THE ACCOMPANIMENT MODEL, MODEL # 3
The Accompaniment Model, Also Known To Me As The "The Long-Wavelength Photon Model", Is My Proposal # 3 For Darkness And Blackness Proposed In 1998. The Ideas Contained In This Document In Many Cases Can Be Applied To All Four Of My Models. If The Reader Has Not Glanced At The First Two Of My Proposals For Darkness And Blackness And Desires To Do So, Click Here: http://www.johnkharms.com/Black.htm . I Should Mention Also That These Earlier Models Are Of A More Speculative Nature. For Those Who Prefer A More Technical Description Of The Darkness And Blackness Problem And A Model That Does Not Require A Change In Any Known Physical Laws i.e., A Less Radical Departure, The Text Below Is The Appropriate Place To Begin. To View The 1999 Model, Which Is Also Vastly Shorter, Click Here: http://www.johnkharms.com/infrared.htm .
Are Darkness and Blackness Stimuli to the Visual System?
By: John K. Harms
E-mail: harmsjk3@earthlink.net
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© Copyright, 1999
Abstract: The text explores a new model of darkness and blackness. The darkness and blackness are proposed to be a cosmic particle background of low energy photons. A long-wavelength electromagnetic particle background such as this is allowed by quantum mechanics and follows from the expanding Universe beginning with a Big Bang. The particle darkness background is always present and fills in where there is no visible light. The frequency of darkness radiation is proposed to be at one hertz and below, thus darkness quanta lie on a distinct band on the electromagnetic spectrum. Darkness and blackness are unified by having the same external (objective) cause, this being the cosmic long-wavelength photon background. It is argued that if darkness and blackness are considered an objective stimulus to the visual system, it explains why photoreceptor cells turn off when visible photons are absorbed. These long-wavelength electromagnetic photons are proposed to interact with the visual system by aiding in the production and raising levels of cGMP in photoreceptor membranes. It is proposed that the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) may be the site of absorption of cosmic long-wavelength quanta. Other possible physical as well as molecular mechanisms for the interaction of very long-wavelength EMF with the visual system are discussed. Both physical and biological evidence is given to support the model in which long-wavelength quanta provide a stimulus to retinal cells. It is argued that existing color theories can be made more consistent by considering cosmic long-wavelength photons as the objective source for darkness and blackness. The preponderance of brain activity in the dark, which is not explained in present theories, is consistent with the new darkness and blackness model. It is proposed that the retinal system of receptors are in harmonic resonance with vibrating electromagnetic fields at one hertz and below, yielding the perceptual experience of blackness. The new model is falsifiable with five pertinent predictions.
Key Words: Long-Wavelength Photons, Low Frequency Photons, Low Energy Photons, ELF, Brightness, Darkness, Blackness, Photon, Photoreceptor Cells, Dark Current, Absence of Light, Color, cGMP, Resonance, Lateral Inhibitory Interaction, Retinal Pigment Epithelium, Melatonin, Melanin, Cosmic Background Radiation
Introduction
Is the color of the black letters that comprise this text as "real" as the color of the bleached white paper, or is black internally created by the visual system? Present theories of perception suggest that blackness is caused by the lateral inhibitory influences of retinal neurons, in short, an optical illusion. Neuroscientist's present theory of blackness is called lateral inhibitory interaction and it is not really consistent with the physics idea of the absence of light. Fundamental differences of opinion with regard to darkness and blackness are present in these different branches of science leading one to ask an important question: Can both ideas simultaneously be correct?
The absence of light, which presently has no competitors, is generally in compliance with all observations concerning darkness and blackness. Indeed, most scientists believe that the absence of light is a valid hypothesis. However, these same scientists commonly speak about blackness as if it were identical to an actual color experience, like there really is something of substance present. In experiments psychologists treat blackness as an actual entity, black exists on a continuous spectrum with whiteness.
To remedy the situation a new model of darkness and blackness is proposed to explain the preponderance of brain activity in the dark. In this new model, called the long-wavelength photon model, the darkness is a cosmic background of ordinary electromagnetic photons at very long wavelengths possibly created in the Big Bang. This is commonly called the cosmic background radiation or CBR. In the viewpoint described by this text, darkness can still be considered the absence of visible light, but not the absence of all electromagnetic radiation. If the darkness and blackness are fundamentally electromagnetic particles, the darkness and blackness has physical substance in the same way as photons at all other wavelengths do.
Quantum mechanics predicts the existence of both virtual and ordinary photons at all wavelengths. There is no upper limit to the wavelengths of radiation at this end of the spectrum.
Subjectively, the visual system appears to treat darkness and blackness at all times on an equal footing with visible light. If darkness and blackness is a stimulus to retinal photoreceptor cells, the new model appears confirmed. This model's interpretation of present experiments may simplify more complex theories of how photoreceptor cells function. Indeed if blackness is considered an actual stimulus, rod photoreceptor cells can be shown to function in a similar way to all other sensory neurons. Presently, an exception is made for the visual sense i.e., photoreceptor cells.
Photoreceptor noise may increase the sensitivity of receptors, the ability to detect the long-wavelength photon background. Resonance of the retina is discussed and is one of the many mechanisms that are proposed for visual detection of cosmic long-wavelength photons.
From the organization of receptive fields, dark currents in rod photoreceptors, theories of color vision and even in everyday language, all the evidence points to blackness being a pronounced perceptual and physiological phenomena. The key questions arising from this research are: Is there a physical stimulus behind the perceptions of darkness and blackness? Is the darkness and blackness created externally or are they internal subjective optical illusions? What is the relationship between electromagnetic photons and the visual system? What molecular mechanisms are responsible for the absorption of weak long-wavelength photons and where in the visual system are such quanta absorbed? Does the way in which photoreceptors function demonstrate new physical laws concerning the nature of light and darkness?
This entire discussion will be conducted from two entirely different perspectives, one physical and the other biological/ psychological. Both disciplines will be addressed as separately as possible with an interface later in the text. However, some overlap may be unavoidable.
We should never abandon the premise that physical attributes underlie perception (Corwin, 1992). This model maintains that all types of color perception, including blackness, are determined by the physical characteristics of color and human anatomy and thus is Universal in nature (Ratner et al., 1990). Therefore the perception of all color sensations, which presently does not include black, is due to electromagnetic radiation at various frequencies.
If darkness and blackness actually arise from physical particles interacting with the human visual system, the result may forever alter the way that darkness and blackness are regarded. The physical approach is first to be explored.
The Long-Wavelength Photon Model
An Important feature of the long-wavelength photon model is that darkness and blackness physically are considered something real. The word "background" is used in this text to describe ordinary (as opposed to virtual) long-wavelength photons in the vacuum. The "quantum vacuum" is separate from this definition and describes the virtual quanta in space-time only. Both the quantum vacuum and the background of ordinary long-wavelength photons are present in the same vacuum of space-time and do simultaneously overlap. The words "long-wavelength" will sometimes be called extremely low frequency or ELF, these are identical terms in this text.
In the long-wavelength photon model, both darkness and blackness are very low energy photon particles which compose a Universal background. This type ELF radiation background is perceived as blackness by humans. Thus, blackness is not a "normal" condition when there is no light, but a separate and distinct state in its own right which requires its own stimulus to be experienced.
It is presently believed by physicists that the long-wavelength electromagnetic radiation of the type we are discussing interacts only weakly with matter. What interaction there is depends on the state of the matter. For example, long-wavelength electromagnetic photons will pass through a stone wall but not through a cloud of plasma. The controlling factor in transmission is the electrical conductivity of the matter in question.
This characteristic makes long-wavelength photons ideal for the proposed darkness background, since darkness quanta are easily transmitted through matter without being absorbed or scattered (reflected). Where ELF cosmic radiation is blocked by an electrically conductive material, temperatures higher than 2.735 Kelvin cause the materials to emit their own long-wavelength quanta [Dennis Anthony (personal communication, November 9, 1998)]. Such emitted quanta replace the absorbed cosmic photons. Since there is some limited interaction with matter, it becomes more obvious how ELF electromagnetic darkness photons can interact with material photoreceptor cells, even through closed eye lids.
Because this darkness radiation is not easily absorbed and is usually always transmitted, most background particles do not disappear and give up their energy to matter. When such absorption does take place, matter particles can heat up and reemit other long-wavelength photons. Therefore, because of energy conservation, the Universal long-wavelength cosmic darkness background can roughly maintain itself at a constant level. Hence, the flux of darkness radiation is always relatively stable throughout the Universe.
Darkness radiation simply fills in where there is no visible light. Due to the highly-dense uniform ELF background in all directions, there can never be a time when the absence of radiation exists (a black hole may be an exception which is discussed later in the text). These cosmic long-wavelength photons are in constant motion in a swarm of particles at the Planck energy of 4.14 x 10^-15 eV and below.
At the Planck energy, quanta have frequencies of one hertz and wavelengths of 3 x 10^8 meters (300,000 km). Radiation has been detected with a frequency as low as 0.01 hertz (wavelengths of 3 x 10^10 meters) from space (Hewitt, 1981). In the long-wavelength photon model, it is envisioned that darkness and blackness are a solid band of ELF cosmic radiation detected by the visual system beginning at the Planck energy at one hertz, and in principle, continuing to energies approaching zero. Thus to the visual apparatus, wavelengths of darkness quanta begin at 300,000 km and ideally approach infinite length. Similar to the visible light band of the spectrum, the darkness has its own band of ELF radiation which vibrates the human retinas resulting in the experience of blackness.
When a force is applied repeatedly at the natural frequency of a system, resonance occurs. Repeated pushing of an oscillating system with even a small force makes successive oscillations grow larger and larger. The result are vibrations of increased amplitude. Even if these pushes are small, which very accurately describes one hertz and below long-wavelength quanta, resonance will result (Goodstein, 1987).
Detection of cosmic long-wavelength quanta may be possible because the retinas are "tuned" to the natural resonance frequency of the waves of darkness radiation. Photoreceptors are "tuned" to photon signals at these frequencies in a similar way that they are to visible light. The visual system is in natural resonance at two places (or bands) on the electromagnetic spectrum. The first is a tiny band between about 430 to 470 nanometers in wavelength known as visible light, and the second at the proposed darkness and blackness frequencies of one hertz and below (Hewitt, 1981, Rahn, 1981). Resonance systems, such as building structures, are commonly known to have more than one widely-separated frequency band where the phenomena of resonance does take place. Similarly, the visual system has two widely-separated bands of natural resonance. More than one resonance frequency band is a very common phenomena in many natural systems.
From the energy of photons, to uncertainty relations, to the allowable orbits of electrons within atoms, the constant h is fundamental to the quantization of the physical world. The value of the band of blackness radiation (mentioned above) at the Planck energy is a working hypothesis, an educated guess about the energies of the darkness radiation band. Evidence will be given that one hertz (or in energy terms the Planck energy) is a likely upper limit for the frequencies of cosmic darkness radiation, with no lower limit. Like all other electromagnetic radiation, the darkness is quantized. Thus the darkness, like visible light, is fundamentally grainy and discontinuous.
Ordinary particle detectors have difficulty detecting quanta with frequencies below 0.01 hertz, although according to quantum mechanics such radiation should exist. This suggests that darkness radiation at the higher end of the band can easily be detected. Like visible light, electromagnetic darkness photons are likely to be completely ordinary radiation to scientific instruments. Hence, it is probable that the physical nature of darkness radiation contains no new surprises. Where visible light excites the visual system in a rainbow of colors, darkness quanta interact with the retina yielding blackness by oscillating the retina at one hertz and below. The visual system reacts to darkness and blackness quanta by creating a unique brain state, a salient physiological condition.
If there are long-wavelength quanta in the cosmic background, why aren't they more apparent? Although the energy of an individual long-wavelength photon is above zero, the net force of the darkness background (the force acting on any object) is zero (Yam, 1997). This is largely due to the very uniform and high density of the darkness quanta and because darkness radiation bombards us from all directions equally.
The cosmic ELF darkness background can physically be composed of either ordinary or virtual long-wavelength electromagnetic quanta. The essential difference is the length of time the photons exist and where they come from. Virtual long-wavelength photons are short energy bursts which arise from the quantum vacuum itself. After a very short time, determined by the uncertainty principle, the virtual long-wavelength quanta are reabsorbed by the vacuum. Most physicists would agree that virtual photons are not capable of exerting electromagnetic forces upon the retina, because they disappear back into the vacuum too quickly (Freedman, 1998). Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the virtual quanta of the quantum vacuum can be darkness radiation and responsible for the perception of darkness and blackness.
Therefore, a more likely source for cosmic quantum darkness is ordinary long-wavelength quanta that occur naturally in the vacuum of space-time. Like all ordinary radiation, these photons have an infinite range. Such photons are permanent aspects of the vacuum, since they interact only weakly with matter and are not easily absorbed. Photons at much higher frequencies above one hertz have the characteristic that they do interact more with matter and can be readily absorbed.
Presumably, the proposed long-wavelength electromagnetic photons have origins in stars and galaxies or even more likely in the Big Bang. One can show that such radiation at one hertz and below should exist by making two assumptions: 1) There was a hot Big Bang with a black body radiation distribution curve. 2) Space-time and the Universe subsequently expanded causing a red-shift of the leftover cosmic radiation. Space-based measurements of the microwave background show that the radiation curve is similar to that of a black body distribution. Thus, the Big Bang did produce some long-wavelength microwaves and radio waves. After the Universe and space-time expanded, the wavelengths of these microwaves and radio waves stretched causing individual photons to lose their energy. Thus the expansion of the Universe red-shifted shorter-wavelength radiation, resulting in a very high density of ordinary long-wavelength quanta at the Planck energy and below. Therefore, ordinary long-wavelength photons that are responsible for darkness and blackness perception have a cosmic origin in the Big Bang itself. A similar red-shift at the peak energies of the black body radiation curve produced by the Big Bang, are responsible for the well-known cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) discovered in 1965 (Hawking, 1996). The microwave CBR is much the same as the proposed darkness radiation, but are photons with much shorter wavelengths.
When the darkness background interacts with human eyes, blackness is Universally perceived. This is a matter of the wavelength (or frequency) of the band of radiation at long-wavelengths and the "hard-wired" resonance frequencies of the retinal photoreceptors (and retinal pigment epithelium) of the visual system. Very low energy blackness radiation is overwhelmed by the vastly higher energies of visible light. Hence, darkness and blackness give the perceptual impression of entirely disappearing when visible light is present. However, blackness quanta are always present in the same numbers in the cosmic background, but at such low energies as to be invisible. In the model presented in this text, one can say that blackness radiation accompanies the higher wavelengths, thus, when the higher visible wavelengths are blocked or absorbed by a matter particle, only the long-wavelength photons remain. This is the reason this model is called the accompaniment model, because long-wavelength darkness radiation accompanies and replaces the shorter wavelengths where they are absent. To view my other two earlier concepts of darkness and blackness, which both are fundamentally transformation-type models, click at: http://www.johnkharms.com/Black.htm
The everyday world is defined by light and shadow. Shadows appear behind solid objects because the cosmic long-wavelength background fills in any areas that are not lit by visible light. It is not the absence of light which produces the shadows behind material objects, but the low energy radiation background that is ever-present and not blocked or absorbed by matter. Black shadows appear behind objects lit from the front, because long-wavelength quanta impact our retinas yielding the perceptual experience of blackness. Long-wavelength photons migrate from all space-time directions in straight lines only, thus, the darkness quanta that strike our retinas are the ones heading directly at us and even transmitted through the floor. Indeed, there are as many cosmic darkness quanta bombarding us from below (through the Earth) as from above. Thus, the darkness radiation is not refracted in prisms, diffraction gratings, crystals or reflected (scattered) by mirrors or other objects. In general, these are common characteristics of all ordinary very long-wavelength electromagnetic radiation. Hence, cosmic darkness quanta travel only in straight transmission lines, becoming visible only where there is no visible light present.
A competitor to the long-wavelength photon model is the physics notion of the absence of light. To prove their point, physicists frequently cite the parallel situation to the absence of light which is that of heat and cold. According to physicists, cold is the absence of heat. A hot body is one that has a high molecular kinetic energy or a high-frequency of vibration (Hewitt, 1981). Cold objects have a relatively lower-frequency of vibration. Human skin has two types of temperature receptors, one for rising temperature and another for lowering temperature (Hubel, 1995). This darkness/blackness model proposes a similar "bi-spectral" mechanism in the retinas that, like human skin's detection of hot and cold, detects both visible light and darkness equally because both are actual physical entities. To the skin's receptors, both hot and cold are equally "real" sensations. The sensations of coldness and darkness are both low frequency vibrations, one of molecules and the other of the electromagnetic radiation field. Moreover, visible light and heat are both relatively energetic sensations and actual experiences in everyday language. As will be demonstrated, the visual system treats blackness and whiteness as equals in every way.
The mixture of visible photons and long-wavelength quanta is the common experience of light and shadow in our everyday world. The presence of the cosmic low energy background is always there, even in the brightest conditions. Even a bright light contains the same radiation from the ELF darkness background. The perception of blackness is an internal biological brain state, the reaction of the visual system to the constant swarm of darkness quanta that compose the cosmic background. When all the lights are turned off in a closed room, one enters a completely different medium, the cosmic long-wavelength electromagnetic photon background.
There is physical evidence for cosmic long-wavelength radiation, it will be examined next.
Physical Evidence for Cosmic Long-Wavelength Quanta
According to quantum mechanics, there is a considerable amount of energy in the vacuum at low energies. The quantum mechanical vacuum is seething with energy (Puthoff, 1997). Although frequencies of photons of 0.01 hertz have been detected, below this frequency the evidence for ELF darkness radiation becomes more indirect.
The indirect evidence that this cosmic long-wavelength radiation exists comes from several directions. One is the Lamb shift which is a slight frequency perturbation of the lines seen from transitions between atomic states of excited atoms. The Lamb shift demonstrates that it is likely that there are very low energy photons in the vacuum, the vacuum is full of energy (Puthoff, 1997).
The second bit of indirect evidence is a particular kind of inescapable, low-level noise that registers in electronic and optical equipment. This noise cannot be eliminated no matter how perfect the technology. Again, low energy long-wavelength electromagnetic photons are thought to be the cause (Puthoff, 1997).
Another demonstration that long-wavelength photons are present in the vacuum is the Casimir effect. The Casimir effect occurs when metal plates attract each other when they are brought closely together. The reason for the attraction is that the narrow distance between the plates create a difference in the radiation pressure of the vacuum (Puthoff, 1997). The Casimir effect strongly demonstrates that an unseen cosmic extremely low frequency radiation background exists and has actual physical effects.
Cosmologists are now searching for the missing energy that it is believed to be needed to make the Universe flat. Present observations indicate the Universe is flat and suggest that there is a preponderance of missing energy. Since quantum mechanics allows negative energy, it cannot be determined how much positive energy there is within the vacuum since it is balanced with the negative (Hawking, 1996) Therefore, it is very possible that cosmic long-wavelength quanta exist in the vacuum in a large quantity at energy h and cannot be detected by conventional means. The best detector of vacuum energy is the Casimir effect, which can detect the negative energy density as compared with the positive densities farther away (Hawking, 1996).
Cosmic Long-Wavelength Photons and Color
There are inconsistencies that appear in the logic of the two conventional theories of color vision. The Young-Helmholtz theory of color in three stages turns out to be correct at the level of retinal receptor cells. A different theory proposed by Ewald Hering, also has three meters or opponent processes. The theory turns out to be correct for subsequent stages in the visual path. Surprisingly, both theories are verified within the visual system (Hubel, 1995). The seeming inconsistency is that blackness is the only color sensation in both color schemes that is not caused by a stimulus of any kind. Presumably, blackness is caused in both theories by the absence of any stimuli, which is consistent with the present physics concept. However, the other colors in both the Young-Helmholtz and Hering systems are not caused by the absence of stimuli, but result from the actual stimulation of photoreceptor cones or rods by visible electromagnetic radiation.
In addition, what is usually not discussed by most theories of color vision is that blackness is a vital component of all visible color sensations. In the proposed model the cosmic long-wavelength darkness background is inescapable and, therefore, must be present in all visible color sensations. Therefore, a fundamental prediction is made that all visible colors, even white, must contain blackness. Although the same amount of the blackness background is always present, it is vastly overwhelmed by the diversity of photons and higher photon energies comprising a white light. Thus, the blackness is difficult to observe because it is embedded (thus it is hidden) along with the visible wavelengths in the white light.
Blackness as a component of all colors can be demonstrated in both additive and subtractive color mixing theories. Subtractive color mixing is accomplished with lights of distinct colors (usually red, green and blue), which when properly combined yield nearly all colors (Brandes, 1981). Since the blackness background is always present, all the colored lights must contain black. To demonstrate this is valid, the lights can be turned off revealing the blackness background. While this appears blatantly obvious, it suggests an important question: Since the blackness background appeared when the lights were turned off, how can the argument be made that the blackness background was not there prior to this event (when the lights were on)?
In the subtractive method, dyes (usually in clear plastic discs) mixed in varying proportions can produce nearly any color in the spectrum. The usual colors are cyan, magenta and yellow which are subtracted from a white light. Properly combined, all the photons of the white light can be absorbed, which again manifests blackness (Brandes, 1981). If the blackness background was not there prior to placing the colored discs in front of the light, how can black be uncovered by subtracting the colors? All the visible photons are absorbed which apparently revealed blackness. This observation supports the long-wavelength photon model.
The process of additive and subtractive mixing demonstrates clearly the close relationship between darkness and blackness. In additive color mixing, darkness is unveiled when the lights are turned off. In subtractive mixing, blackness is revealed when visible photons are absorbed and the surface appeared black. Both darkness and blackness are usually thought of as the absence of any sensation. Once envisioned as physical particles, a revelation is disclosed.
Subtraction is sometimes accomplished by using dyes which reflect the colors from white light. A black object reveals the long-wavelength cosmic blackness background by absorbing all visible wavelengths. By this method, subtraction can produce a black painted object (or visual blackness). Visible photons are absorbed by the black object and virtually no visible light is reflected. Only background electromagnetic radiation, which was always present, is emitted by the object and received by the eye. Again, the darkness (blackness) radiation does not reflect. The retina receives the radiation only in straight lines of sight transmitted directly from the cosmic long-wavelength photon background.
The long-wavelength quanta are transmitted directly through any physical object. Since virtually no visible colored wavelengths were present to accompany the background, the blackness radiation alone is oscillating the retinal area. In other words since there were no visible photons, the Universal background filled in the perceptual gaps with blackness radiation i.e., the accompaniment model. Invisible light, sometimes known as black light, is electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than 380 nanometers (ultraviolet) or longer than 760 nanometers (infrared). Such wavelengths do not stimulate the photoreceptors and therefore appear black to us. Since the Universal blackness background is never absorbed and, hence, not blocked, invisible wavelengths again are always accompanied by blackness radiation which describes well how infrared and ultraviolet are always perceived as black (Rahn, 1981).
Discussion
Ewald Hering recognized that black or gray are not produced simply by the absence of light, but arise when the light from an object is less than the average light coming from surrounding regions. To the visual system, the light-dark ratio is affected by light from the rest of the scene. An example of this is a gray piece of paper that can be made to look light gray if it is placed on a black background, but appears darker gray if it is placed on a light background (Rossi et al., 1996). This effect is known as simultaneous contrast.
A photometer physically (objectively) demonstrates that such effects are internally created by the visual system. Simultaneous contrast is the visual system's method of sharpening contours of the real world. Like lateral inhibition's ability to enhance contrast, simultaneous contrast exaggerates the truth about the edges of external reality by focusing our attention on what is most relevant (Hartline et al., 1956). Due to the long-wavelengths of cosmic-based blackness quanta, such quanta are fairly smeared-out over a wider area with much less detail than the shorter wavelength radiation such as visible light (Bronowski, 1974). The visual system sharpens the edges i.e., Mach bands, and exaggerates brightness differences with simultaneous contrast. Thus, the fuzzy black edges of a black object are corrected by the visual system to appear sharp. A photometer is a more accurate way to measure the visible light and darkness quanta emitted by an object. A photometric study is a more objective measure of the external world and the instrument reveals that the perceptual edges are not actually sharp at all.
A color's intensity is related to simultaneous contrast. A colored object's intensity is determined by the colors surrounding the object. In the case of blackness, however, this may not be valid. For example, if all intensity is due only to the contrasting color surrounding a colored object, why does absolute darkness (when intensity is assumed to go to zero) and which has no surrounding contrasting colors appear black at all?
Effects such as simultaneous contrast, Mach bands and lateral inhibitory interaction are subjective visual processes that are not dependent upon the more objective, cosmic long-wavelength photon stimuli (Marr, 1982). Mach bands may be explained by postulating inhibitory influences in the visual pathway that diminish with distance (Ratliff et al., 1959). Such inhibitory influences have also been discovered on the surface of the skin and in hearing (Ratliff, 1965). Such processes are actually types of illusions which have evolved to enhance perception and are created internally. If an organism can better detect edges, it can better survive i.e., find its food etc.. The detection of edges conveys a survival advantage and it has been naturally selected for. Therefore the visual system, which enhances edges, is not identical to a biological photometer. The cosmic long-wavelength blackness background is a physical phenomena. Its detection is a more subjective process and the brain has evolved to utilize the objective data to its own survival advantage.
Physicists have insisted that the "absence of light" is the correct darkness and blackness concept. The lateral inhibition model suggests that blackness is created internally by the visual system. There is a fundamental difference between the absence of light and lateral inhibition as models of darkness and blackness.
Any given receptor is laterally inhibited by the receptors surrounding it. The higher the activity level of the surrounding receptors, the greater the inhibition exerted upon the given receptor (Brigner, 1969). Horizontal cells are involved in contrast detection (Rahn, 1981). Visual edges are most affected by inhibitory influences, but in the lateral inhibition model the perception of darkness may also be explained. In the eye of Limulus, the ability of receptor units to discharge impulses is reduced in response to light, but also inhibits activity in complete darkness (Hartline et al., 1956).
In the long-wavelength photon model, both visual experiences of darkness and blackness are the end product of the same cosmic ELF photon electromagnetic background. To the visual apparatus, no distinction can be made between total darkness and an ideal non-shiny black (albedo equals zero) screen in the same region of space. Under these ideal circumstances, darkness and blackness are exactly equivalent because they both must use identical darkness stimuli. It is predicted that this equivalence logically follows from the darkness and blackness model and therefore must be true if this model is valid.
It is presently believed that the opposite of darkness is brightness and the opposite of blackness is whiteness. The long-wavelength photon model does not propose that whiteness and brightness are the same, only that blackness and darkness (to the visual system) are equivalent. Again, the stimuli must be the same in both cases.
Ewald Hering pointed out that if a black line is drawn around the edge of a shadow, the shadow will disappear. The shadow takes on the appearance of a dark surface (Bartley, 1980). This demonstrates the correctness of the equivalence of darkness and blackness above. It appears to be the edges of shadows (penumbra) that distinguish dull black paint on a surface from a shadow.
A shadow with the edges painted black, surrounded by a white annulus, appears blacker than a shadow alone. Such a shadow must be a darker black than a totally dark room. In this way, the relationship of darkness and blackness can be demonstrated through the process of simultaneous contrast. There can be no fundamental difference between dark and black in this experiment. In addition, Mach bands are observed at the edges of shadows as well as on black and white cardboard strips (Ratliff, 1965). Once again, the visual system does not distinguish between dark and black.
Do we really need a physical stimulus, such as the proposed cosmic long-wavelength quanta, for every psychological experience? The answer is: not unless an appreciable amount of evidence points to the necessity of such a stimulus. In the present case, there does seem to be compelling evidence demonstrating that blackness is a distinct perceptual state i.e., in everyday language, dark currents, color theories and in the organization of receptive fields. A stimulus to the visual system in the form of cosmic long-wavelength radiation, does appear to be a model that is more consistent with the available facts.
If the physicists are correct and darkness truly is only the absence of light, what need is there of lateral inhibition to explain the perception of blackness? Blackness logically follows from no electromagnetic radiation. By proposing inhibition as an explanation for blackness, the neuroscientists clearly do not really believe the physicists are correct. Indeed, it does appear that these different branches of science have fundamental differences of opinion when it comes to darkness and blackness. Both sciences can be unified by adopting the new and different view presented within this text.
Unlike the long-wavelength photon model, present lateral inhibitory interaction models do not boldly proclaim they are explanations for darkness and blackness. Rather, they endeavor to explain phenomena on the edges of the visual field such as Mach bands and simultaneous contrast (Ratliff, 1965). The phenomena of blackness, which is blacker than a totally dark room, is explained well by inhibitory influences. Inhibitory influences describe what happens at the edges of shadows or physical objects. As stated above, inhibitory influences have evolved in the visual system to aid organisms in their struggle to survive.
Since long-wavelength photons interact only weakly with matter, are there other examples of other types of physical interactions by such ELF quanta? Yes, there are such examples: The radio-waves in commercial AM broadcasting can be hundreds of meters long, yet they can still be received by a small hand-held radio. Radio stations emit stupendously huge numbers of photons every millisecond, enough to guarantee that such a small radio will absorb enough photons to generate enough of a current in the antenna for the amplifier to boost the signal to audible levels.
Another example is the microwaves that cook food do not carry enough energy to cause chemical breakdown, but are still absorbed indirectly in the form of heat. Microwave ovens cause the electric charges in the molecules of the food to vibrate out of phase with the microwaves. Any substance that can resonate with the wave, if connected with something that resists the same resonant motion, will absorb energy from the wave [Dennis Anthony (personal communications, September 13, 1998 and November 9, 1998)]. Given these facts, what is the nature of the interaction of the visual system with long-wavelength cosmic quanta?
Noise And Stochastic Resonance In The Visual System
A pertinent issue is ongoing activity or noise within the visual system. Does neural noise cause the experience of blackness? New studies suggest that what appears to be noise may in fact help a neuron cell recognize the signals to which it should respond (Raloff, 1996). Much of the ongoing background activity is not noise for the system, but is actually used by it. A likely theory is that neural signaling noise is used to detect faint signals (Raloff, 1996). Noise increases the slope of the response firing rate as a function of the contrast (Stemmler et al., 1995). Thus, it may be possible that the ongoing background activity associated with photoreceptor cells is primarily used to detect faint cosmic extremely low frequency electromagnetic photons.
To see how this takes place, one must consider the phenomena of Stochastic resonance in nonlinear systems. Stochastic resonance optimizes a system's response to a signal and has been demonstrated in neuronal networks in the brain (Gluckman et al., 1996). Stochastic resonance is now a well-understood phenomena. In nonlinear systems such as the visual system, a very small signal provokes a disproportionately large response (Raloff, 1996). Although very weak, the cosmic long-wavelength electromagnetic radiation could be detected by the photoreceptors by the process of Stochastic resonance by using noise to enhance the darkness signal. The role of noise to the visual system very likely is the amplification of the low-level electromagnetic background of nonlinear biochemical systems such as the retina. Thus, very weak cosmic long-wavelength photon signals are enhanced at one hertz and below by Stochastic resonance.
Melatonin And The Pineal Gland
The pineal gland within the brain could also be involved in the perception of blackness. The pineal gland secretes the neurohormone melatonin. Light which falls upon the retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) produces signals which are biochemically amplified to stimulate the pineal gland to reduce its output of melatonin. In darkness, the pineal gland is stimulated to produce more melatonin. Melatonin may "act as a darkness signal, providing feedback to the oscillator" [J. Psychiatric Neurosci. (Canada), Nov. 1994, P. 345-57, abstract]. Melatonin is thought to control the restoration of rods (for night vision) and the renewal of cones for color vision. Is restoration of the rod photoreceptors related to the maintenance of the dark current, the proposed key to darkness and blackness perception?
The pineal gland is intricately connected to other regions of the brain. There is constant communication between the pineal gland and other parts of the brain and spinal cord (Sahelian, 1995). Similar to the dark current (discussed subsequently) which is constantly on in darkness, the production of melatonin also is always on when it is dark. Also similar to the dark current, visible light sup presses this flow (Pierpaoli et al., 1995). Darkness converts serotonin into melatonin and visible light signals from the retinas inhibit the production of melatonin (Sahelian, 1995) Since they work in a similar fashion in response to light, is there a close connection between the pineal gland and retinal photoreceptors? Do cosmic long-wavelength photons create the perception of blackness to the retina through the production of melatonin?
It is known that weak, static magnetic fields induce pineal metabolic and physiologic changes with the retinas considered as the site of magneto reception. Both the retina and the pineal gland synthesize melatonin. A neuronal pathway, a type of auto regulatory feedback loop, is established from the retina through the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the anterior hypothalamus to the pineal gland (Stevens et al., 1997). It has been demonstrated that magnetic fields act similar to light. Fields of 50-60 hertz may suppress the increase of melatonin production. In mammals, information about the light-dark environment is detected at the retina and transferred via the optic nerve to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (Stevens et al., 1997). The visual system, thus, affects the pineal gland's production of melatonin.
Melatonin's role in important physiological systems is not well-described (Stevens et al., 1997). The many functions ascribed to the melatonin signal may have to be modified when more is known. This model adds one role more to the list, that of darkness and blackness perception. If one accepts the melatonin mechanism as basically correct, radiation levels at one hertz and below must therefore increase melatonin levels. Thus, electromagnetic fields at these specific frequencies must be responsible for the nightly rise in melatonin with a peak at about 2:00 AM in most mammals.
It has long been known that extremely low frequency EMF's generate visual phenomena known as magnetophosphenes (d' Arsonval, 1896). Lovsund has reported that magnetophosphenes are generated in the retina and that the threshold values vary with the frequency and background luminance level. Maximum sensitivity for this phenomena is as low as 20 hertz. Strangely, luminance phenomena such as this disappear before frequencies of one hertz. These results suggest that the retinal photoreceptors and/or synaptic connections within the retina are likely sources of electromagnetic stimulation (Stevens et al., 1997). Thus it is indeed possible, and can be demonstrated, that EMF's with energies this low can have an effect upon the retina. Since sensitivity to a low energy EMF can be demonstrated, this might show how the retinas can be "tuned" to resonate with vibrating EMF waves at one hertz and below.
Further investigation into retinal function itself is the next logical step. How does the visual system treat darkness and blackness? What is the role of cGMP? These are the topics of the next section.
Are Cosmic Long-Wavelength Photons a Stimulus To Photoreceptor Cells?
The retinal cells of the eye absolutely treats the darkness and blackness as legitimate stimuli. The photoreceptors in the retina are abuzz with activity in total darkness (Schnapf et al., 1987). The potential across the cone membrane is about 50 millivolts in darkness (Hubel, 1995). When a cone absorbs a photon of visible light, this potential increases, which was a complete surprise in 1964. In this year, Tsuneo Tomita at Keio University in Japan made this important discovery (Hubel, 1995).
Tomita found that stimulation by light turns photoreceptors off, hyperpolarizing them. Light cuts down the release of transmitter at synaptic clefts. In the dark, light receptors are more depolarized than resting nerve cells. This depolarization releases a steady flow of transmitter at axon terminals in the same way as an actual stimulation of the receptor. In darkness, photoreceptor membranes have an appreciable permeability to sodium ions (Na+). The effect of darkness quanta is to increase the rate of opening of Na+ channels with no effect on their rate of closing.
These findings strongly suggest a straightforward solution be applied that the darkness stimulus is real. In all other sensory systems (mechanical, thermal or chemical) actual stimuli lead to the release of transmitter at axon terminals. Why is it that when the stimuli is darkness, it is suggested that blackness must be an internally created illusion? Perhaps since the finding does not fit within the context of any existing theory, it must be "explained away" as a difference in the functioning of the photoreceptor cells themselves. However, the simplest possible explanation is that the stimulus is real.
In addition, optic nerve fibers are active in the dark, again despite the claim of no stimuli. Since retinal cells are active in the dark, it is not surprising that the optic nerves are also busy. Horizontal, bipolar and ganglion cells are conveying signals and "act" as though real signals are being received. If there is no stimuli, what is the purpose of all this activity in the dark by all aspects of the visual system?
In 1970, the dark current was discovered which is a flow of Na+ into the cells, balanced by Potassium ions (K+) which flows out (Hubel, 1995). When a visible light photon is absorbed by a cone or rod, the dark current is reduced and the influx of Na+ into the membrane is blocked. The dark current is responsible for depolarization of the receptors. Again, the membrane "acts" as if there is a continuous stimulation in darkness.
If an actual stimulus is taking place, the stimulation point is likely to be at the point where Na+ is rushing into the membrane (Levine et al., 1991). At this point, the excess of positive ions outside the membrane rapidly dwindles to zero. For an instant, the membrane at the stimulation point is depolarized. The present method of keeping Na+ pores open at the stimulation point is due to cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP).
CGMP is likely to be the key to understanding if stimulation by cosmic long-wavelength quanta i.e., darkness photons, is real. When photobleaching takes place, an enzyme named transducin deactivates hundreds of cGMP molecules via the visual cascade system. This closes millions of the channels, blocking Na+ from entering the membranes. The cGMP molecules control the transport of Na+ through the surface membrane. In the dark, channels are kept open by direct, reversible binding of cGMP to the channels (Molday et al., 1994). The cGMP directly opens the sodium channels. It is a transmitter in visual excitation (Stryer, 1986).
An alternative model of a photoreceptor rod's membrane could consider cosmic darkness and blackness electromagnetic quanta as the producer (or an aid in the production) of cGMP. The Na+ channel is designed to detect changes in cGMP concentration (Stryer, 1986). The absorption of visible photons by rhodopsin, results in the hydrolysis of cGMP to GMP and the closing of the Na+ membrane which blocks the dark current. Hence, the control of Na+ permeability may be governed by the flux of cosmic long-wavelength electromagnetic quanta. Darkness quanta of one hertz and below lead to the continuous stimulation of the Na+ membrane. The dark current is the result of this continuous interaction with and stimulation by ELF darkness photons.
One can see from this how photoreceptors might have evolved to work "backward" from the other sensory neurons: 1) Because of constant stimulation by darkness photons, chemical transmitter is released at the synaptic cleft at the maximum amount. Visible photons cannot cause more transmitter to be released because the postsynaptic receptor sites are saturated. 2) Ion permeation sites can exceed a million Na+ per second in darkness (Stryer, 1986). It appears doubtful that these channels can handle a larger quantity of Na+.
As a result, visible photons turn off receptor cells due to saturation of the visual system by darkness stimuli and partial depolarization of the Na+ membrane. Thus, due to constant stimulation, nature has adapted the system to function in-reverse, an unexpected result. For visible photons to be detected, rods and cones must hyperpolarize to absorb a visible photon. It is a great evolutionary advance in terms of the amount of information receptor cells can transmit (Thompson, 1993). Perhaps, the discovery of how photoreceptors function is not actually an insight into the mechanism of the receptors themselves, so much as the unearthing of deeper laws stemming from the physical nature of visible light and darkness/blackness!
It is not possible to speak about photoreceptors without mentioning their supporting apparatus, the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). At present, the blackness pigment melanin contained in the RPE is not fully understood as well as many other aspects of the RPE. In this model, the likely absorption site for cosmic long-wavelength quanta is the RPE.
Does The RPE Absorb The Cosmic Blackness Radiation?
The retina has pigment cells for all the different possible colors, including blackness. In rod photoreceptors, the visual pigment for all colors is rhodopsin. Rhodopsin is sensitive to visible light of all colors. When eyes are struck by visible light of any wavelength, one has the sensation of "seeing" white light. In cones, three types of pigments absorb blue, green and red, hence there are three types of cone cells. The retinal pigment epithelium is called the RPE . Strangely, black pigment cells called melanin are also in the retina in the RPE. Melanin absorbs whatever light has passed through the photoreceptors and has not been absorbed by them. Thus no visible light is reflected back into the eye again (Rahn, 1981). The biological role of melanin in ocular tissues is still open to intense debate (Marmor et al., 1998). Since the photoreceptor's themselves might not absorb cosmic-based long-wavelength quanta directly (although several mechanisms are subsequently described), these low energy photons may pass by the photoreceptors and be absorbed by the retinal pigment epithelium cells. Thus, black pigment melanin cells might absorb blackness radiation, although such black cells should also actively emit ELF blackness radiation.
The retinal pigment epithelium is altered in dim visible light verses brighter conditions. The pigment cells have long, finger-like projections or processes, as they are called, that extend between the rod photoreceptors. In dim light, melanin granules remain in the main part of the cell. In brighter visible light conditions, the processes grow in length and the pigment granules called melanosomes move into the processes (Rahn, 1981). Although the RPE is not a photoreceptor cell, its membranes respond electrically to chemical or ionic stimuli (Marmor et al., 1998). Pigment epithelium cells are known to provide nourishment to photoreceptors and dispose of their waste products. It is not surprising that when pigment epithelium cells die, so do the photoreceptors that they nourish (Rahn, 1981). The RPE renews the rods outer segments (Marmor et al., 1998). The photoreceptors and the RPE should be thought of as a single interdependent system, true partners of the neurosensory retina in the visual cycle (Marmor et al., 1998). Melanin pigment should always (even in bright conditions) emit blackness radiation, as it is proposed that all black objects do. Therefore within the retina, blackness will always be a vital component of all color sensations (see the color section above for further details).
It was Kuhne who showed that visual purple could be renewed in the dark when the bleached retina was carefully laid back onto the RPE. Kuhne thought that the blackness pigment of the RPE is the mechanism of light absorption (Marmor et al., 1998). Since the function of melanin is not precisely known, perhaps it is the pigment epithelium area that absorbs the one hertz and below cosmic long-wavelength quanta and conveys chemical messages via melanin granules to the photoreceptors. This leads to the constant stimulation of the dark current in the photoreceptors which might be mediated by the production of cGMP.
Similar to photoreceptors at the onset of light, the RPE cell membrane hyperpolarizes. During dark adaption in vivo, retinoid moves out of the RPE cell and into the photoreceptor cell, where it interacts with opsin to form the visual pigment rhodopsin. The RPE acts in every way similar to the photoreceptors. In fact, Noell has demonstrated that the RPE is the primary source of the standing potential of the eye. In the 1960's melanin was found, in response to light stimuli applied to the RPE, to generate a potential across the epithelium. As yet, no clinical use has been found for the melanin response (Marmor et al., 1998).
People with ty-negative albinism are born without melanin pigment in their eyes and, as one might predict, they are highly sensitive to bright light and glare. Moreover, darkness adaption is affected. Such individuals squint severely, perhaps because they have far less detection of the blackness background, thus, their ordinary color sensations do not contain a preponderance of blackness. Their blackness mechanism does not function properly due to a complete lack of melanin pigment which might be involved in the absorption of cosmic blackness quanta. Therefore, people with ty-negative albinism live in a brighter world with altered color sensations. Salamanders that live in dark caves, and are essentially blind, have a less-developed RPE in which the cells have little melanin and short apical processes (Nguyen et al., 1978; Marmor et al., 1998). Some of this excess brightness perception may be explained as stray reflected light in the retina that is not absorbed by the black pigment (this has not been demonstrated however). The inability of a ty-negative albino to experience absolute blackness is a proposal of this blackness model. In addition, this model predicts that the careful study of ty-negative albinism may yield greater insight into the perception of blackness. No name reference at: http://stone.web.brevard.k12.fl.us/student/truong/albinism.html
Some melatonin is released and synthesized by photoreceptors. Melatonin activates light-evoked disc shedding by photoreceptors when applied in the dark just prior to light onset. Melatonin was found to mimic darkness by causing disc shedding. The circadian clock, and darkness perception, may both reside in the photoreceptors. Melatonin may be essential for the "dark priming" that precedes photoreceptor disc shedding and RPE phagocytosis. The depolarization of photoreceptor cells, proposed by this model to be stimulus-based, may be due to melatonin production (Marmor et al., 1998). The melatonin-related depolarization is primarily caused by a constant stimulation from a harmonic resonance with cosmic long-wavelength radiation of the proper darkness/blackness frequencies.
Other Biological Evidence
Another discovery that supports the darkness model is that retinal bipolar and ganglion cells are divided into on- and off- center categories. Off-center cells respond (are excited) in the same way to dark and black spots as on-center cells respond to bright spots. Ganglion level cells handle four types of color coding and two types of luminance selectivity. It is therefore surprising to have separate sets of cells for handling dark and light spots (Hubel, 1995). Time and again, the darkness and blackness are as "real" to the visual system as brightness and that reality has a firm basis in neuroscience.
In the dark, retinal ganglion cells keep up a steady and somewhat irregular synaptic firing. Rates of one to two and even up to about twenty impulses per second have been recorded (Hubel, 1995). One might expect complete silence with no visible light present but again this appears not to be the case.
Within the geniculate bodies, single on- and off-center cells respond to light and darkness in much the same way as the retinal ganglion and bipolar cells. Processing of darkness and blackness begins early at many levels before the signals arrive at the visual cortex (Bower, 1996).
It is known that in various locations within the brain, there are specialized structures which are bundles of nerve cells called neural oscillators. Such oscillators within the brain might be stimulated and then resonate at a frequency derived from the incoming cosmic long-wavelength radiation (Carpenter, 1999). Thus, such resonant frequencies would be tuned to the ELF darkness radiation band.
Molecular-Level Long-Wavelength Electromagnetic Field Absorption Mechanisms
The fundamental problem remains in finding mechanisms by which weak currents can act effectively as agents influencing resting potential, or ion-channels of the membranes (Stevens et al., 1997). By what mechanism can weak electromagnetic fields (EMF) and oscillating EMF i.e., radiation, interact with RPE cells? These are the basic molecular-level mechanisms:
A very plausible model is the radical pair model proposed by Schulten in 1982. Schulten's model involves photo-induced electron transfer reactions. Most molecules have a singlet ground state; i.e., the spins of paired electrons are antiparallel and the net magnetic moments of the molecules cancel each other, thus, are equal to zero. When long-wavelength EMF are present it may cause the molecule to accept an electron from a donor neighboring electron, which results in a radical pair. Thus, both members of the radical pair have a net magnetic moment from the nuclear spin of the unpaired electron. This strong influence causes the electron to precess around the net magnetic moment. An external electromagnetic field may add to this nuclear magnetic moment and cause the electron to precess around the resultant (nuclear + external EMF) vector in the proper radio frequencies i.e., the Zeeman interaction. Because the unpaired electrons are not constrained by sharing an orbital with another electron, one of the electrons may "flip" so that the two electrons are in parallel spin alignments. In this case, transfer will lead to an excited state of the electron in which the excited electron and remaining unpaired electrons in ground state have parallel spin alignments. The magnetic moments of the two electrons sum together. In this way, rhodopsin may achieve an excited state and be affected by an electromagnetic field. An ever-present field, like the one proposed, may increase the probability that one of the unpaired electrons in the radical pair will flip. Back transfer of an electron may then result in a triplet, rather than a singlet excited state. In an ordered array of rhodopsin molecules, a dependence upon the alignment of the external long-wavelength EMF may result (Schulten, 1982; Stevens et al., 1997). This is how a "tuning" of the retinal rhodopsin in a photoreceptor or melanin in the RPE to the long-wavelength electromagnetic field can occur.
An additional plausible model is the magnetite-based mechanism. Magnetite-based receptors could respond to the direction and/or intensity of an electromagnetic field. Changes in membrane conductance can result from this interaction. The suggested mechanism is that particles in the retina can align pigment molecules responsible for darkness and blackness perception that are nearby in solution. Such cells for blackness are in the RPE and are pigments called melanin (Rahn, 1981). Magnetite particles may track the external field at one hertz and below and align with the blackness pigment molecules (melanin) surrounding the particles. The result is a photoreceptor-based magnetoreceptor mediated by a magnetite-based mechanism (Stevens et al., 1997). The retinas may act as magnetoreceptors. The disturbances in pineal melatonin production induced by both light exposure or nonvisible EMF exposure at night may be the same (Reiter, 1993; Stevens et al., 1997). The internal field induction responsible for "seeing" magnetophosphenes (as mentioned earlier) provides evidence of the plausibility of the magnetite-based mechanisms which might be responsible for this visual phenomena. Might not a similar mechanism be responsible for darkness and blackness perception beginning at one hertz?
An additional model to consider is the biophysical model which would include the previously mentioned stochastic resonance method of signal amplification. Stochastic resonance would likely take place in either the pineal gland or the retina, or in elements in the nerve chains connecting these two sites. As mentioned previously, the retina may resonate naturally at one hertz and below. Further experiments in the future will have to prove the plausibility of the biophysical mechanism and Stochastic resonance (Stevens et al., 1997).
Since the radical pair model and the magnetite-based model above are interactions with an induction field and not actually a radiation field, it is not clear how radiation at one hertz might affect photoreceptor cell molecules [Joel E. Henkel (personal communication, February 9, 1999)]. When such fields are brought into vibration by the acceleration of electric charges, it seems plausible that such cosmic long-wavelength radiation could produce quite similar results. That is, cosmic radiation would stimulate the molecules of the retina resulting in the phenomena of the dark current.
Such a mechanism for the detection of one hertz radiation by a photoreceptor or RPE cell might work like this: Instead of absorbing one long-wavelength photon only, which may not carry enough energy to excite the rhodopsin molecule, the molecule absorbs a number of long-wavelength photons simultaneously. Their combined energies add up to enough energy to excite the molecule. When waves of different lengths travel together through space, their electromagnetic fields combine both constructively and destructively and interfere with each other. Largely, this interference does nothing much of interest, but sooner or later the fields of a large number of photons will interfere constructively, creating a superpeak in the field intensities i.e., an unusually strong electric and magnetic field at that point in the wavetrain. That superpeak from a quantum mechanical perspective, represents a high probability that a large number of long-wavelength photons will be absorbed simultaneously by any system available to absorb them [Dennis Anthony, personal communication (October 4, 1998)].
It has been suggested that the probability for such a chance-correlation i.e., a superpeak, would be "vanishingly small" [Joel E. Henkel, personal communication (February 12, 1999)]. However, relatively rare events occurring in a sufficiently dense collection of photons might create enough events for the positive stimulation of the retinas and blackness perception [Dennis Anthony, personal communication (June 26, 1999)]. Moreover, such long-wavelength photon absorption will likely be aided by Stochastic resonance in the visual system, which enables the visual system to detect very weak signals. Thus, cosmic extremely low frequency photons can set the retina into resonance.
This mechanism might work in combination with resonance to produce darkness and blackness perception in the retina.
Philosophical Considerations
One might object to this model on philosophical grounds by taking the epistemological point of view that in a visual field of blackness no perception is possible. A mathematical description of perception can be applied to a principle called Bateson's edict. In this view, perception breaks the invariance symmetry of the world thereby generating properties. Reality consists of these properties and only differences in these properties can be noticed. The objective world has no "real" properties, only the potential for them. Hence, only edge-related phenomena can be detected because they break the perfect symmetry by creating differences. So the question of darkness and blackness being "a something" becomes completely meaningless [Joel E. Henkel (personal communication, January 18, 1999)].
However if taken in a more general context , the principle described above of Gregory Bateson's work is consistent with the view described by this text. This is because it is basically straightforward for all normally sighted individuals to distinguish the difference between the world of physical objects (and visible light) and absolute darkness and blackness. Moreover, any sighted person can notice the difference between darkness (and blackness) and nothing at all (no stimuli--a nonentity). As is proposed in the section to follow, there are three fundamental levels of visual perception: visible light, darkness/blackness and nothing (no stimuli). Therefore, there are distinct differences between all three levels and these basic distinctions are not generally confused by observers. Thus, Bateson's edict, if applied more generally, cannot mean that darkness is the same as nothing--a nonentity. No name reference at: http://www.envf.port.ac.uk/newmedia/lecturenotes/EMMA/at1n.htm
Immanuel Kant was perhaps the most influential philosopher of science in history. In Kant's view of the Universe, he divided the world into two domains: the domain of the phenomena and the domain of the noumena. Phenomena are events as perceived by the human mind such as sensations. Noumena are the causes of the phenomena--they are the so-called things-in-themselves, the objects that really exist. Human beings can never know the noumena directly: noumena are the sources of the signals that act on our senses, we can perceive only the signals, not the sources (Williams, 1989). Long-wavelength quanta are the signals (not the sources) that act upon our senses to perceive the blackness phenomena. Thus, these ELF blackness signals are not the noumena itself, but the signals arising from the noumena. The noumena itself cannot be directly known, but the signals arising from it i.e., the blackness ELF radiation signals, can be known.
One might picture this as the noumena being the fifth dimension and sending signals to the forth dimension, the dimensions of human beings. The forth dimension is, hence, the phenomenal world as described by Kant. Darkness signals (since they are radiation) arise from the fifth dimension, but have consequences for our own dimensions. See "Flames" text below for more information about this viewpoint.
This model proposes that all of reality is essentially disjointed or granular (what the mathematicians call discreteness). Niels Bohr's "correspondence principle" joins the classical world and the modern quantum world. This is what is accomplished here. The correspondence principle says that a quantum system will follow approximately the laws of classical physics when the granularity of the quantum system is relatively small. Moreover, the transition from quantum to classical behavior is gradual; there is no sharp dividing line (Wheeler, 1998).
An example of this is given by granular sugar one can purchase at the store. The behavior of sugar as more crystals are added is that the sugar is "quantized". It is a collection of distinct pieces of matter until the number of crystals is measured in the millions. Adding or subtracting a single crystal has practically no measurable effect. At this level, the sugar then behaves like a fluid. It can be poured. It flows. It's granularity becomes unimportant, as it can take on the shape of any container. Continuous behavior (as darkness and blackness appear to be), hence, is ultimately granular. Every physical system (and it is suggested here that the darkness and blackness is a physical system) is ultimately a quantum system (Wheeler, 1998).
Darkness as a topic of study is somewhat taboo in the natural sciences; one does not find much useful information concerning darkness in the scientific literature. However, the philosophical wisdom of Francis Bacon (1561- 1626), who in his day was the philosopher that established the scientific methods prior to Newton, spoke in his writings directly to this issue. Bacon believed that if you want to find out about the world and the Universe around it, that investigation absolutely includes everything! Hence, no subject can (or should) be considered taboo. That in-essence is the spirit of the approach taken by this text. The investigation of a so-called closed (or settled) issue. Hopefully, the reader can see that this issue is vastly more complex than the simple-minded explanation handed-down to us from previous generations. Therefore, the issue is not as yet settled!
A Simple Perception Model
A very simple model of human perception can be constructed based upon the new electromagnetic darkness picture. The fundamental idea is that there are three (instead of two) distinct levels of visual perception as detected by the retina: 1) All frequencies of visible light in the normal visible band. 2) Darkness and blackness residing at 1 hertz and below. 3) No stimuli at all which is related closely to Kant's noumenal world described above. Level # 3 can also include all other electromagnetic radiation wavelengths not included in level's # 1 or # 2, as this radiation does not stimulate the retina. Perhaps, as described below, level # 3 may appear to observers as a "white-out" condition.
Human observers are "fooled" into believing that darkness equals no stimuli, because of the inescapable nature and a constant stimulation by the cosmic low energy electromagnetic background. As in Kant's noumenal world, the world of "no stimuli" is beyond our experiences. This no stimuli world, like a pure vacuum in space-time, does not exist in our Universe. There is an unexpected unity in this model between the absence of a vacuum of space-time and the absence of a perceptual vacuum. In this case, they are one in the same and they have the same cause.
In people with normal vision, there can never be a time when there is no stimuli, except when observing a black hole. A black hole is an unusual astronomical object that has gravity so strong that even light cannot escape. Since darkness and blackness are proposed to be just a different frequency range of electromagnetic radiation traveling at the velocity of light, black holes cannot be black. This is because both visible light and darkness (and blackness) cannot escape the black hole's gravity. Level # 3 (no stimuli) may be actualized by a black hole. A black hole's event horizon may not appear like the edge of a shadow, but rather more like the blind spot at the back of the eye, an area that cannot receive stimuli. This is very similar to Kant's noumena as described above. Like the noumena, a black hole simply cannot be known. Unfortunately, these predictions are difficult to test due to the apparent lack of black holes in the solar neighborhood (Hawking, 1996). See link to black hole text below for more information.
R. L. Gregory has stated that blind people do not experience blackness (Gregory, 1977). If true, this suggests that one must have functioning photoreceptors and RPE to experience either visible light or blackness. Thus, most all blind people experience nothing which equals # 3 (no stimuli at all). This supports the view that there are three (and not two) levels of perception, leading to the conclusion that blackness is not a "nothing". Therefore, blackness is a physiological state in its own right caused by a physical stimulus in the environment.
With very large doses of the hallucinagenic drug LSD, a "white-out" condition can occur. This may be due to a total disinhibition of glutamate transmitter. Perhaps, this is a total override and/or bypass of level # 2 darkness reception, to a level # 3 nothingness (no stimuli) perception. Hence, no stimuli may cause a white-out response to occur. It is notable the white-out sensation has also been linked with seizures, migraine headaches, low-oxygen conditions, high CO_2, near-death experiences as well as concussions.
Moreover, it is interesting to note that in sensory deprivation tanks, human volunteers after 14 days of no visible light or sound reported an altered consciousness very similar to that of LSD's hallucinogenic effects--this might be an over stimulation (sensory overload) of the brain by the dark current. To the brain, the darkness is not a nothing.
All the evidence supports the conclusion that cosmic long-wavelength photons are a stimulus to the visual system. What other model explains all the brain's activity in the dark?
One final comment is an observation and a comparison of the human visual system with a lizard called a newt. Solessio and Engbretson (1993) have obtained recordings from the isolated parietal eye photoreceptor of the newt. These recordings demonstrate the presence of two spectral mechanisms at work, one absorbing at short-wavelengths which causes a hyperpolarization of the cell membrane, and a second absorbing at long-wavelengths, which causes a depolarization of the cell membrane. In simple terms this has an amazingly close similarity to the proposed model, a model where blackness and visible light are equally "real" sensations and are just caused by different frequency bands at different locations on the same electromagnetic spectrum.
Similar to the newt, visible light causes a hyperpolarization of human receptor cell membranes and blackness perception results in membrane depolarization. Human functions have much in common with the newt not only in our photoreceptors, but in our biological responses to our physical environment. The visual world of the newt, is characterized by the same darkness and light as in the human experience. Thus, both organisms have developed similar "bi-spectral" visual resonance systems that respond to the same radiation bands of light and darkness/blackness electromagnetic vibrations. Once again, perhaps this is not so much a fact about the receptors in the eye of the newt, but a reflection of fundamental laws of nature forcing the adaptation of the visual system. Both humans and newts live in the same Universe and, therefore, must obey the same fundamental laws concerning light and darkness. This fact is proved by the selected evolution of visual systems of very similar designs.
Conclusion
Wittgenstein liked to say, "The most difficult problems are the ones right in front of our eyes, the ones we don't see as problems" (Elkins, 1997). Most scientists don't see the darkness and blackness as a problem, so there are no compelling reasons to change our long-held notions. The long-wavelength photon model represents a change in the way we view darkness and blackness, and a challenge to traditional age-old ideas. The new model is a completely consistent view of nature and walks a fine line between physics and biology/psychology. Actually, this new view unifies the previously different views of both biology and physics into a single complete system with regard to darkness/blackness.
To gain acceptance, the long-wavelength photon model must undergo the most rigorous scientific scrutiny and this is as it should be. Once properly understood, it should become obvious that the new model explains the same observations that the absence of light does. Moreover, lateral inhibition is viewed as an internal brain adaptation to enhance an organisms chances of survival. Thus, lateral inhibition is not an adequate theory of the phenomena of darkness and blackness.
The long-wavelength photon model is more consistent with theories of color, explains the primary reason for the dark current, better describes receptive field organization, may explain the role of melanin in the visual system and gives objective reality to darkness and blackness. Several different mechanisms have been suggested for the interaction of the visual system with the long-wavelength induction field as well as ELF electromagnetic radiation. There may be other mechanisms yet to be discovered.
If the various mechanisms described in the text are proved to be valid, many more predictions related to each mechanism may emerge. As it stands presently, however, there are five central predictions of the cosmic long-wavelength electromagnetic darkness model. These predictions are not related to any particular detection mechanism, but are of a more general nature. All five predictions are fundamental and, thus, can falsify the model. In other words, if any one prediction is shown to be false, the model can be considered disproved:
1) Darkness and blackness are stimuli to the visual system.
2) Extremely low-frequency cosmic electromagnetic photons must affect the visual system by causing the perception of blackness.
3) All colors, reflected or emitted, must contain an embedded blackness component in their wavelengths. This demonstrates the presence of the inescapable Universal cosmic ELF blackness background.
4) There can be no fundamental difference to the visual system between darkness and blackness, as described within the text. This is because their stimuli are the same.
5) The darkness/blackness is discontinuous and grainy; a physical system in its own right.
Links To My Related Work
If the reader would like to view my two other earlier models concerning darkness and blackness, my other text containing these theories can be seen at: http://www.johnkharms.com/Black.htm . My later (and closely related) 1999 model # 4 is available at: http://www.johnkharms.com/infrared.htm . Also, my "color" ideas are also related to darkness and blackness, available at: http://www.johnkharms.com/color.htm . My work on black holes can be viewed at: http://www.johnkharms.com/blackholes.htm
"Flames" Text Available At: http://www.johnkharms.com/flames.htm
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Dennis Anthony, Joel E. Henkel and Gene Johnson for their valuable suggestions and analysis of the ideas presented in this text. Gene is a brain researcher and provided information about LSD research and the phenomenon of "white-out".
References
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