Friday, August 24, 2007
The journal Science today reports new results on this curious experience,
more often associated with the tabloid media. You may recall a New York
Times story by Sandra Blakeslee about a year ago(3 Oct 06) in which a
Swiss neurologist induced the effect by mild electrical stimulation of the
angular gyrus, a region of the brain in the parietal lobe involved in a
number of processes related to language and cognition. The effect is
attributed to discrepancy between the actual position of the body and the
mind's perceived location. The Swiss group has now induced the out-of-
body effect without brain stimulation or hallucinogenic drugs by fitting
the subject with display goggles that show a video image of the person
from a different perspective. It is important in part because out-of-body
experiences, particularly when associated with near-death, are often cited
as evidence of a soul. The odd belief that the half-million embryonic
stem cells left over from in-vitro fertilization have souls is behind
objections to using them in research rather than sending them to the
autoclave.
I consulted with two Catholic theologians on the faculty of a nearby
seminary, who explained that the soul is the "spiritual essence" of a
person. After much discussion, "spiritual essence" seemed to be
associated with empathy (see last week's WN), though Catholic priests use
different words. Our emotional response to sensory input is determined by
the amygdalae, two almond shaped groups of neurons located deep within the
medial temporal lobes. Embryos, I note, don't have amygdalae.
Also reported today, Shinya Yamanaka, one of Japan's leading stem cell
scientists, will join the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in
San Francisco, where his work will be funded in part by California's stem
cell initiative. This is good news, of course, but we note that he's
recognized for persuading skin cells from mice to behave like stem cells.
We've lost years while stem-cell research has been diverted to
circumventing religious objections to the use of human eggs or embryos.
The Alaska Supreme Court upheld a compensation board ruling awarding
disability to an equipment installer as a result of workplace exposure to
RF radiation. The worker was exposed to a six gigahertz signal, which was
found to be slightly over the RF safety limit set by the FCC but well
below the FCC's recognized level of thermal harm. The decision was not
entirely unreasonable: the Court felt it was up to the Board and not the
courts to decide which witnesses to believe, but it was accepted that the
only danger is thermal heating, so it does not take us back to power
lines, or even cell phones.
Denis Knockton, who claims to be a fund manager for Fidelity International
in London, says he discovered the $22.4 million in a dormant account,
which he would like my help in spending. Like Homo sapiens, the loose
$22.4 million apparently migrated up through Europe to Britain.
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