We do see many people who have this ability(power) – not on rare occasions, but more frequently than the average person. Immediately a question arises in our minds – “How do they do it?” It is believed by most of the people that they are gifted with clairvoyance or precognition, or that they have extra-sensory perception. This means that they can perceive certain things beyond the use of the ordinary senses.

At Duke University, for more than 25 years, Prof.J.B.Rhine has been carrying on experiments intended to prove that ESP exists and to measure it in people. These experiments involved clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition.

In the clairvoyance tests, a special deck of cards is used. This deck is made up of five cards, each with five different symbols: i.e., a cross, a circle, a star, three wavy lines, and a square. The experiments consist of having people who are supposed to have E.S.P identify cards in various ways without seeing them. When the number of correct guesses is higher than the ordinary person achieves, this is considered proof that the person has E.S.P.

In the Telepathy experiments, a person tries to “read the mind” of the one conducting the experiment by guessing the cards.

In the precognition experiments, an attempt is made to predict a sequence of events before they occur, again using the cards or dice.

There is good deal of controversy as to whether these experiments have actually proved the existence of E.S.P. Now there is considerable agreement that the results do indicate something(quantum unknown) that was not happening by chance alone.

How lightning forms has never been verified and so there is room for debate. Leading theories focus around separation of electric charge and generation of an electric field within a thunderstorm. Recent studies also indicate that ice, hail, and semi-frozen water drops known as graupel are essential to lightning development. Storms that fail to produce large quantities of ice usually fail to produce lightning.

Forecasting when and where lightning will strike is not yet possible and most likely never will be. But by educating yourself about lightning and learning some basic safety rules, you, your family, and your friends can avoid needless exposure to the dangers of one of the most capricious and unpredictable forces of nature.

Charge Separation

Thunderstorms have very turbulent environments. Strong updrafts and downdrafts occur with regularity and within close proximity to each other. The updrafts transport small liquid water droplets from the lower regions of the storm to heights between 35,000 and 70,000 feet, miles above the freezing level.

Meanwhile, downdrafts transport hail and ice from the frozen upper regions of the storm. When these collide, the water droplets freeze and release heat. This heat in turn keeps the surface of the hail and ice slightly warmer than its surrounding environment, and a “soft hail”, or “graupel” forms.

When this graupel collides with additional water droplets and ice particles, a critical phenomenon occurs: Electrons are sheared off of the ascending particles and collect on the descending particles. Because electrons carry a negative charge, the result is a storm cloud with a negatively charged base and a positively charged top.

Field Generation

In the world of electricity, opposites attract and insulators inhibit. As positive and negative charges begin to separate within the cloud, an electric field is generated between its top and base. Further separation of these charges into pools of positive and negative regions results in a strengthening of the electric field.

However, the atmosphere is a very good insulator that inhibits electric flow, so a TREMENDOUS amount of charge has to build up before lightning can occur. When that charge threshold is reached, the strength of the electric field overpowers the atmosphere’s insulating properties, and lightning results.

The electric field within the storm is not the only one that develops. Below the negatively charged storm base, positive charge begins to pool within the surface of the earth (see image left). This positive charge will shadow the storm wherever it goes, and is responsible for cloud-to-ground lightning. However, the electric field within the storm is much stronger than the one between the storm base and the earth’s surface, so most lightning (~75-80%) occurs within the storm cloud itself.

How Lightning Develops Between The Cloud And The Ground

A moving thunderstorm gathers another pool of positively charged particles along the ground that travel with the storm (image 1). As the differences in charges continue to increase, positively charged particles rise up taller objects such as trees, houses, and telephone poles.

A channel of negative charge, called a “stepped leader” will descend from the bottom of the storm toward the ground (image 2). It is invisible to the human eye, and shoots to the ground in a series of rapid steps; each occurring in less time than it takes to blink your eye. As the negative leader approaches the ground, positive charge collects in the ground and in objects on the ground.

This positive charge “reaches” out to the approaching negative charge with its own channel, called a “streamer” (image 3). When these channels connect, the resulting electrical transfer is what we see as lightning. After the initial lightning stroke, if enough charge is leftover, additional lightning strokes will use the same channel and will give the bolt its flickering appearance.

Let us go back as for as we can in the history of man. We find records, tales or legends about great floods. The reason for this is that there have been always floods. In fact, primitive man deliberately settled in the valleys that were in the paths of floods – because they were so fertile.

What is flood? It is a condition that exists when a river overflows its banks and the water spreads out elsewhere.

What causes the flood? The accumulation of a great deal of water in a river that comes from heavy rains, or from other streams or reservoirs that feed into the river. A river usually drains a vast area, or “watershed,” and it is the heavy flow of water from anywhere in the watershed that makes a river rise and flood over its banks. Some floods are very helpful. The Nile, ever since man’s first written history, has been bringing a life-giving flood every year to farmlands, by carrying down soils from the highlands. On the other hand, the Yellow River in China has brought death and destruction periodically. In 1935, it made 40,00,000 people homeless by flooding over!

Can floods be prevented?
This is probably impossible to accomplish, since heavy rains will come whether man wants them or not. But many efforts are being made to control floods, and this will probably be done in time.

There are 3 ways to control floods. One is to have levees or dikes to protect farm lowlands and other areas where the river waters build up. A second way is to have emergency channels, such as spillways or floodways, to help carry away the excess water. A third way is to develop huge reservoirs to hold back floodwaters and feed them more gradually to the larger streams.

All these cannot be possible in India where politicians will not allow the projects to be implemented.