Study Unveils Why Healers See Human Aura

May 7, 2012 by Enrico de Lazaro

« Previous

| 

Next »

A team of scientists from the University of Granada in Spain has found that many of the individuals claiming to see the aura of people – traditionally called healers or quacks – actually present the neuropsychological phenomenon known as synesthesia.

An artwork shows human aura (No-exit-studios, UK)

The new study, published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, explains for the first time the esoteric phenomenon of the aura, a supposed energy field of luminous radiation surrounding a person as a halo, which is imperceptible to most human beings.

In neurological terms, synesthesia is due to cross-wiring in the brain of some people called synesthetes. In other words, synesthetes have more synaptic connections than “normal” people.

“These extra connections cause them to automatically establish associations between brain areas that are not normally interconnected”, said Prof. Gómez Milán, a lead author of the study. “Many healers claiming to see the aura of people might have this condition.”

In synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are intensely interconnected. This way, synesthetes can see or taste a sound, feel a taste, or associate people with a particular color.

“Not all healers are synesthetes, but there is a higher prevalence of this phenomenon among them,” the scientists explained. “The same occurs among painters and artists, for example.”

In the new study, the team interviewed some synesthetes including the healer from Granada – Esteban Sánchez Casas, also known as El Santón de Baza.

“Many people attribute paranormal powers to El Santón, such as his ability to see the aura of people but, in fact, it is a clear case of synesthesia”, the researchers said.

The team found that El Santón has face-color synesthesia (the brain region responsible for face recognition is associated with the color-processing region); touch-mirror synesthesia (when the synesthete observes a person who is being touched or is experiencing pain, she/he experiences the same); high empathy (the ability to feel what other person is feeling), and schizotypy (certain personality traits in healthy people involving slight paranoia and delusions).

Telescope nights at Armagh Planetarium

BY 

ADMIN

 – FEBRUARY 20, 2013

POSTED IN: ARMAGH PLANETARIUM

We live in an age when dazzling astronomical imagery is everywhere. We are privileged to have immediate access to close ups of the worlds of the Solar System thanks to interplanetary probes and stunning panoramas of nebula and galaxies thanks to hi-tech observatories. But to experience and to feel completely in touch with the marvels of the Universe you cannot beat directly seeing them for yourself with your own eyes. Here is how we can help. Armagh Planetarium is happy to announce that we will be hosting public telescope viewing sessions as part of our regular programme of free late evening openings.

The Planetarium has invested in a 12 inch telescope on a Dobsonian mount and I have been getting to grips with this impressive beast over the past few weeks. I am delighted with the views I have obtained of the Moon, planets and deep sky objects and I think our visitors will be fascinated too.

1300 light years away. M42, the Great Nebula in Orion, imaged through Armagh Planetarium’s telescope in January 2013. This was a 30 second exposure to capture the colours. (Image credit: Colin Johnston/Armagh Planetarium)

The brightest, farthest pulsar in the universe

ESA PRESS RELEASE

22 February 2017 Stephen Clark

The record-breaking pulsar, identified as NGC 5907 X-1, is in the spiral galaxy NGC 5907, which is also known as the Knife Edge Galaxy or Splinter Galaxy. The image comprises X-ray emission data (blue/white) from ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory, and optical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (galaxy and foreground stars). The inset shows the X-ray pulsation of the spinning neutron star, which has a period of 1.13 s, as determined by XMM-Newton’s European Photon Imaging Camera. Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton; NASA/Chandra and SDSS

ESA’s XMM-Newton has found a pulsar – the spinning remains of a once-massive star – that is a thousand times brighter than previously thought possible.

The pulsar is also the most distant of its kind ever detected, with its light travelling 50 million light-years before being detected by XMM-Newton.

Pulsars are spinning, magnetised neutron stars that sweep regular pulses of radiation in two symmetrical beams across the cosmos. If suitably aligned with Earth these beams are like a lighthouse beacon appearing to flash on and off as it rotates. They were once massive stars that exploded as a powerful supernova at the end of their natural life, before becoming small and extraordinarily dense stellar corpses.

This X-ray source is the most luminous of its type detected to date: it is 10 times brighter than the previous record holder. In one second it emits the same amount of energy released by our Sun in 3.5 years.

XMM-Newton observed the object several times in the last 13 years, with the discovery a result of a systematic search for pulsars in the data archive – its 1.13 s periodic pulses giving it away.

The signal was also identified in NASA’s Nustar archive data, providing additional information.

“Before, it was believed that only black holes at least 10 times more massive than our Sun feeding off their stellar companions could achieve such extraordinary luminosities, but the rapid and regular pulsations of this source are the fingerprints of neutron stars and clearly distinguish them from black holes,” says Gian Luca Israel, from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomica di Roma, Italy, lead author of the paper describing the result published in Science this week.

Russia's RSC Energia to Carry Out Tourist Flights Around Moon by 2021-2022

© Photo: Pixabay

TECH

10:51 22.02.2017(updated 10:52 22.02.2017) Get short URL

Russia's Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia hopes to be the first to offer space tourism around the Moon aboard the Soyuz spacecraft by 2021-2022.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – First round-the-Moon flights should be possible for space tourists aboard the Soyuz spacecraft in 2021-2022, Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Russia's Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, told Sputnik.

"We are speaking of flying around the Moon. I think that RSC Energia will be ready to be the first to offer this service on the international market by 2021-2022," Solntsev said.

The company is planning to sign a deal in March 2017 to use nine seats on the Soyuz spacecraft for flights of the so-called space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS).

"The renewal of a program implying space tourist flights on Soyuz spacecraft is possible. I think that in the near future we will sign a contact with one of the companies on provision of tourism services… In particular we are ready to sign with one of such companies an agreement in March 2017, which implies nine 'tourist' seats in Soyuz spacecraft for the flights to the ISS, which is expected to be implemented by 2021," Solntsev said, adding that there were no Russians among potential space tourists at the moment.

SPUTNIK -- NASA: Seven Earth-Sized Exoplanets Orbiting Nearby Star Discovered

NASA: Seven Earth-Sized Exoplanets Orbiting Nearby Star Discovered

© NASA. NASA/JPL-Caltech

TECH

22:06 22.02.2017(updated 00:19 23.02.2017) Get short URL

Seven Earth-sized planets have been detected orbiting a single star, a new record. Although not much is known about any of the individual planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, astronomers consider it possible for life to have evolved on any of them.

Three of the seven planets discovered were in TRAPPIST-1's "habitable" zone, meaning it would be easy for liquid water to develop on those planets, under the right atmospheric conditions. But the other four might still have water if their atmospheres are thick enough to trap heat in the same way Venus's atmosphere does.

TRAPPIST-1 was first discovered by Belgian astronomers in late 2015 using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. It caught the attention of NASA, who teamed up with a Belgian team out of the University of Liège to more closely study the ultracool dwarf star using the American Spitzer Space Telescope.

© NASA. NASA/JPL-CALTECH

This artist's concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances.

What they found was astonishing. "The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system," wrote NASA in a news release. "All of these seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone."

"The planets are all close to each other and very close to the star, which is very reminiscent of the moons around Jupiter," Belgian team lead Michaël Gillon said. "Still, the star is so small and cold that the seven planets are temperate, which means that they could have some liquid water — and maybe life, by extension — on the surface."

Gillon explained that never before has a system with three planets in its habitable zone been discovered. The Sun has two: Earth and Mars, plus the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt.

© NASA. NASA

This is an artist’s impression of the TRAPPIST-1 system, showcasing all seven planets in various phases.

Silent video: Ugolyok and Veterok (Cosmos 110) - 1966

Silent video: Ugolyok and Veterok (Cosmos 110) - 1966

Published on 11/08/2015

Kosmos 110 (Russian: Космос 110 meaning Cosmos 110) was a Soviet spacecraft launched on 22 February 1966 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Voskhod rocket.

Veterok (Ветерок, "Light Breeze") and Ugolyok (Уголёк, "Coal") were launched on 22 February 1966 on board Cosmos 110, and spent 22 days in orbit before landing on 16 March.This spaceflight of record-breaking duration was not surpassed by humans until Soyuz 11 in June 1971 and still stands as the longest space flight by dogs.

What would life be like near TRAPPIST-1?

What would life be like near TRAPPIST-1?

By Deborah Byrd in SPACE | February 22, 2017

The newly discovered exoplanets orbiting this nearby star are likely to be bathed in high-energy ultraviolet radiation. What would life be like there? An expert explains.

This poster imagines what a future trip to TRAPPIST-1e might be like. Could future visitors from Earth to this world expect to find life? Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech

Only 40 light-years from Earth, the exoplanet system known as TRAPPIST-1 is now known to be orbited by at least seven planets, three of which orbit in this star’s habitable zone. That’s the zone within which liquid water should, in theory, be able to exist. However, these planets are bathed in high-energy ultraviolet radiation. What would life be like near Trappist-1? Lisa Kaltenegger – director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University – is an expert on exoplanets and their potential to support life beyond Earth. She happens to have two papers completed that speak to this subject – one under review at Monthly Notices of the Royal Society, and one forthcoming in The Astrophysical Journal. Both discuss life under a very high ultraviolet radiation flux environment.

Kaltenegger said in a statement on February 22, 2017:

Finding multiple planets in the habitable zone of their host star is a great discovery because it means there can be even more potentially habitable planets per star than we thought. And finding more rocky planets in the habitable zone per star definitely increases our odds of finding life.

Trappist-1 now holds the record for the most rocky planets in the habitable zone – our solar system only has two – Earth and Mars. Life is a definite possibility on these worlds, but it might look different because there’s likely to be very high ultraviolet radiation flux on the surface of these planets.

How good or bad would such a UV environment be for life? Our paper, currently under review at Monthly Notices of the Royal Society, discusses just this scenario for the Trappist-1 system, examining the consequences of different atmospheres for life in a UV environment.

We find that if the star is active, as indicated by the X-ray flux, then planets need an ozone layer to shield their surface from the harsh UV that would sterilize the surface. If the planets around Trappist-1 do not have an ozone layer (like a young Earth), life would need to shelter underground or in an ocean to survive and/or develop strategies to shield itself from the UV, such as biofluorescence.

Atmospheric biosignatures such as methane, indicating adaptations by life, could be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018, or the European Extremely Large Telescope, coming online in 2022.

One of Kaltenegger’s papers is called “UV Surface Habitability of the TRAPPIST-1 System;” it’s currently under review at Monthly Notices of the Royal Society. Her second paper is called “Biofluorescent Worlds: Biological fluorescence as a temporal biosignature for flare star worlds,” and it has been accepted and will soon appear in The Astrophysical Journal.

In the video below, Kaaltenegger talks about how scientists will be searching for life on these worlds … and others.

Bottom line: Lisa Kaltenegger – director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University – discusses the possibility for life on the newly discovered exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zone of TRAPPIST-1.