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From: William White <bwhite@frognet.net>
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 01:23:19 -0500 (EST)
Fwd Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 11:49:50 -0500
Subject: Re: The Philadelphia Experiment lives on


> From: georgina@easynet.co.uk [Georgina Bruni]
> Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 21:31:49 +0000
> To: updates@globalserve.net
> Subject: The Philadelphia Experiment lives on

> In 1947 his memory was magnetically scrambled to prevent recall,

Well, I may not know very much about UFOs, but I do know
something about the brain.  You cannot "magnetically scramble"
memory.

The term "memory" actually includes several different subtypes
which operate differently.  However, for the purpose of this
discussion we can limit it to declarative memory operating in
three time domains: immediate or short-term memory (STM),
intermediate-term memory (ITM), and long-term memory (LTM) [note:
some authors use STM to refer to intermediate term memory; for
this discussion I'll use STM, ITM, and LTM].

STM is thought to operate as a primarily as a "signal" phenomenon
with the information encoded in the various signals flowing
through the cortex and limbic areas.  It can hold roughly 7
(+/-2) independent "things" at once, and operates on a short time
scale (up to a few minutes).  Due to its electrical nature it is
of course highly susceptible to electrical interference and,
presumably, strong magnetic fields which would induce electrical
eddy currents.

The mechanism of ITM is less well known but probably includes
long- term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression of neurons
in the hippocampus, mediated by NMDA receptors (which act as a
neural "coincidence detector" of sorts).  ITM is theoretically
susceptible to electrical (and thus magnetic) interference, as
LTP can be reversed in an some neurons with the correct pulse
train.  However, as the effects of ECT demonstrate, the reaction
of an entire network of neurons is unlike the reaction of an
individual neuron.  Furthermore, ITM is not the permanent
location of memories and the time for integration from ITM to
permanent memory is highly variable, ranging from a few minutes
to, potentially, years.

LTM is permanent and probablyinvolves changes in genetic
expression that affect synaptic function, presumably throughout
the cortex.  The process of integration of memory from ITM to LTM
may include sleep (both REM and NREM) but some suggest it occurs
during waking as well.

Cases of hippocampal damage or removal have demonstrated that
while anterograde amnesia (affecting new declarative memories) is
total, retrograde amnesia (affecting things already learned) is
not, and there is no way of knowing how much of a person's past
they will forget.  Some people lose only a few days; others lose
years of their life.

So at the very worst, all you could get with a magnetic (or
electrical) effect would be an unreliable removal of memories, at
least a few days and at most a few years.  And that's even
assuming you could somehow magically induce all the neurons in
the hippocampus (and probably other regions) to "reset".  Given
that neither repeated ECT nor lightning strikes have reliably
demonstrated even *this* effect, I would conclude that "magnetic"
erasing of memory is impossible except for those memories encoded
within a very short and highly unpredictable time frame.

Please remember, the brain is biochemical first and electrical
second.

> and in 1952 he was reborn as "Andy" a kind of "walk-in" with a
> suppressed DNA memory.

And I'm not even going to *start* with "DNA memory".


William White