Science of the SpiritS


Brain

From decapitation to positive psychology: How the vagus nerve connects body, brain & mind

Andrew H. Kemp
The Conversation
Sun, 02 Apr 2017 14:48 UTC
Vagus Nerve
© ShutterstockThe vagus nerve, part of the parasympathetic nervous system.
The relationship between mind, brain and body has kept philosophers and scientists busy for centuries. Some of the first interesting - albeit gruesome - experiments on the role of the body in human consciousness considered life after decapitation.

In 1905, French physician Dr Gabriel Beaurieux believed he had communicated with prisoner Henri Languille after his head had been severed from his body. Writing of the experience, Beaurieux said:
I called in a strong, sharp voice: "Languille!" I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions - I insist advisedly on this peculiarity - but with an even movement, quite distinct and normal, such as happens in everyday life, with people awakened or torn from their thoughts.
Almost two decades later, Soviet scientist Sergei Brukhonenko reportedly kept a dog's severed head alive for nearly six months using a primitive heart-lung machine. Video footage allegedly shows the head responding to light, sound and citric acid stimuli. But while Brukhonenko's research may have been an important in the development of cardiac surgery - it is also regarded as faked Soviet-era propaganda.

Comment: Read more Nervy facts about the vagus nerve - which looks at how the vagus nerve affects body and mind together: Stimulate the vagus nerve naturally with the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program, check out the online program available for free here

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Butterfly

Protecting the brain from the effects of daily screen time

Victoria L. Dunckley Md
Psychology Today
Sat, 01 Apr 2017 17:26 UTC
nature effects brain,
© EtiAmmos/Fotolia
I've written elsewhere how screen-time stresses and detunes the body clock, brain chemistry, and reward pathways, as well as how tech addiction can actually damage the brain's frontal lobe. I've also shared how an electronic fast can reset and resynchronize the nervous system, improving a child's mood, sleep, focus and behavior in a matter of weeks.

In contrast, this post offers evidence-based practices to buffer against some of the changes seen with overstimulation from screen-time. These methods either counteract screen-time's effects directly (such as by helping to synchronize, strengthen, or protect the body clock) or indirectly (for example by facilitating deeper sleep or discharging pent up energy). While this information was originally written with children in mind, these principles apply to adults, too!

Comment: Other useful techniques that can help to disconnect from our always-on tech world:

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Bullseye

Undead theories: The sorry state of modern psychology

Ross Pomeroy
RealClear Science
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
Herd psychology
Science is embattled in a raging replication crisis, in which researchers are unable to reproduce a number of key findings. On the front lines of this conflict is psychology. In a 2015 review of 98 original psychology papers, just 36 percent of attempted replications returned significant results, whereas 97 percent of the original studies did.

"Don't trust everything you read in the psychology literature," reporter Monya Baker warned. "In fact, two thirds of it should probably be distrusted."

How did psychology reach such a sorry state of affairs? Back in 2012, when the replication crisis was just beginning to gain prominence in the popular media, psychology professors Moritz Heene and Christopher Ferguson, respectively from Ludwig Maximilian University and Stetson University, offered a blunt, upsetting hypothesis: The field is sliding towards a state of being unfalsifiable, and its adherents either don't notice or don't seem to care.

Comment: Some of the biggest problems facing science
Scientists say they're forced to prioritize self-preservation over pursuing the best questions and uncovering meaningful truths.

Today, scientists' success often isn't measured by the quality of their questions or the rigor of their methods. It's instead measured by how much grant money they win, the number of studies they publish, and how they spin their findings to appeal to the public.

Scientists often learn more from studies that fail. But failed studies can mean career death. So instead, they're incentivized to generate positive results they can publish. And the phrase "publish or perish" hangs over nearly every decision. It's a nagging whisper, like a Jedi's path to the dark side
See also: Corruption of science: Nearly all scientific papers controlled by same six corporations

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Butterfly

The sounds of nature physically changes our mind and bodily systems helping us relax


Science Daily
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
nature sounds effect brain
When listening to natural sounds, brain connectivity reflects an outward-directed focus of attention; when listening to artificial sounds, the brain connectivity reflects an inward-directed focus of attention, similar to states observed in anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
The gentle burbling of a brook, or the sound of the wind in the trees can physically change our mind and bodily systems, helping us to relax. New research explains how, for the first time.

Researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) found that playing 'natural sounds' affected the bodily systems that control the flight-or-fright and rest-digest autonomic nervous systems, with associated effects in the resting activity of the brain. While naturalistic sounds and 'green' environments have frequently been linked with promoting relaxation and wellbeing, until now there has been no scientific consensus as to how these effects come about. The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

The lead author, Dr Cassandra Gould van Praag said, "We are all familiar with the feeling of relaxation and 'switching-off' which comes from a walk in the countryside, and now we have evidence from the brain and the body which helps us understand this effect. This has been an exciting collaboration between artists and scientists, and it has produced results which may have a real-world impact, particularly for people who are experiencing high levels of stress."
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People

Spiritual Bypassing: Ten completely B.S. practices of supposedly spiritual people

Jordan Bates
High Existence
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 20:55 UTC
JP Spears
“My vibration is so high, man. My chakras are so aligned. Fuuuckkkk, I’m a spiritual beast, bro.”
No one ever told me spirituality could be a self-sabotaging ego trap.

I spent about three years reading about spiritual teachings and incorporating them into my life before ever learning that spirituality has a dark side.

Naturally, I was taken aback. I felt kind of betrayed.

How could something that seemed so pure and good be harmful?

The answer has to do with something that psychologists call spiritual bypassing. In the early 1980s, psychologist John Welwood coined the term "spiritual bypassing" to refer to the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid confronting uncomfortable feelings, unresolved wounds, and fundamental emotional and psychological needs.

According to integral psychotherapist Robert Augustus Masters, spiritual bypassing causes us to withdraw from ourselves and others, to hide behind a kind of spiritual veil of metaphysical beliefs and practices. He says it "not only distances us from our pain and difficult personal issues, but also from our own authentic spirituality, stranding us in a metaphysical limbo, a zone of exaggerated gentleness, niceness, and superficiality."

Comment: Mostly spot on. Unless one can master the basic ins and outs of everyday living, control one's emotions and be capable of maintaining decent relations with others (just to name a few) any claims of ultra-spirituality are false.

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Magnify

A better technique for detecting lies


PsyBlog
Tue, 28 Mar 2017 21:34 UTC
fingers crossed
© Natural News
Until now studies have found that people do no better than chance at detecting lies.

Despite all the advice about lie detection going around, study after study has found that it is very difficult to spot when someone is lying.

Previous tests involving watching videos of suspects typically find that both experts and non-experts come in at around 50/50: in other words you might as well flip a coin.

Now, though, a new study published in Human Communication Research, has found that a process of active questioning yielded almost perfect results, with 97.8% of liars successfully detected (Levine et al., 2014).

The process of lie detection has nothing to do with supposed 'tells' like avoiding eye-contact or sweating, and everything to do with the way the suspect is questioned.
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Family

People are happier when raised by parents who do this one thing

Jeff Haden
Inc.
Wed, 15 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
parental control
Want your kids to be happier kids? More important, want your children to grow up to be happier and more satisfied for the rest of their lives?

A study from University College London found that people who perceived their parents as less psychologically controlling and more caring as they were growing up were likely to be happier and more satisfied as adults.

On the flip side, the people whose parents applied greater psychological control as they were growing up exhibited significantly lower mental well-being throughout their adult lives; in fact, the effect was judged to be similar to the recent death of a close friend or relative.

According to Mai Stafford, the lead author of the study:
"We found that people whose parents showed warmth and responsiveness had higher life satisfaction and better mental wellbeing throughout early, middle and late adulthood. By contrast, psychological control was significantly associated with lower life satisfaction and mental wellbeing. Examples of psychological control include not allowing children to make their own decisions, invading their privacy and fostering dependence."
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Candle

The ancient art of memory & the modern science of dreaming

Eric Wargo
newdawnmagazine.com
Sun, 28 Aug 2016 19:40 UTC
dreams
I'm old enough to remember a time before we knew that birds were just a modern form of dinosaurs. Like many children in the 1970s, I thought dinosaurs were the coolest things ever, partly because they were so remote in time, so very extinct. But to later find out what palaeontologists were just then realising, that these ancient monsters were still around us everywhere, always audible outside the window, was mind-blowing and inspiring in a whole new way.

Something similar is true of much 'ancient wisdom'. Lore that we may assume has been long forgotten often turns out to have just morphed into something different. In some cases, it still survives in places, or in disguises, that we might least suspect. This is true of my favourite piece of ancient knowhow, one that has been centrally important in my life and learning for three decades: the astonishingly effective memorisation method practiced by scholars and orators in pre-literate, pre-Gutenberg times.

Few know about this technique anymore, but I was lucky to read about it when I was in college at the University of Colorado in the 1980s. A lecturer recommended I read a book called The Art of Memory by Frances Yates,1 saying it was literally the most interesting book he'd ever read. That sounded like a pretty good recommendation - so I headed over to the university bookstore and picked up a copy. Reading it that evening at home, I felt like I was being initiated into a whole new way of thinking, not only about the mind and history, but also about film, visual arts, literature, psychology. It felt like an initiation, and was really one of those life-changing reading experiences.
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Rose

Natural expression of gender: The story of a male-identifying little girl who didn't transition

Lindsay Leigh Bentley
lindsayleighbentley.com
Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:15 UTC
lindsay



Comment: Though this blog-post was written in the summer of 2014, it is even more relevant today in regards to the war being waged against the natural connection between gender and biological sex.


I have been shying away from highly controversial topics on this blog recently because I just couldn't take the drama that naturally associates with it. But I keep hearing the story of Ryland, a child who was born a female, whose parents have transitioned her to male at 5 years old. You can see the full story HERE, but in short, because their daughter identified herself as a boy, and liked "boy" things as opposed to "girl" things, they cut off her hair, bought her "boy" clothes, and have begun telling her, and others, that she is a boy.

I have no degree in early childhood development, nor have I studied psychology. I didn't even graduate from College.

I am also not here to pass judgement on Ryland's parents. I believe that they are doing what they believe to be the most loving thing for their child. I'm simply sharing my story because I see so much of my 5-year-old self in this child.

I was born the second daughter to two loving, amazing, supportive parents. They would go on to have 2 more daughters. The four of us couldn't be more different, even down to our hair and eye color. Our parents embraced our differences and allowed us to grow as individuals, not concerned with the social "norms" for girls. I often joke that I was the boy my dad never had. My dad is a free spirit, 100% unconcerned with what people think of him, and he thought nothing of "out of the box" behavior. I function more as a firstborn than a second born (however, this does not make me the firstborn, amiright?)

Anyhow, even as a baby I seemed to prefer "boy" things. I was rough, tough, and daring. My parents had to cut my curly hair short because I would twist it into knots and refused to let my parents brush it. I once managed to make my way onto the second story roof, and was gleefully running around, as my parents had simultaneous panic-attacks. My toys of choice were sticks, sling-shots, bows & arrows, guns, mud, motorcycles, and monsters. When my sister and I picked out "My LIttle Ponies" I chose a blue one, and promptly cut all of that lustrous long hair off as short as possible. My barbie also got the chop.

Comment: This honest account shines light on the problem: it is the liberals who are convinced, more than anyone, that certain things are female and others are male. Now that is REAL discrimination.

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Brain

Parental rejection: Being rejected by your father does more damage to a child's long-term development


PsyBlog
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 15:16 UTC
father son
Both parents affect your personality, but rejection by one parent could be more critical for long-term development. Being rejected by your father can do greater, long-lasting emotional damage than being rejected by your mother, research finds.

While rejection by either parent is traumatising for children, fathers often have higher prestige and/or power. Therefore, children can take their father's rejection harder.

Professor Ronald Rohner, co-author of the study, said:
"In our half-century of international research, we've not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood.

Children and adults everywhere — regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender — tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures."
Rejection by either parent, or both, has a huge effect on children's personality.
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