Libriufo

Journal of Scientific Exploration

Volume 5 Number 2 1991

Editor: Bernhard M. HAISCH

Name: Grigor'ev, A. I.; Grigor'eva, I. D.; Shiryaeva, S. O.

CONTENTS

Author	Title	Pag

Bernhard HAISCH	Editor's Note	i

William GIROLDINI	Eccles's Model of Mind-Brain Interaction and Psychokinesis: A Preliminary Study	145-161
	Abstract: In this article the relationship between mind and brain is initially discussed from the opposite materialist and dualist perspectives. In the Eccles's hypothesis, a very weak psychokinetic (PK) action of will on a few neurons of cerebral cortex could determine remarkable changes in brain activity. Starting from this idea, a neuron network suitable for revealing weak PK influences is discussed. Thirty-five preliminary PK experiments based on a Random Signal Generator (RSG), which represents a first raw electronic version of this neuron network, were performed. Twenty-seven subjects attempted to mentally influence the RSG in a double optical and acoustic RSG-feedback. Each experiment was fully computer controlled and consisted of ten PK-minutes alternated with ten control-minutes without feedback. Moreover, the EEG recording of alpha and beta rhythms of subjects during the experiments was performed. The PK experiments gave altogether a significant result (p < lo-'), whereas 35 control-experiments without subjects were nonsignificant. EEG analysis showed that during the control-minutes the alpha and beta rhythms were wider than in the PK minutes, and moreover the alpha rhythm was remarkably higher during the PK-hitting than in the PK-missing trials. A psychological interpretation of these results is proposed, but the more interesting possibility is that an independent high alpha activity would cause better PK performance. Further studies are necessary to test this important possibility.

A. I. GRIGOR'EV, I. D. GRIGOR'EVA, S. O. SHIRYAEVA	Ball Lightning and St. Elmo's Fire as Forms of Thunderstorm Activity	163-190
	Abstract: `The electrohydrodynamic theory of ball lightning and St. Elmo's fire is developed. Electrohydrodynamic instability of water droplets and films is basic for these phenomena and distinguishes them from corona.`

James McCLENON	Social Scientific Paradigms for Investigating Anomalous Experience	191-203
	Abstract: The investigation of anomalous experience may be conducted within the realm of folklore, collective behavior, and the sociology of religion. Although these social scientific approaches lack the mathematical precision of the physical sciences, they allow theoretical development, the testing of hypotheses derived from these orientations, and the revision of theory in light of empirical observation. The use of social scientific paradigms grants the investigation of anomalous phenomena a cumulative quality, open to both skeptics and believers.

Robert G. JAHN, York H. DOBYNS, Brenda J. DUNNE	Count Population Profiles in Engineering Anomalies Experiments	205-232
	Abstract: Four technically and conceptually distinct experiments-a random binary generator driven by a microelectronic noise diode; a deterministic pseudorandom generator; a large-scale random mechanical cascade; and a digitized remote perception protocol-display strikingly similar patterns of count deviations from their corresponding chance distributions. Specifically, each conforms to a statistical linear regression of the form An / n = 6 (x - p) , where An / n is the deviation from chance expectation of the population frequency of the score value x divided by its chance frequency, p is the mean of the chance distribution, and 6 is the slope of the regression line, constant for a given data subset, but parametrically dependent on the experimental device, the particular operator or data concatenation, and the prevailing secondary conditions. In each case, the result is tantamount to a simple marginal transposition of the appropriate chance Gaussian distribution to a new mean value p' = p + Nt, where N is the sample size, or equivalently to a change in the elemental probability of the basic binary process to p' = p + 6, where p is the chance value and E = 614. Proposition of a common psychophysical mechanism by which the consciousness of the operator may achieve these elemental probability shifts is thwarted by the complexity and disparity of the several technical and logical tasks that would be involved. More parsimonious, albeit more radical, explication may be posed via a holistic information-theoretic approach, wherein the consciousness adds some increment of information, in the technical sense, into the particular experimental system, which then deploys it in the most efficient fashion to achieve the experimental goal, i.e., the volition-correlated mean shift. The relationship of this technical information transfer to the subjective teleological processes of the consciousness remains to be understood.

Erlendur HARALDSSON	Children Claiming Past-Life Memories: Four Cases in Sri Lanka	233-261
	Abstract: This is a report on an investigation of four children in Sri Lanka who claimed to remember a previous life at the early age of two to three years. Detailed written records were made of the statements of three of the children before any attempt was made to examine their claims. In two cases, these statements made it possible to trace a deceased person whose life history fit to a considerable extent the statements made by the child. In these cases, no prior connection of any kind was found to have existed between the child's family and that of the alleged previous personality. The pattern of these cases resembles those earlier reported by Stevenson: the children are at a preschool age when they start to make claims about a previous life; they usually start to "forget'' at about the time they go to school; some of them claim to have died violently earlier; they express the wish to meet their earlier families or visit their homes; and some of them show behavioral idiosyncrasies that seem to differ from what they observe and would be expected to learn from their environment. In Sri Lanka more than half of such cases remain "unsolved," i.e., no person can be traced that roughly matches the child's statements.

	`Letters to the Editor`
	Comments on A Gas Discharge Device for Investigating Focussed Human Attention	263-164
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 4 Number 2 /1990 - A Gas Discharge Device for Investigating Focussed Human Attention [Tiller, William A.]

Journal of Scientific Exploration
A Publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration
Volume 6 Number 3 Autumn 1992
Society for Scientific Exploration

Name: Shiryaeva, S. O.; Grigor'ev, A. I.; Grigor'eva, I. D.

CONTENTS

Author	Title	Pag

	`SSE News Items`
	Highlights of the 1992 European SSE Meeting	205-211
	Next SSE Meeting	211
	SSE Council Member Radin Work Cited	211

Michael EPSTEIN	The Skeptical Perspective	213-216

Illobrand VON LUDWIGER, T. AUERBACH	Heim's Theory of Elementary Particle Structures	217-231
	Abstract: Heim's theory is defined in a 6-dimensional world, in 2 dimensions of which events take place that organize processes in the 3 dimensions of our experience. A very small natural constant, called a "metron", is derived, representing the smallest area that can exist in nature. This leads to the conclusion that space must be composed of a 6-dimensional geometric lattice of very small cells bounded on all sides by metrons. The existence of metrons requires our usual infinitesimal calculus to be replaced by one of finite areas. The unperturbed lattice represents empty vacuum. Local deformations of the lattice indicate the presence of something other than empty space. If the deformation is of the right form and complexity it acquires the property of mass and inertia. Elementary particles are complex dynamical systems of locally confined interacting lattice distortions. Thus, the theory geometricizes the world by viewing it as a huge assemblage of very small geometric deformations of a 6- dimensional lattice in vacuum. The theory also has significant consequences for cosmology

Michael EPSTEIN, Luigi GARLASCHELLI	Better Blood Through Chemistry: A Laboratory Replication of a Miracle	233-246
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 7 Number 1 Spring/1993 - Comments on Better Blood Through Chemistry
	Abstract: -The recent simulation of the miracle liquefying blood of Saint Januarius is shown to be viable from both historical and scientific standpoints. The history of the holy blood is traced and means and motivation for the simulation are provided. Spectral analysis of the simulated blood, a thixotropic gel of iron hydroxide (FeO(OH)), shows the absorption spectrum to be similar to old blood. Many reported characteristics of the holy blood can be explained by the behavior of a thixotropic gel. Modifications of the preparation procedure are attempted to bring the simulation into agreement with fourteenth century alchemical knowledge. A critical evaluation of previous spectroscopic studies of the miracle blood is presented.


Suitbert ERTEL	The Gauquelin Effect Explained? Comments on Arno Miiller's Hypothesis of Planetary Correlations	247-254
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 4 Number 1 /1990 - Planetary Influences on Human Behavior ("Gauquelin Effect"): Too Absurd for a Scientific Explanation? [Müller, Arno]
	Abstract: Arno Müller's "hypothesis of the planetary klite" (Müller,1990) amended Gauquelin's "midwife hypothesis", which suffered from weaknesses. The approach is a welcome contribution to the persistent problem of how to explain planetary correlations with human births (the Gauquelin effect). However, it is inconsistent with empirical observations: (1)Gauquelin effects are unrelated to character traits. Miiller's hypothesis explains a correlation that does not exist. (2) Sometimes planetary effects decrease with eminence. This is inconsistent with Muller's idea that more eminent as compared to less eminent people should have cultural and biological advantages. (3)Birth frequencies can be infrequent instead of abundant when the planet is rising or culminating. This is inconsistent with Muller's assumption that in prehistorical times the births of children were desired, not avoided, when the divine planet was so placed. (4) The doctrine of planetary heredity-the basic precondition of Muller's hypothesis-is probably invalid. (5) The Gauquelin effect is weakest for Venus. Muller's claim of an impact of planetary appearances on the evolution of the Gauquelin effect would predict the opposite. (6) Muller's model covers only the evolution of conditioning between planetary sensitivity and character traits. It does not explain the evolution of planetary sensitivity prior to such conditioning. Gauquelin's original midwife hypothesis as well as Muller's new version of it could be refuted straightforwardly if further tests showed that the Gauquelin effect occurred undiminished in eminent births induced by obstetric drugs.
Arno MÜLLER	The Gauquelin Effect Explained? A Rejoinder to Ertel's Critique	255-259

A. I. GRIGOR'EV, I. D. GRIGOR'EVA, S. O. SHIRYAEVA	Ball Lightning Penetration into Closed Rooms: 43 Eyewitness Accounts	261-279
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 8 Number 1 Spring/1994 - Comments on Ball Lightning
	Abstract: `43 Eyewitness Reports on the ability of ball lightning to penetrate into rooms through window glass (very often leaving no holes) and to enter houses through radio and electric sockets are presented.`

Ian STEVENSON	A Series of Possibly Paranormal Recurrent Dreams	281-290
	Abstract: In 1986 Dr. Walter D'Souza, an Indian physician living in the United States, had a series of realistic dreams in which his deceased father, who had been buried in India three years earlier, appeared to be leaving his coffin and trying to communicate something to him. After Dr. D'Souza had had three of these dreams, a letter from India informed his mother that his father's bones had not been adequately disposed of. Dr. D'Souza then believed that his dreams had some connection with the matter of his father's bones. He urged his mother to go to India and attend to the burial, but she and his sister minimized the difficulty, and did not wish to spend money on a journey to India. Dr. D'Souza then had a fourth dream similar to the previous three. He told his family about his dreams and insisted that his mother go to India and attend to the disposition of the bones. She agreed to go and the dreams ceased. It seems unlikely that Dr. D'Souza before he had his dreams had any normal awareness that anything further needed to be done for the proper disposition of his father's bones. Paranormal interpretations of the dreams have plausibility. Attention is drawn to the quality of vividness in dreams as a possible marker of paranormality.

	`Letters to the Editor`
	Comments on Survival or Super-psi?	291
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 6 Number 2 /1992 - Survival or Super-psi? [Braude, Stephen E.]
	Are Memories of Alien Abductions Recollections of Surgical Experiences?	291-294
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 7 Number 2 Summer/1993 - Comments on James Wilson's Letter to the Editor

	`Book Review`
Ian STEVENSON	Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method by Henry H. Bauer	295-297

	Erratum	297
	`Related:` Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 6 Number 2 /1992 - Highlights of the Princeton SSE Meeting

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