Rising
temperatures are shrinking all but two of the main glaciers that give Europeans
clean water, scientists say. Psi Research Submitted on August 1, 2004
Pets Reduce Medical Incidence
Pets may someday be called “people whisperers,” if the current trend in research continues to show their therapeutic effect on humans.
People discharged from the hospital following a heart attack are almost six times less likely to die within the year if they own a pet. If the pet is a dog, the survival rate is more than 8 times stronger. Risk factors for heart attack (blood pressure, cholesterol) among the general population are lower among pet owners than among those who do not have a pet. In another study, they found pet owners show only half the increase in blood pressure in response to a stress test than do non pet owners. This effect shows up even when the pet is not accompanying the human to the stress test.
Speaking in terms of dollars, according to an article in Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, an Australian study computed that it would save that country approximately 145 million dollars annually in total healthcare costs if everyone in the country owned a pet.
Source: “People whisperers,” by William Benda and Rondi Lightmark. Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, June-August, 2004, pp. 30-33. Published by IONS, 101 San Antonio Road, Petaluma, CA 94952-9524. 1-877-769-4667; www.noetic.org
She Can Feel Your Pain
More evidence that females are more empathic than males, maybe even psychically so, has been produced in a laboratory, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI) to monitor the brain activity of both partners, the researchers checked to see if visual stimulation of one person’s visual system would show up in the other person’s brain. The partners were male/female colleagues in their fifties who had known each other for two years. When the visual pattern was shown to the female partner, according to the report of the study published in Alternative Therapies, the male’s MRI showed no response. When that same visual stimulus was shown to the male partner, however, the female’s MRI clearly responded. The two people were isolated from one another and were unaware of the joint recording.
In a similar study, involving pain from a small electric shock, conducted at the University College London, the MRIs of the women, when their male romantic partners were shocked, showed the same reaction as when the women were directly shocked themselves. In other words, they and their brains felt their boyfriend’s pain to be as real as their own pain. Men’s empathy was not measured in this study.
In a follow up study conducted at the Institute for Noetic Sciences, researchers measured gut feelings, using an electrogastrogram, (EGG).. Adult friends and relatives participated as partners in the study, without regard to gender, and were separated and isolated from one another without knowing the purpose of the study. The researchers presented to the isolated partner either a neutral, uplifiting, or upsetting mulit-media program, while monitoring the EGG of the other partner. When the isolated partner saw the neutral program, the EGG of the other partner remained inactive. When the isolated partner saw the upsetting program, however, the EGG of the other partner showed large increases in responding, the effect being clearer for upsetting emotions, but still very significant for positive emotions as well.
Women may be more empathic than men, relatives and friends more empathic than strangers, but further research may reveal the exact conditions by which unrelated individuals may nevertheless pick up on one another’s feelings.
Source: Source: “I feel Your Pain,” by Dean Radin. Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, June-August, 2004, pp. 46-47. Published by IONS, 101 San Antonio Road, Petaluma, CA 94952-9524. 1-877-769-4667; www.noetic.org
===============================================
Evidence Revisited for Precognition and Afterlife
Most instances of precognition are trivial. They are so trivial that at the time of the incident they are not recognized; it is only when the precognized event occurs that the person may look back and recognize the earlier presentiment. This conclusion is reached by H. F. Salmarsh, in his book, The future and beyond: Evidence for precognition and the survival of death (Hampton Roads Publishing Company). He proposes that the answer to precognition must exist in the nature of time, as if in this present moment there is information about the future.
In his survey of evidence for survival, Saltmarsh notes that the work of parapsychologist Fred C. Myers, who worked out a way to send, after his death, coded messages to several spirit communicators may have provided the necessary confirming experiment. Dr. Myers was aware that mediumship is a flawed method for proving survival, because in order for the communication to be verified, someone living has to have a way of finding the answer. If someone already knows the answer, then the medium may be getting the information telepathically. If the answer exists somewhere, yet to be found, the medium may be getting the information from clairvoyance. Both possibilities make it impossible to decide unequivacably in favor of the survival of the soul. Myers, however, devised a plan, apparently while on the other side, to get around this logical block. He sent coded puzzle to different mediums. Individually, no single message was meaningful on the surface, nor decipherable. However, once the mediums put the coded messages together, the code was broken and the message, explaining Myers plan, was revealed. Since the answer did not exist anywhere else for someone to know or to find, clairvoyance and telepathy could not have played a role in the spirit communication
For further information, check out the book at www.amazon.com
===========================================================
Quality of End-of-Life is Highly Valued
What would you be willing to give up in order to be assured that you would be well cared for during your last month of life? How many months of healthy living would you be willing to trade for such a guarantee?
In a survey conducted by University of Pittsburgh and published in Medical Care, seventy five per cent of those queried indicated that they’d be willing to give up seven months of healthy living in order to have quality care in their last month of life.
Source: Science and Theology News, July/August, 2004, page12. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
====================================================
Prayer Improves Optimism
Patients who had the habit of prayer were more optimistic about the outcome of their surgery than patients who indicated that they did not pray.
In this study conducted at the University of Michigan by Ami Ai, and others, and published in the Journal of Health Psychology, cardiac patients awaiting surgery were interviewed two weeks and one day prior to their surgery. The purpose of the study was to assess factors affecting hope and confidence in the successful outcome of the surgery. The prayer factor affected the patients’ sense of confidence or optimism, but not their sense of security, which was affected more by whether or not they had health insurance to pay for the operation.
Source: Science and Theology News, July/August, 2004, page15. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
===============================================
Simple Words Have Great Power
Saying “I’m sorry” can have great power.
In a study published in the Journal of Management, researchers at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business found that people are much more likely to be willing to restore a work relationship that had been damaged by a violation of trust if the violator was to offer a sincere apology.
This study did not investigate whether or not apologies necessarily result in forgiveness. However, Ira Byock, M.D., a physician who has studied the role of relationships in disease and healing, has proposed The four things that matter most: A book about living (Free Press). Dr. Byock presents evidence that saying “I’m sorry, please forgive me;” “I forgive you;” “Thank you;” and “I love you” are perhaps the most powerful words we can exchange with one another.
Source: Science and Theology News, July/August, 2004, page 20. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
=================================================
Alternative Medicine Usage Increasing
More people are turning to alternative medicines, according to the largest government survey ever on this subject. As of 2002, of over 30,000 citizens surveyed, over one third the population was using either prayer (43 percent), herbs and natural products (19 percent), meditation (8 percent) and diets such as Atkins or Ornish (4 percent), according to news releases. A frequent use of these alternatives is for pain and other chronic conditions for which conventional medicine seems to provide no relief.
In a recent television story, for example, Tom Cruise was shown helping World Trade Towers rescue workers remove toxins from their bodies by providing them sweat baths, an approach advocated within Scientology and other spiritual systems, but something conventional medicine overlooks.
Full source:
Alternative
Medicine Growing in Popularity
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-05-27-alternative-medicine_x.htm
Associated
Press/CNN
Alternative
medicine -- including yoga, meditation, herbs and the Atkins diet -- appears to
be growing in popularity in the United States, perhaps because of
dissatisfaction with conventional care, the government said Thursday.
More
than a third of American adults used such practices in 2002, according to the
government survey of 31,000 people, the largest study on non-conventional
medical approaches in the United States.
If
prayer is included, about 62 percent of U.S. adults used some form of
alternative medicine.
The
results seem to indicate more people are turning to alternative medicine, though
the 2002 survey could not be directly compared to previous studies because of
differences in size and survey methods, health officials said.
The
top alternative therapies included prayer (43 percent of adults), natural
products (19 percent), meditation (8 percent) and diets such as Atkins, Ornish,
or the Zone (4 percent).
More
people also are using natural products such as herbs or enzymes to treat chronic
or recurring pain, said Richard Nahin of the National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health.
"Many
conditions are not easily treated with conventional medicine," Nahin said.
"It may be the public is turning to complementary and alternative medicine
because it's not getting relief from conventional medicine."
But
people should not be turning away from conventional treatments that are proven
safe, said Dr. Stephen Straus, director of the alternative medicine center.
"People
are making individual decisions to neglect those therapies and we have concerns
about those choices," he said.
Health
officials said they were concerned that 13 percent of those surveyed said they
turned to alternative medicine because regular medicine is too expensive.
"It
needs to be explored -- we need to find out whether they were insured or
not," Nahin said.
Health
officials also were surprised that 6.6 percent of those surveyed used the
supplement kava kava, which has been associated with liver disease.
"People
make the assumption that because something is natural that it's safe,"
Nahin said. "But a number of studies have shown that natural products can
be unsafe when used inappropriately or with other drugs."
He
said people considering using alternative medicine should consult their doctor
first.
======================================================
Doubts Arise About Deferring Death
Past studies have shown that terminally ill patients can postpone their deaths until after a significant event, such as a religious holiday. Recent studies, however, have cast doubt on this ability to defer death.
Death records of Asian immigrant population, studied by Claremont Graduate school, for the period 1985 through 2000 show that these folks did not postpone their deaths until after the week of the Harvest Moon Festival, a major annual event for this population. This result contradicts a finding from a 1990 study of death records between 1960 through 1984 for aged Chinese women, which did show the deferred death effect. A re-examination of the earlier study showed statistical bias in favor of the effect.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Missouri, re-examined eighteen earlier studies showing the effect and found statistical errors in them, according to an article published in Psychosomatic Medicine.
In published comments on this research, others reported new evidence in support of the effect. The important issue of whether or not we have any control over the timing of our deaths remains an open question.
Full source:
Death Waits for No One: Deferred
Demises Take a Couple of Hits
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040605/fob4.asp
From Science News, Vol.
165, No. 23, June 5, 2004, p. 356
By BRUCE BOWER
Science News Online
Two new reports challenge the idea, which has been promoted in a series of
high-profile studies, that elderly people suffering from serious physical
illnesses can prolong their lives just long enough to experience a personally
meaningful event, such as a birthday or a religious holiday.
An analysis of California death records from 1985 through 2000, conducted by
economist Gary Smith of Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., indicates that
elderly Asian immigrants don't put off dying until the week after the Harvest
Moon Festival, a major annual event for them. That result counters a 1990 study,
based on California data from 1960 through 1984. The earlier investigation found
that mortality rates of Chinese women at least 75 years of age dipped in the
week before the Harvest Moon Festival and rose in the week after.
Smith's data analysis reveals no sign of death postponement before the Harvest
Moon Festival for Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-Americans. This result held,
regardless of whether he defined elderly as being a minimum of 65 years old or
75 years old. It also made no difference whether deaths on the day of the
festival were classified as occurring before or after the event.
Moreover, Smith found that the original data from 1960 to 1984 exhibit a
death-postponement pattern only if deaths on the festival day are classified as
having occurred after the festival. That statistical partition makes no sense,
he argues, because the festival's central ritual—a family meal—takes place
at midnight at the end of the holiday.
Other prior investigations of this alleged delayed-death effect are also
suspect, contend Judith A. Skala and Kenneth E. Freedland, both of Washington
University School of Medicine in St. Louis. They reviewed 18 such studies
published between 1973 and 2001.
For example, a 1987 report found a 20 percent rise in deaths shortly after
Christmas in Ohio but no corresponding decline in deaths before Christmas.
Reanalysis of the data indicated that the surge in deaths actually began 5 days
before the holiday and peaked on Christmas Day, the researchers say.
"Research . . . has failed to provide convincing evidence that
psychological phenomena such as 'giving up' or 'holding on' can influence the
timing of death," Skala and Freedland conclude.
Smith's findings and those of Skala and Freeland appear in the May/June
Psychosomatic Medicine.
In a commentary published with the new reports, Ellen L.
Idler and Stanislav Kasl, both of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.,
argue that there is still reason to suspect that deaths occur less frequently
before major religious holidays than after them. In a 1992 study of elderly
residents of New Haven, Conn., Idler and Kasl reported a death-postponement
pattern for observant Jews around Yom Kippur and Passover and for observant
Christians around Christmas and Easter.
References:
Idler, E.L., and S. Kasl. 2004. Invited reply: Response to
"Idler and Kasl's p values: A cautionary lesson." Psychosomatic
Medicine 66(May/June):376-377.
Skala, J.A., and K.E. Freedland. 2004. Death takes a
raincheck. Psychosomatic Medicine 66(May/June):382-386.
Smith, G. 2004. Asian-American deaths near the Harvest Moon
Festival. Psychosomatic Medicine 66(May/June):378-381.
Further Readings:
Bower, B. 1993. Mind-survival link emerges from death data.
Science News 144(Nov. 6):293.
Idler, E.L., and S. Kasl. 1992. Religion, disability,
depression, and the timing of death. American Journal of Sociology
97:1052-1079.
Sources:
Kenneth E. Freedland
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University School of Medicine
4625 Lindell Boulevard
Suite 420
St. Louis, MO 63108
Stanislav Kasl
Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Ellen L. Idler
Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Judith A. Skala
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University School of Medicine
4625 Lindell Boulevard
Suite 420
St. Louis, MO 63108
Climate Change Effects Becoming More Obvious
Europe is experiencing the effects of climate change in such a degree that experts are calling for measures to deal with the consequences, according to various news reports.
At a recent conference, for example, the director of the European Environment Agency noted that melting glaciers, severe floods, forest fires and the extreme heat caused tremendous damage and cost thousands of lives.
In one dire prediction, the agency noted that at the current rate of glacier melting, higher than at any time in the past 10,000 years, three fourths of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps will have melted within 50 years. Millions of Europeans depend upon those glaciers for their water.
The agency is making plans to alert European citizens, based upon their locale, of impending weather disasters, in an attempt to save lives. Such singular extreme events are causing more damage than the gradual climate shift and are something for which people can make contingency preparations.
Full source:
Europe
Feeling Effects of Climate Change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_3839000/3839833.stm
United Press International
Scientists with the European Environment Agency say the continent must begin
dealing systematically with the devastating effects of climate change.
BBC Online reports the agency director Jacqueline McGlade, speaking at a
conference in Hungary, cited vanishing glaciers, increasingly severe floods,
forest fires and the heat wave that killed thousands of people, most of them
elderly, in southern Europe last year.
McGlade said if the current high rate of glacier retreat continues,
three-quarters of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps will be gone in less than 50
years. That is bad news for a continent where millions of people depend on
glacial rivers for water.
The EEA is redesigning its Web site to allow European residents to get
environmental information about their locality by typing in their postal codes.
She said staffers noticed an increase in traffic during forest fires in Italy
and Portugal.
"The time has come when extreme weather needs dealing with systematically,
not simply as something you forget about the day after it's happened,"
McGlade told the BBC.
---------------
By Alex
Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
Rising
temperatures are shrinking all but two of the main glaciers that give Europeans
clean water, scientists say.
A report by the European Environment Agency
says the current rate of glacier retreat is now reaching levels higher than
those of the last 10,000 years.
It says climate change is affecting the whole
environment, from the plight of glaciers to plants' growing seasons.
The EEA is developing a continent-wide
internet information system to help people to prepare for extreme weather.
Looking for help
From 1850 to 1970, it says in EEA Signals
2004, glaciers in the European Alps lost about a third of their area and half
their mass, with 20-30% of the remaining ice lost since 1980.
It says about 75% of the glaciers in the Swiss
Alps are likely to disappear by 2050.
The agency's executive director, Professor
Jacqueline McGlade, said what happened during extreme events was perhaps more
important than the monitoring of climate change's impacts.
Speaking at a conference in Hungary of
European environment and health ministers organised by the World Health
Organisation, Professor McGlade said the EEA had placed on its website satellite
images of the distribution of fires in Italy and Portugal in recent summers.
Pinpointing the problems
She said: "We noticed a significant
increase in web traffic and were informed after the event that the public had
been unable to obtain local information of where fires were spreading and were
therefore using the EEA site instead."
So the agency was building "a
geo-referenced public information service on the environment, called In Your
Backyard".
Professor
McGlade told BBC News Online: "What that means is you'll be able to type in
your postcode, wherever in Europe you live, and find information about your
neighbourhood.
"Some of it will be about landfill sites,
or power plants, for example, and that part should be ready by the end of this
year.
"But by mid-2005 we hope to be providing
details of threats from events like heatwaves, droughts and floods.
"The time has come when extreme weather
needs dealing with systematically, not simply as something you forget about the
day after it's happened."
Professor McGlade said the agency was
developing adaptation and mitigation scenarios for a range of climate change
impact possibilities for Europe.
Stitch in time
These would help people to realise that what
was seen now as a once-a-century flood in eastern England, for example, would by
2080 become a once-a-decade event, of increased intensity and size.
What mattered was not only the response to
extremes of weather, but also the planning that prepared people for them.
Professor McGlade said: "Across Europe it
is still the case that many of our hospitals, retirement homes and schools are
situated in today's flood plains. The situation can only worsen."
Dr
Bettina Menne, of WHO Europe's Global Change and Health Programme, told BBC News
Online it was now thought more than 25,000 people had died in last year's
European heatwave.
She said: "We can't say categorically
that climate change was the cause, but there is increasing evidence of a warming
trend across Europe.
"We'll have more heatwaves, and we know
the consequences will be serious, with the over-75s the most affected.
"Last year the biggest proportion of
those who died were in retirement homes, and we need to train carers to
rehydrate patients, especially as old people can fail to feel the need to drink
enough in the heat.
"We
didn't expect Europe to have been so affected by extreme weather. The crisis
came much earlier than we thought."
Brain Needs Exercise to Maintain Mental Health
Alzheimer researchers are finding that the same factors that affect the health of the heart, diet and exercise, also affect the brain, according to a report of a recent conference of experts.
In one study of 1,500 elderly Finnish citizens, those who were obese in middle age had double the incidence of Alzheimer’s in old age than those who had normal weight. Those who had high cholesterol and high blood pressure in middle age had six times the incidence of Alzheimer’s.
In another study, women who had a diet high in vegetables in middle age remained more mentally capable in their 70s than women whose diet in middle age contained few vegetables.
Other studies have shown the positive value of continued mental exercise, involvement in cognitive activities that are challenging and non-routine, which helps keep the brain in shape.
Source:
Lose Weight, Stay
Active, Prevent Alzheimer's-Studies
Mon Jul 19, 2004
03:42 PM ET
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Losing
weight, eating more fruits and vegetables and exercising your brain and body
sounds like a formula to prevent heart disease, but it is also a way to prevent
Alzheimer's, researchers said on Monday.
Midlife obesity, high cholesterol
and high blood pressure appear to affect the brain as well as the heart, they
said.
"There are a variety of
lifestyle factors that people can engage in that will reduce their risk of
cognitive decline," said Dr. Marilyn Albert, chair of the Alzheimer's
Association's medical and scientific council.
"The brain is much more
plastic than we thought," Albert added in an interview.
"It has more capacity to
renew and regenerate. ... We have to tell people that they need to think about
their cognitive health in a way that they typically thought about their physical
health."
Early is better, she added.
"The pathology of Alzheimer's disease develops over 10 years, possibly
longer. People should start as early in life as possible."
Several studies presented to a
meeting sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association in Philadelphia this week
support the contention.
A study in Finland of 1,500
elderly people found that those who were obese in middle age were twice as
likely to develop dementia when they got old as those who were of normal weight.
For those who also had high cholesterol and high blood pressure in middle age,
the risk of dementia was six times higher than those who were not affected.
Another study, of 13,000 women,
found that those who ate vegetables such as iceberg lettuce, spinach, broccoli
and Brussels sprouts in middle age preserved more of their cognitive abilities
as they entered their 70s than women who ate few vegetables.
"Women with the highest
average intake of those vegetables appear to experience less cognitive
decline," Dr. Jae Hee Kang of Harvard Medical School, told a news
conference.
Another study suggested that
leisure activities that combine social, mental and physical activity are the
most likely to prevent dementia.
Each activity is less important
than all of them together, said Laura Fratiglioni of Sweden's Karolinska
Institute.
Mental activities such as reading
books, doing crossword puzzles or playing bingo can help to prevent mental
decline, Albert said. "It should be anything that will push people to
encounter something that isn't routine."
An estimated 4.5
million Americans currently have Alzheimer's, and that number is expected to
balloon as high as 16 million by 2050 as the baby boom generation ages.
©
Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
=========================================
Home Based Churches Becoming Popular
An emerging trend in American spirituality is the home grown church, according to an article in the Christian Science Monitor.
Sometimes it is a start of a new church, with a few people gathering in the minister’s home until enough people are coming to move to a larger setting. In many other cases, it is a group of friends meeting in someone’s home for a book discussion and prayer, with refreshments served.
People are moving away from institutions and are seeking more personal participation and a sense of connection with others. They are creating spiritual families in these gatherings. Sometimes the motivation is to break out of the doctrinal boundaries of the established religions. For others it is a chance to personalize and internalize their religion’s teachings.
Statistics are few, here are two examples: During the most recent year for which data was compiled, followers of the best-selling Conversations with God series have created 162 home-based “Humanity’s Team” gatherings here in the U.S.. According to a Gallup poll, half of America’s participatory Christians meet in small group ministries, either at the church or in members’ homes.
Source:
| Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
The Rev. Tom Caiazzo calls it The House
of Grace, but it's also the house of Reverend Caiazzo himself. The congregants
who gather in this Boston-area residence twice a week for prayer and preaching
hope to someday establish their evangelical church in a more public space.
Meanwhile in Austin, Texas, the people who gather every other
week at the residence of internist Cecilia Schulte to talk about God generally
agree they'll never find a more suitable setting.
These represent two faces of a growing trend toward religious
life that occurs in the most humble of sanctuaries: the home.
In some cases, the groups are nascent churches, perhaps fledgling
global movements. In others, they're more akin to a book club where informality
is the glue that holds a group together for discussions of divine grace.
But the bottom line is that for many Americans, worship is no
longer centered exclusively under a steeple. In an era of long commutes,
overloaded schedules, and made-to-order spirituality, religious experience
increasingly means venturing into someone's home for refreshments and a taste of
God on far more personal terms.
In the trend, some see the danger of renegade religion. Others
see a host of potential benefits - as long as the movement doesn't go too far.
"Home is a very comfortable, safe environment. It's not
institutionalized," says Diane Bennett, director of small group ministries
for Vision New England, an evangelical network. "People want friendship and
relationships. It makes sense to try to create it at home."
Though religious life beyond traditional walls is too
decentralized to track precisely, some indicators suggest a rising trend:
• About half of the nation's observant Christians participate in small group ministries that meet either at church or in parishioners' residences, according to Gallup Poll research.
Teenagers are Saying their Prayers
Eighty six percent of teenagers pray, according to a survey conducted by The American Bible Society, according to a report published in USA Today.
Of those that pray, 91 percent believe that their prayers are answered. About a fourth of these believe their prayers are answered all the time, a fourth believe their prayers are answered most of the time, and about a half believe that their prayers are answered at least some of the time.
The most popular form of prayer is a personally created one, favored by 54 percent of those teens surveyed. The Lord’s Prayer is favored by 22 percent.
Source: USA Today, May 6, 2004. Page 11D
Meditation Improves the Workplace
For both CEOs and congresspeople, meditation is seen as improving the health of the workplace, according to a study conducted by The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. A spokesperson for the center, as reported in Science and Theology News, noted that more and more CEOs have had some kind of experience with meditation at a conference or retreat center and are bringing their experiences to bear at their workplace. At the time of publication, 135 companies, government agencies and non-profits offer meditation opportunities to their employees.
Interviews with those company officials responsible for the workplace meditation report health and interpersonal benefits. Others cite creativity or innovation. “Many people feel that we can solve our problems in a linear, rational fashion,” said Nancy Roof, president of Spirituality and Global Affairs for the United Nations, “but now the global problems are at such a level that we need more than the rational mind; we need the intuitive mind as well.”
Source: “Study: Meditation has place in business.” Science and Theology News, Arpil, 2004, pages 1, 16. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
Spirituality Essential to Disabled Persons
The World Health Organization’s definition of health must be expanded in order to be relevant for people who are physically disabled, according to some new research conducted in New Zealand. Spirituality becomes a necessary component for those who are physically disabled, because, this study found, those individuals who say they are healthy claim that they are healthy not in spite of their disability, but because of it.
This factor—prevailing over disabilities—goes beyond what conventional psychology assumes about the human being. Psychologist Kieren Faull, the researcher at Queen Elizabeth hospital where the study was completed, believes that the worldview of the healthy disabled requires the introduction of a spiritual worldview. Faull found that the key ingredients in the disabled person’s feeling healthy—“strength of identity” and “interaction and connection”—come from the person’s spirituality, their ability to tap into a nonmaterial essence within themselves. A person with major physical disabilities, but who has discovered personal spirituality will appear as much more healthy than a person with minor disabilities but who had not connected with spirituality.
Source: “Study: Spirituality key to disabled workers.” Science and Theology News, Arpil, 2004, page 6. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
Amish Lifestyle is Healthy
Now that obesity is a national health epidemic, researchers are examining alternative lifestyles that avoid this problem. A recent study of an Amish community in Ontario, Canada has demonstrated how an active, hardworking lifestyle diminishes the obesity problem.
Among the 98 people in the Amish community studied, all persons, male and female, spent 40-50 hours a week in moderate activity, with the men working an additional 10 hours a week in “vigorous” physical activity. Of these folks, 26 percent were overweight, compared to 36 percent of adults in Canada and 34 percent of adults in the United States. In this Amish population, 4 percent were found to be obese, compared to 15 percent in Canada and 31 percent in the United States.
Source: “Amish simple lifestyle leads to fitness, experts say.” Science and Theology News, Arpil, 2004, page 19. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
Killing the Buddha Reveals American Spiritual Life
The phrase “killing the Buddha” comes from the Buddhist
version of the taboo against idolatry: mistaking the finger pointing to the moon
as the moon itself. It is an admonition not to take religious teachings as
gospel, but to go for direct experience. William James, the Harvard psychologist
who wrote the classic text, The Varieties of Religious Experience, advised those
who wished to understand religion in America to avoid the churches and instead
go directly to the people to hear their stories of conversions, epiphanies and
visions. Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet have done just that. Their book, Killing
the Buddha (Free Press) contains plenty of stories, mostly of sincere, but
offbeat, spiritual practices throughout the country: a
philosophical stripper working out of a converted Baptist church in Nashville, a
one-eyed rodeo preacher from the "Cowboy Church" of Texas, a clan of
bloodthirsty Jesus freaks in Florida and a cross-dressing terrorist from North
Carolina badly in need of an exorcism, storm chasers hunting for meaning in
devastating tornados, gangbangers inking God on their bodies as protection from
bullets, and cross-dressing terrorist angels looking for a place to sing.
Their
discoveries proved so popular that they created a web-based magazine, www.killingthebuddha.com
to allow more people to submit their stories of bizarre spirituality. Their
manifesto reads in part: “Killing
the Buddha is a
religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be
caught in the "spirituality" section of a bookstore, people both
hostile and drawn to talk of God. It is for people who somehow want to be
religious, who want to know what it means to know the divine, but for good
reasons are not and do not.”
Sources: “Offbeat, funny ‘Buddha’ explores religious oddities.” Science and Theology News, Arpil, 2004, page 27. Contact Research News at info@stnews.org
Also see:
www.amazon.com and www.killingthebuddha.com
ETs have intervened in human history