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Mind
Power News
Issue
No. 144 / Friday,
October 13, 2006
Edited by Andreas Ohrt /
www.MindPowerNews.com
In
this issue:
TOP 10 MYSTERIES OF THE MIND: The brain is a befuddling
organ, as are the very questions of life and death, consciousness,
sleep, and much more. Here's a heads-up on what's known and
what's not understood about your noggin.
ELECTRIC
SHOCKS TO THE BRAIN CAN CAUSE OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES: "The
research shows that the self can be detached from the body and
can live a phantom existence on its own, as in an out-of-body
experience, or it can be felt outside of personal space, as
in a sense of a presence."
HEARING
VOICES IN YOUR HEAD IS NORMAL: Contrary to traditional
belief, hearing voices is not necessarily a symptom of mental
illness... many who hear voices do not seek help and say the
voices have a positive impact on their lives, comforting or
inspiring them.
HOW
TO USE MAGIC: Magic
is in reality a sacred science, the word “Magic” originating
from the “Magi” who fully understood and applied natural
Universal laws in order to bring about effect that many might
consider to be miraculous.
EXTREME
LUCID DREAMING: I stumbled upon this sure-fire method of
triggering lucid dreams — and out-of-body experiences —
by accident. The technique involves dream deprivation by suppression
of dreams with drugs.
HOW
TO PREDICT PSYCHIC SCAMS: "Only
one-tenth of 1 percent of all those who claim to be psychic
are," she said, basing her conclusion on 15 years of research.
Top
10 Mysteries of the Mind
By
Jeanna Bryner
Source: Live
Science
Much
of what we don't understand about being human is simply in
our heads. The brain is a befuddling organ, as are the very
questions of life and death, consciousness, sleep, and much
more. Here's a heads-up on what's known and what's not understood
about your noggin.
Dreams
If
you were to ask 10 people what dreams are made of, you’d
probably get 10 different answers. That’s because scientists
are still unraveling this mystery. One possibility: Dreaming
exercises brain by stimulating the trafficking of synapses
between brain cells. Another theory is that people dream about
tasks and emotions that they didn’t take care of during
the day, and that the process can help solidify thoughts and
memories. In general, scientists agree that dreaming happens
during your deepest sleep, called Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
Slumber
Sleuth
Fruit flies do it. Tigers do it. And humans can't seem to
get enough of it. No, not that. We're talking about shut-eye,
so crucial we spend more than a quarter of our lives at it.
Yet the underlying reasons for sleep remain as puzzling as
a rambling dream. One thing scientists do know: Sleep is crucial
for survival in mammals. Extended sleeplessness can lead to
mood swings, hallucination, and in extreme cases, death. There
are two states of sleep—non-rapid eye movement (NREM),
during which the brain exhibits low metabolic activity, and
rapid eye movement (REM), during which the brain is very active.
Some scientists think NREM sleep gives your body a break,
and in turn conserves energy, similar to hibernation. REM
sleep could help to organize memories. However, this idea
isn’t proven, and dreams during REM sleep don’t
always correlate with memories.
Phantom
Feelings
It’s estimated that about 80 percent of amputees experience
sensations, including warmth, itching, pressure and pain,
coming from the missing limb. People who experience this phenomenon,
known as "phantom limb," feel sensations as if the
missing limb were part of their bodies. One explanation says
that the nerves area where the limb severed create new connections
to the spinal cord and continue to send signals to the brain
as if the missing limb was still there. Another possibility
is that the brain is "hard-wired" to operate as
if the body were fully intact—meaning the brain holds
a blueprint of the body with all parts attached.
Mission
Control
Residing in the hypothalamus of the brain, the suprachiasmatic
nucleus, or biological clock, programs the body to follow
a 24-hour rhythm. The most evident effect of circadian rhythm
is the sleep-wake cycle, but the biological clock also impacts
digestion, body temperature, blood pressure, and hormone production.
Researchers have found that light intensity can adjust the
clock forward or backward by regulating the hormone melatonin.
The latest debate is whether or not melatonin supplements
could help prevent jet lag—the drowsy, achy feeling you
get when "jetting" across time zones.
Memory
Lane
Some experiences are hard to forget, like perhaps your first
kiss. But how does a person hold onto these personal movies?
Using brain-imaging techniques, scientists are unraveling
the mechanism responsible for creating and storing memories.
They are finding that the hippocampus, within the brain’s
gray matter, could act as a memory box. But this storage area
isn’t so discriminatory. It turns out that both true
and false memories activate similar brain regions. To pull
out the real memory, some researchers ask a subject to recall
the memory in context, something that’s much more difficult
when the event didn’t actually occur.
Brain
Teaser
Laughter is one of the least understood of human behaviors.
Scientists have found that during a good laugh three parts
of the brain light up: a thinking part that helps you get
the joke, a movement area that tells your muscles to move,
and an emotional region that elicits the "giddy"
feeling. But it remains unknown why one person laughs at your
brother’s foolish jokes while another chuckles while
watching a horror movie. John Morreall, who is a pioneer of
humor research at the College of William and Mary, has found
that laughter is a playful response to incongruities—stories
that disobey conventional expectations. Others in the humor
field point to laughter as a way of signaling to another person
that this action is meant "in fun." One thing is
clear: Laughter makes us feel better.
Nature
vs. Nurture
In the long-running battle of whether our thoughts and personalities
are controlled by genes or environment, scientists are building
a convincing body of evidence that it could be either or both!
The ability to study individual genes points to many human
traits that we have little control over, yet in many realms,
peer pressure or upbringing has been shown heavily influence
who we are and what we do.
Mortal
Mystery
Living forever is just for Hollywood. But why do humans age?
You are born with a robust toolbox full of mechanisms to fight
disease and injury, which you might think should arm you against
stiff joints and other ailments. But as we age, the body’s
repair mechanisms get out of shape. In effect, your resilience
to physical injury and stress declines. Theories for why people
age can be divided into two categories: 1) Like other human
characteristics, aging could just be a part of human genetics
and is somehow beneficial. 2) In the less optimistic view,
aging has no purpose and results from cellular damage that
occurs over a person's lifetime. A handful of researchers,
however, think science will ultimately delay aging at least
long enough to double life spans.
Deep
Freeze
Living forever may not be a reality. But a pioneering field
called cryonics could give some people two lives. Cryonics
centers like Alcor Life Extension Foundation, in Arizona,
store posthumous bodies in vats filled with liquid nitrogen
at bone-chilling temperatures of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit
(78 Kelvin). The idea is that a person who dies from a presently
incurable disease could be thawed and revived in the future
when a cure has been found. The body of the late baseball
legend Ted Williams is stored in one of Alcor’s freezers.
Like the other human popsicles, Williams is positioned head
down. That way, if there were ever a leak in the tank, the
brain would stay submerged in the cold liquid. Not one of
the cryopreserved bodies has been revived, because that technology
doesn’t exist. For one, if the body isn’t thawed
at exactly the right temperature, the person’s cells
could turn to ice and blast into pieces.
Consciousness
When you wake up in the morning, you might perceive that the
Sun is just rising, hear a few birds chirping, and maybe even
feel a flash of happiness as the fresh morning air hits your
face. In other words, you are conscious. This complex topic
has plagued the scientific community since antiquity. Only
recently have neuroscientists considered consciousness a realistic
research topic. The greatest brainteaser in this field has
been to explain how processes in the brain give rise to subjective
experiences. So far, scientists have managed to develop a
great list of questions.
Electric
Shocks to the Brain Can Cause Out-of-Body Experiences
By
Sandra Blakeslee
New
York Times
They
are eerie sensations, more common than one might think:
A man describes feeling a shadowy figure standing behind
him, then turning around to find no one there. A woman feels
herself leaving her body and floating in space, looking
down on her corporeal self.
Such
experiences are often attributed by those who have them
to paranormal forces.
But,
according to recent work by neuroscientists, delivering
mild electric current to specific spots in the brain can
induce them. In one woman, for example, a zap to a brain
region called the angular gyrus resulted in a sensation
that she was hanging from the ceiling, looking down at her
body. In another woman, electrical current delivered to
the angular gyrus produced an uncanny feeling that someone
was behind her, intent on interfering with her actions.
The
two women were being evaluated for epilepsy surgery at University
Hospital in Geneva, where doctors implanted dozens of electrodes
into their brains to pinpoint the abnormal tissue causing
the seizures and to identify adjacent areas involved in
language, hearing or other essential functions that should
be avoided in the surgery. As each electrode was activated,
stimulating a different patch of brain tissue, the patient
was asked to say what she was experiencing.
Dr.
Olaf Blanke, a neurologist at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale
de Lausanne in Switzerland who carried out the procedures,
said that the women had normal psychiatric histories and
that they were stunned by the bizarre nature of their experiences.
The
Sept. 21 issue of Nature magazine includes an account by
Blanke and his colleagues of the woman who sensed a shadow
person behind her. They described the out-of-body experiences
in the February 2004 issue of the journal Brain.
There
is nothing mystical about these ghostly experiences, said
Peter Brugger, a neuroscientist at University Hospital in
Zurich, who was not involved in the experiments but is an
expert on phantom limbs, the sensation of still feeling
a limb that has been amputated, and other mind-bending phenomena.
"The
research shows that the self can be detached from the body
and can live a phantom existence on its own, as in an out-of-body
experience, or it can be felt outside of personal space,
as in a sense of a presence," Brugger said.
READ
THE FULL STORY HERE...
http://www.mindpowernews.com/ZappingOBEs.htm
Hearing
Voices in your Head is Normal
Source: BBC
Contrary
to traditional belief, hearing voices is not necessarily
a symptom of mental illness, UK researchers at Manchester
University say.
Indeed,
many who hear voices do not seek help and say the voices
have a positive impact on their lives, comforting or inspiring
them.
Researcher
Aylish Campbell said: "We know that many members
of the general population hear voices but have never felt
the need to access mental health services.
"Some
experts even claim that more people hear voices and don't
seek psychiatric help than those who do."
Some
who hear voices describe it as being like the experience
of hearing someone call your name only to find that there
is no one there.
People
also hear voices as if they are thoughts entering the
mind from somewhere outside themselves. They will have
no idea what the voice might say. It may even engage in
conversation.
The
Manchester team want to investigate why some people view
their voices positively while others become distressed
and seek medical help.
READ
THE FULL STORY HERE...
http://www.mindpowernews.com/HearingVoices.htm
How
to Use "Magic"
By
Adrian Cooper
Excerpt from: “Our
Ultimate Reality” Many
people will have heard of “Magic”. We should note
straightaway however that by true Magic as practiced from
time immemorial we do not mean the stage illusionists, prestidigitators,
conjurors and other such people from the areas of stage
entertainment, but rather Magic in its very truest, very
highest and most sacred form.
Magic
is in reality a sacred science, the word “Magic”
originating from the “Magi” who fully understood
and applied natural Universal laws in order to bring about
effect that many might consider to be miraculous.
The
practitioner of true Magic understands, aligns him or herself
with, and makes full and proper use of Universal laws in
order to manifest the desired results in whichever plane
of existence the desired result is to be experienced. People
often erroneously associate Magic with occult practices,
sorcery and witchcraft for example, but even this is not
Magic in its truest and highest form. This is not to say
of course that sorcery, witchcraft and similar types of
“magic” are not effective, because they most certainly
can be and often are, depending on the powers of the practitioner.
The Universe does not recognise human labels, but only Cause
and Effect by virtue of Universal laws and the influence
of the Energy from which everything has been created and
has its being.
Sorcery and witchcraft are often performed by utilising
some Universal laws that result in the influence of Energy
in the desired direction, by means for example of spells,
rituals and other series of actions, but often without the
practitioner ever being fully aware of what Universal forces
are involved or how they are being applied. The most powerful
true Magic is when the practitioner fully and consciously
aligns him or herself with, and makes the fullest possible
use of Universal laws, powers of the Magi.
What
most people consider to be “Magic”, and again
we are not referring to stage Magic, could more properly
be referred to as “manifestation”. Manifestation
is in the broadest terms the use of the imagination in order
to manifest the object of the imagination into physical
reality in accordance with Universal Laws and is the fundamental
basis for all creation.
In
the case of witchcraft, sorcery and similar practices practitioners
often make use of spells, rituals and other regalia such
as candles, swords, athame’s and much more, in order
to provide the focus, intent and Energy required for the
object of the imagination, usually by creative visualisation,
to manifest into the material world. As we will see later,
it is most certainly not at all necessary to practice witchcraft
or sorcery in order to manifest into the physical world,
these are quite simply age-old traditions that are still
carried on today.
One
of the most important aspects of successful manifestation
is highly focussed and concentrated Energy in the form of
thought or imagination. Indeed, the more Energy behind a
manifestation the sooner it can materialise into the physical
world as an observable reality. Very often, spells and rituals
are only carried out once, meaning the chances of success
are more variable and in accordance with the expertise of
the focus, concentration and expertise of the practitioner.
Magic, or more specifically manifestation can therefore
be accomplished by anyone without requiring any form of
occult, esoteric or mystical practices to be performed in
order to be successful. Indeed, such practices can sometimes
lead to frustration with the accompanying lack of observable
results. Anyone at all can manifest and create any reality
for themselves by fully understanding and applying natural
Universal Laws utilising the simple, enjoyable and effective
exercises that will be detailed later in this book.
Finally a word of caution; all your thoughts, imaginations
and creative visualisations must only be for the purposes
of good, either for yourself or for other people. Never,
ever be tempted to use these powers to harm another person.
If you do, the Universal law of Cause and Effect, of which
karma is an integral aspect will most surely operate against
you, and either in this or a future life you will have to
pay the price. This is not intended to be a system of punishment
as such as with a court of law. The simple fact of the matter
is that every cause has its corresponding effect, positive,
negative or neutral, and karma is no more than the causation
of the Law of Attraction that ensure that no being can be
the cause of anything negative without experiencing the
corresponding effect. Note that we use the word “experiencing”
rather than “suffering”. Everyone is here to experience
and to evolve and not to suffer which is a human construct
based on a perception relative to self and the ego. The
Universe operates under the influence of the most powerful
force in the Universe, Unconditional Love, and that applies
to every aspect of human evolution, and indeed the evolution
of the entire Universe and all Beings, all expressions of
God.
Providing
always that your thoughts, intentions, Energy, imaginations
and creative visualisations are always only for the purposes
of good and for genuine needs, and not based in greed, in
other words will not bring harm to others in the process,
only good will surely result, and your needs and desires
will be fulfilled without karmic consequences.
Adrian
Cooper is the author of “Our
Ultimate Reality, Life, the Universe and the Destiny of
Mankind” and creator of the new online course
"Developing
Psychic Powers"
Extreme
Lucid Dreaming
By
Ken Korczak
Source:
Ironghost.wordpress.com
Now
let’s discuss something extremely dangerous. I relate
this information, only on the grounds that you fully understand
that what I’m talking about is highly dangerous,
and no one should try it. My subject is dreaming —
lucid dreaming to be specific.
You
may never have thought experimenting with dreams as being
dangerous, but this particular method of triggering lucid
dreams in just that — dangerous! Don’t try it!
I
stumbled upon this sure-fire method of triggering lucid
dreams — and out-of-body experiences — by accident.
The technique involves dream deprivation by suppression
of dreams with drugs. Here’s how I happened to encounter
this dream induction process:
I
have long suffered from migraine headaches, and recently,
I began suffering a blasting migraine that was painful
beyond imagining. Those of you who have suffered true
migraines know what I’m talking about. Few things
in life are worse than a pounding, nauseating, skull-splitting
headache so bad you actually wish for death. Well, to
deal with one such headache, which had been tormenting
my head for nearly three days, I finally obtained some
prescription narcotics — oxycodone — from my
doctor and took to my bed. Because my headache was so
extreme, even this powerful opiate was able to provide
only moderate relief, but it was better than nothing.
My
headache persisted for almost a week, and for about five
days in a row, I was bombed on oxycodone. Among other
effects, prescription narcotics really mess up your sleep
patterns. In my case — and partly because of headache
pain — I never slept deeply enough during that five-day
period to enter REM state, the dream state. When my headache
finally lifted, I was finally able to put away the energy-robbing,
mind-numbing bottle of pain killers.
During
that first night of normal drug-free, pain-free sleep
— FIREWORKS! My poor dream-deprived brain had lost
five nights of dreaming, and now it was determined to
catch up, and really make up for lost time!
Now
— I have long been a practitioner of lucid dreaming,
and I have learned many good methods over the years if
inducing
lucid dreams, but rarely have I had as easier
time — and more conscious control of my dreams than
I did that night after having been dream deprived for
several days. I was also easily — remarkably easily
— able to capture the hypnagogic state — and
practice that wonderful experience of lifting in and out
of my body with my dream body, or astral body, or whatever
you want to call it.
To
make a long story short:
Dream
deprivation is obviously a way to powerfully magnify your
ability to dream, and to help you enjoy improved control
over your dreams so that you can practice your favorite
lucid dreaming techniques. There are other, safer
ways to deprive yourself of the dream state, but even
that can be dangerous for some people — so don’t
try it. I, however, have continued to experiment with
non-drug, temporary dream deprivation techniques as a
way to enhance my ability to explore the world of lucid
dreaming.
I
expect to write more about this in the near future, so
stay tuned!
Ken
Korczak's Blog is at Ironghost.wordpress.com
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How
to Predict Psychic Scams
By
Tania Padgett
Source: Newsday
Psychics
and mediums may be in hot demand, but a shrill chorus
of naysayers warns that many of them are out to snow you.
It
was only four years ago that Miss Cleo, the infamous television
infomercial psychic who promoted psychic hotlines for
two Florida corporations, was exposed as a fraud in a
series of lawsuits and blaring headlines.
Although
she was put out of business, more scam artists have stepped
into her wake, investigators say.
Most
so-called psychics-mediums are "ruthless charlatans
or self-deluded incompetents," said Wendy, author
of "The Naked Quack," a book she self-published
in 2000.
"Only
one-tenth of 1 percent of all those who claim to be psychic
are," she said, basing her conclusion on 15 years
of research.
Frauds
use many techniques to make people think they are getting
information from "the other side" when they
are actually getting it from the clients, said Wendy,
an artist and self-proclaimed "master" psychic
who lives upstate. Wendy requested that only her first
name be printed because of threats she said she has received
from scamming psychics-mediums angry about her book.
She
described one popular technique used by scam artists called
the "spritz," in which the psychic fires off
a barrage of questions hoping that one or several will
resonate with the client. The client often answers the
questions and the psychic then feeds the information back
to the client, Wendy said.
Another
trick? Frauds often call out letters, claiming that they
can only hear the first initials of the names of people
who have departed. The client, once again, fills in the
blanks and the fraud takes credit for "accurately"
providing the dead person's name.
"Most
of the time people wind up giving their own reading,"
said Wendy.
Frauds
also get information on their clients by researching them
on the Internet or hiring a private detective to dig up
information on them, she said.
James
Randi, a former magician who has spent decades debunking
claims of the paranormal, doesn't believe that any psychics
are real.
"I
haven't met an authentic psychic or medium yet,"
he scoffed.
Randi
rose to fame in the 1970s challenging the spoon-bending
feats of Uri Geller, but has since turned his blistering
skepticism on celebrity psychics-mediums Sylvia Browne,
John Edward and others.
"Browne
can write - and sell - more books about nothing than anyone
I know," writes Randi on his James Randi Education
Foundation Web site.
He
dismisses Edward as a "mediocre cold-reader,"
or someone who uses guess work and a person's body language
to do readings.
Randi,
who was awarded the MacArthur Foundation "genius"
award in 1986 for his investigations, is so convinced
that psychics-mediums don't exist that he is offering
$1 million to anyone who can prove their claims under
scientific testing.
Browne
announced on "Larry King Live" in 2001 that
she would take the challenge, Randi said. "She has
yet to take it."
Free
Report: Psychic Hotlines Exposed
If
you've ever called one of those psychic hotlines or have
thought of doing so then you must read this free report
which exposes the scams of most telephone psychics. For
a limited time Adrian Cooper is offering this excellent
38-page report as a free gift to all members of the Mind
Power News community. Download
the free report here.
More
news at the Mind Power Blog
- The
Absence of Desire is the Beginning of Happiness
- ESP
and the Lottery
- The
Strange Way Botox Relieves Depression
- Pet
Ghosts: Animal Encounters From Beyond the Grave
- Stop
Smoking with Online Hypnosis
Read
them all here: www.mindpowernews.com/Blog
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