On the face of it, this would seem to be impossible. There is no way we can be influenced by something happening in the future. Since it hasn't even happened yet, how on earth could it affect us? Time moves forward and we do things as it unfolds. Some of those things are pretty dull but others are a bit more dramatic, for example:

At that time, I could only base the idea on the research done by Robert Jahn but last month (jan 2012) I read a fascinating article in the New Scientist. It reported the experiments of a well-known and well-regarded psychologist called Michael Franklin, working at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Franklin knew that training students in particular aspects of a test on the day before the test should improve their results, something that I think everyone would agree with. Out of curiosity, Franklin decided to do them again, keeping all aspects of the experiment the same but switching the sequence of the events. Instead of the students swotting up before the test, he got them to swot up after the test, then checked whether there was a pattern between the test scores and what the students revised. Clearly, according to orthodox science, there should have been no correlation, there's no point revising a test after you've taken it since it'll have no effect on the results.

In fact, there was. Students did better at a test, on average, if they studied it the day after they took it. The difference wasn't great; a matter of only around 3%, but Franklin did a lot of tests to make sure that random chance was not a significant factor. The difference could not be chance. The students were being affected by their own future.

Just a quick note to say The Golden Web: Part 1, my non-fiction investigation into ancient mysteries, is now available to buy. I could do another proof read but I don't think that's necessary. At the moment, the book is only available from FeedARead's website (they're handling the publishing) but it should soon be available from Amazon.co.uk and major booksellers. It is also available from Amazon.co.uk as a digital download but I need to test the quality of the file first (by getting a friend with a KIndle to buy a copy). Once all that's sorted and checked, I'll add a banner to my website and populate the Golden Web page with the appropriate information.

I'll also improve the content on the Golden Web page on this website so that it's more informative. To be honest, you really need to read the book but I'll do what I can.

Enjoy your Sunday!

I'm in the process of self-publishing my non-fiction book, The Golden Web. I'm following the self-publishing route for the book because the standard non-fiction publishing route isn't really available to me. Since I'm not a television presenter or senior scientist or academic, it's unlikely a publishing house would want to commit funds to try and sell my book. I also don't have any personal connections in the UK publishing industry so I can't call on any favours or phone any ex-school publisher friends asking them to add The Golden Web to their list. That's okay though, because you don't have to be well known person to get a non-fiction book published and sold nowadays. Hooray!

Unfortunately, I read an article in the Independent at the very beginning of this year which I think is of huge significance. In the article, to quote, 'Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane - a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide - have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.'

Fortunately, as Libet himself pointed out, that depressing conclusion may not be justified. We may not control our brains’ actions all the time but we may be able to suppress certain actions or initiate actions that our brains wouldn’t automatically carry out by themselves. If that’s true, I wondered, are there some situations which we can use to test that idea?

There is one such possible situation; that of the optical illusion.

Being special and different is the mainstay of many classic science fiction stories, from ‘More than Human’ to ‘The Chrysalids’ and ‘Flowers for Algernon’. They all revolve around a compellng situation; a special person or small group of people that have an ability or physical attribute that makes them feel alone, separated from the rest of humanity. Their ‘specialness’ makes them a subject of ridicule or fear or plain incomprehension...

I've tried to keep the book light-hearted, even though it puts forward a radical new theory. As an example of this approach, here's the blurb I'll be putting in the description field:

When I was young, I thought people were much nicer to each other. This, I think, was down to the sci-fi books I read. When things went wrong in them, people pulled together, showed their mettle, overcame the odds like stars in a matinee war movie. It was a glowing, warm idea that was seriously dented when I saw ‘When worlds collide’

That wasn’t the scariest part. The Thing was scary, very scary, but the scariest part was that it was my first experience of watching a scary movie with my mates.
I say mates; looking back, I’d be hard pressed to think of a definite example in which any of them acted selflessly on my behalf. It never seemed to be like ‘Stand by Me’ in which the youngsters band together and face down fears and dangers because they love their friends. It was more like a prelude to The Road. They’re friendly and want your company but you realise that if they get hungry enough, it won’t be ‘you go! I’ll stay and fight them off!’, it’ll be ‘what’s the big deal? We only want your left leg.’

My entries were:

'Are you sure this'll be okay, Dr Jekyll?'

and

'And with that final drop, they had created the world's strongest espresso'

New Scientist are running one every week for four weeks, no purchase necessary!

Our minds are separate
from our brains and
can influence them.

This is a fascinating conclusion, although Rene Descartes came up with it over three hundred years ago so it’s actually no big deal. Fortunately, thanks to the progress of science, we’ve now got ways of actually proving that this is the case. We can use electroencephalograms (E.E.G’s) and electronic random number generators (R.N.G’s) to test what the mind and brain can do.

After three weeks of working away (in between other bits and bobs), I've made some progress on the graphic novel. The first week or so was spent investigating whether I could do the work in gouache - a sort of paint similar to watercolour but less watery (I know that's not a very technical or accurate description but it'll do). I've done gouache illustrations before, I've popped one alongside this text.

I found though that it is a slow job doing the gouache. I think I'd need to spend six months or probably longer just practicing the gouache to get good enough to churn out an entire page of gouache illustration in one day (my target rate). Juanjo Guarnido - the Blacksad artist - has certainly found a way to produce his painted artwork at a viable rate but he's spent years doing fine art followed by more years working as a Disney animator. That's a lot of practice!

I fiddled away on my vector art program (I’m still using LineForm even though it’s going nowhere as a product. It’s really easy to use and very effective) and I came up with the logo displayed. My aim was to keep the logo as simple as possible while, at the same time, being evocative and a little bit humorous.

“The number of people in the UK who do not believe in global warming has doubled in the last two years, according to a poll from the office of national statistics. Does this represent the common sense of a British public who can see the claims of the climate alarmists dissolve before their eyes?”

Are we missing something here? Are these companies, with their skilled and experienced staff, pointing us in a new direction? If using ‘up to’ is such a gold mine, should we be trying to use it in aspects of our own lives? Maybe the power of ‘up to’ can be used in our emotional relationships?

Pay a penny for everything you say. Receive a pound for everything you do.

Film tie-ins aside, I picked up the two books by Lindqvist that I wanted. Sorted! I could go home and have a cup of tea. Then I spotted something. Sitting prominently on the front cover of both books was a sticker marked ‘3 for 2’. Oh. That’s good, I thought. I have two books I want. I can pick up a third for nothing. I looked around casually. There were lots of ‘3 for 2’ books on the tables around. I’ll definitely want one of those.

The only thing was, each one I spotted I didn’t want.