Grant Awarded to Study Alternative Treatments for Arthritis

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded a $62,000 grant to the Hawaiian Department of Health to ways to treat and control arthritis. According to a report in the Honolulu Star Bulletin, the various methods to be studied include chiropractic medicine, acupuncture, massage therapy, prayer, herbal medicines as well as indigeneous healing methods. An Hawaiian native healer was invited to conduct a healing ceremony, in fact, to open the first meeting of the research committee.

Americans Believe in Miracles

Greater than eighty per cent of Americans believe in miracles, and almost fifty per cent believe they have been the beneficiary of a miracle or have direct knowledge of one. According to a poll conducted by Newsweek magazine, seventy nine per cent of those polled believe that the miracles described in the Bible actually do happen. When religious affiliation is taken into account, these percentages are even higher. Among Christians, ninety percent believe in miracles, and among evagenical prostentants, ninety eight per cent are believers in miracles.

Mental Imagery Aids Invention

Relaxing into a dream-like reverie to evoke mental imagery can be an aid to technological invention and scientific creativity. Researchers at the College of Engineering at Arizona State University guided a scientifically educated individual through a series of explorations into novel technological inventions while this scientist was in an altered state of consciousness. According to their report published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, the entranced scientist was able to report quite detailed technical data relevant to the invention of two novel devices, one involving solar energy and the other involving the creation of a synthetic lubricant. Subsequent laboratory investigations of these ideas proved their viability.

The researchers concluded that imagery enhancing altered states of consciousness would be a valuable avenue of exploration in scientific research and development.

For more information, write to Bruce C. Towe, College of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-6006 email: bruce.towe@asu.edu

White House Issues Alternative Medicine Policy

President Clinton released an executive order March 8, 2000 establishing the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.

According to the order, the Commission will make legislative and administrative recommendations for assuring that public policy maximizes the benefits of complementary and alternative medicine. The recommendations will address educating healthcare practitioners in complementary and alternative medicine, coordinating research to increase knowledge about complementary and alternative medicine practices and products, providing healthcare professionals reliable and useful information about complementary and alternative medicine, and guidance for appropriate access to and delivery of complementary and alternative medicine.

Read the executive order online at http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/3/8/13.text.1

Health Insurance Recognizes Spiritual Care

If you live in Denver, Colorado, chances are you can get your HMO to pay for spiritual counseling. According to a report in USA Today, many health care organizations are now paying for alternative care in response to patients’ complaints that they are being ignored in favor of the “bottom line.”

In a major move, Blue Shield of California is now covering the cost of relaxation and imagery audio cassettes for patients going into surgery. These tapes, developed by therapist Bellertuh Naparstek, have been researched by University of California, Davis, and were found to reduce post-operative bleeding.

Cynics believe that the health care organizations are merely trying to dissuade patients from complaining about their insurance plans, but others see the development as a step forward in the recognition of alternative medicine.

Native Americans Advise NASA on Climate Changes

“In the old days, the elders in Alaska could forecast the weather by watching the stars. But the Earth is so fast now, we can't predict the weather anymore." These were words spoken by a Siberian Yupek elder at a special conference sponsored by NASA to involve Native Americans in understanding the climate changes that are becoming ever so more obvious.

Called the Circle of Wisdom: Native Peoples/Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop, and held in Albuquerque, N.M., according to a report in the Salt Lake City Tribune, the meeting provided the natives an opportunity to report their own observations on the effects of climate changes. Eskimos reported that the warming has affected ice formation, which has a domino effect upon the lives of several animal species as well as the humans who depend upon them for their sustenance.

Asking for advice and guidance on how to respond to these changes, the native elders stressed increasing public awareness and prayers. “When people understand that they are not separate from the natural world, they will seek to honor and understand it. This is why Chief Joseph said long ago that the Earth was part of his body and they were of one mind."

Brain Damaged Patients Become Lie Detectors

Persons who have suffered strokes and have trouble understanding the spoken word nevertheless excel at detecting deceit in others. In a study published recently in the journal Nature, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital verified this phenomenal ability.

In the study, patients whose stroke affected the left side of the brain, the part responsible for speech recognition, viewed videos of women who were describing looking at a beautiful sunset. Some of these videotaped women were lying, as they were actually looking at a traumatic scene, but pretending they were viewing the beautiful scene. Normal persons can detect the lying women with only 50 per cent, or chance, accuracy. The brain damaged patients showed an accuracy rate of 73 per cent. When these patients recovered from their strokes, their accuracy rate dropped to chance levels.

Previous research has suggested that clues to a person’s lying exist is subtle facial movements. The current study shows that when the left side of the brain is incapacitated, the right side of the brain, responsible for processing the visual cues, gains dominance and shows its superior ability at detecting the pertinent cues.

Parents’ Consistent Words Shape Children’s Beliefs

Children more accurately perceive their parents’ religious beliefs and are more likely to absorb these beliefs when the two parents agree in their beliefs and communicate them regularly to their children. This conclusion comes from a study conducted at Purdue University and recently published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Researchers interviewed college students aged 18 to 25, from intact families, about their parents’ religious beliefs and then interviewed the parents to test the accuracy of their children’s perceptions. The results showed that students had more accurate perceptions on subjects for which both parents agreed.

For a press release prepared by the university, Lynn Okagaki, an associate professor of child development and family studies and principle investigator in this study said, "It makes a difference in terms of what the child is going to perceive as important. If Mom and Dad don't believe the same things, the child not only gets a content message on what those differing beliefs are, but also gets the message that people can have different ideas about a particular belief, and that makes the child feel there is more freedom to choose."

Technical Remote Viewers Solve Problems

The use of well-developed clairvoyance, called today remote viewing, is finding varied applications. A Hawaiin enterprise, employing a proprietory form of this skill, which they call Technical Remote ViewingÒ, has successfully diagnosed technological events that have been in the headlines.

Their team of viewers correctly “saw” that the signals apparently coming from the lost Mars probe were actually originating from something orbiting the earth. Their remote viewing process indicated that the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 was the result of a person who attacked the pilot, which is proving consistent with the findings of investigators.

Among other projects is an ongoing search for terrorist activity within the U.S., searching for missing persons, and previewing natural disasters and effects of climate changes. Their web site contains descriptions of these projects as well as related news reports from the media.

See their web site at www.psitech.net

For the contents of the most recent conference on remote viewing, see the website at www.rvconference.org/RVconference/RVC1.htm

Medical School receives grant for spiritualilty

The John Templeton Foundation has given a grant to the Case Western Reserve University Medical School for introducing spiritualilty to their training of doctors. Doctors learn to talk to patients, not just about exercise, but about their spiritual practices, according to a report in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Medical students accompany chaplains on their rounds to visit patients.

Beyond such grants, the Foundation also makes annual awards. The 2000 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion went to Freeman J. Dyson, a physicist and Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. According to the Foundation’s news release, Dr. Dyson has “dedicated much of his life to advocating the development of ‘joyful and useful’ technologies for the benefit of all humankind, regardless of economic or cultural situation. His insistence on using current emerging technologies as social equalizers -- in much the same way that vaccines, antibiotics, and electricity helped bridge economic and social gaps in the 20th century -- has put him at the forefront of scientists who call for eliminating the wedge that technology drives between the haves and have nots.” Dr. Dyson has spoken out against the commercialization of genetic research and engineering. He fears that manipulated gene pools would lead to the creation of "hereditary castes." According to a report on the award appearing in USA Today, Dr. Dyson is a self-declared “agnostic,” meaning he has not decided on whether or not he believes in the existence of God.

The annual Templeton award was created in 1972, according to the Foundation’s web site, “by the pioneering global investor Sir John Templeton to remedy what he saw as an oversight by the Nobel Prizes, which do not honor the discipline of religion. The Templeton Prize is always set at an amount that exceeds the value of the Nobels.”

See their web site at www.templeton.org

Quiet Knowing Newsletter Promotes Intuition

Intuition sometimes comes to us in the form of being “spoken to,” as in a dream or through other forms of knowing. The word oracle comes from the Latin, orare, meaning “to speak.” When we make a special effort to consult our intution, the result may be the manifestation of an oracle, that is, we are “spoken to,” as if in answer to our request.

Renee Takacs, a graduate of Atlantic University whose thesis investigated how psychics function in corporate settings, provides a newsletter on intuition, called Quiet Knowing. The most recent issue concerned oracles, their variety and how to turn your awareness toward them.

For further information contact Takacs and Associates, 1112 Bank Street, #13, Bridgeville, PA 15017.

Edgar Cayce’s Journey Outlined on Web

When Edgar Cayce gave a reading, he often “traveled” to a “Hall of Records” to read information about a person’s past lives. Past life researcher Henry Bolduc, who has published with A.R.E. Press about his work with self-hypnosis, has posted on a new web site the self-hypnosis script he has successfully used with many explorers who have attempted to follow Mr. Cayce’s footsteps to the Hall of Records. Readers may download this script and read it into an audio-cassette recorder to attempt their own experiments in accessing the Hall of Records.

The script, with background information can be found at www.henrybolduc.com/cayce.html

Also now available for free download is the complete text of Bolduc’s book, Your Creative Voice, which is the textbook used by the Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies course on the “Entrepreneurial Spirit.” This material provides practical tools for those people whose mission in life is to serve others by sharing from their own experience, as advocated by Edgar Cayce.

The book can be found at http://www.creativespirit.net/henrybolduc/free.htm

Year 2000 Winter was Warmest on Record

Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that the period December, 1999 to February, 2000 was the warmest on record for the United States. That winter’s average temperature, 38.4 degrees, according to the report published in USA Today, beat the previous record, set the year before, of 37.8 degrees. The article quoted James Baker, of the NOAA as saying, “We’re looking at a warmer world. We can expect to see more extreme weather--heat waves, floods and droughts.”

It’s Entertaining to Share Dreams

Why do people tell their dreams to others? What dreams are shared and to whom are they told? In cultures where dreams are highly valued, dream sharing often occurs in specifically defined contexts. In our culture, dreams have a mixed reputation. The society recognizes their importance to psychotherapy, where they are told in private to a professional, but the more public role of dreams is unclear.

Investigators at Loyola questioned several hundred college students about their dream sharing practices. The results of their study, published in Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, showed that more than eighty per cent of the students reported recalling dreams several times a week or more. Practically all could recall at least one instance of telling a dream to someone else. The most frequent person to whom the dream was told was a friend in a one-on-one, face-to-face situation. It was rare for a person to tell a dream in a group setting (eight per cent), or to a therapist (one per cent).

Why was the dream told? About half the time the dream was told for entertainment purposes, and about a third of the time it was told for the purpose of sharing. In less than eight per cent of all cases was the dream told with the expectations of any therapeutic gain.

How do people react to hearing a dream? In more than fifty per cent of the cases, the listener was entertained. Ten per cent of the time the listener thought the dream was weird. Slightly more often they were interested.

Some dreams are not told. When asked if there were situations where it was not safe to tell a dream, about a third of the students said it was not good to tell someone a dream in which that person was in danger, for fear it might jinx the person. When asked if there were dreams they would never tell, almost sixty per cent said they would never tell a sex dream.

For more information, contact Barbara Vann, Department of Sociology, Loyola College, 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210; email BVANN@LOYOLA.EDU