March 20, 1998
Web posted at: 2:05 p.m. EDT (1405 GMT) ATLANTA (CNN) –

An experimental treatment for severe depression, in which powerful magnets are applied to patients’ heads, is showing signs of success, a medical journal reports.

Emory University researchers report in the journal Psychiatric Annals that more than half of the patients treated improved with no serious side effects.

Depression affects 37 million Americans. It is estimated one in four women and one in 10 men suffer from depression.

In the experimental treatment, doctors use a powerful electromagnet to stimulate a specific area of the brain. It seems to work best in the left front portion of the brain, believed to be underactive in people with depression. The treatment lasts only about five minutes.

“The electromagnet induces electric current in the brain and we know that that causes brain cells to fire, to become active, to do things, to kick out brain chemicals which are called neurotransmitters,” said Dr. Charles Epstein of Emory University.

While the magnetic therapy is being studied it is only available for people with severe depression, said Dr. William McDonald of Emory University.

“The people that we’ve treated have far and away been very ill people. These are people who have otherwise gotten ECT (electro convulsive therapy),” he said. ECT is a controversial treatment, usually tried as a last resort, in which electric pulses cause a seizure,.

One patient, Ruth Wright tried ECT but suffered memory loss. She also tried anti-depressants, but they didn’t work, so she turned to magnetic therapy. She’s had it for a year and said she’s much improved, even happy.

“Situations which would have thrown me a year ago, I can handle now with some degree of reasonable behavior,” said Wright.

The treatment is experimental and the long-term effects are unknown; researchers say seizures are a possibility. As with other treatments, it is not unusual for patients to relapse once treatment ends. The researchers aren’t sure yet if it will help people with mild depression.

Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland contributed to this report.

source: CNN.COM

News release
World’s largest-ever study of Near-Death Experiences
Ref: 08/165

10 September 2008

The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton – an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death.

The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University of Southampton. Following a successful 18-month pilot phase at selected hospitals in the UK, the study is now being expanded to include other centres within the UK, mainland Europe and North America.

“Contrary to popular perception,” Dr Parnia explains, “death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning – a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.

“During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. There then follows a period of time, which may last from a few seconds to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process. What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process.”

A number of recent scientific studies carried out by independent researchers have demonstrated that 10-20 per cent of people who go through cardiac arrest and clinical death report lucid, well structured thought processes, reasoning, memories and sometimes detailed recall of events during their encounter with death.

During the AWARE study, doctors will use sophisticated technology to study the brain and consciousness during cardiac arrest. At the same time, they will test the validity of out of body experiences and claims of being able to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ during cardiac arrest.

The AWARE study will be complemented by the BRAIN-1 (Brain Resuscitation Advancement International Network - 1) study, in which the research team will conduct a variety of physiological tests in cardiac arrest patients, as well as cerebral monitoring techniques that aim to identify methods to improve the medical and psychological care of patients who have undergone cardiac arrest.

University of Southampton

Wholeness and the Implicate Order:

In the enfolded [or implicate] order, space and time are no longer the dominant factors determining the relationships of dependence or independence of different elements. Rather, an entirely different sort of basic connection of elements is possible, from which our ordinary notions of space and time, along with those of separately existent material particles, are abstracted as forms derived from the deeper order. These ordinary notions in fact appear in what is called the “explicate” or “unfolded” order, which is a special and distinguished form contained within the general totality of all the implicate orders (Bohm, 1980, p. xv).

All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force…
We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind.
This Mind is the matrix of all matter.

Max Planck, physicist
considered to be the founder of quantum theory

In March 1905 , Einstein created the quantum theory of light, the idea that light exists as tiny packets, or particles, which he called photons.

The work of relating the remarkable experiments and the abstract mathematical and theoretical formulations that constitute quantum physics to the experience that all of us share in the world of everyday life fell first to Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in the course of their collaboration in Copenhagen around 1927. Bohr and Heisenberg had stepped beyond the world of empirical experiments, pragmatic predictions of such phenomena as the frequencies of light emitted under various conditions and the observation that a discrete quantities of energy must be postulated in order to avoid the paradoxes to which classical physics inevitably led when it was pushed to extremes, and found a new world of quanta of energy, entities that fit neither the classical ideas of particles nor the classical ideas of waves, elementary particles that behaved in ways highly regular when many similar interactions were analyzed yet highly unpredictable when one tried to predict things like individual trajectories through a simple physical apparatus.

Not only did laboratory experiments disclose the fact, but the new theories predicted the consequences that elementary particles are neither wave nor particle, that knowing the position of a particle prevents us from knowing its direction and velocity (and vice-versa), that the very fact of detecting whether a small object such as a photon or electron passes through an apparatus by one path or another can change the end result of the experiment when that small entity reaches a detection screen. Wikipedia

The best way of describing is with probability formula as the path integral approach.

Which led to Einstein’s claim, “If it [the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics] is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science.”

Einstein was displeased with this indeterministic outcome and his attitude is best summed up in his famous phrase, ‘God does not play dice’.

In the paper “Biological Extension of the Action Principle: Endpoint Determination beyond the Quantum Level and the Ultimate Physical Roots of Consciousness” Attila Grandpierre relates this phenomenon to proto-consciousness as the basis for biology. Journal-ref: NeuroQuantology, 2007, Vol. 5, pp. 346-362

excerpts:

Page 6 of paper

For example, Zukav (1980, in the chapter “Living?”, pp. 45-66) argues that “Something is “organic” if it has the ability to process information and to act accordingly. We have little choice but to acknowledge that photons…do appear to process information [in the two-slit experiment] and to act accordingly, and that therefore, strange as it may sound, they seem to be organic” (ibid., pp. 63-64).

Page 11 of paper

The whole universe appears as a gigantic and throbbing thread of inevitably propagating and complexifying chain reaction of interactions, including all the known and yet unknown forms of interactions, elevating the universe to higher and higher levels of organization, creating spontaneously self-active systems of activity. In this way, the principle of interactive perception becomes the basis of the upward organization of the whole universe. We propose that the quantum orientation observed in the two-slit experiment is a direct manifestation of the perceptive interaction of quanta.

Page 14 of paper

By our proposal, these many-body effects are based on quantum orientation, which relay on virtual interactions, and correspond to an elementary form of consciousness. In this way, the above arguments all indicate that consciousness (perhaps a better term would be proto-consciousness) must be present at the most fundamental levels of matter and universal vacuum fields.

It is a widely acknowledged view in biosemiotics that life and consciousness are coextensive (Hoffmeyer, 1996, 2001). Therefore, we can also formulate the above indicated (proto)biological interpretation of the two-slit experiment in the following way. The elementary quanta of physics are coupled to the vacuum and manifest an elementary or proto-consciousness. The means of proto-communication are the virtual interactions. The presence of the consciousness aspectis one reason to regard these virtual interactions as transcending physics and corresponding to biology. Moreover, these virtual interactions are immediate, representing instantaneous interactions (not necessarily quantum entanglement). This is another reason to regard virtual interactions as proto-communication, as expressions of proto-consciousness.

We found the following properties of proto-consciousness: perceptive interactions, selfreferential activity, quantum orientation, spontaneous timing, spontaneous targeting, and spontaneous upward organization.

Paper by Atilla Grandpierre

The Physical World as a Virtual Reality
Brian Whitworth
Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine - Sir Arthur Eddington

Abstract

This paper explores the idea that the universe is a virtual reality created by information processing, and relates this strange idea to the findings of modern physics about the physical world. The virtual reality concept is familiar to us from online worlds, but our world as a virtual reality is usually a subject for science fiction rather than science. Yet logically the world could be an information simulation running on a multi-dimensional space-time screen. Indeed, if the essence of the universe is information, matter, charge, energy and movement could be aspects of information, and the many conservation laws could be a single law of information conservation.

If the universe were a virtual reality, its creation at the big bang would no longer be paradoxical, as every virtual system must be booted up. It is suggested that whether the world is an objective reality or a virtual reality is a matter for science to resolve. Modern information science can suggest how core physical properties like space, time, light, matter and movement could derive from information processing. Such an approach could reconcile relativity and quantum theories, with the former being how information processing creates space-time, and the latter how it creates energy and matter.

Key words: Digital physics, virtual reality, information theory

Paper by Prof. B. Whitworth

KJV Romans 2 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; [their conscience…: or, the conscience witnessing with them; the mean…: or, between themselves] 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Many Christians claim moral superiority of having the truth on their side, judging and condeming others not having accepted their truth. But what does Paul teach? Gentiles doing by nature the things contained in the law, shewing the law written on their heart and their conscience bearing witness/judging them. How is that possible?

C.S. Lewis used the argument that the existence of universal moral values reasons for the existence of a universal moral Lawgiver. This argument of the existence of an universal accepted moral standard mirroring perfection maintains that the source of the objective moral values we experience must be an ultimately perfect Being.

C. S. LEWIS (1898-1963)

C. S. Lewis used an advanced form of the moral argument for God’s existence in his work Mere Christianity.1 Lewis argued that man’s idea of right and wrong is a clue to the meaning of the universe.2 Lewis reasoned that there must exist a universal moral law for several reasons. First, all moral disagreements between persons imply an appeal to a standard of behavior to which all persons are subject.3 People accused of doing wrong usually claim that their action did not violate the universal standard, or that they somehow had a special excuse for not submitting to the standard in this particular case.4 They do not usually deny the standard itself. Second, quarreling often occurs when one person tries to prove that the action of another person is wrong. However, the fact that two people quarrel about whether or not an action was moral implies that they agree that there is such a thing as right and wrong.5 One person claims the action was right; the other person claims the action was wrong. What they agree upon is the concept of right and wrong (the moral law).67 For instance, when confronted with imminent danger, a man may desire to run for safety but instead chooses to disregard his own well-being to rescue another. Therefore, the moral law is not man’s basic instincts. Instead, it judges between these instincts to determine which instinct is to be applied in the specific situation.8

For instance, when confronted with imminent danger, a man may desire to run for safety but instead chooses to disregard his own well-being to rescue another. Therefore, the moral law is not man’s basic instincts. Instead, it judges between these instincts to determine which instinct is to be applied in the specific situation.For instance, when confronted with imminent danger, a man may desire to run for safety but instead chooses to disregard his own well-being to rescue another. Therefore, the moral law is not man’s basic instincts. Instead, it judges between these instincts to determine which instinct is to be applied in the specific situation.For instance, when confronted with imminent danger, a man may desire to run for safety but instead chooses to disregard his own well-being to rescue another. Therefore, the moral law is not man’s basic instincts. Instead, it judges between these instincts to determine which instinct is to be applied in the specific situation.For instance, when confronted with imminent danger, a man may desire to run for safety but instead chooses to disregard his own well-being to rescue another. Therefore, the moral law is not man’s basic instincts. Instead, it judges between these instincts to determine which instinct is to be applied in the specific situation.Lewis also believed that it is wrong to say that this moral law is merely a social convention.9 For not everything that man has learned from others is a social convention. Some things, like mathematics, would be true even if it was never taught.10 The moral law is like mathematics in this respect. It is real regardless of what one’s society teaches about it.11 Social progress makes no sense unless the moral law exists independent of societies.12 If the moral law is merely invented by society, then one society (America) cannot call the actions of another society (Nazi Germany) wrong.13

Lewis declared that the moral law cannot be a law of nature.14 For a law of nature is descriptive. It describes how nature is, how it usually acts. But, the moral law does not describe how nature is. The moral law is prescriptive; it prescribes how nature ought to be.15 The moral law stands above man and judges his behavior.

Lewis concluded that there exists a moral law above all men to which they are subject.16 However, matter could not be the cause of moral laws.17 Matter gives instructions to no one. Experience shows us that mind is the cause of moral laws.18 Therefore, this universal moral law that stands above all men must come from a Mind that stands above all men.19

ENDNOTES

1 C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 15-39.C. S. Lewis, , 15-39

2 Ibid., 15.

3 Ibid., 17.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid., 17-18.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., 22-23.

8 Ibid., 23.

9 Ibid., 24.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., 24-25.

13 Ibid., 25.

14 Ibid., 27-29.

15 Ibid., 28.

16 Ibid., 31.

17 Ibid., 34.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

Dedication
To
The Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERAL
And H.C. IN PARTICULAR
This Work is Dedicated
By a Humble Native of Flatland
In the Hope that
Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries
Of THREE Dimensions
Having been previously conversant
With ONLY TWO
So the Citizens of that Celestial Region
May aspire yet higher and higher
To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE OR EVEN SIX Dimensions
Thereby contributing
To the Enlargment of THE IMAGINATION
And the possible Development
Of that most and excellent Gift of MODESTY
Among the Superior Races
Of SOLID HUMANITY

How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland

AS SOON AS the sound of the Peace-cry of my departing Wife had died away, I began to approach the Stranger with the intention of taking a nearer view and of bidding him be seated: but his appearance struck me dumb and motionless with astonishment. Without the slightest symptoms of angularity he nevertheless varied every instant with graduations of size and brightness scarcely possible for any Figure within the scope of my experience. The thought flashed across me that I might have before me a burglar or cut-throat, some monstrous Irregular Isosceles, who, by feigning the voice of a Circle, had obtained admission somehow into the house, and was now preparing to stab me with his acute angle.

In a sitting-room, the absence of Fog (and the season happened to be remarkably dry), made it difficult for me to trust to Sight Recognition, especially at the short distance at which I was standing. Desperate with fear, I rushed forward with an unceremonious, “You must permit me, Sir –” and felt him. My Wife was right. There was not the trace of an angle, not the slightest roughness or inequality: never in my life had I met with a more perfect Circle. He remained motionless while I walked around him, beginning from his eye and returning to it again. Circular he was throughout, a perfectly satisfactory Circle; there could not be a doubt of it. Then followed a dialogue, which I will endeavour to set down as near as I can recollect it, omitting only some of my profuse apologies–for I was covered with shame and humiliation that I, a Square, should have been guilty of the impertinence of feeling a Circle. It was commenced by the Stranger with some impatience at the lengthiness of my introductory process.

Stranger. Have you felt me enough by this time? Are you not introduced to me yet?

I. Most illustrious Sir, excuse my awkwardness, which arises not from ignorance of the usages of polite society, but from a little surprise and nervousness, consequent on this somewhat unexpected visit. And I beseech you to reveal my indiscretion to no one, and especially not to my Wife. But before your Lordship enters into further communications, would he deign to satisfy the curiosity of one who would gladly know whence his visitor came?

Stranger. From Space, from Space, Sir: whence else?

I. Pardon me, my Lord, but is not your Lordship already in Space, your Lordship and his humble servant, even at this moment?

Stranger. Pooh! what do you know of Space? Define Space.

I. Space, my Lord, is height and breadth indefinitely prolonged.

Stranger. Exactly: you see you do not even know what Space is. You think it is of Two Dimensions only; but I have come to announce to you a Third–height, breadth, and length.

I.Your Lordship is pleased to be merry. We also speak of length and height, or breadth and thickness, thus denoting Two Dimensions by four names.

Stranger. But I mean not only three names, but Three Dimensions.

I.Would your Lordship indicate or explain to me in what direction is the Third Dimension, unknown to me?

The first story is found in Genesis 1.1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew word “bara” is a verb and is usually translated as “create”. To really understand what this word means let us look at another passage where this word is used.

1 Samuel 2.29 - Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?’ The word “fattening” in the passage above is the Hebrew word “bara”. The noun form of this verb is “beriya” and can be found in Genesis 41.4 - “And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows.” The word “fat” is the Hebrew word “beriya”.

The word “bara” does not mean, “create” (Hebrew actually has no word that meaning “create” in the sense of something out of nothing) but “to fatten”. If we take the literal definition of “bara” in Genesis 1.1 we have - In the beginning God fattened the heavens and the earth.
source: Ancient Hebrew Research center

As science is learning that the Big Bang is not something out of nothing, but reality out of the zero energy field or the finite out of the infinite.