The Geological Pathway Diversity Model (GPDM): A Unified Classification and Predictive Framework for Anomalous Luminous Phenomena

John Carter 

This version supersedes v2.4 (April 2026). Following publication, the authors conducted a systematic adversarial self-review, submitting specific claims to independent multi-model critique with instruction to attack from the strongest available disciplinary angle. Four peripheral elements were identified as not meeting the evidentiary standard of the core framework and have been removed:

Skinwalker Ranch replaced with Uinta Basin Candidate Zone — the named private property is inaccessible to independent monitoring deployment, which the GPDM's own falsification protocol requires; the basin-scale geology is sound and is justified here on USGS stratigraphy and published geophysical surveys alone.

Mt. Kholat Syakhl / Dyatlov Pass (1959) removed — primary source (Kuersten 2021) is self-published and not peer-reviewed; radiation evidence on victim clothing is contested and was not acknowledged as such; injury mechanisms have multiple documented competing explanations that were not excluded; the geological plasma hypothesis was not demonstrated to be more parsimonious than the established avalanche/hypothermia model.

Section 11a (mycorrhizal networks and tree bioelectric generation) removed from primary framework — cited laboratory sources document endogenous biological signaling and do not demonstrate geological-scale telluric current propagation; mycorrhizal network resistance is orders of magnitude higher than the surrounding soil matrix; proposed charge storage capacity is quantitatively insufficient for plasma discharge contribution.

NUFORC database removed — self-reported, unverified anecdotal data with no APP-specific filtering; the spatial correlation with fault corridors was described as an established finding before the analysis was performed; no controls for population density, military aviation, or media feedback were applied.

The core framework — Freund p-hole mechanism, four-variable state equation, Pathways 1–6, Hessdalen and Brown Mountain validation, null-site falsification protocol — is unchanged and survived adversarial review intact.