2012 And Electromagnetic Effects On Consciousness
I am convinced that we are currently in the midst of a process involving the restructuring of our neuronal networks, and that the catalyst of this process is the high solar-geomagnetic activity whose consequences are feared by so many people today. However, all facts and findings add up to the undeniable conclusion that this evolution will for the first time in human history enable us human beings to use the enormous potential of our brains.
David Samuels from Israel's Weizmann Institute has estimated that the brain's basic range of activities is driven by between 100,000 and 1 billion different chemical reactions every minute. The average human brain contains a minimum of 10 billion individual neurons or nerve cells — a figure that is even more astounding when you stop to think that each neuron can interact with many other neurons. In 1974 neurophysiologists discovered that some 10800 (10 to the 800th) interconnections come into play in this regard. The magnitude of this capacity is comparable with the following cosmic facts and figures: inasmuch as the atom is the smallest unit in the universe and the universe itself the largest, it is estimated that the universe contains a total of 1080 (10 to the 80th) atoms. In other words, the number of interactions in the human brain far exceeds the number of atoms in the universe.
Moscow University physicist Pyotra Anokin feels that the aforementioned estimate of possible interactions in the human brain is unduly low. According to his calculations, the potential number of structures that the human brain can create is so large that writing them out as a figure would translate into a line approximately 6.5 million miles long. So clearly we have not even begun to tap into the amazing potential of our brains — a situation that can be likened to using an area the size of a dust particle in a 500 room mansion.
The question then arises as to whether using our brains more efficiently will enable us to find an adequate response to the events of 2012. First of all, we need to realize that the brain and the mind are two different things. The mind can influence brain activity and vegetative processes by means of highly unusual suggestions, the most striking example being Buddhist masters whose ability to meditate enables them to put their brains in a tranquil state that palliates pain and that can even stop the beating of the heart.
Apart from this, what matters here is that our brains are always active whether we're awake, asleep, calm or agitated, and are always seeking intensity, new experiences, and long term connections. When the human brain is exposed to new impressions, as well as mental and emotional stimuli, new synapses (interfaces between neurons) are created.
In other words, the human brain floats in a kind of rapturous harmony as long as it receives the right kind of stimuli. This is in keeping with the attendant electrochemical principle of all or nothing, which forms the basis for electrochemical communication between neurons — and in our context for interaction between the heretofore unused regions of the brain. If this weren't the case, it would make no sense for us human beings to be endowed with a brain whose potential is never fully exploited. Indeed, it almost seems as though this miraculous organ were waiting for 2012 to finally prove what it's capable of.
Apart from electrochemical information processing, our brain engages in other processes as well — processes that form the basis for our subconscious. According to the American physicist Evan Harris Walker, the human mind and human consciousness are not empirically measurable quantities. Walker believed that consciousness is not a chemical process or the like, but is instead attributable to a quantum mechanical tunnel process — a theory that is consistent with the views of a growing number of quantum physicists and brain scientists. Walker also persuasively showed that the brain's synapses exhibit quantum mechanical phenomena, for which models have been posited by David Bohm and Basil Hilely. These authors report astonishing similarities between quantum potential and neurological connections in the brain.
These connections are far from being well ordered for in fact, chaos is the mainstay of the brain's processes. This chaos, which comprises a veritable maelstrom of diffuse stimuli processing activities, is the precursor of a coherent equilibrium at higher levels. Creativity researchers have observed a similar phenomenon in which the creative mind initially processes totally chaotic and even contradictory concepts that ultimately translate into the beginnings of order and stability in the latter stages of the creative process. Hence, contrary to the law of entropy (order), evolution is moving toward negentropy (instability), a process that is at once feasible, useful and logical since it enables evolution to unfold in an "open system" so as to allow the brain to absorb new information and adapt in highly complex ways.
This prompted Ilya Prigogine to observe that each organized system dynamically shifts between a state of entropy and negentropy, i.e. between order and chaos. Moreover, Prigogine says, the greater the system's potential instability, the more readily it adapts and changes. This principle fits the brain like a glove.
But where, then, is the seat of the mind, this mysterious locus of self awareness that amalgamates intuition, common sense, emotions and the intellect? For the moment I will leave it to neurologists to figure this out — although I will have more to say about this issue later on. First, though, I'd like to discuss the mental and psychological process of self discovery. The mind-brain system evolved out of a series of successive matrices. The first higher order matrix within which we move is undoubtedly the source of all life. According to Prigogine, for the infant brain a transition to a new harmonic matrix entails constant exposure to new resources that allow for the development of potential, self assurance, and skills.
These matrices, which are extremely concrete at the outset, become ever more abstract over time by dint of their exposure to perceptible reality, ultimately evolving into the matrix of pure creative thinking. Each transition to a new matrix is associated with unknown and unforeseeable experience that forms the basis for an increase in intelligence. According to Timothy Leary, each of us inherits a precoded draft of future organisms that differs considerably from the current human race and from most forms of human existence. And in the same vein, Michael Hutchison prophesied that the brain has learned more about itself over the past decade than during its entire history, and that henceforth human intelligence will evolve in quantum leaps.
Although I have already made the essential points regarding the effects of natural and artificial force fields on the brain, it should be noted here that phenomena such as the body's rhythms that are controlled by the pituitary gland can be affected by electromagnetic fields, which can have a significant impact on moods, activity patterns and the circadian rhythm. So a great deal remains to be discovered in this domain.
Some years ago I was part of a research team that measured the brain waves of test subjects at regular intervals via EEG. We found that specific electromagnetic fields sporadically acted on the test subjects' brains, without their being aware of this phenomenon. One of our most striking findings was that the test subjects' brain waves could be altered via exposure of the brain to electromagnetic waves; and as if this weren't astonishing enough, we also found that we could even control the test subjects' brain waves using these fields. For example, the EEG frequency of a test subject with a predominant baseline frequency of 10 hertz could be increased to 12 hertz each time we exposed the subject to an exogenous 10 hertz electromagnetic field that was then increased to 12 hertz. We concluded from this that endogenous rhythms are governed by their exogenous counterparts.
These experiments convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that human cells and electromagnetic fields do in fact interact; and this may in fact be one of the primary reasons why I decided to write this book. These findings also opened my eyes to processes that were of fundamental importance for my own research in that I now had incontrovertible, empirical proof that electromagnetic fields have a direct impact on brain activity.
A short time later I stumbled upon another phenomenon that I couldn't get out of my mind: specific force fields and force field intensity levels induce perceptions that could otherwise only be induced by the administration of psychoactive substances. A normal geomagnetic field allows us to maintain a normal state of alert consciousness, including our sense of time; whereas a severely abnormal geomagnetic field or the absence of a geomagnetic field provokes abnormal mental states and a derangement of our sense of time. In other words the effect of geomagnetic disturbances is very similar to that of taking hallucinogenic drugs.
Strange though this may sound, I can assure you that it's anything but. Altered mental states are provoked by neurochemical processes and the production of psychoactive substances, i.e. endogenous hallucinogens. The mental anomalies experienced by the test subjects in the aforementioned experiments were induced by "surplus" production of such substances secondary to withdrawal of, or exposure to very weak geomagnetic fields. Thus, under certain conditions the brain has the capacity to produce so called illegal substances. In other words, a phenomenon that under "normal" circumstances could only be induced through the practice of meditation or the like can also be catalyzed by exogenous electromagnetic fields.
This raises the following questions: What exactly happens during such an event? Is this phenomenon beneficial, or can it be harmful or even addictive? The fact is that the brain has the capacity to produce a chemical for every emotion we experience — a phenomenon that forms the subject of Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine by Dr. Candace Pert, Professor of Biochemistry at John Hopkins University whose observations in this regard can be summarized as follows: expansions of consciousness are provoked by a specific family of molecules. The basic difference between our daytime and nocturnal state of consciousness lies in the level of consciousness. While we are asleep, we are unaware of our existence and have no memory of our waking life, whereas the reverse situation prevails when we are awake. In other words, being asleep falls within the sphere of unconsciousness whereas being awake belongs to the domain of consciousness. Apart from this dichotomy, there is another level of consciousness known as enlightenment or satori, which I discuss at length below. Specific substances known as neurotransmitters are responsible for all three of these phases.
One of the key neurotransmitters is serotonin, which keeps us in an awake state and is therefore also responsible for our sense of time. When we are under the influence of serotonin — an effect that can be heightened even by just a small embrace — we feel relaxed and happy. Acute serotonin deficiency can provoke negative effects ranging from extreme melancholy to manic depression. However, a substantially elevated serotonin level induces emotions ranging from euphoria to ecstasy.
Thus serotonin controls our moods. There is scarcely any difference between the chemical structure of serotonin and the hallucinogen "psilocybin", which occurs in a mushroom that the peoples of some cultures used to take during certain rituals. For example the Mayans referred to psilocybin as the "Mayan mushroom," and the Dervishes called it the "Sufi mushroom." The plant was described by some as being the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil — an appellation not unlike the reference in Genesis to the fruit of the tree of knowledge.
LSD — the synthesized form of psilocybin — is a psychoactive substance that was first produced by the chemist Albert Hofmann in 1938 while he was doing research on ergot, which is the (toxic) dried sclerotium of the eponymous rye plant. Hofmann stumbled on the hallucinogenic effects of LSD when he inadvertently absorbed the substance through his skin. He then repeated this experience by taking 250 micrograms of LSD, which he felt was the smallest possible effective dose for a hallucinogen compared to mescaline, which was the strongest hallucinogen then known. However, Hofmann discovered that 250 micrograms of LSD was the equivalent of five times the normal effective dose of mescaline.
In addition to the aforementioned sleeping state (which correlates with unconsciousness) and the waking state (which correlates with consciousness), there is also the state of enlightenment or hyper-consciousness.
Neurochemical substances known as tryptamines are responsible for all three of these states. The human brain has the capacity to convert any of these tryptamines into another tryptamine. Just as serotonin transitions us between a waking and sleeping state, there is also an additional neurotransmitter known as melatonin (mentioned earlier in connection with the pituitary gland) that is responsible for our state of "consciousness" while asleep. Serotonin is converted into melatonin in direct proportion to how drowsy we are, until we actually fall asleep. The findings of sleep, consciousness, and neurochemistry research have shown that an additional neurotransmitter known as dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is produced in the brain during both deep sleep and hyper-conscious (enlightened) states, thus making DMT one of the most powerful psychoactive drugs of all.
Unfortunately we literally sleep through the heady albeit completely legal drug high constituted by the hyper-conscious (enlightened) state, and are thus completely unaware of its occurrence. In other words, though we experience this state, we are unconscious of it and thus have no memory of it either. Both psilocybin and the neurotransmitter DMT are members of the same chemical family. If we could directly experience this heightened state of consciousness, we would be able to perceive its actual consciousness expanding properties. But unfortunately this is beyond the realm of possibility for ordinary mortals, and is achievable only by spiritual masters when they reach a state of enlightenment.
Only a mental state in which we feel that we are "in harmony" with all things will enable us to ascend to this level of pure being. In this state, the unduly self important ego retreats into the cosmic realm, where it becomes one with all things. While asleep, we are disassociated from our ego and have no memory of its daily manifestations in our consciousness. This is also why, during deep sleep phases, we are able to reach an enlightenment-like state, one that is unencumbered by the ego or the excess narcissistic baggage that weighs us down during our waking hours.
It has been scientifically proven that on certain days while we are in a waking state, solar-geomagnetic disturbances cause our brain to produce psychoactive, consciousness expanding substances, provoking hallucinations whose incidence is higher during periods where specific geomagnetic conditions prevail. The medical definition of a hallucination is a deceptive sense perception that occurs in the absence of an external stimulus. This can involve experiences such as seeing objects that do not in fact exist or hearing voices in the absence of a speaker.
The salient feature of hallucinations (which can affect any of the senses) is that the hallucination is totally real for the person experiencing it, who cannot distinguish the hallucination from reality — thus making this experience altogether different from that of a daydream.
The events the cosmos has in store for us in 2012 can be compared to the effect of being handed a glass of juice into which someone has slipped some LSD without our knowledge. Such unanticipated altered states of consciousness have certainly occurred at other junctures in human history. For example, sudden outbreaks of hysteria provoked by hallucinations occurred regularly during the Middle Ages. Those affected were unaware that the bread they were eating contained ergot, whose active ingredient Albert Hofmann used to make LSD many years later. Inasmuch as the hallucinogenic effects of bread containing ergot were unknown at the time, those affected could only conclude that their altered mental state was a serious illness.
The analogy with this historical evolution and what awaits us in or around 2012 — with the predicted arrival of a massive solar storm — is clear, I think. For in that year force field disturbances are very likely to provoke not only disconcerting mental states, but also extremely pleasant ones. Even if you have your doubts about the term "enlightenment," you should nonetheless begin meditating as soon as possible so that you will be receptive to these states. These changes within us are in the pipeline — of that there can be no doubt — so you'll get an extremely useful head start if you begin instituting these changes now.
These mental states, which can be regarded as cosmic interventions, will directly impact our lives in various ways. Time will appear to move more slowly. Increased solar-geomagnetic activity will be associated with an increased incidence of altered mental states. We will experience nervousness, aggressiveness, depression and euphoria in turn. It would seem that the process that enables us to find the path to knowledge is currently occurring via a kind of cosmically induced correction. We will experience phenomena that affect geomagnetic fields and the like as an expansion of our consciousness that is tied to our personal history and current mental state.
excerpted from Revolution 2012 by Dieter Broers (First English language edition 2010 ©2010 Scorpio Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin • Munich Translation by Robert Nusbaum) First published in German as a hardcover edition © 2009 Scorpio Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.