Journal of Scientific Exploration
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Published By Society For Scientific Exploration

0892-3310, 0892-3310

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 639-641
Author(s):  
Etzel Cardeña
Keyword(s):  

None, as it is a short commentary, but if you need one, here it is. This commentary places Alejandro Parra's very long list of plagiarisms and data missrepresentations within the context of Dante's classification of human foibles. The responses from two Argentinean universities are described, along with continuing examples of Parra's misrepresentations. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-541
Author(s):  
Stephan Andrew Schwartz

This paper reports a preliminary survey of one of humanity's most historic harbors--Alexandria, Egypt. It constitutes one phase of a broader joint land/sea examination of the largest and most famous city to bear Alexander the Great's name. The research overall had two goals: 1) to resolve locational uncertainties concerning the city's past configuration, particularly its Ptolemaic antecedents; and 2) to compare electronic remote sensing survey technologies with Remote Viewing generally, and the applications methodology developed by the Mobius Groups specifically. In the area of the Eastern Harbor, the aim of the research was: 1) the location of the ancient shore line; the locaton of and predictive description of several sites including the island of Antirrhodus and the Emporium/Poseidium/Timonium complex; a palace complex associated with Cleopatra; and a further elaboration, both in terms of location and predictive description, of the Pharos lighthouse area; 2) a comparison of Remote Viewing and side scan sonar data after each approach had surveyed the same area. This paper describes the probable location of the Emporium, the Poseidium, and the Timonium, the palace complex of Cleopatra, the island of Antirrhodus, a site at the tip of Fort Sisila (known prevously as Point Lochias), new discoveries pertaining to the lighthouse, andd an associated temple. The most important discovery though is the identification and location of the ancient seawall which extends some 65 meters farther out into the harbor than was previously suspected, and whoe location resolves a key piece in the puzzle of the ancient city's layout. The discoveries reported here were principally the result of Remote Viewing. Except for one clear "hit," side scan sonar proved unproductive because of the large amount of particulate in the water.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-622
Author(s):  
Gianni Pascoli

The Hessdalen lights (HLs in the following) are luminous, floating,  more or less spherical atmospheric phenomena,  with a lifetime  of a few  seconds to sometimes several minutes. These phenomena are seen in the Hessdalen Valley in Norway for decades.  Unfortunately  a full understanding of these baffling events is still lacking in spite of solid  working  scientific   projects  intended  to explain them. This  paper  tries  to  improve  the  situation.  It raises the questions where the energy for the creation of the HLs  comes from, and what was  its nature : (geo) chemical, electric or still other ?   We propose a new  scenario for the Hessdalen lights. It exploits the recent idea of stable and traversable wormholes  whose the potential existence  is beginning to be  recognized in physics. Even though appearing highly  speculative, this hypothesis  has not been so far explored  elsewhere  while it could supply  a full  description  of the wholeness of the  phenomenon. On the other side  even if  the probability that a HL could indeed be a wormhole is may be low,  this question should not dismissed out of hand. These  theoretical considerations could  help to increase   knowledge and understanding  of  both  the HLs  and the wormholes, drawing mutual enrichment. In other words HLs  could betray the presence of hidden wormholes and we must not let slip through our fingers  this possibility even if it is very tiny.  In this framework we discuss of the stability, the energetics and the oversized dimension of the HLs. In physics the  final arbiter  is not the theory but the experiment. Thus some “simple” experiments are eventually  suggested  (high time resolution photometry and magnetic field measurements).  Eventually, if the process described is real and after mastering it,  there is a free and inexhaustible source of energy   that would be derived,  a tremendous breakthrough after which we could forget the controlled nuclear fusion. Regarding its structure, the paper is divided in four paragraphs 1, 2,3, 4 independent of each other.  Illustrative pictures help  to understand the text.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 662-666
Author(s):  
Henry Bauer

This short book suggests plausible answers to much of what has seemed inexplicable or unbelievable about what governments, the World Health Organization, and popular media have disseminated about the officially declared global pandemic. The author is a recently graduated Swedish physician who recognized even during his training that many of the generally accepted shibboleths about medical matters are not evidence-based; are often, in fact, contrary to the available evidence. Irrespective of his suggestions about COVID, several points in this book are important for everyone to know: Modern medicine focuses on the handling of emergencies but says “extremely little about how to avoid chronic disease and maximize long term health” (p. 7). More than half of the widely accepted recommendations about nutrition are nonsense, without any basis in solid evidence (p. 8): to eat more fruit, fish, vegetables, whole-grain cereals, and less salt, saturated fat, or meat. Much purportedly scientific medical information stems from inappropriate use of surrogate endpoints and improper statistical analyses (pp. 34–39): The usual criterion for statistical significance (p ≤ 0.05) is arbitrary and very weak. The typical marketing ploy of citing relative rather than absolute risks is highly misleading (pp. 40–46). How deadly is COVID?


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 676-681
Author(s):  
John B. Alexander

This self-published book is clearly the product of a frustrated researcher. The subtitle alone provides an accurate insight into Cox’s thinking. That said, anyone who has been around these fields for any length of time can share a sense of frustration. Listening to any number self-anointed experts, and even charlatans, who populate the fields of the paranormal, can be exasperating. Yes, tall tales abound.  Unfortunately, there are no lower limits to crazy that will not attract a following. Such is the nature of studying unexplained phenomena.             The publication does not appear to have been professionally edited, as one finds both grammatical and contextual errors. Cox contracted with a company called Outskirts Press; one that specializes in physically printing self-published books. In checking with them, I found they do offer an editing service. The author would have been better served to have paid for that option, as there are many incomplete sentences and other grammatical errors. As an established author, I believe attempting to edit your own material is fraught with danger. That is the position I believe most frequently published and serious authors would agree with.             Mechanically speaking, The Fall of the Ufology appears to be designed for an e-publication, as opposed to a print format. That is because there are many Internet sites that are listed and that I suspect can be directly accessed in electronically published form. The contextual format changes significantly throughout the book. Some of it is straight nonfiction statements of fact, but that is often followed by side commentary as if one were attending a social gathering.             While the title implies the singular topic is UFOs, it digresses into many other areas. He takes significant liberties in defining, or redefining, terms that have been around for many years, even centuries. Seemingly, Cox does view himself as the arbiter of acceptability of terms. As an example, he proffers “Anomalogy” as a new term which he defines “as a person who studies anomalies,” as opposed to parapsychology or ufology. In many ways, what Cox puts forth many of us would view as a blinding flash of the obvious. The notion of the interrelationship between various fields in the study of phenomena has been addressed for decades. Several authors, including Jacques Valle and myself, have written extensively on this matter.             On a hypocritical note, Cox simultaneously admonishes Ufologists who present outlandish opinions at conferences, and then destroys his own credibility by accepting extreme conspiracy theories. While addressing his own UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) sightings, he states that he believes the craft as being of man-made origin. That, even though he witnessed events that would be beyond our currently known technical capabilities. Specifically, on page 32 he states, “I believe now that somehow we on earth have been given this technology from ‘Outside Intelligence.’” Here, I am admittedly biased, but have explicitly eliminated that possibility in my own UFO writings. The notion that the US government has reverse-engineered a crashed UFO is not new. But as I have pointed out, if such technology existed, making small craft that flit about would be trivial compared to the fundamental understanding of an entirely new energy source. Such a capability would undeniably alter our strategic interests and geopolitical landscape forever.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-638
Author(s):  
Michael Nahm

The present article informs about a case of prolonged scientific dishonesty in the field of parapsychology. It emerged that Alejandro Parra, an active member of the parapsychological community since about three decades, has published substantially plagiarized books and articles since at least 2007. Currently, I am aware of 20 publications that contain plagiarized sections or consist almost entirely of plagiarism. In the following, I present striking examples of such plagiarized texts and provide background information about the development of this case. Parra even presented research results obtained by others as his own research results, which amounts to data fabrication. Therefore, I conclude one cannot trust any of his books and articles. Even Parra’s publications that contain data obtained in surveys or experimental studies must be disregarded by the scientific community unless the validity of their raw data has been very carefully established by examinations performed by others.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 646-661
Author(s):  
Carlos S. Alvarado

In an address presented on August 20, 1891 at the Sixty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science the President of the Association’s Section of Mathematics and Physical Science discussed various scientific developments. The speaker started with brief mentions of Michael Faraday’s centenary, and the death of Wilhelm Weber, and then went on to detailed discussions of a binary system of stars, the discovery of ways to achieve color photography, and the importance of professional systematic physics research leaving behind amateur efforts. Then he changed directions and said he was going to discuss a “topic which is as yet beyond the pale of scientific orthodoxy” (p. 551). The topic, the study of psychic phenomena, was called by the speaker the “borderland of physics and psychology,” an area “bounded on the north by psychology, on the south by physics, on the east by physiology, and on the west by pathology and medicine” (p. 553). “I have spoken,” our speaker continued, “of the apparently direct action of mind on mind, and of a possible action of mind on matter. But the whole region is unexplored territory . . . I care not what the end may be. I do care that inquiry shall be conducted by us” (p. 555, my italics). The speaker was English physicist Oliver J. Lodge (1892; see Figure 1), who by that time was well known for his interest and work in psychical research.1 The “us” in the last quote above was a reference to the community of physicists. Such interest in the topic by some physicists, of which Lodge was a main player, is the subject of the book reviewed here.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-692
Author(s):  
Rosemarie Pilkington

I was a little apprehensive about reviewing this book because I know little about engineering or the inner workings of the computer, but in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to know more about Federico Faggin. Twenty years ago, returning from an afternoon trip during the SSE conference in San Diego, I sat next to him on the bus and mentioned that since we last met I had lost the vision in my right eye, which I was still adjusting to physically and emotionally. He volunteered that he had lost the vision in his left eye when he was a youth in Italy and lightly commented that depth perception, which concerned me, was only an issue for six or seven feet.  His admission and attitude were not only a revelation, but an inspiration for me: If this eminent gentleman had made world-changing inventions, was a successful businessman and had a happy social and family life despite monocular vision; I certainly could get on successfully with my life as well.  Silicon is the fascinating story of Federico Faggin’s remarkable life, but it is also his personal journey from scientific materialism to an awakening to a deeper level of consciousness. He divides his narrative into his four “lives.”  His first life took place in his native northern Italy where he was a brilliant student with a wide range of interests. He became interested in computers and transistors, which had been recently invented and read all he could independently, since it was not taught in his school. His fascination deepened and he got a job with Olivetti where he learned much more than he could have at school and which become pivotal to his subsequent career.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 667-675
Author(s):  
George Robert Williams III

Brian Greene’s Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe, as the title suggests, is an ambitious work.  Greene takes the reader on a vast tour which begins with the birth of the universe and ends with its (likely) dissolution.  The staggering timescale that Greene considers here is perhaps unique among science books aimed at a wide audience.  And Greene uses the backdrop of the universe’s emergence and demise as an effective platform to explore human meaning in a relatively wide range of inquiry.  These subjects include consciousness, religion, language, and the arts.  It appears significant for Greene that these, as important as they are, all play out in a relatively brief time in the context of the evolution and demise of the universe.  At the end of the day, Greene submits that life is likely ephemeral.  He provides a quote from Nabokov that characterizes human life as a “brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” (p.13) 


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen E Erickson

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Volume 35, Issue 3, Fall 2021


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