Should We Pay Attention to "Parapsychology"?

There are many psychological phenomena which science doesn't yet fully understand. Parapsychology is the discipline which attempts to investigate them. Although parapsychologists use the scientific method for many of their experiments, they will often use other methods, such as qualitative analysis and case studies.

Parapsychology deals with topics such as: telepathy, clairvoyance, reincarnation, hauntings, psychokinesis, precognition, remote viewing, and near death experiences.

Many scientists deride parapsychology as a "pseudo-science". They see little value in spending time investigating phenomena which haven't been demonstrated to be technically true. This is, however, a defining feature of parapsychology. When a phenomenon is actually demonstrated to be true, it is no longer in the domain of parapsychology: it simply becomes part of psychology.

A good example of this is Lucid Dreaming. Lucid Dreaming is a phenomenon whereby a dreamer becomes conscious of his dream while it is taking place. Becoming aware of a dream while in the dream itself appears to provoke a change in our consciousness. The dreamer gains access to all his waking memories and can exercise a certain degree of control over the dream world.

Lucid dreaming was largely derided by many who said that there was no evidence for it. The only support for it was a bunch of personal anecdotes. Science cannot rely on anecdotes: it must rely on measurable data. Otherwise we'd be forced to accept any story about ghosts or alien abductions.

In the 1980's Stephen LaBerge developed an interesting experiment at Stanford University. He recruited a bunch of people who claimed that they could lucid dream. He told them that when they became lucid, they should send a signal to the outside world by performing a particular back-and-forth eye movement. Normally, our eyes dart all over the place when we dream during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. If he could show that people can make the eye movement which he taught them, then he could demonstrate that these people actually did become conscious in their sleep, could remember instructions given to them while they were awake, and could deliberately carry out those instructions.

LaBerge hooked up special eye-tracking equipment to his subjects, and he got the data he wanted. He demonstrated scientifically that Lucid Dreaming is a real phenomenon, and it moved from the realm of parapsychology into mainstream psychology.

So that's one example of a phenomenon which was "upgraded" from parapsychology to psychology. Many scientists have become jaded because there are so many fraudsters who use trickery and illusion to demonstrate that these phenomena are real. Most of parapsychology is indeed unproven, so it is a good idea to remain skeptical; but we should keep an open mind.

Social Values Va. Personal Rights

One of the toughest jobs that a government must face is striking the balance between social values and personal rights. Nearly all of the hot-button issues in politics concern this fundamental question. Let's take a look at some of the issues:

1. Gun Control

When the United States was founded, the right to bear arms was included as the second amendment in the Bill of Rights. Our founding fathers considered the right to bear arms as an essential element of liberty. They saw firsthand what happens when the citizenry is not allowed to protect themselves: they become easy prey for criminals and governments who want to take advantage of them through the use of force.

On the other hand, tens of thousands of people are killed every year by guns. People who are in favor of gun control say that many of these deaths can be prevented if we have stricter policies on guns. But then that interferes with the personal liberty that the Bill of Rights guarantees.

2. Abortion

This is another hotly debated issue, but it boils down to the same question. What is more important, the sanctity of a human life or a woman's personal right to her own body?

3. Gay Marriage

Which is more important, preserving our existing social order, or an individual's right to choose his or her life partner, regardless of their sex?

4. Redistribution of Wealth

It seems that the richest people in society make much more money than the vast majority of people. Should they have the right to keep most of that money which they feel they earned, or should they be heavily taxed so that the poorest people aren't left behind?

5. Drugs

This is another issue which concerns personal rights. Should a person have the right to choose what he does to his own body? Perhaps society as a whole would be better if we could eliminate drugs from our streets.

6. Health Care

Should every person be entitled to free health care? Should everyone be required to purchase health care? Or maybe everyone should have the right to choose whether they want coverage or not.

7. And Many More...

There are many other issues similar to these that continue to be debated every day and every year, such as: Labor Unions, Social Security, Euthanasia, Affirmative Action, Education, Free Speech Rights, etc.

It is unlikely that these will be resolved any time soon, because many of them conflict with two very important values which our country is founded upon: social values and personal rights. The side that you choose may have a lot to do with which of these values is more important to you.

Psychological Projection

One of Freud's most famous concepts was his idea of psychological projection. Basically, this means that we "project" our thoughts and feelings all the time onto other people. Freud's insight was that it is impossible to see a particular characteristic in someone else unless we ourselves possess that same characteristic. If we don't possess a particular characteristic, then we have no concept of it, and it is impossible to identify in another.

For example, let's say that you criticize someone as being a lazy person. Well, it would be impossible for you to know or to understand what it even means to be lazy unless you yourself possessed some laziness as well. This is a characteristic that you don't like about yourself. You see it in another, so you criticize them as being lazy. On the other hand, your friend might see the same thing as you, but instead he compliments the person as being relaxed and carefree. Your friend doesn't even see the laziness. He probably isn't concerned about laziness himself. Instead, he thinks that having a relaxed and carefree attitude is an admirable trait. What you saw as laziness, he sees as a positive trait.

Both you and your friend saw the exact same behavior, but you each "projected" your own self onto that behavior. That was just a tiny example, but if you begin listening to what people say; if you begin listening to the adjectives they use to describe other people, you will begin to see that they are often telling you nothing about the other person and everything about themselves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writing nearly 100 years before Freud, understood this when he said: "People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." Even before Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin became one of the most respected men in the world and one of history's greatest diplomats. He said:

"I will speak ill of no man, not even in matter of truth; but rather excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasion speak all the good I know of everybody."

These were men who understood the concept of projection well before Freud formalized it. It is never a good idea to criticize other people, because you only betray yourself. In the number one best-selling self-development book of all time, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie's #1 rule is to "never criticize, condemn, or complain".

Though it may be human nature to project ourselves onto other people, we can stop doing it if we become aware of it. So stop projecting!

Is Technology Robbing Us of Our Humanity?

If we take our cue from Hollywood, there is no doubt that technology is bad. Whether there are machines traveling back through time to kill us (or our unborn son!), or whether the machines are simply enslaving us in a virtual reality to steal our body energy: we definitely need to keep a close eye on the machines.

Of course, technology isn't all that bad. There are many profound benefits. The entire world is now connected by cheap travel and light-speed internet connections. A mountain of information is available at our fingertips through technologies like Google. However, there are a few bad aspects of technology which are worth mentioning.

1. Distraction

With technology, we are able to do so many things at once. We can check our email while chatting on our cell phone and watching the latest news report on our television. Technology allows us to multi-task in a way we never have before. Some people have pride in their ability to multi-task. Unfortunately, in 2008 the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) reported that multitasking reduces our IQ more than smoking pot. If we are fully focused on a task and become distracted, it takes us on average 20 minutes to regain that focus. If you are multi-tasking throughout the day, it is likely you are working extremely hard while not actually being very productive.

2. Shallow Sociality

Social networking sites like Facebook are truly revolutionary. They allow you to keep in touch with hundreds of friends. However, most modern psychology studies have shown that a large part of our happiness is derived from meaningful relationships with about half a dozen people. The more time we spend posting status updates and managing our large network of acquaintances, the less time we spend cultivating relationships with the most important people in our lives. Many people are able to strike a nice balance here. Unfortunately, many aren't.

3. Disconnection from Nature

Technology has built a false, cold world around us made out of concrete and metal. Our only experience with wild animals is when we go to the zoo and watch them lay lazily in cages. Humans aren't really designed to work in an office building every day of their lives. Interacting with animals and nature teaches us about ourselves. Throughout history, humans have had to hunt and grow their own food. They had to pay respect to the animals that they killed and the sun and the rain that helped them grow their food. Now we simply drive to the grocery store to buy Twinkies and potato chips.

Technology may be bad, not because machines are going to take over the world and enslave us, but because we may be losing our humanity. We can leverage technology to our benefit if we are careful. If we aren't, it can make us miserable and apathetic.

Should We Rank Our Values?

Making decisions on a day to day basis is a challenge that we all face. Many times, it seems as though there are many different conflicting decisions we might make in any given situation. Rather than definitively making a decision, sometimes we may put off making any sort of decision at all.

So is there a way to cut through this mess to make decision-making easier? One method that has been proposed by many successful businessmen and teachers is to get clear on your personal values. We all have many different values. Intelligence, courage, compassion, fairness, or adventurousness might be a few values that you hold. But any decision we are faced with likely violates one or more of our values. This is why it is sometimes so hard to actually make a decision.

The solution to this is to rank your values. You should begin by making a list of all the adjectives and morals that you value. Perhaps creativity, cheerfulness, or industriousness might be on your list, in addition to the ones listed above. You might make a list of hundreds of such values. There are websites you can go to if you need some help brainstorming a large list of values.

After you have done this, try to narrow that large list down to your top 10 or 12 values. It's likely that you value all of them, or they wouldn't be on your list. However, you should be able to narrow them down to the absolute 10 most important.

The next step is to take those 10 values and rank them from 1 to 10. If courage and compassion are both on this list, then ask yourself which is absolutely more important to you. Do this over and over for each pair until you have created a list from 1-10 of your most important values.

Now that you have this list, you will be able to make decisions much quicker and confidently. If compassion is #1 on your list, then when you are faced with a decision, you can ask yourself "which is the more compassionate choice?" If both choices are equally compassionate, then you can go down to value #2. Perhaps value #2 is adventurousness. You can ask yourself which is the most adventurous choice. If you find yourself unable to make a choice, then you probably have a conflicting value that you aren't being honest with yourself about.

So if you ever find yourself suffering from "analysis paralysis", maybe it's time to get clear on what's really important to you. If you do this, you can make your life and your decisions much easier.

The Big 5 Personality Traits

In modern psychology, the Big 5 Factor model of personality is generally used. This is based on many studies which have shown that each person's personality can be broken down into 5 major components. Each of these follows a normal distribution, which means that the majority of people are in the middle and fewer people are at either extreme.

The Big 5 personality factors can be remembered with the acronym OCEAN. Here they are:

1. Openness to Experience

This describes how open someone is to new experiences and ideas. This is also the personality factor that most influences which political party someone will belong to. Someone who is open is willing to entertain any new idea. People who aren't as open are much more practical.

2. Conscientiousness

This trait has to do with how much someone values the future relative to the present. Someone who is conscientious is more concerned with doing their duty and making sure that jobs get done. Unconscientious individuals are more flexible and spontaneous. They are often called "lazy" by conscientious people.

3. Extraversion

This factor has a lot to do with sociality. Extraverted people love to socialize all the time, while introverted individuals often like much more time alone to think.

4. Agreeableness

This describes whether someone is agreeable or competitive with other people. Disagreeable people are much more concerned with climbing the status hierarchy.

5. Neuroticism

This is sometimes called "Emotional Stability". This factor describes how much someone experiences negative emotionality. Neurotic individuals have higher levels of anxiety, depression, jealousy, guilt, and other negative emotions.

That's just a brief overview of the Big 5 personality traits. Hopefully you were able to identify yourself in some of the categories. If some of them were difficult to identify because you can see both sides in yourself, then it is likely that you are in the middle.

Are You a Trickster?

The trickster is a common archetype found throughout many mythological traditions. It is an example of a Jungian archetype. Carl Jung believed that our psychology isn't based on a blank slate, but that we come equipped with various "archetypes" which influence our personality. For example, there is the mother archetype, which all women come equipped with, and which kicks into gear to help them raise their children when they become a mother. Jung believed that there are commonalities among the gods of all different religions, and that these common characteristics reflect a common psychological structure that all humans possess.

One of these archetypes, which all of us possess in varying degrees, is the trickster archetype. The trickster can be a clown or a jester, and he is often represented by an anthropomorphic animal. A trickster usually disobeys the normal rules of society, he makes people laugh, and above all, he plays tricks. Although his tricks can seem malicious at first glance, oftentimes his antics result in an overall good result for humanity.

One of the most well-known tricksters is Loki, from Norse mythology. This trickster was popularized by Jim Carrey in the 1994 movie, The Mask. If you have seen the movie, then you have an idea of what typical "trickster" behavior looks like.

In Native American cultures, the coyote was overwhelmingly used as the trickster character in mythological stories. Although the animal is the same, the form of these stories can vary widely from tribe to tribe. Sometimes, Coyote is seen as both a trickster and the creator of the world. Some Native tribes believe that Coyote formed people out of mud as a prank. Sometimes he is seen as a handsome man who walks among the people. Other times he is merely a clown who makes people laugh, but then steals from them. Sometimes his actions are noble, as when he steals water or fire from the gods to bring back to people, but other times his actions are merely malicious.

Other common trickster animals in Native American cultures are the raven and the fox. The character is almost always extremely quick-witted and funny, but he can often get himself into trouble.

In modern times, a good example of an animal trickster is Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny is cunning and smart, but he also employs humor wherever he can, and he loves to pull pranks. Bugs Bunny also often disguises himself as a female. Shape-shifting and gender changing is a common feature of the trickster character in mythological traditions.

The Essentials of Buddhism

Buddhism is fast becoming a popular religion, even among Americans. It is attractive to people who prefer a secular world view, but who also want some spiritual guidance for their lives. But what are the essentials of the Buddhist philosophy? Luckily, Buddhism loves lists, and it is easy to break down the essentials of Buddhism into a few lists.

The Four Noble Truths:

To be a Buddhist, you must first understand the Four Noble Truths. These are:

1. Everything in life and in nature is characterized by frustration, disharmony, and suffering.
2. All of our suffering arises as a result of our attachment to worldly objects.
3. The way to end our suffering is to cease our attachment to these worldly objects.
4. The way to cease our attachment to worldly objects is by following the Eightfold Path.

So far, so good. The Four Noble Truths teach us that life is characterized by suffering, but we can end this suffering by following the Eightfold Path. What is the Eightfold Path? As you may have guessed, it consists of eight requirements:

The Eightfold Path:

1. Right Understanding - This means that you must understand the true nature of life and the Four Noble Truths.

2. Right Determination - This means you must genuinely want to give up evil and be a good person.

3. Right Speech - This means no lying, cursing, bragging, boasting, or gossiping. It also means only speaking the truth if that truth won't harm anyone.

4. Right Action - This means that you conduct your behavior in a morally correct way at all times. Never engage in dishonest behaviors, and never do any harm to others.

5. Right Livelihood - You must have a profession or job that you can feel good about. You cannot have a job that brings harm to others, such as working in a weapons factory.

6. Right Effort - You must put consistent effort into your attempts to perform the previous steps. It is hard work, but it can be accomplished with enough vigilance.

7. Right Mindfulness - You must keep your mind focused on the good and not on the bad. You must avoid drugs, alcohol, and other substances which can cloud the mind.

8. Right Concentration - It is important to continuously develop your powers of concentration. This can be achieved by meditating daily.

The Buddha taught that if we can follow these steps, we can achieve a life that is filled with contentment. You might think of them as similar in function to the Ten Commandments of the Christian philosophy. You might also notice that there is quite a lot of overlap.

Is There a Limit to Tolerance?

Tolerance has always been a highly respected value, particularly in the Christian religion. Essentially, tolerance is the ability to accept something even though we might not agree with it.

In today's society, there is a wide range of conflicting world views and moral ideas. This is especially true if you look at many of our political debates. We are in conflict over whether abortion is right or wrong, gay marriage, gun control, redistribution of wealth, and even environmental damage.

There are two distinct schools of thought on the issue of tolerance. One idea is that we ought to stand up for what we believe is right and oppose any opposition to those views. If a person believes that abortion is akin to murder, should he stand by and "tolerate" this behavior, or should he actively work to ensure that it stops?

Another school of thought holds that tolerance is a great personal virtue that we should embrace. Perhaps there is a grain of truth to the other person's point of view, and we should respect that point of view, even if we don't fully understand it. It is possible that if we were in his shoes, we would feel the same way about the matter.

Many religions have taught that tolerance is good for us on a personal level. If we are intolerant of others, we will often feel angry and indignant about their actions. These negative emotions can erode our quality of life. By not being tolerant of others, we actually hurt ourselves.

Even so, where do we draw the line? Is it ok to be tolerant if we see blatant examples of injustice around us, like murder or slavery? Many people felt very strongly about the issue of slavery during the civil war, and it was their intolerance toward this idea that ultimately led to the moral progress of our society. A similar analysis might be applied to Nazi concentration camps, the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960's, and a myriad of other social revolutions around the world and throughout history. All of these movements were the result of the intolerance of the way society operated.

These are tough questions which philosophers will undoubtedly argue about for many years to come. There are obviously many personal and societal benefits to tolerance. It helps us to get along harmoniously and to otherwise live peaceful lives. On the other hand, there sometimes arise instances in which it is very hard to maintain an attitude of tolerance. The ultimate question is: where do we draw the line?

On Writing (Stephen King)

I recently read Stephen King's book On Writing. It's a pretty good book that is half memoir and half writing discussion. Here are some of my main takeaways.

The first section of the book discusses how and why he got into writing. He also talks about his first few books and how he came up with the ideas for them. Even if you aren't looking to become a writer, any Stephen King fan should read the book for this information alone. There was some really interesting stuff.

The second part of the book discusses his writing technique. King doesn't go into a lot of detail about grammar or sentence construction. In fact, he basically has two major rules of writing which have stuck with me.

Rule #1: Read and write for 4 hours each day

King says that if you want to be a writer, then you need to read and write - A LOT. He recommends beginning with a goal of writing at least 2,000 words every day. It doesn't matter how bad these words are, just sit down and write until you have written 2,000 words. Pretty soon, this will become automatic, and some great stuff will come out.

Rule #2: Always tell the truth

King says that every writer should always tell the truth. Write out the words exactly as they appear in your mind without any censorship. If the word that comes to mind is a curse word, then write that. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men - that is genius." If you tell the truth, your readers will recognize that same truth in themselves, and appreciate you for it.