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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Belief Systems And Health Can one's mind-set affect one's immunity to disease? Lenard explores (in popular style) the roles of mental attitude, visualization techniques, and placebos in fighting and preventing cancer and other ailments. Placebos are nothing new. Most doctors admit they sometimes work for some people. Why, they don't know. Placebo action seems closely allied to a person's mental attitude. Many doctors will also allow that a positive attitude helps a lot in fighting illness and that depression aggravates it. Visualization techniques, though, are hotly debated. Will cancer cells be destroyed, or at least stop growing ... if the patient visualized them as weak things that are vulnerable to the body's killer cells? Proponents of visualization recom-mend that a cancer patient visualize his killer cells as protecting knights in armor that swoop down and skewer the enemy cancer cells. In a visualization session, one focuses one's mind on such images and, in essence, wills his body to fight back. There is some evidence that visualization helps. (Lenard, Lane; "Visions That Vanquish Cancer," Science Digest, 89:59, March 1981.) Comment. The crucial scientific question in all the above methods is: How does a belief system mobilize biological systems? From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 218 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf016/sf016p13.htm
... , music, etc. The question is: Is such exceptional memory the consequence of an exceptional brain or just long training? Those who hold the first position believe an anomaly exists because: (1 ) The difference between normal memory and exceptional memory is so large; and (2 ) People with exceptional memory seem to employ different mental processes in transferring information into long-term memory, notably visual techniques like 'photographic' memory. The authors of this article present several cases where subjects with normal memory have been trained to where they perform nearly as well as memory experts. The key seems to be the use of mnemonic devices and other methods of imposing some sort of order or meaning on the information involved. To illustrate, a chess master can usually recall the positions of all the ... on a chessboard after a quick glance. But if the chessmen are arranged randomly and meaninglessly, his memory is reduced to near-normal. The gist is that long prac-tice and the application of mnemonic devices can vastly improve anyone's memory and, in consequence, memory prodigies are not really so anomalous. (Ericsson, K. Anders, and Chase, William G.; "Exceptional Memory," American Scientist, 70:607, 1982.) Comment. The real anomaly here may be the fact that the human memory and related memory faculties seem orders of magnitude better than needed for survival. How did such capabilities evolve? Of what use is a prodigious memory to an Ice Age man facing a cave bear? Are we dealing with prescient evolution, like the ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 139 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf026/sf026p12.htm
... in the coma and tail, plus some direct emission. However, the heart of the comet, its nucleus, has long been considered a "dirty snowball"; that is, a mixture of dirt and ices. Now it appears that comets are more like "icy dirtballs"! And some of that dirt is pitch black. New measurments of the bare nuclei of comets, using a visual-infrared technique, find that the nuclei reflect as little as 2% of the incident sunlight. They are indeed charcoal black. Comet nuclei, according to W. Hartmann and his colleagues, are colored by a brownishblack primordial organic sludge, and have the appearance of "a very dark Hershey bar." The use of the adjective "organic" may be premature, but in light ... the next item, maybe not. (2 ) Carbonaceous chondrites . This well-known class of meteorites sometimes appears tarry and is characterized by carbon contents of up to 2% and more. The Japanese have just reported the analysis of Yamoto 791198, a carbonaceous chondrite picked up in the Antarctic. This meteorite is loaded with amino acids, 20 kinds of them. These extraterrestrial amino acids are not considered biogenic because they are half left-handed and half right-handed; whereas all amino acids synthesized by terrestrial animals, plants, etc. are left-handed. [This is obviously presumptious because we have no notion how extraterrestrial life works, assuming it exists at all.] (3 ) The rings of Uranus . Voyager photos reveal that these rings are composed of unknown dark ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 139 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf044/sf044p05.htm
... Brain Evolution! Multiplication and Physical Motion of Dendrites in Brain Information Processing in the Eye Itself Sign Language Is Processed in the Auditory Cortex Motion Processed by Special Brain Cells The "Seeing" Ear Role of Olfactory Receptors in Physical Development Information Transfer in the Cerebrospinal Fluid Utility of the Appendix Nostril Cycling [BHF3] BHT UNUSUAL SENSES AND FACULTIES BHT1 Telescopic Vision BHT2 Moonblindness BHT3 Blindsight BHT4 A TV-Snow Visual Phenomenon BHT5 Color-Vision Deficiency of Ancient Peoples BHT6 Color Sensitivity Correlated with Lunar Phase BHT7 Anomalies in the Evolution of Color Vision BHT8 Dermo-Optical Perception [PHD] BHT9 Visual Phenomena from the Passage of High-Energy Particles through the Eyes BHT10 Facial Vision or Human Echo Ranging BHT11 Our Sound-Suppression Faculty BHT12 Electromagnetic Radiation Perceived as Sound BHT13 Hearing under Anesthesia BHT14 Variability and Sophistication of ... to Find BBB5 The Aesthetic Sense in Birds BBB6 Calculated Deception: Birds That Cry "Wolf" BBB7 Avian Play BBB8 Anomalous Aerial Tumbling and Erratic Flight BBB9 Leks: Why Did They Evolve? BBB10 Cooperative Displays on Leks BBB11 Enigmatic Dancing, Flying, Singing BBB12 Anting BBB13 "Hangers"; Upside-Down Birds BBB14 Curious Automatisms BBB15 Handedness (" Footedness") in Birds BBB16 Unusual Aerial Transportation Techniques BBB17 Unusual Forms of Terrestrial Locomotion BBB18 Unusual Hunting Strategies BBB19 Cooperative Hunting BBB20 Prey-Handling Puzzles BBB21 Avian Prey and Food: Some Misconceptions BBB22 Unusual Sexual Behavior BBB23 Avian "Sperm Wars': Cloaca Pecking BBB24 Unusual Mating Systems BBB25 Two Species with a Common Nest BBB26 Determination of Clutch Size BBB27 Exotic Objects and Eggs in Nests BBB28 Unusual Methods of Heating and Cooling Eggs BBB29 Brood Parasitism: ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 130 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-biol.htm
... individuals are able to solve difficult calendar date problems such as specifying the day of the week for a particular date, sometimes over spans of more than 100 years. These individuals are self-taught and do not follow procedures at all similar to the usual, published, algorithms. An investigation of one individual revealed that he retained considerable information about the structure of days in particular months, probably as visual images. His skill closely depended on the extent and form of his knowledge of calendars, and his errors were often a consequence of lack of knowledge about a particular time period. Mentally retarded individuals who perform calendar date feats are often socially withdrawn and devote considerable periods of time to calendar dates. The most capable calendar-date calculators are usually individuals who have a strong interest in calendars as ... : Sep-Oct 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Calendar calculating by "idiot savants"M.J .A . Howe and J. Smith have reported on an extensive study of calendar-calculating by individuals with otherwise subnormal intelligence. It is very clear that these so-called "idiot savants" use a variety of mental techniques, all rather different from rote memory, such as employed by memorizers of pi. First, we present Howe-and-Smith's abstract; then, a particularly interesting specific case. "A number of mentally handicapped individuals are able to solve difficult calendar date problems such as specifying the day of the week for a particular date, sometimes over spans of more than 100 years. ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 130 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf065/sf065p14.htm
