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A
previous Josephson Conference
Molecular
memory
Sir:
Lionel Milgrom's account of Jacques Benveniste's research ("The
memory of molecules", 19 March) failed to make it clear that
the experiment discussed, where a biological signal is recorded,
transmitted over the Internet, and applied to water elsewhere to
regenerate the biological effects of the source, is not just an
idea but rather an experiment that has already been carried out,
with impressive results (see Benveniste's web pages at www.digibio.com).
We invited him to describe his work at our weekly colloquium to
learn more about the research, which seems both scientifically interesting
and potentially of considerable practical importance. While the
results claimed may seem surprising,the Cavendish Laboratory has
been host to many surprising discoveries during the 125 years of
its existence, and the controversial nature of the claims was not
seen as good cause to follow the herd and veto his making a presentation.
In regard to the Nature condemnation of 1988, my conclusion at
that time was that its authors had made an insufficient case for
its headline claim "High-dilution experiments a delusion",
and nothing since has led me to see the frequent denunciations of
the work as anything other than the hysteria that frequently accompanies
claims that challenge the orthodox point of view.
The manifestations of scientific prejudice, well documented by
Michel Schiff in the book The Memory of Water, can be extraordinary;
another reason why we felt it important to invite Dr Benveniste
to talk at our colloquium and be able to present his results to
scientists in an uncensored form. I am grateful to The Independent
for following on with its article.
Professor Brian Josephson
Cavendish Laboratory,
Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
published in The Independent, March 22nd., 1999.
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TWM
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Parapsychology: the choice between cultural bias and an open mind
Professor Brian Josephson
Letter published in Physics World, October 2000, p. 20
David Fisher (July 2000, p. 22) rejects parapsychology on the basis
of difficulty in replicating positive results in the field. This
is insufficient reason to reject its claims: consider the case of
astronomy, which also deals with phenomena that cannot be generated
on demand or predicted in advance. Criteria for judging claims must
be adapted to the characteristics of the phenomena under consideration.
In the case of parapsychology, there is the complication of the
prevailing 'cultural bias' against the subject. Bias seeks primarily
to rationalise a belief, rather to arrive at the truth: arguments
are selected in accord with whether they point in the desired direction
or not. Rationalisation is not a self-critical process and is not
what science is about. It is prone to surface when certain ideas
are considered intrinsically bad; and so we find editors, referees
and self-appointed proselytisers all supposedly, in their various
ways, 'protecting' science from 'false beliefs in the paranormal',
but in so doing in reality presenting a biased picture to the scientific
community, perpetuating the cultural bias as a result. The Cambridge
Conference that Fisher refers to achieved significant successes
in the direction of opening minds.
At the conference, I detailed the progress I and my colleagues
have made in relating paranormal phenomena to phenomena currently
accepted by science. We know from the laser that it is possible
under certain circumstances, even at room temperature, for quantum
entanglement and coherence to override decoherence effects. We propose
that biosystems have learnt to 'manage' some form of quantum entanglement,
i.e. to acquire some control over what entangled states will emerge,
and how such emergent states will behave. Under sufficient control,
such states could act as non-local 'message boards' with which particular
biological agents could connect, and then manipulate as appropriate.
This scenario captures at least some aspects of the claimed ESP
phenomenon, and suggests that paranormal phenomena deserve more
serious consideration by science than is the case presently.
Brian D. Josephson
Department of Physics
University of Cambridge
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