Journal of Scientific Exploration
Editor: Bernhard M. HAISCH
Magazine:Journal of Scientific Exploration
Language:English


A Publication of the Society for Scientific Exploration

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Year:1992
Publisher:Society for Scientific Exploration
Issue:Volume 6 Number 3 Autumn
Contents
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AuthorTitlePag

SSE News Items
Highlights of the 1992 European SSE Meeting205-211
Next SSE Meeting211
SSE Council Member Radin Work Cited211

Michael EPSTEINThe Skeptical Perspective 213-216

Illobrand VON LUDWIGER, T. AUERBACHHeim's Theory of Elementary Particle Structures 217-231
Abstract: Heim's theory is defined in a 6-dimensional world, in 2 dimensions of which events take place that organize processes in the 3 dimensions of our experience. A very small natural constant, called a "metron", is derived, representing the smallest area that can exist in nature. This leads to the conclusion that space must be composed of a 6-dimensional geometric lattice of very small cells bounded on all sides by metrons. The existence of metrons requires our usual infinitesimal calculus to be replaced by one of finite areas. The unperturbed lattice represents empty vacuum. Local deformations of the lattice indicate the presence of something other than empty space. If the deformation is of the right form and complexity it acquires the property of mass and inertia. Elementary particles are complex dynamical systems of locally confined interacting lattice distortions. Thus, the theory geometricizes the world by viewing it as a huge assemblage of very small geometric deformations of a 6- dimensional lattice in vacuum. The theory also has significant consequences for cosmology

Michael EPSTEIN, Luigi GARLASCHELLIBetter Blood Through Chemistry: A Laboratory Replication of a Miracle 233-246
Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 7 Number 1 Spring/1993 - Comments on Better Blood Through Chemistry
Abstract: -The recent simulation of the miracle liquefying blood of Saint Januarius is shown to be viable from both historical and scientific standpoints. The history of the holy blood is traced and means and motivation for the simulation are provided. Spectral analysis of the simulated blood, a thixotropic gel of iron hydroxide (FeO(OH)), shows the absorption spectrum to be similar to old blood. Many reported characteristics of the holy blood can be explained by the behavior of a thixotropic gel. Modifications of the preparation procedure are attempted to bring the simulation into agreement with fourteenth century alchemical knowledge. A critical evaluation of previous spectroscopic studies of the miracle blood is presented.

Suitbert ERTELThe Gauquelin Effect Explained? Comments on Arno Miiller's Hypothesis of Planetary Correlations 247-254
Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 4 Number 1 /1990 - Planetary Influences on Human Behavior ("Gauquelin Effect"): Too Absurd for a Scientific Explanation? [Müller, Arno]
Abstract: Arno Müller's "hypothesis of the planetary klite" (Müller,1990) amended Gauquelin's "midwife hypothesis", which suffered from weaknesses. The approach is a welcome contribution to the persistent problem of how to explain planetary correlations with human births (the Gauquelin effect). However, it is inconsistent with empirical observations: (1)Gauquelin effects are unrelated to character traits. Miiller's hypothesis explains a correlation that does not exist. (2) Sometimes planetary effects decrease with eminence. This is inconsistent with Muller's idea that more eminent as compared to less eminent people should have cultural and biological advantages. (3)Birth frequencies can be infrequent instead of abundant when the planet is rising or culminating. This is inconsistent with Muller's assumption that in prehistorical times the births of children were desired, not avoided, when the divine planet was so placed. (4) The doctrine of planetary heredity-the basic precondition of Muller's hypothesis-is probably invalid. (5) The Gauquelin effect is weakest for Venus. Muller's claim of an impact of planetary appearances on the evolution of the Gauquelin effect would predict the opposite. (6) Muller's model covers only the evolution of conditioning between planetary sensitivity and character traits. It does not explain the evolution of planetary sensitivity prior to such conditioning. Gauquelin's original midwife hypothesis as well as Muller's new version of it could be refuted straightforwardly if further tests showed that the Gauquelin effect occurred undiminished in eminent births induced by obstetric drugs.
Arno MÜLLERThe Gauquelin Effect Explained? A Rejoinder to Ertel's Critique 255-259

A. I. GRIGOR'EV, I. D. GRIGOR'EVA, S. O. SHIRYAEVABall Lightning Penetration into Closed Rooms: 43 Eyewitness Accounts 261-279
Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 8 Number 1 Spring/1994 - Comments on Ball Lightning
Abstract: 43 Eyewitness Reports on the ability of ball lightning to penetrate into rooms through window glass (very often leaving no holes) and to enter houses through radio and electric sockets are presented.

Ian STEVENSONA Series of Possibly Paranormal Recurrent Dreams 281-290
Abstract: In 1986 Dr. Walter D'Souza, an Indian physician living in the United States, had a series of realistic dreams in which his deceased father, who had been buried in India three years earlier, appeared to be leaving his coffin and trying to communicate something to him. After Dr. D'Souza had had three of these dreams, a letter from India informed his mother that his father's bones had not been adequately disposed of. Dr. D'Souza then believed that his dreams had some connection with the matter of his father's bones. He urged his mother to go to India and attend to the burial, but she and his sister minimized the difficulty, and did not wish to spend money on a journey to India. Dr. D'Souza then had a fourth dream similar to the previous three. He told his family about his dreams and insisted that his mother go to India and attend to the disposition of the bones. She agreed to go and the dreams ceased. It seems unlikely that Dr. D'Souza before he had his dreams had any normal awareness that anything further needed to be done for the proper disposition of his father's bones. Paranormal interpretations of the dreams have plausibility. Attention is drawn to the quality of vividness in dreams as a possible marker of paranormality.

Letters to the Editor
Comments on Survival or Super-psi?291
Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 6 Number 2 /1992 - Survival or Super-psi? [Braude, Stephen E.]
Are Memories of Alien Abductions Recollections of Surgical Experiences?291-294
Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 7 Number 2 Summer/1993 - Comments on James Wilson's Letter to the Editor

Book Review
Ian STEVENSONScientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method by Henry H. Bauer295-297

Erratum 297
Related:
Journal of Scientific Exploration Volume 6 Number 2 /1992 - Highlights of the Princeton SSE Meeting