.;it! 10 the field. The human
   -nly become one
   1,CZ011 has SUddL
   of [lie lilost enticing scientific
   froiiiiers for anibilious scholars
   and researchers.
        What, then, is the present
   state of brain studies? Tile
   Nilson Keizai Shimbun tearn of
   reporters working on this
   "frontier" series has iliter-
   viewLd those working ill the on-
   going Studies alld has been
   preatly impressed by their live-
   litiess and immense variety.
   'flie following is only a sani.
   pling of a great many highly in-
   triguing theories.
   "Face cell" theory
        Up until recently, the brain
   was believed to analyze the in-
   formation transmitted from tile
   eyes and form entire images by
   putting together fragments (if
   information perceived by dif-
   ferent brain cells. For example,
   a cell responding to the concept
   of "roundness" gets linked with
   that responding to the idea of
   ..redness" to produce (lie entire
   iiiiage of a "round, red apple."
   Ill tile "face cell" theory, how-
   ever, a single cell or a sinall
   group of cells is believed to re-
   ceive information from the
   eyes and instantly form entire
   images oil the basis of tile in-
   formation. This theory was ad-
   vanced Vst fall by E.T. Rolls,
   professor at Oxford University.
        This theory became a topic of
   a jueefing of a group of a dozen
   or so scholars, including Shun-
   ichi Amarl, a University of To-
   kyu professor, liefd last JZtl)Lllry
   at a ski resort in Niigata Pre-
   fecture. I
        "If we are to believe the 'face
   cell' theory," one scholar sug-
   gested at tile meeting, "the bits

   
   (if information handled by the
   liuman brain will be limited to
   14 billion, as that is the riumber
   of cells contained in the human
   !_
           6- 19*2 0400330095-3
   App*rov
    ly,
   Moffirtff
                           11tion to
   g I t payin a atte
   long-shunned parapsycholooical research
   - 4t)
        Tadahiro Sckimoto, prem-
   denr-orNET j-)7, Ti as -up c t
   research theme which lie is
   hoping to see taken up by his
   company's researchers. Seki-
   Moto hiniscir b~ougl*-.up (lie
   Oienie sonic 2o years ago,
   When lie was a senior en-,
   gincer, and had it flatly
   turned down. The theme is to
   sonichow explain scientifical-
   ly phenomena which are
   referred to as the "sixth
   sense" or "telepathy."
        "Tile study of the sixth
   sense and telepathy will cer-
   tainly prove a cornerstone of
   future modes of communica-
   tions," declares Seklinoto.
   Unknown energy
        Telecommunications en-
   gineering at present depends
   oil electromagnetic energies,
   and sound vibration energies.
   Sckinioto believes that-there
   is unknown energy in "tile
   world of the sixth sense" that
   Can be used for telecom-
   Munications and that dis.
   covery of this unknown
   energy may very well re-
   voluntionalize - telecom-
   munications systems in their
   entirety.
        "Science today 'does * not
   fully explain what the electric
   wave really is," declares
   Hiroo Yuhara, advisor to the

   
   teleconi niunica tLons .ge-ar
   nia-ker Uniden__jQgrp., anq
   --former head of tile Posts a
   Tel econim unicati sins min-
   istry's Ra i0 Researc
   Laboratories, the most a -
   vanced of Japan's research
   "What we know is that we call
   make wonderful communica-
   tions equipment If we build it
   on the theories of electric
   wave engineering. There are
   many basic matters that re-
   quire, scientific explana-
   tions."
        Yulih *ra has for several
   years been engrossed Ill
   studying phenomena defying
   scientific explanation. lie
              i-
   conducted a simple exper'
   ment for all NKS reporter. Ile
   first placed some name cards
   and small pieces of paper
   with names written on them
   oil a table and then brought a
   bar magnet hanging from a
   string. When tile magnet was
   placed above the name cards,
   it started swinging right and
   left depending upon the name
   cards., Yuhara claimed that
   when the name card is that of
   a dead mail, (lie magnet
   swings to tile left*.
        To explain this strange plie-
   nomenon, Yuhara formulated
   the following hypothesis:
   "The human body has a
   secret sensor in it and the
   sensor transinits tile informa.
   tion about the state (dead or
   alive) of the man whose name
   is on the card to the bar
   magnet."
        "Ili Japan, psychic phe.
   nomena and the discipline of
   parapsychology are yet to be
   recognized," stal.es_§oLi
   Oltanl professor aF-tTFe
   College and president

   
   of the Japan Parapsychology
   Association, "We, therefore-,
   are condticting.our research
   on (lie subjects completely oil
   ourown.11
   Even aniong big business
   employees, there are some
   who are secretly engaged in
   telepathy ill the belief that the
   days when tile worth qf such
   studies is fully appreciated
   are not that far away.
        One such person is Masa-
   michi Rokoba, an engineer
   E&I-oligilig to ilitaciii,
   patent section. Rokuslia has
   recently devised, with the use
   of a personal computer, a
   systern to greatly improve tile
   efficiency of studies of the
   sixth sense.
        Hokusha makes the com-
   puter inemorize the figures
   one and zero 100 times at
   random and has a control to
   call out the figures before the
   machine flashes them on
   screen every two seconds.'The
   "beep" sound is sometimes
   lidded to test what effects tile
   sound will have on the con-
   trol's score.
        A computer analysis of vast
   aniounts of data collected
   show that the scores become
   poor after the beep sound and
   that the best scores are con-
   centrated just before the beep
   sound. Rokusha explains
   these two phenomena by con-
   sidering that the controls
   somehow sense that the beep
   sound disrupts their intuition
   so some mysterious power
   works and improves their
   scores before tile beep sound,
        "Tile day will certainly
   come sooner or later when
   studies of psychic phenomena
   become legitimate," Rokusha
   says, "I am building up tile

   
   necessary data and informa-
   tion for such an eventuality."
   National project
        Ilaiime Karatsu, technical
   adviselw-to Matst shita Mee-
   tric industrial 9, speaks of
   the importance of studies of
   psychic phenomena in a dif-
   ferent manner. "Develop-
   ment of future computers
   hinges oil a full explanation
   of brain functions," says
   Karatsu. "Ili brain studies,
   phenonitena so far unex-
   plained by conventional
   sciences should also be taken
   up.11
        The state also has started
   moving into the field. The
   Science and Technology
   Agency has recently decided
   to take up mail's spiritual ac-/
   tivities as a study theme of its
   Creative Science and Tech-
   nology Promotion Program
   as from fiscal 1987,
        Although there are many
   words in tile Japanese lan-
   guage smacking of (lie super-
   natural, no scientific studies
   have as yet been undertaken
   oil (lie phenomena implied by
   the words. Studies of such
   phenomena may very well
   have wide-ranging practical
   applications, ranging from
   cures for illnesses to new
   communications modes.
        Sir Isaac Newton, formu-
   lator of the theory of gravity,
   became engrossed Ili studies.
   of the supernatural Ili his
   later years, while Brian D.
   Josephson, a British physicist
   known as the creator of tile
   Josephson junctioll theory, is
   now fully committed to
   studies of mail's spiritual ac-
   tivities.
   000/08/7 1A RD~N-00792RO00400(qoo"5~3
   Approved For R I se. 2

   
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