Magonia 26, June 1987
We are all magnetic fish in a magnetic sea; we move through and partake of constantly changing magnetic currents and breezes which are not only geological in origin, but geophysical, solar and interplanetary as well. Like all creatures on earth, we’ve evolved for millions of years in this magnetic environment. Our bodies are riddled with magnetically sensitive molecules, tuned to minute changes in this sea, just as fish are tuned to minute changes in currents.
Medicine recognises the crucial importance of some of these – the K+ and Na+ ions in the blood, for example, the so-called electrolytes. Minute variations in these can result in bodily functions going dangerously wrong and brain functions being impaired. And it doesn’t take much genius to see that such particles (which can be viewed as standing waveforms anyway) may be disturbed by fluctuations in the magnetic climate. Indeed, chemical changes in the blood have been shown to vary under magnetic influence; for example the famous albumin flocculation experiments of Professor Takata. Blood cells, which have a high iron content, can also be made to rotate by application of a magnetic field.
WE ARE ALL MAGNETIC FISH IN A MAGNETIC SEA
Experimental work showing the sensitivity of living creatures to magnetism has been well documented, from Frank Brown and his fiddler crabs back in the ’40s right up to the recent work of Dr. Barker at Manchester University, showing that humans use geomagnetism for direction finding (seen recently on BBC’s Horizon programme). Professor Rocard at the Ecole Normale in Paris showed that humans can detect magnetic changes down to the order of 10- gauss – almost below the recordable limit. You could fill pages with this sort of evidence.
The result of magnetic disturbance can be chemical disruption of brain functions – anything from moodiness and depression to seizures (epilepsy?) or hallucinations. Statistics of suicides and road accidents apparently rise during periods of sunspot activity, which cause geomagnetic disturbances.
I’m saying two things here: first, that magnetic fluctuations are not solely geological in origin; second, that humans are far more sensitive to them than is generally accepted. Animals too, which vacate an area pretty sharpish when earthquakes are imminent. Devereux mentions that case of Kasper Hauser, the Nuremberg foundling who could distinguish blindfolded between different metals by passing his hand over them. Like all our faculties, this would be sharpened by use, blunted by neglect, but it would remain latent, whatever, and be more pronounced in some individuals.
So it’s not too big a jump to say that magnetic disturbance, through electromagnetic change, might cause certain sensitive individuals the same sort of visions as those caused under different circumstances by LSD or extreme asceticism. Some people, in proximity to magnetic disturbance might have visions of UFOs, Virgin Marys or MIBs. There is a well-known psychological mechanism by which such a subject will use a physical object, a ball of light, maybe, as a ‘cue’, and then the unconscious takes over, projecting its drama onto reality. In this respect the similarity to the hypnotic state seems marked, down to the importance of such a cue or trigger.
Paul Devereux objects that this causes problems if the physical trigger then behaves in a manner inconsistent with the ‘vision’. It doesn’t, because the subject simply disregards it. The trigger events merely serves to disrupt the consciousness and set the inner drama in motion. Again, such behaviour can be observed in hypnotic subjects. You can even set such dramas in motion post-hypnotically in some subjects, merely on the appearance of a predetermined cue. The subject will thereupon suddenly diverge from reality, perceiving and acting according to a preset and totally unconscious script. The subject’s memory of what they saw and did during this period will afterwards differ remarkably from that of other witnesses.
So, while having a lot of respect for Paul Devereux’s opinions, I don’t see that the phenomenon necessarily involves any externalisation of the imagery onto ionised plasmas or such. It’s easy to accept that idea in the case of simple manifestations like Paul’s original ‘universal man’ vision, but problems arise applying it to the many extremely complicated UFO abduction dramas, with their time-loss and other components.
Of course, the objection will be that many such cases involve multiple witnesses who all share essentially the same experience. So if the whole thing is just a magnetic barn dance in the brain, how does more than one individual see it?
The answer to that may have something to do with the relationships between the people involved, and with the fact that the same magnetic disturbance will presumably affect them all: they will all be immersed in the same field at the time of the experience. In several of the more complex multi-subject contact/abduction dramas (the Hills, Tujunga Canyon, etc.) it appears that one individual is dominant or seems to be the catalyst for the events experienced. Such individuals are also often in various stages of inner crisis, to which the events can be seen to relate (see John Rimmer’s The Evidence For Alien Abductions).
In this regard, it may be fruitful for investigators to ask: a) is hypnotism easier within a magnetic field, and b) are telepathy, telekinesis, etc. easier within a magnetic field? One can think of reasons why this may be so: fluctuations at one point in a field will resonate throughout the field, and mental activity is basically electrical fluctuation, measurable by EEG.
There may be a purely biological function to all this. At the basic level, simply a warning of impending disaster registered by our unconscious magnetic sense and passed to the waking mind via some scary image. At a higher level, a dramatisation of personal, cultural or racial problems in which the individual is just a medium. The ways of the brain are strange and complicated, and there won’t be a straightforward answer, I’m sure. But maybe we’d do well to look again a~ the unfashionable ideas of Julian Jaynes in this context. Maybe the old bicameral mind wasn’t so daft after all!
None of this pretends to be any sort of theory. I’m just putting my two-pennyworth in, and it all stands up to be knocked down. My main point is that the extent and nature of our susceptibility to geomagnetic influences is greatly underestimated, despite ample evidence, and that proper research in this area will in the future open all sorts of doors on our understanding of ourselves and our world.
One thing I’m sure we’ll all agree on – we are more than we think we are!