Excerpt from pages, 234 - 239, from Cross Currents, Robert O. Becker, 1990

In 1982, Dr. A. H. Jafary-Asl and his colleagues at the University of Salford in England reported that yeast cells displayed both nuclear magnetic resonance and electron paramagnetic resonance, and that these resonances were different depending on whether the cells were alive or dead. They also found that when living yeast cells were exposed to conditions of nuclear magnetic resonances they multiplied at twice their normal rate-and the daughter cells were half as large as normal! Perhaps a more complex type of resonance was part of the answer, after all.

The advantage of complex resonances such as nuclear magnetic resonance is that the energy in the field is concentrated upon single physical entities (such as the nuclei of Berlin atoms), rather than being spread among all the cells of the body.

In 1985, Dr. Carl Blackman of the EPA and Dr. Abraham Liboff of Oakland University, working independently, integrated the reports of Jafary-Asl and the attempts to duplicate Bawin and Adey's experiments. They concluded that the strength of the local steady-state magnetic field of the Earth at the site of each of the laboratories was the hidden variable that determined the different frequencies reported.

Both Blackman and Liboff suggested that the mechanism involved was a specific type of resonance, cyclotron resonance (which has nothing to do with the cyclotron, an early type of particle accelerator used in atomic physics). When they applied the mathematical equations for cyclotron resonance to the different frequencies reported by the different laboratories, along with the respective strengths of the local magnetic fields they found the same result. The Ca++ efflux was the result of cyclotron resonance between the frequency of the applied electric field and the strength of the Earth's local magnetic field at each separate laboratory.

Cyclotron resonance can be explained as follows, albeit in a somewhat simplistic fashion: If a charged particle or ion is exposed to a steady magnetic field in space, it will begin to go into a circular, or orbital, motion at right angles to the applied magnetic field. The speed with which it orbits will be determined by the ratio between the charge and the mass of the particle and by the strength of the magnetic field.

We know the frequency of rotation (the number of times per second that the particle completes a full rotation) from the equation relating the charge/mass ratio of the particle and the strength of the magnetic field If an electric field is added that oscillates at exactly this frequency at right angles to the magnetic field energy is transferred from the electric field to the charged particle.

If the direction of the electric field is slightly off from the right angle, the particle will move in a spiral pathway.

We can substitute an oscillating magnetic field for the electric field and still obtain cyclotron resonance. However, It must be applied parallel to the constant magnetic field.

Cyclotron resonance may be produced any time there is a steady magnetic field combined with an oscillating electric or magnetic field acting on a charged particle. Many of the activities of living cells involve charged particles-such as the common ions of sodium (Na+), calcium (Ca++), and potassium (K+)-acting on or passing through the cell membrane. Cyclotron resonance has the ability to transfer energy to these ions and to cause them to move more rapidly. These effects will change the function of living cells by enabling the ions to pass through the cell membranes more effectively or in greater numbers.

Cyclotron resonance is a mechanism of action that enables very low-strength electromagnetic fields, acting in concert with the Earth's geomagnetic field, to produce major biological effects by concentrating the energy in the applied field upon specific particles, such as the biologically important ions of sodium, calcium, potassium, and lithium.

The equation for cyclotron resonance says that as the strength of the steady-state magnetic field decreases, the frequency of the oscillating electric or magnetic field needed to produce resonance also decreases. This is particularly significant when the average strength of the Earth's magnetic field (between 0.2 and 0.6 gauss) is put into the equation: the frequencies for the oscillating fields that are needed to produce resonance with the biologically important ions turn out to be in the ELF region.

The ELF frequencies--0-l00 Hz-become the most significant part of our electromagnetic environment. The apparent ability of the body to demodulate all higher frequencies, including microwaves, substantiates this. Cyclotron resonance provides an understandable and valid mechanism of action for the biological effects of both normal and abnormal electromagnetic fields.

Doctors John Thomas, John Schrot, and Abraham Liboff, working at the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (Bethesda, Mary- land), first tested this theory using rats that were exposed to a field producing resonance with the lithium ion. They chose lithium because it is naturally present in the brain in very small amounts. It has a calming effect and is used as a medication for the man icphase of manic-depressive psychosis. Thomas and his colleagues predicted t hatthe cyclotron-resonance effect on the normally present lithium ions would increase their energy level, producing an effect equivalent to a medicinal dose of lithium. The exposed rats should show a depressed behavior as compared to the control rat's.

Because the study was supported by the New York State Power-Lines Project, the researchers used an oscillating magnetic field at the power-line frequency of 60 Hz and a controlled magnetic field of 0.2 gauss (the low end of the Earth's average field strength).

This combination is resonant with the lithium ion. The rats in the resonant field exhibited much less activity and were more passive and submissive than the non-exposed controls-a result equivalent to the result that would be obtained if the animals were given large doses of lithium.

Since then, more extensive studies have been done, all of which have supported the cyclotron-resonance theory. This theory has been extended in ways too complex to be discussed here. While some criticisms have been raised, these have concerned minor points and do not diminish the great value of the entire concept.

This is not to say that other types of complex resonance, such as nuclear magnetic and electron paramagnetic resonance, do not have equally important biological effects; they probably do. They just have not been so well studied at this time.

The importance of the entire resonance theory cannot be over-emphasized. It provides logical mechanisms whereby single cells and specific organs, such as the pineal gland, may intercept and derive information from electromagnetic fields. The theory also appears to be applicable to the basic relationship between living things and the Earth's normal electromagnetic environment.

In 1984, I proposed that resonance between the Earth's natural steady-state field and the micropulsation frequencies might provide the timing mechanism for cell division. Since the resonance theory is based on frequency and not power, it permits effects from vanishingly small fields, such as that observed in 1978 by Dr. Yu Ach kasova at the Crimean Medical Institute in the USSR. The sun's magnetic field is organized into sectors, much like the segments of an orange. Alternate sectors have their fields directed inward and outward, so that as the sun rotates a slight change is produced as each sector boundary crosses the line connecting the sun with the Earth. Achkasova observed a rhythm in the multiplication rate of bacteria in culture that coincided with the passage of each solar-sector boundary-an incredibly minute alteration of the field at the surface of the Earth.