Contrary to popular belief among most brain scientists today, I will argue that free-will not only exists, but ultimately is all that remains in an ever changing uncertain universe. In order to understand the body of my argument, we’ll need to delve into quantum physics, Skinnerian behaviorism, neurological imprinting, brainwashing and metaprogramming.
Here is Robert Anton Wilson’s definition of Von Neumann's Catastrophe of the infinite regress.
A demonstration by Dr.Von Neumann that quantum mechanics entails an infinite regress of measurements before the quantum uncertainty can be removed. That is, any measuring device is itself a quantum system containing uncertainty; a second measuring device, used to monitor the first, contains its own quantum uncertainty; and so on, to infinity. Wigner and others have pointed out that this uncertainty is only terminated by the decision of the observer.
What this means, and has been proven time and again in experiment after experiment, is that without a conscious observer, quantum states remain uncertain and in a state of indeterminacy. It is the conscious observer that makes the uncertainty wave function collapse out of an either/or “maybe” into something "real". No experiment has yet been able to remove this observer from the results. Therefore without consciousness, there is no wave function collapse, and no "reality".
Last year I made a visit to a Russian mind control lab Moscow. No, really, that's what it was, or at least supposed be. It was, needless to say, an interesting experience, but not necessarily something I knew what do with, so I just filed it away in my office under "Russian mind control."
Imagine how surprised I was to read one morning that the Department of Homeland Security was preparing to issue a sole source contract to test some of the technology developed there. My story today in Wired News traces how this unusual research from Russia caught the eye of U.S. officials.
MOSCOW -- The future of U.S. anti-terrorism technology could lie near the end of a Moscow subway line in a circular dungeon-like room with a single door and no windows. Here, at the Psychotechnology Research Institute, human subjects submit to experiments aimed at manipulating their subconscious minds.
Elena Rusalkina, the silver-haired woman who runs the institute, gestured to the center of the claustrophobic room, where what looked like a dentist's chair sits in front of a glowing computer monitor. "We've had volunteers, a lot of them," she said, the thick concrete walls muffling the noise from the college campus outside. "We worked out a program with (a psychiatric facility) to study criminals. There's no way to falsify the results. There's no subjectivism."
To research my new book, Elephants on Acid, I scoured scientific archives searching for the most bizarre experiments of all time — the kind that are mind-twistingly, jaw-droppingly strange... the kind that make you wonder, "How did anyone ever conceive of doing such a thing?"
Listed below are twenty of these experiments. You'll find all of them (and about 80 more) discussed in greater detail in my book.
#1: Elephants on Acid
What happens if you give an elephant LSD? On Friday August 3, 1962, a group of Oklahoma City researchers decided to find out.
Warren Thomas, Director of the City Zoo, fired a cartridge-syringe containing 297 milligrams of LSD into Tusko the Elephant's rump. With Thomas were two scientific colleagues from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, Louis Jolyon West and Chester M. Pierce.
297 milligrams is a lot of LSD — about 3000 times the level of a typical human dose. In fact, it remains the largest dose of LSD ever given to a living creature. The researchers figured that, if they were going to give an elephant LSD, they better not give him too little.
Thomas, West, and Pierce later explained that the experiment was designed to find out if LSD would induce musth in an elephant — musth being a kind of temporary madness male elephants sometimes experience during which they become highly aggressive and secrete a sticky fluid from their temporal glands. But one suspects a small element of ghoulish curiosity might also have been involved.
Whatever the reason for the experiment, it almost immediately went awry. Tusko reacted to the shot as if a bee had stung him. He trumpeted around his pen for a few minutes, and then keeled over on his side. Horrified, the researchers tried to revive him, but about an hour later he was dead. The three scientists sheepishly concluded that, "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD."
In the years that followed controversy lingered over whether it was the LSD that killed Tusko, or the drugs used to revive him. So twenty years later, Ronald Siegel of UCLA decided to settle the debate by giving two elephants a dose similar to what Tusko received. Reportedly he had to sign an agreement promising to replace the animals in the event of their deaths.
Instead of injecting the elephants with LSD, Siegel mixed the drug into their water, and when it was administered in this way, the elephants not only survived but didn't seem too upset at all. They acted sluggish, rocked back and forth, and made some strange vocalizations such as chirping and squeaking, but within a few hours they were back to normal. However, Siegel noted that the dosage Tusko received may have exceeded some threshold of toxicity, so he couldn't rule out that LSD was the cause of his death. The controversy continues.
The entire universe is a projection of consciousness. We experience the universe as a projection through us because each of us is a center of consciousness. Therefore we are all centers of the universe.
There really is no here or there because everything is at one point where consciousness is. We all do not exist in different places but are all present at one point. The reality of here and there is all created and experienced within the singularity of consciousness itself. Where you are is the center of the universe.
Consciousness is the dimensionless program that simulates dimensions. It is the omnipresent dot that creates the illusion of everywhere when there is nowhere but here and now. There is only one true place consciousness exist in and that is here. There is only one true time where consciousness exist in and that is now. Everything else that is experienced as there and then is only a simulation that is experienced from here and now. When you think of a time and place, you instantly travel there mentally.
In fact you do not really travel at all. The world around you shifts as your external environment and the things in it changes into the new one that you think of. It is because it is all a simulation. You never really move at all but it is everything else that moves. The center of anything never moves and therefore the whole world revolves around you.
By Catherine West Association for Psychological Science
Two University of Chicago psychologists, Louise Hawkley and John Cacioppo, have been trying to disentangle social isolation, loneliness, and the physical deterioration and diseases of aging, right down to the cellular level.
The researchers suspected that while the toll of loneliness may be mild and unremarkable in early life, it accumulates with time. To test this idea, the scientists studied a group of college-age individuals and continued an annual study of a group of people who joined when they were between 50 and 68 years old.
Their findings, reported in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, are revealing. Consider stress, for example. The more years you live, the more stressful experiences you are going to have: new jobs, marriage and divorce, parenting, financial worries, illness. It’s inevitable.
Can Chris Robinson see the future? He says he has been predicting events for 20 years with clues that come to him in dreams.
If true – and he has many supporters – then he undoubtedly deserves inclusion in the UK’s Five TV documentary series “Extraordinary People”, screened on 10 September, 2007, six years after an American professor witnessed Robinson predict the US terrorist attacks in New York.
But did the TV investigation, titled The Man Who Dreams The Future, corroborate the dream detective’s claims? Not as far as the Guardian’s TV reviewer Sam Wollaston was concerned. He argued that the documentary’s title was wrong: it should have been “Ordinary People: The Man Who Doesn’t Dream The Future or, more snappily, just Liar Liar, Pants On Fire”.
That, of course, ignores the fact that – unlike many who claim paranormal powers – Robinson, who lives just north of London, willingly cooperates with investigators, attempts to identify randomly-chosen targets by recording his dream impressions throughout the night, and then discusses them with those who are testing him, well in advance of the predicted event or being taken to a target location.
Over the last six months we have received many letters from desperate family members asking, “How can I get my ____ away from the psychopathic con artist?” What family members are really asking for is advice on how to overcome the brain washing of a loved one.
When answering these kinds of questions, I like to provide some scientific evidence validating my point of view. Unfortunately, a search of the scientific literature, using the terms coercive persuasion, brain washing and mind control, does not reveal much. This week I will share some of what I have come to understand about how one person can assume control over another. Next week I will discuss how to overcome mind control by a psychopath.
Scientific studies are the best way to gain information about psychology. When these are lacking, it is valid to turn to authorities or experts for guidance. When learning from an authority, we must critically evaluate all claims made. From what I have been able to determine, there are two authorities in the United States on the topic of mind control or brain washing. Behavioral scientists also call this coercive persuasion.
The following is the Frequently Asked Questions page from Steven Allan Hassan's Freedom of Mind Center.
1. What is "mind control?" Is all "mind control" bad?
My mind control model outlines many key elements that need to be controlled: Behavior, Information, Thoughts and Emotions (BITE). If these four components can be controlled, then an individual's identity can be systematically manipulated and changed. Destructive mind control takes the "locus of control" away from an individual. The person is systematically deceived about the beliefs and practices of the person (or group) and manipulated throughout the recruitment process- unable to make informed choices and exert independent judgment. The person's identity is profoundly influenced through a set of social influence techniques and a "new identity" is created- programmed to be dependent on the leader or group ideology. The person can't think for him or herself, but believes otherwise. The cult system reinforces an "illusion of control." Please click here to review a detailed outline of my BITE mind control model.
"Mind control" techniques are not necessarily bad. Although I typically use the term "mind control" when describing unethical and abusive social influence, many of the techniques can be used ethically to promote positive spiritual and personal growth.
For example, prayer can be used ethically or it can be used destructively as a tool of manipulation and coercion. Praying with a person aloud, and asking "God's blessing to help direct and guide him" (in an "open-ended" way) is just fine. Praying with a person, and asking God to "keep this person from making the mistake of leaving the group's workshop and returning to Satan's world" is unethical.
Meditation techniques can be used to build awareness and self control, or it can be used as a way of "thought-stopping"-undermining independent thinking and reality-testing. For example, if a person is having doubts and questions about a leader's behavior, and meditates to get rid of "negativity", it might stop the person from taking necessary action.
There are thousands of different "mind control" techniques which can be used for positive benefit. Some these techniques include: prayer, meditation, chants, singing songs, visualizations, affirmations, positive self-talk, breathing techniques, hypnosis, "speaking in tongues", ecstatic dancing, music.
--> The World's Greatest Goal Achiever --> Ah, Is This Not Happiness? --> How to Manifest for Free --> How to Memorize 10,000 Numbers or More --> What Do the Rich & Famous Know that You Don't?
A motorised wheelchair that moves when the operator thinks of particular words has been demonstrated by a US company. The wheelchair works by intercepting signals sent from their brain to their voice box, even when no sound is actually produced.
The company behind the chair, Ambient, is developing the technology with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, in the US.
The wheelchair could help people with spinal injuries, or neurological problems like cerebral palsy or motor neurone disease, operate computers and other equipment despite serious problems with muscle control. The system will work providing a person can still control their larynx, or "voice box", which may be the case even if the lack the muscle coordination necessary to produce coherent speech.
--> The Most Dangerous Idea on Earth? --> How to Live in a Simulation --> The Secret Seduction of Subliminal Messages --> Our Lives, Controlled from Someone's Couch --> China Bans Reincarnation
Would you like to learn an absolutely free method for reaching your next goal in only five minutes a day? You don't need to buy anything, you don't need to own anything, you don't need to go anywhere and you don't need to have any previous experience to make this method work for you.
You already have everything you need. Just one brain, that's all you need. Let me show you one way to program your mind so that your goals come to you effortlessly. Here is a simple technique which always works for me... STEP ONE: THE MAGIC OF THINKING SMALL First, pick a goal that is *just* beyond your comfort level. Many motivational teachers will urge you to shoot for the stars, think incredibly big, and go for goals which are ten times as large as anything you've ever accomplished. This may work well for people who are already confident in their power to manifest, but for the beginner, or for the person who has not had much success using mind power, the idea of thinking outrageously big is a disaster. For example, if you haven't had a date in three years you don't want to visualize yourself scoring with bunnies at the Playboy mansion. In theory all goals are definitely achievable, but in your reality you probably don't really believe it's possible, so it won't happen. Instead, pick a goal which is reasonable and can be accomplished within a few months. In this example, you might want to have just one date in the next three months. Not nearly as thrilling of a goal, but a fantastic step towards a better life.
Or you probably want more money in your life. Instead of visualizing yourself suddenly earning $250,000 a year, start with a goal of increasing your wage or your sales by 10 per cent. Again, not exactly thrilling, but the point is you start small and build upon your success, instead of going for the home run and missing every time.
You see, after you reach that first goal you will have some confidence, and you can use that confidence to step up to the next goal, slowly but surely building a better life in the process.
One of the most crucial aspects of life is the notion of freedom and the notion of bondage. Ultimately, our goal is to experience freedom, but to understand what freedom is we first have to understand what bondage is.
What does it mean to be free and what does it mean to be in bondage? To be in bondage is to be stuck in this or that possibility, having lost the ability to choose from an infinite range of responses.
What is the bondage to?
The bondage is always to our own boundaries, to our own beliefs and conditioned responses. Boundaries and beliefs are nothing more than ideas or concepts that we have committed to and accepted as truth. And when they are as rigid and inflexible as concrete, we cannot see past them. They become the prison walls that we inadvertently construct around ourselves.
Wellcome Trust scientists have identified for the first time how our brain's response changes the closer a threat gets. Using a Pac Man-like computer game where a volunteer is pursued by an artificial predator, the researchers showed that the fear response moves from the strategic areas of the brain towards more reactive responses as the artificial predator approaches.
When faced with a threat - such as a large bear - humans, like other animals, alter their behaviour depending on whether the threat is close or distant. This is because different defence mechanisms are needed depending on whether, for example, the bear is fifty feet away, when being aware of its presence may be enough, or five feet away, when we might need to fight or run away.
To investigate what happens in the brain in such a situation, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London created a game where subjects were chased through a maze by an artificial predator – if caught, they would receive a mild electric shock. The researchers then measured their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results are published today in the journal 'Science'.
This is the story of my struggle with weight gain, then loss, then gain, loss, gain, ad infinitum, until my ultimate success! I gained forty pounds dieting, then lost it all "Thinking Thin" and have kept it off for over twenty-five years. Perhaps you will be able to relate to some of my struggles. If nothing else, you will see that I am in no way more perfect, smarter or more talented than anyone else. If I can do it, so can you.
It All Started in Fourth Grade
I lived with an unusual family. My mother was overweight, and my father was skinny. My brother, who was adopted, like me, was also overweight. Even though I had been adopted at age seven and a very skinny kid, I wondered if I would turn out like my father or mother. Still, I ate all the junk I wanted, preferring to think of myself like my father.
All went well until the fourth grade. My mother was a hairdresser and she loved to cut hair. She loved it so much one day when she was cutting mine, she just kept going and going. I was too afraid to say anything to my overbearing and very critical mother.
Later, when I looked at the mirror, I was completely shocked and began to cry. My hair was so short, I looked like a boy! What could I do? My subconscious thought it knew, it would protect me with fat!
I remember seeing my fourth grade picture, it was so different from all the rest of my class photos. I was chubby but happy. I don't think I even realized I was overweight. My mother had started giving me better haircuts after awhile, not as short. Subconsciously I decided that I could now safely lose the weight, because I didn't have to protect myself anymore.
If you might be living in a simulation then all else equal you should care less about others, live more for today, make your world look more likely to become rich, expect to and try more to participate in pivotal events, be more entertaining and praiseworthy, and keep the famous people around you happier and more interested in you.
People love to pretend, and to watch others pretending. From story-telling to plays to movies to virtual reality, we keep getting better at making people feel like they are watching imagined places and events. We also keep getting better at role-playing, i.e., creating environments where several people can see what happens when they all pretend they are different people in another time and place. Eventually such role-playing simulations may get so good that people will often forget that it is just a simulation.
This brings us to the intriguing premise of many recent movies, including The Matrix, 13th Floor, Truman Show, and Dark City: what if people in the future create role-playing simulations where the people in it do not know that it is a simulation? This premise naturally leads to a premise even more thought-provoking: future people might create simulations of a world much like our world. If so, how sure can each of us now be that we are not now living in such a role-playing simulation?
