#phase-space graph

Paranormal Chaos: Exploring the Butterfly Effect in Instrumental Trans Communication (ITC)

The butterfly effect refers to the notion that small causes can result in large effects.  The concept comes from chaos theory which studies the behavior of dynamic systems that are very sensitive to initial conditions.

Chaotic systems are deterministic in that their future behavior is fully determined by initial conditions.  However they are unpredictable over long-term time horizons.  

Although chaotic systems appear random, they are characterized by underlying patterns and order to include: repetitive orbits, strange attractors and fractals. 

Chaotic systems are found throughout nature to include: weather, population models, economic and social interactions.   A canonical chaos pattern is a butterfly effect seen in phase space graphs.

To explore the butterfly effect in connection with ITC events, a magnetometer was used to measure changes in magnetic fields generated by a Ovilus-X ITC device.  Elements of the experimental design were modeled on a demonstration of the effect involving magnetic oscillating pendulums.

The Ovilus-X consists of a vocal synthesizer coupled with magnetic and thermal sensors to produce dictionary or phonetic speech.  In the experiment, the Ovilus-X was set to phonetic mode.

Magnetic time series were recorded using a Hall-effect magnetic field sensor using data acquisition software.  Measurements were taken at one sample per second.  The data collection run lasted approximately ten minutes (Figure 1).

Phase space diagrams were used to plot magnetic field strength (G), measured in Gauss, and velocity (V).  Velocity at time (t) is given by V = ΔG = Gt – Gt-1.

The lower phase space graph is nominally suggestive of a butterfly effect.  There is an elliptical region of attraction characterized by dense orbits in the upper right and lower left quadrants.  However, there were no dense orbits in the outermost regions (Figure 3).

The upper phase space graph is the same display but without connecting lines.  The plot generally, though not uniformly, exhibits a high degree of order and repetition in the region of attraction (Figure 2).

Variations on this experiment will continue to explore whether there may be a hidden order to what are otherwise commonly perceived as random ITC events.

REFERENCES

Claycomb, J. R., & Valentine, J. H. (2015). The butterfly effect for physics laboratories. Physics Education, 50(2), 170-174.

Dizikes, P. (2008, June 08). The meaning of the butterfly: Why pop culture loves the 'butterfly effect,' and gets it totally wrong. The Boston Globe.