Bioscope: a novel apparatus for the investigation of living matter

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Fall, 2003 by R.Sh. Sargsyan, S.A. Ter-Grigoryan, V.M. Zhamkochyan, E.P. Oganezova, R.H. Nalbandyan

The development of modern scientific notions on principles of biological functions was essentially determined by the development of various instrumental methods of their state assessment and measurement. The instrumentation used at present in medical-biological investigations serves mostly to register and measure the physical-chemical characteristics of the living system. However, changes possibly induced in biological systems when investigating certain parapsychological phenomena (e.g., mental influences, distant healing correction) may often remain beyond limits of sensitivity of the standard apparatus.

Investigations carried out using high-voltage high-frequency methods showed the sensibility of Kirlian luminescence to the change of the physiological state of biological objects (Dakin, 1975; Korotkov, 1995). Data obtained with these methods suggest an ability of biological systems to influence physical characteristics of gas discharge that arises around the investigated object under high-impulse voltage, such as its spatial form, intensity, and luminescence spectrum. This was clearly shown in the registration of the phantom leaf effect, when it is possible to visualize the total geometrical shape of a leaf even after a part of the leaf was mechanically removed (Choudhury, Kejiariwal, & Chattopodhyay, 1979).

We hypothesize that, even in the absence of the discharge voltage, biological systems are capable of influencing physical characteristics of their surrounding environment. We may thus suppose that the effect of a high-impulse voltage consists mainly of production of ionized gas, the presence of which makes it comparatively simple to visualize such influences. Such interpretation of the mechanism of Kirlian imaging means that for detection of expected influences, we may, in principle, use another, more convenient object as a sensor. If this is the case, then selection of an appropriate object (sensor), a physical parameter characterizing its state, and development of an effective method of its measurement are of crucial importance; this applies particularly to the case when the sensor is located in an immediate vicinity from the biological object.

Our investigations led to the development of a novel apparatus, the bioscope, which fulfils these requirements (Sargsyan & Ter-Grigoryan, 2001, 2002; Sargsyan, Ter-Grigoryan, & Zhamkochyan, 2000). In this article, we present some results of experiments carried out with this device.

METHOD

The construction of the bioscope (see Figure 1A) consists of the following: a light-emitting source (i.e., an electrical bulb L), a photodetector (F), and a sensor (i.e., a glass plate) covered on the outer side with an opaque material. The light emitted from the source L is partially reflected by the glass plate's lower surface and partially refracted by the plate, which is then reflected by the glass plate's upper surfaces and falls upon the photodetector F. A portion of the light passes through the glass plate and is mostly absorbed by the covering material; the residual light reflected by the covering material also falls upon the photodetector. The photodetector measures the total intensity of incoming light. The partition isolates the photodetector F from the light source L and from the light reflected by the glass plate's lower surface. The light source, sensor, and photodetector are completely isolated from external light by a metallic case.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

To ensure the stability of the light emitted by the source, we used a temperature-controlled power supply unit. A differential amplifier with a band-pass up to 20 Hz was used to increase immunity to noise. The standard method of subtraction of the steady component from the photodetector signal was used in the registration of reflected light intensity. The difference signal was amplified (by a factor of ~500 times) and fed to an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, and the digitized data were stored in a PC. The value of the steady component was adjusted such that all changes of signal amplitude could be completely visualized on the PC's monitor.

The level of intrinsic noise of the apparatus did not exceed 0.008 mV. A 16-bit A/D converter with the conversion time of 0.6 ms and quantization step of 0.25 mV was used. The program package was developed for that purpose, and the processing speed of the PC made it possible to register the current value of the intensity of the light entering the photodetector with sampling step of 25 ms. The series of reflected light intensity measurements was smoothed, using the moving average method with the sample step of 25 ms and averaging time of 2.5 s (i.e., with sliding window length 100 samples). The averaged values of the registered signal were displayed every 25 ms. The stability level of the background signal can be estimated by Figure 1B, which shows the recording of the photodetector indication at the inactive radiation source.

After recording of the control level of background intensity of the light reflected by the sensor, the investigated object was disposed on the rack that was previously placed at a distance from 1 to 10 cm from the bioscope sensor, and the character of change of the registered signal was assessed. We used apples, grapefruits, and laboratory animals (rats) as biological objects. Before the experiments, rats were subject to Nembutal anesthesia, using 50 mg/kg dosage. Similar experiments were carried out with participation of human subjects.