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Sun Activity And States of Consciousness

18:39 / 05.11.03

Hello Darlings,

I have just received an e-mail saying that due to increase Sun activity these days people might feel depressed, (more) weak (than usual), dizzy, develop (more) headaches (than usual), and have blood pressure peaks or drops. And of course it also mention to avoid prolonged Sun exposure due to skin cancer development risks.

Now, I would have discarded the e-mail had I not been feeling like hell for the past two days, today at my bloody helliest actually, having very vivid and quizzical dreams, when I then learned from NOAA News Online that there is indeed a "SPECTACULAR SOLAR STORM" going on.

So, while I am aware of the skin cancer risk, question is, can anybody explain me or point me at anything that might explain or develop a bit on Sun effects on mood?

18:59 / 05.11.03

Hum, just found this:

Role of Circadian Rhythms, Melatonin, Geomagnetic Fields and Manic-Depression

There is a suggestion that melatonin excess is linked with depression, and too little melatonin is linked with mania. [...]

The pineal is also sensitive to changes in the geomagnetic field responding to changes in intensity of the field. After geomagnetic storms there is a significant rise for admissions for the depression phase of manic-depression. Kay (1994) suggests that geomagnetic storms act as a precipitant in susceptible individuals through desynchronisation of pineal circadian rhythms or via an effect on serotonergic (5HT) and adrenergic systems. It has been suggested that manic-depressives are supersensitive to the suppressing effect of light on melatonin synthesis suggesting that in these people the pineal gland may be generally supersensitive to environmental factors including geomagnetic storms.

Okay, now just dontya start looking at me like I'm a manic depressive. My pineal is just a bit sensitive.

22:46 / 05.11.03

That's really interesting, given that I know a few people who 'for no reason' just felt awful and had horrible weeks last week...

A

23:37 / 05.11.03

Indeed. It's been break-up season around these parts since the solar flares fired up.

01:14 / 06.11.03

I too have been feeling like shit... is there anything we could do aside from wearing tin on our heads?

11:06 / 06.11.03

Here's the news, we are all mentally ill, like if it were some news. This is from an e-text titled Return of the Dragon - Hazards of Man-Made Magnetism

Becker wondered if geomagnetic storms affect psychiatric patients. Howard Friedman, chief of psychiatry, thought the notion laughable, but a study of 28,000 patients in eight hospitals over four years and 67 magnetic storms showed a significant relation.

Surprised, they studied schizophrenics against measured cosmic radiation from magnetic storms. Nurses reported behavior changes in nearly all patients one or two days after cosmic ray changes. Solar flares are known to emit low energy cosmic rays which disrupt geomagnetism one or two days later.

From Teslar.com on ELF

As for nervous and mental diseases, the correlation with magnetic storms was discovered by T. Dull and B. Dull, as long ago as 1935. They examined 4,000 mental patients in the course of five years, and correlated changes in their behavior with 67 magnetic storms. This data was confirmed by Howard Friedman, Charlie Bachman, and Robert Becker between 1960-1970.

Howard Friedman, Robert O. Becker and Charles Bachman, "Geomagnetic Parameters and Psychiatric Hospital Admissions," Nature, 200, November 16, 1963, 620-628.

As for the Sun activity, the "intense explosion that occurred on the sun Tuesday at 2:29 p.m. EST." was "an R-5 extreme event. They don’t get much bigger than this." "An R-5 event is at the top of the NOAA space weather scales, which run 1 to 5".

Yee-ha.

17:09 / 20.11.03

Isn't the pineal gland light sensitive?

The pineal gland produces melatyonin. Dictionary.com defines "melatonin" as being a hormone, which is derived from serotonin by the pineal gland, and "plays a role in sleep, aging, and reproduction in mammals."

I wouldn't be suprised if some other glands were also affected by light and/or other electromagnetic stimulation.

05:58 / 21.11.03

In humans the pineal is not directly light sensitive, in that it is not exposed to incoming light rays. It is however regulated by light cycles as received by the mammalian sensorium. This is the foundation of circadian rythmns - a rise and fall in pineal production of melatonin (and malatonin) corresponding to the rise and fall of the sun. Note that there are many amphibians in which the pineal is only separated from light by a thin layer of tissue and acts as a true photoreceptor.

through desynchronisation of pineal circadian rhythms or via an effect on serotonergic (5HT) and adrenergic systems

Following this I would expect then that during solar magnetic storms people would tend to experience alterations in their normal sleep schedule. Sleep is initiated by a rise in melatonin which itself is triggered by nightfall. So if magnetic fields disrupt the metabolism of 5-ht into melatonin, then sleep cycles would also be disrupted.

But as to the main question, how does the sun affect states of consciousness, the entire nervous system is an electrochemical engine generating its own magnetic fields which in turn modulate neurochemistry. It is reasonable to assume that global modulation of these endogenous fields by applied exogenous fields would affect at least the substrate of consciousness. And if you affect the substrate, the product will likely be affected as well.

Note also that metabolism in general is driven by circadian rythmns so if the circadian rythms are disrupted, then the chemistry of the entire body will begin to tweek out. Observe sleep deprivation studies as an indicator of breaking the circadian cycle. Obviously solar flares are not as extreme as missing 3 or 4 days of sleep, but there is a very intimate connection between the health of the body/mind and the proper function of the pineal as a regulator of sleep and metabolism.

18:42 / 25.11.03

I saw an article in the NYTimes (looking over a guy's shoulder on the NYC subway today) that said Thanksgiving would see more sun flares/discharges. More fun times ahead!!!

12:06 / 18.12.03

The process of Ionisation also comes into play here. I used to have a good book on the effect of positive and negative ions from the atmosphere. Tis a pity that de-ionisers are so dear!!!! More and more people seem to getting allergic to the modern envoirenment. The last major eclipse at 1999 I underwent serious paradigm shifts, as I'm sure alot of others have!? Solar sunspot cycles affect in similar fashion to what lunar energies can. I'm quite interested in the thesis that the Earth's magnetic field is diminishing, some people claim we are heading for a pole shift?! I always like to promote a strong edge of scepiticism towards such infomation untill I have seen all the evidence for myself! Granted the idea of the word's end is goethic terror in itself!!!! Rite now we are bomberded ny all sorts of cosmic radiations throughout the multiverse - odd gnosis that!!!!