Psychology Articles

Now before we start dwelling deeper into the concept of destiny we need to actually comprehend what destiny is and more importantly what it is not. Destiny in broad understanding is either a fixed pre-determined sequence of future events or changeable itinerary made up by one’s choices. Reaching as far back as to the Ancient Greek times numerous legends speak of heroic man acting against their so-called destiny to outmaneuver their predicted grim fortunes in order to marry, win wars or avoid getting eaten by Minotaur or other gruesome creatures. Then we have tales of princesses desperately running from their destinies of marrying men selected by their parents, suitable for thrones but who they do not love. And finally destiny that is used by modern societies – the romantic concept of ‘it was meant to be’ and ‘we were made for each other’ and having ‘karma’ responsible for all of the life’s failures. Many people still believe that Grin Reaper will come for them once their number shows up and there is no manner in which to avoid prescribed rulings of destiny. Regardless if you believe that your destiny had been chosen before you set your foot on earth or not consider these 5 key issues discussed below and you might just change your mind (and ways) -

Destiny is destination.

To be able to understand where you’re really going in life you need to make peace with yourself. If you know where you’re headed it will be much easier for you to realize that you had just made a committed and informed step in creating your own destiny. Don’t see your fate as something that happens randomly and can be put in context of every smallest thing that you experience in your life but rather see the end results – final goals as collection of all those tiny steps and choices towards your destiny. If destiny means the ultimate terminus then what occurs during that journey and how will you navigate towards that terminus is up to you.

Pre- determined are only our limitations.

What will happen to you tomorrow is not written but the tools to write it are only in your own hands. Our culture, backgrounds, upbringing and past experiences somewhat link us to that tool. They define our world view and create either a window of inviting change and opportunities to our lives or limit us in following our destinies. Don’t blame your situation on destiny. When you open yourself to the idea of creating your own fate based on who you are and what your aspirations are and remove your own limitations you will find that it is you steering your wheel of fortune.

Look at destiny as if it was an ocean.

There are countless amounts of water drops in the ocean and yet all of them play an important role. If you were to take all of them away the ocean would be nothing but a dry, vast land. Now imagine that your choices are as important as the water drops. They determine who you are, determine the ocean of your destiny. If you take away all of the choices you made, make and will ever make you will be nothing but a soulless, insignificant, predictable being. Instead with every drop- choice you add up to a complex, indispensable self.

Don’t try to change the impossible.

With being the master of your own destiny comes the understanding that not everything is for us to alter. There are things that are simply out of your reach that you will have to adapt yourself to instead of blindly trying to change them. Sometimes in life you just need to let the Universe sort itself out and wait until it is again your turn to make a choice.

The cliche is right – character is your destiny.

Work on your personality and skills and you will have the power to decide what will happen in your life.

Lena Edwards

Are you ready to take control of your life and destiny? I sure did. I recommend a book that assisted me with my journey available at http://www.ideas2actions.com

Over the past 11 years, the field of psychology has been on a new mission, one of identifying, researching and teaching the skills that lead to well-being and resilience. Called “Positive Psychology,” it’s a rapidly growing branch of scientific psychology that studies the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

In 1998, Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania was elected President of the American Psychological Association (APA). At the time, Dr. Seligman was famous in the world of research for his work on Learned Helplessness and Optimism. As President of the APA, he designated Positive Psychology as the theme for his term.

In many of his presentations to psychologists and others, Professor Seligman reviewed the field of psychology in the 20th century from a historical perspective. He pointed out that before World War II, psychology espoused three missions: curing mental illness, making the lives of all people more fulfilling, and identifying and nurturing talent and genius. A number of famous psychologists dedicated their work to promising theories of happiness but without the empirical research to support them. 
 
After the war, two events changed the focus of psychology. In 1946, the Veteran’s Administration was created, and practicing psychologists found they could make a living treating mental illness. Then in 1947, the National Institute of Mental Health was formed, and academic psychologists discovered they could obtain grants for research on mental illness. Thus, the major, almost exclusive emphasis in psychology was on mental illness. And the effort has been very effective in bringing both greater understanding of psychopathology and many more effective treatments.
 
A little over a decade ago, however, Professor Seligman believed it was time for psychology to learn what it is that makes life worth living, what helps people bounce back when adversity occurs, what makes their lives more enjoyable and meaningful, what communities and institutions can do to promote well-being. He declared it was time to find what’s right in people — rather than only what’s wrong with them.
 
What has occurred in the period from 1998 until now is nothing short of spectacular. Research is being done on Positive Psychology in just about every corner of the world. The findings are being applied in therapy, coaching, schools, institutions, corporations and communities. So much has been discovered about happiness and its pursuit. Interestingly enough, some of the results have been counterintuitive, that is, they are not what would be expected by most of us.
 
The field of Positive Psychology holds dear the goal of preparing people to handle all the difficulties and curve balls that life so often throws our way. When Seligman asked one of his heroes, Dr. Jonas Salk, the American biologist and physician famous for the first effective polio vaccine, what he would do if he were a young scientist today, Dr. Salk said, “I would do immunization, but instead of doing it physically, I’d do it psychologically.”
 
You can find more information on the impact of Positive Psychology in my book, It’s Your Little Red Wagon… Six Core Strengths for Navigating Your Path to the Good Life (Embrace the Power of Positive Psychology and Live Your Dreams), available on Amazon.com.
 
Copyright 2009. Sharon S. Esonis, Ph.D.

Sharon S. Esonis, Ph.D., has spent close to three decades helping individuals thrive and improve their lives through her work as a licensed psychologist, author and life coach. An expert in human behavior and motivation, Dr. Esonis specializes in the burgeoning field of Positive Psychology, the scientific study of optimal human functioning and the core strengths that can lead to the achievement of one’s personally-defined goals.

Dr. Esonis earned her doctoral degree at Boston College and currently maintains a life coaching practice in the San Diego area. She also teaches Positive Psychology in the Extended Learning Program at California State University San Marcos. To learn more about the power of Positive Psychology and to order her latest book, visit her website at http://www.PositivePathLifeCoaching.com

In 1972, Thomas Nagel first introduced what is now known as the “epistemic gap” amongst contemporary philosophers. It was described in his paper “What Is It Like To Be A Bat?” and the gist of the argument was this: one cannot fully understand the mind unless one is experiencing that mind.

Nagel took the example of a bat because bats are so fascinatingly different than humans; they hang upside down most of the time, use echolocation, they are nocturnal, and most eat nothing but insects. Could a human ever convincingly claim that he knew what it was like to be a bat? Nagel didn’t believe this was possible – I agree.

Can the same be true amongst humans? Can another human fully understand the mind of another, or, does one have to be in the first-person to understand the mind more clearly?

Philosopher Frank Jackson wrote a paper in 1982 titled “Epiphenomenal Qualia” where he introduced the famous thought experiment known as Mary’s room. It goes like this:

“Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. (…) What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not? It seems just obvious that she will learn something about the world and our visual experience of it. But then is it inescapable that her previous knowledge was incomplete.”

These arguments by Frank Jackson and Thomas Nagel are two of the most famous papers in support of the idea of qualia – a term used in philosophy to describe the subjective quality of conscious experience. It is an idea often associated with the mind/body dualism (the belief that the mind is in some-part nonphysical, and therefore a separate entity from our physical bodies).

The epistemic gap does not prove any such thing however, and it is perfectly compatible with a materialist view of the mind. The real questions that the epistemic gap provokes is within the field of psychology and the scientific method itself.

Science is science – we believe – because of its objective, empirical, and third-person approach to knowledge. Science has often given men the ability to step outside of the happenings of natural phenomena, study them, test them, replicate their findings, and come to conclusions.

There is no doubting the breakthroughs and advancements science has come to offer man throughout the centuries. It would be foolish to deny these achievements.

Even in Western psychology (which is quite a young field relative to the natural sciences), researchers have made incredibly discoveries of the mind and how it works. We have devised useful models for how the mind perceives sensations (Psychophysics), how it processes information, stores memories, and solves problems (Cognitive Psychology), how the mind changes throughout the human lifespan (Developmental Psychology), how the mind builds associations and how these associations affect our behaviors (Learning or Experimental Psychology), how the brain or the “physical anatomy of the mind” works (Neuropsychology), and we’ve been given the chance to take all of this information and apply it to a variety of other fields: Clinical Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Sport Psychology, and even Forensic Psychology.

There is no denying the leaps psychology has made, all in the name of proper science. This is knowledge we would likely have not gotten any other way if it were not for the extraordinary and rigorous scientific method.

However, there is good reason to believe that Nagel and Jackson are right and that we cannot fully explain or understand a mind from an outside view. This is the belief that once science carries out its full course of discoveries that there will be something left unsaid about the mind (our understanding of the mind could never be as complete as our understanding of the physics on our planet). Unless – we redefine science.

But I believe we already have the techniques used to fully understand a mind – or at the very least, our own mind.

To understand this technique properly, we need to first drift away from the Western logical positivist philosophy of “if you can’t measure it, then it isn’t real,” which I believe has plagued much of modern day intellectual thought. Instead, I turn to the philosophies of the East – who have been studying the mind far, far longer and far more thoroughly than the West.

In particular I am fond of Buddhism which – like Western Science – takes pride in an objective approach to the study of phenomena. But there is a important property of the mind that Buddhists acknowledge and scientists go out of their way to ignore: the mind is – before all else – something that must be experienced first-person, or it wouldn’t be a mind at all.

This brings me to the practice of meditation – or more generally – a mindfulness of our inner worlds. There is a world in all of us that is subjective, personal, and completely our own. We cannot let anyone in it no matter how colorful our language or how much experience we share with another human being – it is ours and ours alone – and there are aspects to it that can only be dealt with by our self; no therapist, psychologist, family member, friend, scientist or spouse can ever figure it out for you.

Neither Buddhism or Science can rightfully claim to know how to bridge the gap between the subjective and objective. Both try their best to be objective at different vantage points: Science takes a third-person empirical approach while Buddhism takes a first-person empirical approach. Why can’t the study of the mind include both?

There is a fast growing interest in the West in meditative practices, yoga, tai chi, and other mind/body, holistic and alternative medicines for physical and mental health. This suggests there might be a vacancy in the West’s psyche, perhaps due to a combination of an incomplete scientific view of the mind along with an overwhelming nihilistic and atheistic attitude toward what would be deemed the spiritual or “mystic” aspects of man.

Many of these so called mystical practices are lumped into the demeaning pop psychology term “New Age.” Followers of so called New Age practices are said to be gullible and weak-minded – and perhaps some of them are. But it is also my belief that introspection and reflection on one’s mind can be the most rewarding and therapeutic practice for better mental health, the sharpening of one’s mental skill set, and a complete understanding of how the mind truly works (in the context of how it operates in the head of the individual and not by inference of a third-person observer).

Because of this I am very welcoming of these alternative and non-scientific studies of the mind. I in no way mean to deter scientific practices (I believe their should always be a science of the mind and a scientific study of human psychology), but I will stand up for the little guy on this one – science is not the giant be-all end-all of knowledge. It has its limitations, and we must be open to alternative studies of the mind. Sometimes we should turn our senses inward — and we may find there is some gold of truth to be discovered.

http://www.theemotionmachine.com

To pass the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology (EPPP) you need help, a strategy. You can not just walk in to an examination center, sit down, and pass this examination without preparing. 

How Important is the EPPP?

The EPPP is one of the most important tests a psychologist will ever sit for. 

No matter how well you did in your graduate school classes. No matter how great you did on comprehensive examinations. Or how brilliant your dissertation defense was. Or how many journals accepted articles based on your dissertation. You may have been the star at your internship. Your internship director may have held you up as the model intern. Yet, despite it all…

If You Don’t Pass the EPPP…

If you fail the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology you will have very limited practice opportunities in the US or Canada. You will, virtually, be unable to practice anywhere without passing the it. At least not in any state or province that has a board of psychology that is a member of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB). The only exceptions to requiring you to pass this exam being Prince Edward Island and Quebec. Yet even Quebec requires applicants from outside the province to pass the exam before they are allowed to practice.

The list of professional activities that you are restricted from when you are not licensed is long: You can’t have private patients. You can’t get insurance company reimbursement. You can’t print “Licensed Psychologist” on your business cards. Many employers require that you be licensed. Basically, if you can’t pass the EPPP you’ll have thrown away years of graduate study and thousands of dollars on education, and all the sacrifices you made.

The EPPP Defined

The EPPP is the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. Every psychologist who wants to hang out a shingle in any state in the USA or in almost any province in Canada needs to successfully complete it.

Who Makes the EPPP?

An organization in Montgomery, AL creates and markets the EPPP to State and Provincial psychology boards.

Content of the EPPP

The EPPP contains these 8 domains: Ethical, legal, and professional issues, Treatment, intervention, and prevention, Social and multi-cultural bases of behavior, Biological bases of behavior, Assessment and diagnosis, Cognitive-affective bases of behavior, Research methods and statistics, and Growth and life-span development.

EPPP Administration

The EPPP is made up of two hundred twenty-five multiple choice questions. The examinee has four hours and fifteen minutes exactly, to finish the exam.

The exam is administered via computer. The examinee locates and sits for the exam at a Prometric Test Center.

It’s natural to assume that having attained a PhD or PsyD in psychology, having passed an accredited graduate program in psychology, completed an internship, and defended a dissertation or research project you would be able to easily pass the exam. Or perhaps pass it with a bit of review. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Why EPPP Questions are Difficult

On the EPPP, examinees must pick the “best” answer, not necessarily the “right” answer. Wording is often inverse. Questions may specify “all are true except” or “all are false except.” Discriminating fine differences between the answers on this psychology exam can be very challenging.

The questions on the exam require you to not only be familiar with each of the eight domains, but to demonstrate the application of that knowledge.

It is not realistic to believe that you can prepare minimally for the EPPP, or prepare in the same manner you have in the past for examinations. Nor is it realistic to prepare minimally and simply plan on continually retesting until you pass the test. There are several reasons for this.

EPPP Registration Expenses

One reason that makes it unrealistic to keep retesting is the high cost. Each administration of the EPPP costs you $450. Each sitting at the Prometric Test Center to sit for the psychology exam costs $68.

State and Provincial psychology boards require the payment of licensing and administration fees before you are allowed to take the exam. You must obtain an Authorization to Test letter from your psychology board before the ASPPB will allow you to register for the psychology examination. Psychology board costs related to licensing and sitting for the exam, depending on where you live, can be upwards of a thousand dollars.

How Many Times Can I Take the EPPP?

Another reason it is unrealistic to repeatedly retake the EPPP is that there are limitations on how many times you can take it. The ASPPB restricts you to taking the exam four times annually, while your local psychology board may restrict you even further. After a certain number of unsuccessful attempts on the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology many psychology boards require you to convince them why you should be allowed to try to pass the exam again. Before you can take the test again your psychology board may require you to take additional classwork, gain further experience, or undergo supervision (for example).

All of these additional requirements can add significantly to the time it takes you to pass the EPPP.

Financial Costs of Retesting on the EPPP

Retakes of the EPPP are not free. You must pay the full fee to ASPPB ($450) and to Prometric ($68) each time you sit for the exam. Your psychology board will also charge you additional administration fees to reapply for another authorization letter to retake the exam. In all, the process of sitting for and passing this test are quite costly.

How to Pass the EPPP

So, in summary, passing the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology is a difficult undertaking that requires special preparation. However, help is available. Web sites, such as How To Pass The EPPP Without Even Trying! exist to make the process easier. With careful preparation, an understanding of the structure of the exam, the proper exam study materials, and test taking strategies specific to the EPPP, you can and will pass the test.

A psychologist offers expert advice on how to pass the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). EPPP test strategies, EPPP study materials, EPPP preparation programs, EPPP study software, reviews of EPPP preparation programs, and more. Learn how to study the smart way for the EPPP and How to Pass the EPPP. Without Even Trying! Learn everything you need to know to pass this crucial examination that is required for licensure in the United States and most of Canada. The EPPP Study Guy discusses everything about passing the EPPP.

Learning to relate to difficult people is one of the most common and anguishing problems I’ve encountered in many years as a Christian psychotherapist and psychologist.

Toxic relationships between two parties seem to endure as long as healthy ones, and sometimes longer, for they tend to be permanent. The difficult party holds more power than the other, who is forever trying to please or get the approval of the dominator.

The dominator remains inflexible in rejecting very imaginative attempts by the subjective party to achieve victory. But no success is ever possible. No matter what the words or actions of the would-be pleaser, the unpleased remains unmoved and continues to insult and otherwise depersonalize the one in the position of being less powerful.

We all have seen these destructive arrangements between husbands and wives, siblings, close friends, and other social connections, including the workplace. Whether at work or at home, negative forces such as these tend to enslave.

The power holder maintains position throughout time, and the underling obeys the rules of the relationship as well. Even though the unspoken agreement between the parties is absurd, it is honored nonetheless.

Oddly, the subservience of the underdog fosters quite admirable achievements. Therefore, it is not usual for the pleaser to attain a higher social or professional rank than the one who will never be appeased.

I have seen this regrettable dynamic at play most often between mother and daughter, with competition between siblings running a close second.

One of the worst examples is the proverbial mother whose daughter is never permitted to please her. The mother communicates without words that it’s your job to make me happy, but nothing you ever do will work. Some of these daughters develop anorexia as a result of feeling as an absolute failure in their only mission in life.

Even though there seems to be no solution, there really is.

One of the parties must break a major rule governing the contract. In other words, somebody needs to start acting and reacting in ways that the other would never predict.

By far the most effective response is for one of the parties to refuse a cue and not respond at all. The initiator, never having faced such a surprise, has no way to come back. Further, the dominator is foiled in the insane game’s objective to wound the other. The pay-off is denied.

In the movie “War Games”, a hit many years ago, a computer in the War Room of the Department of Defense is put through an accelerated exercise to predict the outcome of various military strikes with the probable retaliatory action by the enemy and vice-versa.

The enlarged computer screen becomes a flashing light, a rapid strobe, as the computer rushes through every possible scenario. Then the display goes blank. After a pause, the words appear, “The only solution is not to play.”

So it is in painful human relationships that never budge but continue to inflict internal harm in both participants. The only solution is not to play.

Father Heyward B. Ewart, Ph.D. is President of St. James the Elder Theological Seminary. Information about the doctoral curriculum in Christian counseling and other programs, plus more information on Fr. Ewart, can be found at the seminary’s website, http://stjamestheelderseminary.org
Father Ewart is author of the book “AM I BAD? Recovering from Abuse”, published by Loving Healing Press.
(http://lovinghealing.com)

Here is some information about some common dream images to get you started:

Dreams with Animals:

Animals pop up everywhere in our lives and, in turn, in our dreams. The subject of what animals mean in our dreams is as large as the number of animals there are to dreams about. Wild animals usually symbolize a sense of power or perhaps even a feeling of being out of control and domestic animals can mean the opposite a feeling of being “trained” or out of control. I could probably write ten pages in the impact of animals on dream interpretation alone. However, for this post, I will try to stick to addressing only a few of the most common.

The appearance of a lion in your dream usually symbolizes a feeling of raw strength, pride, power, or kingship. If you are the lion or the lion is your ally these symbols are most likely referring to something within yourself. Do you feel powerful and strong? If the Lion is attacking you or someone you know takes on the appearance of a lion, the your subconscious might be trying to draw your attention to a danger that your conscious mind has yet to recognize. Look at what else is going on in your dream or at the person taking on the dream shape and then take a closer look at what aspect of your life you think they are pointing to.

A dog appearing in your dream usually signifies exactly what dogs stand for, devotion and faithfulness. Did you have a dream about your husband playing with a dog? If you did, you probably feel pretty secure in your relationship. Unless of course, you hate dogs… then you have a whole different issue!

Cats are know for their mysterious nature, their independence, and their leisurely comfortable life. Wouldn’t it be great to live the life of a cat? Lying around on comfortable chairs, then eating food prepared for you by your man servant before sunning yourself at a window with a beautiful view while you enjoy a nap? If your dreaming about cats, the image of the cat in your dream could be referring to just that. You could either be seeking or relaxed cat-like life or you are enjoying the fact that you already have it.

Dreams about Falling:

Falling dreams are a very common occurrence in dreams and one of those most talked about. While these dreams are usually scary, they may not always mean something. The body goes through cycles all night long, cycling between several different phases. As the body transcends into a deeper state of sleep, the complete relaxation of the body can often feel like falling. Many of have even experienced this sensation as we first drift off to sleep at night and it’s quite common for your body to respond to this feeling with a reflexive jump that wakes you from sleep. That jump was the body’s effort to try to protect itself from the impact it was expecting to come at the end of the imaginary falling sensation.

However, falling in a dream can also reveal something significant about your life. This type of dream most commonly occurs when a person feels like they have failed at something or when they feel overwhelmed by the their current circumstances. If you are having trouble sleeping due to common dreams of falling try sleeping with a pillow or other cushion pressed against your feet at night. The sensory stimulation to the soles of your feet will give your body the sensation of security and stability and has been known to drastically reduce the occurrence of falling dreams.

Dreams about a House or Apartment:

Dreaming about a house or apartment is almost as big a subject as animals. But, dwellings of some sort show up in most dreams so it is definitely worth covering some of their possible meanings here.

* Dreams being at home – Home is where you go to feel safe and comfortable. If you are in your own house or apartment you may be going there unconsciously to give your mind the opportunity to work through some difficult or chaotic activities that are happening in the outside world.

* Dreams about an unfamiliar house – These houses usually represent some aspect of you and can often be looked at as a physical extension of yourself. As you look at this house consider how it might relate to where you are in life right now. A big house may be trying to telling that you should expand your horizons. If you have taken on a big project that you are worried about being able to keep up with, you may dream about living in a mansions but being stressed about the maintenance of it.

* Building a house – dreams about building a house could be you’re looking for more security in your life or expand on the life’s foundation which you have already laid. This is a great time to start thinking about your future, your subconscious is already trying to tell you what you want and it will be easier to get in touch with that and decide your next big move.

Dreams about Flying:

Flying Dreams are one of the most common dreams. Almost everyone experiences a dream that involves flying at least once in their life while some dream about flying nightly. There has been a lot of speculation over the years about why we experience flying dreams so commonly. Some cultures even believe that individuals who are highly attuned to their spiritual side can have out of body experiences during sleep, and these dreams are actually memories of your spirit projecting itself and exploring during the night.

Dreams tend to show us our fears and hopes. So it is first important to consider how you felt during your dream about flying. If you felt happy or joyful during this dream, it may be reflecting a recent transcendence in your life. You’ve recently overcome a difficult situation or successfully gotten past an event that was worrying you. In these cases, the dream is reminded you to rejoice and enjoy your moment of victory. Your dream may also be drawing from a general feeling of peace and happiness in your life that has been ongoing for a while. If this is the case, congratulations!

Relax and enjoy the sites as your dream takes you exploring. If you experience a feeling of fear during you flying dream your mind maybe attempting to give itself an inner exposure therapy treatment. This type of treatment, often used by psychiatrists to treat individuals with severe phobias focuses around confronting your fear. In this case you may likely have a fear of heights, falling (see more about falling above), or even vertigo (the sense of being dizzy). While these dreams can often be disturbing there is a way to overcome them. Dreams about fears will cease once you have faced the fear and successfully negotiated the dream. Find a mantra that’s meaningful to you, such as “In my dreams I have wings, and can control my flight and go where I choose, no harm can come to me.” and repeat this to yourself as you are falling asleep each night. In this was you can control the outcome of your dream and turn the feeling of fear to a feeling of joy as you embrace the experience and grow past it.

Dreams about Death:

The interpretation of dreams about death is highly subjective depending on the the dreamers personal feeling about death and their religious beliefs. Often time, people dream about death in the process of coming to terms with their own mortality. If the dream includes a feeling of fear or anxiety, your subconscious mind may be trying to tell you that you need to come to terms with your own mortality. Life is a gift, but it’s only temporary and, as many people believe, only a stepping stone to the next life. Whether the next life for you is eternity in heaven or rebirth to live life again, your body knows that you need to be comfortable with the idea that you are not going to stay in this life forever.

Once you come to terms with this fact, your dreams may evolve into dreams, that still include death, but are now based around the celebration of a good life and happy memories. If you’ve reached this stage in your death dreams, congratulations! You’re subconscious is recognizing you and celebrating your own spiritual growth.

If you dream about a loved one dying, you may literally be afraid of their inevitable death or you might be experiencing a feeling of insecurity. Perhaps you’re afraid that you’re spouse is going to leave you or you children are about to move out of the house or head off to college. On a happier note, if the person you are dreaming about has recently made a change and eliminated a particular personality trait that you disliked, you might be celebrating it’s passing from your life.

And remember, no matter what the old wives tales might tell you. If you die in your dream you don’t die in life. Don’t let your fear of death wake up up and stop you from moving forward to fully see what your dream is trying to tell you.

Dreams about Water:

Water is frequently considered a symbol for your emotions when it is present in a dream. Most people can tell exactly your dream water is symbolizing simply by remember how you felt during the dream when you looked at the water in question. Here are some hints when considering your water dreams.

* Large Bodies of Water – Oceans and seas usually represent our vast and complex emotional mind. A stormy sea may represent a feeling of turmoil while a sunny sailboat trip can signify a feeling of freedom and the ability to explore your own feelings without restraint.

* Rivers – A river in your dream can represent your emotional journey either through life or through the current situation. The state of this river will also tell you have strong and out of control your emotions are or how restrained you might be in experiencing those emotions. If you are trying to cross the river in your dreams, your own emotions may be getting in the way of where you want to go with your life. Take some time to look at how you feel about a decision, are those feelings holding you back?

* Muddy Water – If water represents your emotions, muddy water represents your emotions when they aren’t cleaned properly! Your emotions may be confused or unhealthy, you may even being having harmful thoughts and suffering from depression. Take a good look at yourself when you have this dream.

* Where are you and where is the water? – If you are in the water then you are at probably one with your emotions. Or are you attempting to avoid your feelings completely by skirting around the edge?

* Drowning – What would a water section be if I didn’t mention drowning? You may be able to figure this one out for yourself by now but I’ll sum it up for you anyway. Feeling overwhelmed by your emotions? I bet you are, a dream about drowning most often has absolutely nothing to do with drowning at all. Instead it tell of a struggle between you and your own subconscious mind as you try to take control of your emotions. Who’s winning the battle? Do you make it out of the water or actually drown?

Dreams about being Chased:

Ah, the famous “I’m being chased” dream. These dreams are very powerful and are one of the most common causes of kicking your partner in your sleep. So what does it all mean? Usually in running dreams you are running from someone or something that you are extremely afraid of. You should stop, turn around and take a good look at what it is your running from because it’s probably yourself or, more accurately, some part of yourself that you don’t like.

The interpretation of dreams about being chased is a varied as there are possibilities in pursuers. If someone is trying to rape you, you might be afraid of or feel guilty about having sex. If you’re being chased by an animal go back up and read about animals again. Do you have qualities of that animal in yourself that you don’t like?

The good (sort of) news about dreams about being chased is that they are frequently recurring. This is a great opportunity to practice the ability to control your dreams. We all have this ability, and if you can harness it and turn around and face your attacker boldly, you will overcome this inner struggle quicker both in your dreams and in life.

Dreams with Cars:

The first step in deciphering a car dream is taking a good look at what kind of car it is. if you are driving a fancy sports car may indicate that you have a sense of success or power in your life or someone else you know may be telling you that you feel that person has power over you. Driving an off road vehicle may be your mind trying to tell you that you are long overdue for an adventure and a sedan or SUV may indicate the opposite, that you are ready to settle down and maybe even start a family.

If you dream of being in a car accident, it may be an indicator of very serious problems in your life. The size of the accident is normally proportionate to the size of the problem. Hopefully you have this dream early enough that you can use it as a warning for the impending problem in your life. Take a good look at who else was in the accident, especially who was in the other car.

Dreams about being Lost:

A lot of times, dreams about being lost are quite simply a representation of feeling lost in your waking life. A person can be lost in many ways including loneliness, confusion, loss, or even lost in a new town. Before you go to far into trying to understand what else this dream might mean, consider your life and see if there are any aspects of your life that are making you feel lost right now.

Dreams about mazes or labyrinths often indicate confusion over a choice or series of choices you have to make. As you travel down turn after turn the outcome of your choice of turns could indicate just how deep your level of confusion runs. Did you reach the end after only a few choices or are you still trying to find your way out?

Dreams about being Naked:

Although I’ve never personally had a dream about being naked unless it’s as part of the subject coming after this one, my reading tell me almost everyone else has. This is a difficult theme to interpret because it is highly dependent on your culture and how you personally feel about nudity. For this short post we’ll focus on the western society and the idea that public nudity is a bad thing and suddenly finding yourself out in public with no clothes on can be quite a shock to the system

If you find yourself in one of these embarrassing situations while you sleep you are most likely expressing a feeling of vulnerability or exposure. Students who dream or showing up at school naked are most like feeling vulnerable at school, perhaps they are the target of the class bully or maybe they uncomfortable with themselves and how they feel they compare to their classmates. Businessmen who stand up in the board room to give a speech naked may be feeling the pressure of an upcoming project or delivery weighing heavily on the future of their job.

For those of you who embrace public nudity and have no feelings of anxiety during your dream. This is a very positive image dealing with openess and honesty. If your significant other is hanging around you with no clothes on throughout a dream, in a non-sexual nature, then you most likely enjoying your trust in them. On the other hand if it’s you that is naked then you are likely to be rejoicing your openness with the people also involved in your dream or even the world.

Dreams about Sex:

And finally, dreams about sex. I saved this one for last because I knew it would be the most fun to write about, and think about… (ahem). Interpreting dreams about sex are yet another highly subjective topic that varies greatly based on the person. This dream can mean something different depending both on how you felt during the dream and how you feel about sex in general.

First of all, regardless of what your priest might say, the endorphins released when you achieve an orgasm are a great source of stress release and are also craved by your body. Your dream about sex may simply mean that it’s just been to long and your body is tantalizing itself into relasing those endorphins without physical assistance. So before you try to analyze what your dream might mean, keep that in mind.

Fantasies – Many, many… way too many people have unfulfilled fantasies. If you dream about sex in a new and daring way, this could be your subconscious way of fulfilling your own fantasies especially if those fantasies are illegal or dangerous or simply against your moral fiber. Dreaming about them won’t lead to the complications that actually performing them might.

Sexual Problems – You may be experiencing problems in your current sex life. Your mind may be trying to deal with going to long without a partner or work through some issues you are having in bed with your current partner. But sexual problems in dreams don’t always translate directly into sexual problems in life. I always know when I’m ready to move on from a relationship because, every time, I dream of the man I’m seeing suddenly having a pencil thin penis. This isn’t just because he’s not satisfying me in bed, that may not even be the case. But he is always not satisfying my emotional needs.

Adolescence – This is probably the time in our live when dreams of a sexual nature are most prevalent. There really is no interpretation here other than the obvious one. You are discovering yourself sexually. Whether those dreams involve feelings of fear or anxiety about losing your virginity or endless nights of pleasure as your try new and different things in your sleep. Those dreams are most likely reflecting exactly how you feel in life.

To get your free dream interpretation, just visit http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Most-Common-Dream-Images-Interpreted and follow the instructions on that page.

Tell me your dreams: I love hearing about dreams and figuring out what they mean. If you want your dream interpreted, just let me know. I’ll review your dream and write up an analysis of what I think it means.

And, equally important to all of your dream details, tell me about any significant events in your real life. You don’t need to be specific here just let me know what happened. Have you recently started a new job or lost one? Has someone died? Are you planning a big trip or just returned from one? In addition to events, is there something that has been weighing heavily on your mind? A fear or fantasy, a plan for the future or even a regret. Dreams are your body’s way of telling you how your subconscious feels about your life so it’s vital to know what’s happening in your world.

Every living thing predates, which simply means life eats to stay alive, both materially and, for humans, emotionally. Though some say all life feels.

We have learned only very recently in human history that we are the abusive predator, who predates not just for food, but also for everything in sight, making us the most greedy species. This trait is not entirely villainous. It comes from our favorite talent-making choices-a powerful opportunity we haven’t yet learned very well how to manage.

Our greatest awareness of excessive predation is our abuse of the environment and the resultant extinction of animal species. Many of us feel profoundly worried and ashamed as a result of this new comprehension. Some of us even feel terrified that we’ve already done irreparable damage-global warming-that may eventually extinct our species.

And yet, in spite of learning such hard lessons, curiously we are the least aware of our most heinous form of abuse as a predator-the misuse and abuse of each other. Way out in front, the most dominant event in human history, of all peoples and cultures, and the most prevalent form of our behavior toward each other has been the mass murder of as many people as possible at any given time and technology. In spite of our increasing awareness of such foibles, we continue to act in the arena of violence toward each other as if it is both necessary and inevitable, requiring massive armies, defensive strategies, hugely intimidating military technology and the deadly sting of secrets and secret opps. All of which is perpetually in danger, as it always has been, of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But all of this, no matter how horrendous, is only the tip of the iceberg of human abuse of the procuring act of predation-eating to survive. In dozens of more subtle ways we predate each other emotionally and financially. We have, for instance, made profit the most sought-after aspect of human exchange, by our unfortunate belief in ownership. This assumed to be virtuous necessity is the right of the first procurer to discover a new element or opportunity, to extract tolls from anyone thereafter needing to use it. By virtue of their first-use we’ve granted them title to what for eons included the ownership of other humans. The necessary aspects of ownership can easily be handled in other ways, like a lifetime lease.

To justify this I-can-do-with-it-what-I-want abuse we pretend the finder invented what humans can only discover. Nature has already done all the necessary inventing. All technology, good medicine and creative effort is simply an imitation, at times cleverly rearranged and represented, of nature’s ways, to the extent that we know them. In other words, we all plagiarize nature. It’s the only option available.

With all this on our conscience, there’s still one more aspect of our excessive predation, which might ultimately be our most damaging one. It’s by far the hardest form for us to acknowledge, that we predate each other within the context of love-which unwittingly includes our children. We do so, not knowingly, nor because we are bad people, but because we have no other way of getting what we all need all our lives-to be loved, supported, encouraged and admired as part of giving our lives support and significance.
Though we pretend otherwise, we have not yet effectively arranged for that to take place within society in general. Indeed individuality-what is special within love-is regarded generally with great mistrust as unloving selfishness, kept under wraps by the primal command, above all else, to serve others. When for individuals good comes in a great diversity of forms. And all chicanery hides behind various notions of the general welfare, with the usual assertion, “it’s for your own good”.

Family is still the only place that, at least to a significant extent, we’re treated in that right manner-as special. As we already know, human nature will never thrive-or learn-in any other environment. A hundred years of psychotherapy has taught us that much, at least with respect to children and animals. We have yet to fully realize that adult humans are no different.

But most important, we have still to acknowledge the simple, but painful truth that, in seeking what they need within the same social context, adults will always win a competition with their children, no matter how hard they try to avoid doing it. We didn’t used to care. But nowadays we all try; yet it can’t be done. Needs don’t wait for permission. They automatically demand, and children, equally automatically, step aside-in ways seen by no one at the time.

Many, if not most readers will cry out how wrong this assertion must be! Yet only one piece of evidence is necessary to verify its truthfulness. It’s something we’ve learned only within the last 100 years, that family produces as much harm as good. Family itself, in its traditional form as arbiter and policeman of culture’s habits and biases, is outmoded, in need of significant transformation-an unthinkable thought because it seems so disloyal to the font of our comfort. We hate to think about the big picture of what families have become: a mixed bag. Indeed, at times with genetic help, all psychic dysfunctional symptoms were learned, or genetic vulnerabilities exacerbated and made much worse, within families of origin. From one generation to another we pass along our prejudices and foibles as well as our virtues.

Human prosperity has enabled us to perceive our family origins as the mixed bag they really are, mostly by providing an alternative place of intimate resting and exchange-the workplace, now available, at least in better financial times, to most people. Without another experience-option, independent of our origins, we couldn’t have finally seen the shortcomings of that ancient font of security and wisdom-family, clan and culture, which is at the core of most religions, in the simplest words, ancestor worship. Thus, until very recently in human history, we’ve been unable to look askance at the hand the feeds us.

Perhaps it’s time to consider whether parenting needs to become more professional, in the sense of handling adult and child needs in different contexts. Children used to be reproduced in large numbers to add to the labor force of the family’s livelihood. When large families seriously dilute what one child receives. Siblings, who in big families act as additional caretakers, are very dysfunctional parents; they’re only kids, can’t very easily handle the enormous responsibility of another’s life, and have their own life and its needs to attend.

Nowadays we realize that, if done primarily and fully to the benefit of the child, it takes more than the one or two adults to do the job-particularly if adults are to have ample time to serve the continued evolution of their own lives, hopes and dreams. Over time we’ve added teachers, babysitters, live-in caretakers, etc., which help, but none of which adequately accomplish what the child, or the parents need-very special personal care that integrates all the pieces together. Children don’t do that very well unattended. We’ve added pieces to the child’s life, but children don’t learn in pieces. Only adults can do that.

So what is the primary problem with families, as they are currently structured? What aspect of family damages individual growth and development the most? The answer verifies the innocence to which we can all lay claim. There is no fundamental villainy here. The problem is that family requires adults and children to compete for their need-gratification at the same font. Though we are strongly encouraged to think otherwise, adults need just as much benefit from family as children do-yet they need, in some ways, very different things. What’s more adults need things they can’t get anywhere else, including the workplace, though it’s a useful alternative. Very good parents try and circumvent this inevitable competition by putting their needs aside, when truth is it can’t be done. Needs will find their way out of any carefully constructed love-fortress.

No villain created this problem. We simply haven’t evolved nearly as far as we think we have. We’re still trying to get-it-right the first time, when we don’t yet know what that really means. Though it’s very difficult, even terrifying for some, to look upon ourselves in such tentative, seemingly critical ways. Instead we usually think and operate as if we already know what it means to be human, institutionalizing one mistake after another-and then taking eons to escape our own carefully constructed bad habits-like tyranny.

As an example, that particular perfidy is usually viewed as an oppressive intrusion. When it is most likely that no one imposed it upon us. We cried out for it when first we occupied this planet in tribal, social sedentary ways, terrified of a life that seemed filled with happenstance and the unfathomable, what easily became chaotic and out of control. We demanded the presence of a human god who could mollify and influence the cruel heavenly Gods who dominated and tormented our lives by, for instance, bringing famine or flood. It’s taken us thousands of years to get over this bad habit of wanting Big People to take care of what frightens us-and we still haven’t finished. We continue to elevate some people to a position of superiority, like the rich and famous, and then envy and adore them, the remnants of tyranny, what we now call inequality.

To consider revising the ways family works, in order to make it a more effective provider of what we all need, is part of a bigger picture: to learn to see ourselves as an evolving species, instead of an already-arrived-in-wisdom one. It’s a more frightening, contradictory course to take. But it’s also a more powerful one, to perceive all things from as many perspectives as possible … and never stop doing it. That effort produces a form of balance that is more evolved than balance concepts available in Eastern Oriental philosophy, which resolve negative experience and emotion by learning to live entirely in the positive. When negative and positive elements always coexist simultaneously, the negative to educate us, and the positive to give us rest, reassurance and encouragement.

My additional works can be seen at this website: http://donfenn.com

Michael Jackson’s death is a reminder of the vitality of America’s (and the world’s) cult of celebrity. The intensity of the global public response moves one to ask: why is society so deeply affected by the death of a person who was known for bizarre behavior and questionable judgment? Evolutionary psychology provides a helpful perspective.

When evolutionary psychologists observe that a behavior is widespread and common in a particular species, they first seek to find out whether such behavior is “adaptive,” meaning, beneficial from a reproductive point of view. Hero-worship is interesting in this respect because we find versions of it in all societies. Our earliest recorded literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was concerned primarily with the lives of two heroes. From Odysseus to Elvis, great performers have evoked veneration. Why?

Public performance can be understood as a form of genetic signaling. This is one reason why young animals play. When puppies frolic and run about playfully, they are sending very serious messages to future competitors and future mates about their genetic fitness. A puppy that is especially big or fast in play is communicating with competitors (“you won’t want to mess with me when I grow up”) and future mates (“my genes are the best – you’ll have great kids with me”).

It makes sense, therefore, for youngsters to enjoy play (they do) and to be great “show-offs” (they are). In fact, the whole purpose of play, from an evolutionary perspective, is precisely to “show off” our exceptional genetic fitness. As we grow older and mature into sexually active adults, we don’t really stop playing. Instead, our play becomes deadly serious (we begin to call it “work” or “art”), and many of us become even more extreme “show-offs”. We’d better. Our “performances” on the job or in social occasions are the most likely indicators of whether or not we will succeed in the reproductive marketplace.

Although there are many ways of displaying genetic fitness, humans appear especially attuned to verbal, musical or athletic performance. Our top politicians, actors, musicians and sports stars receive overwhelming adulation. Verbal and musical displays likely evolved as a form of competitive play meant to signal intelligence. “Playing the dozens” and hip-hop dissing contests probably have roots in human behavior stretching back hundreds of thousands of years. As humans evolved into more intelligent creatures, the pressure of sexual selection put a premium on displays correlated with intelligence.

Thus, when musical superstars perform in public, they are inserting an ancient evolutionary key into a special lock in our brains. When the key turns, we receive an exhilarating blast of dopamine, the brain’s own version of cocaine, the ultimate feel-good drug.

The fascinating thing about public performance is that it feels good to the performer as well as to the audience. Again, from an evolutionary perspective, this is to be expected. The performer’s brain is being rewarded because evolution has provided a great stimulus (a dopamine fix) for us to show off successfully whenever we can get away with it. Doing so maximizes our chances of attracting a desirable mate. Showing off feels good. Showing off in front of a large audience feels great.

The audience also finds its brains rewarded by evolution as well, but for different reasons. Why do we enjoy watching exceptional performances? There are three reasons. First, spectacular performances are in a sense “instructive”. Humans are the most imitative species on earth. Much of our intelligence has to do with our ability to model and mimic adaptive behavior. It makes sense for us to be especially attentive to superior performance of any kind – the more we enjoy it, the closer we will pay attention to it, and the more likely that we will learn something from it. Second, if we feel that we are somehow socially or emotionally linked to the performer, we are encouraged by the increased chance that we or our offspring will share in the genetic bounty represented by that performer. Third, the more we ingratiate ourselves with the performer, as by displaying submissive and adoring behavior, the more likely we are to earn the performer’s esteem, and with it, a chance to mate with the performer and endow our offspring with the performer’s superior genes.

It seems likely that humans have been programmed by evolution to turn either into rock-stars or groupies (or both). Which path we take depends on our location within the competitive space of our generation’s gene-pool. If we are the best singer or dancer of our generation, we will be tempted to perform: the rewards, both in terms of our brain’s dopamine revels and in the attention of sexually-attractive mates, could be huge.

Unfortunately, while it makes sense – from an evolutionary perspective — for members of our species to be attracted to musical genius, it does not necessarily make sense from an individual perspective. Many people have learned this in the most concrete way, by marrying musicians (I did). My eldest son inherited exceptional musical talent, so my genes are happy. My genes were never concerned with my wife’s operatic temper (she’s a mezzo-soprano), that’s been purely my affair. Evolution promises us adorable children; it doesn’t promise us a rose garden.

Michael Jackson’s fans have to some extent been tricked by evolution. Watching the Gloved One’s uncanny gyrations and masterful crooning released entire oceans of their cerebral dopamine, but that did not change the fact that their hero was a very weird man.

Indeed, Michael Jackson’s life represents the very opposite of wisdom, the opposite of what one should admire or seek to emulate in a role-model. Dopamine-rushes can be addictive, exactly like cocaine. Young Michael’s success as a child prodigy may have destroyed his chances for happiness as an adult. He was never able to improve upon the Peter Pan-like ecstasies he achieved as a child star, so he spent his life in a perpetual attempt to remain a child. This is already very unhealthy at age 20 or age 30. At 40 or 50, it is a sign of mental illness.

Evolution has left our brains vulnerable to deceptive evolutionary keys. Fortunately, it has also endowed us with an alarm system called “reason.” We can learn to recognize our ancient evolutionary triggers for precisely what they are – stimuli to do things that may or may not be good for us. Nothing can stop that dopamine from flowing once our fingers start snapping to “I’m Bad,” but our reason can stop us from taking the whole thing too seriously. And it should.

We should not disparage the pleasures and delights of participation in spectacles. Whether we find ourselves cheering in a sports stadium or at a jazz concert, our delight is deep and real. We should indulge in this joy – it is one of the highlights of human experience. However, we should look for role models in the people we really know and trust around us, not in musical superstars, no matter how gifted.

For further reading…

Respond to this article and/or blog the author at: http://www.RedGenesBlueGenes.com

We know that art therapy can help children with anger, stress and depression. Do you know that it can also help children with heart disease?

One such patient is an 18 year old girl profiled in the July 1 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal. At age 9, she had her second heart transplant. Her body was determined to reject the first heart. She went into cardiac arrest six times in 2 hours. She recalled being “awake” when the doctors were frantically trying to revive her.

Fearing that they would pull the plug on her, she tried desperately to tell the people in the hospital room that she was alive.Recuperating at home was no easy matter; she kept having recurring nightmares in which she watched herself suffering cardiac arrest.

Things, however, began to change when she took up the pen. She began writing down her thoughts about being helpless and scared. She turned these details into poems and stories. Eventually, the nightmares disappeared.

Now 18, she has successfully completed high school and is looking forward to nursing school in the fall.She credits her writing for helping her deal with her heart and surgery. It was her creative expression through writing that enabled her to transform something frightening and painful into a positive goal – to make something of her life.

Researchers are taking note of the positive relationship between art therapy and the heart. Some current clinical data on this relationship include the following:

a) Psychosocial factors like depression and stress have been found to be strong risk factors for heart attacks. In fact, these emotional factors are considered as strong as physiological factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.

According to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, depression increases the risk of heart disease more than genetics or the environment. This means that any intervention that can reduce depression can benefit the heart. Scientists are working to determine how artistic expression can be considered a valid form of clinical intervention to be used along with exercise, diets and medication for reducing heart disease.

b) Researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia have found that music can offer substantial benefit to patients who are stressed and anxious about undergoing treatment for coronary heart disease. Listening to music decreases blood pressure, heart rate and levels of anxiety in heart patients. In fact, music therapy is getting increased recognition as a viable form of treatment for depression and mood.

Take for example, Justin P, a young boy born with a heart defect. At 8 months, he had heart surgery. Since he was five years old, he has been experiencing attention and behavior problems at school. Unable to “settle down” in the classroom, Justin nevertheless responds well to music, especially songs with a strong upbeat tempo.

His parents decided to place him in a music therapy class when he turned six. Now 7, Justin can play the piano; he is more focused in school; he is just starting to read and he is a happier child.
According to his parents, music relaxes him and makes him more open to their suggestions.

Creative expressions in art, writing and music can be very effective therapeutic processes for children with heart disease.

Bianca Tora is a writer interested in the relationship between lifestyle and the brain, specifically the area of emotional regulation and control. She has published a book on anger management for children. Visit her at http://www.help-your-child-with-anger.com

Logic dictates that entity A cannot be entity B, and when we come to valuate that do the representations we have from ourselves truly represent ourselves, in relativity with this simple logic, the answer must be “No”. The entity we are perceiving in our consciousness is combined of units of information, and is a virtual entity, similarly with our friends and foes we perceive in our consciousness even when they are not around. And these representations lack the neurological detail, everything that we know as the physical basis of our existence, every known form of self-awareness, and are immaterial in the environment. And as our sense of the environment is representational, when the external source of an individual we know is not at present, the representation of the individual we have in our consciousness does not have a mind of its own, but is the exact then active image we have from him/her, each of them produced in relativity with our own internal complexity and the dynamics of the sub-consciousness.

It must now also be acknowledged that our individuality, not the soul, is defined also in neurological, cellural and in genetic level, i.e. that the combination of atoms in molecular level is what makes us human individuals, having the 1-2% difference in genetic level, making us unique in physical design. Yet, in the experiments done through cloning also indicate through deductions that, the distinctive observer/soul cannot be replicated however identical the genome that produces the chain reaction of combining the body were between mammals, not to mention that the combination of genes that is able to construct the individual self of us does not emerge anywhere in the entire cosmos and beyond during our existence, transcending us to those spatial co-ordinates. If the observer/soul was somehow linked between the two cloned Dolly sheep, it would have required some Cartesian receiver-transceiver device, enabling them to send and receive neural impulses from each of other in order to build collective self-awareness, but their genome had no such blueprints for it to be formed. Ego, or Das Ich (The I, or I itself) as Freud would have expressed or soul is therefore not something that can be replicated nor can it be divided to multiple bodies, forming a collective consciousness with an individual (one) ego.

In order for information to be in consciousness, it needs neurological support system that can contain information. This is the same with innate information systems in neurological level, for without qualifying and distinctive properties, the neurons and specialized receptors in various parts of the brains and for example neurons that are responsible and that enable motor tasks could not exist. Again, memory cells and for example synapses require distinctive molecular combination of atoms in order to exist and therefore units of information these memory cells and synapses contain must also have a unique molecular combination per unit of information, since otherwise contained units information should be considered as some magical meta-impulses that are contained in memory cells, identical in molecular combination, although containing different units of information. But on the other hand, energy in its form of information in neurological cognitive systems is yet without any recognizable types, i.e. that for example this waveform means “a peanut”, and this “Plato”, and the combination of these is waveforms is “Plato in a peanut” and even more, the problem of indicating which memory cell contains the searched unit of information is limited by the lack of technology of being able to scan neurons in the level of molecular combination. The distribution of information that are combined to a representation from different areas and lobes of the brains cannot be traced in the level of finding specific units of information. But non-the-less, the way our retina deals with the individual photons is that they are translated to neural impulses and are first sent to individual neurons in the visual cortex until sent to various perception-relative regions of brains to form the big picture (V3-V5), during the content generative cycle before representations emerge to consciousness, with parallel categorical types of associated information (from dimensions of information such as color, taste, semantics, emotions, sounds, ect. from other neurological systems). Because of the technological limitations, the only way to approach this matter at hand is logic. The first logical deduction is that the brains form representations from combined units of information, with the content generated by the micro-level neurocomputation for the individual’s consciousness. The second logical deduction is that because different areas of the brains perform different tasks with relatively different types of information, the information that consciousness receives as the complete representation of the environment is composed of units of information individual areas of the brains have processed. The third logical deduction is that brains are in constant constructive state in relativity with the information translated by senses of the environmental conditions and in relativity with the information already contained by the memory systems. And the fourth and most obvious logical deduction is therefore that the categorical increasing complexity defines the units of information that is to be used by the constructive and re-constructive behavior of our brains while building representations. The same deductions of this re-constructive behavior of our brains to build representations from units of information in diverse memory systems were made by F. C. Bartlett in as early as 1932:

“The first notion to get rid of is that memory is primarily or literally reduplicative, or reproductive. In a world of constantly changing environment, literal recall is extraordinarily unimportant. If we consider evidence rather than supposition, memory appears to be far more decisively an affair of construction rather than one of mere reproduction”

Now, in neurological representation of an individual, i.e. the molecular combination of an individual containing all the units of information, including the various information systems in the levels of individual neurons, memory cells, sysnapses, ect. and the systems and representations they produce in combination and as sums of their parts, the innate neurological composition produces the frame of value-relative constancies, with the individual genetic differences. The increasing complexity (for example growth of dendritic spines for an anatomical substrate for memory storage and synaptic transmission) after the birth in relations to the information of the environment and coping with the reality can for example exceed in such categories as motor tasks, emotional responses, learning to recognize objects by the smell value-relatively combined to them, ect. Virtual information such as representations of ethical behavior virtually extends the innate behavioral patterns and produce virtually extended value-relative behavior, increasing the complexity of the neurological representation of the self. The existing virtual information about the atomic combination of the environment, i.e. the atomic quantum reality to make the distinctive difference between the information containing and not-containing environment, chemical reactions and the laws of physics virtually extends the innate capacity on understanding the environment. Religions extend the innate nature virtually to a spiritual dimension. The information society systems virtually extend the innate group behavior. I mention these examples because the neurological representation of an individual is extended by virtual information, that is, an individual is also the information he/she contains, adding a third dimension which is beyond the Cartesian dualism. The increasing complexity in the category of etiquette increases the neurological representation of an individual in relations with the behavior in accordance with etiquette. As the characteristics are again considered as units that are universal, the active combination of them defines that area of the neurological representation of an individual. The more one characteristic increases in complexity, the more units of information exists in such characteristic in the neurological representation of an individual. Thus, the more one virtually extends one’s innate nature in the dimension of smart business transactions, the more virtually extended the innate nature the neurological representation of an individual becomes.

Now, as it isn’t the representational self that moves in the environment, but the neurological representation of the self, it is healthy to make a clear difference between these two distinctive levels of being. The representational self is a fantasane entity, and the neurological self is the authentic manifestation of an individual. The way we move in the atomic reality is in relativity with the active neurological combination in our micro-level neurocomputation, and its dynamics are in constant state spatial shifts. These shifts and the active combination of them define exactly where we are in the mental space, and the place our physical being manifests is defined by the spatial co-ordinates we exist in in the space-time continuum of the cosmos. In both cases, where our neurological and atomic existence is located, it is the exact location we exist in.

Henry M. Piironen was born in 1982 in Jyvaskyla, Finland, and has studied complex adaptive systems, systems theory, information theory, memetics, cosmology, the human brain neuroanatomy, theories of consciousness, self-organization, co-adaptation, emergence and religions. He experienced scientific enlightenment in 2007, leading to the creation of the model of information reality, which is addressed in his first book, “The Art of Perception: An Introduction to Information Reality” (2008). His current studies are on the information-driven continuums of superorganisms and how information extends the mind. For more discoveries of the information driven world, visit his official website at: http://www.kolumbus.fi/henrympiironen/Home.html