Psychology Articles

Carl Jung couldn’t clearly and immediately translate the meaning of dreams, even though he discovered the right method for a perfect dream interpretation. Thanks to his discoveries we can understand the wise unconscious guidance in the dream images. However, his work is obscure and incomplete.

I could simplify the dream interpretation process mainly because I discovered that we can completely trust the unconscious mind that produces our dreams due to its saintly nature. Thanks to my obedience to the unconscious mind, I could discover the existence of our wild conscience (anti-conscience) that generates mental illnesses within our conscience. Therefore, I understood exactly why we dream, while Jung couldn’t understand the real importance of the unconscious psychotherapy.

The unconscious mind works like a psychiatrist and psychologist because we have inherited too much absurdity into the biggest part of our brain. Our animal and absurd anti-conscience keeps trying to destroy our human conscience and control our behavior.

Since I could discover this basic truth, I could clarify Carl Jung’s method and help you immediately understand the meaning of dreams. Now you don’t need to wait for more information in your next dreams, the same way that you don’t need to compare this dream to your previous dreams like Jung used to do. You can instantly understand the meaning of any dream without analyzing other dreams of the same dreamer.

* I discovered that we can easily translate a series of dreams if we’ll translate only the meaning of the most important dream symbols that appear in each dream, and we’ll relate this information to the dreamer’s life.

I also discovered that long dreams without many dream symbols can be translated into only a few words, while the translation of short dreams with many dream symbols is quite long.

I understood that I had to define the meaning of the most important dream symbols in a few words, since they are so important for the comprehension of the meaning of a dream. Carl Jung wrote many pages about the meaning of each important dream symbol.

This was a big complication. If I had to tell an entire story in order to explain the meaning of just one dream symbol to a dreamer, what would happen with the rest of the dream? When would we have time to talk about the importance of this dream in the dreamer’s life?

Thus, I simplified the definition of each dream symbol, besides discovering the meaning of numerous dream symbols that Jung couldn’t understand. I learned how to make fast dream translations without paying attention to all the details of each dream because I had to translate many dreams for the same dreamer in a short period of time.

However, many times the details of each dream are revealing. These details are very important. Thus, I had to find a way to easily identify the important details of a dream, besides translating the meaning of the dream symbols. 

I discovered that the important details of each dream are the ones that appear in many dreams, in similar forms.

I will give you a real example by analyzing three dream scenes from a series of dreams of one of my patients.

In one dream the dreamer was very sleepy; she hardly could open her eyes.

In the next dream the dreamer was afraid of darkness.

In the third dream, a part of her personality was blind (The dreamer dreamt that she was helping a blind girl walk. This blind girl was a part of her personality that was not able to see many things).

Therefore, the fact that the dreamer cannot see her reality is a detail that appears in three dreams, in a different form. This is an important detail.

Here is the meaning of each dream image:

Being sleepy = She was not fighting her absurd anti-conscience; she was resting accommodated instead of paying attention to the dangerous truth. Her anti-conscience was taking advantage of her indifference and destroying her human conscience while she was resting.

Being in the dark = There are many things that the dreamer ignores about herself and her reality.

Since this dreamer was afraid of darkness in the dream, this means that she was afraid of the truth she ignores about herself and her reality. This truth has a painful effect on her psyche.

Being blind = She was not seeing many things. She was acting without understanding what she was doing.

The dreamer of my example is neurotic, but I cannot give you more details about her case. I’m only using the dream images that appeared in her dreams in order to give you a practical lesson.

Therefore, when you’ll perceive that a certain detail repeatedly appears in your dreams, this means that this detail is very important, even though it is not a dream symbol.

* After understanding the importance of certain details I made a research about this matter, looking for all the important details found in each series of dreams of the same dreamers. I discovered that the important details in a dream are the ones that indicate danger.

This information should help you in your dream translations. You can easily translate the meaning of your dreams if you’ll learn the meaning of the most important dream symbols and you pay attention to the important details of a dream.

However, you must also follow the dream logic. This is a very complicated matter that I could clearly understand only after fighting craziness and winning the battle thanks to the unconscious guidance.

The anti-conscience uses craziness in order to destroy our human conscience. Craziness is evilness, but in a camouflaged form. The unconscious mind tries to help us preserve our sanity and show resistance to our anti-conscience’s attacks with a logic based on sanctity. This comprehension helped me understand what to look for when translating the meaning of dreams. 

The fight between our evil anti-conscience and our human conscience (which needs the guidance of the saintly unconscious mind) is the fight between Satan and the human being. This is why most dreams present dangerous situations to the dreamers, they are nightmares, or they are bad dreams not as scary as nightmares, but that make the dreamer feel uncomfortable and sad.

* The unconscious words are the words of a spiritual guide for our human conscience. When we fight absurdity, we are basically fighting evilness.

This knowledge helps you directly understand the unconscious intention when you look at a dream. Therefore, you don’t waste your time with suppositions that are far from the truth.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

When we learn new things, which are contrary to what we’ve learned in the past, we need to data dump the bad probation, and grab onto the new. That’s not always as easy as you think, but maybe there’s a reason for that. Indeed, maybe it’s important to have strong beliefs, if one is to self correct, to learn new things? Okay so, now that I’ve got your attention, let’s talk about this for a few moments shall we;

There was an intriguing piece in Physorg (dot) com recently titled; “New insights into how to correct false knowledge – The abundance of false information available on the Internet, in movies and on TV has created a big challenge for educators,” which was posted on February 7, 2012. The article had stated;

“Students sometimes arrive in classrooms filled with inaccurate knowledge they are confident is correct, indicating it is deeply entrenched in their memory. “Errors that are deeply entrenched in memory are notoriously difficult to correct,” Recent research in cognitive science has shown it is possible to correct false knowledge with feedback — a phenomenon known as the hypercorrection effect. When students answer a test question wrong, the more confident they are in their original answer, the more likely they are to remember the right answer if corrected.”

Now then, I’ve always said this to be true, because when someone finds something to be ironic, or at a place, or contrary to what they believe with their heart, soul, and mind, it tends to shake them out of their belief system. Indeed once they learn the new information, they tend to remember it quite well. This is a good thing, because if you are in martial arts, and you do a particular motion 20,000 times to develop muscle memory through repetition, and then you find out you need to learn to do it a different way, it may take you 40,000 times to fix the problem.

However, with the brain it doesn’t seem to work that way, it appears that the brain can self correct. At least as per this study, but there have been other psychological studies which have also shown something similar in this regard, and that is that people more often learn from their successes rather than them are there mistakes. In this case however it appears that their newfound success is correcting their mistake, therefore they remember it. That sounds rather ironic, but, it also makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?

Interestingly enough, this is one of the challenges with artificial intelligence. They need a way to dump the data, to get the bad information out. In fact, some artificial intelligent robotics have shown to exhibit schizophrenic type tendencies whereby they will be doing a certain task a certain way, and then all of a sudden revert back to a previous version of the way they learned it the prior.

Thus, perhaps the brain has to work this way, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to work at all. Do you see that point as well? Maybe what the psychology researchers have discovered here we should have reasoned without their research, shouldn’t we have seen this already? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Mind and Memory. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

It’s funny how we can know deep-down that we have fundamental emotional issues, yet we do not want to admit them to relatives or friends. So we don’t tell them. And not telling them can also rule out in our mind us seeking any form of professional help either. Why? Because to do that could be tantamount to admitting to the world publicly that we did have issues, that we had lost the plot, and we do need help. But might we be fooling ourselves? Yes! I am afraid I believe we could be!

Aren’t we are operating in disguise? Couldn’t we think we are hiding our issues completely, when others have detected them? Isn’t the truth that despite the fact we have emotional issues, we still haven’t admitted it intellectually to the most important person involved – ourself! No admittance: so we don’t do anything about it to help ourselves either!

That means our emotional masquerade has been born and nurtured and unless and until corrected, it will begin to flourish and be patterned.

We can go on trying to refute to ourselves the reality that actually we do have issues. These maybe about ourselves – our fears and phobias, or maybe about our family or relationships. Ironically, because we know we aren’t handling things well, we can then contrive to make it worse!

We can succumb to the need first to pretend we are happy with our lot anyway. We put on a jolly front. Yet we know we are not. And as it fails to convince us, sub-consciously we know something else has to be done.

This can trigger the need to bring our intellect more into play to demonstrate our effectiveness at the expense of our unresolved emotions. To do this requires us to develop an added zeal and commitment about our work. Especially this can involve changing our approach to perceived tasks at work or at home. Often we can upgrade these to an urgent status, when it can be questionable whether in some cases they are even necessary.

And we can find it a seemingly very effective strategy too. Our work rate appears to have multiplied while the emotional issues seem to have been banished. In fact we can deem it so successful that if our hidden emotional issues should happen to be suddenly inflamed further by some unanticipated event, we have ready-made solutions!

We can intensify the pretence that nothing is wrong and also put our foot down a bit more on the ‘zeal’ button and, hey presto, the problem seems solved.

Or is it?

Don’t we ourselves begin to sense that others close to us have detected how we are beginning to run circles round ourselves? Doesn’t their tone and their body language alone put us on notice? So don’t we then try a yet additional ploy?

That’s when our attempt at open self-justification can start to set in. ‘Oh! How busy we are!’ ‘No time to think!’ ‘Yes, I must get down to that next week.’ We employ every excuse in the book! Taking care of the children and all their activities, can be another one – and often very easy to justify.

But what are doing to ourselves with all this? Getting by? Maybe, but such a compromise is rarely healthy or sustainable.

In truth we are progressively and systematically ‘de-selfing’ ourselves. In so doing, we are not allowing our emotional self to be heard or accounted for. Yet this is a vital element of human make-up enabling us to interact more effectively and at one with our fellow humans.

One might, of course, challenge this as unrealistic and impracticable. Isn’t some of this deferring of emotional issues necessary, merely as a result of the pressures on us of time and privacy?

Yes it is true any expert would confirm that reality of today’s hectic lifestyle. But they would also advocate only truly postponing an issue coupled with the clear intent to deal with it. They would caution against converting it into a habitual way of shelving things.

To a greater or lesser extent, pretty well all of us are emotionally sensitive and reactive. Acknowledging unresolved feelings betrays only common sense. It most definitely does not admit to failure just because one discusses upsets that have begun to dog one’s life.

This can be with the person much behind the issue, or if that is not possible, then with a relative or friend one can trust with the confidence. Almost inevitably they will welcome the chance to share their own, rather than avoid the discussion.

Often merely understanding better the dynamics behind issues is more than half the battle won. Yet we seem to deny that just as we are capable of feeling untoward emotions, that somehow we are not equally equipped with the ability to learn how to manage them better.

There are some excellent counsellors around, many who already have the Tshirt for coping with just the dilemma one believes is unique to oneself. From such people can come not just a sense of release but greater ability to help oneself – and others, in the future.

But meanwhile the sheer scale of wisdom residing in one’s family, friends and colleagues never ceases to amaze me. Why ever do we spurn it!

To stop the masquerade and address it, surely, must make for a truer form of happiness?

Gerry Neale is the author of self-discovery novels and articles. His intriguing novel, Squaring Circles is available in paperback (ISBN 9780956868824) from http://www.amazon.co.uk 0r from the website http://www.squaringcircles.co.uk

As a very prolific online article writer, I’ve probably pounded out 2-3 million words in the last 6-years, and I don’t know for sure exactly how many, because I am not certain how many articles I’ve done now via speech recognition software – however what I do know is my abilities to do things with my other hand have improved drastically, including writing or even silly things such as crumpling up a piece of paper and shooting it across the room into the trash can with amazing accuracy.

Why is that? This is not something I’ve been able to readily do until recently. So, to my question which is also the title of this article, I dare to ask; “Does Typing 2 Million Words Make Someone Ambidextrous and Change Their Brain Format?” and to that question, I believe so. They say that kids to learn a new musical instrument when they are young do better at math. Why is that? Is it because of the dexterity and the use of their hands in learning and playing the musical instrument along with the sounds and melody from their sense of hearing?

Is it because of how all those little muscles in their fingers find corresponding areas of the brain to connect the dots? Because of the Internet, text messaging, and all the personal tech toys are we inadvertently causing the changes in the formatting of the human brain in such a way that allows the human brain to do other things? I believe so.

Of course, spending over 10,000 hours typing on a keyboard producing online articles is not something that people have typically done in the past 10,000 years. Neither is text messaging, or the act of carefully pressing very small buttons or touch screen keys with incredible accuracy, using either hand, but hopefully not while operating an automobile – do you see what I’m driving at? It is known that folks who are ambidextrous, are also capable of other things, and their brains perhaps have a different ratio of white to gray matter.

If someone’s brain is formatted to think a certain way, and then they learn a different way to think, they are most likely capable of thinking both ways in the future, this could create interesting combinations, and better brains. But we don’t know that for sure, and the research is rather vague, but other people have asked similar questions so it appears that my theory here might actually hold some water, therefore it commands more review. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Mind Development. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

In my mid-teens I read a book by David Holbrook called “Sex and De-humanisation.” It was a good time in my life to read it, it spoke of the high suicide rate amongst prostitutes and how losing moral orientation led to a lack of self-worth; it drew the distinction between love and lust, as the ancient Greeks would have put it between Agape and Eros, and the necessity of honouring the former.

On the radio recently I heard an article about ‘Pa’ Jackson’s Corinthian Casuals, who beat the Football Association’s cup winners Blackburn Rovers (8 – 1) and Manchester United (11- 3, still that clubs biggest defeat). Their record would have been even greater had they not had a rooted objection to competition. The Corinthian’s philosophy was that gentlemanly conduct was always superior to the will to win at any cost; they would not take advantage, withdrawing players if they were winning by too great a margin, the did not take penalties and disapproved of the concept. They were the greatest football team of their day, and they proved beyond question that the true amateur is always superior to the professional. You see, the amateur acts from love while the professional prostitutes his skills for money and that base motive taints and conditions performance.

The Corinthian team of 1896-7

You may have been stirred by Lord Tennyson’s immortal words on the Charge of the Light Brigade,

“Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

“Charge for the guns!” he said:

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.”

It is worth remembering that the officers in Tennyson’s ‘Cherry Pickers’ were expected to spend more on their mess bills than they received in pay.

If Holbrook was right, and if we extend the principle to life as a whole, the horrific and rising tide of mental illness in Western Civilisation finds its explanation in the grasping, selfish, target led values by which ‘winning’ is everything and honour is a word which has fallen out of use.

A few days ago I was asked to teach in a college, the topic was Stress Management, I was appalled to find several textbooks stated there are two approaches to stress management, Problem Solving Approach and Emotional Approach, and that problem solving is better (when the problem is solved stress goes away) while the emotional approach boils down to no more than Denial.

I will spare the blushes of the (well- known and highly regarded) writers of those books by not naming them!

As a solicitor my approach was problem solving, I wanted to know the facts so the Law could be applied to the clients’ problems, in order that they be resolved. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of problems that some can be solved and some cannot, at least in the way the client wanted; but, even if a problem is resolved, it is also in the nature of the phenomenal World that as soon as one problem is solved others arise to take its place. If this is the approach you take to problems, no matter how hard you try, you will never be free of them.

In Counselling I learned the facts of the client’s story are not what matters; the question is, “How does that make you feel?” The Emotional Approach to problems is not denial, far from it. If a client succeeds in driving a problem from his conscious mind it merely hides in the sub-conscious and the problem is not solved at all. The Emotional Approach to problems it to bring them into conscious understanding so that it can be seen what they mean to a client. If the client can see the positive aspects of the ‘problem’, and there always are positive aspects, then the problem is no longer a stressor to the client and he or she will be better able to deal with such events in future.

The real stressor in problems is the conflict between how the client wanted the World to be and how it is. If the client can realise that it is actually alright for the World to be as it is, there is no more stress. Yet the World, in the form of managers, government ministers, and now it seems, teachers is in Denial of this, demanding we must all achieve so and such. The real cause of stress, then, is the pressure we put on individuals with “must” and “ought” and “need to” in setting targets as the only goals, suggesting that what people do is all that matters and what they are is of no importance.

Some years ago, in another college, also teaching Psychology, I asked of a group of students, “Are you human beings or human doings?” After only a little thought most replied, “We are human doings.” This is what they had been taught!

It would be enough for this article to rail against well-known and highly regarded writers of Psychology textbooks for their spiritual and practical ignorance of Human nature and their factual ignorance of Counselling. Grave though the accusation is, it is not the point. When people are made ill by being caused to believe that what they do, not what they are is all that matters, when they are abused and exploited by micro-managers, self-esteem declines and so, performance declines.

It is seventy one years since Winston Churchill famously said,

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

The young spitfire and hurricane pilots, of whom he spoke, in challenging the awesome might of the Luftwaffe, a challenge which gave Churchill the chance to keep the flame of Western Civilisation alight, were not professionals, fighting for money. What they fought for was love of country, love of humanity, even love of Love itself. These were true amateurs in the spirit of Tennyson’s Cherry Pickers and the Corinthians, it made them invincible.

Of course we should all do the best we can with the world of problems, that may be a duty but it is not our true purpose, and if we fail so be it. It is not until we learn to love ourselves and to do what we love, because we love it, that we will achieve freedom from stress or success in the World.

About this Author
Mike is the author of EDWARD Learn more at: http://www.edwardstafford.co.uk See the book at Amazon, Smashwords, Booklocker or Google Mike is also host of a Blogtalkradio show which is archived at http://www.MikeVoyce.com

According to Wikipedia, cyberpsychology “encompasses all psychological phenomena that are associated with or affected by emerging technology “. The Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology define cyberpsychology as “the study of the human mind and behaviour in the context of human-technology interaction”. Increasing interest in cyberpsychology has meant that institutions like Dun Laoghaire are now offering cyberpsychology-related qualifications. For example, a unique BSc in Psychology with Interactive Entertainment and a continuing professional development course in cyberpsychology are available from Glasgow Caledonian University, and a small number of PhD programmes also sometimes crop up, which can be found advertised on websites like findaphd There are also courses for counsellors, reflecting the need for suitably qualified individuals in the field of cyberpsychology.

Cyberpsychology is still in its infancy, although there are a number of researchers and clinicians out there who could be called cyberpsychologists. Professor Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent has been called an expert in cyberpsychology and has interests in online game addiction, in addition to being a professor of gambling studies. Dr. Monica Whitty of Leicester University has published books on online relationships, while others like Kimberley Young were exploring problematic Internet use before the turn of the century. In the UK anyone can call themselves a cyberpsychologist, as there are appear to be no legal restrictions on individuals who wish to do so. The British Psychological Society (BPS) and Health Professions Council do, however, protect a number of titles such as “Clinical Psychologist”, “Health Psychologist”, and “Practioner Psychologist”. Perhaps in the coming years “Cyberpsychologist” will too become a protected title, but it could be quite a long time before this happens, if at all.

So how do you become a cyberpsychologist? There are many people, like myself, who train for many years in order fulfil their ambitions of becoming a psychologist specialising in cyberpsychology. However, it is important to do some research and planning to reach this goal. Firstly, it is of paramount importance that you check your degree and/or masters degree is accredited by the BPS if you want to train as a psychologist. If you are planning advanced study after your masters degree, so that you can offer psychological services to the public as a practitioner psychologist, you must also check whether completing the course will allow you to register with the Health Professions Council (HPC). If you don’t want to be a Psychologist, but you are interested in cyberpsychology, then you could simply take a cyberpsychology course offered by a university.

When you start out at degree level you will probably be undertaking a straight psychology degree, or a degree in something like clinical psychology or applied psychology. Once you buckle down and start studying you are likely to have one of two experiences. Either you will have fixed essay titles and assignments with no freedom to write about cyberpsychology until your final year project, or you will be given a little freedom in your second and/or third years to write about something of your choosing as well as having your final year project to look forward to. Some essay titles that are heavily aligned to cyberpsychology may even come up for one or two of your modules, so don’t think that there will be limited opportunities to write about cyberpsychology in your first two years. Before you apply you could even e-mail a member of staff who has research interests in cyberpsychology-related areas to ask if they plan on basing any essays around cyberpsychology.

Your final year project will offer the greatest opportunities to write about cyberpsychology, provided that your proposed project is aligned to the research interests of your supervisor. This means that you should do some research and think about how your project is aligned to your supervisors interests. For example, my supervisor was interested in perfectionism and I was interested in video games, so my final year project looked at whether perfectionism was involved in video game use. I later went on to write about health and well-being in video game play for the final year project of my masters degree, again dovetailing with the research interests of my supervisor and the general course content for health psychology. Be aware that a percentage of the final mark for your project may lie in the research proposal, for me it was 20% proposal, 80% project. A good proposal will help guide your project, so make sure you work hard at both. You are looking at around 1500-2500 words for the proposal and around 8000-11000 words for the project

When planning your final year project you will find some areas of cyberpsychology are still developing, meaning that there is a lot of room for original contributions. Though be warned, you should conduct a thorough literature review before beginning significant pieces of work like the final year project, as you may well find there is a lack of research in certain areas that could make it very difficult to provide rationale for your study. On the other hand you may have been reading around various Cyberpsychology topics before you arrived at university or while you were studying, so you may be aware of well researched areas that you could look at from a different angle. Play to your strengths if possible and stick to what you know. If you get too ambitious you risk being overwhelmed by a large data set and the statistical analyses you have to run on your data. This could make the write-up incredibly difficult and time consuming (I made this mistake and paid for it later).

When writing you should also do your best to avoid abandoning the formal, scientific writing style you have spent so much time developing. One of the biggest mistakes I made while writing in my first year was to put in unsubstantiated personal opinions, which is a big no-no. You should avoid getting carried away while writing about cyberpsychology in your second and third year, by remembering that any arguments you make should be evidence-based. If you get carried away you could end up presenting statements or arguments without providing references. It is also easy to be lazy and fall into the trap of not bothering to find the reference for something you read about months ago. Doing either of these things will affect the quality of your arguments, so keep a level head, follow a logical progression in your writing, and hunt for those references. Not only will this help to improve your work which can result in higher marks, but you will be honing your research skills by learning the types of search terms you need to use to find what you are looking for. In cyberpsychology this is important, as there may only be few articles exploring the area you are writing about. Hopefully you will find the experience of writing about cyberpsychology a satisfying process, and one that gives you insights into the type of research you might be conducting in the future.

When you have completed your undergraduate degree you can then move on to your masters degree. If you want to offer psychological services to the public as a practioner psychologist with a specialty in cyberpsychology you must first complete a BPS accredited stage 1 masters degree in a broad area you are interest in. There are seven types of HPC-regulated practioner psychologist roles, each one requiring a corresponding masters degree (e.g. MSc health psychology to be a health psychologist, MSc clinical psychology to be a clinical psychologist). Completion of these stage 1 masters degrees allows you to gain access to the various stage 2 professional doctorates, as well as the BPS’ own stage 2 training course. Entry requirements for professional doctorates differ between universities, so be sure to check before you apply. Most, if not all, will require you to be doing a relevent job, voluntary work, or a combination of both. Some will require you to have achieved at least a merit at stage 1 in order to gain entry to the course. If you choose a professional doctorate you must ensure that the course is accredited by the BPS and will allow you to register with the HPC; you can check the accreditation status of courses on the HPC and BPS websites. Stage 1 courses are generally 1 year of full-time study or 2 years of part-time study. Stage 2 courses tend to take 2 years full-time or 4 years part-time.

The other option is to complete a PhD, which will require you to submit a research proposal to a university that employs staff with research interests in cyberpsychology. To ensure you apply to an appropriate university you will need to engage in some independent research before applying. Some universities have specialist cyberpsychology research groups, such as the University of Bolton and Nottingham Trent University, so look out for research groups while applying in order to better tailor your proposal to departmental strengths. For a PhD you will produce an original contribution to the field of cyberpsychology, which will require you to produce a substantial piece of research of around 80,000 words. This might seem daunting, but a PhD takes 3 years of full-time study to complete, so you should have adequate time to submit your work if you manage your time properly. That is as far as this guide goes, I can’t give further advice as I have not yet completed doctoral level study. Hopefully I will be able to add to this article in a couple of years and give better feedback about the doctoral level training.

I otherwise firmly believe that there will be many opportunities in cyberpsychology in the future. Although it is likely to take you an average of 7 years to become a fully-qualified psychologist you should not be discouraged, as the potential rewards are great. With dedication and hard work you could become one of a handful of experts worldwide with a speciality in your field, producing groundbreaking work over the course of your career. Stay positive, you will get there in the end if you work hard enough.

If you need to find any of the resources discussed here you can find them at http://www.cyberpsych.co.uk, one of the few portals for cyberpsychology-related resources. Bookmark the site and show your support for cyberpsychology by joining the Facebook community group and Twitter. Thanks for reading, and good luck in your training.

Matt Harvey

For those who study in childhood psychology, they understand the concept of a blank slate. In other words when a human child is born they are like a blank slate, and as their brains are forming, and the structure is starting to morph into shape, they begin to accumulate information from their five senses. In dealing so the once blank slate starts forming memories, and initiates a thinking process as it grows. Not long ago, I was discussing this with a philosopher named John Altmann. If you have a few moments I would like to further expand upon this dialogue.

John asked me a very interesting question during our discourse, one which made me stop and think for a second; “Have you ever wondered what would happen to a mind if it inherited a blank slate?”

Personally, yes indeed I have thought of this, and of course, this is a common thought, I believe anyone with a higher level thinking brain has had it at one time or another. It turns out that humans adapt pretty fast to things, and a mind at full strength, zapped of memory, would figure things out very quickly and exist. Someone’s reality is the summation of their experiences, thoughts, observations, education, feelings, etc.

We can trust ourselves based on trial and error, learning, and making motion within the confines of our environment. Anyone who accepts “spoon-fed” knowledge without inquiry, skepticism, or question is a fool, or has yet to experience their reality correctly. Now then, what if you never had any experiences or observations, or if all of your memory was wiped clean? Would you still have bias towards that which you see, or would you have to learn everything all over again?

Interestingly enough, scientists have experimented on mice, and they have been able to delete negative fearful memories, for instance being chased by a cat, to the point where the mouse having had that particular memory are raised, is no longer afraid of the cat. Now that’s interesting isn’t it? Indeed, I suppose that opens up all sorts of psychological and philosophical questions and conundrums about how we view the human mind, and our perception of the world which we’ve been thrust into.

Okay so, if we were to take an adult, and the race their memory, but not hurt their brain structure or any of the cells, then theoretically they would have an adult brain with a clean slate. That means they can learn quicker than a child because they have more capacity to learn, and a brain which is fully formed. How long do you suppose it would take them even if they were immersed in a totally different environment to come up with a new set of biases? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on the Future of Education. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net.

Movement is the use of the body to express the character’s story. It is the ability to project inner thoughts, emotions, needs, and wants using the body in motion. It can also reveal something about the character’s life and background. Movement is motivated from the viewpoint of the character, not the actor playing him. It’s justified in the mind of the character and the following are the most prevalent reasons.

Movement Motivations

To get what I want or need

To express my feelings

To relate to another character or object

To convey my thoughts

To establish a relationship

To do a particular task

To handle an object

To enter or exit a particular space

To move to a comfort zone

To face or avoid confrontation

To gain a better viewing position

Other Aspects Affecting Movement

Age: Child, adolescents, adult, middle age, elderly

Relative Status: Leader, subservient, equal

Profession: Laborer, secretary, manager, executive

Relationship: Lover, friend, associate, stranger, enemy

Upbringing: Pose, manners, posture, education

Self-image: Confident, uncertain, vulnerable

Mental & Physical Agility: Slow, quick, restricted

Impairments: Physical handicaps, illness, substance abuse

The environment: The physical setting, climate, culture

Clothes: Free flowing, inhibiting, stylish, conservative

Making choices about movement is not easy. Our dramatic training focuses heavily on the verbal part of acting. Dialogue is much easier to explain and communicate. The non-verbal, however, demands a conscientious study of life and human behavior, identifying, isolating, and clarifying its messages.

Movement is complex, as there are so many facets to consider. In addition, the study of movement has varying interpretations. However, if we break movement down into categories, then we could select those choices that best suit our character and the story situations. This would simplify the selection process and establish areas for life-study development (people watching). The choices given are examples and do not cover the entire range of selections.

TYPE MOVEMENT

Total Body:

Walking, running, crawling, sitting down, standing up, aerobics, etc.

Isolated: Partial body movements

Giving, throwing, handing

Receiving, catching, taking

Lifting, holding Pulling, dragging Pushing, sliding

Hitting, punching, tapping

How Performed:

Open: Flowing out, free, unrestricted

Closed: Almost withheld, restricted

Weight: Both physical and/or emotional, heavy to light

Intensity: Inner strength behind movement, powerful, weak

Dimensional Aspects: Wide & broad, narrow & small

Tempo: Fast, slow, consistent, changing

Directional Aspects: Straight, meandering, curved, changing

In the following example, the character’s main intention, desire, conflicts with her self-doubts. As a rule, it is difficult to express opposing statements at the same time using only body language. To convey them with clarity, one must first state one, then the other so the audience will perceive the conflict through contrasting body language. It is, however, possible to contrast simultaneously conflicting dialogue against movement. Usually movement will represent the predominate truth.

Alone in her living room, Sheila waits for her blind date to arrive. A timid and shy woman of 37, now divorced 5 months, she grows increasingly anxious with the thought of dating again. Their talk on the phone has raised both expectations and misgivings and now she faces the uncertainties. What movements would you use to show the situation and her feelings as waits for her date and then as the door bell rings?

The main consideration would be the conflict between desire for companionship and her fear of the unknown, her self-doubts. In addition, the obstacles of being timid and shy would increase her apprehension. The conflict would be realized through two sets of movements, one desire driven and the other, that of fear. As she waits, her emotions and intentions would shift back and forth.

I’d begin with her prepping for the date, putting her coat and purse on a chair, checking her watch, and moving to the window to see if her date was arriving. She then turns away from the window, as self-doubts surface. Meandering about, she stops in front of a mirror and looks at herself, seeing Sheila as he might see her. Uncertainty slowly turns into confidence and she stands taller.

Now gaining control, she decides to sit and wait. However, her eyes move about as new apprehensions enter. Then adjusting her dress, she recalls a pleasant moment. Tension returns as her hands intertwine and she notes the diamond wedding ring she still wears. Holding it closer, it brings back loving thoughts of a courtship long ago.

Then, suddenly, the doorbell rings. She gasps for air and remains in that middle ground between flight and fight. She overcomes the urge to run and slowly stands, taking a deep breath to restore her courage. She walks to the door as if being pushed. Once there, she hesitates touching the latch. Then forcing a smile, she opens the door.

Note how the above example uses a variety of movements as well as a range of intensities. This creates a more engaging character, one with depth.

With both movement and gestures, it’s best to do less and make those actions you use stand out and be clearly readable. In addition, they should be in line with the story and consistent with the character and his or her relationships. Remember that external physical actions express our inner experiences. It is our bodies, our movements and gestures, which best reveal to others our moods, desires, feelings, intentions, and ambitions. Movement should be such that even a deaf man could comprehend what’s happening.

People watching and studying award-winning performances are the best ways to assimilate the techniques outlined here. In your research, note the efficient use of movement and gestures, and how using only what complements the dialogue and the telling of the story results in believable performances. Duplicate your findings in short exercises so that they become an instinctive part of your repertoire.

Erik Sean McGiven has taught acting workshops as well as done private coaching and over the years developed a systematic approach to acting as presented in his book “The Rudimentary Elements of the Dramatic Performance.” Articles relating to this approach are posted online and for a complete list go to http://www.erikseanmcgiven.com/writings/acting/. Erik works in the entertainment industry in a variety of positions that include Producer, Writer, Director, Production Designer, Art Director, Script Supervisor, and Reader.

Have you ever wondered who is in prison? Many of us read the newspaper, and many read the online papers. We watch television and listen to the radio. Some of us enjoy watching detective, and who done it shows. Some of us have suffered at the hands of a convicted person. Does the “system” really work? I know that we all have our opinions about that. Do you know someone in prison, or someone working for or in a prison? What kinds of people end up in prison and what kind of person does it take to work in a prison?

Having worked in a state maximum-security prison for a number of years, I have encountered all kinds of various inmates as well as varied types of officers and administration. In the state where I was employed, there are no actual city jails, and very few, if any, holding tanks or sleep it off areas.

This leaves a wide range of people both passing through and those staying for a while all in the same area. Those waiting for hearing and those convicted are in different housing units. However, there can be varied suspects for varied alleged crimes all held in the same area until convicted. That would mean someone picked up on drunk driving charges would or could be kept in the same cell with a rapist or molester. Someone being held for robbery could be in the same cell with someone being held for late or unpaid child support. Failure to appear in court for traffic fines could also be held in the same cell with a drug dealer.

There are exceptions for murder, or high-profile crimes, or people. If someone was picked up on drug charges but does not produce identification, this person could be wanted in another state for robbery or murder and no one would know that. Placing this person with someone in for a first offence could be hazardous to many people for many reasons.

This is a good reason for the countrywide new identification cards. I do believe departmental sharing of information, statewide and countrywide about criminals, is a very good idea. This is a better way to protect those that are innocent and those on their first stint in a prison.

How many times has someone said, “The system doesn’t work”? Rehabilitation is only for those that want to be rehabilitated. For those that love to live fast and die young, that is not an option. Having an open ear in many different prison housing units, I have heard many, “old heads”, telling the newer or younger convicts to be a model prisoner and to not make waves or stand out. They are told to do what is right and what is expected. When a review or change of security level is at hand, they will be successful in making their stay shorter. For those convicted, short timers, there are so many things to look out for. There is a need to stay away from certain prisoner types. If some kind of caution is not taken, then a six-month stay could end up being six years.

Dealing with the criminal mind does not take place in a prison setting. Once someone has been incarcerated, there are now two different minds to deal with. Survival has now become very prevalent for most inmates. Then there are those inmates no longer having a reason to live. Remember, I am talking about those that have just become incarcerated.

For those who have accepted their fate and have settled in for a long or permanent stay, they are another kind of person. This person’s mind can be on the fence or really needed that type of lifestyle filled with discipline and structure.

Lets take a moment and look at the person that will be a model prisoner and rehabilitate. There are two types of inmate who will do everything right, and will follow through with everything asked of them. Only one will be successful in continuing with rehabilitation after release. The old saying that history repeats itself should be considered when offering rehabilitation for model prisoners. Checking the history of convictions should be considered. There is a greater percentage of those repeat offenders who return to prison, than those that go on to lead productive lives, and offer something back to society.

So, does the “system” really work? I don’t want to sway anyone one-way or the other. All we ever see is what we are told. How often does someone actually get to be a part of a study or find out for his or her self? I’m sure not very many of us, law-abiding citizens, really want to experience the system for ourselves.

Don’t have a poor opinion about the prison or the people working there. They have the same office politics every business has. They also have a few more things on their plate that offers for a higher stress level of a work place. Worrying about the boss or fellow workers is standard in every work place. But now, their lives are at risk as well as their reputations both at work, and in the public eye.

Like every work place, there are many different standards we are all asked to uphold. There are the workers and there is the administration. But that will be an article that stands on its own.

Pernell Rodocker had worked for many years as an officer in a maximum-security setting. This article has been born of on hand experience and should be considered informational as well as one opinion for such a setting. Everyone has an opinion on just about everything, but experience is wisdom.

The unconscious mind speaks with images that have a specific meaning, which many times is totally different from the meaning that the same images have in your daily life. For example, your mother is a person who loves you and protects you in real life. However, in your dreams she represents the primitive nature of the human being, which is satanic, violent, immoral, and cruel like an animal.

Therefore, when you translate your dreams you have to remember that the image of your mother has nothing to do with your real mother. Your mother is an important dream symbol. No matter how good-hearted she may be in your daily life, when she appears in your dreams she represents your evil anti-conscience.

If your mother frequently appears in your dreams, this means that you are mentally ill. Your primitive conscience controls your human conscience. You need psychotherapy. Otherwise, your anti-conscience will manage to completely destroy your conscience.

Write down your dreams in a dream journal and translate their meaning according to the scientific method of dream interpretation. I can translate your dreams for you in the beginning, since you have an urgent problem.

The unconscious mind will help you get rid of your anti-conscience. You’ll learn how to identify the absurd thoughts it sends to your conscience, and never follow these thoughts. Therefore, you will oblige your wild conscience to stop sending you absurd thoughts thanks to your resistance.

When your mind will become clear, you will be able to evolve without being bothered by the craziness imposed by your anti-conscience, which is your primitive, evil, and absurd conscience that didn’t evolve like your human side.

The unconscious mind will show you in your dreams what the anti-conscience is doing, and how you can make it stop controlling your mind and your behavior. You will be able to easily perceive its influence, until you’ll completely eliminate it through consciousness.

This means that this unknown content will become known. Then, your anti-conscience will be transformed into a positive content that will have human characteristics and help you in your life. It will stop being in a primitive form, and cause you many problems.

In case you saw your mother only once in a dream, this means that your anti-conscience is influencing your behavior in a certain way. It is not constantly sending you absurd thoughts yet. It doesn’t’ control your behavior, but it is influencing your attitude in certain situations.

The influence of your primitive conscience is the influence of your animal personality in your mind and behavior. This means that your reactions become violent, or you accept immorality without criticizing your actions. The anti-conscience generates numerous abnormalities in your mind and behavior because it is constantly trying to destroy your human conscience and steal the place of your ego.

For example, if you’ll have a dream about eating a meal with your mother, this dream has a negative meaning. The food in dreams is psychical energy that feeds your psyche, and not your body. If you are eating something with your mother in a dream, this means that you agree with your anti-conscience, and you are feeding your absurdity.

If you’ll have a dream about being at your mother’s house while she is not there, this dream is a lesson. The unconscious mind is showing you how your anti-conscience influences your behavior, even though you are not controlled by your anti-conscience because you are not with your mother in the dream.

The appearance of your mother in a dream must always alarm you. You must be afraid of your anti-conscience and fight its craziness, instead of listening to its absurd thoughts.

Follow dream therapy with seriousness, and the unconscious mind will show you what to do. You have clear guidance and real support from the unconscious mind when you translate the meaning of your dreams with the right method; the scientific method of dream interpretation discovered by Carl Jung and simplified by me, who continued his research, discovering the anti-conscience that he couldn’t see with the knowledge he had.

This is why I could simplify his complicated method. I clearly understood that the unconscious mind sends us secret messages in dreams in order to protect our mental stability from the anti-conscience’s attacks. This is the main reason why we dream. If we didn’t have a wild conscience constantly bothering our evolution and trying to destroy our conscience, we wouldn’t need the unconscious help.

Now that we know the main purpose of the unconscious mind, dream translation became a simple matter. Everyone can learn how to accurately translate the meaning of dreams, independently of their educational level.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness. Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!)