scholarly journals Nonlocal Perception: A Synthesis of the Meta-Analytic Evidence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizio Tressoldi ◽  
Lance Storm
Keyword(s):  
Human Mind ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Sense Organs ◽  
Free Response ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Normal States ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Physiological Reactions ◽  
The Brain

This brief study presents the accumulated evidence for a range of meta-analyses on nonlocal (anomalous) perception (a.k.a. a communication anomaly) conducted between 1935 and 2020. What emerged from thirteen meta-analyses related to six different states of consciousness, is a more than tenfold gap in effect size (ES), ranging from the lowest ES for forced-choice normal state of consciousness (i.e., non-noise-reduction), to the highest ES for free response unconscious physiological reactions and modified states of consciousness (e.g., dreaming, ganzfeld, etc.). The evidence accumulated over more than 80 years of investigation clearly shows that nonlocal perception is possible, and effects can be enhanced by altering normal states of consciousness, thus facilitating an alternative form of perception seemingly unconstrained by the normal biological characteristics of the sense organs and the brain. This research expands our understanding of the mind-brain relationship and the nature of human mind.

scholarly journals Anomalous Cognition: An Umbrella Review of the Meta-Analytic Evidence

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizio Tressoldi ◽  
Lance Storm
Keyword(s):  
Human Mind ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Altered States ◽  
Umbrella Review ◽  
Free Response ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the results of all meta-analyses on anomalous cognition conducted between 1989 and 2021 in order to find moderators associated with greater effect sizes.  Method: We included all meta-analyses of studies related to anomalous cognition published up to 2021. Results: Our dataset, accumulated over more than 80 years of investigation, refers to 11 meta-analyses related to six different states of consciousness. The evidence clearly shows that anomalous cognition seems possible and its effects can be enhanced by using a combination of some non-ordinary or altered states of consciousness (e.g., dreaming, ganzfeld, etc.), coupled with free-response procedures, or neurophysiological dependent variables. These conditions facilitate an alternative form of cognition seemingly unconstrained by the known biological characteristics of the sense organs and the brain. Conclusion: The accumulated evidence expands our understanding of the mind-brain relation and the nature of the human mind.

Remembering the Evolutionary Freud

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Young
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Psychotic Disorders ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Fundamental Difference ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Point Of No Return ◽  
Evolutionary Narratives ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

ArgumentThroughout his career as a writer, Sigmund Freud maintained an interest in the evolutionary origins of the human mind and its neurotic and psychotic disorders. In common with many writers then and now, he believed that the evolutionary past is conserved in the mind and the brain. Today the “evolutionary Freud” is nearly forgotten. Even among Freudians, he is regarded to be a red herring, relevant only to the extent that he diverts attention from the enduring achievements of the authentic Freud. There are three ways to explain these attitudes. First, the evolutionary Freud's key work is the “Overview of the Transference Neurosis” (1915). But it was published at an inopportune moment, forty years after the author's death, during the so-called “Freud wars.” Second, Freud eventually lost interest in the “Overview” and the prospect of a comprehensive evolutionary theory of psychopathology. The publication of The Ego and the Id (1923), introducing Freud's structural theory of the psyche, marked the point of no return. Finally, Freud's evolutionary theory is simply not credible. It is based on just-so stories and a thoroughly discredited evolutionary mechanism, Lamarckian use-inheritance. Explanations one and two are probably correct but also uninteresting. Explanation number three assumes that there is a fundamental difference between Freud's evolutionary narratives (not credible) and the evolutionary accounts of psychopathology that currently circulate in psychiatry and mainstream journals (credible). The assumption is mistaken but worth investigating.

scholarly journals Contribution of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Simulation of the Complex Human Mind

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 928-932
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Computational Procedures ◽  
The Mind ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Interdisciplinary Theory ◽  
The Brain

The research incorporated encircles the interdisciplinary theory of cognitive science in the branch of artificial intelligence. It has always been the end goal that better understanding of the idea can be guaranteed. Besides, a portion of the real-time uses of cognitive science artificial intelligence have been taken into consideration as the establishment for more enhancements. Before going into the scopes of future, there are many complexities that occur in real-time which have been uncovered. Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the brain and its procedures. It inspects the nature, the activities, and the elements of cognition. Cognitive researchers study intelligence and behavior, with an emphasis on how sensory systems speak to, process, and change data. Intellectual capacities of concern to cognitive researchers incorporate recognition, language, memory, alertness, thinking, and feeling; to comprehend these resources, cognitive researchers acquire from fields, for example, psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, neuroscience, semantics, and anthropology. The analytic study of cognitive science ranges numerous degrees of association, from learning and choice to logic and planning; from neural hardware to modular mind organization. The crucial idea of cognitive science is that "thinking can best be understood in terms of representational structures in the mind and computational procedures that operate on those structures."

Mind, Intelligence and Spirit

1998 ◽  
pp. 164-169
Author(s):  
Pascual F. Martínez-Freire
Keyword(s):  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Chinese Room ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Personal Project ◽  
Important Quality ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The mind is a collection of various classes of processes that can be studied empirically. To limit the field of mental processes we must follow the criteria of folk psychology. There are three kinds of mind: human, animal and mechanical. But the human mind is the paradigm or model of mind. The existence of mechanical minds is a serious challenge to the materialism or the mind-brain identity theory. Based on this existence we can put forward the antimaterialist argument of machines. Intelligence is a class of mental processes such that the mind is the genus and the intelligence is a species of this genus. The capacity to solve problems is a clear and definite criterion of intelligence. Again, like in the mind, the human intelligence is the paradigm of the intelligence. There are also three kinds of intelligence: human, animal and mechanical. Searle’s Chinese room argument is misleading because Searle believes that it is possible to maintain a sharp distinction between syntax and semantics. The reasonable dualism in the brain-mind problem defends the existence of brain-mental processes, physical-mental processes, and nonphysical-mental (spiritual) processes. Constitution of the personal project of life, self-consciousness and free volitions are examples of spiritual processes. Usually the intelligence has been considered the most important quality of human beings, but freedom, or the world of free volitions, is a more specific quality of human beings.

scholarly journals The Power of Predictions: An Emerging Paradigm for Psychological Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Benjamin Hutchinson ◽  
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Mind ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Predictive Processes ◽  
The Brain

In the last two decades, neuroscience studies have suggested that various psychological phenomena are produced by predictive processes in the brain. When considered together, these studies form a coherent, neurobiologically inspired program for guiding psychological research about the mind and behavior. In this article, we consider the common assumptions and hypotheses that unify an emerging framework and discuss the ramifications of such a framework, both for improving the replicability and robustness of psychological research and for renewing psychological theory by suggesting an alternative ontology of the human mind.

Understanding the Distinction between Sensations and Physical Properties of Objects by Children and Adults

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Subbotsky
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Sense Organs ◽  
Subjective Character ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Direct Explanation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Marginal Improvement ◽  
The Mind

The study addressed the phenomenon according to which even educated adult individuals often confuse sensations received from physical objects (such as colour, sound, taste, weight, temperature) with physical properties of the objects that initiated these sensations. This means that in many cases scientific education fails to achieve its goal, which is to create in an individual the physical-scientific view of the world. To examine this phenomenon four experiments were conducted with the aims to determine to what extent: (1) children of various ages and adults were able (a) to acknowledge the fact that sensations appear due to the work of the human mind or sense organs and are not physical properties of the objects that produce them; (b) to appreciate the difference between the mind and sense organs as contributors to the production of sensations (Exp. 1); (2) various types of training could enhance children’s and adults’ understanding that sensations do not belong to the physical properties and objects (Exps. 2-4). The results of Experiment 1 conducted with 6- and 9-year-old children and adults did not reveal an age-related increase in the appreciation of the subjective character of sensations. However, 9-year-old children and adults (but not 6-year-old children) showed a diffentiated approach to various types of sensations, attributing pain mainly to the subject and softness-hardness mainly to the objects. Experiment 2 (direct explanation treatment), and Experiment 3 (cognitive conflict treatment) yielded no improvement in 6- and 9-year-old children’s appreciation of the subjective character of sensations and only partial improvement in adults. In Experiment 4 (social conflict treatment) adult subjects only were involved; the experiment showed a significant improvement in the subjects’ judgements about colour sensations and a marginal improvement in their judgements about weight sensations.

scholarly journals Attainment of parapsychological abilities through activation of brow chakra: An exploratory study

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
VIKAS K. SHARMA ◽  
PRAGYA SAHARE ◽  
MANASVI SHRIVASTAV
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Inner Core ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Core ◽  
Extrasensory Perception ◽  
Individual Consciousness ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

It is well known that human mind possess unbounded power. It has numerous extrasensory potentials like precognition, psychokinesis, extrasensory perception etc. According to Sriram Sharma Acharya, human mind is indeed a miracle of consciousness that can visualize and traverse anywhere in the infinite expansion of the cosmos in nanoseconds. It can acquire unlimited knowledge and is endowed with super natural potentials. In this study, it is theorized that supernatural powers of the mind can be attained by activating some extrasensory centers of human body with the help of some yogic exercises such as meditation and sadhanas. According to yogic texts, Agya Chakra referred as the ‘third eye’ or the ‘sixth sense’. The yoga shastras describe the position of the Agya Chakra in the inner core of the brain deep behind the bhru-madhya (center between the two eyebrows). The view of the expert of yoga, clairvoyance, telepathy, extra-terrestrial communication etc. can be bestowed by the activation of agya chakra. The exponents of dhyan-yoga regard Agya Chakra as the core of self-realization and the centre for the linkage of individual consciousness with the omnipresent supreme-consciousness. Indian rishi-munis who, by has deep contemplation of yogic sadhanas, they had awakened the supernormal powers of their mind and become the masters of many ridhi-siddhis. In this paper, researchers have made an effort to explore the techniques that one could attain the superhuman siddhis from the dedicated yoga sadhanas through activation of agya chakra, these sages of yore had done.

scholarly journals An Investigation on the Electrical Activity of the Brain during Fara-Darmani Connection in the Fara-Therapist Population

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Taheri ◽  
Farid Semsarha ◽  
Fateme Modarresi-Asem
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Activity ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Intrinsic Activity ◽  
Brain Functioning ◽  
Body Interaction ◽  
Cortical Electrical Activity ◽  
Rest Condition ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg ◽  
The Brain

Mind-body interaction and its manifestations at the brain level has been studied extensively in the field of consciousness research. Fara-darmani Consciousness Field, as claimed by Mohammad Ali Taheri (the founder), is a method of connecting with the Cosmic Consciousness Network through human mind and his brain has a detective role in this process. As a result of this connection, the scanning process of the state of a being, e.g., the health status of the cells and consequently organs is performed. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of the Fara-darmani Consciousness Field connection on electroencephalogram (EEG) features as an important biomarker of the brain functioning. The results showed that there was a significant increase in the gamma2 frequency band (35-40 Hz) power in the frontal lobe in medial frontal gyrus (BA6) and paracentral lobule (BA31) of the brain during the task condition compared to the rest condition in a Fara-therapist population. Considering the cortical electrical activity of Fara-therapist’s brain during Fara-darmani Consciousness Field connection, characterizing increase in the power of gamma wave and the activity of the areas affecting on memory, attention, perception and default mode network intrinsic activity. This manifestation distinguishes Fara-darmani Consciousness Field connection from other known methods dealing with the mind-body interaction criterion mainly different types of mediation.

scholarly journals Mapping Meditative States and Stages with Electrophysiology: Concepts, Classifications, and Methods

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poppy Schoenberg ◽  
David R Vago
Keyword(s):  
Structure And Function ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Biological Structure ◽  
Contemplative Practices ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Neurobiological Substrates ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Exploration of human consciousness remains a final frontier within basic neuroscience; that is, how the finite biological structure and function of the brain gives rise to the seemingly infinite expanse that encompasses the terrain of the mind. Contemporary mindfulness and other contemplative practices across historical and post-modern traditions involve systematic forms of mental training that allow the practitioner to develop the mind in very specific and quantifiable ways. Some fundamental questions pertain to this scientific enquiry; (1) how to concisely classify discrete and developmentally-specific “mind states” of consciousness that are in line with the subtle complex phenomenology of experience so to yield ontological quantifications? (2) what measures best represent such classification/quantification systems? (3) can the present electrophysiological purview map developmentally-specified mind states and stages to neurobiological substrates, based on extant contention (i.e. discrete EEG band functionality, phenomenological significance, and underlying mechanisms) regarding the interpretation of EEG physiology?

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