Science of the SpiritS


People

Transgender Bender: Surgery to Woman, Then Man Again

Susan Donaldson James
ABC
Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:18 UTC
David had all the things society equates with success -- a career as an IT consultant, two homes, cars paid for with cash , a wife and 12-year-old son he loved.



But he was hiding a secret.

"For all intents and purposes we were perfect, but many of us know from a young age that something is different, odd, we had been miscast in life," said Donna Rose, who used to be David.

"I wanted the life I had built, but I wanted me to be in it, rather than the person portrayed to the rest of the world," said Rose, now 51 and living as a transgender woman in Harrisburg, Pa.

But just before she was to have sex reassignment surgery in 1999, Rose panicked and returned to her life as a man.

For her, it was temporary, but others who are transgender find the challenge of switching genders too great. Often, they discover they have sacrificed careers and loved ones, and face a society that unfairly views them as freaks.

Just this week, British millionaire Charles Kane, who had lived as the glamorous interior designer Samantha Kane for 17 years, revealed he was marrying again as a man.

Born Sam Hashimi, he was a divorced father of two when he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his first sex change operation in 1987.

But he later said it was a "mistake," and five years ago he spent thousands more on three operations to restore his male genitals.
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People

Flashback The Biology Behind the Milk of Human Kindness


New York Times
Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:55 UTC
Image
© Serge Bloch

As the festival of mandatory gratitude looms into view, allow me to offer a few suggestions on what, exactly, you should be thankful for.

Be thankful that, on at least one occasion, your mother did not fend off your father with a pair of nunchucks, but instead allowed enough contact to facilitate your happy conception. Be thankful that when you go to buy a pale, poultrylike entity, the grocery clerk will accept your credit card in good faith and even return it with a heroic garble of your last name. Be grateful for the empathetic employee working the United Airlines ticket counter the day after Thanksgiving, who understands why you must leave town today, this very minute, lest someone pull out the family nunchucks.

Above all, be thankful for your brain's supply of oxytocin, the small, celebrated peptide hormone that, by the looks of it, helps lubricate our every prosocial exchange, the thousands of acts of kindness, kind-of kindness and not-as-nakedly-venal-as-I-could-have-been kindness that make human society possible. Scientists have long known that the hormone plays essential physiological roles during birth and lactation, and animal studies have shown that oxytocin can influence behavior too, prompting voles to cuddle up with their mates, for example, or to clean and comfort their pups. Now a raft of new research in humans suggests that oxytocin underlies the twin emotional pillars of civilized life, our capacity to feel empathy and trust.
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Butterfly

Flashback The Compassionate Instinct


Greater Good
Sun, 04 Apr 2010 10:27 UTC
holding hands
© NA
Humans are selfish. It's so easy to say. The same goes for so many assertions that follow. Greed is good. Altruism is an illusion. Cooperation is for suckers. Competition is natural, war inevitable. The bad in human nature is stronger than the good.

These kinds of claims reflect age-old assumptions about emotion. For millennia, we have regarded the emotions as the fount of irrationality, baseness, and sin. The idea of the seven deadly sins takes our destructive passions for granted. Plato compared the human soul to a chariot: the intellect is the driver and the emotions are the horses. Life is a continual struggle to keep the emotions under control.

Even compassion, the concern we feel for another being's welfare, has been treated with downright derision. Kant saw it as a weak and misguided sentiment: "Such benevolence is called soft-heartedness and should not occur at all among human beings," he said of compassion. Many question whether true compassion exists at all - or whether it is inherently motivated by self-interest.
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Eye 1

Fearless children may lack empathy


UPI
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 09:36 UTC
Image
© NA

Preschool-aged children who demonstrate fearless behavior also reveal less empathy and more aggression towards their peers. This has been shown in a new study that was carried out at the University of Haifa's Faculty of Education. "The results of this study show that fearless behavior in children can be identified and is related to neurological and genetic predisposition. This type of behavior has less correlation - at least in infancy - with standards of educational processes or parenting practice," says Dr. Inbal Kivenson-Baron, who carried out the study.

Under the supervision of Prof. Ofra Mayseless, the study set out to examine whether fearless behavior in children aged 3-4 is related to specific physiological and social-emotional characteristics and whether there is a relation to aspects of parenting, such as socioeconomic status, order of birth, parental well-being, child-rearing practices, and the like.

The study observed 80 children aged 3-4, along with their parents and preschool teachers. It reviewed reports given by parents and teachers, and made observations of the children at their preschool locations, at home and in the lab. The study monitored children's tendency to fearlessness and their social-emotional characteristics at the beginning and end of one year, so as to determine the stability of this tendency.
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Eye 2

Researchers find psychopaths know right from wrong but do not act on that knowledge

James Monteleone
CorrectionsOne.com
Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:40 UTC
Image
© Sott.net
A study by University of New Mexico psychologists has found that psychopaths can differentiate between right and wrong, but they fail to weigh the difference when making decisions. The findings were recently published in Psychological Science, a highly regarded national research journal in psychology.

To reach the conclusion, UNM researchers Elsa Ermer and Kent Kiehl surveyed 67 prison inmates. Although 1 percent of the population is classified as psychopathic, 20 percent of prison inmates fit the characterization.

Ermer and Kiehl tested logical reasoning to find that psychopaths struggle to understand the social contracts and personal risks that influence decisions on how to behave.

Average people who were tested understood the expected behavior when someone said, "If you borrow my car, then you have to refuel it." Psychopathic subjects, however, failed to connect that borrowing the car required action or compensation in response.

Psychopaths also demonstrated an inability to connect potential negative outcomes with risky situations, such as "If you work with tuberculosis patients, then you must wear a surgical mask."
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People

Two Active Ministers Say They No Longer Believe in God

Dan Harris
ABC News
Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:17 UTC
Image
"I am an atheist," says "Jack," a Southern Baptist with more than 20 years in ministry.

"I live out my life as if there is no God," says "Adam," who is part of the pastoral staff of a small evangelical church in the Bible Belt.

The two, who asked that their real identities be protected, are pastors who have lost their faith. And these two men, who have built their careers and lives around faith, say they now feel trapped, living a lie.

"I spent the majority of my life believing and pursuing this religious faith, Christianity," Jack said. "And to get to this point in my life, I just don't feel like I believe anymore."

The more I read the Bible, the more questions I had," Jack said. "The more things didn't make sense to me -- what it said -- and the more things didn't add up.
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Bizarro Earth

Many Americans Caught In Cycle Of Stress And Unhealthy Ways To Manage It

Christian Nordqvist
Medical News Today
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:51 UTC
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A considerable number of Americans are trapped in a vicious cycle of unhealthy attempts to manage their high levels of stress, which limits their ability to make beneficial behavioral or lifestyle changes. 2010 Stress in America, a new study released by the American Psychological Association cautions that the impact of long-term (chronic) stress can leave serious physical and emotional consequences for individuals and their families.

A 2010 Harris Interactive survey reveals that many people, especially those who believe they are in fair or poor health, claim to lack the willpower and opportunity to make useful changes that would improve their lives.

Parents also appear to be unaware of the effect the stress they have to bear is having on their children. A growing number of young children are describing emotional and health consequences typically linked to stress.

Comment: Stressed? Check out Éiriú Eolas: An Amazing Stress Control, Healing & Rejuvenation Program.

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Black Cat

Wanna Lose Your Soul?

J. Speer-Williams
Activist Post
Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:26 UTC
eye
© Time Grabber

"When we talk about compassion we talk in terms of being kind. But compassion is not so much being kind; it is being creative [enough] to wake a person up" --
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoch, 1939-1987

When we don't exercise our bodies, our muscles become weak. When we do not exercise our minds, what has the potential to be a steel trap begins to rust and it's springs lose snap.

Our conscience, that regulates our morality, also becomes rusty and weakens if not used. Ignore your conscience long enough and you might lose your soul.

A soul-less being has no empathy for others. Lose your empathy, and you'll know you've lost your conscience, on the way to losing your soul.

Comment:
"If there is a future, you are going to be judged by your grandchildren. They will ask you what you did. They will ask you how it was that Bush and his pathological buddies were able to subvert the US constitution. They will ask you why you did nothing while innocents were tortured and brutalized in detention camps that span the globe. They will ask you how it was that you couldn't see the, oh, so obvious lies that were told to justify this violence and aggression, not the first time after 9/11, not the second time for Iraq, and not the third time for Iran.

What will you have to say for yourself?"
What does it mean to be "ponerized?

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Question

Are US Soldiers Being Prescribed Drugs That May Make Them Kill Themselves?

Martha Rosenberg
Alternet
Sun, 10 Oct 2010 23:26 UTC
Image
© Alternet
More soldiers than ever are on drugs that have been linked to suicide and violent behavior.

In 2009 there were 160 active duty suicides, 239 suicides within the total Army including the Reserves, 146 active duty deaths from drug overdoses and high risk behavior and 1,713 suicide attempts. In addition to suicide, other out-of-character behavior like domestic violence is known to erupt from the drugs.

More troops are dying by their own hand than in combat, according to an Army report titled "Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, Suicide Prevention." Not only that, but 36 percent of the suicides were troops who were never deployed.
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Arrow Up

Yoga Decreases Stress in Childhood Cancer Patients and Parents


myhealthnewsdaily.com
Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:47 UTC
Image
© unknown
Yoga may help childhood cancer patients and their parents cope with the stress of a cancer diagnosis and treatment, according to a new study.

Yoga was beneficial for older children, ages 13 to 18, but not younger ones, ages 7 to 12.

Adolescents and their parents experienced a decrease in anxiety and increase in sense of well-being following the yoga sessions, the researchers say.

"Yoga is emerging as an effective complementary therapy in adult oncology," the researchers wrote in the September/October issue of the Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, "promising benefits for decreasing symptom distress including fatigue, insomnia, mood, and stress resulting in improved quality of life."
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