I cultivate a few unsavory vices; among them is a curious fascination with all-things pseudo-science.

It’s led to an unhealthy love of bad disaster movies, where teens are chased by killer frosts and “volcano tires” let heroes drive miles across molten, flowing lava.

Bad science is also responsible for my compulsive curiosity about late-night infomercials. (Did you know that 25 lbs of alien plaque can live in your intestines? Or that dangerous toxins can be leeched out through your feet?! Wowser, and only 29.95!)

But where pseudo-science really shines is in the “science” of Intelligent Design. (Come on, who can resist the life from a jar of peanut butter argument?) Read more…

I don’t claim to be enlightened. And If I *am*, well, the bulb sure does flicker on and off, like an aging florescent. (Maybe the ballast needs replacing? An upgrade to the modern CFLs, perhaps, mercury be damned?)

Still, I *have*experienced the temporary insanity of expanded, exploding perceptions, and the bizarre aftermath of adjustment that never leaves anything quite the same.

I’ve come to understand those experiences from a number of perspectives less as a spiritual make over, more as an experience of neurogenesis - the brain creating new pathways, rerouting and rewiring itself to adapt to new demands and perceptions.

Here’s the story. Make what you will of it. Read more…

Remember this Week’s Tweak?
You only *thought* the exercise was silly.
… you hadn’t yet seen my results!

<Clears throat for dramatic reading>

AHEM.

There was a little mouse,
Who had a little house
He ate a lot of corn,
And watched a lot of porn.

But then he tired of rhyme
And quite forgot the time
Ran up the famous clock,
Hickory Dickory Dock

He still did not go blind!
(though the porn was on his mind)
The old wives tale was false
And he remained the boss.
‘Cause rolling mice gather no moss!

Cute Ears.
No Tears.
More Cheese,
Please.

(are we amused?)

Promises, Promises. I’m full of them, aren’t I?

Last week I promised you my personal “awakening” story, as part of exploring the Oprah/Eckhart Tolle presentation of “A New Earth”.

But as I wrote, I realized I couldn’t reduce it to a simple one post undertaking. It’s a sub-series in it’s own right, and the first part is nearly ready to be posted.

Before I get to that, I did finish reading “A New Earth” and, surprisingly, I surprisingly have very few issues with it, in and of itself.

Here’s an edited version of what I said on the Oprah site: Read more…

I’ve been so busy *not* writing about enlightenment, that I nearly forgot this week’s tweak. So I quickly whipped together a rather fun exercise, if I say so myself.

See the cute little mousie over there in the corner? Quiet little thing. Doesn’t have much to say, apparently. But everyone has a story to tell, so we’re going to help him tell his, by giving him words.

Ok, now… stop looking at me like I’m crazy. It’s just a simple word association game for gawd’s sake!

Now that we’ve settled the question of my sanity, you’ll need to print a copy of our victim’s little mousie self. There’s a full size version here (or you can just click on the image, that’ll work too). Read more…

Yesterday, I promised you a personal story as Part 2 of “Does Enlightenment = Neurogenesis?” — unless my brain exploded.

Well, guess what?

That’s right, Kaboom.

It’s nothing serious, I’m sure, just a minor relapse of Privaticus Neuroticus. While my neural network is being put back in order, I thought I’d play catch up with a new software release, an awesome list of counseling resources, a little brain-fun, and way too many hyperlinks! Read more…

So. I’ve made it most of the way through Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”, as promised. I’m still maintaining an open, if discerning, mind - also as promised. And I still don’t hate it.
Oh, I did grit my teeth a few times, and sort of sputtered into my Diet Coke at least once.

But I’ll get to all that in another post. *This* post is about an honest insight I had while reading the first chapter.

First up, some definitions.

Neurogenesis / Neuroplasticity: Both terms refer to the brain’s ability to physically develop and rewire itself according to need. Even adult brains can create new connections between neurons, reroute tasks to different parts of the brain and in some situations, even produce new cells. It’s hard science, measurable and measured.

Enlightenment: In a spiritual context, enlightenment refers to a permanent state of higher wisdom, perception or understanding. Depending on the person talking, and the tradition they’re influenced by, it can mean anything from a simple awareness of their own nature, to the more complex Read more…

Step Right up, boys and girls, gentlemen, ladies, geeks and geekettes! That’s right, it’s Brain Awareness Week! Come and get your fill of neural thrills and glia cell thrills!!

Ok. Seriously.

Brain Awareness Week is the brain child (and registered trademark) of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives** “ a nonprofit organization of more than 265 leading neuroscientists, is committed to advancing public awareness about the progress and promise of brain research.” And the folks at Dana have made this week (March 10-16th, 2008) all about educational outreach, raising public awareness of the importance and benefits of neurological research. You know, all that fun stuff I’m supposed to write about here when I’m not busy with enlightenment and donkeys.

What’s this got to do with the Weekly Tweak, you ask?

Everything! Read more…

Ellen Langer is a Yale graduate, a Harvard psychology professor, an award winning researcher, and author of several interesting looking books on applied mindfulness. But it’s her study on hotel maids that’s gotten all the attention this year… hotel maids who apparently “thought themselves thin.”

(Yes, yes this is old news - but sometimes its fun to cover stories *after* the media frenzy dies down, dang nab it! Besides, it fits with the whole mindfulness craze that’s building from the Eckhart/Oprah thing)

Hotel maids are a busy and hard working group of people, lugging around heavy equipment, bending, turning, and scrubbing all day long. It’s a physically demanding and active job that burns a lot of calories.

But maids don’t typically see themselves as active, it turns out. When Langer and grad student Alia Crum surveyed 84 of these hard working women, two thirds of them said they didn’t regularly exercise. A full third said they didn’t get *any* exercise, inspite of their very active jobs. But what was really interesting is that when their fitness levels were measured - they matched their belief, rather than the reality. Their weight, blood pressure and other measurements were equivalent to people living a sedentary lifestyle.

“Given that they are exercising all day long,” Langer says, “that seemed to be bizarre.”

Read more…

If you’ve surfed the Internet at all this month, you’ve been bombarded by incessant tangerine for Oprah’s latest endeavor: a free online course about her book club pick, Eckhart Tolle’s “A New Earth”.

Eckhart Tolle (for those of us who live under rocks where New Age booksellers can’t find us) is one of the big names in the spiritual publishing/workshop niche. Oprah, of course, is Oprah. (And no rock in the world is big enough to insulate us from Oprah!)

For several years, Oprah has been on a spiritual quest, and she’s been excitedly dragging her audience along with her… miss-steps and all. Last year, she promoted the psuedo-scientific mysticism of “The Secret” into a multimillion dollar international obsession. Ouch.

I came late to The Secret party (someone forgot to send me an invitation) and so my posts on the topic didn’t have the impact they could have. Still, I enjoyed my attempts at righteous indignation and skepticism, and they were among my most popular posts.

Determined not to miss the chance to blog about this years Really Big Spiritual Woo from Oprah, I ordered “A New Earth” from Amazon, and signed up for the course on Oprah.com. Read more…