Mobius Coils

[Note: This bulletin was first written many years ago, and has sequential updates further down. My mobius coil practices have changed slightly and evolved over time.]

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on mobius coils, merely offering my impressions from a limited amount of fooling around with them.
This page will likely evolve over time.

There are many different types of mobius coils, most of which I know little or nothing about.

Warning! Mobius coils are not necessarily inherently safe. Don Croft said that the type of mobius coil he makes (single-knot mobius coil) is safe, provided one either puts a crystal in it or places a boundary wire around it. Otherwise it can cause undesirable energy phenomena. He powers them with a 15hz frequency generator; I do not know whether this caveat applies to passive (unpowered) mobius coils as well. I am of the impression, though, that orgonite and/or water can be substituted for a quartz crystal, as could various other stones. Quartz is nevertheless very well-suited.

From a very interesting article at http://www.insightofnc.com/articles38.htm:

Scalar waves are produced when two electromagnetic waves of the same frequency are exactly out of phase (opposite to each other) and the amplitudes subtract and cancel or destroy each other. The result is not exactly an annihilation of magnetic fields but a transformation of energy back into a scalar wave. This scalar field has reverted back to a vacuum state of potentiality.

Scalar waves can be created by wrapping electrical wires around a figure eight in the shape of a möbius coil. When an electric current flows through the wires in opposite directions, the opposing electromagnetic fields from the two wires cancel each other and create a scalar wave.

Just don't ask me to define "scalar". I'm just the wire-bender.

The best tutorial for making a continuous-knot toroidal mobius is found on Jon Logan's site. Single-knot mobius coils are what Don Croft uses, and there used to be a tutorial at cloud-busters.com, but it was not entirely clear.
I confess I have as yet never made the latter, though some assert they are more powerful. Intuitively, I really like the flowing quality of the continuous-knot ones, which are also easier to make.

One characteristic of mobius coils is that they are highly responsive to ambient energy input: the life-force in one's hands, for example. For this reason, I have been wrapping wands with them, generally using a simple spiral wrap around the pipe instead of the doughnut shape. The doughnut shape is probably somewhat superior (better output per unit of wire) but less wieldy or practicable in many situations.
Al Gray swears by relatively small mobius coils out of thin wire for his Triniti and other wands, in which he wraps several small coils made out of one section of cable around the pipe. This is similar to what is used in Power Wands. So far, I have not really used this method, exactly.

A few tips I've learned from my unsystematic muddling so far:

It is not necessary to double the wire over twice; once will do nicely (that is, make a 2-strand cable instead of the orthodox 4). Many other experimenters have tried this, and I think we are unanimous on this point. For me it is a matter of practicality; if 4 is reasonably feasible, considering wire size, space available for it, malleability of the resultant cable, etc., then I will use 4.
I have also made ones with 8 strands.

When twisting the wire: a tip from Kininigan: "Avoid resonance - the 'standing wave effect' - as that puts excessive twists near the chuck. Try varying the speed and tension. Always run the wire a little slack, but not enough to 'curl up'."
I have inadvertently twisted off (broken) the cable before by using too much tension. I was able to unravel the ends and reconnect them. You want just enough tension to keep the cable from escaping out in a sideways goiter.

For making doughnut-shaped ones, there is an optimal range of length of the twisted cable. Meaning, if the twisted cable is too long, it will be quite impracticable to feed it through itself. (But it can still be used to wrap spirally around a wand, cylindrical HHG, bottle, etc. More on this application later.)

Wire type: Magnet wire (which has only a very thin coat of insulation) I have found somewhat difficult to make the doughnut variety with. When using heavy magnet wire, e.g. 14g, it is difficult to bend smoothly. When using thinner wire, e.g. 20g, one should secure the open-ended side, a few inches from the ends, in a clamp or something, and chuck the closed end in the drill; otherwise the ends wrap so tightly in the drill that they are near-impossible to elegantly unravel to make the ends available for connecting.
[Update Aug. 24, '06: See note below about wire types.]

How to power them: The orthodox way is to use a low-voltage frequency generator such as Don's Terminator zapper or a software frequency generator such as the NCH toner, but I and others have found these coils to be quite effective used passively (no juice) as long as the circuit is closed i.e. the wire ends connected together. This is very convenient for environmental gifts and sleek wands.
My preference for powering at this time is the earth battery, which in this case is essentially 2 electrodes of different metals, e.g. galvanized conduit pipe and copper pipe, stuck into the earth a couple feet deep. In reasonably moist soil, this usually yields .6 to .8+ volt but with the most wonderful energy quality. After being accustomed to it, the 15hz zapper vibe felt intolerably wimpy and unpleasant to me.
There may be voltage fluctuations, even polarity reversals at times, moreso in some locations than others. A cheap multimeter is needed.

But some people who are less lazy than myself (e.g. Bruce Stenulson) can do remarkable things with electrified frequency tuners, and probably should.

However, I am speaking here of an earth battery that is a good distance from 60hz electrical pollution, on well-orgonized ground. It appears that in urban areas, the coil may resonate with the toxic artificial frequency they like to feed us. At least someone reported this impression. This might not be that bad, though, for orgone devices buried in the ground; my impression is that it works excellently that way even in a populated area. I feel the coil, etc. are effective tools for converting harmful energy into benign. But thought I'd mention it just in case.

One of the best things to put in the loop with a mobius coil is one or more other mobius coils! Whether passive or powered by an earth battery. I have not tried this with a frequency generator yet, but Jon said that he had trouble getting the various coils (hooked up in series) in phase that way.
It doesn't seem to matter when plugged into the earth battery, though; indeed I highly recommend putting several devices in series on one loop fed by an earth battery. The coils feed off each other.

This coil is powered by such a circuit. Can you feel the vibe?

If you wrap the coil with aluminum foil or aluminum tape, it seems to really improve the power. Al Gray got us started on that habit. Lately I have been getting into wrapping with aluminum, then (a la Reichian orgone accumulator) a layer of cellophane tape or electrical tape. Note that some brands of electrical tape have a very dull energy, and others very good energy; there is some cheap Taiwanese tape around that I prefer.
Then (room providing) more layers, as described more fully below.

Spiral Wrap Mobius Coils:
[update 9/2006: I no longer make spiral mobius coils, and don't recommend them except for wrapping wands that will be held in hand. Otherwise, a short continuous-knot mobius around the object will be much better.
In fact, a mobius strip (see below) is probably better than a spiral mobius coil even for hand-helds.]

For many applications, a thinner profile is desirable. I like the energy of a doughnut-shaped mobius around a crystal, but it is awkward to hold in the hand, and, worse, difficult to cover with the hand, so as to maximize its uptake of one's personal chi. One way is to make a series of smaller coils, as is done in a Power Wand or Al's creations. Somehow, though, I've gotten into just doing a spiral wrap with the twisted cable.
This is useful for a wand or a long crystal, but also for a cylindrical orgonite creation, e.g. a CB base to be recast. I have also done this on truncated-cone units, cast in a yoghurt cup or a tumbler.
Here's the way I've been doing spiral wrap mobius coils lately:

I double or quadruple over the wire and twist it in a drill. Wrap it around the pipe or whatever in a direction opposite to the twist.
Then tape it in place with aluminum tape. Then I place one or more labyrinth pics (OTB 12) face inward over the tape (I would have put them under the coil, too, actually) and tack in place with bits of clear tape. Then, as in a traditional orgone accumulator, I cover the aluminum with a layer of "organic" plastic, specifically, clear cellophane packing tape or electrical tape, then copper foil. (I happen to have some great copper foil, very dull and rough on one side, and shiny on the other.) Using foil allows one to turn the shiny side in. The rough side is yin, the shiny side yang; the objective in some cases is to draw chi from the operator's hands into the pipe or crystal, if that's what you are working with. It may not matter for wrapping other devices, depending on what you are trying to make it do, though personally, I like the centripetal, implosive kind of energy further discussed in OTB 10. See OTB 9 for info on maximizing copper foil.. Many layers.

If making a copper wand, you may wish to bare the wire ends and tape them around the pipe, so the pipe itself is connected to the wire. This also seems to benefit the energy. And one can always undo the tape at the end, and temporarily connect the coil to an earth battery or whatever if one desires.

The longest mobius coil I have made was with 500' of 14g plastic-insulated wire, doubled over, i.e. probably close to 200' of cable after the shrinkage resulting from doubling and twisting.) This was spirally-wrapped one layer thick, taped in place with aluminum tape, and the wrap continued back over the tape the other way. Repeated 3 or 4 times. Was it worth the hassle? Not until I then did my "eclectic layering" using copper foil, tape, and labyrinths (see OTBs 9 & 12) which amped it up big time.

In February, 2004, Kininigin came out with the scarab coil. Here's a tutorial. This is a fairly intense little passive coil. Some people make smaller ones and wear them as rings, and credit them with amazing powers. Some put them on the ends of CB pipes for an extra boost.

Personally, I much prefer the quality of the energy if I twist the wires CW instead of CCW, and it feels stronger to me, too. Not being particularly psychic, I don't know whether they lose their reputed power against evil critters this way, though. I'm hoping someone will try it and offer feedback someday.
Update July, 2006: With the advantage of greater sensitivity, I now feel that yes, it is different, but I like it. I tried "sending" a standard scarab coil into a demon, and found it weakened him markedly. Not so with the variant I'd made with a reversed twist.

Kininigan suggests applying these construction techniques to mobius coils, too. I have done this with some small mobius coils so far, and find it much easier to make them this way (a caduceus wind instead of the toroidal mobius wrap I was using) plus they are stronger. Even with the circuits broken as in the ones depicted here. Especially when I add the little passive outer spiral wraps you see here. I used 2 pieces of copper wire, 6.66" long, one going CW and one going CCW for these latter. Selenite is in the middle.

The coils, like the scarab coils proper, have a direction. If wound left over right, as Kin suggests results in a coil in which the energy goes mainly out the end away from where the wire ends end up. Also this striated selenite has a definite direction, which I put agreeing with the coils here.

I have also used this caduceus-style mobius technique to make mobius coils around 1-gallon jugs to make an item as described in OTB 11. Used about 30' of 18g on each one. Marked the centers of the twisted section, excluding the ends. Wrapped the wires directly on the bottle, which left them rather snug. I happen to have a bunch of very small plastic ty-bands, and I slipped some of those under the coils to cinch them in place. Seems to work quite well. Due to my impressions with the scarab coils, I only use a CW twist (forward mode with the drill).

Update May, 2005: A while back Archie shared with me a discovery he'd made: a mobius coil can be passively driven with a magnet. Put one lead on the north end and one lead on the south. You need to be able to discern WHICH lead goes on which end, as one will work a lot better than the other.
Also, even a passive mobius alone will have a + side and a minus side. You want to make sure the + side faces toward the business end of the crystal.
Anyway, this magnet thing feels pretty impressive, if strong magnets are used. I just did this with a stack of neodymium magnets. Also taped a piece of hematite and a bismuth pellet to the mags for synergy. This works well in conjunction with a potentiometer tuner arrangement. Makes it much more powerful, but still needs no electrical input.

Update August 2006: Lately I have become much better at dowsing, even dowsing devices before I make them. And I have made a few more mobes. Here are some points I would now emphasize:

The twist should always be done with the drill in reverse mode. Though the other way is powerful, too, to me the reverse mode makes a coil that has a quality of resolving discordancy, whereas the forward mode makes a more discordant field that is slightly uncomfortable to be around. In a regular mobe. In the scarab coil, the forward twist actually feels mellower, but is not effective against demons like the reverse twist. So either coil type, you want to go reverse mode.
Also, when making a (non-scarab) mobius, you want to wrap the cable with the same "twist" direction; it should go like the threads of a screw.
I have not made any new scarab-type coils lately. I doubt they would be better, and they certainly won't be easier to make, than my short mobes.

Longer is not better. I don't care what your spam basket says. It was sheer stupidity of me to make mobes hundreds of feet long. I could have gotten better results much more cheaply and easily with a short coil of dowsed length. And saved a lot of space, too. Al was right.
Lately I am favoring (for 22g phone wire doubled over to make 4-strand cable) lengths of 9'3.5" and 27' 5". That's length of the single strand before folding, not counting some extra length needed for the 2 leads. The larger length is not superior except where a longer coil is required to physically encircle a larger object.
Different lengths would apply for different gauge wire.

The best thing to drive them is a low-voltage frequency driver with more than one freq going into different coils. Perhaps a stereo.

Hooking up multitudes of mobes on a single circuit is excellent. In series is far better than in parallel.

I have a screw-hook inside a cupboard. When I want to make a mobe, I open the cupboard, use the hook to loop the wire over to draw it straight, double it over and do it again. Then I put a bit of electrical tape around the end that has the 2 leads and one loop. This I clamp onto a solid object, and chuck the other end in the drill.

I had been taping the other end, too, but someone wrote me with a better idea: chuck a screw-hook into the drill, and use that to twist the end with the 2 loops.
Don't go too fast, and vary the speed. Use just enough tension to keep the wire from knotting up in a sideways lump.

Now for something truly radical and easy-to-do: Mobius Strips.

Some time back, Kneweyes put a remarkably nice Trinity Wand right by the Skull and Bones tomb. This has caused them considerable distress.
I checked out this wand recently when I neutralized their countermeasures to it. I was amazed at how good its energy was. I asked Kneweyes for the secret. She did a few things differently, but mainly it was the mobius strip that dowsed as the big factor.

Not wanting to make a coil, she had the idea of wrapping aluminum tape in a mobius strip around the 3 pipes.
Just leave a bit of end sticking out when you start the wrap, and when you get to the end, turn it over and tape the 2 sticky sides together. Flatten in place. [correction: see Sept. 2006 update below]

On the last thing I made, I did the same thing around one of the stones in it, using narrow, silver-plated copper tape. For a number of reasons, that unit came out as the best orgone device I've made yet, and one big factor is this strip. I put a mobius coil around the strip, too (this tape is too narrow to wrap over a coil with).

I recommend this highly, and expect to be incorporating more such things in future devices.

How many turns should one go around before securing the ends? I dowse that the best number is 4, with 2 being a very close second. Three is not as good.

A friend sent me this pic, asking if that is correct.

Yes, that's basically it. Though I would call that 3 turns, and get that 1 more would be good. Also there is a bit too much slack for my taste, but this is just a demo photo to show what's going on.

This is how I have done it. This is 4 wraps of copper tape on a nice little cylinder that I will re-cast in a larger mold next time I pour epoxy.

As you can see, I started at the bottom, leaving a "tail".
I am not sure it matters much whether you go CW or CCW. I had the vague feeling that CW ascending might be slightly better on this unit.

Wire types: Again, Al was way ahead of me on this. I now dowse that the best wire is 24awg, whether solid or stranded, whether for active or passive use. Followed closely by 22g.
This is good to know, because I have mainly found 22g sold as phone cable with a second sheath of insulation around 4 or more separate insulated strands. It is good stuff, and very inexpensive compared to most wire, but it's a real hassle to remove the outer sheath without scraping off some of the insulation around the separate wires inside. Whereas, 24awg is often sold in spools of one insulated wire.
Beware, a lot of this stuff has flouride compounds like PTFE (Teflon). It should be labeled as such, because this is a more expensive feature. It may be called "shielded" or military grade or something like that. Artificial flouride compounds have a bad vibe, and this type of wire is not recommended for energy devices!
Some wires are tinned or silver-coated. The additional metal coat is desirable
I found some here. 5 sets make almost 1000' of wire, and with shipping costs about what the last spool I bid on at eBay sold for with shipping. The eBay spool was 1000' of tinned cu. The problem is that most of what comes in the kits I got is in lengths of of 5 meters. Fortunately, this works out, as the best 24g lengths I dowse as 6'5.5" and and 9'4" to 9'5", excluding leads. So one can get one of each out of every little roll, and have just a few inches left over for splicing onto sturdier lead wires.

Incidentally, when making any splices that will be buried under resin, make sure the connection is real tight. Finding that your masterpiece lacks continuity once cured is most disheartening. Either solder it, or twist very tightly and "waterproof" the junction with silicone seal or tape or something. What presumably happens is that hot resin likes to seep into tight spaces like between wires, placing an insulative coat where you don't want it.
I will be trying butt splices in my next pour. You can get a couple dozen of these at any hardware store for a few bucks. You will also need a crimping tool, such as is on most wire strippers. Crimp snugly. I will be sealing the ends of the splice tubes with dabs of silicone anyway, because I hate to gamble.
Here is a conversion table into mm wire sizes. I do not know what is commonly sold in the way of European sizes around the range of 22-24awg, but I get that .54mm would be pretty ideal.

Update September, 2006: In the pic, the splices are on the right. On the left are wire connectors that unplug. These are useful for hooking up several coils in series. The wire-strippers have crimping sections near the tip. However, for me these don't crimp hard enough. The wires come loose under stress, unless I crimp with a sterner instrument.

Note how the ends of the jaws on these particular vise-grips apply pressure in the right spot.
[Note Jan/'07: My problem was just that the strippers I had were crummy. My new pair crimps better.]

Although the smallest size I found for such hardware is for 22g and up, they will work for 24g.

Correction about mobius strips: What Kneweyes did, and what works best, is to put the two bare sides of the tape ends together for conductivity, and tape them in place with duct tape. This is significantly superior to using the tape glue, because it is an insulator. Unless you are using specialized metal tape with conductive glue. But unless you are doing a single loop, or otherwise not having the loops touch, you don't want conductive glue, either, because you do want insulation between the layers. I think a strip made with bare metal against bare metal will work, but not nearly as well.
This means also that one should beware of shorting out the strip by folding bare sections of ends over the bare wrap; one can put tape over the section which will be under the bare end.

Also recently I found that silk is superior to metal for mobius strips. Narrow silk ribbon is available on eBay, not expensive. Again, it is probably best to have the ends touching without glue.

The ribbon is very narrow, about 1/8", and awkward to work with unless you have good eyes and nimble fingers. I just position the ends and tape into place

Update December, 2006: I have recently converted all my units that were running on earth battery power to magnet drive, that is, using Archie's ingenious magnet trick as described above in the May, 2005 update. Actually, it is not necessary to use a stack of strong magnets. I just used a single modest bar magnet for each unit. The important thing is to get the orientation right. In fact, any time you build an orgone device, there is always an optimum position for any component. It will still work OK if you do it any old way, but it will work a lot better if you position stuff exactly where it is optimum.

My impression at this time is that magnets work just as well, possibly better, than earth batteries. And importantly, there is no maintenance, no messy wires running along the ground to trip over.
Actually, speaking of maintenance, if you have mobius devices sitting for lengths of time, it is good to occasionally check continuity, no matter what you have driving the coils. Sometimes the connections might get slightly oxidized or something, breaking the circuit. Simply unplugging and replugging wires usually fixes this.
[Note Jan/'07: My main problem here may have been that I didn't fully seat the connectors. When I tried this, I found that a couple connections wouldn't seat, because the male prong was not even inside the metal part in the female end.]
Since there is a big difference in the energy of an energized coil and a disconnected one, it is particularly easy for me to dowse this remotely. But if you are not able to do this, it is wise to occasionally "refresh" all connections.

Another idea that I have used to advantage is to cast the coil-driving magnet right into the unit when you build it. Just make sure all connections are secure first, with connections taped or otherwise protected from resin seeping in during construction. And don't let the resin overheat.

Update January 16, 2007: I haven't built any more devices lately, but a friend sent this pic and asked if there was a difference in energy between these 2 versions. Yes, the one on the left feels significantly better to me. Whether this always holds true in all applications, I'm not sure. When I make stuff, I normally dowse everything I have a choice on. If one is using a mold of 4.8" diameter, one does not usually have the option of making it 4.7" or 5" so I go with the 4.8", but whenever I do have an easy choice between one or more ways to do something, I usually try to dowse what's best in that particular project. When I placed the mobius strips in my devices, I dowsed the number of turns (though what is practical may have a bearing on whether I choose 2 or 4 turns, for example). I dowsed whether the turns should be CW or CCW ascending.

But it does seem to me that, at least on a simple strip like the one above, the left one is superior. On this one, one can discern (with some slight difficulty,) that I made it CW ascending on the wrap, but with the end folded in the same manner as the right side in the pic he sent. It probably did not occur to me to check which was was best, but now I get that it would have been better the other way.

Update June, 2008: Four strands or two? More recently I have almost always used 2. Not because 2 is energetically superior, per se. I think 2 or 4 makes no difference, except in terms of logistical practicalities.
Most of the mobes I make these days are very short in terms of wire used. At least in proportion to the overall coil diameter.
As you can see here, the blue coil only makes about 2.3 loops around. And has 2 strands to the cable. If it had 4, the same length of wire would be approximately half as long, and thus would only go around once. I get that 2 full loops is all that is usually necessary. Less than 2 would not give full function.
I always dowse the length of the wire these days, for a particular application. Often there are several lengths in different ranges that are suitable. So I usually try to pick the length that is shortest, as long as it will also make at least 2 full loops.
The items I have made with such coils turn out very intense (probably in part because I don't waste internal space with useless excess wire). And another advantage of short mobes is that it is real easy to re-size them to fit your application. Try adusting the diameter on a mobe made with 30' of wire, and you'll see how challenging and time-consuming that can get.
As far as the figure-8 "infinity" mobes depicted elsewhere on this site, I have only made them with 2-strand as well. I see no advantage there for more strands. However, I often do more than 2 figure-8s.

So ordinarily I have absolutely no reason to make a 4-strand cable. Although, on rare occasions, it may dowse as better for a particular application, as might a cable that goes around the loop several times.
Another exception is what I term an interface coil. This is a 4-strand coil that actually consists of 2 separate circuits. This creates an energetically-intimate interface between 2 circuits that is not electrically conductive. So one could, for example, have a non-electric circuit using the yellow mobe, thus married to the red mobe that has a 555-timer device pumping juice through it.
Of course I'm a wild man who, in this instance, put a separate passive "electronic" circuit (OTB 30) on each mobe which is beyond most people.


Loohan