A selection of the messages we received after Caroline's death in 2006.
My sympathies to her family and friends. This makes our e-mail world a bit emptier!
Einstein said: "To be a faultless member of the flock, first you must be a sheep." Caroline was an exemplary non-member; and exactly what the profession most needs.
Al Kracklauer
I am very sorry to know that Caroline passed away. She fought strongly
defending her ideas about the interpretation of quantum mechanics, which in
my opinion were correct.Emilio Santos
Dear John, Daniel and Chloe,
my deepest condolences for the death of Caroline. We have lost a very dear friend far too early.Yours sincerelly
Norbert Feist
Hello,
I just wanted to pass on my respects to Caroline's family. She was one of the first people that i communicated with on the internet (she introduced me to Milo Wolff).
She was a kind and sincere contributor to the WSM discussion group. She set a wonderful example to others, and is a sad loss to our world.
I hope that you are all very proud of her and her achievements - her tireless efforts to promote truth and honesty in Science.
Sincerely,Geoff Haselhurst
I am very grateful that you informed me.I am sorry that I never met her. I talked with her on the phone a few times, and we crossed swords over physics.Ivor Catt
Dear John and Family of Caroline
It was totally unexpected for me to hear that Caroline has passed away. After a long period of internet contact, my wife and I visited and stayed with Caroline and John a few years ago. My best wishes to the family at this time.
I would very much like to keep her work available on the internet. If you would like me to make copies of her web site for permanent keeping of her papers then I would be happy to do that.
Best wishes
Ray Tomes
Dear Thompson family,
Caroline and I were both friends and adversaries in the understanding of the Quantum Universe. This led to useful introspection by both of us. She was thoughtful enough to include me in her list of references. I sincerely regret that she is no longer with us in the Universe of quantum physics.
Whoever is collecting memories of her please note that I won't forget Caroline.
Cosmos,
Milo Wolff See at: quantumMatter.com
I would like to express my deepest sympathies and
condolences to Caroline's family and friends.
Caroline's passing is a great loss of a good and
creative person. Caroline's will, leadership, and
science will be dearly missed.
Stewart Valin
To Caroline's family - John, Daniel and Chloe.
I am very sorry to hear this news. Though this might have surprised her (I seem to recall that she described me as her "nemesis" somewhere on her blog!), I have always had tremendous respect for Caroline's tenacity and for her work. I first met her in Durham (this was many years ago) when she visited Euan Squires. She had independently discovered some problems with the experiments which had been performed to test Bell's inequalities. It was impressive that she was able to enter a field she had no background in and realize that there was this serious problem with the experiments (even though the experimental papers often tend to obscure this). I remember that Euan was also impressed with her.
Good luck with getting her last paper published. Though, I wouldn't worry too much about this. Now-a-days most physicists in this field never look at published journals - they simply rely on the electronic archive. It seems that all Caroline's papers are on quant-ph. The journals are there so people can put on their CV that they have publications so they can get a job or get promoted. If you go to one of her papers on this website and click on "CiteBase" you can see that people are looking at her papers and that she has citations.
I hope that one day an experiment will be done which will properly test Bell's inequalities (this still has not been done). Then we will see for real whether nature is nonlocal or not. I personally am betting that it is nonlocal (that Bell's inequalities will be violated) but I could be wrong. We could all be wrong. Caroline could be right! In the end it is experiments which prove or disprove ideas in science and Caroline understood that better than most.
With deepest sympathy,
Lucien Hardy
I received the following message today. Caroline Thompson has played a significant role is showing that the EPR experimemnts are explicable with realistic physics models. She managed to get some papers published in peer reviewed journals but found it frustrating when the same errors that she had noted were later published again. Ray Tomes.
Ray Tomes
I exchanged several emails with Caroline about her physics ideas and greatly enjoyed the conversations we had. She was passionately devoted to getting to the bottom of things, and I will miss her.
Issac Trotts
Dear Mr. Thompson:
I wish to let you know that I will miss Caroline deeply. I am sure you will also.
Though we never met, we did correspond until hear health prevented it. I was aware of her condition and that she fought on to the end.
It is a tragedy to lose another iconocalst as we are so few in number.
With my deepest regret.
Respectfully
Bert Schreiber
I send my sympathies.
Sincerely, Phil Russell
She will be missed
jmontgomery98@comcast.net
dear family of CHT: (was it the husband john who sent out the email?)
I wrote a little on my mailing list commemorating CHT whom I will dearly miss. you may not be aware of this, but you can find perhaps many hundreds of emails from her on my mailing list which she was heavily involved with at one pt & which she really helped to electrify with her fiery dialog. & of course there are many other online forums where her words & ideas will live on. I hope to help promote some of them myself. -
hi all. I would like to say a few words for CHT. CH as I believe I nicknamed her at times on the list.
you can find possibly a few hundred msgs on this mailing list from CH who I mostly highly encouraged to post & was very happy to have her involvement. she eventually left the group partly out of disagreement with others & myself but even when she left, I asked her to keep posting as much as possible & keep us informed of her directions. I never asked her to leave, never wanted her to leave.
a fireball!!
CH will be missed. CH was a crusader for her ideas about quantum mechanics & physics in general. outer & exposer & self-styled whistleblower of lame scientific foundations-- the bigger & more entrenched, the more she was drawn to them. a bit of a quixotic figure. but not fighting windmills-- but real live targets with strong ammunition.
she had a brash but tenacious style. I found her work early on the internet & was shocked that she had been advocating exactly an area of investigation I was pursuing. she has a very brilliant intuition for "smelly stuff". many times it seemed she was throwing out the baby with the bathwater, or perhaps she thought everything was bathwater.. but she really did have an uncanny nose for the smelliest bathwater.
she was a "pioneer with arrows in her back" some of them self-implanted. CH was aggressive in seeking out scientists who were very lukewarm or indifferent to her at-times feverish interests.
the world does not care too much about QM & physics research except only on a superficial level. CH fought to change that. a proseletyzer, an evangelist, with almost religious zeal. it was remarkable!! I understood from some of her emails that she had some health problems, possibly serious. it amazed me that she pursued her passion without any slowing down. it seems that even cancer, the tragedy, could not interfere with her plans & fierce willpower. I didnt agree exactly with [all] her ideas, but I do think she was on to something that was closer than any living scientist. a pioneer. you can find my words of encouragement to her scattered in the archives, but also many fierce debates about science.. which is as it should be.
caroline was singlehandedly attempting to mount a kuhnian "paradigm shift". I think she succeeded to some degree. the battle is not over & perhaps her ideas will spread further. I for one think they should.
V.Z. Nuri
Chloe:
I am saddened by her passing. What a world this would be if all scientists had her integrity.
Webster Kehr
To Caroline's family and friends,
It is with deep regrets to learn of the passing away of Caroline Thompson. She was undoubtedly one of the most scholarly scientists that I have ever had the pleasure to be associated with. Her scientific work was always well done and she contiributed much to our organization, the Natural Philosophy Alliance, and to the literature in advanced physics in generaal I had the good fortune to meet and work with her at one of our national meetings of the NPA at the University of Connecticut--Storrs, USA. She was truly an inspiration to all of us -- always willing to discuss concepts and help other scientists along the way. In spite of her illness, she was still hoping to present a discussion of the nature of light as an "in absentia" paper at our next annual conference in Tulsa Oklahoma in early April, 2006. She will be missed greatly.
We will include a brief obituary in our next newsletter and also include a brief recoognition of her accomplishments in her memory at the Tulsa conference in April, 2006
Also, I am sure that many of us would welcome a copy of her final paper, "The Chaotic Ball" when it becomes available. If it's like her other work, it will be great indeed.
Written by Neil Munch to express the deep sorrow by all members and officers of the Natural Philosophy Alliance.
Dear Thompson Family,
I wish to send you condolences on the death of Caroline Thompson. I never met her, but had a number of scientific exchanges with her. We disagreed on many points, but our exchanges were friendly and mutually helpful. I hope that her paper with the "chaotic ball" model will be published, since it provides an interesting model in which the experimental results for quantum mechanics against Bell's Inequality are given an explanation and the need for more decisive experiments is exhibited. She showed strength of character in her strenuous defense for her point of view. With sympathy,Abner Shimony (Prof. Emeritus of Philosophy and Physics, Boston University)
The news of Caroline's passing away saddened me this morning here in Tokyo. I can imagine how much more her loss would be to her loved ones and close colleagues. I had no idea she had cancer- it is typical of her courage not to have mentioned it in the numerous emails I got from her in the past few years of our friendship. Her intelligent, forthright and perceptive online writings on the questions facing modern physics re-awakened my interest in areas I had not paid attention to until then. At first I balked at her criticism of Einstein's approach, but further study convinced me she is absolutely right, and encouraged my own research. Although she disagreed with my conclusions we remained good friends exchanging news and photographs. May she rest in peace and you have solace and peace of mind in the beautiful Welsh natural surroundings that Caroline loved.
Vladimir Tamari, Tokyo
Hi All,
Caroline will be greatly missed by the members of our group, in giving us a great deal of food for thought, some interesting challenges, magic moments, and her charming elogant wit. Our prayers are with her and on behalf of the AbsoluteAether group express our comiseration and sympathy to John, Daniel and Chloe.
Thank You for the advice,
Deepest regrets,
Robert
P.S.
I will add a link from our site to her final work as a matter or respect for this wonderful lady.
From Robert Lanigan-O'Keeffe,
Absolute Aether
Thank you for informing me of this terrible event. I was very moved to learn what happened. I did not know that the was ill, and it came to me as a total surprise.
Concerning the chaotic ball article, we discussed it a few years ago, and I thought that it had been published since. I will look at this text again.
I do not know to whom I am writing (are you a friend, or a member of the family) but in any case I am deeply sorry for the terrible loss.
Sincerely yours
Franck Laloë
I am deeply sorry about Caroline, in part because I had hopes of publishing her work. If you should obtain an editor of repute, I would certainly consider it.
John Bryant
Dear family Thompson!
I deplore the death of your wife and mother who was a very brave woman as a scientist too as a writer against the mean stream who fought for the scientific truth. I am also convinced like Caroline that the last century of physics (quantum theory, relativity theory) produced the greatest false doctrine in the history of science, So the work of Caroline may be an important contribution in order to conquer false doctrines.
John Marinsek, Austria
My heartfelt condolences.
Antonio Iovane
It was with great sadness that I learnt of Caroline Thompson's death. I send my deepest sympathy and sincerest condolences. She did work tirelessly for what she believed in and is a truly sad loss.
uv
Ray Tomes quoted:
"It is with deep regret that we write to inform you that Caroline Thompson passed away on Wednesday 8th February 2006."
I'm sorry to hear about that, it has been a weird week - one close friend died hitting a deer, another of a heart attack, and two local people I knew in other car wrecks.
"We still hope to get her final paper "The Chaotic Ball" published posthumously and we will keep her website open for others to read.http://freespace.virgin.net/ch.thompson1/"
Although I do not agree with and in some cases did not understand the point of her work against supraluminal signaling she was definitely spirited in her cause. If she was wrong she was no more wrong than much of what does get published in mainstream journals.
Dennis May
Dear family of Caroline:
I feel very deep sorrow to hear this sad news.
Caroline has been an extraordinary women whose whose good work, clever and creative ideas and her passionate way of defending them I've always admired. She has always been very kind and patient with me in the correspondence that we have exchanged. We will miss her very much. Thanks for informing us and for keeping her website open. I will pray for her and to have the joy of meeting her in the future life in
which I firmly believe.
Carlos L
Dear Daniel and Chloie,
I only knew Caroline from one or two meetings some years back, but I am
very sorry to hear of her passing.
My deepest condolences,
Sam Braunstein
Dear Caroline's family,
Thank you very much for participating the bad news.
I am very sorry that the small breast bulk, about which we talked with Caroline long ago, won this round. Really we need her and the world is missing her. Here in Buenos Aires we learnt to appreciate the sense she found and unflaggingly imposed to her life. If anytime by lack of funds or any other reason you decide that yoi can no longer keep her website, please get in touch with us and we will provide a free Argentine State website to move her web materials.
As about you, Caroline's beloved ones, I think that she might appreciate that in return for your having participated her passing I share with you some materials about what natural scientists could accept regarding afterlife. Precisely this is the subject of my last mail to her, sent in January and of course otherwise unaswered. The paper, which might be of your interest in the present circumstances, is available in
http://electroneubio.secyt.gov.ar/a_palindrome.htm
I share your mourning; let me be of help in any way.
Yours,
Mariela Szirko
Carissimi John, Daniel and Chloe,
How sad. How sad. But she told me about her problems,
few months ago. I'll read her new paper, published
in the arxiv, and I'll reread her 'Chaotic Ball'
in that long chapter of the huge book by Afriat and
Selleri (who, btw, was also my professor, many many
years ago).
Un abbraccio,
Serafino Cerulli-Irelli (scerir)
Rome
A.Einstein wrote to the sister of his friend
Michele Besso, upon his death:
'The gift of leading a harmonious life
is rarely joined to such a keen intelligence,
especially to the degree one found in him....
Our friendship was born when I was a student in Zurich,
where we met regularly at musical evenings.
He, the older and wiser, was there to stimulate us.
The circle of his interests appeared truly without
boundaries. Nevertheless, it was his critical
philosophical preoccupations that seemed most
characteristic of him. Later it was the patent office
that brought us together. Our conversations as we
returned from the office had an incomparable charm -
-it was as if human contingencies did not exist at
all.... [I]n quitting this strange world he has once again
preceded me by a little. That doesn't mean anything.
For those of us who believe in physics, this separation
between past, present, and future is only an illusion,
however tenacious.'
My condolences to your family. I enjoyed discussing physics with
Caroline over a short few recent years, and will remember her always.
Thank you for the note.
Dan Conine
Belgium,Wisconsin, USA
The truth of scientific ideas is in proportion to the challenges they overcome, climbing a wall of skepticism, and Caroline Thompson provided needed challenges to modern physics in an area neglected by many and more accessible than many as well. It has been a pleasure and enlightening to correspond with her.
George Lyons
Mr Thompson,
I think of you and your two chidren.
With all my sympathy.
Michel Auberger
John, Daniel and Chloe,
I am saddened to hear of Caroline's death. My heartfelt condolences
to you all.
I have long treasured Caroline as a compatriot in birthing the 21st
century physics.
Bob Fritzius
Starkville, Mississippi, USA
I only knew Caroline through her papers and web site, although she is
someone I wish I had met. She will be missed.
My thoughts and prayers go to her family and friends.
Steven
Robert,
Caroline Thompson will be deeply missed by all of us.
I admired Caroline's physics theories and her great courage to fight cancer and
reform physics with her last ounce of courage.
Caroline Thompson made the world bettor for this.
I dedicate the 'Impossible Dream' music and words to Caroline.
http://www.varian.net/dreamweavn/neverending/impossible.html
Tom Keith
Please communicate my condolences to the members of Caroline's family.
Her work on challenging and criticising widespread assumptions in
physics is an example for all to take account of and a valuable and
interesting contribution. She persisted in the face of the strongly
entrenched intransigence that is latterly so prevalent in the physics
community. We shall miss that contribution.
I would urge that all possible effort be made to keep her work
available indefinitely into the future as a web site. Please let me
know if there is any difficulty in finding a suitable repository for
the work as a "static exhibit". I am prepared to help with trying to
find such a facility if that is necessary.
Tony Booth
Sad news indeed. I was thinking when Paul Marmet's (Marmet was also a
spectroscopist) death was announced on this list that we lose some of
the best minds in physics before they have conveyed their ideas to the
full; furthermore, I suspect there to be a correlation between the
bravery that it takes to speak out against the establishment and the
bravery that it takes to work with equipment that might be injurious
to one's health (speaking, at the risk of being exposed as ignorant,
on the purely conjectural lines that this might be connected with the
illness that they shared); and further the propensity to be
truth-seeking, literally at all costs, via the hands-on approach to
physics. I am full of admiration for such people.
Tom
Very sad for the news about Caroline
I send you my heartfelt condolences.
Franco Selleri
Dear family,
Please receive my sincere condolances on the passing of Caroline.
I have often corresponded with her by email, and discussed with her
in internet discussion groups. She was a serious and capable scientist,
with conviction putting her finger on weak spots of mainstream science.
As one of her many correspondents, I will miss her very much.
Her efforts will not have been in vain, since I see her work, on her
site, referenced in many a discussion or paper (as I myself do, see
http://members.chello.nl/~n.benschop )
I wish you much strength in coping with your loss.
- I know what it means to lose a dear one -
( my wife passed away just last year)
Best regards, NFB.
-----
dr. Nico F. Benschop, Geldrop (NL) -- Amspade Research ---
I'm sorry to hear this sad news. I never actually met Caroline, but we
exchanged views via email. We were both sceptical about the notion of
quantum non-local causality, but our approaches to this problem were
diametrically opposite, so I don't think we ever really had a meeting of
minds. Nevertheless, it is very sad to hear that someone who vigorously
critiqued the orthodoxy, so important if we are to make progress in
science, is no longer with us.
Tim Palmer
How regretable! All my symphaties to the family.Lev Savrov.
I was very sorry to hear of Caroline's death. I had no idea that she was
ill with cancer for, I suppose naturally, she did mention it. As you
will see from our emails, I had not been in touch with her for quite
some time, however when we were in contact the emails used to fly
furiously. It is so sad that a very lively mind has been silenced; there
are not many people who are willing to rock the boat in the way that
Caroline was and physics certainly needs people who are willing to
challenge its precepts.
Best wishes
Richard Keesing
I had the privilege of meeting Caroline some years ago in a meeting in NorthAmerica. I was impressed by her intelligent and equilibrated stance regarding the so-called "dissident physics".
My deepest simpathies to her family.
Héctor A. Múnera
My Condolences for an e- mail friend,
Clarence Dulaney
Thank you for the notice. We will miss her sharp mind.
Bill Hamilton
AstroScience Research Network
Hello,
I'm very sorry to hear this sad news. I admired Caroline greatly for
her open-minded yet critical reading of many of the problem areas in
science today. She had a very nice way of communicating her thoughts,
whether in personal e-mails or groups, that encouraged others to join
in. She gave a very thoughtful review of the book I edited "Pushing
Gravity", which I think helped the book along quite a bit. Her ideas
were similar in many ways to mine, though we had a different way of
expressing them. I am glad you will be keeping her website open - it is
full of valuable and interesting information. I never got a chance to
meet Caroline in person, but I will miss her cheerful, intelligent
discussions. I wish all of her family the best.
Sincerely,Matt Edwards
I express my deep condolences to Caroline's family.
Yuri Galaev.
Ukraine.
I am most saddened by the news. Thanks for letting me know.
-David Schneider
She was a rare person, an original thinker with a wonderful mind!
The entire world is poorer now than when she was with us.
Regards and best wishes,
Dr. G. I. Lebau (du Gabriel
Thank you for informing me of the passing away of Caroline Thompson. I was
very sorry to here the news.
I corresponded with Caroline on a number of occasions about physics, and
visited her once a few years ago when I drove over from Gloucestershire,
stayed one night and then returned. I found Caroline and her husband very
friendly and hospitable and have fond memories of the long animated
discussions I had with her on physics theory.
I had recently contacted her again, as I was looking for fresh insights into
the supposedly crucial experiments of Aspect et al. From that I learnt that
she was unwell. I also looked at the arguments she was having with
contributors to Wikipedia, displayed on that site.
Her position and mine on physics were very similar. Our criticisms of modern
theory were almost identical; we saw almost identical errors in its
reasoning and in its experimental methodology. We both developed
wave-and-aether theories, while differing over the way we believed matter
was formed out of aether.
If there is any way that I can be of assistance in keeping her ideas going
then please let me know. For example, I know she had ties with Aberystwyth
University for many years. If they were willing to host a talk on her work I
would be willing to put one together. Alternatively I have already got most
of her web publications downloaded, but could look over her work to see if
there was anything that could be done with it. There may be other
possibilities.
Best wishes,
Roger Brewis
Mr Thompson,
I think of you and your two chidren.
With all my sympathy.
Michel Auberger
Dear Caroline Thompson Family members and friends
I am taking the liberty, on behalf of the members of the
Gravitational Anomalies Group (GA), of pay tribute to Caroline
Thompson.
Caroline Thompson joined GA in June 2001, she was one of early
members of GA. She later agreed assist me and become a moderator of
GA.
Ironically she was born in the same year as myself -1943. Maybe that
year was a year for mavericks, which she certainly was. When she
joined GA, she began to post her material. After reading her
postings, I just had to make contact with her, rather than
communicate by email and posts. I had the privilege of talking to
her in late 2001. We had a great chat about all matters (pardon the
pun) gravitational and physical.
She has been a real breath of fresh air to our group and will be
sorely missed by all members of the group. I am sure some of our
members who have had some interaction with her at length on
particular issues, will particularly regret her passing.
VALE Caroline Thompson
Yours sincerely
Ed Oberg
Moderator
Gravitational Anomalies Yahoo Group
Dear Caroline's family,
I feel greatly sorry for your loss.
I believe Caroline Thomson had brave and persistent spirit.
Though I corresponded with her for a short time, it was really a valuable
connection.
I present my sincere condolences to rest of you from the bottom of my heart.
Sincerely Yours,
Hyunchul
I share in the grieving of Caroline Thompson's departure. She has opened my mind
and aided in freeing me from the 'definites' that are so readily enforced upon
inquisitive minds. Her efforts will not go unnoticed.
Thank you Caroline,
Djelal
(Student of Physics and Astronomy)