PowerStates

If you’ve been experiencing “twisted intuition” - that is, your sense of things or your “inner voice” or “inner guidance” seems to be off or too often incorrect - maybe it’s time to reprogram.

Researchers at Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at the University College London have managed to image the brain while it processes subconscious subliminal cues. This is important because it demonstrates for the first time how our brain processes subconscious information. We often think of such information as intuition or inspiration from some external source when instead, it seems we develop these “signals” from within.

Dr. Mathias Pessiglione, lead researcher concludes, “We conclude that, even without conscious processing of contextual cues, our brain can learn their reward value and use them to provide a bias on decision making.”

Decision bias?

I think I read that correctly. And just what is a decision bias? It could be thought of as that “still small voice” from your intuition that many think of as their “higher self” or even God. It is that “sense” we get when one choice “feels better” than another although we don’t know why.

My thought about this phenomenon is that we learn many life-important lessons BEFORE we develop reasoning circuitry in our brains. That period of development we call infancy is also when we connect reward with context - the basis of decision bias. This could easily explain why some people feel inspired by a piece of music while another person is totally turned off by it. Context cues that trigger to reward - leading to a decision bias. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Originally posted 2008-10-29 10:00:29.

During the 1980s, then President Ronald Reagan often chastised the then Communist government of the Soviet Union for having such a high number of prison inmates in proportion to their general population. Now that the Soviet “yoke” has been removed, Russia has greatly reduced its ratio of prisoners per capita. Although they still rank second world-wide, I applaud their efforts at reforming their penal system and laws.

The United States, in the meantime has caught up and surpassed the old Soviet Union for ratio of prisoners to general population. The USA, the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave now houses more prisoner per capita than any other nation on earth - at 715 per 100,000 the US holds more than the old USSR (NationMaster.com) and almost twice as many as second ranked Russia.

And why is this? Because during the Reagan/Bush years, the US passed several laws concerning dangerous drugs such as Marijuana, Cocaine, and Heroin. These laws inflicted upon our citizenry mandatory prison sentences - even for first “offenses.” Until very recently, a conviction for selling marijuana could land you in jail for life without parole in some States - while in those same States, murderers were sometimes released after just 7 years “with good behavior” - a few of whom returned after murdering again.

“The vast majority of people incarcerated [in the US] are nonviolent drug offenders,” says Daniel Kruger, research professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and lead researcher in a recently published study on the negative health effects of such incarceration on the general public. “We should shift oversight of substance use and abuse to the health care sector.”

I’m not for or against legalization of any currently unlawful drug. I’m just suggesting - maybe demanding - that our legislators lift the draconian imposition of mandatory sentences for non-violent crimes - particularly those of unlawful drug use and possession.It’s time to return judicial discretion (and mercy) to the Bench.

I think perhaps it’s time to look to the French and others who are leading the way in providing effective treatment for drug users - rather than locking them away in prisons. A person addicted to some substance should not be labeled a criminal. They need instead, medical and psychological assistance - compassion! Instead, our [US] system deals out “justice” - of the harsh variety reminiscent of dark ages Europe or Communist USSR.

It’s time we scientifically INVESTIGATE substances that have been labeled unlawful and dangerous. Let’s put some science behind our laws - instead of puffy rhetoric and emotional storytelling - not to mention greed and avarice. We owe it to our children to keep them out of jail for illusory and often sensationalized “offenses” that harm no one - where incarceration harms them, their families, and their communities.

Have you visited a prison lately? If your state prisons are like those here in Oregon, you’d have to call them “schools” for criminal behavior. Unfortunately, many of those convicted of nonviolent crimes “graduate” from our prison systems with new “skills” and “education” - to the detriment of everyone.

I hope we are not literally slitting our own throats in the USA by jailing nonviolent drug “offenders” along side violent psychopaths in a prison system intended to “rehabilitate” but which in actuality may be creating more determined and more violent behaviors in people who otherwise would be contributing members of our society.

I wonder what would happen in the US if getting “stoned” were considered no more a crime than getting drunk - and if physicians were free to prescribe what would work rather than what would make the most money for certain people/corporations/industries. I wonder…

Maybe it’s time to “release the [nonviolent] prisoners” as President Reagan admonished President Gorbechev in the 1980s. It’s time we return the USA to the Land of the Free rather than continue making it the Land of the Incarcerated. It’s time to stop making criminals out of decent people who have harmed no one and have and can yet make significant contributions to our society.

Here is a simple exercise you can do yourself or with another to assist you in problem solving. Making use of cause and effect, you introduce an unknown (for now) resource into the equation that can help you get past your blocks to solving your own problem.

Exercise

Start with 5 sheets of paper. Write one of the following words on each sheet - Symptom, Cause, Outcome, Resource, Effect. These are your 5 anchors.

- Symptom means the set(s) of present behaviors or feelings that reflect the problem.
- Cause means the cause of the problem, as you think it is/was.
- Outcome is the outcome that you want/will have when this is no longer a problem.
- Resource is the resource (what it will take to correct the problem) that escapes you, for now.
- Effect is the effect that the change will have on you.

Then…
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Originally posted 2006-10-31 17:03:11.

In the course of evolution, people with certain genes fared better than others - and because they survived, they passed on their genes, making the general population more like them. For example, Europeans who came into contact with and yet survived the great plague did so because they had a genetic advantage over their neighbors. Because more of them survived to pass on their genes, their descendants tend to show that same genetic factor.

Unfortunately, a genetic advantage in one era or age (like the Ice Age) may be a killer in another (like now). More body fat in an Ice Age man made him more likely to pass on his genes; whereas today it could prevent him from doing so.

What genetic factors are a problem in your life? Do you have a predisposition for certain diseases or conditions (physically and psychologically)? How can you know which conditions or diseases are genetically affecting you? How can you make a change that has a higher probability of success on a genetic level - if it is possible at all?

There is a fundamental interaction between genetics and how our brains process the genetic information. We create and maintain brain circuitry based on a genetic blueprint modified by experience/learning (environmental factors). It's a delicate balance between nature and nurture. Neither genetics nor conditioning completely rule our life experience - rather, we experience the result of an interweaving between the two - kind of like the weaving of DNA.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Originally posted 2007-12-27 00:20:51.

Rigidity of thought - “I’m right!” thinking - tends to embitter one’s life and sour relationships.

A member of the United States Senate, known for his hot temper and acid tongue, exploded one day in mid-session and began to shout, “Half of this Senate is made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!”

All the other Senators demanded that the angry member withdraw his statement, or be removed from the remainder of the session.

After a long pause, the angry member acquiesced. “OK,” he said, “I withdraw what I said. Half of this Senate is NOT made up of cowards and corrupt politicians!”

Did you notice how both of the Senator’s iterations meant the same thing? How many times have you confused yourself with negative affirmations? For example, how many times have you told yourself that you could not do something. Most of the time, such self-defeating affirmations are absolutely false. You aren’t telling yourself the truth.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Originally posted 2008-10-01 10:16:56.