Notes on The Intention Experiment by Lynn McTaggart

intro:
Descartes: mind and mater are different; quantum physics: we help to determine the outcome
human intention has been shown to influence outcome of normally random events; PEAR
Animals proved capable of acts of inferred intension: baby chicks effect movement of random "mother hen"
humans have also been shown to influence enormous variety of living systems; eg bacteria, small animals, and biological processes in other human beings.
Largest body of research: Wiliam Braud, psychologist and research director of Mind Sciences Foundation in San Antonio Texas.
Frequently studied area: remote healing.

Ch 1: Mutable Matter:
Notes that:
Tom Rosenbaum, U of Chicago, and his grad student Sayantani Ghosh, observed macroscopic non locality, ie. entanglement, in the atoms of a crystalline holmium. p. 8

Vlatko Vedral, of the Imperial College of London, reviewed Ghosh's study. He and others in his circle did not believe this effect was unique to holmium. Our technology requires the atoms to be slowed (normally cooled) to observe the entanglement. p.10.

Renown quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger, of U of Vienna, found that objects, not merely sub-atomic particles, exhibit wave particle duality. To show this he used a Talbot Lau interferometer in a variation on the double slit experiment to show that large and asymmetric molecules up to 100 atoms, created an interference pattern with itself. ie., exhibited wave-object duality. Molecules need some other influence to settle them into a completed state of being. p16f.

Ch 2: the human antenna:
Gary Swartz: psychophysiologist, discovered that not only do our thoughts produce an energy field outside our bodies, but also any movement of the body also produce an energy field. p. 22

Elmer Green measured electrostatic voltage surges up to 190 volts from healer’s abdomen, called the dan tien. p. 24

Bernard Grad, associate professor of Biology at McGill U in Montreal: discovered by infrared spectroscopy that water treated by healers had undergone a fundamental change in the bonding of O &H. The effect was similar to the way magnets effect water. Confirmed by other scientists.p.24

Schwartz concluded from his studies, that 1) although healing may generate initial surge of electricity, the real transfer mechanism may be magnetic; eventually proves this by experiment p.26

Magnetic healing does not account for distance healing, which can occur over thousands of miles. p. 27

Schwartz began to consider light might be the healing energy. Popp biophotons discovery in 1970s

Schwartz used CCD camera to take "photo" of a leaf in the dark, lit by the leave's emission of biophotons. p. 29.

Schwartz took CCD photos of healers hands; found healing intention creates waves of (coherent) light. p.30.

Indian Satyendra Nath Bose discovered mathematically, that under some conditions, multiple "photons should be treated as identical particles" Einstein used his approach to find, mathematically, that at just above absolute zero, atoms would slow down to the same energy level. in this state the atoms would loose their individuality and look and behave like one giant atom. effect called Bose Einstein condensate. No one was convinced that they were right until 70 years later, when in June 95, Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman of JILA, a program sponsored by NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, managed to demonstrate it: some of the atoms of a gas behaved more like a solid. Wolfgang Ketterle replicated their experiment; all got Nobel prize for their work. Later results were replicated with molecules. p. 30-31.

Popp et al discovered a similar property in biophotons; (which are produced in DNA) they are coherent; all same frequency and in phase; called "superradience" p. 31.

Herbert Frohlich first described this kind of order in bio systems. Living energy is able to organize to one "giant" coherent state, with the highest form of quantum order known to nature. When subatomic particles become "coherent", they become highly interlinked by bands of common electromagnet fields, all at same frequency. p. 32.

After Popp made his discovery of coherent light in body, British physicist Roger Penrose and American anesthetist Stuart Hammeroff of U Arizona, proposed that microtubules, which form the basic structure of cells, were "light pipes" in cells, which transforms disordered (normal) light into coherent light. p. 34

Ch 3: the two way street:
Clive Backster & Secret Life of Plants; plants can read thoughts; all life connected by 2 way flow of information.
Popp's colleagues: Wolfgang Klimek; Eduard Van Wijk
Semyon Davidovich Kirlian: engineer who discovered in 1939 that photographing living things that had been exposed to a pulsed EM field would capture an "aura." When any conductive object is placed on a plate made of insulating material, like glass, and exposed to high voltage, hi freq electricity, a low current results that creates a "carona discharge" that can be captured on film. KONSTANTIN KOROTKOV, A professor of quantum physics at St. Petersburg State Technical University in Russia became intrigued by Kirlian's claim of capturing life energy on film. He developed a "Gas Discharge Visualization" (GDV) technique, that made use of state of the art optics, digitized TV matrices, and a computer. Ordinarily, a living thing will emit photons perceptible only to the most sensitive instruments in pitch black. He got the idea of stimulating these photons so they would shine millions of times more intensively than normal. He Wrote 5 books on the human bio field. His equipment became widely used in Russia. The NIH funded work on the "biofield" using his equipment. He was really interested in the connection between biofields and consciousness. 40 years after Backster's work, Korotkov verified his discoveries with state of art equipment. p 45-46

Ch 4: Two hearts beat as one
Marilyn Schlitz conducted rigorous "DMILS" studies: Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems
remote staring experiment shows small positive effect
under many types of circumstances, EEG of multiple persons can become synchronized; example: one person exposed to stimulation; this effects another person's EEG. Effect strongest for bonded people.
Analogous to particle 'entanglement'; entrainment of EEGs
physiological response of heart and brain to events before they happen; heart responds before brain;
neurotransmitters found in heart that signal and influence aspects of higher thought in the brain;
emotional state of others also registered in the intestines: "gut feeling"

Ch 5: Entering hyperspace
monks and other meditation practitioners are able to achieve amazing feats by use of concentrated focused thoughts.
most meditation occurs at brain wave lengths of alpha (8-13 Hz) or theta. (4-7 Hz) some studies show that highly skilled monks go quickly to gamma waves, higher frequency than beta (13-40 hz)
studies show optimal performance when all parts of brain synchronized.
high freq (gamma) brain wavelength resulted in synchronization of frequencies all over the brain (entrainment).for monks with very high gamma brain wave frequency, the left anterior brain- the part most associated with joy, was activated. Inego Swann: considered one of best remote viewers in the world. Dr. Michael Persinger monitored his EEG and found that the remote viewing process used high beta/gamma waves. Actual size of portions of brain were enlarged.
Stanley Krippner: Thin boundaries: vulnerable, unguarded, more able to merge identities/loose their own ego than "thick boundary people" thick boundary: "inflexible sense of reality blocks them from intuitive information
Intention requires initial focus, but then requires a surrender, a letting go of the self as well as the outcome.

Ch 6 Studies on how prayer influences healing inconclusive. Personal intension based on personal relationship may be more important than asking god to heal

Ch 7: the right time Persinger realized that living things, including humans, are attuned not only to each other, but also to the earth and it's shifting magnetic energies.
Franz Halberg: associated with Harvard medical school and U of Minnesota. observed that living things keep to not only circadian rhythms, but also other periodic rhythms. In his 80's, he made his break through discovery: the synchronizer in living things resides in planets and especially the sun. "space weather": solar wind, sunspot activity, etc. any change in solar system can effect the earth's GMF. NOAA tracks these space weather patterns. storms of maximum severity ("G5") can disrupt electrical power, pipe line flow, and communications systems. Illness on earth appears to parallel geomagnetic "storms", especially for heart and brain and psychiatric disorders. Healthiest heart rate is the one with greatest variation (max HRV ), which corresponds to least amount of solar activity. Strong geomagnetic fields also correlate with higher learning, enhances memory. need earths geomag field for proper functioning; great variability in geomag field corresponds to greater traffic violations and industrial accidents.

Persinger discovered other geophysical effects on humans: shifting plates/earthquakes (seismic activity), high rainfall levels. can cause hallucinations. This is why he developed his "Koren" helmet, named after the guy who wired it up; to sse if he could reproduce these geomag disturbances in the laboratory. Over time Persinger began to recognize, and name, patterns. thru trial and error he found the area most susceptible to EM disturbances was temporal lobes the sense of self and "other" are housed in both temporal lobes. If out of balance, the lobes will detect "other" presence and create a hallucination, can be either good or bad. Aiming em fields at left and right amygdala would heighten emotional effect. Persons with negative early life experience (have stuff) will tend to increase the sensitivity of the right temporal lobe (or the left lobe is blocked?) and the experiences are more negative. A happier person, with a more sensitive left temporal lobe, is more likely to experience a sense of the divine. (remember in hyperspace chapter that high freq (gamma) brain wavelength resulted in synchronization of frequencies all over the brain (entrainment).for monks with very high gamma brain wave frequency, the left anterior brain- the part most associated with joy, was activated
It would have been tempting for Persinger to conclude (which he did) that all spiritual experience is simply geomagnetically induced hallucination, except for one fact: ESP and other psychic abilities appear to be enhanced during certain types of geomagnetic activity. When earth calm and geomagnetic flux is at an ebb, telepathy/remote viewing and ESP increase. the reverse occurs in psychokinesis-mental attempts to change matter: The power of intension is increased increases when the earths energy is agitated. Persinger found he could enhance powers of ESP using the Koren helmet. Inego Swann was able to identify images in sealed envelopes in the Koran helmet, but when the imaged were bathed in complex magnetic field patterns, Swann's accuracy plummeted. Implies that Swann was picking up some sort of waveform

Ch 8: the right place discusses Tiller's experiment from "Adventures with real magic". Has meditating persons concentrate on intension to change chemistry of fruit fly; and change pH of water. Each intension is very technically specific. the thought of the intension is then "stored" in a simple electronic devise, and later "released." The stored intensions worked. noticed temperature and pH oscillations in synchrony. space conditioned more less permanently; the temp oscillations and magnetic monopole remained even when the devise was removed.

Tiller suspected he had witnessed a quantum effect. the change in gauge symmetry from U(1) to SU(2) meant a profound change had occurred in the ZPF. In U(1), the random fluctuations of the ZPF have no effect on the physical universe. In SU(2) gauge symmetry states, the Zero Point Field has become more ordered and produces small changes in matter.

The oscillations Tiller had measured had all the earmarks of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Bernard Grad found that once Hungarian healer Oscar Estabony touched something, even simple fabric, it appeared to hold a charge and could be used for healing. Former PEAR scientist Roger Nelson carried a portable Random Number Generator (RNG) to sacred sites, and found that the RNG gave less random (more ordered) results. This suggested to him that a permanent "field consciousness" due to intense emotion, effected the RNG.

Ch 9: mental blueprints
To take intention out of the lab, I began to sift through the data to find people or groups who were using intention successfully in real life. The most instructive examples come from sports. Psychologist Allan Paivio, professor emeritus at the u of Western Ontario, first proposed that the brain uses "dual coding" to process verbal and nonverbal info simultaneously. Mental practice has been shown to work just as well as physical practice for patterns and timing. (mental rehearsal) most effective internal rehearsal involves imagining the event as though he or she is competing. The athlete envisages the future in minute detail as it is unfolding. Ali imagined his right fist at the moment of impact on Frazier's left eye. The most important aspect of the intention is to rehearse the victory: their emotional response, reaction of parents and friends; see, hear, taste and feel it. the most vital is to feel; including the strain in the muscles. most successful athletes were in mental state like Davidson's monks: calm hyperawareness. EMGs have shown that the brain sends the same instructions to the body, whither the skiers were simply thinking of a movement, or actually carrying it out. Thought produced the same mental instructions as action. No such thing as cross training in mental rehearsal: it is for very specific act, even if the muscles used are the same as for other activities. Imagining flexing their muscles as hard as they could resulted in an increase in muscle size and strength. participants who only imagined themselves to work out increase in strength by about half of that of those who actually did work out. Other kinds of visualizations used by athletes are also effective in treating illness. People can be taught to mentally effect their autonomic nervous system and control mechanisms such as blood pressure.

"Seeking" mode of brain: one of 5 primitive emotions of the brain that humans share with animals. The most emotionally arresting part for any animal is the hunt, not the catch. When animals are curious, the hypothalimus lights up and the "feel good" neurotransmitter dopamine is produced. Scientists used to think the chemical itself caused the pleasure, until it was discovered that the chemical's purpose is to arouse a certain neural pathway. what feels good is the activation of the seeking portion of the brain. 40 years ago, Barry Sterman of UCLA accidently discovered that this anticipatory emotion sends cats into a meditative state; brain waves slowed to8-13 hz, corresponding to human alpha, moments before they got their reward. He was able to get the cats to re-create this state at will. could humans do the same? yes.

Hypnosis is a kind of intention; an instruction to the brain during an altered state. complex surgery without anesthesia. The brains visual cortex, responsible for processing images, cannot distinguish between a real and imagined image. the mental instructions were more important than the actual visual image.

Placebo effect: in studies, patients taking a placebo fared as well as those taking an actual drug. instances of intention and expectation: may account for the stigmata. IONS has gathered all scientifically recorded cases of "miracle cures".

William Braud gathered a group of volunteers and do biofeedback training on themselves. then he paired them off, attaching one member of each pair to the biofeedback equipment, but asked the other partner to respond to the readings and send mental instructions. He found the results were equivalent to a person doing biofeedback on themselves. enormous body of research shows thoughts can have a powerful effect on a variety of plants, seeds, bacteria, insects, and small animals. results like secret life of plants: intention can increase crop yield.

The evidence convinced me that we can improve our health, enhance our performance, and possibly effect the future by consciously using intention.

Ch 10: The Voodoo Effect
Psychologist Dick Blasband was drawn to the idea that there might be a way to amplify life energy. He was intrigued by Reich's notion of Orgone energy and the Orgone accumulator, alternating layers of metal/nonmetal. He collaborated with Fritz Popp to create a number of accumulators, and tested for biophoton emissions from a variety of plants. they tried healthy and "ill" algae. they also added intentionality. Then measured biophoton emission before and after treatment. Without intentionality, there was no difference in biophoton emissions. Negative intentionality, to harm, had greater effect than positive.

Even your current state of mind carries an intention that has an effect on the life around you: gremlin effect. Sometimes attempting to shield yourself from unwanted influence works, and sometimes it does not. Qigong practitioners undergo training to make their energy fields temporarily invisible to ward off unwanted influence. Dr John Diamond discovered one thought that could overcome any negative influence: a "homing" thought: our aspiration or purpose in life; also thought of each persons special talent that gives a sense of joy and union with the absolute.

Ch 11 Praying for yesterday we believe what we do today cannot affect what happened yesterday. However, a sizable body of evidence about intention violates this assumption. Research has demonstrated clear instances of time reversal effects, where effect precedes cause. Jahn and Dunne discovered this phenomenon at PEAR when they investigated time displacement in their REG trials. Volunteers were asked to attempt to mentally influence the heads and tails random output of REGs in a specific direction 3 days to two weeks after the machines had run. [ but had the results of these REG tests been previously looked at and documented, and the new results were different than these, or had the results of these REG machines not been looked at previously, and the first time they are looked at, they show the direction the volunteers ad intended?] This made Jahn "realize that our conventional notions of time need to be discarded.

Helmut Schmidt, an eccentric physicist at Lockheed Martin created an elegant experiment. He wired his REG to an audio devise that would randomly set a click in either left or right earphones to a volunteer. He turned on the REG and tape recorded the output and made copies of the original recording which he locked up, and gave copies to volunteers who were asked to listen to the copies and send an intention to have more clicks in the left ear. Schmidt also made control tape copies which were not listened to by anyone. As expected, the control tape clicks were distributed more or less evenly. Then Schmidt analyzed the tape copies that were listened to by the intenders, as well as the original locked up tapes. both the "intended" tapes and the original tapes had 55% more clicks in the left ear, and the "intended' and original tapes matched perfectly. (over 20,000 trials over 5 years)

Similar experiments have been done on living things. Psychologist William Braud asked: is it possible to edit one's own emotional response to an event? Yes.

"Physicists no longer consider retrocausation inconsistent with the laws of the universe. More than one hundred articles in the scientific literature propose ways in which the laws of physics can account for time displacement. (Note 25: Radin and May. Boundary Institute Technical Report 2000-1.) Several scientists have proposed that scalar waves, secondary waves in the Zero Point Field, enable people to engineer changes in space-time. These secondary fields, caused by the motion of subatomic particles interacting with the zero point field, are ripples in space time- waves that can travel faster than the speed of light."

Ch 12: The Intension Experiment
The results of a number of experiments have suggested that a "group" consciousness might exist. The Global Consciousness Project: Roger Nelson's program. Idea was to set up REGs all over the world and have them run continuously, and compare their output at moments of global events with the greatest emotional impact. wtc_rng.htm

The only systematic study of group intention concerns the so-called maharishi effect of Transcendental Meditation. The TM organization did over 500 studies with or without intention, to examine whither meditation had an effect on reducing conflict and suffering. 22 studies have demonstrated the positive effect meditation has on reducing crime and violent crime.