What surprised him even more was that those living nearby faced no problems. Further, his observations held true over an extended period of time – his practice was about 40 years old.

That set him thinking. Was it something about the house itself that was causing health problems for its residents? He started looking at natural radiations and other factors (such as underground electromagnetic fields and cavities, water troughs and so on).

Soon, he found that those houses had been built on certain “fault-lines” which caused discomfort and illness to those who came to reside in them.

His study brought to fore the theory that the entire earth was threaded with an invisible grid of lines at a distance of six to eight feet from each other. In course of time, this grid came to be known as the “Hartmann Lines”.

This interesting episode was narrated at the last meeting by the guest speaker, Mr. Ajay Poddar, who spoke on “The impact of radiation on people and how to overcome it”.

Armed with a B.Tech. degree in Civil Engineering from IIT, Delhi, he has been studying the nascent field of environics for many years and is the founder of Syenergy Environics Ltd., which has been involved in original research in the field of environmental radiation and its effects on human health.

As Programme Chairman Nanik Rupani said in his introduction of the speaker, “Radiation is going to be a very big problem in times to come, what with cellular phones and towers. It will affect everybody and we don’t know what will be its consequences”.

Mr. Poddar said at the outset that the word environics was not in the dictionary; like the science itself, “it was created by us”; it energised people and places; it enhanced their performance and made them excel in whatever they were doing. In short, it helped in “energising your spaces to your advantage”.

“Environics is an innovative practice that detects and corrects existing harmful radiations and negative energy flows in open land, built spaces, homes, factories, offices and so on to create productive and healthy spaces.

“There are certain natural geological phenomena under the earth which, like electricity, are bio-electromagnetic in nature; there are underground water streams, but while it is good to find them and sink tube wells to find water, it’s not good to sleep on them or work on them because these are natural cavities of the earth.

“And then there are earth’s magnetic grid lines. Besides, we also use a lot of artificial and synthetic material for our buildings which also have certain effects – they don’t let buildings breathe; factors such as the shape of the building also impact energy flows.”

Mr. Poddar said that apart from houses, studies had also been conducted in offices and other places. It was found that the natural radiation fault-lines were sometimes 200 times more intense than the normal energy of the human body.

In a given office area, these lines could affect the performance and also the health of about 20% of the staff – especially those who worked in areas “cut” or criss-crossed by natural radiation and other faults.

Similarly, in an apartment block built over underground water streams, those residents whose beds were placed above the streams were likely to be affected.

“In an office space or in a house, if you superimpose the effect of both these things (radiation and underground water streams), you will find that about 20% of the spaces are affected. (Although) you may or may not be a part of that.”

Another name for this area of work was geopathic stress (there were about 80 websites devoted to this).

The lead given by Dr. Hartmann was followed by many others in Germany and Austria.

Dr. Otto Bergmann recorded 462,000 measurements and found that blood pressure, heart beat and pulse rate were affected by geopathic stress. He studied 3,000 apartments and 11,000 people.

New research had shown that geopathic stress could also result from electro-magnetic fields caused by electrical wiring, lighting, appliances (including computers, televisions, microwaves, clocks, radios), telephones (especially cellular phones) and from outdoor sources such as electric generators, transformers and electricity pylons.

Mr. Poddar said that even the World Health Organization had recognised “SBS” or “Sick Building Syndrome” and had held that it affected about 30% of people, as also offices, hotels, institutes and so on where people worked and lived. It caused lethargy, loss of concentration, depression and stress.

However, Dr. Rohini Chowgule contested this claim, stating that as a pulmonary physician she was aware that “Sick Building Syndrome” had nothing to do with radiation but with the stale air circulating in the vicinity. Mr. Poddar conceded the point.

To continue with the talk, Mr. Poddar said he was enthused by media reports which forecast the everyday use of environics in all new buildings (with environics becoming as essential as painting and furnishing) in another ten years.

The success of environics was evident from the improved health and performance of the residents who had benefited from it. Their pulse rate, heart beat and blood pressure showed a clear improvement.

Similarly, when machines broke down due to negative radiation, they started working better once the environment was corrected.

After his brief talk, the speaker requested his colleague Ms Manisha to demonstrate the effects of electromagnetic fields, especially around cell phones, with the help of an antenna that measured radiation.

Mr. Poddar concluded by saying that he had developed an anti-radiation chip that helped ward off unnecessary currents and emissions from cell phones, cell phone towers and so on. The first lot had just been received from the factory and he had brought along a sufficient quantity for distribution among the members of the Club.

Answering questions, he said that mobile towers were harmful up to a distance of 150 to 200 feet. It was necessary to keep