Geobiology (pseudoscience)

Within geobiology, distinct patterns of Earth radiation, mainly Hartmann lines (named after Ernst Hartmann) and Curry lines (after Manfred Curry; also called Wittmann lines after Siegfried Wittmann{{cite book |last1=van Etten |first1=Jaap |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6i_ERQvuZmIC&dq=wittman+lines+same+as+Curry&pg=PT54 |title=Gifts of Mother Earth |year= 2011 |publisher=Light Technology |isbn=978-1622335367}}) are posited on occasion to have a negative effect on health and even the viability of biological life.{{cite book |last1=Pearson |first1=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ocMre53BbRYC&dq=geobiology+hartmann&pg=PA73 |title=Stumbling Down the Shamanic Path |year=2010 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=978-1440152061}} Other similar patterns, named after practitioners of geobiology, include Peyré lines (after Francois Peyré),{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Mary Edith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQdihMEqIsAC&dq=Peyr%C3%A9+lines+%28after+Dr.+Francois+Peyr%C3%A9%29&pg=PA99 |title=The Kundalini Concept: Its Origin and Values |year= 2007 |publisher=Jain Publishing Company |isbn=978-0895818584}} Romani waves (after Lucien Romani),Article about 'alternative' thinking of Lucien Romani https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02192503/document and the Benker cube{{cite book |last1=Dale |first1=Cindi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DFPPBAAAQBAJ&dq=anton+benker&pg=PA108 |title=The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy |year= 2014 |publisher=Sounds True |isbn=978-1591798279}} (after Anton Benker).

It is also claimed that groundwater may create radiation caused by the friction of water against mineral deposits,{{cite news |last1=Flavin |first1=Edwin |date=18 August 2018 |title=Geopathic stress: Just for the gullible? |work=Irish Examiner |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/lifestyle/healthandlife/geopathic-stress-just-for-the-gullible-863019.html}} as well as geological faults, due to a claimed difference in the electric charge of the masses on each side of the fault generating radiation. These are claimed by practitioners to have harmful effects in a phenomenon collectively called geopathic stress.{{cite news |last1=Etchells |first1=Pete |date=20 August 2015 |title=Bad vibrations: what's the evidence for geopathic stress? |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/aug/20/bad-vibrations-whats-the-evidence-for-geopathic-stress}} A practitioner of geobiology may also seek out radiation derived from human infrastructure, such as those from overhead and underground power lines and telecommunication infrastructure.{{cite web |last1=Salzburg |first1=Steven |title=Do High Voltage Power Lines Cause Cancer? |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2014/09/01/do-high-voltage-power-lines-cause-cancer/#2399b6656497 |website=Forbes.com}}

Practitioners of geobiology will typically use a dowsing rod, pendulum or their hands to ascertain the location of radiation, and then use this information to make an assessment on its effect on a residential dwelling or workplace and upon localised natural life. Practitioners may also claim be to able to locate and model a building on a basis similar to the theories of Feng shui, Vastu Shastra, or use of Sacred geometry.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

No solid scientific foundation for these phenomena has been made. A task group of the World Health Organization investigating the effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields on the health of the general public found "no substantive health issues related to ELF electric fields at levels generally encountered by members of the public".{{Cite web |title=Exposure to extremely low frequency fields – backgrounder |url=https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/radiation-and-health/non-ionizing/elff |access-date=2022-04-09 |website=www.who.int |language=en}} The results of techniques used by practitioners of geobiology, such as dowsing or other forms of radiesthesia, have been attributed to the ideomotor phenomenon.{{Cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Jay A |last2=Jeyanesan |first2=Ewalina |last3=Raz |first3=Amir |date=2017-08-02 |title=Ask the pendulum: personality predictors of ideomotor performance |journal=Neuroscience of Consciousness |volume=2017 |issue=1 |pages=nix014 |doi=10.1093/nc/nix014 |issn=2057-2107 |pmc=5858027 |pmid=29877514}}

• List of topics characterised as pseudoscience

{{Reflist}}

• Ernst Hartmann, Krankheit als Standortproblem (Sickness as a Location Problem), 1964; modern edition {{ISBN|978-37-7600-653-7}}
• Georges Lakhovsky, La Terre et Nous (The Earth and Us) 1933; modern edition {{ISBN|978-29-5429-444-5}}
• Francois Peyré, Radiations cosmotellurique (Cosmotelluric Radiation), 1947; modern edition {{ISBN|979-10-9349-201-8}}
• Georges Prat, Atlas de la Géobiologie, 2011 {{ISBN|978-29-0658-858-5}}
• James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, 1982 modern edition {{ISBN|978-01-9286-218-1}}
• Anne-Marie Delmotte, The Lecher Antenna Adventures and Research in Geobiology and Bio-Energy, 2019 {{ISBN|978-90-8280-267-2}}
• Manfred Curry, BIOKLIMATIK. Die Steuerung des gesunden und kranken Organismus durch die Atmosphäre, (Bioclimate; the management of the healthy and sick organism via the atmosphere) 1946
• Blanche Merz, Hauts-lieux Cosmo-telluriques : leurs énergies subtiles méconnues (Cosmo-telluric Hotspots: their unknown subtle energies), 1997; {{ISBN|978-28-2570-395-3}}
• Michèle Burdet, Stumbling Down the Shamanic Path: Mystic Adventures and Misadventures, 2010 {{ISBN|978-14-4015-206-1}}

• [http://www.geobiologie.de/ Startseite] (Geobiology followers of Dr Hartmann)
• [http://www.vrgs.ch/ VRGS – Verband für Radiästhesie und Geobiologie Schweiz] (Swiss Geobiology and Radiesthesia organisation)
• [https://www.geobiologia.org/es/que-es-gea Asociación de Estudios Geobiológicos] (Spanish Geobiology organisation)

Category:Pseudoscience