Feb 15 2006
Takionic Follow-up
There’s something I forgot to mention in my previous post on the absurdity of Tachyon Energy. What good is any New Age healing technology without the endorsement of one or two controversial medical practitioners, and some anecdotal evidence from athletes and friends of the inventors? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll find in the “Testimonials” sections of the Tachyon websites.
No doubt, endorsements from doctors and other professionals can be used to lend more credibility to a theory as radical as tachyon energy. An endorsement from a physicist would really be preferable, but no such luck. Still, let’s examine the credibility of the professionals that the Tachyon websites quote as being full supporters of the tachyon technology.
The most prominent figure in the field of Tachyon research appears to be David Wagner. Indeed, Mr. Wagner is actually the founder of Advanced Tachyon Technologies, whose website was the main focus of my previous article. He is also the supposed inventor of the mysterious Tachyonization machine, which is claimed to alter any substance at a “submolecular” level, so that the substance becomes “tachyonized.”
One would think that, with a breakthrough of this magnitude, Mr. Wagner would have published a paper or two in well-known scientific journals, or offer his device for testing in a laboratory. But a simple search turns up no results for Wagner in any publication, except a book about Tachyon energy that he cowrote with Gabriel Cousens, a medical doctor (again, not a physicist). I would wager that the book contains similar drivel to that found on the ATT website. Truthfully, some of the explanations reminded me of Gene Ray’s discourse on his Time Cube theory! But at least Gene Ray isn’t selling anything.
With the purported infinite healing properties of Wagner’s tachyonizing device, wouldn’t Wagner have a moral responsibility to give up his invention for the greater good of the planet? With the potential for healing millions of people, Wagner would gain worldwide renown, not to mention a Nobel Prize. But instead, Mr. Wagner has kept his tachyonization process “proprietary” for years, and only focuses on refining his business model for recruiting distributors for his wares. Does this sound like a true inventor, or simply a clever con-artist?
The other prominent name mentioned on the Tachyon websites is that of Dr. Hans Nieper (1928 - 1998), a German cardiologist and oncologist. Dr. Nieper was indeed a well-known doctor who used radically unorthodox methods for treating cancer, multiple sclerosis, and cardiovascular problems with megadoses of mineral supplements. Nieper did achieve impressive clinical results, but what exactly does that have to do with tachyons? Notice, once again, that Nieper is not a physicist. In fact, here’s what Russell Mills of the Delano Report says about Nieper:
Unfortunately, Nieper’s exposure to physics seems to have consisted of taking just one undergraduate physics course and then doing a great deal of reading over the years — an approach that seldom leads to excellence in such an intellectually demanding field. Thus, despite being very intelligent and having a fine memory, Nieper did not reach a deep or correct understanding of theoretical physics. In fact, his views on physics were superficial and naive, and the medical theories he tried to derive from them were rightly considered by physicists, biologists, and medical researchers to be errant nonsense.
Apparently Dr. Nieper, with his minimal formal training in physics, began to weave nonsensical theories about unseen energy fields, subatomic fluctuations, the ethereal realm, and of course tachyons, all of which he related to maladies of the human body. Naturally, New Age “researchers” snatched up Nieper’s theories and declared them as canon. Incidentally, the enthusiasm with which New Age proponents adapted these theories says something about their level of experience in physics, too, not to mention their experience in critical thinking.
And still, no publications exist that confirm the existence of tachyons, none that confirm the existence of the Tachyonization machine, and none that confirm the influence of tachyons on personal health.
I gladly welcome any of the Tachyon distributors to send me a sample of their product (I’m certainly not about to pay for it), so that I can conduct a simple double-blind test of the product’s effectiveness, a test that every one of the distributors forgot to do.

June 1st, 2006 at 3:29 am
arxiv.org (a great site btw) has a number of papers on tachyons, including one titled “Ghosts and Tachyons in the Fifth Dimension”, see http://www.arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-ph/pdf/0412/0412280.pdf
June 23rd, 2006 at 11:45 am
I find this article hillarious. I understand that in life there always must exist a negative and a positive or two extremes in order for there to be some level or platform from which we can step up on and observe the observable (neutrality). Just as many “new-agers” quickly snatch up this pseudo and fringe-science and use it as rhetoric, I see you doing the same thing in your little blog site here. I think if more people out there tried to prove things right than wrong, we would have more discoveries on this Earth. Chastising and making a perversity of this newly emerging science is ridiculous. Point out the loonies and then offer an interesting point on the subject of Tachyons and maybe a link to someone or some(thing) that is doing work on the subject within the scientific community. Maybe you could go a bit further back and talk about Tesla… If you know who that is.
June 23rd, 2006 at 12:12 pm
marshall,
Tachyon energy is not a “newly-emerging science,” as you put it. Tachyons are hypothetical pseudo-particles used only in certain mathematical models in string theory and special relativity.
The reason I wrote my article was to expose the business of selling Tachyon products for the quackery that it is, and explain to readers that this “technology” is utter nonsense. I couldn’t find many other pages on the Internet that did so adequately.
Did you know that, shortly after the element Radium was discovered, some companies started to sell Radium-infused water? Obviously the companies promoted their product as having “invigorating” and “healing” properties, until people started dying due to radiation!
It seems that people will believe anything, and buy anything. I’m simply trying to set things straight.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Marshall:
You may find DB’s post to be humorous, but I find your comments to be likewise. Your words show that, like many people, you have no concept of the fundamentals of science.
Science is all about disproving things, not proving them. It’s a basic fact that you can never actually show anything to be true, only false. No matter how much evidence you have in support of something, it takes only a single statement of fact to refute the lot. That’s how the game is played. All propositions are subject to endless scrutiny by the community at large, and only those that survive attempts at refutation are accepted. Even then, they’re only kept around so long as they continue to pass the tests.
Our so-called “laws” of science are only so because everyone who tests them gets the same results. Nobody is able to refute them. I guarantee you that as soon as a valid experiment comes along that generates different results, the landscape will change.
As for ATT, it is entirely possible that Mr. Wagner has created something noteworthy. However, his failure to submit his ideas for peer review suggests otherwise. I understand that he is wary of “the system,” but his fears are entirely unfounded. If he really had something to show, he wouldn’t have to worry about costly legal fees or theft of intellectual property. The world has many mechanisms in place to protect against the latter. As for the former, if he could really do what he claims, he would have a great many people handing him blank checks.
As a scientist, I must leave open the possibility that Mr. Wagner is telling the truth and has in fact developed something great for this world. Despite significant evidence that he’s full of BS, it’s always possible that something new will come to light tomorrow that will vindicate him. You’ll understand if I don’t hold my breath.