Cross Currents by Robert O. Becker
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Book Reviews of Cross Currents
Book Review: The unseen dangers around us
Summary: 5 Stars
The NASA, supposed to hire the "crème de la crème" of the scientific intelligentsia, aren't getting any further than declaring that "life is a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution". For a start, Johnjoe McFadden shows in his book Quantum Evolution: How Physics' Weirdest Theory Explains Life's Biggest Mystery (Norton Paperback) that the Darwinian evolution, guided by chance and chance only, can't be demonstrated by simulations nor experiments.
On the other hand, insisting that life is a "chemical system" is completely besides the point. Dr. Robert Becker, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, nominated twice for the Nobel Prize, discovered that curing injuries and broken bones is a process guided by electrical currents. Following those early discoveries, he went further on to find out how our bodies are able to detect that's something wrong in the first place. He found that our autonomous nervous system relies on pain impulses to trigger the curing process, and that those pain impulses run through acupuncture meridians discovered in China thousands of years ago. Dr. Becker says : "Input DC electrical signals carried the information that injury had occurred along the acupuncture meridians to the brain, where part of this group of signals reached consciousness and were perceived as pain. The remainder went to more primitive portions of the brain, where they stimulated output DC signals that caused the cells and chemical mechanisms at the site of injury to produce repair. This is a complete closed-loop, negative feedback control system..."
Dr. Becker didn't rest his case here. He continued his search for the scientific truth and considered that if our bodies produce electromagnetic fields, those will probably suffer when exposed to external electromagnetic fields. Now, the natural geomagnetic field of our planet oscillates at about 10 Hz. In the 20th century, humanity built enormous power distribution networks around the earth, and choose arbitrarily oscillations of either 50 or 60 Hz, 5 to 6 times above the natural geomagnetic field. This means, in the words of Dr. Robert Becker, that: "the entire population of the world is willy-nilly the subject of a gigantic experiment. Daily exposure of nearly everyone is a fait accompli". He calls this "electro pollution".
This isn't without consequences. Tests on animals show that electro pollution produces stress. People living close to high voltage power lines have also more chance of suffering depression. And to make things worse, human cancer cells exposed to 60 hertz electromagnetic fields for just twenty-four hours, result in a six fold increase in their growth rate. This has been confirmed in real-life situations. Dr. Marjorie Speers of the University of Texas showed that workers in electrical plants where EM fields are very strong have 13 x more chance of brain tumors than a control group. Dr. Becker says : "We are constantly exposed to cancer causing agents in our environment, ranging from carcinogenic chemicals to cosmic rays. As a result, we are always developing small cancers that are recognized by our immune systems and destroyed. Any factor that increases the growth rate of these small cancers gives them an advantage over the immune system, and as a result more people develop clinical cancers that require treatment."
Electricity producers and cell phone operators aren't very interested in this kind of scientific investigation. In this era we are living in, where science has been privatized, those studies are being blocked. However, Dr. Becker has always put the scientific truth and the interest of the general public above his personal career or salary, and therefore helped testify in several committees against new power lines and new antennas. That's how he finally got fired. Dr. Becker is a great scientist and a brave man, a rare combination in the dark ages we live in.
Book Review: Electromedicine: Putting it on a scientific footing
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr Robert O Becker was an orthopaedic surgeon who researched cell/limb regeneration and ended up as an expert on the effects of electricity on the body. His work puts a sound scientific basis to the area of electric fields. He was involved in reviewing electronic fields for the military which gave him a unique access to data. This allows him to bring together an interesting range of facts.
Hospitals now use a number of devices that are based on his work. One device was patented by Dr Andy Bassett (a student of his) and involved using a magnetic field to speed bone union in fractures.
Another device involves inserting 2 electrodes into a bone or wound which is infected (and thus not healing) and using a mild electric current to kill the bacteria. My friend says they did this to him in hospital recently... so it's obviously catching on.
A third device is being used in hospitals for cancer: using 2 carbon nanotubes (probes) we can liquify cancer tumours using the electroporesis effect (as documented by Dr Robert Beck a physicist). Beck based his work on Kaali and Lyman... and they based their work on preceding work... which I assume included Becker.
A surprising book. Covering topics you don't expect to find mentioned. A book with credibility. A book full of useful facts. A book that advances our knowledge of electronic hazards significantly.
Dr Robert O Becker died in 2008... but not before finally patenting a device for regenerating tissue in 1998 ie. the de-differentiation of specialised cells and their re-differentiation into the required tissue. So who needs stem cells? I'm at a loss why this work hasn't been more widely used or cited... and it's not very complicated either... although I suspect that Becker might have left out a bit of detail.
Becker did do a little bit more work on healthy magnetic fields that isn't documented here... as he also seems to be behind at least one device to improve cell metabolism (similar to Bassett's idea only for the whole body).
The use of electrical stimulation in treating depression and addiction is also an area that is starting to get serious attention eg. refer Dr Meg Patterson (NET) and Dr Robert Beck (Biotuner). Beck gives a fascinating history of this in an audio interview.
Electronic fields can have both positive and negative effects on the body... Becker documents both.
Unfortunately Becker fails to reference his own work properly... but you can find the references in his 1998 patent.
This is not hard reading. Becker keeps it simple. Anyone should have no trouble understanding this.
It is a well informed opinion. Much speculation and myth is based on Beckers work. I found Becker originally by trying to track down who people were referencing when they made claims about electromagnetic fields. Most references seem to be refering to Beckers work... so read from the source?
Beckers previous book "The body Electric" is probably the book most people cite.
If you have to choose between the two... buy the first one... then you'll probably be hooked and buy the second one anyway.
:-)
Book Review: A great book!
Summary: 5 Stars
A great job by Dr. Becker. Electromagnetism affects all lifeforms on earth. The effect it has on our health is dramatic and cannot continue to be ignored by mainstream medicine. Becker is a true pioneer.
The one criticism that I have with this book is that Becker failed to mention the excellent research done by Albert Roy Davis and Walter Rawls.
Davis was the first scientist in the world to discover that magnetism consists of two separate energies with different effects, it's not a singular form of energy with a singular effect, as is still widely believed today. The North and South poles have opposite effects.
Davis found that South pole magnetism is harmful to our health and will cause bacteria, germs, and even cancer to grow and spread at an accelerated rate in the body, while North pole magnetism will quickly stop the growth and assist the body to overcome disease. Just as Becker has said, Davis and Rawls found that many devices used in hospitals actually compound the problem. Radiation, for example, emits positive and negative electromagnetic energies. The positive energies can actually stimulate the growth of the cancer cells, similar to the way positive (South) magnetic energies do.
The first book by Davis and Rawls, "Magnetism and Its Effects on the Living System", goes into detail about how magnetism affects the physical and mental development of animals, the growth of plants, and among other topics, a detailed account of the effects both negative and positive magnetic energies have on cancer. "The Magnetic Blueprint of Life", the last of their books, expresses the relationship of air ions to health, how magnetism can be utilized in energy production, and it has in-depth information on how these positive electromagnetic energies, which are all around us, endanger us to a greater degree each and every day. We are being lied to about the safety of many electrical products on the market today, cell phones included.
If you have the books by Robert Becker and Davis and Rawls you'll be way ahead of the rest of the population in your knowledge of electromagnetism and its effects on all living beings.
Book Review: What medicine should have been
Summary: 5 Stars
and with any luck, will be in the future. Robert Becker is an M.D. and research scientist with impeccable credentials--he discovered the minute electric currents, applied to bone fractures, will heal breaks that weren't knitting (and before his treatment, amputation was the only alternature for non-unions.) As noted below, this book is illumating. The author goes a long way toward finding a scientific basis for acupuncture, homeopathy, and 'faith' healing--at the very least, they involve the electromagnetic field in and around the body. He details the opposition he has encountered through the years from the close-minded, who, through the all-too-human combination of ignorance, arrogance, blindness and politics, have hindered his work (and 'scientists' are always extolling the open-minded superiority of science over all else!) He makes no secret of his disdain for the likes of self-appointed witch-finders like James "the Amazing" Randi. In the last half of the book Becker discusses electropollution, the possible harm it can do to people, and how to reduce or elimate your exposure. An eye-opening book that will be enjoyed by those interested in the failures of modern medicine (and 'failure' is indeed the right word, since the medicine profession has had to admit that doctors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S.)Book Review: An exceptional book by a doctor ahead of his time
Summary: 5 Stars
Dr. Becker is a brilliant medical researcher who has devoted his life to the study of something most doctors barely understand that it exists: the body's electrical system.
Among many other topics, Dr. Becker describes
- the body's inbuilt electrical systems,
- how he was able to use electrical current to get bones that would otherwise not have grown together to do so,
- how he offered to create a means of inducing anesthesia with electrical currents, but was politely turned down by lesser doctors,
- how one can measure electrical currents flowing at acupuncture points (in other words, why there must be something to acupuncture),
- why he thinks there may be something to homeopathy,
- to what extent electrical systems play a role in the salamander's ability to regenerate tissue,
- the harm that (everyday) electromagnetic fields can cause.
The tragedy of Dr. Becker is that he is so far ahead of his time that he is largely overlooked. All the same he sometimes paints with a little too broad a brush. All the same, I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the life sciences.