Quote:
Originally Posted by SunMist
Hi all, I'm looking for some advice on how not to damage electronic things around me. I'm going through an extended period of serious stress in my life right now and my car has taken the hit twice already. Two times in the past when I was very upset at my computer my hard drive fried and had to be replaced. I don't want this to happen again!
I'm of course getting more serious about dealing with my stress, but in the meantime any tips on how not to have my emotional energy affecting electronics around me? I've seen it mentioned many times on this board that others have had this problem with light bulbs and watches mentioned most frequently. And no I'm not wearing a watch...
Thanks!
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Oh no! Oh no no no no no no... Nooooo waaaay.
Even on this forum this subject has cropped up! Arghhhhh!
Okay, apologies for the initial outburst. Hi, I'm Joshua Flynn, and these sorts of threads usually crop up on the forums I seem to visit (which has been, quite a few). You aren't the only one who gets this, and I've spoken with quite a few people regarding their experiences on this topic.
This has a name, which is the rather dismissive 'Street Light Interference' ('syndrome), or SLI for short, and also called 'SLIding'. As you can derive from the name, it does include influencing street lights, but not street lights exclusively - as it can affect all electronics, including, but not limited to: car batteries, mobile phones (signal and battery life), laptops/PCs, lightbulbs (often exploding, dying suddenly, IE a short life span), computer systems (for example, banks, till operators, etc might report the system has suddenly gone down, crashed, or is not working properly) to name a few.
I'm personally planning to assign the name 'electrokinesis' to it, given SLI uses the term 'syndrome' which tries to infer the person is crazy - this is simply denialism because I've read so many reports of people being able to do this.
As you've already sussed, it's emotions that influence electronics, usually (but not exclusively restricted to) powerful negative emotions, like fear, anger, stress, depression, etc. I'd imagine other emotions like joy and happiness can affect electronics but obviously these are less common.
However, there are triggers which will cause this to occur more frequently (in my case, the 'electrokinesis' is quite weak but I've been able to test what makes it worse and what makes it better). Addictions, junk food (notably vast amounts of sugar) and problematic lifestyles can cause this.
Notably, smoking, drinking any (usually large) amounts of caffeine, large amounts of sugar (this by itself won't trigger it, but it seems to serve as the 'fuel', where-as caffeine, etc make it more likely to trigger), stressful jobs (or people who are incredibly annoying, etc), being highly strung etc.
In my case, the changes I found that stopped/reduced the 'electrokinesis' was no caffeine, generally avoiding online arguments (which would cause stress) by trying to keep my posting activity as low as possible, and trying to remain calm with the emotions by addressing any problems (I will comment I don't smoke or drink).
Cutting out caffeine greatly reduced it (caffeine is a stimulant, after all), and avoiding stress removed the last few occasions (this laptop would suddenly power off during arguments if I got stressed).
I will comment, there isn't a 'quickfix' so to speak, the lifestyle changes would have to be made in order to reduce it.
I will comment one person made use of a faraday cage for their mobile phone to preventing draining, and created a metal covering for their laptop to prevent it being interfered with. In a number of reported instances, 'spontaneous' fires broke out at places associated with the greatest deal of stress (which I believe is likely an electrical fire as a result of the electrokinesis interfering with the electrics).
You can always send me a PM or an email if you have any further questions on the topic.