================================================================ MindNet Journal - Vol. 1, No. 49 ================================================================ V E R I C O M M / MindNet "Quid veritas est?" ================================================================ Notes: The following is reproduced here with the express permission of the author/publisher. Permission is given to reproduce and redistribute, for non-commercial purposes only, provided this information and the copy remain intact and unedited. The views and opinions expressed below are not necessarily the views and opinions of VERICOMM, MindNet, or the editors unless otherwise noted. Editor: Mike Coyle Contributing Editors: Walter Bowart Alex Constantine Martin Cannon Assistant Editor: Rick Lawler Research: Darrell Bross Editor's Note: The author of the following article, which originally appeared in Flatland #11, is Jim Martin the editor of Flatland, POB 2420, Fort Bragg, CA 95437-2420. Orders: 707.964.8326, Email: , Subscriptions: $16.00 for four issues (twice a year). "Flatland Books - Since 1986 Flatland has been a reliable mail-order source for hard-to-find literature. We offer a wide listing of new books: imported, domestic; slick, handmade; ranging from raw history, Reich's orgone, situationist, media wrenchers, diggers, ranters, lodge brothers, spy vs. spy, cryptocracy, fringe science, mind control, UFOs, conspiracy." Write for a free Flatland book catalog. Flatland on the World Wide Web: http://www.mcn.org/cbc/Bussect/Flatland/flatland.html ================================================================ EMF, ELF AND COLD WAR NUCLEAR GUINEA PIGS By Jim Martin January 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------- We're ALL Test Subjects... As I sit in front of my two-page computer screen display I am bathed in electromagnetic fields measuring 15 milligauss. It has become common knowledge that video display terminals (VDTs) emit harmful electromagnetic fields, but it is less well known that there are much stronger sources of these fields in and around the places we visit each day. Electricity is so omnipresent in our society that it quite discomfiting to imagine that this ocean of electromagnetic fields may harm our health. In his book, _Currents of Death_, (Simon & Shuster, NY, 1989) author Paul Brodeur consolidates recent research into the long-term effects of continuous exposure to high-power electromagnetic fields. He also discusses the antagonism of utility companies, the electronics industry and the military towards such research, eerily reminiscent of the suppression of evidence that low-level exposure to nuclear radiation was more perilous than previously believed during the 1950s. Yet the issue remains: there is an identifiable and not-yet-understood link between long-term exposure to these fields and serious health problems. For instance, in 1974 a researcher in Colorado named Nancy Wertheimer tried to discover common factors in children who had died of leukemia by obtaining their addresses from the Colorado Bureau of Vital Statistics. Without looking for any one factor in particular, she noticed that many of these houses were located along the trunk lines stepping down from power line transformers. Leukemia rates dropped off sharply in houses further removed from the main trunk lines. Digging into the issue further, she discovered that workers in occupations which exposed them to continuously high electromagnetic fields had developed cancer at a significantly higher rate than the rest of the population. An orthopedic surgeon with the US Veteran's Administration, Dr. Robert O. Becker also became convinced of the health hazards associated with electromagnetic fields. He had been investigating the effects of minute electrical currents on wound-healing in salamanders. (Animal lovers may want to turn their heads at this point.) After amputating one of their limbs, Becker found that the salamanders were able to regenerate that limbs when stimulated by tiny electrical impulses. Pursuing this research, he found that electrical stimulation speeded up the rate of healing seriously broken bones in humans. While his research was met with derision because current medical orthodoxy has no explanation for such small electric impulses having any biological effects, today we see the embodiment of this research every Sunday on televised NFL games; if you see, on the sidelines, an injured player hobbling on crutches that have a strange-looking black box attached to them, you are seeing a healing technique developed by Dr. Becker. Players call it "getting stimmed." Becker had strong evidence of the biological effect of electromagnetism, both beneficial and malignant, from his research with salamanders. He was concerned about long-term exposure, but when he spoke out he was removed from his position with the Veteran's Administration. His discussion of this freezing-out is in his excellent book _The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life_ (with Gary Selden, William & Morrow Co., NY 1985). It is a useful discussion for anyone who wants to understand how medical research functions today. Ideas inconsistent with medical orthodoxy and corporate/government interests are quickly killed by cutting of grant money. Since there is no practical way to shield one's self from an electromagnetic field, the only protection possible is to limit one's exposure. For people in many occupations, however, this is impossible. For instance, clerks at check-out stands are bathed in a high-power energy field measuring over 200 milligauss that emanates from the laser bar-code reader at waist-level. The distinction between safe and dangerous levels of exposure have not yet been determined, but epidemiologist David Savitz published a study 1986 that replicated Nancy Wertheimer's study in Colorado and found that children living near transmission lines and subjected to exposures of only 2.5 milligauss developed cancer at a rate 40% greater than other children. Despite evidence such as this, many power companies have set "safe" standards of emissions from transformers and power lines at 100 milligauss. Even at that high level of "safety" the check-out clerks at our supermarkets are exposed to twice the acceptable dose, for eight hours a day. When I approached a woman at the local supermarket to measure the emissions from her check-out stand, her face registered shock when the field meter I was using leapt off-scale. "So that's why I'm always so nervous," she said. Since we have no organ to sense changes in our electromagnetic environment, it is often hard to notice over-exposure. Signs include nausea, blurred vision, a metallic taste in the mouth, and headaches. Electric blankets should be used under no circumstances, since they emit 13-15 milligauss. Both the symptoms and the diseases associated with exposure to magnetic fields are consistent with the late Dr. Wilhelm Reich's research into cancer. He identified something he called "oranur sickness" which, like radiation poisoning, was experienced as a metallic taste in the mouth, headaches, nausea and blurred vision. One of the hallmarks of this oranur sickness is that each organism reacts in its own way to it, as it attacks the "weak point" in a biological system. For instance, one might come down with an especially acute attack of asthma without thinking any but "oh, there's that old asthma again" without noticing what triggered it. It is this feature of oranur sickness that complicates the epidemiology of magnetic fields. Since symptoms and health breakdowns vary from person to person, orthodox scientists can dismiss any common factor especially subtle ones such as low-level exposure to radiation, toxic chemicals, and electromagnetic fields. Thus, when I interviewed residents of Dunsmuir, CA, who have been recently exposed to toxic fumes resulting from a train derailment into the nearby Sacramento River, they reported being told by medical workers at the local hospital that their symptoms were "all in their heads." However, levels of electromagnetic radiation in our environment can be measured if not directly sensed. Using a small Trifield meter (available from Natural Energy Works, POB 864, El Cerrito, CA 94530) which measures magnetic field, electric field, and radio/microwave field strength in the ambient atmosphere, I took readings around Fort Bragg and Mendocino at the common stops along a typical day's business. I was surprised that in some locations, readings were far lower than expected, such as those next to the transformer located next to the Mendocino Elementary School, while other locations had far higher readings than I would have expected, such at the bank teller's window. Here are some sample readings. Safe, background levels of magnetic fields that are consistent with the earth's normal emissions are around 0.5 to 1.0 milligauss (MG). Borderline readings occur at 1.0 to 3.0 MG, and high levels begin at 3.0 MG. (Readings are in milligauss.) Automobile: driver's seat:.... 7 : passenger seat:... 4 : back seat:........ 2 Main St., Ft. Bragg:...................... 0.5 Macintosh Plus VDT:....................... 15 Automatic stamp machine at post office:... 8 Automatic Teller Machine:................. 8 Arcade Video Game:........................ 100 Xerox Machine:............................ 100 Safeway refrigerated isle:................ 8 Harvest Market meat case:................. 75 Harvest Market fish case:................. 4 Bar Code Reader at check-out:............. 200 Big River Substation (elementary school):. 0.5-7 These random measurements clearly show that it is virtually impossible for any of us to remove ourselves from an ongoing, uncontrolled experiment to test the limits of safe exposure of EMF. The parallels between this situation, where "informed consent" is a meaningless slogan, can be readily found in the new disclosures surrounding Cold War radiation testing. It might be useful, at this point, to revisit those days, when a "voice in the wilderness" spoke out against "safe" levels of nuclear radiation: Wilhelm Reich. What, in the final analysis, brought the wrath of the U. S. government down upon Wilhelm Reich, M.D.? Space does not allow a full discussion of Reich's biography, but those interested won't find a better place to start than with Myron Sharaf's _Fury on Earth_. There were many dangerous aspects to Reich's work, from advocating children's sexual rights, or his thorough analysis of the patriarchal family in fascism and its roots in the emotional character structures of everyday people, and even his invention of the orgone accumulator(1). In my view, Wilhelm Reich was imprisoned because he stumbled onto frightening facts about nuclear radiation during the early 1950s, a critical point in that newly developed industry. Simply put, Reich found that there is _no shielding possible_ against the biological effects of nuclear radiation. On January 5, 1951, in what was called the Oranur Experiment, Reich placed a minute sample (1 milligram) of radium inside a powerful orgone accumulator. Reich's shocking report, which can be found in the now out-of-print _Selected Writings_, details how radiation sickness is a function of the organism's response to the invasive insult, and not a direct result of the radiation poisoning itself. Thus different people may be more susceptible to very minute doses(2), while others may feel no noticeable effects; each person's reaction is different according to their own emotional and biological structure. It will be recalled that there was little understanding of the biological effects of radiation in the 1950s. Many people remember that soldiers were sent directly into test sites shortly after the dust cleared from nuclear explosions. They wore no protection and were merely dusted off afterwards. At this writing (January, 1994) the U.S. Department of Energy has released many documents about the true nature of America's nuclear heritage. Dept. Secretary Hazel O'Leary has offered full disclosure about the years of chronic abuse of an unwitting population of human guinea pigs by the scientific establishment and the military. So far, reports have focused on the more insane and fascistic injection of human beings with plutonium without informed consent. Less has been reported about the facts that first came out: that throughout the forties and fifties the military dropped radioactive dust over vast areas of the Western States. To put this into perspective, the military essentially turned each of us into a huge cohort of experimental subjects in an on-going test of the biological effects of radiation poisoning. President Clinton has distanced himself from Dept. of Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, who authorized the release of new information, characterizing her forthcoming posture as "very emotional". There is little public understanding today of the true nature of Reich's research. However, the military, as of 1948, was fully advised of his findings. Indeed, the AEC provided Reich with the radium samples he used in the Oranur Experiment. When Reich first discovered the specifically biological energy he called orgone, he waited before publishing until he verified the phenomena under a variety of experimental protocols. One such experiment, "TO-T", measured the temperature difference between an orgone box (constructed with alternating layers of metal and wood which create an enclosed field of concentrated orgone), and a similarly constructed box that lacked the metal lining, but had the same capacity for insulation. An orgone box is generally warmer than the outside temperature, and the temperature difference decreases as the atmosphere contracts before a storm. Albert Einstein was one person who found the question intriguing enough to invite Reich to his home to demonstrate the effect. Reich had written him a cautious letter in the hopes that this "Father of the Atom Bomb" would recognize that the experiments proved an exception to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the law of entropy, which requires that equal volumes tend to equalize in temperature. Reich traveled to Princeton with several devices with which to demonstrate the orgone energy. He described his long session with Einstein as a meeting of minds. Einstein observed the phenomena, and said, "If this is true, it would be a bombshell for Physics." Einstein met once again with Reich and then suddenly dropped the matter. Einstein's biographers have painted this meeting in a ridiculous light, saying it was an example of Einstein's eccentricity. Perhaps, but their exchange of letters, which Reich published later, belies this assumption.(3) This is important to remember: whatever the validity of Reich's conclusions, _the phenomena he observed_, which alone stand in stark contrast to any high school physics text, _was in fact real, corroborated and sustained against objections_. The FDA launched a multi-million dollar investigation of the orgone accumulator, declared it a fraud, and set about bringing criminal proceedings against Reich. Reich's FBI files reveal a blistering blizzard of letters directed towards getting rid of Reich from doctors in the AMA, ministers of Christian youth crusades, and one from the Atomic Energy Commission advising the FDA what "a thorn in the side" Reich had been. Reich never sold more than 500 copies a year of any one of his self-published books while he was alive. That an obscure, new line of research posed such a threat to the medical establishment is on its face inconceivable. Reich had first made contact with the Atomic Energy Commission on April 30, 1948, to discuss unusually high Geiger counter readings in connection with his orgonomic research. It would still be three years before Reich embarked on the Oranur Project, a controlled experiment dealing directly with the biological effects of radiation poisoning. In between, Reich kept the AEC completely informed of his research via meetings, letters and phone calls, as he grew closer and closer to an essential national security issue (i.e., keeping the public in the dark about the real danger associated with radioactivity), while simply trying to figure out why he was getting such unusually high readings on his Geiger counters. In re-reading his original documentation, I was impressed with Reich's ability to distinguish between observed facts, corroborated by others; new theories drawn from and supported by these facts; and finally speculation based upon insufficient evidence. Of utmost importance in his research method was an awareness of the attitude of the observer, basic trust in one's own perceptions and observations. Although he alerted them when his Geiger counters told him something was amiss, he did not trust the response offered by the AEC: don't worry, everything is fine. In this as in other matters he seems to have been virtually alone. Reich's intent for the Oranur Experiment was to investigate the treatment of radiation sickness with the orgone accumulator. For years, he had success in treating terminal "lost-cause" cancer patients with the medical device although he never claimed having found a cure, as the FDA would charge. Since it was well known that radiation sickness could lead to leukemia, Reich planned to investigate the matter at his laboratory in Rangeley, Maine. As Oranur research progressed, it was decided to test the effect of orgone-charged radium on lab mice in comparison to untreated radium. In preparation for this, a sample of radium was placed in a 20-layer accumulator. After five hours, Reich subjectively noticed a change in the atmosphere, which he described as heavy and oppressive. This subjective change was verified when Geiger counters in the room went off-scale. Workers in the area suffered all the classic symptoms of radiation poisoning. They had discovered the Oranur Effect. When the radium sample was removed from the accumulator, it was placed in a steel-and-concrete safe away from living quarters. Yet the noxious effects, as well as abnormally high Geiger readings persisted in the accumulator and the room in which it was situated. It was as if the atmospheric orgone had "run amok", as Reich put it, concluding that the placement of the radium inside the accumulator had set off an atmospheric chain-reaction which persisted long after it had been removed. The next morning, the mice were dying even though they were in an adjacent room, and Reich awoke with a full-body tan in the dead of a Maine winter. Reich would subsequently state that "it is the organismic OR [orgone] energy within living bodies which continues to react to the NR [nuclear radiation] material for months and even years." In checking background counts around the safe in which the orgone-charged radium had been disposed, he discovered a more disturbing phenomena: that the steel and concrete enclosure itself comprised an orgone accumulator and that the Oranur effect was still evident. It's hard to discount Reich's documentation of all this, given the complete records and corroboration of his coworkers. He found a persistent, overcharged atmosphere continuing long after the experiment had been concluded. _The New York Times_ (2/3/51) reported that there were unusually high background radiation levels recorded from Rochester, New York to Canada during the last week of January. There was a bright side. Both the experimental mice that had survived and the workers involved with the project exhibited full recovery and more: they were far better able to withstand the effects of radiation in subsequent work. Reich had found what he was looking for. There were positive indications that Reich had found a method of _immunizing against the effects of radiation_. By then, the FDA was mounting its case against Reich, aimed first at silencing him on the question of orgone energy. He had been ordered by the FDA and federal courts to cease distribution of the orgone accumulator. When an assistant, Dr. Michael Silvert, transported the devices across state lines, he and Reich were charged with the violation of the court injunction. Unbelievably, the 59 year-old scientist, researcher, and teacher was sentenced to two years in prison and, as with many people his age, this proved to be a death sentence. The rest of the story is now known. It's estimated that it will cost $200 billion to clean up after the nuclear testing of the Cold War. But are we all participating in a new experiment to establish safe levels of electromagnetic fields? Chronology of Radiation and Biowarfare Testing Disclosures Through 6/1/94 1942-1946 Dr. Joseph G. Hamilton at University of California Hospital in San Francisco proposes a radioactive aerosol as a military weapon. Tests lethal-dose exposure on terminal patients. One of the "terminal patients" had been misdiagnosed; he only had an ulcer. (L.A. Times 2/8/94) 1945 Miami, FL; radioactive needles placed in Army private's nostrils. Vanderbilt University Medical Center; 751 late-term pregnant women given radioactive water 30 times background radiation at a free clinic. (L.A. Times 2/8/94) 1948-1952 12 "battlefield radiation" tests conducted over Tennessee and Utah. Air Force drops radioactive cluster bombs dispersing as much as 15,000 curies in open-air fallout tests. (L.A. Times 12/16/94) 1950 San Francisco: ships spray city with bacteria from offshore. (NYT 2/25/94) 1951 Virginia: Aspergillus fumagatus, a lethal bacteria, released upon workers, mainly black, at Norfolk Naval Supply Center. (L.A. Times 2/8/94) 1953 Nationwide test: 235 newborns and infants injected with radioactive iodide. In Memphis, 6 of 7 newborns selected were black. No one kept track of the subjects, who are now 39 or 40 years old. (St. Louis Post Dispatch 12/25/93) 1954 Marshall Islands: Navy moves its ships and personnel when it learns of a wind change prior to above-ground testing. Fails to relocate native islanders as well. 1956-1986 Chico, CA: 140 tons of hot shit (radioactive dog feces) accumulates at DOE facility (aka UC Davis Laboratory for Energy-Related Health Research, also known as the "Beagle Club" by former workers) near UC Davis, where 1,200 beagles were fed, injected with, and exposed to radiation, including tritium. One worker has claimed that the sewage system has at times overflowed into Putah Creek, near Lake Berryessa. (L.A. Times 2/8/94) 1957 Eskimos in N. Alaska, few of whom spoke English at the time, were given an apple and an orange for their participation in Army tests to inject them with radioactive iodine. (L.A. Times 2/8/94) British smuggle radioactive debris in a diplomatic pouch on regular commercial airline. 1963-1990 34 underground nuclear tests in the U.S. release radiation into the atmosphere. 1966 Massachusetts: Retarded children at the Fernald School in Waltham given low-dose radiation in their cereal. 1953-1965 1500 military personnel given LSD by US Army Chemical Corps. 1968 Nerve Gas agent kills 6,000 sheep in Utah. (NYT 2/25/94) 1973 Prisoners in Oregon and Washington agree to have their testicles dipped in radioactive water for $5.00 a week. 1993 Russia, Arzamas-16; elite Vympel (Pennant) commando units stage a "terrorist attack" and quickly seize nuclear bomb factory, to test security at Soviet Military facilities. Vympel also thwarted an attempt to steal fissionable material from a plant in the Urals. However, when Vympel refused President Boris Yeltsin's order to storm the parliament house in October, 1992, they refused and talked the opposition out instead, which was seen as a capitulation. Yeltsin transferred Vympel under the control of the Interior Ministry, whereupon the majority of commandos resigned their commissions. 1994 Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) asked the White House to investigate any radiation testing that may have been done on US troops during the Gulf War. Chernobyl nuclear power station declared unsafe by the International Atomic Energy Association. Officials now admit that thousands died in the blast, and the subsequent clean-up takes up 12% of the Ukranian national budget. (Reuters 3/31/94) To date: An estimated cost of $200 billion to clean up after the nuclear research of the Cold War, nationwide. 30 deaths from Hanta viruses, long a focus of military biowarfare researchers. There remains no independent scientific or ethical review of human testing conducted by military and intelligence researchers. The Department of Energy funds 175 human test studies involving 725,000 people. (AP 4/5/94) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reports that it licenses as many as 200 of the largest medical institutions in the country to conduct human research. (AP 2/3/94) Notes: (1) For a full discussion of current experimental evidence concerning the operation of the orgone accumulator and its beneficial use in healing see The Orgone Accumulator Handbook, by James DeMeo, PhD., Natural Energy Works, POB 864, El Cerrito, CA 95430 (2) A former worker at the San Onofre Power Plant sues over a rare form of leukemia 1/94. Since she had never been exposed to levels of radiation deemed "unsafe" by the Department of Energy, and having a cancer which has been positively linked to radioactive exposure, the issue the court must decide is whether any level of exposure can be deemed "safe." (3) Reich, W. The Einstein Affair. Orgone Institute Press, Maine, 1953.