The Field

by Lynne McTaggart

  13 R. Gerber, Vibrational Medicine (Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1988): 62.

  14 H. Burr, The Fields of Life (New York: Ballantine, 1972).

  15 R. O. Becker and G. Selden, The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life (Quill, 1985): 83.

  16 Experiments by Lund, Marsh and Beams are recounted in Becker and Selden, The Body Electric: 82 – 5.

  17 Becker and Selden, Body Electric: 73 – 4.

  18 H. Fröhlich, ‘Long-range coherence and energy storage in biological systems’, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 1968; 2: 641 – 9.

  19 H. Fröhlich, ‘Evidence for Bose condensation-like excitation of coherent modes in biological systems’, Physics Letters, 1975, 51A: 21; see also D. Zohar, The Quantum Self (London: Flamingo, 1991): 65.

  20 R. Nobili, ‘Schrödinger wave holography in brain cortex’, Physical Review A, 1985; 32: 3618 – 26; R. Nobili, ‘Ionic waves in animal tissues’, Physical Review A, 1987; 35: 1901 – 22.

  21 Becker and Selden, The Body Electric: 92 – 3; also R. Gerber, Vibrational Medicine: 98; M. Schiff, The Memory of Water: 12. More recently, another Italian, Ezio Insinna, proposed that centrioles, the little cartwheel structures holding cell structure in place, are virtually ‘immortal’ oscillators, or wave generators. In an embryo, these waves will be set in motion by the father’s genes when they first unite with the mother’s genes, and thereafter continue pulsing through the life of the organism. At the first stage of an embryo’s development, they might begin at a certain frequency to affect cell shape and metabolism, and then change the frequency as the organism matures. Correspondence with E. Insinna, November 5, 1998. See E. Insinna, ‘Synchronicity and coherent excitations in microtubules’, Nanobiology, 1992; 1: 191 – 208; ‘ciliated cell electrodynamics: from cilia and flagella to ciliated sensory systems’, in A. Malhotra, ed., Advances in Structural Biology, Stamford, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1999:5. T. Y. Tsong has also written about the electromagnetic language of cells: T. Y. Tsong, ‘Deciphering the language of cells’, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 1989; 14: 89 – 92.

  22 F. A. Popp, Qiao Gu and Ke-Hsueh Li, ‘Biophoton emission: experimental background and theoretical approaches’, Modern Physics Letters B, 1994; 8(21/22): 1269 – 96; also, F. A. Popp, ‘Biophotonics: a powerful tool for investigating and understanding life’, in H. P. Dürr, F. A. Popp and W. Schommers (eds), What is Life? (Singapore: World Scientific), in press.

  23 S. Cohen and F. A. Popp, ‘Biophoton emission of the human body’, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, 1997; 40: 187 – 9.

  24 Interviews with Fritz-Albert Popp, Coventry and telephone, March 2001.

  25 F. A. Popp and Jiin-Ju Chang, ‘Mechanism of interaction between electromagnetic fields and living systems’, Science in China (Series C), 2000; 43: 507 – 18.

  26 Biologist Rupert Sheldrake has recently made a study of the special abilities of animals. His own studies have demonstrated that termite colonies will make columns and then bend them toward each other until the ends of the new columns meet in an arch, according to some master plan beyond all usual communication. One of the best experiments testing this ability was carried out by South African naturalist Eugene Marais, who placed a steel plate in a termite mound. Despite the height and width of the plate, the termites would build an arch or tower on each side of the plate so similar that when the steel plate was withdrawn, the two halves matched perfectly. Marais (and later Sheldrake) concluded that the termites operate according to an organizing energy field far more advanced than any sensory communication, particularly since many forms would not be able to penetrate the steel plate. Sheldrake has amassed a database of 2,700 case histories of pets and apparent telepathic behavior, and a number of surveys with pet owners. More than 200 studies concern the telepathic abilities of JayTee, a mixed-breed terrier in the north of England, who will go to the window and wait for his owner, Pamela Smart, in telepathic anticipation of her arrival, even if she sets off for home at unusual times and in strange vehicles. See R. Sheldrake, Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science (Fourth Estate, 1994): 68 – 86, and Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals (Hutchinson, 1999).

  27 Interview with Fritz-Albert Popp, Coventry, March 21, 2001.

  28 J. Hyvarien and M. Karlssohn, ‘Low-resistance skin points that may coincide with acupuncture loci’, Medical Biology, 1977; 55: 88 – 94, as quoted in the New England Journal of Medicine, 1995; 333(4): 263.

  29 B. Pomeranz and G. Stu, Scientific Basis of Acupuncture (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989).

  30 A. Colston Wentz, ‘Infertility’ (Book review), New England Journal of Medicine, 1995; 333(4): 263.

  31 Becker and Selden, The Body Electric: 235.

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE LANGUAGE OF THE CELL

  1 J. Benveniste, B. Arnoux and L. Hadji, ‘Highly dilute antigen increases coronary flow of isolated heart from immunized guinea-pigs’, FASEB Journal, 1992; 6: A1610. Also presented at ‘Experimental Biology – 98 (FASEB)’, San Francisco, 20 April 1998.

  2 M. Schiff, The Memory of Water: Homeopathy and the Battle of New Ideas in the New Science (HarperCollins, 1994): 22.

  3 Ibid.: 26.

  4 E. Davenas et al., ‘Human basophil degranulation triggered by very dilute antiserum against IgE’, Nature, 1988; 333(6176): 816 – 8.

  5 J. Maddox, ‘Editorial’, Nature, 1988; 333: 818; see also M. Schiff, The Memory of Water: 86.

  6 J. Benveniste’s reply to Nature, 1988; 334: 291. For a full account of the Nature visit, see J. Maddox, et al., ‘High-dilution experiments a delusion’, Nature, 1988; 334: 287 – 90; J. Benveniste’s reply to Nature; also Schiff, Memory of Water, chapter 6, pp. 85 – 95.

  7 Schiff, Memory of Water: 57.

  8 Ibid.: 103.

  9 J. Benveniste, ‘Understanding digital biology’, unpublished position paper, June 14, 1998; also interviews with J. Benveniste, October 1999.

  10 J. Benveniste, et al., ‘Digital recording/transmission of the cholinergic signal,’ FASEB Journal, 1996, 10: A1479; Y. Thomas, et al., ‘Direct transmission to cells of a molecular signal (phorbol myristate acetate, PMA) via an electronic device,’ FASEB Journal, 1995; 9: A227; J. Aïssa et al., ‘Molecular signalling at high dilution or by means of electronic circuitry’, Journal of Immunology, 1993; 150: 146A; J. Aïssa, ‘Electronic transmission of the cholinergic signal’, FASEB Journal, 1995; 9: A683; Y. Thomas, ‘Modulation of human neutrophil activation by “electronic” phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)’, FASEB Journal, 1996; 10: A1479. (For a full listing of papers, see www.digibio.com).

  11 J. Benveniste, P. Jurgens et al., ‘Transatlantic transfer of digitized antigen signal by telephone link’, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 1997; 99: S175.

  12 Schiff, Memory of Water: 14 – 15.

  13 D. Loye, An Arrow Through Chaos: How We See into the Future (Rochester, Vt: Park Street Press, 1983): 146.

  14 J. Benveniste et al., ‘A simple and fast method for in vivo demonstration of electromagnetic molecular signaling (EMS) via high dilution or computer recording’, FASEB Journal, 1999; 13: A163.

  15 J. Benveniste et al., ‘The molecular signal is not functioning in the absence of “informed” water’, FASEB Journal, 1999; 13: A163.

  16 M. Jibu, S. Hagan, S. Hameroff et al., ‘Quantum optical coherence in cytoskeletal microtubules: implications for brain function’, BioSystems, 1994; 32: 95 – 209.

  17 A. H. Frey, ‘Electromagnetic field interactions with biological systems’, FASEB Journal, 1993; 7: 272.

  18 M. Bastide et al., ‘Activity and chronopharmacology of very low doses of physiological immune inducers,’ Immunology Today, 1985; 6: 234 – 5; L. Demangeat et al., Modifications des temps de relaxation RMN à 4MHz des protons du solvant dans les très hautes dilutions salines de silice/lactose’, Journal of Medical Nuclear Biophysics, 1992; 16: 135 – 45; B. J. Youbicier-Simo et al., ‘Effects
of embryonic bursectomy and in ovo administration of highly diluted bursin on an adrenocorticotropic and immune response to chickens’, International Journal of Immunotherapy, 1993; IX: 169 – 80; P. C. Endler et al., ‘The effect of highly diluted agitated thyroxine on the climbing activity of frogs’, Veterinary and Human Toxicology, 1994; 36: 56 – 9.

  19 P. C. Endler et al., ‘Transmission of hormone information by non-molecular means’, FASEB Journal, 1994; 8: A400; F. Senekowitsch et al., ‘Hormone effects by CD record/replay’, FASEB Journal, 1995; 9: A392.

  20 The Guardian, March 15, 2001; see also J. Sainte-Laudy and P. Belon, ‘Analysis of immunosuppressive activity of serial dilutions of histamines on human basophil activation by flow symmetry’, Inflammation Research, 1996; Suppl 1: S33 – 4.

  21 D. Reilly, ‘Is evidence for homeopathy reproducible?’ The Lancet, 1994; 344: 1601 – 6.

  22 J. Jacobs, ‘Homoeopathic treatment of acute childhood diarrhoea’, British Homoeopathic Journal, 1993; 82: 83 – 6.

  23 E. S. M. deLange deKlerk and J. Bloomer, ‘Effect of homoeopathic medicine on daily burdens of symptoms in children with recurrent upper respiratory tract infections’, British Medical Journal, 1994; 309: 1329 – 32.

  24 F. J. Master, ‘A study of homoeopathic drugs in essential hypertension’, British Homoeopathic Journal, 1987; 76: 120 – 1.

  25 D. Reilly, ‘Is evidence for homeopathy reproducible?’ The Lancet, 1994; 344: 1601-6.

  26 Ibid.: 1585.

  27 J. Benveniste, Letter, The Lancet, 1998; 351: 367.

  28 Description of these results from a telephone conversation with Jacques Benveniste, November 10, 2000.

  CHAPTER FIVE: RESONATING WITH THE WORLD

  1 Description of Penrose’s and Lashley’s experiments from Karl Pribram, telephone interview, June 14, 2000;.M.Talbot, The Holographic Universe (New York: Harper-Collins, 1991): 11-13.

  2 K. Pribram, ‘Autobiography in anecdote: the founding of experimental neuropsychology’, in Robert Bilder, (ed.), The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1998): 306 – 49.

  3 Description of Lashley’s laboratory protocol from Karl Pribram, telephone interview, June 14, 2000.

  4 K. S. Lashley, Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929).

  5 K. S. Lashley, ‘In search of the engram’, in Society for Experimental Biology, Physiological Mechanisms in Animal Behavior (New York: Academic Press, 1950): 501, as quoted in K. Pribram, Languages of the Brain: Experimental Paradoxes and Principles in Neurobiology (New York: Brandon House, 1971): 26.

  6 Pribram, ‘Autobiography’.

  7 As quoted in K. Pribram, Brain and Perception: Holonomy and Structure in Figural Processing (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991): 9.

  8 Talbot, Holographic Universe: 18 – 19.

  9 D. Loye, An Arrow Through Chaos (Rochester, Vt: Park Street Press, 2000): 16 – 17.

  10 Karl Pribram, telephone interview, June 14, 2000.

  11 Various interviews with K. Pribram, June 2000; see also Talbot, Holographic Universe: 19.

  12 Full description of his discovery as a result of an interview with Karl Pribram, London, September 9, 1999.

  13 Pribram, ‘Autobiography’.

  14 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 27.

  15 Pribram, Brain and Perception: Acknowledgments, xx; also, interview with Pribram, London, September 9, 1999.

  16 Karl Pribram, telephone interviews, June 14 and July 7, 2000; also meeting in Liège, Belgium, August 12, 1999.

  17 Loye, Arrow Through Chaos: 150.

  18 Talbot, Holographic Universe: 21.

  19 Correspondence with K. Pribram, July 5, 2001.

  20 Talbot, Holographic Universe: 26.

  21 R. DeValois and K. DeValois, Spatial Vision (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

  22 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 76; also reviews of DeValois and DeValois, ’Spatial vision’, Annual Review of Psychology, 1980: 309 – 41.

  23 Pribram, Brain and Perception, chapter 9.

  24 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 79.

  25 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 76 – 7.

  26 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 75.

  27 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 137; see also Talbot, Holographic Universe: 27 – 30.

  28 Ibid.

  29 Telephone interviews with Karl Pribram, May 2000.

  30 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 141.

  31 W. J. Schempp, Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Mathematical Foundations and Applications (London: Wiley-Liss, 1998).

  32 R. Penrose, Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (New York: Vintage, 1994): 367.

  33 S. R. Hameroff, Ultimate Computing: Biomolecular Consciousness and Nanotechnology (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1987).

  34 Ibid; also E. Laszlo, The Interconnected Universe: Conceptual Foundations of Trans-disciplinary Unified Theory (Singapore: World Scientific, 1995): 41.

  35 Pribram, Brain and Perception: 283.

  36 M. Jibu and K. Yasue, ‘A physical picture of Umezawa’s quantum brain dynamics’, in R. Trappl (ed.) Cybernetics and Systems Research, ’92 (Singapore: World Scientific, 1992); ‘The basics of quantum brain dynamics’, in K. H. Pribram (ed.) Proceedings of the First Appalachian Conference on Behavioral Neurodynamics (Radford: Center for Brain Research and Informational Sciences, Radford University, September 17 – 20, 1992); ‘Intracellular quantum signal transfer in Umezawa’s quantum brain dynamics’, Cybernetics Systems International, 1993; 1(24): 1 – 7; ‘Introduction to quantum brain dynamics’, in E. Carvallo (ed.) Nature, Cognition and System III (London: Kluwer Academic, 1993).

  37 C. D. Laughlin, ‘Archetypes, neurognosis and the quantum sea’, Journal of Scientific Exploration, 1996; 10: 375 – 400.

  38 E. Insinna, correspondence and enclosures to author, November 5, 1998; also, E. Insinna ‘Ciliated cell electrodynamics: from cilia and flagella to ciliated sensory systems’, in A. Malhotra (ed.), Advances in Structural Biology (Stamford, Conn: JAI Press, 1999): 5.

  39 M. Jibu, S. Hagan, S. Hameroff et al., ‘Quantum optical coherence in cytoskeletal microtubules: implications for brain function’, BioSystems, 1994; 32: 95 – 209.

  40 Ibid.

  41 D. Zohar, The Quantum Self (London: Flamingo, 1991): 70.

  42 Laszlo, The Interconnected Universe: 41.

  43 Hameroff, Ultimate computing; Jibu et al., ‘Quantum optical coherence’.

  44 E. Del Giudice et al., ‘Electromagnetic field and spontaneous symmetry breaking in biological matter’, Nuclear Physics, 1983; B275(FS17): 185 – 99.

  45 D. Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Routledge, 1983).

  46 Pribram has also postulated that humans also possess ‘feedforward’ loops of images and information which enable them to actively seek out specific information or stimuli: – looking for a mate of a certain type is just one example (correspondence with Karl Pribram, July 5, 2001. For full explanation, see also Dave Loye, Arrow Through Chaos: 22 – 3.

  47 Laszlo, Interconnected Universe.

  48 M. Jibu and K. Yasue, ‘The basis of quantum brain dynamics’, in K. H. Pribram (ed.), Rethinking Neural Networks: Quantum Fields and Biological Data (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1993): 121 – 45

  49 Laszlo, Interconnected Universe: 100 – 1.

  50 Laughlin, ‘Archetypes, neurognosis and the quantum sea’.

  CHAPTER SIX: THE CREATIVE OBSERVER

  1 For all history concerning Helmut Schmidt, correspondence with Helmut Schmidt, March 13, 1999; also telephone interviews with Schmidt, May 14, 2001, and May 16, 2001. See also R. S. Broughton, Parapsychology: The Controversial Science (New York: Ballantine, 1991).

  2 Rhine eventually wrote his results in a book entitled Extra-sensory Perception (Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1964).

  3 Telephone interview with Helmut Schmidt, May 16, 2001.

  4 Interview with Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne, Amsterdam, October 19, 2000; also R.
G. Jahn and B. G. Dunne, Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1987): 58 – 62.

  5 E. Lazlo, The Interconnected Universe: Conceptual Foundations of Transdisciplinary Unified Theory (Singapore: World Scientific, 1995): 56.

  6 H. Schmidt, ‘Quantum processes predicted?’, New Scientist, October 16, 1969: 114 – 15.

  7 For amplification of this idea, see D. Radin and R. Nelson, ‘Evidence for consciousness-related anomalies in random physical systems’, Foundations of Physics, 1989; 19(12): 1499 – 514; also, D. Zohar, The Quantum Self (London: Flamingo, 1991): 33 – 4.

  8 E. J. Squires, ‘Many views of one world – an interpretation of quantum theory’, European Journal of Physics, 1987; 8: 173.

  9 H. Schmidt, ‘Mental influence on random events’, New Scientist, June 24, 1971; 757 – 8.

  10 Broughton, Parapsychology: 177.

  11 For the description of Helmut Schmidt’s machine, correspondence with Schmidt, March 20, 1999; see also, Broughton, Parapsychology: 125 – 7; and D. Radin, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena (New York: HarperEdge, 1997): 138 – 40.

  12 Schmidt, ‘Quantum processes’.

  13 Schmidt, ‘Mental influence’.

  14 Ibid.

  15 Telephone interview with Helmut Schmidt, May 14, 2001.

  16 For the history of the PEAR program, interviews with Brenda Dunne, Princeton, June 23, 1998, and Robert Jahn and Brenda Dunne, Amsterdam, October 19, 2000.

  17 Dunne and Jahn, Margins of Reality: 96 – 8.

  18 R. G. Jahn et al., ‘Correlations of random binary sequences with prestated operator intention: a review of a 12-year program’, Journal of Scientific Exploration, 1997; 11: 345 – 67.

  19 Interview with Brenda Dunne, Amsterdam, October 19, 2000.

  20 Jahn, ‘Correlations’: 350.

  21 Ibid.

  22 Radin and Nelson, ‘Evidence for consciousness-related anomalies’; see also R. D. Nelson and D. I. Radin, ‘When immovable objections meet irresistible evidence’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1987; 10: 600 – 1; ‘Statistically robust anomalous effects: replication in random event generator experiments’, in L. Henchle and R. E. Berger (eds), RIP 1988 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988): 23 – 6.