Psi Research with Web Links
============= Submitted June 1, 2003 ===============
A
New Christianity is Coming
Although
the media might have us believe that the world influence of Christianity is
waning while the influence of Islam is growing, the facts might be otherwise. In
his book, The New Christiandom (Oxford University Press), Philip Jenkins,
Distinctive Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State
University, argues that the evidence shows that there is a new Christianity
forming that will have consequences as profound and pervasive as the Protestant
Revolution that helped end the darkness of the Middle Ages.
Demographic
data show that Christianity is gaining converts in Asia, Africa and Latin
America at a tremendous rate. By the year 2050, he predicts that less than one
fifth of the world’s three billion Christians will be non-Hispanic Caucasian.
The Christianity that is spreading in these largely southern hemisphere nations
is of a different sort than that associated with the liberal theology of the
northeastern United States. Instead, it is much more in line with the
evangelical and Pentecostal denominations associated with the Southern U.S and
orthodox Roman Catholicism. This new Christianity will be highly focused on the
supernatural aspects of the New Testament and will emphasize having direct,
immediate experience of the divine.
Many
of the world’s woes arise from how humans respond to unsettling emotions. Is
there any hope for humanity if its natural emotional responsiveness is such a
handicap? Writing an Op Ed piece for the New York Times, Tenzin Gyatso (aka the
Dalai Lama) explained his reasons for being optimistic that human emotions may
be amenable to calming influences and restraint. His main argument is that
Buddhist meditation practices, taught for centuries as a means to quiet the
mind, have received empirical support by Western scientists who have conducted
laboratory research on the effect of meditation upon the brain, the mind and
emotions.
The
Dalai Lama cites the research of Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of
Wisconsin. This researcher uses real-time brain scans to visually demonstrate
how the brain responds to emotional stimuli. Conducting these experiments on
experienced Buddhist monks show that when the monks meditate, areas of the brain
that dampen emotional responsiveness become dampened. He also cites the work of
Paul Eckman, at the University of California, San Francisco, who has found that
when these monks meditate, they become less responsive to stimuli (such as a
shotgun blast) that would cause emotional upset to the average person.
Weblink:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/26/opinion/26LAMA.html?ex=1054267200&en=5b5b9b492e7f979e&ei=5070
Middle
Ages Warmer than Today
Maybe
it’s not as hot as we think. We hear so much research citing evidence for
global warming. We hear that last year was the hottest on record, and so on.
Maybe, maybe no.
Skeptics
of the global warming scenario will take heart at the latest data to come from a
Harvard University research project examining what has been called the
“Medieval Warming Period.” They combined data from more than two hundred and
fifty previous studies and, according to a report published in the journal Energy
and Environment, the period from the ninth to the fourteenth century was
hotter, on average, than today. Some reviewers of this evidence suggest that it
will effectively counter the doomsayers who exaggerate the current warming
trends without a sufficient historical context.
Remote
Viewing Can’t Read
What
can you do with remote viewing? Not everything, says Retired Major General
Albert N. Stubblebine, III. Speaking at an International Symposium on UFO
Research, the retired general, now CEO of Psi-Tech, an intelligence firm that
specializes in remote viewing, said that a remote viewer can not read a document
hidden in a safe, but a good viewer could perceive the essence of the document,
the general sense of it. He left open the possibility that at some future date,
with improved training and enhanced methodologies, remote viewing may someday be
capable of reading words and processing numerical information, but not now.
A
Recovering Secularist Confesses
An
article in The Atlantic Monthly published in 1942 asked in its title,
“Will Christianity Survive?” At that time, it seemed that “secularism”
was the wave of the future. Secularism, a term that originated about the middle
of the nineteenth century, refers to an approach to life that focuses
exclusively on the human experience and the use of human talents and efforts
alone to improve life.
Sixty
some years later, Christianity is blossoming, Islam is growing, and so is
Orthodox Judaism. The secularist idea is wrong that the more educated the world
becomes, the less religious it will be. In fact, according to David Brooks, in
his recent article in that same magazine, titled, “Kicking the Secularist
Habit: A Six-Step Program,” it is those religious denominations that reject
“secularism” that are the ones growing fastest. Brooks writes, “Secularism
is not the future, it is yesterday’s incorrect vision of the future.”
Brooks offers advice on how to to become a “recovering secularist.” First, you must admist that you are not the norm. Second, you must deal with your fear of evangelical faith, of “weak governments, missionary armies, and rampant religious conflict.” The third step is to get angry at secular fundamentalists who are overly confident of their position and who ignore the reality of current trends. Fourth, you must overcome your tendency to explain everything in materialistic terms and think instead in terms of God’s will. Fifth, you must abandon as lazy and unacceptable any tendency to accept all religions as equally valid and instead assume a position and defend it against all others. The sixth and final step is to accept the truth that America has never really been a secularist country.
Weblink: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/03/brooks.htm
Compute
Your Formula for Happiness
If
you want to figure out how happy you are, British researchers have come up with
a formula you can use, as reported in the BBC News.
On
a ten point scale, where 1 is “not at all” and 10 is “to a large
extent”, rate yourself on these two questions:
1) Are you outgoing, energetic, flexible and open to change?
2) Do you have a positive outlook, bounce back quickly from setbacks and feel that you are in control of your life?
Add
the scores from these two, and call the result “P” (for personal
characteristics)
Next,
rate yourself on this question:
3.
Are your basic life needs met, in relation to personal health, finance, safety,
freedom of choice and sense of community?
Call
this result “E” (for existence)
Next,
rate yourself on this question:
4.
Can you call on the support of people close to you, immerse yourself in what you
are doing, meet your expectations and engage in activities that give you a sense
of purpose?
Call
this result “H” (for higher order needs)
Then
your happiness can be calculated by this formula:
Happiness
= P + (5xE) + (3xH)
In
this formula, 100 would represent perfect happiness, so you’ll be able to
figure for yourself how close to perfect happiness you are enjoying.
Weblink:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2630869.stm
Lucid
Dreaming Can be Psychic
If
you become aware during a dream that you are dreaming, you may be able to use
this awareness to obtain psychic information. As part of their research at the
Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, psychic investigators Edwin May and James
Spotteswoode have asked experienced lucid dreamers to perform an experiment in
psychic perception while dreaming.
In
this experiment, the dreamer signaled the experimenters when the dreaming began
by moving his/her eyes hard to the right and then to the left. At that point,
the dreamer attempted to follow the instructions received before retiring. In
this task, the dreamer was supposed to “travel” in the dream to a room down
the hall and to “view” a photograph that was sealed within an envelope. Upon
awakening, the dreamer made a drawing of the photograph that was viewed in the
dream. Remarkable success has been achieved.
Weblink:
http://www.lfr.org/csi/practical/ldream.html
==============Submitted August 1, 2003 ===============
Vegetable
Diet Reduces Cholesterol
Evidence
from new research shows that a diet rich in vegetables and fiber can lower
cholesterol nearly as much as one of the “statin” drugs that are commonly
prescribed for combating high cholesterol.
In
this study, conducted at the University of Toronto and published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, one group of patients ate a low-fat
vegetarian diet, a second group ate that same diet and also took daily doses of
lovastatin, while a third group ate a vegetarian diet rich in fiber, from oats,
barley, soy protein and barley
The
low-fat vegetarian diet reduced bad cholesterol by eight per cent, that same
diet supplemented with the statin drug showed a reduction of thirty one per
cent, while the fiber rich vegetarian diet produced nearly the same reduction,
of twenty nine per cent.
The
researchers noted that there was already evidence that each of the high fiber
vegetables had a cholesterol lowering effect, but this study showed that
combining them has an additive effect that can measure up to the effectiveness
of the popular medication.
For
related weblink, go to http://jama.ama.assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/290/4/502
Psychic
Ability in Children Enhanced
Children’s
psychic ability may easily be enhanced through special training, according to
results reported recently from a preliminary study.
At
a conference entitled, “Psychic and Indigo Children Speak Out,” forty two
children participated in a study to investigate whether a series of breathing
exercises, called “Brain Respiration” would improve children’s performance
on an ESP task involving perceiving colors, shapes or phrases printed on cards
folded to conceal their contents. The tests required the child to correctly
identify six consecutive targets out of a possible ten. Prior to training, none
of the children were able to pass the test. After the training, fourteen of the
children passed.
For
related weblinks, go to www.brainrespiration.com,
www.psykids.net, www.emissaryoflight.com/letters/results_psychic_children_study.htm
and www.healingsociety.org
Was
God a Physicist?
The
laws of physics seem to suggest an intelligent designer who was involved in the
creation of the cosmos. Thus argues Stephen M. Barr, in his book, Modern
Physics and Ancient Faith (U. Notre Dame Press). One of his main arguments
is that quantum physics has shown the necessity of a conscious observer in the
universe in order for the cosmos to exist at all.
Barr,
a physicist at the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, also shows
the extreme intellectual measures a purely materialistic physicist must go to
explain the discoveries of modern physics in a way that doesn’t require the
existence of consciousness, which itself has yet to be explained. In the face of
the evidence, he claims, it requires something akin to a religious faith to
continue to believe in materialism. The debate, therefore, is not between
religion and science, but between two metaphysical systems.
For
weblinks containing futher information, go to review at
http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/envirowrapper.jsp?PID=1051-450&CID=1051-073103B
order
book at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0268034710/creativespirit02
Questions
Help You Apply Your Ideals
The
most important task for any individual, according to Edgar Cayce, is to set
one’s ideal. One’s choices can then be directed by the attitudes and values
such an ideal implies. A recent book suggests that this approach to spiritual
guidance can be achieved by asking certain questions.
According
to Debbie Ford, writing in The Right Questions: Ten Essential Questions to
Guide You to an Extraordinary Life (HarperSanFrancisco) these are the
questions to ask:
·
Will this choice propel me toward an inspiring future or will it keep me
stuck in the past?
·
Will this choice bring me long-term fulfillment or will it bring me
short-term gratification?
·
Am I standing in my power or am I trying to please another?
·
Am I looking for what’s right for me or am I looking for what’s
wrong?
·
Will this choice add to my life force or will it rob me of my energy?
·
Will I use this situation as a catalyst to grow and evolve or will I use
it to beat myself up?
·
Does this choice empower me or does it disempower me?
·
Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?
·
Is this an act of faith or is it an act of fear?
·
Am I choosing from my divinity or am I choosing from my humanity?
Readers
can discern Debbie Ford’s ideal from choice of questions. A different ideal
would generate different questions. Yet her use of questions suggests an
interesting, researchable, approach to working with ideals when making choices.
Does
a Brain-Based Mind Have Any Choice?
The
latest in the ageless debate over whether or not we have freedom of choice or
whether all our actions are pre-determined, comes from brain science. In his
book, Consciousness: A User’s Guide (Yale University Press), Adam Zeman,
argues that although brain events, and thus experience, is ultimately
predictable, our actions are, in practice, not totally predictable, because we
are so complex. However, relative to our freedom of choice, he notes that our
existence derives from something other than our own choice. From that ultimate
of origins, there follows a cause-and-effect chain that limits our freedom.
For
related weblinks, see review at
http://www.wbthub.com/Consciousness-A-Users-Guide-0300092806
book
at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300092806/creativespirit02
Sound
Overpowers Odor
Although
much contemporary research is confirming Edgar Cayce’s writings about the
power of aroma, a recent example gives the nod to the power of sound to
eliminate aromas.
Ultrasonic
waves blasted through hog manure reduces ninety seven per cent of the odor,
according to research conducted by Ag Waste Recovery Systems, of Ames Iowa. The
sound waves achieve this effect by destroying bacteria and pathogens, making
them essentially odorless.
For
related weblink, see http://www.grro.net/Press_Releases.htm
Religious
Organizations Not Necessarily Service Oriented
Do
“faith-based” organizations, those associations based upon spiritual ideals,
provide greater social services to the needy than secular organizations? The
preliminary answer is no, according to a study ongoing at Indiana University.
The
study, funded by the Ford Foundation and directed by the Center for Urban Policy
and the Environment, is collecting information as part of its research on
welfare reform in various states. According to a story on their early findings,
published in Research News and Opportunities in Science and Theology,
welfare clients who got jobs from faith-based organizations, for example, worked
fewer days and were less likely to have health insurance than clients who
received job placement from secular organizations.
At
a recent conference entitled, “Works of Love: Scientific and Religious
Perspectives on Altruism,” speakers were divided on the validity of these
findings. Some argued that the results support the ability of the government to
provide meaningful aid, while others argue that many faith-based organizations
in the study were newly formed and not yet as experienced as their secular
counterparts.
As
a point of comparison, one of the earliest studies of religion and altruism
showed that seminary students leaving the classroom after hearing a lecture on
the Good Samaritan were no more likely than the average person to stop and offer
help to a disheveled person lying on the ground. This surprising outcome
stimulated many follow-up studies, including the finding that a person is less
likely to offer help when other people are around, on the assumption that
“someone else” has already initiated the helping process.
Research
on Spiritual Transformation Launched
What
brings on a spiritual transformation and what happens during and after the
transformation process? These and several other questions are the focus for an
enormous research program, with more than two million dollars in funding.
Initially sponsored by the Templeton Foundation and administered by the
Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science, the program has launched research
endeavors at several universities and other organizations.
Research
projects include looking at the brain during mystical experiences, the
transformation experiences of cancer patients, how spiritual transformation
affects involvement in crime, the role of the experience of awe in spiritual
transformation, the language of transformation, how spiritual transformation
interacts with the maturational process, its role in alcoholism rehabilitation,
its connection to religious conversion, and its effects within a marriage, to
name a few topics.
For
more information and weblinks, go to www.spiritualtransformationresearch.org
Environmentalist
Wins Huge Religion Prize
The
Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual
Realities has been awarded to the Rev. Holmes Rolston, III.
The
winner is Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He established
the field of environmental ethics. Unlike most philosophers of science and
religion, Rev. Rolston focused beyond humans to show how plants, animals and
ecosystems have essential goodness and need to be considered in the total
equation of creation. He demonstrated that ethics need to be based on a broader
foundation than merely human concerns.
In
a news conference following the announcement of the prize, Rev. Rolston said,
"Our planetary crisis is one of spiritual information: not so much
sustainable development, certainly not escalating consumption, but using the
Earth with justice and charity. Science cannot take us there, religion perhaps
can. After we learn altruism for each other, we need to become altruists toward
our fellow creatures. We must encounter nature with grace, with an Earth ethics,
because our ultimate Environment is God -- in whom we live, move, and have our
being."
The
Templeton prize, worth 1.2 million dollars this year, is the largest prize
offered to an individual Its founder, Sir John Templeton, set up the finances of
the award to be always the largest anyone offers, including the Nobel Prize,
because he believed that spiritual discoveries would be the most important and
wanted to highlight their significance. Rev. Rolston is donating the prize money
to his alma mater, Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, to endow a
chair in religion and science.
For
more information, go to http://www.templetonprize.org/news.html
Self-Hypnosis
Used to Calm Asthma Attacks
An
asthma attack has both physical and psychological components. The anxiety that
often accompanies an attack reinforces the physiological processes underlying
the asthmatic response. Teaching the asthmatic patient how to use self-hypnosis
to control the anxiety can be effective and may also reduce the need for
medication.
A
twelve-year old asthmatic patient learned self-hypnosis by following
instructions that she would imagine walking on a beach and laying down near the
ocean to relax. She received, according to the report published in BMC
Pediatrics by Ran D. Anbar, M.D. of the Department of Pediatrics, State
University of New York Upstate Medical University, a post-hypnotic suggestion
that when she touched her finger to her nose, she would enter a state of
profound relaxation.
After
two forty-five minute sessions, she was able to use the finger relaxation
technique to calm herself. She had been using nebulized levalbuterol at least
four times a day, but within two weeks of her training, she was using hypnosis
instead half the time, and by three months she had completely discontinued use
of the medication.
For
more information, go see full text at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/3/7
Patients
Appreciate Nurses’ Spiritual Care
Simply
by showing kindness and listening, nurses satisfy patients’ needs for
spiritual care, according to research recently conducted by E. J. Taylor of the
Loma Linda University School of Nursing. In this study, published in Oncology
Nursing Forum patients were interviewed about their needs for spiritual care
and their perception of nurses’ behavior and attitudes that matched those
needs. The results indicated that that very simple things qualified as meeting
spiritual needs. After kindness and listening, the most frequently mentioned
were authenticity, personal connection, and physical presence. The only items
mentioned that resembled a concern for caregiving behaviors that resembles what
might traditionally be thought of as spiritual was having nurses pray and their
mobilizing religious or spiritual resources. The results suggest there is indeed
a need for spiritual care but it can come in ways that do not touch upon
traditional religious concerns.
For more information, see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12861319&dopt=Abstract
Can
We Dream Peace?
In
my dream, “I am standing in the control tower of an airport, watching as an
air traffic control person dealt with an obvious emergency.” Jean Campbell had
this dream on the morning of September 11, 2001. Later that day she appreciated
its significance. She also experienced some guilt, a feeling that she found was
common among people who experience pre-cognitive dreams of disasters.
In
years prior to that dream, Dr. Campbell had researched paranormal dreaming and
had developed methods for people to have lucid dreams together. Her 911 dream
inspired her to wonder if dreams could also help to create an alternative
future. A result of that curiosity is the “dream activism” research project
entitled “The World Dreams Peace Bridge” to explore the possibility that
people can collaborate in their dreams to bring about peace. An integration of
the idea that “peace begins within” with the idea that we need to cooperate
to bring about peace, the World Dreams Peace Bridge functions through an
internet website, www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org
where dreamers discuss dreams and attempt experiments in dreaming peace.
Intuition
Network Initiates Silent Revolution
The
non-profit Intuition Network (www.intuition.org)
has “resolved to undertake a new mission – that of initiating a new social
movement, a silent revolution standing for psychic liberation.”
The
network consists primarily of professionals who use intuition in their work,
some explicitly as corporate intuition trainers, others implicitly, and in many
fields. It’s purpose is to “help create a world in which all people feel
encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive and psychic
abilities.”
In
a recently published press release (www.intuition.org/PsychicLiberation.htm),
written by Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D., the director of the network, he states that
information concerning the authentic value of intuition is widespread, yet still
on the periphery of our cultural institutions. There is a need to integrate this
information into government, businesses and our educational system. There is a
need to address religious fears that psychic gifts may be evil and science’s
fear of intuition as leading to a slippery slope of irrationality. The purpose
is to gain respect for the soul and spiritual qualities inherent in humanity.
Historically,
there have been several social movements to liberate factions in society that
were suppressed. The times has come, says the network’s document, for a
liberation of the psyche, including those various experiences and abilities
people have had to suppress for fear of censure. The acceptance of the psyche
will require overcoming another fear: the fear of ourselves. Mishlove concludes
by writing, “A psychic liberation movement must rest upon a foundation of
conscious self-awareness. Only by overcoming these fears are we able to
appreciate our own inner life, and that of others, for what is truly is –
rather than what we fear it might be.”
Sense
of Connection Helps PK Flow
The
ability to use the mind to create an effect on matter (“psychokinesis”)
seems to require a sense of connection between the person and that which the
person wishes to affect by powers of the mind. That is the conclusion of Pamela
Rae Heath, M.D., Psy.D., in her new book The PK Zone (iUniverse), in
which she summarizes the research on this particular psychic ability.
A
would-be spoon bender asking, for example, the spoon if it is willing to bend is
a method for creating such a connection. Sometimes this connection is
experienced as rapport, and sometimes in cases of spiritual healing, as merger.
The sense of unity can be experienced as transcendent, as if both agent and
target are taken up into a higher realm.
Heath
notes that the sense of connection can create a loss of ego identity. There can
be a playfulness in the experience, or an emotional peak. Often there is a
energetic quality to the connection, either the connection happening in an
energy charged environment or a feeling of energy flowing. With the sense of
connection there is a narrowing of focus of attention. The sense of connection
helps to trust in the process, which can be fulfilling on its own.
Heath
summarizes her findings by pointing out that whether or not a person can use PK
to affect a particular target, human, living, or otherwise, seems to depend less
upon the target itself than upon whether or not the person feels comfortable
forming an intimate connection with it.
For
further information, you may view the pages from the book at http://books.iuniverse.com/viewbooks.asp?isbn=059527658X&page=1
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