Science of the SpiritS


Books

According to science, reading books should be your priority

Christina DesMarais
inc.com
Thu, 15 Mar 2018 13:17 UTC
reading
You're not doing yourself any favors if you're in the 26 percent of American adults who haven't read even part of a book within the past year.

More than a quarter - 26 percent - of American adults admit to not having read even part of a book within the past year. That's according to statistics coming out of the Pew Research Center. If you're part of this group, know that science supports the idea that reading is good for you on several levels.

Comment: More interesting information about how reading benefits your brain:

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Bullseye

Free-range children? Unstructured play is critical for kids & their brain development

Dr. Patricia Salber
Mother.ly
Sun, 01 Apr 2018 12:58 UTC
muddy kid
© Daily Mirror
Unstructured play is play without predetermined rules of the game. There are no organized teams, uniforms, coaches or trainers. It is spontaneous, often made-up on the spot, and changeable as the day goes on. It is the kind of play you see when puppies chase each other around a yard in endless circles or a group of kids play for hours in a fort they created out of old packing boxes.

Unstructured play is fun - no question about it-but research also tells us that it is critically important for the development of children's bodies and brains.

Comment: Read more about the benefits of unstructured play:

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Info

People who are depressed have difficulty appreciating or recalling positive experiences

Dr. Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 21:27 UTC
depressed guy
The study compared depressed and non-depressed people.

People who are depressed have difficulty appreciating or recalling positive experiences, research finds.

Compared with non-depressed people, those who feel depressed find it harder to remember positives.

For example, a depressed person starting an exercise programme might notice their new aches and pains, but not the weight they are losing.

Comment: Chalk it up to the inertia of depression - a body depressed tends to stay depressed.

See also:

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Question

Can DNA be reprogrammed with words?

Michael Forrester
Prevent Disease
Thu, 29 Mar 2018 15:14 UTC
human DNA
Our DNA can feed its proper data into a network of consciousness and can call up data from the network and also establish contact with other participants in the network. When words and phrases were spoken and modulated on specific frequencies -- the reprogramming effect on DNA was extraordinary.

In recent years, Russian scientists have embarked on groundbreaking DNA research, and have made a stunning scientific discovery. In an astonishing experiment, these scientists discovered that the human body's DNA can easily be reprogrammed by human speech.

According to them, our DNA is not only responsible for the construction of our body but also serves as data storage and in communication. The Russian linguists found that the genetic code, especially in the apparently useless junk DNA follows the same rules as all our human languages. To this end they compared the rules of syntax (the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences), semantics (the study of meaning in language forms) and the basic rules of grammar. They found that the alkalines of our DNA follow a regular grammar and do have set rules just like our languages. So human languages did not appear coincidentally but are a reflection of our inherent DNA.

Comment: See also: Negative thoughts can harm your health at the DNA level

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Nebula

Three visualization exercises that are more vivid than meditation

Alex Mathers
Medium
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 00:01 UTC
abstract meditation graphic
© Alex Mathers
Whether you think it's all mumbo woo-woo or not, many people, including myself, have seen their lives change by meditating.

Yoga International defines meditation as:
"Meditation is a precise technique for resting the mind and attaining a state of consciousness that is different from the normal waking state. It is the means for fathoming all the levels of ourselves and finally experiencing the center of consciousness within."

Comment: See also:

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Family

Why most psychology research is BS, and what you need to do to optimize your life

Jason Hreha
Medium
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 19:51 UTC
freud
© Wikimedia Commons
With close to 40 million views, the TED Talk on power posing is one of psychology's most-shared videos ever.

According to Amy Cuddy, the Harvard researcher behind the power-posing study, if you stand in a confident posture (think Superman or Superwoman) for a mere two minutes, your levels of the stress hormone cortisol will plummet and your testosterone will skyrocket.

Cuddy's famous paper on the subject claims that this two-minute exercise causes testosterone to increase by 20 percent and cortisol to drop by 25 percent.

Unfortunately, no one has been able to replicate her research.

This isn't the only troubled finding in the world of psychology. There's been a recent rash of behavioral science studies getting overturned-one replication of 100 psychology studies found only a 36.1 percent reproducibility rate.
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Arrow Up

People with high IQ are better at cooperating with others


PsyBlog
Mon, 02 Apr 2018 19:29 UTC
man high iq
Intelligent people are better at cooperating with others, new research finds.

While personality traits like being generous and conscientious have an effect on cooperation, higher IQ is the main factor that encourages people to work well together.

That is why people with high IQs are so essential: without them society would not work.

People with lower intelligence tend not to use a consistent strategy and fail to consider the consequences of their actions, the researchers also found.
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Sherlock

Seeing what's unseen about yourself and how to conquer self awareness blind spots

Gustavo Razzetti
Medium
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC
climbing out
© Simone Acquaroli
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." ― Leonardo da Vinci
What we see clouds our judgment; what we don't see bias our behaviors.

Six men in a village went to observe an elephant. It was their first time - all of them were blind.

"It's a pillar." said the man who touched the elephant's leg.

"No, it's like a rope." - said other after touching the tail.

The blind men began to argue; everyone believed he was right. After observing the elephant, the rest thought that it was either a snake, spear, hand fan or branch.

A wise man who was passing by calmly explained: "You are all right. Everyone noticed something different because each of you touched a different part; the elephant has all the features you all said."

Our reality is like the elephant in this Indian parable: everyone observes parts of it. That's why others can see aspects of yourself that you are missing.
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Brain

What's really going on when we die?

Wayne Delfino
Thrive Global
Tue, 03 Apr 2018 16:18 UTC
brain
There were times reading the University of Western Ontario's study, published this January in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, when I couldn't tell if it's all a big scary attempt to terrify us or if it's an earnest, scientific and intellectual inquiry into what happens to our memories when we die. The findings - which say our brains are working as much as 10 minutes after we pass - are mind blowing enough to argue that it's both.

As you know, the topic of what happens at the end has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Authors have written books about it. Hollywood has made movies. The 2014 film Heaven Is For Real, about a 4-year old boy who told his parents he visited heaven while having surgery, was a huge box office success.

But even before that, we've all heard stories of how people who have died and come back to life say they saw light at the end of a tunnel. Or that they floated above their bodies, watching doctors desperately work to bring them back to life. I know one such person.
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Binoculars

In search of utopia for lobsters

Oliver Waters
Quillette
Mon, 02 Apr 2018 10:42 UTC
lobsters

A review of 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos, by Jordan B Peterson, Random House Canada (January 23, 2018) 409 pages, and Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari, Bloomsbury USA (January 23, 2018) 336 pages.

Two recent and highly influential books have both addressed a puzzling question: despite unprecedented levels of material wealth, why are so many people in the modern world still so anxious and depressed?

For Canadian clinical psychologist / intellectual celebrity, Jordan B. Peterson, the issue lies primarily within individuals themselves. His book 12 Rules for Life argues that many people, especially young men, lack meaning, purpose and connection because they have not taken on enough personal responsibility for their own lives.
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