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Shakti uses magnetic coils to output magnetic signals.
Shakti and EMF emissions
Shakti does not produce EMF emissions. However, a number of people
have mistakenly assumed that magnetic signals involve this kind of emission, so we're going to look at this first.
EMF Emissions
Let's start by defining the term emission.
The American Heritage Dictionary of Science:
Emission:
n. Physics 1 The discharge of electrons as from an electrode, caused by heat, light, or the impact of an electrical
discharge, or beam of high-energy electrons. 2 Any radiation of energy by electromagnetic waves.
Wikipedia:
Emission: In physics, emission is the process by which the energy of a photon is
released by another entity, for example, by an atom whose electrons make a transition between two electronic energy
levels. The emitted energy is in the form of a photon.
EMF emissions (which can even include visible light) are varieties
of radiation, and/or electrons. Shakti uses magnetic fields, which are neither radiation nor electrons. Electromagnetic
radiation is composed of photons. Magnetic fields are not. Magnetic fields are not composed of the elementary particles
than can interact with some organic compounds, nor are they composed of electrons, ions, or anything else that
is encompassed by the word 'emission'.
Electromagnetic Frequencies.
In most cases, electromagnetic frequencies are very high. Microwaves,
for example, include waves of 100,000,000,000 HZ - a high frequency. Other electromagnetic frequencies are much
lower, like those of radio waves. For comparison, audible sounds run from 10 or 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz. The phrase
"electromagnetic frequencies" most commonly refers to the frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum. Shakti
uses magnetic fields, which are not a part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
This illustration shows the Electromagnetic Spectrum.
Magnetic fields do not appear in the Electromagnetic Spectrum.
What frequencies are used in the Shakti signals?
This question doesn't apply to Shakti's signals. The length of time
it takes for a signal to change shows it's frequency, but what if the frequency of a signal changes constantly
in irregular ways? Then it's a 'complex' signal. Technicians usually have a lot more experience with 'simple' signals
(like the kind you get with AC current) than 'complex' ones, and often make the mistake of discussing them as though
they were the same. Most of Shakti's signals are irregular 'bursts', and cannot be said to have any particular
frequency, but the signals will 'average' to frequencies from 4 to 400 hertz (approx.).
Describing the Shakti signals as frequencies will make them seem
like something they aren't. Many technically-minded people have made the mistake of thinking that all signals must
have frequencies, and therefore, Shakti signals can be described in terms of their frequencies. The illustrations
below show why this is not so.
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Like Shakti Signals
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Unlike Shakti Signals
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(frequency does not describe the
signal)
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(frequency describes the signal)
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See the difference?
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Is Shakti EMF?
Yes and no. EMF stands for Electromagnetic frequency, Electromagentic force, Electromotive
force, and Electromagnetic fields. Some of these apply to Shakti and some of them do not.
Does Shakti emit
EMF (or use EMF emissions)?
No.
Electromagnetic fields
The phrase "electromagnetic fields" refers to more than
one phenomena. One
is the kind of electrical field that surrounds high-voltage power lines, and is composed of charged particles.
Cell phone emissions are an example of such a field phenomena, and some people think these may pose a health risk.
Electromagnet fields (fields from electromagnets) [sic].
Actually, the term 'electromagnet fields' is not standard engineer-ese,
but it makes the concept clear for people who don't speak it. In order to avoid confusion, the phrases 'magnetic
coils' and 'magnetic fields' are used throughout the Shakti website.
This is the kind of magnetic field utilized by Shakti. This refers
to magnetic fields created by magnetic coils - like a nail wrapped with wire, and connected to a battery. These
are simple magnetic fields created by two poles, and are not composed of ions, electrons, or photons. Fields from
an electromagnet are made of the same 'stuff' as the earth's magnetic field or the field you find around a magnet
that holds a paper to a refrigerator. The are 'made' of 'lines of force', and are not 'EM emissions'. These do
not pose a health risk of any kind.
Magnetic fields from electromagnets do not constitute EMF emissions.
What are magnetic signals?
Magnetic signals are information-bearing magnetic fields. The information
is derived from EEG traces, so that it originates in the brain. It's 'encoded' in changes in the amplitude (field
strength), which changes every few milliseconds. These magnetic signals can be described as time and amplitude
varying magnetic fields. In other words, the amplitude changes over time.
Most people have worn headsets that output "Complex Magnetic
Signals" - the kind of magnetic field used in Shakti. Stereo headphones. Like Shakti, headphones receive input
from an audio source, and the coils in the headphones create magnetic fields that get stronger and weaker as the
level of the music changes. However, these are not EMF emissions. Listening to your favorite music through headphones
does not have the risks associated with EMF emissions, and for the same reason, neither does Shakti.
Shakti uses magnetic coils connected to a computer sound
card. Is the output from the sound card AC or DC?
I asked an electrical engineer this question, and this was his answer:
"The output of a sound card (or a CD player) is modulated DC.
The polarity - one wire is positive and the other wire is negative - is always the same, no matter how the amplitude
varies.
A speaker or headphones uses a magnetic coil to move a diaphragm to make sound.
Generally, the goal is to move the coil two ways to make sound. However, because of the springiness of the coil
you only need one polarity. For example, a given voltage might push the coil. When the voltage drops lower, the
voice coil will rebound and move the other way."
How can the fields reach deep inside the brain?
To answer this, I would like to quote Gareth Hatch, Ph.D., from
his contribution at www.physlink.com Link. He was asked (Italics ours):
"Is there any material that can
block a magnetic force?"
Answer:
Magnetic fields... cannot be blocked, no. That is, there is no such
thing as a magnetic insulator.
A major reason for this has to do with one of Maxwell's Equations:
del dot B = 0
Which implies that there are no magnetic monopoles. That is, where as you can separate electric monopoles (positive
and negative charges) such that an E-field never has to terminate on the opposite charge, you cannot do this with
magnetic poles. There do not exist any magnetic monopoles. There is no such thing as "magnetic charge."
All magnetic field lines MUST TERMINATE on the opposite pole. Because of this, there is no way to stop them --
nature must find a way to return the magnetic field lines back to an opposite pole."
Shakti's magnetic signals reach deep inside the brain because there
is nothing in or around the brain that can stop them.
Rats have been exposed to this variety of magnetic fields for their
entire lives, including while they were in the womb, which were later found to have no negative effects on any
tissues, including brain tissues (source - in full text).
How can a sound card play an EEG signal?
The process of getting an EEG signal out of a sound card begins
with capturing the signal on an EEG machine. The trace is scanned, and the resulting image is used as a template
from which an audio file is derived. The audio file plays using a specialized audio player (in the Shakti software).
The 'pattern' (or the 'shape' of the signal is preserved throughout. Because the signal is 'complex', the signals
cannot be produced using tone generators, function generators, sweep generators, or synthesizers. Only audio files
that begin with an image of an EEG trace can target specific brain parts. The resulting output is fed into a set
of magnetic coils, which produce fields with strengths that rise and fall in the same patterns as the original
EEG traces. Some people have assumed that Shakti uses recorded EEG trances, but it actually uses the image of a trace - a picture - as
the starting point for deriving the signals. There are several technologies, like light and sound devices, that
use EEG frequencies, but this is not the same as using EEG traces, like those used for the 8 Coil Shakti.
How can the coils 'target' specific structures without being precisely oriented to focus
on them?
The coils don't 'target' the
brain structues. The signals target the structures,
not the coils. Just as brain structures respond
to chemicals with specific shapes, they also respond to magnetic signals with specific patterns - if the pattern
matches an electrical firing pattern that comes from that structure. Aspirin 'targets' inflammation without being
injected into the inflamed area. An antibiotic will 'target' a bacteria, and have little effect (if any) on a virus.
If you're in a crowded room, and only a few people in it speak Japanese, you can 'target' a message only to them
by calling it out in Japanese. Everyone will hear you, but only they will respond.
Their information content is what makes the magnetic signals influence the brain, and not
the field strength or the angle of the coils with respect to the head. A wrong volume setting can interfere with
a Shakti session, because it can prevent brain from receiving the information content, but the effects are from
the signal's information content.
Sound cards will often add 'spikes' with sudden changes in
volume. Doesn't this prevent the signals from matching the original EEG traces?
No. The original patterns are still there, even though the sound
device may add to it in this way. The shape of the original signal bears information the brain responds to. The
spikes added by the sound card don't. The latter does not disrupt the former. When a Shakti signal is being run
to the headset, the information in the original EEG trace is applied. At the same time, the brain is exposed to
the earth's magnetic field, fields from the (presumably) nearby computer monitor, electrical appliances, and a
host of fields from minor sources - and the spikes from the sound card, too. It's a matter of 'signal-to-noise'.
The noise from a sound card (and there is not really very much of it) doesn't interfere with the signal.
A Complex Magnetic Signal
What about the 'hum' that some sound cards make when there is no active output. Doesn't
that interfere with the signals?
No. Shakti uses it's own dedicated audio player (or Windows Media Player) to produce the
signals, and whenever a signal is being run there are instructions going to the sound card, even when the signal
has a section of silence (producing zero-amplitude fields). The hum that some sound cards produce never appears.
Even if it did, that hum would not have any neural information in it, while the Shakti signal would.
Are these signals available to be used on an Ipod?
No. Besides the fact that they're corrupted when they are in MP3 format, they are never
distributed separate from the information needed to use the whole system, and that is not possible on an Ipod.
Do you provide information to help people build their own Shakti systems?
No. "Do it your selfers" need to "do it themselves" in the library as
well as at their workbenches. They will get their own results, making their own mistakes along the way, for which
they, and they alone, are responsible.
Is it sold for ghostbusting?
No. It was used that way in one episode of the television show program Paranormal
States, but only once, and that's not enough to justify it's being called a research
tool for paranormal investigators. Shakti was not developed for that purpose, and it's not sold for that purpose.
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