PINEAL GLAND

TELEPATHY

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GHOSTS

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The
Supernatural
OUR BRIEF
CANDLE TIME.
A Conversation with
Richard Dawkins
THE MYSTERY
of DJ VU
The
LOSS
of a
CHILD

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Frontal Lobes
10

Lucid Dreaming

12

Call It Conspiracy

Cover
14

Do Humans Have Superpowers?

18

I Always Knew You Were Telepathic

22

Peripheral Vision

26

Ghosts in the Machine

32

The Mystery of Dj Vu

contents
6 brainworldmagazine.com

WINTER 2016

Health
36

Loss of a Child

Science
40

Retrocognition

Brain in Focus
44

A Grain of Thought: The Pineal Gland

Personality
48 Francisco Rojas-Aravena, Rector of
the University for Peace

Celebrity
54

Our Brief Candle Time:

A Conversation with Richard Dawkins

Resources
60

On the Screen: Inside Out

62

Book Roundup

64

Creativity Comic

Events
66

Calendar of Brain-Related Events

The Last Word

68

Resilience from the Heart

Winter 2016

letter from
the publisher
Imagine yourself standing on the African plateau some 200,000 years ago, watching over
a tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers. The world was a mysterious place: A blood-red sun
sinking in the sky meant darkness would soon fall, and a night full of dangerous predators
was lurking just beyond the tall grass. Merely picking the wrong berries could have been an
agent of death. And until this very day, the finality of death is something that continues to
intrigue and terrify most people. As we developed language, we tried to come up with
words to describe what it was we were afraid of. We told stories that tried to make sense of
it all to avoid crossing the paths of poisonous serpents or to appease the wrath of vengeful spirits. Today, the world might seem less mysterious many of our fears eliminated or
turned benign over the ages. However, our anxiety lingers, as though theres still a panther
lurking in every dark corner. Our fascination with the supernatural has not gone away,
whether or not we happen to believe in it. Hardly a day goes by without someone claiming
to have seen a ghost: A long-dead relative, or
former house occupant, bringing back a cryptic
PINEAL GLAND TELEPATHY RETROCOGNITION GHOSTS
message from the world beyond. We know that
the visible universe is only a small fraction of all
those that exist, so what is there beyond what we
can see? Is there an afterlife? Is what happened
in the past really over or can we fall into time
slips, re-entering the cosmos at a time before we
were born? Then there are stories of people who
perform acts of seemingly superhuman strength:
The

Supernatural
A mother lifting a car many times her bodyOUR BRIEF

weight to save a child, a feat that seems to echo
CANDLE TIME.
A Conversation with
the deeds of mythical strongmen like Samson,
3JDIBSE Dawkins
THE MYSTERY
or Hercules. So how much do we really know
of DJ VU
anyway? Is it possible that weve experienced all
The
LOSS
of this before, in some past life? Perhaps its all
of a
CHILD
part of a plan some vast conspiracy that were
slowly unraveling with our natural gift of recognizing patterns. Of course, however outlandish
all of these ideas sound, theres most likely a very rational explanation to all of it, to be believed at your own discretion, of course. We have dedicated our winter issue to supernatural
phenomena the unreal, why we believe it and what science has to say. It is our sincere
hope that you enjoy reading this issue of Brain World.
ISSUE 2 VOLUME 7 WINTER 2016 $6.99 US/CAN

HUMANITYS NEW FRONTIER

BrainWorld Winter 2016

Publisher
The Earth Citizen Way, Inc.

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Visit us online at www.brainworldmagazine.com
8 brainworldmagazine.com

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Lucid dreaming is the act of dreaming while maintaining consciousness

during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep. This type of
dreaming allows you to tell yourself

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LUCID DREAMING

that you are dreaming without

BY DENIZ CAM

waking up. Awake consciousness,

if used correctly, gives one the opportunity to keep on participating
in the dream while defining it to be
something else. If you are the type
who suffers from nightmares, lucid

Frontal
Lobes

dreaming can help you stop that

bullet though probably not as
smoothly as Keanu Reeves did in the
first The Matrix movie.

10 brainworldmagazine.com

For centuries, people have

tried to control their dreams. Its
even been considered a semi-supernatural ability that only some
can attain. Controlling dreams,
or, to use the proper terminology,
lucid dreaming, has received significant criticism from skeptics
who dismiss conscious dreaming
as just speculation, invented by
people who want to believe that
they have access to a special type
of power. While so many people
dream, few actually come forth
as lucid dreamers, being really
able to manipulate their dreams
into whatever they want, as if
flipping through channels of a
TV set. Science, however, comes
to our rescue to clear the air and
prove the reality of lucid dreaming. Many studies show that the
phenomenon of lucid dreaming not only exists, its more
common than we think.
Although lucid dreaming
sounds like a savior and vessel

for sleep-time entertainment, it

definitely requires some practice.
In 2009, the Goethe University
of Frankfurt conducted a study
wherein non-lucid dreamers were
given zaps of electricity during
their REM sleep. Interestingly
enough, they reported having
experienced lucid dreaming right
after their frontal cortex was
stimulated. Yet, it is pretty much
impossible to always keep some
scientists around just to shock
you during a specific time of your
sleep. But dont worry, you can
still be a lucid dreamer without
the electricity! The reason why
electricity works as an inducer
is because it introduces external
stimuli, reminding one of being
in a state of dreaming. If you set
up a light that goes off approximately around the same time as
your REM stage begins, then you
will be more likely to remember
that you are dreaming.
You may also want to try keep-

ing a dream journal close by.

Many lucid dream specialists
suggest that maintaining a dream
journal makes you more aware
of your sleeping experience, and
thus helps you become a lucid
dreamer. Even though we tend
to forget our dreams later on in
the day, these specialists propose
that if written right after waking
up, dreams can promote lucid
dreaming in the long term.
These specialists also suggest
using reality checks regularly
while you are awake if you
are committed to taking your lucid dreaming abilities to another
level. What does a reality check
mean? Well, since you need your
awake consciousness while dreaming, it is important to remind
yourself of your consciousness
during the day. You have to ask
yourself whether you are awake
or not. By making this a habit,
you will find it easier to remind
yourself that you are dreaming

throughout your sleep. The same

applies to repeating that you are
aware of going to sleep before you
fall asleep each night.
Today, the science suggests that
we all experience lucid dreaming
at least once in our lives. While
seemingly mystical, or maybe
even pointless, lucid dreaming
actually helps us fight against
some anxieties and fears. We can
condition ourselves to believe
that by controlling our dreams,
we can find the power to fight
against the phobias and anxieties
we suffer from in real life. Still
not buying the whole phenomenon? Then I suggest having a
relaxed mind right before you go
to sleep. Not only will you have
a good nights sleep, but maybe
even find yourself having some
wonderful dreams.
Sweet dreams!

Winter 2016

Call it

CONSPIRACY
9/11, GMOS, THE FEDERAL RESERVE, AND WHY OUR BRAINS BUY IT ALL
BY EARL MEAGAN

oomsday is just around the corner

the worlds banks are forging currency,
vaccines cause cancer, and dont even
think about drinking the water. Whether you
buy into one of the many conspiracy theories
that freely float around the Internet, youve
almost certainly brushed across someone who
does: global warming is a hoax, the government planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks, John
F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA (or
the KGB) or for the more outlandish, Hollywood faked the moon landing, or aliens built
the pyramids.
Its more common than you think. According
to a recent study, nearly half of all Americans
believe in some conspiracy theory or other,
although some are more vocal than others. So
why is that? Can they all be wrong?

Over a short period of evolution, human

brains developed the ability to recognize
patterns something that can also be
seen in our closer primate relatives. Our senses
take in a wealth of information at a time, and
our brains try to put all of it into perspective.
Back when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers,
a dark storm cloud meant rain, and several days
of rain meant that the seasons had changed,
and so it was time to relocate. Today, our brains
have a great deal more to choose from the
12 brainworldmagazine.com

reason we see icons of the Virgin Mary on a

grilled cheese sandwich, or a demon peering
through the smoke of Ground Zero, following the World Trade Center attacks. Ordinary
events have no meaning until we put them in
a larger context, but that total picture must
change to fit with the evidence. The more uncertainty, the more likely people are to believe
in a grand conspiracy thinking that an allpowerful force, like the government or aliens, is
actually in control.

Believing in conspiracy theories may

satisfy some of our basic psychological
needs namely, the need for security
and peace of mind. It might sound contradictory, but being in the know gives people reassurance, making them feel they have knowledge
of the unknown, while everyone else on the
outside is lost. Consequently, those who believe
in conspiracy theories tend to be less friendly, interacting with a smaller social network of people.
Many parts of conspiracy theories are the result
of not understanding how complex social structures like the government or scientific communities actually work. Correspondence between foreign nations following the crash of the Malaysian
Flight 370, which was standard procedure, could
be taken as evidence of a conspiracy to those who
arent familiar with diplomatic protocol.

A REASON
PROPOSED FOR
WHY PEOPLE
BELIEVE IN
CONSPIRACY
THEORIES
IS THAT THE
SPECULATIONS
SATISFY SOME
OF OUR BASIC
PSYCHOLOGICAL
NEEDS.
Frontal
Lobes

Its not that conspiracies

dont exist. A small group
of sympathizers of the
Confederacy did plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln,
but usually these conspiracies
thrive on a smaller scale, and are
inevitably revealed once the job
is finished. As they say, Three
people can keep a secret if two
of them are dead. The more
people trying to pull off a plot on
a larger scale, the greater the odds
of the plan being discovered, or
someone coming forward and
leaking the plot. This is why the
government being responsible
for 9/11 (or JFKs death) is rather
unlikely. Politicians have to pull
strings and compromise (after
much heated debate) when passing basic legislation colliding
two Boeing 757s into New York
airspace, after having rigged the
towers with explosives (as many
9/11 truthers claim), would
require extreme ambition and
organization that even the best
lawmakers rarely show on a daily
basis. Any number of employees
or security personnel working
on the morning of September
11 could have called in a bomb
threat and foiled their plans.

Whats the motive?

Many climate change
deniers allege that scientists are working to scam the
public and politicians with fraudulent data in an effort of gaining
more funding for research, or to
get rich off green energy. Similar
things are sometimes said of scientists working in research areas
related to cancer and AIDS, being influenced by Big Pharma.
However, the same research and
data has been reproduced and
confirmed by a number of scientists living in different countries
across the world, and, yet, in

many countries regulation of carbon still remains a divisive issue.

Scientists could easily make more
money working for a policy think
tank than as university professors.
At the same time, should the alleged conspiracy be uncovered,
the consequences could be more
severe than what was purportedly to be gained in the first place
the loss of their tenure and
professional reputation.

The less in control a person feels, the more likely

they are to believe in a
conspiracy, as are those who feel
their power is being threatened
a reason why so many dictators believed their subjects to
be plotting against them. Those
less educated are more likely to
believe fluoride in drinking water is dangerous, or that human
civilization was shaped by extraterrestrials. Education may not
always be the cure for believing
in a conspiracy theory, however,
as the more zealous believers will
accuse universities or government organizations of being biased in the numbers they present.
Statistics arent always airtight, of
course, but wheres the evidence
that a conspiracy is responsible?

While there are a number of similar conspiracy

theories floating around,
not all conspiracy theorists are
the same. For example, two people may not agree on the scientific consensus of climate change,
but one of them may think that
global temperatures are dropping, while the other thinks that
temperatures are rising due to
natural cycles. However, they
will come together to rail against
the commonly accepted truth before trying to correct each other,
thus placing more importance
on their emotional connection
to the conspiracy rather than
relying on an approach based in
logic or evidence. You can see the
world as it is, or as you want it to
be, something to keep in mind
when considering the tenets of
any grand conspiracy.

is giving me the
Bastyr
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that balances research
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Joshua Goldenberg, ND (2013)

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Learn more:
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Winter 2016

COVER

SUPER-

POWERS?
A CLOSER LOOK AT SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH

BY CHARLES ETHAN PACCIONE

Jonathan Shay
not only sees the
berserker state as
a transformative
state of
heightened
awareness and
strength, but also
as a destructive
condition which
many returning
combat veterans
suffer with.

16 brainworldmagazine.com

Over a late summer dinner this past July, my fiance and I somehow got on the topic of supernatural
strength. As a researcher in neuropsychology (and an
avid weightlifter), the concept has fascinated me for
quite some time. After she took a bite of her baked
salmon, she leaned forward in her chair and told me
about one experience she had some years ago that still
stands out strongly in her mind:
Well, Im not sure if this has anything to do with it,
but, a few years ago, I went on a trip to Cape Town,
South Africa, with the family, and I can vividly remember one dreadfully hot afternoon during a heat wave. I
was napping on the beach when all of a sudden I heard
the shrieking cry of a child.
I sprung up off my towel
and spotted a little girl about
10 meters away from me, alone,
sunburnt, and slumped over in
fatigue. Without anything to
cover my feet, I jumped off my
towel and ran over to the little
girl. She struggled through her
tears to tell me that she had been
walking alone for hours along
the hot sand looking for her
mother. I looked down to see
her feet were red and covered
with blisters. The temperature
that day was about 100 degrees
Fahrenheit, and the sand must
have been at least 115. I felt it
already burning through the calluses of my feet after just a few
seconds. I instinctively picked up
the little girl and decided to run
with her in my arms all the way
to a service station situated on
a sandy dune about 300 meters
away inland.
As I ran, the girl was crying in my ears and I could feel
this buzz throughout my entire body there was so much
adrenaline pumping through me
that I didnt even feel the burning heat of the sand; in fact, it
felt like I was walking on cool,
smooth rocks. When I got to the
service station, I explained the
situation to the beach patrol, and
they took care of the little girl
and were able to finally locate
her mother. Soon the buzz wore
off. And as I stepped back onto

the beach with my bare feet to

make my way back to the towel,
I truly felt the heat of the sand.
It was scorching. In fact, I had to
buy sandals right then and there.
I wonder how I was ever able to
do that.
She shrugged her shoulders
and continued eating her salmon
as I leaned back to contemplate
what did in fact occur that day.
How was her body able to resource the strength, endurance,
stamina, and will of mind to
carry a child across 115-degree
sand and not feel the slightest
pain or exhaustion? Does there
exist a neural network within the
brain associated with producing
superhuman strength, and if so,
can it be driven by various emotions such as anger, fear, or compassion? Are only certain people
Olympic athletes, soldiers, or
in this case, my Norwegian-born
fiance able to engage in such
supernatural behaviors? In order
to understand the neurobiological framework of superhuman
strength I needed to understand
the tales, myths, and folklore
that have surrounded this phenomenon for hundreds, if not
thousands, of years. And what
better place is there to begin my
research into the production of
brute strength than Norway?
Tales of superhuman strength,
also referred to as hysterical
strength, can be found in many

ancient Norse sagas dating from

the late ninth century. Elite Scandinavian warriors, known as berserkers (a term derived from the
Old Norse berserkr), were known
to enter battle with an untamable, trance-like fury resulting in
spurts of superhuman strength
as they slayed their enemies. The
13th century Icelandic historian
and poet Snorri Sturluson refers
to berserkers in his Ynglinga
saga as men who rushed forwards without armor, were as
mad as dogs or wolves, bit their
shields, and were strong as bears
or wild oxen, and killed people at
a blow, but neither fire nor iron
told upon them. This was called
Berserkergang.
If we fast-forward about 750
years to the work of Jonathan
Shay clinical psychiatrist and
an expert in post-traumatic stress
disorder we can see that the
onset of superhuman strength
caused by berserker behavior is
still prevalent among modernday soldiers. In his book Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma
and the Undoing of Character,
Shay not only sees the berserker
state as a transformative state
of heightened awareness and
strength, but also as a destructive
condition which many returning combat veterans suffer with:
If a soldier survives the berserk state, it imparts emotional
deadness and vulnerability to
explosive rage to his psychology
and permanent hyper arousal to
his physiology hallmarks of
post-traumatic stress disorder
in combat veterans. My clinical
experience with Vietnam combat
veterans prompts me to place the
berserk state at the heart of their
most severe psychological and
psychophysiological injuries.
The psychopharmacological
synthesis of superhuman strength
was widely prevalent even during World War II, when both
the Allied and Axis forces issued
amphetamine and methamphetamine, two potent central nervous system stimulants shown to
enhance strength and endurance
in soldiers who went on long ex-

cursions in the field. An investigation published in 2013 by Drs.

David G. Liddle and Douglas J.
Connor of Vanderbilt University
Medical Center, titled Nutritional Supplements and Ergogenic Aids, describes how low
doses of performance-enhancing
amphetamines ingested orally
can have broad spectrum effects
upon various neural networks
associated with increased alertness, improved focus, decreased
reaction time, and delayed fatigue. But it seems that soldiers
either fighting in angry delirium
or taking amphetamines are not
the only types of people who
can produce such extraordinary
bouts of superhuman strength.
In his book Extreme Fear: The
Science of Your Mind in Danger, author Jeff Wise describes
how fear, not anger, can be an instigator of developing moments
of superhuman strength. In the
chapter titled Superhuman, Wise
tells the story of Tom Boyle Jr., a
man from Tucson, Arizona, who,
on a warm summer evening in
2006, witnessed a Chevrolet Camaro smash into an 18-year-old
cyclist named Kyle Holtrust. The
Camaro had hit Holtrust so hard
that it pinned his leg and dragged
him, along with his bike, nearly
30 feet down the highway. Boyle
ran after the Camaro and, upon
reaching the wreck, he instantly
reached under the frame of the
car and lifted it.
With a sound of groaning
metal, the chassis eased upward a
few inches. Mister, mister, higher, higher, Holtrust screamed.
Boyle braced himself, took a deep
breath, and heaved. The front
end lifted a few more inches.
OK, its off me, the boy
called out, his voice tight with
pain. But I cant move. Get
me out! The driver of the car,
40-year-old John Baggett, pulled
Holtrust free. At last, about 45
seconds after he had first heaved
the car upward, Boyle set it back
down again. In the book, Wise
describes Boyles unbelievable
feat as the result of what is known
as the fear response.

Fear response is caused by moments of intense pressure and

acute stress. The adrenal glands,
located right above the kidneys,
can excrete high amounts of cortisol and epinephrine (or adrenaline) directly into the bloodstream. This in turn causes blood
to be shunted away from our
gastrointestinal system and redirected toward our muscles. As
blood pressure levels continue
to rise, the heart begins to beat
quicker, sending oxygen to the
muscles, the brain, and stimulating the breakdown of glycogen
into glucose in return for large
amounts of energy expenditure
in the form of a powerful force.
Dr. Vladimir Zatsiorsky
professor of kinesiology at Penn
State University, where he is a
specialist in the biomechanics of
weightlifting differentiates between the force that our muscles
can theoretically apply (known as
absolute strength) and the maximum force that they can generate
through a trained and skillful exertion of will (known as maximal
strength). According to Zatsiorsky, an ordinary person can only
summon roughly 65 percent of
their absolute power in any given
moment, while a trained weightlifter can exceed this percentage.
However, under fearful conditions, whether this is stimulated
by intense athletic competition
or witnessing someone suffering,
a trained athlete may perform as
much as 12 percent above that
figure. The heaviest barbell that
Boyle (who weighs 280 pounds
and is 6 feet 4 inches tall) has ever
lifted weighed 700 pounds. But
the Camaro that Boyle lifted and
held up for 45 seconds on that
warm summer evening in 2006
weighed 3,000 pounds.
Mysterious stories similar to
Boyles have been around for
decades and usually consist of
panicked mothers lifting cars off
their trapped children. In 1982,
Angela Cavallo of Lawrenceville,
Georgia, is said to have lifted
a 3,500-pound Chevrolet Impala off her sons body after it
had slipped off the jack while her

son was working on its suspension. And in 2012, 22-year-old

Lauren Kornacki is said to have
saved her fathers life by lifting
his BMW off his body after it too
had slipped off a jack.
However fascinating these stories may be, many physiologists
and biomechanical researchers
are still extremely skeptical. Even
though fear may in fact allow us
to exert a force closer to our absolute power, there is still no way of
physically exceeding this limit. A
woman who can lift 100 pounds
in the gym may be able to lift 135
pounds in a moment of maternal
frenzy, but not a 3,000-pound
car. Whether these stories are
true or not, scientists are still
wondering what hormone or
neurotransmitter would be able
to even catalyze such enormous
bouts of strength in such a small
amount of time.
Adrenaline, which seems to
have powered the sudden feardriven strength of both Mr.
Boyle and Mrs. Cavallo, may
not be able to reach muscles
quickly enough to work these
so-called miracles. A study published in The Italian Journal of
Neurological Sciences found that
it may instead be norepinephrine
that is secreted into the bloodstream by the adrenal medulla
and which can directly invigorate
skeletal muscles over a timescale
of seconds. During a stressful
event, norepinephrine can be
released by an area of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus
and be projected out to a wide
range of regions, including the
cerebral cortex (associated with
thought and action) along with
the limbic system (associated
with emotion and memory construction). When released from
the sympathetic nervous system,
this chemical plays a key role in
facilitating the fight-or-flight
response in various body tissues.
But one of the most fascinating
processes along with the excretion of norepinephrine that may
contribute to our ability to exert
superhuman strength during
stressful situations is called the

analgesic response.
Stress-induced analgesia is a
process by which the body undergoes a reduced pain response
after a stressful situation. A study
lead by Dr. Pinar Yilmaz used
functional MRI to assess the
brain mechanisms associated
with SIA in 21 healthy individuals. A mildly painful pressure
stimulus was applied to each test
subject, and each was given a
set of basic mental tasks to perform while noise was increased
throughout the room to act as a
stressor. The team learned that
following a stressful situation
pain thresholds and tolerance
were in fact significantly higher
when compared to pre-stress
levels. The fMRI data showed
that as the subjects adapted to
their fairly unpleasant scenario,
they showed increased activity
in the primary somatosensory
cortex, anterior insular cortex,
and secondary somatosensory
cortex. The increase in pain tolerance correlated significantly
with activation in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and pain
unpleasantness with activation
in the dorsal anterior cingulate
cortex.
Even though these findings
may help researchers better understand what actually occurs
during episodes of superhuman
strength, the ethical and experimental limitations of testing such
a phenomenon keeps it in the
realm of scientific mystery. It
would be unethical to comprehensively test such a phenomenon, since superhuman strength
seems to come about with extreme stress moments of compassion-driven fear or anger. Repetitive states of hyper arousal can
be detrimental to our immune
system and even cause cardiovascular disease. But in order to tap
into the superhuman powers that
we can sometimes exhibit, we
dont always need to enter battle
in a berserk frenzy, or lift a car.
Instead, it can sometimes happen
in the simplest of ways like
carrying a lost little girl over hot
sand back to her mother.
Winter 2016

18 brainworldmagazine.com

Winter 2016

Amazingly, the
subjects were
correct a full
40 percent of
the time, which
the researchers
described
as hugely
significant
statistically.

Have you ever wondered what a person from the

Middle Ages might think if they could spend a single
day with you? He or she might think that youre some
sort of sorcerer as they watch you dash off emails, chat
on your cell phone, or Skype with someone on the
other side of the globe. These are all magical forms of
communication that for us have become as natural as
talking face-to-face.
Yet, despite all these conveniences and advances in
communication, people are always looking for more
direct ways to exchange information. Wouldnt it be
nice if you could just think something and have your
ideas or emotions instantly understood by others? Most
of us, though, think that telepathy the ability to
communicate with others without speech or any other
physical form of communication is either the stuff
of fairy tales or a gift bestowed on a lucky few.
But then again, maybe were
all telepathic. Youve probably
had the experience of thinking
of a person just moments before they call. If youre a parent,
maybe youve had the experience of just knowing when
something is wrong with your
kid, even if they are miles away.
Identical twins have probably
told you, We always know
what the other is thinking.

20 brainworldmagazine.com

While these anecdotes have

become commonplace, theres
not much evidence that telepathy really exists. Also, its
difficult to set up convincing
experiments to test telepathy, as
such events tend to defy repeatability and hypotheses based in
scientific fact. Thus, the topic
of telepathy remains only on
the fringe of scientific investigation, along with the search for
alien life forms and the aquatic
ape hypothesis. Nevertheless,
various forms of brain-to-brain
communication have been observed scientifically on many
occasions and under circumstances that cannot be dismissed
as mere statistical accidents.
The phenomenon that so
many of us have experienced
knowing whos going to call on
the telephone before they actu-

ally do has been confirmed

to exist in several studies dating
back to the mid-20th century.
In a recent study published in
the Journal of Parapsychology,
researchers observed 63 normal
subjects (not psychics or mediums) trying to guess which of
four callers was going to be calling. The callers were remotely
located friends or family of the
subject, and, based on random
chance, researches expected the
subject to be correct 25 percent
of the time. Amazingly, the
subjects were correct a full 40
percent of the time, which the
researchers described as hugely
significant statistically.
Another oft-repeated experiment is called the Ganzfeld
telepathy experiment, wherein
the test subject is isolated with
halved pingpong balls over
their eyes in a room bathed
in red light. The person keeps
their eyes open while listening
to white noise played through
earphones. After a half hour of
this sensory homogenization,
a sender in another room is
given randomly chosen visual
information, usually a photo
or video clip, that they then
try to mentally transmit to the
subject. The subject describes
any mental images they are
receiving to researchers. After
the session, the subject then
attempts to identify which of
four choices best fits the mental
images they were receiving.
Some of these experiments have
not shown clear evidence of telepathy, but a majority of them
have. Interestingly, the subjects
have better hit rates when
they are emotionally bonded
with the sender, have high artistic or creative abilities, or
believe they have psychic capacities.
As much as rational scientific
minds may prefer to disregard
this, it seems something real

is producing these telepathic

experiences. Somehow, brains
have the ability to communicate with other brains in ways
that are not yet fully understood. There is no concrete,
scientifically valid explanation
for how this is happening, but
researchers have sought to account for this.
Some think that the answer
might lie in quantum physics,
not biology. In the subatomic
quantum world, nature behaves in ways that defies standard Newtonian physics, and it
might be that brainwaves somehow access this supernatural
world. In that realm, a particle
can coexist in more than one
place in time and space, what
Einstein described as spooky
action at a distance.
In an attempt to explain how
telepathy might work, researcher Deborah L. Erickson wrote
in the journal NeuroQuantology: At the quantum particle
level, all separateness disappears and everything is connected. Schrodinger described
this process as entanglement.
She goes on to suggest that
brainwaves may be entangled
in a similar way, which allows
a kind of commingling of
thoughts unimpeded by time
and space.
Researcher Frederick Myers
notes that telepathic connection across people is always
strongest between those with a
strong emotional connection.
Thus, his hypothesis is that
telepathy and love go hand
in hand. If you find yourself
finishing your lovers sentences,
or you know when your kid is
hiding something, you could
be said to have telepathic communication with them. As My-

ers describes it, Love is a kind

of exalted and unspecialized
telepathy.
The explanation for this may
lie in the heart brain. For
a while, neuroscientists have
known that the human heart
has specialized cells that seem
identical to neurons. It could
be that the heart has a yet undetermined role in our emotions.
The heart is also a bioelectric
organ, as is the brain, and it
could be that these impulses
are connecting to other people
in ways that we, as yet, do not
understand.
For centuries, humans have
described emotional connections arising from the heart,
even though neuroscientists insist that our brains are the true
source. Those heart strings
that bind us to one another
may serve as invisible communication cables that allow us to
know each others hearts and
minds in unfathomable ways
at least when we are open to
doing so.
Science at the moment is far
away from proving the existence of telepathy or explaining
how it works. One day, we may
take it for granted that brains
can talk to each other without
the need for language of any
kind. Scientists are already harnessing brainwaves to talk to
other brains, and we may have
technology in the future that
expands whatever telepathic
abilities happen to be natu-

ral to us. In one experiment,

researchers were able to send
signals over the Internet from
one persons brain to control
another persons hand motions
to successfully navigate a video
game. It is not too crazy to
think that one day we may be
thinking our emails and be
able to call our kids to dinner
with silent, mental commands.
Considering this aspect of
the brains ability is like glimpsing a distant frontier of brain
science. Some scientist, in fact,
would rather not look because
the facts are still a bit too fuzzy
for their comfort. It is highly
likely that the ultimate explanations will lie in areas that
we are not yet able to observe
fully in the quantum world
or undetected energetic fields
that emanate from our hearts
and minds. But, if we can get
to the root of this brain ability
we call telepathy, it is likely that
we will be peering into a world
of possibility once relegated to
the realm of fantasy, anticipating potentials for technologies
that today seem stranger than
the strangest science fiction.

In the subatomic
quantum world,
nature behaves
in ways that
defies standard
Newtonian
physics, and it
might be that
brainwaves
somehow
access this
supernatural
world.

Winter 2016

PERIPHERAL

COVER

VISI N
MAYBE
ITS
MAGIC,
MAYBE BY
YOU DENIZ
WERE CAM
BORN
WITH
IT

 You are on the subway, thinking about something

that happened at work, or pondering what awaits you at
home. Maybe you just realized you forgot your moms
birthday and wonder how you can get out of this notso-pleasant situation. At the peak of your focused state,
you instinctively turn your gaze toward your right, and
it happens that moment when you feel that youre no
longer alone with your thoughts. Youve perhaps heard
the expression that you can feel someones stare, but
never thought that it really does happen that way. Your
eyes meet the eyes of a total stranger and you both
silently admit the situation to be fairly uncomfortable.
In half a second, you are forced to make the ultimate
decision: You either immediately move your gaze away,
or prolong this unsettling interaction in silence.
No matter the outcome, you
avoid the stranger until you get
off the train, but cannot stop
wondering how you knew that
someone was looking at you
without even seeing them. Was
it your inner voice? Was it fate?
Was it some celestial power? You
might eventually decide that this
incident is closely tied to you
discovering some hidden supernatural abilities, but you will
have to wait a little bit longer for
that superhero plot twist in your
life. Why? Because our peripheral
vision is the factor behind these
seemingly psychic encounters.

24 brainworldmagazine.com

What is peripheral vision? It

can be described as the precise
wonder of evolution that allows
your dad to catch you sneaking
out without moving his gaze
away from the TV. It is scientifically known as the vision that
takes place outside the center
of gaze. As humans, we use our
central gaze for the objects we
immediately assume as being
important. It helps us recognize visual details: shapes, colors,
brightness, and textures. At this
moment, your dad is focusing on
Tom Brady and his touchdown,
but hes not just receptive of his
favorite football player. Peripheral vision helps us detect motion
even while we devote all our attention to another subject.
Our closer relatives namely
chimps and gorillas are a bit
more adept at peripheral vision,

which helps them to escape lurking predators, or sometimes to

find prey. Although this applies
to humans, too, our peripheral
vision has definitely not developed as much as it has with our
other animal friends. With our
peripheral gaze, we get a good
glimpse of motion, though we
lack the necessary anatomical
tools to process color and shape.
The receptor cells that help the
eye capture minute details are
organized around the center of
our gaze, not leaving that much
for the edges of the eye. Since
we need and use the edges for
peripheral vision, the accuracy
of this capacity appears to be
substantially low, and yet, this
does not create a salient ocular
problem. We rarely miss out on
important details, because while
we clearly are not the masters of
peripheral vision, we compensate
by utilizing our center gaze most
of the time. As such, we are conditioned to not vitally depend on
our peripheral vision.
In order to appreciate the
functioning of peripheral vision,
it is necessary to understand the
interaction between the light and
our eye. Our eye does not directly admit light into its system.
It first uses photoreceptors in the
retina to process the characteristics of light. These photoreceptors come as two types: rod cells,
and cone cells. Cones help us detect color and function in bright
light; contrastingly, rods prefer
dim light. Rods, therefore, do
not necessarily help with either
color vision or visual accuracy.
Given their nature, cones tend to
be more prominent in the center
of our gaze the fovea while
rods mobilize around the edges.
As humans, we prefer to use
our fovea since it provides us
with a higher density of cones.

The more cones there are, the

better the visible details, and the
better our grasp of visual cues.
To maximize their accumulation,
the cones in our fovea are significantly small. Their small size
helps them exist in substantial
amounts, which increases our
visual acuity, or, in other words,
the sharpness of vision. Though
we could assume that our desperate need for cones would require
them to be plentiful, the systematic structure of our eye proves
the opposite. No matter how
crucial visual acuity is, we have
considerably less cones than rods:
Only 6 million cones compared
to 125 million rods.
So far, you might be left wondering why we even have the rest
of our eye if all we need is our
fovea. The fovea is the center of
gaze and the heart of visualizing,
and we need cones to actualize
the potential of this center but
that still does not mean that we
do not need our peripheral vision
and the rods on the edges. With
the help of our peripheral vision,
we manage to stay alert as we
constantly receive and manage
information that is literally not
in front of our very eyes.
Peripheral vision presents
critical clues about the focus of
other people. When we know
the direction of ones attention,
then we can speculate their intent and how we should respond
to it. For other animals, peripheral vision provides the opportunity to stay alert in a situation of
imminent threat.
Acknowledging that we are
social creatures, our long-term
survival is contingent upon our
interactions with each other.
Through peripheral vision, we
get the chance to transform visual
cues into social cues, and through
this better ascertain our existence.
But how do we do it? Even
though peripheral vision appears to be a momentary reaction
within which we recognize the
other, we essentially distinguish

certain visual patterns before we

move our gaze toward someone
at a cafe or on the subway. Over
time and with more exposure
to various kinds of interactions,
the brain internalizes the motions corresponding to looking
at someone. Without you voluntarily thinking about it, your
brain accesses the necessary information related to the gaze and
foresees that a head needs to be
turned or the eye needs to move
within the eye socket. Therefore,
the brain notices a simple head
tilt, or calculates the location of
someones pupils in relation to
the white area around the pupils. Once the brain decides that
someone is looking at you based
on these simple, but intricate, estimations, you instinctively turn
your head to face the spectator.
Maybe a few months after
your first uncomfortable encounter on the subway, you find
yourself in a crowded urban cafe.
Even though you are certain that
you are completely immersed in
your work, you instantly turn
away from your computer screen
only to find the same stranger
from the subway looking at you.
This time neither of you looks
away. You recognize each other,
and it is not as uncomfortable
as it was the first time. You both
start laughing at how peculiar the
situation is, but then you really
begin to wonder if this is fate.
Well, no matter how you want to
describe it, we suggest thanking
your peripheral vision!

WE COMPENSATE
BY UTILIZING OUR
CENTER GAZE
MOST OF THE TIME.
AS SUCH, WE ARE
CONDITIONED
TO NOT VITALLY
DEPEND ON OUR
PERIPHERAL
VISION.

Winter 2016

COVER

USING SIMILAR
TOUCHING PATT
TERNS, THE
SUBJECTS FELT
THEY WERE
LOOKING AT
THEIR OWN
BODIES FROM
SIX FEET AWAY,
THEIR CORPOREAL SELF
AS IF DISCONNECTED
FROM THEIR
PHYSICAL
BODY.

Since time immemorial, weve seen ghosts.

Whether its a disembodied voice whispering in the
night, the classic lady in white drifting through walls,
or even a candle flickering in a room with a closed window, art and culture have made these uncanny episodes
as familiar to us as they are to the mystics and psychics
who claim to regularly experience them.
Maybe theyve become so indelible for the collective
psyche because they represent so much: a warning,
the presence of a departed loved one, associations with
horror and fear, musings about the afterlife. With a
developed, self-aware mind thats evolved to the task of
pursuing and attributing meaning, its no wonder weve
loaded ghosts with millennia of spiritual overtones. But
maybe these ghosts havent entirely broken their bonds
with this life, after all.
On the surface, ghosts dont seem to have much to do
with phantom limb syndrome, but recent research suggests a strong link. The clue might be in the name
where phantom limb refers to a body part that doesnt
exist, a phantom apparition might similarly be an image conjured up in our minds.
WHEN THE MIND
FORGETS THE BODY
Our journey starts with a mental
construct called the body schema
your constant, unconscious
narrative about your bodys relationship to everything around it.
Sound and vision, gravity, your
nervous systems response to the
environment, the tiny channels
of liquid in your ears telling you
that youre standing upright,
along with countless of other
physical properties whose combination gives us what feels like
an unshakable sense of where we
are in relation to the world and
everything in it.

28 brainworldmagazine.com

But changes in neurology,

caused by anything from brain
lesions to extreme emotional
states, can make our body schema go wrong with surprising
(and scary) ease. Disruption of
our networks patterns of activity can create sensations of being
separated from your own body,
perceiving the body from outside, and shifts in perception of
place and time, says neuroscientist and neuroethicist Dr. James
Giordano, professor of neurology
at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
Simple manifestations of such
phenomena might be a feeling
of dj vu, or the lesser-known
jamais vu wherein we experience something we recognize but
which still seems unfamiliar.
So researchers wondered if we
might bring about ghost sightings or similar experiences
by taking experiments that have
successfully treated people with

body schema problems (such as

those who experience pain or
discomfort in a body part that
doesnt any longer exist) and going a step further.
In order to generate a wholeof-body illusion, scientists at
Ecole Polytechnique Federale
in Lausanne, Switzerland, put
virtual reality goggles on subjects
standing in an empty room. An
image of themselves standing
six feet ahead was projected into
the goggles, and their backs were
stroked with a pointed stick at
the same time they perceived
their virtual self being touched.
When the real and virtual
touching was synchronized, the
subjects reported the sensation
of being momentarily in the projected body. A similar experiment
using a mannequin dressed in
identical outfits as the subjects resulted in the sense of the self being
projected onto the mannequin.
Subsequent experiments by
a neuroscientist from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (while
visiting the University College
London), involved projecting
an image of the participating
subjects into video goggles from
two cameras placed six feet behind them. Using similar touching patterns to those described
above, the subjects felt they were
looking at their own bodies from
six feet away, their corporeal self
as if disconnected from their
physical body.

THE DECOUPLED MIND

But what does this tell us about
seeing ghosts? As Peter Brugger, a
neuroscientist at University Hospital Zurich explains: Normal
brains can easily be duped about
the source of an action at a distance, that they themselves have
the agency over actions.
Theres also a direct terminological leap from phantom limb
to bigger body schema concepts
that could incorporate ghosts.
Phantom limb was frequently
described as ghost limb, Brugger tells Brain World. The term
phantom body was in fact introduced to depict ghostly phenomena as phantom limb-style
phenomena.
The difficulty is that youre
never amputated from the
whole body, but there are neurological diseases in which such
an amputation occurs at the
highest level of body representation. The consequence is a split
between the physical body and
its representation, giving rise to
many doppelganger [other self ]
and ghost phenomena.
Such phenomena can arise
when the localization of your
body in space is projected somewhere else and no longer matches
the physical location of your
body. The experience of a doppelganger has been the most
thoroughly and convincingly
studied in the projection of body
schema context, says Brugger.
Researcher James Giordano
adds that because were spiritual
animals, we often interpret such
phenomena through emotional
lenses. These [phenomena] can
assume spiritually emotional
content or be interpreted as supernatural for some people, he
says. Its not unusual for people

grieving to report theyve heard

or even seen a loved one whos
recently died while falling asleep
or drifting out of sleep.
Were also not limited to a
single projected body schema
just because were limited to one
physical body. Brugger reminds
us that ghosts are sometimes
experienced as more than just
singular entities. If a haunted
house contains a piercing scream,
sounds of footsteps making their
way along a dark hallway, or a
skeletal figure draped in rags
limping across the ground, these
various sensations could be a
multiplication of the body schema just like multiple voices
tormenting a schizophrenic all
belong to a single sufferer.
RELATED PHENOMENA
The list of supposedly paranormal activities, whose mysteries
can be easily explained as ones
skewed sense of their own body
awareness, is rather long. Many
people claim to have experienced
psychography (usually called
automatic writing), where they
claim a disembodied entity or
intelligence from beyond the
physical world takes control of
their hand to write messages to
the living. Maybe its indeed the
subject doing the writing, but
projecting the body schema of
their hand, arm, and the content
of what theyre writing elsewhere.
Brugger interviewed accomplished mountaineers, many of
whom had climbed to altitudes
of over 27,000 feet, who had
reported sensing unusual presences, and sometimes full out
body experiences. The common
thread was that theyd all made
their climbs to such heights without supplementary oxygen, and
hypoxia (a shortage of oxygen)
is just the kind of radical shift in
brain physiology that can turn
the body schema on its head.
A third party speaking from
beyond the body is a widely documented aspect of schizophrenia,
and it might simply be the audio
version of the phantom limb
sensation, along with other body

schema projections. When it

comes to the minds motor control, simply thinking a thought is
enough to make the sufferer feel
as if they are hearing it voiced
by a separate entity.
Thats further evidenced by
the fact that if you can observe
a schizophrenic while he or she
is hearing voices, their larynx
moves as they subvocalize the
thought theyre attributing elsewhere. Today, scientists also
know that brain areas associated
with motor speech production
are activated when a schizophrenic hears voices.
Its not the only giveaway that
the body reveals. As long as youre
in your right mind, its impossible
to tickle yourself, but, as you
might expect, people with body
schemas projected elsewhere experience the sensation as if a real
other person is doing the tickling.
Its also fairly common for
people to report having floated
in the air looking down onto
themselves after a sudden and
severe injury, during sleep paralysis, after particularly demanding
sports, or during intensive meditation all phenomena that can
cause spikes in levels of oxygen,
blood sugar, or neurochemicals.
WHY WE SEE GHOSTS
The reasons why certain brain
states have us experience seeing
spirits are as diverse as the variety
of brain states themselves, everything from trauma to fatigue.
Giordano explains how some
cases of temporal lobe epilepsy
result in symptoms that are construed or perceived to be spiritual
or religious. They can include
bodily sensations like smells, feelings of lightness or the presence
of another being and heightened
emotions, he says, sometimes
to the point of rapture.

DISRUPTION
OF OUR
NETWORKS
PATTERNS OF
ACTIVITY CAN
CREATE
SENSATIONS
OF BEING
SEPARATED
FROM YOUR
OWN BODY,
PERCEIVING
THE BODY
FROM
OUTSIDE,
AND SHIFTS IN
PERCEPTION
OF PLACE AND
TIME.

continued on next page

Winter 2016

Ghosts contd

30 brainworldmagazine.com

As weve already seen, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders can induce perceptions
of the paranormal although,
curiously, auditory and tactile
hallucinations are more common
under most conditions. Visual
hallucinations are more associated with drug-induced states, as
many recreational and medical
users can attest.
Theres also a common religious or spiritual dimension felt
by sufferers of delusional disorder, a psychiatric condition associated with either bizarre or nonbizarre delusions of thinking.
According to a 2010 study, religious delusions are generally less
troublesome to the sufferer than
other types, like hypochondria
or paranoia, and can be associated with delusions of grandeur.
Might that help explain why we
think a deceased relative goes to
the extraordinary steps of making
contact from beyond the grave to
impart some serious message?
As Giordano explains, theres
a common neurological thread
to such disorders. It appears to
involve loss of network integration between the brain pathways
that parse imagined thoughts and
stream of consciousness from the
experience of events out in the
external environment.
But as weve already seen, far
more common occurrences
like profound fatigue or dehydration, and even being in a hypnagogic or hypnopompic state (the
scary-sounding scientific terms
for falling asleep or waking up)
can prime the brain to hallucinate ghosts and goblins.
There are even cases where
extremes of emotion can result
in ghostly visitations. Its somewhat rare, Giordano begins,
but sudden and intense emotion can alter patterns of activity in neural networks that integrate sensory and emotional
processes. That can then cause
disconnection, de-realization or
other altered sensory percep-

tion. It might produce a feeling

of being detached or removed
from your body, hearing voices
or experiencing the presence of
another person.
In fact, emotions might help
explain another commonality to
ghost sightings. Along with the
fact that theyre often visually
unclear, many witnesses report
particular feelings associated with
these incidents.
In cases involving parietal
lobe lesions, Brugger wonders if
their presence might help explain
the appearances of ghosts being
reported as pale, transparent,
milky, colorless, etc. Ghosts are
often at the verge of vision, he
says. The parietal lobe is responsible for the spatial extension of
a body, localization of your felt
presence in space.
In the convergence zones between the parietal and occipital
lobes, things are visualized incompletely and appear misty.
The color gray is very frequently mentioned. If the irritation
was wholly in the occipital lobe,
things would be more naturally
colored like a typical visual hallucination.
Eliciting extreme emotion in
test subjects ethics notwithstanding is probably the easiest way to replicate such conditions for experimentation, but, as
Brugger adds, explaining ghosts
is just one item on a very long list
of things we might give account
of once we understand how to
untangle emotional responses
from neural circuitry.
There are a lot of effects emotions have on cognitive processing that we dont understand, he
says. A tentative answer might
be that emotions are mediated by
among other regions the
limbic system, which is widely

linked throughout the brain,

especially to centers that mediate
bodily experience.
For now, we might have to rely
on methods that however advanced are still crude because
of our limited understanding
about how the brain works. Back
in 1999, Giovanni Berlucchi, of
the University of Verona, and
Salvatore Aglioti, of the University of Rome, published research
demonstrating how electrical
stimulation of the insula caused
illusions of changes in ones body
position as well as induced feelings of being outside the body.
Neuroscience has advanced
considerably in the subsequent
16 years, but as long as we hide
under the covers at night because we hear or see inexplicable
things roaming around, instead
of switching on some brainwave
scanner to reset and reorient our
body schema, we have a long
way to go.

THE REASONS
WHY CERTAIN
BRAIN STATES
HAVE US
EXPERIENCE
SEEING SPIRITS
ARE AS
DIVERSE AS
THE VARIETY
OF BRAIN
STATES
THEMSELVES,
EVERYTHING
FROM TRAUMA
TO FATIGUE.

COVER

TIME

IN

BOTTLE
THE MYSTERY OF DJ VU
BY STEPHANIE KRAMER

I could not
succeed in
reconstructing the
place from which
they had been as
it were detached,
but I felt that it
had been
familiar to me
once; so that, my
mind having
wavered between
some distant year
and the present
moment.

34 brainworldmagazine.com

Youve probably recently had a moment wherein youve

stopped and realized that, in some subtle detail, it all seems
familiar: the same person waiting in line for coffee, wearing the same shirt, or the same car passing you on the way
to work every morning. Whats happening? Many claim
theyre having a moment that the English language doesnt
quite have a word for.
The term dj vu literally meaning already seen
was first used by the French philosopher and researcher
Emile Boirac in 1876. Ever since, dj vu has been widely
described in music, literature, and films it could be as
subtle as a white rabbit leaping back to its burrow.
RELIVING
THE MOMENT
In his novel, In Search of Lost
Time, author Marcel Proust described the sensation of dj vu:
I had just seen, standing a little
way back from the hogs-back
road along which we were travelling, three trees which probably
marked the entry to a covered
driveway and formed a pattern
which I was not seeing for the
first time. I could not succeed
in reconstructing the place from
which they had been as it were
detached, but I felt that it had
been familiar to me once; so
that, my mind having wavered
between some distant year and

the present moment, Balbec and

its surroundings began to dissolve and I wondered whether
the whole of the drive were not a
make-believe.
The odd sense of disconnect
Proust describes is perhaps what
makes the scene seem uncanny, eerie, startling, or exciting.
About two-thirds of people will
experience at least a single episode
within their lifetime. It typically
lasts only a few seconds, or minutes, but people remember the
experience in vivid detail for years
afterward. Dj vu occurs in men
and women in equal numbers. It
happens more frequently in adolescents and young adults, and
then tapers off with age.
The recent case of chronic
dj vu was unique, because the
man was otherwise healthy, at
least so says the co-author of
the study, cognitive neuropsychologist Chris Moulin of Pierre
Mendes-France University, based
in Grenoble. There was nothing

wrong with his brain or memory,

says Moulin. There was no neurological damage.
The subject experienced dj
vu on a daily basis, far more than
the usual once or twice a year.
Sometimes it lasted for up to
30 minutes. The scientists who
worked on the study, which was
published in December of 2014
in the Journal of Medical Case
Reports, believe the cause could
have been anxiety. The more he
worried about it, the worse the
problem became, says Moulin.

A GLITCH
IN THE SYSTEM?
Dj vu occurs when people
have the sensation of memory
without the presence of memory, says the psychologist Dr.
Akira OConnor of the University of St. Andrews in the U.K.
The mismatch when something new feels familiar results in
a false familiarity.
An area in the brain called
the temporal lobe is responsible
for memory. One structure in
the temporal lobe stores memories of previous experiences, and
another is responsible for determining familiarity. The two normally work together seamlessly.
The startling sense of dj vu is
thought to occur when they get
out of sync.
We are using memory all the
time, says OConnor. The brain
is constantly creating connections and integrating information, but we are seldom aware of
it until something goes wrong.
A glitch in the system misfiring in the temporal lobe
could be the cause. The brain is
signaling that something should
be familiar when it is not, says
OConnor. This is comparable to
the neural misfiring that occurs
in epilepsy, and it could be that
the same mechanism triggers dj
vu in healthy people.
OConnor has experimented
with eliciting dj vu in the laboratory. He has used hypnosis and
lists of words to evoke the unsettling feeling that accompanies
ones misplaced sense of familiar-

ity. More recently, he has been

using computerized tests and
functional MRI. Although its
still in its early stages, he says the
research might allow scientists to
reliably pick apart which regions
of the brain are actively producing the dj vu effect.
A second hypothesis has been
proposed by Dr. Anne Cleary, a
cognitive psychologist at Colorado State University. Dj vu
is commonly associated with
places, and Cleary believes that
cues in a new environment may
resemble those in an old one.
Thus a genuine sense of familiarity may be caused by similar
spatial layouts in different places
(e.g., hotels, airports, highways).
She has devised a 3-D virtual reality experiment in which people
encounter the same structures in
various scenes within a village
(called a dj ville).

HAVE I DREAMT
THIS BEFORE?
More than 30 scientific theories
have been put forth in an attempt of explaining this puzzling
phenomenon. None of them
have been proven; nor do they
necessarily rule each other out.
One obstacle to research is that
dj vu is difficult to produce in a
lab setting, says Moulin. Dj vu
is transitory. There is no method
for evoking it consistently and reliably. And self-reports are subjective. When different people say
they have dj vu, it is difficult
to know if they are describing the
same experience, says Moulin.
A number of memory illusions
may be related to dj vu. Jamais
vu, to start off, is the feeling of
looking at something for the first
time when in fact it is familiar.
Dj entendu refers to the distinct

sense of having heard something

already, such as a piece of music
or a new voice. Dj su means
something already known (intellectually). Dj pensee means
having thought something. Dj
senti refers to having felt something previously.
Given that there is no simple
explanation for dj vu, and other
memory phenomena, some people believe in mystical or spiritual
causes, such as evidence of past lives
or predictions about the future.
Scientists generally reject such notions, but that does not mean that
dj vu itself should be dismissed.
Dj vu is often accompanied
by a sharpening of the senses and
increased awareness. As such, it
could be a chance to take note of
a situation or place. There could
be opportunities for discovery.
Or maybe the brain is signaling
that there is something worth revisiting. Dj vu can also be triggered by a dream or imaginary
experience.
Feelings of intuition can be
useful in creativity and problem-solving, too. Finally, dj vu
might serve as a reminder of the
human ability to imagine oneself
in past or future situations, refine
memories, and reconstruct ones
experience of the world.

The recent report of persistent

dj vu may have been rare, but
it was followed by a flurry of
responses. People from around
the world have contacted us,
says Moulin. Many say they had
the same experience during their
20s and that it resolved spontaneously.
Scientists hope that studying
dj vu will further the understanding of memory and consciousness in general. Knowing
how memory is organized and
stored in the brain could be useful
for retrieval purposes, for instance.
Research on the brain and cognitive processes may also yield clues
that could be used in treating neurological dysfunctions.
Dj vu is so complex, says
Moulin. If we could uncover
the difference between dj vu
and other memory experiences,
we could gain a better understanding of many other problems
along the way.

The brain is
constantly
creating
connections and
integrating
information, but
we are seldom
aware of it
until something
goes wrong. A
glitch in the
system
misfiring in the
temporal lobe
could be the
cause.

NEW
UNDERSTANDING?
Its been more than a decade
since Moulin first encountered
a patient with chronic dj vu.
That patient also had dementia.
However, Moulin believes that
various sources for the occurrences not only anxiety
may still be identified.

Winter 2016

36 brainworldmagazine.com

HEALTH

BABY
SHOES,
NEVER
WORN

LOSING A CHILD

BY CHARLENE SMITH

Winter 2016

When discussingg
it with other
ffriends yyears
later, I was
astonished at
how manyy off
those who had
lost a child to
miscarriage,
g or
even abortion,
believed theyy
heard the babyy
speak to them.

38 brainworldmagazine.com

For sale: baby shoes, never worn. In these few

words perhaps the earliest source of flash fiction
often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, is encapsulated
the pathos of an infants death.
Except that Hemingway probably never wrote those
words. They appeared first in The Spokane Press in
1910, when Hemingway was just 10 years old. Authorship aside, those six words reveal the desolation felt
after a longed-for child has passed away.
Estelle Sobel Erasmus, a New York-based blogger,
talks of hearing her sons voice after she miscarried. Still
confused by the experience and the intensity of her
mourning, she has been able to find no explanation of
why or how she felt such a strong sense of connection to
her lost boy. When I asked other friends who had also
lost infants before birth, they reported similar incidents.
In my case, when I miscarried a baby at three
months, I went into a grief so intense I locked myself
in a bedroom for a week, wouldnt answer the phone,
and stopped eating. I already had two children. This
baby wasnt planned, and frankly, wasnt wanted
but I fell apart. When discussing it with other friends
years later, I was astonished at how many of those
who had lost a child to miscarriage, or even abortion,
believed they heard the baby speak to them or had a
very graphic concept of the child they had never seen,
never held, but always felt connected to in the intense
cellular way that only mothers and the child within
their wombs communicate.

Every September, I think of

my lost daughter. It is the month
she would have been born. There
is no grief, no morbid reflection
simply persistent remembrance, a sense of What if? And
in woman after woman who has
experienced this, there is a similar story of remembrance. Renowned biomedical researcher, as
well as structural and molecular
biologist, Dr. Kevin Gardner,
working at the CUNY Advanced
Science Research Center, has
found in his research that ambivalent attitudes toward the
pregnancy were found to be associated with more intense grief reactions, and loss of an unplanned
pregnancy was often responded
to in the same way.
These findings might be explained by guilt or blame that
these women felt after their
pregnancy loss. Mothers who
had been more invested in their
pregnancy had thought of a
name or bought things for the
baby also showed a higher
level of grief-related yearning for
the loss of the infant. Hearing the
babys heartbeat or looking over
ultrasound scans of a curved,
apparently sleeping baby, with
its large head and small fingers
and toes, as so many expectant
parents study intently, augments
the mourning in mothers as well
as fathers, the difference being
that men tend to mourn at a
later stage than the women. This
grieving can lead to clinical depression and linger for as long as
two years, the National Institutes
of Health reports. The overall
prevalence of miscarriage is 15
to 27 percent in women aged
between 25 and 29. Women over
45 years old are at a 75 percent
risk. Theres also an increased risk
for women who lost a previous
pregnancy.
The World Health Organization research tells us that 9.6
percent, or 12.9 million, of all
births were preterm in 2005 (the
most recent global statistics). The
highest rates occurred in Africa
and North America, where 11.9

and 10.6 percent, respectively, of

all births were preterm. In North
America, the increasing age of
women giving birth, which leads
to more maternal complications
and Caesarean sections, may
partially explain the high rates.
The United States, overwhelmingly, has the highest rates of
C-sections in the world, which
doctors have increasingly criticized as high risk to both mother
and child.
For those babies lost, there
is no doubt that these deaths
are very often natures way of
preventing abnormality from being born, nonetheless, however
accurate, this is hard for parents
to accept. Premature birth is now
the single largest cause of death
among babies and young children. Every year, according to
a recent report in The Lancet,
1.09 million children under age
5 die due to health complications that stem from being born
before week 37 of pregnancy (a
40-week pregnancy is considered
full-term). Researchers from the
WHO looked at the causes of
child mortality in 194 countries
from 2000 to 2013. Notably, its
the first time in history that an infectious disease has not been the
leading killer of children under 5.
For some of the children who
are born, joy is tempered by high
emotional, physical, and financial costs. The WHO notes that
children born prematurely have
higher rates of cerebral palsy,
sensory deficits, learning disabilities, and respiratory illnesses.
Estimates indicate that in 2005
the costs to the United States
alone in terms of medical and
educational expenditure as well
as lost productivity due to premature births exceeded $26.2
billion making it clear that the
issue deserves further attention.
Although psychologists and

psychiatrists interviewed for this

article all recorded many cases
of grieving mothers and fathers
who have lost a child before or
soon after birth, there is a paucity of literature around the issue. How do you explain Estelle
Erasmus claims? Already the
mother of one and in a happy
marriage, she swears that she
kept hearing her unborn child
say, I love you. And this claim
is not unique to her.
The most common explanations relate to disenfranchisement around the death, because
others dont take it as seriously.
There is a sense that if parents
havent seen a baby, they will
not mourn it as much. Anette
Kersting, an expert in traumatic
prenatal loss observes: A unique
aspect of pregnancy loss is that
women feel that their femininity is undermined. Women who
have already suffered a miscarriage show higher levels of psychological distress than women
who have not experienced perinatal loss.
But natures protection of the
nurturers goes far deeper. According to professor Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Bowling Green State
University: Brain evolution has
provided safeguards to assure
that parents, usually the mother,
take care of offspring. Some of
the chemistries of sexuality, for
instance oxytocin, have been evolutionarily redeployed to mediate
maternal care nurturance and
social bonding suggesting
an intimate evolutionary relationship between female sexual
rewards and maternal motivations. The shifting hormonal
tides at the end of pregnancy
(declining progesterone, and increasing estrogen, prolactin, and
oxytocin) invigorate maternal
urges days before the young are
born. This collection of hormonal and associated neurochemical
changes also help assure strong
maternal bonds with offspring.
When a baby is lost, the cascades
of hormones and instructions
to the brain bring up powerful

feelings in the woman. Her body

essentially loses its programming,
and grief ensues.
Other research by neuroscientists Naomi Eisenberger
and Matt Lieberman, from the
University of California, Los
Angeles, shows that when the
individual experiences distress,
the anterior cingulate cortex activates. It acts as a neural alarm
system, alerting the rest of the
brain that something is wrong.
Losing a child may not be all we
lose its a moment in which
social and physical pain merge
together in an almost unbearable
way. According to psychologist
Sian Beilock, Evolutions solution to our need for caretaking
has instilled in us a need for social connection and a sense of
distress when those connections
are severed.
But as Jenna and Bea, Hasfa and Madeline, Kim and
Bridgette, and Angus and Olaf,
all who were interviewed for this
piece, said, in their various ways,
for them there is no satisfying
explanation for why so many
women have a visceral sense of
their lost child, why they may
feel as if they see him or her, why
they remember the anticipated
date of birth decades later, and
why they cant sell the baby shoes
they bought and keep them carefully folded away in the drawer
where their most treasured possessions remain.

Its the ffirst time

in historyy that an
infectious
f
disease
has not been the
leadingg killer off
children under 5.

SCIENCE

BEEN
EREH
BEFORE?

How much did

Allen elaborate,
and how was he
able to know so
many intricate
details of places
hed never been
to, and never
seen?

Kirk Allen was a gifted physicist working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory at the end of World War II, where
he was involved with the infamous Manhattan Project that
brought about the end of the war, and ushered in a new
age of paranoia once the world had witnessed what nuclear
weapons were capable of. You may be surprised to learn that
despite his many accomplishments, and an esteemed reputation among his colleagues, Allen was actually quite bored
with his life, something he shared privately with his psychoanalyst, Robert Lindner. Allen was in fact living another life
as an interstellar traveler, leaping across remote and distant
worlds, several of which he conquered. It was a life he could
tap into at will, even if the adventures didnt always please
his supervisors at work.
While this might just sound
like the story of another typical
daydreamer, Allen had evidently
spent so much time in distant solar systems that he acquired over
12,000 pages of elaborate maps
and stories which he shared with
Lindner. He even wrote a paper
on the mechanics of hyperspace
travel. Before long, Lindner also
found himself swept away in
these cosmic adventures, which
he described in his book, The
Fifty-Minute Hour. Although
Allen eventually broke down and
confessed that he wasnt traveling

42 brainworldmagazine.com

to Mars on his lunch hour, questions remain. How much did

Allen elaborate, and how was he
able to know so many intricate
details of places hed never been
to, and never seen?
You might say that Allen is
one of several (but one of the
stranger) cases of retrocognition,
a word coined by the self-proclaimed psychic Frederic W.H.
Myers to describe knowledge
of a past event that cannot be
acquired by traditional means
(e.g., reading about it, watching a
movie, etc.). Many of those who
alleged having experienced this
report visions that are a bit closer
to home, but taking place in a
past that they dont know much
about. Perhaps the most famous
episode was a vision had by Anne
Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain
back in 1901. The two British
schoolteachers went on holiday
in Versailles, where they took a
wrong turn and entered the private chateau of Marie Antoinette.
They stumbled across a woman
in white, sketching leisurely, and
realized they had come into the

presence of that famous French

queen, who had died in 1793,
shortly after being dethroned in
the revolution. They published
a book about their strange encounter, which was quickly met
with ridicule. Perhaps they didnt
travel back to the French Revolution after all, but how could two
people experience the same vision? Both Jourdain and Moberly
reported the same feelings of
dreariness and oppression when
they stumbled upon the site.
Several months later, they returned to Versailles, and several landmarks were missing
namely a kiosk and a bridge that
they remembered crossing. They
thought that perhaps (and this
has been purported as the real
explanation for what happened)
they had accidentally stumbled
upon a garden party, but no
events had been scheduled for
that afternoon at the Trianon
Palace. Jourdain would continue
to report many bizarre supernatural encounters before her death
in 1937, including meeting a
crowned man at the Louvre that
she believed to be the Roman
emperor Constantine.
One may wonder how many
of Jourdains experiences were
actually true. However, bouts of
experiencing unfamiliar times
and places tend to be some of
the rarest paranormal experiences
much less common than seeing the ghosts of lost relatives
or extraterrestrial beings. So are
there people who can somehow
absorb knowledge of the past,
or from other worlds better than
everyone else? Or perhaps theres
only a slim minority of a group of
people who are aware that theyre
taking in information from several times and places at once?
Several years ago, I regularly
had dreams of visiting the great
Hagia Sophia in modern-day
Turkey, and staring up at the
beautifully illuminated walls that
stray birds would sometimes fly
over, who curiously seemed to
observe the museums ban on
singing. I first had the dreams in
1999, but wouldnt learn of the

existence of this great medieval

monument or its mosaics
until months later. While I
have yet to find a satisfactory explanation for why they recurred
for over a decade, Im still not
ready to chalk it up to retrocognition perhaps because theres
nothing of the physical really involved, nor anything to suggest a
time slip. The Hagia Sophia was
at first a cathedral, then a mosque
in the days of the Ottoman Empire, before it became a secular
museum in the 1930s.
Perhaps the most intriguing
case is a little-known study recorded by Scottish psychologist
Andrew MacKenzie. As with the
Jourdain case, the story consists
of multiple witnesses three
Royal Navy cadets on what was
meant to be a standard training exercise in 1957. They were
supposed to report back to base
with what they had seen on a
five-mile trek but what they
found was more unsettling than
anything imaginable. Although
it was autumn, the trees seemed
to become green again, and the
weather unseasonably warm, as
they approached the rural English village of Kersey which
was not only quiet, but appeared
deserted, with no cars on the
street, nor were there any telephone wires, and the cottages
had thatched roofs and timber
frames. Peering into the windows
of one of the shops, they saw the
skinned carcasses of three oxen,
moldy and rotting. As with the
Trianon incident, a general feeling of hostility came over the
cadets, and they quickly fled.
They wouldnt speak of the occurrence again for another three
decades. Did they really travel
back to a bygone century? The
building they peered through
had actually been a butcher shop
since at least the 18th century. Of
course, skeptic or not, you might
wonder why they traveled back
to this particular time and place
why did the seasons change,
and why the vague feelings of
discomfort? Perhaps all of these
episodes of retrocognition are

the result of derealization a

condition in which the real seems
unreal.
Instances of derealization, in
which the individual takes herself
away from her surroundings,
are actually fairly common
estimated to occur in 31 to 66
percent of the general population. Your sense of place is often
colored by specific memories
you have of it, or expectations of
how it should be. You may have
grown up with carpeting in the
living room but take it up
or replace it, and you may soon
forget what the room looked like
during your childhood, or how
the furniture was arranged. Look
at the house after youve moved
and you may realize that many
memories you have of the house
are wrong, and find rooms that
you dont remember at all perhaps the result of memories being
compressed together as a type of
shorthand for the brain, as we
can only remember so much with
accuracy.
For someone suffering from
longer bouts of derealization
sometimes a symptom of more
serious disorders like schizophrenia, but sometimes simply the result of anxiety or constant worrying much of the world is like
looking into that once-familiar
house. Occipital-temporal dysfunction in the brain is a common cause. The former deals
with the brains visual processing, while the latter interprets
sensory information delivered
to the brain. Sleep deprivation,
and even caffeine, can lead to
episodes of derealization and
only about 5 percent of people
will experience lifelong episodes.

When Jourdain met Marie

Antoinette, as she claimed, she
probably had some expectations
of what the queen would be like,
and this formed a mental image
in her brain. In the Kersey incident, the cadets suspected they
were in the Middle Ages perhaps shortly after the outbreak of
the Black Death epidemic, when
villagers boarded up their homes
for fear of catching the disease.
However, glass in rural England
would have been rare in the 14th
century, let alone a butcher shop.
Few peasants could afford to
slaughter their animals. Again,
the cadets were not so much seeing history unravel as they were
seeing what they expected it to
have looked like.
So, if these episodes can be
chalked up to derealization, why
are they experienced by more
than one person? In nearly every instance, years go by before
anyone talks about their experience. Its almost certain that they
have time to iron out the details
landmarks, the season, feelings, people met along the way
and, perhaps, the idea of seeing the French Revolution as it
happens makes for a better story
than simply getting lost while
on vacation. I dont mean to say
that such accounts are deliberately made up but as stories,
they are ones wed all prefer to
believe.

Perhaps
they didnt
travel back
to the French
Revolution after
all, but how
could two people
experience the
same vision?

Winter 2016

A GRAIN OF

THOUGHT
UNDERSTANDING THE PINEAL GLAND
by James Sullivan

44 brainworldmagazine.com

BRAIN IN FOCUS

Winter 2016

The great
philosopher and
mathematician
Rene Descartes
even called it
the principle
seat of the soul,
a sort of throne
where the body
and the intellect
converged.

You probably learned in grade school that our brain is

hard at work even when were asleep but probably still
have a hard time imagining what exactly its doing while our
bodies are at rest, even when we dont have to be up for the
9 a.m. shift. Its tempting to think that the dreams we have
(as wonderfully bizarre as they may be), are sort of a way that
the brain has fun after spending the entire day processing
visual information and relaying these messages back to our
nervous system the puritans even believed that dreams
were the places that the human soul wandered at night, and
what we recalled were the remainders of distant memories.
Until as late as the 1920s, sleep was thought to be the
result of a lack of blood to the brain, rather than the result
of a unique function of one particular gland the pineal
gland, which lies beneath the two hemispheres, shaped like a
pine cone, tucked away by the epithalamus. This is not to say
that the importance of the pineal gland went unnoticed for
centuries. The ancient Hindus saw it as a region of mystery
the Ajna chakra, acting as some sort of third eye into the
world of dreaming. The great philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes even called it the principle seat of the
soul, a sort of throne where the body and the intellect converged, and thought he had gotten closer than anyone else in
understanding the connection between human intelligence
and the soul.

This claim might sound absurd, and was attacked even

by Descartes contemporaries,
but its easy to understand why
he may have thought this. The
gland is surrounded by a mass
of carotid arteries at its location and has more profuse
blood flow than any other place
in the body, besides the kidneys.
In fact, its one of the few parts
of the human brain that is not
insulated by the blood-brain
barrier wall. Its only about the
size of a grain of rice, and is fully
grown by the time youre 2 years
old, although its weight increases
steadily from the time of adolescence and onward. Part of this
is due to calcium deposits in the
pineal gland, which appear more
frequently as we get older, known
as brain sand.
It is the bodys producer of
melatonin, which it creates in
response to nightfall, or more
specifically, the onset of darkness
which can cause wintertime
depression in some people when
the hours of sunlight disappear
steadily by the day. When you first
open your eyes in the morning,
cells in the retinae behind your
eyes react, signaling the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which releases fibers that then relay signals of light
across the spinal cord and into the
pineal gland, effectively throwing
our bodies in sync with a 24hour solar day, impacting things
like the peak of energy, with our
strongest reaction time happening
around the 15-hour mark, and
experiencing our lowest blood
pressure in the early morning
hours just before waking.
The link between our rate of
aging and the amount of daily
sleep we get is also well established, and dreams are now believed to function as a means of
emotional and mood regulation.
An insufficient amount has been
linked to hypertension and Type
2 diabetes, but also depression,
when levels of melatonin are not
optimal. Fluctuations in melatonin impact both the rate at
which we age and also the degree
continued on page

46 brainworldmagazine.com

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Personality

A Q&A WITH RECTOR FRANCISCO ROJAS-ARAVENA

by Samantha Macia and Deniz Cam

As the U.N. convened its 70th General Assembly, Brain World talked with
Dr. Francisco Rojas-Aravena, the current rector of the University for Peace
(UPEACE). We asked him about our world and why UPEACEs work is
significant, given the direction of the U.N. While answering our questions,
Rector Rojas-Aravena focused on the importance of sustainable growth and
reminded us how we all, as humans, strive for a common goal: A better life.
In 2013, Rector Rojas-Aravena was appointed as the next leader of UPEACE
a U.N.-mandated educational institution founded in 1980. Rojas-Aravena
holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Utrecht, and a M.Sc. in
political science from FLACSO (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences). But
his success cannot be constrained to his academic work. Rector Rojas-Aravena
has been actively collaborating with world leaders from various countries to find
new ways to resolve conflicts. He is committed to sharing his knowledge with the
world and making a difference.
continued on next page

48 brainworldmagazine.com

Winter 2016

WITH THE
DIGITAL
COMMUNICATION REVOLUTION,
MOST PEOPLE HAVE
GAINED THE
OPPORTUNITY TO
COMMUNICATE AND
PUT FORTH
THEIR OWN
IDEAS.

50 brainworldmagazine.com

Rojas-Aravena contd
Brain World: Can you tell us
about the history of UPEACE?
Francisco Rojas-Aravena: UPEACE is the result of an initiative
presented to the U.N. in 1980 by
Rodrigo Carazo, the president of
Costa Rica at the time. The international context was filled with
regional wars including the civil
wars in Central America. Carazos idea to establish UPEACE
was to send a message to the
world that a higher-education
institution for peace was needed
in order to achieve peace. His
belief in democracy re-prioritized
Costa Rican values and made it
a human rights-oriented state,
an unarmed country and one
of the oldest democracies of the
region. Costa Rica was also the
country that invited different
international organizations to
visit, and thus became an international cradle for human
rights and home to different
international organizations. The
proposition for UPEACE moved
very quickly within the U.N. and
was approved by resolution 3555 on December 5, 1980. Thus,
the core structure of the university was created: A postgraduate
university to educate and train
people on conflict resolution, to
teach them the ability to transform conflict and develop peace
through education.

BW: What would you say the

goal of the university is?
FRA: Basically, the university was
established with a clear determination to become an international
institution of higher education
for peace and to promote a spirit
of understanding, tolerance, and
peaceful coexistence. The university fosters cooperation among
people and helps lessen obstacles
and threats to world peace by also
complying with the aspirations of
the U.N. charter. By perceiving
education as the main tool for
peace, the university started with a
variety of courses. The first course
was in international relations and
international cooperation. By the
end of the 90s, the U.N. decided
to change the curriculum to focus
more on the initial aim of the university. As a result, all the masters
degrees started being taught in
English, and the university broadened the amount of applicants,
receiving students from different
parts of the world.
BW: Would you say that the
university has been successful?
FRA: Looking back on these
35 years, it is evident that the
university has been able to create new leaders in this area with
more than 1,650 alumni who
work in more than 101 countries,
where they are committed to developing our world. One of our
most successful alums happens
to be the first lady of Costa Rica,
who studied at UPEACE during
the 90s, and who, today, thanks
in large part to her postgraduate studies, works closely with
local and regional governments
on matters of cooperation and
integration as part of her political
agenda. Our alumni generally
work with the U.N., international organizations, NGOs, governments, the private sector, and
academia.

BW: The academic spectrum

of the university is clearly very
impressive. Could you elaborate
more on the curriculum?
FRA: We have one comprehensive area of study on Peace
and Conflict, which includes
four masters degrees: International Peace Studies; Gender
and Peacebuilding; Media, Peace
and Conflict Studies; and Peace
Education. We also have masters
degrees in International Law
with two specializations: one in
Human Rights and the other
in the Settlement of Disputes.
Environmental Studies is also
one of the broader areas, with
four specializations related to
Environmental Security, Natural
Resources Management, Climate
Change Policy, and Sustainable
Food Systems. We also give students the opportunity to focus
on responsible management for
sustainable development.
BW: Where do you think the
U.N. is headed?
FRA: The U.N. has recently
been making relevant decisions
for conflict resolution. This subject is one of the most important issues today, as the conflicts worldwide become more complex.
This is an especially crucial year
because of U.N.s 70th anniversary. The U.N. will make decisive
choices in four main areas, and
peacekeeping is one of the most
important. The secretary-general
created a special group to redesign and rethink peace and the
role of peacekeeping military
forces, since political will is more
important than military force
to resolve conflicts. The people
in the field need to be thinking
of those in need and view their
protection as the main objective.
The second and probably
most important area is related to sustainable development
and growth for the Post-2015
and Development Agenda 2030
programs. We must eliminate
extreme poverty all around the
world. We also cannot move
forward without addressing the
need for water in various parts

WE MUST ELIMINATE EXTREME POVERTY

ALL AROUND THE WORLD.

Winter 2016

Rojas-Aravena contd
of the globe. In terms of extreme
poverty, there has been important
progress. In the case of Latin
America, more than 50 million
people used to live in poverty,
and today, a significant portion
of them represent a new middle
class. A similar progression occurred in China, India, Brazil,
and Indonesia, too. But much
remains undone.
The third area, which is the
most significant threat to the human race, is climate change. At
the end of 2015, a conference on
climate change will convene in
Paris. If countries cannot achieve
a specific plan to battle against
climate change, we will very likely have to confront an inexplicable humanitarian disaster. Some
scientists argue that although the
world population is currently at
8 billion people, we could lose at
least half of that population if the
average temperature goes up by 2
degrees Celsius.
The fourth and final area of
focus for the U.N. during its
70th anniversary is that of human rights and the strengthening
of the Human Rights Council.
Presently, each country presents a
report to the council, which gives
its recommendations, but this is
not enough. Todays challenge is
to find ways to improve human
rights protection through the
U.N. That way, by preventing
the violation of human rights in
certain parts of the world, we will
not have to deal with worse crises
in the future. Historically, countries struggling with civil wars or
complex conflicts almost always
present warning signs about a decade before the conflict, among
them polarization and the full
violation of human rights.

52 brainworldmagazine.com

BW: What can people do as

individuals to support these
changes?
FRA: In our globalized world,
transnational dialogues have become more common and possible. With the digital communication revolution, most people
have gained the opportunity to
communicate and put forth their
own ideas. This revolution could
be used in very constructive and
productive ways: for building
peace, for focusing on human
rights, and for accomplishing the
dream of happiness for all. However, this possibility could also be
abused and used for destruction.
For that reason, taking action is
crucial, and each individuals goal
should be to create institutions
for more permanent actions while
using their own ideas and incorporating those of others.
BW: If we are to see peace as
the absence of tension or stress,
are there any meditative courses
that focus on the brain and
stress resolution?
FRA: Well, I think that the university has a variety of courses
that focus on inner peace from
different perspectives. We see the
role of the institution as transforming conflict and creating
the space to solve problems in a
nonviolent way through education. But although the reduction
of stress is important, I think that
its necessary to have some level
of adrenaline/tension in order
to undertake action. Otherwise,
you might feel too comfortable
and less inclined to act. Peace
requires courage and a lot of
input, which can also lead to
great frustration, because sometimes you make progress and
realize that there is still a long
way ahead. It is important not
to forget that this is a permanent
process and to ensure that when
you look back, you have taken all
the necessary steps to achieve the
final goal.

BW: Would you say that you

have a role model who shaped
your path?
FRA: I think various people influenced me in different ways.
We are currently using Mother
Teresas famous quote, Peace
begins with a smile, around the
campus, in hopes that students
will remember that change begins with each of us, and so I
will say that great leaders like
her are my first inspiration. If
you smile, this causes a reaction
in others to smile back. This is
not to say that if you smile in the
face of starvation and disaster, it
will have any impact. Nevertheless, when it comes to mastering
negotiation, smiling is a necessary tool. Professor Roger Fisher
(of Harvard University) taught
me how to negotiate during my
studies through the Harvard Negotiation Project. I also learned
so much from my academic studies in Latin America and Europe
(the Netherlands). I was always
lucky, because I always had the
opportunity to meet influential
people who inspired me, including several Latin American presidents from different countries. In
the case of Costa Rica, president
Rodrigo Carazo (1978-1982),
president Luis Alberto Monge
(1982-1986), Nobel Prize-winner president Oscar Arias (19861990 and 2006-2010), president
Laura Chinchilla (2010-2014),
and current president Luis Guillermo Solis (2014-2018). More
important than the knowledge
they gave me is the friendship
they provided me with, which
helped shape my perception of
the world. I get to work with
presidents and show them my
work and I feel that through these

political dialogues you always

learn a lot, because presidents are
quite bright people. Many want
to believe that most presidents
are not smart, that they managed
to become heads of states by luck
alone, but I have found this to
be quite untrue. The presidents
Ive met are visionaries, persistent
and perceptive and thus able to
create opportunities to present
their citizens with a better life.
I am grateful that Ive had the
opportunity to work at this university, because I see it as a way to
say Thank you to all these people, to Costa Rica, to president
Carazo, to president Monge,
to president Arias, to president
Chinchilla, and to president Solis. Thanks to them, my ideas can
now be disseminated within the
academic world and truly make
a difference. I am very pleased to
contribute to the development
and the relaunch of UPEACE, a
leading institution that has been
educating leaders for peace for
the last 35 years.

SUBSCRIBE TO
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Celebrity

A CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD DAWKINS

by James Sullivan

Out, out brief candle! Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player. That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more, were
the last words of Shakespeares tyrant Macbeth, the passage that inspired
the title of Richard Dawkins new book, this time a memoir, Brief Candle
in the Dark, in which he reflects on his long, prolific career as an evolutionary biologist and popular science writer, and what he calls the incredible privilege of being alive why were here, what lifes about, why the
world is here, why the universe is here. The monologue, which Dawkins
passionately recited to me over the phone, is also a nod to his friend, the
late astronomer Carl Sagan and author of The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle in the Dark, who argued the importance of skepticism
and the scientific method as the best cure for superstition.
continued on next page
54 brainworldmagazine.com

Winter 2016

Photo: Lalla Ward

Dawkins contd

I did well
in biology at
school, and it
was what my
father studied,
so I followed
in his footsteps
in a way. Ive
always been
drawn to the
philosophical
aspects of
science
those questions
like why were
here, and what
life is about.

56 brainworldmagazine.com

Dawkins, best known for coining the meme and for his work
on genetic mutation the way
in which genes seem to act in
their own interest in the way they
replicate, rather than serving to
benefit the organism didnt
really become a household name
in the United States until 2006
with his bestseller The God
Delusion, in which he rebukes
organized religion and makes
the case that a supreme deity
almost certainly does not exist.
He continues to be one of the
most prominent voices of the
New Atheism movement, earning the ire of many fundamentalist Christians and Muslims. In
that book, however, Dawkins
also discussed the evolutionary
advantage that religion may have
had: I think religion is a by-

product of several psychological

predispositions, which in themselves have Darwinian survival
value, but consequences which
probably dont. Its probably a
good thing for a child to listen to,
or believe his parents, when they
say not to touch a fire. The brain
picks up on this to believe
what your parents or tribal elders
tell you, and that could have
survival value. The trouble is that
at an early age, the child has no
way of knowing the difference
between the good things and the
bad things they are told.
Civilization was only a recent
development for humanity, coming about over the last 8,000
years or so, following a number
of centuries of tribal living
times at which believing that
large and dangerous predators
lurked in the tall grass could have
meant the difference between
life and death. Somehow, this
mentality, along with the brains
tendency to interact with other
brains and form new connections, could have eventually given birth to organized religion as
we know it today. Not everyone
would readily agree, however.
Many of Dawkins harshest
detractors are also critical of the
theory of evolution by natural selection, the predominant
theory of all biology and one of
the most strongly supported scientific ideas that accounts for the
vast array of diversity on Earth
a growing concern for professor Dawkins, whose own me-

dia appearances have sometimes

been manipulated by creationists
that reject evolution for a literal
interpretation of the Bible: I did
well in biology at school, and it
was what my father studied, so
I followed in his footsteps in a
way. Ive always been drawn to
the philosophical aspects of science those questions like why
were here, and what life is about.
If you look at the human eye, it is
a beautiful piece of machinery, albeit with many revealing flaws as
well. Up until Darwins time, its
sophistication was taken by many
to be evidence of design, and it
was a stupendous intellectual
feat of Darwin and his successors
to find a purely mechanistic explanation for that appearance of
design. We live in a time in which
science has an answer for it.
Dawkins delivered a memorable explanation of the human
eye as the gradual product of
evolution from an aquatic ancestor in his first television foray, his
1987 documentary, The Blind
Watchmaker, which took him to
Americas Bible Belt: Even today
[according to the Gallup Poll],
more than 40 percent of people
in North America consistently
believe that life on Earth began
less than 10,000 years ago, which
is pretty worrying. I dont notice
it when I travel around America
when I give talks to large audiences even in the Bible Belt, I
usually get very enthusiastic reception, but I assume the polls
are not lying, so weve got a struggle ahead of us. I like to think we
are winning it, I mean, weve got
the evidence on our side, so I like
to be optimistic.

Dawkins has also had his share

of criticism from atheists as well,
some of whom are afraid that efforts to unite atheists and other
skeptics of religion may cause
them to be seen as just another religion, indirectly encouraging the
same tribalism they wish to distance themselves from. However,
Dawkins believes that atheism is
evidence of a healthy and independent mind while religious doctrine
is merely a way to justify belief
without evidence the same
line of thinking that has allowed
things like homeopathy or psychic
hotlines to thrive. Consequently,
he has endorsed the Brights Movement, which seeks to unite people
who share in a naturalistic worldview, and defended the use of the
word bright to describe likeminded people.
It hasnt caught on in the
way I think they had hoped.
Im not entirely sure why I
think because people think its
arrogant. Its meant to be a noun,
not an adjective and many
people who hear it think that the
opposite of a bright is a dim.
Rather, the opposite of a bright
is a super, as proposed by Daniel
Dennett, someone who believes
in the supernatural, which perhaps not many people would
find objectionable, being called
a super. There are those in the
skeptic movement as well who
like to denounce homeopathy
and astrology while giving religion a free pass. I tend to lump
them all together.

His new book is the sequel to

An Appetite for Wonder, which
detailed his youth growing up in
Kenya and his days as a student
at Oxford and at the University
of California, Berkeley. I asked
professor Dawkins at what moment in life did he find himself
drawn to the sciences, what drives
his passion for discovery, but
he quickly made me realize I
was asking the wrong question.
Instead, it should be why arent
people more deeply invested in
the sciences than what we are
currently seeing? Why shouldnt
we all be interested in it, at least
enough to be scientifically literate citizens? Particularly in an
age where technology is rapidly
evolving and new discoveries are
frequently being made, like NASAs recent announcement that
theres evidence of flowing water
on Mars.
In the years since The Selfish
Gene was published, the meme
or idea spreading from person
to person within a culture has
found a permanent place in the
lexicon with the advent of Facebook and social media. A generation of people has grown up
reading Dawkins books. Among
those who credit him as an influ-

ence is Elise Andrew, founder of

the popular website I Freaking
Love Science. I asked Dawkins
what advice he had for those who
sought to pursue careers in science
or technology: Its fascinating,
its enthralling, its thrilling to be
part of this great, cooperative international enterprise to get to the
truth, and I stress cooperative and
international because you cant
say that about all cultural and all
educational enterprises. Science
truly is international. Its the truth
and its the same wherever you are,
whatever language you speak, and
I think theres something inspiring about that.

We have an
incredible
privilege of
being alive
why were
here, what
lifes about,
why the world
is here, why
the universe is
here.

Not only are

they present in
every species of
mammals, but
nearly every
vertebrate has
this gland,
leading many
evolutionary
biologists to
suspect that the
pineal gland
is in fact the
remains of a
much larger,
active organ.

58 brainworldmagazine.com

Pineal Gland contd

of rest activity necessary for each
individual, with the suprachiasmatic nucleus acting as the
bodys personal alarm clock, or
quite literally, you might say, our
biological clock. Melatonin levels
first begin to build up around 9
p.m. and act like fatigue toxins
that gradually pile up before they
bring about sleep.
Perhaps this is why were hardly the only animals to possess
one. Not only are they present
in every species of mammals, but
nearly every vertebrate has this
gland, leading many evolutionary biologists to suspect that the
pineal gland is in fact the remains
of a much larger, active organ that
may have once resided between
both halves of the thalamus, this
being the line of symmetry between both hemispheres of the
brain which focuses primarily on
the regulation of sensory motor
functions. A vast cortex of nerves
stretches out from the thalamus
and into the brain, all of them
dependent on the functioning of
one powerhouse which itself is
so small that it can be mistaken
for a tumor if placed under a microscope. In some reptiles, such
as crocodilians, the gland has
already vanished entirely, disappearing over enough generations
of natural selection.
Although its been nearly a
century since serious study of
the pineal gland commenced, the
exact nature of how it releases
melatonin is still only partially
established, meaning weve only
come a bit closer to understand-

ing it than Descartes. The substance was first isolated in 1958

by dermatologist Aaron B. Lerner, who was particularly interested in how it might help treat
skin conditions. It is believed
that the secretions of melatonin
are strongest during the hours of
sleep, and greater concentrations
of melatonin are associated with
bouts of more vivid dreaming.
Among the more intriguing
properties of melatonin is its role
as an antioxidant chemicals
that not only benefit the skin,
but which can slow the process of
aging. By reacting with the skin
and breaking down electrons,
antioxidants prevent free radicals
involved in tissue damage
primarily the type of freeform
cells that produce cancers. Four
decades after Lerners discovery,
melatonin was synthesized for
the first time as a liquid, to be
taken as a sleep aid, as well as
a preventive treatment for migraines. Because melatonin is so
effective at protecting the state
of mitochondrial DNA, it has a
wide variety of uses: from guarding against radiation exposure
to preventing gallstones, as its
presence decreases the amount
of cholesterol in the gallbladder.
Lerner and his colleagues
werent so successful in finding
a cure for melanoma, but they
found something much bigger:
The beginning of chronobiology,
or rather, the science of how life
is affected directly by the moving
of the cosmos namely, the way
that living things on Earth have
adapted to the planetary orbit
around the sun. Just a slight modification could have led to the
world today looking very different. While we think of a universe
as gravitating toward structures of
ever-complex order, its also critical to understand the rhythm that
brings about that order.
We also now know that melatonin contains another very
valuable property that keeps the
secretions of the pineal gland
a constant topic of interest

protection from the brain against

neurodegeneration, the deterioration of brain tissue that is
typical in patients suffering with
Alzheimers disease and other
forms of dementia, which are
thought to be the culmination
of oxidative stress. With a greater
percentage of the population living longer, along with growing
evidence that air pollution may
play at least a partial role in the
spread of Alzheimers, the number of cases is expected to grow in
the near future.
Fortunately, our understanding of dementia is greater than
ever before, thanks in part to
advances made in neuroscience
technology. While we have been
successful in isolating the damaged proteins that play a part,
and synthesizing byproducts of
the brain like melatonin, we are
drawing nearer to a full picture of
how the brains glands function as
well. On this journey, who knows
how many more treatments are
just waiting to be discovered?

SUBSCRIBE TO
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TODAY!

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THE SCIENCE * THE DISCOVERIES
THE REVELATIONS * THE INSIGHTS * THE LESSONS
THE CONTROVERSIES * THE RESEARCH
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PIXARS
LIGHT AT
THE END
OF THE
TUNNEL
INSIDE OUT (PIXAR, 2015)
by Deniz Cam

Life-changing events from our childhood remain easily

accessible through our memories, no matter how many decades pass. When asked, we can quickly remember the time
our parents approached us with a big smile and told us we
were moving. Maybe we remember the time we were told
we would have to change schools and thought it was the end
of the world. We could not understand our parents excitement, thinking that they not only had to worry about this
serious decision, but should be more concerned about the
memories that would be left behind. As a retrospective feast
of brilliant animation and narrative, Pixars new blockbuster
Inside Out takes us back to our childhoods, reminding us
how we dealt with life-changing events, and showing us that
maybe it was not that bad after all.
60 brainworldmagazine.com

Those of us who have seen

Pixars most recent movies can
attest to the fact that the animation studio has successfully
been hitting that soft spot in
our hearts every single time.
The companys successful Up
made millions cry. The audience
sympathized with the grumpyold-man-of-the-neighborhood,
who did everything in his power to commemorate that one
woman who meant the world
to him. With Inside Out, we
find ourselves on the other side
of the age spectrum, looking

at the world from the perspective of 12-year-old Riley. We

are admitted into Rileys brain,
wherein reside the emotions
running her body and memories. Joy, sadness, fear, anger, and
disgust appear as well-developed
characters.
In the world of Inside Out,
memories and emotions collaborate within a complex system.
When a memory is being made,
it enters the brain as a delicate
glass ball, colored by the emotion that was mostly involved
with the experience. For ex-

AS A RETROSPECTIVE
FEAST OF BRILLIANT
ANIMATION AND
NARRATIVE, PIXARS
NEW BLOCKBUSTER
INSIDE OUT TAKES
US BACK TO OUR
CHILDHOODS.

ample, little Rileys first successful hockey experience sits in her

brain as a yellow ball (this being
the color of joy). Each memory
is very valuable to the emotion
involved, but the human brain
has core memories defining the
fundamentals of ones personality. As these colorful memory
balls accumulate, Rileys brain
branches off into character islands, namely: hockey, family,
friendship, honesty, and goofball. Her complexity is defined
by her memories and the emotions they bring out.

While the functioning of the

brain is captivating enough, the
real story starts when Rileys
brain cannot stop reacting to the
situation she is in. Although her
emotions first interact peacefully, sadness cannot prevent her
from touching the core memories, which were all in the territory of joy. Joy and sadness
have a fight, sending the core
memories into a deep hole in the
brain, and we meet the movies
real villain: Depression.
Inside Out succeeds in acknowledging mental problems

through a realistic and fairly optimistic lens. The movie explains

depression vibrantly without antagonizing it, arguing that you
can recognize depression and
fight against it with the help of
good intentions and some courage. Our growth, according to
Pixar, depends on our emotions
understanding each other, and
this could be done with some
initiative to train our brain. Although it is not always easy, if
we find the power within our
brain, we can always find a way
to move forward.
Winter 2016

Book
Roundup

62 brainworldmagazine.com

OFTEN WHERE
MEMOIRS ARE
CONCERNED, A
SMOOTH AND
CONSECUTIVE LINE
OF EVENTS IS
PRESENTED IN THE
CHAPTERS, BUT
DAWKINS DEVIATES
FROM THIS FORMULA
AND INSTEAD PROVIDES
QUICK GLIMPSES AND
SNIPPETS OF HIS LIFE
AND WORK.

Brief Candle in the Dark:

My Life in Science
By Richard Dawkins
(HarperCollins, 2015)
In the sequel to his first bestselling memoir An Ap-

petite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins discusses his experiences in the world of science and academia. Hailing
Carl Sagan in the title, Brief Candle in the Dark is less
personal in nature than its 2013 predecessor. Picking
up immediately where An Appetite for Wonder left
off, Dawkins discusses the nuances of human interaction in the academic sphere as well as the professional
world of fellow biologists. Dawkins begins with tales
from his days as a professor at Oxford, and recalls them
with a sense of humor that isnt so commonly found in
scientific publications (but is nevertheless characteristic of Dawkins). Discussing offbeat questions posed
to students like Why do animals have heads? and
Why do mirrors reverse from left to right but dont
turn the image upside down? questions which illustrate how he and his colleagues posed inquiries that
prompted intelligent answers, and as such deviated
from what Dawkins describes as IQ intelligence. It
wasnt important that the applicants got the answer
right but rather how they came to the answers they
gave, to determine whether or not they would benefit
from an Oxford education.
Often where memoirs are concerned, a smooth
and consecutive line of events is presented in the
chapters, but Dawkins deviates from this formula and
instead provides quick glimpses and snippets of his
life and work interspersed with amusing anecdotes,
like actually being held captive during the 1991 Faraday
Christmas Lecture he gave on the evolution of the
eye (part of a tradition that kept the chosen speaker
from backing out at the last minute). In some ways,
Brief Candle in the Dark doesnt differ from any of
Dawkins other works, because the subject matter
as well as his approach of discussing it is the same.
The most important facts are presented starkly and
with a great deal of self-promotion. However, the
snapshot experiences he narrates are often framed
by excerpts from his other books, and in this way the
memoir takes on somewhat of a less original reading
experience something which is uncharacteristic of
Dawkins. Nevertheless, the book succinctly narrates
the continuous learning experience involved with a
career in evolutionary biology, and the pressing need
for reason in a world steeped in constant natural and
technological change.
Caroline Smith

Infectious Madness
By Harriet A. Washington
(Little, Brown and Company, 2015)
In her book, Infectious Madness, Harriet A.
Washington leaves no stone unturned in the search to
connect the ailments of the brain to those of the physical body. From Khmer refugees in the United States
to children whose spontaneous cases of obsessive
compulsive disorder shock their families, Washington
suggests that the increase in mental illnesses may not
have as much to do with genetic predisposition as scientists previously thought. Washington acknowledges
her somewhat controversial claim, while at the same
time reiterating throughout the book that the medical
field, as well as society at large, cannot advance in understanding mental illness if we all hold to a cognitive
bias. In fact, Washington elaborates in the first chapter
that physicians are just as guilty of groupthink as the
American public. She suggests that though biological
contagion is universally acknowledged as the reason
for physical ailments, its almost never acknowledged
as being related to mental ailments. Conversely,
mental ailments are nearly always attributed to social
stimuli, but that social contagiousness is also a very
real cause of mental illness.
Washington cites conversations with Susan Swedo,
M.D. a pediatrician at the Maryland National Institutes of Health to elaborate the point. Both had
noticed suspicious coincidences between mental and
physical health throughout history. Washington is quick
to link a surge in schizophrenia cases near the end of
the 19th century with a zoonotic infection carried by
cats. Coincidentally, the 1870s also saw a surge in the
ownership of cats as pets in American households.
Washington also cites that Hippocrates treated mania
and hysteria by attempting to correct humoral imbalance the very same way physical ailments were
treated in ancient Greece. In this way, her theory
on mind/body dualism is not necessarily new, but
certainly explains a socially and scientifically complex
predicament. Washingtons research and fluid prose
blend seamlessly into a guide where the relationship
between the mind and the body is ruthlessly questioned, and advice on protecting oneself from microbial
infections is prioritized alongside the latest strides in
scientific progress.
Caroline Smith

Winter 2016

Supernatural Power

64 brainworldmagazine.com

by Jeremy Fuscaldo

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January

WINTER 2016

3-9
Obergurgl, Austria
FENS Hertie Winter School on
Neurobiology of Language and
Communication
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

Events
Abu Dhabi

10-14
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Biology of Down Syndrome:
Impacts Across the Biomedical
Spectrum
Keystone Symposia
11-14
Eliat, Israel
2nd International Conference on
Loss, Bereavement and Human
Resilience in Israel and the World
Eliat International Conference
15-17
Scottsdale, Arizona
American Society for Peripheral
Nerve Annual Meeting
American Society for Peripheral
Nerve

Galveston
16-17
Miami Beach, Florida
14th Annual Mild Cognitive Impairment Symposium, The Annual
Alzheimers Early Diagnostic and
Treatment Workshop
Wien Center for Alzheimers
Disease and Memory Disorders,
Mount Sinai Medical Center
16-18
Gros Islet, Saint Lucia
3rd Caribbean Biomedical Research Days
International Stress and Behavior
Society

Obergurgl

18-22
Beirut, Lebanon
Computational Neuroscience by
the Mediterranean
Association for the Study of Mind,
American School of Beirut
19
Ypsilanti, Michigan
The Brain and Recovery: An
Update on Neuroscience of Addiction
Dawn Farm

66 brainworldmagazine.com

23-28
Breckenridge, Colorado
Winter Conference on Brain Research
WCBR
24-27
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Traumatic Brain Injury: Clinical,
Pathological and Translational
Mechanisms
Keystone Symposia
24-27
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Axons: From Cell Biology to Pathology
Keystone Symposia
31 January-February 4
Keystone, Colorado
Neurological Disorders of Intracellular Trafficking
The Keystone Symposia

February
3-6
Boston, Massachusetts
44th Annual Meeting of the
International Neuropsychology
Association
International Neuropsychological
Society
7-12
Galveston, Texas
Alcohol & the Nervous System
Gordon Research Conference
9-11
London, U.K.
Ageing 2016
Euroscicon
14-21
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Palliative Medicine and End of
Life Care
Continued Education, Inc.
15-16
Lausanne, Switzerland
Life Sciences Switzerland Annual
Meeting
The LS2

Boston

17-19
Los Angeles, California
International Stroke Conference
American Heart Association

26
London, U.K.
Clinical Update Sleep
Guys and St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust

19-21
Orlando, Florida
LDN 2016 AIIC Conference
LDN Research Trust

March

23
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Suicide Prevention and Addiction
Dawn Farm

7-10
Sonoma, California
Annual Meeting of the Intelligent
Interfaces Community
University of California Santa Barbara, Association for Computing
Machinery

25-27
Paris, France
3rd International Conference on
Heart and Brain
Kenes International, International
Conference on Heart and Brain
25-28
Salt Lake City, Utah
Computational and Systems Neuroscience
COSYNE

11-12
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
6th International Neonatology
Conference
MENA Conference
13-16
Perth, Australia
36th Annual Scientific Meeting
Australian Pain Society, DC Conferences

13-18
Galveston, Texas
Sleep Regulation & Function
Gordon Research Conference
14-16
London, U.K.
5th World Congress on Neurology
& Therapeutics
OMICS International
16-19
Orlando, Florida
Annual Meeting of the Section on
Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves
Congress of Neurological Surgeons
17-20
Washington, D.C.
New Perspectives on Brain Health
and Aging
American Association of Geriatric
Psychiatry

21-23
San Diego, California
Neurological Biomarkers Conference
GTCbio
26 March-2 April
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Topics in Neurology and Sleep
Medicine for Primary Care Providers
Continuing Education, Inc.
29
Austin, Texas
Chromatin, Non-Coding RNAs and
RNAP II Regulation in Development and Disease
abcam
31 March-4 April
Buzios, Brazil
Second World Conference on Personality
World Association for Personality
Psychology

Buzios

Winter 2016

THE LAST WORD

Thinking
with the
Heart
AN EXCERPT FROM
RESILIENCE FROM THE HEART
by Gregg Braden

In November 1997, I was scheduled to take a tour group into Egypt.

To say that Egypt is an amazing destination is an understatement its
beyond amazing! To actually stand
in front of the great Sphinx, looking up at over 400 feet of the oncecovered stones that are now visible
to the naked eye, is an experience of
a lifetime. And I was under contract
to lead a multinational group into
the Egyptian desert to have precisely
these experiences, and many more.
The national media began carrying the
horrific images of November 17 in the evening news. Armed terrorists had killed 58
foreign tourists and four Egyptians at the
temple of Queen Hatshepsut, a popular archaeological site near the city of Luxor. My
group was scheduled to leave for our tour the
following week.
The choices were clear: I could postpone
the trip until another time, cancel it altogether,
or go forward with it as planned. I felt pulled
from all sides. Everyone I spoke with had an
opinion, and they all made perfect sense.
Through the years of using heart-based
intelligence, Ive learned that the heart works
best when its given brief phrases to respond
to rather than multiple sentences. Our hearts

68 brainworldmagazine.com

THE VALUE OF ACCESSING HEART INTELLIGENCE IS

THAT IT BECOMES POSSIBLE TO ASK OUR QUESTIONS
WITH NO ATTACHMENT TO THE OUTCOME, THROUGH
CHANTE ISTA, THE SINGLE EYE OF THE HEART.
dont need a preface to the question were
asking, or an explanation of the history behind the decision thats at hand. The heart
already knows all of these things. For some
people, the wisdom of the heart comes to
them as a feeling. For others, it can be a sense
of knowing without question, while for still
other people, the answer emerges as a familiar
voice that theyve known throughout their
lifetimes. For me, its generally all of these. I
often hear a subtle voice first, reinforced with
a solid feeling of reassurance, safety, and certainty, followed by a sense of resolution and
completeness.
Before I even finished asking the question,
the answer was there for me: complete, direct,
and clear. Immediately I felt I knew
that our journey would be OK. It would be
profound, deep, and healing. Most of all, I
knew that by allowing intuition to guide us
at each step of our journey, we would be safe.
My decision was based upon the sensory
impressions that I received as the result of a
methodical, science-based process. The value
of accessing heart intelligence is that it becomes possible to ask our questions with no
attachment to the outcome, through chante
ista, the single eye of the heart.

I left for Egypt on schedule the next week

with 40 amazing people to begin a beautiful
adventure and a heartfelt journey that was
full of surprises. The president of Egypt at
the time, Hosni Mubarak, was a friend of
our guide and wrote an official letter giving
the Department of Antiquities permission to
open rare archaeological sites to us throughout our tour. The bonding between our
group and the Egyptian people forged friendships that last to this very day.
Im sharing this story as one example of
how the tool of heart-brain coherence has
served me in the real world. And while this
example was about a big decision involving 40
people and a trip halfway around the world, I
use precisely the same technique, sometimes
on a daily basis, to help me plan my day,
temper relationships, and honor the principles
that are important to me when Im tested in
life. What I know with certainty is that we can
never go wrong when we honor our hearts. I
also know that if heart intelligence works for
me, it will work for you as well.

WORLD 7,(*,
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