Mind-Controlling Magnetic Fields?

Comments from Assistant Professor of Psychology and Counseling Robert Alexander, Ph.D., are featured in a Popular Mechanics article (PDF access) discussing whether evolution has granted humans a faint ability to sense Earth’s magnetic field. Research efforts in South Korea pointed toward some humans able to register information from an Earth-strength magnetic field, but the study’s senior author said that any magnetic sense appears to operate below the threshold of conscious awareness. A separate study in the United States reported that rotating an Earth-strength magnetic field produced repeatable changes in volunteers’ brain activity, though volunteers noted feeling nothing.

“A subtle change in a decision pattern is not the same thing as demonstrating a sensory system,” Alexander says. “This is fascinating and intriguing, but a weak laboratory effect does not mean that humans can use magnetic information in a meaningful way.”