ElectroMagnetic Frequencies (EMFs) and their effects on life

[Scott]

Back at the start of 2020, just as Covid was getting started, I read a book called The Invisible Rainbow by Arther Firstenberg. In it, he chronicled evidence suggesting that mankind's vast addition of EMFs into our daily lives, while beneficial from an energy and communications standpoint, has also had various deleterious effects. Since then, I've discussed the subject in various forums and have now started discussing it in this one. I think it deserves a thread of its own, thus this thread. For those who might be interested in Mr. Firstenberg's book, it can be found here:
The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life | Amazon.com

Since then, I decided to read another book on EMFs that I also found quite informative:
The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs: How to Fix Our Stupid Use of Technology | Amazon.com

For those who don't want to buy a book but are still interested in the subject, they may find the following article interesting:
https://thermogramcenter.com/emf/

 

[Scott]

I certainly acknowledge that simply because anxiety disorder only came out as a diagnosis in the 1860s doesn't mean that telegraph lines had to be the cause. Nevertheless, it certainly suggests that it may have been the primary cause, or at least one of the causes.

It suggests no such thing. There was a war in the 1860s. There were probably over 1000 things invented and put into use in that time period. Claiming one of them is the cause without actual evidence shows you have no critical thinking skills. Any one of those many things could have been the cause and none of them could have been the cause. As I already pointed out hysteria was known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks but it didn't make it into the medical literature until the 1800's. Making it into the medical literature is not proof that it didn't exist prior to being in the literature.

Anxiety disorder is just a type of hysteria

I already agreed with you that the fact that anxiety disorder was first labelled a disease at around the time that electricity bearing lines were being put doesn't mean that said electric lines had to be the cause by default. I do believe that it's possible and perhaps even probable that they were the cause though.

Agreed, but it's certainly -possible- that it wasn't described in the medical literature because it didn't exist in the past.

Because something is "possible" doesn't make it likely or even the best choice.

It certainly doesn't make it likely by default. To know whether something is likely requires more evidence. I believe Arthur Firstenberg certainly provides a lot of evidence in his book that non ionizing EMFs can be a lot more harmful than many people believe they are.

 

[Poor Richard Saunders]

I already agreed with you that the fact that anxiety disorder was first labelled a disease at around the time that electricity bearing lines were being put doesn't mean that said electric lines had to be the cause by default. I do believe that it's possible and perhaps even probable that they were the cause though.




It certainly doesn't make it likely by default. To know whether something is likely requires more evidence. I believe Arthur Firstenberg certainly provides a lot of evidence in his book that non ionizing EMFs can be a lot more harmful than many people believe they are.

It isn't probable. It isn't likely. It isn't even remotely possible. The electric lines weren't run through people's houses. They were run through open spaces.

Then there is the actual history.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4610616/

In the 1600's, it was called melancholy. Are you arguing that the telegraph just caused the name to be changed to "anxiety disorder?" It certainly didn't create the disease.

There are indications that anxiety was clearly identified as a distinct negative affect and as a separate disorder by Greco-Roman philosophers and physicians. In addition, ancient philosophy suggested treatments for anxiety that are not too far removed from today's cognitive approaches.

 

[Scott]

It certainly doesn't make it likely by default. To know whether something is likely requires more evidence. I believe Arthur Firstenberg certainly provides a lot of evidence in his book that non ionizing EMFs can be a lot more harmful than many people believe they are.

It isn't probable. It isn't likely. It isn't even remotely possible.

If can prove your assertion, by all means do so.

The electric lines weren't run through people's houses. They were run through open spaces.

I never argued otherwise.

Then there is the actual history.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4610616/

In the 1600's, it was called melancholy. Are you arguing that the telegraph just caused the name to be changed to "anxiety disorder?" It certainly didn't create the disease.

There are indications that anxiety was clearly identified as a distinct negative affect and as a separate disorder by Greco-Roman philosophers and physicians. In addition, ancient philosophy suggested treatments for anxiety that are not too far removed from today's cognitive approaches.

The evidence that non ionizing EMFs do a lot more harm then is commonly believed is certainly not limited to anxiety disorder being put into the medical textbooks at around the same time as the start of electric lines.

Here's a passage from Arther Firstenberg's book that I personally found quite revealing:

**
Other related illnesses were described in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, occupational diseases suffered by those who worked in proximity to electricity. “Telegrapher’s cramp,” for example, called by the French, more accurately, “mal télégraphique” (“telegraphic sickness”) because its effects were not confined to the muscles of the operator’s hand. Ernest Onimus described the affliction in Paris in the 1870s. These patients suffered from heart palpitations, dizziness, insomnia, weakened eyesight, and a feeling “as though a vice were gripping the back of their head.” They suffered from exhaustion, depression, and memory loss, and after some years of work a few descended into insanity. In 1903, Dr. E. Cronbach in Berlin gave case histories for seventeen of his telegraphist patients. Six had either excessive perspiration or extreme dryness of hands, feet, or body. Five had insomnia. Five had deteriorating eyesight. Five had tremors of the tongue. Four had lost a degree of their hearing. Three had irregular heartbeats. Ten were nervous and irritable both at work and at home.

“Our nerves are shattered,” wrote an anonymous telegraph worker in 1905, “and the feeling of vigorous health has given way to a morbid weakness, a mental depression, a leaden exhaustion… Hanging always between sickness and health, we are no longer whole, but only half men; as youths we are already worn out old men, for whom life has become a burden… our strength prematurely sapped, our senses, our memory dulled, our impressionability curtailed.” These people knew the cause of their illness. “Has the release of electrical power from its slumber,” asked the anonymous worker, “created a danger for the health of the human race?”12 In 1882, Edmund Robinson encountered similar awareness among his telegraphist For when he suggested treating them with electricity, they “declined trying anything of the kind.”

Long before that, an anecdote from Dickens could have served as a warning. He had toured St. Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics. “We passed a deaf and dumb man,” he wrote, “now afflicted with incurable madness.” Dickens asked what employment the man had been in. “‘Aye,’ says Dr. Sutherland, ‘that is the most remarkable thing of all, Mr. Dickens. He was employed in the transmission of electric-telegraph messages.’” The date was January 15, 1858.13

**

Source:
Firstenberg, Arthur. The Invisible Rainbow (pp. 58-60). Chelsea Green Publishing. Kindle Edition.

 

[Poor Richard Saunders]

If can prove your assertion, by all means do so.



I never argued otherwise.



The evidence that non ionizing EMFs do a lot more harm then is commonly believed is certainly not limited to anxiety disorder being put into the medical textbooks at around the same time as the start of electric lines.

Here's a passage from Arther Firstenberg's book that I personally found quite revealing:

**
Other related illnesses were described in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, occupational diseases suffered by those who worked in proximity to electricity. “Telegrapher’s cramp,” for example, called by the French, more accurately, “mal télégraphique” (“telegraphic sickness”) because its effects were not confined to the muscles of the operator’s hand. Ernest Onimus described the affliction in Paris in the 1870s. These patients suffered from heart palpitations, dizziness, insomnia, weakened eyesight, and a feeling “as though a vice were gripping the back of their head.” They suffered from exhaustion, depression, and memory loss, and after some years of work a few descended into insanity. In 1903, Dr. E. Cronbach in Berlin gave case histories for seventeen of his telegraphist patients. Six had either excessive perspiration or extreme dryness of hands, feet, or body. Five had insomnia. Five had deteriorating eyesight. Five had tremors of the tongue. Four had lost a degree of their hearing. Three had irregular heartbeats. Ten were nervous and irritable both at work and at home.

“Our nerves are shattered,” wrote an anonymous telegraph worker in 1905, “and the feeling of vigorous health has given way to a morbid weakness, a mental depression, a leaden exhaustion… Hanging always between sickness and health, we are no longer whole, but only half men; as youths we are already worn out old men, for whom life has become a burden… our strength prematurely sapped, our senses, our memory dulled, our impressionability curtailed.” These people knew the cause of their illness. “Has the release of electrical power from its slumber,” asked the anonymous worker, “created a danger for the health of the human race?”12 In 1882, Edmund Robinson encountered similar awareness among his telegraphist For when he suggested treating them with electricity, they “declined trying anything of the kind.”

Long before that, an anecdote from Dickens could have served as a warning. He had toured St. Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics. “We passed a deaf and dumb man,” he wrote, “now afflicted with incurable madness.” Dickens asked what employment the man had been in. “‘Aye,’ says Dr. Sutherland, ‘that is the most remarkable thing of all, Mr. Dickens. He was employed in the transmission of electric-telegraph messages.’” The date was January 15, 1858.13

**

Source:
Firstenberg, Arthur. The Invisible Rainbow (pp. 58-60). Chelsea Green Publishing. Kindle Edition.

So you are simply going to repeat over and over the same source without any actual thought. This proves you are nothing but a troll.

Since anxiety disorder by other names existed as far back as the ancient Greeks and Egyptians any claim that it is caused by a technology that wouldn't exist for almost 2000 years is not probable, it is not likely and it isn't even remotely possible. Feel free to discuss when telegraphy was invented.

 

[Neoclitorus]

Back at the start of 2020, just as Covid was getting started, I read a book called The Invisible Rainbow by Arther Firstenberg. In it, he chronicled evidence suggesting that mankind's vast addition of EMFs into our daily lives, while beneficial from an energy and communications standpoint, has also had various deleterious effects. Since then, I've discussed the subject in various forums and have now started discussing it in this one. I think it deserves a thread of its own, thus this thread. For those who might be interested in Mr. Firstenberg's book, it can be found here:
The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life | Amazon.com

Since then, I decided to read another book on EMFs that I also found quite informative:
The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs: How to Fix Our Stupid Use of Technology | Amazon.com

For those who don't want to buy a book but are still interested in the subject, they may find the following article interesting:
https://thermogramcenter.com/emf/

yes. electromagnetic manipulation /pollution is being used to create a false spiritual darkness.