Evidence for psychic activity found It took eight years and nine experiments with more 1,000 participants, but the results offer evidence that humans have some ability to anticipate the future. "Of the various forms of ESP or psi, as we call it, precognition has always most intrigued me because it's the most magical," said Daryl Bem, professor of psychology emeritus, whose study will be published in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology sometime next year. "It most violates our notion of how the physical world works. The phenomena of modern quantum physics are just as mind-boggling, but they are so technical that most non-physicists don't know about them," said Bem, who studied physics before becoming a psychologist. Publishing on this topic has gladdened the hearts of psi researchers but stumped doubting social psychologists, who cannot fault Bem's mainstream and widely accepted methodology. All but one of the nine experiments confirmed the hypothesis that psi exists.
Health | Left-handers 'better in fights' If you find yourself in a fight, you'd better hope it's not against a left-hander - scientists have found they often have the upper hand. Opponents simply do not expect a left-hook. The endurance of left-handedness has puzzled researchers, because it is linked to disadvantages including an increased risk of some diseases. But University of Montpellier experts, writing in Proceedings B, say it could be because they do well in combat. The team saw that left-handers had the advantage in sports such as fencing, tennis and baseball. They said that Western interactive sports such as these can be classed as "special cases of fights - with strict rules, including the "prohibition of killing and intentionally wounding the opponent". This led them to speculate the same advantage may persist in more aggressive contexts, such as war, so societies which are more violent would have a higher frequency of left-handers. Skill range "And I think the answer is 'no it doesn't'.
Human Connectome Project | Mapping the human brain connectivity Electromagnetic theories of consciousness The electromagnetic theories of consciousness propose that consciousness can be understood as an electromagnetic phenomenon. Overview[edit] Theorists differ in how they relate consciousness to electromagnetism. Electromagnetic field theories (or "EM field theories") of consciousness propose that consciousness results when a brain produces an electromagnetic field with specific characteristics. Some electromagnetic theories are also quantum mind theories of consciousness; examples include quantum brain dynamics (QBD) approaches of Mari Jibu and Kunio Yasue[7] and of Giuseppe Vitiello.[8] In general, however, quantum mind theories other than these QBD approaches do not treat consciousness as an electromagnetic phenomenon. Also related are E. Cemi theory[edit] McFadden thinks that the EM field could influence the brain in a number of ways. McFadden proposes that the digital information from neurons is integrated to form a conscious electromagnetic information (cemi) field in the brain.
Health | Preferred hand 'set in the womb' The hand you prefer to use as a 10-week-old foetus is the hand you will favour for the rest of your life, research suggests. A team from Belfast's Queen's University studied foetuses in the womb, and after birth. Their findings challenge the widely held view that a child does not develop left or right-handedness until it is at least three years old. The research is reported by New Scientist magazine. In one part of their study, the Belfast team identified 60 foetuses who sucked their right thumb in the womb, and 15 who sucked their left thumb. When the babies were examined again between the ages of 10 and 12, the researchers found all 60 of the right thumb suckers were now right-handed. Two-thirds of the left thumb suckers were left handed, the rest apparently having switched their dominant hand. They also produced evidence suggesting foetuses begin to favour one hand over another at an even earlier stage. The Belfast team found the majority tend to wave their right arm more than their left.
Quantum mind–body problem An interpretation of quantum mechanics is a set of statements which attempt to explain how quantum mechanics informs our understanding of nature. Although quantum mechanics has held up to rigorous and thorough experimental testing, many of these experiments are open to different interpretations. There exist a number of contending schools of thought, differing over whether quantum mechanics can be understood to be deterministic, which elements of quantum mechanics can be considered "real", and other matters. This question is of special interest to philosophers of physics, as physicists continue to show a strong interest in the subject. History of interpretations[edit] Main quantum mechanics interpreters Although the Copenhagen interpretation was originally most popular, quantum decoherence has gained popularity. Nature of interpretation[edit] More or less, all interpretations of quantum mechanics share two qualities: Two qualities vary among interpretations: Challenges to interpretation[edit]
MSNBC - How to Think About the Mind How to Think About the MindNeuroscience shows that the 'soul' is the activity of the brain Sept. 27 issue - Every evening our eyes tell us that the sun sets, while we know that, in fact, the Earth is turning us away from it. Astronomy taught us centuries ago that common sense is not a reliable guide to reality. Today it is neuroscience that is forcing us to readjust our intuitions. Modern neuroscience has shown that there is no user. This resistance is not surprising. The disconnect between our common sense and our best science is not an academic curiosity. Prozac shouldn't be dispensed like mints, of course, but the reason is not that it undermines the will. To many, the scariest prospect is medication that can make us better than well by enhancing mood, memory and attention. In Galileo's time, the counter-intuitive discovery that the Earth moved around the sun was laden with moral danger. Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the psychology department at Harvard.
Health | Left-handers 'think' more quickly Left-handed people can think quicker when carrying out tasks such as playing computer games or playing sport, say Australian researchers. Connections between the left and right hand sides or hemispheres of the brain are faster in left-handed people, a study in Neuropsychology shows. The fast transfer of information in the brain makes left-handers more efficient when dealing with multiple stimuli. Experts said left-handers tended to use both sides of the brain more easily. Study leader Dr Nick Cherbuin from the Australian National University measured transfer time between the two sides of the brain by measuring reaction times to white dots flashed to the left and right of a fixed cross. He then compared this with how good participants were at carrying out a task to spot matching letters in the left and right visual fields, which would require them to use both sides of the brain at the same time. More efficient "It's certainly very interesting.
Integral theory Integral theory, a philosophy with origins in the work of Sri Aurobindo and Jean Gebser, and promoted by Ken Wilber, seeks a synthesis of the best of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern reality.[1] It is portrayed as a "theory of everything,"[2] and offers an approach "to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of approaches that are mutually enriching."[1] It has been applied by scholar-practitioners in 35 distinct academic and professional domains as varied as organizational management and art.[1] Methodologies[edit] AQAL, pronounced "ah-qwul," is a widely used framework in Integral Theory. Sri Aurobindo, Jean Gebser, and Ken Wilber, have all made significant theoretical contributions to integral theory. In his book The Ever-Present Origin, Swiss phenomenologist Jean Gebser distinguished between five structures of consciousness: archaic, magic, mythical, mental, and integral. AQAL Theory – Lines. Principles and Properties: Themes[edit] H.
Neuroscience of free will On several different levels, from neurotransmitters through neuron firing rates to overall activity, the brain seems to "ramp up" before movements. This image depicts the readiness potential (RP), a ramping-up activity measured using EEG. The onset of the RP begins before the onset of a conscious intention or urge to act. Philosophers like Daniel Dennett or Alfred Mele consider the language used by researchers. Overview[edit] ...the current work is in broad agreement with a general trend in neuroscience of volition: although we may experience that our conscious decisions and thoughts cause our actions, these experiences are in fact based on readouts of brain activity in a network of brain areas that control voluntary action... Patrick Haggard discussing[15] an in-depth experiment by Itzhak Fried[16] The neuroscience of free will encompasses two main fields of study: volition and agency. To be clear, it is very unlikely that a single study could disprove all definitions of free will.