Elizabeth A. Rauscher (1937-2019) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and parapsychologist. She was born in Berkeley, California on March 18, 1937. She died on July 3, 2019 (aged 82). She was a former researcher with the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

, the

Stanford Research Institute SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...

, and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

. In 1975 Rauscher co-founded the Berkeley

Fundamental Fysiks Group The Fundamental Fysiks Group was founded in San Francisco in May 1975 by two physicists, Elizabeth Rauscher and George Weissmann, at the time both graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. The group held informal discussions on ...

, an informal group of physicists who met weekly to discuss

quantum mysticism Quantum mysticism, sometimes referred pejoratively to as quantum quackery or quantum woo, is a set of metaphysical beliefs and associated practices that seek to relate consciousness, intelligence, spirituality, or mystical worldviews to the ideas ...

and the philosophy of

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...

David Kaiser David I. Kaiser is an American physicist and historian of science. He is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), head of its Science, Technology, and Society program, and a full profess ...

argued in his book, ''How the Hippies Saved Physics'' that this group helped to nurture ideas which were unpopular at the time within the physics community, but which later, in part, formed the basis of

quantum information science Quantum information science is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the analysis, processing, and transmission of information using quantum mechanics principles. It combines the study of Information science with quantum effects in p ...

. Kaiser, David. ''How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival''. W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, p. xv–xvii. *Also see Kaiser, David
"Lecture: How the Hippies Saved Physics"
WGBH PBS, April 28, 2010, from 38:00 mins. * Zukav, Gary. '' The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics''. HarperOne, 2001 (first published 1979), p. x. Rauscher had an interest in

psychic healing Energy medicine is a branch of alternative medicine based on a pseudo-scientific belief that healers can channel "healing energy" into a patient and effect positive results. Practitioners use a number of names including various synonyms for m ...

and

faith healing Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...

and other

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

claims.

Education and career

In ''How the Hippies Saved Physics'' (2011), Kaiser writes that Rauscher had always been interested in science, and as a child had designed and built her own telescopes. Raised near Berkeley, she started hanging around the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory when she was in high school. She enrolled at Berkeley for her first degree, and published her first article, on nuclear fusion, while still an undergraduate. Kaiser writes that she was the only woman in her class; at that time women in America earned only five and two percent of physics undergraduate degrees and PhDs respectively. He writes that she coped with it by wearing tweedy dresses and keeping her hair short, though she experienced some intimidation. She obtained her masters in nuclear physics in 1965.Kaiser 2011, pp. 49–51. From 1975 to 1978, she was a researcher at the

's Radio Physics Laboratory. She married and had a son, and when she became their sole provider took a job as a staff scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. When her son was old enough, she returned to Berkeley to begin her PhD under

Glenn Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work in ...

, the nuclear chemist. She continued by working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and additionally started and chaired the Livermore Philosophy Group, offering classes on the relationship between science and society at Berkeley, and later at the

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departme ...

. She completed her PhD in 1978 on "Coupled Channel Alpha Decay Theory for Even and Odd-Mass Light and Heavy Nuclei." She later held positions as professor of physics and general science at

John F. Kennedy University John F. Kennedy University was a private university based in California with offices in Pleasant Hill, California, Pleasant Hill, San Jose, California, San Jose in California; Natick, Massachusetts; and Willemstad, Curaçao. The university was ...

, 1978–1984; research consultant to

, 1983–1985; and professor and graduate student adviser in the department of physics at the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...

, 1990–1998.

Fundamental Fysiks Group

At Berkeley in May 1975, she and George Weissmann co-founded the Fundamental Fysiks Group, an informal group of physicists who met for Friday afternoon brainstorming sessions to explore the philosophical problems posed by quantum physics, particularly the relationship between physics and

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

. She named and chaired this group. The group included

Fritjof Capra Fritjof Capra (born February 1, 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He is on the faculty of Schumacher ...

John Clauser John Francis Clauser (; born December 1, 1942) is an American theoretical and experimental physicist known for contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality. Clauser was aw ...

Nick Herbert Nicholas Le Quesne Herbert, Baron Herbert of South Downs, (born 7 April 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs from 2005 to 2019. He was Minister of State for Police ...

Jack Sarfatti Jack Sarfatti (born September 14, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Working largely outside academia, most of Sarfatti's publications revolve around quantum physics and consciousness. Sarfatti was a leading member of the Fundamenta ...

Henry Stapp Henry Pierce Stapp (born March 23, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American mathematical physicist, known for his work in quantum mechanics, particularly the development of axiomatic S-matrix theory, the proofs of strong nonlocality properties, an ...

, and

Fred Alan Wolf Fred Alan Wolf (born December 3, 1934) is an American theoretical physicist specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He is a former physics professor at San Diego State University, and has helped to p ...

. According to Kaiser, Rauscher and Weissman started the meetings in a fit of pique and frustration, saddened by the absence of a philosophical perspective in their physics classes.

Parapsychology

Rauscher has an interest in

and

. Kaiser describes how Rauscher's personal interests within the group lay with

remote viewing Remote viewing (RV) is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen subject, purportedly sensing with the mind. Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object, event, person or location that is hidden ...

precognition Precognition (from the Latin 'before', and 'acquiring knowledge') is the purported psychic phenomenon of seeing, or otherwise becoming directly aware of, events in the future. There is no accepted scientific evidence that precognition is a ...

psychokinesis Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person ...

, remote healing, and

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

Jeffrey John Kripal Jeffrey John Kripal (born 1962) is an American college professor. He is the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His work includes the study of comparative erotics and ethics in mystic ...

writes that Rauscher broadened the group to include non-physicists, and in the late 1970s and early 1980s the group's members met annually at the

Esalen Institute The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potential ...

to continue their exchange of ideas, exerting a major influence on alternative religious thought in the United States.

Later research

Starting in the early 1980s with her husband—William van Bise, an engineer—she researched the effects of electromagnetic fields on biological systems to enhance health. In the 1990s, Rauscher and van Bise, moved to an estate in

Devotion, North Carolina Devotion is an unincorporated community in the Bryan Township of western Surry County, North Carolina, United States. Devotion is situated on the Mitchell River, and is the site of a large () family estate owned by members of the R. J. Reynolds ...

, owned by Richard J. Reynolds III, grandson of

R. J. Reynolds Richard Joshua Reynolds (July 20, 1850 – July 29, 1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The son of a tobacco farmer, he worked for his father and attended Emory & Henry College from 1868 to 1870 ...

, the tobacco magnate. Until his death in 1994, Reynolds allowed them to live there to conduct research into the effects of electromagnetic fields on brain waves. A third scientist, physician

Andrija Puharich Andrija Puharich (February 19, 1918 – January 3, 1995) — born Henry Karel Puharić — was a Medicine, medical and Parapsychology, parapsychological researcher, medical inventor, physician and author, known as the person who brought Israeli U ...

, had been living and conducting research on the estate since 1980. After Reynolds' death, the scientists said he had invited them to remain there as long as they wanted, but they were unable to produce a written agreement."Scientists being asked to leave Reynolds estate"
''The Charlotte Observer'', November 7, 1994.
"Scientists sue for compensation after getting booted from estate"
''The Robesonian'', November 7, 1994.
"Scientists ordered off estate of tobacco heir"
Associated Press, December 1, 1994.
"The millionaire and the mad scientists"
''The Charlotte Observer'', January 15, 1995.

Selected works

*Amoroso, Richard L. and Elizabeth A. Rauscher
"Complex Dimensional Geometries and Measurement"
''Unified Theories''. Eds. Richard L. Amoroso, István Dienes, and Csaba Varga. Palo Alto: Noetic Press (2008). *Amoroso, Richard L. and Elizabeth A. Rauscher. ''The Holographic Anthropic Multiverse: Formalizing the Complex Geometry of Reality''. Hackensack:

World Scientific World Scientific Publishing is an academic publisher of scientific, technical, and medical books and journals headquartered in Singapore. The company was founded in 1981. It publishes about 600 books annually, along with 135 journals in various f ...

(2009). *Amoroso, Richard L. and Elizabeth A. Rauscher
"The Physical Implications of Multidimensional Geometries and Measurement"
''International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems''. 2006. *Dea, Y. Jack, Wolfgang-M. Boerner, Elizabeth A. Rauscher and William Van Bise.
Observations of ELF (extremely low frequency) signatures arising from space vehicle disturbances of the ionosphere
. ''

Canadian Journal of Physics The ''Canadian Journal of Physics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in physics. It was established in 1929 as the '' Canadian Journal of Research, Section A: Physical Sciences'', obtaining its current title in 1951. ...

''. 69.8–9 (1991): 91–151. *Haramein, N. and Rauscher, E.A
"The origin of spin: A consideration of torque and coriolis forces in Einstein’s field equations and Grand Unification Theory"
in R. L. Amoroso, B. Lehnert & J-P Vigier (eds.) ''Beyond The Standard Model: Searching For Unity In Physics''. The Noetic Press. 2005, pp. 153–168. *Rauscher, Elizabeth A
"Electron interactions and quantum plasma physics."
''Journal of Plasma Physics''. 2. (1968): 517–541. *Rauscher, Elizabeth A. ''Electromagnetic Phenomena in Complex Geometries and Nonlinear Phenomena, Non-Hertzian Waves and Magnetic Monopoles''. Breckenridge: Tesla Book Company (1983). *Rauscher, Elizabeth A
"Foreword"
''Electrogravitics systems: reports on a new propulsion methodology''. Ed. Thomas Valone. Beltsville: Integrity Research Institute (1994). *Rauscher, Elizabeth A
"Psychokinetic interaction with laboratory prepared materials: A prototype experimental design."
''PSI Research''. 3.3–4 (1984): 26–41. *Rauscher, Elizabeth A., James Hurtak and D.E. Hurta

''Universal Scaling Laws in Quantum Theory and Cosmology''.(2012). *Rauscher, Elizabeth A. and Richard L. Amoroso. ''Orbiting the Moons of Pluto: Complex Solutions to the Einstein, Maxwell, Schrödinger and Dirac Equations''. Hackensack: World Scientific (2011).

Education and career

Fundamental Fysiks Group

Parapsychology

Later research

Selected works

References

Further reading