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What REALLY makes us worry: New region of the brain discovered that controls anxiety
Police and medical staff document America's real-life possession
31/01/2014 09:39
Police and medical staff document America's real-life possession
31/01/2014 09:39
A nine-year-old boy walked backwards up a wall and ceiling as startled medical staff looked on after his mother claimed he and his two siblings had been possessed by demons, according to official reports. The unlikely-sounding event was detailed in official documents after a child services case worker and a nurse both said they saw the boy 'glide' backwards on the floor, wall and ceiling. [Read...
Psychological common ground could ease tensions among those with different religious beliefs
29/01/2014 18:25
A new study found that thoughts of death increased atheists, Christians, Muslims and agnostics conviction in their own world views. For example, contrary to the wartime aphorism that there are no atheists in foxholes, thoughts of death did not cause atheists to express belief in a deity. [Read more] ...
Sociologist Looks At Pediatric Physicians' Views On Religion, Spirituality
29/01/2014 18:23
Pediatricians and pediatric oncologists express differing views on religion and spirituality, largely based on the types of patients they treat, according to a new survey. Elaine Howard Ecklund, assistant professor of sociology and associate director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University, is a co-author of the study, which is based on in-depth interviews with 30...
Holographic Universe
10/12/2013 12:49
A radical way to perceive who we are in the universe by Michael Talbot. A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get...
Dennett on freewill
05/12/2013 11:22
Daniel Dennett This chapter is remarkable for Dennett’s style. There can be little doubt that Dennett’s dominance over much of modern consciousness studies is due in part to the beguiling quality of his style of writing. However, his approach in this chapter is markedly different from his seminal...
Do we have freewill
05/12/2013 11:20
Benjamin Libet The article concentrates on Libet’s own experiments showing that unconscious electrical activity in the brain preceded voluntary actions by up to 400ms. This discovery has been widely seized on, although not be Libet himself, as a proof that freewill does not exist and thus as...
Freewill
05/12/2013 11:18
Sam Harris Libet’s famous experiment is introduced at an early stage in this book, and along with similar experiments, it is essentially the whole basis of the author’s argument. In Libet’s studies, activity in the motor cortex was apparent about 300 milliseconds before subjects were conscious of...
Illusion of conscious will
05/12/2013 11:17
Daniel Wegner The author’s purpose is to demonstrate that conscious will is not efficacious. The Libet experiments suggested that unconscious processing drives trivial actions such as moving a finger. Wegner argues that it is the same for more important activities. To do this, he must separate...
Libet’s Mind Time
05/12/2013 11:15
Benjamin Libet In his introductory chapter, Libet admits that his views on subjective phenomena have altered somewhat since he was a young scientist. He says that he started with a full belief in determinsitic materialism, but has come round to the view that the subjective cannot be derived...
Searle on consciousness and freewill
05/12/2013 11:14
John Searle Searle views consciousness as a real biological phenomenon. He notes that it is qualitative, subjective and unified. Every conscious state is qualitative, in that there is something that it is like, or feels like to be in that state. This applies both to sensations and to thoughts....
Attention, Intention, and Will Will in quantum physics
05/12/2013 11:12
Henry Stapp Stapp starts by taking the view that the mind/matter problem represents a conflict between classical physics and our own intuitions. In classical physics we have to be automatons, while our intuition tells us that we are in charge of our actions. The dominant paradigm in neuroscience...
CONSCIOUSNESS, BIOLOGY AND FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS
05/12/2013 11:07
Consciousness is defined here as our subjective experience of the external world, our physical bodies, our thinking and our emotions. Consciousness is also defined in terms of ‘being like something’ to have experiences. It is like something to be alive, like something to have a body and like...
Why Quantum Theory?
05/12/2013 11:05
The features of quantum theory that make it special and also possibly relevant to consciousness can be summarised as follows: 1.) Quantum theory describes the fundamental level of energy and matter. In contrast to higher levels, the quantum level has aspects, such as mass, charge and spin that are...
Quantum mechanics, consciousness & the self
05/12/2013 09:43
Chris Clarke Faculty of Mathematical Studies, University of Southampton Chis Clarke’s paper discusses qualia and free will. Clarke defines the irreducible aspect of qualia and also free will as the essence of human consciousness. He thinks that qualia arise from an ‘entanglement’ between a person...
Quantum consciousness
05/12/2013 09:40
Piero Scaruffi Piero Scaruffi takes the view that the more we come to know about the brain, the less easy it becomes to explain consciousness in terms of classical physics. This is the direct opposite of the mainstream view according to which greater knowledge of the brain will inevitably reveal an...
Photons as carriers of consciousness
05/12/2013 09:38
Herms Romijn Netherlands Institute for Brain Research Romijn puts forward the concept that subjectivity or consciousness is coded into the virtual photons that generate electric and magnetic fields. This approach has considerable advantages. Photons intermediating the electromagnetic force are, as...
How many people in my head
05/12/2013 09:37
Jonathan Edwards, Imprint Academic The author has painstakingly researched and developed his own theory of consciousness. He argues firstly, that consciousness has to exist at the level of the individual neuron, and secondly that this neuron-based consciousness is an electromechanical wave of...
Consciousness in Bohm’s Ontology
05/12/2013 09:35
Paavo Pylkkännen University of Skövde, Sweden Bohm’s views on both quantum theory and consciousness changed over the course of his life, making it difficult to specify his exact views. Bohm proposed that a quantum particle was accompanied by a field or quantum potential that Bohm proposed as the...
The Implicate Order
05/12/2013 09:34
David Bohm took the view that quantum theory and relativity contradicted one another, and that this contradiction implied that there existed a more fundamental level in the physical universe. He claimed that both quantum theory and relativity pointed towards this deeper theory. This more...
Nature of Quantum Theory
05/12/2013 09:32
The fundamental particles are bound together by the four forces of nature, which are gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and the weak nuclear forces. The strong nuclear force binds together the particles in the nucleus of the atom, and acts only over the very short range of the nucleus itself....
The Holographic Universe
01/12/2013 05:40
The universe we see is a “holographic universe.” "University of London physicist David Bohm, for example, believes … that despite its apparent solidity, the universe is at heart a phantasm, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram."2 [Read more] ...
A threat unknown to many: Holocene Extinction
29/11/2013 06:40
By John Black While people remain occupied with everyday life—political and economic crises, entertainment and conspiracy theories—an event has been transpiring that is so important and vital for humanity, yet no one has been paying attention to it. The Holocene extinction is a term used to...
Colony Earth and The Rig Veda - Part II
29/11/2013 06:38
by Susan I have taken the off-world position of reading the Sanskrit texts through the eyes of an ancient astronaut, and interpret them through the filter of the more current science and astrophysics. While simultaneously and conversely, from my understanding of the cosmology and metaphysical...
Colony Earth and The Rig Veda - Part I
29/11/2013 06:36
By Susan Earth is only one of hundreds of colonies in our galaxy, which is home to 100 billion alien planets. Now is the time for this self-evident truth to be accepted! Planet Earth is a Sacred Cosmic Life Laboratory for the creation of a wondrous variety of beings. What is created here may be...
Rama's Bridge: Where Modern Science And Ancient Myths Collide
29/11/2013 06:34
By Rita Historians, archeologists and researchers into our distant past insist that civilized life began on the Earth about 5,000 years ago. They point to the fact that there is no hard evidence to support the existence of a preexisting culture prior to the rise of the Sumerians and the...
Creation Myth of the Maori – New Zealand
29/11/2013 06:32
By April Holloway The Maori people are the natives of New Zealand who, like other tribes, have myths that are related to the creation of the world and the creation of man. According to the Maori, in the beginning was emptiness, and nothing existed. This state is called ‘Te Kore’ by the Maori....
Pangu and the Chinese Creation Myth
29/11/2013 06:28
By Beth Pangu is a prominent figure in Chinese creation mythology. The Zhuang people still sing a “Song about Pangu Creating the Heaven and Earth”. The origin of the Pangu myth has been much debated. Many believe it originated with Xu Zheng, a Chinese author from the 3rd century CE, as he was the...
Australian Aboriginals - Creation Myth
29/11/2013 06:25
By April Holloway At the beginning it was only darkness and a bare land… The Aborigines of Australia are considered one of the oldest surviving cultures in the world. Many different creation stories exist among the different Aboriginal groups. These ‘Dreamtime’ stories are considered to be a...
Creation according to the Christians & Hebrews
29/11/2013 06:22
By April Holloway Christianity is the world’s biggest religion, with 2.3 billion followers as of 2010. The Christianity account of creation is described in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1-1). According to the...
Darwin Theory
27/11/2013 17:21
By John Black On the 24th of November 1859, Charles Darwin published his famous work titled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, thus setting the basis for the development of evolutionary biology. In this body of work, Darwin explains the theory of natural selection, which...
Muslims: The Origins of Human Beings
27/11/2013 17:10
By April Holloway With more than 1.67 billion followers, Muslims are the second biggest religious population on Earth. The major sacred text of the Muslims is the Quran (also spelt Koran), which they believe is the word of God (or Allah in Arabic). The Quran consists of 114 chapters which were...
The Maya myth of creation
27/11/2013 17:09
By April Holloway The Maya civilization flourished in South America at approximately 2000BC. They developed a unique style of arts and architecture, astronomy, even a written language. Though their writing—and even the famous Mayan calendar—were not of their own invention (but from the...
Greek mythology and human origins
27/11/2013 17:04
By John Black Greek mythology begins with the Creation Myth, which is contained within many different sources of ancient Greek texts. The most complete one is Theogony from the Greek poet Hesiod, who lived around the 8th century BCE. Hesiod combines all Greek myths and traditions to create...
MYTHS OF ORIGINS
27/11/2013 16:43
The most significant myths of a given culture are usually the cosmogonic, or creation myths, the sacred stories evolved and developed in an effort to explain the origin of the universe, the presence of the gods, and the existence of man. And so we shall devote this chapter, by far the longest in...
The origins of human beings according to ancient Sumerian texts
27/11/2013 16:40
By John Black Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was...
The Hindu sacred texts about human origins
27/11/2013 16:39
By April Holloway Third in the list of major religions, with more than 870 million followers, is Hinduism. Hinduism goes back to 5000 BCE and is a compilation of many diverse traditions (in contrast to Christianity and Muslim traditions, both of which emerged from a single founder) making it...
Aztec Creation myths
27/11/2013 16:37
By April Holloway The Aztecs civilization flourished in Central America a few hundred years after the Mayans. The creation myth according to the Aztecs is a continuous story of creations and destructions, called suns. The myth which tells the story of the creation is called the Legend of the...
Celtic Myths on creation
27/11/2013 16:35
By April Holloway Celtic mythology does not propose a single version or description of the creation as a whole, as other religions and mythologies do, but a few Celtic myths mention that heaven and earth was created by giants, considered by this peoples group to be the ancient original...
The Egyptian Creation Epic
27/11/2013 16:32
by Aaron Leitch According to archaeologists, Egypt—alongside Sumer—produced one of the first known civilizations. There are many Egyptian myths related to creation; however, all of them share a common theme: that the world emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea. The first to appear was the god Ra,...
Mormons’ creation theory
27/11/2013 16:30
By April Holloway The Mormon Church, a sect of Christianity sometimes referred to as a cult, has a collection of sacred writings called the Pearl of Great Price. Mormons believe in the concept of creation according to Genesis, but they also give some additional information based on several...
Panspermia Theory
27/11/2013 16:28
By John Black The first reference to the word ‘Panspermia’ is in the 5th century BCE by the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. The theory was again revived in 1834 by scientists, specifically Jons Jacob Berzelius, then again by Lord Kevin (William Thomson) in 1871, and Svante Arrhenius in 1903. In...
The meaning of the word Myth
27/11/2013 16:25
By John Black The word ‘myth’ has generally come to identify any story that is believed to be a work of fiction; however, when analyzing myths and legends, it is important to understand the evolution of the word and how, using the word as it was originally understood, it is crucial to the...
Article archive
23/07/2022 13:32
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/science/index.html The James Webb Space Telescope will be a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins. JWST will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of...
What REALLY makes us worry: New region of the brain discovered that controls anxiety
31/01/2014 09:44
By Mark Prigg Researchers have revealed a major breakthrough in treating anxiety disorders. A California team has discovered the region of the brain that controls how anxious we are - and found it wasn't where they had thought. The team now say it could now be targeted with drugs, leading to far...
Police and medical staff document America's real-life possession
31/01/2014 09:39
A nine-year-old boy walked backwards up a wall and ceiling as startled medical staff looked on after his mother claimed he and his two siblings had been possessed by demons, according to official reports. The unlikely-sounding event was detailed in official documents after a child services case...
Psychological common ground could ease tensions among those with different religious beliefs
29/01/2014 18:25
A new study found that thoughts of death increased atheists, Christians, Muslims and agnostics conviction in their own world views. For example, contrary to the wartime aphorism that there are no atheists in foxholes, thoughts of death did not cause atheists to express belief in a deity. [Read...
Sociologist Looks At Pediatric Physicians' Views On Religion, Spirituality
29/01/2014 18:23
Pediatricians and pediatric oncologists express differing views on religion and spirituality, largely based on the types of patients they treat, according to a new survey. Elaine Howard Ecklund, assistant professor of sociology and associate director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life...
When East meets West: Why consumers turn to alternative medicine
29/01/2014 16:59
Alternative health remedies are increasingly important in the health care marketplace. A new study explores how consumers choose among the many available remedies. "Examples of the wide array of health remedy options available to consumers include drugs, supplements, acupuncture, massage therapy,...
Paving the way for greater use of ancient medical knowledge
29/01/2014 16:58
Scientists are reporting an advance toward overcoming a major barrier to tapping the potential of traditional Chinese medicine and India's Ayurvedic medicine in developing new and more effective modern drugs. Andreas Bender and colleagues explain that TCM has made key contributions to modern...
Combining Chinese, Western medicine could lead to new cancer treatments
29/01/2014 16:56
Combining traditional forms of Chinese and Western medicine could offer new hope for developing new treatments for liver, lung, colorectal cancers and osteosarcoma of the bones. Experts from Cardiff University's School of Medicine have joined forces with Peking University in China to test the...
29/01/2014 16:55
Are the longevity and vitality of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) due to its holistic approach? Indeed, Chinese medicine is not simply about treating illness, but rather about taking care of the whole person -- body, mind, and spirit. According to an analysis of TCM's origins and development,...
Religion And Medicine: Sometimes A Healing Prescription
29/01/2014 15:37
Do pediatric oncologists feel that religion is a bridge or a barrier to their work? Or do they feel it can be either, depending on whether their patients are recovering or deteriorating? A novel study examines these questions in a new study. Through in-depth interviews with 30 pediatricians and...
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