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"Mesmerism"
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Emulating Earth system model temperatures with MESMER: from global mean temperature trajectories to grid-point-level realizations on land
Earth system models (ESMs) are invaluable tools to study the climate system's response to specific greenhouse gas emission pathways. Large single-model initial-condition and multi-model ensembles are used to investigate the range of possible responses and serve as input to climate impact and integrated assessment models. Thereby, climate signal uncertainty is propagated along the uncertainty chain and its effect on interactions between humans and the Earth system can be quantified. However, generating both single-model initial-condition and multi-model ensembles is computationally expensive. In this study, we assess the feasibility of geographically explicit climate model emulation, i.e., of statistically producing large ensembles of land temperature field time series that closely resemble ESM runs at a negligible computational cost. For this purpose, we develop a modular emulation framework which consists of (i) a global mean temperature module, (ii) a local temperature response module, and (iii) a local residual temperature variability module. Based on this framework, MESMER, a Modular Earth System Model Emulator with spatially Resolved output, is built. We first show that to successfully mimic single-model initial-condition ensembles of yearly temperature from 1870 to 2100 on grid-point to regional scales with MESMER, it is sufficient to train on a single ESM run, but separate emulators need to be calibrated for individual ESMs given fundamental inter-model differences. We then emulate 40 climate models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) to create a “superensemble”, i.e., a large ensemble which closely resembles a multi-model initial-condition ensemble. The thereby emerging ESM-specific emulator parameters provide essential insights on inter-model differences across a broad range of scales and characterize core properties of each ESM. Our results highlight that, for temperature at the spatiotemporal scales considered here, it is likely more advantageous to invest computational resources into generating multi-model ensembles rather than large single-model initial-condition ensembles. Such multi-model ensembles can be extended to superensembles with emulators like the one presented here.
Journal Article
Failure to Replicate an Electrical PK Experiment/Echec de Replication d'une Experience de PK Electrique/Ein gescheiterter Replikationsversuch eines elektrischen PK-Experiments/No Replicacion de un Experimento Electrico de PK
The objective of this article is to describe an attempt to replicate the phenomenon of alleged bodily magnetism as described in a book by the leading figure of Czechoslovak parapsychology Bretislav Kafka (1891 -1967). In his book, in addition to experiments focused on hypnotic phenomena in therapeutic practice, he describes one experiment that is the focal point of this paper. It describes the alleged phenomenon of bodily magnetism, which causes the illumination of a light bulb without connection to electrical power. The bulb is held in one hand as the fingers of the other hand are waved over the bulb. According to Kafka's claims, this act of illumination should be possible for every second or third person. The author of this article has repeated this experiment with students from an Experimental Psychology seminar at the University of Ostrava, with negative results. Following modification of the conditions to match Kafka's historical circumstances, the author was ultimately able to successfully repeat this experiment with illumination other than bodily magnetism.
Journal Article
The crow garden
Haunted by his father's suicide, Nathaniel Kerner walks away from the highly prestigious life of a consultant to become a mad-doctor. He takes up a position at Crakethorne Asylum, but the proprietor is more interested in phrenology and his growing collection of skulls than the patients' minds. Nathaniel's only interesting case is Mrs Victoria Harleston: her husband accuses her of hysteria and delusions - but she accuses him of hiding secrets far more terrible. Nathaniel is increasingly obsessed with Victoria, but when he has her mesmerised, there are unexpected results: Victoria starts hearing voices, the way she used to - her grandmother always claimed they came from beyond the grave - but it also unleashes her own powers of mesmerism ... and a desperate need to escape. Increasingly besotted, Nathaniel finds himself caught up in a world of seances and stage mesmerism in his bid to find Victoria and save her.
Book
Thrilling Vagueness and Pure Abstractions
If we are to position Poe’s concept of “graphicality” as hovering at the juncture between the verbal and the visual—a gesture toward painting at the same time that it indicates a literary art of description, or ekphrasis—criticism has tended to overlook the centrality of Emanuel Swedenborg’s so-called “doctrine of correspondences” within American art discourses of the 1830s and ’40s. This essay explores the corresponding Swedenborgian valences behind Poe’s own graphicality, putting his work in context of three critical figures in Poe’s orbit who respectively mediated, to one degree or another, Swedenborgian theories: George Bush, the mesmerist and New York University professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages; Thomas Holley Chivers, the southern poet, and close friend of Poe’s; and finally, Christopher Pearse Cranch, the landscape painter. The essay concludes with a brief close reading of Poe’s iconic tale “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the only published work in Poe which explicitly mentions a book by Swedenborg (his “spiritualist” classic from 1758, Heaven and Hell).
Journal Article
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Stories of Gothic Spiritualism and/as Feminist Counter-Narratives
Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, is a determined rationalist, yet Doyle was himself a convert to spiritualism. Doyle’s interest in spiritualism informs four, somewhat neglected Gothic tales written during the last decades of the century: “The Winning Shot” (1883); “John Barrington Cowles” (1884); the short novel The Parasite (1894); and “Playing with Fire” (1900). These narratives are notable not only because they respond to the contemporary fascination with spiritualism, but because, in doing so, they explore (sometimes explode) the gendered assumptions of a heteronormative and patriarchal society, which carried over into the close, if erroneous, association of women with the powers of mediumship and mesmerism. Doyle complicates this binary: in his own stories, he presents women as victims of spiritualist power as well as manipulators of it. And while his fictional women do sometimes use that power for their own, self-serving ends, they also use it as a means of taking control back in a male-dominated world. While fascinating in itself, I argue, Doyle’s creation of a Gothicized spiritualism reflects a nuanced engagement with the gendered politics of his historical moment, as the “New Woman” sought to assert herself over the domestic ideology of the day.
Journal Article
Modernity and Enchantment: A Historiographic Review
Saler excavates the underlying assumptions about modernity that have led authors to equate modernity with disenchantment. He points out that within the last decade historians in many fields have challenged this paradigm, arguing that the concept of \"enchantment\" is compatible with many of the tenets frequently ascribed to modernity.
Journal Article
THE LIMITS OF CHEMISTRY
In this paper, I examine the controversial career of William Gregory (1803–1858). As a chemistry professor and chemical author, Gregory made many attempts to redefine the bounds of chemical science to incorporate mesmerism, phrenology and animal magnetism. I use a series of letters between Gregory and the prominent phrenologist George Combe to highlight the fact that the definition of ‘established science’ and its disciplinary boundaries were matters that occupied the thoughts and affected the careers of both men. Gregory maintained his reputation as a chemist while simultaneously being ridiculed for his public promotion of phrenology, mesmerism and animal magnetism. Where previous scholarship has tended to separate Gregory’s chemical work from his support for disputed phenomena, this paper aims to prove that, for Gregory and his contemporaries, work on mesmerism, animal magnetism and phrenology was methodologically inseparable from chemical work. Gregory argued that all facts and theories should be judged and debated using the same criteria for credibility, accuracy, scepticism and rigour. He and others pushed to include contested phenomena within the boundaries of science to ensure that the facts, controversies and theories relating to them could be subjected to the same rigorous investigation and legitimate debates as were expected of chemical facts and theories.
Journal Article
Impact of Hypnotherapy on Fear, Pain, and the Birth Experience: A Systematic Review
In recent times, research has been conducted on the use of hypnosis during childbirth preparation and its effects on pain, fear, and overall childbirth experience. The main objective of this study was to analyze the published scientific literature on the use of hypnotherapy during childbirth preparation and the outcomes achieved during labor. A systematic literature review was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 protocol, with a search performed on the PubMed, Cinahl, Scopus, and WOS databases. Studies meeting inclusion criteria, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs), were evaluated for methodological quality using the PEDro scale. The searches yielded a total of 84 results, from which 7 RCTs of high scientific quality were selected. Each article examined the impact of a hypnosis intervention during pregnancy and the results obtained during labor. The analysis covered the use of epidural anesthesia, pharmacological analgesia during labor, self-reported pain, labor duration, type of delivery, fear of childbirth, and childbirth experience. The results demonstrated benefits in reducing fear and pain during labor, along with an enhancement in the overall childbirth experience. Hypnotherapy can be a valuable resource for reducing fear and pain during labor and improving the lived childbirth experience.
Journal Article