Michael Persinger
Mpersinger@admin.laurentian.ca
"When he was still with the Navy, Dr. Byrd was the contract manager for some of the research Michael Persinger did, on "neuro-impacts" of various EMFs and ELFs. Something about wave-propagation and influences on submariners if somebody 'beeped' them with mind-influencing EMF signals, etc."
"He was previously funded by Navy, and is/was a big buddy of C. B. Jones (Jones says) and other gov't signal propagation experts...for whom Persinger does/did work on "receptivity" and neuro-effects of external signals."
(Farley, Dick, "False Memory Spindrome")
"..did research on the effects of electromagnetic radiation on the brain for a Pentagon weapons project".
Former boss - Jack Vorona
(Brandt, Daniel, Mind Control and the Secret State)
"My research has not been 'funded by U.S. interests'. All of
the money for our human research for the last 30 years has been
from my personal income as a professor. The only funding ($10,000)
we ever obtained from the U.S. was from the U.S. Navy, thanks to
Eldon Byrd, to evaluate the effects of 0.5 Hz rotating magnetic
fields upon the degranulation of mast cells in the rat brain. The
effect was small but statistically significant." (Letter to Wes Thomas, 1/6/99)
Persinger feels that he is able to replicate alien abduction and other supernatural phenomena through the use of three solenoids (attached to a modified motorcycle helmet) passing a magnetic pulse through the frontal lobes of the brain.
Solenoids are called "magnetic coils" by psychiatrists, who use them as a non-intrusive alternative to implantable electrodes for stimulating the brain. (see Hallett, Mark and Cohen, Leonardo, "Magnetism: a New Method for Stimulation of Nerve and Brain", JAMA, 7/28/89, pg 530)
By controlling the nature of the magnetic fields, causing them to simulate brain patterns, Persinger is able to stimulate strong emotions and hallucinations, including the illusion of touch and movement. (Blackmore, Susan, "Alien Abduction: The Inside Story", New Scientist, 11/19/94, pg 29-31. Persinger is shown demonstrating this device on the British TV show Horizon entitled "Close Encounters", written and narrated by Susan Blackmore. For their efforts, both Persinger and Blackmore have been accused of being in the Aviary.)
In his studies of the paranormal and false memory, Persinger has used the Monroe Institute's hemisync tapes. There are several problems I have with this and other studies:
- Persinger doesn't mention brain entrainment in reference to the Hemisync tapes. (Brain entrainment is the process in which strobe lights or binaural beats force the brain into copying the frequency of the stimuli, changing the state of brain wave patterns). Persinger feels that the tapes work by intorducing the left brain into the right. The left brain is a stranger to the right, causing the subject to feel a "sense of presence" (i.e. the feeling that there is a person or spirit next to the subject, which Persinger feels can lead to an illusion of aliens or religious experiences). Problem is, the two halves of the brain aren't strangers, and the corpus callosum passes informtion between them within milliseconds.
- Persinger also doesn't adequately expain how the ELF (extremely low frequency) electrical emmisions caused by earhquakes and magnetic storms can cause the complex reactions replicated by his solenoid experiments. Persinger has done extensive testing on the psychological effects of ELF waves, and I have not seen any that came close to the experiences of Susan Blackmore.
- In an attempt to describe how ELF waves can cause hallucinations, he refers to experiments done by Allen Frey, who discovered that some people could hear radar inside their heads. Problem is, Frey was working with microwaves, not ELF waves. The two are literally miles apart.
On the Board of Advisors for the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. Informal advisor to SRI's remote viewing program.
Author of:
- "On the Possibility of Directly Accessing Every Human Brain by Electromagnetic Induction of Fundamental Algorithms",
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 6/95, 80, 791-799
- Cult Mania 1980
- ELF and VLF Electromagnetic Field Effects, 1974
- Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs, 1987
- The Paranormal,1974 (Two parts)
- Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events, 1977
- TM and Cult Mania, 1980
- The Weather Matrix and Human Behavior, 1980
- Click here for a more extensive bibliography.
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