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BIAL Foundation
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DE:"Coherent brain states"
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DocumentfMRI and photo emission study of presentiment: The role of "coherence" in retrocausal processes2008

Reference code: PT/FB
Entity holding: BIAL Foundation
Location: S. Mamede do Coronado
Title:
BIAL Foundation Archive
Start date: 1994
History:
The BIAL Foundation was created in 1994 by Laboratórios BIAL in conjunction with the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities. BIAL’s Foundation mission is to foster the scientific study of Man from both the physical and spiritual perspectives.
Along the years the BIAL Foundation has developed an important relationship with the scientific community, first in Portugal and after worldwide. Today it is an institution of reference which aims to stimulate new researches that may help people, promote more health and contribute to new milestones to gain access to knowledge.
Among its activities the BIAL Foundation manages the BIAL Award, created in 1984, one of the most important awards in the Health field in Europe. The BIAL Award rewards both the basic and the clinical research distinguishing works of major impact in medical research.
The BIAL Foundation also assigns Scientific Research Scholarships for the study of neurophysiological and mental health in people, arousing the interest of researchers in the areas of Psychophysiology and Parapsychology.
To date the BIAL Foundation has supported 461 projects, more than 1000 researchers, with research groups in twenty-seven countries, resulting, until April 2013, in about 600 full papers, out of which 172 published in indexed international journals with an average impact factor of 3.6 and a substantial number of citations (1665).
Since 1996 the BIAL Foundation organizes the Symposia entitled "Behind and Beyond the Brain", a Forum that gathers well renowned neurosciences speakers and the BIAL Foundation Fellows which are spread around the world.
Classified as an institution of public utility, the BIAL Foundation includes among its patrons the Portuguese President, the Portuguese Universities Rectors' Council and the Portuguese Medical Association.
URL: http://www.bial.com/pt/
Accessibility: By permission

Reference code: PT/FB/BL
Entity holding: BIAL Foundation
Title: BIAL Grants
Start date: 1994
History:
In 1994 the BIAL Foundation launched a programme of science research grants with the aim of encouraging the research into Man’s physical and mental processes, namely in fields still largely unexplored but which warrant further scientific analysis, as Psychophysiology and Parapsychology.
Since its launch, applications to the BIAL grants have been increasing. Up to now 461 projects have been supported, involving more than 1000 researchers from 27 countries.
The approved applications have benefited from grants in amounts comprised between €5,000 and €50, 000. The amount to be granted is fixed by the Scientific board according to the needs of each project.
The supported projects have originated, until April 2013, in about 600 full papers, 172 out of which were published in indexed international journals with an average impact factor of 3.6 and a substantial number of citations (1665).
Among the BIAL Foundation fellows is worth highlighting the presence of scientists from prestigious universities from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, and many others.
The BIAL grants are promoted biannually.

Reference code: PT/FB/BL-2004
Location: Arquivo PCA - Pastas 1 a 25/2004
Title:
2004 Grants
Start date: 2005-01 - 2012-09
Dimension/support:
25 caixas de arquivo

Reference code: PT/FB/BL-2004-034
Location: Arquivo PCA - Pasta 14/2004
Title:
034 - fMRI and photo emission study of presentiment: The role of "coherence" in retrocausal processes
Duration: 2005-05 - 2007-11
Researcher(s):
Dick Bierman, Eduard van Wijk
Institution(s): Parapsychologist Institute, Utrecht (The Netherlands)
Contents: Contents:
Bursary agreement
Application form
Correspondence
Financial report and expenditure documents
Progress report
Final report (in paper and DVD)
Language: eng
Author:
Bierman, D.
Secondary author(s):
Van Wijk, E.
Number of reproductions:
3
Keywords:
Parapsychology and Psychophysiology / Altered states of consciousness / Meditation / Extrasensory perception (ESP) / Presentiment / Emotion / Brain structure and function

Reference code: PT/FB/BL-2004-034.03
Location: Arquivo PCA - Pasta 14/2004
Title:
fMRI and photo emission study of presentiment: The role of "coherence" in retrocausal processes
Publication year: 2008
URL:
http://www.bial.com/imagem/Actas_7Simp.pdf
Abstract/Results: ABSTRACT:
The rationale behind this experiment is that presentiment is supposed to be explained as an example of
time-symmetry in physics. In physics, time symmetry generally is not observed, but theoretical considerations suggest that the breaking of time-symmetry is due to the asymmetry in the availability of coherent multi particle transmitters, such as lasers, and coherent multi particle absorbers.
Time symmetry might therefore occur when the brain state is extremely coherent. Meditation is thought to be a practice resulting in such coherent brain states. Therefore our main hypothesis is that meditators show larger presentiment effects. Presentiment effects are measured by comparing the brain activity before emotional stimuli with the brain activity before neutral stimuli. Because these stimuli are presented randomly and the subject cannot know which type of stimulus will be presented there should be no difference.
In order to evaluate this hypothesis we cannot use a whole brain analysis but should focus on certain regions in order to reduce the otherwise required corrections for multiple analysis. The strategy we used was to establish which brain regions do behave differently in control subjects and meditators when stimuli are presented irrespective of the type of stimulus. So in assessing these brain regions for possible presentiment we do NOT select on the basis of later differential behaviour between emotional and neutral stimuli because such a selection would basically result in spurious results as the signals before and after the stimulus are correlated.
Eight experienced meditators were trained to meditate in the hostile environment of brain scanner. There they were presented with, in total, 64 random neutral, erotic and violent visual stimuli during meditation in the scanner. In a separate session they were presented similar stimuli during the resting state. The resting state measurements were also compared to data obtained from 8 control subjects.
First we analyzed the ‘normal’ i.e. causal effects of the stimuli on the brain activity as measured by Bold-levels in the brain.
In total we found 36 brain regions that showed significant contrast between the session when the meditators were meditating and when they were not meditating and comparing the control subjects in rest with the meditator in rest.
Substantial effects of meditation on brain processing of different emotional visual stimuli were found in several brain regions. The relatively largest direct effects of meditation concerned Brodmann areas 18 and 19 in the Lingual Gyrus. Long term effects of meditation, inferred from the contrast between meditators in rest with control-subjects in rest, were only found in brain regions that have been shown to be involved in attention. For the evaluation of the hypothesis concerning presentiment we focused on the analysis of the anticipatory brain signals preceding neutral and emotional visual stimuli in the 36 regions of interest. In previous work with unselected subjects it was found that these anticipatory signals are dependent on the type of the future stimulus, in spite of the fact that at the time the signals are recorded the future stimulus is completely unknown and will be selected randomly. The semi-qualitative analyses of the current results show that indeed this presentiment effect could be replicated in the brain scanner with control subjects. Experienced meditators showed stronger presentiment especially when they were meditating. The effect of meditation was quite clearly that the ‘retrocausal’ effect of violent stimuli was reduced resulting in a relative larger contribution of erotic presentiment. However, stronger conclusions, also with respect to spatial distribution of the effect, can only be drawn after full quantitative evaluation, which currently is in process.
Accessibility: Document does not exist in file
Language:
eng
Author:
Bierman, D.
Secondary author(s):
Van Wijk, E.
Document type:
Conference abstract
Number of reproductions:
3
Reference:
Bierman, D., & Van Wijk, E. (2008). fMRI and photo emission study of presentiment: The role of "coherence" in retrocausal processes. In Aquém e além do cérebro. Behind and beyond the brain. Proceedings of the 7th Symposium of Fundação Bial. Porto: Fundação Bial.
Indexed document: No
Keywords: Coherent brain states / Meditation / Presentiment / Emotion / Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

fMRI and photo emission study of presentiment: The role of "coherence" in retrocausal processes

fMRI and photo emission study of presentiment: The role of "coherence" in retrocausal processes