Brains receive EMF signals: Rouleau excerpt #12

Rouleau writes: The next major findings in support of transmissive function involved the direct and systematic application of alternating current and time-varying EMFs to fixed, post-mortem human brain tissues. We wanted to know how human brain tissues, chemically preserved in such a way as to retain fine-scale structures, could filter direct and induced electrical currents. That is, as the electric current passed through brain tissue, how would the cellular architecture change the signal? If the filtration properties of the post-mortem tissues could amplify certain artificially generated signal frequencies over others within relevant brain regions, the possibility of natural transmissive function with environmental signals would become more likely.

For example, the possibility of the brain amplifying an extracerebral EMF signal and it subsequently interacting with the endogenous electric fields of ephaptic couplings was an exciting prospect. In the first study, electric current was injected directly into brain tissue with different waveforms and frequency modulations. Simultaneously, voltage outputs were recorded from adjacent tissues. The results indicated that signals with “spike” waveforms tended to increase the amount of low frequency (theta) voltage oscillations in the right hemisphere of post-mortem brains relative to “square” and “sine” waves. This effect was highly specific to the parahippocampal cortex. The neighboring area of the hippocampus showed a similar responsiveness to spike currents in the right hemisphere relative to the left; however, high frequency (gamma) oscillations – which is a common neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) – were enhanced instead.

Arrow indicates right parahippocampal cortex.

In a follow-up study, we wondered how induced currents from applied EMFs might affect post- mortem brain oscillations. However, we first explored how perturbations of the Earth’s natural magnetic field affected daily recordings of voltage oscillations within the post-mortem tissues. Specifically, we wondered if days with increased “geomagnetic activity” or “storms”, which are caused by solar perturbations of the Earth’s magnetic field, would affect post-mortem voltage fluctuations within the parahippocampal regions. Even if the electrical recordings from the post-mortem tissues were mostly noise, storm-dependent frequency shifts within particular parts of the fixed human brain would clearly indicate a material-like receptive feature. To our astonishment, the right parahippocampal cortex displayed more low-to-mid frequency (theta-alpha) oscillations on days of greater geomagnetic activity (storms) relative to quieter days. The left parahippocampal tissues were not similarly affected.

Using artificially generated EMFs, we exposed full post-mortem human brains to different signals within a large coil while simultaneously measuring voltage fluctuations across multiple tissue sites. Consistently, theta (4Hz–7.5Hz) and alpha (7.5Hz–14Hz) frequency oscillations within right hemispheric structures – particularly frontal and temporal areas – were affected by the applied EMFs.

In several related studies, we reported that post-mortem oscillations could be induced to change by chemical stimulation and that they even emitted stimulation-dependent photons. We also demonstrated that post-mortem rat brain oscillations could be used to predict whether or not they had experienced seizure activity while alive – which revealed that damaged brain tissues changed the way oscillations were expressed, like bending a tuning fork and changing its capacity to resonate with particular frequencies of vibrating air.

Together, our results indicated that post-mortem brains were selectively responsive to natural and artificial electromagnetic signals, that the effects were primarily localized to the temporal lobes, that certain waveforms amplified activity more than others, and that theta and alpha frequency oscillations were primarily affected. We agreed that the empirical evidence suggested brains possessed a “passive” functional capacity distinct from its “active” neurophysiological processes. And we reasoned that this passive feature of the brain was consistent with the idea that some residual functional capacities may persist shortly after brain death and the cessation of endogenous activity but before the microstructural features of the organ could decompose. Further, there was a strong case to be made on the basis of the experimental data that the parahippocampal cortex represented a particularly sensitive area akin to an EMF-receptive sub-organ of the brain.

This empirical project, which does not rely upon subjective experiences or the intrinsic fallibility and unverifiability of eye-witness testimony, remains the only objective experimental assessment of William James’ hypothesis and constitutes one of the best pieces of evidence for the continuation of consciousness after permanent bodily death.

Of course, without a tool to measure the content of experience directly, it is impossible to assess conscious percepts in post-mortem or living brains. Nevertheless, the identification of neural correlates of consciousness embedded within the voltage fluctuations of post-mortem brain tissues is one step toward an objective assessment of the survival hypothesis.

We will proceed with the substantiated assumption that brains can passively receive electromagnetic signals – particularly within the temporal lobes where theta rhythms are prominent. It should be noted that cortical gray matter exhibits a material-like resonant frequency of 7 Hz given intrinsic permeability and permittivity properties of the tissues. Indeed, Nunez provided the original quantitative solution for the fundamental resonant frequency of the entire cerebrum, which was within the same range based upon spatial brain parameters. Therefore, the theta band may be intimately linked to the material structure of the brain itself.

Of course, it is undoubtedly true that EMFs can interact with active neurophysiology and there are known productive mechanisms of theta pace-making. However, even the brain’s major theta-rhythm-producing cells are located within the temporal lobes’ hippocampal bodies, parahippocampal cortices, and neighboring entorhinal cortices – the same regions that appeared to be particularly sensitive to passive EMF amplification in post-mortem tissues.

Because our results were observed in chemically fixed brain specimens, they could not have generated action potentials or any known endogenous signals. The precise mechanisms underlying transmissive brain functions and the full implications of their effects on consciousness are not yet known and additional research efforts will be needed to elucidate them. In the concluding paragraphs of my doctoral dissertation, I wrote the following statement on the prospect of future works that might build upon our groundbreaking advances toward a scientific study of passive brain functions and the prospect of immortality:

It is predicted that this type of research, which is likely avoided for many dozens of reasons, will become increasingly unavoidable. . . . Faced with the looming prospect of human immortality . . . it is incumbent upon us as a species to challenge the taboos which cast the longest shadows and to transcend our more undesirable primate impulses. A new enlightenment, marked by a genuine study of death, religious experiences, and all “untouchable” things should be pursued without prejudice. . . . Though some will rest on their accolades or dismiss challenges of scientific dogma as denialism, the battle of ideas marches forward unimpeded and without regard for the individual desires of scientists.

In the next section, I will describe the likely environmental sources of electromagnetic brain transmissions, the evidence for natural EMF-brain interactions in living humans, and the potential to store the electromagnetic information of memories and experiences outside of the brain. We will explore the possibility that consciousness, thought, and memory are all around us – in life and in death.

 

Nicolas Rouleau, PhD, a neuroscientist and bioengineer, is an assistant professor at Algoma University in Canada. He received an award from the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies "An Immortal Stream of Consciousness" in response to its search for "scientific evidence for the survival of consciousness after permanent bodily death." Footnotes and bibliography are omitted from these excerpts from his essay, but the full essay is available online at https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/index.php/contest-runners-up/.