Science of the SpiritS


Butterfly

Beyond Enlightenment understanding: Honoring the mystical in nature

nature
© Shutterstock
Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility.
Author and conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote these words in 1949, and they are all the more important today.

As we enter the 21st century and today's children look forward to living in the 22nd, this lack of intellectual humility is harming us in a number of ways.

Most notably, humanity is fundamentally and unintentionally changing the shape of the natural world. But the scientists who best understand this shift typically use only the language of science and reason - data and models - to explain it.

This overreliance on science and reason makes it difficult to communicate with the general public. It also blinds us to the full scope of the issues we now face, which can be fully grasped only through the emotional, cultural, ethical and spiritual perspectives on the world.

Leaving room for the mysterious and unexplainable

Geophysicists have proposed that we have entered the Anthropocene, a new geologic epoch defined by humanity's influence on the planet and nature's systems. What we do to adapt to this new reality requires that we augment our scientific ways of studying the natural environment with the wisdom to appreciate our intellectual limitations.

For example, scientific reason relies on data and analysis, and yet there is much in this world that cannot be measured; one cannot provide data that proves that love for another human being, a spiritual connection with the natural world, a sense of calling of vocation or the presence of God all exist. And yet, a great many people believe - or even know - that these exist.

Scientific reason also seeks to understand the natural world by breaking it down into individual parts. But it is the integrity of the whole that matters, what Rachel Carson called the "web of life."

Comment: Why science needs metaphysics: It doesn't make sense without it


Bulb

Yoga: Good for the brain?

Yoga changes the brain
© premayoga.com.au
A weekly routine of yoga and meditation may strengthen thinking skills and help to stave off aging-related mental decline, according to a new study of older adults with early signs of memory problems.

Most of us past the age of 40 are aware that our minds and, in particular, memories begin to sputter as the years pass. Familiar names and words no longer spring readily to mind, and car keys acquire the power to teleport into jacket pockets where we could not possibly have left them.

Comment: Yoga And The Brain: A Possible Explanation For Yoga's Stress-Busting Effects


Family

Our addiction to busyness: The paranoid survive, but they burn out

mental health relaxation
© Carl Richards
Perhaps you've heard the expression, "Only the paranoid survive." Ring a bell? If so, it's probably because that's the title of a book by Andrew S. Grove, the former chairman and chief executive of Intel.

When I read this book in late 1999, I bought into the need to always be looking for opportunities and to live my life at full throttle. I was afraid that if I stopped for even a moment just to rest, relax and recover, I wouldn't "make it" (whatever that means).

I was paranoid, and I was surviving — but just barely.

Nonstop meetings and mile-long to-do lists were the norm. Any time I had a block of free space in my schedule, I rushed to fill it. I might be missing out if I didn't. At the time, I didn't realize this was a stressful way to live. As the stress added up, I played hard as well to help me deal with it.

I started cycling and brought the same, full-throttle mentality with me. Even though I knew, on an academic level, the importance of rest and recovery, I never appreciated either. I rode hard every time I went out. I kept going until I got sick or injured and had no choice but to take time off.

Comment: Rest for the body is as essential as food and water. The Éiriú Eolas Stress Reduction Program is one of the easiest ways to relax and rejuvenate mind and body and it is available free online. Read more about it here.


Sheeple

Obedient sheeple: Is modern psychology doing its part?

Pill soilders
Has modern psychology has become the science of disempowerment?

You no longer have to be a bona fide psychiatrist to prescribe mood and mind-altering pharmaceuticals to patients young and old, as any general practitioner is now allowed to experiment on their patients in this regard. This helps to explain why some 78 million Americans are presently taking psychiatric pharmaceutical drugs, roughly 25% of the U.S. population. Which came first the diagnosis or the pill?

Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind, but the role it plays in mass producing obedient sheeple is increasingly apparent.

Comment: Read more about 'pill-popping as the prescribed path to happiness' - for Americans:


Black Cat 2

Awake in a nightmare: Paranormal tales reveal that 'sleep paralysis' may be as old as sleep itself

sleep paralysis
"Le Cauchemar" (1894), by Eugène Thivier
Suddenly I'm awake. Something is on me. A shadow or a shape. Something nasty. I'm pinned to my bed and I can't move a muscle. There are whispers, wicked whispers. I think I'm screaming but I make no sound. There's a loud buzz, a whoosh, and I'm sucked out of myself, twisting, turning, then dragged. But through my ever-so-slightly-open eyes, I see my body is still motionless.

What I'm experiencing is literally a waking nightmare. It's a state during which I'm awake but unable to move or cry for help, no matter what demons my mind conjures. The state has a name: Sleep Paralysis (SP), or more accurately in this case, Awareness During Sleep Paralysis (ASP). I've endured it hundreds of times before. And, as disturbing as it sounds, I'm far from the only one: People all over the world experience this terror. In fact, it's as old as sleep itself.

Comment: For an interesting discussion on sleep paralysis and other strange phenomena listen to The Health & Wellness Show: Psi Phenomena and the Health Connection


Hearts

The strength of kindness

love tree
There are many things being exposed, old wounds reopened and more and more realizing that all they say and do in the media, entertainment, government and banking system is not what it seems. We have been living in bizarroland where we ignore our elderly and sick, drug and poison ourselves as well as destroying natural resources in an all consuming economy model that has always seemed impractical in the long term. Something tells me they knew this day would come. We cannot sustain things the way they are now.

The victors may write the past, but the truth always finds a way and going beyond the simple distractions we are meant to languish in, you can and will find that the hole keeps going, growing and escalating with each new face that has joined. We who are meant to be the canaries in the coal mine are cackling.

Eye 2

Wetiko mind virus: Collective shadow of humanity

Wetiko
Every human alive has a shadow or a kind of mind virus (also called wetiko) which sets up our external life situations while hiding within.
The existence of a mind virus that plagues all of humanity - every man, woman and child - at first may seem like a far out concept, but it's an idea that has been around a long time in a lot of different cultures. Religion has grappled with the problem of evil for aeons. Deep down the rabbit hole of conspiracy research you will eventually get to the same theme - that there is some dark force coordinating the many nefarious schemes and agendas we witness daily in our world. Although there are definitely outside beings and forces coordinating these agendas, including the hybrid royal bloodlines, negative ETs such as Greys and Reptilians, discarnate entities such as Djinn or Archons and some kind of self-aware AI, we ultimately have to ask ourselves: is this evil actually a real force outside of ourselves, or is it rather the collective unconsciousness of humanity that appears as its own force and entity but is not? Are we infected with an actual mind virus installation, as the shaman warrior Don Juan of the Castaneda books suggested? Or are we facing the collective shadow, the disowned, unloved and unacknowledged parts of ourselves, which have been shoved down and repressed so much that they have become twisted and emerged as a monster appearing as its own life form?

Comment: More insight on the Wetiko Virus: The Greatest Epidemic Sickness Known to Humanity:


Info

Being overconfident and self-deluded can lead to higher social status, research finds

 Overconfidence
94% of college professors think their work is above average — that is not statistically possible! Overconfidence and self-delusion can lead to higher social status, research finds. This might help explain why many leaders seem so overconfident. Of course there are disadvantages to overconfidence as well, but these may be outweighed by the advantages.

Comment: See also: Narcissism epidemic: The societal shift from commitment to the collective to a focus on the individual


Music

Why do only some people get 'aesthetic chills' from listening to music?

music and goosebumps
Have you ever been listening to a great piece of music and felt a chill run up your spine? Or goosebumps tickle your arms and shoulders?

The experience is called frisson (pronounced free-sawn), a French term meaning "aesthetic chills," and it feels like waves of pleasure running all over your skin. Some researchers have even dubbed it a "skin orgasm."

Listening to emotionally moving music is the most common trigger of frisson, but some feel it while looking at beautiful artwork, watching a particularly moving scene in a movie or having physical contact with another person. Studies have shown that roughly two-thirds of the population feels frisson, and frisson-loving Reddit users have even created a page to share their favorite frisson-causing media.

Comment: See also: Is there an evolutionary advantage to our emotional connection to music?


Gift 2

The spiritual gift of anxiety and how to adapt to it

anxious woman
Arthur Somers Roche once said, "Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained."

If you've been affected by anxiety, you not only understand this quote, but you can viscerally feel it. If its owner doesn't lead the mind, the mind will instead lead. If you've been diagnosed with anxiety disorder, your stream of thoughts, untamed as they are, often lead to an ocean of worry that defines your daily existence. Drowning in this ocean of worry, you no doubt crave a vacation on a mental island called peace, even if just for a few minutes.

Comment: Never discount the effect of diet on brain function. See this article for more natural and food-based ways to reduce anxiety.