From: John Ludlow

Subject: Chi Study Proposal

Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 21:36:18 -0500

 Hello All,

 My name is John Ludlow. By trade, I'm a computer programmer - a database specialist. I've been aware of the subject of ORMUS for only the past few months. I've spent quite a bit of time since then researching the subject on the Internet. I also flew to North Carolina last week to attend one of Barry Carter's workshops. I've been consuming it directly for the past month or so. I've precipitated it from sea salt. I've purchased product made by three different manufacturers. One of the things that I have noticed, during this period of time, is that there is almost no hard evidence as to the effect of ORMUS on life at all.

There's David Hudson's research and the fantastic stories of 100% cancer cure rates, etc. - and then rumors that not all of them were actually cured, and of exaggeration and wishful thinking in other areas. And then... there're some big walnuts and a cat that's re-growing its tail and some pictures of a beard that's changing color - plus a whole lot of stories from people who say that they think they feel better.

 Anyone who has ever taken it knows without a doubt that *something* is going on here. Whatever it is, it's not nothing. It effects the human organism. We can feel it. But, nothing that I have found shows that it has been measured. Wouldn't it be nice if we could measure that effect? Hard numbers that could separate it, in the minds of the un-initiated, from snake oil?

 A lot of people believe that ORMUS is chi - life force. There is a widely used system in Western acupuncture, for diagnosis, called Electro Meridian Imaging, or EMI for short that measures relative chi in the human body. There is a machine used to accomplish this. It seems to amount to measuring the resistance between a ground held in the subjects hand, and a probe that presses against 24 different acupuncture points: six on each hand and six on each foot. There are different machines used for this purpose, but they all have some sort of numeric readout as output.

My friend, acupuncturist and chiropractor Dr. Fred Loeb, additionally, has some Windows software that is used, among other things, to record, store, and print bar charts of these numbers. I found a link that discusses EMI in general and has a picture of an EMI machine that looks just like Fred's here: http://www.anzwers.org/trade/bodyscan/emi.html

I've talked with Fred about ORMUS and he's very interested in the subject. He's noted that since I started taking ORMUS, that I've become much easier to adjust. He's intrigued that ORMUS is said by some to be chi itself. He's noticed that patients of his with low EMI readings tend not to respond well to acupuncture (the traditional kind, with needles) and those with high readings tend to respond especially well. He wonders whether ORMUS might be used to cause his difficult patients to become more responsive to treatment.

 Look at plate 1. The 24 test points are organized so that the leftside/rightside points are next to each other. Thus, the first two bars in the graph represent readings for the lung meridian at the 7th point, first for the left side, and then for the right side. The first 12 bars represent the upper body points taken from the left and right wrist. The second 12 bars represent the lower body points taken from the left and right feet. There are three horizontal lines running the width of the chart. The middle bar represents the median - that is, all of the points added up and then divided by 24. The top and bottom lines represent ideal upper and lower limits to variation between all of the points - which would represent balance between the meridians if all of the 24 bars resided within.

 Fred says the first three plates demonstrate subjects with low chi. Subjects with charts like this don't respond well to acupuncture. Notice that the median on Plate 1 is about 27, the median on Plate 2 is about 40, and the median on Plate 3 is about 40.

Plates 4, 5, and 6 represent charts with an average amount of chi. None of them are terribly balanced, but all of them demonstrate enough chi for Fred to work with and manipulate. Their median line is in the 70, 80, 90 range.

 Plates 7, 8, and 9 represent charts with high or very high chi - although, again, not necessarily well balanced. All three charts have at least one meridian that is over 200 - higher than can be measured, indicating that the median would actually be higher if the meridians true value could be figured into the average. But, even with the inaccuracy introduced by the unmeasurable points, all three medians are still in the 140 - 150 range. Fred believes that these subjects will respond very well to acupuncture treatment.

 Plate 10 represents a subject with multiple sclerosis. Note how the upper body portion of the chart is high, while the lower body portion is low.

 Plates 11 and 12 represent tests before and after acupuncture treatment on me within an hour and a quarter of each other. Notice that the chi has been re-distributed. In the after shot, the bladder meridian, which is the only really weak channel in the before shot, has become stronger. Also, notice that chi from the lung meridian, which is off the scale in the before shot, has been re-distributed over the other meridians, causing them to move closer to relative balance.

 If it's not obvious, my knowledge of acupuncture is mostly limited to being the on the sharp end of the needle. But, in my 7-year relationship with Fred, I have come to appreciate the potential immediacy of the results, and the positive effect of the distribution of chi on my person. Because of my recent experience with ORMUS and it's theorized relationship to chi, it has occurred to me that if ORMUS adds chi to a body, then its effect ought to be measurable using EMI.

 I propose that a double blind, placebo controlled, study be initiated in which subjects, over the course of 6 to 8 weeks, take either an ORMUS product, or a cleverly disguised placebo. Each week, the EMI diagnostic test will be run on them and the resulting numbers kept. At the conclusion of the study, these numbers would be crunched in a number of different ways to show the progressive change, if any, there is in median chi between the initial tests and the last.

 My friend Fred believes that he can supply 100 unpaid volunteers for the study. I am hoping that 4 ORMUS manufacturers will be willing to supply dosage adjusted supplies of ORMUS for the study. If this were the case, then 80 subjects would each take one of the 4 products (20 per each product) for the duration of the study, while a fifth group of 20 took the placebo.

 In order that the focus of the study not center on competition between the different products, the published identity of the products associated with results, at the end of the study for the 4 ORMUS subject groups, would be limited to groups A, B, C, and D (or somesuch) - although we would say which 4 were tested. That is, we would identify which products were a part of the test, but not which ones were in which group. This way, if one were wildly successful by comparison to the others, it's results wouldn't be averaged down or lost in the crowd. But, at the same time, it would limit the potential commercial risk of those who choose to donate product to the test. Similarly, this would eliminate the potential question as to whether the donated products represented normal, consumer strength, products - since there would be no commercial advantage to spiking the product.

 The donated products, as much as possible, should be free of additives - so that we don't accidentally test the additive rather than the ORMUS (or potentially have the appearance of doing so to someone looking at the results later). The dosages should be normalized at 1 teaspoon per dose, so as to minimize, as much as possible, the potential subject identification of different products between themselves.

 Somehow, we have to locate quite a number of identical bottles to contain the samples for the test.

 Fred and his office staff would distribute the ORMUS to the subjects, do the actual EMI testing, and keep the records of the test in the previously mentioned software. I would prepare and supply him with randomized (but numbered) ORMUS product to distribute, and crunch the numbers at the end. Fred and staff would have no knowledge of the identity of the product in the bottles being distributed. I would have no idea which subject had gotten which bottle until the end of the test. For that matter, I'd have no contact with the subjects in the test at all.

 Although we hope that the results will show a positive, measurable, effect of ORMUS on the subjects, even more than that we wish to uncover the truth - whatever it is. With that in mind, we will publish the results, whatever they are.

 I've never created a study like this. I would very much appreciate the advice of someone who has experience doing it. Barry says that this list has someone who has done that. Also, I have a friend who has been writing studies for a couple of decades who is willing to guide me. Fred and I want, as much as possible, for the test itself to be capable of withstanding scrutiny. Also, there are still many details that need to be explored more thoroughly. None of this will be happening immediately, but we want to work toward doing it as soon as it can be done well.

 John Ludlow