Mind Power Masters

Placebo and Informed Consent

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:05:00 +0000

We all know placebo treatment can significantly influence subjective symptoms. But does that mean you have to decive a patient for it too work?

No! conclude the study, Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable Bowel Syndrome However, it is widely believed

Open-label placebo (non deceptive and non-concealed administration) is superior to a no-treatment control when offered with matched interactions in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

A three week trial of 80 patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, (70 percent female, mean age 47 +/- 18) were randomized into two groups. The patients were diagnosed ith IBS diagnosed by Rome III criteria and with a score $150 on the IBS Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS).

One group were given open-label placebo pills. The other group no-treatment controls but each group received the same quality of interaction with providers.

Previous studies have shown "placebo pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-body self healing processes’’

Open-label placebo's produced significantly higher mean (+/-SD) global improvement scores (IBS-GIS) at both 11-day midpoint (5.2 +/-1.0 vs. 4.0+/-1.1, p,.001) and at 21-day endpoint (5.0+/-1.5 vs. 3.9 +/-1.3, p = .002).

Significant results were also observed at both time points for reduced symptom severity (IBS-SSS, p = .008 and p = .03) and adequate relief (IBS-AR, p = .02 and p = .03); nd a trend favoring open-label placebo was observed for quality of life (IBS-QoL) at the 21-day endpoint (p = .08).

So while more research need be done, placebos administered without deception

may be an effective treatment for IBS and perhaps other conditions.

Matbem just maybe, doctors may benefit patients using placebos consistent with informed consent.

Reference: Kaptchuk TJ, Friedlander E, Kelley JM, Sanchez MN, Kokkotou E, et al.(2010) Placebos without Deception: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Irritable

Bowel Syndrome. PLoS ONE 5(12): e15591. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015591

PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 December 2010 | Volume 5 | Issue 12 | e15591

Image: -I'm Medicated, How Are You?-by ~broken-wingz07

Better by far you forget and smile than you should remember and be sad - Christina Rosetti

Finger Tapping reveals speach mastery

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:16:00 +0000

When fingers start tapping, the music must be striking a chord according to University of Toronto speech-language pathologist Luc De Nil. The beat could be revealing how children master speech – one of the most complex tasks of all..

"The rapid and precise muscle movements of speech must be the most intricate, yet poorly understood, of all the sensory-motor skills," says De Nil.

De Nil's interest in finger-tapping came out of his group's previous work on adults who stutter. His team discovered that they have problems in acquiring new and unusual tapping sequences and not just speech. The research suggests an underlying neural basis for the motor deficit.

The researchers tested the abilities of stuttering adults to learn both speech and tapping sequences. In some experiments, the participants were given extensive practice lasting more than one day. Other studies investigated the effects on the accuracy of a speaker's performance when motor learning was disrupted.

The investigators then followed up with magnetic resonance imaging and fMRI to observe and analyze the neural processes underlying speech production in children and adults who stutter.

"We turned to children next because we wanted to know if the adult data was relevant to them and if giving them finger and speech tasks would let us observe motor skills as they develop in both stutterers and non-stutterers."

Image: Finger Tapping by ~dylan13500

Better by far you forget and smile than you should remember and be sad - Christina Rosetti

Shopping For an Improved Memory

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:41:00 +0000

Weekend shopping by *maxwindy on deviant ART

Committing yourself to achieve good memorization skills takes dedication. It requires your full focus, attention and your imagination no matter how unimaginative you think you may be. But if you try to think of the benefits of what good memorization can do for you, you'll realize that it's going to benefit you longer than you've expected.

Memorizing is easily done with mnemonics. How mnemonics retain objects in your brain is extremely efficient. The process isn't difficult, but still, it allows you to maximize your capacity for memory.

Try the link method, a type of mnemonic which creates a link or bridge from new learning material to existing learned information in your brain. In turn, this process makes it easier for your brain to retain any newly acquired information since it relates to something you've already come across with before.

Pretend that you are in the process of buying ingredients for your dinner. Sausage spaghetti is what you want to eat tonight. To mentally remember the important ingredients, you can link them up together.

Your items are as follows:

Italian sausage, garlic, tomatoes, vermicelli, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese

Picture an Italian sausage hanging out by your kitchen window while a couple of garlic passes by with a bad smell. The sausage faints because of the smell and falls into a bowl of tomatoes soaking in water. Upset, the tomatoes step out of the bowl and rub on vermicelli all over their body to dry. Unluckily, the notorious duo salt and pepper, crash in as their attempt to fly a whole block of parmesan cheese fails.

Think of this scene while on your way to the store to buy these items. You can use the link method not just in buying food recipes but it's also great for remembering important things like school and office supplies, important events and such.

Do you want more memory improvement suggestions?

Click here to learn more about memorizing using the Link method and other memory improvement techniques.

Better by far you forget and smile than you should remember and be sad - Christina Rosetti

Yoga For Six Pack Abs

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:04:00 +0000

OK its not an article, but I could'nt resist.

Who needs a gym for six pack abs?

Do's and Don'ts of Good Parenting

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:38:00 +0000

Do's and Don'ts of Good Parenting

by Paramhansa Yogananda

God, who is love, created man through the love of two souls, and
through love alone man can find his way back to God.

Parents and children should understand that their relationship is not fortuitous, but is due to a divine plan. Family life is the laboratory in which human love can be transformed into God's perfect love.

Loving guidance, not harshness

Parents should look upon their child as the honored temple where their conjugal love can
be purified and expanded into filial love. They should feel that they are serving God in
that little temple.

Children, in turn, should look upon their parents as visible representatives of God on earth. Obedience and respect should activate their behavior.

For parents, kindness and loving guidance should prevail, never harsh treatment. If parents are harsh or unkind to their children, owing to a lack of self-control, they will surely prevent God from expanding His love from the parental heart to the heart of the child.

Parents should take care never to scold their children before others, or to bring an erring child to rebellion by continuous harshness. Strong, loving suggestions, alongside their good example, will do more to change a child than anger or harsh words.

The reforming power of love

Some time ago, I accepted a boy into my school in India who was much older than most
of our students. He had been causing difficulties because his parents did not know how to
discipline him properly.

Before accepting him, he and I had a heart-to-heart talk. I said, "You have made up your
mind to smoke, but your parents do not want you to smoke. You have succeeded in defeating your parents, but you have not succeeded in defeating your misery—think of what you have done to yourself." My "arrow" struck him and he began to weep. He said, "They are always beating me."I told him, "I will take you on one condition. I will be your friend but I will not be a
detective. As long as you are willing to correct your mistakes, I will help you, but if you tell lies, I will do nothing for you because lying destroys friendship. You may decide not to tell me everything but do not lie." Then I said, "Anytime you want to smoke, I will get you the cigarettes."

One day he came to me and said, "I feel a terrible desire to smoke." When I offered him money to buy cigarettes, he could scarcely believe his eyes. He said, "Take back the money." I kept pressing him to take it, but he did not want it. At last, after a tug-of-war, he said, "You will not believe me, but I don't want to smoke any longer."

The result of this discipline was that he finally became a saint. Spiritual growth lies in
making a strong inner effort to resist bad tendencies and to go upstream toward real
lasting happiness.

Give children necessities only

This is why wealthy parents should not leave too much money to their children. More
often than not, it chokes the development of initiative and self-earned success and
happiness.
Give children necessities only, not luxuries. Take care not to enslave them to material things or selfish greed by too many possessions or too much money.

A child's exercise of will power

Parents often impose their wills on their children. Don't break your child's will by always denying his inconvenient requests. It's important that your child develop his will power.

As a child, when I made up my mind that I wanted something that could dome no harm, the members of my family had to consent. I always listened to reason; if ever I was wrong I was willing to be corrected. When I was right, however, I remained firm even if the whole family united against me.

I will tell you of an experience I had as a baby. A baby usually cries because it feels a
physical need. This first expression of will, arising from that need, is called "physiological will." As the baby grows, and the mother directs its will, it expresses
"mechanical" or "unthinking will."

I remember being in that state of mechanical will, always doing just as mother told me.
Everyone called me an angel. One day when with my nurse, I saw some little orangecolored
candies at a drug store, and I asked my nurse to buy some for me. He refused and
took me home.

At home, after having my dinner, I told my mother I wanted some candy. She said, "No, go to bed." A little later I said, "Mother, I want those little, orange-colored candies." "Go to bed," Mother said. Thereupon I cried all the more loudly: "I want those orange-colored candies!"

I continued in my determination to have my way, unheeding of her appeal. Mother finally
had to go and wake up the drug store owner to obtain those candies for me.

I was happy. Why? Because I had exercised my own will power. I found it the most
wonderful feeling. The next morning I was called a "naughty baby," but only because I had exercised my will power.
Give your child freedom Remember, when you're young children are self-willed about something that isn't wrong,
don't call them naughty. Listen to their little desires and offer suggestions based on love and understanding. Reason with them, but don't curtail their freedom.

If they insist, don't say anything. Let them have their own little hard knocks, if necessary.
In that way, they'll learn much sooner what is right. Try not to ask anything of your child that you can't back with a good reason.

Quicken your child's evolution

Children should be taught to concentrate and meditate. By practicing the scientific
techniques of meditation, they will, from early life, reveal intuitive faculties that will
enable them to grasp knowledge with extraordinary quickness.

Education does not consist of pumping ideas and facts into the brain. It consists of
developing one's intuitive faculties and bringing the hidden soul-memory of all
knowledge onto the plane of human consciousness. All new truths are simply the hidden
truths of the soul; they give us joy upon rediscovery.

By developing intuition, you also quicken your evolution. Teach children to quicken their
own evolution through meditation. Have a little family altar where parents and children
gather to offer deep devotion to God, and to unite their souls in meditation.

Excerpted from: Spiritual Relationships, Crystal Clarity Publishers and the Praecepta
Lessons, 1934-38.

The Search for Meaning and the Rebbe

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:58:00 +0000

In kabbalah each day on the Jewish calendar has its own energy. In our kabbalistic search for meaning, what then can we discover for today, June 16, or the third of Tammuz on the Jewish calendar?
Today, Joshua stopped the sun, the and the former Lubavitcher Rebbe was released from prison and last Lubavitcher Rebbe died.
So what?
It is also the date that links Victor Frankl, founder of logotherapy and author of Mankinds Search for Meaning, to the Rebbe.
After enduring the Nazi final solution, Frankl concluded that even in the most severe suffering, the human being can find meaning and thus hope. In his words, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’” wrote Jacob Biderman, Chabad Shliach in Vienna, Austria.

It’s not that Frankl was an overnight success.

Frankl had been a young colleague of Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler. However, Frankl rejected the view we are driven by the need to gratify physical needs, a "will to pleasure." Frankl taught we are driven by a "will to meaning," possessing free choice and the capacity for self-transcendence. "Between stimulus and response . . . is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
Loyal Freudian ridiculed him and his lectures shunned. In incredible emotional turmoil he had decided to give up and move to his sister in Australia.He had been sitting and drafting his immigration papers, when he was disturbed by an unexpected visitor, Margaret Chajes.

Margaret was a little taken back by the cross emblazoned on the wall, (Frankl second wife was a devout Catholic) and perhaps wondered why she was sent to Dr Frankl with a brief message from the Rebbe, who had been described in the Press as ultra Orthodox.

Her message was simple, "Rabbi Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, sent a message for you: Remain strong! Continue your work with complete resolve. Don't give up. Ultimately you will prevail."

Frankl was astonished. He decided not to emigrate and his work did prevail. His ideas would influence writers from Scot Peck's "Road Less Traveled" to Steven Covey's "Seven Habits."

Many years later, at age 90, Frankl recalled the message from Rabbi Schneerson.
"Ah... of course! Can I ever forget it? The Rabbi came to my aid during a very difficult time in my life. I owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude!"

How in the world did this Rebbe know about his situation? And why should this chassidic rebbe care about him or the perpetuation of his philosophy? asked Jacob Biderman.

Indeed why?

Viktor and Elly Frankl’s biographer, Haddon Klingberg, wrote:
"...after his death I asked Elly if he actually made these prayers every day. 'Absolutely. He never missed a day. Every morning for more than fifty years. But nobody knew this.' As they traveled the globe Viktor took the phylacteries with them, and everywhere, every morning, he prayed. He uttered memorized words of Jewish prayers and Psalms...
"(After Viktor died I saw his phylacteries for the first time. Elly had placed them in the little cubicle with his few simple possessions...)"
Indeed, Frankl's non-Jewish son-in-law confirmed this fact to me: "My father-in-law would close himself off in a room every day for a little while. Once I opened the door and saw him with black boxes on his head and hand. He was annoyed about my intruding on his privacy. When he was taken to the hospital, however, his practice of putting on tefillin became public."
What inspired the Rebbe with a vision that went beyond strict Jewish orthodoxy to a Jewish man who had married ‘out.’

The Rebbe wrote (free translation):

…I would like to take this opportunity to add another point, that the medical condition of ..... proves (if proof is needed in this area) the awesome power of faith – especially when applied and expressed in practical action, community work, observance of mitzvot, etc. – to fortify a person’s emotional tranquility minimizing and even elimination of inner conflicts, as well as complaints one may have to his surroundings, etc.
This is in spite the theory that faith and religion demand the discipline to restrain and suppress natural instincts and drives, and is, therefore, generally undesirable, and particularly in the case of a person who requires treatment for emotional issues.
I particularly took interest in the writing of Dr. Frankl (from Vienna in this matter. To my surprise, however, his approach has apparently not been appropriately disseminated and appreciated. Although one can find numerous reasons as to why his ideas are not widely accepted – including the fact that is related to the personal lifestyle exemplified by the treating doctor – nevertheless, the question still remains…
When was the letter written?
June 19, 1969, or in the Jewish calendar the 3rd Tammuz, 5729.
(Adapted from The Rebbe and Viktor Frankl)

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:31:00 +0000

Yogananda by ~crazy-david on deviant ART

Thought-Affirmation.
Concentrate Thought on the forehead, and repeat the following:
I think my life to flow
I know my life to flow
From brain to all my body to flow.
Streaks of light do shoot
Through my tissue-root.
The flood of Life through vertebrae
Doth rush through spine in froth and spray
The little cells all are drinking
Their tiny mouths all are shining
The little cells all are drinking
Their tiny mouths all are shining.

Will-Affirmation.
Concentrate will* on the Medulla and on the spot between the eyebrows,
simultaneously, and repeat the following, first loudly and then gradually in
whispers:
I will my life to charge
With Godly will I will it charge
Through my nerves and muscles all
My tissues, limbs and all,
With vibrant tingling fire
With burning joyous power
In blood and glands
By sovran command
I bid you flow
By my command
I bid you glow
By my command
I bid you glow.

For the Development and Right Guidance of
Reason and Cure of Dull Intelligence.
1. Read, mark and inwardly digest.
2. Reason about good things.
3. Adopt the best plan you can offer to yourself by the
exercise of reason.
4. If you read one hour, then write for two hours, and
think for three hours. This proportion should be
observed in the effort to culture reason.
5. Obey the mental laws that are given to you by God
for developing your reason.
6. If these affirmations are uttered with soul force behind
them they will develop the innate intelligence which the
modern psychologists claim is limited and incapable
of expansion.

By obeying material laws and believing them to be
controlled by a superior spiritual law, one can rise
above them and be wholly guided by them. This
transcendental superiority of spiritual laws over
material laws cannot be realized by anyone who thinks
he can overcome material laws by crudely denying their
existence and acting against them.

Concentrate beneath the skull, feeling weight of the brain
within it:

For the Development and Right Guidance of
Reason and Cure of Dull Intelligence.
In wisdom's chambers Thou dost roam
Thou art the reason in me
O Thou dost roam and wake
Each lazy little cell of brain
To receive, to receive
The good that mind and senses give
The knowledge that Thou dost give.
Myself will think,
myself will reason
I won't trouble Thee for thought
But lead Thou when reason errs
To its goal
lead it right.

Wisdom-Affirmation.
Oh Father Divine,
Oh Mother Divine
Oh Master mine,
Oh Friend Divine
I came alone,
I go alone
With Thee alone,
with Thee alone
With Thee alone,
with Thee alone.
From the 1925 version of “Scientific Healing Affirmations” By Swami Yogananda
Wisdom-Affirmation.
O Thou didst make a home for me
Of living cells;
a home for me.
This home of mine
is home of Thine
Thy life did make this home
Thy strength did make this home.
Thy home is perfect,
Thy home is perfect.

Wisdom-Affirmation.I am Thy child,
Thou art my Father
We both do dwell,
we both do dwell
In the temple same
In this temple of cells
O in this temple of cells.
Thou art always here
O on my throbbing altar near.

Wisdom-Affirmation.Thy Light doth shine
Thy Light doth shine.
Together, Thy Light and Darkness
Cannot stay, cannot stay.
Together, wisdom, ignorance
Cannot stay, cannot stay.
Conjure away, O lure away
The darkness away
My darkness away.

Wisdom-Affirmation.My body cells are made of light
My fleshly cells are made of Thee
They are perfect,
for Thou art perfect
They are healthy,
for Thou art health
They are spirit,
for Thou art so
They are immortal,
for Thou art living.

Psychological Success Affirmations.I am brave, I am strong.
Perfume of success thought
Blows in me, blows in me.
I am cool, I am calm
I am sweet, I am kind
I am love, I am sympathy
I am charming and magnetic
I am pleased with all
I wipe the tears and fears of all
I have no enemy
Though some think they are so.
I am the friend of all.
I have no habits,
In eating, dressing, behaving
I am free, I am free.

Psychological Success Affirmations.
I command Thee,
O Attention
To come and practice concentration
On things I do,
on works I do.
I can do everything
When so I think,
when so I think.

“Scientific Healing Affirmations”

1925

Swami Yogananda

Passionate driven success

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:27:00 +0000

The power is in your passion and values, not your cheque book. An example of living his passionn, the son of billionaire Warren Buffett tells how to raise successful kids.
Don’t spoil them!
Musician and now author Peter Buffett claims he became a "normal, happy" person instead of a spoiled instead of a spoiled rich kid because he has valuies andself respect.
"I am my own person and I know what I have accomplished in my life," he said. "This isn't about wealth or fame or money or any of that stuff, it is actually about values and what you enjoy and finding something you love doing."
Bufferts kids could be upset their dad gave billions away rather than give it to them –but they know there is somehing even more important.
It’s inspiring to see thwe son of one of the worlds richest men speak of following your passions.
Being born with a silver spooncan result in sense of entitlement and a lack of personal achievement that dad, Warren Buffett called a "silver dagger in your back,"
Dad may headsBerkshire Hathaway, consistently ranks on the Forbes List of the world's richest people and bcalled investing s "Oracle of Omaha"but he is the son of a man who gave billions to charity and not his kids.
"I was not only not handed everything as a kid, I was shown that there are lots of other people out there with very different circumstances," he said.
"Entitlement is the worst thing ever and I see entitlement coming in many guises," he said. "Anybody who acts like they deserve something 'just because' is a disaster."
What matters is self-respect and pursuing one's own passions and accomplishments rather than buying into society's concepts of material wealth.
Given gave him $90,000 in stock when he was 19, after studing at Stanford he lived in a a studio apartment with just enough room for his musical instruments
"I was really searching," he said, adding that he began his musical career by working for free writing music for a local television station.
"I was kind of lost, but trying to find myself. It was definitely this strange period where I didn't really know where I was going," he said.
As he grew older, the financial world "was not speaking to my heart."
Toring for his recently released new book, "Life is What You Make it: Finding Your Own Path to Fulfillment", is as creative as his music.
"Concert & Conversation" tour in which he plays the piano, talks about his life and warns against consumerist culture and damaging the environment
What if we taught our children to pursue their passion with the technical skill of a Warren Buffet and the expressive flair of hois son?
Will you take up the challenge – or force them off to medical school against their will?

Afternoon Nap for Afternoon study?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:06:00 +0000

Successful study habits should include plenty of napping,
reports Cell Biology. People who take a nap and dream about what they just learned perform it better upon waking than people who don’t nap or don’t report any associated dreams

It seems that napping helps commit learnimn to memory while dreaming.

Volunteers were asked to learn the layout of a 3D computer maze so they could find their way within the virtual space several hours later, reports the BBC. Those allowed to take a nap and who also remembered dreaming of the task, found their way to a landmark quicker.

The researchers think the dreams are a sign that unconscious parts of the brain are working hard to process information about the task.

Dreams may be a marker that the brain is working on the same problem at multple levels, saidstudy coauthor Dr Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School.

"The dreams might reflect the brain's attempt to find associations for the memories that could make them more useful in the future" he said.

While we know that postlearning sleep is beneficial for human memory performance , human and animal
studies show that learning-related neural activity is re-expressed during posttraining nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep

NREM sleep processes appear to be particularly beneficial for hippocampus-dependent forms of memory

This suggests that learning triggers the reactivation and reorganization of memory traces during sleep not expeirenced in wakefulness, claimed the report, a systems-level process that in turn enhances behavioral performance.

Afternoon Nap for Afternoon study?

The study suggests our non-conscious brain works on the things that it deems are most important, stated Dr Erin Wamsley in the BBC.

"Every day we are gathering and encountering tremendous amounts of information and new experiences," she said.

"It would seem that our dreams are asking the question, 'How do I use this information to inform my life?"

Perhaps we can take advantageof a simple afternoon nap to improve the results of some afternoon study.

Trusting Your Intuition

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Its pouring rain as autumn continues to drift toward a cooler – but still warm Queensland winter.
A bright reflection of peeking sun glare up off by back deck, pooling with water.
My house overlooks Bramble Bay which feeds eventually into the pacific. Most evenings, rain free, theres a pastel quality about the horizon.

A kind of translucency, is how I would describe it.
I have just been talking – online to Rachana – and business has been like the weather.

Dark times and yet wonderful and encouraging prospects reflect back in the opportunities of adversity.
Light dissolves darkness, and a small reflection can bring can alter our perspective of the darkest gloom.

When life seems dark, a spark of light can offer so much hope.

In difficulty, we may even fear to lose it. Or we hang onto what we know, afraid of the consequences of being true to our own inner light.

As Vishen Lakhaini reminded us at Richard Branson’s Engage Today conference, sometimes we have to let go if we are to live our passion.

<a href="http://www.linkedtube.com/s47xQeswUjg409184249597ad4d3fd5e419f268d745.htm">LinkedTube</a>

In the door way of life, light becomes visible as it streams through the dust that it reflects off.

Carl Jung invited us to examine our shadow – our dark side, if we borrow from Star Wars Buddhist inspired ideas.

It is when we dwell in the darkness – by simply letting go of its emotional hold – that the light of opportunity begins to reveal itself.

Our eyes adjust to the darkness, reveal small hints of light that lead us forward to find the distant, and far brighter source of opportunity.
I know that in today’s pragmatic world, this sees a little magical.

Although I am reminded of Sigmund Freud’s reaction when first exposed t o a 16th century kabbalistic text of Rabbi Chayyim Vital (1542-1620), one of the most important students of Isaac Luria.

Luria taught that is man's divinely appointed task to help restore the broken vessels of a shattered cosmos.

Freud reportedly described this as “Gold” and later Jung was fascinated with this as a psychological archetype.

Of course, tis idea does not just rest in any one tradition.

For me, what counts is finding light in the darkness. But most of us are afraid to lose our light and risk chasing passing light beams that lead to nowhere.

Panic in adversity can cause us to focus – as long as we focus on the right things.

It reminds me of an old Disney movie “The Moon Cussers”, the story of men who tedsjipsto their destruction with false lights – making what appeared to be lighthouses and confusing a captains navigation.
If we keep fearing we will lose the light, then our ego takes over – we panic – and
We can of course develop skills that help us to listen to our inner voice. Most of us are so out of touch with it, that we think our second guess – thrust forward in rapid succession from the first – is our intuitive hunch.
Or when we fear losing that light, we can cherish it.
It is as if that inner voice invites us “Do you want to feel me?” or will you run off and follow yourself made story?
After a while we learn to look in the shadow, stop listen and look. Gradually we train ourselves to find in any challenge another opportunity to serve, to give and to share.
There are those who are fortunate enough to have developed this special; state that ascends beyond the egos individual calculation.
Hey value the flow of life and, to use a common pop psychology phrase live in a state of infinite possibilities.
However, I am not talking about emotional hype.
I am talking more of a cold objective look at the soul.
A daily analysis, of the type Gandhi used in daily recording his actions and results over decades.
Slowly you begin to see patterns see patterns hidden in the darkness as you perceive even lower levels of light. Then follow its path to greater revelation.
Of the many successful people I have met, they all built on what was real – and not on what they wished would be.
However, they also trained themselves to follow their hunches and to not live in their head alone.
As psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis of the University of Amsterdam demonstrated that after gathering all thefacts, people make more accurate choices when they follow their gut.
Success stories have learned to listen to their body and ask why they felt a certain way – was it valid? An ego trick? Or was it some past fear not wanting to tread the path less followed?
THe intuition is like conscience - untrained it can lead you a stray. (How many jave claimed G-d spoke to them and suddenly realsed they were wrong?)
Once able to listen properly, life patterns formerly ignored begin to be revealled in the darkness.
The dust of life’s experience reveals the light in the doorway…..
…. and then possibilities flow in abundance.
So would I change my last year? No.
The highs were high and the lows were low.
… er let me rephrase that.
What I would change is listening more in the silence.
More beach walks in the sunset.
I would delve more within the darkness, notice life’s puddles and see what values, meanings and messages life reflected back to me.

Is It the Brains Fault I'm a Psychopath?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:25:00 +0000

Psychopaths are not only impulsive, their brains are wired
to take risks and seek out rewards at any cost, claim researchers at Vandabilt University..

So while it’s known that psychopaths lack fear, empathy and
interpersonal skills, a disruption in the brains dopamine reward circuitry wants money, sex, or fame, in extreme ways.

By uncovering the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy, the study published in Nature Neuroscience,opens a new area of study forunderstanding what drives these individuals.

“Psychopaths are often thought of as cold-blooded criminals
who take what they want without thinking about consequences,” said lead author Joshua Buckholtz,a graduate student in the Department of Psychology.

“We found that a hyper-reactive dopamine reward system may be the foundation for some of the most problematic behaviors associated withpsychopathy, such as violent crime, recidivism and substance abuse.”

Whilst it has been known that psychopathic individuals, this study focused onstudying their abundant impulsivity, heightened attraction to rewards and risk taking.

It's these impulsive excessive behaviors that are closely linked with the violent and criminal aspects of psychopathy.

“There has been a long tradition of research on psychopathy that has focused on the lack of sensitivity to punishment and a lack of fear, but those traits arenot particularly good predictors of violence or criminal behavior,” said associateprofessor of psychology and psychiatry, David Zald, a study co-author.

“Our data is suggesting that something might be happening on the other side of things. These individuals appear to have such a strong draw to reward—to the carrot—that itoverwhelms the sense of risk or concern about the stick.”

To examine the relationship between dopamine and psychopathy, the researchers used positron emission tomography, or PET, and blood oxygen level–dependent

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI ) to measure the brains dopamine release to probe of the brain’s reward system.

“The really striking thing is with these two very different techniques we saw a
very similar pattern—both were heightened in individuals with psychopathic traits,” Zald said.

Volunteers were given a personality test to determine their level of psychopathic traits.

Psychopathic traits exist in a spectrum, violent criminals falling at one end of the spectrum to the manipulativeness, egocentricity, aggression and risk taking of a "normal" person.

First, the researchers gave the and then PET was used to view dopamine release after volunteers the had speed. In a second test, the volunteers were told they would receive a monetary reward for completing a simple task. While performing it their brains were scanned.

“Our hypothesis was that psychopathic traits are also linked
to dysfunction in dopamine reward circuitry,” Buckholtz said.

“Consistent with what we thought, we found people with high levels of psychopathic traits had almost four times the amount of dopamine released in response to amphetamine.”

Individuals with elevated psychopathic traits the dopamine reward area of the brain, the nucleus accumbens, was much more active while they were anticipating
the monetary reward than in the other volunteers.

“It may be that because of these exaggerated dopamine responses, once they focus on the chance to get a reward, psychopaths are unable to alter their attention until they get what they’re after,“ Buckholtz said.

As Professor Zald said “It’s not just that they don’t appreciate the potential threat, but that the anticipation or motivation for reward overwhelms those concerns.”

In the past, substance abuse has been associated with alterations in dopamine responses and psychopathy is strongly associated with substance abuse.

The Core Skills You Need To Learn Hypnosis

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:14:00 +0000

Conversational Hypnosis is an art that takes a certain set of skills in order to master. These skills are quite attainable when the correct instruction and study of hypnosis has been focused on.
Conversational Hypnosis is the practice of inducing hypnotic trances through the focused skills learned in language, speech and suggestion. The primary objective is to induce a trance in order to accomplish a motivated outcome or reach a specific purpose; for example ease emotional pain, enhance health, and lead a happier life.
The skills most required of you as the hypnotist are to master a signal recognition system, develop a relationship with your subject beyond rapport, learn the foundations of hypnotic language and advanced hypnotic language, develop authority strategies, recognize emotional triggers, destroy resistance as well as become skilled in conversational induction, conversational trance formulas and advanced frame control.
All of these skills will help you attain the highest level of success in conversational hypnosis and achieve a better life for your subjects as well as for yourself.

Signal recognition systems are the foundation in hypnosis training from which you will start to see when a subject is entering a hypnotic trance. These skills will aide you in opening your senses to the signs given by your subject when becoming hypnotized.
Signal recognition will save you time in that you will be able to quickly asses when your subject is in trance instead of using unnecessary time to talk you subject into hypnosis. You will learn to see, hear and feel when people are responding to you hypnotically.
This skill will also allow you to see those around you moving in and out of hypnotic trances produced everyday by their environments. The signal recognition system is important to master and continue to study as it is a core fundamental skill you will use throughout your study and practice of hypnosis.
Everyday we develop rapport with people, friends, family and strangers. In conversational hypnosis it is important to learn to move on beyond the normal constraints of typical rapport and to develop deeper relationships with your subjects.
In hypnosis you and your subject are developing an intimate relationship that allows you as the hypnotist into your subject’s mind, to understand and ultimately control certain thoughts through suggestion and language.
In order to accomplish this you must go beyond rapport and embody an intense connection that allows your subject the unconscious freedom to do something simply because it pleases them to please you.
This can be considered an abnormal or skewed relationship in that the subject allows you into their world and will follow your lead through the conversations, language and suggestions you give to them. This is a very powerful and unique connection.

Conversational hypnosis is just that, there is an art to the language you as the hypnotist need to master. Part of this skill is found in hypnotic language foundation and advanced hypnotic language. The main idea is that conversational hypnosis is attained through language.
You need to learn how to shape the conversation you are having with your subject in a way that makes the words you speak themselves hypnotic, causing your subjects mind to set off into hypnotic state that responds to you in hypnotic ways. This skill should get strong focus from you as you master hypnosis techniques.
In the language you use for hypnosis you will also want to develop your authority strategy. Authority strategy is a tactic that is required in order to be a successful hypnotist.
It allows you to phrase suggestions in a way that the conscious mind of your subject responds, without this skill you will not be able to attain your goals as a hypnotist.
The authority strategy gives your subject the will and wants to carry out your hypnotic suggestions, if you are not the authority within their trance the subject will not listen to your suggestions. This skill is fundamental as it will be a large piece of the puzzle that will aide in your success as a hypnotist and allow you to achieve your goals in hypnotism.
Emotional triggers are the way to your subject’s unconscious responses, once you learn to control emotional triggers you will have the power to control the pictures and feelings that govern a subjects mind and ultimately change their life.
This skill will give you access to pictures and feelings from within your subjects mind. As you perfect this skill you will be able to be able to alter feelings that lead to a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life for your subject. This will aide in your objective to create rewarding and wonderful happiness for those who attain your services.
In conversational hypnosis there is often resistance and this brings us to the next fundamental skill you will need to acquire. How you as the hypnotist will destroy this resistance, the most popular way being through the telling of stories.
Destroying resistance through story telling involves you becoming the story teller to bypass the minds usual filtering systems that tell a person, “this is not right”, or “this can’t be happening”. Once you have mastered story telling that will create a hypnotic trance you will be allowed into your subjects mind to place new ideas, perceptions and thoughts dealing with their lives and how they ultimately live them.
Conversational hypnosis will require you to also learn how to deal directly with the unconscious mind; this is done through conversational inductions. This concept is a way to formulate how to induce a trance through conversation, the real core of conversational hypnosis.
Conversational induction will provide you with the skill of moving from normal speech into a conversational hypnotic induction with ease. In doing this you will then be dealing directly with the unconscious mind of your subject which is what your job as a hypnotist is ultimately all about.
This technique will teach you to mold conversation that sounds completely ordinary to others into something much more intense for you and your subject; this in itself will take a grand amount of understanding and skill.

Conversational trance formulas are paramount in the art of hypnosis. These are formulas that will get you exactly where and what you want from your subject. Getting your subject into a trance come very easily to you but then where do you go from there, this is where conversational trance formulas are required.
The formulas consist of the P-CAT formula, which is used for personal change in a subject. This is handy for those rough days, bad times in relationships and even when ending a relationship.
The COMILA formula is used mainly for persuading and influencing people. This formula is helpful to people in their professions such as influencing an individual to want to learn, sales, education, management as well as for general inspiration.
Next in the list of helpful formulas is the LIFE checklist. This is a checklist developed to help you know you are actually engaged in a hypnotic conversation. The LIFE check list consists of four steps that will help you identify quickly and efficiently that hypnosis is underway.
Conversational hypnosis will also require you to master such techniques as “future memories” and “stacking realities”. Future memories are memories you place in your hypnotized subject’s mind that have not taken place yet.
The goal is that they will become memories as the subjects unconscious brings them to their conscious mind as events that have already happened. The art in this is to make the future memory so compelling that the unconscious mind will want the memory to have happened and eventually follow your suggestion to make the memory a real instance that has happened in the past.
“Stacking realities” and “accidental trance identification” are other techniques that help hypnotists to slip past the resistance and interference within a subjects mind that prevent hypnosis.
Advanced frame control will also be paramount to master. This is the art of leading all your hypnotic interactions in the direction you desire. Without this skill you will not be able to control the direction of conversation, hampering your goal of creating a more peaceful, happy, healthy mindset for your subjects. All of these strategies, once mastered, will help you in the ease of your conversational hypnosis.
There are many exciting and great skills involved in becoming a successful conversational hypnotist, while this information may seem overwhelming at first it is just a taste of the powerful skills that you will enjoy perfecting as you assume your role as a hypnotist.
Once mastered many of these skills will provide you with a life time of learning and development personally and professionally, as well as help you to change lives for the better.

Hyperactive Siblings of Autistic Kids?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:05:00 +0000

A new study suggests a trend toward developing hyperactivity among typically developing elementary-school-aged siblings of autistic preschoolers, reports Jim Barlow in Medical News Today. The study suports belief that mothers of young, autistic children experience more depression and stress than mothers with typically developing children.

While the impact on older siblings was not statistically significant, the trend may indicate the presence of symptoms associated with broader observable autism characteristics seen in previous studies, states Professor Laura Lee McIntyre, director of the University of Oregon's school psychology program.
The study was published in the March issue of the journal Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities.

Previous research has had mixed results, but many suggest that families dealing with autism, especially siblings of an autistic child, also experience autism like symptom including widespread abnormalities of social interactions, communication and behavior.

The study compared control and experimental groups whose ages, education and socioeconomic situations were virtually identical. Twenty families had a preschooler (ages 2-5 years old) diagnosed with autism and a typically developing older elementary school sibling (6-10); the control group of 23 families did not have an autistic child. Older children with diagnosed learning or mental disabilities were excluded.

"We know there are risk factors, but we don't know if they result from having a child with autism, or if there are genetic predispositions as part of the broader autism picture," McIntyre said. "Are these difficulties the result of child-rearing challenges, or are they negatively impacted because of shared genetic risks? Our sample was very clean, and that's good for science but not necessarily as good for generalizing our findings, but I'm confident with the results we found in this particular sample."

McIntyre, while a professor at Syracuse University, and her doctoral student Nicole Quintero studied families chosen in New York. They looked closely at sibling adjustments, involving social, behavioral and academic performance as recorded by both parents and teachers, and at the well- being of the mothers, whose average age was 36 and 94-95 percent of whom were married. The median age of older siblings was seven and most were first- or second-graders.

"Contrary to what has been found by many researchers, we found that older siblings were pretty well adjusted, with no significant differences in parent-reported or teacher-reported social skills," said McIntyre, who joined the UO's department of special education and clinical sciences in 2009. "These are all typically developing kids."

Teachers, however, reported slightly more behavioral problems for the siblings of children with autism than control siblings. "There was a trend toward significance," she said.

The problems resembled hyperactivity but not at levels generally attributed to attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Teacher reports noted that these children exhibited slightly more fidgeting, movement and attention problems.

"Children with siblings with autism may be experiencing some sub-clinical symptoms of hyperactivity or attention problems," noted McIntyre, an affiliate of the UO's Center for Excellence and Developmental Disabilities, Education, Research and Service. "Parents didn't report seeing such things at home. Teachers see these children in a more structured environment. Siblings of children with autism may be at heightened risk for developing problems, potentially over time."

Siblings of children with autism probably should be watched with appropriate academic supports in place, she said. "Our findings are rather positive overall, but these kids should be on our radar screens. These kids may start school OK, at least those from healthy families, but they may demonstrate difficulties over time. However, it has been shown that around 30 percent of siblings of autistic children have some associated difficulties in behavior, learning or development."

The finding that moms with children with autism were more stressed and depressed in comparison to moms of typically developing preschool children "was not surprising at all," McIntyre said. "That finding is robust in existing literature, so even though this sample involves highly organized, motivated and willing mothers, in comparison to other moms with two or more children, they are reporting more stress and more depression."

Mothers of autistic children, she added, need assistance for day-to-day child-rearing activities to give them some time to be individuals. As part of her research and clinical work at UO's nationally recognized Child and Family Center, she is looking at interventions that support parents and help kids with their daily living skills and behavior management.

The research was partially funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Quintero is now a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Institute on Disability and Human Development.

Reclaiming the Feminine for Survival of Marriage and Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:53:00 +0000

Mindfreak

“One of the most striking and surprising things I observed among traditional Hindus was how bright, happy, and psychologically healthy their children are” said American Robert A.Johnson, a Jungian analyst who lived in both India and Japan.

“ Children in Hindu families are not neurotic; they are not torn within themselves as so many Western children are. They are bathed constantly in human affection, and they sense a peaceful flow of affection between their mother and father.

They sense the stability, the enduring quality of their family. Their parents are commited permanently; they don’t hear their parents asking themselves whether their marriage is “going to work out”; separation and divorce do not float as specters in the air”.

He is of course, describing the traditional Hindu family.

Here he contrasts the West – a West though that has made inroads into the sexual mores of India:

“Dr. Jung once said that medieval man lived by either-or, but that modern person cannot go off to a convent or the Himalayas exclusively to search for spirituality; nor can she /he pour herself/himself exclusively into the family, profession or practicality” said Johnson.

“It is a true task of a truly modern mind to endure both the spiritual and practical as the framework for the life.”

Of course, this more family oriented focus that balances both masculine and feminine dimensions of the psyche is not limited to Hinduism. It is found in torah and Quran, from Taoism to the Hawaiian Islands.

However, in say Islam and Christianity, as in other religions, masculine control of institutions easily crushes the spiritual soul of some.

We are always chasing something in the West and forget that the word for happiness comes from the Scandinavian hap which relates to luck.

“Happiness steams from the the root verb to happen, which implies that our happiness is what happens” wrote in He: Understanding Masculine Psychology.

“Simple people in less complicated parts of the world function in this manner and exhibit a happiness and tranquility that is a puzzle to us. How can peasant in India wich so little to be happy about be happy? Or how can the peon in Mexico, again with so little to be happy about, be as carefree as he appears?”

He criticizes what the calls the Western “misconceptions” of happiness as something external.

Johnson mentions that Alexis de Tocqueville, who came to the early USA to study its democracy.

de Tocqueville “said that we have a misleading idea at the very head of our Constitution: the pursuit of happiness. One cannot pursue happiness; if he does he obscures it. If he will proceed with the human task of life, the relocation of the center of gravity of the personality to something greater outside itself, happiness will be the outcome.”

The point is that it is already there – not waiting to be chased down.

In casing things down we risk being an archaeologist of the soul. In seeking the depth within, we risk partly destroying the very thing we seek to discover.

When it comes to marriage the external approach to love and happiness has Western couples looking in two different directions, neither seeking their united spiritual soul.

“One may view a marriage as two people standing back to back , each protecting the other in a particular way” wrote Johnson in She: Understanding Feminine Psychology. (She? Whenever I addressed someone as she my mother corrected me – “She is the cat’s mother”)

“When a marriage begins the partners are like two discrete circles overlapping a little. The division between the two is great and each has a specific task. As the marriage partners grow older, each learns a bit of other’s genius, and finally the two circles overlap more and more.”

Consider the spiritual direction of the feminine psyche:

“It is the feminine task to protect not only herself but her man and her family from the dangers of inner world; moods, inflations, excesses, vulnerabilities, and what used to be called possessions.

“There are the things a woman’s genius can manage much better that a man’s. Usually he has his own task in facing the outer world and keeping the family safe” he said.

“There is a particular danger in the modern attitude in which both people face the our world, both spend their time in outer things. This leaves their inner world unprotected and many dangers creep into the household through this unprotected quarter.”

It is for this reason I am concerned that Indian youth is, for the moment at least, bent on chasing Western freedom as sexual mores.

The dynamic masculine energy of the West seems al conquering.

The delicate flower of the sensitive soul is crushed waiting for an opportunity of regrowth.

Let us not forget the advice of Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee:

“This is why the wisdom of the feminine is so important, because the feminine understands the dynamics of relationship, how to listen and be receptive” he said.

“Feminine consciousness is more attuned to the life of the body, and so knows the rhythms that belong to the cycles of life, rather than the systems imposed by will that are presently strangling our world. The feminine is more instinctively and naturally attuned to life, its patterns and powers. And feminine consciousness is less dominated by reason, more open to the mystery of the symbolic inner world. The feminine is vital in this work of awakening”

- Alchemy of Light: Working with the Primal Energies of Life

Perhaps this is part of the message of spirituality.

"And the Mother,

the prototype

of all existence,

is the Eternal Spirit,

full of beauty

and love."

- Kahlil Gibran

"The paradise is under the feet of mothers."

- Prophet Muhammad

The Valley of Spirit never dies. It is named the Mysterious Female. And the Doorway of the Mysterious Female is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang. It is there within us all the while; Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.

- Tao Te Ching 6

"God is never seen immaterially; and the vision of Him in woman is the most perfect of all."

- Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi

"I can see as clear as a daylight that the hour is coming when women will lead humanity to a higher evolution."

- Hazrat Inayat Khan's vision in the year 1914-18

"We have denied the spirit of the earth, and that spirit of the earth has to appear in woman. The meeting of the spirit of the earth and the spirit of the other world is one of the great moments that, I believe, will come in the future history of culture."

- Cecil Collins

He who has realized God ... perceives clearly that women are but so many aspects of the Divine Mother. He adores them all ... Women are, all of them, the veritable images of ?akti.

Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: "O God, Thou art the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I am Thy child." Or again: "Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a part." - Sri Ramakrishna

O, Mother of the Universe, those who praise you by the words: Ambika, Jaganmayi and Maya, will obtain all.

- Kalika Purana

O humanity! ... revere the sacredness of the womb that bore you.

- The Quran, An-Nisa (The Woman) 4:1

Perhaps we can again reflect on Robert A. Johnson from hisbook We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love

So much of our lives is spent in a longing and a search – for what, we don’t know. So many of our ostensible “goals”, so many of the things we think we want, turn out to be the masks behind which our real desires hide; they are symbols for the actual values and qualities for which we hunger.

They are not reducible to physical or material things, not even to a physical person; they are psychological qualities; love, truth, honesty, loyalty, purpose – something we can feel is noble, precious, and worthy of our devotion. We try to reduce all this to something physical – a house, a car, a better job, or a human being – but it doesn’t work.

Without realizing it, we are searching the Sacred. And the sacred is not reducible to anything else.

A Terrorist Destroyed My Valentine’s Day

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:28:00 +0000

I was going to ask you about your Valentine’s Day. I wanted to ask you if you were able to give your lover what they moist yearned for.

Did you enjoy a beautiful, caring and sharing time together in intimate serenity was thepurpose of this message.

I wish I could tell you my Valentine’s Day was wonderful,

Valentine’s Day, day of love and a celebration of appreciation for all things beautiful in your partner, was for me saddened by an explosion.

The Indian city of Pune, my fiancé Rachana’s home city, was rocked by an explosion in a popular German Bakery on the evening of the 13th. The suburb of Koregaon Park houses the Osho Ashram and a Jewish prayer house led by Chabad emissary Rabbi Kupchik.

Rachana is safe and there is no point asking why on a personal level. Knowing the reasons behind the attack may help discover the perpetrators of nine murders.

However, it will not heal the 60 injured.

There is a lot to be gained by asking What Next? How can I turn this emotional sledging into a powerful to be a better partner, husband, lover and friend.

I had initially intended this news letter to be about Valentine’s Day. I wanted to ask you how did you celebrate (– by the way please let us know!) I want to know what you do to get your man and keep him.

However, in all relationships there are challenges. Some are caused by distance, others by circumstance and more often we harm ourselves.

It seems to me that the lesson to be learned is the power of appreciation.

Marketing professor Jeff Galak of Carnegie Mellon University claimed lover are like little children who suffer from “variety amnesia” and like forget the past variety and excitement of their past shared love.

Dr David Sanford goes so far as to suggest that a marriage that has lulled into a void of routine may lack fights, but then if it lacks the excitement of emotional exchange it can be just as dead.

While I think there are better ways to handle love than argue he makes a strong point

‘”No troubles at all” may mean no challenge, no emotion, no surprises, no change; in other words boring. Some marriages do die of boredom he states.

That is why some ‘perfect’ marriages just seem to end.

However, as an aside, most infidelity comes in the first two years of a relationship and not when marriage has become tired and boring.

So how can you love thrive under challenge?

Dana Hudapohl asked a bunch of experts for Redbook and listed five important ingredients.

You see it seems that it’s more common to unintentionally wind up in an affair.

Now before you email me with the obvious ‘Surely an affair is no accident!’ line, couples therapist and psychology professor Douglas Snyder explains that when people are suffering the inevitable distress reaching out needing consolation when it seems that their lover is unavailable.

Perhaps you have had a fight and the young girl in the office just seems to understand her maternal caring spirit is awaken to your need for nurture.

Or you are met by a very sympathetic – and good looking tradesperson who sympathizes in your moments of isolation.

“People who have accidental affairs have no thoughts of being unfaithful,” says Snyder. “It’s not even consistent with their values system, but the opportunity presents itself.”

While I assure you no Pune bomb will tempt me into the arms of another, it is important to find solace in your lover rather than to seek greener pastures.

Rather than pretend it will never happen to me, one of the best way to resist temptation is self analysis.

“Here’s the best way to prevent affairs” says marriage therapist Barry McCarthy. “Rather than saying, ‘We will never have one,’ instead think of the kind of person, situation and mood that would make you vulnerable,”

We must know what situations to avoid and what qualities to develop.

Dana Hudapohl advises

1. Be each other’s number one confidant. Emotional intimacy should remain with your partner alone, not a shared confidant of the opposite sex.

2. Make time to connect on a regular basis.

3. Don’t let family time squeeze out just-the-two-of-you time..

4. Recognize when you’re temporarily attracted to someone else. It doesn’t mean you r marriage is doomed – you simply don’t act on it.

5. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and your relationship. If you need a confidant, have friend who will support and encourage you to stick together, not a worry buddy who will let you spill your guts about your lover.

While the above advice is mostly relationship protective, how can you build on the emotional glue to love?

There is a great danger in developing negative neurological associations with your lover. In a relationship where you see each other daily, this is so easy to do.

Fear can add to the problem.

For some reason, you are angry with your spouse. You have a choice, talk about it, or bottle it up.

One way may seem counterintuitive. If you feel upset with your partner bottling it up will only numb your emotional flexibility, said David Sanford.

While It may prevent a potential issue at first, it is better to express your feeling appropriately.

Otherwise, we will develop a well of negative association with our partner.

How can you talk to a woman when you unexplainably numbed in her presence?

Suddenly the mere name of your lover, that once excited passionate heaven sent ecstasy, now recalls a numbed fear based uncertainty that is anchored in your neurology.

She becomes a function of life – the peripheral ‘mother of my children’ or he is ‘the old man.’

Work, while important to sustain the family, becomes our a source of satisfaction, with family placed a distant second or third.

The multidimensional facet’s of dynamic love life, more faceted than the moist beautiful diamond ring, becomes a one dimensional flat façade. We sleep, eat even have sex together, but love becomes a vague hazy memory.

Predictable and boring the love that set us free in the heavens can crash land in mediocrity.

Or we can look within and find the stimulating energy that empowers yourself and refuels your love.

“Finally, you are forced to suffer a boring marriage when you don’t know how to make it interesting” said David Sanford.

“As a nation, we have become so dependent on the “entertainment industry” for stimulation that we have lost the ability to stimulate ourselves and, thus, to draw forth what is interesting in our partners.”

So whether you Valentine’s was perfect, or was explosively disrupted, can you – Both of you – empower the creative imaginative flare within each other?

Remember, if fear can be anchored in to your neurology, so can excitement and love.

When we first are attracted to someone, what was that magical spark that caught your eye? Usually it was something vibrant and exciting.

Have you ever watched a man or woman worth animal magnetism?

They find energy, begin a conversation , keep the energy high and never allow a potential suitor to experience an awkward silence or negative feeling with them.

They enjoy an inner game of psychological mastery that is irresistible. The trick is to retain those skills in normal family life.

They anchor, layer upon layer, positive feelings about themselves. Soon they appear irresistible.

However, the reverse is also true. Relationships may survive big drama’s – but it’s the constant destroying negativity that eats away at love. Those little, and often ignored, feelings that numb us.

So layer love and joy with your soul mate. Find in every joyful smile a moment to celebrate. Seek in his actions every little moment to show gratitude and build stitch by stitch, kindness by kindness, the majestic cloak of love – a royal raiment of devotion crowned by love, appreciation and passion.

Don’t just get your woman, or get your man.

Get your man and keep him

Find the woman of your dreams, layer appreciation and gratitude upon her in every word you speak. Every time she thinks of you will bring back a smile to her face and renew in that moment your passion and devotion.

Better by far you forget and smile than you should remember and be sad - Christina Rosetti

Brain Dopamine Receptor Density Correlates With Social Status

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:17:00 +0000

People have typically viewed the benefits that accrue with social status primarily from the perspective of external rewards. A new paper
in the February 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier suggests that there are internal rewards as well.

Dr. Martinez and colleagues found that increased social status and
increased social support correlated with the density of dopamine D2/D3
receptors in the striatum, a region of the brain that plays a central
role in reward and motivation, where dopamine plays a critical role in
both of these behavioral processes.

The researchers looked at social status and social support in
normal healthy volunteers who were scanned using positron emission
tomography (PET), a technology that allowed them to image dopamine type
2 receptors in the brain.

This data suggests that people who achieve greater
social status are more likely to be able to experience life as
rewarding and stimulating because they have more targets for dopamine
to act upon within the striatum.

Dr. Martinez explains their findings: "We showed that low
levels of dopamine receptors were associated with low social status and
that high levels of dopamine receptors were associated with higher
social status. The same type of association was seen with the
volunteer's reports of social support they experience from their
friends, family, or significant other."

Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry
commented, "These data shed interesting light into the drive to achieve
social status, a basic social process. It would make sense that people
who had higher levels of D2 receptors, i.e., were more highly motivated
and engaged by social situations, would be high achievers and would
have higher levels of social support."

These data also may have implications for understanding the
vulnerability to alcohol and substance abuse, as the work of Dr. Nora
Volkow, the Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and
colleagues suggests that low levels of D2/D3 receptors may contribute
to the risk for alcoholism among individuals who have family members
who abuse alcohol. The current data suggest that vulnerable individuals
with low D2/D3 receptors may be vulnerable to lower social status and
social supports, and these social factors have previously been
suggested as contributors to the risk for alcohol and substance use.

These findings are particularly exciting because they put
human neurobiology into a social context, and we humans are
fundamentally social creatures. It is in these social contexts that the
biological effects on behavior obtain their real meaning.

Martinez et al. "Dopamine Type 2/3 Receptor Availability in the Striatum and Social Status in Human Volunteers." Biological Psychiatry, 2010; 67 (3): 275 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.07.037

8 Reasons for Success

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:18:00 +0000

Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of
success.

"This is really a two hour presentation I give to high school students, cut down to three minutes.

And it all started one day on a plane, on my way to TED, seven years ago. And in the seat next to me was a high school student, a teenager, and she came from a really poor family. And she wanted to
make something of her life, and she asked me a simple little question.

She said, "What leads to success?" And I felt really badly, because I couldn't give her a good answer. So I get off the plane, and I come to TED. And
I think, jeez, I'm in the middle of a room of successful people! So why don't I
ask them what helped them succeed, and pass it on to kids?

So here we are, seven years, 500 interviews later, and I'm gonna tell you what really leads to success and makes TED-sters tick.

And the first thing is passion. Freeman Thomas says, "I'm driven by my passion." TED-sters do it for love, they don't do it for money.

Carol Coletta says, "I would pay someone to do what I do." And the interesting thing is, if you do it for love, the money comes anyway.

Work! Rupert Murdoch said to me, "It's all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun." Did he say fun? Rupert? Yes! TED-sters do have fun working. And they work hard. I figured, they're not
workaholics. They're workafrolics. Good!

Alex Garden says, "To be successful put your nose down in something and get damn good at it." There's no magic, it's practice, practice, practice.

And it's focus. Norman Jewison said to me, "I think it all has to do with focusing yourself on one thing"

And push!

David Gallo says, "Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you've gotta push, push, push." You gotta push through shyness and self-doubt.

Goldie Hawn says, "I always had self-doubts. I wasn't good enough, I wasn't smart enough. I didn't think I'd make it." Now it's not always easy to push yourself, and that's why they invented mothers.
(Laughter)

Frank Gehry -- Frank Gehry said to me, "My mother pushed me."

Serve!

Sherwin Nuland says, "It was a privilege to serve as a doctor." Now a lot of kids tell me they want to be millionaires. And the first thing I say to them is, "OK, well you can't serve yourself, you
gotta serve others something of value. Because that's the way people really get
rich."

Ideas.

TED-ster Bill Gates says, "I had an idea -- founding the first micro-computer software company." I'd say it was a pretty good idea. And there's no magic to creativity in coming up with ideas, it's just doing
some very simple things. And I give lots of evidence.

Persist.

Joe Kraus says, "Persistence is the number one reason for our success." You gotta persist through failure.

You gotta persist through crap! Which of course means "Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure." (Laughter)

So, the big -- the answer to this question is simple: Pay 4,000 bucks and come to TED. Or failing that, do the eight things -- and trust me, these are the big eight things that lead to success.

Thank you TED-sters for all your interviews!

Treating depression by stimulating the pleasure center

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:22:00 +0000

Even with the best of available treatments, over a third of patients with depression may not achieve a satisfactory antidepressant response. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of targeted electrical stimulation in the brain via implanted electrodes, is now undergoing careful testing to determine whether it could play a role in the treatment of patients who have not sufficiently improved during more traditional forms of treatment.

A major challenge of this work is determining the best region of the brain to stimulate. Some researchers stimulate the subgenual prefrontal cortex, a brain region implicated in depressed mood states, while others stimulate a region called the "anterior limb of the internal capsule", a nerve pathway that passes through the basal ganglia, a lower brain region.

Physicians publishing a new report in Biological Psychiatry now describe findings related to the stimulation of the nucleus accumbens, a brain region the size of a hazelnut associated with reward and motivation that is implicated in processing pleasurable stimuli, sometimes referred to as the "pleasure center" of the brain.

The inability to experience pleasure is a key symptom of depression and previous studies have shown that functioning of the nucleus accumbens is impaired in depressed individuals.

Bewernick and colleagues administered DBS treatment in ten patients with severe long-term depression who had not responded to multiple other antidepressant treatments, including psychotherapy, drug treatments and electroconvulsive treatment.

After one year of DBS, all patients showed some improvement, and half of them experienced significant improvement in their symptoms of depression, astonishing considering they had not responded to any prior antidepressant treatment. In addition, the patients showed reduced ratings of anxiety and had only minor side effects.

Importantly, none of their overall brain functioning was impaired by the DBS treatment.

"The nucleus accumbens is a brain region that animals will seek to stimulate even if they do not appear depressed and this is one reason that it is sometimes referred to as a reward center" said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry.
"It is interesting to note that the patients in this study did not simply feel stimulated or euphoric; instead, there appeared to be reductions in depressed mood that paralleled an increase in the capacity for pleasure" he said.

"This finding will stimulate further study on the role of the nucleus accumbens in depression and its treatment."

The authors caution that because they studied only a small number of people, further research is necessary before DBS could be considered a clinically useful treatment for treatment-resistant depression.

There are also important ethical considerations, since DBS treatment first requires potentially risky brain surgery. However, these preliminary findings are promising that DBS may provide relief to individuals with severe treatment-resistant depression.

Oscar, Furry Angel of Death

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:56:00 +0000

"Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscarthe Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residentsare about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deathsof more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere HouseNursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island.His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians andnursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impendingdeath, allowing staff members to adequately notify families.Oscar has also provided companionship to those who would otherwisehave died alone. For his work, he is highly regarded by thephysicians and staff at Steere House and by the families ofthe residents whom he serves."

- New England Journal of Medicine

Oscar, an aloof cat kept at a US nursing home, regularly predicted patient's deaths by snuggling alongside them in their final hours, a scientist says.

Dr David Dosa says he initially was sceptical but his doubts disappeared after he and his colleagues tallied about 50 correct calls made by Oscar over five years.

The process is the subject of a new book - Making Rounds With Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat.

The feline's bizarre talent astounds Dosa, but he finds Oscar's real worth in his fierce insistence on being present when others turn away from life's most uncomfortable topic: death.

"People actually were taking great comfort in this idea, that this animal was there and might be there when their loved ones eventually pass," Dosa said.

"He was there when they couldn't be."

Dosa, 37, is a geriatrician and professor who treats patients with severe dementia. It's usually the last stop for people so ill they cannot speak or recognise their spouses, and so spend their days lost in fragments of memory.

He once feared that families would be horrified by the furry grim reaper, especially after Dosa made Oscar famous in a 2007 essay in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Instead, he says many caregivers consider Oscar a comforting presence, and some have praised him in newspaper death notices and eulogies.

"Maybe they're seeing what they want to see," he said, "but what they're seeing is a comfort to them in a real difficult time in their lives".

The nursing home adopted Oscar, a medium-haired cat with a grey and brown back and white belly, in 2005 because its staff thinks pets make the Steere House a home. They play with visiting children and prove a welcome distraction for patients and doctors alike.

After a year, the staff noticed that Oscar would spend his days pacing from room to room. He sniffed and looked at the patients but rarely spent much time with anyone - except when they had just hours to live.

He's accurate enough that the staff - including Dosa - know it's time to call family members when Oscar stretches beside their patients, who are generally too ill to notice his presence.

If kept outside the room of a dying patient, he'll scratch at doors and walls, trying to get in.

Nurses once placed Oscar in the bed of a patient they thought gravely ill. Oscar wouldn't stay put, and the staff thought his streak was broken. Turns out the medical professionals were wrong, and the patient rallied for two more days. But in the final hours, Oscar held his bedside vigil without prompting.

Dosa does not explain Oscar scientifically in his book, although he theorises the cat imitates the nurses who raised him or smells odours given off by dying cells, perhaps like some dogs who scientists say can detect cancer using their sense of scent.

Dosa says several patients in his book are partly fictional, though the names and stories of the caregivers he interviews are real and many feel guilty.

Donna Richards told Dosa that she felt guilty for putting her mother in a nursing home. She felt guilty for not visiting enough. When caring for her mother, Richards felt guilty about missing her teenage son's swimming lessons.

Richards was at her mother's bedside nonstop when she knew she was nearing her end. But after three days, a nurse persuaded her to go home for a brief rest. Despite her misgivings, Richards agreed. Her mother died a short while later.

But she didn't die alone. Oscar was there.

(Source: Adapted from yahoonews)

Better by far you forget and smile than you should remember and be sad - Christina Rosetti

Weight training improves cognitive function in seniors

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:14:00 +0000

Weight-bearing exercises may help minimize cognitive decline and impaired mobility in seniors concludes a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study is one of the first randomized controlled trials of progressively intensive resistance training in senior women aged 65 to 75 was by the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia.
12 months of once-weekly or twice-weekly resistance training improved executive cognitive function in senior women
Executive cognitive functions are cognitive abilities necessary for independent living.
"We were able to demonstrate that simple training with weights that seniors can easily handle improved ability to make accurate decisions quickly," Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, researcher at the Centre and assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.
Also a researcher at the Brain Research Centre at UBC she “found that the exercises led to increased walking speed, a predictor of considerable reduction in mortality."
Previous research demonstrated that aerobic exercise, such as walking or swimming enhances brain and cognitive function. However, this does not help seniors with limited mobility.
Previously, there had been little research on the benefits of resistance training on cognitive function.
As Western populations are aging, cognitive decline is a major health issue and a key risk factor for falls and fall-related hip injuries.

Want to Smoke? Exercise Instead

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:09:00 +0000

So you want to light up a cigarette? Well go and exercise. According to Dr. Harry Prapavessis, Director of Western's new Exercise and Health Psychology Laboratory, exercise can help you quit the habit for good.their smoking habit – for good.
Dr. Harry Prapavessis and his team have shown that supervised exercise in addition to pharmacological agents like nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) helps smoking cessation, improves physical fitness, and delays weight gain in women smokers.

“It can help smokers fight weight gain and deal with the other symptoms of nicotine withdrawal,” says Prapavessis.

"However, as with all smoking cessation intervention, relapse effects after stopping the program are common problems" said Prapavessis who was named Canadian Cancer Society Researcher of the Month of January 2010.
In a recent study, 70% of women had stopped smoking at the end of the 12-week program, but after one year, only 27% remained abstinent.

Unfortunately, the research revealed that once an organized program ends, most people will relapse. If exercise continues, it helps people stay tobacco free.

"This suggests that exercise needs to be maintained for individuals to continue to kick the habit" he said.
"It is important to determine whether inexpensive home and community-based lifestyle exercise maintenance programs can maintain exercise, fitness and weight after cessation program termination, and hence prevent (reduce) smoking relapse".
"This research project will not only contribute to a better understanding of the role exercise plays as a smoking cessation aid” said Mary Jung, part of Prapavessis team and a Canadian Institutes of Heath Research (CIHR) post-doctoral fellow. “it will also explore a means of increasing the cost-effectiveness of long-term smoking cessation programs.”

A Kabbalistic Reality Check

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:26:00 +0000

All Who Dismisses, Dismisses His Own Flaw

How does the distribution between what is inside of me and what is outside of me help me with my spiritual development?

It is known that every mother always sees her children as the smartest, most beautiful, and successful kids in the whole world. On the other hand, if we observe her attitude towards the neighbors' kids, we will obviously see a totally different attitude. In fact this phenomenon exists in every one of us-the attributes that belong to us get a different outlook, one much less critical than attributes outside of us are scrutinized with. Even if I hate certain characteristics in me, laziness, flattery, shyness, etc., I try to give them some sort of excuse: "no choice", "it's part of me," or "I will have to put up with it," etc.. However, when I see these characteristics in others, in those that are outside of me, it is met with eruptions of anger and great hatred. These characteristics are magnified when they show up outside of me, to the point that I want to tear them out of their place.

The Wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that all of reality takes place within a person, and that it is divided in to "internal" and "external." What is felt as internal are usually desires, thoughts, tendencies, attributes, and physical and emotional sensations, and what is felt as more external are others.

In that case, why was reality divided into "internal" and "external," "I" and "others;" if everything is really taking place inside of me?

Because in what is "outside of me" and doesn't belong to me, I have a natural tendency to discover negative attributes, and to treat in a more critical matter, a "cleaner" matter. On the other hand, the attributes that belong to me, for the most part I try not to expose in this manner, the interaction with others helps one understand and clarify the negative attributes in him in a sharper and more powerful way. With experience, man reaches the conclusion that, "all who dismisses, dismisses his own flaw"-all the attributes that are despised by him out there, are in fact inside him.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that the division into these two forms, of relation to internal and external, are to allow a person to reveal the true property of the Creator, the property of love and bestowal, through revealing man's opposite properties-the property of reception for oneself. His attitude towards what is "inside him" suits the property of reception in him. On the other hand, his attitude towards what is "outside him" suits his attitude to the property of bestowal.

Man's inability to love what is outside him like himself, reveals to him the gap between him and the Creator who loves and bestows to all without any thought of Himself. This brings him to the request to be released from the shackles of the property of self-reception. In this way he acquires a new property, and discovers with it, a new reality in which all people are connected in one desire and in love for one another.

Does Education Kill Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:24:00 +0000

Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."

A visionary cultural leader, Sir Ken led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. His latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, a deep look at human creativity and education, was published in January 2009.

Good morning. How are you? It's been great, hasn't it? I've been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I'm leaving. (Laughter) There have been three themes, haven't there, running through the conference, which are relevant to what I want to talk about. One is the extraordinary evidence of human creativity in all of the presentations that we've had and in all of the people here. Just the variety of it and the range of it. The second is that it's put us in a place where we have no idea what's going to happen, in terms of the future. No idea how this may play out.

I have an interest in education -- actually, what I find is everybody has an interest in education. Don't you? I find this very interesting. If you're at a dinner party, and you say you work in education -- actually, you're not often at dinner parties, frankly, if you work in education. (Laughter) You're not asked. And you're never asked back, curiously. That's strange to me. But if you are, and you say to somebody, you know, they say, "What do you do?" and you say you work in education, you can see the blood run from their face. They're like, "Oh my God," you know, "Why me? My one night out all week." (Laughter) But if you ask about their education, they pin you to the wall. Because it's one of those things that goes deep with people, am I right? Like religion, and money and other things. I have a big interest in education, and I think we all do. We have a huge vested interest in it, partly because it's education that's meant to take us into this future that we can't grasp. If you think of it, children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue -- despite all the expertise that's been on parade for the past four days -- what the world will look like in five years' time. And yet we're meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.

And the third part of this is that we've all agreed, nonetheless, on the really extraordinary capacities that children have -- their capacities for innovation. I mean, Sirena last night was a marvel, wasn't she? Just seeing what she could do. And she's exceptional, but I think she's not, so to speak, exceptional in the whole of childhood. What you have there is a person of extraordinary dedication who found a talent. And my contention is, all kids have tremendous talents. And we squander them, pretty ruthlessly. So I want to talk about education and I want to talk about creativity. My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. (Applause) Thank you. That was it, by the way. Thank you very much. (Laughter) So, 15 minutes left. Well, I was born ... no. (Laughter)

I heard a great story recently -- I love telling it -- of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was six and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, "What are you drawing?" And the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl said, "They will in a minute." (Laughter)

When my son was four in England -- actually he was four everywhere, to be honest. (Laughter) If we're being strict about it, wherever he went, he was four that year. He was in the Nativity play. Do you remember the story? No, it was big. It was a big story. Mel Gibson did the sequel. You may have seen it: "Nativity II." But James got the part of Joseph, which we were thrilled about. We considered this to be one of the lead parts. We had the place crammed full of agents in T-shirts: "James Robinson IS Joseph!" (Laughter) He didn't have to speak, but you know the bit where the three kings come in. They come in bearing gifts, and they bring gold, frankincense and myrhh. This really happened. We were sitting there and I think they just went out of sequence, because we talked to the little boy afterward and we said, "You OK with that?" And he said, "Yeah, why? Was that wrong?" They just switched, that was it. Anyway, the three boys came in -- four-year-olds with tea towels on their heads -- and they put these boxes down, and the first boy said, "I bring you gold." And the second boy said, "I bring you myrhh." And the third boy said, "Frank sent this." (Laughter)

What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. Now, I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. If you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this, by the way. We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this. He said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it. So why is this?

I lived in Stratford-on-Avon until about five years ago. In fact, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles. So you can imagine what a seamless transition that was. (Laughter) Actually, we lived in a place called Snitterfield, just outside Stratford, which is where Shakespeare's father was born. Are you struck by a new thought? I was. You don't think of Shakespeare having a father, do you? Do you? Because you don't think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? Shakespeare being seven? I never thought of it. I mean, he was seven at some point. He was in somebody's English class, wasn't he? How annoying would that be? (Laughter) "Must try harder." Being sent to bed by his dad, you know, to Shakespeare, "Go to bed, now," to William Shakespeare, "and put the pencil down. And stop speaking like that. It's confusing everybody." (Laughter)

Anyway, we moved from Stratford to Los Angeles, and I just want to say a word about the transition, actually. My son didn't want to come. I've got two kids. He's 21 now; my daughter's 16. He didn't want to come to Los Angeles. He loved it, but he had a girlfriend in England. This was the love of his life, Sarah. He'd known her for a month. Mind you, they'd had their fourth anniversary, because it's a long time when you're 16. Anyway, he was really upset on the plane, and he said, "I'll never find another girl like Sarah." And we were rather pleased about that, frankly, because she was the main reason we were leaving the country. (Laughter)

But something strikes you when you move to America and when you travel around the world: Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn't matter where you go. You'd think it would be otherwise, but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on Earth. And in pretty much every system too, there's a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance every day to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance. Children dance all the time if they're allowed to, we all do. We all have bodies, don't we? Did I miss a meeting? (Laughter) Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.

If you were to visit education, as an alien, and say "What's it for, public education?" I think you'd have to conclude -- if you look at the output, who really succeeds by this, who does everything that they should, who gets all the brownie points, who are the winners -- I think you'd have to conclude the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors. Isn't it? They're the people who come out the top. And I used to be one, so there. (Laughter) And I like university professors, but you know, we shouldn't hold them up as the high-water mark of all human achievement. They're just a form of life, another form of life. But they're rather curious, and I say this out of affection for them. There's something curious about professors in my experience -- not all of them, but typically -- they live in their heads. They live up there, and slightly to one side. They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads, don't they? (Laughter) It's a way of getting their head to meetings. If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics, and pop into the discotheque on the final night. (Laughter) And there you will see it -- grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat, waiting until it ends so they can go home and write a paper about it.

Now our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. And there's a reason. The whole system was invented -- around the world, there were no public systems of education, really, before the 19th century. They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician; don't do art, you won't be an artist. Benign advice -- now, profoundly mistaken. The whole world is engulfed in a revolution. And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities designed the system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can't afford to go on that way.

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history. More people, and it's the combination of all the things we've talked about -- technology and its transformation effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion in population. Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. Isn't that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn't have a job it's because you didn't want one. And I didn't want one, frankly. (Laughter) But now kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games, because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. It's a process of academic inflation. And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.

We know three things about intelligence. One, it's diverse. We think about the world in all the ways that we experience it. We think visually, we think in sound, we think kinesthetically. We think in abstract terms, we think in movement. Secondly, intelligence is dynamic. If you look at the interactions of a human brain, as we heard yesterday from a number of presentations, intelligence is wonderfully interactive. The brain isn't divided into compartments. In fact, creativity -- which I define as the process of having original ideas that have value -- more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

The brain is intentionally -- by the way, there's a shaft of nerves that joins the two halves of the brain called the corpus callosum. It's thicker in women. Following off from Helen yesterday, I think this is probably why women are better at multi-tasking. Because you are, aren't you? There's a raft of research, but I know it from my personal life. If my wife is cooking a meal at home -- which is not often, thankfully. (Laughter) But you know, she's doing -- no, she's good at some things -- but if she's cooking, you know, she's dealing with people on the phone, she's talking to the kids, she's painting the ceiling, she's doing open-heart surgery over here. If I'm cooking, the door is shut, the kids are out, the phone's on the hook, if she comes in I get annoyed. I say, "Terry, please, I'm trying to fry an egg in here. Give me a break." (Laughter) Actually, you know that old philosophical thing, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it happen? Remember that old chestnut? I saw a great t-shirt really recently which said, "If a man speaks his mind in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?" (Laughter)

And the third thing about intelligence is, it's distinct. I'm doing a new book at the moment called "Epiphany," which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. I'm fascinated by how people got to be there. It's really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who maybe most people have never heard of, she's called Gillian Lynne, have you heard of her? Some have. She's a choreographer and everybody knows her work. She did "Cats," and "Phantom of the Opera." She's wonderful. I used to be on the board of the Royal Ballet, in England, as you can see. Anyway, Gillian and I had lunch one day and I said, "Gillian, how'd you get to be a dancer?" And she said it was interesting, when she was at school, she was really hopeless. And the school, in the '30s, wrote to her parents and said, "We think Gillian has a learning disorder." She couldn't concentrate, she was fidgeting. I think now they'd say she had ADHD. Wouldn't you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadn't been invented at this point. It wasn't an available condition. (Laughter) People weren't aware they could have that.

Anyway, she went to see this specialist. So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother, and she was led and sat on a chair at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes while this man talked to her mother about all the problems Gillian was having at school. And at the end of it -- because she was disturbing people, her homework was always late, and so on, little kid of eight -- in the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, "Gillian, I've listened to all these things that your mother's told me, and I need to speak to her privately." He said, "Wait here, we'll be back, we won't be very long." and they went and left her. But as they went out the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk. And when they got out the room, he said to her mother, "Just stand and watch her." And the minute they left the room, she said, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her mother and said, "Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick, she's a dancer. Take her to a dance school."

I said, "What happened?" She said, "She did. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. We walked in this room and it was full of people like me. People who couldn't sit still. People who had to move to think." Who had to move to think. They did ballet, they did tap, they did jazz, they did modern, they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School, she became a soloist, she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School and founded her own company -- the Gillian Lynne Dance Company -- met Andrew Lloyd Weber. She's been responsible for some of the most successful musical theater productions in history, she's given pleasure to millions, and she's a multi-millionaire. Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down.

Now, I think ... (Applause) What I think it comes to is this: Al Gore spoke the other night about ecology, and the revolution that was triggered by Rachel Carson. I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children. There was a wonderful quote by Jonas Salk, who said, "If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish." And he's right.

What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely, and that we avert some of the scenarios scenarios that we've talked about. And the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are, and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way -- we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it. Thank you very much.

Coffee Good For Over Seventies

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:34:00 +0000

Caffeine Consumption and Cognitive Function at Age 70: The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 Study
Janie Corley , MA, Xueli Jia , PhD, Janet A. M. Kyle , PhD, Alan J. Gow , PhD, Caroline E. Brett , MSc, John M. Starr , MA, FRCPE, Geraldine McNeill , PhD, Ian J. Deary , PhD, FRCPE

A study published in the journal <i><a href="http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/PSY.0b013e3181c92a9cv1" target="_blank">Psychosomatic Medicine</a></i> has found that drinking ground coffee positiveley effectis cognitive skills.

positive association, however, was found between drinking ground coffee (filter and espresso) and performance on the Reading and IQ scores.

THe study examined 923 adults from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 Study who had been tested for IQ at age 11.
Cognitive function at age 70 years was assessed, using tests measuring general cognitive ability, speed of information processing, and memory.

It is rare to have such a largesample of childhood IQ scores for older people.

Current caffeine consumption, measured by multiple measures of tea, coffee, and total dietary caffeines obtained by self-report questionnaire. Demographic and health information was collected in a standardized interview.

The study found significant positive associations between total caffeine intake and general cognitive ability and memory.in ag- and sex-adjusted models.
After adjusting for their scores at age 11, social class, both individually and together, most of these variables were nonsignificant.
A 'robust positive association' was found between drinking ground coffee and performance on the National Adult Reading Test (NART, p = .007), and the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR, p = .02).
"Generally, higher cognitive scores were associated with coffee consumption, and lower cognitive scores with tea consumption, but these effects were not significant in the fully adjusted model" stated Psychosomatic Medicine.

The results suggest that the significant caffeine intake-cognitive ability associations are bidirectional—because childhood IQ and estimated prior IQ are associated with the type of caffeine intake in old age—and partly confounded by social class.

Yoga Reduces Levels of Inflammation Causing Cytokine

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Ohio State University Press Release
Regularly practicing yoga exercises may lower a number of compounds in the blood and reduce the level of inflammation that normally rises because of both normal aging and stress, a new study has shown.
The study, done by Ohio State University researchers and just reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, showed that women who routinely practiced yoga had lower amounts of the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) in their blood.
The women also showed smaller increases in IL-6 after stressful experiences than did women who were the same age and weight but who were not yoga practitioners.
IL-6 is an important part of the body’s inflammatory response and has been implicated in heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, arthritis and a host of other age-related debilitating diseases. Reducing inflammation may provide substantial short- and long-term health benefits, the researchers suggest.
“In addition to having lower levels of inflammation before they were stressed, we also saw lower inflammatory responses to stress among the expert yoga practitioners in the study,” explained Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry and psychology and lead author of the study.
“Hopefully, this means that people can eventually learn to respond less strongly to stressors in their everyday lives by using yoga and other stress-reducing modalities.”
For the study, the researchers assembled a group of 50 women, age 41 on average. They were divided into two groups – “novices,” who had either taken yoga classes or who practiced at home with yoga videos for no more than 6 to 12 sessions, and “experts,” who had practiced yoga one of two times weekly for at least two years and at least twice weekly for the last year.
Each of the women was asked to attend three sessions in the university’s Clinical Research Center at two-week intervals. Each session began with participants filling out questionnaires and completing several psychological tests to gauge mood and anxiety levels.
Each woman also was fitted with a catheter in one arm through which blood samples could be taken several times during the research tasks for later evaluation.
Participants then performed several tasks during each visit designed to increase their stress levels including immersing their foot into extremely cold water for a minute, after which they were asked to solve a series of successively more difficult mathematics problems without paper or pencil.
Following these “stressors,” participants would either participate in a yoga session, walk on treadmill set at a slow pace (.5 miles per hour) designed to mirror the metabolic demands of the yoga session or watch neutral, rather boring videos. The treadmill and video tasks were designed as contrast conditions to the yoga session.
Once the blood samples were analyzed after the study, researchers saw that the women labeled as “novices” had levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 that were 41 percent higher than those in the study’s “experts.”
“In essence, the experts walked into the study with lower levels of inflammation than the novices, and the experts were also better able to limit their stress responses than were the novices,” Kiecolt-Glaser explained.
The researchers did not find the differences they had expected between the novices and experts in their physiological responses to the yoga session.
Co-author Lisa Christian, an assistant professor of psychology, psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology, suggested one possible reason:
“The yoga poses we used were chosen from those thought to be restorative or relaxing. We had to limit the movements to those novices could perform as well as experts.
“Part of the problem with sorting out exactly what makes yoga effective in reducing stress is that if you try to break it down into its components, like the movements or the breathing, it’s hard to say what particular thing is causing the effect,” said Christian, herself a yoga instructor. “That research simply hasn’t been done yet.”
Ron Glaser, a co-author and a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics, said that the study has some fairly clear implications for health.
“We know that inflammation plays a major role in many diseases. Yoga appears to be a simple and enjoyable way to add an intervention that might reduce risks for developing heart disease, diabetes and other age-related diseases” he said.
“This is an easy thing people can do to help reduce their risks of illness.”
Bill Malarkey, an professor of internal medicine and co-author on the study, pointed to the inflexibility that routinely comes with aging.
“Muscles shorten and tighten over time, mainly because of inactivity,” he said. “The stretching and exercise that comes with yoga actually increases a person’s flexibility and that, in turn, allows relaxation which can lower stress.”
Malarkey sees the people’s adoption of yoga or other regular exercise as one of the key solutions to our current health care crisis. “People need to be educated about this. They need to be taking responsibility for their health and how they live. Doing yoga and similar activities can make a difference.”
As a clinician, he says, “Much of my time is being spent simply trying to get people to slow down.”
The researchers’ next step is a clinical trial to see if yoga can improve the health and reduce inflammation that has been linked to debilitating fatigue among breast cancer survivors. They’re seeking 200 women to volunteer for the study that’s funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers Heather Preston, Carrie Houts and Charles Emery were also part of the research team which was supported in part by a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health.