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| https://psychcentral.com/lib/what-does-psychosis-feel-like |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2258 - Yoga Causes Psychosis and Other Lies from the Right - Weekly Hodge Podge for 2104.24
Did you know that yoga causes psychosis and just doing it once makes you a Hindu?
I learn so much from the Internet. I had no idea how dangerous yoga really is. What was I thinking?
I should also stop bringing my assault rifles to the national and state capitols, too, as I have heard that's not only dangerous but a crime.
Here we are again. Another W1EEKLY HODGE PODGE. This one has some good shit.
Here's my reaction:
And just an array of greatness, from more evidence that the Russians deployed energy weapons on American troops and TRUMP did nothing; Marjorie Taylor Greene must do yoga because there's further evidence of her psychosis and her being Hindu as she is dressing in an American Flag much like traditional Hindu garb; we're being guilted for contributing somehow to why "true Americans" attacked the nation's capitol in January and left people injured and dead (because it's not their fault for being violent psychotic after doing a lot of yoga in Georgia or somewhere because it's illegal in Alabama; and oh yeah, OBAMA is to blame for all the extremism, because again the extremists and white supremacists cannot possible to blame, accountable, or criminal (or not really white).
And so much more. anti-Black Lives Matter rants and rants about what Libs are responsible for all the child sex trafficking... more proof in the power of yoga to ruin minds.
BIG Q-THINK LIES FROM THE RIGHT
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/04/23/2212254/pentagon-investigated-suspected-russian-directed-energy-attacks-on-us-troops
Pentagon Investigated Suspected Russian Directed-energy Attacks On U.S. Troops (politico.com)
The investigation is part of a broader effort to look into directed-energy attacks on U.S. officials across multiple agencies in recent years. Since late 2016, close to 50 officials have reported symptoms of a mysterious illness that became known as "Havana syndrome" among U.S. diplomats posted in Cuba. Symptoms included acute ringing and pressure in the ears, as well as loss of hearing and balance, fatigue and residual headaches. Some victims have suffered long-term brain damage. A report commissioned by the State Department and released in December pointed to "directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy" as the most probable cause for the "Havana syndrome" incidents.
This week, Nate Cohn at the New York Times suggested that violent rightwing extremism and the demonstrated authoritarian bent within the GOP aren't exclusively to blame for the fall of American democracy. No, the true problem is that Democrats don't want to Netflix and chill with unhinged conspiracy theorists.
The country is increasingly split into camps that don't just disagree on policy and politics — they see the other as alien, immoral, a threat. Such political sectarianism is now on the march.
Eric Boehlert pointed out how Cohn "could only find examples of rightwing behavior that threatens our democracy, yet he insisted Both Sides were to blame." This is a common rightwing talking point. Sensible MSNBC-ready Republicans try to elevate themselves from the Marjorie Taylor Greenes while acknowledging bad GOP behavior, but they make sure to blame Democrats as well. Liberals are the Devils whispering in their ears, but as Lucifer himself once said, “We never make any of them do anything."
Republican Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska made similar arguments in his 2018 book, Them: Why We Hate Each Other — and How to Heal, so from the jump, Cohn is regurgitating conservative rhetoric that buries the larger problem rather than appraising it.
The first image we see in Cohn's piece after the headline, "Why Political Sectarianism Is a Growing Threat to American Democracy," is a photo of MAGA supporters confronting Joe Biden supporters outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center as ballots were still being counted after the election. One of President Lost Cause's supporters is wearing a “Not Today Satan" shirt. We're presumably supposed to wonder why these fellow Americans are so angry with each other. The election's over. They should go home to their families or their cats or their cat families.
However, almost everyone who voted for Biden wanted to move on, to heal. When the election was called on November 7, political scientist and author Ian Bremmer tweeted: “Now is the time for every Biden supporter to reach out to one person who voted for Trump. Empathize with them. Tell them you know how they feel (you do, from 2016). Come up with one issue you can agree on."
Democrat Pete Buttigieg shared similar sentiments: "If someone you love and care about voted the other way, today might be a good day to reach out. Not to talk politics, but to talk about things that will remind them (and yourself) why you love and care about them."
The one-term loser's supporters spat in our faces. They didn't congratulate us however insincerely. Instead, they embraced a Big Lie and rejected both democracy and reality. Biden supporters didn't want to show up at the Pennsylvania Convention Center that day. They probably had better things to do, but a sitting president had refused to concede an election he lost.
Cohn acknowledges MAGA's "efforts to subvert the peaceful transition of power," but laments that “the two political parties see the other as an enemy." What, pray tell, is the option when one political party (the Republicans) actively demonizes another (the Democrats, for those paying attention) and refuses to even accept their victories as legitimate?
It's an outlook that makes compromise impossible and encourages elected officials to violate norms in pursuit of an agenda or an electoral victory. It turns debates over changing voting laws into existential showdowns. And it undermines the willingness of the loser to accept defeat — an essential requirement of a democracy.
Yes, it is awful that REPUBLICANS keep doing these things. This paragraph reads as if dictated by Mitch McConnell. Republicans attempting to disenfranchise minority voters is literally an existential showdown. Black people aren't behaving like melodramatic teenagers over white supremacists' efforts to disenfranchise us. Baseless accusations of voter fraud aren't policy differences. This was cruel slander.
Whether religious or political, sectarianism is about two hostile identity groups who not only clash over policy and ideology, but see the other side as alien and immoral. It's the antagonistic feelings between the groups, more than differences over ideas, that drive sectarian conflict.
This is blatant whitewashing. White supremacists stormed the Capitol, some of whom were carrying the Confederate flag, and Cohn still can't describe the “two hostile identity groups" as angry white people and minorities who just want to exist. This “sectarian conflict" isn't a result of liberals and conservatives disagreeing over marginal tax rates. Many white liberals and moderates desperately wish that was the sole source of debate, so they could enjoy holiday gatherings again. But white conservatives realized decades ago that cultural resentment and outright bigotry could more effectively get out the vote than trickle-down economics.
Defending his article on Twitter, Cohn accused Democrats of feeling that “Republicans are an immoral, alien enemy." A self-described “very liberal" white guy agreed with Cohn and claimed Democrats believed Republicans were “evil and subhuman," which proved Cohn's point about sectarian hostility. This is what Malcolm X described as the oppressors' guilt complex. They feel as if you're calling them "evil and subhuman" if you just accurately describe their actions! This is why Republicans get up in their feels when their voter suppression laws are described as “Jim Crow 2.0."
Cohn infantilizes the modern GOP, suggesting they are simply acting out because they are in the minority. But Republicans are just as brutal to us when they're in power. Cohn also can't offer examples of Democrats embracing violence or authoritarianism in reaction to the past four years. Democrats nominated Joe Biden for president, and Republicans still refused to accept the election results.
We don't “hate" Republicans just because we recognize their demonstrated behavior. The “sectarian hostilities" might seem more blatant now to white liberals and moderates, including Cohn, but they've existed since America's founding. The white majority enslaved and later segregated people they considered “immoral, alien, and subhuman." Now marginalized groups can vocalize their complaints more loudly, but that doesn't mean they didn't exist previously, even during the so-called “good old days."
The New York Times might've published The 1619 Project, but I wonder if everyone who works there bothered to read it.
[The New York Times / Pressrun]
Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.
Former GOP House Leader Blames Barack Obama for 'Extreme Element on Both Sides of the Aisle'
Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) lost his House seat back in 2014, but he's making waves again with bold claims about the recent history of the two main parties in United States politics.
Continuing the Republican tradition of blaming former President Barack Obama for a vast array of developments in the United States, Cantor claimed Obama was responsible for the normalization of extremism in American politics.
Watch below.
In an interview with CNN, Cantor said:
"I don't doubt for a second that the level of craziness has increased in Washington over the last few years in both parties. But certainly when we were serving back during the Obama administration, there was plenty of indicators that we had an extreme element on both sides of the aisle."
Cantor went on to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009—one of Obama's first pieces of legislation as President, designed to offset the fallout from the Great Recession—was responsible.
"One of the things that happened early on in the Obama administration was he laid down the gauntlet with his so-called stimulus bill, and drew a party line really brightly, which encouraged some of this backlash on the extreme end of the spectrums, on our side and his."
The modern Republican party's embrace of conspiracy theories and increasingly blatant racist rhetoric is largely attributed to the 2008 presidential election, when the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) tapped then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to join him on the ticket as his Vice Presidential nominee.
Palin associated Obama with domestic terrorists and encouraged the rise of the Tea Party, many of whose supporters believed Obama was secretly a Muslim born in Kenya.
A Frontline documentary released last year traced the rise in Republican online disinformation to Palin's rhetoric, with McCain's former campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, saying:
"She is the first of a generation of politicians who live in a post-truth environment. She was, and there's no polite way to say it, but a serial liar. She would say things that are simply not true, or things that were picked up from the Internet, and this obliteration of fact from fiction, of truth from lie, has become now endemic in American politics. But it started then."
In less than a decade, the conspiracy theories embraced by the Tea Party would be dwarfed by the mass delusion known as QAnon, and the continued normalization of lies from former President Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican party.
People called Cantor out for his rewriting of history.
Others noted that Obama's race was a substantial part of Republican voters' misgivings with his administration.
Before the interview's conclusion, Cantor said he would support Trump if he ran for President again in 2024.
This weekend, many of America's wackiest humans either spoke at or attended "Clay Clark's Health and Freedom Rally," a QAnon COVID-denial conference. Michael Flynn was there, Sidney Powell, MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell, discredited anti-vax ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield and even actor Jim Caviezel, whose bizarre rant about "adrenochroming the children" we delved into on Saturday.
Not to be outdone by by some fly-by-night Hollywood hunk, when attorney Lin Wood took the stage, he not only explicitly endorsed Q, but also claimed the Clintons, the Obamas, the Bidens and the Bushes were all "involved in sex trafficking."
He said:
WOOD: They've accused me of being a QAnon conspiracy theorist. Why? Because they're telling you that I'm a bad messenger. They're trying to attack me because they can't attack Q. Because Q is the truth! This is about the children, for God's sake!
Send this videotape – send it to Hollywood. Hey Clay, send it to the House of Windsor. Hey Clay, send it to Bill Gates. Send it to the damn Illuminati! Let them hear the truth and whatever they do to me, I don't fear them at all. Send it to the Vatican!
Send it to the politicians, the Clintons, the Obamas, the Bidens, the Bushes. Send it to those people because they are involved in child sex trafficking. It's time to the tell the truth to America!
You know, I like how they always throw the Bushes into this, just to seem "balanced." Not the Reagans, though. Never the Reagans.
Wood is right about one thing though: he should not fear the Illuminati, mainly because the Illuminati doesn't actually exist. It did exist, there were people who called themselves that in the 1700s, but they are all quite dead by now and thus probably not particularly concerned with who Lin Wood accuses of child sex trafficking. However, given that Wood has actually worked on several high profile defamation cases, you would think he might be a bit concerned that accusing people of something like child sex trafficking could actually get him into trouble.
You are perhaps wondering now (maybe) if you are supposed to know who this Clay Clark person even is. You are not. Basically he is a guy who seems pretty scammy and does this pose in his Twitter avi.
An extremely douchey looking man in glasses holding his two pointer fingers up to his chin and looking PENSIVE.
He is doing that same pose in approximately 90 percent of the photos of him I was able to find online, so clearly he thinks it is a very good look. According to his Twitter bio, he is the "Host of the Thrivetime Show Podcast, Former Oklahoma Young SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Founder of Several Multi-Million Dollar Businesses, Author and Artist." He also has some website where he gives advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, which is a thing people who are full of shit frequently seem to call themselves.
While I was unable to find what multi-million dollar businesses he founded, I was able to find a video in which he speaks to some lady about whether or not he is the "Clark" that Trump prophet Kim Clement spoke of in a prophecy.
"Could Clay Clark be the TRUMP & CLARK Kim Clement spoke about?"
He also has some very interesting thoughts on what Antifa and Black Lives Matter are. Surprise! He thinks they are about summoning the dead. Like the Fox Sisters, but with different outfits and probably less toe-cracking.
Like I said, you don't need to know who he is.
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| https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/best-photo-chris-christie-christies-rene-magritte.html |
COVID-19 LIES AND THE PANDEMIC
PANDEMIC
THE WEEKLY PANDEMIC REPORT
If you prefer your data in a visual format, here's the current map from COVID Exit Strategy, using data from the CDC and the COVID Tracking Project.
I want to add this link to the weekly report. It's important to remember:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1983 - Is Coronavirus more contagious and more deadly than the flu? YES.
ALSO... I am seeing a big discrepancy between the Johns Hopkins data in death totals and WORLDOMETER data, which aggregates data from many more sources. Could this be the slow down due to the change in how the CDC obtains the data, having it filter first through Health and Human Services department.
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
Deaths:
Recovered:
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SHUT THE FUCK UP - BLACK LIVES DO MATTER, YES
White Army Drill Sergeant Arrested in South Carolina for Refusing to Leave Store During 'Black Lives Don't Matter' Rant
https://www.theroot.com/white-army-drill-sergeant-arrested-in-south-carolina-fo-1846750310I’m just going to go ahead and confess something right now: I really enjoy watching angry white people lose their shit over the “racism” of Black Lives Matter.
They don’t understand the movement because they view the world through a very white lens, and they want desperately to believe American racism died in the ‘60s, so now that BLM is a mainstream concept, you could run a water park the size of West Africa on the flow of white tears they produce. Y’all can waste your time arguing with them if you want; I’m going to buy myself a Slip-n-Slide.
Anyway, a white U.S. Army drill sergeant recently got his extra salty-ass arrested in Sumter, S.C. after he refused to leave a grocery store that refused to sell him liquor, according to WBTV 3.
For reasons unknown to Black people like me who don’t give a single, solitary fuck about fragile white feelings, the man, who has been identified as 27-year-old John Walter Miles, launched into a drunken rant about how Black Lives Matter “is the most racist fucking thing we’ve ever fucking seen.”
Now, if I was to bother arguing with the fake-oppressed melanin-nots, I might be inclined to point out how ridiculous it is that anyone would consider BLM to be “the most racist fucking thing we’ve ever fucking seen,” despite America’s history of slavery and Jim Crow as well as the current issue of police officers shooting Black people like it’s negro open season. But, again, I don’t argue with them, I just quench my thirst on the bottomless open bar of white tears that they are perpetually kind enough to provide us with. (Also, I can’t take anything seriously coming from a white man whose first, middle and last names are really just three first names. It just gives off big James Earl Ray energy.)“Guess what—all lives fucking matter. Black lives don’t fucking matter,” Miles can be heard saying in video footage of the incident because obviously, a bigot with three first names isn’t going to be smart enough not to string two sentences together that clearly contradict each other.
Miles damn near knocked the store’s automatic doors off the hinges while resisting the crowd that was trying to force his dumb ass out. But Klanneth McBlame-it-on-the-alcohol continued singing songs from the soundtrack of Wypipo Proverbs including No. 1 hits like, “Will Someone Please Think of the White Lives” and “Bitch, I Got a Black Friend.”
“What about goddamn brown lives matter? What about white lives matter? How about everybody else? Guess what—all you Black fucks are goddamn racist mother fuckers,” he can be heard saying before informing the crowd that he “has a goddamn Black kid in goddamn Georgia,” which he thinks proves he’s “not a racist mother fucker.”
Anyway, officials at Fort Jackson, where Miles is stationed, released a statement saying that the Department of Justice is investigating the incident and that the Richland County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that Miles has been charged for his behavior.
According to Newsweek, Miles has been charged with aggravated breach of peace and trespassing.
As an update on the unfortunate incident that brought disrespect to @fortjackson our Army and the trust with the public we serve, please see below. 👇🏾 I will be transparent in the future with shareable information. The subject in this case was arrested. @PaulFunk2 @TradocDCG pic.twitter.com/prihGao1Nv
— Fort Jackson Commanding General (@fortjacksoncg) April 14, 2021
https://theglowup.theroot.com/it-has-been-a-week-so-please-enjoy-this-palate-cleansi-1846750273
It Has Been a Week, So Please Enjoy This Palate-Cleansing Homage to Black Excellence From Zendaya and Law Roach
That said, it set my fashion-loving heart aflutter today to see one that of the best to ever do it, the ingenue-icon we call Zendaya, paid homage to another Black female icon when she made an appearance at this week’s (mostly virtual) Black Women in Hollywood event....and we have longtime collaborator and “image architect” Law Roach to thank
“I’ve been waiting to share this look.....”, he captioned a post on Instagram, featuring Zendaya an ice-blue bubble-peplumed evening jacket and black skirt. “@zendaya wearing vintage @ysl Haute Couture from 1982 (my personal archive) originally owned by the trailblazer Eunice Johnson! We pay homage 🌹🌹🌹”In case you didn’t know, Eunice Johnson was the wife of Ebony magazine creator and publisher John H. Johnson and the founder and director of the legendary Ebony Fashion Fair, where the iconic Yves Saint Laurent-designed ensemble first appeared for the magazine’s 25th anniversary issue.
Maiysha Kai is Managing Editor of The Glow Up, co-host of The Root Presents: It's Lit! podcast, and your average Grammy-nominated goddess next door...May I borrow some sugar?
SPACE, SCIENCE, AND OTHER GOOD STUFF
https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/04/24/1321234/astronauts-successfully-delivered-to-the-international-space-station-by-spacex
Astronauts Successfully Delivered to the International Space Station by SpaceX (cnn.com)
CNN describes the significance to their arrival — and what the astronauts will do during their six-month stay in space:This mission, dubbed Crew-2, marks the third-ever crewed flight for Elon Musk's company and the first to make use of a previously flown, privately-owned rocket booster and spacecraft... On Saturday morning, the capsule slowly aligned itself and moved in to dock directly with one of the space station's ports.
The crew consists of NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, and Akihiko Hoshide with Japan's JAXA space agency.
A prime focus of the astronauts' mission will be research with "tissue chips," or "small models of human organs containing multiple cell types that behave much the same as they do in the body" and that NASA hopes will advance the development of drugs and vaccines, according to the space agency. That work will build on years of studying biological and other scientific phenomena aboard the ISS, where the microgravity environment can give scientists a better fundamental understanding of how something works.
Kimbrough, McArthur, Pesquet, and Hoshide joined seven astronauts already on board the station, four of whom arrived on a different SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in November. That brings the space station's current total of personnel to 11 — one of the largest crews the ISS has ever hosted. But that number will quickly drop back down to seven when four of the astronauts who'd been on board hitch a ride home from the station on April 28.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/21/04/19/2126214/dna-robots-designed-in-minutes-instead-of-days
DNA Robots Designed In Minutes Instead of Days (phys.org)
The software also allows designers to build DNA structures "bottom up" or "top down." In "bottom up" design, researchers take individual strands of DNA and decide how to organize them into the structure they want, which allows fine control over local device structure and properties. But they can also take a "top down" approach where they decide how their overall device needs to be shaped geometrically and then automate how the DNA strands are put together. Combining the two allows for increasing complexity of the overall geometry while maintaining precise control over individual component properties. Another key element of the software is that it allows simulations of how designed DNA devices would move and operate in the real world.
New Rules Allowing Small Drones To Fly Over People In US Take Effect (reuters.com)
Drone manufacturers have 18 months to begin producing drones with Remote ID, and operators will have an additional year to provide Remote ID. The new rules eliminate requirements that drones be connected to the internet to transmit location data but do require that they broadcast remote ID messages via radio frequency broadcast. One change, since the rules were first proposed in 2019, requires that small drones not have any exposed rotating parts that would lacerate human skin.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/21/04/23/0143201/nasas-mars-helicopter-makes-second-flight
NASA's Mars Helicopter Makes Second Flight (phys.org)
For the second flight, which lasted 51.9 seconds, Ingenuity climbed to 16 feet, hovered briefly, tilted and then accelerated sideways for seven feet. "The helicopter came to a stop, hovered in place, and made turns to point its camera in different directions," said Havard Grip, Ingenuity's chief pilot. "Then it headed back to the center of the airfield to land. "It sounds simple, but there are many unknowns regarding how to fly a helicopter on Mars."
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-25/edition-12/new-voices-should-we-be-more-mindful-psychosis
New Voices: Should we be more mindful of psychosis?
How many times have you sat down to have a cup of tea or coffee, only to realise that you have finished it without even being aware that you drank it? We live in a culture where we feel we always need to be active, whether it is being immersed in technology and social media, reading up on the latest theory or rushing around in a desperate attempt to balance work and home life. Perhaps if we were more aware of the present moment, we might find it easier to concentrate, become more attuned to ourselves and others, and more resilient. Are we ‘mind full’ or ‘mindful’?
Mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist practice that involves ‘paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1994), helping us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings, and managing them in a better way. It is about waking up to the present moment, reconnecting with ourselves, and appreciating the fullness of every moment. When we go on ‘autopilot’ to process our emotional experiences we can lose sight of them and become detached and disconnected from ourselves. Mindfulness techniques help people become more aware of the way they think and feel, and how their experiences impact on their emotions.
There is evidence that mindfulness practices can lead to reduced suffering and enhanced well-being (see Baer, 2003). Many of these techniques have been incorporated into well-researched treatment approaches for a range of mental and physical health difficulties, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
These approaches have been described as ‘third wave’ therapies because they go beyond first wave behavioural, and second wave cognitive-behavioural techniques that emphasise thoughts themselves. Instead, they focus on changing how people relate to their thoughts. Integrating ancient wisdom and modern science, mindfulness is emerging as a powerful evidence-based tool, shown to be effective in clinical settings to alleviate a variety of mental health problems and to improve psychological functioning (Baer, 2003).
Although mindfulness has become a commonly used approach in the treatment of less severe psychological problems, the feasibility and effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in the management of serious psychiatric disorders remains controversial (Segal et al., 2002). For example, teaching meditation to people who experience psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusional beliefs, has been discouraged, with some people arguing that deep states of absorption may be linked to the onset of hallucinations in people who are prone
to psychosis (Yorston, 2001). However, these papers refer to single cases, lack experimental rigour and mostly refer to lengthy transcendental meditation practices. Modern therapeutic approaches consist of shorter breathing exercises and teach mindfulness as a ‘choiceless attention’ rather than a concentration meditation. There is increasing evidence that specially adapted mindfulness techniques can be used safely and effectively in the management and treatment of severe mental health problems, such as psychosis (Chadwick et al., 2005; Langer et al., 2012).
Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, are often chronic conditions that cause considerable distress and functional impairment. People who experience psychotic phenomena such as auditory hallucinations often, although not always, find these symptoms greatly distressing. As a result, they may engage in avoidance strategies (such as suppression or distraction), or on the other extreme, can become engrossed in their symptoms (ruminating or confronting them). Both of these reactions are associated with increased distress in relation to psychotic symptoms (Badcock et al., 2011; Romme & Escher, 1993). However, strategies that include paying attention and acceptance are associated with reduced distress and greater ability to cope. For example, Romme & Escher (1989) found that the most effective coping strategies used by people who hear voices involved listening to them and accepting them, which was related to a more positive view of the self.
Therefore, mindfulness skills can provide these individuals with an alternative way of relating to their symptoms, moving from a judgemental and controlling stance to a more compassionate, accepting view. The effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches for people with psychosis has been demonstrated in controlled clinical settings (Jacobsen et al., 2011) and in the community (Chadwick et al., 2009).
How does this mindful relationship with psychotic sensations unfold? Abba et al. (2008) argue that it’s a three-stage process:
I Learning to become more aware of psychotic experiences and observing the thoughts and emotions that follow them.
I Allowing psychosis to come and go without reacting in order to cultivate understanding that distress is produced by the meanings one attaches to thoughts and sensations.
I Reclaiming power by accepting psychosis and the self by acknowledging that the sensations only form part of the experience, and are not a definition of the self.
Through these processes, mindfulness practice reveals that judging, ruminating and struggling against psychotic experiences creates distress, while observation and acceptance of psychotic experience in the absence of judgement is empowering and calming. By relating mindfully to sensations by paying attention to emotional reactions, clients discover that thoughts, images and sensations are transient and temporary; that they are a product of the mind, rather than a part of the self. These techniques enable clients to understand that they have a choice in how they respond. This realisation can help them
to break free of habitual reactions to these experiences (such as negative self-judgements), reducing distress associated with them.
However, the introduction of mindfulness can present a challenge to change-oriented cognitive and behavioural therapists, largely because of the acceptance-based nature of the techniques (Lau & McMain, 2005). There is no attempt to dispute dysfunctional cognitions, but to be non-judgemental and to accept thoughts, feelings and sensations as they are. Paul Chadwick has demonstrated that these approaches can be effectively combined in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) for distressing psychosis (Chadwick et al., 2005). In MBCT, as well as being more aware of thought patterns, clients are encouraged to observe and accept their internal experiences, and how they influence thoughts and behaviour. Cognitive change appears to result from understanding that thoughts and feelings are temporary phenomena which will pass eventually, and embracing and cultivating an attitude of acceptance can enhance the therapeutic relationship, clients’ acceptance of self and others, and therapists’ acceptance of clients. In this way, acceptance strategies can lead to behavioural changes, and help the integration of two seemingly contrasting approaches, with promising outcomes.
There are also some exciting findings to suggest that mindfulness practice is associated with physical changes in the brain. Structural changes have been observed in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is an area of the brain associated with emotional regulation (Tang et al, 2012). These changes are associated with improvements in mood, which is consistent with emotional regulation being a core feature of many mental health problems, including psychosis. There is evidence to suggest that mindfulness practice is linked to reduced brain activity in the default mode network (Brewer et al., 2011). This network of brain areas is believed to be involved in rumination and mind wandering, which are common thought processes seen in people with mental health difficulties. Becoming more aware of the present moment through mindfulness practice is associated with
a reduction in these mental states. Components of many psychiatric disorders, such as psychosis, are preoccupation with thoughts, rumination and poor emotional regulation, which mindfulness practice appears to affect. Neuroimaging studies are beginning to explain the neural mechanisms of how mindfulness might be working clinically.
A few years ago I was fortunate enough to work with a psychologist in a rehabilitation team who was running a mindfulness group. I was amazed to see how beneficial people found the techniques for coping with symptoms such as hallucinations and paranoia, and how much more prepared they felt upon discharge from the team. I am keen to continue this work, so currently I am investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness-based group therapy in an Early Intervention in Psychosis Service in London, helping people learn new ways of managing and living with their difficulties. I am also eager to extend my work to explore the neuroscience of mindfulness, particularly the link between mindfulness practice and structural and functional changes in
the brain.
In sum, mindfulness is a new, powerful technique with a rapidly growing evidence base for reducing distress associated with a number of mental health problems. It can complement and enhance the effectiveness of existing psychological treatment approaches, and offer a way to develop insight, empathy and tolerance. As a worrier myself I am very aware of the impact of dwelling on negative thoughts and anticipating the worst! Learning about mindfulness has enhanced my personal and professional development, and it can help practitioners as well as clients value every moment and appreciate the richness of life.
Carly Samson is a Research Worker at the Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London
carly.samson@kcl.ac.uk
References
Abba, N., Chadwick, P. & Stevenson, C. (2008). Responding mindfully to distressing psychosis. Psychotherapy Research, 18(1), 77–87.
Badcock, J.C., Paulik, G. & Maybery, M.T. (2011). The role of emotion regulation in auditory hallucinations. Psychiatry Research, 185, 303–308.
Baer, R.A. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 125–143.
Brewer, J.A., Worhunsky, P.D., Gray, J.R. et al. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(50), 20254–20259.
Chadwick, P., Newman-Taylor, K. & Abba, N. (2005). Mindfulness groups for people with psychosis. Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapy, 33, 351–359.
Chadwick, P., Hughes, S., Russell., D. et al. (2009). Mindfulness groups for distressing voices and paranoia. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 37, 403.
Jacobsen, P., Morris, E., Johns, L. & Hodkinson, K. (2011). Mindfulness groups for psychosis: Key issues for implementation on an inpatient unit. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 39, 349–353
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.
Langer, A.I., Cangas, A.J., Salcedo, E. & Fuentes, B. (2012). Applying mindfulness therapy in a group of psychotic individuals. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 40, 105–109.
Lau, M.A. & McMain, S.F. (2005). Integrating mindfulness meditation with cognitive behavioural therapies. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 50, 863–869.
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https://theconversation.com/warp-drives-physicists-give-chances-of-faster-than-light-space-travel-a-boost-157391
The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It is about 4.25 light-years away, or about 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The fastest ever spacecraft, the now- in-space Parker Solar Probe will reach a top speed of 450,000 mph. It would take just 20 seconds to go from Los Angeles to New York City at that speed, but it would take the solar probe about 6,633 years to reach Earth’s nearest neighboring solar system.
If humanity ever wants to travel easily between stars, people will need to go faster than light. But so far, faster-than-light travel is possible only in science fiction.
In Issac Asimov’s Foundation series, humanity can travel from planet to planet, star to star or across the universe using jump drives. As a kid, I read as many of those stories as I could get my hands on. I am now a theoretical physicist and study nanotechnology, but I am still fascinated by the ways humanity could one day travel in space.
Some characters – like the astronauts in the movies “Interstellar” and “Thor” – use wormholes to travel between solar systems in seconds. Another approach – familiar to “Star Trek” fans – is warp drive technology. Warp drives are theoretically possible if still far-fetched technology. Two recent papers made headlines in March when researchers claimed to have overcome one of the many challenges that stand between the theory of warp drives and reality.
But how do these theoretical warp drives really work? And will humans be making the jump to warp speed anytime soon?
Compression and expansion
Physicists’ current understanding of spacetime comes from Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. General Relativity states that space and time are fused and that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. General relativity also describes how mass and energy warp spacetime – hefty objects like stars and black holes curve spacetime around them. This curvature is what you feel as gravity and why many spacefaring heroes worry about “getting stuck in” or “falling into” a gravity well. Early science fiction writers John Campbell and Asimov saw this warping as a way to skirt the speed limit.
What if a starship could compress space in front of it while expanding spacetime behind it? “Star Trek” took this idea and named it the warp drive.
In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican theoretical physicist, showed that compressing spacetime in front of the spaceship while expanding it behind was mathematically possible within the laws of General Relativity. So, what does that mean? Imagine the distance between two points is 10 meters (33 feet). If you are standing at point A and can travel one meter per second, it would take 10 seconds to get to point B. However, let’s say you could somehow compress the space between you and point B so that the interval is now just one meter. Then, moving through spacetime at your maximum speed of one meter per second, you would be able to reach point B in about one second. In theory, this approach does not contradict the laws of relativity since you are not moving faster than light in the space around you. Alcubierre showed that the warp drive from “Star Trek” was in fact theoretically possible.
Proxima Centauri here we come, right? Unfortunately, Alcubierre’s method of compressing spacetime had one problem: it requires negative energy or negative mass.
A negative energy problem
Alcubierre’s warp drive would work by creating a bubble of flat spacetime around the spaceship and curving spacetime around that bubble to reduce distances. The warp drive would require either negative mass – a theorized type of matter – or a ring of negative energy density to work. Physicists have never observed negative mass, so that leaves negative energy as the only option.
To create negative energy, a warp drive would use a huge amount of mass to create an imbalance between particles and antiparticles. For example, if an electron and an antielectron appear near the warp drive, one of the particles would get trapped by the mass and this results in an imbalance. This imbalance results in negative energy density. Alcubierre’s warp drive would use this negative energy to create the spacetime bubble.
But for a warp drive to generate enough negative energy, you would need a lot of matter. Alcubierre estimated that a warp drive with a 100-meter bubble would require the mass of the entire visible universe.
In 1999, physicist Chris Van Den Broeck showed that expanding the volume inside the bubble but keeping the surface area constant would reduce the energy requirements significantly, to just about the mass of the sun. A significant improvement, but still far beyond all practical possibilities.
A sci-fi future?
Two recent papers – one by Alexey Bobrick and Gianni Martire and another by Erik Lentz – provide solutions that seem to bring warp drives closer to reality.
Bobrick and Martire realized that by modifying spacetime within the bubble in a certain way, they could remove the need to use negative energy. This solution, though, does not produce a warp drive that can go faster than light.
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Independently, Lentz also proposed a solution that does not require negative energy. He used a different geometric approach to solve the equations of General Relativity, and by doing so, he found that a warp drive wouldn’t need to use negative energy. Lentz’s solution would allow the bubble to travel faster than the speed of light.
It is essential to point out that these exciting developments are mathematical models. As a physicist, I won’t fully trust models until we have experimental proof. Yet, the science of warp drives is coming into view. As a science fiction fan, I welcome all this innovative thinking. In the words of Captain Picard, things are only impossible until they are not.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2104.24 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2122 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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