The Physics of Collective
Consciousness. Part 3
by Attila Grandpierre
Attila Grandpierre, Ph.D. Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences
H-1525 Budapest P. O. Box 67., Hungary
February 6, 1996
12. Spontaneous Targeting
The fundamental difference between the inanimate, inorganic systems and
organic, self-organising systems is the appearance of such life phenomena within
the latter ones as metabolism, sensitivity, growth, multiplication and
homeostasis. It is clear that an inorganic 'object' is one which lacks free
energy and mobile 'tentacles', mobile external sensors and executive
instruments. We observe in nature that all 'objects' with free energy and
movable surfaces spontaneously organise themselves into 'systems', e.g. atoms,
molecules and crystals. 'Systems' are objects which are mobile enough to
organise themselves into a hierarchical order, generating a level where they can
act freely and so can organise their activity in their environment. This
spontaneous organisation is 'automatic', it is a universal characteristics of
material 'objects', therefore we usually ignore it. Nevertheless, spontaneity is
a remarkable property of the system formation from its elements. The formula
H2 + O --> H2O expresses, that by mixing the components
water molecules form automatically, spontaneously if the mix is supplied with
the necessary amount of energy to trigger the process. But the question arises:
how do the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen find each other? If they follow a
heat motion, a brownian random motion, only a minute part of the molecules with
proper impact factors (distance and velocity) could collide in the manner
necessary to form the compound molecules during the short time interval given by
the trigger heat and the explosion. This observation makes it clear that a yet
unnoticed 'spontaneity' acts as an organising factor even in the sphere of
inanimate systems. A new and independent evidence appeared and this underlies
the above argument. A recent result substantiates the spontaneous targeting
phenomenon in H2 + O --> H2O ( Hemley, 1995 ). This
reaction between hydrogen and oxygen is surely one of the best studied chemical
reactions, but details of the reaction kinetics have always been enigmatic.
Loubeyre and LeToullec (1995) found that the normally explosive reaction is shut
down by pressure and a new compound is formed. It means that the factors
organising the reactions are sensitive to pressure and temperature.
The organisation of the biologically active configurations of proteins from
an unfolded polypeptide chain presents another enigma known as the
Levinthal-paradox. C. Anfinsen showed in the early 1970s that a protein having
been unfolded by chemical denaturants could refold spontaneously when the
denaturing conditions were reversed. Levinthal pointed out in the late 1960s
that the number of possible states of an unfolded protein is larger than
1060. Assuming that the protein " hunts" for the biologically active
configuration in a random process at a rate set by vibration frequencies (about
1013 searches per second), for a single protein molecule to arrive at
the folded state would take longer (1030 times) than the age of the
Universe. But proteins can fold completely within hours - sometimes within
milliseconds - and early steps occur on time-scales far shorter than
milliseconds. It is shown, that interactions between secondary structures - i.e.
long-range intramolecular interactions between a-helices and b-sheets - are
important in the folding process, which is sensitive to temperature and
electromagnetic fields (Callender et al., 1994). Remarkably, new and independent
results substantiate our arguments on the phenomena of spontaneous organisation.
Hess and Mikhailov (1995) pointed out, that in living cells the enzymatic
subsystem within normal conditions represents a coherent molecular network, the
entire population of the network is in continuous communication and undergoes
collective evolution. These molecular networks are in close analogy to neural
networks and insect societies. Mikhailov and Ness (1995) showed that when a new
protein molecule is produced at a membrane, it is loaded into a budding vesicle
which then moves through the cell until it reaches its target at another
membrane location. They presented evidences for their assumption that vesicles
detect the direction leading to their targets and can actively move towards
them. Thus, the behaviour of vesicles resembles that of entire cells in
chemotaxis and in the phenomenon of cell-to-cell communication. The intrinsic
reference frame needed for detection of the motion direction by vesicles could
be provided by the intracellular chemical gradients and/or by the electrical
fields present inside a living cell.
The same problem of the existence of a targeting mechanism seems to work in
the olfactory field, as well. How could the odorant molecules find automatically
their receptors? Lewis Thomas (1974) noted that eels have been taught to smell
two or three molecules of phenylethyl alcohol. An average man can detect just a
few molecules of butyl mercaptan. How the olfactory cells are fired by an
odorant is not known. The substance may become bound to the cells possessing
specific receptors for it and then may just sit there, somehow displaying its
signal from a distance.
I suggest the term " spontaneous targeting" for this general phenomenon
present in the inanimate and animate worlds as well. Spontaneous targeting is
just a sub-phenomenon of the more general spontaneous organisation pervading the
whole Cosmos (Endre K. Grandpierre, 1996a, and also in this volume). This
spontaneous organisation factor is the one which organises any system with the
proper conditions (free energy, movable perceiving surfaces, etc.) into
biological organisms. Of course, a totally inanimate object will never
'resurrect' to an organised system, therefore the mere presence of life anywhere
in the Universe indicates the universal presence of an organising factor.
13. Global Organisation and Action-in-Distance
If a system is able to develop a level of phenomenon which is independent
from mere physical and environmental determinations, it develops its own laws on
this level. In order to be able to follow these laws, it has to find a way to
handle the energy and information which reached the system from a global
perspective, transporting the energy and information easily to the place where
they serve the global project. This 'global organisation' assumes the existence
of an 'action-in-distance', first of all, because the global organising centre
has to contact - within the shortest time of the reaction time scales - not only
the state of affairs in the whole system, but also it has to process the
information and reach the proper decision. The system has to be 'transparent'
for the information needed. On the other hand, the system also has to be filled
with free energy stores in order to make the energy easily available when the
decisions reach local parts of the system. This informational transparency
requires an informational action-in-distance. If there an informational
transparency exists within the system, it may also be used to gain access to
interact with other systems in the informational level. This intersubjective
informational transparency is the first form of perception that nature applied,
in generating always the global system first and the subsystems subsequently,
e.g. the Metagalaxy first and the Galaxy afterwards, the species first, the
individual later. Therefore, informational transparency is as basic for the
individuals of a species as for the cells within the body of the organism.
Actually, this informational 'action in distance' is based on a co-operation of
similarly tuned units of organisation, at cells, organisms, groups, in and
between different species, until the biosphere as a whole and the Universe as a
whole. This primal perception is the way how cosmic tuning (Grandpierre, A.,
1992), and an anthropic, life-containing Universe (Barrow, Tipler, 1986) are
produced. The transparent exchange of information is a kind of perception which
was necessarily developed upon the origin of Metagalaxy, and divided afterwards
into its subsystems, all of which kept some primal patterns of its antedescent
organism in order to be able to organise itself as a whole. This informational
perception turns out to be a primal, cosmic perception which developed before
the origin of external senses. The primal perception is a direct unfolding and
exchange of all basic information present in the Cosmos. This primal perception
is the first - still unnoticed- life phenomenon developed in the Universe. The
primal perception still preserved some of its characteristics in the phenomena
of group effect.
14. The Fundamental Problem of Electromagnetism and Quantum Physics
Electromagnetic fields are known to mediate information extremely effectively
through e.g. light waves. The wave-particle duality has been known since the
two-slit experiment of Young in 1801. This duality describes a spherical spread
and a parallel guidance, as expressed in a local sudden collapse into a
'particle', photon at the site of interaction. The nature of this duality is
still not well understood (Newton, Wigner, 1949). I suggest that the solution of
this fundamental problem of the field theories of physics, in electromagnetism
as well as in quantum field theories, lies in the fact that an immediate
mediator field exists which mediates information or structural patterns from the
wavefronts immediately into the place of interaction, e.g. the site of
observation. In my interpretation besides the wavefronts of the electromagnetic
waves an ultrafast or immediate 'mediator' field exists which is able to
transform the wavefront in a glance into a photon particle. This mediator field
acts faster than the speed of light, immediately, and gives a clear picture on
the nature of electromagnetic wave propagation. This ultrafast mediator field is
able to interpret the fundamental variational principles of physics. This EM
mediator field exchanges energy and information between the extended magnetic
field of the current and the circuit itself. The existence of this fundamental
field is the only solution to the still unrecognised fundamental problem of
electromagnetism i.e. the energy of the EM field seems to be present in its
whole amount in the circuit and, at the same time, in the EM field. If it means
an actual simultaneity, it would lead to a doubling of the energy, which is
absurd. Therefore the only solution is the one I suggest here, and that is an EM
field which is able to 'act in distance'.
As early as 1892 Maxwell recognised that the EM energy is present in the
circuit and the EM field simultaneously. He understood that the current is able
to perform electrolysis locally, to develop Joule-heat locally, and the ability
to do work locally involves local energy. At the same time, the energy is also
present in the form of field energy. Maxwell suggested that a part of the EM
energy is present locally and the remaining part is present globally (1892, Vol.
II, p. 212). Nevertheless, the calculations lead to equal amounts of energy, and
when one form of EM energy changes, the other form changes simultaneously.
Feynman, the founder of quantum electrodynamics, expressed a view that the
energy is present in the field globally- but he is silent about the local EM
energy (Feynman et al., 1963). The presence of this primary EM field offers for
the first time the actual, immediate 'action in distance', which has a
significance of overall importance, in the understanding the nature of the field
of consciousness, as well. It is interesting, that Maxwell himself, in the last
chapter "Theories of action at a distance" of his book recognized the
instantaneous character of some EM effects: "An electric particle sends forth a
potential, the value of which ee'/r, depends not only on e, the
emitting particle, but on e', the receiving particle, and on distance
r between the particles at the instant of emission" (Maxwell,
1892). This primary EM field may serve as a physical basis for the 'spontaneous
targeting' introduced above, the 'spontaneous collapse' of the waves to the site
of interaction or observation, thus solving the central measurement problem of
the present day quantum theory, and the 'primary perception', which is a yet
unnoticed effect, but discovered independently and simultaneously by the present
author and Endre K. Grandpierre (this volume). This primary EM field may help in
maintaining the 'global organization' and 'informational transparency' described
above.
15. The Source of the EM Field
The presence of the immediate mediator EM field is clear from the followings,
as well. Let us imagine the sudden appearance of an electric charge at a certain
point. We know that the law of conservation is valid for the electric charges
but the thought experiment also works with a sudden separation of a new-born
electron-positron pair. Regarding the fact that the EM waves spread with the
speed of light, and thinking that they start from the appearance of the charge -
or the separation of the dipole - , we have to think that the electromagnetic
field of the charge propagates with the speed of light. If the energy of the
charge is in the field then with the spreading of the EM wavefront the energy in
the field grows. But the electric charge conserves, therefore its energy and
charge do not change. Following this line of thought we can think that the
conservation law of energy is violated. Thinking the same thought experiment
with a suddenly separated dipole, the sudden appearance of the dipole leads
again to a continuous propagation of the EM field, even if we stop the
separation at a certain moment. This means that the field is able to rearrange
itself from one form into another form, and the expanding EM field is able to
draw energy from its previous, latent form. The three forms of EM fields-
wavefront, photon, and coupling mediator field, are able to exchange energy and
information within each other immediately, as if they were one unique existent,
or living in a complete symbioses. They may be regarded as being in a resonant
coupling. I suggest, that the collective consciousness field extends this
symbiosis to the overlapping particle mediated fields, like the acoustic or the
olfactory field, as well as to other forms of vacuum fields besides the EM
forms, the quantum-vacuum holographic fields (Laszlo, 1993, 1995). Their
symbiosis, the inclusion of all of them into resonant coupling, is the key
generative factor of the flexible, ultrasensitive organisation phenomena
observed in the Universe, biosphere and societies. I suggest that the spell of
the music may be understood by the coupling of the acoustic field of the body to
EM vibration fields.
16. Collective EM field of the Biosphere
The EM field, as a part of the consciousness field, is shown to be able to
directly trigger electric activity in the neuronal cells. On the other hand, the
EM field emitted by the brain's activity is a measurable field. This result
makes available a physical means for measuring consciousness field from
point-to-point, for measuring the guidance of the consciousness field (or
psi-field) between two people. Human brain works with a power of 20 Watts. We
know that large amount of this power becomes waste heat and cools the brain.
Nevertheless, all the energy produced by the organism in the course of
metabolism goes through a significant step, the free energy, which is in direct
relevance to EM energy. Since all the energy of metabolism goes through the EM
phase, all the energy has to be present simultaneously in the EM field energy, a
significant part of which leaves the body. We may think that if later on this EM
energy is transformed into other forms of energy by mechanical work or heat,
this is irrelevant in our estimation of the environmental EM field of the
organism. Nevertheless, this view is not correct, if, as we have shown, all the
EM energy of the organism is simultaneously present in the environment.
Mankind's brain activity involves a work of 1011 Watts, comparable
to the electromagnetic power entering the earthly magnetosphere from the solar
wind. The biomass of the Earth is a substantial factor of the source of the EM
fields at the surface of the Earth. Scott (1962) measured the electric field of
a bean root in the surrounding solution of the root. The measured total power
dissipated electrically to the environment by the root is 10-9 W.
Remarkably, the electric field shows a spontaneous and truly endogenous rhythm
with a 5-minute period which coincides with the periods of the acoustic modes of
the Sun. It is interesting to note here the remark of Cox and Giuli (1968) on
the close value of the specific energy production rate of the solar core and of
the specific energy liberation rate of the human metabolism, both of which are
around 100 ergs/g/s. The so-called dry-matter content of the biomass is 846
g/m2, i.e. 4.3 1017 g, which, taking a factor of ten for
the water content, would give a value of 1014 W (as we know that 80%
of the mass of the living matter is water). The plants of the biosphere
transform half of the energy of the incoming solar radiation to its plant
matter, i.e. 1.72 1017W. One percent of this energy is transformed to
energy contained in form of food. The original living form of solar energy as it
was firstly bound in plants when reaching the food-eater predators, suffers a
ten-thousandfold loss, to 1013 W (after Odum, 1971). The produced
biological free energy, as calculated from the dry-matter content, is 20 810
Kcal/m2/year of the plants, 3 368 Kcal/m2/year of the
herbivorous animals, and 21 Kcal/m2/year of the large predators
(Fábián et al., 1975). These numbers give a biological energy of the plants
around 1.43 1015W. If only ten-thousand part of this biological free
energy was expressively radiated out to the environment, this value still would
be significant enough to be comparable to the geophysical factors. We have to
realise, that plants, and EM fields of animal and human origin may be a
substantial part of our EM environment. The EM field of human origin is of a
smaller amplitude, but this relative difference may be balanced by the relative
ease with which we can tune to human frequencies. If we are able to tune
ourselves to the plants' field, we can feel their overwhelming, galvanising EM
fields.
17. Collective EM field of Human Subjects
Burr (1935) formulated a concept that EM fields organise the living
processes. "The pattern of organization of any biological system is established
by a complex electrodynamic field which is, in part, determined by its atomic
physiochemical components and which, in part, determines the behavior and
orientation of those components. More than establishing pattern, it must
maintain pattern in the midst of a physiochemical flux. Therefore, it must
regulate and control living things, it must be the mechanism, the outcome of
whose activity is 'wholeness', organization, and continuity."
Burr (1956) measured the relatively steady-state standing potential of a tree
for more than a decade. The potential shows diurnal, monthly, and seasonal
variations of considerable interest and, over the years, and suggested a
correlation with sunspot activity. It has been adequately demonstrated that a
living organism, a tree, is an electric system, exhibiting all the properties of
an electric field. It is remarkable that in its most fundamental electromagnetic
regulation the cosmic effects appeared so pronouncedly.
Ravitz (1962) was able to show, by working out 50 000 field determination on
some 500 human subjects at Yale, Duke, and University of Pennsylvania Schools of
Medicine, that "the variations of the EM fields of the human subjects provide an
objective profile of similar variations in the feeling and behaviour states, and
open the door to both long- and short-range predictions in time. Electrocyclic
phenomena seem to be governed both by exogenous and endogenous factors. Primacy
of the exogenous component is suggested, however, not only by plotting similar
field excursions on diverse representatives of the plant and animal kingdoms
within the same intervals, but also by demonstrating parallelisms between
simultaneously recorded atmospheric, earth, and tree potential differences."
Biological organisms show extreme sensitivity for external EM signs, as the
new branch of science, bioelectromagnetism has discovered (see the references
above, Sect. V.). Recently, Kuznetsov (1982) reviewed the results of laboratory
experiments with synchronous yeast cells Candida Utilis. " The presence of
external rhythms' influence on the yeast cells growth in a batch cultivation
system was established. The results of statistical processing of the
experimental data showed the statistically significant presence of 160.009±
0.006-minute oscillations in the variability of the specific growth rate of the
yeast population. The fact testifies in favour of the 160.01-minute global solar
oscillations influence on the Candida Utilis growth rate." These oscillations
were independently discovered in 1976 by two solar research groups in Crimea and
Birmingham. Their results pointed out that the solar surface shows oscillations
with a 160-minute period. Arguments proving the existence of this period in
solar oscillations are given by Kotov (1995). The amplitude of this oscillation
is low, only 1 m/s, changing permanently. The origin of this oscillation,
contrary to the 5-minute oscillations, is not known, and inexplicable by the
standard solar model (Kotov, 1985).
It is well known, that the ionosphere and the surface of the Earth form a
cavity for the electromagnetic waves, therefore every electromagnetic
disturbance in its attenuation may be transformed into a standing wave
determined by the size of cavity (Schumann and König, 1954). The standing
terrestrial electromagnetic waves, termed as Schumann waves, have a
characteristic frequency of 7.5 Hz, coinciding with the range of the most
creative brain EEG frequencies, a -waves, which are produced also in the REM
phase of sleep. Moreover, the time characteristics of Schumann oscillations and
the EEG a -rhythm, as well as storm-related fluctuations of electric field and
the EEG d -rhythm show a noticeable similarity in their temporal variations
(König, 1989). These circumstances may substantiate a hypothesis that human
brains/minds are able to interact with the information field of the terrestrial
organic self-maintaining system.
Human consciousness fields primarily interact at the a-level in frequencies
around 7.5 Hz, therefore the creative state of mind is the same one as the most
influential source of the collective consciousness field. Moreover, the human
a-field interacts with the earthly a-field, with the Schumann waves. The
b-field, the field of awake consciousness, in the present societies seems to be
largely inactivated and, in contrary to the alpha-field, does not form an
effective collective consciousness field. The reason for this anomaly is that
the awake state is not in a continuous resonance with the a-field, as a result
of the schism of breaking our mind into two antagonistic parts (see Grandpierre,
E. K., this volume). This psychic anomaly is the factor behind the sporadic and
low-level ESP abilities of the Homo sapiens sapiens. Inactivated information
fields can only be actualised if consciousness turns against its deeper
generating levels. The b-field of individuals is generally in an extraordinarily
low-intensity state because most part of its energy is consumed in the
repression of the deep-mind. Nevertheless, the way in which we can reach
healthier consciousness fields is the development of the high-intensity b-field,
which is filled with the powers of the deeper mind levels in a natural
resonance. The d-and J -fields are related to cosmic electromagnetic wave fields
(Grandpierre, A., 1996d). The natural sources of collective consciousness fields
are the plants, animals, (non-manipulated) humans, the Earth, and, through the
cosmic interface of the Earth, the magnetosphere, the Moon and the Sun, and,
through the heliosphere, the whole Galaxy and Universe. Exploring and
understanding the working of consciousness may help in tuning to its natural,
more powerful sources, regaining a harmony between its main constituents, and
opening a perspective to the experimental exploration of collective
consciousness fields.
18. The Physics of the Evolution of Consciousness
The evolution of consciousness - as the evolution of the Universe shows us -
actually is in contrast to the presently accepted evolutionary theories, which
want to build up the whole from the parts. In reality, evolution started from
the whole and progressively differentiated into parts, from the
timeless-spaceless form (e.g. the 'implicit order', or 'pre-space' of D. Bohm
and J. A. Wheeler), through galaxies, through the development of the Solar
System and the Earth, the appearance of the biosphere and mankind, until the
development of smaller and smaller subsystems of consciousness, until the human
individual. 'Cosmologies of wholeness' are emerging (see Laszlo, E., 1993;
Harris, 1988). All of the cosmic evolution formed sub-systems within systems.
Evolution begins with 'systems', 'elements' develop only later on. Every system
originates as a subsystem of a larger, inclusive system. The organisation of the
sub-system is made by the creator system, and the organisational factor acts
from within, as well. This fact assumes that the creator system is in a certain
way transformed into the to-be-created subsystem, the 'whole' is transformed to
the 'part'. This global-local transformation is a necessary condition of
the generation of the new system. Therefore the Universe acted continuously as
an agent with organisation ability, and is progressively transformed from the
largest of its subsystems into the smallest ones. The trend of evolution is
simultaneously going towards a higher complexity and this way towards more and
more complex subsystems, and in this way the real evolution is also accompanied
by the state of becoming more and more complex and towards higher and higher
forms of consciousness. Ervin Laszlo remarked: " Evolution acts on species and
populations and not only - or even mainly - on individual reproducers.
Individual variations do not contribute significantly to the emergence of new
species." This trend, the primacy of 'global' over 'local' appears in the
history of mankind (Grandpierre, E. K. this volume), starting with cosmic
consciousness in the Golden Age of mankind. Later a break set up in the trend of
human evolution, attempting to cut down the 'whole' from the 'part', the Cosmos
from the living beings. The complex subsystem of human collectives preferred
only one side of this cosmic trend, the more and more divided and separate
complexity, the specification to individual human being, at the expense of
general context and cosmic laws, drawing away and retiring from the growing
collective order, loosing the connections to the larger, embracing levels of
existence. As Andras Angyal expresses it the autonomous, self-maintaining
tendency dominates over its dual brother, the homonymous, self-completing
tendency (1941), the basic need for direct, sensual, artistic life-experiences.
According to my research, the three inevitable motivating, life-long
motivational instincts in our lives are the life-instinct, sustaining our
individual life, the species-instinct, sustaining the life of our species, and
the world-instinct, sustaining the life-functions of the Universe. The
world-instinct is the basis of the other two, and it involves the imagination,
intuition, curiosity, the desire for a meaningful life, to form healthy, alive
communities, to correspond to larger units, to the Nature and the Universe
(Grandpierre, A., 1991), therefore it is the world of the primary
perception.
If we do not want to leave the road of cosmic evolution for ever, we may find
again the path how to reveal our natural completion, the already hidden powers
which the all-embracing cosmic evolution generated in our genes and basic
constitution. Unfortunately, it has not been explored until now, how far we
reached from our first-handed, natural drives, and what is the meaning that the
Universe mediates to us. In order to form again a human, collective society, in
which every individual sees the meaning of her/his activity and life, a meaning
which is able to give an ultimate, lifelong satisfaction, we should recover the
destination of mankind, and, besides it, the destination of the Universe. There
is not any other task, which may be able to give a common perspective to all of
us, than to explore and regain our destiny, to regain the harmony with the
Nature and the Universe. Only this elevating and touching task may give back our
harmony with ourselves. To do this, first we have to explore the nature of the
Universe and understand the super-organism called biosphere - an organism with a
collective consciousness.
19. Origin of Consciousness and its Relation to Emotional States
Psychological researches teach that consciousness is vital when it is filled
with emotional drives. Positive emotions enhance the dominating role of the
neocortex in the brain activity ( Völgyesi, 1962). Our research (see Endre K.
Grandpierre, this and a later volume) shows, that the basic and first step of
any conscious activity is an interaction. If consciousness works through EM
fields, its activity in every step involves changes in its EM field and the
interaction of its EM field with another EM field - outer or of an inner
subsystem. It means that EM induction results, which generates naturally a
higher level of electromagnetic activity besides the overlapping and
superposition of the two interactive EM fields. Consequently, the interactive EM
fields when they are active, generate a subsidiary EM field, a 'daughter' field.
This induction effect is suggested to be the physical basis of the 'group
effect', the enhancement of the basic activity level when entering into
interaction with another human being, consciously or without being aware of it.
Therefore, the consciousness can not be regarded developed and healthy, if its
'exploration drives' and 'general activity drives', emotional motivations and
desires are passive, and are hindered by the aware consciousness. Consciousness
develops through the phenomenon of 'emotional infection', widespread
among children, and also present in rituals and when masses of people form a
community. In new-born children, the movements originate from spontaneous
emotional reactions, their sources are within the emotional system (Wallon, H.,
1946). " At the origin of evolution, in contrast with the traditional
conception, an undivided state existed in which the outer and the inner
were not separated." The propensity to interact originates from the nature of
emotions, of their mutuality (Endre K. Grandpierre, this volume) and
field-nature, which is the basis of the well-known phenomenon of
'transference' , the easy transfer of emotions in the trance-state from
one person to another. This is the basis of the transference of emotions,
its epidemic character, as well as the wide range phenomena of mass psychosis
and collective impulses, when the individual consciousnesses merge into one
single common consciousness (Wallon, ibid.).
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