GENDER DIFFERENCES IN A MAGNETIC FIELD

A Tibetan meditation system of 1882 suggested a way in which self awareness in student monks could be facilitated by using a bar magnet suspended NORTH UP over the crown of the head. This suggestion led to the design, in the present study, of a double-blind test of magnetostatic perception in meditators using a bar magnet oriented either NORTH UP, SOUTH UP, or ABSENT. Effects were evaluated with a questionnaire having five experiential categories, physical, emotional, mental, extrapersonal (parapsychologic), and trans personal. Two weak magnetostatic fields with strengths of 14 gauss (1.4 milliTeslas) and 140 gauss (14 milliTeslas), measured at the crown of the head, were used. Analysis of experiential data collected in three experiments revealed significant and consistent differential patterns of gender-related responses. Experiential subcategories which showed gender by magnetic field interactions included: Experiment I: (1) Physical Energized, 92) Physical Sensory Perturbations; Experiment 2: (1) Physical Energized, (2) Emotional Enegized; Experiment 3: Using a different protocol and analysis procedure, similar results were found. Major contributors to the interaction were: (1) Physical Energized, (2) Physical Body Perturbation, and (3) Physical Passive. The consistency of gender-related differential response patterns in these three investigations raises a question of gender based differential responses to "electromagnetic environmental pollution.

ANOMALOUS ELECTROSTATIC PHENOMENA IN EXCEPTIONAL SUBJECTS

A Tibetan meditation system reported in 1882 suggested a way to facilitate self-awareness by isolating students from electrical ground while they sat beneath a bar magnet and looked at their image in a polished copper wall. The research question: Does an electrostatic charge build up on electrically-isolated meditators? This question was tested with 10 "regular" subjects (typical meditators) and 9 "exceptional" subjects (experienced Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch (NCTT) therapists) in a Copper Wall Lab designed to isolate the subject from ground and also isolate, individually, four surrounding copper walls. front, back, up. and down. For detection of electrostatic potential, the subject's body and the four walls were individually "floated" on single-ended electrometer inputs. A pair of video cameras guarded against body-motion artifact. In 45-minute meditation sessions with the 10 regular meditators. no body-potential surges reached 4 [I. In comparison, in comparable meditation sessions with the NCTT meditators, many bodypotential surges greater than 4 v were found. Surges appearing in the records of NCTT meditators ranged from 4 v to 221 v (median = 8.3 v). with surge duration ranging from 0.5 s to 12.5 s (median = 3.6 s). During NCTT therapy sessions with patients, NCTT therapists produced body-potential surges ranging from 4 v to 190 v. The majority of surges were of negative polarity. Though there is a long tradition of Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch in both folklore and in religion, there are as yet no known psychophysiologic or biophysical explanations for such large-magnitude electrical phenomena, 103 times greater than large psychophysiologic skin-potential (GSP) changes related to emotional responses, 105 larger than EKG voltages, and 106 larger than EEG voltages. Since focus-of-attention by NCTT therapists is often a correlate factor in this anomalous phenomenon, results suggest the presence 0 previously-unmeasured human potential, as well as body potential. Various schemes are discussed for analysis of body-potential surge data, with an eye to determining body mechanisms that might be capable 0 generating electrostatic charge. KEYWORDS: Anomalous, electrostatic, fields, therapeutic touch, "healer," Tibetan, meditatio

ANOMALOUS ELECTROSTATIC PHENOMENA IN EXCEPTIONAL SUBJECTS

A Tibetan meditation system reported in 1882 suggested a way to facilitate self-awareness by isolating students from electrical ground while they sat beneath a bar magnet and looked at their image in a polished copper wall. The research question: Does an electrostatic charge build up on electrically-isolated meditators? This question was tested with 10 "regular" subjects (typical meditators) and 9 "exceptional" subjects (experienced Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch (NCTT) therapists) in a Copper Wall Lab designed to isolate the subject from ground and also isolate, individually, four surrounding copper walls. front, back, up. and down. For detection of electrostatic potential, the subject's body and the four walls were individually "floated" on single-ended electrometer inputs. A pair of video cameras guarded against body-motion artifact. In 45-minute meditation sessions with the 10 regular meditators. no body-potential surges reached 4 [I. In comparison, in comparable meditation sessions with the NCTT meditators, many bodypotential surges greater than 4 v were found. Surges appearing in the records of NCTT meditators ranged from 4 v to 221 v (median = 8.3 v). with surge duration ranging from 0.5 s to 12.5 s (median = 3.6 s). During NCTT therapy sessions with patients, NCTT therapists produced body-potential surges ranging from 4 v to 190 v. The majority of surges were of negative polarity. Though there is a long tradition of Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch in both folklore and in religion, there are as yet no known psychophysiologic or biophysical explanations for such large-magnitude electrical phenomena, 103 times greater than large psychophysiologic skin-potential (GSP) changes related to emotional responses, 105 larger than EKG voltages, and 106 larger than EEG voltages. Since focus-of-attention by NCTT therapists is often a correlate factor in this anomalous phenomenon, results suggest the presence 0 previously-unmeasured human potential, as well as body potential. Various schemes are discussed for analysis of body-potential surge data, with an eye to determining body mechanisms that might be capable 0 generating electrostatic charge. KEYWORDS: Anomalous, electrostatic, fields, therapeutic touch, "healer," Tibetan, meditatio