Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Mystery 'dark flow' extends towards edge of universe

It's still a hologram!

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/197074-Mystery-dark-flow-extends-towards-edge-of-universe

Mystery 'dark flow' extends towards edge of universe
Marcus Chown
New Scientist
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:07 EST

© NASA/M.Markevitch et al/STSCI; Maggellan/U.Arizona/D.Clowe et al
Galaxies going places

Something big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That's the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds. Some researchers say this so-called "dark flow" is a sign that other universes nestle next door.

Last year, Sasha Kashlinsky of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and colleagues identified an unusual pattern in the motion of around 800 galaxy clusters. They studied the clusters' motion in the "afterglow" of the big bang, as measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The photons of this afterglow collide with electrons in galaxy clusters as they travel across space to the Earth, and this subtly changes the afterglow's temperature.

The team combined the WMAP data with X-ray observations and found the clusters were streaming at up to 1000 kilometres per second towards one particular part of the cosmos (The Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol 686, p L49).

Many researchers argued the dark flow would not turn up in later observations, but now the team claim to have confirmed its existence. Their latest analysis reveals 1400 clusters are part of the flow, and that it continues to around 3 billion light years from Earth, a sizeable fraction of the distance to the edge of the observable universe. This is twice as far as seen in the previous study.

The dark flow appears to have been caused shortly after the big bang by something no longer in the observable universe. It has no effect today because reaching across this horizon would involve travelling faster than light.

One explanation for the flow would be the gravity of a huge concentration of matter, but this is very unlikely. Within the standard big bang picture, massive cosmic structures were "seeded" by random quantum fluctuations, so overall, matter should be spread evenly.

There could be an exotic explanation. Laura Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, thinks the flow is a sign of a neighbouring universe. If the tiny patch of vacuum that inflated to become our universe was quantum entangled with other pieces of vacuum - other universes - they could have exerted a force from beyond the present-day visible horizon (see "Nosey neighbours" below).

Yet despite the new findings, the existence of the dark flow remains disputed. Charles Bennett, principal investigator of WMAP says the cluster analysis is not statistically significant. "There is no evidence for the large-scale dark flow, using all of the best data available."

Nosey neighbours

Was our universe once entangled with a neighbour? The observation of "dark flow" in galaxy clusters was predicted in 2006 by Laura Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues. She proposes that the effect occurs because our universe was once influenced by neighbouring domains.

Mersini-Houghton reasoned that if a force exerted by other universes squeezed ours, it could generate a repulsive effect that would impede the shrinkage of matter into clusters but not leave an imprint on smaller scales. "This skews the distribution of lumps so they are not the same in all directions," she says. "There is a preferred direction - the dark flow."

She also predicted in 2006 that there should be two "holes" - regions with fewer galaxies than expected. Sure enough, there does appear to be a hole - the so-called "cold spot" identified by the WMAP probe. The hole is a very large region of space where the afterglow is cooler than average. However, its cause - and even existence - is disputed, and Mersini-Houghton's hypothesis remains controversial.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Interview with a Male Abductee about Reptilians and Hybrids

http://www.karlaturner.org/articles/bartley/bartley-hybrid-infiltration.html

Interview with a Male Abductee about Reptilians and Hybrids
James Bartley
November 2, 2007

The following is an interview I had with an abductee who was referred to me by my mentor, Barbara Bartholic. This abductee, “P.R.” had sent Barbara an audiotape of electronic sounds allegedly made by the reptilians during one of his abduction experiences. P.R. called Barbara and they had a lengthy phone conversation during which Barbara independently confirmed many of the experiences reported by P.R.

Barbara tried to play the audiotape on three different tape recorders and each time the tape recorder in question malfunctioned and never worked properly again. After the third abortive attempt Barbara decided to call me into the case since P.R. had mentioned having read some of my writings and had himself undergone many of the experiences which I described in detail.

I subsequently had a lengthy phone conversation with P.R. and exchanged numerous e-mails with him. I was impressed with P.R.’s candor and the astute observations he made about his abductions. He described many things which I was already familiar with such as the astral dreamscape manipulation and the various and sundry ways the reptilians manipulate abductees.

Barbara Bartholic told me before my first conversation with P.R. that she was flabbergasted that P.R. knew so many intimate details about the reptilians and their modus operandi. Barbara has documented many of the details provided by P.R. from her work with several hundred abductees over a span of thirty plus years.

What I was particularly interested in was his close observations of the human appearing hybrids. These human hybrids have been described by other abductees but only a relative few (including a female abductee named “Karen” whom I also interviewed) have described their activities in any detail. Other facets of P.R.’s revelations which greatly interested me was the reptilian’s ability to siphon off human life force energy as well as their ability to transfer the consciousness from a reptilian into a human being or human appearing hybrid.

Due to the malign influence of the well known abduction researchers, many people within the UFO Community think that all alien abduction experiences are identical with absolutely no variation between them. The “high strangeness” aspects of the experiences are almost completely left out of the equation. We must never forget that phenomena which appears to most humans as “high strangeness” is nothing more than routine everyday events within the context of a civilization far older than ours and with technology and brain power far in excess of ours. The aliens and reptilians display a thorough understanding of human physiology and neurology.

Unfortunately the human race has been poorly served by the “Scientific Community.” This should come as no surprise considering the disproportionate amount of funding the Scientific Community receives from Tax-Exempt Foundations, Multinational Corporations, the Department of Energy and the Pentagon just to name a few. To provide such funding and then encourage real scientific study of UFOs would defeat the purpose of the longstanding well documented debunking and disinformation campaign against UFO reality. Since scientists are conditioned and trained to discount the reality of UFOs, it is relatively easy to convince some of them to be UFO debunkers, especially if they will be paid for their debunking efforts. Scientists cannot be expected to think or behave any differently. They have been indoctrinated and are in need of funding.

I have to laugh when skeptics and debunkers demand scientific proof for UFO sightings and alien abductions. How can “science,” as controlled as it is today, possibly explain the types of phenomena described by UFO witnesses and alien abductees? Witnesses have described seeing a beam of light descend in a telescoping fashion from a UFO down to the ground. UFOs have been seen to divide into numerous parts and fly off in different directions. Conversely two or more UFOs have been seen to fly towards one another and merge into one object. UFOs have been seen to change shape in mid-flight.

Abductees and military and scientific “insiders” have described a paradox wherein the interior of a craft appears to be far larger than the exterior of a craft. UFOs have been known to be visible in the visual spectrum but invisible to radar and vice versa.

Alien abductees and workers within underground facilities describe self navigating, luminous orbs of light which despite their brilliance, do not cast reflective light off of nearby surfaces. Once I was abducted after midnight and was returned at approximately 10:15PM. In other words I was returned to a point in time before I was abducted in the first place. “Modern Science” does not have an explanation for any of these events. Countless scientists have proven themselves to be nothing more than opportunists who bow and scrape before Corporations, Foundations and the Federal Government in order to obtain funding for research projects that are trivial in comparison to the study of UFOs and alien abductions. Debunking scientists have played a key role in holding back the technical and indeed the spiritual development of the Human Race. As far as I’m concerned, these debunkers are “War Criminals” no different from the establishment shills in the corporate media and academic community who promote perpetual war abroad and crass stupidity and a police state at home.

The same goes for the bought and paid for “psychologists” and “psychiatrists” who work as debunkers against alien abductees. When you consider how many “mental health professionals” have actively participated in government mind control programs like the late and unlamented Dr. Louis Jolyn West, and Dr. Ewen Cameron just to name two, psychologists and psychiatrists are literally the last people you want to consult regarding traumatic experiences such as alien abductions and reptilian rapes.

So keep all this in mind when you read P.R.’s account of his experiences with the reptilians and the sadistic hybrids.

During the interview portion of this paper, I am “J.B.” and the eyewitness is “P.R.”

The stage is set for the mass deployment of these human appearing hybrids.

J.B. - From your perspective, what are these reptilians doing here and what are
they trying to accomplish?

P.R. - The Reptilians view humans as a resource, food, slaves, breeding stock, and their property. They are here to eventually take complete control of the Earth after a number of Reptilian engineered natural catastrophes (such as new diseases and weather changes) and other catastrophes that appear to be man made (such as wars,). Then they plan to turn the surviving inhabitants into mind controlled slaves that are intended to be used for various purposes including the ones listed above. Something of equal importance if not more so is the fact that they are attempting to retard and keep humanity from spiritually evolving. As a matter of fact they want humanity to spiritually devolve to a point where we are unable to break free of them.

J.B. - Can you mention some of the ways that the reptilians manipulate humans?

P.R. - They use their very advanced telepathic abilities and their technology to create manipulated artificial dreamscapes within a sleeping abductee's mind. They also use astral abduction where the abductee is placed in virtual reality scenarios. Some of these scenarios are used in combination with their telepathic abilities and mind control technology to make the abductee resort to self destructive behaviors such as drug abuse or sexual promiscuity. I guess they can even turn someone into a serial killer. They also use implants that are designed for the sole purpose of mind control. They use their telepathic abilities to influence and mind control the abductee. They also have technology to remotely mind control the abductee. They can also make the abductee experience great pain. For example severe headaches and abdominal pains. The headaches and abdominal pains can be so severe that they can incapacitate the abductee. They can cause an abductee to be chronically ill. They use both physical and psychological torture. They use sleep deprivation. They also resort to rape.

J.B. - Can you describe the process of energy and consciousness transference from reptilians into genetically engineered human bodies?

P.R. - I have only seen this process once. I saw what appeared to be a human body lying on a table. Next to it was a reptilian that was also lying on a table. Above both the Reptilian and human body was what looked to be electronic devices and machinery. Somehow the Reptilian’s energy body, astral body, soul (I must say here that I don't think that they possess true souls) or whatever you want to call it was transferred from the Reptilian into the human appearing body.

J.B. - Does the above process have anything to do with the sadistic human
looking hybrids that have been described by abductees?

P.R. - The hybrids were present during the procedure but I do not know if they were involved with the process.

J.B. - Do you believe that some of the human looking hybrids are connected to the reptilians?

P.R. - Yes, they were created by the reptilians.

J.B. - Can you describe some of the acts of cruelty and sadism perpetrated by both the reps and the hybrids?

P.R. - They sometimes feed on people's life forces to the point where it is difficult for the abductee to walk because the feeding process leaves the abductee in a weakened and lethargic condition. Sometimes they feed on the heart area to the point of causing the heart to race so fast that it feels as if it is going to burst. They rape abductees. They insert large needles into the abdomen which is very painful. They beat abductees. One time I remember the hybrids had me in a paralyzed state. I was conscious but I could not move. One of the human appearing hybrids produced a butterfly knife and sliced my abdomen with the knife. Soon thereafter another hybrid produced a hand held device and pointed it at the wound and the wound completely healed. They can cause the abductee physical pain 24/7. For example I have severe headaches 24 hours a day. They are so painful that they sometimes leave me in an incapacitated state. Many times the headaches are accompanied by severe abdominal pains and nose bleeds. What I just described are just some of the ways the reptilians and their hybrids torture people.

J.B. - How have the reptilians messed with your sexuality?

P.R. - On many occasions they have raped me. They have even tried to alter my sexual orientation by using dreamscape manipulation, sexual stimulation devices, mind control technology, and their telepathic abilities.

J.B - 4) Can you describe the process of energy harvesting and what if any
connection (if there is one) between the energy harvesting from humans and
the torture and cruelty the reptilians and hybrids inflict on people?

P.R. - As I described above they feed on human life force energy. As hard as it may be to believe they put their hands on the body area they want to feed on, and then siphon off the energy in a vampiristic fashion. The reptilians and their hybrids directly feed on their victims because it gives them a bigger rush than consuming energy obtained from the second method described below. They also force the abductee to experience certain emotions such as fear. They then directly feed on the abductee. The same thing is true for sex. They will torture their victims to put the abductee in the desired state. They will torture, forcibly sexually stimulate, and mind control their victim in order to put the abductee in the desired state.
They also have chambers in the form of transparent rectangular boxes. The abductee is placed in the chamber. Then some kind of electronic equipment and machinery are activated. The abductee's life force is then extracted and transferred into storage containers. They also extract biological tissues and fluids.

J.B. - Can you describe the times that the reptilians had drained the life force
from a human baby and then consumed the baby?

P.R. - I saw the reptilians feed on a newborn baby. They fed (siphoned its entire life force) on the baby until it turned a very dark color and shriveled up like a dried up prune. The baby died. The reptilians then ate the baby's body.

J.B. - Have you perceived any kind of hierarchy amongst the reptilians and the human hybrids? You described the "exalted ones," "the middle management" and the "Low level thugs."

P.R. - There is a hierarchy. It is arranged with the leaders at the top. I once heard one of their leaders referred to as an "exalted one." Then there is the mid-management. It is their job to direct the lower reptilians and the human appearing hybrids. Then on the bottom of the ladder are the lower order reptilians and the human appearing hybrids.

J.B. - Can you describe the psychic and paranormal abilities of these hybrids? They seem to be genetically imbued with sadistic qualities. Can you describe the hybrid that appeared to you wearing a suit?

P.R. - They have telepathic abilities that enable them to read people's minds and communicate with each other. They have the ability to leave their physical bodies and travel about in their parasitic energy bodies. When in that state they can remain invisible or lower their density to the point where they can materialize and appear just as solid as you or I. The same is true for their ships materializing and de-materializing.
The one in the suit was not as sadistic as the other human appearing hybrids or the lower order reptilians who can only be described as psychopaths and sociopaths, although they can mask those traits (psychopathic and sociopath) in public very well. The one in the suit was more business like.

J.B. - Please describe how the hybrids have infiltrated society and how they own
and operate businesses and real estate. You've described these hybrids as having infiltrated into ALL strata of human society. Describe some of the places you have seen these hybrids.

P.R. - I have seen them in law enforcement, running and working in restaurants, in libraries, bar and grills, clubs, antique shops, and art galleries. I am sure that you could find them in every area of human society. The hybrids are psychopaths and sociopaths, although like I stated earlier they can mask those very disturbing traits extremely well while operating in public. Some do not demonstrate any emotion at all, and are very business like. Others are very cruel. Some like to torture the abductee. Still others only want to feed on the abductee; but then again they all want to feed on humans. It all depends on the genetic and psychological make up of the reptilians, as it appears they (the hybrids) are genetically programmed to exhibit specific traits and behaviors. I would like to state one last thing. It appears that it is very important to the reptilians and their hybrids to have complete control over the abductee. I mean complete control over all areas of the abductee's life. Complete control over the abductee is extremely important to them.

J.B. - Describe the “transports” which are used to bring in more hybrids and the locations these events took place and the manner in which you were brought there.

P.R. - I have seen the types of ships that Adamski and Van Tassel reported observing. I saw one of these ships land on a small rural island just off the Texas Gulf Coast. The ship appeared out of thin air and was glowing white. After it landed a group of "new arrivals" departed from it in an orderly line. The new arrivals appeared to be human, although I know they were reptilian hybrids. They were loaded into dark colored, dark tinted passenger vans and then driven off.

I don't know why I was brought there.

A young man came to my door in the early morning hours on a summer night in 1994. I could not sleep that night and had my door open to let in some fresh air since I didn't have any air conditioning. The young man told me that someone wanted to see me. At that time I didn't know who or what they were and thought them to be benevolent. We then went outside to a parked car. The car looked to be a Chevy Caprice. It was dark in color and had dark tinted windows. There was an antenna on the back of it. It looked like an unmarked police car. Inside the car was a man dressed in a black suit. He drove me to a bridge which connected the island I lived on to the island in question. We then drove to a secluded road until we reached a gate with two men standing on each side of it (the gate). The gate was raised and we proceeded down a dirt road for about 1/2 mile until we reached the landing site.

J.B. - Can you describe some of the technology you have observed?

P.R. - I have seen devices that heal wounds. I have seen the sexual stimulation devices that they forcibly use on male abductees. I have seen an instrument that displays the activity that occurred in a certain location throughout the day. I have seen a stun gun-like instrument that is placed to the side of the head of a sleeping abductee that discharges energy into the abductee’s brain which renders him or her completely unconscious and immobile. They also have a device that resembles a small black box with a button on the top of it. It can render an abductee unconscious and paralyzed. They also have a device that emits some kind of energy field that engulfs the abductee and renders him or her unconscious and immobile. I have seen the black boxes that are used to store the astral bodies of abductees. I have seen a device that captures the astral body of an abductee. It emits a beam of energy that engulfs the abductee; then the abductee’s astral body is drawn into the device for storage. Finally I have seen devices that erases the memory of abduction from an abductee's mind.

J.B. - Can you describe other craft that you've seen?

P.R. - I have seen a silver disk shaped craft. I have seen a saucer shaped ship that was transparent except its outline and a bright white light located on the top of its dome.

In closing I would like to emphasize that the reptilians and their allies are capable of committing many heinous atrocities such as mass rape, murder, mind control, slavery, life force vampirism, theft of human biological tissues and fluids, genocide, butchery, mutilation, genetic engineering, cannibalism, and much more.

Analysis

If someone has only been exposed to the abduction research propagated by the well known mostly East Coast researchers, it would be easy to dismiss out of hand the testimony provided by “P.R.” Unfortunately these big name researchers have for all intents and purposes established parameters which have effectively defined the entire alien abduction syndrome. We have been led to believe that ALL alien abduction experiences are nearly identical, and that they follow a predictable sequence. The only aliens which seem to be described by the abductees who work with these big name East Coast researchers are the ubiquitous “Greys” or cross-breed variants thereof. If Human-appearing beings are described it is always assumed they are cross-bred with or are genetic off-shoots of the Greys.

Not only have eyewitness accounts of reptilians been downplayed and marginalized but accounts of beings that appear perfectly human are likewise dismissed out of hand. Most “serious” researchers liken any reports of aliens that appear human to the much maligned “contactee cases” of the 1950s and 1960s. It is my considered opinion that at least some of those “contactee cases” need to be re-evaluated. It is not uncommon for people in the Latin American countries, Europe and the former Soviet Union to describe encounters with beings that appear perfectly human. There were beings which appeared human in the famous Travis Walton case but that fact is seldom if ever mentioned in documentaries and was omitted entirely in the movie based on Travis Walton’s experiences.

Many of the elements that are described by P.R. have been documented on numerous occasions by Barbara Bartholic, the Dean of Alien Abduction researchers. The energetic harvesting of abductees, the infliction of pain and suffering upon the abductee and the transfer of the astral-soul matrix from one body to the next have all been documented by Barbara Bartholic time and again. The aliens and reptilians in particular seem to have an abiding interest in what we think of as the Human Soul. P.R. has expressed his belief that the reptilians (whom he also refers to as “parasites”) don’t possess Souls as we understand the term. The key elements to P.R.’s testimony can be divided into the following:

1) The Reptilians manipulate and exploit humans in a variety of ways including but not limited to sexual manipulation, energetic harvesting, infliction of physical and psychological abuse, mind control, and the collection of genetic material.

2) The reptilians have imbued certain behavioral and physical characteristics into some of the abductees they are taking.

3) At least some of the Human appearing hybrids have been created or are otherwise under the control of the reptilians. There seem to be many of these human hybrids and they have infiltrated all strata of human society.

4) These human appearing hybrids can be extremely cruel and sadistic and frequently manifest utter contempt for abductees. They have the ability, whether through metaphysical means, technological or both, to manifest instantly in the home of an abductee. The hybrids can read minds and download imagery and information into an abductees mind.
(Another abductee named “Karen” has provided much information about the psychic and metaphysical capabilities of hybrids.)

5) The reptilians and the human hybrids working for the reptilians utilize advanced hand held technology.
P.R. described a hand held device that somehow records all the activity in a particular location. The hybrids return to a location such as an abductee’s living room or bedroom. They activate the device and all the events which transpired at this location will appear on a small view screen on the hand held device. P.R. witnessed the hybrids utilize this device on more than one occasion.

P.R. described the small black box that renders abductees immobile or unconscious. This has been described by numerous abductees during encounters with aliens. Milabs have also reported military black ops personnel utilizing a similar device to render all the occupants of a household including pets unconscious. The frequency emissions of this device can be modulated so as to not affect the milab who is to be kidnapped.

One of the hand held devices which P.R. described to me but didn’t mention in this interview is a device that can render everyone in a large room completely inert. P.R. described an incident when he was taken to a restaurant during the lunch hour by one of the hybrids. There were many patrons in the restaurant. The hybrid pulled out a hand held device and activated it and everyone in the restaurant was instantly frozen in place, as if Time had stopped for them.

The hybrid also told P.R. that this restaurant was one of a number of businesses that were owned by them.

How do the Hybrids fit into all this?

There can never be enough credit given to P.R. for coming forward with this information. He has already been tortured countless times by the reptilians and the hybrids. Yet he chose to share this information with the world despite the inevitable backlash and reprisals which are sure to come his way. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to P.R.

This part of the paper consists of conclusions and theories which are my own. Barbara Bartholic provided no input for this part of the paper.

There are essentially three types of “hybrids.” Type 1 Hybrids are alien abductees who have been genetically altered by their alien controllers. I personally know and am friends with many examples of the Type 1 Hybrids. Some are reptilian-human hybrids but that fact doesn’t make these people “negative” or evil. It is the Soul within that is the overriding factor which determines the behavior and characteristics of an individual. There are Mantis-Human hybrids as well as Grey-Human hybrids. Some abductees are genetically descended from beings that are perfectly human in appearance.

There are probably some “serious” abduction researchers (chuckle) who might object to my characterization of mere abductees as being “hybrids” but when you consider the heightened psychic abilities of some abductees, the fact that some of them have been trained to operate alien technology and even fly certain types of alien craft and have been known to manifest metaphysical capabilities, I believe the characterization is apt. There are times when reptilian hybrids will inadvertently or sometimes intentionally shape shift momentarily into reptilian form. Other times the round pupils of the reptilian hybrid will momentarily shift to vertical pupils. Some of the full blooded reptilian hybrid bloodlines have pupils that are diagonal and even completely vertical when in their normal state. If you get a chance, watch the interview of former MI5 Officer Victor Rothschild when he tries to explain away his connection to the Cambridge Spies. His pupils are nearly vertical.

I am convinced that the military seeks out hybrids within their ranks and utilizes some of them in deep black ops involving Aliens, Mind Control and ET technology. Reptilian hybrids imbued with an authoritarian mindset are routinely placed into positions of power and influence within the Federal Government and Defense Department.

A second type of hybrid (Type 2 Hybrid) is the type that is half grey-half human. This is most commonly reported during alien abductions where the abductee is taken to a “nursery” where her or she is shown grey-human babies and is sometimes told that the baby was developed from genetic material taken from the abductee. The abductee may be presented with this hybrid child at various stages during its lifespan.

The third type of hybrids are the aforementioned human appearing hybrids (Type 3 Hybrid). In most cases they are described as appearing perfectly human. Other times they have been described with vertical slit pupils indicating a reptilian heritage. Sometimes the hybrid will wear dark glasses in order to conceal the vertical pupils. As others have pointed out, the reptilians have genetically manipulated the surface population to ensure that their hybrids are in positions of power here on the surface. Some obvious reptilian bloodlines are the Harrimans, Rockefellers and Rothschilds. The genetically engineered hybrids that are the focus of this paper are trained to blend into human society but may appear quite awkward and clumsy in social settings. Some blend in quite well. Many of them have a sadistic streak which they can hide in public. P.R. and the aforementioned “Karen” have described human appearing hybrids of all ages.

What will these hybrids do?

P.R. told me in a phone conversation that the hybrids were “everywhere…EVERYWHERE.” He has seen them in practically every social setting that he has found himself in. In their arrogance, the hybrids frequently reveal themselves to P.R. in public. The hybrids had shown P.R. the real estate, apartment complexes, restaurants and other businesses they own. They have taken him to these establishments. The hybrids have also taken him to apartments where hybrids live.

The key to determining what these Type 3 Hybrids may be used for is their observed behavior and their reptilian genetic lineage. Since America is well on its way to becoming a police state, I believe some of these hybrids will be used in agencies and bureaucracies where their sadism and thuggish behaviors will be utilized to maximum effect. I believe these hybrids will be used to ride herd on unwitting law enforcement and military personnel who refuse to “get tough” on the citizens of this country. The hybrids will be seeded throughout the bureaucracies of local, state and federal agencies and likewise ride herd on recalcitrant or unenthusiastic bureaucrats who refuse to go along with “The Program.”

It’s a known fact that former members of the Soviet-era KGB such as General Yevgeny Primakov and General Aleksandr Karpos as well as former East German STASI HVA chief Markus Wolf are now working for the U.S. Government in a counterintelligence and security capacity within the United States. It should therefore come as no surprise to find these sadistic human appearing hybrids in law enforcement or the military.

Back in the early 1990s I had an encounter with a tall blonde square-jawed hybrid at the Naval Air Station I worked at. This hybrid was wearing a grayish flight suit and sat in the passenger seat of a white United States Marine Corps sedan. Sitting in the driver’s seat was a tall man wearing camouflage fatigues who was speaking into a walkie-talkie. This blonde hybrid used its psychic ability to telepathically send messages of extreme malevolence and hatred at me.

It’s a long story but I was quite intimidated.

In the mid 1990s through a serendipitous chain of events I met a woman named “Peggy” who was a computer programmer who had previously worked at both the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Depot (MCRD) in San Diego and Camp Pendleton in Oceanside California. Peggy had also worked with some police departments as a computer programmer. She told me that she and a girlfriend kept encountering these tall blonde square-jawed marines at night clubs near Camp Pendleton in Oceanside California north of San Diego. She said she found these “marines” unusual because they didn’t want to engage in any kind of discourse or interaction with the many women at these night clubs despite the fact that these women seemed very interested in them.

These marines all looked nearly identical and were socially ill at ease and at times seemed very awkward. Out of curiosity, Peggy accessed the personnel database at Camp Pendleton and found out that every single one of these tall blonde square-jawed marines were allegedly born in small towns near Los Alamos New Mexico. As far as I knew, Peggy was unaware of cloning or the fact that the Department of Energy ran the Human Genome Project out of Los Alamos National Labs. I never mentioned the subject of aliens or hybrids with her. All this information she gave me was entirely unsolicited.

Peggy had independently confirmed that the personnel database of the United States Marine Corps listed the places of birth for these human appearing hybrids as small towns near Los Alamos New Mexico. I happen to believe that at least some of these hybrids are genetically engineered in a number of places above ground and below ground. From my personal perspective I can only tell you the following: A sadistic hybrid that was telepathically beaming malevolent thoughts at me was wearing a grayish flight suit and was sitting in a white U.S. Marine Corps sedan which was parked in the Admiral’s parking spot. No one parks in the Admiral’s spot.

I was sitting in my office within the headquarters of a three star “type” command for Naval Air Forces. Although I didn’t see the face of the driver wearing the camouflage fatigues I suspect he was a human military handler of the hybrid. These hybrids do indeed exist. They are everywhere including military installations.

So no one can ever tell me that these hybrids have not infiltrated or have otherwise been brought into the military. In all likelihood, deep black military controllers had sent that hybrid to intimidate me. The reason I was getting harassed was because of a particular case I was working on. That’s another story.

The bottom line is that these hybrids are already here and according to P.R. and others like him, more hybrids are arriving all the time. Many of these hybrids are imbued with a sadistic mindset and derive pleasure out of torturing and raping humans. P.R. has stated these hybrids were created by the negative reptilians and in some cases have had the consciousness of reptilians transferred into them. P.R. merely confirmed information that had already been obtained from other sources.

The hybrids, like certain factions of the grey aliens, are acting as front men for the negative reptilians. Their sadistic attitude towards humans is ideally suited for this burgeoning police state. This is why I cannot believe their sadistic talents won’t be utilized to the fullest degree.

How do you spot a hybrid?

Hybrids have dark hair, red hair or blonde hair and are in different stages of development i.e. children, teenagers and adults. According to both P.R. and “Karen,” the “security thugs” and “rapists” tend to be dark haired. Some of the hybrids appear awkward and ill at ease in public. Their awkward behavior may be an indication that they have not fully acclimated themselves to human society.

Hybrids can appear inside of a home instantly without any prior notice. Whether this is the result of technology or inherent metaphysical capabilities on the part of the hybrids is open to question. Some abductees believe the hybrids use the same technology that the greys use when they appear inside a house. The fact of the matter is that they can suddenly appear in the house of the abductee and harass and even rape the abductee. “Karen” stated that hybrids held her head underwater in her bathtub and in the swimming pool for extended periods for not cooperating with them. Usually everyone else in the house is asleep and cannot wake up no matter how much noise is made by the hybrid and the abductee. Often as not the hybrids will appear when the abductee is alone or after everyone has gone to sleep.

The hybrids have been known to appear at the front door of an abductee and take the abductee away in a motor vehicle. Hybrids have been known to “car jack” an abductee. The abductee will be driving along and suddenly a hybrid appears on the side of the road and the abductee is compelled to pull over and let the hybrid in. If there are other passengers in the car at the time, the passengers will be placed into an altered state and will not remember anything that occurred in the presence of the hybrid.

Hybrids are extremely psychic and telepathic. I will elaborate on these capabilities at length in the interview with “Karen.” They can look into the eyes of an abductee and “download” huge amounts of information. They can telepathically command an abductee to either forget an experience or to not learn more about their experiences.
The hybrids are part and parcel of the Reptilian Overlordship and the New World Order. They are already being used in deep black military operations including but not limited to harassing abductees and researchers. In all likelihood the hybrids are already working in various local, state and federal agencies. P.R. himself has observed hybrids working as police officers. As P.R. says, “They are everywhere…EVERYWHERE.”

People need to wake up and recognize this threat in their midst. The hybrids and their reptilian masters will stop at nothing to achieve their goal of total control and subjugation of the surface population. A decision to remain ignorant about the reptilians and their hybrid minions is an automatic decision to submit to their will and control. Many people have unwittingly encountered hybrids because they can be found in all walks of life. And more and more of them are arriving from their off-world bases.

P.R. was told by the reptilians that they have “found another planet.” P.R. inferred that the reptilians are going to start this whole process anew on another planet. In all likelihood they will begin by genetically upgrading a native hominid species or conversely they may transplant hominids there. These hominids will be genetically upgraded with human and reptilian DNA. Or they can bypass that step altogether and bring primitive homo sapiens there. The human DNA will come from this planet or other planets similarly enslaved by the reptilians.

In this fashion, as was the case on Earth, they can create the Cosmologies, Religions and Belief Systems of the targeted planet in order to create strife and conflict within the various “tribes” and developing “nations.” Secret Societies made up of reptilian-human bloodlines will covertly steer the direction of the surface population’s development. The reptilians will closely monitor and control the technological development of the “natives” to ensure the latter’s development is similar or identical to what we have observed on Earth. “Advanced Alien Technology” will eventually be introduced but only as a means to further control the surface population. The Alien Technology will be strictly controlled as it is here on Earth. Eventually Global Governance will be attained by the reptilians.

Remember: These reptilians, due to their inherent interdimensional and technological capabilities, are essentially immortal. A number of abductees have described how interdimensional reptilians possess human bodies that have been prepared for them. They utilize these bodies until the bodies become too old or infirm. Then their consciousness is transferred into another specially prepared body. Moreover other technologically advanced species such as some of the Grey and Nordic factions are essentially cosmic vassals of the reptilians and do the latter’s bidding. From the standpoint of attaining total control of a subservient population the above model is the ideal modus operandi rather than invading an already advanced or semi-advanced civilization which would view any species arriving from beyond their world with fear and mistrust. This fear and mistrust may translate into fierce resistance against the reptilian invaders.

It is up to us to throw off the yoke of reptilian and hybrid oppression on this planet. We must also ensure that this process is not continued elsewhere in the Cosmos. If human DNA is utilized to genetically upgrade an existing sentient hominid species on another planet in order to make them genetically compatible and subservient to the reptilians, than in a very real sense, those future slaves are our genetic descendants or at the very least our cousins. We cannot allow this process of reptilian domination and control to continue endlessly throughout the Cosmos. We have to make a stand somewhere. This planet Earth is as a good place to start as any.

James Bartley is an Alien Abductee who has had numerous encounters with the Reptilians and the Greys. He is a student of Military History with an emphasis on Intelligence, Counterintelligence and Special Operations. He has also studied the corporate, financial, military, occultic and political aspects of the reptilian inspired New World Order. He has worked in an intelligence-related capacity with Naval Air Forces (NAVAIR) in Southern California.

Reality Bites

http://www.commondreams.org/print/48532

October 22, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Reality Bites
by Joyce Marcel

If you're like me, at some point in the past few years you've had the conversation about why there are so many dead bodies -- fake dead bodies -- on television.

We have dead bodies lying on slabs in the morgue on most of the "Law & Order" franchises -- and there are three of them, plus endless reruns. We have three "CSI" (Crime Scene Investigation) franchises, one each in Las Vegas, Miami and New York. We have two naval crime shows, although only one has an autopsy component. And only one has Mark Harmon, which is reason enough for watching.

Then we have all the non-uniformed detective shows -- the dead bodies battered, spattered, tossed, drowned, ripped apart or what have you just to jump-start the plot. Plus the British shows which pop up on PBS stations. Even "Inspector Lewis," the upscale British mystery series set in the ancient town of Oxford, England, features an occasional conversation around a slab.

The television conversation usually segues into why there are so many reality shows. There are far too many of those, too, of course, although the torrent appears to be slowing down. Several really bad ones (how can they tell?) have been pulled off the air, although Hugh Hefner has three new girlfriends, so there's that. There are even shows and Web sites that exist mostly to recap and/or make fun of all these shows. The recent Balloon Boy hoax is a good illustration of the damage these shows are doing.

Why is America endlessly entertained by all this? All this fake and staged reality? Is it because real reality hurts too much?

After all, this is a culture that has banished death from daily life. In the old days, homes had a "cooling room" where a relative's body, washed and dressed, could rest while people paid their respects. Now people die mainly in hospitals, or, if they die at home, their bodies are whisked away by professionals.

Since death is a part of life -- a terrifying part -- we humans remain intensely curious about it. Can it be that the more it disappears from our lives, the more we crave to see it, know it, understand it, inure ourselves to it?

And reality shows? Well, if you're dealing with real reality -- which can include raising children, caring for elderly parents and trying to do the jobs of two or more people at work because the others have been "laid off for the good health of the company," or you're afraid of being laid off, or you've been laid off and your unemployment insurance is running out, or if you or a loved one is sick and facing bankruptcy at the hands of the medical establishment, or if you're struggling with the death of a loved one who died in harm's way, or if you're homeless, or jobless or hungry, or... I can go on, but you know what I mean -- then reality once removed may be all you can handle.

Can Americans no longer deal with real reality? Newspapers and television news think so. Afraid to offend, they are endlessly squeamish about showing real blood and guts. Remember the bodies falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11? Those images were the perfect icons of that horrible day. And they were quickly scrubbed from our sight. A few years later, when a sculptor recreated one of those images, there was a huge outcry against his work. The Bush administration tried to hide the photos of coffins returning from Iraq. Just recently, some newspapers ran a picture of a soldier dying in Afghanistan and faced a national outcry.

After eight years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's difficult to conjure up images of the war because there are so few. Compare that to the iconic photographs from Vietnam or Korea or World War II. The only iconic image we have is that guy standing on the crate with a poncho over his head, and that's not exactly a good advertisement for American democracy.

So what is this weird dichotomy, where people have no qualms about sitting down in front of the television and watching three hours of dead bodies or strangers fighting to stay on an island, yet are somehow offended by an image of what war really looks like?

Bodies are piling up around the globe from rape, war, famine, pestilence and environmental degradation. Perhaps it is to our credit that we reach out to understand the dark side of 21st Century existence through our entertainment.

But perhaps we need to cut out the filters. Perhaps we need real images and real information about the damage we are doing to our fellow man and to our planet. And soon.

Joyce Marcel (joycemarcel.com ) is a Vermont columnist and journalist. Her email address is joycemarcel@yahoo.com .

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Believing is Seeing

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/162835.php

Believing is Seeing

Medical News Today
Thu, 03 Sep 2009

Folk wisdom usually has it that "seeing is believing," but new research suggests that "believing is seeing," too - at least when it comes to perceiving other people's emotions.

An international team of psychologists from the United States, New Zealand and France has found that the way we initially think about the emotions of others biases our subsequent perception (and memory) of their facial expressions. So once we interpret an ambiguous or neutral look as angry or happy, we later remember and actually see it as such.

The study, published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science, "addresses the age-old question: 'Do we see reality as it is, or is what we see influenced by our preconceptions?'" said coauthor Piotr Winkielman, professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego. "Our findings indicate that what we think has a noticeable effect on our perceptions."

"We imagine our emotional expressions as unambiguous ways of communicating how we're feeling," said coauthor Jamin Halberstadt, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, "but in real social interactions, facial expressions are blends of multiple emotions - they are open to interpretation. This means that two people can have different recollections about the same emotional episode, yet both be correct about what they 'saw.' So when my wife remembers my smirk as cynicism, she is right: her explanation of the expression at the time biased her perception of it. But it is also true that, had she explained my expression as empathy, I wouldn't be sleeping on the couch."

"It's a paradox," Halberstadt added. "The more we seek meaning in other emotions, the less accurate we are in remembering them."

The researchers point out that implications of the results go beyond everyday interpersonal misunderstandings - especially for those who have persistent or dysfunctional ways of understanding emotions, such as socially anxious or traumatized individuals. For example, the socially anxious have negative interpretations of others' reactions that may permanently color their perceptions of feelings and intentions, perpetuating their erroneous beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Other applications of the findings include eyewitness memory: A witness to a violent crime, for example, may attribute malice to a perpetrator - an impression which, according to the researchers, will influence memory for the perpetrator's face and emotional expression.

The researchers showed experimental participants still photographs of faces computer-morphed to express ambiguous emotion and instructed them to think of these faces as either angry or happy. Participants then watched movies of the faces slowly changing expression, from angry to happy, and were asked to find the photograph they had originally seen. People's initial interpretations influenced their memories: Faces initially interpreted as angry were remembered as expressing more anger than faces initially interpreted as happy.

Even more interesting, the ambiguous faces were also perceived and reacted to differently. By measuring subtle electrical signals coming from the muscles that control facial expressions, the researchers discovered that the participants imitated - on their own faces - the previously interpreted emotion when viewing the ambiguous faces again. In other words, when viewing a facial expression they had once thought about as angry, people expressed more anger themselves than did people viewing the same face if they had initially interpreted it as happy.

Because it is largely automatic, the researchers write, such facial mimicry reflects how the ambiguous face is perceived, revealing that participants were literally seeing different expressions.

"The novel finding here," said Winkielman, of UC San Diego, "is that our body is the interface: The place where thoughts and perceptions meet. It supports a growing area of research on 'embodied cognition' and 'embodied emotion.' Our corporeal self is intimately intertwined with how - and what - we think and feel."

Also coauthors on the study are Paula Niedenthal and Nathalie Dalle, both at the Universite Blaise Pascall, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

The research was supported by a National Science Foundation grant to Winkielman and Niedenthal and a University of Otago Research Grant to Halberstadt.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Do we live in a computer simulation?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225780.069-the-big-questions-what-is-reality.html?full=true&print=true

Do we live in a computer simulation?
Maybe reality isn't real after all. By Nick Bostrom

SCIENCE has revealed much about the world and our position within it. Generally, the findings have been humbling. The Earth is not the centre of the universe. Our species descended from brutes. We are made of the same stuff as mud. We are moved by neurophysiological signals and subject to a variety of biological, psychological and sociological influences over which we have limited control and little understanding.

One of our remaining sources of pride is technological progress. Like the polyps that over time create coral reefs, the many generations of humans that have come before us have built up a vast technological infrastructure. Our habitat is now largely one of human making. The fact of technological progress is also in a sense humbling. It suggests that the most advanced technology we have today is extremely limited and primitive compared with what our descendants will have.

If we extrapolate these expected technological advances, and think through some of their logical implications, we arrive at another humbling conclusion: the "simulation argument", which has caused some stir since I published it three years ago.

The formal version of the argument requires some probability theory, but the underlying idea can be grasped without mathematics. It starts with the assumption that future civilisations will have enough computing power and programming skills to be able to create what I call "ancestor simulations". These would be detailed simulations of the simulators' predecessors - detailed enough for the simulated minds to be conscious and have the same kinds of experiences we have. Think of an ancestor simulation as a very realistic virtual reality environment, but one where the brains inhabiting the world are themselves part of the simulation.

The simulation argument makes no assumption about how long it will take to develop this capacity. Some futurologists think it will happen within the next 50 years. But even if it takes 10 million years, it makes no difference to the argument.

Let me state what the conclusion of the argument is. The conclusion is that at least one of the following three propositions must be true:

Almost all civilisations at our level of development become extinct before becoming technologically mature.
The fraction of technologically mature civilisations that are interested in creating ancestor simulations is almost zero.
You are almost certainly living in a computer simulation.
How do we reach this conclusion? Suppose first that the first proposition is false. Then a significant fraction of civilisations at our level of development eventually become technologically mature. Suppose, too, that the second proposition is false. Then a significant fraction of these civilisations run ancestor simulations. Therefore, if both one and two are false, there will be simulated minds like ours.

If we work out the numbers, we find that there would be vastly many more simulated minds than non-simulated minds. We assume that technologically mature civilisations would have access to enormous amounts of computing power.

So enormous, in fact, that by devoting even a tiny fraction to ancestor simulations, they would be able to implement billions of simulations, each containing as many people as have ever existed. In other words, almost all minds like yours would be simulated. Therefore, by a very weak principle of indifference, you would have to assume that you are probably one of these simulated minds rather than one of the ones that are not simulated.

Hence, if you think that propositions one and two are both false, you should accept the third. It is not coherent to reject all three.

It should be emphasised that the simulation argument does not show that you are living in a simulation. The conclusion is simply that at least one of the three propositions is true. It does not tell us which one.

In reality, we don't have much specific information to tell us which of the three propositions might be true. In this situation, it might be reasonable to distribute our credence roughly evenly between them.

Let us consider the options in a little more detail. Proposition one is straightforward. For example, maybe there is some technology that every advanced civilisation eventually develops and which then destroys them. Let us hope this is not the case. Proposition two requires that there is a strong convergence among all advanced civilisations, such that almost none of them are interested in running ancestor simulations. One can imagine various reasons that may lead civilisations to make this choice. Yet for proposition two to be true, virtually all civilisations would have to refrain. If this were true, it would be an interesting constraint on the future evolution of intelligent life.

The third possibility is philosophically the most intriguing. If it is correct, you are almost certainly living in a computer simulation that was created by some advanced civilisation. What Copernicus and Darwin and latter-day scientists have been discovering are the laws and workings of the simulated reality. These laws might or might not be identical to those operating at the more fundamental level of reality where the computer that is running our simulation exists (which, of course, may itself be a simulation). In a way, our place in the world would be even humbler than we thought.

What kind of implications would this have? How should it change the way you live your life?

Your first reaction might be to think that if three is true, then all bets are off and you would go crazy. To reason thus would be an error. Even if we are in a simulation, the best methods of predicting what will happen next are still the familiar ones - extrapolation of past trends, scientific modelling and common sense. To a first approximation, if you thought you were in a simulation, you should get on with your life in much the same way as if you were convinced that you were leading a non-simulated life at the "bottom" level of reality.

If we are in a simulation, could we ever know for certain? If the simulators don't want us to find out, we probably never will. But if they choose to reveal themselves, they could do so. Another event that would let us conclude with a high degree of confidence that we are in a simulation is if we ever reach a point when we are about to switch on our own ancestor simulations. That would be very strong evidence against the first two propositions, leaving us only with the third.

Nick Bostrom is director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. Many of his writings can be found at www.nickbostrom.com

What Is Reality?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225780.069-the-big-questions-what-is-reality.html

WHAT do we understand by "reality"? For those of us who consider ourselves hard-headed realists, there is a kind of common-sense answer: "Reality consists of those things - tables, chairs, trees, houses, planets, animals, people and so on - which are actual things made of matter." We might tend to include some more abstract-seeming notions such as space and time, and the totality of all such "real" things would be referred to as "the universe".

Some might well consider that this is not the whole of reality, however. In particular, there is the question of the reality of our minds. Should we not include a conscious experience as something real? And what about concepts, such as truth, virtue or beauty? Of course, some hard-headed people might adopt a doggedly materialist point of view and take mentality and all its attributes to be secondary to what is materially real. Our mental states, after all (so it would be argued), are simply emergent features of the construction and behaviour of our physical brains. We behave in certain ways merely because our brains act according to physical laws - the same laws as those that are strictly obeyed by all other pieces of physical material. Conscious mental experience, accordingly, has no further reality than that of the material underlying its existence; though not yet properly understood, it is merely an "epiphenomenon", having no additional influence on the way that our bodies behave beyond what those physical laws demand.

Should we not include a conscious experience as something real? What about truth, Virtue or beauty?
Some philosophers might take an almost opposite view, arguing that it is conscious experience itself that is primary. From this perspective, the "external reality" that appears to constitute the ambient environment of this experience is to be understood as a secondary construct that is abstracted from conscious sense-data. Some might even feel driven to the view that one's own particular conscious experience is to be regarded as primary, and that the experiences of others are themselves merely things to be abstracted, ultimately, from one's own sense-data.

I have to confess to having considerable difficulty with such a picture of reality, which seems to me lopsided. At best, it would be difficult to convince anyone else of a theory of reality that depended upon such solipsism for its basis. Moreover, I find it extremely hard to see how the extraordinary precision that we seem to observe in the workings of the natural world should find its basis in the musings of any individual.

Even if such a solipsistic basis is not adopted, so that the totality of all conscious experience is to be taken as the primary reality, I still have great difficulty. This would seem to demand that "external reality" is merely something that emerges from some kind of majority-wins voting amongst the individual conscious experiences of all of us taken together. I cannot see that such an emergent picture could have anything like the robustness and precision that we seem to see outside ourselves, stretching away seemingly endlessly in all directions in space and in time, and inwards to minute levels that we do not directly perceive with our senses; all requiring many different kinds of precision instruments to explore the universe over a vast range of different scales. True, there is a mystery about consciousness itself, and it is profoundly puzzling how it could come about from the seemingly purely calculational, unfeeling and utterly impersonal laws of physics that appear to govern the behaviour of all material things. Nevertheless, among the basic laws of physics that we know - and we do not yet know all of them - some are precise to an extraordinary degree, far beyond the precision of our direct sense experiences, or of the combined calculational powers of all conscious individuals within the ken of mankind.

One example of an over-reachingly deep and precise physical theory is Einstein's magnificent general theory of relativity, which improves even upon the already amazingly accurate Newtonian theory of gravity. In the behaviour of the solar system, Newton's theory is precise to something like one part in 107: Einstein's theory does much more, giving not only corrections to Newton's theory that become relevant when gravitational fields get large, but also predicting completely new effects, such as black holes, gravitational lensing and gravitational waves - the analogues, for gravitation, of the light waves of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory.

The agreement between theory and experiment here has been extraordinary. Astronomers have, for example, been monitoring the orbits of one double neutron star system - known as PSR 1913+16 - for around 40 years. The emission of Einstein's predicted gravitational waves from this system has been confirmed through a very gradual shortening of the stars' orbital period, and there has been an agreement between the signals received from space and the overall predictions of Einstein's theory to an astonishing 14 decimal places. At the other end of the size scale, there are multitudes of very precise observations that give innumerable confirmations of the accuracy of quantum theory and also of its generalisation to the quantum theory of relativistic fields, which gives us quantum electrodynamics. The magnetic moment of an electron, for example, has been precisely measured to some 11 decimal places, and the observed figures are matched precisely by the theoretical predictions of quantum electrodynamics.

An important point to be made about these physical theories is that they are not just enormously precise but depend upon mathematics of very considerable sophistication. It would be a mistake to think of the role of mathematics in basic physical theory as being simply organisational, where the entities that constitute the world just behave in one way or another, and our theories represent merely our attempts - sometimes very successful - to make some kind of sense of what is going on around us. In such a view there would be no particular mathematical order to the world; it would be we who, in a sense, impose this order by describing, in an elaborate mathematical scheme, those aspects of the world's behaviour that we can make sense of.

To me, such a description again falls far short of explaining the extraordinary precision in the agreement between the most remarkable of the physical theories that we have come across and the behaviour of our material universe at its most fundamental levels. Take, for another example, that most universal of physical influences, gravitation. It operates across the greatest reaches of space, but as early as the 17th century Newton had discovered that it was subject to a beautifully simple mathematical description. This was later found to remain accurate to a degree that is tens of thousands of times greater than the observational precision available to Newton. In the 20th century, Einstein gave us general relativity, providing insights at a yet deeper level. This theory involved considerably more mathematical sophistication than Newton's: Newton had needed to introduce the procedures of calculus in order to formulate his gravitational theory, but Einstein added the sophistication of differential geometry - and increased the agreement between theory and observation by a factor of around 10 million. It should be made clear that, in each case, the increased accuracy was not the result of a new theory being introduced only to make sense of vast amounts of new data. The extra precision was seen only after each theory had been produced, revealing accord between physical behaviour at its deepest level and a beautiful, sophisticated mathematical scheme.

If, as this suggests, the mathematics is indeed there in the behaviour of physical things and not merely imposed by us, then we must ask again what substance does this "reality" that we see about us actually have? What, after all, is the real table that I am now sitting at actually composed of? It is made of wood, yes, but what is wood made of? Well, fibres that were once living cells. And these? Molecules that are composed of individual atoms. And the atoms? They have their nuclei, built from protons and neutrons and glued together by strong nuclear forces; these nuclei are orbited by electrons, held in by the considerably weaker electromagnetic forces. Going deeper, protons and neutrons are to be thought of as composed of more elementary ingredients, quarks, held together by further entities called gluons. Just what are electrons, quarks and so on, though? The best we can do at this stage is simply to refer to the mathematical equations that they satisfy, which for electrons and quarks would be the Dirac equation. What distinguishes a quark from an electron would be their very different masses and the fact that quarks indulge in interactions - namely the "strong" interactions - that electrons are blind to. What, then, are gluons? They are "gauge" particles that mediate the strong force - which is again a notion that can only be understood in terms of the mathematics used to describe them.

Even if we accept that an electron, say, should be understood as being merely an entity that is the solution of some mathematical equation, how do we distinguish that electron from some other electron? Here a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics comes to our rescue. It asserts that all electrons are indistinguishable from one another: we cannot talk of this electron and that electron, but only of the system, which consists of a pair of electrons, say, or a triple or a quadruple, and so on. Something very similar applies to quarks or gluons or to any other specific kind of particle. Quantum reality is strange that way.

We cannot talk of this electron and that electron, only of a system. Quantum reality is strange that way
Indeed, quantum reality is strange in many ways. Individual quantum particles can, at one time, be in two different places - or three, or four, or spread out throughout some region, perhaps wiggling around like a wave. Indeed, the "reality" that quantum theory seems to be telling us to believe in is so far removed from what we are used to that many quantum theorists would tell us to abandon the very notion of reality when considering phenomena at the scale of particles, atoms or even molecules.

This seems rather hard to take, especially when we are also told that quantum behaviour rules all phenomena, and that even large-scale objects, being built from quantum ingredients, are themselves subject to the same quantum rules. Where does quantum non-reality leave off and the physical reality that we actually seem to experience begin to take over? Present-day quantum theory has no satisfactory answer to this question. My own viewpoint concerning this - and there are many other viewpoints - is that present-day quantum theory is not quite right, and that as the objects under consideration get more massive then the principles of Einstein's general relativity begin to clash with those of quantum mechanics, and a notion of reality that is more in accordance with our experiences will begin to emerge. The reader should be warned, however: quantum mechanics as it stands has no accepted observational evidence against it, and all such modifications remain speculative. Moreover, even general relativity, involving as it does the idea of a curved space-time, itself diverges from the notions of reality we are used to.

Whether we look at the universe at the quantum scale or across the vast distances over which the effects of general relativity become clear, then, the common-sense reality of chairs, tables and other material things would seem to dissolve away, to be replaced by a deeper reality inhabiting the world of mathematics. Our mathematical models of physical reality are far from complete, but they provide us with schemes that model reality with great precision - a precision enormously exceeding that of any description that is free of mathematics. There seems every reason to believe that these already remarkable schemes will be improved upon and that even more elegant and subtle pieces of mathematics will be found to mirror reality with even greater precision. Might mathematical entities inhabit their own world, the abstract Platonic world of mathematical forms? It is an idea that many mathematicians are comfortable with. In this scheme, the truths that mathematicians seek are, in a clear sense, already "there", and mathematical research can be compared with archaeology; the mathematicians' job is to seek out these truths as a task of discovery rather than one of invention. To a mathematical Platonist, it is not so absurd to seek an ultimate home for physical reality within Plato's world.

Mathematical models of the physical world provide us with schemes that model reality with great precision
This is not acceptable to everyone. Many philosophers, and others, would argue that mathematics consists merely of idealised mental concepts, and, if the world of mathematics is to be regarded as arising ultimately from our minds, then we have reached a circularity: our minds arise from the functioning of our physical brains, and the very precise physical laws that underlie that functioning are grounded in the mathematics that requires our brains for its existence. My own position is to avoid this immediate paradox by allowing the Platonic mathematical world its own timeless and locationless existence, while allowing it to be accessible to us through mental activity. My viewpoint allows for three different kinds of reality: the physical, the mental and the Platonic-mathematical, with something (as yet) profoundly mysterious in the relations between the three.

We do not properly understand why it is that physical behaviour is mirrored so precisely within the Platonic world, nor do we have much understanding of how conscious mentality seems to arise when physical material, such as that found in wakeful healthy human brains, is organised in just the right way. Nor do we really understand how it is that consciousness, when directed towards the understanding of mathematical problems, is capable of divining mathematical truth. What does this tell us about the nature of physical reality? It tells us that we cannot properly address the question of that reality without understanding its connection with the other two realities: conscious mentality and the wonderful world of mathematics.

Is quantum mechanics messing with your memory?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/aug/26/entropy-time-arrow-quantum-mechanics

Is quantum mechanics messing with your memory?
27 August 2009

For all we know we may live in a world in which windows un-break and cold cups of coffee spontaneously heat up, we just don't remember. The explanation is quantum entanglement

A physicist has claimed that glass can un-break – but quantum entanglement prevents our brains from recording the event. Photograph: David Levene

Imagine if a cold cup of coffee spontaneously heated up as you watched. Or a cracked pane of glass suddenly un-broke. According to physicist Lorenzo Maccone at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you see things like this all the time – you just don't remember.

In a paper published last week in Physical Review Letters, he attempts to provide a solution to what has been called the mystery of "the arrow-of-time".

Briefly, the problem is that while our laws of physics are all symmetrical or "time-reversal invariant" – they apply equally well if time runs forwards or backwards – most of the everyday phenomena we observe, like the cooling of hot coffee, are not. They never seem to happen in reverse.

We have a statistical law that describes these everyday phenomena called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law tells us that the "entropy" or degree of disorder of a closed system never decreases. Roughly speaking, a process in which entropy increases is one where the system becomes increasingly disordered. Windows break, thereby increasing disorder, but they will not spontaneously unbreak. Gases will disperse but not spontaneously compress.

However, entropy describes what happens with large numbers of particles. We presume that it must arise from what happens with individual particles, but all the laws that govern the behaviour of individual particles are time-reversal invariant. This means that any process they allow in one direction of time, they also allow in the other.

So why will your coffee spontaneously cool down, but not heat up?

Maccone's solution is to suggest that in fact entropy-decreasing events occur all the time – so there is no asymmetry and no associated mystery about the arrow of time.

He argues that quantum mechanics dictates that if anyone does observe an entropy-decreasing event, their memories of the event "will have been erased by necessity".

Maccone doesn't mean that your memories will never form in the first place. "What I'm pointing out is that memories are formed and then are subsequently erased," he tells me.

When you observe any system, according to Maccone, you enter into a "quantum entanglement" with it. That is, you and the system are entangled and cannot properly be described separately.

The entanglement, Maccone says, is between your memory and the system. When you disentangle, "the disentangling operation will erase this entanglement, namely the observer's memory". His paper derives this conclusion mathematically.

While we cannot remember our cups of coffee re-heating, and hence cannot study them, Maccone thinks that entropy-decreasing events like that must happen.

"If transformations that increase the entropy do occur – and we know that they do – by symmetry we should expect also transformations that decrease the entropy – but we cannot see them."

I'm not convinced that Maccone has solved the dilemma of the arrow of time, and I'm not alone.

One problem is that, as he acknowledges, he cannot prove that entropy-decreasing events occur. Rather, he shows that if they do, we won't remember them.

Concerns about symmetry lead him to conclude that they must in fact happen. However, it is statistically very (very, very very) unlikely that the entropy of a macroscopic system will decrease.

It's all down to the way particles move around. In a gas, for example, there are many fewer ways in which the particles can be in a lower entropy state than there are ways for them to be in a higher entropy state. So the most likely state either before or after is one of higher entropy – simply because there are many more such states for the system to occupy.

Importantly, the statistics of entropy do not predict an asymmetry, because they suggest entropy should neither decrease towards the past nor decrease towards the future.

The mystery of the arrow of time is that entropy only increases towards the future. Put another way, why does entropy actually decrease towards the past, despite what the statistics predict?

Maccone says that "we should expect" entropy decreases towards the future since they occur towards the past. But the statistics show us that we should expect no such thing. It is enormously surprising that they happen towards the past and it would be doubly surprising if they happened towards the future. Symmetry is not a reason to expect what we know is statistically extremely unlikely.

Huw Price, head of the Centre for Time at the University of Sydney, thinks Maccone is simply trading one mystery for another.

"The proposal to explain the thermodynamic arrow in terms of the [quantum] effects of observers has an obvious flaw," he says. "It doesn't explain why all observers have the same orientation in time ... Why don't some observers remember what we call the future, and accumulate information towards what we call the past?"

A standard way of explaining why observers like us remember the past is by appealing to thermodynamics – the fact that entropy is increasing. This explanation is unavailable to Maccone since his theory takes that thermodynamic fact to depend on the existence of observers. Such an explanation, for Maccone, would thus be circular.

If Price is right, then Maccone has explained one temporal asymmetry at the expense of creating another that is equally hard to explain.

What's more, Price thinks that Maccone has made a hidden asymmetrical assumption. He argues that the quantum correlations Maccone relies on must be assumed to happen only in one temporal direction and not the other. "But that's just assuming the conclusion he wants to derive."

Whether or not Maccone has solved the mystery of the arrow of time is unclear. But to tell the truth, it would suit me just fine if my cold cup of coffee heated back up all on its own. I don't even care if I remember it happening or not.

Michael Slezak is a freelance journalist and teaches the philosophy of science at the University of Sydney, Australia