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From: Esalen Center for Theory and Research
Date: 1/21/2001
Time: 2:35:24 PM
Remote Name: 204.116.134.62
Source: Esalen Center for Theory and Research "Subtle Energies and Uncharted Realms of the Mind": an Esalen Invitational Conference, July 2nd to 7th, 2000
Electromagnetic and Other Subtle Energies in Psi Research Beverly Rubik, Ph. D.
Beverly Rubik started her presentation by challenging the old assumption that psi research is rooted primarily within the paradoxes of quantum physics. Instead she proposed a new paradigm, in which the life sciences are central, and where the starting assumption would be that "things are alive with sentience and bio-information". She also warned against the tendency to seek a single explanation for the "anomalous" behaviour observed in psi phenomena, stressing that there may be multiple forces at work and that our challenge is to remain open to all of them.
Rubik then went on to address the well-known observation that psi effects do not seem to be shielded by a Faraday cage - a fact that has led most parapsychologists to conclude that psi is not mediated by electromagnetic forces. She asked the audience to entertain the idea that "psi may be mediated by an energy that is so low in frequency that is not detectable by our current instrumentation". She introduced the new concept of bioelectromagnetics, which measures the electromagnetic field surrounding living organisms, and gave as an example the regenerative differences between salamanders and frogs as based on the power of their respective electromagnetic fields.
She then turned her attention to SQUID measurements of the human magnetic fields, and theorized that low level electromagnetic waves (such as those coming from a psychic or subtle energy healer) may activate receptors on the surface of our cells, leading to a generalized, full-organism response. She stressed that it was not the energy content in a transmission that was important, but the information content (L.S.' note: interesting analogy with Bohm's "quantum potential" where the form of the wave, not the strength, is what guides the behavior of the quatum particle.) She then hypothesized that the wave frequencies carrying information are most likely ELF (extra low frequency), meaning they "have less than 300 waves per second and cannot be shielded by a Faraday cage."
A number of attempts at measuring the biofield were presented:
1. John Zimmerman used a SQUID machine to measure the magnetic emission of a therapeutic touch practitioner during the act of healing. He measured 7 to 8 hertz emitting from the hands of the practitioner.
2. Elmer Green has measured healers in copper lined rooms with surges of up to 100 volts.
3. Researchers at the Heart Math Institute have measured greater coherence in the EKG patterns of those who are meditating on loving-kindness.
4. At a convention in New York city a few years ago, Rubik herself measured the electrostatic potential of Dr. Yan Xia by using a multimeter measuring the atmospheric potential. While the meter was 50 feet from Dr. Xia, Rubik noted a spurt in the energy up from the baseline of 35 milivolts. At the end of the conference, she measured up to 100 milivolts of energy.
5. Using a solid state photon counting device made by Hamamatsu, Eugene Wallace measured biophotons from people’s hands. When they intended to emit more energy, more photons were measured.
6. Hokoba Greenberg Ziberbrau put loving couples in separate Faraday cages. When one partner was given a visual stimulus, the second partner measured an evoked potential, even though the second partner did not have a visual stimulus. (Marilyn Schlitz noted that Leon Standish got a grant from the National Institutes of Health to replicate that same study.)
7. Dan Winter did experiments with trees in which people did loving meditation towards a tree and thereby influenced the local geo-magnetic power spectrum.
Finally, Rubik discussed the Schumann resonance pattern ( a resonant frequency that circles the earth and is produced by the resonant cavity between the earth and ionosphere and the lightning storms bouncing off the earth's surface.) She noted that the Schumann resonance is identical in frequency to the human brain's alpha wave, and mentioned Scott Hill's book Cycles of Heaven in which he analyzes the correlations between changes in the Schumann frequency and human behavior.
In conclusion, Rubik stressed the possibility that our consciousness and psychic abilities may be linked to cosmic cycles, and the need to further study such correlations.
(Synopsis by L. Sidorov. For more details on this presentation, see original write-up at www.esalenctr.org)