The Source of Intuition May Be Divine

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” This statement by Henry David Thoreau, reflects a finding about following intuition and becoming the person you were meant to be, that is receiving increasing support. A recent example is the new book, Divine guidance: Your guide to creating a life you want (DorlingKindersley Publishing) by Lynn A. Robinson, M.Ed.. The author, editor of the Intuition Newsletter, proposes that intuition (as opposed to wishes or fears) is the voice of the Higher Self, or God, and gives many formulas for hearing its voice. One way to test the voice is whether or not following its guidance leads to synchronistic events that pave the way. This commonly noticed validation may one day lead to some interesting research on intuition. Until then, it may be worth your while to try your own experiment: ask your heart what would be good for you to do today, go do it, and see if synchronicities lead the way.

For more information, see www.lynnrobinson.com

Thanks be to Gratitude

If you find time to experience gratitude, you’ll be thankful that you did. Spending time in that pleasurable state of consciousness (William Blake called gratitude “Heaven itself”) is proving to have health benefits. The John Templeton Foundation brought together scholars and researchers for a two day conference in Dallas, Texas recently to explore the topic of gratitude. What is it, exactly? How can it best be fostered? Can it be studied scientifically? The answer to the last question is clearly, Yes!

Robert A. Emmons, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and author of The psychology of ultimate concerns: Motivation and spirituality in personality (Guilford Press), reported the results of his research studying people who found time in their lives to experience gratitude. Compared to a control group, these people experienced fewer physical symptoms, were more optimistic and had more energy.

The implication of this research is that in the late afternoon, when you feel yourself slacking, think of something that makes you feel grateful, and you’ll find it to be the pause that brings you new spirit!

Children’s Spiritual Life has Benefits

Young children have spiritual perceptions and thoughts, which can be cultivated to help them deal with life’s challenges. When asked, “When you hear the word ‘God’ what do you think of?” very young children are likely to give concrete answers like, “a big smile in the sky” or “an old man,” whereas older children may give answers like, “love” or “goodness.” Writing in Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology, Dr. Pat Fosarelli, M.D., at the department of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, reports that children think about God at challenging times, when abused, facing the loss of loved ones, or when ill. Dr. Fosarelli encourages parents to ask their children to share their thoughts on God and the challenges the children face. Bringing these thoughts out in the open help the children work out their feelings and lead to better emotional, physical and spiritual adjustment.

For more information, contact Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology, 923 Brookhollow Rd., Efland, NC 27243-8414.

Books on Science and Religion Win Prize

Two books have won the Prize for Outstanding Books in Theology and Natural Sciences, supported by a donation from the Richard Procuneir Trust and administered by the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences.

The first winner is Einstein and Religion (Princeton University Press) by Max Jammer. The author is a physicist himself and devotes a major portion of the book analysing Einstein’s statement, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

The second book is The mystical mind: Probing the biology of religious experience (Fortress Press) by Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew B. Newberg. The authors are medical researchers and explore how the brain is involved in mystical experiences. In their subsequent book, Why God won’t go away: Brain science and the biology of belief (Ballantine Books) they explore evidence supporting their theory that the brain is inherently programmed to experience God.

Prayer Used to Prove God’s Existence

How might we prove the existence of God? Perhaps the question can be answered by looking at the power of prayer. That perspective is the approach taken by Russell Stannard in his book, The God experiment: Can science prove the existence of God? (Hidden-Spring). The author presents scientific studies on the positive impact of prayer (some of those studies were noted in this column) to suggest that since prayer works, God must exist. Referring to the example of South Africa, where it was widely assumed that apartheid could only be ended through violence. Yet millions of people prayed for a peaceful solution and their prayers were answered. Although there are alternative explanations possible, the existence of a God who answers prayer is one plausible explanation.

Is God Electric?

Edgar Cayce’s image of God was dual: a God who was a being with whom one can have a relationship and an impersonal God most akin to energy itself. This idea has recently been echoed in a book by a research professor in nuclear physics at Catholic University, Dr. Lawrence W. Fagg, in his book, Electromagnetism and the sacred: At the frontier of spirit and matter (Continuum Publishing Company).

Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, keeping electrons in orbit, and providing a ubiquitious field of microwave radiation throughout the universe. It is light. It is also active in biological life and may have also been the source of “magnetism” in early hypnosis and its exploration of the curative power of kundalini forces, often associated with a divine presence.

The author doesn’t say that electromagnetism is itself God, but rather an analogy, the closest we have in the physical world to the divine.

Science and Religion Mingle Online

For those interested in the intersection of religion and science, there is an important new website available that provides a number of important resources in this area. Funded by the Countebalance Foundation, the site has articles on the evolution/creation controversy, biomedical ethical challenges, and many other areas of interaction between science and religion, including links to other resources located on the Internet. There is also a free electronic version of a popular text on the subject, God, humanity and the cosmos: A textbook in science and religion, edited by Christopher Southgate. This text is annotated with links to provide more information on selected topics.

Go see www.counterbalance.com

Rats Dream About Day at Work

If we sometimes feel that our dreams are but a rehash of our day at work, take heart--rats have the same fate. Research on the role of dreaming to secure the day’s learning into long term memory has reached deep down into the neurons of rat brains to confirm the existence of this oft-reported “rehash” phenomenon.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Learning and Memory put electrodes into the brain cells of rats as they learned a new task at their daytime office--a rat maze. According to the report of this research, published in the journal Neuron, while the rats were at home at night asleep, researchers waited for the occurrence of REM sleep and noted that the same brain cell activity patterns were occuring during the rats’ dreamtime as occured while they learned their new task earlier that day in the maze. Their dreaming was just a rehash of the day at the office.

Change Occurs a Step at a Time

If you are discontent with some aspect of your life and would like to make a change, please take note that making real change takes time. Rather than remaining stuck in a wistful daydream of instant transformation, it would be more practical to begin the long journey by taking your first step.

In the their new book, Changing for good (Avon), James Prochaska and John Norcross describe the skills and stages of successful change strategies:

1) Pre-contemplation: look into the benefits of change to increase and focus your motivation.

2) Contemplation: make a list of the benefits and the downside of the contemplated change. Think about ways of reducing the negative side-effects and visualize the benefits.

3) Preparation: make a plan, set a date and tell everyone about it.

4) Action: Take that first step. Remove any temptations to backslide and reward yourself for any little success.

5) Maintenance: Have a plan to support yourself during hard times, through prayer, meditation or relaxation.

6) Successful change: At the stage, the new behavioral pattern is automatic.

Imagine Going Beyond Human Limits

Would you like to read at the rate of 25,000 words a minute? What about having peace of mind no matter what the circumstances you face? Would you like to be able to shine an inner light toward any obstacle that faces you in light, only to have the path ahead cleared for you? These are but a few of the superhuman goals that are explored in the Internet “ezine” (electronic magazine) Beyond Human, in a quest for the outer limits of human potential, performance, intelligence and health.

In the current issue, a discussion forum contained comments from people who were experimenting with an approach to learning while asleep. Some were having interesting dreams, others were discussing their use of vitamin supplements to affect their sleep learning experiments.

For further information, go to www.beyondhuman.com

New Cayce Prophecies Found

“Hopkinsville, Ky.--A diary containing 41 new predictions that will rock the world has been found in the coffin of Edgar Cayce....including the exact date the world will end--Oct. 30, 2011.”

This news, published in the Weekly World News, reported that Dr. David Malendor, described as “world’s foremost authority on Edgar Cayce,” analysed Cayce’s diary handwriting and concluded that he wrote these predictions while asleep. Among the 41 predictions is the discovery of a virus that increases people’s IQ, that aliens from another planet take up residence on the earth in 2003, holding a million alien march on Washington, D.C., demanding equal rights with humans.

All of which goes to show you that you can’t always believe what you read in the papers, especially those you read while standing in the cashier line at Wal Mart.

Individualism is Changing

The attitude of the “me” generation is changing in two ways that is more in keeping with the philosophy of the Edgar Cayce readings. According to Daniel Yankelovich, working with the results polls conducted by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, people are becoming less self-centered and are more likely to perceive themselves as having some responsibility toward the community in which they live. In his report published in The Public Perspective, Yankelovich says that people are coming to realize they can’t have it all, that they have to give up something in the realm of career, family, and other desires and that they have to seek some of their satisfaction in their relationship with others in these domains.

In a related trend, people are also becoming less likely to adopt a victimhood status and personal entitlement and are instead assuming some personal responsibility for improving their situation.

Yankelovich explains this trend as a growing process, a natural shift in values that come from experience. Some of the me-generation values that will remain, however, are personal health and well-being.

For more information, see The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut, 341 Mansfield Road, U-164, Storrs, CT 06269; 1-860-486-4440; www.ropercenter.uconn.edu

Men Only Half Listen

Maybe women have always intuited this fact, but men listen with only half a brain. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine gave MRI scans to healthy young adults as they listened to a passage read from a novel. According to the results reported to at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the brain scans of women showed that there was listening activity on both sides of the brain, while men showed activity only on the left side of the brain.

The leading researcher, Joseph Lurito, according to a report in USA Today, speculated that perhaps women give listening their full attention, which is what many have suspected.

Earth’s Magnetic Pole Can Shift

At the core of the earth is hot liquid iron, swirling about, creating a magnetic generator. Evidence exists now that the polarity of this generator can shift, according to a report appearing in Living in the Light newsletter. Gary Glatzmaier, professor of earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, addressed the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and reported that his computer simulations of the rotating flow of liquid iron, taking into account the cooling that is occuring in this molten material, shows that the polarity has periodic shifts. In an article appearing in Nature, paleomagnetic records preserved in rocks have also shown shifts in polarity in the earth’s magnetism. Apparently the earth’s polarity is stable for about 200,00 years, and then, during a period of about 1000 years, it shifts.

For more information, contact Living in the Light newsletter, P.O. Box 4942, Virginia Beach, VA 23454-0942.

Dream Appreciation Online

Now available online are all back issues of the newsletter, Dream Appreciation. This newsletter is devoted to the dreamgroup procedures taught by Montague Ullman, M.D. His method is often referred to as the “if this were my dream” technique, whereby group members take on the dreamer’s dream as their own and then explore their own reactions to the dream as if it were their own.

Five years worth of the newsletter has covered topics on conducting dream groups, ESP in dreams, and the general attitude of appreciating dreams.

To access back issues of the newsletter, go to www.pp.htv.fi/msiivola/monte

Stress Costs $250 Billion Yearly

Almost one-fourth of the money that Americans spend on health care, which amounts to about $250 billion, is spent for medical attention related to unhealthy habits and other modifiable health care risks, such as smoking and obesity. The most expensive health care risk is what USA Today called “out-of-control stress.”

In a study reported in the American Journal of Health Promotion, researchers at the Medstat Group in Washington, D.C., a health information company, studied the records of selected major corporations that had health care plans for its employees. They found that smokers and ex-smokers had substantial health care costs, as well as those who were overweight. Couch potatoes were also high on the list. The highest cost, however, was found to be associated with those who complained of stress at work for which there was no apparent solution. Besides encouraging people to stop smoking, to improve diet and begin exercising, it seemed important for companies to address what could be done to reduce stress at the workplace.

Pain has Intuition Within

Pay attention to your pain, listen to it, and maybe it will provide you with some important guidance. So says Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D. and Christiane Northrup, M.D., authors of Awakening intuition: Using your mind-body network for insight and healing (Three Rivers Press), who find that their patients’ symptoms are actually intuitive guidance systems for learning how to restore balance in life.

They advocate learning about the “body genius,” which are memories stored within the body that signal when something is not right. Taking some time to listen to pain, and the genius within the pain will speak to you. It has a clue about what you need to avoid or change at the moment. Headache, nausea, joint pain, shoulder ache, sinus pressure, sneezing, or hiccups may be such signals. See if you can learn from them.

Internet May Help Destabilize Minds

One aspect of “earth changes” predicted by Edgar Cayce was that mental health would be challenged, with some people becoming more vulnerable to destabilization. One possible source of this effect might be coming indirectly through the influence of the internet. Information, the deterioration of the quality and accuracy of information, and the quick spread of information, may lead to unfortunate effects in those vulnerable to worry.

Writing in the magazine, The Futurist, Deborah Sawyer, president of Information Plus, a research-services firm, notes that the amount of false information is increasing on the internet, including even hoaxes. She also notes that many people are losing their critical thinking skills and are more likely to accept false information at face value. We have already seen many panics occur through false information , such as supposed computer viruses that weren’t for real, proposed government regulations that weren’t actually being planned. A

As we become more dependent upon the internet for our information, the more likely we will see panics in the future.

She advocates that the best way to protect yourself from the effects of false information that might be spread on the internet is to use alternative sources of information, looking to print and broadcast news for verification. Her advice is similar to that often given by Edgar Cayce in his signature phrase, “correlate those truths.”

For further information, contact Deborah C. Sawyer, Information Plus, 14 Lafayette Square, Suite 2000, Buffalo, NY 14203; 1-716-852-2220.

Guided Imagery Calms Children During Medical Test

Children undergoing medical tests can become quite agitated and require sedation, which is not always desirable. A recent study provides evidence that simple guided imagery techniques can help calm the child and avoid the need for sedation.

Gail Smart, a pediatric nurse specialist at Children’s Hospital of Denver, conducted a study using guided imagery for children, aged four to eight years old, undergoing MRI procedures. According to her report published in The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing, she gave half the children guided imagery, involving breathing, progressive relaxation, and a guided imagery fantasy about a ride in a hot air balloon which took the child to a series of magical islands. She found that seven of the ten children who received the guided imagery work needed no sedation to complete the medical test. Of the ten children in the control group, only two made it through the procedure without requiring sedation.

For more information, contact Health Journeys Network News, 891 Moe Drive, Suite C, Akron, OH 44310. Website: www.healthjourneys.com