The Weirdest and Wildest News of 2006 - Part 2

I've just posted the newest issue of Mind Power News at http://www.mindpowernews.com/153.htm.

As promised, here is the rest of the most mind bending news of 2006. This issue we have more very cool articles, including news about spiritual drugs, brilliant dreams, subliminal advertising, reincarnation, immortality and strange animals with strange powers. Links to all of these and more follow below.

CLICK HERE FOR THE TOP STORIES OF 2006

The Weirdest, Wildest News of 2006 - Part 1

I've just posted the newest issue of Mind Power News at http://www.mindpowernews.com/152.htm.

This week we begin a two-part special review of the most mind bending news of 2006. If you haven't read every single issue of Mind Power News you've probably missed at least one of these amazing articles. From psychic dreams to subliminal ads to baby telepathy and everything in between, including weather manipulation, time control, out-of-body experiences and pet ghosts. Links to all of these are at http://www.mindpowernews.com/152.htm

Cheers!
Andreas Ohrt,
Editor, Mind Power News

Free Gift: 20-minute Manifesting Meditation MP3

My friend Matt Clarkson, founder of Spiritual Growth Monthly and Secrets Of Meditation has created an absolutely free "Manifesting Meditation MP3" for all of the members of the Mind Power News community.


CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE

New Ad-Free Product Review Site Launched

We Need Your Reviews

I've become involved in a massive project to create the Internet's first advertising-free, unbiased review site for Internet Marketing Products. If this project succeeds it will evolve into other areas of interest, and my personal hope is to eventually have an objective review site for all of the products in the "Mind Power" and "Self Improvement" arenas.

When that happens, I would urge everyone who has ever bought a product in this niche to write an honest review so that future seekers will be protected with honest information.

But that's still in the future... for now, the site is focussed on Internet Marketing Products.

Here is how you can help.

If you have ever purchased a product in an attempt to do business online, please join here (registration is free, of course!) and write an honest review of the product. Or, if you are thinking of purchasing a product, go and read the reviews that people have already written.

The goal is to have as many active members and reviewers as possible so that nobody is ever ripped off by shoddy products online again. And, as I said, if you can help this site succeed then in the future we will be able to create a "Mind Power" version of this site and we will all be able to get honest and unbiased reviews of the many products available today.

By the way, you will NOT find links to any of the products mentioned on the site for a good reason... the site is absolutely "Ad-Free" and is committed to honesty and integrity.

Please let your voice be heard at:
http://www.ratingshub.com/invite/yourpower.html

Many thanks!

The Biological Function of the Third Eye

By Richard Alan Miller
Source: nwbotanicals.org

From the time of Dionysius to the time of Plato, the cultures of the Mediterranean consented to the doctrine that claimed the existence of an order of ultimate reality which lies beyond apparent reality.

This "paranormal" reality was accessible to the consciousness only when the "normal" routines of mental data processing were dislocated. It was Plato's pupil Aristotle who changed his teacher's game, separating physics from metaphysics. The philosophical temper of our present civilization, being scientifically and technically oriented, is basically Aristotelian.

No such rational figure as Aristotle arose in the Orient to a position of equal eminence. Because of this and other reasons, Indian anatomists and zoologists, who where no doubt just as curious as the Greeks about the origins of life, and as skilled in dissection, did not feel compelled to set their disciplines up in opposition to metaphysics. Physical and metaphysical philosophy remained joined like Siamese twins. As a result, the discipline which became medicine in the West evolved into a system known as Kundalini Yoga in the Hindu culture.

In Western terms, Kundalini Yoga can be best understood as a biological statement contained within the language of the poetic metaphor. The system makes the attempt of joining the seeming disparate entities of body and mind. It is a very complicated doctrine; in oversimplified terms, the system encourages the practitioner to progress through the control of a number of stages, called Chakras or mind-body coordination. A sixth, associated with clairvoyance and telepathy, is called the Ajna.

The physiological site of this sixth Chakra, the Ajna, is located in the center of the forehead. It is symbolized by an eye - the so-called third eye, the inner eye, or the eye of the mind. When this eye is opened, a new and completely different dimension of reality is revealed to the practitioner of yoga. Western scholars when they first encountered this literature, took the third eye to be an appropriately poetic metaphor and nothing else.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Skeptics vs. the Supernatural

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/151.htm

This Week:

--> Do Supernatural Beliefs Originate in Childhood?
--> Hypnotized By Skepticism
--> Up to 96% Claim Paranormal Experiences
--> The High Price of Freedom
--> Improve Your Self Confidence in 15 Minutes

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST ISSUE

Are You in Control of Your Life?

By Tony Mase
The Personal Power Course

With the beginning of a new year just a few weeks away, I have a question for you to ponder...

Are you in control of your life or is your life in control of you?

Here's a simple test to help you find out...

Instructions:

1. Read each of the ten questions below *very* carefully and answer each one truthfully with a simple yes or no answer.

2. Add up the number of your "yes" answers and calculate the percentage of "yes's" you received out of 100%. To do so, simply multiply your number of "yes" answers times ten. For example, if you answer five of the ten questions with a "yes", your score is 50%.

3. Check your score with the legend below.

Questions:

1. Are you *always* on time for meetings?

2. Are you *always* on time for business appointments?

3. Are you *always* on time for personal appointments?

4. Are you within five pounds (plus or minus) of your ideal body weight?

5. Do you have one, single, overriding, clear and definite "vision" of what you want *next* in your life?

6. Do you have money set aside *specifically* to take advantage of financial opportunities when they arise?

7. Could you *easily* go an entire day without answering a telephone (and without looking to see who called - be honest here)?

8. Do you *always* do *exactly* what you say you're going to do (in other words, do you *always* keep your commitments to yourself and others)?

9. Do you schedule your personal time, including time with your family, and treat it as an *unbreakable* appointment?

10. Do you *always* know *exactly* where your car and house keys are (in other words, can you *always* find your car and house keys when you need them without having to "look" for them)?

Score:

0-20% - Poor

Quite frankly, I'm surprised you made it this far in this article! Odds are your life is totally out of control and you've got some serious work to do if you want to get it under control. The good news is, regardless of how out of control your life is right now, you can get it under control.

30-40% - Fair

You've still got a long way to go! You must learn to follow through on your commitments and establish disciplined boundaries and rules for your life.

50-60% - Average

I'm sure average isn't where you want to be! By changing a few attitudes and actions you could move up to excellent.

70-80% - Good

Almost there! You just need to make a few subtle changes that'll bring you closer to being in 100% total control of your life.

90-100% - Excellent

You're in 100% total control of your life or darn close to it! :-)

In his book The Personal Power Course, Wallace D. Wattles, best known for his classic masterpiece The Science of Getting Rich, talked about the importance of controlling yourself in simple matters if you wish to control your environment.

If you can't control yourself in the little things, what makes you think you can control the big things in your life?

If you can't control yourself in something as simple as showing up to a meeting or appointment on time, what makes you think you can control your own business capable of generating you a $1,000,000.00 a year in income?

Think about it. :-)

Tony Mase is a serious student of the works of Wallace D. Wattles and the publisher of the The Personal Power Course: Ten Lessons in Constructive Science, Teaching You How to Use Your Own Subconscious Energies for Health, Prosperity and Personal Achievement ebook by Wallace D. Wattles...

Induced After-Death Communication

By Michael E. Tymn
Source: Nexus Magazine

Basically, there are two explanations for a revolutionary new form of grief therapy discovered by Dr Allan Botkin, a clinical psychologist practising in Libertyville, Illinois. Either the grieving patients are hallucinating or they are in touch with "the dead".

The therapy, called Induced After-Death Communication (IADC), results in patients seeing and communicating with deceased loved ones and occasionally with deceased enemies. IADC is an offshoot of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy, which was discovered in 1987 by Dr Francine Shapiro of California. As explained on her website, Shapiro was walking in the park one day when she realised that eye movements seemed to decrease the negative emotions associated with her own distressing memories. Some experimentation resulted in the development of the procedure she initially called Eye Movement Desensitization (EMD).

After the patient's emotional issues are fully analysed and a treatment plan developed, the patient and therapist focus on distressing events that apparently have led to the emotional disturbance. The patient is instructed to focus on a particular image or negative thought while simultaneously moving his or her eyes back and forth following the therapist's fingers, which are moved about in the client's field of vision for 20 to 30 seconds or longer. The patient is told to let the mind go blank and take note of whatever thought, image or memory develops. The patient is then asked to focus on a positive belief identified at the beginning of the session and to focus further on the emotionally disturbing event. After several sets of eye movements, patients generally report increased confidence in the positive belief and elimination of the emotional disturbance.

In IADC therapy, the person who is grieving the death of someone is asked to focus directly on the sadness during the eye movements. The typical IADC involves the patient seeing a deceased person, and that deceased person telling him or her that everything is okay and not to grieve. In a number of cases, the deceased has related information previously unknown to the patient. The therapy works with people of all beliefs, including atheists and sceptics. The end result is that the majority of patients overcome their grief.

Botkin is reasonably certain that the many patients who have benefited from the therapy are not dreaming, imagining, fantasising or otherwise hallucinating, but he prefers not to speculate as to whether patients are actually in touch with the spirit world. Whatever the explanation, according to Botkin it works at least 70 per cent of the time.

"As a psychologist who is primarily interested in healing people who suffer so profoundly, I have taken the strategy not to engage in arguments about beliefs," he says in explaining his position. "Believers and sceptics have been waging this battle for some time. I believe that if I take a side, and get placed in one camp, it will be more difficult for me to get help to those who need it."
Moreover, Botkin points out that his neutral position allows the patient to interpret the experience without being influenced by the therapist's beliefs.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Time Machine Inside Your Brain

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

This Week:

--> IS 'REALITY' MERELY A MOVIE INSIDE YOUR HEAD?
--> DOES THE BRAIN TAP INTO THE FUTURE?
--> SCIENTISTS TACKLE THE SECRETS OF TIME TRAVEL
--> 'THE GOD THEORY' VIDEO
--> HOW TO TALK TO YOUR FUTURE SELF
--> TIME AND PSYCHOKINESIS

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

7 Keys for Manifesting Your Deepest Desires

By Matt Clarkson
Creator of Spiritual Growth Monthly

Would you be interested in a simple formula you can use to attract what you want faster than you ever thought you could?

That’s exactly what we’re going to cover here.

You see, I’ve noticed that people make several big mistakes when goal-setting and manifesting. Let’s talk now about how you can avoid these mistakes and create the life you want.

It’s very important that you frame your intentions correctly as I’m about to explain. Do the following whenever you set intentions and goals and you’ll find yourself attracting good things at a speed that will amaze you.

By the way, if you prefer the word “goals” or “outcomes” instead of the word “intention” - that’s fine. I’m going to use the word “intention” to mean all of these things.

So let’s discuss The 7 Keys For Manifesting Your Deepest Desires…

CLICK HERE TO READ THE 7 KEYS

"The God Theory" Video on YouTube

Here is a very interesting 4-minute film based on the ideas proposed in Bernard Haisch's book The God Theory


Is it possible for there to be a purpose in a Universe born in a Big Bang and filled with evolving life? Can the multiverse and superstring theories of cosmology be rendered consistent with an infinite intelligence? Might our human consciousness transcend physical matter? Is our existence and the life we live the means whereby God experiences God's own potential?

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Up to 96% Claim Paranormal Experience

Source: ABC Science Online

An international online survey of paranormal experiences has met with an overwhelming response, say Australian researchers.

The survey, on phenomena that cannot be explained using the current laws of science, is by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne.

"The paranormal is covered by the media everyday. It is also in the public domain via chatrooms and websites and email lists," says Rosemary Breen, who will use the survey results as part of a Masters degree.

"I wanted to tap into this and give a scholarly voice to these experiences."

A recent Gallup poll revealed that 75% of Americans hold at least one paranormal belief, and a UK newspaper poll showed that 60% of Britons accept the existence of the paranormal, say the researchers.

But little is known about contemporary spontaneous experiences, and official surveys are rare, they say.

Breen says the survey is not about beliefs or whether parapsychological phenomena exist, rather it is about what people have experienced and the impact it has had on their lives.

And she says she is not aware of any equivalent study in the world.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Free 'Gratitude Meditation' MP3 for Thanksgiving

To help celebrate Thanksgiving day, my friend Matt Clarkson, editor of 'Spiritual Growth Monthly' would like to share one of his amazing meditation MP3s with the members of Mind Power News.

These meditations are normally only available to his private members, but you can download your 'Gratitude Meditation' MP3 here.

Secrets of Powerful Sleep and Abundant Energy

If you have trouble sleeping or wish you could wake up with more energy in the morning I have a very special announcement for you.

You may recognize the name Kacper Postawski as a regular contributor to Mind Power News. Kacper is the author of an excellent ebook called "Powerful Sleep: How to Sleep Less and Have an Abundance of Energy."

I've been a great fan of this book since 2004 when I studied the concepts and learned how to sleep up to 3 hours less without any decrease in my energy level!

Of course, some days I like to sleep much longer, but usually I sleep an average of 2 hours less than I did before I read this book. It's truly amazing to have enough time every day to do the things that I want.

If you're even remotely interested in sleeping less *and* having more energy during the day, this is a must to add to your collection.

And if there ever was a time to get it , it's today, because after Friday, Nov. 24, Kacper will no longer be offering these four bonuses.

1. The hit short eBook: Vivid Dreams - How to Harness Your Shadow Memory and Remember HOURS Of Your Dreams In Vivid Technicolor...

2. The Acidity And Alkalinity Report... - How the Acidity of Your Blood Affects Your Sleep and What To Do About It

3. The Jet Lag and Night Shift Report - Quick and Effective Strategies for Maximizing Your Sleep When You Work Night Shifts or Travel Often Across Multiple Time-Zones

4. Lessons from Miracle Doctors - by John Barron

These bonuses add up to about $92 in value, and after Friday they're all going off the shelf and will not be available anymore. And, as an added bonus until that day, Kacper will be including the Powerful Sleep Audio CD (a $67 value) to this package at no extra charge.

I have always highly recommend this book and continue to give it my full endorsement. If you would like to learn more please visit this link: Secrets of Powerful Sleep

Subliminal Erotic Images Affect the Brain

By Ker Than
Source: Fox News

The use of scantily clad models in ads for everything from underwear to ice cream attests to the persuasive power of sex, but a surprising new study finds that our actions can be swayed by erotic images even when they don't consciously register in our awareness.

In an experiment, 40 men and women were shown erotic images that had been manipulated to bypass conscious detection. The participants consisted of both heterosexual and homosexual individuals.

Subjects were then shown a small "probe" pattern and asked to determine its orientation—clockwise or counterclockwise.

The researchers found that subjects identified the probe pattern more accurately when it appeared where the erotic images had been, suggesting that the invisible images exerted an effect on their spatial attentions.

In general, the erotic images attracted or repelled attention depending on the gender of the nude model and also the sexual orientation of the subject.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Does the Brain Tap Into the Future?

By George Dvorsky
Source: Sentient Developments

While researching my protopanpsychism article, I came across the work of Dean Radin and Dick Bierman whose research has yielded some very eerie results.

Before I get to this, however, I’d like you to conduct a short experiment. While looking at your feet, stomp on the ground. You will notice that your visual perception of your foot hitting the floor matches your sensation of touching it. This would be fine except for one thing: the speed of light is vastly faster than the conduction times and synaptic delays through the long nerves and spinal cord from your feet. As a result, you should be seeing the event before you feel it – and the delay should be noticeable.

But it’s not.

Benjamin Libet and his associates first documented this phenomenon in 1979, which is now referred to as the ‘delay-and-antedating hypothesis/paradox.’ A number of explanations have been posited to reconcile this strange observation.

Perhaps there is a lag in the visual information. If this is the case, then the visual cortex is set for a time delay such that it can keep up with the slow pulses from the extremities. This would be a rather bizarre revelation if true, meaning that we are constantly viewing the world with a small degree of latency. This is almost certainly not the case, as Darwinian selection would favour those animals that do not experience any kind of visual delay. Living in the past would be grossly disadvantageous out in the wild.

Another possible solution is that sight and feel are experienced at separate times, but are remembered as happening simultaneously. Problems with this hypothesis are similar to the previous one – a suggestion that we are not meaningfully rooted in the present and that our brain “edits” reality for us.

A third solution, one that seems ludicrous at first glance, is that the slow sensory information is referred backwards in time from the near future to match the fast information.

Impossible, right?

Well, that’s where the work of Radin and Bierman come in. They have performed experiments in which it appears that the brain is reacting to stimuli before it is experienced. Radin and Bierman have conducted experiments in which subjects viewed random images flashing on a computer screen. Some of the images were rather neutral while others were meant to invoke a highly emotional response. The researchers discovered that the subjects responded strongly to the emotional images compared to the neutral ones, and that the response occurred between a fraction of a second to several seconds before the images appeared.

Bierman recently repeated these experiments using an fMRI brain scanner and documented emotional responses in brain activity up to 4 seconds before the stimuli. Other laboratories have made similar findings.

Assuming the data is being recorded and interpreted correctly, what's going on here? How is it possible that information can run backwards in time? Roger Penrose believes that quantum effects in the brain could explain backwards referral. He suggests that such effects may occur commonly and even routinely. “If in some manifestation of consciousness,” says Penrose, “classical reasoning about the temporal ordering of events leads us to a contradictory conclusion, then this is strong indication that quantum actions are indeed at work!" Neuroscientist Fred Alan Wolf has come to a similar conclusion and has offered his ‘Two-Time Observable Transactional Interpretation Model’ (TTOTIM) of consciousness.

Stuart Hameroff notes that quantum information can indeed run backwards, or be time indeterminate, citing the Aharonov formulation which suggests that each quantum state reduction has a dual vector, both forward and backwards in time.

What does this all mean? As Wolf notes, “we need to look toward altering our concept of time in some manner, not that this is an easy thing to do. Perhaps we should begin with the idea that a single event in time is really as meaningless as a single event in space or a single velocity. Meaningful relation arises as a correspondence, a relationship with some reference object.”

In addition, this not also adds further credence to the quantum consciousness hypothesis, but to panpsychist notions as well.

RELATED ARTICLE: Time Flies (Backwards?)

Hypnosis Cures Children of Bad Habits

Source: Stuff.co.nz

Hypnosis is a good way to stop children's bad habits, including thumb sucking and bed wetting, a child psychology expert says.

Ran Anbar, a professor at the SUNY Upstate University Medical centre in New York, is speaking at the Paediatric Society's annual conference in Nelson this week.

He believes a range of childhood problems, including asthma, headaches and abdominal pain as well as psychological issues like thumb sucking and bed wetting, can be helped by hypnosis.

"What people think of as hypnosis can be misleading. It is not all about putting people to sleep and mind control. I can't make people do anything they don't want to do, I can just help them to change if they want."

Anbar became interested in hypnosis when his three-year-old daughter had to have surgery for a heart problem.

"She was very worried about having the bandages taken off so I developed a technique to help her– it is a bit like distraction," he said.

"I involved her with other things so she didn't notice the bandages being taken off. That is more what we are talking about in young children and then as they get older you can use different techniques.

"I would say 85 per cent of the young people I have treated have seen improvements in their conditions."

Anbar is hoping New Zealand paediatricians will be keen to include hypnosis in their work.

"It takes about 20 to 40 hours to learn the basic techniques so I hope people will be interested in looking into it," he said.

What Your Pet Is Thinking

By Sharon Begley
The Wall Street Journal

From the day they brought her home, the D’Avellas’ black-and-white mutt loathed ringing phones. At the first trill, Jay Dee would bolt from the room and howl until someone picked up. But within a few weeks, the D’Avellas began missing calls. When the phone rang, their friends later told them, someone would pick up and then the line would go dead.

One evening, Aida D’Avella solved the mystery. Sitting in the family room of her Newark, N.J., home, she got up as the phone rang, but the dog beat her to it. Jay Dee lifted the receiver off the hook in her jaws, replaced it and returned contentedly to her spot on the rug.

Just about every pet lover has a story about the astonishing intelligence of his cat, dog, bird, ferret or chinchilla. Ethologists, the scientists who study animal behavior, have amassed thousands of studies showing animals can count, understand cause and effect, form abstractions, solve problems, use tools and even deceive.

But lately scientists have gone a step further: Researchers are providing tantalizing evidence that animals not only learn and remember but also might have consciousness — in other words, they might be capable of thinking about their thoughts and knowing that they know.

In the past few years, top journals have published reports on self-awareness in dolphins and wild chimps whose different nut-cracking “technologies” constitute unique cultures. Others argue that rats have a sense of fun, mice show empathy for cage-mates, and scrub jays are capable of “mental time travel” that enables them to remember where they stashed worms and seeds.

While researchers have yet to attain the field’s holy grail — proving animals are self-aware — the findings already have broad implications.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Inner Secrets of Wealth Creation

By Enoch Tan
Source: MindReality.com

There are so many factors that affects the building or degeneration of wealth. The result of wealth is a combination of all these factors. Take one of them out and you would reduce your ability to create what you want drastically. Most people when talking about creating wealth tend to mention only some of the factors and not the rest. That is why it is important to see things in an integrated way than in a partial way.

Tithing and Giving.

Tithing tells God that He is the Source of all that you have in your life. Tithing acknowledges that God is the owner of all things and it is the first and foremost act that opens up the channel of blessings upon you and your world. Giving tells the Universe that you believe you are provided for. Giving is the most direct expression of your belief in abundance. Giving produces the physical vibrations of supplication like nothing else can.

Nothing speaks to the Universe louder, of your belief in abundance than giving. And when the Universe hears, more will be added unto you. Not as a reward, but because you truly believed in abundance. Giving tells the Universe that you believe you are provided for. For even as you empty your purse you fear not, demonstrating faith that you will remain whole, that your coffers will be replenished, and that your love for whomever you gave, is what’s most important. Verily, as you believe these things to be true, you will experience such truths, and abundance shall be showered upon you as if the heavens had opened up.

Most times, we think that we don’t have anything to give. Yet, if we look more closely, we’ll see that even the little we have could be shared with others. Let us not wait for a time when we think we’ll have lots and then we’ll give. By giving and sharing the little we have, we open up the storehouse of the universe and permit rivers of good to come our way. Take a chance on this universal principle. Take a chance on yourself. Universal principles always work.

Have you ever experienced a situation where you were asked to donate money to a particular cause, and looking at your shrinking bank balance you were torn between giving money or not? Many people have experienced being in this exact situation, but after deciding to go ahead and make a donation, these same people were very surprised when suddenly a sum of money came to them from some unexpected source to replace the money they just gave away. The truth is, if you hold on to your money, you risk losing the very thing you are hoarding. On the other hand, if you trust good things flow to those who give freely, you will always have funds available to suit your needs.

A gift with reservations is not a gift, it is a bribe. There is no promise of increase unless we give freely. Let go of the gift entirely. Recognize the universal scope of the law. Then the gift has a chance to go out and to come back multiplied. There is no telling how far the blessing may travel before it comes back. It is a beautiful and encouraging fact that the longer it is in returning, the more hands it is passing through and the more hearts it is blessing. All these hands and hearts add something to it in substance. It is increased all the more when it does return.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Can Memories Be Erased, Rescued, or Stolen?

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read at http://www.mindpowernews.com/148.htm

This Week:

--> Scientists Work on 'Trauma Pill' to Erase Bad Memories
--> Zapping Sleepers' Brains Boosts Memory
--> Quality Sleep Rescues Memories
--> "Stolen" Memories Investigated
--> Switching Off TV May Boost Memory
--> 11-year-old Breaks World Memory Record

CLICK HERE TO READ THE CURRENT ISSUE

Do Psychedelic Medicines Have Healing Power?

By John Horgan
New Scientist

John Halpern clearly remembers what made him change his mind about psychedelic drugs. It was the early 1990s and the young medical student at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was getting frustrated that he could not do more to help the alcoholics and addicts in his care. He sounded off to an older psychiatrist, who mentioned that LSD and related drugs had once been considered promising treatments for addiction. "I was so fascinated that I did all this research," Halpern recalls. "I was reading all these papers from the 60s and going, whoa, wait a minute! How come nobody's talking about this?"

More than a decade later, Halpern is now an associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard University's McLean Hospital and is at the forefront of a revival of research into psychedelic medicine. He recently received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give late-stage cancer patients the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. He is also laying the groundwork for testing LSD as a treatment for dreaded super-migraines known as cluster headaches.

And Halpern is not alone. Clinical trials of psychedelic drugs are planned or under way at numerous centres around the world for conditions ranging from anxiety to alcoholism. It may not be long before doctors are legally prescribing hallucinogens for the first time in decades. "There are medicines here that have been overlooked, that are fundamentally valuable," says Halpern.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

What You "See" Is What You Get

Excerpt from: 13 Secrets of World-Class Goal Achievers

World-Class Goal Achievers have trained themselves to “vision their dream.” They see it on the inside long before the world sees it on the outside.

One of my very favorite stories about visioning the dream has to do with Walt Disney’s widow. Whenever they were dedicating Epcot a reporter went up to Lillian Disney and said to her that it was a shame that Walt wasn’t there to see how everything had turned out. She turned to the reporter without any hesitation and replied, “Oh, he saw it, and long before we ever did.”

A key part of visioning your dream is the practice of visualization and there are a number of well-known examples of the power of visualization. None other than golfing legend Jack Nicklaus is said to have always played a course in his mind before actually beginning a game. In his own words: "I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the ball going there; its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality."

One night in 1987, Jim Carrey was a 25-year-old struggling comic when he drove his old Toyota up to Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Sitting there overlooking the City of Angels and visioning his future, Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and added the notation, "for acting services rendered." This story has become famous, of course, because Carrey's expression of brazen optimism turned out to be conservative. By the time 1995 actually rolled around, his rambunctious goofball roles in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "The Mask" and "Dumb & Dumber" had yielded worldwide grosses of $550 million, and the newly minted superstar's asking price was up to $20 million per picture.

Brian Tracy says that, “All improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. Your mental pictures act as a guidance mechanism that causes you to act in ways that make your mental pictures come true in your life.

The Law of Correspondence says that “As within, so without.” It says that your outer world tends to be a reflection of your inner world-like a mirror. What you see in the world around you will be consistent over time with the world inside you.

The Law of Concentration says that “Whatever you dwell upon grows in your reality.” Those two laws in combination explain much of success and most of failure. Successful people are those who continually think about pictures and images of the people they would like to be and the lives they would like to lead.”

Your subconscious mind is extraordinarily powerful, but it is a servant, not a master. Your subconscious mind coordinates every aspect of your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, words, actions and emotions to fit a pattern consistent with your dominant mental pictures. It guides you to engage in the behaviors that move you ever closer to achieving the goals you visualize most of the time.

This article is an excerpt from a free report called 13 Secrets of World-Class Goal Achievers.
Click here to get your free copy of this report...

Science Finally Tackles Hypnosis

By Emily Anthes
Source: Seed Magazine

It seems hypnosis has been nearly everywhere over the past few centuries: onstage with entertainers swinging fat, gold watches; on couches with reclining psychoanalysis patients; in movies, books, and even children's cartoons. But the one gig hypnosis couldn't get was the scientific laboratory.

Until now.

The long-controversial practice of inducing a trancelike state through suggestion is getting a modern makeover by scientists armed with the latest neuroimaging tools and techniques. These researchers are beginning to offer evidence that, neurologically at least, hypnosis is entirely real.

"It makes sense that we are using modern tools of neuroscience research to understand what is a fascinating phenomenon," said David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University. "It's good for hypnosis, and it's good for neuroscience."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Use Your Mind to Age Slower, Get Richer, Be Happier

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/147.htm

This Week:

--> Money Is Your Reward For Serving Others
--> Can a Simple Switch in Your Brain Make You Happier?
--> Use Your Mind to Age Faster or Slower
--> Think Away Your Pain

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST ISSUE

Virtual Seminar Week Brings 49 World-Class Experts to Your Computer

What would it cost to attend all the seminars, trainings and live events of 49 of the top speakers in learning, leadership and lifestyle? Of course, any realistic answer would naturally include the total investment, in time, money and travel.

If the mere thought boggles the mind, two Internet marketing experts, Alex Mandossian and Rick Raddatz, have pioneered the perfect solution. And it's one reason why their innovation will revolutionize the seminar world.

Here is VirtualSeminarWeek.com at a glance:

• Total speakers: 49 (including 7 "mystery" speakers)
• Total time investment: one week. (November 10th - 17th, 2006)
• Total financial investment to attend all sessions: $97 - $297.
• Total travel: zero.

As Mandossian shared, "We've banished the twin perils of the typical hotel seminar event: too much time and too much cost. And in so doing, for those who could never gain access to world-class, in-depth training, the door just swung wide open."

Mandossian speaks from experience. His 2005 training generated over $1 million in sales in only 27 days. So Mandossian is no stranger to the power of leverage via technology.

What makes this event unique is that is a virtual seminar, not a hotel seminar. A hotel seminar costs hundreds to thousands of dollars to attend (after travel, hotel, and seminar fee). VirtualSeminarWeek costs much less because attendees listen over the phone or web, from the comfort of their own homes.

Mandossian and Raddatz have assembled an impressive roster of professional speakers and recognized experts in a business, life, work and health. A small sample includes:

• Jay Abraham --> the $5000/hour marketing mastermind
• Mark Victor Hansen & Art Linkletter --> A lifetime of inspiration
• Dr. Joe Mercola --> Founder of the #1 natural-health site in the world
• Bob Proctor --> Modern-day Napolean Hill (Discover -The Secret-)
• Harv Eker --> How to win the inner game of wealth
• John Harricharan --> On the awesome powers of belief & abundance
• Marc Allen --> Lazy person's guide to wealth and fullfillment
• Kendra Todd --> 1st female winner of Donald Trump's Apprentice
• Scott Martineau --> CEO and founder of Conscious One

And many more...

Learn more at VirtualSeminarWeek

The Extra-Spooky Halloween Edition of Mind Power News

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/146.htm

This Week:

--> Pet Ghosts: Animal Encounters from Beyond the Grave
--> Is the Oiuja Board a Portal to Evil?
--> Beyond Coincidence: Flukey or Spooky?
--> Mindfucks in Films
--> Uri Geller Seeks 'Heir' on Reality TV Show

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST ISSUE

The Science of Brain Transformation

Source: The Transparent Corp

Your brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other. The combination of millions of neurons sending signals at once produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected using sensitive medical equipment (such as an EEG), measuring electricity levels over areas of the scalp.

The combination of electrical activity in the brain is commonly called a BrainWave pattern, because of its cyclic, "wave-like" nature.

The Significance of Brainwaves

With the discovery of brainwaves came the discovery that electrical activity in the brain will change depending on what the person is doing. For instance, the brainwaves of a sleeping person are vastly different than the brainwaves of someone wide awake. Over the years, more sensitive equipment has brought us closer to figuring out exactly what brainwaves represent and with that, what they mean about a person's health and state of mind.

You can tell a lot about a person simply by observing their brainwave patterns. For example, anxious people tend to produce an overabundance of high Beta waves while people with depression tend to produce an overabundance of slower Alpha/Theta brainwaves.

Researchers have found that not only are brainwaves representative of of mental state, but they can be stimulated to change a person's mental state, and even help treat a variety of mental disorders. Certain Brainwave patterns can even be used to access exotic or extraordinary experiences such as "lucid dreaming" or ultra-realistic visualization.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer's

Source: CNN

Good news for aging hippies: Smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer's patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer's, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly.

Those afflicted with Alzheimer's suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.

Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.

Possessing marijuana for recreational use is illegal in many parts of the world, including the United States, though some states allow possession for medical purposes.

Thinking Alters the Way Your Body Fights Disease

By Ronald Kotulak
Source: Chicago Tribune

Western medicine separated the mind from the body in the Middle Ages when the famous French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes agreed to accept flesh and bone as the province of physicians, while the Catholic Church claimed possession of the mind, insisting it was the creation of the soul.

But Descartes, whose works were placed on the Church's Index of Prohibited Books in 1667, believed the two really interacted in the brain. Using the fledging powers of observation and deductive reasoning that he was then developing, Descartes could conclude that "the mind is so intimately dependent upon the condition and relation of the organs of the body, that if any means can ever be found to render men wiser and more ingenious than hitherto, I believe that it is in medicine they must be sought for."

It's taken a long time, but doctors and psychologists are now bringing the mind and the body back together amid new evidence that the mind can improve the healing process in ways that traditional medicine can't.

Unlike earlier notions about the mind-body connection, which were often based on anecdotal stories or simply "gut" feelings, scientists now can document through powerful imaging technology what Descartes could only deduce, that our thoughts are capable of producing dramatic chemical and physical changes that directly affect our health.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Uri Geller Seeks 'Heir' on Reality TV Show

Source: Reuters

After four decades of bending spoons, halting clocks, reading minds, and penning metaphysical thrillers, Uri Geller is seeking a paranormal protege.

A reality television show being produced in Israel, where Geller grew up, will feature 10 contestants vying for the title of "heir" to the world-famous celebrity psychic.

"The format will be something like 'American Idol'. We will keep the performances that are most riveting and amazing," Geller told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that viewers with "intuitive powers" will also be invited to call in and compete.

Geller, 59, declined to elaborate on what supernatural skills the contestants claim to have, and whether clairvoyants -- who might be assumed to have an edge in predicting judges' votes -- are taking part. He described the prize, simply, as "huge".

Keshet, a franchise of Israel's Channel Two television, confirmed on its Web site that the show was being produced but gave no further details.

"This is not a show where people have to prove to me that they are for real," Geller said, adding that he has no plans to retire. "I just want to be amazed."

Strange and Unusual Powers of Hypnosis

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/145.htm

This Week:

--> Seven Unusual Powers of Hypnosis
--> Medical Hypnosis Cures Phobias, Addictions, and Pain
--> Magic Questions to Get Inside Their Heads
--> Hypnosis May Cure a Type of Baldness
--> The Straight Truth About Hypnosis

READ THE LATEST ISSUE HERE

Quantum Theory: Spiritual Panacea, or Red Herring?

By Ian Lawton
Source: IanLawton.com

For many years I have endorsed the idea that modern science is at the forefront of introducing a new metaphysical worldview. And while I do not now reject this idea completely, recent investigation has led me to the conclusion that my own use of elements of both quantum and string theory to support a Rational Spiritual worldview requires significant amendment. Nor am I convinced that the recent exposure that quantum theory has had via films such as "What the Bleep do we Know?", involving distinguished contributors such as Fred Alan Wolf and Amit Goswami, has helped to clear up certain areas of confusion - however much, in one sense, I am delighted by the effect they have had in galvanising a more spiritual worldview.

In order to explain some of these reservations, we need to recap a little. Basic quantum theory resolved the paradox that particles such as electrons seem to have the characteristics of both particles and waves. More specifically, it proposed that they are ‘probability waves’ that only become particle-like - that is, for example, take on a specific position - when they are observed. However there are a number of supposed implications of this that are not as concrete as I and others have tended to make out. We will examine each in turn.

Is the Physical World only an Illusion?

The attractiveness of this proposition is two-fold. On the one hand it reinforces the idea that we can 'create our own reality', and on the other it appears to confirm ancient esoteric notions of maya. And, in some respects at least, it is true. For example, atoms and their nuclei are made up almost entirely of the vacuum that exists between the various particles. So objects that appear to be largely physical are in fact made up almost entirely of empty space. However, it is not accurate to claim that the particles themselves are 'only energy'. Of course, at one level everything is just energy, but we should not be sloppy about how we define this. Even under the most far-reaching interpretations of quantum theory, by the time we observe an object we are causing it to manifest only one particular set of quantum probabilities, and therefore it is made up of particles and not unmanifested probability waves.

But can we somehow alter our consciousness to allow other probabilities to manifest? And, to the extent that we can, does this involve quantum theory or something else?

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Become the Creator of Your Own Reality

By Bill Harris
Excerpt from 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life

There is a zen story of a great enlightened master, who, upon hearing of his own master's death, began to cry uncontrollably. His followers were shocked to see him cry. They asked him, "Why are you crying? You're enlightened. You're supposed to be beyond suffering. What will people think?"

He composed himself as best he could, and turning to them, he said, "What can I do? My eyes are crying. They are so sad that they will never again see this teacher I loved so much."

As this story so poignantly points out, sorrow upon experiencing loss is a normal part of being human. The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism point out that all life involves suffering, that suffering is caused by desire or attachment, and that suffering can be ended by giving up attachment (the fourth Noble Truth is the method of doing so).

The Four Noble Truths are based on an obvious, often overlooked, but fundamental reality of human existence: all things exist "in time" and eventually pass away. Not getting what you want involves suffering, but it's equally true that getting what you want also involves suffering because the thing you wanted is, like everything else, transitory.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Will Your Pet Go to Heaven?

By Maureen Hutfless
Source: Lincoln Journal Star

You have just died and gone to heaven (literally). St. Peter waves you through the Pearly Gates and Rover, your faithful companion from earth life, comes bounding over to greet you.

Or does he?

While many animal lovers look forward to an afterlife with Fluffy, religious philosophies generally dispel those expectations.

According to the Roman Catholic Church, those hoping to frolic with Fido in the Elysian fields are barking up the wrong tree.

"We don't believe that animals have immortal souls, and therefore they can't share in eternal life. They won't be in heaven," said Father Mark Huber, pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Denton.

He was able to throw a bone to animal lovers, however.

When the Scriptures talk about a new heaven and a new earth, he said, "there's a possibility of animal life in the new earth — but they wouldn't live forever.

"But that's speculative — we don't know what the new earth is," he said.

Islam agrees that animals will not exist eternally, but differs in other respects.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Eight Secrets of Goal-Free Living

By Stephen Shapiro
Excerpt from 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life

Success and happiness are unarguably our Holy Grails, but the standards taught to find them are all wrong. We have been brainwashed into believing that the only way to achieve this elusive combination of success and happiness is through setting goals. This is simply not true. In fact, goal-setting is often the shortest route to discontentment.

Fifty eight percent of those I surveyed say that they are consciously sacrificing today's happiness in the belief that achieving their goals will bring fulfillment. Sadly, 41 percent say that each goal achieved brings little, if any, satisfaction, despite all the hard work. So, what do they do? They set another goal. This creates a perpetual cycle of sacrifice and disillusionment. What is the solution?

After interviewing hundreds of people and surveying thousands I discovered that the most passionate, creative, and sometimes wealthiest people live free form the burden of traditional goals. Instead, they have mastered the rare skill of enjoying "now" rather than delaying gratification until the future.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Free e-book: "The Manifesting Mindset"

Barry Goss is offering a free copy of his latest book to all members of the Mind Power News community.

"The Manifesting Mindset: Strategies for Deliberate Attraction & Conscious Living" will give you the keys to properly manifesting your desires, and includes the 12 Keys Principles of the Manifesting Mindset.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE E-BOOK

MIT Launches Center for Collective Intelligence

Source: Business Wire

Though not officially launched until Oct. 13, the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (CCI) has already set an ambitious goal to understand how to harness the power of large numbers of people—connected together through Internet and other technologies —to better solve a range of business, scientific, and societal problems.

“The recent successes of things like Google and Wikipedia suggest that the time is now ripe for many more such systems,” said CCI Director Thomas Malone, author of the influential 2004 book, The Future of Work, which examined how information technology enables business to organize itself in new ways. “At CCI, our basic research question is: How can people and computers be connected so that—collectively—they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?”

As an example, Malone cites the process of writing books. “Today’s publishing industry is built on the assumption that books are written by a single author—or at most a few people. But Wikipedia shows that very different approaches may be possible. What if, for instance, certain kinds of books could be written by large numbers of people with very little central direction?”

In fact, at its formal opening, CCI will announce an experiment to create just this kind of new example of collective intelligence. The joint project by CCI, the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, and Pearson Publishing is expected to involve thousands of people who will collectively write a book--Wikipedia-style--about how to use communities in business.

“CCI is the right organization to lead this joint initiative,” said MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee. “It will give CCI, and all of us, an opportunity to learn as much as possible about how to make collective intelligence successful.”

“In the long run,” Malone said, “this movement toward more decentralized decision-making in business may be as important a change for business as the change to democracies was for governments.”

Malone noted that “MIT President Susan Hockfield’s presence at the Oct. 13 formal launch is fitting because CCI builds on MIT’s deep expertise in many disciplines.” The center involves faculty from the Sloan School of Management, the Media Laboratory, the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, the Leadership Center and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

“CCI is trying to look over the horizon to see what will be common five, 10, or 20 years from now. Google, Wikipedia, Linux, and e-Bay are examples that show something interesting and important is already happening. Such examples are not the end of the story, but just the beginning. And I hope that our work can help people understand and take advantage of these exciting possibilities,” Malone said.

The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence is at http://cci.mit.edu

Strange Mysteries of the Human Mind

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at www.mindpowernews.com/144.htm

This Week:

--> Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind
--> Electric Shocks to the Brain Can Cause Out-of-Body Experiences
--> Hearing Voices in Your Head is Normal
--> How to Use "Magic"
--> Extreme Lucid Dreaming
--> How to Predict Psychic Scams

READ THE LATEST ISSUE HERE

ESP and the Lottery

Source: Alternative Science

Most developed countries have had public lotteries for many years -- in the case of nations like France and Spain, for centuries. It was not, however, until 1989 that anyone realised that public numerical lotteries provide an unparalleled opportunity to test for the existence of paranormal abilities. Russian astrophysicist Mark Zilberman realised that the historical results of public lotteries provide a colossal statistical base that is completely independent of the observer and that relates to just one goal -- attempting to predict the outcome of a random process.

Zilberman examined the results of the Russian and French state lotteries and asked the question: are the results correlated significantly with any identifiable external factor?

As with the UK lottery, people win if they can predict 3 or more of the correct numbers. Zilberman looked at what he calls the True Predictions Density (TPD) defined as that fraction of lottery ticket buyers who win compared with the total number of tickets sold that week.

'From the standpoint of the player,' says Zilberman, 'lotteries are just a game in which one stands to win a certain sum of money. However, on closer analysis, lotteries afford us valuable material for investigating the ESP ability of masses of people. Indeed, public numerical lotteries are tantamount to a large-scale parapsychological experiment. One has here participants who are trying to predict results obtained from a Random Number Generator and there is feedback.'

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

The Strange Way Botox Relieves Depression

By Jean Enersen
Source: KING 5 News

Dr. Eric Finzi of the Chevy chase Cosmetic Center conducted the pilot trial to test whether preventing a patient from frowning would make it difficult to feel sadness.

Rainy days used to bring Kathleen Delano down. She's suffered depression since her 20s. Antidepressants and therapy didn't help.

"I wasn't suicidal, but I wasn't interested in getting out of bed. I wasn't interested in talking or communicating with friends or family," she said.

Then she enrolled in a study testing the effects of botox on depression. Dr. Eric Finzi of the Chevy chase Cosmetic Center conducted the pilot trial to test whether preventing a patient from frowning would make it difficult to feel sadness.

"To feel emotions, you have to express it on the face," he said.

The study involved 10 patients who were clinically depressed.

Dr. Finzi injected a normal dose of botox into their brows. Two months later, nine out of 10 patients were no longer clinically depressed.

"You're basically preventing people from expressing those sad and angry emotions on their face. Somehow, that's feeding back directly to the brain," said Dr. Finzi.

Results are gradual and take a week or two to kick in. "It's not like you take the botox and 'Hallelujah, I'm healed,'" said Dr. Finzi. Dr. Finzi said this initial data is promising. But he believes a larger study is still needed.

Kathleen is already a believer. "Really feeling for the first time in a lot of years that I'm free of depression," she said.

When the botox wears off, so does the antidepressant effect, so patients would need to get the shots about every three months. A single botox treatment costs about $400.

www.MindPowerNews.com/BotoxOverDepression.htm

Pet Ghosts: Animal Encounters From Beyond the Grave

By Vickie Snow
Source: Daily Southtown

When Joshua P. Warren's miniature dachshund died, he started hearing whimpers that sounded like those Nellie used to make.

Initially, he brushed them off. But then, his fiancee heard them, too.

"I love to investigate haunted houses, but I don't like to live in one," Warren, a paranormal investigator and author, said with a laugh. "It's rare for me to break out the equipment in my own house."

But he did, and he discovered that Nellie's ghost was indeed in his North Carolina home.

"There were distinct and measurable energy patterns," he said, "but it didn't last long."

Nellie's death and a visit to the Jackson Farm in Lancaster, S.C. -- which he calls one of the most haunted places he's ever seen -- fostered the beginning of Warren's research into animal apparitions.

In his new book "Pet Ghosts: Animal Encounters From Beyond the Grave", Warren discusses the differences between human and animal ghosts, shares dozens of stories about pet ghosts and even explains how to conjure up your dead pet's spirit.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Electric Shocks to the Brain Can Cause Out-Of-Body Experiences

By Sandra Blakeslee,
New York Times

They are eerie sensations, more common than one might think: A man describes feeling a shadowy figure standing behind him, then turning around to find no one there. A woman feels herself leaving her body and floating in space, looking down on her corporeal self.

Such experiences are often attributed by those who have them to paranormal forces.

But, according to recent work by neuroscientists, delivering mild electric current to specific spots in the brain can induce them. In one woman, for example, a zap to a brain region called the angular gyrus resulted in a sensation that she was hanging from the ceiling, looking down at her body. In another woman, electrical current delivered to the angular gyrus produced an uncanny feeling that someone was behind her, intent on interfering with her actions.

The two women were being evaluated for epilepsy surgery at University Hospital in Geneva, where doctors implanted dozens of electrodes into their brains to pinpoint the abnormal tissue causing the seizures and to identify adjacent areas involved in language, hearing or other essential functions that should be avoided in the surgery. As each electrode was activated, stimulating a different patch of brain tissue, the patient was asked to say what she was experiencing.

Dr. Olaf Blanke, a neurologist at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland who carried out the procedures, said that the women had normal psychiatric histories and that they were stunned by the bizarre nature of their experiences.

The Sept. 21 issue of Nature magazine includes an account by Blanke and his colleagues of the woman who sensed a shadow person behind her. They described the out-of-body experiences in the February 2004 issue of the journal Brain.

There is nothing mystical about these ghostly experiences, said Peter Brugger, a neuroscientist at University Hospital in Zurich, who was not involved in the experiments but is an expert on phantom limbs, the sensation of still feeling a limb that has been amputated, and other mind-bending phenomena.

"The research shows that the self can be detached from the body and can live a phantom existence on its own, as in an out-of-body experience, or it can be felt outside of personal space, as in a sense of a presence," Brugger said.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

How Your Thoughts Affect Your Experience

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/143.htm

This Week:

--> Mind Over Genes - The New Biology of Belief
--> Your Desires Control What You See
--> You Get What You Expect
--> Why You Think You're Wonderful
--> Can You Become Intoxicated by the Power of Suggestion?
--> Control Your Thoughts and Create Your Life

READ THE LATEST ISSUE HERE

Hearing Voices in your Head is Normal

Source: BBC

Hearing voices in your head is so common that it is normal, psychologists believe. Dutch findings suggest one in 25 people regularly hears voices.

Contrary to traditional belief, hearing voices is not necessarily a symptom of mental illness, UK researchers at Manchester University say. Indeed, many who hear voices do not seek help and say the voices have a positive impact on their lives, comforting or inspiring them.

Researcher Aylish Campbell said: "We know that many members of the general population hear voices but have never felt the need to access mental health services. "Some experts even claim that more people hear voices and don't seek psychiatric help than those who do."

Some who hear voices describe it as being like the experience of hearing someone call your name only to find that there is no one there.

People also hear voices as if they are thoughts entering the mind from somewhere outside themselves. They will have no idea what the voice might say. It may even engage in conversation.

The Manchester team want to investigate why some people view their voices positively while others become distressed and seek medical help.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Extreme Lucid Dreaming: Don't Try This At Home

By Ken Korczak
Source: ironghost.wordpress.com

Now let’s discuss something extremely dangerous. I relate this information, only on the grounds that you fully understand that what I’m talking about is highly dangerous, and no one should try it. My subject is dreaming — lucid dreaming to be specific. You may never have thought experimenting with dreams as being dangerous, but this particular method of triggering lucid dreams in just that — dangerous! Don’t try it!

I stumbled upon this sure-fire method of triggering lucid dreams — and out-of-body experiences — by accident. The technique involves dream deprivation by suppression of dreams with drugs. Here’s how I happened to encounter this dream induction process:

I have long suffered from migraine headaches, and recently, I began suffering a blasting migraine that was painful beyond imagining. Those of you who have suffered true migraines know what I’m talking about. Few things in life are worse than a pounding, nauseating, skull-splitting headache so bad you actually wish for death. Well, to deal with one such headache, which had been tormenting my head for nearly three days, I finally obtained some prescription narcotics — oxycodone — from my doctor and took to my bed. Because my headache was so extreme, even this powerful opiate was able to provide only moderate relief, but it was better than nothing.

My headache persisted for almost a week, and for about five days in a row, I was bombed on oxycodone. Among other effects, prescription narcotics really mess up your sleep patterns. In my case — and partly because of headache pain — I never slept deeply enough during that five-day period to enter REM state, the dream state. When my headache finally lifted, I was finally able to put away the energy-robbing, mind-numbing bottle of pain killers.

During that first night of normal drug-free, pain-free sleep — FIREWORKS! My poor dream-deprived brain had lost five nights of dreaming, and now it was determined to catch up, and really make up for lost time!

Now — I have long been a practitioner of lucid dreaming, and I have learned many good methods over the years if inducing lucid dreams, but rarely have I had as easier time — and more conscious control of my dreams than I did that night after having been dream deprived for several days. I was also easily — remarkably easily — able to capture the hypnagogic state — and practice that wonderful experience of lifting in and out of my body with my dream body, or astral body, or whatever you want to call it.

To make a long story short: Dream deprivation is obviously a way to powerfully magnify your ability to dream, and to help you enjoy improved control over your dreams so that you can practice your favorite lucid dreaming techniques. There are other, safer ways to deprive yourself of the dream state, but even that can be dangerous for some people — so don’t try it. I, however, have continued to experiment with non-drug, temporary dream deprivation techniques as a way to enhance my ability to explore the world of lucid dreaming.

I expect to write more about this in the near future, so stay tuned!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT LUCID DREAMING