From the Max Planck Institute press release:

Already several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in the brain. This is shown in a study by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin. The researchers from the group of Professor John-Dylan Haynes used a brain scanner to investigate what happens in the human brain just before a decision is made. “Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings.” (Nature Neuroscience, April 13th 2008)

Did I read that correctly? My brain is making a decision a full 7 seconds before I’m aware of the decision? Wait a minute!! What about choice and accountability? That is, how can the universe (”God”) hold me accountable for a choice when I didn’t consciously make it? What the hey!!!??!!!

The researchers also note that the study does not finally rule out free will (I’m relieved, sort of): “Our study shows that decisions are unconsciously prepared much longer ahead than previously thought. But we do not know yet where the final decision is made. We need to investigate whether a decision prepared by these brain areas can still be reversed.”

Ah, I feel so much better knowing I have some conscious control over my choices – even if just to put my conscious stamp of approval or disapproval on a specific choice (maybe!). But, hold on cowboy – twenty years ago, UC San Francisco brain scientist Benjamin Libet found a brain signal, the so-called “readiness-potential” that occurred a fraction of a second before a conscious decision. In Libet’s view, it is the brain that makes the decision, not a person’s conscious mind. Oh, no!! Back to unconscious choices!

I’ve known for years that I do most activities automatically – and all too often speak or act before I “think” (my wife will attest to this). I just didn’t appreciate the extent of my choice automation. According to the Planck study, virtually ALL my choices are considered, mulled over, and decided long before I’m aware of it. And I’m basically living out my unconscious choices – and in most cases, justifying them in order to make myself appear to be right, justified, or at least proper.

It gives new meaning to Bill Cosby’s teenage conundrum – when asked, “Why did you do that?” Bill’s teenage child would answer, “I don’t know!” Perhaps now we know – he wasn’t lying! He didn’t consciously know. But some part of him did… seven seconds before. He just wasn’t aware of it.

It would seem that free will is an illusion. And yet nature is accountable to provide us a result of our “choice” – regardless of whether or not we are aware we’ve made a choice. Egad! I may be suffering from the result of choices I didn’t consciously participate in until after the fact. Perhaps it would be a reasonable idea to get better acquainted with my subconscious mind, eh?

How can we take charge of our lives if free will is an illusion? How can I realistically say I want to do this or that when the decision is already made 7 seconds ago? It’s a conundrum fit for the likes of Plato or Socrates.

So, I wonder -

• What does it mean that your brain knows your choices 7 seconds before you do?
• Is free will, therefore, an illusion?
• Are we just acting out subconscious choices over which we have little or no conscious control?
• How can you be held accountable (by the universe, God, the law) for decisions you didn’t consciously make? Or did you?
• Who is making your choices? Who is represented by that 7-second-in-advance brain area?
• Is this evidence to support the concept of a “super-consciousness” – like a “spirit” or “esoteric essence” or the like?

What do you think of all this? Please post a comment so we can discuss it…

Original Study:
Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze & John-Dylan Haynes
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience April 13th, 2008. Click here to see original press release.

A recent study by Laura L. Ten Eyck, PhD, Dana P. Gresky, PhD, and Charles G. Lord, PhD, involved 61 college students who did not exercise on a regular basis or exercised inconsistently. Researchers asked students to think about either the reasons why they should increase the performance of a target cardiovascular exercise they had previously selected, such as to be healthier or lose weight or to list actions they could take to increase exercise performance, such a joining a gym or working out with a friend.

Over an eight week period, students who brought to mind a list of actions they could take to increase exercise performance showed an increase in exercise and improved cardiovascular fitness. However, students who repeatedly brought to mind the reasons why they should do the target exercise did not increase time spent exercising.

Conclusion: if you want to lose some weight by increasing your level of exercise – particularly if you are prone to couch potatoing, think about HOW specifically you can increase your level of exercise rather than WHY you should.

Comments?

You know that maintaining intimacy is important for your relationship with your partner. But did you know that it’s also good for your health?

Psychologists and researchers have discovered a number of benefits for people who experience intimacy in their committed relationships. In fact, closeness in relationships has been found to influence social, emotional, and physical health.

People in intimate relationships…

* Are better at successful navigating various developmental stages
* Are more likely to maintain solid, lasting friendships
* Are less likely to be in car accidents
* Are more resistant to diseases and mental illness

On the other hand, individuals involved in committed relationships that lack intimacy and closeness are more vulnerable to a whole handful of ailments: stress, depression, psychosomatic disorders, and mental illness in general. (To read more about this research, see: “Marriage and Romantic Relationships: Defining Intimacy in Romantic Relationships,” by Barry F. Moss and Andrew I. Schwebel, in Family Relations, vol. 42, no. 1, January 1993, pp. 31-37.)

If you’re in a committed relationship, take the opportunity to work on intimacy with your partner today. Small gestures can go a long way toward creating a closer relationship. Not only will you be investing in the strength of your future relationship, you’ll be protecting your future health and happiness.

Shared Couple’s Trance, a hypnosis program developed by Dr. Michele Ritterman, is a fun and easy way to explore your relationship with your partner and build intimacy. Together, you can recreate positive feelings, while discovering your own sense of safety and closeness in the relationship.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Ritterman’s program.

© 2007 The Hypnosis Network. All rights reserved.

Although highly technical and highly controversial, a “new” theory of everything concludes that “the universe is created by life and not the other way around.” And the theory is getting some pretty good press.

If Lanza’s theory holds true (we’ll probably never know because his theory is as impossible to prove or disprove as is String Theory – just makes a whole lot more sense considering the evidence), then what you think and believe really does have a significant impact on hard reality.

In a nutshell, according to biocentrism, time (and space) does not exist independently of the life that notices it. This is particularly evident in the physics of the infinitesimally small (quantum mechanics) in which subatomic particles seem to be everywhere at once unless observed, in which case they suddenly appear in only one place at one time.

Biocentrism supports such statements as:

“The mind is so powerful that it can create an experience to support any belief. Then we believe the experience proves the belief, not knowing that the belief created the experience.” Krishnamurti

“Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead, only try and realize the truth.”
“What truth?”
“There is no spoon.”
“There is no spoon?”
“Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends. It is only yourself.”
- The Matrix

“…you cannot see the human energy field of another without participating in it.” Talbot, The Holographic Universe

The United States, in the meantime has caught up and surpassed the old Soviet Union for ratio of prisoners to general population. The USA, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave now houses more prisoner per capita than any other nation on earth – at 715 per 100,000 the US holds more than the old USSR (NationMaster.com) and almost twice as many as second ranked Russia.

And why is this? Because during the Reagan/Bush years, the US passed several laws concerning dangerous drugs such as Marijuana, Cocaine, and Heroin. These laws inflicted upon our citizenry mandatory prison sentences – even for first “offenses.” Until very recently, a conviction for selling marijuana could land you in jail for life without parole in some States – while in those same States, murderers were sometimes released after just 7 years “with good behavior” – a few of whom returned after murdering again.

“The vast majority of people incarcerated [in the US] are nonviolent drug offenders,” says Daniel Kruger, research professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and lead researcher in a recently published study on the negative health effects of such incarceration on the general public. “We should shift oversight of substance use and abuse to the health care sector.”

I’m not for or against legalization of any currently unlawful drug. I’m just suggesting – maybe demanding – that our legislators lift the draconian imposition of mandatory sentences for non-violent crimes – particularly those of unlawful drug use and possession.It’s time to return judicial discretion (and mercy) to the Bench.

I think perhaps it’s time to look to the French and others who are leading the way in providing effective treatment for drug users – rather than locking them away in prisons. A person addicted to some substance should not be labeled a criminal. They need instead, medical and psychological assistance – compassion! Instead, our [US] system deals out “justice” – of the harsh variety reminiscent of dark ages Europe or Communist USSR.

It’s time we scientifically INVESTIGATE substances that have been labeled unlawful and dangerous. Let’s put some science behind our laws – instead of puffy rhetoric and emotional storytelling – not to mention greed and avarice. We owe it to our children to keep them out of jail for illusory and often sensationalized “offenses” that harm no one – where incarceration harms them, their families, and their communities.

Have you visited a prison lately? If your state prisons are like those here in Oregon, you’d have to call them “schools” for criminal behavior. Unfortunately, many of those convicted of nonviolent crimes “graduate” from our prison systems with new “skills” and “education” – to the detriment of everyone.

I hope we are not literally slitting our own throats in the USA by jailing nonviolent drug “offenders” along side violent psychopaths in a prison system intended to “rehabilitate” but which in actuality may be creating more determined and more violent behaviors in people who otherwise would be contributing members of our society.

I wonder what would happen in the US if getting “stoned” were considered no more a crime than getting drunk – and if physicians were free to prescribe what would work rather than what would make the most money for certain people/corporations/industries. I wonder…

Maybe it’s time to “release the [nonviolent] prisoners” as President Reagan admonished President Gorbechev in the 1980s. It’s time we return the USA to the Land of the Free rather than continue making it the Land of the Incarcerated. It’s time to stop making criminals out of decent people who have harmed no one and have and can yet make significant contributions to our society.

Sure it’s possible to walk on coals – lots of people have done it before and not gotten so much as an ouch of a burn. But I had not done it before – and even after the first person walked across – and even though we knew scientifically and spiritually that it was possible – the HEAT and FIRE coupled with our own past experiences with fire – I had been burned badly on my feet in a fire in the garage in our old house – confronted us with the real possibility of serious injury.

FIRE BURNS FLESH!!! My body knows it – which is why I don’t put my hand on the hot stove on purpose. My body knows about heat and knows how to react to it – mostly by AVOIDING IT.

I don’t care how much you believe you can do it – when you stand at the precipice and your face and arms are burning from the heat – you are face to face with one of the greatest inbred fears of animal-kind – the fear of fire – ala Frankenstein’s monster. All animals are afraid of fire – including humans. Fire is TERRIFYING.

What would it take to make me step from the cool grass onto the superheated hot coals?

In my case, it was curiosity. I was SO driven by curiosity that I walked right across – the second person across after the host. I’d have been first if we did not honor the host with being first.

Curiosity => Motivation => Firewalk

I’ve seen and heard “experts” who complain that a firewalk is no big deal because physics will take care of you. Others have written that it’s some kind of mystical spiritual power that protects the walker. I don’t care what “power” or physical law makes walking on fire possible. That’s not the point of the walk. The point is to overcome your fear. And I will tell you from personal experience, that first step is FULL of doubt and apprehension – FEAR. There is a REASON firefighters wear protective clothing – you don’t find them going barefooted into a burning building…

So, what did I learn from walking on fire:

• Not everything I fear is insurmountable
• When I’m face-to-face with deathly fear, I’m on the precipice – just a few steps across the coals away from success
• As I was burned slightly on the first crossing, after the third crossing, I realized that I would be okay even though I was burned the first time
• Until my foot touched the coals, it was just theory
• The hotter the coals, the better the walk across them
• I (and my body) am more powerful than I once believed
• My fear kept my feet safe from burning – fear can be my friend and ally

Courage is when you feel the fear and do it anyway. Courage? It didn’t seem like it to me at the time. We just DID WHAT HAD TO BE DONE. But it WAS courageous because we felt the fear and did it anyway.

I satisfied my curiosity.

The very next year, I rappelled out of a helicopter for the first time. My fear of heights kicked in BIG TIME. Still, I made it down the 100 foot rope to the ground with no trouble at all. And just to really face my fear of heights, I did the rappel Australian – facing toward the ground – fast. It was terrifying – and exhilarating. I did it three more times that day. The third time was FUN!

At age 13, my son rappelled for the first time – down a 60 foot wall. It was terrifying for him – the scratch marks at the top bare witness. Humans fear falling – and will avoid it ferociously. Once he got through the terror, he was like a kid with a new toy – you could not keep him off the wall. Suddenly, his fear had become his friend. And he was fundamentally different after that experience.

It’s a myth that you must face your fears to overcome them. Rapid Eye Technology (RET), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), hypnosis, and a number of other techniques and processes have eliminated the need to re-experience terror in order to overcome it – and I can tell you from my own experience, IT WORKS. I am convinced that I would not have been able to walk on the fire or bail out of a helicopter on a rope without resolving the fears that would have kept me from even trying.

Terror is just an action away from FUN. Those who experience the terror, take action, and discover the fun on the other side, are changed by the experience. Those who GET what happened are transformed.

TRANSFORMATION creates a fundamentally different person. Of course, those who were attached to the old person may feel differently about the new one – maybe even leave them. It’s one of the risks of transformation.

And then there is the story of how we faced the terror of excommunication from our religion – which meant facing our fear of eternal oblivion – and became different people as a result. Lost friends? Some maybe. Worth it. You bet!!

A study published in Neuron, helps us understand the value of delta and beta brain waves in a new way. Basically, the study showed that beta brain waves denote attention and attentiveness while the much slower delta brain waves tell us when to pay attention. It makes sense that we don’t pay attention to everything all the time – we’d be overwhelmed. Some mechanism within us figures out the patterns of attention we need to employ in order to better utilize our attentive powers. Timing is everything…

Through a series of experiments utilizing a brain-computer interface, the study authors discovered that beta and delta brain waves were always present to some degree during wakefulness. The frequency and intensity of the delta wave helped the authors predict when attention would be paid while the frequency and intensity of the beta wave helped them predict how attentive the subject would be at any given time. Fundamentally, this demonstrates that our brains are always bathed in delta AND beta waves during times of outward attention such as when noticing something important or just paying attention to something. The study did not investigate sleep states.

“All these things converge on this idea that low-frequency oscillations reflect the brain’s plans; they are really critical,” study author Schroeder said.

“The slow [delta] rhythm is kind of like the rhythm section [in a band], and you anticipate notes at particular moments in time based on that slower rhythm,” author Hatsopoulos explained.

“There are lots of stimuli in the world that have rhythm,” said Jacob Reimer, post-doctoral researcher at Baylor College of Medicine and another author of the study. “If you’re waiting for a signal that is informative, you could pay attention constantly for a long period of time. But if that thing you’re waiting for has some rhythmicity to it, maybe a more efficient method is to only pay attention ‘on the beat.’”

So what happens at those times when you feel you just can’t seem to pay adequate attention? Like during a lecture you really want to remember, or while listening to a conversation you really want to understand – but just can’t seem to get yourself “into it”? Perhaps your delta brain waves are off just a tiny bit. Other than implanting a delta frequency generator into your brain, could there be an easier, less intrusive method of nudging your brain into gear when you want it to?

I wonder if practicing with external delta frequencies might help attention and timely alertness. A metronome can very easily be set up for delta frequencies – and it makes sense to me that setting a metronome to your particular delta frequency for attentiveness might be effective. It would certainly be simple and inexpensive to try.

Many say that the classical music of the Baroque era, especially that of Handel helps foster attentiveness. Particularly proponents of superlearning touted the value of Baroque music for learning, which requires good attentiveness skills. Perhaps they were on to something that is just now being demonstrated scientifically.

Personally, I’ve gained quite a bit of value from a light and sound mind machine that exercises delta frequency brain waves by presenting them as a display on my eyelids. I can tell which frequency works best for my particular delta attentiveness frequency by noticing how attentive I feel to the display I’m seeing. The more attentive I feel, the closer that particular display frequency is to my particular delta attentiveness frequency. By practicing that frequency more often, I think I strengthen the attentiveness frequencies in my brain – with the result that I am better able to attend to those things to which I want to be especially attentive.

If you’ve never tried a light and sound mind machine, I refer you to www.1derworks.com where you will find a selection of those I have used and recommend.

Study source:
“Fast and Slow Oscillations in Human Primary Motor Cortex Predict Oncoming Behaviorally Relevant Cues,” February 25, 2010 Neuron. Other authors on the paper include Richard Penn of Rush University Medical Center and Catherine L. Ojakangas of the University of Chicago.

Unfortunately, a genetic advantage in one era or age (like the Ice Age) may be a killer in another (like now). More body fat in an Ice Age man made him more likely to pass on his genes; whereas today it could prevent him from doing so.

What genetic factors are a problem in your life? Do you have a predisposition for certain diseases or conditions (physically and psychologically)? How can you know which conditions or diseases are genetically affecting you? How can you make a change that has a higher probability of success on a genetic level – if it is possible at all?

There is a fundamental interaction between genetics and how our brains process the genetic information. We create and maintain brain circuitry based on a genetic blueprint modified by experience/learning (environmental factors). It's a delicate balance between nature and nurture. Neither genetics nor conditioning completely rule our life experience – rather, we experience the result of an interweaving between the two – kind of like the weaving of DNA.

To make a genetic change, we must make a FUNDAMENTAL choice to BE a different way than we have been in the past AND we must back it with environmental support. "How do we do that?" you might ask.

The first important factor here is in the sense of BEING. You must first choose to BE a different way and then back it up with committed ACTION (Doing). Then you'll HAVE a new genetic factor.

Do you want to be healthier? Then BE healthier in your mind and ACT upon that inner sense. For example, who would you BE if you were 20 pounds thinner? How would you feel? What would you BE then? Imagine that "sense" of BEING and then DO – act as if you ARE that way already. If you then look in the mirror and say to yourself, "Geez! I've been thinking thin but I'm just as fat as I was before…" – you've not yet taken on the BEING of thinness – you've only toyed with it; maybe tried it on, but have yet to BE thin in your mind.

Acting healthy means simply going with the sense of being thin. You don't have to work at this – you will enjoy it because it is natural to you. For example, a thin you might enjoy a brisk walk or modeling clothing in the mirror – so do it and KNOW in yourself that you ARE thin. After a while, your mind will start a chain reaction in all the cells in your body and they, too, will BE thin.

It's a good idea to get your physician behind you when it comes to body changes, though, as there is a lot you may not know about your own body that your physician might know better.

Want some assistance? Try Hypnotherapy, EFT, or Rapid Eye Technology – three natural change processes.

RET Technicians – MAKE SURE you include genetics in your work by simply stating now and then "Release it from every cell…" (releasing) and "blink it into every cell" (reframes) – and when closing the session, make sure you include the Release and Gather process to help the mind rewrite the genetic code. In effect, RET uses the brain to "speak" to every cell's genetic code in a natural and supportive way (through the body). Neither the technician nor the client need know the code – because the brain will do the proper translation if you ask it to do so.

It's in your genes – so take control TODAY. Naturally…

Your brain’s cortex is divided into two hemispheres – right and left. According to Orrin Devinsky, MD, professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery and Director of the NYU Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone Medical Center, the right hemisphere of the brain dominates self recognition, emotional familiarity and ego boundaries. The job of the left hemisphere is to make sense out of sensual input and information from the right hemisphere – it is the story teller.

There is a complicated interaction between right hemisphere, left hemisphere, your senses, and the animal brain within you. Theories abound as to just how that interaction occurs. Recently, Dr. Devinsky conducted a review of many studies of hemispheric interaction in an attempt to better understand this interaction – focusing on right hemisphere lesions and left hemisphere delusions.

“…delusions result from the loss of these [right hemisphere] functions as well as the over activation of the left hemisphere and its language structures, that ‘create a story’, a story which cannot be edited and modified to account for reality. Delusions result from right hemisphere lesions, but it is the left hemisphere that is deluded.” Lesions in the right hemisphere can cause delusions as the left hemisphere goes to work making sense of distorted identity and emotional information it gets from the injured right hemisphere.

When in the dream state, where the senses close down in sleep, the left hemisphere continues on, creating stories in an attempt to make sense of the impulses received from the right side – unable to compare or test that input against sensory input – so it manufactures it – adding to the sense of reality in dreams. The strangeness of the dream state illustrates what happens when the left hemisphere creates a story based solely on the input from the right side without sensory data to corroborate it.

It occurs to me that my “reality” is made up of three legs:

1. Right Hemisphere (Who I am and how I feel about who I am)
2. Left Hemisphere (Story Teller – making sense of my experience)
3. Senses (measuring, testing, and validating the inner “story” against the environment outside the body)

Normally, we believe we experience our world through our senses and react accordingly. My theory is you experience your world within – corroborated by sensory input. You imagine your world as a flowing story [left hemisphere] based on who you believe you are and how you feel about that [right hemisphere] – and then test that story against your senses – your reaction to your sensual input can trigger right hemisphere activity further influencing your inner story of your “outer” experience. This happens in an instant so it feels as though you are reacting to your senses, when, in fact, you may instead be constantly reacting to and modifying your story.

You truly are delusional during dream sleep, which occurs during REM sleep, because you are without outside sensory verification. Interestingly, Rapid Eye Technology attempts to artificially induce REM sleep in the awake state in order to address those “delusions” – thinking distortions that have caused irrational behavior or interfered with living a happy and productive life.

Study Source:
“Delusional misidentifications and duplications: Right brain lesions, left brain delusions” in Neurology.

A member of the United States Senate, known for his hot temper and acid tongue, exploded one day in mid-session and began to shout, “Half of this Senate is made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!”

All the other Senators demanded that the angry member withdraw his statement, or be removed from the remainder of the session.

After a long pause, the angry member acquiesced. “OK,” he said, “I withdraw what I said. Half of this Senate is NOT made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!”

Did you notice how both of the Senator’s iterations meant the same thing? How many times have you confused yourself with negative affirmations? For example, how many times have you told yourself that you could not do something. Most of the time, such self-defeating affirmations are absolutely false. You aren’t telling yourself the truth.

For example, maybe you’ve told yourself that you can’t stop smoking. The truth is, of course, that you really CAN stop smoking, you just don’t want to. Maybe you’ve told yourself that you can’t possibly get that big contract because… [dozens of reasons why not]. The truth is, you’re AFRAID you won’t get the contract. Or, you believe it is UNLIKELY you’ll get the contract.

The truth is – we don’t know all the possibilities. We too often settle for the tiny bit of information we have at hand believing we have ALL the necessary information to make a solid statement of truth. “I can’t live without her…” Bullsh*t! Of course you can live without her – you just don’t like your vision of how life would be then.

Reason dictates that we consider possibilities – rather than settling on one. It’s the quantum measurement problem in the macro world – whenever you settle on one possibility, the others tend to disappear, leaving only the one you choose. But it does not make it truth!

“Believe nothing. Entertain possibilities.” – Caroline Casey

It’s okay to settle on one possibility to the exclusion of others – it’s the way of life. I’m not suggesting that you go against nature. Rather, I’m suggesting that you continue entertaining other possibilities after you have chosen one. Let yourself be open to alternatives. Rigidity of thought – “I’m right!” thinking – tends to embitter one’s life and sour relationships. Instead, when you are sure you are right, act resolutely yet be flexible enough to entertain alternatives.

You may just find that truth is not half what it’s cracked up to be.