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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Minds Beyond Brains: New Experimental Evidence

 Rupert Sheldrake, New Dawn
 
 
Where are our minds located? We have been brought up to believe that they are inside our heads, that mental activity is nothing but brain activity. Instead, I suggest that our minds extend far beyond our brains; they stretch out through fields that link us to our environment and to each other.
 
Mental fields are rooted in brains, just as magnetic fields around magnets are rooted in the magnets themselves, or just as the fields of transmission around mobile phones are rooted in the phones and their internal electrical activities. As magnetic fields extend around magnets, and electromagnetic fields around mobile phones, so mental fields extend around brains.
 
Mental fields help to explain telepathy, the sense of being stared at and other widespread but unexplained abilities. Above all, mental fields underlie normal perception. They are an essential part of vision.
 
Look around you now. Are the images of what you see inside your brain? Or are they outside you – just where they seem to be?
 
According to the conventional theory, there is a one-way process: light moves in, but nothing is projected out. The inward movement of light is familiar enough. As you look at this page, reflected light moves from the page through the electromagnetic field into your eyes. The lenses of your eyes focus the light to form upside-down images on your retinas. This light falling on your retinal rod and cone cells causes electrical changes within them, which trigger off patterned changes in the nerves of the retina. Nerve impulses move up your optic nerves and into the brain, where they give rise to complex patterns of electrical and chemical activity. So far, so good. All these processes can be, and have been, studied in great detail by neurophysiologists and other experts on vision and brain activity.
 
But then something very mysterious happens. You consciously experience what you are seeing, the page in front of you. You also become conscious of the printed words and their meanings. From the point of view of the standard theory, there is no reason why you should be conscious at all. Brain mechanisms ought to go on just as well without consciousness.
 
Then comes a further problem. When you see this page, you do not experience your image of it as being inside your brain, where it is supposed to be. Instead, you experience its image as being located about two feet in front of you. The image is outside your body.
 
For all its physiological sophistication, the standard theory has no explanation for your most immediate and direct experience. All your experience is supposed to be inside your brain, a kind of virtual reality show inside your head. That means your skull must lie beyond everything you are seeing: if you look at the sky, your skull must be beyond the sky! This seems an absurd idea, but it seems to be a necessary implication of the mind-in-brain theory.
 
The idea I am proposing is so simple that it is hard to grasp. Your image of this page is just where it seems to be, in front of your eyes, not behind your eyes. It is not inside your brain, but outside your brain.
 
Thus vision involves both an inward movement of light, and an outward projection of images. Through mental fields our minds reach out to touch what we are looking at. If we look at a mountain ten miles away, our minds stretch out ten miles. If we gaze at distant stars our minds reach out into the heavens, over literally astronomical distances.
 
Sometimes when I look at someone from behind, he or she turns and looks straight at me. And sometimes I suddenly turn around and find someone staring at me. Surveys show that more than 90% of people have had experiences such as these. The sense of being stared at should not occur if attention is all inside the head. But if it stretches out and links us to what we are looking at, then our looking could affect what we look at. Is this just an illusion, or does the sense of being stared at really exist?
 
This question can be explored through simple, inexpensive experiments. People work in pairs. One person, the subject, sits with his or her back to the other, wearing a blind-fold. The other person, the looker, sits behind the subject, and in a random series of trials either looks at the subject's neck, or looks away and thinks of something else. The beginning of each trial is signalled by a mechanical clicker or bleeper. Each trial lasts about ten seconds and the subject guesses out loud 'looking' or 'not looking'.
 
Detailed instructions are given on my website, www.sheldrake.org/Onlineexp/offline/staring_experiment.html.
 
More than 100,000 trials have now been carried out, and the results are overwhelmingly positive and hugely significant statistically, with odds against chance of quadrillions to one. The sense of being stared at even works when people are looked at through closed-circuit TV.
 
Animals are also sensitive to being looked at by people, and people by animals. This sensitivity to looks seems widespread in the animal kingdom and may well have evolved in the context of predator-prey relationships: an animal that sensed when an unseen predator was staring would stand a better chance of surviving than an animal without this sense.
 
Educated people have been brought up to believe that telepathy does not exist. Like other so-called psychic phenomena, it is dismissed as an illusion. Most people who espouse these opinions, which I used to myself, do not do so on the basis of a close examination of the evidence. They do so because there is a taboo against taking telepathy seriously. This taboo is related to the prevailing paradigm or model of reality within institutional science, namely the mind-inside-the-brain theory, according to which telepathy and other psychic phenomena, which seem to imply mysterious kinds of 'action at a distance', cannot possibly exist.
 
This taboo dates back at least as far as the Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth century. But this is not the place to examine its history (which I discuss in my book The Sense of Being Stared At). Rather I want to summarise some recent experiments, which suggest that telepathy not only exists, but that it is a normal part of animal communication.
 
I first became interested in the subject of telepathy some fifteen years ago, and started looking at evidence for telepathy in the animals we know best, namely pets. I soon came across numerous stories from owners of dogs, cats, parrots, horses and other animals that suggested that these animals seemed able to read their minds and intentions.
 
Through public appeals I have built up a large database of such stories, currently containing more than 3,500 case histories. These stories fall into several categories. For example, many cat owners say that their animal seems to sense when they are planning to take them to the vet, even before they have taken out the carrying basket or given any apparent clue as to their intention.
 
Some people say their dogs know when they are going to be taken for a walk, even when they are in a different room, out of sight or hearing, and when the person is merely thinking about taking them for a walk. Of course, no one finds this behaviour surprising if it happens at a routine time, or if the dogs see the person getting ready to go out, or hear the word 'walk'. They think it is telepathic because it seems to happen in the absence of such clues.
 
One of the commonest and most testable claims about dogs and cats is that they know when their owners are coming home, in some cases anticipating their arrival by ten minutes or more.
 
In random household surveys in Britain and America, my colleagues and I have found that approximately 50% of dog owners and 30% of cat owners believe that their animals anticipate the arrival of a member of the household. Through hundreds of videotaped experiments, my colleagues and I have shown that dogs react to their owners' intentions to come home even when they are many miles away, even when they return at randomly-chosen times, and even when they travel in unfamiliar vehicles such as taxis.
 
Telepathy seems the only hypothesis that can account for the facts. (For more details, see my book Dogs that Know When their Owners Are Coming Home, and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals.)
 
In the course of my research on unexplained powers of animals, I heard of dozens of dogs and cats that seemed to anticipate telephone calls from their owners. For example, when the telephone rings in the household of a noted professor at the University of California at Berkeley, his wife knows when her husband is on the other end of the line because Whiskins, their silver tabby cat, rushes to the telephone and paws at the receiver.
 
"Many times he succeeds in taking it off the hook and makes appreciative miaws that are clearly audible to my husband at the other end," she says. "If someone else telephones, Whiskins takes no notice." The cat responds even when he telephones home from field trips in Africa or South America.
 
This led me to reflect that I myself had had this kind of experience, in that I had thought of people for no apparent reason who shortly there afterwards called. I asked my family and friends if they had ever had this experience, and I soon found the majority were very familiar with it. Some said they knew when their mother or boyfriend or other significant person was calling because the phone sounded different!
 
Through extensive surveys, my colleagues and I have found that most people have had seemingly telepathic experiences with telephone calls. Indeed this is the commonest kind of apparent telepathy in the modern world.
 
Is this all a matter of coincidence, and selective memory, whereby people only remember when someone they were thinking about rang, and forget all the times they were wrong? Most sceptics assume that this is the case, but until recently there had never been any scientific research on the subject at all.
 
I have developed a simple experiment to test for telephone telepathy. Participants receive a call from one of four different callers at a prearranged time, and they themselves choose the callers, usually close friends or family members. For each test, the caller is picked at random by the experimenter by throwing a die. The participant has to say who the caller is before the caller says anything. If people were just guessing, they would be right about one time in four, or 25% of the time.
 
We have so far conducted more than 800 such trials, and the average success rate is 42%, very significantly above the chance level of 25%, with astronomical odds against chance (1026 to 1).
 
We have also carried out a series of trials in which two of the four callers were familiar, while the other two were strangers, whose names the participants knew, but whom they had not met. With familiar callers, the success rate was 56%, highly significant statistically. With strangers it was at the chance level, in agreement with the observation that telepathy typically takes place between people who share emotional or social bonds.
 
In addition, we have found that these effects do not fall off with distance. Some of our participants were from Australia or New Zealand, and they could identify who was calling just as well as with people down under as with people only a few miles away.
 
Laboratory studies by parapsychologists have already provided significant statistical evidence for telepathy (well reviewed by Dean Radin in his book The Conscious Universe). But most laboratory research has given rather weak effects, probably because most participants and 'senders' were strangers to each other, and telepathy normally depends on social bonds.
 
The results of telephone telepathy experiments give much stronger and more repeatable effects because they involve people who know each other well. I have also found that there are striking telepathic links between nursing mothers and their babies. Likewise, the telepathic reactions of pets to their owners depend on strong social bonds.
 
I suggest that these bonds are aspects of the fields that link together members of social groups (which I call morphic fields) and which act as channels for the transfer of information between separated members of the group.
 
Telepathy literally means 'distant feeling', and typically involves the communication of needs, intentions and distress.
 
Sometimes the telepathic reactions are experienced as feelings, sometimes as visions or the hearing of voices, and sometimes in dreams. Many people and pets have reacted when people they are bonded to have had an accident, or are dying, even if this is happening many miles away.
 
There is an analogy for this process in quantum physics: if two particles have been part of the same quantum system and are separated in space, they retain a mysterious connectedness. When Einstein first realised this implication of quantum theory, he thought quantum theory must be wrong because it implied what he called a "spooky action at a distance."
 
Experiments have shown that quantum theory is right and Einstein wrong. A change in one separated part of a system can affect another instantaneously. This phenomenon is known as quantum non-locality or non-separability.
 
Telepathy, like the sense of being stared at, is only paranormal if we define as 'normal' the theory that the mind is confined to the brain. But if our minds reach out beyond our brains, just as they seem to, and connect with other minds, just as they seem to, then phenomena like telepathy and the sense of being stared at seem normal. They are not spooky and weird, on the margins of abnormal human psychology, but are part of our biological nature.
 
Of course, I am not saying that the brain is irrelevant to our understanding of the mind. It is very relevant, and recent advances in brain research have much to tell us. Our minds are centred in our bodies, and in our brains in particular. However, that they are not confined to our brains, but extend beyond them. This extension occurs through the fields of the mind, or mental fields, which exist both within and beyond our brains.
 
The idea of the extended mind makes better sense of our experience than the mind-in-brain theory. Above all, it liberates us. We are no longer imprisoned within the narrow compass of our skulls, our minds separated and isolated from each other. We are no longer alienated from our bodies, from our environment and from other people. We are interconnected.
 
If you appreciated this article, please consider a digital subscription to New Dawn.
About the Author
RUPERT SHELDRAKE is an English biologist and author. He is known for his work on plant hormones, crop physiology, and for having proposed a non-standard account of morphogenesis and for his research into parapsychology. His books and papers stem from his hypothesis of morphic resonance, and cover topics such as animal and plant development and behaviour, memory, telepathy, perception and cognition in general.
 
Sheldrake's publications include A New Science of Life (1981), Seven Experiments That Could Change the World (1994)Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home(1999), The Sense of Being Stared At (2003), and The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry, called Science Set Free in the US (2012).
 
The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 110 (September-October 2008).
 
© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, 
Permission granted to freely distribute this article for non-commercial purposes if unedited and copied in full, including this notice.
 
© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, 
Permission to re-send, post and place on web sites for non-commercial purposes, and if shown only in its entirety with no changes or additions. This notice must accompany all re-posting.
 

Some other Alternative Methods to detoxify your Bodies

Re-bloggd from WakingTimes

Ayurvedic Methods to Detoxify

July 9, 2013 | By | Reply

Flickr-fennel-jenny downingMelissa Camacho, Guest
Waking Times

There are two methods of treatment to detoxify using Ayurvedic means: Shamana, or palliative therapies; and Shodhana, which is panchakarmaShamana consists of dipan (kindling the digestive fire), pachan (burning ama), fasting, observing thirst, exercise, sun or moon bathing, and specialized breathing or pranayamaThis article focuses on the process in which one approaches a regimen of detoxification, including how to go about choosing between getting Panchakarma or sticking to the more gentle methods of Shamana.  

Shamana vs Panchakarma

Panchakarma (literally the five actions), as many of you know, is an elaborate process of detoxification that is done under the supervision of a trained professional and takes a good amount of time and energy. Here in the west, it lasts usually anywhere from one to two weeks. In India, it can last for up to 40 days. Simply put, Panchakarma focuses on eliminating the excess dosha(s) out of the body, as well as transforming ama. Favorable times for this treatment is the end of winter for Kapha predominant people, the end of spring for Pitta predominant people, and the end of summer for Vata predominant people, though this does depend on specific environmental factors. Shamana (palliation) consists of gentler methods of detoxification and treatment of the doshas. It focuses more on eliminating ama, kindling agni, and suppressing the doshas inside their respective "seats." Spring is an appropriate time for proper palliation.

Both methods have contraindications. The key to detoxifying in this way, is to know thyself. To know thy body. If you are stronger and more stable of body and mind, you can do panchakarma and a more elaborate Shamana regimen. If not, then these methods may not be for you.

I've written this article because I've seen and treated many who have become emaciated and weak during the process and in the name of detoxification. According to Ayurveda, the detoxification process should leave the dhatus (tissues) and rotas (channels) strong. Panchakarma and prolonged time periods of palliation are contraindicated for pregnant women, nursing mothers, children, the weak, the elderly, the emaciated, those with chronic degenerative diseases including cancer, and/or chronic mental health problems. Also, it's unwise to start a detoxification program during times of great transition or trauma, i.e. a divorce or loss of job. Ayurveda is all about digestion of experience and food. One process at a time according to one's agni.

Palliative detoxification methods are best for those who have families, work full time, and have moderately stressful lives. It takes energy, dedication, and presence to undergo a detoxification regimen. The key is to not overdo or deplete the system to the point of causing weakness or damage to the agni or doshas. Also, it is very important to remember that detoxification of any kind consists of three parts: preparation, detoxification and nourishment. The last step is crucial for the maintenance of a strong, vital body.

Detoxing with Shamana

The subdivisions of Shamana are dipan (kindling the digestive fire), pachan (burning ama), fasting, observing thirst, exercise, sun or moon bathing, and specialized breathing or pranayama. Each subdivision can be utilized as a treatment independently or can work simultaneously depending on the practitioner's intention. Below are some tips on how the Shamana methods, done simultaneously in a program, can enhance the detoxification of ama, or toxins, in the body. This is a huge subject and, therefore, can only be briefly touched upon here.

Dipan, Pachan, Fasting, Thirst

First things first. Look at your calendar. How long can you dedicate to an ama cleanse? As already mentioned, preparation and timing are important.  I recommend a cleanse of 14-40 days depending your level of doshic imbalance, stress and quality of ama. Secondly, check in with your Pitta dosha. Eliminating ama can sometimes aggravate Pitta or Pitta predominant people. Make sure to calm the Pitta before focusing on an ama cleanse. Next, onto burning the ama and kindling the digestive fire. The idea here is to avoid anything that creates ama (heavy, oily, sticky, cold foods), while at the same time integrating substances that kindle agni. Eat small meals at the same time daily. Integrate agni stimulating appetizers such as a mixture of raw ginger, Himalayan salt, and lime into your daily menu. Add spices such as ginger, trikatu, cumin, coriander, and fennel to simple foods such as steamed vegetables, soups and salads.

During this time, I recommend two kinds of fasting to lower ama: a monodiet of kitcheri, or a cumin, fennel, coriander tea fast. Take only one day out of the week to fast and have it be the same day weekly. Please refer to the kitcheri recipe on Ayurveda.com or Mira Murphy's cookbook. Listen to your body and take it easy physically on the days you fast. Adhering to thirst is for more advanced Kapha pathologies.

Exercise, Sun and Moon Bathing, Pranayama

Exercise daily and focus on movements that strengthen the core such as boat pose, twists and leg raises. Sun bathe regularly and at the minimum of three times a week. While sunbathing, expose the midriff to the sun and receive the healing rays of the fire element above as it connects to the fire element in the body. Moon bathe during this time, either to cool off Pitta dosha (if it's getting aggravated) or on the night of the full moon to cleanse the liver. Do fire breathing daily. Make sure, if you're susceptible to headaches, to be aware of too much heat in the head.

Conclusion    

Towards the end of your Shamana program add nourishing substances back into your diet slowly. Take at least 3-5 days to integrated heavier foods such as organic dairy products and small amounts of the sweet taste. I suggest taking Chyavanprash or Shaktiprana during this time. Again, you can find these on Ayurveda.com. These are rejuvenatives that are deeply nourishing to the body. Don't overlook this important step. Please contact me or your local and highly qualified Ayurvedic Practitioner if you have any questions.

Blessings and Namaste.

About the Author

Melissa Camacho is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Clinical Ayurvedic Practitioner.  She is a graduate of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and received her Master's of Science in Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Her path in the healing modalities started in 2001 as a buyer for aromatherapy and organic body care products in Boston, MA.  More recently she's enjoyed teaching Ayurveda to yoga teachers in training and AyurYoga classes in Arizona and New Mexico.  Additionally, her clinical practice in Sedona, AZ integrates the modalities of traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture, massage, and moxibustion. You can reach Melissa at info@grandcanyonstateacupuncture.com.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of WakingTimes or its staff.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It's okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.


Health and Breathing

Better Breathing Can Mean Better Health

July 9, 2013 | By | Reply

Flickr-breathing-Liz GraceSue McAllister, Mercury News
Waking Times

Breathing is one of the body's fundamental functions, yet most of us give it no more attention than we give the national product of Lichtenstein. We go about our day – doing routine tasks, making phone calls, handling problems, walking the dog – and unless we overexert ourselves or have an asthma attack, we don't have to think about breathing one little bit. It just happens.

"It is the first thing we do," says Dr. Margaret Chesney, a breathing researcher at UC San Francisco, "and it is the last thing we do. It's really important, but we take it for granted."

Yet we can control our breath if we choose. And breathing properly, experts say, can reduce stress and anxiety, improve mental focus and athletic performance, help control high blood pressure and mend other health problems.

Chesney and others point out that many of us have developed a habit of not breathing deeply enough, and unknowingly we hold our breath for short periods when under stress. Women are more prone to such "under-breathing," Chesney says. Both of these unconscious practices can raise carbon dioxide levels in our blood, which over the long term can be harmful.

"Short, shallow breathing causes a cascade of negative effects in the body, and the body associates that with the fight-or-flight response," says Al Lee, co-author (with Don Campbell) of the 2009 book Perfect Breathing. "It gins up the adrenaline, the cortisol, the stress chemicals."

The good news, experts say, is that it's easy to retrain ourselves to breathe more effectively most of the time, the way we do when relaxed. And there's no equipment needed, no memberships — we've got all the tools with us all the time.

The Lee and Campbell book draws from both recent research on respiration and the breathing techniques of traditional practices such as qigong and yoga. Lee notes that, although the idea of working on one's breathing "seems new age-y," his research has shown that athletes, elite military personnel, stage actors and singers all rely on breathing techniques to control and improve their levels of performance.

"These techniques are used by just about anybody in any discipline you can think of — fighter pilots to Olympic athletes, marksmen, special forces, you name it," Lee says. "They would say, 'This is the most important thing I do.' "

Stress reduction was what Dr. Joe Rod, a cardiologist who's practiced for 30 years in San Jose, wanted a few years ago after going through a wrenching divorce. He signed up for a course in the multistage, rhythmic-breathing technique sudarshan kriya, but he was skeptical that it could really help him. Partly based on yogic breathing, or pranayama, it is taught by the international nonprofit organization Art of Living, whose founder is credited with developing the practice.

The effects were striking, Rod says. "After 90 days of doing this, I felt my stress was markedly reduced, and now I would not stop doing it, because I would not want to revert to the levels of stress I had at the time."

Rod practices his breathing for about 25 minutes daily and meditates as well. He has not missed a day in two years. His two adult daughters, impressed by the changes in their formerly 80-hour-a-week workaholic father, who was on the brink of starting antidepressant medications before improving his breathing, also chose to take the sudarshan kriya course, though he says that they don't practice it often.

Sudarshan kriya is sometimes criticized because part of the practice involves rapid, shallow breathing, which makes some people feel hyperventilated and dizzy. But that effect passes with practice, Rod says, adding that he has experienced no ill effects.

Rajshree Patel, a longtime teacher with the Art of Living and an ex-prosecutor in Los Angeles, recently led a series of free workshops on the breathing technique as part of the campaign Take a Breath, Bay Area. The benefits from the practice come over time, she says, and include better sleep, a stronger immune system and more energy.

"In a modern world of fast-paced, hectic life," she says, "it's the simplest, easiest and most natural way to go back to our center."

The primary function of breathing is to deliver oxygen to tissues, take carbon dioxide out of the body and regulate the acidity of our blood, says Chesney, who directs the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UC San Francisco. (Blood that is overly acidic prompts the kidneys to retain sodium, increasing blood pressure.) But there is plenty of evidence to show that breathing also is powerfully connected to our emotions and overall health, she says.

Currently, she and her husband, UC San Francisco adjunct professor of nephrology Dr. David Anderson, are studying the physiological means by which techniques such as yoga and meditation lower blood pressure. They are focusing on a group of women who are at risk of high blood pressure. The study quantifies the subjects' carbon dioxide levels under a variety of conditions. The hope is that, by teaching patients to practice deep, "mindful" breathing, they can lower high carbon dioxide levels and reduce high blood pressure.

Many breath-training techniques are being recommended and taught today, Chesney says, some of which emphasize a certain number of breaths per minute. But she prefers to focus on slow, relaxed, deep breathing — the kind that makes our bellies rise and fall when we're not sucking in our stomachs.

"You can do that even in your car; you can switch off talk radio and put on some nice music," she says. A few weeks ago, when BART trains were halted for most of a day, many Bay Area residents felt stressed by the heavy highway traffic. Chesney points out that this kind of situation "is a chance to get either very angry and huff and puff, or maybe stop and breathe."

Castro Valley resident Jen Julian, 54, used to think about her breathing constantly, because it had become hard to do. Diagnosed several years ago with the lung disease chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, she found her condition worsening in 2005 and had to start using an oxygen tank constantly. She had noticed that just getting out of bed, taking a shower or doing laundry was exhausting. In 2006, under the care of the Stanford Center for Advanced Lung Disease, she underwent a double lung transplant and then had to relearn how to breathe normally.

The first deep breaths she took, about four days after surgery, were a pleasant surprise and a joy, she recalls. Now she is not only living life normally, but cycling, skiing and pursuing the lifelong dream of earning a pilot's license. She says she will never take breathing for granted again.

"I am kicking butt today, let me tell you," she says. "I take a deep breath every morning in honor of my donor."

About the Author
Contact Sue McAllister at 408-920-5833 or smcallister@mercurynews.com. Follow her
Your Garden will not green-grow
-if you do not water it properly-