Discovery of Quantum Vibrations in 'Microtubules' Inside Brain Neurons Supports Controversial Theory of Consciousness.

A review and update of a controversial 20-year-old theory of consciousness published in Physics of Life Reviews claims that consciousness derives from deeper level, finer scale activities inside brain neurons. The recent discovery of quantum vibrations in "microtubules" inside brain neurons corroborates this theory, according to review authors Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose. They suggest that EEG rhythms (brain waves) also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations, and that from a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions.

The theory, called "orchestrated objective reduction" ('Orch OR'), was first put forward in the mid-1990s by eminent mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose, FRS, Mathematical Institute and Wadham College, University of Oxford, and prominent anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, MD, Anesthesiology, Psychology and Center for Consciousness Studies, The University of Arizona, Tucson. They suggested that quantum vibrational computations in microtubules were "orchestrated" ("Orch") by synaptic inputs and memory stored in microtubules, and terminated by Penrose "objective reduction" ('OR'), hence "Orch OR." Microtubules are major components of the cell structural skeleton.

Orch OR was harshly criticized from its inception, as the brain was considered too "warm, wet, and noisy" for seemingly delicate quantum processes.. However, evidence has now shown warm quantum coherence in plant photosynthesis, bird brain navigation, our sense of smell, and brain microtubules. The recent discovery of warm temperature quantum vibrations in microtubules inside brain neurons by the research group led by Anirban Bandyopadhyay, PhD, at the National Institute of Material Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan (and now at MIT), corroborates the pair's theory and suggests that EEG rhythms also derive from deeper level microtubule vibrations. In addition, work from the laboratory of Roderick G. Eckenhoff, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that anesthesia, which selectively erases consciousness while sparing non-conscious brain activities, acts via microtubules in brain neurons.

"The origin of consciousness reflects our place in the universe, the nature of our existence. Did consciousness evolve from complex computations among brain neurons, as most scientists assert? Or has consciousness, in some sense, been here all along, as spiritual approaches maintain?" ask Hameroff and Penrose in the current review. "This opens a potential Pandora's Box, but our theory accommodates both these views, suggesting consciousness derives from quantum vibrations in microtubules, protein polymers inside brain neurons, which both govern neuronal and synaptic function, and connect brain processes to self-organizing processes in the fine scale, 'proto-conscious' quantum structure of reality."

After 20 years of skeptical criticism, "the evidence now clearly supports Orch OR," continue Hameroff and Penrose. "Our new paper updates the evidence, clarifies Orch OR quantum bits, or "qubits," as helical pathways in microtubule lattices, rebuts critics, and reviews 20 testable predictions of Orch OR published in 1998 -- of these, six are confirmed and none refuted."

An important new facet of the theory is introduced. Microtubule quantum vibrations (e.g. in megahertz) appear to interfere and produce much slower EEG "beat frequencies." Despite a century of clinical use, the underlying origins of EEG rhythms have remained a mystery. Clinical trials of brief brain stimulation aimed at microtubule resonances with megahertz mechanical vibrations using transcranial ultrasound have shown reported improvements in mood, and may prove useful against Alzheimer's disease and brain injury in the future.

Lead author Stuart Hameroff concludes, "Orch OR is the most rigorous, comprehensive and successfully-tested theory of consciousness ever put forth. From a practical standpoint, treating brain microtubule vibrations could benefit a host of mental, neurological, and cognitive conditions."

The review is accompanied by eight commentaries from outside authorities, including an Australian group of Orch OR arch-skeptics. To all, Hameroff and Penrose respond robustly.

Penrose, Hameroff and Bandyopadhyay will explore their theories during a session on "Microtubules and the Big Consciousness Debate" at the Brainstorm Sessions, a public three-day event at the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, January 16-18, 2014. They will engage skeptics in a debate on the nature of consciousness, and Bandyopadhyay and his team will couple microtubule vibrations from active neurons to play Indian musical instruments. "Consciousness depends on anharmonic vibrations of microtubules inside neurons, similar to certain kinds of Indian music, but unlike Western music which is harmonic," Hameroff explains.

Source: ScienceDaily

Exorcists wanted in Malta after 'spike in devil-worshipping practices'.

The Catholic Church is training more priests to be able to carry out exorcisms – including, apparently, in Malta, 'where a spike in devil-worshipping practices has caused concern among Catholics' – in a bid to address a growth in occult worship, international media are reporting.

According to The Daily Beast, training programmes to train priests seeking to perform exorcisms have been launched in Italy, Spain and Malta.

Fr Vincenzo Taraborelli, a 76-year-old Rome-based priest who has been carrying out exorcisms for the past 50 years and who has trained hundreds of priests to perform the rite, is one of the priests involved in the new training programmes launched in Italy.

His services are in great demand – he performs up to 100 exorcisms in some weeks – even though he concedes that the need for an exorcism is actually very rare.

However, the Catholic Church is also seeking to address quality control and put an end to what Fr Taraborelli describes as the “dangerous” practice of exorcism by untrained novices.

Perhaps the most popular perception of what exorcists do is based on the 1973 horror film The Exorcist, but actual exorcists often emphasise that the rite is not quite as sensational as people may believe.

Fr Taraborelli explains that the church is very clear on the rite, pointing out that the person requesting the exorcism must be seen by medical professionals to ensure that what is perceived to be demonic possession is not mental illness – which may present similar symptoms.

The exorcists must themselves go to confession or otherwise clear their own soul before they officiate over the rite, wearing a purple stole over a simple tunic.

The possessed person then kneels before the priest, who sprinkles holy water on himself, the penitent and any bystanders who may be present. A string of prayers follows, before the exorcist attempts to drive the devil away with a special prayer.

The process may be repeated as often as necessary. Should it work, Fr Taraborelli explains, the newly-liberated person is urged to spend a lot of time in serious prayer, which he compares to taking vitamins after getting rid of a bad bout of flu.

Source: Malta Independent

NSA could 'spy on offline computers', says latest leak.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) used secret technology to spy on computers that were not even connected to the internet, it has been reported.

Citing documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New York Times said 100,000 machines were fitted with small devices that emitted radio waves.

Targets included the Chinese and Russian military as well as drug cartels, the newspaper claimed.

On Friday, the US President is expected to address concerns over NSA activity.

Quoting sources "briefed" on Barack Obama's plans, the Times reported that restrictions on the scope of collecting bulk telephone data will feature, and that a person will be appointed to represent the views of the public in secret intelligence meetings.

Furthermore, tighter controls on foreign surveillance will be implemented - an attempt, the paper suggests, to dampen the political fall-out from revelations the US had obtained data from the communication tools of world leaders without their knowledge.

Offline access

This latest leak details how the NSA accessed targets by inserting tiny circuit boards or USB cards into computers and using radio waves to transmit data without the need for the machine to be connected to a wider network.

It is a significant revelation in that it undermines what was seen to be one of the simplest but most effective methods of making a system secure: isolating it from the internet.

While the technology involved is not new, its apparent implementation by US security services was previously unknown.

In a statement made to the New York Times, an NSA spokeswoman said none of the targets were in the US, adding: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against - valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements.''

"We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of - or give intelligence we collect to - US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."

Source: BBC News

Searching for the Amazon's Hidden Civilizations.

Big picture. A new model of the Amazon predicts that terra preta is more likely to be found along rivers in the eastern part of the rainforest. The letters indicate known archaeological sites.

Look around the Amazon rainforest today and it’s hard to imagine it filled with people. But in recent decades, archaeologists have started to find evidence that before Columbus’s arrival, the region was dotted with towns and perhaps even cities. The extent of human settlement in the Amazon remains hotly debated, partly because huge swaths of the 6-million-square-kilometer rainforest remain unstudied by archaeologists. Now, researchers have built a model predicting where signs of pre-Columbian agriculture are most likely to be found, a tool they hope will help guide future archaeological work in the region.

In many ways, archaeology in the Amazon is still in its infancy. Not only is it difficult to mount large-scale excavations in the middle of a tropical rainforest, but until recently, archaeologists assumed there wasn’t much to find. Amazonian soil is notoriously poor quality—all the nutrients are immediately sucked up by the rainforest’s astounding biodiversity—so for many years, scientists believed that the kind of large-scale farming needed to support cities was impossible in the region. Discoveries of gigantic earthworks and ancient roads, however, hint that densely populated and long-lasting population hubs once existed in the Amazon. Their agricultural secret? Pre-Columbian Amazonians enriched the soil themselves, creating what archaeologists call terra preta.

Terra preta—literally “black earth”—is soil that humans have enriched to have two to three times the nutrient content of the surrounding, poor-quality soil, explains Crystal McMichael, a paleoecologist at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. Although there is no standard definition for terra preta, it tends to be darker than other Amazonian soils and to have charcoal and pre-Columbian pottery shards mixed in. Most of it was created 2500 to 500 years ago. Like the earthworks, terra preta is considered a sign that a particular area was occupied by humans in the pre-Columbian past.

By analyzing location and environmental data from nearly 1000 known terra preta sites and comparing it with information from soil surveys that reported no terra preta, McMichael and her team found patterns in the distribution of the enriched soil. The scientists concluded that terra preta is most likely to be found in central and eastern Amazonia on bluffs overlooking rivers nearing the Atlantic Ocean. It’s less common in western Amazonia, where runoff from the Andes tends to add nutrients to the soil naturally, and in highland areas such as Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia, which is home to many impressive pre-Columbian earthworks. By analyzing the environmental conditions most strongly associated with terra preta, the team was able to build a model predicting where undiscovered terra preta sites are most likely to be found. Overall, they suspect that there is probably about 154,063 km² of terra preta in the Amazon, composing about 3.2% of the basin’s total area, they report online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Not only does modeling the likely locations of terra preta reveal possible patterns of human settlement in the Amazon, but it also gives archaeologists “a starting point” for future excavations, McMichael says. “Within a forest of almost 6 million square kilometers, it’s hard for archaeologists to determine site locations for sampling,” she explains. Like the increasingly popular LiDAR—which can find earthworks hidden under the rainforest canopy but can’t sniff out terra preta—“these [statistical] methodologies narrow down the probabilities” of where to find promising archaeological sites.

Other Amazon experts are more skeptical. Michael Heckenberger, an archaeologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the research, points out a possible discrepancy in the sampling methods employed by McMichael’s team. The terra preta sites used to make the statistical model, he says, “just happen to be the areas where there’s been intensive archaeological survey.” The areas designated as terra preta-free, on the other hand, were sampled and categorized by ecologists and geologists, often long before anyone was looking for terra preta or other signs of pre-Columbian settlements in the Amazon. Just because a region is labeled terra preta-free now, Heckenberger suspects, doesn’t mean there isn’t anyterra preta there. It just means archaeologists haven’t been there to look for it—yet. McMichael’s map “serves as a reminder of what we don’t know” about the Amazon’s past, he says.

McMichael agrees that a terra preta-free label should not be taken as proof that humans never settled a region. The relative lack of terra preta around the Llanos de Moxos earthworks proves that humans didn’t necessarily enrich the soil, or do so in the same way, everywhere they lived, she says. “I would think that cultures adapted differently to the different environmental conditions,” creating terra preta where the natural soil was particularly poor and modifying their environment in other ways in regions where they didn’t necessarily need to enrich the soil to support large populations.

McMichael hopes to use her statistical methods to model all different kinds of ancient human impacts on the Amazon. Her team has a paper in press at the Journal of Biogeography predicting the locations of earthworks, and eventually she hopes to create a map correlating past human settlements with various ecological patterns. If pre-Columbian humans encouraged the spread of particular plants and animals they found helpful in the regions around their settlements, for example, that might affect species distribution in the Amazon today. Soon, scientists might be able to go beyond earthworks and agriculture and read the Amazon’s history in the forest itself.

Source: ScienceWeb 

UFO: Astronomer discover Moon's alien entrance.

The moon has been the focus of study for decades which resulted in a number of controversial findings.

Based on the video report posted on UFO Sightings Daily dated December 30, 2013, an Australian eyewitness was comparing the before and after photos of Zeeman Crater's five-mile entrance.

"You can see up here there's some dome ridges in it and stuff like that; and let's leave it back here, it's been totally smudged out. It is absolutely missing 100% missing. Gone!"

Using Google Earth and the coordinate 72°30'41.04" S 145°30'29.62" W, the photograph taken in 1967 shows that the crater’s opening is clearly visible; but on the new version of the same opening, it appears that the said opening was erased from the photograph.

"This is just smeared out, smudged out. Typical NASA style" as observed by the eyewitness.

The Australian eyewitness is a good friend of Scott C. Waring, an astronomer, UFOlogist and editor ofUFO Sightings Daily.

The Moon Could be an Artificial Satellite

Could the moon be really an artificial satellite? Taking into account the photographed opening of the Zeeman Crater, it is apparent that the area above the opening is designed like the steps of a staircase and with the effort exerted to cover it up is raising a lot of questions.

Is the moon serving another purpose, other than lighting up the sky during night time?

Carl Sagan, a renowned scientist stated that satellites cannot be hollow. True as it is, when the moon produced a reverberation, similar to that of a bell, on two separate occasions, plus the claims of 2 Soviet Scientists that intellectual beings had existed in the moon for ages, support the theory that the moon could be an artificial satellite. 

Antarctic Discovery Of ‘Portal’ Into The Ice.

In a follow up to the “Something Strange Under The Antarctica” article by Live Free or Die on Tuesday, videographer FreedomFighter2127 did a little more research which he explains in the video below.

Long story short – Something was believed to be activated in the Antarctica, radiation, microwave transmissions coming from 100 feet below the ice, and many ended up sick after heading there to investigate. The top secret nature of this entire situation implies what is under there is huge news.

That is the short version, read the original HERE

What FreedomFighter says he found was some “ginormous portal or hole” into the ice.

What I like about this videographer is he doesn’t claim to know what he is looking at, is more than willing to hear ideas and be informed. He goes through what he does believe, which is that there are underground bases down there, but he makes it clear that it is his personal opinion.”

He calls his findings “intriguing” and after watching, I have to agree.

Watch

Terrifying Confirmation Red Dwarf Sun & Planets Incoming? Source Personnel Linked To Top US Senator.

In this newly released video from endtimes23 our videographer shares with us a message that we all hope isn’t true. He claims to have gotten this message from an aid to a top US Senator who claims that a ‘red dwarf sun’ and planets are incoming. He further claims that 2/3 of the population of the planet will soon perish because of this ‘event’. Another ‘doomsayer’ predicting an event that will never come to pass or does his video warning hold merit?