Pray to Become Optimistic

If you are facing a crisis and wish for some optimism to get you through it more gracefully, then pray for it. Research has shown that private prayer before a challenging ordeal raises the level of optimism about the outcome.

Researchers interviewed over two hundred patients facing heart surgery, both before and after their time in the hospital to assess both these patients’ prayer practices, but also their feelings about the surgery and its outcome. According to Amy L. Ai, Ph.D., of the University of Washington Health Sciences, lead investigator, the use of private prayer was significantly related to optimism going into surgery. According to her report in Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology, the power of prayer did not depend upon church attendance or religious preference. Researchers did find, however, that the effect was stronger in older patients, perhaps because they have had more opportunity to respond to life crises.

Child’s Fantasy Life Important to Creativity

Children who use their imagination more fully grow into creative problem solvers. Researchers at Case Western University studied how second grade children handled play with puppets and blocks. Those who exhibited more details in their play and who showed more emotion showed greater creative problem solving skills three years later in fifth grade, according to their study reported in Creativity Research Journal. Sandra Russ, PhD, the psychology professor in charge of the study said that fantasy play allows the children to explore different points of view, which come in handy when attempting creative problem solving. A follow-up study is planned for when the children are in high school.

Good Smells Divert Bad Habits

If you are trying to change a bad habit, try carrying a vial of your favorite scent. A study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh and published in the American Psychological.Association. Monitor found that sniffing very pleasant odors lessened the urge to smoke among confirmed smokers. Researchers stimulated the smoking urge by having the person light up a cigarette but then put it out. Subjects then sniffed various aromas and noted whether or not the sniff had any effect on their urge to smoke. The most effective aromas were intense, fragrant aromas, such as fruits and flowers. Michael Sayette, Ph.D., the chief investigator, supposed that these positive aromas reminded the person of a pleasant time in the past and thus reduced the desire for a cigarette. If so, then the method might prove effective for other bad habits.

Bringing Light to Consiousness

Students of the Edgar Cayce readings are familiar with his formula for creation: Spirit is the Life, Mind is the Builder, the Physical is the Result. Now an eminent physicist, Peter Russell who studied with Stephen Hawking, has presented a comprehensive theory of reality that is essentially the same as Cayce’s formula. His book, From Science to God: The mystery of consciousness and the meaning of light. As the title of his book suggests, the bridge between science and religion, between consciousness and the material world is light itself.

You can receive this light online, as Peter has made his book available at no cost at www.peterussell.com/SG/contents.html

(ed: only one r .. peterussell… in the web address…)

Social Life as Important as the Gym

“Pressing the flesh may be just as important as pumping iron if you want to age gracefully,” says a report by UniSci Daily University Science. As our population ages, researchers are studying what goes into longevity and quality of life. Exercise has received much credit for cardiac and skeletal health. Now researchers at the Department of Recreation at the University of Florida found that socializing figures just as importantly as exercising. Exercising with others, as a medium for social interaction is ideal.

For further information, see http://unisci.com/stories/20021/0130024.htm

Birth Control Pill Throws Women off the Scent

Past research has shown that given a pile of t-shirts worn by unwashed men and asked to pick the most attractive man simply by smell, a woman will nominate a man who’s genes offer a widened immunity profile relative to that woman’s own genes, thus insuring more healthy offspring. This finding is but one in a series we’ve covered here because of Edgar Cayce’s statement that odors are the most influential of all the senses. In this case, the effect is subliminal, but powerful.

Further research, however, has found that women who are currently taking birth control pills do not demonstrate this ability to identify the genetically diverse male. The study, conducted at the Univerity of Bern and reported in the journal New Scientist, women on the pill chose men who whose genetic immunity profile was most like their own Prior research has shown that such a combination results in a greater for miscarriages. A woman taking oral contraceptives who finds herself attracted to a particular man may find that her attraction disappears should she discontinue her medication.

For further information, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4136472,00.html

Online Test Created for Medical Intuitives

If you think you’ve got some potential ability as a medical intuitive, then Dean Radin, Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, has developed an online experiment for you to test your abilities.

The test involves assessing whether you think a person is alive or deceased, based upon a photo of the person. All of the photos in this test were taken from public web sites, but all identifying names and other obvious visual cues have been removed.

In an email announcement of this new program, Dean Radin said, “I created this site to test ‘medical intuitives,’ people who claim to be able to do medical diagnosis at a distance. This test was developed to test a claim by some intuitives that they can tell whether a person is alive or dead by examining a photograph. “

The test includes 200 pictures. You'll see one at a time, and you can assess one or more, as you wish.  The web page will remember where you left off if you decide to return later (provided that your browser handles cookies properly). If you complete all 200 pictures you'll get feedback on how well you did (as a correct "hit rate" percentage).

The experiment is located at http://www.psiarcade.com/diagnose/intro.html

For further information, contact Dean Radin at DeanRadin@noetic.org

Welcome the Millenial Generation

Children born from 1982 onward into the nineties, from those just entering college to those recently born, are part of a special generation called the Millenials. Neil Howe and William Strauss, researchers and authors of books on generational cycles and trends, have published their latest study, Millenials Rising: The Next Great Generation (Vintage Books). In preparing this study, they interviewed over six hundred high school students graduating from the class of 2000 and over two hundred of their teachers. The authors make several predictions about the impact of this generation upon society. The news is good. It is to be a positive, can-do, responsible group. Their large size will insure that their influence will be huge. As children, they received the most attention of any generation.

Some of the predictions the authors make in their book: Between 2002 and 2007 they will influence youth culture and by 2012 they will have established themselves as a national phenomenon. Honor, authority, teamwork and rules will be very important to this generation, pleasing the older generations with their clean-cut, cooperative proclivities. Many of the disturbing trends associated with teenagers will greatly diminish: truancy, substance abuse, crime, suicide and unwed pregnancy. They will be a force to make the internet more civil. They will be rebels only in that they will be “anti-boomer” in their attitudes. They see themselves as “the kids who will change things.”

The authors’ research see generational qualities moving in cycles. They compare the Millenials to the generation that won World War II. They won’t be culture creators, as were the boomers, but more the rebuilders of political and economic institutions, focusing on community and public purpose.

The biggest challenge they’ll feel is pressure, especially the pressure to achieve and to live up to high expectations.

They will also be spiritually oriented. They will be called to prayer and attracted to organized religion.

The authors have established a large web site in conjunction with their book, including excerpts, forums, discussion groups and links to related material.

For further information, go to www.millennialsrising.com

Are You Ready to Rapture?

Armageddon, apocalypse, the Rapture. These visions are so on the minds of many people that Time Magazine recently had a cover story on the current excitement generated by the possible “end of the world” that may be coming. In that special feature, Time reported the results of polls that indicated that thirty-six percent of Americans believe that “the Bible is the word of God and is to be taken literally.” They also noted that “fifty-nine percent believe that the prophecies in the Book of Revelation will come true” and that almost twenty-five percent believe that the Bible predicted the September 11 tragedy. They cite the popularity of the Left Behind series of books, now on to its tenth book, The Remnant, having sold more than thirty six million copies, as evidence of the power of these ideas for the popular imagination.

Time found that more than one-third of those polled indicate that they “are paying more attention now to how the news might relate to the end of the world.” As an aid in this process, a popular web site, “Rapture Ready” (www.raptureready.com) compiles news of current events and their relationship to prophecies of the end times in the Bible. The European Union’s political merger, unrest in the Middle East, the nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, global terrorism, the discussion about a national I.D. card, civil liberty concerns, global drought conditions, fires, floods and famines, and so on become points adding up to the closing in on “midnight,” or the end of the world.

In case you miss the rapture and are left behind, if your computer and the internet are still functioning, you can go to www.raptureready.com/rap49.html and read what to do for another chance to be “taken.”

Chew on Hi-Tech Telepathy

Why bother to develop your telepathic skills when a simple implant in your teeth will allow you to communicate with anyone? When smoke signals could be seen from the next mountain, and drum beats could be heard only in the adjoining valley, telepathy was useful for communicating with folks farther away. But today we have cell phones, and they are approaching the size of cells! Technology has now developed a mobile cell phone that can be implanted in one of your teeth. Totally hands free, and invisible, people will wonder if you are talking to yourself! When people are talking about you, your ears won’t burn, but your teeth will chatter!

For more on this technological marvel, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/sci/tech/2055654.stm

Sleep and Dream Research Confirm Cayce

The basic idea of Edgar Cayce’s view of sleep and dreams is that the sensory-based conscious mind goes “offline” to allow the unconscious mind, the soul self more activity. During dreamtime, the soul compares patterns or “truths” in that days’ activities and experiences with the soul’s memories of past lessons learned and its agendas for the lifetime.

Modern research in sleep and dreams is developing a picture that is consistent with Cayce’s view. One theme that is emerging is that sleep and dreams provide a chance to solidify learning from the previous day, incorporating the day’s lessons into structures learned previously. Here are some examples of this research, provided through the news-scanning services of schwartzreport.com:

A nap can help us cope with the stresses of the day. Research sponsored by the National Insitutes of Mental Health showed that performing a mental task repeatedly causes a progressive burnout effect as the day wears on. A short nap eliminated this deterioration. Increasing the nap from thirty minutes to an hour even resulted in improved performance.

By monitoring the activity of the brain during the learning of the task and while the subject sleeps, researchers are able to correlate changes in task performance to what goes on during sleep. By altering the nature of the task, and noting the change in brain activity, researchers are able to ascertain what task the brain is processing during sleep. By these methods, they have found that a repetitive task overloads the brain’s ability to process information while sleep allows the brain to catch up with the learning. A nap refreshes the brain’s ability to process information.

Certain types of learning, however, requires a deeper sleep that naps don’t provide. Overnight sleep that extends into the morning hours provides the brain with special information processing abilities. That dream just before you awake is thus the one to be one that causes you to awaken and shout, “Eureka!”

Research in Belgium have confirmed this role of the dreaming brain to consolidate learning. When subjects were trained to learn a task that was actually a test for recognizing subliminal patterns, the dreaming brain showed the same type of activation as when those subliminal patterns were shown. On days when only random patterns were shown, and no learning was possible, the type of brain activation during dreaming seen on actual training days was absent. It shows how the brain is detecting information, or the lack of it, during the day, and processing it for patterns, even though the waking person is totally oblivious of this process.

Gratefulness Alleviates Pain

When a group of adults with neuromuscular disease practiced for three weeks a gratitude exercise daily, journaling about five things in their lives they were grateful for, they evidenced, according to a brief report in Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology, more high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimism and better sleep, than a control group of similarly distressed adults who served in the control group.

For more information, contact Robert A. Emmons at raemmons@ucdavis.edu

Medical Journal Focuses on Religion and Health

The journal of the Society for of Behavior Medicine devoted its February, 2002 issue of its Annals to the debate on religion and health. Most of the articles are positive in their reviews on the research, but a concluding article by a minister warns that to expect doctors to spend time spiritually counseling their patients is unrealistic.

For information on the articles in that special issue, with summaries of each, see www.catchword.com/erlbaum/08836612/v24n1/contp1-1.htm

Viewing Nature Good for Grades

Having a room with a view of nature—seeing green instead of concrete—is helpful for having a successful life. Researchers at the University of Illinois studied at risk girls, aged seven to twelve, living in inner-city neighborhoods of Chicago. They correlated the amount of green visible from the apartment windows in their homes with various measures of the girls’ quality of life and school performance. The results, published in the online Journal of Environmental Psychology, showed that the greener the view, the better the girls were able to concentrate, avoid impulsive behavior and delay gratification. 

For more information, go to http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-06/uoia-gwv062602.php or contact Jim Barlow at b-james3@uiuc.edu