Mysterious Minds

An introduction to the scientific study of psychics and mediums—those who are frauds, those who are psychotic, and those whose claims seem to defy easy dismissal. Welcome to the world of Mysterious Minds: The Neurobiology of Psychics, Mediums, and Other Extraordinary People. Here, experts in the emerging field of neurobiological study make the case that while many claims of psychic ability are easily proven false, there may well be claimants who can obtain information in ways not easily explained by mainstream science—and there might be scientific tools and approaches available to confirm those experiences. Written by an expert team of distinguished investigators from a half dozen countries around the world, Mysterious Minds introduces readers to the current state of research into parapsychological experiences, emphasizing the neurobiological data obtained by those who claim to be psychics or mediums. It offers specific examples of paranormal claims of extraordinary people—claims scrutinized through the use of high-tech brain imaging, clinical neurological examinations, and psychotropic drugs. The book concludes by proposing a series of models based on fundamental neurobiology, psychology, and quantum physics that could help us unravel these mental mysteries.

This study examines the narrative tools, techniques, and structures that Marja-Liisa Vartio, a classic of Finnish post-war modernism, used in presenting fictional minds in her narrative prose. The study contributes to the academic discussion on formal and thematic conventions of modernism by addressing the ways in which fictional minds work in interaction, and in relation to the enfolding fictional world. The epistemic problem of how accurately the world, the self, and the other can be known is approached by analyzing two co-operating ways of portraying fictional minds, both from external and internal perspectives. The external perspective relies on detachment and emotional restraint dominating in Vartio’s early novels Se on sitten kevät and Mies kuin mies, tyttö kuin tyttö. The internal perspective pertains to the mental processes of self-reflection, speculation, and excessive imagining that gain more importance in her later novels Kaikki naiset näkevät unia, Tunteet, and Hänen olivat linnut. In the theoretical chapter of this study, fictional minds are discussed in the context of the acclaimed “inward turn” of modernist fiction, by suggesting alternative methods for reading modernist minds as embodied, emotional, and social entities. In respect to fictional minds’ interaction, this study elaborates on the ideas of “mind-reading,” “intersubjectivity,” and the “social mind” established within post-classical cognitive narratology. Furthermore, it employs possible world poetics when addressing the complexity, incompleteness, and (in)accessibility of Vartio’s epistemic worlds, including the characters’ private worlds of knowledge, beliefs, emotions, hallucinations, and dreams. In regards to the emotional emplotment of fictional worlds, this study also benefits from affective narratology as well as the plot theory being influenced by possible world semantics, narrative dynamics, and cognitive narratology. As the five analysis chapters of this study show, fictional minds in Vartio’s fiction are not only introspective, solipsist, and streaming, but also embodied and social entities. In the readings of the primary texts, the concept of embodiedness is used to examine the situated presence of an experiencing mind within the time and space of the storyworld. Fictional minds’ (inter)actions are also demonstrated as evolving from local experientiality to long-term calculations that turn emotional incidents into episodes, and episodes into stories. In Vartio’s novels, the emotional story structure of certain conventional story patterns, such as the narratives of female development and the romance plot, the sentimental novel, and epistolary fiction, are modified and causally altered in the portrayal of the embodied interactions between the self, the other, and the world. The trajectories of female self-discovery in Vartio’s novels are analyzed through the emotional responses of characters: their experiences of randomness, their ways of counterfactualizing their traumatic past, their procrastinatory or akratic reactions or indecisiveness. The gradual move away from the percepts of the external world to the excessive imaginings and (mis)readings of other minds (triggered by the interaction of worlds and minds), challenges the contemporary and more recent accounts of modernism both in Finnish and international contexts.

"When most people hear the word 'disease', they think of something deadly, uncontrollable and swift--like cancer. But we're facing an epidemic of 'dis-ease'--of Americans simply feeling unwell and unable to embrace the lives they want to lead. They're tired, overweight, and inflamed. They're dealing with ongoing digestive issues and they aren't sleeping well. And many are suffering from regular and sometimes debilitating headaches. This book will help you identify your natural state and make meaningful changes for a strong, pain-free, healthy life"--

'A first class book' Sunday Times We're all conspiracy theorists. Some of us just hide it better than others. Conspiracy theorists do not wear tin-foil hats (for the most part). They are not just a few kooks lurking on the paranoid fringes of society with bizarre ideas about shape-shifting reptilian aliens running society in secret. They walk among us. They are us. Everyone loves a good conspiracy. Yet conspiracy theories are not a recent invention. And they are not always a harmless curiosity. In Suspicious Minds, Rob Brotherton explores the history and consequences of conspiracism, and delves into the research that offers insights into why so many of us are drawn to implausible, unproven and unproveable conspiracy theories. They resonate with some of our brain's built-in quirks and foibles, and tap into some of our deepest desires, fears, and assumptions about the world. The fascinating and often surprising psychology of conspiracy theories tells us a lot – not just why we are drawn to theories about sinister schemes, but about how our minds are wired and, indeed, why we believe anything at all. Conspiracy theories are not some psychological aberration – they're a predictable product of how brains work. This book will tell you why, and what it means. Of course, just because your brain's biased doesn't always mean you're wrong. Sometimes conspiracies are real. Sometimes, paranoia is prudent.

Reflecting on the confusion, shame and grief brought on by her mother's schizophrenia, Amy Simpson provides a bracing look at the social and physical realities of mental illness. Reminding us that people with mental illness are our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ, she explores new possibilities for the church to minister to this stigmatized group.

Fifteen years ago, psychologist and educator Howard Gardner introduced the idea of multiple intelligences, challenging the presumption that intelligence consists of verbal or analytic abilities only -- those intelligences that schools tend to measure. He argued for a broader understanding of the intelligent mind, one that embraces creation in the arts and music, spatial reasoning, and the ability to understand ourselves and others. Today, Gardner's ideas have become widely accepted -- indeed, they have changed how we think about intelligence, genius, creativity, and even leadership, and he is widely regarded as one of the most important voices writing on these subjects. Now, in Extraordinary Minds , a book as riveting as it is new, Gardner poses an important question: Is there a set of traits shared by all truly great achievers -- those we deem extraordinary -- no matter their field or the time period within which they did their important work? In an attempt to answer this question, Gardner first examines how most of us mature into more or less competent adults. He then examines closely four persons who lived unquestionably extraordinary lives -- Mozart, Freud, Woolf, and Gandhi -- using each as an exemplar of a different kind of extraordinariness: Mozart as the master of a discipline, Freud as the innovative founder of a new discipline, Woolf as the great introspect or, and Gandhi as the influencer. What can we learn about ourselves from the experiences of the extraordinary? Interestingly, Gardner finds that an excess of raw power is not the most impressive characteristic shared by superachievers; rather, these extraordinary individuals all have had a special talent for identifying their own strengths and weaknesses, for accurately analyzing the events of their own lives, and for converting into future successes those inevitable setbacks that mark every life. Gardner provides answers to a number of provocative questions, among them: How do we explain extraordinary times -- Athens in the fifth century B.C., the T'ang Dynasty in the eighth century, Islamic Society in the late Middle Ages, and New York at the middle of the century? What is the relation among genius, creativity, fame, success, and moral extraordinariness? Does extraordinariness make for a happier, more fulfilling life, or does it simply create a special onus?

Theology of the Soul engages with a thoroughly theological and philosophical subject in fresh and profound ways: the soul. The author examines the possibility of a concept of the soul in modern, Western theology. In the second part of the 20th century speaking about the soul was strongly criticized in Theology and Philosophy. Consequently, many academic theologians consider the word “soul” problematic. Remarkably, the word “soul” is very much present in contemporary culture. This book takes cultural notions of the soul as employed by, for example, Marilynne Robinson and Oprah Winfrey, as a point of departure. The author then investigates the functions of the soul in classical theologies and provides elucidating overviews of the ways in which the soul is discussed and problematized in contemporary Philosophy and Biblical Studies. After introducing the apostle Paul as conversation partner, she reconsiders various contemporary concepts from a Pauline perspective, and offers a constructive systematic theological proposal to speak of the soul in today’s modern theological and cultural contexts. This interdisciplinary study integrates continental and analytic methods and discussions on the soul in Philosophy and Theology, providing a very comprehensive study of the soul.

Welcome to still-unwritten-phenomena showing Nonmolecularly-Molecular Cosmocellular-World. Read a special & unique book (Cosmocellular-Hypothesis). No one would have ever read it before. This same Cosmocellular-Message you had read before 30 billion years, and will also read after 30 billion years,.....How it's possible according to universal Ancient-Vedic-Law of the Time-Replication & Thermodynamics-Laws of the Modern-Science (Waves-physics)? Indeed, all kind of the plant-kingdoms & animal-kingdoms on the earth, had reproduced , are reproducing & will reproduce from their same species only. Thus, our ancestors were not apes, but they were same as we look today. ..... How according to such joint-theory of cosmocellular-ancestory (and waves- &-particles-physics) as well as cytocosmic-ancestory, ---- can trace back us to Vedic-belief or philosophical-belief (which strongly prevailed before Charles Darwin) about the evolution of life on the earth that each living-species evolved separately & that none had changed their forms? That means, how a man evolved from a man only ,not from the ape or other species. In other words, man has descended from man only , & rat from rat only; similarly a banyan tree from banyan-tree only, & mango-tree from mango-tree only etc.etc. ? In short, a babool or banyan tree never never gives mango-fruit.... ******************************************************************************************************************************************* For USA: Eco-Friendly Special Discount Rate of E-Books : Vol-1-A , $33, + Vol-1-B, $35 + Vol-1-C, $35 = Total $ 103 : VERSUS e-book COMBO (Vol-1- A / B / C) = $ 61. For UK: Eco-Friendly Special Discount Rate of E-Books : Vol-1-A , £22.59, + Vol-1-B, £ 27.26 + Vol-1-C, £25.70 = Total £ 75.55 : VERSUS e-book COMBO (Vol-1- A / B / C) = £47.51. For EURO: Eco-Friendly Special Discount Rate of E-Books : Vol-1-A , € 26.44, + Vol-1-B, € 31.91, + Vol-1-C, € 30.09 = Total € 88.44 : VERSUS e-book COMBO (Vol-1- A / B / C) = € 55.62 . For Aus : Eco-Friendly Special Discount Rate of E-Books : Vol-1-A , AUS $43.44, + Vol-1-B, AUS $52.43, + Vol-1-C, AUS $ 49.43 = Total AUS $145.30 : VERSUS e-book COMBO (Vol-1- A / B / C) = AUS $91.38 . For Canada : Eco-Friendly Special Discount Rate of E-Books : Vol-1-A , CAD $38.51, + Vol-1-B, CAD $46.48, + Vol-1-C, CAD $ 43.82 = Total CAD $128.81 : VERSUS e-book COMBO (Vol-1- A / B / C) = CAD $81.01. For Mexico : Eco-Friendly Special Discount Rate of E-Books : Vol-1-A , MXN $494.53, + Vol-1-B, MXN $595.85, + Vol-1-C, MXN $ 562.74 = Total MXN $1654.12 : VERSUS e-book COMBO (Vol-1- A / B / C) = MXN $1140.22. www.cosmocellular.com