TASTE

Three hunters in the Ocala National Forest of Florida were looking for a lost deerhound at 9:00 p.m. on
December 14, 1975. They spotted a hemispherical object 8 m. high with 5 “legs” about 4.5 m. long. Emitting a
bright blue-white light, it hovered over a power line then moved away as the witness approached to within about
200 m. During the half-hour observation, their CB radio failed, a humming sound was heard, a strange odor hung in
the air, and “…they had a funny metallic taste in their mouths.”
A Canadian case on October 23, 1967, involving 17 witnesses and 5 objects seems to be significant although the
details were poorly described. A real estate salesman approached to within 200 m. of objects that had landed in a
vacant lot. “Everything he ate tasted the same and there was a taste of copper or metal in his mouth.” The objects
flew away over some power lines that lighted up and the salesman’s car and the steel flagpole at the show house
were later found to be magnetized.
Explanation
Recalling these and other such reports, the author’s curiosity was raised by a casual remark of a friend. She had
undergone a treatment of electrolysis for hair removal. When the electrode was placed on the cheek, she experienced
a taste sensation “like eating tinfoil” that lasted about 15 minutes after the treatment. The implication was obvious.
Some electrical or magnetic effect produced the same sensation in an electrolysis patient as in a UFO witness! A
professional electrologist furnished some details. Low-voltage electricity is applied to a hair root at 13.56 MHz or
with direct current. In her experience, the taste occurred only when using DC. It is most prominent during an “after
treatment” on the lower portion of the face using, as a cathode, a freely rotating conducting cylinder covered with
damp gauze. The author reluctantly submitted to such treatment and decisively experienced the phenomenon as the
device rolled over the cheeks, lips, chin, and especially the jaws. The taste is hard to describe and the word
“metallic” came to mind but seemed inadequate. There was a tingling component and a strange bitterness. The
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location on the tongue was the lower edge of the front half where the tongue contacts the teeth.
Technical information on this subject is hard to find, but a comprehensive survey article may be available in
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some medical libraries. The phenomenon has been known since the pioneering work in electricity. It was
discovered when two dissimilar metals were applied to the tongue, creating a primitive battery. Test subjects over
the years have always had difficulty describing the taste. Much research has developed a wealth of detail about the
phenomenon. While individual responses vary considerably, the threshold for detection is a current of about 100
microamperes. The taste increases with stronger currents. Its onset is immediate but it decays very slowly. The
sensation is evoked by direct current pulses as slow as 0.5 per second that is perceived as continuous. Alternating
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James McCampbell
current is also effective but not above 1,000 Hz. While the cause has not been unequivocally established, it appears
to be a combination of direct action of electricity on the taste cells and normal chemical effects of products of
electrical breakdown of saliva.
A fundamental theorem of electromagnetism is that a magnetic field, while changing intensity, will induce an
electric field that in turn drives a current in a conductor. So the current causing metallic taste could arise from a
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transient magnetic field alternating at less than 1,000 sec or one being turned on and off in that range. But the
human body is almost as effective an antenna as a copper wire of the same length. So short blasts of electromagnetic
energy could also produce eddy currents of sufficient strength to stimulate the taste. In any even, the essential
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requirements are a current of at least 100 microamp that may be DC or pulsing up to 1,000 sec . By examining
other pertinent data from UFO sightings, one might be able to establish which of these two mechanisms is involved.