Tripping to reality...

The reality of change

2012-01-12T01:19:00.000+02:00

Reality has a natural tendency to change in the obvious presence of increasing levels of entropy, proportional to our ability to conceive of it, in direct response to any individual conviction of added value or gain, indisputable evidence or personal experience of such, or in full realization of a shared perspective and a common belief of it's collective worth.

Last, but by far the option with best cost to profit margin, not to mention lowest risk profile and least complications expected is adopting the habit of a positive attitude.

Guess which one I chose for me?

Understanding our need for emotional connection

2011-11-17T22:03:00.000+02:00

Image via Wikipedia

According to a recent article in the NYTimes, our ability to make an emotional connection when we communicate is a way to establish social exchange.

...people subconsciously mirror each other’s surprise, disgust or delight — and, in effect, interpret the emotion by sensing what’s embodied on their own face. Interfere with the ability to mimic, these studies suggest, and people are less adept at reading others’ expressions (and) in a series of studies, psychologists have found that social bonding between conversation partners is highly dependent on a rhythmic and usually subconscious give and take of gestures and expressions that creates a kind of shared good will. “Part of that could be the buying in on the interaction itself,” Dr. Chartrand said.

But the latest research on the little understood subject of communication show that this important nonverbal communication technique is more complex than we previously believed. Some psychologists say the evidence from people with facial paralysis suggest that there may be several mental processes that contribute to our ability to tune in to the emotional state of mind of someone else.

“The idea is that if we could learn what the best nonverbal communication techniques are, we could teach those to people who are socially awkward for any reason.”

It seems that the simple principle of monkey see, monkey do could be the latest breakthrough to shed some light on the often mysterious way that our minds work, and how that translate to our ability to effectively communicate with the people around us.

Originally posted on the 5th of Footnote 17/11/11: In light of my own social awkwardness I beg to differ, or maybe that's just me. The only way that I manage to cope with my own terror towards social interaction is through emotional detachment, constant effort, brutal honesty and charm. While mimicking social good-will may improve conversational skills, I doubt it's enough to change the ugly duckling into a swan...

But that's just me I guess...

The Taj, and the power of love

2011-09-25T22:00:00.000+02:00

I have written about the Taj Mahal before, and true to its nature, I can't help losing myself in the splendor of it's majesty. Like love and the desert flower that blooms only once every 3600 years, it carries with it the gamut of human experience as seen from its best point of view. Like a pearl in the desert it embraces an inner beauty.

To me the Taj stands as an edifice. A symbol to beauty and love at it's most divine, of living and life and what it means to be me, of value and worth and the choices we make.A physical manifestation of the love that it bares.And who can resist a story about young love?

A story of a boy destined to be the King of the World, of beauty and love at first site, of the kingdom it changed, and love that enthrall in it's grace. There are those that will tell how the King and his Queen would spend all of their days in merriment, how their happiness infested the world that they shared, and how the wonder of love gave birth to the Taj on her bed of death.

He built the Taj in her name, and constructed a temple that stand as a testament to their love and the life that they shared, and it is written that he paid for the building with blood that they gave with love, blood that you can still see in the carpets that flow on the floor of its cold marble halls.

He laid out the building and grounds as a representation of the universe he found with his lover, and designed it to be a physical experience of the feeling they shared. He adorned it with the oplance and beauty they shared in their life, and scaled it to reflect the vast emptiness he had in his heart at her loss.

All in the name, and the nature of love.

The power of ecstasy

2011-09-08T16:35:00.000+02:00

Survival is a genetically coded imperative that is reflected in every part of our complex biological design. It is something that is encoded in our primitive reflexes, built in to our psychological make-up and hard wired to neurological circuits. The only thing that matches it in scope is pleasure.

It makes sense I suppose, for what would be the point if we didn't enjoy the act of procreation? It is in the moment of orgasm that we find how perfect we have been designed to ensure the survival of our kind. On the one hand it is a physical experience that triggers all the right conditions to ensure fertilization. On the other it is without argue the most pleasure that anyone can ever hope to share, so much so that people get addicted to it!

Until recently, our knowledge about sex and sexuality was scant, and limited to understanding it as an esoteric subject, most notably as tantra in the tantric texts. You'd think that such a strong instinctive drive would be worthy of abundant scientific scrutiny, but then you'd underestimate the power of social taboo.

With the world slowly coming round to the notion that sex is not a shame, there has recently been abundance of discovery, and no sooner did science jump the hurdle of infamy, than we were stopped in our tracks by the discovery that the mind of women 'tilt' when they reach orgasm.

According to a recent article in Scientific American the female brain show a muted response in the part of the brain that govern self control over basic desires, with a corresponding release of tension and inhibition. The area responsible for moral reasoning and social judgment and the area of the brain responsible for "extinction fear" and the storage of memories associated with emotional events appear to switch off during orgasm.

Women lose their moral reason, judgment and emotional ability with orgasm, and strange as it may sound, it is common sense to think that such a powerful flood of shared emotion would sweep away all obstacles to ecstasy.

All of which remind us when it comes to matters of the mind, we are still in virgin territory.

Pack up your troubles!

2010-08-04T23:26:00.007+02:00

While many people believe that happiness is as easy as winning the lottery, human experience will show that happiness is much more elusive than winning, power or cash, and history hold many a legendary tale of fabulous fortune and ultimate ruin.

In the past, the only tried and tested way of finding happiness lay in monastic pursuit, but somehow the habit of monks, the vows of chastity and never ending meditation never caught on, and somehow the vow of poverty could never quite make sense.

While happiness through sacrifice may feel good while you are doing it, the pleasure quickly fade in the face of our modern day living. But thanks to the research that started this journey to sense, we now have the answer again. And were it not for the fact that the secret was hiding in sight all the time, we may never have believed that it's as easy as making up our mind.

In his article that highlight the latest revelation on nature, Dumb Little Man provides his readers with the science behind the facts that make happiness a breeze. Take for example that only 20% of our reality experience is made up by perception, be that sensory or more, while a whopping 80% is preconceived and subject to choice.

It boggles the mind when you think that happiness is a decision, and in the absence of choosing it our feelings would default to any of a number of subconscious fears, assumptions, probabilities and presumption. That our live can change miraculously if we start to choose how we feel, and that lofty and noble ideas of mindful living, of being the change we want to see, of creating our own destiny and making the most out of every single moment of life are all in within reach.

If you think about it, it almost make sense, until you start living it. By living our life as nature intend, we begin to comprehend the the answer to most of the questions in life look for value and meaning, and most of the time we'd be happy to live it just as it is, if only we were happy to get it.

Got it?

Good!

Birds do it, bees do it

2010-07-24T18:46:00.004+02:00

Image via Wikipedia

... and don't quote me on this, but I have a sneaky suspicion even fleas do it. But before you get carried along in the enthusiasm of the classical song, this article has got nothing to do with love. (At least not as far as popular convention goes) I'm talking about flow.

Not the kind you may find in a river, or the molecules in a body of fluid mass, but the universal flow that has been known since the dawn of man. Until recently, not much about flow has been known, even though it is commonly found throughout nature, is one of the very few life experiences considered to be truly shared, and the only feeling known to man that remains the same no matter who they are, or what they did to trigger it. It doesn't matter what the persons sex, age, color or creed that describe it, the qualities of flow remain constant all over the world.

The best way to describe it, as those in the know would agree, is a profound sense of purpose and freedom, of effortless being, and feeling suspended in time and space. People often refer to a flow experience as having the best time of their life.

If you would like to know more about flow, you are welcome to take a look at some of my earlier articles on the subject, like What is flow? and Being in flow that describe the experience in more detail, and define most the qualities of flow that we know, Meeting God or reality and belief that explore flow as a spiritual experience.

HIV

2010-07-16T08:12:00.027+02:00

HIV and Aids is a major health problem with a wide ranging impact on employment, the economy, security and human rights. In the military environment HIV can cause loss of continuity at command level and within the ranks, increased costs with regard to recruitment and training for replacements, a reduction in military preparedness, increased costs with regard to health care, loss in productivity and a reduction of internal stability.

Since it's discovery, HIV has continued to cause large scale morbidity and mortality, and with the exception of a few successful programs, continue to infect and affect communities all over the globe. Some of the most identifying characteristics of the epidemic has been that it can occur under any socioeconomic condition, and that the virus establishes itself in communities by means of sexual transmission. These two characteristics combine to form one of the few successful preventative responses, that of behavior change programs.

Due to the wide variety of environmental impacts on behavior, and the myriad of social taboo's that influence sexual choice and sexual expression, every program has to be developed within a specific community or group to ensure a common understanding. This severely limits copying successful interventions, and is the cause for failure of the majority of unsuccessful attempts at transferring programs that seem to be working.

The Masibambisane program of the Department of Defense is an excellent example of such a prevention program, and is based on the existence of a common identity and closed community found in the military environment. According to Masibambisane:

"... soldiers operate within a strict military code of conduct which leads to a controlled environment where your life and well-being depends on following orders and the support of your fellow comrades."

Since the effectiveness of such programs have been scientifically proven, not much further research has been done in the field of HIV Prevention, but what has received a lot of attention is research on perception, awareness, reasoning and consciousness. Research that has changed the way we look at emotions, feelings, attitudes and choices. Research that is changing how we look at the world around us, how that change influence the choices we make, and how we think about consciousness itself. According to LiveScience:

"It wasn't that long ago that the study of consciousness was considered to be too abstract, too subjective or too difficult to study scientifically. But in recent years, it has emerged as one of the hottest new fields in biology, similar to string theory in physics or the search for extraterrestrial life in astronomy."

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Psychology, the problem of consciousness is arguably the central issue in current theorizing about the mind.

"Despite the lack of any agreed upon theory of consciousness, there is a widespread, if less than universal, consensus that an adequate account of mind requires a clear understanding of it and its place in nature."

In HIV Prevention, where the success of most interventions are measured by the subject making conscious and well informed, healthy choices, it is important that recent scientific research in this area be noted and incorporated into any planned health intervention. If we consider the current level of discourse on consciousness and examine our expanded knowledge and understanding of behavior, it is necessary that we re-evaluate existing behavior change programs. More so in the case of new interventions being planned for funding.

I am convinced that a better understanding of perception, awareness and consciousness will radically change the way we look at HIV Prevention, and will result in a fresh approach to combating the scourge of HIV, and my experience in Masibambisane has left me convinced that any successful program is built on a shared objective. The more people that share in that objective, the greater the chance to succeed.

I believe that the reward of a review that highlight some of the recent discoveries about our mind, what we believe and how we think will not only invigorate the jaded view on HIV prevention, but will foster some well needed discussion between the different authorities involved in the planning and execution of health prevention policies and programs.

Please let me know what you think.

Breaking up is hard to do!

2010-07-11T20:44:00.003+02:00

(Image via Wikipedia)

A recent study published in TIME put the spotlight on the kind of pain felt by people on the business end of a breakup.

The study notes, with classic academic rigor, that the spurned students had engaged in activities such as "inappropriate phoning, writing or e-mailing, pleading for reconciliation, sobbing for hours, drinking too much and/or making dramatic entrances and exits into the rejecter's home, place of work or social space to express anger, despair or passionate love."

By using fMRI to track the participants' brain activity as they looked at the photo's of the lovers who jilted them, and to nobody's surprise found the pain of breaking up the same same as physical pain, craving and addiction, that is to say they share a similar pattern of brain activity.

Besides attesting what we know; that the mind cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, that every pain is just the same as any other, and that how we feel is more a choice than the result of our experience, the study highlight the fact the pain is unpleasant, even more so if we think it should be, and that the pain of romantic rejection is just as real as hitting your thumb with a hammer.

Seen in the context of similar research on the brain and how it works, it informs our recent understanding that minds make sense of the world through a system of pattern recognition that orchestrate most of our awareness to a seamless flow of highly predicted existance. It is only when we experience something new that our mind come to focus our reason, tickle our fancy, spark the flame of curiosity, and bring our senses to the high alert of adventure and discovery.

Quite the opposite to how we think under the bain of heartache, rejection, loss and pain, but then we must accept that broken hearts don't live well, and just as emotion will twart any attempt at logical thought and deductive reason, we cannot expect to find any meaning without the courage to open our hearts, and share in love and living life.

Science and self-expansion

2010-05-28T22:56:00.003+02:00

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

In a recent article by the New York Times, The Science of a Happy Marriage, scientists explore what it is that make marriages work and by a synthesis of recent research on relationships, they came up with some surprising conclusions.

it may not be feelings of love or loyalty that keep couples together. Instead, scientists speculate that your level of commitment may depend on how much a partner enhances your life and broadens your horizons — a concept that Arthur Aron, a psychologist and relationship researcher at Stony Brook University, calls “self-expansion.”

And lo, we face the bedrock of fundamental truth, about consciousness and our ability to choose, about emotion and our capacity to feel, about love and our reason to live.

Now if we could only build on this idea of marriage to expand beyond the boundaries of polygamy and into the realm of spiritual unity its only a hop, skip and a jump away from a Zeitgeist coup de grace, universal sanity, and total world domination!

T shirts and bumper stickers available on request.

Water and tetrahedrals

2010-05-28T22:41:00.002+02:00

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A recent article in New Scientist report on the findings of research that confirm the efficiency of tetrahedral crystalline formations to fill any given space.

"People tend to think that the densest packings are always ordered, but there's no fundamental reason why that has to be true," agrees Torquato. "We can't rule out the possibility that the densest packings of tetrahedra will be disordered."

Says adviser Paul Chaikin, "Nobody knows whether the densest packing is ordered or random?" To my mind we already have a clear answer in the behavior of ice, and if you feel left out in the cold it may help to remind you that tetrahedral formations are typical of H2O, and that water reduces in volume when it turns to ice, the result of the ever tighter packing achieved through its ordered tetrahedral crystalline formation.

Zen and the art of doing chores...

2010-05-23T10:19:00.001+02:00

Washing up is always like therapy, and difficult doctor that I am, I try to evade it for as long as I can stand the ever growing reality of dirty dishes. But there is nothing that creeps up on you quite like something you are trying to ignore, and dirty dishes are no exception.

It is times like these that I bow in the wake of grease and grime and dirt. I roll up my sleeves, clean the sink of everything but the cutlery, arrange the wash in categories, clean the kitchen and pour a me a hot tub with suds.

I have come across many a way to wash the dishes, but none that come with such a sense of accomplishment and Zen as starting the process by washing the glasses, and ending the journey with a satisfying slurp as the last water drain from the sink.

What comes between is nothing less than a miracle as the cleansing ritual unfold, and more and more pans and pots, containers, utensils and modern living brick-a-brack join their kind in their designated spot. First the glasses, then the cups, followed by the plates, cutlery, pots and pans. Tupperware normally require that you pour a fresh batch of bubbles.

Everything in order, everything in place, and from beginning to end my mind is free to travel where it may in flow and serendipity. For some it may be a mindless task, but washing up for me, opens a rift in time and space. It allows my mind to roam without fetter, free to find the joy and peace there is in the tranquil flow of ritual and task, and it rewards me with a spanky-clean and sparkling kitchen, and the deeply satisfying knowledge of a task well done.

Washing up is like Zen if you do it the right way, just like all the menial tasks we indulge daily as a byproduct of technology and modern living. So why not treat yourself to a mind spa at every task you can? Who knows, your dirty dishes may end up as the pause you need and never knew you wanted. And it's fun!

In search of sensibility

2010-05-22T09:55:00.000+02:00

According to the recent article by New Scientist, our brains manage the huge task of visual observation by extrapolating predicted visual inputs based on recent experience. This predictive guessing game frees up processing resources to deal with the unexpected.

If we consider the limited time available between observing something unexpected happening to trip us while we walk, and the lightning fast reflexes needed to sidestep and swerve said obstacle, we begin to understand why our brain indulge in such mentalist trickery.

Predictable sights trigger less brain activity than unfamiliar stimuli, bolstering the view that the brain is not merely reactive, but generates predictions based on the recent past. "The brain expects to see things and really just wants to confirm it now and again," says Lars Muckli at the University of Glasgow, UK.

The finding follows a series of scientific discoveries that challenge our current view of awareness. It challenges our understanding of reality, and throws a curve-ball to philosophers and scholars alike, neither of which have ever been able to come up with any satisfactory explanation for the rational mind or the origin of consciousness in the first place.

Recent research has provided us with inconclusive evidence that awareness is highly lucid, that conscious experience depend more on frame of mind than on actual experience (with about a 20/80 split between experience and expectation), and that reality is a highly individual experience. Add to that the latest revelation that our power of observation mostly confirm predictions and you will begin to see why our view on consciousness needs to change.

Since the historical debate on the nature of reality that was started way back in the Age of Enlightenment has failed to provide us with any solid argument we can believe, I suggest the time has come to wipe what we think we know from the table, change our perspective, and begin our view on life, the universe and everything anew.

By starting with a clean slate, and basing our arguments on what we know rather than the philosophical discourse that has been going on since the dawn of awareness, chances are good we may end up looking at life in a totally different light.

Since all of this is rather sudden and unexpected, not to mention virgin territory even to myself, I welcome any comment you may have, and would love to hear your point of view.

Pink Moon

2010-04-30T20:35:00.000+02:00

RU losing your mind?

2010-04-24T02:47:00.002+02:00

Image via Wikipedia

Contrary to popular belief, a mind is not a terrible thing to waste. You get what you use and you lose what you don't. Just like the rest of our body, our mind works according to the design principle of probability and potential in servitude to our instinct to survive and our will to thrive.

In one of the more encouraging scientific discoveries from recent years it was suggested that our mental ability could be saved from the rising incidence of senility by using our mind. At first it seemed as if certain mental activities worked better than others, but as research continued we found that our brain adapt to just about anything we put our mind to, even if it means rewiring a part of the brain, as it is commonly found in people learning to use cellphones for the first time.

I suppose it is easy to see how our morbid fear of getting old turned fact into a general belief that the brain is a muscle that can be strengthened, indeed must be strengthened should we want to save ourself from the permanent loss of faculty and reason, or even worse, drifting slowly off to land forgot and into the obscurity of Alzheimer's.

Easy too to understand the all too eager helping hand of those who saw a market gap, and before you could say snap, had just the remedy to guarantee the clarity and mental agility you last had as a teenager. It's an assumption that has spawned a multi-million-dollar computer-game industry of electronic brainteasers and memory games, and according to the research findings of a recently published paper, it seems that it may be an assumption that is wrong. According to the article in TIME:

in the largest study of these games to date, a team of British researchers has found that healthy adults who undertake computer-based "brain training" do not improve their mental fitness in any significant way.

As you may expect, the research was immediately met with a barrage of doubt and disbelief, particularly from the companies making a lot of money with their mind enhancing schemes. It remains to be seen who will win the battle for our sanity, but to me it seems that a simple review of the facts on hand suffice to show what we have always known as true, not only of our mind, but nature all around.

Use it, or lose it

But that's just me I guess. If you have a different point of view I'd love to hear from you. (Even facts are welcome too!)

Tune your brain

2010-04-03T02:00:00.002+02:00

"Binaural beats or binaural tones are auditory processing artifacts, or apparent sounds, the perception of which arises in the brain independent of physical stimuli. This effect was discovered in 1839 by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove." This is according to the wikipedia entry on the subject, and if it all feels a little Geek to you, don't worry... This is far too interesting not to understand.

What this means is that listening with earphones to two different frequencies in each ear, instead of hearing two sounds, we hear a beating third sound. This beating sound is created by the brain itself and bears no resemblance to any of the two sounds from the earphones. Much in a sense like magic.

Due to the design of our brain, the frequency of our thought patterns change to the frequency of the magical beating sound that we hear. The sound that is being created by the Binaural tones that we are listening to in our earphones. By listening to these tones, the frequency of our brain pattern that determine if we are alert, dreamy or focused can be influenced by something that isn't even real!

In technical terms wikipedia describes it as "a naturally occurring phenomenon where the human brain has a tendency to change its dominant EEG frequency towards the frequency of a dominant external stimulus." I prefer to describe it as magic! The magic of H.W. Dove.

Magic that can tune your brain, and never loses its charm as long as you keep tuning in.

If you are lucky enough to have an iphone you can get the app at Rock, if not but would still like to experience the magic for yourself, check out some of the free samples available at HealingBeats.

Moral Judgement can be altered

2010-04-02T07:56:00.002+02:00

With science feverishly studying everything our brain is capable of, we are finding many of the results challenging what we previously thought about our self. Take for example a recent discovery that our moral compass in life is as steady as the electromagnetic field applied to that area of the brain where they are stored. According to Liane Young, lead author of the research at MIT:

"You think of morality as being a really high-level behavior," she says. "To be able to apply (a magnetic field) to a specific brain region and change people's moral judgments is really astonishing."

Moral judgments can be altered

What is your perception about perspective?

2010-03-14T13:59:00.002+02:00

The entertainment and media industry would have you believe that perspective is a lot like perception, and you’d think that they should know. In the world we find ourselves today, the media hold sway over much of our collective opinion.

If you think about it, you may be guile to believe the two are similar. At face value both the words have the same structure. They have the same phonetic quality and grammatically they are both nouns.
They share a common understanding as far as intention, application and result is concerned. Both of them require us to make a choice, and together they have same level of commitment and honesty in their use, but what sets the media apart is the fact that they use the collective mind to weave a web of truth.

Both are impossible to recognize when we have the blues, and acts or actions that lift our mood and make us laugh are rewarded with the opportunity to change our perception and find a new perspective. As sapient hominids we are one of only a handful of species that has the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, and just like all the other species of such kind we see that emotion changes our individual reality.

Interestingly enough we find that neither happy nor sad people choose to change their point of view. Sad people fail to believe that such a choice exist, and happy people do not care. Even so, the existence of these two nouns are testament to the awesome power of our mind. To be aware, to change our point of view and with it the ability to change reality.

Which animal is synonymous with sin?

2010-02-27T00:44:00.002+02:00

Ever heard of the Sloth?

These arboreal, tree hugging mammals got their name from their mottled and pest ridden fur, and their excruciatingly slow movement that suggest they are dirty and lazy by nature, but if we take a closer look we see much more than the unfortunate name of sloth would suggest.

For starters, the Sloth is believed to have existed for about 60 million years, almost 24 times longer than Homo Sapiens, given the current understanding of our own evolution. Just like the human race they are considered to be somewhat of an oddity in the animal kingdom, and in a manner of speaking the Sloth seem to share many habits with ourselves.

Sloths prefer to set up a permanent home, and may live their entire life in one tree. These solitary animals prefer to spend their life hanging from from branch to branch in search of green leaves and buds that form the staple of their diet. Just like humans, the Sloth find themselves at the top of their very own and unique branch of the food chain. Protected by their lofty position in tree tops as well as the camouflage of leafy shade, they keep hidden from the rest of the world by a combination of circumstance and lack of movement.

Besides humans, they are probably the only known species that crap on their own porch, a risky practice that come with a high fatality rate. Once a week they climb down to the same piece of ground below their tree, make a hole in the ground, take a dump, and then carefully cover the excrement after they are finished. It is during these times of ablution that the Sloth become easy prey, risking life and limb to perform the ritual burial of . Just like we find in the human race, it is an example of instinctive behaviour that persist even though it seems to be a negative evolutionary trait.

But then, as we often find in nature, similar does not mean same. Contrary to the human race, these ancient and peaceful beasts exhibit various complex symbiotic systems that are inextricably part of their existence. From their furry coats, right down to their diet of leaves and their curious excretion habits. The fur of a sloth host two species of symbiotic cyanobacteria, which provide additional camouflage. And because of the cyanobacteria, sloth fur is a small ecosystem of its own, hosting many species of non-parasitic insects.

The diet of leaves provide the Sloth with very little energy or nutrition as they do not digest easily. Sloths therefore have very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. As much as two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take a month or more to complete. Sloths deal with this by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than half of that expected for a mammal of their size), and maintain low body temperatures when active (30 °C (86 °F) to 34 °C (93 °F)), and still lower temperatures when resting.

With all these fascinating facts about the Sloth I cannot help but wonder if perhaps we are wrong about the nature of sloth, and since it is only recent that we have invented a tool to observe the working brain we may well find that like the Sloth, the sin that shares in its name is nothing at all what we think.

The ice age cometh!

2010-02-12T22:39:00.003+02:00

It is a testament to the sheer tenacity of our existence that we find our collective consciousness will be spared the gloom and guilt that industry and electronics, genetic and biochemical engineering, quantum physics, and the increasing gorge on non-renewable energy leave in our wake. I still remember a time not long ago that we were doomed to suffer in calamity by nothing less than a plan of our own design, a time where sloth and gluttony was the only reason that the human race was running out of time on earth.

Our saving grase is that it seems our waste and ruin only "hasten" our headlong rush into the gloom of yet another ice age, one we should have seen coming a long time ago. Were it not for some genius that figured out we may not be the only blame for global warming and the ice caps melting, and that the catastrophic climate changes we face is nothing more than a natural cycle that began way before the appearance of man, we would probably be all but suicidal now. A species driven mad by the damning knowledge that they have only them self to blame for wiping countless of species from the planet in their search for something they refuse to see.

It is too early to know with certainty if the bright spark that originally came up with the idea that gave us hope of absolution did us any favor, but history has shown that life will carry on regardless of our self, and that's a chilling thought.

Abomination to Nature

2010-01-30T08:59:00.001+02:00

The term “Abomination to Nature” was recently mentioned in connection with our search for the bason quark. It is not a term that is used a lot, although there has been some people that have been described as such through history.

In this article I would like to focus on the practical implications of such a term and examine what it would mean for the existence of such an entity. One of the reasons that it does not get used often is because it is something that defies something of which we are an integral part.

The fact that there is still a big argument about things like evolution, the big bang theory or entanglement does not change the fact that they exist, and they do so in the interest of maintaining a system that was created by the word of God.

The theory that we are from nature, and have evolved beyond many other species on this planet is a testament to the perfect design of the system, and speaks more about how privileged we are in the grand scheme of things, as to how we are the crowning glory in a system where it is survival of the fittest.

The Big Bang Theory is probably an accurate account of the particle physics that occurred at the moment of creation, but it is the crowning glory of a large amount of research that has informed us about our world, how privileged our planet is to exist in the grand scheme of physics, mathematics and biological principles, that the mere argument of its existence is of no value whatsoever in our search for answers.

The existence of entanglement, a hotly contested theory about the particles that hold together all matter, is undeniable, and the fact that we have advanced technologically to the extent that we can actually observe it from happening is a testament to our technology, but it says nothing about our knowledge about the system in which we find ourselves, or our understanding of it.

And last of all the is the term “Abomination to Nature”. The fact that we can conceive of such a notion implies that it exists, but whether our technology has advanced to the level of actually observing such an entity, that is a matter open for discussion. A matter that would probably cease to exist as soon as we understand it.

Which is just the same as everything in life I suppose.

The science of discovering ourself

2010-01-22T02:08:00.001+02:00

The medical field is probably one of the most fast paced developing technologies, and in the past few years we have discovered more about our own bodies than we have about renewable energy sources.

One of these developments that are still making headlines since it was first developed is flow magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. While it was originally developed to aid the medical fraternity in their diagnostic ability, this technology is currently providing us with discoveries that are literally the stuff of dreams. By measuring the changes in blood flow through the brain during different mental activities, this device is able to tell us more than we ever thought possible about the functioning of one of the most mysterious organs in the body, the human brain.

This three pound of mushy Grey matter that give us abilities that are so unique in the animal kingdom that we have the power to subjugate nothing less than nature itself has remained clouded in a shroud of speculation, conjugation and even plain conjecture. This is in stark contrast to other scientific discoveries of the human body, where the absolute and exact is considered to be nothing less than standard. But with the use of fMRI imaging we are starting to understand how the brain makes sense of the input from our senses to provide each of us with our own unique view of a common reality. From understanding the difference between emotional and neutral memories, to finding why people in a happy mood will almost always choose the first of any available choices given, all the way through to the role of emotions in determining self bias and the shocking discovery that morals are nothing less than conclusions and deductions to defend our actions.

Take for instance the recent discovery that the act of imagination take place in the same region of the brain that involves memory, which challenges general convention that there is a big difference between fact and fiction. From the perspective of our brain the difference does not seem to matter much, although it does seem that these two thought processes could be distinguished through subtle memory references to sensory and kinesthetic memory patterns. Sometimes these subtle references are not so subtle, which explains for instance why many men can remember their wedding vouws, but they cannot recall asking the hand of their beloved. The answer can be found in their posture. Because many men stand on their knees when they propose marriage, that memory is encoded with the act of kneeling. Most men would recall that magical moment if they just went down on their knees!

Another recent discovery that sent shockwaves through the ranks of philosophers and preachers alike is that we seem to make choices before we arrive at a conscious decision. Through the use of fMRI it was shown that brain activity indicate what a respondent would choose up to 7 seconds before the respondent indicated that he has made up his mind on a choice, which questions previously held opinions regarding concepts such as free choice and accountability.

The ultimate impact of this diagnostic tool on our understanding of how we think and feel and act is far from being reached. Scientists are currently in the process of mapping the various regions of the brain that become active during various mental tasks, and it is a matter of time that the link between these various regions and how they interact with each other become apparent. As we learn more about the brain and its mysteries we learn more about why we think the way we do, and move closer to understanding who we are.

10 things you should know about your mind

2010-01-01T04:58:00.006+02:00

1. You cannot lose it, unlike the neurons that conduct the electrical impulses that eventually combine to become your mind. Neurons seem to whither at the slightest challenge, like the pill you popped last night, or any binge that end in a hangover. Fortunate for us our mind display a high grade of plasticity, which mean that function lost due to neural death could be taken over by others.

2. You have what you use, and what you don't gets lost as quick as last season's fashion. Which is a bit of a shame as research continue to come up with surprising new and uber cool abilities that babies have. Take for example their efficiency in cross species facial recognition, and then compare it to "I think they all look the same".

3. No challenge is too big or detail too small if you believe it matters. Our brain just love a challenge and can even construct special neural thingamabobs to handle new technologies like cellphones. When challenged to survival it remembers even the minutest of details, like the drop of blood sliding down the blade of grass you saw while crawling away from a fatal explosion.

4. Memory is but a fickle thing, and nowhere near what some people want to make of it. For a start, our brain excel in pattern recognition. Most of our memory is scattered across various neural sites, each one specializing in its own sensory pattern recognition. When we think of something our mind will trigger a harmonious event across the different sections needed to build the memory we want.

5. There is no difference between reality and imagination, at least not to your brain. You may want to argue, but it is a scientific fact that what you think become. Take for instance recent findings that power make hypocrite's of those who play its game, or the curious observation that we model morals to our situation.

6. When emotion kicks in, your ability for objective reasoning go out the window. Lame excuses such as you were angryor upset should not be tolerated in the company of choice, any choice. When we become emotionally involved our brain literally changes to a different operating system where reasoning take a distant second place to feeling.

7. Your brain retain an embryonic stem cell capability that can differentiate to any of a wide range of specialized neural cells and structures. We still don't know exactly how to use it, but at least the farming of stem cells from dead babies will not be necessary to treat the growing number of mental diseases of age like Alzheimer and Parkinson's.

8. You can tune your brain to any mental state by listening to bin-aural frequencies in the range of awareness that you require. The effect depend upon a "frequency following" response, a naturally occurring phenomenon of the the human brain. So if you need to be alert you simply listen to a bin-aural beat that entrain to somewhere in the Beta range, between 12-30 Hz.

9. Babies are born with minds that are messy, and exactly what it is that prevent it from tripping in a massive electrical short circuit is still unknown. What we do know, is that exposing babies to certain auditory stimuli, such as Baroque music before and after birth give them a significant and overall advantage above their peers. The metered beat of the music seem to provide a natural rhythm that order and accelerate the mental development of babies.

10. Most of the actions that you perform daily are not the result of your intention, but a carefully calculated flow of expected events. Our minds are constantly busy predicting the future to provide us with normal motion and fluid movement, allowing us act and play with minimal attention. Once mobile, our senses only monitor events for anything unusual or out of place, while the rest just happen without the need of thought.

10 fiendishly simple principles to success

2009-12-31T14:44:00.006+02:00

Below you will find 10 fiendishly simple principles towards fast tracking your journey through life with a high probability of flawless decision making, almost instant relief of guilt and grief and abundantly high levels of happiness and bliss.

Use them at your own risk.

1. Regret is more often than not the result of an emotional decision.

2. Our journey to the point of choice is exactly what we need to make it.

3. The most important moment is right now.

4. Failure does not need a reason, what matters is the journey you took.

5. Changing your perspective is the only way to improve your perception.

6. Whenever life gets you down you are carrying too much.

7. As a general rule of thumb, things with value have no worth.

8. The most important choice you can make every day is your attitude.

9. Honest communication is the only way to discover yourself and to grow.

10. Where the mind goes energy flows, that is how we create reality.

May the road come up to greet you, and may love take care of the rest.

‘Tis the season – A special Christmas message

2009-12-23T18:49:00.001+02:00

It is the 23^rd of December and if you haven’t done so yet, your time is running out to buy that special gift. You know, that one gift you know will be perfect, if you could only find, or had the money for it?

And have you noticed how expensive everything has become, you wouldn’t think that we were recently on the brink of a global financial meltdown if you look at how much everything cost.

Then again I suppose it is just fitting that the festive season turn our focus to worth and value, almost in the same way it has throughout human history. Looking back in time there are plenty of examples, but none that come with a price tag quite as big as the feast of Saint Nick. And you can bet your bottom dollar that next year it will be worse.

So, if you find yourself caught up in the spending whirlwind that rages at this time of the year, perhaps it is time to pause and reflect on what it is that you find valuable in your own life. What would your answer be if someone asked you what is your most valuable possession?

Nine out of ten people will say they think their life is the most important, while the remaining 10 percent will probably suggest something about love. Which is quite sad if you consider that life is cheap these days, but then again it really is not worth very much. On its own, without the freedom of a soul that know to live is life, and that life is so much more than just a single person, to be alive alone is literally worth nothing.

To be part of life we need to explore our world with innocent abandon, without the fear of change. To truly live we need to know that we are in control of everything that matter, like attitude, the ability to connect in honesty with our environment, our expectation and our ability to learn and grow. Things like resonance, peace, love and happiness are all waiting just beyond the grasp of choice.

If it was me to answer what would be the single thing I treasure most, I would have to say the moment I get to choose, and every glorious moment hence. I cannot think what anybody would want more than a moment to be, in harmony with life in all its abundance, diversity, opportunity and wonder. And what a bonus to be blessed with more!

‘Tis the season to be jolly, tra-la-la-la-la, tra-la-la-la, and in the spirit of the season my gift to you is nothing less. I’d love to hear what you’ll be doing with yours?

Similarities between biological and crystal growth patterns

2009-12-18T10:19:00.000+02:00

You may be forgiven if at first glance you mistook the picture in this post as a snowflake. The picture is only one of a whole range of bacterial growth patterns, and part of research being done by Eshel Ben-Jacob, a professor of physics at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Professor Ben-Jacob is collaborating with colleagues at the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at the University of California to determine how the growth of biological systems and colonies are influenced by different environmental stimuli. According to New Scientist: "In order to flourish in difficult living conditions the colony must adapt. This requires communication and cooperation from the individual microbes to organise the entire colony."

What immediately struck me as odd was the similarity between snowflakes and these colonial growth patterns. Whereas the petri dish pictures are the direct effect of different environmental influences on biological growth and diversification, the complex formations we can observe in snowflakes result from the interaction of water vapor and the environment.

Snowflakes grow in very cold environments as water vapor condenses directly to ice. While we do not fully understand the mechanisms responsible for the formation of snow crystals, recent research on the nature of water suggest that it has something to do with the behavior of electrons within the water molecule. These charged subatomic particles influence crystal formation and provide water with many of the characteristics that have baffled scientists for decades.

The link between the growth patterns and water can be found in research published by CU-Boulder physics Professor Noel Clark. According to an article in Science Daily they found that surprisingly short segments of DNA, life's molecular carrier of genetic information, could assemble into several distinct liquid crystal phases that "self-orient" parallel to one another and stack into columns when placed in a water solution. Life is widely believed to have emerged as segments of DNA- or RNA-like molecules in a prebiotic "soup" solution of ancient organic molecules.

(Images courtesy of Eshel Ben-Jacob and snowflakes.com)

The science of walking on fire

2009-12-16T14:49:00.001+02:00

According to Wikipedia:

Walking on fire has existed for several thousand years, with records dating back to 1200 B.C.[3] Cultures across the globe, from Greece to China, used firewalking for rites of healing, initiation, and faith.[3] Firewalking became popular in America during the 1970s when author Tolly Burkan began a campaign to demystify the practice. He offered evening firewalking courses that were open to anyone in the general public.

Where firewalking used to belong to the realm of mystics and magic it suddenly became within the reach of anyone with the mental ability to change their perception. Those who have experienced it find it liberating and empowering to bear witness to the power of mind over matter, while those who witness it cannot help but stand in awe of a feat that defy logic in direct opposition to our instinct to survive.

Even though it is a practice that has been around since the time of Genesis, the actual physics that explain why people do not get burned during the experience can only be found in some very recent scientific discoveries about the nature of water. And while you may think that the molecular properties of something as common and important like water would be old news, fact is we have only recently begun to understand its nature.

Water has a highly crystallized structure, even when it is in a fluid state. , and this affinity to form crystal lattices is one of the main reasons why proteins all have a specific three dimensional structure. It is the structural variety of proteins that give them the ability to combine and interact with other proteins in what can almost be described as a molecular dance. A dance that expresses itself in the infinite variety of life that share our planet.

When protein molecules are exposed to increasing temperature, it is the collapse of the supporting water molecules that causes proteins to lose their structure, but water is also known to exhibit a period of latency between the time that it reaches boiling temperature and the time it eventually begins to boil. It is this natural ability of water that provide the scientific explanation why it is physically possible to walk on fire.

Thus the belief that the fire walkers express as part of the ritual of walking on fire seem to be translated to a force that allow water molecules to maintain their crystalline structure under the extreme duress of temperatures that can be as high as a thousand degrees centigrade. It also supports various other experimental findings that intention can influence the crystal structure of water, and bears testament to the incredible ability of human consciousness and the power of intention.

The reward of meaning

2009-12-06T15:48:00.005+02:00

According to Eurekalert, the Medial Orbitofrontal Cortex, photo attached with caption "The same areas of the brain-the medial orbitofrontal cortex-are engaged when people receive a reward or avoid a negative outcome", is the area of the brain that is active when we feel regret, according to WebMD.

Just as love and feeling good are both qualities of spirit, so need and regret are qualities of our existence in the flesh. Just as the flesh is conscious and under our control, so the spirit is is not. Just as Yin and Yang are neither separate nor apart, the existence of the spirit is reason unto self.

As much as what the eye can see…

2009-11-26T18:28:00.001+02:00

How much would that be? In answer I guess most people would offer something that would depend on visual acuity, or the absence of visual obstruction. While it seems perfectly normal that what you see is what you percieve, quite the opposite is true.

A recent physics article in physorg.com explained it as follows:

This is a consequence of the eye's main characteristic, namely as a detection threshold. Below a certain threshold number of incoming photons, the eye remains blind (no light is seen), whereas above the threshold the efficiency (i.e. the probability of seeing) is close to one.

In their calculations, the authors also considered the influence of experimental imperfections, such as photon losses, which are inevitable in a real experiment. They found that the setup is surprisingly robust. A strong Bell violation can be obtained even in case of high losses, demonstrating the presence of entanglement. This is a very astonishing feature since entanglement is generally an extremely fragile property, highly sensitive to experimental imperfections such as losses.

I may have this wrong, but what I think it means is that our eye’s make things up, in this particular case it is photon’s, but it could be just about anything you see.

If you can imagine your perception as a flat screen TV in which there are increasingly more pixels dead, our perception of the degrading picture will remain as it was without any dead pixels.

But perception is not the only ability that can be influenced by entanglement? It also plays a role in something known as the placebo effect.

Stating the obvious

2009-11-25T14:17:00.002+02:00

It is probably well known that this is the age of truth, and although there are plenty opinions about what the age of truth will bring beyond what it has, I cannot help but smile when ever something new pop’s its head from the obscurity of our infamous western history.

Take Darwin as a good example. Since he first published his “Origin of Species” it has been vehemently argued from every possible angle, and although some people may feel a little uncomfortable with the idea, nobody has really come up with any alternative that would satisfy as much as his theory of evolution currently does.

In his own words Darwin sums it up nicely when he says: “It has always appeared to me more satisfactory to look at the immense amount of pain & suffering in this world, as the inevitable result of the natural sequence of events, i.e. general laws, rather than from the direct intervention of God.” And the same holds true for those who do not believe in the existence of God, for who could live with the burden of sin that any other viewpoint would imply.

My question is why a theory that has been so entrenched in our collective consciousness would be dragged into the mega watt glare of modern media?

Could it perhaps be the recent discovery of fossil evidence that Homo Sapiens may not have it’s origin in Africa, or does it have something to do with the recent theory about why human’s alone have pubic hair?

I don’t know the answer, yet. But you can be sure the age of truth has something to do with it. All we need to do is sit back and wait for the wisdom of time to run it’s course. I can’t wait!

The story of water

2009-11-21T08:54:00.001+02:00

Water is the most common molecule found on the earth, and at the same time also the most strange. Water is the only molecule that was created by the word of God, and while most people accept water for what it can do, very little ever give a second thought to what it does.

When I was in school someone used the example to illustrate how much power water has, by saying that it was the flow of water in rivers that will eventually erode all the rocks there are on earth and carry the sand back to the sea. When I did some research 30 years later I found a reference to something similar that explained how the expansive quality of water when it freezes is responsible for cracking open rocks and granite. Both examples are quite mind blowing in their scope, but they still do not even come close to the real power of water on our planet.

A very good example of what water does can be found in the way it provides the scaffolding for the structure of biological molecules, molecules like the proteins in DNA that are the building blocks of our human existence.

Proteins are also used as messengers across the complex hormonal networks in our bodies. It is the structural form of these proteins that determine what function they have, and that allow them to communicate across the various receptors that can be found throughout our bodies. Messengers that switch things off or on and regulate things like our immune system and memory.

Water is as much part of you and me as it is part of everything in nature. We can observe the way that it has formed our land, we experience it in the constant cycles of our weather patterns, we marvel at the infinite variety it expresses in every single snowflake, and we drink it to keep us alive.

Water is part of us and who we are.

Water is life.

More on nature, laws and such...

2009-11-15T11:07:00.001+02:00

It seems when looking for "laws" to help in defining nature and life that this is probably not the wisest thing to do, as the mere concept of "laws" still have some wrinkles to iron out. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, three issues are especially pressing ones.

The first concerns whether laws “govern” the universe, exactly what it means to say that they do, and how that affects our understanding of lawhood.

The second is the issue of whether there are any contingent laws of nature. Necessitarians continue to work feverishly on filling in their view, while Humeans and others pay relatively little attention to what they are up to; new work needs to explain the source of the underlying commitments that divide these camps and to figure what each group is doing right.

Finally, more attention needs to be paid to the language used to report what are the laws and the language used to express the laws themselves.

It is clear that recent disputes about generalizations in physics and the special sciences turn on precisely these matters, but exploring them may also pay dividends on central matters regarding ontology, realism vs. antirealism, and supervenience.

Getting it wrong helps us to get it right!

2009-11-14T18:48:00.001+02:00

According to the Scientific American, research has shown that people remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail.

The report says that a series of experiments showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning.

It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.

Calling for a revolution

2009-11-01T10:27:00.001+02:00

When the French call for a revolution you would think that people would stop and listen. After all they have been at the centre of one of the most well known revolutions in history, and who has not heard those famous words “… let them eat cake” which started it all!

This is exactly what French President Sarkozy recently announced at the launch of a report he commissioned into the measurement of economic progress, when he called for world leaders to join in a revolution. According to the report the “Gross National Product” or GDP that is currently used to measure the health and growth of world economies is flawed, and it recommends looking at household income, consumption and wealth rather than national production for a better reflection of material living standards.

“For years, people said that finance was a formidable creator of wealth, only to discover one day that it accumulated so many risks that the world almost plunged into darkness.” Sarkozy said. “The crisis doesn't only make us free to imagine other models, another future, another world? It obliges us to do so!”

According to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz who co-authored the report, Governments’ addiction to inflating the GDP of their economies has endangered the planet by encouraging risky behavior that has led to overconsumption. And it is overconsumption that is at the root of the large scale environmental damage that is causing alarm bells to go off all over the world.

The report further advises that more prominence be given to non-market activities such as house cleaning, crime statistics, the distribution of income and wealth, as well as access to education and health. According to Stiglitz, France’s ranking would rise in comparison to the US because of better access to health care, and because it has a lower percentage of people in jail.

So far it does not look as if the rest of the world is very impressed by this “second” French revolution, but the French President is unperturbed and will be implementing measures to change the way it measures progress. It seems as if the lessons of history has not been lost on the French.

“Vive la révolution"!”

Feeling good

2009-10-24T08:31:00.003+02:00

Have you ever been in a situation where you were having a good time and found yourself asking “Why are we having a party?” According to recent scientific research we don’t need a reason! It seems as if feeling good does not need a reason.
I do not know if you remember the very popular song “Celebrate!” by Kool and the Gang, but it reminds me of “I’ve got a feeling” by Black Eyed Peas. Both of these songs illustrate that we don’t need any reason to have a party, or to feel good.

Also have a listen to “Good Time” by Brazilian Girls.

How are you feeling today?

In celebration of our global consciousness

2009-10-24T08:04:00.001+02:00

It all started when F made the song Celebrate!, by Kool and the Gang his theme song for November 2010.

I then asked: & why is that

To which F replied: Democrats will be out of office by then

And I replied: hahaha lol, im from europe.. i dont care about the situation your corrupted government is in

To which F replied: At least you know the key word,"corrupted," nice.

Then, from the sideline C said: If the gov't is corrupted now, what was it under the previous Regime...straight evil?

And T, defending F said: hey I - you dufus - ever heard that if the "US sneezes the whole world catches a cold"? Well, it's true. And by the way, your government, whichever one it is, is just as corrupt as ours. You're an arrogant,snobby jerk, and you should care more about your brothers across the ocean anyway. We're all in this together.

Then M, defending I said: Why exactly should he give a shit about your government? And how was he even being rude or arrogant? He was just stating his opinion. He didn't say anything negative.

It seems as if this “new” consciousness still has a long way to grow before it will be of any real use to the world, and it illustrates quite nicely how easy it is to trigger conflict.

Spiritual authorities agree?

2009-10-17T08:24:00.001+02:00

“All genuine spiritual authorities agree that such transcendental experiences cannot be awakened by any material stimulus or experience, including ingesting substances like LSD and other “mind-expanding” drugs.” This according to my well worn paperback copy of ‘Chant and be happy’, my current exploration into Buddhism and chanting.

My dilemma is that while I know that some authorities are totally against such stimulus or experience, I know for a fact that scientific research has showed that a single trip on LSD in laboratory conditions result in a transcendental experience that can easily be understood as meeting God. Most of the subjects explain their trip as deeply religious and spiritual, and when they were questioned about how the experience rated against any other, almost half of them maintained that it was the most enlightening of all their experience, even twenty years after the research.

I also know that we have discovered flow, which according to Wikipedia is described as: “the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.

According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. It is the same mindfulness as ecstatic lovemaking, the merging of two into a fluidly harmonious one. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.”

And I know that flow is an experience that can be triggered by stimulation. By exposing any person to a repetitive task you can trigger flow by making sure that certain conditions are met, conditions like; the action must be repetitive in nature and involve some kind of skill; completion of the repeated action must be followed by sensory feedback; and successful completion of the action must be rewarded.

The Wikipedia entry further goes on to say that: “Csíkszentmihályi may have been the first to describe this concept in Western psychology, but as he himself readily acknowledges, he was most certainly not the first to quantify the concept of Flow or develop applications based on the concept.

For millennia, practitioners of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism have honed the discipline of overcoming the duality of self and object as a central feature of spiritual development. Eastern spiritual practitioners have developed a very thorough and holistic set of theories around overcoming duality of self and object, tested and refined through spiritual practice instead of the systematic rigor and controls of modern science.”

I therefore cannot agree with my copy of ‘Chant and be happy’, at least not where that is concerned.

Humane slaughtering is a fallacy

2009-10-14T12:23:00.000+02:00

An article by New Scientist looks at new evidence on a debate that is as old as commercial slaughtering of animals. On the one side there is the group representing the Jewish and Muslim communities that argue that it is religious law, while on the other side there is everybody else that think it is inhumane.

According to the article Animals feel the pain of religious slaughter new research has shown that calves appear to feel pain when slaughtered without prior stunning, strengthening the case for making the practices more humane. But are slaughtering practices humane at all?

Anyone that has been to a slaughterhouse to see what happens will have to agree it is not, and has never been. While the introduction of stunning animals before they are killed may allow activists to sleep easy, but any person that has witnessed the behavior of animals about to be slaughtered will agree that the is inhumane from the time that animals leave the farm.

The argument about pain simply confuses the issue.

Modern science fails medicine

2009-10-13T21:22:00.003+02:00

Contemporary medicine has come a long way since the Ancient Greeks, where getting a cure meant sleeping over in a temple where a deity would appear to give us advice in a dream. But there are still some things that remain shrouded in mystery.

Although the modern day symbol of medicine is the rod of Asclepios, the Greeks cannot cannot lay claim to being the only culture with an ancient traditional system of medicine. The Indian system of Ayurveda is one of the oldest traditional medical practices that we have record of. Just like Egyptians and the Chinese, the other cultures have been practicing medicine since time memorial, but unlike Western Medicine, all the ancient societies saw healing as more of a spiritual affair rather than a physical science.

Science has provided us with modern scientific biomedical research, where results are testable and reproducible, and where there is no room for veda’s or pressure points or other “alternative” medical practices. With modern science we developed sound research practices that provide statistical evidence of therapeutic efficacy and which adhere to strict ethical codes.

The modern era of medicine started in the late 1700’s and was well established in the 1900’s with the discovery of antibiotics. As science and technology developed medicine became more reliant upon medications, and the practice of finding remedies and cures in the natural environment slowly gave way to the pharmaceutical industry we have today.

With the development of new therapeutic chemical compounds came the introduction of statistical measures to ensure the therapeutic value of new medicines, and it was shortly after this that technology and science came across the curious effect of Placebo. The term 'placebo effect' is used to refer to two things in the medical literature. The first is a statistical concept and it refers to the improvement in patients given an inactive treatment in a drug trial in comparison to those given the actual drug. The second is a psychological concept and it refers to improvement due to expectancy and belief.

Since it has first been observed we have not been able to explain what it is or what causes it, and the attitude of researchers has been to keep an good eye on it and to cautiously ignore it. But a recent announcement that the Placebo Effect is increasing has sparked new interest in it’s stubborn existence, and has placed it squarely under the glaring eye of scientific investigation, and while some people are insisting on finding a reason for the anomaly, others are starting to wonder if Western Medicine and modern scientific biomedical research is the blessing that the Pharmaceutical industry claims it to be.

As scientific research is slowly starting to understand the principles on which the “alternative” medical practices operate, there are many doctors in the medical community that are starting to use some of the “alternative” diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Patients are also demanding a wider range of options, particularly amidst the growing risk of resistance in the field of antibiotics, and the increasing side effect profiles that all medicines seem to be getting.

While the Greek temple of Asclepius with its hallucinating smoke and deific cures has long since crumbled to rubble, Ayurveda is still alive and well, and just like traditional Chinese medicine it has remained in use since antiquity. Perhaps it is time for Western Medicine to show a little respect to these medical systems that have stood the test of time.

And if we are really looking for a plausible explanation for the Placebo Effect we probably do not have to look any further than traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. They may not be able to explain it with statistically proven research, but I am pretty sure that ancient wisdom can hold it’s own to modern science on any day.

Three faces of reality

2009-10-12T14:22:00.003+02:00

Reality is flawed. Not only by it’s definition, but also in it’s perception. According to the AskOxford definition of perception, it is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

Perception is of Latin origin from the word percipere, meaning to seize or understand. While this may seem to infer some significance, explanation or cause based on information received, we must be cautious to assume that something is present or not based on our perception.

The reason why it is so difficult to define perception is that it changes from one moment to the next, and our mind has the ability to alter any sensory stimulus based on a variety of factors. They include things such as which half of our brain has control over sensory input at the time of awareness, how we feel at the time, the simultaneous or remembered presence of any emotion, any conscious or unconscious value that we may attach to the sensation and whether it is a shared experience.

All of which take care of one face of reality as we know it. The next face put our awareness in perspective with everything else we have experienced, and provide us with an understanding of what we have perceived.

The third ‘face’ that complete our experience of reality is our reaction to the awareness, based on our understanding of the sensory stimulus we felt. This not only changes our input, but may also change the factors that influence our perception.

Considering all that has been said it is perhaps a bit harsh to say that reality is flawed, when in truth it just has more than one face. What we need to understand is to what level our perception is influenced by both conscious, as well as unconscious factors, factors that may or may not be under our control. We need to know that we lose our ability for rational thought and logical reasoning when we are emotionally triggered, and we need to accept the fact that there will never be a reality quite like our own.

Reality is quite literally what you make of it.

More tips for dads

2009-08-26T15:08:00.002+02:00

I take my hat off to any guy that decide to have a baby in this day and age. With all the challenges that we face on the social, political, financial, health and environmental fronts, you must have real guts to take on that kind of responsibility. And to bring a child into the world today you must have a lot of confidence, not only in yourself but in the whole of mankind.

But I find it amusing that there are still new parents today that are caught up in the angst of proper child raising techniques when, on the one hand more and more research is showing that all a child needs is good food, clean water, love and shelter, while on the other hand everyone is warning of a meltdown of just about everything that we have worked for. Polar ice caps included.

While parents are wondering if they are providing their children with the right values and norms to survive and thrive in a society that is changing so fast that they, the parents themselves are having difficulty to adapt, the odds are about even that there will any habitable world left for them to grow up in all! The only way that we can ensure that our children are left with a planet where they will be able to have their own children is by doing something now. We are the only hope they have.

There is very little sense in losing sleep over bad parenting when there isn’t a world left to give them. And infants born to this day and age are much better equipped to survive the society that is their legacy than we are led to believe. With the help of modern science and technology we are finding more and more evidence that our bodies and minds are uniquely designed to adapt to just about any environment we throw at it. But they are human, just like us. They need air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink.

The only thing our children really depend on us is a world to live in and love. The chances that we will understand their world is slim to none, and the odds of us being able to provide them with any useful advice almost zero. If I had any children and I was the betting kind, I’d take my chances on the 50/50 odds we have of saving our environment.

What are you planning for the end?

2009-08-23T16:24:00.003+02:00

We’re going to have a party. And if you think 2012 is still far away, then may I remind you that something like a holiday cruise or religious recluse takes planning, time and money, and while time may be easy to find between now and the end of it, I can assure you that in a couple of months it’s value is going to shoot through the roof. If you haven’t heard the news then let my shortly fill you in. It’s over. The end.

Newton, a man that is perhaps a little more known for his discovery of gravity, also predicted the end of the world, but he said it would come in 2060. And since that is a little far away to start my own planning now, I’m going to go with the end as it is popularly foretold by the Mayan Calendar, and that would be 2012. At the same time it would be the perfect dry-run for the really BIG party that I am planning for 2060, if the Mayan’s got it wrong.

Considering the open-market principle that the availability of something also determine it’s value, and the law of economics that says that a commodity will get more expensive as it get’s less, then the market-worth of time is set to skyrocket any one of these day’s. Can you begin to imagine the bargains we’ll be getting at closing down sales!

Time is ticking, and the world is nervously getting ready for a market boom. Nobody is exactly sure where the strike will be, and speculation is already starting to stir? Will it come from stocks and bonds, equity or the property market, or perhaps the market share will turn to commodities or information as many would believe? Your guess is as good as mine, but I would like to think it depends more on what you value, than what it’s worth. Which bring me straight to the second thing that’s on my mind.

Money. From my point of view “You need’a the moola to get’a the groova”, and trying to cash in before the markets close for good is not going to be of much value. Then again you have to ask yourself what the value of anything would be, when tomorrow may be not .

And then there is always the possibility that everybody could be wrong, and that tomorrow breaks just like it did the day before, and like it will until it runs out of gas or we break it in a cock-up attempt to use it’s energy.

Weighing in the odd’s I think the best advice would be to throw a lavish Bon Voyage Shebang. That means venue, music, drink and entertainment, all of it to be booked and paid before the rush. And even if I get it COD, which makes perfect sense considering, just in case there is another day, I’d prefer to be in a financial position to pay my due. And then live my life in harmony and love, and peace and happiness just the way I have.

What’s your plan?

Lies, lies, lies

2009-08-23T14:21:00.002+02:00

Take for instance the book of revelation. A book that was written by a spirit that had been preaching a message of peace and of love, and when he was banned by the authorities he retreated to a cave. It was the only shelter he could find, but then again the only shelter he would need to tell us of the things to come.

The author of the book of Revelation was John, but not the Baptist, although they did share a common bond. John was a spiritual teacher, much like many you would find in a man of his time. And to his fold and followers he spoke the word of God, interpreted it for those who were lost and searching for their soul.

And the word of John would bring peace. He would answer people’s questions about God and good and evil and forgiveness and salvation, for you see John was a man of God. A man that had, either by luck or suffering, been given a glance beyond the horizon of perspective to see the full plane of our existence. John was a man that had seen God, and with that been blessed to understand that we are much more than this, much more than we could ever understand. And that the reason for our existence would be pain and suffering if we would choose it such, or beautiful and bliss if that be what we worth. And low behold, it was.

If he was giving the people things that work, or things that made sense; if John was professing a word that’s true and pure and good, then chances are that he’d survive and even thrive. As well he should for giving people what they need. But then again, this is exactly the reason he was removed and banned from his own town.

John was only telling the truth, and giving people what they asked of him. And if people receive more good from a man like John than what they get for their taxes, you can see the reason why he was removed. Why, he was starting to cause unrest in the neighborhood and people were starting to refuse to pay their legal due. In a sense the man called John had inadvertently reached the delicate tipping point where the spirit comes face to face with establishment and people start to choose. Spirit always comes up trump.

In the face of such a show-off the establishment always get nasty and vindictive, and the spirit goes on doing what it always does in happiness and bliss. And such was the case with John, who moved into a cave and lived a hermits live of contentment and serenity. But such is the nature of the light, that once you meet the vantage point of life and what there is beyond, your life and everything makes sense. And in that sensibility there is nothing left but for you to tell of what you find. And tell he did, the book we all know as Revelation.

My question now, and considering this, is do you think the Book of Revelation is anything but true? I think that we would all have to agree it is, at least to John it is. And John was a man who spoke of things that the people of his time considered more valuable than taxes.

Then lastly this: “Do you think the Book of Revelation is a prophesy of the end?” Do you think that he was sitting there in all his joy and love and kind, and thinking to find something that he could do in the happiness of the enlightened world he lived. And then in a flash of inspiration, and with all the creativity that tend to flow from being in a place as this, he then decides to write the horrors of apocalypse?

In time before time it was known that the truth shall set you free. Thank you for reading me, and do spend some time to make up your own mind. It is something I could highly recommend.

Rewards, rewards, rewards

2009-08-22T12:19:00.002+02:00

(Eulogy to a man I never new, but greatly admire)

I recently heard of a man that lamented the loss of his soul, not that he had you see, but then neither did he. He thought that life was void of reward, and as a result he was ever depressed and always grumpy and pessimistic. So pessimistic in fact, that he became known as the biggest pessimist the world had ever seen.

He died alone, not because he thought he lost his soul, but because he was such a foul mouth sourpuss. No woman who deemed herself respective, indeed no person who had any drop of self respect would ever want to be seen near the old geezer. Of course there was a couple of friends, but they where the lucky souls that knew of him, before they knew him. The rest of the people never got a chance before he ignored, insulted, harassed or pissed them off so badly that they were at pains to make sure that their paths never crossed. That is, if they didn’t go to the police and demand that charges be laid.

In fact, somebody did in his early years. a woman he had harassed went to the police and opened a criminal case of assault against him. Assault against her personage and dignity was the charge, and she won the case. The court awarded her damages that the acclaimed philosopher had to pay for the rest of his life.

He was a pessimist because he believed that humanity will never be satisfied, no matter what the reward. In his eyes you see, life was not worth the effort it took to be alive. In fact, he was often heard to comment that the he could never understand why he continued to live himself. It was secretly guessed that he only did so to piss off a few more people before he died.

Even in the halls of higher learning, where much may be tolerated and offered before the altar of thinking and learning and human advancement did he find himself an outcast. After completing his thesis, a brilliant piece of work about the corruption and power of man’s will, only 5 students enrolled in the course he offered at the University of Berlin. He promptly refused to continue the class and cancelled the course in his signature style, ending the matter with a lengthy and public and pompous discourse on the knowledge and wisdom that accused the whole of the student body, in fact, the whole of the faculty, and indeed the institute of higher learning itself of corruption and sloth. He then added that he had walked through these hallowed halls long enough to see the fester that rots in this institution!” He made ‘institution’ sound dirty when he said it.

His public protest did fire the belly of some very bright and young upstarts, and not by his want or his will, but by divine intervention he became 'friends’ with some very talented people.

People like the quiet and demure scientist that struggled to get a tenure in academia, and ended up working in a patent office as an assistant examiner. He was passed over for promotion because he had not fully mastered ‘machine technology’, but ten years after his diploma he had produced such a body of knowledge that he was appointed “Professor Extraordinaire” for his theory of relativity. A theory that reconciled the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field, and introduced us to the field of quantum physics. In doing so he unleashed our own curiosity on itself, allowing us to peek into the hart of the universe, and some to venture all the way to our very soul.

People like the flamboyant composer that changed the face of music forever by abandoning the ‘happy tune’ that was then in vogue and brought to our hearts and our ear a new sound. A harmony that is richer and deeper and fuller and bigger and overwhelmingly loader than anyone could ever imagine. A symphony that reaches deep within our soul, and drags it kicking and screaming from the misery and evil that it hides, and exults it to to glorious heights of divinity where it belongs.

People who, even today are still known and revered for their contributions to the worlds of art and science and humanity. People who challenged the status quo of our existence and permanently altered the course of history. People like Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, and Sigmund Freud.

And so the man who is known as the greatest pessimist in the history of human thought, the man who searched for 72 years but could not find a single reason to live left behind a legacy that bared our collective soul to our very own eyes, and then showed it to us in all it’s glorious magnificence.

That man was Arthur Schopenhauer, a grumpy old geezer who spent his whole life searching for reward and who was answered through the life’s and the work of the people he tolerated in his life.

Wherever you are old man, I would like you to thank you and let you know that you did good. And I guess since you died you already know the reason for life, but just in case you’re still out there searching for reward, I’d like to invite you to take a look at the legacy you left through your word. And if you’re still wandering somewhere alone in the misery of your own existence, then may I suggest you try a little love? It is after all the quality most often attributed to spirit, the very last of mysteries still left to man and the heart and soul of the legacy you left to us.

More sense and sensibility

2009-08-21T17:20:00.005+02:00

Have you ever stopped to consider how common sense is, and what the world would be like without it?

Well, it may come as a surprise but the low down on sense is that it is not. Not common that is. In fact it would seem as if something as simple as a mutually shared sensory experience is just about the last thing we can expect.

You see, people observe the world they find according to the heuristic control of everything they believe to know. Simply put it means that people see what they expect, and the same holds true for pretty much all the commonly known senses.

Besides the fact that this innate ability is the reason for the infuriating futility of entertaining something as empty as jealousy, it also means that most of us would probably ignore the alien spacecraft that landed in our back yard, just because they don't.

And in defense of my argument on the absence of mutual sense I would like to submit into evidence the historical account of Columbus, from the native population's point of view.

The story goes that three days after Columbus dropped anchor and sails in the bay of the promised land, the native elders told of a strange dream they had. A vision that told of a massive white bird that would beach, and of strange men with strange clothes and strange customs that would step from it's fold.

It was shortly after they shared their “dream vision” that people started to notice the ships that lay anchor in plain sight for the last couple of days. Such is the power of our innate heuristic control, believe it or not.

And by a similar stroke of blind luck it would seem that we actually do not need to share such detail to communicate and grow. With half of it done it only remains to be told in the truth we behold…

I say who cares if it is common or not, the value of a picture without it’s emotional content is pretty obscure if you compare it to the full frontal quadraphonic kind, splendant and replete with enhanced 3D emotional content natively embedded.

Arrr me mateys, ahoy!

What’s up with water anyhow?

2009-08-21T08:56:00.008+02:00

Well, I guess we could start with the obvious:

1. It is commonly known as a fluid, and it is found in all three states of matter (solid, gas and fluid) all over planet earth. Funny that, because water is in fact the only molecule that naturally occurs in all three states of matter.

2. Water is formed by a chemical bond between the two elements, oxygen and hydrogen. Two elements of oxygen combine with one element of hydrogen to form one molecule of water.

3. It is found in everything around us, yes even the iron shovel you hold in your hand or the crystal you use for channeling your healing energy. In fact, it is the third most common molecule in the universe, besides hydrogen and carbon.

4. It is found within our bodies, and in very high percentages I hasten to ad! Especially if we look at some organs like the brain.

5. Thanks to the discovery of the microscope, we also know that when water turns into a solid it forms a tightly packed lattice of tetrahedral crystals.

6. A few years ago we found out that the pattern of tetrahedral clumping as water turn in to a solid could be influenced by intention and music. This mystical ability was discovered thanks to a very observant and very lucky scientist called Dr Emoto, who observed the phenomenon and intuited it’s causality.

7. We recently discovered that this tetrahedral quality persists when water turns into a fluid, and water seem to have a natural ability to combine together in tetrahedral clumps of up to a 100 molecules each. The rest of the molecules floats around freely and disorganized, sometimes in more and sometimes in less quantities.

8. We also found that the amount of free and disorganized water molecules depend on factors such as the temperature and pressure of the fluid, and the presence of other molecules that may be dissolved within it.

Before we discovered the tetrahedral clumping, water was considered to be the odd one out amongst molecules, with some 66 qualities that distinguished it from other forms of matter. With the theory of clumping we can now start to explain some of these differences in the behavior of water.

Things like why water can absorb so much heat before it starts to boil, and why the crystalline structure of frozen water is influenced by thought. This in turn explain how crystals work, and why they have their power.

It starts to explain such mysteries as the recent finding that happiness is contagious, that music can trigger an automatic emotional response, and it provides new theories to explain the hitherto mysterious way our brain seem to work.

By discovering the tetrahedral clumping nature of water we may just have hit upon the holy grail, and suddenly a whole world of knowledge start to make sense!

What’s up with water you ask? Apparently quite a lot. It begs me to tip my hat and wink a smile at glimpsing some understanding about mystery of life, the universe and just about everything…

Baby steps I know, but giant leaps for mankind.

Dubious distinctions

2009-08-20T13:53:00.005+02:00

Take for instance the German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer that has the dubious distinction of being the most articulate and influential pessimist in the history of human thought. Reading through the commentaries on his work you will quickly understand why, and if you follow the impact that Schopenhauer had on those he touched in his life you may be quite amazed to see how he may very well be the great-great-great granddaddy of Heavy Metal Rock.

According to Schopenhauer:

We flourish only at each other's expense, and evil, pain, and suffering are not aberrations but express the inner nature of the world. Our will to live is a continuing cycle of want, temporary fulfillment, and more want. New desires replace any satisfied ones, so no lasting happiness is possible. There is no overall end or purpose of life, and our will to live is doomed ultimately to fail, and we die.

(Ok, after that intro the possible link between Schopenhauer and Heavy Metal may be much more obvious than I originally thought…;-)

I stand in awe…

Arthur was born February 22 1788. He died alone, of heart failure while sitting in his armchair at home. He was 72.

If you would like to know more, drop me a note!

What is love?

2009-08-19T17:08:00.003+02:00

The performer previously known as Prince proudly announced that love is the masterplan, while Bette Midler convincingly sings that love is a rose and Wet Wet Wet believe that love is all around.

Of the three I suppose my own point of view would be somewhere with the last , but after a quick survey it seems as if there are as many views on love as there are points in a Seurat, Signac or Cross.

The interesting thing about all of this, is just like the many points in pointillism combine to make a picture, the different views on love do exactly the same. That is, if you are prepared to change your perspective…

Touching the divine…

2009-08-16T14:52:00.001+02:00

Whether by providence or design, my mind often plays around with the concept of divinity. In some cases these thoughts can be quite obscure since it isn’t easy to translate ideas from the realm of the spirit over to the spoken word. But then talking about God is nothing compared to the actual experience of touching the divine, and in my own mind it is as easy as play.

When consenting adults intimately share in mutual and honest physical play, and do so in love, it triggers a whole range of hormones and chemical reactions in our body that combine to result in the experience of orgasm. If you think back to your first experience that fit such a description I bet you will agree that it fits the idea of touching the divine quite nicely.

If you haven’t had an experience like that and you are over the legal age for intercourse then I would highly recommend that you try it. Orgasm is without a doubt one of the most powerful reminders of the spirit within us that we share with each other. If you are still not convinced, try reading up about tantric sex and give it some more thought. I have, and I like it!

Understanding our roots!

2009-08-15T09:36:00.002+02:00

I cannot help but get exited every time that I find science conforming well known facts, take for instance making tea - http://shar.es/UbsZ, or the understanding that babies are the R&D department of the human species… Oh, you missed that?

Well, for the last few years we have been able to learn much more about the brain and how it works. The same is true for babies, and what we are finding out is literally turning the subject of childhood development on it’s head.

Take for instance the fact that babies start off by sleeping so much, not because they are tired, but because their brains are working at a furious pace trying to make sense of all the new information it has collected. And if trying to make sense of color doesn’t boggle your mind, then try to imagine what kind of computing power goes into a babies’ ability to recognize individuals across a range of species, including sheep.

Aren’t babies just incredible?

To Emily Dickson

2009-08-15T09:12:00.002+02:00

It’s all a bit like making tea I suppose? Recent research has shown that making tea encourages conversation and sparks interest amongst those who would be drinking tea, and those who made it.

In the focus group and qualitative assessment, participants said they felt more relaxed when having tea, and tended to explain this with a sense of "partition", where there is an "end" or a "break" from a preceding period of anxiety.

So, beyond the fact that it contains chemicals to soothe and comfort you, the social interaction that takes place in the making of the brew is important too. Now there’s even more reason to make a cuppa, and if you can make it two, even better.

Care to join me as I do?

A tip for dad’s on babies…

2009-08-14T17:09:00.003+02:00

Don’t compete. Don’t even try to compete and don’t for a moment consider that there is any kind of competition involved between you and The Mom. Let’s face it, you are competing against two mounds of yummy and a bond of comfort that started before the dawn of time, way before the first heartbeat was heard. It’s a bond as old as rhythm and rhyme, and dad’s simply cannot compete.

In the ideal world the bond of the dad with the baby would often be made through the love that they share with The Mom, but in these modern days that is something rare, to cherish and hold close. If you do you will see that the baby react automatically to the bond of love that is shared with The Mom and her lover.

You lucky-lucky fish.

Have you unleashed your sexual beast?

2009-08-04T10:52:00.008+02:00

One of the things that most people seem to have a problem with these days is sex, even if it is just not getting enough of it. To complicate matters even further it is a subject that is shrouded in forbidden mystery and social taboo, not to mention religious dogma and shamed memory. Considering the odds against, it is a wonder that sex is still practiced at all!

I think the answer to this curious state we're in can be found in the design of the human body where a few things immediately become clear:

At the age of puberty our bodies undergo a total transformation that specifically prepare us to actively participate in the open sex market.
The transformation that occurs at the time of puberty is not limited to physical changes, but includes a total rewiring of the brain, and activation of a new prime directive. A directive that is so overpowering that it has been known to drive some people mad.
Besides probination, mutual sexual engagement is without argue one of the most enjoyable experiences anybody can ask for, almost as if our bodies have been uniquely designed for pleasure.
While our environment serves up a pretty tasty array of appetizers, it is a poor excuse for the real main course… The butt naked, burning flesh mutual rapture to be had in shared orgasm.

If you combine these design specifications with an overpowering prime directive of survival you have, what some would quite rightly consider to be, a loaded weapon. Just point and shoot, or in the case of the human sexual beast, point and sniff…

Considering the facts I suppose that all the social and religious taboo that remain in society could serve some kind of purpose, but that still does not give us any reason for guilt or shame. Isn’t it about time that we start to enjoy one of the most complex and intricate design features we are capable of, the ability of pleasure.

Honesty and truth

2009-08-02T16:00:00.003+02:00

Honesty and truth. You would think the two are pretty much the same thing, wouldn't you, but if you think about it for a moment you will see how unrealistic such an expectation would be. A very good example to demonstrate this is with photography.

By looking through a bunch of random photographs like you easily get from services such as Picasa and Photobucket there will be some that you like, and some that you don't. Of those that you don't, the nature of material will be the reason for some, while the others will be... Well... Just not to your taste.

If we compare those pictures that are "just not to your taste" to the rejections by other people, and then compensate for the approval and rejection of specific subject matter, the results will be pretty much the same across different points of view. This remains true, even across people from different cultures, although eastern and western cultures don't necessarily agree on "taste" in general.

Just like folklore, art and music; photography act as a medium that bond people together on a global scale, and the reason can be found in honesty. Any picture that portrays a moment of honesty will generally get the thumbs up from the majority of it's viewers.

And this is where the meaning between honesty and truth come to a violent separation. At least as far as photography and the other visual arts are concerned...

Performing art is a totally different matter... with performing art the relationship between the two is much more like you get with a smile, don't you think?

Orgasm - absolute ecstasy or emotional trip switch?

2009-08-01T09:11:00.010+02:00

Survival is a genetically coded imperative that is reflected in our biological design. It is something that is encoded in our primitive reflexes, built in to our psychological make-up and hard wired in to our neurological circuits. The only thing that matches it in scope is pleasure. It makes sense I suppose, for what would be the point if we didn't enjoy it.

The pinnacle of this dual but opposite principle is orgasm, and it is in the moment of orgasm that we experience the utmost of what we were designed for. On the one hand it is the physical activity that sparks all the right conditions to ensure procreation, and on the other hand it is without argue the most pleasure that anyone can imagine! So much so that people get addicted to it.

The pleasure of orgasm is something of an enigma, but where in the past it was studied as an esoteric subject, most notably in the "art" of Tantric Sex, it has recently become the subject of serious scientific investigation. One of the first surprises we discovered is that it seems as if the brains of many women switch off during this moment of ecstasy.

According to a recent article in Scientific American the brains of the female of our species show the most muted response in the part of the brain that govern self control over basic desires with a corresponding release of tension and inhibition. In addition, the area responsible for moral reasoning and social judgment as well as the amygdala, responsible for "fear extinction" and the storage of memories associated with emotional events. One of the scientists researching in the field is even quoted as saying that women do not have any emotional feelings during the moment of orgasm.

And neither does it seem do they have any power of judgment or reflection. At least judging by the area's of their brain that still have power, which makes me wonder why certain areas switch off at all.

Could this perhaps be a design flaw, something that does not work in our otherwise perfectly adaptable biological blueprint? Or is it something that is somehow necessary, something that is crucial to the survival of us and our species?

The pursuit of happiness

2009-07-21T20:51:00.006+02:00

It struck me as odd when I first found scientific confirmation that we remember bad things better. If the design of the universe was based on a positive principle, and my experience constantly reaffirms me that it is, then why would we forget the happy things?

But if you take a moment and think about it, it actually makes perfect sense. The reason that we have such difficulty in remembering the joy of our journey is that fun is something you have. It implies participation, and it only makes sense at the time.

Quite the opposite is true when you look at the bad and the ugly, they exist in the past. In fact, without them our past would probably be somewhat uneventful. Not that it would matter of course! If the argument holds true we will most likely be having too much fun to care.

It is therefore no real surprise that scientific evidence has shown that the relation between fun and care is inversely proportionate to each other. This means that if you have more of the one, you will by equation, have less of the other.

So how can we get more? Mingyur Rinpoche is a Buddhist monk and the author of the book "Joyful Wisdom". He carries the distinction of being dubbed "The happiest man alive" after he participated in research aimed at showing how mindfulness meditation could increase our happiness coefficient.

Previous research had shown that there is a shift in activity from the right to the left pre-frontal cortex of the brain in subjects who were happy, and the experiment wanted to determine if purposeful meditation could achieve such a change.

It turned out to be a huge success, and after eight weeks some of the participants showed an increase of up to 800 percent in left sided brain activity by following a 30 minute a day program of mindfulness meditation.

But meditation is only one of the ways that we can increase happiness. Various other experiments has shown that anyone can put a smile on their face just by focusing on happy things, proving the age old wisdom that energy flows where the mind goes.

Those who actively pursue happiness get it, and there is at least one Tibetan Lama that can vouch for it!

Talk Show Hosts and Me

2009-07-20T18:36:00.003+02:00

I have found that over the years my choice in talk show hosts have changed considerably, and I must confess I think it all started with "Haas Das se Nuuskas" many, many years ago. In recent memory I guess, it has changed from Jerry, to Oprah, to Tyra, to Ellen, and lately I have been viewing The View.

Looking back I can still appreciate the reasons why I followed each and every one, except Jerry, but something changed along the way. The reason why Ellen recently started losing out to The View isn't entirely clear, but it happened only a view months ago. I remember at the time she was starting to introduce these amazing guests that had these incredible stories to tell, or talents to show. And then I lost interest.

She still has some of the most incredible guests, and she still delivers an incredible show, but something changed. I guess it's me, and if it is I have to tell you I am concerned. Why don't they?

The brain - A users manual: Part 1

2009-07-15T18:35:00.001+02:00

As little as 20 years ago, most people believed that our brain start a slow route to decay shortly after we turn six. According to then, any injury we cause would lead to permanent damage and incapacitation. People understood their mind as something of value, something they had to protect, and people started to say things like: "... the mind is a terrible thing to waste...".

While this is still technically true, we now know that our brain does have stem cells that gives it a regenerative capability, although we have not really seen it in action. Our brain also undergo a second growth spurt after the one that ended at the age of six, and with the onset of puberty our brain start to "rewire" and restructure into the organ that will become host to our adult mind.

The secondary spurt of neural growth that occur at the age of our sexual awakening also adapts our hormonal and sensory apparatus to our sexual choice, fine-tune the control of our voluntary muscle system to adjust for the additional power and mass, and make the final neural path adjustments in response to our environmental experience and exposure. It is only after this fine-tuning has been completed that our brain can be considered as fully developed, finishing a process that started before our birth.

At least, that is what our current level of knowledge would tell us. As for tomorrow, who knows? We already know that science is investigating the possibility of artificially increasing our neurons in an attempt to treat age related dementia, and there are various other drugs under investigation that promise to boost our mental capacity. Right now I believe in the age old wisdom that you lose it if you don't use it. I never could adapt to using it's modern counterpart: "You snooze, you lose..."

When did you last polish your treasure?

2009-07-14T16:25:00.002+02:00

We are lucky to have a kitchen window that faces to the west, which means that we get the cozy afternoon sun on a sunny winter afternoon like this. Add to this golden haze of light a polished crystal that dangles on a string and you suddenly transform a warm and lazy room to something that is alive and vibrant with hundreds of dancing little rain bow spots projecting on the walls, and through the doors beyond.

We lovingly refer to this time of day as fairy time, and no-one can resist giving the crystal a little twirl to marvel at the intricate dance of light and color that results from it. It is truly a wondrous site to hold, and always manages to lift my spirit and warm the cockles of my heart.

But the daily dust of living is a constant threat to this display, and we have to remind ourselves to polish it every now and then...

The arrogance of the human race

2009-07-14T11:08:00.001+02:00

It just struck me again how arrogant the human race can sometimes be...

For many decades we have had the technology to search for intelligent entities beyond our planet. In trying to make contact we have been using the mathematical equation that describes a common occurrence in all forms of life, the Fibonacci series.

In stark contrast to this we are discovering more and more evidence of some kind of consciousness beyond life. Not that this is news by the way...

Mentalists and spiritualists and mediums have been telling us that they communicate with conscious entities all the time. And the same goes for the prophets, witches and shaman that communicate with the spirit, nature and the spirits in nature, and have so since the dawn of time.

Recent experiments even confirm that creativity itself may be like some kind of entity that people can communicate with, and that the expression we give to creativity is nothing other than our understanding of this connection.

The bottom line to all of this is that, for a very long time we have known that somehow consciousness exists beyond what we call life. And yet, when we try to communicate to entities beyond our planet we use 'life' as the basis of our communication effort.

I find it strange, and rather arrogant. Don't you?

The mood of water

2009-07-11T19:19:00.000+02:00

Dr Emoto discovered that the crystalline structure of water changes according to what it was exposed to. It turns out that the crystals that water form when it freezes look beautiful after being exposed to love, and crappy after they are dosed with hate.

After two bottles of water are left overnight on a piece of paper, the crystals they form depend on the words we have written on the paper. The same happens when a group of people focus on love and sends it to a bottle of water, even if that bottle is locked in a safe on the other side of the globe, or when certain types of music is played to the water.

Which just goes to show that "Love, love changes everything...", and that you have to be mindful of water because 75% of our brain consists of water (99% if you go according to molecule count).

Innocence lost - Part 1

2009-07-10T19:33:00.001+02:00

who wants to live forever?

2009-07-09T08:40:00.001+02:00

It seems as if the race to immortality has reached fever pitch proportions, with some of the new technologies almost competing in our search for the fountain of youth. Take for instance the chemical they found in red wine that doubled the normal lifespan of lab rats, or the protein that switches off our “genetic” old age trigger.

And have you heard about the new bio-printing technology that uses the natural self-organizing ability of cells to literally print a 3D organ. If that is not science fiction enough, they have found that suppression of our immune systems create conditions that may allow our bodies to repair themselves. In laboratory experiments they have found that lab rats could grow back their tails, and the clipped ears of the mice repaired themselves when kept under these conditions.

The question that remains to be answered is what are we going to do with the extra time, and will this promise of eternal youth be of any good to the planet we live on? Under my own friends at least, the answer remains undecided.

The spirit of plants

2009-07-08T23:20:00.000+02:00

It was in the early 1900’s, and thanks to the discovery of the lie detector that we first became aware that plants are more than just compost, and that they seem to display some kind of prescience.

As much as I guess by accident, but profound in its implication we found that somehow a plant knew who was going to harm it, and who was going to care for it. The finding that plants “knew” things that people intend never gained a big following, but that doesn’t change the fact that they do…

Take a look at some classic experiments here.

And if you would like to know more about this, tell me why and ask...

Evidence of widespread unconscious bias

2009-06-29T19:37:00.002+02:00

According to a recent scientific study our society program our children with implicit stereotypes - thoughts and values that people may be unwilling to express or which they may not even know they have. The researchers further suggest that this is the cause for the world wide gender inequity in science and mathematics performance. After a study involving more than half a million participants from 34 countries they showed that 70 percent of participants harbor implicit stereotypes that result in boys outperforming girls in science and maths in those countries that stereotyped most strongly.

According to researcher Brian Nosek, "Culture is a powerful force for shaping the beliefs and behavior of its members, even if one's explicit beliefs change, the cultural residue may persist in memory and continue to influence behavior."

But culture does not seem to be the only culprit causing implicit stereotypes, Disney is in on the act as well!

Researchers from the University of Michigan have found that Disney elevates heterosexuality to powerful, magical heights where heterosexual love can break a spell, save Christmas, change laws and even stop wars. "Characters in love are surrounded by music, flowers, candles, magic, fire, balloons, fancy dresses, dim lights, dancing and elaborate dinners," the researchers observed. "Fireflies, butterflies, sunsets, wind and the beauty and power of nature often provide the setting for—and a link to the naturalness of—hetero-romantic love.", this despite the assumption that the media to which kids are exposed are free from sexual content.

Similar studies have shown that the same 'social programming' result in widespread unconscious racial bias. Following a controversial finding that 70% of people who completed the Implicit Association Test have an unconscious preference for white people compared to blacks, a new study was designed to test the validity of the findings. Professor Anthony Greenwald of the University of Washington who leads the research says: "In socially sensitive areas, especially black-white interracial behavior, the test had significantly greater predictive value than self-reports." In self reported racial bias questionnaires only 20% of people indicate that they have such a bias.

The studies about implicit stereotypes is part of Project Implicit, a publicly accessible research and education Web site at which visitors can complete the Implicit Association Test to measure their own implicit associations. The test is available for a variety of topics involving gender, race, religion and politics.

Article sources::
Citizens In 34 Countries Show Implicit Bias With Science
Disney Elevates Heterosexuality To Powerful, Magical Heights
Test that Found Widespread Unconscious Racial Bias Validated

False Music

2009-06-28T09:22:00.003+02:00

I am listening to "Adeamus" by Carl Jenkins, and although I am no music boffin I must tell you that it is an absolute pleasure. You see, what he has done is to take atonal sounds and make music. Now, what most people will tell you is that you need harmony and rhythm to make music. What Mr Jenkins does is to take something that is not harmonious, and use it to make music. The result is strange on the ear, but a delightful journey of exhilaration as the disharmoneous melody sweeps you along with it's haunting harmony.

Lesson 1

2009-06-27T09:31:00.002+02:00

Memory is tricky:

A while ago a very good friend of mine told me to try a cuppa tea. I have, of course. In the past I remember drinking tea with boet, so I know tea, at least a little. But my friend advised that it would make me feel better, and it did, surprisingly. Remembering now I am surprised yet again! For not remembering it sooner.

Good news!

2009-06-25T07:32:00.001+02:00

The Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe are all countries that belong to a very selected group, countries that abuse human rights. South Africa used to belong to the same group due to our previous international affairs, but apparently not?

According to Human Rights Watch an organization specializing in these matters we have recently changed our view on a number of key issues, including the Dalai Lama!

I do not always agree with everything that human rights activists say, but when I heard the news this morning I had tears of joy.

the laws of attraction

2009-06-23T19:46:00.004+02:00

The big secret is slowly losing it's magic and mystery as science lifts the veil over sexual attraction. Like recent research that showed that a 10 second kiss a day is associated with lower levels of stress.

I suppose that makes some sense, but how do you explain the fact that men lose their ability to discriminate between beauty when they smell women ovulating?

How does your idea of sexuality change when you know that women make pheromones called copulins during ovulation that causes men to behave irrationally? Apparently these copulins smell like curdled butter?

How does your idea of the mating game change when you know that attraction is charged by the subliminal observation, once again thanks to our noses, of another persons' immune profile?

Does your idea of relationships change when you know that using a chemical contraceptive changes your 'powers of observation' towards subtle biological clues of sexual compatibility?

Do you start to question your ability to make your own choices when you find out that everybody's face add up to a number between 1 and 10 that determines universal attraction?

These and more, are facts that science are busy uncovering about the laws of attraction. Kind of takes something away from the mysticism of falling in love, doesn't it?

Or maybe it is a reminder that there are more to partners than attraction? Maybe it is necessary to understand that sexual attraction and biological compatibility speak a language all on their own? A language that knows nothing of toothpaste and caps, or toilets and seats, or snoring, or fashion.

Our bodies are communicating without our knowledge or influence, and we are only now beginning to understand how that communication changes who we are and what we do.

It certainly changes our whole approach to relationships, or does it?

Love and Communication

2009-06-19T22:35:00.000+02:00

If we take a close look at how we communicate between ourselves, and even how we communicate with ourself we may be surprised at how ineffective this communication sometimes is.

Many people do not realise how emotion changes our perception, and there are still people that believe they can present a logical argument when they are emotionally involved.

Science tell us that we cannot, and it is something that centuries of heated argument has proved with experience. Logical ability and emotional involvement are mutually exclusive.

The exact reason for this is not quite clear, but it probably has something to do with the way that emotions activate a wide range of brain areas, areas that not only change our perception, but also influence our rational ability.

The question which begs an ansewer now is, what about love?

REM

2009-06-13T18:26:00.001+02:00

It is the end of the world as we know it may come as a surprise to some people, but many will consider such a statement as highly unlikely. Some may even infer a high level of suspicion towards the person that proclaimed such a statement, even more so towards the person that professed the statement in the first place.

To follow that with:”I feel fine!” will most likely incur serious doubt in the sanity of anyone that used the two sentences in succession. The vast majority of people will in fact be convinced of the total absence of sanity, and almost certain insanity of people that indulged in such ideology.

Interestingly enough the opposite is true if you should change the two sentences around.

What is even more interesting is that these two sentences form the core of the chorus of a song by a very well known band. Listening to the song, and finding yourself singing full volume actually make you feel as if you are dreaming, tripping on very potent chemicals or as if you are participating in some ancient ritual at the very least.

But just as the sentences below are almost devoid of sense if you do not start at the beginning and push through right to the end, so life has no meaning if we constantly try to find meaning in the past.

If we think about it carefully, the whole idea of finding meaning from that which we already know makes hardly any sense. If we incur that our experience lacked sense, the only way we can hope it will is if we experience something in addition to what we already have.

It should therefore be clear to anyone that trying to search for meaning in the past is a ludicrous idea, in the very least. Perhaps not clear to everyone, but some for sure. Given the amount of people I know that think it is, it is almost certain that there are people that never had.

But that is as it should be, if it was not for them we would not be. At least not as we are today. And then perhaps we would, who knows? Who should dare to to say they knew how it would be if it was not so. For that would be a dream, would it not? Or could it be a song?

Boost your memory

2009-06-13T00:12:00.002+02:00

"Gray matter drops as we age," explains Arthur Kramer, professor of human perception and performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Gray matter is the brain tissue that's rich in nerve cells. "It drops as we get older," says Kramer. "It's dropping as we speak."

The prevention of mental acuity and memory loss is big business, and people seem to be willing to pay a lot of money to keep their Grey matter from dimming under the onslaught of old age, dementia or Alzheimer's. Walk into any chemist or health shop and you will easily find a dozen or more products and supplements that promise to boost your mental performance, but do they actually work?

A lot of scientific research has been done in recent times, and despite our search for some secret elixir there are only a handful of proven remedies that promise to help those of us who are worried about our fading memory. None of these cost any money, and while some of them may surprise you, most of the recommendations supported by research are nothing more than common sense.

A good example is a recent article that looked at a wide range of factors currently being investigated, and only found five things that have been proven to be successful. In no particular order they are regular exercise of both our mind and our body, losing extra weight, and drinking coffee. Now where have I heard that before?

For those of us who just need a boost when we are faced with a mental challenge it may help to just take a few steps back, literally. According to a team of Dutch scientists, walking backwards helps people think more clearly, giving new meaning to the age old wisdom of stepping back when faced with a difficult problem! If that doesn't work it may help to take a nap to boost a "sophisticated kind of memory that helps us see the big picture and get creative".

To get smarter you may want to try and phone a friend, or perhaps you want to indulge in a bit of daydreaming? Studies at the University of Michigan suggest that people who engage in social interaction perform better at intellectual tasks than those who do not, and research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that both daydreaming and complex problem solving occur in the same region of the brain.

But the best scientific advice to prevent loss of memory due to old age is to stop thinking about it. Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that senior citizens who think older people should perform poorly on tests of memory actually score much worse than seniors who do not buy in to negative stereotypes about aging and memory loss.

In summary then you should socialize often, drink coffee, exercise, and remember you either use it or lose it. For a quick fix you can take a nap, get lost in a daydream or simply take a few steps back. As for the rest, just forget about it!

Music

2009-06-05T17:33:00.001+02:00

I have often wondered why Lucifer has been described as the Fallen Angel and the angel of music? Perhaps it is because music, like art, has the ability to mean so much to so many. Music gets interpreted, which is what my mom and dad were saying all along with rock music. “There are messages in the music” they said they heard.

Like a wish, music always contain something. More often than not something that we want to hear. Something that is there in plain sight, but just beyond our reach. Something that we desire.

Take for instance Baroque music, and if you don’t connect with the musical term, perhaps it will help to say that it is the same music that you find on CD’s with music for babies. The kind of music that is rumored to make them smarter.

For the record, those rumors are based on solid scientific evidence. It really works! And the reason it does lies within the message that it carries. A message that is old as man, as old as rhythm and base. Almost as old as strings.

And for the record, the reason why trance music is called trance music is because it can take you to one. Just like rock can rock you, and gave way to a totally new mass participation method aptly called rock. Which is totally different to how people act when they trance, but it still remains a natural way to allow kindred spirits to connect.

With Baroque music we get to connect to the divine. Baroque is music with soul. Music that connect us with the collective spirit that exist independent of man. Much like trance.

I guess I don’t have to wonder anymore…

The trinity between the angel, his music and the devil is plain to see. Just like most things we always think we want, the things we need have been there all the time. And for proof, all we need to do is look into the wisdom of a child. That, or just to listen to some music. I can recommend some excellent Buddhist Monks!

The past

2009-06-04T17:00:00.002+02:00

They say the eyes are the mirror to the soul. Mine are usually brown, with golden specs and sometimes they turn green.

Usually when people try to describe themselves they look in the past, and provide information on where they came from. This seems strange to me, because to learn something about someone it is better to know where they are and where they are going to.

The past is a strange and foreign place...
They do things different there.

The end

2009-06-03T22:19:00.002+02:00

At the end of a movie it is stated that there is now, at this bloated stage of our world population, enough resources for everyone's need. But not greed.

I find it an interesting concept to play with. Imagine if you will what it would be to have enough, minus the stuff we need for others to see. Enough to live a life of kings, at least as much as kings were thought by Huckleberry Finn. Enough to make life worth the toil in happiness in deed and exhilarated discovery. To live a life enough to tell your story at the nightly feast where stories shared are a source of awe to those who stayed behind to cook the meal we eat.

Have you ever thought what it would be like to live that way each day. And have you given thought to what would have to go if you should live in such a world. And what you gain, should that be what you live. Have you ever thought of what you leave behind to live your life like this. Gone the guilt and shame, gone the pain and blame. All of it gone in the blink of an eye. Have you ever thought what it would be like to leave behind such stuff?

To hear that others say there is enough right now is something that makes me smile. Just say when.

Symphony Divine

2009-05-26T19:00:00.001+02:00

Like any player in a symphony we shouldn’t be afraid if now and then a note or two sound off. Heck, I can still remember years on end where nothing made any sense. From my perspective then I simply made a noise.

I still remember how I cried in vain for just a glimpse of reason, and how I tried through rote of note for just a glimpse that’s right. But try and cry with all my might I couldn’t seem to find anything but fright with music that I made.

But just like everything in life the answer was always there in plain sight. Just as everything we need is within reach if we just care to look, I was blinded with the truth.

It came to me as in a dream that lingers on, and stronger as my focus met the all familiar song. You see, since then I changed my vantage point from alto to a bass, just to see if I could be some worth.

And to my great surprise I heard a voice I knew, a voice that played in densest of sound. And every now and then it soared on harmony divine, raised aloft by instruments I scoffed because they seem so soft.

It all made sense the day I changed my view and saw the vantage point of being who I am in harmony with all the rest. Suddenly I knew that all I had to do was be my best, and that the rest was never worth the quest.

Even then,when symbols sliced through harmony beneath I soared with passion on the sound below. Hearing that familiar tune all but changed my life, and washed away my guilt and grief unto this very day.

Now I know for me at least, that every note I play has value in its way if played in glory and belief. Even later when the melody died down and folded over mine I knew that all is as it should, a symphony divine.

Wake up and smell the roses

2009-05-25T18:50:00.002+02:00

If you are like me, chances are that the first time you take notice of your sense of smell is when you get home in the evening and start preparing your evening meal, although in my own case I have to admit that even then I sometimes have to be reminded before I take any notice.

The reason why we do not engage our sense of smell is that our modern day environment leaves us with very little to enjoy nose wise. Most of us are challenged since our early morning drive to work by smelly exhaust fumes and general suburban smog.
Scientific discoveries however indicate that our sense of smell is probably one of the senses that have the strongest links to memory, and that smell, together with hearing, touch and taste are important components of our ability to recall events or information.

According to an article in ScienceDaily, Dr Jay Gottfried explained that: "...rather than clumping together the sights, sounds and smells of a memory into one bit of the brain, the memory is distributed across different areas and can be re-awakened through just one of our sensory channels. This mechanism would allow human beings more flexibility in retrieving their memories."

By waking up our senses we are in fact gearing our memory and increasing our brain activity. Fortunately our daily morning routines provide ample opportunity to wake up in the true sense, and a simple way is to choose any of the activities we automatically go through every morning before starting our day. A practice like shaving gives a man a lot of opportunity for indulgent sensory delight, from the smell of the shaving cream to the bite of his after shave, and women have an even wider choice of wake-up routines to choose from.

Just a 10 minute indulgence of our senses can make a world of difference in how we start our day. Once we start our day with our senses in high gear we will find that our minds generally follow the trend set by our senses and we start to see the world much clearer. As if by magic we notice more color and feel more alive. By waking up our senses we open a whole new world of discovery, and all it takes is notice.

In a sense this kind of awakening is a lot like life itself where everything tends to go by pretty much without any excitement until we actually start to notice. When we do we suddenly find answers to questions that have haunted us for months, and solutions to problems we thought were impossible to solve. With the latest scientific research supporting the value of our senses we can no longer ignore that fact that our senses are more than just vestiges of our evolutionary past, they actually make sense!

Daydreaming is a good thing!

2009-05-16T21:57:00.002+02:00

Study links daydreaming to problem-solving

Our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought, a study has found.

The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that activity in many brain regions increases when our minds wander. It also found that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving – previously thought to go dormant when we daydream – instead buzz with activity.

And to think that when I was a child this was frowned upon. But then I suppose it should not really come as a surprise when less than two decades ago the brain was considered to be the only organ in the body that did not grow. Today we know that it is probably the organ that changes the most of all, showing profound changes during the different stages of growth.

The value of Buddies

2009-05-15T18:12:00.002+02:00

I just received my latest copy of the newsletter "Outside The Lines" by Michael Bungay Stanier, renowned coach and author of various self empowerment guidelines and books. In the latest issue he discusses the value of a buddy, and provides six ways a buddy can help you out. In this article I would like to propose my own reasons why a buddy is not only desirable, but absolutely essential to everything that we do.

1. To see

We are all aware that people in general are notoriously bad at relaying events that have occurred. People see what they want to see, and no matter how hard we try to be observant we often overlook the obvious and seem to be blind to anything that do not fit our perspective.

In one of the most famous experiments that illustrate this fact, a group of subjects is asked to count the number of times a ball comes into the possession of players that are clearly distinguishable by their uniform. During the exercise, a man in a gorilla suit moves between the ball players in clear sight of everyone counting, but due to their focus on counting, most of the subjects are totally unaware of the gorilla. This "blind spot" is due to the way our brains work, and it is therefore very difficult, if not impossible, to avoid.

To have someone that looks at the world through different eyes is therefore highly desirable, if not indispensable. Buddies help us to see.

2. To share

While it is true that we learn from our experiences, it is also true that we can only find the wisdom that is hidden within those experiences by sharing them with others. By sharing our own view of reality we open ourselves to new possibilities, and by listening to the views of others we begin to explore the realm of the unknown that leads to those precious moments of "Aha!".

It is through this process of sharing that our knowledge transforms into a deeper understanding of the experiences we have, and it is this understanding that opens our minds to wisdom and growth.

Buddies are uniquely qualified in this regard, providing us with the opportunity to discover new meaning through a different perspective.

3. To feel

It is a condition of life that we feel, and as much as we sometimes feel bad, we often hide such feelings behind a facade of resilience and strength. Although most of us will probably come up with a very good reason for hiding our feelings, we need to understand that such repressed emotion does nothing for our health and well-being.

Repressed emotion is a well-known cause of stress and frustration, and in order for us to release these feelings that may become obstacles to our personal development and success, we need an environment where we can be honest to ourselves.

Buddies provide us with a safe relationship where we can let go of these negative feelings without the need for understanding, or the risk of blame.

4. To enhance

Research has shown that a group of people working together towards a common goal will always achieve more than the sum of the potential of all the individuals in the group, up to a group size of seven. The reason why this is true is not clear, but studies have demonstrated that groups larger than seven lose this enhanced achievement potential.

Be it by divine blessing, natural force or the simple principle of harmony, we will always exceed expectation when we join hands to work together for the common good of all.

Buddies therefore not only help, they make us more than we are on our own.

5. To give reason

The treason of reason is a common theme in literature, and most of us can probably remember a movie where power corrupts a character to such a degree that they are left empty and alone. Such is our nature that even with the most primitive of instincts, that of survival is nothing if it cannot be shared. Just as empty as lonely success.

Buddies give us a reason to be.

6. To love

Our journey through life begin as a personal affair towards self-acceptance, forgiveness and love. It is only when we have learned to love ourselves that we begin to understand the nature of the spirit and the powerful bond that exist in the unity of love.

And when we open our heart to beat as one with another, we are ready to discover that without love there is no reason at all, and buddies are more than enough reason to love all the rest.

If you would still like to read the article by Michael Stanier you are welcome to follow this link. In fact, I would love it if you could and let me know how you think they compare. Perhaps you could share your own point of view on the value of buddies, and people who care.

Let it shine

2009-05-03T14:08:00.001+02:00

If you can share the bandwith you will be glad you did. But before looking at it here, why not get the full impact of this video clip over at vimeo.

Honda Insight - Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.

Reality is flawqwed

2009-05-03T13:51:00.001+02:00

A concept that has played itself in my mind for quite a while is that of the concept of reality. Specifically what people think should constitute a shared reality, and how often such a notion result in conflict.

My experience further confirms that people in general (even myself) tend to maintain various realities that have distinct and unique characteristics, depending on the environment in which they manifest. This can be as simple as hiding the fact that you smoke to your mother (I know of men in age and gray that slip outside and gauge the wind before they light a fag), to maintaining a low-key 9-to-5-job-profile while your social life resounds to thumping hardcore rave or rock, and friends that you could never think to introduce to your boss.

All in all the concept of a unique and singular reality that can never be shared or understood by anyone but ourselves seems to affirm that we are truly alone in this journey called life. I suppose it is no coincidence then, that our environment reflects the truth that we are desperately searching for community and communion in a virtual society that does not judge by virtue of it's global nature.

In all of this I find to my surprise my journey does not end in doom and gloom, and even though my life may change and though I know that fortune smiles a fickle pace, I scorn on those that loud proclaim the folly of it all. For on my road in life I found that self-discovery may well be a journey no-one understands, yet as I learn my deepest soul I know the nature that is me... and find therein a multitude of ken that smile behind the eyes of all that come across my path.

Funny then that sometimes when I find my self alone I need but close my eyes and be for all and kind to comfort me.

Trippy

2009-05-01T23:00:00.003+02:00

Take for instance WOW. And for those not familiar with the term, we are not referring to the trippy expression of wonder and amazement that is often used on the discovery of something that we didn’t expect in our wildest dreams…
In this instance I am referring to a global online virtual gaming experience called World of Warcraft. According to its Wikipedia inscription at the time of publishing this article it is “a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment.”
What is so trippy are the similarities between the virtual game and real life. If we consider that in real life we maintain a multitude of personalities, each with their own way of looking at the world to the extent that we change our value system according to each persona you come pretty close to the virtual gaming world.
And for those who scoff the dedicated players of this online world it may be interesting to quote that the latest exchange rate of WOW was in the region of 1000 Gold Pieces to 12 Pound. In , fact, the online gaming experience is so real that it may be better to describe the differences between WOW and reality.
In the game you cannot make any permanent mark on your environment, ie you cannot carve your name on a tree that those who come by next week can see it. Every player sees the world as it is in real time, without the influence of anyone that cannot be communicated with in real time.
This does not mean that there are many a legendry character in WOW, because word of mouth and human memory is an integral part of gameplay. But it means that you have to accept every experience as a level playing field for every character sharing your experience.
If one considers that as of January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft has surpassed 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia it seems as if “making our mark” on the world has lost much of its earlier appeal.
It seems as if a massive number of individuals prefer to experience a reality that is un spoilt by the human hand. In that way they can expect that the experience of their fellow player is the same as their own, two weeks later, a phenomenon that has given raise to the existence of cheat’s that can tell you exactly what to expect, where.
In the real world this is much akin to many pop culture psychology fads such as “the Secret”, and others that advertise anything from instant wealth to instant health and happiness. And just like those cheats in WOW, the cheat’s IRL may be free, or can be bought. Except that those in WOW can also be bought with real money, while such real life “self-help programs” cannot be bought with WOW Gold Points.
It makes me think, doesn’t it?

Diagnostic liberty

2009-04-16T11:20:00.001+02:00

I just finished reading an article that lamented the loss of moral fibre and core values in todays youth, and laid to blame the development of digital media and electronic games as a reason to this end.According to the research on which the article is based, study subjects took up to six seconds to show activation of a moral response towards stories of social injustice. This slow activation of the brain area involved in moral reasoning and ethical behavior was juxtaposed with the fast paced action and snap decisions found in many computer games, and the article argued that children could therefore not form sound core values by engaging in such activities.

In my own mind this kind of reasoning is flawed and show a poor understanding of the environment in which children of today grow up and function. The world of today's youth moves at a much faster pace than that of their parents, and the ability to make instant decisions based on limited information is a valuable skill that could make the difference between success or failure. If a decision did lead to failure it would be valuable to be able to correct any mistakes that were made without undue loss of time and expense. In the electronic gaming environment this ability quickly seperates the losers from the winners, so too in the environment of personal development and business.

To expect children to develop strong moral judgement through these games is as futile as expecting them to be shocked rather than exited by the explosive carnage that is being advertised as this weekend's TV Movie line-up, or shocked rather than horrified at seeing news footage of soldiers shooting women and children in the name of some moral cause.

Previous research have shown that a moral response is largely the result of reasoning. It is not something that pre-exists as the foundation to decisionmaking and action, but rather something that develops as a result to exposure to situations that demand moral and ethical behavior, either in real life or through digital media. In fact, the article in question confirms other research in this area that show how moral and ethical reasoning change the thinking of those who engage in such decision making processes towards a greater social awareness and perspective. How the results of the research can be used against computer games is somewhat confusing, as is the argument of a pre-existing moral code that could be endangered through digital media and games.

Rather than trying to find out what is wrong with our youth, research such as this should try to focus on what we can learn from a generation of children that are growing up in a world that we created. A world where physical contact and personal communication are limited by the availability of a myriad of electronic devices. A world where the value of love still remain as honest and true as any moral or code.

The value of love is something that can only be learned through experience. If anything, this is the lesson we need to give to our children. To live in love, and grow in the fruit of its labor. Much like the exposure to stories of social injustice, it leads to a greater social awareness and perspective. In addition it gives a sense of purpose and enjoyment to living, and adds value to a life that may seem empty and vain given the nature of the society in which our children grow up today.
Attachment includes the note and its objects

Diagnostic Protocol

2009-04-16T11:18:00.000+02:00

success

2009-04-10T11:46:00.001+02:00

I have just met the most charming and remarkable woman with an allergy for men. She lost her last one about 22 years ago and following two decades of batteling TB and Cancer, she was recently discharged three days after a heart attack. She believes that wheel chairs are for old people, even though she will be turning 90 in a month's time.

While trying to arrange re-admission to hospice I was lucky enough to find a doctor who understands that 3 days is not enough to recover from a heart attack. And even if she insisted on going home then, she has the right to change her mind. I was not as lucky with the hospice personnel, but then with the doctor that understands on my side I didn't need their approval.

We parted with a wink as they pushed her to the ambulance on the trolley. I hope she gets a cure for her allergy.

I suppose it is all about how you define success. Using the right medicine for your disease could mean success, and so could actually getting better be. Having enough money to buy the medicine could be part of the bigger picture, and it would be great if you could afford a health care worker to advise you on the best medicine to use. But in the end the real success is in your choice.

The choice you make to drink the medicine or better yet, the decision you make to get better. And getting better is really nothing else but the bigger picture, because as long as there is growth we are success. As long as we are connected we can learn and teach, and that is real success!

The old lady reminded me about dignity and respect and my right to change my mind, and I reminded her about connecting. Together we found love and life and success, and for that I want to thank you all.

Attachment includes the note and its objects

That day

2009-04-08T20:39:00.001+02:00

I wonder if this would be that day. You now, the day you sit somewhere with a long cold drink, your feet pushed into the warm hot sand. Laying back on the cool white sand and languid sun and thinking this is it. This is what it means to be living!

And then you hear the wrinkled age of someone fighting with their lover, arguing about love. and though you'd rather not you hear the voices clear. You hear the desperate pleading tone of love misunderstand. Love that does'nt reach the depth of seperation. Love that doesn't stand. Love that doesn't know that stand is only the first step.

No wait, that is the next!

And in the heartbreaking silence that follows you see the couple part in silence, you hear their braking hearts and know that this is over.

The end however, it is not. Not by a long shot.

You are the person that will make the difference. You can make a difference how it ends. You can decide the end. This time you have control and you can mend these hearts. And it has nothing to do with how it ends, but how it begins!

Five years earlier this was you. And you want shout and say fuck it all will you two stop!

Just stop and listen to yourself. Listen to the pain you cause. Cant you see the pain you cause. Cant you feel the pain. I can see it clear and plain like it was Yeasterday, and in your mind you see yourself shout stop!

You hear the rage that fills the space between you now and then, and feel the hopelesness of love that burns with the endless yearning of passion and desire.

And then you burst out in a laugh. You pick a pebble and throw it in the sea.

Life is but a breeze.

Love

2009-04-07T23:30:00.001+02:00

Love is a way of living
Love is beautiful, playful and fun
Love is peace and harmony
It is the choices that we make
The way we respond to our journey
And the connection we make with the people we meet
It is knowing who we are
And caring all the same
It is about being honest
honesty in dream and thought
honesty in what we say and do
honesty in what we give and take
Being honest in what we feel
It is about sharing what we can
And asking when we need
It is trusting every step
And doing what we can
Not planning what to do
It is about what we make
Not what we leave behind
It is about being curious
And having passion
It is discovery and growth
Being friendly and kind
Not now and then but all the time
It is always being your best
Showing gratitude for what you get
And living every moment of your time
It is helping before you ask
Moving on and letting go
It is teaching as much as learning
It is getting up when you may fall
And walking proud and tall no matter what
It is timeless, without end
It is light when there is dark
It is here and now, not then
Love is who you are

Positive pop

2009-04-03T21:58:00.002+02:00

This summer, join researchers, practitioners, and other interested individuals for an online exploration of the Foundations of Positive Psychology taught by leading positive psychology expert Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar through the University of Pennsylvania's College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS). This new, non-credit course will examine the history and scientific underpinnings of this intriguing field and show you how its principles have been used to enhance work and home life.

In this course, Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar's weekly video lectures will explore the academic research underlying this new science. Class assignments and online interaction with Dr. Ben-Shahar and fellow students will help you formulate action steps for incorporating positive psychology into your daily routine.

Now you have three choices to guess what is being advertised:

a. A course on positive psychology? (Way too obvious of course.)

b. A exploratory journey to harmony and enlightenment? (Too floral, but probably worth exploring!)

c. Discovering your chackras' core? (Perhaps a bit technical?)

d. Learn to apply the science of happiness.

Really

Sexual Confusion

2009-03-29T19:22:00.006+02:00

Sexuality and sexual identity are probably two of the most misunderstood aspects of our psychosocial development due to the limited amount of research that has been done on the subject of sex. In the past ten years however, scientists have tried to make an effort to lift the veil of secrecy and taboo that has kept sexuality in the dark, and sexual identity in the closet.

But according to a recent article in ScienceDaily it seems as if the last decade of research still hasn't provided enough evidence to change the archaic and medieval views that people have about sex. And if it isn't bad enough that people still cannot freely enjoy one of the most primitive and pleasurable activities known to man, it is absolutely horrific to discover that some psychologists still believe that same-sex relationships are somehow wrong.

According to the article a staggering 4% of mental health professionals in the UK will still try and "cure" people who are attracted to same-sex partners, and an alarming 17% admit that they have "assisted" at least one individual to reduce their gay or lesbian feelings. According to Professor Michael King from the University College London, "There is very little evidence to show that attempting to treat a person's homosexual feelings is effective and in fact it can actually be harmful,".

Just how much harm these "treatments" could cause is not quite clear, but if we consider that a possible 10% of the human race could potentially qualify for "assistance" to suppress a basic natural instinct, the impact can be huge.

With arguments like, "Although homosexual feelings are usual in people, their physical expression, and being a person's only way of having sexual relations is problematic.", it seems as if these professionals are even more confused than the clients they proclaim to be helping. And when such a professional adds that "The physical act for male homosexuals is physically damaging and is the main reason in this country for AIDS/HIV. It is also perverse.", the argument becomes decidedly homophobic.

While it is true that "Children and young adults are more likely to be confused about their sexuality and to jump to conclusions (correct or otherwise) if unable to talk through their concerns.", it is also true that the sexual identity of a child is determined prior to them developing the capability of logical thought.

With our sexual identity fixed before we are able to make a choice about it, or any choice for that matter, the view that people who are " ...very unhappy about their sexuality" should be "assisted" to reduce their sexual desire sounds similar in nature to suggesting a frontal lobotomy for depression. Fortunately the argument that people that are feeling depressed should be "treated" by totally removing their ability was abandoned 5 score or more years ago. We can only hope that by exposing the archaic and harmful practices of some mental health professionals it will bring about the necessary impetus for change.

According to Professor King the best approach is to help people adjust to their situation, to value them as people and show them that there is nothing whatever pathological about their sexual orientation. With scientists like himself, that are not afraid of confronting members in his own profession we may just maintain the sanity we hold. And maybe, just maybe we could convince some more people that sex should be pleasurable and fun.

The Universal Truth of Balance

2009-03-24T17:30:00.002+02:00

In the realm of chemistry we find a concept called diffusion that describes the universal truth of balance. In essence it describes the movement of particles from a high concentration to a low concentration when two solutions of different composition come into contact with each other. This movement will continue as long as the solutions remain in contact with each other until they contain the same concentration of particles.

In the example above the concept specifically relate to chemistry and solutions, but the same principle can be seen with temperature, particle physics, color, sound and the behavior of waves. It is the basis of many scientific principles, including those of Fourier, Einstein and Galileo. While these universal “laws” may take some time to explain, there are numerous other examples that occur almost constantly around us.

Some of these we hardly ever notice, like the way that a group of people seem to walk in step with each other, or the way the pendulums of different grandfather clocks seem to swing in unison when they are put in the same room. Some of the examples are seen as scientific curiosities, such as the behavior of quantum particles in String theory, or the way that random number generators are influenced by a collective conscience.

The principle of diffusion can also explain various “alternative” healing practices like homeopathy and Reiki, and the curious observation that the hormonal cycles of any group of females that live together become synchronized.

It also provides a plausible theory

to recent research that show how happiness can benefit totally unrelated “friends of friends” as well as various cultural practices that believe in the mutual benefit of maternal stroking of small infants.

Most of these examples are grouped together under the “new age” concept of entrainment that describe the principle of diffusion in various other systems, including some of those mentioned like chronobiology and physics. According to Wikipedia, chronobiology is “the alignment of a circadian system's period and phase to the period and phase of an external rhythm”, and entrainment in physics is “the process whereby two interacting oscillating systems assume the same period”.

Given the examples provided it is obvious that diffusion is a universal truth that can be observed in the mathematical, quantum, physical, chemical, emotional, spiritual and even in mixed state realms of our existence. According to scientists at the University of Illinois a virtual pendulum with an instantaneous bidirectional coupling to a real pendulum will exhibit the same entrainment that we observe in the physical world.

The universal truth of balance exists everywhere and influences everything. It can be demonstrated in our physical, virtual and spiritual experience. By consciously acknowledging its existence we begin to align ourselves with the universe. By understanding the effect of balance we discover why we do not have to try so hard to control everything in our lives. By living the truth of balance we find that choice is divine, and that each one of us have the power to change our existence.

Wanting what we have

2009-03-20T01:06:00.004+02:00

Science has shown us that our brains are very good at making predictions, even to the extent that most of our daily lives are spent executing actions that are based on a predicted reality. This reality is orchestrated by a specific area in the brain that is strongly connected to our ego and our primitive instinct for survival, and with the aid of modern technology we are able to track the neural pathways that are activated through this process.

Research now tell us that our brains are uniquely adapted to adjust in response to our environment, in effect "tuning" our anticipated actions to achieve the maximum desired result. This result can be anything we want, and we have the conscious ability to program the outcome of our actions towards survival, procreation, social advancement, our any version of success, fame or fortune we have in mind. Any thing that our ego may consider would make us feel good. Anything, including feeling good.

It is interesting to note that different neural pathways are activated depending on the nature of our desired outcome, and that these pathways are the same in all of us. With the use of flow magnetic resonance imaging researchers are discovering which areas of our brain are responsible for every type of human behavior you can imagine, and by generating this "map" of brain function we are now even able to "read minds" based only on the measured activity in specific parts of the brain. But when we focus on using our senses the brain changes the way it works.

When we focus on experiencing our environment the brain has a totally different way of operating which is currently not well understood, and which involves the activation of various parts simultaneously. And according to scientific reports these synchronized flares of activity are totally different from the fixed neural pathways discussed earlier. The neural activity observed when we use our senses involve different parts of the brain that are seemingly disconnected from each other, resulting in recognizable patterns rather than pathways. This is also the pattern of thinking we see when we choose to feel good.

When we consciously choose to feel good our brains stop predicting and start working, and according to the latest research the outcomes experienced by subjects are much more positive than those where the brain is in predictive mode. Examples of the advantages observed when our brains operate in feel-good mode are numerous and includes decreased stress and anxiety, higher learning capacity and greater satisfaction.

With the scientific evidence to back, perhaps it is time that we stop trying to make sense of where we are going, and start to sense where we are. If we can believe the research we will all be much happier if we change the way we think, but first we must have the courage that change what we want.

Trippy, isn't it?

It's a lot like Trance...

2009-03-19T17:59:00.005+02:00

Trance music that is, and I meant life. Life is a lot like trance, or any other music if you really think about it! We can listen to the song and sing along, or we can focus on the base and boogie. Or if we want we can trip along the stream with the humming reeds. The choice is all yours...

Communication

2009-03-08T19:11:00.003+02:00

Life

2009-03-08T16:20:00.004+02:00

Communication

2009-02-05T19:58:00.002+02:00

If you would have to ask me right now what the most accurate sign would be for a successful relationship it would have to be communication. Successful communication. Communication where all the parties involved would be honest and true to their own opinion.

Even though it sounds rather simple there are a few things we need to remember when we attempt to communicate, as successful communication is some thing that I have found to be quite rare. The following serves as a quick-and-dirty guide:

Communication require a sender and a receiver. And that is pretty much it. The problem is that we are so caught up in either being the sender or the receiver all the time, that we forget that there has to be both for communication to take place.

Communication require a clear message. Clear as in honest and true, not clear as in "my mouth is moving but I'm thinking of something different" or clear as in "I'm only saying this to you because I know this will make you... whatever" or "I'm saying this to you because I... whatever". Clear as in honest and true. Communication require a clear message.

Communication also require a receiver that understands the medium of communication. It does not mean that there is any communication if the receiver does not understand the language this carries the message. It does not help if you are sending all the right signals if both of you went to the same signal school. Or at least a signal school where the same curriculum was being taught. In fact, the best option would be if both of you were in the same class. Communication requires a receiver.

And it is important that the receiver reply in the same language what he or she thinks in reply to the message, and that the receiver reply with a message that is honest and true.

If that happens continuously for more than one reply, successful communication takes place, and continues until one of the messages isn't clear and true, or until the receiver doesn't understand, or try to understand the message. Communication therefore continues until a message is lost or invalid.

These rules are only valid while both parties remain emotionally detached from the subject they are discussing. But that is the subject of a totally different article!

Simple wisdom

2009-01-22T20:12:00.001+02:00

George Bernard Shaw once said: "The danger in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished".

The nose knows...

2009-01-13T13:18:00.002+02:00

Most people can recall someone in their lives who had a nose for trouble, be they the motherly figure that knew when mischief was brewing, or the fiend that always knew when trouble was afoot. The nose is also linked to various other expressions, all with the implication of some "higher" purpose or greater knowledge. Take for instance the expression: "Being led by the nose", or describing someone as noseying around. It now seems that many of these expressions are being supported by scientific discoveries, proving that there is a very good reason that the nose knows.

In a range of experiments towards understanding the human brain and how it works, scientists have found that our noses play an important role in a wide range of human experiences. Findings that our sense of smell and emotions activate the same areas in our brain begs the question whether there is any link between our emotional well being and where we have been poking our noses?

In addition, our sense of smell seems to be active even when we do not notice any, and it has been proven that what we smell may influence what we visually perceive when the odor is linked to memories with negative emotional content. What we smell may therefore filter or color what we see, and in the case where someone was being led by the nose it may just be that the person they following was pleasant on the nose.

Unfortunately no-one can blame their nose for anything because it also seems that we have a semi-conscious ability to increase our perception of smell which causes the neurons in our olfactory bulb, the area in our brain responsible for our sense of smell, to light up in anticipation even if there is no odor. It also gives us the ability to adapt to unpleasant odors, allowing us to ignore them when they permeate the air we breathe from day to day.

All of which still does not fully explain the fact that my mother could smell out secrets, but there seems to be enough reason to pay attention to the person who is smelling the rat. As far as the expressions go I believe they may all have some origin in fact, even if those facts are only now being discovered by science.

2009-01-13T13:03:00.002+02:00

Just like the Mona Lisa this painting illustrates the concept of perspective. If you focus on the left side of the face it is clearly a female, while focusing on the right side of the face it is a male.

This duality can be found throughout reality and does not mean that there are different realities, it only means that your reality changes according to your point of view. Perspective changes perception which alters our view of reality.

Innocence lost - Part 3

2009-01-01T19:11:00.002+02:00

The ability to remember, recognize and discriminate between different patterns of facial expression is one of the earliest visual skills that babies master. This amazing ability that most of us lose along with our innocence at the approximate age of four, is one of a range of abilities that infants possess, but as you will see it is definitely one of the most important.

The facial patterns that we are exposed to at this early stage in our development combine with our instinctive talent of empathy to lay the foundation on which we develop our ability to accurately determine the emotional content of our environment. If the majority of facial patterns in a situation conform to a particular pattern and I feel scared, any other situation with similar facial patterns will result in internal conflict and confusion.

Infants that find themselves in emotionally honest environments that maintain coherence between facial patterns and emotional content have a sensory development advantage as opposed to environments where there is a constant flux. And if an infant cannot find some harmony between the pattern they observe and the emotional content of their environment, the nett result is uncertainty. Uncertainty that may threaten their further development, and which may lead to an unstable knowledge and skill-set. The same will apply where the facial patterns being observed are coherent in some, but confusing across different environments with the same emotional content. These infants may then try to resolve the conflict and end up linking the wrong facial pattern to a given emotion, or they may simply change their sensitivity to the empathic experience.

It is this principle that explain the incredible results we get when we ‘treat’ autistic children with “horse therapy”. By finding an honest and open source of emotional content in the horses, children with autism can begin to normalize their empathic experience. Following such normalization they often begin to improve dramatically, providing for a much better social prognosis.

During the first few months of life, a baby will continue to develop new sensory abilities. As these new sensory abilities of babies are stimulated, their brains develop further to provide them with a level of sensory discrimination and sensitivity that is in measure to the environmental exposure. All this sensory information is constantly referenced by the emotional content of the environment in which it is experienced, and further combined with the babies growing knowledge of different facial patterns.

Until they cross over, at which stage the child enters a totally new reality. A reality where they become a conscious player in a complex game of intention and emotion that will, to a large extent, determine their social success over the next few years.

If you would like to read the full article you can find it here.

Innocence lost - Part 2

2009-01-01T19:11:00.001+02:00

At the age of four children lose their innocence and begin to engage a reality where motive and intention are more important than understanding and growth.

In all probability the trigger for “crossing over” is the combined result of normal development and the realization that the emotions they emphatically feel do not always correlate with the tone of speech that they hear or the facial expressions and actions they perceive.

In an honest and open society all these sensory experiences maintain a coherency and harmony that result in the child’s fist construct of reality. According to scientific research, one of the first sensory skills that infants develop is the ability to determine between various facial patterns, and to recognize them in different faces.

The opposite is also true, and before "crossing over" children are able to discriminate between different individuals
in a particular species, and they can recognize and remember individuals that they have seen more than once. All of this as a result of facial pattern recognition.

What is even more astounding is the fact that this ability go beyond the human race to include fowl, pigs and sheep. At least those were the animals I know that were tested, and it is only one of the daily discoveries we are making in the field of human development.

If you would like to know more about how pattern recognition combine with empathy to lay the foundation for reality, the last part of the article is here.

if you would like to read the full article you can find it here.

Innocence lost

2009-01-01T18:17:00.000+02:00

At approximately the age of four children lose their innocence and become capable of deceit. The exact time of “crossing over” can be tested in a simple experiment that heralds the child’s ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes. When this ability develops a child is able to switch his perspective to that of another person, and they begin to think what other people think, and care what other people feel.

If you would like to know more about this fascinating story of early childhood development, please follow this link.

This milestone in childhood development is also considered to be the stage where children begin to reason logically and start to communicate intelligently about the world according to their own experience. It is also their experiences that provide the trigger for “crossing over”, as it is the direct result of a realization that the emotions they emphatically feel do not always correlate with the tone of speech that they hear or the facial expressions and actions they perceive.

In an honest and open society all these sensory experiences maintain a coherency and harmony that result in the child’s fist construct of reality. According to scientific research, one of the first sensory skills that infants develop is the ability to determine between various facial patterns, and to recognize them in different faces. The opposite is also true, that they can discriminate between different individuals in a particular species, and that they recognize individuals if they see them more than once.

What is even more astounding is the fact that this ability go beyond the human race to include fowl, pigs and sheep. At least those were the animals I know that were tested, and it is only one of the daily discoveries we are making in the field of human development. Perhaps it is also the most important one, because the facial patterns that we are exposed to at this stage in our development become our reference to the emotional content of the environment. If the majority of facial patterns look like this and I feel scared, any other situation with those facial patterns is different.

In environments where there is coherency between facial pattern and emotional content, infants will have better sensory development than where there is a constant flux. If an infant cannot find harmony between the observed pattern and the emotional content of the environment, it results in continuous uncertainty. Uncertainty that may threaten any further development, and which may lead to an unstable knowledge and skills base. It may also be that the facial patterns observed are coherent but confusing across different environments, in which case the infants may fix an incorrect facial pattern to an emotion, or they may change their sensitivity to the empathic experience.

.It is exactly this principle that explains the incredible results we get when we ‘treat’ children with autism, with “horse therapy”. By finding an honest and open source of emotional content in the horses, people with autism can begin to normalize their empathic experience. Following such normalization they often begin to improve dramatically, providing a much better social prognosis.

During the first few months of life, a baby will continue to develop new sensory abilities. As these new sensory abilities of babies are stimulated, their brains develop further to provide them with a level of sensory discrimination and sensitivity that is in measure to the environmental exposure. All this sensory information is constantly referenced by the emotional content of the environment in which it is experienced, and further combined with the babies growing knowledge of facial patterns.

Until they cross over, at which stage the child enters a totally new reality. A reality where they become a conscious player in a complex game of intention and emotion that will, to a large extent, determine their social success over the next few years.