Following up on the Unplug to Uplift webinar we’ve assembled a List of Resources on some of the adverse impacts of technology on children and ways to mitigate the harms.

Many people can sense that tech and over reliance on screens negatively impact our children, and studies and data increasingly corroborate this felt sense. But many people still don’t know that wireless radiation (RF) from smart phones, tablets etc. also adversely affects the mental and physical well-being of children.

This list of resources includes both mechanisms of harm – screentime and wireless radiation.

Sadly, according to and excellent Epoch Times article only 1 in 10 children play outside even once a week, choosing rather to spend their time indoors on a screen. Our kids are missing out on developing essential life skills while their physical and mental health decline.

We trust you will find these resources useful and will consider incorporating some of what you learn into your own life and that of your children. After all, our kids are our future.

List of Resources on Children and Technology

Unplug to Uplift Webinar Recording

Unplug to Uplift: Aching for a Tech Safe Society

List of Speakers on the Unplug to Uplift Webinar (List includes their websites, books, Substacks etc.

For up-to-date resources, info, and commentary on all-things-tech please check out
Patricia’s Substack for Safe Tech International.

Snoop Dogg needs no introduction. He is well-known: a worldwide music and culture celebrity, ever exploring new projects and partnerships, and reaching new audiences.

Last year Snoop Dogg joined the television show “The Voice” as a judge. On the show. he projected a spiritual, supportive, collaborative, tender, genuine, family-oriented persona. That is the image he wants the public to “buy”.

The problem is he has become a spokesman for T-Mobile and appears in their television ads. and T-Mobile is selling services and devices that it knows, at a minimum, can cause serious health damage to the users, and may even cause death.

Snoop Dogg did not exercise his due diligence.

T-Mobile has known of the harms for at least 25 years, since 2000, when the company commissioned the ECOLOG Institute in Austria to review the scientific literature on microwave radiation and its biological effects. The public and Snoop Dogg can read what ECOLOG found and reported to T-Mobile here:

https://electromagnetichealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ecolog2000.pdf (86 pages)

T-Mobile’s response to that report? They buried it and continued selling their wireless service and products to the public, including to children, and building their cell towers next to homes, schools, and workplaces. It’s highly profitable, after all, as long as the public buy

Snoop Dogg is their new and very appealing salesman, but he is representing and promoting products which thousands of studies have shown to cause harms ranging from oxidative stress and free radical formation, to cancer and tumors, DNA damage, neurological, reproductive and immune damage, children’s special vulnerability, electromagnetic sensitivity, and devastating impacts to birds, bees, trees, and other wildlife.

His alliance with the wireless industry will most certainly affect his image, his brand, and his credibility, and may even incur liability claims.

Will Snoop Dogg evaluate whether he wishes to associate his brand and himself with this industry? Or will he continue to represent and profit from an industry that uses and abuses people as mere commodities, valuing corporate profit above all else, without regard for the safety of its products and service, without regard for people, their children, or the Earth?

What will Snoop Dogg do?

More information at:

Physicians for Safe Technology www.mdsafetech.org

Electromagnetic Radiation Safety www.SaferEMR.com

Environmental Health Trust www.ehtrust.org

Healthy Tech at Home Project www.healthytechhome.org

Safe Tech International Safe Tech International – Uniting to Protect Life on Earth

Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health, Christopher Ketcham, GQ, January 25, 2010

https://www.gq.com/story/warning-cell-phone-radiation

State of New Hampshire: Final Report on Commission to Study the Environmental and Health Effects of Evolving 5G Technology

5G final report.pdf

“Increasing incidence of burnout due to magnetic and electromagnetic fields of cell phone networks and other wireless communication technologies” Isabel Wilke, Peter Hensinger

https://www.diagnose-funk.org/download.php?field=filename&id=389&class=DownloadItem

Cellular Telephone Russian Roulette, Robert Kane

https://www.icems.eu/docs/Robert_C_Kane.pdf

Environmental Pollution by Microwave Radiation – A Potential Threat to Human Health, John A. Tanner, Romero-Sierra, Bigu del Blanco, NRC Canada, (National Research Council of Canada), Division of Mechanical Engineering report, 1973

https://smartmeterharm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/nrc-canada-1973-report.pdf

Bibliography of Reported Biological Phenomena (‘Effects’) and Clinical Manifestations attributed to Microwave and Radio-Frequency Radiation, for Naval Medical Research Institute, Compiled by,Zorach Glaser, 1972

https://www.magdahavas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Navy_Radiowave_Brief.pdf

Safety of Wireless Technologies: The Scientific View, Richard Lear, Camilla Rees, 2025 –

“Of the 36 chronic diseases and conditions that more than doubled (1990-2015), the U.S. Navy study warned us of the connection between wireless radiation and twenty-three of those chronic diseases, predicting what has indeed happened to the health of Americans…

By ignoring the earlier science, U.S. regulators failed to protect the American people from the dangers of wireless technologies. In doing so, they imposed millions of unnecessary chronic exposure conditions on the American public. By 2015, the 23 diseases the U.S. Navy predicted may have added more than $2 trillion in annual health care costs to the U.S. economy due to their negligence.”

(PDF) Safety of Wireless Technologies: The Scientific View

EUROPAEM EMF Guideline 2016 for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF-related health problems and illnesses.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27454111

How the Impact of Electromagnetic Fields on Plants Can Greatly Increase Severity of and Even Occurrence of “Wildfires”: A Four-Part Structure, Martin Pall

https://juniperpublishers.com/ecoa/pdf/ECOA.MS.ID.555631.pdf

Birds, Bees and Mankind: Destroying Nature by Electrosmog

https://kompetenzinitiative.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ki_beesbirdsandmankind_screen.pdf

U.S. Department of Interior letter on communication towers impacts to birds, to Dept. of Commerce, 2-7-14

us_doi_comments.pdf

Freiburg Appeal, October 9, 2002

FREIBURGER APPEAL

Santa Clara County Medical Association articles on wireless radiation

Overloading of Towns and Cities with Radio Transmitters (Cellular Transmitter): a hazard for the human health and a disturbance of eco-ethics, Hecht and Savoley IRCHET International Research Centre of Healthy and Ecological Technology, 2007

https://smartmeterharm.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/hecht-overloading-towns.pdf

Bioinitiative Report 2012

BioInitiative Report: A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF) (updated 2014-2022)

Nina Beety is a researcher, writer, and public speaker on public policy, the environment, and wireless radiation hazards. Her 2012 and 2019 reports for public officials “Smart Meter and Smart Grid Problems: Legislative Solutions” and “Fire and Electrical Hazards from ‘Smart’, Wireless, PLC, and Digital Utility Meters” are on her website www.smartmeterharm.org. She lives in California.

Introduction:

Sensing the Zeitgeist of the times, our team at Safe Tech International felt perhaps a renewed and internationally coordinated initiative focusing on local communities might be timely.

The idea was to invite people around the world to simultaneously send a letter to their local officials communicating strong dissent to the proliferation of EMFs in their community or city.  

We considered two possibilities: A Notice of Liability (NOL), or perhaps a more cordial but firm awareness raising letter. 

What emerged, while still a “letter” so to speak, could more aptly be called an ode to a simpler and saner way of life, with a special emphasis on the role of technology in our lives. A kind of invitation for ourselves, elected reps, and others to hold in our mind’s eye and heart the innate desire we humans share:

A desire for a life of health, well-being, wholesome relationships, a humble place to call home, a modest livelihood, and a way to contribute to the local and global family of life…and of course, all to the backdrop of world peace.   

The letter, or ode, has a very different style from how we usually communicate with our elected reps. This was intentional as for our civilization to open to the changes that life seems to be thirsting for, we must be authentic. No pretenses, role playing, or hierarchy. Just honest and open connections. 

The letter offers specific suggestions, many about technology, but also about education, the commons, healthy food, the skies, the ocean, and peace. Suggestions that emanate from common sense and a life centric perspective. 

If the letter resonates with you, please consider sending it as is, or edited, to your local officials or to anyone else you think may be interested. A link to both a PDF and Word version of the letter are provided at the end. An audio and video reading of the letter are provided as well.

I would like to acknowledge some of the many authors, podcasters, and speakers who have deeply informed my thinking: These include Nate Hagens, Vanessa Andreotti, Iain McGilchrist, Daniel Christian Wahl, Jeremy Lent, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Daniel Schmachtenberger, and Charles Eisenstein, among many others.  

And now…the letter. (To read, click on Page 2 directly below.)

Audio only – (Recommended as it’s far less energy and data consumptive than video) 
Video – 12:58 

Incrementalism Controlled by Industry: Labeling and ‘Light’ Cigarettes? Are We Going to Do This Again?

Transcendent Thinking

Several stories have been featured in the Safe Tech International News Substack about research confirming the benefits of hand-written notes over keyboards and screens, for comprehension and retention.

University of Southern California researchers have also reported recently that ‘transcendent thinking’ actually increases brain size.

“The more a teen grappled with the bigger picture and tried to learn from the stories, the more that teen increased the coordination between brain networks over the next two years, regardless of their IQ or their socioeconomic status. This brain growth—not how a teen’s brain compared to other teens’ brains but how a teen’s brain compared to their own brain two years earlier—in turn predicted important developmental milestones, like identity development in the late teen years and life satisfaction in young adulthood, about five years later.

In previous studies, the authors had shown that when teens and adults think about issues and situations in a transcendent way, many brain systems coordinate their activity, among them two major networks important for psychological functioning: the executive control network and the default mode network. The executive control network is involved in managing focused and goal-directed thinking, while the default mode network is active during all kinds of thinking that transcends the “here and now,” such as when recalling personal experiences, imagining the future, feeling enduring emotions such as compassion, gratitude, and admiration for virtue, daydreaming or thinking creatively.

The findings reveal a novel predictor of brain development—transcendent thinking. The researchers believe transcendent thinking may grow the brain because it requires coordinating brain networks involved in effortful, focused thinking, like the executive control network, with those involved in internal reflection and free-form thinking, like the default mode network.” Source

The implications of the research on devices and cognition and learning for school budgets and a growth economy beholden to Ed Tech companies are staggering.

And therefore, not being addressed.  

Inclusive Thinking

In a previous blog, I noted that Nate Hagens interviewed Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, discussing ‘hospicing modernity’ (also the title of her new book)”in order to move beyond the world we’ve come to know and the failed promises that “modernity” has made to our current culture.”

“It is related to opening that lid as we expand our capacity to see the different moving layers of complexity, to let go of the attachment to certainty, control, coherence, and consumption of things, to be able to sit with difficult, painful, and complex things without feeling overwhelmed or immobilized.”  

“We, here, we talk about developing the stomach. To face the amount of shit that we need to compost without throwing up, without throwing a tantrum, and without throwing in the towel.“   Source

I would add another category to her guidance.

We are in need of future-makers who can sit with the complexities, who will not throw a tantrum, will not throw in the towel, will not throw up, and who will not throw others under the bus.

It’s not an exact fit, but the tech industry as a whole has been somewhat like the Grinch –hating the Whos. 

The Whos are the community of individuals who have been seeking to steer the tech industry and society off of the collision course with biology, including harm to the environment and human health, caused by inappropriate and unsafe technology choices, especially wireless.

https://www.best-poems.net/poem/how-grinch-stole-christmas-by-dr-seuss.html

This is exemplified by the ‘smart’ meter debacle.

A wave of opposition started to build around 2010 when smart meters were installed, and some people got really sick.

Others were hurt, but didn’t’ recognize why, (nor did their health care providers in most cases.)

See the short new film from Americans for Responsible Technology: (About 5 minutes)

If only it were just the utilities and the wireless industry that hated the Whos. But it wasn’t.

Many leading environmental “green energy” groups and politicians were so concerned about the planet that they joined the tech industries, in hating the Whos.

They did not mind in the least throwing the Whos under the bus, diagnosing them as mentally ill with an imaginary condition, and then moving to a more politically correct narrative – “these people are really suffering but it has nothing to do with us.”

The industry mantra was mistaken for appropriate research, policy making, and medical care.

Thinking About Right Timing

We could be fifteen years ahead in addressing the outdated science, and the tobacco science, literally, that is underlying much of our wireless tech expansion. 

These are actual tobacco scientists, being referenced by the NCSL (National Conference of State Legislators) to federal decision makers in 2012.

As the European Environmental Agency notes in its case studies of Late Lessons from Early Warnings, a focus on safety fosters innovation.  And failure to adopt the Precautionary Principle increases costs and carnage.

Many industries could pro-actively yield to emerging evidence of harm and pivot to appropriate course corrections and analogue options, instead of playing deny/defend/attack Whack-A-Mole, as the smart meter industry did when issues with privacy, billing, hacking, security, fires, green-washing, grid pollution, planned obsolescence, and injuries emerged.

When companies and empires fail to respond in a timely manner to risk and harm, the tension becomes more destructive over time. This cannot be blamed on those speaking to truth.

Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti observed, “We’re working with sanctioned ignorances that are rewarded. So whenever you present this information, there is a response and a reaction to deny this information again.”

This can change.

Incrementalism Controlled by Industry: Labeling and Light Cigarettes? Are We Going to Do This Again?

In his book The Cigarette Century, Allan Brandt wrote, “It is my hope that The Cigarette Century provides a strong foundation for a critical discussion of new strategies to avert a potential global health disaster.” [] “The development of new medical knowledge demonstrating the dire harms of smoking ultimately shaped the evolution of evidence-based medicine. In response, the tobacco industry engineered a campaign of scientific disinformation seeking to delay, disrupt, and suppress these studies. Using a massive archive of previously secret documents, historian Allan Brandt shows how the industry pioneered these campaigns, particularly using special interest lobbying and largesse to elude regulation.”

Many new and powerful voices are emerging in conversations about tech downsides.

For example, momentum has coalesced around the exemplary research on children’s mental health by Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch, reflected in the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, endorsing “government-mandated warning labels on social media, akin to those that a previous Surgeon General called for in 1964, on cigarettes.” Source

Is incrementalism workable and appropriate?

Should we celebrate repeating the tobacco wars?

Thinking That Protects Seven Generations vs. the Do-Gooder

The description of “Hospicing Modernity” notes, “This book is not easy: it contains no quick-fix plan for a better, brighter tomorrow, and gives no ready-made answers.

Instead, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of. Machado de Oliveira breaks down archetypes of cognitive dissonance—the do-gooder who does “good enough,” then retreats to business as usual; the incognito capitalist who, at first glance, may seem like a radical change-maker—and asks us to dig deeper and exist differently. She explains how our habits, behaviors, and belief systems hold us back . . . and why it’s time now to gradually disinvest.

Can the movement to address children, smartphones, and social media not enable delay, disruption, and suppression of science in addressing harm caused by manmade, artificial radiofrequency radiation?

Will our ancestors and descendents look back incredulously, not understanding how a so-called ‘dumb phone’ in the hands of a child mirrored the adoption of light cigarettes? When we could have done so much more?

As my Canadian substack colleague Barb Payne observed, “I have not yet noticed anyone acknowledging that wireless connectivity is like a gateway drug to screen addictions. If wireless connectivity is not available everywhere at every moment, people of all ages would not as often fall prey to screen addictions or social media content.”

Healing the Past, Present, and Future

In the early days of the smart meter debacle, two military experts, one from the UK, and one Canadian, began speaking publicly about the dangers of smart meters, including the non-thermal effects of non-ionizing radiation.

When Jerry Flynn was introduced to his audience in 2012, he noted, “I shouldn’t be here, I should be home in my garage making things out of wood.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-F3nf47kAs&t=64s   1 ½ hours

Over the last 14 years, I have met many individuals – artists, homeopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists, yoga teachers, scientists, teachers, pilots, engineers, writers, herbalists, firemen, meter installers, organic farmers, physicians, cooks, musicians, film makers, electricians, professors, parents, and children, – who have set aside what they thought their lives would be, to work on the very unpopular campaign to address unsafe tech. Some are extremely ill; some have been rendered homeless, some have perished.

Michele Hertz, instead of gardening, sculpting, or painting, is talking to politicians in New York about a smart meter bill, working with NYSUMA – New York Safe Utility Meter Association.

Solstice Darkness and Light

Will sanctioned ignorance prevail in New York?

Michele and others working alongside her do not belong under the bus. As new activist movements emerge with new concerns about technology, will those who have gone before, who are literate in electromagnetic harm, have a seat at the table?

Including those who know how obscenely cell phones and smart meters are ‘safety tested’?

Cognitive dissonance unfolds when discomfort rears its head.

Instead of feeling nauseous towards our sordid history with these exploitative industries and their regulators, the distaste and exclusion is directed towards those identifying the problem.

Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti noted, “We are talking about the ability to say the buck stops here in my generation.” Together. Now.

Solstice Balance

This week’s solstice offers a powerful opportunity to reflect on the balance of darkness and light, supported by the Cosmic Current and Natural Law, which choreograph our lives. The Solstice offers the invitation to consider relationships, not only for children and social media, but between all of humanity and the Earth.

For the North

As the Earth experiences its moment of balance and equipoise, “They Tried to Bury Us, They Didn’t Know We Were Seeds”

Acorn Image Courtesy Artist and Mother Michele Hertz

The South

For the South: “After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished. As of tomorrow, the days begin to get longer as the light of day grows. While the gentle winter sun slowly opens its eyes, let us all bring more light and compassion into the world.” ― Dacha Avelin

Leaf Image Courtesy Artist and Mother Michele Hertz

We need to go back to basics, to reclaim our ability to grow our brains on the basis of transcendent, inclusive thinking -, and not the ungrounded tech dreams that are becoming nightmares. The stakes are very high.

“And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day” ― Dr. Seuss

We can turn to one another, bless the mess, and sigh relief as we miss the near wreck.

Be on the right side of history.

In case you missed it:

Overview of Digital Technology: Marking Four Global Days of Action, June 2024 Approaching the Solstice, Guest Post by Kate Kheel of Safe Tech International Here

Musicians today must be “Jacks of all trades” when it comes to navigating the predominantly internet-connected world of technology. They interact with complex stage rigs that include wireless products, are involved in digital music production and must sustain social media engagement with fans. Musicians use an array of digital technologies to survive in the music industry. The question that is beginning to be asked as they are increasingly exposed to the technological demands of the music industry is “how is this affecting health and wellbeing?”

It is a vitally important question, especially as stage performances have grown in both stature and scale and have become resonant electromagnetically driven events and environments that are not without their risks to audiences and musicians. On stage wireless devices can remove the need for cables and are appealing to musicians who believe they remove onstage hazards and promote mobility. Audiences continue their social media pursuits and technological voyeurism through their wireless smart phones. Wireless stage lighting rigs utilise electromagnetically powerful LED systems where spotlights shine brighter than ever and stage atmospherics are remotely controllable. These technological realities are sold as progress – sold as “better.” Yet, as this article reveals, such technologies create hazards kept out of the marketing and hype, leaving professionals and consumers neglectful of technological radiation and its health impacts.

Powerful wireless devices from “smart” stage lighting apparatus to wireless microphones, guitars and amplification systems introduce man-made electromagnetic fields (EMFs) into performances which are a form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and electromagnetic interference (EMI).

The dense cocktail of wireless radiation from digital devices can interfere with guitar signal quality and microphone latency, for example, and from a health perspective actively alters us at the cellular electrochemical level when we are exposed to it. EMR also has bearing on mental health.

Wireless devices have both analogue and digital variants that emit radiofrequency radiation (RFR) that has a non-native electrical charge that is absorbed into the body. The digital systems transmit coherent digitally pulsed RFR, like Blutooth and Wi-Fi does. Scientists note that “An internal EM field is induced in the tissue when a biological tissue is exposed to RF waves” from electronic devices. This can cause physiological as well as “mental and psychological effects.”

As digital wireless technology infiltrates the professional and consumer markets of amplification and musical instrument systems the potential to sustain physiological and neurological injury amidst the densification of legacy and novel wireless technologies in our environment increases. Macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancer, electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) and harmful digital addiction are just a few of the potential consequences of working in today’s electromagnetically intensified digital environments.

With awareness of the problems faced in today’s technological landscape informed choices concerning technological implementations onstage (and in the home or studio) can be made to avert serious miscalculations that could impact the health and wellbeing of consumers, audiences, musicians, road crews, event staff and stage performers.

The Potential Impacts of Digital Stage Lighting on Health

Stage lighting has always had an important function. It directs audience attention and can captivate the eye and imagination to create “immersive experiences” that deeply affect an audience’s emotions.

However, recent digital lighting developments can affect our experiences in other ways. LED stage lighting, like the powerfully “blinding” LED headlights of cars, can cause visual and cognitive disturbances. The most common impacts experienced are from “discomfort glare.” Optical radiation from LEDs “could potentially damage the eyes and skin depending on many variables like the duration of exposure, the wavelength and the intensity of the light.”

“…discomfort glare occurs in the presence of uncomfortable luminance contrasts in the visual field. It is experienced as visual discomfort without necessarily an impaired ability to see. Discomfort glare has been associated with fluctuations in pupil size…as well as contractions in the muscles surrounding the eye that may cause pain effects…. It is believed that the pupil, lens, facial and extra-ocular muscles are engaged in a constant pursuit of retinal image clarity, and this continuous muscle readjustment can cause discomfort, tension and pain….Discomfort glare can manifest itself through annoyance, irritability, distraction and visual fatigue or eyestrain. Typical symptoms include soreness of the eyes, dry or watery eyes, itchiness, blurred or double vision, difficulty to focus on objects, irritation of the eyes and lids, tense muscles, as well as headaches and other forms of discomfort such as neck- and backache….Discomfort glare has also been linked with adverse effects on mood and wellbeing….Notwithstanding that discomfort glare varies within the same space depending on the position and direction of view….there are also significant individual differences in sensitivity. Some people may be unaware of, or undisturbed by, glaring lighting, whilst others in the same space may experience discomfort symptoms….People suffering from migraines are more sensitive to light than other people, even when they are not experiencing a headache, and hence they are more likely to experience glare or not tolerate bright light….”

Source: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14771535211021064

Everyone understands LEDs have exceptional brightness; it is generally perceived as an advantage because of persuasive marketing. They emit optical radiation from a flat semi-conductive “chip” that converts electricity into high energy light through a process called electroluminescence. Such bright light can cause eye strain and eye damage, headaches and disturb sleep owing to the intensity of the semiconductor-generated short-wave artificial blue light.

This artificially produced optical radiation is so powerful it effectively suppresses melatonin (a hormone promoting sleep), while it dramatically raises melanopsin ( a hormone promoting alertness). The effects of artificial blue light exposure on sleep are more obvious at night, so performers shouldn’t be surprised if disturbed sleep becomes an issue. Children and teenagers are more sensitive to electronic blue light (as are people with light hypersensitivity, a.k.a. photophobia). This type of blue light can trigger mania in people suffering with bipolar disorder.

Many professional musicians have been diagnosed bipolar (which also increases their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a longitudinal study published in Neurology). In the scientific article titled “Shedding Light on Light”: A Review on the Effects on Mental Health of Exposure to Optical Radiation, it’s observed that, “…light pollution may play a role in the genesis of bipolar disorder.” A further article published in Nature further emphasises the correlation of artificial light’s influence on mental health and bipolar disorder. The study, published in 2023, found that, “Greater night-time light exposure was associated with increased risk for major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and self-harm behavior.”

Anxiety, depression and sleep orders are commonly experienced by musicians and performers. Electromagnetic radiation/optical radiation from LED lighting (used on stage, in smart phone and computer screens) is an extremely common environmental factor that can play a role in sleep and mental health issues as described. A study published in 2021 called “Medical phenome of musicians: an investigation of health records collected on 9803 musically active individuals” reminds us that, “the health risks and benefits of music participation and professional music activities has not yet been studied comprehensively…therefore, our understanding of the scope and prevalence of physical and mental health problems in musicians is limited.” The role of electromagnetic radiation in understanding that “scope and prevalence” shouldn’t be excluded from a truly comprehensive investigation.

With musicians and stage performers encountering heightened exposures to LED lighting, eye and mental health become major concerns. LED optical radiation with its characteristic blue light frequency range ages retinal cells. “Excessive exposure of the eye to blue light tends to cause a series of alterations, such as oxidative stress, mitochondrial apoptosis, inflammatory apoptosis, mitochondrial apoptosis and DNA damage, resulting in the development of dry eye disease, glaucoma, and keratitis.” Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343440541_Mechanisms_of_blue_light-induced_eye_hazard_and_protective_measures_a_review

Even for the musician at home or on the road, the “evening darkness is more illuminated by blue light emitting diodes. These blue lights come from energy efficient bulbs and flat-screen computers, phones, and TVs” influencing potential circadian dysfunction and eyesight problems. Stage performers can be exposed to excessive amounts of high contrast artificial lighting from light rig setups, night after night in some cases. Many of the stage lighting systems, such as LED Pixel Tube Lights, and moving head lights for example, can be wirelessly operated using apps such as “Stagelight“, for example, so obviously will result in more wireless radiation in a stage performance.

The phenomenal glare from LED flood lights with high-intensity beams can cause immense discomfort, especially for people suffering with glaucoma. Stage performer Bono from the band U2 wears light filtering shades because he has developed glaucoma (a progressive eye disease caused by damage to the optic nerve). Glaucoma endangers sight from a buildup of pressure in the eyeball (intraoccular pressure) impacting the optic nerve. The condition can lead to blindness if left untreated. Photophobia (extreme light sensitivity) is experienced by people with glaucoma which can be caused by LED light, including the LED glare from digital device screens which is rich in artificial blue light (which can eventually change the shape of the eyeball). According to a study published in 2018, “Because of blue light’s short wavelength, the focus is not located in the center of the retina but rather in the front of the retina, so that the long exposure time to blue light causes a worsening of visual fatigue and nearsightedness [myopia].”

The impact of digital LED lighting is greatly amplified against surrounding darkness, bringing visual discomfort. When added to screen exposure in daily life this all becomes a considerable health burden. Yellow tinted shades or photochromic glasses are thought to be effective at filtering out blue light and these are often worn by Bono, as we know. However, as Cleveland Health Clinic reports, “a 2019 report from the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) warned of the “phototoxic effects” of blue light exposure, including an increased risk for age-related macular degeneration. The report also noted that blue light blocking glasses and filters may not protect against these and other harmful effects.”

LED lighting poses a health risk to performers and audiences. Looking at high energy stage lighting, digital signage and smart phone screens presents risks to eyesight. The glare from bright digital lighting and smart phone screens can also trigger migraine symptoms. Smart phones are regarded as a significant “public health hazard” according to John Gottlieb, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine.

The largely imperceptible flicker of LED lights (which is also a feature of digital device screens) also presents a health risk, for “research suggests that it can have detrimental effects on health and safety.” The deliberate use of repetitive strobing with intense rhythmic glare at performances, takes this health and safety risk to another level. Flicker and strobing of LED lighting can potentially cause seizures or dizziness (especially at 3–50 Hz), particularly in people with photosensitive epilepsy.

(As a side note, the strobing of LED lighting has been weaponised for Homeland Security, for flicker rates can be calibrated. They are a form of supposedly non-lethal “active denial” system (ADS) and have made the consumer market too). They are a reminder that the intensity of LED lighting radiation can have a dramatic impact on us, but not only that, we gain a sense of the ethically debauched market for LED light-based products.

As a second side note, lasers (semiconductor radiation like LEDs) have also made an appearance on stage for dramatic and high-tech effects using narrowly focused (collimated) beams of coherent light. Laser beams have hit the consumer market too. Laser pointers are an example and remarkably these instruments are deemed “legal and safe to use.” In a music festival incident it was reported that a pilot was blinded by such a device as the audience pointed their devices at the sky. Yet lasers continue to be pointed towards the sky at many public events, regardless.

Intense light whether it comes from lasers or related products like LEDs is a health issue that affects everyone according to their individual sensitivity. “Flashing, flickering and repetitive patterns cause the visual cortex to be overloaded with images and this can cause a seizure in people who are sensitive to this trigger.” People with photophobia are also susceptible to painful reactions when exposed to high energy digital lighting.

Powerful lighting can also negatively impact people with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) especially as high output LED lights (used in outdoor lighting or on stage) can produce “dirty electricity”, a type of EMF pollution. A stage, and even a production studio can be awash with electromagnetic frequencies from amplifiers, guitars, wireless equipment (especially badly grounded equipment) influencing dirty electricity levels (electrical pollution) that can affect sound quality and has the potential to impact the health of performers over time.

You can learn more about health risks of high LED light from excellent resources here and here. As you will discover, the optical radiation is toxic and their ingredients are too. Impacts of falling lights on stage present a health hazard based on contact with or ingestion of their ingredients in particular.

Performers strike back

Performers are voicing their displeasure concerning the visibility of digital devices for they can impact a performance. A sea of glowing smart devices can be very distracting to music industry artists seeking to make an emotional connection with the audience. In 2014, the artist Kate Bush, “put out a message on her website asking fans to refrain from taking photographs or videos during the show: “I very much want to have contact with you as an audience, not with iPhones, iPads or cameras.”” It was a message that clearly worked as the reviewer reported “…it’s hard to know whether it was the lack of phones…but the connection was unlike other gig experiences.” Bush’s frustrations are shared by other performers.

Other performers are more frustrated. The BBC reported that, “A leading composer has called for people who use mobile phones during concerts to be fined” calling the use of smart phones at performances “distracting and discourteous”. The composer’s “…view of discourteous mobile users is widely-shared within the classical music community.”

The tenor Ian Bostridge shocked Symphony Hall Birmingham when he “requested that audience members turn off their phone cameras. He said taking photographs was ‘extremely distracting’ for a performer.”

What is it like for people in the audience grappling with this issue? You can read more on that perspective in “Smartphones are ruining concerts” published in The Washington Post.

Wireless radiation from microphones and guitar systems

There are digital and analogue wireless systems, for guitars and microphones. Both are different and “untether” a performer from cables allowing for freedom of movement, removal of trip hazards and enhanced audience interactions.

Analogue wireless systems work differently from digital and incur extra expense as they require a bandwidth license, so are not as popular as digital ones nowadays, which predominantly use the same bandwidth as consumer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Many high-end microphone manufacturers still offer analogue systems, which still have certain advantages over digital systems.

Analogue systems use a compression system called “companding” which utilises a larger bandwidth (UHF frequency band) than digital counterparts. For this reason they don’t suffer the same latency or signal deficiency issues plaguing many digital systems and have a wide dynamic range. In stage performances since the 1970’s these types of analogue systems were pioneered by artists such as Angus Young, guitarist in the band AC/DC and artist Kate Bush, for example with countless stage performers following suit. (You can read about Angus Young’s wireless system here.)

Analogue microphone systems were liberally utilised by the broadcasting corporations where analogue wireless lavalier microphones were worn on talk shows, for example, by the host and the guest performers.

Most digital wireless microphones and guitar systems used today operate within the frequency band of 2.4 GHz (similar to Wi-Fi) and 5.8 GHz (high frequency). These digital products emit pulsed radiofrequency radiation (RFR), “and encode sound as a digital signal—zeroes and ones—that modulate a radio carrier signal, which is then sent over the air and picked up by a receiver, where that signal is converted back to sound.”

You can invest in a dedicated wireless microphone system, or you can convert an existing standard microphone into a digital wireless microphone. Wireless digital transmitter accessories are available that plug right into the microphone’s XLR socket.

The 2.4 GHz –5.8 GHz used by digital microphone and guitar systems is an oversubscribed bandwidth so latency and quality issues can become an issue sometimes, especially for more affordable systems aimed at the consumer. This is the high frequency unlicensed consumer bandwidth in which many scientific studies concerning the influence of man-made electromagnetic fields on dementia and cancer have been performed.

The fact remains that the digital frequencies are more impacting to health the closer you are to the emitting radiating source, for example, a Wi-Fi router in the home, transmitter in a smart phone, or a wireless microphone transmitter, or any other wireless transmitter plugged into a guitar system or other stage equipment.

Are wireless microphone headsets and earphone systems harmful?

As mentioned there are quality trade offs between digital and analogue microphone systems. Wireless microphone headsets are being worn by some performers on stage to enhance mobility. They are particularly useful for guitarists that sing backing vocals in a band. For example, since 2009 the guitarist from U2, the Edge, has used a “wireless headset mic so he can sing and work the stage.”

For a high-end digital wireless headset, the radiofrequency band ranges from 2.4 GHz – 5 GHz which is similar to widely available Bluetooth headsets. The wireless headsets used in the music industry often have an omnidirectional condenser earset microphone and use a rackmount receiver unit and the headset is wired to a body-pack transmitter unit that accepts a battery. The musician is exposed to the resulting EM fields.

Some disturbing findings have come to light concerning radiation from headsets. Like regular mobile phones, digital wireless headsets focus RF radiation on the body where it is absorbed into tissues in the near field (close range). Depending on the headset, this is focused on the head or the body, where the transmitter is broadcasting. Any electrically active device on the head, even if wired to the transmitter pack, also creates an electromagnetic field absorbed into the skull and surrounding tissues.

In 2024 neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman from Stanford University brought “significant attention to the potential health implications of Bluetooth technology” after he discontinued use of Bluetooth headphones, prompting “both the public and the scientific community to reexamine the risks associated with these everyday gadgets.” His concern is over the thermal sensations and the EMF emissions, observing the correlation of recurrent lymph cysts appearing behind his ears following use. As Headphonesty reports, “The issue subsided when he stopped using the headphones, but recurred when he resumed their use. This cycle led him to conclude a potential link between the headphones and the cysts, prompting him to abandon them altogether…“Heat and neural tissue are not friends,” he stated, emphasizing the potential risks of exposing such sensitive areas to continuous warmth.”

Airpods are another form of wireless headphone unit. “If one uses AirPods many hours a day, the cumulative exposure to the brain from this microwave radiation could be substantial,” Joel Moskowitz, Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Family and Community Health stated.”

RF radiation from any wireless headset or ear-set is absorbed into tissues at very close range. Thermal effects can become noticeable during use. Biological impacts are inevitable, and may become problematic for health over time. DNA damage can be induced by daily use of radiofrequency devices and some scientific uncertainty remains about the latency periods of RFR-induced health effects such as cancer.

The concerned public and hundreds of scientists are beginning to speak out about the radiation impacts from devices such as wireless headsets and earphones, which can only be a good thing. Precautionary principles and independent research are important when it comes to weighing up whether RFR-emitting gear is necessarily worthwhile, or healthy. If your health is more important than having unlimited mobility across the expanse of the stage, studio, or home, you might want to stick with cables and ditch the idea of a wireless headset.

Keeping RFR away from your head

As Environmental Health Trust (EHT) reports, “Over one dozen governments and numerous medical organizations warn you to keep this type of radiation called radiofrequency radiation [RFR] away from your head.“

Studies of the health impacts from RFR have been widely published, but the wireless industry gives very limited information regarding biologically pertinent wireless risks to professionals and consumers alike, even when such frequencies are demonstrated to cause “a statistically significant increase in tumors of the heart (schwannomas), brain (malignant gliomas) and adrenal gland (pheochromocytomas), Increases in other organ tumors compared to controls (not statistically significant but noteworthy) for pancreas, prostate, pituitary, liver and lung, DNA damage in rodents, Cardiomyopathy similar to aging, Adverse perinatal effects in some groups.”

Those are the findings of the NTP (National Toxicology Program) in the US, “…the world’s largest, most well-designed study of its type, at a cost of $25 million” which found clear evidence of carcinogenicity from commonly encountered digital radiofrequency radiation (RFR).

“The NTP research, combined with basic cellular science, epidemiological research, prospective studies and other longitudinal studies showing adverse biological effects from radiofrequency radiation (RFR), strongly indicates that our current [exposure] safety guidelines urgently need reevaluation to protect public health.” What has happened since? The NTP’s research into radiofrequency radiation (RFR) health, which found “that RFR exposure was associated with an increase in DNA damage” effects has been de-funded and closed down.

“For the first time in more than 50 years, U.S. civilian agencies have no ongoing research on the health effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation.” This is quite a scandal considering recently rolled out 5G technology has been insufficiently studied and is still regarded as a significant health risk to the public.

Cancer is not the only concern arising from society’s increasing use of wireless transmitters in the professional and consumer domains. Neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease are also of deep concern and are affecting well-known stage performers.

According to the World Health Organisation, “Currently more than 55 million people have dementia worldwide, over 60% of whom live in low-and middle-income countries. Every year, there are nearly 10 million new cases. Dementia results from a variety of diseases and injuries that affect the brain. Alzheimers disease is the most common form of dementia and may contribute to 60–70% of cases.”

Source: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia

The correlation of electronically generated electromagnetic fields to range of cognitive injuries and neurodegenerative diseases is stark in current research.

Scientists have discovered that:

“Pulsed electronically generated electromagnetic fields (EMFs) used for wireless communication are coherent producing strong electric and magnetic forces that act in the cells of our bodies primarily via activation of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs). VGCC activation produces rapid increases in intracellular calcium levels. Therefore, EMF exposures produce changes with lead to excessive intracellular calcium. This buildup explains the effects on the brain in Alzheimer’s disease….These EMF induced changes to intracellular calcium levels have been demonstrated in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. Research has shown the involvement of two pathways that lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Each of the two pathways producing pathophysiological effects following EMF exposure are important in Alzheimer’s causation: the excessive calcium signaling pathway and the peroxynitrite/oxidative stress/inflammation pathway.”

Researchers “El-Swefy and Jiang found massive neurodegeneration in young rats simply from exposing them to EMF pulses.” More research needs to be done including “EMF exposures assessments for pre-diagnosis environments for people aged 30 to 40 who have been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. These assessments should compare phone and cell phone tower radiation, Wi-Fi radiation, smart meter and dirty electricity radiation levels with normal controls.” Why not add wireless microphones, headsets and wireless guitar equipment to that list?

Source: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220426/New-insights-into-the-link-between-EMFs-calcium-and-Alzheimere28099s-disease.aspx

“Charged ions such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium are present in all tissues of the body. Most of the biomolecules possess charges and therefore they can be directly influenced by electric fields [40, 41]. “ Again, we are reminded that EMF influences excessive intracellular calcium levels which advance neurological damage and can cause dementia.

Source:https://www.imrpress.com/journal/FBS/13/2/10.52586/S561/htm

“The evidence indicates that long-term significant occupational exposure to ELF [extremely low frequency] magnetic fields may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (Davanipour 2007, García 2008), high frequency magnetic fields have similar consequences (Davanipour & Sobel 2009).”

https://www.powerwatch.org.uk/library/downloads/dementia-2012-01.pdf

Click here for more information about man-made electromagnetic fields.

When a guitar is like a phone

The three principles for radiation safety are: time, distance, and shielding. Yet there is no such hope of that in a packed crowd or contexts in which your instrument device, whether it be an RF-emitting microphone pack, wireless guitar system or smart phone, is close to or on the body for extended periods. For a performer, and public alike, radiation exposure becomes an issue and sensible interventions a priority.

So-called “non-ionising radiation”, the commonly encountered definition of man-made electromagnetic fields, including radiofrequency radiation (RFR) has an impact over time that can both cause and influence the trajectory of chronic diseases.

Increasing distance from the radiation source can effectively reduce radiation exposure and has long been advised, even by the The Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Shielding in its various applications may have an influence on exposure or even mitigate it. There are devices, paints and shielded clothing that can assist in this regard. “Electrically conductive materials, such as metals, reflect high-frequency electromagnetic fields. Metal foils or metal mesh, but also metal-coated window panes (for thermal insulation) can thus completely or partially shield high-frequency electromagnetic fields.” 

Performers and consumers often shield their guitars, which is to “enclose the electronics in sort of a ‘cage’, which rejects stray radio frequency interference. You can do this a few ways: copper or aluminum tape, or graphite shielding paint.”

Electric guitars have long been barometers of ambient electromagnetic radiation (EMR) such as radiowaves and microwaves which manifest as electromagnetic interference (EMI) and can affect the sound quality, or tone. This is because an electric guitar contains pick-ups which consist of electromagnetically charged poles which act like an antenna.

When you pluck a string the vibration tone is picked up. “This vibration disturbs the magnetic field and, due to electromagnetic induction, an electric current is generated within the coil. Your guitar’s pickups capture this current, which is then sent to an amplifier that boosts the signal and produces the sound you hear through the speakers.” “Electromagnetic induction is a process by which a magnetic field interacts with an electrical conductor, generating an electrical current.” Electromagnetic induction was discovered by Michael Faraday (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867).

It was mentioned in a BBC article on the development of the electric guitar that Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones had described the ensuing invention of the electric guitar, as he was holding his own acoustic guitar, and said,“I mean, all they did was put a phone in it!”

Richards makes an interesting analogy in referencing a mobile phone and we can understand where he’s coming from. Pick-ups are like electromagnetic antennae that allow us to hear the electric guitar, but also can apprise us of inaudible radiofrequencies, through an amplifier, especially if you put a smart phone near it and it is searching for a signal, for example.

An electric guitar is even more like a mobile phone if it has a wireless pack, for then it becomes a transmitting device on the body and like a mobile phone, has increased health implications for the user. Experimental and observational studies ragarding exposure to radiofrequency radiation suggest, “current knowledge provides justification for governments, public health authorities, and physicians/allied health professionals to warn the population that having a cell phone next to the body is harmful, and to support measures to reduce all exposures to RFR.” 

When playing a wirelessly broadcasting guitar low on the body keep in mind that, “Experimental and observational studies…suggest that men who keep cell phones in their trouser pockets have significantly lower sperm counts and significantly impaired sperm motility and morphology, including mitochondrial DNA damage.”

For sure, wireless electric guitars are more like phones, because of the wireless transmitters worn close to or on the body, or even attached to a belt that make wireless playability possible.

Picking up interference

The wiring and components of electric guitars have changed little over the years. 50’s wiring is still used, as are potentiometers, capacitors and resistors. Central to the tonal possibilities of any electric guitar are the pick-ups. These are passive systems of alnico magnets. If these are not wired or grounded correctly there is danger of becoming either electrocuted or absorbing dirty electricity. A noticeable hum which cancels when you touch the strings will give it away. Take the instrument to a professional to correct the problem.

In an electric guitar, electromagnetic radiation is emitted by two common types of pick up, which are called Humbuckers and Single Coils. Each are normally powered by capacitors in the guitar and are called passive pick ups. The Single Coils are more prone to hum from electromagnetic influences.

“A single-coil pickup essentially works as an antenna. It picks up electromagnetic interference. This results in unwanted noise which manifests as hum and buzz.” Conversely, [passive] Humbuckers, which contain two single coils in opposition, cancel the hum, hence their name.

Certain electromagnetic influences can still disrupt them, especially in the home. “Humbuckers themselves don’t hum. But get them near light dimmers, fluorescent or neon lights, and dubious club wiring, and all sorts of buzzing happens. Shielding will never get rid of that 60-cycle hum that is present with single coils. Single coils have their own unique, beautiful sound, and part of that…is that hum. What shielding will do is prevent the wiring inside your guitar from acting like antennae and picking up stray signals floating around. If you want to get rid of hum in single coil guitars, you might have to switch to stacked single-coil sized humbuckers.”

There is another type of electric guitar pick up called active pick-ups (solid state systems powered by a battery), having stronger ceramic magnets, which have a preamp system boosting the output generating a stronger electromagnetic field. They sound louder than more sustained than regular pick ups. As active pick-ups generate a greater electromagnetic output, some wireless systems do not work with these types of pick-ups. Humbuckers are also available as active pick-ups.

Much more rapidly than the electrical circuitry of the electric guitar, the technology of amplification has moved ahead. Tube amplification that has driven most rock music from the 50’s to present day still has its place. The technology has become hybridised or replaced in some amplifier models that are more digitally adapted, such as solid state amplifiers that model sound digitally with semiconductor technology.

Digital wireless technology, made possible with semiconductors, is now transforming amplification possibilities further. This is being heavily marketed to consumers, whereas it was used in stadium and large venue contexts to enhance mobility across the stage and enhance audience engagement at shows. Whether such amplification is used on stage or in the home, health and safety precautions always matter regarding wireless radiation from EMF-radiating sources.

Even more like a phone: wireless Smart Guitars

Smart guitars are a new development which dispense with cables offering a portable digital technology package resembling an electric or acoustic guitar that operates in much the same way as a smart phone does.

The price is much higher than an entry-level traditional electric guitar. The device can connect wirelessly to the internet and other digital devices, download apps and play tunes through a bluetooth speaker. You can loop, record and share your work to social media.

Many effects are built in, including a drum machine, and it has midi capability for connecting to a computer for more software integration and recording possibilities. The guitars can work seamlessly with a smart phone on which you can customise the guitar. There are many different models and have accessories like a wireless headset, wireless pedal and of course, a charging stand. These guitars are not recommended for a professional setting, and have an educational theme because they contain “intelligent” learning software.

“Some can even be played through an amp like a conventional six-string, making them attractive choices for beginners, veterans, touring musicians, and even recording artists…Some smart guitars don’t have strings. Instead, these models have pressure-sensitive pads that connect to apps or recording software. Stringless models don’t produce any sound naturally, but they’re extremely low maintenance and great for learning…A feature that’s unique to smart guitars is the suite of learning tools. These tools are meant to educate new players about chord shapes, scales, and basic theory using a companion app to do so. Simply connect the guitar to the app (either wirelessly or with the included cable), and access a variety of interactive lessons, exercises, and games reminiscent of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Depending on the smart guitar, it may have LED lights on the fretboard that synchronize with the app, aiding players in finding the correct finger position.”

Ultimate Guitar tested out a smart guitar and states, “It still feels somewhat like a novelty overall,…you’re paying a few extra hundred for the novelty and built-in features instead of necessarily getting a higher-end guitar.”

Bluetooth connectivity puts the device Between 2.402 and 2.480 GHz, similar to Wi-Fi in the unlicensed frequency band of consumer wireless devices. Unlike conventional guitars they considerably add to the global burden of e-waste, and expose you to wireless radiation, just like the smart phones they are inspired by.

Digital radiation pollution: Distance matters

In the music industry, radiofrequency radiation (RFR) is recognisable as electromagnetic interference (EMI) and also radiofrequency interference (RFI) which affect stage and studio sound quality. The radiation activity degrades the signal from the microphone or instrument because of “dirty” electrical interactions. In the studio, balanced power is sought to eliminate the EMI problems for a “pure” current.

Electromagnetic fields from professional and consumer wireless devices, as the small print in their manuals are compelled to point out, are more likely to cause health issues if distance isn’t maintained. Bodily contact with the radiating transmitter must be prevented or significantly reduced to prevent damage to living tissue. The intracellular biological impacts of electromagnetic fields on, or close to the body are scientifically proven, and are cautiously referenced by industry who are keen to de-emphasise them. Noticeably, distancing (from the wireless product’s transmitter) is recommended but the manufacturers don’t elaborate on why. It is not profitable for a wireless vendor to educate the public that wireless radiation is a real and present danger to them.

According to Environmental Health Trust (EHT), “All manufacturers of wireless devices from cell phones to Wi-Fi Speakers To Wi-Fi toys have warnings which describe the minimum distance devices must be kept away from users in order to not exceed the as-tested radiofrequency radiation limits for exposure to wireless radiation.” How many professional performers or consumers follow these guidelines that could protect them from the intensity of the radiating source? 

EHT illustrates the risks of ignoring such recommendations, which are also the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO): “Because of the inverse square law if devices are used closer than 8 inches to the body, exposures grow exponentially. Thus, at 5 inches it could increase 16-fold, and at less than one inch (i.e. on your lap) it could increase 100-fold.”

The FCC and other regulatory bodies who advise on such notices at the same time play down the health risks based on proximity to the radiating source. However contradictory their position on the health issues may seem, these agencies point out the precautionary principle of distancing radiofrequency transmitting devices from the body as a way to significantly reduce radiation exposure from a wireless device.

Society at large ignores such advice because the media promotes the idea wireless devices are harmless, and manufacturer literature doesn’t elaborate beyond mentioning “distancing” briefly in tiny print in a manual. Electromagnetic radiation from wireless products is capable of inducing thermal and biological effects even at the so-called “safe” levels that agencies like the FCC or ICNIRP prescribe on behalf of industry.

According to Spanish biologist, Alfonso Balmori BSc, “Under the current circumstances… the media, responsible organisations (World Health Organization, 2015) and governments do not pass on…crucial information to the population, which thus remains uninformed. For these reasons, the current situation is likely to end in a crisis not only for health, but also for the technology itself, as it is unsustainable and harmful to the environment and people.” 

Wireless technology and Dementia

The Lancet states that more interventions are needed and investment in research on biological mechanisms for addressing the expected increases in the number of individuals affected by dementia.

If we are to recognise what is advancing dementia in our society towards the projected astronomical increases by 2050, we can’t afford to dismiss wireless radiation as an influence on public health.

Scientists recognise that, “electromagnetic radiation (EMR) has become a substantial new pollution source in modern civilization. The biological effects of EMR have attracted considerable attention worldwide. The possible interaction of EMR with human organs, especially the brain, is currently where the most attention is focused. Many studies have shown that the nervous system is an important target organ system sensitive to EMR.” It is recognised that EMR causes neurotransmitter disorders, altering behaviour and causing neurophysiological changes.

Mainstream handling of the issue of dementia has been very unhelpful in excluding technological influences, for EMR has been scientifically studied as part of the problem. According to this report, published in Electron Physician, “people who spend more than 50 minutes a day using a cell phone could have early dementia or other thermal damage due to the burning of glucose in the brain.” The study used “data from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)…to verify the simulation.”

Today, according to Musicianwave.com “many musicians feel they need to heavily engage with social media platforms which is time-consuming and can be poor for mental health.” Musicians are thus compelled towards overuse of their smartphones or other internet-connected devices. Wireless radiation and screen radiation present considerable risks to public health and no musician should ignore that.

Dementia charities and the media equally ignoring EMR as a factor in the public health crisis is a veil over the eyes of the public concerning understanding why neurodegenerative disease is so prevalent – not just in the old, but the young are getting the symptoms, too.

So-called “digital dementia” in the “internet generation” from excessive screen-time has been highlighted amidst skyrocketing Alzheimer’s disease, because, “Converging evidence from biopsychosocial research in humans and animals demonstrates that chronic sensory stimulation (via excessive screen exposure) affects brain development increasing the risk of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural disorders in adolescents and young adults. Emerging evidence suggests that some of these effects are similar to those seen in adults with symptoms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the early stages of dementia, including impaired concentration, orientation, acquisition of recent memories (anterograde amnesia), recall of past memories (retrograde amnesia), social functioning, and self-care.”

EMR, (a.k.a. wireless radiation, radiofrequency radiation, microwave radiation), not just inflated screen time, accelerates neurodegnerative activity, for radiofrequency transmission delivers content and wireless functionality to digital devices but this artificial pulse-modulated radiation also an influence on developing and adult brains, interfering with the human body’s biological mechanisms that are there to sustain health.

A paper titled “Risks to Health and Well-Being From Radio-Frequency Radiation Emitted by Cell Phones and Other Wireless Devices” published in Frontiers in Public Health in 2019 recognises, “The incidence of neuro-epithelial brain cancers has significantly increased in all children, adolescent, and young adult age groupings from birth to 24 years in the United States (14, 15). A sustained and statistically significant rise in glioblastoma multiforme across all ages has been described in the UK (16).” In addition, “The increasing use of cell phones in children, which can be regarded as a form of addictive behavior (40), has been shown to be associated with emotional and behavioral disorders.”

Professional wireless products, used by consumers and performers alike, use the same frequency bands as Wi-Fi and cell phones, which are undoubtedly negatively influencing the body’s biological mechanisms, and this can be said about their influence on rising cancer and dementia cases too.

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) a precursor to Parkinson’s Disease

Music production and performances may eventually sensitise the performer to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) which results in a condition known as electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). While the World Health Organisation recognises that “more than 55 million people have dementia worldwide” what isn’t known by the public is that over 350 million people are reported suffering with EHS. (The prevalence of EHS is unknown, but various reports suggest that it is between 1 and 10% of the population (Hallberg and Oberfeld, 2006; Huang et al., 2018.).

How is EHS impacting musicians? The music journal NME notes that, in 1995, Ricky Gardiner, the former guitarist with Iggy Pop who “worked on Iggy’s ‘Lust For Life’ album in 1977, co-writing ‘The Passenger’, ‘Success’ and ‘Neighbourhood Threat’ … playing lead guitar on such tracks as ‘Lust For Life’” fell ill with EHS a stigmatised form of functional impairment caused electromagnetic radiation “which restricted the amount of time he could spend with computer devices while recording music.”

Throughout his career his passion to play music had immersed his body in the electromagnetic radiation associated with his music-making. Ricky Gardiner admitted “struggling with electrosensitivity in 2006, which made it harder to produce his electronic works.” Some press sources also confirm that “the guitarist had been living with Parkinson’s disease.” He died in 2022 aged 73.

The problem we have is that a case like Gardiner’s, though mentioned in the press, doesn’t get much coverage, and when it does, mentions his EHS in passing without highlighting its true significance. With 5% of the population (equivalent to more than the entire population of the US) now reporting EHS, the problem is bigger than many people assume.

It is striking that Ricky Gardiner is described as having both EHS and Parkinson’s disease. According to a paper published in the Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy, “Severe oxidative stress can cause imbalances in reactive oxygen species, which may trigger neurodegeneration.” Oxidative stress is induced by electromagnetic fields which cause EHS.

The paper confirms that conditions such as electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) are likely an underlying factor in the development of Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders:

“Sensitivity to EMF exposure may be a common underlying effect in the CNS in regards to neurodegenerative disorders. In the literature, the main sensitization syndrome seems to be a pathophysiological change such as migraines, irritable bowel and bladder, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or chronic pain. The IARC characterized the radiation of mobile phones as Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic) in 2011. Most studies show that the carcinogenic and genotoxic effects of EMFs also evidence a correlation.”

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891061816300576

Reducing or removing EMR risks

As a performer or consumer involved with wireless systems for the guitar or wireless microphone systems, distancing yourself from the transmitter and receiver are paramount to avoiding harmful exposures. How that is achieved depends on a knowledge of the particular system. Distancing oneself from intense digital lighting is also effective but may not always be achievable, so eyewear might be an effective option, and seems to reduce optical glare for Bono who has glaucoma and photophobia.

If using a wireless guitar system know that you have options about the placement of the transmitters and receivers so that your distance from either can be increased to avoid near field exposures of wireless radiation.

In terms of guitar usage, “Wireless guitar systems use radio frequencies or digital transmissions to send the audio signal…The [plug-in] transmitter [type, for example,] is connected to the guitar’s output jack, and the receiver is connected to the amplifier or audio system. The transmitter sends the guitar’s signal to the receiver, which then sends it to the amplifier or audio system.”

According to guitarriver.com, “Affordable [wireless guitar] systems operate on common wireless frequencies–2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. Your home wi-fi, cordless phones, baby monitors, and other household wireless devices transmit on these frequencies. The 2.4 GHz frequency band has been around longer and may be more crowded than 5.8 GHz, but will have a longer range. “…”Professional systems operate on different frequency bands altogether. Some run on the 600 MHz and 700 MHz bands, although these systems are being phased out by the FCC. Refer to the FCC documentation for wireless microphones if you are curious.”

What are the different types of transmitter packs for wireless guitar systems? Plug-in transmitters plug into the guitar’s output jack. Belt pack transmitters can be clipped to your belt or guitar strap. Some guitars come with built-in transmitters and are limited to use with compatible wireless receivers.

As we can see, the transmitters are predominantly placed close to the body and therefore increase the musician’s burden of exposure to electromagnetic radiation.

Types of receivers for digital wireless guitar systems include: “Plug-in receivers that…plug directly into the pedal board, amplifier, or wherever you would normally plug in the other end of the cable coming from your guitar. Pedalboard receivers: These receivers are designed to fit on a guitarist’s pedalboard, making them convenient and easy to integrate into an existing setup…and can be powered by a standard pedalboard power supply. Rackmount receivers…are designed to be mounted in a standard 19-inch equipment rack, making them suitable for larger or more complex setups [and] are commonly used in professional touring rigs, larger venues, or recording studios. Tabletop receivers…have a compact design that can be placed on a table or other flat surfaces. They are usually smaller and more portable [so are] suitable for smaller venues, rehearsals, or home use.“

These radiofrequency receivers also present options for placement that can increase our distance from them, but this can’t be of much benefit if the transmitter is near or on the body and is exposing you to near field radiation for the duration of the performance, which over time could add up to health problems down the road.

A wireless microphone may have the transmitter at the base of the handle. Remember, if wireless devices are used closer than 8 inches to the body, exposures to EMR grow exponentially. A microphone stand may help, but why not just have it wired in the first place? As a guitar signal is also optimum through a wired rig with an amplifier unit, why not keep it that way, too, potentially keeping the band safer from EMR on stage?

Reliable wired performance over wireless risks

Wired connections are never likely to be phased out because they are so reliable, (as is the case with wired internet connections, too). Just as gamers and many other users of internet connected devices prefer wired connections for speed, reliability and security, many musicians and performers choose cables because they convey a signal reliably, have optimum sound quality and have zero latency. A conventional microphone is also more reliable, latency-free and safer using a wired connection. Wired connections remove the hazard of pulse modulated wireless radiation in the working environment.

Professionals understand that the drawbacks of wireless microphone systems which make the advantages of wired connections even more obvious. “Nearby radio signals and other wireless devices can cause interference with your wireless system. Make sure that no radio transmitters come as close to 10-15 ft. to your wireless receiving antennas…Objects blocking your signal may also cause issues. Make sure to have a clear path between your transmitters and receivers.”

Wireless mics and guitar systems also use batteries too, and issues of compression and latency can be introduced in both systems. Why risk increased radiation exposure or quality issues when “The overall reliability of wireless microphones doesn’t come close to the reliability of a decent wired microphone set-up”? And that goes for guitars too!

Source: https://www.musicianport.com/wired-microphone-vs-wireless-microphone

An unethical industry partnership fuelling health degradation and wireless exposure

Adding to the radiation health burden of audiences and stage performers today are the invisible collimated beams of high frequency pulsed electromagnetic radiation (EMR) utilised in “phase distribution” in 5G wireless technology. 5G technology (currently using a mixture of 4G LTE and compressed millimeter waves) now dominates post-pandemic music festivals aiming to reach pre-pandemic profitability at all costs.

Smart phone charging stations and 5G antennae are now routinely erected at major music events to fuel the endemic social media addiction that is now “part of the show.” These festivals are a major source of revenue and continue to dominate the market, predominantly attracting telecom industry sponsorship.

Using novel microwave propagation systems and under-researched modulated microwave ranges 5G adoption is a whole new ball game of EMR exposure lacking sufficient research to guarantee public safety.

Internationally, EMR guidelines offer no real guarantees about public safety from 5G and governments mired in debt and open to bribery explain more about economic positives than enlightening the public about health impacts – like the industries lobbying for the technology’s wide adoption. Legal actions, scientific outrage and controversies continue leaving communities embattled with local authorities and network providers to stop masts and installations being erected near schools and within communities. (The following Hardell, Nilsson studies and summary concerning exposures of men, women and children to 5G base stations are worth reading).

As the music industry “faces a “major threat from strong economic headwinds” 5G controversies must seem like a sideshow to working musicians and performers (who may know little of the scientific research that contradicts industry and governments’ safety claims). However, it is clear that music events are now operating within a technological “wild west” where profits trump safety concerns. The concerns of festival goers and public alike are ignored.

The telecoms network providers partner with the music festivals to exploit musical performances and massive crowds to access the artists’ lucrative fanbases to market 5G services using “exclusive content.”

In this context, festival organisers and network providers alike are lacking in any ethical responsibility as they evolve music shows into digital technology exhibitions and “smartphone fests” playing down legitimate health issues. They do this in the face of ZERO evidence that can show that 5G’s novel microwave technology and beam-forming capabilities are innocuous and fit for purpose. 5G’s capacity to gather data quickly and in huge quantities seems to drive the “uptake”evolution”, but is it to the benefit of musicians and consumers? It leaves the public doubly vulnerable, from cover-ups of data breaches concerning wireless technology to the remarkably widespread and naiive dismissal of possible radiation related health impacts. None of this can benefit anyone.

Data harvesting and wireless technology have become enduring facets of the music industry’s profit machine. According to sgeworldwide.com, the music industry has been “transformed by the use of data and analytics…[which has] enabled record labels and music publishers to gain insights into consumer behavior and trends, allowing them to make more informed decisions about which artists to sign and which songs to promote….with record labels and publishers using data to identify new talent and create more effective marketing campaigns.”

Gathering data and fuelling social media frenzy for sustained profits is what the music industry and telecoms companies both have in common. “Many promotional practices in the music industry that were useful in the past are no longer effective or relevant” and this means ceaseless promotion of internet-connected experiences that also encourage sustained exposures to wireless radiation emitting technologies may be considered among the music industry’s “unethical tactics.” Network providers and big tech have a stranglehold on the music industry’s economic and ethical trajectories – the fans and performances seem like background noise.

As Musicianwave reports, “stranglehold monopolies and unethical means undermine a free and fair market” and “…musicians only gained 12% of the $43 billion generated in the industry in 2017…It’s a vicious game of chance, and some musicians practice unethical promotion tactics to get ahead….[for example]…major artists have been revealed to have bought fake Twitter followers to the point where it’s almost standard industry practice now.” According to sgeworldwide.com, in addition, “…the use of algorithms in music streaming services to recommend music to listeners has become a controversial topic” and there is a “lack of transparency in how these algorithms work.”

As the BBC reports, “The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said more than 80% of recorded music was now listened to via streaming….[and]…a million streams per month would earn an artist only about £12,000 per year…The number of artists streaming music rose from about 200,000 to 400,000 between 2014 and 2020.” With no-one “fully sure how they will sustain a creative career as the landscape of the industry changes so dramatically” extra pressure to adopt and exploit digital technologies (particularly wireless) is driving commercial music’s increasingly precarious existence, but also its current survival and relationships with wireless interests.

We can appreciate that wireless connectivity and internet-led goals not only encourage a range of unethical practices but also promote sustained unethical exposures to technological radiation (excessive optical radiation, Blutooth, Wi-Fi, RFR, 5G, millimeter waves, etc) which impacts the physical and mental health of the “pawns” that bring the industry such massive profits: the musicians and their fanbases.

Health clearly has long been a side show to industry. Profits are the overriding industry concern. However, today some industry-induced health concerns are beginning to be highlighted. As sgeworldwide.com reports, “Mental health is a growing concern in the music industry, with many artists struggling with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.” When will chronic levels of EMR exposure and screen time be factored into the health equation?

In the era of digital transformation professionals and consumers have some serious choices to make. Making the right choices for health and wellbeing are perhaps more vital than ever before.

Weighing up the cost

Musicians have always faced health impacts that come with the territory, but sadly they have been sparsely studied. As digital technology transforms the profession its influence must be taken into account in future studies. Many scientific studies regarding the optical radiation for digital lighting and the health impacts from radiofrequency radiation (RFR) can be referenced.

Musicians on stage, in transit, at home or in production studio contexts encounter and utilise digital technologies in a variety of ways. Issues arising from exposures to man-made electromagnetic radiation may not have plagued performers in the hey-day of legendary American record producers like Quincy Jones (1933-present), for example, but today they have become more pronounced. Performers are being struck by cancer, bipolar disorder, Parkinson’s Disease, and Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), for example, and digital technologies can play a toxic role. The number of people in the population reporting EHS would appear to outweigh the number with dementia and bipolar disorder combined.

WIth the democratisation of digital music production tools and wireless devices, the general population is still unaware of the risks they are taking on. Some health impacts from technological radiation were being observed before the advent of now ubiquitous EMR and radiofrequency emitting digital devices such as modern computers, and smart phones. As this excerpt from “Electromagnetic hypersensitivity means Peter Lloyd can’t leave his house… or enjoy any modern pleasures inside” by Martin Shipton, Wales Online, Oct 16, 2014, reveals: “As early as the 1930s…EHS symptoms were observed in people working with radio and electricity, and with military radar in the 1940s…Environmental EHS appeared in the general population from the 1970s with computers.” Whether or not the emergence of EHS can be pinpointed as described, clearly EHS is an advancing health issue of our times. It remains ominously taboo and stigmatised in our digital culture.

Quincy Jones’ daughter, Jolie Jones Levine, who is vice president of the Take It Back Foundation, and an actress, vocalist, model, producer, author and the wife of renowned record producer Stewart Levine, has electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). Her experience of the condition is described in an interview with Olle Johansson Ph.D. titled, “I’m Not The Only One!”. https://www.jolietalks.com

She is certainly not the only one. Other performers from guitarist and music producer Ricky Gardiner, Kim De’Atta, a British actress and singer, to Johan Söderberg, a Swedish musician and member of the band The Hives, and many other performers in the public eye have developed EHS and have spoken out about it.

As consumers and performers are presented with more wireless products, and are marketed more incentives to acquire them and stay connected to the internet, EMR becomes a monumental problem across the spectrum of daily life, fuelling potential cases of EHS and other conditions. Wireless instrument and microphone systems are becoming normalised through consumerism and “cable-free” stage performances where performers utilising wireless headsets and equipment are emphasised in exciting content and marketing to make a snappy sale. In reality all adds up increased EMR exposure for a public mostly neglectful of the health implications.

And…it all adds up to more expense. Wireless systems for the professional musician or vocalist are seriously expensive for a high quality outfit, where as kits for the home vocalist or guitar player are more economical, and, can even operate in some of the same frequency ranges too (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz).

Such frequency ranges will cover a person walking across a stadium stage but how many people need that kind of range in their home, a studio, or at a small gig? How many other frequencies are brought to your performance from your other electrical or wireless devices, neighbours’ wireless products, smartmeters, phones, and adjacent electrical and wireless infrastructure? The risk to your health clearly increases with wireless components added in your immediate vicinity, and from closer proximity.

Skyrocketing wireless radiation over the past 20+ years can be considered a real and present occupational risk for professional performers engaging with digital technologies on and off-stage, from powerful LED lighting to powerful wireless systems and computer/smart phone screens. Smart guitars emerging on the market further encourage uptake of novelty wireless “smart” devices that are portable and offer convenience, but still, they emit unhealthy optical and radiofrequency radiation.

Crowding the home, studio or stage with wireless devices (radiofrequency transmitters and receivers that generate electromagnetic radiation) isn’t a good idea if you plan to avoid EMI, and further, the myriad EMR-induced health consequences which include cancer and dementia. No matter how inconvenient, we cannot escape the correlation of digital technology to the epidemic of chronic and debilitating health conditions.

Press coverage of professional musician Ricky Gardiner’s tragic death alerted us to his battle with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS – also known as Microwave Syndrome) from man-made EMR. Sustained EMR exposure can kickstart neurodegenerative diseases, which can also become a consequence of developing EHS, and bipolar disorder, the latter which is regularly spoken of by musicians suffering from the condition and deemed positive for removing the condition’s “stigma”. By comparison EHS receives less positive public attention, and also carries more stigma.

Musicians are not immune to EMR. A stage rig and other industry lifestyle choices that saturate a performer in man-made electromagnetic radiation puts a performer at risk of developing EHS over time. Olle Johansson, Ph.D, a scientist with expertise regarding EMF exposure impacts and EHS, reminds us, “EMFs [electromagnetic fields] disturb immune function through stimulation of various allergic and inflammatory responses, as well as effects on tissue repair processes. Such disturbances increase the risks for various diseases, including cancer. These and the EMF effects on other biological processes (e.g. DNA damage, neurological effects, etc.) are now widely reported to occur at exposure levels significantly below most current national and international safety limits [e.g. FCC, ICNIRP].”

Every performer, whether professional or starting out on the journey of musical and technological integration should ask whether adding wireless functionality is necessary or advantageous, and whether the capacity in your case has the potential to exacerbate the effects of your exposure to occupational electromagnetic fields (or exacerbate any pre-existing health conditions you may already have). In the contexts of home and schools consider that wireless radiation has more impact on developing children who absorb the radiation like sponges for “their brain tissue is more conductive, RF penetration is greater relative to head size, and they will have a longer lifetime of exposure than adults. (Pediatrics, volume 116, Issue 2, August 2005)” Do developing children learning an instrument really need wireless functionality, as offered by plug in transmitters or a “smart guitar”?

Consider that your decisions could eventually affect the progress of yours and others’ careers. Radiation from digital technologies may significantly increase your chances of developing photophobia, EHS or even Parkinson’s Disease, as a result of occupational or recreational exposure. Consider also that music festivals have become seas of wireless radiation as the audiences all carry and use their mobile devices (a radiofrequency transmitter-receiver) creating a level of collective radiation exposure that has surprisingly gone unmonitored and unmentioned. Social media addiction now endemic in audiences’ and musicians’ lives also has immense implications for the physical and mental health of both demographics.

The cumulative impacts of all of these influences, from optical to wireless radiation from digital technologies become part of future health outcomes. Fuelling the silent health crisis are 5G digital developments, where the radiation impact hasn’t been sufficiently studied for its long-term health and safety implications. 5G microwave radiation emissions interfere with human health as studies are showing, but also interferes with wireless microphones, as the “frequency bands can overlap with the ones used by wireless microphones, especially in unlicensed frequency ranges, causing interference,” as sonicfunction.com explains.

We can’t ignore the pressing issue of health impacts from digital technology on musicians and their public. Ask the serious question as a music consumer, or a professional in the music business, is it really necessary to incorporate a wireless system in your current rig, (especially when wired connections are in the main more than adequate for many professional applications) and are the potential risks to your future (and the health of others exposed to your wireless digital systems) worth the ultimate price of doing so?

Image credit: Illustration by Sean Alexander Carney

For entertainment purposes only and not to be misconstrued as medical advice

A reader recently contacted me who said that when she is exposed to RF, her face scrunches up, and her family members can see it.

“to let go of the attachment to certainty, control, coherence, and consumption of things, to be able to sit with difficult, painful, and complex things“ – Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti

I had the privilege of listening to a podcast this week with Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, courtesy of my colleague Kate Kheel.

“We, here, we talk about developing the stomach. To face the amount of shit that we need to compost without throwing up, without throwing a tantrum, and without throwing in the towel. “   

I feel more optimistic than I have in a decade about the rising numbers of individuals tuning into the downsides of the mass society and economy being drunk on tech, especially wireless  –  and I’ll revisit this phenomenon of throwing up. This is a commentary on recent articles, including some that I didn’t post, while compiling recent news for Safe Tech International’s substack community. I discuss some themes I have written about previously, including Chinese Medicine and energy medicine.

I touch on: writing by hand vs. keyboards, Chinese computers, Wi-Fi on school buses, international policies on cellphones and schools, Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti and sanctioned ignorance, the Chinese Luni-solar calendar, Solar Flares and Geomagnetic Storms, precision agriculture, satellites, lower earth orbit, the senses, electroreception in fish and humans, scientific diplomacy, skin research, chronobiology, electromagnetic bodyguards that protect the Brain, the Gall Bladder, the Glymphatic system, homing Instincts and the Vivaxis, and the energetics of disgust, vs. intestinal fortitude, Radiant Circuits, and joy.

If you would like to start receiving Safe Tech International’s news summaries click here.

Why Writing by Hand Beats Typing for Thinking and Learning

This week I posted a news brief that explained more clearly why hand-writing is preferable to keyboards.  NPR reported, “In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material. “There are actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand,” says Ramesh Balasubramaniam, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. “It has important cognitive benefits.” A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting’s power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page. Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples. This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.“

There are some very important things going on during every embodied moment, and problems when we ask the body to un-integrate itself, for example with virtual reality headsets.

Fly Like an Eagle: Chinese Keyboards 20,000 Characters

This week, I also read IEEE Spectrum’s featured article, The Forgotten History of Chinese Keyboards by Thomas S. Mullaney, a professor of Chinese history at Stanford University. “[] one of the most successful and celebrated systems—the IPX, designed by Yeh—featured an interface with 120 levels of “shift,” packing nearly 20,000 Chinese characters and other symbols into a space only slightly larger than a QWERTY interface. Other systems featured keyboards with anywhere from 256 to 2,000 key. [] Yeh started with the most complex parts of the Chinese lexicon and worked back from there. He fixated on one character in particular: ying 鷹 (“eagle”), an elaborate graph that requires 24 brushstrokes to compose.

Image by AnShenTCM from Pixabay Note the complexity of the Chinese characters.

“Things that make you go hmmmmm”…..Does the intricacy of the Chinese written language and the research regarding hand-writing vs. keystrokes have implications for cognition and brain development?

Whereas China and Russia have already banned cell phones in schools for a number of very good reasons, including protecting children’s eyesight, the U.S is promoting installing Wi-Fi on school buses. See: Rosenworcel Defends FCC’s Authority to Expand E-Rate to WiFi Hotspots “It is time for an E-Rate program that supports the educational needs of students and library patrons and permits them to learn without limits,” Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said in a letter to Capitol Hill lawmakers posted to the FCC’s website on May 22.

The (no limits) FCC doesn’t recognize rising mental health issues in children, including bullying and unsupervised access to social media which is why Senator Cruz opposes funding Wi-Fi on school buses, in addition to the increased RF exposure to children, exacerbated by connecting from a moving vehicle.

Tech-ed industries are ignoring the fact that reading in a moving vehicle makes some people throw up, because the body actually isn’t designed for this, and it causes unnecessary and unhealthy physiological stress.

ACTION ALERT Protect Children from Wi-Fi Exposure on School Buses | AlignAct. Learn more here.

Do we keep investing in more tech to grow the economy, while ignoring human health and the nature environment? Could we divert funding for school infrastructure expansion and tech upgrades, including security, towards teaching calligraphy, wellness, art, music, and paying teachers?

See Prof Tom Butler, Ireland: A Critical Review of Digital Technology in Education: A Pause for Thought in 2024 “[] radiation interferes with the children’s ability to learn and also has significant other harmful effects, including on the students’ sleep, vision and attention.”

See also Environmental Health Trust: INTERNATIONAL POLICY BRIEFING Governments, Health Authorities and Schools Enacting Policy to Reduce Radiofrequency Radiation Exposures

“Sanctioned Ignorances”

Nate Hagens interviewed Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti , the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, discussing what she calls ‘hospicing modernity’ –”in order to move beyond the world we’ve come to know and the failed promises that “modernity” has made to our current culture.”  HERE (1 ½ hours)

She noted, “We’re working with sanctioned ignorances that are rewarded.”

This is diametrically opposed to ancient China. If the sages advising the emperor failed to accurately predict the spring thaw, the punishment was death. We would have a lot of dead ‘experts’ including lobbyists and tobacco scientists. if we employed capital punishment and stopped cultivating and sanctioning willful ignorance. They work in plain sight, with no need to hide, in this age of rampant regulatory capture. Medscape confronted tobacco science, as did the World Health Organization historically. so too can utility regulators, legislatures, and the public.   It’s not rocket science.

Counting by Observation – Not Imposing Inaccurate Parameters

In ancient China, as the result of observation and meticulous record keeping (using intricate brush strokes that enhance brain development) an underlying electromagnetic cycle of 12 years was identified. It is depicted in 12 animals seen parading through the Chinese New Years, usually coinciding with the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice. The West observes from a distance, unaware of the complexities transmitted via the qualities associated with the animals, for example, pandemonium when the dog gets into the chicken coop. (The sages were aware that teaching via metaphor also enhances learning and cognition. because it connects both the left and right brain hemispheres.

The sixty-year cycle of the Chinese luni-solar calendar was introduced by Emperor Huang Ti in 2637 B.C. It could be informing not only biodynamic gardening but also health care, because the human body is synchronized by the electromagnetic patterns within the cosmic current, – daily, by the solar year, lunar month, seasons, and in longer cycles, with implications for right timing.

Unless those energies are polluted with interference.

Smart watches and cell phones are out of synch with the cosmos, even more amplified during daylight savings time-initiated as the result of war. We do not know where we are in time and space, or if the guideposts are changing. This makes it challenging to recognize being out of right rhythm.

How One Counts, Counts

As opposed to aligning with the twelve animals cycling through 5 elements, creating a sixty-year cycle, the West has systematized itself to quantifying data by decades and centuries, perhaps sourced back to humans counting on ten fingers.

Now, the World Health Organization has shifted its categories for death into 20-year cohorts, obscuring the earlier onset of skyrocketing and devastating neurological illnesses. See; Bournemouth University (U.K) researchers Colin Pritchard and Emily Rosenorn-Lanng, Neurological deaths of American adults (55–74) and the over 75’s by sex compared with 20 Western countries 1989–2010: Cause for concern. “Have USA total neurological deaths (TNDs) of adults (55-74) and the over 75’s risen more than in twenty Western Countries?” The answer is “Yes.”

A lack of understanding of the synchronization between the cosmos and human life on Earth has worrying implications for plans to colonize Mars or the Moon – not to preserve the light of human consciousness, but to fuel more economic growth and resource acquisition.

We could actually use so called “artificial intelligence” to re-classify data and explore new patterns. But the data has to be collected in the first place. We have instead opted to ridicule reported harm caused by wireless technology, for example, from the pollution caused by the ‘smart grid, with renewables and so-called energy efficiency causing high voltage transients to radiate into occupied living spaces.

Examples of junk data include mis-categorizing microwave hearing as tinnitus from an unknown source, reclassifying certain types of tumors, and not counting all fatalities, for example from industrial exposures. (See: Making a cancer cluster disappear – Center for Public Integrity)

Solar Flares and Geomagnetic Storms

Solar flares were also in this month’s news with adverse effects on precision agriculture. “Strong storms can knock out electric grids, and a storm in 1989 knocked out the entire power grid in Quebec, affecting six million people.” “404 Media published an article that documented problems experienced by the GPS navigation systems in John Deere and other brands of tractors. Precision GPS allows John Deere tractors to navigate precise straight lines using Real-Time Kinematic technology that is accurate to within a few centimeters. Farmers were warned about planting new line crops like corn during the current storm since inaccurately aligned planting makes it impossible to precisely run tractors during the rest of the season for weeding, watering, and fertilizing the rows or crops. The current storm hit during the week when farmers in the Midwest were planting many of their crops.”

Precision agriculture is promoted, for example, to determine when crops need to be watered by sending signals from tractors and fields to satellites and back to computers. This data is being harvested to fuel commodities trading.

In earlier epochs when the sky served as the clock and the calendar, farmers followed guidance passed down for generations about living in the rhythm of nature and knew when to water.

The satellite frenzy has no disposal plan. As Space4Peace noted, “Out of 34,260 objects tracked in orbit, only around 8,300 are functioning satellites while the rest are junk, such as broken satellites or discarded rocket stages.” Can we become more knowledgeable about and protective of the electromagnetic frequencies that sustain life on Earth, including the importance of LEO – lower earth orbit, which is rapidly being transformed into an orbiting junk yard?

If we can’t figure out how to live in harmony on, and with, the planet we co-evolved with across eons of time, how can we become ‘an interplanetary species?’

The Senses

At her site Highly Sensitive Refuge, Heather Lawson published her article Scientists Believe We Have More Than 5 Senses. What Does That Mean for Highly Sensitive People? “Research suggests humans may have up to 33 senses, not five. How many of them could impact your high sensitivity — and sensory overload?” The article references this link: How many senses do humans have? “Defensible answers are: 3: the number of physical types of stimulus: light (photons), chemicals (smell, taste, and internal sensors), mechanical (touch and hearing). 9: vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell, pain, mechanoreception (balance etc.), temperature, interoreceptors (e.g. blood pressure, bladder stretch). 21 (see table below) Of course the real answer is that this is the wrong way to look at it. Sensing doesn’t cause perception: real perception is all about integrating information across senses, across time, across space if you are (as is normal) moving around partly in order to perceive better.

“If we go beyond humans then there are many more again: sonar in bats (and some moths); infrared in pit vipers; ultraviolet in bees; magnetic fields detected by some birds (and just possibly, humans too). And perhaps most surprising to humans: the electric senses found in various fish species. Electroreception: the detection of nearby things, particularly other fish, by the electric field they radiate. Active electrolocation, where a fish emits an electric field, and senses how it is changed by nearby objects (especially other fish).”

Electroreception in Humans – is in the Meridians

“Real perception is about integrating all information, especially evidence of harm.”

What if we have more than 33 senses, but we don’t know how to process them? What if we understood the implications of the knowledge that we evolved from fish?

The Chinese recognized electroreception in humans, and we can witness it in real time with our own eyes. If you watch a group of 5–7-year-olds who are just learning to play soccer, watch for the child on one team who can dribble around every other player on the field. He/she didn’t learn it from a drill; the child has a stronger inborn electromagnetic sensory system along the outside line of the body, which tells him/her which way to move. The athlete is responding energetically, via the subtle energy body, faster than the thought process of guessing which way the other player will pivot.

The sensory intelligence is the Gall Bladder Meridian, which runs along both outside edges of the body. Not all humans are endowed equally with Gall Bladder energy, but everyone has it, even if the organ has been removed, and the energy can be cultivated, or abused.  

Scientific Diplomacy – Learning from China and Russia, and Women

If the West were to embrace the teachings of the Chinese seers, we could understand that the Gall Bladder, like all the Meridians, responds in real time to the environment as an electromagnetic, sensory, protective apparatus with mechanical capabilities. Every organ system manifests periods of low and high tides, choreographed by the Sun. Gall Bladder is considered to be an electrical bodyguard for the Heart and the Brain, due to the Law of Midday/Midnight. 

Recognizing Bodyguards: Safeguarding the Brain

Image by Acupuncture Box from Pixabay

The Gall Bladder Meridian (blue on top of skull, working alongside Triple Heater circling around the ear and jaw) can contract, tightening the plates in the skull to protect the Brain from unsafe exposures. This is one probable underlying component of reported symptoms of EHS, or sensitivity to electromagnetic fields., also referred to as microwave poisoning. The defense offers inborn protection against something found in nature- a lightning strike.

We can track an individual’s particular pattern of damage through the Meridians as they alter their functionality, to protect the Heart and the Brain from pollution.

One way the body can do this is through rebellious chi, when energy goes in the wrong direction – by throwing up.

Another way is to have a hollow body organ empty quickly, out of rhythm – like a sudden need to use the restroom or a nosebleed.

This capacity is one reason why the hollow organs are viewed as bodyguards for the other organs in Chinese Medicine and classified as Yang.

The Chinese mystics, astronomers, and healers, with their 20,000 symbols and desire to understand patterns, attempted to identify and treat the cause, and not the symptoms. – the roots and not the branches.

Is Removing the Gall Bladder Akin to Taking the Bulb out of Warning Light?

A contracted skull creates a brain that is pressurized, overheated, dehydrated, and unable to detoxify. (The West has only very recently discovered the brain’s glymphatic system.)

The Gall Bladder alarm has been sounding for quite some time, warning humans that something is out of balance. So has the explosion of chronic childhood illnesses. The Spleen, which distributes Chi throughout the organism, is also under fire especially in women and children, via the tonsils, thyroid and auto-immune illnesses. This has been going on for more than sixty years, (although routine tonsillectomies have fallen out of favor.)

One yogi who came to the U.S. 60 years ago was fond of saying that Americans lost the owner’s manual to their bodies. The Eastern mind-body self-care teachings that align with the cosmic current go against time as money, mass for-profit medicine; standard of care; emphasis on surgery and drugs: mandates; and other modern constructs.

As opposed to the electromagnetic meridian system’s capacity to contract the skull, the idea that health care should align with the planet’s electromagnetic energies, (for example avoiding unnecessary surgery at the full moon to reduce bleeding) causes others to lose their heads, with the vitriol historically resulting in the witch trials.

Image by kian2018 from Pixabay A Chinese Medicine practitioner palpates the pulses of the different organs via the wrist. Research on cadavers does not illuminate the energetic foundations of a health imbalance.

Just because modern society does not recognize or utilize the accumulated wisdom of the East or indigenous societies does not mean that it will always be this way. We can change this. We have access to the maps. We can learn how to use them.

The canaries with ‘electromagnetic hypersensitivity’ are exposing individualized patterns of electromagnetic distress between the differing meridians and deep internal organs, against the changing backdrop of time, caused by electromagnetic pollution. Many others are experiencing injury and don’t know it.

Skin That Keeps Track of Time

Chronobiology is ancient in the East. The research field of chronobiology is very new in the West. ”Chronobiology is a field of biology that studies how our body’s natural cycles—mental, physical and emotional—are affected by solar and lunar rhythms. For example, the circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle of physiological processes that happen throughout the human body, is a vital cycle in the study of chronobiology. When these processes break down, or abnormalities occur in the human body, it’s the study of chronobiology that could be the solution.”

Artificial manmade fields apparently disrupt the symmetry between the body and the cosmic current.

Science Daily recently reported that Synchronization between central circadian clock and circadian clocks of tissues preserves their functioning “Two complementary research articles reveal that central and peripheral circadian clocks coordinate to regulate the daily activity of skin and muscles. The coordination between the two clocks (central and peripheral) guarantees 50% of the circadian functions of tissues, including vital processes such as the cell cycle, DNA repair, mitochondrial activity, and metabolism. Synchronization between the central brain clock and peripheral ones prevents premature muscle aging and improves muscle function, suggesting new strategies to tackle age-related decline through circadian rhythm modulation. The peripheral clock of the skin integrates and modulates brain signals. In the study published in Cell Stem Cell, the team has demonstrated that the skin circadian clock is pivotal in coordinating the daily physiology of this tissue. By integrating brain signals, and sometimes by modifying them, this coordination ensures the correct functioning of the skin.”

Researchers looking for circadian clocks may be discovering the Meridian pathways and/or the 108 Marma points and 72,000 Nadis of India’s Ayurveda, one at a time. What if we looked at the maps?

Homing Instincts – the Vivaxis

In 2000, Australian naturopath Judy Jacka published her book, The Vivaxis Connection, based on the earlier work of Canadian Francis Nixon. Before humans relied on satellite-enabled GPS systems, is it possible that our ancestors who were the most resilient and who survived the demands of challenging environments were also the ones who had the best-developed navigational skills? And what if those skills were not just intellectual, such as navigating by the stars, but were also housed in the energy body itself as another inborn physical sensory system, designed by nature, to help ensure our survival and ability to find our way home? Do humans, like other animals, possess a forgotten inborn homing system?

Dowsers use their bodies as a source of information via subtle energy, for example, to locate water. Churches historically used dowsers to determine placement on a power spot. Does everyone possess the ability to dowse?

The theory of the vivaxis is that a specific location is pause-locked into the energy field at birth. This homing mechanism would have huge implications for survival in earlier times.  Judy explains how this capacity is diminished, and one factor is electromagnetic pollution.

Energy medicine teacher Donna Eden, who can see energy, has been working with the vivaxis for years.  (This includes consideration of migraines as a vivaxis on the Gall Bladder meridian.)

“Without Throwing Up” – Disgust vs. Diplomacy

When Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti addressed the need “to face the amount of shit that we need to compost without throwing up, without throwing a tantrum, and without throwing in the towel“ she warned that not everyone has the intestinal fortitude to read her new book “Hospicing Modernity Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism.”

“It is related to opening that lid as we expand our capacity to see the different moving layers of complexity, to let go of the attachment to certainty, control, coherence, and consumption of things, to be able to sit with difficult, painful, and complex things without feeling overwhelmed or immobilized.”

The Chinese identified the specific pathway in the body related to disgust, where one’s energy field shuts down in response to something un-digestible. It is the Penetrating Flow. The Penetrating Flow also carries Joy, as Donna Eden teaches here in a free class about the Radiant Circuits. (Radiant circuits operate alongside the Meridians, but are activated when needed, for example due to a temperature extreme like falling through the ice.)

Addressing Intellectual Warfare

The ability to detect spoiled food is an evolutionary capacity, and a specific part of the brain is associated with ‘disgust’.

It is not evolutionary to be disgusted by consumers reporting harm to health and the environment from inadequately regulated industries.

We are being indoctrinated into warfare against China and Russia, as well as against ourselves via surveillance tech. The mass media is programming our electromagnetic frequencies and cognition via our emotions.

We can instead use the knowledge of the Radiant Circuits and become absorbed in and entranced by the opportunities we face, and mesmerized by the ancient and indigenous knowledge that can inform our work.

We have the hardware to do this, running in our physicality.

As Paris Marx notes, Tech Won’t Wave Us.

Superspreaders

I learned recently that researchers have studied what they call Key Misinformation Superspreaders,- older women. Here is a short list, courtesy my colleagues at Safe Tech International.

Whichever tech leaders and policy makers stop perpetuating disgust towards each other, and to the men, women, and children who recognize the harm unfolding via tech overreach first (especially wireless) – will be accessing our evolutionary capacities.

Everything else is just pretend progress, pretend sustainability, pretend energy efficiency, pretend conservation, pretend renewables, pretend education, pretend earnings, pretend justice, pretend research, pretend accessibility, pretend science, pretend military prowess and pretend freedom.

When we hold a cell phone to the ear, the ancient seers (who could see energy) would tell us that we are draining our Gall Bladder and Triple Warmer chi and stealing vitality from other organ systems, because of the increased, artificial, external demands on the body.

The Vedic masters might have described it as “burning the Ojas.” “Our vitality, immunity, vigor, skin, sleep, digestion, spirituality and physical strength are all directly influenced by our reserve of ojas. A plentiful reserve of ojas is reflected in the luster of the eyes, radiance of the skin (that glow so detectable in babies and pregnant women), potent fertility, tenacious immunity, strong digestion and clarity of mind.”– John Douillard

While the ancients didn’t have to give advice about Wi-Fi and cellphones, they recognized fatigue and imbalance.

Opening the mind may literally require putting down the phone.

Gall Bladder is associated with courage. Nurturing the Gall Bladder protects the Brain and the Heart, and that is what makes us human.

There is incredible joy is this humble journey, but it is not for the faint of Heart.

As Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti noted, “We are talking about the ability to say the buck stops here, in my generation.”

Recommended: Vanessa Andreotti: “Hospicing Modernity and Rehabilitating Humanity” | The Great Simplification 125 (youtube.com)

The killdeer bird is a fascinating species. They lay their eggs in nests made of a few twigs or random pieces of straw loosely scattered on the ground. This spring I had the good fortune of being graced by a mama and papa killdeer who set up camp in the middle of my rather long driveway. Mama sat faithfully on the eggs through rain and shine, wind and cold, while Papa circled overhead or nearby to keep mama and the eggs safe. 

Although not great homemakers, judging by their makeshift nest in the middle of a driveway, killdeer are fierce defenders of their young. If a predator approaches, the killdeer responds with what’s known as the “broken wing display”, letting one wing droop as they hobble about feigning injury to lure the predator away from the nest.

Wanting to protect my new feathery friends, I put up a roadblock made of shovels and other odds and ends; and a few feet away, on either side of the driveway, I placed two large signs: One read BIRD’S NEST and had an arrow pointing toward the nest, and the other DROP BOX beneath which was a bucket for deliveries. 

Every day I came by and checked on the birds. Most often, I found mama killdeer faithfully atop her eggs, and papa nearby making sure all was well.  

A few days ago, a 12-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister surprised me with a visit. They proudly presented me with a bracelet they had made. It even had my name on it. I was genuinely touched by the gesture. 

After thanking them, they stayed on awhile and we chatted. Noticing the boy had an ear bud in his ear, I explained to him earbuds are quite harmful both from the radiofrequency that goes straight into the brain, as well as from all the germs they carry when passed around among children. He admitted the kids in his class do share them “all the time”. “Eww!” gasped his grossed-out sister taking a step away from her brother. The boy respectfully removed his ear bud. 

As we talked on, he confessed that since he had gotten a cell phone he really didn’t enjoy doing much besides playing on his phone. When I hear this from children, I feel genuinely saddened. I apologized deeply on behalf of my generation for having robbed them of a childhood of exploration and discovery. 

The boy told me his grandfather only lets him use the cellphone an hour and a half a day, and so he does sometimes go outside to play with frogs or snakes. He then added, “As a matter of fact, on the way over here just now I saw some bird eggs in your driveway and moved them.”

My face must have turned white. I ran outside with the children trailing behind me to see if anything could be done. “Didn’t you see the signs nearby and the shovels blocking the driveway?” I asked, somewhat rhetorically and clearly upset. His sister scolded him, “See, I told you not to.”

We walked briskly toward the nest, and as might be expected found the mama bird very distressed, searching all over trying to make sense of what had happened. The boy led me to where he had put the eggs, and I carefully lay them back in the nest…hoping for the best. The children went home, but there remained a thick fog of confusion and incoherence as their kindness and perhaps hurt merged with the mama bird’s distress and likely the father’s as well, and my own sadness and disappointment.

I came back about an hour later to check on the birds hoping things would be back to normal; but oddly, the birds and eggs were gone. All that remained was the empty nest.  

Had the boy not had earbuds would he have understood more?

I returned home and did some reading. Apparently, killdeer do occasionally relocate their nest by rolling the eggs along the ground. That gave me a modicum of solace and hope that the couple had found a safer place. 

I thought further about what had transpired that day. Had the boy not had the earbuds would he perhaps have seen the killdeer birds which were surely close by, or heard their high-pitched call? Would he have noticed the large signs on either side of the nest and the makeshift barricade in the middle of driveway, and pieced together the fuller picture beyond just the isolated bird eggs on the ground? His younger sister, unencumbered by technology was certainly able to. I recalled her intuition as her words echoed in my mind, “See, I told you not to.” 

Life lives in the relational field between all beings. Cellphones and earbuds take us ever deeper into an isolated and artificially concocted silo. Absorbed in our own made-to-order experience, only a portion of our minds and attention are left to interact with and respond to the world around us. When skimming through life, eyes glued to a screen or ears plugged up with buds, little focused attention remains for context, nuance, subtleties, and relationship – the real stuff of life. 

My mind wandered back to the mama killdeer. I thought about her love and devotion to the soon-to-be chicks; a love that just is with no extrinsic reason or justification. Mama killdeer wasn’t trying to be a “good mother” because it was the “right thing to do”, or because her culture taught her that was the way of the killdeer. She didn’t expect praise or gratitude in return for her love. Her love was pure. No adornment. Just fierce love. And though I didn’t focus as much on the father’s love, it too seemed free from egoic overtones of pride or duty in his role as protector. 

But what struck me even more was the intensity and steadfastness of the birds as they tended to the affairs of their life. They were fully present responding to what was before them at every moment.  Has technology obscured the innate gifts of protection and steadfast love bestowed upon us by Mother Nature and that ensure our survival? 

I wondered what our world would be like if humans lived and loved with this same kind of unselfconscious and steadfast presence. No cell phone or ear buds vying for our attention. Time stretched out before us and behind us never coercing or pulling us away from the vibrancy and richness of the present moment. In the spring, treading oh so lightly upon the ground as Mother Earth is pregnant; and in the winter, listening deeply as within her bowels she prepares once again for new life. And nothing, but nothing drawing us out of relationship with all that surrounds us.  

My mind wandered back to how things had gone down for the children that day. Would my strong reaction about the birds leave an unintended scar on them? Heaven knows, we don’t need more scarred people now. Realizing the boy and his sister will play a role in helping civilization find its way through these troubled times, I decided to write them a letter… a bit of which follows. 

I learned a lesson today – that even when we humans love animals and are trying to help, we can accidentally do the wrong thing if we don’t know enough about the ways of Mother Nature. 

Free from a cellphone or ear buds, you will come to know so much more about the workings of creation, and your helping hand can be an exquisite blessing to life. 

I don’t know how much they understood…just yet. Perhaps it will take a mass Exodus from Cyber Space and a return to the Holy Land – i.e. Mother Earth – for our children to hear, sense, and once again understand.  

Compiled by Patricia Burke of Safe Tech International with Sean Carney

(European and Canadian spelling is intact)

Human Rights and Story Telling

In the article Can films fix the global challenges of human rights? Julián Ginzo, writing for the United Nations Today quoted Laura Longobardi, “Films put a face to issues and humanize complex situations that can be hard to explain through reports and conferences. Films can be powerful tools for change [].”

The website “The power of film for storytelling, health and human rights advocacy for the Internews Health Journalism Network quoted  Deeyah Khan “What film and stories do is give us a tiny crack where we can each recognise our own humanity in someone else, in that space, we understand each other, and when we understand each other, we care. And once you do that, something better becomes possible.” Oyenchimeg  Demchigobserved “Foreign films and documentaries can fill a public interest content gap and stir conversations about issues that local media don’t touch, []. These films provide compelling stories where audiences can see similarities with their own experiences. They then can start questioning if what is happening to them is normal and often get inspired to find solutions.”

Internationally, film festival organizers and film-makers are ahead of the curve, actively breaking stereotypes and addressing discrimination, marginalization, and human rights abuses, through story-telling about the environmentally-induced condition microwave illness, also known as Electromagnetic Sensitivity.

Remembering Nearfield, Award-Winning UK Documentary Film by Sean Carney

Remembering Nearfield Documentary Film Synopsis: A wife and entrepreneur devoted to her family and business tragically loses everything as her health mysteriously declines. Why is she now left alone and unable to function in society? All is revealed through a series of startling events and a final, uncomfortable diagnosis – International Documentary, Director Sean Alexander Carney, Narration: Corriëlle van Vuuren Piano Music: Kate Kheel

View the 9-minute animated film here: 

Remembering Nearfield, India and Canada Award Nominations

Award-winning Remembering Nearfield has now been shortlisted in the Great Maple Screen Festival of Canada for Best Animation.  The film is also a semifinalist in the Kalaburagi International Film Festival 2024 (India) in the Short Film category.

New York City, May 19^th Nominated for Best International Animated Documentary

Its contemporary importance as a documentary has been recognised closer to home for it has been officially nominated for Best International Animated Documentary at the Venus on Broadway International Film Festival 2024.

The film festival’s screenings, red carpet event and awards ceremony will be held at the state-of-the-art venue the Secret Room in New York City May 19th. https://indiefilmonline.com/venus-on-broadway-iff 

Kate Kheel of Safe Tech International who composed and performed the piano soundtrack for the film, will be there in person representing Remembering Nearfield throughout the festivities.

The full film schedule and blocks including the trailer are listed and available here:  https://indiefilmonline.com/nominees.

Ireland: Environmental Film Festival; Award Winning Film “Freequencies” by Seventeen-Year-Old Olivia Louise Curto

Remembering Nearfield was shown on television in Belfast, Northern Ireland in December 2023 as part of the Inheritance Environmental Film Festival.

Now, another film about EMF/EHS by a 17-year-old film-maker from Ireland was recently awarded 2^nd place in the Fresh Films Ireland Festival.

The Leitram Observer reported, Leitrim’s young filmmaker remarkable achievement at Fresh Films Ireland 2024 “Fresh Films Ireland 2024 has once again captured the hearts of audiences and critics alike. Leitrim 17-year-old Olivia Louise Curto achieved an incredible feat by securing 2nd place at Fresh Films Ireland 204 with her film, ‘Freequencies’. The film masterfully explores the broader implications of our increasingly digital existence, advocating for a world where human connections transcend technological ties. The film festival, which began as a modest video competition in 1997 under the umbrella of the Limerick Film Festival, has grown exponentially over the years. Today, it stands as a crucial platform that nurtures young talent, having introduced thousands of budding filmmakers to the world stage. 

The 2024 edition of Fresh Films was particularly exhilarating. It marked a significant milestone by being broadcast live on RTE2 from 7 to 9 PM on April 29, allowing an even larger audience to partake in the celebration of young cinematic talent.

This year’s festival saw participation from over 13,648 applicants from 150 countries, illustrating its global reach and influence not only highlights her filmmaking prowess but also brings a wave of pride to Leitrim, celebrating its own on an international stage.” https://www.leitrimobserver.ie/news/home/1490156/leitrims-young-filmmaker-remarkable-achievement-at-fresh-films-ireland-2024.html

Watch the 14 ½ minute film Freequencies here:

Canada Update: May is Environmental Sensitivities Awareness/Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS/ES) Awareness

May 1 the Manitoba Legislative Building was lit yellow for the third year. Marg Friesen of the Environmental Health of Manitoba supported this endeavour. On May 12, Canada’s MCS/ES Awareness Day, the High Level Bridge in Edmonton, Alberta will be lit yellow and green for the fifth year. Environmental Health Association of Alberta also supported this effort.

Carney’s film Remembering Nearfield is nominated for Best Animation in the May 10th Great Maple Film Festival,

Watch for further outreach and advocacy concerning EHS from the international community, including Canada – where the Environmental Health Clinic (EHC), a unique multidisciplinary clinic in Ontario was established in 1996 by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to be a provincial resource in promoting environmental health and to improve health care for people with chronic complex environmentally-linked conditions such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and Environmental Sensitivities, including both Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (ES/MCS) and Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity. – Source: https://www.electrosensitivesociety.com/

Global EHS Day: Cœurs d’EHS June 16, 2024: World EHS Day – World Day of Intolerance to Electromagnetic Pollution

The 7th annual EHS Day is officially underway! “All over the world there are Electro Hyper Sensitive People hiding in the most remote, isolated, forgotten and desperate places.”

“On June 16th, the 7th edition of the World Day of Intolerance to Electromagnetic Pollution will take place, so renamed in order to clearly understand that electro-hypersensitive people (EHS) have become so because of an ultra-polluted environment. It is indeed important to underline that the problem comes from environmental pollution and not from a disease from which EHS suffer. When EHS sufferers spend enough time in an unpolluted environment, their health recovers by itself. To cure EHS, you don’t need medication, but a healthy environment! EHS sufferers are sentinels of human health and alerters. Listening to them is also saving oneself from the danger of this gigantic pollution that is totally ignored.

Electromagnetic pollution is not only toxic for EHS, it also weakens the immune defenses of the whole population and is a major co-factor in the triggering of various pathologies depending on the fragility of each individual. That’s why reducing electrosmog should be a priority public health objective… which it won’t be as long as the telecoms lobbies are able to make a profit by irradiating the whole planet, to the detriment of our health and biodiversity. The objective of the World EHS Day is not only to highlight the moral and physical suffering of the millions of EHS people already impacted by electromagnetic pollution but also to warn the rest of the population about a danger they are unaware of.” – http://coeursdehs.fr/june-16-world-ehs-day-world-day-of-intolerance-to-electromagnetic-pollution/

Other International Developments

In the Netherlands, EHS is officially recognized as a disability. The Dutch EHS foundation, Stichting EHS, has achieved a big success for people with EHS to be covered by the UN Convention on Disability.

A Danish housing association is now building 50 residential buildings specifically for people who are electrosensitive and chemically sensitive.

Accredited training offered to health care providers in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of EMF illnesses is now available free of charge to the general public here.

‘Safety’ Guidelines as Institutional Discrimination

Encyclopedia Britannica notes: “Discrimination- the intended or accomplished differential treatment of persons or social groups for reasons of certain generalized traits. For the most part, discrimination results in some form of harm or disadvantage to the targeted persons or groups. While intentional discrimination occurs at the level of individuals, institutional discrimination denotes explicit policies of social institutions that exclude, impede, or otherwise harm certain groups.”

Currently, international radio frequency exposure guidelines do not recognize non-thermal effects of non-ionizing radiation, with inanimate safety testing protocols based on the measurements of an adult military male, thereby actively discriminating against women and children. (See the US court ruling here regarding the FCC and children, vulnerable populations, and the environment. The FCC and industry have ignored the remand.)

The two international EMF-based films give voice to these two vulnerable populations.

The Human Rights Film Network notes, “Human rights films are films that reflect, inform on and provide understanding of human rights, and portray visions and aspirations to redress violations of these rights.”

Read More: Remembering Nearfield

Save the Date: May 19, NY ‘Venus on Broadway International Film Festival’ Includes EHS Film ‘Remembering Nearfield’ (Note that the New York City community has been actively opposing the installation of 5G monopoles – see 4,000 GIANT-SIZED 5G ANTENNAS PROPOSED FOR NEW YORK CITY – OPPOSITION GROWS and LinkNYC 5G Tower Hearing Finds Limited City Oversight of Program Administration, Demonstrates Need For Better Processes due health, environmental, and aesthetics concerns.) 

Review of Remembering Nearfield by Safe Tech International

Remembering Nearfield: A review by Karen Churchill (UK)

EHS Film “Remembering Nearfield” is Finalist: Cannes World Film Festival ”A multi-award-winning international film catalysing global awareness of electromagnetically induced harm and disability.”

Excessive screen time has been directly linked to eye damage. In addition, reading in a moving vehicle is associated with motion sickness, dizziness, and nausea. Yet the Federal Communications Commission is funding installation of Wi-Fi on school buses, purportedly so that children can complete their homework.  Don’t fall for it.

When Paying Attention Saved a Busload of Kids

About a year ago, Business Insider reported, A 7th grader who saved his school bus after the driver passed out was the only one not distracted by his phone, report says A Michigan seventh grader guided his school bus to safety last month after its driver passed out. Dillon Reeves jumped to action because he was not on his phone, his father told CBS News. Other students on the bus told CBS that they were either listening to music or playing games. “What else are you going to do when you don’t have a phone? You’re going to look at people, you’re going to notice stuff. You’re going to look out the window,” Dillon’s father, Steve, told CBS. “It’s a very powerful lesson, maybe a change-the-world kind of lesson.”

May 14, 2023, the Guardian reported, Not having cellphone allowed US boy to save runaway bus from crashing While other students on the bus were engrossed with their devices, Dillon Reeves noticed the driver in distress and guided bus to safety. “A Michigan boy who recently stopped a school bus from crashing after the driver lost consciousness leapt into action because he was the only passenger not distracted by an electronic device, according to a new report from CBS. On Sunday, two weeks after seventh-grader Dillon Reeves regained control of a school bus when its driver became unconscious, the network reported that the boy’s parents’ refusal to provide him a cellphone paid off in a big way.”

NPR’s version of the story omitted the fact that other children were distracted by devices.

Metaphorically, much of society is like the more than 60 children who were focused on their devices, while one child was paying attention.  We need to look up from our devices.

Background: Authorizing Funding for Wi-fi on School Buses

On June 26, 2023, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel launched an initiative to expand the E-Rate program to install Wi-Fi hotspots off campus, including on school buses and in students’ and library patrons’ homes.

In response to the FCC’s ruling, Matthew and Maurine Molak filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Mr. and Mrs. Molak are the founders of David’s Legacy Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to kids’ online safety and advocacy against cyberbullying. 

Sen. Cruz has introduced bipartisan legislation to limit children’s access to social media at school by requiring schools receiving E-Rate funding to prohibit access on subsidized services, devices, and networks. While existing law requires schools collecting E-Rate subsidies to certify that software is in place blocking or filtering access to obscenity, child pornography, and other harmful sexual content, there is currently no provision requiring schools to block access to distracting and addictive social media apps or websites.- Source

The FCC’s Decision Is Both “Dangerous” And “Unlawful”

Wireless Estimator reports, “U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz, along with several Republican senators, has filed an amicus brief in the Fifth Circuit, opposing the Biden administration’s move to extend the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-Rate program to include funding for Wi-Fi on school buses.

The lawsuit, titled Molak v. FCC, has been instigated by parents worried about the potential for their children to access social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram unsupervised during bus rides to and from school. Senator Cruz criticized the FCC’s decision as both “dangerous” and “unlawful,” asserting that it would promote unsupervised access to addictive social media apps, which he believes are detrimental to the youth. “The FCC’s decision to fund children’s unsupervised access to social media on bus rides to and from school is both dangerous and unlawful. I’m glad to support other concerned parents in opposing this reckless rule, and I thank my colleagues for joining me in our effort to keep kids safe,” Cruz stated. [] Furthermore, the senators criticize the FCC for not having conducted adequate analysis or oversight regarding Wi-Fi’s effectiveness and educational impact on school buses. They express concerns that the lack of rigorous assessment might lead to wasteful federal spending and fail to address potential negative effects on minors, such as exposure to inappropriate content and cyberbullying.”

The Filing: https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca5/23-60641

Senator Cruz Press Release: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2024/4/sen-cruz-leads-amicus-brief-opposing-biden-s-effort-to-subsidize-tiktok-on-school-buses

Senator Cruz Amicus Brief: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/CDBA9457-177E-4EC3-8A04-358D1C2E6C84

Creating a Mismatch Between the Sensory System, the Environment, and the Brain: Cellphones and Screens

Research regarding the harm to children posed by unsupervised access to the internet and social media is mounting.

The entire relationship between children and tech needs a review. There are a number of other very good reasons to oppose school bus Wi-Fi. There are commonalities between virtual reality technologies and reading while in a moving vehicle, both of which are being viewed as economic drivers.  But both can induce stress and scramble the body’s sensory systems, including eyesight and posture, with the potential for long-term, permanent damage.

How much further will the illusion be sustained that this is beneficial to anyone, but especially children?

Industries and their regulators no signs of slowing down, viewing obstacles as opportunities and assuming that they can mitigate any challenges with more technology, while outsourcing costs of harm to health and the environment.

Reading in a Moving Vehicle:  Dizziness and Nausea

In June of 2023, Business Insider reported, Why reading can make you carsick, according to an expert.

“[] Insider spoke with neuropsychiatrist Dr. Ooha Susmita.

Reading in the car causes a ‘sensory mismatch.’ The sickness is caused by a disconnect between the systems responsible for someone’s balance and spatial orientation or, as Susmita explained, “a conflict between the information received by their eyes and the sensations felt by their inner ears.”

Your brain thinks you’re moving in the car because it is perceiving motion through your inner ear, while your eyes are focusing on a stationary object, Susmita said.”

“This creates a sensory mismatch, as your eyes are sending signals that you are not moving, in contradiction to your inner ears, which detect motion and changes in direction,” she said. “This sensory conflict, leading to a disruption in the body’s normal sense of balance, can result in symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, sweating, and sometimes, vomiting.“

Focus on the Eyes: Myopia

“Nearsightedness is a vision condition in which close objects look clear but far objects look blurry. The medical term for nearsightedness is myopia. Myopia happens when the shape of the eye — or the shape of certain parts of the eye — causes light rays to bend or refract. Light rays that should be focused on nerve tissues at the back of the eye, called the retina, are focused in front of the retina instead. [] Nearsightedness is a refractive error. This problem happens when the shape or condition of the cornea — or the shape of the eye itself — causes an inaccurate focusing of the light passing into the eye. Nearsightedness usually results when the eye is too long or oval-shaped rather than round. It also may result when the curve of the cornea is too steep. With these changes, light rays come to a point in front of the retina and cross. The messages sent from the retina to the brain are perceived as blurry.” –Source

“Smartphones and Tablets: A Myopiagenic Double Threat”

Myopia rates are increasing worldwide and attributed to device use.

The GreenMed article The Childhood Myopia Epidemic: Screen Time to Blame; Red Light To the Rescue reports, “Smartphones and Tablets: A Myopiagenic Double Threat Two recent systematic reviews implicate smart devices like phones and tablets as risk factors for childhood myopia. The first combined data from over 50,000 participants across 33 studies. More total screen time raised a child’s odds of myopia by 77%.3 Smartphone use alone increased risk by 26%. The second review focused specifically on tablet use. More daily tablet screen exposure associated with 40% higher myopia odds.4 Experts hypothesize why these portable screens pose problems. Their small size encourages closer viewing distances, increasing focus demand. Whatever the mechanism, with the average 8-10 year old spending over 4 hours a day on screens,6 myopia progression seems inevitable for many.

In addition, “Blue Light: An Overlooked Culprit, The high-energy blue light emitted by device screens carries particular concern. Blue light may impair retinal neurotransmitters influencing eye growth.5  Animal research shows blue wavelength exposure triggers retinal changes that spur axial elongation and myopia development.7 Experts now implicate blue light’s disruption of circadian rhythms in altering ocular growth regulation.8 Reducing blue light exposure could provide a dual benefit – decreased eye strain and myopia protection.“

Myopia: Not Just a Matter of Eyeglasses, Long Term Risks

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2023 Changing paradigm in the management of childhood myopia reports, “The prevalence of myopia has been on the rise in recent decades. Global myopia prevalence is projected to increase to 49.8% and high myopia prevalence to 9.8% in 2050 if no effective interventions are undertaken to control its onset and progression. []Myopia is a major public health concern worldwide due to its signifcant impact on ocular health and the economy. Each additional one dioptre (D) of myopia is associated with a 20%, 21%, 30% and 58% increase in the risk of open-angle glaucoma, posterior subcapsular cataract, retinal detachment and myopic maculopathy respectively [2]. These pathologies signifcantly increase the risk of visual impairment and blindness in a myope’s lifetime. In fact, degenerative myopia is a major cause of irreversible blindness in many Asian and some Western countries.”

Nonchalance Towards Eye Harm/Myopia?

The 2018 paper, Parental attitudes to myopia: a key agent of change for myopia control?  concluded, “Parental attitudes to myopia were typically nonchalant in relation to health risk. This is of particular concern given the impact parents have on children’s behaviour and choices with respect to such risk factors, demonstrating an acute need for societal sensitisation to the public health importance of myopia.’ 

“Of 329 parents, just 46% considered that myopia presented a health risk to their children, while an identical number (46%) regarded it as an optical inconvenience. Myopia was also, but less frequently, considered an expense (31% of parents), a cosmetic inconvenience (14% of parents) and, by some, as a sign of intelligence (4% of parents) 76% of parents recognised the potential of digital technology to impact the eye, particularly as a cause of eyestrain and need for spectacles. Only 14% of parents expressed concern should their child be diagnosed with myopia.”

More on Eyesight, Screens, & Internet, Wall-Eye vs Myopia

Wall-eye is defined as “having one or both eyes that seem to point to the side, rather than straight forwards.” Under extreme stress, an organism is hyper-vigilant to the external environment. The outer eye muscles overpower the weaker inner eye muscles, so the child cannot bring the eyes together to focus on the written page. 

Healthy eyes are designed by nature to move around the entire field of vision.  Modern technology, as designed by industry and embraced unknowingly by the public, is causing the opposite imbalance of wall-eye: myopia. The eyeball becomes misshapen due to excessive inward focus.  

It’s not just the eyes. The body engages in a stress response when tasked with unnatural or unsafe stimuli. Alterations in focus are also associated with lack of awareness of the breath and the body, including posture. When poor technology choices alter brain function, as well as changing the actual structure of an organ, the tipping point has been breached.

Eyesight vs. World Wide Web of Stressful Images, the Forgotten History of Blackboards vs. Chalkboards and “After Image”

Restaurant and bar owners often place A-frame blackboards on the sidewalk, listing daily specials and enticing customers. Yet, in schools across the country, chalkboards are green, not black. Why? Wikipedia has a listing for blackboards that includes descriptions of chalk and erasers, and compares blackboards and dry erase boards. The two disadvantages of blackboards listed are chalk dust and the screeching of fingernails on the board.  The page notes, “Green porcelain enamel surface, was first used in 1930, and as this type of boards became popular, the word “chalkboard” appeared. In the US green porcelain enamelled boards started to appear at schools in 1950s.”

While looking up at a black surface with white letters (the blackboard) to a white paper with black letters, some children could not see the page, due to a phenomenon known as afterimage.   Wikipedia explains: Cone cells or cones are photoreceptor cells in the retinas of vertebrates’ eyes. They respond differently to light of different wavelengths, and the combination of their responses is responsible for color vision. Cones function best in relatively bright light, called the photopic region, as opposed to rod cells, which work better in dim light, or the scotopic region. “An interesting effect occurs when staring at a particular color for a minute or so. Such action leads to an exhaustion of the cone cells that respond to that color – resulting in the afterimage. This vivid color aftereffect can last for a minute or more.”

Colors in Nature vs Hyper-Stimulating Videos That Are ‘Loud, Bright, Dramatic and Dizzying‘

Human eyes are designed to view colors found in nature, including green.  Switching from a blackboard to a green chalkboard enhanced children’s health, lowered stress, and reduced afterimages caused by the contrast between black and white.  

Another course correction is needed now.

Additionally, flashes of light impact the brain differently than static pages. The internet, in its current manifestation, is a jungle of stimuli in a state of mismatch with physiology and well-being.  

The recent Ofcom report, Children’s Media Lives 2024 Ten Years of Longitudinal Research states,”Now, most children get their own smartphone when they are nine or 10 and a quarter of three to four-year olds have one. And on these phones, in this study we see children are mostly consuming media alone and via social media. In 2014, children reported to Ofcom they were spending 12 and a half hours a week online [ ] The trend is towards heightened intimacy [ ] The children’s attention is being caught by hyper-stimulating videos that are loud, bright, dramatic and dizzying.

Screens vs. Paper: Learning

2021 research validated that “students who took long-hand notes performed better on conceptual questions than those who used took notes on laptops and were better at recognising words than those who used keyboards, and students who read from paper had better comprehension that those who read from screens.” (Umejima K, Ibaraki T, Yamazaki T, Sakai KL. Paper Notebooks vs. Mobile Devices: Brain https://ehtrust.org/in-historic-decision-federal-court-finds-fcc-failed-to-explain-why-it-ignored-scientific-evidence-showing-harm-from-wireless-radiation/Activation Differences During Memory Retrieval. Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Mar 19;15:634158. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.634158/full

Speaking of Bullies: The FCC

In 2021, District of Columbia Circuit ruled in the historic case EHT et al. v. the FCC that the December 2019 decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to retain its 1996 safety limits for human exposure to wireless radiation was “arbitrary and capricious.”  The court’s ruling identified lack of protection of children as a major concern.

“The court found the FCC ignored numerous organizations, scientists and medical doctors who called on them to update limits and the court found the FCC failed to address these issues:

impacts of long term wireless exposure

impacts to children,

the testimony of people injured by wireless radiation,

impacts to wildlife and the environment

The FCC and the industry have ignored the court’s remand.

‘Safety Testing’ on an Inanimate Adult-sized Model

One issue that concerned the Court is that fact that cellphones are tested on an inanimate model that corresponds to an adult military recruit’s head, for 6 minutes.  The testing protocol actively discriminates against women and children. Bus rides are longer than 6 minutes.

Weaponizing outdated science, the FCC has failed to address reported health harm caused by exposures below the thermal threshold, which has resulted in disability in a portion of the population, including children.

Regarding the placement of poorly sited wireless infrastructure, many communities across the country have been bullied by the wireless industry, enabled by the FCC. (Read an explanation about the Telecom Act of 1996 here summarized by Physicians for Safe Technology.)

School Bus Wi-fi vs. Neurovestibular Research

In 2023, Scientific American reported, Why does reading in a moving car cause motion sickness? Timothy C. Hain, a professor of neurology, otolaryngology, and physical therapy/human movement science at Northwestern University Medical School, and Charles M. Oman, director of the Man Vehicle Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and leader of the neurovestibular research program at the NASA National Space Biomedical Research Institute, explained:

“In order for a person to estimate his location, the brain combines information from a variety of sources, including sight, touch, joint position, the inner ear and its own expectations. The inner ear (see image below) is particularly important because it contains sensors for both angular motion (the semicircular canals) and linear motion (the otoliths). These sensors are called the vestibular system. Under most circumstances, the senses and expectations all agree. When they disagree, however, conflict arises and motion sickness can occur. Motion sickness usually combines elements of spatial disorientation, nausea and vomiting.

Consider the situation when one is reading in the back seat of a car. Your eyes, fixed on the book with the peripheral vision seeing the interior of the car, say that you are still. But as the car goes over bumps, turns, or changes its velocity, your ears disagree. This is why motion sickness is common in this situation. If you have this sort of reaction it is usually helpful to stop reading and look out the window. “

Promoting providing access to Wi-Fi on school buses, ignoring the effects of screens on eyesight, and especially ignoring the stress on the body’s exquisite attempts to retain balance in a vehicle in motion while reading are all indicative of society’s accelerating spin – further into a degenerative cycle.

On April 29, Daisy Greenwell reported, The Revolution Has Begun in the UK, 75,000 UK parents have come together to give their kids a smartphone-free childhood” Jon Haidt wrote, “The UK reached its tipping point in February 2024. Parents are up in arms about what addictive, distracting, and omnipresent digital technology is doing to their children at home and at school. They’re not going to take it anymore.” 

For Americans, regardless of one’s political orientation, one place to start the necessary course correction is by saying “No” to the FCC, by opposing grant funding for the installation of Wi-fi in school buses.  

It is time to stop throwing children’s health, including eyesight and mental well-being, under the bus.

Nomophobia is the fear of being without a mobile phone, which can lead to Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks.

What is coherence? Does it require access to a device?

Cultures of Coherence

There is something rare and precious about driving in the Cape Ann fishing port of Gloucester, MA. The city has a culture of courtesy on the roadways, built on a foundation of attention, presence, waiting, and….yielding.  

This is a coherent field.

Gloucester drivers yield to large, refrigerated tractor trailers carrying fish along impossibly narrow streets. Drivers yield, to wide turns, to trucks seeking to enter the roadway. The tractor trailers always create a delay in the traffic flow due to sheer size and weight, but drivers yield. No one honks.

If a Gloucester driver approaches a vehicle from the opposite direction waiting to make a left turn, the Gloucester driver will slow down or stop and wave the other car across its path – especially if other cars are also lining up and blocked by the turning driver.  

Those that don’t yield ‘aren’t from around here.’

A friend once remarked that it is ‘totally ridiculous’ to yield to an approaching left-turning driver if you are the only other car on the road. The other driver can easily wait another minute or two and turn after you pass.  But he didn’t understand the culture of courtesy and the grace of making eye contact, waving a driver through, and receiving a small nod of gratitude in return.  

My friend did not perceive or recognize the unified, coherent, field – of patience and presence that nurtures the greater good – with the knowledge that the driver behind you in the rear-view mirror is also paying attention and will also yield, and not blare the horn at you. Unassisted by tech.

It’s a touchstone – of humanity.

Drivers Not Driven by Time Urgency

I think that one reason why the seaside community offers the gifts of patience, presence, courtesy and Time to others is due to the relationship Gloucester holds with the rhythms of the sea, and the Laws of Nature.

It is about Time… but not the time shown on a cell phone or ‘smart watch’, – the industrialized, inanimate, left-brained averaged form of time -which is a tool to coordinate, manipulate, surveil, control, and monetize the masses, and which is irrelevant to the rhythms of the life force and the cosmic current.

In Gloucester, locals know that the highest tide on Monday is not going to happen at the same time on Friday, or on the same day next month. Fisherman and surfers do not rely only on the Gregorian calendar which rules the modern lifestyle, or a clock out of synch with the sun. They live the rhythms of the full and new moons and the tides. The sky still serves as a timepiece.

Each interaction on and off the roads, every day, is an invitation for connection and collaborative ‘right rhythm,’ which is local, inclusive, relevant, and grounded in biology.

We have been missing the boat.

The Cut Bridge and the Art of Waiting

Drivers in Gloucester cannot predict or control when the cut bridge will need to be raised, temporarily closing the vehicle road as boats travel from the harbor to the Annisquam River, or vice versa.

On a summer day, there can be a very long line of boats and crafts of all sizes. The drivers simply wait, in a most civilized manner. Travelers not impatient and not on devices look out on the horizon where the sea meets the sky, connecting with Nature, – and yielding.

You can watch a 5-minute video of the Blynman Canal Draw Bridge Gloucester MA here – patiently, as if you were a part of the coherent field.

Every horizon, in every moment, can offer a moment of calm and integration, and a reset, not via the World Wide Web, but via coherence with the Web of Life.  

We are reaching a critical choice point.

Those Lost at Sea

I believe there is another reason for Gloucester’s respect for one another and for Nature.

The names of the deceased lost at sea are engraved on the Fisherman’s Memorial, some recent.  “Men [] honored here:  5368”

One of 10 plaques mounted in a semi-circle, with the names of those lost at sea, at the Fishermans’ Memorial in Gloucester MA “Numbers alone can never chronicle the loss of human life, yet the statistics reflect the magnitude of Gloucester’s sacrifice. On these plaques are the names of men known to have been lost. This memorial also stands to honor those men and ships lost without record. Men known to be lost at sea and honored here: 5368 Of the nearly 1,000 ships lost, those lost with all hands: 265, Thousands of widows struggled to survive and raise their children and many of those fatherless children entered the trade of their lost fathers. Between 1860–1906, a staggering 660 ships sank. While many of the fishermen were saved, 3880 men were lost. A single storm in 1862 claimed 15 schooners and 120 men, while another devastating storm in 1879 took the lives of 159 men.”

Maybe these losses are one reason why many locals do not delude themselves into believing that humans, machines, or technology are detached, or separate from, or superior to the natural world. There is no illusion that some portion of humans at a distance, with tech, can or should be in control.

When Exiting a Coherent Field: Harmonizing with Incoherence

It is usually not possible or safe to practice “Gloucester driving courtesies” in other locales, because the coherent, unified cultural field is not present. It is especially not possible when approaching a driverless vehicle, or with a car following too closely behind, or a driver on a device, who is not integrated and present. Off island, over the bridge, safety and courtesy are not sustained by others because ‘the field’ is often one of detachment, rushing, and/or competition.

In living history, over the last few decades, humans have shifted further and further into these incoherent energies.  

It’s about our inattention, distraction, and our devices.

Outsourcing Attention, and Response-Ability

While driving, those rushing, and those on screens, do not recognize that they are outsourcing the responsibility for their safety and the safety of others – to others on the road.

Attentive drivers have to be on the lookout for cars that are not staying in their lane, with drivers who are distracted and in a state of incoherence.  

Technologies, as currently adopted by humans, have created this culture, and it is getting worse, not better, and it’s not only on the roads. 

When in the gym, a portion of patrons will be sitting on machines, texting or scrolling or adjusting their music, oblivious to the effects on others in the space, – who are waiting.

In the grocery store, some portion of shoppers will be talking on the phone or looking at the phone while heading down the aisle, or stopped in front of some section of the store, oblivious to others in the area,  – waiting.

Some portion of walkers on the rail trail will be talking on a cell phone or texting, and looking at their device, outsourcing the responsibility for coherence to others.

By definition, when a human being focuses on a small screen, they are directing their senses away from the outer environment. This narrowed screen-based focus is literally damaging posture and eyesight, including in children. Screen use and social media are also disturbing the balance of brain chemicals serotonin, dopamine, gaba, and acetylcholine.

We are no longer aligning with one another in the present time and place, fully embodied in all of our senses, nurturing the greater good.

The cost of lack of integration with both the inner and outer environment and with each other is unfathomable.  

The number of humans at any one point in time who are wholly aware of their environment, of others, of nature, of their own bodies, is at an all-time low on Earth – due to devices.  

“Smart Meters: My Name is Marguerite”

Over a decade ago, I witnessed coherence, community, and compassion when wireless smart utility meters began to be installed in Maine. A sweet elderly woman contacted our Massachusetts activist group asking for help. She started to suddenly collapse in her kitchen after a wireless smart meter was installed. Her son contacted us also, explaining that she was in her 80’s and perfectly healthy until the day the meter went in. Her family had reached out to many decision makers including industry, ecology groups, and politicians involved with the deployment of smart meters, to no avail.

Her fourteen neighbors, upon hearing her plight, immediately chose to opt out of having a smart meter installed on their homes. They were not willing to accept that the supposed energy and cost savings were worth the price of destroying their neighbor’s health.

This question of smart meter harm should have been addressed decades ago. In the meantime, deployments continue, and decision-makers in some areas are prohibiting the practice of opting out, and/or imposing punitive surcharges.

This represents an incoherent, unstable, unsafe field that must be sustained at great expense, through falsehoods, manipulations, and abuse of power.  

We are safer, in all ways, when everyone is watching out for others and for the coherence of the field, and not lying, exploiting, or treating others as collateral damage. Device use is sustaining an artificial reality about the safety of wireless tech – to sustain wireless tech. AI will not solve this.

The Art of Pausing – With and For Others

What do humans usually do when forced to wait, – that new behavior adopted the last two decades?

Humans detach, and scroll, and text, individually, everywhere.   

We didn’t realize what the consequences were of screen-centric behaviors adopted during the pandemic, and the harm it has caused to the” field” of our consciousness.

Whether intentional or accidental, a growing portion of the population is either drunk or drowning in wireless frequencies, including children.

We face countless choices every day, about how to fill spaces in time.

We have been acculturated to look at a small screen that in itself seeks to manage and control our reality, just as previous generations were acculturated to smoke cigarettes. Both have been justified as beneficial to health.  

Excessive “device-ing” is an increasingly unconscious and addictive choice, altering our reality, not for the better.

Right vs. Left Brained Consciousness

Part of this unbalanced dynamic has been caused by loss of right-brained, holistic processing discussed here recently by Kate Kheel of Safe Tech International.  “The 2009 treatise, ‘The Master and His Emissary, The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’ by Iain McGilchrist discusses at length how the different world views of the left and right hemispheres of the brain impact us both individually and as a society.

The left sees the world in parts, is detailed oriented, and has a single-minded focus on achieving a given task. In Iain’s words, it favors, “manipulation – grabbing, getting and controlling” and is an inanimate universe. It’s like a map of the world which leaves out the sentience, flavors, and nuance of the actual world. The right hemisphere sees more holistically and senses our interconnectedness with all life. Iain explains, “[It] sees not the representation but the living presence.” The right brain understands that life is ever morphing and evolving, and experiences an animate universe of richness, complexity, potential, and imagination.  In principle, the two sides of the brain complement one another enabling us to go about our daily activities and accomplish necessary tasks (more left brain skillset), while still sensing we are part of a grander interconnected and integrated living system (a right brain skillset).

Iain opines that since the Enlightenment, our Western civilization has moved increasingly to the left (i.e. left-brained thinking), “…drunk on the belief that it knows everything and can fix everything.” – Kate Kheel

(See the 2021 4-minute overview of the book about the asymmetrical brain with Iain Gilchrist here.  See the entire 1-hour interview here.  See the Feb. 2004 46-minute Creed Culture interview with Dr. Iain Gilchrist here. In this episode, Luke and Iain discuss his work, focusing on the importance of rediscovering the sacred, viewing the world holistically, and engaging the imagination alongside our reasoning faculties.”)

AI is a force multiplier of the imbalance between right and left-brain processing.

Replacing ‘Sailing Too Close to the Wind’ with ‘Digital Sobriety’.

There are an increasing number of efforts emerging towards establishing coherent fields, by challenging inaccurate narratives about tech, including wireless.   

# 1 Digital Sobriety, To Protect Nature

Guidelines governing wireless exposures have never considered the effects of RFR on the nature environment.

On April 17, Arthur Firstenberg of the Cellular Phone Tack Force published his alarming narrative “Whirling fish, bees, worms, sheep, turtles, penguins; More Than Fifty Species Of Fish Circling And Spinning Until They Die” culled from reports from the public – i.e. citizen science. See his other newsletters here.

See also: Microwave News

https://microwavenews.com/short-takes-archive/review-emf-and-rf-effects-flora-and-fauna

#2 Digital Sobriety, to Protect Children – It’s Still a Man’s World

Guidelines governing wireless exposures have never considered the effects of RFR on pregnant women, infants, and children.

Read about how cellphones are tested on a dummy – that represents the head of a male military recruit: We Are Not SAM.

Regarding mental health, John Haidt’s “After Babel “ Substack (free to all subscribers) chronicles his extraordinary research around the supposition that “the transformation of society in the 2010s was not caused by anxious college students. They were simply the “canaries in the coal mine” — the first generation whose social lives have moved onto smartphones and social media platforms. As soon as they did so, in the early 2010s, an epidemic of mental illness began.” Learn more here.

#3 Digital Sobriety, Regarding Neurological Health, EHS, Brain Cancer, DNA Damage, and More

Guidelines governing wireless exposures have never considered the non-thermal effects of RFR, assuming that the only mechanism of damage is heat.

See the Bioinitiative Report 2022:

See EMF Medical Conference 2021 59 videos (29 hours) of highly informative expert presentations and panel discussions. Trailer and more details: https://emfconference2021.com/online-cme-ce-courses/

The Return of Reason: Replacing NOMOPHOBIA (Fear of Being Without a Cell Phone) and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) with LOMO (Less on Line – More on Life)

Those not yet actively questioning technology and technocracy are outsourcing responsibility for the safety of the Earth and humanity to those who are not ready, willing and able to confront an incoherent worldview.

Wireless, in particular, is a harmful environmental pollutant. Nature does not recognize placing radio frequency transmitters on wildlife as conservation, or AI’s grotesque water and energy consumption or carbon credits as progress towards stewardship. Technology harmful to biology is violating the Laws of Nature. Promoting AI alongside scarcity and carbon narratives, and smart grid/smart meter manipulations that deny access to basic services when needed, is obscene.

We face a perilous crossing.

Digital Sobriety and Scientific Diplomacy

As individuals, we can begin reclaiming our own habit fields, to move towards digital sobriety and scientific diplomacy in response to real world damage already unfolding.

Most likely we can and will continue to use devices and technology, but first we need to backtrack to hold ourselves accountable for coherence, true inclusion, and safety.  

From mining to energy consumption to water use to disposal, we have unleashed a tsunami of outsourced damage, with new sights set on colonizing and exploiting space -competitively.

We need to make our choices and decisions about tech more conscious, more inclusive, more ethical, more truthful, and more protective of nature and human health, everywhere.

Screen Time (Perhaps) Can Recede to its Rightful Place

One way to start is to hard wire wherever possible as the first choice (especially in schools), and the minimize using screens and devices when in motion, for example when driving and walking.

There are so many good reasons and opportunities to forgo screens altogether, or to share screen experiences, rather than seeking faster, more ubiquitous wireless connections.

“Red, right, returning.” This Earth Day, more than ever, we need to call ourselves home.

“The real energy crisis, which exists upon this world, is the spiritual energy crisis and if this was solved all other crises would cease to exist” – George King – Western Master of Yoga

Image courtesy EPIC | Electromagnetic Pollution Illnesses Canada Foundation (EPIC) (iexistworld.org) To order bumper stickers and other LOMO items, send an email to epic@iexistworld.org.