Anthony G. Payne Dr. Dennis is a professor of bioengineering at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and worked for NASA as a research scientist. I actually have been evaluating the efficacy of his unique M1 PEMF technology to remediate pain & stimulate cartilage and bone regeneration in volunteers. We seem to share a passion for equipping people with the know-how to help themselves. Check out this this <5 minute video in which Dr. Dennis explains how to make-a ventilator-at-home.
Category Archives: Psychology
Are you feeling obsolete?
How has the dark (and seemingly) neverending night (The pandemic) left you feeling? Confused? Conflicted? Perplexed? Socially alienated? Overwhelmed by fear, anxiety, or even paranoid thoughts? Powerless? Disenfranchised? Hopeless, or worse?
Have you been doing a lot of soul-searching to determine what is worth hanging on to and what is not? Have you quit a job, or walked away from a relationship, routine, or place of worship as a result of this? If not, are you moving closer to doing so?
Have you found yourself asking why all this “badness” is happening? And is this “activities, passions & priorities” winnowing process necessarily a bad thing?
And has the pandemic made you more aware of the uncertainty and transcience that characterizes life?
Read the rest of this entryUNREST & SOCIAL UPHEAVAL: Could a daily dose of Li (3) help blunt the anger, depression, and angst Americans are wrestling with?
In light of all the problems, anger, and unrest that permeate America, it is tempting to regard “the city on a hill” as “the reality TV show gone slugfest on the Hill”. I can’t help but think we have somehow yanked the November 1988 episode of Geraldo in which “self-described racists, white supremacists, and Nazi lovers” got into a free-for-all with other Geraldo guests and audience members and wound up (among other things) breaking Geraldo Rivera’s nose, and relived it a grander (and more threatening) scale on January 6. Click to watch the Geraldo episode in its entirety.
If life ever did imitate art, this moment in American history must surely be it.
I’m sure you have a spin on how we landed in a situation in which the outgoing one-term President has been impeached for a 2nd time based on his alleged role in the recent orgy of violence on Capital Hill carried out by a determined and militant gang of what I’d characterize as “true Trump believers” (Trumpeters?) Consider these recent news items:
Read the rest of this entryVolvox or paramecium: which are you?
Are you a Volvox or a paramecium? Drop down and you’ll see pictures and a description of each below. Put simply, a Volvox is a colony of green algae. A paramecium is a unicellular organism. If you are a Volvox then you tend to be more social than a loner. If you are a paramecium, then you tend to thrive on your own (Not necessarily isolated though you do quite well as a loner) I’m oversimplifying things I know but my biology-based dichotomy makes about as much sense as some personality tests and the neat categories it sorts people into (e.g., extrovert, introvert, ambivert, etc.)
I appreciate and celebrate both the Volvox and the paramecium including their human “incarnations”. A world filled with only Volvoxes or paramecia would be impoverished and very likely dystopian IMO.
If you are a Volvox then you already know how well received you typically are. You are showcased and applauded in books, movies, games, plays, and so much more. Volvoxes tend to be the protagonists or heroes and heroines.
The paramecium — the loner — well, they tend to be portrayed as dysfunctional or at least not enviable. How many sci-fi movies can you name in which a lone wolf mad scientist or inventor is the antagonist or anti-social anti-hero? Nuff said.
Thankfully, there is an antidote. No, not to being a paramecium but rather to being misjudged and even vilified for being one: a book titled “Party of One: The Loner’s Manifesto” (2003) by Annelia Rufus.
Above all, be ye Volvox or paramecium…. or even a hybrid (Volmecium?)….you belong.
| Description | English: volvox aureus colony (green algae) photographed at 400 magnification under the optical microscope in the dark field. SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES |
| Date | 25 January 2015, 16:43:41 |
| Source | Own work |
| Author | Massimo brizzi |
| Description | .English: Paramecium aurelia. Optical microscope. Paramecium aurelia, the best known of all ciliates. The bubbles throughout the cell are vacuoles. The entire surface is covered in cilia, which are blurred by their rapid movement. |
| Date | 10 October 2003 |
| Source | Originally uploaded to the English Wikipedia, where it was made by Barfooz. |
| Author | Barfooz at the English Wikipedia. |
| Other versions | Transparent |
The American experiment: recovery, revolution or resignation (to decline & fall)?
As I put fingers to keyboard (August 2020) it is very evident that America is in very deep trouble. Our chickens have come home to roost. While debates rage about the exact nature and extend of the sins, unredressed wrongs, bad policies, corruption, inequality, racism and xenophobia and such that landed us in such dire straits, and how to address or remedy them, I for one am convinced that neither a left or right wing sociopolitical revolution will have a good outcome. Nor will scraping everything up to and including the Constitution and starting over “from scratch” (The French Committee of Public Safety dictatorship tried their hand at radically reinventing France’s social, economic & political order including introducing a secular Republican calendar and dechristianizing France. These extreme reforms paved the way for the Reign of Terror).
And, mind you, I am a democratic socialist. I’ve been one since 1986. But I also know how often revolutions meant to liberate “the people” – especially those that took place in the last century – wound up suppressing dissent and even eliminating dissenters (and other “undesirables”) by often cruel, inhuman means.
In light of human nature as reflected in history, it is difficult to imagine that any revolution-spawned modern day government, no matter how benign its intentions, will be able to resist relying on sophisticated surveillance, cyber warfare and AI technologies to “manage” its people and fend off its enemies (Real or imagined/contrived).
Read the rest of this entryCOVID-19: Lots of easy to access posts on my FACEBOOK page
I post many news articles & such on COVID-19 (and much more) along with my comments in many instances on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DrAGPayne.choctawdoc
My posts are almost always accessible by the public (This way you do not need to become a “Facebook Friend” of mine to access and read them).
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MAKE A VENTILATOR AT HOME
https://www.youtube.com/watch…
youtube.com
Anthony G. Payne PS I sincerely hope you NEVER have to make & use this homemade ventilator on a COVID-19 stricken spouse, relative, friend, or such!
Antivirus nasal spray you can make at home (Git-R-Done)
The fish tank cleaner contains the same active ingredient as the drug, but in a different form that can poison people.
washingtonpost.com
The fish tank cleaner contains the same active ingredient as the drug, but in a different form that can poison people.
Anthony G. Payne The toxicity of even the right drug – chloroquine — as well as hydroxychloroquinine — and the lack of substantive evidence that they actually produce benefits outweighing the risks — are prompting many scientists and docs to hit the pause button on them. However, back in the mid 1980s while dealing with a handful of AIDs sufferers (Dallas) I had them try a specific compound that was nontoxic — showed activity against certain parasites and viruses — and which actually had an positive impact of their condition. This whole chloroquinine discussion got to me to reflecting on this. Now I am arranging to obtain my old chemical friend and combine it with the other nontoxic antiviral compounds to see if it will make a dent in COVID-19 in the lab (I do not work with the actual virus but have a pipeline to researchers who are and who are seeking novel solutions to test against this insidious virus). Ever forward….
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Idiot pastor in Ohio holds Sunday service in his megachurch
In Warren County, Ohio, a state where the governor has issued a stay-at-home mandate to slow the spread of coronavirus, Solid Rock Church pastor Lawrence Bishop invited worshippers yesterday to his…
boingboing.net
In Warren County, Ohio, a state where the governor has issued a…
In Warren County, Ohio, a state where the governor has issued a stay-at-home mandate to slow the spread of coronavirus, Solid Rock Church pastor Lawrence Bishop invited worshippers yesterday to his…
Anthony G. Payne I suspect the pastor of this megachurch has trouble distinguishing presumption from faith. It is an intellectual defect I’ve seen at work in many congregations down through the years, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Anthony G. Payne Thankfully it appears most megachurch leaders have already wised up……https://slate.com/…/its-a-big-deal-that-megachurches…
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slate.comIt’s a Big Deal That Megachurches Are Canceling Live ServicesIt’s a Big Deal That Megachurches Are Canceling Live Services
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Book recommendation for “Aping Mankind” by Raymond Tallis, FMedSci, FRCP, FRSA
If you have kept up with the flurry of books and papers on the nature of consciousness published in just the past decade alone, then you probably are under the impression that neuroscientists have made an overwhelmingly convincing case for brain activity as the source of consciousness and all else that is associated with this (“We are our brains”). And surely evolutionary psychologists have nailed down the most likely evolutionary influences and players that gave rise to key human mental and psychological traits. If you are tempted to say “Well, yes they have” to both, I want you to buy, beg or borrow a copy of “Aping Mankind” by Dr. Raymond Tallis and give it a thoughtful, careful read. By the time you finish perusing it, you will probably find your confidence badly shaken.
Mind you, Dr. Tallis’s critical literary tour-de-force is informed by his own rich academic and professional background in medicine, clinical neuroscience and philosophy. And, he is an atheist (He thus came to his thesis without religious convictions or sentiments).
And, just in case there is someone reading this who suspects Dr. Tallis is a creationist or is in any way sympathetic to such pseudoscientific nonsense, he is most empathetically not.
“Aping Mankind” ably tackles (what Dr. Tallis terms) “Neuromania” and “Darwinitis” with hard-hitting reasoning and arguments based on secular science and empiricism, logic, and good sense. In addition, Dr. Tallis’s book serves as a powerful reminder that in science nothing is forever settled or final; which is to say, even well-established principles, theories or laws can be overturned by sufficiently compelling contrary evidence.
Summer Cloud gives “Aping Mankind” 5 out of 5 stars.
© 2017 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
You’ll never believe how I acquired a daughter!
How many times during the course of your life have you created a social or personal reality or embraced one created by others? By this, I am not referring to an imaginary playmate or fantasy job or such but, rather, to a reality or fact based on mutual agreement or assent.
Sound crazy? It isn’t. The imminent philosopher John Searle actually devoted part of a whole book to the thesis that there are 2 kinds of facts: Those that are facts no matter who observes them, and then there are those that only need people’s agreement or assent to them. A fossil ammonite, for instance, is a physical object that remains a fossil ammonite no matter who looks at it or holds it. A church group’s claim that an archangel hovered over their last meeting is a mental reality to those who perceived it but cannot be demonstrated to those who do not share this perception/belief-based perspective (The same can be said of some treatments and diagnostic techniques in the world of complementary-alternative medicine).
What will you let life do to you this year?
When you were a young lad or lassie how many times were you asked, “What will you do in life when you grow up?”
I have a different spin on this which is not peculiar youth or young people: What will you let life do to you?
“What do I mean?”, you ask. It’s really quite simple: Every person, influence, work of art and music, hobby, passion, group, tribe and such is writing paragraphs and chapters in the unique storybook which is your life. Your very being may even form a dynamic circuit with select others.
Picture your life as a huge whiteboard. Now walk along and read the entries on it — “the good, bad and ugly”, if you will. As you look around you see the various people in your life writing on your “lifeboard”. What kind of story has emerged? Are you happy with it? If not, how many “bad content writers” can and should be banned from writing on your lifeboard in 2015?
Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Book review: “To Heaven & Back” by Mary C. Neal, MD (Great read but it raises many concerns)
I am like many of you reading this fascinated by unusual happenings and accounts including NDEs (near death experiences), UFOs, Bigfoot, and so forth. Actually so long as a claim does not violate the established laws of physics or chemistry and has not already been convincingly refuted by contrary evidence, one must allow that the phenomenon or what-have-you in question might one day garner sufficient proof to compel acknowledging its reality. However, until the jury is in (solid evidence) it is usually prudent to remain agnostic on the matter (With the exception of things believed on the basis of faith and not testable using the tools of science — such as the existence of God).
There is nothing, for example, to disallow the existence of Bigfoot (Sasquatch) or a Yeti. The existence of such primates do not require a violation or suspension of the laws that govern the natural world nor even quality as extraordinary in the same sense, say, as an alien or fairy or ghost would. The problem with Bigfoot and the Yeti lies in a lack of evidence. There has been lots of frauds and biological samples that turned out to be from cows and bears and such, but no hair or tissue DNA (much less corpses) that reveal a previously unknown bipedal primate.
Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are a phenomenon that involves biological events surrounding dying and death, especially brain states that tend to give rise to things like leaving one’s body, visiting the afterlife (Heaven, hell or what-have-you), and so forth. Scientists have spent decades teasing out the mechanisms underlying or contributing to this process such as anoxia (lack of oxygen) albeit some of their pet hypotheses have been recently questioned and challenged (Click this link to read one especially cogent article concerning this).
I doubt many people of faith would have any problem with NDEs as a biological phenomenon or at least rooted in it, however, things get somewhat contentious when it comes to whether anything is revealed in NDEs that could not be explained by prosaic natural events or happenings in the brain (Believers say “yes”, skeptics, “no”). Consider this: Believers in God who have NDEs typically see people and places consistent with their beliefs and expectations, though more than a few have reported being in a place they did not expect to be — hell. Being in hell would not be the sort of thing most folks would expect, however, it could be argued that in such instances their subconscious anticipated their going to hell and they “fulfilled this” during dying or at clinical death — heart stoppage but not total cessation of brain activity — as an NDE “vision”. This is consistent with NDEs being a manifestation of processes in a dying brain though arguments abound on the Web by men and women of faith who’ve had NDEs and claim experiencing things that could not have been produced by the brain whether dying, on hallucinogenic drugs or in the throes of other influences.
There are, I know, those who claim they were brain dead and returned to life minutes or even hours or days after death (A search of videos on You Tube will turn up many such accounts and there are many books written by people claiming this, especially in the Charismatic or neopentecostal Christian world). However, I have yet to come across a single case in which indisputable medical proof has been produced that confirms body & brain death occurred and then life was restored later on.
So as best I can tell we have this tug-of-war between the two camps — those who find in NDEs only natural processes at work and no evidence of anything beyond brain death — and those who admit to the natural aspects of dying & NDEs but claim they have peered into or visited an afterlife world and returned. As Carl Sagan rightly pointed out, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof” and no such extraordinary proof has yet emerged that takes a given NDE experience beyond what can accounted for by natural processes and happenings. But, and this is a big but, when such claims of having visited an afterlife world do not represent a scientific claim but one predicated solely on faith (and is also not amenable to scientific testing), then the tale or account or story lies outside the purview of science.
As I am a believer you know pretty much where I land on the question of NDEs and especially a postmortem afterlife. And in line with this I like to peruse books and articles penned by those who have had an NDE and have vivid recollections of either heaven or hell or both.
One of my recent reads is orthopedic surgeon Mary C. Neal’s “To Heaven and Back“. It is this book I will briefly review and critique now.
In-a-word Dr. Neal went kayaking in the Los Rios region of southern Chile in 1999 and wound up pulled under water and drowned.
In her book Dr. Neal shared various “lessons” derived from her NDE experience and what followed and then drew conclusions (some applicable to others) that I found perplexing, even disturbing. One reviewer of her book very ably captured some of my own reservations:
“…and yet in which it seems as though everything that happens, whether seemingly good or ill, is for the best, and part of a divine plan, which is at times depicted as alterable but at other times seems not to be. “
“A worldview of this sort presents many puzzles and seemingly unanswerable questions. Neal believes that she was brought back from death to be there for her family to cope with the later death of their son. But surely that makes no sense whatsoever – it would have been just as straightforward to spare her her accident, and have the son survive his own accident after a near-death experience.
“The book highlights the fact that, if we look for the good in the pattern of life that is woven by the intersection of human lives, we will find it. And I do not disagree in the slightest. But I do think that, in making a personal God the weaver who tugs and at times forces the threads into a foreordained pattern, it actually undermines the attributes of God that Neal herself wants to emphasize, including most importantly love. A God who micromanages an adult’s kayaking accident to ensure her survival, but not the careless running down of her son by a texting driver, or perhaps who micromanages both to at times reduce and at times intensify human agony, does not seem to provide anything other than personal comfort for one who, like Neal, wants to find comfort in the idea that such events are supernaturally meaningful.”
I’m sure many of the people who went through the Shoah (Holocaust) would agree with this reviewer whose opinion above, again, mirrors my own.
Also, in a chapter titled “Conversing with an Angel”: (pp 97-103) Dr. Neal discussed how an angel addressed a question of hers concerning why “bad things happen to good people?”
According to Neal ” In preparation for our journey to earth, we are able to make a basic outline for our life. This is not to imply that we, as humans, are entirely in charge of our life’s design. It is more like God creates it, then we review it and discuss it with our ‘personal planning’ angel. Within the algorithm are written branch points in our lives at which times we may exit, returning to God, or we may be redirected to a different task and goal”.
Let’s think about this for a moment:
Consider a, mother of six children, a believer, who has five children who along with her and her husband are placed in a concentration camp and then later tortured and then cruelly executed. Is it likely this is a plan she in some way approved as a preincarnate spirit including a grisly death of herself and her family, rewards in Paradise notwithstanding, as a favored “branch point” to exit this veil of tears?.
Would a preincarnate human spirit be likely approve an early life course spent being abused, sexually or otherwise, which is ended in her teens when her abuser bashes her head in with a sledge hammer? Is the fact the person she becomes is a faithful believer and accrues great eternal rewards for exercising her faith in the face of wanton brutality and perversion necessarily make this a life plan she would endorse?
I suspect most folks reading this will have reservations and difficulties with this aspect of Dr. Neal’s book.
On a personal note, I am of the opinion that Dr. Neal’s particular experiences are very circumspect in the sense that they constitute a divinely conducted experiment aimed at exploring & developing her faith (But which would not apply to many others, as the Almighty IMO fashions experiments unique to the individual).
This perspective — God as experimentalist — is actually one I have held for a very long time and developed and published in an essay titled “Rats in the Cosmic Laboratory: Is God a Scientist?” which readers will find at http://anthonypayne.hubpages.com/hub/Feeling-Alienated-You-have-a-lot-of-company (I originally published it ages ago on the “Think Deeply’ website — a now defunct cyber-forum. It racked up over 100K hits during it life and was #1 in the theory category).*
Having said all this, I did enjoy Dr. Neal’s book and was enriched by many aspects of it and thus would recommend anyone interested in NDE accounts to get a copy and read it, then pass it on to others who would welcome this sort of thing.
© 2012 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
*Readers interested in my religious musings are invited to visit http://summerclouds.weebly.com/.
How do you kill 12 million people? Evil then and now: Recognizing & containing it
Color photo from TIME, Inc.
My good friend Jim Haverlock recently asked, “How do you kill 12 million people?” He was, of course, referring to the Shoah or Holocaust. He wasn’t asking about the nuts & bolts of pulling off mass executions but, rather, how did so many ordinary and even extraordinary men and women willingly take part in Hitler’s Endlösung (Final Solution). This is a question that has intrigued and haunted me since early boyhood actually. In fact, as part of my quest for answers I read all of Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels diaries as a young man plus vol. 1 of “Mein Kampf” (Vol. 2 was unknown when I was a youngster), watched archival film of the Nuremberg & Doctor’s trials, and read just about every substantive book on Hitler, the Nazis and fascism that existed at the time (And everything worth reading on the subject since as well). As anyone reading this who ever took a course in World History knows, both Hitler and Goebbels stressed the use of propaganda and the “big lie” as integral to the creation and sustainment of the Greater Germania they envisioned. And both were extraordinary in their zeal and abilities to forge a monolithic state predicated on a shared national myth, and induce the German people to embrace it via lies, artful use of imagery and symbols, fear, rewards and appeals to entrenched biases that went back not just decades but centuries (Particularly in the case of antisemitism which sadly had its roots in early Christian teachings especially the Hellenized spin on Jesus and his message crafted & promulgated by Saul of Tarsus aka St. Paul. Learn more by reading Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity by scholar & historian Dr. James D. Tabor).
One place to turn for insight is historian Dr. Daniel Goldhagen’s books plus those of psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo. They do a smashing good job of laying out the historic, sociological, psychological and economic forces, currents and mechanisms that set the stage for the rise of the Nazis and then sustained them once they were in power.
But, even after you’ve read and mastered these works and others like them you likely find yourself still perplexed by the fact so many people down through the millennia and especially during the heyday of fascism could ignore and in many instances take an active hand in wanton cruelty. After nearly a lifetime of studying human cruelty and complicity in cruelty and evil I know there is no simple answer to “why”. Certainly lack of empathy or reduced or impaired empathy for targets/scapegoats is vital to evil and, yes, lies play a powerful role as well, but there is so much more that works to foster wickedness than lies and people’s failure to detect them or act on them or neglect to search them out and deal with them. However, with this said it certain behooves Americans to be vigilant and to call out wrongs and evil as soon as they come to light.
Things are complicated by the fact that evil and good rely on similar mechanisms and tools to govern (God, too, relies on these – see my op-ed piece on this subject titled “Hitler & HaShem at http://www.healingcare4u.org/hitler-hashem.pdf). Heaven knows our government has used lies of varying magnitude to govern across the years of our country’s existence. Probably Nixon and his “Imperial Presidency” took this to a whole new level and set certain wickedness in motion that has grown in scope to this day. In theory, yes, a super crisis or series of crises could lead to martial law and suspensions of Constitutional guarantees. During the Civil War (or as it is better known where I came from, “The War for Southern Independence”) Abraham Lincoln threw many folks who questioned his administration and policies into jail and kept them there, thanks to his having suspended the writ of habeas corpus. However, people rebelled, the press raised hell and the Supreme Court ultimately undid some of the more egregious acts of hegemony. I think any move to contain social disorder by imposition of a police or ultra-authoritarian state would, at the very least, result in the formation of tens of thousands of militias and resistance groups across the land that would make keeping the lid on the pot problematic if not impossible.
Naturally, best to act now and prevent a quasi-police or full-fledged police state then try to overthrow one that is in-place. Keeping our representatives working and honest is certainly part of that.
While no one has knows the full rhyme and reason behind human evil and its various incarnations, it helps to be aware of and reject ideas, movements, and acts that arise from and feed evil: Among them being intolerance, the marginalization and dehumanization of others especially minorities and other vulnerable groups, and unquestioned belief in authority figures and an unwillingness to call them out when they violate the very civil virtues and Constitutional guarantees they are charged with upholding.
I would add this: Although I’ve been a democratic socialist since the mid 1980s I find some ideas and notions articulated by conservatives and even some right wingers of merit. As a Southerner whose ancestors go back to Revolutionary War times (and beyond) in South Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi, and whose paternal and maternal forbearers lived under the Stars & Bars (Confederacy) and in some instances fought for the C.S.A., I inherited a mix of ideas and notions, some worthy of consideration if not embrace, others that had no substance when they were articulated long ago and never will. Of those that I deemed worth hanging onto was the longstanding Southern distrust of a powerful central government running everything including many aspects of people’s everyday lives. Although you might think a democratic socialist would welcome an all powerful centralized government, I emphatically do not. History shows all too clearly that the concentration of power in the hands of strongmen leads to abuses and skullduggery of the worst sort. Actually there are at least a few liberal thinkers who would prefer to see a decentralization of power in the US and other countries, and even the break-up of powerhouse countries into small nation-states (Especially those that are unstable or might become so and with this attempt to retain order and stability by imposition of a police or authoritarian state). I’m sure a world comprised of small, less powerful nations, say, the size of Switzerland, would by no means avoid many of the ills that plague major powers today, but I can’t help think they would have less influence and thus less ability to work evil in the world. And for those that do, their neighbors could form temporary confederations and impose various kinds of sanctions or, when regrettably necessary, military containment (Hey, sometimes the only way to stop a thug is send in the police).
But until power shifts from Washington to the states (if it ever does), best to keep an eye on the politicians on Capital Hill and do everything possible to keep our representatives working, honest and limited in the evil they can do. The same applies to the press and other so-called sacred American institutions.
Dr. Anthony G. Payne (waxing philosophic from his porch swing)
RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
My spiritual watering hole website: http://summerclouds.weebly.com/
Why does God allow evil (Theodicy)? See Are you an atheist, religionist, deist, fideist or ???
CBN video presentation “God & Hitler”: http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/churchhistory/godandhitler/index.aspx
Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose by Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen
Copyright 2013 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
Female sexuality: Just when the waters seemed to have cleared a little
Sigmund Freud once said something to the effect that the one thing that truly eluded him was deciphering female behavior & sexuality (I read all his works by age 12 or so but still wrestle with some aspects of his claims & insights). I must admit that the range of plasticity in women — much culturally & socially influenced if not determined — is daunting (Men, by contrast, often seem like trolley trains on a one-way track). Now comes yet another book that is sure to confound any attempt by anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists and others to solve what Freud could not: http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/memoir-female-lust I have come to the tentative conclusion that the best recourse is surrender — as in starting one’s 2nd childhood early and returning to those simplier, less confused days when everything was explained or solved by 30 or 60 minute TV shows & news specials as well as movies & mini-series. Either that or go mad and adopt a “Laugh In” or Timothy Leary spin on reality.© 2016 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
Your mind as universe & what you can do to change it
Do you like it when a new way of looking at a situation or phenomenon comes to mind or is introduced to you by someone else? If your answer is “yes” then you probably will enjoy what I am about to share.
Back during junior high I was riveted by Einstein’s General Relativity and the unified, very cogent spin it offered on gravitation. Before your eyes glass over rest assured what I have to share does not get into physics but, rather, borrows something from it you will readily understand and (I hope) appreciate.
Einstein described gravity as a geometric property of what is called spacetime. Picture spacetime as a trampoline, and then mentally set a heavy object on its surface, let’s say a bowling ball. What happens? The bowling ball produces an indentation in the trampoline fabric or curvature. This is what the sun and earth and other objects in the universe do to spacetime. If one increases the mass of an object then the curvature increases. This very brief YouTube video does a smashing job of graphically illustrating this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoaOHvy5AcA
Now I want to analogize this to human psychology. Here is how:
We are all born into this world with anything but a tabula rasa or blank slate. In addition, to built-in brain circuits (modules) that favor survival as well as give rise to and sustain all kinds of behavioral propensities, there is evidence of stored memories including elements of language acquired in utero and emotional and mood wiring at unconscious as well as conscious levels.
Using the spacetime analogy, the trampoline fabric in this instance is affect (mood, emotions and affective logic circuitry) as it animates and informs most non- or un- conscious and conscious brain processes. This fabric is studded with various objects – bowling balls or planets or whatever image tickles your fancy – which are variously non- & un- conscious as well as conscious predispositions, drives, et cetera.
With this picture in mind, let’s say you reach adulthood and spend a great deal of time engaging in helping others, say as a volunteer or medical professional or cleric. This feeds the objects on the trampoline that both feed & inform charity and altruism which grow and by so doing dwarfs other objects (pursuits, needs, desires, etc.) and eventually produces enough deformation in the fabric to bring smaller nearby objects into orbit (or subjugation, as it were). The same process is true of people who, say, feed their sexual appetite or conversely, starve it (Perhaps 20% or more of marriages in the US are sexless according to some experts. While this may reflect large numbers of people with attachment or other personality disorders, it may so reflect neglect of one dimension or object in the sexual constellation of self and the feeding of others, say cyber-fantasies).
So of what real world good is there in knowing this? In-a-word your universe consists of objects whose size and influence reflects your focus or conversely neglect. So if you something is wrecking your peace or that of your marriage or professional life, sketch out your universe and see which aspects (objects) are being overfed or underfed. Then focus on shrinking or conversely growing them.
How to do this? It really is simple but this is not to say easy. Change your behavior,… your conduct. The rest of you will follow suit if you do so and stick with it.
Don’t believe remodeling your personal universe can be done in this way? Go to Amazon or whatever shopping website you prefer and search out “Strangers to Ourselves” (subtitled “Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious”) by Dr. Timothy D. Wilson (Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia). If you are in a rush after receiving this insightful tome, turn to chapter 10 and read it in its entirety.
TO READ MORE ON ATTACHMENT DISORDERS GO TO http://bit.ly/Xjqsja
SUPPLEMENTAL READING:
University of Pennsylvania Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology Dr. Randall Collins classic work “Interaction Ritual Chains” (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)
From a review of Dr. Collins seminal work by Gary Alan Fine that appeared in Social Forces Volume 83, Number 3, March 2005 pp. 1287-1288 | 10.1353/sof.2005.0029
“Simply put, Collins argues that interaction rituals produce emotional energy, the gathering of which is a central motivating force for individuals. Affect is the engine of social order. Those interaction rituals that are most effective in generating emotional energy are the ones that bolster institutional stability. We seek emotional energy the way that felines seek catnip—it gives us a buzz. Collins stands athwart the cognitive turn in social psychology, finding affect where others find thought, and indeed valuably devotes a chapter to demonstrating the various ways in which thinking must be linked to emotional entrainment.”
https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/social_forces/v083/83.3fine.html
AFFECTIVE LOGIC: http://affect-logic.com/5.html
EXTENDED BEING: http://extendbeing.weebly.com/
© 2013 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
EXTENDED BEING (Hubpages article)
FROM DR. PAYNE’S ARTICLE “EXTENDED BEING” on Examiner.com
“The quiet punctuated by the flow of water in that aqueduct made it possible to experience not just quiet and relaxation but more so (for me anyway) a unique situation in which conscious thoughts and awareness dipped and other things came to light. One of these was a dynamic running “mental clip” (representation) of Kaoru that was interacting with me at a very subtle level. There was a spoken and unspoken dialog going on. I realized that part of her was alive within me but not solely as memories and warm associations; there was a dynamic sort of circuit at play which was influencing not only my thoughts and mood but also some elements of my personality, i.e., I was being influenced by specific personality traits she exhibited that I found appealing and was even internalizing some of them (And while mirroring and mimicry mechanisms were undoubtedly involved in this process, there was seemingly more to it than this). She had become part of the “we” that is “me”!”
CLICK TO ACCESS MY HUBPAGES ARTICLE: http://anthonypayne.hubpages.com/hub/Extended-Being-The-You-That-is-Many
EXTENDED BEING WEBSITE: http://extendbeing.weebly.com/
Alienation: Pervasive and insidious
Take a moment and kindly read through the eight book quotes below.
“Today, concern about man’s alienation is expressed by many: by theologians and philosophers
who warn that advanced in scientific knowledge do not enable us to penetrate the mystery of Being, and do not often widen the gulf between the knower and the reality he tries to understand…”
“Man is alienated from reality, as the result of a split between subject and object which detached knowledge does not heal but deepens. He is estranged from himself…”
“Therefore individuals must be stripped of their individuality and treated as materials”
“Although in the last centuries of the Middle Ages it was made hard for him to improve his status within the guild, he did not experience the isolation from his fellow man which has become the fate of the individual living in the
atomized society of today”
“Often it is coupled with an attitude for which the object of faith or belief is not God, but rather the utility of faith of belief”
“…which has led many people to consider God to be mainly a way to achieve personal happiness or peace of mind, a mere tool, as important for our spiritual health as technological gadgets may be for our physical welfare”
“We are, most of us, not intellectually tolerant, we are only gullible; we are not skeptical, we are only suspicious; not sophisticated, only apathetic; not humble, only confused….Worst of all we are not at all enthusiastic, curious or even interested…”
“There are many indications that education, far from creating new attitudes, primarily reflects the values and tendencies pervading the existing society. One of the basic goals of our period seems to be development of the adjusted man, who gets along with people and whose thinking does not differ from the generally accepted values and norms”
Do these comments reflect themes and concerns that strike home with you? Perhaps you are thinking these are recent quotes from some in-the-know psychologist or political commentator, right? Prepare to do the “Time Warp” now: These quotes are from “The Alienation of Modern Man” by Fritz Pappenheim, Ph.D., copyright 1959. It is very telling that in the more than half century since Dr. Pappenheim wrote about the pervasive reality of alienation in modern society – things have only gotten worse not better.
http://monthlyreview.org/2000/06/01/alienationin-american-society – Monthly Review
This lecture was presented to a student conference on “Socialism in America” held at
Yale University in 1964
“I personally believe it is a mistake to separate Marx’s theory of alienation from his theory of exploitation. Alienation and exploitation condition each other; they are linked to each other. It is the very essence of Marx’s insight not to isolate man’s alienation from economic conditions and trends—as Hegel and the followers of philosophical idealism had done—but to trace alienation to the basic structure and development of capitalist economy and society. In the second part of this lecture, I will attempt to show this. But first I want to examine with you what people mean when they talk about alienation, and in what way the frequent use of this term reflects the American scene at mid-century.
“If we want to try to understand alienation, we must ask: Alienation from what?
“There are three types of alienation. First, there is man’s alienation from himself. Modern man often finds it hard to be himself; he has become a stranger to himself. At the same time, he has become estranged, or alienated, from his fellow man. And finally, he experiences alienation from the world in which he lives.
“These three forms of alienation—from ourselves, from other men, and from our world—are interlinked. They actually represent three phases of one process. Marx particularly emphasized the connections between them. This is the very core of his approach to the problem of alienation.”
Copyright 2012 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved.
KNOW YOURSELF — BETTER: Free on-line tests (Empathy-systemizing, Attachment style, moral foundation, implicit biases, etc.)
How Does Your Mind Work? Psychological tests developed by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Sally Wheelwright, and their team at the University of Cambridge, England, can give you insight into the way your brain functions. Take the tests to find out your EQ (empathizing quotient) and SQ (systemizing quotient.)
Romanticizing/Pragmatizing Test (RQ/PQ)
What is your attachment style? This interactive survey takes about 5 minutes to complete. The questionnaire is designed to measure your ‘attachment style’–the way you relate to others in the context of intimate relationships. When completed, the site will reveal your attachment style, and provide a brief summary of what is known about your attachment style on the basis of contemporary scientific research.
Attachment in Past and Present Relationships
Marriage Builders® Forms and Questionnaires – Tests & effective intervention methods developed by one of America’s most successful marriage & family therapists, Dr. Willard Farley, Jr.
What are your moral foundations? (On-line Test) – This test is designed to explore the kinds of moral foundations you use when making judgments about what is right and what is wrong
Personality, Leadership, and Self-Esteem – This test is designed to explore your personality, leadership preferences, and your sense of self-worth
Implicit Association Test – The “Implicit Association Test” offers one way to probe unconscious biases. In this 10-minute test, you will be presented with words or images and asked to respond as quickly as possible.
Depression Screening Test by Ivan Goldberg, MD – -brief 18-question online automated quiz to help you determine if you may need to see a mental health professional for diagnosis and treatment of depression
Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale
Partners of Internet Addicts Test
Sexual Addiction Screening Test (Women)
Sexual Addiction Screening Test (Men)
Know Yourself Tests – PSYCHOLOGY TODAY – Career Health IQ Personality Relationships
EXTENDED BEING WEBSITE: http://extendbeing.weebly.com/
Mind expansion: Recommended Reading
ALL THE BOOKS LISTED BELOW ARE ONES READ & RECOMMENDED BY DR. ANTHONY G. PAYNE
CRITICAL THINKING
Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner
The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan, Ph.D.
Snake Oil Science by R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D.
The Scientist As Rebel by Freeman Dyson
Any and All Books by James Randi
Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D.
Ignorance (How It Drives Science) by Dr. Stuart Firestein
Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks by Ben Goldacre, M.D.
A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What NeuroscienceCan and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves by Robert A. Burton, M.D.
DEEP ECOLOGY
Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered by Bill Devall & George Sessions
Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century by Bill Sessions
Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization by Christopher Manes
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
FICTION (with a powerful message)
House of Earth by Woodie Guthrie
HEALTH & MEDICINE (including stem cell medicine)
Click this link to access Dr. Christopher Centeno’s new 52 page e-book titled “The Stem Cells They Don’t Want You To Have” (FREE download): http://bit.ly/NPlVmZ
Snake Oil Science by R. Barker Bausell, Ph.D.
The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Jerome Groopman, MD
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, MD
Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D.
HISTORY/POLITICS
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) by Eric H. Cline
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Mataxas
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great (The Arts of Leadership & War) edited by Larry Hedrick
Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers by Filip Muller
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Dr. Stephen Greenblatt
The Un-Civil War: Shattering the Historical Myths by Leonard M. Scruggs
Slavery Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives by Paul D. Escott
Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity by Dr. Daniel J. Goldhagen
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria, Jr.
The Face of Imperialism by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.
The Rich And The Rest Of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Travis Smiley & Dr. Cornel West
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn
Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee by David Crockett
HUMAN NATURE & PSYCHOLOGY
Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World by Suzanne Woods Fisher
The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will by Heidi M. Ravven, Ph.D.
The Self Illusion: How the Social Brain Creates Identity by Bruce Hood, Ph.D.
The Illusion of Conscious Will by Dr. Daniel M. Wegner
What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire by Daniel Bergner
A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind: What NeuroscienceCan and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves by Robert A. Burton, M.D.
The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions by Drs. Jaak Panksepp & Lucy Biven
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer, Ph.D.
50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True by Guy P. Harrison
Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind by Robert Kurzban, Ph.D.
Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose by Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen
Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower
Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families by Pamela Paul
Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Dr. Gail Dines
Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto by Anneli Rufus
The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D.
The Biology of Belief by Dr. Joseph Giovannoli
Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning by Viktor Frankl, M.D., Ph.D.
Faces in the Clouds by Stewart Guthrie, Ph.D.
RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY
Purity of Heart by Rev. Bert M. Farias [In “Purity of Heart” Rev. Farias eloquently states things which, I daresay, most mainstream and even many Charismatic and neopentecostal congregations either gloss over, tiptoe around or mangle (oftentimes resulting in their landing in the thorn patch of profound legalism). Two thumbs up and kudos to Rev. Farias, whose ministry website is http://holy-fire.org/]
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Mataxas
Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Finding Sanctuary (Monastic Steps for Everyday Life) by Abbot Christopher Jamison
Breakthrough Faith: Living a Life Where Anything is Possible by Larry Sparks
PSALM 83, The Missing Prophecy Revealed – How Israel Becomes the Next Mideast Superpower by Bill Salus
Sooner Than You Think: A Prophetic Guide to the End Times by Sid Roth
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection by Benedicta Ward
Jesus’ Words Only (Free in its entirety on-line) by Douglas J. Del Tondo, Esq.
My spiritual watering hole website: http://summerclouds.weebly.com/
The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity by Dr. James D. Tabor
Blood Kin of Jesus (James and the Lost Jewish Church) by Kenneth Hanson, Ph.D.
Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity by Dr. James D. Tabor
The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity by Rev. Jeffrey J. Bϋtz
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan, Ph.D.
How Jesus Became Christian by Barrie Wilson, Ph.D.
Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Dr. Robin R. Meyers
The Bible Against Itself: Why the Bible Seems to Contradict Itself by Dr. Randel McCraw Helms
Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are by Bart D. Ehrman, Ph.D.
The Ancient Roots of Christianity: A Native American’s Look Through Christianity by my fellow Choctaw Nation Tribal member, Rainbow Eagle
God and His Demons by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.
The Real Kosher Jesus: Revealing the mysteries of the Hidden Messiah by Michael L. Brown, Ph.D.
The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction? by David James
The Rainbow Covenant: Torah and the Seven Universal Laws by Michael Ellias Dallen, Esq.
Faces in the Clouds by Stewart Guthrie, Ph.D.
Rats in the Cosmic Laboratory: Is God A Scientist? by Dr. A. G. Payne
Hitler and HaShem (The Almighty) by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Heart of a Missionary by Dr. A.G. Payne
The Spiritual Aspect of Holistic Medicine by Dr. A. G. Payne
Religion is not about God by Prof. Loyal Rue
The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan
Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith by George E. Vaillant, M.D.
The Undercover Philosopher by Michael Philips
Why We Believe What We Believe by Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman
“WALKING AROUND THINKING ABOUT STUFF”
EXTENDED BEING WEBSITE: http://extendbeing.weebly.com/
Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine by Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D.
“Living Longer, Yes! But, Living Well?” by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Fascination with Dying and Death as Participation by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Is an attachment style problem complicating or undermining your life? (Examiner article) by Dr. Anthony G. Payne
Problems relating well to God & your fellow man? Your attachment style may be a major contributor
Is an attachment style problem complicating or undermining your life? by Dr. Anthony G. Payne (Includes a link to an on-line attachment style test you can take)
ABSTRACT: The relationship between early caregiver experiences and attachment to God was explored in the current study. Using the Attachment to God Inventory (AGI) developed by Beck and McDonald, the relationship between parent-child attachment and attachment to God was explored among a college population. In addition, parental spirituality and religious emphases in the home were investigated. Comparisons of the AGI with parent-child attachment measures support a correspondence between working models of parents and God. Respondents that reported coming from homes that were emotionally cold or unspiritual exhibited higher levels of avoidance of intimacy in their relationship to God, a trend consistent with a Dismissing attachment style. Overprotective, rigid, or authoritarian homes were associated with higher levels of both avoidance of intimacy and anxiety over lovability in relationship to God, a trend characterized by the Fearful attachment style.
ALONG THE SAME LINES FROM CNN BLOG: Our Take: Your relationship style determines how you feel toward God
PAPERS: Attachment and Divorce: Family Consequences & much more
Levine, A, & Heller, R. “What Attachment Theory Can Teach about Love and Relationships – The surprising secrets to finding the right partner for a healthy relationship” Scientific American, December 29, 2010
Delusional Beliefs: A Normative Coping Mechanism?
One online source defines the term “delusion” thusly:
delusion
n 1: (psychology) an erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary [syn: psychotic belief] 2: a mistaken or unfounded opinion or idea; “he has delusions of competence”; “his dreams of vast wealth are a hallucination” [syn: hallucination] 3: the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas [syn: illusion, head game]
| Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University |
This pretty much lines up with how psychiatrist Karl Jaspers, MD, defined “delusion” in his seminal book General Psychopathology. Dr. Jaspers gave three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional:
- Absolute certainty (A belief is held with absolute conviction)
- Incorrigibility (A belief is not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary)
- Impossibility or falsity of content (A belief is implausible, bizarre or patently untrue)
Undoubtedly many of you reading this hold fast to specific religious or other beliefs that meet all 3 criteria. To your way of thinking this is a demonstration of faith, a strength that pleases the Almighty. Nothing will sway you from what you hold to be sacred truth. Maybe you fear dire consequences in this life or the next should you deviate from the faith tradition you were inculcated in as a child or embraced later on. You may not even be able to consider the remotest possibility that what you believe about (say) biblical accounts of miracles or specific stories or accounts could be misinformed, misguided, or just plain wrong. As one neo-Pentecostal minister put it, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it”. This appears to be a timeless species of faith down through the millennia of human history.
Many fundamentalist believers and scholars from the major faith traditions engage in the most incredible feats of mental gymnastics to preserve sacred beliefs. Many Christians, for example, believe that their scriptures are inerrant, while abundant evidence exists that their Bible is chocked full of contradictions and is anything but free of error. For example, the book of Genesis alone contains two separate accounts of the creation saga that contradict one another profoundly http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/accounts.html. The same is basically true of the story of Noah and the flood http://www.sullivan-county.com/identity/2cs.htm. But rather than modify their belief system to accommodate logic and fact, they force a fit between religious dogma and contrary evidence (Or just deny the evidence altogether or define or otherwise alter it such that it accord with belief). This imposition of religious dogma or belief on the process and findings of history and science has given the world an incredible array of pseudo-historical and pseudoscientific books, documents, papers and such that, well, help reinforce the delusions of multitudes of “true believers”.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html –Contradictions in the Scriptures
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html – Contradictions in the Bible
http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible4.htm – Absurdities and troubling entries in the Bible
Mind you, I am not an atheist or an “enemy” of religious beliefs or faith. My family tree is one brimming over with fervent Protestant fundamentalists, southern Baptist deacons, creationists and even charismatic and neo-Pentecostals. My late maternal grandmother, Faye C. Whittle, a rather extraordinary woman who helped aid and encourage my studies in science and medicine, was about as devout a Bible-toting woman as you could hope to meet and fully fundamentalist in her thinking. I did not often challenge her beliefs…..and was especially less inclined to do so as she reached into her eighties and nineties – for reasons I will weave into this essay shortly.
My own quest for “religious truth,” which is to say a faith that is concordant with logic, biblical scholarship, historic fact, and the findings of science led me to Roman Catholicism and a spirit-filled messianic expression of the faith https://summerclouds.weebly.com/.
Some of you gentle readers are probably having an “ah hah” moment as you read all this. Some will surely be thinking, “Well, if I embrace delusional beliefs, so does he. So does everyone”.
No doubt most of us – even those who are ultra-diligent in their efforts to bring every aspect of their lives into accord with logic, fact and sound reasoning – harbor some belief, conviction or idea that is at the very least unfounded or suspect, but which we resist discarding unless and until contrary fact compels us to. Such a belief or idea may not constitute a full-blown delusion or delusional belief, but it in some respects belongs to the “fraternity”. Psychologists have shown that we all possess cognitive filters that bias what we perceive and believe; mechanisms (if you will) that tend to find patterns in things (often where none exists), discard ideas or facts that contradict cherished beliefs or views, and inflate our own self-perception of being objective. This tendency to be self-deluded and to deceive others has survival value. Deception is part and parcel of nature itself, something documented by field ethnologists and primatologists studying the behavior of chimpanzees and monkeys.
While not immune to delusional beliefs, in my own case precious few (if any) of my core religious beliefs meet Dr. Jasper’s 3 criteria. How so? In a word, I am willing to modify or reinterpret them to gel with logic and compelling scientific and historic fact. My belief in the Almighty, for example, is resolutely entrenched (A delusion according to many skeptic friends) – but my views on His nature, interaction with humankind, activities and such is amenable to modification in light of reason, logic and fact. Actually, this willingness to modify or discard one’s beliefs about anything that is redefined or overturned by new evidence lies at the heart of the scientific method. Without this plank, there would be little scientific progress. And while this process can and does generate evidence and reasoning that wrecks havoc with many beliefs long held to be sacred, this is not something to be feared or resisted. If religion and religious beliefs are to genuinely enable us to zero in on truth, it must necessarily be informed by the scientific method, critical thinking and hard logic. If not this, there is only a retreat into blind faith – this being often a wellspring of irrationality and, in the case of fundamentalism, a path to unhealthy extremes and even monstrous intolerance and bloodshed.
Of course, the mere idea that one has birthed, embraced, nurtured or perpetuated delusional beliefs is, for most of us, something we tend to resist or deny. After all, to be delusional or harbor such thoughts is invites the stigma of being weak or intellectually failed or possibly given to a form of pathology (Disease). And I would readily agree that more extreme expressions do indeed reflect a pathological form of aberration or deviance. Especially forms that are divisive, that create or sustain barriers that marginalize others or foster bias, racism or ethnocentrism, or otherwise diminish our individual or collective human potential for caring for others, extending kindness and aid to strangers, and encouraging a peaceful coexistence that denies justice, opportunity and fairness to no person.
But what of delusional beliefs that do not give rise to or involve these negatives? Many would argue that a delusional belief is always antithetical to fullest personal development or best appreciation of reality, and this is a reasonable contention. However, I tend to view “benign” delusional beliefs as an effective coping mechanism; a way of ably dealing with the pain, vicissitudes and ugly moments in life, as well as being a mental tool for handling the contradictions and seemingly irreconcilable aspects of life. In this sense, I see delusional beliefs as not only a tendency, but a normative coping mechanism.
And in this vein, truly benign delusions can play a useful role when it comes to the genesis or maintenance of our individual and shared (societal) weltanschauung or worldview; the mental constructs of reality we fashion and refine all the days of our lives. They also can have beneficial physiological effects. People who, for example, believe that ultra-diluted homeopathic medicines effect or foster healing despite overwhelming scientific evidence that they do not produce statistically significant results in well designed and executed clinical trials, nonetheless can and sometimes do perceive good things “going on” that in and of itself is encouraging; that may spawn some corresponding benefits such as one would expect when a person stops being anxious and fearful, and adopts a positive frame of mind. There are studies that link this species of faith or belief with reductions in resting blood pressure.
Delusions can also give life purpose or special meaning in some instances or settings. Consider those who vest tremendous money, time and energy in pursuit of beliefs, events or practices that are contradicted by a confluence of historic and/or scientific fact, logic and well honed scholarship. Some actually border on the irrational, while some truly are. However, when such beliefs, pursuits or devotions cause no harm to self or others, do not generate intolerance or violence or other negative behaviors, do not wind up sanctioned by the state, and basically function to endow the lives of believers with a sense of purpose or meaning, then they have arguable utilitarian merit.
Of course some species of delusional thinking can obviously set the stage for doing great harm to others. One need look no further then Nazi Germany to see this. In this tragic example from history’s darkest page, delusional beliefs and the pseudo-history and pseudo-science they sprang from and reinforced became ideology, then law, and finally a national religion of sorts. The Nazis elevated malignant delusions to sacred status and then took them to their logical conclusion: Repression, brutality, murder and finally genocide.
Given this, it logically follows that people need to be vigilant in terms of identifying, openly exposing, countering and even legally penalizing all forms of delusional thinking that clearly leads to the deprivation, denial or erosion of basic human rights to any group, creed, religion or what-have-you. Humankind can ill afford a Fourth Reich.
But what of countering benign delusional beliefs that offer solace and comfort? This brings me full circle to my maternal grandmother: She believed that her New Testament was inerrant and, as such, was a reliable and sure guide to all that’s needed to assure a place in God’s realm (following death). Yes, there were many occasions – many kitchen table chats on religion (especially during her more vigorous 60s and 70s) — in which I placed before her facts and reason that clearly demonstrated the errancy of scriptures. This she resisted solely on the basis of her faith, not reason or logic or fact. And while this belief influenced her life and actions to a degree, she did not seek to have this view become the law of the land or promulgated in public schools as fact or paraded as science in the classroom. At first I diplomatically and gingerly challenged her stance, but ceased doing so as she grew older and frailty began to take its toll on her physical and mental faculties. Who would be so callous as to deprive her of a delusion (inerrancy) which was a vital component of her worldview (Especially given its benign, tempered expression, as well as its utility in terms of dealing with her own mortality)? Not me.
“No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”
-Christian Nestell Bovee
http://www.famousamericans.net/christiannestellbovee/
The cup of delusions runneth over:http://www.crank.net/
A critical look at homeopathy:http://skepdic.com/homeo.html
What is Pseudoscience?http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/pseudosci.html
THE DARK BIBLE
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/guido_deimel/judaism.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/imm_bibl1.htm#diff
http://www.dhushara.com/book/orsin/decalog.htm
http://home.teleport.com/~packham/bible.htm
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/atrocity.html – Atrocities
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/absurd.html – Absurdities
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/inconsistencies.html – Inconsistencies
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/precepts.html – Questionable Guidelines
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html – List of biblical contradictions
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/vulgar.html – Vulgarities
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mark_ball/bible.html – Errancy
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/greywlf/biblegod.html – BIBLEGOD – A God of Love or a God of Atrocities and Murder?
NOTES ON BIBLE PROBLEMS Compiled by Richard Packham
http://home.teleport.com/~packham/index.htm
CONTENTS
ABUSE OF WOMEN, WOMAN’S INFERIORITY
ABANDONMENT OF WIFE, CHILDREN, FAMILY
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE, CLOSED MINDS
OBSCENE, OFFENSIVE, INDECENT, EROTIC PASSAGES
PARTICULAR EXAMPLES OF GOD’S PUNISHMENTS
DETAILS OF EVENTS – OLD TESTAMENT
DETAILS OF EVENTS – NEW TESTAMENT
CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINE, COMMANDMENTS
OTHER PUZZLES, ANOMALIES, QUESTIONS
PROPHECIES OR PROMISES NOT FULFILLED
“FULFILLMENT” OF NON- EXISTENT PROPHECIES
“FULFILLMENT” OF PASSAGES NOT PROPHECIES
PROPHECIES CLAIMED AS FULFILLED
PROPHECIES IGNORED BY CHRISTIANS
PRECEPTS OFTEN NOT OBEYED BY BELIEVERS
TEACHINGS OF JESUS NOT OFTEN FOLLOWED
HISTORICAL / GEOGRAPHICAL INACCURACY, ANACHRONISMS
© 2009 by Dr. Anthony G Payne. All rights reserved.
The Spiritual Aspects of “Holistic” Medicine
The foundation of holism or holistic medicine rests on a triumvirate — body, mind and spirit. Actually, as the mind is an expression of the various regions of the brain — a species of the physical — we are really dealing with body/brain and spirit. The former, of course, has been probed and explored using the tools of medicine and science. No one questions their reality. Spirit, on the other hand, by most definitions is non-material, and thus lies beyond the purview of science; that is, one cannot demonstrate spirit using a gas chromatograph, scanning electron microscope, or any other tool in the armamentarium of science.
But what of the effects of spirit? If it exists, should we not be able to detect its effects on the physical realm? This is a question which now occupies many philosophers, some scientists and physicians, and many laypeople.
One very often cited manifestation of spirit lies in the realm of answered prayer. Numerous studies have been carried out in which patients with a given affliction were divided into two groups: One received prayer (experimental group) and the other (control group) didn’t. The prayers were offered off-site and no one involved in the study knew who was being prayed for and who wasn’t (double-blind).
The bottom line of many of these studies is that prayer appears to have made a significant difference in the relief or cure of the malady or affliction in the experimental group, while those in the control group had no appreciable change in their condition. The rigor of these studies has been found wanting by countless impartial investigators. That is, flaws in study design, methodology and/or execution have basically invalidated the findings of these clinical trials.
What of the healings connected with religious shrines, such as Lourdes? There have been approximately 69 healings connected with Lourdes which have met the Catholic church’s criteria for a bona fide miracle — 69 out of the hundreds of thousands of petitions for healing. This is not statistically significant. In short, the numbers do not support the notion that the rate of recovery/healing at Lourdes is greater than would be expected to occur as a result of normal processes. (One can expect a certain percentage of even incurable illnesses to suddenly and inexplicably go into remission. These recoveries happen to non-believer and believer alike — and hence appear contingent on natural and not supernatural mechanisms.)
I know what many of you are thinking — “Leave it to a skeptical, non-believing blankety-blank scientist to trash our sacred beliefs.” If you are nodding your head in agreement — you are dead wrong. First of all, I am a theist. I also believe that God hears and answers prayer — and even heals people through various means including the ministrations of physicians. Well, wait a minute, isn’t this contradictory or hypocritical, given what I wrote above? No, indeed, for I do not allege that my beliefs are based on hard science nor the manifestations of spirit, or God so physically evident as to permit measurement or quantification. In fact, those who believe that spirit, God, or any aspect of the supernatural can be demonstrated in a controlled study or lab experiment invite upon themselves the unenviable task of proving their claims. (It is always incumbent on those who propose the existence of something which can be physically detected and, thus measured, to do just that.) And I, for one, do not believe that they will ever garner any substantive proof. Why?
Consider this: In virtually every religious tradition God requires that humankind both apprehend His existence and relate to him via faith — a conviction based not on the physical and demonstrable, but on sheer belief. If God were to reveal Himself in the lab or clinical trial setting — say, by answering the prayers for healing in an experimental group at rates which exceed chance — the need for faith would be dispensed with. We could base our confidence, our belief in the spiritual and a First Cause (God) on the hard data provided by the study in question.
This, of course, would make God the author of a serious contradiction and would obligate most major religions to toss out many of their principle doctrines concerning the nature of the deity, the need for faith as a requisite for apprehending the divine, et cetera. It would also raise serious questions as to the reliability of revealed truths about God (oral and written traditions).
Since I do not believe God would ask one thing (faith) and then reveal Himself in a concrete, scientifically demonstrable fashion, I am not surprised or dismayed that laboratory experiments and clinical trials do not turn upon any credible data which stands up to scrutiny. I also realize, however, that there are some who believe that faith isn’t the only requisite to apprehending God or the supernatural and will continue to carry out studies aimed at catching a glimpse of the divine in action.
In my opinion they are wasting both time and money, but should they one day prove to be right — if they do incontrovertibly demonstrate the efficacy of prayerful supplication (to God) in healing a given malady — skeptic and believer alike will be making some rather profound changes to their distinct perspectives. This isn’t beyond the pale of possibility. I think, however, that such definitive proof will in some ways weigh more heavily on the religionist then the agnostic or skeptic.
While the debate rages and the studies plod along, what role then should the spiritual play in healing/medicine? I think most physicians — even diehard atheists — at the very least accommodate a narrow species of “spirituality,” in the sense of encouraging hope and making use of patient expectation to afford relief, if not cure.
In holistic medicine, on the other hand, the spiritual element more often takes on a different character and importance. The holistic medical community plays host to wide range of spiritual beliefs, including American Indian, New Age, Buddhist, Christian. As long as this spirituality is not called “scientific” or “hard science-based,” or makes claims which can be tested using the tools and methods of science, its place in the patient care repertoire of holistic health care practitioners remains a matter of personal prerogative. And doesn’t faith and personal prerogative lie at the core of human spirituality?
In the final analysis, I think we will find that the substantiation of faith begins and ends on one’s knees — and in one’s heart — and not in the laboratory.
© 2009 by Dr. Anthony G. Payne. All rights reserved
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