Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Online Survey Questions Out-Of-Body Experiencers

Psychologists at Manchester University are investigating the idea that out-of-body experiences, commonly thought of as paranormal phenomena, may in fact have their roots in how people perceive and experience their own bodies.

They are appealing for help from members of the public around the world in the hope of capturing data from at least 500 people, who may or may not have had an out-of-body experience (OBE in research jargon).


Around 10% of the population have an OBE at some time, typically involving a sensation of floating and seeing the physical body from the outside. It isn't uncommon for people to have more than one OBE, and they may also occur as part of the wider near-death experience some report experiencing in life-threatening circumstances.


An online survey at www.freeresponse.org/muobe2005/ will be linked to parapsychology websites across the world. It will be available for the next six weeks, and a summary of the results, which should contribute substantially to psychologists' understanding of the phenomenon, will be posted on the site in the autumn.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Placebo Effect Not Entirely Psychological

By Alison Motluk
New Scientist


It seems that placebos have a real physical, not imagined, effect – activating the production of chemicals in the brain that relieve pain.


Placebos are treatments that use substances which have no active ingredient. But if people are told that what they are being given contains an active painkiller, for example, they often feel less pain – an effect that has normally been considered psychological.


Recent studies, though, suggest otherwise. For example, when a placebo was secretly mixed with a drug that blocks endorphins – the body’s natural painkillers – there was no placebo effect, showing that endorphins are involved in the placebo painkiller process.


Now Jon-Kar Zubieta’s team at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, US, has confirmed that placebos relieve pain by boosting the release of endorphins.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Life-Changing Teleseminar with John Harricharan

If you already know who John Harricharan is, I know you'll definitely want to be there when John shares his personal wisdom on a teleseminar to be held on September 14.

And if you don't know who John Harricharan is, you are in for an incredible treat!

"How To Use The Laws Of The Universe To Become a "Magnet" For Success in Money, Health and Relationships." Go there now...

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE TELESEMINAR NOW

"John Harricharan leads us along the enchanted path of enlightenment with magic, charm, love and compassion." - Deepak Chopra

Friday, August 26, 2005

MindWar: How Military Psy-Ops Plan to Control Your Mind

By Jeffrey Steinberg
Executive Intelligence Review


Sometime in late 1980, then-Col. Paul E. Vallely, the Commander of the 7th Psychological Operations Group, United States Army Reserve, Presidio of San Francisco, Ca., co-authored a discussion paper, which received wide and controversial attention within the U.S. military, particularly within the Special Operations community. The paper was titled "From PSYOP to MindWar: The Psychology of Victory," and it presented a Nietzschean scheme for waging perpetual psychological warfare against friend and enemy populations alike, and even against the American people.


The "MindWar" paper was provoked by an article by Lt. Col. John Alexander, which appeared in the December 1980 edition of Military Review, advocating the introduction of ESP (extra-sensory perception), "tele-pathetic behavior modification," para-psychology, psychokinesis ("mind over matter"), remote viewing, out of body experiences, and other New Age and occult practices into U.S. military intelligence. Alexander's paper was titled "The New Mental Battlefield: Beam Me Up, Spock."


But the subsequent paper co-authored by Vallely went way beyond ESP and the other paranormal techniques advocated by Alexander: "Strategic MindWar must begin the moment war is considered to be inevitable," the document stated. "It must seek out the attention of the enemy nation through every available medium, and it must strike at the nation's potential soldiers before they put on their uniforms. It is in their homes and their communities that they are most vulnerable to MindWar....


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Fake Alcohol Can Make You Tipsy

By Dr. David Whitehouse
BBC News Online Science Editor


Simply the belief that you are drinking alcohol can impair judgement and dent memory, say researchers.


According to Seema Assefi and Maryanne Garry, two psychologists at Victoria University in New Zealand, memory can be affected by an alcohol placebo.


Tests showed that participants in an experiment who were told they were drinking vodka, but were not, were more swayed by misleading information and more certain their memory was correct than those who were told they were drinking tonic water.


Dr Garry says the research has given new insights into how human memory works and how both social and non-social influences can affect a person's recall of events.


"What we have done is that we have made people's memory worse by telling them that they were intoxicated even though they had drunken nothing stronger than plain flat tonic water with limes," he adds.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Monday, August 22, 2005

How to Use Subliminal Messages on Yourself

By Bradley Thompson,
Creator of Subliminal Power

The U.S. Government banned them on TV and radio in 1974. They were once famously used to boost sales of popcorn by almost 60%. And today, they're the subject of numerous Derren Brown-style "mind" shows airing throughout the globe.

I'm talking, of course, about subliminal messages.

However despite all the media hype, subliminal messages aren't just used by advertising moguls trying to get us to buy another can of coke. They can also be employed to make serious and lasting change in our own lives.

In this short article, I'm going to share a method you can use to get subliminal messages working for you--starting tonight!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Secrets of Memory Champions

By Joshua Foer
Slate MSN


To attain the rank of grand master of memory, you must be able to perform three seemingly superhuman feats. You have to memorize 1,000 digits in under an hour, the precise order of 10 shuffled decks of playing cards in the same amount of time, and one shuffled deck in less than two minutes.

There are 36 grand masters of memory in the world. Only one lives in the United States. His name is Scott Hagwood, and he's won every U.S. Memory Championship since he began competing in 2001. This past Saturday he was at home in Fayettville, N.C., putting the finishing touches on his first book about memory enhancement. That meant he was not in the auditorium on the 19th floor of the Con-Edison headquarters in Manhattan, and that meant that for the first time in five years, the gold medal of the eighth annual U.S. Memory Championship was anyone's for the taking.


There are five events in the U.S. Memory Championships. First, contestants are given 15 minutes to memorize 99 names and faces, and 20 minutes to recall them. Next, the contestants have to memorize an unpublished 50-line poem (this year titled, "The Tapestry of Me") in 15 minutes, followed by a series of random digits, a list of random words, and finally a shuffled deck of playing cards.

The best memorizers in the world—who almost all hail from Europe—can memorize a pack of cards in less than a minute. A few have begun to approach the 30-second mark, considered the "four-minute mile of memory."


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Friday, August 19, 2005

Is Your Guru a Big Fat Phony?

Take the EnergyGrid False Guru Test. If seven or more of the following describes your guru or spiritual teacher, then unfortunately he or she may not be be as enlightened or good for your soul as you would like to believe:

(Here are a few excerpts...)

1. States his or her own enlightenment: The wisest masters tend not to state their own enlightenment or perfection for they know that it is both unhelpful to themselves and to their students. The false teachers often make this claim because they have little else on offer to attract followers.

3. Acts omnipotently with no accountability: Some spiritual communities are run like concentration camps, with guru and his chosen ones acting like Gestapo officers. Unjust or outrageous behaviour by the guru is passed off as what is needed to help the followers grow (how kind). These are the dangerous gurus who have often severely damaged their students. A real master respects your will even if he or she understands that your particular decisions may not be in your interest, and he or she will act accountably to an ethical code of conduct.

9. Encourages or permits adoration from his followers: Avoid any group that focuses on the "master" themselves rather than the teachings or spiritual practices. This will be a hindrance to your self-realisation for your focus will be drawn outside of yourself, and usually indicates that there is not a lot more on offer than guru worship.

16. Talks bollocks: It is surprising what a person will listen to when he or she is devoted to the speaker. It is always a good idea to get hold of a written transcript of what has been said and really read the message. Then tell an open-minded friend who is not a follower what their opinion is purely on the strength of the words. You will soon find out whether there is any real substance to the teacher's message, or whether you are merely being drawn in by the charisma of the messenger.

26. Acts like a complete paranoid mad person:
If your Precious One acts like a complete paranoid schizophrenic or psychotic then he or she probably is. Run! Remember that there is no such thing as "crazy wisdom"—wisdom is the art of being balanced. However charismatic they may be, and sane between moments of madness, you WILL be damaged by them.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Free Report: "Wealth Beyond Reason"

Bob Doyle, CEO of Boundless Living, is offering a free introduction to his excellent training to all members of the Mind Power News community.

This 22-page report contains selected chapters from the library of books that are part of the "Wealth Beyond Reason" educational package.

This free e-book includes 5 fascinating chapters:
  • Understand Your World
  • Money: An Illusion, a Shadow of Something Else...
  • Your Right to Be Rich
  • It Can Be Another Way
  • Correcting Subconscious Beliefs
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE E-BOOK

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

The Crucial Error in "Think and Grow Rich"

By Karim Hajee

The crucial error in Napoleon Hill's classic book "Think and Grow Rich" is that the title should read something like: "Think, Act and Grow Rich." That word act - as in action is what so many people fail to do.


Sure it's great to utilize Hill's philosophy and work with the techniques he outlines - I fully endorse them. But too often people read his great book and think that all they need to do is think properly and money will magically appear. They'll win the lottery - sure it's possible - but you can't win the lottery unless you actually go out and buy a ticket.


Supposing you want your business to succeed and that business is dependant on getting more customers or more traffic to your store or website. You can work with many of the techniques in Hill's book or with the techniques in my Creating Power system - but if you fail to take action - you won't get anywhere. What kind of action do you need to take?


The reason why most people fail to achieve their goals is because 1) they fail to attract opportunities by not working with the power of their mind and subconscious mind and 2) those that do attract the opportunities fail to follow up on them - in many cases they simply fail to recognize them and instead continue with what is commonly known as wishful thinking - waiting for things to magically change or money to magically appear.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Virtual Reality Helps Calm 9/11 Anxiety

For months after Sept. 11, 2001, Fire Chief Stephen King had the same haunting dream: an endless wooden staircase spiraling into the clouds, his friends climbing ever skyward, always beyond his reach.

King was the battalion chief in charge of safety for the New York Fire Department on the morning when 343 firefighters died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. King, who was friendly with nearly half the fire department victims, barely escaped the north tower. His right knee was shattered.


The injured joint slowly healed. His shattered psyche took longer. The veteran of more than 30 years as a firefighter could hardly bear to visit Manhattan, where he had worked for years.


"I didn't want to even stand next to any high rise building as long as I lived," said King, 57, a second-generation fireman with a son now working for the department. "I didn't even want to go over a bridge."


King tried sleeping pills, anxiety medications and traditional therapy. But he didn't get better until he tried virtual reality, pioneered by researchers at Emory University in the early 1990s.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Monday, August 15, 2005

The 5 Spiritual Movies Everyone Should See

By Stephen Simon
Co-Founder, The Spiritual Cinema Circle


1. FIELD OF DREAMS
Even if Field of Dreams wasn't a wonderful movie on
many different levels, its core message would deserve its place in the pantheon of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that everyone should see simply for its phrase: "If you build it, they (or he) will come." Read more here...

2. GROUNDHOG DAY

Groundhog Day is a wonderful human comedy
about being given the rare opportunity to live several lifetimes all in the same day. Read more here...

3. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

This masterpiece is one of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that everyone should see because it revolves around the intriguing question of what would the world around us look like if we had never been born? We've all wondered that in our darkest hours and this film plays it out. Life also looks at our priorities as human beings and delivers a powerful message about the primacy of love. Read more here...

4. WHALE RIDER

When an old paradigm dies, a void in time is created and that twilight space becomes a magical opportunity for all those who have been born into it. The new paradigm is still but a ray of sun on a distant horizon and it is that light that sustains us in the unknown of that suspended moment in time. Read more here...

5. THE MATRIX

The Matrix is one of the 5 Spiritual Cinema Classics that I believe
everyone should see because, underneath its surface, it contains a breathtaking metaphysical message that is almost unprecedented in Hollywood big-budget movie making. Read more here...

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Mind Power News No. 102 Now Online

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read at http://www.mindpowernews.com/102.htm

This Week:


--> The Lazy Way to Success

--> The Joy of Laziness: How to Slow Down & Live Longer

--> Sleep In For A Creative Spark

--> The Secret of "Doing Without Doing"

--> 5 Steps to Manifesting Your Desires


Read it here: http://www.mindpowernews.com/102.htm


Thursday, August 11, 2005

Encyclopedia of Supernatural Frauds and Hoaxes

By James Randi
Encylopedia of Hoaxes

When I decided to place the entire text of "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural" on the Internet, it was suggested to me that this could cut into the sales of the printed version. However, experience has shown that, in the publishing business, making a book available on the Internet only stimulates sales of the actual book! Another mystery.

I'm very pleased that we're able to do this for our readers, which reminds me that I must thank a good number of you for sending me corrections that needed to be made. You know who you are. Many of the errors were ones that I should have spotted long ago, and there were quite a few typographical errors — especially in the index.


I hope that you will enjoy this Internet version, and will return to it often for information, entertainment, and perhaps for research purposes. You are free to quote from it, providing full source credit is provided.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Yoga Makes Prisoners More Aggressive

By Elizabeth Davies
The Independent UK


Relax. Breathe deeply. And feel your blood pressure rise. A Norwegian prison has had to abandon yoga classes after finding that, instead of helping inmates contain their anxieties, many became more aggressive and agitated.


The sessions were introduced on a trial basis earlier this year for eight prisoners at the high-security Ringerike prison, home to some of the country's most dangerous criminals, in a bid to help them keep their anger in check.

But instead of calming them down, the specialised breathing and meditation involved in yoga served to wind them up, explained the prison director Sigbjo"rn Hagen.


"The reactions we received from the prisoners who participated in the classes were very varied, ranging from completely positive to completely negative," he wrote in a letter addressed to the group in charge of the yoga project.


On the negative side, Mr Hagen said, learning the ancient Indian routine - designed to harmonise mind, body and spirit - had provoked "strong reactions: agitation, aggression, irritability, trouble sleeping and mental confusion".


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Bad Vibes Might Ruin Your Computer

Jen Horsey
Canadian Press


Some people seem to carry a computer curse, frustrated by a plague of viruses, hard-drive failures, power surges and software conflicts that appear and disappear without rational explanation.

They blame their machines and suffer the scorn of others who accuse them of doing something wrong. But researchers at Princeton University may have an explanation: these computer users, it seems, could be sending out bad vibes.


"There are some people who seem to have a natural rapport with computers and other complex machines, and there are other people who seem to manage to break everything even without touching it," said York Dobyns, analytical co-ordinator at Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR).


The laboratory has for 26 years studied a phenomenon that just might have something to do with it.


Through countless experiments, the researchers have tested whether people, through their consciousness alone, can somehow affect the output of various devices.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Friday, August 05, 2005

Beat Slot Machines With Mind Power

By Randall Fitzgerald
Phenomena Senior Editor


Inside every casino slot machine manufactured today is a computer chip called a random number generator, sometimes referred to as the heart and soul of the 'one-armed bandit' because it determines the outcome of every bet and play.


What most people in the gambling industry don't know is how the random number generator (Rng) was invented and used four decades ago in parapsychological experiments testing the ability of the human mind to intuit, or influence, streams of number data.


Helmut Schmidt created the first Rng in 1969 for a mind-over-matter experiment while he was a physicist for the Boeing Company Laboratory. His test subjects concentrated on affecting the movement of a circle of lights that corresponded to the Rng's counter being set in either a 1 or 2 position.


By odds of 10,000 to 1 beyond chance expectation, Schmidt's test subjects affected the number sequence governing movement of the lights.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Researchers Play Mind Tricks to Help Dieters Lose Weight

By Rosie Mestel
Los Angeles Times

In their battle against the bulge, desperate dieters have tried drugs, surgery, exercise, counseling, creams and even electrical fat-burning belts.

Now some psychologists have a new idea: Lying.

A team led by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, found that it could persuade people to avoid fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about the food — even though the event never happened.

In a paper published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team said it successfully turned people off strawberry ice cream and, in earlier studies, it has done the same with pickles and hard-boiled eggs — in each case, by manipulating the subjects to believe the foods made them sick when they were children.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Mind Over Cancer Conference

Could your mind be a better cancer fighter than chemotherapy — and how can you unlock its power?

Ever since Norman Cousins famously laughed away his ankylosing spondylitis by watching Laurel & Hardy films, the interest in the way our minds can affect illness has grown.

Today thousands of patients all across the globe survive cancer – without drugs, surgery or radiotherapy. Many of these have benefited from a range of therapies that concentrate on the mind and the emotions, and which don’t even attempt to kill the tumour.

The best of these — the ones that have a solid track record of success — will be exhaustively reviewed and explained at the What Doctors Don’t Tell You Mind Over Cancer Conference.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

The Subconscious Diet: Think Your Way to a Great Body

By Pam Wight
Press Telegram


Hugh Sanders believes you can think your way to a great body. Forget the fad diets. They don't work because they neglect the single biggest controlling factor for our eating habits; the subconscious.

Enter Sanders' first book, "The Subconscious Diet: It's not what you put in your mouth; it is what you put in your mind!"

Part self-help, part motivational speech, part psychotherapy, the book leads readers on a tour of their random thoughts in search of long-forgotten hurts and grudges that unconsciously spur them to eat when they're not hungry.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY