By Alison Motluk
New Scientist
It was a stunt that launched a thousand conspiracy theories. Market researcher James Vicary claimed in 1957 that he could get movie-goers to "drink Coca-Cola" and "eat popcorn" by flashing those messages on the screen for such a short time that viewers were unaware of it. People were outraged, and the practice was banned in the UK, Australia and the US.
Vicary later admitted that his study was fabricated, and scientists through the years who have tried to replicate it have largely failed. But now researchers have shown that if the conditions are right, subliminal advertising to promote a brand can be made to work.
Johan Karremans at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and his colleagues wanted to see if they could subliminally induce volunteers to favour a particular brand of drink, Lipton Ice. For comparison, they chose a brand of mineral water called Spa Rood, as it was deemed to be as well known as Lipton Ice and equally thirst-quenching.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
Learning the Hard Way... Is Too Hard!
By Nelson Berry
Subliminal Secrets Exposed
It's painful and you shouldn't have to do it.
It's when you wait until it's too late to make a change and life snaps back to get your attention. Life gives you another chance to WAKE UP!
Kanye West was on TV the other day talking about what changed his life and it was a near death experience.
When you learn that you have no promises here in life. No one promised you anything. And when you learn the hard way, it's tough because you know it happened for a reason... and could have been prevented. "Someone upstairs" was trying to keep you alive... for a reason!
Unfortunately it takes learning the hard way for some! It's an abrupt change in thinking and attitudes -- overnight!
Instead, you can get the same results taking it slowly - and stay in control.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Subliminal Secrets Exposed
It's painful and you shouldn't have to do it.
It's when you wait until it's too late to make a change and life snaps back to get your attention. Life gives you another chance to WAKE UP!
Kanye West was on TV the other day talking about what changed his life and it was a near death experience.
When you learn that you have no promises here in life. No one promised you anything. And when you learn the hard way, it's tough because you know it happened for a reason... and could have been prevented. "Someone upstairs" was trying to keep you alive... for a reason!
Unfortunately it takes learning the hard way for some! It's an abrupt change in thinking and attitudes -- overnight!
Instead, you can get the same results taking it slowly - and stay in control.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Monday, April 24, 2006
Hypnotic Selling Secrets Launches Today
Dr. Joe Vitale -- "The World's First Hypnotic Marketer" is offering incredible deals on the "Hypnotic Selling Secrets" home-study course. If you are interested in learning powerful hypnotic skills to increase your sales in whatever business you are in... now is the perfect time to take advantage of this offer.Take a look at the image near the bottom of the page - it's a photo showing the entire course.
Click here: Hypnotic Selling Secrets
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Half-Man, Half-Machine: The Mind of the Future
Interview with Raymond C. Kurzweil
By Otis Port,
Business Week
Raymond C. Kurzweil is the author of "The Age of Intelligent Machines", published in 1990, and "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence", published this year. He is the founder and chairman of Kurzweil Technologies in Wellesley Hills, Mass., as well as five other companies that still bear his name or are still operating under new ownership. He spoke with Business Week Senior Writer Otis Port about the separate and joint futures of human and artificial intelligence.
Q: Do you have any doubts that a superior intelligence will emerge in the next few decades?
A: No. It's inevitable. For example, nanotubes would allow computing at the molecular level. A one-inch cube of nanotube circuitry would be about 1 billion times more powerful than the human brain, in terms of computing capacity. That raw computing capacity is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve human-level intelligence in a machine.
We also need the organization and the software to organize those resources. There are a number of scenarios for achieving that. The most compelling is reverse-engineering the human brain. We're already well down that path, with techniques like MRI. But we'll do better because the speed and resolution -- the bandwidth -- with which we can scan the brain are also accelerating exponentially.
One means of scanning the brain would be to send small scanners in the form of nanobots into the blood stream. Millions of them would go through every capillary of the brain. We already have electronic means for scanning neurons and neurotransmitter concentrations that are nearby, and within 30 years we'll have these little nanobots that can communicate with each other wirelessly. They would create an enormous database with every neuron, every synoptic connection, every neurotransmitter concentration -- a precise map of the human brain.
So we'll have the templates for human intelligence, and by then we'll have the hardware that can run these processes. So we can reinstate that information in a neural computer.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
By Otis Port,
Business Week
Raymond C. Kurzweil is the author of "The Age of Intelligent Machines", published in 1990, and "The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence", published this year. He is the founder and chairman of Kurzweil Technologies in Wellesley Hills, Mass., as well as five other companies that still bear his name or are still operating under new ownership. He spoke with Business Week Senior Writer Otis Port about the separate and joint futures of human and artificial intelligence.
Q: Do you have any doubts that a superior intelligence will emerge in the next few decades?
A: No. It's inevitable. For example, nanotubes would allow computing at the molecular level. A one-inch cube of nanotube circuitry would be about 1 billion times more powerful than the human brain, in terms of computing capacity. That raw computing capacity is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve human-level intelligence in a machine.
We also need the organization and the software to organize those resources. There are a number of scenarios for achieving that. The most compelling is reverse-engineering the human brain. We're already well down that path, with techniques like MRI. But we'll do better because the speed and resolution -- the bandwidth -- with which we can scan the brain are also accelerating exponentially.
One means of scanning the brain would be to send small scanners in the form of nanobots into the blood stream. Millions of them would go through every capillary of the brain. We already have electronic means for scanning neurons and neurotransmitter concentrations that are nearby, and within 30 years we'll have these little nanobots that can communicate with each other wirelessly. They would create an enormous database with every neuron, every synoptic connection, every neurotransmitter concentration -- a precise map of the human brain.
So we'll have the templates for human intelligence, and by then we'll have the hardware that can run these processes. So we can reinstate that information in a neural computer.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Friday, April 21, 2006
Use Your Mind to Age Faster or Slower
By Jon Benson
www.fitover40.com
Probably the most common question I get other than "do you lift weights?" or "how much can you bench" is, "How do you get those abs?" Not many bodybuilders carry 6-packs around the entire year, and I'm no exception. However, during a 'peaking phase', my abs are pretty decent for a guy who was once completely obese!
They're shocked at my first response, and you will be, too: "What are you thinking about when you eat? "After a few seconds of blank stares, I usually get the reply, "I don't know... never really thought about it!" "Exactly," I say. "How do you plan on getting any part of your body to respond, including your abs, without concentration on the challenge?"
However, it's more than just 'concentration' - I'm literally telling my body what I want it to do with the food I'm eating, with the workout I'm doing, and with the cardio I'm performing. I often touch my mid-section to make a stronger connection. I'm constantly visualizing myself with the abs I want. I never waver from that vision. When I do, that's when the fat loss slows down. Sounds too hocus-pocus? Give it a shot and then talk to me!
Let me give you one brief example of the power of thought on the body, (and you can see dozens more in "Fit Over 40").
In the book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcom Gladwell, a fascinating study was noted about the power of mere association with physical performance. A group of individuals were asked to read documents that were riddled with subtle "age" words, like "prune", or "wither". They were then asked to walk to a hallway to take another test. They were not told the reason for the readings, or why the readings changed.
The result? Each time the person read more "age" words, they literally ALTERED the way they walked down the hall. Speed slowed down considerably... even posture changes were noted. They literally began to "act old". If you think this does not work in reverse, think again.
You can see dozens of ab routines inside the Fit Over 40 e-book. Every ab routine will work optimally once you change how you perceive the power of your words and your thoughts! For more information, go to www.fitover40.com
www.fitover40.com
Probably the most common question I get other than "do you lift weights?" or "how much can you bench" is, "How do you get those abs?" Not many bodybuilders carry 6-packs around the entire year, and I'm no exception. However, during a 'peaking phase', my abs are pretty decent for a guy who was once completely obese!
They're shocked at my first response, and you will be, too: "What are you thinking about when you eat? "After a few seconds of blank stares, I usually get the reply, "I don't know... never really thought about it!" "Exactly," I say. "How do you plan on getting any part of your body to respond, including your abs, without concentration on the challenge?"
However, it's more than just 'concentration' - I'm literally telling my body what I want it to do with the food I'm eating, with the workout I'm doing, and with the cardio I'm performing. I often touch my mid-section to make a stronger connection. I'm constantly visualizing myself with the abs I want. I never waver from that vision. When I do, that's when the fat loss slows down. Sounds too hocus-pocus? Give it a shot and then talk to me!
Let me give you one brief example of the power of thought on the body, (and you can see dozens more in "Fit Over 40").
In the book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcom Gladwell, a fascinating study was noted about the power of mere association with physical performance. A group of individuals were asked to read documents that were riddled with subtle "age" words, like "prune", or "wither". They were then asked to walk to a hallway to take another test. They were not told the reason for the readings, or why the readings changed.
The result? Each time the person read more "age" words, they literally ALTERED the way they walked down the hall. Speed slowed down considerably... even posture changes were noted. They literally began to "act old". If you think this does not work in reverse, think again.
You can see dozens of ab routines inside the Fit Over 40 e-book. Every ab routine will work optimally once you change how you perceive the power of your words and your thoughts! For more information, go to www.fitover40.com
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Scientists Explain Near Death Experiences
By Lester Haines
The Register UK
A team of US scientists has come up with a plausible explanation for "near death" events, wherein individuals experience out-of-body sensations or an aura of clear white light - and it has nothing to do with ascending toward the pearly gates.
Rather, it's all down to "REM intrusion" where "the same parts of the brain are activated when people dream as in near death experiences", the BBC reports.
The University of Kentucky team studied 55 people who'd had near death experiences - defined as "a time during a life-threatening episode when a person undergoes an outer body experience, unusual alertness, sees an intense light, or feels a great sense of peace" - and compared them to 55 who hadn't.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
The Register UK
A team of US scientists has come up with a plausible explanation for "near death" events, wherein individuals experience out-of-body sensations or an aura of clear white light - and it has nothing to do with ascending toward the pearly gates.
Rather, it's all down to "REM intrusion" where "the same parts of the brain are activated when people dream as in near death experiences", the BBC reports.
The University of Kentucky team studied 55 people who'd had near death experiences - defined as "a time during a life-threatening episode when a person undergoes an outer body experience, unusual alertness, sees an intense light, or feels a great sense of peace" - and compared them to 55 who hadn't.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Why Mind Power Scares People
By Jorj Elprehzleinn
Publisher of the Life Transformation Formula
Have you ever heard the expression be careful what you wish for? Or have you ever been accused of "daydreaming" or "being too much in your head"?
Mind power scares people. That is partly why those phrases are said. When you develop a conscious relationship with your own mind it is like bringing home a giant supercomputer and starting to actually use it.
Things are going to change in your life when you do that! You already have a powerful mind. However you might not even know what it feels like, or how it works, or where it is. The High Speed Results Life Transformation Formula e-book shows you how to gain all this knowledge and experience the feeling of your mind.
Hearing the words, "you have a powerful mind" and experiencing it is like the difference between watching a rocket blast off to the moon on TV and being on that rocket when it blasts off. Consciously working with your own mind is not for everyone. It can be frightening because you are handling something that is powerful, like a rocket fuel, or nuclear energy.
Mind power is so powerful that it can be scary. That is why most people do not use it. If you use your mind power consciously you set yourself apart from most other people. That alone can be frightening for you or for those around you. Hey, wouldn't you rather I warned you first? This way you can understand and find ways to be more comfortable as you use this vast power that is available to everyone.
Now how is it that the mind works so well to accomplish things in life?
Think of the mind as part of your body that extends into other dimensions. It is like a master software engine that runs all the other levels. It is very subtle and immensely effective at controlling you and your life. One little change has a ripple effect throughout your whole system. What happens at the level of the mind, filters down to all the other levels.
In my own universe, you are delighted to experience the power of your own mind and to discover what a great friend that it can be to you. You are comfortable working and living with mind power and your life is vastly improved from the day you started to really use it.
Yours Truly,
Jorj Elprehzlein
Publisher of the Life Transformation Formula
Have you ever heard the expression be careful what you wish for? Or have you ever been accused of "daydreaming" or "being too much in your head"?
Mind power scares people. That is partly why those phrases are said. When you develop a conscious relationship with your own mind it is like bringing home a giant supercomputer and starting to actually use it.
Things are going to change in your life when you do that! You already have a powerful mind. However you might not even know what it feels like, or how it works, or where it is. The High Speed Results Life Transformation Formula e-book shows you how to gain all this knowledge and experience the feeling of your mind.
Hearing the words, "you have a powerful mind" and experiencing it is like the difference between watching a rocket blast off to the moon on TV and being on that rocket when it blasts off. Consciously working with your own mind is not for everyone. It can be frightening because you are handling something that is powerful, like a rocket fuel, or nuclear energy.
Mind power is so powerful that it can be scary. That is why most people do not use it. If you use your mind power consciously you set yourself apart from most other people. That alone can be frightening for you or for those around you. Hey, wouldn't you rather I warned you first? This way you can understand and find ways to be more comfortable as you use this vast power that is available to everyone.
Now how is it that the mind works so well to accomplish things in life?
Think of the mind as part of your body that extends into other dimensions. It is like a master software engine that runs all the other levels. It is very subtle and immensely effective at controlling you and your life. One little change has a ripple effect throughout your whole system. What happens at the level of the mind, filters down to all the other levels.
In my own universe, you are delighted to experience the power of your own mind and to discover what a great friend that it can be to you. You are comfortable working and living with mind power and your life is vastly improved from the day you started to really use it.
Yours Truly,
Jorj Elprehzlein
Friday, April 14, 2006
Can We Alter Our Perception of Time?
By Darren Bridger
Author of "The Lost Arts of the Mind"
Einstein once remarked that "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second, but when you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour." In other words we don't always perceive the passing of time in the same way.
Of course, Einstein was famous for his theory of relativity that shows how space and time are really part of the same thing. It shows that time is completely dependant on movement: without the rhythms of the Earth and moon, the movement of light and other sensory information entering our bodies and brain, and the oscillations of our brain's neurons we would not be experiencing time.
Time is not something that exists in any real way; it is merely the endless flow of movements and changes. Another quote from Einstein: "People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubborn persistent illusion."
Another physicist, Richard P. Feynman, wrote: "What we mean by 'right now' is a mysterious thing which we cannot define... 'now' is an idea or concept of our mind; it is not something that is really definable physically at the moment."
Our perception of time is created by our brains. Certain drugs can alter this mechanism and make time seem to pass slower or quicker. If you think this is weird, it gets weirder. Experiments have shown that your decision to do something, such as make a 'conscious' movement comes before you have actually consciously decided to make that movement!
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Author of "The Lost Arts of the Mind"
Einstein once remarked that "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second, but when you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour." In other words we don't always perceive the passing of time in the same way.
Of course, Einstein was famous for his theory of relativity that shows how space and time are really part of the same thing. It shows that time is completely dependant on movement: without the rhythms of the Earth and moon, the movement of light and other sensory information entering our bodies and brain, and the oscillations of our brain's neurons we would not be experiencing time.
Time is not something that exists in any real way; it is merely the endless flow of movements and changes. Another quote from Einstein: "People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubborn persistent illusion."
Another physicist, Richard P. Feynman, wrote: "What we mean by 'right now' is a mysterious thing which we cannot define... 'now' is an idea or concept of our mind; it is not something that is really definable physically at the moment."
Our perception of time is created by our brains. Certain drugs can alter this mechanism and make time seem to pass slower or quicker. If you think this is weird, it gets weirder. Experiments have shown that your decision to do something, such as make a 'conscious' movement comes before you have actually consciously decided to make that movement!
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Thursday, April 13, 2006
The Brave New World of Mind Control
By Nick Begich, MD © 2005
Earthpulse Press, Inc.
The idea that the brain can be made to function at a more efficient and directed level has been the subject of research by scientists, mystics, health practitioners and others for as long as mankind has contemplated such matters. In the last decade, advances in the science of the brain have begun to yield significant results. The results of the research are startling, challenging and, if misused, will be frightening. The certainty to be expected from the research is that it will continue to proceed.
The idea that people can be impacted by external signal generators which create, for example, pulsed electromagnetic fields, pulsed light and pulsed sound signals is not new. The following information demonstrates some of the possibilities and gives hints of the potentials of the technology. On the positive side, researchers in the field of light and sound are making huge progress in a number of areas, including working with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, stroke recovery, accelerated learning, drug/alcohol addiction and enhanced human performance. The research has shown that certain brain states can be influenced in a way which causes changes within the brain itself. These changes allow individuals the possibility of influencing specific conditions in the mind and body otherwise thought beyond our direct control.
The military and others interested in such things have also focused a large amount of research into this area for the purpose of enhancing the performance of soldiers while degrading the performance of adversaries.
What is known is that great strides in the area of behaviour control are now possible with systems developed and under development by most sophisticated countries on the planet. These new technologies represent a much different approach to warfare which our government is describing as part of the "Revolution in Military Affairs". While these new technologies offer much for military planners, they offer even more to citizens generally. Their potential use in military applications and "peacekeeping" creates the need for open debate of this new realm of intelligence-gathering, manipulation and warfare. The most basic ethical questions regarding use of these technologies have not been adequately addressed.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Earthpulse Press, Inc.
The idea that the brain can be made to function at a more efficient and directed level has been the subject of research by scientists, mystics, health practitioners and others for as long as mankind has contemplated such matters. In the last decade, advances in the science of the brain have begun to yield significant results. The results of the research are startling, challenging and, if misused, will be frightening. The certainty to be expected from the research is that it will continue to proceed.
The idea that people can be impacted by external signal generators which create, for example, pulsed electromagnetic fields, pulsed light and pulsed sound signals is not new. The following information demonstrates some of the possibilities and gives hints of the potentials of the technology. On the positive side, researchers in the field of light and sound are making huge progress in a number of areas, including working with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, stroke recovery, accelerated learning, drug/alcohol addiction and enhanced human performance. The research has shown that certain brain states can be influenced in a way which causes changes within the brain itself. These changes allow individuals the possibility of influencing specific conditions in the mind and body otherwise thought beyond our direct control.
The military and others interested in such things have also focused a large amount of research into this area for the purpose of enhancing the performance of soldiers while degrading the performance of adversaries.
What is known is that great strides in the area of behaviour control are now possible with systems developed and under development by most sophisticated countries on the planet. These new technologies represent a much different approach to warfare which our government is describing as part of the "Revolution in Military Affairs". While these new technologies offer much for military planners, they offer even more to citizens generally. Their potential use in military applications and "peacekeeping" creates the need for open debate of this new realm of intelligence-gathering, manipulation and warfare. The most basic ethical questions regarding use of these technologies have not been adequately addressed.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
You Make Your Own Luck
By Alan Bellows
DamnInteresting.com
Some individuals seem to have an inexplicable abundance of good fortune. They are successful in matters of love, in their careers, in their finances, and in leading happy and meaningful lives.
Yet these people don't seem to work particularly hard, nor do they posses extraordinary intelligence or other gifts. Of course there are also the natural opposites of the superfortunate; people who repeatedly fail despite their efforts and talents.
As is true with so many human problems, people tend deal with this difficult-to-quantify inequality by giving it a name– "luck"– and then disclaiming any responsibility for how much of it they are apportioned. Luck is considered by many to be a force of nature, coming and going as inevitably as the tide.
But Richard Wiseman, a professor at Britain's University of Hertfordshire, has conducted some experiments which indicate to him that we have a lot more influence on our own good fortune than we realize.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
DamnInteresting.com
Some individuals seem to have an inexplicable abundance of good fortune. They are successful in matters of love, in their careers, in their finances, and in leading happy and meaningful lives.
Yet these people don't seem to work particularly hard, nor do they posses extraordinary intelligence or other gifts. Of course there are also the natural opposites of the superfortunate; people who repeatedly fail despite their efforts and talents.
As is true with so many human problems, people tend deal with this difficult-to-quantify inequality by giving it a name– "luck"– and then disclaiming any responsibility for how much of it they are apportioned. Luck is considered by many to be a force of nature, coming and going as inevitably as the tide.
But Richard Wiseman, a professor at Britain's University of Hertfordshire, has conducted some experiments which indicate to him that we have a lot more influence on our own good fortune than we realize.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Professor Predicts Human Time Travel This Century
By Lisa Zyga
PhysOrg.com
With a brilliant idea and equations based on Einstein’s relativity theories, Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut has devised an experiment to observe a time traveling neutron in a circulating light beam. While his team still needs funding for the project, Mallett calculates that the possibility of time travel using this method could be verified within a decade.
Black holes, wormholes, and cosmic strings – each of these phenomena has been proposed as a method for time travel, but none seem feasible, for (at least) one major reason. Although theoretically they could distort space-time, they all require an unthinkably gigantic amount of mass.
Mallett, a U Conn Physics Professor for 30 years, considered an alternative to these time travel methods based on Einstein’s famous relativity equation: E=mc2.
“Einstein showed that mass and energy are the same thing,” said Mallett, who published his first research on time travel in 2000 in Physics Letters. “The time machine we’ve designed uses light in the form of circulating lasers to warp or loop time instead of using massive objects.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
PhysOrg.com
With a brilliant idea and equations based on Einstein’s relativity theories, Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut has devised an experiment to observe a time traveling neutron in a circulating light beam. While his team still needs funding for the project, Mallett calculates that the possibility of time travel using this method could be verified within a decade.
Black holes, wormholes, and cosmic strings – each of these phenomena has been proposed as a method for time travel, but none seem feasible, for (at least) one major reason. Although theoretically they could distort space-time, they all require an unthinkably gigantic amount of mass.
Mallett, a U Conn Physics Professor for 30 years, considered an alternative to these time travel methods based on Einstein’s famous relativity equation: E=mc2.
“Einstein showed that mass and energy are the same thing,” said Mallett, who published his first research on time travel in 2000 in Physics Letters. “The time machine we’ve designed uses light in the form of circulating lasers to warp or loop time instead of using massive objects.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Saturday, April 08, 2006
'Mental Typewriter' Controlled by Thought Alone
By Will Knight
NewScientist.com news service
A computer controlled by the power of thought alone has been demonstrated at a major trade fair in Germany.
The device could provide a way for paralysed patients to operate computers, or for amputees to operate electronically controlled artificial limbs. But it also has non-medical applications, such as in the computer games and entertainment industries.
The Berlin Brain-Computer Interface (BBCI) – dubbed the "mental typewriter" – was created by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin and Charité, the medical school of Berlin Humboldt University in Germany. It was shown off at the CeBit electronics fair in Hanover, Germany.
The machine makes it possible to type messages onto a computer screen by mentally controlling the movement of a cursor. A user must wear a cap containing electrodes that measure electrical activity inside the brain, known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal, and imagine moving their left or right arm in order to manoeuvre the cursor around.
"It's a very strange sensation," says Gabriel Curio at Charité. "And you can understand from the crowds watching that the potential is huge."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
NewScientist.com news service
A computer controlled by the power of thought alone has been demonstrated at a major trade fair in Germany.
The device could provide a way for paralysed patients to operate computers, or for amputees to operate electronically controlled artificial limbs. But it also has non-medical applications, such as in the computer games and entertainment industries.
The Berlin Brain-Computer Interface (BBCI) – dubbed the "mental typewriter" – was created by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin and Charité, the medical school of Berlin Humboldt University in Germany. It was shown off at the CeBit electronics fair in Hanover, Germany.
The machine makes it possible to type messages onto a computer screen by mentally controlling the movement of a cursor. A user must wear a cap containing electrodes that measure electrical activity inside the brain, known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal, and imagine moving their left or right arm in order to manoeuvre the cursor around.
"It's a very strange sensation," says Gabriel Curio at Charité. "And you can understand from the crowds watching that the potential is huge."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Friday, April 07, 2006
Talking Budgie Predicted His Own Death
By Elvira Cordileone
Toronto Star
Ryan Reynolds is a psittalinguist — a person who interprets budgie-speak.
Since 1999, he has invested thousands of hours slowing down and deconstructing recordings of his beloved budgie, Victor, who died five years ago at the young age of 3, as well as other talking budgies.
Victor had a vocabulary of 1,000 words, which he used in context, Reynolds says.
Reynolds, founder of The Budgie Research Group, later reached out to others with talking budgies, hoping to share information. To describe their work, they coined the term psittalinguistics, from psittacidae, or the parrot family.
So what are budgies saying?
"This is going to sound crazy, but they talk about spiritual things: God, the afterlife, a better world for them," Reynolds says.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Toronto Star
Ryan Reynolds is a psittalinguist — a person who interprets budgie-speak.
Since 1999, he has invested thousands of hours slowing down and deconstructing recordings of his beloved budgie, Victor, who died five years ago at the young age of 3, as well as other talking budgies.
Victor had a vocabulary of 1,000 words, which he used in context, Reynolds says.
Reynolds, founder of The Budgie Research Group, later reached out to others with talking budgies, hoping to share information. To describe their work, they coined the term psittalinguistics, from psittacidae, or the parrot family.
So what are budgies saying?
"This is going to sound crazy, but they talk about spiritual things: God, the afterlife, a better world for them," Reynolds says.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Woman With Perfect Memory Baffles Scientists
By Lee Dye
ABC News
James McGaugh is one of the world's leading experts on how the human memory system works. But these days, he admits he's stumped.
McGaugh's journey through an intellectual purgatory began six years ago when a woman now known only as AJ wrote him a letter detailing her astonishing ability to remember with remarkable clarity even trivial events that happened decades ago.
Give her any date, she said, and she could recall the day of the week, usually what the weather was like on that day, personal details of her life at that time, and major news events that occurred on that date.
Like any good scientist, McGaugh was initially skeptical. But not anymore.
"This is real," he says.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
ABC News
James McGaugh is one of the world's leading experts on how the human memory system works. But these days, he admits he's stumped.
McGaugh's journey through an intellectual purgatory began six years ago when a woman now known only as AJ wrote him a letter detailing her astonishing ability to remember with remarkable clarity even trivial events that happened decades ago.
Give her any date, she said, and she could recall the day of the week, usually what the weather was like on that day, personal details of her life at that time, and major news events that occurred on that date.
Like any good scientist, McGaugh was initially skeptical. But not anymore.
"This is real," he says.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Simple Secrets of a Longer, Healthier Life
By Tom Venuto
www.fitover40.com
As I was standing at the newsstand today, I couldn't help but notice the headline on the cover of the latest issue of National Geographic:
"The Secrets Of Living Longer"
As I flipped through the cover story feature inside, two photographs really got my attention...
"Who You Calling Old?" says the caption under a photograph of Frank Shearer, age 100, as he kicks up the spray water skiing near his home in Washington State.
Also inside (and on the cover) is a photograph of 84 year old Okinawan Fumiyasu Yamakawa standing on his head in a Yoga posture. The story explains that this is part of his training for his annual decathalon (where his favorite events are pole vault and high jump).
As I continued to read, the parallels between this story and the findings Jon and I uncovered when we were doing reasearch and interviews for our Fit Over 40 book were striking.
Geographic writer Dan Buettner posed the question, "What if I said you could add up to ten years to your life?"
Great question, isn't it?
The fact is, there are simple steps you can take to dramatically increase the probability that you will live a longer and healthier life. Lifelong fitness and health are not accidents. Genetics help,
but lifestyle choices under your control are far more important.
Although the "secret to long life" still seems to be a mystery to many, the truth is, it's a fairly simple matter and more people are coming to agreement about how it is done.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
www.fitover40.com
As I was standing at the newsstand today, I couldn't help but notice the headline on the cover of the latest issue of National Geographic:
"The Secrets Of Living Longer"
As I flipped through the cover story feature inside, two photographs really got my attention...
"Who You Calling Old?" says the caption under a photograph of Frank Shearer, age 100, as he kicks up the spray water skiing near his home in Washington State.
Also inside (and on the cover) is a photograph of 84 year old Okinawan Fumiyasu Yamakawa standing on his head in a Yoga posture. The story explains that this is part of his training for his annual decathalon (where his favorite events are pole vault and high jump).
As I continued to read, the parallels between this story and the findings Jon and I uncovered when we were doing reasearch and interviews for our Fit Over 40 book were striking.
Geographic writer Dan Buettner posed the question, "What if I said you could add up to ten years to your life?"
Great question, isn't it?
The fact is, there are simple steps you can take to dramatically increase the probability that you will live a longer and healthier life. Lifelong fitness and health are not accidents. Genetics help,
but lifestyle choices under your control are far more important.
Although the "secret to long life" still seems to be a mystery to many, the truth is, it's a fairly simple matter and more people are coming to agreement about how it is done.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Everyone Can Read Minds
By Ker Than
Special to LiveScience
Empathy allows us to feel the emotions of others, to identify and understand their feelings and motives and see things from their perspective. How we generate empathy remains a subject of intense debate in cognitive science.
Some scientists now believe they may have finally discovered its root. We're all essentially mind readers, they say.
The idea has been slow to gain acceptance, but evidence is mounting.
In 1996, three neuroscientists were probing the brain of a macaque monkey when they stumbled across a curious cluster of cells in the premotor cortex, an area of the brain responsible for planning movements. The cluster of cells fired not only when the monkey performed an action, but likewise when the monkey saw the same action performed by someone else. The cells responded the same way whether the monkey reached out to grasp a peanut, or merely watched in envy as another monkey or a human did.
Because the cells reflected the actions that the monkey observed in others, the neuroscientists named them "mirror neurons."
Later experiments confirmed the existence of mirror neurons in humans and revealed another surprise. In addition to mirroring actions, the cells reflected sensations and emotions.
"Mirror neurons suggest that we pretend to be in another person's mental shoes," says Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. "In fact, with mirror neurons we do not have to pretend, we practically are in another person's mind."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Special to LiveScience
Empathy allows us to feel the emotions of others, to identify and understand their feelings and motives and see things from their perspective. How we generate empathy remains a subject of intense debate in cognitive science.
Some scientists now believe they may have finally discovered its root. We're all essentially mind readers, they say.
The idea has been slow to gain acceptance, but evidence is mounting.
In 1996, three neuroscientists were probing the brain of a macaque monkey when they stumbled across a curious cluster of cells in the premotor cortex, an area of the brain responsible for planning movements. The cluster of cells fired not only when the monkey performed an action, but likewise when the monkey saw the same action performed by someone else. The cells responded the same way whether the monkey reached out to grasp a peanut, or merely watched in envy as another monkey or a human did.
Because the cells reflected the actions that the monkey observed in others, the neuroscientists named them "mirror neurons."
Later experiments confirmed the existence of mirror neurons in humans and revealed another surprise. In addition to mirroring actions, the cells reflected sensations and emotions.
"Mirror neurons suggest that we pretend to be in another person's mental shoes," says Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. "In fact, with mirror neurons we do not have to pretend, we practically are in another person's mind."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Orgasms Are All in the Mind
By James Doherty and Kath Gourlay
The Scotsman
It's a scientific fact: human brains are programmed for orgasms - with or without the actual sex act.
Dr Robert Lomas - a solid-state physicist and an internationally known author on religious symbolism - says that evolution has allowed humans to develop the sex-free orgasm.
"It’s the same reward mechanism that encourages us to share our DNA," said Dr Lomas. "But it can be achieved without the physical act of copulation."
Only humans have this power to induce mental ecstasy, and it’s a complex set of responses that can be achieved by learned behavioural patterns or triggered by hyper-arousal during peak experiences, he says.
"At times of hyper-arousal, our brains are designed to freeload on the behavioural reward that encourages us to reproduce," he said. "And that is another name for orgasm."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
The Scotsman
It's a scientific fact: human brains are programmed for orgasms - with or without the actual sex act.
Dr Robert Lomas - a solid-state physicist and an internationally known author on religious symbolism - says that evolution has allowed humans to develop the sex-free orgasm.
"It’s the same reward mechanism that encourages us to share our DNA," said Dr Lomas. "But it can be achieved without the physical act of copulation."
Only humans have this power to induce mental ecstasy, and it’s a complex set of responses that can be achieved by learned behavioural patterns or triggered by hyper-arousal during peak experiences, he says.
"At times of hyper-arousal, our brains are designed to freeload on the behavioural reward that encourages us to reproduce," he said. "And that is another name for orgasm."
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Monday, March 13, 2006
The Power of Mind and the Promise of Placebo
Source: World Research Foundation
For decades, the gold standard of medical research has been the double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. You give one group of patients a medicine you want to test, and another group a dummy pill that has no active ingredients. Neither the patients nor doctors know who is getting which.
Placebo trials are used to tell researchers whether a tested drug has any healing effect beyond that which occurs a certain percentage of time when people take an inert pill. A patient's belief in a pill - a supposed medicine, but chemically innocuous - is thought to activate their body's healing powers.
I am fascinated that a major debate erupted when a group of doctors discussed the immoral and unethical aspects of utilizing a placebo. Their reasoning was that regular and beneficial medicine was being withheld from a patient.
The co-authors of an article addressing this topic, Kenneth Rothman, a Ph.D. From Boston University School of Public Health, and Karin Michels of Harvard School of Public Health, both stated that to give a patient a placebo, that has a 'known efficacy of zero,' was highly unethical.
Some other medical doctors and researchers have jumped into the debate stating that placebos are just a nuisance variable.
There has been sharp disagreement on this point, due to the fact that medical literature includes a great deal of testimony that the placebo effect routinely works 30 percent of the time, with Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard stating that it may work up to 90 percent of the time.
Overlooked by its critics in this discussion, is the fact that studies that have utilized placebos have produced some rather remarkable, and at the same time unexplainable, results. Rather than looking at it as a nuisance, we should be looking at the placebo as a key to ascertain a remarkable phenomenon that seems to be a part of the human psyche.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
For decades, the gold standard of medical research has been the double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. You give one group of patients a medicine you want to test, and another group a dummy pill that has no active ingredients. Neither the patients nor doctors know who is getting which.
Placebo trials are used to tell researchers whether a tested drug has any healing effect beyond that which occurs a certain percentage of time when people take an inert pill. A patient's belief in a pill - a supposed medicine, but chemically innocuous - is thought to activate their body's healing powers.
I am fascinated that a major debate erupted when a group of doctors discussed the immoral and unethical aspects of utilizing a placebo. Their reasoning was that regular and beneficial medicine was being withheld from a patient.
The co-authors of an article addressing this topic, Kenneth Rothman, a Ph.D. From Boston University School of Public Health, and Karin Michels of Harvard School of Public Health, both stated that to give a patient a placebo, that has a 'known efficacy of zero,' was highly unethical.
Some other medical doctors and researchers have jumped into the debate stating that placebos are just a nuisance variable.
There has been sharp disagreement on this point, due to the fact that medical literature includes a great deal of testimony that the placebo effect routinely works 30 percent of the time, with Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard stating that it may work up to 90 percent of the time.
Overlooked by its critics in this discussion, is the fact that studies that have utilized placebos have produced some rather remarkable, and at the same time unexplainable, results. Rather than looking at it as a nuisance, we should be looking at the placebo as a key to ascertain a remarkable phenomenon that seems to be a part of the human psyche.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
Thursday, February 23, 2006
The Ultimate Persuasion Seminar in Las Vegas
Presented by Master Hypnotists
David Barron & Kent Sayre
In Las Vegas, two master hypnotists are going to reveal some incredibly powerful persuasion secrets that will enable you to get anyone to do anything. Guaranteed.
David Barron and Kent Sayre will reveal amazing secrets that have not been taught anywhere else…ever. Only they have the chops to really spill their guts on how to make persuasion work almost like magic.
They have secretly smuggled some of the hottest, most powerful hypnosis techniques out of the hypnosis community and into the sales world. The results? Nothing short of magnificent.
Kent used some of the hypnosis techniques to talk his way into buying over 2 million dollars (that’s $2,000,000.00) of real estate without plunking down a red cent of his own money. And he did it in under 2 years. That, my friend, is the power of persuasion.
As a master hypnotist, David has been changing people’s minds and lives for over a decade now. And look at it like this. If he can simply talk to someone (using the amazing power of hypnosis) and get them to radically alter their lives and personalities, imagine what you could do armed with the same techniques in a sales situation.
There is no limit to what you can accomplish…once you have these skills. Here’s why. What you’ll learn at the seminar is so cutting edge…it’s so far out of the mainstream…you have to come with an open mind…and prepare to be blown away.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
David Barron & Kent Sayre
In Las Vegas, two master hypnotists are going to reveal some incredibly powerful persuasion secrets that will enable you to get anyone to do anything. Guaranteed.
David Barron and Kent Sayre will reveal amazing secrets that have not been taught anywhere else…ever. Only they have the chops to really spill their guts on how to make persuasion work almost like magic.
They have secretly smuggled some of the hottest, most powerful hypnosis techniques out of the hypnosis community and into the sales world. The results? Nothing short of magnificent.
Kent used some of the hypnosis techniques to talk his way into buying over 2 million dollars (that’s $2,000,000.00) of real estate without plunking down a red cent of his own money. And he did it in under 2 years. That, my friend, is the power of persuasion.
As a master hypnotist, David has been changing people’s minds and lives for over a decade now. And look at it like this. If he can simply talk to someone (using the amazing power of hypnosis) and get them to radically alter their lives and personalities, imagine what you could do armed with the same techniques in a sales situation.
There is no limit to what you can accomplish…once you have these skills. Here’s why. What you’ll learn at the seminar is so cutting edge…it’s so far out of the mainstream…you have to come with an open mind…and prepare to be blown away.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
Create Your Own "Coincidences"
By Karim Hajee,
Creating Power
First let me clearly state that there is no such thing as coincidence -- you orchestrate everything that happens to you. You do this by working with the power of your mind and subconscious mind -- which works in harmony with the universe. You can create good or bad things in your life - it's really your choice.
The bad things that happen are not necessarily in harmony with the universe but instead are created by your ego self or when you refuse to adhere to the warning signs that come up. These are warning signs that try to help you by trying to get you to avoid taking a certain path. These warning signs also come up when you focus on the wrong things.
Nothing happens by chance. In short you orchestrate every coincidence that happens in your life. The more you begin to think about this the more you will realize that what I am saying is true. I'll explain in more detail a little later. First let me describe how you orchestrate coincidences often without even knowing exactly what you are doing.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT CREATING COINCIDENCES
Creating Power
First let me clearly state that there is no such thing as coincidence -- you orchestrate everything that happens to you. You do this by working with the power of your mind and subconscious mind -- which works in harmony with the universe. You can create good or bad things in your life - it's really your choice.
The bad things that happen are not necessarily in harmony with the universe but instead are created by your ego self or when you refuse to adhere to the warning signs that come up. These are warning signs that try to help you by trying to get you to avoid taking a certain path. These warning signs also come up when you focus on the wrong things.
Nothing happens by chance. In short you orchestrate every coincidence that happens in your life. The more you begin to think about this the more you will realize that what I am saying is true. I'll explain in more detail a little later. First let me describe how you orchestrate coincidences often without even knowing exactly what you are doing.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT CREATING COINCIDENCES
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