The Man with the World's Best Memory

By Dinesh Ramde,
The Associated Press

For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life.

For example, he can tell you it was Aug. 18, 1965, when his family stopped at Red Barn Hamburger during a road trip through Michigan. He was eight years old at the time and he had a burger, of course.

"It was a Wednesday," recalled Williams, now 51. "We stayed at a motel that night in Clare, Michigan. It seemed more like a cabin."

To Williams and his family, his ability to recall events - and especially dates - is a regular source of amusement.

But, according to one expert, Williams' skill might rank his memory among the best in the world. Doctors are now studying him, and a woman with similar talents, hoping to achieve a deeper understanding of memory.

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Prozac Doesn't Work, say scientists

By Sarah Boseley,
Health Editor, The Guardian

Prozac, the bestselling antidepressant taken by 40 million people worldwide, does not work and nor do similar drugs in the same class, according to a major review released today.

The study examined all available data on the drugs, including results from clinical trials that the manufacturers chose not to publish at the time. The trials compared the effect on patients taking the drugs with those given a placebo or sugar pill.

When all the data was pulled together, it appeared that patients had improved - but those on placebo improved just as much as those on the drugs.

The only exception is in the most severely depressed patients, according to the authors - Prof Irving Kirsch from the department of psychology at Hull University and colleagues in the US and Canada. But that is probably because the placebo stopped working so well, they say, rather than the drugs having worked better.

"Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed," says Kirsch. "This study raises serious issues that need to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported."

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Six-Minute Nap May Boost Memory

Source: BBC

Even the shortest of catnaps may be enough to improve performance in memory tests, say German scientists.

Just six minutes "shut-eye" for volunteers was followed by significantly better recall of words, New Scientist magazine reported.

"Ultra-short" sleep could launch memory processing in the brain, they suggested.

One UK researcher disagreed, saying that longer sleep was needed to have an impact on memory.

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Is the Universe Dreaming Itself?

By Paul Levy
Source: ResonateView.org

When you begin to spiritually awaken, it is like waking up inside of a dream and recognizing that everything you are experiencing is nothing other than a very convincing projection, or display of your mind. The boundary between inner and outer, between dreaming and waking starts to dissolve, and you begin to realize that the same dreaming mind that is dreaming your dreams at night is dreaming your life. You realize that there is a Deeper Dreaming Self that is having a dream and we are it!

This Deeper Dreaming Self is active in us at all times and is continually seeking to express it itself. If we recognize the dreaming process that is happening right now, we can step into it and help it unfold consciously. It will activate our own inherent process of awakening and reconnect us with ourselves.

It is as though there is a dream that is trying to be dreamt through each and all of us -- both individually and collectively. The universe is seen as a field not separate from and through which this deeper, dreaming process is continually expressing it itself.

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What Are the Secrets of Longevity?

By Denise Winterman
Source: BBC News Magazine

The quest to live longer is one of humanity's oldest dreams and three isolated communities seem to have stumbled across the answer. So what can they teach us about a longer life?

Something remarkable links the remote Japanese island of Okinawa, the small Sardinian mountain town of Ovodda and Loma Linda in the US. People live longer in these three places than anywhere else on earth.

At an age when the average Briton is predicted to die - 77 years for men and 81 for women - inhabitants of these three places are looking forward to many more years of good health. Often they're still working in jobs as demanding as heart surgery.

Okinawa has a population of one million and of those 900 are centenarians, four times higher than the average in Britain or America. Even more remarkably, Ovodda is the only region in the world where as many men as women live to be 100 years of age, bucking the global trend.

But what is even more intriguing is that each community is distinct from the others and raises a different theory as to why residents live longer. In all three communities scientists have dedicated themselves to trying to uncover these unique secrets. So what can we learn from the towns where people live the longest?

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The Cure Within: Can the Mind Heal the Body?

By Gregory M. Lamb
Source: Christian Science Monitor

Americans who watched the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on TV and reported feeling anxiety afterward also experienced increased rates of various heart ailments in the following three years.

That's the conclusion of a recent scholarly article in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Such research, showing intriguing connections between physical health and states of mind, has come in a steady flow for decades. While some studies are challenged or discredited, others replace them.

Ordinary Americans seem more comfortable than medical researchers with the idea that thoughts can control experience. The idea is embedded in popular culture: In the 1950 musical "Guys and Dolls" the humorous song "Adelaide's Lament" tells the story of a woman whose frustration in not getting married brings on a cold.

But what exactly is the relationship between mind and body? How strong is it? How is it evoked and how does it work?

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Create Your Own Mind Movies

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Futurists Pick Top Challenges of Next 50 Years

By Alok Jha
Source: The Guardian

Reversing the effects of ageing, reprogramming genes to prevent diseases and producing clean energy are some of the biggest challenges for the next 50 years, according to a group of leading experts.

The pace of advances in technology means the rate of progress will be 30 times faster in the next half century, futurologists believe - and that opens up the prospect of innovation in many fields.

Better understanding of our genes could lead to more personalised medicines and longer, healthier lives; communication technology should get faster and cheaper; and we will hopefully find more sustainable ways of living in our environment.

The 18-stong team of scientists, entrepreneurs and thinkers was convened by the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to identify problems for technology in the 21st century that, if solved, would change the world.

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Did 9/11 Alter the Content of Our Dreams?

By Josh Hill
Source: Daily Galaxy

Dreams have often been seen as untouchable by the world around us, often providing us with an escape, from the real world. No doubt our nightmares affect us, but often they are a portrayal of an entirely made up event.

However according to a new study published in the February 1 issue of the journal SLEEP, the traumatic and devastating events of September 11, 2001, have made an indelible impact on the dreams of American’s.

The study was authored by Ernest Hartmann, MD, of Tufts University and Newton Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass., who sought out peoples who had been recording their dreams. By posting notices on the website of the Association of Professional Sleep Societies and the International Association for the Study of Dreams, they were contacted by 44 people.

The subjects sent in 20 dreams each, 10 from before 9/11 and 10 from after. Of the 44, 11 were men and 33 were women, and none lived in Manhattan, or were related to anyone who had died in the attacks.

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Top 10 Mysteries of the Human 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.

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77 Brain Hacks to Improve Your Learning

Source: Online Education Database

If someone granted you one wish, what do you imagine you would want out of life that you haven't gotten yet? For many people, it would be self-improvement and knowledge.

New knowledge is the backbone of society's progress. Great thinkers such as Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and others' quests for knowledge have led society to many of the marvels we enjoy today.

Your quest for knowledge doesn't have to be as Earth-changing as Einstein's, but it can be an important part of your life, leading to a new job, better pay, a new hobby, or simply knowledge for knowledge's sake — whatever is important to you as an end goal.

Life-changing knowledge does typically require advanced learning techniques. In fact, it's been said that the average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what we may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques.

Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own. Happy learning.

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Zen Is Boring

By Brad Warner
Source: Sit Down and Shut Up

Let's face it. Zen is boring. You couldn't find a duller, more tedious practice than Zazen. The philosophy is dry and unexciting. It's amazing to me anyone reads this page at all. Don't you people know you could be playing Tetris, right now? That there are a million free porno sites out there? Get a life, why don't you?!

Joshu Sasaki, a Zen teacher from the Rinzai Sect, once said that Buddhist teachers always try to make students long for the Buddha World, but that if the students knew how really dry and tasteless the Buddha World actually was, they'd never want to go.

He's right. Look at Zen teachers. Not a one of them has any sense of fashion. They sit around staring at blank walls. Ask them about levitation, they won't tell you. Ask them about life after death, they change the subject. Ask them about miracles and they start spouting nonsense about carrying buckets of water and chopping up fire wood. They go to bed early and wake up early. Zen is a philosophy for nerds.

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Heal Yourself With Sunlight

By Andreas Moritz
Author of Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation

The time when one’s immediate natural impulse on the first sunny spring day was to get outside and enjoy it is long gone.

Only the very courageous or “careless” who defy the grim warnings from medical mandarins and cancer specialists, wholeheartedly endorsed by the sunscreen industry, dare to venture forth into the “dangerous” sun.

Unless they are covered head to toe with sun protection factor (SPF) 60, they gamble with their lives, or so they are made to believe, by those who serve their own vested interests.

Fortunately, this view is beginning to crumble in the blatant absence of scientific proof that sunlight causes disease. What is being discovered instead is that lack of sun exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for disease. Very few people know that not getting enough sun kills 50,000 people from cancer deaths every year in the US alone. As shown later, these are deaths that are easily preventable through the Vitamin D produced by the body in response to regular sun exposure.

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What the Maharishi Gave Science

By Sharon Begley
Source: Newsweek

What the Hindu teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave the Beatles is the stuff of pop-music legend. During their otherwise disastrous stay in his ashram overlooking the Ganges River in northern India in the spring of 1968, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison experienced a creative surge unlike any they ever had before.

As biographer Bob Spitz recounted in his 2005 book “The Beatles,” the three retreated from the meditation sessions they had signed on for and instead spent their time writing dozens of songs. (Ringo Starr left after a week, saying he couldn’t stomach the spicy Indian food.) Many of those songs made it onto the White Album.

The other legacy the Maharishi, who died on Tuesday, gave the West is more controversial. In 1971 he founded Maharishi International University, in Iowa (now called Maharishi University of Management), which has become the center for studies of Transcendental Meditation (TM).

Almost immediately—research papers on the benefits of TM appeared as early as 1974—scientists there began researching how TM affects everything from job satisfaction to blood pressure to anxiety.

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What I Learned From Atheists

By Karl Moore,
CEO of Self Help Street

Sometimes, I admit, I lose faith.

I lose faith in goodness. I lose faith in humanity. I lose faith in God.

Sometimes, maybe, you do too.

As many of you know, I love discussing the exploration of space. To gain a perspective of where you are in the universe right now, just try watching the "zoom out" introduction to Contact.

But once you get beyond our current galaxy, you tend to disappear.

You're lost in a silent world.

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8 Powerful Things Hypnosis Can Do For You

Hypnosis is a modified condition of consciousness when the brain’s activities are lowered. Thus, this state gives a feeling of relaxation. And contrary to popular beliefs, you do not need to be guided by a trance master for you to experience hypnosis. As long as your mind operates at a frequency lower than the usual, hypnosis can be properly done.

When the mind is subjected to hypnosis, it becomes open to suggestions. That is why it is used in various situations to maximize the effect.

Here are eight powerful things that hypnosis can do for you:

1. Hypnosis can improve your focus and concentration.
If you are suffering from weak control of focus, hypnosis can improve that by channeling your attention to a specific object. This is done when the brain activities are low, putting other things aside.

2. Hypnosis can help you quit addictions like smoking.
Some hypnosis programs are offered especially for addiction cases. They promise to deliver results of quitting addiction after doing daily hypnosis exercises, or undergoing hypnosis under the guidance of professionals for as short as 90 minutes, followed by a reinforcement hypnosis session.

3. Hypnosis can address your anxiety, panic, and phobia-related problems.
These problems are caused by thoughts that certain persons are not able to control. To improve the mental state, these thoughts must be harnessed.For example, it is easier to overcome phobias when the mind is relaxed because the initial reaction of panic is set aside for a more rational way of responding to stimuli.

4. Hypnosis can help you in weight management.
All weight loss programs will not work if the users are not accustomed to the needed discipline and state of mind. A lot of people find themselves unsuccessful no matter what weight loss program they undergo, may it be through food control or body activities. It is because their mindsets do not compliment the program.

5. Hypnosis can help you cope up with stress.
When your body is tired from working hard, it can find rejuvenation in sleep or rest. But the mind is more complex than that. To get rid of mental stress, you must be able to lower its activities. This can be achieved through hypnosis.

6. Hypnosis can help you improve over-all performance.
The body can do what the mind tells it to because human actions are somehow limited to what the mind believes in. In hypnosis, you can set your goals and undergo procedures to be able to reach your objectives in life.

7. Hypnosis can increase self-esteem.
Because the mind becomes open to suggestions during hypnosis, it is easier to do personality development in that induced state. There is a greater chance of overcoming personal fears when positive thinking is implemented.

8. Hypnosis can help medical practitioners in administering cure to their patients.
Most medical treatment effects are maximized with the help of hypnosis. The patients are relaxed and are in a condition wherein they will be able to follow instructions told by the doctors. Panic is also reduced in serious cases such as accidents and serious medical conditions.Other medical conditions such as bulimia, migraine, and impotency can be cured by self-hypnosis.

With all the things that hypnosis can do, it is no wonder that it is considered a powerful tool in achieving different endeavors that humans have.

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The Enlightenment Machine

By Brad Warner
Source: Sit Down and Shut Up

I take back everything I said in my book and in this web page about the Zen process being long and difficult, requiring years of practice and a will to face the truth no matter how hard you may want to resist.

A guy who reads this webpage kindly sent me a copy of Andrew Cohen's magazine What Is Enlightenment? so I could check out their review of my book (they thought it sucked ass). And while leafing through the rag and chuckling over the dialogue between Andy and his pal Ken Wilber I came across an ad headlined "How to Meditate Deeper Than a Zen Monk!"

According to the ad, a powerful new audio technology called Holosync will allow you to reach the same rarified state of enlightened uber-consciousness as the great Zen monks of old in minutes. It's based, they say, "in part on Nobel Prize winning research on how complex systems (human beings, for instance) evolve to higher levels of functioning."

Wow. Nobel Prize winning research! Complex systems! Higher levels of functioning! "A precise combination of audio signals gives the brain a very specific stimulus that creates states of deep meditation." And here I've wasted decades staring at blank walls for hours on end when all I had to do was slap on a pair of headphones and "achieve super deep meditation at the touch of a button!" There's even a toll free number you can call to receive the tape for free (a $19.95 value!).

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Scientists Discover Way to Reverse Memory Loss

By Jeremy Laurance,
Health Editor, The Independent

Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.

The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation.

Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

Scientists are now applying the technique in the first trial of the treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. If successful, it could offer hope to sufferers from the degenerative condition, which affects 450,000 people in Britain alone, by providing a "pacemaker" for the brain.

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The Way of the Business Warrior

By David Cameron
Creator of The Wealth Fundamentals Pack

What is The Way of the Business Warrior? If business is your game, get ready for the ride of your life.

First, let us begin with the obvious. In your business, you either make the sale, or you don't. You do or you don't, there is no try. You get the customer or you don't, there is no try. Your business makes a profit or it doesn't, there is no try. There is no in between. Why? Why do things work this way?

There is an order by which all things arise and work. Every moment is a moment of new creation. On and off states, called dualities, is what we experience in all of life, including business.

Here is a question for you. Do you think our moments arise by accident or as an exactly perfect outcome of a series of natural laws? Remember, there is no middle ground. It is either all accidental or all perfection, but not a mixture of the two.

If it was all accidental, none of the laws of physics would work, biology would not work, nothing would work. Therefore, it is all a precise outcome of set laws. The Way of the Business Warrior is the one that gets you on the path to discovering the truth behind what happens in your business.

Now you can make your life a glorious adventure financially by understanding the totality of experience and creation.

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'Beatles Guru' Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Dies

By Lily Koppel
Source: New York Times

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced transcendental meditation to the West and gained fame in the 1960s as the spiritual guru to the Beatles, died Tuesday at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands. He is believed to have been in his 90s. Steven Yellin, a spokesman for the organization, confirmed the Maharishi’s death but did not give a cause.

On Jan. 11, the Maharishi announced that his public work was finished and that he would use his remaining time to complete a long-running series of published commentaries on the Veda, the oldest sacred Hindu text.

The Maharishi was both an entrepreneur and a monk, a spiritual man who sought a world stage from which to espouse the joys of inner happiness. His critics called his organization a cult business enterprise. And in the press, in the 1960s and ’70s, he was often dismissed as a hippie mystic, the “Giggling Guru,” recognizable in the familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged in a lotus position on a deerskin, wearing a white silk dhoti with a garland of flowers around his neck beneath an oily, scraggly beard.

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Have an Average Day

By Michael Neill
Source: Catalyst Magazine

I once was talking to my friend and mentor Steve Chandler when he said to me, “Have an average day!” Taken aback, I asked him what he meant. Isn’t the idea to have great days, even exceptional ones?

He told me a story about one of his mentors, Lyndon Duke, who studied the linguistics of suicide. After receiving doctorates from two universities, Duke began analyzing suicide notes for linguistic clues that could be used to predict and prevent suicidal behavior in teenagers.

Duke came to believe that the enemy of happiness is “the curse of exceptionality.” When everyone is trying to be exceptional, nearly everyone fails because the exceptional becomes commonplace, and those few who do succeed feel isolated and estranged from their peers.

We’re left with a world in which a few people feel envied, misunderstood, and alone, while thousands of others feel like failures for not being good, special, rich, or happy enough.

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70 Ways to Increase Your Brain Power

By Steve Gillman
Author of "A Book of Secrets"

Let me ask you a question. What was Henry Fords IQ? Who cares! The man was one of the most innovative people of the last century, and he did what he did by surrounding himself with intelligent people.

That practice alone has to be worth more than 20 IQ points in terms of real life results.

Real life results are what you want, right? So if you want to be more creative, learn to use creative problem solving techniques. If you want to concentrate better, there are techniques for that. Learn to speed-read and you'll have double the knowledge in the same time. After you paint your first Mona Lisa, build your first skyscraper or make your first million, what will your IQ score be? Who cares!?

Okay, an imperfect test is better than no test at all, and it is entertaining. Of course you'll score higher on a good day than a bad day, so try these tips to make it a good IQ test day:

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Spanish Version of "Lots Of Money Fast" Now Available

By Stuart Lichtman
Author of "How to Get Lots of Money for Anything -- Fast!"

I'm extremely pleased to announce that, after over a year of work, we have now fully translated my complete "How to Get Lots of Money for Anything - Fast" eBook system (the 226 page main book, 14 Bonuses, 6 Audio Seminar Segments and the complete free Minicourse).

The Spanish title is "Cómo Obtener Mucho Dinero Para Cualquier Cosa Que Usted Desee - ¡Rápidamente!"

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

A New Way to Achieve All Your Dreams

By Stuart Licthman
Author, How to Get Lots of Money For Anything...Fast!

Name something you want. It can be a weight-loss goal, a money goal, a sales quota, a new house, a relationship, etc. It’s entirely up to you.

Since this book is about money, think about your money goals. How much more money are your seeking, anyway? A hundred dollars? Thousands? A million?

Now let me ask you a blunt question: Why don’t you have it yet?

Why don’t you have the thinner body, or more money, or whatever it is you said you wanted? Well?

Now let me tell you something shocking: The fault isn’t with the economy, your parents, your spouse, your neighbors, your mayor, the president or anyone or anything outside of you. There is only one answer to my question of, “Why don’t you have it yet?” And I’ll tell you what it is in a minute.

Have you ever wondered why so many people have so much trouble getting what they truly want? Have you considered that there could be an easier way though life? Have you ever felt that life was just too much of a struggle? Most of us have, at one time or another, just felt that life was a royal pain. But the liberating truth is this - life doesn’t have to be that way.

What’s the secret to making life a joy? What’s the secret to creating more money now? And what’s the answer to why you haven’t achieved your goals yet?

It’s in your own mind.

No, not in your thoughts. Not in your conscious mind. The roadblock is deeper. It’s where you rarely look. It’s in your unconscious. In short, if there is something you are trying to achieve - you name it - and you aren’t achieving it, chances are your unconscious holds some contradictory intentions for you. Said another way, you want something and it doesn’t.

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