Mindhacks

Spirituality is important to a majority of scientists in the United States’ elite research universities, says the researcher of a new study on religion.

These scientists are confounding the
prevailing opinion that academics
aren’t religious.

Researcher Elaine Howard Ecklund,
a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University
in Houston, surveyed more than 1,600
scientists from 21 elite research
universities. Ecklund designed the
survey to examine scientists’ religious and
spiritual beliefs as well as their practices.

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Jose Silva, parapsychologist and founder of the Silva UltraMind ESP System used to demonstrate an experiment on creativity with kids in his hometown of Laredo, Texas. He would ask kids to think of solutions to a particular problem while they were at the beta, or waking, level of mind.

He would then guide them to the alpha, or meditative level of mind and ask them to think of further solutions. The children were always able to come up with more ideas while at alpha.

Does your mind function more creatively when you’re at the alpha level of mind?

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For decades, Dalia Isicoff has suffered the agony of rheumatoid arthritis—joint pain, spinal fusion, multiple hip surgeries. Painkillers dull the aches, but it wasn’t until she took a course at the University of Maryland’s Center for Integrative Medicine that Isicoff discovered a powerful weapon inside her own body: her mind. Using a meditative practice called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR, Isicoff learned to acknowledge her pain, rather than fight it. Her negative and debilitating thought patterns—"This is getting worse," "I’m going to end up in a wheelchair"—began to dissipate, and she was able to cut back on her medication.

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Do you have a high opinion of yourself, a good regard for you? Then you have a good, strong ego. If you have a poor opinion of yourself, and little regard for yourself, then you have a weak ego.

It is possible, of course, to have different opinions of yourself in different areas of your life. You may have a good, strong opinion of yourself in one area, and think rather poorly about yourself in another.

Unfortunately, the poor opinion is generally the one that is focused on—the old homily of the squeaking wheel getting the grease. Here is how you correct that situation.

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Meditation alters brain patterns in ways that are likely permanent, scientists have known. But a new study shows key parts of the brain actually get thicker through the practice.

Brain imaging of regular working folks who meditate regularly revealed increased thickness in cortical regions related to sensory, auditory and visual perception, as well as internal perception — the automatic monitoring of heart rate or breathing, for example.

The study also indicates that regular meditation may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex.

Read the full story here.