Tag: anxiety

Esp 88: Suggestible to Healing-Placebo Science, guest Erik Vance

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:33 — 70.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe to Spark My Muse Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | Subscribe to Spark My Muse

Welcome to Spark My Muse!

PROGRAM DETAILS:
• Each FRIDAY, guests join me in a conversation.
• Come back each Wednesday
(on “Hump Day” aka Midweek) for a brief Soul School “lesson”–something for your interior world and common life.

Want to help?
LISTENERS, like you, support Spark My Muse with gifts and spreading the word about the show.

paypal
Your support has been heartwarming.
THANK YOU. 

erikvance
(click to visit Erik’s website)

Today, my guest is Erik Vance a researcher and science water whose work has been published in The New York Times, Scientific American, and National Geographic. He is the author of

Suggestible You: The Curious Science of Your Brain’s Ability to Deceive, Transform and Heal published by National Geographic

suggestibleyou
(click for more book info)

SHOW NOTES:

MIN 2:00

When the brain heals or cures the body without medicine and studying the placebo effect.

Being a Christian Scientist as a child and experiencing faith healing.

MIN 4:30

Faith healing and gullibility

Hypocrites

1940s studies determined that the non responders to placebo “pure”, the the response in part of being human.

MIN 7:30

Hypnosis and being “talented” if you are hypnotizable.

[My conversation with Magician Kevin Ferguson about HYPNOSIS and DECEPTION]

MIN 8:30

Expectancy, belief, and placebo effect

MIN 10:30

Priming and doctors using he placebo effect to help people.

Brain is a giant prediction machine.

MIN 12:30

When Erik got electric shocks and his brain filled in the gaps

MIN 15:00

Distraction and pain killing and hypnosis

MIN 18:00

Memories, Suggestibility, and Placebo

Dr Steven Porter – False and Implanted Memories and placebo

[My episode with Dr Porter on implanted and false memories.]

Who we are is so tied up in our memories

MIN 20:30

3 phases of memories

PTSD

memories and expectation for healing

MIN 23:30

Flashbulb memories and how memories changed

MIN 25:00

Eastern vs. Western medicine in terms of healing and placebo

Now used more in certain conditions that track with placebo research and findings.

MIN 28:30

The conditions that respond to placebos

MIN 30:30

Placebo effect that works on top of medicines

MIN 32:30

Marketing medicine in certain ways to increasing effects

MIN 34:30

The rules in play that can cause a 60% response rate to placebos

MIN 36:30

Want Nocebo is (“I shall harm”)

MIN 38:00

Fear is powerful motivator

MIN 38:30

Superstitions, curses (nocebo) and when Erik ask a witch doctor to curse him

MIN 43:00

Proper Hoc Ergo Hoc

(looking for a cause as a reason after something happens)

Creating narratives

MIN 46:00

Cursing other people

Body language and intensions

What doctors can communicate without realizing it

• suggestibleyou.com

• erikvance.com

TWITTER @aterikvance

MIN 50:00
Book tour dates

Hear more episodes!

Pick an option that’s best for you!

Eps 79: How to Fly (at will) in Your Dreams–guest, Robert Waggoner

Welcome to Spark My Muse!

DETAILS:
• Each FRIDAY, guests join me in a conversation.
• Come back each Wednesday
(on “Hump Day” aka Midweek) for a brief Soul School “lesson”–something for your interior world and common life.

HOW FUNDING WORKS:
Even though listening twice a week is free, Spark My Muse costs hundreds of dollars out of my own pocket each month to create, produce, and host online–and takes 25-30 hours of work per week too–which keeps me from making income to pay my own normal bills like food, electricity, and water. The good news is that Listeners, like you, give so kindly (at over 3 times the average!!) to support the show. LISTENERS make the BIG difference – Thank you for helping too!

paypal
Would you like to give $5, $10, or $20?
It’s quick and easy.

(To share an audio clip, just click the Clammr logo below.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:03 — 68.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe to Spark My Muse Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | Subscribe to Spark My Muse

SHOW NOTES:

Today’s guest is lucid dream expert, Robert Waggoner. We discuss remembering dreams, overcoming nightmares, PTSD, trauma, grief, and how to lucid dream (gain consciousness and control of your actions and dreams themselves while you are dreaming).robertwaggoner

MIN 2

Scientific proof for lucid dreaming (discovered in sleep lab studies)

REM sleep (the brain state where dreams happen)

MIN 3:30

Robert’s dream life from childhood onward

Precognitive dreams – Dreaming something before it happens.

Robert feeling that dreaming maybe tapping into God in a timeless realm.

6:30

Half of people don’t seem to recall their dreams at all.

Keeping a dream journal

9:30

3 Reasons you don’t remember your dreams

12:30

Important reasons why we might delve into working with our dream life at all?

17:00

Using dreams for healing.

26:30

Mutual lucid dreaming

30:00

Dreams for healing phobias, anxiety, emotional healing, to aid in mediation, bad habits, obsessions, etc.

35:00

Meditation within the dream

Dream yoga, Michael Katz

Clare Johnson better meditation in waking life.

Caroline McCready, Robert’s co-author

39:30

Ask to feel a quality of the divine or unconditional love.

42:30

How to wake up within a dream.

The lucid experience.

The website: dreaminglucid.com

BOOKS author and co-authored by Robert:

46:30

Discovering your uncovered self.

THANK YOU for listening.
What did you think?
Have you ever had lucid dream?
Let me know at the FACEBOOK page.

Check out some of the recent episodes!

Pick an option you like best:

Soul School – Lesson 48: Embodying Ritual and Transition

Welcome to Spark My Muse!

and to SOUL SCHOOL.

These brief “lessons” are released each Wednesday
(on “Hump Day” aka Midweek).

• Come back FRIDAYS for intriguing guest conversations! This Friday is my special guest: insightful philosopher, theologian, author and clever storyteller, Peter Rollins.

HOW FUNDING WORKS:
Spark My Muse costs hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket each month to create, produce, and host online. Listeners, like you, feel a spasm of joy giving $5 or $10 to help it continue. It takes just 90 seconds to help!

paypal

Show notes

Transitions in life, pivotal moments, and things of significance often stay in abstraction in our minds. Nevertheless, as humans we are embodied souls–if you will. We are beings who experience a full array of sensations with our felt senses. Instead of being cut off from these very human ways of interacting with the world and with each other, I say we should go the extra bit and bring our interior world to the surface in tangible and representational ways. What if we embody and physically ritualize this part of us–when it makes sense? That is, make it sacramental or give what is invisible a visible placeholder.

Today’s episode focuses on how we might integrate mind and body and inhabit or even perform in a space in the tangible world that allows for rites of passage or significant moments in our times of life transitions. What if we create a holistic and gracious space for our thoughts and feelings representationally, as we journey through difficult, monumental, or joyous moments that seem too rich or deep to keep within? Will this make it possible to be “more authentically ourselves”?


(You can share an audio clip in a snap using the Clammr app below.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:19 — 15.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe to Spark My Muse Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | Subscribe to Spark My Muse

I invite you to listen to recent episodes:

Pick the best option for you below:

Eps 74: Anxiety At the Base of Belief – Guest, Tad DeLay

Welcome to Spark My Muse!

Thanks for your generousity.

As you hear and enjoy this episode of Spark My Muse, please remember to contribute something to my out-of-pocket costs to create this material for you.

paypal

Have you been EXPECTING DeLays?

DeLayed gratification is good for the soul….but wait no longer!

Today’s guest is TAD DeLAY.
.TadDeLay

(Tad and I are not related, but we both enjoy the humor that comes along with having an odd last name.)

Tad is interested in the intersections of Continental philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, critical theory, and politics and is a PhD student (philosophy of religion and theology) at Claremont Graduate University, and holds an MA philosophy and an MA theology. He sees his vocation as aiming to make theory public. His second book, The Cynic & the Fool, will be available in late 2016.

 

(Share a clip from the show by using the Clammr app below.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:49 — 76.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe to Spark My Muse Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | Subscribe to Spark My Muse

SHOW NOTES:

MIN 2:00
“God is Unconscious”

• Sigmund Freud 
•Jacques Lacan 

What “God is Unconscious” means.

MIN 5:00
The concept of “The Big Other”

If there is no God nothing is possible anymore -a play on Dostoevsky.

The Big Other gives us reference to authorizes us to do something.

(you’d second guess everything)

The void that the gods are covering over.

Removing gods doesn’t do as much as you think.

MIN 8:30
The people not afflicted by “the Big Other” are psychotic
They are not liberated.

MIN 10:30
Shared norms and morals the beginnings of society. A collective neurosis. “The Good” “The right” “The gods”

In a sense there is failure of those social rules to regulate those rules in a psychotic.

13:30
The Cynic and Fool

14:30
Sigmund Frued people engage in repetitive behaviors that don’t work because we appreciate the certainty. There is some pleasure in feeling guilty.

15:00
Story of the the compliant good girl
Does the Big Other is dead but does the Big Other know he’s dead

18:00
We change the language around but we keep the essential language around of trying to please the Big Other and keep that in place.”

20:30
When Identity Signifiers aren’t working in your life.

Rank and identity

MIN 22:00
Psychoanalyst is interested in only what doesn’t work b/c what doesn’t work is what people are enjoying the most.

MIN 23:30
What the Cynic and Fool means and the 3 problems upfront.

The fiction underlying most binaries.

cynic – manipulation, means to an end.
fool – believing directly or wish.

Institutional pressures.

MIN 29:00
Job prospects for seminary students who learn thing their congregations wouldn’t want to believe.

MIN 31:00
A Lacan example:
Leftist foolish desire
Right wing crook honesty

MIN 36:00
A quote related to anxiety.

Paul Tillich theologian.

The base of every ritual- organize into something productive

ontological – the way things are – we will die
moral – we might be guilty
spiritual – we we question whether our life will be meaningless

Eucharistic as an example.
means connection for some
means comfort for some
means justice for others
minimizes anxiety

MIN 40:00
Anxiety never lies.

Anxiety DOES have an object but it’s usually imaginary.

Anxiety THEN doubt. (not the other way)

You don’t have say in what you believe.

Keep anxiety at bay by staying ambiguous.

Anxiety is at the base of religion and rituals and even beliefs themselves.

[ictt-tweet-inline via=””]“Orthodoxy is what you hold on to when you have nothing left to say about the doctrine itself.” -via @taddelay[/ictt-tweet-inline]

(Tweet that amazing quote–just click the blue bird.)

Certainty …holding anxiety at bay….and you feel certain because you are actually ambiguous .

MIN 46:00
The Kettle story

The book of Job and the 3 argument about suffering.

How people deal with suffering.

MIN 52:00
When the book comes out. The Cynic and the Fool – Tad’s AMAZON page

Kester Brewin website

Hear the fantastic conversation– the Spark my Muse episode with Kester Brewin:

53:30
Visit Tad’s website: taddelay.com

Listen in to other episodes:

Pick the best option for you below:

Soul School Lesson 38 – Unconventional Thoughts on Suicide and Depression

Welcome to SOUL SCHOOL – a bit of nourishment for your inner world.

A new Soul School is released each Wednesday.

This is a really personal Soul School and maybe the hardest one I’ve done yet.

SCROLL DOWN TO FIND THE AUDIO PLAYER

Here’s why I did it…
It’s easier sometimes to act like very dark thoughts happen to other people. Growing up, Jesus and the hope of heaven was suppose to cure me of any hopelessness, fear, despair, and existential angst. It was seldom that simple. My life often felt sad, tumultuous, and complicated. There seem to be people that experience Jesus (or the idea of Jesus) like a “happy pill”…sometimes this was true for me. But, often, it wasn’t. I felt like the Bible character Job, a lot.

Some might accuse me of having too little faith. But, if you have all the answers, you don’t need faith at all. Certainty is faith-killing. I rely on faith, because I’m on a journey into the unknown. A journey of discovery. And, I need to be brave, especially now. Maybe you do too.

Unforeseen suffering or brain chemistry (or both) slings some of us onto another path and the easy answers and promises fall short sometimes. So, if that’s been your situation, I want you to know that you’re not alone. Don’t feel ashamed. Let’s do this together.

[ictt-tweet-inline]Feeling alone is what gets us into the worst sort of trouble. It can bring us to both a figurative and literal dead end.[/ictt-tweet-inline]

(To tweet that quote, click the blue bird.)

Today, on Soul School, I expose the shame and silence about dark moods and the rather common thoughts of suicide and despair some of us face. I want you to hear my story so that you can share your story and together we will all be better for it.

Please, seek the help you need, despite what those around you know or don’t know about your feelings and situation; and despite what they think you should do about it.

The U.S. national hotline to speak to someone, right now, is 1-800-273-TALK. (1-800-273-8255) or go to SUICIDE.ORG

Speak to someone: someone you know is wise, if you have a loving family member seek that one out, a trusted friend, a supportive spiritual guide from your religious tradition, or someone trained to help. There are so many who are willing and able to help you.

•Just being open about it takes the teeth out of it and gets you out of the shadows and to where you can be seen, heard, and loved.

Your cries for help will not go unnoticed if you reach out until you find connection. Your story isn’t over yet.

• If you have pervasive (rather than passing) thoughts of suicide or a detailed plan to end your life, I ask you to seek professional medical attention immediately.

• Please stay. Tell me your story-let’s both stay.

Because today’s information could save lives, please pass it along as you are able.

AUDIO PLAYER:


If you want to share an audio clip, click the red and white logo on the right below and select a snippet.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:33 — 40.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe to Spark My Muse Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | TuneIn | RSS | Subscribe to Spark My Muse

SHOW NOTES:

Below are the books mentioned in the program today:

 

Victor Frankl

Jennifer Michael Hecht

 

To hear the conversation with Jennifer Michael Hecht on suicide and her powerful book STAY, click below:

This weekly broadcast relies on your contributions to continue:

• So I can continue to create podcasts, you can give a one-time gift click HERE.

• To “go steady” and support monthly at $1 or more CLICK HERE.

Please enjoy some of the other recent episodes!

Pick a subscription option so you can hear my next guest –Charlie Porter from the Fable Podcast.