Bioelectromagnetics 12:67-70 (1 991)

Brief Communication

The Solar Wind and Hallucinations- A Possible Relation Due to Magnetic Disturbances Walter Randall and Steffani Randall Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa

Data from the 19th century on hallucinations and magnetic disturbances were found to exhibit a direct and statistically significant correlation. The aa magnetic index over the period 1868-89 and concurrent visual hallucinatory activity were found to co-vary (Spear- man coefficient = .@; P <.05). Magnetic influences on the pineal hormone, melatonin, are suggested as a possible source of variation.

Key words: semiannual, melatonin, rhythms, time series, season, seasonal disorders

Hallucinations occur as typical symptomatology in several diseases (e.g., schizophrenia, affective disorders, epilepsy) and after lesions of the central nervous system. Over 90 species of plants produce hallucinogens, and their use by human beings has been dated to 6000 B.C. [Siegel, 19841. According to Gurney et al. [ 19621, approximately one in ten human beings that are free of disease and lesions of the nervous system, and that have not ingested hallucinogens, have a hallucination at some point in their lives.

The cause of hallucinations has been attributed to all parts of the nervous system, from the lens and vitreous humor of the eye to complex cortical and sub- cortical neural mechanisms [Kluver, 19421. The most influential model of nervous system pathology [Jackson, 18841 considers hallucinations as “release” phenomena, as “positive symptomatology” resulting from lesions of superordinate control sys- tems. “Psychological” causes also are a fundamental part of the literature on hallu- cinations, having received an emphasis in Freud’s treatise on dreams [ 19001. Ac- cording to Freud [ 19001, dreams and hallucinations are similar with regard to their psychoanalytic interpretation and their mechanism (regression of suppressed wishes).

Received for review May 2, 1989.

Address reprint requests to Walter Randall, Department of Psychology, University of lowa, Iowa City, IA 52240.

0 1991 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

68 Randall and Randall

Extreme grief and all its attendant physiological changes are thought to be the pre- cipitating factors in “post-bereavement apparitions.”

Our interest in hallucinations derives from Persinger’s study [ 19881 showing that magnetic disturbances are high during post-bereavement apparitions. The mag- netic index aa was used as a measure of magnetic disturbances, and like other K-derived indices, is a measure, for the most part, of the corpuscular radiation from the sun (the solar wind) that enters the earth’s atmosphere at the auroral zones. All the K-derived indices exhibit a prominent semiannual variation. In situ measurements of the magnetosphere and the solar wind support the earlier geometric theories on the mechanisms of the semiannual pattern: the magnetic axes of sun and earth are inclined to the earth-sun line, with the inclination of the earth’s magnetic axis the major factor in generating the semiannual variation; the angle of incidence of the incoming solar wind is approximately the same at equinoxes, changing gradually to a different geometry at solstices [Holzer and Slavin, 19821. Longitudinal plots of the average monthly values of K-derived indices typically exhibit equinoctial peaks and solsticial troughs [e.g., Chapman and Bartels, 19841. In addition, Fourier analyses of these indices have established the presence of a prominent six-month period [e.g., Delouis Mayaud, 19751.

Our research with the domestic cat revealed a multimodal behavioral rhythm during the interval of a year [Randall, 1981; Johnson and Randall, 19881, and our subsequent inquiries have led to the consideration of other multimodal rhythms and to the search for multimodal environmental variables. The semiannual variation in magnetic disturbances is the most prominent and well-established multimodal envi- ronmental variable. Because Persinger [ 19881 found that magnetic disturbances dur- ing post-bereavement apparitions were higher than before or after the apparitions, we compared longitudinal data on hallucinations and the magnetic index aa and found a positive and statistically significant correlation.

The month of occurrence of visual hallucinations was obtained from Gurney, Myers, and Podmore [1962, abridged and edited by E. Sidgwick]. The abridging and editing involved selecting the “best evidenced” from the original two-volume work and incorporated the “Additions and Corrections” provided by Gurney and “other sources, especially from articles published by Gurney himself in reply to criticisms” [Gurney et al., 19621. A list of numbered cases is provided in this work (on p. vii), and the cases that involved visual hallucinations and that provided the information on month of occurrence were used in the correlational analysis. Our collected cases began with case 191 on p. 340 and ended with case 356 on p. 511. Within these pages, every visual hallucination with the month of occurrence was used in the correlational analysis (a total of 49). Cases that involved only auditory or only tactile hallucinations or cases without dates were not used (a total of 39 within pp. 340- 5 11). All the visual hallucinations were of human or “humanoid” forms, typically recognized as a dead or dying friend or relative. As indicated in the preface to the original edition, these data on hallucinations were obtained from correspondence mailed to Gurney et al. as representatives of the Society for Psychical Research. The years for the occurrences of our collected visual hallucinations are from 1845 to 1888. Approximately two-thirds of the cases occurred between 1867 and 1882. The mode is 1873 and the median is 1874.

The measure of geomagnetic activity was the magnetic index aa, obtained from Mayaud [1973]; monthly values from January, 1868 (the earliest values that are

Hallucinations and Magnetic Activity 69

lo 1

J F M A M J J A B O N D TIME (MONTHS)

”1

a

0

-1 b I 7 -

13 14 15 16 17 18 MAONETIC INDEX aa

Fig. 1. Both longitudinal (left half) and scatterplot (right half) formats for the data on hallucinations and the magnetic index aa. Total number of hallucinations each month is plotted with the average monthly value of the magnetic index au.

available), through December, 1889, were averaged by month. This period was selected to include two complete solar cycles; some variation in the annual pattern is induced by the 1 l-year solar cycle so that use of an integer number of solar cycles yields a better average.

The averge monthly values of these 22 years are unusual (fig. 1, open circles) in that the spring peak occurs in April instead of March. The other peak (in Septem- ber) is typical, as are the June and December troughs. However, 15 of the 22 years of monthly means show the usual pattern of March peaks and four years have March and April values approximately equal. In the other three years (1872, 1875, and 1882), the magnetic disturbance in April was, respectively, 45, 50 and 118% larger than the March values. High-energy solar events (e.g., flares) sometimes override the geometric influence on geomagnetic disturbances.

The total number of hallucinations each month exhibit a prominent semiannual pattern (Fig. 1, solid dots) with peaks in March and October and troughs in January and June. Of the 49 cases, none occurred in the solsticial month of June. The Spearman correlation coefficient was .64 ( P < .05, two-tailed test). The scatterplot (Fig. 1, right side) indicates an approximate linear relationship between these two variables.

No cause-and-effect relation is demonstrated by this correlation; the correlation may be spurious, or another variable that is a concomitant of the semiannual variation in magnetic disturbances may be involved. With regard to the possibility of the direct efficacy of magnetic disturbances on hallucinations, experimental manipulations of the magnetic field at naturally occurring intensities have been shown to affect pineal functions [Semm et a]. , 19801. The major hormone from the pineal gland, melatonin, is synergistic with a hallucinogen [Winters et al., 19731, is implicated in affective disorders [Sack and Lewy, 19881, is implicated in the temporal ordering of physio- logical variables (which also is implicated in affective disorders according to Wehr and Goodwin [1981]), is a hormone involved in the “stress response” [Lynch and Deng, 19861, is elevated in blood and brain following the administration of neuro-

70 Randall and Randall

leptics [Murphy et al., 19861, and is considered as a possible sedative-hypnotic in human beings [Lieberman and Lea, 19881. Thus one plausible explanation of the correlation involves the known effect of magnetic disturbance on melatonin, a hor- mone that affects most, if not all, physiological variables (e.g., TSH, ACTH, FSH, LH, GH, beta endorphin, serotonin, dopamine, GABA, benzodiazepine receptors, cyclic AMP; see Brown and Wainwright [1985]) and is implicated in diseases that involve hallucinations as an aspect of their symptomatology.

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