Category Science

Why Effort Needs Time

The man who moves mountains begins by carrying small stones.  – Confucius “Human nature is prone to laziness. We gravitate towards what is easy. This is why we tend to circle the parking lot to find the closest spot to the supermarket entrance, choose the elevator over the stairs, or order food delivery instead of cooking,” says neuropsychologist Boris Cheval. We naturally prefer work that gives quick and satisfying rewards. When the reward is delayed, or when things get difficult, disappointment quickly sets in. And…

The Assets and Challenges of Highly Sensitive People

Highly sensitive people are featured as physically and emotionally more easily stimulated than others do. Being sensitive has both advantages and disadvantages. Yet, in many cultures possessing this trait is not considered ideal. The sensitive person has probably been told to “get over it” as if it were a defect, to feel self-worth and self-confidence. As an adult, it could have been harder to find the right career and relationships. Psychologist Elaine Aron who coined the term  “Highly Sensitive Person” articulates that it is not…

Effect of the Musician on the Audience

Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit.  – Beethoven “ We surrender to music when we listen to it – we allow ourselves to trust the composer and musician with a part of our hearts and our spirits. We let the music take us somewhere outside ourselves. The power of music is that it can connect us to one another, and to larger truths about what it means to be alive and what it means to…

Self-Mastery through Auto-Suggestion

  By believing oneself to be the master of one’s thoughts, one becomes so. “Before you treat someone, ask if they are willing to give up the things that make them sick,” advised Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BC). Since age-old times,  philosophers and medical savants have researched to demystify the creative power of human thought. The maxims “Man is what he thinks” and “I think, therefore I exist” have long been common in universal language. As an ancient sage said : Be careful of your thoughts,…

Mystery of Numbers

  Everything is connected to everything by secret knots. Numerology and number magic has fascinated humanity throughout millennia. From African tribes, American Indians, and Mayas to Mesopotamia, China and India, numbers are attributed mystery and meaning.   Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003), Harvard University professor known for her vast knowledge and distinguished books on Sufism and Islamic culture, offers a rare resource in numerology with her book The Mystery of Numbers. She demystifies the meanings of numbers in the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam with…

Your Brain On Music

“Music gives such pleasure that human nature cannot live without it, ” said Confucius. Music is essential says Victor Hugo because “ it expresses what cannot be put into words and what cannot remain silent.” The acclaimed neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist and musician  Daniel Levitin  explores the mystery of music and how music affects our brains, thoughts and our spirit.  He says : The moods that music creates are part of its mystery. What most of us turn to music for is an emotional experience. Because…

Consciousness During Near-Death Experience

Lucidity, awareness, and “otherworldly” sensations experienced at the brink of death and awe-inspiring medical reports of notable doctors People like to wonder, and this is the kernel of science.   – Ralph Waldo Emerson During the Second World War, the Austrian poet and writer Karl Skala (1924–2006), went to Russia with his troops. He and his comrade, Hannes, caught under artillery fire, took refuge in a fox inn. Hannes got hit and died there. Skala, heavily wounded, experienced that they were both rising up high…

Emotional Intelligence in Action

“Emotions impact health and behavior, and they should be managed to gain self-mastery.”  Avicenna (970-1037), the 11th century medical savant and philosopher foretold the imperative role of emotions on human psyche and behavior in his preeminent book, The Canon of Medicine. Centuries later, James Gross, director of  Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory known with his emotion regulation model explains: Emotional regulation refers to the process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express their feelings. Human ability…

Language of Numbers

The Pythagoreans believed that music was a purification for the soul, just as medicine was a purification for the body. The ancient Greek philosopher and polymath, Pythagoras (c. 570 – 495 BC) said that all things in cosmos – κόσμος are made of numbers ensuring that the universe functions in order and harmony. Known with his pioneering theories on music and mathematics, he proclaimed that cosmos is in harmonious motion precisely timed and structured.   The harmonious and repetitive rotations of the spheres emit celestial melodies…

Goethe’s Theory of Colors

Goethe’s theory of colors, and how the eye sees and simultaneously creates its own color   The great poet and savant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  (1749-1832) passionately explored the phenomenology of light and colors witnessed by the human eye, and collected his findings in Farbenlehre (Theory of Colors). His innovative doctrine of “physiological colors,”  though dismissed by some due to lack of empirical data in his epoch, would later lead to wide repercussions in the centuries to come in art, physics and philosophy. He proclaimed…