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Edgescience 05
Edgescience 05
Also:
Larry Dossey on Malcom Gladwell
Dick Blasband on Simon Singh
Jim DeMeo on Wilhelm Reich
A publication of the
Society for Scientific Exploration
EdgeScience #5
October–December 2010
EdgeScience is a quarterly magazine.
Print copies are available from
edgescience.magcloud.com.
For further information, see edgescience.org
CONTENTS
3
Email: edgescience@gmail.com
THE OBSERVATORY
Why EdgeScience? Because, contrary to public Trusting the Observer: A Neglected Factor
perception, scientific knowledge is still full of Richard Blasband
unknowns. What remains to be discovered — what
4
we don’t know — very likely dwarfs what we do
know. And what we think we know may not be
entirely correct or fully understood. Anomalies, which
NEWS NOTEBOOK
researchers tend to sweep under the rug, should be Lucy Tech, Human Evolution and Disease, Violent Dreams
actively pursued as clues to potential breakthroughs
and new directions in science.
5
Associate Editors: Dick Blasband,
Dominique Surel The Tunguska Event:
Book Review Editor: P.D. Moncreif Maybe It Wasn’t What We Thought
Contributors: James DeMeo, Larry Dossey, Vladimir Rubtsov
Vladimir Rubtsov
11
Design: Smythtype Design
18 REFERENCE POINT
for various reasons ignored or studied inadequately
within mainstream science. A secondary goal is to
promote improved understanding of those factors
Dossey to Gladwell: Wake Up and Smell the Presentiment
that unnecessarily limit the scope of scientific A review by Larry Dossey of Malcom Gladwell’s Blink: The
inquiry, such as sociological constraints, restrictive Power of Thinking Without Thinking
world views, hidden theoretical assumptions,
and the temptation to convert prevailing theory
20
into prevailing dogma. Topics under investigation BACKSCATTER
cover a wide spectrum. At one end are apparent The Embattled Maverick Scientist
anomalies in well established disciplines. At the
other, we find paradoxical phenomena that belong
to no established discipline and therefore may
offer the greatest potential for scientific advance
and the expansion of human knowledge. The
SSE was founded in 1982 and has approximately
800 members in 45 countries worldwide. The Errata
Edge Science
Number 4 July–September 2010
Society also publishes the peer-reviewed Journal René Verreault in his article “Swinging Anoma-
of Scientific Exploration, and holds annual Current Research and Insights
are available to the public.To join the Society, Duif of Delft University of Technology in the pendulum are not
entirely explained,
or for more information, visit the website at aura is not just new
age mumbo jumbo,
President: William Bengston, St. Joseph’s College on the properties of light conducted in 1991 by
and that some
UFOs may actually
pose a threat
Vice-President: Bob Jahn, Princeton University Roland De Witte in Brussels shows that there
to aviation safety.
{ THE OBSERVATORY|
By Richard Blasband
{ NEWS NOTEBOOK |
Lucy Tech: The Oldest Use Is Human Evolution Heading
of Tools? Towards or Away From Disease
Susceptibility?
Evolution should not, in theory, be out to get us, but a recent
study conducted by Atul Butte and colleagues at the Stan-
ford University School of Medicine shows that this is still an
open question. They found that of 80 DNA variants associated
with type-1 diabetes (“juvenile diabetes”) that have undergone
positive selection, that is increasing in prevalence, over recent
generations, 58 of the variants increase the risk of the deadly
disease.
“At first we were completely shocked,” said Butte, whose re-
search was published online at PLoS ONE in August 2010, “be-
cause, without insulin treatment, type-1 diabetes will kill you
as a child. Everything we’ve been taught about evolution would
indicate that we should be evolving away from developing it.
But instead, we’ve been evolving toward it. Why would we have
a genetic variant that predisposes us to a deadly condition?”
The positive selection of genes and traits should work to
Photo credit: Dikika Research Project
maximize the chance of survival for our species, so the genes
associated with greater diabetes risk must be conferring some
In cosmic terms a million years is the proverbial drop in the unknown benefit. Could disease-causing genes be beneficial?
bucket. But in terms of the earliest evidence for the use of stone The idea is not a new one.
tools among our ancestors, a million years is enough to seri- One possibility is that the genetic variants that increase dia-
ously upset the mainstream applecart. Shannon McPherron, betes risk could also be decreasing the risk of certain viral or
an archeologist with the Dikika Research Project in northeast- bacterial infections. This mutation could have had large ben-
ern Ethiopia and research scientist at the Max Planck Institute efits in areas where infectious diseases ran rampant, and the
in Leipzig, Germany, and her team of researchers have found risks of dying young from these mostly untreatable illnesses
large fossilized animal bones with cut marks apparently made was far greater than the danger of juvenile diabetes. The re-
with sharp stone tools, according to research published in the searchers also speculate that the variations that increase dia-
August 12, 2010 issue of Nature. betes risk might also be passed on simply because they reside
The bones, whose ends were shattered apparently for suck- on the same stretch of DNA as the more beneficial mutations.
ing out marrow, were discovered within walking distance of a The topic obviously needs much more research, but at the
previously uncovered Australopithecus afarensis skeleton. The moment it remains a mystery.
bones have been dated at 3.4 million years old, pushing back
the earliest evidence for using stone tools by nearly a million
years, or 800,000 years to be precise. The previous earliest
stone tool find, also from Ethiopia, was attributed to Australo-
Credit: ozgurdonmaz/iStockphoto
pithecus garhi about 2.6 million years ago.
The Dikika researchers found two cut bones: a rib from a
buffalo-sized animal and a femur shaft from an impala-sized
animal. An analysis indicates that the cuts were created before
the bones fossilized and are therefore not recent. And given
the lack of suitable rock material in the area where the bones
were found, the researchers do not believe that naturally sharp
rocks were used to make the cuts but that the tools were actu-
ally created. All of which suggests they walked around carry-
ing their tools, which completely transforms the portrait that Enough to Give H.P. Lovecraft
science has of our Lucy-like ancestor.
The finding has set off a storm of controversy with critics Violent Dreams
quickly pointing out, quite correctly, that no sharp-edged Violent dreams may be an early warning sign of neurodegen-
flaked stones have been recovered from the site. At least, not erative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease. How early? De-
yet. cades before a patient is diagnosed, according to neurologist
Vladimir Rubtsov
A. Material Traces
1. The trees were leveled over a butterfly-like area 70 km
across and 55 km long, with its axis of symmetry running at
an angle of 115° to the east from its geographical meridian.
It seems natural to suppose that along this line the Tunguska
space body had been moving in the final stage of its flight.
Over this area, trees were found lying mainly in a radial di- 2. The zone of the light burnt trees also forms a “butter-
rection, although there were some noticeable departures from fly-like” shape, its axis of symmetry running from east to west.
this pattern. The pattern of destruction is quite complicated, It extends up to 16 km to the east from the epicenter, with
suggestive of the effects of both a blast wave and two bow two separate zones being clearly noticeable within it: the zone
EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010 / 7
of intense burns and the zone of weak burns. In theory, traces nothing to do with the Tunguska space body. Instead, it is pri-
of severe burning should be present at the center of this figure marily ytterbium that can be reliably associated with the TSB,
while those of weak burning should be at its periphery. But and possibly lanthanum, lead, silver, and manganese (Zhurav-
in reality the picture looks much stranger: the zone of weak lev & Demin, 1976). With this composition, it could hardly
burning extends from the east into the zone of severe burn- have been a meteorite or a comet core.
ing, and along the axis of symmetry the burning is consider-
ably weaker than that which occurred at a distance from it. At
the very center of the figure, however, there is evidence of the
maximum level of the light flash.
Also, the light-burned vegetation is arranged in patches;
there are areas seriously damaged, and intermittent areas free
from any thermal influence. Clearly, the light flash was very
A section of a larch that survived the 1908 disaster. Its rings after 1908
are noticeably wider than before.
Traces 4, 5, and 6 seem to indicate that the Tunguska utes. This was the initial phase of the local geomagnetic storm
explosion was accompanied by hard radiation. (called the “first entry”). Then a second phase—“the phase
of rise”—began. The geomagnetic field reached its maximum
intensity at 0 h 40 min GMT and remained at the same level
B. Instrumental Traces for the next 14 minutes. It then began to drop, the amplitude
7. The Tunguska explosion left records of its seismic waves decreasing by some 70 gammas. It returned to its initial un-
disturbed level at about 5 h 20 min GMT. Such effects have
never been observed by astronomers studying meteor phenomena.
The only events to show parallel effects were the artificial geo-
magnetic storms that occurred in 1958 over Johnston Island
during high-altitude nuclear tests (Zhuravlev 1998).
In the east, the flying body was much less bright than the There seems to be no simple conventional interpretation
Sun. It was red in color, and its shape resembled a ball or “ar- of the Tunguska catastrophe. As we know, a number of un-
tillery shell” with a long tail. Eyewitnesses usually described conventional theories have been proposed. The answer may
it simply as a “red fiery broom” or as a flying “red sheaf” that be one of these—or it may be none of them. There appears to
moved swiftly in the western direction, leaving no trace be- be little doubt, however, that some strange bodies—such as,
hind. The duration of this phenomenon did not exceed a few for example, the enigmatic “Remarkable Meteors” observed in
minutes. echelon formation off the East Coast of Korea in 1904 (Stur-
rock, 2009)—do from time to time appear in the terrestrial
atmosphere. Whether or not
Conclusion those “meteors” could have
The general scenario for the Tunguska event that almost all had anything to do with the
Tunguska investigators agree on is very simple: one space body Tunguska space body remains
flew over Central Siberia performing no maneuvers, generated an open question.
in its flight a bow wave, exploded over the Southern swamp,
and produced a blast wave. But when we process the eyewitness
reports, we obtain, instead of an unambiguous picture of a References
space body arriving from a definite direction, either two bod- (See The Tunguska Mystery by
ies flying in different trajectories or one body performing vari- Vladimir V. Rubtsov for the
ous maneuvers—or a combination of the two. Furthermore, full list of references)
if the TSB was seen at a distance of 1,000 kilometers from Bidyukov, B. F. (2008). Thermo
the epicenter, then it was flying at a small angle with respect luminescent investigations
to the Earth’s surface. This angle could not have exceeded 10 in the region of the Tun-
to 15 degrees, otherwise the altitude at which the TSB began guska catastrophe.—The
to emit light would have been too great. But in this case, the Tunguska Phenomenon: the
speed of the TSB before its explosion (that is, near the South- Multifariousness of the Prob-
ern swamp) could not have exceeded 1 to 2 km/sec, otherwise lem. Novosibirsk: Agros (p. 83).
the body, flying in a flat trajectory, would have left a more Boslough, M. B. E., & Crawford, D. A. (2007). Low-altitude air-
pronounced trace in the leveled forest of its bow wave than bursts and the impact threat.—Proceedings of the 2007 Hyper-
it left. At this velocity, no “thermal explosion”—or any other velocity Impact Symposium—International Journal of Impact
type of explosion due purely to the kinetic energy of a moving Engineering, in press.
body—is conceivable. So the TSB’s explosion must have been Bronshten, V. A. (1980). On some methods of calculation of the
produced by its internal energy (chemical, nuclear, or other). blast wave and ballistic shock wave of the Tunguska meteor-
Having at our disposal all this data, we are led towards ac- ite.—Interaction of Meteoritic Matter with the Earth. Novosi-
cepting Kazantsev’s “Alien Spacecraft” hypothesis as probably birsk: Nauka (p. 161).
worthy of further consideration, even if in a modified form. Dozmorov, S. V. (1999). Some Anomalies of the Distribution
It seems conceivable that in the morning of June 30, 1908, of Rare Earth Elements at the 1908 Tunguska Explosion
two artificial objects flew over Central Siberia and one of them Site.—RIAP Bulletin, Vol. 5, No. 1–2 (p. 11).
exploded at Tunguska due to its internal energy. Whether this Ivanov, K. G. (1961). Geomagnetic effects that were observed at
event should have been interpreted as an “aerospace combat” the Irkutsk Magnetographic Observatory after the explosion
or as a “failed rescue operation” is a matter of conjecture. All of the Tunguska meteorite.—Meteoritika, Vol. 21.
experienced Tunguska specialists agree that this problem will Kazantsev, A. (1946). The Explosion.—Vokrug Sveta, No. 1.
be solved only when a real piece of the Tunguska space body Krinov, E. L. (1949). The Tunguska Meteorite. Moscow: Academy
has been found. But no matter how imposing the theory pro- of Sciences of the USSR.
posed for the Tunguska explosion, the only way to verify it Mekhedov, V.N. (1967). On the Radioactivity of the Ash of Trees
will probably involve discovering appreciable quantities of the in the Region of the Tunguska Catastrophe. Preprint 6-3311.
TSB substance in an area predicted by theory. This search has Dubna: Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
at present a good chance for success. Pasechnik, I. P. (1986). Refinement of the moment of explosion
The pattern of ytterbium’s distribution at Tunguska has of the Tunguska meteorite from the seismic data.—Cosmic
its maximum concentration at about 4 km to the west from the Matter and the Earth. Novosibirsk: Nauka (p. 66).
epicenter. It is here that in 2004 Leonid Agafonov and Victor Rubtsov, V. (2009). The Tunguska Mystery. New York, Springer.
Zhuravlev from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy Rychkov, Y. G. (2000). A Possible Genetic Trace of the Tunguska
of Sciences found several artificial metallic particles in the peat Catastrophe of 1908?—RIAP Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 1.
layer dated 1908. “We should not jump to conclusions from Scorer, R. S. (1950). The Dispersion of a Pressure Pulse in the At-
these findings. Yet we can probably hope to find in this area…a mosphere.—Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series
larger remnant of the Tunguska space body. There seems to be A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 201, No. 1064.
at this area a ‘geochemical halo’ surrounding the place of its Sturrock, P.A. (2009). A Tale of Two Sciences. Palo Alto, Exosci-
fall” (Zhuravlev & Agafonov 2008). ence (pp. 181–182).
10 / EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010 / The Tunguska Mystery Revisited
Vasilyev, N. V., Kovalevsky, A. F., Razin, S. A., Epiktetova, L. NEWS NOTEBOOK continued from page 4
E. (1981). Testimonies of Eyewitnesses of the Tunguska Mete-
orite Fall. Tomsk: University Publishing House, Moscow: Bradley Boeve of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
VINITI. and his colleagues, whose research was published in the July
Zhuravlev, V. K. (1998). The geomagnetic effect of the Tunguska 28, 2010, issue of the journal Neurology.
explosion and the technogeneous hypothesis of the TSB ori- The researchers examined Mayo Clinic medical records be-
gin.—RIAP Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 1–2 (p. 9). tween 2002 to 2006 to identify cases of a mysterious sleep
Zhuravlev, V. K., & Agafonov, L. V. (2008). Mineralogical and disturbance called REM sleep behavior disorder, or RBD. The
geochemical examination of the samples of soils taken in the dreams in RBD often involve episodes of violent thrashing,
area of the Tunguska bolide’s disintegration.—The Tunguska kicks, and screams in which an attacker must be fought off.
Phenomenon: Multifariousness of the Problem. Novosibirsk: The dream-enacting behavior may end with the person injur-
Agros (p. 151). ing themselves or their bed mate. The researchers identified 27
Zhuravlev, V. K., & Demin, D. V. (1976). About chemical com- patients who developed the RBD disorder at least 15 years and
position of the Tunguska meteorite.—Cosmic Matter on the up to 50 years before being diagnosed with a neurodegenera-
Earth. Novosibirsk: Nauka (p. 102). tive ailment. No other clinical manifestations are known in the
Zhuravlev, V. K. & Zigel, F. Y. (1998). The Tunguska Miracle: neurodegenerative realm that can start so far in advance.
History of Investigations of the Tunguska Meteorite. Ekaterin- While the correlation appears to be a strong one, it’s not
burg: Basko (p. 110). clear that cause and effect have been clearly teased out. Could
Zolotov, A.V. (1969). The Problem of the Tunguska Catastrophe of a debilitating sleep order, rather than being a symptom of a
1908. Minsk: Nauka i Tekhnika. developing mental illness, be part of the cause?
James DeMeo
mice merely by putting them inside the orgone energy accu- would be in the control group and remain untested, versus
mulator for a few hours daily. the test group affected by aiming the cloudbuster at its core.
I also assisted Dr. Blasband with several cloudbusting The results showed an approximate doubling of the speed of
experiments, using his apparatus as constructed according to cloud-dissipation for the test group of clouds versus the con-
Reich’s designs. A cloudbuster is a large antenna-like instru- trol group (p<0.001).
ment that can be aimed at any point in the sky, whereupon it My professors were pleasantly surprised by the results.
can alter the dynamics of clouds, to grow or shrink them using But when word of my results spread, those who felt “Reich”
various techniques, even to the point of bringing rains during and “orgone” besmirched the reputation of the university un-
drought. On my first experience, a fully stagnant atmosphere ethically worked to suppress and block further research on the
choked with “smog” and visibility limited to one mile at best subject. Nevertheless, my work was formally accepted and the
was opened up where the sky had been scanned within 15 graduate degree program was completed. Subsequent work
minutes of work, as if some giant theatre curtains had parted, with the cloudbuster over the next 30 years further verified
revealing clear blue skies and well-defined clouds. Rains came Reich’s claims that his methods could bring rains even under
shortly thereafter. During the operations, many birds reacted droughty and desert conditions.
to the biological field effects of the cloudbuster, flying around For example, a major drought-breaking operation in the
the apparatus with loud chirping. I also could sense its effects. southeastern United States in 1986 ended what was an histori-
It was as Reich had described some 30 years earlier. cal drought of most severe conditions, and the South Carolina
State Climatology Office was sufficiently impressed to include
my paper on the operation in the proceedings of a conference
focused upon the drought. Nobody had predicted it would
end with the widespread and persisting rains that developed
shortly after work with the cloudbuster had begun. This was
one of the few cases where I could get my findings published,
as I would later discover when a mainstream blackout descend-
ed over the subject.
Reich: A Reappraisal,” which I had organized through the as Reich described. No such reactions occurred in the dummy
American Association for the Advancement of Science for their box. Neither the volunteer subjects nor those tasked with ac-
annual conference in San Francisco, was undermined by the quiring the data knew anything about Reich or the orgone
“skeptics” and censored. question. While the sample-size was not large, the results were
Subsequently, I was subjected to the mud-slinging fury of favorable to Reich’s claims and were statistically significant
the professional “skeptic clubs.” They harassed my family and (p=0.01). This stimulated another identical trial at the Uni-
me; we were threatened with burglary and death. And smear- versity of Vienna in Austria by Günter Hebenstreit, also with
hate mail was sent to the department chairmen in the uni- statistically significant results favorable to Reich. These find-
versity where I was employed, and to editors of journals that ings were discussed in my Handbook, which eventually was
published my papers. I later learned that NOAA offices had translated into eight languages, some by mainstream publish-
purged their files of all the publications I had sent them that ing houses in Europe, but in the U.S., what can only be de-
documented the effectiveness of the cloudbuster. Dr. Blasband scribed as a publishing and academic blackout has persisted on
and several of his associates also suffered similar abuse. Still, I the subject.
pursued the topic. Serious scientists globally have increasingly shown respect
My dissertation at the University of Kansas was on a dif- for Reich’s work and dismay at the miserable way he was treat-
ferent subject, a global cross-cultural survey of 1,170 different ed. I was gratified to be invited to speak by private physician’s
human cultures, with world-maps created of the distribution groups and scientific organizations, and even at a few lead-
of social factors positively correlated to warfare and social vio- ing universities, generally by the diminishing number of gray-
lence. The findings corroborated Reich’s claims that traumatic ing “maverick eccentrics” still surviving within the academy.
and abusive care of infants and children, plus severe sexual More significantly, however, I was invited to carry out new
repression of young unmarried people, predicted the appear- experiments, working against critical drought situations us-
ance of sadism and social violence in the adult world. This ing Reich’s cloudbusting methods, which were as big a break-
was another controversy, but it was proven beyond doubt, and through in atmospheric science as the orgone accumulator was
those findings were quickly picked up by scholars research- in medicine and biology.
ing the “origins of violence” question, as well as by women’s A severe three-year drought of historical proportions was
groups worldwide. It provided another base of support outside ended in Israel by a team effort using the cloudbuster. That
the academy. work, which I organized and directed in 1991-92, was sup-
By the early 1990s, I had verified several more of Reich’s ported by private foundations with logistical support and ap-
findings about the orgone accumulator and met various physi- provals from the Israeli government. The experiment resulted
cians in Europe who openly treated their patients with it, ob- in widespread and saturating rains that quickly developed
taining very good to remarkable results for both injuries and across the entire eastern Mediterranean and ending the his-
degenerative diseases. Severe burns in particular responded torical drought with equally historical unprecedented rains.
very well to the orgone radiation, which could speed healing However, the meteorologists dismissed the results as the con-
and dramatically reduce pain. Pain reduction in cancer pa- sequence of Mt. Pinatubo erupting six months earlier on the
tients was also remarkable by all accounts, something which other side of the planet, so our proposal for a follow-up “Ne-
paralleled results from the controlled experiments with cancer gev Greening Project” went nowhere.
mice. Physicians in the U.S. also worked with the orgone accu-
mulator but typically concealed their activities from the FDA
and medical licensing agencies.
I wrote The Orgone Accumulator Handbook, instructing
people on Reich’s history, my experiences, and how to build
and self-treat their ailments using the orgone accumulator. I
recounted several instances of people experiencing “sponta-
neous” remissions of cancers and other serious diseases when
using the orgone accumulator. Efforts to try and organize
more systematic studies in the U.S. were impossible. However,
there were two double-blind, controlled studies with the or-
gone accumulator in Europe, which tested for changes in basic
human physiology as originally reported by Reich. Dr. Ste-
fan Müschenich, who lead one such effort at the University of
Marburg in Germany, showed clear physiological reactions of
volunteer subjects to the orgone accumulator, which were not
reproduced when they were exposed to an identical looking
but non-accumulating dummy-box. Body core temperature,
blood pressure, and pulse rate all anomalously changed dur- Author James DeMeo standing near the trailer-mounted Cloudbuster
ing the orgone accumulator sessions, which produced a subtle Kiremti (Tigrinya word for “good rains”), during field work in Eritrea,
parasympathetic relaxation-reaction in the organism, exactly Africa. Apparatus is packed-up for transport.
14 / EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010
filled but overflowed out into the open Sahara Desert, creat-
ing several gigantic new lakes, which are still visible today on
Google Earth just northwest of Aswan. But few people know
of this work as it could not be published outside of our own in-
house journal, in spite of (or because of) the excellent data and
documentation. The Eritrea experiments showed that Reich’s
discovery could even benefit the open Sahara Desert, which is
no small feat. Unfortunately, Eritrea and Ethiopia collapsed
into open warfare shortly thereafter, forcing my decision to
end the project, as our international team was put at risk.
Over the last decade, I have backed away from the difficult
fieldwork overseas and mostly settled into laboratory investi-
gations of the orgone energy itself, documenting its existence
and physical properties. I’ve also investigated the old ether-
drift experiments, based upon identified similarities between
Reich’s orgone energy continuum, which fills all space, and
the cosmic ether of nineteenth century physics. Dayton Mill- Blue-Glow from Orgone-Charged High-Vacuum Tube (VACOR), as
er’s interferometer experiments atop Mt. Wilson in the late excited only by hand-stroking with no electrical excitation. Such soft
1920s, which were the most significant ever undertaken, ac- luminous phenomenon led Reich to postuate a similar orgone energy
tually measured and confirmed a real ether-drift signal. But basis to other blue-glowing phenomena in nature.
he did so through identification of its material composition,
which could be reflected or blocked by metal plate, in a man- higher than inside the control. The peak daytime temperature
ner similar to the metal composition of the orgone accumula- of about 3-4 p.m. showed no relationship to the experimental
tor. Work by Albert Michelson on Mt. Wilson also confirmed results, which were carried out inside a totally shaded enclo-
this effect, but both men were defeated by the heavy-handed sure under a heavy tree canopy in the forest, where no sunlight
politics of science, as I reported in detail in several articles, and could penetrate. And yet, the little accumulator “knew” when
one invited presentation to a Society for Scientific Exploration the Sun was at zenith, warming maximally, in spite of how its
conference in 2006. Newer work by Yuri Galaev at the Ukraine own metal layers would have reflected any incident infrared
Radiophysics Institute has further confirmed the Miller result influences. It should have been systematically cooler than the
“down to the details.” But again, only a few appear interested. control, but wasn’t. All effects vanished to zero difference be-
I also discovered that the cosmic vectors of ether-drift, tween the accumulator and control during rainy conditions,
as determined from experimental results by these scientists, exactly as Reich noted. This experiment has been reproduced
matched exactly Reich’s theoretical arguments on the spiral- many times by others, though I believe my own protocol was
form motions of orgone energy streams in open space—this the most ambitious to date. The late Albert Einstein also re-
lesser-known part of his work is of great importance to both produced this experiment, initially verifying it and calling it a
biology and astrophysics, being in harmony with dissenting “great bomb” for physics, but he quickly recanted, proclaim-
scientists such as Frank Brown, Giorgio Piccardi, Harold Burr, ing the result to be the consequence of certain “table-top”
Hannes Alfven, Halton Arp, and others whose findings go thermal parameters, which Reich argued against and in any
against the metaphysical theories of relativistic empty-space case were not at issue in my experiment.
and big-bang creationism. The same cosmic vectors also match Other experimental verifications of Reich’s long list of or-
the coordinates as detected by Rita Bernabei of the DAMA gone accumulator anomalies are worthy of mention, such as
project in Italy, who upset mainstream physicists with her the blue glowing quality of orgone phenomenon, which I have
discovery of the “dark matter wind,” which is both orgone- confirmed as an emission inside special high-vacuum tubes
similar and cosmic-ether-similar. charged up inside orgone energy accumulators. They will illu-
Reich’s discovery of the orgone accumulator thermal minate with simple hand stroking, without high-voltage elec-
anomaly was also recently confirmed in good detail at my tricity as is otherwise necessary. I’ve also confirmed Reich’s
laboratory, where the accumulator spontaneously creates a claim about increased counts inside special Geiger-Müller
slight interior warmth without any known source other than tubes charged up for long periods inside an orgone energy
the postulated orgone energy which penetrates and accumu- accumulator. At my lab, we record rather constant 100-500
lates within its interior. I employed a very robust and tightly cpm from an orgone charged neutron counter, which normally
controlled methodology that accounted for all known antici- yields less than 5 cpm. Under certain conditions, it will race
pated thermodynamic influences. The results showed an aver- upwards to 4000 cpm, which cannot be “neutrons” as classi-
age of + 0.1˚C. temperature increase inside a small sealed or- cally understood.
gone accumulator over a thermally-matched control enclosure It is easy to be a reflexive skeptic of Reich’s work. The
constructed of identical size, thermal capacity, and resistance. authentic experimental work is fantastic enough. Reich knew
The effect was most pronounced at solar noon when average this and called it the “too much” factor, which caused some
peak temperatures inside the accumulator were around +0.5˚C people to turn away without bothering to investigate. On top
16 / EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010
of that are the malicious “skeptics” who have the ear of main- DeMeo, James: “OROP Arizona 1989: A Cloudbusting Experi-
stream journalists and whose criticisms of Reich often elevate ment to Bring Rains in the Desert Southwest,” Pulse of the
their standing in the scientific community. They fill the me- Planet, 3:82–92, 1991
dia with every kind of false and malicious claim about Reich’s DeMeo, James: “OROP Israel 1991–1992: A Cloudbusting Ex-
biography and science. And any internet search on his name periment to Restore Wintertime Rains to Israel and the East-
or terms also produces the most stunning array of mystically ern Mediterranean During an Extended Period of Drought,”
exaggerated claims and gadgets from lay enthusiasts and eBay Pulse of the Planet 4:92–98, 1993.
hawkers, making quite a mess of it all. DeMeo, James: “Green Sea Eritrea: A 5-Year Desert Greening
Nevertheless, my own experiments and those of many CORE Project in the SE African Sahel,” Pulse of the Planet,
others, too numerous to mention here, have validated the facts 5:183-211, 2002.
and truth of Reich’s science, which is reproducible and has DeMeo, James: “A Dynamic and Substantive Cosmological
been verified many times on the major details. And all within Ether,” Proceedings, Natural Philosophy Alliance, 1(1):15–
the best traditions of the natural sciences. 20, Spring 2004.
DeMeo, James: “Dayton Miller’s Ether-Drift Experiments: A
Fresh Look,” Pulse of the Planet, 5:114–130, 2002.
References DeMeo, James: Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child-Abuse,
Blasband, Richard: “The Orgone Energy Accumulator in the Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence in the Deserts of
Treatment of Cancer Mice,” Journal of Orgonomy, 7(1):81– the Old World, 2nd Revised Edition, Natural Energy Works,
85, 1973. Ashland, Oregon, 2006. www.saharasia.org
Blasband, Richard: “Effects of the Orac on Cancer in Mice: Three DeMeo, James (editor): Heretic’s Notebook: Emotions, Protocells,
Experiments,” Journal of Orgonomy, 18(2):202-211, 1984. Ether-Drift and Cosmic Life-Energy, with New Research Sup-
Blasband, Richard: “The Implications of Current Consciousness porting Wilhelm Reich (Pulse of the Planet #5), Orgone Bio-
Research on Orgonomic Theory,” Pulse of the Planet 5:147– physical Research Lab, Ashland, Oregon 2002.
154 2002. DeMeo, James (editor): On Wilhelm Reich and Orgonomy (Pulse
Blasband, Richard: “CORE Progress Report No. 6: Twenty Years of the Planet #4), Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, Ashland,
of Oranur,” Journal of Orgonomy, 10(1):132-138, 1976. Oregon 1993.
Blasband, Richard: “CORE Progress Report #9: OROP Des- DeMeo, James and Bernd Senf (editors): Nach Reich: Neue Forsc-
ert, California, November 1977,” Journal of Orgonomy, hungen Zur Orgonomie, Zweitausendeins, Frankfürt, 1997.
12(1):104–111, 1978. Hebenstreit, Günter: “Der Orgonakkumulator Nach Wilhelm
Brown, Frank: “Evidence for External Timing in Biological Reich,” Diplomarbeit, Magistergrades der Philosophie an der
Clocks,” in An Introduction to Biological Rhythms, J. Palmer, Grung- und Integrativ- wissenschaftlichen Fakultat der Uni-
Editor, Academic Press, NY, 1975. versität Wien, 1995.
DeMeo, James: “Experimental Confirmation of the Reich Or- Kavouras, Jorgos: Heilung mit Orgonenergie: Die medizinische
gone Accumulator Thermal Anomaly,” Subtle Energies, Vol Orgonomie, Turm Verlag, Bietighem, Germany, 2005.
20 no. 3, 2010 (in press). Müschenich, Stefan & Gebauer, Rainer: Der Reichsche Orgon-
DeMeo, James: “Orgone Accumulator Stimulation of Sprouting akkumulator: Naturwissenschaftliche Diskussion, Praktische
Mung Beans,” Pulse of the Planet, 5:168–176, 2002. Andwendung, Experimentelle Untersuchung, Nexus Verlag,
DeMeo, James: The Orgone Accumulator Handbook: Construc- Frankfurt, 1987.
tion Plans, Experimental Use, and Protection Against Toxic Müschenich, Stefan: Der Gesundheitsbegriff im Werk des Arztes
Energy, 3rd Revised Ed., Natural Energy Works, Ashland, Wilhelm Reich, Verlag Gorich & Weiershauser, Marburg,
Oregon 2010. 1995.
DeMeo, James: “The Orgone Energy Continuum: Some Old and Reich, Wilhelm: Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy,
New Evidence,” Pulse of the Planet, 1(2):3-8, 1989. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1973.
DeMeo, James: “Peaceful Versus Warlike Societies in Pre-Colum- Reich, Wilhelm: Discovery Of The Orgone, I: Function Of The Or-
bian America: What Does Archaeology and Anthropology gasm, T. Wolfe, trsl., 2nd Edition, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy,
Tell Us?” in Unlearning the Language of Conquest, D. Ja- NY, 1961
cobs, Editor, Univ. Texas Press, 2006. Reich, Wilhelm: The Cancer Biopathy, Vol. 2, Discovery of the Or-
DeMeo, James: Preliminary Analysis of Changes in Kansas gone, A. White, trsl., Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1973.
Weather Coincidental to Experimental Operations with a Reich, Wilhelm: Ether, God & Devil / Cosmic Superimposition,
Reich Cloudbuster, Geography-Meteorology Department, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1973.
University of Kansas, Thesis, 1979; Published by Orgone Southgate, Leon: Chinese Medicine and Wilhelm Reich, Lambert
Biophysical Research Lab, Ashland, Oregon 2010. Academic Publishing, London 2009.
DeMeo, James: “Preliminary Report on a Cloudbusting Experi- For a more complete Bibliographic listing, see the online Bibliogra-
ment in the Southeastern Drought Zone, August 1986,” phy on Orgonomy 1920 to Present. orgonelab.org/bibliog.htm.
Southeastern Drought Symposium Proceedings, March 4–5,
1987, South Carolina State Climatology Office Publication James DeMeo, PhD, is director of the Orgone Biophysical Research
G-30, Columbia, SC, 1987. Lab in Ashland, Oregon. For more information see orgonelab.org.
EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010 / 17
{ REFERENCE POINT|
Book Review by Larry Dossey, MD
Dossey to Gladwell:
Wake Up and Smell the Presentiment
“Most people stumble over the truth, at the statue for the first time, found
now and then, but they usually man- that the word that immediately popped
age to pick themselves up and go on, into his mind was “fresh,” which was
anyway.” not exactly what the Getty directors
—Winston Churchill1 wanted to hear. Further research de-
termined that the statue had been aged
and thoughtful will reject ESP outright. He describes how he said, “I could see about three seconds into the future.9 …
Klein interviewed the firefighter and helped him to realize It’s spooky. …[Radin has] done that over and over again with
how he’d used subtle clues to make his decision to evacuate, people. That, with me, is on the edge of physics itself, with
such as the fact that the fire wasn’t responding to water the time. There’s something funny about time that we don’t un-
way it should, it was hotter than an ordinary kitchen fire, the derstand because you shouldn’t be able to do that....”10 If the
fire wasn’t as noisy as expected, and so on. “All this thinking skeptical Mullis could see into the future, why not Gladwell’s
was going on behind the locked door of his consciousness,” subjects? Why not Gladwell?
Gladwell says, ruling out the necessity of invoking ESP. So Brian Josephson, a Nobel physicist at Cambridge Univer-
psi gets eliminated, and the citadel of reason is safely protected sity, says of the presentiment findings, “So far, the evidence
from the barbarians. seems compelling. What seems to be happening is that infor-
Other examples follow, such as when George Soros, the mation is coming from the future. In fact, it’s not clear in
investment tycoon, successfully predicts world financial mar- physics why you can’t see the future. In physics, you certainly
kets without rationally knowing why; or when Vic Braden, the cannot completely rule out this effect.”11
famous tennis coach, unfailingly predicts double faults with In addition to presentiment experiments, the hundreds
extreme accuracy without a clue about how he does it. A psi- of precognitive remote viewing studies done at the Princeton
savvy reader would wonder whether these might be instances Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab and elsewhere
of precognition, but such wonder, having already suffered a could explain many of Gladwell’s examples in which time-dis-
slap-down in the case of the fireman, is not allowed to surface placed acquisition of information appears to occur. The pre-
further in Blink. cognitive remote viewing experiments show that a so-called
No one doubts that humans can make snap decisions by receiver can receive distant information from a sender up to a
unconsciously constructing inferences based on mere scraps week before the information is even sent, and even before the
of information, memory, and prior experience. The problems information that is to be sent has been randomly selected by
arise when all other possible explanations are disregarded. a computer.12
Nowhere does Gladwell demonstrate a glimmer of aware- In addition, thousands of trials of online tests of precogni-
ness that a human precognitive faculty even exists. He fails to tive ability, such as those that have been logged at the Bound-
mention, for example, the various presentiment experiments ary Institute’s website (www.gotpsi.org), strongly suggest that
that have been done by psi researcher Dean Radin and other precognition is real, with staggering odds against chance.13
investigators around the world that show, beyond reasonable In my recent book, The Power of Premonitions,14 I reviewed
doubt, that future knowing is an innate ability that possibly empirical findings in replicated experiments from a host of
exists to some degree in most humans.4 To date, more than sources—researchers Radin, Bierman, McCraty, Vassy, May,
twenty of these experiments have been done by different in- Schwartz, Spottiswoode, Klintman, and Wildey, and from in-
vestigators, and nearly all point in the same direction—that stitutions such as Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research
the body can react to a future event before that event has been lab (PEAR), Stanford Research Institute (SRI), and Science
randomly decided by, say, a computer. Applications International Corporation (SAIC). All told, this
An increasing number of prominent scientists have im- evidence suggests that we possess an innate, inborn capacity
plied that modern physical theory does not prohibit the ac- for future knowing. This collective evidence raises precogni-
quisition of future information. For example, Brian Greene, tion from fantasy to fact. Henceforth the dialogue need not
the Columbia University physicist, says, “[The] laws of phys- center over whether precognition exists, but on who’s skilled
ics that have been articulated from Newton through Maxwell at it, how it functions, how we can increase its reliability, and
and Einstein and up until today, show a complete symmetry what it says about human nature.
between past and future. Nowhere in any of these laws do we In spite of Gladwell’s exclusion of this evidence, he de-
find a stipulation that they apply one way in time but not the scribes what may actually be a presentiment-type experiment
other…in theory events can unfold in reverse order.”5 Physi- without realizing it. He discusses in the Introduction a Uni-
cist Gerald Feinberg observed, “If such [paranormal] phenom- versity of Iowa experiment showing that the palms of gamblers
ena indeed occur, no change in the fundamental equations of begin to sweat, indicating a stress response, long before they
physics would be needed to describe them.”6 Physicist O. Cos- have a conscious clue that something is wrong with a deck of
ta de Beauregard stated, “Far from being ‘irrational,’ the para- cards they are using. “In other words,” Gladwell says, “the
normal is postulated by today’s physics”7 (emphasis in original). gamblers figured the game out before they realized they had
And, “Today’s physics allows for the existence of ‘paranormal’ figured the game out….” Advice to Gladwell: Wake up and
phenomena of telepathy, precognition, and psychokinesis…. smell the presentiment.
The whole concept of ‘nonlocality’ in contemporary physics In the end, Gladwell’s preferred explanation for blink-type
requires this possibility.”8 knowing is, literally, ignorance. He states that we should sim-
Nice theory, but does it work in practice? Kary Mullis, the ply “accept the mysterious nature of our snap judgments….
Nobel chemist, became fascinated with Radin’s presentiment [W]e’re better off that way.”
experiments, visited Radin’s lab, and volunteered as a subject. I don’t think we are better off that way. In any case, the
The results shook him up. When he appeared as a guest on ignorance surrounding nonlocal knowing is not as profound
National Public Radio’s Science Friday program in May 1999, as Gladwell imagines.
EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010 / 19
References
1 Churchill W. BrainyQuote.com. http://www.brainyquote.
com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu136287.html. Accessed
July 27, 2009.
2 Malcolm Gladwell. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Malcolm_Gladwell. Accessed July 27, 2009.
3 Gladwell M. Blink. New York, NY: Back Bay Books/Little,
Brown and Company. 2005.
4 Radin D. Entangled Minds. New York, NY: Paraview/Simon
& Schuster; 2006: 161-180.
5 Greene B. Quoted in: Spencer Scoular, First Philosophy: The
Theory of Everything. New York, NY: Universal Publishers;
2007: 152.
6 G. Feinberg. Precognition—a memory of things future. In:
Quantum Physics and Parapsychology. L. Oteri (ed.). New
York, NY: Parapsychology Foundation; 1975:54-73.
7 de Beauregard OC. Wavelike coherence and CPT invari-
ance: Sesames of the paranormal. J. Scientific Exploration.
2002;16(4):651-54.
20 / EDGESCIENCE #5 • OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2010
{ BACKSCATTER|
Source: Gersdorff, Hans von. Feldtbůch der Wundartzney: newlich getruckt und gebessert.
Strassburg: Hans Schotten zům Thyergarten, 1528. (via Ptak Science Books)