This is part of the Implicit Cosmology essays associated with the Trans-survival Hypothesis. It has been incorporated into a book titled Your Immortal Self. Some potentially important changes have likely been made to this essay for the book. As such, please consider this essay an early draft.
Is the metaphysical approach for you? Please read my comments here before getting very far into this essay.
Abstract
A hypothesis is proposed to explain why multiple face-like features are often found in individual frames of recorded video-loop noise.
Introduction
In the video-loop technique for visual ITC, a video camera is pointed toward a video monitor and the output of the camera is connected to the input of the monitor so that the camera “sees” what it has just recorded. A person might expect the resulting optical noise to look like the “snow” seen on an unassigned TV channel; however, in at least some configurations of equipment, the resulting noise has the appearance of patches of light of different brightness rushing toward the viewer from the center of the screen. Some of these will have color if a color camera and TV are used. See the examples under the ITC Tab.)
The bright area in the center is the face of a woman. In the color version of this, you can make out red lipstick. A man’s face covers the right half of her face. He is looking toward your right. Nearly all of the medium-density areas around the two faces are other, less well-formed faces. (We apologize to those receiving the printed Journal as ITC pictures do not print well.)
The working hypothesis is that the patches of brightness in the looped video are areas of relative order that naturally form in chaotic noise because of a process known as stochastic amplification. In that process, a small irregularity in the uniformity of “baseline” energy can be amplified, and in video-loop ITC, those emergent splotches are often shaped like people.
Update: We have been working with the concept of intended order. This concept may be applicable to such phenomena as both audible and visible ITC, energy healing, meditation and morphogenetic fields. The standard model we are using is that trans-etheric influences are the expression of a personality’s intention. Physical people are personalities that exist in the etheric, but are able to inhabit the physical aspect of reality because of the physical body. In effect, people are all the same, but some may not have a physical body. In that way, all personalities influence the environment via intention. Personality brings intended order to chaotic environments.
Examination of individual video frames sometimes shows an astounding number of face-like shapes and some of them are sufficiently detailed to be arguably real faces. There are also examples of this in the Butler Galleries.
Recording ITC
The Techniques section has an article explaining how to record for these phenomena. Some people have had success with digital equipment, but we have not seen the detail exhibited by examples collected using analog equipment. For this reason, we recommend that anyone wishing to replicate this work should use at least an analog camera, and preferably an analog monitor. We use a Canon 8mm ES2000 analog camcorder with a Sony KV20TS32, 20-inch Trinitron color TV. We like using color because the resulting features often seem to have true color such as with skin tones. See the website for technical notes.
The key to recording video ITC is in establishing a display with a good balance of bright and dark areas. The loop tends to be a cycle from all black, through medium bright patches of color, to an all white and back again. The video is at about thirty frames a second, and a cycle from dark back to dark takes several seconds. We record for ten to fifteen seconds and may find thirty to fifty frames from that recording that need examining. Here is an example of a useful video loop:
Who is in the Video
You can see that there is no physical input to the system other than electricity and ambient light. It can be argued that there is no physical reason for faces to be in the noise, other than the occasional fortuitous arrangement of light and dark that might resemble a face. Certainly, there should not be faces with clearly identifiable red lips and eyes with pupils. Phenomenal faces are found in many different techniques, but all seem to depend on the transformation of visual energy. Moving water, light reflected from crystals, even audio spectrograms have produced features. Most visual ITC features are of strangers, but there are a few that have been recognized. For instance, using forensic software, a moving water feature taken by Margaret Downey has been favorably compared to a photograph of her long-transitioned great, great grandfather.
There are differences in clarity and detail amongst the different forms of visual ITC, but the common factor appears to be broad-spectrum optical noise and an active analog process such as an amplification circuit. This is the common factor for audio ITC as well.
Based on the Trans-survival Hypothesis, it is speculated that the features are formed by the amplification of a weak psi signal from the practitioner or an interested observer, by the action of stochastic resonance on the optical-frequency noise. We speculate this is a mind-to-mind exchange of information between the etheric personality of the practitioner and the communicating etheric entity. This is believed to occur in the etheric as a nonphysical process.
The information is then transformed into the physical aspect of reality by way of the person’s etheric personality-to-physical body entanglement, and expressed into the physical as a psi signal that represents the practitioner’s impression of what was experienced in the etheric.
While looking at this picture of the 2004 conference speakers, your attention is on Sarah Estep. For the moment, the others in the photo would make less of an impression in your mind’s eye.
The observed effect of one or two well-formed faces in visual ITC may be due to the practitioner’s attention on a specific personality in the etheric. However, there are apparently many other personalities present, of which the practitioner is only partially aware. These background personalities are therefore only poorly formed in the resulting ITC.
The group picture above is an attempt to show how we might be aware of everyone in the group, but our attention is momentarily on one person at a time. In this case, Sarah Estep is clearly imaged, and the other people are only vaguely noticed.
Of course, all of this is hypothetical, but so many poorly formed faces present in virtually every suitable region of optical noise, along with a few well-formed faces, argues that the practitioner (or an interested observer) is the channel for the information and the practitioner’s focus of attention determines what is communicated.
Update: Two theories are emerging as alternatives to stochastic resonance to explain image formation. Stochastic amplification may still be the physical mechanism, but the “small psi signal” may be more complex than previously thought. Examination of the essay on Etheric Fields will show that intended order may be a factor as the etheric personality (still via a physical person’s entanglement) influences the recording process’ formative field.
A second theory is that the faces might be apported from some existing media source. Distortions are evident in EVP that suggest a partially successful transformation of noise into voice and the same might be seen in visual ITC.
Both theories are new and require more vetting, so at this time (6/19/2013) it is best to suspend decisions until more information is available.
