January 2, 2002: Creativity - Neil Slade | UFO Footage - Stan Romanek
In the second half, brain researcher Neil Slade discusses frontal lobe activation and paranormal phenomena. Drawing on 11 years assisting researcher T.D.A. Lingo at Colorado's Dormant Brain Research and Development Laboratory, Slade walks listeners through his amygdala clicking technique, a visualization exercise using an imagined feather to redirect neural energy toward the frontal lobes and unlock dormant creative and intuitive potential.
Slade proposes that Romanek may function as a psychic conduit, unconsciously focusing the energy of UFO enthusiasts around him. He notes that Uri Geller cannot manifest telekinetic abilities alone, and that Romanek's own skepticism may have made him an ideal receiver. The discussion expands into near-death research and the question of consciousness existing independent of brain function.
Key Moments
Romanek's Denver UFO debut: Art introduces Stan Romanek's December 2000 daytime UFO footage from West Denver, six rotating balls under a craft 'as dark as a black hole,' followed by 34 birds striking his windshield until another UFO beamed his vehicle in September 2001.
The beaming and the witnesses' reaction: Romanek describes mistaking a beam for a police helicopter, waving at it, and realizing only when other drivers stopped staring open-mouthed that a silent spherical craft with a blue light was directly above his van. Bystanders at a park picnic witnessed it land over a tree.
Anonymous death threat: Romanek recounts an anonymous caller telling him 'if you value your existence I would forget about the whole thing,' demanding the tapes never be released. He went forward anyway and changed his phone number after multiple threats.
Amygdala 101 with Neil Slade: Brain researcher Neil Slade, of TDA Lingo's Dormant Brain Research Lab, walks listeners through the amygdala-as-light-switch model, click forward into the frontal lobes for creativity and intuition, click back into the reptilian R-complex of feeding, fighting, fleeing, reproduction.
Functioning with 90 percent of the cortex gone: Slade tells Art about hydrocephalic patients whose cerebrospinal fluid has eaten away the cortex down to a sixth-of-an-inch shell, you could shine a flashlight through their skulls, and they continue to function, used as evidence the brain's potential is mostly untapped.