PWB Electronics’ Quantum Clip

October 31st, 2006

If you thought that bad science was primarily the realm of cosmetics companies and alternative therapists, you’d be right. But there’s a sucker born every minute, as they say, and none more gullible and loose with their cash than audiophiles. I used to think these were technical people, driving the industry to make ever-better speakers, amps and cables. I thought they won us stereo, the cinema system and the iPod. I was wrong. No, audiophiles are modern-day alchemists and as such, easy prey for old-school snake oil vendors. Ben Goldacre’s boast of a £30 power lead was quickly trumped by a jar of magic pebbles ($129), a clock that boosts your sound and video systems ($199), and, best of all, a £500 crocodile clip. Bear in mind though, that this is a Quantum (crocodile) Clip, which has the power to instantly convert any object pressed against it to a state of “compatible morphic resonance” via a complex quantum particle energy stream. Which of course, will make your stereo instantly sound better. No batteries, no mess, no fuss; just better living through quantum energy. Surely it can’t be that simple…

Dear Peter W. Belt,

I recently read a review of your “Clever Little Clock” on Machina Dynamica, and from there discovered your P.W.B Electronics website.
As the editor of a music magazine, sound quality is extremely important to me. I hope you can answer some questions about your Quantum Clip.

You state that when the Quantum Tweezers are applied to the extreme end of the twisted copper wire, “a quantum particle effect is produced”.
What exactly is this quantum particle effect? How will this affect my music system?

According to your site: “To activate the Quantum Clip simply squeeze the points of the Tweezers firmly but gently across any of the two opposing flat surfaces on the hexagon nut of the Clip”. Are these Tweezers supplied with the Quantum Clip, or must they be bought separately? I have a pair of forceps - will these do?

Are any parts of the Quantum Clip serviceable? Can you suggest any reputable dealers who would be able to repair them if necessary?

On your website, you say that “the playing of music, produces energy patterns radiated to the listener by varying air pressures, which are incompatible with the human senses.” Surely varying air pressures are otherwise known as sound waves, and are, I would say, very compatible with the human sense of hearing!

Your site warns that “any type of musical instrument is stored within the home where recorded music is listened to will reduce the quality of the perceived sound”. Does this also include objects that could be used as musical instruments, such as wine glasses?

Why is it necessary to treat both sides of a door with the Quantum Clip?

Finally, if necessary, can the Quantum Clip be used in the traditional way - e.g. to connect my car battery to a charger?

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.

Yours Sincerely,
Frank Swain

Dear Frank,
First, could I make it clear that it is Geoff Kait of Machina Dynamica who is making the Clever Little Clock - though yes using some of our techniques and within our concepts. I would be very interested to know which music magazine you are the editor of.
Now to the Quantum Clip. It is somewhat difficult to describe this in just a few sentences. Most people only become interested in the Quantum Clip after they have had quite a lot of experience with our other devices and techniques and have become used to our concepts.
To answer some of the basic questions first.
The tweezers are supplied with the Quantum Clip, are simple plastic tweezers and are fully treated. No, you would not be able to use your own forceps.
We would repair anything which went wrong with the Quantum Clip.
We have found that anything in the modern environment is a problem, so yes, wine glasses are a problem as well as other musical instruments.Now to our basic concept.
We believe that we (human beings) have been programmed over millions of years of evolution to read/sense our environment for signs (energy patterns) of danger but also for signs of reassurance. Peter has learnt, over the past 25 years, how to induce reassuring energy patterns into materials and, consequently, into such as the Quantum Clip. The human being then provides the energy to transfer the reassuring energy patterns, via the Quantum Clip and Tweezers, into objects within the listening environment, so superimposing the reassuring energy patterns onto objects, allowing us to relax more, to hear/perceive the musical information better.
Yes, sound is varying air pressure waves but we believe that there is something else captured on recordings in addition to varying air pressure waves. We believe that additional information is being fed into the room, to use a simple expression, ‘piggy back’ on the musical information.
Let me see if I can describe it as simply as possible.
We, human beings, via millions of years evolution, have been programmed to read/sense a range of energy patterns within our environment but energy patterns of NOW, this moment. To compare these with a ‘reading’ taken of the environment a minute ago, a few minutes ago, and therefore to be alerted if any changes have taken place, so having a continuing mental picture of our environment.
But, Peter and I believe that when a recording is made, there is captured on that recording not only the information of the music being played but also the energy patterns of that environment where the recording was taking place, also the energy patterns of the people playing the musical instruments. And, when the recording is played NOW, this moment, there is not only the energy patterns of the environment NOW being read/sensed by the human being but, being fed into the room, are the energy patterns of the other environments which the recordings were made in - so causing confusion for the human being doing the listening. And, any confusion the human being is subjected to causes the human being to go under tension until that confusion can be resolved.
So, put simply, we believe that there is more to the sound coming from musical recordings that mere air pressure waves - and this additional information is being ’sensed’ - but by which sense ? It cannot be the sense of sight, nor the sense of taste, nor the sense of touch, nor the sense of smell - which now only leaves the sense of hearing.
The reason why we recommend ‘treating’ both sides of a door with the Quantum Clip is because we believe that human beings are not only ’sensing’ energy patterns within the room they are sitting in but are also ’sensing’ what is (or might be) going on in other rooms in their territory.
Kind Regards,
May Belt.

It’s replies like this where I don’t even know where to begin. For a start, there was no explanation of the quantum effect boasted by the website. And May didn’t even tell me whether I could use a grand’s worth of crocodile clips to jump start my car. How did the Belts come to discover this unknown energy force? How did they develop their amazing technology? And will I ever be able to drink a glass of wine whilst listening to Billie Holiday?

Dear May,
Thank you very much for your speedy reply. However, while you have answered some of my queries, I think also that you have missed some, and provoked some more questions too! As I am not contacting you in the role of a magazine editor, I think it would be unprofessional if I were to reveal which one, so I’m afraid I cannot say more.
Your theories are interesting, and bear a striking resemblance to those of Rupert Sheldrake. Sheldrake, in case you did not know, is an established but discredited biologist whose theories approximate a hotpot of Goethe, 19th Century vitalism, new age philosophy, telepathy, theology, metaphysics, and the defunct hundredth monkey phenomenon. It was Sheldrake who coined the term morphogenetic fields, though to my knowledge, Sheldrake has never released any material pertaining to Quantum Theory.
So my question is, how were you able to discover and manipulate in a practical way the energy patterns that Sheldrake has so far failed to show even experimentally? (With particular reference to his critically flawed Sense of being stared at experiments)
I’m confused as to why a Quantum Clip is necessary to activate energy patterns in objects from which you claim we are already perceiving energy patterns?
On your website, you claim that the Quantum Clip is able to put objects into a high state of gravitational equilibrium. This poses two problems:
Quantum Theory deals with the interaction of atomic and sub-atomic particles on each other, particularly in terms of the weak, strong, and electromagnetic forces. It cannot deal with gravitational force, for which classic Newtonian physics are used. How were you able to reconcile these shortcomings? This is incredibly important to me, as it could signal the discovery of the Grand Unified Theory - the Holy Grail of modern physics.
The second problem have is that I am having difficulty understanding exactly what a high state of gravitational equilibrium entails. To my knowledge, any object at rest on Earth is in gravitational equilibrium, as the downward force of gravity is counterbalanced by the upward force of the ground. Is this correct? I’m not sure how the Quantum Clip will influence this, unless I’ve placed it between the object and the ground.
Could you explain exactly what the Quantum Particle Stream emanated by the Quantum Clip is? How is it measured?
To finish, a simple question that slipped your mind last time. Is it possible to use a pair of Quantum Clips to jump start my car? Is it advisable?
Many thanks for your insights on these matters,
Frank

I’m not too hot on my quantum physics, but I’m betting neither are the Belts. This post is already too long to ever feature in my paper zine, which is annoying. Sometimes I get bogged down in the details. I strongly advise you to check Rupert Sheldrake, who inhabits a shady world where science and nonsense meet. His writings are not strictly scientific but they retain enough scientific methodology to inspire and succor a legion of crackpots, as evidenced here.
Predictably, May’s next reply is almost fifteen hundred words long, without actually answering anything (well, except the bit on jump-starting my car).

Dear Frank,
To answer your question. The crocodile clip on the Quantum Clip is a small one and would not fit your car battery terminals.
Now to the other aspects.
I will have to take you through it, bit by bit - along the journey Peter and I have been along. However, to understand why we have been going along the paths we have been doing you have to realise that we were forced to try to find explanations for phenomena we were experiencing i.e. Changes taking place in the sound for which there was no explanation within conventional electronics or acoustics theories. It is really irrelevant whether the changes in the sound were worse or better - if the changes should not have happened, and they did, then they have to be explained !!
Our journey has been somewhat of a parallel to Rupert Sheldrake’s in that we have observed things happening which could not be explained from existing conventional theories.
Peter and I have a tremendous respect for Rupert Sheldrake. As you remark, he is a biologist and teaches Biology but Sheldrake observed things happening in Biology which he could not explain from within conventional biological theories. So he began his struggle to formulate his theory of morphic resonance to attempt to explain what he had observed. That is - (put simply with apologies to Sheldrake who took years to write his books) :-
1) That as soon as something exists there is created a specific morphic resonance energy pattern.
2) That the more things which exist which are identical, the stronger will be the specific morphic resonance.
3) That things which are identical are linked by the specific morphic resonance.
We find Sheldrake’s most informative book to be “The Presence of the Past”.
25 years ago Peter was finding things which were changing the sound which could not be explained from within conventional electronic or acoustic theories.
Such as different materials gave different sounds, different colours gave different sounds, different shapes gave different sounds, different chemicals gave different sounds and so on.
It was when Peter found that writing certain beneficial words and attaching them to items of equipment, or signing one’s initials or signature on items of equipment gave him significant improvements in his sound that he turned to Sheldrake’s concept of morphic resonance as the only concept which could explain what was happening.
Peter had already realised that it must be us (human beings) who was doing the reacting to all those differences in materials etc - not the audio signal being affected nor the acoustic air pressure waves.
Then, regarding the beneficial words, he realised that words and sentences and speech are only modern forms of communication - in the time span of evolution - a mere blink of an eyelid. That millions and millions of years ago, the earliest of creatures were communicating with each other - long before sound, sight and words and sentences. And communication is a behavioural pattern - which then leads to Sheldrake’s morphic resonance concept because that is the only way that Sheldrake could explain certain behavioural patterns in creatures which could not be explained by the conventional :-
1) The young must have been taught by watching their parents.
2) The young must have learnt by watching other significant adults,
3) The behavioural pattern must be in the genes and the DNA coding.
The only concept that Sheldrake found which his observations was that the creatures must be able to link into an established morphic resonance pattern for the different behavioural patterns.
Peter then began to ask the questions.
Why were we sensitive to these different energy patterns in the envionment?
What were we sensitive to ? and
How were we sensitive?
Which takes us back to the beginning of evolution which must have begun at the bottom of the oceans, near the volcanic vents (smoking chimneys). We then had to ask the question “What energy patterns were in existence at that time ?” As well as a rich mixture of minerals and chemicals, the one energy pattern we knew was in existence at the very beginning is Gravity.
I would like you to be aware Frank that it has been the necessity to find explanations for the changes in sound that Peter was experiencing that took us down the path we have been along.
That when there are no explanations from within conventional theories, then you have to look elsewhere.
If Peter suddenly did something which gave him considerable improvements in the sound but what he had done could not possibly be explained from within conventional electronic or acoustic theories i.e. what he had done could not possibly have changed the audio signal or the acoustic air pressure waves, therefore could not possibly have altered the information, then what he had done must have been to REDUCE an adverse effect - giving the impression of an improvement !! Reducing an adverse effect on what, on whom ? The human being ?
We realised that that is what must be happening - giving the perception of an improvement because an adverse effect had been removed or reduced.
If you stop looking at the subject of Gravity in the way that scientists view Gravity and begin to consider what it might have been like for the earliest of creatures beginning to evolve within the energy force of gravity.
When the earliest of creatures were beginning to evolve - were there infinitesimal changes in the gravitational pattern when gravity came into contact with objects ?
Were the earliest of creatures able to sense these infinitesimal changes ?
Is that how they were able to sense/read some of their environment ?
In other words, was any infinitesimal change in gravitational patterns one of the co-ordinates they had to take notice of ?
In the modern environment with the modern equipment are there still infinitesimal changes when gravity comes in contact with modern equipment ?
Are we (human beings) able to sense/read those changes ?
BUT, are these changes, within a modern environment changes which we cannot resolve, are we interpreting those changes in an adverse way - as predators/intruders, therefore going under tension ?
When Peter (or anyone using our devices and techniques) can change that adverse pattern to one which we (human beings) sense/read as ‘friendly/relaxing/reassuring’, then we have changed something which is adverse to something which is friendly, therefore we are no longer interpreting them as predators/intruders, therefore we can relax more, be under less tension, therefore we can interpret the information available to us better !!
But, the gravitational pattern on an object is exactly the same gravitational pattern as before - that has not altered - only our interpretation of it.
We have always said, from the very beginning, that our techniques do not alter in any way the information available, the improved sound people can hear after using our treatments means that they are able to hear additional information but that additional information has been there, available to them, all the time - they just have not been able to perceive it correctly.
The UK audio journalists who wrote about Peter and our techniques in the late 1980s and early 1990s tried to explain this in their articles.
The Quantum Clip is designed in such a way that the human being, using it, can superimpose a friendly/relaxing/reassuring energy pattern onto any object it is attached to.
Regards for now,
May

STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! When will this tide of nonsense end?!!! This is absolutely the maybe-second-last letter I ever send them.

Dear May,

I apologise for the long pause since your last communique, I have been incredibly busy. Thank you for your lengthy description of Sheldrakes theories, your own theories, and your hypotheses on evolutionary biology.

I hope that I am correct in summing these up thus:
1) The Quantum Clip causes a subjective improvement in sound.
2) This is achievable because a vestigial perception of gravity (which we find stressful) is affected by the Quantum Clip.
3) This is the only way to explain the improvement in sound heard.

I see no problem with the first statement. The second, though, marks a serious departure from economical explanation and assumes that prehistoric organisms could perceive infinitesimal changes in gravity. This is extremely unlikely as a change in gravitational field reveals nothing about an organisms position save how close it is to the centre of the earth. This information could not be used to locate food, shelter or a sexual partner and so does not serve any biological need i.e. there is no feasible evolutionary advantage to develop this perception.

To address the third statement, I do not accept that all conventional theories have failed to find an explanation for the changes in sound you and Peter perceived. I suspect that what you are experiencing is the placebo effect a very well-researched and widely-accepted phenomenon that causes people to experience what they expect to - in this case an improvement in audio signal.

To this end, has the Quantum Clip ever been double-blind tested against, say, a plain crocodile clip with a piece of copper wire attached to it, to account for this problem?

Kind Regards,

Frank

Parsimony. That’s the key to debunking nonsense. Let’s hope we don’t get another 3 page reply.

Several weeks later I still have not received a reply from May. This seems to happen quite a lot when I make people face up to their bad science. I could probably spend hours debunking every piece of pseudoscientific nonsense here, but I’d rather just accept that the Belts are snake oil vendors and leave it at that.

Entry Filed under: The Letters

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