Archive for the ‘Science Blog’ Category

By Chad Wilson,
Publisher — Paranormal Underground eMagazine

I was recently on a podcast with Marcus Leader and let me tell you, the man is a virtual library of information on both the spiritual and scientific aspects of the paranormal. He is a Toltec Shaman. Having studied under Carlos Castaneda while at UCLA, he combines aspects of the Shamanic world with his scientific study, especially in the area of equipment, of which he lets such groups as Haunted South Paranormal Research and TV shows such as Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures test in the field.

It was during our conversation, which dealt with such varied subjects as scalar theory, vibration rates of matter, and some of the basic principles of Toltec Shamanic beliefs, that a thought occurred to me. Have these various spiritual groups had it right all along? Was science just now coming to some of the same conclusions, beliefs that such groups as the Toltec Shamans or Tibetan Monks have held since the early beginnings of their foundation?

I almost brought that point up, the fact that science seems to be only now catching up. Maybe I should have. I do rely heavily on my instincts, almost a sixth sense, though I don’t believe I am too psychic. I do have those moments when I think I might be, dreams, feelings about people, and the like. But back to the point I was trying to make, my gut said say something, but I knew we were short on time, so I didn’t. Oh well, another observation for another time, as we hope to have Mr. Leader back for another podcast at some point in the future.

I have always felt that the spiritual ran along a similar path as science; I just think that the spiritual knowledge we receive is enlightenment, whereas science puts the observation into physical terms. Where somebody of a spiritual nature might see dark matter as the astral aether, the scientific view is to see it as the scalar field. It’s almost as if science took the long way around, while the spiritual took the straight and narrow path. Yet somehow the spiritual groups got it right first.

Maybe it’s something we’ve known all along, ingrained into our psyche, or knowledge from a past civilization advanced enough to understand the principals — a sort of spiritual memory. Seeing as how I believe in reincarnation, all this is made possible by that fact alone. In other words, maybe the Shamans of today were the scientists of centuries past in other advanced civilizations lost to us through the march of time.

Sound crazy? Then again, it is no more crazy than two related particles, which upon being separated, exhibit what is happening to each other, evidenced through their spin. It’s no crazier than the notion that our universe, one of many, sits upon a slowly expanding bubble, with time being a result of that expansion . . . ideas that would have been laughed at in the past but are now looked at seriously by the scientific community.

This all brings me to my point. Scalar Theory is relatively new, at least to Western science. It was looked into extensively by Germany during World War II, and yielded some very peculiar results. Referred to as pseudoscience by some, it does offer some wild possibilities. Even now I have in my possession a device that is purported to detect the scalar field — a microphone to make it easier to pick up the voices of the deceased. I plan on testing this device in the future, and I will let you know the results. Marcus Leader has a similar device called a Beryllium Microphone, the same Beryllium Microphone used on Ghost Adventures upon occasion.

Mr. Leader, being a Toltec Shaman, has listed his beliefs about crystals as what led to him trying out different types of crystals for the Beryllium Microphone. It was using his training as a Toltec Shaman to see auras that led him to discover that beryllium crystals were the best for what he was trying to achieve — communication across the veil. He has made further devices containing these crystals, such as his Darklight.

My conclusion is this, if Marcus Leader, a Toltec Shaman, used his knowledge as a Shaman to further bolster his ability to create these devices, devices which seem to produce results; then his spiritual knowledge helped him surpass his scientific knowledge, or at the very least augment it.

Like I said, science is just now starting to look at scalar theory. They are finally catching up to what the Toltec Shamans, and other groups, have known all along. So, it seems that both sides have been on the same path all along, it just took one longer to get there. Don’t get me wrong; the journey is only beginning. I am just glad that both groups seem to finally be on the same page.

Please make sure to check out our Podcast with Marcus Leader by clicking here:  http://www.paranormalunderground.net/site/?cat=5.

Using EMF detectors in your investigation? Check out Dreamsinger’s blog over on TIPS as he discusses the things to consider when using EMF detectors.

Nope – I’m not blogging about it. But Dreamsinger did. Check out his blog on TIPS - it is a two parter, and it is a good one.

Battery Drain Used as Evidence of the Paranormal – Part I
Battery Drain Used as Evidence of the Paranormal – Part II

by Jim Frazier
Paranormal Underground

Jim - and friends

Read Karen’s initial blog about the human soul.

After 6 years of marriage to my beautiful, intelligent wife, during which time we have discussed almost every major topic we could think of, I finally got asked if I believe that human beings have souls. Truth be told, I believe that most people do. I have to exclude Politicians, Litigation Attorneys, and DMV workers, for all of the obvious reasons (traded them for power, sold them for a quick buck, and had them scraped away by years of working in the 3rd circle of Hell). Every human being is the culmination of their life’s experiences. Every person has their own unique perspective. Everyone dreams and feels emotions. Something has to make us alive and separate us from the unflattering bags of meat and bone that we become once the living soul has left us (or when most of us hit the beach in a Speedo). The real questions, however, are not so easily dismissed.

Can the soul be physically separated from the brain, or does it simply cease to exist once the chemical reactions stop making it dance around? From a physical standpoint, death isn’t all that mysterious. Once the heart stops pumping oxygenated blood to the brain, enzymatic reactions quickly drive the brain’s pH towards the acidic end of the scale. The normal pH range is 7.25 to 7.45, which would be a narrow band for a swimming pool, much less something with 100 trillion nerve junctions fueled by coffee and whatever other crap we ate for breakfast. When things go bad in the blood chemistry department, they go really bad really fast. Delicate, fatty brain tissue will stop being neurologically useful long before it actually turns to mush, so you’re only moments away from Cream of Wheat when the O2 gets turned off. Tests have shown that the part of your brain that stores and integrates short-term memory (the Hippocampus) lasts all of about 11 seconds before it throws in the towel, so if you want to remember going towards the light, then you’d better make it snappy. Considering the delicate balance of subtle neurotransmitters acting across nanometer-wide synaptic gaps, it’s really a wonder that our brains function as well as they do. Then again, perhaps it is the minor malfunctions that really make us who we are. More on that thought later.

Personally, I believe that in the purest sense, the soul is destroyed with the physical mind that created and housed it. In my mind, it simply has to be that way, because no matter how subtle the chemical reactions are, they are still driven by physical processes that occur within the confines of the human skull. It is not outside the realm of possibility that they are influenced by the infinitesimally small particle spins and quantum wave functions that effectively form the background of the universe, but even if that ultimately proves to be true, it would still be like kicking in the screen of your TV set. The station may still be broadcasting, but you’ll never get any closer to figuring out what the heck is happening on Lost. If the mind really is a purely biochemical process, then it’s Bedtime for Bonzo once the doctor calls time of death. If, however, quantum forces are at play, then some underlying portion of what makes us “us” might be imprinted on the fabric of reality. If you dig down deeply enough, time, space, and matter are all patterns of energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed. I don’t believe that a human soul could continue to think, feel, or even sense the universe around it, but strong patterns (like emotions, perhaps?) could possibly continue to resonate through space and time even after Elvis has clearly left the building. We just don’t know enough yet about the true nature of reality to shut the door on that one, and I’d prefer to save pretending to know for the TV evangelists of the world.

The other big question in my mind is whether human consciousness could be stored in something other than a brain. Could we soon clone ourselves and download our lives into fresh new bodies? It sounds like a great idea, but is consciousness truly portable? Short of the Vulcan mind-meld, I just can’t see any possible way for the whole enchilada to be downloaded. The reason I say this is that organic brains (us meat-sickles) don’t function anything like electronic brains, even the ones that don’t run Vista. Silicon transistors are purely digital devices, meaning that they were engineered from day one to only have two possible states, off or on. You can assign various meanings to the off and on states, but at the end of the day, there’s only two ways they can go. They are entirely predictable and infinitely repeatable, which makes them most unfit for carrying on an interesting conversation. I suppose they could be compared to the stereotypical accountant; great for doing your taxes, but not somebody you’d ever want to party with.

Human brains, as I briefly touched on earlier, are anything but perfectly repeatable. The chemical processes that drive synaptic junctions have a vast range of potential interactions, some of which end with the synaptic gap being bridged, and some that don’t. The neurotransmitters that drive these reactions are numerous, and the body is supposed to maintain them in ideal proportions, but who are we kidding? The body’s Circadian rhythms are supposed to keep us awake all day too, yet I myself need an Adrenaline I.V. to keep my brain going after lunch most days. When it comes to neurotransmitter production, distribution, and absorption, perhaps just having enough of each on hand to keep the train running is about all we can hope for. Most of the modern arsenal of psychoactive pharmacopeia acts by adjusting the balance of neurotransmitter compounds in the brain, which is why not everybody has a good trip on LSD, and why mildly depressed teenagers on anti-depressants sometimes get suicidally depressed. Balance is essential to the well-being of the whole, and some drugs are a little too much like hunting squirrels with a bazooka. Sure, the squirrel buys it, but at what cost to your Azalea bushes? Computers might soon be able to store the full 100 trillion bits of data that scientists estimate the average brain to contain, but they aren’t about to do it with a melancholy sense of ennui. Unless somebody invents a computer that gets fuzzy after a couple glasses of wine, I’m pretty sure that myself will be dying with me someday.

I really do hope I leave an echo somewhere. It would sure make death suck a lot less.

by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

From Wikipedia: Scientific method refers to bodies of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. (emphasis mine).

Did you know that quantum physics was advanced because one physicist – Max Planck – made a wild guess that he called an “act of desperation?” His act of desperation turned out to be exactly right – and Planck’s constant (h) is now a basic tenant of quantum physics. It is the physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta in quantum mechanics. When he developed the constant, Planck was working the math backwards. It worked for him.

Sometimes an act of desperation like Max Planck’s becomes the hypothesis that leads to scientific discovery. The trick is in developing scientific protocols to objectively test the hypothesis. This is the basis for the scientific method.

Yep – paranormal investigation is currently far from a science, although there are many investigators in the field who are doing good work. The trick is in developing testable hypotheses and then following scientific method to test their veracity.

In this process, there is no place for belief or disbelief, because the interpretation of scientific results can be skewed by personal agendas.

The trick lies, then, in finding objective tests that gather evidence to either support or disprove the hypothesis. In science, you can learn as much by disproving a hypothesis as you can by proving it, so no truly scientific effort is ever wasted.

I think that what you see from those toiling in the trenches of paranormal investigation is people making their best efforts to come up with testable hypotheses. Many of the investigators I know are subjecting their evidence to the scrutiny of experts, returning and retesting, and trying to bring science into what they do in any way that they can.

Where science bumps up against belief, however, is where investigators have had amazing experiences. They’ve experienced objects being thrown in a room by an unseen hand. They’ve been scratched, slapped, and in one case, kicked in the nuts. Seriously. These are investigators who are pretty darn sure that they know that something is going on. They’ve seen it, felt it, experienced it. And they are making good faith efforts to quantify it, verify it and explain it.

So how does anecdotal and experiential evidence meet up with scientific method? And is it important that it does? I guess the answer depends on why you need to know the answers. Do you just need to know for yourself? If so, then your experiences will probably be enough. If, on the other hand, you are trying to advance the field in a scientific manner, then perhaps further quantification is warranted.

This brings up a good question. Can science prove all phenomena? I may be in a minority here, but I believe it can. If there is an observable phenomenon, then there are probably scientific reasons why said phenomenon is occurring. It may not be a science that we recognize or know of yet, but somewhere down the line, we will. Science advances every day, and we are nowhere near having discovered every law of nature.

At the same time, it may take just one investigator who works a problem backwards or makes an act of desperation in pursuit of the truth who finds that one thing that becomes the foundation on which the science of the paranormal is built. To all of those who are toiling in the trenches of paranormal investigation, thank you for your efforts. It is on your shoulders that we stand in order to gain scientific understanding.

by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

In yesterday’s blog (Are You Ready for a Sci Fi Future?), I mentioned that teleportation was more than a possibility or a snippet from a Sci Fi film. In actuality, teleportation has been performed in the lab with consistent results on increasingly larger pieces of matter. Nothing as large as a living, breathing being, but still.

Here’s the catch with teleportation. It doesn’t move an object from place to place. Instead, it destroys said object and recreates its exact replica in a different location. Well – almost its exact replica. Because of Heisenberg’s principle, which states that you can’t determine a particle’s position and its momentum at the same time (to determine momentum you have to destroy position and to determine position you have to destroy momentum), it is impossible to create an exact replica. But you can come pretty darn close. When an object is being teleported, it isn’t quite exactly the same as the object that was destroyed. But it’s close enough for government work.

This brings all sorts of questions to mind. As scientists work with teleporting larger and larger particles, eventually there is going to come a time where what they decide they’d like to try and teleport is something living. What will the consequences be of such an attempt?

When you destroy a living being and make an exact copy, how exact will that copy be? According to Brian Greene, author of the Elegant Universe, it is likely that the differences will be so minute – a cell here and there – that from a grand scale, you would never know it wasn’t an exact copy.

But what if consciousness is a quantum function? What if some little element that moves around here or there in the destruction, copying and recreation is that teeny tiny particle that makes us US? Then what? Not only that, but if you take me – a decided original – destroy me, copy me, and put me back together as exact of a copy as possible under Heisenberg’s principle, will I still be me? If I have had all of my memories copied, destroyed and recreated, and if I have had my consciousness copied, destroyed and recreated, what will I be in that new place where I’ve been moved. Is an exact copy me, or is it now something else entirely?

These are the things I wonder and think about. What are the implications of teleportation? Is something that has been teleported using the current method of telportation actually its original or something else entirely? Is an exact replica of you YOU if you have been destroyed and put back together?

No answers. Only questions. What do you think?

by J.D. Harrison, Science Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

You know, I was thinking the other day about all of the people and personalities I get to meet as science editor for paranormal underground. As an anthropologist, it does my heart good to be able to interact with all of the wonderful diversity of beliefs and ideas that make up the paranormal community. One of the things that I get asked the most by many of those who send me questions is “J.D., what do you believe in?” This is probably one of the hardest questions that I attempt to answer.

Most of the people that I talk to seem to be rooted in what they believe in when it comes to the paranormal, and usually they come from one of two schools: The believer or the Skeptic. While the believer is sure that the paranormal is real, the skeptic is just as sure that it is not. There is nothing wrong with either point of view, as I am a firm believer that everyone’s opinion should be respected. I would never ridicule a person for his or her beliefs, and be the first to chastise anyone who did. You see, we form our opinions based on the life experiences that helped to form us, or our worldview. Our worldview is a culmination of all of the experiences and knowledge that we have accumulated throughout our lives, and has helped makes us who we are. It makes us different, for no two people process knowledge and experience in the same manner. Thus, our opinions vary just as our life experiences have. This is a good thing, for it helps to create diversity within our societies.

Throughout history, you find that many cultures have clashed because of differing ideas and viewpoints, each trying to convince the other that one is wrong and one is right. We see this even today. Sometimes on grand levels such as country to country, and sometimes on smaller scales from individual to individual. Different ideas clash with different ideas, differing beliefs clash with differing beliefs, the goal being to prove who is right and who is wrong, and in the process nothing is ever solved.

I see this a lot in the paranormal field, between the skeptic and the believer. The ever-continuing argument over what is real and what is not. Both sides submit their viewpoints on the subject, and both sides will always offer what they feel is a solid rebuttal to the other’s beliefs and once again, nothing is ever solved. So how do we turn this around? How can we find a common ground? By realizing that our worldview can bias our opinions of other ideas, and in the process blind us to the answers that we seek. Which brings us to the question “J.D., what do you believe in?”

In science, we are taught that in order to make proper observations, we must become aware of our worldview and approach our investigations from a neutral standpoint, neither believing nor disbelieving. This can be hard to do, but necessary in order to make unbiased observations. You cannot enter into a scientific endeavor with pre-formed opinions. By doing so, you make null what the data you gather tells you by having your answers beforehand. In the field of paranormal investigation, this is especially important as the paranormal to date has yet to be quantified. Data gathered in the field is critical if we are ever going to be able to come close to the answers we seek, and must be collected and analyzed properly without bias. The believer cannot claim that every instrumentation reading is a result of paranormal activity, and the skeptic cannot write off every event that occurs as something natural. This is bias, and the results of these types of investigating techniques will never produce valid results.

By using a proper scientific methodology, and entering an investigation neither as a skeptic or believer but as scientists, we may begin to properly collect the data we need to produce results. Collect your data in the same manner in each investigation. Record the results, and compare them to other investigations that you have conducted in a similar manner, in order to look for correlations. Analyze the data from these investigations to see if there is a pattern, and develop research questions that can be tested against this data. Only by doing this can we someday get closer to answering the question that we all seek the answer to: What causes paranormal activity?

by Karen Frazier (with special advisement by Quantum Geek Extraodinaire, Jim Fraizer), Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

I’ve been thinking. Dive for cover, folks – that can be scary.

More specifically, I have been thinking about quantum physics and Occam’s Razor (I like to call it by its gangsta name, “The Raz”). Let’s revisit The Raz for a moment. Franciscan Friar and logician, William of Occam is attributed with coming up with Occam’s Razor. Simply stated, The Raz says, “all things being equal, make as few assumptions as possible.” I find this one ironic, because “all things being equal” seems to involve some serious assumptions, don’t you think? What was most likely said is this: “plurality shouldn’t be posited without necessity.” The bottom line with The Raz is that it would appear that the simplest explanation is the most likely explanation.

Many take Occam’s Razor as scientific law. But it is not. Rather it is a (an?) heuristic - or rule of thumb. Don’t get me wrong. Heuristics are important in science, and certainly it is always best to make as few assumptions as possible during scientific exploration. Certainly, this applies to the paranormal as much as any other type of science or pseudoscience.

Which brings me to quantum physics/quantum mechanics (QM). Quantum physics is a fascinating science. I could give you a basic primer of QM here, but I’ll let this suffice:

Now that your eyes have glazed over, I’ll continue. In a dance off between gangstas, QM would serve The Raz and then it would be on. Ultimately, QM would emerge victorious. Yep – I shouldn’t speak gangsta. I get it. Here’s what I’m trying to say. When one looks at the insane complexity of quantum mechanics and sees how bizarre our universe is at its very smallest known elements, all of a sudden the typical application of Occam’s Razor isn’t a good fit. The sheer complexity of what we learn about the universe from QM renders the whole “all things equal” aspect of Occam’s Razor virtually meaningless. There’s nothing simple about QM and there’s nothing “equal” about the universe on a quantum scale. The things that happen on a quantum level are so bizarre that they look positively paranormal.

Here are some numbers from my beloved Quantum Geek, Jim. In every cubic meter of the universe (a space considerably smaller than your refrigerator), there are over 10 followed by 99 zeroes of possible locations for matter. All of which can change 18 million trillion trillion trillion times per second. Factor in Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which tells us that you can never know where things are AND where they are going at the same time. How on earth (or in the universe) can you ever find a space where all things are equal?

The Raz was posited long before physics had evolved to its current level of knowledge. Its origins are traced to works of earlier philosophers such as Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle to name a few. Certainly we have learned more of the universe and learned more of science since the time that these giants walked the earth.

As a rule of thumb, Occam’s Razor makes sense. Sometimes the simplest explanation is, indeed, the most likely explanation. I do doubt its infallibility, however. It is valuable in that it teaches us not to make assumptions. In science, assumptions are careless at best and dangerous at worst. But when we start to use it to limit the scope of what we consider as a possibility – when we use it to limit our thinking or dismiss possibilities worth exploring – then we are limiting our capacity to discover.

I’m all about discovery. It is why I try to stay open to possibilities – even some that may seem a little cockamamie (like ghosts? aliens?). I’ve seen what science has discovered, and it isn’t always simple. Sometimes it is so startlingly complex that it boggles the mind. And so, while I take The Raz into consideration, it isn’t the only tool in my toolbox. Because I want to remain open to possibilities and poised on the brink of discovery. It is from this position that the universe remains open to me.

Comparative Analysis EVP Experiment
by JD Harrison, Science Editor
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

Listen to EVPs here!
Paranormal evidence caught on video? You decide!

This is a relatively simple experiment that can be performed almost anywhere by anyone. In order to conduct this experiment, you will need a small notepad, a digital recorder, and two separate locations of similar size to record in.

In science, comparative analysis is used to find similarities and differences within like experiments. These types of experiments are useful in establishing the baseline for broader studies of the subject matter. In this experiment, the subject matter will be EVPs.

WHAT YOU NEED

In order to conduct this experiment, you will need a digital recorder, and two rooms of similar size and shape in different locations (you do not want to use different rooms within the same building, you want TWO separate locations).

HOW TO SET UP

Place the digital recorder in your first study location and try to minimize the amount of exterior noise that it will be subjected to. If the room has a door, close it. If the room has windows close them. NOTE: Try to make sure that both study locations are similar i.e. same number of windows and doors and similar size and shape. This does not have to be exact, but should be as close as possible. Next determine the amount of time that the recorder will be left in the room. This MUST be the same for both rooms. Record in you notepad where in the room the recorder was placed, its approximate distance from windows and doors, and any perceived outside noise that may affect your recording. (Remember to take into account any nearby objects that can cause anomalies on your recording such as nearby machinery or appliances, proximity to heating and cooling units that cycle on and off, ect.) After these steps are taken, leave the area and return at the designated time to retrieve your recording.

ANALYSIS

Compare the recordings and notes from both of your experiment locations. What are the similarities? What are the differences? Was one of you locations known to have paranormal activity? If so, was it reflected in the results? These are just a few of the research questions that should arise from an experiment like this. As mentioned earlier, experiments like these help to establish baselines in broader experiments of a similar nature. I look forward to seeing and discussing your results. Good Luck!

PARTICIPATION

Please post your intention to participate in the comment section of this forum. Also, post your results in the comment section so that we may discuss them further. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at: scienceeditor@paranormalunderground.net Thanks everyone, I’m looking forward to see what you’ve found.

by Karen Frazier
Paranormal Underground e-Magazine

A news brief in a recent Scientific American (Half Empty or Half Full, page 28, May 2009) discusses the findings of a recent University of Essex investigation of serotonin and perception/preference. According to the findings of the study, people who carried only long versions of the gene for the serotonin transporter protein paid attention to pleasant pictures while ignoring negative ones. Those with a shorter form were exactly the opposite, although their preferences weren’t as strong. Serotonin transporter protein controls levels of serotonin in the brain cells.

The focus of this study was to see if the genetic aspect of serotonin transporters somehow played a role in things like anxiety and depression, and from the limited study (97 people), it seems that the answer is yes. People may, indeed, be more genetically prone to looking on the brighter side of life (or the darker side of life).

This got my wheels turning. Are there implications for paranormal belief here? In our May 2009 issue of Paranormal Underground e-Magazine (it should be posted by about May 5), I took a look at the psychology of the paranormal and examined the roles that brain chemistry and psychology play in paranormal belief (or disbelief, for that matter).

Could it be that paranormal belief (and religious belief) is merely a chemical reaction that causes us to pay attention to or prefer one set of answers and beliefs over another?

Our brain is vastly unexplored, and the science to explain why we think, do, and believe what we do is in its infancy. Who knows what it is we will discover about ourselves and why we think as we do. Certainly, in studies like the one at the University of Essex, there seems to be evidence pointing in the direction that our brain chemistry drives much of who we are. The question remains – are we who we are because of our chemistry, or in spite of it? As always, I don’t have answers – only questions.

But here’s what I do know. In the SciAm article, there was a picture of a stack of chocolate and a picture of a spider. I looked at the chocolate, and didn’t even see the spider until they pointed it out in the article. Does that mean I ignore the unpleasant? Or does it merely mean I like chocolate? More studies are needed – I’m headed to the kitchen to find out.