Where Brains Meet Branes by Gary S. Bekkum

Lisa Randall, physicist and author of the book "Warped Passages," appeared on the "Coast to Coast" talk radio program with host Art Bell. We have to give Lisa credit for her reasoned and conservative answers to Bell's questions. Randall's responses highlight the core problem with any kind of weird and exotic phenomenology. She was very careful not to tread into areas that she knows cannot (as yet) be falsified, but are too far flung from the comfort zone of her peers in science. The fear of flying too far, too fast, and too high keeps the mainstream crowd with seatbelts fastened to the middle of the scientific curve. It was the thrill of flying higher, going farther, and progressing faster than the enemy, that drove the radical intelligence community on a grail quest for the strange and weird in the black world of psi versus spy.

The hard problem for any paraphysical research is how to discriminate between purely mental phenomenology and allegations of the physical manifestation of weirdness that might be amenable to genuine scientific inquiry. A good example was an observation reported to me several years ago, of knives lifted by an invisible force and slammed into a wall. The problem with these kinds of events -- if they are real -- is that their transient nature doesn't translate into scientific repeatability in a laboratory.

Some of the effects might be explainable as brane-world coupling, involving unknown interactions between our brane world and the alien brane floating in the universe next door. It's an interesting possibility, and is certainly worth considering. Most of the time what happens on our brane should be independent from events in an alien brane that might literally exist right in front of your nose. We know from the present state of the experimental art of physics that if alien brane worlds exist, they must be closer than a millimeter to our own brane. That presents the possibility of a sandwich of realities with the gravitational force passing between them. The problem for paraphysical phenomenology is that our familiar large scale reality is mostly a product of the electromagnetic force. The electromagnetic force is thought to be confined onto our brane world, like a tiny piece of string with both ends stuck to the brane like bugs on flypaper. The force of gravity, which is free to pass between brane worlds, is far too feeble to interact strongly enough to produce the kind of localized effects often reported in paraphysics.

As new scientific possibilities appear -- such as brane worlds next door, or invisible alien nanotechnology -- closer examination finds that the real roots of the phenomenological core story are dug even deeper into metaphysical ground. The latest incursion by mother synchronicity might have involved Vice President Dick Cheney's recent problems with all things explosive, including firearms and foreign policy issues. That appears to be the underlying working hypothesis of Mr. Smith, as he makes his way to Washington in search of ears willing to get bent in the phenomenological direction. Who knows, perhaps Mr. Smith's hunch is right and Cheney owes his recent problems to a collective solution building in the unconscious mindset out in the heartland?

While there is no denying that reports of physical nuts and bolts hardware attract the most interest, especially for the Department of Defense, our opinion remains that the phenomenology of immediate concern directly impacts the bio-physical thought structures of the human mind-body machine. This is slippery ground and a fish out of water can quickly squirm their way out of hand. Having cast our net in that direction, we have been wondering lately how many different kinds of tricky fish are swimming out there in the deep blue sea.

There are lessons to be learned from history, and the story of paraphysics at Stanford Research Institute in the 1970's readily illustrates the fish mindset. In this cunning tale of fish catching fish we are struck by the similarity to current events. In the 1977 CIA internal document, "Studies in Intelligence," author Ken Kress describes his first meeting with Stanford Research Institute psychic test subject Pat Price. When Price identifies Kress' employer as the CIA, he notes: "Since I was then a covert employee, the response was meaningful." In another previously classified document, the author questions the best way for the company to present themselves to psychic Uri Geller.

"...with appropriate backstopping, we could pass ourselves off as NIH officials...if we pose as NIH, the rationale for our interest is simple -- straight basic research."

In the vast internal multiverse of 'brain worlds' and 'cosmic politics' gone awry, we are left wondering about the aftermath of all things related to the STAR GATE. Do we really need the brane worlds in order to comprehend the mystery? Perhaps Mr. Smith is correct that the phenomenology is more about the politics of our virtual realities than any 'real' extra-worldly presence. One might suspect as Mr. Smith goes to Washington, that a very surprised catch is about to be delivered to the White House front door.