----- 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
