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"Towards a Science of Love and Prayer"
- Lecture by Beverly Rubik
Dr. Rubik started her lecture by explaining how science ignores or dismisses
as false those things which it cannot explain. Five concepts or phenomena
currently unaccepted by science which she listed are:
1. downward causation
2. psychic phenomena or experiments
3. near-death experiences
4. spiritual/mystical insights
5. role of the unconscious
To illustrate her point, Dr. Rubik then showed a slide of a man fro the
then-USSR who was standing with his arms outstretched and had a 100-pound
steel plate, a dagger, and a block of wood stuck to his chest. He claimed
that he could hold them there due to his "powers of consciousness".
This phenomena is called biogravity, which is conscious human magnetism,
but it is not just limited to metal as illustrated by the block of wood.
Although there is no explanation for this man's demonstration, science claims
it as a fraud.
Dr. Rubik then focused her lecture on biomedical science. She listed some
challenges to biomedical science as:
1. extremely low intensity bioelectromagnetic (BEM) effects
2. homeopathy: aggrevating symptoms further in order to
promote healing
3. acupuncture
4. consciousness
Dr. Rubik questioned: is mind/consciousness primary or secondary? Currently,
the dominant view in science is that "mind is a result of physical
being", as stated by Carl Sagan. The opposing view as stated by George
Wald is that "mind is the source and condition of reality". Dr.
Rubik argued that consciousness is primary, that there is a measure of consciousness
in all things, and that science must redefine its notion and role of consciousness.
Currently, biomedical science is shifting its paradigms as explained by
Dr. Rubik.
OLD NEW
1. emphasis on fighting disease, 1. emphasis on achieving
eliminating symptoms maximum wellness by
nuturing mind & body
2. medicine as specialized, 2. medicine as integrated
fragmented whole of body & mind
3. mind is secondary in organic 3. mind is at least coequal
illness in virtually all illness
Although the old paradignms still prevail in many places, Dr. Rubik expressed
hope that the emerging new paradigms will eventually dominate.
Her lecture then addressed the issue of healer interactions in medical science.
Dr. Rubik explained the results of experiments which she had done using
healer interactions on bacteria. In cultures of bacteria which had their
motility inhibited, 7% to 12% of the bacteria recovered motility after healer
interaction. Also, bacteria slightly inhibited by antibiotics grew twice
as fast when "healed" as when not. The argument presented against
the results of this experiment was that the heat from the healer's hands
could affect the growth and motility of the bacteria. However, Dr. Rubik
denied this argument because the said that at no time were the healer's
hands ever close enough to the test tubes to transfer any heat, and also
that the room temperature was already close to 80 degrees because that was
the optimal temperature for bacteria growth. Dr. Rubik also illustrated
the current negative bias of science on such work by explaining how she
had been dismissed by a university for these experiments, even after she
had already raised funding for her project.
Dr. Rubik also cited some other experiments involving abnormal phenomena:
1. "Chi" healers could slow biochemical reactions
in the same way as applied electromagnetic fields.
2. An Iranian healer could completely balance people's measured acupoint
energies which had been previously imbalanced by placing his hands on their
heads. (Acupoint energies are measured by examining the electrical conductivity
between two acupoints on the body.)
3. At Princeton University, experiments are being done showing that 5 bits
in 10,000 can be skewed by mind interactions trying to increase or decrease
numbers that are output from random number generators. Their experiments
have also shown that the effects are nonlocal, i.e.: that the person in
the experiment could be halfway around the world and still create these
effects.
4. In an experiment being done on rabbits in which they were fed extremely
high fat diets, one cage of rabbits had significantly lower levels of blood
lipids than all of the others despite the fact that it was part of the same
control group. It was later discovered that the night watchman would every
night hold, pet, and "show love" to the rabbits in that particular
cage because it was the only one he could reach.
Currently, there are two categories of scientific explanation for healer
interventions:
1. Nonlocality as predicted in quantum physics is extended to
consciousness, and conscious intention is considered causal.
2. Subtle energies are exchanged between the healer and the healee. Is this
electromagnetism or something else?
Response from Patricia Tsai:
I thought this lecture was interesting.
I didn't know what the lecture was really about. I believe that the power
of prayer is strong and powerful. I have to admit that in the beginning
of my Christian life I didn't put alot of faith in prayer. I could go along
to say that I didn't have much faith in God. But from experience I do believe
that prayer is a powerful thing. In order to believe in these things it
requires faith. Just like Beverly Rubik said, there is no scientific evidence
or fact to prove that these things are true. There is a difference between
the type of prayer that she is talking about and the type of prayer that
I'm talking about, I think. The type of prayer that I'm referring to is
a prayer to God. I'm not really sure who the healer was addressing her prayer
to. In the Bible, there are incidences of spiritual healing. There was a
story in the Wall Street Journal of spiritual healing on unhealthy babies.
Again, I think that the power of prayer is incredible. Does this prove that
there is a God out there that is listening to you? Well, I don't know about
you, but I think so.
Response from Damon Lees:
First, I must say that I agree wholeheartedly
with the first part of Dr. Rubik's lecture dealing with the integration
of the whole of mind and body into medicine. The caring interaction of others
on those who are sick in my opinion definitely makes an improvement, at
least in the mindset of the sick person involved, and I know many people
who believe that attitude can be a great help to the speed of a recovery.
Also, I remember reading about a study where elderly people who had pets
were more healthy and lived longer than those who did not, which shows the
positive benefit of caring interaction not just between people, but also
animals.
With regards to healers, being an engineering student having a strong science
background gives me a skeptical view of unexplained phenomena such as those
presented by Dr. Rubik. However, since Dr. Rubik explained how the experiments
had been carried out in a scientific manner, I will assume that her results
are true for this discussion. If this is the case, I am truly baffled by
how certain people could cause the effects that she described. One man in
the audience also questioned the potential for the existence of bad healer
interactions, such as voodoo, which is a very scary thought. Also, the prospect
of nonlocal effects of conscious thought on random number genrators causes
me to think of the scary possibility of purposely causing errors in computer
systems throughout the world that control banking, communications, or nuclear
weapons. I think that one of the reasons that contemporary science wants
to dismiss such phenomena is because powers of the mind that can have an
effect on the physical world would supercede or break all of the rules that
science has already established. As for me, I believe I have an open mind
towards the possibility of such things, but I will always remain a skeptic
until they are absolutely proven.
--
Damon Lees University of Pennsylvania
cclees@eniac.seas.upenn.edu Bioengineering - Class of 1996