8-Coil Shakti - Part 1: Intro

I’ve been real excited about Persinger’s and Todd Murphy’s research. Persinger is a cognitive neuroscientist who has been doing research on the effects of magnetic fields on the human brian. Todd Murphy is an interesting character. He is a Buddhist theologian turned researching behavioral scientist. Both are gathering data on the affects of magnetic fields on the brain. Specific magnetic fields applied to different areas of the brain produce various states of consciousness. I’m not sure what it means to science or spirituality but I’m anxious to find out.

So far neo-atheist have been using Persinger’s research as proof that all mystical experiences are not real because they can be produced. Surprisingly, Persinger does not feel this way. He has in fact tested psychically talented people to see the affects of magnetic fields on them.

Todd Murphy created what he calls the 8-coil Shakti based on Persinger’s research. The 8-coil Shakti is an affordable, homemade device that sends weak magnetic fields into the brain to produce similar experiences… though the technology is different from what Persinger uses.

I decided to get one and test it out.

Intergral Persinger:
He organized the Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Laurentian University, which became one of the first to integrate chemistry, biology and psychology. — wiki

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulations God Helmet Meets a Psychic

At the 2006 International Remote Viewing Associations conference, in a rare speech by remote viewing phenomenon, Ingo Swann responded to an audience member’s blurt about Dr. Persinger’s research on the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation machine known as the “God Helmet”. Unfortunately, the IRVA took the video down. They are now selling it. In the video, Ingo mentions something that lingers on in my mind. He says the Persinger is locked out of his lab because of certain discoveries. As the father of “remote viewing” and a onery, straight shooter, Ingo is a bit of champion for me, but I couldn’t help but be skeptical. I started to research his statement.

A bit more about the God Helmet. This is a device that allows 80% of its participants to have “spiritual” experiences. They feel a presence, hear voices, have visions etc. Some have taken this to mean that all such phenomenon are artificial.

I have been very much interested in the God Helmet and Persinger’s research so when Ingo Swann talked about being apart of Dr. Persinger’s experienment, I had to search it. What I found was a very interesting set of comments from Marcos Ferreira and others regarding Dr. Persinger’s perspective on paranormal phenomenon on the blog of author Micheal Prescott.

Comments from Michael Prescott’s Blog:

I came across this 2001 paper by famed neuroscientist Michael Persinger (he of the notorious “God Helmet”, and cited approvingly by Dawkins, Blackmore, and the JREF crowd).

The paper is about neural correlates of paranormal experiences. Under the section “Special Cases”, he tests a psychic (Sean Harribance) and a remote viewer (Ingo Swann). Both tests give statistically significant results under double-blind conditions. Persinger casually ignores the implications of this (”The neural mechanism … remains to be identified”) in order to spend time discussing the EEG readings…

Did this generate a controversy which I’ve missed, or has this just been quietly ignored? I can find plenty of squabbling about the supposed experimental failings of Gary Schwartz and the SRI researchers, but no real mention anywhere of this replication by “one of their own”. Is anyone aware of any responses or discussion of these results?

Posted by: marcos ferreira | September 17, 2007 at 01:13 PM

No surprise on the Persinger data: once a science becomes attached to a particular theory, data which contradicts that theory tends to disappear without effect. Has anyone ever been able to reproduce Persinger’s reported results with magnetic stimulation of certain brain areas, especially the temporal lobe? His widely trumpeted claims that temporal lobe epilepsy was responsible for NDEs and OBEs hasn’t, to my knowledge, been corroberated. I know that changes in temporal lobe functioning have been found in NDExperiencers, but it isn’t known whether the changes produced the experiences or vice versa. I’m looking forward to Carter’s book. It promises to be a good follow-on after “Irreducible Mind”.

Posted by: Kevin | September 17, 2007 at 05:22 PM

I corresponded with Persinger a few years ago about Dr. Andrija Puharich’s book “Beyond Telepathy” — a must-read!! Puharich emphasizes the magnetic momentum of the proton-electron resonance being altered through increased potassium and decreased sodium intake. Puharich then ties this physiological transformation to his “psi-plasma vortex” model for bending spacetime.

Persinger knew Puharich fairly well and Persinger told me that he thought very highly of Puharich’s psi-plasma model. When I asked Persinger about Puharich’s CIA work I received no response. haha.

The Persinger’s paper only talks about the phenomenon in the Special Cases section of the paper. It sounds like he does not doubt that such abilities exist. The data indicated that these “remote viewers” and “psychics” are more sensitive to the TMS device.

Interesting cutting edge stuff.. to say the VERY least, but I am still not sure what Ingo was talking about.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (entrainment 2.0?)

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is the next step in the evolution of entrainment.  Instead of using sounds to influence brainwaves, it uses noninvasive electromagnetism. 

Sound entrainment has been used to coax brainwaves into a certain pattern. 

If a tuning fork designed to produce a frequency of 440 Hz is struck (causing it to oscillate) and then brought into the vicinity of another 440 Hz tuning fork, the second tuning fork will begin to oscillate. The first tuning fork is said to have entrained the second or caused it to resonate. The physics of entrainment apply to biosystems as well. Of interest here are the electromagnetic brain waves. — Science of Binaural Beats Brainwave Entrainment

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is the application of variable magnetic fields to the brain — Open-rTMS 

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a VERY effective way to induce states of consciousness:

BBC article on Dr. Persinger’s TMS helmet 

How does Dr Persinger induce artificially religious experiences in his patients?

Dr Persinger has designed a helmet that produces a very weak rotating magnetic field of between ten nanotesla and one microtesla over the temporal lobes of the brain. This is placed on the subject’s head and they are placed in a quiet chamber while blindfolded. So that there is no risk of ’suggestion’, the only information that the subjects are given is that they are going in for a relaxation experiment. Neither the subject nor the experimenter carrying out the test has any idea of the true purpose of the experiment. In addition to this, the experiment is also run with the field switched both off and on. This procedure Dr Persinger claims will induce an experience in over 80% of test subjects.

What sort of experiences do subjects report?

This is very dependent on the belief system of the individual subjects [ADDED Wilber-Combs Lattice]. Dr Persinger talks about his subjects feeling a ’sensed presence’ - feeling that somebody was in the chamber with them. Subjects who are strongly religious are likely to interpret this presence as god. Whereas, atheists may also report a ’sensed presence’ but attribute the phenomena to a trick of brain chemistry, perhaps comparable to when they have taken drugs in the past.

TMS is so effective that “Among more sensitive individuals, tests show that their skin will turn red if they believe a hot nickel has been placed on their hand. That’s a powerful psychosomatic effect of the brain on the body. Suppose we could make it more precise?” — This is Your Brain on God, Wired.  

TMS is currently in the hands of reductionists who believe that ALL mystical experiences can be summed up by electromagnetic disturbances.  Mass sightings up UFOs and other strange phenomenon are simply chemicals in our brains being influenced by electromagnetism.  

Perhaps inducing certain electromagnetic frequencies allows our biominds to access a perspective of reality we would not have otherwise been privy too without years of meditation.  Like devices that allow us to see infrared (frequencies that are beyond our normal domain of visible light), perhaps getting to certain states of consciousness allow us to “see” things we are normally oblivious too.    

Science and religion used to fully subscribe to a flat earth the was the center of a static universe.  We have found the complete opposite to be true.  Modern mainstream scientists now agree that we are likely the only sentient life and there are no subtle spiritual type energies and all spiritual experiences are completely the product of the human brain.  All of that seems just as ridiculous as a ”flatworld” theory.  A neo-atheistic reductionism is fine as belief systems and religions go, but what I don’t like is how science marginalizes anyone outside of their mainstream belief structure. 

I love science but its champions seem to have fallen prey to a dogma that is similar in close minded stagnancy to that of some religious denominations.       

TMS links:

BioMag - TMS reasearch

This is your Brain on God, Wired. 7-11-1999

God Helmet, Shakti