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Mind Over Machine
This is a few months old at this point, but there’s a great article on Wired about studies done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program (PEAR). These studies are exploring the small but statistically significant effect that the human mind may have on machines. They use things like random event generators and have subjects try to mentally influence the outcomes of these devices. These studies aren’t exactly new, as they’ve been around since 1979 and have been a part of paranormal lore for some time, but this is a great article.
One thing I didn’t know, but which makes perfect sense, is that part of the funding for these studies comes from the military, or rather private firms which do military contracting such as McDonnell Douglas.
Jahn said McDonnell was concerned with how critical electronic systems could be vulnerable to the mindset of human operators under stress.
“McDonnell said he couldn’t in good conscience put a young man in the cockpit of an F-18 and assume that all of the highly sophisticated equipment was totally invulnerable to the stress that the pilot would be under in combat or other emergencies,” Jahn recalled. “He wanted some research to judge how much he needed to harden that equipment to make it invulnerable to that influence.”
Government intelligence, defense and space agencies also have shown interest in the lab’s research, which Jahn said he has freely shared.
Could have some creepy implications beyond just assuring the safety of pilots, I imagine. In any case though, I also find this part absolutely fascinating:
Resonance with the machine is another important factor, Jahn said. He likens it to what happens when a great musician seems at one with her violin or a gifted athlete suddenly performs with his equipment in a way that is outside his normal bounds.
Gender matters as well. Men tend to get results that match their intent, although the degree of the effect is often small. Women tend to get a bigger effect, but not necessarily the one they intend. For example, they might intend to direct balls in the random cascade machine to fall to the left, but they fall to the right instead.
Results are also greater if a male and female work together, but same-sex pairs produce no significant results. Pairs of the opposite sex who are romantically involved produce the best results — often seven times greater than when the same individuals are tested alone. Brenda Dunne, a developmental psychologist and the lab’s manager, said the results in such cases often reflect the two gender styles. The effects are bigger, in keeping with what the female alone would tend to produce, but more on target, in keeping with what the male alone would produce.
“It’s almost as if there were two styles or two variables and they are complementary,” Dunne said. “(The masculine style) is associated with intentionality. The (feminine style) seems to be associated more with resonance.”
What does all of this mean?
No one knows.
That’s some absolutely occult shit right there. No one knows? Hardly. Mystics and occultists and others have been talking about this kind of stuff for ages. (Just check out this 1968 ad for a ouija board - even they knew it worked better with a male-female pair) Somebody should try to tie all this in together with The Da Vinci Code…
October 20th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
again, science has a hard time with consciousness. i am encouraged to see that there are those who will continue to line up for another kick at the can mind you. but as you said mystics and magicians have known this stuff forever.
i have a friend who can`t wear watches.within minutes they begin to malfunction. he repairs microcircuitry for a living though. bit of a paradox.
October 20th, 2005 at 1:50 pm
The effect of complimentary male and female energies working together seems to be, from what I’ve read, the basis of traditional tantric sex magick. A book that looks like it treats abit of this stuff is Polarity Magick, though I’ve yet to read it. Demons of the Flesh is a brilliant work, despite the questionable character and politics of its authors (Zeena & Nicholas Schreck). And then there are those Taoist sex magic treatises from a zillion dynasties ago.
October 20th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
http://www.technoccult.com/archives/2005/08/10/gender-matters/
October 20th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
I love when Tim finds a great possible storyline - he always mentions this… bring it all back to the Da Vinci Code, funny stuff.
On this topic, personally my mind over matter experiences usually effect electricity more-so than actual matter (ie; spoon bending Geller stuff for example).
If I am in a deep meditation (day dream style) I have blown a few light bulbs in proximity. You can almost feel the current go through your fingertips as you draw close to it. I also found this to happen more frequently when I was in a state of anger or frustration.
To include the female to male ratio, I also found this effect to occur with my wife and I as when we had an intense arguement inside the car - it uncharacteristically stalled…
As for more male to female metaphors for positive and negative electrical conductors this has been proven effective in occult circles in sexual charging.
October 20th, 2005 at 3:27 pm
my girlfriend and i got into a fight while she was emptying the dishwasher and a crystal plate disintegrated in her hand. we forgot what it was we were arguing about after that. there were no pieces of plate bigger than a 1/4 inch left.
October 20th, 2005 at 3:28 pm
Yeah, it is hilarious. I feel like everything should be tied back to the Da Vinci Code somehow if you’re looking for a quick springboard to make a million dollars in media. Speaking of which, I ought to shut up and take my own advice on that stuff sometime. Why don’t I have a Da Vinci Code section on my site and a bunch of books out on it?
October 20th, 2005 at 3:46 pm
Because you can do better than that - and you know it. Have faith in your ideas grasshopper, not spinoffs on Dan Brown.
OFF TOPIC HERE - Here is something that think we should look into. Why is Da Vinci Code so popular? There were/are other books of its`kind with the Rule of Four and Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Was it the controvesy? Is it all an anti-christian conspiracy?
For the love of me, I do not get this phenomenon - more so the dozen of offshoots which debunk that which is ficticious in the first place.
Secondly, for the book to be a passing fad would be understandable, but this things has got legs to the point where it is still on the top bestsellers almost three years later…
Maybe it is its`own modern day mystery… go figure.
October 20th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
Oh I know, I was more just saying it…
My best guess, and this may be entirely too intellectual is that it came at a time when the Christian mythos was desperately in need of a balancing. When George Bush suddenly becomes a paragon of Christian virtue, things are obviously very askew. There’s very much a need for a subversive notion of the sacred feminine which was suppressed long ago and is in that same mythological danger today. I wrote a little bit more about it here:
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/10/02/competing-christian-myths/
October 20th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
also i think that people are looking for objective christianity instead of the obtuse bible study “it means what i mean that it means” kind of answers one gets from clergy regarding christ and god. people are capable of recognising and digesting scolarship and i think the da vinci code promises that. the evidence that the church sees the da vinci code as competition is in the amount of touring speakers in the church debunking the book.
October 20th, 2005 at 6:21 pm
thats a great point that i overlooked! it fits right into the whole emerging church movement of people who want to study the bible for themselves and come to the own conclusions. they are becoming more comfortable too looking at the roots and the history and probing for the truth rather than simple acceptance.
October 20th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
the explosion in media and personal communications tools goes to the heart of the retribalisation of all facets of culture, including religion. it has been becoming corpritised and bureaucratised into one megalith that people were beginning to find too opaque. it must be confusing for both church and state to come to the window and see less and less people in the square below.
October 20th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
i agree they are all good reasons while people have accepted the da vinci code. what i wonder about though is why it is been pushed so hard. that bloodline shit is fucking dangerous taken literally.
on oprah today: jesus’ great great great… grandson is on the show. he’ll be announcing his plans for total world domination. aren’t y’all gonna love it? can i get a whoop whoop?
i mean, i know a guy who blew a bunch of dough in a pyramid scam. learned his lesson didn’t he? should’ve invested in IT, he said. then he did, and blew the rest.
to me the whole thing is like “oh you didn’t like that brooklyn bridge scam? sorry about that. wanna buy the golden gate?”
anyhoo, i think the mind over machine thing is cool, in that it is at least been considered, but again i’m filled with trepidation at the thought of what they might do with it. computers that won’t let you log onto the net if they detect brainwaves that are a bit too, y’know, countercultural? roadblocks and soldiers with handheld logos detectors. “just think into this tube til i say stop. hmm. step out the car please.”
jeez i’m full of apprehension today aren’t i? awaiting the october surprise i guess.
October 20th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
wait a minute. i’ve had spooky electrical phenomena happen many many times. i’m pretty sure i could short the detector. did it once to a galvanic response thingy, like a lie detector. wasn’t hard either, just used the breathing skills i learned from martial arts. (something i haven’t tried in ages, might have to get back into it)
so i guess even they have mind machines, well so do we. game on.
also i think the man/woman thing is awesome. reminds me of all the hermaphroditic symbolism that goes way back. also incunabula.
October 20th, 2005 at 9:51 pm
hahaha. i cant believe i never tried to apply the term “pyramid scheme” to the whole eye in the triangle conspiracy type shit before. that’s great stuff. i guess i thought of it cause of what you said about the guy blowing his money on a pyramid scheme, then doing the same thing in the stock market. at first i was like, well he’s dumb. then i realized what you’re actually saying is that the stock market is nothing more than an obfuscated legalized pyramid scheme. and then i realized, oh, that’s what society is. and then i was all, WHAM! pyramid schemes. eye in the triangle. there you have it. its all right there…
October 20th, 2005 at 10:34 pm
[…] ven a difference anymore. Anyway, Carlos left a rather interesting piece of speculation in one of those comments: what i wonder about though is why it is been […]
October 20th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
geez, i thought everyone knew. everything’s a pyramid scheme. well in “civilisation” anyway. that’s the only fucking idea these archons have. control through hierachy. and the same math that proves pyramid scams are unsustainable applies perfectly to the entire economy, agriculture, the lot (not just the stock market).
further, the whole archonic structure could be modelled by one of those simple fractal triangles. the whole of the pyramid scheme is made of smaller, self-similar pyramid schemes, and the things grows like a crystal as long as there is an input of energy. to quote chevron: human energy.
the triangle (3 angels, trinity) is the symbol of lucifer (that’s his eye in the middle). triangles within triangles. reminds me of ezekiel’s wheels within wheels, which interestingly produces the vesica pisces.
crazy speculation: is the logos the oroborous (circle), sophia the pentagram (phi ratio, eve’s apple), and lucifer the triangle? all mixed up together in some cosmic fractal clusterfuck?
father is 1, son (jesus/lucifer) is 3, holy ghost (sophia) is 5. mathematically allegory. oh the cross is in the mix as well of course, that’s the 2 by 2 exponential thing. by compund interest thou shall conquer. hey maybe archons are prime numbers! obviously there is a connection between the math of the divided circle and our mythology. could someone knowledgable in kaballa/gematria, astrology/mythology and fractals please run with this? i’m suppose to be working.
hmm. also my spidy sense is tingling. maybe i’ve said enough for one day.
October 20th, 2005 at 10:48 pm
holy shit man, i think i just blew a freakin gasket…
there’s a really wild lecture in “on divination and synchronicity” by marie louise von franz where she talks about integers and prime numbers and divination systems and crap. that shit totally turns my brain into a fractal. definitely worth checking out.
October 21st, 2005 at 9:36 am
whoa I used to work for a company called mind over machines - - -
October 21st, 2005 at 6:00 pm
thanks for the book recommendation, i’ve been meaning to check out von franz for a while, keep getting distracted. alright i’m off to the bookshop.
bret, what did they do?
October 21st, 2005 at 6:20 pm
everything by her is amazing. doubtful you’ll find that anywhere but online though. on dreams and death is another favorite of mine. she was absolutely 100% onto some deeply mystical shit.