Science of the SpiritS


Sherlock

Science discovers 'magic trick' that causes partisan voters to switch parties

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:16 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
Researchers in Sweden have discovered a clever way to trick partisan voters into switching parties, through the application of a simple survey and some slight of hand.

Exploiting a known defect in human psychology called "choice blindness," researchers writing for the journal PLoS One got 162 voters to fill out surveys pinpointing their views on key issues like taxes and energy, then covertly switched the survey with one created to show the exact opposite answers. Participants were then confronted on why they gave the faux responses.

What the researchers found is astonishing: A whopping 92 percent of respondents did not catch that their answers were manipulated, and only 22 percent of the switched answers were noticed by participants. During questioning after the survey, 10 percent of the subjects actually switched their preference in political party, while another 19 percent of previously partisan voters said they'd become undecided.

Since 18 percent of the participants went into the study saying they were undecided to begin with, researchers noted that their findings suggest a full 47 percent were open to changing their vote. They also noted their findings seem to run contrary to the political wisdom of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who suggested months before election day that 47 percent of the country had already ruled him out.
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Music

In brain scans, music is a universal language

Tia Ghose
LiveScience
Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:30 UTC
Music
© Pressmaster | ShutterstockPeople listening to music show very similar brain activation patterns, in brain regions responsible for motor planning, which may help explain why people tend to dance in groups
Music may truly be a universal language. When listening to the same piece, different listeners will show very similar patterns of brain activity, a new study of brain scans suggests.

Untrained listeners in the study responded very similarly to a 10-minute symphony, and the similarities cropped up not only in brain areas linked with sound processing, but also in regions responsible for attention, memory and movement planning.

The findings may help explain why music is such a powerful group experience, said study researcher Daniel Abrams, a neuroscientist at Stanford University.

"Evolutionarily, music is something people came together to do. People chanted when they worked together. It was to bring us together for rituals, and to some degree, that still happens when we go to concerts or a club," Abrams said.

Having the same brain response to music may facilitate collective activities.
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Rainbow

A Conversation with a 9/11 Angell

James and Sandy Duncan
Veterans Today
Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:38 UTC
Angell 911
“Victim” Identifies This as Real 9/11 Terrorist
I've been an enthusiastic student of 9/11 Truth for several years now. The evidence that no Boeing airliners crashed at any of the four sites is very compelling. One of the big questions that arises when you suggest this idea to someone is "What happened to the passengers?"

The facts suggest that there were far fewer passengers than even the surprisingly short and unrealistic passenger manifests presented. Flights are not usually carried out with such low load factors.

Many of the names don't seem to correspond to positively identifiable people. Additionally, at least seven of the alleged hijackers were seen alive after 9/11. Sadly, we may not ever know exactly who was on the planes.

Two "passengers" that we know for sure were real people and did die on 9/11 were David Angell along with his wife Lynn. David Angell was a writer for the sitcom Cheers and the co-creator of the hit shows Frasier and Wings. All three happen to be favorites of mine, especially Wings (coincidentally named, tragically).I watch Wings nightly on Netflix and as I viewed David Angell's name on the credits, an idea came to me.
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Evil Rays

Best of the Web: Dr. Colin Ross interview: What is mind control?


YouTube
Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:39 UTC

Dr. Ross is an internationally renowned clinician, researcher, author and lecturer in the field of trauma-related disorders. He is the founder and President of the Colin A. Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma.

Dr. Ross is the Executive Medical Director of three trauma programs located at Timberlawn Mental Health System in Dallas, Texas, Forest View Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Del Amo Hospital in Torrance, California. Dr. Ross provides treatment for patients with trauma related disorders and symptoms. This would include treatment for: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Dissociative Disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder, Addictive Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The symptoms treated and the admission criteria are: suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, self-destructive and addictive behaviors, and inability to function.
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Info

'Afterlife' feels 'even more real than real,' researcher says

Ben Brumfield
CNN
Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:21 UTC
Brain Scans
© Dr. Steven LaureysScans compare neurological activity in a brain that is healthy, one that is comatose and another that is dead.
You're about to go to "heaven" and live to tell about it. And your story will become the subject of scientific research.

It's the perfect day. You're strolling down a sidewalk, listening to an ensemble of bird songs, soaking up a balmy breeze fragranced with fresh spring flowers, and gazing up at a cloudless sky of pure azure.

Pleasantly distracted, you step off the sidewalk into the street. Brakes screech; horns blare; people shriek in horror. You snap back to reality ... just as the truck hits you.

You fly for yards like a rag doll; you land hard. You're numb all over and fading fast. It's all over; you know it. Your life flashes before you like an epic movie. The End.

You leave your body and look down at it. People are bending over it. Someone is sobbing uncontrollably. As the ambulance rushes up, a blinding light surges above you. It beckons you softly.

You follow it through a tunnel to a place much more vividly real and spectacular than the banner Sunday afternoon you just left behind. You are sure you have arrived in the hereafter.

Weeks later, you wake up to the steady beeps of an EKG monitor next to your hospital bed.
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Question

Miracle Girl: Nandana has access to mother's memory

Sajila Saseendran
Khaleej Times
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:44 UTC
Nandana
© Khaleej Times
9-year-old autistic child can feel her mother's emotions and read her thoughts.

It could be a miracle that went unnoticed for a couple of years, say the parents of a nine-year-old autistic child who is showing an extraordinary ability to read her mother's mind.

Indian girl Nandana's parents said they noticed the "unusual coincidence" of her reactions to her mother's thoughts a few months ago. However, when they realised that it was more than a mere coincidence, they could recollect that the child had begun exhibiting the behaviour a couple of years back.

"We don't know how this is happening. But, she can feel my emotions and read my thoughts," said Nandana's mother, Sandhya.

"I used to feel strange when she would come to me and say the name of the food I was thinking of preparing for her. The same way, if my husband and I had decided to take her somewhere, she would know about it without being told about it and would start reacting to it."

Sandhya said the understanding power of the child, who was found to be autistic when she was one and a half years old, saw drastic changes in the last couple of years.

"Initially, it was very difficult for me to teach her even the concept of some objects. I had to really struggle to make her understand a cup is a cup. It took about a month for her to grasp it. But, these days it is very easy to make her learn something. She is good at Maths. But sometimes I feel when she does her class work it is because I am thinking about it that she is able to do it so fast."
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Magic Wand

New study shows meditating before lecture leads to better grades


George Mason University
Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:38 UTC
Image
© Creative Services Meditation may work especially well for freshmen.
Practicing a little Zen before class can lead to better grades, according to a new experimental study by George Mason University professor Robert Youmans and University of Illinois doctoral student Jared Ramsburg.

The pair of researchers conducted three classroom experiments at a California university to see if meditation might help students focus better and retain information. A random selection of students followed basic meditation instructions before a lecture, and the students who meditated before the lecture scored better on a quiz that followed than students who did not meditate. In one experiment, the meditation even predicted which students passed and which students failed the quiz.

The study was published last month in the journal Mindfulness.

Interestingly, the researchers also showed that the effect of the meditation was stronger in classes where more freshmen students were enrolled, showing that meditation might have a bigger effect on freshmen students. The researchers speculate that freshmen courses likely contain the types of students who stand to benefit the most from meditation training.

"One difficulty for researchers who study meditation is that the supposed benefits of meditation do not always replicate across different studies or populations, and so we have been trying to figure out why. This data from this study suggest that meditation may help students who might have trouble paying attention or focusing. Sadly, freshmen classes probably contain more of these types of students than senior courses because student populations who have difficulty self-regulating are also more likely to leave the university," says Youmans, an assistant professor of psychology.

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People

Low on self-control? Surrounding yourself with strong-willed friends may help

Anna Mikulak
Association for Psychological Science
Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:21 UTC
We all desire self-control - the resolve to skip happy hour and go to the gym instead, to finish a report before checking Facebook, to say no to the last piece of chocolate cake. Though many struggle to resist those temptations, new research suggests that people with low self-control prefer and depend on people with high self-control, possibly as a way to make up for the skills they themselves lack.

This research, conducted by psychological scientists Catherine Shea, Gráinne Fitzsimons, and Erin Davisson of Duke University, is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"We all know how much effort it takes to overcome temptation," says Shea, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in Fitzsimons's lab. "People with low self-control could relieve a lot of their self-control struggles by being with an individual who helps them."

To test this prediction, Shea and her colleagues conducted two lab-based studies and one study with real-life romantic partners.
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Magic Wand

The fascinating ways meditation transforms your brain - and why it makes you feel better

George Dvorsky
Alternet
Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:49 UTC
Image
Scientists have peered in the brains of people who meditate, and have found some happy surprises.

Meditation yields a surprising number of health benefits, including stress reduction, improved attention, better memory, and even increased creativity and feelings of compassion. But how can something as simple as focusing on a single object produce such dramatic results? Here's what the growing body of scientific evidence is telling us about meditation and how it can change the way our brains function.

Before we get started it's worth doing a quick review of what is actually meant by meditation. The practice can take on many different forms, but the one technique that appears most beneficial, and which also happens to be among the most traditional, is called mindfulness meditation, or focused attention.

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  • Release repressed emotions and mental blockages
  • Rejuvenate and Detoxify your body and mind
Éiriú Eolas removes the barriers that stand between you and True Peace, Happiness, and ultimately a successful, fulfilling life.


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People

Stating the obvious: Negative emotions in response to daily stress take a toll on long-term mental health

Anna Mikulak
Association for Psychological Science
Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:54 UTC
Our emotional responses to the stresses of daily life may predict our long-term mental health, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Psychological scientist Susan Charles of the University of California, Irvine and colleagues conducted the study in order to answer a long-standing question: Do daily emotional experiences add up to make the straw that breaks the camel's back, or do these experiences make us stronger and provide an inoculation against later distress?

Using data from two national surveys, the researchers examined the relationship between daily negative emotions and mental health outcomes ten years later.

Participants' overall levels of negative emotions predicted psychological distress (e.g., feeling worthless, hopeless, nervous, and/or restless) and diagnosis of an emotional disorder like anxiety or depression a full decade after the emotions were initially measured.

Comment: In the world full of daily stressors, Éiriú Eolas is a proven technique that can assist you with reducing your stress, calming and focusing your mind, creating better links between body and mind and thus improving quality of life, increasing sense of connection with others in your community.

It will help you to have improved overall health, a stronger immune system, better impulse control and reduced inflammation. It will also help you to heal emotional wounds; anything that may hinder or prevent you from leading a healthy and fulfilling life.

Visit the Éiriú Eolas site or participate on the forum to learn more about the scientific background of this program and then try it out for yourselves, free of charge.



Read More...