Tuesday, September 28, 2010

World's Luckiest Woman Teaches Her Winning Mind Tricks


No, this is not a scene from Leave it to Beaver, or The Brady Bunch.  This is the family of Helene Hadsell, enjoying their new home in 1969.  The 4300 sq ft home was built in Irving, Texas at an estimated cost of $50,000, which back then was a lot of house.  What makes this family and their new home so interesting, is they won it.
 
In the New York World's Fair of 1964, the Formica Corporation sponsored a nationwide contest, with the grand prize being a copy of the World's Fair Home, plus the lot, built anywhere in the US the winner chooses.  Of course, out of 1.5 Million entries, Helene and Pat Hadsell won.
 
What makes this story - rather unusual - besides the fact they won, is that she KNEW she was going to win.  Without a doubt.  In fact, she had her husband take the day off work, because 'she knew' the Formica People were coming over that day to tell them they had won.  She told her husband, "For God sake's, act surprised!"  

Monday, September 27, 2010

7 Strange and Unusual Uses for Hypnosis

By Iain Legg
C0-Founder of Real Mind Power Secrets


Hypnosis has many faces, which is part of its fascination
as a career. It is conceivable that a single hypnotist could cover all of its facets. Some hypnotists actually combine hypnotherapy with a career on the stage but one of the most incredible things about hypnosis is all its unusual uses.

1. Hypnosis can effectively enhance memory recall, allowing
subjects to experience past events very vividly, even to the point of believing that they are consciously present at these events. How far can this go? And as you may have heard, some people think hypnosis can recover memories from a past lifetime.

2. Forensic hypnosis has been used often in enhancing the
memory of participants in criminal court cases, primarily with victims or witnesses to enhance the memory of the event. It was used in the cases of Ted Bundy, Sam Shepherd and Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. In the case of DeSalvo, it was used with the defendant himself.

3. Hypnosis can induce a partial or almost complete state
of anaesthesia, making subjects or patients oblivious to the surgeon's knife, a state presumably similar to that of an Indian fakir, who can stick needles into his arm or lie on a bed of nails without experiencing pain.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Higher You Live, the Faster You Age

By Richard Alleyne / The Telegraph

Researchers have demonstrated one of Einstein's theories of relativity - that the further away from the Earth you are, the faster time passes works even on a human scale.

That means – even though the differences are tiny – you really will age faster if you live on the top floor of a skyscraper than in a bungalow.

The discovery, made by scientists in the US, confirms a theory first proposed by Einstein – that clocks run faster the further away from the ground they are.

Although the concept has been accepted for many years, now the difference can be measured for the first time with astonishing accuracy. 

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Dead Dog Comes Back as a Rock

By Colin Fernandez
 / Source: Daily Mail

Looking out of the window, Mark Brow couldn’t believe it when he saw his dog, Looby Loo, sitting in her favourite spot in the garden.

After all, she had died two years ago.

But there, hewn into a garden rock, was the unmistakable image of the 13-year-old springer spaniel.

At first, he thought it was a trick of the light. Then he looked suspiciously at his drink.
But Looby Loo, the beloved family pet his children missed so much, was still there. 

The High Price of Financial Freedom

By Stuart Goldsmith
Creator of The Midas Method

This will sound strange but I believe you should have a go at making a few million just for the fun of it.

People who have a one-to-one consultation with me will know that I am fond of asking: "What other plans do you have, apart from trying your very hardest to be all you can be, to fight to dare and to win?"

Let me ask you - what other plans could you possibly have that are more pressing than this? Flipping magazines? Watching some more TV? Drinking down the bar? I'm anxious to hear them...

Surely there is only one plan worth having? At least it seems that way to me. The only plan a rational human being can have is to be all you are capable of being. To push the limits and keep growing until the day you die. To try for that next goal - to shoot for the bigger dream. This is a masterful life. A life filled with power. A life worth living.

But there is a price. The price is a busy life with little time for standard relaxation of the sort engaged in by the poor in pocket and in spirit. It is a 'full to bursting' life with your energies and talents directed purposefully towards positive goals. I'll have a lot to say about goals and dreams throughout these articles. It is a focused life in which you work very hard on things which matter.

That's one price you will have to pay. There are others...

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Pope's Astronomer Would Baptise Aliens

By Alok Jha / The Guardian 

Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as "bad theology" that had been "hijacked" by American creationist fundamentalists.

Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope's astronomers, said he would be "delighted" if intelligent life was found among the stars. "But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it's probably not a practical question."

Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. "Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul." Would he baptise an alien? "Only if they asked."

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Why You Need to Think For Yourself

Check out this crazy video of thousands of ants caught in a spiral of death. These ants will continue to follow each other around in circles until they die.

Symbolic enough? This is what happens when you blindly follow the crowd. You waste your life walking around in circles until you die of exhaustion.










Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Placebo Effect Boosts Women's Sex Drive

By Jenifer Goodwin / Source: Business Week

About one-third of women given a placebo pill to treat a low libido reported improvements in their sex lives, a finding researchers say is evidence of the powerful and somewhat mysterious mind-body connection surrounding arousal and desire.

After drugs like Viagra and Cialis revolutionized the treatment of male sexual dysfunction in the late 1990s, a flurry of clinical trials were conducted in women in the hopes that the drugs could do the same to revive a woman's flagging sex drive.


The drugs flopped in women. But recently, researchers went back and looked at the old data on Cialis and found that not only did about 35 percent of women given the placebo pill experience significant improvement in psychological aspects of sex such as desire, many reported improvements in the physical aspects of arousal, including better lubrication, more frequent orgasms or more easily attainable orgasms, according to the study.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

FREE VIDEO: The Secrets of Happiness

By Natalie Ledwell, Creator of 7 Secrets to Happiness

OK, so it's February and if you're like most people, guess what has happened to your well-intentioned New Year's resolutions?

They've disappeared into the dark valley of shame, regret, and discouragement.

Hey, I'm not any pinnacle of virtue either, that's for sure.

But I really do not like feeling like yet another statistic when it comes to making lasting and positive changes in life.

The reality is, my colleague Natalie Ledwell has hit the nail on the head with this video.

Nat has worked closely with people who were involved with The Secret. In fact, she has used the law of attraction to reach a number of really phenomenal achievements in life.

But she quickly realized that something extremely important was missing from the message of the Secret.

And it was causing a LOT of disappointment among those of us who want with all our hearts to attract our deepest desires into our lives -- but can't seem to get there from here.

The difference between Natalie and "the rest of us" is that she set out on a mission to figure this out. And she did!

Simply by putting her philosophy to work and PROVING it to herself first.

And when she saw how incredibly reliably this works, she knew what she had to do:

Make it available to anyone who wanted to fully access the incredible power of the law of attraction... so you can actually get RESULTS by implementing a few very easy-to-understand concepts.

It all starts with four steps you can take right now to get started.

Sign up for the FREE VIDEO here...

Life begins at 100: Secrets of the centenarians:

By Ed Yong / Source: New Scientist

This year, the number of pensioners in the UK exceeded the number of minors for the first time in history. That's remarkable in its own right, but the real "population explosion" has been among the oldest of the old - the centenarians.

In fact, this is the fastest-growing demographic in much of the developed world. In the UK, their numbers have increased by a factor of 60 since the early 20th century. And their ranks are set to swell even further, thanks to the ageing baby-boomer generation: by 2030 there will be about a million worldwide.


These trends raise social, ethical and economic dilemmas. Are medical advances artificially prolonging life with little regard for the quality of that life? Old age brings an increased risk of chronic disease, disability and dementia, and if growing numbers of elderly people become dependent on state or familial support, society faces skyrocketing costs and commitments.

This is the dark cloud outside the silver lining of increasing longevity. Yet researchers who study the oldest old have made a surprising discovery that presents a less bleak vision of the future than many anticipate.


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY...

Friday, September 17, 2010

Have Scientists Found Proof That Ghosts Exist?

By Danny Penman, NewsMonster.co.au

Professor David Fontana took a deep breath and opened a side-door into the mechanic’s workshop. He peeked inside but could see virtually nothing through the murky gloom.


“Well, here goes,” he mumbled as he stepped into the workshop.

An icy chill rippled slowly down his spine. He looked up, momentarily startled by what he saw. A small piece of engine casing appeared to be levitating a few feet in front of his nose. It tilted slightly to the side and then flew directly towards him. He ducked aside as it whizzed past his head and smashed into the wall behind him.

“There you are,” said John Matthews, the workshop owner, “He’s welcoming you.”

As their eyes adjusted to the gloom, it was obvious that Pete, as the poltergeist had been affectionately dubbed, had been up to his tricks again. The floor was littered with stones and small coins. The normally well-organised shelves had been piled high with randomly selected engine parts, boxes of stationery, and bits of paper. A child’s teddy bear lay in the corner.

“Watch this,” said John as he gently threw a small stone into a corner. Moments later, the stone came flying back at him. It hadn’t bounced, it seemed to disappear into the wall and then re-materialise in mid-air as it flew back at them.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Price of Happiness: $75,000

By Shari Roan / Los Angeles Times

Does happiness rise with income? In one of the more scientific attempts to answer that question, researchers from Princeton have put a price on happiness. It's about $75,000 in income a year.


They found that not having enough money definitely causes emotional pain and unhappiness. But, after reaching an income of about $75,000 per year, money can't buy happiness. More money can, however, help people view their lives as successful or better.


In the study, researchers tried to evaluate the effect of money in two ways: One was on how people think about their lives and the other was on the feelings they have as they experience life. Responses from more than 450,000 Americans, gathered in 2008 and 2009, were evaluated.


The study found that people's evaluations of their lives improved steadily with annual income. But the quality of their everyday experiences -- their feelings -- did not improve above an income of $75,000 a year.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Repressed Memories Don't Exist

By Karen Berkman, ABC.net.au

The idea that traumatised people, especially the victims of child sexual abuse, deliberately repress horrific memories goes all the way back to the 19th century and the theories of Sigmund Freud himself.


But now some experts are saying the evidence points the other way.


Professor Grant Devilly, from Griffith University's Psychological Health research unit, says the memory usually works in the opposite way, with traumatised people reliving experiences they would rather forget.


"It's the opposite. They wish they couldn't think about it," he said.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Is Consciousness the Center of the Universe?

By Dr. Larry Dossey,
Author of The Power of Premonitions


Unfortunately, proponents of an empathic science must endure the perennial charge from critics that they seek to denature science, destroy its objectivity, and hold it hostage to the emotional whims of sloppy investigators.

What do philosophers such as Goethe, or psychologists such as Kohut and Maslow, know about doing science? The criticism can be vehement. When the French paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) proposed a teleological direction in evolutionary biology, he was attacked by his fellow countryman and Nobelist Jacques Monod, mentioned above.

Monod seems to have had a hissy fit. He screeched, "For my part I am most of all struck by the intellectual spinelessness of this philosophy. In it I see more than anything else a systematic truckling, a willingness to conciliate at any price, to come to any compromise."

This was not exactly a memorable "Meet Mr. Wizard" moment in science, but is reminiscent of a statement by a scientist critical of parapsychology, who blathered, "This is the sort of thing I would not believe, even if it were true."


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Was the Universe Created by Physics or God?

By Adam Gabbatt / The Guardian

God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.

In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.


In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. But in the new text, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed a creator is "not necessary".


The Grand Design, an extract of which appears in the Times today, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

How to Build a Universe

By John Gribbin
 / Source: The Telegraph

The argument over whether the universe has a creator, and who that might be, is among the oldest in human history. But amid the raging arguments between believers and sceptics, one possibility has been almost ignored – the idea that the universe around us was created by people very much like ourselves, using devices not too dissimilar to those available to scientists today.


As with much else in modern physics, the idea involves particle acceleration, the kind of thing that goes on in the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Before the LHC began operating, a few alarmists worried that it might create a black hole which would destroy the world. That was never on the cards: although it is just possible that the device could generate an artificial black hole, it would be too small to swallow an atom, let alone the Earth.


However, to create a new universe would require a machine only slightly more powerful than the LHC – and there is every chance that our own universe may have been manufactured in this way.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Extremes of Human Memory

By Joshua Foer
Source: National Geographic

There is a 41-year-old woman, an administrative assistant from California known in the medical literature only as "AJ," who remembers almost every day of her life since age 11. There is an 85-year-old man, a retired lab technician called "EP," who remembers only his most recent thought. She might have the best memory in the world. He could very well have the worst.


"My memory flows like a movie—nonstop and uncontrollable," says AJ. She remembers that at 12:34 p.m. on Sunday, August 3, 1986, a young man she had a crush on called her on the telephone. She remembers what happened on Murphy Brown on December 12, 1988. And she remembers that on March 28, 1992, she had lunch with her father at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She remembers world events and trips to the grocery store, the weather and her emotions. Virtually every day is there. She's not easily stumped.


There have been a handful of people over the years with uncommonly good memories. Kim Peek, the 56-year-old savant who inspired the movie Rain Man, is said to have memorized nearly 12,000 books (he reads a page in 8 to 10 seconds). "S," a Russian journalist studied for three decades by the Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, could remember impossibly long strings of words, numbers, and nonsense syllables years after he'd first heard them. But AJ is unique. Her extraordinary memory is not for facts or figures, but for her own life. Indeed, her inexhaustible memory for autobiographical details is so unprecedented and so poorly understood that James McGaugh, Elizabeth Parker, and Larry Cahill, the neuroscientists at the University of California, Irvine who have been studying her for the past seven years, had to coin a new medical term to describe her condition: hyperthymestic syndrome.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY

Friday, September 03, 2010

New Software 'Predicts' Crime

By Eric Bland / Source: ABC News

New crime prediction software being rolled out in the nation's capital should reduce not only the murder rate, but the rate of many other crimes as well.

Developed by Richard Berk, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the software is already used in Baltimore and Philadelphia to predict which individuals on probation or parole are most likely to murder and to be murdered.


In his latest version, the one being implemented in D.C., Berk goes even further, identifying the individuals most likely to commit crimes other than murder.


If the software proves successful, it could influence sentencing recommendations and bail amounts.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Laughter Yoga, Serious Benefits

By Lizette Alvarez / Source: NY Times

I was in a vile, despicable mood when I arrived at laughter yoga. It was Wednesday, and my brain felt torn in one too many directions; the usual, only worse. Laughter seemed a remote possibility.


I waited patiently inside a nondescript office at 40th Street and Broadway among a group of wildly divergent strangers, with only my skepticism to keep me company.


“There are some simple rules,” Vishwa Prakash, the laughter therapist and coach who runs this group, told us at the start of the session, which is free. “Let’s be as joyful as we can. Let’s look at each other directly in the eye. And if you don’t know what’s happening, fake it till you make it.”


An hour later I floated out onto Broadway, ready to break into song and speed-dial a few friends to sign them up for the next class. This stuff worked.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE...