(Descartes)
- People don't always see/perceive the same thing. (color blindness, vision distortion, etc.)
If you are learning that green, purple, and yellow are red, white, and blue, you may be
experiencing different things than other people are.
* Condition of the mind can effect perception. To demonstrate this you can try staring into
a spiral for about 20 seconds. If you then look at your hand, it will look like there are
waves being created on the surface of your hand.
a thing = the sum of its attributes.
attributes = perceptible qualities. (sound, smell, touch, etc.)
- You may think that something is soft, but what is "soft" to you may not be soft to someone
else.
* Phantom Ant- When you feel an "ant" crawling on your skin, but you look, and nothing is
there.
* Phantom Limb- Many times when someone has an arm amputated, they will have the sensation of
their fingers moving, or of someone pinching their "arm" but they really have nothing there.
* World Spinning- If you spin around for awhile and then suddenly stop, it will appear as if
the world is still spinning.
- Your mind determines reality.
Locke:
Secondary Qualities � � � � � �<---------> � � � � � Primary Qualities
(the ones your mind creates) � � � � �� � � � (the ones that exist for everyone)
**** There is a problem with this, however, (according to Descartes) because there isn't
really anything that can be a PRIMARY quality. There isn't any quality that you can't
doubt.
* Once you leave the room, (and your perception leaves) the object ceases to exist.
* Without your mind, there is no reality.
* When the apple is hanging on the tree, it has no taste. It only has taste when you put it
into your mouth.
- There is no such thing as right and wrong. However, through society- we decide a right and
wrong. (We decide by the majority vote.)
- There are no proven facts. Everything is your perception. Your perception determines
reality, and therefore, you decide what is fact and fiction.
Optical Illusions
* Once you start to perceive something in an optical illusion, you cannot change the way that
you see the illusion.
Parapsychology
Types of parapsychology:
* Parapsychology- The study of psychology which deals with speculative psychological concepts.
* Telekinesis- The power to move objects at a distance using your mind.
* Telepathy- The power to communicate at a distance without normal perception.
* Synchronicity- The power (Especially between twins) to sense the feelings of another person.
* Clairvoyance- The power to predict the future. (Psychic abilities)
* Stigmata- A chance in your physical appearance reflecting Jesus' wounds. (Medjugore)
* Possession/Exorcism- Demonism.
* Levitation- Bodily resistance to gravity.
* Poltergeist- A ghost or spirit. (Someone caught between this world, and the after world)
* Medium- A person who can communicate with the dead. (Seance)
* Channeling- A person who can have a spirit "use" their body to communicate through.
* Acupuncture- The act of applying needles to parts of the body, causing someone to heal.
* Faith Healing- Healing someone either through touch or through prayer.
* Lunatism- The idea that a full moon causes people to act strangely.
* Deja vu- "Just saw." The thought that you have been doing something before.
* Astral Travel (OBE)- The power to leave your body and travel to other places.
* Adrenaline Surge- Having a surge of energy that can make you do things that would not be
physically possible under normal circumstances.
* Voodoo- The practice of using dolls to cause physical harm to people.
David Hume
(On Perception)
* David Hume = Scottish philosopher who was fascinated with the mind. He wrote the book "An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding."
- We get the ideas in our mind from our perception.
- He asked what the difference between seeing something and picturing something.
- All concepts (ideas) come from perception.
* Complex idea= A mixture of perceptions. (ie- purple banana)
- You have seen a banana, and you have seen purple... you combine those ideas.
5 ---> The number five is a nothing more than a group of five perceptions. Without those
five perceptions, "5" does not exist. (The idea of five is not perceivable if you do not
think of five objects.) This concept also applies with words like "bigger" or "smaller."
- Perception is EVERYTHING!
* Parasites of Perception: Always has DOES NOT equal always will.
*~*~*Cause and Effect*~*~*
One perception, always followed by a constant related perception.
Example:
Everyday in the past the sun has risen, so we assume that it will always rise.
- Cause and Effect is nothing more than constant conjunction, in reality, there is a 50% chance
that the sun will rise, and a 50% chance that it will not rise.
*~*~*Predicting the Future*~*~*
Assume that for the next two days, the sun rises. From that experience, we assume that the
sun will rise everyday in the future. (Until we are proven wrong.)
some x = y
we assume all x = y
- Nothing in the future is CERTAIN.
- Your mind only convinces you that these things will happen.
- You can manipulate the mind to think that there is a cause and effect relationship between
something. (ie- magic)
* Prejudice- If you meet ten people in a row named Mike, and they are all mean, and you meet
another man named Mike, chances are, you will assume
* When one billiard ball comes toward another, and hits it, how do we know that the second ball
is really moving because the first one pushed it? How do we know it is not moving because it
chooses to move?
* Things can be effected be something totally different... we can never really know.
- According to Hume, there is no such thing as science, because none of the scientific laws are
definitely true.
Subliminal & Subconscious Perception
* Phobias- Phobias are created when you experience something, and it is repeatedly a bad
experience.
*~*Subliminal & Subconscious Perception:*~*
* Subliminal- The messages being sent to your brain that you do not focus on.
* Subconscious- The habits and patterns that our brain expects us to know.
Subliminal:
- Years ago, movie theaters would flash pictures of popcorn and soda during the movies. The
pictures would be moving so fast, that we would not actually see them, but they would still
be processed in our subconscious, causing us to become hungry.
* Pheremones= Messages that are transmitted somehow (we're not sure exactly how they are
transmitted) between members of the opposite sex, causing an attraction between the sexes.
* Non-verbal Communication= Things that are sensed, but not actually said.
* Examples:
- Girl running her fingers through her hair. (Pheremones)
- Blushing
- Crossing your arms over your chest.
- Clothing (or lack thereof)
- Etc.
- Communication is actually less than 50% verbal. We communicate more through non-verbal
actions.
Subconscious:
- If someone hands you a blank keyboard, and asks you to point out where the letter "c" is,
chances are, you will have a great amount of difficulty doing it, however, once you sit down
to type something, you can type without looking at any of the keys.
- Before you learn to drive, you will know how to get almost anywhere while riding in the car,
but once you are actually driving, you suddenly forget where everything is, and you have to
look at a map to know how to go somewhere where you have been 100 times before.
Seance / Medium
* Seance= A french word meaning "calling."
* Medium= A person who goes into the spirit realm to contact the departed.
- Incense is used to cleanse the area before the spirit is brought in.
- Candles on points of direction are used to keep the spirit in the set area.
Requirements for a seance:
*** More than three people
*** Only one person to find the spirit
*** Number of participators should be divisible by 3
*** Number of candles should be divisible by 3
*** More candles are required for contacting someone who has recently died
*** Less candles are required for contacting someone who died long ago
*** You will need 3 candles in the center of the circle
*** 3 different pieces of different types of wood
*** A circle of rocks
*** All participators need to remain completely focused
Voodoo
* Voodoo- Spirit or God.
- The Voodoo religion involves the belief that there are many gods, and that there are
hundreds of minor spirits.
- A person is made up of two different parts:
* Big guardian angel
* Little guardian angel- leaves the body during sleep and ritual (it can be captured
by evil when it's outside the body.)
- The soul is made up of five components:
* mortal flesh
* spirit of the flesh
* star of destiny
* gros bon ange (big guardian angel)
* ti bon ange (little guardian angel)
- The purpose of ritual is to make contact with the spirit and to gain their favor through
sacrifice.
* Houngans (male priests) and mambos (female priests) usually only practice white magic to
bring good fortune and healing.
* Bokors perform black magic. (Every priest knows black magic.)
* Zombie- Belief that a person can be brought to life after death with no will.
* Reality- A zombie is a person who has never died, but who is under the control of a
Bokor and drugs.
* Voodoo dolls- These are non-existent to true vudons. They are dolls with hair and nail
clippings that come from the person who you want to hurt. There is no explanation for
how they actually work. (psychosomatic?)
* Voodoo is somewhat similar to the Christian beliefs.
Deja Vu
Despite many theoretical and research attempts, no one really knows why Deja Vu occurs. This
may be because of problems concerning variations in definitions and difficulties involved in
carrying out experimental research on such a subjective phenomenon. Nevertheless, many
different explanations and models have evolved.
Below are five different models...
*** Dreams and reincarnation
*** Psycho-dynamic explanations
*** Holographic model
*** Distortion of the sense of time
*** Hemispheric transfer
Dreams and reincarnation:
"Sentiment of pre-existence" (Experiences from a previous life)
Psycho-dynamic explanations:
Freud. "remembrance of some unconscious wish or fantasy from the past."
***Deja Vu serves as a defense mechanism.
"There is nothing to worry about, you went through all this before and came out well.
The same will happen this time."
Holographic Model:
Within the holographic model of the Deja Vu experience, memories are stored in the brain as
holograms. A Deja Vu experience will occur if a piece of one hologram memory is identical
to another piece of hologram memory stored at some time in the past.
Distortion of the sense of time:
Attention is reduced, and as a consequence, we perceive the situation without it yet
entering our consciousness. During this period of reduced attention, time seems
longer than usual. When attention returns to the normal level, the situation that we
unconsciously perceived earlier seems like a memory from the past. Hence, the individual
feels as if they have experienced the present situation before
Hemispheric Transfer:
The experience may be due to a delay in transfer of information from the dominant to the non-
dominant hemisphere. Under normal functioning, the information transfer delay of a few
milliseconds from the dominant to non-dominant hemisphere is not detected. However, if the
delay of information transfer becomes greater, for example one hundred milliseconds for
approximately one minute, the non-dominant hemisphere would then receive the same information
twice. It would receive that information once directly, and then again when the information is
transferred from the non-dominant hemisphere. In this situation, the individual would perceive
the present events as having happened before, and at the same time not to be able to locate a
memory trace of the experience.
Certain types of people experience Deja Vu more often than others, including:
* Young people
* Schizophrenics
* People with mood and personality disorders
* People with anxiety disorders
* People with dementia
* People suffering from depression
* People suffering from emotional trauma
* People suffering from exhaustion
* People using alcohol or drugs
Faith Healing
- Faith in God
- Faith in human healing through God
* Prayer really does work.
In a study, the took 990 heart patients, and a select 520 of them were prayed for. The ones
that were being prayed for were not aware that they were being prayed for. Those patients that
were prayed for recovered better than the ones that were not prayed for.
* Faith Healers- Heal by laying their hands on someone. God is coming through them and healing
the people. However, the symptoms that these people usually possess are totally psycho-
somatic. (In their head) So in the adrenaline rush of the moment, people that usually are
wheelchair-bound can walk, etc. They will then relapse a little while later. It is a fake
practice.
Here is how these scam artists do this:
* People will come into the building
* The 'scammers' will find out what problems the people have
* They will give the messages to someone on a computer
* The person on the computer will send the info to the preacher through a microphone
* The people are "healed," and if the process doesn't work, they are told that they don't
have enough faith.
- This is only done for money, it's not real.
Poltergeists
* Definition= A noisy, unusual ghost held to be responsible for unexplained noises.
* The power of suggestion may make you think you see/hear/do things that make you think a
certain house is haunted.
Top 9 Poltergeists in England
1.) Berkeley Square House (A haunted house)
2.) Chingle House (Another haunted house)
3.) Theatre Royal (70 people saw a ghost there)
4.) Castle at Fairfield (Possessed by a devil-ghost)
5.) Darrel Style Manner (The house in the woods where Darrel Style killed a baby)
6.) Puckley (One of the most active areas for ghosts)
7.) 17th Century house (Voices and a figure of a woman have been heard/seen here)
8.) St. Donald's House
9.) York (A very haunted town)
Edgar Cayce
* Edgar Cayce was born in 1877 to a poor family in Kentucky.
* At the age of 24, Cayce got sick, and developed a raspy voice that would not go away.
- Eventually, he saw a hypnotist who showed him how to put himself into a trance,
and
Cayce could then describe what was happening, and fix it. When Cayce came to, he
was
fine.
* Cayce had never learned anything about medicine, but yet, when he was hypnotized, he
could
make diagnoses that were almost always correct.
* Cayce only needed to know the name of the person and where they were, and he could
go into a
trance at will. He would then describe what was wrong with them as his secretary wrote
everything down.
* Cayce said that all of his information came from the super-conscience. The
super-conscience
is all of the unconscious minds in the world- combined. Supposedly, anyone can perform
this
if they take the right approach.
The Meaning of Life:
The solar system is like a university, and each planet is a different section. The soul
travels from planet to planet and learns new things.
Mercury-->Mind
Mars----->Love
Earth---->Testing Ground
Venus---->Anger
Jupiter-->Strength
Saturn--->Woes & Troubles
Uranus--->Psyche
Neptune-->Mysticism
Pluto---->Subconscious
Every time that you visit another planet, you die and are reborn. Finally, when you have
visited every planet and accomplished your task on earth, you become one with God and
go to
the place where you reside after you die.
- Your dreams are your access to your soul/subconscious. Other spirits or your
subconscious are
trying to tell you things through your dreams.
* Basically, Cayce's thoughts were a combination of Christianity and astrology.
Stigmata
* Stigmata- When a person experiences the wounds that Jesus had while dying on the
cross.
These wounds would include:
- Marks on their back (Where Jesus was whipped)
- Marks on their side (Where a spear was inserted in Jesus' side)
- Marks on their hands and feet (Where the nails were placed to nail Jesus to the cross)
- Marks around their head (Where the crown of thorns was placed)
* Stigmata generally strikes women more than men, and it is usually found among
orthodox Catholics.
- Stigmata is caused by dilation of the skin. The wounds are incurable by doctors. It is
said
that the wounds produce a fragrant smell of roses. The "blood" emitted from the
wounds is not
actually blood. Also, the wounds generally coincide with the markings on the person's
favorite
crucifix.
* The first documented case of stigmata occurred in England in 1222.
* One famous case of stigmata involved St. Francis in the 13th Century. Her skin formed
what
appeared to be nails on the hands and feet, and "blood" was present.
Possible causes for stigmata:
- Act of God (It is mentioned in Paul 6:16)
- Act of deception caused by the devil
- Caused by people to get attention (ie- self-inflicted)
* The scars from the wounds stay present on a person who has experienced stigmata, but
they
do not always bleed.
Biofeedback
* Biofeedback- When a patient learns to monitor their body and treat themselves. (ie-
cooling
down a fever, slowing their heart rate, relieving tension, etc.)
* This process makes the patient feel calm and comfortable.
- Biofeedback was developed in the 1940's.
* Parapsychology- The study of a mind's ability to control your body.
Telekenisis
* Telekenisis- The ability to move objects using the power of your mind.
- People use the magnetic fields around them to move things.
* Anyone can move anything, they just have to touch and feel the object to get a sense for
its
magnetic fields.
* You have to believe in telekenisis for it to work successfully.
* What you're thinking is more important than what you do.
* Meditation helps you with telekenisis.
- Even though you can't see/explain telekenisis, it's still reality. (ie- even though you
can't see gravity, it still exists.)
HINTS:
* Don't let your emotions interfere
* Stress can help you sometimes
* You cannot fear the telekenisis
* Do not obsess about it
* Concentrate hard
* Don't be self-conscious
* The powers are affected by different situations
Lunatism
What the moon is symbolic of:
* Ghosts
* Romanticism
* Time for werewolves
* Witches
Nature
- Tide * ocean * air (temperature change, etc.)
- Animals (Have feelings of nervousness, want to be awake, etc.)
- Avalanches (gravitation is lower, and avalanchas are more likely to occur.)
Humans
* Some feel feelings of love, and some feel feelings of hate.
* Saddness / Happiness
* Irritation / Feelings of content
* Feeling of being rushed / Feeling of having extra time
Why?
- Our body is 80% water ---> the tide affects us
- The moon affects taller people more than shorter people
- It's not dark enough to sleep outside, so it makes you feel odd and irritated.
- Animals feel the need to hunt.
Statistics
* The crime rate during a full moon, which is normally thought to be very high, is actually
not
much different than the statistics during a non-full moon.
Possession & Exorcism
- Satan acts through the victim without the victim's consent. (Satan uses your feelings
against
you)
- You then need to go through an exorcism to rid your body of Satan.
* A priest will use holy water, prayers, holy relics, and incense to rid someone of Satan.
* They can also perform exorcisms on bulidings and places.
* People who are possessed by Satan can often speak languages that they never heard or
learned
before. They know things that are hidden or distant, they can predict events in the
future,
they hate holy things, and they exhibit physical strength far above and beyone the normal
realm for their age and/or physical condition.
* Possessions are not limited by age or gender, and are generally more common in people
with
psychological disorders. (Such as: brain disorders, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and
tourettes.)
Clarivoyance
* Clarivoyance- A form of ESP where you can percieve things beyond the normal range of
sight or time.
- 10% of all people tested in a study showed some psychic ability.
- In the same study, 50% of people were very close to showing a psychic ability, but they
were
not exactly correct.
Telepathy
* Telepathy- The ability of one mind to impress/be impressed upon by another mind
through the
recognized channels of sense. (ie- a transfer of ideas from mind-to-mind)
* Intentional Communication- When you're attempting to send ideas to another's person's
mind.
* Spontaneous Communication- When the message just comes to you.
- Twins are most likely to experience telepathy.
Possible Causes of Telepathy:
* Good/Evil spirits
* You already know what the other person will say because it's stored in your
subconscious.
* Through brain-to-brain energy transfer
- Some people claim to be "Animal Communicators" who can talk with your pets through
telepathy.
Adrenaline Surge
* Adrenaline- an internal hormone produced by the body.
* Adrenaline affects the heart rate, causes vascular constriction, increases strength,
and basically affects the nervous system.
- Adrenaline is released into the blood stream, the muscles tighten, and it makes the person
feel like they have "super strength."
- Some people either produce too much or too little adrenaline, and this can be a health
risk.
- Almost all athletic records are broken in competition, and not in practice, because the
adrenaline
rush is greater in the actual competition.
- Fear induces the surge.
Levitation
* Levitation- The ability to float.
* David Roth- He ate food high in certain kinds of iron, and then would place a large magnet
above his head, causing him to "float."
* Yogic Floating- Transidental meditation... where people actually hover off of the
ground.
- 100,000+ people can actually perform levitations.
Famous levitating people:
* Kab'ia
* St. Theresa of Avalon
* St. Joseph of Copertina
What happens during levitation>
- Brain waves are at their highest
- Causes smoother life and easier thinking
- Deeper sense of sleep is accomplished
- Greater alertness is accomplished
- Greater sense of happiness is accomplished
- Increased intelligence / creativity levels
- Clarity of mind
- Increased memory span
* Levitation creates a short-term diamagnetic-levitation-vortex. (When you push on a person's
head for 9 seconds, and then lift up under their legs and shoulders. It's like creating
a human trampoline.)
OBE
* OBE- When your soul gets separated from your physical self.
Physical World (Beta level)
|
|
V
Dreaming (Alpha level)
|
|
V
Lucid Dreaming (Theda level)
(This is the state where you can control your dreams and you know that you're dreaming)
|
|
V
OBEs
- OBEs can be caused by a NDE, they can be accidental, or they can be forced.
- During an OBE, you view the world from a different perspective. There is no sense of taste
or smell. You can also see your physical self during an OBE.
* Astral Chord- The invisible cord that connects your physical body with your mind. This
is broken at your time of death.
Relaxation (Clear your mind and body of thought)
|
|
V
Meditation / Concentration
|
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V
Trance State
|
|
V
Projection
* It is likely that you will experience a fear of projection the first time that it occurs.
When you try to get out, but can't, you go into a form of shock.
How to accomplish Projection:
Relax your body
|
|
V
Flex your toes and then release, continue with every muscle in your body...
|
|
V
Concentrate on your breathing
|
|
V
Tell yourself where you want your soul projected to
* Projection usually takes a few months to accomplish... be patient.
* It has the same physical results as you would find with meditation or levitation.
Educational Psychology
Socratic (Modern) View:
(Socrates, Dewey)
1.) Internal Motivations (You do it because you want to)
* Teach without using grades because the people who really want to learn will learn.
2.) Intelligence is static (You are born with all the information that you know)
3.) The teacher is a facilitator (who only helps you unleash all the answers)
4.) Process
Classical View:
(Skinner)
1.) External Motivations (You are motivated by punishments and rewards)
2.) Intelligence is progressive (You're constantly learning)
3.) The teacher is a fountain of knowledge
4.) Facts
"The wisest man is the man that realizes he's an idiot."
