Frank Arthur Brown Jr. (1908–1983) looked at the connection between biological activity and ‘cosmic events’. Correlations were found in all manner of organisms between a variety of metrics and a variety of cyclic events such as diurnal rhythms, lunar cycles and the variations in temperature and light.
- Synchronisation between organisms and cosmic events
- Synchronisation between organisms a great distance apart
- Cosmic cycles entrain endogenous phase-setters
- The main drivers are temperature and light
- Some cycles have no obvious physical cause
- Phase correlation with amplitude inversion is seen
- Correlation with atmospheric pressure even when kept at constant pressure
- Independence of metabolic rate and clock mechanism
- ‘Horizontal’ communication between organisms (maybe..)
- Recognition of geographical location
- External clocks trigger inherited behavioural patterns
- Laboratory experiments confirm the electromagnetic nature of stimuli
- Internal clock mechanisms rely on external input for pace setting
“A zeitgeber is an external or environmental cue that synchronizes an organism’s biological rhythms with its environment. The word comes from German and literally means ‘time giver’“. – Science direct
No internal clocks
It has long been known that the body maintains a collection of very precise rhythms by which it regulates biological processes. The assumption being that it is the body itself that powers a set of clock-like processes which merely need to be entrained to external triggers to ensure synchrony with the environment.
Frank Concluded that this simply isn’t true. What is happening is that the body maintains a set of phase-responders which respond to external stimuli, producing the cycles which are observed. The difference is that with this setup, the influence of external events is necessary for the continuation of the bio-rhythms and without this influence there would be no cyclic activity and presumably no ‘life’.
“The usual concept of the organism within its rhythmic physical environment must now be supplemented by a concept of the rhythmic physical environment steadily contributing to the internal environment of the organism.
No clear boundary exists between the organism’s metabolically maintained electromagnetic fields and those of its geophysical environment. In terms of the hypothesis for biological clocks that has been presented here, the clocks themselves, being environmentally dependent, possess high mean precision.
It is suggested that the peculiar properties and activities of the organism’s natural phase-shifting mechanism have been responsible for the long held but probably erroneous notion that an independent internal clock system is present.” – Frank Brown
So there is no active clock as such within living organisms, but a set of passive internal pacemakers which entrain to external stimuli in a resonant fashion and the resulting cycles are used to trigger inherited behavioural programs such as feeding, mating hibernating etc.
“Indeed, from this start, it seems quite probable that every other property of the rhythms, known or still unknown, can be accounted for by the appropriate elaboration of the external timer hypothesis.” – Brown
Independence of metabolism
Surely one of the more important discoveries of Frank Brown is the apparent fact that the frequency of the internal cycles is independent of the metabolic rate of the organism.
The main drivers of bio-rhythms are variations in temperature and light but the heating of subjects or the administration of drugs to speed up metabolism did nothing to alter the rate at which the internal pacemakers operated.
“Organisms behave as if they were accurate, or moderately accurate, clocks or tremendous batteries of clocks whose rhythmic cycles are normally integrated into a characteristic phase-map complex. The periods of the clock-timed rhythms appear to be heavily compensated for, or independent of, temperature and to virtually every chemical substance that can influence reaction rates in organisms.” – Brown
So there is a component of biological activity that is independent of biochemistry, independent of what we can physically observe happening in the body.
Conclusion: The ’cause’ of a clock-like process is not a chemical reaction or mechanical process but the interplay between the environmental cycles and some electromagnetic bio-field acting as an antenna. There are no other plausible candidates known to science.
Disease as a regulatory disorder
“No clear boundary exists between the organism’s metabolically maintained electromagnetic fields and those of its geophysical environment.” – Brown
So Frank thinks that the electromagnetic fields are maintained by metabolic processes and yet function independently of them. Possibly, but we can also consider that there exists an almost self-sustaining etheric body that is not only regulated but also powered to some degree by energy from the environment. This would include solar neutrinos and electrical (vortex) discharge from the ionosphere.
With this setup then, it is easy to conceive of diseases such as flu and measles as temporary regulatory disorders produced by either a weakening of, or a disturbance in, the external pace-setters.
Evidence for this is provided by: a strong statistical correlation between weather events and the onset of such diseases, a documented relationship between both physical and electrical ‘weather’, the close coupling of organism and environment described above and the obvious regulatory nature of these disease processes: Influenza and weather – Measles
Water absorption of beans
A handful of beans was placed in a jar of water and the amount of water remaining was measured at timed intervals to give a record of the rate of water uptake. Different strains of beans were used and different spatial arrangements were tried, with some jars placed at a distance and some placed in pairs etc.
The results were extremely interesting indeed.
The top chart shows the water absorption rate of two bean collections at 70 cm apart. There is clearly a synchrony between the two; either they are both subject to the same external influence, they are communicating with each other or both at the same time.
The second chart shows results from a bean sample in a separate laboratory. A near identical pattern is observed thereby suggesting that all these samples are dancing to the same tune, they are driven by some unseen cosmic orchestration which is ultimately controlling the rate of uptake of water.
The bottom line of the chart shows the uptake rate for two groups of beans in close proximity on rotating tables, first clockwise (solid line) and next anti-clockwise (dotted line).
The overall trend is similar to the earlier experiments but Brown notes an interesting feature; there are frequent and temporary inversions of activity whereby a sudden increase in activity of one set of beans is accompanied by a decrease in activity of the other sample that matches the first in both timing and magnitude.
What could account for this? It is almost as if there were competition for a limited resource and it is first one and then the other of the bean pots that is the recipient of the necessary impulse.
Odd phase relationships
Another chart from the book compares the deviation from the mean uptake of water of two bean groups separated by some distance from each other.
In the top graph we see that the two samples are positively correlated, meaning that the higher the uptake of one, the higher the uptake of the other. This gain suggests that the two samples are somehow synchronised across time.
But look at the second chart!
The greater the deviation from the mean of one sample the less the deviation from the other sample. This again suggests that there is perhaps some stream of regulatory information which is of limited supply and that the more it is accessed by one beanpot then the less accessible it becomes for the other.
The sudden ‘flipping’ of the chart above suggesting either that the information stream is not shared evenly between the beans or that the beans themselves are behaving differently in a way that is coordinated both within and between samples.
The interpretation from Frank Brown involves actual communication between the bean samples: “If this sign-changing capacity exists for an organism and, in this instance, for a small cluster of beans then it would appear from the present observations that each of the members of the paired samples of beans, even when present in separate glass or plastic containers, can somehow be influenced by a very weak electromagnetic field produced by the other. By some means, the adoption of a ‘positive’ state in one member of a pair must under some circumstances bias the other member of the pair within their mutual field to adopt the ‘negative’ state.” – Page 457
Possibly, but consider the patterns created by plasma discharge in the video below.
The discharge stream flows from the centre to the surrounding sphere where it entrains somewhat to a particular spot which shows up as a glowing circle. The exact location of discharge varies locally and the spot itself will move slowly across the sphere. The discharge position is stable to the spot location but ‘random’ within the spot radius.
Consider then that the source of the Earth’s electric discharge comes ultimately from the sun, impacts our ionosphere and discharges to the ground in similar patterns to what we see in the video. The overall patterns are regular and seasonal and will also correlate with latitude.
This corresponds with the patterns we see in the experiments of Frank Brown but also with the epidemiology of influenza as studied by various researchers: Influenza and weather
Bearing this in mind then we can imagine a terrestrial magnetic field that exerts a top-down causality on biological systems, that is correlated with the seasons and is able to modulate fine grained influences down to the scale of a pot of beans. If this is so then direct ‘communication’ between beans may not be a necessary assumption. Instead, the state of a bean colony may trigger a phase change in the local magnetic field itself, causing it to flip to an adjacent pot or something similar.
Rather than regarding the external timing mechanism as immutably periodic, the addition of attractor-like properties may explain complexity we see. Some of the assumed complexity attributed to the organism is now apportioned to the environment itself.
Influenza epidemiology
The behaviour of the beans is reminiscent of the epidemiology of influenza. It may be imagined that individuals living in a densely populated area will be more susceptible to influenza during an outbreak but in fact the opposite is true, with those living in rural areas more likely to succumb to the disease.
Influenza is likely caused by electromagnetic discharge from the atmosphere (Influenza and weather) and it is as if there is a limited amount of energy to go around so that if you are in a large city it may well be that somebody else is the recipient of the ‘lightning’ strike and you are given a free pass for the year.
Global synchronisation
“Parallel and concurrent variations in bean samples as widely separated as
Woods Hole, Massachusetts and Evanston, Illinois, suggest wide geographic scope
of at least one of the major effective subtle parameters.” – Frank Brown
Correlation with atmospheric pressure
The metabolism of all living things (Brown) will fluctuate in synchrony with barometric pressure even when they are kept in a pressure controlled environment:
“It should be emphasized that while exhibiting their pressure correlations the organisms themselves are being maintained under constant pressure, and hence that pressure and the well-known solar and lunar tides of the atmosphere cannot be the immediately effective factor for the organisms. But of tremendous import for the clock problem is the fact that of the several species of plants and animals already studied in our laboratory, all exhibit the same kind of metabolic correlation with the same specific barometric pressure parameters. This has been shown to be true throughout the gamut of living things, from algae to vertebrates.” – Frank Brown
The oyster experiment
Oysters moved from the coast to an inland station still synchronised to the phases of the moon even in the absence of tide or visible light:
“Oysters transported in light-proof containers from their habitat in New Haven harbour to pans of sea water in a photographic darkroom in Evanston, Ill., gradually re-phased their rhythm of shell-opening over a 2-week period from the exact lunar-day time of high tide in New Haven harbour to the exact times of lunar zenith and nadir at Evanston, Ill, the theoretical time of high tides in Illinois were there a coastline. This new phase relationship then remained unchanged through a full month during which the study was continued.” – Frank Brown
Phase inversions
There are many cases of phase inversions within or between species. An organism may display maximum activity at full moon and minimal activity during a new moon, giving a good statistical correlation between activity and visible light.
This may change however with maximum activity now being displayed at new moon and vice-versa thus leading to a negative correlation.
These phenomena cannot therefore be studied by simple statistical correlation as the correlation shifts with time and between colonies of animals. This is further evidence should any be needed that what is on display is some coupling of resonant systems, both biological and meteorological.
“The mean monthly patterns of the snails through the five-year span of this
study tended significantly to display a common bimodal form with minima occurring
between new moon and first quarter and between full moon and third quarter,
However, for some measured parameters, or at certain times, a monthly pattern
for the snails was registered which was negatively correlated, with high statistical
significance, with the more typical one, Minima and maxima had exchanged places.
“Inversion of geo-physically dependent patterns including both lunar day and
monthly ones has been reported between different species, within a single species
at different times, and even concurrently within ,a single species under slightly
different experimental conditions (Brown, 1960; Brown and Chow, 1973, 1976),
Such inversions comprise a phenomenon which is probably commonplace, It is
postulated that the inverting tendency reflects the organisms’ sign and strength of
response to an effective atmospheric factor which is capable of being altered,
even tipped between positive and negative. with changing physiological state of the
organism and by effects of other uncontrolled, or imposed, environmental conditions.
“Indeed the sign has been described to differ between one portion of a lunar or solar
cycle and another” – Frank Brown
So what is going on?
We have, in the most abstract form:
- Some sort of rhythmic influence in the atmosphere
- A selection of internal pace-setters or resonators
- A mechanism for entrainment (synchrony) between the two
- Inherited behavioural patterns (e.g. feeding) that are triggered by the pace setters (not by the atmospheric influences directly)
Or, as Frank Brown puts it:
- First, there is the development of inherited recurring patterns linked to one or another of the geophysical cycles.
- Second, there is the development of a phase-response system and adaptive resettability of the rhythms by relevant environmental stimuli, including dominantly the light and temperature cycles.
- Third, with the phase lability of the rhythms and their peculiar phase-response
activity complex, free-running cycles slightly modified in period by differing light and temperature levels, as well as influences of genetics and some chemicals, are rationally explained as effects on auto-phasing or of systematic phase drifting relative to the natural exogenous cycles. - The inherited rhythms, once developed in the individual, adaptively become capable of a labile phase relationship with the publicly timed clock cycles. They can be phase displaced to any degree in response to light cycles or other zeitgeber. Such changes follow geographical translocations, or altered artificial light-dark schedules in the
laboratory.
Phase shifting by light
Once a rhythm is established it can be fine tuned or phase shifted by alterations in visible light:
“Under the hypothesis of auto-phasing it is postulated that the organism uses its daily rhythmic fluctuation in sensitivity to light to effect a daily shift in its phase relations relative to its environmentally imposed 24-hour periodicity. The manner of action, in general terms, would be as follows: The organism reaching a “light-sensitive” phase in its daily cycle, and encountering the illumination of a constantly luminated environment, would be given a shifting stimulus whose strength, within limits, would be a function of the level of the illumination. Though physically the light is held constant, in stimulative effectiveness for the organism it is rhythmic as a consequence of rhythms in the organism’s own responsiveness.”
New science is needed
Classical science cannot explain the observations:
“Indeed, major concepts of biology have commonly arisen from observation and induction, rather than by deduction from what is known. Efforts in postulation of hypotheses and deducing tests for them may never lead to the correct answers if the hypotheses are rooted in established ones which are not relevant to the problem at
hand. The clocks of life appear to demand an admission of ignorance about a lower level of organization of life.” – Frank Brown
The problem of ‘measurement’
If the precise mechanisms are unknown then how can we be sure that our (often rhythmic) laboratory conditions are not responsible for some of the effects we see?
“The quantitative, and often even qualitative, character of results may be in part determined by uncontrolled factors even as subtle as the proximity of other individuals of the same, or possibly even different species as well as by time within the not widely acknowledged relatively predictable solar and lunar circadian cycles, and monthly and annual ones. Less predictable variations associated with movements of weather systems, and fluctuations in solar activity may also be expected to impose significant influences.
“And not least, the existence of the phenomenon indicates that we are operating
within the range of a biological “uncertainty principle.” There is now clear reason
to presume that the uses of modern methods, facilities and equipment for making
precise measurement of diverse parameters in living systems exert of themselves
an influence upon the system being measured. an influence effected by the invariable and characteristic weak accompanying alterations in electromagnetic fields produced by these. Biological processes will reflect in their measured values the methods and conditions under which the measurements are made, and the differences may be substantial.” – Brown
The bean controls its own rate of water absorption
“The nature of the phenomenon for beans is of such character that it appears
probable that the living embryo within the dried seed possesses the capacity to
regulate to a substantial degree the rate of water absorption by the seed upon its
submergence.“- Frank Brown
[We should not rule out the possibility that it is the seed itself that controls its own water supply at the cellular level. How would the embryo exert control over what happens at a billion molecules distance?]
Summary
Frank Brown discovered that a large part of the information that is essential for healthy regulation lies outside of the Human body in the form of some sort of electromagnetic field. The pace-setters within the body adopt a flexible coupling with this field and are therefore of an electromagnetic nature themselves.
The resulting rhythms are independent of metabolic rate and so ultimately independent of the physical substance of the body. An effective bio-field therefore acts as a receiver and interpreter for the cosmic rhythms, each of which will be assigned an inherited pattern of behaviour.
The response of biology to these influences is all pervasive, complex and meaningful., and transcends mere ‘correlation’. These results give plausibility to the idea that disease is a result of cosmic influences whilst adding confounding factors to laboratory ‘control’ experiments.
Related pages:
References:
External factors in the mechanisms on biological clocks – Frank A Brown