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Human Subject Effects on Torsion Pendulum Oscillations: Further Evidence of Mediation by Convection Currents
Richard Hammerschlag1, Ann Linda Baldwin2, Gary E Schwartz3
1The Institute for Integrative Health, Baltimore, MD; Consciousness and Healing Initiative, San Diego, CA.
Context:
When a human subject sits beneath a wire mesh, hemispheric torsion pendulum (TP) a rapid-onset series of oscillations at frequencies both higher and lower than the fundamental frequency of the TP have been consistently observed.
Objective:
This study was designed to replicate and extend prior findings that suggest the human subject effect on TP behavior is due to subject-generated, heat-induced convection currents.
Design:
Effects on pendulum behavior were tested after draping an aluminized "space blanket" over the subject and by replacing the subject with a thermal mattress pad shaped to approximate the human form.
Setting:
Experiments were performed in a basic science university research laboratory.
Main Outcome Measures:
Real-time recordings and Fast Fourier Transform frequency spectra of pendulum oscillatory movement.
Results:
The space blanket blocked, while the mattress pad mimicked, the human subject induced complex array of pendulum oscillations.
Conclusions:
Our findings support and strengthen previous results that suggest the effects of human subjects on behavior of a torsion pendulum are mediated by body-heat-induced air convection rather than an unknown type of biofield.
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