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[1] Historical references to the health effects of music
[2] Research studies on effects of music on plants and
animals
[2.1] The "Mozart Effect"
[2.2] Using Baroque music to enhance learning a new
language
[2.3] Harmful effects of rock music on neuronal branching
patterns in mice
[2.4] Effect of music on cortisol levels in humans
[2.5] Music and its effects on plant growth
[2.6] The key frequency range for inducing the relaxation
response
[3] Technical problems in reproducing sound for therapeutic
purposes
[4] Using traditional Chinese medical (TCM) theory to
understand and predict the effects of classical compositions
on specific patterns of disharmony
[4.1] TCM theory of sound qualities and their effects
[4.2] Heart-Kidney non-communication
[4.2.1] String Quintet in C major (D 956) by Franz
Schubert
[4.2.2] Other compositions for the three types of
Heart-Kidney non-communication
[5] Guidelines for future research
[6] References
[1] Historical references to the health effects of music
The use of music and sound to improve health is not a novel
idea. Both harmful and beneficial effects of music have been
recognized by the ancient Greeks and Romans, including
Pythagoras, Democritus, Aristotle, Galen, and Celsus. [ref.
2b] Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) refers to the
qualities of specific instruments and sounds and their
beneficial effects on various organs. Plato, Cicero, and
Seneca all believed that music profoundly affected the
behavior of entire societies and that the state should
regulate the performance of music and prohibit certain types
because of their potentially harmful effects. [ref. 2a]
While such sentiments may be extreme, Plato's views remind
us that the modern benign attitude toward music as mere
"auditory cheesecake" [refs. 1a-1c] contradicts the more
ancient view of music as a powerful cultural force, for good
or evil. According to many musicologists, music is a form of
language or communication that directly accesses the
emotions without the intermediation of words and rational
thought.
Oswald Spengler, in his history text "Decline of the West",
devoted several chapters to the role of art and music in the
stability of civilizations. [ref. 2c] He observed that
musical traditions consistently reached their pinnacle of
classical form and beauty before a civilization achieved its
technical and political zenith, and that a general decline
in artistic and musical forms augured its demise. He
predicted that based on the popularity of extreme
romanticism and excessive sentimentality, dissonance, and
12-tone compositional styles in music of the early 20th
century Europe, Western civilization was fated to decline,
even as its technical and scientific wizardry promised great
wonders. One can only surmise that had Spengler lived to
witness punk rock, heavy metal, techno, and rap music in the
context of late 20th century America, he would have become
even more convinced of his theory's correctness.
Given the strong opinions of ancient physicians,
philosophers, and statesmen about the effects of music, both
positive and negative, our next question should be "Does
modern research support these opinions in any way?" People
living in modern industrialized nations have learned through
painful experience that many of the wonders of technology
have deadly side effects. Nuclear power was originally
promoted as being clean and safe alternative to burning coal
and oil. The ubiquitous plastics that promised to make our
lives convenient are now recognized to be a major source of
potent and dangerous hormone-disrupting chemicals. Excessive
television viewing is now being recognized as a factor in
learning and behavioral disorders in children. Could it be
possible that music, which many of us take for granted as
benign background noise, could have unrecognized effects,
both harmful and beneficial?
[2] Research studies on effects of music on plants and
animals
[2.1] The "Mozart Effect"
Much of the current research in music therapy focuses on
proving that music has measurable physiological and
psychological effects. Such effects are not difficult to
find or to measure, and are revealed by studies of human,
animal, and plant behavior, EEG recordings, hormone assays,
and cellular growth patterns. Frequently these results have
been misinterpreted and exaggerated by the popular media and
by marketing people, which is unfortunate, since the
documented effects are remarkable in themselves. The
so-called "Mozart Effect" is one such phenomenon that has
resulted in much confusion.
The "Mozart Effect" is based on research by Frances Rauscher
et al., who determined that listening to 10 minutes of
MozartÕs "Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major" briefly
increased scores 48% (relative to control groups) on the
paper-folding task, a component of the Stanford-Binet
intelligence test that measures spatio-temporal reasoning
abilities. [refs. 3a, 3b] Moreover, the effects were
transient, lasting only about 10 minutes, and performance on
non-spatial reasoning tasks was unaffected. Such results
seem to be unique to the music of Mozart, whereas music not
as highly structured did not have measureable effects. Other
researchers have demonstrated that compositions of other
classical composers such as J.S. Bach show similar benefits.
Listening to a few minutes of Mozart does not permanently
make one smarter; however, the results of Rauscher's study,
modest though they may seem, are profound. If such seemingly
benign stimuli affect even momentary intelligence, one might
wonder whether people exposed to specific types of music and
sounds over extended periods would experience
proportionately greater effects, both positive and negative.
[2.2] Using Baroque music to enhance learning a new language
Bulgarian psychologist George Lozanov found that playing
Baroque instrumental music (such as that of Handel and J.S.
Bach) in the background while teaching foreign language
vocabulary greatly increased student's speed of learning and
degree of memory retention. Music with a metre close to 60
beats per minute was found to be most effective; that this
rate closely matches that of a relaxed pulse is thought to
be significant. (Handel supposedly composed his famous
"Water Music" at the request of King George I of England to
aid him with his poor memory; whether the music helped or
not is undetermined.) [refs. 4a, 4b]
[2.3] Harmful effects of rock music on neuronal branching
patterns in mice
Physicist Harvey Bird and neurobiologist Gervasia
Schreckenberg subjected different groups of mice to the
sound of traditional voodoo drumming, to Strauss waltzes,
and to silence, and then tested each group's ability to
navigate through a maze to get food. [refs. 5a, 5b] All
music was played continuously at low volumes to eliminate
possible behavioral effects from loud sounds generally. The
groups that were subjected to either silence or Strauss
waltzes had no problem learning the maze, with the Strauss
waltz group having a slight edge in performance. However,
the voodoo group performed progressively worse over the
period of time they were exposed to the music and eventually
became so disoriented that they became unable to complete
the maze at all. These mice were also hyperactive and
aggressive, often engaging in cannibalistic behavior.
On dissection of the brains of these mice, highly abnormal
neuronal growth patterns were found in the hippocampus
region, with excessive dendritic branches growing out in all
directions yet making few connections to other neurons; the
hippocampus region is known to be important in learning and
memory formation. Significant increases in messenger RNA,
which is involved in memory formation, were also found. This
latter effect probably corresponds to the increase in
dendritic branching, as if the brains were persistently
attempting to make sense out the sound stimulus, but could
not.
A number of commentators have interpreted these findings to
condemn all forms of rock music; while this does not
necessarily follow logically from the Bird and Schreckenberg
results, the Retallack experiments (see section 2.5, below)
on plants at least suggests that many types of rock music
may be harmful to human health. Some researchers and health
professionals have suggested that the electronic distortion
used by many rock bands might be a factor, in addition to
the common use of anapestic rhythms (persistently
syncopated, with two short beats, a long beat, then a
pause).
[2.4] Effect of music on cortisol levels in humans
Different types of music may significantly affect blood
cortisol levels. Cortisol and adrenaline are two "stress"
hormones that are secreted by the adrenal glands in response
to ACTH. In one experiment, patients who had just been
informed of their need for imminent surgery, were tested for
blood cortisol concentrations after listening to a calming
piece of music, chosen by each patient in consultation with
a music therapist; cortisol levels were reduced by 50%
compared with the control group that did not listen to any
music. [ref. 6] In another experiment, this time with
healthy people, similar results were obtained by playing
sitar music by Ravi Shankar, whereas a waltz by Johann
Strauss and a rhythmically irregular, somewhat discordant
piece by contemporary composer W.H. Henze had no effect.
Elevated cortisol levels are normal and desirable in certain
circumstances, including high-intensity exercise. Trained
runners are able to induce high levels of cortisol quickly
without the aid of energizing musical accompaniment, but it
was found that such music could aid untrained runners in
producing such levels faster. Energizing music with a fast
tempo had this effect, but slow, calming music did not, as
might be expected. Perhaps sports team managers have always
known this, thus the popularity of strident tunes played by
brass bands before and during games to whip both players and
spectators into a frenzy. One also might wonder whether
certain types of agitating music, such as rock or heavy
metal may induce excessive cortisol over extended periods of
time and become addictive, in a similar manner to the
adrenal rush one gets from coffee.
[2.5] Music and its effects on plant growth
Plants have been shown to significantly increase their rate
of growth when stimulated by specific sound frequencies. In
the 1950's, Indian botanist T.C. Singh observed under a
microscope the protoplasm streaming in an Asian aquatic
plant, which normally increases at sunrise, and discovered
that such streaming could be induced at other times of the
day by activating an electrically driven tuning fork. He
then experimented with recorded South Indian violin music
played to a wide variety of plants, with frequencies of the
fundamental tones in the 100 to 600 Hz range; significantly
increased growth rates resulted. [ref. 7] About the same
time, a Canadian named Eugene Canby began subjecting test
plots of wheat to recordings of violin sonatas by J.S. Bach,
and found that yields increased by 66%. Other tests in
Russia, the U.S., and Canada with ultrasonic frequencies
yielded similar increases in the growth rates of other plant
species.
Various researchers then determined that the range of
frequencies around 5000 Hz were especially potent in
stimulating plant growth. During the 1960's, researcher
Dorthy Retallack determined that these frequencies were best
administered in the form of classical music (compositions of
J.S. Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and other
European 18th and 19th century composers; traditional North
Indian music performed on sitar and tabla), played
intermittently for several hours per day. [ref. 8a, 8b] A
Minnesota plant breeder named Dan Carlson collaborated with
a music teacher named Michael Holtz to create an audio tape
with a combination of frequencies centered about the 5000 Hz
range, which Holtz immediately recognized as being very
similar to the sound of a bird chorus at dawn. Carlson then
used this music to induce record-breaking growth rates in
Purple Passion vine plants. [ref. 7]
Retallack also experimented with various types of rock music
to see what effects they would have on plant growth. Plants
"listening" to selections from Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge,
and Jimi Hendrix became stunted or gangly, with long stems
and sparse leave growth, some bending away from the sound
source; after 16 days, most of these plants died.
Retallack also found that the discordant music of 20th
century composers Arnold Schonberg and Anton von Webern also
caused plants to atrophy, but not to the degree of the rock
music. Schonberg is considered to be the father of 12-tone
music, characterized by a total "freedom" from harmonic
contraints, wherein all 12 tones of the western musical
scale are ideally considered to be of equal weight and
value. Twelve-tone principles of composition were eagerly
embraced by avant garde faculty at music schools during the
early 20th century, and over the following decades began to
appear in popular music, and in background music for
television and radio programs. The 12-tone style is what
gives music for horror and suspense films its particular
capacity to shock and terrorize.
[2.6] The key frequency range for inducing the relaxation
response
A French ear specialist named Alfred Tomatis confirmed that
the same frequencies and musical styles Retallack
demonstrated to be beneficial for plants were also
beneficial for humans. [2b] Tomatis found that the types of
music most likely to promote EEG, or brainwave, patterns
correlated with relaxation of muscle tension and calm
attentiveness were the same types of Baroque and classical
compositions determined by Retallack to be optimal for
plants, especially those recordings rich in stringed
instruments, such as violin, viola, and cello. Specifically,
the frequency range from 5000 to 8000 Hz seemed to promote
alpha-band brainwaves the fastest; of all the musical
instruments, stringed instruments are richest in these
higher frequencies.
[2.7] Other research
There are numerous other studies from hospitals and medical
schools that have demonstrated effects of music on human
behavior and physiology. Some results from these various
studies are summarized here:
* Melodic intonation therapy, which involves speaking in a
strongly musical manner, promotes recovery from aphasia in
stroke patients who had failed to recover spontaneously
after a prolonged period. Reactivation of Broca's area was
verified by measurements of cerebral blood flow and PET
scanning. [ref. 9a]
* Spatio-temporal math reasoning ability in second-graders
is significantly enhanced by musical keyboard training.
[ref. 9b]
* Mozart's music (Sonata for Two Pianos, K.448) has been
show to reduce total seizure activity in epileptic patients
by 65%, when compared with silence and with "Old Time Pop
Tunes", which had no effect. Moreover, the music was
effective even for epileptics who were comatose at the time.
[ref. 9c, 9d]
* Music has been shown to help reduce post-surgical stress
and pain, to reduce symptoms of depression in home-bound
elderly people, and to aid children who are developmentally
delayed by enhancing hand-eye coordination. [ref. 10]
[3] Technical problems in reproducing sound for therapeutic
purposes
Modern CD recording technology and playback equipment has
improved greatly over the past few decades, but still
presents significant problems both for the therapeutic use
of musical recordings and for the achievement of acceptable
sound quality to musically trained listeners.
While harmonic distortion and frequency response
characteristics of playback equipment are well-known sources
of audio degradation, most commercial equipment of
reasonable quality merely degrades the audio signal so that
recorded music lacks vibrancy, as if something is missing.
While this may be disappointing, it is not a serious problem
from a therapeutic perspective. At worst, some of the
precious high frequency sounds may be lost, the very
frequencies that researchers Carlson and Tomatis identified
as being crucial to obtain the stimulating and energizing
effects on plants and people. Music lovers who enjoy string
quartets, for example, know that much of the electric
excitement of listening to a good performance is lost in
many playback systems because of poor reproduction of the
high frequencies. While loss of high frequencies may be
disappointing, most listeners can adapt to such defects.
CD recording technology introduces a new source of
distortion called jitter that is seldom officially
acknowledged except by fussier audiophiles and audio
equipment manufacturers. Jitter is a type of distortion
introduced due to small errors in timing of the digital
clock that drives the digital-to-analog-conversion component
of a CD player. [refs. 11a, 11b] According to several
sources, if this jitter exceeds 200 picoseconds, it becomes
audible as a weird, persistent, but very quiet whistling or
crackling sound. (I've personally listened to many systems
in audio stores and have heard this phenomenon.) Trained
musicians have often commented to me that they cannot stand
to listen to any CD recordings for more than a few minutes
without becoming irritable. Obviously, this type of
distortion is unacceptable if one hopes to use the music to
induce states of calm relaxation, focused attention, and
other forms of bliss, if the jitter is subtly driving
certain listeners mad.
How much research in music therapy may have failed to
reproduce the types of results discussed in section [2],
merely because of poor quality playback systems, especially
those that use CD players? (I have not been able to find any
discussion of this problem in the music therapy literature,
although many audiophile technical reports discuss it.)
[4] Using TCM theory to understand and predict the effects
of classical compositions on specific patterns of disharmony
Music therapy researchers have commented that while it is
relatively easy to prove that music can induce significant
physiological effects, the nature of these effects varies
among individuals and is a result of a complex interaction
among the musical composition, the context in which a person
listens to it, and the individual's personality and state of
health. That not all people will react similarly to a
specific piece of music is obvious to anyone who loves
music, but explaining the reasons for these differences is
considered by music therapy researchers to be so difficult
that the question is usually avoided entirely. Standard
research protocols with control and experimental groups,
assuming homogeneous effects with variations around a
statistical average, do not easily reveal why the music of a
certain composer or a particular piece may awaken one person
from a deep depression, yet evoke feelings of indifference
or revulsion in others.
As a clinical TCM herbalist, I've frequently used music as
an adjunct to herbs and diet as a way to help people
overcome the emotional and mental blocks that often
accompany many health problems. On numerous occasions I've
felt significant changes and improvements in pulse qualities
while an individual listens to specific recordings of music.
Traditional Chinese herbalists palpate an individual's
radial pulse to feel a number of qualities such as rate,
width, strength, rhythm, regularity, elasticity, and pulse
profile; many pulse qualities are closely related to
emotional and mental states that induce changes in either
sympathetic and parasympathetic activity.
In this section, we will explore how traditional Chinese
methods of classifying patterns of disharmony and illness
might provide the missing tool for analyzing and
understanding why specific sounds, sound qualities, and
pieces of music affect individual listeners differently.
Such understanding is essential to use music effectively in
a clinical setting.
The following comments and ideas are based on my own
experiences with clients, students, and friends over many
years, combined with my understanding of Chinese theories of
health and illness; they should be considered as tentative
hypotheses for exploration rather than as dogma. Have fun
with this section - obtain and listen to recordings of the
compositions discussed below and discover whether you hear
and feel the ideas I describe.
[4.1] TCM theory of sound qualities and their effects
The effects of musical sounds and instruments is discussed
briefly in ancient Chinese texts, much of it based on Five
Element Theory. Five Element Theory is a somewhat simplistic
system of phenomenological correspondences, or metaphors;
students of TCM herbology will recognize it as inadequate to
the level of discrimination necessary to choose herbs
correctly, but with music as therapy, we are at a
kindergarden stage of understanding, so some of its ideas
may be useful in pointing us in the right direction.
The following chart lists each of the five traditional
elements followed by the emotions, organs, sounds, and
musical instruments corresponding to each element:
Another general set of rules we derive from Ayurvedic and
yogic tradition regarding the effects of different sound
frequencies on the different chakras, or levels of the body.
Higher frequencies tend to affect the head region, lower
frequencies the base of the spine and lower abdomen, and
intermediate frequencies the chest and neck. This principle
can be verified experientially by simply listening to a home
audio system with good clarity and frequency response, and
sampling recordings with both timpani (a type of drum with
very low frequency response) and violin (which, of all the
orchestral instruments, has the most energy in the high
frequency range above 5000 Hz). Most people will report that
the higher violin notes induce a distinct physical sensation
especially at the top of their heads, whereas deep bass
notes will be felt lower, either equally over the whole body
or especially in the lower half.
The preceding rules should not be taken dogmatically, but
only as general tendencies. For example, almost every
instrument can have effects on all the emotions, depending
upon the precise musical content, such as key signature
(major/minor), tempo, rhythm, loudness, melodic profile,
contrapuntal technique, and other compositional features.
The skill of great composers is reflected in the range of
effects that they can obtain by using variations of these
basic elements of sound. Our task is to attempt to correlate
some of these sound elements and qualities with TCM elements
of disharmony, to aid us in predicting which types of
musical compositions might be beneficial for specific
patterns of illness and disharmony (patterns of symptoms and
clinical signs). This is a big undertaking, and rather than
give you a long list of tentative and speculative rules,
let's begin by exploring the use of various types of music
for one specific type health imbalance that is very common
in industrialized countries.
[4.2] Heart-Kidney non-communication
There are several distinct manifestions of this phenomenon,
but all of them may be associated with strong psychosomatic
components, especially mental and emotional stress. As these
are common maladies in modern industrialized countries,
developing ways to resolve this inner tension in creative
ways, rather than merely suppressing the symptoms with
either drugs or herbal formulas, would be useful not only to
the individual sufferers, but to their friends, family, and
work associates as well.
The several types of Heart-Kidney non-communication are as
follows [ref. 12]:
(1) Heart-Kidney non-communication with Deficiency of
Yang with mild Deficiency of Yin. Symptoms of this pattern
generally include fatigue due to overwork and worry,
intolerance of temperature extremes, dream-disturbed sleep,
pale tongue appearance, and weak pulse. If severe, symptoms
may also include watery diarrhea, spontaneous sweating and
night sweats, dizziness, and palpitations.
(2) Heart-Kidney non-communication with chronic
Deficiency of both Qi and Yin. Symptoms: irritability,
fatigue, insomnia with restless sleep, inability to
concentrate, forgetfulness, dry stools, tongue red with
scanty coating, pulse rapid and thin.
(3) Heart-Kidney non-communication with Deficiency of
Yin predominant. Symptoms: irritability with sensation of
heat in the chest, insomnia characterized by an inability
to relax and become calm while lying down, palpitations with
anxiety, tongue red with dry yellow coat, pulse thin and
rapid. Often occurs in the aftermath of high fever
illnesses, but may also result from chronic mental stress
with overconsumption of alcohol.
A common emotional theme in all of the variations of
Heart-Kidney non-communication is the mismatch between one's
will and logical mind and one's emotional needs. For
example, consider the case of a man (details changed
somewhat) whose father strongly encouraged him to become a
minister. He completed divinity school, was assigned to a
parish, and discovered that, as an introspective and private
individual, he dreaded dealing with large numbers of people
and giving speeches. This man persisted, in spite of
never-ending dislike of his profession, and eventually
developed hyperthyroidism, which is one possible biomedical
manifestation of Heart-Kidney non-communication.
(Hyperthyroidism can also manifest as other patterns,
including various Liver disharmonies.) The crisis over his
health finally gave him a face-saving excuse to resign. His
hyperthyroidism eventually resolved "spontaneously" after he
became an engineering draftsman, work that he enjoyed.
Such examples are common among people with hyperthyroid
conditions I've seen over the years. The "Heart", or one's
inner sense of knowing, when it becomes chronically
frustrated by one's "Kidneys", or will power and reasoning
mind, subconsciously sets the stage for a health crisis by
revving the body's metabolism up to a chronically
hyperactive state until the crisis is handled
satisfactorily. This aspect is probably the central
emotional theme of Heart-Kidney non-communication syndromes.
Moreover, aspects of this emotional dynamic are present in
most addictions: the individual suffering from cravings or
addictions often consciously knows the nature of the
problem, but the mere knowledge of this combined with sheer
will power can only succeed in overcoming temptation for so
long, unless the underlying unmet emotional needs are
eventually recognized and resolved. Often this does not
happen until the individual "hits bottom".
Perhaps the biggest problem in an herbalist's practice is
client non-compliance: people find the most creative ways to
sabotage their own health, from repeatedly burning their
herb tea on the stove, letting it spoil, forgetting to take
it, and finding excuses and important business that prevents
them from eating in a healthy manner. In many of these
cases, it may be clear what they need to do, and even they
recognize the situation, but find that their will (Kidneys)
is at war with their emotions (Heart).
In section [2] of this report I've already outlined the
scientific evidence of the physiological effects of music.
In my personal experience as a clinical herbalist, the one
single pattern described by Chinese herbology that responds
more powerfully to music than any other is Heart-Kidney
non-communication. Next, I'll describe in detail specific
musical compositions that I would consider good choices for
each of the three types of Heart-Kidney non-communication,
and the reasons why each works.
Before we get into specific compositions, I need to preface
them with one note of caution: each of the compositions
below involves stringed instruments, and not everyone likes
the sound of violins, violas, and cellos. I've found that,
often, those individuals who are most averse to the sound of
these instruments have some type of disharmony related to
Stagnation of Liver Qi and related disharmonies, and will
describe the sound as being shrill and irritating. It is
quite possible for Heart-Kidney non-communication patterns
to coexist with many other patterns, including Liver
Stagnation disorders, and if this is the case, the rules
governing choices of herbs as well as music become more
involved. The general principle of Chinese herbology that
one must remove Excess before tonifying Deficiency applies
here. One cannot introduce either nutrient herbs or
"nutrient" sounds to an area of the body if it is tight or
blocked in some manner. In such cases, purging, draining,
and clearing methods may be necessary prior to administering
tonifying, or restorative, qualities.
The best way to experience the following music is to play
the recording at a comfortable and realistic volume, but not
so loud that potentially annoying distortion effects of your
audio system become apparent. You should turn off the room
lights, preferably at night when the room can be darkened
entirely, and lie down on a comfortable surface while
listening. If listening with a group of people, it is best
that everyone close their eyes to avoid looking at others to
see how they are reacting. Chamber music, in contrast to
public parades and festivals, is often an intensely private
experience, and should be enjoyed that way.
[4.2.1] String Quintet in C major (D 956) by Franz Schubert
According to traditional Chinese theory, stringed
instruments are the preferred means of creating sounds that
will affect the Heart most intensely. String trios,
quartets, and quintets consist of at least one or more
cellos, a viola, and one or more violins. The cellos produce
the lowest tones of these three instruments, and violins the
highest. The Ayurvedic theory of the chakras states that the
lowest frequencies will affect the lower chakras (lower
abdomen), which corresponds to the aspect of the Kidneys in
Chinese theory. The sound quality of the Kidneys is that of
groaning, and while this might sound unattractive, cellos
are capable of groaning in such a captivating manner as to
induce states of ecstasy. They are sexy instruments.
Violins, while also having a beautiful sound, tend to
stimulate the head region. Together, in the hands of a great
composer, such as Schubert, cellos and violins can sometimes
create the distinct effect of shivers that extend all the
way from the base of the spine to the top of the head. This
shivering effect is the physical sensation that I look for
in an individual to let me know whether their Kidneys and
Heart are "communicating". This is not some abstract and
very subtle New-Agey phenomenon; either you feel it, or you
don't. If you've never experienced this, you need to obtain
a recording of Schubert's Quintet and try this out
immediately: * Schubert, Franz; "String Quintet in C minor
(D 956)"; performed by Emerson String Quartet with Mstislav
Rostropovich, cello; Deutsche Grammophon, CD recording,
c1988.
Schubert composed the C major Quintet during the last few
years of his life, when he knew he was dying. Each of the
four movements portrays a general mood of determined
optimism interwoven with some of the most ravishing and
penetrating melodies ever written. As happens with many
people who learn of their imminent death, Schubert was
posessed by a determination and intensity of focus during
his remaining years to fulfill his innermost need, which in
his case was to create music uniquely his own rather than
composing to satisfy the conventions and expectations of
others. The Quintet was not performed until 20 years after
his death, but was then unanimously acclaimed an icon among
chamber music compositions, by which others would be
compared and judged.
Analysis:
Though the composition as a whole is based in the key of C
major, Schubert begins the first movement with a melodic
opening that soon slips in and out of the minor mode with a
persistent burst of staccato (percussive-like) chords;
percussive-like sounds affect the Kidneys, especially if
these sounds contain lower frequencies, here provided by the
growling sound of the two cellos. Minor modes, in general,
tend to convey a sense of somberness, mystery, or hidden
meaning in contrast with major modes, which have a lighter
and more transparent nature. The alternating major and minor
modes combined with the sharp, strident effect of the
staccato passages have the effect of shocking the listener
to attention; they grab one's ears forcefully. The overall
effect is energizing, awakening, and sharpening of the
senses.
At approximately two minutes into the first movement, the
strident introduction is followed by the main theme of the
first movement, a melodic development section, first carried
by the cellos, then shifting to the violins in a higher
tonal range. This section is a masterpiece of melodic and
contrapuntal technique, and it is this section that should
send shivers up the spine if one's nervous system is
functioning correctly. Schubert gives the listener two more
chances to "get it", as this section appears a total of
three times during the first movement. Each occurrence is
preceded by a repeat of the opening theme, the
strident-energizing section.
The first movement of the Quintet is one of the best
examples of the use of different frequency ranges and a
range of playing styles, including plucking, staccato,
legato, and an almost aggressive bowing of the strings, to
create various energetic effects in the listener. The Kidney
Qi is energized by the lower frequencies of the cello, the
staccato and plucking techniques, especially of the cello,
and this helps to build up the energy and excitement of the
listener so that all of the senses are at maximum attention.
Then, when the legato-style melodic sections appear, the
Heart is ready to receive the message. As some people make
take more time to build up to this level, Schubert
generously prolonged the first movement to a total of almost
20 minutes, with multiple repetitions of the energizing and
the melodic sections.
The remaining three movements extend the dialog between
Heart and Kidneys, with variations on the themes and styles
of the first movement. While the first movement presents the
energizing effects and the highly melodic sections
alternately, the second movement begins to integrate these
two effects into a unified whole. Its first half consists of
a slow, pensive melody with a meter of 3/4, providing a
somewhat rocking motion; in contrast to the first movement,
it provides the listener with a moment to daydream and to
contemplate the ideas and agitated excitement created during
the first movement. Halfway through the second movement, we
are again agitated by a restless, more passionate
development of the melody accompanied by a repetitively
rolling, growling theme in the cellos. It is in this section
that the restless Kidney energy emanating from the cellos is
smoothly integrated with the melodic line of the violins and
violas for the first time in the Quintet. At this point most
listeners will begin to feel the sense of internal conflict
diminish.
The third movement, begins with a jubilant, optimistic
scherzo in major mode. Open fifths dominate the harmonic
structure, creating a potent, physically energizing effect.
At points, the harmonics verge on dissonance, but the effect
is one of joyous and wild abandon rather than discord.
Heart-Kidney non-communication disharmonies are often
accompanied by a fear of violating convention to the point
of suppressing one's own inner needs, and this section
represents symbolically and energetically casting away this
burden. This dance-like scherzo is followed by an Andante
sostenuto section, slower and more pensive, echoing the
melodies of the second movement, followed by a repetition of
the jubilant, almost raucous dance with which the movement
began.
The fourth and last movement echos the scherzo of the fourth
movement, but with a sense of purposeful determination
rather than wild abandon. The energy of the Kidney has been
harnessed and the Heart and Kidney are linked together in a
single-minded clarity of purpose. The final notes of the
Quintet, a confident, but ominous sounding series of pure
octaves, leave one with a sense of absolute resoluteness.
Overall, what better way to transform a person fearful of
change into a tiger?
[4.2.2] Other compositions for the three types of
Heart-Kidney non-communication
Other compositions that have similar qualities to the
Schubert Quintet in C major are:
(1) Brahms, Johannes; Piano Trio in C minor (Op.101);
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano; Itzhak Perlman, violin; Lynn
Harrell, cello; EMI Classics, CD, c1994.
(2) Beethoven, Ludwig von; Sonata no. 7 in C minor for
Violin and Piano (op.30 No.2); Gidon Kremer, violin,
Martha Argerich, piano; Deutsche Grammophon, CD, c1994.
(3) Brahms, Johannes; Sonata in F minor for Viola and
Piano (op.120, No.1) and Sonata in E-flat for Viola and
Piano (op.120, No.2); Pinchas Zuckerman, viola, Martin
Katz, piano; RCA Victor, CD, c1994.
Due to the intensely energizing, hot-blooded effect these
compositions may induce in some listeneners, they are most
suited for the pattern of Heart-Kidney non-communicating
with Deficiency of Yang and mild Deficiency of Yin. If the
Deficiency of Yin is more severe, with increasing symptoms
of restless activity, insomnia, and Interior Heat, such
individuals may experience excessive agitation while
listening to the Quintet and to the other compositions
listed. Ayurvedic physicians would probably classify these
compositions as being rajasic in quality, as they provoke
one to take action. (Black and cayenne peppers are examples
of rajasic herbs.)
For Heart-Kidney non-communicating with chronic Deficiency
of both Yang and Yin, a more calming, balanced approach is
necessary. The music of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart are
generally more appropriate for this condition, as they do
not agitate the emotions, but instead, provide a more
harmonious sense of mental clarity. Ayurvedic physicians
would probably classify them as sattvic, promoting balanced
stimulation of the higher chakras without inducing either
agitation or melancholy. Moreover, since this pattern also
includes symptoms of poor memory and difficulty thinking,
these composers are especially appropriate, having been
shown by researchers to be useful for these symptoms
specifically. A few examples of chamber music compositions
that fulfill these criteria are:
(1) Mozart, W.A.; Quartets for Piano, Violin, Viola,
and Cello in G minor (K 478) and in E-flat major (K 493);
Emmanuel Ax, piano, Isaac Stern, violin, Jaime Laredo,
viola, Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Sony Classics, CD, c1997.
(2) Handel, G.F.; Concerto Grosso #9 in F major
(HWV 327); Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; Deutsche Grammophon,
CD, c1996.
(3) Mozart, W.A.; Piano Concertos #20 in D minor
(K 466) and #21 in C major (K 467); Daniel Barenboim, piano,
and the English Chamber Orchestra; EMI Records, CD, c1967.
For Heart-Kidney non-communication with Deficiency of Yin
predominant, one requires a more soothing, gentle sound.
Non-agitating, calming music by Bach or Renaissance
composers works well for this condition, especially slow,
evenly paced music for a capella (unaccompanied) choir. In
choirs with sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones, and basses,
all of the frequency ranges are covered, which is important
to achieve the desired effect, similar to combining cellos
and violins in the case of string chamber music. The tone
quality of a mixed choir will be mellower than that of a
string ensemble. A few compositions that fit these criteria
are:
(1) Rachmaninoff, Sergei; "Vespers"; Robert Shaw
Festival
Singers; Telarc, CD, c1990.
(2) Allegri, Gregorio; "Miserere"; the Tallis Scholars,
Peter Phillips, director; Gimell, CD, c1980, 1990.
(3) Brahms, Johannes; "Geistliche Chormusik: Zwei Moteten
op. 74"; Rias-Kammerchor, Marcus Creed, director; Harmonia
Mundi, CD, c1996.
The first two compositions above have almost hypnotic
qualities that are helpful in cases of pronounced agitation,
though they are far safer than Valium and with no known side
effects.
There is sufficient research that demonstrates music has
potent physiological and psychological effects, confirming
the general beliefs of ancient physicians and philosophers
that music can be both beneficial and dangerous. Only the
most doctrinaire people will refuse to recognize this fact,
and even more research will not convince them. What would be
most helpful now are more clinical studies and research into
the specific qualities of music and how these affect
different types of people.
Additionally, it would be wise for researchers in this field
to pay more attention to the nature of the music selected
and the quality of sound reproduction (very few talk about
or even know about digitally generated jitter) before
jumping to conclusions about the effect or lack of effect of
a specific experimental protocol. It is astounding to me how
many research articles report in detail on the experimental
design and statistical methods used, but make no mention of
the sound reproduction equipment or even the identity of the
musical compositions used in the study, except to specify
"classical" or "rock".
I hope to have stimulated others into considering the idea
that Chinese herbal methods may provide researchers a useful
classification system for distinguishing which types of
music might benefit specific indiduals and why. The ideas
presented in this paper are my own, based on years of
observing others and their interaction with classical music
compositions, and they are subject to change. But one must
begin somewhere, and this is a modest beginning.
[ref. 2b] Rooke, Andrew; "Searching for the Lost Chord:
Ancient Uses and Modern Trends"; Sunrise Magazine,
Dec1985/Jan1986 and Feb/Mar1986; Theosophical University
Press, c1985; http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/arts/ar-rooke.htm
[ref. 2c] Spengler, Oswald; The Decline of the West;
Oxford University Press, c1991 (revised edition).
[ref. 9a] "Melodic Therapy Changes Brain Activation and
Promotes Language Recovery After Brain Damage"; MuSICA
Research Notes, Vol.IV, No.1, Spring 1997; http://musica.cnlm.uci.edu/mrn/V4I1S97.html#melodic
[ref. 11b] Katz, Bob; "Everything you always wanted to know
about jitter but were afraid to ask"; Digital Domain,
c1995-1997; http://www.digido.com/jitteressay.html
[ref. 12] Bensky, Dan and Barolet, Randall, ed.; "Chinese
Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies"; Eastland Press,
Seattle, c1990.
=============================
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Roger W. Wicke, Ph.D.
Rocky Mountain Herbal Institute
c/o PO Box 579; Hot Springs, Montana (59845) USA
email: rmhi@rmhiherbal.org
www.rmhiherbal.org
History and Explanation of Sonic Bloom
Extracted from the excellent book "Secrets of the Soil" by Peter
Tompkins & Christopher Bird, 1989
Gardening Tip: READ `SECRETS OF THE SOIL'!!! It gives DOZENS of wonderful
ways to greatly increase the growth and productivity in your farm or garden,
and to repair out planet.
Plants, says Steiner, can only be understood when considered in connection with
all that is circling, weaving, and living around them. In spring and autumn,
when swallows produce vibrations as they flock in a body of air causing
currents with their wing beats, these and birdsong, says Steiner, have a
powerful effect on the flowering and fruiting of plants.
A bird's-eye view across country south and east of La Belle, midway between the
great Lake Okeechobee and Sanibel Island, reveals an ocean of citrus orchards
cut by a skein of dusty 'sea lanes', extending for miles toward the shores of
the Gulf of Mexico, once a paradise for seashell hunters until ravaged by
pollution.
Any bird overflying this greensward in the mid-1980s would have been perplexed
by the lack of avian fellows among millions of orange trees growing in the
confines of Gerber Grove, saturated by a fog of chemicals laid down to ward off
swarms of insects - except in Section 1. There a multitude of feathered fauna
darted among the trees or perched singing in their branches.
To this oasis the birds had been attracted, not by a natural concert of their
colleagues; but by a sonic diapason* closely resembling birdsong, which to
human ears, incapable of distinguishing its varied harmonics, recalls the
chirping of a chorus of outsized crickets. *(diapason: The full range of notes)
This sonic symphony was being emitted from a series of black loudspeaker boxes
set atop twenty-foot poles, each resounding over an oval of about forty acres.
Its purpose was not so much to attract birds as to increase the size and total
yield of a crop of fruit, 'hung', as they say in Florida, on trees as if it
were a collection of decorative balls at Christmas time.
"I have hung oranges the size of peas, shooter marbles, golf balls and
tennis balls, some still green, others fully ripe, all on the same tree, all at
the same time," said Roy McClurg, a former Union City, Indiana,
department-store magnate, part owner of the Gerber Grove.
We had driven down at dawn to his 320-acre holding, where two young field
hands, brothers-in-law, each with a tractor and a trailer tank of foliar feed*
had started off between two long rows of trees, dousing them with an aerosol
mist from top to bottom while a speaker, similar to the ones on the poles,
tuned to maximum volume, shrieked a whistling pulse easily audible above the
roar of the tractor motors. *(foliar feed: liquid food nutrient which is
applied by spray to the leaves)
Pointing to one of his many trees, McClurg raised his voice: "This is the
typical fruit I'm getting with this brand-new method called Sonic Bloom. It
synchronously combines a spraying of the leaves of any plants, from tiny
sprouts to mature trees, with a broadcast of that special sound. With that
process, simple but scientifically unexplained, I've been able for the first
time to get fruit all over the inner branches of my orange trees, greatly
adding to the 'umbrella'-type set which is everywhere the norm.
Back in his pleasantly refurbished clapboard house, oldest in the county,
McClurg took from his refrigerator a dozen oranges the size of a small
grapefruit. "These were picked at my grove yesterday, he explained.
"Ordinarily oranges as big as these would be pithy and woody inside, with
very little juice. Slicing four of them with a razor-sharp butcher's cleaver,
McClurg held up several of the hemispheres dripping with juice to show off
rinds no thicker than an eighth of an inch. An electric juicer processed three
of them to nearly fill a pint-sized glass.
"Oranges like these," said McClurg, "will give me a crop with at
least a 30% increase in yield and a marked rise in 'pounds solid'. Add to that
the fact that the Garvey Center for the Improvement of Human Functioning, a
medically-pioneering research group in Wichita, Kansas, has tested the juice to
show an increase of 121% in natural vitamin C over normal oranges, and you can
understand that this new 'Sonic Bloom' discovery we're talking about not only
improves quantity, but also quality. I've run blindfold tests with scores of
ordinary people who have compared the taste of my juice with that of oranges
from many other groves, and they all selected mine as the most lip-smackingly
superior."
While McClurg was happily harvesting his oranges, Harold Aungst, a dairy farmer
milking a 200-head herd of Holsteins in McVeytown, Pennsylvania, was equally
happily applying the Sonic Bloom method to a 100 acre field of alfalfa.
That year Aungst took off five cuttings, one shoulder-high and so thick he had
to gear his tractor down to low-low to pull his cutter through it. With this
harvest, Aungst won the Pennsylvania State 5-acre alfalfa growing contest over
93 other contestants by producing an unheard of 7.7 tons per acre as against a
state average of 3.3 tons.
To dairyman Aungst, the size of his harvest was not its most important
characteristic. Hay from this alfalfa fed to his herd that winter allowed the
cows to step up milk productions form 6,800 to 7,300 pounds per hundred-weight
of cow, yet eat 1/4 less feed. "I could hardly believe it," said
Aungst, third-generation owner of his property. "My cows were devouring
the alfalfa, stems and all. Other years they'd let the stems just lay. A cow's
nose is the very best barometer to tell how good your crop is. Cows are really
finicky about what they eat. I threw down hay from another of my fields
alongside this record-breaking alfalfa and the cattle first went for the feed
exposed to that funny sound every time, changing over to the other only when
the good stuff was all gone."
One clue to the cows' preference was revealed in a test run on protein analysis
by an infra-red scanner at the Pennsylvania State University
"Ag-Days" exhibition and fair. Aungst's sound-exposed hay scored a
record 29% for protein and an extremely high 80% for Total Digestible Nutrients
(TDNs). At the fair the same test showed similar percentages for Aungst's
soybeans.
Across the United States in the Tiwa Indian pueblo of San Juan, New Mexico,
twenty minutes' drive north-west of Santa Fe, the highly alkaline desert soils,
composed of playa clay called adobe, can be as hardpacked and impenetrable as a
New York sidewalk. Yet a garden under the ministration of the same
aurally-spiced nutrition as used in McVeytown and in Florida was growing as if
in Eden.
Alongside more than fifty kinds of herbs, vegetables were flourishing,
including tomatoes and carrots never before grown in that arid region at the
confluence of the Chama and Rio Grande rivers.
To Gabriel Howearth, a bearded, pony-tailed master gardener employed by the tribe,
veteran of several years' working with Maya Indian farmers in Mexico's Yucatan
peninsula, Sonic Bloom was as miraculous in its results as was the Maya's
ability to grow crops with no chemical additives by simply mentally
communicating with them in some mysteriously hermetic way.
"As you can see," said Gabriel, parting the purplish-green leaves of
a German beet to cup his hands around the top hemisphere of a swollen
mauve-maroon root much larger than a softball, "I can't get my hands
completely around it. All these beets, which normally scale at not more than 4
pounds, will weight at least 9, possibly 10."
THE ORIGINS OF SONIC BLOOM
The idea was seeded in the mind of its developer one bitter cold winter day in
1960 in the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea. Dan Carlson, a
young Minnesota recruit serving with the US Army motor pool, happened to see a
young Korean mother deliberately crush the legs of her 4 year old child beneath
the back wheel of a reversing 2 ton GMC truck. Tearfully, the woman explained
in distraught and incoherent English that, with 2 more children starving at
home, only by crippling her oldest boy could she beg enough food in the city to
feed her entire family.
There and then, Carlson decided he would single-mindedly devote the rest of his
life to finding an innovative and cheaper way to grow food, accessible to
anyone with even the smallest and poorest plot of land. Back home in Minnesota,
he enrolled in the University's Experimental College. Like David Vetter at
Ohio, he was allowed to design his own curriculum and reading program in
horticulture and agriculture.
Soon he concluded that in poor soils, if plants could be appropriately fed, not
through their roots, but through their leaves via the minute mouth-like
openings called stomata (which plants constantly use to exchange gaseous
aerosols and mists with the surrounding atmosphere) they might flourish and
even grow rapidly in soils that were acidic, alkaline, salty, arid, desert or
other otherwise deprived of balanced nutrients.
But some motive force, he soon realised, was needed to awaken the stomata to
action. Puzzling as to what this might be, Carlson stumbled on a record called
"Growing Plants Successfully in the Home", devised by George
Milstein, a retired dental surgeon who had won prizes for growing colorful
plants. Milstein's innovative idea had been to get a recording company, Pip
Records, to amalgamate into a popular tune the pure sound frequencies broadcast
by University of Ottawa researchers to increase wheat yields, which he had read
about in "The Secret Life of Plants".
Picking up where Milstein left off, Carlson focused on finding frequencies that
would motivate the stomata to open and imbibe. Though he did not at first
suspect a tie with the sound that caused the birds to flock to McClurg's orange
grove, he managed through a stroke of spiritual insight to hit upon a
combination of frequencies and harmonics exactly accordant with the pre-dawn
bird concerts that continue past sun-up into morning.
To help create a new cassette tape of popular music into which his non-musical
sonics could be embedded for inclusion in a Sonic Bloom home kit for use in
small backyard gardens and greenhouses and on indoor plants, Carlson enlisted
the technical expertise of a Minneapolis music teacher, Michael Holtz. Within
seconds of hearing Carlson's 'cricket chirping' oscillating out of a speaker,
Holtz realised its pitch was consonant with the early-morning concert of birds
outside his bedroom window.
The first cassette, using Hindu melodies induced stomata to imbibe more than 7
times the amount of foliar-fed nutrients, and even absorb invisible water
vapour in the atmosphere that exists, unseen and unfelt, in the driest of
climatic conditions. But this sound proved irritating to most American
horticulturalists and farmers.
Looking for western music in the range of Carlson's highest frequencies, the
ones which in Hindu experiments had shown the best bumper crops of corn, Holtz
culled several baroque selections from "The Dictionary of Musical
Themes", settling on the first movement of Vivaldi's "The
Seasons", appropriately called "Spring". "Listening to it
time and again", said Holz, "I realised that Vivaldi, in his day,
must have known all about birdsong, which he tried to imitate in his long
violin passages."
Holtz also realised that the violin music dominant in "Spring"
reflected Johann Bach's violin sonatas broadcast by the Ottawa University
researchers to a wheatfield, which had obtained remarkable crops 66% greater
than average, with larger and heavier seeds. Accordingly, Holtz selected Bach's
"E-Major Concerto for Violin" for inclusion in the tape. " I
chose that particular concerto," explained Holtz, "because it has
many repetitious but varying notes. Bach was such a musical genius he could
change his harmonic rhythm at nearly every other beat, with his chords going
from E to B to G-sharp and so on, whereas Vivaldi would frequently keep to one
chord for as long as four measures. That's why Bach is considered the greatest
composer that ever lived. I chose Bach's string concerto, rather than his more
popular organ music, because the timbre of the violin, its harmonic structure,
is far richer than that of the organ."
Holtz next delved into what for him was a whole new world of bird melodies. In
the 1930s, Aretas Saunders, author of "Guide to Bird Songs", had
developed a method of visually representing, through a newly devised
audio-spectrogram, the arias of singing birds that can neither be described in
words nor adequately shown with any accuracy on a musical staff.
Soon Holtz came to see where the various predominating pitches in birdsongs
could be calibrated by reference points on the musical scale and their
harmonics. Dan Carlson had instinctively hit upon frequencies that were the
ideal electronic analogues for a bird choir. "It was thrilling," said
Holtz, "to make that connection. I began to feel that God had created the
birds for more than just freely flying about and warbling. Their very singing
must somehow be intimately linked to the mysteries of seed germination and
plant growth."
"I guess Rachel Carson was right," Holtz said nostalgically.
"The spring season down on the farms is much more silent than ever before.
DDT killed off many birds and others never seem to have taken their place. Who
knows what magical effect a bird like the wood thrush might have on its
environment, singing 3 separate notes all at the same time, warbling 2 of them
and sustaining the others!"
One morning while Holtz was mentally bemoaning all the species of birds that
had vanished from Iowa, a yellow warbler, looking for all the world like a
canary, flew, as if reading his mind, to perch on the top of a tree outside his
bedroom window and, as if cued by his band maestro's baton, burst into song.
Holtz grabbed his tape recorder and managed to register an aria that went on
and on for 9 to 10 minutes. In the field guide he found that the little bird
registers a high 8,000 cps. (Cycles per second). Drawn deeper into the subject,
Holtz consulted books that detail the structure of birdsong, such as
"Vocal Communication in Birds", "Born to Sing" and
"Bird Sounds and Their Meanings". He also consulted biological texts
to find that tiny villi (minute shaggy hairlike tufts in the cochlea of the
human inner ear) vibrate to certain "window" frequencies.
"What I was trying to figure out with Dan Carlson was what exactly we were
oscillating in plants", Holtz explained.
Looking at drawings of a cell, Holtz further discovered the representation of a
subcellular structure within the cyptoplasm known as a mitochondrion. Pointing
to the enlarged drawing of one of them he asked, "Of what does their shape
remind you?" A glance suggested the form of the sound box of a violin.
"That's right!" Holtz exulted. "And I found it more than of
passing interest that the resonant frequency of mitochondria is 25 cps, which,
if interpolated upward, gets to a harmonic of 5,000 cps, the same frequency
used by Dr Pearl Weinberger to grow winter wheat 2.5 times larger than normal
with 4 times the average number of shoots, as reported in Dorothy Retallack's
"The Sound of Music and Plants". It could be that the frequencies he
used vibrated not only the mitochondria in the wheat seeds, but the water
surrounding them, increasing the surface tension and thus enhancing
penetrability through the cell wall."
Holtz connected this to Retallack's having also discovered that the
transpiration rate rose, indicating greater growth activity in her experimental
plants when they 'listened' to Bach, 1920s jazz, or the Indian strains of Ravi
Shankar's sitar - whereas exposed to hard rock, with the same rate nearly
tripled, within 2 weeks the plants were dead.
"I believe such frenetic music," said Holtz, "was too much for
their overall systems. The intense, grindingly monotonous energy in that rock
sound could have virtually blown the cells apart! Young volunteers for the US
Navy who have listened to that type of music since childhood have been rejected
because of partial deafness, even before reaching the age of 20."
Asked if one could simply play the recording of a crescendo involving all of a
symphony orchestra's instruments with their hundreds of frequencies and
harmonics and allow plants to select those best suited for their needs, Holtz
replied: "You have to take into account a law of diminishing returns. Too
big a dose of anything is not necessarily of greater benefit than just a little
or even a tiny dose."
It seemed significant that Holtz, the musicologist, could say this without any
knowledge of homeopathic 'potentising'.
Carlson, who we met in Kansas City at one of Charlie Walter's annual
eco-agriculture conferences, explained his approach with lively enthusiasm.
"What I've tried all along to do with the sonic part of Sonic Bloom,"
he expostulated, his jet-black hair and pirate beard reflecting the hue of the
Western-cut suit he wears for public lectures, giving him the air of an Amish
elder, "is to stay within boundaries set by nature. I think there are
certain cosmic forces which can account, however 'unscientifically', for much
of our success. Properly adapted they will get plants to grow better … or even
inspire people to relate to one another more harmoniously. There's plenty of
evidence that various frequencies of both sound and color can be curative. But 'hard
rock' is not consonant with nature's own harmonics. I believe birds exposed to
it for long periods would fall ill and die, just as Retallack's plants withered
away."
He waved his hands like an evangelist. "I get over a hundred calls a year,
from people experimenting with my broadcasts. Most of them say that when the
sound is turned on plants actually turn away from the sound to grow toward the
speakers! Always! To me that means the sound is as important to plants as
whatever we understand about photosynthesis. Perhaps that's what Rachel Carons
meant when she intimated that 'spring' might one day be silent without
Vivaldi's violins.
With a cold Minnesota winter coming on, and limited space in which to carry on
his early experiments in a VHA-financed home, Carlson took a big step: he spent
88 cents on a tropical Gynura aurantiaca or purple passion vine. Known also as
a velvet plant, native to the Indonesian island of Java, its fleshy teardrop
leaves are densely covered with violet veins and hairs, and its yellow-orange
dishlike flowers exude a nasty smell. But to Carlson this was his cherished
baby. Once a month with a cotton swab he applied doses of nutrient to the top
of his vegetal pet, almost homeopathically weak doses, while simultaneously
getting it to 'listen' to his sonics. The swabbing turned the top a withering
brown, but quickly a new sprout burgeoned forth one leaf below the dead tip to
grow at an accelerated rate. Within a few days, the original tip had completely
recovered and was spurting rapidly ahead, both shoots exhibiting thick, healthy
stalks and exceptionally
large leaves.
As the vine crawled upward out of its pot, Carlson screwed teacup hooks into
the wall of his kitchen, 6 inches apart, to support it; and so fast did the
vine race for the hooks, he had to add half a dozen every week.
At which point he made another startling discovery. If he snipped the growing
tips with a scissors, the Javanese plant, far from daunted, put out a new shoot
at the first leaf node below the cut.
As novel as this seemed to Carlson, he was even more puzzled by his pet's
growing not only the teardrop leaves characteristic of its species, but also
saw-toothed ones typical of its Indian cousin Gynura sarmentosa, along with
completely alien split leaves previously never seen on any purple passion
plant. The sound-plus-solution treatment appeared to be strangely affecting
something to do with his vine's genetic qualities even as it grew.
In a paper on his experiment submitted to his profession, Carlson presciently asked:
"Does one cell of a plant genus contain all the characteristics of all the
species of that genus? If not, why has my plant, grown from a Gynura aurantiaca
cutting, developed leaves, over 90% of its length, peculiar to the Gynura
sarmentosa and, at the same time, exhibited an entirely new split-leaf form?
Could the combined application of nutrient and audio energy result in such
rapid growth rate that the very process of evolution is condensed? Have I
enabled my plant to adapt more quickly to its environment? Is this the reason
for the different leaf characteristics appearing on one plant? If any of these
questions can be answered 'yes', can this knowledge be applied to other plants?
Could food crops be treated to achieve more rapid growth and better adaptability
to their own or alien environments?"
As winter wore into spring, and summer into fall, Carlson noticed another
oddity: his plant had bloomed not the usual once, but twice.Even more fantastic
was its incredibly extending length. In only the first 3 months, the vine,
which normally never exceeds a length of 18 to 24 inches, had grown a total
stem of 150 feet !!! During the rest of the year it pushed on at the same rate,
out of the kitchen through a 1.5 inch hole bored in the wall leading to the living
room, where it roved back and forth along the ceiling on wires strung 18"
apart, to attain a length of over 1/10 of a mile.
During the next year Carlson began snipping 4" shoots from his vine, which
he started in small plastic pots. 400 of these, labelled with his address and
phone number and a request to call him for a replacement should the shoots die,
he took to a flea market, where they rapidly sold for $4 apiece.
"I had many calls," he reminisced, "but none were to complain
about sick or dying plants. Instead the callers wanted to know why the
offshoots from my mother plant were growing 20, 30, 40, 50 feet long, and even
more. I at once thought that this unheard-of development might give rise to the
possibility of whole new strains of hardier superflora.
Despite this achievement, worthy of Luther Burbank, when Carlson, in happy
excitement, asked member so his university committee to come to his house to
see for themselves what he had done, their only reaction amounted to a yawn.
Didn't he realise, they asked, that, because his results had been obtained on a
non-edible house plant, they were of no commercial value or interest? (Despite
the fact that he had made $1,600 from a plant that cost him 88 cents).
Desperate to get anything into the public record that would substantiate his
achievement, Carlson wrote to Guinness Superlatives Limited in Middlesex,
England, publisher of the famous Guinness Book of World Records, which sent to
Minnesota to check his claim "specialists in the matter of freaks in the
plant kingdom."
Carefully measuring his plant's stem, inch by inch over its entire length, the
freak specialists congratulated Carlson. That same autumn the new edition of
the record book had an entry on page 113 extolling his find. To counter the
notion that his new method was commercially valueless, Carlson next began to
supply portable sonic equipment and nutrient mix to backyard gardeners who had
called him after the Minneapolis Star ran a huge photo of the Carlson family
standing under the passion plant, its leaves intertwined in the supporting
chain of a chandelier before proceeding, through additional holes in the wall,
into his children's bedrooms.
Not to be outdone, the St Paul Dispatch, describing his African violets, with
more than 400 blooms in a full spectrum of colors, and his morning glories,
purple, blue , white, red and pink, as enveloping his house from its foundation
to its roof eaves, quoted Carlson as foreseeing a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk world
with gigantic flora capable of feeding multitudes while their stomata increased
the Earth's supply of oxygen.
It occurred to Carlson that if Luther Burbank could coax a spiny cactus into
losing its thorns by informing the plant that it no longer needed them because
he would 'protect it', (see "Secret Life of Plants), he too might get his
climbing plants to adapt to human desires.
"I subscribed to Burbank's idea," Carlson told us, "that at the
highest level, plants are capable of creating what is in the mind of man as a
means of assuring their survival into future generations. I did not discount
the many stories about trees which had borne no flowers or fruits for years,
suddenly blossoming and bearing when threatened with an axe."
One spring, as he collected the seeds from his morning glories for successive
annual planting, Carlson and his 12 year old daughter, Justine, meditated on
how to get the vines to respond to their lovingly felt desires by focusing on
their favourite hues, purple for Dan, pink for Justine. "We
believed," said Carlson, "that the plants might respond to the colors
we favoured and draw closer to us as we were mentally and emotionally drawing
closer to them." By late summer when the vines were putting out the usual
mixed spectrum of blooms over most of Dan's house, he found massed all around
his daughter's bedroom window nothing but pink flowers and around his own
bedroom window only purple ones.
"This confirmed to me," he said, "that we can, in some still
undefined way, communicate with plant life, which is even capable of altering
the colors of flowers and the shapes of leaves. It must somehow be based on
trust. The plants must feel your intent and realise that if they respond you'll
save their seeds to assure their flourishing continuance."
Even more intriguing was Carlson's belief that his method would allow him to
determine the very likes and dislikes of plants. By exposing them to a varied
menu of nutrients hitherto unavailable to them, he aimed, through their
reactions, to find out which selections they might prefer, instead of just
forcing them to accept what is believed is good for them.
This he hoped might ultimately lead to the elimination of deficiencies
resulting in bad-tasting fruit or vegetables and the eradication of plant
disease.
"What I began to realise," said Carlson, "was that my method was
challenging the seeds' potential, a potential maximised with the right number
of Sonic Bloom sprays - which have turned out to be 5 - put on 2 weeks
apart." Striking a massive fist on the table for emphasis, he added:
"I believe I've come across a new principle that can be called
indeterminate growth! It shatters the idea that plants are genetically limited
to a given particular size or yield."
This belief in a lack of limitation led Carlson to another principle: geometric
progression.We began regularly to discover that plants treated during one
growing season would pass along whatever changes were taking place in them, and
create, right through their seeds, a successive generation 50% larger and more
fruitful, even when the newly generating plants remained untreated with Sonic
Bloom. I also call this genetic elasticity, the latent ability of plants to
exhibit characterisitcs hidden in their gene pools, pulling out advantageous
ones that may have been hidden for hundreds of years. This is connected to the
ever-bearing trait brought out in McClurg's oranges."
SONIC BLOOM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: To begin, what exactly is SONIC BLOOM?
A: SONIC BLOOM is a revolutionary new organic system to enhance plant growth
naturally.
Dan Carlson, a research scientist, developed a concept which involves the
unique combination of sound and a specially developed foliar spray.
Q: Yes, but how does it actually work?
A: The special sound is made up of harmonic frequencies which stimulate the
tiny pores of plant leaves to open. When these pores, called stomata, are open,
the plant is able to increase its uptake of Sonic Bloom Balanced Nutrient (an
organic fertilizer) by over 700%.
Q: That is a big increase! The sound is obviously very important, but what about
the Nutrient?
A: The Nutrient itself is really the important thing. It's a combination of
over 100 trace minerals, amino acids and naturally-occurring growth hormones.
The sound is a tool to increase the effect of this organic foliar spray. 45
minutes minimum sound stimulation is necessary before and after the leaves are
sprayed.
Q: Yes, but if this sound increases absorption by so much, won't any foliar
spray work with the Sonic Bloom sound?
A: This is an important point. Dan Carlson discovered the sound almost 20 years
ago, but it took 15 years of painstaking development to create a balanced
nutrient to complete the system. The problem was that the huge increase in
absorption tended to magnify any imbalances and elements could become locked up
as a result. So the sound and the balanced nutrient are inseparable. This is
the world record-breaking combination. Trials have shown other combinations to
be ineffective.
Q: Okay, so Sonic Bloom is the clever balance of a sound and a nutrient. Now,
how often do they need to be applied?
A: This varies from crop to crop. Vegetables, for example, require sprays every
7 to 10 days, while tree crops need a monthly spray. 5 to 7 sprays is ideal for
most things. The sound should be applied as often as possible, particularly
early in the morning when the dew is still on the leaves. Dew actually contains
free-floating nutrients and when it is absorbed so effectively it can provide
both drought protection and increased growth.
Q: Now, how exactly are the spray and sound applied?
A: The Sound Units are activated by a solar cell which turns them on at
daylight and off at nightfall. They are powered by a 12 volt battery and are
fully weatherproof. They are usually mounted on a pole or tree in the middle of
the growing area. These units are available in three different sizes:
• Model I unit covers 1 to 5 acres.
• Model II unit covers 25-40 acres and
• Model III unit covers 60 acres.
Multiples of these units are used for larger acreages.
Q: Will the sound affect my animals or annoy my neighbors?
A: No, the sound doesn't worry animals at all and is inoffensive, so there's no
problem. The smallest commercial unit includes a volume control to govern the
right amount of sound for the size of the area to be treated. The larger
commercial units should not be situated near a house. From a distance they
become a back-ground noise similar to crickets; but if too close, they could
annoy.
Q: Are fertilizers still necessary or is Sonic Bloom the complete substitute?
A: Sonic Bloom is NOT a fertilizer. It is a plant growth enhancer. We always
recommend that the grower continue to fertilize as usual. After Sonic Bloom
treatment you can expect rapid growth, earlier maturity and good yield
increases on top of what you would normally expect. You can experiment later
and reduce fertilizer costs. Many of our growers do, but initially it's best to
carry on as normal.
Q: Sonic Bloom apparently has the ability to heal sick plants. Can it be used
as the perfect problem solver?
A: No. It's a mistake to treat Sonic Bloom as a "cure all". It can,
in fact, heal sick plants, but if you have a problem, soil analysis is
recommended. Sonic Bloom will not overcome a major soil deficiency. It may
help, but ultimately the problem must be addressed.
Q: Is the system easy to use? Is it as simple as "play, spray and
grow" or is a degree in chemistry necessary to follow instructions?
A: Yes, basically it's just "play, spray and grow", but there are a
few rules that must be followed to fully benefit from the system. These are
clearly explained in the Sonic Bloom Manual.
Q: The nutrient is totally organic, but isn't it a bit like force-feeding the
plant, using sound to increase absorption?
A: The only way to answer that is to suggest that you look at the end result.
Sonic Bloom-treated plants are obviously more luxuriant and healthy. They are
more disease and pest resistant, produce more and live a lot longer. It depends
on your criteria, but it would be very hard to deny that these are happy
plants.
Q: Does the foliar spray have a `use by' date?
A: Because the foliar spray is organic, it should be used within a year
of purchase.
Q: Now, the big question: How much does the system cost?
A: Every Sound Unit is sold with a minimum Nutrient purchase. The reason for
this is to preserve the integrity of the Sonic Bloom system. It is human nature
to try other foliar sprays with the sound, but they simply do not work and it
makes our system look bad.
Q: Should you leave the sound on all the time?
A: It is adviseable to play the sound only when birds normally sing. That is,
sun up and sun down. Otherwise, the stomates will open up in the middle of the
day and may cause dehydration. However, if the stomates are open at sun up,
they can absorb the dew etc. and decrease water demands by as much as 50%.
GARDENING TIP: Since it has been found that the singing of birds helps plants
to grow, grow plants that will attract birds. The best thing to plant are
BUSHES rather than trees. Bushes provide SHELTER and a place for the birds to
sit that is low to the ground, as well as food and nesting places. Have bushes
at least every 100 yards, because birds will eat insects within 50 yards of
their perching place.
The price of our Sound Units provides a very low profit margin for us initially,
but it ensures that growers achieve maximum benefit.
The system costs about $80 to $120 per acre per crop per season for a full
program for field and row crops. A yield increase of just 2-10% is all that's
necessary to cover the cost of treatment. Local yield increases have GREATLY
exceeded this.
Add to this EARLY MATURITY, DROUGHT RESISTANCE, INCREASED PEST and DISEASES
RESISTANCE, HIGHER SUGAR LEVELS and associated TASTE IMPROVEMENT, EXTENDED
SHELF-LIFE and RAPID BALANCED GROWTH, you begin to see a situation where SONIC
BLOOM becomes a gilt-edged investment
Be sure to BOOKMARK this page or include it in your favorites.
-the ultimate answer to the synthetic, fast-food lifestyle. Bring back the
healing power of whole foods to your everyday life…in creative, convenient, and
delicious new ways.
LOWER YOUR LONG DISTANCE PHONE RATES.
We pay 4.3¢ per minute in CA and 4.9¢ per minute in the contiguous USA
with only a $2 minimum / month. Click on the image for more information.
New Zealand’s Growing Today, May 1994. “The Sound and the Glory”,by
Stephen Jones. Published by Growing Today, Ltd. PO Box 333, Kumeu
T L C for Plants, Canada’s leading gardening magazine, Tender Loving Care
for Plants, Spring 1991 “Brave New Waves”, author Michael Spillane,
Published by Garden Vale Publishing Company, LTD.’
1 Pacifique Ste’ane de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada
AgriAlternatives, July/August '98
Published by Media Discoveries, Canton, Georgia
Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 24, 1999 “Green Acres”
By Deborah Caulfield Rybak
New breakthrough in the understanding of Plant Physiology and Sonic Frequencies
can help you realize incredible yields from your personal garden and incredible
financial yields if you are a commercial grower!
[EDITOR’S NOTE: At times, we seem to go from amazement to amazement here at the
Bio/Tech News. We find ourselves scratching our heads in wonder as we come
across breakthrough after breakthrough after breakthrough. The subject of this
issue is no exception, either. And, it not only can greatly and positively
effect your health and well-being . . . it can help to fatten your pocketbook,
as well. But before getting into our story, and before you turn the page to see
one of the most incredible "home gardening" pictures you’ll ever see,
take at look at these eye-popping statistics:
Vegetable and field crop yields increased by 20-100%
Cauliflowers so big that only four will fit in a box designed to carry twelve
Soybean plants producing up to 300 pods per plant (the norm is 30-35)
Calla lilies growing over six feet tall
Bell peppers bearing over 50 peppers per plant (instead of the normal 4-5)
Corn growing 16 feet high
Rose bushes yielding 67-70 flowers per bush (normal is 8-10 flowers)
Evergreen trees growing 3-4 feet annually
Orange production increasing by 66%, with 121% more Vitamin C than normal
Potatoes the size of one-liter bottles
500 tomatoes on single vines; tomato crop maturing 35 days sooner than normal;
roadside, fruit stand shelf-life twice as long as untreated plants
Ginseng harvest yielding 5,000 pounds per acre (state average is 1,300 lbs. per
acre)
Cranberry bogs producing 209 barrels per acre (125 barrels is normal); 66%
increase in size of cranberries
5-foot alfalfa with 100% increase in tonnage and an unbelievable 29% protein
content which contributes to a 30% increase in milk production
Apple orchards exceeding 400 bushels per acre (state average is 290 per acre),
yielding higher nutritional fruit quality, earlier maturity, and longer shelf
life (five months instead of one month)
19,000 pounds of tomatoes from a 4,000 sq. ft. greenhouse facility which
formerly averaged only one-half that amount
Concord grape vines having grapes with higher sugar levels almost 2 weeks
earlier than any other grape crop in the area and yielding 150-170 buds per
vine (former yields were 80-90 buds per vine)
300 bushels of corn per acre
Hardwood trees yielding an average yearly girth increase of 1.56" (500%
higher growth rate than normal) and with better quality hardwood
Strawberry plants with an increased yield of 300%
Cucumber plants producing three times as many cucumbers as normal
African violets with 200 blossoms
Blueberries with a diameter of a nickel, ripening two weeks sooner
Chrysanthemum flowers doubling in quantity and maturing in four weeks
And, we could go on . . . and on . . . and on !
These are all documents examples of one of the most amazing, all-natural,
agricultural breakthroughs which has occurred in the last 100 years. If you are
a home-gardener, you can have the "greenest" thumb in your neighborhood.
And, if you are a commercial grower, you can realize increased yields beyond
your wildest imagination, and often with much shorter times to harvest! What’s
more, you’ll not only get more to eat (or more to sell) because of higher
yields, but your produce will also be far better to eat because of a much
higher nutritional content.
From Tragedy to Triumph . . .
Our story actually begins sometime around 1962 in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
between North and South Korea. Then Private Dan Carlson had been given this
duty assignment sometime after his re-enlistment in the Army. At the time, he
was pretty comfortable with the idea of making the Army a career, even if it
meant having to spend every other day in a foxhole during a tour of duty in a
country far away from his home in Minnesota. After all, no duty assignment is
permanent. But then one day, as he was walking through a local village,
something happened which forever changed the course of his life . . .
As he looked out into the dusty village street, he noticed a Korean mother
placing her young son behind the wheels of a large military truck so that, as
the truck backed up, the boy’s legs would be crushed. Carlson couldn’t get to
the boy in time and, as his eyes met the eyes of the Korean woman, he was able
to see in them a plea that he not tell anyone what she had done. Sometime later
Carlson was to understand what was no doubt the reason for this desperate
action on the mother’s part, which not only moved him to shed tears for them in
their misery, but which also drove him to pursue a career which he had never
before contemplated.
The reason this Korean woman purposely destroyed the legs of her son was so
that he would be able to live. The way to make any kind of "sense"
out of this apparently enigmatic statement is to understand that during the
time Carlson was stationed there, approximately forty-five percent of the
Koreans living in and around the DMZ starved to death because of a severe
drought. One of the only ways to survive the harsh conditions was to beg for
food. And, since the begging "competition" was so intense (many had
been reduced to begging in order to try to find even a meager subsistence), the
sympathy which
would be evoked at the sight of a lame boy might give him an advantage in an
attempt to secure enough food for his family to survive.
This terrible situation was more than Carlson could take. He determined then
and there that he was going to give the rest of his life, if necessary, in
order to do something which could help feed not only these desperate Koreans,
but also those throughout the rest of the world who go to bed hungry. A lofty
goal? You bet. Unachievable? Not so. We’re confident that what you are about to
read will convince you that Dan Carlson is not only on to something remarkable,
but that what he has discovered and developed might very well make the greatest
contribution in history toward achieving the goal of feeding mankind . . . and
that it is possible to do so within a generation! If he can pull this off,
there aren’t enough Nobel prizes around to sufficiently honor the work of this
former G.I. who let his heart be touched by the grief of a stranger he didn’t
know and the tragedy of a young boy he would never see again.
When Carlson’s "time was up" after his second go-around with Uncle
Sam, he took his honorable discharge and headed for the University of
Minnesota, where he enrolled at the University’s Experimental College to begin
studying plant breeding. His first objective was to see if he could develop
some form of growth stimulant for plants so that greater yields might be
realized. The product not only had to be low cost, but it also had to be low
cost, but it also had to be effective for farmers and gardeners who worked for
the poorest of soils. Rather than trying to get nutrients to the plant by
having to rejuvenate the soil [In the long run, Carlson himself admits that
soil remediation is the best answer, however, this would be a huge and
expensive undertaking for many parts of the world, requiring not only a lot of
materials and manpower, but also a tremendous amount of time – Ed. J. Carlson
reasoned that it might be more effective to try a more direct
route: using a method of foliar feeding where the nutrients and growth
stimulants would be applied directly to the leaves of the plant.
It would be helpful here to point out that plants have many tiny openings on
their leaves called stomata ["Stoma" means "mouth" in Greek
– Ed.] The "stoma complex" is made up of two "guard cells"
which surround the pore, or stoma. The guard cells have the ability to open and
close the stoma. Although the number varies from plant to plant, stoma range
between approximately 500-1000 per square inch of leaf surface area. It is
through these microscopic stomata that plants exchange gases with their
environment. They "inhale" carbon dioxide and "exhale"
oxygen and water vapor, for example. As Carlson was to discover, they can also
absorb nutrients.
It wasn’t long before he had come up with an organic foliar feeding solution
which enabled him to get significant growth rates in about three out of every
hundred different plants he tried. Carlson was on the right track; but the
challenge was to find a way in which he could get a higher percentage of plants
to "accept" his product. If he could only find a way to get the
plants to "breathe" better, a way to stimulate the stomata into
action, then he might have a higher rate of success.
And On That Note . . .
We now need to pick up and follow another thread of the story which ended up
providing Carlson with the key he needed to unlock the "secret" of
the stomata. Although it really goes way back to antiquity, we’ll pick it up in
the 1950’s with the work of T.C. Singh [We’re grateful here for the reporting
done on this subject by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird in two of their
books, Secrets of the Soil (EarthPulse Press) and, The Secret Life of Plants
(Harper & Row, Publishers). If you want more details on Carlson’s work and
the history behind it, you will find these books to be quite informative – Ed.]
Dr. Singh was head of the department of botany at Annamalai University in
India. While conducting microscopic observations of live, streaming protoplasm
in the cells of an Asian aquatic plant, he was urged by a visiting professor to
see if the streaming process might possibly be affected by sound.
Knowing that plant protoplasm streaming begins to speed up shortly after
sunrise, Singh placed an electrically-operated tuning fork six feet away from
the plant and broadcast the note for a half hour prior to 6 a.m. What he
noticed was that the sound apparently stimulated the protoplasm to stream at
speeds which normally would not occur until much later in the day.
Singh’s next step was to ask a violinist to play while standing near the plants.
At a certain pitch, the protoplasm streaming accelerated. One thing led to the
next, until Dr. Singh was playing South Indian music to mimosas and found that
after two weeks the number of stomata on the plant leaves had increased by 66%!
Singh also soon discovered that the music apparently stimulated above average
growth and rates of growth in balsam plants. It wasn’t long before he was
playing music to all kinds of plants, including petunias, lilies, aster,
onions, radishes, and sweet potatoes, to name a few. The music was played
one-half hour per day and, according to Tompkins and Bird, was "scaled at
a high pitch, with frequencies between one hundred and six hundred cycles per
second." Singh’s published conclusion was that he had "proven beyond
any shadow of doubt that harmonic sound waves affect the growth, flowering,
fruiting, and seed-yields of plants."
In the late 1950s, a Canadian engineer by the name of Eugene Canby began
broadcasting violin sonatas of J.S. Bach to a test plot of wheat and was excited
to find 66% greater yields than average, as well as larger, heavier grain.
By the mid-1960s, work on the effect of ultrasonic frequencies, had been
conducted in Russia, the United States and Canada. It had been discovered that
these frequencies noticeably affected the germination and growth of a variety
of plant seeds and seedlings, stimulating some species and inhibiting others.
Familiar with the work of Dr. Singh and others, Mary Measures and Pearl
Weinberger, two Canadian researchers at the University of Ottawa, wondered
whether, instead of ultrasonic frequencies, the use of audible frequencies
might be effective in stimulating the growth of wheat.
Over a four year course of experimentation, Measures and Weinberger discovered
that the plants seemed to respond best to a frequency of 5,000 cycles per
second, which somehow caused accelerated growth and almost twice the yields.
But, they didn’t know why . . .
As word of the effect of audible frequencies on plants continued to get out,
researchers (some more "scientific" than others) from a number of
different countries tried various kinds of experiments. One of the more
controversial of these was Dorothy Retallack, who, in the late 1960s, started
her series of experiments by playing the single notes B and D to some African
Violets. From there, she played selections to her plants from various Classical
composers on the one hand, and rock music selections from Led Zeppelin, Vanilla
Fudge, and Jimi Hendrix on the other. In a nutshell, and as you may have already
guessed, the plants, seemed to "prefer" the Classical music. So much
so, that the plants grew toward the sounds of Classical music [Apparently, they
"liked" the Bach the best! – Ed.], while growing away from the sounds
of the rock music. Needless to say, Retallack’s work caused quite a stir,
especially after the story was reported by various
newspapers and other publications, culminating in a nationwide broadcast on the
CBS News with Walter Cronkite, October 16, 1970.
One person who had heard about Retallack’s work and who had then recently
learned of the Canadians’ research with wheat, was a retired dentist and avid
horticulturist by the name of Dr. George Milstein. Milstein decided to see for
himself how sounds would affect various kinds of plants. He was serious enough
about his work that he sought the assistance of an NBC sound engineer in order
to conduct his experiments. The upshot of his work was that when the plants
were exposed to a continuous hum at the frequency of 3,000 cycles per second, growth
was accelerated, even to the point where some of the plants bloomed as much as
six months ahead of what would be a normal schedule.
Milstein later connected with Pip Records who agreed to let him make a record
of the plant stimulating sounds. Rather than merely recording a monotonous
long-play 3,000 cycle hum, Pip wanted the record to contain real music. So
Milstein embedded his plant stimulating frequency in a recording of a popular
musical selection [In case you don’t remember the album, it was called Growing
Plants Successfully at Home; we don’t think it "went Platinum" as far
as sales go, however! – Ed.] For best results, he recommended that the record
be played daily.
Up to this point, a number of researchers had concluded that sound frequencies
could and did have an effect on the growth and development of plants. However,
and although there was no lack of speculation, the reason why sound affected
plants remained still unexplained. Which brings us back to Dan Carlson . . .
Carlson, still wondering how he might find a way to stimulate plant stomata,
serendipitously came across a copy of Milstein’s record. This set him thinking
in a direction which eventually led to the answer he had been seeking: given
the fact that some sound frequencies stimulate positive responses from plants,
perhaps there might be a frequency, or frequencies, which would case the
stomata to open. He was later to discover a combination of frequencies which in
fact did just that. What happened next was quite a surprise . . .
Stomata-stimulating frequencies now in hand, Carlson collaborated with a
Minneapolis music teacher by the name of Michael Holtz in order to produce a
cassette tape in which the sounds would be embedded in a recording of popular
music. Although he didn’t at first realize or even expect it, Carlson later
discovered that his special frequency combination was something which was
anything but unique to him. Within just seconds of hearing Carlson’s special
sounds, Holtz’s trained ear immediately recognized the pitch to be a kind of
sound he had heard many times before: Carlson’s frequencies turned out to be
very similar to the frequencies and harmonics of birds as they sing their songs
beginning just before the sun rises each day! According to authors Peter
Tompkins and Christopher Bird, "Dan Carlson had instinctively hit upon
frequencies that were the ideal electronic analog for a bird choir.!
All of a sudden, it made perfect sense to Holtz. "It was thrilling to make
that connection," he said. "God had created the birds for more than
just freely flying about and warbling. Their very singing must somehow be
intimately linked to the mysteries of seed germination and plant growth."
At that point, Carlson set about to confirm that his "bird
frequencies" did in fact stimulate plant growth. One of his early
experiments involved the purchase of a tropical Purple Passion vine, sometimes
referred to as a "velvet plant." Taking his potted vine home with
him, he began playing his "bird music" to the plant while he dabbed
nutrient onto its leaves with a cotton swab. The plant started to respond. As
the vine began to grow, Carlson started placing teacup hooks every six inches
into his kitchen walls so that it could have needed support. The vine grew so
fast that he had to hang hooks an additional three feet of length every week.
Over the course of three months, Carlson’s pet plant, which would normally be
expected to have grown about 24 inches, had in fact grown a total of 150 feet!
And it didn’t stop there, either. It continued growing at the same rate,
forcing Carlson to drill a hole in the wall between his kitchen and living room
in order to give the vine more room to roam. Carlson then strung wires back and
forth along the ceiling, which supported the plant as it managed to grow to a
length of about 600 feet by the end of the first year!
The next year, Carlson began selling "starts" to his vine at a local
flea market. He cut off small shoots and placed them in plastic pots, which he
would sell for $4 each. Four hundred of these young plant starts were sold,
along with Carlson’s guarantee that he would replace any shoot that died.
Carlson says he received a number of calls from people who bought the plants,
but not because they had died, but because the plants were quickly growing to lengths
of thirty, forty, fifty feet, and more.
Carlson ended up contacting the publishers of the Guinness Book of World
Records, who sent representatives to Minnesota to verify his claims. After
careful measurement and confirmation, Carlson’s 600 foot long pet Purple
Passion vine was a World Record holder. The plant didn’t stop there either. It
eventually grew to more than twice that length [almost one-quarter of a mile
long! – Ed.] and when Carlson called the Guinness folks about the plant’s new
achievement, they said they weren’t going to send anyone out that time; there
was no reason to do so, since they were confident his original record would not
be broken.
In addition to the rapid and extended growth, the Purple Passion plant bloomed
more frequently than normal and some of the new leaves it put out were similar
in shape and form to that of one of its "cousins," another vinous
plant of the same genus. Evidently, Carlson’s combination of sound and foliar
solution also affected the genetic makeup of the plant. So much so, that he
later discovered his treatment method had a positive effect on the seeds’
potential, with the successive generation of plants often being 50% larger and
more fruitful than their parents!
Two [Green] Thumbs Up!
Since those earlier days of experimentation and development, Carlson has had
the pleasure of personally witnessing some amazing success stories from
home-gardeners and commercial growers whose curiosity was piqued just enough
that they decided to give his unorthodox methods a try. Space obviously won’t
allow it here, but we could fill a book or two reporting on all the exciting
accounts of extraordinary growth rates, hardier, healthier successive
generations of plants, incredible produce yields, much-higher nutritional
content, and better-tasting fruits and vegetables. ["These tomatoes taste
just like those Aunt Emma used to grow back when I was a kid." If Carlson
has heard this kind of comment once, he’s heard it a thousand times. – Ed.]
Limited space notwithstanding, we do want to tell you at least a few of these
stories in order to give you a more concrete idea of how Carlson’s discoveries
have the potential of fulfilling his dream of feeding the world. An amateur
farmer from Mississippi immediately comes to mind . . .
When faced with the challenge of trying to grow fruits and vegetables on the
poor soil where he lives, Ron Johnston found out about Carlson. He had been
reading about the French "intensive method" of farming and had become
acquainted with a farmer who had been using microbes with his soils. Johnston
built himself some 8’ x 16’ garden boxes, ten inches in height, out of lumber
he was able to scrounge from a sawmill. He filled them with two pickup loads of
free sawdust and one load of sand. These components allow plenty of air and
water to reach the plant roots, and the microbes play an essential role to
insure proper nutrient uptake. Every morning, Johnston played Carlson’s
"bird sounds" to his plants and once each week he would saturate
their leaves with Carlson’s nutrient spray.
Johnston found that tomato plants, planted seven inches apart, produced 25-30
blossoms and yielded approximately 16 pounds of fruit per plant [With some
tomatoes weighing in at a pound and a half! [ Ed.], totaling more than a
thousand pounds of tomatoes from each garden box! Two hundred strawberry plants
produced two hundred quarts of great tasting, highly-nutritious strawberries
[By the way, Johnston realized these incredible yields during a period when
there was no rain for six weeks and the daily high temperatures were running in
excess of 100 degrees – Ed.] Johnston has concluded that a single box planted
with beans has the capability of feeding a family of four for a year and that
just one of his 8’ x 16’ boxes can produce as much as 800 cantaloupes. Not bad
for a system which requires very little watering, no plowing, no cultivating,
and little or no weeding!
Do you get the picture here? Despite terrible soil, despite low amounts of
rainfall, despite tight living space, despite poor financial conditions . . .
despite all of these things, and more, it is in fact possible for people living
almost anywhere in the world to grow highly-productive gardens which can feed
their own families and provide them with a surplus of health-giving, highly-nutritious
food to either sell or give away to others.
"I used to get about 210 bushels an acre, says apple farmer Wilson Mills.
"Now we get up to 450 bushels." The apples are also 90% packable
[which means they are attractive enough to be sold to grocers to be displayed
in their stores – Ed.], which is a great improvement on his former 50% packable
level which he had prior to using Sonic Bloom [This is Carlson’s name for his
unique Sonic/Nutrient system – Ed.] Mills also says the apples mature faster
and he is able to pick some varieties as early as two weeks before his nearby
competitors are able to do so.
Carlson claims that if he can get to fruit trees – any kind of fruit trees – to
spray them at "petal tight" stage and "bouquet bloom"
stage, the trees will set 4% [Normally, fruitgrowers hope for a 1-1/2%
"set" (which is the term used to describe the percentage of blossoms
which actually develop into fruit – Ed.] And, if he can then spray them three
more times during the growing season, not only with the quantity of fruit be
increased, but there will be a marked increase in the size of the fruit – up to
two sizes – as well. Now, the really interesting thing is that, if you were to
hang this increased quantity of larger fruit on a normal fruit tree, its bows
would break from the weight. However, what Wilson found with his apples trees
was that Sonic Bloom gave him a huge percentage increase in the amount of zinc
and other trace elements in the tree limbs and bows, making them flexible
enough to handle the abundance of fruit. And as for the
apples, lab reports showed them as having a 400% increase in copper, 1,750%
increase in zinc, 300% increase in chromium and 126% increase in potassium.
These "healthier" apples were obviously better for eating; they also
gave Wilson a shelf life of five months, instead of the usual 30 days.
Dr. Bryan Zins retired from his practice to a 32-acre farm where he raises
4,000 in Black Walnut trees. He has been treating the trees with Sonic Bloom
since they were planted ten years ago. Untreated walnut trees the same age as
Zins’ would be expected to have diameters of approximately 3 inches; however,
Zins’ trees have grown to an average 9 inches in diameter. What’s more, they
are bearing fruit trees ahead of schedule and the size is incredible. When is
the last time you’ve seen a Black Walnut the size of an orange? With respect to
his financial investment, Zins says "With walnut as a wood selling at
about $1,000 per inch [This would be for an 18-inch diameter tree – Ed.], the growth
of my trees last year alone was worth $4 million. These trees are better than a
401K plan."
The stories abound. Whether it be unbelievable yields; or strawberries, beans,
and tomatoes growing well beyond their normal growing season; or, fruit trees
and vines bearing an abundance for the first time in years; or, little or no
pest or disease problems; or, superior-tasting fruits and vegetables . . . Like
we said above, there’s just not enough room in a newsletter like this to tell
you everything there is to tell.
But if you’re curious to know more, to "see for yourself," we suggest
you get the video. Although it is a collage of "home videos" and
therefore doesn’t have the much sharper visual quality of professional, studio
production films, you will still see more than enough to convince you beyond a
shadow of a doubt that Carlson’s Sonic Bloom really works.
In addition to his ongoing research which he conducts on a 140 acre nut farm in
Wisconsin [He calls himself the "head nut" – Ed.], Carlson is doing a
rather large-scale project in the Third World in an attempt to make his point.
He teamed up with Ian Allison and Eddie Albert of the Seed Corps [Remember
Eddie Albert who played in the TV show "Green Acres"? The Seed Corps
is an effort by Allison and Albert to help the world feed itself by
distributing huge numbers of vegetables, herb and flower seeds – Ed.] and
together they have shipped the equivalent of more than 625,000 packets of
vegetable seeds to Indonesia [Retail value approximately $1.5 million dollars –
Ed.], along with the necessary sonic frequency equipment and quantities of
foliar nutrient solution to get the job done. In Indonesia, the government
grows food on large government plantations, manned and operated by Indonesian
soldiers. The plantations range anywhere between 65,000 and
100,000 acres in size. As you can see, this is no small venture for Carlson and
the Seed Corps!
Think about this for a moment, though: If 50 packets of seed can produce over
4500 pounds of food using Carlson’s methods, then Ian Allison, Eddie Albert,
and Dan Carlson have given the Indonesian people a gift with the potential of
producing over 56,000,000 pounds of food in one season! What’s more, the seeds
they donated were "open pollinated" [This means they are not from
fragile, hybrid sources (hybrids don’t reproduce), but are organically grown
seeds which produce plants yielding viable seeds which can be saved and used
for the next planting season – Ed.] That being the case, this initial gift
could multiply to over a billion pounds of food for Indonesia in just a very
short time! All that needs to be done is to treat the plants, cuttings, and
seeds with Carlson’s amazing Sonic Bloom.
Carlson’s "mission" is to convince the Indonesian government that
their people can feed themselves by showing them how, with the use of his Sonic
Bloom, any seed or cutting gets better than its parent, and faster. How
open-pollinated seeds, which are more drought tolerant and stress resistant and
higher in nutrient quality (though usually lower in yield) can not only keep
those positive traits but also become higher yielding than hybrids. He is
confident the Indonesians will see that their next generation of plants will be
better than the first. He’s already proven this with corn seed in Mexico, beating
agri-giant Cargill’s best yielding hybrids with his humble, open-pollinated
varieties treated with Sonic Bloom.
Carlson’s hope is that, by implementing the use of his Sonic Bloom the children
of not only Indonesia, but children all over the world, will be given the
nutritional foundation to grow up healthy and with optimum mental acuity
[Whether it be in the Third World or here in the U.S. any child who suffers
malnutrition for the first eighteen months of his life will not have the full
mental capabilities he could have had if he had only been given
fully-nutritious food to eat . . . the kind of food Sonic Bloom can help to
provide – Ed.].
Where to get Sonic Bloom
Whether it be a Third World farmer trying to eke out sustenance for his family
from the poorest of soils; whether it be the commercial grower who is
struggling to make ends meet as he works to bring his crops to market year
after year; or, whether it be the home gardener who enjoys eating the fruit
which comes from his special plot of earth . . . Carlson offers us all a way to
benefit. Carlson’s Sonic Bloom combination of sound and all-natural foliar
nutrients can help us all enjoy more of the produce of the ground, not only in
the sense of quantity, but also quality, and we can begin doing so right now!
Both seeds and cuttings from plants will greatly benefit from Sonic Bloom
treatments. Seeds can be soaked overnight in the nutrient solution while being
"serenaded" by the "bird sounds" tape, for example. From
seeds to harvest, applying Sonic Bloom according to directions helps to create
stronger, more disease and pest resistant plants of all types and stimulates
your plants to bear more and larger, highly-nutritious produce, regardless of
the kind of crop you grow.
Sonic Bloom comes in various sizes. The all-natural liquid nutrient concentrate
(A proprietary blend which includes a special combination of seaweed, amino
acids and trace minerals – Ed.] mixes in the ratio of one tablespoon per gallon
of water. Six ounces of the concentrate will mix 12 gallons of spray, which
should easily cover an acre of row crops [Trees will take a bit more – Ed.].
You will notice that a generous amount of nutrient concentrate is supplied with
each kit described below, allowing the user to have multiple applications. Many
home gardeners find that there is enough concentrate in the Home and Garden Kit
to last them more than one season.
The Home and Garden Kit is ideal for you if you have a small garden, or live in
a condo or apartment. It comes with a continuous, pre-recorded cassette tape
with the Sonic Bloom audio-wave technology embedded in classical and other
light musical arrangements, which stimulates plant growth in the ways mentioned
in this Special Report. The kit also contains 16 ounces of Sonic Bloom liquid,
nutrient concentrate which makes 32 gallons of foliar spray when mixed as
directed. As mentioned above, for the average size home garden, this should
last you at least 1-2 years.
Now you can have the technology you need to see remarkable improvements in the
speed and quality of the growth of your flowers, decorative plants, fruits
& vegetables, herbs, lawn, bushes, trees . . . or any other kind of plant
you may choose to grow. Not only will you be able to impress your friends and
neighbors with your "green thumb" as they witness the biggest and
most beautiful flowers, fruits, and vegetables in your neighborhood . . . but
you will also be able to enjoy some of the most nutritious, health-building
fruits and vegetables to be found anywhere. And they will all come from your
garden!
For an area from about ¼ acre up to 5 acres, you will need to get the
Greenhouse and Small Garden Kit. This kit contains an indoor/outdoor speaker
system, with an AC adapter, DC power supply cord [A heavy-duty car battery will
power this system for about 100 days before needing a re-charge – Ed.], and 1
gallon of Sonic Bloom liquid concentrate, which will mix up to 256 gallons of
high-nutrition, foliar spray.
The Large Farm and Ranch Kit will handle 25-40 acres. It includes a 2-module
speaker system, which can be mounted stationary (on a pole) or mobile (on a
tractor). It comes with a 12 volt DC power cord and documentation/instructions
for use. The speaker system features an on-off switch and dawn-to-dusk
photocell control. Five gallons of Sonic Bloom liquid concentrate are also
included, which will mix up to $1,280 gallons of foliar spray solution.
A Commercial Kit is also available, which covers up to 60 acres.
Are You a Coffee Drinker?
If you want to try some of the best coffee we’ve ever tasted, give Kona Kulana
Farm a call (1-808-322-9752) and order their Full City Roast. Kona Kulana Farm
is located on the island of Kailua-Kona in Hawaii. Whether it be their arabica
seedlings which are nurtured from seed in their own nursery, or their mature,
fruit-bearing trees, Sonic Bloom is used to insure the highest yields and best
flavors. Their handpicked coffee is water processed and sun dried to assure you
one of the finest coffees in the world. Kona Kulana Farm has been awarded the "Farm
of the Year" by USDA for their sustainable agricultural practices. They
use no pesticides. Their coffee has won more awards at the annual Kona Coffee
Festival Cupping Contest than any other Kona coffee farm. Their record speaks
for itself. Here at the Bio/Tech News we live and move in the land of Starbucks
Coffee. We’re here to tell you that, in our opinion, Starbucks can’t touch the
taste or quality
of the coffee which comes from this family-owned farm in Kona. Once you’ve
tasted it, we think you’ll agree. Give them a call.
-- 2000, Bio Tech News
If you have enjoyed reading this story, order the Sonic Bloom 6 hour video and
meet the true stars of the Sonic Bloom story!
Kay and Allen Aslan Heart
White Eagles Soaring
802 Carmen, Suite C
Mt. Shasta CA 96067 whiteaglesoaring@yahoo.com
toll-free (888) 926-1997
fax (520) 833-3207
END
Mary Measures and Pearl Weinberger
Ayahuasca Icaro
"One ayahuasca vision showed me how all levels of existence, including
material and non-material levels as thoughts or feelings, have vibration, or
sound underneath their surface manifestation. If one can reproduce the sound,
vibration, or "song" of that which you are working with, you can
enter into it and change it around! The shaman does just this using themselves
as an instrument to effect Ihe joining." Luis Eduardo Luna
An Icaro is a shamanic power song learned from an elder shaman or spirits. They
are used to communicate with the spirits of the natural world, to heal the
sick, and to actually provoke certain kinds of visual displays or visions in
those intoxicated with ayahuasca. The most important of these songs are those
learned from the spirits themselves or those recieved in the dream visions
which can follow an ayahuasca session.
This audio file is a short sample from a long icaro heard on the radio late one
night on Peter Lamborn Wilson's bi-weekly show "The Moorish Orthodox Radio
Crusade" (station WBAI 99.5FM NYC). He said it's from a tape called,
"The Songs the Plants Taught Us: Authentic Ayahuasqueros Shamanic Healing
Sessions Recorded Live in the Peruvian Amazon" by anthropologist Luis
Eduardo Luna.
Short HiFi Icaro (33sec, 8bit/8khz AU 262k)
A lesser quality but much longer 4 minute 49 second sample of this same icaro
is available in RealAudio:
Long LoFi Icaro (4m49s, RA, 290k)
• Here is some detailed information on obtaining audio
cassettes of these rare and interesting vocalizations:
o Sound Photosynthesis catalog of Shamanism & Alternative
Healing Resources §
LUIS EDUARDO LUNA: Peruvian Ayahuasca Session.
Magical songs in their magical context.
(1) Audio cassette #A124-84 $9.00 §
LUIS EDUARDO LUNA: Songs the Plants Taught Us.
(1) Audio cassette #A123-84 $9.00
o Basement Shaman §
Songs the Plants Taught Us by Luis Eduardo Luna
The haunting, visionary songs of shamans from deep inside Amazonian
rainforests. $12.00
also see Magic Melodies
HOW PLANETS AFFECT BEHAVIOUR AND HUMAN HEALTH : Scientific Background
The idea that the earth, sun and other planetary bodies influence human health
and behavior and, on a larger scale, social unrest and significant global
events, has been discussed among scientists for decades. The study of
interconnectedness, which is not yet fully embraced in the mainstream
scientific community, is still in infancy.
Global coherence research uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes the
geosciences and astrophysics as well as extensive data from human and animal
studies that are correlated to social and global events. The Global Coherence
Initiative (GCI) employs the Global Coherence Monitoring System to collect a
variety of data, information about Earth’s magnetic field and how it affects
and is influenced by human emotions and behaviors.
Global Coherence Monitoring System
The Global Coherence Monitoring System (GCMS), GCI’s scientific component, uses
state-of-the-art sensing technology to observe changes in the earth’s magnetic
field. Eventually, there will be about a dozen sensor sites in the GCMS
worldwide network of magnetometers. As of November 2014, sensor sites were
operating around the clock in the following locations:
Boulder Creek, Calif.
Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
Alberta, Canada
Baisogala, Lithuania
Northland Region of New Zealand
Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
The GCMS sensors continuously monitor the resonant frequencies in Earth’s
magnetic field. They track changes in geomagnetic activity caused by solar
storms, changes in solar wind speed, disruption of the Schumann resonances (SR)
and, potentially, the signatures of major global events that have a strong
emotional component.
It is well established that the resonant frequencies in the earth’s various
magnetic fields directly overlap with those of the human brain, cardiovascular
and autonomic nervous systems. Therefore, it should not be surprising that
numerous physiological rhythms in humans and global collective behaviors are
not only synchronized with solar and geomagnetic activity, but that disruptions
in these fields can create adverse effects on human health and behavior. When
the earth’s magnetic field environment is disturbed it can cause sleep
disturbance, mental confusion, unusual lack of energy or a feeling of being on
edge or overwhelmed for no apparent reason.
We use the Global Coherence Monitoring System to conduct research on the
mechanisms of how the earth’s various fields affect human physiological, mental
and emotional processes, health and collective behavior. In addition, we hope
to investigate whether changes in the earth’s magnetic fields occur before
natural catastrophes like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and human events such
as social unrest and terrorist attacks.
Overarching Global Coherence hypotheses
The following GCI hypotheses guide our ongoing collaborative research:
Human and animal health, cognitive functions, emotions and behavior are
affected by solar, geomagnetic and other earth-related magnetic fields.
The earth’s magnetic field is a carrier of biologically relevant information
that connects all living systems.
Every person affects the global information field.
Collective human consciousness affects the global information field. Therefore,
large numbers of people creating heart-centered states of care, love and
compassion will generate a more coherent field environment that can benefit
others and help offset the current planetary discord and incoherence.
Related to all of the above hypotheses is that human emotions and consciousness
interact with and encode information into the geomagnetic field and this
information is distributed globally. We believe there is a feedback loop
between human beings and the earth’s energetic/magnetic systems.
We are suggesting in essence that this encoded information is communicated
nonlocally between people at a subconscious level, in effect linking all living
systems. Magnetic fields act as carrier waves for this information, which can
influence all living systems – positively or negatively – within the field
environment as well as our collective consciousness.
The scientific community is beginning to appreciate and understand at the
deeper level how we are all interconnected with and affected by the magnetic
fields generated by the sun and earth. Every cell in our bodies is bathed in an
external and internal environment of fluctuating invisible magnetic forces.
Human physiological rhythms and behaviors are synchronized with solar and
geomagnetic activity, so fluctuations in the earth and sun’s magnetic fields
can affect virtually every circuit in human as well as any biological systems.
Logically, disruptions in these fields could adversely affect human health and
behavior. Moreover, changes in the intensity of geomagnetic activity and
the Schumann resonances appear to alter brainwave and neurohormonal responses.
(The brain is a very sensitive electromagnetic organ.)
Changes in the earth’s magnetic field have been shown to affect human heart
rhythms and have been associated with the following: changes in brain and
nervous-system activity; athletic performance, memory and other tasks;
synthesis of nutrients in plants and algae; the number of reported traffic
violations and accidents; mortality from heart attacks and strokes; and
incidence of depression and suicide.
The earth and ionosphere generate a symphony of frequencies ranging from 0.01
hertz to 300 hertz, and some of the large resonances occurring in the earth’s
field are in the same frequency range as those occurring in the human
cardiovascular system, brain and autonomic nervous system. Although researchers
have looked at some of the possible interactions between the earth’s field and
human, animal and plant activity, new data from GCI research is indicating that
we may be more deeply interconnected with the earth’s field than previously
imagined.
Historically, many cultures believed their collective behavior could be
affected by the sun and other external cycles and influences. This belief has
proven to be true. On a larger societal scale, increased violence, crime rate,
social unrest, revolutions and frequency of terrorist attacks have been linked
to the solar cycle and the resulting disturbances in the geomagnetic field. The
first scientific evidence of this was provided by Alexander Tchijevsky, a
Russian scientist who noticed that more severe battles in World War I occurred
during peak sunspot periods. Tchijevsky then conducted a thorough study of
global human history dating back to 1749 and compared the occurrence of key
events with the occurrence of solar cycles over the same time period until
1926. The figure below, reconstructed from Tchijevsky’s original data, plots
numbers of significant human events corresponding with the occurrence of solar
cycles from 1749 to 1926.
Global Coherence Research graph Tchijevsky’s original data
Tchijevsky’s original data: The blue line plots the annual number of important
political and social events such as the start of wars, social revolutions,
etc., while the red line plots solar activity as indicated by the number of
sunspots from 1749 to 1922. The histories of 72 countries were compiled, and it
was found that 80% of the most significant events occurred during solar
maximums, which correlate with the highest periods of geomagnetic activity.
Solar activity has not only been associated with social unrest. It also has
been related to the periods of greatest human flourishing, with definitive
spurts in architecture, arts and science and positive social change.
We can learn from past mistakes and consciously choose new ways of navigating
these great energy influxes to create periods of human flourishing and
humanitarian advances. When outdated structures that do not serve humanity
collapse, an opportunity opens for them to be replaced with more suitable and
sustainable models. Such positive change can affect political, economic,
medical and educational systems as well as people’s relationships in their
workplaces, homes and communities.
Earth Rhythms
Earth has a strong internal magnetic field that appears to be generated by
electrical currents in the liquid outer iron core that are driven by internal
heat sources. The magnetic field resembles that of a bar magnet or “dipole
field” with an axis tilted about 11.5 degrees from the spin axis, so, the
magnetic poles are not the same as the geographic poles. Earth’s magnetic field
strength was first measured by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1835 and has been
measured repeatedly since then. The field has shown a relative decay of about
10% over the last 150 years. The locations of the magnetic poles are not
static; they wander as much as 55 kilometers every year.
The geomagnetic field is influenced by the sun and moon’s rotations, solar
flares and probably interplanetary influences. Animals, including birds, can
detect Earth’s magnetic field and use it to navigate during migration. It has
been shown, for example, that cows and deer, when grazing, tend to align their
bodies north-south in response to the earth’s magnetic field.
Global Coherence Research earth’s magnetic field
The forces of the solar wind include charged particles that push against
Earth’s magnetic field. Because of the solar wind, the portion of the
geomagnetic field facing the sun is pushed in toward the earth’s surface and
flattened when the portion of the field facing away from the sun, known as the
magnetotail, is pulled away from Earth. (See figure below.) A visible
phenomenon of the collision of charged solar particles with Earth’s magnetic
field is auroras, or the northern and southern polar lights, which are commonly
known as the aurora borealis and aurora australis.
Global Coherence Research Magnetotail
When the solar wind meets the earth’s magnetic field it causes various types of
complex oscillations in the field that often are referred to as micropulsations
and field line resonances. Based on their waveforms, magnetic pulsations and
field line resonances have been classified as pulsations that are continuous
(Pc) and pulsations that irregular (Pi). Because their frequencies are so low,
they are usually characterized by their period of oscillation rather than
frequency.
There are a variety of mechanisms that produce these oscillations, such as
interactions of solar wind and the earth’s main magnetic field lines; sudden
solar wind pressure changes that move/push the field in or allow it to expand
out; and sudden changes in solar wind direction that cause the magnetotail to
stretch and snap back. The figure below shows an example of these field line
resonances, recorded at the GCI magnetometer site in Boulder Creek, Calif.
Important note: The frequencies of these field line resonances are in the same
range as many of the rhythms found in human and animal cardiovascular and
autonomic nervous-system functions.
In the Boulder Creek site example, there is a clear frequency at 0.1 hertz,
which is the same frequency as the heart rhythm of someone who is in a
heart-coherent state. Research has shown that changes in these ultralow
frequencies (ULF’s, also called Pc and Pi), caused by solar activity and
changes in geomagnetic activity can affect human health and behavior.
Geomagnetic field line resonance data recorded from the GCI sensor site in
Boulder Creek, Calif.
Geomagnetic field line resonance data recorded from the GCI sensor site in
Boulder Creek, Calif. Note that all the resonant frequencies overlap human
autonomic and cardiovascular system frequencies. In this example, there is a
clear standing wave frequency at 0.1 hertz, which is the same frequency of our
heart rhythms when we are in a coherent state.
Schumann Resonances:
Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances in the cavity formed
between the earth’s surface and the ionosphere. Schumann resonances were named
after German physicist Winfried Schumann, who first predicted them in 1952.
Electromagnetic impulses like those from global lightning flashes (Earth’s
thunderstorm activity) fill this cavity and excite the Schumann resonances. The
first accurate measurements of the Schumann resonances were made from 1960 to
1963 and since then there has been an increasing interest in them across a wide
variety of fields.
Radiation from the sun ionizes part of the earth’s upper atmosphere and forms a
conductive plasma layer, the ionosphere. The ionosphere surrounding our planet
is negatively charged relative to the earth’s surface, which creates a strong
electrical field between the earth and ionosphere. Schumann resonances occur
because the space between the surface of the earth and the conductive
ionosphere acts as a closed waveguide. This waveguide acts as a resonant cavity
for electromagnetic waves. Schumann resonances appear as distinct peaks at
extremely low frequencies starting around 7.8 hertz, which is considered the
fundamental frequency.
Global Coherence Research Schumann resonances in earth ionosphere cavity
Schumann resonances in Earth-ionosphere cavity. Courtesy NASA.
Resonances can be observed at around 7.8, 14, 20, 26, 33, 39 and 45 hertz, with
a daily variation of about ± 0.5 hertz, which is caused by the daily increase
and decrease in the ionization of the ionosphere due to UV radiation from the
sun (also see the live data).
Global Coherence Research GCMS Boulder Creek magnetometers
The signals recorded from the GCMS Boulder Creek magnetometers are converted to
the frequency domain with the Fourier transform. The Schumann resonances
occurring over an eight-hour period can be clearly seen at approximately 7.8,
14, 20, 26, 33, 39, and 45 hertz.
Interest in the Schumann resonances has gone beyond the boundaries of
geophysics, into medicine, where it has posed questions about the interactions
between planetary rhythms and human health and behavior (for more detail see
the July 7, 2009 Commentary)
The similarity of the 7.8-hertz Earth resonance and human brainwave rhythms was
quickly identified after the Schumann resonances were first measured, and early
studies were able to demonstrate a correlation between these resonances and
brain rhythms. Numerous studies conducted by the Halberg Chronobiology Center
at the University of Minnesota along with other studies have since shown that
there are important links between solar, Schumann and geomagnetic field line
resonances and a wide range of human and animal health and wellness indicators.
Although the existence of the Schumann resonances is an established scientific
fact, how these important planetary electromagnetic standing waves act as a
background frequency that can influence biological systems such as the heart
and brain is not completely understood.
Global Coherence Research continuous pulsations GCMS B.C. CA
The green arrow in this spectrogram indicates continuous pulsations as well as
the Schumann resonances. The data was collected by the magnetometer at GCI’s
Boulder Creek Calif., headquarters.
Want to listen to the earth’s resonances? This three-minute audio file is
data collected from GCI’s magnetic sensor in Boulder Creek. The resonances have
been shifted up in frequency to an audible range. They were recorded at
nighttime during a period of relatively quiet ionospheric activity.
GCI hypothesizes that changes in the earth and ionosphere’s resonant
frequencies can influence the function of the human autonomic nervous system
and brain and cardiovascular systems. Until recently, it has not been feasible
to test this hypothesis scientifically. This is because there is a lack of
reliable, continuous measures of ionospheric and field line resonances data and
an inability to do long-term monitoring of people’s physiological systems such
as heart rate variability monitoring, which reflects autonomic nervous-system activity.
Interconnectivity of all Living Systems Through Earth’s Magnetic Field
As noted elsewhere in this article, researchers at the HeartMath Institute and
GCI strongly suspect human health and behavior are influenced by solar and
geomagnetic activity. In addition, GCI researchers hypothesize that the earth’s
magnetic field is a carrier of biologically relevant information that connects
all living systems.
Related to this, we have shown in laboratory research that the electromagnetic
field generated by the heart of a person can be detected by nearby animals or
the nervous systems of other people.
For example, research conducted in HMI’s laboratory has confirmed the
hypothesis that when an individual is in a state of heart coherence, the heart
radiates a more coherent electromagnetic signal into the environment. This
research further has shown that when we are in this coherent state, we are more
sensitive to detecting the information in the fields radiated by others. The
Energetic Heart: Bioelectromagnetic Interactions Within and Between People
Scientific Monograph by Rollin McCraty, Ph.D. . Of all the organs, the heart
generates the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field, one that is approximately
100 times stronger than the brain’s field. The heart’s field can be detected
several feet from the body with sensitive magnetometers.
The heart’s magnetic field would be a plausible explanation for why we can
“feel” or sense another person’s presence and emotional state independent of
body language or other factors. HeartMath also has found that there is a direct
relationship between the heart-rhythm patterns and the spectral information
encoded in the frequency spectra of the magnetic field radiated by the heart.
Thus, we believe, information about a person’s emotional state is encoded in
the heart’s magnetic field, which is communicated throughout the body and into
the external environment.
A growing body of evidence suggests that an energetic field is formed among
individuals in groups through which communication among all the group members
occurs simultaneously. In other words, there is an actual “group field” that
connects all the members. Coherence: Bridging Personal, Social and Global
Health paper.
One study demonstrated the effect of heart coherence in a group setting where
people trained in maintaining states of heart coherence for several minutes
could promote coherent states in untrained participants.
Also supporting the hypothesis that magnetic fields are carriers of
biologically relevant information is a recent study that demonstrated
epigenetic information related to DNA could be detected as electromagnetic
signals in a highly diluted solution and this information can be transferred to
and imprinted in pure water that has never been exposed to DNA, but only in the
presence of a 7.8-hertz weak magnetic field. Furthermore, this information can
lead to the re-creation of DNA when the appropriate basic constituents of DNA
are present – but again, only if extremely low electromagnetic frequency fields
of 7.8 hertz are present to carry the information.
The study’s authors also state that such a very low electromagnetic frequency
field that stimulates DNA information transfer could come from natural sources
such as Schuman resonances, which start at a frequency of 7.83 hertz.
Dr. Michael Persinger, a well-known neuroscientist, has conducted numerous
studies examining the effects of magnetic fields with the same magnitude as the
geomagnetic field on brain functions and information transfer. Not only has he shown
that applying external fields similar to the Schuman resonances can induce
altered states of consciousness, he also has suggested in a detailed theory
that the space occupied by the geomagnetic field can store information related
to brain activity and that this information can be accessed by all human
brains.
Furthermore, Persinger also suggests that the earth’s magnetic field can act as
a carrier of information between individuals and that information, rather than
the intensity of the signal carrying it, is important for interaction with
neural networks. The above findings help support part of GCI’s hypothesis that
the earth’s magnetic field is a carrier of biologically relevant information.
HeartMath and GCI further submit that because humans have brain and heart
frequencies overlapping the earth’s magnetic field resonances, they not only
are receivers of biologically relevant information, but they also essentially
create a feedback look with the earth’s magnetic field and thus feed
information into the global field environment.
While it is not difficult to conceive that life forms existing within the
earth’s magnetic field could be affected by modulations in this field, it is a
more far-reaching proposition to suggest that the earth’s field connects all
living systems and carries and distributes biologically relevant information.
Nevertheless, GCI researchers hypothesize that when large numbers of humans
respond to a global event with common emotional feeling, the collective
response can affect the information distributed in the earth’s field. In cases
where the event evokes negative responses, this can be thought of as a
planetary stress wave (of information), and in cases where a positive wave is
created, it could create a global coherence wave.
VOICE DECODING -
DETECTING WHAT CHARMING, CREEPY PEOPLE HIDE
Some people have multiple
layers of voices when they speak.
If you hear that:
Proceed with caution.
Focus on the voice,
defocus and listen to any distortional “background“ noise. Actually it’s not in
the background it is parallel communication.
A magnetized throat
chakra can be very problematic, since many in politics have it. It is seductive
in a negative way.
the trick is:
– Listen, focus and
defocus, like the aura plant trick.
– Focus on where the
resonance hits the body. Heart or solar plexus.
If it hits Solar
Plexus or lower, maybe detach.
(Try that on your
local matrix news drone broadcaster and the impact to the collective scare is
quite obvious to the sensitive ear: fear fear fear). Some days I just can’t
listen, it becomes to obvious and creepy. On the other hand, I can’t hardly
listen to them anymore. It is a chorus of liars also in an occult way.
Spooky-Wooky.
– Then focus and
defocus.
It can be a very good
method to tap into where this person is coming from and wants to effect or
manifest, both in you and the collective. We are much more sensitive to the
subtleness in those resonances than we really think.
BIO-ELECTROMAGNETICS
INVIVO STUDIES
Modelling and design of extremely low frequency uniform magnetic field exposure
apparatus for in vivo bioelectromagnetic studies. Abstract
Helmholtz coils are regularly utilised for various extremely low frequency
(ELF) bioelectromagnetic experiments. The evaluation was conducted for the Helmholtz
coil magnetic field frequency and uniformity, characterised by frequency-domain
and geometric ELF magnetic exposure characteristics. An established approach
which consisted of the mathematical calculations of the geometric parameters,
computational modeling, and experimental development measurements of the
Helmholtz coil's magnetic field frequency and uniformity, improved the quality
of magnetic field uniformity and minimised the magnetic field intensity losses. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18002296?goback=.gde_4862675_member_263100369#!
MAGNETIC ORIENTATION OF ANIMAL BODIES WHEN FEEDING
Extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields disrupt magnetic alignment of
ruminants ( Animals ).
Grazing cattle and deer tend to align their body axes in the geomagnetic
North-South direction
The mechanism(s) that underlie this behavior remain unknown. Here, we show that
extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELFMFs) generated by high-voltage
power lines disrupt alignment of the bodies of these animals with the
geomagnetic field. Body orientation of cattle and roe deer was random on
pastures under or near power lines. Moreover, cattle exposed to various magnetic
fields directly beneath or in the vicinity of power lines trending in various
magnetic directions exhibited distinct patterns of alignment. The disturbing
effect of the ELFMFs on body alignment diminished with the distance from
conductors. These findings constitute evidence for magnetic sensation in large
mammals as well as evidence of an overt behavioral reaction to weak ELFMFs in
vertebrates. The demonstrated reaction to weak ELFMFs implies effects at the
cellular and molecular levels. http://www.pnas.org/content/106/14/5708.full?goback=.gde_4862675_member_263095371#!
INSTANT MOOD CHANGE via TINY MAGNETIC FIELD COILS
"I put this thing in my pocket, and occasionally I set it at a specific
frequency that I'm not going to mention - because I've been asked not to by the
people who can ask other people not to do things.
And pretty soon the waitress would start dropping coffee into the laps of
patrons. The babies would start screaming. People within a 10 or 12 foot radius
(that's a 20 foot room), would begin freaking out. I'd surreptitiously turn
this thing to two Hz higher in frequency. Hahhhhh (a simulated sigh of relief),
you could hear the room calm down. If you had a pocket Radio Shack decibel
meter, the cocktail level effect, the volume of the conversation will drop,
noticeably, in decibels. A little box the size of a package of cigarettes, when
it uses the neural frequency principle can entrain the brain waves of a subject
inside a totally shielded room, without his knowledge, consent etc. That's what
this is all about. http://www.lambros.name/profreedom/sublim_warfare.htmlhttp://soundofstars.org/research.html
Ever wonder why dogs need to get themselves into just the
right position to do their business? As it turns out, dogs align their body
axis according to Earth's magnetic field when they squat to poop—a behavior
that changes when the magnetic field is unstable. But why do they do it?
The results of this recently published paper from Frontiers in Zoology
sound goofy, but the takeaway is all in the title, "Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth's magnetic
field." The researchers measured the direction of the body axis of 70
different dogs while they were off-leash during 1,893 acts of defecation and
5,582 acts of urination over a two-year period. They found that, under calm
magnetic field conditions, dogs prefer to orient their bodies along the
North-South axis when they poop. However, this behavior did not occur during
unstable magnetic field conditions, and the best predictor for this change of
behavior was the rate of change of magnetic declination.
This means that the dogs are responding to changes in the polarity of the
magnetic field rather than changes in intensity. It's that change in behavior
that has the authors of this paper particularly excited, since it's the first
time, according to the paper, that magnetic sensitivity has been proven in dogs
and that a predictable behavioral reaction from natural magnetic field
fluctuations has been unambiguously observed in mammals.
The question that this inevitably invites is: why on Earth do dogs do this?
The paper notes that it's not just that dogs prefer to align themselves along
the North-South axis; they also seem to avoid the East-West axis when
they poop, although it's not clear whether they do so consciously. The
researchers suggest that perhaps, when dogs poop, they are also taking the
opportunity to orient themselves:
An answer may lie in the biological meaning of the behavior: if dogs would
use a visual (radical-pair based) magnetic map to aid general orientation in
space as has been proposed for rodents [32], they might have the need to
center/calibrate the map now and then with regard to landmarks or a magnetic
reference. Aligning the map and the view towards North (or South) facilitates
reading the map. Furthermore, calibration only makes sense when the reference
is stable and reliable. We might think of this the same way as a human is
stopping during a hike to read a map. When the map is blurred or the reference
(perceived magnetic direction) is dispersed or moving due to magnetic
disturbances, however, calibration is impossible. In the case of the dogs it
thus would totally make sense to not pay attention to magnetic body alignment
any more under conditions of a shifting magnetic field.
Resting and grazing cattle and deer tend to align their body axes in
the geomagnetic North-South direction. The mechanism(s) that underlie this
behavior remain unknown. Here, we show that extremely low-frequency magnetic
fields (ELFMFs) generated by high-voltage power lines disrupt alignment of the
bodies of these animals with the geomagnetic field. Body orientation of cattle and
roe deer was random on pastures under or near power lines. Moreover, cattle
exposed to various magnetic fields directly beneath or in the vicinity of power
lines trending in various magnetic directions exhibited distinct patterns of
alignment. The disturbing effect of the ELFMFs on body alignment diminished
with the distance from conductors. These findings constitute evidence for
magnetic sensation in large mammals as well as evidence of an overt behavioral
reaction to weak ELFMFs in vertebrates. The demonstrated reaction to weak
ELFMFs implies effects at the cellular and molecular levels.
Diverse animals, including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians,
fish, crustaceans and insects, use the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) for
directional orientation and navigation (1–3). Despite being phylogenetically widespread, magnetic
compass orientation has been convincingly demonstrated in only a few species of
mammals representing only 2 taxonomic groups: rodents (4–8) and bats (9, 10). Not surprisingly, all these model species are small
mammals amenable to experimental manipulation of the ambient magnetic field.
Demonstration of magnetic orientation in animals requires well-designed
laboratory and/or field experiments combining manipulations of magnetic fields
with either spontaneous behavioral reactions (e.g., an innate preference for a
certain direction, migration, or homing) or conditioning to magnetic field
properties. However, it is technically demanding, if not impossible, to perform
such experiments with sufficient numbers of larger mammals. Alternatively,
naturally occurring geomagnetic anomalies can be exploited to study the
behavior of animals dwelling at these localities. However, this approach has
seldom been applied in the study of magnetic orientation of mammals thus far (11).
Recently, we reported that resting and grazing cattle as well as roe
deer (Capreolus capreolus) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) tend
to align their body axes in the geomagnetic North-South (N-S) direction (12). Because wind, sunshine, and slope could be excluded
as common ubiquitous factors, alignment toward the vector of the magnetic field
provides the most likely explanation for the observed behavior. The study thus
provided strong but indirect evidence for magnetoreception in ruminants.
However, because of the descriptive nature of the original study, alternative
explanations (e.g., the sun compass; cf. ref. 13) could not be excluded. We analyzed body orientations
of ruminants in localities where the geomagnetic field is disturbed by
high-voltage power lines to determine how local variation in magnetic fields
may affect the previously described orientation behavior.
Steel pylons deflect the natural geomagnetic field within a radius of
up to 30 m (14). Overhead high-voltage power lines produce an
alternating magnetic field (AMF) attributable to the electric current, with a
frequency of 50/60 Hz, producing what are known as extremely low-frequency
magnetic fields (ELFMFs). Such fields are the strongest (up to about 15
μT/380 kV, 8 μT/220 kV, and 5 μT/110 kV) directly under power
lines in the middle of the span between 2 pylons, where the sag of the
conductors brings the lines nearest to the ground. Magnetic flux density
diminishes with the distance from power lines, such that density reaches the
value of 1 μT at about 70 m (380 kV), 45 m (220 kV), and 20 m (110 kV)
away from the midline (14–16). According to other measurements, the maximum magnetic
field values to which humans and animals are exposed are even lower and
increase by about 80% (from 3.4 to 6.2 μT for 380 kV) when changing the
position from near the pylon to the flux region (17).
Here, we analyze satellite and aerial images of herds of cattle and
field observations of body alignment in grazing roe deer. Assuming that the
observed body orientation is attributable to magnetic alignment, we hypothesize
that cattle and deer grazing and resting under power lines and near pylons will
be disoriented with respect to those outside the influence of local
perturbations.
Cattle and roe deer resting and grazing in open pastures
and meadows show very consistent N-S alignment (12). The control cattle recorded in Europe, grazing in
localities without overhead high-voltage power lines within a radius of at
least 500 m, aligned their bodies significantly along the N-S axis (mean axis =
1.2°/181.2°, r = 0.422, P < 10−8, n
= 111 localities/herds; Fig. 1A). By contrast, cattle grazing under or in
the vicinity (<150 m) of high-voltage overhead power lines were randomly
distributed (i.e., no preference for orienting their body axes in a certain
direction could be revealed) (mean axis = 80.1°/260.1°, r = 0.11, P
= 0.169, n = 153 localities/herds; Fig. 1B).
Axial data revealing body orientation of domestic cattle (Bos
taurus) (Upper) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) (Lower).
(A, Left) Animals at localities without high-voltage power
lines. (B) Animals grazing and resting under or in the vicinity of
power lines. (Center) Bearings relative to the geomagnetic N-S axis. (Right)
Bearings of body axes relative to power line direction. Each pair of data
points (located on opposite sites within the unit circle) represents the
direction of the mean axial vector of the herd. The double arrows indicate the
length (r) and direction of the grand mean axial vectors. The inner
circles mark the 5% (dotted) and 1% significance borders of the Rayleigh test.
(Copyright 2008, National Academy of Sciences.)
Similarly, roe deer in locations without overhead high-voltage power
lines exhibited roughly N-S alignment (mean axis = 9.1°/189.1°, r =
0.83, P < 10−4, n = 201 localities/herds;
Fig. 1A), whereas those in the vicinity (<50 m)
of power lines (mostly in the vicinity of steel pylons) exhibited random body
orientation (mean axis = 75.0°/255.0°, r = 0.14, P = 0.397, n
= 47 localities/herds; Fig. 1B).
No alignment with power line direction could be detected when all
cattle grazing up to a distance of 150 m from the power lines were taken into
account (Fig. 1B). The same was true for roe deer grazing
up to 50 m from the power lines (Fig. 1B). The animals' body orientation was random
when plotted with respect to the power line direction (cattle: mean axis =
6.8°/186.8°, r = 0.12, P = 0.112, n = 153 herds; roe
deer: mean axis = 171.9°/351.9°, r = 0.09, P = 0.674, n
= 47 herds), indicating that the power lines did not serve as a visual orientation
cue.
Magnetoreceptive Nature of Alignment.
The disruptive effect of ELFMFs clearly rules out the
effect of the sun's position and implies magnetic alignment cues. Therefore, we
tested more specific predictions resulting from the interaction between the
AMFs generated by high-voltage power lines and the EMF. First, we analyzed the
body orientation of cattle grazing directly under power lines (<5 m from
outer conductors) trending in various compass directions [Fig. 2, supporting
information (SI) Tables S1 and S2].
Magnetic field properties and body orientation of cattle
directly under power lines. Power lines trending in the ranges of 70°–110°,
340°–20°, 115°–155° and 25°–65° were classified as E-W (A), N-S (B),
NW-SE (C), and NE-SW (D), respectively. The total intensity
vector of the field (T) can be resolved into 2 vector components: the
horizontal field intensity (H) and the vertical field intensity (V). The
inclination is a vertical angle between the H (or the Earth's surface) and T.
The azimuth is a horizontal angle measured clockwise between the horizontal
intensity vector of the EMF (H0) and the horizontal intensity
vectors of the fields resulting from summation of the AMF and EMF (H1
or H2). BAF, AMF vector; H0, V0, T0,
vectors of the EMF; H1, H2, V1, V2,
T1, T2, vectors of the fields resulting from summation of
the AMF and the EMF (the actual field oscillates between H1 and H2,
V1 and V2, and T1 and T2,
respectively, with a frequency of 50 Hz). Axial alignment data presented as in Fig. 1. See Tables
S1 and S2 for numerical values.
Below the power lines, the AMF vector is horizontal and
perpendicular to the conductors. Thus, the angle between the AMF and EMF
vectors and resultant field characteristics depend on the direction of the
power lines (Fig. 2, left 3 columns, and Table
S1). In the case of East-West–oriented (E-W) power lines, the AMF vector is
parallel to the horizontal component of the EMF lines. Thus, the AMF considerably
affects the horizontal intensity but not the azimuth of the EMF. Intensity and
inclination of the resultant field oscillate between 2 values as the polarity
of the AMF changes (i.e., with a frequency of 50 Hz); the azimuth remains
constant. The AMF vector of N-S-oriented power lines is, by contrast,
perpendicular to the horizontal component of the EMF lines (i.e., the AMF
affects mainly the azimuth and the horizontal intensity of the EMF much less).
The azimuth of the resultant field oscillates symmetrically around magnetic
North, although intensity and inclination remain nearly constant. For the
Northwest-Southeast–oriented (NW-SE) and Northeast-Southwest–oriented (NE-SW)
power lines, the AMF vector is 45° and 135° relative to the horizontal component
of the EMF lines, respectively. The AMF affects both the horizontal intensity
and the azimuth of the EMF. Intensity, inclination, and azimuth of the
resultant field oscillate with a frequency of 50 Hz.
The distribution of body orientation differed significantly among
cattle grazing under differently oriented power lines
(Mardia-Watson-Wheeler-test: W = 22.756, P < 0.001; Fig. 2, fourth column, alignment relative to magnetic
North). Under E-W power lines, cattle were highly significantly aligned along
the power lines/magnetic E-W axis (mean axis = 85.4°/265.4°, r =
0.524, P < 0.001, n = 25 herds; Fig. 2A). Their mean alignment axis differed
significantly from that of control cattle (Watson-Williams-test: F =
62.972, P < 10−12) as well as from that of cattle
grazing under N-S power lines (F = 32.078, P < 10−6).
Under N-S power lines, cattle tended to align along the N-S axis; the alignment
was marginally significant (mean axis = 13.1°/193.1°, r = 0.338, P
= 0.056, n = 25 herds; Fig. 2B), and the mean alignment axis was not
different from that of controls (F = 1.446, P = 0.231).
Interestingly, body axes were distributed almost symmetrically around the N-S
axis. Under NW-SE and NE-SW power lines, cattle alignments were
indistinguishable from random, with a trend toward bimodal distribution (Fig. 2C and D and Table
S2). Taken together, animals exposed to the fields characterized by maximal
oscillations of the horizontal intensity and inclination shifted their body
alignment by ≈90°, animals exposed to the azimuth oscillations increased
scatter of their body orientation, and those exposed to the oscillations of all
field parameters were disoriented.
To confirm that the observed orientation changes were caused by a
direct effect of the oscillating fields on the magnetic alignment and not by
nonspecific effects attributable to the utilization of nonmagnetic orientation
cues, we analyzed body orientation of individual cows as a function of the
distance from the power lines (Fig. 3 and Table
S3). The effect of the ELFMF should attenuate with the distance from the
conductors, and at a certain distance, animals should be aligned just as on
pastures without power lines. Considering the alignment patterns observed
directly below lines, predictions differ again when E-W and N-S trending power
lines are compared. Cattle should shift their alignment progressively toward
the N-S axis with increasing distance from E-W power lines (Fig. 3B), and the scatter in body orientation of
cattle near N-S power lines should progressively decrease with increasing
distance from power lines (Fig. 3C). Importantly, the prediction is opposite
if cattle align themselves visually with the power lines: scatter should
increase with increasing distance from N-S power lines.
Body alignment of individual cows as a function of the
distance from E-W (B and D) and N-S power lines (C
and E). (A) Decrease of the AMF intensity with the distance
from conductors. Predicted (B and C) and observed (D
and E) alignment patterns. See text and Table
S3 for detailed information. Each pair of data points (located on opposite
sites within the unit circle) represents the body axis of an individual cow.
The double arrows indicate the length (r) and direction of the mean
axial vector.
The alignment patterns observed at different distances were in very
close agreement with the predictions for magnetic alignment (Fig. 3D and E). Animals shifted their
body orientation progressively from E-W to N-S with increasing distance from
E-W trending power lines; with increasing distance from N-S trending power
lines, scatter decreased. Cattle were roughly aligned to the magnetic N-S axis
(comparable to controls) at a distance of 100–150 m and 50–100 m from E-W and
N-S power lines, respectively.
Functional Properties of Alignment.
Finally, we compared the body orientation of cattle grazing
6–100 m to the south and to the north of E-W trending power lines (Fig. 4). South and north to the E-W power line, the AMF
vector is parallel and antiparallel to the EMF vector, respectively (Fig. 4A). Consequently, field characteristics are
different on the opposite sides of the line (Table
S4). At the same distance from the power line, the horizontal intensity and
vertical intensity of the EMF are affected equally by the AMF. However, vector
addition results in a strong oscillation of the inclination and weaker
oscillation of the total intensity on the north side and a weak oscillation of
the inclination and a stronger oscillation of the total intensity on the south
side. The azimuth remains constant on both sides of the line. The difference in
the intensity oscillation amplitude was accentuated in the analyzed sample,
because the mean distance of individual cows being south or north from the
power lines was slightly asymmetrical (27.9 ± 1.6 m SEM and 32.8 ± 1.5 m SEM,
respectively).
(A) Magnetic field characteristics north and
south of E-W power lines, respectively (see Table
S4 for numerical values). Alignment of cattle grazing south (B) or
north (C) of E-W power lines. Alignment data are given relative to
magnetic North (i.e., 0° = mN) and presented as in Fig. 1. BAF, AMF vector; H0, V0,
T0, vectors of the EMF; H1, H2, V1,
V2, T1, T2, vectors of the fields resulting
from summation of the AMF and the EMF (the actual field oscillates between H1
and H2, V1 and V2, and T1 and T2,
respectively, with a frequency of 50 Hz).
This complex situation enabled us to identify the magnetic cue that
is most decisive for cattle alignment. Because the azimuth of the resultant
field remains constant on both sides, an animal using a polarity compass should
align likewise north and south of the power line. By contrast, an animal
relying on the inclination compass should orient better on the south side. If
an unknown physiological mechanism depending on the intensity of the resultant
field were to underlie the alignment behavior, animals should orient better on
the north side.
The distribution of body orientation as well as the mean alignment
axes differed significantly between cattle grazing on the south and north sides
of the E-W power lines (distribution: W = 6.088, P = 0.048;
alignment axis: F = 7.068, P = 0.01; Fig. 4B and C). On the south side,
animals exhibited a wider spread of body orientation and a larger deflection
from the N-S axis (mean axis = 65.1°/245.1°, r = 0.311, P =
0.04, n = 33 herds) than animals on the north side (mean axis =
35.4°/215.4°, r = 0.539, P < 0.0001, n = 25
herds). Thus, cattle oriented better on the north side of the E-W power lines.
Because the bird inclination compass works properly only within a
narrow range of magnetic intensities (EMF ± approximately 25%; cf. ref. 18), we tested for a possible indirect effect of the total
intensity oscillation on the inclination compass. We ran the same analysis but
included only cattle being more than 20 m from power lines. At a distance of 20
m from the outer conductors, the intensity certainly remains within the normal
functional window of the inclination compass (EMF ± approximately 12%; Table
S4). Nonetheless, animals on the north side again oriented better (mean
axis = 31.7°/211.7°, r = 0.50, P = 0.002, n = 24
herds) than animals on the south side (mean axis = 54.9°/234.9°, r =
0.305, P = 0.096, n = 25 herds). The mean distance of
individual cows being south or north from the power lines was very similar
(38.4 ± 1.95 m SEM and 39.0 ± 1.5 m SEM, respectively). This finding indicates
that the intensity oscillation compromises cattle magnetosensory capacities
even when the oscillation amplitude does not exceed the intensity window, in
which magnetic compass orientation is functional. These results do not
specifically support the polarity compass and are clearly not in line with the
inclination compass, but they show that the observed alignment is based on an
intensity-dependent mechanism.
We can only speculate about the physiological
mechanisms of the magnetic alignment of ruminants. Of the numerous mechanisms
proposed for the direct interaction of electromagnetic fields with the human or
animal body, 3 stand out as operating potentially (also) at lower field levels:
magnetically sensitive radical pair reactions (19), electric field ion cyclotron resonance interactions (20), and mechanisms based on biogenic magnetite (21–24). Theoretically, each of these mechanisms (separately
or in combination) could be responsible for magnetic alignment. For instance,
the radical pair hypothesis proposes an intimate coupling of magnetic sensing
with vision. According to this hypothesis, magnetic fields are perceived as
visual patterns, which are dependent on both field direction and intensity (19). Thus, it is conceivable that the oscillations of the
direction and intensity resulting from the EMF and AMF interaction may blur
magnetically modulated visual patterns and, in turn, compromise or disrupt
magnetic compass orientation. Likewise, ambient AMF could compromise or disrupt
the resonant interactions of the EMF with alternating electric fields occurring
in the nervous system. Finally, putative magnetite-based receptors also
theoretically could be affected by both the static magnetic field and AMF.
Kirschvink (25) and Kirschvink et al. (26) developed a simple biologically plausible biophysical
model of the interaction of single-domain magnetosomes in a viscous fluid
(cytoplasm) with a mechanically activated transmembrane ion channel. The model
shows that motions of magnetosomes induced by an ELFMF on the order of 0.1 to 1
μT can be large enough to open mechanically sensitive transmembrane ion
channels, which, in turn, have the potential to influence a wide range of
cellular processes. Depending on where such a channel is located, and whether
it is coupled to secondary messenger systems, this process could influence the
cell membranes, DNA synthesis, RNA transcription, calcium release, and virtually
any ionically mediated cellular processes. Although the applicability of this
model has been questioned for ELFMFs <5 μT (27–29), it is apparent that, in any case, the model may be
relevant for sites directly beneath and in close proximity to power lines.
Mechanisms of magnetoreception in mammals have been less studied
than those of other vertebrates (1, 2, 30, 31). At least for subterranean mole-rats (5, 32–34) and bats (10, 35), there is evidence for the magnetite-based polarity
compass. However, whether these properties can be generalized to other mammals
remains unclear. The analyses performed in this study are inconclusive with
regard to the functional properties of magnetic alignment in ruminants.
Theoretically, this behavior might be based on an unknown intensity-dependent
mechanism or intensity-dependent polarity compass. Thus, the only safe
inference appears to be that the inclination compass does not account for
cattle alignment.
Magnetic Alignment in Ruminants.
Whatever the underlying mechanism, our results provide
further evidence that the recently described spontaneous directional preference
in grazing and resting cattle and deer represents a case of magnetic alignment.
The fact that animals grazing under or near high-voltage power lines were not
commonly aligned but exhibited distinct alignment patterns beneath or in the
vicinity of power lines trending in various magnetic directions clearly rules
out a role of the sun compass in alignment behavior of ruminants. If cattle and
deer primarily used the sun compass (i.e., derive directional information from
the azimuth of the sun and the internal clock; cf. ref. 13), there should be no effect of the power lines.
Furthermore, highly significant alignment in localities without power lines (12) and the fact that the disturbing effect of the ELFMF
attenuates with the distance from power lines clearly show that other factors
possibly causing alignment, such as sunshine, wind direction, terrain
conditions, herding instinct, or directional plant growth, play only a
secondary role.
One can speculate that magnetic alignment may help to synchronize
the direction of movement of individuals in herds (e.g., effective grazing,
coordinated escape as an effective antipredatory behavior), and it also may be
a manifestation of the magnetic compass orientation or even navigation (being a
basic tool for mentally mapping their everyday surroundings and learning new
landmarks, J. B. Phillips, personal communication). However, it should be
stressed that cattle and deer show magnetic alignment also, particularly when
resting (12), such that the role of alignment behavior may be
manifold and may also include the regulation of vegetative functions. The
disturbing effect of the ELFMF on body alignment deserves further theoretical
and experimental scrutiny.
We used the same technique to analyze axial body orientation of
domestic cattle as previously described (12). The Google Earth satellite and aerial images used
here met the criteria of the former study, but in contrast to the previous
study, we were searching for cattle that were located under or near
high-voltage power lines and electricity pylons. Although the standards of
epidemiological studies (36) consider residences located up to 300 m from 380-kV
power lines to be exposed to magnetic fields (<0.1 μT), we included
only cattle being no more than 150 m away from power lines as “experimental”
animals in the analysis to increase the likelihood of a detectable effect. A
total of 1,699 cattle in 153 localities in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, and
The Netherlands were analyzed. The number of pastures with different
orientations of power lines was balanced [33 pastures with N-S power lines (0 ±
20°), 41 with E-W power lines (90 ± 20°), 39 with NW-SE power lines (135 ±
20°), and 40 with NE-SW power lines (45 ± 20°)]. For the analysis of cattle
dwelling directly beneath power lines, we evaluated an equal number of randomly
chosen pastures (n = 25) for each power line direction and analyzed
only cattle that were located no more than 5 m lateral to the outer conductors.
Body orientation of roe deer (n = 653 in 47 herds) grazing
or resting under high-voltage power lines or no more than 50 m to the side,
with the center of the herd being no more than 20 m aside, was studied in the
Czech Republic by direct observation during January through December 2008.
Because there were almost no recordings of roe deer at the distance of 50–150 m
from power lines, we decided to set the distance to 50 m. Typically, in the
open countryside with power lines, roe deer prefer the vicinity of electricity
pylons. This may be because the area around a pylon is generally not cultivated
and higher grasses and bushes offer more shelter. More than half of the sampled
roe deer were observed close to pylons.
Controls for both cattle and roe deer were obtained from our
previously published data (cattle: n = 1,488 in 111 localities in
Europe; roe deer: n = 1,912 animals at 201 localities in the Czech
Republic; cf. ref. 12).
We calculated 1 mean vector per herd to obtain statistically
independent data. Only for the analysis of cattle being located at different
distances (0–5 m, 6–19 m, 20–49 m, 50–100 m, 101–150 m) from N-S and E-W power
lines, respectively, did we use axial data of individuals and not of herds. The
distance class of 101–150 m from N-S power lines contained too few data to run
the analysis.
The Rayleigh test was used to assess significant deviations from
random distribution of the mean vectors of the herds. The Watson-Williams F
test was used to determine whether mean axes of 2 or more samples differed
significantly, and the Mardia-Watson-Wheeler test was used for determining
whether 2 or more distributions were identical. All circular statistics were
calculated with Oriana 2.0 (Kovach Computing).
We thank Michael Winklhofer and Pavel Ripka for important
methodological advice; Christin Engelke for helping to search for cattle under
high-voltage power lines by means of Google Earth; and Regina Moritz, Martin
Převorovský, and 2 anonymous referees for commenting on the manuscript.
Our work was partly supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Grant
206/06/1469 to P.N.) and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport of the
Czech Republic (Grants 0021620828 to P.N. and LC03073 to J.C.).
·Author contributions: H.B., S.B., J.C., and P.N.
designed research; H.B., S.B., J.C., and J.N. performed research; S.B., J.N.,
and P.N. analyzed data; and H.B., S.B., and P.N. wrote the paper.
·The authors declare no conflict of interest.
·This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. T.G.
is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
(2008) Evaluation and measurement of magnetic field
exposure at a typical high-voltage substation and its power-lines. Radiat Prot
Dosimetry 128:198–205.
(1978) in Animal Migration, Navigation, and Homing, Further
analysis of the magnetic compass of migratory birds, eds Schmidt-KoenigK, KeetonW (Springer, Berlin).
(2007) A novel concept of Fe-mineral-based
magnetoreception: Histological and physicochemical data from the upper beak of
homing pigeons. Naturwiss
94:631–642.
(1992) Constraints on biological effects of weak
extremely-low-frequency electromagnetic-fields—comment. Magnetite in human
tissues: A mechanism for the biological effects of weak ELF magnetic fields. Phys Rev A At
Mol Opt Phys 46:2178–2184.
(2006) The magnetic compass mechanisms of birds and rodents
are based on different physical principles. Journal of the
Royal Society Interface 3:583–587.
Magnetic compass
orientation in two strictly subterranean rodents: learned or
species-specific innate directional preference? J. Exp. Biol.2012 215 (20)3649-3654
Changing and shielded
magnetic fields suppress c-Fos expression in the navigation circuit: input
from the magnetosensory system contributes to the internal representation
of space in a subterranean rodent J R Soc Interface2010 7 (50)1275-1292
Professor: About time the positive side of tobacco is
emphasised
By Niels Ipsen, environmental
biologist, and Klaus Kjellerup, researcher.
New Analysis Summary: Update Of 40 Years Of Nicotine
Research
According to public health officials, tobacco has no benefits at all: "A
harmful and unnecessary product," says the WHO (World Health
Organization), which has lobbied national governments to combat tobacco use
since 19751.
The Danish anti-smoking lobby wants a total ban on tobacco: "We can not
see what tobacco contributes," said the Cancer Society. "A smoke-free
society should not be an unreasonable policy objective," they say in the
Danish health directorate2.
Since the 1960's authorities worldwide have focused exclusively on the health
hazards of tobacco, and thus given it a very negative image. Their many
anti-smoking campaigns may have made the world forget that tobacco use also has
positive aspects. But as we know, any issue always has at least two sides, and
now the positive effects of tobacco have resurfaced in the scientific
literature.
After 40 years of scientific research on the effects of nicotine, researchers
now say that they have sound scientific proof that smoking and nicotine have a
significant positive effect on human brain performance.
The brain works better when it gets nicotine -
almost like an optimized computer. Nicotine is a "work-drug" that
enables its consumers to focus better and think faster. The brain also becomes
more enduring, especially in smokers: Nicotine experiments show that smokers in
prolonged working situations are able to maintain concentration for many hours
longer than non-smokers.
This seems like a paradox considering the smoking bans imposed on workplaces in
many countries - but it is nonetheless the picture emerging from hundreds of
scientific studies of smoking and nicotine. It seems very unlikely that
companies would be able to stop smoking in workplaces with many smokers without
experiencing a decline in labor productivity.
Generally nicotine boosts the brain to work
10-30% more efficiently in a number of areas. This is
especially true for smoking - but also true when using smokeless nicotine. But
at the same time, when smokers and nicotine users abstain, they experience a
perhaps equally great decline in the effect. This is called the
"withdrawal effect" - a nicotine craving, especially for smokers.
Thus the difference between smoking and smoking abstinence is very pronounced
for a smoker - a difference of perhaps as much as 50%. And, according to the
scientists, this answers the question: Why do people smoke? The answer is
simple: Because smoking boosts their brain power.
Nicotine boosts attention, precision, motor skills, speed
and memory
In 2010 the U.S. government published a groundbreaking meta-analysis, which
summarizes the last 40 years of knowledge about tobacco and nicotine effects on
the brain. The analysis was conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
headed by researcher Stephen Heishman: 'Meta-analysis of the acute effects of
nicotine and smoking on human performance.' Abstract3 - full text4.
The results in Heishman's analysis gives the clear impression that it could turn out to be a very bad idea to try
to "eradicate" tobacco. For nicotine has positive
impacts in the areas of motor skills, attention, focus, speed and memory - and the effect is significant, the
researchers say: The results are not due to statistical chance.
Heishman's team examined all 256
published non-medicinal nicotine tests carried out since 1994 when they
conducted a similar study. The tests measured both the effect of cigarettes on
smokers - and the effect of non-smoking nicotine on non-smokers.
48 of the best quality trials were selected for the meta-analysis following
strict scientific criteria: They had to be placebo controlled - with
nicotine-free patches and nicotine-free cigarettes - and double blinded, so no
subjects knew whether they had received nicotine or not.
Furthermore only trials in which none of the smokers were craving tobacco were
used. Thus Heishman excluded the risk that smokers may have performed unusually
well because of their relief from the withdrawal effect.
The analysis paints a picture of nicotine as an effective and fast acting drug,
which improves the brain's performance in work situations - a genuine
"work-drug". Unlike drugs such as alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and
heroin, which are not useful during work.
So apart from the health hazards of cigarettes, it seems the only drawback of
nicotine is the addictive effect, although this is still controversial among
scientists, and should not be confused with
dependence on narcotics. And although pure nicotine is poisonous
in large doses, there is no evidence of
health risks from nicotine in the amounts in which it is consumed using tobacco.
Why are many scientists, athletes and artists smokers?
The positive effect on the brain may explain why many of history's greatest
scientists have been avid smokers - for example Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein,
both of whom praised the effect of tobacco on their scientific thinking.
Furthermore, it is known that many athletes, creative people, stage performers,
writers, musicians and artists through time have been smokers. The nicotine in
cigarettes appears to have been particularly important for people who need to
produce something unique or competitive in their work.
Top footballers, in particular, have often surprised the media when it emerged
that they were avid smokers, while they were at the peak of their careers. For
example, the puritanical British media people couldn't imagine that a top
player like Wayne Rooney would be able to deliver top performances for his team,
when they revealed it as a scandal, that Rooney is a smoker5.
The truth is however, that some of the world's most creative stars - like
Zinedine Zidane, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and
many other players from the highest levels of football - were avid smokers
while they were at the top of their careers - including the Danish 80's hero,
Preben Elkjaer.
Cigarettes have also always been an indispensable part of soldiers' field
rations, and still are. A war cannot be won without cigarettes, soldiers said6
- so in 2009 the Pentagon had to drop a proposal to ban smoking in the U.S.
Army after very strong protests from soldiers and veterans7.
According to Stephen Heishman's analysis, there is a very good reason why
competitive people smoke. This is because of the nicotine boost to the brain - nicotine helps them produce better performances.
The effects also suggest an answer to the puzzle of why people start smoking
and continue on a permanent basis - and the proof comes paradoxically from the
results of the effect of nicotine on non-smokers, who also perform better when they get nicotine
gum. Heishman writes:
"... [The fact that] the results are also found among
non-smokers is an indirect evidence that nicotine performance enhancing effects
may be the reason why people start smoking."
Nicotine
makes the brain faster and more precise
The 48 experiments included in Heishman's analysis consisted of several groups
of volunteers who had completed a series of standardized computer tests:
One half received nicotine, while control subjects received a placebo. With few
exceptions, nicotine users did better in all tests, whether they were smokers or non-smokers.
This was especially true in the areas of attention, precision, focus,
memory and speed - and to a lesser degree of motor skills:
Table 1 - from Heishman and others: The table shows nine
performance areas that had enough data for the meta-analysis. Six areas showed
significantly improved results for nicotine users (red dots) - in three areas
results were insignificant (no dots).
The biggest improvements: Short term memory, accuracy -
working memory, response time - attention, accuracy - attention, speed -
orienting attention. Minor improvement: Fine motor skills.
(k: number of experiments - N: Number of subjects -
Hedges's g: 0.1: Minor improvement. 0.3: Medium improvement. 0.5: Big
improvement.)
The researchers also found other areas where nicotine users
had significantly better outcomes - including gross
motor skills, long-term memory, semantic memory, arithmetic & complex
calculations. But these experiments were not used in the
analysis because there are still too few experiments in these areas.
Are smokers better drivers and pilots?
This applies to experiments demonstrating that smoking and nicotine have a
significant positive effect on one's ability to drive a car8 and fly
flight simulators9. Smokers and other nicotine users will score
better in driving tests, both in overview, focus and steering maneuvers - and they
respond quicker on the brakes, when required compared to non-nicotine users.
These experiments however could not be standardized for the other trials in the
analysis, so Heishman calls for more standardized driving and flight tests with
nicotine to get an accurate picture of nicotine effects on motorists and
pilots.
Stephen Heishman and the research team conclude in the study:
"The significant effects
of nicotine on motor abilities, attention and memory, likely represent true
performance enhancement because they are not confounded by withdrawal relief.
The beneficial cognitive effects of nicotine have implications for initiation
of smoking and maintenance of tobacco dependence."
Put another way: Smokers smoke and keep on smoking because their brains work better when they smoke.
This is probably also the reason that it is hard to quit smoking. And since
experimental animals in laboratories have shown similar results, there is no
longer any doubt among scientists.
Nicotine - the active substance in the world's most unpopular plant - the
tobacco plant - is paradoxically a "wonder drug"
that leads to better job performance. A gift for the working
human being?
Tobacco Harm researcher Professor Brad Rodu from Louisiana University says that
Heishman's analysis is a breakthrough in understanding tobacco and nicotine
effects. In his article 'The Proven Positive Effects of Nicotine and Tobacco'10
on his blog, Tobacco Truth, he writes:
"This analysis will not please anti-tobacco extremists.
It's time to be honest with the 50 million Americans, and hundreds of millions
around the world, who use tobacco. The benefits they get from
tobacco are very real, not imaginary or just the periodic elimination of
withdrawal."
Brad Rodu has spent many years
working in the branch of tobacco science known as Tobacco Harm Reduction. He is
a proponent of allowing all use of smokeless tobacco, for example snus and
chewing tobacco, which he believes is "almost 100% safer than
cigarettes."11 Rodu conducts his own research into the health
effects of smokeless tobacco, with funding from an annual "no strings
attached" grant from the tobacco industry to Louisiana University.
"It's time to abandon the myth that tobacco is devoid of benefits, and to
focus on how we can help smokers continue to derive those benefits with a safer
delivery system," Rodu writes.
Smoking gives the brain more stamina
Other nicotine tests show results that seriously question the idea of smoking
bans in workplaces. Several studies show that smokers' brains have more stamina
in long work situations compared to non-smokers, providing the smoker can smoke
while working. Smokers can maintain
concentration for long hours without getting tired, while non-smokers
concentration quickly breaks down.
This phenomenon was brought to US public attention in 1976 when environmental
activist Ralph Nader suggested in a TV program that pilots should be prohibited
from smoking on U.S. airplanes for safety reasons. Immediately after this
proposal, the news media received a warning from Dr. Norman Heimstra: "A
bad idea," he wrote.12
Dr. Norman Heimstra had done the world's first primitive nicotine experiments
back in 196713. Three groups of people spent six hours in a car
simulator - smokers, non-smokers and "abstemious" smokers. Result:
The abstinent smokers fared worst in all tests - but the experiment also showed
that smokers fared best when the first three hours had passed. At the same time
the study revealed that smokers showed no
aggressiveness while driving and handled emergency situations better
than the other two groups.
"In a critical situation the smoking pilot might well be the best
pilot," Dr. Heimstra wrote to the media.
"I would much rather climb into an airplane piloted by a chain-smoker than
one piloted by a smoker deprived of cigarettes for a number of hours - not
allowed to smoke during flight," he ended his warning in 1976 - and
subsequently the proposal of a smoking ban among pilots was dropped.
Thirty years after Heimstra's primitive experiments other tests have confirmed
that nicotine gives smokers' brains more stamina.
It is illustrated for example in the trial, 'The effects of cigarette smoking
on overnight performance'14 of Parkin & Hindmarch 1997, where
smokers and nonsmokers were to do five different computer tests from 8 o'clock
in the evening to 12 hours later. In all tests the non-smoker concentration
levels broke down after two hours - while smokers could maintain concentration
until 4 o'clock in the morning thanks to the nicotine in the cigarettes.
Figure 1 - Parkin & Hindmarch, 1997: - Results from
smokers and non-smokers in the test "Critical Flicker Fusion"- used
to measure attention: Non-smokers (lower line) became inattentive at 10.00 pm,
while smokers (top line) maintained their attention level until 4.00 am even
improving their baseline level at 10.00 pm. Not until 8.00 in the morning did
the smokers level drop to the non-smoker level 10 hours earlier.
For years scientists have
discussed the "withdrawal" effect in smokers - the phenomenon that
smokers themselves describe as "concentration difficulty" when they
have not smoked for several hours. In the anti-smoking lobby it is believed
that the phenomenon is a simple abstinence effect that smokers can lift by
smoking a cigarette again, and thereby return to the same level of performance
as "normal people".
But this theory no longer holds true after the Heishman analysis. Nicotine in itself creates better performance
compared to placebo, whether smokers or non-smokers. But there
are scientists who do not believe that the "withdrawal" effect has
been proven.
One of them is nicotine researcher, Professor David Warburton of Reading
University, who in a double experiment in 1994 first demonstrated that 100
"abstinent" smokers and 100 non-smokers achieved similar results in
three specific figures tests. In experiment no. 2 he repeated the same three
tests with only the smokers who were divided into two groups - one that had
been "abstinent" for 12 hours, while the second group had smoked one
hour earlier: 'Improvements in performance without nicotine withdrawal'15.
Both groups were divided into two subgroups, one receiving regular cigarettes,
while the other had fake cigarettes. In one task, participants were told to
enter the correct numbers in a certain sequence in 20 minutes - and after the
first five minutes they should light up a cigarette and take one puff every
minute. The results are shown here:
Figure 1 - Warburton & Arnall, 1994: - The scale shows
the number of correct answers, minute by minute. Participants smoked one puff
per minute in the period between the dotted lines, from the 6. minute to the
15. minute. The two top lines are the results for nicotine groups - the bottom
two are from non-nicotine groups. Each group consisted of one abstinent group
& one non-abstinent group.
Result: The number of correct answers rose in the two
nicotine groups with approx. 30% from the third cigarette puff. There was,
however, no difference in responses between the "abstinent" and the
non-abstinent participants. The two nicotine groups had also significantly
10-15% faster reaction time, (not shown in graph).
The Warburton trial shows specifically that cigarettes'
effect on attention and response time is particularly strong in the ten minutes
during which the actual smoking takes place, and in the following minutes.
He is one of the pioneers of modern nicotine research, after the invention of
nicotine pills and chewing gum that allowed scientists to make nicotine trials
in non-smokers. It soon became clear however,
that the effect of nicotine gum is not as strong as the effect of smoking.
As concluded in 1983 by Warburton and Wesnes in a scientific article: 'Smoking,
nicotine and human performance'16:
"[Smoke-free] nicotine produces improvements in mental
efficiency, which are qualitatively similar to the improvements produced by
smoking, although our findings on vigilance and rapid information processing
indicate that the improvements are quantitatively smaller than those produced
by smoking."
David Warburton's results were
later repeated in many controlled trials of nicotine, including Parrott &
Winder in 1989: 'Nicotine chewing gum and cigarette smoking: Comparative
effects upon vigilance and heart rate'17. As the graph shows, smoking is the most effective nicotine delivery method:
Figure 2 - Parrott & Winder, 1989: Differences in rapid
visual information processing using cigarettes, nicotine gum (2 and 4 mg) and
placebo.
The authors conclude in the article: "People entering
smoking cessation programs, should be warned to expect that vigilance and
concentration will probably be reduced when they cease smoking. They should
also be advised that nicotine gum will probably aid their concentration /
attention, although not to the extent that may have occurred with
cigarettes."
It may seem paradoxical that smokers in countries with
workplace smoking bans are sent away from their desk when they smoke. Not only
because of the extra time it takes away from work, but because their brains perform most rapidly and
accurately when they are smoking and in the minutes that follow.
The indisputable evidence for positive nicotine effects is also in contrast to
some companies' policies of not hiring smokers. In 2010 Danish bedding company
Jysk asked smokers not to apply when they advertised for new employees18.
According to Jysk's management however, this policy was stopped because of
protests from the public.
Other companies have chosen to arrange cessation courses among employees in
order to appear to be politically correct "healthy businesses". There
is a risk that these companies are not getting the best possible performance
from their smoking employees.
Is the smoke-free society an economic growth free society?
Tobacco has become very unpopular in the West in the last few decades, where
authorities have become increasingly tough against smoking because of the
health risks from long-term smoking, and because the smoke irritates many
non-smokers. This is likely why the beneficial effects of tobacco's active
ingredient, nicotine, has been completely overlooked in the media, which have
focused exclusively on the negative health effects of smoking.
There still remain many unanswered questions in nicotine research within the
scientific community. It is however now an
established fact that smoking generally results in better brain performance in
smokers, and smokeless nicotine leads to better performance in
non-smokers, although to a lesser degree. After Heishman's analysis, it can
also be considered to be true that withdrawal effects lead to weaker performance
in abstinent smokers and nicotine users.
In a somewhat unscientific way, it is probably safe to say that if non-nicotine
users perform 1.0, then nicotine users will perform up to 1.25 - with smokers
as the absolute top performers. At the same time nicotine users - especially
smokers - who fail to maintain nicotine levels will perform down to 0.75.
This fact raises the question: Can nicotine have had a beneficial effect on
innovation and growth in the economy in the last century? If this is true, it
may help to explain why the productivity of labor in the
western world has decreased slightly each year since the 1970s,
when the official health campaigns began to reduce the number of smokers.
One can also raise questions about whether the numerous smoking bans in
workplaces could have contributed to the recent large productivity decline. In
Denmark an unexpected and inexplicable collapse in labor
productivity was apparent in 2007 and 2008 - right after the
state banned smoking in all Danish workplaces.19, 20
There may of course also be other reasons for this decrease, but the issue
should be explored, as innovation and economic
growth has shown historically weak development in countries that have banned
smoking in workplaces. It is very likely that governments
simply cannot obtain unilateral advantages with huge interventions like the war
on smoking and smoking bans.
Everything has a price, and the advantage of achieving health benefits in the
war against smoking may very well be matched by paying a high price in the
economy in terms of loss of innovation and economic growth.
The question is, in other words, whether the so-called smoke-free society is an
economic growth-free society. And if so, can the irritation of smoke in
workplace be solved in other ways? E.g. by splitting the workforce and
implementing a better and more efficient ventilation of indoor air in
workplaces?
After all, who really wants reduced performance from people who perform vital,
concentration intensive tasks in society as in the example of smoking pilots,
that Dr. Heimstra mentioned in 1976 (12) - or from smoking surgeons or
rescuers?
"Human Creative Reason as a
Fundamental Principle in Physics
SKY SHIELDS • The Physics of
Creativity
How can the “undefinables” of
modern physics—time, space, and mass—be redefined when examined from the
standpoint of living and cognitive processes? Sky looks at Riemann's
description of the action of Geistesmassen (thought-objects) as the basis for
all of his investigations in physics and the higher mathematical
transcendentals, the investigation of which formed the basis of Vernadsky's own
later understanding of how to overcome the fundamental paradoxes of physics:
that all matter in potential is made to take part in biological and cognitive
processes.
Curcumin attenuates neurotoxicity
induced by fluoride: An in vivo evidence,” adds experimental support to the suspicion
that fluoride is indeed a brain-damaging substance, also revealing that a
natural spice-derived protective agent against the various health effects
associated with this compound is available.
You think people who question
mainstream assumptions are ‘crazy’.
The mainstream loves to paint
people who question ‘official truth’ as part of a lunatic fringe who should be
discouraged and disregarded. ‘Group think’ is a very powerful means of social
control and those who break away from dominant thought patterns are often
perceived as a threat to those that abide by them. If you use ridicule to
deride and put down people who present a perspective that doesn’t ling with the
mainstream you are following ‘the program’. These are tactics used to ensure
that the majority of people stay within the confines of the group belief
system. In a healthy society, questioning of dominant beliefs should be
encouraged. (To learn more, please see: Propaganda: Mind Manipulation and
Manufacturing Consent.)
You base your definition of
success on income level or possessions.
While those at the top benefit
from having a consumer driven populace that is preoccupied with amassing
material wealth, on an individual level this ego-based approach is unhealthy
and contributes to our overall sense of disconnection. We are constantly bombarded
with images and tales of ‘happy people’ driving flash cars, wearing expensive
clothes and indulging in exclusive activities. However, while money certainly
can add to our quality of life, true happiness comes from things like having
meaningful relationships, a sense of purpose and connection to our internal and
external worlds.
ACCESS FULL ARTICLE HERE,
CLICK;http://soundofstars.org/neuroclicks.htm
The goal was to find an electric
current waveform with which animals could be stimulated through implanted
electrodes for several hours per day for several months without causing
irreversible changes in threshold by the passage of current through the tissue.
Many waveforms, including 60-cps.
sine-wave current could apparently be used safely for these limited schedules
of stimulation. They could not be used for the intensive, long-term schedule of
chronic stimulation. Electric current passed through the brain can cause at
least two distinct types of injury: thermal and electrolytic.
The technical problem in chronic
brain stimulation is to stay above the excitatory threshold and below the
injury threshold in the neuronal system under consideration. This result can be
achieved most easily by the proper choice of waveforms and their time courses;
and less easily by the choice of the range of repetition frequencies and train
durations.
The previous wave forms used in
neurophysiology and in neurosurgery injured the neurons when unidirectional
current passed through the brain. Dr. Lilly developed a new electrical wave
form to balance the current, first in one direction and then, after a brief
interval, in the other. Thus ions moving in the neurons would first be pushed
one way and then quickly the other way, stimulating the neurons and leaving the
ions in their former positions within the neurons. This new wave form was
called a balanced bidirectional pulse pair, or the Lilly Wave. Microscopic
studies of brains stimulated with this balanced pulse pair showed that there
was no injury of the neuronai networks from this kind of stimulation.
Waveform of stimulating current:
pulse pairs of current resulting from quasi-differentiation, with passive
electrical elements, of a rectangular pulse. Measured at 2 percent of the peak,
the duration of the positive pulse (upward) is 34 µsec, and the duration of the
negative pulse (downward) is 28 µsec.
GROUP MIND : "If we
understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to
control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing
it... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics
or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by
the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes
and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control
the public mind." Edward Bernays
PLAYLIST: Mind Control: The
Mechanics of Mind Control ~ MKULTRA etc.
Electromagnetic Frequency Mind
Control Weapons ~ Dr. Patrick Flanagan
Jeff Rense interviews Dr.Patrick
Flanigan. Topics discussed are mind control and social engineering, Smart
Meters, microwave weapons, Gwen, electromagnetic wave pulses, cell phone
radiation, The Lilly wave, and more.
ABOUT Dr. G. Patrick Flanagan:
"Dr. Patrick Flanagan
invented the Neurophone in 1958. It is an electronic nervous system excitation
device that transmits sound through the skin directly to the brain, for which
he received U.S. Patent no.3,393,279 in 1968.
The invention earned him a profile
in Life magazine, which called him a "unique, mature and inquisitive
scientist". Flanagan has continued to develop the neurophone and it is
currently being sold as an aid to speed learning.
Flanagan at age eleven developed
and sold a guided missile detector to the U.S. Military, aged seventeen gained
his air pilot's license and was employed by a Think Tank at The Pentagon, and
later as a consultant to the NSA, CIA, NASA, Tufts University, the Office of
Naval Research, and the Aberdeen Proving Grounds for the Department of
Unconventional Weapons and Warfare."
"Jupiter's displacement
along the ecliptic is computed as the area of a trapezoidal figure obtained by
drawing its daily displacement against time....the construct figures that are
actually graphs of the velocity (of a planet) against time, so time on one
axis, velocity on the other. This is not found anywhere else in
antiquity."
This book contains new translations
and a new analysis of the procedure texts of Babylonian mathematical astronomy,
the earliest known form of mathematical astronomy of the ancient world. The
translations are based on a modern approach incorporating recent insights from
Assyriology and translation science.
The work contains updated and
expanded interpretations of the astronomical algorithms and investigations of
previously ignored linguistic, mathematical and other aspects of the procedure
texts.
Special attention is paid to issues
of mathematical representation and over 100 photos of cuneiform tablets dating
from 350-50 BCE are presented.
In 2-3 years, the author intends to
continue his study of Babylonian mathematical astronomy with a new publication
which will contain new editions and reconstructions of approx. 250 tabular
texts and a new philological, astronomical and mathematical analysis of these
texts. Tabular texts are end products of Babylonian math astronomy, computed
with algorithms that are formulated in the present volume, Procedure Texts.
It’s something they never taught us in chemistry class, but really should
have. When we boil water, the chemistry of it changes, which is usually a good
thing as it boils out volatile compounds and dissolves gases. This is why
boiling water mostly ensures that it’s safe to drink.
If water is left boiled too long or is reboiled, the chemical compounds
change for the worse. By leaving your water to boil down, you’re actually
concentrating many harmful chemicals instead of getting rid of them.
The same thing happens when you reboil water, as the compounds concentrate
and increase the risk of ingesting certain chemicals.
These chemicals could include arsenic, nitrates, and fluoride. Even the
minerals that are healthy for us can become dangerous when concentrated, such
as calcium salt which can lead to kidney stones and gallstones when taken excessively.
The Destructive Effects of Reboiled Water
1. Arsenic
“Drinking-water poses the greatest threat to public health from arsenic,”
states The World Health Organization (WHO).
Exposure to arsenic may lead to arsenic toxicity, which can
develop physical effects slowly over a number of years, depending on the level
of exposure.
Dangers of arsenic toxicity include peripheral neuropathy, gastrointestinal
symptoms, skin lesions, diabetes, renal systems effects, cardiovascular
disease, and even cancer.
2. Nitrates
Nitrates are found naturally all over earth, in the soil, water, and air.
However, the chemical can become harmful when used as a food preservative, such
as in deli meats, or when exposed to high heat, such as boiling water.
When nitrates are exposed to high temperatures, they convert to
nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic.
Nitrates have been linked to many diseases such as leukemia, non-Hodkin
lymphoma, and different cancers, including colon, bladder, ovarian, stomach,
pancreatic, and esophageal cancer.
3. Fluoride
Many studies have been done over the controversial chemical fluoride and its presence in
drinking water. The fact is, it’s there and it could pose a threat to your
health. Despite the proof of the dangerous effects of fluoride, the government
insists to keep it in our water.
Harvard University took data from over 27 studies that were carried out for
22 years and linked fluoride exposure to neurological and cognitive function in
children.
The results were published in the journal of Environment Health Sciences and
concluded that fluoride found in drinking water resulted in lower IQ scored
among children.
A more recent study completed in 2013 links fluoride to lower infertility
rates in male mice.
Sarah Durocher‘swork can be found on websites such as Spine Online and Lavoro Marketing.
She aspires to learn something new every day and share her knowledge through
words with others. While not researching and freelance writing, Sarah enjoys
being whisked away in a good fantasy or sci-fi novel and hopes to one day write
a novel of her own.