Dr Michael Persinger of Laurentian University quickly became the science darling of skeptics and atheists a decade ago with news of his ‘God Helmet‘, which appeared to show that ‘sensed presence’ of supernatural entities (and/or ‘God’) may be simply due to magnetic disturbance of the brain. Since then however, Persinger has not made himself an overly attractive science reference for skeptics as he has been involved with, and claims to have achieved positive results in, experimental parapsychology.
Earlier this year, Persinger gave the following lecture, titled “No More Secrets”. In it, he detailed his theories on the connection between magnetic fields and the brain, in particular how this relationship could facilitate telepathy and remote viewing. He notes particular experiments and individuals (Ingo Swann, Sean Harribance) that seem to give evidence supporting his theories, and makes some fairly extraordinary claims which I’m sure will lead to some debate.
I had never seen Persinger lecture before – he’s a great presenter, and with his usual suit and pocket watch, and precise mannerisms, makes for a fair caricature of an eccentric scientist. Whether you agree or disagree with his theories and evidence, it’s still worth a watch just for some of the oblique insights that he has (e.g. when discussing the minuteness of fields involved, “don’t think of ‘bigness’ as being important, it’s the pattern that is important”). A worthy time investment for any science fiction writer…
The lecture is around 36 minutes long, and is followed by almost 20 minutes of questions and answers.
The title of the lecture emerges from the extrapolation of telepathy as a barely understood phenomenon, to a talent that all humans could use to know what was in any other person’s brain. What would it be like if there were ‘No More Secrets’?
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