Merkabah

[Skarekrow]

Found a very curious and interesting book with a link to read online....enjoy!

Thirty Years Among the Dead, by Carl A. Wickland MD

Dr. Carl A. Wickland, (1861-1945) was a member of the Chicago Medical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the chief psychiatrist at the National Psychopathic Institute of Chicago.
Wickland specialized in cases of schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, addiction, manic-depression, criminal behavior and other phobias.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1918, he founded the National Psychological Institute of Los Angeles with his wife Anna Wickland, who was a trance medium.

Wickland treated many patients suffering from mental illness of all kinds, and after many years experience came to the conclusion that a number of patients he treated had 'attachments;' by that he meant that spiritual entities had attached themselves to unwitting mortals and influenced them (often) in the worst kind of way—leading them to alcoholism, madness, and occasionally murder.

Wickland stated at the time;

Spirit obsession is a fact – a perversion of a natural law – and is amply demonstrable. This has been proven hundreds of times by causing the supposed insanity or aberration to be temporarily transferred from the victim to a psychic sensitive who is trained for the purpose, and by this method ascertain the cause of the psychosis to be an ignorant or mischievous spirit, whose identity may frequently be verified.

Having come to the 'spirit obsession' conclusion, Wickland and his wife set up a rescue circle, with Mrs. Wickland acting as the medium, and they set about communicating with lost souls who had passed away and were unaware of their post physical death condition and often in denial due to dogmatic religious and equally dogmatic atheist beliefs.

In the introduction of the book the author writes,

The change called death, the word is a misnomer-universally regarded with gloomy fear, occurs so naturally and simply that the greater number, after passing out of the physical are not aware that the transition has been made, and having no knowledge of a spiritual life they are totally unconscious of having passed into another state of being. Deprived of their physical sense organs, they are shut out from the physical light, and lacking, a mental perception of the high purpose of existence, these individuals are spiritually blind and find themselves in a twilight condition-the outer darkness mentioned in the Bible — and linger in the realm known as the Earth sphere.

The book documents a number of cases of both anonymous and well-known communicators such as Helena Blavatsky; cofounder of the Theosophy movement, and Mary Baker-Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. A number of subjects are discussed including crime, suicide, materialism, selfishness, and narcotics.

Here is the link - http://new-birth.net/booklet/30_years_among_the_dead.PDF

 

[Skarekrow]

[h=1]Quantum Theory of Ghosts[/h][h=1]The Quantum Theory of Ghosts (Abstract Edition)
Originally developed by Professor Max Bruin, PhD[/h]Since the rise of mankind there have been stories of the spirits of the dead returning to haunt the living. The very word, haunt, comes from the concept of an animal feeding place, and ghosts are seen as feeding upon the living. Some societies revere the spirits of their ancestors, but even these myths include angry ghosts who prey upon the hapless mortals.
But what are ghosts? The rise of science tells us that the idea of ghosts as spirits of the dead is absurd. They exist in the supernatural, in a realm where science cannot tread, and as such they are dismissed as little more than the imagination of frightened, backward thinking people. However, with the advent of quantum mechanics, new explanations shed light on why the myth of ghosts remains prevalent in cultures around the world.
What Are Ghosts?
Mythology would tell us that ghosts are the lingering spirits of the dead. Balderdash! Ghosts are not at all the spirits of the dead. They are not, in fact, “spirits” at all. A ghost is, put simply, an impression upon the subatomic weave of the universe, created via strong emotion of a sentient observer.
This means, in other words, that ghosts are not the disembodied personalities of the dead, and, in fact, they can be “spirits” of the living! To understand this phenomena, one must first grasp one of the most fundamental principles of quantum mechanics: observation changes the subject being observed. The simple act of observing or measuring a particle forces it into an energy state. Unobserved, a particle may take any energy state available to it, but when a sentient observer is introduced, the particle becomes locked.

Ghosts are created when the observer’s emotions create a semi-permanent “indentation” into the quantum tapestry of the universe. Like the scent of burned toast that remains long after the offending bread is discarded, ghosts are impressions of emotions that remain long after the cause has been resolved. Ghosts, therefore, are formed not from the dead, but from the living and their interactions with the world around them. The recording of events within the subatomic weave gives rise to an afterimage, and depending on the intensity of the emotion and the permeability of the quantum state, different “types” of ghosts can be created.
Negative emotions are many times more likely to cause these effects. The reason for this is currently unknown, though it may have to do with the quantum spin of the universe; in an anti-matter universe, positive emotions might create ghosts more effectively. Regardless of the reason, negative emotions, particularly hate, guilt and grief, are the most common causes for ghost formation. This also explains why ghosts have traditionally been thought of as the spirits of the dead; death of a loved one can cause profound negative emotions from multiple sources, all centered around the memories of the deceased, which can then amalgamate into a ghost that appears to be the deceased.
The formation of ghosts, however, is somewhat rare. It requires more than an excess of negative emotions. The quantum state around the individual or individuals who form the ghost must be favorable for the formation. Certain areas are more susceptible to this than others, especially those where negative emotions are most common, such as cemeteries or hospitals. Other areas may be conducive to ghost formation due to other environmental factors.
Measuring and Classifying Ghosts
The intensity of the impression upon the quantum weave determines the “type” of ghost spawned. Ghosts can be categorized by measurable, observable characteristics:

1. Size and shape
2. Range of motion/area
3. Duration/frequency of appearance

Based on these three data points, ghosts fall into one of the following basic categories:

• Type A – small balls of light, sometimes only captured via camera, repeating in nature, commonly referred to as orbs.
• Type F – apparitions, may take partially human form, may have auditory component, repeating in nature, non-independent.
• Type N – specters, human form, full sensory spectrum, semi-independent in nature.
• Type R – poltergeist, metamorphic form, sensory and extrasensory spectrum, capable of limited independent action.
• Type X – entity, fully independent with wide range of quantum-based abilities, often self-aware, sometimes called “demons”, capable of possessing human host via quantum alignment.

Type X ghosts are exceedingly rare, formed from large quantum disturbances over many years. The classic western “ghost” would be either Type N or Type R. Intervening types, for example Type B-Type E, are variations on the primary of each subset. A Type B orb, for example, has measurable color shifting.
Because ghosts are quantum phenomenon, they can be disrupted via other quantum phenomenon. Powerful magnets, for example, can cause ghosts to be attracted or repelled, and radioactive materials can cause mutations in a ghost’s form. Since ghosts are not made of solid matter, they can pass through objects with no difficulty, but the movement of matter is very difficult for any ghost below the R subtype.
Interactions With Ghosts
Ghosts with fully independent awareness often believe they are the mythological spirits of the dead and act accordingly. Only on rare occasions do they accept that they are not the remnants of the dead, though this may explain various other mythological creatures such as djinn or faeries.
Destructive ghosts are generally bound to the event that created them, and may be discorporated if the event is resolved. This explains why ghosts might vanish after a murder is solved, for example. Additionally, certain items may cause ghosts to be forced away, not due to any “magical” properties, but simple because the quantum state of the item in anathema to the ghost’s quantum signature.
In conclusion, ghosts are neither supernatural nor imaginary. They can be quantified and measured. An intriguing experiment would follow; placing a Type R or higher ghost within a particle accelerator. However, such an experiment would likely destroy the ghost, though it might reveal new subatomic particles. In any event, ghost study may be academically pursued without need for the ridiculous trappings of the paranormal. As always, science shows us that the world around us is more complex that we imagine, but always within our grasp.

 

[Skarekrow]

Top Five Phenomena That Offer Evidence For An Afterlife

In the modern age, the debate over the possibility that our consciousness might survive the physical death of our body is often reduced to a false dichotomy of science vs religion. As such, scientists sadly often ignore and ridicule reports of strange phenomena from those who have approached, and in some cases gone beyond, the threshold of death, even though such experiences have a profound effect upon those who undergo them. Do these phenomena offer evidence that we might live on in some way past the demise of our physical selves? Here’s a list of five areas, taken from the book Stop Worrying! There Probably is an Afterlife(Kindle/Paperback), which suggest that it might just be so:
1. Veridical NDEs
The near-death experience first shot into the limelight in the 1970s after the publication of Raymond Moody’s best-selling book Life After Life, to the extent that nearly everyone today knows what an ‘NDE’ is. But while many people took the near-death experience itself as proof of a life beyond death, orthodox science has judged (rightly or wrongly) the heavenly visions of the NDE to be simply hallucinations brought on by the various physical and psychological burdens put on the brain by its imminent demise.
One area that has the potential to change that opinion, however, is research into what are termed ‘veridical NDEs’. This is where, during the ‘out-of-body experience’ stage of the NDE, the experiencer sees things – and later reports back on them – that they should not have been able to perceive. There are many anecdotes of veridical NDEs, such as the case of ‘Dentures Man’, which was mentioned in the respected journal The Lancet. In this case from 1979, a 44-year-old man (‘Mr. B’) was brought into the emergency department at Canisius Hospital in the Netherlands by ambulance, after being discovered comatose, hypothermic and without a pulse in a cold, damp meadow in the middle of the night. Hospital staff, including the senior nurse (‘T.G.’), were beginning resuscitation on the patient when T.G. noticed that Mr. B was wearing dentures, so removed them and placed them on the ‘crash cart’ so that he could put a ventilation mask on the unconscious man. After Mr. B was successfully ‘brought back’, he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, and so T.G. did not see the man again until a week later while doing rounds distributing medication. T.G. was astonished when, as he walked into the room, the patient he had brought back to life suddenly exclaimed ‘‘Oh, that nurse knows where my dentures are!’’. Seeing the look of surprise on T.G.’s face, Mr. B explained himself: since coming back to consciousness, Mr. B. had been looking for his dentures. ‘‘You were there when I was brought into hospital and you took my dentures out of my mouth and put them onto that cart,” he said. “It had all these bottles on it and there was this sliding drawer underneath and there you put my teeth”. T.G. was confused by this, as he remembered that he had done this when the patient was unconscious and undergoing CPR to bring him back to life:

When I asked further, it appeared the man had seen himself lying in bed, that he had perceived from above how nurses and doctors had been busy with CPR. He was also able to describe correctly and in detail the small room in which he had been resuscitated as well as the appearance of those present like myself. At the time that he observed the situation he had been very much afraid that we would stop CPR and that he would die. And it is true that we had been very negative about the patient’s prognosis due to his very poor medical condition when admitted. The patient tells me that he desperately and unsuccessfully tried to make it clear to us that he was still alive and that we should continue CPR. He is deeply impressed by his experience and says he is no longer afraid of death. Four weeks later he left hospital as a healthy man.
​

How did Mr. B ‘see’ the resuscitation room, and in particular the head nurse’s face, when his brain was apparently shut down? While this account alone is puzzling, it is just one of a long list of ‘veridical NDE’ reports through the years. Another patient, Al Sullivan, was undergoing emergency heart surgery when he had a classic NDE with the well-known elements of the tunnel, ‘the light’, and a meeting with his dead mother. But during the out-of-body experience stage he also apparently ‘saw’ the operating room while under a general anaesthetic: “I was laying [sic] on a table covered with light blue sheets and I was cut open so as to expose my chest cavity… I was able to see my surgeon, who just moments ago had explained to me what he was going to do during my operation. He appeared to be somewhat perplexed. I thought he was flapping his arms as if trying to fly...” It tuns out this ‘flapping’ motion was an idiosyncratic habit of the surgeon, who after scrubbing in would point at things using his elbows to avoid contamination of his hands. The list of similar cases goes on; researcher Janice Miner Holden collected some 107 cases from the NDE literature, and concluded that “the sheer volume of anecdotes that a number of authors over the course of the last 150 years have described suggests [veridical NDE perception] is real.…the cumulative weight of these narratives [should be enough to] convince most skeptics that these reports are something more than than mere hallucinations on the patient’s part”.
In fact, the evidence from veridical NDEs has been so strong that a large study has now been undertaken, involving various hospitals around the world, that is attempting to answer the question of whether near-death experiencers can truly ‘see’ while having an out-of-body experience. In the AWARE study, patients who survive a cardiac arrest are being asked if they underwent an out-of-body experience during their brush with death, and if so, whether they were able to see certain ‘hidden targets’ placed in the room that can only be seen from a vantage point near the ceiling. The AWARE researchers will soon release their first official scientific report , and have just secured new funding that will ensure this area continues to be investigated.
2. Peak-in-Darien Experiences
In an 1882 book that described a number of strange phenomena reported by the dying titledThe Peak in Darien, author Frances Cobbe wrote of an incident “of a very striking character” that occurred in a family with very tight bonds. A dying lady suddenly began showing emotions of recognition and joy, before telling how, one after another, three of her brothers who had long been dead had appeared in the room. Then, strangely, a fourth brother appeared to her as dead, despite the fact that he was believed by those present to still be alive and well at his residence in India – the suggestion that he had passed away was enough to cause one person to run from the room in shock. Being the late 19th century, there was no instant way of checking on the brother’s health, but sometime later letters were received announcing his death in India at a time before his dying sister appeared to recognize a vision of him at her bedside.
The title of Cobbe’s book has since become the unofficial name for accounts of this type, those where the dying have visions of deceased individuals who were thought to be alive at the time of the vision: Peak-in-Darien experiences. And like veridical NDEs, there are a surprisingly large number of them recorded in the literature. They have even seeped into popular culture: in recent times, the popular TV show Grey’s Anatomy brought such an experience into the public consciousness when the main character, Meredith Grey, had an NDE in which she had a vision of her mother, whom she thought was alive but had actually just passed away elsewhere in the hospital. The scene has a number of parallels with real life events.
For instance, in 1968 a female near-death experiencer reported having the classic OBE view of her hospital room from outside her physical body, before finding herself in ‘heaven’ with an angel and a familiar-looking young man. “Why, Tom, I didn’t know you were up here,” she said to the close family friend, with Tom replying to her that he had just arrived himself. Not long after returning to her body, and life, her husband received a phone call with the unfortunate news that their friend Tom had died in a car accident.
In another case, a 9-year-old boy in Pittsburgh suffering from meningitis woke up the next morning and said he’d been in heaven and saw his grandparents and uncle, as well as his older sister, saying “she told me I have to come back, but she’s going to stay there with grandma and granddad”. The boy’s father became upset with him, rebuking the lad before assuring him that his sister was alive and healthy at college in Vermont, as he had spoken with her the previous day. Concerned at the father’s state, the doctor told him to go home and get some rest, at which time he found that the college had been trying to call him all night long with the tragic news that his daughter had been killed in a car accident the night before.
Though it’s likely Peak-in-Darien experiences will never convince the most hardcore of skeptics, the sheer number of puzzling accounts of this type should certainly have any open-minded person curious as to whether they are evidence of some sort of life beyond death.
3. Mediumship
While the idea that certain people can ‘talk’ to the dead is a popular one in modern culture – witness the success of recent television shows such as Medium and Ghost Whisperer, not to mention hit movies like Ghost – such individuals are not as popular with scientists and skeptics, who tend to view them with contempt. The reason for this is no doubt the long association between mediumship and unscrupulous charlatans taking advantage of the bereaved, of which there have been more than a few. But mediumship proper goes back into prehistory, when shamans went into trance and acted as the conduit between the dead and the living. And right up into modern times, there have been certain individuals who seem to have had this ability. In the late 19th century, the Society for Psychical Research (S.P.R.) – a group comprised of some of the most respected academics in the world – set out to investigate claims of mediumship to try and ascertain the truth of the matter. And while they certainly found their share of frauds, they also uncovered rare gems. They assigned one of their toughest skeptical minds, an Australian by the name of Richard Hodgson, to the peculiar case of an ostensibly normal Boston housewife, Mrs. Leonora Piper, who would go into trance and allow ‘the dead’ to channel communication through her (at one point, three conversations could be held simultaneously between living and deceased individuals, one through the voice, one through writing with the right hand, and another with the left!). Hodgson investigated Piper for almost twenty years, using detectives to shadow her and her husband, arranging sittings anonymously and taking numerous other precautions. He collected thousands of pages of testimony and analysis, and reams of evidence suggesting that Mrs. Piper had access to information beyond her normal senses. Hodgson’s official conclusion was paradigm-shattering. He was, he said, convinced “that the chief ‘communicators’...have survived the change we call death, and... have directly communicated with us...through Mrs Piper’s entranced organism”.
Hodgson was not alone in his summation. Another researcher who devoted a number of years to studying Mrs. Piper, Professor James Hyslop, concluded that her mediumship provided solid evidence “that there is a future life and persistence of personal identity”. Frederic Myers, one of the founding members of the S.P.R., said of his own sittings that they “left little doubt – no doubt – that we were in the presence of an authentic utterance from a soul beyond the tomb”. And yet, in the last century, these findings have been forgotten, so that in recent times scientists tend to react only with disdain when the subject of mediumship is raised.
However, in recent years other researchers have taken on the yoke of investigating mediumship within a scientific framework. Dr. Emily Kelly of the University of Virginia and former hospice chaplain Dianne Arcangel undertook a study of the information given by mediums to recently-bereaved persons, the results of which were published in early 2011 in theJournal of Nervous and Mental Disorders. Some of Kelly and Arcangel’s findings do appear to offer tantalizing evidence for the validity of mediumship.
In one experiment, Kelly and Arcangel employed nine mediums to offer readings for 40 individual sitters – two of the mediums doing six each, while the other seven mediums did four readings each (each sitter had just one reading done). The sittings were done without the actual sitter present (the researchers acted as a ‘proxy’ to keep a blind protocol), and audio recordings of the mediums’ statements were later transcribed. Each sitter was then sent six readings – the correct reading, and five ‘decoy’ readings drawn from those given for others in the group – but were then asked to rate each overall reading on how applicable they thought it was to them, and comment on why they chose the highest rated reading. Thirty-eight of the forty participants returned their ratings – and, amazingly, 14 of the 38 readings were correctly chosen (while at first sight ‘less than half correct’ may seem a rather poor success rate, given there were six readings to choose from, this is actually a number significantly above what would be expected by chance). Additionally, seven other readings were ranked second, and altogether 30 of the 38 readings were ranked in the top half of the ratings. What’s more, one medium in particular stood out above the others: all six of this person’s readings were correctly ranked first by each sitter, at quite astronomical odds! Sitters, asked to explain why they chose the correct readings, often cited the specific, personal details that stood out. For example:

...the medium referred to “a lady that is very much, was influential in his [the deceased person’s] formative years. So, whether that is mother or whether that is grandmother... She can strangle a chicken.” The sitter commented that her grandmother (the deceased person’s mother) “killed chickens. It freaked me out the first time I saw her do this. I cried so hard that my parents had to take me home. So the chicken strangling is a big deal...In fact I often referred to my sweet grandmother as the chicken killer”.
​

Other researchers have also returned positive results from research with mediums. Dr. Julie Beischel has spent more than a decade investigating mediumship, and she has become convinced by the evidence. “When I applied the scientific method to the phenomenon of mediumship using optimal environments, maximum controls, and skilled participants”, she states, “I was able to definitively conclude that certain mediums are able to report accurate and specific information about discarnates (the deceased) without using any normal means to acquire that information”.
4. Death Bed Phenomena
Strange experiences reported at the time of death, including near-death experiences and death-bed visions, are often dismissed by skeptics as artifacts of the dying patient’s misfiring brain. But such explanations are confounded by the fact that, in some cases, other quite healthy people present in the room with the dying also experience the ‘veil’ to the afterlife being lifted.
For example, there have been numerous cases in which carers for the dying have described seeing a bright light surrounding the dying person, exuding what they relate as “a raw feeling of love”. What sort of numbers are we talking? Researcher Peter Fenwick was amazed to find in a survey that one in every three palliative carers reported accounts of “a radiant light that envelops the dying person, and may spread throughout the room and involve the carer”. In a similar Dutch study, more than half of the carers surveyed reported witnessing this ‘light’! Meanwhile in a questionnaire put to palliative care nurses in Australia, one respondent told how he, another nurse, and the patient’s husband saw a blue-white light leave the body of the patient and drift toward the ceiling. “As she died we just noticed like an energy rising from her...sort of a bluey white sort of aura,” the nurse explained. “We looked at each other, and the husband was on the other side of the bed and he was looking at us... he saw it as well and he said he thinks that she went to a better place”. As is often the case, this experience was transformative for the nurse: “It probably changed the way I felt about people dying and what actually happens after death”. In fact the researcher responsible for the Australian survey, Deborah Morris, was herself originally inspired to investigate death-bed experiences further by her own experience of seeing ‘the dying light’. “There was a young man who had died in the room with his family and I saw an aura coming off him,” she recounts. “It was like a mist. I didn’t tell anybody for years. I’ve never seen it again”.
Peter Fenwick relates an instance in which a person, at the time of their brother’s death, witnessed “odd tiny sparks of bright light” emanating from the body – and what’s more, these ‘sparks’ were also seen by another person in the room. In another case, a carer awoke in the darkness of early morning to the sight of “a flame licking the top of the wall against the ceiling” above her dying father’s bed. “I saw a plume of smoke rising, like the vapour that rises from a snuffed-out candle, but on a bigger scale...it was being thrown off by a single blade of phosphorus light”, the witness recounted. “It hung above Dad’s bed, about 18 inches or so long, and was indescribably beautiful...it seemed to express perfect love and peace”. She switched on the light to investigate further, but the light instantly vanished; “the room was the same as always on a November morning, cold and cheerless, with no sound of breathing from Dad’s bed. His body was still warm”. This sighting of a vapour-like substance leaving the body at the time of death is another element that is often reported:

As he died something which is very hard to describe because it was so unexpected and because I had seen nothing like it left up through his body and out of his head. It resembled distinct delicate waves/lines of smoke (smoke is not the right word but I have not got a comparison) and then disappeared. I was the only one to see it. It left me with such a sense of peace and comfort. I don’t think that we were particularly close as my sister and I had been sent off to boarding school at an early age.
I do not believe in God. But as to an afterlife I now really do not know what to think.
​

Family, carers and physicians have also reported various other phenomena occurring at the time of death, from the sounds of angelic choirs singing through to visions of the already deceased at the dying person’s bedside. For example, one woman reported that as she watched her mother pass away...

…Suddenly I was aware that her father was stood at the foot of her bed. My mother was staring at him too and her face was lit up with joy. It was then that I saw her face appeared to be glowing with a gold light. The light began to leave through the top of her head and go towards the ceiling. Looking back to my mother’s face I saw that she was no longer breathing.
​

Similarly, Peter Fenwick was told by one lady that while sitting at her dying husband’s bedside there was suddenly “a most brilliant light shining from my husband’s chest”. The light began to rise toward the ceiling, and she began hearing “the most beautiful music and singing voices”, filling her with an overwhelming feeling of joy. At this point, the nurse interrupted with news that her husband had just passed, and the light and the music instantly disappeared, leaving the woman bereft at being left behind, after being shown just the barest of glimpses ‘behind the veil’.
Certainly, those witnessing the death of another person are sure to be under psychological stress, so perhaps in some cases we could explain cases away as some sort of hallucination. However, in cases where multiple witnesses in the same room describe the same vision, we really do being to feel as if we’re reaching for mundane explanations.
5. Crossovers between Mediumship and Near-Death Experiences
After days of struggle against the disease that had struck him down, Dr. Horace Ackley could take no more. All of a sudden, he felt himself gradually rising from his body; as his organs ceased functioning, Dr. Ackley suddenly found himself in a position slightly above his lifeless physical body, looking down on it and those who had been in the room with him. Then, without warning...

…the scenes of my whole life seemed to move before me like a panorama; every act seemed as though it were drawn in life size and was really present: it was all there, down to the closing scenes. So rapidly did it pass, that I had little time for reflection. I seemed to be in a whirlpool of excitement; and then, just as suddenly as this panorama had been presented, it was withdrawn, and I was left without a thought of the past or future to contemplate my present condition.
​

Dr. Ackley realized that he must have died, and was gratified to learn that it seemed a rather pleasant experience. “Death is not so bad a thing after all,” he said to himself, “and I should like to see what that country is that I am going to, if I am a spirit.” His only regret, looking down on the whirl of activity in the room, was that he was unable to inform his friends that he lived on, to set their minds and hearts at ease. At this point, two ‘guardian spirits’ appeared before Dr. Ackley, greeting him by name before leading him from the room into an area where a number of ‘spirits’ whom he was familiar with had assembled.
Those familiar with accounts of near-death experiences might well be saying to themselves “ho-hum, another stock-standard near-death experience”. They might guess that Dr. Ackley then woke up in his resuscitated body and told an NDE researcher about his experience. But if they did, they would be wrong. Dr. Horace Ackley truly did die that day, never to return to this life. The report that you read above was an account of his death, allegedly given by him through a spirit medium – one Samuel Paist of Philadelphia. And what makes it truly remarkable is that it was written down by Paist in his book A Narrative of the Experience of Horace Abraham Ackley, M.D., and published in 1861 – more than a century before the near-death experience had come to the attention of researchers and the general public. And yet Paist/Ackley tells of an OBE shortly after death, a “panoramic” life review (the exact word “panoramic” is found in many NDE reports), and being greeted by spirits who subsequently guided him to an afterlife realm!
But the after-death narrative of Dr. Horace Ackley is not an isolated instance. More than a decade before the publication of Raymond Moody’s Life After Life – the book that started the modern fascination with near-death experiences – another scientist had already investigated and written at length on the topic. In a pair of relatively obscure books – The Supreme Adventure (1961) and Intimations of Immortality (1965) – Dr. Robert Crookall cited numerous examples of what he called “pseudo-death,” noting the archetypal elements that Moody would later bring to the public’s attention as the near-death experience. What’s more however, Crookall also compared these tales of ‘pseudo-death’ with accounts of the dying process as told by ‘communicators’ through mediums – and found a number of these same recurring elements, well before they became public knowledge through Moody’s Life After Life.
For example, Crookall showed that, according to ostensibly dead ‘communicators’ talking through mediums, the newly- deceased are usually met by other deceased loved ones: “Usually friends or relatives take the newly-dead man in charge”. This of course may not be considered a surprising thing for a medium to say – it’s probably what most people would expectantly hope for upon entering the spirit realm. But the common elements continue, and include some of the more idiosyncratic features of the NDE. For instance, Crookall noted that, as with the case of Dr. Ackley above, communicators often declare through mediums that “in the early stages of transition, they experienced a panoramic review of their past lives”. In one case the communicator recounted that shortly after death “the scenes of the past life” are revealed; another said that upon ‘waking’ his “entire life unreeled itself”. A dead communicator by the name of Scott told medium Jane Sherwood that his thoughts “raced over the record of a whole long lifetime”, while another communicator said that he saw “clearer and clearer the events of my past life pass, in a long procession, before me.”
Beyond the meeting with the familiar dead, and the past life review, Crookall’s research also found that mediumistic communicators regularly make note of the out-of-body experience component. For example, one communicator noted that he “seemed to rise up out of my body”. According to another, “I was not lying in the bed, but floating in the air, a little above it. I saw the body, stretched out straight”. Furthermore, they also describe the familiar element of traveling through a tunnel! “I saw in front of me a dark tunnel,” said one communicator, before travelling through it and then stepping “out of the tunnel into a new world”. Another communicator noted that they remembered “a curious opening, as if one had passed through subterranean passages and found oneself near the mouth of a cave... The light was much stronger outside”. And once through the ‘tunnel’, the environment is once again familiar to anyone who has perused a catalogue of NDEs: “I was with ‘B’ [her son, killed in the War]: he took me to a world so brilliant that I can’t describe it”.
The common elements are compelling. For anyone familiar with the NDE literature, these reports through mediums are startlingly similar to the accounts of near-death experiencers – and yet Crookall collected them years before the archetype of the NDE became common knowledge. And what’s more, not only do they seem to offer support for the validity of the near-death experience, they also hint that there may well be more to the much-maligned subject of mediumship.

 

[say what]

[h=1]Quantum Theory of Ghosts[/h][h=1]The Quantum Theory of Ghosts (Abstract Edition)
Originally developed by Professor Max Bruin, PhD[/h]Since the rise of mankind there have been stories of the spirits of the dead returning to haunt the living. The very word, haunt, comes from the concept of an animal feeding place, and ghosts are seen as feeding upon the living. Some societies revere the spirits of their ancestors, but even these myths include angry ghosts who prey upon the hapless mortals.
But what are ghosts? The rise of science tells us that the idea of ghosts as spirits of the dead is absurd. They exist in the supernatural, in a realm where science cannot tread, and as such they are dismissed as little more than the imagination of frightened, backward thinking people. However, with the advent of quantum mechanics, new explanations shed light on why the myth of ghosts remains prevalent in cultures around the world.
What Are Ghosts?
Mythology would tell us that ghosts are the lingering spirits of the dead. Balderdash! Ghosts are not at all the spirits of the dead. They are not, in fact, “spirits” at all. A ghost is, put simply, an impression upon the subatomic weave of the universe, created via strong emotion of a sentient observer.
This means, in other words, that ghosts are not the disembodied personalities of the dead, and, in fact, they can be “spirits” of the living! To understand this phenomena, one must first grasp one of the most fundamental principles of quantum mechanics: observation changes the subject being observed. The simple act of observing or measuring a particle forces it into an energy state. Unobserved, a particle may take any energy state available to it, but when a sentient observer is introduced, the particle becomes locked.

Ghosts are created when the observer’s emotions create a semi-permanent “indentation” into the quantum tapestry of the universe. Like the scent of burned toast that remains long after the offending bread is discarded, ghosts are impressions of emotions that remain long after the cause has been resolved. Ghosts, therefore, are formed not from the dead, but from the living and their interactions with the world around them. The recording of events within the subatomic weave gives rise to an afterimage, and depending on the intensity of the emotion and the permeability of the quantum state, different “types” of ghosts can be created.
Negative emotions are many times more likely to cause these effects. The reason for this is currently unknown, though it may have to do with the quantum spin of the universe; in an anti-matter universe, positive emotions might create ghosts more effectively. Regardless of the reason, negative emotions, particularly hate, guilt and grief, are the most common causes for ghost formation. This also explains why ghosts have traditionally been thought of as the spirits of the dead; death of a loved one can cause profound negative emotions from multiple sources, all centered around the memories of the deceased, which can then amalgamate into a ghost that appears to be the deceased.
The formation of ghosts, however, is somewhat rare. It requires more than an excess of negative emotions. The quantum state around the individual or individuals who form the ghost must be favorable for the formation. Certain areas are more susceptible to this than others, especially those where negative emotions are most common, such as cemeteries or hospitals. Other areas may be conducive to ghost formation due to other environmental factors.
Measuring and Classifying Ghosts
The intensity of the impression upon the quantum weave determines the “type” of ghost spawned. Ghosts can be categorized by measurable, observable characteristics:

1. Size and shape
2. Range of motion/area
3. Duration/frequency of appearance

Based on these three data points, ghosts fall into one of the following basic categories:

• Type A – small balls of light, sometimes only captured via camera, repeating in nature, commonly referred to as orbs.
• Type F – apparitions, may take partially human form, may have auditory component, repeating in nature, non-independent.
• Type N – specters, human form, full sensory spectrum, semi-independent in nature.
• Type R – poltergeist, metamorphic form, sensory and extrasensory spectrum, capable of limited independent action.
• Type X – entity, fully independent with wide range of quantum-based abilities, often self-aware, sometimes called “demons”, capable of possessing human host via quantum alignment.

Type X ghosts are exceedingly rare, formed from large quantum disturbances over many years. The classic western “ghost” would be either Type N or Type R. Intervening types, for example Type B-Type E, are variations on the primary of each subset. A Type B orb, for example, has measurable color shifting.
Because ghosts are quantum phenomenon, they can be disrupted via other quantum phenomenon. Powerful magnets, for example, can cause ghosts to be attracted or repelled, and radioactive materials can cause mutations in a ghost’s form. Since ghosts are not made of solid matter, they can pass through objects with no difficulty, but the movement of matter is very difficult for any ghost below the R subtype.
Interactions With Ghosts
Ghosts with fully independent awareness often believe they are the mythological spirits of the dead and act accordingly. Only on rare occasions do they accept that they are not the remnants of the dead, though this may explain various other mythological creatures such as djinn or faeries.
Destructive ghosts are generally bound to the event that created them, and may be discorporated if the event is resolved. This explains why ghosts might vanish after a murder is solved, for example. Additionally, certain items may cause ghosts to be forced away, not due to any “magical” properties, but simple because the quantum state of the item in anathema to the ghost’s quantum signature.
In conclusion, ghosts are neither supernatural nor imaginary. They can be quantified and measured. An intriguing experiment would follow; placing a Type R or higher ghost within a particle accelerator. However, such an experiment would likely destroy the ghost, though it might reveal new subatomic particles. In any event, ghost study may be academically pursued without need for the ridiculous trappings of the paranormal. As always, science shows us that the world around us is more complex that we imagine, but always within our grasp.

This is really interesting. For me, I see this as posing a lot of questions about humanity...I mean, type X "fully independent with wide range of quantum-based abilities" ...how does this relate to our soul? Is it the same thing?

So they're suggesting that ghosts are form through our own thoughts of a specific place or person? And that multiple thoughts from multiple people can form such a ghost? Kind of like a collective conscious? Does this mean that none of this 'energy' is from the dead? It's simply a creation from the living?

 

[say what]

Top Five Phenomena That Offer Evidence For An Afterlife
4. Death Bed Phenomena
Strange experiences reported at the time of death, including near-death experiences and death-bed visions, are often dismissed by skeptics as artifacts of the dying patient’s misfiring brain. But such explanations are confounded by the fact that, in some cases, other quite healthy people present in the room with the dying also experience the ‘veil’ to the afterlife being lifted.
For example, there have been numerous cases in which carers for the dying have described seeing a bright light surrounding the dying person, exuding what they relate as “a raw feeling of love”. What sort of numbers are we talking? Researcher Peter Fenwick was amazed to find in a survey that one in every three palliative carers reported accounts of “a radiant light that envelops the dying person, and may spread throughout the room and involve the carer”. In a similar Dutch study, more than half of the carers surveyed reported witnessing this ‘light’! Meanwhile in a questionnaire put to palliative care nurses in Australia, one respondent told how he, another nurse, and the patient’s husband saw a blue-white light leave the body of the patient and drift toward the ceiling. “As she died we just noticed like an energy rising from her...sort of a bluey white sort of aura,” the nurse explained. “We looked at each other, and the husband was on the other side of the bed and he was looking at us... he saw it as well and he said he thinks that she went to a better place”. As is often the case, this experience was transformative for the nurse: “It probably changed the way I felt about people dying and what actually happens after death”. In fact the researcher responsible for the Australian survey, Deborah Morris, was herself originally inspired to investigate death-bed experiences further by her own experience of seeing ‘the dying light’. “There was a young man who had died in the room with his family and I saw an aura coming off him,” she recounts. “It was like a mist. I didn’t tell anybody for years. I’ve never seen it again”.
Peter Fenwick relates an instance in which a person, at the time of their brother’s death, witnessed “odd tiny sparks of bright light” emanating from the body – and what’s more, these ‘sparks’ were also seen by another person in the room. In another case, a carer awoke in the darkness of early morning to the sight of “a flame licking the top of the wall against the ceiling” above her dying father’s bed. “I saw a plume of smoke rising, like the vapour that rises from a snuffed-out candle, but on a bigger scale...it was being thrown off by a single blade of phosphorus light”, the witness recounted. “It hung above Dad’s bed, about 18 inches or so long, and was indescribably beautiful...it seemed to express perfect love and peace”. She switched on the light to investigate further, but the light instantly vanished; “the room was the same as always on a November morning, cold and cheerless, with no sound of breathing from Dad’s bed. His body was still warm”. This sighting of a vapour-like substance leaving the body at the time of death is another element that is often reported:

As he died something which is very hard to describe because it was so unexpected and because I had seen nothing like it left up through his body and out of his head. It resembled distinct delicate waves/lines of smoke (smoke is not the right word but I have not got a comparison) and then disappeared. I was the only one to see it. It left me with such a sense of peace and comfort. I don’t think that we were particularly close as my sister and I had been sent off to boarding school at an early age.
I do not believe in God. But as to an afterlife I now really do not know what to think.
​

Family, carers and physicians have also reported various other phenomena occurring at the time of death, from the sounds of angelic choirs singing through to visions of the already deceased at the dying person’s bedside. For example, one woman reported that as she watched her mother pass away...

…Suddenly I was aware that her father was stood at the foot of her bed. My mother was staring at him too and her face was lit up with joy. It was then that I saw her face appeared to be glowing with a gold light. The light began to leave through the top of her head and go towards the ceiling. Looking back to my mother’s face I saw that she was no longer breathing.
​

Similarly, Peter Fenwick was told by one lady that while sitting at her dying husband’s bedside there was suddenly “a most brilliant light shining from my husband’s chest”. The light began to rise toward the ceiling, and she began hearing “the most beautiful music and singing voices”, filling her with an overwhelming feeling of joy. At this point, the nurse interrupted with news that her husband had just passed, and the light and the music instantly disappeared, leaving the woman bereft at being left behind, after being shown just the barest of glimpses ‘behind the veil’.
Certainly, those witnessing the death of another person are sure to be under psychological stress, so perhaps in some cases we could explain cases away as some sort of hallucination. However, in cases where multiple witnesses in the same room describe the same vision, we really do being to feel as if we’re reaching for mundane explanations.

[/FONT]

This is a bit off topic, but it made me think back to my grandfather and being with him when he passed. For some reason, I thought it would be more...I can't explain it...it's like he just turned off. I've often wonder if it's because, for quite a few days before he passed, he was just a physical body existing...I think I saw the process of him leaving a few days before he died, where he - my grandfather's essence - left...we think it's not a physical part of us, but he looked different, and you knew there was something missing.

However, the anecdotes about light reminds me of what my mom and I saw the evening of his death. He passed at 6pm, and at 8pm, from his bed (because he was bed ridden), you could see a light in the sky. It was so bright (because you can't normally see the stars through the light pollution), and just stood out as the only thing in the sky. We later found out it was Saturn (named after Zeus' father)...knowing that just touched me and made me believe that it was him. Silly...but warming

 

[Skarekrow]

This is really interesting. For me, I see this as posing a lot of questions about humanity...I mean, type X "fully independent with wide range of quantum-based abilities" ...how does this relate to our soul? Is it the same thing?

So they're suggesting that ghosts are form through our own thoughts of a specific place or person? And that multiple thoughts from multiple people can form such a ghost? Kind of like a collective conscious? Does this mean that none of this 'energy' is from the dead? It's simply a creation from the living?

This theory is new to me....I’m still trying to find more in-depth information....it does seem to make sense, at least as far as ghosts are concerned anyhow...lol.
From what it suggests...yes and no...it is suggesting that our emotions can be so powerful in certain instances that it leaves an impression in our reality....like skips on a record they play over and over again...this would be the idea that Hauntings as opposed to an Intelligent Apparition, are just a replay of past traumatic events.
This can be from someone still alive...or dead. Usually, with a poltergeist type ghost the popular theory is that it is formed by the living, usually someone within the house, and usually someone who is of adolescence or just before adolescence....but it can be formed by one or more as well...kind of a collective melange of negative and angry feelings. It has also been noted amongst those who study such things that someone with psychic abilities can bring about a poltergeist by holding in negative emotions until it is at the breaking point.
This theory the article talks about, doesn’t necessarily leave out the possibility that ghosts are our souls, but would suggest highly that they are not. It seems to suggest to me that the formation of a ghost that is fully independent of itself does take on characteristics of someone we would consider having a “soul”...but let me also suggest that there are computer programs that you can have a basic conversation with like Siri on the iPhone. If they are indeed formed from negative emotions then one would think that a fully independent ghost would respond with such emotion in turn.
I guess we will just have to see if anything ever comes from this theory.

This is a bit off topic, but it made me think back to my grandfather and being with him when he passed. For some reason, I thought it would be more...I can't explain it...it's like he just turned off. I've often wonder if it's because, for quite a few days before he passed, he was just a physical body existing...I think I saw the process of him leaving a few days before he died, where he - my grandfather's essence - left...we think it's not a physical part of us, but he looked different, and you knew there was something missing.

However, the anecdotes about light reminds me of what my mom and I saw the evening of his death. He passed at 6pm, and at 8pm, from his bed (because he was bed ridden), you could see a light in the sky. It was so bright (because you can't normally see the stars through the light pollution), and just stood out as the only thing in the sky. We later found out it was Saturn (named after Zeus' father)...knowing that just touched me and made me believe that it was him. Silly...but warming

I can relate.
When my Father died in 2008, I feel that he was no longer there quite a few days before he physically died.
I have talked about this before in other threads, but many healthcare workers will tell you that there are indeed unseen changes that take place when someone dies...and by unseen I mean the feeling in the room and about the person....but it’s more than that...it is like a light has gone out to be cliche.
Even if someone is kept alive by machines...there is still a difference there...I don’t think all people who work in healthcare can tell....but those of us who have been around death and dying for any good amount of time....there’s a good portion of that that will tell you it goes beyond the physical.

 

[Skarekrow]

I normally do not post songs on my thread...but in this case I couldn’t help myself as it’s been stuck in my head - waking/sleeping for the past two days.
“Love is to die....love is to not die....love is to dance."

[video=youtube_share;OnuFYYJHaY0]http://youtu.be/OnuFYYJHaY0[/video]

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are."

—Niccolò Machiavelli

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

7 Optimistic Scenarios for the Future of Our Planet

Visions of future depicted by science fiction writers and futurists usually include atomic explosion, killer robots on tracks and cannibal nomads riding on motorcycles. And this is justified, since we do not take adequate care of our environment, new technologies are not always good of mankind and people of the world are at war with each other without the robots present.
But we cannot be too sure that the history of human civilization will end in such a grim way. Finding ways to avoid premonitions of popular sci-fi stories and apocalyptic dystopia may help us envision distant future that may look much brighter. Below we examine seven most optimistic scenarios for the development of mankind.
1. Status quo

This is perhaps the most boring, but the most likely scenario of the future.
In books with such “hopeful” titles as “Our Final Hour” and others, British astrophysicist Martin Rees, Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom and English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking claim thathumanity does not stand a chance to survive even before the start of next century. Maintaining the current level of our civilization (which simply constitutes our ultimate survival) can by itself be considered a positive result. Chances are that we have already reached the highest point in our development.
In 1992, American political economist Francis Fukuyama has written a book entitled “The End of History and the Last Man“. He hypothesized that the political, technological and economic model of the early 90s is the last frontier in the history of mankind. The new millennium proved Fukuyama’s fallacy.
A more realistic scenario of maintaining the status quo was proposed by the former head of the research department of Sun Microsystems Bill Joy. In 2000 he published an essay in Wired magazine titled “Why the future doesn’t need us“. The article claimed that the most advanced technologies of the XXI century such as robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology are dangerous to humans as biological species. Joy called for a conscious abstinence from dangerous technologies similar to the model of nuclear disarmament. Neo-Luddite position according to Joy is the most relevant strategy against dystopia and the extinction of mankind. The sooner we stop developing dangerous technologies for ourselves, the longer and happier our future will be.
2. Blooming Green Earth

In most of sci-fi scenarios, Earth appears to be depicted as a planet-metropolis encased in steel and concrete. This is the worst nightmare for environmentalists when we exists in the future where technology completely replaces Earth’s biosphere.
But there is another option. A future in which nature is far more lush and picturesque than we can ever imagine. New philosophies of environmentalism and trans-humanism advocate the development of technologies that will help restore the environment. Nano- and biotechnologies will be utilized for cleaning up landfills and industrial waste disposal sites. And in the distant future it will become possible to terraform Earth back to its pristine state.
The earliest manifestation of this sort of philosophy is a report by the American science fiction writerBruce Sterling dated October 14, 1998 and published in San Francisco. The founder of cyberpunk has come up with the idea of “Emerald design“. It combined the ideas of eco-design, technological progress and cosmopolitanism. Simply put, Sterling argued that in order to combat environmental problems, humanity must use the most advanced technologies and work together.
In 2008, Bruce Sterling officially terminated the “Emerald design” movement to pave the way for more advanced Internet-based ideology called “Bright green environmentalism“.
In the distant future, our planet can become more ecologically diversified than it has ever been. Humans would have to be genetically modified so that they would not interfere with the overall harmony of natural environment. All of the energy needs for humanity will be completely satisfied, we will become the type one civilization according to the Kardashev scale.
Some environmentalists act to promote editing the Earth’s ecosystems, to eliminate predators so that herbivores would not suffer. We will be able tocontrol the weather. And we will finally be able to resist natural disasters such as asteroids, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Who would want to trade a planet like this for some distant planets in space?
3. Under the supervision of machines

It is quite likely that the takeover by technological singularity will lead to extinction of humans as species. The next generation of artificial intelligence (which may appear as early as in thirty years) can become so unfathomable to our understanding that we will not be able to coexist on the same planet. Destruction of mankind by machines may occur intentionally, accidentally or even by our own fault.
But machine superpower can lead to the opposite result. The possibility that artificial intelligence can be the key to utopia for humanity has brought to life the movement called trans-humanism.
Trans-humanists (and especially their singularian ideology) generally agrees with Cayferom from “The Matrix“. The mankind will feel much more comfortable and safer inside a friendly system built by AI. If designers and programmers will start working on the development of friendly artificial intelligence now, new Asimov-type generation of machines may eventually appear, which, in principle, may be incapable of harming humans. They will become our protectors and patrons. We will let them care about the Earth, while we will peacefully roam virtual jungles inhabited by mechanical animals.
4. Space

Sooner or later we will have to leave Earth and start to colonize other solar systems. This will ensure our survival (it is not a good idea to keep all your eggs in one basket) since humanity has always had an inherent desire to move forward. After reaching beyond geographical boundaries and biological limitations (we cannot fly and very bad swimmers), we have secured further development of our civilization. This led to technological, social, political and economic changes in society.
Even with the current, very modest achievements in space exploration, we ended up with satellite technologies and important discoveries in the field of natural science. And what about the high-resolution picture from the Mars surface?… If we can manage to be able to travel interstellar distances, be it multi-generations vessels, self-replicating von Neumann spacecrafts or physically intangible bubble of artificial intelligence, this will become a significant breakthrough. Perhaps it will be an achievement not only for mankind, but also for all living beings in our galaxy.
Presently, we exist in the galaxy devoid of visible traces of any activity of alien beings. This allowed American theoretical physicist Enrico Fermi rightfully ask: “Well, where are all those other civilizations“? So if we do start to travel between stars and planets, then we may become the first and only civilization capable of such distant space travel.
5. Virtual Reality

Technological singularity may lead to a situation whenall of us will be loaded into the memory of supercomputers. This can be done without abandoning the space travel.
But supercomputers must be very large. Such as thematrioshka-type brain concept “invented” by the late American trans-humanistRobert Bradbury. This space mega-structure consists of several Dyson spheres. Each sphere has a nano-computer of a molecular-scale size. All these spheres are built around the star and get the energy for computation of energy exchange occurring between the star and the interstellar space. This will allow the computer to simulate reality, which is not inferior, but even better in its level of resolution compared to the world around us.
According to Bradbury’s ideas, a single matrioshka brain can perform 1042 operations per second. Professor of mechanical engineering at MIT Seth Lloyd proposed a draft of a quantum system, which can perform 5×1050 logical operations per second with the bit resolution of 1031 bits. Compared to the worlds that can be generated by this system, our old analogue-based universe may seem slow, boring and primitive.
6. Eternal Rest

Most of the world’s religions invented utopias beyond the grave. And how else could they encourage their followers to behave appropriately in the real world? Religion is the expression of human ideas about the ideal level of existence. Nowadays, few people would seriously believe in existence of heaven or afterlife. But this does not mean that we should abandon the idea of creating heaven on Earth using technology.
British philosopher David Pearce calls this the principle of “hedonic imperative“. He and other trans-humanists-abolitionists call for creation of heaven on earth by means of advanced biotechnology. Using psychopharmacology and genetic engineering we can rid mankind of pain and provide comfortable existence as well as to come up with some kind of a signal system to receive notifications about the health of the body.
More progressive hedonism-related ideas suggest ways to increase the number of psychological, emotional and physical pleasures human consciousness is able to experience. For those puritans raised under strict moral and restrictive conditions, Pierce’s concept may seem outrageous, and even immoral. But in reality, we all want just that at the level of metaphysics. We all want as much pleasure from life as possible with as fewer problems along the way.
7. Cosmological Transcendence

We are not too sure what to write about in this section. This could be a scenario with the greatest long-term outlook beyond the limits of human imagination. We are unable to adequately present these utopian ideas here. But it is still desirable to experience them. Here again, there is a certain risk of falling into philosophy and metaphysics (forget about hedonism), but some vague possibilities are still worth considering.
American futurist John Smart suggested thatthe most complex systems in the universe use less and less space, time, matter and energy to enter the next level of their evolution. This applies to galaxies, stars, planets, environmental and technological systems. Human civilization is no exception. Ultimately, our destiny is to leave this universe and put our collective consciousness in a completely different dimension. For example, inside one of black holes.
Robert Lanza, professor of the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University proposes a different theory. Lanza suggests that our universe is in its early stages of development and that during more advanced stages of development, intelligent life can begin managing the universe.As a result, the very nature of the universe will undergo changes, it will become biocentric, and biological life will be in charge of creating the surrounding reality and time.
Here, we may easily get into the possibility of time travel and exploiting the effects of quantum cohesiveness. So little we know about the structure of the universe at this point, that in the future mankind can be faced with opportunities, which we cannot possibly imagine today.

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

[h=1]'Presentiment' Study Suggests People's Bodies Can 'Predict Events,' But Scientists Skeptical[/h]People's bodies know a big event is coming just before it happens, at least according to a new study.
If true, the research, published Oct. 17 in the journal Frontiers of Perception, suggests something fundamental about the laws of nature has yet to be discovered.
"The claim is that events can be predicted without any cues," said Julia Mossbridge, a Northwestern University neuroscientist who co-authored the study. "This evidence suggests the effect is real but small. So the question is: How does it work?"
Other scientists are skeptical of this interpretation, however. They suggest some bias in which studies get published could play a role in seeing an effect where there is none.
Real effect?
Many studies have shown that physical responses including heart rate, pupil dilation and brain activity change between one and 10 seconds before people see a scary image (like a slithering snake). In most of these experiments, frightening pictures were randomly interspersed with more-neutral ones, so that in theory participants didn't have any clues about which photo would pop up next. But because the finding seemed so unnatural, those studies were understandably met with skepticism.To see whether the effect was real, Mossbridge and her team analyzed over two dozen of these studies. As part of the analysis, they threw out any experiments in which they saw bias or flaws.
They still found a "presentiment" effect, in which measures of physiological excitement changed seconds before an event. The finding suggests that people's bodies subconsciously sense the future when something important is about to happen, even if the people don't know it.
For instance, if you were a day-trader betting lots of money on one stock, "10 seconds beforehand you might predict your stock tanking," Mossbridge told LiveScience.
The paper doesn't claim that people are psychic or have supernatural or paranormal powers. Instead, the authors believe presentiment is a real, physical effect that obeys natural laws — just ones that nobody understands, Mossbridge said. [Infographic: Belief in the Paranormal]
Researchers skeptical
But others doubt presentiment exists at all.
While the statistical methods used in the study are sound, that doesn't mean presentiment is real, said Rufin VanRullen, a cognitive scientist at the Center for Research on the Brain and Cognition, in an email.
"All it means is that there is a statistical trend for scientists who search for these so-called presentiment effects to actually find them," wrote VanRullen, who was not involved in the study.
Instead, it's more likely that the experiments are biased, perhaps unintentionally, in a way the study authors missed, Kyle Elliott Mathewson, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said via email.
It's also possible that scores of researchers looked for this result, failed to find it and forgot all about it, added Mathewson, who like VanRullen wasn't involved in the study. Those studies would never be published, he said, so the overall effect in the published studies would be biased.
According to the researchers, in order for such bias to explain their results, at least 87 other unpublished studies would need to show no effect.
"Between psychology labs and parapsychology investigations, I can imagine this many failed experiments that go unreported easily," Mathewson wrote.

 

[Skarekrow]

[h=1]Wow....hit the mother load of interesting books! Enjoy!! Free Psychic Classics Ebooks[/h]Achad, Frater [Charles Stansfeld Jones] (1886-1950) Crystal Vision Through Crystal Gazing (PDF) 1923 Adare, Viscount [Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin] (1841-1926) Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D.D. Home (PDF) 1869 Addington, Bruce Henry (1874-1959) Adventurings in the Psychical 1914 Kindle Various Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters 1908 Kindle Kindle Various Various Alpheus, A. Complete Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism 1903 Kindle Kindle Various Various Anon. Past Feelings Renovated: Or, Ideas Occasioned by the Perusal of "Dr Hibbert's "Philosophy of Apparitions" 1828 Various Atkinson, William Walker (1862-1932) A Series of Lessons in Personal Magnetism, Psychic Influence, Thought-Force, Concentration, Will-Power, and Practical Mental Science 1901 Various Clairvoyance and Occult Powers [as Swami Panchadasi] 1916 Kindle Kindle Various Various Genuine Mediumship or The Invisible Powers [as Swami Bhakta Vishita] 1910 Kindle Kindle Various Various Practical Mind Reading 1907 Kindle Kindle Various Reincarnation and the Law of Karma 1908 Kindle Kindle Various Various Austin, Benjamin Fish (1850-1932) Glimpses of the Unseen: A Study of Dreams, Premonitions, Prayer and Remarkable Answers, Hypnotism, Spiritualism, Telepathy, Apparitions, Peculiar Mental and Spiritual Experiences, Unexplained Psychical Phenomena 1898 Various Baggally, William Wortley (d. 1928) Telepathy: Genuine and Fraudulent 1919 Kindle Kindle Various Various Balfour, Gerald William (1853-1945) The Ear of Dionysius: Farther Scripts Affording Evidence of Personal Survival 1920 Various Barrett, William (1844-1925) On the Threshold of a New World of Thought: An Examination of the Phenomena of Spiritualism 1908 Various On the Threshold of the Unseen: An Examination of the Phenomena of Spiritualism and of the Evidence for Survival after Death 1918 Various Psychical Research 1911 Various Bates, E. Katherine [Emily Katherine] Do the Dead Depart?: And Other Questions Various Psychical Science and Christianity: A Problem of the XXth Century 1909 Various Seen and Unseen 1907 Kindle Kindle Various Various Beighle, Nellie (1851-1916) Book of Knowledge: Psychic Facts 1911 Various Bell, Clark Spiritism, Hypnotism and Telepathy: As Involved in the Case of Mrs. Leonora E. Piper and the Society of Psychical Research [with Thomson Jay Hudson] 1904 Various Bennett, Ernest Nathaniel (1868-1947) Apollonius: Or, the Present and Future of Psychical Research 1920? Various Besant, Annie (1847-1933) Annie Besant: An Autobiography 1893 Kindle Kindle Various Death -- And After? 1906 Kindle Kindle Various Various Investigations into the Super-Physical 1913 Various Nature's Finer Forces 1918 Various Thought Forms [With C.W. Leadbeater] 1901 Kindle Kindle Various Various Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna (1831-1891) From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan 1892 Kindle Kindle Various Various Isis Unveiled 1919 Various The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 1888 Various The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 1888 Various The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 3 1893 Various The Secret Doctine, Index 1888 Various Studies in Occultism; A Series of Reprints from the Writings of H. P. Blavatsky 1910 Kindle Kindle Various Various Boirac, Emile (1851-1917) Our Hidden Forces: An Experimental Study of the Psychic Sciences 1917 Various The Psychology of the Future 1918 Various Branson, Lionel Hugh (1879-1946) Indian Conjuring 1922 Kindle Kindle Various Various Broad, C.D. [Charlie Dunbar] (1887-1971) Lectures on Psychical Research: Incorporating the Perrott Lectures Given in Cambridge University in 1959 and 1960 1962 Various Brown, George Occult Psychology 1919 Various Buchanan, Joseph Rodes (1814-1899) Manual of Psychometry: The Dawn of a New Civilization 1885 Various Burton, Jean (1905-1952) Heyday of a Wizard: Daniel Home, the Medium 1948 Various Cadwallader, Mary E. Hydesville in History 1917 Various Calmet, Augustin (1672-1757) The Phantom World: Or, The Philosophy of Spirits, Apparitions, etc. 1850 Various Various Carrington, Hereward (1880-1958) Death: Its Causes and Phenomena 1912 Various Eusapia Palladino and her Phenomena 1909 Various Higher Psychical Development (Yoga Philosophy): An Outline of the Secret Hindu Teachings 1920 Various Hindu Magic: An Expose of the Tricks of the Yogis and Fakirs of India 1913 Various Modern Psychical Phenomena 1919 Various Personal Experiences in Spiritualism: Including the Official Account and Record of the American Palladino Seances 1913 Various Psychical Phenomena and the War 1918 Various The Challenge of the War: Can Science Answer the Riddle of the Grave? 1919 Various The Coming Science 1908 Various The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, Fraudulent and Genuine 1907 Various The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism: Being a Brief Account of the Most Important Historical Phenomena, with a Criticism of their Evidential Value 1920 Various The Problems of Psychical Research: Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal 1921 Kindle Various Various True Ghost Stories 1915 Various Your Psychic Powers and How to Develop Them 1920 Various Cheiro [William John Warner] (1866-1936) Cheiro's Language of the Hand 1900 Various Palmistry for All: Containing New Information on the Study of the Hand Never Before Published 1910 Kindle Kindle Various Various Chevreuil, Leon (1852-1939) Proofs of the Spirit World (On Ne Meurt Pas) 1920 Various Colville, William Juvenal (1862-1917) Ancient Mysteries and Modern Revelations 1910 Various Comstock, Joseph The Tongue of Time, and Star of the States: A System of Human Nature, with the Phenomena of the Heavens and Earth ... Also an Account of Persons with Two Souls, and of Five Persons Who Took Colors by the Touch 1838 Various Conan Doyle, Arthur (1872-1938) The Coming of the Fairies 1922 Various The History of Spiritualism, Vol. 1 1926 Various The New Revelation 1918 Kindle Kindle Various Various The Vital Message 1919 Kindle Kindle Various Various The Wanderings of a Spiritualist 1921 Kindle Kindle Various Constable, Frank Challice (1846-1937) Personality and Telepathy 1911 Various Cooper, Robert Spiritual Experiences: Including Seven Months with the Brothers Davenport 1867 Various Coover, John Edgar (1872-1938) Experiments in Psychical Research at Leland Stanford Junior University 1917 Various Cox, Edward William (1809-1879) Spiritualism Answered by Science 1872 Various Crawford, Mary MacDermot Peeps into the Psychic World: The Occult Influence of Jewels and Many Other Things 1915 Various Crawford, William Jackson (1880-1920) Experiments in Psychical Science: Levitation, Contact, and the Direct Voice 1919 Various The Psychic Structures at the Goligher Circle 1921 Various The Reality of Psychic Phenomena: Raps, Levitations, etc. 1919 Various Crookes, William (1832-1919) Experimental Investigations on Psychic Force 1871 Various Remarkable Spirit Manifestations 1891 Various Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism 1874 Various Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism 1904 Various Crowe, Catherine (1800?-1876) The Night Side of Nature: Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers 1866 Various The Night Side of Nature: Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers, Vol. 1 1848 Various The Night Side of Nature: Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers, Vol. 2 1848 Various Cutten, George Barton (1874-1962) Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing 1911 Kindle Kindle Various Various Dallas, Helen Alexandrina (1856-1944) Death, the Gate of Life? (Mors Janua Vitae?): A Discussion of Certain Communications Purporting to Come from Frederic W.H. Myers 1919 Various Danmar, William Modern Nirvanaism: Or, the Philosophy of Life and Death 1914 Various Davenport Brothers [Ira Erastus; William Henry] (1839-1911; 1841-1877) The Davenport Brothers, The World-Renowned Spiritual Mediums: Their Biography, and Adventures in Europe and America 1869 Various Davenport, Reuben Briggs The Death-Blow to Spiritualism: Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters, as Revealed by Authority of Margaret Fox Kane and Catherine Fox Jencken 1888 Various Davis, Andrew Jackson (1826-1910) The Great Harmonia: Being a Philosophical Revelation of the Natural, Spiritual, and Celestial Universe 1850 Various Dee, John (1527-1608) A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers between Dr. John Dee ... and Some Spirits 1659 Various De Laurence, Lauron William (1868-1936) Clairvoyance and Thought-Transference 1916 Various Crystal-Gazing and Spiritual Clairvoyance 1916 Various Hypnotism: Magnetism, Mesmerism, Suggestive Therapeutics and Magnetic Healing 1910 Various De Monco, Almo (1857-?) Experimental Psychology: A Treatise on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Soul 1922 Various Dendy, Walter Cooper (1794-1871) The Philosophy of Mystery 1841 Various Denis, Leon (1846-1927) Life and Destiny 1919 Various Denton, William (1823-1883) Nature's Secrets: Or, Psychometric Researches 1863 Various The Soul of Things: Or, Psychometric Researches and Discoveries 1871 Various Desertis, V.C. [Stanley de Brath] (1854-1937) Psychic Philosophy as the Foundation of a Religion of Natural Law 1896 Various Donnelly, John J. Subjective Concepts of Humans: Source of Spiritistic Manifestations 1922 Various Drake, Samuel Gardner (1798-1875) The Witchcraft Delusion in New England 1866 Various Dresser, Horatio Willis (1866-1954) The Open Vision: A Study of Psychic Phenomena 1920 Various Duff, Edward Macomb Psychic Research and Gospel Miracles: A Study of the Evidences of the Gospel's Superphysical Features in the Light of the Established Results of Modern Psychical Research [with Thomas Gilchrist Allen] 1902 Various Du Prel, Carl (1839-1899) The Philosophy of Mysticism 1889 Various Ferriar, John (1761-1815) An Essay Towards a Theory of Apparitions 1813 Various Flammarion, Camille (1842-1925) Death and its Mystery: Before Death; Proofs of the Existence of the Soul 1921 Various Mysterious Psychic Forces 1907 Kindle Kindle Various The Unknown 1900 Various Flournoy, Théodore (1854-1920) Spiritism and Psychology 1911 Various Fort, Charles Hoy (1874-1932) The Book of the Damned 1919 Kindle Kindle Various Various New Lands 1923 Various Wild Talents 1933 Various Fournier d'Albe, Edmund Edward (1868-1933) New Light on Immortality 1908 Various Fowler, Samuel Page (1800-1888) Salem Witchcraft: Comprising More Wonders of the Invisible World 1865 Various Francis, John Reynolds (d. 1909) Gems of Thought from Leading Intellectual Lights 1906 Various The Encyclopedia of Death and Life in the Spirit-World 1895 Various Frank, Henry (1854-1933) The Challenge of the War: Can Science Answer the Riddle of the Grave? 1919 Various Psychic Phenomena, Science and Immortality 1916 Various Funk, Isaac Kaufman (1839-1912) The Psychic Riddle 1907 Various The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena 1904 Various Garland, Hamlin (1860-1940) The Shadow World 1908 Kindle Kindle Various Various Gasparin, Agénor Comte de (1810-1871) Science vs. Modern Spiritualism: A Treatise on Turning Tables, the Supernatural in General and Spirits 1857 Various Gibier, Paul (1851-1900) Psychism: Analysis of Things Existing 1899 Various Gilman, Lawrence (1878-1939) The Case of Patience Worth 1916 Various Godwin, William (1756-1836) Lives of the Necromancers 1834 Kindle Kindle Various Various Grasset, Joseph (1849-1918) The Marvels Beyond Science: Being a Record of Progress Made in the Reduction of Occult Phenomena to a Scientific Basis 1910 Various Gregory, William (1803-1858) Animal Magnetism: Or, Mesmerism and its Phenomena 1884 Various Grumbine, Jesse Charles Fremont (1861-1938) Psychometry: Its Science and Law of Unfoldment 1898 Various Gurney, Edmund (1847-1888) Phantasms of the Living, Vol. 1 [with Frederic W.H. Myers and Frank Podmore] 1886 Various Phantasms of the Living, Vol. 2 [with Frederic W.H. Myers and Frank Podmore] 1886 Various Halphide, Alvan Cavala The Psychic and Psychism 1901 Various Harris, John William (1849-?) Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men 1901 Kindle Kindle Various Various Harris, William Richard (1847-1923) Essays in Occultism, Spiritism, and Demonology 1919 Various Heindel, Max (1865-1919) The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception 1910 Various The Rosicrucian Mysteries: An Elementary Exposition of Their Secret Teachings 1911 Kindle Kindle Various Various The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers 1922 Various Hellenbach, Lazar Baron von (1827-1887) Birth and Death as a Change of Form of Perception: Or, The Dual Nature of Man 1886 Various Heredia, Carlos Maria de (1872-1951) Spiritism and Common Sense 1922 Various Hibbert, Samuel (1782-1848) Sketches of the Philosophy of Apparitions: Or, an Attempt to Trace Such Illusions to their Physical Causes 1825 Various Hill, John Arthur (1872-1951) Man is a Spirit: A Collection of Spontaneous Cases of Dream, Vision and Ecstasy 1918 Various New Evidences in Psychical Research: A Record of Investigations, with Selected Examples of Recent S.P.R. Results 1911 Various Psychical Investigations: Some Personally Observed Proofs of Survival 1917 Various Psychical Miscellanea: Being Papers on Psychical Research, Telepathy, Hypnotism, Christian Science, etc. 1920 Various Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine 1919 Various Holt, Henry (1840-1926) On the Cosmic Relations, Vol. 1 1914 Various On the Cosmic Relations, Vol. 2 1914 Various The Cosmic Relations and Immortality, Vol. 1 1919 Various The Cosmic Relations and Immortality, Vol. 2 1919 Various Home, D.D. [Daniel Dunglas] (1833-1886) D.D. Home: His Life and Mission 1888 Various Incidents in My Life 1864 Various Incidents in My Life (Second Series) 1872 Various Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism 1877 Various Hookham, Paul 'Raymond': A Rejoinder Questioning the Validity of Certain Evidence and of Sir Oliver Lodge's Conclusions Regarding It 1917 Various Hopkins, Matthew (c.1620-1647) The Discovery of Witches 1647 Kindle Kindle Various Various Houdini, Harry (1874-1926) The Miracle Mongers and Their Methods 1920 Kindle Kindle Various Various Hovey, William Alfred (1841-1906) Mind-Reading and Beyond 1885 Various Hubbard, Henry Seward (1854-?) Beyond 1896 Various Hubbell, Gabriel G. Fact and Fancy in Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Psychical Research 1901 Various Hude, Anna (1858-1934) The Evidence for Communication with the Dead 1913 Various Hudson, Thomson Jay (1834-1903) The Evolution of the Souls and Other Esssays 1906 Various The Law of Psychic Phenomena: A Working Hypothesis for the Systematic Study of Hypnotism, Spiritism, Mental Therapeutics, etc. 1893 Various A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life 1909 Various Hutchinson, Horace Gordon (1859-1932) Dreams and Their Meanings: With Many Accounts of Experiences Sent by Correspondents, and Two Chapters Contributed Mainly from the Journals of the Psychical Research Society on Telepathic and Premonitory Dreams 1901 Various Hyslop, James Hervey (1854-1920) Borderland of Psychical Research 1906 Various Contact with the Other World: The Latest Evidence as to Communication with the Dead 1919 Various Enigmas of Psychical Research 1906 Various Life After Death: Problems of the Future Life and its Nature 1918 Various Psychical Research and Survival 1913 Various Psychical Research and the Resurrection 1908 Various Science and a Future Life 1905 Various Ingalese, Richard (1863-?) Fragments of Truth [with Isabella Ingalese] 1921 Various The History and Power of the Mind 1920 Various James, William (1842-1910) Collected Essays and Reviews 1920 Various The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature 1902 Kindle Kindle Various Various The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy 1897 Kindle Kindle Various Jastrow, Joseph (1863-1944) Fact and Fable in Psychology 1900 Various Johnson, Franklin (1836-1916) The New Psychic Studies in Their Relation to Christian Thought 1887 Various Joire, Paul Martial Joseph (1856-1930) Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena: Their Observation and Experimentaion 1916 Various Kardec, Allan [Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail] (1804-1869) Experimental Spiritism: Book on Mediums; Or, Guide for Mediums and Invocators 1874 Various Spiritualist Philosophy: The Spirits' Book. Containing the Principles of Spiritist Doctrine 1893 Various Kenilworth, Walter Winston Practical Occultism 1921 Various Psychic Control Through Self-Knowledge 1910 Various The Life of the Soul 1911 Various Thoughts on Things Psychic 1911 Various Kilner, Walter John (1847-1920) The Human Atmosphere: Or, the Aura Made Visible by the Aid of Chemical Screens 1911 Various King, John Sumpter (1843-1921) Dawn of the Awakened Mind 1920 Various Kingsford, S.M., Miss Psychical Research for the Plain Man 1920 Various Lang, Andrew (1844-1912) Cock Lane and Common Sense 1894 Kindle Kindle Various Various The Book of Dreams and Ghosts 1897 Kindle Kindle Various Various Leadbeater, Charles Webster (1854-1934) A Textbook of Theosophy 1918 Kindle Kindle Various Various Clairvoyance 1903 Kindle Kindle Various Various Occult Chemistry: Clairvoyant Observations on the Chemical Elements [with A.P. Sinnett] 1919 Kindle Kindle Various The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena 1895 Kindle Kindle Various Various Legge, James (1815-1897) The Shih King [I Ching] 1879 Kindle Kindle Various Various Leo, Alan (1860-1917) Astrology for All 1899 Various The Life and Work of Alan Leo 1919 Various Lodge, Oliver (1851-1940) Raymond, Or Life and Death: With Examples of the Evidence for Survival of Memory and Affection After Death 1916 Various Raymond Revised: A New and Abbreviated Edition of "Raymond, or Life and Death", with an Additional Chapter 1922 Various The Survival of Man: A Study in Unrecognised Human Faculty 1909 Various Maeterlinck, Maurice (1862-1949) The Light Beyond 1917 Various The Unknown Guest 1914 Kindle Kindle Various Various Mahan, Asa (1799-1889) The Phenomena of Spiritualism Scientifically Explained and Exposed 1875 Various Martin, Alfred Wilhelm (1862-1933) Psychic Tendencies of To-day: An Exposition and Critique of New Thought, Christian Science, Spiritualism, Psychical Research (Sir Oliver Lodge) and Modern Materialism in Relation to Immortality 1918 Various Mason, Rufus Osgood (1830-1903) Telepathy and the Subliminal Self: An Account of Recent Investigations Regarding Hypnotism, Automatism, Dreams, Phantasms, and Related Phenomena 1897 Various Mather, Cotton (1663-1728) The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches Lately Executed in New-England ... 1862 Various Various Maudsley, Henry (1835-1918) Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings 1886 Various
Maxwell, Joseph (1858-1938)
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations	1905			Various
Mayo, Herbert (1796-1852)
Popular Superstitions and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of Mesmerism	1852			Various
McCabe, Joseph (1867-1955)
Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud?: The Evidence Given by A.C. Doyle and Others	1920			Various
McComb, Samuel (1864-1938)
The Future Life in the Light of Modern Inquiry	1919			Various
Murphy, Gardner (1895-1979)
Challenge of Psychical Research: A Primer of Parapsychology	1961			Various
Murray, Margaret (1863-1963)
The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology	1921	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Myers, Frederic William Henry (1843-1901)
Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, Vol. 1	1903			Various
Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, Vol. 2	1903			Various
Myers, Gustavus (1872-1942)
Beyond the Borderline of Life	1910			Various
N.C. [Anon.]
Psychometry and Thought-Transference: With Practical Hints and Experiments	1887			Various
Nichols, Thomas Low (1815-1901)
A Biography of the Brothers Davenport: With Some Account of the Physical and Psychical Phenomena Which Have Occurred in Their Presence: In America and Europe	1864			Various
Page, Charles Grafton (1812-1868)
Psychomancy: Spirit-Rappings and Table-Tippings Exposed	1853			Various
Page, Howard L.
The Dual Mind	1909			Various
Paine, Albert Ware (1812-1907)
The New Philosophy	1884			Various
Pascal, Théophile (1860-1909)
Reincarnation: A Study in Human Evolution	1910	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Pitts, John Linwood (1836-1917)
Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands	1886	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Podmore, Frank (1856-1910)
Apparitions and Thought Transference	1894			Various
Mesmerism and Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing	1909			Various
Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism, Vol. 1	1902			Various
Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism, Vol. 2	1902			Various
Studies in Psychical Research	1897			Various
Telepathic Hallucinations: The New View of Ghosts	1909			Various
The Naturalisation of the Supernatural	1908			Various
The Newer Spiritualism	1911			Various
Potter, La Forest (1855-1951)
The Psychology of Health and Happiness	1897			Various
Randall, John Herman (1871-1946)
The New Light on Immortality: Or, the Significance of Psychic Research	1921			Various
Raue, Charles Godlove (1820-1896)
Psychology as a Natural Science Applied to the Solution of Occult Psychic Phenomena	1889			Various
Reichenbach, Karl Freiherr von (1788-1869)
Odic-Magnetic Letters	1869			Various
Physico-physiological Researches on the Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism, in their Relations to Vital Force	1851			Various
Relliméo
An Explanation of Psychic Phenomena: The More Excellent Way	1911			Various
Rhine, J.B. [Joseph Banks] (1895-1980)
Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind	1957			Various
Richardson, John Emmett (1853-1935)
The Spirit of the Work	1915			Various
Richmond, Almon Benson
What I Saw at Cassadaga Lake, 1888: Addendum to a Review in 1887 of the Seybert Commissioners' Report	1889			Various
Rider, Fremont (1885-1962)
Are the Dead Alive?: The Problem of Physical Research that the World's Leading Scientists are Trying to Solve, and the Progress They Have Made	1909			Various
Robbins, Anne Manning
Both Sides of the Veil: A Personal Experience	1909			Various
Past and Present with Mrs Piper	1921			Various
Roberts, Alexander (d. 1620)
A Treatise of Witchcraft	1616	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Roberts, Carl Eric Bechhofer (1894-1949)
The Trial of Mrs. Duncan	1945			Various
Rogers, Edward Coit
A Discussion on the Automatic Powers of the Brain: Being a Defence Against Rev. Charles Beecher's Attack upon the Philosophy of Mysterious Agents, in his Review of "Spiritual Manifestations"	1853			Various
Philosophy of Mysterious Agents, Human and Mundane: Or, the Dynamic Laws and Relations of Man. Embracing the Natural Philosophy of Phenomena Styled "Spiritual Manifestations"	1853			Various
Sage, Michael (1863-1931)
Mrs. Piper and the Society for Psychical Research	1904	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Salverte, Eusebe (1771-1839)
The Occult Sciences: The Philosophy of Magic, Prodigies, and Apparent Miracles, Vol. 1	1847			Various
The Occult Sciences: The Philosophy of Magic, Prodigies, and Apparent Miracles, Vol. 2	1847			Various
Sargent, Epes (1813-1880)
Planchette; Or, the Despair of Science	1869			Various
Savage, Minot Judson (1841-1918)
Can Telepathy Explain?: Results of Psychical Research	1903			Various
Life Beyond Death	1903			Various
Psychics: Facts and Theories	1893			Various
Schmeidler, Gertrude (1912-2009)
ESP and Personality Patterns	1958			Various
Schrenck-Notzing, Albert von (1862-1929)
Phenomena of Materialisation: A Contribution to the Investigation of Mediumistic Teleplastics	1920			Various
Sciens
How to Speak with the Dead: A Practical Handbook	1918			Various
Scot, Reginald (1538?-1599)
The Discoverie of Witchcraft	1886			Various
Sepharial [Walter Gorn Old] (1864-1929)
How to Read the Crystal: Or, Crystal and Seer	1922	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Second Sight: A Study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance	1912	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Seybert Commission
Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism In Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry Seybert	1920	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Shaftesbury, Edmund (1852-1926)
Book of the Psychic Society: A Study of the Fourteen Unseen Powers that Control Human Life: And Containing Immortality, a Scientific Demonstration of Life After Death	1908			Various
Shroff, Jamsetji Dadabhoy
The Immortal Spark: Or, Life Beyond Life	1922			Various
Silberer, Herbert (1882-1922)
Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts	1917			Various	Various
Sinnett, Alfred Percy (1840-1921)
Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky	1886			Various
The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett from the Mahatmas M. & K.H.	1923			Various
The Occult World	1883			Various
The Rationale of Mesmerism	1892			Various
Smith, Uriah (1832-1903)
Modern Spiritualism	1896	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Smith, Walter Whately [Whately Carington] (1892-1947)
A Theory of the Mechanism of Survival: The Fourth Dimension and its Applications	1920			Various
Sowerby, Joseph Henry (1859-?)
Psychic Phenomena in the Light of the Bible	1905			Various
Sprague, Eli Wilmot (1847-?)
A Future Life Demonstrated: Or, Twenty-Seven Years a Public Medium	1908			Various
Spirit Mediumship: Its Various Phases. How Developed and Safely Practiced ...	1912			Various
Stone, Margaret Manson Barbour (1841-?)
A Practical Study of the Soul	1901			Various
Swedenborg, Emanuel (1688-1772)
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence	1764	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom	1850	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels There	1860	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
The Gist of Swedenborg	1920	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Heaven and its Wonders and Hell	1872	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Tanner, Amy Eliza (1877-1964)
Studies in Spiritism	1910			Various
Tauber, Edward S. (1908-1988)
Prelogical Experience: An Inquiry into Dreams and Other Creative Processes	1959			Various
Taylor, John Metcalf (1845-1918)
The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697)	1908	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Thomas, Northcote Whitridge (1868-1936)
Thought Transference: A Critical and Historical Review of the Evidence for Telepathy	1905			Various
Timbs, John (1801-1875)
Signs Before Death: A Record of Strange Apparitions, Remarkable Dreams, etc.	1875			Various
Todd, Thomas Olman
Hydesville: The Story of the Rochester Knockings, Which Proclaimed the Advent of Modern Spiritualism	1905			Various	Various
Tuckett, Ivor Lloyd (1873-1942)
The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made With "Uncommon Sense"	1911			Various
Tuttle, Hudson (1836-1910)
Studies in the Out-lyings Fields of Psychic Science	1889	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Tweedale, Violet (1862-1936)
Ghosts I Have Seen: And Other Psychic Experiences	1919	Kindle	Kindle	Various
Upham, Charles (1802-1875)
Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II	1867			Various	Various
Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather: A Reply	1869	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Various Authors
The Alleged Haunting of B---- House	1899	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Wahletka, Princess (1888-?)
Lifting the Veil: How You Yourself May Acquire Mystic Power and Develop Mind, Body and Spirit	1923			Various
White, Hugh Watt (1870-1940)
Demonism Verified and Analyzed	1922			Various
Whiting, Lilian (1859-1942)
The Adventure Beautiful	1918			Various
Williams, Howard (1837-1931)
The Superstitions of Witchcraft	1865	Kindle	Kindle	Various	Various
Williams, John West (1867-?)
Divine Inspiration: Psychic Research of the Great Beyond	1916			Various
Willson, Beckles (1869-1942)
Occultism and Common Sense	1908	Kindle		Various
Wolstenholme, G.E.W.
Ciba Foundation Symposium on Extrasensory Perception [Ed. with Elaine C.P. Millar]	1956			Various
Worth, Patience [Pearl Curran] (1883-1937)
Hope Trueblood	1918			Various
The Pot Upon the Wheel	1921			Various
The Sorry Tale: A Story of the Time of Christ	1917			Various
Wright, Dudley (1868-1949)
The Epworth Phenomena	1917				Various
Wright, George E.
Practical Views on Psychic Phenomena	1920			Various
The Church and Psychical Research: A Layman's View	1920			Various
Yost, Casper Salathiel (1864-1941)
Patience Worth: A Psychic Mystery	1916			Various

 

[Skarekrow]

[h=1]Psi Arcade[/h]Psychic and Intuitive Arcade!
Test, or practice and build your skills!
Enjoy!

http://www.psiarcade.com/

 

[Skarekrow]

Edison and the Ghost Machine

The great inventor's quest to communicate with the dead



​

"I have been at work for some time building an apparatus to see if it is possible for personalities which have left this earth to communicate with us."​

THOSE ARE THE words of the great inventor Thomas Edison in an interview in the October, 1920 issue of The American Magazine. And in those days, when Edison spoke, people listened. By any measurement, Thomas Edison was a superstar in his time, a brilliant inventor during the height of the Industrial Revolution when man was mastering machine. Called "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (which has since been renamed Edison, New Jersey), he was one of history's most prolific inventors, holding 1,093 U.S. patents. He and his workshop were responsible for the creation or development of many devices that changed the way people lived, including the electric light bulb, the motion picture camera and projector, and the phonograph.
GHOST OF A MACHNINE
But did Edison invent a ghost box – a machine to talk to the dead?
It has long been speculated in paranormal circles that Edison did indeed create such a device, though it must have been somehow lost. No prototypes or schematics have ever been found. So did he build it or not?
Another interview with Edison, published in the same month and year, this time by Scientific American,quotes him as saying, "I have been thinking for some time of a machine or apparatus which could be operated by personalities which have passed on to another existence or sphere." (Emphasis mine.) So in two interviews conducted around the same time we have two very similar quotes, one in which he says that he has been at work "building" the device, and in the other that he has merely been "thinking" about it. Somewhat contradictorily, the Scientific American article says, despite Edison's quote, that "the apparatus which he is reported to be building is still in the experimental stage…" as if there is a prototype.
However, since we have no evidence of such a device having been constructed or even designed by Edison, we have to conclude that it was an idea that never materialized.
Although Edison seems to have gotten ahead of himself with this idea in The American Magazineinterview, it's quite clear that he had a genuine interest in the idea. While the Industrial Revolution was rolling along with a full head of steam, the Western world was also entertaining another movement of a very different sort – the Spiritualist movement. Operating at opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum – the logical, scientific, and mechanical versus the spiritual and ephemeral – the two movements were perhaps counterweights to each other.
FILLING A NEED
So why would Edison the scientist be interested in such a thing? Psychic mediums were all the rage, and they were conducting s̩ances and spewing ectoplasm faster than Harry Houdini could debunk them. Phony mediums notwithstanding, it was becoming increasing popular to think that it might be possible to communicate with the dead. And if it was at all possible, Edison reasoned that it could be accomplished through scientific means Рa device that could do the job that mediums advertised.
"I don't claim that our personalities pass on to another existence or sphere," he told Scientific American. "I don't claim anything because I don't know anything about the subject. For that matter, no human being knows. But I do claim that it is possible to construct an apparatus which will be so delicate that if there are personalities in another existence or sphere who wish to get in touch with us in this existence or sphere, the apparatus will at least give them a better opportunity to express themselves than the tilting tables and raps and ouija boards and mediums and the other crude methods now purported to be the only means of communication."
Edison's was a scientist's approach: If there was a popular need or desire, an invention might be able to fill it. "I believe that if we are to make any real progress in psychic investigation," he said, "we must do it with scientific apparatus and in a scientific manner, just as we do in medicine, electricity, chemistry, and other fields."

WHAT DID EDISON HAVE IN MIND?
Edison revealed very few details about the device he intended to build. We can only speculate that he was either being a cautious businessman who didn't want to say too much about his invention to potential rivals or he didn't really have many concrete ideas. "This apparatus," he told Scientific American, "is in the nature of a valve, so to speak. That is to say, the slightest conceivable effort is made to exert many times its initial power for indicative purposes." He then likened it to the mere turning of a valve that starts a huge steam turbine. In the same way, the barest whisper of effort from a spirit could influence the highly sensitive valve, and that action would be greatly magnified "to give us whatever form of record we desire for the purposes of investigation."
He refused to divulge any more than that, but clearly Edison had in mind a ghost hunting tool. He went on to say that one of his employees who was working on the device recently died and that if the invention worked, "he ought to be the first to use it if he is able to do so."
Again, we have no evidence for the device having been built, yet it is possible that it was constructed and then destroyed along with all the paperwork - perhaps because it didn't work and Edison wanted to avoid embarrassment after his proclamations in the interviews.
NOT LIKE FRANK'S BOX
The machine that Edison describes sounds nothing like today's "ghost boxes," and it is a mistake to assume that devices such as Frank's Box were derived from Edison's work. In fact, Frank Sumption, the inventor of Frank's box, has made no such claim. In 2007, he told Rosemary Ellen Guiley in an interview for TAPS Paramagazine that he was inspired by an article about EVP in Popular Electronicsmagazine. According to Sumption, his device is a simple of method of "supplying 'raw' audio that spirits and other entities can use to form voices." It does so with a specially modified radio that sweeps its tuning across AM, FM, or shortwave bands. "The sweep can be random, linear or even done by hand," Sumption says. The theory is that the spirits piece together words and phrases from these broadcasts to relay messages.
Ghost hunting groups from all over are creating and using their own ghost boxes, called Shack Hacks (because they employ modified Radio Shack portable radios), that work in the same way. (I have one, but have had very little success with it.)
Although some respected researchers, including Guiley, seem convinced of the reality of this phenomenon, the jury is still out, as far as I am concerned, regarding the authenticity of the communication. Although I have heard interesting bits and pieces from ghost boxes, I've yet to experience or hear recordings of ghost box sessions that are unambiguous and thoroughly convincing. Virtually everything that is heard (like many low-grade EVP) is open to interpretation.
EDISON AND LIFE AFTER DEATH
As revealed in these interviews, Edison did not subscribe to conventional notions of life after death. He surmised that life was indestructible and that "our bodies are composed of myriads and myriads of infinitesimal entities, each in itself a unit of life." Moreover, he saw the interconnectedness of all living things: "There are many indications that we human beings act as a community or ensemble rather than as units. That is why I believe that each of us comprises millions upon millions of entities, and that our body and our mind represent the vote or voice, whichever you wish to call it, of our entities.... The entities live forever.... Death is simply the departure of the entities from our body."
"I do hope that our personality survives," Edison said. "If it does, then my apparatus ought to be of some use. That is why I am now at work on the most sensitive apparatus I have ever undertaken to build, and I await the results with the keenest interest."
Considering the remarkable track record of this incredible mind, we can only wonder how the world would be different had Edison succeeded.




​

​

 

[Skarekrow]

PART ONE - This is a bit long, but well worth the read...it could possibly be the most amazing discovery made in the modern age!
Enjoy!!

[h=3]Conscious Events as Orchestrated Space-Time Selections[/h]Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose [h=5]ABSTRACT[/h]What is consciousness? Some philosophers have contended that "qualia," or an experiential medium from which consciousness is derived, exists as a fundamental component of reality. Whitehead, for example, described the universe as being comprised of "occasions of experience." To examine this possibility scientifically, the very nature of physical reality must be re-examined. We must come to terms with the physics of space-time--as is described by Einstein's general theory of relativity--and its relation to the fundamental theory of matter--as described by quantum theory. This leads us to employ a new physics of objective reduction: " OR" which appeals to a form of quantum gravity to provide a useful description of fundamental processes at the quantum/classical borderline (Penrose, 1994; 1996). Within the OR scheme, we consider that consciousness occurs if an appropriately organized system is able to develop and maintain quantum coherent superposition until a specific "objective" criterion (a threshold related to quantum gravity) is reached; the coherent system then self-reduces (objective reduction: OR). We contend that this type of objective self-collapse introduces non-computability, an essential feature of consciousness. OR is taken as an instantaneous event--the climax of a self-organizing process in fundamental space-time--and a candidate for a conscious Whitehead "occasion" of experience. How could an ORprocess occur in the brain, be coupled to neural activities, and account for other features of consciousness? We nominate an OR process with the requisite characteristics to be occurring in cytoskeletal microtubules within the brain's neurons (Penrose and Hameroff, 1995; Hameroff and Penrose, 1995; 1996).In this model, quantum-superposed states develop in microtubule subunit proteins ("tubulins"), remain coherent and recruit more superposed tubulins until a mass-time-energy threshold (related to quantum gravity) is reached. At that point, self-collapse, or objective reduction (OR) abruptly occurs. We equate the pre-reduction, coherent superposition ("quantum computing") phase with pre-conscious processes, and each instantaneous (and non-computable) OR, or self-collapse, with a discrete conscious event. Sequences of OR events give rise to a "stream" of consciousness. Microtubule-associated-proteins can "tune" the quantum oscillations of the coherent superposed states; the OR is thus self-organized, or "orchestrated" ("Orch OR"). Each Orch OR event selects (non-computably) microtubule subunit states which regulate synaptic/neural functions using classical signaling. The quantum gravity threshold for self-collapse is relevant to consciousness, according to our arguments, because macroscopic superposed quantum states each have their own space-time geometries (Penrose, 1994; 1996). These geometries are also superposed, and in some way "separated," but when sufficiently separated, the superposition of space-time geometries becomes significantly unstable, and reduce to a single universe state. Quantum gravity determines the limits of the instability; we contend that the actual choice of state made by Nature is non-computable. Thus each Orch ORevent is a self-selection of space-time geometry, coupled to the brain through microtubules and other biomolecules. If conscious experience is intimately connected with the very physics underlying space-time structure, then Orch OR in microtubules indeed provides us with a completely new and uniquely promising perspective on the hard problem of consciousness. [h=5]Introduction: Self-Selection in an Experiential Medium?[/h]The "hard problem" of incorporating the phenomenon of consciousness into a scientific world-view involves finding scientific explanations of qualia, or the subjective experience of mental states (Chalmers, 1995; 1996). On this, reductionist science is still at sea. Why do we have an inner life, and what exactly is it? One set of philosophical positions, addressing the hard problem, views consciousness as a fundamental component of physical reality. For example an extreme view - "panpsychism" - is that consciousness is a quality of all matter: atoms and their subatomic components having elements of consciousness (e.g. Spinoza, 1677; Rensch, 1960). "Mentalists" such as Leibniz and Whitehead (e.g. 1929) contended that systems ordinarily considered to be physical are constructed in some sense from mental entities. Bertrand Russell (1954) described "neutral monism" in which a common underlying entity, neither physical nor mental, gave rise to both. Recently Stubenberg (1996) has claimed that qualia are that common entity. In monistic idealism, matter and mind arise from consciousness - the fundamental constituent of reality (e.g. Goswami, 1993). Wheeler (1990) has suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. From this, Chalmers (1995;1996) proposes a double-aspect theory in which information has both physical and experiential aspects. Among these positions, the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1929; 1933) may be most directly applicable. Whitehead describes the ultimate concrete entities in the cosmos as being actual "occasions of experience," each bearing a quality akin to "feeling." Whitehead construes "experience" broadly - in a manner consistent with panpsychism - so that even "temporal events in the career of an electron have a kind of 'protomentality'." Whitehead's view may be considered to differ from panpsychism, however, in that his discrete 'occasions of experience' can be taken to be related to "quantum events" (Shimony, 1993). In the standard descriptions of quantum mechanics, randomness occurs in the events described as quantum state reductions--these being events which appear to take place when a quantum-level process gets magnified to a macroscopic scale. Quantum state reduction (here denoted by the letter R; cf. Penrose, 1989, 1994) is the random procedure that is adopted by physicists in their descriptions of the quantum measurement process. It is still a highly controversial matter whether Ris to be taken as a "real" physical process, or whether it is some kind of illusion and not to be regarded as a fundamental ingredient of the behavior of Nature. Our position is to take R to be indeed real--or, rather to regard it as a close approximation to an objectively real process OR (objective reduction), which is to be a non-computable process instead of merely a random one (see Penrose 1989; 1994). In almost all physical situations, OR would come about in situations in which the random effects of the environment dominate, so OR would be virtually indistinguishable from the random Rprocedure that is normally adopted by quantum theorists. However, when the quantum system under consideration remains coherent and well isolated from its environment, then it becomes possible for its state to collapse spontaneously, in accordance with the OR scheme we adopt, and to behave in non-computable rather than random ways. Moreover, thisOR scheme intimately involves the geometry of the physical universe at its deepest levels. Our viewpoint is to regard experiential phenomena as also inseparable from the physical universe, and in fact to be deeply connected with the very laws which govern the physical universe. The connection is so deep, however, that we perceive only glimmerings of it in our present day physics. One of these glimmerings, we contend, is a necessary non-computability in conscious thought processes; and we argue that this non-computability must also be inherent in the phenomenon of quantum state self-reduction--the "objective reduction" (OR) referred to above. This is the main thread of argument inShadows of the Mind (Penrose, 1994). The argument that conscious thought, whatever other attributes it may also have, is non-computable (as follows most powerfully from certain deductions from Gödel's incompleteness theorem) grabs hold of one tiny but extremely valuable point. This means that at least some conscious states cannot be derived from previous states by an algorithmic process - a property which distinguishes human and other animal minds from computers. Non-computability per se does not directly address the 'hard problem' of the nature of experience, but it is a clue to the kind of physical activity that lies behind it. This points to OR, an underlying physical action of a completely different character from that which seems to underlie non-conscious activity. Following this clue with sensitivity and patience should ultimately lead to real progress towards understanding mental phenomena in their inward manifestations as well as outward. In the OR description, consciousness occurs if an organized quantum system is able to isolate and sustain coherent superposition until its quantum gravity threshold for space-time separation is met; it then self-reduces (non-computably). For consciousness to occur, self-reduction is essential, as opposed to reduction being triggered by the system's random environment. (In the latter case, the reduction would itself be effectively random and would lack useful non-computability, being unsuitable for direct involvement in consciousness.) We take the self-reduction to be an instantaneous event -- the climax of a self-organizing process fundamental to the structure of space-time - and apparently consistent with a Whitehead "occasion of experience." As OR could, in principle, occur ubiquitously within many types of inanimate media, it may seem to imply a form of 'panpsychism' (in which individual electrons, for example, possess an experiential quality). However according to the principles of OR (as expounded in Penrose 1994; 1996), a single superposed electron would spontaneously reduce its state (assuming it could maintain isolation) only once in a period much longer than the present age of the universe. Only large collections of particles acting coherently in a single macroscopic quantum state could possibly sustain isolation and support coherent superposition in a time frame brief enough to be relevant to our consciousness. Thus only very special circumstances could support consciousness: High degree of coherence of a quantum state - a collective mass of particles in superposition for a time period long enough to reach threshold, and brief enough to be useful in thought processes. Ability for the OR process to be at least transiently isolated from a 'noisy' environment until the spontaneous state reduction takes place. This isolation is required so that reduction is not simply random. Mass movement in the environment which entangles with the quantum state would effect a random (not non-computable) reduction. Cascades of ORs to give a "stream" of consciousness, and huge numbers of OR events taking place during the course of a lifetime. By reaching quantum gravity threshold, each OR event has a fundamental bearing on space-time geometry. One could say that a cascade of OR events charts an actual course of physical space-time geometry selections. It may seem surprising that quantum gravity effects could plausibly have relevance at the physical scales relevant to brain processes. For quantum gravity is normally viewed as having only absurdly tiny influences at ordinary dimensions. However, we shall show later that this is not the case, and the scales determined by basic quantum gravity principles are indeed those that are relevant for conscious brain processes. We must ask how such an OR process could actually occur in the brain. How could it be coupled to neural activities at a high rate of information exchange; how could it account for preconscious to conscious transitions, have spatial and temporal binding, and both simultaniety and time flow? We here nominate an OR process with the requisite characteristics occurring in cytoskeletal microtubules within the brain's neurons. In our model, microtubule-associated proteins "tune" the quantum oscillations leading to OR; we thus term the process "orchestrated objective reduction" (Orch OR). [h=5]Space-Time: Quantum Theory and Einstein's Gravity[/h]Quantum theory describes the extraordinary behavior of the matter and energy which comprise our universe at a fundamental level. At the root of quantum theory is the wave/particle duality of atoms, molecules and their constituent particles. A quantum system such as an atom or sub-atomic particle which remains isolated from its environment behaves as a "wave of possibilities" and exists in a coherent complex-number valued "superposition" of many possible states. The behavior of such wave-like, quantum-level objects can be satisfactorily described in terms of a state vector which evolves deterministically according to the Schrödinger equation (unitary evolution), denoted by U. Somehow, quantum microlevel superpositions lead to unsuperposed stable structures in our macro-world. In a transition known as wave function collapse, or reduction (R), the quantum wave to alternative possibilities reduces to a single macroscopic reality, an "eigenstate" of some appropriate operator. (This would be just one out of many possible alternative eigenstates relevant to the quantum operator.) This process is invokes in the description of a macroscopic measurement, when effects are magnified from the small, quantum scale to the large, classical scale. According to conventional quantum theory (as part of the standard "Copenhagen interpretation"), each choice of eigenstate is entirely random, weighted according to a probability value that can be calculated from the previous state according to the precise procedures of quantum formalism. This probabilistic ingredient was a feature with which Einstein, among others, expressed displeasure: "You believe in a God who plays dice and I in complete law and order"(from a letter to Max Born). Penrose (1989; 1994) has contended that, at a deeper level of description, the choices may more accurately arise as a result of some presently unknown "non-computational" mathematical/physical (i.e., "Platonic realm") theory, that is they cannot be deduced algorithmically. Penrose argues that such non-computability is essential to consciousness, because (at least some) conscious mental activity is unattainable by computers. It can be argued that present-day physics has no clear explanation for the cause and occurrence of wave function collapseR. Experimental and theoretical evidence through the 1930's led quantum phycisists (such as Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, von Neumann and others) to postulate that quantum-coherent superpositions persist indefinitely in time, and would, in principle be maintained from the micro to macro levels. Or perhaps they would persist until conscious observation collapses, or reduces, the wave function (subjective reduction, or "SR"). Accordingly, even macroscopic objects, if unobserved, could remain superposed. To illustrate the apparent absurdity of this notion, Erwin Schrödinger (e.g. 1935) described his now-famous "cat in a box" being simultaneously both dead and alive until the box was opened and the cat observed. As a counter to this unsettling prospect, various new physical schemes for collapse according to objective criteria (objective reduction - "OR") have recently been proposed. According to such a scheme, the growth and persistence of superposed states could reach a critical threshold, at which collapse, or OR rapidly occurs (e.g. Pearle, 1989 ; Ghirardi et al, 1986). Some such schemes are based specifically on gravitational effects mediating OR (e.g.Károlyházy, 1986; Diósi, 1989; Ghirardi et al., 1990; Penrose, 1989;1994; Pearle and Squires, 1994; Percival, 1995).

Table 1 categorizes types of reduction.

Context Cause of Collapse (Reduction) Description Acronym Quantum coherent superposition No collapse Evolution of the wave function (Schrödinger equation) U Conventional quantum theory (Copenhagen interpretation) Environmental entanglement, Measurement, Conscious observation Reduction; Subjective reduction RSR New physics (Penrose, 1994) Self-collapse -quantum gravity induced (Penrose, Diósi, etc) Objective reduction OR Consciousness (present paper) Self-collapse, quantum gravity threshold in microtubules orchestrated by MAPs etc Orchestrated objective reduction Orch OR Table 1 Descriptions of wave function collapse. The physical phenomenon of gravity, described to a high degree of accuracy by Isaac Newton's mathematics in 1687, has played a key role in scientific understanding. However, in 1915, Einstein created a major revolution in our scientific world-view. According to Einstein's theory, gravity plays a unique role in physics for several reasons (cf. Penrose, 1994). Most particularly, these are: Gravity is the only physical quality which influences causal relationships between space-time events. Gravitational force has no local reality, as it can be eliminated by a change in space-time coordinates; instead, gravitational tidal effects provide a curvature for the very space-time in which all other particles and forces are contained. It follows from this that gravity cannot be regarded as some kind of "emergent phenomenon," secondary to other physical effects, but is a "fundamental component" of physical reality. There are strong arguments (e.g. Penrose, 1987; 1995) to suggest that the appropriate union of general relativity (Einstein's theory of gravity) with quantum mechanics - a union often referred to as "quantum gravity" - will lead to a significant change in both quantum theory and general relativity, and, when the correct theory is found, will yield a profoundly new understanding of physical reality. And although gravitational forces between objects are exceedingly weak (feebler than, for example, electrical forces by some 40 orders of magnitude), there are significant reasons for believing that gravity has a fundamental influence on the behavior of quantum systems as they evolve from the micro to the macro levels. The appropriate union of quantum gravity with biology, or at least with advanced biological nervous systems, may yield a profoundly new understanding of consciousness. [h=5]Curved Space-Time Superpositions and Objective Reduction ("OR")[/h]According to modern accepted physical pictures, reality is rooted in 3-dimensional space and a 1-dimensional time, combined together into a 4-dimensional space-time. This space-time is slightly curved, in accordance with Einstein's general theory of relativity, in a way which encodes the gravitational fields of all distributions of mass density. Each mass density effects a space-time curvature, albeit tiny. This is the standard picture according to classical physics. On the other hand, when quantum systems have been considered by physicists, this mass-induced tiny curvature in the structure of space-time has been almost invariably ignored, gravitational effects having been assumed to be totally insignificant for normal problems in which quantum theory is important. Surprising as it may seem, however, such tiny differences in space-time structure can have large effects, for they entail subtle but fundamental influences on the very rules of quantum mechanics. Superposed quantum states for which the respective mass distributions differ significantly from one another will have space-time geometries which correspondingly differ. Thus, according to standard quantum theory, the superposed state would have to involve a quantum superposition of these differing space-times. In the absence of a coherent theory of quantum gravity there is no accepted way of handling such a superposition. Indeed the basic principles of Einstein's general relativity begin to come into profound conflict with those of quantum mechanics (cf. Penrose, 1996). Nevertheless, various tentative procedures have been put forward in attempts to describe such a superposition. Of particular relevance to our present proposals are the suggestions of certain authors (i.e., Karolyhazy, 1996; 1974; Karolyhazy et al., 1986; Kibble, 1991, Diósi, 1989; Ghirardi et al, 1990; Pearle and Squires, 1995; Percival, 1995; Penrose, 1993; 1994; 1996) that it is at this point that an objective quantum state reduction (OR) ought to occur, and the rate or timescale of this process can be calculated from basic quantum gravity considerations. These particular proposals differ in certain detailed respects, and for definiteness we shall follow the specific suggestions made in Penrose (1194; 1996). Accordingly, the quantum superposition of significantly differing space-times is unstable, with a lifetime given by that timescale. Such a superposed state will decay - or "reduce" - into a single universe state, which is one or the other of the space-time geometries involved in that superposition. Whereas such an OR action is not a generally recognized part of the normal quantum-mechanical procedures, there is no plausible or clear-cut alternative that standard quantum theory has to offer. This OR procedure avoids the need for "multiple universes" (cf. Everett, 1957; Wheeler, 1957, for example). There is no agreement, among quantum gravity experts, about how else to address this problem. For the purposes of the present article, it will be assumed that a gravitationally induced OR action is indeed the correct resolution of this fundamental conundrum. Figure 1. Quantum coherent superposition represented as a separation of space-time. In the lowest of the three diagrams, a bifurcating space-time is depicted as the union ("glued together version") of the two alternative space-time histories that are depicted at the top of the Figure. The bifurcating space-time diagram illustrates two alternative mass distributions actually in quantum superposition, whereas the top two diagrams illustrate the two individual alternatives which take part in the superposition (adapted from Penrose, 1994 - p. 338). Figure 1 (adapted from Penrose, 1994, p. 338) schematically illustrates the way in which space-time structure can be affected when two macroscopically different mass distributions take part in a quantum superposition. Each mass distribution gives rise to a separate space-time, the two differing slightly in their curvatures. So long as the two distributions remain in quantum superposition, we must consider that the two space-times remain in superposition. Since, according to the principles of general relativity, there is no natural way to identify the points of one space-time with corresponding points of the other, we have to consider the two as separated from one another in some sense, resulting in a kind of "blister" where the space-time bifurcates. A bifurcating space-time is depicted in the lowest of the three diagrams, this being the union ("glued together version") of the two alternative space-time histories that are depicted at the top of Figure 1. The initial part of each space-time is at the lower end of each individual space-time diagram. The bottom space-time diagram (the bifurcating one) illustrates two alternative mass distributions actually in quantum superposition, whereas the top two illustrate the two individual alternatives which take part in the superposition. The combined space-time describes a superposition in which the alternative locations of a mass move gradually away from each other as we proceed in the upward direction in the diagram. Quantum- mechanically (so long as OR has not taken place), we must think of the "physical reality" of this situation as being illustrated as an actual superposition of these two slightly differing space-time manifolds, as indicated in the bottom diagram. As soon as OR has occurred, one of the two individual space-times takes over, as depicted as one of the two sheets of the bifurcation. For clarity only, the bifurcating parts of these two sheets are illustrated as being one convex and the other concave. Of course there is additional artistic license involved in drawing the space-time sheets as 2-dimensional, whereas the actual space-time constituents are 4-dimensional. Moreover, there is no significance to be attached to the imagined "3-dimensional space" within which the space-time sheets seem to be residing. There is no "actual" higher dimensional space there, the "intrinsic geometry" of the bifurcating space-time being all that has physical significance. When the "separation" of the two space-time sheets reaches a critical amount, one of the two sheets "dies" - in accordance with the OR criterion - the other being the one that persists in physical reality. The quantum state thus reduces (OR), by choosing between either the "concave" or "convex" space-time of Figure 1. It should be made clear that this measure of separation is only very schematically illustrated as the "distance" between the two sheets in the lower diagram in Figure 1. As remarked above, there is no physically existing "ambient higher dimensional space" inside which the two sheets reside. The degree of separation between the space-time sheets is a more abstract mathematical thing; it would be more appropriately described in terms of a symplectic measure on the space of 4-dimensional metrics (cf. Penrose, 1993) - but the details (and difficulties) of this will not be important for us here. It may be noted, however, that this separation is a space-time separation, not just a spatial one. Thus the time of separation contributes as well as the spatial displacement. Roughly speaking, it is the product of the temporal separation T with the spatial separation S that measures the overall degree of separation, and OR takes place when this overall separation reaches the critical amount. [This critical amount would be of the order of unity, in absolute units, for which the Planck-Dirac constant h (actually "hbar": Planck's constant over 2pi), the gravitational constant G, and the velocity of light c, all take the value unity, cf. Penrose, 1994 - pp. 337-339.] Thus for small S, the lifetime T of the superposed state will be large; on the other hand, if S is large, then T will be small. To calculate S, we compute (in the Newtonian limit of weak gravitational fields) the gravitational self-energy E of the difference between the mass distributions of the two superposed states. (That is, one mass distribution counts positively and the other, negatively; see Penrose, 1994; 1995.) The quantityS is then given by: S = EThus E = h / TSchematically, since S represents three dimensions of displacement rather than the one dimension involved in T, we can imagine that this displacement is shared equally between each of these three dimensions of space - and this is what has been depicted in Figure 3 (below). However, it should be emphasized that this is for pictorial purposes only, the appropriate rule being the one given above. These 2 equations relate the mass distribution, time of coherence, and space-time separation for a given OR event. If, as some philosophers contend, experience is contained in space-time, OR events areself-organizing processes in that experiential medium, and a candidate for consciousness. But where in the brain, and how, could coherent superposition and OR occur? A number of sites and various types of quantum interactions have been proposed. We strongly favor microtubules as an important ingredient, however various organelles and biomolecular structures including clathrins, myelin (glial cells), pre-synaptic vesicular grids (Beck and Eccles, 1992) and neural membrane proteins (Marshall, 1989) might also participate. [h=5][/h]

 

[Skarekrow]

PART TWO


[h=5]Microtubules[/h]Properties of brain structures suitable for quantum coherent superposition, OR and relevant to consciousness might include: 1) high prevalence; 2) functional importance (for example regulating neural connectivity and synaptic function); 3) periodic, crystal-like lattice dipole structure with long range order; 4) ability to be transiently isolated from external interaction/observation; 5) functionally coupled to quantum-level events; 6) hollow, cylindrical (possible wave guide); and 7) suitable for information processing. Membranes, membrane proteins, synapses, DNA and other types of structures have some, but not all, of these characteristics. Cytoskeletal microtubules appear to qualify in all respect..

Figure 2. Schematic of central region of neuron (distal axon and dendrites not shown), showing parallel arrayed microtubules interconnected by MAPs. Microtubules in axons are lengthy and continuous, whereas in dendrites they are interrupted and of mixed polarity. Linking proteins connect microtubules to membrane proteins including receptors on dendritic spines.

---

Interiors of living cells, including the brain's neurons, are spatially and dynamically organized by self-assembling protein networks: the cytoskeleton. Within neurons, the cytoskeleton establishes neuronal form, and maintains and regulates synaptic connections. Its major components are microtubules, hollow cylindrical polymers of individual proteins known as tubulin. Microtubules ("MTs") are interconnected by linking proteins (microtubule-associated proteins: "MAPs") to other microtubules and cell structures to form cytoskeletal lattice networks (Figure 2).

Figure 3. Microtubule structure: a hollow tube of 25 nanometers diameter, consisting of 13 columns of tubulin dimers. Each tubulin molecule is capable of (at least) two conformations. (Reprinted with permission from Penrose, 1994, p. 359.)

Figure 4. Top: Two states of tubulin in which a single quantum event (electron localization) within a central hydrophobic pocket is coupled to a global protein conformation. Switching between the two states can occur on the order of nanoseconds to picoseconds. Bottom: Tubulin in quantum coherent superposition of both states.

---

MTs are hollow cylinders 25 nanometers (nm) in diameter whose lengths vary and may be quite long within some nerve axons. MT cylinder walls are comprised of 13 longitudinal protofilaments which are each a series of subunit proteins known as tubulin (Figure 3). Each tubulin subunit is a polar, 8 nm dimer which consists of two slightly different 4 nm monomers (alpha and beta tubulin - Figure 4). Tubulin dimers are dipoles, with surplus negative charges localized toward monomers (DeBrabander, 1982), and within MTs are arranged in a hexagonal lattice which is slightly twisted, resulting in helical pathways which repeat every 3, 5, 8 and other numbers of rows. Traditionally viewed as the cell's "bone-like" scaffolding, microtubules and other cytoskeletal structures also appear to fill communicative and information processing roles. Numerous types of studies link the cytoskeleton to cognitive processes (for review, cf. Hameroff and Penrose, 1996). Theoretical models and simulations suggest how conformational states of tubulins within microtubule lattices can interact with neighboring tubulins to represent, propagate and process information as in molecular-level "cellular automata," or "spin glass" type computing systems (Figure 5; e.g. Hameroff and Watt, 1982; Rasmussen et al, 1990; Tuszynski et al, 1995).

Figure 5. Microtubule automaton simulation (from Rasmussen et al, 1990). Black and white tubulins correspond to states shown in Figure 2. Eight nanosecond time steps of a segment of one microtubule are shown in "classical computing" mode in which patterns move, evolve, interact and lead to emergence of new patterns.

---

In Hameroff and Penrose (1996; and in summary form, Penrose and Hameroff, 1995), we present a model linking microtubules to consciousness, using quantum theory as viewed in the particular "realistic" way that is described inShadows of the Mind (Penrose, 1994).

Figure 6. Microtubule automaton sequence simulation in which classical computing (step 1) leads to emergence of quantum coherent superposition (steps 2-6) in certain (gray) tubulins due to pattern resonance. Step 6 (in coherence with other microtubule tubulins) meets critical threshold related to quantum gravity for self-collapse (Orch OR). Consciousness (Orch OR) occurs in the step 6 to 7 transition. Step 7 represents the eigenstate of mass distribution of the collapse which evolves by classical computing automata to regulate neural function. Quantum coherence begins to re-emerge in step 8.

Figure 7. Schematic graph of proposed quantum coherence (number of tubulins) emerging vs time in microtubules. 500 milliseconds is time for pre-conscious processing (e.g. Libet, 1979). Area under curve connects mass-energy differences with collapse time in accordance with gravitational OR. This degree of coherent superposition of differing space-time geometries leads to abrupt quantum classical reduction ("self-collapse" or "orchestrated objective reduction: Orch OR").

Figure 8. Quantum coherence in microtubules schematically graphed on longer time scale for 5 different states related to consciousness. Area under each curve equivalent in all cases. A. Normal experience: as in Figure 8. B. Anesthesia: anesthetics bind in hydrophobic pockets and prevent quantum delocalizability and coherent superposition (e.g. Louria and Hameroff, 1996). C. Heightened Experience: increased sensory experience input (for example) increases rate of emergence of quantum coherent superposition. Orch Or threshold is reached faster (e.g. 250 msec) and Orch Or frequency is doubled. D. Altered State: even greater rate of emergence of quantum coherence due to sensory input and other factors promoting quantum state (e.g. meditation, psychedelic drug etc.). Predisposition to quantum state results in baseline shift and only partial collapse so that conscious experience merges with normally sub-conscious quantum computing mode. E. Dreaming: prolonged quantum coherence time.

Figure 9. Quantum coherence in microtubules. Having emerged from resonance in classical automaton patterns, quantum coherence non-locally links superpositioned tubulins (gray) within and among microtubules. Upper microtubule: cutaway view shows coherent photons generated by quantum ordering of water on tubulin surfaces, propagating in microtubule waveguide. MAP (microtubule-associated-protein) attachments breach isolation and prevent quantum coherence; MAP attachment sites thus act as "nodes" which tune and orchestrate quantum oscillations and set possibilities and probabilities for collapse outcomes ("orchestrated objective reduction: Orch OR").
In our model, quantum coherence emerges, and is isolated, in brain microtubules until the differences in mass-energy distribution among superposed tubulin states reach the threshold of instability described above, related to quantum gravity (Figure 6). The resultant self-collapse (OR), considered to be a time-irreversible process, creates an instantaneous "now" event. Sequences of such events create a flow of time, and consciousness (Figures 7 and 8).
We envisage that attachments of MAPs on microtubules "tune" quantum oscillations, and "orchestrate" possible collapse outcomes (Figure 9). Thus we term the particular self-organizing OR occurring in MAP-connected microtubules, and relevant to consciousness, orchestrated objective reduction ("Orch OR"). Orch OR events are thus self-selecting processes in fundamental space-time geometry. If experience is truly a component of fundamental space-time, Orch OR may begin to explain the "hard problem" of consciousness.
[h=5]Summary of the Orch OR Model for Consciousness[/h]The full details of this model are given in Hameroff and Penrose (1996). The picture we are putting forth involves the following ingredients:

1. Aspects of quantum theory (e.g. quantum coherence) and of the suggested physical phenomenon of quantum wave function "self-collapse" (objective reduction: OR - Penrose, 1994; 1996) are essential for consciousness, and occur in cytoskeletal microtubules (MTs) and other structures within each of the brain's neurons.
2. Conformational states of MT subunits (tubulins) are coupled to internal quantum events, and cooperatively interact with other tubulins in both classical and quantum computation (Hameroff et al, 1992; Rasmussen et al, 1990 - Figures 4, 5 and 6).
3. Quantum coherence occurs among tubulins in MTs, pumped by thermal and biochemical energies (perhaps in the manner proposed by Frohlich, 1968; 1970; 1975). Evidence for coherent excitations in proteins has recently been reported by Vos et al (1993).

It is also considered that water at MT surfaces is "ordered," dynamically coupled to the protein surface. Water ordering within the hollow MT core (acting like a quantum wave guide) may result in quantum coherent photons (as suggested by the phenomena of "super-radiance" and "self-induced transparency" - Jibu et al, 1994; 1995). We require that coherence be sustained (protected from environmental interaction) for up to hundreds of milliseconds by isolation a) within hollow MT cores; b) within tubulin hydrophobic pockets; c) by coherently ordered water; d) sol-gel layering (Hameroff and Penrose, 1996). Feasibility of quantum coherence in the seemingly noisy, chaotic cell environment is supported by the observation that quantum spins from biochemical radical pairs which become separated retain their correlation in cytoplasm (Walleczek, 1995).
​

1. During pre-conscious processing, quantum coherent superposition/computation occurs in MT tubulins and continues until the mass-distribution difference among the separated states of tubulins reaches a threshold related to quantum gravity. Self-collapse (OR) then occurs (Figures 6 & 7).
2. The OR self-collapse process results in classical "outcome states" of MT tubulins which then implement neurophysiological functions. According tocertain ideas for OR (Penrose, 1994), the outcome states are "non-computable"; that is, they cannot be determined algorithmically from the tubulin states at the beginning of the quantum computation.
3. Possibilities and probabilities for post-OR tubulin states are influenced by factors including initial tubulin states, and attachments of microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) acting as "nodes" which tune and "orchestrate" the quantum oscillations (Figure 9). We thus term the self-tuning OR process in microtubules "orchestrated objective reduction - Orch OR").
4. According to the arguments for OR put forth in Penrose (1994), superposed states each have their own space-time geometries. When the degree of coherent mass-energy difference leads to sufficient separation of space-time geometry, the system must choose and decay (reduce, collapse) to a single universe state. Thus Orch OR involvesself-selections in fundamental space-time geometry (Figures 10 & 11).

Figure 10. Schematic space-time separation illustration of three superposed tubulins. The space-time differences are very tiny in ordinary terms ( 10[SUP]-40[/SUP] nm), but relatively large mass movements (e.g. hundreds of tubulin conformations, each moving from 10[SUP]-6[/SUP] nm to 0.2 nm) indeed have precisely such very tiny effects on the space-time curvature.

Figure 11. Center: Three superposed tubulins (e.g. Figure 4) with corresponding schematic space-time separation illustrations (Figures 1 and 10). Surrounding the superposed tubulins are the eight possible post-reduction "eigenstates" for tubulin conformation, and corresponding space-time geometry.

1. To quantify the Orch OR process, in the case of a pair of roughly equally superposed states, each of which has a reasonably well-defined mass distribution, we calculate the gravitational self-energy E of the difference between these two mass distributions, and then obtain the approximate lifetime T for the superposition to decay into one state or the other by the formula T=h/E. Here h is Planck's constant over 2pi. We call T the coherence time for the superposition (how long coherence is sustained). If we assume a coherence time T= 500 msec (shown by Libet, 1979, and others to be a relevant time for pre-conscious processing), we calculate E, and determine the number of MT tubulins whose coherent superposition for 500 msec will elicit Orch OR. This turns out to be about 10[SUP]9 [/SUP]tubulins.
2. A typical brain neuron has roughly 10[SUP]7[/SUP] tubulins (Yu and Baas, 1994). If, say, 10 percent of tubulins within each neuron are involved in the quantum coherent state, then roughly 10[SUP]3[/SUP] (one thousand) neurons would be required to sustain coherence for 500 msec, at which time the quantum gravity threshold is reached and occurs.
3. Orch OR then 10. We consider each self-organized Orch OR as a single conscious event; cascades of such events would constitute a "stream" of consciousness. If we assume some form of excitatory input (e.g. you are threatened, or enchanted) in which quantum coherence emerges faster, then, for example, 10[SUP]10[/SUP]coherent tubulins could Orch OR after 50 msec (e.g. Figure 8c). Turning to see a bengal tiger in your face might perhaps elicit 10[SUP]11[/SUP] in 5 msec, or more tubulins, faster. A slow emergence of coherence (your forgotten phone bill) may require longer times. A single electron would require more than the age of the universe.
4. Quantum states are non-local (because of quantum entanglement--or "Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen" (EPR) effects), so that the entire non-localized state reduces all at once. This can happen if the mass movement that induces collapse takes place in a small region encompassed by the state, or if it takes place uniformly over a large region. Thus, each instantaneous Orch OR could "bind" various superpositions which may have evolved in separated spatial distributions and over different time scales, but whose net displacement self-energy reaches threshold at a particular moment. Information is bound into an instantaneous event (a "conscious now"). Cascades of Orch ORs could then represent our familiar "stream of consciousness," and create a "forward" flow of time (Aharonov and Vaidman, 1990; Elitzur, 1996; Tollaksen, 1996).

It may be interesting to compare our considerations with subjective viewpoints that have been expressed with regard to the nature of the progression of conscious experience. For example, support for consciousness consisting of sequences of individual, discrete events is found in Buddhism; trained meditators describe distinct "flickerings" in their experience of reality (Tart, 1995). Buddhist texts portray consciousness as "momentary collections of mental phenomena", and as "distinct, unconnected and impermanent moments which perish as soon as they arise." Each conscious moment successively becomes, exists, and disappears - its existence is instantaneous, with no duration in time, as a point has no length. Our normal perceptions, of course, are seemingly continuous, presumably as we perceive "movies" as continuous despite their actual makeup being a series of frames. Some Buddhist writings even quantify the frequency of conscious moments. For example the Sarvaastivaadins (von Rospatt, 1995) described 6,480,000 "moments" in 24 hours (an average of one "moment" per 13.3 msec), and some Chinese Buddhism as one "thought" per 20 msec. These accounts, including variations in frequency, are consistent with our proposed Orch OR events. For example a 13.3 msec pre-conscious interval would correspond with an Orch OR involving 4 x 10[SUP]10[/SUP]coherent tubulins, a 0.13 msec interval would correspond with 4 x 10[SUP]12 [/SUP]coherent tubulins, and a 20 msec interval with 2.5 x 10[SUP]10[/SUP] coherent tubulins. Thus Buddhist "moments of experience," Whitehead "occasions of experience," and our proposed Orch OR events seem to correspond tolerably well with one another..
The Orch OR model thus appears to accommodate some important features of consciousness:

1. control/regulation of neural action
2. pre-conscious to conscious transition
3. non-computability
4. causality
5. binding of various (time scale and spatial) superpositions into instantaneous "now"
6. a "flow" of time
7. a connection to fundamental space-time geometry in which experience may be based.

[h=5]Conclusion: What is it like to be a worm?[/h]The Orch OR model has the implication that an organism able to sustain quantum coherence among, for example, 10[SUP]9[/SUP]tubulins for 500 msec might be capable of having a conscious experience. More tubulins coherent for a briefer period, or fewer for a longer period (E =h/T) will also have conscious events. Human brains appear capable of, for example, 10[SUP]11[/SUP]tubulin, 5 msec "bengal tiger experiences," but what about simpler organisms?
From an evolutionary standpoint, introduction of a dynamically functional cytoskeleton (perhaps symbiotically from spirochetes, e.g. Margulis, 1975) greatly enhanced eukaryotic cells by providing cell movement, internal organization, separation of chromosomes and numerous other functions. As cells became more specialized with extensions like axopods and eventually neural processes, increasingly larger cytoskeletal arrays providing transport and motility may have developed quantum coherence via the Fröhlich mechanism as a by-product of their functional coordination.
Another possible scenario for emergence of quantum coherence leading to Orch OR and conscious events is "cellular vision." Albrecht-Buehler (1992) has observed that single cells utilize their cytoskeletons in "cellular vision" - detection, orientation and directional response to beams of red/infra-red light. Jibu et al (1995) argue that this process requires quantum coherence in microtubules and ordered water, and Hagan (1995) suggests the quantum effects/cellular vision provided an evolutionary advantage for cytoskeletal arrays capable of quantum coherence. For whatever reason quantum coherence emerged, one could then suppose that, one day, an organism achieved sufficient microtubule quantum coherence to elicit Orch OR, and had a "conscious" experience.
At what level of evolutionary development might this primitive consciousness have emerged? A single cell organism likeParamecium is extremely clever, and utilizes its cytoskeleton extensively. Could a paramecium be conscious? Assuming a single paramecium contains, like each neuronal cell, 10[SUP]7[/SUP] tubulins, then for a paramecium to elicit Orch OR, 100% of its tubulins would need to remain in quantum coherent superposition for nearly a minute. This seems unlikely.
Consider the nematode worm C elegans. It's 302 neuron nervous system is completely mapped. Could C elegans supportOrch OR? With 3 x 10[SUP]9[/SUP] tubulins, C elegans would require one third of its tubulins to sustain quantum coherent superposition for 500 msec. This seems unlikely, but not altogether impossible. If not C elegans, then perhaps Aplysia with a thousand neurons, or some higher organism. Orch OR provides a theoretical framework to entertain such possibilities.
Would a primitive Orch OR experience be anything like ours? If C elegans were able to self-collapse, what would it be like to be a worm? (Nagel, 1974) A single, 10[SUP]9[/SUP] tubulin, 500 msec Orch OR in C elegans should be equal in gravitational self-energy (and thus perhaps, experiential intensity) to one of our "everyday experiences." A major difference is that we would have many Orch OR events sequentially (up to, say, 10[SUP]9[/SUP] per second) whereas C elegans could generate, at most, 2 per second. C elegans would also presumably lack extensive memory and associations, and have poor sensory data, but nonetheless, by our criteria a 10[SUP]9[/SUP] tubulin, 500 msec Orch OR in C elegans would be a conscious experience: a mere smudge of known reality, the next space-time move.
Consciousness has an important place in the universe. Orch OR in microtubules is a model depicting consciousness as sequences of non-computable self-selections in fundamental space-time geometry. If experience is a quality of space-time, then Orch OR indeed begins to address the "hard problem" of consciousness in a serious way.
Reprinted from Journal of Consciousness Studies (2)1:36-53, 1996 special issue on the "hard problem" of conscious experience
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Dave Cantrell for artwork and to Carol Ebbecke for technical support.

 

[Skarekrow]

If Qualia Evolved . . .

A. G. Cairns-Smith

If qualia evolved they must belong to the Physical World. Yet current physics and chemistry, which are supposed to describe this world, has no place for them. On the other hand, if qualia evolved we should expect there to be brain machinery devoted to their production-"qualagens"-and a phylogeny of qualia and qualagens to be discovered.
Consciousness defined for present purposes

There is no agreed scientific use of the wordconsciousness,so we have to be clear about which of many legitimate meanings we are using.(The Oxford English Dictionarygives about a dozen). Our choice will no doubt reflect our particular interests, but if we are trying to understand the nature of consciousness we should not choose a definition that will make the problem too easy. In line with Chalmers's advice to face the "hard problem" (Chalmers 1995), we should choose a definition that makes the problem look as difficult as it really is.There is a duplicity in terms such as perception, awareness, thought, intelligence, behavior. We should say that these all refer to attributes which are indeed often and importantly to do with consciousness. But they are not necessarily to do with consciousness. They need the adjective conscious or unconscious to make their meanings clear, since there are unconscious forms of each of them. If we concentrate our attention exclusively on the unconscious forms of perception, awareness, etc., we will indeed be able to keep to the language of science-of molecular biology, computing, or whatever. No one will accuse us of being unscientific. But then we will have avoided the question of what consciousness actually is.
For example we may be tempted to say that "consciousness" just means "awareness." That sounds sensible and pragmatic. Indeed it is one of the meanings to be found in the O.E.D. But then we might go on to say that awareness (of a sort) is exhibited by thermostats and burglar alarms, as well as now highly sophisticated computer based recognition systems; adding perhaps that such forms of machine awareness are getting better and better and sooner or later will come to approach human consciousness. Such a line of argument goes wrong at the first step in failing to distinguish between conscious and unconscious awareness.
Or we may be tempted to equate consciousness with thinking or even with intelligence and use the duplicity of these words to slide away from the real problem. It is reasonable to hope that since thinking, intelligence and consciousness are connected then advances in Artificial Intelligence will help in our understanding of consciousness. And it is part of the traditional strategy of science to go first for those parts of a problem that we have the readiest means to tackle-and seemingly daunting problems sometimes dissolve away if we proceed like this. In support of taking such an attitude to the problem of consciousness one might point, as Dennett does, to the way in which advances in molecular biology have made redundant such earlier ideas as the vital force (Dennett 1991). Indeed vital force was an unreal idea. It was a misunderstanding. But qualia are not like that. Agonizing pain is not a misunderstanding. In discussions of consciousness, feelings and sensations should be on center stage. (Chalmers 1995, Humphrey 1992, Cairns-Smith 1996).
I take the following to be examples of essentially conscious attributes, because they are attributes for which, it seems to me, there are no unconscious equivalent forms:
a feeling
an emotion
a sensation
a mood
These are all qualia, and I define consciousness informally, and for present purposes, in these terms: a state of consciousness is some kind of arrangement or organization of qualia.
Perhaps the most significant thing which qualia have in common is precisely that our current hard sciences of physics, chemistry etc., have no place for them. The purpose of this chapter is to show that qualia should have such a place-and that there is both bad news and good news here. The bad news is that there is something deeply deficient about current physics and chemistry. The good news is that qualia should be accessible to science.
Our two selves

There is a natural dualism in the distinction between the known and the unknown. For example there is a distinction between what as scientists we think we understand in principle about the mind, and what we do not understand at all. Such frontiers are forever changing, the dualism I speak of is strictly provisional, but at the moment it lies neatly between the unconscious and conscious parts of our mind.
We now realize that most of what we do is unconscious (Baars 1988). It is this part of our mind, what we might call our Greater Self, that we can in principle understand in terms of nerve cells and circuitry. To say that our Greater Self is a big unconscious control computer is not so far off. The other part of our mind comes and goes: the Evanescent Self, as we might call it, the conscious mind, the bit that is made of qualia, the bit that switches on every morning.
It often looks as if the brain makes qualia as some kind of add-on activity-because it is conscious only sometimes and to different extents: and because at different moments it may be more or less conscious, and in different ways. An example of this kind of thing is in the acquisition of a skill, where the unconscious systems increasingly predominate. Ask yourself how one rides a bicycle: how for example one can ride a bicycle slowly without falling sideways. There is evidently much manipulation of the handle bars needed, but if you ask most people who can ride bicycles which way they should turn them to stop falling, say, to the left they will probably suggest that you should turn the handle bars to the right. Consciously they seem not to know that this will quickly tip them over. Fortunately their unconscious Greater Self knows the correct answer to the question ( or anyway it knows what to do.
Functional brain imaging has revealed distinctive alterations in locations and patterns of brain activity during learning tasks (Posner and Raichle 1994), and both Milner (1998) and Goodale (1998) have given us examples of cases where the brain seems to have distinct pathways for conscious and unconscious forms of the same sort of activity. It seems clear now that when a mental activity is qualia laden (highly conscious) or qualia free (unconscious) the brain is operating somewhat differently.
Yet this now-you-have-it-now-you-don't aspect of our consciousness, together with the now well known delays in conscious perceptions and conscious actions, has helped to give an impression that our consciousness does not actually do anything. No doubt consciousness is less intricately involved in our actions that we might like to imagine, but an argument to the contrary-that "feelings are causes"-was put more that a hundred years ago. It is an argument with devastating implications. Not nearly enough attention has been paid to it (Glynn 1993).
The evolutionary argument

A tale of two thinkers

The O.E.D. gives, as one of its examples of uses of the term consciousness, a paragraph written by Thomas Huxley in 1866:

We class sensations along with emotions, and volitions, and thoughts, under the common head of states of consciousness. But what consciousness is, we know not; and how it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djin when Aladdin rubbed his lamp, or any other ultimate fact of nature.
​

It seems a reasonable facing of facts, but then in 1874 he expressed a more positive but, to my mind, more dubious view:

. . . it follows that our mental conditions are simply the symbols in consciousness of the changes which take place automatically in the organism; and that to take an extreme illustration, the feeling we call volition is not the cause of a voluntary act, but the symbol of that state of the brain which is the immediate cause of that act. We are conscious automata. (Huxley 1874)
​

William James would have none of it. In addressing the "automaton" issue he gives a robust defence of the efficacy of feelings:

. . . common-sense, though the intimate nature of causality and of the connection of things in the universe lies beyond her pitifully bounded horizon, has the root and gist of the truth in her hands when she obstinately holds to it that feelings and ideas are causes. (James 1890)
​

And this was not just oratorical eloquence. By 1878 James had found a wonderful argument for the efficacy of feelings based, paradoxically, on the very idea that Huxley had done so much to promote: Darwin's idea of evolution though natural selection (Glynn 1993, Richards 1987).
In terms of more current language the argument can be put like this. Feelings such as hunger and lust seem so obviously adaptive, "designed" for survival and reproduction, that we can suppose that they evolved. In that case they are effects of genes, effects of DNA molecules, that is, physico-chemical effects. On the other hand feelings such as these have physico-chemical consequences too, in the adaptive activities which they encourage. This cannot be make-believe. In the warnings and encouragements of pain and pleasure it is the feeling that is effective, the feeling itself. If it were only the "neural correlates" of feelings that influenced behavior, not the feelings themselves, then there would be no selective advantage in actually feeling anything. And even if we did have feelings as some kind of accidental side effect there would be no reason to expect them to be appropriate. What would it matter what feelings we had if they could have no effects? The appropriateness of qualia, their whole evolution, would be a mystery.
There seems to be no way round it: if they evolved, qualia must have both physico-chemical causes and physico-chemical effects-and thus good enough entrance qualifications to be admitted to The Physical World.
The bomb in the basement


This, then, is bomb in the foundations of science: that qualia must belong to the physical world while at the same time physics and chemistry, which supposedly can in principle give us a complete account of this world, have no place for them. We might say that Descartes carelessly left the bomb when he divided the great problem of the Universe into the problem of mind and the problem of matter and gave only matter to science. ("Descartes' error," Damasio [1994] calls it.) It is a bomb that Darwin inadvertently set ticking; and then William James exposed for all to see-but failed to defuse. And it is a bomb that twentieth-century science did its best to bury again. These Tucson meetings have re-exposed the bomb. It is still ticking.It is not that the hard sciences cannot deal with qualia: that might be of no consequence. Science has no pretensions to explain everything. What is so devastating about the qualia Bomb is that scienceought to be able to deal with qualia. They are part of the physical world, because they evolved; and they are part of the machinery of our behavior, along with ion pumps, action potentials, reflexes and so on. A hundred years ago there was a similar situation in physics. The way in which the colors of glowing coals changed with temperature clearly should have been understandable in physical terms and yet it was to need a revolution in physics for such an understanding to come about. Now it is such things as the sensations of color that are demanding to be let into the Society of Material Things-alongside heredity, and so much else in biology that can now be explained in terms of physics and chemistry and the theory of evolution.
So it is our matter theory that is set to change. Nothing new here, we might say. Think how our ideas of matter have shifted since Greek times. About 420 BC Democritus had a Theory of Everything. There were only Atoms, Motion and Void. The persistence of the Universe depended on the durability of the atoms while the variability of the Universe was to be explained because the atoms could be arranged in different patterns. It was a wonderful idea due to reach a mathematical perfection in the nineteenth-century kinetic theory of gases. But it was not rich enough to explain everything about the material world. Newton was to add forces operating across space and suggested that such would be important in holding the smallest parts of materials together: "Have not the small particles of bodies certain powers, virtues, or forces by which they act at a distance . . ." (1730/1979); Faraday and Maxwell were to see fields to be as real as atoms (1844); Planck and then Einstein would upset the whole idea of material substance: quantum energy became the ultimate stuff whose ultimate grain was action. And then, with Heisenberg, atoms had ceased to be things at all (1959).
The fabrics of the world


The fabrics of what we may call ordinary matter are ways of arranging the quantum energyviaelectrons, neutrons and protons to make atoms and molecules; and then higher assemblages of these things: gases, liquids and solids, often with distinctive properties-transmitting or absorbing light, conducting electricity or not, being hard or soft, and so on and on. Then there are more complicated fabrics, such as flames or whirlpools, maintained in flows of matter and energy. And then there is living matter with its layers of complex organization now becoming increasingly well understood in terms of molecular biology, in terms of atoms and molecules and the flow of energy. All these fabrics are more or less "made of atoms."But there are other fabrics woven differently from the quantum energy, light for example. A laser beam is produced by and interacts with molecular matter but a laser beam is not made of atoms and molecules. Light is a different way of arranging the quantum energy.
So here is a tentative minimal conjecture: feelings and sensations are yet another way of arranging the quantum energy. Like light they are produced by and interact with molecular matter-although so far only in brains.
Hunting the qualagens

We are supposing that the brainmakesqualia: and also, as part of the unconscious activity of Greater Self, the brain arranges its qualia too, to make the ever changing fabrics of our conscious minds.To the extent that a state of consciousness is "an organization of qualia," we can claim to be some way along the road to understanding in physical terms what a state of consciousness is: we know quite a lot about the crucial "organization" part of the prescription, about brain pathways and switch-gear for qualia production and control. For example we know quite a lot about what has to happen for pain to be felt, how and why it is wired up the way it is. But how such sensations themselves are made, still eludes us. This may be partly because the mechanisms have not been consistently looked for, in a belief that qualia are irrelevant and/or hopelessly "non physical" concomitants of normal brain activity. But the evolutionary argument shows that qualia are indeed physico-chemical-at least in the sense of having a place in some future physics and chemistry-and if indeed qualia evolved, then there must be machinery that produce these effects in the brain. Let us call such things "qualagens." The odds are that, like most biological machinery, the qualagens are at root molecular, with protein molecules as key components. I am inclined to agree with those who think that feelings and sensations are large scale effects arising from vast numbers of microscopic processes, and that these are macroquantum effects of some sort (Cairns-Smith 1996, Marshall 1989, Lockwood 1989, Penrose 1994, Jibu and Yasue 1995, Yasue 1998).
Maybe there are special proteins and hence genes out of which the qualagens are made. Alternatively qualagenesis might be a combined effect of activities of not only many, but of many kinds of protein molecules that also have other functions; so that one might only be able to say of some brain protein that "when this bit of this molecule wobbles it contributes to making such and such a quale." So perhaps the qualagens are difficult to find because the key proteins are not only widely spread, but have other more obvious functions, as in the Hameroff and Penrose microtubule conjecture (Penrose 1994).
Phylogeny of qualia

On can roughly sequence qualia according to whether they are more particularly to do with conscious perception, conscious thought, or conscious action.raw perceptual sensations color sensations, smells . . .
interpretative feelings of space, motion, recognition . . .
intellectual feelings feelings of doubt, of certainty . . .
coercive feelings and sensations hunger, fear, pleasures, pains, itches . . .
volitional feelings and sensations curiosity, urges, desires . . .
And then, outside this scheme there are what we might lump together as background qualia: moods, attitudes . . .
Which kinds of feelings and sensations came first? Presumably they would have evolved originally on the back of wholly unconscious nervous systems. To judge from the way new functions usually catch on in evolution, the first step would have been an accidental side effect, a preadaptation with some marginal usefulness. But on the face of it sending neuro-electrochemical signals and making qualia are distinctly different activities, and so it is unlikely that exactly the same equipment would be ideal for each. In that case the first quale having caught on, we would then expect natural selection to have honed increasingly sophisticated devices that became increasingly dedicated to the production of this new class of effect.
We might guess that, to have caught on, the first kinds of qualia must have been both "raw" and "coercive" at the same time, making a direct connection between a simple perception and a simple action. Physical pleasures and pains can be like this. They are nice or nasty in themselves. Smells and tastes are very often like this too, and like pleasure and pain, associated particularly with the brain's more ancient limbic regions.
The in-between qualia of complex perception are presumably more recent-and more neocortical than limbic. Most of our perceptual sensations are not particularly nice or nasty in themselves: patches of color or texture, forms, motions, etc., need interpretation and only begin to push us into action at a high level of recognition-of an apple or a tiger. We often look before we leap.
More remote still would be where we have to think too, perhaps for days, in preparation for action. Then my scheme begins to look a bit too simple, because perhaps part of what keeps us thinking consciously is a coercive emotion, a desire to think it out: "a passion for reason" Demasio calls it (1994). Then we would have to say that coercive qualia are part of conscious thought too-conscious drives, not to immediate action in this case, but to more thinking.
Presumably the qualia of conscious thought are among the most recent. But perhaps we can still see connections in the words we use. Our language often makes connections between abstract thought and bodily sensations. We feel that an idea is wrong; we feel uneasy about it: we weigh up alternatives as if judging them by muscle feel: we like the sound of an idea, or find it distasteful. . . . Again and again we use qualia-words. So perhaps the qualia of contemplation did indeed evolve from more immediate and primitive forms, through successive modifications of qualagenic genes and proteins in Nature's usual branching style. If that is the case there is a tree to be found: a phylogeny of qualia and qualagens.
References

Baars, B. J. 1988. A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cairns-Smith, A. G. 1996. Evolving the Mind: on the nature of matter and the origin of consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chalmers, D. J. 1995. The puzzles of conscious experience.In Scientific American 273:62-68; 1996.
Chalmers, D. J. 1996. The Conscious Mind: in search of a fundamental theory New York: Oxford University Press.
Damasio, A. R. 1994. Descartes' Error: emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Avon.
Dennett, D. C. 1991. Consciousness Explained. Harmondsworth: Penguin, p. 25.
Faraday, M. 1844. Matter. London: Library of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Glynn, I. M. 1993. The evolution of consciousness: William James's unresolved problem. In Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 68:599-616.
Goodale, M. 1998. Unconscious visual processing for action: evidence from normal observers. Abstract no. 140, Consciousness Research Abstracts: Toward a science of consciousness: "Tucson III," p. 81.
Heisenberg, W. 1959. Physics and Philosophy: the revolution in modern science. London: Allen & Unwin, chapter 10.
Humphrey, N. 1992. A History of the Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Huxley, T. 1874. On the hypothesis that animals are automata and its history. In Fortnightly Review 22:555-589.
James, W. 1890/1983. The Principles of Psychology. New York: Holt 1890. Reprinted Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1983., p. 140.
Jibu, M., and K. Yasue. 1995. Quantum Brain Dynamics and Consciousness: an introduction.
Lockwood, M. 1989. Mind, Brain and the Quantum: the compound "I." Oxford: Blackwell, chapter 14.
Marshall, I. N. 1989. Consciousness and Bose-Einstein condensates. In New Ideas in Psychology 7:73-83.
Milner, D. 1998. Unconscious visual processing for action: neurophysiological evidence. Abstract no. 135, Consciousness Research Abstracts: Toward a science of consciousness: "Tucson III," p. 80.
Newton, I. 1730/1979. Opticks. (4th edition) Quest. 31. London 1730. Reprinted New York 1979: Dover, pp. 375-406.
Penrose, R. 1994. Shadows of the Mind: a search for the missing science of consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ch 7.
Posner, M. I., and M. E. Raichle. 1994. Images of Mind. New York: W. H. Freeman, pp. 125-129.
Richards, R. J. 1987. Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary theories of mind and behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Yasue, K. 1998. Physics approaches to consciousness. Abstract no. 289, Consciousness Research Abstracts: Towards as science of consciousness: "Tucson III," p. 131.

 

[Skarekrow]

The Theory: The Copenhagen Interpretation

​

The Crazy Part: The part where the furniture in your house behaves differently when you're not around.What It Says: Besides sounding like the subtitle of The Da Vinci Code II, The Copenhagen Interpretation is probably the most widely accepted explanation for the observations made through quantum mechanics. It came about in part to explain the infamous “Double Slit Experiment,” which is the one your physics professor probably made you do. The Double Slit Experiment shows that an electron, fired at a wall with two slits in it, will sometimes go through sometimes go through one, sometimes through the other, and sometimes it will go through both slits simultaneously (meaning, a single thing will be in two places at once). In short, it goes batshit fucking insane. The twist is, if you try and observe the electron at the moment it passes through the slits—you know, to figure out what the hell is wrong with it—the electron goes back to behaving like a normal electron, and innocently shoots through one of the slits while giving you, and reality, the finger. The details of why this happens are sort of technical, but this simple diagram should explain it:

So What Does This Do For Me? The Copenhagen Interpretation is the result of a lot of smart people trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with these damn electrons. What they came up with is that all particles exist as waves of probability. From the observer’s perspective, there’s only a certain chance that a given electron will go through the left slit or right slit. When you don’t watch, it remains a cloud of probability and sort of does a little of everything. When you watch, the act of observing it somehow causes the cloud to pick a side. So the next time you observe a particle, be warned: they know you’re watching, and as soon as you stop, they’re going to start a party.

Wait, It Gets Worse: If you apply the Copenhagen Interpretation to bigger objects, it gets even weirder. The infamous Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment, the one your physics professor probably got fired for doing, said that if you put a cat in a box and press a button that has a fifty percent chance of filling the box with poison gas, then until you go and look in the box, the cat exists as a cat-cloud which is simultaneously both alive and dead. And there’s more: if everything exists as a probability wave, then that means that technically, anything possible could happen at any time. There’s nothing stopping a big floppy dick from sprouting out of your forehead right now; it’s just highly unlikely. You feel lucky, punk?