carbolines—that affect the brain.
Beta-carbolines are both monoamineoxidase (MAO) inhibitors and serotonin
reuptake inhibitors, which means that
they prevent the breakdown of serotonin
by inhibiting its uptake into the brain’s
synapses. This is akin to the action of
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
(SSRIs) like Prozac.
Some evidence also suggests that the
pineal can also manufacture a hallucinogenic substance called 5-methoxydimethyltryptamine (5-methoxy-DMT) from
melatonin. What might be the result is a
pooling of these amines into the synapses
of the brain, causing reactions that are
similar to drug-induced hallucinations.
The current view is that neuromodulators need 5-methoxy-DMT and DMT in
order to work and that, by blocking
MAO, the pineal gland regulates and
increases the concentration of serotonin.
This regulatory function of blocking one
chemical and promoting another is
thought to be the catalyst for dreaming.2
Several facts suggest that the production of serotonin and melatonin may be
centrally involved in psychic phenomena.
First, many hallucinogenic substances
are chemical sisters to those made by the
pineal gland. Yage, or ayahausca, a ceremonial drink made by some Amazon
tribes to produce psychic effects for healing, clairvoyance and precognition, is
produced from native vines (Banisteriopsis caapi) that are chemically nearly
Earth
Energies
Lesson 3
equivalent to the 5-methoxy-DMT in
humans.
Roney-Dougal has postulated that,
when the pineal gland is stimulated geomagnetically, it produces chemicals that
are similar to these plant hallucinogens,
which help to alter consciousness and
allow us to ‘enter The Field’. This
accords with other literature on melatonin
and serotonin, altered levels of which
have also been associated with psychosis
and psychedelic drugs. Furthermore, if
these chemicals are responsible for
dreaming, it is also known that psychic
experiences most readily occur in
dream-like states.
So, how do geomagnetism and the
earth’s energies affect these brain chemicals? Researchers have found that electromagnetic and geomagnetic fields strongly
affect the production and activity of the
enzyme hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase (HIOMT). It is this enzyme that is
centrally involved in the production of
melatonin and possibly 5-methoxytryptamine (5-MT). A number of studies have
shown that changing the magnetic field
can produce changes in this enzyme’s
activity.3 Studies in animals have also
shown that any strong change in the
ambient
magnetic
field—whether
increased or decreased—will inhibit production of HIOMT.
Other research shows that serotonin
N-acetyltransferase, the enzyme involved
in the production of melatonin, is strongly affected by electromagnetic fields. If
this is the case, says Roney-Dougal, any
strong change in the earth’s ambient magnetic field would produce a rush of natural hallucinogens in our bodies, enabling
us to be more psychically receptive.
A number of fascinating studies
shows some sort of correlation between
geomagnetic activity and an increase in
dreams or psychic activity. In one such
study, the famous parapsychologist
Stanley Krippner set up a dream laboratory where some participants slept in a
room while other participants attempted
9
Earth
Energies
Lesson 3
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LIVING THE FIELD
to ‘send’ them certain images in hopes
that these images would become incorporated into the sleeping participants’
dreams. Upon waking, the sleepers had to
describe their dreams in great detail to
determine if there were any correlations
with the target pictures they’d been ‘sent’
during their slumbers.
Global geomagnetic activity was
tracked for 20 of the nights that one study
participant was the dreaming recipient. In
this case, it was found that, on nights of
less geomagnetic activity, the dreamer
had significantly greater accuracy in picking up the target pictures.4
In another test, Krippner met with a
Brazilian ‘sensitive’ on 20 separate occasions over an eight-day period to determine whether the performance of his
psychic abilities correlated with geomagnetic activity in the earth. Krippner’s
team recorded the sensitive’s pulse, blood
pressure and saliva pH, then took readings of the geomagnetic fluctuations in
the Brasilia area, where the sessions were
taking place.
After examining their data, Krippner’s
team concluded that the sensitive’s psychic abilities preceded a rise in diastolic
blood pressure (when the heart relaxes to
receive blood) as well as a rise in geomagnetic activity. They also found a sig-
nificant correlation between the daily
hourly ratio of his psychic feats and the
daily geomagnetic index for the entire
southern hemisphere.
Besides geomagnetic signaling, does
the earth have a ‘heartbeat’ that we beat
along with?
It has long been known that our planet is encased in a layer of electrically
c h a rged particles dubbed the ‘ionosphere’. The space, or cavity, between the
earth and the ionosphere resonates electrically and electromagnetic waves circulate at very low frequencies. These electromagnetic fields are not localized (that
is, they have near-instant communication
with other waves).
In 1954, the German physicist W.O.
Schumann first detected the frequency of
the earth–ionosphere cavity. A frequency
is the number of times per second a wave
repeats itself (goes up and down). This
pulsed frequency is worked out as cycles
per second, with each cycle the number of
times an electromagnetic wave (traveling
at 186,000 miles per second, or the speed
of light) circles the 25,000-mile circumference of the earth. These resonances
vary by several frequencies, from 6 to 50
cycles per second—or 7.8, 14, 20, 33, 39
and 49 hertz. Daily variations are 6 0.5
Hz.
The most frequent mode was 7.5
cycles per second, called the Schumann
resonance (SR) to mark Schumann’s discovery, and it is this cycle rate that is
often poetically referred to as the earth’s
‘heartbeat’. One cycle per second is
equivalent to 1 Hz, so 7.5 cycles per second is 7.5 Hz. (Current reports show that
the SR is increasing, and the rate may
now be 11 cycles per second and rising.)
The SR is not generated by the earth
itself, but by electrical activity in the
atmosphere. At any moment around the
globe, some 400 lightning storms are
erupting. It is these types of storms that
emit the electricity that causes the SR.
The late Australian physicist L.B.
Hainsworth gathered evidence that these
pulses might in some way be connected to
our body’s own frequencies.5 Hainsworth
became interested when he found that
researchers could never reconcile their
data for whether or not the geomagnetic
pull of the earth had some effect on
human health. Although many studies
showed a positive correlation, others did
not, leading him to suspect that some
other, as yet unconsidered, factor was
also affecting human beings.
The brain emits frequencies that are
measured on an electroencephalograph
(EEG), which records the speed of neuronal firing in cycles per second. Our
ordinary waking conscious state is
marked by beta waves (around 14 cycles
per second or 13–40 Hz). When we dream
or enter light meditative states, our brain
slows down to alpha waves (or 7–13
cycles per second). The brain has even
slower modes: theta waves, which are
around 4–7 cycles per second during
sleep or very deep meditation; and delta
waves (0–4 Hz), which are produced during very deep sleep.
Hainsworth and others noted that the
lowest four resonant electromagnetic signal modes of the SR are at 6–30 Hz.
Furthermore, the average frequency of
the first Schumann mode (7.8 Hz) corresponds to an alpha-wave state, and the
average frequency of the second mode
(14.1 Hz) corresponds to the beta-wave
state.
He knew that ionospheric storms
cause large ionospheric changes, that
geomagnetic storms are associated with
ionospheric storms and that changes in
the electromagnetic field of the ionosphere can be associated with disturbed
mental states.5 He reasoned that, if light
flicker and auditory signals at 3–30 Hz
both have biological effects, then EMF
signals at the same very low frequency
can also be expected to have biological
effects.
Hainsworth wondered whether it was
mere coincidence or were alpha brain
waves—the frequencies emitted during
meditation or dreaming—in some way set
into motion by the SR. In his view, it was
beyond coincidence. Indeed, the SR
helped to evolve our own brain waves.6
Our alpha rhythms must be related to the
extremely low-frequency EM signals circulating around the earth, and our central
nervous system is tuning in and listening
to them.
As Hainsworth writes, during our
evolution when the basic frequencies of
our biological rhythms were developed
in response to external factors, we must
have “accidentally located the dominant,
or alpha-rhythm frequency, at the precise
point where there will be minimum interference from naturally occurring external
signal sources.”
If this is true and if we tap into a higher signal, our most likely response is
stress symptoms such as mental disturbances and heart attacks. Too low a signal
would lead to increased irritability,
absentmindedness and accidents.
Hainsworth’s theory is well argued,
but it remains just that—a theory. But
other researchers have gone on to demonstrate other compelling correlations
between our brain pulses and the central
pulse of the earth. In Energy Medicine
(Redwing Books, 2000), James Oschman
describes physicist Robert Beck’s
decade-long study into the effects on the
brain of a wide variety of ‘sensitives’
from different cultures around the
world—from shamans and Hawaiian
Earth
Energies
Lesson 3
11
Earth
Energies
Lesson 3
12
LIVING THE FIELD
kahunas to wicca practitioners, seers and
common-or-garden psychics. Using an
EEG to record their brainwaves, Beck
found that every sensitive produced similar brainwave patterns during their
altered, healing state.
No matter how different their disciplines or beliefs, whenever these sensitives entered their altered states, their
brain patterns switched to a low frequency for one or several seconds. Beck found
that during these moments of altered consciousness, brainwaves become synchronized by phase (they peak and trough at
the same time) and by frequency (speed)
with the earth’s Schumann resonance.
If that is the case, it would make sense
that when we enter an alpha state of brain
waves—at which the power of the naturally occurring circulating electromagnetic signals is at a minimum—we are truly
getting in resonance with the earth.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson 4: Getting in synch
with the earth
1
2
3
4
5
6
J Soc Psych Res, 1993; 59 (830)
Med Hypoth, 1988; 26: 119–24
Brain Res, 1988; 448: 325–30
J Sci Explor, year: 10 (4):article 3
Spec Sci Technol, 1983; 6 (5): 439–44
Spec Sci Technol, 1987; 11 (2): 101
LIVING THE FIELD
Powered-up by dolphin energy
F
rom the scientific experiments carried out to date, there is no question that the most subtle of the
earth’s geomagnetic and electromagnetic
fields (less than 100 Hz) exert powerful
e ffects on biological systems. These
fields are subject to sudden variations,
depending on the weather, the jostlings
of the earth’s molten inner core, and also
the wild and unpredictable changes of
weather in space. A small, but convincing, body of research shows that these
energetic variations profoundly influence
our health and also our ability to communicate through extrasensory means.
The International Society of Bioelectricity (ISB) and the Bioelectromagnetic
Society (BEMS) have carried out
research into this area, and discovered
that the earth’s energies directly affect
our cell membranes and calcium-ion
channels, which are vital for regulating
enzyme systems within the cell.
Other studies carried out by Texas
psychologist William Braud show that
these fluctuations have profound effects
on the normal functioning of our central
nervous system, autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular system and even our
mental performance. When the earth’s
pulse beats a certain way, all our own biological systems are enhanced, including
our psychical processes.1
Some of the most intriguing research
in this area has been carried out in the
former Soviet bloc. The Solar Terrestrial
Influences Laboratory at the Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences in Sofia, has performed a number of biological experiments, including some on board the
Russian Mir space station. To measure
the interaction of the geomagnetic field
(GMF) with various human systems, the
researchers constructed a special environment—a six-by-two-meter stainless-steel
decompression press-chamber (PC)—to
artificially partially eliminate the earth’s
natural GMF.
When seven healthy male participants, all in their 30s, were sealed off in
Earth
Energies
Lesson 4
the PC, the researchers recorded their
brain electrical activity using electroencephalography (EEG) and heart electrical activity using electrocardiography
(ECG), plus some blood pressure tests
and a number of other electrical tests
[such as electrooculography (EOG), a
type of EEG measuring the movement of
the eyes between two fixed points, and
electromyography (EMG), used to measure the skeletal muscles at rest, on voluntary contraction and during electrical
stimulation].
After analyzing their results, they discovered that the brain’s slow-wave activity tends to increase while fast-wave
activity tends to decrease when GMFs are
suppressed, and visual evoked potentials
tend to decrease in amplitude. They also
discovered that sleep was more restless
without the modifying rhythm of the
earth; deep sleep (stages 3 and 4 of sleep)
tends to decrease and lighter sleep (stages
1 and 2) tends to increase. They also
observed longer than normal sleep cycles.
Besides restless sleep, the autonomic
electrical activity controlling the hearts of
the volunteers changed, as did their blood
pressure. These changes suggest that our
bodies have adapted and are regulated by
the geomagnetic pulses of the earth, and
that an absence or change in their strength
affects many of our own physical systems.2 The GMF appears to have an
overall effect on the sympathetic nerves
(those originating from the chest and
l o w e r-back parts of the spinal cord,
including the ‘fight-or-flight’ response)
and all the other systems that regulate the
activity of the heart.
The General Physics Institute at the
Russian Academy of Sciences has carried
out research suggesting that these biological effects occur on the quantum level,
a ffecting the tiniest systems of our
being.3 These systems only appear to
react to subtle GMFs or electromagnetic
fields (EMFs), such as those generated by
the earth. Other research has demonstrated that our cells are most sensitive to
13
Earth
Energies
Lesson 4
LIVING THE FIELD
subtle changes in magnetic flux; large
increases cause no detectable change.4
This and other research suggests that
our nervous system is a target and a messenger of information from fluctuating
GMFs on both physiological and psychical levels, and that the pulse set by the
earth somehow sets the pattern of our
own energetic frequencies. Fluctuations
in GMFs cause changes not only in our
central nervous system, but also our
autonomic nervous system (the part that
runs our bodies without our conscious
awareness). Our nervous system appears
to respond by a diphasic reaction5 (when
a response is followed by an opposite
response, for example, an increase in
heart rate and blood pressure is followed
by an abnormal slowing of the heartbeat
and hypotension).
One of the most intriguing studies
resulting in evidence of the symbiotic
relationship between humans and the
earth’s GMF was carried out by Balkan
researchers at the Azerbaijan National
Academy of Sciences at Baku. The
researchers used a special device enabling them to continually monitor, by EEG
and ECG, the brain and heart electrical
activities of five men and compare it to
the earth’s GMF.
When the GMF was disturbed, they
discovered a marked increase in bioelectrical brain activity as well as in many
of the autonomic centers of the brain. Big
upsets in geomagnetic activity appear to
disturb the electrical balance of the brain.
They also appear to change the background state of the brain and to disturb
the ability of the brain to enter an active
state (see images below). This research
suggests that a magnetically stormy day
upsets our energetic equilibrium.
So how do these magnetic upsets
affect us psychically? Some of the most
impressive studies of the relationship
between GMFs and Field effects have
been carried out by California parapsychologist Stanley Krippner and Michael
Persinger, a Canadian neuropsychologist
at Laurentian University in Sudbury,
Ontario, Canada. Krippner was one of the
main investigators of dream extrasensory
perception at the Maimonides Medical
Center in New York City in the 1970s,
where participants who had agreed to
sleep in the laboratory would be wakened
periodically and asked to recount their
dreams as extensively as possible.
Krippner and his colleagues used this
experimental protocol to test extrasensory
perception (ESP), clairvoyance and precognition (having the perception of an
event in advance of it happening). In the
ESP experiments, while the dreamer was
sleeping, other participants in other
rooms of the laboratory would concentrate on an image (usually a picture) while
attempting to ‘transmit’ this image into
the dreamer’s dream. In the case of clairvoyance, an image would be selected and
kept in a sealed envelope that evening.
EEG on a geomagnetically calm (left) compared with a disturbed (right) day
14
The dreamer would try to direct his dream
to include the (unknown to him) image in
the envelope. For the precognition experiments, the dreamer would try to dream
about a picture postcard that was to be
selected the following day.
Krippner found that, on some days,
his participants did better than on other
days. Not only did certain psychological
conditions create more favorable conditions for Field effects, but certain physical
conditions also influenced the outcome.
Lunar cycle, sunspot activity and
changes in the GMF all appeared to affect
the outcome of dreams. For instance, the
dreamers were more accurate on nights
of a full moon.
Michael Persinger has also conducted
research into the relationship between
cases of telepathy or clairvoyance and
global geomagnetic activity. He discovered that these kinds of spontaneous types
of experiences were more likely to occur
when the earth’s geomagnetic activity
was significantly calmer than on the previous or following days.6 Other studies
by Marcia Adams demonstrated that, on
days when the earth is calm, remote viewing also worked better.7
Braud’s above-mentioned studies
showed that calm days geomagnetically
had an affect on human influence on
blood cells and biological psychokinesis
(mind over biological matter). When
Persinger and Krippner analyzed the
greatest successes of their Maimonides
dreamers, they discovered that their ‘high
hits’ were significantly correlated with
quiet days with few electrical storms and
sunspots.
Indeed, one of their star participants,
Dr William Ervin, who’d participated for
three consecutive weeks, achieved his
best scores during times of geomagnetic
quiet. The quietest times geomagnetically
also appeared to correlate with just those
moments that Ervin was dreaming.
US physicists James Spottiswoode
and Edwin May have analyzed nearly
3000 experiments, and found significant
correlations between accurate telepathy
and clairvoyance, and geomagnetism.
Precognitive dreams are particularly
difficult to quantify in a laboratory setting
or to compare against geomagnetic activity with any certainty. The closest proof
concerned a psychic, Dr Alan Vaughan,
who’d recorded his own dreams for a
number of years, and compared them
with future events to see if they accurately foretold the future.
Vaughan dreamed with great specificity and detail. He sent descriptions of
61 such dreams to Spottiswoode, who
then examined the earth’s geomagnetic
activity on the nights that Vaughan had
dreamed his premonitions. Spottiswoode
also looked at GMF activity 10 days
before and 10 days after. He discovered
that the earth was significantly quieter
on the days that Vaughan had had his
important dreams.
In one instance, Vaughan had a dream
with many disturbing episodes, including
what appeared to be the murder of Robert
Kennedy, who was campaigning for the
US presidential nomination at the time.
Vaughan wrote to Krippner with the
information about the dream, which
Krippner received on 4 June 1968.
Two days later, Robert Kennedy was
assassinated.
Krippner also tested the usual hypothesis that psychokinesis is likely to occur
on days when the earth is ‘noisy’. Krippner met with Brazilian sensitive Amyr
Amiden, known for his psychokinetic
ability, and compared his activities with
the local GMFs, measured with the aid of
a magnetometer (see Living the Field
Lesson Three).
In one instance, two religious medallions appeared to drop to the floor from
the ceiling. These sorts of strange occurrences usually preceded a blip in the
earth’s geomagnetic calm. The same did
not occur after the event, suggesting that
humans anticipate noises from the earth,
and that such anticipatory ‘windows’
offer them more psychokinetic power
than usual.
After a series of such incidences,
Krippner’s team examined the Geomagnetic Indices Bulletin for March 1994,
Earth
Energies
Lesson 4
15
Earth
Energies
Lesson 4
16
LIVING THE FIELD
and found that 15 March and 10 March
were the most magnetically ‘disturbed’
days of the month. Those were two of the
days when Amiden performed the most
feats. The day that Amiden was unusually
calm and produced nothing much out of
the ordinary was 20 March—also listed in
the Indices Bulletin as magnetically the
quietest day of the month.
This evidence suggests that we should
keep careful note of the earth’s geomagnetic fields and only attempt to ‘tune in’
when the earth’s activity is favorable.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Five: Explosive effects from
outer space
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Percept Motor Skills, 1989; 68:
1243–54
J Balkan Geophys Soc, 2000; 3 (4):
73–6
Phys Uspekhi, 2003: 173 (3): 265–300
FASEB J, 1993; 7 (9): 801–6
Russ Physiol J, 2001, vol 87
Psychoener Syst, 1975; 3: 155–69
Adams MH. ‘Variability in remote-viewing performance: Possible relationship
to the geomagnetic field’, in We i n e r
DH, Radin DI, eds. Research in Parapsychology. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow
Press, 1985: 25
LIVING THE FIELD
Here comes the sun
A
lthough scientists used to believe
that the space between sun and
earth was a peaceful vacuum, the
advent of high-tech space instruments
has changed that view. It’s now known
that space is a wild and turbulent place.
‘Space weather’, as it has come to be
known, concerns the violent and unpredictable weather that arises between the
sun and the earth.
Solar wind, a constant blast of electrified gas, dominates this interplanetary
medium, soaring past the earth at speeds
ranging from 600,000 to two million
miles per hour. Although the earth’s magnetic field usually deflects it, this gale of
gas can penetrate our magnetic field when
other activities from the sun occur.
The sun, which is to all intents and
purposes a common-or-garden star like
millions of others in the galaxy, is essentially the source of wild and explosive
energy of almost unimaginable proportions. The sun’s heat is powered by the
nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms within
its core, and the outer solar atmosphere is
composed of strong magnetic fields. This
process generates such an extraordinary
amount of energy that, if the sun’s entire
energy output for just a single instant
could be harnessed and relayed to earth, it
would be enough to provide the US with
enough energy for the next nine million
years.
This huge ball of extraordinarily hot
(10,900 degrees F, or 5700 degrees C)
gases is encased by strong magnetic fields
in the outer solar atmosphere. This is a
recipe for periodic explosions as the gases
build up and magnetic fields intersect
across the sun’s surface.
Happily, this buildup occurs in fairly
regular cycles so that scientists can make
some prediction about when the sun is
next likely to erupt. A solar cycle of waxing and waning activity occurs, on average, every 11 years—the sun’s ‘year’.
During this time, sunspots—dark
blobs on the sun’s surface about the size
of the earth—begin to accumulate and
Earth
Energies
Lesson 5
then begin to disappear. These vortices
of concentrated magnetic fields are produced when strong magnetic fields
emerge through the surface of the sun
and then cool. The most recent solar minimum—time of fewest sunspots—
occurred in 1996, and the most recent
maximum was reached in 2001. The next
time for fewest sunspots is expected in
2007.
As sunspots build up, so does the
sun’s explosive behavior. Periodically, the
sun releases solar flares, a gaseous explosion that quickly heats up to a temperature of many millions of degrees. These
are the largest events of the solar system,
causing an explosion—the equivalent of
40 billion atomic bombs—most likely
due to the ripping apart and reconnection
of strong magnetic fields. These intense
bursts of energy, often lasting from minutes to hours, radiate energy throughout
the electromagnetic spectrum—from
gamma rays (the lowest) through X rays
and visible light to kilometer-sized radio
waves.
During solar flares, highly charged
protons from the nuclei of gas—’electrified bullets’, as they are known—are
picked up by the solar wind and flung
toward earth at speeds of more than five
million miles per hour, showering the
earth’s atmosphere within a half-hour
with radiation and ionization.
Besides solar flares, the shifting magnetic fields of the sun also cause corona
mass ejections, the violent release of
bubbles of gas and magnetic fields.
Periodically, the sun hurls these giant
balls of matter (up to a billion tons)
toward earth at several million miles per
hour.
One to four days later, this violent
surge of particles causes extreme geomagnetic storms in space. These storms,
which at their worst are the energy equivalent of an atomic bomb, can transfer
some of the energy of the solar wind to
the earth’s magnetosphere. This causes
wild fluctuations—changes of direction
17
Earth
Energies
Lesson 5
LIVING THE FIELD
and speeding up of particles—in the
earth’s magnetic field. The effects of
these storms are known to be profound,
causing major disruption to our high-tech
communications systems, satellite and
navigation systems, aircraft, electrical
power and pipelines. It’s even possible to
see them. Geomagnetic storms are
responsible for the aurora borealis and
aurora australis—the northern and southern lights, respectively.
According to the US National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), every 11 years, we can expect
to have four geomagnetic storms lasting
about a day apiece of maximum severity
(G5 on their scale), each so powerful that
they can cause widespread voltage problems to power systems on earth, and disorient spacecraft and tracking satellites.
Although the most severe storms are
thankfully rare, we can expect nearly
200 days of G3 or G4 (strong or severe)
storms per cycle. Over the sun’s 11-year
cycle, geomagnetic storms in space of
every variety will occur about a third of
the time—half of them severe enough to
interfere with our modern technology. For
instance, in March 1989, a severe geomagnetic storm left six million people in
Montreal without electric power for
nine hours.
Besides geomagnetic storms, the sun
also causes solar radiation storms which,
at their most extreme, cause high radiation—the equivalent of 100 chest Xrays—to passengers of commercial jetliners at high latitudes (see www.sec.noaa.
gov/NOAAScales). Although the earth’s
atmosphere usually shields us from the
worst of these effects, they can be highly
hazardous to astronauts. For instance,
high-energy particles can penetrate into
living cells, causing chromosomal dam-
Keeping track of space weather
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) created a Space
Environment Center (SEC), America’s official source of space weather activity (www.sec.
noaa.gov). The SEC in turn set up a special Space Weather Operations (SWO) branch
to act as a warning center for the world concerning disturbances in space. Jointly operated by the NOAA and the US Air Force, SWO provides forecasts and warnings of solar
and geomagnetic activity.
SWO receives its data in real time from a large number of ground-based observatories
and satellite sensors around the world. These data enable the SWO to predict solar and
geomagnetic activity, and to make worldwide alerts during heavy storms. For today’s
forecast, see: http://sec.noaa.gov/today2.html.
The SEC has also created Space Weather Scales to give lay people an idea of how
frequently geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms and radio blackouts occur, and
how they affect our technological systems (www. sec.noaa.gov/NOAA-Scales). The
numbers attached to them (such as ‘G5’) indicate the level of severity, with 1 being mild
and 5 the most severe.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was set up as a joint project by the
European Space Agency and NASA to study the effect of the sun on the earth. For more
information, see http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/.
For other aspects of space weather, including charts of geomagnetic activity, see
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/spaceweather/. This website includes useful charts on
geomagnetic activity, solar wind, and high-energy proton and X-ray flux.
All geomagnetic activity is measured on a K index, with 0 being the most quiet and
9 the most turbulent. The a index is similar, but uses a larger scale—from 0 to 400.
18
age, sterility and even cancer.1 For this
reason, astronauts are usually warned to
have their children before they venture
into space. Indeed, if an astronaut had
been walking on the moon during a particularly explosive solar flare ejected
from the sun in October 1989, he would
have been killed instantly.
Scientists have long understood the
effects of space weather on modern technology. But they are only just beginning
to understand that these violent changes
in weather in space can also affect living
beings on earth.
A number of studies have shown that
geomagnetic storms can affect animals
that navigate geomagnetically. These
include homing pigeons, and other creatures—like dolphins, whales, tuna, butterflies and honeybees—that migrate, using
geomagnetic cues. During pigeon races,
it is well documented that ‘smashes’—
when a large percentage of the pigeons
fail to return home—tend to occur during
geomagnetic storms.
Changes in space weather appear to
affect the lowliest of living systems. One
study showed that even single-celled
algae respond to solar-cycle disturbances.2 A study carried out during a
space flight from the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow showed
that protein synthesis in very basic, procaryotic (lacking a distinct nucleus)
bacteria is highly susceptible to changes
in geomagnetic fields. This shift in protein synthesis can affect human microorganisms.
Another small body of research shows
that the geomagnetic changes caused by
space weather also affect plant life. One
study conducted by the Russian Academy
of Science showed that geomagnetic disturbances can influence the synthesis of
micronutrients in plants—in this instance,
bioflavonoids. So sensitive are these
changes that the researchers recommended that plants could be used as a sensitive
barometer for geomagnetic effects on
humans.3
Much of the sparse scientific literature
available on the effects of space weather
on humans comes from Russia and the
former Soviet Union, where scientists
explored this area after sending cosmonauts into space. Studies have shown that
up to three-quarters of magnetic storms
are followed by an increase in hospitalizations, largely involving heart and
other circulatory disorders. During geomagnetic storms, the viscosity (thickness) of blood in patients appears to
increase sharply, sometimes doubling,
and the flow of the bloodstream slows
down, resulting in heart attacks and many
other problems of a cardiovascular
nature.
In space, astronauts have suffered cardiac problems due to magnetic storms.4
One Russian study found that the largest
number of sudden deaths from heart
disease occurred within a day of a geomagnetic storm. Other Russian research
from Sverdlosk Medical Institute reported higher rates of illness and death on
stormy geomagnetic days.5
Besides the heart, space weather also
appears to affect the brain. Turbulent
weather in space coincides with increased
hospitalizations because of nervous disorders and an increase in attempted suicides.1
One four-year study showed a link
between the geomagnetic indices in New
York and admissions to two local mental
hospitals.6 Even those already suffering
from mental illness have been shown to
exhibit measurable changes in behavior
for the worse.
To date, little research has been carried out to examine exactly what happens
to the human brain during changes in
space weather. Nevertheless, a few small
studies provide some important clues.
Again, most of the research in this area
has been conducted in former Soviet-bloc
countries. The Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences in Baku studied the
effects of changes in space weather on
the ordinary workings of the brain using
electroencephalography (EEG). In their
study of seven men, on comparing EEG
readings during either geomagnetically
quiet or disturbed conditions, they found
Earth
Energies
Lesson 5
19
Earth
Energies
Lesson 5
20
LIVING THE FIELD
that geomagnetic storms had a strong
influence on the functional activity of the
brain. During stormy days, EEG readings
were destabilized and no longer synchronicitous.5 The researchers found an
upset in the ordinary balance between the
synchronous and non-synchronous portions of the brain, changing its background state and inhibiting the ability to
respond. Storms caused a dysfunction
in the central apparatus of the brain,
strengthening certain activating systems
in our vegetative nervous system and
lowering other inhibiting mechanisms.
Basically, it means that the nervous system’s network of communication was
somehow disrupted.
In effect, the very ebb and flow of our
nervous system is altered by the wild and
strange behavior of the sun.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Six: More on
planetary rhythms
1
2
3
4
5
6
Reitz G. Biological effects of space
radiation. Proceedings of the Space
Weather Workshop: Looking Towards a
European Space Weather Programme,
December 2001
Scripta Med (Brno), 2002; 75 (6): 303–8
Proc XXV Ann Sem Apatity, 2002:
153–6
Petro VM et al. An influence of changes
of magnetic field of the earth on the
functional state of humans in the conditions of space mission. Proceedings of
the International Symposium Computer
Electro-Cardiograph on Boundary of
Centuries, Moscow, Russian Fe d e r a tion, 27–30 April 1999
Allahverdiyev AR et al. Possible space
weather influence on functional activity
of the human brain. Proceedings of the
Space Weather Workshop: Looking
Towards a European Space Weather
Programme, December 2001
Nature, 1963; 200: 626–8
LIVING THE FIELD
Keeping in step with the sun
A
new science is emerging that
recognizes that living things
operate in time to the rhythms of
life. It’s called ‘chronobiology’—the
influence of time and certain periodic
cycles on biological function. The first
scientific record of this occurred in 1929
when French scientist J.J. Mairan placed
a ‘heliotropic’ plant (one that turns
toward the light) in total darkness. To his
astonishment, the plant continued to follow its 24-hour rhythm in turning its
face to the sun, just as it had done the
whole of its life.
However, it wasn’t until American
biologist Franz Halberg began studying
these phenomena that it became a true
science. Halberg, director of Chronobiology Laboratories at the University
of Minnesota and the ‘father’ of chronobiology, has spent 50 years researching
the effect of external environmental
cycles on living things. It was he who
coined the terms ‘chronobiology’ and
‘circadian’ (circa = about, dia = day) after
discovering that white blood cell counts
in mice rise and fall in an approximately
24-hour rhythm. From there, he and his
colleagues went on to show that all living
things respond to the same 24-hour
rhythm in tandem with the earth’s rotation
in relation to the sun.
After examining the effects of light
and darkness on blind mice, Halberg concluded that chronobiology was a readymade feature of organisms and not something learned or acquired—a basic, inherent property of life.
But the daily cycle is not the only biological rhythm we are in step with. Living
things keep in time to many periodic
cycles, which govern virtually every one
of our biological functions.
During years of meticulous research,
Halberg and colleagues in Minnesota
have discovered that living things have a
number of common periodicities: halfweekly (circasemiseptans), weekly (circaseptan), monthly (circatrigintan) and
yearly (circannual). The human pulse and
Earth
Energies
Lesson 6
blood pressure, body temperature and
blood-clotting, circulation of lymphocytes, hormonal cycles and other functions of the human body all appear to
ebb and flow according to some basic,
recurring timetable.
For instance, human blood pressure
appears to peak in most people between
midday and 4 pm, when sunlight is
strongest.1 Halberg has even found that
drug treatment can vary according to the
time it is administered. “A long list of
drugs can be tolerated without obvious
effects, but 12 hours earlier or later, the
same dose may kill most animals exposed
to it,” he writes.1 Growth hormones successfully stimulate cell division if given
at one time of the day, but have no effect
at other times. Even antibiotics are more
effective if taken at certain times of the
day when bacterial colonies are at their
optimal growth stage, as the drugs are
only lethal to growing bacteria.
These rhythms are not unique to
humans, but are present throughout
nature. They can even be seen in fossils
of single-cell organisms that existed
millions of years ago.
Although conventional science
accepts chronobiology, the conventional
view is that this internal clock is imprinted in our DNA and is autonomous—that
is, unaffected by our environment. Dr
Ronald Konopka of Clarkson University
argues that certain genes in the fruit fly
affect the time that a fly emerges from the
pupa and also the timing of its mating
song, which is ordinarily repeated every
minute.2
Initially, Halberg believed that the
master switch for these biological
rhythms was located in certain cells of
the brain or in the adrenal glands.
However, some of these cycles carried on
even when Halberg removed the brain
cells in question, the adrenal glands—
even the brain itself. Halberg realized that
the mechanism was more complex than
simple genetics.
Recently, Halberg, who is still work21
Earth
Energies
Lesson 6
LIVING THE FIELD
ing in his 80s, uncovered evidence suggesting that these rhythms are set externally: there seems to be a clock in every
living thing, but the synchronizer is not
in-built, but resides in the planets—particularly the sun.3 Many of our biological
rhythms rise and fall with the periodic
geomagnetic activity of the sun.
Halberg and his coworkers in both
America and Russia now hypothesize that
what is termed ‘heliogeomagnetic’ activity—fluctuations in geomagnetic fields as
a result of periodic changes in the solar
wind or interplanetary magnetic fields—
acts as a kind of giant metronome, setting
off our biological clocks and our patterns
of self-organization.
Halberg now believes that this phenomenon should be more properly named
‘chronoastrobiology’—the timing of our
biology in relation to the effect of the
various planets.
Of all the systems in our bodies, the
cardiovascular system appears most
sensitive to changes in solar geomagnetic
conditions.
The BIOCOS Project
Franz Halberg and colleagues at the University of Minnesota’s Chronobiology Center
are collaborating with academic centers around the world—notably, the Russian Academy
of Sciences—on an international project on the biosphere and cosmos (BIOCOS).
BIOCOS will monitor physiological variables at a number of geographical locations to
determine the effects of the sun and the other planets.
Its purpose is to warn people in various locations who may be at risk of health problems when solar activity is at its peak. It would also warn citizens of reduced heart-rate
variability and a phenomenon called CHAT (circadian hyperamplitude tension), excessively high blood pressure during one part of the day.
BIOCOS also plans to investigate techniques that shield against natural geomagnetic
disturbances by compensating for them. This would be particularly useful for patients
who have disorders of the cardiovascular system.
Russian scientists on the ISTC Project G-857 are working to protect patients from
geomagnetic storms. The Georgian Technical University has devised a way to set up
compensatory magnetic shielding. Three sets of Helmholtz coils create a 3-D magnetic
field, filling the entire room where the patient resides. The setup uses an automagnetic ‘climate control’ that reacts to changes in the geomagnetic field or simulates geomagnetic
disturbances.
If BIOCOS finds evidence that disturbances in the geomagnetic field do cause cardiovascular disorders, the plan is to begin using this compensatory magnetic shielding in
all cardiovascular patients, particularly those in intensive care.
Besides the effect of space weather on the heart and blood vessels, BIOCOS aims to
coordinate all physical and physiological monitoring so that our health measurements
are tested in relation to the heavens.
As the resolution states: “We find everywhere cyclic processes resulting from cosmic
influences . . . The maxima and minima of the cosmic and geophysical phenomena agree
with those in the organic world; also, the maxima and minima of a biological cycle coincide with epochs of maximal and minimal intensity of cosmic or geophysical phenomena.”
In other words, all the world’s rhythms follow a vast and interlinked design. (For more
on BIOCOS, see: http://www.tma.tmn.ru/caf/biolog/Left/Science/Works/Spin/spin.htm.)
22
Halberg and fellow researchers from
the Space Research Institute of the
Russian Academy of Sciences and other
centers around the world compared variations in heart rate with sunspot and geomagnetic activity over an entire solar
cycle—the cycle in which solar geomagnetic activity, such as solar flares, waxes
and wanes. Incredibly, the highest amplitude of the heart rate of a number of
healthy men measuring themselves
around the clock corresponded with those
times that the sun had the least amount
of solar activity.4 Magnetic storms were
shown to decrease heart-rate variability
(HRV). A low HRV increases risk for all
coronary artery disease, including heart
attack.
Other studies show that sudden cardiovascular death, thought to be related to
the moon and tides, has more to do with
solar geomagnetic activity,5 and that
heart attack rates also rise and fall according to the solar cycle.6 Copious data from
Russia, Israel, Italy and Mexico, and
studies of nearly 130,000 deaths due to
heart attack in Minnesota show a 5-percent increase in heart attack during times
of peak solar activity.7
One of the most profound effects of a
disturbed HRV is on the autonomic nervous system, which keeps our bodies ticking over without our intervention and
which also affects brain activity.
Numerous studies have also shown a
relationship between variations in blood
pressure and the Kp or aa indices—
which measure geomagnetic activity in
space.8. 9 Geomagnetic activity tends to
follow a half-weekly and weekly cycle.
Halberg has also noted that many of the
body’s rhythms follow ‘harmonics’—
multiples or submultiples of the number
seven—again apparently based on the
sun’s natural geomagnetic activity.
Research so far suggests that this
patterning occurs from the moment we
are born. A collaborative study between
Halberg and Russian researchers examining the heart rate of 33 newborns showed
that all were in synch at about the midweek point, corresponding to the local
K index of geomagnetic activity.10
Besides the biological week, Halberg
found other important rhythms relating to
the sun. HRV appeared to change from
one solar cycle to another, the approximately 11-year cycle during which solar
activity (such as flares) waxes and wanes.
Heart rate also fluctuated according to the
stage in the solar cycle.
The sun’s geomagnetic activity may
even determine when we are going to die.
A fascinating study by Halberg and
Italian coworkers at the University of
Milan suggests that our longevity may be
related to the solar-activity cycle and the
so-called ‘Hale cycle’—a two-year bipolar sun cycle—as well as the half-year
rhythm that peaks at the spring (March
21) and autumn (September 21) equinoxes of the sun. This refers to the angle of
the earth’s axis towards and away from
the sun.
Halberg and colleagues also reexamined University of Chicago research that
had concluded that the month of birth is
a predictor of life expectancy in women.
Women born in May and December tended to live about three years longer than
those born in August. However, when the
University of Minnesota reanalyzed the
data, they discovered that the sun’s geomagnetic activity strongly correlated with
longevity. Halberg believes that the correlation results from the sun’s effect on the
pineal gland of the mothers of these
women while they were in utero. The
pineal gland is known to be highly sensitive to the tiniest variations in the solar
wind.3
The wider effect of the sun on every
aspect of our lives is only beginning to be
investigated. It may well be that our lives
are more dependent upon the distant stars
than we ever imagined. Some research
has even suggested that the simplest
childhood accidents aren’t random, but
follow solar cycles.11
The periodicities uncovered by
Halberg are remarkably similar to those
revealed by Fritz-Albert Popp on measuring the highs and lows of photon emissions in humans (see Living the Field
Earth
Energies
Lesson 6
23
Earth
Energies
Lesson 6
24
LIVING THE FIELD
Lesson Two). It may well be that our own
light waxes and wanes, depending on the
activity of the sun.12
The enormous effect of the sun is not
surprising when you consider that the
very source of the sun is magnetic fields
caused by the flow of electrically charged
ions and electrons on its surface. It is well
known than open, non-linear biological
systems (like human beings) are especially sensitive to weak external signals such
as geomagnetic disturbances. Whenever
magnetic forces change, they alter the
direction of the flow of charged particles
like electrons. Ultimately, as we are also
made up of this material and operate
according to quantum processes—which
are not fixed but mutable—a profound
change of magnetic direction changes us.
But how do we receive the sun’s
signals?
Neil Cherry, a researcher at the
Environmental Management and Design
division of Lincoln University in New
Zealand, has postulated that the main
‘messenger’ of changes in solar activity
is the Schumann resonance (SR)—the
electromagnetic pulse of the earth (see
Lesson Three). The SR correlates highly
with the sun’s geomagnetic activity and
increases during solar activity like X-ray
bursts. As living things operate within
the same frequency range as the SR,
when the sun causes the SR to increase
its steady beat, we speed up, too.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Seven: More on planetary
influences
1
Scheving LE, Halberg F. Chronobiology: Principles and Applications to Shifts
in Schedules. Kluwer Academic, 1981
2 Science, December, 1985
3 Proc XXV Ann Sem Apatity, 2002;
161–5
4 Biomed Instrument Technol, 1999; 33:
152–87
5 Casopis Lekaru Cesych, 1990; 129:
1425–30
6 Neuroendrocrinol Lett, 2000; 21:
233–58
7 J Atmosph Solar-terrestr Phys, 2002;
64: 707–20
8 Eos Trans Am Geophys Union, 1995;
76: 441, 444–5
9 Biophysics, 1995; 40: 731–6
10 Scripta Med (Brno), 1997; 70: 217–26
11 Reinberg L. Accidents in children are
not random; clock-hour associated
incidence in a prospective study of
15,110 injuries of children. T i m e
Structures—Chronomes—in
Child
D e v e l o p m e n t, conference held in
Munich, 29–30 November 2002
12 McTaggart L. The Field. HarperCollins,
2001: 50–1
LIVING THE FIELD
When lightning prevents enlightenment
O
ne of the great mysteries of our
biology is why human beings
aren’t utterly overwhelmed by
the electromagnetic (EM) sea of modern
technology. Although EM fields due to
our modern lives do have a pronounced
effect, all living organisms appear to keep
time to a much fainter beat.
One primary influence is the buildup
of EM energy from the weather on earth.
Lightning and thunderstorms create verylow-frequency (VLF) atmospherics, or
‘sferics’—short, weak EM fields (EMFs)
in the 1–100 kHz range. These EMFs
settle down to a common frequency of
10 Hz, which is tiny compared with the
much higher frequencies bombarding
us from computers, TVs and electrical
appliances. Growing evidence shows that
these faint, dampened impulses may not
only profoundly affect our biological systems, but may also interfere with our ability to go deeper into The Field.
The level of circulating sferics
accounts for a growing problem—meteoropathy, or illness due to the weather.
According to German research, some 30
per cent of Europeans are weather-sensitive.1 Those affected react to changes in
air pressure, humidity and even temperature. During buildups of sferics, pain is
intensified, illness increases, moods
worsen and people get the ‘blahs’—they
feel disinterested in their daily lives.
Researchers at the Department of
Clinical and Physiological Psychology at
the Justus-Leibig University in Giessen,
Germany, have assembled an impressive
body of research showing that VLF sferics profoundly effect human biology.
Of the many studies they cite, one discovered that pain from all manner of
sources—scars, brain injuries, angina,
asthma or migraine—was more intense
during high rates of atmospherics, with
increases beginning one or two days
before a change in the weather.2 Other
studies showed that, when sferics are
high—say, during geomagnetic storms—
blood viscosity (thickness) dramatically
Earth
Energies
Lesson 7
increases, as do heart attacks.3 They also
increase the pain of rheumatism, migraine, sleep disorders and general tension. Another phenomenon occurs during
changeable or stormy weather: patients
who have lost limbs are more likely to
complain of phantom-limb pain. It’s even
been linked to cases of sudden deafness.
Bad weather also appears to have a
profound effect on the human brain.
Violence, including accidents, traffic
accidents, suicides and criminal behavior,
is enhanced when EMFs build up in the
air.1 Epileptics also suffer more seizures.
Atmospherics can also interfere with
concentration. Students make more mistakes on tests when sferics have been
higher the night before. Our ability to
react quickly also appears to suffer when
the air is heavy with sferic activity.
According to the scientists at Giessen,
as most people spend most of their time
indoors, where the electrical component
of atmospherics cannot penetrate, what
must be affecting us are the magnetic
fields. To isolate these effects, researchers
have attempted to create ‘simulation studies’. Participants are exposed to different
electrical and magnetic fields to see how
this affects their health and wellbeing. In
one, patients exposed to conditions replicating ‘bad’ and ‘good’ weather had
slower blood coagulation. Others found
that patients—particularly anxious or
depressed ones—had significant thickening of their blood.
More interesting, however, were the
brain effects of simulated sferic activity.
Participants exposed to 10 kHz sferics for
only 20 minutes had a large shift in their
alpha band (7–13 Hz),4 the wave length
of light meditation—alert receptivity.
Other studies have shown an increase in
both alpha and beta brainwave activity
(13–40 Hz).
But why do we feel these faint pulses
and not the louder ones? The Giessen
group postulates that we possess a biological ‘window’ through which we only
receive and respond to a certain band of
25
Earth
Energies
Lesson 7
LIVING THE FIELD
frequencies. We are only susceptible to
waves that correspond to our ideal frequencies.
In our evolution, the brain worked
best tuned in to 10 Hz, the frequency of
our alpha cycle—quiet, meditative alertness. This is the same frequency as the
Schumann resonance, the most common
frequency of EM waves that encircle the
earth (see Living the Field Lesson Three).
In terms of atmospheric buildup, the
Schumann VLF fields primarily occur
during fair weather. It may well be that
we are designed to function at our best
during good weather.
Some researchers have even concluded that the Schumann resonance frequency creates our own internal rhythms.
When people in an underground bunker
were exposed to Schumann-like extralow-frequency waves (ELFs) for a week,
they displayed more accurate circadian
rhythms than those not exposed to such
ELFs.5 We may also have evolved to pick
up these changes in the weather several
days in advance to give us enough time to
find food or shelter, say the Giessen scientists. It may even be that picking up
changes in VLF sferics helps in fight-orflight situations as they usually occur during periods of alarm.
The Giessen group has examined
other research showing that these low,
faint fields can affect cell calcium, particularly when their frequencies correspond
to the resonance frequency of the calcium
When are atmospheric EMFs at their highest?
Atmospheric discharges can be measured in terms of pulsed frequencies per minute.
Classically, they have been used to track where thunderstorms and lightning occur.
However, daily and even seasonal activity occurs, which can be used to work out the
best times to engage in Field activity.
Research has discovered that these very-low-frequency (VLF) fields have daily and
seasonal peaks and troughs. In Europe, the highest activity occurs in the mid-afternoon
during the summer—at around 3 pm; the second highest activity is at midnight, all year
round.
Different atmospherics cause different biological symptoms. When sferics are in the
higher-frequency ranges (10–50 kHz), people with pain feel even more pain. Epileptics
have more seizures within the 28 kHz than 10 kHz range. Heart attacks occur more
often in the 28-kHz band. Accidents and violence are more prevalent in the higher ranges.
Usually, your ability to be affected by the weather depends on how ‘labile’—how open
to change—you are.
For daily reports on lightning and other atmospheric conditions, you can consult
the NASA-funded Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC). There, a group called
the GHCC Lightning Team investigates the causes and effects of lightning as well as
analyzes a wide variety of atmospheric measurements related to thunderstorms
(http://thunder. nsstc.nasa.gov).
For European weather reports, including sferics, consult: http://www.ukweatherworld.
co.uk/forum/forum-view.asp?forumid=46.
For an excellent site with information on lightning and thunderstorms, including forecasts, consult USA Today’s site at: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/basics/
thunderstorms.htm.
For US forecasts, consult the US National Weather Service website at: http://www.nws.
noaa.gov/comm/new_look.htm.
26
ions. All the important ions of the body
are in this low-frequency range. Just as a
tuning fork tunes a musical instrument, it
may be that we need to be ‘tuned’ by
Schumann resonance to be at peak performance.
Neil Cherry, a researcher at the
Environmental Management and Design
Division of Lincoln University in
Canterbury, New Zealand, postulates that
these faint pulses are sensed by the
brain’s own ELF waves through resonance with the calcium ions in neurons.
This interaction affects the delicate balance of melatonin and serotonin—the
brain hormones that regulate mood, set
our circadian rhythm and may be
involved (through the pineal gland) with
the workings of a number of major organs
(see Living The Field Lesson One).
Furthermore, the brain uses these
oscillating calcium ions in the cells to
regulate a range of cellular functions in
the body. Like the rhythm set by an
orchestra conductor, the 10-Hz pulse of
the earth’s weather reminds us of the
world’s best beat. It may also be that our
bodies are sensitive to other EMFs, but
these are highly influenced by local geomagnetic fields.
James Oschmann, author of Energy
Medicine: The Scientific Basis (Churchill
Livingstone, 2000), believes that, when
we are in a relaxed or meditative state, the
pulse of the earth takes over as our brain’s
‘pacemaker’.6
VLF fields may also have other functions. Alterations in VLF atmospherics
have been recorded during earthquakes,
suggesting that a change in geomagnetic
or EM fields may also have something to
do with the earth’s eruptions as well.7
Perhaps the most fascinating research
into these subtle messages from the sky
is the work done by Michael Persinger, a
neuroscientist at the Department of
Psychology, Laurentian University, in
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Persinger has
carried out an extensive list of studies, in
both animals and humans, into the biological effects of bad weather using simulations of these fields.
He has shown, for example, that
applying low magnetic fields to rats is so
powerful an influence on biology that
they even override the analgesic effects
of morphine.8 Other studies of his have
shown correspondingly high levels of
sudden infant deaths and cardiac arrhythmias in adults on days where geomagnetic activity is high.9
The link with changes in the weather
o ffers some fascinating insights into
epilepsy. According to Persinger’s studies, increases in geomagnetic fields are
related to sudden death in people with
epilepsy—an occurrence that has long
puzzled conventional medical science.
Indeed, the origins of epilepsy in children
might be related to high geomagnetic
activity at the time of their birth.10, 11
Even heart attacks increase during periods of snowfall.
Clearly, changes in the earth’s pulses
have a profound effect on our health as
well as our consciousness. It may be that
the beat that we follow is set by the
weather conditions at the time of our
birth.
Persinger has long postulated that the
brain’s temporal lobes are the antennae
for picking up fluctuations in the various
EMFs and geomagnetic fields of the
earth. To test this idea, he has designed a
special magnetic helmet that emits pulses
of the Schumann-resonance frequency to
the temporal lobes of student volunteers.
In these studies, Persinger has been
able to simulate a number of different
kinds of mystical experiences. For
instance, after having weak magnetic
fields sent to their brain via the helmet,
Persinger’s student participants have
reported seeing ghosts and “sentient
beings”.12, 13 Even the effect of hypnotism is enhanced when magnetic fields
are applied, especially in a particular
order.14
Although many critics of the paranormal refer to Persinger’s research to
argue that extrasensory perception (ESP)
may be nothing more than an excess of
geomagnetic fields, Persinger’s own
work supports the premise that our brain
Earth
Energies
Lesson 7
27
Earth
Energies
Lesson 7
LIVING THE FIELD
is a delicate antenna that is picking up
cues from the earth. Over six decades of
research, he has gathered data to show
that larger ESP effects occur during periods when the earth is quiet.15 His simulation studies do just that—simulate a situation that occurs naturally.
For the greatest success in sending out
our intentions, it may be best to wait for
good weather.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Seven: The moon and the
planets
1
2
3
28
J Sci Explor, 1998; 12 (3): 455–68
Reiter
R.
Meteorobiology
and
Atmospheric Electricity. Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest &
Portig, 1960
Clin Cardiol, 1985; 8: 149
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Tirsch WS et al. Spectroanalytical
investigations about the influence of
atmospherics on the human EEG
[Abstr]. EEG Symposium. Obergugl,
Fe b r u a r y, 1994
Naturwissenschaften, 1968; 55: 29
Oschmann JL. Energy Medicine: The
Scientific Basis. New York: Churchill
Livingstone, 2000
J Sci Explor, 1990; 4 (2): article 6
Int J Neurosci, 2001; 108: 87–97
Percept Mot Skills, 2001; 92 (3 Pt 1):
653–4
Int J Biometeorol, 1995; 38: 180–7
Neurosci Lett, 1991; 125: 205–8
Percept Mot Skills, 2001: 92: 447–8
Percept Mot Skills, 2000; 90: 659–74
Int J Neurosci, 1994; 79: 157–63
Percept Mot Skills, 1991; 73 (2):
1219–23
LIVING THE FIELD
Basking in the light of the full moon
S
o far, we have explored the
e ffect of the sun on our physical
wellbeing and psychic ability.
Folklore has it that lunar cycles also
affect human beings, just as they govern the ocean’s tides, particularly during a full or new moon. In this lesson,
we examine the moon’s effect on psychic ability and Field eff e c t s .
Anecdotal evidence and traditional
cultures suggest there may be some
subtle increase in ‘loony’ or ‘witching’
behavior—violence, suicides, psychiatric disturbances and crime—during
full moons. Police gird themselves for
a higher crime rate and stranger phone
calls; psychiatric hospitals for higher
admission rates; hospitals for a higher
number of births; and teachers for more
unruly classrooms. In the 23 June 1997
issue of New York’s Business Review,
Annette Delavallade, president of
Onyx Management Inter- n a t i o n a l ,
wrote about a little-known phenomenon of the workplace—’lunar syndrome’, when customers and employees are affected by the moon. Indeed,
the notorious Charles Hyde, who provided the inspiration for Robert Louis
Stevenson’s classic novel Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde, committed his murders
under a full moon. In the 1970s, New
York serial killer Son of Sam murdered
five of his eight victims during full or
new moons.
Copious evidence shows that living
things experience marked physical and
psychic changes during the phases of
the moon. Even primitive life forms
like mollusks appear to react to geomagnetic fields diff e r e n t l y, depending
on the phase of the moon.1 The majority of women with something close to a
29-day menstrual cycle begin their
periods within a week or less of the full
moon.2
H o w e v e r, the numerous scientific
studies to date on the effect of the
moon on living things are conflicting at
best. Data examined by University of
Earth
Energies
Lesson 8
Miami psychologist Arnold Lieber in
Dade County, Florida, over a 15-year
period showed that homicides rose in
remarkable tandem with the full or new
moon, tailing off significantly in the
first and last quarters. Suicides, aggravated assaults and fatal traffic accidents all clustered around the full
moon, while psychiatric emerg e n c y
room visits did the reverse, rising during the first quarter and plummeting
during the new and full moons.3
Another study of more than 34,000
crimes showed that they were more frequent during the full moon.4 Accident
and emergency department data at one
English city from 1997 to 1999 even
showed that animals bite more often
during a full moon,5 although a smaller
Australian study found no such link.6
Other studies have revealed more accidental poisonings,7 gout attacks 8 and
cardiopulmonary arrest 9 during full
moons, but intentional poisoning,
either as attempted suicide or drug
abuse, occurred more often during the
new moon. 8
Are we loonier during a full moon?
Just the reverse, according to one study
of 18,495 patients in a psychiatric hospital over an 11-year period. Like
L i e b e r’s study, times of psychosis
peaked during a new moon and were at
their lowest during a full moon. 1 0
Another study of nearly 8000 emergency calls to suicide-prevention centers over a two-year period found that
the highest number again occurred during the new moon, not the full moon.11
However, other data show no such relationship.
So, is the full and new moon cycle
simply coincidental, or is something
significant going on here? One problem
with the data is that the researchers
were looking for a simple relationship
(such as an effect only with the full
moon) whereas the truth may well be
far more complex. In some instances,
scientists have discounted the presence
29
Earth
Energies
Lesson 8
LIVING THE FIELD
of the first quarter or a new moon,
when this might have been the most
important effect. Or, as is often the case
with observational studies, they forg o t
to look at other factors, such as the fact
that it was a weekend with less traff i c
on the road, or the study didn’t last
long enough.
But what is the effect due to? The
general belief has been that any lunar
influence is due to the gravitational
e ffect of the sun and moon, as it is with
the tides—that is, since we are 75 per
cent water, the moon affects us just as
it does the ocean. However, the tides
are predictable, occurring every 12
hours, whereas lunar effects are seen
only once or twice a month.
The most likely explanation is a
subtle geomagnetic effect, or some
influence of the moon on the sun’s
well-established geomagnetic eff e c t .
During a full moon, the earth sits
between the moon and the sun so that
both enter our geomagnetic field
(GMF); during a new moon, the moon
sits between the sun and the earth and
is furthest away from our GMF. It is
likely that the moon’s placement actually impedes or amplifies the geomagnetic pull of the sun and the earth’s
GMF, making it stronger or weaker. It’s
also wise to remember that the lunar
synodic month (29.5 days) is approximately the same length of time as the
full rotation of the sun.
Psi researcher Dr Dean Radin found
evidence from Stanford University
geophysicist Anthony Fraser- S m i t h
showing a relationship between the
moon and the earth’s GMF during lunar
e c l i p s e s . 1 2 Furthermore, studies of
lunar samples brought back from the
Apollo flights show evidence of strong
magnetic fields in the rock. 1 3
Researchers believe that this material
could cause a magnetic shift when the
moon passes through the earth’s geomagnetic ‘tail’, as happens during the
new moon.
But, is it true, as the folklore suggests (see Living the Field Lesson
Seven), that psychic ability increases
during full and new moons? Radin has
conducted a great deal of research into
the impact of the moon on psychic ability. Prior to his own research, the only
published study he could find had been
conducted in 1965 by neurologist
Andrija Puharich. Working from the
hypothesis that psychic ability
is affected by the gravitational pull of
the full moon, Puharich conducted
telepathy experiments every day over a
single lunar cycle. Puharich’s tests confirmed that psychic ability rose during
the full and new moons, although the
highest scores occurred during new
moons. 12
Radin, working at the University of
Nevada at the time, decided to carry
out an intriguing analysis in a milieu
close to home: Las Vegas. He wanted to
examine whether payouts at a Nevada
casino tracked any lunar cycle and
whether this cycle appeared to influ-
Track the position of the sun and the moon
The US National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service of the National
Geophysical Data Center has created a Sun-Moon programme that gives the position of
the sun and moon by latitude/longitude for any observer and selected time (universal time,
UT). The programme specifies the solar and lunar local transit, rise and set times, and
location with respect to your position at any given hour and minute.
To obtain the programme, simply press ‘download’ on the following site and follow the
instructions: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geom_util/sunmoon.shtml.
Other programmes for calculating geomagnetic fields can be found at:
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/geom_util/utilities_home.shtml.
30
Earth
Energies
Lesson 8
ence the earth’s GMF. In this study, he
analyzed payouts from roulette
machines, keno, blackjack, craps, slot
machines and a combination of all five
games.
First, Radin demonstrated a relationship between the earth’s GMF and
the lunar cycle—at times of a new
moon
or
a full moon, the earth’s GMF was at its
quietest. He then analyzed casino data
from between 1991 and 1994 to determine whether the highest payouts happened during days of geomagnetic
calm and full moons. This meant they
needed to examine data for about 50
lunar cycles.
Over the four years, he was able to
show a significant increase. Payout
percentages were at their highest (78.5
per cent) during full moons, and at
their lowest a week before and after the
new moon. In other words, on average,
gamblers of all games received a return
of $78.50 for every dollar they spent
gambling on all five games. “Gambling
on or near days of the full moon, and
by avoiding the casino on or near days
of the new moon, over the long term,
gamblers may be able to boost their
payout percentage by about 2 per cent,”
writes Radin.
The relationship between a higher
payout and geomagnetic calm was
close to being significant. Radin went
on to examine the relationship between
the lunar cycle and specific games. For
slot-machine winnings, the highest
payouts occurred precisely at the time
of the full moon. “We found that the
peak average payout rate for blackjack
occurred three days before the full
moon, for craps three days after the full
moon, for keno one day after the full
31
Earth
Energies
Lesson 8
LIVING THE FIELD
moon, and for roulette one day before
the full moon,” writes Radin.
H o w e v e r, the most fascinating
result concerned slot-machine payouts.
Over the four years, four of the six
jackpots (when the machine regurg itates a large amount of its contents)
occurred within one day of the full
moon.
But does the moon operate on its
own or in relationship to solar geomagnetic flux? The gambling evidence suggests the latter. Radin decided to look
at lottery winnings during a year where
the lunar cycle correlated with a high
geomagnetic field—that is, when the
GMF was high during times of full
moons. During that year, he discovered, lottery winnings were not at their
highest during full moons. Clearly,
something more complex that the
‘witching hour’ is operating here.
Other Russian studies also show a definite relationship between a calm GMF
and higher payouts.
Psychic
researcher
Stanley
Krippner has also examined whether
the lunar cycle has any effect on our
ability to pick up extrasensory perception during dreams. In a study at the
Maimonides Medical Center in New
York, Krippner showed differences in
score results, depending on the phase
of the moon.14
One other fascinating bit of evidence that the moon’s phases affect our
psychic ability concerns the effect of
the moon’s cycles on the stock market.
The Technical Securities A n a l y s t s
Association of San Francisco has gathered together copious evidence show-
ing that financial boom and bust crises
follow a 56-year cycle, which closely
correlates with the cycles of the sun
and moon. As it is well known that a
collective mob mentality (from buying
frenzy to bearish hoarding) governs
these boom and bust cycles, the TSAA
authors argue that the collective mood
governs whether the market is bullish
or pessimistic. Their hypothesis is that
this cycle follows a predictable cycle of
the moon and sun. For instance, the
angles (from 0–180 degrees) between
the sun and moon are repeated to within a single degree every nine earth
years and 56 solar years.15
The evidence to date suggests that
human potential is at its greatest when
the earth, the stars, the moon and the
sun are all in energetic harmony.
Lynne McTaggart
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Science, 1987; 235: 331–4
Hum Biol, 1987; 59: 6
J Clin Ps y c h i a t r y, 1978; 39: 385–92
J Psychol, 1976; 93: 81–3
BMJ, 2000; 321: 1559–61
BMJ, 2000, 321: 1561–3
J Toxicol Clin Toxicol, 1983; 20: 487–95
Rheumatologia, 1996, 10: 75–82
Eur J Emerg Med, 2003; 10: 225–8
Compr Ps y c h i a t r y, 1977; 18 (4):
369–74
Psychol Rep, 1977; 40 (2): 387–90
Radin D. The Conscious Universe.
HarperEdge, 1997
Russell CT et al. The permanent and
induced magnetic dipole moment of
the moon. Proceedings of the Fifth
Lunar Conference, 1974; 3: 2747–60
Human Dimensions, 1972; Fall: 14–9
TSAA Newsletter, April 1996
LET US KNOW HOW YOU ARE GETTING ON
Please let us know how you are doing on the master class thus far. How have you found
the exercises? Have you had any Field experiences yet? What else would you like to
cover? We value your views and would like to hear from you.
Also, if you would like to set up an intention workshop or attend an intention intensive
retreat, please write in. You can contact me directly at [email protected].
Lynne McTaggart
32
LIVING THE FIELD
The Mars effect: it came from outer space
In the previous lessons, we dealt with
the overwhelming influence of the sun
and the moon. With this lesson, we
begin exploring the scientific evidence
for the influence of other planets.
I
s there such a thing as a ‘Mars
effect’? The name grew out of a supposed astrological phenomenon
wherein eminent sports heroes are supposed to have been born when Mars was
placed in the same celestial position.
The Mars effect was first discovered
by the late French intellectual and psychologist Michel Gauquelin (1928–
1991), who set out to learn if there was
any truth to the various claims of astrology. Gauquelin and his wife Françoise
found very little evidence that people
actually showed the simple personality
traits supposedly typical of the various
astrological sun signs. They also found no
correlation with the supposed influence of
the signs of the zodiac, the role of the various houses or even the ability of astrology to predict certain events.
Nevertheless, the Gauquelins did
make one stunning discovery: after studying the birth dates of hundreds of eminent
athletes and comparing them with the
planetary positions on those dates, they
found that a significant number were born
with Mars in what is known as the ‘ascendant’ or ‘mid-heaven’. To work this out,
the Gauquelins divided the sky into 12
sectors and charted the path of Mars
in its daily journey across the sky. Mars
is in sectors 1 through 6 when it is above
the horizon, and in 7 though 12 when it
is below.
In a significant number of cases,
sports champions were born when Mars
was in either the first (approximately two
hours after the planet first rises) or fourth
sector (two hours after its crosses the
north–south meridian, or mid-heaven).
By 1970, Gauquelin had examined
the birth charts of 2089 sports champions
and published three books which he
claimed provided proof positive that the
Earth
Energies
Lesson 9
Mars effect was real. In his studies, he’d
found that, among sports champions, the
‘Mars rate’—the percentage of those with
Mars in sectors 1 or 4—was 22 per cent,
compared with 17 per cent in the general
population. He called for a new study of
‘astrobiology’—the influence of the planets on our biology and development.
Gauquelin also discovered what is
now termed the ‘Gauquelin effect’ with
other professions and planets as well
(see box, page 34). Artists and musicians
appeared to have a Venus effect, scientists
had a Saturn effect and military generals,
a Jupiter effect. The most significant
planets in terms of influencing talent in a
particular profession appeared to be the
Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.
For many years, scientists involved
in organizations investigating (and tending to debunk) claims of the paranormal
tried to disprove his theories. In 1967, the
Belgian Comité Belge pour l’Investigation Scientifique des Phénomènes
Réputés Paranormaux (Comité PARA,
for short) examined his data and attempted to replicate his results. They then gathered their own sampling of 534 sports
champions, and their results—22.24 per
cent born when Mars was in either sector
1 or 4—were similar to those of Gauquelin. Nevertheless, the Comité PARA
rejected their own data by arguing that
Gauquelin’s methodology was incorrect.
Several members of the US Committee for the Scientific Investigation of
Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP,
another quackbuster organization, examined Gauquelin’s data. Although, again,
they found a significant effect, they
a rgued that Gauquelin’s sampling of
sports champions was probably not representative and that there had been what is
generally called ‘data artifacts’—a false
demonstration of statistical significance.
They carried out their own American
study of 408 sports champions and found
that only 13.48 per cent of them were
born with Mars in one of the two key sectors—a result no better than chance.1
33
Earth
Energies
Lesson 9
LIVING THE FIELD
A third study was then carried out in
1966 by a French committee called the
Comité Française pour l’Etude des
Phénomènes Paranormaux. These French
skeptics examined some of Gauquelin’s
data on 1066 sports champions. In their
analysis, they claim to have found 18.66
per cent born in a key sector—again, no
better than chance. Even worse, they
claimed that Gauquelin had deliberately
biased his own sampling by eliminating
those sports champions who weren’t born
in one of his key sectors.
After this latest attack on his credibility, Gauquelin suffered a mental breakdown and eventually took his own life in
1991. The French Comité then published
what they felt was the last word on the
Mars effect.2 Although purporting to be
objective evidence, the book included
introductory remarks indicating that the
evidence for astrobiology was insufficient.
Göttingen, has been studying the Mars
effect for years in an effort to provide
an unbiased view. He visited Gauquelin’s
widow and obtained as much of the original data as he could. He also studied the
data of CSICOP, and those of the skeptical French and Belgian committees.
At first, he found that the original evidence was based on an incomplete data
sample. Gauquelin had indeed discarded
a number of athletes although, when Ertel
included them, the effect on the correlations appeared negligible. However, he
then discovered something significant:
Gauquelin’s original definition of planetary effects was based on births occurring
within a very narrow zone of Mars’ daily
orbit (what he termed the ‘primary’ sectors—1, 2 or 3, the region right after its
rise—and 10, 11 or 12—right after its
culmination).
When this ‘G-sector’, as Ertel referred
to it, was widened to include the primary
sectors just before the rise and culminaThe latest proof
tion, those athletes who had been disSo, was Gauquelin onto anything after carded by Gauquelin also appeared to
all?
have a Mars effect.
Suitbert Ertel, a German psychologist
Other researchers suggest that it’s also
from the Institut für Psychologie in important to include the ‘secondary sec-
The Gauquelin effect
In his investigation, Gauquelin discovered that people who ultimately chose a particular
profession tended to have certain planets prominent and others absent.
Profession
Prominent planet
Military
Actors
Doctors
Sportsmen
Writers
Politicians
Playwrights
Painters
Musicians
Executives
Scientists
Journalists
Mars or Jupiter
Jupiter
Mars or Saturn; Jupiter absent
Mars; moon absent
Moon; Mars or Saturn absent
Moon or Jupiter
Jupiter
Venus; Mars and Saturn absent
Venus; Mars absent
Mars or Jupiter
Mars or Saturn; Jupiter absent
Jupiter; Saturn absent
34
tors’: Mars’ placement after its setting
and lower culimination. Indeed, early on
in his research, Gauquelin had noticed
that many sports champions had been
born with Mars in these positions as well
as in the ‘extended’ primary sectors.
However, he stuck stubbornly to his own
narrow definition of what position constituted a Mars effect, and so had the skeptics.
When this extended definition of a
prominent Mars was applied to
CSICOP’s figures as well, the results
were far more significant than they had
been originally. The research carried out
by the French skeptics also had a great
number of athletes in the secondary sectors.2 The Mars effect was alive and well
in all the data.
Once Ertel combined both primary
and secondary sectors together in
Gauquelin’s data as well as in those of the
skeptics, he found hugely significant
e ffects; those born with Mars in an
important position leapt from 22 per cent
(using the original sectors) to 42 per
cent.3 Similar robust correlations were
found with doctors and the position of
Saturn and Mars in their charts.
The problem with Gauquelin’s data all
along may have been that he had set up
too narrow a definition of what planetary
configuration constituted a Mars effect.
There were another anomalies in the
skeptics’ data. Ertel claimed that CSICOP
had needlessly eliminated many less
eminent athletes from the sample—again,
on the premise that Mars only appeared
prominent in the very top athletes.
Inexplicably, other athletes whose positions had fit Gauquelin’s narrowest
definition had also apparently been
eliminated.4
The skeptical organizations were having none of this. The Comité PARA
replied that while “some of Gauquelin’s
astronomical and statistical computations
appeared perfectly correct, the theoretical
principles proposed by Gauquelin to support his research have to be rejected
because they do not correctly take into
account the fundamentals of the prob-
lem”. Those fundamentals, it said, were
the many “sociodemographic variables”
that confounded the data.5
As Jacques Benveniste once put it,
referring to a skeptic debunking homeopathy, “This recalls, inexorably, the wonderfully self-sufficient contribution of a
19th-century French academician to the
heated debate over the existence of meteorites, which animated the scientific community at the time: ‘Stones do not fall
from the sky because there are no stones
in the sky’.”6
As Ertel points out, all three skeptical
o rganizations have never successfully
attacked Gauquelin’s data. Indeed, his
Mars effect results were replicated by
the data of his greatest and most critical
opponents. Both CSICOP and the French
data showed clear Mars effects, even
under the narrowest definition.
Furthermore, he said, Comité PARA’s
model was poorly constructed, with “confused complexities” which help to dispel
any real effects.7
Earth
Energies
Lesson 9
The importance of effect size
One of the great arguments by the skeptics is that the Gauquelin effect is too
small to be significant, as it amounts to
only a 5-per-cent deviation from chance
scores in the ordinary population (22 vs
18 per cent).
However, the size of this effect is all
the more powerful when you consider
that Gauquelin recorded it across 12 types
of professions in from 10- to 25-percent more cases than statistically expected. Certain groups were notable for
having certain planets in the sky and not
having others.
The actual ‘effect size’ (the figure
which reflects the actual size of change
or outcome in a study) of Gauquelin’s
original data is small—only 0.02–0.05.
Nevertheless, one need only compare this
to the effect size of drugs to determine its
real significance.
Numerous studies have shown that
propranolol and aspirin are highly successful in reducing heart attack. Aspirin,
in particular, is considered the gold stan35
Earth
Energies
Lesson 9
36
LIVING THE FIELD
dard for heart-disease prevention.
Nevertheless, large studies have shown
that the effect size of propranolol is 0.04
and aspirin is 0.032—almost half the
Mars effect.
Another way of determining the
magnitude of effect size is to convert the
numbers into the number of persons surviving in a sample of 100 people. An
effect size of 0.05 in a medical life-ordeath situation would mean that five
additional people out of every 100 survived. In any drug study, this is considered statistically significant.
Gauquelin’s work leaves us with some
intriguing questions. Certainly, it suggests some fundamental principles that
the ancients have ascribed to astrology:
that Mars embodies the ‘action man’ who
is active and aggressive, while Venus confers a gentle artistic temperament.
It is also one of astrology’s major
tenets that planets are strongest when they
are close to (that is, on either side of) one
of the angles, particularly that of the
ascendant or mid-heaven point.
Lynne McTaggart
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
The Skeptical Inquirer, 1979/80; Winter:
10–26
Benski C et al. The ‘Mars Effect’: A
French Test of Over 1000 Sports
Champions. Amherst, NY: Prometheus,
1996
J Sci Explor, 2000; 14 (3): 421–30
J Sci Explor, 1995; 11 (1): article 1
J Sci Explor, 1995; 11 (1): article 2
Lancet, 1998; 351: 367
J Sci Explor, 2000, 14 (3): 431–46
LIVING THE FIELD
The silent music of the heavens
Earth
Energies
Lesson 10
ed by the gravitational pull of Saturn
and Jupiter and, at some point during the
last 20 million years, the earth encountered gravitational ‘resonance’ with the
orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, which ultimately influenced the angle of tilt of the
earth’s axis during that period.
“To understand climate on Earth, it’s
t is now well accepted that solar clear that we need to consider the Earth as
influence on the earth’s geomagnetic this dynamic deforming system,” Mitrovfield has a profound effect on all ica says. “But we also need to understand,
living things. But what about the effects more than we thought we did, the Earth’s
place in the solar system.”
of other planets?
The gravitational pull of any particuThere is evidence that the major planets—Saturn, Venus, Jupiter and lar planet is extraordinarily small, and
Neptune—also have an effect, both at the many scientists don’t believe that, on its
own, it would have much of an effect on
time of birth and on a daily basis.
Scientists are divided as to whether the earth’s geomagnetic field. However,
there are such effects and what causes some researchers believe that there are
them. Roughly, there are those who ‘tidal’ effects, in which the gravitational
believe the effects are gravitational and forces of the various planets also interact
those who believe they are electromag- with the magnetic fields of the sun and
moon as well as the solar wind. This,
netic.
Six years ago, University of Toronto then, has a cumulative effect on the magphysicist Jerry Mitrovica and Alessandro netosphere, which, ultimately, can have
Forte, of the Institute de Physique du profound effects on climate and also
Globe de Paris, published a paper in the biology.
prestigious scientific journal Nature
Brazilian researchers have carried out
showing, through mathematical calcula- work on these ‘lunisolar tidal waves’, and
tions and simulations, a relationship have demonstrated that the geomagnetic
between tiny changes in the earth’s shape activity has a correlation with illnesses
and axial rotation, and the gravitational such as epilepsy.2 Furthermore, as all the
effects of other planets in our solar sys- planets are exerting gravitational effects
tem, particularly Jupiter and Saturn.1
on each other, this would have, as one
“We’re showing for the first time that researcher pointed out, a ‘non-linear’, or
changes in the Earth’s shape, when cou- ‘chaotic’, effect. In an article published in
pled with the gravitational effects from 1989 in the journal New Scientist, Carl
other planets, can produce large changes Murray, a reader in astronomy at Queen
in the Earth’s climate,” said Mitrovica, Mary College, University of London,
who is working on behalf of the Natural noted that the reason that the planets orbit
Sciences and Engineering Research in an elliptical shape or rotate on their
Council (NSERC) and Canadian Institute axis in a particular degree of tilt has to do
for Advanced Research (Earth Systems with various gravitational effects.
Evolution).
The resonance effect can also be
The slightest change in the earth’s established between two planets when
axis has a profound effect on climate, the time periods of their rotations around
because it changes the pattern of sunlight each other lock into a regular mathematifalling on the earth.
cal relationship. For instance, the moon
In his mathematical model, Mitrovica rotates around the earth at the same time
has shown that the earth’s orbit is affect- period as it rotates on its own axis. Other
In our last lesson, we reviewed evidence
of the ‘new astrology’—that the posi tion of certain planets is prominent in
people who possess particular traits
and abilities. In this lesson, we discov er that many of the planets affect the
earth and our own geomagnetic fields.
I
37
Earth
Energies
Lesson 10
LIVING THE FIELD
planets may circle around each other at
two to three times what it takes them to
rotate on their own axis. These relationships can slow down or speed up a rotation slightly and have a profound effect
upon weather or even biological life.
These kinds of gravitational effects
are magnified when a variety of planets
are in alignment, such as occurs during an
eclipse.
A greater effect than gravity is the
electromagnetic effect of the planets, as
the fields created by each solar body
interact and affect the sun, the moon and,
of course, the earth. Indeed, some scientists believe that it is the influence of
planetary fields from the earth and the
other planets that trigger solar activity
like sunspots, and not the reverse.
It is also known that the interplanetary
magnetic field (the space between the
earth and the sun) and the earth’s geomagnetic envelope interact more during
the equinoxes, largely due to the earth’s
spin on its axis.
Scientists have long known that when
planets are at major angles to each other
(at 90 or 180 degrees, for instance), they
will affect reception of radio signals. It is
also known that when the earth is positioned at a particular angle to one of the
major planets, such as Saturn, Jupiter or
Venus, this, too, will affect the formation
of sunspots or bursts of solar plasma.
These earth–planet relationships tend to
match the positions noted in classical
astrology. When the earth is in opposition
to one of the planets (180 degrees), more
sunspots are produced than when it is in
conjunction (0 degrees).
These subtle interrelationships of
electromagnetic fields and increases in
solar activity in turn can have an effect
on us on earth (see Living The Field
Lesson Five).
If all this sounds like a scientific
explanation for how astrology works, in
a sense it is. But do planetary fields really affect who we are or what happens
to us on a daily basis?
Dr Michael Nitsche, of the Institute
Z & S in Grosselfingen, Germany, has
created an entire mathematical model
which suggests that planets are continually vibrating through the heavens. At a
conference on synegetics and complexity
research held in Bavaria in 2002, he presented his theory that the weak fluctuations of gravity have an effect because the
planets also have constant giant frequencies created by their orbits. In a sense, the
rotating planets are all giant oscillators
(vibrating entities) that create huge vibrations throughout the cosmos. The vibrations of these gravitational fields lead to
higher vibrations and higher harmonics in
material structures (such as other planets
and ‘open’—that is, constantly changing—biological systems).3
Nitsche has carried out a body of
research showing that the fluctuations of
the closest planets to earth—the moon,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn—have an
effect in forming the structure of human
Keeping an eye on the sky
Working out the optimal times for working with intention also means finding out when
planetary fields are not stressing you.
! For information about the current state of the planets, see: http://www.spaceweather.
com or http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/glossary/interplanetary_space.html.
! For an overview of planetary activity, see NASA’s site at: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/
spds/coshel/sort_na
! For two good sites on how to determine planetary positions, see www.cpither.
freeserve.co.uk/planetary_positions_help.htm or www.arm.ac.uk/~dja/planets
! For a paid-for astrological chart with the position of all 10 planets at the time of your
birth, see www.equinoxastrology.com.
38
intelligence and the stability of psychological processes—and even the triggering of earthquakes.
“A metaphor for this is the formation
of waves through movements of the air
over the ocean,” says Nitsche. “The powerful masses of water on top of the deep
ocean can be compared with the constant
gravitational field of the earth. The small
waves can be compared to the fluctuation
of the planetary gravitational field.”
Nitsche hypothesizes that these planetary fluctuations have a lifelong effect on
the structure and stability of the human
brain, particularly during the period when
the brain is first developing and synaptic
connections are being formed—in other
words, when a child is born.
Nitsche put his ideas to the test by
examining 186 children and the positions
of certain planets at the time of birth.
Despite some variations, his results show
a correlation: that children with a higher
intelligence were born during a time
when the planets were more in harmony
and stabilizing.
By the same token, when carrying out
certain word tests with the children,
Nitsche found an association between
children unwilling to take risks and birth
dates at a time when the major planets
were particularly in harmony. In other
words, those born when the planets were
in close accord seemed likewise to prefer
accord in their lives.
His model also suggests that psychological instabilities and crises are triggered by these planetary fluctuations.
American researcher Sara Ridgley has
also carried out a fascinating study for
her doctoral thesis in which she looked
at whether industrial accidents have any
particular relationship to the position of
the planets at they time they took place.
To do this, she examined 1023 injured
employees who had filed a worker’s compensation claim and were disabled for at
least three months. She found that the victims tended to suffer accidental injuries
significantly more frequently at those
times of particular astrological configurations.
Her results showed a high degree
of statistical significance and included,
for example, that when the sun was transiting its position at the time of a person’s
birth—on his birthday, or three, six and
nine months later—that individual tended
to be more accident prone at that time.4
Another study by University of
California at San Diego sociology professor David Phillips involved a survey
of the deaths and birthdays of nearly three
million people. He found that men tended
to die more often at around the time of
their birthday.5
Other researchers have found a correlation between schizophrenia and the
position of certain planets at birth. For
instance, Dr Jude U. Ohaeri, consultant
psychiatrist (currently at the Psychological Medicine Hospital in Safat, Kuwait),
found a correlation between certain planetary positions and relationships at birth
in a group of Nigerian schizophrenics.6
There is also evidence of an increased
tendency for schizophrenics to be born at
the time of the spring equinox in both the
northern and southern hemispheres.7
According to Frank McGillion, a
member of the Research Colloquium on
Astrology from the University of
Southampton, there is a scientific explanation for these findings. The electromagnetic fields and levels of light during
the time of our births affect our levels
of melatonin (see Living The Field Lesson
One). Many of these factors, in turn,
determine our subjective response to the
effects of electromagnetic fields on our
body and brain from all sources, including the planets, for the rest of our lives.
“This could also predispose and/or cause
an influence on our mood and other
states of consciousness on a day-to-day
basis,” he says.8
If there is a significant effect of certain planets on EM fields of a type and
intensity known to influence the pineal
gland,” says McGillion, “it’s just possible
the positions of certain planets at the time
of birth could—to a greater or lesser
degree through the perinatal actions of
melatonin—influence our development
Earth
Energies
Lesson 10
39
Earth
Energies
Lesson 10
LIVING THE FIELD
and behavior from the time of our birth as
Complexity Research Self-Organization
physicians–astrologers have claimed for
in Psychology, Psychiatry and Social
millennia.”
S c i e n c e s, 6–8 June 2002, Bavaria,
Perhaps life is not about our changing
Germany
relation to the fixed stars, but our fixed 4 Klein Ridgley S. A s t r o l o g i c a l l y
relation to the always changing stars of
Predictable Patterns in Work-Related
our birth.
Injuries.
[Doctoral
dissertation]
Lynne McTaggart
University for Humanistic Studies, Del
Lesson Eleven: More on planetary
Mar, California 1992
energies 5 San Diego Union Tribune, 21 Septem1
2
3
40
Nature, 1997; December 18
Braz J Med Biol Res, 1996; 8: 1069
Nitsche M. Lecture at the 10th
Conference on Synergetics and
6
7
8
ber 1992
Afr J Med Med Sci, 1997; 3–4: 127
Am J Psychol, 1975; 132: 87
J Sci Explor, 2002; 16 (1): 19–43
LIVING THE FIELD
The moment of truth: a planetary affair
Earth
Energies
Lesson 11
a pure insight into the existence or workings of something, not the time of the
achievement or invention itself. By this,
they meant an epiphany, or moment of
truth, which synthesized ideas into a new
whole. For instance, August Leverrier,
credited with having discovered the planet Neptune, was excluded when it turned
o the great discoveries of history out that he’d simply created a mathematihave anything to do with the cal formula which predicted the planet’s
placement of the planets? Or for existence, rather than having it come to
those of us who are not geniuses, do we him in a flash of insight.
have our flashes of insight occur arbitrarTo do this work, the team compiled a
ily, or at moments of particular energy?
list of noted scientists with detailed biogTiming would seem to be critical to raphies, written in English, identifying
most important discoveries in history, whether they’d ever had a eureka moment
according to The Eureka Effect (Urania in their lives.
Trust, 1989) by science historian Dr
In the end, the team identified 23 such
Nicholas Kollerstrom and Michael moments, the ‘aha’ flashes of intellectual
O'Neill. These two scientific investigators clarity or insight. Included in the list was
decided to determine whether ‘eureka’ the moment that Charles Darwin thought
moments, when scientific geniuses of natural selection, that Michael Faraday
throughout history had their most impor- understood electromagnetism, that
tant flashes of insight, had occurred at Thomas Edison first thought of the
times when one or more of the planets prospect of an electric light and Albert
appeared in a particular position in the Einstein worked out how his relativity
heavens. It had been theorized by the late theory could be applied in real life (see
astrologer John Addey that the charts of table, pages 42–43). The researchers were
creative people showed nothing note- able to pinpoint the exact moment and
worthy, other than a preponderance of hour of the realizations—give or take a
planets in the fifth and seventh aspects, few hours—in almost all cases, with the
also known as ‘harmonics’.1
notable exception of Galileo’s first obserAspects in astrology are angles vation of the moons of Jupiter. Biogformed by planets in relation to the center raphers have pinpointed the 17th hour of
of the earth, as measured by the sun’s 7 January 1610, when he wrote a letter to
changing position along the zodiac. When a colleague about it, but it may well have
planets are said to be ‘in opposition’, that occurred several nights later, when he
means they are placed at 180 degrees to realized what these heavenly bodies
each other; if ‘square’, then at 90 deg- actually were.
rees. Kollerstrom wanted to investigate
The investigators also limited themAddey’s claim that two aspects over- selves to scientists whose exact time and
looked by astrologers, the fifth and sev- place of birth were reliably known, and
enth (or quintile and septile aspects), whose natal chart could be reliably
were associated with special creativity. worked out. They also compiled a list of
These are aspects of 72 and 144 degrees, more prosaic scientists who’d invented or
respectively. According to Kollerstrom’s discovered important things in history,
theory, a eureka moment should have but who had done so by the sweat of their
more quintiles or septiles than usual.
brow rather than a flash of insight.
Kollerstrom and O’Neill decided to
The scientists then divided their natal
limit themselves to the exact moment of group into two: in one group were those
In our last lesson, we explored the
subtle influence of the smaller planets
on earth and living systems. In this
lesson, we examine some preliminary
evidence that inspiration, insight and
discovery may be enhanced by certain
planetary configurations.
D
41
Earth
Energies
Lesson 11
LIVING THE FIELD
scientists who had experienced and
recorded an ‘aha’ moment in their life; in
the other group were those who’d never
enjoyed this type of abrupt and sudden
inspiration.
According to the data, those scientists
who’d had ‘eureka moments’ had 85 per
cent more quintiles (fifth) and septiles
(seventh) in their birth charts than those
without eureka moments. These two
aspects were also present 37 per cent
more often than normal during the actual
‘aha’ moments.
Interestingly, those famous scientists
who were ‘plodders’ had fewer quintiles
than usual.
The scientists with eureka moments
had 140 per cent more septiles in their
natal charts those who had never had a
eureka moment. Both researchers examined their statistics using various statisti-
cal methods—including chi squares—and
ended up with a significance of one in
2000 over chance.
Kollerstrom then moved on to dates
of invention, when a particular technological invention was born. He wished to see
whether aspects of Uranus, the planet of
scientific invention, was prominent in
such moments. In this instance, the particular time of day was not relevant as
Uranus moves across the sky very
slowly. Kollerstrom compiled a list of
36 invention moments, from the moment
that the Wright brothers first took flight
and Marconi sent a Morse-code message
cross the Bristol Channel to the moment
when the superconductor was first assembled.
Sure enough, they discovered a 23 per
cent excess of septiles and a 61 per cent
excess of major Uranus aspects.
Great eureka moments in history
Year
Date
Time
1572 Nov 21 1800 h
1618 May 15 1300 h
1831 Aug 29 1400 h
1838 Sept 28 1400 h
1846 Sept 23 2320 h
1869 March 1 1400 h
1878 Sept 8
1400 h
1895 Mar 23 1000 h
1895 Nov 8
1800 h
1896 March 1 1400 h
1915 Nov 18 1300 h
42
Scientist and eureka moment
Tycho Brahe discovers a supernova—a new star
ultimately called ‘Tycho’s star’, against the prevailing
wisdom, which held that the heavens are fixed
Johannes Kepler invents the third law of planetary motion
Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetism by
realizing how to induce an electrical current
Charles Darwin has a flash of insight about how species
survive, which he ultimately terms ‘natural selection’
German astronomer Johann Galle discovers Neptune
through a telescope at the Berlin Observatory
Dimitri Mendeleef receives a mental picture of the
periodic table of the elements after awakening from a nap
Thomas Edison works out how to conduct electrical
current, resulting in the invention of the electric light
William Ramsay works out that the gas being emitted from
a rock is helium, the same gas present in the sun’s corona
Wilhelm Roentgen, while playing around with cathode-ray
tube emissions, derives the principle of X-rays
Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity when a piece of
uranium darkens some film lying beside it
Albert Einstein realizes that his relativity theory explains
the orbit of the planet Mercury
Q, Sa
3, 2
1, 4
3, 4
4, 5
3, 5
0, 5
4, 3
7, 2
2, 5
1, 2
4, 3
"
"
“Our enquiry confirmed Addey’s
insight into the quintile and especially
septile aspects,” writes Kollerstrom. “It
found a 50 per cent excess of septiles
present during the most celebrated
moments of scientific discovery . . . This
excess number of septiles also was present in the birth charts, the ‘eureka
moments’ and the moments of invention.”
Kollerstrom quotes harmonics theorist
Delphine Jay, who terms the septile a
‘consciousness-expanding’ aspect.
Of course, the Eureka Effect was only
one study and needs to be studied by
other means. For instance, the authors
say it would be useful to examine the
astrological data on the night when Mary
Shelley wrote her masterpiece Frankenstein as a ghost story shared with her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, and their
good friend, Lord Byron. Other possible
Year
Date
Time
1921 Mar 28 0200 h
1923 Oct 6
1925 June 8
0700 h
1300 h
1933 Sept 12 1300 h
1934 Oct 22
1200 h
1938 Dec 24 0900 h
1951 April 26 1230 h
1953 Feb 28 1000 h
candidates are Coleridge when he wrote
Xanadu: The Ballad of Kublai Khan in an
opium-induced trance, Tchaikovsky when
writing his Pathétique symphony and
Rilke’s Duino Elegies, also written in a
rush of fevered inspiration.
Other Addey research shows that the
seventh harmonic charts have been strong
with musicians who are especially inspirational.
Of course, one doesn’t have to be a
genius to experience flashes of insight.
But if the source of insight is the resonance effect from a distant planet in a certain position, then timing our moments of
deep thought could be crucial to our success in putting ideas together in a revolutionary way. Certain moments may hold
more possibility for creation than others.
Lynne McTaggart
1
Earth
Energies
Lesson 11
Harmonics in Astrology, 1976: 123
Scientist and eureka moment
Q, Sa
Otto Loewi awakes with a notion of the means by which
nerves transmit impulses, later confirmed in the laboratory
Edwin Hubble realizes that there are galaxies outside our
own Milky Way after looking at the Andromeda nebula
through a telescope one morning
Werner Heisenberg enjoys a flash of insight about
quantum mechanics, or the strange behavior of
subatomic particles, which keeps him awake till dawn
Leo Szilard works out how a nuclear chain reaction could
occur, while crossing a road in Holborn in London
Enrico Fermi figures out that neutrons must be slowed
down to enter the atomic nucleus
Lise Meitner suddenly understands how to carry out
atomic fission while walking in the snow in Sweden
Charles Townes imagines how a laser beam would result
from molecules oscillating coherently, while sitting on
a park bench in Washington
James Watson figures out that the four base pairs of the
DNA helix fit together by a hydrogen bond
2, 3
3, 3
4, 2
3, 4
0, 1
1, 4
3, 7
1, 4
aQ and S refer to quintile and septile aspects, respectively
Taken from The Eureka Effect, by N. Kollerstrom, PhD and Michael O’Neill (Urania Trust, 1989)
43
Earth
Energies
Lesson 11
LIVING THE FIELD
Your own eureka moment
To find out about the strength of any aspects during any time, Kollerstrom advises that
you download a computer programme called Harmogram. This programme, developed
by Mike O’Neill, measures the strength of a particular aspect through time. Previously,
astrologers had to be content with measuring a particular aspect at a single point in
time. If you have a particularly inspirational piece of work to do, or an event you’d like
to be inspirational, just look at the seventh harmonic for the year ahead, and select a
date with strong septiles. Or do it in reverse: plug in a moment of interest and it will
show you how strong a particular harmonic will be.
Go to website: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/koenvandemoortel/
harmogrm.htm).
To get a copy of The Eureka Effect, contact:
Urania Trust
396 Caledonian Road
London N1 1DN
UK
44
LIVING THE FIELD
Jamming the geomagnetic ‘God spot’
Earth
Energies
Lesson 12
been shown to be affected by geomagnetism.2
Persinger’s research with animals
shows that even memory can be affected
by earth energies. In these studies, rats
exposed to magnetic fields learned how
to get through mazes more quickly when
there is enhanced geomagnetic activity.3
These various studies suggest that
geomagnetic fields from every direction
can cause profound upsets in the enererhaps the person most fascinated getic patterns of brain function, causing
by this question is neuroscientist or exacerbating physical ailments, but
and clinical psychologist Michael also profoundly affecting learning.
Persinger, a professor at Laurentian
It is Persinger’s theory that the limbic
University in Sudbury, Ontario, for some system is the gateway through which geo30 years. It was Persinger who, with para- magnetic activity can affect a living
psychologist expert Stanley Krippner, organism.
first demonstrated that geomagnetic
Most recently, Persinger has attemptactivity affected psychic ability (see ed to reproduce geomagnetic hiccoughs
Living the Field Lesson Seven). Since that in the laboratory. Students are placed in
time, Persinger has carried out decades a small acoustic chamber designed to
of research about the effect of physical block out electromagnetic noise, then fitenergetic forces on the workings of the ted with a specially adapted and wired
body and the brain.
motorcycle helmet, which sends veryPersinger has demonstrated a relation- low-frequency electromagnetic waves to
ship between certain geomagnetic activi- the temporal lobes of the brain. This proty and the onset of epileptic fits. Other duces what Persinger terms ‘temporal
work has shown that unusually high or lobe transients’, or microseizures, causlow geomagnetic fields may be responsi- ing alterations in neuronal firing patterns
ble for sudden infant death syndrome to approximate what is happening with
(SIDS).
disturbances in ambient low-level elecPersinger and his colleagues believe tromagnetic and geomagnetic frequenthat the geomagnetic connection with cies.
SIDS has to do with a sudden decrease in
Over hundreds of studies, Persinger
the production of melatonin. Indeed, he has determined that the seat of receptivity
says, babies who suddenly and inexplic- in the brain to electromagnetic and geoably die show strange anomalies sugges- magnetic frequency is the left temporal
tive of a disruption of the pineal limbic lobe. Sending low-level (5 T) pulsed
system.1
magnetic fields over the left cerebral
Both epilepsy and the pineal gland hemisphere slows brainwaves to an alpha
derive from the brain’s limbic system— rhythm (7–14 Hz), the rate ordinarily
the cortex that lies above the midbrain. As found during states of light meditation,
we’ve seen in earlier lessons, the pineal but only in the left temporal lobe.4
gland, which governs the production of Persinger has also discovered that the
melatonin, is profoundly influenced by brainwaves of his study participants
geomagnetic fields.
would enter into resonance with certain
Persinger has also discovered similar- complicated magnetic fields, and remain
ities between the incidence of SIDS and in synch for up to 10 seconds after he’d
cardiac arrhythmias, which have also removed them.5
If infinitesimal frequencies from planets
can exert profound effects upon us on
earth, what about the vast array of
electromagnetic energies on earth? In
p revious lessons, we’ve examined how
e n e rgies from outer space affect the
workings of our brain. In this lesson,
we begin to examine how earthbound
physical forces affect our brain and our
ability to tap into the Field.
P
45
Earth
Energies
Lesson 12
LIVING THE FIELD
Persinger has received a great deal
of publicity about finding the so-called
‘God spot’—that portion of the brain that,
when stimulated experimentally, generates the sense, presence and the feeling of
God-like experiences.
In these experiments, Persinger has
been able to reproduce visions, apparitions, out-of-body experiences (OBEs)
and even a sense of the divine—purely
through temporal lobe stimulation.
Indeed, one of Persinger’s most famous
studies demonstrated that a Roman
Catholic woman with early brain trauma
who had reported nightly visitations by
the Holy Spirit was simply found to be
extraordinarily affected by the electric
alarm clock situated near her head as
she slept.6
Persinger maintains that our ‘sense of
self’ is housed in the temporal lobe of
the left hemisphere, which coordinates
with the right temporal lobe. If these systems become uncoordinated, he says, as
they are during his experiments, the brain
senses another ‘self’ and creates an hallucination. If the amygdala of the brain is
also stimulated, this creates the emotional
factor that results in an intensely spiritual
experience, he says.
Persinger is also the architect of the
‘tectonic stress’ theory, which maintains
that the various energies and tensions
resulting from the shifting tectonic plates
of the earth, earthquake activity and
even unusually high levels of rainfall can
produce electromagnetic energy ‘luminosities’, or lights in the sky, and also
cause the brain to hallucinate. For
instance, between 1968 and 1971, more
than 100,000 people reported observing
visions or apparitions of the Virgin Mary
floating above a church in Zeitoun,
Egypt. When Persinger and his colleague
John Derr examined the seismic activity
in the area over many years, they discovered an unprecedented peak in earthquakes during that time. Their conclusion: the vision of Virgin Mary was merely a geomagnetic blip, resulting in a
group hallucination.7
A psychic hoax?
Many skeptics have pounced upon
Persinger’s body of work as evidence that
all extrasensory perception is no more
than a bit of electrical interference.
Actually, they show the reverse. The real
value of Persinger’s body of experiments
is the window they offer into the work-
Warmongering: men and the sun
Why do men make war?
A fascinating and preliminary answer comes from Persinger’s work on geomagnetic
activity and how it affects male babies. First, men appear to be born when geomagnetic
activity is higher, according to Persinger’s data.
In a study of 408 first-year university students at Laurentian University born between
1958–69, Persinger examined the daily geomagnetic activity, through aa values (see
Living The Field Lesson Five), for seven days before and after each student’s birthday.
What he discovered is that geomagnetic activity is significantly higher when boys, compared with girls, are born, with peak activity on their birthday or up to three days before.
On average, this activity was 7 nT (nanoTeslas) higher for men than for women.1
In another study, Persinger found a link between armed conflicts in the first half of
the 20th century and higher geomagnetic activity.2
It may well be that wars have less to do with testosterone and more to do with the
sun.
1
Percept Mot Skills, 1999; 88 (3 Pt 2): 1177–80
2
Percept Mot Skills, 1999; 88 (3 Pt 2): 1351–5
46
ings of psychic ability and the effect of
ambient electromagnetic frequencies on
our ability to ‘tune’ in.
To that end, he has performed many
experiments to test and attempt to manipulate psychic power in his laboratory.
Indeed, some of his research has revealed
the very portion of the brain involved in
ESP: the right parietotemporal cortices
and the hippocampal formation of the
brain.
In one study, he recruited master
remote-viewer Ingo Swann as a participant. In preliminary studies, Swann had
proved adept at being able to correctly
describe and draw images of randomly
selected photographs that had been sealed
in envelopes in another room. However,
when Persinger bathed the photographs
in computer-generated complex magnetic
field patterns of less than 20 nT, Ingo’s
remote-viewing accuracy plummeted.
One of the computers that had been
shown to be the most disruptive was
sending out waveforms of varying phases
(peaking and troughing at diff e r e n t
times). This suggests that the information
Swann was picking up by remote viewing is embedded in a waveform that can
be interrupted by weak, variable magnetic fields.8
In another study, Persinger found that
he could enhance the remote viewing
ability of a participant by exposing his
brain to weak magnetic fields rotating
within the horizontal plane.9
Besides remote viewing, psychic ability is also affected by ambient magnetic
fields. ESP between couples increases
when geomagnetic activity is enhanced,
and can also be manipulated by exposing
the participants to complex electromagnetic fields.10
In one such study, Persinger exposed
one member of each partner of a group
of couples to magnetic fields, using a
specially designed helmet. He showed
each exposed partner an image and asked
them to describe a memory involving an
experience they’d shared with their partner invoked by the image. At precisely
the same moment in another room, their
partners were shown the same image and
also asked to describe shared memories
prompted by the image. The two sets of
narratives were then compared.
Persinger also determined the level of
geomagnetic activity during the time each
narrative was generated.
The results showed that the two narratives were most alike when one of the
members had a certain frequency of magnetic fields (20 msec) and also when the
ambient geomagnetic activity was at its
quietest. The more geomagnetic activity,
the less they were able to mirror each
other’s words.10 He concluded that “consciousness might also be an insulator to
myriad stimuli which might be accessible
when brain activity is modified by circumcerebral magnetic fields with temporal configurations in the order of 20
msec”.9
Do all people react similarly to
Persinger’s special helmet? As with many
studies of psychic ability, those who were
most susceptible to the psychic experiences were those with ‘thin boundaries’—that is, those who’d already had
experiences with ESP or an extrasensory
presence, or even those who were able to
‘lose’ themselves and experience ‘intense
meaningfulness’ when reading or writing
poetry or prose.5
The most fascinating element of
these studies concerns the geomagnetic
differences between the sexes. Persinger
examined a database of the paranormal
experiences of nearly 400 people collected over 100 years, and compared the
dates of the experiences with the day’s
geomagnetic activity. Men tended to have
more precognitive experiences (that is,
premonitions) on days of geomagnetic
activity was high—above 20 nT (just as
Ingo Swann had done), whereas women
reported more premonitions when geomagnetic activity was low—below 20 nT.
Geomagnetic activity may also affect
memory recall, and differ according to
gender. In his lab tests, again it was seen
that men displayed more memories with
geomagnetic activity above 20 nT, and
women with levels below 20 nT.
Earth
Energies
Lesson 12
47
Earth
Energies
Lesson 12
LIVING THE FIELD
Psychically, as with more earthbound 3 Percept Mot Skills, 1999; 89 (3 pt 1):
1023–4
concerns, men are from Mars and women
4 Int J Psychophysiol, 1999; 34 (2):
from Venus.
163–9
Lynne McTaggart
5
Websites: For the best display of daily
geomagnetic activity, consult www.sec.
noaa.gov/radio/radio.html
1
2
48
Percept Mot Skills, 1997; 84 (2):
395–402
Percept Mot Skills, 2001; 92 (3 Pt 1):
653–4
Percept Mot Skills, 1997; 84 (2):
527–36
6 Percept Mot Skills, 2001; 92: 35–6
7 Percep Mot Skills, 1989; 68:123–8
8 Percept Mot Skills, 2002; 95 (3 Pt 1):
989–98
9 Percept Mot Skills, 2002; 95 (2):
531–43
10 Percept Mot Skills, 2002; 95 (2): 555–8
LIVING THE FIELD
Navigating without a compass
Earth
Energies
Lesson 13
The most in-depth investigation into
this subject was carried out by zoologist
Dr R. Robin Baker, a reader in physiology at the University of Manchester. Baker
carried out a series of experiments, testing his hypothesis that humans, like animals, have a sixth sense about direction.
In his initial experiments, he simply
ne of the thorniest problems in blindfolded his student participants and
all of biology is how exactly drove them, following winding and cira bird finds its way home. cuitous roads, away from the university
Research into the navigational skills of and dropped them off at locations as far
different species suggests that navigation- as 50 km away.
al aids differ according to the species.
These students were able to give relaSome animals navigate by radiation from tively accurate descriptions of the directhe sun or by visible cues, such as stars tion of the university while remaining
and starlight. Others, like honeybees, get blindfolded; only when the blindfolds
their bearings from the sun’s position. were removed did they lose a sense of the
When they find a food source, they return direction of home.1
to the hive and engage in an intricate
Convinced that he was witnessing
circular dance, which acts as a map to some weak form of what is called ‘magshow the rest of the hive the location of netoreception’, Baker then recruited a
the food source in relation to the sun. large group of schoolchildren, divided
Nevertheless, most animals that migrate them into two groups and blindfolded
over great distances appear to find their them, too. He then attached a bar magnet
way by detecting tiny signals from the to the foreheads of the children in one
earth itself. Birds, butterflies, whales and group; in the others, he attached a consideven bacteria all respond to the geomag- erably weaker magnetized piece of metal,
netic field.
but which was similar in shape and size to
This begs the most interesting ques- the magnets. After bussing them to a spot
tion of all: do humans have this same some distance from home, he set them
capability? And, if so, have the more civ- loose.
ilized of us simply lost it?
As he suspected, the children with the
Native Aborigines were said to have a magnetized metal were far better able to
perfect ‘compass sense’—that is, they find their way home. As with similar
could navigate and return home over vast studies where magnets interfered with the
distances. European explorers also wrote ability of homing pigeons to return
home about the seemingly fantastic abili- home,2 the bar magnets were scrambling
ty of native guides to negotiate through the earth’s magnetic cues.
apparently featureless expanses of woods,
Other studies by Baker show that
jungles, oceans and fields of ice. But are humans automatically point north in the
they using a sophisticated means of envi- absence of other clues.3
ronmental cues or reading something
Baker’s studies have been strongly
deeper—an invisible energetic signal criticized for their design, their conclufrom the earth?
sions and their failure to be adequately
Although this issue hasn’t invited replicated. Nevertheless, although some
massive study, there is some preliminary studies have failed to obtain the same
evidence that we do have an innate abili- results, a number of them have supported
ty to navigate, much in the way that ani- Baker’s findings.
mals do.
Indeed, Baker himself gathered
Many traditional cultures seem to have
an innate and perfect sense of direction
or are able to follow the earth’s energ y,
or ‘ley lines’. New scientific evidence
shows that man indeed may have an
inner compass, enabling him to follow
the magnetic fields of the earth.
O
49
Earth
Energies
Lesson 13
LIVING THE FIELD
together all the studies by other researchers attempting to replicate his work,
and pooled the results in a meta-analysis.
As he concluded: “These experiments
have produced results with a conservative
probability of occurring by chance that is
less than 0.001 [one in a thousand] with
respect to non-visual orientation and less
than 0.005 [five in a thousand] with
respect to magnetoreception. As evidence
of the existence of a non-visual ability
to orient and navigate based, at least in
part, on magnetoreception, the results
obtained by other workers now rival those
obtained at Manchester.”4
One such study was carried out by
University of Keele researcher Mary
Campion. But her results showed that the
sixth sense is not universal. Some individuals appeared to possess a magnetic
sense, but it was highly variable, or at
least not so developed in everyone.5
Indeed, it may even differ between the
sexes. At a special conference addressing
navigation in humans as well as other
animals, researcher R. Gai Murphy presented a paper describing her own fascinating experiments with children and
teenagers. Her studies tested the ‘homing’
instinct in children as young as four. She
discovered that this sixth sense was weak
in children aged between four and 11, and
was only marginally developed in boys.
However, in girls, this facility suddenly
blossomed at age nine and continued
growing in acuity until reaching a peak
at 18.6 Murphy concluded that humans,
and especially girls, are able to tune in to
the earth’s magnetic field.
Murphy’s study throws up many tantalizing possibilities. Are there true biological differences in our ability to ‘read’
the earth’s energies? Or could it be that
women, who are encouraged to listen to
their intuition more than boys are, have
more practice in tuning in to these infinitesimally tiny cues?
But if humans are indeed magnetoreceptive, what is the exact mechanism that
enables us to tune in?
Some researchers have suggested that
certain cells in our body act like an internal compass, remaining tuned to a particular direction—just as a needle does on a
compass—and keeping alert to any
changes in the magnetic field. Some animals have been shown to possess magnetite, a magnetic mineral, in their brain
Developing your navigational sense
Finding your way home
Tools: at least two people, one blindfold, one small compass
# Blindfold one of the two partners (the navigator)
# Have the other partner keep the compass in his pocket
# Drive to a place that neither party knows
# Get out of the car and have the navigator attempt to locate the direction home, then
have him find the direction of north
# Take the blindfold off and repeat the experiment
# Have the partner keep track of the navigator’s success
# The navigator should now examine the two results and compare his success rate. He
should also write down any feelings he had during successful direction-finding, either
with or without the blindfold
# Have the partners exchange places, drive to a new unknown spot and repeat the
experiment.
Finding home from your garden or any open space
# Put a blindfold on one partner (the navigator)
50
"
"
that is rather akin to lodestone, a naturally occurring magnet. Magnetite is found
in many species of insects, birds, fish and
mammals, particularly among migratory
animals.
New evidence shows that there are
magnetic particles in the hippocampus of
the human brain7 and also in the sinus
cavity.8. 9 Any rapid changes in magnetic
field would create electrical currents that,
in turn, would cause electrical currents
within the tissues of the body; these
would be picked up by magnetite in the
body and ultimately resonate throughout
the nervous system.10
Much of the recent research suggests
that, in addition to an actual magnet in the
brain, the human pineal gland is also
magnetoreceptive and able to ‘feel’ any
changes in the earth’s magnetic field (see
Living the Field Lessons One and Two).
As already described in earlier lessons,
the brain hormone melatonin is produced
at night according to geomagnetic fluctuations. This could mean that this highly
misunderstood (and very likely underutilized) gland could assist in establishing
direction.
Besides the pineal gland, we may
also be tuning in on a more subtle level.
Currently, German physicist Fritz-Albert
Popp and his International Institute of
Biophysics at Neuss, Germany, are
engaged with 40 research centers around
the work in studying his discovery that
all living things constantly emit biophotons, or tiny packets of light (see Living
the Field Lesson Two). Together, they
have discovered that many species
engage in what they term ‘photon sucking’—a constant trading of photons as a
form of communication.11, 12 They have
postulated that this constant exchange of
tiny frequencies of light account for the
simultaneous behavior within flocks of
birds and schools of fish.
Popp and his colleagues have also
demonstrated that the biophoton emissions of humans follow daily and weekly
patterns that mirror the rhythms of the
sun. They have even recorded measurable
differences between the emissions during
the day and at night.
It appears that the frequencies of our
body work in tandem with the body’s
reaction to light and possibly to geomagnetic fields.13 Their work also shows that
a constant exchange of energy occurs
Earth
Energies
Lesson 13
# Rotate the navigator a number of times, as though playing the child’s game of blind-
man’s bluff
# Ask the navigator to find home, or a particular direction, without using any sensory
cues
# Again, note the navigator’s success and compare it with his result without the blindfold
on.
Finding your way without directions
# When you’re not rushed for time, try to drive or walk home a new way without a map
or directions (needless to say, make sure you go somewhere safe or well populated)
# Follow your gut hunches about how to get home; listen to your intuition and follow it
# Don’t become flustered if you get lost
# If you truly cannot find your way, ask for directions, but note where you are and see
how well you did in finding your way
# Write down any feelings you had at the time that you made a correct choice.
# Continue practicing these exercises. Keep notes in your journal of the feelings you
experienced (including physical or psychic cues) when you intuited the right direction.
51
Earth
Energies
Lesson 13
LIVING THE FIELD
between living organisms and quantum
electromagnetic fields.14
According to Popp: “There is no
doubt also about the correlation between
[biophoton emissions] . . . and day–night
rhythm. We know also from this work
that the [biophoton emissions] of all
points of the body follow the same
rhythms.”
The biophoton emission and ‘photonsucking’ theory would solve the difficult
question of how we can tune into weak
magnetic fields, such as those of the
earth, rather than the noisier fields we are
bombarded with during everyday living.
In this case, the quantum frequencies of
our bodies could be carrying on a constant dialogue with the electromagnetic
waves of the earth. Rather than using one
centralized processor, we may be hearing
the music of the heavens through every
pore of our bodies. The task before us
now is relearning how to listen.
Lynne McTaggart
1
52
Baker RR. Human Navigation and
Magnetoreception. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Proc Natl Acad Sci, 1971; 68: 102–6
Science, 1980; 210: 555–7
Anim Behav, 1987; 35: 691–704
J Navigat, 1991; 44: 76–84
Murphy RG. The development of com pass orientation in children, presented
at Orientation and Navigation: Birds,
Humans and Other Animals in Cardiff,
Wales, 1989
Brain Res Bull, 1995; 36 (2): 149–53
Nature, 1983; 301 (5895): 79–80
Phys Technol [Engl], 1984; 15 (1): 30–6
J Pineal Res, 1991; 10: 109–16
Popp F-A et al. Nonsubstantial biocommunication in terms of Dicke’s theory,
in Ho MW et al. (eds), B i o e l e c t r o dynamics and Biocommunication.
Singapore-London: World Scientific,
1994: 293–317
Chin Sci Bull, 1995; 40: 76–9
J Photochem Photobiol, 1997; B 40:
187–9
Science in China Series C, 2002; 43
(5): 507–18
LIVING THE FIELD
Something negative in the air
Besides planetary energies, many ener gies on earth can affect the psyche. One
of the most profound effects is in
response to positive or negative ions in
the air, which are mainly re s p o n s i b l e
for the ‘ill winds’ of legend around the
world.
A
merican essayist Joan Didion
once wrote about the Santa Ana
wind of Southern California
“drying the hills and the nerves to flashpoint”. Travel writer Peter Mayle warned
of an increase in lunatic behavior among
the inhabitants of Provence during the
season of Le Mistral. These are two of the
so-called ‘winds of ill-repute’—special
seasonal high winds, which are supposed
to profoundly affect human behavior and
health. Besides the Santa Ana and the
Mistral, there are also the Chinook winds
in Canada, the Zonda winds of Argentina,
the Sirocco winds of Italy and the Sharav
or Khasmin winds of the Near East.
During the seasons of the winds,
inhabitants complain of insomnia,
migraine attacks, nausea and vomiting,
anxiety and tension—even diminished or
dimness of vision. Tempers flare, nerves
are frayed, hospital admissions swell,
suicide numbers skyrocket. Even the psychiatric wards are more full than usual.
Surgeons put off carrying out surgery
because the blood clots more slowly. The
Indian natives of California were said to
throw themselves into the sea when the
‘bad’ winds blew. Judges have been
known to deal more leniently with crimes
of passion if committed when the winds
blow.
“One woke in the night troubled not
only by the peacocks screaming in the
olive trees but by the eerie absence of
surf,” wrote Didion about the Santa Ana.
“The heat was surreal. The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes
called ‘earthquake weather’.”1
For many people, a wind of ill repute
is the weather of apocalypse. “The wind,”
concluded Didion, “shows us just how
Earth
Energies
Lesson 14
close to the edge we are.”
Although the folklore would have that
there is a malevolent influence inherent
in the winds themselves, there is a simple
scientific explanation for their effects.
Many of these winds, known as a ‘foehn’
wind, begin as a cold air mass, but heat up
as they blow down the leeward slope of a
mountain until they emerge in the valley
below as a hot dry wind. All the ill winds
have common elements: a rapid rise in
temperature, an abrupt decrease in
humidity and, most significant of all, a
sharp rise in the level of positive ions
released into the air.
Researchers who have studied the
Sharav discovered that half a day to three
days before the winds began to blow, the
total number of atmospheric ions nearly
doubles, and the ratio of positive to negative ions changes from 1 to 2 to 1 to more
than 3. The change in the air’s ionic
charge has a direct relationship to the
onset of illnesses felt by the populations a
day or two before the arrival of the winds.
Ions are simply electrical charges in
the atmosphere—an atom with too many
or too few electrons. An ion is formed
when a molecule encounters enough
energy to unleash an electron from it.
This energy mainly comes from the
radioactive crust of the earth, but also
from the explosive and unpredictable
activity of the sun (see Living The Field
Lesson Five).
The atom that loses an electron
becomes a positive ion, and the molecule
the ejected electron attaches itself to
becomes a negative ion. Besides cosmic
activity, ions are also created by rainfall,
air pressure, forces emitted by a waterfall,
the friction due to large volumes of air
moving rapidly over a land mass such as
during the ill winds, and even motes of
minerals wafting in the breeze. Small
numbers of water vapor, hydrogen and
oxygen gather round these ions, forming
tiny air ions.
Both positive and negative ions are
equivalent to a tiny pulse of static elec53
Earth
Energies
Lesson 14
LIVING THE FIELD
tricity, and the air we breathe is made up
of billions of these tiny charges.
Good ‘clean’ air contains 1500–4000
ions per cubic centimeter and the preferred ratio should be slightly more negative
than positive ions—1.2 to 1. However,
ions are highly unstable and, in our industrialized and largely indoor lives filled
with pollution and electromagnetic
charges from artificial sources, the number of ions we usually breathe in is drastically diminished and the ratio often
disturbed, leaving all but the most robustly outdoorsy among us inhaling a low
level of mainly positive ions. And, for
most of us, living without much of a
charge isn’t particularly good for us.
The question of whether these minis-
cule charges in the air affect living things
especially fascinated the late Professor
Albert P. Krueger, Emeritus Professor of
Bacteriology at the University of California. For more than 25 years, Krueger
studied these effects at the specially created Air Ion Laboratory, within the Life
Sciences department of the university.
His work resulted in more than 75 published papers, which transformed this
field from a curiosity of nature to a
respectable scientific discipline.
Krueger’s work showed that both
positive and negative ions can have a
profound effect on the health of living
things.2 High levels of either, for
instance, are lethal to bacteria.3 Krueger
also showed that changing the level of
Alpha-producing air quality
Most researchers take into consideration both ion concentrations and ion ratios. The
half-life of ions—the amount of time that ions maintain their effective radiation—depends
on the amount of pollutants in the air. The cleaner the air, the longer the half-life of
small ions if a source of ionization (such as running water) is present. This is particularly
true in the mountains. Although the best we can expect is 400–500 ions/cubic cm on
bright sunny days, this can increase to 1000/cubic cm in non-industrialized mountains.
At present, meteorological stations don’t keep track of ion levels in the air, although
they may in future.
The best levels of ions are found:
! in uninhabited country, away from industrialized areas
! near running water, whether a shower or a waterfall
! in natural habitats
! in clear sunshine—a natural ionizer
! after storms
! in the mountains.
The worst levels of ions are found:
! in enclosed spaces containing a number of people. According to Dr Kornblueh, the
good negative small ions get used up quickly. This greater concentration of positive
ions tends to make people feel uncomfortable
! near TV sets and other electrical appliances, which can produce electrical emissions
of up to 11,000 volts, giving off a positive charge to anything immediately within range
! in cities
! near industrial sources
! in smog, fog, dust or haze.
As a rule of thumb, the lower the visibility, the lower the ion concentration. Low visibility is
due to the presence of a great number of large particles, which air ions readily latch onto.
54
ions produces substantial changes in
many animal activities, such as their
growth rates, sleeping periods and rates
of respiration—even their output of urine
or faeces.4 Different levels of ions caused
an increase in the aggressiveness of
laboratory rats; a change in the ratio of
positive to negative ions provoked them
to attack the source—the aluminum-foil
ground plate which he used in the experiments to generate the ions. High densities
of either positive or negative ions also
increased their ability to learn mazes.5
Plants are also profoundly affected by
ions. Krueger’s studies showed that a
high density of negative ions could speed
up plant growth by as much as 50 per
cent. High levels of ions stimulated the
metabolism of certain enzymes, nucleic
acid and uptake of oxygen—all of which
would markedly increase growth.6–8
High levels of ions, whether positive or
negative, could also speed up the larval
development of silkworms.9
Krueger was arguably the first to
demonstrate that negative ions are good
for you. His experiments revealed that
changing the ion ratio in favor of negative
ions is highly beneficial to all living
things, and can boost the healing of burns
as well as healthy cell proliferation and
regeneration.10
The exact mechanism that causes air
ions to have such a profound effect eluded Krueger until he made a remarkable
discovery: the relationship between levels
of these charges in the atmosphere, and
the manufacture of the brain and blood
hormone serotonin.
First with laboratory animals and then
in humans, Krueger found that ions in the
air affected the production and oxidation
of serotonin in the blood and brain in
mammals. High levels of positive ions
dramatically raised blood levels of serotonin whereas negative ions decreased
them.11
Serotonin, produced by the pineal
gland, exerts profound effects on the
endocrine and neurovascular systems,
and also helps to control metabolism and
such activities as blood clotting, blood
pressure and smooth-muscle contraction.
In the brain, serotonin controls the sleep–
wake cycle, hunger and temperature regulation, but also mood and emotions.
Excess levels of serotonin make you feel
ill and give you headaches; low levels
make you feel drowsy and depressed.
Serotonin levels also control anxiety and
neurosis, which is why the latest antidepressant drugs all attempt to increase the
amount of serotonin in the brain.
Those who have taken up Krueger’s
mantle have discovered a link between
profound changes in the ionic charge of
the air, and the mood and health of the
inhabitants, particularly during ill winds.
For instance, Professor Felix G. Sulman,
a pharmacologist at the University of
Shibolai in Jerusalem, studied the effects
of these winds on the production of serotonin. He found that, in people prone to
the effects of the ill winds, levels of serotonin rose sharply two days before the
onset of the Sharav in Israel. The levels
remained high and only leveled off after
the winds finally diminished. Professor
Sulman called the condition ‘serotonin
hyperfunction syndrome’. His studies
showed that serotonin in the urine of
weather-sensitive patients increased during the high winds, and their symptoms
were relieved once they were exposed to
a high level of negative ions or given
serotonin-repressing drugs.12
Animals can also suffer from hyperserotonin syndrome. Grant Gilbert, a
researcher at Pacific Lutheran University
in Tacoma, Washington, discovered that
animals exposed to higher levels of negative ions are less emotional and anxious,
and have lower serotonin levels.13
The serotonin connection is important
when related to consciousness and Field
effects. As we learned in Lesson One, the
pineal gland is involved in the manufacture of serotonin and appears to be centrally involved in our psychic processes.
Maintaining optimal levels of serotonin in
our bodies would naturally enhance this
process.
Some researchers have investigated
the affect of air quality on consciousness.
Earth
Energies
Lesson 14
55
Earth
Energies
Lesson 14
56
LIVING THE FIELD
Dr I.H. Kornblueh, who has experimented with air ions for more than 20 years,
found that lower concentrations of either
positive or negative ions produce fewer
alpha-wave frequencies in humans.
Higher levels of positive or negative ions
(1.8 3 103 positive or negative ions per
cubic centimeter) produce rapid and profound brainwave changes, changing the
alpha frequencies in the EEGs of individuals exposed to them after just 30 minutes.14
Professor Sulman also discovered that
ions affect brainwaves. When his study
participants sat in a highly ionized chamber and were given brainwave tests, he
found that the alpha variable in all of
these individuals was increased.
As we know from earlier lessons, getting into an alpha state maximizes our
ability to tap into The Field (see Living
The Field Lesson Ten).
But not all of us react to ionized air
in the same way; we appear to be electrically, as well as chemically, individual.
Nevertheless, of those of us who are
weather-sensitive, most respond better to
negative ions (although a small percentage do better with positive ions).
Children, the elderly and the ill all appear
to be particularly sensitive to ions and,
indeed, some researchers have postulated
that hyperactive and generally unruly
children are deficient in ‘vitamins of the
air’.
However, as a general rule, healthy air
is akin to deep meditation: a gateway to
The Field.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Fifteen: More on atmospheric
effects
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Didion
J.
Slouching
To w a r d s
Bethlehem. New York: Farrar Straus &
Giroux, 1968
Science, 1976; 193: 1209–13
Int J Biometeorol, 1975; 19 (1): 65–71
J Gen Phys, 1962; 5 (4) Pt 2 Suppl:
233–41
Bernet MM. Effects of Negatively
Ionized Air and Circadian Rhythm on
Maze Performance in Rats ( t h e s i s ) .
New Haven: Southern Connecticut
State College, May 1980: 115
Krueger AP et al. The effect of air ions
on plants. Presentation at the
International Congress The Sun in the
Service of Mankind, July 2-6, Pa r i s ,
France, 1973: 136
Int J Biometeorol, 1972; 16: 1–11
Int J Biometeorol, 1963; 7: 17–25
Int J Biometeorol, 1966; 10: 29–38
New Sci, 1973; June 14: 668
Int J Biometeorol, 1968; 12 (3): 225–39
Israel J Med Sci, May 1973
Int J Biometeorol, 1973; 17 (3): 267–75
Krueger AP, Sobel DS. Air ions and
health. In Sobel DS, ed. H o l i s t i c
Approaches
to
Ancient
and
Contemporary Medicine. New Yo r k :
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979
LIVING THE FIELD
Whorls on fire
For centuries, people around the globe
have re p o rted the presence of strange
balls of fire in the sky. Recently, scien tists using special equipment have
re c o rded these ‘earthlights’ and finally
d i s c o v e red a plausible explanation: the
Zero Point Field.
I
n many locations around the world,
the inhabitants are regularly entertained by earthlights—strange, recurring balls of light in the sky. Even more
strangely, when earthlights appear, UFO
sightings, religious visions and all manner of anomalous visions are also reported.
Recently, the scientific community
has begun to take these lights seriously. In
the early 1980s, the inhabitants of
Hessdalen Valley in Norway, which lies
120 km south of Trondheim, began
reporting strange lights—sometimes
several hundred a day. In 1983, Erling
Strand, an engineer and lecturer at
Østfold University, set up Project
Hessdalen to examine these inexplicable
light phenomena. He rigged up an elaborate system of gadgetry to capture any
data or images of earthlights at monitoring stations dotted throughout the valley.
These stations are activated every time an
earthlight interrupts one of the electronic
beams connecting the stations. During his
first investigation in the winter of 1984,
53 earthlights were observed.1
The frequency of Hessdalen’s earthlights is now diminishing from their heyday in the 1980s; nevertheless, some 20
observations are made every year.
Hessdalen has also joined forces with the
small Italian town of Cecina, soon to be
hosting the largest-ever conference on the
earthlight phenomenon.
Occasionally, the explanation for
earthlights is decidedly earthbound.
Physicist Hal Puthoff studied the famous
lights in Marfa, part of Texas’ Big Bend
country. He and researcher Paul
Devereux, along with the International
Consciousness Research Laboratories,
Earth
Energies
Lesson 15
found that, in many instances, the Marfa
lights were actually mirages caused by
car lights on roads 30 or more miles away,
or the lights of trucks traveling over
rough terrain. However, in spots some 80
miles away from Marfa, they witnessed
what Devereux is convinced was a true
earthlight.
When they are genuine, what causes
these mystical lights? Neuroscientist and
geologist Michael Persinger, of Laurentian University in Canada, has made a
particular study of earthlights and,
according to his Tectonic Strain Theory,
earthlights are the result of tectonic
stress—the movement of massive underground plates—in the earth’s crust.
The theory portrays the inner surface
of the earth as wild and unstable. The
constant shifting creates force fields,
which tend to zero in on fault lines, hills,
rock formations and other areas of geographic instability. It is certainly known
that many earthlights precede earthquakes as well as moments of high meteorological activity, precipitation or subterranean activity.
In 1986, Persinger joined forces with
geologist John Derr to study the lights
observed on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington. They noticed that
these earthlights were accompanied by
noisy rumblings from the earth and glowing clouds, indicating an increase of electromagnetic field activity.
In one study, Persinger examined the
incidence of rainfall and earthquake
activity in the San Francisco basin for the
years 1950–1969 and compared them
with the number of reports of ‘luminous
phenomena’ within 400 km of the city.
Those years when the January rainfall
exceeded 8.5 inches and the number of
earthquakes in the basin increased were
associated with the largest numbers of
sightings, particularly during times when
the previous year was drier and quieter.2
The Canadian sightings have corresponded with high earth activity. Furthermore, Devereux, who had set up camp in
57
Earth
Energies
Lesson 15
LIVING THE FIELD
the Australian Outback to monitor the
‘Min Min lights’, recorded the appearance of a glowing red-orange ball of light
hurling across the sky. That appearance
coincided with their magnetometer
recording a large blip—an 800 per cent
increase in amplitude—suggesting a huge
change in the local geomagnetic field.
Most controversially, Persinger
believes that UFO sightings and other
transcendent experiences are simply the
effect of these geomagnetic or electromagnetic phenomena on the temporal
lobe of the brain. In his laboratory in
Canada, Persinger has duplicated mystical experiences and feelings of alien
abduction by applying geomagnetic fields
to the temporal lobes.3
Although Persinger’s theory (which is
still just a theory) may not explain all
sightings of one variety or another, what
his studies show is that the brain is high-
ly affected by unusual geomagnetic and
electromagnetic activity. For instance, it
is well known that both animals and
humans register the geomagnetic
changes, which precede an earthquake.
Many animals engage in bizarre behavior
before an earthquake, and human mystics
and other ‘sensitives’ are known to experience an increase in precognitive dreams.
It may well be that, once we attune into
our own Field abilities, we can begin to
predict any big change in the weather as
well, and make good use of any tumultuous change in the Field.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Sixteen: Geopathic stress
1
2
3
Project Hessdalen, Final Te c h n i c a l
Report, 1984
Percept Mot Skills, 2001; 92 (3 Pt 2):
1180–90
J Nerv Ment Dis, 2002; 190 (8): 533–41
A Zero Point Field effect?
According to Paul Devereux, earthlights possess a number of strange aspects that
suggest they are different from ordinary electromagnetic phenomena:
! they are often visible from only one direction. In a 1905 sighting in Barmouth-Harlech
in Wales, he says, a huge bar of light was visible to one group of observers on one
side of the Egryn chapel, but not on the other
! they appear to be switching on and off all the time, even strobing. They can also
change direction instantly, without slowing down, which suggests a ‘thing’ with no
mass
! they are often described as not quite existing in space as we know it. Devereux says
that they seem to be flat and to have depth, and to be both flat and revolving at the
same time.
Dr Puthoff believes that earthlights may be a physical manifestation of Zero Point Field
energy. Although Field effects are usually on the subatomic level, this may be one
example of the phenomenon, with all its strange effects, on a ‘macro’ level: “Perhaps,”
writes Devereux, “the lights are a kind of doorway between quantum and large-scale
physical realities.”1
To see sightings of earthlights, the Hessdalen Project website displays live observations of the valley skies around the clock (www.hessdalen.org/index_e.shtml).
1
58
Devereux P. Earthlights Revelation: The Earth’s Secret Energy Force. Sterling, 1990
LIVING THE FIELD
The black streams beneath our feet
Earth
Energies
Lesson 16
all appeared to be above underground
running water. Water is a powerful conductor of electricity—one reason why
some UK houses are not allowed to have
electrical sockets. When hit by cosmic
rays or those emitted from fault lines,
running water will naturally refract (that
is, bend or distort) the rays and send conhe ancients held that the earth is tinuous powerful jolts of unnatural EM
composed of ley lines, or energy radiation to any inhabitants living above.
grids, which traverse the globe in The effect of this is to disturb the earth’s
straight lines. Although the evidence for geomagnetic field and, hence, the backsuch earth lines is scant, mounting evi- ground radiation that surrounds us.
dence from government org a n i z a t i o n s
around the world demonstrate that Cancer houses
beneath the surface of the earth lie many In 1929, Baron Gustav von Pohl carried
‘hot spots’, which can cause periodic out a study of the tiny village of Vilsburg
stress and, consequently, inhibit our abili- in southern Germany. Under the watchful
ty to access The Field.
eye of the town’s authorities, he studied
Indeed, it has spawned the new sci- the locations and sleeping areas of 54
ence of geopathology, which examines cancer victims and, using his dowsing
the harmful radiation emitted from a vari- ability, demonstrated that all 54 were
ety of sources, including earth fault lines, sleeping in locations with high levels of
large deposits of ore and underground cosmic radiation from underg r o u n d
streams.
streams. The most dangerous ‘cancer
The potential dangers of living above houses’ of all were those sited above
underground water first emerged in the where two streams crossed, particularly
1920s. Belgian scientist George Lakh- those at different underground levels,
ovsky was among the vanguard of scien- suggesting that the cosmic rays in these
tists who, like the Russian Alexander cases were enhanced even further.2
Gurwitsch, proposed that living cells emit
Cambridge biologist Roger Coghill,
electromagnetic (EM) frequencies. Lakh- who has studied the effect of EM radiaovsky’s own contribution was to theorize tion for decades, has discovered a strong
that external EM interference may dis- correlation between unexplained sudden
turb the equilibrium of humans and other infant death syndrome (SIDS) and strong
living things, and profoundly aff e c t EM radiation, including underg r o u n d
health. At first, he suspected that the water sources. In his study, he even found
nature of the soil predisposed inhabitants a correlation between proximity to water
to cancer. While studying the cancer inci- source and age of death—the closer the
dence around sections of Paris, he discov- infant to the site of underground radiaered that it was lowest around areas such tion, the earlier the child died.3
as Port Dauphine, which rested on sandy
In some cases, Coghill discovered a
limestone, and highest in places like difference in electrical-field strength on
Grenelle, which rested on clay.1
one side of the cot from the other. In one
It was Lakhovsky’s genius, all those instance, the parents of one of the dead
years ago, to recognize that certain soils infants he studied mentioned that the
absorbed the cosmic rays of the sun while baby repeatedly managed to wriggle
others reflected these rays upwards—and away from where she was placed in her
into the living things above them.
cot. When Coghill measured the EMF in
But the most dangerous situation of the cot, he was amazed to discover that
New evidence from around the world
confirms that there is such a thing as
geopathic stress, caused by subter ranean 'black streams' and earth faults
that send back jolts of cosmic rays
u p w a rds and into the living things
above them.
T
59
Earth
Energies
Lesson 16
LIVING THE FIELD
the spot she’d been placed in measured
70 V/m (volts/meter) whereas the radiation fell to 10 V/m at the other end of the
bed, to where she often rolled.
The Austrian teacher Käthe Bachler
similarly found many instances of babies
instinctively rolling away from excess
EMFs at one side of their cots.4
The early work of these pioneers has
since been confirmed by researchers
using more sophisticated equipment, such
as geomagnetometers, demonstrating that
certain houses, located above ‘black
streams’, were ‘cancer houses’, causing
cancer among successive inhabitants.5
Von Pohl’s work was confirmed by a
larger study by the Scientific Association
of Medical Doctors who, with the aid of a
dowser, studied the houses of more than
5000 people in the German town of
Stettin who had died of cancer. The dowser discovered that, in every instance, the
house was located in a spot of intense EM
radiation emitted from the earth. The
Association then compared cancer statistics from three old people’s homes, and
How to protect against hot spots
Suspect a geopathic zone in your house if you have:
! uncomfortable feelings in your gut or ‘chills’ in certain places in your home
! places your children or pets avoid
! children who suffer from bedwetting, nightmares or insomnia well past the usual age
! an illness without an obvious cause
! sleep disorders, headaches, irritability and a lack of being able to concentrate.
Unless you’re very lucky, you probably have hot spots in your house. The best way to find
out exactly where these are is to:
! hire a reliable dowser. A good dowser or geomancer will initially work around your site,
or even over a map or sketch plan of the site before coming to your house
! buy or rent an electromagnetic meter (from Coghill Research Laboratories at: www.
cogreslab. co.uk)
! use the Vegetative Resonance Test (VRT; Vega), which claims to examine the electropunctural and bioresonance of the human body, or try an ohm meter, an electrogeobioscope or a georhythmogram, all supposedly able to detect geopathic stress.
Even kinesiology, or muscle testing, can be used to assess whether geopathic stress
is present.
Once you’ve found a hot spot, you should:
! move furniture, particularly beds, away from it
! change the location of your special-intention room or meditation places to another site
! find out what your house is made of, as geopathic zones reverberate with concrete
or steel houseframes
! hire a geomancer, who will know how to deflect these fields
! check out special bedclothes that claim to block EMFs, or put copper netting under
your mattress
! consider buying a geopathic ‘neutralizer’ or ‘biocorrector’ that claims to alter cosmicray frequencies to those more compatible with the body (from www.dulwichhealth.
co.uk or www.healthy-house.co.uk). However, these devices require far more scientific
study to establish their effectiveness.
60
found that those with high levels of ‘earth
rays’ had a high incidence of cancer
whereas those with low levels had a low
incidence.2
Dowsers have also had extraordinary
success in pinpointing ‘cancer houses’
and even ‘cancer beds’. Under a grant
from the Pedagogical Institute of Salzb u rg, Bachler, a dowser, interviewed
about 11,000 people living in 14 different
countries and dowsed around 3000 flats
and houses. Of the 500 people who’d suffered both benign and malignant tumors,
all were living in sites of geopathic
stress.4
Russian geologist Dr Eugen K.
Melnikov, who conducted research in two
districts of St Petersburg between 1989
and 1992, found that the incidence of cancer was nearly three times higher in areas
of geopathic stress. The general incidence
of cancer was 1.68/1000 persons/year in
areas outside of geopathic zones. But in
places above underground streams, the
incidence climbed to 3.88/1000 persons/
year and, where streams crossed, to a
staggering 7.39/1000 persons/year. Similarly, in areas of geological faults, the
usual cancer incidence of 14/1000 persons/year climbed to 20–29/1000 persons/year if the victims lived above areas
of active geological faults.6
However, the most worrying situation
concerns those living in areas sited above
multidirectional geological faults. In
these instances, the cracks in the earth’s
surface act like a broken mirror, refracting rays out in a multitude of directions.
Those unlucky individuals living above
these sites suffered a cancer incidence of
60–100 cases/1000 persons/year.
According to Dr A.P. Dubrov, professor of biophysics and biology, and head of
the Scientific and Practical Center of
Biological Geophysics in Moscow,
Russian geologists have also found a doubling in the number of cases of infant
deaths, congenital defects, developmental
delays and heart disease in homes situated above faults. Besides cancer, geopathic stress may also bring on long-term
inflammation and a range of chronic dis-
eases, such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis,
migraines, adrenal problems and even
diabetes.
Although the U.S and U.K have long
disparaged the idea of earth rays, other
governments, including Russia, Austria
and Germany, have taken the problem
seriously.
In Russia, which leads the world in
studying the effects of EMFs and geomagnetic fields on human health, the
Interdepartmental Commission on Biolocation Effects, headed by geologist Dr
Nikolai N. Sochevanov, was founded in
1964, and is now part of the Russia
Scientific-Technical Society for RadioElectronics and Communications, with
centers scattered all around Russia. One
of the Commission’s primary purposes is
to study underground sources of ‘geopathic zones’ (GZ) and produce maps pinpointing their locations. In 1990, an international conference was held in Moscow,
entitled ‘The Problem of Geopathic
Zones’, where papers were presented by
scientists from a variety of specialties,
including geology, geochemistry, geophysics, medicine and even electronics.
What most concerns modern scientists
is the crossing of subterranean water
flows at various depths (now referred to
as ‘magnetic-hydrodynamic anomalies’)
and geological faults (‘gravitational
anomalies’). With their modern equipment, Sochevanov and his team have discovered that geopathic hot spots cause
many extraordinary changes in the atmosphere, such as major differences in air
ionization, geomagnetic fields, electric
potential of the near-ground layer of the
atmosphere, air moisture and the passage
of radiowaves. In addition, GZs show an
unusually high level of radioactivity.
Although no one has thoroughly studied the effect of geopathic stress on
human health, scientists believe that, like
the effect of solar disturbances on human
health, earth rays can scramble cellular
frequencies, causing the immune system
to malfunction. As we are energ e t i c
beings, these disturbances could wreak
havoc with the frequencies of our brain
Earth
Energies
Lesson 16
61
Earth
Energies
Lesson 16
62
LIVING THE FIELD
and cells and, thus, affect all our bodily
processes. This, in turn, can bring on a
host of eventual illnesses. French bioelectrician Lucien Roujon believes that GZs
can profoundly alter our body’s pH (acidto-alkaline balance), and its electrical factor, or oxidation reduction, and its insulation, or resistance to electrical currents.
Indeed, an Austrian working party
attempted to examine this issue in the
early 1990s by putting nearly 1000 people, who’d undergone a medical examination beforehand, in a GZ for just 10 minutes. Subsequent examinations found all
of the participants to be suffering some
sort of harmful effect.
German oncologist Dr Hans Nieper
claims that more than 90 per cent of his
patients with cancer, and three-quarters of
those with multiple sclerosis, have lived
or worked for many years in geopathic
zones. German doctors have been known
to work with dowsers when an obvious
cause of illness cannot be found.
It’s also important not to overlook
geopathic stress in factories, nursery and
primary schools, farms and, indeed, any
place where people or animals are kept in
the same spot for many hours at a time,
says Dubrov. It may well be that the first
person a city council should call upon
when planning new building sites is a
dowser.
Although no one has studied the
effects of earth rays on psychic ability,
there are clues suggesting negative
e ffects. In her study, Käthe Bachler
claimed that 95 per cent of children sleeping above hot spots or sitting above them
in school had learning difficulties.4
As we know how closely our psychic
abilities are allied with the earth’s geomagnetic field (see Living The Field
Lesson Two), any disturbance in that field
will resonate within us deeply. As a precaution, it may be a good idea to test
those places where you practice your
meditation and healing to ensure that your
intentions are not competing with the
earth’s signals.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Seventeen: More on the stress
beneath our feet
1
2
3
4
5
6
Rev Gen Sci, 1928; October, Issue 15
Coghill R. Something in the Air. Lower
Race, Gwent: Coghill Research Laboratories; 1997
Hosp Equip Suppl, 1989; June (Issue
9)
Bachler K. Earth Radiation: The
Startling Discoveries of a Dowser.
Manchester: Wordmasters, 1989
Bohrtechnik Brunnenbau Rohrleitungsbau Nr, 1960; (Issue 11)
Dubrov AP. Theoretical and practical
aspects of the geo-pathogenic zone
problem, in Bertrand J-P, ed. L a
Prevention.
Les
Entretiens
Internationaux de Monaco. Monte
Carlo: Editions Du Rocher, 1991: 91–4
LIVING THE FIELD
Rock of ages, dream for me
Earth
Energies
Lesson 17
According to Hale: “The first great
discovery was that the length of road
passing beside the stones was radioactive
to the extent of up to eight times the normal background rate, no doubt due to a
foundation of active granite chippings.
This stretch of road was where visions or
ne of the most intriguing aspects ‘hallucinations’ had been reported from
of ancient and prehistoric sites time to time—could there be a connection
is the claim, usually made by with increased radioactivity?
dowsers, that they contain a special and
“There were variations in the radioacpalpable energy.
tivity around the stones, but not in any
Author and researcher Paul Devereux, particular pattern I felt important. I could
author of The Ley Hunter and many never find the pulsing ultrasonic signals
other titles associated with earth energies, previously reported to occur at sunrise,
decided to investigate this possibility and but there were two special occasions. Just
set up the Dragon Project (later called the once, a strong twittering response was
Dragon Project Trust, a charity) in 1977 obtained at one point on one stone then on
to study whether certain prehistoric sites another occasion, a general weak signal
had unusual forces or energies associated was found over the area.
with them. (The project is thought to have
“On the ELF side, a very unexpected
taken its name from the Chinese system signal was picked up on a number of
feng shui, which depicts the primal earth occasions, in quite localized areas,” Hale
force as ‘dragon energy’.
continued. “It would appear from nothDevereux set up camp at the Rollright ing, sounding rather like waves washing
stone circle in Oxfordshire together with on the shore, become stronger, then die
a collection of dowsers, scientists and away after about half an hour. If one
sensitives, who employed a battery of walked slowly along, there would be
scientific tests to attempt to measure these peaks and troughs of signal amplitude at
energies.
about one-foot intervals. Taking this
In the early 1980s, they enlisted effect as indicative of a standing wave,
Rodney Hale, the retired head of a design then the frequency would be way up in
company and designer of electronics the megahertz, which I am sure my equipequipment, including devices to detect ment would not be capable of receiving.
and measure extra-low-frequency (ELF) In some places, the signal would be preswaves. Hale subsequently built whatever ent over as small a distance as six feet
measuring instruments were required to . . .” (For a definition of standing waves,
measure radioactivity, and ultrasonic, see box, pages 64–65).
electrostatic, electromagnetic, magnetic
Devereux and his colleagues concludand ELF energy.
ed that fissures in the earth’s crust might
What the Dragon Project team discov- account for these strange energ i e s .
ered was not an exotic new type of subtle Nevertheless, other evidence suggests
energy, but certain distinct differences in that some of the special energies could
the geomagnetic energy at Rollright. be manmade (see box, pages 64–65).
Magnetometer and Geiger-counter readThis is not the first time that human
ings provided hard evidence of anom- emotion has affected Geiger- c o u n t e r
alous readings in the geomagnetic energy readings, says Hale. He discovered studand natural background radiation at the ies from the 1950s, showing that human
site.1 They also found infrared and ultra- emotion had affected Geiger- c o u n t e r
sonic effects at other sacred sites.
readings. US physicist William Tiller has
A team of scientists has discovered that
sacred sites do contain unusual ener gies and cause special effects on human
beings. There's even some evidence that
p rehistoric man had an intuitive under standing of energ y.
O
63
Earth
Energies
Lesson 17
LIVING THE FIELD
also produced evidence with a gas-discharge device to show that human intention was able to affect the machine (see
Living the Field Lesson Two).
The Dragon team then decided to
examine the effects of these sites on
humans, largely because it is assumed
that these sites had been used for mass
rituals and even shamanic practices.
In their next project—the Dreamwork
Programme—Devereux and his colleagues tested the historical evidence and
folklore claiming that visionary experiences occur at ancient sacred sites.
Certainly, there is much historical documentation concerning the Oracle at
Delphi, the most important shrine in
ancient Greece, where Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, and many others, suppos-
edly had visions of the future.
They decided to focus on four lesserknown sites: a holy hill in the Preseli
range in Wales, and three sites in
Cornwall: a Neolithic dolmen, a Celtic
holy well, and an Iron Age underground
passage and chamber, originally called a
‘fogou’ in the Cornish dialect and now
referred to as a ‘souterrain’ by archeologists.
To determine whether the ‘spirit of
place’ might affect human consciousness,
Devereux decided to test whether the
dreams at particular sites had components
common among all the dreamers that
could be decoded and identified as
belonging to that place. He was also looking to discover whether the physical
anomalies they’d discovered at these sites
The sound of sacred silence
One of the most intriguing explanations of a sacred site’s spirit of place is the deliberate
creation of structures that create reverberating energy. In the early 1990s, Robert Jahn,
former dean of engineering at Princeton University and the architect of the PEAR lab,
accompanied Paul Devereux on an informal tour of certain Anasazi Indian sites in the
American Southwest. He was struck by the acoustical resonances of many of the kivas
(ceremonial meeting places) and other special sites, and wondered whether other
prehistoric structures might have also been similarly designed.
He, Devereux and Michael Ibison, a PEAR colleague, decided to test this hypothesis
by investigating the sound waves at six ancient sacred sites in the UK. They chose a
number of burial mounds of various shapes, mostly created circa 3500 BC: Wa y l a n d ’ s
Smithy in Berkshire, a multichambered structure within a trapezoidal burial mound in
Berkshire; Chun Quoit, a trapezoidal chamber in Cornwall; Cairn L, a multichambered,
irregular stone ‘passage tomb’ in Loughcrew, Ireland; Cairn I, an elliptical arrangement
of seven subchambers, also in Loughcrew; Newgrange, a long, narrow, cross-shaped
chamber in County Meath, Ireland; and Cairn Euny, a beehive-shaped chamber in
Cornwall.
For their test, they created an omnidirectional loudspeaker and amplifier system that
could manually track the frequency and amplitude patterns of sound at the various sites.
They placed their equipment on the floor or on a short tripod roughly at the center of
each site’s chamber. They then moved through the lower audible ranges of sound until
they produced the lowest natural resonance of the cavity, which was immediately
evident as the chamber would noticeably reverberate. They then moved up through
to the highest comfortable level of sound—usually between 100–110 decibels—and
took measurements of the standing-wave patterns.
Standing waves are reflections of sound waves back and forth between two surfaces.
The wave is termed a ‘standing wave’ because it doesn’t appear to move as it’s
64
"
"
could affect a mind at its most meditative
state, or even whether some energy memory remained in these exotic locations
that a dreamer might tune into.
The key was to determine whether the
dreams these places revealed had sitespecific components. Could a statistically
significant number of the coded dreams
be identified as relating to the sites at
which they took place? Was there something about the physical nature of the sites
that influenced the dreams experienced at
them?
He was also examining whether the
geophysical anomalies of the places
affected the dreaming mind. The Dragon
Project had already discovered through
some of their research that a high level of
background radiation could cause brief,
but vivid, hallucinations.
For this investigation, Devereux
enlisted veteran dream researcher Dr
Stanley Krippner, from the Saybrook
Institute in San Francisco, who had led
the famous Maimonides Hospital dream
studies, offering some of the best evidence of ESP and dreaming ever
amassed. Since 1993, dowsers, sensitives
and ordinary members of the public of all
ages, from 17 to 70, have volunteered to
sleep outdoors at these sacred sites and to
keep a careful record of their dreams.
Each volunteer has an experiment
partner, whose job it is to stay awake
while the participant sleeps. As soon as
the participant enters REM (rapid eye
Earth
Energies
Lesson 17
being reflected at both ends—rather like a taut jump rope being shaken at one end,
which produces identical and fixed numbers of loops because of interference (that is,
the waves bumping into each other) of waves coming from each end. Standing waves
usually occur at bass frequencies and are worse in small rooms. The sound is reflected
back and forth, and is either much louder or softer than it should be, depending upon
where you are in the room.
Despite the very different shapes of all the mounds being tested, the experimenters
discovered well-defined and predictable resonance frequencies at every site of between
95–110 Hz. Furthermore, resonant standing waves occurred on the outer walls as well.
As these resonance frequencies are within the range of the adult male voice, it’s
likely that forms of human chanting were used during rituals at the mounds and would
have been enhanced by the resonance within the chambers. 1
Incredibly, primitive drawings found on the chamber walls bore a similarity to the
standing-wave patterns observed by the team—demonstrating that primitive man had
some understanding of sound waves. A number of the sketches featured concentric
circles, ellipses or spirals that resemble modern acoustical sound mapping. In other
examples, the drawings show sine waves or zigzags, which are similar to the shapes
of waves. At Newgrange, the experimenters found zigzag patterns on the western
subchamber walls showing exactly the same number of peaks and troughs as the
resonance standing-wave pattern mapped from the center of the chamber.
Although Jahn and Devereux can only speculate as to how early man achieved this,
it appears likely that certain standing stones were positioned in key places to enhance
such resonances and suppress other sound waves. It may well be that some of the
special energies recorded at these sacred sites are manmade, the result of primitive
man’s intuitive understanding of energy.
1
J Acoust Soc Am, 1996; 99 (2): 649–58
65
Earth
Energies
Lesson 17
66
LIVING THE FIELD
movement) sleep, his partner will awaken
him, and taperecord the sleeper’s report
of his dreams.
The volunteers also record reports of
dreams they’ve had at home to serve as
controls. These are transcribed and sent to
Krippner for analysis.
In 2003, Dr Krippner gathered the
data amassed thus far, and began to analyze and code them. The results were then
given to a panel that was unfamiliar with
the dreams; the panel’s job was to judge
the data according to a strict scientific
protocol.
In June 2003, Dr Krippner, Paul
Devereux and Adam Fish published the
results of the dreams of 35 volunteers,
who’d spent between one and four nights
sleeping at the four sacred sites. The two
judges enlisted to analyze the 206 reports
of dreams at home and at sacred sites
used a special, independent system called
a ‘Strauch scale’, which offers specific
criteria for identifying ‘magical’,
’bizarre’ or ‘paranormal’ elements of
dreams.
Of the 103 site-dream reports, nearly
half (46 reports) fell into one of the
Strauch categories compared with less
than a third (31 reports) of those dreamed
at home—a significant effect. From these
preliminary data, Krippner could not conclude that the sites themselves were causing these effects, as 22 of the dreamers
had these types of dreams at the site
whereas 20 had such dreams at home.
Apparently, the effects of the sites—if
any—were transcending the environment,
or the dreamers themselves were having
these dreams because of suggestion or
expectancy.2
Nevertheless, the material gathered
later demonstrated that different dreamers
were picking up similar dream themes
at one of the four sites, suggesting that
collective energy might reside at the site
and was somehow being transmitted to
the different dreamers sleeping there.3
Although the investigation is still
ongoing, the preliminary evidence offers
the intriguing suggestion that sacred
places do indeed have sacred—and different—energies.
Lynne McTaggart
Lesson Eighteen: Ley lines and
energy grids
1
2
3
Devereux P. Places of Power. London:
Blandford, 1990
J Assoc Study Dreams, 2003; 13 (2):
95–105
Fortean Times, 2003; December: 178
LIVING THE FIELD
Life in a line
For many years, scientists and
re s e a rchers have searched for ‘ley
lines’—geographical alignments or
‘lines’ crisscrossing the earth like a
web. Ley lines have been dismissed as
New Age bunk. But does the earth con tain meridians, much as the human
body does?
Earth
Energies
Lesson 18
! at least four good marking points, or
three with other points of lesser value,
like crossroads or coinciding tracks.
The chances of three such points lying in
alignment were one in 720, he maintained, and each additional point in alignment raised the possibility in rapid geometric progression. But most important,
his theory suggested the presence of
he idea of ley lines was first pro- physical, geomagnetic or electromagnetic
posed by amateur archaeologist energy and the ability of ancient man to
Alfred Watkins, who published a perceive it.
book called The Old Straight Track: Its
Believers after Watkins fall into two
Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark camps. The ley hunters believe that
Stones (Garnstone Press, 1925; now pub- Watkins stumbled on a geographical phelished by Abacus, 1974). In this book, nomenon—paths of earth energy that link
Watkins theorized that alignments existed sacred sites of energetic power—and
between geographical and sacred sites— have even formed clubs to carry out furstone circles, standing stones, mounds, ther ley hunts. Supported by UFOlogists,
barrows, hill forts, ancient moats and New-Age spiritualists and dowsers claim
churches, old crossroads, river crossings, that ley lines represent a grid of global
and even high hilltops and straight tracks. energy, and that sacred sites sit on specifIt was his contention that Neolithic man ic and important nodal points along them.
had purposefully positioned the mounds These fervent believers are countered by
and standing stones to follow certain ter- skeptics, who have dismissed Watkins’
restrial lines that run for large distances theories on the grounds that the straight
all over the earth.
lines to various sites were purely coinciThe lines came to Watkins in a flash dental.
of inspiration when he noticed, while
However, some ley investigators, such
riding around the Blackwardine hills in as researcher Paul Devereux, have
Herefordshire, how many footpaths painstakingly investigated ley lines, and
appeared to connect hilltops in what discovered specific ley points containing
appeared to be straight lines. He consult- higher geomagnetic energy than normal,
ed a map and discovered that a goodly and certain anomalous effects in known
number of prehistoric sites appeared to forms of energy at these sites.1 Furtherfall into a particular alignment. He more, two dowsers—Captain Robert
believed that he was witnessing the Boothby and Reginald Smith—claim to
remains of straight tracks laid down and have correlated ley lines with underused for trading in the Neolithic era. ground streams. Nevertheless, after years
Watkins chose the word ‘ley’, a Saxon of hunting leys, Devereux and others
word meaning ‘meadow’ or ‘cleared strip have been unable to confirm that such a
of ground’. Besides the alignments of the common grid crisscrosses the earth.
prehistoric sites, Watkins included
It could well be that early man picked
‘church lines’ or coffin lines and even up certain energetic activity from the
straight paths of native cultures like the earth and associated this with important
North American Indians.
astronomical positionings (see box, page
According to Watkins’ theory, a ley 68).
line was defined as:
Lynne McTaggart
! a given set of landmark points lying
Lesson Nineteen: Hartmann grids
within an arc of a quarter of a degree
and Aboriginal song lines
T
67
Earth
Energies
Lesson 18
LIVING THE FIELD
1
Devereux P. Places of Power. London:
Blandford, 1990
An ancient view of the heavens
Besides the old straight tracks between important sites in England, people around the
world appear to be consumed by the need for linearity. These include the ritual
straight tracks of the Anasazi Indians near Chaco Canyon of New Mexico, the sacbeob
of the Mayan culture in Mexico, the trails of Native Americans in the California Sierra
mountains, the Christian shrines and churches, which lie along straight lines in the
Bolivian altiplano, and the miles of straight lines in the desert at Nazca in Peru.
There’s no doubt that many of the mounds and standing stones of the Neolithic
period are perfectly aligned—for example, the Newgrange–Knowth ley, according to
author Martin Brennan. These are three spectacular mounds, two of which are aligned
exactly east and west, with passages illuminated by sunsets and sunrises, and the
third of which lights up precisely at the winter solstice. Furthermore, 12 stones surrounding the ley have specific and precise earthbound or astronomical alignments,
and the entire batch are aligned to the rising sun at the winter solstice.
Brennan has argued that Newgrange, like the Mayan tombs, Stonehenge and
countless other sites around the world, were used as solar and lunar observatories by
ancient man. “The facts that emerge from a study of this ley leave no room for doubt
that not only is the alignment intentional, but that a high degree of skill was utilized to
attain the accuracy involved,” he writes.
The late Alexander Thom, a Scottish professor of engineering who surveyed many
Megalithic sites around the British Isles, demonstrated that they were arranged as
astronomical observatories to accurately observe the planets and stars—a sort of
Neolithic astronomy. It is more likely that they used straight lines for positioning rather
than transportation as they had no means of traveling long distances, either by horse
or wheel.
Research has revealed that besides the astronomical significance, these deliberate
positionings also had an important spiritual context. Straight lines were thought to be
a fast track to the spirit world—a means by which souls could pass into the spirit
world, and possibly vice versa. The likelihood of their use as a kind of spirit subway is
bolstered by the fact that these paths were routinely swept—a ritual thought to chase
away evil spirits to create a sacred passageway. Furthermore, many Neolithic rock
carvings showing drawings of near-death experiences employed straight lines, suggesting that early man understood the experience, common to many NDErs, of
traveling through a tunnel (see Lesson Seventeen).
68
LIVING THE FIELD
Coming to a crossroads
B
efore building a dwelling, some
ancient peoples were known to
have settled a herd of cattle in the
intended spot for a year. Then, only if the
herd thrived would their owners consider
the spot fit for human habitation as well.
This practice grew out of the belief
that the earth possessed its own positive
and negative energies. Indeed, according
to Australian aboriginal mythology, a cosmic river energy—the ‘blood of the
Gods’—flows through the veins of the
earth. Their ancestors supposedly were
able to divine these energies and capture
them during songs.
In more modern times, European
scientists claim to have come up with
evidence that the earth has its own meridian system of positive and negative energies—a consistent grid-like pattern of
parallel energy waves rising vertically
from the ground.
Dowsers have long claimed to have
identified a series of grids of earth energy,
often referred to as ‘tellurian currents’,
running in parallel lines over the surface
of the earth like a series of invisible,
radioactive walls. In 1950, while dowsing, German doctor Ernst Hartmann discovered currents of electromagnetic energy coming from the earth that were independent of water sites.
After much experimentation, Hartmann postulated that bands of alternating
positive and negative electromagnetic
energies that were 21-cm wide were running from north to south and from east to
west across the planet, two meters apart
in the north–south axis and two-and-ahalf meters apart in the east–west axis.
(Note, however, that these measurements
apply only to Germany; they are different
for the UK and the US. The distances
increase the closer you are to the equator.)
This grid system came to be called
the ‘Hartmann grid’. According to Hartmann’s own research, problems occur
for living entities that dwell where two
of these energy lines cross—called a
Hartmann ‘knot’ or ‘crossing’—because,
Earth
Energies
Lesson 19
as they are electromagnetic, crossing
them amplifies the positive or negative
charge and causes a perturbation in the
earth’s natural geomagnetic field.
These problem areas are supposedly
exacerbated by underground streams,
geological faults and during earthquakes,
which may cause up to a 50 per cent
increase in radioactivity at these points.
Dr Hartmann, a pioneer of an emerging science called ‘geobiology’, published three textbooks about his work,
and eventually became the director of the
Committee for Geobiology in Germany.
He also founded a magazine for scientists
called Wetter, Boden und Mensch
(Weather, Earth and Man) (see the website at www.geobiologie.de).
Dr Manfred Curry, a Swiss doctor
who was also a dowser, came upon another global grid network of electrically
charged lines. In this case, however, the
lines were diagonal to the poles and ran in
a diamond-shaped pattern from southeast
to northwest and southwest to northeast.
Although different geobiologists have
reported different band widths, Curry
himself believed that these energy waves
were 80-cm apart and ran around three to
three-and-a-half meters apart.
Although no one understands why
these energy grids are present—if,
indeed, they exist at all—some dowsers
have theorized that they perform some
type of earthing function for the cosmic
rays that are constantly bombarding the
earth.
Researchers such as the Austrian
teacher and dowser Käthe Bachler—who
has made a study of geopathic stress,
examining 11,000 cases in 3000 homes
in 14 different countries—claims that the
most unhealthy spots are those areas
where lines cross, termed a ‘Curry crossing’, especially when exacerbated by
other unhealthy radiation, such as from
underground streams.
Curry claimed that his research
demonstrated that the positive energ y
lines could cause cancer, while the nega69
Earth
Energies
Lesson 19
LIVING THE FIELD
tive lines could lead to inflammation and
nervous system disorders. Those living—
and particularly sleeping—above these
lines were likely to experience health
problems and insomnia.
Hartmann’s and Curry’s theories are
taken seriously in Europe. In fact, Bachler
was commissioned by the Pedagogical
Institute of Salzburg to research problems
such as underperformance in schools as
a possible result of geobiological influences. “Again and again,” she reports, “it
emerged that pupils who were always
tired, those who were the slowest, those
who had the greatest difficulty in concentrating, those who were the most forgetful
and the most difficult, and those were
always ill were all victims of interference
zone crossings.”
Bedwetters often sleep over such
interference zones, she says. By moving
the bed, they can experience an instant
cure.1 In one case, she found an Australian child who was intelligent but, nevertheless, failing in school and not getting
along with his schoolmates. Bachler
found that his bed lay both over a water
crossing and a Curry crossing. As soon
as his bed was moved, she claims, he
improved.
Although it is impossible to avoid
Curry and Hartmann crossings, it is possible to avoid exposure to them every day.
Bachler has advised schools to rotate children, even just changing rows, so that
they sit at different desks every four
weeks. “I always ask teachers to introduce the concept of a ‘rolling class’ so
that no pupil has to spend a whole year
sitting in a bad place.”
In another instance, Käthe was asked
by a teacher in Carinthia to help a girl
who was very sensitive, small for her
age, and often troubled by stomachaches,
nausea, nightmares and a high temperature. She’d missed many days of school
because she was always ill. Again,
Bachler found that the girl was sleeping
over a Curry crossing. A month after her
bed was moved, she slept and felt better
and, a year later, her mother reported that
she’d grown in height and that her schoolwork had improved.
German physicist Robert Endros, who
has studied plant life and geomagnetic
fields, discovered that trees growing on a
Hartmann crossing attracted lightning.
These trees were also more likely to be
deformed in some way.
Beekeepers in France know to place
their hives over under-ground streams
because they know that this will treble the
production of honey, although the bees
will have a shorter lifespan and be more
aggressive than normal.
Hartmann claimed that the blood sedimentation rate changed when people
stood or slept in geopathic zones, causing
heart disorders and other circulatory
problems. He also found that both animal
Spotting an energetic knot
Suspect Curry or Hartmann grids if:
! there is a high degree of restlessness or disturbance in your school. If so, ensure
that teachers rotate the children’s seating so that the same children are not constantly
exposed
! at work, there is a generally poor work output from individuals who are otherwise
capable and hard-working
! cats like to sleep on your bed (as cats like to sleep in high electrical fields)
! some members of the household just can’t sleep in their beds, but sleep better elsewhere in the house
! you have consistently damp walls where the damp rises only in one place
! it is a site that has been struck more than once by lightning.
70
and human reaction times slowed down in
geopathic-stress areas, and that rats living
over such zones had larger tumors than
when they lived in neutral spots or were
shielded by a Faraday cage.
Although the study of Hartmann and
Curry lines has been largely limited to a
handful of geobiologists in Germany, and
no one as yet has offered definitive proof
of their existence, Russia has also been
in the vanguard of such work. From the
1960s, government agencies (such as
the Interdepartmental Commission on
Biolocation Effects) and international
conferences have been studying geomagnetic effects and the possibility of negative earth grids.
At the forefront of this work is
Alexander Dubrov, professor of biophysics and biology, and head of the
Scientific and Practical Center of
Biological Geophysics in Moscow. His
findings have confirmed the existence of
these grid lines.2
Dubrov also heads up the Voluntary
Committee for the Investigation of the
Geomagnetic Field as a Global Biorhythm Synchronizer, which aims to
coordinate the work of geobiologists
around the world. Its website (www.
apdubrov.da.ru) publishes the latest news
on the biological effects of magnetic
fields and geomagnetic biology.
Blanche Merz, another geobiologist
from Vevey, Switzerland, has worked in
this area for 20 years, and has made a fulltime study of Hartmann lines.
According to Roger Coghill, Britain’s
greatest expert on electromagnetic health,
Professor Herbert L. Konig of the
Technical University of Munich has discovered one reason why the horseshoe
was often hung over the door for good
luck. The U-shape of a horseshoe turns
it into an open oscillating circuit with a
wide natural resonating frequency in the
low GHz (gigaHertz) range—a wavelength of around 21 cm, the range of
hydrogen resonance. These frequencies
are similar to the radiowave and
microwave ranges claimed by Endros to
be emanating from geopathic zones. So,
it may well be that you should hang a
horseshoe by your door for good health
as well as good luck.
Lynne McTaggart
1
2
Earth
Energies
Lesson 19
Bachler K. Earth Radiation: The
Startling Discoveries of a Dowser.
Wordmasters, 1989
Dubrov AP. Theoretical and practical
aspects of the geopathogenic zone
problem. In: Bertrand, J-P, ed. L a
Prevention.
Les
Entretiens
Internationaux de Monaco. MonteCarlo: Editions Du Rocher, 1991
71
Earth
Energies
72
LIVING THE FIELD
LIVING THE FIELD
Telegrams from Mother Earth
Although crop circles have bedeviled
scientists from many disciplines, most
agree that they are caused by earth
e n e rg i e s — e l e c t romagnetic or even
quantum. They may even re p resent a
d i rect message from Mother Earth.
I
n the afternoon of 7 July 1996, a doctor en route in a light aircraft to take
aerial photographs of Stonehenge
entered the airspace above the monument
at 5:15 pm. Having taken the shots, the
pilot began his return flight to the airfield.
Suddenly, within a mile of Stonehenge,
the two men saw a huge 900-foot-long
pattern of circles etched out in the wheat
field below them. The pattern was as
complex as it was beautiful, consisting of
151 circles of different sizes, all intricately arranged in a spiral formation. The men
were sure that the markings had not been
there when they had arrived, so the
breathtaking creation had somehow materialized within 45 minutes at most.
Although clearly visible from Stonehenge
and the road next to it, no one had seen
it forming, but it was definitely in place
by 6 pm, when the police logged the first
call about it.
That dramatic formation of flattened
crops is just one of an estimated 10,000
crop circles that have occurred in the last
30 years. Although most of them have
formed in the South of England, they
have been reported all over the world,
sometimes miles from human habitation
and, occasionally, not in crops at all, but
in rice fields and forests, and even in ice
and snow.
It was in the 1970s that the phenomenon first hit the headlines, with reports
of crops being flattened in simple circular
patterns. These simple circles were astonishing enough but, over the years, the
crop markings (not all are circles) have
increased both in number and complexity,
with some of the more recent ones being
of striking geometric beauty.
The markings almost always occur in
mature crops, which means that, in
Earth
Energies
Lesson 26
England, they tend to appear in summer.
So far this year, four crop circles have
been reported in oil seed rape, a crop that
matures earlier than corn. The latest one
was on 9 May, at Bishop Sutton in
Hampshire; this was described as “a large
single ringed circle, 600 feet in diameter,
with two very small adjacent circles”—
about the size of two football pitches, a
typical dimension for these phenomena.
Hoaxes and debunkers
Crop circles, like many paranormal phenomena have the problem of being caught
between the lunatic fringe on the one
hand, and professional debunkers on the
other. Crop circles have fallen victim to
both—in spades. Theories of how the
markings are caused and what they mean
have ranged from the outlandish (crop
circles are landing-craft navigational
markers for superintelligent aliens from
outer space) to the occult (they are messages from the dead). In contrast, the
debunkers claim that the whole lot are
simply elaborate manmade hoaxes.
The hoax theory would appear to have
some good evidence to support it. Almost
as soon as the circles started appearing in
the 1970s, two Englishmen, Doug Bower
and Dave Chorley, claimed they could
make them using just a plank and a rope.
Their public demonstrations were enough
to convince an already skeptical media
that the whole thing was hooey, and so
could be spiked on the ‘mysteries solved’
pile. Later, an organization called Circlemakers was formed with the declared
intention of creating crop circles as a new
form of landscape art. In the public mind,
that finally settled the matter: crop circles
were hoaxes.
And yet, eyewitness accounts, such
as the one of the aerial view of a crop
circle that somehow materialized in 45
minutes, continue to confound the hoax
theory. Surveyor David Probert says that
the complex 900-foot formation near
Stonehenge would have taken “two full
days” just to lay out in terms of the
73
Earth
Energies
Lesson 26
LIVING THE FIELD
design, not to mention the labor of actually flattening the crops.1 Yet, the eyewitnesses’ testimony says the formation must
have appeared within 45 minutes—and
given that Stonehenge is such a touristrich area, any such activity would easily
have been spotted.
Even the hoaxers themselves are
hard-put to explain some of the formations. John Lundberg, a leading member
of Circlemakers and expert hoaxer, said
this of a 300-metre series of 409 circles
that appeared overnight in Milk Hill,
Wiltshire, in 2001. “If this formation was
manmade, allowing for time to get into
and out of the field under cover of darkness, the construction time left should be
around four hours. Given that there are
over 400 circles, some of which span
approximately 20 meters in diameter, that
would mean that each one of those circles
would need to be created every 30 seconds. And that’s not even allowing any
time for the surveying, purely flattening.
This formation pushes the envelope [of a
plausible manmade explanation]—and
that’s a massive understatement.”
Former electrical engineer Colin
Andrews is probably the world’s leading
authority on crop circles. Since 1983, he
has catalogued over a thousand of them.
He spent two years (1999–2000) carrying
out a well-funded in-depth investigation
of all the crop circles that appeared anywhere in Britain. This was at a time of
huge media interest and, thus, a clear
encouragement to hoaxers. His conclusion was that, out of 236 formations, 182
were hoaxes—in other words, about 80
per cent. “However, the remaining 54
What the professionals say
! “Crop circles are technical drawings of advanced equipment, but we can’t decipher
them.”
T. Roy Dutton, aerospace engineer
! “They are some sort of communication from a prodigious consciousness or group
of consciousnesses, with an entirely benign, loving, spiritual agenda relating to humanity.”
Michael Glickman, architect
! “Mathematics and geometry have always had a spiritual significance. The geometry
of the circles have an inner meaning, a symbolic resonance, a holistic geometry showing us a new experience of mathematics, but only the circle makers know what they’re
saying.”
Nick Kollerstrom, mathematician
! “The crop formations are ancient symbols and mandalas, alchemical symbols; some
of the simpler formations relate to the nature of sound, a creative force in all world
religions. What they’re looking for is a change of consciousness in humanity to a
higher level.”
Michael Green, archaeologist, London University
! “These perfect geometries may contain very important information; it’s up to us to
discover why they are formed and what positive attributes they have for mankind.”
Colin Andrews, electrical engineer
74
showed no sign of human hands—a mysterious, unexplainable 20 per cent,” he
said.1
comes from a 17th-century Hertfordshire
newspaper, which describes the overnight
appearance of a strange design in a field
of oats that was so neatly made that “no
mortal man was able to do the like”. The
report went on to say that it must have
been caused by the “devil or some infernal spirit”. A woodcut of the formation,
called The Devil Mower, shows the phenomenon to look remarkably like a simple crop circle.
Crop circles were also seen in the
1940s, sometimes at the very same locations as the more recent ones.2
Earth
Energies
Lesson 26
The scientific evidence
Andrews’ conclusions are supported by
detailed scientific analyses. American
researchers have compared the hoax formations with the unexplained (‘genuine’)
formations, and found significant differences. First, at a technical level, the way
in which the crops are flattened is very
different. In the ’genuine’ crop circles, the
plant stalks are often laid in an interwoven crisscross—an alternately clockwise
and anticlockwise pattern. The hoax ones, Plausible causes
however, are simply stamped-down ! Military activity. A whole book has
been written about this theory, promstalks.
ulgated by a French government sciEqually tellingly, there are differences
entist who wishes to remain anonyin how the plants react to flattening. In
mous.3 He believes that, for the last
‘genuine’ circles, the stalks tend to be
30 years, the British military have
bent at the base whereas, in hoax ones,
been testing a secret laser-like “highthey are often broken. This is particularly
power microwave cannon” which
striking in circles found in oil seed rape
they operate from an “aerial platform”
crops: mature rape plants are very brittle
such as a balloon or airship.
and will break at the base when flattened.
Is this plausible? Certainly, the
In ‘genuine’ formations, the rape doesn’t
area where most English crop circles
break—it bends.2
have appeared has many military
On examining the plants themselves,
bases. However, why should the miliagain significant differences are evident.
tary want to be so public about it?
Biophysicist Dr William C. Levengood,
Having huge tracts of land that are
of Pinelandia Labs in Michigan, has
off-limits to the public, why not test
found “consistently elongated nodes”
weapons in complete secrecy? Also,
(nodes are the knuckle-like supporting
as some of the crop circles stretch
structures along the plant’s stem) as well
across roads, would the British milias “pinhead-sized holes” in the stems.
tary really want to risk injuring peoThese anomalies do not occur in crops
ple?
flattened by man-made means. Other difA related theory is that the markferences have been found in the germinaings are made by satellite-based milition rates of seeds taken from ‘genuine’
tary weaponry but, again, the same
circles, which have up to five times the
common-sense objections apply.
normal growth rates.
At the microscopic level, changes in ! Whirlwinds or plasma vortices. This
theory of George Meaden’s, a British
the lattice-like structure of the starch
meteorologist, tries to explain crop
molecules within the plants have also
circles as the result of natural phebeen found in ‘genuine’ circles. These
nomena—principally, mini-tornados
changes made them markedly different
or electromagnetic vortices.4 A seemfrom plant samples taken from outside of
2
ingly attractive theory in the 1980s,
the circles.
when the markings were mostly only
Another reason to doubt the hoax thesimple circles, it has become increasory is that crop circles are not a new pheingly untenable as the markings have
nomenon. The earliest report of one
75
Earth
Energies
Lesson 26
LIVING THE FIELD
become more complex and sophistirespond to previously unrecognized
cated.
diatonic [musical] ratios, leading to
! UFO/alien-intelligence communicathe creation of a “fifth theorem”,
tions. For some, crop circles represent
unknown in conventional geometry.5
the landing sites of extraterrestrial
There is also eyewitness testimocraft, but a more widespread theory
ny that suggests a UFO connection.
is that they are messages from an
Many people have reported seeing
extraplanetary civilization, an idea
unexplained balls of light, glowing
spheres or shafts of light at night in
that has some credibility. “Crop cirplaces where crop circles have
cles are produced very precisely, like
appeared the following morning.
using a line-scanner, but it’s someUFOs are also claimed to have been
thing we cannot match,” says British
photographed over crop circles.
aerospace engineer T. Roy Dutton.
“We are dealing with a technology ! Electromagnetic fields. This is the
theory favored by the ‘father’ of crop
which is not ours.”
circles, Colin Andrews.1 With the help
What’s more, the very patterns
of grants from bodies such as the
themselves seem to be of a sophistication that is at the very frontiers of
Rockefeller Foundation, he has done
mathematics. “These designs demonprobably more detective work than
strate the remarkable mathematical
anybody into the subject, starting with
ability of their creators,” says Gerald
eyewitness testimony. He has studied
Hawkins, British mathematician and
accounts from over 70 people worldarchaeoastronomer. He has discovwide who claim to have seen crop
ered that many of the formations corcircles actually forming. “They des-
Experiencing crop circles
“Walking into a crop circle is an extraordinary experience,” says British researcher Lucy
Pringle. “It’s a bit like walking into a cathedral; you can feel the silence”. There are also,
she says, remarkable healing energies—something she herself dramatically experienced
on first walking into a crop circle. “I had a damaged shoulder, but as soon as I entered
the circle, I felt an energy through my shoulder—and it was cured. I have no explanation
of the effect, but there are over 600 reports of healing in crop circles.”
“There are some profound physiological effects on people in crop circles,” says
Jonathan Sherwood. “For example, postmenopausal women suddenly start their menstrual cycles again.”1
However, crop circles don’t always generate positive experiences. While many people
report elation and joy, others experience negative emotions such as nausea, fatigue and
disorientation. “I have seen people become elated on entering a circle,” says Colin
Andrews, “but I have also seen some people become very domineering.”2
“There is a sense of tranquility and inspiration within the crop circles,” says Nick
Kollerstrom. “You are aware of some inexplicable force.”
Current field research is using meditation, lights and musical sounds in an effort to
communicate with the patterns in the circles and to understand their meaning.
For information on where to find the latest crop circles, go to www.
cropcircleresearch.com.
1
Sherwood J. Crop Circles Unlocked. Rajon Publishing (downloadable from the Internet)
2
Andrews C. Crop Circles: Signs of Contact. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2003
76
cribe a buzzing sound, and they will
circles. Plants from outside the circle,
however, showed no such anomalies.
then see the plants oscillating, whipLevengood surmised that expullashing and suddenly the effect takes
sion cavities are due to a heating
place,” he says. “It all happens in less
effect that produces steam inside the
than 15 seconds. Like opening up a
stalk, forcing an escape hole to form.
cooling fan, the plants are swirled and
To test this theory, he put ordinary
laid to the ground. Many people
corn stalks into a microwave oven
describe seeing a glow of light, beams
for 30 seconds. Not only did he see
of light, balls of light, or loud exploexpulsion cavities, but also elongated
sions, at the same time as the effect.”
nodes—precisely mimicking the
Using magnetometers, Andrews
changes seen in crop-circle stalks. He
has carried out extensive electromagis now convinced that both effects
netic surveys of crop circles, and has
are caused by moisture inside the
found increases in the earth’s magnetplant stem turning into steam, and
ic field of about 120 per cent at such
expanding—stretching the more elassites. The increased field strength
tic nodes at the top of the plant and/or
exactly matches the shape of the forblowing a hole in the tougher nodes
mations. His tentative conclusion is
further down.
that the circles are caused by “localHe has also shown that short
ized fluctuations in the earth’s magbursts of microwave radiation can
netic field”, in particular “a high rate
increase the growth rate of corn
of rotational acceleration”.
seeds—again reproducing the effect
Nevertheless, he admits this canfound in crop circles.2
not be the whole story. “There is obviously some other element,” he says. ! An unknown energy, perhaps even
quantum energy. This is the conclu“A moving magnetic field will induce
sion reached by BLT, a Boston-based
a current, and if that current has some
team of investigators, after analyzing
other type of energy applied to it, it
soil samples.6 Taking shallow soil
can achieve lateral movement that
cores from a Canadian crop circle,
could cause plants to collapse in an
organized manner. But what is this
they sent them to a mineralogical labunknown other type of energy?”
oratory. Using a sophisticated soil
An intriguing fact is that cameras,
analysis technique known as ‘X-ray
recording equipment and mobile
diffraction’, the lab found some-thing
phones are often reported to malfuncstrange. Although the soil had been
tion inside of crop circles; this is
taken from the surface, what they saw
believed to be another indication of
“would normally only be found in
the presence of an anomalous elecgeologic sediments exposed to temtromagnetic field.
peratures and pressures over millions
! Microwave radiation. Dr Levenof years,” said lab chief Dr Sampath
good, who first discovered the nodal
Iyengar. The structure of the soil minchanges in corn stalks in crop circles
erals showed a significant increase in
in the late 1980s, has examined 71
crystalline formation, something not
crop circles around the world and has
found in surface soils, and certainly
consistently found increases in node
not found in the immediate vicinity of
length in them all—mainly in the
where the crop circle appeared—a
upper nodes. In the lower nodes, he
finding independently confirmed by
has also found tiny holes (‘expulsion
a second mineralogist.
cavities’) in nearly 70 per cent of
So, how might these effects have
samples. These changes were even
been produced? In the lab, extra minfound in stalks that had not been flateral crystallinity can be artificially
tened, but were standing within the
created by subjecting soil to high tem-
Earth
Energies
Lesson 26
77
Earth
Energies
Lesson 26
78
LIVING THE FIELD
peratures (600–800 degrees C) for
several hours. “However, those temperatures would have incinerated any
plant material present at the site, as
well as causing other measurable soil
effects,” say both Dr Iyengar and Dr
Robert Reynolds, Jr, a corroborating
mineralogist.
BLT president Nancy Talbott can
only come to one conclusion: “We
know of no energy which can selectively affect soils to one degree and
plants at the same location to another,
so we suggest that we may be observing a new—as yet undiscovered—
energy source at work.”
ground water and dowsable earth energies, but none of these connections
explains the increasing complexity of the
markings. Within the crop-circle world,
that’s where the debate now lies.
Although there are sometimes fierce
disagreements, all concur that whoever
or whatever is responsible for these markings, they are the work of an Intelligence—wherever it may reside—communicating in frequencies strong enough
to affect the very shape of plants and
sophisticated enough to lay them out in
highly intricate patterns.
Even more outlandish is the idea that
they might be the next level of self-organization—a means that Nature has discovEngland at the center
ered to communicate with humans.
Of these major theories of how the crop
Tony Edwards
circles are formed, none is conclusive. TV producer Tony Edwards is also a
What the research does show, however, is freelance writer specializing in leadingthat a proportion of the formations are edge alternative medical and scientific
genuine and involve currently inexplica- re s e a rch
ble energies.
So, if crop-circle researchers cannot 1 Andrews C. Crop Circles: Signs of
yet answer how they occur, can they say
Contact. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page
Books, 2003
where these energies are coming from
and why?
2 Physiol Plantar, 1994; 92: 356–63
Some people see significance in the 3 Montigiani
N.
Crop
Circles:
Manoeuvres Dans le Ciel. Editions
fact that most of the world’s crop circles
are found in the South of England—parCarnot, 2003
ticularly in the 40-mile-wide triangle 4 Meaden GT. The Circles Effect and its
encompassing the ancient Neolithic sites
Mysteries. Artetech, 1989
of Stonehenge, Avebury and Silbury Hill. 5 Hawkins G. ‘Crop circles: Theorems in
And this area may have been a crop-circle
wheat fields’. Science News Online, 12
center 5000 years ago, according to
October 1996
George Bishop, of the Center for Crop 6 BLT Research Team Inc. Clay-Mineral
Circle Studies. The circular monuments
Crystallization Case Study: 1999
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Crop
may have been built on actual crop circle
sites, he says. Others claim that crop
Formation. Cambridge, MA, 2004
circles are related to ley lines, under-