Science of the SpiritS


Pi

The Non-Scientist's Guide to Reading and Understanding a Scientific Paper


End Points
Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00 UTC
It's not as difficult as you think. Well, maybe it is. But reading scientific articles will help you make more informed decisions, and better understand and participate in the public debate about important scientific issues
Understanding scientific papers 1
© Señor Salme/Endpoints
Highlights:

→ More than 2.5 million new English-language scientific papers are published each year in more than 28,000 peer-review journals.

→ While many are paywalled, there are also prestigious open-access journals where you can read articles for free.

→ Reading articles will help you make more informed decisions in the areas of life that concern you, and better understand and participate in the public debate about important scientific issues.

→ Here are the basic steps: focus on the big picture the scientists are addressing; read the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion, in that order; think critically about the conclusions the scientists make; conduct follow-up research.

→ For practice, we provide a link to a popular scientific paper on light-emitting e-readers.
We live in a golden age of scientific research. The top five countries in scientific research and development - the U.S., China, Japan, Germany, and South Korea, respectively - spend over $1 trillion on it each year. But where do all the resulting discoveries and eureka! moments go? Eventually they may find their way into textbooks or form the foundation of a life-saving therapeutic, but first most of them they go onto the page, in a scientific article.

Comment: Peer review process came under lot of criticism due to fraud and retractions. See also:

Read More...
2 + 2 = 4

Leading a happier life is about individual growth through finding meaning

Lowri Dowthwaite
The Conversation
Tue, 16 Jan 2018 12:45 UTC
happy

Over the past two decades, the positive psychology movement has brightened up psychological research with its science of happiness, human potential and flourishing. It argues that psychologists should not only investigate mental illness but also what makes life worth living.

The founding father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, describes happiness as experiencing frequent positive emotions, such as joy, excitement and contentment, combined with deeper feelings of meaning and purpose. It implies a positive mindset in the present and an optimistic outlook for the future. Importantly, happiness experts have argued that happiness is not a stable, unchangeable trait but something flexible that we can work on and ultimately strive towards.
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Parents who do these 3 things likely to raise violent narcissists


PsyBlog
Tue, 16 Jan 2018 12:47 UTC
young man
A permissive upbringing is one way parents raise narcissistic children, research finds.

Two other important factors are lack of affection from parents and exposure to violence in the home.

The conclusions come from a Spanish study of 591 adolescents.

Narcissistic children were likely to be aggressive towards parents when they didn't get what they wanted.

Comment: What may really be at root in many of these issues are called "errors in thinking" as Stanton Samenow elucidates in his book "Inside the Criminal Mind." The type of behavior described sets the perfect stage for criminality down the road, and if left unchecked eventually lead to hardship for themselves and many others. Most standards treatments end up failing because the patient doesn't consider themselves to have anything wrong with them in the first place, it's everyone else who has a problem. They're 'perfect', 'unique', 'entitled' - they're narcissists!

Read More...
Nebula

More and more Russians believe in life after death


RT
Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:49 UTC
Donskoy Monastery statue
© Vladimir Vyatkin. / SputnikA statuary gravestone located at the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery, Moscow, Russia.
The number of Russians believing in the afterlife has significantly increased in recent years, according to a fresh opinion poll. Now, four in 10 Russians hold the view that life does not end with death.

The percentage of Russians believing in the hereafter has grown by almost 10 percent over nine years, a survey conducted by independent pollster the Levada Center has shown. In 2008, only about a third of respondents supported this belief, while in late 2017 the figure was 42 percent.

Russians are also increasingly developing the conviction that their deceased relatives are able to influence the lives of the living. According to the Levada Center, the number of people believing in the hidden influence of their deceased kin on their lives has risen by 10 percent since 2008, growing from 28 to 38 percent.

The survey showed that religious people are generally more inclined to believe in the afterlife. However, even nonbelievers appear to be inclined to such feelings. According to Levada, 10 percent of those who define themselves as atheists or say they do not follow any religion also believe in the existence of heaven and hell as well as in religious miracles.

Comment: Quantum physicists agree -- consciousness lives on after death

Read More...
Brain

Reciting complex Sanskrit chants shown to boost cognitive regions in brain


Sputnik
Tue, 16 Jan 2018 17:53 UTC
Indian ceremony
© CCO
A study published in the journal Scientific American has concluded that rigorous memorizing and chanting of verses from the ancient Hindu scriptures in the Sanskrit language helps a person's memory by increasing the size of the brain's regions that are associated with cognitive functions.

Dr. James Hartzell of the University of Trento and his colleagues from Italy teamed up with Dr. Tanmay Nath and Dr. Nandini Chatterjee Singh of India's National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) to conduct the study on 42 volunteers trained in vigorously chanting the Shukla Yajurveda - one of most ancient Hindu religious text in Sanskrit.

Brain mapping images of the volunteers revealed that grey matter was denser and the cortex was thicker in them in comparison to other volunteers who did not memorize Sanskrit chants. The phenomenon has been termed "Sanskrit Effect."
Read More...
Fire

The great unravelling: Why we must break to make ourselves whole

Shannon Crossman
Upliftconnect.com
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 17:34 UTC
unraveling
© Made in Myr
I unknit all the loops. Am a mountain of yarn piled on the floor. What was once shaped and formed is now an indistinguishable blob. I've destroyed myself again.

I could lament the undoing. Curl shoulders inward. Heave with great sobs. Grieve for the loss of an identifiable thing. Struggle with what was. Get entangled. Cease to move forward. I've crafted that pattern before. Know it well.

Know, too, that the time approaches when the winding mass of unkempt fibers will cry out to Become. Can feel the first stirrings of the desire to Be. No longer content to gel amoeba-like on the floor, the mass shudders with intention.
Read More...
Hearts

Once you change the stories you tell yourself, you change your life

Linda George
Waking Times
Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Buddha
Stuart Wilde said:
"Once you accept life without struggling against it, you can see that everything serves you in one way or another. A lousy meal helps you appreciate and remember a good meal.

A defeat strengthens you for the next victory. If you try not to quantify and judge things and accept them as part of your overall experience, you become mature. All of a sudden that power that should have been yours from the beginning is returned to you as a calm individuality - a creative stillness that allows you to BE. Acceptance unshackles you from the restraints that you've created for yourself, and it allows you to explore inside your own individuality."
What would it mean, how would it change things, if, this year - a new one just begun - you, me, anyone listening could take this advice? Acceptance without struggle. And awareness that everything happening that we don't like is actually serving us in some way. It is all in how we choose to use our thoughts. And the life we are creating is made from our thoughts.

Comment: A bit new-agey near the end there.

Read More...
Question

SOTT Focus: What if Everything We've Been Told About Depression is Wrong?

Johann Hari
The Guardian
Sun, 07 Jan 2018 13:25 UTC
In this extract from his new book, Johann Hari, who took antidepressants for 14 years, calls for a new approach

pills
© Alamy‘Drugs are having a positive effect for some people – but they clearly can’t be the main solution for the majority of us.’
In the 1970s, a truth was accidentally discovered about depression - one that was quickly swept aside, because its implications were too inconvenient, and too explosive. American psychiatrists had produced a book that would lay out, in detail, all the symptoms of different mental illnesses, so they could be identified and treated in the same way across the United States. It was called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. In the latest edition, they laid out nine symptoms that a patient has to show to be diagnosed with depression - like, for example, decreased interest in pleasure or persistent low mood. For a doctor to conclude you were depressed, you had to show five of these symptoms over several weeks.

Comment: While the author makes some good points, as said, antidepressants may work for some. More on depression:

Read More...
Gem

Perfectionism: The risky personality trait on the rise in the young


Psyblog
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 12:33 UTC
Woman in the sunshine
© LZF/iStock
In 30 years this trait has increased by up to one-third.

Perfectionism in mind, body and career is on the rise in the young, new research finds.

The current crop of college students is more obsessed with being perfect than they were 30 years ago.

Making comparisons on social media could be one important driver for the rise in perfectionist tendencies.

The change could be having a dramatic negative effect on their mental health.

Comment: A good book on the topic:

Fear of the Abyss: Healing the Wounds of Shame and Perfectionism, by Aleta Edwards

Read More...
Books

10 years of research reveal multiple causes to bipolar disorder


PsyBlog
Sun, 07 Jan 2018 12:05 UTC
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder used to be known as manic depression.

There is no one specific cause of bipolar disorder, new research finds.

It is not down to one chemical imbalance or one specific life event.

Rather, bipolar has many common features.

The results come from over 1,100 people who have been studied for over ten years.

Over 730 had bipolar disorder, the rest did not.

Comment: See also:

Read More...