SUPER SPECTRUM HYPOTHESIS

The range of EM effects in nature is still not widely understood. While it is known that ionizing (nucleonic-particle) radiation can be harmful, the full range of effects for non-ionizing (photon) radiation is not known. It has been demonstrated that very low frequency (VLF) waves of greater wavelength than conventional radar can cause interference with electronic equipment - such waves, being generated by a thermonuclear explosion, as some scientists surmise, might knock out the entire electric and communications grid of North America, an additional jeopardy posed by the Bomb. Such waves may also trigger electric fuses and switches: this is known as 'HERO' effects and is a recognized danger by the military. High-frequency EM waves - microwaves, X rays, cosmic rays, etc. - are dangerous to organisms because of their heating effects on tissue. What is not known is the effect of ELF (Extra Low Frequency) waves on biological organisms, because ELF radiation is given off by most of our electrical equipment, especially VDTs (video display terminals) and electric appliances.

Some of the recent research suggests that EM behavioral effects include changes in perception (visual and auditory), circadian rhythms and other biological 'clocks', reaction time and reflexes, and orientation/navigation ability in animals. Some report feelings of disorientation, nerve paralysis (note carefully... this occurs in conjunction with UFO reports), and discomfort. ELF radiation, when in the range of brain activity (below 20 Hz), can cause EEG (electroencephalograph) changes. There are numerous mechanisms reported for this cause: suppression of melatonin production by the pineal gland, changes in acetycholine receptors in the brain, possible ionization effects on the CNS (central nervous system), or thermoregulatory (temperature-control) changes. Others suggest that there may be effects at the cellular level, and that, to wit, "cells are rapidly oscillating semiconductors," perhaps due to properties of RNA or calcium oxidation in the cell membrane. Some researchers in this area - Becker and Marino - feel that DC current stimulates cell growth and regeneration, and that conversely, wrongly-attuned EM fields may have adverse health effects, possibly causing cancer, natal problems, and cataracts, among other disorders reported.

Since the direct effects of ELF fields are very small, most researchers tend to ignore any hazard they might pose: heating and electrification effects in conjunction with most power-frequency (PF - 60 Hz) fields tend to be extraordinarily small. But they have neglected the fledgling field of radiobiology and the 'biocommunication' aspects of EM energy. EM fields surrounding the body may be a form of 'bioinformation,' the organizing fields that tell cells in the body where to go and how to function - which may be Lakhovsky's bioenergy, Reich's orgone, the Saxon-Burr L-Fields, the ch'i of the acupuncturist, the bioplasma of Russian physicists, and the 'aura' seen by Kilner's UV glasses and Kirlian photography. Further, organisms may use EM waves to transmit information: this is, after all, how many insects send signals from one antenna to another. The possibility that human telepathy may be just such a form of transmission -''biological radio"- has fascinated many scientists. Unfortunately, some of the evidence for that hypothesis is weak, because ESP clearly works m EM-shielded Faraday cages. (One might surmise that some ESP transmissions may occur through previously undocumented, and unshielded, types of radiation, and only partially in the spectrum blocked by the cage.) Certainly, the fact that ESP does not fall off in range like most other signals (the inverse square law) - it worked out in space - suggests it is not a 'standard' form of EM wave.

It is the fact that EM energy may cause perceptual changes that may be of most interest to paranormal researchers. EM stimulation of the temporal lobe can cause auditory hallucinations, and strong EM fields cause people to see phosphenes or moving motes of light. Some Russian researchers report that a strong electromagnet 2 cm from the nape of the neck can cause people to see visual hallucinations. Wilder Penfield found that electrical stimulation of areas of the brain caused people to see images from their past as vividly as when they were "there." The early Mesmerists thought that hypnosis operated through a magnetic fluid - 'animal magnetism' - and there still seems to be something in connection with hypnosis, trance states, and the ability of animals to 'fascinate' others through radiation from the eyes. Nonetheless, the ability of hypnotized subjects to experience a wide range of incredible sensations has been well-documented - when told their arm is burning, the subjects' arm will display discoloration and scarring. To the consternation of paranoids everywhere who claim people are 'beaming' their thoughts, Andrija Puharich has found that ELF waves may indeed have the ability to control behavior if they are at beta wave (5 - 8 Hz) frequencies, and that various agencies (CIA, etc.) have researched the possibility of behavioral control in this area.

One thing that is notable about the Fortean "window areas" are a high degree of geomagnetic disturbance. The same EM fields causing the disturbances in electronic hardware may also be disrupting the 'wetware' of the brain. Nonetheless, some EM phenomena ,generated in these zones - in particular the so-called "Earthlights" - are very physical and real. The very odd behavior of some Will-O-Wisps / Spook Lights /Ball Lightning has suggested to Vincent Gaddis and others that these may be forms of intelligence, "electro-animals," with purposive behavior. One simplistic explanation of the Fortean occurrences in these areas is that contact with these EM entities produces hallucinations, and causes the person to see whatever his belief system is likely to accept - a flying saucer, a hairy ape, a ghost, an angel, a talking tree, or whatever. An alternative explanation, advanced by Paul Devereaux, is that these energy-balls are subject to Psychokinetic molding, into whatever we want to see.

John Keel notes that in most UFO sightings, what is first seen is a bright light - which is then followed by the outlines of a structure. UFOs may be nothing more than just superspectrum entities: the fact that they often change coloration - from red to indigo to vanishing altogether suggests to Keel that they are specters transiting through, and then leaving, our visible-light spectrum. Some of the UFO's flagrant violations of the laws of physics - in particular, angular momentum - do suggest it is not a physical object. The physical effects of the UFO - stalling cars, strange electronic signals on radios and phones, 'eye burn' and CNS effects - suggest that it has a powerful EM field associated with it, if it is not itself and "EM entity." John Michell concludes that the propensity of UFOs to follow Aime Michel's straight lines - and the ley lines connecting ancient monuments - may be due to their geomagnetic origin, i.e. they are part of the World Grid.

But UFOs may be more than just generated by the earth, like Earthquake Lights (EQLs) - they may simply be more able to visit our part of the superspectrum during times of abnormal EM activity in these "window zones." The gateway between our territory and their "Borderland" may be open during those times. Many other kinds of apparitions seem to follow the UFO pattern - during ghost sightings, many people claim to see tiny balls of lights, then the ghostly outline of someone they know. Keel noted that during the wave of "Mothman" sightings in West Virginia, many witnesses claimed to see only two points of light at first, which then resolved into the smoldering eyes of the winged beastie. Many Sasquatch sighters report him to be surrounded by an eerie, shifting glow. During reported cases of UFO paralysis or missing time, Keel also observed, the victim often reported being hit by a bright beam of light. Keel connects this to the phenomenon of illumination - like the beam that zapped the Jewish tentmaker, Saul, and turned him into a prophet.... many of the UFO witnesses so 'zapped' experience paranormal healing, increases of intelligence or psychic ability, and begin receiving telepathic transmissions (from the superspectrum?).

One definite paranormal mystery that many investigators have noted is that some of our shortwave radio channels appear to be broadcasting some truly strange things - for example, the repetition of certain numbers over and over in Spanish. It is possible that some of these things are intelligence exercises - forms of CIA covert communications, etc. - but some of the recorded transmissions are definitely too bizarre for even this explanation. In the movie Poltergeist there is a memorable scene where out of the 'white noise' of a UHF television channel emerges the arm of one of the entities. The suggestion is that through the upper reaches of the EM spectrum - i.e. the Superspectrum - the entities, normally outside our perceptual reach, may be able to communicate. Keel notes cases of paranormal voices and strange electronic signals coming forth from TVs, police radios (turned off!), telephones, and computers, and surmises a hypothesis. Are these signals posthypnotic activators for 'sleepers' who have been programmed' to see or do certain things? (aren't we all sleepers....?)

Perhaps the human brain 'tunes in' to certain bandwidths, picking up the transmissions of the "Great Phonograph in the Sky," stuck in its weird prophetic / apocalyptic / mythopoetic grooves? It might be the case, as Keel notes, that there are 'low frequency' as well as 'high frequency' messengers, and we might be careful in considering who our contactees are 'beaming' for. Perhaps the electromagnetic structure of the 'etheric' body - i.e. the purported 'Kirlian aura' - has special receptors for different types of transmission; might this be what the Hindus identify as chakras , the radar dishes for kundalini ? If the brain is, as Ken Wilber and Itzhak Bentov suggest, a frequency analyzer, might not under certain duress (the "Nagul's blow" for "summoning attention", etc.) suddenly open to a wider bandwidth than normal? The exploration of the electromagnetic basis of life and consciousness has but just begun, and it is a terra incognita bound to contain a host of surprises. Who knows what we might be able to see in those rare Superspectral 'windows'?

Many of the UFO entities claim to come from "another time and another light." This may be a garbled way of explaining that they exist beyond the known (or knowable) EM spectrum. Paranormal entities often insist themselves that their form is not fixed and that they appear as they choose to be seen. Carlos Casteneda always maintained that the 'allies' normally appeared as balls of light when one was seeing them as they were, but that a bright luminous egg or cocoon was also the true form of human beings. The fairies were said to be opalescent and to give off bright light ('faerie fire') when dancing at night. Certainly many ghost or apparition sightings initially appear as moving balls of light, which when stared at seem to take on the misty outlines of some sort of human form. In many cases, paranormal investigators utilize infrared and ultraviolet detection systems, which often reveal the otherwise 'invisible' activity behind poltergeist and "bedroom invader" attacks to be similar energy formations. The nonmateriality and insubstantiality of some paranormal entities may be due to the fact that they are not in fact "flesh and blood" at all but essentially are electromagnetic in nature.

This certainly does not explain all classes of Fortean phenomena. Other strange occurrences which do not involve balls of light and leave very real material after effects (i.e. they are not simply EM-induced hallucinations.) happen in these "window zones." It may be that intense geomagnetic activity may open gateways to other places besides the superspectrum, places where even more bizarre things can come through, or where people can peer at things taking place in other parallel dimensions to our own. Keel notes that the awful, sulfuric smell and hissing noise in many of these cases might be caused by the sudden appearance of a powerful EM transmitter displacing the air, and that the boom or explosive noises caused by their disappearance might be the sudden rush of air into the vacuum created by their disappearance. One day we may figure out how to ;se these gateways in the same way that the superspectrum entities do, and use them to travel to other realities.

Steve Mizrach's articles have appeared in such noteworthy arenas as the INFO Journal, Crash Collusion magazine, Pebbles, the Anomalist and the Bulletin of Anomalous Experience.