Mindfulness is making the news
these days. It has been depicted in the media primarily as a tool to
hone attention, to cultivate sensory awareness, and to keep us in the
present moment.
Developing these tools takes effort and
determination, but why is it we can sometimes be mindful without really
even trying? Perhaps we were naturally mindful at points in life before
we ever learned what mindfulness was. Maybe we feel naturally connected,
present, and at ease in nature. Or we become mindful while talking
authentically with a friend, or in the midst of music, art, or athletic
activity.
Mindfulness is not only a meditation technique, but
also a state of being. This state is available to anyone; it is a
natural human capacity. Mindfulness practice, as a tool, is tremendously
helpful to cultivate this awareness, and the state can arise at any
moment. Mindfulness is also connected to a set of powerful outcomes:
happiness, emotional regulation, compassion, altruism, and kindness.
We
encourage you to attend an array of offerings to cultivate the
moment-to-moment awareness, which is the foundation of our practice.
Ayahuasca being prepared for a healing ritual in the Brazilian village of Novo Segredo.
A psychedelic drink used for centuries in healing ceremonies is now attracting the attention of biomedical scientists as a possible treatment for depression.
Researchers from Brazil last month published results from the first clinical test of a potential therapeutic benefit for ayahuasca, a South American plant-based brew1.
The work forms part of a renaissance in studying the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic or recreational drugs :
Ayahuasca, a sacramental drink traditionally brewed from the bark of a jungle vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of a shrub (Psychotria viridis), contains ingredients that are illegal in most countries.
But a booming ayahuasca industry has developed in South America, where its religious use is allowed, and where thousands of people each year head to rainforest retreats to sample its intense psychedelic insights. Depression drink: The brew has been studied by anthropologists, social scientists and theologians, but clinical research on ayahuasca has been limited ........
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Jairo Galvis Henao/Creative Commons
Ayahuasca is a 'tea' made from Amazonian plants.
Improvements were seen in two or three hours, a rapid effect, as conventional antidepressants can take weeks to work.
The benefits, which were statistically significant, continued to hold up in assessments over he next three weeks. “It is a proof of concept of what so many ritual ayahuasca users already know: ayahuasca can help one feel extra well, not just during the experience, but for up to days or weeks after,”says Brian Anderson, a psychiatrist at the UC, San Francisco.
It is biochemically plausible that ayahuasca could treat depression — its plants contain compounds that alter the concentrations of the mood-regulating neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain — as do commercial antidepressants.
Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
Disclosure statement
Jim A.C. Everett receives funding from the US-UK Fulbright Commission, and the Economic and Social Research Council.
Molly Crockett receives funding from The Wellcome Trust, Oxford University Press and The John Templeton Foundation.
Imagine that an out of control trolley is speeding towards a
group of five people. You are standing on a footbridge above, next to a
large man. If you push him off the bridge onto the track below, his body
will stop the trolley before it hits the five people. He will die, but
the five others will be saved. Should you push the man off the bridge?
Before you make your decision, you should know that your popularity could depend on it. According to a new study of more than 2,400 participants, which we carried out with David Pizarro
from Cornell University, the way you answer the “trolley problem” can
have a big impact on how much people trust you. So let’s have a look at
your options.
You might say yes; saving five lives outweighs the harm of killing
one person. And you wouldn’t be alone: you’d be making a moral decision
in line with “consequentialist” theories of morality.
Consequentialists
believe that we should aim to maximise the greatest good for the
greatest number of people, even if this means causing some harm – for
example, by killing one person to save five.
On the other hand, you might say no; killing someone is just wrong,
regardless of any positive consequences there might be. Here, you’d be
making a moral decision in line with “deontological” moral theories,
which focus on moral rules, rights and duties. Maxims such as “thou shalt not kill” and “treat others as you would like to be treated” (otherwise known as the golden rule) fit into this category.
Which do you choose?
Statistically,
more people think that it’s wrong to push the man off the bridge to
save the five others. On one level, this makes sense – we shudder at the
thought of a friend or partner doing a cost-benefit analysis of whether
you should be sacrificed for the greater good. So why do more people
prefer this rule-based approach to morality?
Some scholars have argued
that deontological intuitions arise from “irrational” emotional
responses. But we thought there might be another explanation: namely,
the power of popularity. We proposed that if people who stick to moral
rules are considered to be better social partners, that might explain
why more people take a deontological view.
Toeing the line may come naturally.www.shutterstock.com
Over the course of human evolution, this could favour one type of
moral thinking over another among the entire population. So, rather than
reflecting irrational or emotional thinking, making moral judgements
based on rules could be an adaptive feature of our minds.
To the test
We tested this hypothesis using several variations of the “trolley
problem” and asked whether people who made deontological or
consequentialist moral judgements were preferred as social partners.
Over the course of nine experiments, we found that people who took a
deontological approach to the dilemmas (refusing to kill an innocent
person, even when this maximised the greater good) were seen as more
trustworthy than those who advocated a more flexible, consequentialist
approach.
And not only did most people say they would rather trust a
deontologist than a consequentialist – they also put their money where
their mouths were. When asked to entrust another person with a sum of
money, participants handed over more money, and were more confident of
getting it back, when dealing with someone who refused to sacrifice one
to save many, compared with someone who chose to maximise the overall
number of lives saved.
Not so simple
But this wasn’t the whole story: simply deciding whether or not to
sacrifice an innocent person was not the only thing that mattered. We
also found that how the choice was made was crucial. Someone who had
decided to sacrifice one life to save five – but had found that decision
difficult – was trusted more than someone who had found the decision
easy.
And it wasn’t always the case that those who refused to kill an
innocent person were trusted more. Where the person who might be
sacrificed indicated a specific desire to live or a willingness to die,
people favoured individuals who respected those wishes – even if that
involved killing.
These findings don’t just help explain how we came to have the moral
intuitions that we do, but also how moral judgements play out on the
world stage. Our results could help shed light on why we are often
attracted to political leaders who communicate simple messages based on
moral rules.
Consider, for example, a politician who says that gay marriage should
be legal because marriage is a fundamental right in a fair and
democratic society (a deontological perspective). This person is likely
be to seen as more moral and trustworthy than one who says that gay
marriage should be legal because it has positive economic or social
consequences (a more consequentialist perspective).
So next time you have to make a tough call, remember – people like people who follow moral rules.
One of the best parts of the interview is the detail given by Bezos about some of the books he’s shared with Amazon’s top executives — he uses these as frameworks for shaping the future of the company.
The Holstee Manifesto is a call to action to live a life full of intention, creativity, passion, and community.
The
LifeCycle Film came about as a desire to bring the energy and passion
behind the Manifesto to life through something we love--biking. As we
seek to live mindful lifestyles that leave a positive impact on the
people and world around us, biking has become a passion that is much
more than a transportation alternative. It is a way of fully
experiencing the city we love and all of its details.
This Film
is a celebration. It is a celebration of gatherings, of diversity, of
life, and of the beauty of shared experience. We hope you enjoy.
Holstee Manifesto written by Dave, Mike and Fabian Music "Almost Everything" by Wakey!Wakey! Director / Producer / Editor Cooper Miller Cinematographer Anna Farrell Producer Juliette Richey Production Coordinator Whitney Matthews Production Assistants Shawn Maguire & Wendi Miller Book Cover Design Ray Shappell
Because people who "talk to themselves: are thought to be crazy, nearly everyone has an injunction against listening to the voices in their head. This faculty which can be quickly recovered, however, if the proper permission is given. Then almost anyone can listen in on his own internal dialogues. - Eric Berne, What Do You Say After You Say Hello
In this talk, Tai Lopez reminds us that everyone wants the good life,
but not everyone gets the good life because not everyone is willing to
do what it takes.
Oklahoma
State University alum, oil entrepreneur and billionaire Boone Pickens
debuted his leadership speech at TEDxOStateU. Pickens gives tips and
tricks for becoming a successful leader.
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or to be the mirror that reflects it. - Edith Wharton
Ms. Wharton sums up how I think of blogs. My desire is to reflect the
articles and pictures that inspire me when surfing the Web by posting
them on my blogs. Blogs create a scrapbook of events to review later
inspiring me for a second time. This is a great pleasure and an
educational activity providing me with learning missed when I was in
school. The Web has demonstrated its great value in generating and
spreading new ideas. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Occupy Wall Street and other
revolutions have gained momentum on the Web.
If you have a favorite cause like animal rights, you can play a part in
education the world by posting to your blog. The possibilities are
limited only by your imagination.
"To read means to borrow; to create out of one's reading is paying off one's debts." - Charles Lillard
Communicating my worldview, as seen from my backwater home town situated
on an island in the Pacific, is my way of staying engaged with current
events. Multiple Sclerosis has reduced my physical energy and keeps me
close to home so I need to adapt and find new ways of relating to the
world at large.
