Good Vibrations on the Third Rock

Russian scientists at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences did extensive studies on the impact of space weather on the health of cosmonauts sent into space. What they discovered is that space travel has serious health implications. Natural geomagnetic fields of extremely low frequencies (less than 100 hertz) have a profound effect on virtually all cellular and chemical processes in living things.

Specifically, the synthesis of proteins and micro-nutrients are susceptible to change in all organisms from bacteria to humans. Plants are especially sensitive to geomagnetic disturbances, so much so that the Russians used plants as a barometer to detect fluctuations in geomagnetic fields. Whether in space or on earth, their scientists discovered that geomagnetic variations impact all living things in profound ways.

Illnesses on earth seem to parallel effects of geomagnetic variation in space. When cosmonauts experienced cardiac arrest in space due to severe magnetic storms, illness and death among humans on earth also spiked. It seems that of all the systems impacted in the human body, the one most disturbed is the heart. Sudden cardiovascular death appears to be linked to solar geomagnetic activity. Heart attack rates rise and fall according to solar activity cycles.

Geomagnetic activity also affects the brain. During magnetically stormy days human EEG readings are destabilized. Geomagnetic turbulence also disturbs the balance between certain parts of the brain and disrupts communication within the nervous system. The more unsettled space weather is, the greater the number of patients hospitalized for nervous disorders and the more that suicide numbers spike. Those suffering from mental disorders suffer increased agitation and psychiatric disorders are generally exacerbated. Even the incidence of epileptic seizures seems to increase.

It is not surprising that biological systems are sensitive to external signals such as geomagnetic disturbances. Magnetic fields are caused by the flow of charged ions; whenever magnetic forces shift, they alter the flow of these charged particles. Humans, like all living things, are composed of the same atoms and particles that make up the cosmos. As an integral part of the interconnected cosmos we live in, when one part of the universe has a hiccup, everything else feels it, including us. This is the science of chronoastrobiology – the rhythms of biology as affected by astral bodies and events.

It's like the sun is this giant metronome setting the tempo and vibration of all life on the Earth. Short of wearing a foil hat or moving underground, there's really not much we can do about it. Our bodies communicate through electromagnetic signals, so changes in the electromagnetic spectrum will always affect us.