We Will All Be Telepathic in 25 Years

By Mukul Sharma
Source: Times of India

Does telepathy exist? The majority of mainstream scientists believe that the paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings or activity of another person is a lot of poppycock.

But it doesn't really matter because the majority of mainstream scientists also believe telepathy's going to exist in the future, thanks to technology.

According to one World Future Society forecast, wireless technology will be incorporated into our thought processing by 2030.

In the next 25 years, we'll learn how to augment our 100 trillion relatively slow inter-neuronal connections with high-speed virtual connections via nanorobotics.

This will allow us to greatly boost our pattern-recognition abilities, memories, and overall thinking capacity, as well as to directly interface with powerful forms of computer intelligence and with each other.

Which means we'll also be able to move beyond the brain's present performance capacity. Researchers have already demonstrated that with the help of wired implants it's possible for a person to move a cursor on a computer screen just by thinking about it.

How long before such developments become non-invasive and wireless and the inter-face involves two or more human beings communicating by thought alone?

Instead of telepathy, they're calling it "techlepathy" and, initially, first generation devices will be unidirectional.

That is, the neural patterns of unspoken words would be transmitted to the other person before receiving the other person's transmission in return, much like how walkie-talkies work.

Later, the pre-speech thought patterns themselves would be transmitted. Ultimately, the transference will become seamlessly bi-directional and would include other non-verbal signals such as consciousness and emotions.

By then it could also involve one or more persons or, indeed, as many as possible like an Internet of connected minds.

Some experts in fact believe techno-enabled telepathy will become the sole or at least the primary form of human communication in the future and everybody will make use of it for economic and social reasons once it becomes available to all.

Also, being technology driven and not some spooky psychic phenomenon, privacy issues would not be a problem as personal firewalls could be created to restrict any unwanted intrusion.

Yes, there'll be hackers going in-mind from time to time and mind-bloggers going openly public but, in general, techlepathy should be as safe as having a mobile phone inside one's head.

Alternative Energy:

It is difficult to imagine a more profound reversal of scientific fortunes than what has been emerging in the "cold fusion" field. One of the most disputed anomalies in the history of science is inexorably heading toward acceptance by the scientific community.'

Dr. Eugene Mallove

....If we could produce electric effects of the required quality, this whole planet and the conditions of existence on it could be transformed. The sun raises the water of the oceans and winds drive it to distant regions where it remains in state of most delicate balance. If it were in our power to upset it when and wherever desired, this mighty life-sustaining stream could be at will controlled. We could irrigate arid deserts, create lakes and rivers and provide motive power in unlimited amount. This would be the most efficient way of harnessing the sun to the uses of man......

Nikola Tesla, June 1919

Sit down before facts like a child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

T.H. Huxley

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Introduction

The central claim of cold fusion adherents is that a nuclear reaction (fusion of deuterium) can be initiated and maintained in an electrochemical apparatus not much different from the setup used to demonstrate the breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen in a high school chemistry lab. If this claim could be successfully verified, it promised nothing less than a total solution to the world's energy supply problems.

The claim first appeared in the press in March of 1989, and provoked considerable public and scientific interest. It was put forward by respectable scientists (Fleishmann and Pons of the University of Utah) and was supported by reports from other respectable scientists that they had been able to replicate those findings. These initial claims, however, were soon met by counterclaims from equally respectable labs and investigators, to the effect that the initial findings could not be replicated.

In 1989, two scientists who claimed to have discovered the energy of the future were condemned as imposters and exiled by their peers. Can it possibly make sense to reopen the cold fusion investigation? A surprising number of researchers already have.

Nuclear Transmutation: The Reality of Cold Fusion

The announcement of cold fusion in March 1989 at the University of Utah was greeted with worldwide hysteria. Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons had claimed that an electrochemical cell with heavy water electrolyte and a palladium cathode put out so much excess energy that the mysterious phenomenon had to be nuclear, and was probably a process related to nuclear fusion. Newspapers and magazines said it might be a major scientific discovery with the potential to end the energy crisis and revolutionize society. For a few heady weeks the public took it seriously and waited anxiously for laboratories to replicate the results. Many scientists quickly took sides for or against cold fusion – mostly against. Then, by the end of the summer of 1989 the official word came, in an authoritative report written by a select panel of experts under the auspices of the Department of Energy: cold fusion was a bust. It did not exist. It was an experimental error. It could not be reproduced. Nearly every scientific journal, magazine and newspaper on earth reported this, and cold fusion abruptly dropped out of the headlines. The story, it seemed, was over. Actually, it had barely begun. Only a few thousand electrochemists in the world were qualified to do the experiments, and most of them were too busy or not interested in trying. In that autumn as public interest faded and the U.S. Department of Energy pronounced a death sentence, a small number of experienced scientists prepared serious, full-scale experiments. One of them was Tadahiko Mizuno, an assistant professor who had been doing similar electrochemical experiments for more than twenty years.

Mizuno wrote this short book about his work and personal experiences. It is the best informal account yet written about the daily life of a cold fusion researcher. It gives you a sense of what the job feels like. It is not intended to be technical. For technical details, the reader is invited to examine Mizuno’s numerous scientific papers, some of which are listed in the references.

One event described here which is not described in the technical literature is an extraordinary 10-day long heat-after-death incident that occurred in 1991. News of this appeared in the popular press, but a formal description was never published in a scientific paper. 1 Mizuno says this is because he does not have carefully established calorimetric data to prove the event occurred, but I think he does not need it. The cell went out of control. Mizuno cooled it over 10 days by placing it in a large bucket of water. During this period, more than 37 liters of water evaporated from the bucket, which means the cell produced more than 84 megajoules of energy during this period alone, and 114 megajoules during the entire experiment. The only active material in the cell was 100 grams of palladium. It produced 27 times more energy than an equivalent mass of the best chemical fuel, gasoline, can produce. I think the 36 liters of evaporated water constitute better scientific evidence than the most carefully calibrated high precision instrument could produce. This is first-principle proof of heat. A bucket left by itself for 10 days in a university laboratory will not lose any measurable level of water to evaporation. First principle experiments are not fashionable. Many scientists nowadays will not look at a simple experiment in which 36 liters of water evaporate, but high tech instruments and computers are not used. They will dismiss this as “anecdotal evidence.”

It is a terrible shame that Mizuno did not call in a dozen other scientists to see and feel the hot cell. I would have set up a 24-hour vigil with graduate students and video cameras to observe the cell and measure the evaporated water carefully. This is one of history’s heartbreaking lost opportunities. News of this event, properly documented and attested to by many people, might have convinced thousands of scientists worldwide that cold fusion is real. This might have been one of the most effective scientific demonstrations in history. Unfortunately, it occurred during an extended national holiday, and Mizuno decided to disconnect the cell from the recording equipment and hide it in his laboratory. He placed it behind a steel sheet because he was afraid it might explode. He told me he was not anxious to have the cell certified by many other people because he thought that he would soon replicate the effect in another experiment. Alas, in the seven years since, neither he nor any other scientist has ever seen such dramatic, inarguable proof of massive excess energy.

Here is a chronology of the heat-after-death event:

• March 1991. A new experiment with the closed cell begins.
• April 1991. Cell shows small but significant excess heat.
• April 22, 1991. Electrolysis stopped.
• April 25. Mizuno and Akimoto note that temperature is elevated.
  It has produced 1.2 H 107 joules since April 22, in heat-after-death.
• The cell is removed from the underground lab and transferred to Mizuno’s lab. Cell temperature is >100 deg C.
• April 26. Cell temperature has not declined. Cell transferred to a 15-liter bucket, where it is partially submerged in water.
• April 27. Most of the water in the bucket, ~10 liters, has evaporated.
• The cell is transferred to a larger, 20 liter bucket. It is fully submerged in 15 liters of water.
• April 30. Most of the water has evaporated; ~10 liters.
• More water is added to the bucket, bringing the total to 15 liters again.
• May 1. 5 liters of water are added to the bucket.
• May 2. 5 more liters are added to the bucket.
• May 7. The cell is finally cool. 7.5 liters of water remain in the bucket.

Total evaporation equals:

• April 27 10 liters evaporated. Water level set at 15 liters in a new bucket.
• April 30 10 liters evaporated. Water replenished to 15 liters
• May 1 5 liters replenished.
• May 2 5 liters replenished
• May 7 7.5 liters remaining.

Thus, evaporation since April 30 is: 15+5+5-7.5=17.5 liters.
Total evaporation is 37.5 liters.
The heat of vaporization of water is 540 calories per gram (2,268 joules per gram), so vaporization alone accounts for 85 megajoules.

Energy OUTPUT/INPUT = 119476 / 72801 = 1.64

One aspect of the heat-after-death event seems particularly strange. It is as if the cathode is trying to maintain stasis inside the cell. After the external 60 watt heater was turned off, the heat-after-death reaction increased just about enough to compensate for the loss of external heat. This sounds like an instrument error. It prompted Mizuno to double check all instrument readings with meters attached directly to the sensors. As unbelievable as this sounds, it is a real phenomenon which others have observed. Stanley Pons noted that the cold fusion effect has a kind of “memory.” After a perturbation, temperature tends to return to a fixed level. Perhaps this is not so strange. The physical configuration of deuterons in the metal controls the power level.

Tiny spots in the surface of the cathode are probably formed in what Edmund Storms of Los Alamos National Laboratory calls “a special configuration of matter” with highly active, densely packed deuterium. Until these spots change or disperse, the nuclear fuel being fed into the reaction remains constant, so the cell tends to return to the same power level. A chemical wood fire works the same way. You can partially douse a roaring fire. If the fire does not go out altogether and the wood remains in the same position, after a while it will start burning again and return to its former power level. Pons and Fleischmann used a three-minute pulse of heat to “kick” their cells from low level heat to the high level heat that rapidly increased to boil off. The heat was generated by joule heating from externally supplied power, but once the cathode was boosted into higher activity the external power could be withdrawn and the cathode continued to self-heat – thus “heat-after-death.”

Metal undergoing cold fusion ‘wants’ to be hot and will keep itself hot, prolonging the reaction. When Mizuno put his cell in the bucket of water the reaction began to turn off, presumably because the water in the bucket cooled the cathode. It did not quench the reaction immediately because the cathode was fairly well insulated inside a large thermal mass. Later, the water in the bucket warmed up well above room temperature, ten liters of it evaporated, leaving the cell surrounded by air. The cell began to self heat again and it returned to its previously high level of activity. Storms thinks that in the special configuration, the deuterium diffusion rate is slower at high temperatures than usual. Normal Beta-phase palladium deuteride will de-gas more rapidly when it heats up. Storms thinks that when the temperature falls (or is lowered by a thermal shock), the deuteride converts to Beta-phase and begins rapidly de-gassing, and the cold fusion effect goes away.

Mizuno has often talked about the prehistory of cold fusion. Most great discoveries are visited and revisited many times before someone stakes a permanent claim. People sometimes stumble over a new discovery without even realizing what they see. Mizuno did his graduate and post graduate work on corrosion using highly loaded metal hydrides. His experiments were almost exactly like those of cold fusion, but they were performed for a different purpose. In retrospect, he realized that he saw anomalous events that may have been cold fusion. At the time he could not determine the cause, he did not imagine it might be fusion, and he had to leave the mystery unsolved. No scientist has time to track down every anomaly. I expect many people saw and disregarded evidence for cold fusion over the years. Mizuno makes a provocative assertion. He says that long before 1989 he wondered whether the immense pressure of electrolysis might produce “some form of fusion.” He says: “This kind of hypothesis would occur to any researcher studying metal and hydrogen systems. It is not a particularly profound or outstanding idea. It never occurred to me to pursue the matter and research this further.” He appears to downplay the role of Pons and Fleischmann. Perhaps he exaggerates when he says “any researcher” would think of it, but on the other hand Paneth and Peters and others did investigate this topic in the 1920s. It has been floating around the literature for a long time. Pons and Fleischmann deserve credit because they did more than merely speculate about it. They succeeded in doing the experiments to prove it. Perhaps cold fusion is self-evident in the way that many great

discoveries are. An ordinary genius finds an obscure and difficult truth which remains obscure even after he publishes, except to other experts. A superlative genius makes a discovery that few other people imagined, yet which everyone later agrees is obvious in retrospect. When T. H. Huxley learned of the theory of natural selection, he reportedly exclaimed: “why didn’t I think of that!”

Within days of the 1989 announcement Mizuno set to work on a “crude, preliminary” experiment. He built the cell in single afternoon, which is in itself astonishing. His purpose was to detect neutrons, which he along with everyone else in 1989 assumed would be the principal signature of the reaction. Months later it became clear that heat is the principal signature and neutrons appear sporadically. The neutron flux is a million times smaller in proportion to the heat than it is with hot fusion. His colleague Akimoto, an expert in neutron detection, soon convinced him that the instrumentation must be improved and the cell must be moved to a well-shielded location before meaningful results might be obtained. The underground laboratory housing the linear accelerator, close by on campus, was the ideal spot for the experiment, but it is hardly an ideal place for people. It is dark, dank, and unheated in winter, as Mizuno well knew from years of doing graduate research there. After weeks of operation, the experiment showed slight signs of generating 2.45 MeV neutrons. Mizuno decided to get serious.

Here we learn what real a scientist is made of. While the rest of the world rushed to judgment, Mizuno buckled down and began a second “serious” experiment. The preparations took eight months. Mizuno and a graduate student worked long days building and testing the cell, and preparing the anode, cathode, electrolyte, and controls. They planned to run at 100EC and 10 atmospheres of pressure, so they ran pressure tests at 150EC and 50 atmospheres, improving the seals and connections until they saw no significant pressure decline for days. Finally they were ready to begin the first test run. The hysteria was long past. The press and the establishment had dismissed cold fusion. Real experiments by people like Mizuno were getting underway. When these tests were finished and documented, a year or two later, they constituted definitive proof of tritium, excess heat and transmutation. It is tempting to think that the tragedy of cold fusion boils down to . . . a short attention span. If only Nature, the newspapers, the DoE and the American Physical Society understood that you cannot do a research project in a few weeks, they would have withheld judgment until Mizuno, Fritz Will, Melvin Miles and others published in 1990 and 1991.

In person, Mizuno is charming, self deprecating, optimistic and brimming with ideas. In the book he describes the dark side of the story: the frustration, the boredom, the endless guerrilla war with scientists who wanted to stop the research, and science journalists who appeared to thrive on the outpouring of supposedly negative results, and the fruitless battles to publish a paper or be heard at a physics conference. Research means years of hard work which must often be done in appalling circumstances: in an unheated underground laboratory, late at night, in Hokkaido’s Siberian climate. Experiments must be tended to four times a day, from eight in the morning until eight at night, seven days a week, without a holiday or a weekend off.

He describes these travails, but he does not dwell on them, or the controversy and politics. He revels in the fun parts of cold fusion: the discovery, the sense of wonder, the rewards. Mizuno does not waste his time moping or worrying. He gets to work, he does experiments, he teaches and encourages students. The first 5,000 copy printing of this book sold out quickly in Japan. Mizuno was thrilled because, he told me, “undergrads are buying it, and calling me with questions.” He and I wanted to move the Sixth International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF6) out of the isolated mountaintop resort hotel in Hokkaido, back to the city of Sapporo, and into the grubby Student Union meeting hall on campus. We wanted to open up the conference and allow free admission to students.

We think that when engineering and physics majors drift into such conferences and realize what is happening, cold fusion will take off.

Despite the troubles, Mizuno remains confident that we will succeed in the end. The research will be allowed, papers will be published, rapid progress will be made. Others, like Fleischmann, are deeply pessimistic. Some of the best scientists in this field, including Storms, are deeply discouraged by the constant struggle and expense. They sometimes tell me they are on the verge of quitting. But Mizuno has never flagged, never doubted and never lost hope. As Storms says “we must have hope, we have no other resources in this field.”

Mizuno wants to make practical devices. He wants to improve reproducibility and scale up. He talks about the scientist’s obligation to give society something of value. He and Dennis Cravens are the only cold fusion scientists I know who say that. He succeeded in replicating the original Pons and Fleischmann palladium cold fusion in three experiments, but it was difficult and the reaction proved impossible to control, so he did not see much future in it. Instead of trying to improve the original experiment by repeating it many times with minor variations, the way McKubre, Kunimatsu and others have attempted, Mizuno decided to try other materials and other approaches. He is a one-man R&D consortium. Some may criticize him for trying too many things and spreading himself too thinly. As I see it, Mizuno is doing his share. The rest of the world is to blame for not following his lead. He worked on ceramic proton conductors for years, he published detailed information in professional, full-length papers, and he assisted Oriani by fabricating a batch of conductors for him (a week of difficult labor on Oriani’s behalf). No other scientist has been as cooperative, willing to share data, and willing to assist others replicate. If Mizuno has left jobs unfinished, others should have taken up these jobs.

Mizuno concentrates on the rewards, the progress, the heady sense of excitement, the breathtaking possibilities. If progress has been slow, it has been real, and the scope of the research has broadened immeasurably. In 1989 we thought we had stumbled onto one isolated uncharted island. It turned out we have discovered a whole new continent. No wonder our exploration of it is taking longer than we expected. Over the years I have asked many scientists where cold fusion may be taking us and how big the discovery might be. Only Martin Fleischmann has shown a deep understanding of how many ramifications it may have.

Mizuno describes few moments of epiphany. There are moments of excitement, but most of the triumphs are long expected, and a good result does not mean much until you make it happen again, and again after that. There are few revelations. The scientists do not suddenly grasp the answer. They gradually narrow down a set of possibilities. Often the same possibilities are examined, discounted, and then reconsidered years later. Recently, Mizuno, Bockris and others have increasingly focused on so-called “host metal transmutations,” that is, nuclear reactions of the cathode metal itself. The cathode metal was inexplicably neglected for many years. The term “host metal” is misleading. It was an unfortunate choice of words. It implies that the metal acts as a passive structure, holding the hydrogen in place, cramming the deuterons or protons together. The metal is a host, not a participant. The hydrogen does the work. Now, it appears the metal itself is as active as the hydrogen. The metal apparently fissions and fusions in complex reactions. Now the task is to think about the metal, and not just the hydrogen. Theory must explain how palladium can turn part of itself into copper and other elements with peculiar isotopes.

One of the few “Eureka!” events in this book is the moment when Mizuno and Ohmori saw the scanning electron microscope images of the beautiful lily-shaped eruptions on the surface of Ohmori’s gold cathodes. This was visual proof that a violent reaction takes place under the surface of the metal, vaporizing the metal and spewing it out. Later, these vaporized spots were found to be the locus of transmutation. Around them are gathered elements with an isotopic distribution that does not exist in nature. The only likely explanation is that these isotopes are the product of a nuclear transmutation.

Mizuno describes the wrong directions he has taken, the dead ends, the mistakes. For years he ignored the most important clue: the host metal transmutations. He did not check the composition of the used cathodes. After his first big success produced tritium and spectacular heat-after-death, he opened the cell to find the cathode was blackened by something. He thought it must be contamination, and he was disappointed that his painstaking efforts to exclude contamination had failed. After puzzling over it for a long time he scraped the black film off the cathode with glass, and prepared the cathode for another run. Years later he realized that this black film was probably formed from microscopic erupted structures similar to those on Ohmori’s cathodes. He says in retrospect he was throwing away treasure. Even Mizuno, an open minded, observant and perceptive scientist, has to be hit over the head with the same evidence many times before he realizes it is crucial. Other people are worse. Mizuno was blind for a long time; other cold fusion scientists remain blind to this day. They are unwilling to do simple tests that might reveal the nature of the reaction. IMRA is a sad example. Informed sources say IMRA researchers never performed an autoradiograph on a used cathode.

A recurring theme in this book is money. Mizuno frets, schemes and struggles to reduce expenses. He worries about the consumption of heavy water at $8 or $10 per day. He does not reveal in the book why these trivial expenses bother him so much: most of the money comes out of his own pocket. University discretionary funding allotted to professors in Japan does not begin to cover the expense of cold fusion research. It would be called “noise level funding” in the U.S., or “sparrow’s tears” in the Japanese idiom. Most of the other professors at Hokkaido remain hostile toward this research, and unwilling to allocate more money for it, so Mizuno often pays for equipment, materials, travel expenses and so on himself. Over the years the research has cost him tens of thousands of dollars, which is a great deal of money for a middle-class Japanese family. Cold fusion research consumes a constant flow of new equipment. The Japanese scientific establishment and the university barely tolerate this research. Still, Mizuno is better off than he would be at most U.S. universities, which have essentially banned this research.

Mizuno describes the dank, underground laboratory. He does not mention that his own laboratory is the size of a broom closet and so crammed with equipment you can barely fit in the door. The roof leaks. A large sheet of blue plastic is suspended over the corner of the room, funneling the rain water down to a sink and away from the computers, meters, power supplies and complex, delicate, beautiful handcrafted experimental apparatus, made of aluminum, stainless steel, platinum, palladium, gold and silver.

Atlanta, Georgia 1998

The above article by Jed Rothwell is
an introduction to the English Edition of
Nuclear Transmutation: The Reality of Cold Fusion
by Tadahiko Mizuno, Jed Rothwell (Translator)

Dr. Tadahiko Mizuno
Department of Nuclear Engineering
Hokkaido National University, Japan

Secrets of the Brain

Secrets of the Brain: The Mystery of Memory

by Tonia E. Chrapko, B.Ed., creator of the BRAINBOOSTER™ DVD series.

Even though science continues to give us ever increasing insights into what memory is, much of it remains a mystery. Researchers consider memory a process, and when you remember you are actually reconstructing the event from bits of information stored in various parts of the brain. But the mystery is, what initiates the reconstruction? Is it, as some suggest, directed from outside the physical body, from the energy body? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, let’s look at what science can tell us about some of the chemical activity in the brain.

The Location of Memory

In the past, it was thought that all memory was in the brain. However, Gazzaniga (1988) reports that memory occurs throughout the nervous system. So every thought you have is “felt” throughout your entire body because the receptors for the chemicals in your brain are found on the surfaces of cells throughout your body. Thus when the chemicals are activated across synapses in the brain, the message is communicated to every part of your body by chemotaxis, a process that allows cells to communicate by “radar” or remote travel using blood and cerebrospinal fluid. In more extreme cases, the body sometimes buries intensely painful memories in muscle tissue so that the conscious mind is spared the depth of trauma. Then when that person receives deep tissue massage or bodywork such as Rolfing, and the muscles are stimulated, the memories can be reactivated, causing the person to experience the repressed emotions. Another example of muscle memory is evident with organ transplants. People who have received donor organs have reported experiencing cravings or emotional reactions to certain incidents that they never had before.

The Biology of Memory

What it comes down to is brain cells, or neurons, communicating with each other through electo-chemical pathways. An electrical impulse travels down the axon or “outgoing branch”. Then the “fingers” at the end are stimulated to release chemicals called neurotransmitters (tiny molecules that send specific messages). The dendrites or “incoming branches” of other neurons pick these up. The space between the axon and dendrites is called a synapse.

Solidifying the Synapse

For learning to “stick”, the synapses need time to “gel”. If the synapse doesn’t “gel” then recreating the event, i.e. recalling the memory is difficult, if not impossible. A research team comprised of scientists from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the University of Houston reported the discovery of a new protein – transforming growth factor-B (TGF-B) that acts to solidify the new synapses (Science, March 1997). However, if there is too much protein it can build up and “clog” the synapse, thus reducing memory recall. Usually the neurotransmitter calpain, found in calcium, keeps the buildup of protein down. So, inadequate dietary calcium means that too much protein can build up because there is not enough calpain to keep the synapses clean. Unfortunately, an excess of calcium in the diet also creates a problem because the calpain starts to interfere with proper neural transmissions. A drastic way to remove excess protein from the synapse is by electric shock. Acetylcholine, one type of neurotransmitter, is important for three reasons: it is necessary for activating REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, it keeps neural membranes in tact so that they don’t become brittle and fall away, and it breaks down the excess build up of amyloid protein at the synapses found in Alzheimer’s patients (Robert Wurtham, director of the Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Stress Erodes Memory

Excessive stress and obesity produce an over-production of a complex set of stress hormones called glucocorticoids (cortisol being one example). Over exposure to glucocorticoids damages and destroys neurons in the brain’s hippocampus – a region critical to learning and memory. One really good way to burn off excess cortisol is through exercise. So for those experiencing particularly high stress levels exercise is not only beneficial, it is necessary.

What are the Characteristics of Memory?

• Sensory – we remember things that involve our five senses. So, the more senses that get activate, the easier it will be to recall.
• Intensity – when something is more intensely funny, sexual, absurd, etc. it tends to stand out in our memories.
• Outstanding – things that are dull and unoriginal are more difficult to remember because there is nothing to distinguish them from all the other memories.
• Emotional – the amygdala – a round, pea-sized part in the middle of the brain - acts as a gate keeper, so when something happens that has high emotional content – positive or negative – the amygdale says, “This is important!” and we tend to remember it more easily.
• Survival – the brain is wired for survival. This means that anything we perceive as important to survival we will remember more easily. It’s not just physical survival. Survival can include, emotional survival, psychological survival and financial survival.
• Personal importance – we naturally remember things that interest us and that have some personal importance.
• Repetition – the more often we recall information, the better we get at recalling on demand.
• First and last – the brain most easily recalls things from the beginning and the ending of any session or lecture.
  
  

What are the Keys to Memory?

• Pay attention – often times the biggest problem is that people’s minds are not focused in the moment. Instead, they are thinking about something in the past of future.
• Visualization – create a visual in your mind because the brain thinks in pictures and concepts, not paragraphs.
• Association – find something to connect the information to…similar to word association. Ask, “What does this remind me of?”
• Imagination – get creative when visualizing or making associations.

Why do we forget?

It could be that we never stored the information properly in the first place. It could be because there was not enough emotion or personal importance connected to the information to make it stick. It could be that it was so emotionally traumatic that the mind suppressed it in order to maintain normalcy.

Why do we remember negative events?

Whenever emotions are activated, especially strong emotions, the information or experience is entrenched into memory. Often times we tend to dwell on it, thereby rehearsing it and entrenching it even further. It is also easier to recall negative memories when we are in a bad mood. Why? Because we remember things in the state that we learned them so whenever you are feeling angry you will more easily recall other situations in which you were angry.

The subconscious remembers everything

If we were to compare the conscious mind with the subconscious, the conscious would measure about one foot long and the subconscious would be the length of a football field. The potential is enormous. So everything we experience can be stored. However, the conscious mind would get overloaded trying to process all the incoming bits of data on a daily basis. Instead, all the information goes into the subconscious for storage and we may never deal with it, except if the mind chooses to process it at night through dreams. Or, if we go for clinical hypnosis, through which a therapist assists in accessing information or memories the conscious mind has “forgotten” or repressed.

Copyright 2004 by Tonia E. Chrapko, B.Ed.,
creator of the BRAINBOOSTER™ DVD series.
All Rights Reserved.

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Learning Tips

from the popular BRAINBOOSTER™ DVD program.

Copyright 2004 by Tonia E. Chrapko, B.Ed.,
creator of the BRAINBOOSTER™ DVD series.
All Rights Reserved.

1. Your brain loves color. Use colored pens – good quality, not gel pens – or use colored paper. Color helps memory.

2. Your brain can effectively focus and concentrate for up to 25 minutes (adults). Take a 10-minute break after every 20-30 minutes of studying. Go do some chores: rake the lawn, iron a shirt, vacuum. Come back after 10 minutes and do another focused, intense session.

3. Your brain needs to be rested to learn fast and remember best. If you are tired take a 20-minute nap first otherwise you are wasting your study time.

4. Your brain is like a motor: it needs fuel. You wouldn’t put dirty fuel in your Lamborghini (if you had one) or you wouldn’t put low quality fuel in a rocket, would you? Well, your brain is a much more valuable, intricate machine than either of those so feed it properly. Junk food and imitation food and all the chemicals and preservatives weaken both your body and your mind. In fact, a recent study in England showed that your IQ is affected by your diet.

5. Your brain is like a sea of an electro-chemical activity. And both electricity and chemicals flow better in water. If you are dehydrated you just don’t focus as well. Drink enough water (colored liquids – pop, juice, coffee, etc. – are not the same). Often times headaches are connected to dehydration, too.

6. Your brain loves questions. When you come up with questions in class or when reading a book, your brain automatically searches for answers, making the learning faster. A good question has more than one answer.

7. Your brain and body have their own rhythm cycles: there are times during the day when you are more alert than others. You will save time learning if you study during your peak periods. If you have a part-time job that happens during your peak period you may wan to reconsider if it is wise to be giving your employer your best learning time.

8. Your brain and body communicate constantly. If your body is slouched down, the message the brain gets is that “this is not important” and so it doesn’t pay as close attention. In any learning situation, sit up and lean forward to help keep your mind alert. Buy a good quality, adjustable office chair.

9. Your brain is affected by smells. Use aromatherapy to keep your brain alert. Peppermint, lemon and cinnamon are good ones to experiment with.

10. Your brain needs oxygen. Get out there and exercise.

11. Your brain needs space. Be sure that you are not trying to study in a small cramped area.

12. Your brain needs your space to be organized. One recent study showed that kids who grow up in tidy, organized homes do better academically. Why? Because by being trained to organize the outside environment, the brain learns to organize the internal knowledge…which makes recall faster. Buy a 4-drawer legal-sized filing cabinet.

13. Your brain cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that deals with putting information from short-term to long-term memory, are destroyed by cortisol, which is created when you are stressed. So, yes, stress affects memory. How do you get rid of cortisol? Exercise.

14. Your brain doesn’t know what you can’t do until you tell it.
What are you telling it? Listen to your self-talk. Stop the negativity. Replace it with more positive, encouraging talk.

15. Your brain is like a muscle: it can be trained and strengthened, at any age. No excuses. Stop being a mental couch potato. Professional athletes practice every day; you can practice homework everyday. If “you don’t have any”, make some up for yourself. Read ahead, review…do SOMETHING.

16. Your brain needs repetition. It is better to do short frequent reviews than one long review because what counts is how many times your brain sees something, not how long is sees it in one sitting.

17. Your brain can understand faster than you can read. Use a pencil or finger to “lead” your eyes. By doing so you help your eyes move more quickly.

18. Your brain needs movement, especially if you are mostly a kinesthetic (body movement) learner instead of a visual or auditory learner. You might find your productivity go up if you have a standing desk. Buy one or make one by raising your desk/table on blocks. This allows you to move more easily and stay more alert.

19. Your brain seeks patterns and connections. When you are learning something, ask yourself, “What does this remind me of?” This will also help your memory because it connects the new knowledge to something you already know.

20. Your brain loves fun. We learn in direct proportion to how much fun we are having. Learning is life. Live it up!

Copyright 2004 by Tonia E. Chrapko, B.Ed.,
creator of the BRAINBOOSTER™ DVD series.
All Rights Reserved.

The Remote Viewing

What is Remote Viewing?

Remote viewing (RV) is a skill by which a person (a "viewer") can perceive objects, persons, or events at a location removed from him or her by either space or time. In other words, one does not actually have to be there, nor does one need any so-called "physical" connections, such as television, telephone, etc., to gain information about the target. RV exploits and improves upon what is more commonly called "psychic" ability (an overused word that has accrued unfortunate connotations), and works whether the target is in the next room or on the other side of the planet. Neither time nor any known type of shielding can prevent a properly-trained remote viewer from gaining access to the desired target.

What Remote Viewing is Not

Remote viewing is not "being psychic" in the way commonly understood by the media and many practitioners of "paranormal" arts—though thanks to recent incomplete or inaccurate reports many have been led to believe otherwise. Remote viewers are not the typical "clairvoyants," "fortune tellers," or "psychics" we often hear about on TV or read about in the papers. Many of these more traditional psychics often do have amazing talents and abilities, but there is a qualitative difference between the average "natural" psychic, and a properly-trained remote viewer.

Do you have to be "gifted" to learn RV?

One of the wonderful things about RV is that virtually anyone can learn to do it. Much like studying the piano or art, nearly all of us have the capability to acquire the techniques and put them into practice. There are those who might not believe this. You often hear people say they can't learn to play the piano or even to "draw a straight line"—or to remote view—because they don't have "the talent." But what really gets in the way is almost always merely a simple a lack of time, motivation, or energy to devote to learning the principles and then practicing them enough to become proficient.

The bottom line is that, unless there is some sort of physical or mental handicap that prevents it, almost anyone can learn to play piano at least competently, can learn to draw aesthetically, and can learn to remote view reasonably effectively. It just takes desire, time, the right teacher, and the belief that it is at least possible.

How well does it work?

Lately, we've heard two extreme claims about remote viewing. One says that it doesn't work. The other says it works all the time. The truth is really in between—although closer to the positive end of the scale. After long practice, experienced viewers can access a target nearly one hundred percent of the time. This does not mean their data is 100% accurate, nor does it necessarily mean they get all the data they were looking for. All it means is that they retrieve information indicating that they were "there." However, these experienced viewers regularly obtain extremely accurate, often error-free information from the target.

Even novice viewers may surprise themselves at the accuracy of some of their sessions. Though we anticipate beginners will perform less consistently than those who are more accomplished, we also expect them to frequently turn out commendable results.

© 1998-2002 paul h. smith
Source: http://www.rviewer.com/

A Brief Time Line of Remote Viewing History

by Paul H. Smith
reprinted from APERTURE, Vol. 1, No.2, 2002

This chronology was compiled by IRVA vice-president Paul H. Smith partly based on research for his forthcoming book, Reading the Enemy's Mind.

This is only a brief chronology of events in remote viewing history. Many more details could be added, and many more names included. But this will serve as a starting place to record the major events and some of the important personalities in relation to one another. Certainly, important events and personalities remain to be added. This chronology will become more complete over time. If you wish to nominate an event to be considered for addition to the timeline please forward it to Timeline.

Readers should be aware that there are two parallel remote viewing timelines: the operational, military-run program at Ft. Meade, Maryland, and the civilian-led, military-funded research program in California. External civilian research and applications were also taking place. In the chronology below, the operational and military lines are intermingled with a few references to the RV-related activities in the civilian sector.

Sept 1971 Ingo Swann begins PK research with Cleve Backster Nov 1971 Swann participates in PK experiments in Gertrude Schmeidler's lab; also participates in OBE experiments. 8 Dec 1971 First remote viewing experiment (describing weather in Tucson, AZ from ASPR offices in NYC). Term "Remote Viewing" is adopted. 22 Feb 1972 First beacon experiments (also conducted at ASPR) March 1972 Cleve Backster shows Swann a letter from Dr. Hal Puthoff at Stanford Research Institute. Swann and Puthoff communicate. 6 June 1972 Swann/Puthoff magnetometer / quark-detector equipment experiment in physics building at Stanford University. 27 June 1972 Puthoff communicates with Kit Green, Central Intelligence Agency, concerning the magnetometer experiment results. Aug 1972 Under Puthoff's supervision, CIA representatives conduct first evaluation trials with Swann. Russell Targ visits Puthoff at SRI. 1 Oct 1972 CIA awards SRI $50K exploratory contract. Sept 1972 Russell Targ joins the RV program at SRI. Summer 1973 Pat Price and Ingo Swann remote view NSA's Sugar Grove facility in West Virginia. July 1974 Pat Price's operational remote viewing of a facility near Semipalatinsk in USSR conducted. 18 Oct 1974 Russell Targ and Hall Puthoff publish article on remote viewing research in Nature. July 1975 CIA terminates involvement in and funding of remote viewing. Later in 1975 Air Force Foreign Technology Division becomes the primary funder of SRI research program, with Dale Graff supervising. March 1976 Puthoff & Targ publish a major article about remote viewing in Proceedings of IEEE. 1976 Dr. Edwin May joins RV program at SRI International. 1977 The book Mind Reach (Targ & Puthoff) is published. June 1977 Founding of Mobius Group; Project Deepquest - a submarine RV experiment is jointly conducted by SRI International / Stephan Schwartz. Sept 1977 US Army's remote viewing program GONDOLA WISH is extablished by Lt. F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater at the direction of the Army Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Edmund Thompson. 13 July 1978 GONDOLA WISH name is changed to GRILL FLAME. Oct 1978 US Army's INSCOM is tasked by the ACSI with developing a parapsychology program. Dec 78 - Jan 79 Selection of remote viewers for GRILL FLAME. Mel Riley, Joe McMoneagle, Ken Bell, and three others are included. 4 Sept 1979 First Army-conducted operational remote viewing session performed. March 1979 Remote viewers working with Dale Graff at Wright-Patterson AFB and at SRI correctly locate downed Soviet TU-22 recce aircraft. 1979-81 Stephan Schwartz conducts Alexandria Project, a remote viewing archaeology project in Egypt. His book Alexandria Project is subsequently published. ca. 1980 Air Force Chief of Staff cancels AF RV program; Dale Graff joins Defense Intelligence Agency as principal staff officer for remote viewing effort. 1981-82 Puthoff and Swann develop coordinate remote viewing (CRV) architecture. 1982 Russell Targ leaves SRI International's RV program. Mel Riley departs Ft. Meade's operational RV unit. 1982 With Swann as instructor, two individuals (Tom McNear and Rob Cowart) begin first CRV training. Dec 1982 US Army's RV project's name is changed to CENTER LANE. 1983 Charlene Cavanaugh joins military RV unit in August; Paul H. Smith joins in September. Jan 1984 Bill Ray joins military RV unit; second group of CRV candidates begins training (group includes Smith, Ray, Charlene Chavanaugh; Ed Dames is last minute addition to training contract while remaining assigned to his sponsoring unit). 1984 The book Mind Race (Targ & Keith Harary) is published. Apr 1984 Lyn Buchanan joins the Ft. Meade RV unit. Sept 1984 Joe McMoneagle retires from the Ft. Meade RV unit. July 1984 Brig. Gen Harry Soyster replaces Maj. Gen. Bert Stubblebine as Commander, INSCOM. Orders close of Army's CENTER LANE RV program. Soyster eventually persuaded to allow transfer of program & personnel to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). 1985 Dr. Hal Puthoff leaves SRI International to take directorship of Institute of Advanced Studies in Austin, TX. Dr. Edwin May becomes director of SRI's program. 1985-86 Caravel Project, an underwater archaeology project conducted by Stephan Schwartz. 31 Jan 1986 After a year of holding operational control, DIA takes formal control of the military operational RV program, and renames it SUN STREAK. Ed Dames joins RV unit. 1986 Mel Riley is once more assigned to the Ft. Meade RV unit. 1987 Brig Leander Project, an underwater archaeology project conducted by Stephan Schwartz. Dec 1987 F. Holmes "Skip" Atwater departs the Ft. Meade RV unit on retirement leave. June 1988 David Morehouse is assigned to the Ft. Meade RV unit. Dec 1988 Ed Dames departs the Ft. Meade RV unit. June 1990 David Morehouse departs, and Mel Riley retires from the Ft. Meade RV unit. Aug 1990 Paul Smith is reassigned from the Ft. Meade RV unit to the 101st Airborne Division for Desert Shield / Desert Storm. Late 1990 Dale Graff becomes chief of the Ft. Meade RV unit, and changes project name to STAR GATE. 1991 Edwin May moves RV research program from SRI International to Science Applications International Corporation. Jan 1992 Lyn Buchanan retires from the Ft. Meade RV unit. 1993 The book Mind Trek (McMoneagle) is published. June 1993 Dale Graff retires. 1994 Wording added to Federal Y95 budget transferring control of STAR GATE from DIA to CIA. 1995 CIA begins Congressionally directed evaluation of RV as an intelligence tool. American Institutes of Research is hired to do a "scientific" study; in the report officially published in September the AIR concludes that RV has no value as an intelligence tool. Significant questions are raised about the completeness and accuracy of the AIR study. 30 June 1995 CIA cancels STAR GATE program. The five remaining personnel are reassigned to other jobs in the government. 28 Nov 1995 Ted Koppel's Nightline reveals existence of government remote viewing effort. Interviewed are former CIA director Robert Gates, Dale Graff, Edwin May, Joe McMoneagle, etc. 1996 Remote Viewing is featured in many media articles and broadcasts, and becomes a featured item on Art Bell's and other talk shows. Nov 1996 The book Psychic Warrior (Morehouse) is published. Feb 1997 The book Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies (Schnabel) is published. 18 March 1999 The International Remote Viewing Association is formed. 19-20 March 1999 First remote viewing conference: CRV Conference hosted by Lyn Buchanan's training company, P>S>I. Featured speakers: Russell Targ, John Alexander.. 19-20 May 2000 Year 2000 Remote Viewing Conference in Mesquite, NV. Featured speakers: Charles T. Tart, Jessica Utts, Larry Dossey, Marcello Truzzi.. Jun 2001 First IRVA sponsored remote viewing conference. Held at Texas, Station Las Vegas, NV. Featured speakers: Edgar Mitchell, Dean Radin, Jeffrey Mishlove. June 2002 IRVA remote viewing conference in Austin, TX, celebrating 30 years of remote viewing. Featured speakers: Ingo Swann, Hal Puthoff, Dale Graff, Cleve Backster. Copyright©2002 by Paul H. Smith. Permission granted to quote in full or part with proper attribution. Source: http://www.rviewer.com/index.html

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Paul H. Smith Biography

Paul H. Smith served for seven years in the government's remote viewing program at Ft. Meade, MD (from September 1983 to August 1990). During 1984, he became one of only a handful of government personnel to be personally trained as coordinate remote viewers by Ingo Swann at SRI-International. Paul was the primary author of the government RV program's CRV training manual, and served as theory instructor for new CRV trainee personnel, as well as recruiting officer and unit security officer. He is credited with over a thousand training and operational remote viewing sessions during his time with the unit at Ft. Meade.

Raised in Boulder City, Nevada, he enlisted in the Army in 1976 for Arabic training, attended Officer Candidate School, and was commissioned as a Military Intelligence officer. Besides his tour at Ft. Meade, his military assignments included Arabic linguist, electronic warfare operator, strategic intelligence officer for a special operations unit, Mid-East desk officer, tactical intelligence officer with the 101st Airborne Division during Desert Storm/Shield, strategic intelligence officer in the Collection Directorate of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and chief of the intelligence and security division for the Military District of Washington, from which he retired in 1996.

Paul has a BA from Brigham Young University in Mid-East Affairs, Art, and English; an MS from the Defense Intelligence College (Mid-East Concentration); and is enrolled in a Ph.D program in Philosophy, specializing in consciousness and philosophy of mind.

He or his work as a remote viewer have been featured on television programs such as the Arts & Entertainment Network's "The Unexplained," the History Channel's "History Undercover" series, "Strange Universe," "Inside Edition," and two documentaries on remote viewing produced for German television. He has also been a guest on Art Bell's "Coast to Coast" radio show and Jeff Rense's "Sightings on the Radio".

Besides serving as President of Remote Viewing Instructional Services, Inc., a company offering remote viewing training courses to individuals and small groups, he also works as a remote viewer and RV consultant, is a founding director of the International Remote Viewing Association, and serves as the organization's vice-president. Paul and RVIS, Inc. can be reached:

• e-mail
• by phone: (512) 255-6729
• by mail at: PO Box 1003, Round Rock, TX 78680
• Paul H. Smith's Curriculum Vitae

Fibonacci Numbers

The Fibonacci numbers are Nature's numbering system. They appear everywhere in Nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple. The Fibonacci numbers are therefore applicable to the growth of every living thing, including a single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees, and even all of mankind.

Stan Grist
http://www.stangrist.com/fibonacci.htm (E)

The sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers is known as the Fibonacci series: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, ... (each number is the sum of the previous two).

The ratio of successive pairs tends to the so-called golden section
(GS) - 1.618033989 . . . . . whose reciprocal is 0.618033989 . . . . . so that we have 1/GS = 1 + GS.

The Fibonacci sequence, generated by the rule f1 = f2 = 1 , fn+1 = fn + fn-1,
is well known in many different areas of mathematics and science.
However, it is quite amazing that the Fibonacci number patterns occur so frequently in nature ( flowers, shells, plants, leaves, to name a few) that this phenomenon appears to be one of the principal "laws of nature".

History

Fibonacci was known in his time and is still recognized today as the "greatest European mathematician of the middle ages." He was born in the 1170's and died in the 1240's and there is now a statue commemorating him located at the Leaning Tower end of the cemetery next to the Cathedral in Pisa. Fibonacci's name is also perpetuated in two streetsthe quayside Lungarno Fibonacci in Pisa and the Via Fibonacci in Florence.
His full name was Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Pisano in Italian since he was born in Pisa. He called himself Fibonacci which was short for Filius Bonacci, standing for "son of Bonacci", which was his father's name. Leonardo's father( Guglielmo Bonacci) was a kind of customs officer in the North African town of Bugia, now called Bougie. So Fibonacci grew up with a North African education under the Moors and later travelled extensively around the Mediterranean coast. He then met with many merchants and learned of their systems of doing arithmetic. He soon realized the many advantages of the "Hindu-Arabic" system over all the others. He was one of the first people to introduce the Hindu-Arabic number system into Europe-the system we now use today- based of ten digits with its decimal point and a symbol for zero: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. and 0
His book on how to do arithmetic in the decimal system, called Liber abbaci (meaning Book of the Abacus or Book of calculating) completed in 1202 persuaded many of the European mathematicians of his day to use his "new" system. The book goes into detail (in Latin) with the rules we all now learn in elementary school for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers altogether with many problems to illustrate the methods in detail.
( http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html#Rabbits )

Pascal's Triangle and Fibonacci Numbers

The triangle was studied by B. Pascal, although it had been described centuries earlier by Chinese mathematician Yanghui (about 500 years earlier, in fact) and the Persian astronomer-poet Omar Khayyám.

Pascal's Triangle is described by the following formula:

where is a binomial coefficient.

The "shallow diagonals" of Pascal's triangle
sum to Fibonacci numbers.

Fibonacci and Nature

Plants do not know about this sequence - they just grow in the most efficient ways. Many plants show the Fibonacci numbers in the arrangement of the leaves around the stem. Some pine cones and fir cones also show the numbers, as do daisies and sunflowers. Sunflowers can contain the number 89, or even 144. Many other plants, such as succulents, also show the numbers. Some coniferous trees show these numbers in the bumps on their trunks. And palm trees show the numbers in the rings on their trunks.

Why do these arrangements occur? In the case of leaf arrangement, or phyllotaxis, some of the cases may be related to maximizing the space for each leaf, or the average amount of light falling on each one. Even a tiny advantage would come to dominate, over many generations. In the case of close-packed leaves in cabbages and succulents the correct arrangement may be crucial for availability of space.

This is well described in several books listed here >>

So nature isn't trying to use the Fibonacci numbers: they are appearing as a by-product of a deeper physical process. That is why the spirals are imperfect.
The plant is responding to physical constraints, not to a mathematical rule.

The basic idea is that the position of each new growth is about 222.5 degrees away from the previous one, because it provides, on average, the maximum space for all the shoots. This angle is called the golden angle, and it divides the complete 360 degree circle in the golden section, 0.618033989 . . . .

If we call the golden section GS, then we have

1 / GS = GS / (1 - GS) = 1.618033989 . . . .

If we call the golden angle GA, then we have

360 / GA = GA / (360 - GA) = 1 / GS.

Below there are some examples of the Fibonacci seqeunce in nature.

Petals on flowers*

Probably most of us have never taken the time to examine very carefully the number or arrangement of petals on a flower. If we were to do so, we would find that the number of petals on a flower, that still has all of its petals intact and has not lost any, for many flowers is a Fibonacci number:

• 3 petals: lily, iris
• 5 petals: buttercup, wild rose, larkspur, columbine (aquilegia)
• 8 petals: delphiniums
• 13 petals: ragwort, corn marigold, cineraria,
• 21 petals: aster, black-eyed susan, chicory
• 34 petals: plantain, pyrethrum
• 55, 89 petals: michaelmas daisies, the asteraceae family

Some species are very precise about the number of petals they have - e.g. buttercups, but others have petals that are very near those above, with the average being a Fibonacci number.

One-petalled ... white calla lily
Two-petalled flowers are not common. euphorbia
Three petals are more common. trillium
Five petals - there are hundreds of species, both wild and cultivated, with five petals.
Eight-petalled flowers are not so common as five-petalled, but there are quite a number of well-known species with eight. bloodroot
Thirteen, ... black-eyed susan
Twenty-one and thirty-four petals are also quite common. The outer ring of ray florets in the daisy family illustrate the Fibonacci sequence extremely well. Daisies with 13, 21, 34, 55 or 89 petals are quite common. shasta daisy with 21 petals
Ordinary field daisies have 34 petals ... a fact to be taken in consideration when playing "she loves me, she loves me not". In saying that daisies have 34 petals, one is generalizing about the species - but any individual member of the species may deviate from this general pattern. There is more likelihood of a possible under development than over-development, so that 33 is more common than 35.

* Read the entire article here:
http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/fibslide/jbfibslide.htm

Related Links:
http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/jbfunpatt.htm

* * *

Flower Patterns and Fibonacci Numbers

Why is it that the number of petals in a flower is often one of the following numbers: 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 or 55? For example, the lily has three petals, buttercups have five of them, the chicory has 21 of them, the daisy has often 34 or 55 petals, etc. Furthermore, when one observes the heads of sunflowers, one notices two series of curves, one winding in one sense and one in another; the number of spirals not being the same in each sense. Why is the number of spirals in general either 21 and 34, either 34 and 55, either 55 and 89, or 89 and 144? The same for pinecones : why do they have either 8 spirals from one side and 13 from the other, or either 5 spirals from one side and 8 from the other? Finally, why is the number of diagonals of a pineapple also 8 in one direction and 13 in the other?

Passion Fruit
© All rights reserved Image Source >>

Are these numbers the product of chance? No! They all belong to the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. (where each number is obtained from the sum of the two preceding). A more abstract way of putting it is that the Fibonacci numbers fn are given by the formula f1 = 1, f2 = 2, f3 = 3, f4 = 5 and generally f n+2 = fn+1 + fn . For a long time, it had been noticed that these numbers were important in nature, but only relatively recently that one understands why. It is a question of efficiency during the growth process of plants.

The explanation is linked to another famous number, the golden mean, itself intimately linked to the spiral form of certain types of shell. Let's mention also that in the case of the sunflower, the pineapple and of the pinecone, the correspondence with the Fibonacci numbers is very exact, while in the case of the number of flower petals, it is only verified on average (and in certain cases, the number is doubled since the petals are arranged on two levels).

© All rights reserved.

Let's underline also that although Fibonacci historically introduced these numbers in 1202 in attempting to model the growth of populations of rabbits, this does not at all correspond to reality! On the contrary, as we have just seen, his numbers play really a fundamental role in the context of the growth of plants

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE GOLDEN MEAN

The explanation which follows is very succinct. For a much more detailed explanation, with very interesting animations, see the web site in the reference.

In many cases, the head of a flower is made up of small seeds which are produced at the centre, and then migrate towards the outside to fill eventually all the space (as for the sunflower but on a much smaller level). Each new seed appears at a certain angle in relation to the preceeding one. For example, if the angle is 90 degrees, that is 1/4 of a turn, the result after several generations is that represented by figure 1.

Of course, this is not the most efficient way of filling space. In fact, if the angle between the appearance of each seed is a portion of a turn which corresponds to a simple fraction, 1/3, 1/4, 3/4, 2/5, 3/7, etc (that is a simple rational number), one always obtains a series of straight lines. If one wants to avoid this rectilinear pattern, it is necessary to choose a portion of the circle which is an irrational number (or a nonsimple fraction). If this latter is well approximated by a simple fraction, one obtains a series of curved lines (spiral arms) which even then do not fill out the space perfectly (figure 2).

In order to optimize the filling, it is necessary to choose the most irrational number there is, that is to say, the one the least well approximated by a fraction. This number is exactly the golden mean. The corresponding angle, the golden angle, is 137.5 degrees. (It is obtained by multiplying the non-whole part of the golden mean by 360 degrees and, since one obtains an angle greater than 180 degrees, by taking its complement). With this angle, one obtains the optimal filling, that is, the same spacing between all the seeds (figure 3).

This angle has to be chosen very precisely: variations of 1/10 of a degree destroy completely the optimization. (In fig 2, the angle is 137.6 degrees!) When the angle is exactly the golden mean, and only this one, two families of spirals (one in each direction) are then visible: their numbers correspond to the numerator and denominator of one of the fractions which approximates the golden mean : 2/3, 3/5, 5/8, 8/13, 13/21, etc.

These numbers are precisely those of the Fibonacci sequence (the bigger the numbers, the better the approximation) and the choice of the fraction depends on the time laps between the appearance of each of the seeds at the center of the flower.

This is why the number of spirals in the centers of sunflowers, and in the centers of flowers in general, correspond to a Fibonacci number. Moreover, generally the petals of flowers are formed at the extremity of one of the families of spiral. This then is also why the number of petals corresponds on average to a Fibonacci number.

REFERENCES:

1. An excellent Internet site of Ron Knot's at the University of Surrey on this and related topics.
   

2. S. Douady et Y. Couder, La physique des spirales végétales, La Recherche, janvier 1993, p. 26 (In French).

Source of the above segment:
http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpampages/sunflower.html
© Mathematics and Knots, U.C.N.W.,Bangor, 1996 - 2002

Fibonacci numbers in vegetables and fruit

Romanesque Brocolli/Cauliflower (or Romanesco) looks and tastes like a cross between brocolli and cauliflower. Each floret is peaked and is an identical but smaller version of the whole thing and this makes the spirals easy to see.

Brocolli/Cauliflower
© All rights reserved Image Source >>

* * *

Human Hand

Every human has two hands, each one of these has five fingers, each finger has three parts which are separated by two knuckles. All of these numbers fit into the sequence. However keep in mind, this could simply be coincidence.

To view more examples of Fibonacci numbers in Nature explore our selection of related links>>.

Human Face

Knowledge of the golden section, ratio and rectangle goes back to the Greeks, who based their most famous work of art on them: the Parthenon is full of golden rectangles. The Greek followers of the mathematician and mystic Pythagoras even thought of the golden ratio as divine.

Later, Leonardo da Vinci painted Mona Lisa's face to fit perfectly into a golden rectangle, and structured the rest of the painting around similar rectangles.

Mozart divided a striking number of his sonatas into two parts whose lengths reflect the golden ratio, though there is much debate about whether he was conscious of this. In more modern times, Hungarian composer Bela Bartok and French architect Le Corbusier purposefully incorporated the golden ratio into their work.

Even today, the golden ratio is in human-made objects all around us. Look at almost any Christian cross; the ratio of the vertical part to the horizontal is the golden ratio. To find a golden rectangle, you need to look no further than the credit cards in your wallet.

Despite these numerous appearances in works of art throughout the ages, there is an ongoing debate among psychologists about whether people really do perceive the golden shapes, particularly the golden rectangle, as more beautiful than other shapes. In a 1995 article in the journal Perception, professor Christopher Green,
of York University in Toronto, discusses several experiments over the years that have shown no measurable preference for the golden rectangle, but notes that several others have provided evidence suggesting such a preference exists.

Regardless of the science, the golden ratio retains a mystique, partly because excellent approximations of it turn up in many unexpected places in nature. The spiral inside a nautilus shell is remarkably close to the golden section, and the ratio of the lengths of the thorax and abdomen in most bees is nearly the golden ratio. Even a cross section of the most common form of human DNA fits nicely into a golden decagon. The golden ratio and its relatives also appear in many unexpected contexts in mathematics, and they continue to spark interest in the mathematical community.

Dr. Stephen Marquardt, a former plastic surgeon, has used the golden section, that enigmatic number that has long stood for beauty, and some of its relatives to make a mask that he claims is the most beautiful shape a human face can have.

The Mask of a perfect human face

Egyptian Queen Nefertiti (1400 B.C.)

An artist's impression of the face of Jesus
based on the Shroud of Turin and corrected
to match Dr. Stephen Marquardt's mask.
Click here for more detailed analysis.

"Averaged" (morphed) face of few celebrities.
Related website: http://www.faceresearch.org/tech/demos/average

You can overlay the Repose Frontal Mask (also called the RF Mask or Repose Expression – Frontal View Mask) over a photograph of your own face to help you apply makeup, to aid in evaluating your face for facial surgery, or simply to see how much your face conforms to the measurements of the Golden Ratio.

Visit Dr. Marquardt's Web site for more information on the beauty mask.

Source of the above article (with exception of few added photos):
http://tlc.discovery.com/convergence/humanface/articles/mask.html

* * *

Related links (from Dr. Marquardt's Web site):

The Beauty Code Cross-Cultural Beauty Timeless Beauty Beauty Ranges Related website: http://www.faceresearch.org/tech/demos/average

Fibonacci's Rabbits

The original problem that Fibonacci investigated, in the year 1202, was about how fast rabbits could breed in ideal circumstances. "A pair of rabbits, one month old, is too young to reproduce. Suppose that in their second month, and every month thereafter, they produce a new pair. If each new pair of rabbits does the same, and none of the rabbits dies, how many pairs of rabbits will there be at the beginning of each month?"

1. At the end of the first month, they mate, but there is still one only 1 pair.
2. At the end of the second month the female produces a new pair, so now there are 2 pairs of rabbits in the field.
3. At the end of the third month, the original female produces a second pair, making 3 pairs in all in the field.
4. At the end of the fourth month, the original female has produced yet another new pair, the female born two months ago produces her first pair also, making 5 pairs. (http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibBio.html)

The number of pairs of rabbits in the field at the start of each month is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.

The Fibonacci Rectangles and Shell Spirals

We can make another picture showing the Fibonacci numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,.. if we start with two small squares of size 1 next to each other. On top of both of these draw a square of size 2 (=1+1).

We can now draw a new square - touching both a unit square and the latest square of side 2 - so having sides 3 units long; and then another touching both the 2-square and the 3-square (which has sides of 5 units). We can continue adding squares around the picture, each new square having a side which is as long as the sum of the latest two square's sides. This set of rectangles whose sides are two successive Fibonacci numbers in length and which are composed of squares with sides which are Fibonacci numbers, we will call the Fibonacci Rectangles.

The next diagram shows that we can draw a spiral by putting together quarter circles, one in each new square. This is a spiral (the Fibonacci Spiral). A similar curve to this occurs in nature as the shape of a snail shell or some sea shells. Whereas the Fibonacci Rectangles spiral increases in size by a factor of Phi (1.618..) in a quarter of a turn (i.e. a point a further quarter of a turn round the curve is 1.618... times as far from the centre, and this applies to all points on the curve), the Nautilus spiral curve takes a whole turn before points move a factor of 1.618... from the centre.

A slice through a Nautilus shell

These spiral shapes are called Equiangular or Logarithmic spirals. The links from these terms contain much more information on these curves and pictures of computer-generated shells.

Here is a curve which crosses the X-axis at the Fibonacci numbers

The spiral part crosses at 1 2 5 13 etc on the positive axis, and 0 1 3 8 etc on the negative axis. The oscillatory part crosses at 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 etc on the positive axis. The curve is strangely reminiscent of the shells of Nautilus and snails. This is not surprising, as the curve tends to a logarithmic spiral as it expands.

Nautilus shell (cut)
© All rights reserved. Image source >>

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The following segment is part of the article COMPOSITION & the ELEMENTS of VISUAL DESIGN by Robert Berdan ( http://www.scienceandart.org/ )

© R. Berdan 20/01/2004
Published with permission of the author

Proportion - Golden Ratio and Rule of Thirds

Proportion refers the size relationship of visual elements to each other and to the whole picture. One of the reasons proportion is often considered important in composition is that viewers respond to it emotionally. Proportion in art has been examined for hundreds of years, long before photography was invented. One proportion that is often cited as occurring frequently in design is the Golden mean or Golden ratio.

Golden Ratio: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 etc. Each succeeding number after 1 is equal to the sum of the two preceding numbers. The Ratio formed 1:1.618 is called the golden mean - the ratio of bc to ab is the same as ab to ac. If you divide each smaller window again with the same ratio and joing their corners you end up with a logarithmic spiral. This spiral is a motif found frequently throughout nature in shells, horns and flowers (and my Science & Art logo).

The Golden Mean or Phi occurs frequently in nature and it may be that humans are genetically programmed to recognize the ratio as being pleasing. Studies of top fashion models revealed that their faces have an abundance of the 1.618 ratio.

tlc.discovery.com/convergence/humanface/articles/mask.html

Many photographers and artists are aware of the rule of thirds, where a picture is divided into three sections vertically and horizontally and lines and points of intersection represent places to position important visual elements. The golden ratio and its application are similar although the golden ratio is not as well known and its' points of intersection are closer together. Moving a horizon in a landscape to the position of one third is often more effective than placing it in the middle, but it could also be placed near the bottom one quarter or sixth. There is nothing obligatory about applying the rule of thirds. In placing visual elements for effective composition, one must assess many factors including color, dominance, size and balance together with proportion. Often a certain amount of imbalance or tension can make an image more effective. This is where we come to the artists' intuition and feelings about their subject. Each of us is unique and we should strive to preserve those feelings and impressions about our chosen subject that are different.

	Rule of thirds grid applied to a landscape
	Golden mean grid applied a simple composition

On analyzing some of my favorite photographs by laying down grids (thirds or golden ratio in Adobe Photoshop) I find that some of my images do indeed seem to correspond to the rule of thirds and to a lesser extent the golden ratio, however many do not. I suspect an analysis of other photographers' images would have similar results. There are a few web sites and references to scientific studies that have studied proportion in art and photography but I have not come across any systematic studies that quantified their results- maybe I just need to look harder (see link for more information about the use of the golden ratio: http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/).

In summary, proportion is an element of design you should always be aware of but you must also realize that other design factors along with your own unique sensitivity about the subject dictates where you should place items in the viewfinder. Understanding proportion and various elements of design are guidelines only and you should always follow your instincts combined with your knowledge. Never be afraid to experiment and try something drastically different, and learn from both your successes and failures. Also try to be open minded about new ways of taking pictures, new techniques, ideas - surround yourself with others that share an open mind and enthusiasm and you will improve your compositional skills quickly.

35 mm film has the dimensions 36 mm by 24 mm (3:2 ratio) - golden mean ration of 1.6 to 1 Points of intersection are recommended as places to position important elements in your picture.

The above segment is part of the article COMPOSITION & the ELEMENTS of VISUAL DESIGN by Robert Berdan ( http://www.scienceandart.org/ )

© R. Berdan 20/01/2004
Published with permission of the author.