Play Games to Grow.

Researchers at McGill University are studying how playing various computer games can train your thought patterns into new directions. Online now at http://selfesteemgames.mcgill.ca/games/index.htm are several online games you can play to explore your own thought patterns as they pertain to self-esteem.

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Praying for Jobs Improves Faith

As the jobless rate reaches historic heights, many churches are offering unemployment support groups. Not only do the groups train folks in praying for jobs, they also use this opportunity to build a stronger faith. Support groups offer practical training, such as asking members to practice an “elevator speech,” in which the job hunter describes his or her qualifications in one minute. Spiritual counseling includes help in experiencing God’s presence. The spiritual work improves the job seeker’s frame of mind in their search for new work.

Web source:

Asking God for peace, and help in job search

Faith-based groups springing up to give comfort to those out of work

BEVERLY, Mass. - Her fellow job seekers offer knowing groans as Diane Castro recalls the day she was laid off: The fear of being summoned to the front office. The phones in nearby cubicles going off like grenades. Finally, a ring at her desk.

Every member of the unemployment support group meeting has their own story to share and encouragement to give. In twice monthly gatherings, they exchange tips on writing resumes, developing new contacts and making ends meet.

They also pray.

"Father, we pray you would strengthen our faith and help us to wait on you," Castro says as heads bow around her. "It can be so hard sometimes to be patient."

Castro's group is one of several church-related unemployment support groups that have formed around the country as the jobless rate reaches heights not seen for decades. On Thursday, the government reported a 9.5 percent unemployment rate for June, the worst in 26 years.

Job seekers can't use God as a reference, and studying Scripture might seem unrelated to grabbing a prospective employer's attention. But church support group members say the meetings aren't just about helping people find the next job; they're also about refining and strengthening their faith along the way.

"The help available and the assistance on a spiritual level is amazing," said Walter Baker, a retired human resources executive who leads a four-month-old group at Grace Community Church in Auburn, Wash.

Baker and Castro welcome the nonreligious to their groups, though very few people without faith have attended.

Baker offers group members resume reviews and mock interviews. He asks them to craft an "elevator speech" — a pitch of their qualifications they can deliver quickly. And he urges them to "draw close to God."

Faith communities have particular relevance to the unemployed, said Doug Hicks, author of "Religion and the Workplace" and a professor of religion and leadership studies at the University of Richmond.

"When a person loses his or her job it's not just the income that's lost, but it's a kind of sense of meaning, sense of fitting in, a sense of contribution," Hicks said. "And many of those things have spiritual dimensions."

The Rev. Duane Jesse of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Cortland, Ohio, said the group he started six weeks ago is almost entirely about job seekers' spiritual needs. He started the group after a man, devastated by unemployment, confessed he thought suicide might be easier.

"At the end of the day we've got to keep families together, marriages together. We've got to keep people sane, we've got to keep people from losing faith," Jesse said.

Still, the practical benefits of such groups can't be overlooked, said Rick Lytle, dean of the College of Business at Abilene Christian University in Texas. Faith-based groups provide rich networking opportunities because members may trust each other more, and go the extra mile for them, because they share a church or a faith, he said.

Sandy Friedrich, a member of Castro's group who worked at a hospice care facility in Boston, said the people in the group are important for who they are, not what she thinks they can do for her. "Of course, in the back of our minds it's fine that we think any of us may be a lead to the next thing for us," she said. "But that's not the primary purpose for us."

At a recent meeting at Castro's house, not everyone in the seven-person gathering was friends, but they quickly shared their personal angst and advice on everything from unemployment law to how to respond when a prospective employer asks how much you expect to be paid. Debbie Trainor, a hospitality industry worker, talked about the nerve-racking preparation for job interviews and said she sees God as a partner.

"He's with me during this time," she said. "We're doing this together."

Connie Durgin, a customer service worker, was baffled that a third job interview didn't lead to an offer, though she was sanguine about her prospects.

"(God) knows what direction you're going to go. Eventually, you'll find it," she said.

After lunch, the group moved to the living room, where Friedrich shared a Bible lesson and the group discussed the employment strategy book, "Ground of Your Own Choosing." The conversation turned to some unexpected benefits of being laid off, such as more time with family.

Jack Melvin, an architect who was laid off in September, said he had new time to pursue standing as a Third Order Franciscan, whose members can be married and live in society at large, but also pledge to lead lives of prayer, simplicity and service to Jesus Christ.

Melvin said he welcomes the chance to start on the lengthy journey, though he'd prefer not to have so much time for it. The opportunity comes as his faith is being stretched in painful ways.

"I think what we've got to learn is that our employer doesn't feed us, he's an instrument for God to feed us," Melvin tells the group.

With a laugh, he adds, "I guess I had to repeat that to myself four months straight."

Weblink: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31748421/ns/business-careers/

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Stress Helps Suppressed Thoughts Become Expressed

Ever wonder why you sometimes blurt out the very thought you’ve been trying to keep to yourself? Researchers at Harvard University have developed a theory about these unfortunate slips of the tongue.

It is a matter of miscommunication between the conscious and unconscious mind, says psychologist Daniel Wegner, reporting his research in the journal Science. We set an intention to suppress a certain thought, and usually implement this intention by distracting ourselves with other thoughts. Meanwhile, the unconscious portion of our mind is constantly scanning the brain for hints of the suppressed thought, ready to take action against it. However, under stress, this unconscious suppression function can misfire, and instead of suppressing the unwanted thought, the brain shoots it to our mouths before we can stop it.

The best defense, Wegner’s research suggests, is to practice repeatedly uttering a more desirable alternative thought, so that it becomes automatic and immune to these brain slips.

Web source:

Oops! Why we say what we’re trying to hide

Study: The act of trying to avoid saying something can cause it to happen

Scientists have figured out one surprising reason why we make social gaffes we desperately wish to avoid: Ironically, the very act of trying to avoid saying or doing something can sometimes cause it to happen.

"When these things do happen we sort of smile and look the other way," said Daniel Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard University. "The curious thing is it's the desire not to do those things that seems to increase the likelihood of doing them."

In the July 3 issue of the journal Science, Wegner describes accumulating evidence that suggests many of our embarrassing moments are the result of miscommunications between conscious and unconscious mental processes.

Here's what happens, Wegner figures: The first line of defense is conscious, in which we intentionally try to avoid thinking about, say, an inappropriate sexual act. Distracting ourselves by thinking about other things is one way to avoid the thought.

The second part involves our unconscious minds. While we try to distract ourselves, a covert search is underway, monitoring our heads for any inkling of that unwanted thought. If it rears its ugly head, the unwanted thought gets flagged so our conscious minds can squash it.

But this unconscious control system is vulnerable to blips, particularly when we are stressed or have lots of things on our minds, Wegner said.

Such stressors can interfere with our conscious effort to avoid a thought or action. The result: Our unconscious mind that's been looking for such a thought takes over and all heck can break loose.

"The conscious process of trying to do the right thing is hampered, and the unconscious process is free then to increase its sway over your behavior and mind," Wegner told LiveScience.

Sex, golf and wine
The brain blip, though a rare occurrence, could explain things we are trying to avoid at all costs, such as spilling red wine on a white dress, making some sexist or racist remark, and even missing a golf putt or goal shot in soccer.

Wegner offers some advice: "You can avoid being in performance situations when you're under mental load or stress." In addition, you could "practice, practice, practice," he added.

By practicing a way of thinking or an action it becomes automatic (not a conscious effort), and so it's more immune to the brain lapses.

Web link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31714129/ns/health-behavior/

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Plants Communicate Danger to their Relatives

A sagebrush plant that is about to be eaten by a grasshopper signals its relatives of the impending danger. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and from Kyoto University in Japan subjected a sagebrush to the attentions of a hungry grasshopper. In response to this threat to one plant, the surrounding sagebrushes emitted protective chemicals to ward off an attack. Since the threatened plant was not in physical contact with its relatives, the researchers speculated, according to their report in published in Ecology Letters, that the threatened plant was emitting some volatile substance that reached the other plants to warn them. The researchers noted that this study shows that plants can both communicate and cooperate.

Web source:

Study finds plants can communicate

DAVIS, Calif., June 24 (UPI) -- U.S. and Japanese scientists have discovered plants can communicate danger to their "clones" or genetically identical cuttings planted nearby.

University of California-Davis Professor Richard Karban and Kaori Shiojiri of Kyoto University found sagebrush responds to cues of self and non-self without physical contact.

Karban said the sagebrush communicated and cooperated with other branches of themselves to avoid being eaten by grasshoppers. The scientists said they suspect the plants warn their own kind of impending danger by emitting volatile cues, which might include secreting chemicals that deter herbivores or make the plant less profitable for herbivores to eat.

The findings mean plants are "capable of more sophisticated behavior than we imagined," said Karban, who researches the interactions between herbivores (plant-eating organisms) and their host plants.

"Plants are capable of responding to complex cues that involve multiple stimuli," Karban said. "Plants not only respond to reliable cues in their environments, but also produce cues that communicate with other plants and with other organisms, such as pollinators, seed disperses, herbivores and enemies of those herbivores."

The study is reported in the journal Ecology Letters.

weblink:

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/06/24/Study-finds-plants-can-communicate/UPI-50491245852267/

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Psychology of Revulsion Has Political Implications

Those who have a lower threshold to experience disgust or revulsion have a greater probability of adopting a conservative political position. Researchers from several Ivy League universities surveyed people’s “disgust sensitivity,” by asking them to rate the “yuck factor” of such ideas as touching a public toilet or drinking from a stranger’s soda can. The respondants also rated their opinions on a variety of cultural issues such as immigration, abortion, and gay marriage. The results of the survey indicated that those folks with a greater disgust sensitivity also showed a more politically conservative attitude toward those touchy cultural issues. The implications of this study, according to an interview the researchers gave to The Washington Times is that our moral values are emotionally based and that disgust is an influential emotion in forming our values.

Web source:

The politics of revulsion
A person’s reaction to vomit or cockroaches may reveal more than how squeamish he is; it may also indicate how he’ll vote. Researchers at Cornell, Yale, and Harvard surveyed people in several political swing states on their “disgust sensitivity,” including their revulsion at the prospect of touching a public toilet or drinking from a stranger’s soda can. Respondents with a higher ick factor were more likely to have conservative views on a range of issues, including immigration, abortion, and gay marriage. Researchers said the findings suggest that the same instinct that makes people recoil from potential hazards predisposes them to dislike anything that’s unfamiliar, thus coloring their views on moral and political issues. “People have pointed out for a long time that a lot of our moral values seem driven by emotion,” lead author David Pizarro tells The Washington Times. “In particular, disgust appears to be one of those emotions that seems to be recruited for moral judgments.”

weblink:

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/97874/Health_038_Science

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Depression Intensifies Chronic Pain

When a person is depressed, there is greater sensitivity to physical pain, almost as if a pain amplifier were turned up. Treating depression with anti-depressants helps alleviate the physical pain, according to a new study conducted at the Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association . Not only was the amount of pain significantly reduced, but the patients were better able to engage in pain reducing behavioral activities.

web source:

Mind and Body: Depression Can Make Chronic Pain Worse

A new study says fighting depression can also help chronic-pain sufferers with their physical pain.

Doctors estimate about 30 to 50 percent of all patients with chronic pain suffer from depression. And there's growing evidence the depression may make the pain even worse.

"It's almost like the amplifier is turned up -- you feel it a lot more," said Matt Bayazitoglu, of Baylor Medical Center Dallas.

But patients who took anti-depressants were more successful in reducing their pain, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"They're able to more actively engage in therapy sessions," Bayazitoglu said. "They're able to do more things to get off the pain. In addition, it sort of decreases the amplifier, so they don't feel the pain as much."

The approach helped 25-year-old Katelyn Bradwell, who developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a painful neurological disorder, after she injuring her leg.

"Sometimes it feels like someone has injected my veins with gasoline and ignited it," she said. "It's just the most intense, burning pain that I can imagine."

It felt like she was dipping her leg from her calf down into a pile of fire ants, she said. The pain was so bad, she couldn't walk her dog -- or even put on a pair of shoes.

Bradwell, who was basically bedridden, began to get depressed.

"When you're in that kind of intense pain, the pain combines with depression, anxiety, because I need to work," she said. "I need to make money. How can I do this?"

But physical therapy, pain management and depression medication helped get her back on her feet.

"I often say that as bad as this has been, that I'm happier and healthier now than I was before I got it," Bradwell said.

"Walking my dog is a gift, and I have all those things back now. I have a normal life," she said.

Doctors recommend that patients with severe pain go to a comprehensive pain center where doctors from different specialties work together to manage pain and depression.

Web link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31379240

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Psychic Twitter Fails Remote Viewing Test

As the web phenomenon of “twitter” (short messages broadcast to a large audience) gains popularity as a social phenomenon, Richard Wiseman, of Britain’s University of Hertfordshire, attempted to see if psychic information can be obtained through this popular medium. He set up a remote viewing task for four consecutive days. Each day he went to a specific site and then presented five photographs, one being a picture of the actual location. He also asked folks to declare whether or not they had psychic ability.

Over one thousand people participated in the experiment. On his web blog, Wiseman posted the results, which were then published in the journal New Scientist. On all four trials, the majority of the participants voted for the wrong photo. When he computed the results only for those participants who claimed they had psychic ability, the results were no better.

Responding to this experiment, representatives of the International Association for Remote Viewing noted several flaws in the experiment that could have suppressed the hoped-for effect. A follow-up experiment, using experienced remote viewers, may be in the works. Stay tuned to twitter.

Web source:

Twitter's psychic experiment

Thousands of people will test their psychic powers this week on Twitter.

Last Updated: 9:22AM BST 31 May 2009

In the first scientific experiment to be conducted via the social messaging service, experts will investigate "remote viewing" - the psychic ability to identify distant locations.

Members of the public will be asked to "tweet" their impressions of a randomly chosen spot in the UK visited by one of the researchers.

Then they will vote for which of five photographs on a website shows where the visitor was standing.

The trial will be repeated with visually different locations four times.

If at the end of the experiment the votes correctly identify at least three targets, it will support the existence of extra-sensory perception.

Study leader psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, who specialises in investigating psychic phenomena, said: "Personally, I'm sceptical, but three hits would be against odds of one in 125, which would be quite impressive."

He hopes as many as 10,000 people will take part in the research, being conducted in collaboration with New Scientist magazine.

Prof Wiseman will travel to each target location and send a message to thousands of participants to "tweet" their thoughts about his surroundings.

Twenty minutes after sending this message he will transmit another containing a website address on which participants can view photographs of the actual location and four decoys. They will then cast their votes.

"I have staged several mass participation studies over the years, but this is the first to use Twitter," said Prof Wiseman.

"The instant nature of tweets allows thousands of people to take part in real time, making it perfect for an extra-sensory perception experiment.

"If the effect does exist then having so many people participate will help detect it."

Prof Wiseman is not the first scientist to investigate remote viewing.

At the height of the Cold War in the 1970s, the CIA spent $20 million (£12.5 million) conducting remote viewing experiments in a real-life case of the "X-files".

The "Stargate Project" was aimed at conducting "psychic spying" missions against the Soviet Union.

"The Russians were doing the same thing, and there was evidence from laboratory studies that suggested there might be something going on," said Prof Wiseman. "The CIA just thought it was worth a try and ran the programme for about 10 years."

Remote viewing has been linked to astral projection and telepathy, but no-one knows how it might work.

Unlike the CIA, Prof Wiseman will be looking for a group effect rather than individual ability.

This is a phenomenon known as "the wisdom of the crowds".

"If you have a jar full of jellybeans and you want to know many are in it, you get the most accurate estimate by averaging a number of different people's estimates," said Prof Wiseman.

The results of the experiment should be known on Friday.

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, online editor at New Scientist, said: "There have been mass participation experiments since the start of mass communication and this is the next step.

"If we find some sort of effect then we can get into speculating about how it works."

Anyone can take part in the experiment by visiting the site.

Weblink: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/5415852/Twitters-psychic-experiment.html

Last week I teamed up with New Scientist magazine to conduct the first scientific experiment using Twitter. First, a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who participated. So, what do we do and what did we find?

The experiment examined remote viewing – the alleged psychic ability to “see” distant locations.

The first trial was an informal affair, and involved me travelling to a secret location and then sending out a “tweet” asking participants to tweet back their thoughts concerning my location. Twenty minutes later, I sent a second tweet containing the address of a website that allowed everyone to view a photograph of the location (a weir). I also asked the participants to rate both their belief in the paranormal and the degree to which their thoughts matched the target.

More than 1000 people participated, with paranormal believers claiming high levels of correspondence between their thoughts and the actual location.

The formal part of the study took place over four days and tested both whether the group as a whole was psychic and whether believers outperformed disbelievers. On each day I travelled to a randomly selected location and asked everyone to send tweets describing their thoughts about the location.

In the judging phase, participants were presented with five photographs, one showing the location and four decoys, and asked to select the target. The photograph that received the most votes was taken as the group’s decision.

If the group were psychic, the majority would vote for the correct target. In the first trial I was looking up at a striking, modern-looking building. Unfortunately, the group voted for some woods.

On trial two I was sitting in the middle of a playground, but the group thought I was standing at the foot of a long stairway. The third trial found me under an unusual-looking canopy; the group voted for a graveyard.

On the final trial I stared intently at a red postbox. The group believed that I was standing at the side of a canal. In short, all four trials were misses.

When I analysed believers and sceptics separately, the results were the same, with no difference between the groups. So the study didn’t support the existence of remote viewing, and suggested that those who believe in the paranormal are good at finding illusory correspondences between their thoughts and a target .

But perhaps the most important outcome was to demonstrate that thousands of people are happy to take part in an instant Twitter study. Any ideas on possible studies? And any thoughts about the results?

Finally, here is a great video from the Wall Street Journal showing the study in action here.

Update: I have just looked at the data from those who claimed some kind of psychic ability, and had a high confidence in their choice of target.  This sub-group of participants also scored zero out of four.

Weblink: http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/page/2/

Many thanks for all of the feedback on the Twitter experiment. I thought it might be interesting to give a bit more detail about one of the most important analyses – the findings from those people who thought that they were psychic and were confident about their performance.

On each trial about 16% thought that they were psychic (that is, ticked either the ‘definitely yes’ or ‘probably yes’ to the ‘Do you believe that you have psychic abilities?’ question). I isolated these, and then looked at those that were confident about their choice of target (that is, ticked the ‘Very confident’ or ‘Quite confident’ to the ‘How confident are you about your choice?’ question).

On Trial 1,the majority of these participants (35%) thought that I was in the woods when I was standing by the tall building. On Trial 2, the majority (29%) went with me near the stairs when I was in the children’s play park. On Trial 3, the majority (26%) went with the underpass when the answer was the unusual canopy. Finally, on Trial 4, the majority (30%) went with the canal when I was at the postbox. Thus all of the trials were misses.

Some people have suggested that I should perhaps do the opposite type of analysis. Rather than look at how alleged psychics score, look for high scorers (perhaps those who obtained 4 out of 4) and re-test them. What do you think? Is it worth the effort? Did you get top marks and, if so, would you join in with another study?

P.S. If anyone want the original data sheets (obviously minus people’s email addresses) then please email me. Richard Wiseman at  r.wiseman@herts.ac.uk

Weblink: http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/page/2/

Also see http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17284-first-twitter-experiment-probes-belief-in-the-paranormal.html

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Preparing for 2012

Other than worry, what can we do to prepare for the coming changes supposedly connected with 2012? Futurist John L. Petersen, in his book A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change (Fulcrum Press), outlines the developing mind set that will help us grow beyond what doesn’t work to get to what will. Here are the key elements of his vision of sustainability:

• An increased emphasis on connectedness and interdependence
• A shift toward cooperation and away from competition
• Commitment to conflict resolution without resorting to violence
• A commitment to justice for all people
• A world of abundance
• Individual self-realization
• Individuals choose for themselves rather than taking their cues externally
• Harmony with nature
• A shift toward localization
• A commitment to healthy food
• A clean, all-electric world is achieved
• The global brain is rapidly evolving
• New agricultural methods that do not rely on synthetic petroleum-based fertilizers have become dominant
• The challenge of environmental sustainability is resolved
• We have moved beyond the petroleum age
• Energy production is decentralized and more distributed
• An equitable way to have a global yet local civilization is worked out
• Decentralization along with an ecology of cultures is effected
• Global issues become global interests
• Global security is discovered, removing the legitimacy of war
• The possibility of nuclear war is prevented with 100 percent reliability

Web source:

http://www.realitysandwich.com/vision_getting_2012

This essay is excerpted from A Vision for 2012: Planning for Extraordinary Change, published here with permission from Fulcrum Publishing.

We first imagine our future.

After that, we live it.

Until now, this discussion has been largely descriptive.

What is going on? What might be in our future? The much more important issue is, what are we going to do about it? It may not be clear yet where we are going, but what is clear is how to get where we decide we want to go. The future doesn't just happen; we make it happen. It is the product of our desires, interests, perspectives, visions, and actions.

What we think and what we do makes a difference.

It makes the only difference.

This is not just a meaningless platitude of the kind that is offered repeatedly at graduation ceremonies. The images that we have in our minds (or not) about what we'd like to be, where we'd like to go, and what kind of world we'd like to live in directly shape what we do. Our behavior is consistent with our worldview, and therefore contributes to sustaining it.

Most people who have made their way through school, particularly college, have watched their worldview change and in a short period have seen the options available to them open up in ways they never before anticipated. They see themselves and their possibilities in a different way ... and then they choose different directions in their lives. For me it was the Navy. "Join the Navy, see the world," they said. It was true. I saw and experienced all kinds of things in less than a handful of years that radically altered who I believed I was and where I was going for the rest of my life.

In the face of the rapidly converging trends approaching, not only do we need to persevere, we need to be on the offense: to shape and help manifest the new world that will certainly evolve, whether we take an active role in it or not. We need a vision -- something to aim for. Both an explicit and an intuitive sense of where we're going is critical to this whole transition. If you don't know where you're going, as they say, any destination will do. In this context, that approach is not a good idea.

Visions are magical. They function in strange ways to guide you to achieving them. When you see the world in terms of explicit objectives, opportunities, and options, serendipitous things seem to show up to help you get to where you want to go. You don't have to understand how they work to appreciate that visions really do work. Effective business leaders know intuitively that if they haven't hung a big exciting vision in front of their employees, then the organization will wander about rather aimlessly searching for some random objective to home in on. If they are successful in crisply communicating exceptional possibilities for the company and providing the resources to fuel them, they can literally change their world. The same can be said for an individual ... and for an administration. We need to change the world -- around a new vision.

It's important to keep in mind that we're talking about a new world. We're not trying to build a better version of what we already have. Here is the sequence:

--Big extraordinary change happens.

--Things fail. They don't work the way they use to.

--Something new emerges.

--It operates differently. It runs on different principles and values.

In this new world, humanity has figured out how to do its business in ways that do not produce the kinds of problems that caused the old, smoldering decomposition in the first place. In this world, we certainly learn something from the traumatic experience.

The key to getting to this new future is a vision. We need a picture of a viable global future to guide us going forward. In practical terms, this new world needs to be pretty idealistic. After all, we're really (really!) going to build a new one in a new context, which makes all kinds of things possible that certainly wouldn't work right now. That's what we should aim for. That's the contextual objective we should carry around in our minds.

A Vision

The trends and plausible big-change events discussed here appear to potentially peak around 2012 and then settle down over the following years, maybe finding a new equilibrium by 2020. If that is what happens, then the new world we have to focus on building is one that evolves between 2012 and 2020. The question is, what would we like that world to look like? What will we try to build? That will be our vision. In building a vision of this type, it is important to fully understand the conditions from which this new world might evolve.

Let's guess that by 2012 we will have survived a global bout with bird flu (in late 2007, it appeared the virus was, for the first time, becoming transmissible to humans). A moderate pandemic has killed 500 million people worldwide over a six-month period of crisis that negatively affected almost every aspect of modern life -- governments, economies, social interaction, and others.

During the same period, the change in the planet's climate has accelerated as the positive feedback loops in the climatic system kicked in. Devastating storms have become the norm, seasons don't work the way they used to, nor does traditional agriculture, generating significant food shortages and serious broad-based disruptions in regions like the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.

Or maybe by 2012 we've experienced a major series of global disruptions related to changes in the energy sector. Driven by a decreasing supply of oil, the biggest countries in the world have aggressively tried to capture what petroleum remains. It has turned into a war (or at least a period of very serious threats) involving the United States and China, or China and Russia. A companion breakthrough in energy sources has begun to fill in some of the major cracks in the system left from the rapidly decreasing supplies of fossil fuels, but even heroic efforts and amazing innovations are unable to take up the slack fast enough to offset the crises.

We have gotten much smarter, much faster with the advent of amazing new Web-based knowledge discovery and sense-making tools (which make it easy to understand large amounts of complex information) and have learned to manipulate life in ways never before possible. Finding solutions to big problems has gotten much easier, but implementing them still takes too much time.

Our new world will have to take into consideration the underlying trends in science and technology that are driving a great deal of change, address the biggest pressing problems that confront us, reflect changes in our values and perspectives of how we see ourselves as humans, and suggest a new social framework that describes how we will work and live together.

That new world might look like this:

Values and Perspectives

In our world of 2012, there is a new realization that we are directly related to the planet, all other people, and the rest of nature in very concrete and practical ways. It has also become clear that we are interdependent in ways that are obvious but not yet fully understood. This mind-set is reflected in ...

An increased emphasis on connectedness and interdependence. The Internet, the global economy, the environment, and many other aspects of life have made transparent that we are all directly and indirectly connected to each other and the larger context in which we live in ways that were previously not obvious. All transactions now take these linkages into consideration. Because of this interdependence, it is logical that nonconstructive relationships are intrinsically destructive and that there has been ...

A shift toward cooperation and away from competition. The interdependencies that we live with coupled with the highly destructive potential of advanced technologies have made it obvious that finding ways of working together is much better than fighting over differences. This has translated into a ...

Commitment to conflict resolution without resorting to violence. The potential destructive capability of new technologies juxtaposed with the need to build a new world has mandated that violence, especially between developed nations, as in all-out world wars, is no longer feasible. Sophisticated methods of negotiation and influence become the main tools of persuasion.

A commitment to justice for all people. Since in an interconnected society injustice to some ultimately affects all others, a broad-based commitment to justice for all is imperative.

A world of abundance. The resolution of energy problems and the advent of advanced information-technology applications presents the possibility of a world without intrinsic scarcity. Equitable access to and distribution of food, knowledge, shelter, and work could well become possible.

Individual self-realization. The crucible of phenomenal global change would produce a new perspective of oneself and the untapped potential in each of us. A dedication to self-realization would be reflected in all aspects of human activity.

Individuals choose for themselves rather than taking their cues externally. Interdependency coupled with unsurpassed knowledge and a common allegiance to justice weakens the requirement for centralized authority.

Harmony with nature. The fact that everything that lives on this planet is connected with everything else means that we live with nature, actively cocreating the context within which we live. We herefore see ourselves as part of the larger, global system. Maintaining harmony with nature is a priority that produces personal, spiritual, physical, and economic benefits.

A shift toward localization. The failure of global supply chains initiates a reliance on local suppliers rather than distant ones. This is especially true with food items, for which local farmers and ranchers become preferred.

A commitment to healthy food. Fresh, healthy food is a necessity for sustaining the physical and mental requirements of living in the new world. These values and perspectives are reflected and reinforced in all other areas:

Science and Technology

A clean, all-electric world is achieved. We have entered the post-petroleum age and the world is moving toward all-electric status. Electricity is produced by pollution-free sources that in most cases require no extracted fuel, like generators that run off tidal currents, turbines driven by deep-well-produced steam, and advanced solar and wind devices.

The global brain is rapidly evolving. Unprecedented knowledge generation, discovery, and problem resolution are everyday occurrences, spurred by exponential developments in computing and communication technologies. Intractable problems are solved with capabilities that were impossible to imagine just ten years earlier.

New agricultural methods that do not rely on synthetic petroleum-based fertilizers have become dominant. Seawater-based agriculture is becoming commonplace, encouraging food production in vast areas that previous had no freshwater for irrigation.

Pressing Problems

The challenge of environmental sustainability is resolved. Problem-solving knowledge technology and a new perspective on our relationship with nature results in significantly new ways of maintaining our environment.

We have moved beyond the petroleum age. Clean, sustainable, independent sources of energy are the only approaches that are supported.

Energy production is decentralized and more distributed. Energy production is increasingly localized, whether in vehicles or individual buildings that translate solar energy and other sources into electricity. All sources contribute to the grid, fewer central power plants are required.

Social Systems

An equitable way to have a global yet local civilization is worked out. Tensions have been balanced between the forces of globalization, universal connectivity, and interdependence, as well as the increasing marginalization of people and cultures that always seemed to attend those trends.

Decentralization along with an ecology of cultures is effected. Local, cultural character still colors societies, but at the same time all groups have learned how to relate effectively to the larger world.

Global issues become global interests. A communications process is in place that allows all cultures to share a current interest in pressing global issues. The world thinks and acts together for the common good.

Global security is discovered, removing the legitimacy of war. The experience of having lived through or narrowly sidestepped a major world war with unheard-of new weapons convinces the world that modern combat is not an option. Sophisticated behavior-modification approaches and incentives are developed that do not include violence.

The possibility of nuclear war is prevented with 100 percent reliability. War is not an option and nuclear war must never happen. The world community bands together to assure that nuclear weapons are eliminated or so closely constrained that the chance of their being used approaches zero.

This vision might not be as far-out as you would guess. The Earth Charter closely resembles this vision. It was written with the input of five thousand people, has been endorsed by numerous governments, organizations, and a multitude of individuals, and draws more than one hundred thousand people to its website each month.

Effectively transitioning to this new world will require envisioning it into reality. We will all need to use a model like the one above to build a coherent idea of what the new world might look like-the principles, values, structures, behavior-and begin to carry that common picture in our minds. We need to get together at regular times with as many others as possible to project the new images, talk about them, and debate them. We should do it as though our lives depend on it, as they probably do.

There will need to be a constant orientation of openness; we will need to have a wide aperture for seeing subtle indicators of approaching change and be receptive to newly

emerging techniques of dealing with the rapidly changing world. Being close-minded to the suggestions and ideas of others will court failure, as no one individual or organization

will have the capability to deal with these changes by themselves. New ideas and explanations about how reality works, at all levels, will begin to bubble up in many places; they must be openly considered and honestly evaluated.

There must also be an openness to adaptation-to rapidly change when it is required.

Weblink: http://www.visionfor2012.com/

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Flowering Plants Aid Recovery

Having a flowering plant in your hospital room following surgery will aid your recovery. When patients recovering from an appendectomy were randomly assigned to a room with, or without a flowering plant, in a study conducted by the Department of Horticulture, Recreation and Forestry at Kansas State University, the patients staying in rooms with flowering plants showed many signs of improved recovery. According to a report published in the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, these patients had less need for medication, had lower blood pressure, less pain, anxiety and fatigue.

Source: Spirituality and Health, July/August 2009, p. 28

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Altruism Confounds Rational Economics

The “rational marketplace,” a concept envisioned by 18^th Century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, and embraced by modern economic theorists, is undergoing an extreme revisioning as a result, not only of the recent economic collapse, but also by research conducted by “behavioral economists,” who don’t simply accept theory, but study how folks actually conduct their affairs.

An example of such research is a study that shows that financial considerations can “crowd out” otherwise normal altruistic behavior. In this study, researchers sent out letters announcing a blood drive and invited donors. One group of recipients received the standard letter, asking for donations. The other group received an experimental letter, which offered donors ten dollars for a blood donation. There was a ninety-three per cent response from the group receiving the standard letter. Among those receiving the letter offering money, only sixty-five per cent responded with a donation. The interpretation given is that the power of the altruistic motive, fully functional in the first group, is “crowded out” in the second group by the financial incentive. Folks in the second group focus on the ten dollars, find it lacking as a motivator, and fail to donate, even though, had they attended to it, the altruistic motive would have been sufficient, but attending to it had been crowded out by the mention of money.

Source: Ode Magazine, May, 2009, Vol. 7, No. 4.

http://www.odemagazine.com/

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U.S. Military Seeks Enlightened Medicine

The U.S. Department of Defense is exploring a variety of alternative therapies to combat the rising tide of soldiers with post traumatic shock syndrome. The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury has spent over five million dollars—about ten per cent of its research budget—exploring alternative therapies to treat the growing case load of soldiers with PTSD or brain injury. The usual treatment combination—psychotherapy and medication—just don’t work for a lot of soldiers. Yoga, meditation, acupuncture, pet ownership, and self-compassion training are among the alternative therapies being investigated.

Source: Ode Magazine, June/July, 2009, Vol. 7, issue 5.

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Ginger Relieves Nausea from Cancer Treatment

To those who have regularly used ginger root to calm an upset stomach, this news will come as no surprise: a bit of ginger root powder relieves the nausea of cancer patients. In this study, conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York, patients with breast cancer were given a capsule twice a day, beginning three days before beginning chemotherapy. For some, the capsule contained a placebo substance, for others, the capsules contained either .25, .5, or .75 grams of powdered ginger root. The results, reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, indicated that those who received the ginger treatment had significantly reduced nausea following the first chemo treatment. The reduction was greatest for those patients receiving the smallest dosage, and the least for those receiving the greatest dosage. The researchers noted that their study showed an effectiveness for ginger, where previous studies had not, because in the present study, the researchers introduced the ginger three days before the first chemo treatment. Timing is everything.

Web Source:

Web link:

Link:http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/15/ginger.chemo.nausea/

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Antioxidants May Block Benefits of Exercise

Exercise is prescribed for early stage diabetes and other medical conditions. The result of such exercise is increased glucose tolerance and an activation of the body’s defense against the oxidative damage created by the exercising. If the person also takes anti-oxidant supplements, such as vitamin C and E, the body’s normal response to exercise is nullified.

When researchers at the University of Jena in Germany asked a group of regular exercisers to take vitamin C and E along with their workout, it turned out that, compared to a control group of exercisers who took no supplements, the taking of the vitamins eliminated the positive effects of exercise which were observed in the control group. The researchers speculated that the vitamins absorbed the very biochemical elements that the body normally uses after exercise as cues to do its beneficial rebuilding. It’s a case where vitamins become counter-productive.

web source:

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Meditation Improves Attention

Anyone who becomes aware of their attention span notices that it flickers about constantly. Meditation improves the ability to maintain the focus of one’s attention, according to several recent studies.

One way researchers have studied the stability of attention is by having study participants wear special goggles that present different images to each eye. Under normal conditions, the viewer will notice a flip-flop of the images, as attention switches from the dominant eye to the non-dominant eye, continuing to switch back and forth.

In one study, meditators with more than twenty years of experience, put on the binocular rivalry goggles. When these meditators practiced “compassionate meditation,” experiencing empathy for all the suffering in the world, they experienced image flip flop as frequently as non-meditators. However, when practicing concentration, or still-point meditation, they experienced no flip flop of imagery.

In another study, researchers gave non-meditators an eight week class in meditation. In comparison to a group of non-meditators who did not receive any meditation training, the trained students showed a significant decrease in image flip-flop. In yet another study, the participants received only five, thirty minute training sessions in meditation. Even with this short amount of training, these participants evidenced a greater attentional stability.

Web source:

Web link:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/05/how-meditation-improves-attention.php