Instructor: Rainsong
Date: March 4, 2004 (Thursday)
RainTurtle Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry for starting late; some folks appear to have no concept of “manners”
RainTurtle Welcome to this evening’s seminar, a discussion about some common factors which appear to affect psionic activity, stemming from a request for a class about the effects of solar winds, and several queries about the effects of other things….
RainTurtle First, the usual disclaimers….
RainTurtle This is not a gaming channel. If you are looking for an RPG, you might want to leave now, before you get too weirded out.
RainTurtle Also, I am not going to attempt to prove or disprove the existence of “psi”, or anything else, for that matter. If you’re here to debunk, that’s fine, too, if –and only if – you can support your argument in an intelligent and/or amusing manner. If you act like an idiot, I will kick-ban you for “Excessive fluffiness”.
RainTurtle So far so good?
Aphanas *nods*
Jael Yep
DancingGypsy Yep
Daimajin yup
SunTzu sure
Raven mmhmm
RainTurtle Very good. We’ll start with the easy ones.
RainTurtle The basic psionic activities involve thinking and related mental processes. It should not come as much a surprise that drugs which affect these processes also affect psionic activity.
RainTurtle There’s been quite a lot of research into this, in fact. Most of the common drugs showed a decided negative impact on actual results of psionic tests.
RainTurtle However, in many cases, it _Seemed_ to the person under the influence of the drug that their ability had been enhanced.
RainTurtle There are a couple with positive results, but tests have proven inconclusive and contradictory.
RainTurtle Caffeine is the most common such chemical. In some studies it appears to enhance telepathic reception. In other studies, it had no apparent effect.
RainTurtle Purely anecdotal evidence suggests that it breaks down defenses, rather than actually affecting the reception itself, which _could_ account for the different results in the tests. If the folks weren’t Shielded, the caffeine would not affect their non-existent shields
RainTurtle Anecdotal evidence has also been cited –in chatrooms, at least, by users themselves– in support of the use of various illegal substances, mostly marijuana and certain toxic fungi.
RainTurtle Aside from the legal issues (using or even possessing these things is illegal in most countries), there _are_ long-term medical consequences of using these drugs _and_ more evidence points to negative effects on psionics than to positive or neutral effects.
RainTurtle If you want to try risky shortcuts, at least use ones that work relatively consistently well….hypnosis, for example.
RainTurtle In plainer language, it is _stupid_ to use “pot” or “shrooms” to try to enhance psi. Psionics uses your nervous system. Messing up your nervous system sabotages your own intentions. It is therefore stupid.
RainTurtle As for personal stories and anecdotes about enhanced psi ability from _any_ drug or consciousness-altering technique, bear in mind the question of whether the alleged results hold true when examined when you/he/she are/is sober….or when someone else examines the results:
Aphanas *nods*
RainTurtle did the object really move? was the data accurate? did the person you Sent to pick up anything coherent?
RainTurtle On the other end of the same question, if you have a medical condition for which drugs have been prescribed by your doctor/nurse/whatever, it is a good idea to follow their advice. Keeping your mind and body healthy is helpful.
RainTurtle Being crazy or dead can put a dent in your psionic studies.
RainTurtle Comprende? Any questions or comments so far?
DancingGypsy Question.
RainTurtle Gypsy?
Raven no questions here.
SunTzu files a question away for later
DancingGypsy Do you think tobacco could affect psi as well?
RainTurtle I know several accomplished psionicists who smoke. As far as I’ve read or seen or heard, there is no clear effect on psi.
RainTurtle SunTzu?
DancingGypsy ok.
* Aphanas raises hand…
SunTzu few questions about hypnosis, I’ll ask at the end, as this is not the place (I don’t think) for them
RainTurtle (Smoking isn’t smart, obviously….but I was answering the question as asked)
RainTurtle Ok…
RainTurtle Aphanas?
DancingGypsy ^_^
Aphanas Seems pretty clear so far, but I did wonder the following… I know some things/activities have been correlated with psionic activities (martial arts, hypnosis, etc). Are there any non-drug foods or lifestyle choices (eating habits, for instance, or certain sleep habits) that have been shown to increase psionic abilities?
Jael (I have no questions right now)
RainTurtle There have been claims that vegetarian diets increase sensitivity, in the same way caffeine does…..with variable effects, which, when cited, are wild/uncontrolled
Aphanas *nods*
Raven *mutters about potassium and sugar*
Aphanas Was wondering about that sort of thing… thanks. 🙂
RainTurtle I don’t recall any serious studies about the effects of vegetarianism, only statements to that effect in various publications
RainTurtle Raven: that would be an effect of psionics on the body, rather than the other way around, but you are right to bring it up
Raven a diet high in potassium and sugar might not have a direct effect on psionics, but it will help you keep you on your feet during and after a lot of practice.
Aphanas *nods* Difficult to keep practicing if you’re in a hypoglycemic coma…
RainTurtle While we’re on the topic of diet….psionic activity depletes glucose and potassium from the blood. The physical effects can be quite pronounced….indeed, it can kill you. Snacking on orange juice or some other quickly-digested food high in both substances, is a smart move, after practicing
RainTurtle Anyone else?
Aphanas *shakes head*
Jael no questions right now
Raven nope
DancingGypsy nope
RainTurtle Next we take a bit of a look at solar weather.
RainTurtle Solar winds are, roughly, streams of protons and electrons spewed out from the sun (Walnut is making a less-than-polite comparison to bodily functions, which I will leave to your imagination)
Jael hehe…
Aphanas Heh…
Raven ROFL!
RainTurtle High solar wind speeds are associated with the Northern Lights
SunTzu no questions save those previously mentioned
RainTurtle Also, the winds interfere with radio and television reception.
RainTurtle There has been some evidence that high solar winds also interfere with perceptive psionic abilities….ie, the “psychical” abilities used in Remote Viewing.
RainTurtle Solar wind speeds are measured in kilometres per second. The top section of the graph at umtof.umd.edu/pm shows recent solar wind speeds.
RainTurtle For our purposes, “high” is anything over 250-300km/s
RainTurtle Strangely, there is a window in the 600-700km/s range in which RV appears to be _not_ adversely affected
RainTurtle You will notice that “might” and “seems to” and similar expressions of uncertainty. There is evidence, and there have been many studies, but there are also other variables, and the effect is not always strong. Makes it hard to isolate
RainTurtle One of those other variables, is Local Sidereal Time, “star time”. There is some indication that sessions run at 1300LST work better than sessions run at other times.
RainTurtle Some interesting links for Local Sidereal Time:
RainTurtle www.pietro.org/Astro_Util_StaticDemo/FDetailSiderealConv.htm
RainTurtle scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/LocalSiderealTime.html
RainTurtle sunearth.gs.fc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/TimeZone.html
RainTurtle For further information about some of the major studies…. www.jsasoc.com/library.html
RainTurtle Scroll down the list of articles…the Solar Wind ones are near the bottom, if memory serves
RainTurtle You’ll notice (I’m being reminded) that the winds have been high lately. We are coming down off a ten-year peak in solar storms, with some of the storms being the worst on record.
RainTurtle Clearly solar weather is beyond our control. For things that don’t have a tight time limit, and for which you want to have the best results possible, keeping it in low-wind times and doing it at 1300LST will probably help
RainTurtle Questions on this?
SunTzu nope
DancingGypsy Not yet.
Aphanas None that I can think of at the moment… very interesting though.
* Jael raises hand
RainTurtle Jael?
Raven none here
Jael Do any psi effects see an improvement with the high solar winds?
RainTurtle There are some hints that pk effects are stronger under high solar wind conditions, but it has not been studied as much, as far as I know
Jael okay. thanks
RainTurtle More conventional weather, in the form of electrical storms, has been alleged to have the same effect.
RainTurtle You might find it interesting to keep note of weather (earth and solar) conditions, and even the moon phase, in your databook. After several months, you might notice a pattern….for example, getting reversed results during thunder storms. Knowing that is useful, because you can use it to interpret and improve your results.
RainTurtle (“Mmmm The pendulum says “no”, but lightning just struck the house again….the answer must be “yes”)
* DancingGypsy has been keeping track of moonphases in databook.
RainTurtle In the same vein, you might find that having a cold or a sore foot or whatever is sufficiently distracting to interfere with your activities….as might be being pounced on by kitties in the mood for play
RainTurtle 🙂
RainTurtle Any questions?
DancingGypsy nope
Raven none here
Aphanas Heh… none here. Seems the patterns could get complex pretty quickly though…
Daimajin nope
SunTzu nope
Jael none here
RainTurtle Aphanas: yep….that’s why there are so many “seems to” and “might” comments
Aphanas *nods*
DancingGypsy I suppose that’s to be expected.
RainTurtle There are things which have proven _not_ to affect psionics, but proving what aspects of things _do_ affect it is much harder
Aphanas has kitties that jump on the back of his chair and yowl when he’s *supposed* to be practicing trance… 😛
RainTurtle (Lead insulation, for example, and Faraday cages, do not stop psionic effects from happening)
RainTurtle Thus endeth tonight’s seminar….thanks for participating.
RainTurtle Go ahead with your questions, SunTzu, but I might not be able to comment about them
Jael Thanks much for the seminar, Rain. Very interesting.
* DancingGypsy is sad that it’s over, but happy that she got to stay for the whole thing.
Aphanas Thanks for the class, Rain. This one was very interesting…
Daimajin thank you RT 🙂
SunTzu first: thanks for the class Rain
Raven thanks for the seminar.
RainTurtle 🙂 you’re welcome
RainTurtle Next week’s is more “hand’s on” 😀
DancingGypsy Oh good!
* Jael has a question now too…
SunTzu ok then, earlier you said that if you were going to go with a high-risk short-cut, to go with hypnosis…I was wondering how actually effective it is, and how you would even start to go about determining if your hypnotist had, well, messed something up….
RainTurtle Some of the common psionic effects were first studied as a result of their being common side-effects of various depths of hypnotic trance, noticed in previous centuries (nineteenth, for sure….late eighteenth, too, I think….would need to look up the dates)
RainTurtle As for determining if something was messed up, that’s rather harder
RainTurtle Jael?
Jael Do people with nerve disorders/damage have difficulty practicing psi?
Daimajin I am curious about that as well
RainTurtle well….I have extensive nerve damage….
Jael *nods* so nerve damage wouldn’t be prohibitive of psi use.
RainTurtle That’s right. It can cause problems, but psi use is still possible
RainTurtle SunTzu, you implied you had more questions?
Raven I’d think certain types would be a disadvantage, others would help, while others again wouldn’t have an effect. *shrugs*
RainTurtle Likely so, Raven. In fact, “natural” psi effects probably stem from obscure nerve disorders.
SunTzu I have just been giving passing thought to hypnosis lately (nothing serious)
Jael has yet another question now…
SunTzu perhaps a seminar or something on hypnosis *lobs a suggestion in the bin*
RainTurtle Thanks for the suggestion…we’ll take it under consideration
RainTurtle Jael?
Jael For epileptics who practice psi, have there been any correlation between seizures and psi skill levels?
Jael I suspect this is another “sometimes yes, sometimes no”…
Jael 🙂
RainTurtle *nods* And for the same reason. Epilepsy is a symptom, not a disease itself.
Jael ah…okay. thanks
RainTurtle I’m not the only one to have had large-scale poltergeist effects during grand-mal seizures
RainTurtle But some folks with epilepsy show no signs of psionic talent at all
RainTurtle (I’m not epileptic, now, but was so for six months or so after my “accident”)
Jael *nods* Aphanas’s mom still had the brain patterns last time she was tested, but hasn’t had a seizure in 25 years (she was electrocuted and they stopped).
Aphanas *nods* Not a recommended therapy….
Jael Thanks for answering all the questions 🙂
RainTurtle ouch
RainTurtle You’re welcome
RainTurtle Any further questions, comments?
Jael just looked at her notepad…and she does have one more question
Aphanas *nods* On my mom: Melted the linolium into her feet… was caused by a short from one of the first microwaves.
RainTurtle ouch
RainTurtle Jael?
Jael You’d mentioned publications…are there journals, etc that can be subscribed to?
RainTurtle There are journals associated with most of the major psychical and parapsychological research societies
RainTurtle And some of this stuff ends up published in medical and general science journals for peer review….not as often, though…some editors refuse to publish papers on this sort of topic
Jael ah…okay. Wasn’t sure if there was something somewhat ‘comprehensive’ published in the field.
RainTurtle Abstracts from the conferences are generally available. And quite a bit of the “official” works of major researchers is available online.
Aphanas Think I have several of those bookmarked, actually.
Raven IIRC a lot of early research was published in radio related magazines.
RainTurtle *nods* Telepathy was thought to be related to radio workings, and it was the “fashionable” thing to compare _anything_ to
RainTurtle You’ll find quite a bit of interesting stuff in the Hypnosis/Hypnotherapy journals, too….particularly old ones, and some from _very_ recent times
Aphanas Hmm… rather like magnetism was compared to hypnosis (mesmerism) as we were figuring out both…
RainTurtle *nods*
RainTurtle Have to be careful of prepared “psychic development” scripts, though….Many of them impose fluffy new age beliefs
Raven and you can always use the US law that enables you to get a hold of official documents to look into projects relating to psionics. project stargate among the more high profile ones (as in well known NOW), also went under a lot of other names, among them grillflame.
Aphanas After listening to a few pre-made scripts, I’m not sure I’d trust one that I didn’t create….
Jael *nods* have seen that…on our road to find ‘non-fluffies’ we had to weed through lots of new age beliefs.
Aphanas Lots and LOTS of weeding… :{
RainTurtle As for StarGate, quite a bit of it is readily available, even without resorting to FOIA requests
RainTurtle Anything further for Bester?
Raven the problem is that not everything available can be trusted….. then again considering the apparent policies of the US government the official documents might suffer from the same problem.
Raven Don’t believe so.
Aphanas Not here.
RainTurtle At least one official document was falsified at the time of submission…..
Jael nothing else here either..
RainTurtle ok…thanks, Bester