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N S Don

Publications and source records attributed to N S Don.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The scientific study of unusual rapid wound healing: a case report.

This paper examines in a Western medical setting the claim made by a Middle Eastern school of Sufism that its members can attain unusually rapid wound healing from deliberately caused bodily damage. The demonstration involved a Sufi practitioner inserting an unsterilized metal skewer through one side of the cheek area of the face (lateral buccal) and out through the other side. The insertion was observed by Western scientists. The left facial puncture healed within 2 minutes; the right facial puncture was three-quarters healed after 8 hours. According to the practitioner, the piercing was not associated with subjective pain. Radiological, immunological, and electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings were taken before and after the insertion. A random event generator (REG) was also run during the demonstration. Radiological and axial CT images documented the presence of the metal skewer through the cheeks. EEG findings were inconclusive. Immunological recordings showed no alterations. There was a trend toward REG non-randomness and, therefore, negentropy or increased complexity and order, which may be associated with the re-establishment of tissue integrity. Such rapid wound healing has therapeutic implications for new treatments of serious medical and pain-related problems as well as implications for the study of "paranormal" healing phenomena.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Trance surgery in Brazil.

This report presents the results of fieldwork in Brazil on healer-mediums who perform crude forms of surgery, often employing sharp instruments. We found that these healer-mediums were in a hyperaroused brain state while they were engaged in behaviors commonly described in the anthropology literature as "possession trance"; therefore, this practice is termed "trance surgery" in this report. The research was conducted at widely scattered sites throughout Brazil. We observed several thousand patients being treated by 9 trance surgeons and videotaped several hundred of these cases. In addition to background information and our own observational material, this paper includes 2 medical case reports, physiological data gathered from healers and patients, and results of a pathologist's examination of a surgically excised tumor. Topographic brain mapping revealed increased brain activity (36-44 Hz) when healer-mediums were engaged in trance behaviors, compared to resting baseline conditions at midline scalp locations (Cz, P < .009 and Pz, P < .004; both matched t tests). These results suggest the presence of a hyperaroused brain state associated with the trance behaviors of the healers. We believe that such a state is required for this unusual practice, but other factors may also be involved. In contrast, a small sample of patients monitored during possession trance surgical procedures revealed no high-frequency brain activity; instead, there were indications of cortical quieting, suggesting relaxation, despite the absence of anesthesia. Pathohistological examination of a tumor excised from a patient in our presence revealed a human fibroadenoma. We conclude that these practices are usually benign and that pain is often absent, despite the lack of sterile procedures and anesthesia. Although during the period of our investigation we were informed anecdotally of 3 cases involving serious complications or death, we personally observed no cases of shock, hemorrhage, or death. The cases presented in this paper, as well as others we have followed, suggest that serious illnesses, not likely to improve without treatment, may do so after trance surgery procedures are performed. If the major benefit of trance surgery is to initiate self-healing processes, it would have to do so in powerful ways, which possibly can be elucidated with positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Positive findings would be helpful in understanding large-scale healing effects and may lead to new treatment protocols.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Event-related potentials in a guessing task: the gleam in the eye effect.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from a single subject performing a forced-choice guessing task. On each trial, ERPs were elicited by four, sequential, graphic images; 2 1/2 seconds after the last stimulus was delivered, the subject guessed which of the four images was experimentally (randomly) designated as the target. P200 had greater amplitude over the posterior scalp for stimuli which were guessed by the subject to be targets than for not-guessed stimuli. The amplitude of the P100, N100, and P300 components was unrelated to the subject's guess. A positive displacement evident in the waveforms from about 150-500 ms post-stimulus onset suggested that Slow Wave may have been partially responsible for the observed differences. These results suggest that ERPs may contain predictive information about a subject's subsequent responses in forced-choice guessing tasks. We termed this the "gleam in the eye" effect.

Arousal↗