Yesterday, April 8th, 2024, my hometown of Howell, Michigan, was in the path of the solar eclipse. Since I hadn’t purchased special glasses, I didn’t look directly at the sun. Instead, I recorded and photographed it with my iPhone camera. NOTE: The photo above was taken by Ricky Batista on August 21, 2017, as viewed from Columbia, South Carolina.
While my friend Kat witnessed it all unfold above, I watched as the light dimmed on the people and traffic on our small town’s main thoroughfare.
Before I realized that the eclipse had begun, I got a headache. It was a pressure headache like the ones I tend to get on airplanes or while driving to or from higher elevations.
What made this time different was that I also felt a change in the energy in my palms, which then spread to my entire hands and up my arms almost to the elbow.
I called to Kat, who had moved over to the front of the county courthouse for an unobstructed view. I asked, “Do you feel that?” Adding, “…or is it just me?”
It’s been years since I’ve felt the effects of electrical fields on my body. I used to be able to feel the charge in the air while passing beneath the lines stretched between large electrical towers. I figured it was due to the overload of iron in my body.
I have one of the two genetic markers for hemochromatosis, which, if and when it manifests, means that the person’s body doesn’t get rid of the excess iron it takes in. It simply finds places to store it. At a point, this will become toxic and, if untreated, can be fatal.
The normal ferritin (iron) range for someone who does not experience menstrual cycles is 11-307 ng/mL. By the time I had learned of it, my ferritin levels had reached 1,147.2 ng/mL. The doctors found the issue because my liver and kidneys were showing signs of damage. As I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, they were afraid it was a sign of cancer. Fortunately, it wasn’t. The upside of hemochromatosis is that it can be minimized by changes in diet and giving blood regularly in order to get rid of the buildup of excess iron in my system.
For a while, I was allowed to give blood up to every six days, though the most I ever did was eleven days apart. For reference, it takes an average person 52 days to accumulate enough iron to replace the red blood cells lost during a donation. Due to hemochromatosis, I had enough iron reserves to rebuild my red blood cells in less than a week. I felt like a superhero, saving lives, including my own, with every quart donated.
Once I had lowered my iron levels, I no longer felt the static energy when passing beneath large electrical wires, so it was a surprise that I felt it so strongly at the beginning of the eclipse. I wondered if I was alone in this experience, so I mentioned it to a few people during the course of the day. One lady I spoke with said she had heard that people may experience a headache during the eclipse. After a little online research into this, I realized that she was likely referring to the fact that if you look at the sun for too long, your head and eyes may ache. You may also lose your sight, which is why I didn’t look at the sun.
I had thought about it a bit throughout the day and concluded that gravity could have caused the headache. In the same way that I am affected by changes in atmospheric pressure during plane take-off and landing, I figured that the gravity of the moon was affecting the atmospheric pressure on Earth, but this time, the Sun’s gravity pulling on the moon increased it even more, giving me a headache in the process.
I modified my search criteria till the results were no longer about sun blindness and the resulting headaches and found that I may not be alone in my hypothesis. Debbie Norris published the following on MindBodyJournal.com.
“Another physical change that occurs during an eclipse is a subtle but measurable change in the gravitational force exerted on the earth. The gravitational force of the moon is strong enough to pull the oceans back and forth across the face of the earth, causing the tides to rise and fall, and is a force that regulates the hormones of many animals. Studies show that as with the tides, the feeding and reproductive hormones of animals are directly influenced by shifts in the gravitational force of the moon. During a solar eclipse, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun line up so that the Earth feels a combined force of both at the same time. The exact hormonal and behavioral effects of this unusual gravitational force are unknown and may or may not be noticeable to the observer.
The third change in physical force that occurs on the earth during a solar eclipse is a shift in the electromagnetic field in the earth’s ionosphere. This electromagnetic field exists because of an electrical tension between the negative charge of the earth’s surface and the positive electrical charge of the earth’s surrounding atmosphere. The global electromagnetic resonance is typically measured at 7.83 Hz, ranging from roughly 3-60 Hz, and is referred to as the Schumann resonance after Winfried Schumann who discovered it.
Previous experiments show that during an eclipse, there is an increase in the electrical tension in our atmosphere. The shadow of the eclipse can cause changes to the ionosphere significant enough to affect radio wave propagation and possibly human physiology as well.
The human nervous system also functions by a system of polarization and depolarization of electrical charges within the neurons, which cause neurons to fire and transmit information such as sensations, thoughts and feelings. Much like the surface of the earth, neurons are negatively charged within the cell, with a positive charge that exists in the surrounding area outside of the cell. Furthermore, the electromagnetic field of the brain (and the heart) functions in a similar range as that of the earth’s ionosphere, at approximately 0.5-100 Hz.
Although I could find no research on the effects of a solar eclipse on the electroencephalography (EEG) of the brain, considerable data does show that fluctuations in the electromagnetic field in the ionosphere, such as those expected during a solar eclipse, precipitate significant bioelectric changes in both the brain and heart. Specifically, alterations in the Schumann resonance cause alterations in EEG patterns of human brain waves and electrocardiography (EKG) patterns of the heart. Calcium ion uptake is altered affecting both the brain and heart. Hormone levels of melatonin and growth hormones are also affected. Other effects associated with changes in solar geomagnetic activity include increased blood pressure, reproductive, immune system, cardiac and neurological effects, effects on mental health, as well as countless other stress-related conditions. Similar types of physical and psychological effects could possibly be expected to occur during the solar eclipse.”
My headache and the electrical sensations in my hands and arms went away as we neared a total eclipse but returned, albeit to a lesser degree, as the eclipse waned. Kat said that the eclipse had about the same coverage as it had been when I had the first episode.
I thought it odd that the sensations hadn’t worsened as the moon fully eclipsed the sun, but I found it interesting that it occurred at times when the amount of eclipse was the same.
So, it seems that gravity, atmospheric pressure, blood pressure, and my increased iron levels, which are once again above acceptable levels, may have contributed to the sensations I experienced during this eclipse event.
Has anyone else experienced either of these symptoms during a solar eclipse without looking at the sun? If so, leave a comment below.
~ elr
Quoted Source: Mind-Body Influences of a Solar Eclipse Deborah Norris, Ph.D. – Founder of The Mindfulness Center™ Published in: MindBodyJournal.com – August 10, 2017 Read the full article
Dr. Norris’ article references are: ¹ Murdin, P. Effects of the 2001 total solar eclipse on African wildlife Astronomy & Geophysics, 2001, Aug;42(4):4. ² Boral GC(1), Mishra DC, Pal SK, Effects of total solar eclipse on mental patients-a clinicobiochemical correlation. Indian J Psychiatry. 1981 Apr;23(2):160-3. ³ https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros145.html
Image: ID 100425921 © Ricky Batista | Dreamstime.com