Re: [Futurework] new book

Tue, 27 May 2003 19:51:28 -0700

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.

-----Original Message-----
From: Selma Singer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 2:44 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Futurework] new book

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

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