Persinger Locked out of Lab

Before neuroscience PhD student Linda St. Pierre was locked out of the Paul A. Field Animal Care facility at Laurentian University just over two weeks ago, she was conducting important research on obesity using rats. She was injecting different compounds at the onset of obesity to see what chemical changes occur in the animals’ brains.
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St. Pierre, along with about 14 other undergraduate and graduate students, is under the academic supervision of Michael Persinger.

Northern Life: Researcher locked out of labs »
Students locked out of labs »
The article above hint at conspiracy – and in an article by Paul Devereux in the January Fortean Times (FT205:4) he states as much. We’ve been interested in Persinger’s work for some time now, e.g.:
“Many non-believers cite the very interesting work of Michael Persinger on how electromagnetic fields can influence or cause paranormal, spiritual, or religious experiences. Some of his works appears very promising, but questions are being raised about the validity of it.”
Questioning Michael Persinger’s Research: Magnetic Fields or Suggestibilitiy?»
In FT205, Devereux reckons that the rat controversy may have been a handy way to kick Persinger out of Laurentan’s labs, where he’s worked since 1971. Why? Well, his research may be a threat to millions of Christian dollars that may be coming the way of the school. Politics, and religion. Damn!
Earlier Blathr mentions of Persinger »
Fortean Times website references to Persinger »
About Persinger:
During the 1980s Dr. Persinger stimulated people’s temporal lobes artificially with a weak magnetic field to see if he could induce a religious state. He found it to create the sensation of “an ethereal presence in the room.” In some circles Persinger’s findings have been widely heralded and regarded as a landmark study.
Dr. Persinger focuses much of his work on the commonalities that exist between the sciences. He aims to integrate fundamental concepts of various branches of science. He organized the Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Laurentian University. This program was one of the first to integrate Chemistry, Biology and Psychology.
Because much of his work is interdisciplinary, Dr. Persinger insists that the techniques and results are published within the public forum (the scientific literature). Except for $10,000 given to him in 1983 by a researcher from the U.S. Navy who was interested in magnetic fields and brain activity, all of his work has been supported by his private practice. Laurentian University supplies only space and infrastructure. Recently, he has received grants from a Canadian SIDS foundation.
Wiki: Michael Persinger»

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Writer, photographer, environmental campaigner and "known troublemaker" Dave Walsh is the founder of Blather.net, described both as "possibly the most arrogant and depraved website to be found either side of the majestic Shannon River", and "the nicest website circulating in Ireland". Half Irishman, half-bicycle. He lives in southern Irish city of Barcelona.