Research

Alex Tsakiris, the host of the Skeptiko podcast, selected replication of the "Dogs that know when their owners are coming home" experiment of Rupert Sheldrake, as the first one of his OpenSourceScience initiative.

Today, the project posted the first video, describing the experiment and some preliminary result. Our forums section now also added a new forum to discuss the replication, alongside the active Skeptiko podcast forum. After seeing the video, go to the new DogsThatKnow experiment discussion forum.

He also released show #41 of the Skeptiko podcast about the experiment.

In the last several days a number of interesting posts were added to our Parapsychology and alternative medicine forums. Here I’ll present several of them.

User anonymous, who often writes on the topics of psychic development, healing and spiritual churches and is happy to answer people on the topics lately wrote that Army is going to test alternative medicine for PTSD. PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, for those who don’t know and many soldiers suffer from it, coming back from war. He quotes an article from Wired about the news:

The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every kind of therapy – no matter how far outside the accepted medical form- is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to investigate everything from “spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga” to “bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and] distant healing” to mend the psyches of wounded troops.

But many of these treatments haven’t been held up to much rigorous scientific scrutiny before. So the Army is looking to hand out $4 million in “seedling grants” to “conduc[t] rigorous clinical studies” into all sorts of “novel approaches.” Projects “containing preliminary data” will be eligible for up to $1 million. But even “innovative but testable hypotheses without preliminary data” could get as much as $300,000. Proposals are due May 15.

“Music, animal-facilitated therapy, art, dance/movement, massage therapy, EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing] program evaluation, virtual reality, acupuncture, spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga,” might all be considered worth of the military’s largess. So would “biologically-based treatments, botanicals, and nutritional supplements for enhancing cognitive function and mood in patients with trauma spectrum disorders, including TBI and/or PTSD, depression, anxiety, and/or substance dependence/abuse.” Even proposals for wild-sounding “therapies using bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, distant healing and acupuncture” would be accepted.

This is good news indeed. I might add using the EFT therapy. One of its teaching videos even shows several sessions with people suffering with PTSD after vietnam war. And it seems that EFT helped them very much.

Another interesting post by the same anonymous is called Skeptics duped by Fraudulent Skeptics. Here’s the intro:

There is a big problem in the skeptical community. There is rampant obscuration of the truth by prominent skeptics who have misled masses of people. Skeptics often say that believers in the paranormal have been fooled by charlatans but it is the skeptics who have been fooled by prominent members of their community who seem to be more interested in winning the debate than in illuminating the truth.

Following, he provides a significant number of links and excerpts from various sources that signify the point. Including quotes from Randi, Dean Radin, Michael Prescott and more. Another forum user, LeoM, added several sources of his own.

In Home remedies forum user Allen Green posted a number of articles on various conditions and news from research from the web.

User Drynal wrote about the Art of making a psi ball, where he describes how to create a psi ball, which is an energy practice.

User Jozen-Bo writes about The Incredible Mind Portal which is something that he kind of invented and now promotes on the forum. It seems to be a technique that should help people to deal with their problems, generally speaking.

On the very active Skeptiko podcast forum there are lots of interesting discussions, both philosophical ones about the consciousness nature and psi and also discussions of the various episodes of the great podcast itself. One interesting post was added by user Open Mind, where he writes about The Collective Placebo Effect. Collective Belief & Disbelief?. He provides several quotes from various articles about the placebo effect. For example:

’......Cimetidine was one of the first anti-ulcer drugs on the market, and it is still in use today. In 1975, when it was brand new, it eradicated 80% of ulcers, on average, in various different trials. But as time passed the success rate of cimetidine – this very same drug – deteriorated to just 50%.
This deterioration seems to have occurred particularly after the introduction of ranitidine, a competing and supposedly superior drug…..

So, if you haven’t done this already, take a look at our various forums. Read the posts that interest you, ask your questions and write your answers and ideas, where they are fit. All you need to post is to register for the forums for free. You’re all welcome.

I’m glad to finally publish my interview with Miroslaw Magola, also called the Magnetic Man. Miroslaw possesses a unique ability to “stick” objects to parts of his body. I have already written an article about him in last October, see for an introduction Miroslav Magola the Magnetic Man. Since then I saw more references to him, including references from people skeptical of his ability. I am glad that Miroslaw has accepted my invitation to interview him. Note, that Miroslaw was born in Poland and now lives in Germany. Yet, his English is quite poor and he preferred to be interviewed over the email, since his reading and writing skills are better than his talking skill. Since most of my interviews were conducted over the email, I saw no problem with that.

Obviously, the claims of Miroslaw are quite extraordinary. There are very little people even claiming to have the ability to attach objects to them without adhesives, even rarer is when the objects are not metallic. Miroslaw himself proudly writes that he has been examined by several scientists or researchers in various fields and his website lists them. I have asked Mr. Magola, even before I sent him the question, to provide me with some references to these researchers, if which Miroslaw has sent me four contacts: Prof. Dr. Konstatin Korotkov, Dr. Alexander Imich, M.D. Dobruskin, Jack Houck. I’ve decided to check these four references for information about Magola.

Dr. Konstatin Korotkov seems to be a researcher and an inventor. He is a Professor of Physics at St. Petersburg State Technical University in Russia, published over 70 papers in leading journals on physics and biology, and he holds 12 patents on biophysics inventions (from his website). He seems to be researching what he calls bioelectrography, research of human’s energy field. He developed a technique known as the Gas Discharge Visualization technique (GDV), which should be better than Kirlian photography. I’ve sent an email to the email address at his webpage but unfortunately got no reply to this day.

Miroslaw gave me a phone number in New York for M.D. Dobruskin who seems to be related to Kirlian photography. Yet, on this phone number he was not available anymore and I couldn’t find any additional information on this person on the internet, except for some pictures where he tests Magola, on the following website (at the bottom): http://members.aol.com/mmagola/experiments.html.

Jack Houck is well known for his PK party. He also understands in metals, I think and he worked as an engineer for Boeing for many years. I wrote to Jack twice using the email supplied on his webpage but never got reply, too.

The only person who actually replied was Dr. Alexander Imich. I wrote about Dr. Imich twice here, in the articles An unusual voice mail and Dr. Alexander Imich is in financial need. I also mentioned him as one of the people reseraching Magola in my original article on the Magnetic Man. Dr. Imich is now almost 105 years old but he is still active in the world of parapsychology. So, I talked to him over the phone and he asked me to write him an email which I did. His reply was as follows:

Some years back, during an informal demonstration, I have seen various objects – metallic and non-metal – weighing probably up to 1 kg, sticking to palms and/or to the front of Miroslaw Magola’s head, and lifted by him this way from the floor.

To my knowledge, this is rather a rare human capacity of paranormal nature. Described for the first time in Russia and exhibited by Miroslaw Magola.

Sincerely,

Alexander Imich PhD., President
Anomalous Phenomena Research Center

In another interview of Dr. Imich (July 2005) he is also asked of Magola and answers the following:

Miroslaw Magola is a Polish citizen living in Germany. Together with Dr. Barbara Koopman, we have observed a phenomena first described in Russia. Various metallic and non-metallic implements, some weighing more than a pound, sticking to his skin. Not many people are producing this, ostensibly paranormal phenomenon that, in the very inadequate parapsychological nomenclature, has to be classified as psychokinetic.

So at least there seems to be some credibility to his claims although I don’t know of any real scientific papers that were published about Mr. Magola. Neither does he know.

Miroslaw was also kind enough to send me a lot of high-quality photographs of himself. He mailed me several dozens Megabytes of photographs and other material. He was also kind enough to email me scanned pages of the interview with him in the “mysteries-magazin”. The magazine is in German and I don’t understand German that much. If anyone who understands German is willing to translate parts of all of the interview from the journal I’ll be happy to email him the pages and publish it here (if copyright allows). You’ll see some of the photographs he’s sent me below the interview.

And now to the interview itself. I allowed myself to edit his answers a bit for spelling and punctuation for the best of my ability.

Could you please describe your ability to attach objects to yourself, is it only about metal objects?

My ability is like a „magnetic power“ ( not in the physical sense ). It is holding – but of course – without glue, adhesive-tape or similar things. The ability works to all materials : metal, plastic, wood, ceramic. See link http://www.magola.com/English/welcome.html

When and how have you developed this ability in yourself? How long did it take?

Marcel Cairo posted on the Skeptiko podcast forum a call for questions for Dr. Dean Radin. Marcel will interview Dr. Radin on February 27th for his AfterLifeFM podcast. Below is Marcel’s message:

Hello esteemed consciousness enthusiasts.

I will be conducting an interview with Dr. Dean Radin on February 27th, 2008. You are once again invited to contribute to this interview by submitting your question to my toll-free AfterlifeFM Interview line at 1-877-372-5367. This is a voice mail system that is open and available 24/7.

Please submit your questions by Monday, February 25th.

Things to keep in my mind:

1. Ask only one question at a time (two parts of same question is acceptable), but do not make it impossible for me to edit.
2. Be clear, concise and conservative with time.
3. Don’t answer your own question or try to declare your own position.
4. Be chipper & charming. This is radio, not a morgue.
5. You can always erase or edit by pressing # sign during/after your recorded message

Thanks for your cooperation and participation,
Marcel

First thing I noted is the better production quality. Although the content of the show is the most important aspect, good production quality really benefits listeners.

The first episode a little over 20 minutes long, which is shorter than most episodes, but the reason is that it is not the regular interview episode but more like an opening show for the season, in my opinion. Alex called the episode Academic Snobbery and the Journal of Scientific Exploration and he talked about the issue of fringe science research and publication. He include audio quotes of his talks with Dr. Peter Sturrock, the editor of the Journal of Scientific Exploration. Also, University of Florida animal behaviorist, Dr. Clive Wynne and University of Colorado Ethologist, Dr. Marc Bekoff.

The show has a narrative tone with hints of humor, which really gives it a bit different feel. Some people expressed negative reactions to this change in the Skeptiko forums and you are welcomed to give your opinion, after you listen to the podcast.

I really wish great second season to Alex and I’m sure the content of it will be at least as good as in 2007.

Dr. Dean Radin (of the Institute of Noetic Sciences) posted on his blog a note about two recent speeches that he’s done. The first speech was on January 16th in the Google headquarters (Telepathic search engine, anyone ?).

The good thing about the speech is that the video is available on Youtube with the full speech (over 90 minutes), which is really great. The video is edited, showing the slides well and with good sound quality. The abstract of the speech is as follow:

Do telepathy, clairvoyance and other “psi” abilities exist? The majority of the general population believes that they do, and yet fewer than one percent of mainstream academic institutions have any faculty known for their interest in these frequently reported experiences. Why is a topic of enduring and widespread interest met with such resounding silence in academia? The answer is not due to a lack of scientific evidence, or even to a lack of scientific interest, but rather involves a taboo. I will discuss the nature of this taboo, some of the empirical evidence and critical responses, and speculate on the implications.

On January 19th, Dr. Radin talked in a conference entitled “Investigations of Consciousness and the Unseen World: Proof of an Afterlife?” where he talked about the possible implications of Psi on the possibility of afterlife.

A senior reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Scott Carlson, has sent me a link to his article in the latest issue of magazine. The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper that is a source of news,information, and jobs for college and university faculty and administration. The Chronicle is the major news service in the American academic world. More on the magazine on Wikipedia. The article, titled “The Truth Is Out There” starts with the following:

The pivotal moment of Stephen E. Braude’s academic career happened when he was in graduate school, on a dull afternoon in Northampton, Mass., in 1969.

Or, at least, what follows is what he says happened. Readers — skeptics and believers both — will have to make up their own minds.

The article then tells the story of Stephen Braude, how he started to be interested in the paranormal and then his career in the academic world, which turned more difficult as he pressed his parapsychological research. The article also discusses the latest book by Braude, The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations where he summarizes lots of paranormal cases but also trashes many people, both fake psychics and some prominent skeptics, including Paul Kurtz and James Randi. From the article:

Randi is described as a “publicity hound” who “weaseled out” of a challenge to explain phenomena produced by Ted Serios, who some believe could make odd and spooky images appear on Polaroid film. Kurtz is described as “disreputable” and sloppy. The skeptics, Braude says, pick out the weakest cases and demolish them, then use those spectacular debunkings to persuade the public that all exotic claims are bosh.

The article also touches the difficulties of being accepted in the academic world when one does this kind of research:

... Some people at UMBC seem to not want to be associated with his [Braude’s] research, or even talk about it. Senior members of Braude’s own department either did not reply or did not want to comment about his work when contacted by The Chronicle.

In 2002 Braude gave a lecture to the physics department, where he says he was shouted down by other professors. Lynn Sparling, an associate professor of physics at the university, doesn’t remember the substance of the talk, but she remembers her impression of Braude. “I came away feeling that this guy was kind of an embarrassment to the university,” she says. “I just thought he was a total goofball. I couldn’t believe some of the things that I was hearing.”

So it seems to me that Alex Tsakiris of Skeptiko podcast is correct when he presses that this is a real issue for serious scientists who just can’t take the risks of being associated with parapsychology.

The Chronicle requires a little payment to get access to the article (to the whole magazine, actually). The link to the article that requires payment is: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i18/18b01101.htm.

Scott was kind enough, though, to send a free access link to the article which is accessible for a limited time of 5 days from today, where you’ll be able to read this article. He’ll ask for a permanent free link for the article, if possible. My thanks to Scott for his interesting article and for his time to work this out with me.

The Skeptical Inquirer Magazine (by CSICOP) named Ten Outstanding Skeptics of the Century. The names were selected by a poll done by the Fellows of the CSICOP. The list goes like this:

1. James Randi (no need to introduce)
2. Martin Gardner, author of book “Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science”
3. Carl Sagan
4. Paul Kurtz – the founder of CSICOP and of the magazine
5. Ray Hyman – professor of psychology, “the leading constructive critic of academic parapsychology research”.
6. Philip J. Klass – “The Sherlock Holmes of UFOlogy”
7. Sci-Fi writer Isaac Asimov.
8. Philosopher Bertrand Russell
9. Best known magician Harry Houdini
10. Albert Einstein

So, from the list it is obviously seen that the skeptics themselves consider a magician with no real scientific background (James Randi in the top of the list) over the most prominent scientist of the 20th century (Albert Einstein on 10th spot). Now, how can you consider them to be serious skeptics with such a list?

Happy holidays. I’m presenting another article by drew hempel. I’ve asked drew to write in more detail on the subject of the connection between math and music and how it connects to the paranormal. I felt that his article The Secret of Psychic Music Healing was assuming too much of the reader and so asked him to write a more explanatory article, which I now present.

Against Archytas:  How the West Lost Alchemy or Paranormal Complimentary Opposite Harmonics

by drew hempel, MA

(anti-copyright, free distribution)

The early Greek mathematics used the 60-based number system of Babylon from which Archytas, a collaborator with Plato, received the harmonic tetrachord or the continued proportion 6:8::9:12.  This tetrachord creates a geometric mean between the octave, perfect fourth and perfect fifth music intervals, or 1:2:3:4, through “divide and average” logarithmic-based mathematics.  So 6:8 and 9:12 are in the continued proportion 3:4, the perfect fourth music interval, while 6:9 and 8:12 are 2:3, the perfect fifth music interval, and 6:12 is 1:2, the octave.  The geometric mean is A:B::B:C or B squared = AC or the square root of AC = B. What Archytas added to this Babylon “divide and average” harmonic mathematics was the concept of the Greek “incommensurable” – the algebraic axiomatic proof of “alogon” or a precise irrational number, the square root of two.  This process ushered in what’s called “The Greek Miracle” that continues to be the structure of science:  symmetry-based mathematics.

Instead of the above system, the alchemical Pythagorean Tetrad relies on complimentary opposite harmonics so that an equilateral triangle of geometric points equals the continued proportion 1:2:3:4 as the octave, perfect fifth and perfect fourth music intervals.   In “orthodox” Pythagorean harmonics this was known as the “subcontrary mean” whereby the complimentary opposites of the Tetrad were maintained in violation of “divide and average” mathematics.  So for the Tetrad A:B is 2:3 and B:A is 3:4 against the commutative property, A x B = B x A.   In music theory this complimentary opposite inversion of the perfect fifth and perfect fourth is taught as 2:3 is C to G while 3:4 is G to C.  This process of complimentary opposites is listened to, as the perfect fifth, perfect fourth harmonics, which create all the notes.  Most importantly the complimentary opposite harmonics transduces sound throughout the whole energy spectrum, as I’ve described in previous articles..   

Philolaus, one of the early Pythagorean writers, detailed that this “subcontrary mean” or complimentary opposite harmonic caused any attempt at subdividing the scale into symmetry as a failure.  In contrast Archytas changed the “subcontrary” complimentary opposite mean into the “harmonic mean” using “divide and average” mathematics.  The outcome has precisely opposite the meaning of “harmony” which for Pythagoreans referred to the paranormal source of sound as the Goddess Harmonia or what I call female formless awareness.  For Philolaus the perfect fifth as 2:3 could be inverted to 3:2 and then extended another fifth to 9:4 and then divided back into the octave, below 2, for the major second interval of 9:8 or C to D.  Yet 9:8 cubed or three major second music intervals equaled the 3:2 perfect fifth music interval, plus a tiny ratio called “the comma of Pythagoras.”  

This “comma of Pythagoras” is the difference between the “divide and average” octave system adopted by Archytas and the complimentary opposite fifths inverting into fourths, used by the orthodox Pythagoreans.  The “comma of Pythagoras” is the key to harmonic alchemy whereby 2:3, the perfect fifth, is yang in Taoism and 3:4, the perfect fourth, is yin.  As Gurdjieff desribes the “shock” of the diatonic scale, whereby the “inverse ratios” do not line up with the octaves, is intensified as the octaves expand.  In contrast Archytas argued that 9/8 cubed or three major second intervals equals the square root of two as the Greek Miracle, the axiomatic algebra of the precise incommensurable irrational number.  What Archtyas essentially did, as I’ll describe, is equate the perfect 5th or 2:3 with the perfect 4th or 3:4 as equally-divided or symmetric ratios through a “divide and average” mathematics.

Archytas took the Babylonian geometric mean of 6:8::9:12 used for harmonics and then applied the Pythagorean Tetrad 1:2:3:4 so that the 2:3 ratio of complimetary opposite frequency was converted to 3:2 as a materialistic vibrating string length.  This became known as the Law of Pythagoras even though it goes against the true meaning of the complimentary opposites when this “inverse ratio” is combined with the “divide and average” commutative property. Gurdjieff, for example, still relies on the “inverse ratio” of density or string length versus frequency or consciousness.  But Gurdjieff does not use Archytas’ “divide and average” symmetric-based mathematics, instead Gurdjieff relies on the Law of Three aka the Tetrad, or octave-fifth-fourth,  to resonate through the comma of Pythagoras as the “shocks” of alchemy.  In Taoism this system of alchemical shocks is taught as the 12 harmonic nodes along the outside of the body, enabling healing and paranormal energy, an exercise called “the small universe.”

Shift in Action, media library on conscious change is available for FREE until Dec. 24th, according to their website. See the announcement here. Shift in Action is a part of the IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) started by past austranaut, Capt. Edgar Mitchell, which researches the various aspects of consciousness.

The media library includes many videos, teleseminars and articles by leading figures in the world of developing and researching the consciousness. Jump on the opportunity and sorry for being a bit late about posting this.

For those of you who like latest scientific articles on the difficult subjects of consciousness, religion and quantum physics relation to all that, head over to read the second issue of the AntiMatters journal. AntiMatters is “an open-access journal addressing issues in science and the humanities from non-materialistic perspectives.” Stephen Braude is also on the editorial board.

Here’s some description of the goals of AntiMatter, quoted from the journal.

AntiMatters encourages the exploration of ontologies that are essentially monistic, not because they aim to reduce reality to a single category such as matter or mind, but because they assign ultimate reality to an entity or principle that is intrinsically one. Such ontologies model reality “from the top down,” using novel explanatory concepts such as differentiation, manifestation, emanation, or emergence (and probably others that nobody has thought of yet).

AntiMatters is for those who are uncomfortable with (or unconvinced of) materialism, or who favor a non-materialistic world view. Such persons are oftentimes unaware of how much of what is claimed to have been scientifically established is actually spurious. For their benefit, the Journal aims to critically examine the alleged scientific evidence for materialism. While authors are expected to respect and take account of all relevant empirical data, they should bear in mind that empirical data are inevitably theory-laden and paradigm-dependent, and that theories and paradigms, being to a considerable extent social constructions, are relative.

The current issue, Vol 1, No 2, has articles by Ulrich J Mohrhoff, who is the managing editor of the journal, by Donald D Hoffman, who wrote article about the “debates between theists and atheists”. There are two articles by Peter Kingsley, who is a leading figure on the origins of western spirituality. There are also two interviews with Peter.

Ulrich Mohrhoff also wrote two book reviews. First “The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul” by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary. The second is of the book “Science as a Spiritual Practice” by Imants Barušs, a Professor of Psychology at King’s University College at The University of Western Ontario, where Imants asks the question of whether “a spiritual practice be developed that would be suitable for scientists”?

If you missed the first issue, also packed with many articles, you can find it here.

THe journal requires some time to read and digest and clearly represents a non-materialistic view of the world by its writes.

Daniel Tammet

The story of Daniel Tammet is a rare story. And although it is not about psychic abilities, it is still a story of extreme, paranormal mental ability. Daniel Tammet is what is called a Savant. A savant, while literally means a learned person, and comes into English from the French, usually means a “polymath”, or a person of exceptional genius, like Leonardo da Vinci. But there’s also the kind of people who are called Autisic savants, and these people are more special. Daniel Tammet is one of them and he’s more valuable to the scientific world that most of them, for reasons to be disclosed below.

Autistic Savants are usually people who have really extraordinary mental abilities in some areas but are usually so at the expense of social skills and they are all autistic by definition, which makes contact with them harder. One of the more famous living savants is Kim Peek, who was the inspiration for Dustin Huffman’s role in the movie “The Rainman”. Daniel (born 1979), on the hands, is almost normal and can express himself very well, including how his mind seems to work. Daniel has the following extraordinary abilities: