"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery

Since the earliest of days, salt has played a vital role in the evolution of our planet. The craving for salt is what drove the movements of many land mammals, including humans. Less is More: The Art of Deduction is a paper presenting why salt is inspirational and offers insight into man as cosmic radio receiver.

Jim Russo, commercial fisherman, researcher and visionary, offers a brief Q&A on his association with salt. Coincidentally, the long handle rake used by the salt gatherer in the photo has several similarities to the rake used for harvesting Quahogs (Rhode Island clams), Jim's fishery of choice.

The Salt Queen Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational institution. Its goals include the celebration of artists whose free imagination is uniquely expressed through the use of innovative techniques and unusual materials.

It is my belief that understanding the history of salt, as well as how important the role salt is in our daily lives, will bring a better understanding of our current global situation. In a world of building complexity, people are looking for simple answers. The least common denominator of this complexity, the most simple answer to why we have strayed so far as a civilization - is salt.

My first experiences with salt were quite humble. I had decided about 10 years ago to explore the possibility of marketing specialized seasoning salts that I had formulated for my cooking. As I researched salt I soon learned that salt was the number one mineral feedstock for the chemical industry. I was astounded that at almost 40 years old, I had never heard of this very important fact. At about the same time, I discovered the writing and life mission of Jacques de Langre, Ph.D., and his book titled "Seasalt's Hidden Powers." His writings clearly spell out the dangers to our bodies and minds from refined salt, and how white table salt is a by product of the chemical industry. Essentially all the good stuff is stripped out to serve the chemical industry and we are fed the rest. Dr. de Langre also spells out how important it is for us to maintain our internal ocean by using whole gray sea salt that is hand harvested using methods that are centuries old.

What personal experience do you have with the effects you speak of in your paper?

I have lived my life in a very close relationship with the sea as a commercial fisherman in New England. On many occasions I have tapped into a power that provides superhuman strength (zen) and the ability to connect with something bigger than myself-universal energy!! ..... My boyhood passion is radio which is being used to listen the Universe. I have been gifted as a rare associational, systemic thinker. I have been wired from birth to think big. Jan Thomas, in her paper identifying associational thinkers, states, "Asociational thinking takes seemingly unrelated bits of information and connects them to make powerful creative breakthroughs." I have linked together the pieces of salt, to radio, to space-weather for an integrated theory and practice towards sustainability and finding the human potential.

I am using my experience in the oil/transportation fuels business to bring the type of positive change the world needs. I am also working on a project to bring the spirit of amateur discovery to our youth using ham radio. Human beings have incredible potential. I feel strongly that salt plays a significant role in our lives. Salt is Biblical in it's roots.

Less Is More: The Art of Deduction (a.k.a. Man as Radio Receiver)

I was recently asked how my years of observing nature as a commercial fisherman on the most conductive surface of the planet, the sea, and my childhood passion for radio could convey an understanding of universal energy. After a brief pause, I instinctively knew what the answer would be - sweating is inspirational. Sweating precipitates salt and salt is the key to detecting the waves of universal energy.

Universal energy is the unseen power and intelligence that permeates life, from the world we live in to the far reaches of space. Scientists seek to quantify it with an intimate exploration of physics, while mystics have intuitively connected to it through meditation and a deep connection with nature. Modern science rarely recognizes that the spiritual/higher consciousness connections we have with the universe are valid. Most often these ideas are dismissed as being too simple to be applied to incredibly complex fields of study such as astrophysics. But what if it's simpler than that? What if the key to understanding the universe is radio, and we can connect to universal energy by enhancing conductivity, especially in our own bodies?

Consider that our place, for now, is within the boundaries between two vast worlds, the inner and the outer, earth and sky. This is the place where radio happens. In the simplest terms radio can be described as the coupling of these two powers, ground and space. The most basic form of radio to illustrate this is best represented by the very early schematic diagram of a crystal radio receiver (see figure on the left).

An important aspect of the receiver is that it needs to be well connected to this lower medium, the earth, or ground. By connecting one side of the radio to ground we are essentially connecting into the force of the earth at a very deep level. The better the connection to ground the stronger the signal is.

The other side of the radio receiver, the antenna, taps into the higher boundary, the power of the sky in space. Here are waves of energy from a spectrum that represents the potential of the universe and everything in it-here is universal energy. These waves of energy are there for the taking - you just have to capture them. The radio antenna pulls, or captures, these invisible waves of energy from space, which are called free space waves.

The antenna and ground system are known as a free space wave transformer. The antenna takes free space waves and transforms them into guided waves. Radio processors take these captured guided waves and process them to extract the information they contain.

One of the earliest radio processors was known as a detector. The early detector was a piece of crystal that was connected between the antenna and ground as in Figure 1. This crystal takes all these chaotic electromagnetic oscillations, vibrations, and excitations from the antenna and ground and rectifies them--essentially straightens them out so a steady tone is heard. This steady tone, the very same steady hiss you hear when you tune a radio between stations, is known as white noise. White noise contains all audio frequencies with no noticeable tonality.

I believe the white noise also contains coded information from the universe, what we call universal energy. There is a white noise that emanates from every point in the universe and it is known as the cosmic microwave background. It is believed to be the radio remnants of the Big Bang, the perceived moment of creation. Is this radio hiss actually God? Is it nature? Is it us? These are age-old questions; perhaps now maybe science and pure intellectual curiosity can give us some answers by looking at radio.

In radio, the antenna, ground, and detector combined are known as a radio receiver. The radio receiver works with this coded information, or universal energy. The working of energy between the earth and sky, as in radio, is known as the principle of mutual excitation-the process when one energy field affects the other.

Humans live at the boundaries between the powers of the earth and sky and are constantly subjected to this phenomenon of mutual excitation. We become cosmic radio at work when we experience the process of grounding while obtaining higher consciousness by tapping into universal energy, like a radio antenna. Fertile farmland is much more conductive than urban areas. I know this because most radio antennas work much better over good ground. Fertile farmland is about 30 milliseamens per square meter. Urban areas are somewhere in the low single digits, 2-5 milliseamens per square meter. The sea is 5000 milliseamens per square meter-very conductive!

Now, let's look at humans. Our physiology breaks down sea salt crystals into the essential trace minerals we need for survival. Unfortunately, ordinary table salt as we know it is a refined salt that has been stripped of almost all the trace minerals we need to keep our internal ocean balanced and our cosmic radio sensitive. The process of shocking brine with electricity also breaks salts down into their elemental components, forming over 14,000 different products, which has created the chemical industry. One might say that, with all these products, we've created a life of more complexity from one of the most fundamental compounds on earth--salt.

The science of radio astronomy has also reached a place of vulnerable complexity. Radio astronomy is the science of listening to faint radio signals from deep space. It requires enormous antennas that press the limits of our ability to build. We now need to carry our antennas into space because it is so difficult to build them big enough on earth. One proposal calls for an antenna array to be built on the dark side of the moon to listen into deep space, free from both man-made radio interference and the radio-limiting effects of our atmosphere. Vast amounts of resources are required to build, operate, and maintain these schemes, and the amount of energy they capture compared to what is naturally there is infinitesimal.

The current trajectory of our scientific approach to understanding radio waves, or universal energy, is becoming cost prohibitive. It needs to be simplified. The art of deduction requires reductionism. Less is more. The principle of Ockham's razor is nature's law over man. Plainly stated it says that all things being equal, the simple solution tends to be the best. To connect man as cosmic radio receiver, that would be salt. When we are nourished with the healthy balance of trace minerals found in sea salt we have the potential to act as a powerful receiver of energy waves.

I always wanted to better understand this concept of man as a cosmic radio receiver. I found that instead of studying the latest advancements in radio science/radio astrophysics I'd look back at the very early years of radio.

In Alfred Powell Morgan's 1911 book, Wireless Telegraph Construction for the Amateur, page 146 (which just happens to is be my lobster pot number as a commercial fisherman), the Flame Audion (see figure on the left), described as "not of practical value for commercial work, but ... interesting as the progenetor of the audion, and the ... a good feel for amateur investigation."

The Flame Audion used a flame that precipitates salt in a trough, essentially molten salt. The gap between the trough and plate ("W" in the figure) is filled with finely atomized salt vapor, which acts as the semiconductor/detector between the antenna and ground. This is the same function of the crystal in the early crystal receiver.

For centuries the best quality salt was reserved for royalty. Unrefined whole sea salt is more precious than gold because the one thing we should be concerned with, right after breathing and water, is good quality salt. Our body chemistry mimics the chemistry of the ocean almost exactly. The best quality salt, the one that best represents the living ocean, is essential to our life here on earth.

Think of the oneness of the oceans that cover the earth. One drop represents the whole, like a hologram. Think of earth as a sphere covered by a conductive surface that receives well in all directions. If the sea acts as a giant antenna for cosmic radio signals, how do we guide this energy to the processor? More important, how do we extract the energy and information captured by the sea?

My journey as a commercial fisherman has led me to understand that the process of crystallizing sea salt holds this information captured by the sea. Thus, building on the concept that one crystal contains a sample of the whole, a crystal of salt made naturally from sea water contains, or represents, all the potential power of the ocean and the universal energy it has received as an antenna.

This is a novel theory, but there is still the question of how you process or extract the energy or information the crystal contains. Perhaps the human body and mind can provide this function.

I understand our human makeup is electrochemical, and I understand the profound feeling of Zen I get when I have experienced being intimate with nature. I know that when I have had to dig really deep within myself I better understand the human potential. For me, this usually happens during extreme situations when physical strength is required, especially for extended periods of endurance, which is very common in commercial fishing. I reach this very clean high; I'm running on pure adrenaline, a source of energy and power that transcends normal human capacity. And it usually involves sweating, precipitating salt!

Morgan's description of the Flame Audion goes on to say, "by keeping plenty of salt in the trough, and carefully adjusting the voltage, this detector can be made marvelously sensitive" to pick up weak signals. This concept of molten salt is being used today on high-tech solar power systems known as Molten Salt Power Tower which converts solar energy into electricity using salt as the transformer of the energy waves. The similarities to the flame audion are uncanny!

When sweating, we need to constantly replenish our bodies with water and salt. Good quality whole live sea salt maintains our electrolytic balance right down to the cellular level, and keeps our cosmic radio receiver sensitive. It's a vital element in our connection to the universe.

My message for understanding universal energy is very simple. Make your cosmic radio receiver more sensitive by maintaining your internal ocean with the highest quality sea salt. Understand that sweating brings inspiration and higher consciousness, so do something that is very physical-it's a great high! And get close to the sea, which is highly conductive. Learn to "tune in"!

Salt - All the Power of the Ocean

Less Is More: The Art of Deduction (a.k.a. Man as Radio Receiver)