Research shows that the mere act of folding your arms increases perseverance and a lot of brain activity. As observed, university students who are assigned to sit with their arms crossed have spent more time on a pretty hard anagram or word scramble and even came up with more correct solutions than those who are assigned to sit and place their hands on their thighs.

This study is the first to show that arm crossing has a very significant effect on the way people think without them being aware of it. The normal thought is that a psychological state leads to a body movement. However, this study suggests that it can be done both ways. A body movement can lead to a psychological state. In this case, it’s perseverance.

For those who do not know the story of the good samaritan, it is this person who is helped an injured man in need while others just passed by and ignored the poor man. There were a couple of psychologists who wanted to test if religion has a certain effect on the helpful behavior of people. These psychologists are John Darley and C. Daniel Batson.

The subjects were a group of seminarians. The first half were given the story of the good samaritan and was asked to perform a sermon about it in a different building. The other half were told to give a short talk about job opportunities in a seminary.

The subjects were then given different times that they had to deliver the sermon so that some of them will be in a hurry and the others will not. On the way to the building, an injured man will be slumped.

Those who studied the story did not stop any more often than those who prepared for a speech on job opportunities. The biggest factor was the time frame given to the students.

What does it say? We are hypocrites. Who would contest to the fact that it is much easier to speak in a room full of people than helping a stranger and actually touching a smelly and bleeding old man.

Most massage therapists and professionals use the scent of lavender because people find the smell really soothing and relaxing. For generations, lavender has been used by herbalists to ease aches and pains. Now, do you want to make your own tincture? It is actually very easy.

Fill in a glass jar with fresh lavender flowers and then fill it up with Vodka. Seal the lid and place it under the sun for three days. After three days, strain the liquid in the jar and place it in a different bottle. Eureka! Now you have your own soothing tincture to rub into aches and pains.

Want to earn from it? Easy! Put it in small bottles, place some ribbons and there you go!

Drugs have been a major problem among students. Just recently, DEA busted the members of local gang and others in a raid dubbed as “Operation Sudden Fall”. hey caught members of the Theta Chi and Phi Kappa Psi fraternities. The believe that the members had massive connections and ties to Mexican drug cartels.

They confiscated 2 kilograms of cocaine, around 350 ecstacy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamines, prescription drugs, a couple of guns and around $60,000 cash.

Drugs are selling like hot cakes in schools and parties. It is sad that most of the teens get addicted to such. However, DEA and local authorities are working and doing everything that they can in order to succeed in the nation’s fight against drug abuse.

There are a lot of studies that tingle the minds of people who love mysteries. There are a lot of things that are pretty much unexplainable by just plain and simple science. There are a lot of studies now that make these phenomenon more simpler and imaginable and one of these is called Parapsychology.

Parapsychology has such a huge array of topics. Basically, they focus on topics that include precognition or perception of information about future places or events before they even occur, telepathy or the transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five senses, Clairvoyance or obtaining information about places, events or people at remote locations by means unknown to current science, Reincarnation or the rebirth of the soul and hauntings or the visitations of ghosts and other entities.

Who have read the book of Paolo Coelho? I am a huge fan. Funny as it may seem, my friend’s psychiatrist recommended this book to him after one of their sessions. He was there because basically, after losing the relationship that he loved the most, his whole world collapsed and there he was, sitting alone with so many thoughts in his mind but he has no power to accomplish anything. He was a total bum.

Why did the psychiatrist recommend this book? Because it is a very inspirational novel that is well written and everyone can make a deep connection with the characters of the story. It all began with a boy who had a dream or a personal legend. He was doubtful at first but he listened to the voice of his inner heart and before he knew it, he became an alchemist himself. The story was touching, compelling and moving. I guess this was the novel that made Paolo Coelho the ultimate magician who made his books disappear from stalls right after the release.

I suggest that you read this novel too. It is moving and may end up being one of the best therapy methods you have evern encountered.

Written by: Eric Bryant of Gnosis Arts

The Self is, to use a Jungian concept, an archetype hidden within the collective unconscious. It is the original concept, ideal form, or the God-created prototype of the unified personality.

As more and more of the personal unconscious is known to the conscious mind (Freud’s ego) this unconscious is united with, integrated with, or absorbed into the conscious mind. The Self is produced as a result of this absorption or unification.

Thus, the Self is the unity of the unconscious and conscious soul of a person. This unity is realized as the unconscious is made aware; the unconscious is thereby integrated (or harmonized) with the conscious mind. This is what both Freud and Jung termed the process of individuation.

Individuation means becoming a Self. It is what Nietzsche meant by his injunction to “become who you are.” To use Freudian lingo, individuation is the process of integrating “the it” (id) with “the I” (ego).

The archetype of the Self is symbolized by a circle, square, or mandala. The mandala is a religious symbol from Hindu spirituality. It is a geometric pattern which represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, “a microcosm of the universe from a human perspective.” Another example of a mandala is the yin-yan symbol of Taoism. The yin-yan represents an integrated soul as well as an integrated cosmos. In fact, the term Self appears frequently in the I Ching–an essential taoist text–to describe this authentic, integrated, or unified soul.

All this can also be expressed in ancient Gnostic terms. The Self emerges as more of the personal unconscious becomes known. That is, as the “light” shines upon the dark unconscious, it is absorbed into the conscious; the Self is the by-product of this light shining in darkness.

But according to the gnostics, this light is divine in nature. It could be viewed as the spirit of man which serves as the Lord’s lamp to illumine his inner being (see Proverbs 20:27). As the spirit–the Lord’s lamp, the divine light, or the imago Dei within–shines within the darkness of the personal unconscious, this unconscious is integrated with the conscious part of the soul; the Self supervenes.

For gnostics, knowledge of this Self is synonymous with knowledge of God. In fact, for some gnostics, God is this very supervenient Self (cf. Jung’s identification of the “Self” with the “God-image” within). And since knowledge of Self is contingent upon knowledge of the unconscious (or small self), knowledge of the small self is the path towards knowledge of the God within.

This, for gnostics, is the process of salvation, which for them meant the liberation of the conscious soul from the overpowering, self-destructive forces of the unconscious. Interestingly, the word “salvation” in Greek (sozo) connotes both the idea of “being delivered from evil” and “being made whole.” Thus salvation for the gnostics could be understood as “finding one’s Self through knowing one’s self.”

Back in highschool, there was this girl with whom I have fallen in love with. Even though I was young that time, there was this cosmic attraction that pulled us together. She was 2 years older than me but the attraction was strong enough that in a couple of months, we ended up dating. The feeling was deep and has a natural affinity. It involved a strong connection in friendship, love, intimacy, sexuality and even spirituality. It was a perfect connection.

Is this what they called soulmate? I guess it was. Back in the old days, there was a theory presented by Aristophanes in Plato’s Symposium. It said that the humans originally have four arms, four legs and a single head with 2 faces. Because of the extreme power, Zeus split them all in half and condemned them to spend their lives searching for the other half that will complete them. Some followers of the New Age religion believed that the souls are made or fated for another and they play important roles in each other’s lives. Another theory states that over countless reincarnations, each soul seeks the other half. When they find each other after the karma that they incurred, they will fuse back together and return to God.

Soulmates have such wonderful backgrounds and theories. The stories were fascinating and very romantic. By the way, this girl that I was talking about back in highschool, well, she is now my wife. Soulmates? Possibly.

The phenomena of Deja Vu has tickled the sensation of researchers worldwide. In the scientific sense, deja vu is most likely NOT an act of precognition or prophecy but it is simply an anomaly of memory wherein an experience is being recalled or revisited. In most cases, researchers are not totally sure if this event already happened in the past. Those things remain uncertain. This is one of the theories that are being studied by researchers - memory.

Another theory that is being focused on is vision. As the theory states, one eye may possibly record what is seen fractionally by the other in a faster manner which therefore creates a strong recollection sensation on the same scene that is viewed a couple of milliseconds later by the opposite eye. If other sensory is involved, then it negates this vision theory.

The early researchers tried to place a link between deja vu and other neurotic disorders but they failed to establish this link. The closest that they came into was the association of deja vu with temporal lobe epilepsy. They pertain to this as a hypnagogic jerk that occurs prior to falling asleep.

Studies are still being pursued to explain this phenomenon and while it is still being discovered, we might as well stick to the fact that what we have seen may happen in a couple of hours.

Just recently, I stumbled upon a pretty odd article over the Internet. The news originated in Ecuador wherein people are in pursuit of the sexual happiness for women and it could be enshrined soon in their very own constitution.

The proposal came from one of the country’s party which literally created a stir in the conservative nation. Maria Soledad Vela submitted this proposal because women are being seen traditionally as sexual objects or just for their reproductive role.

Vela argued that the right to a woman’s sexual enjoyment is ensuring that women can make a free and responsible decision about their sex lives. Vela’s fellow committee members proposed separate provisions for women’s rights.

Soon, we may be able to see the right to sexual enjoyment in the constitution of Ecuador.