Hi (again) Cal,

A couple of questions. Could you point me to the complete source for your first reference (i.e.,the entire Puharich paper)? I'd like to see the context of those two sentence fragments. It appears that the paper in question actually talks about supposed man-made earthquakes, not naturally occurring ones. (And the URL you quoted seems to be concerned with conspiracy theories about "The Elites," the Tesla Effect, etc. - not a very reassuringly reliable source.)

And I must note re: Dr. Puharich, I know that my view of him as a supporter of Uri Geller, psychic surgery, and a claimed inventor of a perpetual motion technology should have no bearing on his credibility as a reporter of whale beachings, but still...

And I see that the second reference is to the "sensitive" Charlotte King. Again, not necessarily a criticism, but if there is really a statistically meaningful correlation between whale beachings and future earthquakes, that fact should be able to be easily confirmed by just about anyone willing to look at the records of beachings and quakes. No parapsychology or sensitivity required. But I see no evidence that anyone has found such a thing (again, beyond anecdotes).

In fact, in a 2005 article by Michael McCarthy about Arunachalam Kumar, we find:

Mark Simmonds is the director of science at Britain’s Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. He has studied strandings in detail because one of the questions most frequently asked of him and the society is why they happen.

The main answer is, he says, that most whales are intensely social animals, and act together: if one heads into the beach, the others follow. It may be an accident; sometimes human agency may be partly to blame; sometimes the Earth’s magnetic field may play a role.

“But nobody has shown any correlation between whale strandings and earthquakes,” he says. “If you’re saying there is, you would have to present the data to prove your case.”

Why hasn't anyone?