Geomagnetic Storms Affecting a Human's Brain and/or Equilibrium, Plausible?

There are collaborative and cross-disciplinary space weather studies in the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences conducted with purposes of revealing possible effects of solar, geomagnetic and cosmic ray variability on certain technological, biological and ecological systems. This paper describes some results of the experimental studies of influence of the periodical and aperiodical changes of geomagnetic activity upon human brain, human health and psycho-emotional state. It also covers the conclusions of studies on influence of violent solar events and severe geomagnetic storms of the solar cycle 23 on the mentioned systems in middle-latitude location. It is experimentally established that weak and moderate geomagnetic storms do not cause significant changes in the brain’s bioelectrical activity and exert only stimulating influence while severe disturbances of geomagnetic conditions cause negative influence, seriously disintegrate brain’s functionality, activate braking processes and amplify the negative emotional background of an individual. It is concluded that geomagnetic disturbances affect mainly emotional and vegetative spheres of human beings while characteristics reflecting personality properties do not undergo significant changes.

Link to study

reply to post by clay2 baraka

The current event had a peak Kp index of 7 which corresponds to a G2 or moderate intensity.
According to that abstract weak and moderate geomagnetic storms such as we are now experiencing "do not cause significant changes in the brain’s bioelectrical activity and exert only stimulating influence". No one seems to be reporting a feeling of stimulation.

The paper doesn't seem to talk about headache or feeling ill, only "emotional and vegetative spheres of human beings". (I didn't know I had a vegetative sphere.)

reply to post by Phage

Abstract

Meteorological factors influence several biological functions. Geomagnetic activity (GMA) can be considered a trigger factor of migraine attacks. We studied the possible relationship between 40 migraine patients and some meteorological factors: humidity, temperature and geomagnetic activity in particular. All frequency changes of geomagnetic activity, temperature and humidity values are recorded daily. The study was performed from March to June 1988 over a geographically small area in order to avoid climatic and environmental influences. Our results indicate a significant correlation between geomagnetic activity and migraine attack frequency. Controversial opinions concerning the modalities of data collection and the possible relationships between environment and headache raise the need of further studies.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

It is experimentally established that in middle latitudes weak and
moderate geomagnetic storms do not cause significant changes in the human brain bio-electrical activity and exert only stimulating influence meanwhile severe disturbances of geomagnetic field (storms) cause negative influence, significantly disintegrate functionality of brain, activate braking processes and amplify the negative emotional background of an individual. Indisposition, weakness and presence of indistinct localized headaches were observed during the days with severe geomagnetic storms for the majority of the experiment participants meanwhile there were almost no significant complaints about functional state in periods of weakly-disturbed geomagnetic conditions

mearim.cu.edu.eg...

Seems that the issue is controversial, but possible. There is just not enough data at this time for a conclusive answer to this issue.

Could it be that some people could be more sensitive to changes in the Earth's magnetic field?

[edit on 4/6/2010 by clay2 baraka]

reply to post by clay2 baraka

Possible I guess. There is always a problem with subjective criteria such as emotional state.

There is always the principle of correlation not implying causation to consider. It's pretty hard to isolate cause without some sort of mechanism to account for it.

I just woke up from a nap, I had a weird dream, not really vivid per se, but interestingly associative to this whole discussion. I am not going to make heads or tails of validity by any means but I figured since we're throwing out possibilities why not include the one I just dreamed about. One could conclude of course that I had this dream because of all the thought I have been giving this lately, either way...

The dream was quick and simple in nature, it was basically just a "this is why you're feeling this way, and why others feel the way they individually do" type explanation. Wasn't much for visuals.

This is what I heard, "If you were going to upload information to a bio-mechanical processor (the brain) on a mass scale you would need to do so with short bursts of data filled energy. The Earth's crust will be affected and people will have different adverse reactions while receiving the information, as well, different people will be receiving different types of information, some more, some less. The information you're receiving is better loaded while you're sleeping, your girlfriends, while she's awake (there wasn't much detail, just this is how it is). The world isn't on a perfect schedule so there are times when you're receiving information and you're not in the ideal state, so you feel off as your brain is taking on data and not able to focus as clear as you would normally. You are being preloaded with important information for an upcoming upgrade and these are unfortunate side effects of this process, please bare with it for the time being"

I know, I know...if I didn't have the dream I would probably be thinking exactly what some of you are probably thinking right now. Nevertheless I just woke up from that. I immediately had the urge to post my account of the dream in this thread.

Although I didn't see this one coming, I am still going to stand behind what I said earlier in the post and provide every scenario, far fetched or not.

Safe to say this is entirely far fetched, I'll be the first to admit and it was in fact a dream, so make of it what you will.

Edit to Add: No where in the dream did it specifically mention the Geomagnetic Storms as the cause though.

[edit on 4/6/2010 by UberL33t]

A lot of these types of threads lately.

Curious notion that so many people are picking up on it. Not sure if this is the ability of the internet allowing people to make what is normal occurrences seem like something out of the norm, or is there actually something occurring?

This is a great thread. We are generally thinking about magnetic influence and, as Phage has said, the magnetic component isn't significant enough in any measurable way to cause anything out of the ordinary. I agree with that much.

However there could easily be another unknown component piggybacking on the magnetic. Every day we learn something new. If I were to guess I would probably reach for the VELOCITY and DOSE of the magnetic or radioactive particles or the flux in the atmosphere.
they are as relevant as volts to amps and ohms. When you alter the flow rate, bandwidth and resistance of sensitive electrical circuits you risk burning them out completely or shorting them out.

Thankfully, our brains are largely adaptive and can tolerate slight fluctuation of stimuli while maintaining learned logic. But when you pump it up over several days there's likely an effect, in my opinion.

I watch the solar & atmospheric data daily as part of my routine. The flow rate was definitely amped up and the auroras came south a good distance over normals. Who knows?!

What's interesting is that last night I had the most impossible time winding down for sleep though MEGA tired and even went into a panic laced state of frustration for a while -completely out of the ordinary for me and for no logical reason. I'm healthy as a horse and not lacking any nutrients that's for sure. I couldn't help but ask this same question myself. Was the geomagnetic anomalies at fault? Though I did have a great and relaxing weekend.

We are learning more and more about oddities piggybacking on all sorts of axioms. The effects of the sun still puzzle NASA enough to study it and with a massive budget share to boot. Even they obviously have unanswered questions deemed necessary to answer.

Well done thread guys and I'll be watching!

Hi,

So, I am a parapsychology researcher and though this is a line of work that is a bit different, within my research one of the things we look at is: Geomagnetic and Electromagnetic influences on an individuals brain.
There have been MANY controlled tests concerning the effects that these occurrences have on a subjects brain.
For instance in one lab experiment a subject was placed in a room where the electromagnetic influences were heightened, and that subject experienced: anxiety, depression, an out of body or dissociative feeling, hearing mumbling voices, feeling a presence, feeling as if something was touching them, and the list goes on.
With Geomagnetic influences, it seems to be more along the lines of body afflictions: feeling of nausea, listlessness, and/or extreme agitation, also in some cases hallucinations.
Though these tests were done for reasons of debunking paranormal experiences there is a lot of useful and applicable data that may help.

Roll, Nicholas, Pertzinger etc.., are individuals who have conducted these experiences in a lab setting: Sorry if I did not spell the names correctly, but look up: Lab experiments electromagnetic, geomagnetic influences in paranormal research.

Maybe this could help,
Amy

reply to post by UberL33t


Good thread Uber, you caught the possible link to the geomagnetic storm earlier than I did.

I also wonder since there was that 7.7 quake in Indonesia if that was a factor too. It kinda sucks that both things happened in the same basic time frame, because now we cant tell if people were antsy in response to tension building within the Earth, like the quake, or if it was storm. Or both. Maybe the reason so many of us had kind of a peak experience in the same 24 hour period was the combination of the two.

I didnt even know about the geomagnetic storm when I posted my thread. I had read that week about toads and earthquakes, and I decided since the weird feeling was so strong to post, get it time stamped and then see what happened. I first found the geomagnetic storm info on the Yellowstone thread. (I was feeling that what was going to happen might be a quake or volcano)

Unfortunately, now we just wont know which thing was causing it. Although to be honest, I tend to think the storm is more likely. Especially since there is strong evidence that those storms affect human emotions, etc.

Anyway, I think we should make a point of someone posting when we have those strong "weirdness" peaks. Maybe if we did, over time the data could be useful in determining what it is we are responding to, if anything.

reply to post by amyaaallan

Though these tests were done for reasons of debunking paranormal experiences there is a lot of useful and applicable data that may help.

Interesting, I'd love it if you'd post that "applicable data" in this thread.

Well Im just now putting together what I experience on the evening of May 2nd...I just made a thread after reading at GLP others have been having similar experiences.

Ive never experienced anything so weird, like the whole vibration of existence changed.

I took some quotes from the thread at GLP and posted them in the thread I just made, I think it will interests you OP.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I also added this thread and another thread from ATS to my posting. I think people need to see there are alot of people commenting about the last couple of days.

[edit on 4-5-2010 by LeoVirgo]

reply to post by clay2 baraka


I am brand new to this site and stumbled upon it while googling "tectonic plates causing vertigo" and find it very interesting.

On Sept 24, 2009, I was overcome with vertigo that had my head spinning so fast that I couldn't even stand up and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. CT Scans and MRI's showed nothing abnormal, ENT consult showed nothing abnormal and to date, no doctor has been able to diagnose. After 6+ months of "liveable" vertigo, it has finally become fairly mild with an occasional flare-up. I have noticed however, that any time I mention it, someone has either recently had vertigo or knows someone who has - seems like an epidemic but it doesn't appear to be talked about by the media or health networks.

I'll be watching this board for ideas and thank you for posting your thoughts. This has been an odd experience!

reply to post by Kozi2005


I have experienced this to the most extreme. It was during the year of 2005, around October. I too had to be taken straight to the doctor, I could not even raise my head at all.

My doctor became my saviro that day....I honestly looked at him as some sort of shaman for what he did to me. Let me say, I was 7 months pregnant....so this was very bad for me at this time. Vomiting every single time I raised my head due to the massive spins.

All he did, was hold my head a certain way while I sat up...he had to keep repeating this pattern...and it all had to down till the fluid in my ears and a piece of 'crystallized' matter is how he described it that gets lodged in our ear way sometimes. Every time he made me sit up, he would tilt my head just so, I would spin violently, I would vomit into the can the nurse was holding (I couldnt even hold the can), then he would lay me back down for a min to catch my breath...(after a few times of this I am thinking doc is crazy and I didnt have time for this). We did this about 10 times....by the last time, I am grabbing at the doctor and the nurse literally like a scratching cat....but suddenly, on the last tilt...I did not vomit...I stopped spinning...and looked at him with disbelief....I was amazed.

I have always wondered what caused this...and how he knew just how to help such a case. I cant believe that a little tiny piece of material could cause such chaos for me. He described it as ear wax that can crystallize.

S&F,

Very interesting thread & timing. All I can contribute at this time is my recent experiences this week.

Monday morn. came way to quick again! (week ends fly by) I knew my schedule would be hectic at work, I got the crews out of the office & pretty much vegitated I could not get motivated and even treid my best to avoid the phone. Needless to say it was a very unproductive Monday.

That night my wife & I were going over our day (cocktails in hand) her day was fairly uneventful, but when I told her about my day she just laughed. She know's I don't vent about work too often to her (kinda let it build up, then unleash) she said: you have too much going on, you're feeling overwhelmed. Made sence to me.

So I decided on Tue. to prioritize all I have to do from smallest to largest and here we are on Thursday and I'm getting my task complete but I still feel like a SLUG!!

At least I have the ATS couch to lay on & get in touch my feelings Tks. I feel better already.

Now back to work

reply to post by Phage
in your response here....

The strength of Earth's magnetic field at the earth's surface is at its strongest near the poles and at its weakest near the equator. At the poles its strength is over 60 microteslas and at the equator its about half that.

For a comparison, a refrigerator magnet (a strong one) has a strength of .01 tesla, more that 160 times more powerful than the Earth's field at the poles.

At the peak of the geomagnetic storm the magnetometer at Boulder, Colorado recorded a fluctuation of about 125 nanoteslas. That is .125 microteslas, 1/480th of the strength of the magnetic field at the equator and 80,000 times less powerful than that refrigerator magnet.

Even though that refrigerator magnet has a pretty strong magnetic field in comparison to the Earth, it is small, not large enough to affect your whole body. Let's look something that can. A typical MRI machine produces .5 - 3.0 tesla. That's 8,000 to 50,000 times more powerful than Earth's field at the poles. If the fluctuations of a geomagnetic storm can cause headaches and other physiological symptoms, what could magnetic fluctuations millions of times more powerful do? It seems it would be difficult to survive, yet people do.



-------------->In your analogy you are overlooking frequency....take a small magnitude tesla measurement before and after finding a resonant frequency in the medium...the same ammount of energy has a much different/larger effect when it piggy backs a resonant wave...additonally all the neutrinos and other difficault to identify particles are more of concern....modern science is overlooking alot...otherwise we would not be having this exchange of ideas...this is obviously not currently defined well enough in modern scientic models of flares etc...

Ambient frequencies definitley have an effect on us, however it is at a very fine level, that most people are not sensitive enough to perceive. For example, when in altered states of mind, I can feel and perceive these wavelengths. I was near my desklamp, and I could literally "feel" the EMF intensity of its in-built transformer. It was quite uncomfortable, and ever since I moved it further away from my bed, I have been having better sleep. I think that the effects of EMF are gradual over time, and usually it is the difference, or fluctuation in ambient fields that causes the most notable effects. I think our bodies usually become accustomed to certain frequencies, and when the balance is upset it often results in electrical imbalance, and thus chemical imbalance and then various kind of sickness, and sometimes a weakening in the immune system and possibly disease.

A biggest flare this year is going to hit us tomorrow

EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE: On Feb. 13th at 1738 UT, sunspot 1158 unleashed the strongest solar flare of the year so far, an M6.6-category blast. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded an intense flash of extreme ultraviolet radiation

Preliminary coronagraph data from STEREO-A and SOHO agree that the explosion produced a fast but not particularly bright coronal mass ejection (CME). The cloud will likely hit Earth's magnetic field on or about Feb. 15th



Solare flare

reply to post by borutp


I think it is a very interesting and usefull topic. First because many researchers made many papers about that, and everything I read about this indicates that it is possible .
Somebody make correlations with melatonin others use mast cells and we have some biochemical explanations.
Somebody possible has more sensitivity and others dont. I will next month begin to research now the effects of geomagnetic storms with fibroblasts. And observing how the production of free radicals can be modulated by geomagnetic storms. If we have many good papers in this area we can start to imagine how we can protect ourselves against such storm. If some body wants to make a team to research mood and make other correlations , I am sure that we can find a good marker to use in our research.
Guilherme

reply to post by UberL33t




thank goodness for ATS....

anyone else feeling like crappola today, my head feels as though its going to explode....... just look and see what this bad boy has been throwing at us today....

Real Time Magnetosphere

.... hope this does not have deeper implications re global tectonic activity

I wondered if anyone else on planet Earth had been feeling unwell within the last few days.

I have been interested in this present geomagnetic storm and just googled 'geomagnetic storms and effects on the human brain' and this thread popped up. It was like reading an exact description of what I have been feeling like, my husband and one of my children.

So, does anyone else feel this way at present since we are in the midst of a geomagnetic 'disturbance'?