From: David Rudiak <drudiak.nul>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 10:39:32 -0800
Fwd Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 13:45:39 -0500
Subject: Re: Magnetism Does Not Cause Paranormal


>From: Stanton Friedman <fsphys.nul>
>To: <ufoupdates.nul>
>Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 09:25:13 -0400
>Subject: Re: Magnetism Does Not Cause Paranormal Experiences

>>From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates.nul>
>>To: <- UFO UpDates Subscribers ->
>>Date: Thursday, December 09, 2004 8:33 AM
>>Subject: UFO UpDate: Magnetism Does Not Cause Paranormal Experiences

>>Source: News-Medical.Net...

>>http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6732

>>12-007-04

>>Magnetism Does Not Cause Paranormal Experiences

>>Previous research has shown that paranormal experiences can be
>>achieved via electromagnetic stimulation of the temple lobe. Now
>>scientists from Uppsala and Lund universities in Sweden are
>>calling into question how the experiments were set up and
>>therefore questioning the results. Their study involving
>>identical magnetic field equipment produced no such
>>relationship.

>Anybody out there speak Swedish? Judging by the abstract, this
>justfiably should make everybody who hasn't already done so
>reject the 'scientific' work of Michael Persinger and bandwagon
>jumping of Susan Blackmore.

>Michael Persinger also drew a nonsensical connection between
>earthquakes and UFO sightings, if they were within hundreds of
>miles and months of each other!

>Sounds like excellent work done by the Swedes.

Persinger's work has always struck me as crackpot stuff. He was
claiming that incredibly weak, fluctuating magnetic fields could
induce all sorts of things, from religious experiences and alien
abduction scenarios to making his laboratory mice drop dead.

In another life I was an experimental scientist involved in
stimulating the brain with magnetic stimulators. In the real
world it is actually quite difficult to stimulate the sensory
brain with these devices. To get even crude sensory responses,
such as flashes of light, we were using magnetic fields and
frequencies that delivered stimuli 10 to 100 million times
greater than what Persinger said he was using to get much more
profound reactions (complex hallucinations).

Persinger was claiming to get results with a firecracker that
other scientists couldn't get with an A-bomb. He was using
fields and frequencies on the order of what the average person
might experience cooking over an electric stovetop, or using an
electric shaver or hair drier. Anybody out there had any
religious experiences or been abducted by aliens while doing any
of these activities?

Thus it comes as no great surprise to me that Persinger's
results cannot be duplicated. The work was always deeply
suspect. But Persinger probably got a free ride because his
highly questionable claims could be marketed as "scientific"
explanations by pseudoscientific skeptics and the mass media and
then used to debunk things like UFOs and alien abductions.


David Rudiak