Soul School – Lesson 34: A Flexible Perspective on Suffering

Wednesday JUNE 8th, 8pm EDT is…
SOUL SCHOOL LIVE
Don’t miss out!
Support the show to get FREE Access.

ALL the info is HERE.

WELCOME TO SOUL SCHOOL

(released every Wednesday!)

If you want to be healed from past or present issues, getting emotional distance and a proper perspective from your painful thoughts, worries, and experiences is crucial. Easier SAID than done, right?

In the world of therapy, Dr Steven Hayes developed a powerful technique to facilitate that distance and achieve what is called “psychological flexibility”.

Humans are particularly good at achieving psychological flexibility, if we practice; and the basics are easy to understand.

READY to put the days of getting mentally or emotionally hijacked behind you?
LISTEN IN!

(If you heard audio you’d like to share, just click the CLAMMR icon below.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:51 — 20.4MB) | Embed

OVERVIEW:
Today, in Lesson 34, I talk about the basics of using psychological flexibility and the important work of Dr Steven Hayes.

• His therapy is call ACT: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The clinical studies demonstrate how successful the approach is. I encourage you to find out more after you finish the short Soul School episode. Watch his video and use the link to his website below.

[ictt-tweet-blockquote]Change PAIN into PURPOSE.[/ictt-tweet-blockquote]

SCH-head-shot — Click for Dr Hayes’ website and resources.

In this video he explained how his sudden onset anxiety disorder helped him come up with a therapy to create mental flexibility and distance that could be taught and demonstrated successful in clinical trails.

Thanks for listening.

If you enjoyed the show, and you can think of someone who it would help, please Share it!!

Please reach out and let me know if you like what I’m up to.
I never know who’s listening and if what I do makes any difference–
so I love hearing from listeners.

SUBSCRIBE and get the next episode “easy as pie”.

Tune in and download Spark My Muse twice per week!

Soul School – Lesson 33: You are a Meaning Maker

Thank you so very much for listening!
Welcome.

Each Wednesday is a Soul School lesson and each Friday is a conversation with a featured guest.

Today’s Soul School is about perceiving your surroundings and coming up with categories to make meaning of the world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:39 — 16.0MB) | Embed

Do you enjoy Spark My Muse?
Then, please rate the show on iTunes and contribute as a supporter.

It only takes $1 to get extra goodies, help the show financially survive, and co-create by deciding important things along with other supporters.

• Take look at the questions I’ve put up and weigh in; and check out the support rewards, too, here.
Your input is valuable. Collaboration makes the spark brighter!

• By supporting for $1 you also get a PREVIEW of extras available at the Varsity Club level.
You can see PART II of Soul School, Lesson 28.
• Click-here to get access now.

ANNOUNCING A Varsity Club, MEMBER’S ONLY Special Event:
WEDNESDAY, June 8, 2016.
8pm EDT.

Monthly Supporters at the $5 level (or higher) get some special perks–like access to exclusive events, classes, and discussions. (It’s called the “Varsity Club”.)

• Clubbers get access to PART II video lessons and handouts from Soul School Lessons 18-29, and more.

JUNE 8th Event:

SOUL SCHOOL LIVE
Join me live (and get access to the REPLAY anytime).

• Learn routines and spiritual practices that enhance emotional wellness and a more peaceful life.

• Learn how the brain processes and categorizes spiritual experiences.

• Learn how to develop “better hearing” for your inner world.

• Learn how to avoid the most common traps that will hijack you mentally and emotionally.

• Time for Q & A.

[1 hour event. FREE to monthly sponsors at all Varsity Club levels.]
SIGN UP NOW
(You will be sent a special access link to attend.)

Don’t miss the next episode.
Be sure to subscribe (see below) and listen to the Friday episode with my guest, On Friday, Masie Smith invites us to “embrace our weirdness”. Hear her fascinating story and be encouraged.

EPS 56: Implanted Memories, False Memories, and False Confessions

Welcome to Spark My Muse.

Today my guest is
Dr Stephen Porter who is the Founding Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science & Law at the University of British Columbia and he is a Registered Forensic Psychologist.

I know you will really enjoy this episode.
You’ve been a big help.

Leave a ONE-TIME gift HERE. Thank you.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:45 — 50.5MB) | Embed

SHOWNOTES
(Scroll down to find links, highlights, and details from the show)

MIN 1
Dr Porter started his career among the prison population in the field of forensic psychology.

His two main topics of research in the last 15 years: The nature and fallibility of memory (false memories) and deception detection.

He wanted do study memory empirically and he set up the Centre.

MIN 3:30

Why would somebody ever confess to a crime they haven’t done?

1,000 years of judicial systems have held the assumption that a confession of guilt is to be believed unless the person is deranged or they have been tortured.

In the last 30 years we now know this to be very false.

MIN 5:00
Studying people who believe they have actually committed a crime (and have a false memory of the crime) when they haven’t down any such thing.

Elizabeth Loftus – Implanted Memory studies (click for info)

Lost in the shopping mall studies (25% could be convinced of and falsely remember this frightening childhood event that never happened to them).

Julia Shaw (click for info)

70% of study participants were implanted with memories. They were convinced and falsely remembered committing a serious crime when they were teenagers in just 3 interviews for an hour each.

MIN 8:00

Events we remember are slightly or majorly different from the last time we recalled it.

A true memory is recalled almost exactly the same way in the brain as a false memory.

The systemic issue in the criminal justice system arises when a lot of time has elapsed and also when interrogators can and are allowed to ask [questions] in very inappropriate ways that really mess with a person’s memories.

MIN 12

The implanting of memories studies.

The 1990s “repressed memory era”

MIN 14

The role of emotion, negative events, and authority figures in implanted memories.

MIN 19

The Innocence Project

In 25% of wrongful convictions the accused confessed to the crime.

In 63% of wrongful murder convictions, the accused confessed to the crime.

MIN 23:30

The 3 major types of false confessions.

MIN 28

The details within the false memories are analogous to real memories.

MIN 30: Psychopathic people who implant memories and destroy reality for their victims.

MIN 34:30

The surprising ways the experts detect deception –
What to look for in a liar. (It is not what you’ve heard.)

To access this bonus material GO HERE – support Spark My Muse.

• Visit Dr Porter’s website HERE

Did you enjoy the episode?
Try another!

Please leave a review on iTunes and pick a subscribe option.

Soul School – Lesson 25 – Why you are craving STABILITY

Welcome to Soul School!

Deconstruction and Reconstruction is a lifelong process.
After a season of growth and rebirth, things CHANGE and that means you will CRAVE stability and a return to “normal”. Today, is about that and what to do about it. I wish I had known this 20 years ago!!

After you listen to PART I (the audio button you can click below) be sure to Watch the video, PART II. It comes with a handout and is part of Varsity Club. It goes into Lesson 25 in a deeper way and has action steps and a specific guide to enact rebirth in your relationships. Find that here.

The quick details about Varsity Club:
This is the way core listeners, like you, support Spark My Muse with a monthly $5–that’s a tiny $1.25 per week. This comes with the option of 15 minutes of exclusive time with me, each month, to ask any questions you’d like from any podcast or Soul School episode. If questions come up, or if you’d like to know more, you get me to yourself.

You can cancel anytime and weekly Video lessons and handouts go back all the way to Lesson 18!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:02 — 28.9MB) | Embed

Watch the Video – PART II of Soul School.

To watch the video lesson of Lesson 25 and get the companion worksheet (aka be in Varsity Club) just

CLICK HERE NOW to WATCH

New video classes and resources come each week for Soul School lessons for monthly supporters who love Soul School, like you do.
You can cancel anytime.

EPS 53: Magical Thinking (The Voo Doo You Do): Guest Matthew Hutson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (59.4MB) | Embed

Video bonus feature:

SHOW NOTES

Matt Hutson has a B.S. in cognitive neuroscience from Brown University and an M.S. in science writing from MIT. He has written for Wired, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Discover, Scientific American Mind, Popular Mechanics, Technology Review, Slate, NewYorker.com, NYMag.com, ScienceMag.org, Aeon, Nautilus, Al Jazeera America, The Boston Globe,The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Psychology Today, where he was the News Editor for four years.

Find Matt on Twitter

Matt’s book The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking

<br />

MIN 1:30
Matt’s religious and spiritual background and context for writing about magic and how we think.

A Brief History of Time

Stephen Hawking

<br />

MIN 2:30

Cognitive Neuroscience studies

Meaning is filtered through the mind.

MIN 3:30

What is magical thinking and how does it happen all the time in our lives?

MIN 9:00

Humans are very social creatures and we apply our perspective (like thoughts and desires) onto other things that are not human.

MIN 11:30

Some atheists claim they don’t commit mistakes of magical thinking, but Matthew says, “Not so fast, we all do and it’s not so bad!”

Involuntary Cognitive bias

The experiments the tease out the behavioral repercussion of these basis.

MIN 14:30

Instinct and staying safe

MIN 16:30

How does Matt deal with his own magical thinking?

Realizing the difference between correlation and causation.

MIN 18

Learning Critical Thinking

Is there another explanation?

MIN 20

Transcendent experiences and loss of awareness of ego or a sense of awe.

Astronauts often return from space with a new belief in God or spirituality or ecologically-minded or with a renewed sense of awe.

MIN 23

Matt’s transcendent moment in Alaska.

MIN 25

Matt talks about the “The Soul Lives On” and “Everything Happens for a Reason” chapters of his book.

MIN 29

Up loading our brains to live on after us and artificial intelligence.

MIN 31

symbols: such as, people feel less lonely when they watch tv.

MIN 34

Consciousness as discreet states

MIN 35

Verbs most activate our motor system

MIN 38

The movie HER and brain simulation
<br />

MIN 40

The psychology of social status. power, prestige, and class how we achieve it. Why we care about getting it and what’s good about it and how it shows our values.

MIN 42

How upbringing can program us for life.

Thank you so much for your interest in this episode. Dig around and listen to other episode and come back each Wednesday and Friday for new ones, or subscribe and never miss a thing.

Wednesday JUNE 8th, 8pm EDT is… SOUL SCHOOL LIVE Don’t miss out! Support the show to get FREE Access.