QUANTUM HEALING, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND SOUL EVENT
I’ll be hanging out at this conference and so can you! I’ve heard some of these speakers before and they are worth the time investment. If you’re unavailable for the live event, they offer a replay you can watch anytime. Pick and choose what interests you most. Register today by providing an email address and get set to learn something new for 2013!
Filed under alchemy, Energy medicine, Event, Spiritual/Mysticism, Uncategorized
With the Mind & Life Institute kicking off its international symposia in Denver today, I thought it might be interesting to look back on some of the work this group and others who study contemplative traditions have found. A member of one of my yahoo groups recently posted an article from the Wall Street Journal (How Thinking Can Change the Brain, Jan. 2007) which helped remind me of some of the discoveries in the last few decades dealing with the emerging field of neuroscience called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the godsend that allows the brain to change its structure and function in response to experience including thinking. Nowadays we take this as a given. But once upon a time, not very long ago, the Dalai Lama asked a bunch of scientists if the mind might be able to affect the brain (the actual material entity). A brain surgeon told His Holiness that was impossible. Such downward causation from the mental to the physical was not possible. Don’t you just love science! So wrong- but this would take a series of experiments to knock the surgeon on his butt. You can find those and read about them, but my real interest is in the monks and what they can tell us. So let’s fast forward.
Since the 1990s Tibetan monks have been studied to see if their contemplative practice or mental training produces lasting changes in the brain. The monks were wired to record brain wave activity while entering a state of contemplation focusing on compassion and loving kindness. Gamma signals began rising and kept rising. Even between sessions, the monks’ gamma waves remained high. The more hours of meditation training achieved, the stronger and more lasting the gamma signal. It supplied Prof. Davidson at UCSF with the evidence he’d been seeking. Mental training can produce enduring brain traits. So the conclusion for me, is that we should try to keep an open mind about things and not jump to conclusions about what we think the world is or how we think it should behave. We know far less than we think we do, and arrogance and close mindedness will not be allies in the quest for truth (or Truth, if you like).
Filed under Buddhism
There has long been talk amongst educators and parents regarding the importance of reading for children and young adults. Good reading and comprehension skills are tied to good grades and we all know how competitive we are. Lately, there has been a focus on how reading fiction teaches and instills empathy and fosters the development of compassion. A reader can walk in the shoes of a character and gain an appreciation of others’ experiences and feelings. This is a very good thing and something society as a whole should appreciate.
And now there is an additional reason for why we should be reading fiction. It’s not just for children anymore. This week’s NY Times Sunday Review contained an article entitled “Your Brain on Fiction.” The piece details new research coming from neuroscience.
Among the findings:
Reading sensory words stimulate areas of the brain devoted to the particular sense. MRI scans show that “cinnamon” lights up the area devoted to smell.
“A velvet voice” or “leathery hands” lights up the sensory cortex which perceives texture.
Words associated with movement like “kicked the ball” stimulated the motor cortex which is associated with body movement.
We’ve known for a while now (scientists starting in the 70s and mystics for thousands of years) that the brain is crucial for constructing our reality, but it often has a tough time discerning it. And reading is one case in point. Whether actually experiencing a life event or reading about it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to the brain. The neurological regions involved are the same. Fiction creates a simulated reality where the reader enters a world of vivid detail and rich emotion. The reader’s brain accepts the unfolding of story in much the same way it accepts events in our own lives. What more could the reader or novelist hope for?
Filed under Reading
I haven’t read a collection of short stories since high school, maybe college. The common wisdom these days is that there aren’t many markets for short stories, and unless you’re a very famous writer (maybe a Stephen King, for example), they are nearly impossible to sell and have published. Maybe that inspired Daryl Gregory to title his collection Unpossible. But I doubt it.
A few weeks ago, I saw a blurb in the newspaper book section about this book and I knew I had to make time for this one. Daryl Gregory is a fantasy/SF writer who has been nominated for and won several impressive writing awards. That’s nice, but I’ve got a pile of books to be read just so I can stay abreast of the young adult market and manage to make progress on my own novels. What drew me in was that he was interested cognitive science, consciousness, the mind. Now, you have me, Mr. Gregory! And BTW, I already know who Oliver Sacks is.
Picking and choosing from the selections offered, I enjoyed everything I read. In Second Person, Present Tense we are swept up in the life of a teenager whose casual use of a new drug, wipes her memory and all sense of a previous “I”. Who is she now? Who was she before? In another story entitled Damascus, rational science fights the mystical experience when a group of followers use prions to achieve an altered state. And why wouldn’t the believers want to share this with the world? Well, they do and with dire consequences. The potential use of the mind’s extreme focus is explored in Dead Horse Point. And while every up has a down, this one does too. And finally, there was The Continuing Adventures of Rocket Boy. Here we recall a boyhood past where two friends make super 8 movies and abuse GI Joe. Talk to any man of a certain age and they’ll cop to this one. As charming and realistic as this is, there is also an undercurrent of real abuse, of murder (most foul), and maybe resurrection. Overall, a nice intriguing set of tales. Read this for yourself and pass it along to a friend so you’ll have someone to discuss it with. Hey, anybody want to talk about Unpossible? I do!
Filed under Book Review
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