Psychedelic Drugs and Atheism: Debunking the Myths

Two recent surveys of people who took psychedelic drugs and reported “God experience encounters”, along with successful clinical trials using psychedelic therapy for depression, have given rise to public misconceptions about psychedelics and atheism. Specifically, three inferences have been drawn: (1) that the psychedelic experience tends to dissolve atheist convictions; (2) that atheist convictions, once dissolved, are replaced with traditional monotheist beliefs; and (3) that atheism and depression somehow correlate as afflictions for which psychedelic drugs offer relief. This paper argues, based on analysis of the studies and trials along with relevant supplemental evidence, that each of these popular inferences is substantially misleading. Survey data do not indicate that most psychedelic atheists have cleanly cut ties with their former convictions, and there is strong evidence that they have not traded atheism for traditional monotheism. Both personal testimony and the effectiveness of microdose clinical trials serve to complicate any notion that a psychedelic drug alleviates symptoms of depression by “curing” atheism. The paper then extends its focus to argue that the broader field of neurotheology includes elements that contribute to these popular misconceptions

Groundhog Day at 25: Conflict and Inspiration at the Tipping Point of Seasonal Genres

Groundhog Day has been recognized by leaders of many religions as an inspirational film. It tracks all the responses a person might have to the suspicion that the world has no God, design, or inherent purpose: first, transgressive self-indulgence; next, acedic depression; and finally, redemptive benevolence. During the filming, however, a conflict in vision between Harold Ramis and Bill Murray tore apart their friendship. Ramis wanted a romantic comedy founded on evolution from arrogance to selfless benevolence; Murray preferred a darker satire. Although the finished film reflects Ramis\u27s vision of comedy--the genre of spring--Murray\u27s satirical gestures leave traces of winter that subtly undermine the inspiring climax

The placenta's second life

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-42).This thesis, written for a popular audience, explores the many facets of the placenta, an organ that facilitates the growth of the fetus during pregnancy. It looks at what happens when the placenta dodges the hospital incinerator-taking on a second purpose, a second life. Once the placenta is expelled during the third stage of labor, once it has served its role in the body and is facing retirement, it can take on whole new forms of usefulness. Humans, artful at manipulating the materials of life, have created new-and often controversial-purposes for this discard tissue after it has served its primary role: expelled placenta is used in eye surgery, in training dogs to sniff dead bodies, in toxicology research, in forensics, in cosmetics, and, most significantly, in an emerging field of stem cell research. From ritual use to research subject to health treatment, we have taken the placenta from the realm of the dead and given it new vigor.by Anne O. Glausser.S.M.in Science Writin

Efectividad de la técnica de enfriamiento rápido en la fuerza de presión palmar comparada con el uso de frio prolongado y un control : valoración a través de dinamometría

Tesis (Licenciatura en Kinesiología)Dentro de las intervenciones para modificar la fuerza muscular se encuentra el uso de la fisioterapia, utilizando agentes físicos térmicos como el frío o el calor. Existe escasa y antigua literatura que hable sobre los efectos de la crioterapia como método para modificar la fuerza muscular. Esta investigación se propone cuantificar las variaciones de fuerza isométrica de prensión palmar mediante un protocolo de aplicación de frío rápido, enfriamiento prolongado y un control, comparando los cambios cuantitativos entre los grupos estudiados. El estudio consta de ensayo clínico aleatorizado que demuestre la efectividad de la técnica Quick Icing comparado con enfriamiento prolongado y un control, midiéndolo a través de dinamometría. Se contó con un total de 112 participantes, los cuales fueron asignados a los distintos grupos de estudio. 36 a Quick Icing, 40 frío prolongado y 36 a control

Central Nervous System Changes in Pediatric Heart Failure: A Volumetric Study

Autonomic dysfunction, mood disturbances, and memory deficits appear in pediatric and adult heart failure (HF). Brain areas controlling these functions show injury in adult HF patients, many of whom have comorbid cerebrovascular disease. We examined whether similar brain pathology develops in pediatric subjects without such comorbidities. In this study, high-resolution T1 brain magnetic resonance images were collected from seven severe HF subjects age (age 8–18 years [mean 13]; left ventricular shortening 9 to 19% [median 14%]) and seven age-matched healthy controls (age 8–18 years [mean 13]). After segmentation into gray matter (GM), white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), regional volume loss between groups was determined by voxel-based morphometry. GM volume loss appeared on all HF scans, but ischemic changes and infarcts were absent. HF subjects showed greater CSF volume than controls (mean ± SD 0.30 ± 0.04 vs. 0.25 ± 0.04 l, P = 0.03), but total intracranial volume was identical (1.39 ± 0.11 vs. 1.39 ± 0.09 l, P = NS). Regional GM volume reduction appeared in the right and left posterior hippocampus, bilateral mid-insulae, and the superior medial frontal gyrus and mid-cingulate cortex of HF subjects (threshold P < 0.001). No volume-loss sites appeared in control brains. We conclude that pediatric HF patients show brain GM loss in areas similar to those of adult HF subjects. Substantial changes emerged in sites that regulate autonomic function as well as mood, personality and short-term memory. In the absence of thromboembolic disease and many comorbid conditions found in adult HF patients, pediatric HF patients show significant, focal GM volume loss, which may coincide with the multiple neurologic and psychological changes observed in patients with HF

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Book synopsis: William Blake, poet and artist, is a figure often understood to have 'created his own system'. Combining close readings and detailed analysis of a range of Blake's work, from lyrical songs to later myth, from writing to visual art, this collection of thirty-eight lively and authoritative essays examines what Blake had in common with his contemporaries, the writers who influenced him, and those he influenced in turn. Chapters from an international team of leading scholars also attend to his wider contexts: material, formal, cultural, and historical, to enrich our understanding of, and engagement with, Blake's work. Accessibly written, incisive, and informed by original research, William Blake in Context enables readers to appreciate Blake anew, from both within and outside of his own idiom

\u27Just Do It\u27: Gary Gilmore, Nancy Reagan, and Other Cultural Entanglements of the Nike Slogan

Within the canon of advertising slogans, those rough-hewn, demotic poems of American commerce, Nike\u27s Just Do It holds an exalted position. The slogan had an immediate impact in establishing the Nike brand in the late 1980s, and it has endured through succeeding decades -- not only for its marketing utility, but in its broader cultural resonance. It is not unreasonable to suggest that the three-word gem invented by Dan Wieden in 1988 stands above all other slogans, as judged by any sensible criteria of advertising success. The network of meanings surrounding Just Do It turns out to be much more complicated than we might imagine, given the simplicity of the text in question. This essay will offer a variety of approaches in an attempt at full analysis. As interpretive perspectives shift, different elements take priority in the generation or delimiting of meaning: authorial intentions; readers\u27 responses; socio-political contexts; and affiliations with deep structural patterns. All of these interpretive coordinates will prove useful as resources for probing the cultural entanglements of Just Do It