Years ago I co-hosted a radio show in Utah.  Since the show focused on leading edge discoveries in the field of mind/body/spirit research, we did several vignettes on the effects of music.  Classical music, particularly that in adagio and largo time, increases learning and appears to enable concentration.  Some classical music, especially the work of Mozart, has been repeatedly linked to elevating IQ.  Most of you know all of this.  Did you know that cows give more milk when classical music is played in the dairy? 

In an article titled, "Milking the Music," author Melanie Cooper reports that not only do cows give more milk when played classical music, but their yield increases as the music is slowed down.   Psychologists Adrian North and Liam MacKenzie from the University of Leicester, serenaded 1000 Holstein Friesians with music for 9 weeks, 12 hours a day.  They exposed the cattle to fast and slow music.  They defined fast as music with a beat over 120 beats per minute and slow as music with a beat under 00 beats per minute.  The music was diverse ranging from pieces by Beethoven to the Beatles.  Fast music suppressed yields and slow music increased yields as much as 0.73 liters per day to melodies such as Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

Music has a purpose.  All varieties of music have a place.  There is a time for concentration, a time for total relaxation, a time to just let go, and there are times for high energy.  The next time you’re choosing music, think of the purpose.  If it’s music to entertain or music to motivate, soothe or assuage some anxiety, choose your music with an eye to the desired outcome.  Pay attention to the lyrics as well, for those lyrics can go round and round in our heads for a long time after the music ends. 

Emotional Science?

Not long ago only so-called mavericks and fringe investigators considered the study of subjective emotions as a legitimate area of scientific enquiry.  Recently that has changed.  Today neuroscientists from around the world are monitoring various brain events during emotional states, utilizing devices such as enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (eMRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans.  The ultimate goal for most researchers is the connection between emotions and disease with an eye to treating physical conditions as well as promoting mental health.

For most of us, common sense dictates the connection between emotions and well-being, but if high-resolution images of the brain can pinpoint emotional activity, then more direct interventions are possible.  I suspect, however, that we'll find the brain works more like an orchestra, particularly where emotions are concerned.  The idea of a linear in and linear out is convenient and sometimes pragmatic, but when it comes to an orchestra, eliminating a dominating percussion section may only slightly modify the music.  My own research suggests that there is an algorithm generated by the brain during peak states of emotion, and that this algorithm can be manipulated and is even sympathetic in resonance to another similar algorithm (more on that to come.)  Still, for some very interesting research in this area, check out the links below provided by the University of Wisconsin.

From Grandma's cupboard to the patent table

Some good old remedies that once were broadly painted as 'old wives tales' have emerged in recent years as miraculous healing wonders.  It seems that as science investigates more closely some of these old-fashioned remedies, herbs and so forth, science finds some ingredient that indeed possesses great healing promise or power.  This should be hopeful for all of those grandmothers that wish to say, "See, I told you so."  It should also be hopeful for all of us who believe there is value to many non-traditional practices including herbal medicine, but beware. 

The Philippine government is pushing several instances of what they call  'biopiracy.'  They have accused the United States of being the "world's worst perpetrator of biopiracy," a practice of patenting drugs based on plants or animals traditionally used by local people for medicines.

Well grandma, you should have patented it instead of giving it to everyone for free.  After all, money comes first, doesn’t it?  Where I understand it, it's potentially a sad commentary on where mankind is going.  How do you feel about it?

Science, meta-science or hocus-pocus?

There have been a number of television specials lately dealing with spirit communication.  Although most forms are relegated to one on one communication, that is, spirit to a host that then conveys the message to others, there is one form of communication that peaked my interest.  Where I do not dismiss the possibility of 'channeling,' indeed, I tend to believe in it, it is so much less than scientifically oriented that I sometimes avoid the subject all together.  Still, it so intrigues me that I ask the question, what about a scientific approach? 

How can we use all of our modern technology to obtain either a criteria for obtaining information that is replicatable or information itself that is verifiable and could not otherwise be known?  Well, the latter I'm not sure of, but the former can now be done by almost anyone who wishes to try.  In fact, there are web sites that provide the 'how-to' in great detail.  The one that really got my attention is "Spirit Communication through Technology."  This site provides a very simple orientation to recording spirit voices.  Try it-- I have and so have many of the people around me.  Enjoy!  Go to: http://www.worlditc.org/

"Mentophobia"

Donald Griffin is probably best known for his discovery of bat navigation long before science understood sonar.  He has also made remarkable contributions to advancing the idea of "animal minds."    He has made a compelling case for the so-called thinking bee and coined the term "cognitive ethology," while pioneering this new field.  What makes Griffin remarkable is his tenacity and willingness to set unproven, yet traditionally accepted, scientific notions aside while pursuing a strict scientific method of evaluation, independent of preconceived parameters.  Among his latest contributions is the wonderful book, Animal Minds.  In this work Griffin coins still another term, that of "mentophobia."  What is mentophobia?  The practice of berating non-human animals and thereby depriving them of any possible claim to consciousness.  Griffin does not assert that animal consciousness is as sophisticated or developed as that of the human, but he does believe that they are indeed conscious.  His adroit observations combined with his scientific method certainly are compelling to any open-minded reader.  Griffin knows his work is controversial but speaks plainly about his critics, both philosophers and scientists.  In his words, "This is a difficult, challenging area but science thrives on difficult, challenging areas.  Look at astrophysics.  If we required perfect proof of everything, there would hardly be any astrophysics.  I do not see in the foreseeable future how we can get perfect evidence about animal minds, but neither do I see how we’re going to get perfect evidence about what happened before the big bang."

Fear subtractions

The fear of math has been shown to subtract from memory and learning in a new study conducted by Mark H Ashcraft and Elizabeth P. Kirk.  Their study, published in the June Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, demonstrates that worrying about math skills requires brain energy that interferes with processing math.  Ashcraft puts it this way, "Math anxiety soaks up working-memory resources and makes it harder to learn mathematics, probably beginning in middle school."

Our own research with independent researchers has indicated that learning anxieties can be assuaged.  Indeed, test anxiety was lowered significantly using one of our InnerTalk® tapes, even beyond aerobic exercise (a proven modality for lowering anxiety) in a study carried out by Thomas Plant, then of Stanford University.  (For more details check out our research findings posted on our website).

Turning back the clock

According to an article published in the Shanghai Star, yoga can turn back years.  After ten years of practicing yoga, Shen Weide, 73, has completely reversed a number of physical conditions that literally threatened his life in his early sixties.  Shen was diagnosed with heart disease, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and gallstones after gastric perforations sent him to the hospital five time.  Last year, "the result of a complete physical examination conducted by Shanghai Chinese Traditional Medicine University showed that he had the body of a man 18 years younger than his years."

Years ago I enjoyed the opportunity to work with Dr. Vijayandra Pratap of the SKY Foundation.  Dr. Pratap brought modern yoga to America.  If you haven’t looked into this wonderful means to stay young, fit and healthy, I suggest that it’s well worthwhile.  Shen Weide’s story is not unique among yoga practitioners.  If you do try yoga, try our Yoga InnerTalk® tape, it was created with Dr. Pratap.

Creating false memories

According to Joel Schwarz at the University of Washington, about one-third of the subjects exposed to a fake imprint that described a visit to Disneyland, later claimed the event happened to them.  Researchers Jacquie Pickrell and Elizabeth Loftus presented a fake print advertisement that described a visit to Disneyland and how "they met and shook hands with Bugs Bunny."  Bugs is a Warner Brothers creation and therefore would not be found at Disneyland. 

"The frightening thing about this study is that it suggests how easily a false memory can be created," said Pickrell, UW psychology doctoral student.

Maxwell Maltz suggested years ago that a synthetic experience imagined in sufficient detail could not be distinguished from a real experience.  There is good reason for health care professionals to guard against implanting false memories, but there may well also be therapeutic reasons to ignore the guard and with the client’s permission, deliberately create a positive new memory, albeit false to facts.  When you think about it, hypnosis often does just that.  Using the mind, fears are often overcome by imagining that they have been faced and defeated.  For example, a person who fears flying may see a hypnotist and find that during hypnosis they are taken on an imaginary flight.  The hypnotic subject is often given post hypnotic suggestions and when they return to normal consciousness, they have the memory of flying and feeling very good about the flight.  This memory may be false—but I prefer in instances like this, the terms synthetic or virtual.  Creating virtual memories should be something each and every one of us employs to overcome negative beliefs and behavior patterns.    What we believe is after all, WHO WE BELIEVE OURSELVES TO BE.

(For more on this story, visit: http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/2001archive/06-01archive/k061101.html

Hearing all frequencies simultaneously

While you're at Washington Universities Newsroom, the link just above this story, be sure to check out Schwartz's story titled, "Babies have a different way of hearing the world by listening to all frequencies simultaneously."

http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/2001archive/05-01archive/k052901.html

The inevitable human clone

A recent article in the New Scientist addressed President Bush’s concern about stem-cell research.  The thrust of the article could be stated in its title, The Brain Drain.  According to the New Scientist, which is published in the UK, many of America's best scientists will head to England if there is a ban on stem-cell research.  What has stem-cell research got to do with cloning?

Another lead story in the new Scientist is titled, "Birth of a miracle."  This story details how scientists are able to create artificial human eggs that contain just one set of the mother's chromosomes.    Theoretically, according to researchers, "men and women who can't produce sperm or eggs could one day have 'natural' children of their own thanks to a form of cloning."

Now, let's suppose that our would-be mother or father have some genetic opportunity, well stem-cell research will have provided some good alternatives that will probably lead to genetic engineering.  So, a scenario where our family physician informs us that he can 'fix' the DNA, thereby eliminating the possibility of XYZ, is probably much closer than one might think.  Now we have a genetically engineered artificial egg and/or sperm implanted in a mother who wishes to give natural birth.  If that’s not cloning, then try this.

Human cloning is currently actively being pursued in certain South American countries where there is a real economic advantage to what must be seen as a developing technology.  How much would you pay to have Fido cloned?  Science fiction plots that lead a parent to cloning their tragically taken child are not so science fiction today.  (See our earlier News Briefs for more on cloning).

The bright side of things

New research by Deborah D. Danner supports a growing body of research that shows how important attitude is to health and longevity.  Danner of the University of Kentucky in Lexington and her colleagues, who published their findings in the May Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, demonstrated evidence that "expressing happiness, interest, love and other positive feelings enhances physical health."

Hypnotic myths

If you're interested in hypnosis, you will want to read the story in the July 2001 issue of Scientific America.  The article shatters many common myths including those that attempt to debunk hypnosis as either fakery, pleasing the hypnotist or imagination.  The hypnotic subject experiences a state of consciousness that is independent from so-called ordinary consciousness.  It is not about compliance or imagination, nor is it about placebo responsiveness, low intelligence or the weak minded.  Hypnosis is a safe state where many wonderful insights and healings can and do take place.