When asked about the potential of using his groups' methods to remotely control brain activity, Tyler says: "One might be able to envision potential applications ranging from medical interventions to use in video gaming or the creation of artificial memories along the lines of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character in 'Total Recall.' Imagine taking a vacation without actually going anywhere?"
(Via KurzweilAI.net.)
I can't help but wonder if a similar effect is to blame for the "screen memories" and "missing time" that plague UFO abductees. Many UFO sightings are accompanied by strange, low-frequency noises that could, in theory, alter consciousness -- perhaps merely as a side-effect.
8 comments:
Both ultrasound and infrasound can penetrate soft tissue. Ultrasound can raise the temperature of internal organs to harmful levels and cause permanent tissue damage.
In some studies the low frequency, infrasound, has been said to cause things like anxiety, awe, or feelings of despair or depression in some subjects.
So, your suggestion that "sound waves" outside the range of human hearing might be a factor in the UFO phenomena is at least worthy of consideration on some level.
Michael
Super! Now all I need is a hefty research grant . . .
For further detailed info, see:
http://www.ufocasebook.com/ufoeffects.pdf
Also, Dr. Jacques Vallee wrote a peer-reviewed paper, I believe for the Journal of Scientific Exploration, about the general nature of the forms of concentrated energy forms of both ball lightning and "ufos" can emit, which is largely in the microwave band (which is normally inaudible, and can have more of a physiological effect on perceptual continuity, temporal lobe effects, memory, and nervous system equilibrium than most sources of infra or ultrasound), which I would cite or note a url of, but cannot find online at the moment.
Has anyone reading this read anything by Albert Budden? He's British Fortean interested in the effects on EM pollution on the nervous system.
Yes, I read Budden's book, "The Electric Skies" several years ago, and he posits that ufo (and alleged "alien abduction" or "close encounter") phenomena are a consequence of primarily man-made electromagnetic pollution, and to some extent takes Dr. Michael Persinger's research into the psychological impact of low-level electromagnetic effects that Persinger experimented with at Laurentian University at his laboratory using his famed EM-emitting "God helmet" as a form of supportive, parallel evidence, even though Persinger leans more towards natural geomagnetic or piezo-electric phenomena generated by geological fault zones as an alternative source of both perceived ufo phenomena and close encounter experiences and reports (he refers to this as his "tectonic stress" theory).
Unfortunately, while there may be some evidence and truth to both these natural and artificial EM sources and effects that both Budden and Persinger speculate about as being sources of perceived ufo phenomena and close encounter witness reporting, their mutual attempts to make their respective, but differing, theorems so inclusive as to explain all such ufo or encounter experiences, fails to explain a wide variety of best case reports and analyses which include multiple witness, geographically dispersed cases that in some rare instances also include simultaneous radar, photographic, and other sensor-data recordings.
Budden's theory also is contradicted by the greater mass of ufo reports dating back to the mid-1940's through the early 1970's, when there were many more such cases, and a much higher proportion of genuine ufo and close encounter reports of seemingly authentic, well-documented nature, and when artificial or man-made EM pollution was far less than at any time in the subsequent 30+ years.
His theory would suggest there should be a greater degree of such ufo or encounter experiences than in fact has occurred for nearly 35 years, so his speculations about man-made EM pollution effects, as they relate to ufo phenomena, is contradicted by relatively recent history and elementary statistical analysis. You could say it doesn't "fly." 8^}
The fact is, there are many sources and kinds of "ufo phenomena" that have always been extant, some generated by both natural or man-made causes, and a smaller, but highly significant percentage, approximately 10 to 20 percent, that cannot be explained away by either Budden's or Persinger's rather speculative and far too inclusive theories.
It also should be considered that there is the possibility that forms of advanced non-human intelligence might even be capable of using or emulating varying electromagnetic phenomena and related effects for both camouflage and plausible deniability, and by appearing as or employing the effects of forms of natural phenomena such as ball lightning, atmospheric plasmas, or what has been called the "earthlights" phenomena, which author Paul Devereux has had much to say about, and his particular interest in documenting, in some cases, how earthlights appear to display behaviors that are apparently reactive and/or interactive in nature to human percipients, thus implying some form of intelligence.
Deveroux's theory may also relate to what James Deardorff terms the "leaky embargo" hypothesis regarding ufo phenomena involving aspects of high strangeness, and as per Vallee, in his revised "Hynek" scale of CE III/IV cases, also.
Those kinds of sightings or encounters are what should be the focus of science and genuine, truly objective ufo research due to their potential for discovering new, and so far unknown, rare and elusive phenomenological or esoteric physical aspects of our reality, and even more significantly, of course, whether any such phenomena can ever be objectively and empirically determined to involve any form of non-human intelligence and consciousness. This latter issue is the real question at the heart of the most serious, important ufo research due to any such non-human intelligence's potential influence or impact on humanity and our future.
I am perpetually reminded of the great English geneticist and evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane's quote, from his 1927 book "Possible Worlds and Other Papers":
"I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."
I suspect that is truer than we can even imagine, at least for now.
Very thoughtful post from Intense, I enjoyed it. So I guess the question still is, can any of these effects cause us to feel and remember experiences and events that are vivid in our mind and yet never really happened in physical space and time as we normally think of it? I guess that was Mac's original question and I think the answer is... quite possibly, yes. Now add in some consciousness altering chemicals and... real versus unreal becomes an even cloudier question for our brains to discern.
Michael
"...I guess the question still is, can any of these effects cause us to feel and remember experiences and events that are vivid in our mind and yet never really happened in physical space and time as we normally think of it? ...I think the answer is... quite possibly, yes."
Thanks for your kind comment, Michael. I would also agree with your comment, that there is a very great possibility, and substantial evidence, in fact, that the human mind can, indeed, synthesize what seem to be real experiences and events that have not actually occurred in real time and external space, and create memories and recall thereof.
How the human mind, and crucial aspects of consciousness and memory really work are still relatively poorly understood--for example, is mind, or conscious, a partially quantum epiphenomena?
It is well known, for example, that psychologically disturbed individuals can have hallucinations they think are real events. I'm convinced that people can also be caused to confabulate experiences, due to a variety of brain chemistry imbalances and other physical and experiencial factors, and you're of course correct that when you add in the potential effects of mind-altering drugs or differing types of EM effects, regardless of source, causality, or type, that the mind can generate or create artificial scenarios--the capacity is inherent in mind, given for example dream states and the historical record of visionary experiences, which probably derive from multiple, oblique causes.
This is one of the central problems in evaluating anecdotal reports of ufo phenomena--without external supportive evidence, how does one know if the witness report is of a real encounter, or not? This is also why the use by various "abduction researchers" like Budd Hopkins of regressive hypnosis techniques is bound to generate confabulated recall, due to the bias and prompting cues of the researchers involved--that's one reason why BUFORA, the main British UFO investigatory group, has banned such "hypnotherapy" practices in the investigation of ufo witness reports--worse, yet, it tends to reinforce delusional or confabulated accounts in the percipient's mind, which is very unethical, and damaging to witnesses' psyches.
It also tends to distort and falsely enhance such forms of faulty recall, which I personally think is almost criminal in effect on alleged witness psychology--I suspect such effects are, at least in part, responsible for some of the more extraordinary alien abduction and close encounter reports, and creates a false, self-reinforcing negative feedback loop of anecdotal reports.
Only one example of that syndrome I've done personal research about is the both fabricated and delusional accounts of Betty Andreasson and some family members of recurrent alien abduction accounts over 30 years, as portrayed by Raymond Fowler in his books about the Andreasson's--now even Fowler believes he, too, is an alien abductee, I believe as a consequence of a form of delusional psychological contamination and an overly credulous non-objective "will to believe," and also via disinformational contact with and manipulation by a disturbed member of the Andreasson family, Robert Luca, Sr., Betty's second husband, who his son, Bob Luca, Jr., has claimed fabricated and hoaxed certain electronic effects in order to persuade Fowler of the "authenticity" of his wife's manipulated but delusional abduction and "alien encounter" accounts.
Luca, Sr., has also engaged in hypnotizing his wife to supposedly draw out abduction account data for Fowler's "documentary investigation." Quite disturbing and extremely improper, imho.
The tragedy of all this is how polluted and muddied the waters of real, genuine research of ufo close encounters and anecdotal reports has become, ever since the Betty and Barney Hill case, for another pertinent example. Stanton Friedman, who I don't think is a very good researcher, has also become involved in attempting to legitimize the Hill case, as he also erroneously has done in both the Roswell and MJ-12 cases.
Another example of altered consciousness that's interesting and heartbreaking at the same time is dementia.
My father was diagnosed with irreversible dementia in the later years of his life. In the early stages of the disease I observed him having conversations with beings that only he was able to see and speak with. When asked who he was talking with he would refer to them, they, or those people. If pressed on the subject he would go silent and ignore the questioner or any more questions.
During his "conversations" I could observe his eyes and gestures as well as his words while he interacted with these beings. Whatever he was "seeing" seemed real enough to him in his state of mind. Eventually, as my father's disease progressed, all communication between him and the beings seemed to cease.
I've often wondered if I could have seen through his eyes, if only briefly, what I might have observed.
Michael
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