Project LUCAS
Borderland Sciences SETI
Project
Detecting Biodynamic Signals
by Michael Theroux
The catalogue of these
pursuits is indeed a long one and can by no means be completed
here, but we will attempt to cover historically those researches
which warrant our attentions, based on the value of the attained
results. We will also include research currently being done by
BSRF and others. The means to detect communications and energies
which exist outside of the electromagnetic spectrum has been an
enduring quest of qualitative researchers for many years.
Much evidence indicates that specific
communications and energies DO exist outside the conventional
electromagnetic spectrum of which our finest examples may be
found in the sciences of radionics, homeopathy, dowsing,
radiesthesia, and etheric engineering to name a few. While
conventional modes of discovering these "biodynamic"
signals has in the past relied on the human subject as an
integral component of detection, we are concerned here with what
has been referred to as the "automatic detecting
instrument" - sans human subject. Our investigations into
the detection of biodynamic signals begins with the outstanding
work of L. George Lawrence.
L. George Lawrence, a Silesian-born electronics
specialist, began his studies into plant biodynamics in 1962
while employed as a instrumentation engineer for a Los Angeles
space-science corporation. He was actually engaged in a project
to develop jam-proof missile components, and believed that using
plant tissue as a type of transducer would produce the desired
results. He summarized that living plant tissues or leaves were
capable of simultaneously sensing temperature change,
gravitational variation, electromagnetic fields, and a host of
other environmental effects — an ability no known mechanical
sensor possessed. These initial investigations led him to the
works of Alexander Gurwitsch, a Russian histologist, whose
experiments in the 1920s proved that all living cells produce
invisible radiations of a biodynamic character. While observing
the cells of onion roots, Gurwitsch noticed that they began
dividing with a distinct rhythm causing him to trust that some
type of vital force from nearby cells was the cause. To verify
this hypothesis Gurwitsch devised a type of ray gun which
entailed mounting an onion root tip inside of a thin glass
cylinder which was then aimed at a matching arrangement with a
small area of onion root exposed to act as a target. Gurwitsch
allowed the onion "ray gun" to bombard the sample for
three hours, at which time he examined the target specimen under
his microscope. The number of cell divisions in the irradiated
area had increased by 25 percent! Gurwitsch tried to block the
emanations with a thin slice of quartz crystal, but this proved
ineffective. Only glass or a gelatin substance guaranteed
blocking the transmissions. Owing to the fact that these rays
from the onion "ray gun" demonstrated increased cell
division or mitosis in the target, Gurwitsch called them
"mitogenetic rays." Many other laboratories would
confirm his findings. Researchers in Paris, Moscow, Berlin, and
Frankfort all corroborated Gurwitsch’s results. Only the
U.S. Academy of Sciences reported that Gurwitsch’s discovery
was not replicable, and suggested it was merely his fertile
imagination.
This system of being able to manage and direct
the vital force in living plant tissue sparked Lawrence into
action. Equipped with the knowledge of Cleve Backster’s
recent experiments with plants and a polygraph instrument,
Lawrence began building several psycho-galvanic analyzers to
detect responses in plants. He quickly corroborated the results
that Backster had obtained from his plant experiments —
these results indicating that plants displayed a unique cellular
consciousness. Over the course of his experiments, Lawrence would
begin to modify the basic recording apparatus from the simple
galvanic skin response indicators, to ultra-high-gain
piezo-electrometers. He also did away with the pen recorder,
opting for a built-in audio oscillator which produces a steady
tone, changing to distinct pulsations when the plant sensor is
activated by external stimulation. Aural monitoring has many
advantages over the pen recorder, chief of which is the relative
ease with which one can oversee (hear) the plant’s response.
Another feature Lawrence would bring to the field was the
replacement of the test plant with biologically active sensors,
or "biodynamic transducers". These could range from
simple tubes containing vegetal material in a temperature
controlled bath, to thin AT-cut quartz crystal wafers bonded with
specific organic materials housed in a Faraday chamber. In the
latter device, the highly reactive organic material induces
changes in the crystal, which when used in an oscillator circuit,
will alter the oscillator’s frequency.
Lawrence preferred to perform his experiments
in what he called "electromagnetic ‘deep fringe’
areas", where there were no man-made interferences. The
remote locations of the high desert in southern California were
his favored haunts for these investigations. In October of 1971,
Lawrence was working on an experiment near Temecula, California.
He had developed an instrument which would receive a directional
biodynamic signal from a distance of up to one mile away. This
instrument consisted of a lensless tube which housed a
cylindrical Faraday chamber. The base of this tube contained a
biodynamic transducer which was connected to the recording
instrumentation. The complete "biosensor" tube was
mounted on top of a low power telescope for directional sighting.
To induce a stimulus into the directional biosensor, Lawrence
would train the sights of his instrument on a plant or tree some
distance away that had been previously wired with electrodes.
These electrodes were connected to a switch which when closed
would introduce a pre-measured current into the tree or plant.
Back at the test site, Lawrence would then gently electrocute the
tree or plant by radio control, causing his biosensor apparatus
to respond wildly. This was an exciting new breakthrough in the
field of detecting biodynamic signals for the instruments were
now directional and worked at a considerable distance. But, this
is certainly not the end of the story. On the day of these
experiments, Lawrence and his assistant decided to take a late
afternoon break. The biosensing instrument had been left on and
was pointing in a random direction at the sky. As they began to
eat their lunch, the steady sounds from the equipment abruptly
changed to the familiar series of pulsations instantly signaling
that it was picking up some sort of disturbance. After checking
the apparatus and finding no malfunctions, Lawrence determined
that the signals had to be coming from outer space! These
seemingly intelligent gestures from an advanced civilisation
would most probably be transmissions of a biological nature, and
not from the electromagnetic spectrum which had so consumed the
academicians of previous SETI projects. This discovery would
remain the primary focus of all of Lawrence’s later
experiments with biosensing instruments.
Lawrence had initially determined, based on the
direction the instrument was pointing, that these signals
originated from the constellation Ursa Major, commonly known as
the Big Dipper. Later, after repeating the experiment several
times with more elaborate equipment, he speculated that galactic
drift may have been involved and that the signals may have been
"spilling over" from the galactic equator which hosts a
very dense star population. He believed the signals were not
directed at earthlings, but were probably transmissions between
companion civilizations, which he felt would communicate via
"eidetic imagery". This led him to begin analyzing
these signals with video recording equipment. The images produced
by these signals were called "biograms" and were
basically digital spectrograms with a gray-scale resolution of
640 x 482 x 8 bits. Interpretation of these biograms needs
considerable study. Unfortunately, there has been little
information on this aspect of Lawrence’s work, and it seems
as though this was to be the last installment of his labors.
The information we have retrieved on L. George
Lawrence’s achievements is scant at best. Much of it comes
from the few articles he wrote, and the brief generalizations
from the writers of more popularized books. The whereabouts of
his equipment and/or notebooks is not known at this time. An
important document for the re-creation of Lawrence’s
experiments is the movie version of "The Secret Life of
Plants". In this video Lawrence is shown at work with his
biosensing equipment, and one can hear recordings of the
reception of biodynamic signals. One credible resource states
that Lawrence was an expert oceanographer, historian,
cartographer, and originator of the world’s first laser
engine. He is credited with the authorship of some 46 books, but
we have recently discovered that the name "L. George
Lawrence" was a pseudonym he used for his popular works, and
only two books bearing that name are to be found. As the managing
director of the Ecola Institute in the 1970s, he was engaged in
nuclear radiation research, medical and agricultural biomagnetic
research, and conceptive space research for NASA among other
agencies. It is quite probable that much of the work that Ecola
was pursuing was of a confidential or classified nature.
Over the last year, it has been a project of
ours at BSRF to recreate and elaborate on the many innovations
brought to our attention by L. George Lawrence. We began with the
basics using simple psycho-galvanic instruments to analyze plant
responses, and in the process, were able to recreate several of
the results obtained by pioneers in plant research. Many of these
recreations and new discoveries have been chronicled in the
column, "The Borderland Experimenter" and elsewhere in
the journal (see: http://www.borderlands.com/newstuff/research/plant.htm). The impetus which directed our experiments toward
those of Lawrence was the fact that he was able to obtain
directional and "wireless" biodynamic signals over
great distances.
The primary setup consists of a Faraday tube
with an organic "biosensor" housed at its base. A
rotating beam splitter at the end of the tube further cancels out
interference from stray electromagnetic radiations. The most
significant problem concerning this portion of the equipment is
determining what will be the most suitable material for the
biosensor itself. Originally, sections of plant leaves were used
which had the electrodes clamped to them in the traditional
manner. This proves to be a cumbersome procedure, and the plant
material clamped as such quickly becomes stressed and ceases to
respond at all. Hundreds of different "non-plant"
substances have been tested in biosensor designs, most of which
have failed in their capacity to produce the dynamic response of
living materials. Unfortunately, Lawrence left few clues as to
what would be the optimum arrangement here. We know that in his
early work, Lawrence used a variety of mustard seeds floating in
a nutrient bath for the reception of biodynamic signals. In later
years, he would speak of using thin sections of plant stems or
roots as a biodynamic transducer. Our finest results were
obtained using this arrangement.
Next, the output of the biodynamic transducer
is connected to the electronics package which can consist of a
simple psycho-galvanic response indicator, to a more
sophisticated adaptation which is shown in the schematic here.
One can see this system described in many of Lawrence’s
articles and in use on the aforementioned video documentation.
The advantage of this system over the simple biomonitor is that
it affords greater selectivity with regard to sensitivity when
monitoring signals. The drawback is that since these more
sensitive units are not a production item, one must be somewhat
skilled at building electronic instrumentation. Unfortunately,
there is not enough room here to give step by step instructions
on the construction of such a project from a schematic diagram
for those with little knowledge in electronics manufacture. The
basic details of the circuit’s operation will be covered
here, but some understanding of schematics and components is
assumed.
The instrument designed by Lawrence has both a
visual meter and an acoustical output indicator through a
speaker. The audio tone output can also be directly connected to
a tape recorder. A simple modification will allow one to connect
the d.c. output to a pen recorder to make a permananet record of
the retrieved signals. The connections to the biosensor or plant
material may be done any number of ways already discussed.
Biodynamic Response Detector - Circuit
Theory
Referring to the schematic, we will begin with
the Wheatstone bridge section. The biosensor connected to input
J1 forms part of a Wheatstone bridge with the other legs formed
by R1 and R3. Power to the bridge is furnished by B1, which is
controlled by R2. Switch S1 is an input/output polarizer which
permits reversal of the current or excitation applied to the
biosensor. This is most important, as the setting of S1 will
determine whether the plant’s own generated currents will be
superimposed upon the excitation currents.
The signal from the bridge is then amplified in
IC1, which is protected from large signals by diodes D1 and D2
when switch S3 is closed. After the circuit is completely
operational, S3 may be opened for maximum sensitivity. Power to
the amp is given by B2 and B3 operated by switch S4. The output
of the amplifier is indicated on meter M1, which is null adjusted
by R3.
The amplified output also drives an audio
oscillator (Q1 & Q2) whose fluctuation of frequency is a
function of the signal from the biosensor/bridge arrangement.
Indicator lamp I1 lights up when activated by the momentary
pushbutton switch S6, and allows testing of battery function as
well as the cueing of a mark on the tape being recorded due to
the pitch increase as S6 is depressed. Transformer T1 supplies an
audio output for the tape recorder, S7 turns the speaker on and
off, and R18 adjusts the volume of the speaker.
After the successful construction of the
instrument, one is ready to perform experiments. S3 should begin
in the closed position to prevent excessive input signal going to
IC1. Next, S1 should be turned on to apply current to the
biosensor/bridge, which is adjusted by R2. S4 should be turned on
next, followed by the adjustment of R3 for a meter null (zero
setting). This will have to be readjusted occasionally as the
biosensor or plant settles into its baseline (relaxed) condition.
Indications of biosensor response will be observed on the meter,
and in the fluctuations of the audio tone coming from the
speaker. The actual amount of excitation controlled by R2, and
the state of the superimposition of plant currents must be
determined by actual usage. Performing these experiments in an
area of low electromagnetic interference is ideal, but is not
necessary unless one needs to control any outside influences.
Armed with this instrument, one should be able to conduct a wide
variety of unique experiments.
Schematic
Diagram (Click Link)
Parts List:
Resistors
R1 - 75k
R2 - 10k Linear Potentiometer
R3 - 100k Linear Potentiometer
R4, R5, R14 - 1k
R6 - 240k
R7 - 1M Linear Potentiometer
R8 - 82 ohm
R9, R10 - 470k
R11 - 3.3k
R12 - 10k
R13 - 4.7k
R15 - 100 ohm
R16 3.5 ohm 1 watt
R17 - 10 ohm
R18 - 8 ohm potentiometer (L-pad)
(all resistors ½watt unless specified)
Capacitors
C1 - .05µF
C2, C3 - 50µF 10 volt electrolytic
C4 - 220 pF
C5 - .01µF
C6 - .005µF
Transistors
Q1 - SK3011 transistor
Q2 - SK3003 transistor
Other
IC1 - µA741C op amp (Radio Shack 276-007)
D1, D2 - IN4004 Silicon Diode
B1, B2, B3 - 9v battery (with holders & clips)
B4 - 1.5v D-cell (with holder)
M1 - 0-1mA meter
P1 - RCA (male) plug
J1, J2 - gold fem. RCA jack
T1 - Audio transformer 250/8 ohm, 200mW
Spkr - 3.2 ohm
I1 - 2.2v lamp #222
S1, S4, S7 - dpdt switch
S2, S3, S5 - spst switch
S6 - Normally open pushbutton switch
3 feet of shielded two-conductor wire
project case
8-pin IC socket
perf board or eched circuit boards
knobs for potentiometers
Selected References
"Electronics and the Living Plant",
L. George Lawrence, Popular Electronics, October 1969.
"Electronics and the Living Plant",
L. George Lawrence, Electronics World, October 1969.
"Experimental Electro-culture", L.
George Lawrence, Popular Electronics, February 1971.
"More Experiments in
Electro-culture", L. George Lawrence, Popular Electronics,
June 1971.
"Are We Receiving Biological Signals from
Outer Space?", L. George Lawrence, Popular Electronics,
April 1991.
The Secret Life of Plants, Peter
Tompkins and Christopher Bird, Harper & Row, 1973.
"Contact with Extraterrestrial Life",
Joseph F. Goodavage, Saga Magazine, January 1973.
When Stars Look Down, George W. Van
Tassel, Kruckeberg Press, 1976.
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