Mind Power Masters

Many suicide bombers have been atheists

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:23:00 +0000

"On the road to heaven the highway to hell," Stephen Shanabrook

The motivations may vary, but the psychology that enabled young men at Gallipoli to jump out of the trenches into the Turkish machine gun fire, or teenage British bomber crews to fly knowing they were unlikely to survive five missions, is no different to that which enables a well educated Saudi to hijack a plane and crash it into the World trade centre, or members of a cult committing suicide in the belief that a space ship from outer space is waiting to collect them.

In 2006, a combined study based on information from British and American intelligence agencies, into the backgrounds of suicide bombers, found that without exemption they were motivated by grievances about foreign occupation or control in their own country, or a country to which they felt connected eg the World Trade Centre bombers were almost all Saudis incensed by the permanent American bases created in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf war. This study also found that many suicide bombers have been atheists.

Governments of civilian populations targeted by suicide bombers try to explain the behaviour as somehow different from what they consider to be acceptable “collateral damage” done to an enemy’s civilians by their own armies. If you can dismiss the attacks “as being done by fanatics” it stops people asking the obvious question: “Why do these people (suicide bombers) see us as their enemy?”

This is the question that must be addressed if we are going to effectively deal with terrorism long term, particularly as multicultural policies combined with separate schooling is breeding a dangerous combination of suspicion and exclusion. If young second and third generation migrant youth are encouraged to remain segregated in the “stopped clock” cultures of their parents and grand parents, their anger and frustration at their alienation makes them vulnerable for recruitment into organisations only too willing to mobilise those feelings into a role that provides an unambiguous identity, makes them feel important,and valued by a “higher authority”.

What was particularly interesting about the recent research into terrorism was that even though the attacks may have occurred in foreign countries, the motivation was the perceived injustices of foreign powers operating in their own country. They were not random or meaningless attacks by mad men. (At the moment the biggest perceived grievance appears to centre on the occupation of the Palestinian Territories by Israel, funded by America and supported unconditionally by Australia and Britain).

Psychologically, terrorists are no different to other people. Like other people they feel outrage when they perceive a situation as unjust or unfair, like others they seek certainty, purpose and meaning in their lives. The extremes to which they are prepared to go are no different in degree to that of a soldier or a fundamentalist Christian prepared to kill an abortionist.

We must understand and accept this if we are to ask the right questions to get the right answers to this disturbing problem.

- Psychologist Louise Samways "Dangerous Persuaders".

What we see of the world is only a sliver of what’s “out there.”

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 11:00:00 +0000

A 1573 painting by Portuguese artist, historian, and philosopher Francisco de Holanda, a student of Michelangelo's, from Michael Benson's book 'Cosmigraphics'—a visual history of understanding the universe. Click image for more

What we see of the world is only a sliver of what’s “out there.” There is much that is invisible to the eye, even when we augment our sensorial perception with telescopes, microscopes, and other tools of exploration. Like our senses, every instrument has a range. Because much of Nature remains hidden from us, our view of the world is based only on the fraction of reality that we can measure and analyze. Science, as our narrative describing what we see and what we conjecture exists in the natural world, is thus necessarily limited, telling only part of the story… We strive toward knowledge, always more knowledge, but must understand that we are, and will remain, surrounded by mystery… It is the flirting with this mystery, the urge to go beyond the boundaries of the known, that feeds our creative impulse, that makes us want to know more.

- Marcelo Gleiser

What if human history rested on your shoulders alone?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 10:20:00 +0000

What would you do if you suddenly realized that the entire evolution of the human race rested on your shoulders alone? … Suddenly you find yourself overwhelmed by a blazing white light. … Would you be able to avoid the overwhelming implications of a call from the Absolute? … In order to be able to live up to the liberating idealism that many of us have experienced clearly at one time or another we have to be ready to assume a great burden, and that burden is the evolution of the whole. Because to succeed, we must be prepared to do battle with the powerful conditioning, conscious and unconscious, of the whole race. That means we have to come out from behind the shadows and be seen. Like Atlas, we have to be willing to hold up the whole world on our own shoulders. It’s an awesome task.

- Andrew Cohen said in Freedom Has No History,

Spiritual Mind Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:30:00 +0000

Spiritual Mind Treatment (simply called “treatment”) is a form of affirmative prayer used by Dr. Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science and author of The Science of Mind as well as many other metaphysical works. Holmes taught that there is a scientific reasoning underlying all prayer, and that through this process of reasoning we are treating our own mind about the subject of our prayer.

Prayer, whatever form is used, does nothing to God. It actually brings the one praying to a “realization” of God, a realization that all is well and that he/she is not alone in dealing with the situation. This realization in itself does the “healing.”

Treatment consists of five steps. It can be done individually or as a group. In the beginning, you may find it easier and more comfortable to simply read the steps as written, generic as they may be.

When you begin your own deepening process as the result of treatment, you will find value in wording each step yourself so it more closely suits your situation. Therefore, at the beginning of each step is an explanation of its purpose.

The power of prayer has been known to humanity since the beginning of time. Each of us has found our own ways to experience and express our connection to that “something” which is greater than our daily events and challenges. Spiritual Mind Treatment is one of those many ways. You are certain to find it effective and uplifting.

Step 1 - Recognition

In the beginning, God, Begin by recognizing that “God is all there is,” including the issue of the prayer. Name as many attributes of God that you can think of to begin “treating your mind” that there is a power greater than you are and greater than the issue at hand. Remember: You are not making God these things; you are reminding yourself that this is what God is. You might say:

God is. Whatever I may call It - Spirit, Infinite Intelligence, Divine Love, Total Peace - It is always the same: It is timeless, changeless, everywhere present and completely powerful to heal and renew me and this situation in my life. It is courage and pure joy. It is profound peace and uplifting laughter. It is total wisdom and the spontaneity to enjoy life.

Step 2 - Unification

It is easy to recognize that God is all these things. And it is often more difficult to see your unity with God and know that you are those same attributes. You are “made in the image and likeness of God.” How can you be anything but the magnificence, power, love, etc. that you have just declared God is?

God and I are One, I know that I am infinite intelligence, deep peace, unconditional love, courage, harmony and joy. I am what God is. God is expressing through me right now in every way. I have all answers within with God as my source. Every cell of my body is God, every situation is God, every thing in my life now is God.

Step 3 - Realization

The first two steps are often compared to meditation. When you have experienced a richness and a deepening as a result of the first two steps, the third step is a declaration of the Truth you have realized. It is always worded in the first person and in the present tense. You are not asking for anything. You are declaring and affirming that it is the Truth and is already done.

Remember, you are treating your own mind about this. The entire Kingdom has already been given to you. If you don't believe it, God can’t do anything more for you. If you are doing this treatment for someone else you substitute their name where yours is indicated.

I now speak my word for myself.

The Truth of God is the Truth of my life. I easily and effortlessly know my greater good, know it is my Divine right and the truth of my being to experience the highest and best good for myself. I am always in the right place and the right time. The Wisdom of God within me guides my every move. I experience unconditional love flowing through me at all times. I feel the perfection of God in every cell of my body. I am total harmony and joy in every area of my life. I see God in every situation in my life.

Step 4 - Thanksgiving

Here you express your gratitude for the successful completion of your declaration of Truth and for your willingness to see it, believe it and surrender to its enfoldment.

I give thanks for the realization of this treatment and the perfect working of the spiritual law which responds to my thoughts and words. I am confident and joyous that my good is already unfolding through me as me.

Step 5 - Release

It’s time to release it to Spirit. You’ve done your work; now know the Law will do it’s work - through you.

In this feeling of gratitude, I release this treatment to the Law. I know it was done before I even asked. I release any doubts or fears and simply allow it to be my good-right now. I have declared it to be so.

And So It Is!

Depresssion and the Serotonin Lie

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 12:19:00 +0000

“And where there is a scientific vacuum, drug companies are happy to insert a marketing message and call it science. As a result, psychiatry has become a proving ground for outrageous manipulations of science in the service of profit.”
- Dr. Daniel Carlat

“Depression is a serious medical condition that may be due to a chemical imbalance, and Zoloft works to correct this imbalance.”

Herein lies the serotonin myth.

As one of only two countries in the world that permits direct to consumer advertising, you have undoubtedly been subjected to promotion of the “cause of depression.” A cause that is not your fault, but rather; a matter of too few little bubbles passing between the hubs in your brain! Don’t add that to your list of worries, though, because there is a convenient solution awaiting you at your doctor’s office…

What if I told you that, in 6 decades of research, the serotonin (or norepinephrine, or dopamine) theory of depression and anxiety has not achieved scientific credibility?

You’d want some supporting arguments for this shocking claim.

So, here you go:

The Science of Psychiatry is Myth

Rather than some embarrassingly reductionist, one-deficiency-one-illness-one-pill model of mental illness, contemporary exploration of human behavior has demonstrated that we may know less than we ever thought we did. And that what we do know about root causes of mental illness seems to have more to do with the concept of evolutionary mismatch than with genes and chemical deficiencies.

In fact, a meta-analysis of over 14,000 patients and Dr. Insel, head of the NIMH, had this to say:

“Despite high expectations, neither genomics nor imaging has yet impacted the diagnosis or treatment of the 45 million Americans with serious or moderate mental illness each year.”

To understand what imbalance is, we must know what balance looks like, and neuroscience, to date, has not characterized the optimal brain state, nor how to even assess for it.

A New England Journal of Medicine review on Major Depression, stated:

” … numerous studies of norepinephrine and serotonin metabolites in plasma, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid as well as postmortem studies of the brains of patients with depression, have yet to identify the purported deficiency reliably.”

The data has poked holes in the theory and even the field of psychiatry itself is putting down its sword. One of my favorite essays by Lacasse and Leo has compiled sentiments from influential thinkers in the field – mind you, these are conventional clinicians and researchers in mainstream practice – who have broken rank, casting doubt on the entirety of what psychiatry has to offer around antidepressants:

Humble Origins of a Powerful Meme

In the 1950s, reserpine, initially introduced to the US market as an anti-seizure medication, was noted to deplete brain serotonin stores in subjects, with resultant lethargy and sedation. These observations colluded with the clinical note that an anti-tuberculosis medication, iproniazid, invoked mood changes after five months of treatment in 70% of a 17 patient cohort. Finally, Dr. Joseph Schildkraut threw fairy dust on these mumbles and grumbles in 1965 with his hypothetical manifesto entitled “The Catecholamine Hypothesis of Affective Disorders” stating:

“At best, drug-induced affective disturbances can only be considered models of the natural disorders, while it remains to be demonstrated that the behavioral changes produced by these drugs have any relation to naturally occurring biochemical abnormalities which might be associated with the illness.”

Contextualized by the ripeness of a field struggling to establish biomedical legitimacy (beyond the therapeutic lobotomy!), psychiatry was ready for a rebranding, and the pharmaceutical industry was all too happy to partner in the effort.

Of course, the risk inherent in “working backwards” in this way (noting effects and presuming mechanisms) is that we tell ourselves that we have learned something about the body, when in fact, all we have learned is that patented synthesized chemicals have effects on our behavior. This is referred to as the drug-based model by Dr. Joanna Moncrieff. In this model, we acknowledge that antidepressants have effects, but that these effects in no way are curative or reparative.

The most applicable analogy is that of the woman with social phobia who finds that drinking two cocktails eases her symptoms. One could imagine how, in a 6 week randomized trial, this “treatment” could be found efficacious and recommended for daily use and even prevention of symptoms. How her withdrawal symptoms after 10 years of daily compliance could lead those around her to believe that she “needed” the alcohol to correct an imbalance. This analogy is all too close to the truth.

Running With Broken Legs

Psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Carlat has said:

So, what happens when we let drug companies tell doctors what science is? We have an industry and a profession working together to maintain a house of cards theory in the face of contradictory evidence.

We have a global situation in which increases in prescribing are resulting in increases in severity of illness (including numbers and length of episodes) relative to those who have never been treated with medication.

To truly appreciate the breadth of evidence that states antidepressants are ineffective and unsafe, we have to get behind the walls that the pharmaceutical companies erect. We have to unearth unpublished data, data that they were hoping to keep in the dusty catacombs.

A now famous 2008 study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Turner et al sought to expose the extent of this data manipulation. They demonstrated that, from 1987 to 2004, 12 antidepressants were approved based on 74 studies. Thirty-eight were positive, and 37 of thesewere published. Thirty-six were negative (showing no benefit), and 3 of these were published as such while 11 were published with a positive spin (always read the data not the author’s conclusion!), and 22 were unpublished.

In 1998 tour de force, Dr. Irving Kirsch, an expert on the placebo effect, published a meta-analysis of 3,000 patients who were treated with antidepressants, psychotherapy, placebo, or no treatment and found that only 27% of the therapeutic response was attributable to the drug’s action.

This was followed up by a 2008 review, which invoked the Freedom of Information Act to obtain access to unpublished studies, finding that, when these were included, antidepressants outperformed placebo in only 20 of 46 trials (less than half!), and that the overall difference between drugs and placebos was 1.7 points on the 52 point Hamilton Scale. This small increment is clinically insignificant, and likely accounted for by medication side effects strategically employed (sedation or activation).

When active placebos were used, the Cochrane database found that differences between drugs and placebos disappeared, given credence to the assertion that inert placebos inflate perceived drug effects.

The finding of tremendous placebo effect in the treatment groups was also echoed in two different meta-analyses by Khan et al who found a 10% difference between placebo and antidepressant efficacy, and comparable suicide rates. The most recent trial examining the role of “expectancy” or belief in antidepressant effect, found that patients lost their perceived benefit if they believed that they might be getting a sugar pill even if they were continued on their formerly effective treatment dose of Prozac.

The largest, non-industry funded study, costing the public $35 million dollars, followed 4000 patients treated with Celexa (not blinded, so they knew what they were getting), and found that half of them improved at 8 weeks. Those that didn’t were switched to Wellbutrin, Effexor, or Zoloft OR “augmented” with Buspar or Wellbutrin.

Guess what? It didn’t matter what was done, because they remitted at the same unimpressive rate of 18-30% regardless with only 3% of patients in remission at 12 months.

How could it be that medications like Wellbutrin, which purportedly primarily disrupt dopamine signaling, and medications like Stablon which theoretically enhances the reuptake of serotonin, both work to resolve this underlying imbalance? Why would thyroid, benzodiazepines, beta blockers, and opiates also “work”? And what does depression have in common with panic disorder, phobias, OCD, eating disorders, and social anxiety that all of these diagnoses would warrant the same exact chemical fix?

Alternative options

As a holistic clinician, one of my bigger pet peeves is the use of amino acids and other nutraceuticals with “serotonin-boosting” claims. These integrative practitioners have taken a page from the allopathic playbook and are seeking to copy-cat what they perceive antidepressants to be doing.

The foundational “data” for the modern serotonin theory of mood utilizes tryptophan depletion methods which involve feeding volunteers amino acid mixtures without tryptophan and are rife with complicated interpretations.

Simply put, there has never been a study that demonstrates that this intervention causes mood changes in any patients who have not been treated with antidepressants.

In an important paper entitled Mechanism of acute tryptophan depletion: Is it only serotonin?, van Donkelaar et al caution clinicians and researchers about the interpretation of tryptophan research. They clarify that there are many potential effects of this methodology, stating:

In general, several findings support the fact that depression may not be caused solely by an abnormality of 5-HT function, but more likely by a dysfunction of other systems or brain regions modulated by 5-HT or interacting with its dietary precursor. Similarly, the ATD method does not seem to challenge the 5-HT system per se, but rather triggers 5HT-mediated adverse events.

So if we cannot confirm the role of serotonin in mood and we have good reason to believe that antidepressant effect is largely based on belief, then why are we trying to “boost serotonin”?

Causing imbalances

All you have to do is spend a few minutes on http://survivingantidepressants.org/ orhttp://beyondmeds.com/ to appreciate that we have created a monster. Millions of men, women, and children the world over are suffering, without clinical guidance (because this is NOT a part of medical training) to discontinue psychiatric meds. I have been humbled, as a clinician who seeks to help these patients, by what these medications are capable of. Psychotropic withdrawal can make alcohol and heroin detox look like a breeze.

An important analysis by the former director of the NIMH makes claims that antidepressants “create perturbations in neurotransmitter functions” causing the body to compensate through a series of adaptations which occur after “chronic administration” leading to brains that function, after a few weeks, in a way that is “qualitatively as well as quantitatively different from the normal state.”

Changes in beta-adrenergic receptor density, serotonin autoreceptor sensitivity, and serotonin turnover all struggle to compensate for the assault of the medication.

Andrews, et al., calls this “oppositional tolerance,” and demonstrate through a careful meta-analysis of 46 studies demonstrating that patient’s risk of relapse is directly proportionate to how “perturbing” the medication is, and is always higher than placebo (44.6% vs 24.7%). They challenge the notion that findings of decreased relapse on continued medication represent anything other than drug-induced response to discontinuation of a substance to which the body has developed tolerance. They go a step further to add:

“For instance, in naturalistic studies, unmedicated patients have much shorter episodes, and better long-term prospects, than medicated patients. Several of these studies have found that the average duration of an untreated episode of major depression is 12–13 weeks.”

Harvard researchers also concluded that at least fifty percent of drug-withdrawn patients relapsed within 14 months. In fact:

“Long-term antidepressant use may be depressogenic . . . it is possible that antidepressant agents modify the hardwiring of neuronal synapses (which) not only render antidepressants ineffective but also induce a resident, refractory depressive state.”

So, when your doctor says, “You see, look how sick you are, you shouldn’t have stopped that medication,” you should know that the data suggests that your symptoms are withdrawal, not relapse.

Longitudinal studies demonstrate poor functional outcomes for those treated with 60% of patients still meeting diagnostic criteria at one year (despite transient improvement within the first 3 months). When baseline severity is controlled for, two prospective studies support a worse outcome in those prescribed medication:

One in which the never-medicated group experienced a 62% improvement by six months, whereas the drug-treated patients experienced only a 33% reduction in symptoms, and another WHO study of depressed patients in 15 cities which found that, at the end of one year, those who weren’t exposed to psychotropic medications enjoyed much better “general health”; that their depressive symptoms were much milder”; and that they were less likely to still be “mentally ill.”

I’m not done yet. In a retrospective 10-year study in the Netherlands, 76% of those with unmedicated depression recovered without relapse relative to 50% of those treated.

Unlike the mess of contradictory studies around short-term effects, there are no comparable studies that show a better outcome in those prescribed antidepressants long term.

First Do No Harm

So, we have a half-baked theory in a vacuum of science that that pharmaceutical industry raced to fill. We have the illusion of short-term efficacy and assumptions about long-term safety. But are these medications actually killing people?

The answer is yes.

Unequivocally, antidepressants cause suicidal and homicidal behavior. The Russian Roulette of patients vulnerable to these “side effects” is only beginning to be elucidated and may have something to do with genetic variants around metabolism of these chemicals. Dr. David Healy hasworked tirelessly to expose the data that implicates antidepressants in suicidality and violence, maintaining a database for reporting, writing, and lecturing about cases of medication-induced death that could make your soul wince.

What about our most vulnerable?

I have countless patients in my practice who report new onset of suicidal ideation within weeks of starting an antidepressant. In a population where there are only 2 randomized trials, I have grave concerns about postpartum women who are treated with antidepressants before more benign andeffective interventions such as dietary modification and thyroid treatment. Hold your heart as you read through these reports of women who took their own and their childrens’ lives while treated with medications.

Then there is the use of these medications in children as young as 2 years old. How did we ever get the idea that this was a safe and effective treatment for this demographic? Look no further than data like Study 329, which cost Glaxo Smith Klein 3 billion dollars for their efforts to promote antidepressants to children. These efforts required ghost-written and manipulated data that suppressed a signal of suicidality, falsely represented Paxil as outperforming placebo, and contributes to an irrepressible mountain of harm done to our children by the field of psychiatry.

RIP Monoamine Theory

As Moncrieff and Cohen so succinctly state:

“Our analysis indicates that there are no specific antidepressant drugs, that most of the short-term effects of antidepressants are shared by many other drugs, and that long-term drug treatment with antidepressants or any other drugs has not been shown to lead to long-term elevation of mood. We suggest that the term “antidepressant” should be abandoned.”

So, where do we turn?

The field of psychoneuroimmunology dominates the research as an iconic example of how medicine must surpass its own simplistic boundaries if we are going to begin to chip away at the some 50% of Americans who will struggle with mood symptoms, 11% of whom will be medicated for it.

There are times in our evolution as a cultural species when we need to unlearn what we think we know. We have to move out of the comfort of certainty and into the freeing light of uncertainty. It is from this space of acknowledged unknowing that we can truly grow. From my vantage point, this growth will encompass a sense of wonder – both a curiosity about what symptoms of mental illness may be telling us about our physiology and spirit, as well as a sense of humbled awe at all that we do not yet have the tools to appreciate. For this reason, honoring our co-evolution with the natural world, and sending the body a signal of safety through movement, diet, meditation, and environmental detoxification represents our most primal and most powerful tool for healing.

- Kelly Brogan, MD ABIHM

Brain plasticity and harvard meditation

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:43:00 +0000

Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of mindfulness meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced neuroscientists at Harvard University. The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team’s MRI scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain’s gray matter. “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”

Sue McGreevey of MGH writes: “Previous studies from Lazar’s group and others found structural differences between the brains of experienced meditation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation, observing thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration. But those investigations could not document that those differences were actually produced by meditation.” Until now, that is. The participants spent an average of 27 minutes per day practicing mindfulness exercises, and this is all it took to stimulate a major increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection. McGreevey adds: “Participant-reported reductions in stress also were correlated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress. None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time.”

“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany. You can read more about the remarkable study by visiting Harvard.edu. If this is up your alley then you need to read this: “Listen As Sam Harris Explains How To Tame Your Mind (No Religion Required)

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

You don't motivate creatives like a labourer

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 17:17:00 +0000

In this riveting TED talk, Dan Pink makes a case for why everything we think we know about motivating people to achieve success is wrong – and then reveals the one thing that actually works. Watch this important video now (and you’ll also get the secret to the candle problem)…

Why is this TED talk important?

As Tellman Knudson observed: "First of all, in my experience, it’s completely true. Personally, I am never motivated to achieve successor solve problems by some “reward” I will get at the end of it all."

I’m not motivated by getting a bigger paycheck. I’m not motivated by the thought of a 3 day weekend or a big, shiny sports car (hey, those don’t really work in Vermont anyway ;)…

So what DOES motivate me?

Exactly what Dan Pink talks about here: Doing something amazing for the sake of doing it. Solving “unsolvable” problems just because someone said I couldn’t. Improving the lives of others. Really. I’m not joking about this. It’s a serious matter.

And here’s why this is a serious matter for YOU.

Because if you are, or are even thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, you’re NOT going to be solving a lot of those straightforward, mechanical-type problems that work well with the carrot/incentive model. Nope.

As an entrepreneur, you get to solve a LOT of the “cognitive thinking” types of problems. Those puzzles that have no obvious answer. The ones you have to be at the top of your mental game for. And if Dan is correct (and I believe he is), a big juicy carrot is not going to help you one bit here.

So, the question is…

Is there NOTHING that can help you be more on top of your game, get motivated, and attack the creative problems you need to solve to be truly successful as an entrepreneur? Do you have to rely on just some inner “intrinsic drive” to do something well?

Not quite.

Here’s the thing. As long as you’ve got the intrinsic drive in the first place, then there IS something you can do that will:

1. Clear your mind of all distraction so you can be brilliant.
2. Help you do the “broad spectrum” thinking needed to solve tricky problems.
3. Motivate you to succeed massively even when the way forward isn’t clear.

Eat your frog first thing in the morning

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 08:53:00 +0000

"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it'syour job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." - Mark Twain

So you want to make that new habit. Twenty-one days is all it takes if only you get started.

So get he bogey over first thing in the morning, don’t have your coffee, tale an hour bath to get yourself in the mood.

Set your day up with a success.

A small success. Don’t make the target so massive that you put it off. Get success under your belt FIRST.

If a new habit Takes too long you will never have time to learn other things.

If you improved 5% on one life area in 21 days, then you could repeat the process 12 to 15 times in a year. That’s 60% or more by small improvements made into habits.

So start off your day with a success, do the hard part first. The satisfaction will thrill the rest of your day.

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

A misinformed 100th monkey?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:58:00 +0000

For many years I had heard stories about the "Hundredth Monkey phenomenon" and was fascinated with the possibility that there might be some sort of collective consciousness that we could tap into to decrease crime, eliminate wars, and generally unite as a single species. In the 1992 presidential election, in fact, one candidate—Dr. John Hagelin from the Natural Law Party—claimed that if elected he would implement a plan that would solve the problems of our inner cities: meditation. Hagelin and others (especially proponents of Transcendental Meditation, or TM) believe that thought can somehow be transferred between people, especially people in a meditative state; if enough people meditate at the same time, some sort of critical mass will be reached, thereby inducing significant planetary change. The Hundredth Monkey phenomenon is commonly cited as empirical proof of this astonishing theory. In the 1950s, so the story goes, Japanese scientists gave monkeys on Koshima Island potatoes. One day one of the monkeys learned to wash the potatoes and then taught the skill to others. When about one hundred monkeys had learned the skill—the so-called critical mass —suddenly all the monkeys knew it, even those on other islands hundreds of miles away. Books about the phenomenon have spread this theory widely in New Age circles. Lyall Watson's Lifetide (1979) and Ken Keyes's The Hundredth Monkey (1982), for example, have been through multiple printings and sold millions of copies; Elda Hartley even made a film called The Hundredth Monkey.

As an exercise in skepticism, start by asking whether events really happened as reported. They did not. In 1952, primatologists began providing Japanese macaques with sweet potatoes to keep the

monkeys from raiding local farms. One monkey did learn to wash dirt off the sweet potatoes in a stream or the ocean, and other monkeys did learn to imitate the behavior. Now let's examine Watson's book more carefully. He admits that "one has to gather the rest of the story from personal anecdotes and bits of folklore among primate researchers, because most of them are still not quite sure what happened. So I am forced to improvise the details." Watson then speculates that "an unspecified number of monkeys on Koshima were washing sweet potatoes in the sea"—hardly the level of precision one expects. He then makes this statement: "Let us say, for argument's sake, that the number was ninety-nine and that at 11:00 A.M. on a Tuesday, one further convert was added to the fold in the usual way. But the addition of the hundredth monkey apparently carried the number across some sort of threshold, pushing it through a kind of critical mass." At this point, says Watson, the habit "seems to have jumped natural barriers and to have appeared spontaneously on other islands" (1979, pp. 2-8).

Let's stop right there. Scientists do not "improvise" details or make wild guesses from "anecdotes" and "bits of folklore." In fact, some scientists did record exactly what happened (for example, Baldwin et al. 1980; Imanishi 1983; Kawai 1962). The research began with a troop of twenty monkeys in 1952, and every monkey on the island was carefully observed. By 1962, the troop had increased to fiftynine monkeys and exactly thirty-six of the fifty-nine monkeys were washing their sweet potatoes. The "sudden" acquisition of the behavior actually took ten years, and the "hundred monkeys" were actually only thirty-six in 1962. Furthermore, we can speculate endlessly about what the monkeys knew, but the fact remains that not all of the monkeys in the troop were exhibiting the washing behavior. The thirtysix monkeys were not a critical mass even at home. And while there are some reports of similar behavior on other islands, the observations were made between 1953 and 1967. It was not sudden, nor was it necessarily connected to Koshima. The monkeys on other islands could have discovered this simple skill themselves, for example, or inhabitants on other islands might have taught them. In any case, not only is there no evidence to support this extraordinary claim, there is not even a real phenomenon to explain.

From Why people believe weird things: pseudoscience, superstition, and other confusions of our time / Michael Shermer; Henry Holt and company New York

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

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