X-Ray Lightning?

Last summer, researchers at the University of Florida’s Lightning Research Laboratory conducted a high-tech version of Ben Franklin’s famous kite experiment. Chest-high rockets with a spool of copper-Kevlar wire attached were fired into the sky during thunderstorm activity. Joseph Dwyer of the Florida Institute of Technology and head of this project, stated: “This makes an electrical connection from the cloud down through the wire. A big current then flows through the wire and completely vaporizes the wire.”

The rockets reached about 2000 feet into the air. “You’re giving lightning a place to strike when you launch a rocket,” Dwyer explained. Approximately 80 feet from the launch pad was a sensor that detected, in 31 out of 37 separate lightning flashes, a sharply increased flow of X-rays, gamma rays or electrons moving at nearly the speed of light.

“Here’s this really spectacular fireworks display that Nature provides and we really don’t understand it,” Dwyer noted. The Florida study is done primarily to promote space shuttle, rocket, and airplane safety from lightning strikes.

Teleportation Breakthrough?

Reportedly, quantum physicists have successfully been able to teleport matter over long distances. However, it’s not nearly as effective and exciting as Star Trek’s fictional version of “beam me up, Scotty” transporter units. They’re (excuse the pun) light years from that kind of technology.

Although since 1997, British and European scientists have been teleporting information that somehow dictates the structure of subatomic particles around on tables in laboratories, a Swiss team has recently expanded on this work. The team, led by one Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva, has been able to transfer characteristics of photons of one wavelength to photons of another wavelength at another lab 55 meters away. They described how they have made quantum bits (called “qubits”) apparently disappear from one end of a telephone line and instantly appear at the other end. It is reported that the structures don’t actually exist on the telephone line on which they travel, and that the original subatomic structure is destroyed, creating a duplicate at the other end by reorganizing matter.

“It is amazing, the way information from one photon suddenly appears in another photon,” stated quantum physicist Raymond LaFlamme. When questioned about human teleportation, LaFlamme was quoted saying: “Unimaginable. Quantum teleportation doesn’t teleport the atoms themselves; it teleports the information which is encoded in the system.”

“Trauma” real even if alien memories aren’t?

Harvard psychology professor Richard McNally recently presented his findings on alien abduction memories at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. McNally believes that such memories are “almost certainly false,” pointing out that in his own investigation of ten “abductees” they scored high in the area of “fantasy-proneness,” endorsed a variety of “New Age” beliefs, and described experiences suggestive of sleep paralysis and hypnopompic hallucinations.

McNally described how he put his ten abductees and eight control subjects through a standard series of tests to determine whether or not they exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) While experts in that field claim that some 5 to 15 percent of Americans show such symptoms, McNally reported that all ten of his abductee subjects had exhibited physiological signs suggestive of someone suffering PTSD, with three of them actually exhibiting “subclinical” signs of it.

“The fact that somebody shows this reaction does not prove that the event actually occurred,” McNally concluded. “What it does seem to indicate is the sincere belief in the emotional intensity of the memory, whether true or false.”

McNally has written a book entitled Remembering Trauma, which is expected to soon be published.

The aging properties of cloning: How did the early abductees know?

Last month, Ohio researcher Nicholas Reiter notified us and others about something that had occurred to him while watching the CBS evening news coverage about the passing away of the cloned sleep Dolly. “Cloning had certainly been a feature of science fiction and science speculation since the 1970s,” Reiter noted. “It was not until the first mammalian clones such as Dolly began to exhibit health problems that the bio-medical community became aware of the peculiar property of premature aging.”

Then comes the bombshell. Reiter asks: “How did abductees from the mid-eighties to early nineties accurately presage or predict the eventual scientific truth about the accelerated aging property of clones?”

“One of the most common themes divulged by hypnotically regressed abductees and their sometimes over-eager researcher/regressors was that of alien genetic engineering and the hybridization of aliens with humans. Abductees were sometimes (as in “Intruders”) presented with hybrid offspring of their own partial making, or were sometimes shown hybrids of other experiments and abductees. However, a strong sub-theme echoed by numerous experiencers was that the genetically engineered hybrids and clones were defective in the vast number of instances, and were often found to be aging at tremendous rates and dying before puberty. Of course, considering the comparatively short era of the popular abduction ‘craze,’ this is hard to figure. Nevertheless, it was a feature that came to my own attention from having interviewed a host of anomalous experiencers.”

Reiter, however, had not found this development to be completely unexpected. He had noticed similar developments previously. Reiter wrote: “Once again, we find that for whatever their origin and true nature, the Visitors, as we have come to call them, displayed technology and science that was approximately one to two decades ahead of that presented to the general public, or even known by cutting edge research. Other examples of this property are the technology of tracking and implants, silent delta shaped aircraft, and ‘see-through-walls’ millimeter wave imaging. If one wants to go back into an earlier era, the mystery airship waves of 1896 carried the same property - the Zeppelin form coming along only a decade later in the ‘real world.’”

Reiter and his associate Lori Schillig have together written a book entitled The Bridges of Avalon, which explores all sorts of fascinating data and speculations. Though not yet published, it should not be long before it is. Be watching for it!

Study of UFO dreams is underway!

Dream researchers Carol Warner, M.A., M.S.W., and Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Ph.D., both members of the Association for the Study of Dreams, have announced that they are conducting a study of dreams containing UFO/ET themes. In a release they stated: “Dreams of extraterrestrials and UFOs may not be just ‘ordinary’ dreams, but may be the medium for real experiences in another dimension. ET and UFO dreams form an important core of the ET experience, including abductions. Recent analyses of these dreams show that they feature some unusual characteristics, among them: incidences of mutual dreams - diverse people having the same dreams, sometimes on the same night; shared precognition about future events; and dreams that leave behind physical evidence in the ‘real’ world.”

Anyone wishing to participate in this study and share their own personal UFO/ET dreams may submit their account(s) to: Rosemary Ellen Guiley, 1290 Bay Dale Dr., PMB348, Arnold, MD 21012; email: Rosemary@VisionaryLiving.com; or, Carol D. Warner, 107 N. Virginia Ave., Suite U-1, Falls Church, VA 22046; email: CDWarner@aol.com. They state that all submissions will be acknowledged. For additional information, visit: http://www.VisionaryLiving.com.

The passing away of Dr. Max Edwards

“Great gentleman and scholar,” stated Dr. Berthold E. Schwarz. “Creative, brave and light years ahead of his times. He will be missed.” On Tuesday, January 14, 2003, in Victoria, British Columbia, Dr. Max Edwards “passed away peacefully.” In the Fall 1998 (#44) issue of Alternate Perceptions, Dr. Edwards was featured in a wonderful interview by Robert Moyes that pretty much seemed to capture this remarkable gentleman’s essence and accomplishments. Besides the many contributions he had written for England’s Flying Saucer Review, our magazine too was honored by Max’s many contributions. (They were: Subliminal Seduction, #54, March 2002; Intruders, A Mental Virus Spreads, #47, Summer 99; Abduction Selectivity, #44, Fall 98; UFOs & ESP, #38, Spring 97; Sinister Force Behind UFO Abductions, #37, Winter 97; Apparitions and Their Effects, #36; Inner Voices, #32, Fall 95; Supernatural Biblical Visions & Present-day Sightings, #29, Winter 94)

Max’s long-time friend John Thorne shared these words and tribute to this friend and scholar’s passing: “For those of us that have known him for many years and have been very close, there is a huge void left in our lives.

“Max was a linguistic scholar, speaking dozens of languages and reading many more. His musical achievements were well known to musicologists and he was generally well known as an accomplished academic.

“Max’s interests varied greatly as did his various friends from all walks of life. Being a man of eclectic tastes, he attracted a wide range of people.

“Dr. Prior Maximilian Hemsley Edwards only wanted to be known as Max to his friends. He was born in Pau, France, on August 13th, 1914. He was the last of an old aristocratic family dating back to the time of King Harold of England (and evidence of much earlier). As a young boy Max travelled from France to a boy’s school in England. Later, at the age of 10, Max and his mother moved to Croydon in England after his father had passed away. Educated in Oxford England, Max continued his education at many fine universities in England and North America. During the war, Max worked in Intelligence and served some time in the British Embassy in Venezuela. After the war, Max moved with his mother to take a teaching assignment in Duneden, New Zealand. In the early 1960s Max moved again with his mother to Victoria, B.C., where he continued to teach at the University of Victoria till his retirement in 1980.

“For those of us that were very close to Max; John, Jean, Caroline and his very devoted dog, Pooh, we gather together and toast to him regularly and hope to do so on a regular basis. We celebrate Max’s life and influences.”