----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 10:53
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] new
book
Hi Selma,
If you think that work
exciting, try "A Course In Miracles", copywritten 1975, by Foundation For
Inner Peace.
This work constitutes
the most enlightening and meaningful ideas on mind vs. brain you'll ever
encounter, and you won't need scientific evidence to convince you of its
perspective because truth resounds as self-evident once it is felt deep
down.
The Course maintains
from the outset that mind is totally in control of brain, and not the
reverse--as so many want to see it. Not only is one drawn to the beautiful
presentation of ideas, which can be likened to Shakespeare for both
richness and because so much of it is in iambic pentameter, but the
answers to the most important questions we have in life are, for many like
myself, satisfactorily answered. Why we are here, what is important, what
is real and what is not.
If I may, I'd like to
quote from the preface: (Please read on-I know this is going to be
offensive to some, and the masculine use of the word God is not anything
but convenience for agreement of pronouns)
"Nothing
real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
"This is how A Course In Miracles begins. It makes a
fundamental
distinction between the real and the unreal:
between knowledge
and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law,
the law of love
or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and
unambiguous. It can
be unrecognized, but it cannot be
changed. It applies to
every-
thing that God created, and only
what He created is real. It is
beyond learning because it is beyond time and
process. It has no
opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely
is.
"The world of perception, on the other
hand, is the world of
time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is
based on inter-
pretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and
death, founded
on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and
death. It is learned
rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases,
unstable
in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.
"From knowledge and perception respectively,
two distinct
thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In
the
realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from
God, because
God
and His Creation share one Will. The world of
perception,
however, is made by the belief in opposites and separate
wills, in
perpetual conflict with each other and with
God. What percep-
tion sees and hears appears to be real because
it permits into
awareness only what conforms to the wishes of
the perceiver.
This leads to a world of illusions, a world which
needs constant
defense precisely because it is not real.
"When you have been caught in the world of perception you are
caught in a dream. You cannot escape
without help, because
everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality
of
the dream..."
I hope that those God
words didn't offend the scientifically minded as much as they once
offended me, and I hope that the "offensive" words were substituted with
Creation, Source, Goddess, or whatever name you'd care to give to the
oneness that is Life. This is not a book on a new religion, it is not
religious, yet is intensely spiritual and metaphysical, and the best
psychologist a person could have. It may have been written by another
so-called prophet, but was actually delivered to a Professor Helen
Schucman of Columbia University's College of Physicians and
Surgeons in New York City, and she was anything but
spiritual.
Whether it was related
to her by a divine source, or whether it is the work of another savant
with schizophrenia is irrelevant. What is significant to this little
note is the content, which I see partially being pursued today
in science, medicine, quantum physics, etc. To cite the example of
positive behavioural reinforcement on an individual's neural pathways,
with the actual effect of physically changing the old pathways that
took challenged people down roads of tortured thought. Well, I've worked
for many years with people with mental illness. Change how someone sees
things, not behavior so much, but get them to recognize a universal truth.
I know that if most had not been thinking or forced to think along
the pathways of fear and defensiveness when growing up, their propensity
for mental illness would not have had such a jump-start, and these
very pathways could have developed physically differently. Perhaps 85% or
more patients suffered extreme physical, emotional or sexual abuse in
their first homes. Those with whom I had contact were almost at the
100% figure for abuse.
The New York Times
recent papers on origins of the universe, big bang theory, accelerated
expansion of same, all seem to be drawing conclusions you can find in the
Course, such as we are the creators of the physical universe, by virtue of
Free Will.
We are free to
experiment with all forms of illusion. We are dreaming the universe
collectively, and at night each one of the fragmented parts of the
collective soul that participates in the dream, dreams their very own
dreams which only they will experience, yet believe to be true because of
the source of their creation. Tell yourself to be afraid, and you will be.
Tell yourself the nightmare is unreal, and the dream changes usually
to happier events. Whatever you wish or feel will occur. On a larger
scale, collectively as the one creation of a Creator, in the realm or
mindspace in which we never actually could leave the source, both God and
Heaven are unaware of anything being prayed for in a realm that does not
really exist.
Prayer is for
guidance, but mostly a song to your fellow-human to wake up to Heaven that
is possible now. One has but to change one's mind. Forgiveness is the
key--and that is what the miracle is. It is the closest thing to real love
-- which scientists will eventually learn is the only real force that
exists -- we will experience on Earth.
Check it out!
No books but one, a course in how to unlearn what you were
taught badly, no gurus, leaders, no sacred places or things to buy to help
you in your journey. This path is not for everyone, it remains one of
many.
Natalia
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 1:38
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] new
book
Thanks, Arthur. That looks like one of the
reviews I saw on Amazon.
I'm looking forward to reading
it.
Selma
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 3:31
PM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] new
book
This review looks good. Seems to lend
credence to the analysts (vs. the "everything is hard wired"
school)
A landmark work that offers new answers to one
of the oldest mysteries in human thought: the connection between mind
and brain.
Conventional science has long held the position that "the mind" is
merely an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the
physical brain. Now comes a major work, grounded in two decades of
research, that argues exactly the opposite: that the mind has a life
of its own.
In The Mind and the Brain, Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, a leading
researcher in brain dysfunctions, and Wall Street Journal
science columnist Sharon Begley demonstrate that the human mind is an
independent entity that can shape and control the functioning of the
physical brain. Their work has its basis in our emerging understanding
of adult plasticity -- the brain's ability to be rewired not just in
childhood, but throughout life, a trait only recently established by
scientists. But in this paradigm-shifting work, Schwartz and Begley
take neuroplasticity one critical step further. Through decades of
work treating patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),
Schwartz made an extraordinary finding: while following the therapy he
developed, his patients were effecting significant and lasting changes
in their own neural pathways. It was a scientific first: by actively
focusing their attention away from negative behaviors and toward more
positive ones, Schwartz's patients were using their minds to reshape
their brains.
The Mind and the Brain follows Schwartz as he investigates
this newly discovered power, which he calls self-directed
neuroplosticity or, more simply, mental force. It describes his work
with noted physicist Henry Stapp to establish the basic mechanics of
self-directed neuroplasticity in quantum physics, and reveals its
connections with the ancient practice of mindfulness in Buddhist
tradition. And it points to potential new applications that could
transform the treatment of almost every variety of neurological
dysfunction, from dyslexia to stroke -- and could lead to new
strategies to help us harness our mental powers.
Yet as wondrous as these implications are, perhaps even more
important is the philosophical dimension of Schwartz's work. For the
existence of mental force offers convincing scientific evidence of
human free will, and thus of man's inherent capacity for moral choice.
Challenging the scientific mainstream, Schwartz and Begley suggest
boldly that we human beings are more than mere automatons -- that with
the ability to shape our brains comes the power to shape our destiny.
The conclusions they draw, and the questions they raise, should
provoke debate among not only scientists but philosophers, legal
scholars, and anyone who cares about the role of man in the
universe.
I have just ordered the book *The Mind
and The Brain* by Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley.
Has anyone read this? I found the
reviews particularly interesting in that he argues that we can use
our minds to change the wiring of our brains. Apparently he has
considerable evidence from his work with Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
Apparently he brings in all kinds of
interesting stuff about free will in regard to this newly discovered
information from his studies.
Selma