Science of the SpiritS


Family

Cancer patients using mystical visions induced by magic mushrooms to conquer fear

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Mon, 28 Apr 2014 13:54 UTC
Image
© Flickr/Burning Max
Researchers believe psychedelic mushrooms may help alleviate psychological and spiritual distress for patients with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

Survival rates for cancer patients have improved dramatically in recent years with improvements to diagnosis and treatment, but physicians sometimes struggle to address patients' psychological needs.

A recent study suggests psilocybin - the psychoactive drug in magic mushrooms - may help patients with the anxiety, depression, anger, social isolation, and hopelessness they may experience while undergoing cancer treatment.

The hallucinogen treatment, which is currently seeking additional participants, has been shown to induce a mystical or spiritual experience in patients and offers a unique therapeutic approach to reduce anxiety in terminal cancer patients, researchers said.

"Mystical or peak consciousness states in cancer patients have been associated with a number of benefits including improved psychological, spiritual, and existential well-being," said study co-author Anthony Bossis, of the New York University College of Dentistry.
Read More...
Beaker

How the trauma of life is passed down in sperm, affecting the mental health of future generations

Emma Innes
The Daily Mail UK
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 16:53 UTC
  • The changes are so strong they can even influence a man's grandchildren
  • They make the offspring more prone to conditions like bipolar disorder

    Sperm
    © AlamyWhen a man is traumatised changes occur in his sperm which are passed on to his children
    The children of people who have experienced extremely traumatic events are more likely to develop mental health problems.

    And new research shows this is because experiencing trauma leads to changes in the sperm.

    These changes can cause a man's children to develop bipolar disorder and are so strong they can even influence the man's grandchildren.

    Psychologists have long known that traumatic experiences can induce behavioural disorders that are passed down from one generation to the next.
    • However, they are only just beginning to understand how this happens.

    Researchers at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich now think they have come one step closer to understanding how the effects of traumas can be passed down the generations.

    The researchers found that short RNA molecules - molecules that perform a wide range of vital roles in the body - are made from DNA by enzymes that read specific sections of the DNA and use them as template to produce corresponding RNAs.
    Read More...
    Pi

    SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Into the supernatural: Interview with parapsychologist Stephen Braude

    Sott Editors
    Sott.net
    Sun, 27 Apr 2014 18:00 UTC
    Sott Talk Radio logo
    This week on SOTT Talk Radio we're interviewing Stephen Braude, philosopher, academic, parapsychologist, author and pianist. Braude is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and former Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, past President of the Parapsychological Association, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration.

    A lifelong student of psychic phenomena, Braude has written extensively on the central issues in parapsychology, publishing over 60 philosophical essays, along with 5 books, including: Immortal Remains: The Evidence for Life After Death, ESP and Psychokinesis: A Philosophical Examination, and The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations. Stephen's sixth book, to appear summer 2014, is titled: Crimes of Reason (Rowman & Littlefield).

    Broadly speaking, parapsychology is the study of mediums, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, near-death experiences, reincarnation, and other supernatural and paranormal phenomena. Tune in from 2-4pm EST (11am-1pm PST, 8-10pm CET) as we venture into the broader reality Official Science is scared to explore!

    Running Time: 02:01:00

    Download: MP3

    Read More...
    People 2

    OCD: The Surprising Truth - 94% of people have experienced unwanted, intrusive thoughts


    spring.org.uk
    Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:59 UTC
    Image
    94% of people have experienced unwanted, intrusive thoughts.
    Have you ever had a sudden impulse to jump under a train, stab your partner with a knife or perform some other unthinkable act?

    Many see these as signs of mental disturbance but, according to new research from around the world, fully 94% of people have experienced unwanted, intrusive thoughts or impulses.

    The phenomenon is not confined solely to people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and other problematic thinking patterns.

    The research comes from Concordia University in Canada and 15 other institutions in different countries, including France, Hong Kong, Sierra Leone and Australia (Moulding et al., 2014).

    They found that across 777 participants, almost all of them had experienced intrusive thoughts or images in the last three months.
    Read More...
    Info

    Scientists have built an 'off switch' for the brain

    Heather Saul
    The Independent, UK
    Sat, 26 Apr 2014 12:51 UTC
    Human Brain
    © The Independent, UK
    Scientists have developed an "off-switch" for the brain to effectively shut down neural activity using light pulses.

    In 2005, Stanford scientist Karl Deisseroth discovered how to switch individual brain cells on and off by using light in a technique he dubbed 'optogenetics'.

    Research teams around the world have since used this technique to study brain cells, heart cells, stem cells and others regulated by electrical signals.

    However, light-sensitive proteins were efficient at switching cells on but proved less effective at turning them off.

    Now, after almost a decade of research, scientists have been able to shut down the neurons as well as activate them.

    Mr Deisseroth's team has now re-engineered its light-sensitive proteins to switch cells much more adequately than before. His findings are presented in the journal Science.

    Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the study, said this improved "off" switch will help researchers to better understand the brain circuits involved in behavior, thinking and emotion.
    Read More...
    Vader

    Researchers tackle 'virtually ignored' psychological study of spite


    Medical Xpress
    Wed, 23 Apr 2014 02:09 UTC
    David Marcus
    © Robert Hubner/Washington State UniversityWashington State University psychology professor David Marcus has measured spitefulness with a test similar to those used for other personality traits
    Some of the world's nastiest behavior grows out of spite, the dark art of hurting an opponent even when it comes at a price to yourself.

    Divorcing couples often go out of their way to hurt each other and even their kids, skirting the more peaceful path to moving on.

    Tax evaders can grow so vengeful over a penalty that they'll double down on their cheating.

    Terrorists can be so keen to hurt their enemies, they commit suicide in the process.

    Spitefulness can even elevate a small slight, like lurking in wait for a parking space, into a vengeance worthy transgression.
    Read More...
    Palette

    Seeing red? The mind-bending power of colour

    Tom Chivers
    The Telegraph
    Wed, 23 Apr 2014 01:54 UTC
    mood palette
    Mood palette: The scientific evidence for the effect of colour on our emotions and behaviour is growing
    Red makes us more attractive, blue more alert, while pink can sap a man's strength. Once dismissed as hippyish, the science of colour is finally being taken seriously

    If you give the patient one pill, he perks up. If you give him another pill, he calms down. That might not surprise you. What might, though, is that it still works even when the pills contain no actual medicine.

    Studies show that red pills are more effective stimulants than blue pills; blue pills are more effective as sleeping tablets than orange tablets. Green, white or blue pills aren't as effective as red ones as painkillers. But these were all placebos, administered in a series of experiments in the Sixties and Seventies, looking at how our perception of colour affects our minds and bodies. There was no painkiller, there was no stimulant.

    The idea that colours affect our mood - red makes us angry, or sexually receptive; blue soothes us, or saddens us; that sort of thing - seems vaguely hippyish. Alternative medicine types push "chromotherapy", treating unwellness with colour; an odd amalgam of Victorian pseudoscience and cod-eastern mysticism. But now, the body of scientific research into colour is growing. And it all points to one thing: our perception of colour really does affect our minds, and our bodies. A 2004 study found that football teams wearing red were statistically more likely to win than teams in other colours. Another, in 2008, found that male volunteers shown photos of averagely attractive women on red and white backgrounds rated the women on red as more good-looking. Meanwhile, an experiment in the Seventies found that male prison inmates became physically weaker when they were housed in pink-painted cells.
    Read More...
    Clipboard

    Want to pass that final? Take notes by hand for better long-term comprehension


    Science Blog
    Thu, 24 Apr 2014 21:57 UTC
    hand note taking
    Dust off those Bic ballpoints and college-ruled notebooks - research shows that taking notes by hand is better than taking notes on a laptop for remembering conceptual information over the long term. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

    Walk into any university lecture hall and you're likely to see row upon row of students sitting behind glowing laptop screens. Laptops in class have been controversial, due mostly to the many opportunities for distraction that they provide (online shopping, browsing Reddit, or playing solitaire, just to name a few). But few studies have examined how effective laptops are for the students who diligently take notes.

    "Our new findings suggest that even when laptops are used as intended - and not for buying things on Amazon during class - they may still be harming academic performance," says psychological scientist Pam Mueller of Princeton University, lead author of the study.

    This is a photo of a student taking notes by hand.Mueller was prompted to investigate the question after her own experience of switching from laptop to pen and paper as a graduate teaching assistant:

    "I felt like I'd gotten so much more out of the lecture that day," says Mueller, who was working with psychology researcher Daniel Oppenheimer at the time. "Danny said that he'd had a related experience in a faculty meeting: He was taking notes on his computer, and looked up and realized that he had no idea what the person was actually talking about."

    Mueller and Oppenheimer, who is now at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, conducted a series of studies to investigate whether their intuitions about laptop and longhand note-taking were true.
    Read More...
    People

    Neurotics don't just avoid action: They dislike it

    Joseph J. Diorio
    University of Pennsylvania
    Tue, 22 Apr 2014 15:38 UTC
    Image
    That person we all seem to know who we say is neurotic and unable to take action? Turns out he or she isn't unable to act but simply doesn't want to.

    A study of nearly 4,000 college students in 19 countries has uncovered new details about why neurotic people may avoid making decisions and moving forward with life. Turns out that when they are asked if action is positive, favorable, good, they just don't like it as much as non-neurotics. Therefore persuasive communications and other interventions may be useful if they simply alter neurotics' attitudes toward inaction.

    These findings come the study "Neuroticism and Attitudes Toward Action in 19 Countries." It is published in the Journal of Personality and was written by Molly E. Ireland, Texas Tech University; Justin Hepler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Hong Li, Battelle Center for Analytics and Public Health; and Dolores Albarracín - the principal investigator of the study-- from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

    "You're so neurotic!" It's a phrase that's tossed about casually, but what exactly is neuroticism? It is a personality trait defined by the experience of chronic negative affect - including sadness, anxiety, irritability, and self-consciousness - that is easily triggered and difficult to control. Neurotic people tend to avoid acting when confronted with major and minor life stressors, leading to negative life consequences.

    Comment: Being neurotic isn't something set in stone. There are various contributing factors, like diet and working on the self that can assist with modifying one's attitude toward various situations. Read the following forum thread, as an example, to learn more.

    Read More...
    Eye 1

    People selectively remember the details of atrocities that absolve in-group members


    Psychological Science
    Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:24 UTC
    Image
    Conversations about wartime atrocities often omit certain details. According to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, these omissions can lead people to have different memories for the event depending on social group membership.

    "We started thinking about this project around the time when stories began to emerge in the popular media about atrocities committed by American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan," says lead researcher Alin Coman, psychological scientist at Princeton University.

    "We wanted to scientifically investigate the effect of hearing about these incidents at the level of the American public," Coman notes. "How will people remember these atrocities? Will they tend to suppress the memory to preserve the positive view of their in-group? Will they conjure potential pieces of information to justify the atrocities?"
    Read More...