I, Science Issue 43 (Summer 2019)

I,SCIENCE The science magazine of Imperial College London

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Contents 3

Letter from the Editors by Aoife & Jacqueline

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Science News Edited by Madeleine Openshaw

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Do You Believe in Magic?

Believing in Magical Healing by Christine Parry A Contemporary Belief in Magical Healing by May Vilailuck When Magical Beliefs Shape Reality by Juanita Bawagan

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Do Dreams Come True? by Harry Lampert

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Silver Bullet: From Werewolves to Microbes by Tristan Varela

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How the Magicians Gathered their Zoo by Katy Pallister

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Making the Female Magician Disappear by Gina Degtyareva

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Books by Aoife Hardesty

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Psychedelic Science by Jacqueline Darkwa

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To believe or Not to believe

by Sadie Sweetland

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Is this the Real Life? Is this just Fantasy? by Sarah Moring

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Vaccinations: Science or Sorcery

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Hyp-no-lies by Hannah Gormley

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Losing your Head by Harry Lewis

by Elisabeth Mahase

Dear reader, Now that you have opened this sacred magazine, you must read it from beginning to end…

Hopefully the hypnosis is working, or better yet, hopefully you didn’t need hypnotising to begin with for you to read our final issue of the year!

It has been a wonderful year being Co-Editors-in-Chief and we hope you’ve enjoyed each magazine we’ve produced. Choosing the theme of Magic for our final issue might seem odd for a science magazine, but as you read through, you’ll discover many parallels between the worlds of magic and science. Maybe you might even come away thinking that a little bit of magic isn’t such a bad thing after all!

Our writers have explored the links between magical cures and modern medicine, examined the patriarchy of magic, and even attempted lucid dreaming. A little bit of psychic-ness has rubbed off on us, and we can now tell the future: We predict you are going to super-enjoy this magazine.

So read on, and keep your mind wide open. And just in case you need more persuading, we have sprinkled each article with some fairy dust, carefully chosen to make your life all the more magical when you have finished reading.

Aoife & Jacqueline

Corrections: In the ‘Bad Science’ issue, the following errors were made: ‘The Myth of Personal Genomics’ was attributed to the incorrect author. It should have been attributed to Naomi Clements-Brod, not Naomi Campbell.

May Vilailuck’s name was misspelt on page 28.

We offer our sincere apologies to those affected.

Image: JR Korpa

NEW HOLIDAY OPPORTUNITY IS OUT OF THIS WORLD Written by Harry Lampert

In case you want to travel further afield than

the end of the world, from 2020, you could be able to holiday on the International Space Station. NASA are opening up to two sets of tourists per year to visit for a mere £27,500 a night as they start commercial activities on the ISS. The tourists will have to meet certain medical and training requirements before they can be sent up on crafts provided by SpaceX and Boeing. Your holiday really could be out of this world.

WAITER, DOES THAT COME WITH A SIDE OF PLASTIC? Written by Julia Langer

Canadian researchers have found

MICROSOFT FACES UP TO ITS MISTAKES Written by Sadie Sweetland

Microsoft has deleted a massive database

that microplastic consumption in part of an American’s diet ranges from 39,000 to 52,000 particles annually. These microscopic pieces of plastic are found in every ecosystem and can cause serious harm to human health when ingested in high quantities. Notably, bottled water contained more than 20 times the amount of microplastics as tap water, giving us all yet another reason to forgo single-use bottles.

of 10 million images used to train facial recognition systems. The database contained images of 100,000 well known people and was used in an AI project to recognise celebrities. It has since been linked to use by the police and the military. Microsoft deleted the dataset after the Financial Times drew attention to the possible privacy and ethical issues of this and has since called on the USA to improve the regulation of recognition systems.

WHO STRESSED THE DOGS OUT? Written by Dani Ellenby

WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN-HEARTED? Written by Tanya Hughes

Scientists from Linköping University

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SCIENCE NEWS

in Sweden have found that dogs may mirror the stress levels of their owner. The research team measured the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in strands of both human and dog hair. They found cortisol levels to be similar in both dogs and their owners, with human personality traits such as neuroticism shown to have a significant effect. This study is the first to show a link in stress levels between two different species, highlighting the strong connection between humans and their best friend.

A team of researchers led by Professor

Sian Harding at Imperial College have developed small, pumping, heart ‘patches’, grown from millions of stem cells in the lab. The patches have been designed to help heal hearts damaged by heart attacks and prevent, or even reverse, heart failure. Once sewn in place, the patches are intended to physically support the damaged heart muscle and help it pump more efficiently, while also stimulating new healthy muscle growth. The latest pre-clinical trials in rabbits have shown that the heart patches are safe, paving the way for human trials.

Image: (Left) JR Korpa (Right) Rachel Ng

Do You Believe in Magic?

Believing in Magical Healing By Christine Parry Magic and healing are concepts that have been tightly tied together for millennia, and it’s only relatively recently that the thread connecting them has begun unwinding.

The ancient Greek goddess Panacea, who could cure all ills, has had her name given to many objects that possessed powerful healing – cures that defied logic and reason, and worked on any disease indiscriminately. Panaceas are riddled throughout history and legend; a goat’s bezoar: the universal antidote to poison, mythical cure-all flowers, chocolate coated miracle pills to revive the ‘mostly dead’ (peddled by miracle Max in The Princess Bride).

Even in the early days of modern medicine, drugs that could cure a specific target without side effects were called ‘magic bullets’ – like the very first antibiotics. Current medical thinking has systematically removed any concept of magic and witchcraft from medicine, surgically excising a metastasising tumour. Yet the latest medical frontier chases after a concept that would have sounded very magical indeed to the ears of the past; the ultimate magic bullet of personalised medicine. Of course, now we understand this is based on genetics to determine an individually calibrated treatment – but it illustrates a long-standing link between magic and medicine.

One strand of this connecting thread binding magic and medicine together lies in witchcraft. Witches were sometimes just a healer who knew enough herb lore to snatch people back from life-threatening situations. Something that is easy to see as magic, especially when this herb lore included knowing when to harvest these herbs, marked, of course, by the lunar calendar. ‘Best gathered in May at the full moon’ has a really witchy sound to it; but herbs are now known to have a different chemical profile depending on the time of year they are grown. Without this modern

Christine Parry, May Vilailuck, and Juanita Bawagan explore different ways a belief in magic has shaped believers’ lives

knowledge, people gravitated towards the explanations magic could provide for disease.

A second thread to unpick is the power of nature and the rules that govern it. A healing method known as Sympathetic Magic is centred on the belief of strong connections forged between the world and the human body. Here, healing is based on laws of connectivity. Under the Law of Similarity, things that resemble each other are believed to be connected, and an action on one can affect the other.

Healing methods using sympathetic magic might attempt to reproduce a sufferer’s condition in nature, creating resonance between the two. For instance, a nail could be driven into an oak tree to cure toothache, or a tree trunk split apart for someone with a hernia; as the trees healed, so would the patient. To cure a cough, phlegm from the afflicted could be mixed with salmon eggs and left for ravens; as the ravens ate it, the cough would improve.

Sympathetic magic might also use this connection in reverse; reflecting in nature or other objects a desired state of being. For instance, to ease the passage of a dying patient, or encourage a smooth birth, it was thought that untying any knots in the house, unplaiting hair, or opening all doors and windows would enable an unbarred entry or exit from this life.

healing potential were visually stamped with a signature mimicking their intended use. Lungwort, whose leaves are spotted with grey marks akin to a diseased lung, treated respiratory problems. Saxifrage breaks apart rocks as it grows and subsequently treated kidney stones. Foxglove’s heart shaped leaves foretold its use as a cardio tonic.

While some Doctrine of Signature herbs have borne true of their promise, like Foxglove as the origin of the pharmaceutical drug Digoxin, licensed to treat heart conditions, the majority have no medicinal use.

That the concept of panaceas and magical cures has arisen independently in many different cultures demonstrates the power behind the notion, the dream driving modern healthcare.

Perhaps knowing the explanation takes the magic out of medicine, but we shouldn’t forget how miraculous it can be.

Similar thinking is also behind another thread, another philosophy where medicine and magic cohabitated; the Doctrine of Signatures. More simply put as ‘like treats like’, this is the belief that plants with

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A Contemporary Belief in Magical Healing

Image: Rachel Ng

By May Vilailuck “You’re overreacting,” said Jim as he switched on his homemade device meant to treat my long-lasting cold. I squirmed as I felt a slight jolt passing through me. My arms contracted as I held onto the two copper rods while they adjusted the voltage.

“It’s called bio-resonance,” Jim explained. “I use this every time I feel sick and it works.” In simple words, bio-resonance uses electromagnetic waves to create and detect unhealthy frequencies of the cells within our bodies. The device would then be able to match the frequency and negate the abnormality. Some people also swear by bio-resonance curing them of addiction to smoking by cancelling out nicotine molecules.

I probably should have known better than randomly allowing electricity to pass through me to treat a viral infection. As dubious as it sounded, I caved in anyway and clutched those metal rods for a full ten minutes. Much to my lack of surprise, I was still coughing after the treatment.

Other treatments similar to bio-resonance include biofield therapy and biomagnetic therapy. The former utilizes ‘energy fields’ that can influence the body.

Astrophysicist Carl Sagan has slammed the treatment, noting its lack of empirical evidence.

Advocates of biomagnetic therapy claim the treatment uses magnets to defy the law of physics, thus allowing us to influence our bodies.

If you are reading this article, you are not an electric eel, so chances are that these treatments would

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not affect your body in any way.

It may, unsurprisingly, boil down to the placebo effect to explain why some people swear by such treatments without proper scientific backup. After all, if it works, it works. Right? If something is believed enough by somebody, it becomes real, doesn’t it?

The placebo effect is indeed intriguing and borders on being magical. Sugar pills, sham acupuncture needles, and other treatments with no scientific basis all seemingly work on patients. While placebos have been seen as fake medicine involving trickery and a bit of magic, placebos are indeed real. They can be effective when how you feel comes into account.

Scientists believe that placebos are an effect of conditioning: we expect to feel a certain way after undergoing a certain treatment.

Because of that, there is also a negative version of placebos known as ‘nocebo,’ where negative side effects can be brought out just by knowing about them, despite not taking the actual drugs or treatments that will bring out those symptoms.

Back to Jim and his bio-resonance treatment. The reason this treatment works for him is because of his conditioned faith in this treatment, which I lacked. I was sceptical and, true to my expectations, nothing happened to me.

Placebos and magical therapies are not meant to shrink tumours or regrow a lost organ, but they may be able to make you feel better. Researchers and those in the medical

field say that as long as alternative treatments do not interfere with or prevent the users from receiving medical treatments which are supported by research, feel free to go ahead with them. After all, it is always better to give yourself something that eases your pain, reduces side effects, keeps you positive, and puts you in control of yourself.

When Magical Beliefs Shape Reality

By Juanita Bawagan In 2012, the Congolese village of Bulambika was in a constant state of fear after years of conflict.

Villagers couldn’t farm their land or wander into the surrounding forests without the threat of facing Hutu militia – soldiers who had been driven from neighbouring countries.

The soldiers would attack without warning, violently killing a dozen villagers at a time.

In the midst of this turmoil, a mystical elder had a dream.

He said ancestral spirits had revealed a “bullet-proofing spell” to him that would protect the young men from the Hutu militants. The elder set out on a journey to a distant forest to collect rare

ingredients before performing the ritual on the young soldiers. Despite the villagers being outnumbered and out-armed, they defeated the militants and won against all odds.

victims.” In turn, magical beliefs and rituals became a form of “cultural resistance” for African slaves.

This touches on one of magic’s most powerful appeals: explanation. Witchcraft This bullet-proofing spell would almost provides an answer for the unexplainable certainly not hold up in a ballistics lab, but and inconceivably bad things that happen that doesn’t mean the magic wasn’t real. in the world such as slavery and war, or Magic works in mysterious ways that we unpredictable misfortune like drought or may not expect. illness. It’s debatable whether using witches to explain these problems is a Magical beliefs – from witchdoctors to “good idea,” but nonetheless it helps evil eyes – are often written off in the people cope with grief and trauma, acscientific world because they promote cording to Gershman. false ideas. However, these beliefs draw their power from culture, history, and In this way, religion and magical beliefs psychology. By untangling these like witchcraft are not so different. They dynamics, economists are revealing the have unique characteristics, but they both science of magic and how it becomes a draw from culture, and can be harnessed power for good or evil in the real world. for the better or worse of humanity.

“Witchcraft beliefs should not be taken for granted or seen as a harmless relic of the past. They are very much widespread throughout the developing world and carry real social costs in terms of interpersonal relations, cooperation, economic mobility and, of course, human lives,” says Boris Gershman, an economist based at American University in Washington, D.C., speaking to I, Science.

When the villagers of of Bulambika fought against the Hutu militia, the bullets didn’t bounce off their skin. Many villagers died but it was said that they had not performed the ritual of the bullet-proofing spell correctly or were shot after the magic had worn off. Still, the belief in the spell grew among the villagers. They were bolder and fought deep into enemy territory instead of running away. The Hutu Militia soldiers Millions of people across the world believe also heard of the spell and believed in the in witchcraft, yet these magical beliefs are magic, which reinforced its power and often overlooked by other economists. In spread the belief. As the villagers killed 2016, Gershman conducted the first Hutu militants, they took up the soldiers’ large-scale empirical study on guns and fought their way to victory. witchcraft beliefs. It drew from survey data in nineteen countries in Sub-Saharan Economists Nathan Nunn and Raul Africa. Witchcraft beliefs are particularly Sanchez de la Sierra explored this case strong here: on average 55% of people say study in a recent paper. They modelled they believe in witchcraft, according to a the battle scenario as a move game 2010 Gallup survey. and developed an equation that could describe the phenomena. Magical beliefs “Given the social costs of witchcraft didn’t change the risk of death or give the beliefs, it is important to understand their villagers more strength, but it did alter the origins and conditions that activate their way they perceived risk. This increased destructive side,” Gershman said. the likelihood of villagers heading out into battle, surviving, and freeing the Witchcraft’s historical roots go back village. hundreds of years and span continents.

In a new paper, Gershman traces the This simple equation illustrates some of spread of witchcraft beliefs through the the complex dynamics that give rise to Atlantic slave trade. During this time, witchcraft’s power. Because sometimes, European slave traders were seen as when the right forces combine, believing “witches consuming the souls of their in magic is enough to make it real.

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Do Dreams Come True?

Harry Lampert investigates whether or not predicting the future from your dreams is a wise choice.

Do you dream? Unless you have experienced a particularly rare form of brain injury, the answer to that question is ‘Yes’. In and of itself, there is nothing particularly special about dreaming. Perhaps the more interesting question is what do you dream? Some people dream in first person, others in third; some people dream in black and white; and others dream in silence or only in sound. Whatever way you dream, the experience is unique to you.

There are people who claim to understand dreams – literature and folklore are full of dream interpreters.

There are even historical anecdotes about people who have dreamt events before they happened. But is predicting the future from night-time visions really possible, or is it... just a dream?

Science has long searched for an explanation for prophetic speech and visions. While prophetic dreams are a rather hard subject to investigate, one area which has been investigated both by scientists and historians is the existence of oracles. These were people believed to be in communication with the gods and to speak their will to the people.

One of the most famous oracles was Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi. The eleven-decade existence of a Delphic oracle is documented by many Greek writers, however very few of them wrote of the process by which the oracle spoke her prophecies. The few accounts of this contradict each other in their versions of events. Some say that the room was filled with smoke from cracks in the floor causing the Oracle to enter a trance and then spout gibberish which was interpreted by priests. Others say that the oracle was very much intelligible when she gave her predictions.

The most popular explanation for the prophecies lies in the geology of the

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area. The temple in which the oracle made her predictions is situated near multiple fault lines and bitumen has been found at the site. Reports from the time of the oracle often described a sweet smell when Apollo, the god who spoke through the oracle, was present. A common suggestion is that the smoke that supposedly rose from the ground contained ethylene – a substance which has been found on the temple walls – which has the sweet smell described and can also cause muscle contractions, a trance-like state, and hallucinations. There is also the belief that high concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide in the smoke could have exacerbated these effects through low levels of hypoxia and the fact that carbon dioxide is a hallucinogen in high enough quantities.

Reports from the time of the oracle often described a sweet smell when Apollo, the god who spoke through the oracle, was present

Dreams are also involuntary. Other than lucid dreaming – which is hard to do, but apparently great fun if you can, see Sarah Moring’s article on p. 24 for more – you have no choice over what you see, hear and feel during a dream.

The uncontrollable nature of dreams is what led to the idea that they have some sort of deeper meaning. From brain scans in sleep clinics, most scientists are happy to accept that dreams are one of the brain’s processing methods for memories, thoughts, and emotions.

Unsurprisingly, precognitive dreams are a subject which has been extensively studied. There are hundreds of accounts available online of people who claim to have dreamed something before it happened.

What you don’t see are the accounts from every person who has dreamed of an event which did not come to fruition.

Of course, the Delphic Oracle was only one way in which you could try and find out about your future. Another method you could use was a dream interpreter. One of the most famous literary instances of dream interpretation comes from religion; the story of Joseph. In this tale, Joseph is granted the ability to interpret people’s dreams to predict the future (Bible spoiler: his predictions all come true).

The other noticeably forgotten subject when people talk about their dreams of the future is memory bias. If somebody dreams that something will happen and instead a different but similar event occurs, often their memory of the dream will alter slightly over time to bring the two events close together.

It can even lead to the extreme belief that the dream predicted the event.

Before we tackle the issue of whether dreams can predict the future, we should probably nail down exactly what a dream is. Firstly, dreams occur when you are in specific stages of sleep – you can’t just dream from the moment your head hits the pillow.

This similarity between dreams and real life, especially when one dreams of menial everyday tasks, can lead to an experience of déjà vu. If a dream is similar to an event which occurs at a later date, memory fragments from the dream can be bought up giving the

eerie feeling that you have done this before. Up to 70% of the population is believed to have experienced déjà vu, with the majority of experiences occurring in the late teens and early twenties. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between dreams and memories which can tie déjà vu in with thoughts of a prophetic nature.

Most scientists are happy to accept that dreams are one of the brain’s processing methods for memories, thoughts, and emotions

However, unfortunately, an experience of déjà vu is not going to suddenly allow you to pull next week’s lottery results out of thin air.

Maybe if we could model every particle in the universe, and every interaction between them, we could predict the future but that isn’t prophecy, that’s science. Then again, anyone who could do this would be viewed as a prophet if they didn’t disclose their source.

Until that time, I see no way in which prophecies could be true whether hallucinated in a temple or dreamt in your bed.

Sweet dreams.

Image: Rachel Ng

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Silver Bullet:

When it comes to taking down werewolves, any hunter worth their salt will tell you that the most effective deterrents are bullets cast from the purest silver. And that holds true for more than just lycanthropes – witches and other accursed beasts from various folkloric traditions are said to be particularly vulnerable to silver weaponry.

This silver-specific aversion is also associated with several vampiric traits: vampires lack reflections because mirror backings used to be coated in silver, and the notion of vampires not appearing in pictures may have arisen because silver compounds used to be a key component in photographic papers and film.

The myths surrounding this metal likely stem from silver’s purifying and antimicrobial properties, which have been understood since the ancient Greeks and Romans noticed that water and wine would keep for much longer when stored in silver containers.

Silver interferes with membrane proteins that ferry essential metal ions like potassium in and out of the cell, destabilising the equilibrium and eventually leads to cell death.

Accounts of silver’s usefulness appears in many societies throughout history: in Korea, it is often said that silver chopsticks gained widespread use due to the disputed belief that these utensils would change colour in response to poisoned food. In the American Wild West, early settlers would drop silver coins or tableware into barrels of milk to stop their stores from spoiling. Additionally, 19th century doctors used silver wire to seal

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Gather round children...

Tristan Varela tells the heroic tales of our shiny friend silver

surgical wounds, and soldiers fighting in the trenches of WW1 would often apply leaves of silver to their injuries to speed up the healing process.

Nowadays, silver’s ability to facilitate recovery and prevent infection have led to its use in a variety of medical agents, from burn creams to bandaging. Silver has also been tested in a variety of cancer cell lines with promising results, though its anti-cancer properties remain to be tested in real life cases.

Silver nanoparticles derived from plant extracts appear to be more effective and less toxic in this regard; interest in this form of ‘green nanotechnology’ is currently growing. Additionally, researchers investigating Naegleria fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba that is as deadly as it sounds, found that drugs bound to silver nanoparticles are much more effective at killing this microbe than when going in ‘unarmed’.

Antimicrobial silver technology has even made it to outer space: researchers working at the International Space Station covered one of the station’s toilet doors in a new silver-containing coating called AGXX®, and found an 80% reduction of bacteria living on this surface compared to bare steel.

Why is silver so good at killing microbes?

The answer lies in the metal’s ionic form, which acts in a variety of ways to impair bacterial function. On membranes, positively charged silver ions can disrupt the negatively charged phospholipid bilayers encapsulating both bacterial cells and mitochondria.

Silver also interferes with membrane proteins that ferry essential metal ions like potassium in and out of the cell, resulting in a destabilised equilibrium that eventually leads to cell death.

Silver is also capable of binding to DNA and RNA molecules, and can thus inhibit not just protein production, but the cell replication process as a whole.

After they die, ‘infected’ microbes then become reservoirs of silver ions and effectively behave like zombies – passing on their deadly argentine condition to any bacterial brethren that have the misfortune to come into contact with them.

Because silver enacts its antimicrobial nature in so many different ways, developing bacterial resistance is difficult… but not impossible. In the 1980s, a silver-resistant form of

From Werewolves to Microbes

Pseudomonas was discovered in a silver mine, and more recently, a couple of E. coli strains developed resistance after repeated washes in silver solution. In the latter case, the resistance was powered by the production of flagellin, a key component of the flagellum, a bacterium’s whip-like locomotive appendage. The flagellin proteins of resistant bacteria appear to induce aggregation of silver ions into inert non-ionic clumps. Luckily, this trait seems easily countered with pomegranate rind extract, a known inhibitor of flagellin synthesis in bacteria.

Image: Riko Yasumyia Metaphor, 2019 There is, however, a dark cloud to this silver lining. Recently, there has been an upwards trend in the popularity of imbibing colloidal silver – a solution of silver salts – due to its perceived effectiveness at treating a variety of diseases including cancer, diabetes and AIDS. There are even those who advocate for creating homemade solutions with nothing more than 12V power supply, silver wires, and

distilled water. This practice is no doubt encouraged by the belief that silver is lethal only to microbes, and completely innocuous to human cells.

However, extensive research has proven that colloidal silver has no beneficial effects, and can even be dangerous, especially in cases where people choose this practice over proven antiviral and antibiotic treatments. Long-term ingestion of silver can lead to argyria, a condition where a person’s skin acquires a bluish purple-grey tint.

A famous example was that of Paul Karason who earned the nickname ‘Papa Smurf’ after a decades-worth of drinking colloidal silver turned his skin blue. There is also growing concern regarding the effect of silver on the gut microbiome, which is emerging as a vital component of human health.

The environmental effect of silver nanoparticles may also present an issue in light of the increasing number of silver-containing consumer products

being manufactured. In a recent study conducted in zebrafish, specimens exposed to silver-containing water showed accumulation of metal ions in their bodies as well as inflammation of their gills. The fish were able to rid themselves of silver after some time in clean waters, but worryingly, the gill symptoms persisted.

Dead ‘infected’ microbes become reservoirs of silver ions behaving like zombies – passing on their deadly argentine condition to any bacterial brethren that come into contact with them.

With the threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs looming large, silver may be the magic bullet that helps us keep these microbes in check. However, careful consideration of silver’s toxicity both within and without the human body is required in the development of novel therapeutics that can retain their effectiveness in our increasingly sensitive environment.

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Why do magician’s pull rabbits out of hats? Why not puppies? Katy Pallister finds out.

In our childhood there was always one pet we wanted but never got. For some it was the bounding Labrador puppy, for others it was the docile kitten. For me, it was the Lop-eared rabbit named Flopsy. Imagine my surprise when I watched a TV show and saw a magician reach into their top hat and pull out a rabbit! No matter how hard I tried, I could never produce a rabbit like the magician did. Fifteen years later the bunny-void has never quite been filled, but it has got me wondering; why are rabbits and other animals associated with magic?

The abundance of rabbits makes them the perfect animals to use for magic tricks.

Although rabbits are practical animals for magic, there is also a more extraordinary story linking the two. In 18th century England, a servant named

There are many logical reasons for the use of rabbits in magic performances.

Their bodies are compressible making them easy to conceal and they naturally sit still which further masks their presence. White rabbits in particular provide a good colour contrast to the traditionally black suits of magicians and the red curtains of the stage. However, one of the primary reasons for their use is because rabbits well, breed like rabbits. Unlike humans, female rabbits have induced ovulation which means that eggs are released as they mate. This results in near certain fertilisation every time they copulate. Coupled with their exhibition of postpartum estrus – a behavioural state where the female is immediately ready to conceive more offspring after giving birth – this means Mary Toft became obsessed with that rabbits can reproduce prolifically. rabbits. So much so that she started giving birth to them! Mary reasoned that the ‘maternal impression’ of being alarmed by a rabbit in a field caused her to go into labour with them.

It seems Mary had Doctors flocked from across the country to see this magical sight – even hoped to gain some the King’s doctor was convinced of riches from placing its authenticity! After ‘giving birth’ to rabbit parts in her 15 lots of rabbit parts, amongst other parts, it was discovered that her vagina and delivering animal husband had been buying and smugthem. gling in young rabbits. At a time when

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people were profiting from disfigurement around the world, it seems Mary had hoped to gain some riches from placing rabbit parts in her vagina and delivering them. Despite Mary’s eventual confession, her story is often given as the reason for the association of rabbits and magic.

Doves are another commonly chosen magician’s pet. Similarly to rabbits, there are many practical reasons why they are used; they’re cheap, easily trained, and again, like rabbits, provide a contrasting colour to the magician’s suit. Historically, fantail pigeons were used by the likes of Houdini in magic shows, but as the profession became more portable, smaller breeds of pigeon – like the dove – became favoured. The relationship between doves and magic is thought to have originated from Easten culture long before the birth of modern magic in the West. Folk tales of gypsies recall how the souls of the dead that lie in the hollow magic mountains are turned into serpents if male, and into doves if they are female.

Like many other art forms, magic has manifested itself over thousands of years; from gods and monsters in Ancient Greek myths, to witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Pre-dating all of this was the story of the Ancient Egyptian magician Dedi who performed in front of Pharaoh Khufu. As with all great performers, Dedi’s reputation preceded him and it was alleged he was 110 years

Image: Gina Degtyareva

How the

old, could eat 500 loaves of bread, drink 100 jars of beer each day, and resurrect decapitated creatures.

The latter was what most intrigued Pharaoh Khufu. In his performance, Dedi decapitated a goose and placed its head at one end of the hall and its body at another. Legend has it that when he whispered the secret spell, the head and body of the goose joined back together and the whole animal waddled away. As a result of this story, geese and other types of waterfowl are continuously used in magic tricks.

Magicians Gathered their

There are several animal magic tricks which are infamous around the world and have been for centuries. Pulling a rabbit out of a top hat for example, was first credited to Louis Comte in 1814 and popularised

by John Henry Anderson. In the early 1900’s, the Mexican magician Cantu is thought to have been the first person to make doves appear, but the more famous ‘dove pan’ trick came after. In the dove pan trick, flammable liquid is poured into a pan and then ignited. The magician then slams the lid down to

extinguish the fire and when they lift it up again a dove flies out. However, in 2014 when this trick was being performed to a group of children in Peru, the dove was accidentally burnt in front of their eyes, which brings into question the welfare of animals used in magic.

Zoo

The dove was accidentally burnt in front of their eyes.

In the UK, the Performing of Animals Act (1925) and Animal Welfare Act (2006) stipulate that magicians must handle, house, and transport their animals with care.

Despite this, routine acts, such as the ones mentioned previously, force animals to be uncomfortable for long periods of time through their confinement, handling, and exposure to loud noises and flames. With the rise of YouTube and social media tutorials, untrained magicians are now practising these tricks, making the welfare of animals in magic an even more pressing topic.

A lot of debate has surrounded the use of animals in research, and many guidelines and initiatives have been produced to reduce the number being used and harmed in the scientific community. Perhaps now is the time for this kind of debate and further r esearch to enter the magic circle in order to ensure our non-existent childhood pets, like Flopsy, are treated humanely.

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Q

Making the female magician Gina Degtyareva pulls back disappear the veil on the history of women and magic Picture a famous magician.

Maybe you’ll come up with the likes of Derren Brown, David Blaine or David Copperfield, or maybe a generic man with a wand and a top hat. It almost certainly wasn’t a woman though, was it? Today, only seven percent of members of the prestigious magicians’ members club, The Magic Circle, are women.

Founded in 1905, this secretive society only started accepting female magicians in 1991.

The leading explanation for the dearth of female magicians is that girls are just not socialised to think of magic as a viable career, as there are very few role models. Peter Nardi, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, argues in his 1988 paper, that women aren’t drawn to magic because a magic show is usually a public display of power and control. He suggests that men are more likely to want this, or it’s considered more socially acceptable for them to want it. In the past, when women did participate in magic, they practised the more occult forms such as mediumship, mind reading and fortune telling. Nardi posits that these roles were considered more acceptable for women to have because of their perceived counselling, healing, maternal functions.

Science was certainly an old boys club and, perhaps its close association with magic was one of the reasons magic followed suit.

There is also an important historical dimension; women haven’t exactly

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been treated well in the magic profession. The first instance of women in magic that might spring to mind are witches. The witch trials of the early modern period (1580-1630) are infamous for having burned, drowned and tortured thousands of women accused of witchcraft (conspiring with the devil). Although men were also accused of witchcraft, the majority of the accused were women. Considering the salience of the witch hunts — which we still learn about today — not to mention the countries, like Saudi Arabia, that still execute people for witchcraft, it is easy to imagine why magic hasn’t been an appealing career for women.

The history of magic is significantly intertwined with the history of science and as such contributed to a largely masculine image of a magician. For instance, in the 19th century, magic performances were essentially magicians showing an audience a new scientific discovery that hadn’t become common knowledge yet. For those that have seen Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, this will sound familiar.

In the film, the magicians stun the audience with Nikolas Tesla’s electricity coils, amongst other inventions. To do these performances, one needed to have access to the latest scientific discoveries. At the time f early magic shows, women were only just granted access into scientific-learned societies.

Some magicians in the 19th century referred to themselves as ‘professors of scientific experiments’ as seen on preserved playbills from the time.

As ‘scientist’ and ‘professor’ were perceived as male roles, women may have found it difficult to be accepted

in the role of the magician, or in fact see themselves in this role. Science was certainly an old boys club and, perhaps its close association with magic was one of the reasons magic followed suit.

Margery Crandon passing the scientific controls and becoming an international sensation, challenged Houdini’s reputation as a medium exposer- he would not let that stand.

The history of science and magic is further tangled as the study of magic has contributed significantly to what we know about the human mind. The Wellcome Collection’s 2019 exhibition, Smoke and Mirrors: The Psychology of Magic, makes this clear. However, what the exhibition fails to criticise is how science has been used to support magicians, typically men, but has also been used forcefully to discredit mediums, typically women.

In the 19th century there was a great fascination with spiritualism, the belief that the dead can communicate with the living. The Society for Psychical Research sought to carry out scientific research on séances, rituals where mediums would claim to channel the dead.

Magicians actually teamed up with scientists to try and expose mediums as frauds. Particularly well known is the fascinating conflict between Harry Houdini and Margery Crandon.

Mina ‘Margery’ Crandon was a medium that rose to fame in the 1920s. During her séances

Q

she channelled her brother Walter, who died when she was a child. These séances included trance writing in several languages, disembodied sounds and the production of gloves.

In 1924, the Scientific American ran a competition offering a $2,500 prize to anyone who could provide conclusive evidence of any paranormal psychical phenomena. Margery agreed to enter and subject herself to scientific controls while practising mediumship.

Distinguished magician and escapologist Harry Houdini was on the judging committee. When it looked like Margery had passed the scientific controls, the newspapers picked up the story and she became an international sensation. This meant that Houdini’s reputation as a medium exposer was challenged and he would not let that stand.

Houdini designed a new scientific control – a wooden box to bolt Margery in. Only her head stuck out and she was tied up tightly inside. In the

next sitting she made contact with Walter but was not able to produce her full range of phenomena. The committee were nonetheless convinced, apart from Houdini who interrupted the séance and claimed he’d proved she was a fraud. A fight broke out between him and the rest of the committee, with the committee accusing Houdini of framing Margery, and the tests were ultimately abandoned. Margery intensified her later performances to provide more evidence and started leaving ‘Walter’s’ fingerprints in the melted candle wax. However, the investigation ended as, after months of searching, they discovered that the fingerprints came from Margery’s dentist in Boston.

The trend of exposing mediums in this aggressive manner continued throughout the 20th century. This formed a stark dichotomy between

magic as performance and spiritualism.

Gender norms within the two magical disciplines solidified. While modern psychology is considered indebted to psychic research, the portrayal of typically female practitioners as devious and dishonest likely contributed to the paucity of female stage magicians today. Conversely, male magicians are portrayed as smart because they are exploiting psychology to create illusions. Today, we often praise them for their sleight of hand and manipulation of the mind — but perhaps magic’s biggest and longest running trick was how the female magician was made to disappear.

Image: Céleste Nilges

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The Books Who Fo Aoife Hardesty tells her story of books’ magical powers.

Once upon a time, there was a young

woman who was battling a dark monster who lived inside her head. All day long, the monster would whisper about all the bad things that woman had ever done until she felt sad all of the time.

One day, the woman chanced upon a witch who gave her a potion which would stop the monster. This was no simple potion however. This was a potion which would make the woman unable to sleep or eat for one whole cycle of the moon. When the woman had survived a month of the potion, the monster would be defeated.

Every night when the monster raged against her, the woman would read Now the woman had to fight against the monster both day and night, and all the while she was losing energy. And so, she sought sustenance for her mind, to build up walls against the monster during the long, dark nights. The royal librarian gave the woman a volume of books about a magical far off land called the Discworld, and the woman began to fortify her mind against the monster.

Every night, while the monster raged against her, the woman would read. She read of magic witches and wizards, of an orangutan librarian, and a world travelling through space on four elephants atop a turtle’s shell. She read of strength, hope, and the ultimate goodness (or at least, upbeat indifference) of people. On the last night, as the moon was vanishing from the sky, the woman lifted the walls she had built from the books in her mind, and vanquished the monster with a powerful, imaginary sword.

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From that moment in time to this, whenever the monster would threaten

the woman again, she would raise that sword, and banish it from her head.

That is my story. Of my battle with depression. While the real-life version is more complicated, the essence of this story is true. Alongside my medication, books, and particularly Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, literally saved my life.

A very sad, and frustrating fact of antidepressants is they can come with brutal side effects, in my case insomnia. Those first weeks of sleeplessness seemed to threaten everything for me, and books became my constant solace and companion. I completely believe that had I not had books to get me through those times I would no longer be around.

I also completely believe that books are magical objects. They act as portals which allow us to escape to different worlds, to become different people.

Even if the book itself does not feature magic, its very existence is a magical thing. This act of escapism helps people to relax, to escape from the stresses of life and has been shown to make people better problem solvers when they return from whatever world they’ve escaped to.

I completely believe that if I hadn’t had books to get me through those times I would no longer be around.

Books are great ways for people, and especially children, to experience the world from someone else’s point of view. Readers tend to be better able at empathising with other people, and psychologists think this is because the act of empathy is elicited whilst reading. Similarly, the art of storytelling has long been used to

ought Monsters share important information between generations, and nowadays that art is still practised with the bedtime story (preferably complete with ‘voices’).

Many of these positive aspects of books are shared with the world of film and TV, and indeed are key to most storytelling mediums. For me, something which makes books that extra bit special, is the intimacy that comes when it’s just you and the writer’s words in front of you. It’s as if one person is speaking to you, and no one else. And then because it’s just you, you create an entire world, you decided how everyone looks, what the landscape or buildings are like, and inevitably when you talk about it with someone else, what they’ve imagined is very, very different.

I’m sure there will be plenty of naysayers in the world who don’t believe books are magical. But how else you could describe a system in which, by reading words on a page, you create a whole world, an entire cast of characters, and a thrilling story? In the words of Albus Dumbledore, “Of course it’s happening inside your head… but why on earth should that mean it is not real?”

For me, in the dark days and nights when the evil monster of Depression comes to call, books are the blocks I shall use to build a fortress to keep the monster out. The words from the pages will conjure up whole universes and using their magical power, I shall continue to keep fighting, and keep winning.

Books, films, whatever your chosen method of escapism, they all inspire us to become different people. Many people from I, Science have escaped to different worlds through stories, and some even took it so far as to dress up as their favoured characters, and travelled to entirely different world, sometimes using just our imaginations. And so, we have selected photographs where we escaped from the real world, into distant worlds of books and fantasy.

Harry Lampert as the comic book character Tintin.

Sarah Moring dressed as one dalmatian from 101 Dalmatians.

Image: (edge) Picryl

Katy Pallister dressed as Snow White from the Disney film and beloved fairytale.

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Harry Potter

and the Mysteriously Low Hospital Admissions Julia Langer examines a medical anomaly associated with Harry Potter What did you do when each new Harry Potter book fell into your hands? I can almost guarantee that, although all seven were released on summer weekends in the UK, you were not running around outside.

Most likely, if you’re a fan like me, you were sitting on a couch or a bed or a bench somewhere, refusing to put down the book.

Because of this, your risk of physical injury dropped significantly, despite the increased risk of not sleeping.

Sure, maybe you got a papercut or two, or maybe you once dropped one of the larger volumes on your toe, but research has shown that children were significantly less likely to really injure themselves on weekends that a new Harry Potter book was released.

A retrospective study conducted at a hospital in Oxford found that, for children between the ages of seven and fifteen, admissions to the emergency department for musculoskeletal injuries significantly decreased the weekends Harry Potter books five and six were released when compared to similar weekends those summers and in previous

Aoife Hardesty reading an instalment of the Harry Potter series, entirely lost in a different world. Also featured is Tiger, a wonderful cat, and perfect witch’s familiar.

years. The average number of children admitted over release weekends was 36.5, while other summer weekends saw 67.5 children admitted. The researchers even controlled for weather and found no confounding effects.

Julia Langer as Piglet and friend as Winnie, from the classic children’s book Winnie the Pooh.

Christine Parry dressed as an elf from an obsession with Lord of the Rings.

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This “distraction therapy” offers a new way to think about preventing injuries in kids. While one might have to be careful to not induce vitamin D deficiencies or obesity, in extreme cases, an engrossing read might be an effective way to keep kids out of emergency rooms. Thus, the magic of Harry Potter shines again, and the paper, published in the British Medical Journal, was even titled “Harry Potter casts a spell on accident prone children.”

Unfortunately, the paper was published in 2005, and it doesn’t seem like there has been much follow up. Did other hospitals around the UK find similar effects?

What about hospitals around the world, since Harry Potter has been a truly global phenomenon? Have other books had similar effects?

Either way, it looks like you don’t need a magic wand to protect yourself, you just need the magic of a good book.

Research that can Leave you Trippin’ In 1978, USA President Jimmy Carter enacted into law the Psychotropic Substances Act; an amendment to the current laws to ensure compliance with the new UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

The UN classed all hallucinogenic substances, including Psilocybin mushrooms, as Schedule 1 controlled substances, classified as deemed to have “high potential for abuse” and “no current accepted medical use”.

Colloquially known as Magic Mushrooms on the streets, the ‘mind-altering’ substance has resultingly been illegal for possession, distribution and cultivation across most member states of the United Nations since 1971.

Jacqueline Darkwa takes you on a magical trip through national and state level drug policies with changing attitudes toward recreational drug use.

A month later in Oakland, California, councilmembers unanimously passed the progressive vote to decriminalise adult use of psychoactive substances.

Decriminalisation and legalisation are not interchangeable. The laws placed do not make the magical fungi legal to use, but essentially direct the cities’ law enforcement not to investigate or prosecute the use or ossession of the shrooms.

40 years later, two major US cities have passed two votes to decriminalise possession of psilocybin, both within one month of one another.

Now, neither in Denver nor Oakland do psilocybin mushrooms take up a significant amount of law enforcement resources, or the ‘war on drugs’ as it has come to be known as, but the decriminalisation goes a long way to support overall drug reform.

Denver voters in Colorado narrowly passed Initiative 301 in May, effectively prohibiting the prosecution or arrest of anyone 21 and over for the possession of the magical fungi. The slim majority of 50.56%, expected to ricochet

Current shifting attitudes toward the use of psychoactive substances cite scientific research addressing the untapped medicinal capabilities of substances that have been dated to prehistoric murals and rock paintings.

What will be the response from the powerful pharmaceutical industry when magic mushrooms and therapy sessions out-perform best-selling antidepressants like Zoloft?

Image: The Great Work

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Naturally occurring hallucinogens have been used by indigenous communities across the world, playing a role in rituals and even religious ceremonies by exposing the users to otherworldly and euphoric visions. Yet despite the historical and cultural significance, major reasons cited for the support of decriminalising psychoactive substances are the potential use to treat mental illness.

The UN convention of 1971 claimed that psilocybin mushrooms, and hallucinogenics of the like possessed no accredited medicinal properties, that is despite ongoing research taking place throughout the 20th century, including the Harvard Psilocybin Project.

Overtime, treatment for mental disorders and psychosis have been left to Big Pharma, major pharmaceutical companies responsible for medicating every human life on the planet. However, the 21st century is seeing a resurgence of advocacy for psychoactive treatment of diseases with promise being shown with the potential to treat mental disorders, namely depression and anxiety.

Here in England, mental health services are consistently held to account for not meeting the demands of a nation that has seen the number of prescriptions for antidepressants double from 36 million to nearly 71 million since 2008. With prescriptions for antidepressants increasing year on year, one wonders how effective our current treatment methods are, and why we wouldn’t look to alternative methods.

The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College has just begun its first trials to evaluate the therapeutic potential of the magical fungi, compared to leading antidepressants. The participants of the study will have to undergo therapy alongside treatment, and researchers will also use MRI scans to study the psychoactive effects on the brain. While early indications suggest that psilocybin has half the side effects and acts much faster than the leading antidepressant drug, escitalopram.

Another team at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London are also launching new trials, including one into whether ‘mushroom therapy’ can help those with treatment-resistant depression.

Introducing a completely novel method of treating disease will not happen overnight, especially when current attitudes toward recreational drug

use are tightly connected and conflated with the criminal hierarchy it supports. Yet, the nuance seems to be expanding each day.

This month, several Tory leader hopefuls (at the time of writing there were 11 in the running) have come out to confess their own past dabbling with illegal and controlled substances, from cocaine to marijuana. Although at this moment in time, discussions have not centred around any possible decriminalisation efforts, there are increased calls to rethink the way we perceive drug users- with the high-flying Etonians receiving outcries of hypocrisy.

One must also consider the role of major pharmaceutical companies, whose revenue is closely tied to the production, distribution and marketing of anti-depressant and anti-psychotic drugs in the global market.

Lead researcher at the centre at Imperial College, Dr. Cahart-Harris thinks psychedelic therapy could be licenced in “five to ten years” according to The Independent.

Which begs the question, what will be the response from the #powerful pharmaceutical industry when magic mushrooms and therapy sessions out-perform best-selling antidepressants like Zoloft?

While the UK continues to grapple with an increasingly depressed population, there are those who actively fight for drug policy being based on scientific evidence and not moral prejudices. Even by considering the reclassification of psilocybin mushrooms, we could make it easier and cheaper for centres of research to objectively evaluate whether the UN was incorrect to classify these ancient psychoactive substances as holding not any medicinal potential.

Naturally occurring hallucinogens have been used by indigenous communities across the world and through history, playing a role in rituals and even religious ceremonies

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TO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE Sadie Sweetland looks into her crystal ball to tell the stories of believers and non-believers of psychics...

“Is someone waiting to speak to you from the other side?” This is the question that greets you open visiting the website of Psychic Medium John Edward. It is a question that leads many people to seek the help of psychics like Edward; who claim they are able to use telepathy and clairvoyance to communicate with spirits of the dead. Other claimed psychic abilities include moving objects with the mind, telling the future, and reading auras.

Psychic abilities, or powers, are part of what is known as extrasensory perception: the ability to receive information hidden from the five senses. You’ve probably heard of it as your sixth sense. Despite no scientific evidence that extrasensory perception exists, many people still believe in it and there remains a huge following of celebrity psychics. It is easy to see why.

Who isn’t fascinated by the idea of being able to see things others can’t see?

When the evidence against psychic powers is so strong, and the evidence for them so weak, why do people continue to believe in them?

field of parapsychology: the study of the sixth sense.

Rhine’s studies, and all studies confirming its existence since, have been criticised for a lack of proper controls and repeatability. Ultimately this led to most scientists dismissing parapsychology as a pseudoscience. Surprisingly, Rhine’s research has offered a contribution to ‘real’ science. His 1940 review of studies on clairvoyance and telepathy has been cited as the first ever meta-analysis in science.

The evidence against psychic powThere have been a number of studies trying ers is strong. Principally because to confirm the existence of these psychic there are inconsistencies with what powers. Most notably were the studies we know about the conducted by Joseph Rhine at Duke laws of physics.

University who went on to co-create the

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Image: (above) Living in Monrovia (right) needpix In a challenge going back to 1964, the magician and paranormal sceptic James Randi offered one million dollars to anyone who could complete a number of tests to prove they had the ability to communicate with spirits. After a thousand applicants, the challenge ended in 2015 with no one claiming the prize money. Irrefutable evidence that psychic powers don’t exist, no?

Not for the believers. In an attempt to preserve the existence of psychic powers, the challenge was dismissed by some as being fixed in such a way that no one would ever be able to win it.

Instances of psychic fraud also waylay claims psychic powers are real. For example, the false psychic predictions of Sylvia Browne who predicted she would die at aged 88 but died in 2013, aged 77.

Others include Peter Papoff, who was exposed as using an earpiece to receive key information from his wife about members of the audience, and James Hydrick, who confessed his paranormal shows were tricks he had learnt in prison.

The belief in psychic powers makes the world seem more interesting than if we only had the existence of the five senses.

Yet, the believers still keep believing – an estimated quarter of the world’s population in fact.

to say for certain that the mind cannot perceive things outside of the five senses.

When the evidence against psychic powers is so strong, and the evidence for them so weak, why do people continue to believe in them?

However, working off science as the probability that something will or will not happen, the theoretical physicist, Sean Carroll argues: “I would put the probability that some sort of parapsychological phenomenon will turn out to be real at something (substantially) less than a billion to one.”

A study from the University of Chicago argues that it is because believers think less analytically. In other words, the believers in the study relied on their intuition rather than weighing up the evidence they were given. Other arguments include psychic claims being impossible to validate and for being too vague. This latter point is known as the Barnum effect: a psychological phenomenon whereby individuals perceive personality descriptions as applicable to them when they are actually general enough to apply to a wide range of people. Ever wondered how your horoscope managed to predict that going on a long journey would give you great pleasure (a little spoiler of my horoscope for today)? Yep, that’s the Barnum effect.

And of course, there is the age-old argument that science cannot fully prove something, it just accumulates evidence for or against hypotheses. Ultimately, believers argue that psychic powers are only incompatible with the laws of physics as we understand them today. It is always possible that something will be discovered that disproves every law we know to be right and in doing so, could shed light on the possibility of psychic powers.

Personally, I think the reason that there are so many believers is because people enjoy believing in psychic powers. Whether it’s amazement that someone can move something with their mind, or the relief that they are able to tell their dearly departed that they love them one last time. The belief in psychic powers makes the world seem more interesting than if we only had the existence of the five senses. Indeed, the study from the University of Chicago also found that psychic belief was associated with a greater life satisfaction.

The battle between believers and non-believers continues. The latter use the weight of science behind them, and former remain obstinate in light of the contradictory evidence. Yet, if the belief in psychic powers really does lead to greater happiness, is it really so bad to want to believe in them at all?

As well, there is still so much we don’t understand about the mind.

In particular, what is consciousness?

Why do we dream? How does perception work? Therefore, believers argue that it is impossible

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Is this the Real Life?

Sarah Moring has dreamed of being able to control her dreams. So, in the name of science, she sets out to attempt lucid dreaming...

We all dream; some are so vivid you wake up wondering if it was actually real, others are so scary you’d rather not remember them.

But, have you ever found yourself able to take control of your dream, while still being asleep?

This phenomenon, known as ‘lucid dreaming’, happens when a person becomes aware that they are dreaming. The dreamer can dictate the narrative of the dream and experience anything they want to - all from the comfort of their own bed.

The most notable study which investigated lucid dreaming was designed by Karl Hearne in 1975 and later replicated and built upon

by Stephen LaBerge in the 1980s.

Studying dreams is challenging, not least because it is hard to communicate with a participant while they are asleep. Lucid dreaming appears to occur during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep and so LaBerge developed a system by which the dreamer would indicate to the researcher that they had entered a state of lucid dreaming through a pre-arranged eye movement. Neuropsychologists have found that brain activity observed during a state of ‘lucid dreaming’ has the same features as REM sleep but has differences to both a ‘normal’ dream state and being awake, suggesting that it is a hybrid state of consciousness.

Lucid dreaming can happen spontaneously, leaving the dreamer confused about what they have

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experienced. For many fascinated by the phenomenon, the ability to ‘induce’ lucid dreaming is something they long to achieve.

LaBerge continues to study the area and in 1987 set up ‘The Lucidity Institute’, which has published many books and articles as well as running workshops and lectures, all intended to educate on the art of lucid dreaming. Some people think that controlling a dream can have a range of positive implications, from overcoming nightmares to self-reflection and confidence building.

Some people think that controlling a dream can have a range of positive implications, from overcoming nightmares to self-reflection and confidence building.

For anyone as intrigued as me, a simple Google search of the phrase ‘lucid dreaming’ produces hundreds of videos and websites claiming to hold the secret of how to enter a state of conscious dreaming.

Suggestions range from repeating mantras throughout the day to masks that detect when you are in a state of lucid dreaming and alert you through flashing lights.

DAY 1: This is the first time I’m dipping my toe into the world of lucid dreaming, so I thought I’d start with a simple one. It is thought that lucid dreaming occurs when the brain is more active, perhaps after being awake for a short time. I gave the ‘Wake-Back-to-Bed’ technique a try; normally, my alarm goes off at 7.30, so I set an extra alarm for 5:30 and tried my best to stay awake for about 10 minutes. Supposedly, going back to sleep having been awake earlier than usual should induce a state of lucid dreaming.

You’ll be shocked to learn that I didn’t experience lucid dreaming after going back to sleep. I definitely had some vivid and strange dreams, but this is a common occurrence early in the morning. Most people go through four to six sleep cycles each night, and with each cycle, the non-REM becomes shorter and the REM stages become longer.

This means you are more likely to wake up from a dream in the morning and be able to remember what you were dreaming about.

DAY 2: The next technique I tried out is referred to as ‘setting your intentions before bed.’ It is thought that you can induce lucid dreaming by repeating a mantra and visualising yourself

lucid dreaming, some websites even suggest planning what you want to do in your dream, such as exploring outer space, or becoming best mates with Mary Berry; whatever takes your fancy.

Using my research, before going to sleep, I repeatedly thought the phrase “next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming.” I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, but I also tried to imagine what it would be like to control a dream.

To be honest, I slept like a baby after a busy weekend and didn’t remember dreaming at all. It’s possible that lucid dreaming is simply a skill that some have, and others don’t, which would explain why only half the population reports experiencing a lucid dream at some point during their life.

breathe through my closed mouth, I would be able to identify I was dreaming.

It was odd trying to remind myself to do my ‘reality test’ throughout the day, but I kept it up as frequently as I could remember. When assessing whether I was awake or dreaming, I tried visualising dreaming lucidly in the hope that this would help to induce a lucid dream later on that night.

Unsurprisingly, I woke up disappointed. None of the techniques I tried out this week has helped me experience lucid dreaming, despite my best efforts. Perhaps with further attempts, I could find the right technique for me, or maybe I simply lack the innate ability to control a dream while still within it. For now, the phenomenon of lucid dreaming is as mysterious as ever….

Is this just Fantasy?

I decided it was only right to have a go at inducing lucid dreaming for myself, using several of these techniques over a few days.

DAY 3: My final attempt at inducing lucid dreaming involved the ‘reality testing’ technique. The method suggests carrying out an action throughout the day and assessing whether you are dreaming or awake.

I chose to try and breathe through my mouth while it was closed several times during the day, which of course is impossible. Using this technique, if I suddenly found I was able to

Image: Jemma. Titheridge

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Vaccinations: Science or sorcery Elisabeth Mahase toes the line of vaccination culture in modern medicine “Mind your own business. Parental rights mean more to us than your self-enriching ‘science’.”

This was the response vaccinologist and paediatrician Professor Peter Hotez received in his Twitter feed after posting about the increase in vaccine exemptions, used by parents deciding not to vaccinate their children in Texas.

Vaccinations are currently a hot topic, and in some circles can be considered controversial. The anti-vaccination movement seems to be growing, just as confidence in experts and the Government seem to be dropping. Vaccine hesitancy as it is sometimes termed, is being linked to falling vaccination rates and the spread of highly infectious and potentially dangerous conditions, such as measles.

Last month, the World Health Organisation reported that between January and April this year, there had been a 300% increase in measles cases globally, compared with the same period last year.

In early human societies, medicine men and women, or healers, would provide antidotes and herbal medicine, alongside healing spells and charms

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In England, Public Health England reported 966 confirmed measles cases in 2018, more than three times higher than the 259 cases in 2017.

In the USA, recent outbreaks in New York City have caused the Mayor to declare a public health emergency and mandate measles vaccinations for eligible children - otherwise parents will be fined $1,000.

Meanwhile in Italy, the Government have been forced to make the vaccine mandatory.

In this time of tension around vaccinations, anyone who has publicly expressed concern about unvaccinated children will most likely have heard a response like the one received by Hotez, but something about this reply was different. The comment came from a member of the United States House of Representatives - Texas state representative Jonathan Stickland.

When Hortez pointed this out, Stickland was quick to fire back: “Make the case for your sorcery…”

Magic is also something we see depicted in our books and films many of us considered as the Harry Potter generation. Some even pay to attend magic shows.

Sorcery is the crucial word here, it conflates medicine with magic, Magic is a word we use to describe something mysterious, unexplained, unbelievable events around us. and uneasy.

However, magic can also be used as a term to deride ideas, to suggest The relationship between medicine they are foolish or fantasy. A prime and magic goes back centuries. In example is the now widely quoted early human societies, medicine men comment prime minister Theresa and women, or healers, would May made to a nurse on BBC provide antidotes and herbal Question Time when asked why medicine, alongside healing spells nurses had not received a pay rise and charms, to their community. in many years - there “isn’t a magic These practises were - and still money tree that we can shake that are- embedded into the culture and suddenly provides for everything religion of a society. that people want”.

anti-vaccination movement - fear.

As Professor Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says: “No parents refuses to vaccinate their

child because they want to What unites those who hurt them. They do it

because they want to keep decline to vaccinate their child safe, and they is that they are asking

think that is the way to do questions that the public it.”

health community just does not answer.

Larson also explains that

the movement commonly

referred to as the

anti-vaxxers, is not new.

Although discussion around this issue are often taken back to former British doctor Andrew Wakefield and his infamous 1998 Lancet paper claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, concerns and resistance - initially towards vaccines being mandatory rather than the vaccine itself - can be traced back much further.

In 1905, a major case in the USA Supreme Court dealt with the issue of mandatory vaccinations and the argument that this took away individual freedom. The case (Jacobson v. Massachusetts) involved Henning Jacobson, a Swedish-born pastor, who had received the mandatory smallpox But conflating an idea with vaccine in his home country, sorcery - a term relating to dark before he moved to the US. or black magic - is a step Jacobson believed that the vaccine further. To suggest that had made him and his son ill, and vaccines are sorcery, is to so when mandatory vaccinations suggest that they are were introduced in Massachusetts something sinister, unknown he was outspoken in his resistance. and potentially dangerous, but Jacobson refused the vaccine on the more importantly, grounds that it was an “invasion untrustworthy. of his liberty”, and as a result he was prosecuted and fined $5. This By using this term, Stickland did not deter him. Jacobson took has highlighted - albeit in a his case to the highest court in the rather crude way - an country - the Supreme Court. The important facet to the Supreme Justices however, ruled

that personal freedom could be reduced to ensure the safety of the public, for example during a smallpox outbreak.

Despite losing, the case stoked the flames of the already growing anti-vaccination movement - which was already present in the USA and the UK at that time. Three years after the decision, the Anti-Vaccination League of America was founded in Philadelphia.

Larson explains that vaccine hesitancy is often rooted in fear, uncertainty and also does not necessarily rely on being anti anything, instead it’s about being pro-something-else, for example pro-natural health or pro-freedom.

She says that those who decline to vaccinate are not one type of person, but often what unites them is that they are asking questions that the public health community just does not answer. When someone asks about aluminium in vaccines, or adverse events, the public health sphere needs to learn to respond more effectively and answer their concerns.

“Right now they feel like they are not involved at all. It’s like them coming into the clinic and asking what the weather is going to be like, and me telling them it is 2pm,” she says. “Scientific communication to the extent that it features and responds to some of the things that people are asking will totally change that.”

If you want to learn more about the history of the anti-vaccination movement, listen to National Public Radio Thoroughline – Outbreak.

Image: Harry Lampert

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One of my mum’s earliest memories was a family outing to the show of a traveling magician. The entire town had packed into the theatre, desperate to catch a glimpse of the act he was most famous for: hypnotism.

The four involuntary volunteers were called up onto the stage and, with their hands now free, became the final act. She was first told that she was a small child whose favourite toy had been ripped away, and subsequently lay wailing on the stage floor. Next, she became a polar explorer, shamelessly tearing the cardigan off the small girl next to her. And finally, in preparation for a warm shower, she cast aside her new layer and began to unbutton her blouse.

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After a long set, the magician politely asked the bustling audience to sit comfortably, with their hands tucked beneath them. Next, he insisted that four individuals would now find them impossible to remove. This was an easy task for my mum, but my grandmother found hers utterly stuck in their place.

Text BoxHypnotism has always been associated with magic and so, by extension, with illusions and trickery. But for my grandmother, I have no doubt this experience was entirely real. As she ran around on stage while her entire town laughed at her, my grandpa became progressively more upset. Her unusual height and upbringing as a single child under a stern governess rendered her shy and certainly not your typical class-clown.

Research under more controlled scientific conditions has also sought to investigate the reality of hypnosis.

Perhaps the most compelling of these experiments was one led by Amir Raz, a clinical neuroscience professor at Columbia University. Look to Figure 1 to see the classic psychological experiment, the “Stroop Task”. Any difficulty you find in saying the colour of the word as opposed to the word itself is the result of the “interference effect”- where your brain prioritises the word over the colour.

In Raz’s experiment, patients under hypnosis were told the words were incomprehensible, and so read the colours aloud flawlessly and effortlessly.

Remarkably, their brain scans also implied that the hypnosis had suppressed activity in the region associated with language. This suggests that, much like the placebo effect, the power of suggestion can have unbelievable impacts on the human mind.

But what is hypnosis? Well, its proponents claim that when under hypnosis, an individual’s usual sensory

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and mental perceptions of their surroundings are cast aside. This is achieved using relaxation and focusing techniques in the first step of hypnosis, known as “induction”. In its place, the subject is left in a state of heightened concentration and suggestibility. In this “suggestion” phase, the hypnotist may ask the hypnotised to consider hypothetical scenarios to elicit hallucinations as with my grandmother, amnesia, or to achieve a medicinal function (more on that later!). So, what made my grandmother so susceptible?

Dr. David Spiegel, the Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University, has dedicated over 45 years to uncovering some of the mysteries of hypnotism. According to his research, each individual exists along a spectrum of “hypnotic suggestibility”.

Children are the most readily hypnotisable,

spectrum. They found that those with heightened susceptibility had unusual connectivity in their prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain with many important functions including planning and routines. When under hypnosis, these individuals showed a decrease in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate of the brain, the region linked with self-reflection and awareness of surroundings. So, if the science is there, then why do we continue to associate hypnotism with magic?

Well, Irving Kirsch, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, insists that pop-culture media representations perpetuate myths about hypnotism, distracting from its potential as a legitimate medical treatment. Take the critically acclaimed horror film, Get Out. In it, the protagonist Chris is forcefully hypnotised by his fiancée’s mother and flung into the endless abyss of the terrifying “sunken place”- serving as a cryptic metaphor for the racial tensions existing within society. According to John Kihlstrom, a cognitive psychologist at UC Berkley, recipients must be actively willing to be hypnotised, and so could never be forced in this way.

Another famed example of hypnotism is the supposed CIA agent in the ‘red polka dot dress’ who, according to some, hypnotised Sirhan Sirhan into murdering Bobby Kennedy.

Similarly, however, it is generally agreed that hypnosis cannot make you act in a way that you would otherwise consider immoral. So how do these myths damage hypnotism’s medical reputation?

Hypnosis is touted to cure everything from addictions to hot flushes, obesity to Hannah Gormley post-surgical pain, and even phobias and sheds some light on anxiety. Spanning over 300-years, Spiegel (the the mystical world of Stanford Psychiatrist name-dropped earlier), sm hypnoti claims that “hypnosis is literally the oldest western conception of a psycho-therapy”.

Spiegel’s own research has highlighted the extreme benefits of using hypnosis to combat post-surgical pain, demonstrating that those given hypnotherapy treatments used half the amount of opioid however medications relative to those who hadn’t. as adults, In the case of an old flatmate of mine, Matt only 10-15% or has just started using this treatment after us are easily exhausting every conventional option given susceptible, while 20% on the NHS. Five years ago, he contracted a cannot be hypnotised at mysterious tropical disease, rendering him all, and the rest sit somewhere Image: tee-total and pretty much allergic to all foods. in between. A highly developed Nicola Ricca After subsisting on a diet of plain pasta and sense of imagination is key to this, margarine for years, in the few months since with children who were encouraged starting his treatment, he has now introduced to read or who were told bedtime new fruits and vegetables into his diet, and even stories, or those who used their ate a brownie last time I saw him! imagination to escape abuse,

-LIES

amongst the most hypnotisable.

Research also indicates that there are genetic and neurological predispositions.

In 2016, Spiegel and his team used scans to compare brain functioning at both ends of the hypnotic

After hearing the story of my grandma’s extreme vulnerability to hypnosis, I am inclined to encourage discussions on ethical regulations before embracing hypnotism as a standard medical practice. However, today, when anxiety and stress are at an all-time-high and opioid addictions rage across the world, perhaps it is finally time to cast aside our magical pop-culture associations and dedicate more resources to a better understanding of hypnotism.

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Losing Your Head Harry Lewis talks Out of Body Experiences and that funny feeling of being watched.

The homeowner awoke to a blurred figure outside his bedroom window.

The character seemed to be desperately shouting instructions as to where his physical self could be found.

The landlord, trembling, called the police from his landline, and quickly relayed the instructions the ghostly figure had provided him with.

The night was cold and a thick fog engulfed the car collision, threatening to swallow the driver inside whole. He was severely injured. He would later tell the authorities that as he lost blood, he was able to rise up out of his own body and fly over the trees, down the road to a nearby house. It was there that he yelled for help from a shocked stranger, outside his bedroom window. Some may call it a miracle, some witchcraft.

This account of an out of body experience (OBE) was recorded in 2011; it was published in the Epoch Times if you want to check it out. After reading the article though, I remained very sceptical of OBEs, so I looked into them further.

OBEs are surprisingly common, with 1 in 10 people experiencing one during their lifetime. Historically, they’ve been associated with folk psychology, part of which is hypothesising a spiritual self that resides inside one’s body, a ‘real me’ if you will. Traditionally, it is people’s belief of the supernatural and an afterlife that has created this being; some people would refer to it as a soul.

It sort of makes sense for societies entertain this notion of an entity with physiological immortality, allowing us to conceptualise, in our minds eye, deceased and disgruntled ancestors that we will meet again after death.

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All OBE accounts recorded by reliable authorities appear to share a paranormal viewpoint; they all look down on themselves from behind.

As children we were told ‘yes honey, you will get to meet grandma again, she’s watching over you all the time.’

Kind of creepy when you think about it.

Our soul provides evidence that not only are humans conscious (aware of one’s body and environment) but we are also self-aware (able to recognise one’s existence and consciousness), providing a unique opportunity to question our existence. This natural phenomenon suggests a deeper sense of spiritualism or sentience, which is often connoted when people recount first-hand experiences of OBEs. Paul Broks, English neuropsychologist and freelance science writer, attempts to describe why OBEs appear so mystical, using a theory coined body schema. Body schema is the brain’s working model of self-awareness, allowing it to keep track of where your body is in time and space. If the brain were to experience sensory deprivation or overload, where blood was flushed from the capillaries and into the body,

some neural pathways could be altered, and the brain-body schema could be skewed, effectively detaching the brain from the torso and limbs. Broks suggests that when the mind is confused in this way, it attempts to conceptualise what is happening and creates a psychedelic-like visual.

OBEs are scientifically defined by the presence of three phenomenological characteristics; disembodiment (location of the self outside one’s body); the impression of seeing the world from a distant and elevated perspective; the impression of seeing one’s own body (or autoscopy). There is a trend, hence why OBE accounts recorded by reliable authoritative spokespersons appear to share this paranormal viewpoint. All look down on themselves from behind.

We know that OBEs can be induced by light sleep, extreme exertion, drug use, and near-death experiences, making

them sometimes unintentional and sometimes intentional. And we are beginning to understand little by little how the brain identifies its sense of place. For example, have you ever had that weird sensation that somebody is nearby, perhaps watching you, when it is obviously impossible? A paper published in Nature 2004 suggests that these perceptions are due to a disturbance in multisensory processing of the self and other at the temporoparietal junction- the area of the brain involved in diseases including amnesia, Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.

Image: Noël Heaney

Researchers spoke to a woman who was convinced that she had a shadow ‘person’ following her. By stimulating a site on the brain’s left hemisphere, researchers were able to deduce that too much pressure in a particular region was provoking the sensation.

Investigations like this are being carried out continually, identifying regions of the brain responsible for self-awareness and perception.

Science aside, OBEs continue to be discussed in a spiritual fashion, associated with expertise in meditation, religion and recreational relaxation, conceptualised as a shift of one’s consciousness from the physical reality to a spiritual world.

There remains no definitive scientific explanation for how it happens, and some may argue that we shouldn’t try to find one. I would imagine it is only a matter of time before we discover where consciousness and self-awareness reside, the mechanism that when twisted can formulate OBEs. However, for now we continue to question why we differ so much from all other life, for that is something we cannot explain. Isn’t that the definition of magic?

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