JULIAN LEE GOLDBERG - Magnetic Hands

[Jeff Wagg]

These two letters came in in March.

Quote:

2nd March 2006
Dear James Randi and the rest of the JREF team,

I have great respect for the principles under which you have set the Million Dollar Challenge, knowing full well that any test able to pass it would have great implications for science. I am a 22-year old graduate of Cambridge University, and someone who isn't afraid to ask questions, look deeper, and challenge preconceived notions in the search for truth and undersatnding. I am writing to submit my application:

Claim: I claim that I am able to emit a magnetic field from the palm of my hand at least 500 times stronger than what normally arises from the functioning of the human body, and at least 50,000 times stronger than strongest of earth's natural magnetic resonances.

Proposed test: The strongest magnetic field that ocurs naturally from the regular functioning of the human body (from the heart) is approximately 0.001 milliguass in strength, whilst the strongest of the earth's Schumann resonances is approximately 0.00001 miligauss. I claim that I can generate a magnetic field of at least 0.5 milligauss from the palm of my hand against a base line reading.

Equipment for the preliminary tests: One AlphaLab Earth Magnetometer, which is able to detect magnetic fields to a sensitiviy of 0.001 mgause to an accuracy of +/- 0.01 mgauss.

Test protocol: A base line magnetic reading is taken close to the palm of my hand, an then the magnetometer is reset to zero. Then, within several minutes, I will generate a magnetic field from my palm of at least +/- 0.5 milligauss as measured on the magnetometer. If this is acheived the test is deemed a success.

I do not claim to posses any "super powers' because I believe tht this is something anybody has the potential to do; it is simply a matter of tuning into the right frequency, so to speak. I do not claim to know how this happens; what I will attempt to prove is thte fact that it does.

I look forward to your reply, and I wish you a strong return to health.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Lee Goldberg

And soon after:

Quote:

12nd March 2006

Dear Mr Randi,

In my previous letter, dated the 2nd March, I sumitted an application for the Million Dollar Challenge. I am writing now to suggest a more rigorous and repeatable test protocol and a more sophisticated equipment set-up for the trial.

Claim: I claim that I can deomonstrate in a repeateable scientific test that it was possible for a human to emit a magnetic field from the palm of their hand a least 500 times strongr than what normally arises from the functioning of the human body. to do this, I will attempt to produce evidence of a magnetic field being emitted of a least 0.5 milligauss in flux density.

Equipment for th epreliminary trial: The sensor for the trial will be fluxgate magnetometer of 1.0 gauss measurement range (100microT) with a resolution of 0.01 milligauss. The fluxgate will be plugged into an output device able to record the test data onto a PC. In addition, the trial will be digitally videoed.

Test Protocol: For the preliminary I will enlist the assistance of scientific researchers affiliated with academic institutions. These researches will conduct the measurements themselves and notify the test results. The test subjects will be practitioners of Reiki , a form of energy healing with close similarities to therapeutic touch. Th test protocol will be kept simple. A base line magnetic readnig is taken and then the magnetometer is reset to zero. The, the test subject holds their hand close to the magnetometer and attempt to emit a field. For the purposes of the preliminary trial, if any single participant is able to emit a magnetic field of flux density greater than 0.5 milligaus then the trial is deemed a success. The video and test data will be made available for distribution and scrutiny regardless of result.

Final Test: If the preliminary trial is succesful the final test will be increased in both size and scope. Respected scientific observers will be enlisted, equipment upgraded, and the positive results will be plotted against various input factors. At this stage the study would be expanded to include practitioners of therapeutic touch.

I see this proposal as being a win-win for the JREF. I am confident that the claim is sufficiently 'super' to do the challenge full justice, and am sure that most people would deem it to be utterly impossible. If, indeed, the trial is a complete failure, the reesults will be availabe for all to see. If, however, the trial is a success, it will be a truly historic result for science. Not only would it prove something absolutely incredible, it would be forever remembered for its amateur undertaking and for your own involvement. From a skeptical position it will also server to undermine many of the more esoteric claims usually attached to such techniques.

I understand that I am submitting at a slightly difficult time for the JREF. However, whereas it is normally the role of the JREF to ensure tha tthe test protocol is as rigorous and scientific as possible, I hope that I have made it clear that I too am a firm believer in science and will make every effort to do this myself.

Given that preparing for the preliminary trial will require several months of planning, a long wait for equipment to arrive, and considerable personal financial outlay, if you like the sound of the trial and the challenger I would be grateful for an in-principle green light so that I might proceed with my planning.

I look forward to your reply, and once again wish you a strong return to health.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Lee Goldberg

[Jeff Wagg]

Sent 6/16/2006 via e-mail:

Hello,

We're processing your application now.

A few questions for you:

Have you demonstrated this ability for anyone else?

Can you turn it on and off at will, such that someone in another room looking at a gauge would be able to tell when you were emitting a field?

If we can communicate via e-mail, things will move much quicker.

Jeff Wagg
JREF

[Jeff Wagg]

A reply from Julian:

Hi Jeff,

I made the claim not from direct experience, but based on result found
in two studies I read about in a book, with the following summaries
taken from the website:

http://transitiontoparenthood.com/ja...gy/support.htm

In the 1980's, Dr. John Zimmerman used a SQUID detector (designed to
study human biomagnetic fields) to study fields produced by a
Therapeutic Touch practitioner during a healing session in a
magnetically shielded room. A biomagnetic field emanated from the
practitioner's hand, pulsing at a variable frequency, ranging from .3
to 30 Hz, with most of the activity in the range of 7-8 Hz. The field
was so strong that it was outside of the calibrated range of the SQUID
magnetometer, so signal strength could not be quantified.

A study by Seto in Japan confirmed "a large biomagnetic field emanates
from the hands of practitioners of a variety of healing and martial
arts techniques, including QiGong, yoga, meditation, Zen, etc. The
fields were measured with a simple magnetometer consisting of two
80,000 turn coils and a sensitive amplifier. The fields had a strength
of about 10-3 gauss, which is about 1000 times stronger than the
strongest human biomagnetic fields (from the heart)… about 1,000,000
times stronger than the fields produced by the brain… As in
Zimmerman's study, the biomagnetic field pulsed with a variable
frequency centered around 8-10 Hz." (Oschman, 79)

These studies did not document that any clinical healing took place;
however, "the evidence shows that practitioners can emit powerful
pulsing biomagnetic fields in the same frequency range that biomedical
researchers have identified for jump starting healing of soft and hard
tissue injuries. This implies that biomagnetism is one form of the
elusive Qi..." (Oschman, 80)

I realised that if these claims were genuine and could be repeated, it
would be an extraordinary result for science, worthy of widespread
attention, and good for winning your prize. However, the fact that the
studies hadn't been repeated in 13 years lead me to some suspicions
from the beginning that they might not have been genuine.

Whether it worked or not, I figured it would be a valuable experiement
to try and repeat, with the (not small) incentive on offer of making
history and winning a million dollars if it worked. Saying that, the
intial entry was made on a bit of a whim, and with hindsight I
probably should have tested the claim first, which I didn't.

I am a great believer in science, but am a person who happens to
believe that there might be something more. In those results I saw
something testable.

After doing some detailed research into suitable equipment I made a
personal investment and went ahead with the experiment this month in
an amateur setting. I tested two very experienced Reiki practioners,
both of whom give Reiki as their full time profession with many years
experience.

Although I didn't have access to a magnetically shielded room and
there was a quite a large background reading, magnetic fields emitted
anything close to the order reported in that Japanese study (0.01
milligaus+, 10x heart field strength) should have been easy to
observe.

However, I was able to detect no noticeable disturbance at all.

Although I did not detect what I set out to, I see great value in
science and recognise the importance of reporting negative reults as
well as positive ones, and this has provided evidence that Reiki is
not magnetism. Although my equipment was not as sensitive as that used
by Zimmerman, I found no evidence of the phenomena reported in the two
earlier studies. This leads me to question the authenticity of the
reported findings.

I finished my testing just two days ago and intend to write up a
detailed report in the coming weeks to be sent to you and to be
published on the net.

I have great repect for the principles of the challenge, and thank you
for giving people like me the opportunity to conduct important
experiments like this with the incentive of the prize at the end. One
day I hope to see the prize won, but right now I don't think that
winner will be me.

Kind regards,

Julian Goldberg


If you post this on your website, I would be grateful if you could use
the revised claim and protocol I sent you on my second letter (dated
the 12th March) rather than the first.


Claim: I claim that I can demonstrate in a repeatable scientific test
that it is possible for a human to emit a magnetic field from the palm
of their hand at least 500 times stronger than what normally arises
from the functioning of the human body. To do this, I will attempt to
provide evidence of a magnetic field being emitted of at least 0.5
milligauss in flux density against a base line reading.

Equipment for the preliminary trial: The sensor for the trial will be
a fluxgate magnetometer of 1.0 gauss measurement range (100μT) with a
resolution of 0.01 milligauss. The fluxgate will be plugged into an
output device able to record the test data onto a PC.

Test protocol: For the preliminary trial I will enlist the assistance
of scientific researchers affiliated with academic institutions. These
researchers will conduct the measurements themselves and notify the
test results. The test subjects will be practitioners of Reiki, a form
of energy healing with similarities to therapeutic touch and Qigong.
The test protocol will be kept simple. A base line magnetic reading is
taken and then the magnetometer is offset to zero. Then, the test
subject holds their hand close to the magnetometer and attempt to emit
a field. For the purposes of the preliminary trial, if any single
participant is able to emit a magnetic field of flux density greater
than 0.5 milligauss then the trial is deemed a success.

(whereas 'being emmitted from' may be difficult to categorically
prove, a more workable definition could be 'in the area immeadiately
ahead of the test subject's palm')

Final Test: (Initial suggestion): If the preliminary trial is
successful the final test will be increased in both size and scope.
Respected scientific observers will be enlisted, equipment upgraded,
and positive results will be plotted against various input factors. At
this stage the study could be expanded to include practitioners of
therapeutic touch.

But in reality, I think a demonstration of one successful
demonstration to the satifaction of unbiased observers should be
sufficient to claim the prize.






On 6/17/06, jeff@wagg.com wrote: Hello,

We're processing your application now.

A few questions for you:

Have you demonstrated this ability for anyone else?

Can you turn it on and off at will, such that someone in another room
looking at a gauge would be able to tell when you were emitting a field?

If we can communicate via e-mail, things will move much quicker.

Jeff Wagg
JREF

[Jeff Wagg]

And another. At the bottom, I've replaced his images with links to them. They're very hi-res and take a while to download:

Dear Jeff and Randi,

On closer analysis on some of my graphs, I believe that there actually
may be evidence of a small phenomena. It is no-where near the
magnitude of what I was hoping to detect (near the Seto numbers),
which would have been a wave of amplitude around ± 5mV at about 8Hz,
but there might actually be something 'real' there of smaller
magnitude, possibly a wave height ± 0.15 mV at about 14Hz in the
graph I'm sending you. This would be more consistent with Zimmerman's
finding.

This is still about 15x greater than the field naturally produced by
the heart, so that's still a finding with promise. The guy who that
came from had the most powerful 'Reiki' I'd ever felt. Unfortunately,
I didn't get to many samples from him, because he wasn't very
comfortable taking part.

It is also a hypothesis of mine, that the frequency of the magnetic
waves is somehow related to brain waves. In that case, an output from
him of 14Hz instead of 8Hz would be consistent with the fact he wasn't
too relaxed taking part.

I will write up a full report soon, but don't write me off just yet...

Regards,

Julian Lee Goldberg

On 6/17/06, Julian Goldberg wrote:

Hi Jeff,

I made the claim not from direct experience, but based on result found
in two studies I read about in a book, with the following summaries
taken from the website:

http://transitiontoparenthood.com/ja...gy/support.htm

In the 1980's, Dr. John Zimmerman used a SQUID detector (designed to
study human biomagnetic fields) to study fields produced by a
Therapeutic Touch practitioner during a healing session in a
magnetically shielded room. A biomagnetic field emanated from the
practitioner's hand, pulsing at a variable frequency, ranging from .3
to 30 Hz, with most of the activity in the range of 7-8 Hz. The field
was so strong that it was outside of the calibrated range of the SQUID
magnetometer, so signal strength could not be quantified.

A study by Seto in Japan confirmed "a large biomagnetic field emanates
from the hands of practitioners of a variety of healing and martial
arts techniques, including QiGong, yoga, meditation, Zen, etc. The
fields were measured with a simple magnetometer consisting of two
80,000 turn coils and a sensitive amplifier. The fields had a strength
of about 10-3 gauss, which is about 1000 times stronger than the
strongest human biomagnetic fields (from the heart)… about 1,000,000
times stronger than the fields produced by the brain… As in
Zimmerman's study, the biomagnetic field pulsed with a variable
frequency centered around 8-10 Hz." (Oschman, 79)

These studies did not document that any clinical healing took place;
however, "the evidence shows that practitioners can emit powerful
pulsing biomagnetic fields in the same frequency range that biomedical
researchers have identified for jump starting healing of soft and hard
tissue injuries. This implies that biomagnetism is one form of the
elusive Qi..." (Oschman, 80)

I realised that if these claims were genuine and could be repeated, it
would be an extraordinary result for science, worthy of widespread
attention, and good for winning your prize. However, the fact that the
studies hadn't been repeated in 13 years lead me to some suspicions
from the beginning that they might not have been genuine.

Whether it worked or not, I figured it would be a valuable experiement
to try and repeat, with the (not small) incentive on offer of making
history and winning a million dollars if it worked. Saying that, the
intial entry was made on a bit of a whim, and with hindsight I
probably should have tested the claim first, which I didn't.

I am a great believer in science, but am a person who happens to
believe that there might be something more. In those results I saw
something testable.

After doing some detailed research into suitable equipment I made a
personal investment and went ahead with the experiment this month in
an amateur setting. I tested two very experienced Reiki practioners,
both of whom give Reiki as their full time profession with many years
experience.

Although I didn't have access to a magnetically shielded room and
there was a quite a large background reading, magnetic fields emitted
anything close to the order reported in that Japanese study (0.01
milligaus+, 10x heart field strength) should have been easy to
observe.

However, I was able to detect no noticeable disturbance at all.

Although I did not detect what I set out to, I see great value in
science and recognise the importance of reporting negative reults as
well as positive ones, and this has provided evidence that Reiki is
not magnetism. Although my equipment was not as sensitive as that used
by Zimmerman, I found no evidence of the phenomena reported in the two
earlier studies. This leads me to question the authenticity of the
reported findings.

I finished my testing just two days ago and intend to write up a
detailed report in the coming weeks to be sent to you and to be
published on the net.

I have great repect for the principles of the challenge, and thank you
for giving people like me the opportunity to conduct important
experiments like this with the incentive of the prize at the end. One
day I hope to see the prize won, but right now I don't think that
winner will be me.

Kind regards,

Julian Goldberg


If you post this on your website, I would be grateful if you could use
the revised claim and protocol I sent you on my second letter (dated
the 12th March) rather than the first.


Claim: I claim that I can demonstrate in a repeatable scientific test
that it is possible for a human to emit a magnetic field from the palm
of their hand at least 500 times stronger than what normally arises
from the functioning of the human body. To do this, I will attempt to
provide evidence of a magnetic field being emitted of at least 0.5
milligauss in flux density against a base line reading.

Equipment for the preliminary trial: The sensor for the trial will be
a fluxgate magnetometer of 1.0 gauss measurement range (100μT) with a
resolution of 0.01 milligauss. The fluxgate will be plugged into an
output device able to record the test data onto a PC.

Test protocol: For the preliminary trial I will enlist the assistance
of scientific researchers affiliated with academic institutions. These
researchers will conduct the measurements themselves and notify the
test results. The test subjects will be practitioners of Reiki, a form
of energy healing with similarities to therapeutic touch and Qigong.
The test protocol will be kept simple. A base line magnetic reading is
taken and then the magnetometer is offset to zero. Then, the test
subject holds their hand close to the magnetometer and attempt to emit
a field. For the purposes of the preliminary trial, if any single
participant is able to emit a magnetic field of flux density greater
than 0.5 milligauss then the trial is deemed a success.

(whereas 'being emmitted from' may be difficult to categorically
prove, a more workable definition could be 'in the area immeadiately
ahead of the test subject's palm')

Final Test: (Initial suggestion): If the preliminary trial is
successful the final test will be increased in both size and scope.
Respected scientific observers will be enlisted, equipment upgraded,
and positive results will be plotted against various input factors. At
this stage the study could be expanded to include practitioners of
therapeutic touch.

But in reality, I think a demonstration of one successful
demonstration to the satifaction of unbiased observers should be
sufficient to claim the prize.






On 6/17/06, jeff@wagg.com wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We're processing your application now.
>
> A few questions for you:
>
> Have you demonstrated this ability for anyone else?
>
> Can you turn it on and off at will, such that someone in another room
> looking at a gauge would be able to tell when you were emitting a field?
>
> If we can communicate via e-mail, things will move much quicker.
>
> Jeff Wagg
> JREF
>
>

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http://www.randi.org/media/julian1.jpg

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http://www.randi.org/media/julian2.jpg