Train Your Mind Change Your Brain

Here is the link to the Mind and Life Institute. The institute sponsors meetings each year with The Dalai Lama and the worlds top scientists. In the following post, I mention the book that was written about the 2004 meeting, Train Your Mind Change Your Brain.

http://www.mindandlife.org/

Your Brain in a Nutshell

On Tuesday November 18th I was musing on the idea of being able to catch non-productive or unhealthy thoughts as they arise and realize them for what they are and let them go. How do we do this is the question I posed. Well, I’ve been doing a little research on that very topic so I can enlighten you while you waste your boss’s time reading blogs and having that extra cup of coffee before you really get to work.

I picked up this fascinating book called “Train Your Mind Change Your Brain” by Sharon Begley (with a foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama). This book is touted as a “groundbreaking collaboration between neuroscience and Buddhism”. Before I go any further I should warn you that I think physics textbooks are entertaining. I also think scientific experiments are engaging. I love to learn how people learn about all kinds of interesting things.

I’m about half way through the book now, and it’s all about the ways that the brain can grow and change, even after your body is fully grown. It’s called brain plasticity, and it’s all the rage among neuroscientists, even though just a few years ago the concept of brain plasticity was laughed right out of all the best scientific journals. This is a good example of how narrow minded science can be, the people who are supposed to be discovering new things often don’t even want to talk about new things!

Previously it was thought that you are born with a bunch of brain cells, you grow a bunch more when you are a baby learning all kinds of new things, you start to loose brain cells when you become an adolescent (maybe they are transformed into excess hormones), and this loss continues through young adulthood (accelerated greatly by your choice of recreational chemicals), and speeds up as you age until you eventually die with a shriveled up brain the size of a walnut.

Now however, it has been proven that this is not true! No, science has traveled into the unknown to prove that you only loose all those brain cells if you don’t take care of them, nourish them and invite them to grow.

Now I’m not going to tell you the whole story, read the book if you want that, but I will tell you there are dozens of experiments detailed so the reader sees the progression of one theory to the next and the amazing discoveries that first led researchers to imagine the brain was actually adjusting its cells, functions and usage, based on the persons activities.

I will throw this little bit of information out at you: voluntary exercise on a regular basis makes your brain grow. Bad news for couch potatoes I know. And I say voluntary because the experiment looked at brains of mice who exercised for fun (turns out mice love to run on those little wheels you see in gerbil cages), and brains of mice who were forced to exercise ( picture a white coated lab tech holding a mouse at gun point and forcing it to lift weights) actually, that is not how they did it, I won’t go into the details, but bottom line, the voluntary mice grew to be much smarter.

Now skip ahead to the part on applications for humans and we find that people with obsessive compulsive disorders can be trained to watch their thoughts as the compulsions come and rationalize what these thoughts mean, and how they arise from a chemical imbalance rather than being an intrinsic part of the person and sure enough, after they practice for a while, the obsessive behavior patterns lessen and disappear.

So dear readers, this takes us right back where we started. When you are in a situation that causes thoughts of anger or anxiety to arise, if you try to look at the thoughts and analyze them before you react, your brain will actually learn from what you just did, add more brain function resources to repeating this task in the future, and make it easier for you to do this again.

See? You are not alone! Your brain is helping you! You can learn to think before you react. You can become the type of person who is able to react with compassion rather than anger. You can learn to put that wave of anxiety to bed and think calm healing thoughts even when the going is rough.

Now, I’m sure as I get further into that book I will learn lots of tid-bits about how the process is actually done, but for now, I will just share how I think it might be done.

Next time someone you know acts like an ass and you start to get mad- catch the mad feeling. Stop for a moment and ask yourself what am I feeling? Acknowledge your feelings, then ask yourself if you can imagine any reason that person might be acting like such an ass.

Maybe they had a worse day then the one you are having. Maybe someone they know died, or left them, or is in the hospital, or is missing. Maybe they got fired, divorced or a speeding ticket on the way to work. Maybe they are hungry, hung over or really mentally unstable. Maybe they are all kinds of bad things you can imagine.

Now, this does not excuse them, but it does give you an opportunity to say to yourself- I’m glad I’m not like that. I’m glad I don’t have any of those horrible imagined problems they have. I’m gonna shine that on. I’m not taking the bait. I feel sorry for that ass. They must be having way bigger problems than I have. (if nothing else they have a big problem because they are such an ass no one likes them), Than you can ignore their assy-ness, or ask them if they are OK, or maybe even ask if here is some way you can help them because they are obviously having a bad day.

The same steps can be used for anxiety. When you feel it coming on – Like the Obsessive Compulsion disorder patients,( which, by the way, OCD is an anxiety problem,) you can say to your self- I’m feeling anxiety. This situation is a real ass, but it won’t help for me to be an ass back. Let me just calm down. This situation will soon change. (here’s where that Buddhist concept of impermanence comes in real handy), If I just remain calm and take steps to peacefully resolve this situation things are going to change. My anxiety does not change any thing, things just change.

Now, according to this research I’ve reviewed, if you just keep practicing this over and over it will become easier. From the looks of the news headlines, you may be getting a lot of practice, and this skill is going to become very valuable in the coming months.

Is It October Already?

Yes, I think it is. I can look out the window and see the leaves falling, the sky a cool blue and the sun light filtering in at a different angle than it did a month ago. I am turning on exterior lights at the office, as the night comes earlier, sometimes before I am done with work. The stores are full of Halloween treats and my porch is filling up with wood pellets for the stove. It must be fall.

It seems like just a week ago it was August.

The fall always makes me feel a little sad, because I hate to see the summer go. I don't enjoy winter much and I miss the daylight. I'm thankful we are already half way to the suns turning back point, the winter solstice, which happens right around the 20th of December. From that day on, the sun comes and stays a bit longer each day. I'm definitely a sun worshiper, and if there is such a thing as past lives, I'm sure I was involved in some sun worshiping society.

Researchers will tell you it's just science, biochemistry really, that the sun being absorbed through our skin causes a cascade of chemical reactions which make us feel good, sleep well, and be happy. I can see their point, I'm sure biochemistry is involved. I think though, it's more than that. I think we may be a species that seeks the light, in what ever form we find it. I think maybe when we see the sun in the sky, it reminds us, at some deep level that the light is within us, shines on us, makes us warm. Sunlight, to me, just seems cheery, it brightens the day and the corners of one's mind. It reveals clearly what lies about us. Because of it, we can see.

Because I'm admitting to myself fall is here, I'm accepting it, what choice do I have? The world keeps spinning- right? So I'm looking forward to putting up my Christmas lights. A primitive ritual to help ward off the long dark nights of winter. I love to see houses all lit up, entire neighborhoods a twinkle, as we hold off the darkness for another winter, and create a reminder that the sun will return. Somehow, it makes the winter seem warmer.

Spinning

I’ve been percolating for a few days on this idea of change. Why are most humans so uncomfortable with change? One of my friends recently told me she did wash, not because she was out of clean clothes, but because she was out of her favorite clean clothes. See what I mean? We like to get cozy with certain things, places and patterns in our lives and just stay there. Like our favorite clothes, our patterns are our comfort. That is, until our patterns become a rut. That, how ever is a whole ‘nother matter and I’m just contemplating the why of change in the here and now. (Remember, I’m really practicing being rather than doing, and being means just being here and now).

So I watched a good movie a few nights ago, Martian Child. I got it because that handsome guy John Chusak is in it and I figured even if the movie was a bomb the scenery would be great , and the movie was actually good and John was looking great. He’s aging with style and I’m looking forward to the release of the movie he wrote and produced called War Inc., due out in October. Originally scheduled for release last spring, now it won’t be out ‘till after the elections- geeze, wonder why? Dan Ackroyd will be in it as well, it’s a follow up to the movie Grosse Pointe Blank that they did together way back when, so that right there makes it worth seeing.

Any-hoo, in Martian Child John’s character makes a long speech about how weird this whole life is, we are spinning on a planet ( 700 to 1000 miles an hour depending on if you are at the equator or the poles), around a spinning star ( the sun spins at a speed of 4,400 miles an hour) in the spinning arm of galaxy ( our galaxy spins at 140 miles a second) that’s spinning across the universe ( at 190 miles a second), meanwhile every atom in our body is spinning and I said Eureka! That is it!

Maybe we all cling to our favorite clothes because we are so tiny, little, small. We are to small to actually see and feel all this enormous movement that is going on all around us but maybe at some instinctual level we know, we can feel, our DNA twirl, our atoms spinning, our earth revolving around the sun which spins in a solar system, spinning in a galaxy that spins out across the never ending void of the universe.

Just look around you, every moment is change and every season is change. Just sit in the yard and watch the lawn grow, the flowers bloom and die. Or drive around your favorite town. Homes go up, buildings come down, business opens and another closes. Look at your photo album, you once looked like that, every day you changed a little, now you look like this. It can’t be stopped.

You are constantly changing, as your cells die and new ones are replacing them. You think you have the same body your whole life, but really, all your cells are replaced many times over your life so even your same body is an illusion. No wonder we are grasping for a little stability!

We are so little, tiny, small that we can’t feel the earth spinning, but maybe we know. Maybe somehow we do feel all this never ending motion that makes up our very being and our whole incredibly humongous environment. Maybe at some level all that large moving stuff makes us feel like an ant holding onto the branch of a tree in the fall wind. Holding on for dear life as everything swirls on around, holding on just trying to remain with feet planted .

Maybe we are just craving some small spot of stillness. A place of no movement. A place to hold on. Maybe our favorite clothes, the painting that has hung on that wall in that house for 30 years, the favorite recliner tattered and worn, the familiar grocery store with every item exactly where we expect it to be helps us to forget for a moment that we, just like everything else in existence are spinning. Maybe we can’t help this clinging, maybe we think if we let go of our familiar, our routine our same whatever- maybe we think we are going to spin right off into space.

And even though a favorite shirt lasts maybe 8 or 10 years, and that is an amazing infinitesimal amount of time when it comes to the span of time in space, maybe because we are so small, just having that same thing, place, person or routine for ten years makes us confident, gives us stillness and a thread of consistency to hang on to. Maybe it makes us feel like we are moving in the stillness rather than still in the movingness. Maybe it gives us a feeling of rest.

Maybe we are resistant to change because if we can just hold a few things still in our tiny lives, we can feel like we are bigger than we are. We can feel like we are in control. Then maybe our intuitive understanding of the vastness and the speed of it all won’t be quite so scary.

Just Say No to Prescription Drugs

Last night I spent some time looking at a popular women's magazine. I like to take a look through one now and then, examining the ads to see what people are falling for, um, I mean consuming. It keeps me up to date on what my clients may be eating, drinking, buying and following as part of current popular culture.I also peruse a few other magazines on a regular basis, for the same reason. I want to know what my clients are thinking about.

This magazine had a full page ad on the dangers of teen agers taking prescription drugs for the purpose of getting high. The ad states that 19% of teens have abused prescription drugs to get high. Under the statistic screaming headline it says: Talk to your kids about how dangerous it can be.

The magazine is full of colorful two page layout highly attractive ads for prescription drugs. It has ads for all kinds of ailments and the drugs that are going to save you from these ailments. It has all kinds of photos of people looking all happy because their doctor prescribed some pills for them. This magazine touts the advantages of popping pills. Many of the ads use scare tactics. If you don't take this, you might die from this! In fact, you might be dieing right now! Go ask you doctor for this drug!

33% of those ads are for prescription drugs specifically for kids.

How crazy is that? Am I the only one confused by this? Does this magazine have a split personality? Is the average consumer that stupid? How do we expect kids to stay off drugs if we start giving them daily medications when they are just little kids?

Why are drug companies allowed to advertise like that? How much would consumers save on prescription drugs if the drug companies did not spend billions on advertising and you heard about drugs that you really did need only by speaking with your doctor?

When The World Becomes to Large

It seems to me, that as our global world becomes smaller, our personal worlds become larger. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not.

Remember way back when you had to go to the library to look up things or, if you were really lucky, you had a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica (first printing- 1768 in Scotland) at your house? Now all you have to do is sit at the computer and click away.

Remember when mass communication was unheard of? No, well, neither does anyone else. Newspapers (first printed, Germany, late 1400’s-first weekly, Britain 1622) have been around for a long time, but it wasn’t that long ago that newspapers were the only source of mass communication and a large part of the humanity couldn’t read! News got around by word of mouth. The first newspapers were only printed when something “news worthy” occurred.

It also wasn’t that long ago that a person’s interest in the world was pretty much limited to their home town, and possibly an occasional rumor of what was happening in the world outside that town. Top speed for a buckboard and horses is approximately 30 mph- try traveling around the world like that. It was a very large world, while personal worlds were relatively small.

Time moved slower it seemed.

Quantum physics discoveries seem to imply that as the universe expands, time is indeed speeding up, but I was unable to find a definite article on this topic.

Telephones were the next invention that made the world smaller. No longer did you have to wait weeks or months to get a letter from a relative or friend to find out the latest happenings out side of your town.

Then came radio, (first broadcasts to public, early 1920’s) and families gathered together to hear from the world. Before that, printed news traveled slowly. Suddenly news traveled at the speed of radio waves (The speed of a radio wave radiated into free space by a transmitting antenna is equal to the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second).

Television wasn’t far behind (first commercial broadcast July 1st, 1941) and now you could see what was going on as well as hear it. The world was as small as it could get- or so they thought.

Now it’s even smaller, because we have the ability to go out and get the information we want, our knowledge is not limited to what is delivered to us by newspapers or TV. Want to know what’s going on in Tibet (oh, excuse me, the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China) right now? Just get on line and search.

This onslaught of information is enough to crush anyone, but especially those born back when news was something you got at the picnic after church and it consisted of what was happening in your town of 300.

Back then you only had to worry about the three cows farmer Bill lost last week, or the fact that the town mill may close and leave people out of work. Now multiply that amount of worry by about a gazillion as you watch Buddhist Monks killed in Burma, children starving in Africa, floods in Germany, drought in Australia and that’s not even mentioning what’s going on in your own country, state and community. At one time it was a privilege of the educated to stay informed of global events, now maybe it’s not.

Now days you may not know your neighbors, but you can know what is going on around the globe. You probably don’t know the manager of the store you shop in (because the tiny corner grocery store is gone and you now have to drive to the big chain store to shop), but you feel like you know the cast of the latest successful TV show.

The global community has replaced the home town and that is pretty cool, unless you happen to be a 70 year old who feels the world has out grown you. It’s difficult for the young to keep up, how do we expect the elderly to cope?

We can’t really, and they often don’t. Their way of life has passed and they are lost, wondering what happened to family dinners, evenings on the porch and living in a neighborhood where you know the people next door, the banker, the grocer, the cop and the guy who filled the gas tank on your car.

How do you cope when your town has grown so large it’s hard to find your way around even on a good day? How do you keep your family together when the average person now changes jobs every ten years, and often with geographic change as well? How do you cope with 55 mph speed limits, ATM’s, E- tickets , automated customer service lines with menus having 20 options that lead to menus with 20 more options, and self serve everything? Now add in the general anxiety caused by ageing and you have way to much stress for one person. The world has changed, it’s become to large!

And all that modern, time saving, world uniting, robotic stuff looked so inviting back at the 1962 Worlds Fair hosted by Seattle. The Fair used the theme “The 21st Century” and a tag line of. ‘Better Living Through Science” to entice people with visions of a leisurely future in a global community enhanced by automation. Maybe no thought was given to the possibility that the science would run amok and leave the very people who nurtured it lying in its dust.

Just What I Needed

Ah the universe - an amazing, responsive, pliable, stretchy, fibrous coat of energy that surrounds each of us with infinite possibility. I've heard it responds to our every thought.

I was thinking about my plot for a horror story (see last post) when I was called to speak to college students at a large university. The topic was alternative health care and it was encouraging to hear these youngsters talking about Barbara Brennan, (search amazon "Hands of Light") Reiki, Aromatherapy, chakras and all that. A fair share of them said they learned it from their mothers, the other half said they were from, or had lived in, California.

They all were pretty clear on the fact that the food should be natural, pharmaceutical drugs were not good and alternative healing is cool. Whew- maybe there is hope for us after all.

Code Blue! My computer has cooties!

So I’m minding my own business, getting ready to work for the day. I turn on the computer and turn to the coffee making. My computer is in the kitchen, I find this is just so convenient when I need a cup of coffee, or want to check e-mail while I’m making dinner. Besides that, I can easily swivel my chair, roll a few feet and forage through the refrigerator with out ever leaving my seat.

I’m grinding the beans when I glance back at the screen to see how close I am to lift off. I am alarmed to find a message that doesn’t belong there. Something about Microsoft wanting to inspect and fix something or other which may have been damaged by a power outage. I’m scanning my own files to recall a power outage and realize the thing is ticking! It’s asking me to accept or decline in the next 20 seconds or it goes off automatically. The only problem is I’ve spent 19 and ½ seconds reading the screen and trying to figure out why that Windows flag is not the right color. Kaboom! Off it goes and I see it’s deleting!

Code Blue! I dive across the kitchen and hit the power off and shut her down, not knowing for sure if this will really help or not. What the heck- now if I turn her on what happens? Madre de Dios! I try to crush the panic rising in my gut. I’m not successful. I start running around the house screaming to myself, code blue! code blue!, while I search for my old issue of Psychology Today that has the great article on a new field of psychology.

There are actually psychologists who specialize in working with people who are experiencing separation anxiety from their computers when they are involuntarily unplugged. Turns out, they experience the 5 stages of grief identified with the loss of a loved one. I’m thinking I might need to call one of the people on their list of experts.

Meanwhile I’m cussing the software makers and the damn psychos who find it entertaining to plant things that wreak havoc on the internet. It appears I’ve skipped the first stage of grief - denial- and jumped directly to the second stage, anger. I try not to take it personally, I know it’s just chance, luck of the draw, but I’m pissed anyway. Why don’t these people channel their energy and intelligence into curing cancer or solving the age old riddle of why Twinkies have a half life longer than Krypton? (and by the way, if we know that energy is never destroyed, only changes form, where the heck are those bits of Twinkie going?) Why do these people have to f**k with the internet, and by extension, my computer?

I’m not having any luck finding that magazine and I return to the kitchen and the first stage of grief - denial.

Maybe it wasn’t a bug, maybe it was Microsoft doing something, I mean, sometimes it’s hard to tell, these machines are always doing something when you are not looking. I know that because I read Michael Crichton’s novel “Prey”. I don’t leave my computer running when I’m sleeping anymore. And I leave a night light on.

Maybe I should turn the computer back on and take another look. So I do and sure enough the message comes up again. The bomb is re-loading its self and I panic again. This time, however, it does not take me 19 and ½ seconds to read the screen so I click on deny.

I thought about my computer use and the last thing I opened before I shut down last night. A letter from a friend. I wondered if it was possible I got cooties from her? I called and asked her how her computer was running, but she had not been on line that morning. I tried calmly explaining the situation and urged caution when she went to fire it up, not even sure that caution would work.

My friend, noting the anxiety in my voice promptly went into action in my defense. She just happened to be in a church and she went right to stage three of grief, which is bargaining, for me. She said “call you right back” and hung up. She dropped to her knees, said ten Hail Marys, sprinted to the alcove and lit a candle asking Holy Mother Mary to intervene on my behalf.

She called me back and assured me that our Devine Mother was standing at my right hand ready to assist. I thought that possibly I should offer something up, you know, the other part of the whole bargaining thing, so I did. Can’t tell you what it was, it’s kinda like a birthday wish when you blow out the candle, if you share your wish it won’t come true. I said my thanks and promised my friend an update later in the day.

Then I started pacing around the kitchen, chanting WWJD? WWJD? WWJD?
No, not that J, I’m referring to my friend Jim. Jim is one of my Mensa certified type genius friends, and a really great guy. He also happens to be very skilled when it comes to computer related issues, he was the one who taught me how to add memory, change out drives, search effectively, stuff like that, and the guy does not panic. Seriously, he doesn’t panic.

One time we were driving to Santa Fe to ski and the transmission started to go on his truck. Me, I would have hyperventilated. But Jim, he was cool as the proverbial cucumber, he just took an exit off the highway, coasted into the dealership, which happened to be right off the exit (maybe he’s a lucky guy who does not panic), gave them the keys and a credit card and asked them if he could borrow a car big enough to put our skis in. Twenty minutes later we were headed up the mountain, skis stuffed in the back seat, and he had not even wrung his hands once.

WWJD? He would review all pertinent data, using Ockham’s Razor. Ockham's Razor is the principle proposed by William of Ockham in the fourteenth century: ``Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate'', which translates as ``entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily''. The Razor directs us to study in depth the simplest of the theories relating to any question, meaning we usually find that the simplest explanation is most likely correct. So, I had to admit that the pertinent data pointed to the fact that my computer had a serious case of the cooties. I skipped the fourth stage of grief, which is depression, and went right on to the fifth and final stage - acceptance.

I could accept the infection theory, knowing it was most likely true. I could also accept the fact that this was beyond my skill level. What I needed was a professional! I searched my memory and realized I had recently met a professional and I had a contact that could supply me with the professional’s number. I got on the phone and made a date to drop my baby off for a tune up. I was nervous, no doubt, I mean, I didn’t really know this professional. I did have a solid referral though and sometimes that is the best you can do. It’s very similar to going to a doctor, you just hope your friend who gave you the referral was really cured and not just in a short remission.

At this point you have probably assumed that all this meandering has come about because the professional was successful. That would be correct. Less than a week later I’m meandering like crazy, making up for lost time. My computer seems happy and healthy, I've recovered from my 5 days going "cold turkey" unplugged, and I've learned to recognize the 5 stages of grief. I'm sure that will come in handy someday. I've also learned a better way to back up data, I've made a new friend who knows his way around a computer,and I learned that I do have a following, thanks to the calls I got from people asking what was up, why hadn't I posted lately. All is well in meandering-ville.

Mensa Quiz- are you ready?

I've been fortunate in my life to collect a lot of friends. In fact, I've got so many friends I could probably easily spend the next 3 years just bumming around, sleeping on couches, raiding refrigrators and not doing nothin' at all, and I would see a large part of the world in the process.

Lucky me.

I was contemplating my friends the other day and in particular, my Mensa certified friends. Yes, you know, the smarty pants club. Some of my friends are members.

I'm thinking of one friend in particular. Very unassuming, you would never know looking at her that she's a genius. However, if you ask her a few hard questions and listen carefully you will get the idea there is something above average going on here. You do not want- I repeat- do not want to challenge this gal in a puzzle contest.

If you knew the number of times I've ignored good advice from this friend, you would understand why I'm not Mensa certified.

My mind meandered from her to all my genius -but -didn't -take -the -test friends, like my friend who is a rocket scientist. I just love going out with her (" well Mr. Smart Ass, as a matter of fact, she is a rocket scientist- and I'm a doctor, what do you do?") and the guy I know who figures out how to bounce lasers off weather systems and the guy who teaches advanced mathematics at the university level and the physicist who works with optics. All of them could be certifiable- oh, I mean certified.

Then I meandered on to my non-certified friends, the ones that wouldn't even think about taking the test but are "all smarty" just the same.

Like the entrepreneur who juggles 3 small business ventures, 2 teenage girls, 327 immediate and extended family members, 2 cats, a household, a church youth group, one ex-husband and a long distance relationship with a charming motor head. This lady still has time for prayers in the morning, home cooked dinner parties for her 327 immediate and extended family members ( on, I must add, 327 cute -as -a -bug vintage place settings), planting sunflowers, tending the garden and harvesting the seeds to store for winter baking projects.

She might not pass the Mensa exam, but put her eye to eye with a stranger and in five minutes she can ferret out a rat if there happens to be one hiding there. Does Mensa have a question to test an ability like that?

Well, that got me all curious, so I went out and got "Mensa Brain Bafflers" by PJ Carter and KA Russell. (" The Official Mensa Puzzle Book"! )

So, here is an example of what I found- This is gonna be fun, I mean, we are bright, aren't we?

Question 1: "How Old Is Mary?"
The combined ages of Mary and Anne are 44 years, and Mary is twice as old as Anne was when Mary was half as old as Anne will be when Anne is three times as old as Mary was when Mary was three times as old as Anne. How old is Mary?

Um, could you repeat the question? Is this an open book test?

Ok, let's move on, the next one looks easier-

Question 2 :"Dishes"
How many guests are there?" said the official."I do not know" said the cook, " but every two used a dish for rice between them, every three used a dish for broth between them, and every four used a dish for meat between them."There were 65 dishes in all, how many guests were there?

You gotta be kidding. Where are the warm up questions? Can I use a calculator?

Pretty much the whole book is like this. No, I did not find any questions to test your ability to negotiate a hectic lifestyle. No, I didn't find questions to measure you ability to be compassionate, although I find my Mensa friends seem to have both qualities.

I did not find questions that would measure your ability to answer the big important questions in life. But who knows? Maybe being able to ponder these comlicated problems, reguardless of whether or not you get the answer, can effect your ability to ponder your maker, or the reason you love someone, or how to handle the stress in your life. Maybe it's not the answer, but the pondering that really measures your intellegence. Or maybe it's just the fact that you would take the time and effort to ponder at all.

Then I start looking at my friends as a group and they all have a few things in common. Like a predilection for dry humor, and the ability to laugh at themselves. Like adventurous natures, open minds, and a willingness to take risks. They are comfortable with change and have the ability to empathise with others. They seem to ponder a lot. My friends are generous in nature, and certified, certifiable, or not, they are a bunch of smart, interesting people.

So, I will say it again, Lucky me.

PS Mary is 271/2 years old, and there were 60 guests (65x12/13=60)
Anyone with an IQ score in the top two percent of the population can join Mensa
(yes, they test you)- for more info go to www.us.mensa.org

Homeostasis- just another name for balance.

I’ve had a lot of responses to my article on death, most of them going to my e-mail rather than the comment section.

Most of them have been questions like- is this fiction? No
Are you kidding? No

And I've had a bunch of comments like this: I thought you were so healthy!
Well I am! If I wasn’t we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
I know you are brain washed by the medical profession, but really guys, what do you think being healthy is?

Don’t kid yourself- You have 9 gazillion cells in your body ( actually, it's aprox. 70 trillion cells). It’s a very complex system. Do you think it’s always running perfectly in a ”healthy” person? Nope, it's not. At any moment there are dozens of things going wrong.

To begin with, Your cells are constantly dieing, and your body replaces them. In fact, 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced each year, the stomach lining replaces its cells every 15 minutes, the heart replaces its cells every 120 days and 8 million red blood cells are produced by the bone marrow every second.

Add to that the fact that invading bacteria and viruses are constantly replicating, and your cells are killing them in a never ending battle. Cells are mutating constantly and your body is destroying them. Your blood pressure and temperature are fluctuating and your system brings them back to normal. You add to much acid to your stomach, and your body neutralizes it. Your genetic code predisposes you to all kinda health problems, and , as you age, more genes are damaged. It never ends, something is always going wrong in your body.

IF your body is achieving balance or homeostasis, it does so because it’s healthy. A healthy body is one that takes cues from it's environment, adapts to stress (biological stress is called illness or injury), and returns to normal. If your body is healthy you do not need to add chemicals (drugs) to achieve this return to homeostasis.

At this point, my mind meandered on to artificial intelligence, and the similarities.

We started thinking of AI as a model of biological systems, but, because most people now days understand computers better than their own body, we can turn it around and look at the way biological systems (our bodies) are like AI.

AI was meant to be a “thinking machine”. It would be able to take a certain amount of information from it's memory and from the environment and calculate from there. This process meant that the AI would learn and grow on its own, and remain in balance.

Now, the thing is, it seems to me that AI is modeled not so much after the human mind, but after the body. The body is constantly taking information from the environment, processing it and making adaptations with in its self to achieve balance, or homeostasis.

If your body is healthy, it does this, even in the most stressful situations. With out the use of chemicals. Take the common cold for example. You have a response to invading bacteria that includes a fever, runny nose, coughing and sneezing. All of these symptoms are ways that the body fights bacteria. If you are healthy your body exhibits all these symptoms, overcomes the bacteria, then returns to normal in a day or two. Or, if you are not healthy, you have to dose yourself with lots of over the counter drugs, you suppress the symptoms, and it takes you forever to get well.

When I was in the hospital, I refused all drugs. My body had a serious malfunction, and it regained balance on its own. That’s what I call very healthy. Health doesn't mean never being sick. Health means being able to regain homeostasis, even after incredible stress, with out outside intervention.

Now, I'm going to take even better care ( more exercise, more rest) of my body, so it remains healthy. I hope you do the same, so when a serious malfunction in your biological system occurs, you are healthy enough to regain homeostasis, just like I did.

Was that me that said that?

Yesterdays post contains a blatant error, and I do take full responsibility. I am responsible for not drinking enough coffee to wake me up before I started posting.

Did you catch it? I bet my Mensa certified friends did...planet earth is in our solar system, perched on the edge of the galaxy on the same side as the milky way. The milky way is in fact our view of the spiral arm of the galaxy as it stretches out to space.

Does that photo make anyone feel little, tiny, small?