SWITCHED ON PEOPLE

Louis Proud. Strange Electromagnetic Dimensions. New Page Books, 2014.

Electricity has been generated and harnessed in bulk by humankind very, very recently in our history. For most of our recorded time on Earth, it has not been something with which we have had to contend. As a consequence of currently using it in every aspect of our lives, our homes, workplaces and leisure buildings are wired up to conduct this energy, as well as the transport that moves us from one to the other.

🔻

We are therefore surrounded with this invisible flow of force around and through us. However, having satisfied ourselves that most possible side effects are not a threat to our health, there is the distinct possibility that some alternative responses are having unlooked-for influences upon us.

This book is about how electricity affects us, and generally the influences covered are not what most of us would associate with having power running through the walls. Indeed, they are things that most of us will not generally think about at all, let alone as the result of the force that runs the TV or the lights. The author explains how he has long been fascinated by electromagnetic (EM) energy and covers how the natural kind (including lightning) affects many different fauna, and especially how it affects homo sapiens.

He then moves on to folk who have uncomfortable relationships with artificially-generated EM, as electromagnetism is abbreviated early on, such as street lights going out to those who actually interfere with the operation of powered gadgets. There are people who are struck by lightning and those who receive a shock from an item plugged into the mains. Towards the end we come across those who seem to influence, or who may be influenced by, the paranormal world. Some are in the centre of poltergeist phenomena whilst others seem to take more control. Uri Geller, for one, is re-examined, and to some extent rehabilitated, as to his paranormal feats.

This may sound as if it is quite a fanciful work, where one of the more notable contentions is that some UFO activity may be attributed to EM, either naturally occurring or artificial. The thing is that this is a book positively packed with scientific references; one thing that the author cannot be accused of is not enough research! The reader is pointed from this study to that, making one realise that there is much indeed about the energy that lives around us that is not talked about in public. It throws large quantities of light onto how we are being affected by what is around us and that we take for granted.

On a more prosaic note, the book is not overly technical, has a reasonable index and a comprehensive bibliography.

On a personal level, this was quite the eye-opener. Humanity has the capability to use natural EM currents in the same way that other animals do. We can navigate with it, it actually does matter which way our bed points when we sleep and we should not have lights on at night when trying to sleep, especially blue ones. If I were to recommend a readership for this, I would have to say just about anyone who has an interest in the world around us and our place in it.

• Trevor Pyne.