Cells Caught in the Act of Communication

Robert B. Stone, Ph.D.

A commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Cleve Backster then joined the CIA where he initiated their still active polygraph program. Since 1959, he has been training director for over 150 basic polygraph examiner training courses and scores of advanced polygraph work conferences and seminars. Ten times since 1976 he was reappointed chairman of the Research and Instrumentation Committee of the American Polygraph Association. The Backster Zone Comparison polygraph technique continues to be used as a world standard. He has testified before a Congressional Committee twice as an expert on these matters. He has served as a guest instructor at the U.S. Department of Defense Polygraph School, the Canadian Police College Polygraph School and the FBI Academy. For the past 25 years, he has pursued plant and cell monitoring research as head of the Backster Research Foundation.

Robert B. Stone, Ph.D.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is the author or co-author of 80 books published in 15 languages and with millions of copies in print. Elected to the New York Academy of Sciences, he is a member of Mensa and a lay researcher in mind/body communication.

When Cleve Backster was invited to speak about his research with plant and animal cells before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1975, he was introduced as, "The father of primary cell perception." To this introduction he responded, "The way you people have been receiving my research, I feel more like its unwed mother."

The Backster research results must make some scientists lie awake at night. Plants that he monitors with polygraph elements react to such events as shrimp dying in boiling water, germs dying as they hit a urinal's antiseptic, or a person entering the laboratory who is destructive with plants.

Cells that he monitors, usually scraped from a human mouth, react to that person's emotions and actions even when miles away.

These are challenges to existing scientific thought.

Two drade books have been written about Backster's work. The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird covered largely the work with plants. The Secret Life of your Cells by the writer of this article covered largely his work done on animal cells. Both were published in several languages.

Here is a typical case of bio-communication, or as Backster prefers to call it, primary perception. A female donor of her oral blood white cells is asked to watch an episode of television's "Hill Street Blues." She is about a half-mile from where her oral cells are being monitored. Backster focuses one camera on the television show and another camera on the results (readout) of the monitoring so that the two can be seen simultaneously on split-screen television. An early scene depicts an undercover policewoman held in a car by a would-be rapist. An immediate reaction is recorded on the monitor's tracing. The subject later confirms her emotional arousal at the scene because at age 19 she herself had been trapped in an automobile by a would-be rapist (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Donor's in vitro oral leukocytes were being monitored at a distance of approximately 1 km. She confirmed emotional arousal at point of reaction. (1) - Murder suspect's car stops. (2) - Undercover policewoman enter car. (3) - Police cover unit leaves to circle block

Backster's case studies vary from a navy veteran reacting to a televised war scene to a porter reacting to magazine pictures of scantily-dressed woman. The subjects can be a few feet from their cells being monitored or a few miles. Since 1980, Backster has used split-screen video techniques. A black and white camera is focused on the chart drive. A color video camera is focused on the donor. A date-time generator displays the session's time and the date on the same video tape. These video tapes and many other like them are now available for showing at the Backster Research Foundation in San Diego.

Back in 1988, the writer asked to have his cells monitored in order to have firsthand experience of primary perception. Backster had him rinse his mouth with a specially prepared, slightly salty solution. He expectorated into a beaker. Backster centrifuged the solution. Then Backster and his associate, Steve White, explained some of the technical steps which the writer later recorded in his book as follows;

"Two 60 mm length of pure gold wire, diameter of 1mm are standard. One ml culture tubes with outside dimensions of 6 x 50 mm were utilized to contain the collected white cells. ...Net electrical potential activity of in vitro white cells is monitored through the use of EEG-type instrumentation... . Passband frequency settings are for a range of 0.2 to 50 Hz."

Backster started the readout. The writer looked at the chart. It was basically a straight line only slightly wavering. The writer looked at the beaker about ten feet away that held up his leukocytes which just a few minutes before were performing their purpose in his mouth. He sent them his love. Instantly there was a spike on the readout chart (Fig. 2). Continued loving support yielded only squiggles. Next, the writer pulled out a breath-sweetener from his pocket. He decided to use it. Instantly, with that thought, there was a two-inch sweep of the pen that nearly went off the chart; apparently, this product is a powerful germ killer for which his mouth's white cells had a great deal of respect.

Fig. 2. The author's white cells react to his mentally sending love (1), then to his use of a breath sweetener (2).

There followed about an hour of leisurely conversation with our collective eyes on the televised readout of white cell reactions. There were plenty. Every few minutes we said something that caused the mouth cells, now 15 feet away to react. These were topics near and dear to the writer such as the publishing business, subjective communication and mind/body healing abilities. Once Backster's cat jumped upon the writer's lap and the needle went crazy.

Here is another important finding. Backster monitors one of his plants as he leaves to take a walk. After walking a while, he decides to return and looks at his watch. Arriving home and checking the readout, it shows that the plant became excited the very moment he decided to return. If, on the other hand, he makes the decision to return at a certain time in advance, there is no such reaction by his plant. Demonstrations, in order to succeed, must be spontaneous.

Bio-communication at the cellular level may hold a key to understanding some fields of alternative and complementary medicine. Take immunology. The immune system does not seem to have a central headquarters no a clearly defined boundary. It appears to be run by an intelligent strategy that reaches to each white blood cell wherever in the body it happens to be. If a white cell from the mouth - even when removed yards away from its home base - can react to the brain's stress or excitement, is it not plausible to suggest that it has a primary perception and that the Backster Effect might be the elusive immune system/nervous system connection?

How does the placebo work? Profusely "prescribed" by doctors (even) for undiagnosed problems, the sugar pill is taken by the patient who believes it is a legitimate remedy. The confident brain contacts the immune or other pertinent system and a cure takes place. Is this contact actually the Backster Effect?

How does visualization work? First we had psychoneuroimmunology - successfully directing visualization at the immune system. Now we have cyberphysiology - successfully directing visualization at any malfunctioning organ in the body. Are visualization's effects accomplished through primary perception?

How does any aspect of mind/body communication work? The Backster Effect may not answer "how" but it reveals bio-communication "backstage" that is, in the act of working. As such, it should give new impetus to a number of alternative healing arts.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Backster, C., S. White. Biocommunication Capability: Human Donors and in Vitro Leukocytes, Journal of Biosocial Research, Vol. 7, 1985: 132-146.

2. Backster, C. Evidence of a Primary Perception in Plant Life. Int.J. Parapsychology; Vol. 10 (4), 1968: 329-348.

3. Backster, C. Evidence of a Primary Perception at Cellular Level in Plant and Animal Life. in Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychotronics; Prague, Czechoslovakia, Vol. 1, 1973,: 69-71.

4. Backster, C. Lecture in Section: A New Medicine: Emerging Concepts and Research, in the Frontiers of Science and Medicine. R.J. Carlson - Ed., Wildwood House, London, 1975: 103-114 5. Science News, Vol. 107, Feb. 8, 1975: 87.

6. Robert B. Stone, Ph.D., The Secret Life of Your Cells. Whitford Press, Atglen, PA, 1989.

7. Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird. The Secret Life of Plants. Harper & Row, 1974.

Editor's Note

Our friend, Cleve Backster, is definitely a pioneer scientist. He can be blamed for being a poor promoter of his discoveries. His scarce publications might have gained additional weight had he presented a thorough analysis of natural fluctuations in the potential produced by the in-vitro blood white cell preparations. The test design also could have been improved by informing physiological reactions in a donor and establishing a better correlation between the latter and the cells' electrical activity. However, one must be judged by what he/she has done and not by what might have been done.

The question is why in the 10 years since Backster's results were first published nobody in the world undertook to repeat the experiment. Cost is clearly not the reason -- it is far less expensive than any biochemical experiment. Moreover, the experiment could have been conducted on laboratory animals.

If Backster's results were confirmed, it might have opened a totally new branch of scientific inquiry with a major impact on the biological sciences. Many of us know the answer: it lies in the domain of the social psychology and politics of science, and it involves our dignity as scientists and human beings.

LETTER FROM JORDAN

The following is a letter we received from Dr. J.N. Hussein, Ph.D., Director of the Paramann Programme Laboratories, dated 28 August, 1995.

We are compiling the first ARABIC directory of societies and research centers and institutes from around the world which are interested in studying anomalies, paranormal and parapsychological phenomena, subtle energies, bioelectromagnetics, exceptional medical phenomena, complementary and alternative therapies, energy medicine, and relevant subjects. One main aim of this work is to support the growing interest in the scientific research of these non-mainstream nontraditional subjects in the Arab world and to encourage the young research centers in the Arab countries to maintain permanent communication with their older and more experienced counterparts in the West.

We are endeavoring to make this directory as extensive as possible, yet our success in achieving this depends very much on the cooperation we receive from you. We would therefore ask for your kind and most appreciated cooperation in providing us with information on your Institute/Society.

Please send the information to our address: P.O.Box 310087, Al-Mahatta, Amman-11131, Jordan. Fax 962-6-635950

A brief report on the study of the Deliberately Caused Bodily Damage phenomenon by Dr. Hussein is presented on later in this issue.