A hologram is created when two just-so beams of light intersect. This interference pattern is captured on what is essentially a high-resolution photographic film. The picture recorded is incomprehensible, looking like TV "snow"-until you shine laser light through it. Then the entire image is reconstructed, projected into space in three dimensions. Bekenstein's point is that the flat, two-dimensional film codes the information for a 3-D reality. He believes that this 2-D encoding explains the physics of space's black holes-regions so dense that their gravity sucks in everything around them, even light. He cites data showing that whatever we can learn about a region of space is defined by its (2-D) surface area, not its (3-D) volume. He hopes this finding "is a clue to the ultimate theory of reality."
The increasing sophistication of biology and chemistry has resulted in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude toward life. Acupuncture works by releasing endorphin molecules; low brain oxygen causes near-death perceptions. Everything is explainable at a molecular level. It all fits together like an erector set. Biochemistry has given us amazing advances in medicine and physiology; we've mapped the entire human genome. But there are enough things that we don't fully understand to enlist mathematics and physics as well. Karl Pribram believes that some brain processes are best understood by "coordinated mathematics." Waveforms carry detailed information (think television). There is no reason to have to understand all that we observe using only existing principles. Science will march on.
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The Orthopedist and the Body Electric:
Life's Electromagnetic Template
Robert O. Becker, M.[)., now retired and in his eighties, was a professor of orthopedic surgery at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York. He has long been interested in how electricity and magnetism, in minute amounts-nothing you could feel or sense-might affect bodily function.
Of Tomatoes, Salamanders, and Frogs
In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik, the first satellite. This took the American government somewhat by surprise, as the Russians were believed to have insufficient technology to do this. Hurriedly, the government started translating Soviet scientific journals into English and distributing them to federally funded institutions, like Veterans' Administration hospitals. [)r. Becker was working at the VA Medical Center in Syracuse at the time, and the library received a crate of' Russian journals every month; he seemed to be the only one interested.
It was obvious from the journals that the Russians were willing to pursue and fund research that would be considered outlandish and unworthy here. What's more, if the research turned up something unexpected or unexplainable, they were willing to publish it. In the U.S., if you don't get the expected result, it's not so easy to get your work into print.
An item in a biophysics journal caught Becker's eye. It had to do with tiny amounts of naturally occurring electricity within plants. Cutting branches off tomato plants, the Russian author was able to measure an electrical "current of injury" at the stumps, which seemed to help the plants regrow the lost part. This current changed direction over time, and could be manipulated with small batteries, so that with just the right flow, the plant could regenerate up to three times faster, or not at all!
Two centuries earlier, an Italian priest named Lazzaro Spallanzini had discovered that adult salamanders could regenerate many parts of their bodies: legs, tail, even a jaw. It was well known that plants could re-form lopped-off pieces, but an animal with four legs and eyes? This was something else. Twenty years earlier, a young naturalist from Geneva had found a quarter-inch-long pond creature that could grow back its entire head or body and named it the hydra, after the mythical beast that could accomplish the same.
Subsequently, Luigi Galvani, a Bolognese anatomy professor, demonstrated that an electrical current developed in the wounds of severed frogs' legs. The invention, about thirty years later, of the galvanometer (named after him), which measures electrical current, made this injury-generated phenomenon easier to observe. Over time came the discoveries that nerve impulses travel electrically, although not as they do in a wire, and that the communication between nerve cells happens through released chemical "transmitters." This latter discovery was made by Otto Loewi at the NYU School of' Medicine. He won a Nobel Prize for it in 1936. The idea supposedly came to him in a dream. He awoke realizing he'd had the dream but could not remember it; the next night, he had the same dream, remembered it, and did the definitive experiment the next day.
Of Stem Cells and Broken Bones
Becker began doing research on the salamander and its cells; he noticed that strange things could happen to the red blood cells around a current of injury. Within the blood clot that formed to stanch the bleeding, some of' the cells slowly changed: They became what would now be called stem cells. But then, in the early 1960s, circulating stem cells that could turn into body parts were not known to exist, so Becker's findings were not well appreciated. (I would like to say "Science is stubborn," but really it's a trait of the scientists themselves.)
What Becker observed was red blood cells retracing their evolution. We all start out as a single cell, sperm and egg, which then keeps dividing and di%ferenturte, into bone, heart, muscle, nerves, and so forth. All the cells have the same genes carried by the same chromosomes. Differentiation occurs when some of the genes are suppressed. How the body knows to do this, and perfectly, is officially a mystery. Becker was watching the process in reverse: mature blood cells reverting to their original embryonic form where they can become anything. In the case of a salamander with a severed limb, they become the various parts of the limb: regeneration. Becker called the process Sedif- ferentiativn-i.e., differentiation's opposite.
Another example was discovered accidentally. Becker needed blood from salamanders. He was now able to accomplish dedifferentiation in a Petri dish, by applying the same electrical currents of injury. But you don't draw blood from a salamander's arm, so he anesthetized the little amphibians, and then snipped off and discarded the top half of the heart, in order to harvest blood. The accidental part was that the heart grew back !
"Regeneration of the Ventricular Myocardium [heart muscle] in Amphibians" was the title of the article in the prestigious British journal Nature in 1974. The blood clot that developed to plug the salamander's bleeding heart did more: The red blood cells dedifferentiated into stem cells. That's how the heart gradually re-formed. It didn't simply knit together; rather, it grew back the missing half. While the editor of Nature was willing to publish this very unusual and unexpected finding (not all editors are so open-minded), Becker was not allowed to use the term "stem cells" because the concept, at the time, was just too wild and crazy. He was only allowed to say "some active cellular process" restored the lost heart muscle and that "the origin of the reparative cells and the mechanism used . . . is, as yet, unclear."
The stem cells you hear a lot about these days are those from embryos; these have the greatest potential for medical use. The first human embryonic stem cells were isolated by a team at the University of Wisconsin in 1998. Stem cells from adult mammals (particularly mice) that could transform into different types of blood cells had been known for several decades. Adults' cells that could become specific body parts-known as somatic stem cells-came along later. In adult humans, some of these pre-exist, as if in waiting, in body tissues, although it's not known where they come from.
In a more recent publication, "Induced Dedif'ferentiation: A Possible Alternative to Embryonic Stem Cell Transplants" in the journal NeuroRehahilitation (2002), Becker used a nylon fabric containing silver to enhance wound healing. Previously he had used this in people with poorly healing wounds, but used a small electrical current. This time, he believes that he has obtained dedifferentiation of mature human cells (into stem cells) without adding any electricity. Humans, while they're no match for salamanders, do have some natural regenerative powers. A child of ten years or less will regenerate an entire fingertip if the wound is not tightly covered.
A Blueprint for the Body
One curious thing about a salamander is that if you cut off a right foreleg, it grows back a right foreleg, proportioned appropriately, with rive fingers. Remove a left hindleg, and a perfect replacement ultimately appears. How does the salamander's body keep track of exactly which parts are missing? For that matter, how does an embryo, human or animal, align itself perfectly with a head on one end and legs on the other, and each organ in just the right place? Both situations start with stem cells, which seem to know not only what to become, but where their placement within the body will be.
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, a number of scientists, including an American embryologist named Paul Weiss, proposed a morphogenetic field to explain the body's sense of orientation in space. As in the fields created by electricity and magnetism (electromagnetic fields, or EMFs), every point within the field was uniquely defined. Thus, the field pattern became a blueprint of the entire organism: a literal template for growth and development. Just as loose iron filings tossed at a magnet will align themselves along the magnet's lines of force, cells within the morphogenetic field would line up and behave appropriately for the forces at their particular points within the field.
Becker took it further, proposing that this template for life actually i'ae an electromagnetic field; and, with very sensitive instruments, he measured it. On the surface of salamanders and humans, differences in electrical charge could be measured, which were consistent and changed predictably. Both species had a small back-to-front current across the head, which diminished and then reversed during anesthesia. Becker found that he could anesthetize salamanders without drugs, using only specific electrical currents (or electromagnetic fields, which would induce currents). When the field was removed, the salamander woke up. This trick was not tried on humans.
Electricity, Magnetism, and Beyond
In the chapter on hypnosis, I stated that there is no physiologic way to measure whether a subject is truly hypnotized. This is the conventional wisdom, and this is what contemporary textbooks will say. Becker found otherwise. Working with a psychologist and a physicist, "Direct Current Potentials in Hypnoanalgesia" examined the back-to-front current of human subjects as they were hypnotized. Published in the Archive., of General P.~ychology in 1962, this was a study of six easily hypnotizable young men who had their cross-head currents measured with electrodes against the skin (one forehead, one back of neck) while they were brought in and out of light trance. The currents clearly diminished with attainment of the hypnotic state, similarly to anesthesia, although less pronounced. The voltage changes (voltage drives current) under hypnosis were from 0.001 to 0.005 (1 to 5 thousandths) of a volt, small but measurable.
Becker had already noted that healing is influenced by these bio-currents, and his aforementioned work on acupuncture points showed that there was an electrical reality to the points, suggesting that pain perception may be mediated by current flow. He believes that emotion, on a physiologic level, modulates the current that controls pain and healing, and thus might account for the placebo effect or even the "miracle" cures of shamans, faith healers, and saints. Unlike the vague "energy" attributed to distant healers, homeopathic remedies, or therapeutic touch, Becker's biofield is measurable and quantifiable.
The earth itself is one giant magnet, the result of molten iron spinning at its core. This allows a compass needle-which is just a tiny, free-to-rotate magnet-to assume its position: pointing north. Until 1820, magnetism and electricity were thought to be two distinct entities. Then the Danish physicist Oersted noticed that a compass needle deflected when electric current in a wire passed nearby. Now the two are wedded; each can create the other, given the right circumstances.
Life developed within the earth's magnetic field. The small electric currents Becker (and others) have recorded are entwined with the earth's field. Bacteria have magnetic sensors. Clams open their shells, in unison, in response to the earth's magnetism. Birds navigate thousands of miles using the lines of the earth's magnetic force. (Birds' primary system uses light from the sun, which they polarize-i.e., directionalize. Magnetism kicks in on cloudy days.)
In Becker's 1985 book The Body Electric (written with Gary Selden), the orthopedist observes: "Following the curious dogma that what we don't understand can't exist, mainstream science has dismissed psychic phenomena as delusions or hoaxes simply because they're rarer than sleep, dreams, memory, growth, pain, or consciousness, which are all inexplicable in traditional terms but are too common to be denied." Then Becker goes on to wonder if electromagnetic fields, both the ones our bodies generate and the earth's, could be a possible basis for telepathy (ESP). He believes gifted healers generate "supportive electromagnetic effects." In a second book five years later, Croce Current,, he bolsters this idea with research from China (not MEDLINE-accessible) where Qi Gong (again, a form of Chinese "energy" healing) is tested for its effects on an organic chemical compound that was known to change under the influence of weak EMFs. Charting the compound's behavior with an MRI scanner, a Qi Gong healer could rearrange the compound, as could a machine emitting an EMF signal. And neither needed the other's help.
Becker writes of a Russian experiment (also MEE)LtNE-inac- cessible) on forty professional dowsers. The test premise had to do with whether finding water way below the surface may use an unconscious sense of the EMFs that water creates in the earth. The forty were outfitted with wires and magnets that might jam subtle signals to see if these would diminish skills. They did, markedly.
In fact, Becker surmises that a specific channel of' biologic EMFs exists that might allow communication by waveform, particularly if people used the same frequencies. These would be biologically programmed in, and could be expected to be closest in relatives and, especially, identical twins. These are situations where telepathy, when it occurs, seems to work best.
The earth, as mentioned, has its own magnetic field (such a field surrounds any magnet), known as the geomagnetic field, and it varies a bit on the planet's surface, and is also affected by the moon's position and the sun's activity. Sometimes the field is relatively quiescent; other times it is roiled up by extra turmoil on the sun's surface. This can reach the earth as what we call a magnetic storm. If severe, these can interfere with radio and TV reception. Most go unnoticed unless, like the government's U.S. Geologic Survey, you're in the business of measuring them. Storms can last a few days, and may occur as often as two or three times a month; or there may not be any for a few months.
One problem with studying psychic powers lies in the difficulty of' reproducing results. Scientific credibility depends upon the ability of' independent researchers, using the same techniques, to reach the same conclusions. Becker assumes that the transmission of ESP information is akin to the way radio and TV work, and has measured, with sensitive instruments, enough electricity and magnetism emanating from living things to make this assumption interesting. Radio-type waves do not appear to be involved in telepathy. Radio reception diminishes with distance, which does not seem to be the case with ESP. What's more, subjects placed in rooms that shield these waves can still display psychic skills.
Can the earth's magneti
c field, in concert with the body's innate fields, function as an information conduit? The basic electroencephalographic rhythm of the brain-the alpha waves, at eight to fourteen per second -match the rhythm of the magnetic micropulsations in the earth's field. Becker feels that this is not a coincidence. Writing in the non-ME[)L[NE-indexed Journal of the American Society/or P,, e/,ieal Reaeareh in 1992, Becker reported on four independent studies, presented at the 1986 meeting of the American Psychological Association, that examined ESP powers with regard to the geomagnetic field. On days when the field was relatively quiet, telepathy functioned well. But on days when the field was stirred up by the sun's activity, as in magnetic storms, the abilities fared poorly. It appeared that geomagnetic agitation interfered with the mechanism of'brain-to-brain transmission.
As is ensconced in folklore, people just seem crazier when the moon is full. It's an ancient belief that celestial bodies influence behavior. Becker took the concept further and made it more specific: He studied the effects of magnetic storms (which come from the sun) on psychiatric admissions. Working with psychologist Howard Friedman, admissions to seven central New York State psychiatric hospitals were tabulated against reports on geomagnetic activity taken from the government's Fredericksburg (Virginia) Magnetic Observatory. More storm activity correlated with more psychiatric admissions, and the data were statistically significant. Their paper, "Geomagnetic Parameters and Psychiatric Hospital Admissions," was published by Nature in 1963.
The Witch in the Waiting Room: A Physician Investigates Paranormal Phenomena in Medicine Page 18