Mind Power News
Issue No. 158 / Friday, February 9, 2007
Edited by Andreas Ohrt / www.MindPowerNews.com

In this issue:

TIME TRAVEL IN THE BRAIN: The human body moves forward in time at the rate of one second per second whether we like it or not. But the human mind can move through time in any direction and at any speed it chooses... We are a race of time travelers, unfettered by chronology and capable of visiting the future or revisiting the past whenever we wish.

DAYDREAMING IS THE BRAIN'S DEFAULT SETTING: Daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind and certain brain regions are devoted to it, U.S. researchers reported Friday.

HOW THE BRAIN CREATES GOD: The brain is hard-wired for mystical experiences to modify the threat of our hostile existential reality. Metaphysical explanations developed for the essentially unknowable, for sudden and irresistible seizures of ecstasy.

THE WOO-WOO SCHOOL OF MANIFESTING: Let's look at just two common, over-the-top, Pollyannaish pieces of wisdom you've certainly heard before.

THE BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE THIRD EYE: The gland is shaped like a tine pine cone situated deep in the middle of the brain between the two hemispheres. Studies then began to determine whether this organ was a true functioning gland or merely a vestigial sight organ, a relic from our reptilian past.


Time Travel in the Brain

By Daniel Gilbert & Randy Buckner
Source: Time Magazine

What are you doing when you aren't doing anything at all? If you said "nothing," then you have just passed a test in logic and flunked a test in neuroscience.

When people perform mental tasks--adding numbers, comparing shapes, identifying faces--different areas of their brains become active, and brain scans show these active areas as brightly colored squares on an otherwise dull gray background.

But researchers have recently discovered that when these areas of our brains light up, other areas go dark. This dark network (which comprises regions in the frontal, parietal and medial temporal lobes) is off when we seem to be on, and on when we seem to be off.

If you climbed into an MRI machine and lay there quietly, waiting for instructions from a technician, the dark network would be as active as a beehive. But the moment your instructions arrived and your task began, the bees would freeze and the network would fall silent. When we appear to be doing nothing, we are clearly doing something. But what?

The answer, it seems, is time travel.

The human body moves forward in time at the rate of one second per second whether we like it or not. But the human mind can move through time in any direction and at any speed it chooses.

Our ability to close our eyes and imagine the pleasures of Super Bowl Sunday or remember the excesses of New Year's Eve is a fairly recent evolutionary development, and our talent for doing this is unparalleled in the animal kingdom.

We are a race of time travelers, unfettered by chronology and capable of visiting the future or revisiting the past whenever we wish. If our neural time machines are damaged by illness, age or accident, we may become trapped in the present. Alzheimer's disease, for instance, specifically attacks the dark network, stranding many of its victims in an endless now, unable to remember their yesterdays or envision their tomorrows.

Why did evolution design our brains to go wandering in time? Perhaps it's because an experience is a terrible thing to waste. Moving around in the world exposes organisms to danger, so as a rule they should have as few experiences as possible and learn as much from each as they can.

Although some of life's lessons are learned in the moment ("Don't touch a hot stove"), others become apparent only after the fact ("Now I see why she was upset. I should have said something about her new dress"). Time travel allows us to pay for an experience once and then have it again and again at no additional charge, learning new lessons with each repetition. When we are busy having experiences--herding children, signing checks, battling traffic--the dark network is silent, but as soon as those experiences are over, the network is awakened, and we begin moving across the landscape of our history to see what we can learn--for free.

Animals learn by trial and error, and the smarter they are, the fewer trials they need. Traveling backward buys us many trials for the price of one, but traveling forward allows us to dispense with trials entirely. Just as pilots practice flying in flight simulators, the rest of us practice living in life simulators, and our ability to simulate future courses of action and preview their consequences enables us to learn from mistakes without making them.

We don't need to bake a liver cupcake to find out that it is a stunningly bad idea; simply imagining it is punishment enough. The same is true for insulting the boss and misplacing the children. We may not heed the warnings that prospection provides, but at least we aren't surprised when we wake up with a hangover or when our waists and our inseams swap sizes.

The dark network allows us to visit the future, but not just any future. When we contemplate futures that don't include us--Will the NASDAQ be up next week? Will Hillary run in 2008?--the dark network is quiet. Only when we move ourselves through time does it come alive.

Perhaps the most startling fact about the dark network isn't what it does but how often it does it. Neuroscientists refer to it as the brain's default mode, which is to say that we spend more of our time away from the present than in it.

People typically overestimate how often they are in the moment because they rarely take notice when they take leave. It is only when the environment demands our attention--a dog barks, a child cries, a telephone rings--that our mental time machines switch themselves off and deposit us with a bump in the here and now. We stay just long enough to take a message and then we slip off again to the land of Elsewhen, our dark networks awash in light.


Daydreaming is the Brain's Default Setting

Source: Reuters

Daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind and certain brain regions are devoted to it, U.S. researchers reported Friday.

When people are given a specific task to do, they focus on that task but then other brain regions get busy during down time, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"There is this network of regions that always seems to be active when you don't give people something to do," psychologist Malia Mason of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital said in a telephone interview.

When Mason asked people what was happening during this down time, the answer was clear.

"It's daydreaming," she said. "But I find that the vast majority of time, people aren't having fanciful thoughts. People are thinking about what they have to do later today."

Read the full story here...

How the Brain Creates God

By Iona Miller,
Source: Asklepia Foundation

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger . . . is as good as dead.” --Albert Einstein

The Great Unknown

Imagine one of our ancient ancestors, suddenly stricken by illness or a near-fatal accident. Hovering near the brink of death, an ordinary person suddenly finds him or herself locked in an immersive visionary experience of shadowy figures, muted voices and blinding luminescence.

The cosmos opens its enfolding arms and infinity spreads out in a timeless panoply that dissolves all fear, all separation from the Divine. Fear of death vanishes in a comforting flood of bliss, peace and dazzling light – the ultimate ‘holy’ connection. Overwhelming conviction arises that this is the more fundamental Reality. The welcoming gates of a personal heaven open…

Suddenly back in the body, returned to ordinary reality, one is left to interpret that transcendent experience to oneself and others. This near-death experience may not have resulted in physical demise, but it has led to the death of the old self – the personal self -- and the rebirth, rapture, or resurrection of the soul or spirit. It brings a surge of emotions, conviction and even transformation in its wake. The soul has taken a journey from which one cannot return the same.

A descent into psychobiological hell can lead to a transcendent journey toward Heaven…or perhaps the yawning abyss of the Void. Shamans, priests, prophets, mystics, and gurus arose to show the Way of navigating these nether regions, of finding healing, the eternal moment, a peaceful heart, and unity.

Our human progenitors had to directly confront existential issues of survival, adaptation, stress, mating, birth, loss, and death. They gradually developed stories about the basics of life – social, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual existence. They created myths, beliefs about creation and our creation to give meaning to life. They developed rituals, ceremonies, and practices to heal body and mind, mark life passages, and placate forces beyond their control. These accounted for their origins as well as voices, visions and experiences that seemed to come from the great Beyond.

The brain is hard-wired for mystical experiences to modify the threat of our hostile existential reality. Metaphysical explanations developed for the essentially unknowable, for sudden and irresistible seizures of ecstasy. Some of these accounts were more sophisticated than others depending on their cultural background, but all shared a common core by defining the mystery of the relationship between mankind and the Unknown. It might be called a peak experience, spirit possession, epiphany, religious rapture, nirvana, satori, shaktiput, clear light, or illumination. The difference is only one of degrees of absorption, of fulfillment.

The god-experience is a process, a subjective perception, rather than an objectively provable reality. Distractions cease, replaced by the direct impact of oceanic expansion, sudden insight, childlike wonder, ecstatic exaltation above bodily and personal existence, dissolution in a timeless moment, fusion, gnosis.

It is direct perception coupled with high emotion and deep realization of what appears to be ultimate truth. It rips away the veil of illusion, revealing the pure ground state of our existence without any emotional, mental, or belief filters. Left with only pure awareness, the natural mind is finally free of earthly trappings. Bathed in emotions of joy, assurance and salvation, Cosmos becomes a living presence. Immortality is sensed, so fear of death vanishes.

Many called that numinous mystery God. In some sense, religion is a reaction to what actually is. But to many, when it comes to their religion, those are fighting words – for theirs is the true way, the only way. Heaven on Earth cannot be achieved so long as those two realms are separated. God comes down to earth in our own psychophysiology, dwelling within us.

Read the full story here...
The Woo-Woo School of Manifesting


By Barry Goss
Co-Founder of the Manifestation Portal

It's a NEW year, but it doesn't necessarily MEAN you'll be a NEW YOU !

Huh ?

Well, first, let's look at just two (for now) common, over-the-top, Pollyannaish pieces of wisdom you've certainly heard before.

I can hear you now, "Uttt ohhh, Barry is about to throw down another hand slap on the table and cause me to engage in some critical thinking, and deeper ownership of my habits, again." If you thought that, why YES, ab-so-lute-ly I am! )

Common Myth #1: The more I stay in the moment, the more I experience what I want now.

Really?

Well, for starters, that would be detrimental thinking for somebody like an astronaut, corporate CEO, or even basketball player.

Can you image Commander Scotty Jacobs (made up name), during flight-check procedure, tuning out all thoughts EXCEPT what's right in front of him.

"Well," you say, "aaaah, Barry, that's what he's supposed to do, right?"

Really ?

What about the CEO who constantly tells himself "I am wealthy. My company is prosperous" all while the bigger picture around him shows that he, nor the company, are getting the RESULTS they want?

Will taking the "Right Here - Right Now" approach to manifesting really help this CEO ?

Uhmmmm, well, one more example ... then I'll tackle this answer.

One cold December day, in 1987, my High School Basketball coach came in the gym and told us verbatim (I remember it like it was yesterday):

"...To rise above mediocrity you have to consistently act in the present. You won't make it on my team living off of past accomplishments or thinking about who you may someday become. Operate out of your comfort zone! If you come in here [the gym] focusing on hard work and proving yourself everyday -- if you concentrate your energy on the here and now, I promise you that your future will take care of itself."

There is, undoubtedly, some MAJOR truth to this.

I won't deny that.

However, it's not the complete TRUTH!

Here's why:

During a practice session, it DOES make sense for a basketball player to "immerse himself" into the moment of being the best basketball he can image. It makes complete sense to not rest on your laurels (from previous games feats); but during a game .....

That can be a much different story.

In areas of life that require physical skill, mental acuity, or profound thought, OFTENTIMES you do have to dig into the archives of your PAST to get an EDGE in the present.

In the case of the basketball player during a game, while waiting on the ball to be passed to him, his brain may quickly (as in a split second) go back to another game where he saw himself in the wrong position and, because of that, his pass got intercepted.

So, by day-dreaming back to the past in a lightening fassst way, he can use that real-world experience to achieve better and bigger PRESENT results.

The Astronaut (er, Commander Jacobs) ?

He's not telling himself "I am one with the spaceship" or "I am the best damn astronaut in the whole galaxy right now" (well, maybe he might say that to get himself psyched-up); instead, he's drawing upon years of training to "cross-check" what he was told in pre-launch session to what is in his reality, on the console, NOW!

He's ALSO "doing" from the FUTURE as well.

How ?

Well, as he discusses mission planning, timeframes, and tasks with his crew, he's PRESENT, but certainly not just "in the now."

All those are "things" that can only be achieved in the FUTURE if the PRESENT mind can assoicate what needs to be done then with the knowledge "at hand."

Like the goal-setting, task-focused, deadline-meeting CEO of corporate America (not the example CEO above), his mental processes are always circulating between past, present, and future so RESULTS (creation) can be experienced (achieved).

The moral ?

I'll let one of the mentors from our Manifestation Portal sum it up for you:

"We have this mistaken notion that the good life is 'eat, drink and be merry' and all that kind of in-the-moment / instant-gratification stuff. But, if you really think about it, the good life is the disciplined life; the good life is the consistent life; the good life is the life that is willing to views the possible ramifications of short-term thinking and makes sacrifices to enjoy long-term gain." - Gary Ryan Blair

Common Myth #2: The more love I give out, the more love I'll get back.

This is also only partly true.

Since everything is energy, what's the intent behind the massive amount of "giving love"? Are you doing it - being the look-the-other-way, turn-the- ther-cheek person in a relationship - to mask something deeper, darker, and more unsettling within yourself ?

We all know people who avoid "controversy" or "recurring patterns" of crap in their life. For some, it's always best to just put on the "rose-colored glasses, sing a song, and chant an affirmation until the "badness" goes away.

Welllllll, I'm here to tell you one thing shocking for the New Year:

The best way to figure out what's REALLY going on beneath the veil, underneath your rosy glasses, is to TAKE ownership of what you're seeing and experiencing on the outside.

The moral to myth #2?

If you're not getting the results you want from the school of manifesting that is only in session when the sun is out, it's time to get yourself dirty by playing in your own internal mud pit.

Be responsible for what you have right now, not ONLY just what you want to BE right now. Because, if you're putting out the effort, but seeing the same results, you MUST (yes MUST) go down that dark alley - where, at the end, if you make it thru, will most likely be unresolved emotions, past regrets, or a sliver of yourself in denial about something.

"...the truth is that most people struggle through life simply reacting to events around them, oblivious to the fact that they help to create those events. Like a ship tossed at sea, they see themselves buffeted by external circumstances, a tiny object subject to the wrath of the universe.." - Randy Gage

Our mission is to continually provide the most compelling, benefit-dripping, leading-edge information on the art & science of manifestation and all knowledge related to new thought spirituality and metaphysics.

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The Biological Function of the Third Eye


By Richard Alan Miller
Source: nwbotanicals.org

 From the time of Dionysius to the time of Plato, the cultures of the Mediterranean consented to the doctrine that claimed the existence of an order of ultimate reality which lies beyond apparent reality.

This "paranormal" reality was accessible to the consciousness only when the "normal" routines of mental data processing were dislocated. It was Plato's pupil Aristotle who changed his teacher's game, separating physics from metaphysics. The philosophical temper of our present civilization, being scientifically and technically oriented, is basically Aristotelian.

No such rational figure as Aristotle arose in the Orient to a position of equal eminence. Because of this and other reasons, Indian anatomists and zoologists, who where no doubt just as curious as the Greeks about the origins of life, and as skilled in dissection, did not feel compelled to set their disciplines up in opposition to metaphysics. Physical and metaphysical philosophy remained joined like Siamese twins. As a result, the discipline which became medicine in the West evolved into a system known as Kundalini Yoga in the Hindu culture.

In Western terms, Kundalini Yoga can be best understood as a biological statement contained within the language of the poetic metaphor. The system makes the attempt of joining the seeming disparate entities of body and mind. It is a very complicated doctrine; in oversimplified terms, the system encourages the practitioner to progress through the control of a number of stages, called Chakras or mind-body coordination. A sixth, associated with clairvoyance and telepathy, is called the Ajna.

The physiological site of this sixth Chakra, the Ajna, is located in the center of the forehead. It is symbolized by an eye - the so-called third eye, the inner eye, or the eye of the mind. When this eye is opened, a new and completely different dimension of reality is revealed to the practitioner of yoga. Western scholars when they first encountered this literature, took the third eye to be an appropriately poetic metaphor and nothing else.

It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, as the subcontinent of Australia and its surrounding territory came to be explored, that a flurry of interest centered upon a lizard native to the area, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatum). This animal possessed, in addition to two perfectly ordinary eyes located on either side of its head, a third eye buried in the skull which was revealed through an aperture in the bone, covered by a transparent membrane, and surrounded by a rosette of scales. It was unmistakably a third eye but upon dissection it proved to be non-functional.

Though this eye still possessed the structure of a lens and a retina, these were found to be no longer in good working order: also lacking were the appropriate neural connections to the brain. The presence of this eye in the tuatara still posses a puzzle to present-day evolutionists, for almost all vertebrates possess a homologous structure in the center of their skull. It is present in many fish, all reptiles, birds, and mammals (including man). This structure is known in literature today as the pineal gland.

The gland is shaped like a tine pine cone situated deep in the middle of the brain between the two hemispheres. Studies then began to determine whether this organ was a true functioning gland or merely a vestigial sight organ, a relic from our reptilian past. In 1959 Dr. Aaron Lerner and his associates at Yale University found that meletonin, a hormone manufactured by the pineal gland, was created through the action of certain enzymes on a precursor chemical which must pre-exist in the pineal in order for it to be transformed into melatonin. This precursor chemical turned out to be serotonin.

It was E.J. Gaddum, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, who was the first to note a connection between serotonin and mental states of being. In a paper published in 1953, he pointed out the fact that LSD-25 was a potent antagonist to serotonin. Serotonin is not an unusual chemical in nature; it is found in many places - some of them odd, like the salivary glands of octopuses, others ordinary; it abounds in plants such as bananas, figs, and plums. What then is its function in the human brain?

The task of exploring the role played by melatonin, and its precursor serotonin, was undertaken by a biochemist, Julius Axelrod. He found that melatonin suppressed physiological sexuality in mammals. If test animals were stimulated to manufacture excessive amounts of melatonin, their gonads and ovaries tended to become reduced in size, to shrink, to atrophy. The estrous or fertility cycle in females could likewise be altered experimentally by doses of melatonin.

Now two most curious functions had been attributed to the pineal gland, the third eye of the mind:

(1) It has now been established that this organ produced a chemical which had, indirectly at least, been associated with psychedelic states, and

(2) It also produced a chemical which suppressed functional sexuality.

Read the full story here...


How To Open Your Third Eye

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