Just considering thoughts of a higher being or God can foster altruism and generosity.

I’m not a believer in one or more Gods, but I do find it interesting that just considering thoughts of a higher being or God can foster altruism and generosity – especially in a world where religion has been at the root of horrible wars and atrocious behaviors.

For many years, Rapid Eye Technology has encouraged clients and students to consider a higher power when dealing with stressful thoughts and emotions. Apparently, a recent study confirms the usefulness of that concept.

I figure that what you believe is your business – and ask that you not impose your beliefs on me or others. I think that an exemplary life is the best missionary tool for your belief system. Happiness tends to breed happiness. If a belief or belief system – religion – will cultivate that sense of happiness and peace, then I’m all for it.

I also believe that altruism and generosity are not exclusively the property of believers in God or a higher power. Learning to love and appreciate people as worthy of respect also tends to foster altruism and gratitude.

Whatever does the trick, I say… Read on for details of the study…

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I fully agree with Michael Moore’s Prescription. Too bad universal greed trumps universal health care in the USA.

The 9/11 attacks were highly successful from the standpoint of inflicting massive psychological damage for an extended period of time using very little resources on the part of the perpetrators.

Stress and fear in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may be making Americans sicker, according to a groundbreaking new study by UC Irvine researchers.

For the first time, acute stress responses to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have been linked to a 53 percent increased incidence in cardiovascular ailments over three years following Sept. 11. These findings persist even after considering health status before Sept. 11, degree of exposure to the attacks, and risk factors such as cholesterol problems, diabetes, smoking, and body weight. The results were especially strong among individuals reporting ongoing worry about terrorism after Sept. 11; these individuals were three to four times more likely to report a doctor-diagnosed heart problem two to three years after the attacks.

“Our study is the first to show that even among people who had no personal connection to the victims, those who reported high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks were more than twice as likely to report being diagnosed by their doctors with cardiovascular ailments like high blood pressure, heart problems and stroke up to three years later,” said Alison Holman, professor in nursing science and lead researcher for the study, which is published in this month’s Archives of General Psychiatry.

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Perhaps they are observing the “God Pattern” – a fundamental, universal pattern underlying all things (patterns) – hidden, as it were, in the noise that pervades everything everywhere.

A rather amazing study out of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered that EEG readings once discarded as “noise” are instead remarkably useful information – using a well-known mathematical technique a pattern emerges that matches many other patterns in nature and in human endeavors.

“We don’t yet know how to decode the information contained in these signals, but the fact that they’re such a large part of brain activity and that they can be modulated when you do a task suggests that they are going to be very important to understanding the brain,” says lead author Biyu Jade He, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow.

By using a mathematical technique called spectral analysis, neuroscientists have found that these “irregular” signals produce a regular pattern – one that is nearly identical to spectral analyses of many other phenomena that produce the same pattern. For example, analysis of the most frequently used words in a language and the number of times they appear in a typical text produces a similar pattern when graphed. Analyzing changes in stock market prices versus how fast they change, or the power and frequency of waves of seismic energy also produces similar results.

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Doctors could benefit from support to help them cope with the trauma of patient death, says a psychologist speaking at the Death, Dying & Disposal conference organized by the University of Bath in the UK.

In a preliminary study, Dr Elaine Kasket from London Metropolitan University carried out detailed interviews with eight US physicians about their experiences of death. Half of those she spoke to wept as they recounted stories of traumatic death they had experienced as physicians, even though some of these events had occurred as much as 30 years ago.

“There is an unwritten rule for doctors that suggests it is not wise or possible for them to feel emotions over a patient’s death because there is always another patient to help,” said Dr Kasket.

“Whilst this detachment might help when presented with a patient with a severe injury, I question how well it serves them in the longer term.

“This emotional detachment is socially ingrained through medical school, and the cultures in both the UK and US medical establishments would see a physician’s emotional response to death as a sign of weakness and even incompetence.

“It feeds into this popular image of the physician as some kind of superhuman ultimate rescuer of human life; unable to do his or her job if they give in to or even acknowledge their emotions.

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