DOSSEY TWO

Part two of my rendition of Larry's talk to the SSE convention in June.....

Larry was making a review-paper-type case for the possibility of distant physical effects of not only Human Intention/ Consciousness but of "organized structures" as well. In doing so, he searched the literature [and his many contacts] for frontier studies supporting such phenomena. The above two slides illustrate two example studies at the cellular/ sub-organism level.

Both, as you see, involve neurons --- maybe that is significant in some profound way, but I believe that it is an artifact of the fact that certain "responses" are easier to test in neurons than some other moieties. Both of these studies were done with the cell samples isolated from normal spatial-propagated force influences by being in Faraday-cage environments. Despite this electromagnetic cloak, actions taken upon one group of cells were coordinated with measurable responses in the distant cells.

These two peer-review-published studies seem "good" methodologically, and, despite using different cell cultures, are acceptably close in design and intent to be called replications of the principle. If these findings, on further repetition, continue to hold, they demand a major re-thinking of our opinions on what is and was is not possible in terms of transfer of signals/ information between one entity and another.

But, of course, these results will be resisted by academe by any means possible --- and when debunking fails, the main tactic will be "ignorance".

What Larry talked about next was one of those spectacular claims which one immediately feels thrilled about but unlikely to be true, or at least documentable. The claim is, as you can read above: states of emotional well-being [or ill-being] have a social network component, and this component extends well beyond those persons that one actually physically interacts with during ones daily life. That is: there is something like "Happiness at a Distance".

Well... wild... pretty much unbelievable. My distant, never-seen-since-youth cousins in Phoenix and Chicago are having some influence on my state of well-being?? Out Proctor we go.

These sets of claims were published in responsible medical journals. How was THAT possible? The authors, Fowler and Christakis, used for their data base the famous Framingham [MA] multigenerational health study. This long-ranging study was set up to study risk factors in heart disease, but because it undertakes to collect so much "ancillary data" on the participants, it has been used for other work as well. Fowler and Christakis used it to study "Happiness". How'd they do THAT?

Each week, their research team conducted a four question interview with a few thousand people in the study. These four questions had been used in the sociological and psychological literature many times to try to assess how "happy" or depressed a person was, and taken together seemed very good indicators. The four questions are simple: "how many times this past week did you...

1). feel hopeful about the future?
2). feel happy?
3). enjoy life?
4). feel that you were as good as other people?"

Taken together [there is some hint in the abstract I read that some scaling was used to take quantity responses into account] these supposedly have a good track record of assessing happiness.

When the authors began enumerating their results and comparing the levels with persons "linked" in some way biologically/socially/communally, they found that states like "happiness" tended to cluster around what looked eerily like a form of socially organized gestalt. Other emotional states did too. And the way these gestalts were organized did not seem to require direct social contact.

You and I probably are reluctant to jump right on the bandwagon on this without hearing the methodological objections and responses, but Fowler and Christakis think that they're onto something stunning here, and willing to risk academic reputations on it.

This sort of gestalt effect does, of course, fit nicely with things like "distant healing"/ "power of prayer" [Larry Dossey], and Global Consciousness [Roger Nelson]. Because I think that I understand what both those guys are doing, and credit their work, I find myself drawn to Fowler's and Christakis' as well.

But if true, what possibly can be going on?

Larry said Never Fear, he'd found the answer from the great scientist-philosopher, Arthur Eddington.

I don't know why, but I am strangely comforted by that.

Here are three folks who humbly offer a trio of thoughts for us to meditate upon as we continue to take our lifewalk along the forest path. Meditate as you will.

Larry's going to try to coalesce what he's found about these arcane matters in a book scheduled to get to the public in this fall. I don't advertise authors unless their names would be someone like Jerry Clark, Roger Nelson, or Larry Dossey [I have a short list of others]. But Larry's on the list. Expand your consciousness and your soul with him if that appeals to you.

Till next time.... "Do unto others ... not for your benefit, but for all of us in this wonderful Creation."