Welcome to Sott.net
Sat, 21 Oct 2017
The World for People who Think

Science of the Spirit
Map

Windsock

3-year-old boy from Uttar Pradesh, India says his real family from a previous life is in Punjab


Deccan Chronicle
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 19:28 UTC
© YouTube
The child's parents tracked down the family in Bholapur and took Jeetan to meet his real father
The boy named Jeetan first made the claim when his sister tried to tie a rakhi on his arm as he insisted his real sister is in Bholapur.

Reincarnation is among supernatural phenomenon which has captured the imagination of audiences in across the world. A large number of people are also known to believe in rebirth and such cases have often been reported from different corners of the country.

In a bizarre incident from a village in UP, a three-year-old child is claiming that the people he is living with aren't his real family and that his actual peers are in a village in Bholapur. The village he mentions is in Punjab and the boy's insistence that his father is a foreigner has left everyone baffled.
      Read More...
Brain

How parents pass anxiety and depression to their children


Psyblog
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 14:14 UTC
An over-active network of brain areas is central to how children inherit anxiety and depression from their parents.

The network consists of three regions in the brain which work together to control the fear-response.

Genes passed down from parents to children influence how these three regions function together, the new study finds.

Professor Ned Kalin, one of the study's authors, said:
"Over-activity of these three brain regions are inherited brain alterations that are directly linked to the later life risk to develop anxiety and depression.

This is a big step in understanding the neural underpinnings of inherited anxiety and begins to give us more selective targets for treatment."

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
People 2

The startling psychological and physiological after-effects of near death experiences

Buck Rogers
Waking Times
Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00 UTC
The conversation about near-death experiences (NDE's) is typically centered around questions about the afterlife and what happens to consciousness should you follow the iconic tunnel of light. Skeptics, of course, look at the various scientific angles, debating whether or not the patient was truly dead, or the research was legitimate, and so on.

Less frequently discussed, however, is what happens to people after a near-death experience, and what changes occur in their psychological and physiological makeup. There are thousands of recorded examples of NDE's that offer testimony to the possibility of life after death, but what about life after near-death?
"Around eighty percent of the people who experienced near-death states claimed that their lives were forever changed by what happened to them. On closer examination, though, a pattern of surprising dimensions emerged. Experiencers were not returning with just a renewed zest for life and a more spiritual outlook. They were evidencing specific psychological and physiological differences on a scale never before faced by them." - P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D.

Comment: Further reading:

      Read More...
Alarm Clock

Aging and the perception of time

Josh Richardson
Prevent Disease
Mon, 18 Sep 2017 16:58 UTC
Time perception is a construction of the brain. How fast we perceive time to be passing -- or "mind time" -- can be manipulated or distorted. Evaluations of time differ based on our state of being at the time of judgment. How you age and how long you live may depend on that perception.

People tend to see their will as more determinant of future events than of past events. When we contemplate the future we feel as though we have a choice and are likely to influence events but when we consider our own past we often feel like most of the things that have happened were out of our control.

When people see that their actions are tied to what actually happens around them then their perceptions of free will change, or at the very least activated.

If you're bored or suffering, every second counts, and time seems to expand or slow down. When you're ecstatic, moments glitter right through your fingers.

Mind time also depends on your projected future state of being. If you're counting down to a root canal, time speeds up as you wait. But if you're tallying days until the birth of your first child, time seems immeasurably slow.

What would happen to our sense of time if we knew we could to live to be 150? Or even 500?
      Read More...
Info

Mysterious people who emerged from accidents with remarkable abilities

Brent Swancer
Mysterious Universe
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
Since time unremembered there have been those among us who have stepped forth with skills, abilities, genius, perceptions, and attributes far beyond the norm. In many cases these have stemmed from some sort of genetic predestination, or even defect, leaving the bearer of these powers with significant shortages in other areas. Yet many are not born into these powers, but rather have them thrust upon them.

Just like any super hero origin story there are those nondescript individuals who have undergone some accident or life changing event which has caused them to go through a dark tunnel to emerge from the other side with powers they cannot explain. Far from the realm of comic books, this has proven to be a very real thing, and there are those out there who have gained remarkable skills and abilities from things that should have very well killed them.
      Read More...
Laptop

Social media as a negative coping mechanism leading to addiction

Darius Cikanavicius
Psych Central
Mon, 18 Sep 2017 21:20 UTC
Most people understand how social media can be beneficial to its users. However, there is a lot of misunderstanding or misinformation regarding its detrimental effects and elements. In this article, we will look into it in more depth to understand how social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and so on impact people's lives, and why people use it in the first place.

While seemingly more and more people get tired of or disillusioned with using social media, it undeniably has its benefits. You can find and spread information, market or find products and services, build social or business networks easier, communicate with people from all over the world, and stay in touch with friends and loved ones.

But there is a darker side, and people are capable of misusing or abusing anything, even social networks.

Comment:

      Read More...
Light Saber

Facing the dragon of anxiety & being generally okay with life's expectations

Olivia Remes
The Conversation
Sun, 17 Sep 2017 17:30 UTC
© Shutterstock
Don’t worry, research can help.
Do you have anxiety? Have you tried just about everything to get over it, but it just keeps coming back? Perhaps you thought you had got over it, only for the symptoms to return with a vengeance? Whatever your circumstances, science can help you to beat anxiety for good.

Anxiety can present as fear, restlessness, an inability to focus at work or school, finding it hard to fall or stay asleep at night, or getting easily irritated. In social situations, it can make it hard to talk to others; you might feel like you're constantly being judged, or have symptoms such as stuttering, sweating, blushing or an upset stomach.

Comment:

      Read More...
Wine n Glass

Alcohol drinking behaviour and the brain's immune system


University of Adelaide
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 18:46 UTC
© Wikimedia Commons
Researchers from the University of Adelaide have found a new link between the brain's immune system and the desire to drink alcohol in the evening.

In laboratory studies using mice, researchers have been able to switch off the impulse to drink alcohol by giving mice a drug that blocks a specific response from the immune system in the brain.

Now published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, this research is one of the first of its kind to show a link between the brain's immunity and the motivation to drink alcohol at night.

"Alcohol is the world's most commonly consumed drug, and there is a greater need than ever to understand the biological mechanisms that drive our need to drink alcohol," says lead author Jon Jacobsen, PhD student in the University of Adelaide's Discipline of Pharmacology.

"Our body's circadian rhythms affect the 'reward' signals we receive in the brain from drug-related behaviour, and the peak time for this reward typically occurs during the evening, or dark phase. We wanted to test what the role of the brain's immune system might have on that reward, and whether or not we could switch it off."

The researchers focused their attention on the immune receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). They administered the drug (+)-Naltrexone (pronounced: PLUS-NAL-TREX-OWN), which is known to block TLR4, to mice.
      Read More...
Butterfly

Healing from the inside out: What to do when your emotional pain expresses itself in the body

Kim Saeed
Psych Central
Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
When we feel emotionally balanced, our bodies reflect this positive feeling, too.

Positive emotions such as contentment or satisfaction tell our brains to release positive chemicals like serotonin or dopamine to make our bodies feel good.

Unfortunately, the opposite of this is also true. When we find ourselves in a less than positive emotional state, this mental anguish can express itself throughout our bodies. For example, our brains release toxic levels of cortisol when we're exposed to long-term physical, mental, or emotional stress. Our brain chemistry gets burnt-out and our bodies reflect this in physical ways.

This type of pain linked to high levels of cortisol or adrenal fatigue is easy for most people to identify, but emotional stress can express itself physically in many ways. For many people, chronic emotional stress just feels normal. Sometimes we don't even realize we're in an unbalanced emotional state until we start examining our physical pain and attempt to find its source.

Do you have chronic headaches or a kink in your back you just can't seem to shake? Have you already tried everything medically available but the pain just won't go away? You could be looking in the wrong places.

Many types of pain are directly linked to our emotions. Once we identify what's causing the pain, we can start healing from the inside out.

Comment: Metaphysical meanings behind physical pain

      Read More...
Brain

Total recall is overrated: Why forgetting makes you smarter

April McCarthy
Prevent Disease
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 17:13 UTC
You're probably thinking you're a genius right? Well, you know those people who always boast about having a perfect memory? Maybe they shouldn't, because having total recall is totally overrated. That's according to a new paper in the journal Neuron, which concludes that forgetting things is not just normal, it actually makes us smarter.

In the new report, researchers Paul Frankland and Blake Richards of the University of Toronto propose that the goal of memory is not to transmit the most accurate information over time. Rather, they say, it's to optimize intelligent decision-making by holding onto what's important and letting go of what's not.

The researchers came to this conclusion after looking at years of data on memory, memory loss, and brain activity in both humans and animals. One of Frankland's own studies in mice, for example, found that as new brain cells are formed in the hippocampus -- a region of the brain associated with learning new things -- those new connections overwrite old memories and make them harder to access.

This constant swapping of old memories for new ones can have real evolutionary benefits, they say. For example, it can allow us to adapt to new situations by letting go of outdated and potentially misleading information. "If you're trying to navigate the world and your brain is constantly bringing up conflicting memories, that makes it harder for you to make an informed decision," says Richards.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
SOTT.NET
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts