Study: Magnetic Waves Alter Moral Compass

(CBS)  A device that emits an invisible beam affecting a person's ability to tell right from wrong might sound like the kind of weapon a comic book villain would use to wreak havoc around the world.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say such a device allowed them to observe the effects magnetic rays have on a person's sense of morality.

In a new study, volunteers were subjected to magnetic pulses just above and behind of the right ear, focusing on the area of the brain believed to be the area controlling morality. The pulses were intended to block cell activity that contributed to the volunteers' sense of right and wrong.

MIT's researchers explain the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"You think of morality as being a really high-level behavior," Dr. Liane Young, the study's lead researcher, told the British Broadcasting Corporation. "To be able to apply a magnetic field to a specific brain region and change people's moral judgments is really astonishing."

To see what effect a 500 millisecond magnetic pulse had, researchers gave the 20 volunteers a series of tests. In one test, the volunteers were given an ethical dilemma: should a man let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew wasn't safe?

The volunteers based their answers on how the scenario played out. If the girlfriend crossed with bridge safely, the man wasn't at fault. The volunteers based their decision on the outcome of the dilemma, not the moral principle, because of the magnetic pulse, the researchers wrote.

In another test, volunteers were exposed to 25 minutes of weak electric currents that prevent brain cells from functioning normally. They then had to read stories about morally questionable characters and judge whether the characters' actions caused harm. Researchers found that the volunteers accepted morally dubious actions that resulted in a "happy" ending.

[gerryduffett]

Dec 15 2006

Microwave Sickness / Deadly Electronic Weapons / Canada

Hello

When I worked in the diesel generator business,
I worked with a lot of communications companies all across Canada.
Bell Canada was a big one I did a lot of work with.
They have "standby diesel generators" at their central offices and all their repeater stations.
A lot of "national security" concerns within these systems.
I worked on a fairly large "fibre optics" project in 1996 into 1997 when I was poisoned for the first time in 1997
People within these systems have more than enough resources to make you "sick" if you ......"step on the wrong toes."
Lots of surlpus "microwave generators." and "radio equipment."
All with "no forensic evidence."
It just takes one "idiot" to put something together who does not like you.
There may be a union / non union theme to my problems.
I worked at a non union company, Harper Detroit Diesel.
I had no idea about "radio waves as weapons" until 2005,
......8 years after I initially got sick
I started my research project in January 2004 on the internet with the keywords "constructive dismissal"
in relation to my own problems at Harper Detroit Diesel.
I am not sure about ......"microwave mind control",
seems to be a lot of articles on the internet about this topic.
It does look like more and more people world wide are looking at
......"radio waves as weapons".
I think maybe thats because there is now so much "radio equipment"around the world with the advancements in "communications."
The problems with all these types of systems is the technology falls into the wrong hands.
Some real horror stories from people worldwide about this topic on the internet.
What an eye opener !


Gerry Duffett

3358-A McCowan Rd
Basement
Scarborough Ontario
Canada M1V 5P5

[e-mail],
[e-mail],

http://gerryduffett.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general

[rf35]

This would seem to indicate that morality is a physical function. Therefore, it throws a wrench into the idea often thrown out on these message boards that religion is the basis of human morals. Rather it would indicate that morality evolved, somehow providing a survival advantage...perhaps something to do with man being a social animal. In any case, it shows that average humans are quite likely to behave in a generally moral way without the lessons provided by religious texts (as long as you don?t bugger up the function by messing with the brain). In fact, judging by the actions of many supposedly religious people (pedophile priests, crooked televangelists, crusading popes, Spanish inquisitors, etc), it could possibly be inferred that religion actually inhibits moral behavior. Once again, religion poisons everything, even morality.

[kansas1946]

There is one place that "morality" and every other emotion, judgement call, sense of humor, etc., comes from. The brain. If you disturb something in the brain, behavior will be affected. That is why we have sociopaths. Electric shocks will alter brain function also. This study doesn't surprise me a bit.

[NowBeWithThat]

They then had to read stories about morally questionable characters and judge whether the characters' actions caused harm. Researchers found that the volunteers accepted morally dubious actions that resulted in a 'happy' ending
_______________________________________

A group of volunteers made good and bad choices, based on situational ethics.

How this 'proves' magnetic pulses were the cause is doubtful at best, and a wicked waste of time and money at worst.

[sarahmorehouse]

The article was remiss, but I am sure that the study included an adequate control set-up, or else it would never have passed a human subjects review board or application for funding.

[Dee4135]

People will look for any way to explain those things which they don't understand, and perhaps never will. And those involved in magnetic therapy studies constitute such "people." And I don't point to scientists in particular because I am one and would never do my fellow scientists the disservice of classifying those who "study" magnetic therapy as scientists. I've read many patents and publications on magnetic therapy. Allegedly, these machines (for example transcranial magnetic stimulation devices) will treat and stimulate anything from motor neurons related to Parkinson's disease to the portions of the brain which control our emotions to a broken bone. REALLY?! Where are the results, people? How can you ever base a scientific study on a "scale" of 1-7, and allowing the subject to pick one of those numbers?? Rest assured, millions of dollars are wasted on these types of "studies" each year with no applicable results. It's truly a shame. Furthermore, tagging the name of an Ivy league school to the study does not speak to the validity of the "research."

[bobnjersey]

[I don't point to scientists in particular because I am one and would never do my fellow scientists the disservice of classifying those who "study" magnetic therapy as scientists.]

where in the story does it refer to this investigation/study as having anything to do with magnetic therapy?

[wordpros]

Think about this the next time you put your cell phone to your right ear...

[Lea818]

So is that why my cousin became a Republican after he had that MRI brain scan?

[erb0087]

Study: Magnetic Waves Alter Moral Compass
============================================

This is cool, because other scientists are about to develop a way to make yourself invisible.

So you could combine these two, and become the ultimate invincible comic book villain: The Invisible Psychopath.

(I believe one of Plato's Dialogues recounts the tale of a man who went into a cave one day and found a device that rendered him invisible. The person then asks Socrates, who one earth would be honest and ethical, if he had a power like that ? Socrates naturally disagrees with that.)

Invisibility: it's not just for comic book figures anymore:

"Cloak of Invisibility Breakthrough"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/18/tech/main6311932.shtml

[erb0087]

Found it. Plato's "Ring of Gyges"

Gyges of Lydia was a shepherd who found the dead body of an extraterrestrial visitor (shades of "Alien" !! -- probably where the scriptwriters got the idea...) and appropriated the ring.

"After an earthquake, a cave was revealed in a mountainside where Gyges was feeding his flock. Entering the cave, Gyges discovered that it was in fact a tomb with a bronze horse containing a corpse, larger than that of a man, who wore a golden ring, which Gyges pocketed. He discovered that the ring gave him the power to become invisible by adjusting it. Gyges then arranged to be chosen as one of the messengers who reported to the king as to the status of the flocks. Arriving at the palace, Gyges used his new power of invisibility to seduce the queen, and with her help he murdered the king, and became king of Lydia himself. King Croesus, famous for his wealth, was Gyges' descendant.

In Plato's Republic, Glaucon challenges Socrates with this myth:

"Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other; no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a god among men. Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust. For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice."

Socrates eventually defeats this Machiavellian hypothesis.

[bradkt1]

That explains all of these nutty right wingers...

[stychokiller]

So, instead of tin-foil hats, we should be wearing steel ones to keep out those magnetic fields. Thanks, I will take appropriate action on this knowledge. Can you do some research on why "Socialist" thinking is so contagious?

[Fatesrider]

Steel helmets won't keep out magnetic "waves". Try a Faraday Cage. They work better.