If it does not explain why, then it is not a hypothesis, but rather a political stance.

You have to forgive me, but to me it is obvious what this curve suggests. But I only do this for a living, so what do I know.

If 7.5 billion people can look at this and not understand what has occurred… then I don't hold out much hope for humanity.

Originally tweeted by Ethical Skeptic ☀ (@EthicalSkeptic) on December 13, 2021.

Originally tweeted by Ethical Skeptic ☀ (@EthicalSkeptic) on December 13, 2021.

Unfortunately, the video has been taken down, no reason given. The writeup below still conveys most of the information, which I found very interesting because it provides a link between an actual brain structure and “paranormal” experience. ABN

[Everything below this is taken from a post that can be found here: Paraphrased notes from Dr. Garry Nolan’s Interview on Phenomenon Radio with Linda Moulton Howe and John Burroughs (March 14th, 2019). Nolan himself in the comments says: “A very accurate summary of what I said. Very much appreciated. I will use this to point people towards when they ask me about my thoughts on these subject areas. signed… Garry Nolan, Stanford University School of Medicine.”] ABN

In this 2-hour interview, Garry Nolan talks about the very significant physiological and genetic peculiarities found in subjects who claim to have experienced, among other things, UAP encounters.

HOUR 1

• Garry Nolan got involved in this research through his interactions with Kit Green. The research focuses specifically on the region of the caudate and putamen in the brain, which is the seat of intuition, and how anomalous cognition might “line up with the intuitive processes in the brain.”
• Dr. Nolan warns that the data is still preliminary; nothing has been published or peer-reviewed yet. The evidence so far is however enough to put forward a hypothesis and design protocols to test it.
• Nolan and Green had a cohort of patients that had “encountered something.” Some of them were military/intelligence witnesses to anomalous events, others were civilians commonly referred to as “experiencers.”
• Subjects’ medical history and accounts of what they experienced were collected. For many of them, there were MRIs of their bodies, MRIs of their brains, or both.
• There was particular interest in the brain scans because the individuals displayed features that deviated from the norm. At first, this was interpreted as damage, however, through discussions, it turned out to be additional fibers between the caudate and putamen.
• He points out that he’s used the word “connections” before, however the more correct way to refer to it is a fiber density, what appears to be nerve bundles (or white matter tracts) that connect the caudate and putamen areas.
• Garry Nolan reminds us that the anomaly is present in people that claimed anomalous cognition, however the claims themselves were not validated for the purposes of the study.
• Having said that, although he won’t go further than saying the subjects experienced “events,” some of the claims of anomalous events are backed up by testimony from multiple witnesses.
• The density of the nerve bundles in those individuals was much greater than a random sample of 100 MRIs pulled from a database.
• The anomaly is found in people with common claims, however the medical literature has never pointed out the anomaly in that context. It’s not typically found in the general population.
• Kit Green and another neurologist did a double blind study on the cohort to estimate the density of the nerve bundles vs. that of normal subjects.
• At this point, they’re looking to get in touch with the participants in the study to request their consent to continue participating, or to continue using their data.
• They are currently working with an expanded group of biotechnologists. The goal is to create a further objective (computerized) analysis to automatically map the density regions and to ensure that the data is sound and not inadvertently biased.
• A more formal paper will be submitted for peer review, however it will not make any claims about anomalous cognition; it’ll establish that statistically significant differences between individuals exist as a first step, opening up the possibility of more research by others.
• He refers back to the presentation he gave recently, where he first exposed all the facts, and only spoke about anomalous cognition at the very end. He waited until the audience, made up of scientists, believed what they were hearing, before he told them where the cohort came from.
• The concept of anomalous cognition was defined using different possibilities; either it’s enhanced intuition, or perhaps people are receiving information from beyond their normal senses, but he also left open the possibility that it could simply be an indicator of craziness — perceptions of non-reality.
• After blog posts were put out about Dr. Nolan’s presentation, he started receiving e-mails from noted scientists “from all over the world” who expressed interest in the research.
• He explains that 15 years ago, we generally associated the caudate-putamen region with motor coordination, but it’s now known to be downstream of the executive functions of the brain. It receives a variety of inputs and enacts decisions based on them. If you wanted to pinpoint where quick decisions are made with sparse data, this would be a logical place to look. If anomalous information enters the brain, then it would likely be digested by the region that is exactly where the additional fibers were found in the cohort.
• All the people in the cohort also have something in common: they’re “high functioning” from an intellectual standpoint. So another possibility is that we just have a group of smart people with unique ability to make snap decisions.
• The big question is: if anomalous information does enter the brain, where and how does it enter, and how does it become perception? If it reaches the proteins of the cells and becomes electrical signals, then some apparatus is receiving and processing the information in those individuals.
• He then talks about possible mechanisms to look into; perhaps, through a phenomenon broadly defined as quantum entanglement, proteins that alter their structure based on an anomalous signal.
• From a genetic standpoint, there may exist markers; genes or groups of genes that control the production of a protein that makes up an antenna, possibly one that is more efficient than in other individuals.
• Genetic markers mean possible heredity of the trait; in other words, it would run in families.
• A number of participants in the study went and requested their family members’ brain scans, and sure enough, a hereditary link was established. It did not appear to be a sex-linked trait. Parents were likely to pass it on to their offspring, meaning the genes involved could potentially be fairly compact and close together.
• One surprising result is that husband and wife pairs were significantly more likely to both have the trait, as if something was somehow bringing these people together. There may be very good reasons why this is happening, such as a population bias — people with the feature end up on similar paths and are more likely to meet, or smart people just happen to like other smart people.
• In essence, you’re seeing a segregation of the population, a group segregating from another.
• John Burroughs cuts in and asks about a DNA study done on his son, his son’s mother and himself. He wants to know if they fit those criteria. A mitochondrial allele test was performed. One peculiar thing is that the sequence for John had never been seen in the database before, meaning it was quite rare. His son’s mother also had a rare, but different sequence. His son had the same sequence as the mother’s (mitochondrial DNA is typically inherited from the mother).
• Although one might be quick to imagine a supernatural/telepathic reason why people are being brought together this way, Dr. Nolan reminds us that the actual data doesn’t allow us to go that far just yet. He evokes the example of tests done for the compatibility of skin grafts and how they tend to correlate (in mice) with attraction or repulsion based on olfactory perceptions (sense of smell) and genetics. It’s important not to forget about the multitude of known and unknown subconscious factors that may be at play, other than unconventional explanations.
• Dr. Nolan is being deliberately careful because it’s important not to arm the ‘pathological skeptics’ by making assumptions.
• Going back to the rarity of JB’s genetics; he confirms that his lineage was not “broadly successful,” meaning the women in his lineage, as well as his son’s mother’s lineage, can be traced back to a relatively tight population. These two rare genealogies somehow found their way to each other, however the mechanism remains open to interpretation.