Any Grounding Experience?

Why not use one of their straps? If you are supposedly testing their theory, why not use their kit? Otherwise, as you say, you can't test it with a voltmeter and you are leaving an obvious hole in the test, as nobody can be certain that the equipment is really equivalent

Look, grounded is grounded. You're making it sound as if their equipment has some magic ingredient beyond the grounding that they claim. And they want $29.99 for the grounding strap I bought for $4.

As far as the grounding^2, all I can say is that a better contact makes a bigger difference on the voltmeter when testing. If I were doing the test I'd try not to make too many assumptions about what would or wouldn't make a difference, but then I don't have a mental model of what is or is not possible like you do.

Are you sure you're just not measuring resistance? Because you can also be grounded through a resistor. Measuring a higher resistance (e.g., on a regular strap: 1 MegaOhm) doesn't mean you're not grounded.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sid
Sid, you may really like this product offering from the Earthing folks:

clear1x1.gif
Auto Seat Pad Kit

In my view this clearly passes the line between deliberate indifference and outright lying. Also take a look at their youtube video on how to install it.


That's why I always make sure to remove my pants and underpants before driving. :shy: Otherwise there is no way for my skin to touch the pad.

(Surely they have to know that cars are not grounded and cannot be because of the tires? -- unless, I guess, you drag a chain?)
 
  • Like
Reactions: scedastic and Sid
(Surely they have to know that cars are not grounded and cannot be because of the tires? -- unless, I guess, you drag a chain?)
As an aside I remember that a lot of French drivers would install grounding straps to their cars in an attempt to ward off motion sickness. They were mounted on the rear bumper and would occasionally touch the road as the car traveled along.

I do not claim that they worked!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sid
Sid, you may really like this product offering from the Earthing folks:

clear1x1.gif
Auto Seat Pad Kit

In my view this clearly passes the line between deliberate indifference and outright lying. Also take a look at their youtube video on how to install it.


That's why I always make sure to remove my pants and underpants before driving. :shy: Otherwise there is no way for my skin to touch the pad.

(Surely they have to know that cars are not grounded and cannot be because of the tires? -- unless, I guess, you drag a chain?)


I'm finding a bit irritating to keep being pushed into explaining something that I don't 'own' simply because no-one else seems to read what people actually say before accusing them of ignorance or malpractice.

So this does not imply any recommendation that what they say is convincing or correct. They suggest that although real grounding to the earth is not possible in a vehicle because it is insulated from the road, that nevertheless, the chassis of a large vehicle has sufficient mass that connection to it can have a grounding effect. Their (very subjective in this case) tests were conducted with long distance truck drivers. Their theory is that on a long drive, enough sweat is produced between body and seat to provide a connection.

So they are not ignoring the obvious 'holes'; they think they have an explanation, whatever you may think of it.

I don't think your obvious hostility to the whole concept is going to make for a very convincing trial. As I said before, I don't suggest that you would be less than honest, but I think you underestimate how likely it is for your subjective experience to be affected by having such a very un-neutral public stance. What do you expect to get from this trial? Who are you looking to convince, other than yourself? You need to design the trial for them, not for you.

FWIW, my view is that this will be like so many other 'fringe' things; that any kernel of actual fact is rapidly surrounded by its enthusiasts with more and more cookie stuff with only subjective justification. Like water dowsing - personally, I think there probably are people with sufficient electromagnetic sensitivity or whatever it is to dowse for water. However, when people extend that to dowsing from maps etc, they have clearing crossed a line into magic<g>.

I really don't understand your anger at this. Maybe it is different in the US, but over here we like to have the freedom to try stuff and see for ourselves. Attempts to subject all fringe remedies etc to drug-style testing have generally been resisted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sid
As an aside I remember that a lot of French drivers would install grounding straps to their cars in an attempt to ward off motion sickness. They were mounted on the rear bumper and would occasionally touch the road as the car traveled along.

I do not claim that they worked!

You can be just as grounded in a spaceship as anywhere else...maybe shod runners need drag chains though
 
  • Like
Reactions: scedastic
Maybe it is different in the US...
(with tongue firmly planted in cheek)
All American children are indoctrinated in grade school, about how the brave colonists overthrew their tyrannical oppressors to gain freedom. They are also taught about exercising their 1st Amendment rights. (Sure, there were 10 in the Bill of Rights, but no one remembers the rest.)
Ever since the US took an isolationist approach after WWI, and got pulled into WWII, Americans have learned to proactively eliminate any threats, perceived or otherwise.
Yes, we're quite different in the US. :p
 

This does seem a bit odd.

In these sorts of situations I've seen in the past that being unfamiliar with one's instruments and measurement devices can lead to odd conclusions. (Again, I point to Pons and Fleischman.)

I notice that the two leads for the oscilloscope are being held between his finger and thumb, within about half an inch of each other. Yet, we are supposed to think that there is something like 10 volts between those two points once he hooks up the ground wire.

My suspicion is that it is an artifact of the (rather cheap) oscilloscope. The actual current (whatever it is) is coming into the power lead of the oscilloscope (right from the power strip it is plugged into), out both leads, through the forearm, and out the ground cord (back into the power strip). It is my thought that there is something not fully understood going on with that configuration.

Obviously, if you make yourself part of the circuit from your house (not just a simple grounding), you ought to expect some weird stuff going on.

But I could be wrong without investigating it further (or talking with somebody with more familiarity with the device and measurement in question).
 
This does seem a bit odd.

In these sorts of situations I've seen in the past that being unfamiliar with one's instruments and measurement devices can lead to odd conclusions. (Again, I point to Pons and Fleischman.)

Yup I agree...the video shows the guy isn't experienced with what he is seeing...unrelated to what this discussion is about.

This boils down to.... is there some extra effect yet un-discovered going on with being connected to the Earth thats un-related to being grounded as we know thru basic electronics.
 
I'm getting tired of all this pseudo science, it's Saturday night, time for me to settle this matter once and for all.image.jpg
 
Earthing: The Most Important Healthy Discovery Ever? Chapter 6
Connecting the body to the Earth automatically enables the conductive tissues of the body's living matrix to become charges with the Earth's free electrons."
http://www.vrp.com/neuroendocrine-t...nergy-homeostat-the-source-for-cellular-energ
"stray electrons interact with oxygen to produce superoxide radicals."


Earthing: The Most Important Healthy Discovery Ever? Chapter 6
"It is well established that negative charges (electrons) are attracted to positive charges (free radicals)."
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/misc_topics/radicals.html
"There are many types of radicals, but those of most concern in biological systems are derived from oxygen, and known collectively as reactive oxygen species.
• superoxide anion [negative]
• peroxide (hydrogen peroxide) [negative]
• hydroxyl radical [neutral]"
ros.gif
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/estatics/Lesson-1/Charge-Interactions
"Opposites attract. And likes repel."


Earthing: The Most Important Healthy Discovery Ever? Chapter 6
"When this occurs, excess or residual immune response free radicals (which are positively charged) suddenly have, as the old song goes, the object of their affection - a readily available supply of free electrons to bond with and reduce their oxidative and inflammatory mode."
http://www.biol.canterbury.ac.nz/people/gieseg/freeradicals.shtml
"Superoxide rather than the hydroxyl radical is the most commonly encountered free radical in biology."

http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/101/motm.do?momID=94
"To combat this potential danger, most cells make superoxide dismutase (SOD), an enzyme that detoxifies superoxide. SOD takes two molecules of superoxide, strips the extra electron off of one, and places it on the other. So, one ends up with an electron less, forming normal oxygen, and the other ends up with an extra electron. The one with the extra electron then rapidly picks up two hydrogen ions to form hydrogen peroxide."

http://courses.washington.edu/conj/bloodcells/oxygenradicals.htm
"Most of these cells have superoxide dismutase and another enzyme, catalase (or another enzyme, glutathione peroxidase), which converts the hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water. In other words, the combination of superoxide dismutase and catalase removes oxygen radicals and thus is protective for cells in the body."


http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/29/james-oschman-on-earthing.aspx
"Any free radicals that leak into the healthy tissue will immediately be electrically neutralized. This occurs because the electrons are negative, while the free radicals are positive, so they cancel each other out."
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/16/all-about-antioxidants.aspx
"Antioxidants are Your Body's Solution to Counter Excessive Free Radicals

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of another molecule. Antioxidants break the free radical chain of reactions by sacrificing their own electrons to feed free radicals, without becoming free radicals themselves.

They are all electron donors.

Antioxidants are nature's way of defending your cells against attack by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Your body naturally circulates a variety of nutrients for their antioxidant properties and manufactures antioxidant enzymes in order to control these destructive chain reactions. For example, vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenes, and lipoic acid are well-known and well-researched antioxidant nutrients.

Your body can manufacture some of these antioxidants, but not others. And your body's natural antioxidant production tends to decline with age.

Fortunately, most of the vegetables you eat are loaded with potent phytochemicals that act as antioxidants. And the closer they are to being harvested, the more potent these antioxidants will be—which is why you should consume the majority of your fruits and vegetables RAW and locally harvested. If you eat vegetables that have been harvested weeks before, as is common in most grocery stores, you will not be reaping much of the potential benefit the food has to offer you."
 
The biggest drawback to grounding is that it's getting harder and harder to make a buck off it.
These guys on the other hand are doing quite well!
http://familyfootcare.org/rwst.htm