Neuroscience (Psychology)

Many cognitive training interventions described in the extant literature predominately target only 1 or 2 domains, are very short in duration, and fail to generalize beyond the trained tasks. The aim of the current study was to evaluate differences in cognitive outcomes and self-reported real-life improvements between 2 methods of delivering the ThinkRx cognitive training intervention: professional delivery solely by a clinician versus a partnership model where a caregiver or spouse delivers half of the intervention at home. ThinkRx cognitive training is a clinician-delivered intervention targeting multiple cognitive skills, including working memory, long-term memory, visualization and visual processing, auditory discrimination, logic and reasoning, processing speed, and attention. The sample included records from 292 participants ranging in age from 51 to 95 (M ϭ 60.77, SD ϭ 9.04) presenting with subjective memory or attention complaints at the time of pretest. Participants completed an average of 79 training hours. The results showed no significant differences between delivery methods on any cognitive skills measured and few remarkable differences in self-reported real-life changes. Both delivery methods resulted in significant pretest to posttest gains across all 6 cognitive skills measured and self-reported changes in 5 key areas: mood, memory, cognitive efficiency, life application skills, and focus/attention. The results of the current study also suggest sharing the delivery of an intense, lengthy, multiconstruct cognitive training program to adults over 50 with nonclinical, subjective memory and attention complaints is associated with cognitive improvements and generalized improvements in real life.

Most contemporary text books of neurology and of psychology pay little attention to the function of the cerebellum beyond noting it to be an organ of motor control. A historical overview of research on cerebellar function is presented, from pre-Sherrinton suggestions of sensory and motor function, through the post-Sherrinton and dominant 20 th . Century view of "motor" function, to the 21 st . century perspective of "sensorimotor" function. The intrinsic capability of the cerebellum is briefly considered in terms of: its size/complexity/capacity; its information representation/processing characteristics (with "a particular computational function"); its sensory information processing capability; and, its role in sensorimotor regulatory control. It is suggested that the cerebellum can process sensorimotor stimulus information in a statistical (connectionist type) manner and respond to in on the basis of its own learning based sensorimotor representations, albeit at a "level" that does not necessarily involve cerebral "awareness".

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

BACKGROUND:
In spite of its indusrial usefulness and varied daily uses, lead (Pb) pollution is a widespread ecological problem that faces the humans in the 21th century. Pb was found to produces a wide range of toxic effects including neurotoxicity especially to the developing and young offspring. Recently, the utilization of herbal plants has received a significant attention where there has been rising awareness in their therapeutic use; among these is the garlic.
AIM OF THE WORK:
In light of the above, the current study is designed experimentally in female pregnant rats in order to investigate the beneficial role of garlic extract in the protection from the maternal and fetal cerebellar damage that produced by administration of different doses of Pb during pregnancy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Positively pregnant female rats were divided into five groups; one control group, two Pb-treated groups (exposed to 160 and 320 mg/kg b.wt. of Pb, respectively) and two groups treated with both Pb and garlic (exposed to Pb as previous groups together with 250 mg/ kg b.wt. /day of garlic extract). Treatments started from day 1 till day 20 of pregnancy, where the mother rats of different experimental groups were sacrified to obtain the fetuses. Pb level in the maternal nd fetal blood and cerebellum was estimated by spectrophotometry. Specimens of the cerebellum of different mother and fetal groups were processed to histological and immunohistochemical staining for microscopic examination.
RESULTS:
The results showed that administration of Pb to pregnant rats resulted in a dose-dependent toxicity for both mothers and fetuses in the form of decrease of maternal weight gain, placental and fetal weights, brain weight and diminished fetal growth parameters, which were prominent in rat's group treated with larger dose of Pb. In Pb-treated rats, Pb level in blood and cerebellum was high when compared to the control. The histopathological examination of the cerebellum of treated dams and fetuses showed marked alterations mainly in the form of Purkinje cell degeneration and lack of deveopmet of fetal cerebellum. Co-treatment of garlic extract along with Pb resulted in a significant decrease in Pb levels as compared with those treated with Pb alone with improvement of the histopathological changes.
CONCLUSIONS:
This study was useful in evaluating the hazardous effects of uncontrolled use of Pb in general and in assessing the developmental and neurotoxicity of fetuses due to exposure during pregnancy in particular. Co-administration of garlic has beneficial effects in amelioration of Pb-induced neurotoxicity and reversing the histopathological changes of the cerebellum of mother rats and fetuses.
KEYWORDS:
garlic; glial fibrillary acidic protein; lead; purkinje cells

system can selectively attend to the sensorimotor information input that it receives from naturomorphic system The sensorimotor input from the naturomorphic system may be in the form of visuomotor 'imagery' experienced as virtual reality, and it may include 'inner speech' or the 'inner voice'

Concepts of "the self" and "self-awareness", and aspects of the experience of types of consciousness, are explored in terms of "cognitive" systems and their interactions. Some roles of the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and their interactions are considered in relation to sentient consciousness, the sense of self, and conscious regulation of behavior. This 'introductory paper' is composed of modified selected extracts from: totalBRAINtotalMIND Vol.1 : An Integrated Brain/Mind Architecture Part 2: A Cognitive Architecture (pp16 -136) Part 3. Total Brain: structure, development, function, and an integrated neurocognitive architecture (pp137-321). tBtM Vol.1 is now available as an e-book from: http://totalbraintotalmind.co.uk/

The drive for a theoretical integration of psychotherapy arises out of is dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of single systems/theories. It has been suggested that there is a need for a 'meta-theory' that provides a framework to integrate different psychotherapy theories in terms of some shared construct. The theoretical integration should take into account behaviour, emotion, cognition, and interpersonal factors. In addition, trans-theoretical considerations should include theory and data from neurology and psychiatry. Some different integrative 'frameworks' are noted, including Clarkson's 'Systemic Integrative Psychotherapy'. Some neuroscience based frameworks for integration are also mentioned. It is proposed that homeostasis could serve as a meta-theory that encapsulates principles in terms of which to 'systematically' integrate aspects of psychotherapy, including trans-theoretical dimensions.

Agnosia Definition: Fundamentally defined as a disorder of recognition and the inability to recognize the meaning of information received via the sensory system, from the external environment to the brain. The inability to recognize sensory stimuli. Agnosia presents as a deficit of one particular sensory channel, such as visual, auditory, or tactile. A neurological disorder, Agnosia is the not having the ability to recognize common objects like an orange or a key, people, aromas, or sound though other senses function normally to visual or auditory stimuli. Agnosia is not an amnesia or memory loss, deficit.

Internal breathing is one of the most esoteric and mysterious aspects of Emanuel
Swedenborg’s life story. This energetic breathwork was a constant practice for him which,
throughout his life, became an ever-deepening and broadening gateway into internal realms of
spiritual reality. He would often lapse into extended breathless trances, flirting with the rough edges
of mortality and bringing back the vast psychedelic landscapes of the world beyond death.2

Swedenborg recorded detailed accounts of how this practice affected his psyche in his spiritual diary,
providing a kind of guidebook to the subtle interior realms which define the living currents of the
animate domain. He believed that the most ancient people had this different sort of respiration,
afforded by the absence of speech “internal breathing” allowed them to have an intense awareness
of internal influx and profound intimacy with those who had passed on to the next life.

Strategic management has undergone a radical transformation in the last decade with the introduction of modern analytical methods in the decision-making process that is affected by neuroscience and allows to revolutionize the way to see the strategic decision-making from business models to an individual. Neurostrategy, which is combined with strategic management and neuroscience, relies on strategy's long-standing emphasis on executive managers and refers to the field concerned with the roles and problems of executive managers and those who manage multi-business firms or multifunctional business units. It craves to incorporate insights from neuroscience and especially cognitive neuroscience into strategic management to enhance a richer and simultaneously broader picture of the human side of the organizational dynamism. In this sense, the present study aims to examine the fundamental components of neurostrategic management and shed light on its importance in organizational research together with the management and business practice by scrutinizing the extended literature.

Dalam buku Pskologi pendidikan ini secara utuh membahas tentang konsep dasar psikologi pendidikan, neuroscience, perkembangan kognitif & bahasa, aktifitas umum manusia, psikologi anak berkebutuhan khusus, peranan psikologi dalam pengembangan sikap positif belajar peserta didik, konsep dan teori belajar dalam pendidikan, konsep dasar evaluasi dalam pendidikan dalam berbagai perspekti (multidisipliner).

Recent research suggests that romantic love may be literally addictive. Although the exact nature of the relationship between love and addiction has been described in inconsistent terms throughout the literature, we offer a framework that distinguishes between a narrow view and a broad view of love addiction. The narrow view counts only the most extreme, harmful forms of love or love-related behaviors as being potentially addictive in nature. The broad view, by contrast, counts even basic social attachment as being on a spectrum of addictive motivations, underwritten by similar neurochemical processes as more conventional addictions. We argue that on either understanding of love-as-addiction, treatment decisions should hinge on considerations of harm and well-being rather than on definitions of disease. Implications for the ethical use of anti-love biotechnology are considered.

A journalist's question to Carl Jung: Do you think that, in twenty years, anyone will care about the spirit of symbols, fully in the era of interplanetary journeys, with the Sputniks, the Gagarins, and the Shephards? Will not the spirit come to appear passé?

Dr. Jung smiles cunningly and states: “Sooner or later man will have to return to himself, even if from the stars. All this that is happening now is an extreme form of escapism, because it is easier to reach Mars than to find oneself. If man doesn’t find himself, then he faces the greatest of dangers: his own annihilation.

On February 18, 2021, five days ago, this was a highlight in international news: "The new NASA Mars rover, Perseverance, lands on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021—and we'll be following every step of the way. Adding to our rich history of working with NASA and covering their planetary exploration missions, join us online for these free events celebrating and following Perseverance's landing and work on Mars." (https://www.exploratorium.edu/)

The Historical Emergence of Materialism!



The Scientific Revolution began near the end of the Renaissance, and the genesis is sometimes connected with the publication of Copernicus' 1543 astronomy book. The Scientific Revolution later gave rise to the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Reason was an intellectual and philosophical movement - or revolution - that dominated the world of ideas during the 1700's, which, played a significant role in giving birth to European democracy and the American Revolution. The rise of science and reason brought with it a materialist-mechanistic bias - of course. The French philosopher Rene Guenon argued that materialism began with Descartes writing about mathematics, science, and philosophy.

Carl Jung expressed the influence of materialist thinking another way: "Epistemological criticism was on the one hand an expression of the modesty of medieval man, and on the other a renunciation of, or abdication from, the spirit of God, and consequently a modern extension and reinforcement of human consciousness within the limits of reason." (CW8 - 359) The maverick scientist, Rupert Sheldrake, explains the origins of materialist science and psychology: “The rising influence of mechanistic science accelerated this process from the seventeenth century onward. God was removed from the workings of nature, now seen as inanimate, unconscious, and mechanical, functioning automatically.” (p.155) In retrospect, the power struggle between church and science which had been ongoing since the Catholic Church imprisoned Galileo for his scientific theories - and before, in truth. That undercurrent still remains strong today, in my view.

You know only science can change science - which is why I focus on methodology and facts. The arguments are straightforward.

1. There is a flaw in materialist methodology because as McGliChrist and Kay Deaux emphasize, the Materialist Methodology has a "rigid adherence to quantification and laboratory experiments which excludes everything that won't fit into a laboratory setting.- such as the group related instincts involved in genocides because you can't fit genocides won't fit into  laboratory settings - leaving authorities with no understanding of the powerful emotions involved in ideologies, patriotism, and racism.

2, The mainstay argument of the Materialist Doctrine is that spirit does not exist because it can't be measured. It is true that the artificial academic abstraction of "spirit" cannot be measured - but that is a fallacy, specifically the Definist Fallacy. You can measure the spirituality of people (versus an academic abstraction) until the end of time - and then some. Studies and experiments have been conducted on the spirituality in grieving, in depression, in recovering addicts, in adolescents, in autistics, in NF personalities, and so on. So - absolutely - the spirituality of people Can Be and Has Been measured and quantified - somewhat extensively.       

By the rules of logic, "biased" or "loaded terms" used in rational argument create a logical fallacy - as defined by the universally accepted rules of logic. In the rules of logic, it is termed the Definist Fallacy! , I had a neuroscientist on a FB Neuroscience group stated that: “please keep the religious drivel to religious channels, this is science and science by its very nature only deals with the material - what can be observed and measured. It serves no practical use of time to hypothesize whether giant cosmic parrots travelling from higher dimensions are responsible for anything because unless one flies into our view there’s no way to prove it.”

Freud, to my knowledge was one of the first to realize the problem. In one of his saner moments, Freud stated that the only correct scientific approach is a “functional” approach since “Transcendental Spirit“ or the “Supernatural” is beyond the scope of science and cannot be measured. Carl Sagan said the same thing – just in a different way. Carl Sagan stated unequivocally that “The Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of an absence.”  In top of that, Sagan stated that he has not seen evidence to show that God does not exist. The physicist Brian Josephson made the same observation though in a different context. Brian D Josephson said almost exactly the same thing Freud said long before: “With religion, focusing on the factuality or otherwise of religious belief similarly misses the point: the significant questions in this context relate to the functions and fruitfulness of religious beliefs.”  (Religion in Genes Nature, Vol 362, April 15, 1993)

Dr. Crystal Park and Dr. Raymond F. Paloutzian, in the Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, state "numerous survey studies in both the United States and Europe have demonstrated the normalcy of reports of religious experiences, including mystical experience (see Spilka, Hood, Hunsberger, & Gorsuch, 2003, pp. 307-312).


For the record I have an essay which is a critique of materialism in Maryland Universities endorsed by 4 prominent psychologists including Dr. Koenig, a medical researcher at Duke who publishes on the NIH website, as well as Dr. Paul Wong a well known psychologist and author editor of two volumes of anthologies of Man's Quest for Meaning. Plus, Dr Stefan Schindler, and a local psychology professor form a local Maryland University. That essay basically covers much of what I am saying here. On top of that Dr. Wong agreed that my Fallacy argument is valid.

Essay "Letter to a Congressman Endorsed by 4 Prominent Doctors - Dr. P. Wong, Dr. H. Koenig, Stefan Schindler, and a Local Psychology Professor" https://www.spirittruthandmeaning.com/draft-letter

"Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real,”- Niels Bohr

Spirituality, Consciousness, Perspective: Starting with the last chapter, with my warning to the FBI in 10-30-20 about the Nashville Bombing of 12-30-2020 and going backwards to the beginning of my spiritual journey and quest quest in 1981 with the notarized exceptionally detailed What a Nightmare Warning-Spiritual-Psychic Experience and Mustard Seed Revelation, I cover a range of questions and issues from the ignorance and intolerance of academic materialists and misconceptions and dumb stereotypes which abound and need to be cleared out before any serious intelligent discussion can be had,

For instance, there is  the theory centered on the Distress Factor as one possible underlying cause of spiritual experiences, a brief sketch of some different types of spirituality with reflections relative to the types of spirituality identified by Corinthians (wisdom, knowledge, judgment, prophecy, etc), as well as a brief sum of experiences by Park and Paloutzian, and also an ultra-brief overview of Viktor Frankl, Carl Jung, and William James,  as well as Quantum Physics and Niels Bohr observation that "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real,” and lastly, some of the real world limitations of precognition. 

What might surprise many, is that I, personally, do not identify with being “psychic” and though as a result of my experiences I concluded that there is a transcendental Intelligence [God] – though I believe it is presumptuous to talk about God, I also do not identify with a Transcendental or other-worldly Force – but I view spirit and spirituality as creativity, Drive & Life Force. I love artists and identify with the spirituality of artists since my writing involves, besides rational analysis a lot creativity, imagination, an innovation. Also, as a result of long years (decades actually) I do believe that the Mustard Seed spiritual-psychic experiences is an expression of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy spirit is real – and in my view integrated to some extent or another in the Collective Consciousness. Lastly when I came across Christ’s statement in John 23 “Yet a time is coming……….. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The concepts of “Spirt and truth” can embrace in one way or another just about any ideology, for the record.  I should probably begin with the most recent spiritual-psychic experience in an email sent to FBI agent McElwee

Preface: "Even a quick perusal of the psychological literature in general and research in the psychology of religion in particular demonstrates the need for comprehensive theories . Empirical studies abound, but they are widely scattered, poorly integrated, and more often than not lacking an overreaching theoretical framework (see Spence 1994). (p. 101  Crystal L. Park and Raymond F. Paloutzian, Handbook Of The Psychology Of Religion And Spirituality, Second Edition  Guilford Press 2013) From my research, it appears clear that William James, Viktor Frankl, and Carl Jung had the best assessments of spiritual and religious beliefs. Each had their own personal spiritual experiences which without doubt helped them greatly in understanding spirituality and religion.

Shortcomings of Geertz’s Universally Accepted Definition of Religion
1. Religions are groups and communities. The most salient characteristic of religions are in terms of religions are groups and communities.
2.  Identity is a very critical characteristic of religion. Baumeister observe that members of groups “easily and readily” adopt the norms and values of groups.  Also Gergen and other scholars emphasize – Identities are largely formed around group-related associations (ethnic, religious, nationality, etc)  The study by Desmet, Klaus, Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín, and Ömer Özak. “Is secessionism mostly about income or identity? indicates that economic forces tend to be secondary when it comes to understanding secessionism.” – and concludes Identity is the major factor in secessionism
3. Teachings of religion are without doubt are a primary “function” of religions – especially as Elzbieta and other scholars emphasize that “common symbolization” form groups and create order. Spiritual/religious beliefs are a social consciousness as well as a system of symbols 
4. “Spirit” is pivotal in religious beliefs but wiped off the academic map by materialists
5. Evolutionary Adaptive Selective attention trait as a pivotal function which focuses attention and over-rides competing needs – desires to assure total commitment to hunter-gatherer goals.
Ironically, "The top word millennials used to describe their ideal environment for worship is "community," followed closely by "sanctuary." “Millennial Christians……. are attracted to churches whose focus is not only on the members, but on the community and the world.”  – Yet none of the millennials brought that question up when studying religion apparently. (What Worship Style Attracts the Millennials? Church Answers, sponsored by New Living - https://churchanswers.com/blog/worship-style-attracts-millennials/comment-page-1)/
I would re-emphasize that Throughout the entire history of humanity, religions – which are groups - have formed and reformed.  So, it would stand to reason – while religious beliefs are complex, a very salient and significant function of religions is to form groups, and that historically it would stand to reason that the stone worship is an expression of consciousness in terms of an evolutionary drive.

In Ingela Visuri's study of autistic spiritual experiences (Visuri, I. (2019). Sensory supernatural experiences in autism. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 10(2): 151-165.), what struck me is the very distinct character of the autistics' experiences. In Ingela Visuri's words, autistic experiences tend to be characteristically "unexplainable sensory experiences" - invisible touch, invisible presence (i.e., bodies), and even imaginary friends. It would stand to reason that since this peculiar type of spirituality appears peculiar to autistics it would seem to be generated or stimulated in turn by the peculiar way "autistic brains" process information which are well known to have a deficit in Theory of Mind processing {ability to make inferences and judge others' intentions) and so would likely be an influence or cause of this peculiar type of spiritual experiences. I have done some research into neuroscience and without question the human brain is incredibly complex, however the general thrust that the peculiar physiology of autistics would likely generate peculiar spiritual experiences would appear to be a reasonable proposition.

Ingela Visuri, a PhD, in her well researched dissertation paper focused on the spiritual experiences of high functioning autistics stated that Autistics demonstrate a tendency to have "unusual, sensory experiences [and] are prevalent among autistic individuals" She goes on to say that "A majority of the participants report unexplainable, sensory experiences that seem to occur without any input of stimuli: touch by invisible hands, visions of things that other cannot see, whispers when no one else is to at home, and sensations of invisible bodies being present. "Several participants describe times of grief when they have felt that a significant, invisible other has been present to comfort them." (Varieties of Supernatural Experience: The case of High functioning Autism)

The most salient feature of autistic spirituality is the distinct character of the experiences - "unexplainable sensory experiences" - invisible touch, invisible presence (i.e., bodies), and even imaginary friends. My reasoning would be that since this peculiar type of spirituality appears peculiar to autistics it would seem to follow that the peculiar way their brain process information and their deficit in Theory of Mind processing {ability to make inferences and judge others' intentions) would be a an influence or cause of this peculiar type of spiritual experiences. I have done some research into neuroscience and it is complex. But I believe the argument presented below is a reasonable proposition.

“Eleusis at the Intersection of Antiquity and Modernity:
Mystery, Initiation, and Secrecy in the 21st Century”
Abstract
Michelle Zerba


The official shutting down of the Eleusinian mysteries around 400 CE after a millennium of worship did not bring an end to Eleusis or the mysteria. What began as a ritual in honor of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone ramified over deep time and across geographical expanses into a variety of discourses that have shaped the concept of mystery as we know it today. This includes the incorporation of the term into Christian theology, Gnosticism, and secret societies whose lore sometimes connected them with a “golden thread” of esoteric wisdom extending back to Eleusis. Beyond religion, mystery has been sexualized to sell romance, exoticized to promote the exploration of strange places, and cosmologized in narratives about the enigmas of the universe. What about these associations is related to ancient meanings that grew out of the Eleusinian cult? Why has mystery continued, long after the suppression of the mysteria, to pique our imagination and resist domestication?

While scholarship on the ancient mysteria abounds, none of it has tackled such questions from the perspectives opened by translation studies. Particularly relevant is the recent turn toward cultural translation, which explores how ideology, modes of production, the currency of cliques and trends, and tensions between the local and the global affect intra- and interlingual exchange. This paper seeks to advance the discussion of mystery and the mysteria within such a theoretical frame by juxtaposing two historical moments: 1) the ancient intralingual translation of mysteria-vocabulary in Greek into philosophy, particularly in Plato, and 2) the contemporary interlingual translation of this vocabulary into the discourses of new religious movements and cognitive neuroscience, which has begun exploring the phenomenology of extraordinary spiritual encounters through brain mapping.

Linking these two recent discursive fields is what some have called the “archaic revival” in our time, which has been marked by a return to festival and ritualized forms of liminality. Here Eleusis has helped structure a set of loosely connected tropes in the cultural imaginary that combine postmodern forms of expression with a reverence for the pagan past. It has also functioned as a conduit for the return of initiation as a vital dimension of mystery—one that modern subjects are attempting to recreate in alternative culture heterotopias and that science is studying because of the light it casts on altered states of consciousness and transformational experience. This invites a closer look at the relationship between initiation and secrecy, the two main vectors of the Eleusinian mysteria.

Rebecca, who has had a few of her own rather striking spiritual-psychic experiences observes, "It [spiritual-psychic experiences] totally reshapes your reality. You walk around asking yourself why you experienced it and the loneliness that there isn’t another who can relate."

Consistent studies reveal that somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of people have spiritual-psychic experiences. These people have been marginalized in contemporary society - and primarily as a result of the norms created by the "professionals" in the social sciences.  And these prejudices, intolerance, and ignorance about spiritual-psychic experiences are very real and palpable judgmental norms in todays' world. The reason for this essay is to address the norm that spiritual-psychic experiences are automatically mental illness with the ordinary view that spiritual-psychic experiences are irrational and have no connection with reality,

Seven or so years ago when I got out and started to connect and speak with people who also have had spiritual-psychic experiences, what I found out, is that in the majority of people who I spoke with are relatively level-headed people, many spiritual-psychic experiences were clearly initiated by personal circumstances during that particular time in their lives.

Common circumstances in peoples’ lives that I found common influences in peoples’ spiritual-psychic experiences, besides the drive to understand and enlightenment, would be grieving, recovering addicts, depression (or difficult times), adolescence (Stanley Hall in 1882 showed that adolescents - due presumably to their hormonal distress often had spiritual-psychic experiences regularly), or even high-functioning autistic people who, as Ingela Visuri, showed have spiritual-psychic experiences quite often which appear to have been caused by distress.

Furthermore, Reductionism, the process of breaking entities down into their constituent parts is pervasive and prevalent throughout the social sciences. As Rupert Sheldrake, a modern maverick scientist, observes about materialism that "The trouble is that the sciences give us vast amounts of data, but it is devoid of personal or spiritual meaning." (p.169)

In that context, then, a people approach in understanding spirituality-and putting spiritual experiences in context of the circumstances in their lives such as grieving, depression, addiction, adolescence, troubled times, autism, and personality. This essay is a brief sketch of some of those forces.

Abstract At the most fundamental biological level the brain can be regarded as an organ which functions as a controller of basic homeostatic processes. In terms of its primary structure the brain is grossly composed of three parts: the brain stem, the cerebellum, and the cerebrum. Control is carried out at an innate level by the brain stem, and at a learning based level by the cerebellum and cerebrum. The "hybrid" control facilitated by the interaction of the cerebellum and cerebrum involves communication between the two learning based systems, and this is a particularly important feature in relation to understanding psychological processes. It is proposed that, as a starting point for understanding the function of the brain and its relationship to psychological development and psychological processes, the "core architecture" of the brain can most usefully be described a three tier nested hierarchy of brainstem, cerebellum cerebrum.

Internalization is an everyday occurrence in human consciousness. In fact John Bargh, the Unconscious psychologist  notes that a prominent phenomenon is "mimicry" in human behavior. In fact, the Self-determination theory of Deci and Ryan argues there are two types of assimilation of values - internalization which creates stronger beliefs and external assimilation of social or group values which is weaker.  The bottom line is that there are processes in the human mind that clearly facilitate "internalization" of other's views. In the social psychology experiments, subjects naturally "internalize" group norms and values, and automatically reflect a favoritism for ingroup members and hostility toward outgroup members.

Norms are internalized largely unconsciously of course. A Special case of “internalization" to be considered = Internalizing Fallacies  From Santas' essay on the Socratic Fallacy: "I am sure that imbuing a mind with the Socratic fallacy is quite likely to be morally harmful."   
Excerpt from The Socratic Fallacy by GERASIMOS SANTAS

Psychics from Edgar Cayce, to Theresa Caputo, to Jean Dixon have also demonstrated occasional apparently involuntary internalization.

It has been argued that emotion, pain and cognitive control are functionally segregated in distinct subdivisions of the cingulate cortex. However, recent observations encourage a fundamentally different view. Imaging studies demonstrate that negative affect, pain and cognitive control activate an overlapping region of the dorsal cingulate — the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Anatomical studies reveal that the aMCC constitutes a hub where information about reinforcers can be linked to motor centres responsible for expressing affect and executing goal-directed behaviour. Computational modelling and other kinds of evidence suggest that this intimacy reflects control processes that are common to all three domains. These observations compel a reconsideration of the dorsal cingulate's contribution to negative affect and pain.

Atypical representations of praxis and language were studied in two forms and combinations: bilateral organization, and right lateralization, independently for each function; when the atypically represented praxis dissociates from typically lateralized language; and when both praxis and language have atypical forms. Direct differences between bilateral and right-lateralized representations were either marginal (for praxis), or nonexistent (for language). Because atypical organization of praxis is over twice as frequent as language in its atypical form, sample size might be an issue only for the latter (as atypical organization of language is very rare). Group averages in their dissociations, and associations in atypical forms, revealed the expected representations of the two functions. These outcomes indicate that merging the two atypical representations of praxis, or language, into one atypical group can reveal the critical aspects of their atypicality, including subcortical contributions, without seriously impeding correct interpretation of the essential underlying neural mechanisms.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop following exposure to a traumatic event, including terrifying or life-threatening situations such as sexual assault or natural disasters. The disorder is characterized by a reaction of intense fear, helplessness, or horror when the individual experiences, testifies about, or is faced with one or more events that involve death, severe wounds, or a threat to one's own or another's physical integrity. One of the most important symptoms of PTSD is the revival of the traumatic event, which has been interpreted as an inability to downregulate negative emotions. Neuroimaging studies that probed the ability to regulate emotions in healthy volunteers have found a pattern characterized by activation of the prefrontal cortex associated with a reduction in amygdala activity. This suggests an inhibitory prefrontal cortexamygdala circuit that underlies emotional regulation. The hypothesis that increased amygdala activation associated with PTSD results from dysfunction in the inhibitory mechanism exerted by the prefrontal cortex has been the topic of debate. The present review investigates the validity of dysfunction in the prefrontal-amygdala pathway in PTSD. The studies provide evidence that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex exhibit distinct activation patterns in PTSD, thus supporting the model of a dysfunctional circuit. Inconsistencies in the literature may be attributable to distinct PTSD subgroups, different experimental approaches, different contrasts employed in neuroimaging studies, and small sample sizes.

The aim of this study was to characterize the sleep-wake cycle, daytime sleepiness and sleep quality of high school teachers. Ninety-eight high school teachers participated in this study. They were asked to complete the Health and Sleep, Horne & Ostberg, Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaires and to keep a 14-day sleep diary. This study showed that high-school teachers wake up on average 1 h 12 min earlier (ANOVA; p < 0.05) and go to bed on average 34 min earlier (ANOVA; p < 0.05) during the week than on the weekend. This results in an average of 42 min less time in bed (ANOVA; p < 0.05) on weekdays and characterizes partial sleep deprivation. Moreover, 46% and 51% of teachers were diagnosed with excessive daytime sleepiness and poor sleep quality (χ2; p > 0.05), respectively. Therefore, high-school teachers show characteristics of partial sleep deprivation that may contribute to excessive daytime sleepiness and poor sleep quality. Thi...

Shaun Gallagher has actively looked into the possibility that psychopathologies involving “thought insertion” might supply a counterexample to the Cartesian principle according to which one can always recognize one’s own thoughts as one’s own. Animated by a general distrust of a priori demonstrations, Gallagher is convinced that pitting clinical cases against philosophical arguments is a worthwhile endeavor. There is no doubt that, if true, a falsification of the immunity to error through misidentification would entail drastic revisions in how we conceive the boundary between self and other. However, I argue that (1) the idea of unearthing an exception to the Cartesian thesis is, on further reflection, not a realistic prospect and that (2) this casts doubt on the attempt to conjoin first-person phenomenology and third-person cognitive science in the service of philosophical debates.

Setting the Stage: Friedrich Nietzsche, the famous philosopher, exquisitely described the intrinsic paradox within human consciousness: "One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star." Carl Sagan also spoke about the epiphany in realizing an understanding of the All. As the iconic scientist, Carl Sagan states, “The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos.”
Edgar Cayce brings up a critical point when he talks about the mind and its role in envisioning the future. Edgar Cayce states, "The spirit is life. The mind is the builder. The physical is the result."......“Mind is indeed the Builder. . what is held in the act of mental vision becomes a reality in the material experience. We are gradually builded to that image created within our own mental being.” ―  Michelangelo mirrored what Edgar Cayce said, only millennium earlier, when he said: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. Edgar Cayce further complements the critical process of envisioning when he states, “But spirit is not just a force. It is a consciousness with individualness, though not nearly as individual as we are in our physical condition.”
William James observed that the human mind in creating a sense of reality must "break asunder and reunite" all the innumerable parts and pieces of reality. (ibid p.487) That is, "[A]ny number of impressions, from any number of sensory sources, falling simultaneously on a mind which has not yet experienced them separately, will fuse into a single undivided object for that mind. The law is that all things fuse that can fuse, and nothing separates except what must." (ibid p.488)
Jung's insight that "an image of the world does not mean that there is only an image and no world" – which as Bohr observed is - for the person - a "genuine reality,". William James, in his classic work in 1902, The Varieties of Religious Beliefs, demonstrated in his review and analysis of individual's personal "Religious experiences" that spiritual experiences create a "sense of reality." That is, the spiritually generated "image of the world" does have a "Real Reality'” and Truth beyond just an "image of the world" – a fusion of innumerable disparate and often separate elements.
Lastly, I thought I should add a quote by Deepak Chopra because it covers a natural innate body-mind-spirit paradigm which also includes the social dimension which is very important. Deepak Chopra observes that “Healing is the return of the memory of wholeness. Healing, health, whole and holy all mean inclusiveness. Body, mind, spirit, environment, relationships, social interactions are all one wholeness, and you're a part of that one wholeness.”

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) is the one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests of verbal memory. It has been translated into numerous languages including Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Czech, Portuguese, and English. The present study examined the hypothesis that the learning of word lists forms an algorithmic pattern across all cultures. To this end, a sample of 200 Arabic-speaking Omani adults between the ages of 18 and 50 years was collected. The resulting norms were then compared withexisting American and Brazilian samples. The study confirmed that the first trial on the RAVLT correlates with demographic variables, whereas the learning slope on subsequent trials is almost identical across all cultures. Based on the above finding, the slope of the verbal learning test is hypothesized to measure a psychophysiological process linked with the hippocampal formation and allows for the laying down of new memories. In contrast, the first trial of the test is amenable to more cultural, demographic, and environmental factors.

This paper proposes a new scientific way to study the concept and technique of automatic writing in Surrealism. Based on the specialists of André Breton's work and the experts of automatism, we expose here the literary, psychiatric, neurological and parapsychological influences that Breton had to create his own concept and writing technique. We suggest here that we have to add to all these influences, the spiritist one, specifically, that of Allan Kardec, whose doctrine and concepts, such as psychography, were a direct impact to the surrealist automatic writing, even when Breton wanted to dissociate his movement from Kardec's doctrine. Automatic writing has been studied from many angles, specially from literary and art theory and criticism, but also from history of science, philosophy, neurology, psychology and psychiatry and even from occultism, hermeticism and esoterism. Nevertheless, we don't know any contemporary scientific experiment on this surrealist practice, maybe because materialist principles that support traditional Neurosciences are unable to study automatic writing. For this reason, we propose to study automatic writing, not from regular Neuroscience principles that we disapprove here, but from a post-materialist Neuroscience viewpoint, which agrees with the values that Surrealism defended.

Emotion regulation is the capacity to control the way in which people attend, perceive, process and react to emotional information. Practitioners of sitting and silent meditation develop a greater control of their mental processes, culminating in regulatory abilities that lead to well-being and emotional balance. In this paper we reviewed evidence from recent studies on neurophysiology and cognitive psychology on emotion regulation-focusing on negative emotions-and meditation in order to discuss their intertwining. This critical review showed that controlling attention and fostering a relaxation state are the main mechanisms for the interaction between emotion regulation and meditation. Importantly, it is suggested that the effects of meditation on emotion regulation should be conceptualized separately as those taking effect during the practice and those occurring as an outcome of such practice. Finally, it is highlighted that meditation should be conceived as a particular type of emotion regulation strategy, and that further studies comparing these strategies more directly are warranted.

The perception of duration is crucial when we make choices between immediate and delayed rewards. Immediate rewards are valued more than the same rewards if they are delayed. Preferences for earlier rewards become even stronger when the reward can be received within a subjectively proximate time frame. A "rational" decision to wait for a delayed reward may be overruled by an "impulsive" choice when the option for the closer reward falls within this proximate time range. Based on findings on circadian and circannual physiological rhythms, we suggest that there are 2 time units that are both biologically and culturally determined and have an impact on human experience and behavior: the day and the year. We highlight results of a neuroimaging study showing that rewards with delays up to 1 year are discounted differently than reward delays longer than 1 year. This duration-dependent discounting is associated with specific brain activation in the striatum. We present various conceptualizations of subjective time incorporated in parametric models of intertemporal decisions that may lead to a better understanding of human choice behavior.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop following exposure to a traumatic event, including terrifying or life-threatening situations such as sexual assault or natural disasters. The disorder is characterized by a reaction of intense fear, helplessness, or horror when the individual experiences, testifies about, or is faced with one or more events that involve death, severe wounds, or a threat to one's own or another's physical integrity. One of the most important symptoms of PTSD is the revival of the traumatic event, which has been interpreted as an inability to downregulate negative emotions. Neuroimaging studies that probed the ability to regulate emotions in healthy volunteers have found a pattern characterized by activation of the prefrontal cortex associated with a reduction in amygdala activity. This suggests an inhibitory prefrontal cortexamygdala circuit that underlies emotional regulation. The hypothesis that increased amygdala activation associated with PTSD results from dysfunction in the inhibitory mechanism exerted by the prefrontal cortex has been the topic of debate. The present review investigates the validity of dysfunction in the prefrontal-amygdala pathway in PTSD. The studies provide evidence that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex exhibit distinct activation patterns in PTSD, thus supporting the model of a dysfunctional circuit. Inconsistencies in the literature may be attributable to distinct PTSD subgroups, different experimental approaches, different contrasts employed in neuroimaging studies, and small sample sizes.

Computerized neuropsychological tests can be effective and have many benefits. This paper addresses these issues using the computer-based Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to assess Brazilian children and adults. Preliminary normative data for Brazilian children obtained in a series of CANTAB subtests are presented together with data from adults (controls) and samples of patients with multiple sclerosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The results obtained in children confirmed the normative values reported for American children , indicating high applicability of the CANTAB battery for children in the evaluation of visual memory, working memory, planning, and set shifting. For multiple sclerosis patients, CANTAB revealed differences between the control and multiple sclerosis groups for all subtests employed, including visual memory, working memory, spatial memory, decision making, inhibitory control, and sustained attention. In children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the CANTAB tests revealed specific detriments in attention and memory. These results of the application of CANTAB in different patient groups indicate that the battery is appropriate for assessing several central nervous system diseases.

A delay in bedtime occurs in adolescence compared with childhood. However, the early waking that morning school hours impose leads to partial sleep deprivation. Although exposure to light is the most important regulator of circadian rhythm in mammals, physical exercise influences circadian synchronization. To assess the effect of morning physical exercise in sunlight on the sleep-wake cycle (SWC) in adolescents, 160 first-and second-year high-school students were exposed to classes in their usual classroom (Group C) or in a swimming pool exposed to sunlight (Group E) while physically exercising (EE; i.e., swimming) or resting (EL). At baseline, we applied Health and Sleep and Horne & Ostberg chronotype assessment questionnaires. One week later and during the intervention, we applied the Sleep Diary and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale. During the intervention we observed no changes in bedtime, time in bed and in indices of irregularity of bedtime and wake-up time. The changes observed in wake-up time (i.e., a delay in the EE group on Saturday), sleep quality (i.e., an improvement), and sleepiness (i.e., an increase) were also observed in the control group, discarding an intervention effect. We suggest that morning physical exercise in sunlight had no effect on SWC parameters, sleep quality, or daytime sleepiness, possibly because of the large irregularity in the SWC between weekdays and weekends in adolescent students as well as the low frequency and duration of exercise during the intervention. Therefore, studies that evaluate a higher frequency or duration of exercise are needed to assess its effect on the SWC in adolescents.

Hume’s Guillotine
What is referred to as Hume's Guillotine states the premise that: “Factual statements do not necessarily lead to evaluative or statements of what “should be.” Scotty Jenkins, in his essay-blog, David Hume and Deriving an “Ought” from an “Is”, observes that “The blunder, according to Hume, is one of logic. Factual statements are logically different from moral statements, so no factual statements can, by themselves, entail what people morally ought to do.” Jenkins goes on to say that Hume “thought they [value judgments and morals] come from sentiments or feelings rather than logical deductions.”
Complexity of Interconnections within the Human Brain - Funk and Gazzanigna observe that: “Moral neuroscience is an intricate and expanding field. This review summarizes the main scientific findings obtained to date. Morality is a set of complex emotional and cognitive processes that is reflected across many brain domains. Some of them are recurrently found to be indispensable in order to emit a moral judgment, but none of them is uniquely related to morality…………Some of the emotions processed are more central to morality than others, but all emotions contribute to moral judgment given specific contextual situations. (Brain Architecture of human morality, Funk and Gazzaniga…The neural circuits of brain regions implicated in morality overlap with those that regulate other behavioral processes, suggesting that there is probably no undiscovered neural substrate that uniquely supports moral cognition.” Brain Architecture of human morality, Funk and Gazzanigna Current opinion in Neurobiology 2009 19:678-681)
Einstein: limits of rational analysis and knowledge
Nowhere could that be more apparent than when it comes to the question of "purpose" as well as in the dimension of right or wrong. At an Address to the Princeton Theological Seminary on May 19, 1939, Einstein stated unequivocally, as noted in the book, Ideas and Opinions (1954, 1982): that it is “equally clear that knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. One can have the clearest and most complete knowledge of what is, and yet not be able to deduct from that what should be the goal of our human aspirations.”
Sixty-one years after Einstein made that speech, the neuroscientist and doctor, Antonio Damasio, in his book The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness (2000), stated unequivocally that “Inevitably emotions are inseparable from the idea of good and evil.” (p. 55) – which is in line with the analysis-summary of Funk and Gazzanigna.
Einstein observed, “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration of this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.” (p. 384-5 E) Many scientists, such as Jung and the physicist Pauli, agreed with Einstein that there are indeed some definite limits to science and rational analysis.
It is important to highlight that Einstein stressed that "imagination" is more important and valuable than knowledge because imagination includes not only “what is” (knowledge) but also includes all the hypothetical possibilities and potential realities. In fact, Einstein's discovery of the theory of relativity would seem to be rooted in his "imaginative" thought experiments, such as his "elevator" thought experiment appeared clearly to demonstrate.