Anomalist Feature: THE BODY ELECTRIC

THE BODY ELECTRIC
by John Mount

Part 1

"Son, how would you like a free new watch?" my father asked, as he handed me a shiny new silver-banded Timex.

"What's the catch?" I said, eyeing both my father and the watch suspiciously. I had never forgotten the day as a 10-year-old in my father's "radio shack" watching him assemble one of his many ex-disposal-store wireless sets. As I stood there inhaling solder fumes, he gave me a radio capacitor to hold that he purposely omitted to tell me at the time was electrically charged. The inevitable discharge gave me a mild jolt (and my father a great laugh) and although it was a harmless prank it was enough to teach me to be always on guard around my old man.

"No tricks, no strings," he said. "I was recently given this as a gift. If you look closely you'll see that, although the watch is fully wound, it's not working!"

I immediately confirmed this and before I could voice my opinion he held up his hand.

"If you place it on the table and keep an eye on it, in a few minutes it will begin ticking again."

I examined my father's face for any telltale signs of hidden mirth, wondering if this was another of his cunning pranks or, if the old fellow had finally taken leave of his senses. Sure enough, within a few minutes the watch began happily ticking away.

"How the hell did you do that?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Your mum knows", he chuckled, "but I guess I never got around to telling you and your sister. It's simply that I can't wear watches! After wearing them for around a half-hour they just stop!"

"Just stop?" I echoed incredulously.

"Yep, new, old, big or small, in my pocket or on my wrist, within an hour they all stop! If I take them off or remove them from my body, within a few minutes they're working again!"

At that moment I recalled how I had always thought it odd that I had never seen him wearing a watch. This incident among others was the catalyst that would one day kindle my intense interest in the paranormal and cause me to embark on a 30 year quest of private research into psychic energies, and other related subjects. Since those early days I've conducted some research into parapsychology. It appears that this energy exists potentially in every person and needs only to be "exercised" or "willed" into existence. In most people it is clearly dormant while in others it finds various modes of expression such as PK, clairvoyance, telepathy, and various other psychic powers. Of course, not all these modes of expression are consciously directed, nor for that matter desired, as the following case will illustrate.

Part 2

One day in February 1920 at the Clinton prison in Donnemara, New York, 34 men suffered botulinus poisoning from eating tinned salmon, an illness which often proves fatal. Fortunately, on this occasion there were no deaths but something very peculiar happened. All the men began to exhibit strange and unusual powers.

The anomaly was first noticed when one of the men tried to toss away a crumpled piece of paper and was surprised when the paper refused to leave his hand. The prison doctor, Julius B. Ransom, was summoned and, after examining the man, found that the other men were also similarly afflicted. Thankfully, the good doctor must have been more inquiring than the average locum, for after subjecting the 34 men to further tests he found other strange phenomena. For example, when the men placed their hands anywhere near magnetic compasses, the needles would spin crazily; pieces of paper which happened to be in the vicinity of the men would spin wildly, stick to their bodies, or be repelled away with considerable force; and suspended steel tapes would perform snake-like gyrations in their vicinity.

This strange power, the doctor found, varied proportionally according to the severity of the disease, and when the illness began to wane so did their powers. Consequently, upon full recovery, the unusual talents of the men completely disappeared.

This would probably have been the last anyone would have heard of the incident if Dr. Mayne Reid Coe Jr., a medical researcher, had decided not to take up the case. After a thorough investigation the doctor suggested that the bacterial poison upon entering the men's bodies and contacting their muscle cells caused a current of low amperage to be generated--aboout half a million volts. He was also amazed to find that because of this electrostatic charge many botulism sufferers were actually seen glowing in the dark.

Coe went on to perform even more amazing experiments. Convinced that the human body could be persuaded to generate bioelectric currents of its own, Coe practiced yoga fasting and breathing techniques and later claimed that he could easily move a suspended cardboard box placed eight feet away in any direction he desired.

The development of telekinetic or psychokinetic abilities in individuals seems often to occur during or after an illness or stress. The famous PK expert Uri Geller tells how his spoon- bending talents began soon after he received an electric shock from his mother's sewing machine, and the English clairvoyant Mathew Manning recalls the electric shock his mother received while she was "carrying" him. Finally there is the interesting story of Edgar Cayce, the Kentucky-born psychic known as "the sleeping prophet" who also exhibited unusual powers after an illness.

A Swedish engineer Haakon Forwald noticed that in many psychokinetic experiments, especially those involving the throwing of dice, different substances, would, when exposed to the energy from the mind, often react differently. Forwald worked with cubes made from zinc, copper, cadmium, silver, lead, and bakelite. He confirmed that different metals did in fact react in a different fashion when exposed to PK and suggested that as his mind was trying to influence all the cubes equally, any difference must exist in the atomic make-up of the cubes. He further suggested that when exposed to PK the cubes themselves might be liberating energy! Forwald, after performing further experiments, stated: ". . .the mind action is of a relaying kind that is able to start an energetic process within the atom but does not convey energy to it. . ."

The idea that the mind during PK experiments acts as a trigger releasing energy at an atomic level from seemingly inert matter rather than imparting it could help to explain the working principle behind the Czechoslovakian psychotronic generators or motors (the secret of which to my knowledge, has never been fully revealed).

Part 3

After studying these experiments I reasoned that if particular metals can be excited by mind power more than other metals, then it is also possible certain densities or sizes of those metals might create different "wavelengths" and perhaps certain wavelengths might be "in tune" with some operators more than with others. The initial problem would be to discover which wavelength suited this operator and the only way to do that would be by trial and error.

First of all I devised a very simple experiment that most people should be able to perform. I took a piece of thin copper wire (after trying several different thicknesses I eventually settled on 5 amp silvered fuse wire) around four to five inches long (10 to 13 cm) which I then bent exactly in the center. The ends are then bent back to a straight horizontal position leaving a small half-loop in the middle of the wire, (the size of the half-loop matters little as it merely acts as a saddle preventing the wire from slipping off its support) the wire looks similar to the encyclopedic depiction of a neck yoke. Another piece of the same wire at least 12 inches (30cm) in length is stretched and suspended horizontally between two points (I used several books) to act as a supporting wire or high-wire as seen in a circus. The yoke-shaped wire is placed with its u-shaped center resting on the supporting wire, at the same time ensuring that both ends of the yoke are evenly balanced.

Being aware of air currents, static electricity, vibrations, and other extraneous disturbances one must wait until the wire yoke is perfectly still. Then slowly place one finger about a quarter inch away from the side of one of its ends. The wire will be either attracted or repelled depending upon the strength of one's bio-field acting in unison with the wire, and with the will-power of one's mind.

With a little practice I was able to "will" one of the wire ends to move slowly towards or away from my outstretched finger. I reasoned at this point that because I could will the wire to move in any one of two directions, then static electricity was not influencing the experiment. However, to be absolutely sure, I enclosed the experiment in an upturned spherical glass fish bowl and glued the ends of the support wire to the inside walls of the bowl. I also connected one end of the supporting wire to a separate earth.

I found that I could still move the suspended wire in any direction I desired, but because of the thickness of the glass and the greater distance it created between my finger and the wire, the effects were greatly reduced. To further ensure that I was not being influenced by my own suggestions, I used computer software to generate a series of totally random numbers from 1 to 20. I designated all odd numbers to indicate "to the left" and all even numbers to indicate "to the right." As each number came up I would try to move the wire in the direction indicated. To further rule out the possibility of static electricity in the human body, I cut a piece of one inch thick wooden board about 8 inches square and drilled a hole in the center to hold the tip of my index finger tightly. I then glued the piece of wood to the side of the glass bowl. I reasoned that if my body was emanating static electricity, the only way I could move the wire was to move my finger in either direction. After testing, I found I could still produce the same results even though my finger was being held immobile in the hole.

During the whole period of experimentation the only time the wire seemed reluctant to respond was when I began to tire or when my attention wavered.

Up to this point in time I had tried copper, aluminum, tin, and lead. Copper, it seemed was the best, but only marginally. The diameter and length of the original copper wire, after trying several others, also seemed the best, but again only marginally. Whether the diameter and length of the copper wire played any significant part in the psychic side of this experiment is at this point only conjectural. I suspect that the size and diameter may have been merely the best combination allowing for ease of movement of the wire.

Part 4

My research up to this point jogged a memory of related experimentation to that of Forwald. I recalled an experiment performed by Jagadis Chandra Bose a brilliant Indian scientist of the 19th century. Bose had noticed that metals, when subjected to continuous applications of heat, physical pressure, electrical current, and other agents, exhibited fatigue and signs of stress and discomfort similar to that displayed by plants as shown by the instruments of the American researcher Backster and several others.

Bose did not fare well with the scientific academia and much of his work was ignored and disregarded. This was the same man in 1895 who held a scientific demonstration in the Calcutta town hall presided over by the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir Alexander Mackenzie. During this demonstration Bose with his "metallic coherer" transmitted radio waves from the lecture hall through several intervening walls to another room a total of 75 feet away, where a relay was tripped throwing a heavy iron ball into the air, a pistol was fired, and a small mine detonated. All this happened while Marconi (the acknowledged discoverer of radio) was in Bologna still trying to transmit electric waves without wires, and he would not be granted his patent for wire-less transmission of electric waves for at least another year.

It was during work on his metallic coherer, Bose noticed that after prolonged use, his coherer became less sensitive, but after a period of non-use it somehow rejuvenated itself. Bose commenced experiments into metal fatigue and eventually developed a device which he called a crescograph. This device was as brilliant in its use as it was in its overall simplicity. The mainstay of this instrument was a simple "optical lever" which when some slight invisible movement was applied to one end, the other end would reflect by way of a tiny mirror a light beam many yards to a screen. The resultant movements of this focussed beam would equal an amplification of physical movement in the order of "ten million magnifications."

Bose was able to show by his device how animals, plants, and metals when subjected to external stimuli gave exactly the same reactions. When metals and plants were doused with chloroform and other stupefying drugs, their movements, amplified by his device would become less and less, thus showing the effects of general anesthesia. And when fire was introduced to both plants and metals they both registered the trauma of pain, and if both were kept in the flame they would display a sudden rapid shuddering followed by the stillness of death! The subjects exhibited similar responses when they were subjected to various poisons and acids.

If Bose has proven that metals do have a sentiency of sorts, could this be the reason why they are susceptible to influence by the human mind, i.e., one life energy influenced by another?

Part 5

One day my finger began to "deaden" owing to lack of circulation while resting in the hole in the wooden square. While removing my finger and without fully realizing what I was doing I continued willing the wire end to move in a desired direction. Which to my surprise it did! I suddenly realized I could now move the wire without placing my finger anywhere near the fishbowl.

Because of the crudeness of the device and a great deal of uncertainty on my part it was ages before I dared believe that I was moving the device by mindpower alone. (The main problem with the device was a tendency for the ends of the wire yoke to "stick" to the supporting wire if pushed or pulled too far. I feel the only way to solve this problem is to emulate another PK device which uses a needle point to balance an inverted paper pyramid, but allows the pyramid to turn through 360 degrees)

The whole exercise seems to have left me with more questions than I started with. Did I have this talent all along or was I able to acquire or "learn" it by practice? I'm not sure. I do know that the majority of members of my family and friends can duplicate my results using a finger though only a couple can do it without. Does the learning process also involve the metal? Is there a link-up of minds or lifeforces (human and metal) as in telepathy? Are the so-called non-living metals endowed with a lifeforce also? Is "mind over matter'" really "mind over mind?" Is everything in the world or universe invisibly connected?

References

THE CYCLES OF HEAVEN Souvenir Press London 1978 By G. L. Playfair and S. Hill

JOURNAL OF PARASYCHOLOGY 1959 "An experimental study suggesting a relationship between psychokinesis and nuclear conditions of matter". H. Forwald

ABIOGENESIS, THE FRANKENSTEIN EFFECT Nexus Magazine vol 6 no 3 1999

HANDBOOK OF PSI DISCOVERIES Great Britain 1977 Sheila Ostrander And Lynn Schroeder

THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS. 1974 Penguin Books Ltd Middlesex England Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird