by
Gavin Dingley
Nexus Magazine,
Volume 8, Number 1
December 2000-January 2001
from
NexusMagazine Website
Have signals from
intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe passed us by
because our technology is not designed to detect a range
of more subtle energy frequencies?
Gavin Dingley is an
electronics R&D engineer by profession, but since
college has questioned the so-called laws of nature,
particularly those pertaining to electromagnetism. To
this end, he has extensively researched the work of Dr
Nikola Tesla. His main
goal is to develop technologies based upon these
principles. |
Are we alone in the
Universe?
This is probably one of the most
important questions to be answered, yet modern science seems
reluctant to address it. It is almost certain that life does exist
in some other part of the Universe; it is just a question of how far
away and how evolved it is, never mind its state of technological
development.
What would really hit home would be
tangible evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence that was as
technologically developed as ourselves, perhaps more so, if only to
just say "Hi out there!" Face-to-face contact would not be
necessary; just to know we are not alone would be enough.
With this in mind, NASA started a program that was directed towards
scanning the eternal cosmos for intelligent life, hoping to find a
signal from a civilization as technologically developed as our own.
This project was named SETI: the Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence.
For a while, it seemed that both the US government and the
scientific community were ready to embrace a greater truth; however,
this soon proved not to be the case. After many years of initial
research and planning, the real search for extraterrestrial
intelligence began in 1991; a year later, Congress ordered a
termination of all funding.
THE BEGINNINGS
OF SETI
SETI began in 1959 with the publication of an article in the journal
Nature. Two Cornell physicists, Giuseppi Cocconi and Philip
Morrison, suggested a project in which the presence of
extraterrestrial life could be detected with radiotelescopes tuned
into the microwave band (3 - 30 GHz).
However, such an endeavour was already
being planned by a young astronomer, the now famous Frank Drake, who
in the spring of 1960 scanned sun-like stars for signs of ETI
(extraterrestrial intelligence) with an 85-foot dish in West
Virginia. Drake hypothesized that a more advanced ETI somewhere out
there would be transmitting a signal to catch our (or anyone else's)
attention.
If so, then they would use one
particular frequency of significance. Drake thought that 21 cm (1.4
MHz), the neutral band of hydrogen, would be it. After scanning for
some time on this frequency, the young astronomer found nothing, and
so ended what he called Project Ozma.
The first government-funded SETI-type project was not in America but
in Soviet Russia. During the 1960s, the Russians set up
omnidirectional antenna stations to listen in on the heavens in
search of signals that might be of intelligent origin. While Drake
used a highly directional antenna system, the Russian system would
pick up radio emissions from all directions.
This strategy meant that if a signal
were found, it would be difficult to determine from which direction
it originated. On the other hand, the Russian astronomers would
never make the mistake of looking in the wrong direction!
It was not until the beginning of the 1970s that the United States
government gave any serious thought to searching the Universe for
radio signals of ETI origin. The first move was made at NASA's Ames
Research Center, Mountain View, California, where several projects
were set up to study the technical considerations involved.
A team of outside experts was assembled
-- including Bernard Oliver, who was on leave from the Hewlett
Packard Corporation -- to produce a detailed report, known as
Project Cyclops. By the late 1970s, NASA's
Ames Research Center and
the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, were
engaged in projects studying the technical aspects of any SETI-type
endeavour.
Ames concentrated on examining 1,000
sun-like stars for intelligent life, much like Drake's original
Project Ozma, in what was known as "targeted search" using sensitive
equipment to detect weak or sporadic signals. Meanwhile, JPL was
concerned with systematic sweeps in all directions in a complete sky
survey.
It was not until 1988, after a decade of study, that NASA HQ had the
go-ahead and in 1991 started scanning the cosmos for intelligent
life. A year later, Congress terminated funding! It seems very
strange that after so many years of developing the technology, the
US government should suddenly terminate funding when the actual
search was only just beginning. But is there more to this than meets
the eye?
Back in the early 1990s, the author had contact with an individual
who claimed to be a former KGB officer involved in infiltrating the
US National Security Agency (NSA). While serving his home country, a
former Soviet state, he was involved in assessing the NSA's signals
analysis techniques. Since the Soviet Union's collapse, he has had
no authority to answer to and so speaks freely on such subjects.
He says that SETI was no more than a
cover for a more subversive program. Like the launching of Sputnik
was no more than an exercise in deploying nuclear weapons, SETI was
about eavesdropping on the enemy. This makes a lot of sense, as the
technologies involved are very similar indeed.
For a practical SETI program, one requires a system that can scan at
high resolution a huge bandwidth of frequencies. Not only this, but
it must be able to detect the presence of intelligent transmissions.
The latter requirement is achieved using powerful algorithms --
code-breakers -- which use probability mathematics to analyze the
incoming data. Another requirement is that the system should be able
to pick out weak signals buried deep within the background noise.
Described here is no more than the perfect eavesdropping system -- a
system that would give a government a great advantage over another.
SETI was the perfect cover and means of drawing in the country's
brilliant minds: radio engineers, mathematicians and computer
systems experts. SETI was a means of gaining the people's support, a
project into which they could freely pump money. Meanwhile, the
technology developed could be controlled and siphoned off for more
subversive applications.
All the government wanted was the technology; the discovery of
intelligence elsewhere in the Universe would at best be an
inconvenience, so funding was terminated.
But what of today? As there is no USSR, is there any use for such
technology? The answer is yes, for now we are the enemy. It is our
communications which are being tapped into, using the technology
developed for SETI.
SETI PROJECTS
TODAY
After funding had been stopped, it was up to the scientists to carry
on with the endeavour. To this end, they formed the SETI Institute
which, mainly through private funding, carries on to this day the
search for intelligent life in the Universe.
Continuing the strategy used by the Ames Research Center, Project
Phoenix concentrates on the targeted search, scanning sun-like
stars. There have been other SETI projects running in the background
of the main government-sponsored project; for instance, SERENDIP
(Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed
Intelligent Populations) has been going strong since 1979. This
project has survived by piggybacking on ordinary radio astronomy
research, mainly at Arecibo Observatory (as per the film Contact).
There are also projects that have been listening in on an entirely
different part of the electromagnetic spectrum. OSETI (Optical
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) scans the skies for laser
signaling from across the Universe. One prominent project, COSETI
(Columbus Optical SETI), uses a 10-inch aperture telescope with a
sensitive optical transducer and is equipped to monitor for both
pulsed beacons as well as modulated continuous wave transmissions.
Those in the optical SETI fraternity
believe this to be a better option, as it allows greater power to be
directed by their hypothetical ETIs trying to get in contact. This
aspect of SETI was apparently covered in Bernard Oliver's original
Project Cyclops, but again the Russians, namely Shvartsman and
Beskin, got there first.
There are also groups who are trying to encourage members of the
public to get involved. One such venture is SETI@Home, where you can
help by downloading a screen-saver that number-crunches data from
the latest radio telescope observations. So while your computer sits
idle, it could be searching for "life out there". Another venture is
the SETI League, which concentrates on the more technical aspects of
SETI.
It is for the bored radio ham who wants a real DX (for those who
don't know, DX is the standard code for long distance on the air
bands). Build the kit and download the software and you can be a
mini Arecibo Observatory. The big plan is to link over the Internet
everybody's mini SETI station to form one great big global dish.
This has been only a short overview of the SETI movement; there are
many projects and endeavours that have not been mentioned. Science
is going towards a goal that really has great implications for
mankind, something everyone on Earth can appreciate. It is only a
pity that it may be going in the wrong direction, especially when
one considers that such a goal may already have been reached --
around a hundred and fifty years ago!
FUNDAMENTAL
PROBLEMS WITH SETI
There are two main ways in which the SETI project may be directed.
The first is to assume that a technologically developed
civilization,
like ours, will have developed an electromagnetics-based global
telecommunications system, as we have done. Any ETIs that are at a
70-light-year radius from Earth will be receiving the first of our
TV transmissions.
Equally, it is expected that any
technologically advanced ETI civilization will also be emitting a
similar mass of radio signals; this would be the signature of an ETI.
The second approach is to assume that, somewhere out there, there is
an ETI that is more advanced than we are and is constantly
transmitting a signal to gain our attention. The second approach is
preferred because the ETI in question would be transmitting a
powerful signal in our direction, while modulating onto that same
signal a simple message we can understand. For this reason, most
SETI projects are geared up for the latter assumption.
One of the problems here is that the ETI must be fairly close to
make the exercise worthwhile, otherwise they may not be around long
enough to hear the reply! This is due to the finite speed of light,
which here on Earth is more than fast enough for global
communications. However, across the vastness of space, these
186,000-miles-per-second transmissions take a hell of a long time.
For instance, to exchange greetings with
an ETI near Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to us) would take
around eight years! Would not a more advanced civilization have
discovered either a field or wave that could travel at a velocity
greater than that of light? In which case, it would have a better
chance of hearing a response.
This same limited velocity of light has another disadvantage: if the
transmission has come from some far-distant star system, then the
very civilization from which it came could now be long gone! The
electromagnetic wave may have made the world a smaller place, but it
also reflects how vast the Universe is in both space and time.
Another assumption made by SETI is with regard to the definition of
extraterrestrial intelligence. Looking for microwave transmissions
of prime numbers from sun-like stars indicates a narrow criterion
for intelligence. First, not all life may be biological; it may not
even exist in the physical dimension. Even if it were, assuming it
would spout out prime numbers indicates an expectation of a very
similar psychology to our own.
Also, who's to say their technological
development went up the electromagnetic path? It is almost as though
they are looking for other human life. So we have found nothing
because we narrowed our search before we had even begun! What we
need to do is widen our scope and so give ourselves a better chance
of finding other intelligent life.
While at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, the now famous quantum
physicist David Bohm made a startling discovery when conducting
research on plasmas. He found that under certain conditions the
electrons and ions that composed the plasma managed to organize
themselves spontaneously into a single living unit. Like some
amoeboid creature, the contained plasma was able to surround and
destroy any foreign body that was within its vicinity. Bohm called
these plasmic creatures "plasmons".
Considering that plasma is the most abundant state of matter in the
Universe, it would seem logical to conclude that plasmons -- not
hydrocarbon-based life such as ourselves -- may make up the greatest
percentage of life in the cosmos.
EARLY CONTACTS
WITH OTHER DIMENSIONS?
As has been mentioned before, communication may have been
established with ETIs well over a hundred and fifty years ago, at
the dawn of the modern development of electromagnetics.
The first electromagnetics-based communications system was developed
by Samuel Morse in the 1830s and demonstrated in 1844; this, of
course, was the telegraphic wire. In the original system, a battery
and Morse key at the transmitting station actuated an
electromechanical transducer some distance away at the receiving
end, via a long stretch of cable.
A return cable was then connected to the
other terminal of the electromechanical device as a current-return
back to the transmitting station's battery, these two cables being
buried underground out of the way.
It was not long before it was discovered that it was possible to do
away with the return cable and use the earth instead. In this new
system, only a single cable was used, the return current to complete
the circuit being established through metal stakes inserted into the
ground; this was known as a "ground return".
As soon as this was done, there were
reports of anomalous power surges, so great that telegraph operators
complained of big fat blue sparks jumping between their key
contacts. Eventually it was decided that there was no point in using
a battery any more, and so telegraph networks operated using the
power within the earth.
In 1849, Alexander Bain invented the first well-known
electrochemical recorder, which would receive, record and print out
an incoming transmission through a chemical action. Many companies
soon replaced their old electromechanical devices with this more
sensitive electrochemical substitute.
Due to their low current consumption,
these devices were even better at being powered by the natural
electrical energy within the ground. However, when many telegraphic
operators returned to their posts after a night's sleep, they would
find parts of sentences and strange geometric patterns recorded by
the device.
Could this have been early contact with an ETI or even
an EDI -- an extradimensional intelligence?
NIKOLA TESLA'S
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Dr
Nikola Tesla, the little-known inventor of the AC electrical
power system, dedicated much time to researching the high-voltage,
high-frequency electrical structure of the planet. During these
investigations at his Colorado Springs research station, Tesla
noticed that his instruments were receiving some unusual signals.
In
his own words, he wrote:
I can never forget the first
sensations I experienced when it dawned upon me that I had
observed something possibly of incalculable consequences to
mankind. I felt as though I were present at the birth of a new
knowledge or the revelation of a great truth....
My first observations positively
terrified me, as there was present in them something mysterious, not
to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night; but
at that time, the idea of these disturbances being intelligently
controlled signals did not yet present itself to me. The changes I
noted were taking place periodically and with such a clear
suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any
cause known to me.
I was familiar, of course, with such electrical disturbances as are
produced by the Sun, Aurora Borealis and Earth currents, and I was
as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to
none of these causes. The nature of my experiments precluded the
possibility of the changes being produced by atmospheric
disturbances, as has been rashly asserted by some.
It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind
that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent
control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was
impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely
accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been
the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another. A purpose
was behind these electrical signals...
Tesla was investigating a form of radio very different to the one we
use today. Our present radio communications use transverse
electromagnetic waves that travel through the air -- the same
technology SETI uses to scan the Universe for signs of ETI.
The electromagnetic waves used in
Tesla's system were longitudinal and travelled through the Earth
and/or the plasmic layer of the atmosphere, i.e., the ionosphere.
But it was through the use of this latter system -- and not the type
used by SETI -- that signals of non-human origin had been received.
This incident plagued Tesla's mind for the rest of his life, and so
played a part in his last publicly announced invention. While he had
spent much of his life investigating the nature of high-voltage,
high-frequency electricity, particularly with regard to employing it
in a system to transmit electricity without wires, Tesla changed
direction in the late 1930s and did research into high-voltage,
direct-current electricity.
His plan was to transmit electrical
energy in the form of a particle beam -- an idea that was not
practically realized until the late 1980s with SDI, the "Star Wars"
project. While his system for transmitting energy via high-frequency
potentials was limited to the Earth, Tesla's new particle-beam
system was intended to transmit power to other planets!
He then hypothesized that if the same
beam were modulated with the vibrations of the human voice, we would
also be able to communicate with the ETIs who dwell upon our
neighboring planets.
As far as is known, Tesla never had the opportunity to put his plan
into action. The political climate at the time, which resulted in
World War II, had generated much paranoia. The British had stated
that they had a new weapon, a "death ray" invented by their own Mr
H. Grindell Matthews.
The Russians reacted and stated that
they also had such a weapon, invented by Comrade Grammachikoff.
Tesla, being a patriot of his adopted country, stated that he had
also invented a similar device. Since then, Tesla's instrument of
benign communication has been referred to as the "death ray".
GRAVITY WAVE
DETECTORS
In his general theory of relativity, Dr Albert Einstein found a
solution that modeled an entirely new type of wave: the gravity
wave. General relativity describes the force of gravity as a
geometric warping in space-time; if the warping were to take the
shape of a wave, then this would be a gravity wave.
While electromagnetic waves occupy three special dimensions (as well
as time), gravity waves exist in five, making them hyperdimensional
in nature. However, Einstein stated that these waves probably
travelled at the same speed as light, 300,000 km/s, which means that
nothing is gained in using gravity waves over their electromagnetic
counterpart.
Officially there has been no detection of these waves; however, the
design of such gravity detectors has been based on general
relativity theory. There are some who have developed their own
theories and so their own detector technology. They also claim to
have detected transmissions from other worlds.
T. TOWNSEND
BROWN AND ELECTROGRAVITICS
Thomas Townsend Brown is most remembered, if remembered at all, for
his work in
antigravity propulsion. Brown found a link between
gravity and the force of electricity, based upon the humble
electrical condenser or capacitor.
While still to graduate from high
school, he built a small device that reduced in weight when a
high-voltage potential was applied across its terminals. This was
the first in a long line of electrogravitic devices able to prove
experimentally a unified field theory in which electromagnetism and
gravity are shown to be linked.
Whilst studying at Caltech, Brown hypothesized the existence of a
form of radiation quite different to the transverse electromagnetic
wave. He called it "radiant energy" and thought that it was present
throughout the Universe and was gravitational in nature, but as yet
was invisible to instruments.
Brown's theory was soon picked up by the press and publicized in
several local newspapers. He had already received a negative
response from his lecturers over his work with high-voltage weight
reduction, so this new line of enquiry was not received well. He was
told that such a wave was impossible because it would require
gravity to be bipolar -- to be able to repel as well as attract.
Brown did not receive any support for his research until he entered
Dennison University where he met Dr Alfred Biefeld. Dr Biefeld was
one of only a few who could claim to be one of Einstein's classmates
back in Switzerland, and so was quite interested in the nature of
gravity. In fact, when Brown had described to him his research into
the weight reduction of high-voltage capacitors, Biefeld was more
than happy to help the young physicist with his investigations.
Biefeld had already considered the possible gravitational effects of
charged electrical capacitors after studying the work of the great
Michael Faraday, the so-called Father of Electricity. It is a
little-known fact that Faraday made the following profound statement
as far back as the late Victorian age: "Electrical capacity is to
gravity, as inductance is to magnetism". It is a well-known fact
that when a current flows through a coil of wire, a magnetic field
is generated around the same.
In fact, the inductor (the technical
name for a coil of wire) is able to store electrical energy within
the magnetic field generated. Now, an electrical condenser or
capacitor is made up from two sheets of metal separated by an
insulator, known as the "dielectric". When an electrical potential
is applied across the two plates, the molecules of the dielectric
all align with the electric field.
If Faraday is correct, then the energy stored in a capacitor is in
the form of a gravitational field, much like the magnetic field of
an inductor.
Brown found that such an effect was only noticeable if the following
conditions were met:
1) The K-factor of the dielectric
(its ability to store energy) was high (in the order of 2,000 or
more) 2) The density of the dielectric was high (in the order of 10
g/cm3 or more) 3) The applied voltage across the capacitor was high (in the
100,000 V range)
Brown also found that the force
generated by charged capacitors was directed towards the positive
plate; that is to say, weight reduction only occurs when the
positive plate is upside with respect to the negative plate. If the
negative plate is above, then the device increases in weight.
Biefeld and Brown worked together in
investigating what was later termed the "Biefeld-Brown effect" in
the general study of electrogravitics.
In 1930, Brown entered the US Navy and became a member of staff at
the Naval Research Laboratories (NRL) in Washington, DC. As he was
pretty much left to do as he pleased, he carried on with research
into the Biefeld-Brown effect. While investigating different
substances for suitability as dielectric material, Brown discovered
a curious phenomenon.
One of the characteristics of a dielectric is its resistivity -- how
good an insulator it is. If resistivity is not high enough, then the
dielectric is rendered inefficient. This is usually a fixed value,
but Brown found that the resistivity of some materials would change
over time.
In a classified naval report entitled
"Anomalous Behaviour of Massive High-K Dielectrics",
Brown described
how the resistivity of some materials would alter and even follow
sidereal diurnal changes. He also noted that some materials would
generate spontaneous radiofrequency bursts whose amplitude was a
function of the material's mass and K-factor. Also, he found many
granitic and basaltic rocks to be electrically polarized; that is,
they behaved like electric cells or batteries.
These rocks would have as much as 700 mV
across them, the amplitude of which would also change in sympathy
with solar sidereal cycles. Again, the rock's sensitivity to such
changes depended upon its K-factor and mass. It was this latter
relation that suggested the phenomenon is gravitational.
During 1937 in Pennsylvania, a Navy-sponsored monitoring station was
in operation to record such changes in the electrical self-potential
of these rocks. It was noted that there was a strong correlation
with the cycles of the Moon, which added further support to the
hypothesis that the effect is gravitational in nature.
Again, another station was in operation
in 1939 in Ohio, which recorded similar patterns to those found in
Pennsylvania, and it was concluded that the effect must have had
some common outside source. Both research stations were set up
within sealed vaults, shielded to exclude any outside
electromagnetic interference. Meanwhile, large granitic and basaltic
rocks wired to sensitive pen-chart recorders monitored the
self-potential variations. The Second World War paused any further
investigation into the phenomenon until 1944.
After the War, Brown set up yet another station, but this time on
the West Coast in California. He found that the patterns did not
match those recorded on the East Coast; however, he did give a
possible explanation as to why. He suggested that due to the
radiofrequency voltages found in less complex dielectric materials
such as titanium dioxide, the detected energy was at these high
frequencies and that basaltic and granitic rocks somehow converted
the energy into a DC potential.
This process is well known in
electronics and is called "rectification", and so the internal
structure of these rocks could naturally perform this same process.
Now the rocks used in the East Coast investigations were different
to those used in California (i.e., from different deposits), so
Brown concluded that different rocks are tuned into different bands
of this radiofrequency energy. As different frequency bands would
fluctuate differently, then it follows that the variations in the
self-potential of two different rock deposits would also be
different.
From 1950 onwards, Brown concentrated his efforts towards developing
the Biefeld-Brown effect so that it could be employed in aviation.
It was not until 1970 that Brown returned to investigating
petrovoltaics, until his death in 1985.
From these investigations, it is clear that the phenomenon is
gravitational in nature and that it manifests as high-frequency
electricity. Brown concluded that the energy is in fact the radiant
energy he had hypothesized while still at Caltech. This energy is
high-frequency gravitational radiation which is being constantly
emitted from astronomical objects in outer space.
While simple high-K dielectric materials
would pick up the radiation and convert it directly into electrical
energy, more complex dielectrics such as granitic and basaltic rock
would convert the energy into DC electricity. Not only this, but
these rocks are in fact tuned to only a portion of the total
radiated energy present throughout the Universe. This means that
your average lump of basalt is a natural gravity-wave AM receiver,
tuned into only a few specific "radio stations"!
It appears that Brown never analyzed these high-frequency signals to
see if any of them were of ETI origin. However, in 1953 he filed a
patent that describes a system for intelligent communication via
modulated gravitational radiation. In the patent, Brown describes
how to convert a normal, high-power radio transmitter into a
gravity-wave transmitter, based upon the principles of electrogravitics.
The modification is made only to the
antenna system, the actual electronics remaining unchanged. A large
coil of wire has its base connected to the output of the high-power
transmitter so that the radiofrequency energy is end-fed. The other
end of the coil has a spherical, electrically conducting,
high-density body connected.
This spherical body acts as an isotropic
capacitor, and so forms a tuned circuit with the coil. In operation,
the dense spherical body becomes electrified (but not leaking energy
through corona discharge) with high-voltage, high-frequency
electricity. The high voltage and mass of the isotropic capacity
result in an electrogravitic action; thus gravitational waves of the
same frequency as the end-fed energy from the transmitter are
emitted from the dense, isotropically capacitive body.
Brown suggests that the spherical body be constructed from lead, as
this is both dense in mass and a conductor of electricity. Also, so
as to avoid electromagnetic radiation, the whole assembly should be
enclosed inside a large vault; for example, within a mountain. A
similar set-up is employed so as to receive the transmission, where
the receiving antenna is again replaced with this same assembly.
Interestingly, this system is very similar to that employed by Tesla
at Colorado Springs -- the same system that allegedly received
signals from an ETI.
Much of Brown's work is under wraps by the US government, held
within the Wright Patterson Air Force Base technical library.
However, family members still have his notes and are in the process
of making them available to the public.
HODOWANEC'S
GRAVITY-WAVE DETECTOR
Working unaware of, but parallel to, Thomas Townsend Brown was
Gregory Hodowanec. While developing a new, sensitive weighing
balance, Hodowanec noticed slight variations in the reference
weights he was using. Assuming that the problem was with the
circuitry he had designed, he went about trying to counteract these
anomalous variations.
After some "stab in the dark"
experimentation, Hodowanec found that the humble capacitor in the
right part of the circuit counteracted these unusual variations. But
the question remained: how could a capacitor be able to generate the
signal to nullify these apparent variations in standard reference
weights?
On further investigation, Hodowanec found that his weighing system
was not at fault, nor were the reference weights. What he did find,
however, was that the Earth's gravitational field is not stable but
fluctuating, sometimes at quite a rapid rate. The weighing system he
had developed was so sensitive that it picked up these variations as
changing values in the reference weights. He concluded that somehow
the humble capacitor was able to pick up these gravitational
variations and convert them into an electrical signal.
From this discovery, Hodowanec went on to develop a gravitational
detector that used modern electronic components. He knew that any
induced effect on a capacitor would result in a displacement
current; hence, the circuit he developed was a simple operational
amplifier wired up as a current-to-voltage converter.
This circuit was connected to the
sensing capacitor, while its output was fed into a standard voltage
amplifier which in turn drove a loudspeaker. The signals received by
this simple circuit were described as being similar to whale song,
but this evidence is inconclusive. But it does seem that some very
strange, yet structured, audio signals were received by this
comparatively simple device.
Hodowanec stated that his device received monopole gravity waves,
different to the quadrapole waves described in Einstein's general
theory of relativity. Also, while the gravity waves theorized by
Einstein were limited to the speed of light, these monopole waves
described by Hodowanec could reach any point in space in one Planck
second (10-44 seconds).
He also stated that electronic equipment
had been receiving this gravitational radiation for a very long
time, but it had been mistaken for 1/f noise (where the intensity is
inversely proportional to the frequency over a spectrum of noise).
It is similar to what you get when your radio is not tuned to a
station, which is that rushing water type of sound. However, 1/f has
a deeper sound, perhaps more resembling the crashing of sea waves.
Technically, it is a spectrum of random
frequencies which have equally random intensities, but in general
the lower frequencies are higher in intensity than the higher
frequencies. If you were to look at this with reference to white
light (which is composed of all light frequencies in the visible
spectrum), then you would perceive it as a soft pink light. For this
reason, 1/f noise is often referred to as "pink noise".
Hodowanec also hypothesized that the Universe is filled with this
radiation and that the detected isotropic microwave background
radiation, thought to be the echo from the Big Bang (which does
sound like 1/f noise), is actually gravity-wave emissions. He stated
that the instruments that were picking up this signal were in fact
receiving the gravitational radiation rather than the
electromagnetic energy from the beginning of the Universe.
During his investigations with the device, Hodowanec found Auriga
and Perseus in the Milky Way to be the source of many natural, yet
unusual, audio signals. He stated that the general background noise
is modulated by the passing of large astronomical bodies which cast
a shadow over these emissions.
This means that when such radiation is
demodulated, what one would hear would be the movements of planets,
stars and galaxies. Much of the high-frequency radiation is
generated by astronomical processes such as stars going supernova,
star quakes and even the tectonic movements within nearby planets.
However, it was not long before Hodowanec received signals of an
unnatural origin while scanning the skies with his gravity-wave
detector. One evening, for only eight minutes, Hodowanec received a
train of equally spaced impulses that resembled the Morse code for
the letter S. After determining the origin of these signals, he
attempted to make contact using more conventional means (a Morse
radio transmitter).
To his surprise, he received on the
gravity-wave detector a reply made up of random Morse code
containing the letters E, I, T, M, A, N, R, K and S. During another
transmission, Hodowanec transmitted a sequence which he received
back as a copy with the letters G and D added. In the end, he was
able to hold an almost coherent conversation with the ETI he had
contacted.
Interestingly, he found that only at
certain locations could he establish contact with the ETI. Also,
judging from several years' experience in Morse code, he found that
the transmissions were not synthetic; the ETI was using a Morse key,
and in fact there was more than one entity operating it!
It would seem, then, that there are many gravitational signals
throughout the Universe. Many of them are natural and high in
frequency. These signals become modulated by the movement of
astronomical bodies such as stars, galaxies and even planets. But
among these natural signals may be the transmissions of a host of
extraterrestrial intelligences.
It is not clear whether the signals received by Brown and Hodowanec
are gravitational in nature. Even Townsend Brown stated that the
evidence pointed to this hypothesis, but the subject was still
inconclusive in his own mind. There may be a host of energies and
radiations that still remain undiscovered.
One that has had little attention is Dr
Wilhelm Reich's "orgone
energy". This appears to be the same energy that is known as prana,
chi and the od or "odyllic force" discovered by
Baron Karl von Reichenbach. Interestingly, when Reich had a device designed to
detect the orgone, it was based upon the electrical capacitor! This
energy is very closely related to living organic matter, and so has
often been identified as the "vital force" -- the energy that
distinguishes between animate and inanimate matter.
The well-known orgone researcher Trevor Constable conducted much
research into the weather-altering effects of the orgone, and
hypothesized (backed up with experimental evidence) that many UFOs
are actually biological entities. He went on to suggest that the
orgone could be manipulated and engineered, as it is based upon
fundamental laws. If he is right, then a new branch of technology,
based around the life force, could be developed.
Such a technology is described as being
"biodynamic" (although Constable looked further ahead and coined the
term "etheric engineering"), and is the real meeting point between
physics and biology: biophysics. Is it then possible to develop a
communications system based upon the principles of biodynamics?
BIODYNAMIC
COMMUNICATIONS
In 1962, Silesian-born engineer L. George Lawrence, employed by the
LA Space-Science Corporation to develop jam-proof missile
components, decided to try using biological material in electronic
sensors. His first line of enquiry led him to the work of Alexander Gurwitsch, one of the pioneers of
vital force research. Gurwitsch
showed that cells appear to affect each other during the process of
mitosis, which led him to develop a theory in which cells
communicate through what he called "mitogenic rays".
Lawrence also reviewed the work of Cleve Backster, the polygraph
specialist who studied the psycho-galvanic reaction of plants.
Backster used polygraph-type equipment to monitor the physiological
activity in plants and discovered some amazing effects.
One of the most unusual is a plant's
ability to detect the presence of a plant murderer! Lawrence used
Backster's original circuit designs as a springboard for his own
research into biological sensors. He discovered that such biological
transducers are able to detect changes in a variety of different
environmental parameters including magnetism, temperature and
humidity.
While Backster used a pen-chart recorder to indicate reactions,
Lawrence replaced this with a voltage-controlled audio oscillator
whose pitch changed in sympathy with biological changes. Eventually
he replaced Backster's galvanic response system with piezo-electrometers,
which gave better stability with greater sensitivity. The first
biodynamic transducers were simply vegetable samples wired up and
held in a temperature-controlled bath.
With further advancements, Lawrence developed a sensor which
consisted of two small quartz crystal wafers bonded together with
specific organic materials. Whatever transducer was used, they were
all sealed within a Faraday cage which in turn was held within a
lensless telescope-type assembly complete with sighting apparatus.
All investigations were conducted in
what Lawrence referred to as "electromagnetic deep fringe" areas
which were outside the influence of almost all electromagnetic
fields so as to avoid false readings from external sources.
During one test, Lawrence pointed a newly developed biosensor at a
tree some distance away, that he he had wired up to a remotely
controlled battery circuit. When the switch was activated, a current
would pass through the tree so as to electrically stimulate it.
Meanwhile, the biosensor's output signal was monitored for dramatic
changes. Sure enough, when the tree was stimulated, the biosensor's
output changed.
This indicated some form of mitogenic
ray communication between the tree and biosensor. However, while
having lunch, he left the biosensor pointing in some random
direction. To his amazement, the audio output from the biosensor's
circuit started to warble rapidly, indicating some mitogenic or
biodynamic signal being picked up. After an intense investigation,
Lawrence concluded that the signals had originated from outer space
and were of intelligent origin.
Initially, he thought the signals were from Ursa Major, but on
further investigation he found that they probably originated from
the galactic equator. He also concluded that the signals were not
aimed at Earth, but were an overspill of communication between
companion civilizations.
As for the signal coding, Lawrence was
confident that they would not be in the form of a structured
language. Instead, he felt that they would be graphic in nature, so
he decoded them using digital spectrograms displayed on a standard
8-bit resolution grey-scale. These graphic signals were received
using some of the most advanced biodynamic transducers, consisting
of carefully manufactured synthetic biochemical substances.
There has been little success in tracing the elusive George
Lawrence, mainly due to the fact that "George Lawrence" was a
pseudonym employed by the author who reported this research in
several electronics magazines in the mid-1970s. All that is known of
this author is that he was employed by several government agencies
that exercised strict security measures. This research into biodynamics was a spin-off of the work he had conducted while within
their employment. However, it is worth mentioning that these
agencies were mainly involved in NASA projects around the time of
SETI.
There are many energies that lie undiscovered, yet already we are
trying to find a unified field theory based on the few energies of
which we are aware. There have been many discoveries in the past
that could have brought us closer to the truth; however, mainstream
science has ignored nearly all of them.
The human race has a great understanding and control over the force
of electromagnetism. However, it is naive to think that this is the
only method through which to communicate and that all other
civilizations out there have developed technologically in this same
direction. It must also be remembered that there are other
dimensions parallel to our own.
These, too, may be contacted, but not
necessarily by looking upwards. We must first open our minds, then
ask the question, "Is there anybody out there?"
References:
-
Brown, T. Townsend, "Electrogravitational
Communication System", US Patent No. 719,767, issued September
1956.
-
Cocconi, G. and P. Morrison,
"Searching for Interstellar Communications", Nature
1959;184:844-846.
-
"Three Nations Seek 'Diabolical
Ray'", New York Times, May 28, 1924.
-
Eisen, Jonathan (ed.), Suppressed
Inventions and Other Discoveries, Auckland Institute of
Technology Press, Auckland, 1994.
-
Tesla, Nikola, "Talking with the
planets", Collier's Weekly, February 9, 1901
-
Vassilatos, Gerry, Lost Science, AUP,
USA, 1999.
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