Science of the SpiritS


Brain

Does meditation keep emotional brain in check?

Michigan State University
Science Daily
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 20:37 UTC
Meditation can help tame your emotions even if you're not a mindful person, suggests a new study from Michigan State University

Prayer
© ave_mario / FotoliaMindfulness, a moment-by-moment awareness of one's thoughts, feelings and sensations, has gained worldwide popularity as a way to promote health and well-being.
Reporting in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, psychology researchers recorded the brain activity of people looking at disturbing pictures immediately after meditating for the first time. These participants were able to tame their negative emotions just as well as participants who were naturally mindful.

"Our findings not only demonstrate that meditation improves emotional health, but that people can acquire these benefits regardless of their 'natural' ability to be mindful," said Yanli Lin, an MSU graduate student and lead investigator of the study. "It just takes some practice."

Mindfulness, a moment-by-moment awareness of one's thoughts, feelings and sensations, has gained worldwide popularity as a way to promote health and well-being. But what if someone isn't naturally mindful? Can they become so simply by trying to make mindfulness a "state of mind"? Or perhaps through a more focused, deliberate effort like meditation?

The study, conducted in Jason Moser's Clinical Psychophysiology Lab, attempted to find out.

Comment: For a comprehensive and effective meditation programme to reduce stress in both the short-term and long-term, improve physical health and process emotional trauma, visit eiriu-eolas.org.

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TV

Watching sad films boosts endorphin levels in your brain, psychologists say

Nicola Davis
The Guardian
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:01 UTC
Traumatic films may boost pain tolerance and feelings of group bonding by increasing levels of feel-good chemicals produced by the brain, study reveals
Schindler's list scene
© Allstar/Cinetext/UNIVERSALResearchers suggest that maybe the wringing your feelings get from watching an emotional film such as Schindler’s List triggers the endorphin system.
Tyrannosaur, Breaking the Waves and Schindler's List might make you reach for the tissues, but psychologists say they have found a reason why traumatic films are so appealing.

Researchers at Oxford University say that watching traumatic films boosts feelings of group bonding, as well as increasing pain tolerance by upping levels of feel-good, pain-killing chemicals produced in the brain.

"The argument here is that actually, maybe the emotional wringing you get from tragedy triggers the endorphin system," said Robin Dunbar, a co-author of the study and professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford.

Previous research has found that laughing together, dancing together andworking in a team can increase social bonding and heighten pain tolerance through an endorphin boost. "All of those things, including singing and dancing and jogging and laughter, all produce an endorphin kick for the same reason - they are putting the musculature of the body under stress," said Dunbar.
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Brain

The psychology behind why clowns creep us out

Frank T. McAndrew
The Conversation
Sun, 02 Oct 2016 00:04 UTC
Clown
© 'Clowns' via www.shutterstock.comSometimes you don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
For the past several months, creepy clowns have been terrorizing America, with sightings of actual clowns in at least 10 different states.

These fiendish clowns have reportedly tried to lure women and children into the woods, chased people with knives and machetes, and yelled at people from cars. They've been spotted hanging out in cemeteries and they have been caught in the headlights of cars as they appear alongside desolate country roads in the dead of night.

Comment:

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Bell

Overstimulation: A modern problem that leads to anxiety

Deane Alban
reset.me
Tue, 17 May 2016 17:57 UTC
over stimulation
© youngsalvationist.org
No one, including mental health experts, knows for sure what causes anxiety. It's thought to develop from a combination of factors including genes, ongoing stress, and traumatic life events. According to Psychology Today
There's a growing body of evidence that overstimulation can be a major contributing factor to anxiety, especially for those who are particularly sensitive to external stimuli.
Few people would argue that modern life provides a nearly overwhelming amount of sensory bombardment in the form of noise, crowds, traffic, clutter, and the demands of ever-present electronic devices. Let's take a look at how overstimulation can trigger stress and anxiety — and steps you can take to tame the assault on your senses.
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Cardboard Box

Charles Eisenstein's mutiny of the soul - revisited

Charles Eisenstein
charleseisenstein.net
Mon, 14 Mar 2016 16:51 UTC
mutiny of the soul
Over the years, I've probably received more mail about Mutiny of the Soul than any other essay I've written. The idea of the article has been hugely validating for many readers: that depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc. aren't chemical malfunctions of the brain, nor spiritual malfunctions of the mind; rather, they are forms of legitimate rebellion against life structures that are unworthy of one's full participation or attention. They are more symptoms of a social illness than of a personal deficiency. As Krishnamurti said, "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

I've also received my fair share of criticism for the article, mostly along the lines that it is dogmatically anti-medication. These critics say that pharmaceutical meds, while probably overprescribed, have an important role, and it is irresponsible for a layperson like myself with no psychiatric training to flout scientific consensus when people's lives are at stake.

While I had seen a little of the science casting doubt on psych meds, I was in no position to make a strong argument against them. My piece was coming from an intuitive place: "These can't be good." But now the cracks are spreading in the foundation of pharmaceutical orthodoxy. I recently came across the work of one renegade psychiatrist, Kelly Brogan, who argues that depression and anxiety aren't unlucky chemical imbalances in our brains that can be magicked away with medication, but are symptoms of something deeper. In Suffering: Who Needs It? she writes:
The entire pharmaceutical model of care is predicated on the belief that it is us against our vulnerable, dangerous, broken, annoying body. A body that needs to be chemically managed and put into its proper place of subservience relative to our prized functionality. We are prescribed to suppress and eliminate signs that are actually meaningful messages about our state of dis-ease. We don't ask "why", we don't look to the roots of these symptoms. We just want to get back to work. To feel "normal."
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Info

Morphic resonance: The science of interconnectedness

Danielle Graham
Uplift Connect
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
morphic fields
Morphic Fields
British scientist Rupert Sheldrake has been speaking about the cutting edge of the new cell biology since 1981, when he published his groundbreaking book, A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation. Despite hostile, ad hominem attacks of his ideas that cell growth is directed by more than mere genetic coding, Sheldrake's critics have produced neither valid arguments nor evidence that counters his laboratory observations and theories.

Morphic Fields

Sheldrake proposes that "memory" is inherent in cells, and that life exhibits "evolutionary habits," a quality that Darwin also noted. "Cells come from other cells and inherit fields of organization" and that morphogenesis innately depends on organizing those fields, which he refers to as morphic fields.

For instance, since the genetic basis of cell reproduction is so similar, it is the morphogenetic field of a specific organism that causes the development of a specific shape — a pink flower with five petals as opposed to an Orca Killer Whale or a Colorado Spruce. The fundamental materialistic views still held by the majority of biologists resist the implications of such a hypothesis, despite experimental evidence.

But his credentials are impeccable: He is a former Research Fellow of the Royal Society, obtained degrees from both Cambridge and Harvard, and held research directorships and fellowships with prestigious organizations around the world, including California's Institute of Noetic Sciences. Additionally, he has published over eighty scientific papers, ten books, appears on television shows internationally, and writes for newspapers and magazines regularly.

Comment: See also:

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Cloud Grey

Researchers confront the epidemic of loneliness

Katie Hafner
New York Times
Mon, 05 Sep 2016 15:04 UTC
loneliness
© Jon Krause
The woman on the other end of the phone spoke lightheartedly of spring and of her 81st birthday the previous week.

"Who did you celebrate with, Beryl?" asked Alison, whose job was to offer a kind ear.

"No one, I..."

And with that, Beryl's cheer turned to despair.

Her voice began to quaver as she acknowledged that she had been alone at home not just on her birthday, but for days and days. The telephone conversation was the first time she had spoken in more than a week.

About 10,000 similar calls come in weekly to an unassuming office building in this seaside town at the northwest reaches of England, which houses The Silver Line Helpline, a 24-hour call center for older adults seeking to fill a basic need: contact with other people.

Comment: Loneliness: The deadly truth

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People

Don't try to force mindfulness -- use meditation to get there

Josh Richardson
Prevent Disease
Tue, 27 Sep 2016 13:08 UTC
mindful feelings
Mindfulness is 'the intentional, accepting and non-judgemental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment', can be trained in any human being. It allows us to shed emotions we perceive as negative very quickly and raises our emotional intelligence to levels which accelerate our optimism and outlook on life in its entirety.

Intelligence is to use what you know in the right way at the right time in the right place with the right intention. IQ only accounts for about 20% of a persons success. By far the majority of a person's success is attributable to social and emotional intelligence.

A study of 20 elementary schools in Hawaii has found that a focused program to build social, emotional and character skills resulted in significantly improved overall quality of education, as evaluated by teachers, parents and students.

Mindfulnessis defined as moment-by-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, characterized mainly by "acceptance" - attention to thoughts and feelings without judging whether they are right or wrong. Mindfulness focuses the human brain on what is being sensed at each moment, instead of on its normal rumination on the past or on the future.

Comment: Meditation is a tool that can regulate and reduce stress levels in addition to increasing calm and relaxation in the body, mind and spirit. Meditation also brings the practitioner into a mindful state, allowing the opportunity for a greater sense of being. To learn more about the benefits of meditation visit the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program.

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Bulb

Thinking on your feet: How to upgrade your working memory

Brett and Kate McKay
The Art of Manliness
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
working memory
Whether you're answering hard questions, making impromptu remarks, analyzing a situation, or synthesizing a bunch of data points into a cohesive and convincing presentation, the ability to think and process multiple pieces of information quickly and effectively is a vital skill to have. In our fast-paced and fluid world, you've got to be able to pull out the right piece of knowledge at the right time.

Your working memory is what allows you to do that.

While it was once thought that the capacity of each individual's working memory was something they were simply born with, research from the worlds of cognitive science and psychology are showing that we can actually train it to become stronger and faster.

If you're ready to upgrade your working memory from "six guinea pig power" to eight cylinder efficacy, today's your lucky day. Below, we provide research-backed advice on how you can boost the potentiality of your working memory in order to become a master of cognition in even high-pressured situations.

What Is Working Memory and Why Is It Important?

Whenever we perform tasks that require reasoning, comprehension, and learning, we use our working memory. Our working memory allows us to hold relevant information in our brain while we do something else at the same time. It's a short-term storage tank for thoughts and ideas that you can retrieve at the ready and process, manipulate, organize, and integrate in order to solve a problem, make a decision, find an explanation, reach a conclusion, or figure out possible moves. Think of it as your flexible mental scratch pad.

Comment: See also: Simple ways to train your brain to improve focus, memory and cognitive function

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Brain

Identifying hidden flaws in our thinking: A cognitive bias crib sheet

Buster Benson
Better Humans Coach
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:15 UTC
Cognitive bias
© chainsawsuit.com
I've spent many years referencing Wikipedia's list of cognitive biases whenever I have a hunch that a certain type of thinking is an official bias but I can't recall the name or details. It's been an invaluable reference for helping me identify the hidden flaws in my own thinking. Nothing else I've come across seems to be both as comprehensive and as succinct.

However, honestly, the Wikipedia page is a bit of a tangled mess. Despite trying to absorb the information of this page many times over the years, very little of it seems to stick. I often scan it and feel like I'm not able to find the bias I'm looking for, and then quickly forget what I've learned. I think this has to do with how the page has organically evolved over the years. Today, it groups 175 biases into vague categories (decision-making biases, social biases, memory errors, etc) that don't really feel mutually exclusive to me, and then lists them alphabetically within categories. There are duplicates a-plenty, and many similar biases with different names, scattered willy-nilly.

I've taken some time over the last four weeks (I'm on paternity leave) to try to more deeply absorb and understand this list, and to try to come up with a simpler, clearer organizing structure to hang these biases off of. Reading deeply about various biases has given my brain something to chew on while I bounce little Louie to sleep.

I started with the raw list of the 175 biases and added them all to a spreadsheet, then took another pass removing duplicates, and grouping similar biases (like bizarreness effect and humor effect) or complementary biases (like optimism bias and pessimism bias). The list came down to about 20 unique biased mental strategies that we use for very specific reasons.

Comment: See also:

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