l. Extra -Sensory Perception of Quarks By Stephen M. Phillips, Ph.D. 'l h.~ 'l11eosophical Publishing I loll'>e \fad.ms, India London, England \\hcaton, Ill. l SA. . KROTONA BOOK SHOP Krotona 47 Ojai, California 93023 © Copyright, The Theosophical Publishing House, 1980. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission except for quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For additional information write to: The Theosophical Publishing House, 306 West Geneva Road, Wheaton, Illinois 60187. Published by the Theosophical Publishing House, a department of the Theosophical Society in America. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Phillips, Stephen M. 1946- Extra-sensory perception of quarks. Includes index. 1. Extrasensory perception. 2. Quarks-Miscellaneous. I. Title. BP573.E9P47 001.9 80-22048 ISBN 0-8356-022 7-3 Printed in the United States of America at the University of Chicago Printing Department. HERBERT A. KERN, whose Foundation funded the publication of this book, was a research chemist familiar with Besant and Leadbeater's Occult Chemistry but was never able in his lifetime to see a link between its con ceptualizations and those of modern science. The importance of Phillips' work may well lie in the implication that new efforts, scientifically ad dressed, might offer intuitive insights into other esoteric subjects only partially understood today by science. Herbert Kern was always fascinated by this possibility, so it is a pleasure to be able to dedicate the publication of this work to his memory. Dedicated to my family Contents PAGE Preface ix Introduction xi 1 Historical Background 1 2 Epistemological Aspects of Micro-Psi Vision 14 3 Quark Theory-Old and New 19 4 Two Hypotheses concerning Micro-Psi 43 5 Micro-Psi Support for the "String Model" of Elementary Particle Physics 66 6 The Testimony of the Micro-Psi Observer 89 7 Micro-Psi Atoms 99 8 Micro-Psi Molecules 201 Conclusion 236 Appendix: A Chronology of Micro-Psi Investigations 241 Glossary . 243 Bibliography 245 Index 247 Vll Preface While studying several years ago in the United States of America as a physics graduate student, I came across one day a copy of the book The Physics of the Secret Doctrine, written by William Kingsland (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1910). One page in particular captured my attention, for it displayed diagrams of the "atoms" of hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, supposedly highly magnified through the use of a form of extra-sensory perception. The diagram of the "hydrogen atom" was especially curious and interesting, because I immediately recognized in it the physicist's model of a proton as a triangular cluster of three particles that he calls "quarks." On returning to England a few years later, I made inquiries about the source of these drawings and soon discovered many more curious things. , In this book, I have endeavoured to give a scientific explanation of a large collection of observations made by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater during their investigations (1895-1933) of the atomic structure of matter. These two leading members of the Theosophical Society claimed that they could "see" atoms and molecules with the aid of a faculty of extra-sensory perception acquired by their training in yoga. Over the years, many The osophists have never doubted that their work might finally prove to be of significance and of value to science (for a valuable introduction see E. Lester Smith, V. Wallace, and G. Reilly, The Field of Occult Chemistry [London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1934]). ]3utjts puzzling features a_nd apparent contradiction of well-established facts of chemistry and physics have remained unexplained until recently. I have analysed the work of Besant and her colleague from the point of view of a physicist who is interested in the implications of parapsychology for physical science, and vice versa, and as one who is neither sceptical of the reality of extra-sensory perception nor firmly committed to a belief in it. I have tried to evaluate their work in an objective and unbiased way, being always aware during this task of the questionable status of their research but remaining sensitive to its possible merits wherever these can be shown to exist. I have ignored the issues that are raised by the substantiation in this book of the long standing claims made by Besant and Leadbeater, since others are more able than I to comment on these matters. My intention is not to promote ix x PREFACE any doctrine or theory but, instead, to present to the reader much of the evidence that is available and to interpret it in terms of elementary particle physics, so that he may better judge for himself the validity of these claims. I acknowledge very helpful discussions with Dr. E. Lester Smith, F.R.S. I am deeply grateful for his useful comments, kind advice, and constant encouragement. I wish to thank Edward Lussow for his editorial and design assistance and Christina Borges and Kathleen Miners for their excellent contribution in the reproduction of diagrams. Finally, I thank the Kern Foundation for a research grant. STEPHEN M. PHILLIPS Bournemouth, England October 1979 Introduction E. LESTER SMITH, D.Sc., F.R.S. Some two hundred subatomic particles are now recognized by particle physicists. Many of them have been observed experimentally by means of the sophisticated technology of high-energy physics; the increasingly de tailed understanding of subatomic events has permitted postulation of other particles such as the quarks. Scientists will find it hard to credit the claims oL!his book, to the effect that some observations in this field were made eighty years ago using quite different techniques. A form of extra-sensory perception that can be described as magnifying clairvoyance or_ micro-psi has been known to oriental yogis for thousands of years. The technique does not consist in actually magnifying the small object but, c:onversely, in "making oneself infinitesimally small at will,'' as it has been picturesquely described. It is mentioned, for example, in the yoga Sutras of Patafijali (book 3, Sutra 26): "Knowledge of the small, the hidden or the distant by directing the light of superphysical faculty" (Taimni's translation). Some early members of the Theosophical Society undertook intensive yoga training under expert guidance and in due course acquired this faculty. In 1895 it was suggested to C. W. Leadbeater that he might direct it upon the atoms of the chemical elements. Annie Besant soon joined in what was to become a long series of investigations, lasting on and off for thirty-eight years. Starting with the light elements hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, the researches were gradually extended to cover all elements known at the time, plus a few then undiscovered elements and isotopes. Also, a number of typical inorganic and organic compounds were investigated. The objects as "seen" in this manner were described to an assistant, and sketches were made and notes taken. The atoms appeared as highly structured bodies, giving the impression of definite external shapes, with the interior subdi vided into compartments of spherical, ovoid, conical, and other geometrical shapes. These bodies in turn had smaller components within them, which in their turn were observed to contain very much smaller particles; these seemed to be the ultimate units of physical matter and were called "ultimate {lhysical atoms." All the elements consisted in the last analysis of these particles, which were of two types only, one the mirror image of the other. Xl xii INTRODUCTION Because the atoms were in vigorous motion in all conceivable modes, it was necessary to slow them down by a special effort of will-power (psychokinesis) bef~_~e a~curate observation and counting of components were possible. The external and internal shapes were delineated by the volume of space swept out, so to speak, by the energetic movements of the subatomic particles, which appeared to create tenuous "walls" of a nature that could not be determined. The observers found that they could facilitate the examination by apply ing psychokinesis to dismember the atoms, in stepwise fashion, into smaller groupings of ultimate particles; at each step a considerably greater power of "magnification" was needed. A great deal of this work was brought together in the first and second editions of Occult Chemistry (1908 and 1919), and the remainder was included in a rewritten third edition in 1951. The fourth edition will be reprinted in 1980. To appreciate the difficulties in relating these researches to the contempo ra!:y state of science, it is sufficient to consider hydrogen. Its atom as "seen" by_E.S.P. contained eighteen of the ultimate physical atoms, grouped into six spheres of three apiece, these spheres appearing to be arranged at the corners of interlacing triangles. No subatomic particles were ki;i.own then or indeed are known now-eighteen of which could make up· the greater part of a hydrogen atom, possibly its nucleus. As understanding of the nucleus progressed, the possibility of reconciliation with Occult Chemistry seemed to recede rather than improve. Those few scientists who came across the book felt justified in rejecting it as fantasy after cursory inspection. The still fewer who had some sympathy with parapsychology were simply baffled; some of them knew the investigators and respected their integrity. The first pointer to a possible reconciliation came when quarks were postulated, requiring subdivision of the proton into three bound quarks. But between three and eighteen there still remained a factor of six to be bridged. This feat has been achieved by Dr. Stephen Phillips, the author of this book. He is an English physicist educated at Cambridge University, where he received his B.A. and M.A. in theoretical physics; at Cape Town University, where he received his M.Sc.; and at the University of Cali fornia, where he researched for his Ph.D. in particle physics. In 1979 his paper entitled "C_Qmposite Quarks_a,!!d_H::i.dron-Lepton Unification" ap peared in Physics Letters (and has been incorporated in this book). This suggests an improvement in quark theory involving further subdivision of each quark into three subquarks, for which the name omegon is proposed. This theory thus provides for nine omegons per proton; the still persisting factor of two was bridged by imperative reinterpretation of the E.S.P. data. Besant and Leadbeater claimed to "see" the atom exactly as it was; INTRODUCTION Xlll they could not have known that the very act of focusing their attention upon it and checking its "wild gyrations" psychokinetically must inevitably cause perturbation. Phillips has carefully analysed the nature of this per turbation and concludes that it would induce the fusion of two atoms of an element into a plasma of free omegons and quarks, which then interact to form stable, quasi-nuclear systems of bound particles. The new patterns derived by application of the rules of theoretical physics tally perfectly with the diagrams of Occult Chemistry. \Vith hindsight it can be seen that there are many pointers to this doubling-up phenomenon in the text of Occult Chemistry. It stretches credulity to concede that omegons, conceived by Phillips in the mid-1970s, and the physicist's quarks had been "seen" extra-sensorily some eighty years previously, and possibly much earlier by Indian yogis. But the effort may prove rewarding because Phillips has unified the two schemes not merely in outline but in the most precise and convincing detail. Science will continue on its own course, but there is a tendency now to find parallels, and perhaps inspiration, in the ancient wisdom of the East, as for example, in Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics and J. P. M. Whiteman's Philosophy of Space and Time. The present book provides a big impetus to this trend. .