Out of Body Experience: Want to Have One?

The poor old man complained of intractable tinnitus, a clinical condition where the patients hear 'ringing' noises in the ears. The great artist Vincent Van Gogh also suffered from this condition. He was so disturbed by the auditory hallucination that he cut off part of his ear. It is said that he used to poke ice picks inside his ear in order to get relief from tinnitus.

Our man in question, too had this symptom. He was given conservative treatment for this {which include betahistine (a histamine analog), sodium fluoride, antihistamines such as meclizine, diuretics (drugs that increase urine output thus lowering the accumulated fluid in the ear) and many others}. But all these failed. The doctors did the next best thing. They put in a tiny electrode in his right superior temporal gyrus and stimulated it electrically. Lo and behold! The patient said that he felt as if he was about 50 centimeters behind his body and to the left.

The scientists led by Dirk De Ridder of Antwerp University, Belgium, immediately straightened up and arranged for PET scanners, machines that detect metabolic (glucose) activity in real time. They noticed that in addition to the area being stimulated, other areas were also showing increased glucose metabolism. For example, supra marginal gyrus, an area that processes informations from the inner ear was also lighting up. Needless to mention, internal ear also senses our (head) position and acceleration/deceleration. Thus activity in supramarginal area may have given the old man (63 year old) the goose pimples: an out of body experience.

It was long known that drugs used in dissociative anesthesia (ketamine, for example) imparted a sensation akin to this, a sensation felt by persons who have been on the verge of certain death, a 'near death experience'. In a condition known as Alice in Wonderland syndrome (Todd's Syndrome) which may occur in patients suffering from migraine or epilepsy, such intense feeling of distortion of ones own self, coupled with fast forwarding of time sense occur.

But scientists didn't stop at that. So they went off with an experiment. They made a guy sit on a chair. Then they fitted two cameras at (behind) his back. The cameras scanned his back and the image was transferred to his eyes by special goggles. So, in essence, he was seeing his own back. The naughty scientists then scratched the poor chap's back. The guy saw one thing (his projection) and felt one thing (real sensation on his real body). Disoriented, he mixed it up and had an out of body experience. How about one yourself.

Radio Waves And Reincarnation, A Strange Connection

It is said that Jesus Christ rose from his grave. This may not be an Alfred Hitchcock potboiler.

The radio part: I listened to many short wave radio stations, in my younger days, in my native village, where the reception is excellent. The undulating sound due to ionospheric altitude changes had a special appeal to the inveterate dx-ers (dx refers to distance unknown) like me. I was also thrilled to 'listen' to the falling meteors (yes! meteors heat up intensely as they enter the earth's atmosphere due to friction, thereby ionizing the gases around. This in turn causes electro-magnetic fields
which can then be tuned by a radio.) and what not. The signal which is meant for the end users (earthlings) are actually thrown skyward! Funny, eh! Well, the signals bounce back to earth following the laws of reflection. There is a mirror in the sky, called the ionosphere, a canopy of charged particles that reflects electromagnetic radio waves in the short wave band.

Albeit, some fractions do penetrate the layer through and through. We can now receive the information that bounces back, and hear Tommy Vance (BBC: Rock Salad), Ray MacDonald (Voice Of America) or Michael Wagner (Radio Australia) and dance to the fantastic music they broadcast.

But this reflection doesn't end here. The wave again bounces back to the ionosphere (this time from the Earth's surface) and thence again to earth. This process continues infinitely, at least, theoretically. Does the signal strength ever becomes zero? NEVER. If you divide one (1) by two(2), you'll get half. Divide it again and again... Never does it become naught. Another thing in point is that information is never lost, as this is the fundamental principle of quantum mechanics which assumes that the information is 'imprinted' on a quantum state.

Don't see the point?: Well, I , you and all other in our lifetime leave traces of our thoughts and other abstract ideas in the form of electromagnetic waves (alpha, beta, theta, Gamma waves of the EEG, for example), which reverberate forever, as explained above. Anyone who can tune to this frequency, can theoretically 'feel' the same as the original . Thus, there could be so many "virtual identities" (electromagnetic wave patterns) floating in space. That is the electromagnetic identities keep bouncing back and forth between ionosphere and earth. Just as a monkey can compile a Shakespeare, in an indefinite number of tries; one person among say, quadrillions may likewise tap/tune to a specific frequency, which is already in the air--> thus may resonate with his own thoughts, thereby ensuring maximum energy transfer. The living person may now 'acquire' (by tuning) a long-dead person's thoughts. This is tantamount to 'reincarnation'. It is as if the person goes back in time. Doesn't the theory of relativity allow you, theoretically, the 'absurdity' of 'going back in time' ? (The theory of relativity would even permit you to shake hands with Alexander the Great, only if you could crack the speed of light and of course, given Alexander agreed to it :-)

Genetically, when you think of a clone, (say Dolly, that Ian Wilmut created using cells from a cow's udder), where the offspring's genes are identical to the parental genes; then it could be possible to imagine some degree of chromosomal parallelism among the huge populace on earth. Such type of genetic makeup doesn't usually occur normally but in the same vein we can not deny the existence of 'atavism'. Though the possibility of an exact genotype by normal means is infinitesimally low, but not impossible. The idea of reincarnation should not be debunked as long as science disproves its existence, authoritatively. In one research, carried out by Ian Stevenson and colleagues on reincarnation, it was found that birthmarks correlated precisely with wounds in the previous life.

I am a huge fan of Iron Maiden. Read the lyrics of this song (infinite dreams) about his view on reincarnation here and listen to it if you like:

"There's got to be just more to it than this
Or tell me why do we exist
I'd like to think that when I die
I'd get a chance another time
And to return and live again
Reincarnate, play the game
Again and again and again."

Modified on 25 March 2009
You may visit: Wikipedia article on Reincarnation

Telepathy: The Nebulous Domain Of The Mystique

When we listen to the radio, see the TV or use a cellphone, do we ever give a damn why we need to resort to these gadgets to see or listen; when the informations, digital or analog is already there? Why do we need these tuners (devices) to 'hear or see' them? You may say, these gadgets help us tune and to decode the encrypted algorithm!

Some animals like dogs or birds can anticipate natural disasters like earthquakes beforehand. It is documented how the Jarwas of Andaman islands, India, sensed the tsunami (huge tidal waves of the sea due to undersea earthquakes), took shelter and saved themselves from extinction: they are already a dwindling tribe!

Analogy aside, we all have heard about ECG's , EEG's etc.. At different levels of brain activity (thinking, sleeping or dreaming) the brain does what is expected:-restarts after a dream (like defragmenting the acquired informations in scattered-chunks of memory and consolidating it in one contiguous and linked place: just as a computer does); hibernates in deep sleep and maintains just the minimum action such as breathing circulation; or opens new applications when in the awake state it hyperthreads:- relates to another program, which again relates to still another, as in a software process) as needed.

Since these are all electrical phenomena (electromagnetic, of ionic origin); they emanate electromagnetic emissions, which we so deftly capture in the form of EEG (EKG in the case of the heart) to our rapture. All electromagnetic radiations, as occurs in radio transmission, have to have some frequency. What we now need is a tuned circuit radio receiver, to get into the desired frequency, by resonance, for maximal transfer of energy.

Likewise, when a person thinks, due to the activity of the cerebral cortex, the frequency (EEG, for example) continuously varies as he emits the Electro-Magnetic waves. This can be intercepted by someone who happens to have the same frequency (smells like entanglement of quantum mechanics; though any quantum phenomenon at this distance is highly unlikely due to environmentally induced decoherence). But the prospect of a resonant energy transfer is much increased if the person is a yogi due to a streamlined and coherent thought process, so that the electro-magnetic emission could be like a pure sine wave.

Mono-zygotic (having a similar genetic make-up) twins raised in a common environment; women/mothers:- as in them the right hemisphere of the brain, responsible for arts and intuition, is more active (sixth sense) and logic is less active (in general); in lower primates (more intuition, less logic-->due to less well developed neocortex); tribals (more intuition, less logic); drugs like cannabis, mescaline (which depress the left brain more than the right) are some individuals who are more prone to pick up telepathic waves, albeit theoretically. It is presumed that persons with more intuitive (and having empathy) abilities will be able to receive or transmit these faint signal waves better. A logical person may try to 'overide' subconsciously any 'noise' that might affect his cortex.

Aldous Huxley, who wrote his famous book:'The Doors of perception' : about his experience on mescaline and Indian yogis who used these intoxicants for religious occasions (they probably did not fear the FBI), are some examples in point. Prospective study and retrospective study needs to be undertaken to validate these, as we can NOT rely on anecdotal evidences.

FUTURE PROSPECTS: Get ready for a thought reader or a foolproof lie detector in about a decade. PET scan, SPECT scan, magneto-encephalogram, human genome mapping, cloning, measurement of ions across biological membranes, are among the few we have in our armory now, to address the issue.
Disclaimer: The above represents my views, however unscientific they may seem.

Update on the power of thought: 1. Scientists have used electrocorticographic signals (electrocorticography is like EEG, only difference is that the electrodes are placed on the cortex rather than on the scalp) to manipulate accurately computer cursors accurately placed at a distance.

Ref: A brain–computer interface using electrocorticographic signals in humans. Eric C Leuthardt et al 2004 J. Neural Eng. cite_volume">1 63-71 doi: 10.1088/1741-2560/1/2/001 A female monkey in North Caolina,US, controlled a robot in Japan using only her brain activity.

Ref: Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot, a Step That May Help Humans