Guest guest Posted December 28, 2002 Report Share Posted December 28, 2002 Some of you may recall my critique of the website used to promote the " Teslar watch " . Well, the company has just sent me a very long reply to all of my comments. I shall share my response in a series of articles. -------------------- PART 4 (Last Part) ELF Labs State Route 1, No 21. St. Francisville IL ATT: Dr. Mell Siff Re: Answers to the Observations on Statements Dec19, 2002 --------------------- Response to Mel Siff: 7. Observation on Siff Statement: <Nonsense. The various rhythms of the body are not entrained to any of the static or " passive " things in the environment. Many different rhythms are generated by different systems in the body and many of these, like the cardiac and brain rhythms change all the time. Moreover, static fields carry no information to stimulate entrainment, so that it is impossible for physiological processes to entrain them.> Answer to Observation: Your observation #7 contradicts your bottom notation #4 as quoted above. Static fields can carry information, but do not have the energy to deliver the information. [*** Please provide evidence that an unvarying non-oscillating, invariant static field can carry information which can change the state of a system which is exposed to that field. Even then, your last statement admits that some aspect of static fields, be it their structure or their energy, deems it that static fields do not communicate information in any direction. My main point still stands, namely that static, invariant fields cannot cause entrainment of biological rhythms. If so, please quote extracts from peer-reviewed studies to disprove my analysis. Mel Siff] A homeopathic is a static field with information, but cannot be accessed unless it is " percussed " (i.e. struck or pulsed). Magnets are also passive, but carry polarity information that does have a direct impact on various organs particularly if used on the wrong one with the wrong polarity! Granted the information is not complex, but it is information with an effect. Both are examples of passive fields that become inactive, in rhythmic oscillations with the body. [*** Referring to unproven homeopathic theories and practices does not offer any validation at all of electromagnetic hypotheses. Do you have studies which show that there is such a thing as a 'wrong' magnetic polarity which universally applies to all human bodies and subsystems? If so, are there studies which show that static magnets definitely affect health and biological function? Mel Siff] But you seem to agree, not disagree when you say " static fields carry no information to stimulate entrainment, so that it is impossible for physiological processes to entrain them " . That is exactly our point, there is no energy to stimulate entrainment or to keep the body mechanism in tune with its propagation, so it ceases to work! [*** Please read carefully what I wrote - what I wrote cannot be inferred to support any alleged quantum or gravitational scalar theories being proffered to support the Teslar device. Mel Siff] Rhythms or pulses find their roots in the many regulatory mechanisms that control the dynamics of living systems. Thus at the cellular level, neural and cardiac rhythms are associated with the regulation of voltage dependent ion channels, metabolic oscillations originate from the regulation of enzyme activity, pulsatile intercellular signals and intracellular calcium oscillations involve the control of receptor activity or transport processes, while regulation of gene expression underlies circadian rhythms. In the course of time, open systems that exchange matter and energy with their environment generally reach a stable steady state if not pulsed.. However, as shown by Glansdorff and Prigogine, once the system operates sufficiently far from equilibrium and when its kinetics acquire a nonlinear nature, the steady state becomes unstable. Feedback processes and cooperatively are two main sources of nonlinearity that favor the occurrence of instabilities in biological systems. When the steady state becomes unstable, the system moves away from it, often bursting into sustained oscillations around the unstable steady state. The body must pulse, or the system overrides the signal! [*** I am very familiar with the work of Nobel Prizewinner Ilya Prigogine and other scientists on the nature of non-equilibrium states and nonlinear dynamic systems, but nobody has yet shown how this information explains in non-speculative fashion the modus operandi of the Teslar device. Anyone can cut and paste material from many genuine science sources (this is inflicted on thousands of professors with monotonous regularity by students writing term papers) and create the impression that something is based upon valid science and plenty of research. It is far more impressive to state clearly what is speculation and what is not, and then go on to provide verifiable, peer-reviewed, clinical or objective practical evidence to support one’s claims. Mel Siff] In the phase space defined by the system's variables (for example, the concentrations of the biochemical species that are involved in a oscillatory mechanism), sustained oscillations correspond to the evolution towards a closed curve called the limit cycle. These oscillations are resistant to perturbations, because the limit cycle will be regained regardless of initial conditions, starting from the vicinity of the unstable state or from outside the asymptotic, closed trajectory. Limited cycle oscillations (passive fields) thus represent an example of non-equilibrium self organization and can therefore be viewed as temporal dissipative structures. The oscillations are characterized by their amplitude and by their period. A bifurcation diagram can be constructed by plotting the amplitude of the oscillations of a given variable and the steady state (stable or unstable) as a function of a control parameter. [***See my above comments. MCS] When you immerse the Teslar with two chips into a plastic cup of water, you will notice concentric rings of oscillations emitting from the watch. However, if you remove the chips, you will not notice these waves of oscillations. [***All this shows is that the watch is vibrating. What else is this supposed to prove? Am I on Candid Camera? Is this supposed to be a serious proof of something? Mel Siff] Evolutions towards a limit cycle is not the only possible behavior when a steady pulsed state becomes unstable in a spatially homogeneous system. The system may evolve towards another type of pulsed oscillatory state that communicates differently with a biological system than a normal pulsed field. The most common case of multiple steady pulsed states referred to as 'bistability', is of two stable steady states (such as the electric field in the battery and chip in the watch mechanism), separated by an unstable one (the pulsed magnetic field). This phenomenon is thought to be important in differentiation, and can take the form of propagating concentration waves, which are closely related to oscillations. These pulses and oscillatory processes make any piece of equipment more biologically effective than a static, passive field that does not propagate and degenerates within the system, therefore halting the information flow. For additional information please refer to: Fessard,A., Proprietes Rythmiques de la Matiere Vivante (Hermann, Paris, 1936); Winfree, A.T., The Geometry of Biological Time, 2nd edition (Springer, New York, 2001); Goldbeter, A., Biochemical Oscillations and Cellular Rhythms, The Molecular Bases of Periodic and Chaotic Behavior (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996); Petty, H. R., " Neutrophil Oscillations Temporal and Spatiotemporal Aspects of Cell Behavior " , Immunol, Res.23, p 85-94 (2001); Hess, B. & Boiteux, A., " Oscillatory Phenomena in Biochemistry " , Annual. Rev. Biochemistry, 40, p 237-258 (1971). [*** I am reasonable well aware of the implications of material from interesting texts such as these. .None of these texts, however, appears to relate directly to the speculations being propounded to support the Teslar watch. Please quote extracts which do so. Mel Siff] 8. Observation on Siff Statement: This assumes that the body has to be protected from a very specific bandwidth of frequencies, but environmental EM fields are by no means that constant. Sunspot activity alone profoundly affects our EM environment and periodically causes massive disruption of our telecommunication systems. This advertising " blurb " shows a serious lack of many scientific fundamentals. Answer to Observation: In statement #5 Observation on Statement: You acknowledged the truth of the work of the various scientists mentioned, " All that they quote here is correct, but ..etc. " What we quoted was that Dr Beck and O'Becker confirmed the harmful aspect of electromagnetic field signals. And that " many other scientists conducted additional research into this phenomena and confirmed its potential as a health hazard " . You agreed with that statement, yet you are saying in Observation #5 that " This assumes that the body has to be protected from a very specific bandwidth of frequencies, but environmental EM fields are by no means that constant. " Do you agree or not that there is a health hazard? Yes, the body has to be protected from a specific bandwidth of frequencies in the ELF range as those are the frequencies that are most likely to create a biological effect. It is the extremely low frequency component of the electromagnetic fields that is detrimental, not so much the high frequency that effects the mental state, i.e. high suicide rates when sun spots occur; and a higher rate of heart attacks from the stress that builds mentally. The Sharma Report from Canada and many University studies have shown that man made ELF is dangerous to biological systems, including O' Becker's work Body Electric, and we would be glad to send you a list of this evidence if you do not agree with this premise, but right now we are confused as to whether you agree or not. [*** While we may all agree that environmental fields can exert harmful effects on the body and that some forms of extensive body shielding or building shielding may reduce the effects of some of these fields, this does not mean that I am convinced that a small locally worn wrist device will be able to exert similar shielding. During my brain research years I encountered many alternative healers who produced myriads of other shielding devices such as pendulums, amulets, copper bracelets, Egyptian charms, shamanistic bone objects, crystals, tiny magnets and so forth and they all made the same sort of claims about their devices shielding the body from harmful outside influences. Interestingly, I met patients whose health definitely seemed to improve while wearing such amulets, but I also came across others who experienced the same or even adverse effects. All that I could conclude was that spontaneous remission and psychological phenomena such as the famous placebo effect are able to produce some remarkable changes of state. Thus, I have little doubt that the Teslar device may exert some beneficial effects on some users, but that does not mean that those esoteric explanations based upon quantum, relativistic or unified field theories are valid. I have seen microcurrent applied to acupuncture points and produce some very impressive changes in health in a few cases (even by application across Nogier's auricular points on the ears), but this does not mean that I subscribe to abstruse theories which invoke the mystical powers of the quantum gods and goddesses in their Superstring virtual bikinis. So, let me declare that I do not doubt the efficacy of devices like the Teslar in certain cases, but I very much doubt the validity of using those entirely speculative pseudoscientific arguments drawn from genuine modern physics, which has been seriously misrepresented and quoted, as I have shown in my earlier comments. The material that you have cited does more to harm than promote any genuineness that the Teslar device may exhibit. The jargon that has been put forth from a variety of popular resources may impress the layperson, but ultimately a far more demanding audience needs to be convinced in genuinely scientific and clinical terms if the value of such a device is to reach a far wider professional community. Mel Siff] 9. Observation On Siff Statement: If they read some of the research which examined the effect of EM fields on the body (yes, done by some of those very scientists whose work they cited,) they will have noticed that far more profound effects can be exerted on human behavior and health by exposing the brain and CNS to these fields, not the extremities. Let's see just one shred of scientific evidence for all of these way out paramystical claims about how the body interacts with its EM environment....etc. Answer to Observation: Exposing the brain and CNS to fields was important in Del Gado's time, but not necessary if you are creating the fields with RF. All parts of the body receive the energy, at least if you are talking simply electromagnetic fields, in the extremely low frequency range. But we are not on that level, or simply using that technology. Yes, we utilize as you have read above, the electromagnetic component, but the scalar is so much more interesting since it carries any amount of information on the waveform, time is not relative, and there is no loss of energy to the distance traveled. [*** Firstly, you mean Dr Delgado, not Del Gado. Once again you persist in proclaiming that entirely hypothetical scalar gravitational fields carry extensive useful information, yet you have quoted no proof either of their existence or their interaction with biological matter. What do mean that time is not relative? Are you maintaining that in some fields time is yet another constant, alongside the velocity of light and that the famed time dilatation of Einstein does not occur at near-luminal velocities? Why are you entirely dismissing the possible effect of extremely high frequency fields by focusing entirely on extremely low frequency fields? Neuroscientists have long known about the existence of EEG phenomena whose frequencies are above 100kHz. Can you so easily dismiss phenomena which may be even more important than ELF phenomena? Mel Siff] The extremities are the antennae to the body and are important centers for the meridians...the hands and feet are the fuse boxes for the energetic pathways of the electrical system of the body. (Please note the above explanation on this subject.) [*** This explanation does not prove that the extremities are antennae to the body, nor does it inform me how this affects amputees and anyone with spinal injuries whose neural systems are profoundly disrupted. Does this mean that such persons automatically will not be able to function properly to interact with the 'energies of the universe' - or does it mean that they develop antennae elsewhere? Mel Siff] Anyway, the proof is in the pudding as Grandma used to say. The Teslar has assisted the environmentally handicapped to lead normal lives since 1986. No business survives that long period of time if it offers only a 'sales' job! We are proud of our product and hope that you will experience it yourself. After all, that is the real proof...how you feel. If it is a placebo effect, and our science is faulty, it is a great one that is helping thousands of people to assist the body in healing itself. [*** I have cited studies previously which indicate that healing methods which offer as little as a 25-30% success rate is sufficient to ensure their continued long-term existence in an extended community. I have also cited studies which show that the placebo effect appears to play a significant role in as many as 35% of all cases, including surgical procedures. In other words, there is more than enough evidence that a sufficient level of innate success exists which will ensure that the perpetuation for many years of many different healing approaches, no matter how bizarre they may seem to some. This should not be taken to mean that devices like the Teslar are shamanistic or bizarre; all that I am emphasizing is that a success rate of around 1 in 3 cases is more than adequate to ensure that any healing system will sell and persist for a good few years. The proof is not in the pudding but in the culture which endows the pudding with some special qualities. Mel Siff] Thank you for your interest in taking the great amount of time you have expended to critique our product and website. We hope that we have been able to shed a little light on our logic and research into this product. Our research is never ending, as there is so much to learn, and we hope that you will be growing and learning with us in this great scientific development and endeavor. [*** In turn, I thank you for your genuine concern and willingness to enter into a serious discussion on this topic. There are many manufacturers, marketeers and health gurus out there who generally respond with ad hominem attacks and hostile diatribes which entirely avoid answering any questions. I was pleasantly surprised to note that you chose not to go down that unfortunate path. Mel Siff] Respectfully yours, Ilonka Harezi (President) Courtland Reeves (Research Director) ----------------- THE END Any comments from the rest of you? Dr Mel C Siff Denver, USA http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/ * Kindly sign all letters with full name and city if you wish them to be published Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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