Pendulums

CHAPTER FIVE

Basic Description:

In some respects, the two different pendulum types described in this chapter are similar in operation to the energy wheel of the previous chapter. Both consist of very light masses suspended from supports by thin threads. It is claimed that the action of volitional thought can cause the pendulum to move. In the case of the pendu-

Mind Machines You Can Build

lum, however, it appears to offer "yes-no" answers to questions. It also appears that it can be used to indicate the direction to a wanted object.

The first type of pendulum is hand-supported. It is undoubtedly the easiest to operate. However, the pos­sibility of minute, subconscious movements on the part of the operator casts considerable doubt on any claim that a hand-supported pendulum is a "amazing mind machine" operating because of as yet unknown opera­tional principles.

The second type of pendulum is supported from a rigid point such as a lampshade edge, desk lamp, or simple tripod support made from wooden dowels. The independently-supported pendulum eliminates the pos­sibility that the human operator could control its swing by unconscious and minute finger, hand, and/or arm movements. The independently-supported pendulum may also be operated under a transparent cover to elimi­nate the possibility that air currents might affect its swing.

The operator "thinks" or concentrates on the pendulum, asking a question that can be answered in a "yes-no" manner. By previous agreement, the swing of the pendulum to and away from the operator may mean "yes" while a swing from left to right may mean "no." The operator must announce prior to the start of the experiment which direction of motion signifies affirma­tive and which indicates the negative response.

Pendulums

To use the pendulum as a locator similar to de­tector rods, the operator asks the pendulum to swing in the direction of the object whose location is being sought. There is, of course, an ambiguity in the fact that the unknown object can be located in either direction that the pendulum swings - i.e., if the pendulum swings in a north-south plane, the object could be located either north or south of the operator. Some operators appear to be extremely adept in getting the pendulum to swing in a most unusual fashion when in the locator mode: they can cause the pendulum to swing from its vertical rest position to a displaced position in the direction of the object, then cause the pendulum to swing between the vertical rest position and the displaced position.

Historical Background:

"The Magic Pendulum" has its origins lost in the mists of prehistory. It has long been a device used by wizards and shamins. Just because a device has a long history doesn't mean that we, with our immensely in­creased wisdom growing from a centuries-old legacy of scientific progress, should both scoff at and ridicule such devices that appear to have no rational explanation in terms of the Universe as we know and believe it to be. All our ancestors for several hundred thousand years not only believed in such "magic" devices but conducted their affairs in accordance with what these devices told

Mind Machines You Can Build

them. We know beyond the shadow of a doubt that their reliance on these devices could not have been foolish and/or disastrous because our ancestors lived and thrived and produced progeny culminating in ourselves. If all our ancestors were fools and we of the modern "scien­tific" age are so smart, this would mean that the Mende-lian Laws of genetics and heredity are plainly nonsense. But we also know for a fact that these principles of biotechnology are indeed valid, true, and (most impor­tant) pragmatically workable. Ask any breeder of horses or dogs or any farmer who relies on hybridized crops. Perhaps our forebears were not quite the stupid clods we tend to believe, but possessed some evidence that strange machines such as the pendulum did indeed have some validity, even though they didn't understand why they worked and therefore placed them in the "magic" clas­sification.

Human beings are also eminently practical. If it doesn't work, it's discarded. If it seems to work most of the time or enough of the time to make it useful, it's used until something better is discovered or developed.

Very little research work or further development has been undertaken with this extremely simple ma­chine. It exists today in nearly the same form as it has for uncounted centuries.

However, the social milieu has changed. In most of the world today, you will not be burned at the stake as a witch for experimenting with such devices as the

Pendulums

Figure 5-1: Hand-supported pendulum. Rest your elbows on a table to steady your hands.

pendulum. (However, there are still some locales in the United States where you would be well advised to be somewhat circumspect in such experimentation simply because America has all types of people in it, including those who are still very superstitious, fearful, and vio­lent.)

Author's Experiences:

I do not remember when I first tried using a pendulum. It may have been when I was about twelve or thirteen years old and became fascinated by a ouija board, which led me to experiment with some of the other

Mind Machines You Can Build

devices of "witchcraft and sorcery" that my juvenile col­leagues brought forth from time to time. Many of these machines were "discovered" and subsequently experi­mented with because we were at that age and that level of scholastic sophistication where we were being intro­duced to the Scientific Method and to the mysteries of the Universe revealed by our resident scholastic magician, the junior high school science teacher, one Donald John Obee at Cheyenne Mountain School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One thing I can say for Mr. Obee: He made science and technology fascinating, fun, and also frustrating enough to encourage me out of curiosity to continue to be interested in science and technology for the rest of my life. The mere idea that I didn't have to be captive to the whims of nature but could, if I understood enough about it, manipulate the Universe so that I could do magic things like fly in the air and go to the moon got me hooked at an early age because, even then, I felt I had been jerked around enough by a capricious Universe. I can make a hand-supported pendulum work. But I don't always know whether or not it gives me the correct "yes-no" answers because I haven't used it enough for that purpose. The pendulum requires that the opera­tor play the game of "Twenty Questions. Doing this often takes longer to answer a question than to either go look it up in a suitable reference book or think it through and work it out myself. And I've never really been certain that I wasn't unconsciously making the pendulum swing

Pendulums

the way I wanted it to swing. I often have much the same feeling about detector rods but in the case of that device, there is absolutely no question in my mind that I am not making those rods swing for the simple reason that the response is so strong.

I can also make a self-supported, glass-enclosed pendulum swing. I don't know why, although, as you will see later, I do indeed have a hypothesis.

Observations of other people operating pendu­lums of both sorts shows that about 80% of volunteer subjects can make a hand-supported pendulum do some­thing while about 50% of people can make the self-supported pendulum operate. I don't know why.

Instructions for Fabrication:

This is one of the simplest of all mind machines to build and operate.

The following materials are required:

1. A thumb tack, paper clip, or a minute pinch of plasticene modelling clay to use as a pendulum bob.

2. A spool of sewing thread for the pendulum itself; this can be made of nylon, silk, polyester, or any other material.

3. Cellophane tape to use for affixing the upper end of the pendulum to a support.

Mind Machines You Can Build

4. A pendulum support; this can be nothing
more sophisticated than the shade of a desk lamp, study
lamp, or table lamp; or the lower edge of a kitchen or
bathroom cabinet.

5. A glass water tumbler and a polystyrene plastic
water tumbler (this last item optional).

Cut an eighteen-inch length of thread (longer if your pendulum support is higher than this distance from the table or other horizontal surface; in fact, the longer the pendulum, the more sensitive it will be).

Tie one end of the thread to the pendulum bob - the paper clip or thumb tack - or mold a bean-sized lump of plasticene modelling clay around the end of the thread.

No further fabrication is required for the hand-supported pendulum.

An independently-supported pendulum can be made by taping the free end to the lamp shade so that the pendulum bob swings freely just above the surface of a table.

The pendulum can also be fabricated inside the water tumbler by taping the free end of the pendulum support to the inside of the bottom of the glass so that the pendulum bob swings freely inside the tumbler when it is inverted. For a pendulum that's more sensitive, use one of those tall conical beer glasses.

Pendulums

Figure 5-2: An independently-supported pendulum.

Any method of supporting the pendulum will work.

The longer the pendulum, the more sensitive the

pendulum will be.

Mind Machines You Can Build

Serious investigators may wish to fabricate a se­ries of pendulums having bobs of differing sizes, weights, shapes, and densities; supports made from various thick­nesses of thread and thread materials; and enclosures consisting of cylindrical glass and lucite plastic tubes with suitable supports or caps on their upper ends from which to suspend the pendulum.

But the common, parlor-variety pendulum for "quick-and-dirty" empirical experiments can be made in satisfactory form with the very simple materials detailed above.

Operating Instructions: Hand-supported pendulum:

Seat yourself in a comfortable chair at a table in a location free of air currents from air conditioners, heaters, fans, and drafts from open windows. Take the free end of the pendulum support thread between the fingers of your hand, and place both hands together to steady one another. (Fig. 5-1) Place your elbows on the surface of the table to steady them. Adjust the length of the pendulum until the bob swings just clear of the table top. Determine the direction of the pendulum swing in yes-no response to your questions. It is normal in most

Pendulums

European cultures for the "yes" response to be a swing toward and away from the body of the operator while a "no" response is a side-to-side, left-right swing.

Determine what you wish to know. The ques­tions must be phrased so that they can be answered as "yes" or "no." This often means framing a series of questions to arrive at the desired answer. People who are experienced at playing "Twenty Questions" will find it easier than someone who is not.

Most people will get a pendulum response when it is operated in this hand-supported mode.

Independent suspension mode:

Affix the free end of the pendulum thread with cellophane tape to an overhanging support (Fig. 5-2) such as a lamp shade or shelf in a location reasonably free of air currents from air conditioners, fans, heaters, and drafts from open windows. Adjust the pendulum length so that the pendulum bob swings freely just above the surface of the table or counter. Seat yourself comfortably in front of the pendulum. With your hands, still the swing of the pendulum that may have been produced in the act of suspending it. Once the pendulum is hanging quietly, place your arms on the table and cup your hands

Mind Machines You Can Build

around the pendulum bob about three to six inches away from it. Novices may discover that it is easier to work the pendulum with their hands cupped closer to it.

Operate the pendulum as described for the hand-supported unit. Frame and ask your questions in the same manner.

Experiments:

If the hand-supported pendulum experiment works for you, try the independently suspended pendu­lum.

Once you have obtained results from the inde­pendently-suspended pendulum, try making it swing without cupping your hands around the pendulum bob.

As in the experiments with the energy wheel in the previous chapter, try coating your palms with a thin film of baby or bath oil to change the electrical character­istics and dielectric constant of your skin. Or wash your hands thoroughly and completely to remove as much natural skin oil as possible.

If you suspect that air currents from your breath, someone else's breath, or ambient air currents in the room are the cause of pendulum action, perform the enclosed pendulum experiment by suspending the pen­dulum inside an inverted glass water tumbler. (Fig. 5-3) Cup your hands around the outside of the tumbler and repeat the basic operating instructions given above.

Pendulums

Figure 5-3: To eliminate any possibility of air

currents swinging the pendulum, mount it

inside an inverted water tumbler as shown.

Mind Machines You Can Build

If the pendulum works inside an inverted glass tumbler, try the experiment with the pendulum inside the polystyrene plastic water tumbler.

The longer the pendulum support thread, the more sensitive the pendulum will be to any disturbing force. Try extending the length of the pendulum thread and note the results.

The heavier the pendulum bob, the less sensitive the pendulum will be to any disturbing force. Replace the paper clip or thumb tack with a blob of plasticene mod­elling clay. Continue to decrease the amount of clay used for the bob to increase the sensitivity. You will, of course, eventually reach the point where the mass of the clay is insufficient to keep the pendulum thread taut as well as permitting the pendulum to swing due to the relative increase in the ratio between forces on the bob and forces on the supporting thread.

Try a critical experiment: Arrange an indepen­dently-supported pendulum in a location where the operator can cup his hands around it but cannot see the pendulum, (a sheet of cardboard will do nicely). A serious investigator may wish to fabricate a transparent plastic cylinder to enclose the pendulum, then paint one side of the cylinder so that it is opaque. With the pendulum thus hidden from the operator, an observer then notes and records the actions of the pendulum in response to

Pendulums

questions asked verbally by the operator. The results should be compared with those obtained when the operator could see the pendulum.

What If It Doesn't Work?

If you get no response from the hand-supported pendulum, you are certainly in the minority. However, increase the sensitivity of the pendulum by decreasing the mass of the pendulum bob as detailed in the experi­mental section above.

It often helps to place a flat sheet of paper hori­zontally on the table below and directly underneath the pendulum bob. On the paper, draw a cross. Place the word "yes" at both ends of the vertical bar of the cross and the word "no" at either end of the horizontal bar of the cross. This may assist you in concentrating and in keeping fully in mind the direction the bob should swing in order to provide "yes-no" answers.

If it doesn't work at all, put it away and try it again later. We don't know what the effect of various moods, biorhythms, emotions, state of rest, etc. has on the op­eration of a pendulum. Could be you're just having a bad day because we all have those.

If after many tries you can't get the hand-sup­ported pendulum to work for you, try it on a friend.

Mind Machines You Can Build

The same advice holds true for the other pendu­lum experiments. However, for the independently-sus­pended pendulum, try changing the electrical nature of your palms by either washing your hands or by coating them with baby or bath oil...or both in sequence.

Then, again, as I've pointed out time and again in this book, you might not be able to get the pendulum to work at all. And we don't know why.

Hypotheses:

As in the case of the energy wheel of the previous chapter, we need not invoke bizarre hypotheses involv­ing undiscovered radiations or waves. We are again dealing with phenomena that can probably be explained reason­ably well with the science and technology already known to us.

As an important aside, however, it is also likely, however far less probable, that there is indeed something new and hitherto unsuspected involved in the operation of the pendulum. 1 want to make it clear that I do not wish to sound dogmatic when 1 present hypotheses. It could very well be that it all happens because it pleases the Great God Bog as part of his arcane if whimsical way of running the Universe for his own amusement. But 1 really doubt it. I could be wrong, of course. One must keep an open mind when dealing with these machines....

Pendulums

When Occam's Razor is applied to the hand-supported pendulum, the simplest explanation is that the operator is consciously or unconsciously affecting or modulating the innate natural nervous tremor, the "noise" in the human nervous system, possessed by everyone, thereby causing the pendulum to swing.

However, there are other problems that are not addressed or answered by this simplest and most straight­forward of hypotheses. How does the operator know the answer? What if the question doesn't involve an answer with a high content of wishful thinking? What if the pendulum taps the super-hyper-ultra-conscious or even the subconscious? What if it's tapping "subconscious" or "racial" memories? If it is indeed doing these things, it's doing them better, a lot faster, and far more positively than any psychiatrist or psychological technique I've ever known.

Obviously, in spite of a simplistic hypothesis that resists the cutting edge of Occam's Razor, there must be something more to the hand-held pendulum. I don't know what it is. But it deserves more investigation.

With respect to the independently-suspended pendulum, almost every freshman physics student is aware of the demonstration or experiment in which a light object such as a bit of paper or cork is attracted to a rubber or glass rod which has been rubbed gently with silk or cat's fur. This is an exhibition of electrification. In

Mind Machines You Can Build

the previous chapter, the first law of electrostatics was stated: Objects that are similarly charged repel each other while bodies with unlike charges attract each other.

In addition to various objects that have been given an electrostatic charge by various means, the equip­ment used to demonstrate this principle usually consists of a small, light object suspended from a thread as a pendulum. It is surprisingly easy to give an object enough electrostatic charge to affect another object such as a suspended lightweight pendulum bob.

We also saw in the previous chapter that the human body carries an electrostatic charge on the surface of the skin and that the action of the nervous system can change the polarity and strength of this electrostatic field. In all people, it is an unconscious phenomenon, which means that it is accomplished without the person being aware of it in much the same manner that people are unaware of their breathing or heartbeat. However, like breathing or the heartbeat, it can be voluntarily and willfully controlled.

Therefore, the operational hypothesis here is nearly the same as that proposed for the energy wheel: The human mind causes the nervous system to change the electrostatic charge on the skin of the hands in such a way as to cause the independently-suspended pendu­lum to swing. When the charge on the right palm is plus and the other palm minus, and if the pendulum carries a minus charge, it will swing toward the right hand. The

Pendulums

mind then causes the electric charge on both palms to reverse, in turn causing the pendulum to swing in the other direction. To cause the pendulum to swing toward and away from the experimenter, the charge on the heel of both hands must be the same while that at both fingertips the same.

It would not take a very strong change in electro­static charge of the skin of the palms to cause the pendu­lum to swing.

Here again, the physical factors can be measured as in the energy wheel tests. Solid-state electronic mea-surement sensors exist that will detect and determine the electric field.

But, again, this hypothesis begs the question...and it is a most important question: How does the operator know how to make the swinging pendulum answer the question for which the operator has no conscious an­swer?

And, again, claiming that the pendulum triggers racial memories or other deep-seated psychological fac­tors raises even more important questions that basically involve the elusive "how": How can the simple pendu­lum accomplish this so easily when it requires hours, weeks, or even months of intense psychological therapy, treatment, or investigation to dig these things out other­wise?

Mind Machines You Can Build

Conclusions:

Here is a very simple mind machine whose op­erating principles appear to be both obscure and com­plex. But the hypotheses may only appear to be complex because the operating mechanism is still totally unknown. The device works and will indeed answer questions with a reliability that has been shown to be much better than random chance.

It is also a device that lends itself to experimen­tation by amateurs. The instrumentation involved in measuring the physical factors involved is not complex or expensive. Furthermore, the instrumentation is to­tally within the current state of the art.

We are perhaps confronting two separate phe­nomena with the hand-supported pendulum and the independently-supported pendulum. But, with the present level of knowledge in this area, there did not appear to be much to be gained by considering them separately.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23