Yeah, you read that headline correctly. While ayahuasca is known primarily as a vision-producing entheogen (DMT is the primary active ingredient, when combined with harmaline), it has already shown remarkable power in helping people break deadly addictions (see here, here, and here for starters).

One of the people at the forefront of research into the medicinal uses of ayahuasca as has been Dr. Gabor Mate - in this 2013 article he talks about his work with these plants. Among the diseases he has been researching is cancer - and now there is additional and independent support for the evidence that ayahuasca can be a powerful cancer treatment.

Here is the abstract - the whole article is freely available online.

Ayahuasca and cancer treatment

Eduardo E Schenberg [1, 2]

1. Departamento de Psiquiatria, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2. Instituto Plantando Consciencia, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Objectives: Comprehensively review the evidence regarding the use of ayahuasca, an Amerindian medicine traditionally used to treat many different illnesses and diseases, to treat some types of cancer.

Methods: An in-depth review of the literature was conducted using PubMed, books, institutional magazines, conferences and online texts in nonprofessional sources regarding the biomedical knowledge about ayahuasca in general with a specific focus in its possible relations to the treatment of cancer.

Results: At least nine case reports regarding the use of ayahuasca in the treatment of prostate, brain, ovarian, uterine, stomach, breast, and colon cancers were found. Several of these were considered improvements, one case was considered worse, and one case was rated as difficult to evaluate. A theoretical model is presented which explains these effects at the cellular, molecular, and psychosocial levels. Particular attention is given to ayahuasca’s pharmacological effects through the activity of N,N-dimethyltryptamine at intracellular sigma-1 receptors. The effects of other components of ayahuasca, such as harmine, tetrahydroharmine, and harmaline, are also considered.

Conclusion: The proposed model, based on the molecular and cellular biology of ayahuasca’s known active components and the available clinical reports, suggests that these accounts may have consistent biological underpinnings. Further study of ayahuasca’s possible antitumor effects is important because cancer patients continue to seek out this traditional medicine. Consequently, based on the social and anthropological observations of the use of this brew, suggestions are provided for further research into the safety and efficacy of ayahuasca as a possible medicinal aid in the treatment of cancer.

You can read the whole research article linked to above, or you can be satisfied with this summary written by Eric W. Dolan at Psy Post.

Psychedelic drug ayahuasca could help in battle against cancer, researcher says

By Eric W. Dolan on January 26, 2014

A powerful psychedelic brew consumed by shamans deep in the Amazon could help in the fight against cancer and should be researched, according to a Brazilian scientist.

Ayahuasca — meaning the “vine of the souls” – is traditionally prepared using the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis leaves, though other combinations of plants are sometimes used. Psychotria viridis contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the leaves, while Banisteriopsis caapi contains beta-carbolines such as harmine and harmaline.

For centuries, the psychedelic brew has been used in shamanistic healing rituals. A Natural Geographic reporter who participated in an ayahuasca ritual described the experience as “terrifying—but enlightening.”

Eduardo E. Schenberg of the Federal University of Sao Paulo thinks some of the healing powers attributed to ayahuasca deserve scientific attention, particularly when it comes to cancer.

“There is enough available evidence that ayahuasca’s active principles, especially DMT and harmine, have positive effects in some cell cultures used to study cancer, and in biochemical processes important in cancer treatment, both in vitro and in vivo,” he wrote in an article published in SAGE Open Medicine. ”Therefore, the few available reports of people benefiting from ayahuasca in their cancer treatment experiences should be taken seriously, and the hypothesis presented here, fully testable by rigorous scientific experimentation, helps to understand the available cases and pave the way for new experiments.”

Rumors of ayahuasca helping people with cancer are common, according to Schenberg, and there are at least nine case reports of cancer patients using ayahuasca during their treatment. Of these nine reports, three showed improvements after consuming the psychedelic brew.

Rumors and less than a dozen case reports are hardly substantial evidence. But the physiological effects of the drug suggests there might be some truth behind them, Schenberg said.

DMT produces a powerful psychedelic experience by binding to serotonin receptors in the brain. More importantly, for Schenberg, the drug also binds to the sigma 1 receptor, which is found throughout the body and is involved in many cellular functions. The sigma 1 receptor appears to be implicated in the death signalling of cancer cells.

In addition, harmine has been shown to induce the death of some cancer cells and inhibit the proliferation of human carcinoma cells.

Other physiological factors suggest the combination of DMT and harmine could have medically-important antitumor effects, though more research is need.

“In summary, it is hypothesized that the combined actions of β-carbolines and DMT present in ayahuasca may diminish tumor blood supply, activate apoptotic pathways, diminish cell proliferation, and change the energetic metabolic imbalance of cancer cells, which is known as the Warburg effect,” Schenberg wrote. ”Therefore, ayahuasca may act on cancer hallmarks such as angiogenesis, apoptosis, and cell metabolism. ”

DMT is currently prohibited as a Schedule I drug by the U.S. Controlled Substances Act and the international Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The drug is relatively unknown compared to other illicit substances like cannabis, but researchers have found that DMT appears to be increasing in popularity.

“If ayahuasca is scientifically proven to have the healing potentials long recorded by anthropologists, explorers, and ethnobotanists, outlawing ayahuasca or its medical use and denying people adequate access to its curative effects could be perceived as an infringement on human rights, a serious issue that demands careful and thorough discussion,” Schenberg wrote.

– –

Photo credit: Periodismo Itinerante (Creative Commons-licensed)

Authors@Google: George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones)

This appearance at Google was from 2011, but I just discovered it. When it first aired, Game of Thrones had probably just started on HBO, but certainly did not have the following it has now.

I should probably offer a spoiler alert, but hell, we're all adults here. Take care of your own needs.

Authors@Google: George R.R. Martin

Uploaded on Aug 6, 2011


George R. R. Martin, the acclaimed author of the Game of Thrones novels -- also a recent hit HBO series -- came to Google for a live-streamed interview where he answered your questions submitted online. The interview, part of the Authors@Google series as well as Martin's book tour promoting his latest novel A Dance with Dragons, took place on July 28th at 12pm PDT.

Martin is a bestselling author most famous for his A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series of novels that has been adapted to the popular HBO drama Game of Thrones. Time magazine has dubbed him an "American Tolkien". In his series, Martin creates a rich world populated by a large cast of intriguing characters and interwoven storylines.

It should come as no surprise that in addition to technology, Googlers love things like dragons and fantasy worlds, and we also love meeting talented writers like Martin.

Omnivore - The Age of Atheism

From Bookforum's Omnivore blog, a collection of interesting links on atheism and its discontents.

The age of atheism

Feb 24 2014 

3:00PM

• Stephen Bullivant (St. Mary’s): Why Study Atheism?; and Defining “Atheism”. 
• The real New Atheism: Jeffrey Tayler on rejecting religion for a just world. 
• Remembering Christopher Hitchens: G. Elijah Dann on religious belief and Hitch's greatest hits. 
• When did faith start to fade? Adam Gopnik reviews The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God by Peter Watson; and Imagine There's No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World by Mitchell Stephens. 
• George Dvorsky on the 7 most intriguing philosophical arguments for the existence of God. 
• From Philosophy Now, does God exist? William Lane Craig says there are good reasons for thinking that He does (and a response); and Rick Lewis interviews Simon Blackburn on his atheism. 
• Clayton Littlejohn reviews God and Evidence: Problems for Theistic Philosophers by Rob Lovering. 
• Ryan Stringer on a logical argument from evil. 
• Oliver Burkeman on David Bentley Hart's The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss, the one theology book all atheists really should read (and more by Damon Linker; Isaac Chotiner on how the case for God's existence is empowering atheists; and Jerry Coyne on why the “best arguments for God's existence” are actually terrible). 
• No, we don’t owe your religion any “respect”. 
• Can a Christian be an atheist? Dom Turner finds out. 
• Are religious teachings fairy tales? Howard Kainz wonders. 
• Research indicates that lack of religion is a key reason why people in wealthy countries don't feel a sense of purpose. 
• Katie Engelhart on the age of atheism: “If God exists, why is anybody unhappy?”

 

If you have ever spent any time around people struggling with schizophrenia, you might be aware of how often their delusions and hallucinations are religiously contextualized. People suffering this form of psychosis may believe they are Jesus, or Mary, or God, or that their therapist is Jesus or God. There can be frequent apocalyptic imagery in their delusions. 

In my limited experience, psychosis is often a form of wish fulfillment that is intolerable to the person. For example, someone might believe powerful people are looking out for him and keeping him safe because he is so special and important. This delusion may represent an unconscious need to have someone or some people keeping him safe (maybe even from himself), who believe that he is special (as we all are special) and worth assistance.

Because I see psychosis as a form of acting out unconscious needs or wishes, my sense of the religious and spiritual content may represent a form of spiritual awakening, albeit shrouded in paranoia, magical thinking, or other thought disorders.

In this talk, Borges gives examples of "shamans" he has met, some of who were identified by their "visions" (i.e., hallucinations). In our culture, this young person (often adolescents or teens) would be diagnosed as schizophrenic or suffering a manic psychosis and given copious amounts of powerful antipsychotic drugs. In these primal cultures, the apprenticeship to a master shaman allows them to make sense of their visions and reframe them as journeys into the spirit world. In the U.S., we would medicate the hell out of the person and s/he would suffer for decades with mental illness.

The great scholar of comparative religion, Mircea Eliade, in his classic text, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, details many similar examples of "the calling" and how the crisis of the calling is resolved through initiation into the shamanic mysteries. Rather than being dependent on the culture for survival (as in the U.S), these people are of service to the community, they have status and specialized roles. That alone can make all of the difference.

Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening: Phil Borges at TEDxUMKC

Published on Feb 23, 2014


Phil Borges, filmmaker and photographer, has been documenting indigenous and tribal cultures for over 25 years. His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and his award winning books have been published in four languages. Phil's recent project, Inner Worlds, explores cultural differences with respect to consciousness and mental illness.

Here is some more information on Borges - seems like a cool guy who has been doing some important work documenting indigenous cultures for a few decades now.

For over twenty-five years Phil Borges has been documenting indigenous and tribal cultures, striving to create an understanding of the challenges they face. His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and his award winning books, which have been published in four languages, include Tibetan Portrait, Enduring Spirit, Women Empowered and Tibet: Culture on the Edge. He has hosted television documentaries on indigenous cultures for Discovery and National Geographic channels. Phil also lectures and teaches internationally.

Phil’s recent project, Inner Worlds, explores cultural differences with respect to consciousness, mental illness and the relevance of Shamanic traditional practices and beliefs to those of us living in the modern world.

Phil’s program Stirring the Fire has produced several short documentaries, a book and an exhibition highlighting some of the extraordinary women worldwide who are breaking through gender barriers and conventions in order to enhance the well being of their communities.

In 2000 Phil founded Bridges to Understanding, an online classroom program that connects youth worldwide through digital storytelling in order to enhance cross-cultural understanding and help build a sense of global citizenship in youth. He also co-founded Blue Earth Alliance, a 501c3 that sponsors photographic projects focusing on endangered cultures and threatened environments.

Phil graduated from University of California as a Regents Scholar in 1969 and was honored with their prestigious University of California Medal in 2004. He lives with his family in Seattle.

Here is another TED Talk in which he speaks about his photography - beautiful images, some of which I am sure most of us have seen before.

Photographer Phil Borges on TEDTalks

Posted by: June Cohen
January 10, 2007


Photographer Phil Borges displays his remarkable portraits documenting the world’s disappearing cultures, from persecuted monks in Tibet to embattled tribes in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He also shares inspiring results from his digital-storytelling workshops, which give indigenous teenagers tools for cultural preservation and self-expression. A former dentist, Phil Borges rediscovered his passion for photography, and spent the last 25 years documenting indigenous cultures around the world. His work collected in several books, including Tibetan Portrait and Enduring Spirit. In 2001, he founded Bridges to Understanding, an organization that works with teenagers worldwide, promoting cultural preservation and exchange through digital storytelling. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 19:19)

Do We Live in a Fluid Universe?

If we conceive of the universe as a kind of fluid, the physics of the cosmos makes a lot more sense (at least in my limited understanding). This cool article from Quanta Magazine offers a fluid model of the cosmos.

Big Bang Secrets Swirling in a Fluid Universe

By: Natalie Wolchover
February 12, 2014


A new model that treats the matter in the universe as a fluid could enable researchers to retrace the flow of the cosmos back to the Big Bang. In this image, fluidlike wisps are created as ejected gas from a supernova collides with gas and dust in the surrounding interstellar medium. Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum
To a sound wave, the cosmos has the consistency of chocolate syrup.

That’s one discovery that scientists investigating the Big Bang have made using a new approach that treats the matter in the universe as a peculiar kind of fluid. They have calculated properties that characterize the universe’s behavior and evolution, including its viscosity, or resistance to deformation by sound waves and other disturbances.

“Twenty pascal-seconds is the viscosity of the universe,” said Leonardo Senatore, an assistant professor of physics at Stanford University — just as it is for the ice cream topping.

Leonardo Senatore, an assistant professor at Stanford University, is leading an effort to develop a new computational approach to cosmology that could reveal details about how the universe began.

The viscosity calculation could help cosmologists sleuth out the details of the Big Bang, and possibly someday identify its trigger, by enabling them to track the fluidlike flow of the cosmos back 13.8 billion years to its initial state.

As other techniques for probing the Big Bang reach their limits of sensitivity, cosmologists are co-opting the fluid approach, called “effective field theory,” from particle physics and condensed matter physics, fields in which it has been used for decades. By modeling the matter swirling throughout space as a viscous fluid, the cosmologists say they can precisely calculate how the fluid has evolved under the force of gravity — and then rewind this cosmic evolution back to the beginning. “With this approach, you can really zoom in on the initial conditions of the universe and start asking more and more precise questions,” said Enrico Pajer, a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University with a recent paper on the technique that has been accepted by the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

The more information that astronomers gather about the distribution of galaxies throughout space — known as the “large-scale structure” of the universe — the more accurate the fluid model becomes. And the data are pouring in. The sketchy scatter plot of several thousand nearby galaxies that existed in the 1980s has given way to a far richer map of millions of galaxies, and planned telescopes will soon push the count into the billions. Proponents believe that tuned with these data points, the fluid model may grow precise enough within 10 or 15 years to prove or refute a promising Big Bang theory called “slow-roll inflation” that says the universe ballooned into existence when an entity called an inflation field slowly slid from one state to another. “There has been a big community trying to do this type of calculation for a long time,” said Matias Zaldarriaga, a professor of cosmology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Further in the future, the researchers say, applying effective field theory to even bigger datasets could reveal properties of the inflation field, which would help physicists build a theory to explain it.

M. Blanton and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Cosmologists hope to extract information about the Big Bang from the the next generation of large-scale structure surveys like this one from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which shows the distribution of galaxies from the Earth at the center to a distance of two billion light-years at the outer circle.

“It’s obviously the right tool to be using,” said John Joseph Carrasco, a theoretical physicist at Stanford. “And it’s the right time.”

Senatore, Carrasco and their Stanford collaborator Mark Hertzberg first proposed the fluid approach to modeling the universe’s large-scale structure in a 2012 paper in the Journal of High Energy Physics, motivated by the Big Bang details it could help them glean from the increasingly enormous data sets. Other researchers have since jumped on board, helping to hone the method in a slew of papers, talks and an upcoming workshop. “We’re a small, plucky band of people who are convinced this is the way forward,” said Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology.

A Fluid Cosmos

In water, chocolate syrup and other fluids, matter is smoothly distributed on large scales and partitioned into chunks, such as atoms or molecules, on small scales. To calculate the behavior of water on the human scale, where it is a fluid, it isn’t necessary to take into account every collision between H₂O molecules on the atomic scale. In fact, having to do so would render the calculation impossible. Instead, the collective effects of all the molecular interactions at the atomic scale can be averaged and represented in the fluid equations as “bulk” properties. (Viscosity, for example, is a measure of the friction between particles and depends on their size and shape as well as the forces between them.)

Enrico Pajer, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, says the matter in the universe behaves “in a very similar way as water or air.”

A similar trick works for modeling the evolution of the universe’s large-scale structure.

Just like water, the universe is smooth on large scales: The same amount of matter exists in one billion-light-year-wide region as the next. Slight variations in the matter distribution, such as more- and less-dense patches of galaxies, appear when you zoom in. At short distances, the variation becomes extreme: Individual galaxies are surrounded by voids, and within the galaxies, stars pinprick empty space. The matter distribution is constantly changing at every scale as gravity causes stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters alike to clump together and dark energy stretches the space between them. By modeling these changes, cosmologists can use the output — galaxy distribution data — to deduce the input — the initial conditions of the universe.

To a first approximation, the matter distribution at each distance scale (from large to small) can be treated as if it evolves independently. However, just as small ripples in the surface of water can affect the evolution of bigger waves, smaller clumps of matter in the universe (such as galaxy clusters) gravitationally influence the larger clumps that encompass them (such as superclusters). Accounting for this interplay in models of cosmic evolution is problematic because the gravitational effects at the shortest distance scales — at which the universe is not smooth like a fluid but rather condensed into isolated, particlelike objects — sabotage the calculation.

Effective field theory fixes the problem by accounting for the interplay between scales only down to a few times the distance between galaxies. “Everything smaller than that length scale, we treat as complicated and hard to understand, and whatever goes on at those small scales can be bundled up into one big effect,” Carroll explained. The average gravitational effect of matter on small scales is represented as a fluid’s viscosity; hence, the connection between the cosmos and chocolate syrup.

Although the former is sparse and cold while the latter is thick and usually served warm, their viscosities are calculated from data and simulations to be almost exactly equal. The number means both fluids immediately damp out an incident sound wave. “It just goes ‘dum,’ and then it disappears,” Pajer said.

The Ultimate Probe

“It’s still early days for the effective field theory of large-scale structure,” said Marc Kamionkowski, a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University who is not involved in developing the approach. While “it certainly does present some advantages,” he said, much work is needed before the tool can be used to extract new discoveries from astronomical data.

For example, so far, cosmologists have only developed an effective field theory model of the evolution of dark matter, an invisible substance that makes up roughly six-sevenths of the matter in the universe. Visible matter is slightly more complicated, and researchers say its behavior on short distance scales might be more difficult to represent as bulk properties of a fluid. “That is the next challenge,” said Zaldarriaga, who co-authored a November 2013 paper on the effective field theory approach. “We are doing one thing at a time.”

The researchers’ ultimate goal is to measure so-called “non-Gaussianities” in the initial conditions of the universe. If inflation theory is correct and an inflation field briefly transitioned to an unstable state, causing space to balloon 1078 times in volume, random ripples of energy called quantum fluctuations would have surfaced in the field and later grown into the large-scale structure that exists today. These ripples would be expected to follow a “Gaussian” distribution, in which energy is evenly distributed on both sides of a bell curve. Cosmologists look for non-Gaussianities, or subtle biases in the energy distribution, as signs of other, more meaningful events during inflation, such as interactions between multiple inflation fields. The recently released Planck satellite image of the cosmic microwave background indicated that energy fluctuations in the primordial universe followed a Gaussian curve to at least one part in 100,000, compatible with the slow-roll model in which the universe arose from a single inflation field. But alternative models that would have produced even smaller amounts of non-Gaussianity have not yet been ruled out.

By tuning the effective field theory model with galaxy distribution data from imminent sky surveys such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project and Euclid mission, cosmologists estimate that it may be possible to improve detection of non-Gaussianities by a factor of 10 or 20. If none is detected at that sensitivity level, “we can be sure it is standard slow-roll inflation,” Senatore said. “This is extremely exciting.”

If it can be proved that the Big Bang began with slow-roll inflation, the next task would be to probe the properties of the “inflaton” — the particle associated with the inflation field, and a component of an all-encompassing theory of nature. During inflation, the inflaton must at least have interacted with itself and gravity, and both interactions would nudge the inflation field’s energy distribution ever so slightly to one side or another. Planned sky surveys will not be sensitive enough to detect such subtle non-Gaussianities, but researchers expect them to be imprinted on a signal emitted by hydrogen gas in the early universe. “This is the ultimate probe,” Pajer said.

Telescopes should detect this hydrogen signal, called the 21-centimeter line, in approximately 30 or 40 years, and effective field theory will be used to try to tease out the non-Gaussianities. “While we’re old,” said Senatore, who is 35, “we will for sure detect something.”

This article was reprinted on ScientificAmerican.com.

Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (12 Parts)

It's my favorite time of year - the annual Zen Brain Conference at Upaya Zen Center, hosted as always by Roshi Joan Halifax. Among the regular attendees who were there again this year were Richard Davidson, Evan Thompson, Al Kaszniak, and John Dunne.

This year's topic was Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation.

In this intensive program, we explore our lived experience of awareness in relation to our living bodies and brains seen as complex adaptive systems. We focus especially on the themes of “embodied cognition,” “emergent processes,” and “enaction” (cognition as embodied action). Neuroscientists, philosophers, Buddhist scholars, and Zen teachers explore these themes through presentations and discussion interspersed with periods of meditation practice throughout each day.

This is the kind of stuff I get excited about - so I look forward to listening to all of these.

01-30-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 1)

By Dharma Podcasts on February 13, 2014

Speakers: Richard Davidson & Evan Thompson & John Dunne & Neil Theise & Rebecca Todd & Al Kaszniak & Roshi Joan Halifax

Recorded: Thursday Jan 30, 2014

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Series Description: Increasingly, cognitive science presents us with a vision of mind as grounded in the complex transformative processes of life, while neuroscience presents us with a vision of the brain as a complex adaptive system that constantly reshapes itself in response to context, experience, and practice. How can this vision of complexity and transformation enrich our understanding of consciousness—the felt experience of awareness across waking, dreaming, sleeping, and dying? In this intensive program, we explore our lived experience of awareness in relation to our living bodies and brains seen as complex adaptive systems. We focus especially on the themes of “embodied cognition,” “emergent processes,” and “enaction” (cognition as embodied action). Neuroscientists, philosophers, Buddhist scholars, and Zen teachers explore these themes through presentations and discussion interspersed with periods of meditation practice throughout each day.
Episode Description: Al Kaszniak kicks off this opening session of Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation by stating that this program is intended to “push the boundaries” of knowledge and will touch upon “new thinking” in relating complex systems theory to areas of inquiry such as neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and contemplative practice. The Zen Brain faculty then briefly introduce themselves before handing the floor over to Neil Theise. Neil presents a wide-ranging introduction to consciousness and complex systems theory that draws upon ideas in physics, biology, and spirituality. After presenting the basics of complex systems theory, Neil unfolds some very novel thinking on how the emergence of the universe can be viewed in terms of three overlapping processes: complementarity, recursion, and sentience.

BIOs:

Richard Davidson received his Ph.D. in Personality, Psychopathology, and Psychophysiology from Harvard University. He is currently Director for the Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience as well as the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research is focused on cortical and subcortical substrates of emotion and affective disorders, including depression and anxiety, using quantitative electrophysiology, positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging to make inferences about patterns of regional brain function. A major focus of his current work is on interactions between prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in the regulation of emotion in both normal subjects and patients with affective and anxiety disorders. He has also studied and published several papers on brain physiology in long-term Buddhist meditators, and in persons receiving short-term training in mindfulness meditation. Among his several books is Visions of compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature (2002, Oxford University Press), co-edited with Anne Harrington.
Evan Thompson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in Asian Studies, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind (Harvard University Press, 2007), and the co-editor (with P. Zelazo and M. Moscovitch) of The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness (Cambridge University Press, 2007) He is also the co-author with F.J. Varela and E. Rosch of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (MIT Press, 1991) and the author of Color Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception (Routledge Press, 1995). He is currently working on a new book, titled Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Revelations about the Self from Neuroscience and Meditation. Thompson held a Canada Research Chair at York University (2002-2005), and has also taught at Boston University. He has held visiting positions at the Centre de Récherch en Epistémologie Appliqué (CREA) at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
John Dunne is an associate professor in the Department of Religion at Emory University, where he is Co-Director of the Encyclopedia of Contemplative Practices and the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies. He was educated at the Amherst College and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. from the Committee on the Study of Religion in 1999. Before joining Emory’s faculty in 2005, he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and held a research position at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Support from the American Institute of Indian Studies sustained two years of his doctoral research at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, India. 

His work focuses on various aspects of Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice. In Foundations of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy (2004), he examines the most prominent Buddhist theories of perception, language, inference and justification. His current research includes an inquiry into the notion of “mindfulness” in both classical Buddhist and contemporary contexts, and he is also engaged in a study of Candrakirti’s “Prasannapada”, a major Buddhist philosophical work on the metaphysics of “emptiness” and “selflessness.” His recently published work includes an essay on neuroscience and meditation co-authored with Richard J. Davidson and Antoine Lutz. He frequently serves as a translator for Tibetan scholars, and as a consultant, he appears on the roster of several ongoing scientific studies of Buddhist contemplative practices.
Neil Theise is a diagnostic liver pathologist and adult stem cell researcher in New York City, where he is Professor of Pathology and of Medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center of the Mount Sinai Health System. He is considered a pioneer of multi-organ adult stem cell plasticity and has published on that topic in Science, Nature, and Cell. Beginning with applications of complexity and emergent self-organization to stem cell behaviors, his work has expanded into include cross-cultural models of biology and medicine, quantum behaviors in biological systems (biological complementarity, uncertainty), and parallels between contemplative insights into reality and contemporary scientific understandings. Most recently, his efforts have focused on the nature of consciousness and the role of sentience to the development and organization of the universe. His teaching efforts regarding all these themes (text and video, for lay and academic audiences) can be found on his blog, neiltheise.wordpress.com. Additional writings can be found at his website at neiltheise.com.
Rebecca Todd focused her doctoral work on mapping neural activation patterns underlying affective processing as well as cognition/emotion interactions associated with individual differences and normative development of self-regulation in childhood. Current research interests include investigating the effects of emotional arousal on the subjective experience of perceptual vividness and its link with memory vividness in healthy young adults and in post-traumatic stress disorder. She is also interested in the influence of emotional state on perceptual processing and higher-order cognitive processes, and the neural mechanisms underlying such influences.
Al Kaszniak received his Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1976, and completed an internship in clinical neuropsychology at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He is currently Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona (UA. He formerly served as Head of the Psychology Department, and as Director of the UA Center for Consciousness Studies. Al also presently serves as Chief Academic Officer for the Mind and Life Institute, an organization that facilitates collaborative scientific research on contemplative practices and traditions. He is the co-author or editor of seven books, including the three-volume Toward a Science of Consciousness (MIT Press), and Emotions, Qualia, and Consciousness (World Scientific). His research, published in over 150 journal articles and scholarly book chapters, has been supported by grants from the U.S. National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Science Foundation, as well as several private foundations. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related neurological disorders, consciousness, memory self-monitoring, emotion, and the psychophysiology of long-term and short-term meditation. Al has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and has been an advisor to the National Institutes of Health and other governmental agencies. He is a Past-President of the Section on Clinical Geropsychology and fellow of the American Psychological Association and a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. In addition to his academic and administrative roles, he is a lineage holder and teacher (Sensei) in the Soto tradition of Zen Buddhism.
Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi).

 

Here are links to the other 11 episodes.

 

01-31-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 2)

 

Episode Description: In this second session of Zen Brain, Evan Thompson follows on what Neil Theise introduced in the first session (Part 1 of this series), in a wide-ranging exploration of complexity and consciousness. Evan touches upon concepts such as autopoiesis, sense-making, the Buddhist idea of dependent co-arising, enaction, sentience, and the emergence of mind.

 

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01-31-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 3)

Episode Description: Following Evan Thompson’s talk (Part 2 of this series), the Zen Brain faculty field questions from the program participants.

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01-31-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 4)

Episode Description: In this segment of Zen Brain, Rebecca Todd discusses the processes of affect-biased attention and affective enhancement of perception in relation to the complex adaptive system of the human brain. Affect-biased attention refers to how our emotional states bias what we pay attention to in the world before we are even exposed to a stimulus, while affective enhancement refers to how an emotionally-laden perception is made more vivid by our brain. Rebecca discusses these concepts in relation to genetics, epigenetics, and also offers some clinical implications of the data she shares.

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01-31-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 5)

Episode Description: Following Rebecca Todd’s talk (Part 4 of this series), the Zen Brain faculty field questions from the program participants.

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01-31-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 6)

Episode Description: After a full day of presentations, the Zen Brain faculty address questions submitted by the program participants.

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02-01-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 7)

Episode Description: In this segment of Zen Brain, which coincides conceptually with Neil Theise’s talk (Part 1 of this series), John Dunne presents an elegant overview of the evolution of several Buddhist philosophical systems. The goal of all Buddhist systems is the elimination of suffering, suffering which arises due to confusion about the nature of “something.” As we progress from early Buddhism, to the Sautrantika system, to Yogacara, then to Madhyamika, and finally to Mahamudra and Dzogchen, that “something” about which we are confused changes. Each system presents a slightly subtler “cause” for our confusion. Importantly, however, no single system can claim to have the best account of reality. No explanatory system is ultimately true. A system is “better” than another only insofar as it is better at eliminating suffering, at leading us to freedom.

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02-01-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 8)

Episode Description: Following John Dunne’s talk (Part 7 of this series), the Zen Brain faculty field questions from the program participants.

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02-01-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 9)

Episode Description: In this wide-ranging session of the program, Richie touches upon the topics of complexity and consciousness, gamma oscillations, synchrony, and consciousness, the consequences of unconsciousness, epigenetics, contemplative practice in children, and ends with a beautiful “call for humility” in the face of the extraordinary complexity of the human brain.

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02-01-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 10)

Episode Description: After a full day of presentations, the Zen Brain faculty address questions submitted by the program participants.

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02-02-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 11)

Episode Description: On the final morning of the program, the Zen Brain faculty offer some concluding thoughts before the final Q&A.

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02-02-2014: Zen Brain: Consciousness, Complex Systems, and Transformation (Part 12, last part)

Episode Description: In this final session of Zen Brain, the faculty address remaining questions from the program participants.

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Immune System May Play a Significant Role in PTSD

 

New research using a mouse model suggests that the immune system may play a significant role in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the study, mice who experienced chronic stress (social defeat) developed a similar stress response when exposed to a single stressor 24 days later, while rats who did not experience the chronic stress had little or no response to the single stressor.

When they removed the spleen from the mice before the second stress experience, the mice did not have the chronic stress response, suggesting that the spleen (part of the immune system) plays a role in the manifestation of PTSD. It appears that "the spleen is used as a reservoir for primed immune cells until they’re activated to response to another stressor."

When the single stressor is introduced, the immune cells from the chronic stress that had been conserved in the spleen are released and travel to the brain where they generate the intense anxiety response associated with the chronic stress.

Re-establishment of Anxiety in Stress-Sensitized Mice Is Caused by Monocyte Trafficking from the Spleen to the Brain

Eric S. Wohleb, Daniel B. McKim, Daniel T. Shea, Nicole D. Powell, Andrew J. Tarra, John F. Sheridana, Jonathan P. Godbout

Background

Persistent anxiety-like symptoms may have an inflammatory-related pathophysiology. Our previous work using repeated social defeat (RSD) in mice showed that recruitment of peripheral myeloid cells to the brain is required for the development of anxiety. Here, we aimed to determine if 1) RSD promotes prolonged anxiety through redistribution of myeloid cells and 2) prior exposure to RSD sensitizes the neuroimmune axis to secondary subthreshold stress.

Methods

Mice were subjected to RSD and several immune and behavioral parameters were determined .5, 8, or 24 days later. In follow-up studies, control and RSD mice were subjected to subthreshold stress at 24 days.

Results

Repeated social defeat-induced macrophage recruitment to the brain corresponded with development and maintenance of anxiety-like behavior 8 days after RSD, but neither remained at 24 days. Nonetheless, social avoidance and an elevated neuroinflammatory profile were maintained at 24 days. Subthreshold social defeat in RSD-sensitized mice increased peripheral macrophage trafficking to the brain that promoted re-establishment of anxiety. Moreover, subthreshold social defeat increased social avoidance in RSD-sensitized mice compared with naïve mice. Stress-induced monocyte trafficking was linked to redistribution of myeloid progenitor cells in the spleen. Splenectomy before subthreshold stress attenuated macrophage recruitment to the brain and prevented anxiety-like behavior in RSD-sensitized mice.

Conclusions

These data indicate that monocyte trafficking from the spleen to the brain contributes re-establishment of anxiety in stress-sensitized mice. These findings show that neuroinflammatory mechanisms promote mood disturbances following stress-sensitization and outline novel neuroimmune interactions that underlie recurring anxiety disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

The full article from Biological Psychology (Science Direct) is behind a paywall, of course, so here is a summary of the research from Psych Central, which is based on the Ohio State University press release.

Mouse Study: Is PTSD an Immune Cell Response to Stress?

By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 22, 2014


Immune cells activated during a state of chronic stress seem to end up on standby in the spleen to be saved for later use, according to a new mouse study by researchers at Ohio State University. This may trigger an exaggerated stress reaction to a single event much later, launching the body back into a state of chronic stress.

The excessive immune response and anxiety later triggered by a brief stressor mimic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

During the study, researchers found that even after mice had recovered from a state of chronic stress, they quickly returned to that state after experiencing a single stressful event 24 days later. Mice that had not experienced the chronic stress were unaffected by the single stressful event.

Mice without spleens did not experience the same reaction to the single stressor. This suggests that the spleen is used as a reservoir for primed immune cells until they’re activated to response to another stressor.

“No one else has done a study of this length to see what happens to recovered animals if we subject them again to stress,” said Jonathan Godbout, Ph.D, a lead author of the study and associate professor of neuroscience at Ohio State.

“That retriggering is a component of post-traumatic stress. The previously stressed mice are living a normal rodent life, and then this acute stress brings everything back. Animals that have never been exposed to stress before were unaffected by that one event — it didn’t change behavioral or physiological properties.”

In this model of stress, an aggressive male mouse was added to a group of other male mice that had already been given time to establish a hierarchy. For two hours at a time, the aggressive mouse repeatedly defeated the resident mice. After six days, this social defeat led to an inflammatory immune response and anxiety-like behavior.

The researchers then removed the spleens of some of the chronically stressed mice. After spleen removal, the stress-sensitized mice were no longer sensitive to the single stressor and the re-establishment of anxiety.

The scientists also detected no immune cell trafficking to the brain or anxiety-like behavior. This suggests that the spleen is the source of immune cells that respond to the single stressor.

“Our colleagues who study behavior talk about sensitization,” Sheridan said. “Clearly, the repeatedly stressed mice were sensitized. What we’re adding is that sensitization is associated with a specific cell type that resides in the spleen after the initial sensitization.”

“The key is those cells. They originate in the bone marrow, but in terms of sensitization, the spleen is a significant organ.”

Sheridan added that other researchers are testing blood samples of PTSD patients for biomarkers such as immune cells or pro-inflammatory proteins that could reveal which patients are in a stress-sensitized state.

The research is published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Additional co-authors, all from Ohio State, include Eric Wohleb, Daniel McKim, Daniel Shea, Nicole Powell, and Andrew Tarr.

Source: Ohio State University
Lab technician with research mouse photo by shutterstock.

Lisa Wade - The Mind-Body-Metaphor Connection (Pacific Standard)

The depths to which the mind and body are connected are staggering, even for someone like me, a person who believes that the mind IS the body. The brief article below, from Pacific Standard, presents some very cool research findings.

On the specific topic of metaphors and embodied mind, George Lakoff's Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & its Challenge to Western Thought (1999) is the definitive book.

The Mind-Body-Metaphor Connection

By Lisa Wade • February 20, 2014 • Pacific Standard



(Photo: Aaron Amat/Shutterstock)  

New research shows that if you’re holding something heavy, you’ll take things more seriously. Why?
•
Last year I was tickled to write about a cool study showing that, if a person grows up with a language that writes from left to right, then numerical estimates of things like weight or height will, on average, be smaller when a person is imperceptibly and unknowingly leaning to the left. Seriously, it’s awesomely fun research and you can read about it here.

Today I have the equally fun pleasure of sharing a research study on weight and importance. It turns out that, when people are holding something heavy, they will report an issue to be more serious, compared to when they are holding something lighter.

Some examples come from a set of studies by psychologist Nils Jostmann and colleagues:

• In the first study, European participants were asked to guess the value of various foreign currency in euros. Some were given a heavy clipboard on which to mark their estimates, and others a light clipboard. Those who held the light clipboard estimated, on average, lesser values.
• In a second study, subjects were asked to estimate the importance of college students having a voice in a decision-making process involving grants to study abroad. Participants with the heavy clipboard felt that it was more important for students to have a voice.
• In a third, subjects were asked to report whether they liked their city after reading a biography of the mayor and indicating how they felt about him. If they carried the heavy clipboard, there was a relationship between their estimation of the mayor and that of the city, but not if they carried a light clipboard. In this case, the importance of their feelings about the mayor weighed heavier on their evaluation of the city if the clipboard was heavy.

What is driving these findings?

In English, and several other languages as well, weight is used as metaphor to signify importance. The authors hypothesized that this abstraction can be triggered by concrete experiences of weight, like holding something heavy. They call this “embodied cognition.” Our thinking is affected by the connection between our bodies, their relationship with objects, and metaphors in our minds.

Another nail in the Descartian mind-body dualism coffin.

This post originally appeared on Sociological Images, a Pacific Standard partner site.

Omnivore - The Path of Philosophy

From Bookforum's Omnivore blog, here is another fine collection of links inspired and related to philosophy.

The path of philosophy
Feb 21 2014 

9:00AM

• A new issue of Philosophy in Review is out. 
• Narve Strand (NTNU): From Sufficient Reason to Ordinary Language Use: The Path of Philosophy after Kant. 
• Stephen Wigmore (Warwick): Enriching Contemporary Intuitionism from the Continental Tradition. 
• Alex Worsnip (Yale): Disagreement about Disagreement? What Disagreement about Disagreement? 
• From Liber Amicorum Pascal Engel (ed. Julien Dutant, Davide Fassio and Anne Meylan), Erik J. Olson (Lund): Engel vs. Rorty on Truth; Nenad Miscevic (CEU): Philosophy as Literature: The Non-argumentative Tradition in Continental Philosophy; Carola Barbero (Turin): Can We Solve the Paradox of Fiction by Laughing at It?; Maurizio Ferraris (Turin): “Happiness Is Overrated: It’s Better to Be Right”: On Truth as Emergence; and Timothy O’Hagan (East Anglia): Philosophy in a Dark Time: Martin Heidegger and the Third Reich. 
• The introduction to The Historical Turn in Analytic Philosophy, ed. Erich H. Reck. 
• The introduction to The Oxford Handbook of The History of Analytic Philosophy, ed. Michael Beaney. 
• Chauncey Maher reviews Richard Rorty: From Pragmatist Philosophy to Cultural Politics. 
• From 3:AM, interviews with Stephen Darwall, Peter Ludlow, Susanna Schellenberg, Susanna Siegel, and Timothy Williamson. 
• Roger Scruton reviews Bernard Williams: Essays and Reviews 1959-2002. 
• The study of whiteness as a critique of philosophical thought: Christoph Novak on the white bias in Sartre’s early philosophy. 
• Cafe Philosophique: Beatrice Popescu interviews with Lou Marinoff on being a “philosophical practitioner”. 
• George Dvorsky on 9 philosophical thought experiments that will keep you up at night.

Can a Physicist Explain the Future of the Human Mind?

From NPR's All Things Considered, this segment featured physicist and author Michio Kaku talking about his new book, The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind. The book will be released on February 25, 2014.

Here is the publisher's ad copy:

The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain.
For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has become a startling reality. Recording memories, telepathy, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis are not only possible; they already exist.
The Future of the Mind gives us an authoritative and compelling look at the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics. One day we might have a "smart pill" that can enhance our cognition; be able to upload our brain to a computer, neuron for neuron; send thoughts and emotions around the world on a "brain-net"; control computers and robots with our mind; push the very limits of immortality; and perhaps even send our consciousness across the universe.
Dr. Kaku takes us on a grand tour of what the future might hold, giving us not only a solid sense of how the brain functions but also how these technologies will change our daily lives. He even presents a radically new way to think about "consciousness" and applies it to provide fresh insight into mental illness, artificial intelligence and alien consciousness.

With Dr. Kaku's deep understanding of modern science and keen eye for future developments, The Future of the Mind is a scientific tour de force--an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience.

Here is the NPR story.

Forecasting The 'Future' By Tapping Into Human Consciousness

by NPR Staff
February 22, 2014 4:00 PM
5 min 52 sec

• Listen to the Story
• Download
• All Things Considered

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku

Now more than ever before, we have the tools to study the mysteries of consciousness. Memory, dreams, the self are now being examined using high-tech brain scans developed by physicists on the cutting edge of their field.

Dr. Michio Kaku, professor at the City College of New York, is among them. In The Future of the Mind, he gives readers a look at some of the most astonishing research in neuroscience today, and presents a vision of what future innovation might bring. NPR's Arun Rath speaks with Kaku about the advances in technology and our understanding of human consciousness.

Interview Highlights

On the organization of the brain

We used to think the brain was like a computer. But now we realize that's not true — there's no programming of the brain, there's no windows. And we think the brain is more like a large corporation. ... In a corporation, you have subdivisions that operate independently of the main office. And that's why we have an unconscious mind, because you have to have, for example, emotional reactions to things very quickly.

On what makes human consciousness special

We can imagine things far beyond our body. We can imagine social hierarchies much more complex than what we actually have, and we can simulate the future. And so these are three levels of consciousness. Consciousness-one level is understanding where we are in space. Consciousness two is where we understand our position in society: who's top dog, who's underdog, and who's in the middle. And type-three consciousness is simulating the future ... only humans have this ability to see far into the future.

The Future of the Mind is physics professor Michio Kaku's eighth book.
Courtesy of Random House

On modern technology and the mind

We've learned more in the last 10, 15 years than in all of human history. In fact, we can take the consciousness of somebody who is totally paralyzed, cannot do anything with their body, put a chip in their brain, and have that person control a laptop. They can now surf the Web, they can now write emails, answer emails, control their wheelchair, control household appliances, and even manipulate mechanical arms, and eventually a mechanical exoskeleton — and they are totally paralyzed.

Stephen Hawking, my colleague, is totally paralyzed, and he has a chip in his right glass. Next time you see him on television, look in his right frame, and you see a brain sensor which picks up radio from his brain and allows him to type mentally.

On "downloading" one's mind for the future

In the movie Back to the Future, Doc Brown is asked the question, "Do you want to see the future?" and he says, "I've always wanted to see beyond my years." You see, I'm also a futurist. I dream about the world 50, 100, maybe even 1,000 years in the future. But I also realize I'm probably not gonna see it. However, I wouldn't mind having at least a copy of myself see the future, maybe 50, 100, 1,000 years into the future. It would be a fantastic ride.

Read an excerpt from The Future of the Human Mind.

* * * * *

Here is that excerpt, brief though it is.

Excerpt: 'The Future Of The Mind'

Houdini, some historians believe, was the greatest magician who ever lived. His breathtaking escapes from locked, sealed chambers and death-defying stunts left audiences gasping. He could make people disappear and then re-emerge in the most unexpected places. And he could read people's minds.

Or, at least it seemed that way.

Houdini took pains to explain that everything he did was an illusion, a series of clever sleight-of-hand tricks. Mind reading, he would remind people, was impossible. He was so outraged that unscrupulous magicians would cheat wealthy patrons by performing cheap parlor tricks and séances that he took it upon himself to go around the country exposing fakes. He was even on a committee organized by Scientific American, which offered a generous reward to anyone who could positively prove they had psychic power. (No one ever picked up the reward.)

Houdini believed that true telepathy was impossible. But science is proving Houdini wrong.

Telepathy is now the subject of intense research at universities around the world where scientists have already been able to read individual words, images, and thoughts of our brain by combining the latest scanning technology with pattern recognition software. This could revolutionize the way we communicate with stroke and accident victims who are "locked-in" their bodies, unable to articulate their thoughts except through blinks of their eyes. But that's just the start. It might also radically change the way we interact with computers and the outside world.

As we know, the brain is electrical. In general, anytime an electron is accelerated, it gives off electromagnetic radiation. The same holds true for electrons oscillating inside the brain. It sounds like something out of science fiction or fantasy, but humans naturally emit radio waves. But these signals are too faint to be detected by others, and even if we could perceive these radio waves, it would be difficult for us to make sense of them. But computers are changing all this. Scientists have already been able to get crude approximations of a person's thoughts using EEG scans. Subjects put on a helmet of EEG sensors on their head, and concentrate on certain pictures, say, the image of a car or a house. The EEG signals were then recorded for each image and eventually, a rudimentary dictionary of thought was created, with a one-to-one correspondence between a person's thoughts and the EEG image. Then, when a person was shown a picture of another car, the computer would recognize this EEG pattern.

The advantage of EEG sensors is that they are non-invasive and quick. You simply put on a helmet containing many electrodes onto the surface of the brain and the EEG can rapidly identify signals which change every millisecond. But the problem with EEG sensors, as we have seen, is that electromagnetic waves deteriorate as they pass through the skull, and it is difficult to locate the precise source. This method can tell if you are thinking of a car versus a house, but it cannot recreate an image of the car. That is where Dr. Gallant's work comes in.

The epicenter for much of this research is the University of California at Berkeley, where I received my own Ph.D. in theoretical physics years ago. I had the pleasure of touring the laboratory of Dr. Jack Gallant, whose group has accomplished a feat once considered to be impossible: video taping people's thoughts. "This is a major leap forward reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the movies in our mind," says Dr. Gallant.

When I visited his laboratory, the first thing I noticed was the team of young, eager postdoctoral and graduate students huddled behind their computer screens, looking intently at video images that were reconstructed from someone's brain scans. Talking to his team, you feel as though you are witnessing scientific history in the making.

Dr. Gallant explained to me that first, the subject lies flat on a stretcher, which is slowly inserted head first into a huge, state-of-the-art MRI machine, costing upwards of $3 million. The subject is then shown several movie clips (such as movie trailers readily available on YouTube.) To accumulate enough data, you have to sit motionless for hours watching these clips, a truly arduous task. I asked one of the post-docs, Dr. Shinji Nishimoto, how they found volunteers who were willing to lie still for hours on end with only fragments of video footage to occupy the time. He said the people in the room, the grad students and post-docs, volunteered to be guinea pigs for their own research.

As the subject watches the movies, the MRI machine creates a 3D image of the blood flow within the brain. The MRI image looks like a vast collection of 30,000 dots or voxels. Each voxel represents a pinpoint of neural energy, and the color of the dot corresponds to the intensity of the signal and blood flow. Red dots represent points of large neural activity, while blue dots represent points of less activity. (The final image looks very much like thousands of Christmas lights in the shape of the brain. Immediately, you can see the brain is concentrating most of its mental energy in the visual cortex while watching these videos.)

At first, this color 3D collection of dots looks like gibberish. But after years of research, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues have developed a mathematical formula which begins to make connections between certain features of a picture (edges, textures, intensity, etc.) and the MRI voxels. For example, if you look at a boundary, you'll notice it's a region separating lighter and darker areas and hence the edge generates a certain pattern of voxels. By having subject after subject view such a large library of movie clips, this mathematical formula is refined, allowing the computer to analyze how all sorts of images are converted into MRI voxels. Eventually, the scientists were able to ascertain a direct correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and each picture. "We built a model for each voxel that describes how space and motion information in the movie is mapped into brain activity," Dr. Nishmoto told me.

From The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku. Random House.