From the category archives:

Mind/Consciousness

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight

August 22, 2009

In this powerfully moving video, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor recounts what it felt like to have massive stroke. She describes with intense passion the experience of watching her brain functions shut down one by one, losing speech and motor functions, and ultimately losing self-awareness, culminating in a feeling of oneness with everything. Her experience [...]

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Calvin Has a False Awakening (Calvin & Hobbes)

September 5, 2008

I just came across this great Calvin & Hobbes comic today. In it, Calvin experiences a classic false awakening. He dreams of being woken up, having breakfast, and going through his usual morning routine, only to discover it was all a dream. I've had false awakenings like this one many times. Click on the image [...]

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False Awakenings and Lucid Dreaming

October 15, 2007

A false awakening occurs when you're dreaming and believe you've woken up when in actuality you are still dreaming and only dreamed of waking up. You "wake up" and begin to go about your daily routine — visit the bathroom, brush your teeth, get dressed, etc. — until eventually you realize you're still dreaming. At [...]

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Nutrition and How It Affects Consciousness

October 11, 2007

It's no secret that what we eat affects our health, but how does it affect the mind? Can eating specific foods help you think more clearly, improve your ability to focus, or increase your creativity? By the same token, can avoiding certain foods have a similar effect? Can your diet also increase or decrease your [...]

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Why I Don't Use Psychoactive Drugs to Achieve Altered States

October 9, 2007

There has been a recent resurgence in the use of psychoactive substances* to aid in achieving trance states or spiritual experiences, so I thought I'd write an article about why I made a personal decision not to use them in my own exploration of consciousness. Though many of these substances have been used for centuries [...]

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The Top 5 Reasons You Should Try Meditation

October 5, 2007

Meditation, once considered a spiritual practice reserved for monks and yogis, is gradually achieving mainstream popularity as more people discover its many benefits. Meditation doesn't have to be complicated, doesn't require you to subscribe to any particular spiritual belief, and doesn't necessitate sitting cross-legged on the floor and chanting mantras. It can be as simple [...]

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Science Explains Deja Vu…Or Not

October 4, 2007

This month's issue of Popular Science magazine includes a sizeable section about current brain/mind research, including an article devoted to what they call "eerie mysteries of perception" — synesthesia, out-of-body experiences, the sense of being watched, and deja vu. For the sake of this article, I'm going to focus on deja vu because I believe [...]

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Review: Left in the Dark

October 2, 2007

I've been reading a new book called Left in the Dark by Tony Wright and Graham Gynn, and I'm only about 100 pages into the book but so far it has been a fascinating read. I'll be writing a review for my company's web site soon, but I wanted to post something here too because [...]

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