The Death Delusion « Kensho

You Are Not So Smart 21 Habits of Happy People Contributed by Cindy Holbrook “Happiness is a habit – cultivate it.” ~ Elbert Hubbar Happiness is one aspiration all people share. No one wants to be sad and depressed. We’ve all seen people who are always happy – even amidst agonizing life trials. 1. Be thankful that you woke up alive each morning. 2. Surround yourself with happy, positive people who share your values and goals. 3. Accept others for who they are as well as where they are in life. 4. Keep up to date with the latest news regarding your career and hobbies. 5. Don’t wallow in self-pity. 6. Some statistics show that 80% of people dislike their jobs! 7. Take the time to see the beauty around you. 8. Don’t take yourself – or life to seriously. 9. Holding a grudge will hurt no one but you. 10. Develop an attitude of gratitude. 11. Always make sure your loved ones know you love them even in times of conflict. 12. Honesty is the best policy. 13. Meditation gives your very active brain a rest. 14. 15. See the glass as half full.

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein [Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page. I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.] "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)

10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies | PsyBlog Ten of the most influential social psychology experiments explain why we sometimes do dumb or irrational things. “I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures.Why do good people sometimes act evil?Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?” –Philip Zimbardo Like famous social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo (author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil), I’m also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things. The answer quite often is because of other people — something social psychologists have comprehensively shown. Each of the 10 brilliant social psychology experiments below tells a unique, insightful story relevant to all our lives, every day. Click the link in each social psychology experiment to get the full description and explanation of each phenomenon. 1. The halo effect is a finding from a famous social psychology experiment. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

An Essay by Einstein -- The World As I See It "How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving... "I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. "My political ideal is democracy.

Why you should learn to lucid dream | Yes, I Can! by Robin Nixon If you’ve never experienced it then you may find it hard to understand what lucid dreaming is all about. In fact you may be thoroughly sceptical and dismiss the whole thing as silly nonsense. But I can tell you from personal experience that lucid dreams are very real and something that many millions of people regularly enjoy. Note: Due to the huge amount of interest that this post has generated I am now seriously considering writing a book on the subject, and I would welcome input from anyone with an interest. If you have any anecdotes, suggestions, dreams or anything else you’d like to share with me for possible inclusion in the book, please email me. Your contribution can be anonymous and you may change any and all names/characters as you wish. Lucid dreaming is when you experience full consciousness while dreaming. You may also have another question on your mind, along the lines of “What’s the big deal with being conscious while dreaming, anyway?” Experiencing a lucid dream

The Ten Most Revealing Psych Experiments Psychology is the study of the human mind and mental processes in relation to human behaviors - human nature. Due to its subject matter, psychology is not considered a 'hard' science, even though psychologists do experiment and publish their findings in respected journals. Some of the experiments psychologists have conducted over the years reveal things about the way we humans think and behave that we might not want to embrace, but which can at least help keep us humble. That's something. 1. The Robbers Cave Experiment is a classic social psychology experiment conducted with two groups of 11-year old boys at a state park in Oklahoma, and demonstrates just how easily an exclusive group identity is adopted and how quickly the group can degenerate into prejudice and antagonism toward outsiders. Researcher Muzafer Sherif actually conducted a series of 3 experiments. 2. The prisoners rebelled on the second day, and the reaction of the guards was swift and brutal. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Think time flies? Well actually, you may be right - Technology & science - Tech and gadgets - Gizmodo Time flies when you're having fun. But you're at work, and work sucks. So how is it 5 p.m. already? When we talk about "losing time," we aren't referring to that great night out, or that week of wonderful vacation, or the three-hour film that honestly didn't feel like more than an hour. No, when we fret about not having enough time, or wonder where exactly all those hours went, we're talking about mundane things. The workday. Why does that happen? First of all, yes In understanding any complex issue, especially a psychological one, intuition doesn't usually get us too far. But not today. "Philosophers have written on (the perception of time) for a long period, and psychology has been interested in it since its inception as a separate discipline — since the late 1800s," explains Dr. Brown says that common wisdom about how time "flies" is basically correct. This jibes with common experience as well as decades of experimentation. The secret, Brown says, is something called habituation.

Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio - review Consciousness has become a hot topic for brain scientists. Once, we were content to leave the interminable mind/brain problem to philosophers and theologians. Speculation remained a CLM – a career-limiting move — for ambitious young researchers. No longer. Armed with novel tools, from genetic manipulation to brain imaging, flush with funding, and convinced that neuroscience has the key to the human condition, the hunt is on. Experiments, conferences and books proliferate, and philosophers of mind can no longer be taken seriously until they have done an internship in a neurophysiology lab. Neuroscientists, especially those of us trained in the Anglo-American tradition, tend to be as mechanically materialist as was "Darwin's bulldog", Thomas Huxley, in the 19th century, when he remarked that mind is to brain as the whistle is to the steam train – a mere epiphenomenon. Consciousness is a term with multiple meanings. This, briefly summarised, is the latest version of Damasio's theory.

The Roots of Consciousness: Theory, The Biological Perspective The Biological Perspective In the Introduction, I discussed the evolution of organized matter from the photon through particles, atoms and molecules to living cells which begin to differentiate in structure and function forming a wide variety of tissues and organs that play a specialized function in the human body. It is reasonable to assume all these levels of organization including the whole human being play a role in shaping consciousness. Particularly important are the nervous system, comprising brain and spinal cord, and the endocrine system, comprising a number of ductless glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Many biological scientists today implicitly believe that these structures not only shape consciousness, but are actually the source of conscious awareness. The Nervous System Neuron cells are the principle units of the nervous system. The process by which pulses transmit across the neural membrane is electrochemical. Multi-Polar Neuron Bipolar Neurons Serotonin

BrainWave Generator Healing the Body with Mindfulness of Breathing « Metta Refuge This excerpt from a talk by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh explains how to use mindfulness of breathing to bring loving-kindness to our dear bodies. The physical effect of this can be truly remarkable. As Thây says, “You should really love your body. You should really take care of your body. The First Exercise of Mindful Breathing My dear friends, yesterday I spoke about the first exercise proposed by the Buddha concerning mindful breathing: “Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing in; breathing out, I am aware that I am breathing out.” We should always start with our physical bodies, because our physical bodies also needs peace, harmony and rest. We should realize a true rest. Animals in the forest, every time they are wounded, know how to rest. Deep relaxation here is one of the methods of resting. The Second Exercise of Mindful Breathing The second exercise: “I breathe in, and I am aware of the length of my in-breath; breathing out, I am aware of the length of my out-breath.”

Meditation May Protect Your Brain | Miller-McCune Online For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering. Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention — an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise. A team of Emory University scientists reported in early September that experienced Zen meditators were much better than control subjects at dropping extraneous thoughts and returning to the breath. The same researchers reported last year that longtime meditators don’t lose gray matter in their brains with age the way most people do, suggesting that meditation may have a neuro-protective effect. Where does all this lead?

Six Steps to Meditation This meditation lasts 15 to 20 minutes. It is a meditation of SIX steps. Each step will take roughly two and half to about three minutes. I will first explain to you all the steps and then you can start. The FIRST is the step of rhythmic breathing. The SECOND is the step of detached observation. Then we come to the THIRD step. Then we come to the FOURTH step. The FIFTH is meditation on your immortality. And now we come to the FINAL, the last, the SIXTH step. And now if you are ready, we shall begin with the meditation. The FIRST step, the step of rhythmic breathing. Now we come to the SECOND step; it is the step of detached observation. We move to the THIRD step. We now come to the FOURTH step: It is the step of realizing the oneness with all that is; all human beings, all creatures, all birds, all animals, fish and foul, insects, even mosquitoes, all trees and shrubs and plants. And now we come to the FIFTH step. By GOD’S grace, our period of silence is over.