Sleep is a quiescent behavioral state during which complex homeostatic functions essential to health and well-being occur. Insomnia is a very common psychiatric disorder leading to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of concentration, memory, and performance as well as disease. Current pharmaceutical treatments can be expensive, impairing, unhealthy, and habit-forming. Relaxation...
The present study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and physical and academic performance in Marine Corps recruits and active Marines. Using emotional intelligence theory (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey 1999; Mayer Salovey & Caruso, 2004) and the mindfulness in sport (MIS) construct (Gardner & Moore, 2004; Thienot, et al., 2014); this study assessed the predictive...
The systematic criticism of articles providing evidence that fish and invertebrates can feel pain is discussed. Beliefs are known to be stronger than evidence in the human mind, and could generate this outcry, while from another perspective, the criticisms appear as a territorial move by fishermen against a perceived threat to their domain. The scientific inconsistency in which consciousness is...
In an increasingly technology-textured environment, smart, intelligent and responsive technology has moved onto the body of many individuals. Mobile phones, smart watches, and wearable activity trackers (WATs) are just some of the technologies that are guiding, nudging, monitoring, and reminding individuals in their day-to-day lives. These devices are designed to enhance and support their human...
The Informational Sociobiological Theory proposes a radically-different definition of living systems and, therefore, is the only existing neurological theory that evades the mind-brain problem and explains the nature of human consciousness. It was developed by Pedro Ortiz Cabanillas between 1984 and 2011. In this document we are presenting a listing of his main works. We include, additionally,...
This chapter addresses the issue of a stroke's impact on consciousness and the self, from a clinical point of view. We look at how the mind is seen by three experts—a neuroscientist, a brain surgeon, and a neuro-philosopher—and find that, instead of solving the mystery of the mind, they in fact add to it. Indeed, they all agree on the lingering mystery of consciousness, underneath and beyond...
The global crisis of terrestrial civilization is steadily increasing. A necessary condition for overcoming it is the change in mass consciousness, such negative qualities as irrepressible consumerism, aggressiveness, excessive egoism. As the Dalai Lama emphasizes: “We badly need a fundamental change in human consciousness”. According to him, science is of great importance in solving this...
During meditation, consciousness/awareness is usually enhanced because of higher attention and concentration, which inter-dependently co-arise thru appropriate interactions between neural signals. Nāgārjuna rejects ‘inherent existence’ or ‘essence’ in favor of co-dependent origination (Pratītyasamutpāda), and that is also why he rejects causality; the entities that lack inherent existence...
The field of enacted/embodied cognition has emerged as a contemporary attempt to connect the mind and body in the study of cognition. However, there has been a paucity of methods that enable a multi-layered approach tapping into different levels of functionality within the nervous systems (e.g., continuously capturing in tandem multi-modal biophysical signals in naturalistic settings). The...
Can a lonely long-distance run instantiate a meditation? Based on personal experience with running, I develop an affirmative answer to this question. First, I distinguish contemplation from meditation, proposing that the former is a non-reflexive activity focused on the monitoring of one’s own body, and that the latter is a reflexive activity that includes a “self” in memories of episodes from...