Light & Electricity in Health, and the Status Quo in Science

Some tips about things I have found helpful for wellness, now that is Spring, and a critique of modern science

Now we have passed the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun gets high enough that it is possible to start generating vitamin D the natural way: in our skin. Currently doable here for a couple hours of before and after noon. Indeed, I have installed an app, which I heard recommended on a podcast, called “Dminder”, that tells what time of day you can make vitamin D, based on location. More usefully, it also estimates how much vitamin D you have made per session, based on: clothing (how much skin is exposed), skin colour, weather (degree of overcast), time of day.

Another light based protocol I have found helpful, especially for improving quality of sleep via the resetting of circadian rhythm, is Prof. Andrew Huberman’s concept of going outside early in the morning for several minutes (probably earlier than you make vitamin D at the moment) and getting natural light in your eyes.

Also while I am at being outside in either of the above cases, I use the opportunity to go barefoot on the grass and ground my body. The reason I believe this works is as described by Prof. Gerald Pollack, author of the book “The 4th Phase of Water”:

“at play here is the earth’s net negative charge — an attribute well established but little recognized”.

According to Prof. Pollack in a recent interview, that the earth is negatively charged (while the atmosphere is positively charged), while not taught in the West, was well known in Russia, where it used to be taught to school children.

So when we ground by connecting to the bare earth, we soak up some of the excess electrons, and these negative charges help to build energized 4th phase of water inside our cells, fascia, bodies and brains. Indeed, in the same interview, the Prof. described when he was once buried up to his neck in damp sand on the beach, and how this experience felt very blissful and healing, because then his whole body was surrounded by the negatively charged earth.

It also greatly helps to build energized, 4th phase, water through exposure to red and infrared light, and the best source of this is also the sun, so another reason to get outside.

Red Light and Infrared Therapies for Physical Healing. Part 2: How it Works and Other Insights

For those who are interested in delving deeper into the health giving aspects of natural light and electricity, I highly recommend

Roman S Shapoval

’s substack

The Power Couple by Roman Shapoval

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Also, in re-reading the 4th Phase of Water book for this article, one thing which really struck me from my first reading was the Prof.'s critique of modern science. It so described my own experience of academic science, that it has stayed with me, and I have often thought about it, and indeed, seen it my subsequent explorations of the science of human health.

UPDATE: Prof. Pollack has done it again, he has recently published a science journal article “is it oxygen, or electrons, that our respiratory system delivers?”, where he questions whether we really breathe oxygen, or we breath electrons that are delivered along with the oxygen. Once again, he examines the basic assumptions, this time, behind the “standard morel” of breathing, finds them wanting, and comes up with a more robust, simple but predictive hypothesis.

As I re-read it, I thought it was worth sharing what the Prof. writes on this topic, in the preface to his book, here, not least because this speaks to previous discussion articles on epistemology, ways of knowing/ways of attending.

“Challenging convention is not a bed of roses, I assure you. You might think that members of the scientific establishment would warmly embrace fresh approaches that throw new light on old thinking, but mostly they do not. Fresh approaches challenge the prevailing wisdom. Scientists carrying the flag are apt to react defensively, for any such challenge threatens their standing. Consequently, the challenger’s path can be treacherous — replete with dangerous turns and littered with formidable obstacles.”

“Serious challenges abound throughout science. You may be unaware of these challenges, just as I had been until fairly recently, because the challenges are often kept beneath the radar. The respective establishments see little gain in exposing the chinks in their armor, so the challenges are not broadcast. Even young scientists entering their various fields may not know that their particular field’s orthodoxy is under siege.”

“The challenges follow a predictable pattern. Troubled by a theory’s mounting complexity and its discord with observation, a scientist will stand up and announce a problem; often that announcement will come with a replacement theory. The establishment typically responds by ignoring the challenge. This dooms most challenges to rot in the basement of obscurity. Those few challenges that do gain a following are often dealt with aggressively: the establishment dismisses the challenger with scorn and disdain, often charging the poor soul with multiple counts of lunacy.

“The consequence is predictable: science maintains the status quo. Not much happens. Cancer is not cured. The edifices of science continue to grow on weathered and sometimes even crumbling foundations, leading to cumbersome models and ever-fatter textbooks filled with myriad, sometimes inconsequential details. Some fields have grown so complex as to become practically incomprehensible. Often, we cannot relate. Many scientists maintain that that’s just the way modern science must be — complicated, remote, separated from human experience. To them, cause-and-effect simplicity is a quaint feature of the past, tossed out in favor of the complex statistical correlations of modernity.”

Also, the following is from the afterword of the book.

“Once bold, the scientific culture has become increasingly timid. It seeks incremental advances. Rarely does it question the foundational concepts on which those incremental advances are based, especially those foundational concepts that show signs of having outlived their usefulness. The culture has become obedient. It bows to the regality of prevailing dogma. In so doing, it has produced mounds of data but precious little that fundamentally advances our understanding.”

Quotes from Pollack, Gerald. The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor (p. xviii). Ebner and Sons. Kindle Edition.