AAKOM

Brain Crash, Brain Reboot, Jill Bolte Taylor and Self Transcendence

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 09:49:00 +0000

I have recently watched Jill Bolte Taylor's interview at TED. Taylor is a neuroanatomist who specializes in the post-mortem examination of the human brain. In 1996 she experienced a stroke and was able to keep lucid enough for long enough to be able to recall her experience. With her scientific training she was able to put together her personal experience with her knowledge of neuroanatomy. This brain-crash has had a profound effect on her view of the mind and the human experience. You can see how emotional she still is about her experience of self-transcendence, which she ascribes to her right brain. It is a wonderful talk full of warmth and humour as her rational mind screams at her that she is in mortal danger whilst part of her is intoxicated with an altered state of mind which she had obviously not experienced before.

The Eastern meditative traditions have had centuries to catalogue and experiment with a variety of states of mind and it would be good for neurologists to read very different theories of mind than those we have inherited during the Christian era. Thankfully, many discoveries being made in the neurosciences make much more sense when seen through the lens of Eastern philosophy. Christian theories of mind, of faith and of religious experiences are deeply flawed and often just plain wrong. They are also damaging to people who have experiences that do not fit in with them but who still feel that they should. To believe the cliché that Eastern philosophy is for old hippies is to ignore over 3,000 years of Indian philosophy. But prejudices are rarely changed through argument alone. Sadly Jill Bolte Taylor had to go through a stroke plus years of therapy, but she seems in fine spirits and has not lost either her mind or her scientific training.

Taking the courage from Taylor's own story, I would like to briefly tell my own. I do so in the hope that perhaps others have had similar experiences and also that someone may be able to either explain it or at least put it into some context. My experience was actually a reverse of Taylor's – a “brain reboot” rather than a “brain crash”. Some years ago I suffered a syncope, collapsing after waking up at night to go to the bathroom. I don't have a really solid diagnosis, and indeed I was misdiagnosed for 2 years as having epilepsy. I shan't go into this side of it unless anybody really wants to know. So, here is my recollection of my mind rebooting after a loss of consciousness.

The first experience was a return of awareness. Here immediately our normal language breaks down so will try to describe this as best as possible, but bear in mind that in this first experience there were no images, no thoughts, no rational thinking, no sensory inputs... nothing; apart from a basic self-awareness. This self-awareness is a beautiful, tranquil state of mind, limitless because unbounded, undisturbed by any emotions or thoughts. It is far more like the naked awareness as described in the Dzogchen literature than the infinitely compassionate sense of joy experienced by Jill Taylor. Esoteric literature describes a variety of altered states of mind and it would be good to bring this nomenclature into the English language so as to clarify exactly what state of mind we are describing, and measuring.

I have experienced this base awareness before, both as a young child inventing my own meditations as well as in my twenties. I recognised the state of mind, yet still without that internal chatter we seem to carry around with us all the time. With no sensory inputs and no mental inputs I remained in this state for an unknown length of time. I said there were no visual inputs but there was a kind of interference pattern that I could sense. Perhaps this is what happens when the visual processing part of the brain has nothing to process. It reminded me of the quantum ground state (yes, I did read physics at university) which is assumed empty and yet the source of all the other states, such as the creation of particle/antiparticle pairs. It felt as if it was on the verge of creating something and yet it never did. It did not feel like a hallucination, in that I know how to deal with those!

My first thought was “Am I dead?” It seemed a reasonable question to ask. “Is this death? It's not so bad, is it?” Keeping my base awareness meant there was a very clear difference between the rational voice and the awareness of the voice. It was my own voice but there was little else to go on, such as conscious memories of anything, such as what had just happened. “We could just stay here and see what happens.” Peculiar use of the first person plural. Indeed “we” did. But it was time to bring some purpose into this existence in this intermediate state between living and dying. I tried to look at my hands and feet but there were no hands and no feeling of having limbs. I tried to rotate in space to get a more global look, but there was no feeling of motion and there was no feeling of being in space – I was space.

“If I am dead then there is not much to do other than wait and see. But if I am not dead then I will still have a body and senses.” At that point my voice decided to reach out and search for its neurological peripherals. At first I had to struggle to forcefully reconstruct myself. I almost gave up at one point to rethink this idea. But then I suddenly started to feel the nervous system rebuilding itself from my brain, down my spine, across my shoulders and down my arms to the tips of my fingers. I could feel it like a slow tingling wave moving down my body, down my legs to my feet. I could even see it being rebuilt as the electricity flowed through all my nerve cells. The system had finally rebooted. I could finally sense my body, flex my fingers and stretch my legs. I opened my eyes to find myself staring at the underside of the wash basin.

I suspect we go through a similar reboot every time we wake up from a sleep, but that it happens too quickly for us to be aware of it. If there is any one thing that defines us it is our nervous system and the electromagnetic fields associated with it - the body electric.

This article originally appeared in Science 2.0 in 2010.

Can You Do Mental Arithmetic... In Your Dreams?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 15:38:00 +0000

How good are you at mathematics? How good do you think you’d be at doing mental arithmetic while in a dream? Moreover, how good do you think your dream characters would be at doing similar calculations? This may sound like trying to interrogate a ghost, but such questions are being investigated by researchers in lucid dreaming.

In lucid dreams, not only is the dreamer more conscious of what is taking place, but the characters met in the dream also appear to act as if they too had some form of consciousness or volition and, perhaps more mysteriously, they sometimes impart knowledge not known to the dreamer. This doesn’t mean that dream characters are actually conscious beings from another realm. Before investigating that possibility, researchers are looking at what the behaviours of dream characters may tell us about our own brain function and consciousness. If dream characters can manifest as preternaturally wise, how good are they at more mundane tasks?

In 1989, Paul Tholey published the paper, “Consciousness and abilities of dream characters observed during lucid dreaming.” Nine experienced lucid dreamers were asked to request that their dream characters perform certain tasks. These included drawing or writing, naming words that were unknown to the dreamer, finding rhyming words, making verses, and solving arithmetic problems. The aim was to test the hypothesis that dream characters see and act within a dream scene from their own perspective, have personal access to memory, and manifest creative and independent thinking. The many successful actions highlighted one major anomaly: that dream characters were really bad at maths!

The poor mathematical and logical abilities of dream characters who otherwise manifest as being intelligent, ingenious and even wise, is a source of some bewilderment. Following up Tholey’s research, Tadas Stumbrys and his team published a paper in 2011, “Lucid dream mathematics: An explorative online study of arithmetic abilities of dream characters.” Dream characters have shown that they have access to some memories, so they should have access to the same ‘multiplication table’ that the dreamer would have learnt as a child. Indeed, the dream characters seemed far more accurate on multiplication and division than they were on basic addition and subtraction. Of 42 documented questions, only 13 times did a dream character give the correct answer – that’s just under 28%. An astonishing 16 times, answers were either invalid (not even wrong!) or no answer was given at all. As an example, one dream character’s response to the simple “8+2” was a rather irritated “Gray zone”! This was not the only example where simple arithmetic was being interpreted as some sort of esoteric arithmology.

Worth quoting one of the dreamers: “What if the people in a dream land assume that everyone has his own personal results on computing tasks? This would mean that there are no generally valid statements. I am thrilled. I ask the dream character ‘You mean, then, that any result is something very private?’ She nods in agreement. I am blown away by this idea and in this moment I am deeply connected with my whole dream family. I feel that they are all in agreement - only some are willing to share their findings with others, and some are not. I want to deepen the conversation. ‘So, it means each result to an arithmetic problem belongs to everyone and someone alone can determine that? Calculation results are therefore not objective logic, but all personal property?’ They are silent. I feel that I’m right. Out of this silence, I know that I have just learned something important about myself, and that the experiment is complete. This information pervades the whole scene.”

As mentioned before, dream characters within lucid dreams often appear to have knowledge that the dreamer does not, or rather, they have access to knowledge that the dreamer has not made conscious. It may well be that lucid dream characters are well-described experientially in terms of Jungian archetypes or personas acting within a psychodrama. That such archetypes may have access to ‘hidden knowledge’ does not mean they necessarily have access to all the dreamer’s other memories. One lucid dreamer reported that he was able to improve a dream character’s arithmetic abilities through practice, leading to the possibility that new memories were being created specifically for that dream character.

From a neuroscientific perspective, “Brain imagining data suggest that in waking, bilateral parietal lobes are involved in approximate calculations, while the left frontal lobe is involved in exact calculations (Dehaene, et al., 1999). The horizontal segment of the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (HIPS) is the region that is systematically activated in all number tasks and therefore seems to play a central role in number processing (Dehaene, et al., 2004).” (An image further down can be expanded to better view the brain regions mentioned.) During REM sleep and non-lucid dreaming, such regions appear to be largely inactive. However, research also appears to indicate that these regions are activated again during lucid REM dreams. So a mystery remains as to why numerical tasks appear to be more of a problem, especially compared to linguistic tasks.

Before being overly critical of the mathematical abilities of dream characters, I think it would be useful to experiment on the dreamer’s own abilities while in a lucid dream. This would at least give us some clues as to whether our abilities to perform calculations are themselves as lucid as in waking life or whether it is one of the systems that is shut down, either partially or wholly, during sleep. Stumbry’s paper describes instances where the dreamer’s own mathematical abilities betrayed them; in one instance it was the dream character who corrected the error. So, do we all suffer from ‘dream acalculia’?

by Chris Devers

Would a professional mathematician be able to retain his skills within a lucid dream? What about others who use numbers and symbols on a daily basis, such as scientists, teachers and even students? In 1945, Jacques Hadamard published “An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field”. This was based on personal experience, historical papers and a survey of contemporary mathematicians and mathematical scientists. There appeared to be a broadly shared experience that solutions would sometimes appear fully-formed as flashes of insights. These were usually preceded by some hard thinking followed by a certain gestation period, during which the unconscious was assumed to still be processing the problem. Thus, the unconscious cannot be completely innumerate or unable to handle symbolic logic.

However, Hadamard found no evidence that mathematical solutions ever came to people in their dreams. This in spite of Hadamard himself stating that, “One phenomenon is certain and I can vouch for its absolute certainty: the sudden and immediate appearance of a solution at the very moment of sudden awakening. […] a solution long searched for appeared to me at once without the slightest instant of reflection on my part, the fact was remarkable enough to have struck me unforgettably and in a quite different direction from any of those which I had previously tried to follow. Of course, such a phenomenon, which is fully certain in my own case, could be easily confused with a "mathematical dream," from which it differs.” This sounds like a hypnopompic state, but we must believe Hadamard that he was emerging from deep sleep and not a forgotten dream.

I myself have had a variety of dreams involving numbers, algebra and even computer code, but only once did it dawn on me that I had actually solved a problem; that was in 3D geometry and the algebraic version still required some thinking while awake. If anybody has had the experience of actually solving a mathematical problem in a dream, as opposed to gaining an insight that was useful for a later solution in waking life, then please share it with us.

So, the plot thickens. The unconscious, or at least part of our unconscious, seems perfectly capable of processing very sophisticated mathematics and then delivering the result to our conscious awareness, and yet, dream characters and sometimes even the lucid dreamer seem incapable of going beyond primary level arithmetic. So, is there another specialised part of the brain that handles numbers when we are awake but is not activated during lucid dreaming?

Many tasks that we may perceive as being simple, such as adding two single-digit numbers, require complex interactions at the neural level. A recent experiment has shown high levels of activity in a small region of the inferior temporal gyrus in response to the recognition of numerals. The region [shown below in orange, click to enlarge.] is generally thought to process visual information, so that numerals are first processed as symbols before being used as numbers. This obviously makes sense, but this area was not activated when the subjects were shown ‘number words’, such as ‘one’, ‘two’ and so on; only when they saw numerals. This may also mean that the dreamer should be careful in how the arithmetic problems are presented; stating a calculation verbally may yield a different answer to writing it down on a piece of paper or a slate and, possibly, even asking the dream character to write the answer.

Now, as I will no doubt keep mentioning, there is no grand unified theory of consciousness – not yet, anyway. The confluence of some ancient esoteric traditions and modern neuroscience is leading to some serious revisions in the Western views of mind and consciousness. Some states of mind that were thought to be fanciful or impossible are slowly being shown to be valid, if still somewhat rare, whereas others, such as lucid dreams, are being experienced by an increasing number of people and becoming part of our revised theory of mind. All of this means that, even without expensive research equipment, we can all participate in our own personal experiments on accessing new states of consciousness. Merely discussing such matters will change our perceptions of what we consider important in life. Is following a movie star really more important than our own dream characters?

The two papers I mentioned above are both exploratory in nature, that is, they give purely preliminary results in the quest to define clear hypotheses and more controlled experiments. Few people have both the desired abilities and the time to spend many nights in a sleep lab, so the use of self-reporting supplemented with laboratory studies may be the way forward until portable equipment exists that makes data collection both reliable and easy to do at home.

With this in mind, I’d like to hear from anybody who would like to try the experiment described above: to enter a lucid dream and find a dream character who is willing to answer some questions on arithmetic. I think this article is already long enough so I shall write on tentative protocols in the near future if there is interest. You can always just enjoy trying it on an ad hoc basis! If you would like to learn how to lucid dream, then there are numerous books and websites. The key is to find the easiest and most efficient method for you personally; this in itself will require some experimentation. I shall also write further on this topic as I sift through different methods and research papers.

For the moment, we are left with a puzzle: why are mathematical calculations so difficult to do in the lucid dream state compared to other cognitive tasks? This is not of purely academic interest. Lucid dreaming is being used by some sports coaches as a way for athletes to practise their techniques. This relies on memories formed within the lucid dream being available in the waking state, whether consciously or through intuition. If this were also true for mathematical skills, then it may be possible for the lucid dreamer to improve such skills during dreams. I know, this may not sound like the most fun you could have in a dream, but it may help those with serious problems in handling numbers.

Sam Harris and the Language of Spirituality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 30 May 2014 04:14:00 +0000

Sam Harris recently wrote a short blog piece entitled “The Path Between Pseudo-Spirituality and Pseudo-Science.” Sadly, given the magniloquent title, it is primarily another announcement for his forthcoming book, “Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion”. However, the title also serves as a reminder of Harris’s position on the subject.

“Few scientists and philosophers have developed strong skills of introspection [meditation] — in fact, many doubt that such abilities even exist. Conversely, many of the greatest contemplatives know nothing about science.” That just about sums it up! How many people can stand with one foot in each culture and converse knowledgeably, with experience of both?

I have always thought that “The End of Faith” needed at least a couple of extra chapters at the end of the book to fully explain Harris’s ‘spiritual atheism’. The references at the back were, however, filled with books on Dzogchen so that any interested reader could have followed the trail of thoughts. It looks as if it has taken him some 10 years to write those last chapters. I have my own writings on these subjects, spanning many years of experiences; perhaps time to start publishing those too.

The short article links to another piece entitled “In Defense of ‘Spiritual’”; perhaps tellingly, the URL shows the title to have once been “A Plea for Spirituality.” I agree with Sam Harris that we need a word to describe the experiences of transcendental states of mind; if possible, a word that does not carry too much historical and etymological baggage. I also agree that words such as ‘mystical’ and ‘contemplative’ have problems, as does the word ‘occult’, although I would sometimes use them myself for linguistic variety. I also don’t mind using ‘psyche’ and ‘psychic’, although the context needs to be borne in mind as to whether it is in the psychoanalytic sense or regarding paranormal phenomena.

I’m not allergic to the word ‘spiritual’. The word ‘spirit’ has a long pre-Christian heritage, being generally the Latin translation of the Greek ‘pneuma’. It is also mentioned extensively in alchemical writings, in terms of both the chemical production of alcohol (such as aqua vitae) as well the quintessence of the alchemical self-transformation. The relationship between ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ has its own mutable history and depends on which philosophies or theologies you choose to read. But the general qualities of volatility and animation make the ‘spirit’ an easier concept to define within the context of modern consciousness studies than ‘soul’ – I really don’t see that both terms are necessary.

However, my own preference is for the word ‘esoteric’. The Greek-derived prefix simply means ‘inner’ or ‘within’, it is fairly common in medical terms and also has the very useful complement of ‘exoteric’, meaning ‘outer’ or ‘external’. This also means that one can distinguish the natural sciences as exoteric sciences in contrast to the inner or esoteric sciences. In any discussion, or experiment, involving the neuroscience of human consciousness, we are forever trying to find points of contact between the personal inner experience and the data output of an external device. To ignore the inner experience is what behaviourism does. One problem is that ‘esoteric’ is an adjective without a simple noun derived from it; hence the word ‘spirit’ may serve as a shorthand for ‘the agent of esoteric experiences.’

Words are important and it is vital they be used as clearly as possible. Whatever words one prefers, the time seems ripe for the essences of our mystical esoteric traditions to be extracted from their religious vehicles, and to facilitate this one needs a language that is as free as possible from obfuscations. In spite of very serious differences between the world’s theologies – and there are some fundamental differences - the works of the mystics and shamans show remarkable similarities across traditions. This is because they deal directly with the human experiences of non-ordinary states of body and mind. In Jungian terms, the forms of the archetypes are cultural but their functions are neurobiological and hence universal.

The task of the scientific researchers into consciousness is to establish, through both esoteric and exoteric experiments, the exact nature of this universalism. The task of the writers is to make the results of such research as universally clear and understandable as possible.

”We should now proceed to find a neutral, or unitarian, language in which every concept we use is applicable as well to the unconscious as to matter, in order to overcome this wrong view that the unconscious psyche and matter are two things.” Wolfgang Pauli

Aakom rebooted

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 13:59:00 +0000

A quick glance at the dates on this blog's posts will reveal that it has been idle for about 3 years. During that time, I've been teaching and, most recently, have been ill. To paraphrase Iain Banks, I am unofficially (as few care) rather poorly. But this enforced physical idleness has rekindled interest in some of my blogs that have been languishing in cyber-storage: Aakom is one such blog.

I am doing some metaphorical spring cleaning: rearranging the furniture and putting up some new pictures. But it is a tedious task so, as it will never look perfect, I will welcome in the new before having fully dusted down the old. If you see some cosmetic changes then... thanks for looking. Some of the posts link to other blog platforms and collectives. As I re-read those articles, I shall decide whether to rewrite some of them or repost them in full on Aakom.

However, the aims of Aakom remain unchanged and are encompassed by the blog's subtitle: Neuroscience and Enlightenment. This is not wholly about chasing the mirage of some grand enlightenment, as if knowing exactly what that feels like, but rather about those insights that illuminate the way towards a deeper understanding of ourselves. Such perennial philosophies are finally being investigated by the natural sciences and a new-found resonance between the esoteric sciences and the neurosciences is taking place. Although some of the articles and references may seem rather technical, I feel it is important that practical solutions and personal insights be based upon evidence that is as reliable as possible; be it from this year's journals or an ancient treatise. One thing I do try to keep in mind is that research on the mind should ultimately help us equip our own internal laboratory - for all the information out there, the work takes place inside.

Take a seat, and have a browse...

Direct recording shows brain signal active even in dreamless sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:27:00 +0000

Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have taken one of the first direct looks at one of the human brain's most fundamental "foundations": a brain signal that never switches off and may support many cognitive functions. The results, appearing online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are an important step forward for efforts to outline what neuroscientists call the functional architecture of the brain. Better understanding of this architecture will aid efforts to treat brain injury and mental disorders.

Although the brain's different specialized regions can be considered as a collection of physical structures, functional architecture instead focuses on metaphorical structures formed by brain processes and interactions among different brain regions. The "foundation" highlighted in the new study is a low-frequency signal created by neuronal activity throughout the brain. This signal doesn't switch off even in dreamless sleep, possibly to help maintain basic structure and facilitate offline housekeeping activities.

"A different, more labile and higher-frequency signal known as the gamma frequency activity has been the focus of much brain research in recent years," says first author Biyu He, a graduate student. "But we found that signal loses its large-scale structure in deep sleep, while the low-frequency signal does not, suggesting that the low-frequency signal may be more fundamental."

"What we've been finding is reorienting the way we think about how the brain works," says senior author Marcus Raichle, M.D., professor of radiology, of neurology and of neurobiology. "We're starting to see the brain as being in the prediction business, with ongoing, organized carrier frequencies within the systems of the brain that keep them prepared for the work they need to do to perform mental tasks."

Neurologists have already spent many years exploring the upper levels of the brain's functional architecture. In these studies, researchers typically ask volunteers to perform specific mental tasks as their brains are scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Such "goal-oriented" tasks might include looking for or studying a visual stimulus, moving an arm or leg, reading a word or listening for a sound. As the subjects perform these tasks, the scans reveal increases in blood flow to different parts of the brain, which researchers take as indications that the brain areas are contributing to the mental task.
In the past decade, though, scientists have realized that deeper structures underlie goal-oriented mental processes. These underlying brain processes continue to occur even when subjects aren't consciously using their brain to do anything, and the energies that the brain puts into them seem to be much greater than those used for goal-oriented tasks.

"The brain consumes a tremendous amount of the body's energy resources—it's only 2 percent of body weight, but it uses about 20 percent of the energy we take in," says Raichle. "When we started to ask where all those resources were being spent, we found that the goal-oriented tasks we had studied previously only accounted for a tiny portion of that energy budget. The rest appears to go into activities and processes that maintain a state of readiness in the brain."

To explore this deeper level of the brain's functional architecture, Raichle and others have been using fMRI to conduct detailed analyses of brain activity in subjects asked to do nothing. However, a nagging question has dogged those and other fMRI studies: Scientists assumed that increased blood flow to a part of the brain indicates that part has contributed to a mental task, but they wanted more direct evidence linking increased blood flow to stepped-up activity in brain cells.

In the new study, He and her colleagues took fMRI scans of five patients with intractable epilepsy at St. Louis Children's Hospital. The scans, during which the subjects did nothing, were taken prior to the temporary installation of grids of electrodes on the surfaces of the patients' brains. The level of detail provided by the grids is essential clinically for pinpointing the source of the seizures for possible surgical removal, a last resort employed only when other treatments failed.

Patients and their guardians gave permission to use the clinical data gathered from these electrodes for scientific research purposes. He's results confirmed that the fMRI data she had gathered earlier reflected changes in brain cell activity exhibited in the gamma frequency signal. But she also noticed the persistent low-frequency signal, which also corresponded to the fMRI data.

"When we looked back in the literature, we found that a similar signal had been the subject of a great deal of animal research using implanted electrodes in the 1960s through the 1980s," she says. "There were suggestions, for example, that when this low-frequency signal, which fluctuates persistently, is in a low trough, the brain may handle mental tasks more effectively."

"What we've shown provides a bridge between the fMRI work many scientists are doing now and the earlier work involving electrical recordings from the brain that emphasized slow activity," says He. "Bringing those two fields together may give us some very interesting insights into the brain's organization and function."

Direct recording shows brain signal persists even in dreamless sleep.

Are Vision and Consciousness Intimately Related?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:40:00 +0000

In my article on brain waves and consciousness I looked at some research associating gamma wave activity with consciousness. This is, however, a controversial area in that other researchers have found that such gamma activity is also correlated with eye movements known as saccades: these are the small eye movements that the brain edits out so that we do not perceive the world as a blur as we switch focus. So, are brain gamma waves merely a byproduct of saccadic movements or are they correlated with consciousness or, potentially, both?

You can follow the relevant articles and the subsequent discussions at Neuron. Also an article Developing Intelligence blog.

Are Vision and Consciousness Intimately Related?

Image: Phosphene artistic depiction (detail) from Wikimedia.

IS RELIGION NATURAL? ESSSAT Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:49:00 +0000

IS RELIGION NATURAL?

The European Society for the Study of Science And Theology (ESSSAT)
& The Science Religion Forum (SRF)
present the
XIIIth European Conference on Science and Theology, Edinburgh, UK,
April 7-11, 2010

The conference is hosted by The School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

Under the title Is Religion Natural?, this conference will explore the drives underlying the religious attitude of mind. In five invited lectures, theologians from different backgrounds, and scientific researchers at the forefront of 21st century studies of the religious mind, will jointly engage with that question. Justin Barrett (Cognitive Psychology, Oxford), author of Why would anyone believe in God?, and Ilkka Pyysiäinen (Comparative Religion, Helsinki), author of Magic, Miracles and Religion and How Religion Works, will present cutting-edge scientific viewpoints on the nature of religious thinking. Mona Siddiqui (Islamic Studies, Glasgow) (How to Read the Qur’an) and Christoph Schwöbel (Systematic Theology, Tübingen) (God: Action and Revelation and Persons, Divine and Human, together with several books in German) will consider the conference theme from their contrasting theological perspectives. And Lluis Oviedo (Theological Anthropology, Rome), whose writings in Spanish and Italian include La fe cristiana ante los nuevos desafios sociales ("Christian Faith confronting the New Social Challenges"), will ask whether - or in what way - it is appropriate to try to naturalise religion. There will also be ample opportunity during the meeting for the presentation of short papers by conference participants.

Transient Induced Gamma-Band Response in EEG as a Manifestation of Miniature Saccades

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:50:00 +0000

The induced gamma-band EEG response (iGBR) recorded on the scalp is widely assumed to reflect synchronous neural oscillation associated with object representation, attention, memory, and consciousness. The most commonly reported EEG iGBR is a broadband transient increase in power at the gamma range 200–300 ms following stimulus onset. A conspicuous feature of this iGBR is the trial-to-trial poststimulus latency variability, which has been insufficiently addressed. Here, we show, using single-trial analysis of concomitant EEG and eye tracking, that this iGBR is tightly time locked to the onset of involuntary miniature eye movements and reflects a saccadic “spike potential.” The time course of the iGBR is related to an increase in the rate of saccades following a period of poststimulus saccadic inhibition. Thus, whereas neuronal gamma-band oscillations were shown conclusively with other methods, the broadband transient iGBR recorded by scalp EEG reflects properties of miniature saccade dynamics rather than neuronal oscillations.

Transient Induced Gamma-Band Response in EEG as a Manifestation of Miniature Saccades

The above link to the article also has links to the exchanges that followed about whether gamma waves as recorded by EEG are intimately linked to consciousness or results of electrical signals from microsaccades, or possibly both.

Center for Investigating Healthy Minds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:59:00 +0000

Welcome to the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds

I know, this sounds like a New Age flake factory... but it isn't.

Located within the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we are a research Center dedicated to creating a world in which healthy qualities of mind flourish. The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, through hard-nosed basic and translational scientific research, will help to pave the way toward more widespread incorporation of methods and practices to nourish positive qualities of mind throughout society. The work and research of this Center are at the forefront of the scientific and scholarly communities, and have led to the development of a new hybrid discipline – contemplative neuroscience. In a global era where individuals, communities and the world are reconnecting with the pursuit of happiness, well-being and contentment and seeking innovative and mindful solutions to achieve it, the Center offers facts about interventions and methods grounded both in research and the wisdom of contemplative traditions.

They even have Einstein sounding like Gautama Buddha.

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
- Albert Einstein, 1921

The director, Richard Davidson, has already done research on the brainwaves of Tibetan monks in meditation, so will be interesting to see what they do next.

Is This How Brain Waves And Neurons Create Consciousness?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:31:00 +0000

This is a controversial issue, but some light is starting to be shone in this direction. Many neuroscientists assume that the electric fields generated by neurons are too weak to have any effect on their neighbours. However, recent research (Radman et al., 2007) has shown that weak electric fields (<5 V/m) within a broad spectrum of operating brain frequencies affect the firing properties of individual neurons. The researchers show that the nonlinear properties of an individual neuron can 'amplify' the effects of such small fields, effectively 'resonating' with the extracellular field. [...]

The researchers are thus fully aware of the importance of their findings in that they provide a framework within which others can develop neuro-therapies, as well as for researchers looking at the effects of environmental electromagnetic radiation. Add to that the not insignificant contribution to how the brain really functions! So much so that an open letter is appended to the research paper by David M. Alexander, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan. "As reported by Massimini et al. (2004), slow-wave sleep EEG has been shown to take the form of a global spatio-temporal wave. Such waves are able to act as an 'external' source of electric fields to individual minicolumns in the cortex. There is now sufficient evidence to outline the case that large-scale electrical field dynamics do indeed play a causal role in brain activity, and to propose confirmatory experiments." The letter is also interesting in that it lists other papers that add weight to the Radman experiments, one paper going all the way back to 1984. Alexander sounds like a converted skeptic as he also quotes:"our [Radman et al.] results challenge the common view that extracellular slow potential oscillations represent mere epiphenomena without physiological significance per se."

Is This How Brain Waves And Neurons Create Consciousness?

Spike Timing Amplifies the Effect of Electric Fields on Neurons: Implications for Endogenous Field Effects

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:58:00 +0000

Despite compelling phenomenological evidence that small electricfields (<5 mV/mm) can affect brain function, a quantitativeand experimentally verified theory is currently lacking. Herewe demonstrate a novel mechanism by which the nonlinear propertiesof single neurons "amplify" the effect of small electric fields:when concurrent to suprathreshold synaptic input, small electricfields can have significant effects on spike timing.

For low-frequencyfields, our theory predicts a linear dependency of spike timingchanges on field strength. For high-frequency fields (relativeto the synaptic input), the theory predicts coherent firing,with mean firing phase and coherence each increasing monotonicallywith field strength. Importantly, in both cases, the effectsof fields on spike timing are amplified with decreasing synapticinput slope and increased cell susceptibility (millivolt membranepolarization per field amplitude).

We confirmed these predictionsexperimentally using CA1 hippocampal neurons in vitro exposedto static (direct current) and oscillating (alternating current)uniform electric fields. In addition, we develop a robust methodto quantify cell susceptibility using spike timing. Our resultsprovide a precise mechanism for a functional role of endogenousfield oscillations (e.g., gamma) in brain function and introducea framework for considering the effects of environmental fieldsand design of low-intensity therapeutic neurostimulation technologies.

COMPILATION OF THE DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF BODY TISSUES AT RF AND MICROWAVE FREQUENCIES

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:32:00 +0000

Recent developments in the field of electromagnetic dosimetry have produced high resolution anatomically correct man and animal models from medical imaging data for use in numerical simulation exercises. The level of details is such that over 30 tissue types can be identified. The application of such models require that dielectric properties be allocated to the various tissues at all the frequencies to which the model is exposed. There is, as yet, no consensus on the dielectric data. This project is geared towards this objective. The following has been achieved in the period covered by this report:

    * Three experimental techniques were used to measure the dielectric properties of tissue in the frequency range 10 Hz to 20 GHz. Over 20 tissue types were measured over the full frequency range and over 10 others measured down to 1 MHz only.
    * Internal consistency between the three sets of data was demonstrated in the overlapping frequency regions. When measurements are made on the same sample throughout, the agreement between data sets is particularly good.
    * A comprehensive survey of dielectric data published over more than 45 years has been carried out and presented for comparison purposes. The data obtained in the course of this study fall well within the vast body of literature data where available and bridges the gaps within it.
    * To facilitate the incorporation of the dielectric data in numerical solutions, their frequency dependence was modelled to a spectrum characterised by 4 dispersion regions. This model was successfully applied to the new experimental data.
    * Finally, the conductivity of tissues below 100 Hz was estimated from the recent measurements mitigated by data from the literature and used to estimate the conductivity of the whole body and of various body parts.

The work is briefly described in this report, the data are presented in graphical and tabular format in Appendices A to D.

=

The vast majority of the data is not from in vivo sources, but rather from dead flesh, hence fairly useless in terms of the biological interactions with emf and any resonance properties.

http://www.emfdosimetry.org/dielectric/Report/Report.html

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: a systematic review of provocation studies.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:44:00 +0000

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: a systematic review of provocation studies.

Rubin GJ, Das Munshi J, Wessely S.

Mobile Phones Research Unit, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and Guy's, King's and St. Thomas' School of Medicine, King's College London, UK. g.rubin@iop.kcl.ac.uk

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to assess whether people who report hypersensitivity to weak electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are better at detecting EMF under blind or double-blind conditions than nonhypersensitive individuals, and to test whether they respond to the presence of EMF with increased symptom reporting. METHODS: An extensive systematic search was used to identify relevant blind or double-blind provocation studies. This involved searching numerous literature databases and conference proceedings, and examining the citations of reviews and included studies. The results of relevant studies were tabulated and metaanalyses were used to compare the proportions of "hypersensitive" and control participants able to discriminate active from sham EMF exposures. RESULTS: Thirty-one experiments testing 725 "electromagnetically hypersensitive" participants were identified. Twenty-four of these found no evidence to support the existence of a biophysical hypersensitivity, whereas 7 reported some supporting evidence. For 2 of these 7, the same research groups subsequently tried and failed to replicate their findings. In 3 more, the positive results appear to be statistical artefacts. The final 2 studies gave mutually incompatible results. Our metaanalyses found no evidence of an improved ability to detect EMF in "hypersensitive" participants. CONCLUSIONS: The symptoms described by "electromagnetic hypersensitivity" sufferers can be severe and are sometimes disabling. However, it has proved difficult to show under blind conditions that exposure to EMF can trigger these symptoms. This suggests that "electromagnetic hypersensitivity" is unrelated to the presence of EMF, although more research into this phenomenon is required.

Read original paper online.

Selflessness, core of all major world religions, has neuropsychological connection

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:13:00 +0000

All spiritual experiences are based in the brain. That statement is truer than ever before, according to a University of Missouri neuropsychologist. An MU study has data to support a neuropsychological model that proposes spiritual experiences associated with selflessness are related to decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of the brain. The study is one of the first to use individuals with traumatic brain injury to determine this connection. Researchers say the implication of this connection means people in many disciplines, including peace studies, health care or religion can learn different ways to attain selflessness, to experience transcendence, and to help themselves and others. This study, along with other recent neuroradiological studies of Buddhist meditators and Francescan nuns, suggests that all individuals, regardless of cultural background or religion, experience the same neuropsychological functions during spiritual experiences, such as transcendence. Transcendence, feelings of universal unity and decreased sense of self, is a core tenet of all major religions. Meditation and prayer are the primary vehicles by which such spiritual transcendence is achieved.

"The brain functions in a certain way during spiritual experiences," said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the MU School of Health Professions. "We studied people with brain injury and found that people with injuries to the right parietal lobe of the brain reported higher levels of spiritual experiences, such as transcendence."

This link is important, Johnstone said, because it means selflessness can be learned by decreasing activity in that part of the brain. He suggests this can be done through conscious effort, such as meditation or prayer. People with these selfless spiritual experiences also are more psychologically healthy, especially if they have positive beliefs that there is a God or higher power who loves them, Johnstone said.

"This research also addresses questions regarding the impact of neurologic versus cultural factors on spiritual experience," Johnstone said. "The ability to connect with things beyond the self, such as transcendent experiences, seems to occur for people who minimize right parietal functioning. This can be attained through cultural practices, such as intense meditation or prayer or because of a brain injury that impairs the functioning of the right parietal lobe. Either way, our study suggests that 'selflessness' is a neuropsychological foundation of spiritual experiences."

The research was funded by the MU Center on Religion and the Professions. The study – "Support for a neuropsychological model of spirituality in persons with traumatic brain injury" – was published in the peer-reviewed journal Zygon.

"Our research focused on the personal experience of spiritual transcendence and does not in any way minimize the importance of religion or personal beliefs, nor does it suggest that spiritual experience are related only to neuropsychological activity in the brain," Johnstone said. "It is important to note that individuals experience their God or higher power in many different ways, but that all people from all religions and beliefs appear to experience these connections in a similar way."

Selective brain damage modulates human spirituality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:57:00 +0000

New research provides fascinating insight into brain changes that might underlie alterations in spiritual and religious attitudes. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 11 issue of the journal Neuron, explores the neural basis of spirituality by studying patients before and after surgery to remove a brain tumor. Although it is well established that all behaviors and experiences, spiritual or otherwise, must originate in the brain, true empirical exploration of the neural underpinnings of spirituality has been challenging. However, recent advances in neuroscience have started to make the complex mental processes associated with religion and spirituality more accessible.

"Neuroimaging studies have linked activity within a large network in the brain that connects the frontal, parietal, and temporal cortexes with spiritual experiences, but information on the causative link between such a network and spirituality is lacking," explains lead study author, Dr. Cosimo Urgesi from the University of Udine in Italy.

Dr. Urgesi and colleagues were interested in making a direct link between brain activity and spirituality. They focused specifically on the personality trait called self-transcendence (ST), which is thought to be a measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors in humans. ST reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole.

The researchers combined analysis of ST scores obtained from brain tumor patients before and after they had surgery to remove their tumor, with advanced techniques for mapping the exact location of the brain lesions after surgery. "This approach allowed us to explore the possible changes of ST induced by specific brain lesions and the causative role played by frontal, temporal, and parietal structures in supporting interindividual differences in ST," says researcher Dr. Franco Fabbro from the University of Udine.

The group found that selective damage to the left and right posterior parietal regions induced a specific increase in ST. "Our symptom-lesion mapping study is the first demonstration of a causative link between brain functioning and ST," offers Dr. Urgesi. "Damage to posterior parietal areas induced unusually fast changes of a stable personality dimension related to transcendental self-referential awareness. Thus, dysfunctional parietal neural activity may underpin altered spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors."

These results may even lead to new strategies for treating some forms of mental illness. "If a stable personality trait like ST can undergo fast changes as a consequence of brain lesions, it would indicate that at least some personality dimensions may be modified by influencing neural activity in specific areas," suggests Dr. Salvatore M. Aglioti from Sapienza University of Rome. "Perhaps novel approaches aimed at modulating neural activity might ultimately pave the way to new treatments of personality disorders."

Hedonism and the Good Life Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:50:00 +0000

Hedonism has a bad press. The pursuit of pleasure is still seen as falling short of the pinnacle of human development. If you feel good then you're probably doing something bad; and if you feel like crap then it's probably good for you. This could be thought of as the eternal play of yin and yang, or the masochistic philosophy of a moralising miserable sod. But let's set aside gods and sods and focus on our experience. If we seek pleasure and avoid pain then there is a sense in which pleasure is good and pain is bad. A good life is thus a life of pleasure.

Professor Sally Haslanger starts her MIT course on Moral Problems and the Good Life with a brief look at Hedonism. I wrote some time ago about Epicurus and the pitfall of coating words in our own sentiments. Epicurean hedonism is ultimately an idealist triptych of friendship, freedom and contemplation - more coenobite than sybarite. For Epicurus, if pleasure is followed by pain then that particular pleasure was an illusion leading us away from a truly good life.

But once we start making categories and lists there arises one obvious question: can we quantify the pursuit of happiness? Is there a mathematics for the pleasure principle? Jeremy Bentham thought there could be and set about creating a mathematical model he named the hedonic calculus. You can see the bare bones of it at the lecture notes, with a link o further analysis.

The idea of being able to calculate our reactions to the future is not new. This is somewhat the role astrology plays in many people's lives. Astrology is a complex system as it has to manage the complexity of human experiences. But just because two systems are complex does not mean that they have the same complexity - a car engine and a nuclear reactor are both complex but you wouldn't wish to swap them. The success of experts in cold reading techniques illustrates that the artifice of astrology is not necessary in creating a system of correspondences.

This calculus of the good life is not a predictor of future events but rather a diagnosis of our emotional reactions to such events - our feel-good factor. As with astrology, such a system becomes complex rather quickly thus giving rise to the same question as to whether it is a true representation of human reactions.

Let us for the moment leave Jeremy Bentham playing with his hedonic calculus and zoom out a bit. The thrust of the argument here is that what is important is not so much what actually happens to us but rather our experience of it. James feels happy because he has had a rise in pay; Mark is disappointed because he was expecting more.

Nozick would like to kick this argument into touch with a thought experiment. Imagine there exists a machine that could simulate the best possible life you could have. Would you want to be plugged in to it? You would experience the fulfillment of your highest ambitions; you would love and be loved every day; you would both give and receive everything you ever wanted. Welcome to your Utopia. But the aim of the thought experiment is for you to say: No! I don't want an artificial utopia, give me back my miserable life!! Really?!

What the philosopher would like you to consider is that a life of great feelings is not as good as a great life. This sounds good but hides an age-old assumption that there is a really real life somewhere of which our experiences are just theatre. A simulation of this theatre is thus two steps removed from the really real reality!

But the list of things important to the lecturer seems to show many that are purely emotional rather than material. What she seems to be saying is that a good life is not a feel-good life but a do-good life. But can we do something without experiencing it? And if we experience it do we then assume we have actually done it? I shall leave this line of thought ajar.

I do, however, have a problem here with Nozick, in that if a simulation is good - and we're here talking about a thought experiment, not what's technologically feasible - then it would be indistinguishable from reality. We all have simulations we run every night: we call them dreams. We could lead a very good life in our dreams. We can even be conscious in our dreams. The experiences in our dreams are as valid as in our waking life. Just as we wake up and recall the dream as a dream, the Experience Machine only becomes a simulation after we are unplugged. But what if we never wake up?

Just as it is possible to be conscious of our dreams during our dreams it may also be possible to be conscious that our machine simulation is a simulation. In this case it would be true that a simulated good life would not be the same as a really good life. This, however, gets into neurology. Certain parts of the brain are shut down during sleep so that dreams can take place without putting the unguarded body in danger. The dream thus simulates our senses without stimulating our sense organs - or at least most of them. The idea of an Experience Machine therefore needs to be more subtle and exact: is it stimulating our senses or simulating the sense experiences? The experience of dreams is that a person can become aware that there is a difference.

Is the Experience Machine a Simulated Reality or a Stimulated Reality? And would you want to be experienced?

Brain Images of Belief and Disbelief

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:16:00 +0000

A pioneering study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at which regions of the brain are activated when deciding on statements that are true or false. The subjects were given a set of questions that were obviously either true (belief), false (disbelief) or undecidable (uncertainty). Although higher cognitive functions are involved in establishing the truth-value of a proposition, the actual acceptance of that proposition as either true or false is also intimately linked to more primitive areas involved in more emotional responses. A person's beliefs may well be an aesthetic response rather than a rational one.

Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief and Uncertainty, by Sam Harris, Sameer A Sheth, and Mark S. Cohen, Annals of Neurology, 2008 [pdf].

Are NDEs signs of imminent death or not?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:21:00 +0000

"Features of "near-death experience" in relation to whether or not patients were near death" by J. E. Owens, E. W. Cook and I. Stevenson, The Lancet, vol 336.

This paper was written in 1990, so is not particularly new, however, as it seems widely available on the internet it is worth a summary of its findings. The increase in documented reports of near-death experiences has prompted an increase in scientific research. However, the obvious religious consequences of such glimpses into death means that it is often difficult to rely entirely on personal reports and it would be useful to have physiological and neurological data to gain insights into what is really going on.

For the moment, we are stuck with three competing views of the near-death experience: what the authors have called the transcendental, the physiological and the psychological. The distinction between the latter two seems to be a matter of which specialist is conducting the research, but for the purposes of this study they are important in that they distinguish between those people who were clinically close to death from those who merely thought they were dead or dying but who, from a medical standpoint, were actually not in any such danger.

Although this paper does not look at out of body experiences, there are many similarities between OBEs and NDEs and it is therefore important to find out if they are indeed the same phenomenon that manifests under different conditions.

From the medical data the 58 subjects were divided into two groups, with 30 patients deemed to have not been near death and the remaining 28 being in danger of dying. The research then looked at a number of experiences that characterise reports of NDEs. The most significant difference between the 'near-death' group and the other group was in the reports of lights and of enhanced cognitive functions, such as mental clarity, memory, speed of thought. The seemingly archetypal 'tunnel' experience was not significantly different between the two groups but was significantly skewed towards those who had also experienced a strong light.

Other experiences, such as that of being outside one's body (an OBE), memory flash-backs, a belief that one is dead or dying and the range of emotional responses were not significantly different between the two groups. Thus, the perception of one's own imminent death may be enough to trigger a NDE, even if the physiological data makes this unlikely. However, the depth of the NDE in terms of bright lights, enhanced mental functions, a tunnel and the overall positive experience did discriminate between those who were really close to death from those who were not.

In light of this the authors admit that on its own this study could not come out in favour of any of the three major interpretations of near-death experiences. Indeed, they seemed most puzzled by the enhanced cognitive abilities of those who should most probably have been experiencing some impairment in brain functioning.

Features of "near-death experience" in relation to whether or not patients were near death

The International Association for Near-Death Studies 2009 Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Plans are under way for a mid-October IANDS conference in San Diego, California. Speakers interested in presenting must email a proposal to IANDS no later than July 3, 2009. The theme of the conference is “Transformed in the Light: Helping Humanity through Enhanced Abilities Following NDEs.” Tentative dates are October 16-17, 2009.

This page at the International Association for Near-Death Studies also has links to their past conferences, going back to 1993, with audio recordings available for purchase and download.

If you wish to attend the conference and want to keep up to date with the confirmed dates then you can subscribe to the IANDS free email newsletter.

International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:30:00 +0000

The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) is the only membership organization in the world devoted exclusively to providing information about near-death and related experiences to experiencers, researchers, educators, health care providers, and the interested public.

IANDS’ purpose is to promote responsible, multi-disciplinary exploration of near-death and similar experiences, their effects on people’s lives, and their implications for beliefs about life, death, and human purpose. Where scholarship does not indicate a reasonably clear position on the origin or interpretation of these experiences, we remain impartial and open to the presentation of varying points of view; however, while all personal beliefs will be respected, IANDS is under no obligation to consider them all equally supportable. Whatever the viewpoint, IANDS never supports proselytizing.

IANDS provides information and support to caregivers and experiencers of NDEs. There is a network of support groups across the USA and worldwide, as well as a wealth of information on their website.

Out of Body Experience Research Foundation - OBERF

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:04:00 +0000

The Out of Body Experience Research Foundation is part of a triad of websites that is designed to collect information on all aspects of consciousness. The main website is www.nderf.org which studies near-death experiences (NDE). The next website is www.adcrf.org which studies after-death communication (ADC). OBERF studies all other aspects of consciousness that are not an NDE or ADC.

OBERF includes articles on research about out of body experiences as well as techniques to induce OBEs. The largest part of the website is devoted to the forum and the sharing of out of body experiences. There are also links to further reading and related websites.

At Death's Door

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:07:00 +0000

The image here is a poster for a new film called "At Death's Door" (Mati Suri).

What do you see in the image?

When Richard Wiseman posted this picture on Twitter he claims to have had a 'strange reaction', in that few people could initially flip between the two images - most could only see the one. He then copied a few more similar images and somehow this rather spoils the experiment as people are then trained into being able to see the optical illusion.

"At Death's Door" is a film about a woman's near death experience (NDE). Unfortunately, the film sits squarely inside the horror genre so that the NDE is frightening, leaving the woman depressed and disconsolate. There may be an element of moral retribution here for her attempted suicide. On the advice of a friend, she goes to recuperate in a sanatorium only to find it haunted with spirits. The only way she can save herself is to die again.

I have to admit a certain distaste for most horror films. They are simulations of fear without any instructive elements about how to deal with one's own horrors. I would guess most of us have had nightmares at some point in our lives. There are simple and effective ways to resolve such nightmares, leading to some catharsis or revelation. To indulge in ersatz nightmares is to leave oneself open and largely defenceless against the real thing. The film's 'second death' does, however, have a certain psychodramatic truth to it. I haven't seen the film as yet, and trailers are notorious for misrepresenting a film's true intentions, but will look out for it on DVD.

Going back to the NDEs, research on near death experiences has shown that very very few people have negative experiences - something like just 1% - so that the very premiss of the film is flawed. The process of dying may be painful or terrifying depending on circumstances (such as having an accident) but death itself, or that intermediate state of near-death, is neither painful nor frightening and most people come out of the experience shorn of any fear they may have had about their mortality.

Test Your Psychic Skills With Twitter Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:23:00 +0000

Richard Wiseman describes himself on his Twitter Bio as "Psychologist, author and magician." He is also a professor at the University of Hertfordshire and this week, in collaboration with New Scientist, he is conducting an experiment into remote viewing using Twitter as a communication medium.

The idea is that every day this week at 3pm Professor Wiseman will travel to a secret location in the UK and he wants people to try and remote view where he is. He will later post five images online, one of which is the real location, and again see whether the collective wisdom of the participants can sense the true location.

There is still time to participate; even if you're not in the UK that shouldn't affect your psychic abilities.

Wiseman is following in the footsteps of the American and Russian secret services who invested significant resources on psychic spying techniques including remote viewing. But unlike the CIA's Stargate Project, Wiseman is looking for collective effects rather than individually gifted remote viewers. We shall soon see what the results are.

==

Update

The results of the remote viewing experiment on Twitter have now been published... well, sort of. Wiseman hasn't, as yet, posted any proper data but just his conclusions: "... the study didn’t support the existence of remote viewing, and suggested that those who believe in the paranormal are good at finding illusory correspondences between their thoughts and a target."

Unsurprising, perhaps, and even when analysing the sub-group that claimed psychic abilities he found no evidence of this. You can read the short report and the comments at Wiseman's blog.

Biopulsar Reflexograph Biofeedback Imaging System

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:27:00 +0000

"The Biopulsar-Reflexograph is a biomedical measuring device, based on Eastern and Western alternative energy and medical science. The presentation of the body reflex-zones that are read by the hand sensor are displayed in different formats: dynamic biofeedback graphs of different organs in real time, dynamic total body aura, the organ aura, the chakra activity, etc."

OK, but what is actually being measured? Cutting through some of the technical jargon, the philosophy page is the most revealing.

"It is known from reflexology therapy that certain parts of the hand have an energetic link to the organs of the body. According to ancient Eastern healing science, the individual zones on the hand are connected not only with the body organs and the consciousness, but also with colour and the subtle energy centres. [...] Neural therapy also works through the reflex zones of the skin.

In applied kinesiology, the interactions of the consciousness and the activity of the organ are analyzed, as well. [...] Certain emotions and thoughts resonate with certain parts of the brain, which are interconnected with various organs. This is confirmed by the studies of Dr. Gerd Ryke Hamer (see his book, The New Medicine), who explored the connections of emotional conflicts with brain and organ tumours, and other diseases through computer tomography. [...]

The philosophy and technical concept (indirect meridian measurements through reflex zones as well as the colour presentation and numerical values) are unique to the Biopulsar."

OK, so the Biopulsar is an "indirect meridian" measuring device. This requires a lot of theoretical links to justify the significance of the output. One thing is a direct CT or fMRI scan, quite another to assume the same level of energetic details can be achieved by placing one's hands on an electrical contact board.

I'm skeptical, but if anybody has used this system then would be good to have some feedback. A system for direct measurements may still be far too expensive for most individuals or therapists - even though the Biopulsar website itself has no indication of its price.

The Mind and Life Institute

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:46:00 +0000

The Mind & Life Institute is an independent, not-for-profit organization devoted to establishing a mutually respectful working collaboration and research partnerships between modern science and Buddhism – two of the world's most fruitful traditions for understanding the nature of reality and promoting human well-being.

The Mind and Life Institute believes that in order for the dialogue between meditation and science to have a durable contribution to humanity, collaborative research programs must be conducted in first rate Western scientific laboratories and the results of those studies be published in prominent peer-review scientific journals. Thus far collaborative research has been focused on collecting data from highly trained meditative adepts using fMRI, EEG and MEG neuroimaging techniques and other psychological, neurological, and immunological measures. Most importantly, these meditative adepts are not only "subjects", in the classical sense. Instead, they are true collaborators, helping to design the scientific research protocols, and participating in analysis and publications.