Hello all,

I wondered whether anyone had heard of what the effects of microwaves are. Is there anything one can do to protect themselves (by way of some energetic practice of shielding), etc?

Love,

   

I can provide some factoids from a physics perspective:

Microwaves are loosely defined in physics and engineering circles to be electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range of  about .75 to 5 GHz (or 750-5000 MHz).  That is, it is similar to the light that humans can see, but with a much lower frequency and a much higher wavelength.

One way that microwaves interacts with humans (or "meat" in general) is to jiggle the water molecules, the water molecules collide with each other releasing heat.  Microwaves penetrate into the volume of the object a distance that depends on the water content and the electrical conductivity.  For live humans, microwaves can penetrate on order of a centimeter or so. Eyes are particularly delicate as they can't sweat to remove excess heat and depend only on blood circulation to regulate temperature.  I don't have the background needed to comment on whether the electromagnetic fields from microwaves can inhibit or interfere with nuerological function.  I worked with and around high power microwave devices for more than a decade and did not observe in myself or my coworkers any signs that would cause me to question the safety of what we were doing.

The common sources for microwaves are microwave ovens and communications equipment such as cell phones, cordless phones, baby monitors, bluetooth devices etc.

From memory, (which means take this with a large grain of salt) the U.S. OSHA safety people say that you may expose workers without telling them (uninformed exposure) for 8 hours a day  to microwave sources of powers up to 5 mW/cm2, the informed exposure limit is 8 mW/cm2.  These levels are far above what you would find from a microwave oven door (my experience is that an oven door is on order of .5-1 mW/cm2) or the energy "floating" around from communication devices. I have heard, but cannot say with any reliability that cell phones can have pretty high energies for short times, which is especially worrisome as they are typically positioned near the brain and eyes when in use.

Personally, its my opinion  that with the infrequent use of a cell phone, there isn't a whole lot of risk, especially in light of such other risks as driving a car, eating most commercially provided foodstuffs, etc.  But if you wish to minimize exposure to microwaves, get rid of the wireless communication devices.

That said, there are other frequencies of electromagnetic radiation that are constantly flooding us as well.  Everything from flickering fluorescent lights to the the electromagnetic fields generated in a hair dryer provide some risk.  (Again, my opinion is that the sum total of all the EM risks are relatively low compared to other risks in the modern and post modern lifestyle.)

I have no idea how microwaves or any other type of electromagnetic radiation interacts with subtle and gross bodies.  It would be interesting to see how someone would tackle that question.

 

Brian

Well, that's just it. I read in a book, 'Endless Energy' that microwaves are extremely harmful, even if you're in the next room and since at work I am exposed to 2 microwaves (which I completely avoid by never going into the kitchen when they're on) but this is quite annoying - especially when you want a tea, etc.

It's funny, because I can actually feel the microwaves (literally). That's why I ask.

D.

I will admit that I have some skeptism about the ability to feel microwaves.  There are several alternate explanations about being able to percieve that a microwave oven is use.  There are many low frequency audio rumbles being generated by turntables, fans, power supply electronics, along with some low frequency electromagnetic emission from the power supply.  I don't doubt that you feel something, but I don't know of any UR, gross explanations consistent with being able to feel microwaves directly. 

If you were indeed able to detect microwaves, you would also be able to detect every cell phone transmission made in your vicinity as the radiated power external to the cell phone is 10 to 100 times more than a properly functioning microwave oven. If such an ability existed, it would have much interest from the commercial and military sectors.

I haven't read "Endless Energy" and likely will not unless I hear something compelling about the science that backs the conclusion.  The combination of what I know of physics and my own experience in an environment that has unusually high doses of microwave radiation without ill effects over more than a decade convince me I should worry about other environmental risk factors.

 

Brian

Hi Mira--

Have you heard about the so-called "Pain Beam" that the US military is developing? I can't wait until they start testing it on all their citizens (us). It basically uses a focused microwave beam to incapacitate people. To my knowledge the only defence against varying degrees of radiation (ranging from x-rays, to micro-waves, to nuclear radiation) is by putting a wall of physically dense material (such as lead) between you and the source. So unless you want to walk around in a lead bubble, theres not too much you can do against radiation. This is the best of my knowledge, I could be wrong.

Ken Wilber I believe has recommended the Q-link, which claims to be able to neutralize EMF's, but I am very skeptical of something like that being able to neutralize "any and all" EMF's because I've been informed by a friend of mine who is a Physicist that for something like that to be effective it would have to target a very narrow bandwidth and so it could not legitimately claim to neutralize "all" EMF's.

egg

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A survivor looks to the past to tell him who he is, but a fool creates himself in every moment. So ask yourself - would you rather be a survivor, or a fool?