Friday, January 26, 2007

Free Brain Power Teleconference

Lee Benson, creator of the Brain Evolution System, is hosting a free, private teleconference on the topic of brain power (and more specifically, how to get more of it!), next Thursday night at 9pm EST.

If you're interested in increasing your speed of thought, being in complete control of your emotions, and gaining an unfair mental edge over anyone... you might want to learn what Lee has discovered.

Register for free, priority seating right here...
Free Brain Power Call

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Instinctive Decisions Are Superior to Logic

Source: ScienceAGoGo

A University College London (UCL) study has found that you are more likely to perform well if you do not think too hard and instead trust your instincts. Appearing in the journal Current Biology, the research shows that instinctive snap decisions are sometimes more reliable than decisions taken using higher-level cognitive processes.


The experiment involved subjects picking the odd symbol (a rotated version) out of over 650 identical symbols presented on a computer screen. Tracking participants' eye movements, the researchers controlled the time allotted to each individual's search for their target. The visual display screen was switched off at various time intervals either before or after the subjects' eyes landed on the target (between 0 and 1.5 seconds). They then had to decide whether the odd one out was on the left or the right-hand side of the screen.

Intriguingly, the researchers found that participants scored better if they were given no scrutinizing time at all. With only a tiny fraction of a second for scrutinizing the target, subjects performed with 95 percent accuracy. With over a second to scrutinize the image, subjects were only 70 percent accurate. Accuracy was recovered if scrutinizing was allowed to run for more than 4 seconds.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Daydreaming is the Brain's Default Setting

SOURCE: Reuters

Daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind and certain brain regions are devoted to it, U.S. researchers reported Friday.


When people are given a specific task to do, they focus on that task but then other brain regions get busy during down time, the researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"There is this network of regions that always seems to be active when you don't give people something to do," psychologist Malia Mason of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital said in a telephone interview.

When Mason asked people what was happening during this down time, the answer was clear.

"It's daydreaming," she said. "But I find that the vast majority of time, people aren't having fanciful thoughts. People are thinking about what they have to do later today."

Her team has chosen to call it stimulus-independent thought or mind wandering.

Neurologists and psychologists have debated what goes on when people are not specifically thinking about or doing something, and there had been general agreement that the mind does not simply go blank.

Mason's team set up an experiment using the relatively new technology of functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI to see what is going on.

FMRI allows scientists to take real-time images of the brain, showing which areas are active and when. They can do this while talking to the person being imaged, so they can see the effects of an activity as it happens.

Mason's team recruited 19 volunteers and scanned them as they did a variety of tasks. "The verbal working memory task involved remembering and manipulating four four-letter sequences (e.g., 'R H V X')," they wrote.

The volunteers were also imaged when they were sitting there, waiting between tasks.

"In the absence of a task that requires deliberative processing, the mind generally tends to wander, flitting from one thought to the next with fluidity and ease," the researchers wrote.

Now they know what that looks like.

Active regions include the superior frontal gyrus, which is one of the main bumps on the front part of the human brain, the insula, which is on the side of the brain, and parts of the temporal lobe, at the back of the brain.

Mason is not sure why this activity occurs, but believes it underlies some of the basic mind functions that define people -- although her team has not imaged any animals.

One possibility, her team said, is that the brain always does something so that it is in an active state when quick thoughts or reactions are needed.

"A second possibility is that as a kind of spontaneous mental time travel (stimulus-independent thought) lends a sense of coherence to one's past, present, and future experiences," the researchers wrote.

"We are not stuck in the here and now. We can be stuck in our car in traffic and we are not (mentally) stuck there," Mason added.

Or there could be no reason at all for daydreaming.

"Although the thoughts the mind produces when wandering are at times useful, such instances do not prove that the mind wanders because these thoughts are adaptive; on the contrary the mind may wander simply because it can," they concluded.

Monday, January 22, 2007

The Woo-Woo School of Manifesting

By Barry Goss
Co-Founder of the Manifestation Portal

It's a NEW year, but it doesn't necessarily MEAN you'll be a NEW YOU !

Huh ?

Well, first, let's look at just two (for now) common, over-the-top, Pollyannaish pieces of wisdom you've certainly heard before.

(I can hear you now, "Uttt ohhh, Barry is about to throw down another hand slap on the table and cause me to engage in some critical thinking, and deeper ownership of my habits, again." If you thought that, why YES, ab-so-lute-ly I am! )

Common Myth #1: the more I stay in the moment, the
more I experience what I want now.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Survey of 300,000 Reveals the Top 10 New Year Resolutions

By Gary Ryan Blair
The Goals Guy

New Year's is the only holiday that celebrates the passage of time. Perhaps that's why, as the final seconds of the year tick away, we become introspective. Inevitably, that introspection turns to thoughts of self-improvement and the annual ritual of making resolutions, which offer the first of many important tools for remaking ourselves. The following list is the result of our extensive survey, which consisted of over 300,000 responses worldwide.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Friday, January 19, 2007

Can Brain Surgery Provide Telepathy and Enlightenment?

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/156.htm

This Week:
Can Brain Surgery Provide Telepathy and Enlightenment?


--> We Will All Be Telepathic in 25 Years
--> Neural Pathways to Enlightenment
--> Mind Tricks Help Dieters Lose Weight
--> Diet & Exercise Are Useless Without Mind Power

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW ISSUE OF MIND POWER NEWS

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Join the Largest Mind Over Matter Experiment in History

Tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world are being recruited to participate in a series of web-based experiments, making it the largest mind-over-matter study in history.

The experiments are the brain-child of science writer Lynne McTaggart, whose new book The Intention Experiment forms the catalyst for the trials.

Working with her are leading physicists and psychologists from the University of Arizona, Princeton University, the International Institute of Biophysics, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

A pilot experiment, testing the idea and detailed in The Intention Experiment was successful. McTaggart asked a group of 16 meditators based in London to direct their thoughts to four remote targets in Dr. Popp’s laboratory in Germany: two types of algae, a plant and a human volunteer. The meditators were asked to attempt to lower certain measurable biodynamic processes.

Popp and his team discovered significant changes in all four targets while the intentions were being sent, compared to times the meditators were ‘resting’.

Schwartz and McTaggart are preparing the target for the first intention experiment target, an enclosed ‘mini-Gaia’ with an artificially raised temperature. The plan is to ask the readers to attempt to lower it at a particular moment through focused ‘intention’.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND TO JOIN THE EXPERIMENT


Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Skeptic Revamps $1,000,000 Psychic Prize

By Kevin Poulsen
Source: Wired Magazine

If you're an undiscovered psychic, soothsayer, dowser or medium, time may be running out for you to put your supernatural powers to the test and claim a million dollar prize.

But you already knew that, didn't you?

Ten years after stage magician and avowed skeptic James Randi first offered a seven-figure payday to anyone capable of demonstrating paranormal phenomenon under scientific scrutiny, the 79-year-old clear-eyed curmudgeon is revising the rules of his nonprofit foundation's Million Dollar Challenge to better target high-profile charlatans, and spend less time on unknown psychics, who too often turn out to be delusional instead of deceptive.

"We can't waste the hundreds of hours that we spend every year on the nutcases out there -- people who say they can fly by flapping their arms," says Randi. "We have three file drawers jam-packed with those collections.... There are over 300 claims that we have handled in detail."

A skeptic since his teen years, Randi launched his challenge in 1964, after growing outraged with fake mediums and fortunetellers using simple conjurers' tricks to prey on the public. A challenge was an efficient alternative to trying to prove a negative: Instead of traveling the world investigating and debunking miracle workers one-by-one, an unclaimed cash prize stands as a fact on the ground -- an immovable obstacle around which anyone purporting supernatural powers must eventually navigate.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Saturday, January 13, 2007

100-Year-Old Claims Hypnosis the Key to Longevity

By Betsy V. Swenson
Slidell Sentry News


Thursday was like any other day for Chester "Chuck" Cook. He woke up, drove himself to the donut shop, picked up some donuts and made his way to the Slidell Senior Center on Cousin Street.
But one thing was different. It was Cook's 100th birthday.

The Slidell man was greeted yesterday at the Slidell Senior Center with a birthday cake, balloons, flowers and a spirited round of "Happy Birthday to You." He also received a special visit from Slidell Mayor Ben Morris, who presented Cook with a Citation of Honor in recognition of the 100-year-old's big day.


Born May 19, 1905, Cook has lived in Slidell for over 25 years. Born in New Orleans, the Slidell resident has been married three times; all three of his wives are deceased. He has one daughter.


When asked the secret to longevity, Cook doesn't hesitate.


"Hypnosis," he said confidently. "I took a course 40 years ago, and it changed my life."


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Friday, January 12, 2007

Speakers from the 2007 Think! Seminar

The new issue of Mind Power News is now available to be read
at http://www.mindpowernews.com/155.htm

This Week: Speakers from the 2007 Think! Seminar

--> How You Can Get Anything You Want in Life in 68 Seconds
--> You Are Here (and how to get THERE)
--> The Lazy Way to Success
--> "I''m Thinking... But I'm Not Growing Rich"

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NEW ISSUE OF MIND POWER NEWS

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Mind over Pregnancy

By Dawn Heather
Source: DawnHeather.com

For all those anxious couples who are desperately trying to get pregnant, here is some food for thought.

Where no physiological obstacle exists, why then should it prove so difficult for some women to fall pregnant? And, in many cases, where adoption has been the last resort, as soon as the newly adopted baby has settled in the new mother falls pregnant, why should this be?

I believe that the cause, in most cases, is due to anxiety. This may seem trite or superficial, and many may argue that the anxiety they experience is as a result of not getting pregnant, and not the other way around. However, anxiety may manifest in many different ways, and may be triggered by a variety of situations or events.

For instance, it emerged that one young woman I was working with was very afraid of gaining weight. This attitude came from her mother, who had described being pregnant as like being an 'elephant', hideous, uncomfortable, ungainly and generally undesirable. Despite the young woman's logic and rational thoughts, and very positive attitude towards pregnancy, noticing how radiantly happy most women look, this message from her early years was firmly locked into place. Another woman really enjoyed her freedom, and, despite the biological clock ticking away, this created an inner conflict - result? Anxiety.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Monday, January 08, 2007

How the Brain Creates God

By Iona Miller,
Source: www.geocities.com/iona_m/


“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger . . . is as good as dead.” --Albert Einstein


The Great Unknown


Imagine one of our ancient ancestors, suddenly stricken by illness or a near-fatal accident. Hovering near the brink of death, an ordinary person suddenly finds him or herself locked in an immersive visionary experience of shadowy figures, muted voices and blinding luminescence.


The cosmos opens its enfolding arms and infinity spreads out in a timeless panoply that dissolves all fear, all separation from the Divine. Fear of death vanishes in a comforting flood of bliss, peace and dazzling light – the ultimate ‘holy’ connection. Overwhelming conviction arises that this is the more fundamental Reality. The welcoming gates of a personal heaven open…


Suddenly back in the body, returned to ordinary reality, one is left to interpret that transcendent experience to oneself and others. This near-death experience may not have resulted in physical demise, but it has led to the death of the old self – the personal self -- and the rebirth, rapture, or resurrection of the soul or spirit. It brings a surge of emotions, conviction and even transformation in its wake. The soul has taken a journey from which one cannot return the same.


A descent into psychobiological hell can lead to a transcendent journey toward Heaven…or perhaps the yawning abyss of the Void. Shamans, priests, prophets, mystics, and gurus arose to show the Way of navigating these nether regions, of finding healing, the eternal moment, a peaceful heart, and unity.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Saturday, January 06, 2007

The Top 10 Motivational Articles of 2006

The new issue of Mind Power News is now online at www.MindPowerNews.com/154.htm

The last two issues of Mind Power News covered the best news and science from the past year. This week I've compiled the Top 10 most popular and motivating articles from 2006 as judged by reader feedback and hits to the website. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE CURRENT ISSUE

Friday, January 05, 2007

The Secret of Brain Evolution

By Lee Benson
Creator of The Brain Evolution System™

The Brain Evolution System™ uses a highly specialized audio process to create sounds that are engineered to assist you in acheiving advanced states of meditation.

The idea of using sound to induce meditation is nothing new. For millenia, sound has been used for healing and transformation via the brain's natural ability. From the chanting and ritual of ancient shamans, to Tibetan monks, Peruvian throat singing, Gregorian chants and moving classical symphonies - sound and music have played a central role in the role of shaping human consciousness for some time.

You know the effect that some sounds can have on you. Just close your eyes and consider some sounds that fill you with peace and relaxation - sounds like the soft crash of the ocean, the pitter-patter of rain, of the swell of a gentle wind through the trees...

The secret behind the moving effects of all these sounds lies in thier frequencies. As you know, sound is vibration; it is a composed of frequencies. The brain itself carries it's own vibrations too, and these frequencies are its brainwaves...

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Your Desires Control What You See

By Heather Whipps
Special to LiveScience

Without realizing it, people will perceive things according to how they want to see them, a new study suggests.

"There is an age old hypothesis in psychology that a person's wishes, hopes and desires can influence what they see," said David Dunning, Cornell University psychologist and co-author of the study. "This theory had lay dormant for about 40 years, though, without any supporting evidence. We wanted to test the murky waters again."

In five separate tests conducted by Dunning and a graduate student, Emily Balcetis, 412 volunteers from Cornell were presented with an ambiguous picture that could be interpreted as two distinct figures—either a horse's head or the body of a seal, for example. They were told they would be assigned to a taste test of either fresh-squeezed orange juice or a gelatinous, clumpy and rather unappealing veggie smoothie, depending on whether they saw a farm animal or sea creature.

More often than not the participants chose the figure that would lead them to the juice.

The trick to making the study meaningful was making sure the test subjects didn't know what was going on, Dunning said, noting that the generally high IQ of Cornell students made cheating a real possibility.

"The figures we used were chosen so we knew the people weren't just lying or tricking us," Dunning told LiveScience. "We also tracked automatic, unconscious eye movements which were out of their control."

Not only did participants routinely see the figure that produced favorable results, their eye motions indicated that they were never aware of the alternate option being available.

Other scientists who have studied the connection between belief and physiological reactions in the eye, now supported by Dunning's research, point to its possibilities in the world of positive thinking and self-motivation.

"Determining whether a person walking towards you is smiling or smirking, how close the finish line seems in a race or how loud a partner—a wife, husband, lover—is yelling during an argument," Dunning gave as examples that could arise in life. "Could we interpret ambiguous situations towards our expectations and hopes and away from our fears? That is the ultimate question."

The study will be published later this year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

www.MindPowerNews.com/DesiresControl.htm

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Watch the first 20-minutes of "The Secret" For Free

The first 20-minutes of the film "The Secret" is available for free viewing at Google Video. I highly suggest you watch it before it is removed...

I also found a list of quotes from the movie which is a good introduction to the concepts explored in the film. Read it here: www.mindpowernews.com/SecretQuotes.htm