Some interesting facts and research complied by members of my classes relating to the power of the mind, meditation and other things weird and wonderful!!

 

                                   

Homework- Facts and figures

·         Practising the art of Tai Chi can significantly ease the pain of arthritis research by Tufts University in Massachusetts has found. After 12 wks patients suffered half as much pain as they had before they started training. It works by conditioning muscles, increasing suppleness and wellbeing.

·         British and US researchers have found that the body converts fatty acids found in oily fish (salmon, Mackeral etc) into a powerful anti-inflammatory called Resolvin D2. D2 helped prevent white blood cells sticking to the inner lining of blood vessels-a key step in the inflammatory process!

·         D2 could provide treatments ranging from stroke, heart disease and Cancer. Fish oils particularly Omega 3, and 6 are already known to be good for brain, bones, heart and eye problems

·         Jon Kabat-Zinn at The University of Washington now offers war veterans 8wk courses in mindfulness based stress reduction meditation, particularly treating soldiers with PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorders).Their studies show that thoughts can initiate a stress response in the body. "As we ruminate on these thoughts the brain can send stress response signals to other parts of the body causing a rapid heartbeat, shallow breathing and tense muscles. Prolonged stress can then cause other health problems. But if we train ourselves to pause when that first thought enters the mind we can largely control our physical response, studies have shown. Deep breathing and meditation help calm the body. The story we tell ourselves has a lot to do with the unfolding of the actual situation" "It works but I was sceptical" said Herb Washington, 46 who completed the course last year and states "… feels anger and frustration slips when he does mindfulness meditation"    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin

 

·         "Mindfulness meditations are intended to train attention for the sake of provoking insight. A wider more flexible attention span makes it easier to be aware of a situation, easier to be objective in emotionally or morally difficult situations and easier to achieve a state of responsive, creative awareness or flow"                                                                                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/health_applications_and_clinical_studies_of_meditation

·         1972 Transcendental Meditation research by Dr Herbert Benson of the Mind-Body Institute (affiliated to Harvard University) reported that Meditation induces changes in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, BP and brain chemistry..It was shown to affect human metabolism by lowering the bio-chemical by-products of stress such as Lactate, decreasing heart rate and blood pressure and inducing favourable brain waves. During meditation Oxygen consumption lessens and there is a marked increase in blood flow which in turn slows the heart beat and blood pressure is lessened. Increases natural killer cells by 30%

·         And meditation has proven benefits that range from increased well-being to pain relief. For instance: People who meditated for eight weeks produced more antibodies to a flu vaccine, which indicates it changed immune function in a positive way. Meditation may help you maintain your ability to remember and focus on details as you age, according to research by Sara Lazar of Harvard Medical School. A recent study in PAIN found that people with chronic back pain who meditated for eight weeks had a decreased amount of pain and an improvement in physical function.

·         A study on headaches, 72% of sufferers reported "moderate to great" improvement after learning how to meditate

·         Increases Serotonin which influences mood and behaviour. Low levels are associated with depression, headaches and insomnia. Reduces also the symptoms associated with pre-menstrual tension

·         1976 Ainslie Meares reported the regression of Cancer following intensive meditation published in the Medical Journal of Australia and book entitled Relief without Drugs.his system of meditation

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·         did not involve any sort of mental imagery. He reported that a number of his cases in which his patients having gone into full remission from his methods had decided without consultation with him and without his approval regressed to full blown cancer consequent to using Simonton type imagery(a technique promoted by Simonton, Simonton and Creighton in 'Getting well again'). He also reported that having resumed the exclusive application of his techniques his patients once again achieved full remission.

·         A study published in The American journal of hypertension reveals that daily Meditation ( 2 sessions lasting 15 minutes) results in a measurable drop in BP in at risk teenagers further demonstrating the powerful mind-body connection that western medicine continues to deny exists. The positive effects of meditation persisted even 4 months after the patient stopped the practice indicating that meditation has substantial long lasting effects.

·         Yale and Harvard University studies have shown Meditation increases grey matter in the brain and slows down brain deterioration. 20 people completed Insight Meditation and 15 did not. Scans showed those who meditated had increased thickness in grey matter responsible for attention and processing sensory input of: .004-.008inches and was directly PROPORTIONAL to the amount of meditation done!

·         Dr Sara Lazar - Psychologist / Neuroscientist, Harvard Medical School, Boston:The study:Sara Lazar compared brain scans of a group of experienced meditators with those of people without meditation experience. During the scan, the former were meditating, the latter simply relaxing.The findings:Sara found that regular meditation increases the thickness of brain areas connected with cognition (ability to acquire knowledge), emotional processing and well-being. These sections of the cortex (or thinking cap) normally get thinner with age.Her findings are consistent with other studies that showed how the corresponding areas of the brain grow thicker with repeated practice - thus a musician has a thicker 'music area, a dancer a thickened 'motor skills' area and so on.

·         EEGs of skilled meditators show a significant rise in gamma wave activity in the range of 80 to120Hz during Meditation. Most meditation is dominated by Alpha waves 8-13Hz

·         Dr James Austin at University of Colorado reported that Zen Meditation rewires the circuitry of the brain , see 'Zen and The Brain' This has been confirmed by MRI imaging measuring blood flow in the brain.

·         As a method of stress reduction meditation has been used in hospital cases of chronic or terminal illness to reduce the complications associated with increased stress that include depressed immune systems

·         Daniel Goleman and Tara Bennhett-Goleman suggest Meditation works because of the relationship between the Amygdala (A) (part of brain that decides if we will get angry, anxious etc) and the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)(part that makes you stop and think about things-the Inhibitory Centre).

A -makes decisions rapidly and has a powerful effect on emotions and behaviour and is linked to survival needs -fight or flight responses. The PFC takes a long time to make decisions-analysing and planning. A-is prone to error, seeing danger where there is none and leading to stress thus a skilled meditator may be able to intervene before the flight or fight response takes over and thus redirect the reaction to a more constructive or positive feeling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/health_applications_and_clinical_studies_of_meditation

·         Improvement in concentration - Many of the athletes and sports professionals regularly employ meditation methods. Studies have found a direct correlation between concentration exercises (meditation) and the performance level of sports professionals. Meditation strengthens the mind, it comes under control and is able to provide effective guidance to the physical body to effectively execute all its projects. Psychological Exercises are a powerful way of improving concentration and improving mental strength.

·         Health benefits of Meditation:
Though meditation is usually recognized as a largely spiritual practice, it also has many health benefits. The yoga and meditation techniques are being implemented in management of life threatening diseases; in transformation of molecular and genetic structure; in reversal of mental illnesses, in accelerated learning programs, in perceptions and communications beyond the physical, in solving problems and atomic and nuclear physics; in gaining better ecological understanding; in management of lifestyle and future world problems.

http://www.healthandyoga.com/HTML/meditation/objectives.html

Long term TM practice results in greater EEG coherence; increased efficiency of information transfer in the brain; lower baseline levels of heart and respiration rates; increased stability of the autonomic nervous system; faster recovery from stress; faster reactions; and faster reflex responses (4). These data suggest that relaxation techniques can alter set-points and negative feedback loops which the I-function cannot alter. "Mindfulness" involves the awareness and control of physical operations that we cannot have through a structure that purports to separate "us" from some of our functions.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web2/Benner.html

·         The brain can't tell the difference between what is treal and what is imagined. After a series of tests, the researchers found that the hypnotized brain's color circuitry was working overtime asit altered visual input from the eyes. Spiegel, who has also looked at how social support affects breast cancer survival,, says the finding helps identify the true nature of hypnosis. "There's been an argument in the hypnosis community -- is it just a heightened form of social compliance?" Probably not, he says: Hypnotized subjects who looked at a black-and-white pattern "were acting as if they were literally seeing color" when asked to see it in color. When subjects were asked to see a color image in black-and-white, Spiegel says, "They were not just telling us they saw it in black-and- white. Their brains are responding as if they were looking at black-and-white." The finding builds on the notion that simple imagining will "engage two-thirds of the same brain areas as in perception when you are actually visualizing," Kosslyn says. "If you imagine yourself practicing playing golf, you get better. The imagery stands in for the actual practice." http://www.whyfiles.org/150alt_med2/4.html

 

Homework 2009/2010

Personal experiences:

 

·          My daughter and her husband moved into a large family house found by pure chance on a shopping trip to Chislehurst. Which was purchased and completed within 6 weeks and so meant to be?

Shortly after moving in I was sitting in the dining room of this new house when I saw 2 little boys with bright hair come running in laughing and chatting in school uniform. I told my daughter and she thought it must have been a vision of past occupants.

Later my daughter had triplets, all boys and one baby did not survive.

We now have beautiful twin boys who have bright ginger hair and blue eyes despite there not being any twins in the dark haired and eyed families. I often sit in the dining room watching my grandsons with bright hair come running in laughing and chatting in school uniform just like I saw in my minds eye 6years ago!

 

·          “Even though that which is normally called mind is widely esteemed and discussed still it is misunderstood, wrongly understood or understood in a one sided manner. Since it is not understood correctly just as in itself there comes into existence inconceivable numbers of philosophical ideas and assertions. Furthermore since ordinary individuals don’t understand it they don’t recognize their own nature and so continue to wander among the 6 destinies of rebirth within the 3 worlds and thus experience suffering

Thus to not understand your own mind is a grievous fault

PADMASAMBHAVA

http://www.meaningoflife.i12.com/articles-mind.htm

I had my bathroom fitted with a new suite but the company would only deliver my tiles to the kerb. Eventually I managed to persuade him to carry them to the entry door.Amazingly despite my tiny frame I managed to carry 22 boxes of tiles that weighed 10-15lbs to my 2nd floor flat. A feat of mind over matter!!

 

As I lay on my mat Theresa the meditation teacher put on a CD and I immediately allowed myself to relax. Then as we counted down 10 steps to our magical place I felt as though I was being lifted and then stretched which made me feel even more relaxed. Afterwards I felt so calm and happy and this feeling continued for a good while afterwards.

 

When I was 17 I went on holiday to Spain with my best friend. We had a 100% friendship. However my friend fell in love and deserted me for the whole 2 weeks even though I had severe sunstroke etc.To cut a long story short we returned home and drifted apart but the experience left me untrusting about letting new friends into my life.5 years ago my best friend Anna came into my life. Recently a friend talked about the wonderful EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) therapy that unlocked doors in her mind and healed her trauma. That night I dreamt I was standing in Spain standing by a taxi, telling my disloyal friend I was going home. The dream ended with me in a taxi feeling empowered and relieved. I believe the friend’s story of EMDR had unconsciously unlocked a door in my head

The following story will challenge your idea of just how much your mind influences your body. In  1950, a new drug called Krebiozen had received sensational national publicity as a “cure” for cancer and was being tested by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One of the researchers involved in this testing was a doctor called Bruno Klopfer.One of Dr. Klopfer’s patients, a Mr. Wright was suffering from cancer of the lymph nodes. All standard treatments had been exhausted, and Wright appeared to have little time left.  His neck, armpits, chest, abdomen, and groin were filled with tumors the size of oranges, and his spleen and liver were so enlarged that two quarts of milky fluid had to be drained out of his body each day. When Wright discovered that Dr. Klopfer was involved in research on Krebiozen, he begged to be given Krebiozen treatments. At first his doctor refused because the drug was untested and only being tried on people with a life expectancy of at least three months.  Wright begged so hard, however, that Klopfer decided to give him one injection on Friday, though he secretly suspected Wright would not last the weekend.Dr. Klopfer was in for a big surprise.On the following Monday, Klopfer found Wright out of bed and walking around.  Klopfer reported that his tumors had "melted like snowballs on a hot stove" and were half their original size.  This was a far more rapid decrease in size than even the strongest X-ray treatments could have accomplished. Ten days after Wright’s first Krebiozen treatment, he left the hospital, and as far as his doctors could tell, with no signs of cancer.  When he had entered the hospital, he had needed an oxygen mask to breathe, but when he left he was well enough to fly his own plane at 12,000 feet with no discomfort.Wright remained well for about two months, but then articles began to appear asserting that Krebiozen actually had no effect on cancer of the lymph nodes.  Wright, who was rigidly logical and scientific in his thinking, became very depressed, suffered a relapse, and was readmitted to the hospital.  This time his physician decided to try an experiment.Dr. Klopfer told Wright that Krebiozen was every bit as effective as it had seemed, but that some of the initial supplies of the drug had deteriorated during shipping.  He explained, however, that he had a new highly concentrated version of the drug and could treat Wright with this.  Of course, the physician did not have a new version of the drug and intended to inject Wright with nothing more than plain sterile water.Again the results were dramatic.  Tumor masses melted, chest fluid vanished, and Wright was quickly back on his feet and feeling great. Yet he had been injected with nothing more than sterile water.Wright remained symptom-free for another two months, but then the American Medical Association announced that a nationwide study of Krebiozen had found the drug worthless in the treatment of cancer.  This time Wright’s faith was completely shattered.  His cancer blossomed anew and he died two days later.Wright’s story is tragic, but it contains a powerful message:  When we are fortunate enough to bypass our disbelief and tap the healing forces within us, we can cause tumors to melt away overnight. ". . .learn how to tap into and control this powerful force."The patient’s mind alone, independent of the value of the medication, produced his recovery. This event proves that your mind is so powerful that it can literally bring wonderful or tragic events to bear within days. Most people do not learn how to tap into and control this powerful force. Many people do have their minds working for them, but in negative ways. Doctors call this psychosomatic illness – an illness caused by a person’s negative belief system. You must learn how to create positive belief systems and use visualization to accelerate your body’s rate of healing and recovery. For more info on the case study, please see Bruno Klopfer, "Psychological Variables in Human Cancer," Journal of Prospective Techniques 31 (1957), pp. 331-40.

·          On January 10th 2003, 8-year-old Richard Powles sat in a soundproof room in a London television studio in front of a table on which there was a cardboard box and a plastic bucket filled with ice-cold water. On command, he rolled up his sleeve and plunged his arm into the near-freezing water, giving a gasp as he did so. In another studio well out of sight or earshot, his identical twin brother Damien was wired up to a four-channel polygraph (lie-detector) which, under the expert supervision of polygrapher Jeremy Barrett, was monitoring his respiration, abdominal muscles, pulse and galvanic skin response (sweat on the hands).Neither he nor Barrett had any idea what was going on in the other room, although both knew they were taking part in a telepathy experiment to be shown later that day on Channel 4's Richard and Judy chat show. All Damien had to do was sit quietly and "tune in" to his brother, while Barrett's job was to watch the four pens as they woibbled along the paper chart and look out for something that shouldn't be there.He soon found it. At the exact moment of Richard's sharp intake of breath caused by the freezing water, there was a sudden blip on the line monitoring Damien's respiration rate. It was as though he too had gasped - which he hadn't. The effect was so obvious that Barrett pointed to it with his thumb to indicate that he knew something had happened to Richard.In another experiment, Richard was asked to open a cardboard box, which he did, hoping to find something nice - preferably eatable - in it. Instead, a huge rubber snake shot out of it at him, giving him a fright. This, too, was instantly picked up by his twin as the pulse line on the chart clearly indicated. http://www.dprogram.com/twin_telepathy.html

·          A Croatian teenager awoke from a coma last week to find she could no longer speak in her native Croatian -- but was fluent in German, a language she had just started studying in school, the U.K. press reports. Following a mysterious 24-hour coma, the thirteen-year-old girl from the southern town of Knin has been able to understand Croatian, according to the U.K. press. She can only respond in German and requires a translator to communicate with her family, the stories said. Dujomir Marasovic, director of Firule Hospital in Split where the girl is being treated, declined to provide further details about the girl's case, saying he wishes to protect her privacy. Though doctors say it's unlikely that the girl's German actually improved because of the coma, instances of lost language and bizarre changes in speech are more common than one may think. ABC News asked neurologists and language experts to weigh in on these kinds of remarkable language phenomena.

         http://abcnews.go.com/health/wellness/teen-wakes-coma-speaking-fluent-   german/story?id=10395859&page=1

·          Mind over MatterMy dad's story. 6 years dad was extremely ill with ulcertated colitis, when hospitalised he was told the next 24 hour was critical and he was an extremely sick man, if he got through the 24 hours he would need to be operated on as soon as he was well enough - this was on a Monday, thankfully he made it through the 24 hours, although very weak and aware of his mortality, he made a profund statement on the Thursday, that he was not going anywhere, he wasn't keen on the team operating on him either, but if they had to, fair enough, in the meantime he was going to focus on getting better and getting home, as he wanted to be with his family. Five days later he was discharged from hospital and his consultant's parting words were 'this is nothing short of a miracle'. A) he wasn't sure that dad would actual pull through and b) he never believed a man as sick as dad would leave hospital without being operated on - he also said to dad, I do believe our paths may cross again as his bowel was seriously damaged, but to this day, dad is well and indeed has meet up with the consultant for annual check ups and also to help the research team as they were astounded by his progress!

·          Another little story - a couple of days passed without me mediting for various reasons, so I was up bright and earlier this morning, had just finished when my cousin from Spain who runs a lauguage school phoned. She said her students have been so stressed as it is exam time and they had an English examiner coming into the class today. I told her to spend 10 mins with them meditating with them first, so she was SO pleased she called today and was so excited with the prospect of helping her students relax prior to their exam - will keep you updated.

·          Here is my life changing ‘mind over matter’ story:I am one of many people who have witnessed natural healing. The first time I saw this type healing was in my own family several years after my collar bone injury. I was about 15 when I witnessed my mom heal a fractured elbow which had been immobilized in a sling by a physician.On the way home from her doctor’s office, my mom stopped at an auto parts store to buy an item for her car. The salesman at the counter sympathetically asked her about the obvious injury to her arm. When she told him what had happened, the man expressed empathy and told her that he had suffered an identical injury 15 years prior and unfortunately as his doctor had told him he had never regained full mobility.He displayed his injured left arm which now looked deformed and bent into an unnatural position very similar to the position of her arm in the sling.She said at that moment she panicked! An alarm went off in her head with the words NO!!! CANCEL CANCEL!!! She quickly purchased her items went home.Upon reaching home, she eased into a bathtub of hot water, became totally relaxed and then began moving her arm little by little until she had some mobility although it was painful. She continued to work on healing her elbow in this manner for several days since her next doctor’s appointment was scheduled for the following week. At the follow-up appointment, the physician was very confused when he examined her elbow. His eyes went from her healed arm to the x-ray taken at the time of the injury then back to her arm and back again to the original x-ray. He then took a new x-ray of her arm which revealed that the fracture had healed with absolutely no scar tissue!She came home and told me how remarkable this was and was thrilled that she had not suffered permanent lack of mobility. She talked about how amazed the doctors were. http://www.real-hypnosis.com/mymindovermatterstory.html

·   Almost thirty years ago my wife, Sheila, and I were standing in the light coming through our kitchen windows. We were about four feet from each other. Sheila was holding our fourteen-week old first-born son, Keith, so we could see each other as we were communicating.
I said to Sheila, “Keith looks so intelligent. It seems like he should be able to talk.” Sheila agreed. I said, “Keith, say cracker.” Keith said, “Cracker.”
First, Sheila and I stopped everything, being in shock. Next, we became very excited, happy and loud and Keith joined in the fun. Then Sheila and I, less emotional, talked about having experienced his first word. Finally, we tried to get Keith to talk more but it did not happen. Eventually he turned out to be an early walker but late talker.Princeton PEAR was the first laboratory ofconsciousness research. PEAR had volunteers, called operators, sit in front of random event generators and try to influence the outcomes with their minds. A Wired article reported two-thirds of the operators succeeded, when one-half would have been due to chance alone. Michael Ibison, a mathematical physicist was quoted, “The operators are roughly altering one bit in 1,000.” “That means if you had a coin toss psychokinesis could affect one of those coin tosses if you tossed a thousand times.” See PEAR research.
In the same “Mind over Matter” article PEAR’s Brenda Dunne explained that the most successful operators influencing randomness were couples “with an emotional attachment.” Keith, Sheila and I had the power of three.
Other consciousness researchers are William Tiller and his team, who have successfully transferred information from their minds to positively influence organic and inorganic objects. They also transferred information to a small box and also a larger room, which in turn transferred that information to influence living and nonliving things. Many others have conducted experiments of the mind, influencing mice and other animals. Others have conducted experiments from human minds to human bodies over a great distance, usually for healing purposes. My own experiments were of minds influencing people at a distance to enhance healing and productivity behavior. That was about twice as successful on average as when we sent, profitably, direct mail ads, coupons and samples to influence purchasing behavior. http://www.goodsamiam.org/

·   Mind over MatterMeditation, mudras, and mantras can slow the progression of Alzheimer's. By Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. When we talk about cognitive decline or memory loss, the first thing to focus on is stress. The adrenal glands in the body release a chemical called cortisol when we need to exert ourselves. It helps us get up in the morning, for instance, and allows us to cope with difficult situations.Unfortunately, many of us experience an excess of day-to-day stress, and the resulting near-constant cortisol release can damage the memory center of the brain. In cases of moderate-to-high chronic stress, we lose our ability to concentrate, and recalling memories or laying down new ones becomes more difficult. To make matters worse, the receptors in the brain become less adept at regulating cortisol as we age. The flip side is that the simple and ancient practice of meditation has been shown to lower cortisol and improve many areas of mental function, including memory and IQ. The brain-longevity program for Alzheimer's uses different types of breath and attention to posture to increase cognitive functioning. Mudras, or hand gestures, have been shown on MRIs to "light up" certain areas of the brain, while mouthing specific sounds, or mantras, accesses the meridians in the mouth connected to the pituitary and hypothalamus glands. Taken together, these techniques slow the progression of Alzheimer's and can sometimes even stop it in its earlier stages. In later stages, meditative activities can help improve the activities of daily living. You don't need to know the specifics of this technique, however, to start your own home program of cognitive loss prevention. All you need is a quiet spot where you can get comfortable and concentrate on a point of focus (a mantra or the breath). Practice every day, preferably in the morning, when all the hormones, including cortisol, tend to rise. And always approach your practice with a loving attitude that will enable you to return to the present.

·   Fantasy worlds created by virtual reality have been shown to provide a novel form of relief to patients suffering from intractable pain. Dr Hunter Hoffman, research fellow at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, has tested his virtual worlds on victims of burns injuries who suffer excruciating pain during their daily dressing changes which conventional drug therapy fails to control. Hoffman's virtual worlds, which he calls by names such as SnowWorld or SpiderWorld, are designed to immerse the user so deeply in the virtual experience that their attention is distracted away from the pain. SnowWorld, for instance, takes users on an absorbing virtual journey through glaciers and ice caves whilst having to defend themselves from attack by polar bears and penguins. Mike Robinson, a patient who has undergone the virtual reality treatment, said it helped him to overcome the extreme discomfort he felt when his dressings were changed.

"My pain when the nurse is changing my bandages is consistently extreme," he told BBC News Online. "But during the time I was in VR, I was pretty much unaware that the nurse was even working on my wound. "I mean, at some level I knew she was working on me, but I wasn't thinking about it because I was inside that SnowWorld." Virtual analgesia is founded on the principle of distracting the attentional resources of the brain. Dr Hoffman believes pain contains a significant psychological element which is why distracting thoughts by virtual reality lends itself so well to pain control. "Pain requires conscious attention. Humans have a limited amount of this and it's hard to do two things at once," he said.

"In this case, we try to lure attention away from the pain signals by drawing the spotlight of attention into the virtual environment leaving less available to process incoming pain signals." The psychological component is thought to interact with the physiological, according to the prevalent idea of how pain manifests itself, known as Gate Theory. This suggests that higher order thought processes descend the spinal cord and influence the amount of pain allowed to enter the brain. The use of virtual reality in related conditions such as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) attests to its influence of mind over matter. Hoffman is in the process of developing a treatment programme for the survivors of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

In collaboration with Cornell University in New York, Hoffman has built a virtual reality programme that is a simulation of the events of 9/11 designed to desensitise the patient to the events of that day. "With PTSD such as that suffered by the survivors of the WTC attacks, there is an avoidance component," says Dr Hoffman, whose center is attached to the University of Washington. "Virtual 'exposure' therapy allows access to the event a step at a time, starting with getting up on the morning of September 11th and gradually working up to the most disturbing events of the memory. It is a controlled way of eliciting and processing the memories." One patient overcame her sense of guilt at running away from the scene and failing to help others who subsequently died. Virtual reality exposure therapy has helped return a sense of calm and acceptance to her life. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3514937.stm

·          When John Snow developed a whistling sound in his right ear, his GP blamed an infection that had left his eardrum inflamedand partly blocked his hearing. He was prescribed antibiotic drops and told the irritating noise would disappear within a few days, once the infection subsided. But when his ear did finally heal about a week later and his hearing had fully returned, 55-year-old John, from Little Canfield near Stansted in Essex, could still detect the relentless din. 'It was a high-pitched whistling, and although I could hear it during the day, I particularly noticed it when I was trying to get to sleep at night,' says the father-of-two. 'Some nights I would just lie there unable to drop off.' John had become one of the estimated five million Britons who suffer from tinnitus, a condition characterised by noise in the ears (often described as buzzing, whistling, humming or ringing) which has no obvious cause. What began as a minor irritation eventually took over his life as, for the next six years, John struggled to cope with the effects it had on his sleep, concentration and mood..' But thanks to a new form of treatment, John's life is no longer dominated by the noises in his ear. Called mindful meditation, it works by training the brain to come to terms with the tinnitus, unlike other techniques that teach it to avoid the problem. The technique is already effectively used to treat anxiety and depression. Its use for tinnitus is based on scans that show when the brain tries to shut out the relentless humming, this causes increased brainwave activity. In other words, the more the brain tries to fight the problem, the more it 'tunes into' it. The meditation technique, however, teaches patients to regularly stop and confront their thoughts and worries about the noise - and this appears to have the opposite effect.It seems the brain gradually comes to terms with the tinnitus and stops focusing on it so much. By 'detuning' in this way, the patient begins to notice the problem less and less. Psychologists and hearing specialists pioneering the therapy insist that it's not a cure for the underlying nerve damage in the inner ear that is responsible for tinnitus. This damage - which can be caused by a cold, an ear infection or exposure to loud music - triggers an abnormal stream of impulses the brain interprets as constant sound. But there is evidence that the new therapy may, over time, lead to changes in brain function that mean the patient eventually doesn't notice the tinnitus. Our brains are constantly evaluating noise in order to work out which sounds are significant, or threatening, and which ones can be ignored. When the brain is under stress, it is more likely to evaluate unimportant sounds as threatening. But by learning to accept that it's natural to have troublesome thoughts about the condition, the theory is that the brain learns, in turn, that there's no need to perceive these sounds as threatening. In short, it is being 'reconditioned' to accept tinnitus as normal. For instance, some studies suggest it leads to an increase in activity in the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with positive emotion. John was initially sceptical that consciously thinking about the tinnitus could actually make it go away.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1281129/Tinnitus-Try-meditating.html#ixzz0sAvnVFjh

·          The riding accident that left Sarah Kemp in a coma for seven weeks crushed the left side of her brain. Doctors said that if she did regain consciousness, she'd be blind, deaf, paralysed and brain damaged.Yet she has made an astonishing recovery. Here, Sarah, 24, tells us how - despite the fact that half of her brain remains clinically dead - her life is almost back to normal.The fact that I can remember anything at all about my life, let alone the moments before the riding accident, is a miracle. The doctors say I should have lost years' worth of memory, along with all my faculties and my ability to look after myself.On July 11, 1999, I was with two regulars and a new rider. About halfway through the hack, we rode up some sandstone steps and were admiring the view across 30 miles of countryside when my horse, Cally, caught her foot and fell.I tumbled off and came down hard on my head on the sandstone. Even though I was wearing a riding hat, I was knocked unconscious. The horse fell across me but, by an amazing chance, the angle of the steps saved my body from being crushed.My parents arrived at the hospital only to be told that if I got through the next 12 hours it would be a miracle.I was on a life support machine and the doctors had given me a tracheotomy - a surgical incision in the windpipe so a tube can be inserted - because I was having trouble breathing.Every bone in my face had been smashed, I'd severed an optic nerve and all the bones in my ear had been dislocated. But the worst damage had been to my brain - half of it was virtually dead because the blood vessels had been destroyed by the impact.I'd also ruptured the membrane covering my brain, so all the blood going to it was leaking out of my nose and ears, starving it of oxygen.But that wasn't much comfort to my parents. The doctors told them if I ever came out of the coma - which was unlikely - I'd be blind, deaf, paralysed and brain damaged.Eleven days later, I was strong enough for surgeons to operate. Ten pins and two plates pieced my face back together.It was a four-hour operation during which the blood was drained from my ear and the optic nerve was reconnected. The doctors were surprised at the results because they were sure that with all the damage I'd hardly have any memory at all.I made such good progress that the hospital let me out overnight for my 21st birthday.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-141010/A-riding-accident-left-half-brain-clinically-dead--Ive-recovered.html#ixzz0sAxMhDuQ

·          The Power of Your Mind Vernon ColemanI first became aware of the positive power of the mind about fifteen years ago when I was in the middle of a lengthy book promotion tour. I'd visited dozens of radio and television studios and had answered the same questions a thousand times. I'd travelled constantly - by train, plane and car. I was exhausted. And then, with five days to go, I woke up with the flu. Headache, bad throat, aching muscles - the lot. I should have abandoned the rest of the tour but the book was selling well and I wanted to continue. So, feeling rather foolish, I made a deal with my body. I told it that I needed five days more before I succumbed. I then got out of bed, had breakfast, left the hotel and headed off for the next interview. Miraculously, I felt fine. The symptoms of the flu had all gone. I got through the next five days with no trouble.
When I finished the tour and went home I had forgotten about the flu. But my body hadn't. I had hardly taken off my shoes before the symptoms returned. My mind had successfully suppressed and delayed those inconvenient symptoms until they became more convenient. I can illustrate the power of the mind over the body most dramatically by referring to some research which was done with patients who were suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.
One patient suffered from high blood pressure when one of his personalities was dominant.
But when another personality took over his high blood pressure problem disappeared!
It was the same body. But the mind change had resulted in it becoming a different, healthier body!
Another patient suffered from diabetes when one personality was dominant. But the diabetes vanished when a different personality took over. At least 90% of all illnesses are caused - or made worse - by mental influences. The corollary is that all of those illnesses can be cured - or prevented - by the power of the mindhttp://www.vernoncoleman.com/thepowerofyourmind.htm

·          Editorial: Breaking the voodoo spell Late one night in a small Alabama cemetery, Vance Vanders had a run-in with the local witch doctor, who wafted a bottle of unpleasant-smelling liquid in front of his face, and told him he was about to die and that no one could save him. Back home, Vanders took to his bed and began to deteriorate. Some weeks later, emaciated and near death, he was admitted to the local hospital, where doctors were unable to find a cause for his symptoms or slow his decline. Only then did his wife tell one of the doctors, Drayton Doherty, of the hex.Doherty thought long and hard. The next morning, he called Vanders's family to his bedside. He told them that the previous night he had lured the witch doctor back to the cemetery, where he had choked him against a tree until he explained how the curse worked ..a lizard was eating him from the inside out..so Doherty with great ceremony injected Vanders and when he was sick surreptitiously produced a lizard from a bag but exclaimed “look what has come out of you”. Vanders lurched backwards then drifted into a deep sleep. Days after awakening he regained his strength and was discharged fully recovered a week later.http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227081.100-the-science-of-voodoo-when-mind-attacks-body.html

·          Editor’s Note: I came across this wonderful article on the blog RealitySeeds.com. I’m republishing the intro here. I really enjoyed the RealitySeeds blog and hope to link to more articles on it shortly. This article of one of several about How to “Consciously Create and Manifest Any Reality”. In this case,  Health. For thousands of yearshumans have been trying to cure illnesses afflicting body and mind. Endless types and strands of disorders seem to be ever changing and constantly mutating into more complex forms. We try hard to study and understand them with a scientific methodology, but we often have hard time making progress because our scientific models fail to describe much detail of how the human body works. While the science of health is making great steps forward, there is still a lot of guess work involved in applied medicine that often is more like a form of art based on the experience and gut feelings of the doctors, than a science with clear rules. When we study illness, we notice the symptoms and we explore them; this research gives us clues on how to fix the symptoms, and often we discover possible causes and we attemp to attack these as well. This approach is similar to the approach we take when a car breaks, except that it is much more difficult given how complex the physical body is. It often works, but often doesn’t fix the cause, and the illness comes back to hunt us again. Many times things just resolve themselves and we have no idea what the problem was, and why it is gone. We know that parts of the body completely regenerate themselves every day, some parts every few weeks, others every few month and a handful every couple of years. In other words, today you have a completely different body that you had a couple of years ago. It completely regenerated itself. The body is able to regenerate because it has a complete description of itself stored in the DNA, which is spread across all of its parts. If that description is there, and if the body can regenerate so well, why is it often not able to fight illnesses? It seems like the diseased areas should just be discarded and regenerated. Also, if your have a completely new body every few years, why do we carry physical conditions sometimes for a lifetime? The reason is that the source of all illnesses is not inside the body, and is not in some external agent. All of these supposed causes are really just the symptoms of the real issue. The source of illness is in the mind. The Law of attraction teaches us that your thoughts create your reality, including all illnesses. http://mindhacks.org/mind-over-body-healing/142/

“if i am right in saying that thought is the ultimate origin or source it follows that if we don’t do anything about thought we wont get anywhere”David Bohm one of the worlds great Quantum physicists

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.With our thoughts we make the world”Buddha

“There is no such thing as passive observation. The experience is dynamically linked to the experience” John Wheeler, Physisist

“ What we perceive as reality is only a canvas waiting for us to draw upon it any picture we want. Anything is possible

·         Thank you all!