Questions on Persinger article

[Nex]

So... I found this this morning.

"Enhancement of images of possible memories of others during exposure to circumcerebral magnetic fields: correlations with ambient geomagnetic activity."

Persinger MA, Cook CM, Tiller SC, ©2002

Abstract.

On the basis of results from a special subject who reported information at a distance during exposure to weak, circumcerebral magnetic fields rotating within the horizontal plane, we designed an experiment to discern if the subjective narratives of normal people exposed to these fields could be similar to the comments of emotionally related individuals who were concurrently generating shared memories about a randomly selected stimulus. Blind matching of the comments indicated that the proportions of 44 students who accurately paired the narratives of the field-exposed subject and the comments of the stimulus person as congruent were statistically significant for 5 of the 7 pairs whose narratives were of sufficient length for analysis. The ratings for congruence of the pairs of verbal behaviors for the 7 pairs of subjects were negatively correlated (rho = -.72) with the geomagnetic activity during the 24-hr. interval within which the experiences were conducted. The results suggested consciousness might also be an insulator to myriad stimuli which might be accessible when brain activity is modified by circumcerebral magnetic fields with temporal configurations in the order of 20 msec.

I have a subscription to an academic database, but it's been down for a day or so and I'm not sure when it's coming back up. I'll have to wait until it comes up to view the article in its entirety (if it's listed there).

Has anyone seen this article before? A forum search turned up nothing, and Google isn't much help either.

*edited to add* Oops, I forgot to ask my questions.

Does anyone know what this experiment was exactly? Controls and procedure? What's Persinger's reputation? I'm just curious...

 

[JMA]

What's Persinger's reputation? I'm just curious...

If you want to know more about Persinger, you can read this:

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/journalism/ns94.html

and this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/godonbrainqa.shtml

And, for the road, a failure in replication of his protocol:

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6732

 

[Luke T.]

I've heard of Dr. Persinger and his religious-experience-inducing helmet before and have expressed on this forum in the past my great desire to try it on. I had a "white light" God experience nearly 12 years ago (without a helmet ) and would like to make a comparison.

 

[Nex]

Thanks for the links JMA!

And just for fun, here's a zinger about Persinger's paper for all us unreasonable skeptics.