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Media Watch for November 2005 (Issue 48)
We are All Connected: We have all heard about husbands having many of the same symptoms that their pregnant wives have. A study published in Nature Neuroscience, which was conducted by Alessio Avenanti and his team of researchers, shows a basis for such behavior. The study shows that, “when we watch someone else being pricked by a needle in their hand, the corticospinal motor neurons connected to that specific part of our own hand are inhibited, just as they would be if we’d been injected ourselves. It’s as though our brain has specifically identified where the other person has been hurt and mapped this information onto our own mental body map. The finding adds to an emerging picture that suggests we empathize with other people’s pain by simulating their suffering in our own central nervous system … Philosophers have emphasized that our bodily sensations are intrinsically private,” the researchers concluded, “However, our findings suggest that, at least in humans, the social dimension of pain extends even to the very basic, sensorimotor levels of neural processing.”
From: Transcranial magnetic stimulation highlights the sensorimortor side of empathy for pain, Avenanti,A, Bueti, Dl, Galatie, G. & Aglioti, S.M., Nature Neuroscience 8, 955-960.
Hypnosis Helps to Focus the Mind: Therapists who proclaim that hypnosis helps their patients now have even more proof that this is the case. A study of brain scan images shows that hypnosis alters cognitive activity after subjects have come out of this trance like state. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, hypnotized subjects outperformed their peers in a mental test and brain scans pinpointed the area of the brain responsible for the effect. The findings of the study provide a biological basis for the claims that hypnosis can help people in areas such as giving up addictive substances. The lead author of the study, Amir Raz at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, says that, “Words can form suggestions, and suggestions can have very, very strong effects on neurological activity.”
Raz speculated that hypnosis might not be strictly necessary to implant instructions in the mind of susceptible people, and that a similar study might also prove that “Positive Thinking” and using “Affirmations” also helps people.
From: Nature.com, The power of suggestion lingers, by Roxanne Khamsi
Mind Affects Machines: Researchers at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Program (Pears), led by Robert Jahn, have been measuring the effects of human consciousness on machines since 1979. Using random event generators (REG) (computers that produce random output), participants focus their intent on controlling the machines output. Out of millions of trials there has been a small but “statistically significant” amount of data that point to our ability to interact with machines. Researchers are careful not to claim that minds cause an effect or that they know the nature of the communication. There is little that they understand about the phenomena but they do know that results are not affected by distance or time. Participants can have the same effect on a machine from outside the room or across the country. They also have the same effect if they have the intention before the REG is turned on. Environmental conditions, such as the temperature of the room, do not make a difference but the tester’s mood and attitude does. Participants are more successful if they believe they can affect the machine. Resonance with the machine is also important and Jahn likens it to what happens when a great musician is at one with their violin.
Gender produces different results. Even though the effect that men get is small, it does match their intent. Women get a bigger effect but not necessarily what they intended. They might direct randomly falling balls to fall to the right but they fall to the left instead. Results are better if a male and female work together. Same sex pairs produce no significant results and pairs who are romantically involved produce the best results sometimes as much as seven percent more than when tested alone.
From: Wired.com, “Mind May Affect Machines,” by Kim Zetter www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68216.html
Precognition/Premonition: The Spontaneous Cases Committee of the Society for Psychical Research is involved in an ongoing assessment of precognitions/premonitions in relation to significant world events. They are therefore interested in receiving details from anyone who has had any precognition/premonition experiences of such events. It is essential that such experiences were notified to a witness before the event, and that a statement from that witness is available.
If you have what you consider a significant premonition/precognition of a future dramatic and particularly unforeseen event, they will be pleased to receive details of your prediction or dream experience, to check against future events. Use the form at www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/index.php?section=74 to make a report.
For past premonitions which relate to events which have now occurred, please also give:
Missing Women Found: Police in Nelson, British Columbia had exhausted all leads in trying to find a missing young woman. They had used helicopters, search dogs and infrared heat detectors and had given up hope. Police Sgt. Steve Bank called on a local psychic, Norm Pratt, who gave police a description of the area where the woman’s body was—about a mile away from the trail that they had been searching. Police found the body within minutes of going to the area.
In Longview Washington, a family friend dreamed about the location of a missing woman. Philomena Thomas said, “I had a dream of Denise coming to me. She said ‘Please find me so my mother doesn’t worry.’ I had a clear vision … I woke up knowing where she was.” The searchers found the woman’s body at the bottom of a cliff near the Columbia River as the dream had shown.
From: Fate, I See By the Papers, by Phyllis Galde and CBC (Canada and The Daily News, Longview, WA)
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