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Saturday, March 31, 2007

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE STUDY SHOWS LAUGHTER HELPS BLOOD VESSELS FUNCTION BETTER

Volunteers were shown funny and disturbing movies to test the effect of emotions on blood vessels

Using laughter-provoking movies to gauge the effect of emotions on cardiovascular health, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that laughter is linked to healthy function of blood vessels. Laughter appears to cause the tissue that forms the inner lining of blood vessels, the endothelium, to dilate or expand in order to increase blood flow.

When the same group of study volunteers was shown a movie that produced mental stress, their blood vessel lining developed a potentially unhealthy response called vasoconstriction, reducing blood flow. That finding confirms previous studies, which suggested there was a link between mental stress and the narrowing of blood vessels.

The results of the study, conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center, were presented at the Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology on March 7, 2005, in Orlando, Florida.

The endothelium has a powerful effect on blood vessel tone and regulates blood flow, adjusts coagulation and blood thickening, and secretes chemicals and other substances in response to wounds, infections or irritation. It also plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease.

“The endothelium is the first line in the development of atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, so, given the results of our study, it is conceivable that laughing may be important to maintain a healthy endothelium, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” says principal investigator Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “At the very least, laughter offsets the impact of mental stress, which is harmful to the endothelium.”

The study included a group of 20 non-smoking, healthy volunteers, equally divided between men and women, whose average age was 33. The participants had normal blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels. Each volunteer was shown part of two movies at the extreme ends of the emotional spectrum. They were randomized to first watch either a movie that would cause mental stress, such as the opening scene of “Saving Private Ryan” (DreamWorks, 1998), or a segment of a movie that would cause laughter, such as “King Pin” (MGM, 1996). A minimum of 48 hours later, they were shown a movie intended to produce the opposite emotional extreme.

Prior to seeing a movie, the volunteers fasted overnight and were given a baseline blood vessel reactivity test to measure what is known as flow-mediated vasodilation. For that test, blood flow in the brachial artery in the arm was restricted by a blood pressure cuff and released. An ultrasound device then measured how well the blood vessel responded to the sudden increase in flow.

Volunteers watched a 15-minute segment of the movie while lying down in a temperature-controlled room. After the movie was shown, the brachial artery was constricted for five minutes and then released. Again, ultrasound images were acquired. Changes in blood vessel reactivity after the volunteers watched a movie lasted for at least 30 to 45 minutes. A total of 160 blood vessel measurements were performed before and after the laughter and mental stress phases of the study.

There were no differences in the baseline measurements of blood vessel dilation in either the mental stress or laughter phases. But there were striking contrasts after the movies were seen.

Brachial artery flow was reduced in 14 of the 20 volunteers following the movie clips that caused mental stress. In contrast, beneficial blood vessel relaxation or vasodilation was increased in 19 of the 20 volunteers after they watched the movie segments that generated laughter. Overall, average blood flow increased 22 percent during laughter, and decreased 35 percent during mental stress.

Several volunteers had already seen “Saving Private Ryan,” says Dr. Miller, but even so, some of them were among the 14 with reduced blood flow.

“The magnitude of change we saw in the endothelium is similar to the benefit we might see with aerobic activity, but without the aches, pains and muscle tension associated with exercise,” says Dr. Miller. “We don’t recommend that you laugh and not exercise, but we do recommend that you try to laugh on a regular basis. Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week, and 15 minutes of laughter on a daily basis is probably good for the vascular system.”

Dr. Miller says this study was not able to determine the source of laughter’s benefit. “Does it come from the movement of the diaphragm muscles as you chuckle or guffaw, or does it come from a chemical release triggered by laughter, such as endorphins?” he asks. Dr. Miller says a compound called nitric oxide is known to play a role in the dilation of the endothelium. “Perhaps mental stress leads to a breakdown in nitric oxide or inhibits a stimulus to produce nitric oxide that results in vasoconstriction,” says Dr. Miller.

The current study builds on earlier research Dr. Miller conducted on the potential benefits of laughter, reported in 2000, which suggested that laughter may be good for the heart. In that study, answers to questionnaires helped determine whether people were prone to laughter and ascertain their levels of hostility and anger. Three hundred volunteers participated in the study. Half of them had suffered a heart attack or had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery; the other half did not have heart disease. People with heart disease responded with less humor to everyday life situations than those with a normal cardiovascular system.

Dr. Miller says certain factors in the earlier study may have affected the results. For example, he says it may be that people who have already had a coronary event are not as laughter-prone as those who do not have heart disease.

He says the current study sought to eliminate that uncertainty by using volunteers whose cardiovascular system was healthy. The results of the brachial artery blood flow measurements, which are precise and objective, appear to make the connection between laughter and cardiovascular health even stronger, according to Dr. Miller.

Other researchers in the study included Charles Mangano, R.D.M.S; Young Park, M.D.; Radha Goel, M.D.; Gary Plotnick, M.D. and Robert A. Vogel, M.D., all from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and a Veterans Affairs Merit award to Dr. Miller.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Soy's Thyroid Dangers

A Look at the Dangers of Soy to the Health of Your Thyroid

Health and nutrition magazines tout the benefits of soy as a cure-all for women's health, hormonal problems, cancer prevention, weight loss, and many other problems. The reality, however, is that promotion of soy may be more a matter of business and marketing, rather than recommendations based on sound scientific evidence.

Isoflavones, the key components of soy that make them so potent as a posible substitute for hormone replacement, mean that soy products, while touted as foods and nutritional products -- often are used and act as like a hormonal drug.

If you have a diagnosed or undiagnosed thyroid problem, or a history of autoimmune disease, overconsumption of soy isoflavones can potentially trigger a thyroid condition. Soy foods can worsen an existing diagnosed thyroid problem in many people.

In both cases the symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, and depression or moodiness are often overlooked and hard to diagnose.

A recent study found that as millions of Americans -- perhaps as many as more than 10 million -- have an undiagnosed thyroid condition. The vast majority of thyroid patients are women over 40. This is the same group that, responding to marketing claims that promote soy as helping to prevent breast cancer, reducing the risk of high cholesterol or heart disease, or as a treatment for symptoms of menopause, are turning to soy foods and isoflavone supplements in vast numbers.

Here is more information regarding soy and its relationship to the thyroid.

FDA's Soy Experts Speak Out Against Soy

"there is abundant evidence that some of the isoflavones found in soy, including genistein and equol, a metabolize of daidzen, demonstrate toxicity in estrogen sensitive tissues and in the thyroid. This is true for a number of species, including humans.

Additionally, isoflavones are inhibitors of the thyroid peroxidase which makes T3 and T4. Inhibition can be expected to generate thyroid abnormalities, including goiter and autoimmune thyroiditis. There exists a significant body of animal data that demonstrates goitrogenic and even carcinogenic effects of soy products. Moreover, there are significant reports of goitrogenic effects from soy consumption in human infants and adults."

Official Letter of Protest to the FDA Letter of protest from researchers Daniel Doerge and Daniel Sheehan, two of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) key experts on soy, to the FDA, protesting the health claims approved by the FDA on soy products

America's Foremost Alternative Doctor Warns Re: Soy

America's leading alternative doctor, Dr. Andrew Weil, has said about soy, at his Ask Dr. Weil website

"…you're unlikely to get too many isoflavones as a result of adding soy foods to your diet -- but you probably will take in too much if you take soy supplements in pill form. At this point, I can only recommend that you avoid soy supplements entirely."

Study Shows That Too Much Tofu Induces Brain Aging

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

"A Hawaii study shows a significant statistical relationship between two or more servings of tofu a week and 'accelerated brain aging' and even an association with Alzheimer's disease, says Dr. Lon White. "...these are not nutrients. They are drugs. They will have some benefits and some negative things."


From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Black Tea Soothes Away Stress

Science Daily — Daily cups of tea can help you recover more quickly from the stresses of everyday life, according to a new study by UCL (University College London) researchers. New scientific evidence shows that black tea has an effect on stress hormone levels in the body.

The study, published in the journal Psychopharmacology, found that people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a fake tea substitute. Furthermore, the study participants – who drank a black tea concoction four times a day for six weeks – were found to have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood after a stressful event, compared with a control group who drank the fake or placebo tea for the same period of time.

In the study, 75 young male regular tea drinkers were split into two groups and monitored for six weeks. They all gave up their normal tea, coffee and caffeinated beverages, then one group was given a fruit-flavoured caffeinated tea mixture made up of the constituents of an average cup of black tea. The other group – the control group – was given a caffeinated placebo identical in taste, but devoid of the active tea ingredients. All drinks were tea-coloured, but were designed to mask some of the normal sensory cues associated with tea drinking (such as smell, taste and familiarity of the brew), to eliminate confounding factors such as the ‘comforting’ effect of drinking a cup of tea.

Both groups were subjected to challenging tasks, while their cortisol, blood pressure, blood platelet and self-rated levels of stress were measured. In one task, volunteers were exposed to one of three stressful situations (threat of unemployment, a shop lifting accusation or an incident in a nursing home), where they had to prepare a verbal response and argue their case in front of a camera.

The tasks triggered substantial increases in blood pressure, heart rate and subjective stress ratings in both of the groups. In other words, similar stress levels were induced in both groups. However, 50 minutes after the task, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47 per cent in the tea drinking group compared with 27 per cent in the fake tea group.

UCL researchers also found that blood platelet activation – linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks – was lower in the tea drinkers, and that this group reported a greater degree of relaxation in the recovery period after the task.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, says: “Drinking tea has traditionally been associated with stress relief, and many people believe that drinking tea helps them relax after facing the stresses of everyday life. However, scientific evidence for the relaxing properties of tea is quite limited. This is one of the first studies to assess tea in a double-blind placebo controlled design – that is, neither we nor the participants knew whether they were drinking real or fake tea. This means that any differences were due to the biological ingredients of tea, and not to the relaxing situations in which people might drink tea, whether they were familiar with the taste and liked it, and so on.

“We do not know what ingredients of tea were responsible for these effects on stress recovery and relaxation. Tea is chemically very complex, with many different ingredients. Ingredients such as catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids have been found to have effects on neurotransmitters in the brain, but we cannot tell from this research which ones produced the differences.

“Nevertheless, our study suggests that drinking black tea may speed up our recovery from the daily stresses in life. Although it does not appear to reduce the actual levels of stress we experience, tea does seem to have a greater effect in bringing stress hormone levels back to normal. This has important health implications, because slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease.”

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University College London.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Protein discovery may help treat cancer

Ottawa, March 21 (Xinhua) Canadian researchers have found a key protein to treat metastatic breast and ovarian cancers, making 'smart' therapies possible for these diseases.

A protein called podocalyxin, which hides on the surface of tumour cells, may be an accurate predictor of metastatic cancer, researchers from University of British Columbia (UBC) said.

Metastatic cancer is invasive cancer that spreads from the original site to other sites in the body.

'Since it lies on the surface of cells we can target the antibodies to, or find a way to prevent its action,' said Dr. Kelly McNagny, a stem cell expert with the UBC Biomedical Research Centre.

McNagny said the finding is a 'small but important step' to develop so-called 'smart' molecules in blocking the protein's function.

The researchers said information from this discovery might speed up the development of new therapies within 10 years.

'The ultimate goal is to generate new targeted, non-toxic treatments, different from the standard slash and burn chemotherapy,' said Calvin Roskelley, an associate professor of cellular and physiological science.

The Public Library of Science has published the findings online.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that approximately 2,300 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed and about 1,600 women died of the disease last year.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Traditional Chinese medical beliefs still relevant in Beijing

Traditional Chinese medical beliefs continue to have an impact on oral health in Beijing, China, says Jacqueline Hom, a dental student at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (Boston, MA, USA), who reports her findings today during the 85th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research.

Over a two-month period, she gathered ethnographic data from 67 respondents, including patients, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) professionals, and dental practitioners. Each of the respondents used the concept of shang huo (rising heat) to describe oral health problems.

When patients had symptoms of shang huo, such as tooth pain, gingival swelling, and a sore throat, they sought 'purging fire´ herbal medicine from the pharmacy or visited the dentist.

TCM doctors regarded the concept of huo (fire) as excessive or deficient and described the consequences of patients taking inappropriate medication for huo. Chinese dentists often teach themselves TCM concepts and treatments to better serve patients with the chief complaint, "I am shang huo."

Various perspectives on shang huo illustrate how multiple medical traditions can interact within a single oral health culture. Understandings the existing oral health culture in Beijing, such as shang huo, can aid in the development of future oral health programs and assist oral health-care practitioners in serving their patients better.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Tea Reduces Bacteria In Meats

Science Daily — Take a serving of extracts from green tea or Jasmine tea, mix in some wildflower dark honey and you have something more useful than a drink. It’s actually a scientific mixture that can be used to reduce pathogenic bacteria in meats.

“Our results indicated that Jasmine tea with honey and green tea with honey had the highest antimicrobial activity,” said Daniel Fung, the Kansas State University food science professor who supervised the research for the Food Safety Consortium.

The tests were first conducted in a liquid medium and found that the tea extract and honey treatments caused significant reductions of Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. “That’s not surprising,” Fung said. “In liquid medium, it’s easier for the compounds to interact with the organisms in liquid.”

Then Fung, working with KSU researchers Beth Ann Crozier-Dodson and Laura Munson, moved on to food, which can be a more difficult medium when seeking to cause the type of reaction among the compounds that will inhibit pathogens.

The results were good. Treating turkey breast slice with combinations of Jasmine tea extract and wildflower dark honey reduced Listeria monocytogenes by 10 to 20 percent. Similar reductions of the pathogen were recorded when applied to hot dogs.

One of the beneficial side effects of the treatment is shelf life. Fung noted that the experiments showed the hot dogs were still showing reduced levels of pathogens 14 days after the application.

With such favorable results from the tests, Fung is thinking ahead to future possible applications as a surface wash for meat during processing as well as way to improve the safety of ready-to eat meats and vegetables.

“We’re thinking of using tea to wash carcasses because of its natural compounds,” he said. “”If you can use tea or honey to wash carcasses instead of lactic acid, you can use a natural compound on the surface of meat.”


Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Arkansas, Food Safety Consortium.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tomato Nutrition Facts

The tomato not only thrills the taste buds and brightens the dinner table, it also helps fight disease.

A review of 72 different studies showed consistently that the more tomatoes and tomato products people eat, the lower their risks of many different kinds of cancer. The secret may lie in lycopene, the chemical that makes tomatoes red, said Dr. Edward Giovannucci, Harvard School of Public Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Among the studies he reviewed, 57 showed that the more tomatoes one ate, the lower the risk of cancer. “The evidence for benefit was strongest for cancers of the prostate, lung, and stomach,” he reported.

Processed tomatoes (e.g. canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup) contain even more lycopene because cooking breaks down cell walls, releasing and concentrating carotenoids. Eating tomatoes with a small amount of fat enables lycopene to be better absorbed.

In one study, 10 healthy women ate a diet containing two ounces of tomato puree each day for three weeks, either preceded by or followed by a tomato-free diet for three weeks. The researchers measured blood levels of lycopene and evaluated oxidative damage to cells before and after each phase. They found that cell damage dropped by 33% to 42% after consuming the tomato diet.

The tomato is also an excellent source of vitamin C (one medium tomato provides 40% of the RDA) and a good source of vitamin A (20% of the RDA).

On the minus side, as a nightshade relative, tomatoes contain glycoalkaloids, which some people believe contribute to arthritis symptoms. Research, however, has not backed this up.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Benefits of aloe vera

Aloe vera has been used around the world for thousands of years! Learn its many benefits, how it works, how it helps with healing and more!

Aloes have been used worldwide for more than 3,500 years. They are desert lilies and there are more than 200 varieties. Aloe vera is an aloe plant. Aloe vera, which means “true aloe” in Latin, is generally the most widely used and most effective species of aloe.

The aloe vera plant has long, spiked leaves, which are thick-skinned and contain a clear gel-like substance. It is used today in many products, including cosmetics, skin lotions and moisturizers, burn gels and even sun screen creams.

Juice is also taken from the aloe vera leaves. The bitter juice is often prepared as a flavored drink and is used to help with digestive problems.

Aloe vera contains numerous vitamins and minerals, enzymes, amino acids, natural sugars and agents which may be anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. The combination and balance of the plant's ingredients are what purportedly gives it its healing properties.

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Many ancient works, including the Bible, refer to the use of aloe. One of the first documented users of aloe vera was Cleopatra, who lived from 68 to 30 B.C. She is said to have used the gel on her skin as protection from the sun, and to have thought the gel helped to keep her skin young-looking. In fact, the Egyptians may have used aloe vera in their embalming of bodies, among other uses.

About the year Six B.C., Dioscorides, a Greek physician, discovered aloe vera was effective in treating a wide range of ailments, from kidney problems and constipation, to severe burns of the skin.

Today aloe vera continues to be widely used around the world. Studies have shown that aloe vera speeds the healing process, particularly in burns, including those from radiation. It is also used by dermatologists to speed healing after facial dermabrasion, which removes scars from the skins top layers.

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The possible benefits from the use of aloe vera gel and juice include:

1. May help sooth skin injured by burns, irritations, cuts and insect bites.

2. May help moisturize and soften the skin.

3. May help speed the healing of skin wounds, burns and other injuries.

4. May help (when taken internally)with constipation, diarrhea and other intestinal problems.

5. May speed and improve general healing when taken internally.

6. May relieve itching and swelling of irritated skin.

7. May help kill fungus and bacteria.

8. May improve the effectiveness of sun screen products.

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Although not conclusive, studies have been done which indicate aloe vera may have some value in the treatment or prevention of some cancers and arthritis. Other trials have been conducted and preliminary evidence shows aloe vera may be useful in treating diabetes, immune system problems and psoriasis.

Aloe vera plants are readily available and some people keep a potted plant in the kitchen. A leaf spike may be cut open and the gel applied directly to a cut or burn. For other uses, particularly for internal use, commercial gels and juices, which are processed under strict controls, can be found at most health food stores as well as many supermarkets.

It is always recommended that one consult a physician before self-treating a medical condition.

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this is.... aloe vera's wonders....!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

CASTOR OIL: MODERN USES FOR AN OLD FOLK REMEDY

My first encounter with the amazing healing powers of castor oil took place during a business trip to Amsterdam, Holland, nearly 20 years ago. As I got off the plane from Toronto, I felt a sharp pain in my lower back, radiating down into my leg. Whether it was triggered by the long hours of sitting crunched up in an uncomfortable airplane seat or by the heavy suitcase I was carrying, I'll never know. By the time I got to my hotel room, I was in agony, barely able to stand up straight. Even lying down on the bed was painful.

What was I to do? I didn't know anyone in the city, and I was scheduled to attend some important meetings the following day. The staff at the hotel reception desk couldn't tell me how to locate a chiropractor. I wasn't interested in going to a doctor for a prescription painkiller or muscle-relaxant. I remembered that "Sleeping Prophet" Edgar Cayce had often suggested castor oil packs for various aches and pains, and I remembered having read of this remedy's effectiveness in cases of sciatica.

I managed to take a cab to a nearby drugstore, where I purchased a bottle of castor oil. No doubt the pharmacist thought that I was bent over because of constipation!

Back at the hotel, I soaked a towel in the oil and wrapped it around my lower back. In a proper castor oil pack, a cloth of wool or cotton flannel is folded in several layers, then saturated with warm castor oil, and placed on the affected area. But I had to make do with a hotel towel and room-temperature oil. I also didn't have access to a heating pad or hot water bottle to add the prescribed warmth to the pack. The idea is that heat allows the oil to penetrate the skin and work its way deep into the tissues. I figured that the heat generated by my body would have to do. Finally, I cut open some plastic bags and spread them on the bed before lying down, to avoid getting oil on the sheets.

Tired from the overnight flight, and exhausted from the pain, I drifted off into a deep sleep. When I woke up a few hours later, I was drowsy with jet-lag, but the pain was gone! It had completely disappeared, and I was able to sit, stand, and walk normally. An impressive result for a clumsy first attempt with makeshift tools!

Since that time, I have witnessed the powerful healing force contained in castor oil on numerous occasions. My family and I have successfully used castor oil packs and rubs for various kinds of abdominal complaints, headaches, inflammatory conditions, muscle pains, skin eruptions and lesions. Castor oil is a staple item in our medicine cabinet at home, and whenever we travel, we pack a small bottle of castor oil.

The Palma Christi

Castor oil is extracted from the seed of the castor oil plant, whose botanical name is ricinus communis. While it was Cayce who brought castor oil packs to fame in the 20th century, the oil has a long and varied history of use as a healing agent in folk medicine around the world. According to a research report in a recent issue of the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, castor bean seeds, believed to be 4,000 years old, have been found in Egyptian tombs, and historical records reveal the medicinal use of castor oil in Egypt (for eye irritations), India, China (for induction of childbirth and expulsion of the placenta), Persia (for epilepsy), Africa, Greece, Rome, Southern Europe, and the Americas. In ancient Rome, the castor oil plant was known as Palma Christi, which translates into hand of Christ. This name is still sometimes used today.

A book about the Vermont style of folk medicine by D.C. Jarvis published in 1958 lists numerous conditions which respond well to the topical application of castor oil, including irritation of the conjunctiva of the eye; to promote healing of the umbilicus in a newborn; and to increase milk flow in lactating women when applied to the breasts. As a nursing mom, I can attest to the effectiveness of castor oil applied to sore, irritated, or inflamed nipples. It works faster than any commercial salve, and I don't have to worry about washing it off before the next nursing. Any trace of the oil that my son may get in his mouth is definitely not going to harm him!

No one could claim more experience with the clinical application of castor oil than Dr. William A. McGarey, Chairman of the Board of the A.R.E. Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. In the course of his medical career spanning over several decades, Dr. McGarey has published numerous articles and books covering treatments with various Cayce remedies. In his recently revised and updated book about castor oil, entitled The Oil That Heals, Dr. McGarey recounts being told a story in 1965 by a man who, some years earlier, had travelled to a Virginia mountain town to visit his sister. This man "had developed an intensely inflamed finger." writes Dr. McGarey. "A local physician advised him to go to a larger city to have a surgeon work on it. He was about to leave at once, for the finger was very painful, when his sister influenced him to show the finger to 'Aunt Minnie', who lived up the hills and who was a midwife. As soon as she saw it, she told him to wrap a flannel cloth soaked in castor oil around the finger and leave it there. He followed her advice and direction, and by morning most of the inflammation and all of the soreness were gone. By the morning of the second day, all the swelling and inflammation had gone, and a grain of sand (acquired while he was bathing on the seashore one week earlier) was discovered under the edge of the fingernail. This came out with the castor oil bandage, and the finger was healed."

Dr. McGarey has successfully used the castor oil packs in a clinical setting for numerous conditions, including liver and gall bladder disturbances, abscesses, headaches, appendicitis, epilepsy, hemorrhoids, constipation, intestinal obstructions, hyperactivity in children, and to avert threatened abortions in pregnant women. In The Oil That Heals, Dr. McGarey says that Edgar Cayce described at least thirty different physiological functions that could be changed for the better through the use of castor oil applied topically, mostly by the use of the packs.

Help for Women's Problems

In The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health through Drugless Therapy, the late Dr. Harold J. Reilly, who worked with the information provided in the Cayce readings for forty-five years, recalls the case of a woman who had been suffering from excessive bleeding of the uterus for thirteen years. By the time she came to see Dr. Reilly, her problem was threatening to disrupt her career as an opera singer, as well as her ability to function normally in her personal life as a wife and mother. Four leading gynecologists whom she had consulted had all recommended some kind of surgery, from a simple D&C to a total hysterectomy. Dr. Reilly put her on a regimen that began with colonic irrigations and castor oil packs four nights on, three nights off. The woman later reported that "after the first two nights of the castor oil packs ... the spotting stopped, and this was remarkable, because it was just after my menstrual period, and usually that went on and on. By the end of the week, I sang in a concert and felt fine."

In her popular book Take Charge of Your Body, Canadian physician Dr. Carolyn DeMarco recommends the application of castor oil packs at night for the relief of pain and swelling associated with varicose veins. And in a 1994 article in Health Naturally magazine, Dr. DeMarco writes about the recommendation of American gynecologist Dr. Christine Northrup to apply castor oil packs to the lumpy, painful breasts of women who suffer from cystic breast disease.

Susun Weed, author of the book Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, says that in traditional midwifery, castor oil is used internally and externally to stimulate the uterus, soften the cervix, and help initiate labour. She suggests rubbing castor oil on the belly and covering with a warm towel if the cervix is ripe and labour seems near. Some midwives rub castor oil on the feet to help labour along.

How Castor Oil Works on the Body

A country doctor whom Dr. McGarey quotes in The Oil That Heals, once said: "Castor oil will leave the body in better condition than it found it." But the physiological workings of castor oil's interaction with the body remain somewhat elusive. Dr. McGarey says: "We still have no explanation why ..... a pack using this oil will help restore normalcy to a hyperactive child, or speed up the healing of hepatitis, or help to get rid of gallstones, or even help heal abrasions and infections. Perhaps [the explanation] is to be found in the nature of the human body and the secret capabilities of the substances God gave us here on the earth for our use and benefit."

Dr. McGarey is very humble in his statement, for he does present a plausible hypothesis relating to Edgar Cayce's suggestion that castor oil packs can strengthen the Peyer's Patches, which are tiny patches of lymphatic tissue in the mucosal surface of the small intestine. According to Cayce, the Peyer's Patches produce a substance which facilitates electrical contact between the autonomous and the cerebrospinal nervous system when it reaches those areas via the bloodstream. Dr. McGarey thus understands Cayce to say that the health of the entire nervous system is, to an extent, maintained through the substance produced by the Peyer's Patches when they are in good health. Although the Peyer's Patches were discovered in 1677, it is only recently that medical science has begun to recognize them as constituents of the body's immune system.

Current research appears to confirm Dr. McGarey's theory. A double-blind study, described by Harvey Grady in a report entitled Immunomodulation through Castor Oil Packs published in a recent issue of the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, examined lymphocyte values of 36 healthy subjects before and after topical castor oil application. This study identified castor oil as an anti-toxin, and as having impact on the lymphatic system, enhancing immunological function. The study found that castor oil pack therapy of a minimal two-hour duration produced an increase in the number of T-11 cells within a 24-hour period following treatment, with a concomitant increase in the number of total lymphocytes. This T-11 cell increase represents a general boost in the body's specific defense status, since lymphocytes actively defend the health of the body by forming antibodies against pathogens and their toxins. T-cells identify and kill viruses, fungi, bacteria, and cancer cells.

Castor oil packs are a simple home therapy which often produces astounding results. When we consider the Cayce statement quoted in Dr. McGarey's book, "There's as much of God in a teaspoonful of castor oil as there is in a prayer!", we may begin to appreciate the powerful healing potential of the "Palma Christi".

Castor Oil Pack Instructions

(excerpted from The Oil That Heals by William A. McGarey, M.D.)

Prepare a flannel cloth which is two or three thicknesses when folded and which measures about eight inches in width and ten to twelve inches in length after it is folded. This is the size needed for abdominal application - other areas may need a different size pack, as seems applicable. Pour castor oil into a pan and soak the cloth in the oil. Wring out the cloth so that it is wet but not drippy with the castor oil (or simply pour castor oil onto the pack so it is soaked). Apply the cloth to the area which needs treatment. Most often, the pack should be placed so it covers the area of the liver.

Protection against soiling bed clothing can be made by putting a sheet underneath the body. Then a plastic covering should be applied over the soaked flannel cloth. On top of the plastic, place a heating pad and turn it up to "medium" to begin, then to "high" if the body tolerates it. It helps to wrap a large towel around the body to hold the pack snugly in place, using large safety pins on the towel. The pack should remain in place between an hour to an hour and a half.

The skin can be cleansed afterwards, if desired, by using water which is prepared as follows: to a squart of water, add two teaspoons of baking soda. Use this to cleanse the abdomen. Keep the flannel pack wrapped in plastic for future use. It need not be discarded after one application, but can usually be used many times.

Note: Always use a high-quality, cold-pressed castor oil, available in health food stores.
copyright simone gabbay 1999
REFERENCES:

THE OIL THAT HEALS - A Physician's Success with Castor Oil Treatments
by William A. McGarey, M.D.A.R.E. Press, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

EDGAR CAYCE AND THE PALMA CHRISTI
Dr. McGarey's first volume on castor oil,now superseded by The Oil That Heals

IMMUNOMODULATION THROUGH CASTOR OIL PACKS
by Harvey GradyThe Journal of Naturopathic Medicine, Volume 7, Number 1

THE EDGAR CAYCE HANDBOOKFOR HEALTH THROUGH DRUGLESS THERAPY
by Dr. Harold J. Reilly and Ruth Hagy BrodA.R.E. Press, Virginia Beach, VA, USA

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR BODY -Women's Health Advisor
by Dr. Carolyn DeMarcoThe Well Women PressWinlaw, BC

WISE WOMAN HERBAL FOR THE CHILDBEARING YEAR
by Susun S. WeedAsh Tree PublishingWoodstock, New York, USA

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Virgin Coconut Oil and Viruses

The antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal properties of the medium chain fatty acids/triglycerides (MCTs) found in coconut oil have been known to researchers since the 1960s. Research has shown that microorganisms that are inactivated include bacteria, yeast, fungi, and enveloped viruses. Much of this research is highlighted in the writings of Dr. Mary Enig Ph.D.

There is growing consensus that man-made antibiotics produced by pharmaceutical companies are over-used today, creating a whole new host of problems for modern societies. Michael Murray N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno N.D. write...

There is little argument that, when used appropriately, antibiotics save lives. However, there is also little argument that antibiotics are seriously overused. While the appropriate use of antibiotics makes good medical sense, using them for such conditions as acne, recurrent bladder infections, chronic ear infections, chronic sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, and nonbacterial sore throats does not. The antibiotics rarely provide benefit, and these conditions can be effectively treated with natural measures. The widespread use and abuse of antibiotics is becoming increasingly alarming, not only because of the chronic candidiasis epidemic, but also due to the development of "superbugs" that are resistant to currently available antibiotics. According to many experts, such as the World Health Organization, we are coming dangerously close to arriving at a "postnatibitoic era," in which many infectious diseases will once again become almost impossible to treat.

To read more about fungal infections like Candida, and how coconut oil can help, click here.

Even if you are not taking antibiotics from your doctor, there is a good chance that you are getting plenty of pharmaceuticals through the foods you eat. There are just as many (if not more) antibiotics sold and given to animals for meat production in the US, as there are for human medicine. You say you're vegetarian? Pesticides used on crops today can also cause mutations in micro-organisms similar to antibiotics. Pharmaceutical companies today produce many of the seeds used in agriculture, and they have pesticides manufactured right into them via genetic modification. Ronnie Cummins of the Campaign for Food Safety states:

When gene engineers splice a foreign gene into a plant or microbe, they often link it to another gene, called an antibiotic resistance marker gene (ARM), that helps determine if the first gene was successfully spliced into the host organism. Some researchers warn that these ARM genes might unexpectedly recombine with disease-causing bacteria or microbes in the environment or in the guts of animals or people who eat GE food, contributing to the growing public health danger of antibiotic resistance -- of infections that cannot be cured with traditional antibiotics, for example new strains of salmonella, e-coli, campylobacter, and enterococci. EU (European Union) authorities are currently considering a ban on all GE foods containing antibiotic resistant marker genes.....Gene-splicing will inevitably result in unanticipated outcomes and dangerous surprises that damage plants and the environment. Researchers conducting experiments at Michigan State University several years ago found that genetically-altering plants to resist viruses can cause the viruses to mutate into new, more virulent forms. Scientists in Oregon found that a genetically engineered soil microorganism, Klebsiella planticola, completely killed essential soil nutrients. Environmental Protection Agency whistle blowers issued similar warnings in 1997 protesting government approval of a GE soil bacteria called Rhizobium melitoli.

Instead of relying on man-made pharmaceuticals for everything, many are now turning to natural methods to boost the body's immune system and resist harmful viruses and micro-organisms naturally. Coconut oil is truly one of nature's best "germ fighters."

Lauric Acid

Lauric acid is the most predominant MCT found in coconut oil. Regarding lauric acid, Mary Enig Ph.D writes:

Lauric acid is a medium chain fatty acid, which has the additional beneficial function of being formed into monolaurin in the human or animal body. Monolaurin is the antiviral, antibacterial, and antiprotozoal monoglyceride used by the human or animal to destroy lipid-coated viruses such as HIV, herpes, cytomegalovirus, influenza, various pathogenic bacteria, including listeria monocytogenes and helicobacter pylori, and protozoa such as giardia lamblia. Some studies have also shown some antimicrobial effects of the free lauric acid.

Lauric acid is also prominent in the saturated fat of human breast milk, giving vital immune building properties to a child's first stage of life. Outside of human breast milk, nature's most abundant source of lauric acid is coconut oil.

From 1999 - 2000 a study was done at San Lazaro hospital in Manila by Conrado S. Dayrit, MD, and the affect of coconut oil and monolaurin on the viral load of HIV patients. It was found that lauric acid did bring down the viral load of HIV patients. You can read more about this study here. Dr. Dayrit is now conducting similar studies on the SARS virus, since the coconut oil consuming Philippines population was relatively unaffected by the recent SARS outbreak in China and other countries.

References

1. Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D. Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine (Prima Publishing, Rocklin, CA 1998) p.301

2. Ronnie Cummins, "Hazards of Genetically Engineered Foods and Crops: Why We Need A Global Moratorium " Motion Magazine, August 29, 1999

3. Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. “Health and Nutritional Benefits from Coconut Oil: An Important Functional Food for the 21st Century” Presented at the AVOC Lauric Oils Symposium, Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, 25 April 1996

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Tai Chi and Stress

Stress is competing demands, overabundant choices, too much to do in too little time. Stress is modern living, the American way, Life in Silicon Valley. Chronic stress is bad because it makes the body focus on short-term emergencies, at the expense of long-term regeneration. Chronic stress undermines the body's ability to fix itself. Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky received a MaCarthur Award for his research on stress, and codified much of the work in Why Zebras Don't get Ulcers (© 1994, W.H.Freeman and Company), a primer on stress and its consequences. Sapolsky contrasts the appropriateness of the stress response in the case of a lion chasing a zebra across the savanna with stress in the face of "modern" stressors:

"If you are that zebra running for your life, or that lion sprinting for your meal, your body's physiological response mechanisms are superbly adapted for dealing with such short-term physical emergencies. When we sit around and worry about stressful things, we turn on the same physiological responses--and they are potentially a disaster when provoked chronically for psychological or other reasons. A large body of convergent evidence suggests that stress-related disease emerges, predominantly, out of the fact that we so often activate a physiological system that has evolved for responding to acute physical emergencies, but we turn it on for months on end, worrying about mortgages, relationships, and promotions."

The stress response is designed to get you out of immediate danger: Your body mobilizes energy and delivers it where it's needed most. Glucose and amino acids are released from storage in your fat cells, your liver, your muscles. Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rates go up. Blood supply is shunted from the organs (except for the heart and lungs) to the skeletal muscles. Pain is suppressed, and the mind achieves a peculiar clarity. Digestion shuts down, regenerative processes are put on hold, reproductive urges and capabilities dwindle, and, for some as yet unexplained reason, the body starts actively dismantling the immune system. Sapolsky goes on:

"During an emergency, it makes sense that your body halts long-term, expensive building projects. If there is a tornado bearing down on the house, this isn't the day to repaint the kitchen. Hold off until you've weathered the disaster. Thus, during stress, digestion is inhibited--there isn't enough time to derive the energetic benefits of the slow process of digestion, so why waste energy on it? You have better things to do than digest breakfast when you are trying to avoid being someone's lunch. Similarly, growth is inhibited during stress, and the logic is just as clear. You're sprinting for your life: grow antlers or extend your long bones some other day."

That the stress response itself can become harmful makes a certain amount of sense when you examine the things that occur in reaction to stress. They are generally shortsighted, inefficient, and penny-wise, and dollar-foolish, but they are the sorts of costly things your body has to do to respond effectively in an emergency. If you experience every day as an emergency, you will pay the price.

If you constantly mobilize energy at the cost of energy storage, you will never store any surplus energy. You will fatigue more rapidly, and your risk of developing a form of diabetes will even increase. The consequences of chronically over-activating your cardiovascular system are similarly damaging: if your blood pressure rises to 180/140 when you are sprinting away from a lion, you are being adaptive, but if it is 180/140 every time you see the mess in your teenager's bedroom, you could be heading for cardiovascular disease. If you constantly turn off long-term building projects, nothing is ever repaired."

If you constantly turn off long-term building projects, nothing is ever repaired. This is the bodily cost of chronic stress, life as we know it. We make it hard for our bodies to fix themselves. Anything we can do to dissipate stress is time and energy well spent. Tai Chi is a great way to reduce stress. The mental focus of the mind leading the movement, thinking only of the movement, the slow, flowing shifts of balance, the regular, deep breathing, the harmonious turning of the limbs, the circular openings and closings of the Tai Chi form make it one of the best stress reducers in the human repertoire.

Science and Tai Chi

Tai Chi cultivates health benefits beyond those studied by western medicine. Tai Chi conditions the sleaves between muscles and nerves, the films that separate and support the organs, the facia. The acupuncture meridians of Chinese Medicine run through the facia. By conditioning these boundary layers between tissues, Tai Chi reduces chemical cross-linking, cellular rust. Move it or lose it, the Taoists say. The turning of the trunk flexes the spine, producing some of the same benefits as twists in Yoga (improved spinal flexibility, release of tension on the perispinal muscles, alleviating imbalances that can lead to back pain while improving blood flow to the discs). And like Yoga, Tai Chi conditions the psoas, that deep muscle of balance that underlies the lower abdominal organs and mediates the relationship of the spine to the pelvis and legs. Proper Tai Chi practice places certain demands on the body: The sinking of the weight, over time, tells the legs to add muscle and bone mass, while the turning of the body, in conjunction with deep abdominal breathing, "wrings out" the organs, flushing blood out as they're compressed and allowing it to flow back in when the movement compresses another part of the torso. This flexing and unflexing reduces pockets of stagnation in the various organ systems.

Physical strength peaks in the mid-twenties, declines modestly to age 50, and steeply thereafter. Studies show a loss of one-third of lower extremity strength by age 70. In advanced age, few people are able to stand on one leg for more than a few seconds. Premature decline need not be the case. Tai Chi exercises all the joints and major muscle groups in a slow, rhythmic, mindful way, priming the body for whatever demands the day may make. Leg strength increases with practice, which pays off every step you take, every time you stand in line, every time you climb a flight of stairs. Your joints stay loose and flexible, so everyday chores around the house and garden don't take as much out of you. When you practice Tai Chi in the morning, it's just easier to move for the rest of the day, and concentrate on what you have to do. You waste less energy and attention on body static, so you have the stamina to ride out crazy days and long hours at work and still have something left for your family, your mate, your art. Tai Chi is for anyone who wants to move with greater strength, grace, and ease as they get older.

In the U.S., studies have shown that even people in their 70's and 80's can learn a simplified series of Tai Chi forms, and benefit tremendously: Study subjects show a marked decrease in injurious falls, reductions in blood pressure, and improved measures of balance and confidence. If Tai Chi can do this for geriatric beginners, think of what it can do for someone who starts a few decades sooner, and stays with it.

Health Benefits of Tai Chi

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese system of slowly flowing movements and shifts of balance that strengthens the legs while conditioning the tendons and ligaments of the ankles, knees, and hips, increasing their range of motion and making them more resilient, less prone to injury. The constant weight shifts train balance and body awareness, leading to confident ease of movement within the form and in everyday life. Tai Chi is a physical exercise that focuses the mind, while conditioning the body. Practicing twenty minutes a day dissipates stress and reduces stress-related debilities, increases stamina, and strengthens the body and will.

Western Science recognizes the following benefits of practicing Tai Chi: increased oxygen uptake and utilization (more efficient breathing), reduced blood pressure, slower declines in cardiovascular power, increased bone density, increased strength and range of motion of joints, greater leg strength, knee strength, and flexibility, reduced levels of stress hormones during and after practice, improved immune function, and heightened mood states.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Energy(life force) Healing


What is "life force?"

The "life force," often called "energy" in Western culture, is an entity that permeates and bonds all. It is sometimes referred to as the "vital force." In China, it is called Qi; in India it is called prana. It is believed the "life force" extends throughout the universe and that the individual is part of an indivisible whole. Most Eastern philosophies share this common theme of universal spirit and wholeness. Individuals who practice such alternative medical approaches as meditation, yoga or tai chi do so not only because it decreases stress and anxiety and promotes general well-being, but also because it helps them connect with the "life energy" within and around them. The belief is that because the "life force" permeates everything, an individual is unavoidably affected by external events and energies. Thus, treatment of the individual should consider the mind/body/spirit interaction as well as an overall connection to the universe.

What is energy healing?

Energy healing is based on the belief that our "life force" creates energy fields that are unbalanced during emotional or physical disease. Because our energy fields are part of an interconnected whole, the use of focused intention by one individual can aid in the health and well being of another. Many individuals use their own individual means of directing their intention to heal. Others practice according to schools such as Reiki. In the West, a common form of energy healing is Therapeutic Touch, which has been taught to thousands of nurses across the United States.

Healers operate in many different ways. For example, they visualize, send intentions for diseased cells to die, send intentions for cells to revert to their optimum state of health, or simply send loving energy. A common theme is the intention for the well-being of the client. Another is focusing on being a conduit for a loving, universal life force.

An interesting feature of energy healing is that it may be performed over distances of thousands of miles. The "life force" claimed to be transmitted by energy healers does not have the properties of any known form of energy. A comparable practice to energy healing that is used frequently in the West is prayer. A 1996 survey showed that 82 percent of Americans believed in the healing power of prayer. A survey of patients in American Cancer Society support groups for breast cancer found that 88 percent experienced beneficial effects of spiritual and religious practice.

Blending of paradigms

The idea that an energy can be transmitted from one person to affect the health of another, especially from a distance, does have some scientific merit. This idea is quite compatible with theories of quantum physics, in which there are no time/space barriers. In quantum physics, subatomic particles communicate instantaneously, and theoretically, particles can affect each other at far ends of the galaxies.

It has been about 80 years since Einstein introduced his theory of relativity and quantum mechanics was born. This represented a complete paradigm shift that still has not been incorporated into medicine. However, as the science provides more and more indications that there may be realities and energies that are beyond our current comprehension, the interest in performing scientific research to detect the effects of such energies is increasing.

Research into energy healing

In an effort to incorporate Western sciences' need for physical proof, studies have been performed on the impact of energy healing on living, isolated cells as opposed to human subjects. Many of the studies on isolated cells are inadequately controlled, are published as incomplete reports, or are published in non-reviewed journals. Thus, while existing evidence provides enough positive indications to warrant further investigation, there is a great need for more rigorous studies from experienced investigators.

Of 23 clinical trials involving energy healing that did meet a rigorous criteria requiring adequate design, control and review procedures, 57 percent have shown a beneficial effect. This caused authors reviewing the studies to conclude that the "evidence thus far merits further study."

Indeed there is growing interest and evidence for alternative health exploration based on a "life force," wholeness, and interconnections. The National Institutes of Health has established a Center that is devoted to research in the area of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The budget is growing rapidly and research into areas such as energy healing and prayer is being encouraged. Several large clinical trials, especially on the effects of prayer, are now underway in major academic institutions across the country. Through science, researchers eventually hope to better understand how energy healing practices may be incorporated into Western medical practices.

Coconut Oil.. An HIV/AIDS cure?

Can coconut oil reduce the viral load of HIV-AIDS patients? "Initial trials have confirmed that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients", University of the Philippines' Emeritus professor of pharmocology Dr. Conrato S. Dayrit said.

A minimum of 50 ml of coconut oil would contain 20 to 25 grams of lauric acid, which indicates that the oil is metabolized in the body to release monolaurin which is an antibiotic and an anti-viral agent. Among the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has the maximum anti-viral activity, he said. Based on this research, the first clinical trial using monolaurin as monotherapy on some of the HIV patients was conducted recently. Dr. Dayrit's conclusions after the study:

"This initial trial confirmed the anecdotal reports that coconut oil does have an anti-viral effect and can beneficially reduce the viral load of HIV patients. The positive anti-viral action was seen not only with the monoglyceride of lauric acid but with coconut oil itself. This indicates that coconut oil is metabolized to monoglyceride forms of C-8, C-10, C- 12 to which it must owe its anti-pathogenic activity."

The entire results of Dr. Dayrit's study can be found here in PDF format.

On July 19, 1995, Dr. Mary Enig, noted biochemist and nutritionist, was quoted in an article published in The HINDU, India's National Newspaper as stating that coconut oil is converted by the body into "Monolaurin" a fatty acid with anti-viral properties that might be useful in the treatment of AIDS. The staff reporter for The HINDU wrote about Enig's presentation at a press conference in Kochi and wrote the following:

"There was an instance in the US in which an infant tested HIV positive had become HIV negative. That it was fed with an infant formula with a high coconut oil content gains significance in this context and at present an effort was on to find out how the 'viral load' of an HIV infected baby came down when fed a diet that helped in the generation of Monolaurin in the body."
The reporter commented on Enig's observations that "Monolaurin helped in inactivating other viruses such as measles, herpes, vesicular stomatitis and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and that research undertaken so far on coconut oil also indicated that it offered a certain measure of protection against cancer-inducing substances."


The reporter commented on Enig's observations that "Monolaurin helped in inactivating other viruses such as measles, herpes, vesicular stomatitis and Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and that research undertaken so far on coconut oil also indicated that it offered a certain measure of protection against cancer-inducing substances."
Enig stated in an article published in the Indian Coconut Journal, Sept. 1995 that Monolaurin, of which the precursor is lauric acid, disrupted the lipid membranes of envelope viruses and also inactivated bacteria, yeast and fungi. She wrote: "Of the saturated fatty acids, lauric acid has greater anti-viral activity than either caprylic acid (C-10) or myristic acid (C-14). The action attributed to Monolaurin is that of solubilizing the lipids ..in the envelope of the virus causing the disintegration of the virus envelope."


Being HIV positive myself, and having things very under control, there are a couple of concerns I have and questions. The Virgin Coconut Oil? Absolutely amazing stuff! It has given me back the energy and feeling good that the antivirals can knock out of you. Bill from The Coconut Diet Forums in answer to someone else's request for information on coconut oil and AIDS.

Dr. Mary Enig has also written a book entitled "Nutrients and Foods in AIDS," and one of the chapters is published on her website here. (Frequently unavailable - if so try at a later date)

In a July 1997 newsletter entitled "Keep Hope Alive" an interview with Chris Dafoe was recorded. Chris Dafoe of Cloverdale, IN who, based on his lab numbers, thought the end was near in September, 1996. His HIV viral load was over 600,000, CD4 count was 10 and CD8 at 300. He prepaid his funeral and decided to take his last vacation in the jungles of South America with an Indian tribe in the Republic of Surinam. Around October 14, 1996, he began eating daily a dish of cooked coconut which was prepared by the local Indians. By Dec. 27th, 1996, a mere 2 and 1/2 months later, his viral load was at non-detectable levels and he had gained 32 lbs and was feeling great. He had some other people he knew with HIV try using coconuts in their diet, and they experienced the same results. The entire interview is recorded here.

A woman named Betty buys Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil uses it in her ministry to the sick. She shares the following story of her friend with HIV that wishes to remain anonymous:

My friend B... is an HIV patient. He was dying in the hospital for 3 years and his body was covered with acne. There was also one dollar size boil on his left hip. When I got my first order of Virgin Coconut Oil , I gave him a quart of the oil to try. The result was amazing! After my friend took it for less than 2 weeks, the acne disappeared. The big boil on his hip started to heal and at this time is completely gone. After more than a month on coconut oil, his skin is now baby silk. You would think he is a different person. His recent blood test showed great improvement. The helper cells ( T- cells) which were at level 60 are now at a higher level of 608 after about one and a half months of taking the oil consistently. He is taking the minimum amount of 3.5 tablespoons per day. The viral load is now down to 50. That was almost on the 100 level before he used the oil. My friend is not completely healed yet but he has come a long way from where he was before because of this amazing oil. I will keep on introducing this amazing oil to my friends!

Recently the PATA International-Potato and Products Aid Alliance To Africa committed to distribute Virgin Coconut Oil to Africa for distribution among HIV - AIDS sufferers. They state:

"AIDS is the modern day Black Plague. Millions have all ready died from this disease, leaving behind millions of orphans. Millions more will follow in death, unless a low cost way of controlling this illness is found quickly.

Several long term world studies sponsored by various health organizations have found that the high content of lauric acid in unrefined coconut oil can prolong the lives of AIDS patients by dissolving the covering of the virus itself. This same action has been found effective against other infectious, tropical based diseases as well."

If the results from the smaller studies duplicate themselves in the clinics in Africa, PATA intends to extend the distribution of Virgin Coconut oil in Africa.

Was diagnosed Hiv+ 6 months ago.I started using VCO (3 tablespoons, three times a day) 2 months ago.Viral load went down from 15,500 to 6,000. CD4 count went up from 615 to 705. I am obviously very excited about these results.
Nicola - South Africa, reported on The Coconut Diet Forums



Sunday, March 11, 2007

Palm oil: a healthful and cost-effective dietary component.

Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Palm oil is an excellent choice for food manufacturers because of its nutritional benefits and versatility. The oil is highly structured to contain predominantly oleic acid at the sn2-position in the major triacylglycerols to account for the beneficial effects described in numerous nutritional studies.

Oil quality and nutritional benefits have been assured for the variety of foods that can be manufactured from the oil directly or from blends with other oils while remaining trans-free. The oxidative stability coupled with the cost-effectiveness is unparalleled among cholesterol-free oils, and these values can be extended to blends of polyunsaturated oils to provide long shelf-life.

Presently the supply of genetic-modification-free palm oil is assured at economic prices, since the oil palm is a perennial crop with unparalleled productivity. Numerous studies have confirmed the nutritional value of palm oil as a result of the high monounsaturation at the crucial 2-position of the oil's triacylglycerols, making the oil as healthful as olive oil.

It is now recognized that the contribution of dietary fats to blood lipids and cholesterol modulation is a consequence of the digestion, absorption, and metabolism of the fats. Lipolytic hydrolysis of palm oil glycerides containing predominantly oleic acid at the 2 position and palmitic and stearic acids at the 1 and 3 positions allows for the ready absorption of the 2-monoacrylglycerols while the saturated free fatty acids remain poorly absorbed. Dietary palm oil in balanced diets generally reduced blood cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and triglycerides while raising the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

Improved lipoprotein(a) and apo-A1 levels were also demonstrated from palm oil diets; an important benefits also comes from the lowering of blood triglycerides (or reduced fat storage) as compared with those from polyunsaturated fat diets. Virgin palm oil also provides carotenes apart from tocotrienols and tocopherols that have been shown to be powerful antioxidants and potential mediators of cellular functions.

These compounds can be antithrombotic, cause an increase of the prostacyclin/thromboxane ratio, reduce restenosis, and inhibit HMG-CoA-reductase (thus reducing) cholesterol biosynthesis). Red palm oil is a rich source of beta-carotene as well as of alpha-tocopherol and tocotrienols.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

The Cholesterol Myths

Uffe Ravnskov, MD,PhD

The idea that too much animal fat and high cholesterol are dangerous to your heart and vessels is nothing but a myth. Here are some astonishing and frightening facts.

If you think this is written by another internet crackpot, take a look at Dr. Ravnskov's credentials and the reviews of his book.

Read about New Cholesterol Guidelines for converting healthy people into patients

Or read Dr. Ravnskov´s thought-provoking paper "High cholesterol may protect against infections and atherosclerosis" It was published in Quarterly Journal of Medicine and has been the-most-read article in that journal for several months. You can even choose the popular-scientific version The Benefits Of High Cholesterol

Here are the facts! Click on the blue arrows if you want the scientific evidence!

1 Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance vital to the cells of all mammals. There are no such things as good or bad cholesterol, but mental stress, physical activity and change of body weight may influence the level of blood cholesterol. A high cholesterol is not dangerous by itself, but may reflect an unhealthy condition, or it may be totally innocent.

2 A high blood cholesterol is said to promote atherosclerosis and thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have shown that people whose blood cholesterol is low become just as atherosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high.

3 Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the ”prudent” diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent.

3 Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the ”prudent” diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent.

4 There is no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet promotes atherosclerosis or heart attacks. For instance, more than twenty studies have shown that people who have had a heart attack haven't eaten more fat of any kind than other people, and degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet.

5 The only effective way to lower cholesterol is with drugs, but neither heart mortality or total mortality have been improved with drugs the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only. On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health and may shorten your life.

6 The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do prevent cardio-vascular disease, but this is due to other mechanisms than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnant women taking statins may give birth to children with malformations more severe than those seen after thalidomide.

7 Many of these facts have been presented in scientific journals and books for decades but are rarely told to the public by the proponents of the diet-heart idea.

8 The reason why laymen, doctors and most scientists have been misled is because opposing and disagreeing results are systematically ignored or misquoted in the scientific press.

9 The Benefits Of High Cholesterol

mind over matter (stops the pain?)

Among the most marvelous, most frightening and certainly most unbelievable possibilities suggested by psychic folklore is that human beings may be able to exert an observable influence upon the physical world -- simply through the power of conscious intention; or unconscious intention, or; by some accounts, through the assistance of spiritual intelligences; or as a result of a mysterious principle known as synchronicity. Some scholars -- such as Stephen Braude, professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland -- take such reports very seriously, claiming that no honest person can examine the case study reports and easily dismiss them.


Professor Stephen Braude

I have spent more than five years carefully studying the non-experimental evidence of parapsychology -- in fact, just that portion of it which is most contemptuously and adamantly dismissed by those academics....I started with the expectation that the received wisdom would be supported, and that my belief in the relative worthlessness of the material would merely be better-informed. But the evidence bowled me over.

The more I learned about it, the weaker the traditional skeptical counter-hypotheses seemed, and the more clearly I realized to which extent skepticism may be fueled by ignorance. I was forced to confront the fact that I could find no decent reasons for doubting a great deal of strange testimony. It became clear to me that the primary source of my reluctance to embrace the evidence was my discomfort with it. I knew that I had to accept the evidence, or else admit that my avowed philosophical commitment to the truth was a sham.

I am hardly comfortable about announcing to my academic colleagues that I believe, for example, that accordians can float in mid-air playing melodies, or that hands may materialize, move objects, and then dissolve or disappear....But I have reached my recent conclusions only after satisfying myself that no reasonsable options remain.

Skeptics (as well as most psi researchers) adamantly insist that it is absurd to give any credence to such reports until they meet the highest scientific standards. (Ironically, why would anyone bother to expend the large amounts of time and money required for meticulous scientific testing of such claims unless they were to give some credence to the non-scientific accounts?)

An interesting insight into the psychological dynamics of such events is provided by the great Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung -- who developed the concept of synchronicity as an acausal explanatory principle. In 1909, Jung visited his mentor Sigmund Freud in Vienna, and at one point asked him his opinion of psychic phenomena. Although Freud later changed his mind on the subject, at that time he dismissed the likelihood that such events could occur. Jung narrates an uncanny incident that occurred in the course of this conversation.

While Freud was going on in this way, I had a curious sensation. It was as if my diaphragm was made of iron and becoming red-hot -- a glowing vault. And at that moment there was such a loud report in the bookcase, which stood right next to us, that we both started up in alarm, fearing the thing was going to topple over us. I said to Freud: "There, that is an example of a so-called catalytic exteriorisation phenomenon."
"Oh come," he explained. "That is sheer bosh."

"It is not," I replied. "You are mistaken, Herr Professor. And to prove my point I now predict that in a moment there will be another loud report!" Sure enough, no sooner had I said the words than the same detonation went off in the bookcase.

To this day I do not know what gave me this certainty. But I knew beyond a doubt that the report would come again. Freud only stared aghast at me. I do not know what was in his mind, or what his look meant. In any case, this incident aroused his mistrust of me, and I had the feeling that I had done something against him. I never afterwards discussed the incident with him.

The theme of mistrust characterizes the entire history of macro-psychokinetic claims. It is probably fair to state that no one, since Jesus Christ, has ever made such claims and been trusted (and there are many who distrust the supposed miracles of Christ). Furthermore, although mistrust may well blind us against considering vital possibilities, it is clearly warrantged by the simple fact that numerous cases of fraud have been exposed in this area.

Perhaps, at a deeper level, both the fraud and the mistrust which it justifiably produces are part of an underlying protective mechanism developed within the collective unconscious (to use a Jungian term) of humanity. For, given our present level of ethical development, what awesome horrors might be wreak upon ourselves if we were able to harness psychokinesis in a disciplined manner? There are reasons to think that, if psychokinesis is real, it is a Pandora's box that is best left unopened by humankind -- even if the price for this is our ignorance.

I personally feel comfortable with our lack of progress in this area. As a result of personal experiences that I shall recount, I accept the possibility of large-scale psychokinesis. I am also convinced that our planetary culture must demonstrate a willingness to solve the obvious problems of hunger, pollution, political inequality and war before we will be capable of responsibly wielding the full power of our own minds. The following examples provide some hints as to what that full power might possibly entail.


D. D. Home -- The Greatest Medium Who Ever Lived


D. D. Home

Perhaps the greatest ostensible physical medium who has ever lived was Daniel Dunglas Home. He was born in 1833 near Edinburgh, Scotland. However, at an early age he went to New England to live with his aunt who adopted him. At the age of seventeen he had a vision of the death of his mother, which was soon verified. After that time the household was frequently disturbed with loud raps and moving furniture. Declaring that he had introduced the devil to the household, his aunt threw him out. He began living with his friends and giving seances for them.

Among those who were convinced of his abilities in this early period were Judge John Edmunds of the New York State Supreme Court and Robert Hare, an ameritus professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.

Home never accepted any payments for his seances. He exhibited religious reverence for the powers and knowledge that manifested through him along with a scientific curiosity to seek rational explanations. He did, however, accept presents from his wealthy patrons. Napoleon III of France provided for his only sister. Czar Alexander of Russia sponsored his marriage. He conducted seances with the kings of Bavaria and Wurtemburg as well as William I of Germany and assorted nobility throughout Europe. Noted literati also consulted with him.

To Lord Bulwer Lytton's satisfaction, Home called up the spirit that influenced him to write his famous occult novel, Zanoni. He conducted a seance for the poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband Robert. Although his wife protested, Robert Browning insisted that Home was a fraud and wrote a long poem called "Mr. Sludge, the Medium," describing an exposure that never took place. In fact, throughout his long career, Home was never caught in any verifiable deceptions -- although there were some apparant close calls.

In 1868, Home conducted experiments with Cromwell Varley, chief engineer of the Atlantic Cable Company and afterwards before members of the London Dialectical Society, who held fifty seances with him at which thirty persons were present. Their report, published in 1871, attested to the observation of sounds and vibrations, the movements of heavy objects not touched by any person, and well-executed pieces of music coming from instruments not manipulated by any visible agency, as well as the appearance of hands and faces that did not belong to any tangible human being, but that nevertheless seemed alive and mobile. This report inspired Sir William Crookes to investigate Home for himself.

Crookes conducted two very ingenious experiments with Home in which he tested alterations in the weight of objects and the playing of tunes upon musical instruments under conditions rendering human contact with the keys impossible. For the first experiment, Crookes developed a simple apparatus measuring the changes in weight of a mahogany board.

One end of the board rested on a firm table, whilst the other end was supported by a spring balance hanging from a substantial tripod stand. The balance was fitted with a self-registering index, in such a manner that it would record the maximum weight indicated by the pointer. The apparatus was adjusted so that the mahogany board was horizontal, its foot resting flat on the support. In this position its weight was three pounds, as marked by the pointed of the balance.
Crookes and eight other observers including Sir WIlliam Huggins, a physicist and member of the Royal Society, observed Home lightly place his fingertips on the end of the board and watched the register desccend as low as nine pounds. Crookes noted that, since Home's fingers did not cross the fulcrum, any tactile pressure he might have exerted would have been in opposition to the force that caused the other end of the board to move down. This experiment was conducted many times. On some occasions, Home never even touched the board: he merely placed his hands three inches over it. In other experiments, Crookes used a recording device to make a permanent record of the fluctuations in the weight. This was done to confute the argument that he himself was a victim of hallucinations.
In order to test the stories about music being played on the instrument, Crookes designed a cage in which to place an accordion he purchased specifically for these experiments (see illustration). The cage would just slip under a table, allowing Home to grasp the instrument on the end opposite the keys, between the thumb and the middle finger. Again many witnesses were present:



Mr. Home, still holding the accordion in the usual manner in the cage, his feet being held by those next to him, and his other hand resting on the table, we heard distinct and separate notes sounded in succession, and then a simple air was played. As such a result could only have been produced by the various keys of the instrument being acted upon in harmonious succession, this was considered by those present to be a crucial experiment. But the sequel was still more striking, for Mr. Home then removed his hand altogether from the accordion, taking it quite out of the cage, and placed it in the hand of the person next to him. The instrument then continued to play, no person touching it and no hand being near it.
Crookes submitted his experimental papers to the Royal Society in order to encourage a large-scale investigation of the phenomena, which he felt were caused by a psychic force. However, the secretary of the society rejected his papers and refused to witness his experiments.
Crookes also testified to having seen many other phenomena with Home, including levitation of Home's body, levitation of objects, handling of hot coals, luminous lights, and apparitions.

Home himself bitterly resented any fraud or deception. In his book, Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, written in 1878, he took an aggressive stance against phony mediums or even those who were unwilling to cooperate with scientists. Unlike most mediums, Home was always willing to be tested under well-lit and closely supervised conditions.


Sir William Crookes' Researches


Sir William Crookes

Despite the rejection of his psychical research by the scientific establishment, Crookes asserted the validity of his work throughout his life. In 1913, he was elected president of the Royal Society, but unfortunately he had by then long since abandoned his experimental work with mediums and found it wise not to discuss his work often in public. The phenomena that Crookes reported have been beyond the experience of almost all researchers before or since his time. Often his experimental reports were inadequate by contemporary standards since he simply assumed that his own word was sufficient to establish general acceptance of a phenomenon. We cannot hastily conclude that Crookes was deluded or duped, for he was at the height of his intellectual creativity at the time he conducted this research. In the words of his friend, Sir Oliver Lodge, "It is almost as difficult to resist the testimony as it is to accept the things testified." His most amazing experiments were conducted with a medium named Florence Cook.

Florence Cook
Ostensible Katie King Materialization


Cook's ostensible ability to materialize the forms of various spirits had caused a stir among spiritualists. The most notable spirit to appear identified herself as Katie King, the daughter, in a former life, of the buccaneer Henry Morgan.

The phenomena of spirit materialization had actually attracted public attention a few years earlier through a Mrs. Samuel Guppy, the protegee of Alfred Russell Wallace, a prominent spiritualist who was also noted as one of the discoverers with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution. Mrs. Guppy introduced into her work the use of a tightly sealed cabinet in which she was placed in order to build up sufficient "power" for the construction of a spirit form which could then stand the scrutiny of the light outside the cabinet. The cabinet also provided, of course, an ideal opportunity for subterfuge on the part of the medium, which was undoubtedly taken advantage of on many occasions, for rarely were any medium and her spirit seen together at the same time.

Crookes attended seances with Florence Cook for a period of over three years and studied her intensively for several months in a laboratory in his own home. He also made numerous observations of Katie King and took more than forty photographs of her. On several occasions he had the opportunity of seeing both Florence and her spirit, Miss King, at the same time and even of photographing them together. Katie appeared quite solidly before the guests at the seance, sometimes staying and conversing with them for a s long as two hours. Crookes even reports having embraced and kissed her. At other times she seems to have vanished instantaneously and soundlessly. It is difficult to believe that an accomplice could have continued such an intimate masquerade, in Crookes own home, for several months without detection. He gives several reasons why he feels Florence Cook could not have committed fraud:

During the last six months, Miss Cook has been a frequent visitor at my house, remaining sometimes a week at a time. She brings nothing with her but a little handbag, not locked; during the day she is constantly in the presence of Mrs. Crookes, myself, or some other member of my family, and, not sleeping by herself, there is absolutely no opportunity for any preparation....I prepare and arrange my library myself as the dark cabinet, and usually, after Miss Cook has been dining and conversing with us, and scarcely out of our sight for a minute, she walks direct into the cabinet, and I, at her request, lock its second door, and keep possession of the key all through the seance.
Katie's height varies; in my house I have seen her six inches taller than Miss Cook. Last night, with bare feet and not "tip-toeing," she was four and a half inches taller than Miss Cook. Katie's neck was bare last night; the skin was perfectly smooth to touch and sight, whilst on Miss Cook's neck is a large blister, which under similar circumstances is distinctly visible and rough to the touch. Katie's complexion is very fair while that of Miss Cook is very dark. Katie's fingers are much longer than Miss Cook's, and her face is also larger.

Crookes also indicates that Miss Cook was willing to submit to any test he wished to impose. Ironically enough, on two occasions, in 1872 and in 1880, individuals claimed to have exposed Florence Cook fraudulently masquerading as her spirit.
It is not unreasonable to suggest any of several contradictory hypotheses: (1) that Crookes himself may have been deluded or enchanted by Florence Cook, (2) that while Crookes himself did observe genuine phenomena, Cook sometimes lost her abilities and resorted to fraud, (3) that the alleged exposures were not genuine, or (4) that Crooke's accounts were fraudulent. Psychical phenomena have always had an ironic and paradoxical nature, and Crookes' experimental methodology was certainly not sufficient to answer all of the questions one might like to ask.

It is so difficult to maintain that a man of Crookes' scientific caliber could have been taken in by cheap tricks, some of his critics have assumed that he himself was in on the fraud. They have claimed that Crookes had been involved in a romantic affair with Florence Cook, and that he testified to her phenomena in order to shield her reputation and hide his own emotional entanglement with her. However, even if it were so, other matters would remain quite unresolved. If Crookes was involved with Miss Cook, who was only fifteen years old at the time, this hypothesis cannot account for the phenomena he reported with both Home and Miss Fox. Nor does it begin to explain the research on the same phenomena reported by a number of other eminent scientists. Nevertheless, the accusation of experimenter fraud still continues to haunt psychical researchers, and will continue to do so as long as people are reinforced in their expectation of fraud by periodic publicly exposed episodes.


Marthe Beraud

Another extraordinary physical medium whose ectoplasmic materializations were observed and photographed by many investigators was Marthe Beraud. Nobel laureate physiologist Charles Richet described the production of a phantom, called Bien Boa, under experimental conditions that he felt negated the possibility of theatrical props or accomplices:


Ostensible Ectoplasmic Bien Boa Materialization

He seemed so much alive that, as we could hear his breathing, I took a flask of baryta water to see if his breath would show carbon dioxide. The experiment succeeded. I did not lose sight of the flask from the moment I put it into the hands of Bien Boa who seemed to float in the air on the left of the curtain at a height greater than Marthe could have been even if standing up...
A comical incident occurred at this point. When we saw the baryta show white (which incidentally shows that the light was good), we cried "Bravo." Bien Boa then vanished, but reappeared three times, opening and closing the curtain and bowing like an actor who receives applause.

However striking this was, another experiment seems to me even more evidential: Everything being arranged as usual....after a long wait I saw close to me, in front of the curtain which had not been moved, a white vapour, hardly sixteen inches distant. It was like a white veil or handkerchief on the floor; it rose up still more, enlarged, and grew into a human form, a short bearded man dressed in a turban and while mantle, who moved, limping slightly, from right to left before the curtain. On coming close to General Noel, he sank down abruptly to the floor with a clicking noise like a falling skeleton, flattening out in front of the curtain. Three or four minutes later...he reappeared rising in a straight line from the floor, born from the floor, so to say, and falling back on it with the same clicking noise.

The only un-metapsychic explanation possible seemed to be a trap-door opening and shutting: but there was no trap door, as I verified the next morning and as attested by the architect.

Several photographs were taken....The softness and vaporous outline of the hands are curious; likewise the veil surrounding the phantom has indeterminate outlines....A thick, black, artificial-looking beard covers the mouth and chin....Bien Boa would seem to be a bust only floating in space in front of Marthe, whose bodice can be seen. Low down, between the curtain and Marthe's black skirt, there seem to be two small whitish rod-like supports to the phantom form.


Paraffin Hands

The most impressive evidence for ectoplasmic materializations comes from the molds of "spirit hands" made in paraffin. Richet reports his careful studies:



[Gustav] Geley and I took the precaution of introducing, unknown to any other person, a small quantity of chelesterin in the bath of melted paraffin wax placed before the medium during the seance. This substance is insoluble in paraffin without discolouring it, but on adding sulphuric acid it takes a deep violet-red tint; so that we could be absolutely certain that any moulds obtained should be by the paraffin provided by ourselves....
During the seance the medium's hands were firmly held by Geley and myself on the right and on the left, so that he could not liberate either hand. A first mould was obtained of a child's hand, then a second of both hands, right and left; a third came of a child's foot. The creases in the skin and veins were visible on the plaster casts made from the moulds.

By reason of the narrowness of the wrist these moulds could not be obtained from living hands, for the whole hand would have to be withdrawn through the narrow opening at the wrist. Professional modellers secure their results by threads attached to the hand, which are pulled through the plaster. In the moulds here considered there was nothing of the sort; they were produced by a materialization followed by dematerialization, for this latter was necessary to disengage the hand from the paraffin "glove."

The plaster casts from these molds – including a cast of intertwining hands are still available for inspection at the Metapsychic Institute in Paris. A physiologist of the first order, Richet sums up his research on ectoplasmic materializations:
There is ample proof that experimental materialization (ectoplasmic) should take definite rank as a scientific fact. Assuredly we do not understand it. It is very absurd, if a truth can be absurd.
Spiritualists have blamed me for using this word "absurd"; and have not been able to understand that to admit the reality of these phenomena was to me an actual pain; but to ask a physiologist, a physicist, or a chemist to admit that a form that has circulation of the blood, warmth, and muscles, that exhales carbonic acid, has weight, speaks, and thinks, can issues from a human body is to ask of him an intellectual effort that is really painful.

Yes, it is absurd; but not matter – it is true.


Eusapia Palladino


Eusapia Palladino

One of the most extraordinary physical mediums in the history of psychical research was Eusapia Palladino, a rough peasant woman from Naples. She came to the attention of the learned world through seances held with the eminent Italian sociologist Cesare Lombroso. These seances continues to be held in Italy until 1894 when the French physiologist Charles Richet invited her to his private island to attend seances with Frederick Myers and Sir Oliver Lodge as well as J. Ochorowicz, a Polish researcher. It was Richet's belief he would be able to prevent Eusapia from using props or accomplices while she was on the island. The group witnessed most of the phenomena that had been previously reported: levitations, grasps, touches, lights, materializations, raps, curtains billowing, scents, and music. At all times the researchers were holding Eusapia's hands and feet.

The following excerpts are from the published account of one of these sessions:

Richet held both arms and one hand of E., while M. held both feet and her other arm. R. then felt a hand move her his head and rest on his mouth for some second, during which he spoke to us with his voice muffled. The round table now approached. R.'s head was stroked from behind....The round table continued to approach in violent jerks....A small cigar box fell on our table, and a sound was heard in the air as of something rattling....A covered wire of the electric battery came on to the table and wrapped itself around R.'s and E.'s heads, and was pulled till E. called out....The accordion which was on the round table got on the floor somehow, and began to play single notes. Bellier [Richet's secretary] counted 26 of them; and then ceased counting. While the accordion played, E.'s fingers made movements in the hands of both M. and L. in accord with the notes as if she was playing them with difficulty....Eusapia being well held, Myers heard a noise on the round table at his side, and turning to look saw a white object detach itself from the table and move slowly through the clear space between his own and Eusapia's head....Lodge now saw the object coming past Myer's head and settling on the table. It was the lamp-shade coming white side first....The "chalet" [music box] which was on the round table now began to play, and then visibly approached, being seen by both Myers and Lodge coming through the air, and settled on our table against Myers' chest....During the latter half of the sitting, Eusapia had taken one of Myers' fingers and drawn some scrawls with it outside Richet's flannel jacket, which was buttoned up to his neck. Myers said, "She is using me to write on you," and it was thought no more of. But after the seance, when undressing, Richet found on his white shirt front, underneath both flannel jacket and high white waistcoat, a clear blue scrawl: and he came at once to bedrooms to show it.
Myers, Lodge and Richet were convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena that they reported and soon arranged for Eusapia to repeat her performance before SPR members in Cambridge. Again a number of phenomena were noted. Protuberances observed coming out of Eusapia's body and the billowing of curtains were particularly hard to explain away. However, at Hodgson's insistence the Cambridge group relaxed their controls over Eusapia's hands and feet to see if she would cheat if given an opportunity. Under these conditions, Eusapia conducted several seances producing nothing but fraudulent phenomena, whereupon Hodgson insistged that none of her other phenomena could be trusted. Other investigators acknowledged that she would cheat if given a chance, but that nevertheless, under controlled conditions she did produce authentic phenomena.
The SPR maintained a firm policy of rebuffing the phenomena of any mediums who have ever been found guilty of systematic fraud. Members were urged to ignore any future reports of experiments with Eusapia.

Reports concerning Eusapia, however, continued to flow in. In 1897, the noted French astronomer Camilla Flammarion reported on a series of seances in which "spirit" impressions were made in wet putty. Flammarion gives us a description of the event:



I sit at the right hand of Eusapia, who rests her head upon my left shoulder, and whose right hand I am holding. M. de Fontanay is at her left, and has taken great care not to let go of the other hand. The tray of putty, weighing nine pounds, has been placed upon a chair, twenty inches behind the curtain, consequently behind Eusapia. She cannot touch it without turning around, and we have her entirely in our own power, our feet on hers. Now the chair upon which was the tray of putty has drawn aside the hangings, or portieres, and moved forward to a point above the head of the medium, who remained seated and held down by us; moved itself also over our heads, – the chair to rest upon the head of my neighbor Mme. Blech, and the tray to rest softly in the hands of M. Blech, who is sitting at the end of the table. At this moment Eusapia rises, declaring that she sees upon the table another table and a bust, and cries out, "E Fatto" ("It is done"). It was not at this time, surely, that she would have been able to place her face upon the cake, for it was at the other end of the table. Nor was it before this, for it would have been necessary to take the chair in one hand and the cake with the other, and she did not stir from her place. The explanation, as can be seen, is very difficult indeed.
Let us admit, however, that the fact is so extraordinary that a doubt remains in our mind, because the medium rose from her chair almost at the critical moment. And yet her face was immediately kissed by Mme. Blech, who perceived no odor of the putty.

Finally, in 1909, the SPR did publish a report of another series of seances with Eusapia conducted by a group of experimenters known for their exposure of other fraudulent mediums – the Hon. Everard Fielding, Hereward Carrington, and W. W. Baggally. They observed a number of levitations and materializations under good lighting conditions. These seances occurred in the middle room of a three-room hotel suite they had rented for the purpose in order to rule out the possibility of confederates. Their account is quite detailed and thorough, having been dictated minute by minute to a professional stenographer. They were favorably impressed with what they had observed. However, the following year Eusapia's abilities, whatever they were, seem to have faded and it was simply too late to conduct further research with her.

Psychic Photography

One interesting technique for measuring psychokinesis is thought-photography. Claims of spirit photographs, where extra faces appear on developed film, go back as far as the history of photography itself. Some have even claimed to photograph actual human thoughtforms. Photography of this sort almost inevitably provoked accusations of fraud that were difficult to disprove. In 1910, Dr. Tomokichi Fukurai, a professor of literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo, conducted a series of experiments in thoughtography. The publication of his findings aroused such hostility among Japanese scientists that he was forced to resign his position. He then continued his work at a Buddhist university associated with a temple of the esoteric Shingen sect of Buddhism on top of Mt. Koya. His works were translated into English in 1931 in a book titled Spirit and Mysterious World. Although it showed a carefully planned scientific investigation, even the psychical researchers of the time were not ready to deal with this type of data, embedded as it was in Buddhist philosophy.

It was not until the late 1950s that a claim for psychic photography was taken seriously by researchers. The special gift for creating these photographs was discovered in Ted Serios, a Chicago Bellhop who had little formal education. The phenomena began when Serios allowed a friend to hypnotize him just to pass away the time. Serios claimed to be able to describe the locations of buried treasure. The friend then suggested that he concentrate on making photographs of the locations when he pointed a camera at a blank wall and triggered the shutter. They did not find buried treasure, but to their amazement, actual images appeared on the Polaroid prints of things that were not visible in the room.

The phenomena came to the attention of members of the Illinois Society for Psychic Research who eventually persuaded a Denver psychiatrist, Dr. Jule Eisenbud, to observe one of Ted's demonstrations. After a long string of failures, Serios managed to produce a striking success for Eisenbud, who, although he had engaged in previous psychical exploration with the context of psychoanalysis, was unprepared for phenomena of this sort. After a sleepless night, he invited Serios to Denver for further study. Eisenbud spend two years conducting well-controlled studies with Serios. He was quite aware of the history of fraud and gullibility in research of this sort and claims that he took every precaution to guard against it. He book, The World of Ted Serios, published in 1966, contains the results obtained from his examinations.

Livery Stable
Thoughtograph


The way in which Ted's mind ostensibly shaped the pictures was sometimes quite remarkable. In one session, in front of several witnesses, Ted first tried to reproduce images of the medieval town of Rothenburg. Then the experimenters asked him to try to reproduce an image of the old Opera House in Central City, Colorado. Serios agreed, and then asked the experimenters if they would like a composite of both images. The results are extraordinary. The photograph shows a striking resemblence to the livery stable across from the old Opera House. However, instead of the brick masonry, the image shows a kind of embedded rock characteristic of the buildings in the medieval town.



The large photograph shown is an enlargement of a Polaroid "thoughtograph" of the Denver Hilton Hotel. Eisenbud held the camera, which as pointed at Serios' forehead. Ted, at the time, was trying to produce an image of the Chicago Hilton ("I missed, damn it.") Eisenbud claimed that this image could only have been made with a lens different from that of the Polaroid 100, from an angle well up in the air, between the tree tops. This suggests that the thoughtographs are associated with out-of-body or traveling clairvoyant states.

Eisenbud's book is noted for detailed observation, but even more remarkable is the penetrating study of this anomalous phenomena and the reaction to it of scientists and educators. To Eisenbud, the photographic manifestations seemed to follow a pattern pointing to the active operation of the animistic powers known to ancient people:

As to building blocks for a theoretical structure that might bridge the gulf on other fronts between the mental and physical,...I can't think of a better place to begin than right where Ted is (and hopefully where others like him will be). For in a study of images and imagery of this sort – and in phenomenon like dreams, hallucinations, and apparitions, which prove not less remarkable and even more familiar than Ted's image – we are confronted by various organized entities with one leg in the world of reality and one leg in that extraordinary world we ordinarily term appearance.
Adequate understanding of the Serios phenomena can only be obtained through detailed study of the experimental reports. During the following years, studies were also conducted by researchers at the Division of Parapsychology of the University of Virginia Medical School. These researchers failed to detect any signs of fraud in their cooperative subject, and they successfully obtained numerous striking photographs. While they were calling for further study of this puzzling phenomena, Serios' abilities began to fade and he has remained less active for the past thirty years. However, as of this writing, in November 2000, reports continue to come in of researchers who are obtaining some photographic evidence with Serios.
Skeptics claim that Ted Serios was definitely exposed by Charlie Reynolds and David Eisendrath, both amateur magicians and professional photographers. They presented their account in a Popular Photography piece (October 1967) based on one weekend with Serios and the psychiatrist Jule Eisenbud, whose book, The World of Ted Serios, had sparked their ire.

However, the November 1967 issue of Popular Photography published Eisenbud's response letter:

I hereby state that if, before any competent jury of scientific investigators, photographers and conjurers, any chosen by them can in any normal way or combination of ways duplicate, under similar conditions, the range of phenomena produced by Ted, I shall (1) abjure all further work with Ted, (2) buy up and publicly burn all available copies of The World of Ted Serios, (3) take a full-page ad in Popular Photography in order to be represented photographically wearing a dunce cap, and (4) spend my spare time for the rest of my life selling door-to-door subscriptions to this amazing magazine. No time limit is stipulated.
An article in Fate, August 1974, revealed that only one magician had responded to this delectable invitation. The Amazing James Randi couldn't resist the bait, but on learning of the conditions he backed out. According to Randi, one of the conditions was that he perform in a state of alcoholic intoxication, as Serios had typically done. As a non-drinker, Randi found this condition unacceptable.

Nina Kulagina


Nina Kulagina

Meanwhile, in the former Soviet Union, researchers claimed to have discovered a woman, Nina Kulagina, who could exert a psychokinetic influence upon static objects. In 1968, Western researchers attending a conference in Moscow were shown a film of her in action. This film, which has since been seen many times in the United States, shows Kulagina apparently moving small objects, without touching them, across a table top. The Russians claimed that this woman, also known as Nelya Mikhailova, had been studied by some forty scientists, including two Nobel laureates. They also reported that, like Serios, Madame Kulagina was able to cause images to appear on photographic film. The communist scientists, who were by no means inclined to take a spiritualistic world view, felt that they had encountered a new force in nature. Very thorough studies of the electrical fields around her body as well as the electrical potentials in her brain were conducted by Dr. Genady Sergeyev, a well-known physiologist working in a Leningrad military laboratory. Exceptionally strong voltages and other unusual effects were observed:

There is a large gradient between the electrical characteristics in the forward part of Mikhailova's brain versus the back part of the brain (fifty to one), whereas in the average person the gradient is four to one. The usual force field around Mikhailova's body is ten times weaker than the magnetic field of the earth.
During PK, her pulse rises to 240 per minute. There is activation of deeper levels of the occipital lobe and reticular formation. This enhances polarization in the brain between front and back, says Sergeyev. When the gradient between front and back of the brain reaches a certain level, and there is most intense activity in the occipital lobe, radiation of electrostatic and electromagnetic fields are detected by the force field detectors four yeard from the body....Heartbeat, brain waves, and force field fluctuations are in ratio. The fields around the PK medium are stronger further away than close to the head. Mikhailova appears to focus these force field waves in a specific area.

Detailed physiological studies of this sort with outstanding psychics are so rare they raise more questions than they answer. Kulagina has received a certain amount of adverse publicity. However, since 1968, several groups of western researchers have had opportunities to test her under differing circumstances. In most cases, their reports attest to the authenticity of her psychokinetic abilities.
Her mediumship has led to a strain on her health leading to a heart attack, and her doctors have suggested that she limit this type of activity. The former Soviets, however, are reported to have found others who have developed talents for psychokinesis, and are also researching ways to train this ability in normal individuals. The training begins with long hours practicing to move the needle of a compass.


Uri Geller



The most unusual psychokinetic effects currently being reported by scientists are associated with the Israeli psychic Uri Geller. Dr. Andrija Puharich, a physician known for his theoretical efforts to grasp the physics and physiology of psychic phenomena, as well as for his previously mentioned researches into psychic healing, in August of 1971, encountered Geller in Israel, where he arranged to conduct an extensive series of experiments with him. Eventually he brought Uri to the United States where his research continued and where he negotiated for further testing at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. It was at a symposium I organized in Berkeley, sponsored by KPFA-FM at the University of California, that Andrija Puharich made the first public presentation of experimental research with Uri Geller.


Andrija Puharich, MD

Puharich carefully went over his investigations with Geller, indicating the conditions under which he had observed Geller bend and break metal objects, erase magnetic tape, make things disappear and reappear elsewhere, and cause the hands of a clock to change time. He also discussed how his sessions with Geller led him to believe that there was some other intelligent form of energy working through Geller, possibly from an extra-terrestrial or extra-dimensional source.

The following week, the controversy over Geller deepened as Time magazine published a story claiming that Geller was a fake. Physicists Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ of Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) also presented a paper about their research with Geller at a physics colloquium at Columbia University.

The SRI scientists primarily emphasized the telepathic studies they had done with Geller. However, they did report on two significant psychokinetic experiments with Uri:

A precision laboratory balance was placed under a Bell jar. The balance had a one-gram mass placed on its pan before it was covered. A chart recorder then continuously monitored the weight applied to the pan of the balance. On several occasions Uri caused the balance to respond as those a force were applied to the pan. The displacement represented forces from 1.0 to 1.5 grams. These effects were 10 to 100 times larger than could be produced by striking the Bell jar or the table or jumping on the floor. In tests following the experimental run, attempts were made to replicate Geller's results using magnets and static electricity. Controlled runs of day-long operation were obtained. In no case did the researchers obtain artifacts which resembled the signals Geller had produced.
Subsequent to the presentation of the above report, the SRI researchers backed away from the Bell jar study claim, having been convinced that the result could have resulted from artifacts. The lesson of this incident is that time is indeed necessary to sift through and evaluate experimental claims in the area of psychokinesis. Simply because a claim is presented in a scientific format, one cannot assume that it will ultimately withstand the test of scrutiny.
On several occasions, a group of nearly eighteen scientists, organized by me and Dr. Joel Friedman of the philosophy department at the University of California, Davis, met with Geller and observed a wide variety of unusual phenomena in his presence. However, none of them occurred under conditions of sufficient control for us to feel confident about publishing the results.

One of our researchers, Saul-Paul Sirag (author of the material in the Appendix to this book), conducted an experiment with Geller in which Saul-Paul unexpectedly handed Geller a bean sprout and asked him to "make the movie run backwards." Uri closed his fist over the sprout and when he opened his hand some thirty seconds later there was no longer a sprout, but a whole solid mung bean. This effect, if verified by further replication, seems to indicate a psychokinetic influence involving time.

Another study the Berkeley research group conducted was a follow-up survey of the reactions of individuals who had witnessed Geller's performances. Many people reported experiencing unusual visual or telepathic phenomena and several reported that, after watching Geller's demonstrations, they also were able to produce various psychokinetic effects. On occasions when I have broadcast radio interviews with Uri, dozens of listeners have reported psychokinetic phenomena in their own homes.

Perhaps even more remarkable, thousands of individuals in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Holland and Japan have reported that they can also use PK to bend spoons after having only seen Geller on television. Ironically, the same social phenomena seems to occur when skeptics, masquerading as psychics make similar radio and television appearances.

In a letter published in the April 10, 1975, issue of Nature, J. B. Hasted, D. J. Bohm, E. W. Bastin, and B. O'Regan report on the apparent partial dematerialization of a single crystal of vanadium carbide, encapsulated in plastic. The authors claimed that "there is no known way of producing this effect within the closed capsule and no possibility of substitution." The letter stressed the need for scientists to remain open-minded toward such extraordinary phenomena and to pay attention to psychological variables that can affect experiments. The crystal disappearance was not regarded as conclusive evidence as the authors did not actually observe or measure the change as it occurred. Nevertheless, they claimed to have "significant work in progress."

At a conference on The Physics of Paranormal Phenomena held in Tarrytown, New York, it was estimated that psychokinetic metal-bending has ben witnessed in at least sixty different people.

Metallurgic analyses have been made of several objects bent or fractured by Geller. In many instances, the results were not different from those of similar objects broken by the scientistsx as controls. In some instances, fatigue fractures were observed, even though the metal was new (i.e., key blanks) and was bent without the application of known physical stress.

Perhaps the most interesting finding related to a platinum ring that spontaneously developed a fissure in Geller's presence – although he was not touching it. This ring was analyzed by physicist Wilbur Franklin with a scanning electron microscope. He claimed that adjacent areas of the ring indicated totally different conditions resembling (1) fracture at a very low temperature, such as with liquid nitrogen, (2) distortion as if by a mechanical shear, and (3) melting at a very high temperature. Although the ring was fractured at room temperatures, conditions (1) and (3) were observed at locations only one hundredth of an inch apart. Franklin pointed out there was no known method to duplicate such findings at room temperature – and that such findings were extremely difficult to fabricate even by known laboratory techniques.


Poltergeist Cases

An altogether different line of PK investigation has been poltergeist research. The word poltergeist is German and means a noisy and rattling spirit. Modern investigators, however, view the poltergeist as a spontaneous, unconscious, recurring psychokinetic phenomena centering around a person, usually an adolescent simmering with repressed feelings of anger. Unable to vent these feelings in a normal fashion, he manifests them through psychic means.


William G. Roll

William G. Roll, of the Psychical Research Foundation (affiliated with West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia), is one of the foremost American researchers of poltergeist phenomena. One typical case occurred in a Miami warehouse full of glasses, ashtrays, plates and novelties. The disturbance, which involved more than two hundred incidences, took place in January 1967. Police officers, insurance agents, a magicians and others were unable to explain it. Roll describes his approach:


Julio with a Dice Tossing Machine

It soon became clear that the incidents were concentrated around one employee, Julio, a nineteen-year-old shipping clerk. Certain areas of the large warehouse room where the disturbances took place were more frequently affected than others and these became the focus of the investigation. The investigators designed certain parts as target areas and placed objects in them hoping that the objects would be affected while Julio and the other employees were under observation.
In several cases this is precisely what did happen. Julio was brought to the Psychical Research Foundation (then located in Durham, North Carolina) for further testing which revealed his strong feelings of hostility, especially towards parental figures, which he could not express openly and from which he felt personally detached. PK tests with a dice throwing machine produced suggestive results with Julio. In addition there was a poltergeist disturbance of a vase in a hallway in the laboratory while Julio was standing with the researchers several feet away. Within recent decades there have been about thirty well-documented poltergeist cases.

Matthew Manning


Matthew Manning

Perhaps the most intriguing "poltergeist person" to be studied so far is Matthew Manning, who since 1966, at the age of eleven, has been the center of various psychokinetic outbreaks. Dr. A. R. G. Owen, former Cambridge mathematician and geneticist, who authored perhaps the most comprehensive book on poltergeists, claiming that Manning "is probably the most gifted psychic in the western world."

In addition to typical psychokinetic outbreaks, Matthew has shown an apparent ability to communicate with spirits via automatic writing and drawing. Although his schoolmaster claims that he has never shown any particular drawing talent, he is able to reproduce – without any apparent effort or concentration – detailed and precise works of art in the style of deceased masters such as Durer, Picasso, Beardsley, and Matisse. Automatic writing has been produced in languages with which Manning was unfamiliar. Often verified information, and even psychic diagnoses, come through in this way. Thus the phenomena contain the kinds of evidence we might really associate with spirit phenomena.

Particularly since the public demonstrations of Uri Geller, Manning has exhibited intentional psychokinetic effects amenable to scientific testing. When tested by Nobel laureate physicist Brian Josephson in Cavandish Laboratory at Cambridge University, Matthew demonstrated an unusual spinning effect over a compass needle. Ironically, when further instrumentation was used to record magnetic changes in the vicinity of the compass, the needle of the compass would only remain stationary. Nevertheless, the instruments did detect magnetic changes. Jusephson maintains that until further data is collected, his results will still have to be labeled "inconclusive."

In other tests, conducted at the New Horizons Research Foundation in Toronto, Manning was able to demonstrate metal-bending, on demand, which was actually recorded on motion picture film. Several tests were conducted that recorded physiological measures such as muscle tension and brain waves during psychokinetic activity.

No unusual muscular activity was noted. However, rather profound changes were seen in the electrical activity of the brain which have been described by Dr. Joel Whitton as a ramp function (actually a rather pictorial description of the chart printout). The ramp functions appeared similar to the EEG patterns in a patient suffering from an overdose of a hallucinatory drug and is suspected to stem from the older and deeper areas of the brain.

These findings led the Toronto scientists to speculate on neurophysiological psi interrelationships. Dr. Whitton conducted a small-scale investigation with a number of known psychics to determine if they had any common childhood experiences. The answer was quite fascinating – for the one experience that all of the psychics had suffered in common was a severe electric shock before the age of ten. Although Matthew Manning did not recall such an incident, his mother informed the scientists that she had been so severely shocked three weeks before Matthew was born she was afraid she would lose him.

This line of research seems to have implications for psychical research. Perhaps the increasing number of children who can now ostensibly demonstrate PK is associated with the greater number of electronic gadgets in modern homes – with the correspondingly increased probability of electric shocks. However, even if further inquiry in this direction proves revealing, it will still fail to account for another type of poltergeist case also documented by the Toronto group.


Philip the Ghost

One most exciting PK case of the poltergeist variety actually did not involve a real ghost, or an individual, but an imaginary spirit named Philip. This unusual situation developed in Toronto as a group of members of the local Society for Psychical Research decided to meet regularly in an effort to conjure an apparition they created. They invented the character of Philip, an aristocratic Englishman who died of a tragic remorse during the seventeenth century. Every week for an entire year the group met for meditation, concentrating on Philip's story, in an attempt to manifest an apparition.

There was no success, but in the summer of 1973 they learned about similar efforts made in England since 1964 by Batcheldor, Brookes-Smith, and Hunt. The British approach had been directed toward producing the physical phenomena of the old type seances of the Victorian era. Instead of quiet meditation, they created an atmosphere of jollity, together with singing songs, telling jokes, and exhortations to the table to obey the sitter's commands. Consequently, the Toronto group decided to take this approach.

Extraordinary things began to happen: The table began to produce raps that became louder and more obvious as time went on. Using one rap for yes and two for no, the table was actually able to answer questions and recreate the personality of Philip. Occasionally, however, the answers were out of character for Philip.

These raps occurred in a fair amount of light, with all the participants' hands in view on the table. The thickly carpeted floor generally prevented foot-tapping. At least four members, of the original group of eight, were necessary to produce this phenomenon. However, no single person was found to be essential. Eventually the table began to move around the room at great speed with no one touching it. On one occasion, the table completely flipped over.



These phenomena continued for some time and have been duplicated by other groups who have learned how to unlock their own hidden PK abilities. All efforts at investigation have so far been unable to detect fraud and a two-hour film has even been made documenting these occurrences.

This imaginary communicator, created by a group consciousness, seems to suggest that other alleged spirits, ghosts, entities, and perhaps even flying saucers also originate from within us.

On several occasions the Philip group has been able to produce psychokinetic phenomena for live television audiences in Toronto. Indications were, in fact, that the large audience aided in the production of more dramatic phenomena. Reports state that there were two other groups within the Toronto Society for Psychical Research also able to produce spirit-like psychokinetic phenomena.

One of these, the "Lillith group" has concocted a fictitious ghost story as the focus on their concentration. Like the Philip story, it has all the proper dramatic elements of romance and tragedy. Learning from he Philip group, the Lillith group was able to enter into the jovial atmosphere conducive to phenomena without spending time on meditations or visualizations. The phenomena they produced have been quite striking, including table levitations said to be more impressive than those caused by the original group. The Lillith group also attempted to produce voices on magnetic recording tape – with encouraging results.

During the annual Christmas party of the Toronto SPR, a large group of individuals were able to spontaneously develop psychokinetic table-rapping. Somebody asked the "spirit" if it were Santa Claus and from then on the responses continued as if it were old Saint Nick himself rapping. Since then a third Toronto group has developed psychokinetic table rapping, this time ostensibly coming from a Charles Dickens character, the "Artful Dodger."

Since the metal-bending demonstrations of Uri Geller and Matthew Manning in Toronto, the Philip group has also shown some success in this direction. In one instance, a metal medallion, which was particularly bent during the group session, continued to bend after the group departed until it completely crumpled.

Perhaps the most significant development in the Philip story is the qualitative acoustic measurement of psychokinetic table rapping. Normal raps on the table used in the Philip session produced a sound that typically lasted for about half a second. On the other hand, many of the raps produced by Philip were shown to last only 0.16 sec. This was true in spite of the similarities in loudness and frequency of the raps.

Further research along these lines may provide a clearer notion of how the sounds are produced. Although, it would seem likely that once a clear understanding of the phenomena is gained the quality of the raps themselves will change.


Ted Owens – The "PK Man"


Ted Owens

Earlier in the discussion of UFOs, I presented some material suggesting that Ted Owens, now deceased, had an ability to create various large-scale effects through telepathic communication with "space intelligences." Owens, himself, vacillated as to whether these effects were due to his own PK abilities or to the intervention of beings from another dimension.

Owens learned about psychokinesis in the late 1940s, when, as a Duke University student (after having served in the Navy during the war) he was a clerical assistant in the Parapsychology Laboratory under the direction of J. B. and Louisa Rhine. He claimed that he discovered that it was just as easy, in terms of mental effort, to produce large-scale psychokinetic effects as it was to produce small-scale events such as with Rhine's dice experiments (which will be discussed in Section III). Before he died, he expressed his hope that this "discovery" would, one day, be termed the "Owens Effect." Here are some examples:

Lightning Strikes

A letter from he Ted Owens files dated August 12, 1967, addressed "To Whom It May Concern" and signed by Charles Jay of Morton, Pennsylvania, reads:

Several weeks [ago] I took my friend, Kenneth Batch, over to Philadelphia to visit Ted Owens. It was a rainy day, and we had heard of Ted Owens' ability to make lightning strike...so we asked Ted Owens to give us a demonstration of his so-called power...by having...lightning strike in given areas we would designate.
The three of us went out onto a balcony outside of Ted Owens' apartment...and my friend and I asked Ted Owens to have lightning strike at or near the top of the City Hall. In the ensuing period of time there were three massive strokes of lightning in that exact direction. And those were the only three bolts that struck in the entire sky...just where Ted Owens had pointed his hand.
To test this, we then asked Ted Owens to make lightning strike in an entirely different portion of the sky. He pointed his hand...and the lightning appeared in that different area, exactly where we had asked it to appear. No other bolts appeared anywhere in the sky at any time during our experiments, except exactly where Ted Owens pointed his hand.

My friend and I were in complete agreement that the experiment was a complete success.

Recently, I interviewed Charles Jay who confirmed that the events transpired thirty years ago as described. His testimonial is not an isolated incident. I interviewed an attorney, Sidney Margulies, a partner in a Philadelphia law firm where Owens worked as a typist in 1967. Although my interviews were ten years (and then again thirty years) after the event, this lawyer vividly remembered the afternoon he challenged Owens to influence lightning.
It was an overcast day in May of 1967. There was neither rain nor lightning. The law firm was located in an office tower overlooking the Camden bridge. The attorney, Margulies, challenged Owens to make lightning strike the bridge – on the spot. Owens pointed his hand at the bridge and seemed to concentrate. Within minutes a bolt of lightning struck the bridge. According to attorney Margulies, it was the only bolt of lightning at the time. His signed affidavit is in my files.

Weather Control

On February 12, 1974, Owens wrote a letter to Ed Busch, of radio station WFAA in Dallas, Texas. Owens, who had appeared on Busch's radio program the week before, made a claim:

If you recall, on the program itself you requested that I make it snow instantly, and your colleague wanted heat. All right....[I] will cause freakish weather and, of course, heat. Normal summer heat coming up, should be amplified tremendously, perhaps to break a record. You will have great storms, lightning attacks, etc. But into this will be the intelligence not to cause death or injury to Texas people, but to show how I...can control the weather anyplace in the world.

On February 16, 1974, newspaper clippings record that an earthquake centered in the Texas panhandle shook parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. The tremor registered between 4.0 and 4.5 on the Richter scale. On March 20, 1974, a storm developed over Texas and moved rapidly to the northeast. By the time it arrived in Georgia, winds reached up to a hundred miles per hour. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service said, "It's the strongest wind I've ever seen in the continental United States."

Ed Busch wrote a statement testifying to these and other events, dated May 7, 1974. He stated:

Owens sent me a letter, stating that he...would produce a "major demonstration" of weather control over Texas. Following Owens' letter Texas was struck by an earthquake, 4.5 on the Richter scale. Then Texas was struck by high winds and tornados. Then Texas had the coldest weather ever in its history. Then Texas was hit with hot winds that destroyed half the Texas wheat crop.
I am submitting this statement of fact to Owens at his request. It is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge. Whether Owens had any connection with the above weather phenomena, I do not know; perhaps it was mere coincidence.

Dozens of similar "demonstrations" appear in my records. One of them occurred in the San Francisco Bay area in early 1976 and was the cause of my learning about Owens' remarkable claims. On January 30, 1976, Owens sent the following letter to Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ at SRI International, a giant research organization located in Menlo Park, California, just south of San Francisco:
Last night over TV the evening news showed a stricken California. No water. "The worst drought in 72 years." "Only three times in the entire history of the State of California...has such a drought appeared." Crops are dead and dying...and the animals are in pitiful condition.
Now I, Ted Owens, PK Man...will change all of that. Within the next 90 days from the time of this letter...I will pour and pour and pour rains onto the State of California...until it is swimming in water, and the dangerous drought is completely over. There will be storm after storm, lightning attack after lightning attack, and high winds...

A UPI clipping from February 1, 1976, confirms Owens' statement about the drought:
The cost of a California winter-drought has mounted to about $310.5 million....Ten more days of drought could precipitate an emergency in the livestock industry. But there is little moisture in sight.
However, by February 6, 1976, the headlines changed:
San Francisco Snowed by a Record Snowfall

The biggest snowfall in exactly 89 years hit the city and surrounding areas...The storm also featured lightning and sleet. A giant television tower on Mt. San Bruno, south of San Francisco, was hit by lightning about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday knocking several TV stations off the air.
The following news clip was sent to Owens by Puthoff and Targ, who had received Owens' prediction only one day earlier. From the Palo Alto Times, Thursday, February 5, 1976.
Rare Snowfall Ends Drought on Peninsula

The unexpected and unfamiliar weather was at odds with a forecast Wednesday that the dry spell would continue in the Bay Area....Not since the morning of January 21, 1962, have Mid-peninsulans awakened to find their homes blanketed with snow.
The Oakland Tribune of February 5, 1976, stated that the storm brought with it:

...nearly every phenomenon in the weatherman's book throughout the Bay Area....Snow, hail, sleet, light rain, thunder and lightning hit the Bay Area after weeks of dry, balmy weather....Varying amounts of rain fell upon the lower two-thirds of the state....In northwestern California there are gale warnings.
On February 10, a UPI story stated:
The rainy season continued in California for the sixth consecutive day. Some mountainous regions of the state have received 6 to 8 inches of rain and coastal areas have measured 3 to 4 inches.
UFO sightings, power blackouts and fireballs were also reported during this period.
The Owens case is extremely complex, involving more than a hundred ostensible macro-PK events, synchronicities, UFO appearances, poltergeist-type phenomena, as well as apparitions and appearances of monster-like creatures. It was further complicated by Owens' own colorful personality which was far from saintly and far from conducive to thoughtful scholarly exploration. In addition, many of his seeming demonstrations involved deaths and accidents. If Owens' supposed powers were real, they were sometimes very dangerous. This situation alone led several researchers to reject any possibility of seriously studying or testing Owens' claims.

My years of involvement with the Owens case suggest to me that humanity is far from ready to confront the possibility of large-scale PK phenomena of this sort. On the other hand, if such abilities are possible, it is not wise to neglect their study.





References

. Stephen E. Braude, The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986, pp. ix-xii.

. Carl G. Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963, p. 152.

. Charles Richet, op. cit., pp. 407-8.

. Sir William Crookes, "Experimental Investigation of a New Force," Crookes and the Spirit World, op. cit., p. 24.

. Ibid., p. 26.

. D. D. Home, op. cit.

. Sir William Crookes, "The Last of Katie King," in Crookes and the Spirit World, op. cit., p. 138. A poignant, yet comical, story.

. Sir William Crookes, "Spirit Forms," in Crookes and the Spirit World, op. cit., pp. 135-6.

. Harry Price, Fifty Years of Psychical Research. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1939.

. Charles Richet, op. cit., pp. 506-8.

. Ibid., p. 543.

. Ibid., pp. 543-4.

. Soji Otani, "Past and Present Situation of Parapsychology in Japan," Parapsychology Today: A Geographic View, pp. 34-5.

. J. Gaither Pratt, ESP Research Today. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1973, pp. 108-9. An insider's view of developments in psychic research.

. Jule Eisenbud, The World of Ted Serios. New York: William Morrow, 1967, p. 332.

. J. Gaither Pratt, op. cit., p. 114.

. Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1969, p. 84.

. Ibid., pp. 60-1.

. Ibid., p. 407.

. J. Gaither Pratt and H. H. J. Keil, "First-hand Observations of Nina S. Kulagina Suggestive of PK Upon Static Objects," Parapsychological Association Convention, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1973.

. H. H. J. Keil and Jarl Fahler, "Nina S. Kulagina: A strong Case for PK Involving Directly Observable Movements of Objects Recorded on Cine Film," Parapsychological Association Convention, New York, 1974.

. Montague Ullman, "Report on Nina Kulagina," Parapsychological Association Convention, 1973.

. Benson Herbert, "Report on Nina Kulagina," Journal of Paraphysics, 1970, Nos. 1, 3, 5.

. Lecture presented by Stanley Krippner at the University of California, Davis, 1973.

. Andrija Puharich, Beyond Telepathy. New York: Doubleday, 1972.

. Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, "Experiments with Uri Geller," Parapsychological Association Convention, 1973.

. H. H. J. Keil and Scott Hill, "Mini-Geller PK Cases," Parapsychological Association Convention, 1974.

. Uri Geller, My Story. New York: Praeger, 1975. Geller's own account of his worldwide spoon-bending stir.

. A. R. G. Owen, "Editorial," New Horizons, 2(1), April 1975, p. 1.

. Wilbur Franklin, "Fracture Surface Physics Indicating Teleneural Interaction," New Horizons, 2(1), April 1975, p. 813.

. W. G. Roll, "Poltergeists," in Richard Cavendish (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Unexplained. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974, p. 200.

. Ibid.

. A. R. G. Owen, Can We Explain the Poltergeist? New York: Taplinger, 1964.

. Matthew Manning, The Link. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.

. Matthew Manning: Study of A Psychic. This movie, made on location in England, shows how Matthew, an English schoolboy, developed ostensible powers of clairvoyance and psychokinesis and brought them under voluntary control. The film has been available from George Ritter Films Limited, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

. Peter Bander, "Introduction," The Link. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1975.

. Brian Josephson, "Possible Relations Between Psychic Fields and Conventional Physics," and "Possible Connections between Psychic Phenomena and Quantum Mechanics," New Horizons, 1(5), January 1975.

. A. R. G. Owen, "A Preliminary Report on Matthew Manning's Physical Phenomena," New Horizons, 1(4), July 1974, 172-3.

. Joel L. Whitton, "‘Ramp Functions' in EEG Power Spectra during Actual or Attempted Paranormal Events," New Horizons, July 1974, pp. 173-186.

. Iris M. Owen and Margaret H. Sparrow, "Generation of Paranormal Physical Phenomena in Connection with an Imaginary Communicator," New Horizons, 1(3), January 1974, pp. 6-13.

. K. J. Batcheldor, "Report on a Case of Table Levitation and Associated Phenomena," Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 43(729), September 1966, pp. 339-356.

. C. Brookes-Smith, "Data-tape Recorded Experimental PK Phenomena," Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 47(756), June 1973, pp. 68-9.

. Philip, The Imaginary Ghost. This film has been available for rent or purchase from George Ritter Films Limited in Toronto, Canada.

. Iris M. Owen, "Philip's Story Continued," New Horizons, 2(1), April 1975.

. Joel L. Whitten, "Qualitative Time-Domain Analysis of Acoustic Envelopes in Psychokinetic Table Rappings," New Horizons, April 1975.