cia.gov |A total of 25,449 trials were conducted under a variety of protocols. Analysisindicates that the odds that our result are notdue to simple statistical fluctuationsalone are better than 2 X 1020to 1 (i.e. 2 followed by 20 zeros). Using acceptedcriteriasetforthinthestandardbehavioralsciences,weconcludethatthisconstitutes convincing, if not conclusive.21
The psychogenetic effort has been divided into various categorieswithin these processes. The various categories within this domain are defined as follows: (1)Forced-Choice–remote viewing where the targets are drawn from a limited (andknown) set of potentialsymbols (e.g. the integers 0, 1)
(2)RV-Lab–remote viewing where the targets are drawn from a large set of potentialmaterials(e.g.photographsofnaturalscenes,naturalphysical locations), and the experiments are conducted under strict laboratory conditions.
(3)RV-Ops–remote viewing where the targets are drawn from specific targets of interest
(4)Search–remote viewing where the targets are generally known but their locationis unknown (e.g. a specific military aircraft is known to have crashed–where isit?)22
Theirpoint was clear that the remote viewing was convincing, if not conclusive, for thesefour categories, which wasapparentlyuseful to the military objective.
The CIA made acritical review on the remote viewing, even before the GRILL FLAME wasofficiallyestablished in the late 1970s.Dr. Ross Adey was asked to review the outcome in1984,and at the end ofthe1980s, the SRI itself wasordered todemonstratethe effectivenessof their researches.
medium | In the late 1940’s and early 50’s, Karl Pribram,
a neuroscientist, performed defining neuro-behavioural experiments that
established the underlying structure of the executive functions of the
prefrontal cortex and the limbic system.
In essence, the neural architectures of thought and feeling.
Additionally, he discovered that the sensory-specific associationcortex
of the parietal and temporal lobes, where associations are made between
the body’s senses in real-time, “operate to organize the choices we
make among sensory stimuli, and not the sensing of the stimuli themselves.”
But what Pribram is best known for is holonomic brain theory, which describes human cognition by modeling the brain as a holographic storage network, with consciousness being shaped by the quantum effects occurring within and between brain cells.
In 1975, Pribram was inspired by the work of Bohm who had noted that the universe would look like a hologram to us if we did not have the use of lenses.
Building on this insight, Pribram concluded that our view of the world would be a hologram — a diffuse scattering of the interference patterns of electromagnetic waves — if not for the lenses of our eyes.
And
that the neural processes of perception are formed by several stages of
transformation, each stage having its roots in quantum mechanics.
In a famous collaboration with Bohm that followed, Pribram laid the foundation for a quantum theory of consciousness, connecting Bohm’s theory of holomovment with the mathematics of holography and neuroscience.
Pribram hypothesized that memory takes the form of interference patterns similar to those of holograms produced by a laser.
Pribram suggested that cognition involved electrical oscillations in the delicate fibers of the dendritic web, which are different from the more commonly known action potentials of axons and synapses.
In other words, the space between the neurons — and not the neurons themselves —was responsible for consciousness.
Pribram hypothesized that the fluctuations of brainwaves riding on gray matter, glial cells, and the synapto-dendritic web “create interference patterns in which memory is encoded naturally, and the waves may be analyzed by a Fourier transform.”
And remember, with a hologram,any part of it with sufficient size contains the whole of the stored information.
In
this theory, a piece of a long-term memory is similarly distributed
over a dendritic arbor so that each part of the dendritic network
contains all the information stored over the entire network.
This
structuring of the brain provides the capability of responding to
stimuli without specialized and constrained paths of nerve conduction.
Instead,
the brain operates as a general purpose computer with built-in
redundancy, each part receiving information about the whole and
performing a specific computation on it — at all scales.
Like
many structures found in nature, the brain’s architecture is fractal.
And perhaps it follows that the algorithm is as well. Consciousness
itself.
In this model, consciousness is expressed by a Fourier transform between the frequency and space-time domains of reality. It’s what reveals the available degrees of freedom with respect to the past and the future —in essence, it’s a function to decide what to pay attention to.
But ultimately, consciousness is really the platform for making a choice. A multi-dimensional awareness of and response to the environment. The basis for an informed decision, at any scale.
Perception,
then, is the re-construction of the hologram, a momentary collapse of
the wave-function into an explicate order. The filtering and focusing of
attention predicated on the past and future.
Perception is the simulation.
The
electrical signals of the nervous system are the read-write interface
to the hologram. And consciousness is what illuminates the choices
available now, in the present — focusing our attention — distorted and myopic as it may be.
Holographic Associative Memory
In
the typical operation of holograms, we shine a reference beam on a
holographic film to re-construct the visual image of the object beam,
thereby observing a virtual image in the reflected light.
And
in theory, we can also reverse the procedure, using the object beam to
illuminate the hologram, re-creating the original reference beam.
The light itself.
In
this dual mode of operation, a holographic associative memory —HAM, for
short— is a form of data storage where information from the object beam
and reference beam can be saved and retrieved by associating them with
one another in interference patterns. Each part of the pattern contains
them both, and each can be used to retrieve the other.
In other words, a hologram with a read-write interface.
HAM
is part of the family of analog, correlation-based, associative,
stimulus-response memories, where information is mapped onto the phase
orientation of complex numbers operating on a Riemann surface.
It can be considered as a complex valued artificial neural network.
The HAM also exhibits some remarkable characteristics, as it has been shown to be effective for associative memory tasks, generalization, and pattern recognition with changeable attention.
And the ability of dynamic search localization
is central to natural memory. For example, in visual perception, humans
always tend to focus on some specific objects in a pattern. Humans can
effortlessly change the focus from object to object without requiring
relearning.
HAM provides a computational model which can mimic this ability by creating a representation for focus
Stimulus-response associations are both learned and expressed in one non-iterative transformation. No backpropagation of error terms or iterative processing required.
The method forms a non-connectionist model
in which the ability to superimpose a very large number of
stimulus-response patterns or complex associations may be superimposed
or “enfolded” on a single neural element.
The generated phase angle communicates response information, andmagnitude communicates a measure of recognition (or confidence in the result).
The process permits a capability with neural system to establish dominance profile of stored information, thus exhibiting amemory profileof any range — from short-term to long-term memory.
The process follows the non-disturbance rule, that is prior stimulus-response associations are minimally influenced by subsequent learning.
The information is presented in abstract form by a complex vector which may be expressed directly by a waveformpossessing frequency and magnitude. This waveform is analogous to electro-chemical impulses believed to transmit information between biological neuron cells.
To the point, the universe is a HAM and the brain is it’s tuner.
dtic.mil | The natural evolution of Man is finished now, within the lifetime of the average reader. The fifth stage of planetary evolution of life is the final stage of evolution by natural selection. Thus, any "next step" in evolution must be taken technologically by the species itself if it is to be taken at all. Any such step to a sixth stage of evolution must paradoxically involve the reimposition of a sort of positive internal control, somehow without giving up genetic deprogramming.
The fact that rigid and foolproof control must be established to eliminate destructive competition, while at the same time genetic control must remain relinquished if intelligence is to be retained, is the precise, contradictory, solitary human problem. It is this hard nut that all systems, organizations, governments, societies, sciences, theorists, religious leaders, meglomaniacs, dictators, portificators, and well-meaning but ignorant visionaries and humanitarians have failed to chew and swallow since time immemorial. The usual solution advanced is this. "If everyone would just be a perfect citizen, behave ideally, and love and help everyone else always, then the problem would be solved."
Any fool will agree with that; the proposition is incredibly naive and a tautology. The question is, "How, pray tell, can one get all persons to be perfect?" Law, logic, philosophy, creed, religion, practice, love, sacrifice, money, the ballot, and the bullet -- all of these have empirically proven that they cannot solve the human problem for all humanity. Since none of the solutions advanced to date can solve the problem, we must discard them all and search for a new approach. And a Teilhardian solution indeed emerges if one ponders diligently. The solution can be synthesized into two parts: each individual human must possess an internal mechanism for generating appropriate limits to personal behavior, and there must exist a totally reliable external process to implant or induce the internal mechanism. And one would also hope for the "maximum individual freedom within the constraints of minimum essential inter-individual control."
The only viable solution is to link the brains of all men into one giant superbraln. it is the entire species which has been developing, and it is the entire species which now must be linked into one superbeing. Jung's collective unconscious must acquire a single integrated consciousness, instead of the fragmented billions it now possesses. Each mancell must function individually within its own sphere, but in intermancell harmony under the control of a single linked-species nervous
system.
This linkage must b6 accomplizhed technologically by creating and installing a system of direct communication links between all men's individual brains. A most curious phenomenon occurs whenever two nervous system brains are directly linked together so that each can perceive no temporal delay between the two; the engs, egos, and personalities o: the two brains integrate and merge into one being, one ego, and one personality. Thus linkage admirably ends the destructive competition between the formerly separated brains.
E.g., suppose you and I have linked our brains. If I am you and you are me, then "we" shall find it impossible to disadvantage "each other" since "we" and "each other" no longer exist. I.e., only one "I" remains in the two linked brains, integrated in both of them. So the "one" cannot kill the "other" because no "other" any longer separately exists.
In fact, absolute proof of the "single-being" identity of two linked brains unequivocally exists. The human brain (cerebrum) is composed of left and right hemispheres, completely separated except for a thick connecting cable of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. Essentially the left cerebral hemisphere controls the right side of the body and the right cerebral hemisphere controls the left side of the body. With two brains in charge, one half (usually the left) almost always dominates, and each of the two halves specializes. However, signals from one half are immediately transmitted to the second half, preventing the second half from detecting any difference or time delay between itself and the primary half. I.e., the second half gets an immediate "wiggle" and perceives that it, the second half, originated the wiggle,
When consciousness can perceive no difference, identity results, just as separate movie frames appear continuous (each two appear one) when flashed at 22 framres per second. Thus in one's own body, two brains are integrated into one functional brain and one perceptual personaliLy. There is no conscious separation of the two brain hemispherical perceptions, and one consciously is aware of only one being or continuity, himself. In humans whose corpus callosums have been severed, the two brains exhibit separate consciousnesses and separate "personalities."
The photon interaction, however, constitutes a
time-differentiating operation imposed upon 4-dimensional Minkowskian
reality (which is unperceived reality), producing three-dimensional, objective, determined, past reality.
Photon absorption
constitutes dimensional differentiation of reality, while photon
emission constitutes dimensional integration. Objective concepts have
been developed in correspondence to the photon interaction.
In the two-slit experiment, the electron is
4-dimensional, not 3-dimensional. When shielded against the photon
interaction, it remains four-dimensional, possessing its time dimension, and capable of interacting in a time-like manner.
By wavelength one refers inversely to a time interval.
Synchronization
of time intervals between slit dimensions and electron
wavelength results in time interaction between the electron’s time
dimension and the time dimension of the two slits . Thus the electron
interacts with both slits if shielded against the
photon interaction, and time waves are propagated forward from both
slits. If the slits are made much larger, time synchronization is
destroyed and the classical effect reappears . If the photon interaction
is imposed upon the electron, it is time-differentiated
and becomes a classical object , having lost its time dimension.
When the electron encounters the screen, it meets a
region of randomly varying time oscillations of the orbital electrons
around the individual atoms comprising the screen . Thus the exact
location of the orbital electron in the screen
which will first precisely time-synchronize with the electron
wavelength reciprocally is a random choice , and the “place” where the
electron hits the screen is randomly selected along the screen, when the
electron is four dimensional. The time pattern of
the 4-d electron , however, had a distribution induced by its previous
time interaction with the two slits . The pattern of this time
distribution is wavelike, and is recovered when the distribution of the
number of electron hits per screen length (which
involves cumulation over time) is plotted .
Thus the two-slit experiment can be explained once
the fourth law of logic is comprehended , and once the dimensionality of
the electron and other parts of the experimental apparatus are taken
into account.
The author points out that ordinary instruments
and devices can be made to process entities in the unseparated state
(multi-ocular state) , as demonstrated by the two-slit apparatus itself .
Some consequences of this fact are mentioned, and the author refers to a basic mechanism he has proposed for the deliberate and controlled violation of objective reality
.
What is normally referred to as the "conscious, thinking mind" is simply a functioning temporal (rigorously, chronotopological) mechanism that is painfully built up in the individual's awareness (his mind in the greater sense of both thought and awareness, whether monocular or multiocular) by training, conditioning and experience. Its functioning is largely conditioned by one's 90% or so attention to visual stimuli (to the partial reality remaining after photon interaction has been invoked, and to the memory-collated ordering of vast numbers of such photon interactions) and by one's cultural conditioning - which itself has been almost exclusively conditioned and shaped by the monocular photon interaction at base root.
Thus, since the beginning of man, (Bearden radically overstates the case here. It would be more accurate to say that since a time definite in the western epoch) his conscious, rational mind has been trained and constructed to function almost exclusively in basic correspondence with the photon interaction, and his experiential reality consists of the partial reality stripped from fundamental reality by photon interaction.
All "perceived differences," e.g., are created by this deep mind-set. As has been previously pointed out, 6 the solitary human problem responsible for all man's inhumanity to his fellow man is directly dependent upon man's almost exclusive detection, observation, perception, and conception of "difference" between humans, these "differences" being due exclusively and totally to the fitting of men's conscious minds to the photon interaction's monocular separation of spatial reality from nonspatial reality, i.e., to
∂/∂T (L3T) => L3
Such well-nigh total devotion to, and enslavement by, photon interaction also is responsible for the scientist's well-nigh total devotion to, and enslavement by, the present imperfect and incomplete three laws of logic, as presented by Aristotle. The depth of that devotion and enslavement is evidenced by the fact that the resolution of such paradoxes as Heraclitus's problem of change have eluded the best minds of humanity for several thousands of years. Indeed, these paradoxes cannot be resolved by the conscious, rational mind in its present state, for it has been most firmly constructed and fitted to function in accordance with the photon interaction.7 One cannot hope to resolve any logical paradox by using only those same logical methods that found the situation to be paradoxical in the first place!
Although ETH has remained the predominant explanation for UFOs by UFOlogists,[3] some ufologists have abandoned it in favor of IDH. Paranormal researcher Brad Steiger wrote that "we are dealing with a multidimensional paraphysical phenomenon that is largely indigenous to planet Earth".[4] Other UFOlogists, such as John Ankerberg
and John Weldon, advocate IDH because it fits the explanation of UFOs
as a spiritual phenomenon. Commenting on the disparity between the ETH
and the accounts that people have made of UFO encounters, Ankerberg and
Weldon wrote "the UFO phenomenon simply does not behave like
extraterrestrial visitors."[5] In the book UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse published in 1970, John Keel linked UFOs to folkloric or supernatural concepts such as ghosts and demons.
Some UFO proponents accepted IDH because the distance between stars makes interstellar travel impractical using conventional means and nobody had demonstrated an antigravity or faster-than-light
travel hypothesis that could explain extraterrestrial machines. With
IDH, it is unnecessary to explain any propulsion method because the IDH
holds that UFOs are not spacecraft, but rather devices that travel
between different realities.[7]
One advantage of IDH proffered by Hilary Evans
is its ability to explain the apparent ability of UFOs to appear and
disappear from sight and radar; this is explained as the UFO entering
and leaving our dimension ("materializing"
and "dematerializing"). Moreover, Evans argues that if the other
dimension is slightly more advanced than ours, or is our own future,
this would explain the UFOs' tendency to represent near future
technologies (airships in the 1890s, rockets and supersonic travel in
the 1940s, etc.).[8]
Scientific opinion has generally followed public opinion in the
belief that unidentified flying objects either do not exist (the
"natural phenomena hypothesis") or, if they do, must represent evidence
of a visitation by some advanced race of space travellers (the
extraterrestrial hypothesis or "ETH"). It is the view of the author that
research on UFOs need not be restricted to these two alternatives. On
the contrary, the accumulated data base exhibits several patterns
tending to indicate that UFOs are real, represent a previously
unrecognized phenomenon, and that the facts do not support the common
concept of "space visitors". Five specific arguments articulated here
contradict the ETH:
unexplained close encounters are far more numerous than required for any physical survey of the earth;
the humanoid body structure of the alleged "aliens" is not likely to have originated on another planet and is not biologically adapted to space travel;
the reported behavior in thousands of abduction reports contradicts
the hypothesis of genetic or scientific experimentation on humans by an
advanced race;
the extension of the phenomenon throughout recorded human history demonstrates that UFOs are not a contemporary phenomenon; and
the apparent ability of UFOs to manipulate space and time suggests radically different and richer alternatives.
Then there is a third level, the mythological or sociological level. At that level, the physical reality of the actual UFO is totally irrelevant. Proving that Jesus Christ never existed would have little effect on our society in terms of belief systems; at this point, the influence of Jesus would remain even without a historical Jesus.
Important Element: An interesting focus on Jesus Christ throughout his writings, including his earliest books in the 1970s. Originally posted December 19, 2011.
wikipedia | In 1967, Puthoff earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.[1][2][3]
He then worked with, and invented, tunable lasers and electron beam
devices, concerning which he holds patents, and he is co-author (with R.
Pantell) of Fundamentals of Quantum Electronics (Wiley, 1969), published in English, French, Russian and Chinese. Puthoff published papers on polarizable vacuum (PV) and stochastic electrodynamics topics, which are examples of alternative approaches to general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Puthoff took an interest in the Church of Scientology in the late 1960s and reached what was then the top OT VII level by 1971.[3] Puthoff wrote up his "wins" for a Scientology publication, claiming to have achieved "remote viewing" abilities.[4] In 1974, Puthoff also wrote a piece for Scientology's Celebrity magazine, stating that Scientology had given him "a feeling of absolute fearlessness".[5] Puthoff severed all connection with Scientology in the late 1970s.[6]
In 1985, Puthoff founded a for-profit company, EarthTech
International in Austin, Texas. At about the same time, he founded an
organization, Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin (IASA), also in
Austin, Texas, where he is Director.[9] Independent of the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton, New Jersey, IASA pursues ideas that Puthoff finds
interesting specifically related to energy generation and space
propulsion, with funding from anonymous donors.
Puthoff and EarthTech were granted a US Patent 5,845,220[10]
in 1998 after five years delay. The claims were disputed that
information could be transmitted through a distance using a modulated
potential with no electric or magnetic field components. The case is
used for educational purposes in patent law[11] as an example of a valid
patent where "The lesson of the Puthoff patent is that in a world where
both types of patents are more and more common, even a competent
examiner may fail to distinguish innovation from pseudoscience."
wikipedia |1970s - In 1970 United States intelligence sources believed that the Soviet Union was spending 60 million rubles annually on "psychotronic"
research. In response to claims that the Soviet program had produced
results, the CIA initiated funding for a new program known as SCANATE
("scan by coordinate") in the same year.[11]Remote viewing research began in 1972 at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California.[11] Proponents (Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff) of the research said that a minimum accuracy rate of 65% required by the clients was often exceeded in the later experiments.[11]
PhysicistsRussell Targ and Harold Puthoff began testing psychics for SRI in 1972, including one who would later become an international celebrity, Israeli Uri Geller. Their apparently successful results garnered interest within the U.S. Department of Defense. Ray Hyman, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, was asked by Air Force psychologist Lt. Col. Austin W. Kibler (1930–2008)—then Director of Behavioral Research for ARPA—to
go to SRI and investigate. He was to specifically evaluate Geller.
Hyman's report to the government was that Geller was a "complete fraud"
and as a consequence Targ and Puthoff lost their government contract to
do further work with him. The result was a publicity tour for Geller,
Targ and Puthoff, to seek private funding for further research work on
Geller.[12]
One of the project's successes was the location of a lost Soviet
spy plane in 1976 by Rosemary Smith, a young administrative assistant
recruited by project director Dale Graff.[13]
In 1977 the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI)
Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED) started the GONDOLA WISH program
to "evaluate potential adversary applications of remote viewing."[11] Army Intelligence then formalized this in mid-1978 as an operational program GRILL FLAME, based in buildings 2560 and 2561 at Fort Meade, in Maryland (INSCOM "Detachment G").[11]
1980s
In early
1979 the research at SRI was integrated into GRILL FLAME, which was
redesignated INSCOM CENTER LANE Project (ICLP) in 1983. In 1984 the
existence of the program was reported by Jack Anderson, and in that year it was unfavorably received by the National Academy of SciencesNational Research Council.
In late 1985 the Army funding was terminated, but the program was
redesignated SUN STREAK and funded by the DIA's Scientific and Technical
Intelligence Directorate (office code DT-S).[11]
1990s
In 1991 most of the contracting for the program was transferred from SRI to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), with Edwin May controlling 70% of the contractor funds and 85% of the data. Its security was altered from Special Access Program (SAP) to Limited Dissemination (LIMDIS), and it was given its final name, STAR GATE.[11]
Closure (1995)
In
1995 the defense appropriations bill directed that the program be
transferred from DIA to CIA oversight. The CIA commissioned a report by
the American Institutes for Research
(AIR) that found that remote viewing had not been proved to work by a
psychic mechanism, and said it had not been used operationally.[4]: 5–4 The CIA subsequently cancelled and declassified the program.[11]
In 1995 the project was transferred to the CIA and a retrospective evaluation of the results was done. The appointed panel consisted primarily of Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman. Hyman had produced an unflattering report on Uri Geller and SRI for the government two decades earlier, but the psychologist David Marks
found Utts' appointment to the review panel "puzzling" given that she
had published papers with Edwin May, considering this joint research
likely to make her "less than [im]partial".[1]
A report by Utts claimed the results were evidence of psychic
functioning; however, Hyman in his report argued Utts' conclusion that
ESP had been proven to exist, especially precognition, was premature and
the findings had not been independently replicated.[14] Hyman came to the conclusion:
archive | PROJECT SUN STREAK; was an umbrella term for the Intelligence
Community effort that used remote viewers who claimed to use
clairvoyance, precognition, or telepathy to acquire and describe
information about targets that were blocked from ordinary perception.
The records include documentation of remote viewing sessions, training,
internal memoranda, foreign assessments, and program reviews. The STAR
GATE program was also called SCANATE, GONDOLA WISH, DRAGOON ABSORB,
GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, SUN STREAK. Files were released through CREST
and obtained as TIF files by the Black Vault and converted to PDF by
That 1 Archive.
cia.gov | Project GRILL FLAME is an Army and DIA jointly financed effort to study novel intelligence collection techniques. The fiscal year 1982 'justification material states that GRILL FLAME studies will help to identify the capabilities and vulnerabilities associated with paranormal phenomenon having military applications.
Use of these audio files requires good quality headphones or ear buds. The files are in .flac format for highest possible audio fidelity. Two .flac files per CD and 3 CD's per zip file except for the Experience Discovery zip file which also contains a detailed usage manual as well as most of the books referenced in the DoD Analysis and Assessment document. These .flac files should play with sufficiently high fidelity using any contemporary smartphone or PC audio player. They're zipped and average 900 MB per zip file except for Experience Discovery which is 2GB. They were created using 7zip.
academia | There is no question that something happened 11,000-12,000 years ago in Anatolia. By putting Archaeoacoustics into the mix, we may have an answer.
Researching a subject about prehistory that cannot be photographed or handled requires input from a wide range of disciplines combined with informed observation. Those of us working with Archaeoacoustics: the archaeology of sound in ancient ritual and ceremonial spaces, have always thought that the next step was a collection of on-site biofeedback. Happily, Neuroscience is now filling in the gap of knowledge about the psycho-physiological impact of certain resonant sound which is present in the world’s oldest monuments. Add that to new discoveries in Anatolia, and a solution for the “Sapient Paradox” practically leaps right out of the stone.
A paper published in 2008[iii] is recognized as the first official source indicating an effect on brain activity of sound in a specific frequency that has been measured in various megalithic enclosures. While a range of 90 to 130 Hz is the target area, this report cites abrupt changes at 110 Hz in a small group of volunteers. Thanks to the internet, this number has taken on a cultish following and prompted wild speculation about all the ways and places that 110 might be significant. This is the sort of stuff television shows are made of, but it is not grounded in science.
What has been scientifically detected is a “megalithic range” for highest resonance between 90 and 130 Hz in stone chambers, which has also been confirmed in Malta’s incomparable Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. An estimated 2000 tons of stone were removed to create this place, by the same people who built the megalithic temples above ground on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. By virtue of being undetected underground until 1902, Hal Saflieni is still acoustically intact. We hear sound in there today exactly as it was heard by the folks who were using it 5000 years ago, and it can be hair-raising.[iv] Since its discovery, a sort of mythology has been built up about the way sound behaves in Hal Saflieni. Echoes that last as long as 13 seconds and sound waves that circle around the walls create a sonic atmosphere that is difficult to describe.
One chamber called the Oracle Room, functions as a giant resonator. There is a high carved out shelf curving around the dead end of the chamber that seems to serve no purpose but to channel sound waves. The remains of red ochre on the ceiling in this chamber are an intricate pattern of disks and curls that begin above a side compartment and spin out like some kind of prehistoric musical notation, stopping at the entrance portal that frames more finely carved halls beyond.
The side compartment was cut into the wall of the eggplant-shaped Oracle Room at face height. It has been said that a male voice speaking into this niche is heard throughout the three stories of the underground complex in a way that is far different from a female voice. There is a scientific explanation for it. Like Newgrange passage tomb and every other tested megalithic site, the range for standing wave resonance in Hal Saflieni is within the range of a bass baritone. Basically, it means that in Hal Saflieni, the echo of a deep voice is occurring at maximum strength in those pitches.
Actually the acoustics of Hal Saflieni are even more complex, with a second peak and loads of low frequency vibration that is beyond human hearing, although one might be able to feel it.[v][vi] Try to imagine standing in that space in the presence of sound in the range of that standing wave. It’s like being inside a giant bell. The air is vibrating; the walls and floors and ceilings are vibrating; the sound is swimming all around and can be felt in the tissues of the body. There can be a sort of buzzing in the ears that one sometimes gets when singing along with the radio in the car, when a pitch has been exactly matched. It’s mesmerizing. When it stops, this writer always wants to say “do it again.”
5,000 years ago, visitors to this site shared it with the bones of their ancestors which were kept here, treated with red ochre and placed into communal beds, as if they were planted in some sort of rebirth ritual. That would fit the ideology of the time. Workers in the space, even talking to each other, would have been exposed to the acoustic effects. Quite a bit of the architecture in Hal-Saflieni suggests features of our performance spaces today. Considered with artifacts recovered from this site, it is clear that something more than interment of the dead was going on in here.
It is difficult to imagine that human beings would let the potential a sound phenomenon such as that in Hal Saflieni go unexploited. If it’s impressive today, for people who have answers for everything. the thought of what they might have created in here thousands of years ago is extraordinary. Were they listening for the voices of the dead, or perhaps spirits of the earth? There would have been an aroma, as well as an echo, creating a very sensory and emotional experience. We now know that while the goosebumps were rising, dopamine was being released in their brains.
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