Tag Archives: perception

Of Elephants and Belief

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Are Your Thoughts and Beliefs REALLY Yours? The Story of the Spotted Elephant

June 3rd, 2022

By Dr. Michelle KmiecGuest Writer for Wake Up World

To explain the concept of molding your thoughts and beliefs to someone else’s i of what is or isn’t, we must take a look at how our minds work when it comes to believing or not believing that something exists. Whether it is true or not. This is especially important today when most of us get our news stories in single sentence alerts, and from single sources that already align with your belief system. Of course, this is exactly how we hope science doesn’t work.

Many perceive the human mind is of finite boundaries. In other words, we must be able to see things in a tangible manner; in a way that the mind can perceive the information. (Of course, our minds are not finite, but the Scientific Method has not evolved to take that into account; at least not yet). We make it finite by putting any gathered information in some sort of order. In mental boxes or file cabinet so that we are able to understand the information that enters our senses. If we see something that doesn’t make sense, we can’t just allow it to be simply something that doesn’t make sense…we must make sense out of the nonsense.

How is this done?

By using previously gathered information, which at all costs must be explainable, repeatable, and tangible in order to be considered “real”. Never mind that this method excludes a multitude of existing information. Kind of like how important evidence can be thrown out of a court of law due to improper procedures.

But isn’t information and evidence still exactly what it is…information and evidence?

And what happens when there is the need to prove something that isn’t really based on our definition of what is deemed to be real or not? Well, there is a hierarchy of so-called credible people that we automatically trust to tell us when something is real or isn’t real. Let’s explore how this works by looking at the following playful example:

NEWS ALERT: The Little Orange Elephant With Bright Red Dots

A person claims that they saw a little orange elephant with bright red dots, no bigger than a mouse, walk by.

Okay, well, besides being extremely unfashionable with such coloring, this occurrence may be a bit hard for you to believe. But… what if it was your friend that had seen the little elephant? What would you think? Would you believe them? Well, if you are like most of us, you might be thinking your friend may have a small problem and should consider seeking some “professional” help!

And what if it was the homeless fellow living on the street that saw this little orange elephant? What would you think then? I would wager a guess that you’d be crossing to the other side of the street in a pretty fast sprint!

Now let’s say that the person who saw this unlikely creature was the very eccentric artist who is known for her imagination? Would this make a difference? We may think “how cute” it is that she, “thinks” she saw a little orange and red elephant and, by the way, not at all unusual given the character of this creative artist.

Now let’s say that it was an influential person, such as some credible scientist, who saw this little colorful trunk-nosed animal. What would we think now? This is where we begin to really break the rules of “what is,” or perhaps where the “what is” was created.

Most of us would still probably think that this scientist had inhaled a few too many chemicals in his lab, while a few of us may stroke our chins and wonder, “what if he did see this thing? I mean he isn’t just anybody…he’s a scientist after all!”

Okay, okay…are you still hanging with me because now it’s really starting to get good!

Now let’s say that at the most recent annual conference of the Nobel Prize winners (now THESE are the most credible, influential people on the planet, right?) EVERYONE saw this little orange elephant with bright red dots walking across the stage. (And I’m not even going to go crazy by saying the little elephant was dancing across the stage…he was just merely walking; because that’s more believable, right?) Of these highly regarded scientists, how many would admit they saw this little guy? How many would believe it was, perhaps, some sort of terrorist attack? And once word had gotten out, how many of us would be glued to the 24-hour sensationalist cable news channels?

“Did you hear about the alleged little elephant sighting? They said he had red dots!”

“Did this really happen?”

“Are there more little elephants roaming our cities, or was this the only one?”

“Maybe they are really little aliens disguised as orange elephants with bright red dots and they are going to take over the planet!”

You know there would be a series of point-counter-point interviews with “specialists” from various arenas—if you watch cable news channels, by now you realize that there are specialists for everything! Perhaps there is a Cryptozoologist (the study of unknown animals…a “pseudoscience” of course) and a Zoologist (the study of known animals…you know, “real” science) for a “balanced” debate.

NEWS Elephants

Or maybe there is another debate between a Republican strategist and Democratic strategist—after all, it is a known fact that most scientists, as well as most of the academia, are “demo” liberals and it would be just like them to come up with something wacky like this to take the public’s focus away from the real issues – so say their Republican counterparts!

So the bigger question here is…how many people would now believe this all to be true? That there indeed is a little orange elephant with bright red dots no bigger than a mouse running around out there…and it’s still on the loose! I would even bet that there would be an immediate creation of something like The Colorful Little Elephant Society (TCLES)—website, theme song and all!

So, as with anything abstract or “imaginary,” it can be difficult for most people to comprehend information presented in this fashion, even for many scientists! Up until now, we have been comfortable with the certainty of Newtonian Physics that tells us to neatly place everything that is considered “known” into solid theories which ultimately become universal laws. So this shows how the scientific method requires specific criteria in order for something to be proven as truth and classified as “real”.

But what about those people who have been healed from “incurable” diagnoses outside of the required criteria? What of those who have survived cancers (even stage 4) from “alternative” methods? What of those who have been cured of diabetes in only a few months? And what of those who have been totally healed through energy medicine—the most intangible form of health care known (or unknown) to man yet?

We are in the infancy stages of this new idea. Many call it new science, new age, quantum physics. But whatever the term used, the essence of this theory scares many who have relied upon what is considered “known”. And it is incomprehensible to those scientists who feel they must be able to “touch” it, record it and most importantly control it.

Imagine when the idea that our world was not really the center of the universe was presented to the scientists of that time. The confusion, even denial, they must have felt. How can we expand our mind and see what we “think” isn’t there, yet, “know” that it really does actually exist? There is a story that on their first encounter with the Europeans, the American Indians could not see the first strange ship as it approached their shores, mainly due to the fact that it was not in their psyche to recognize it. Perhaps the same may be said about UFO sightings.

Isn’t it possible that this can also be applied to medicine? I think yes!

We seem to always want to “box” up different concepts and then forever rely on these packages for all things that require an explanation. And just like we are reluctant to throw away the boxes we have carefully stored in our attics, we continue to allow ourselves to be buried deeper and deeper in our dogmatic box. We stand with such dogmatic arrogance and conviction that we even deny the possibility of new and different concepts simply because we find it impossible to “box” the “unboxable”.

So why would some of us believe that this little orange elephant with bright red dots does exist, while others simply refuse to believe it? What if it turned out that quantum theory proves that parallel universes do in fact exist and that for a few moments we saw an example of something that lives in another world—a world that simultaneously exists with our own.

If what we actually “know” to be true is in fact not true, where does this put our current beliefs and moreover, our strongly dogmatic position of what reality really is? 

Science, via quantum physics, has found that everything we believe to exist really doesn’t exist as we think it does. Based on that premise, how can we state with true conviction what is real and what is not? How can we continue to trust those few who are so entrenched in a medically dogmatic position, even when it is obvious that the system is not just broken, but is decaying from its very core?

Pop Quiz: What color was the little elephant? Did you remember the elephant as orange or did pink pop into your head first? If you thought orange, good for you! If you thought pink, then this is a perfect example of the power of dogmatic belief in action!

Originally published at onlineholistichealth.com and reproduced here with permission.

from:    https://wakeup-world.com/2022/06/03/are-your-thoughts-and-beliefs-really-yours-the-story-of-the-spotted-elephant/

A Change of Perception

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Objective Reality vs. Perceived Reality

perceived-realityJohn Perkins, Evonomics
Waking Times

My success as chief economist at a major international consulting firm was not due to the lessons I learned in business school. It was not due to the competence of my staff of brilliant econometricians and financial wizards.

Those things may have helped at times. But there was something else that made it all happen. That something else was the same something else that elevated George Washington, Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr, Steve Jobs, and other successful people to the heights of their success.

That something else is available to everyone of us.

It is the ability to alter objective reality by changing perceived reality, what we might think of as the Perception Bridge.

Economic Hitman

As described in my book The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, my job was to convince heads of state of countries with resources our corporations covet, like oil, to accept huge loans from the World Bank and its sister organizations. The stipulation was that these loans would be used to hire our engineering and construction companies, such as Bechtel, Halliburton, and Stone and Webster, to build electric power systems, ports, airports, highways and other infrastructure projects that would bring large profits to those companies and also benefit a few wealthy families in the country, the ones that owned the industries and commercial establishments. Everyone else in the country would suffer because funds were diverted from education, healthcare and other social services to pay interest on the debt. In the end, when the country could not buy down the principal, we would go back and, with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “restructure” the loans. This included demands that the country sell its resources cheap to our corporations with minimal environmental and social regulations and that it privatize its utility companies and other public service businesses and offer them to our companies at cut-rate prices.

It was a strategy of using perceived reality to change objective reality. In these cases, Objective Reality 1 was that the countries had resources. The Perceived Reality was that using those resources as collateral on loans to finance the building of infrastructure projects would create economic growth and prosperity for all the citizens. Objective Reality 2, however, was that economic growth occurred only among the very wealthy. Since economic statistics (GDP) in such countries are skewed in favor of the wealthy, the fact was that only our companies and the wealthy families benefited. The rest of the population suffered. In many cases this has led to political unrest, resentment, and the rise of various forms of radicalism and terrorism.

“Reality is merely an illusion.” –Albert Einstein

We know from quantum physics and chaos theory that consciousness, observation, and changes in perception have impacts on physical reality that can expand exponentially. Modern psychology teaches that perceived reality governs much of human behavior. Religion, culture, legal and economic systems, corporations – in fact, most human activities – are determined by perceived reality. When enough people accept these perceptions or when they are codified into laws, they have immense impact on objective reality.

Human activities – individual, communal, and global – are driven by this process of altering human perceptions of reality in order to change objective realities. A couple of cases from US corporations illustrate this.

Case #1: Ford Motor Company

In 1914 Henry Ford’s Objective Reality was: A) His company sold Model T cars that were produced through the assembly line process by workers who were paid a standard minimum wage; and B) Because the assembly line was monotonous and workers were under a lot of pressure to reduce the amount of time to build a car from 12.5 hours to less than 100 minutes, there was an extremely high turn-over rate in Ford’s work force.

So Ford perceived a new reality. He raised wages from the standard $2.34 for a nine-hour day to $5 for an eight-hour day – at a time when every other car manufacturer was trying to reduce wages. In addition to keeping workers on his assembly line, Ford was motivated by a second perception. He understood that the company, its workers and the buying public all came from the same population and he reasoned that “unless an industry can so manage itself as to keep wages high and prices low it destroys itself, for otherwise it limits the number of its customers. One’s own employees ought to be one’s own best customers.” Ford perceived that increasing the buying power of his workers would have a multiplier effect; it would also increase the buying power of many others.

Objective Reality 2: Ford sold 308,000 Model Ts in 1914—more than all other carmakers combined. In 1915, sales soared to 501,000. In 1920, Ford sold a million cars.[1] In the process, Ford’s actions helped stimulate unprecedented growth in the US middle class. 

Case #2: Nike, Adidas and other Retailers

Objective Reality 1: These companies design high-end footwear and clothing that is manufactured in factories that the companies do not own in China, Vietnam, and other “sweatshop” countries.

Perceived Reality on the part of management at these companies: A) Outsourcing production releases their companies of worker-rights responsibilities and minimizes wages; B) Hiring highly-paid athletes to promote products counterbalances the negative publicity generated by activists who advocate more pay for sweatshop workers; and C) These policies, that are diametrically opposed to those of Henry Ford, will maximize profits.

Objective Reality 2: A) Low “non-living” wages and poor working conditions in overseas factories result in high worker turnover, illnesses, and adverse publicity; B) By negatively impacting consumer economic growth, such policies destroy opportunities for new markets that would result if workers were paid enough to buy the products they make and at the same time stimulate the multiplier effect; and C) Neither corporate profits nor overall economic growth in the countries where the factories are located are in fact maximized.

I had the opportunity to highlight the difference between the two cases above when a Portland Oregon (home of Nike) radio station interviewed me. The host inquired “If you could ask Nike founder Phil Knight one question, what would it be?”

I didn’t have to give it much thought. “Hey Phil, why don’t you follow Henry Ford’s advice?” I went on to say, “Imagine if as part of an international advertising campaign those athletes were to say something like, ‘Instead of $X millions, I and a bunch of my friends – other Nike celebrities – have agreed to have Nike cut our fees by Y%. Nike’s top managers have agreed to similar cuts. That extra money will go toward paying workers who make Nike products around the world higher wages. We believe that by Just Doing It we will help make the world a better, more peaceful place.’” I paused.

“That’s an awesome idea,” the host said.

I couldn’t help adding, “What do you think that might do to Nike sales? How would it impact the rest of the industry?”

“It’s all in the mind.” -George Harrison

The above are two examples of how the Perception Bridge works. There are countless others. These range from the individuals to corporations and all the way to governments. Human activity is determined by the ways perceptions impact physical reality – both consciously and unconsciously. Here’s an example of the global impacts that a perceived reality in the 1950s has had on every subsequent generation throughout most of the world .

Case #3: US Government Policies in Iran

Objective Reality 1: A) Mohammad Mosaddegh was democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1951; B) He introduced progressive reforms including social security, rent control, and land reform; C) He insisted that foreign oil companies pay a fair share of their income from Iranian oil to the Iranian people and when one – now known as BP – resisted, he set about nationalizing it.

Perceived Reality: The US government labeled Mosaddegh a Communist, Soviet puppet, and threat to democracy.

Objective Reality 2: A) The CIA overthrew Mosaddegh in 1953 and replaced him with the Shah, a brutal pro-Western dictator who “auctioned” Iran to foreign oil and other companies; B) Growing discontent led to the Iranian Revolution of 1979; C) The Shah was overthrown, Ayatollah  Khomeini took control, 52 US diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days, US and European countries broke relations with and initiated sanctions against Iran; D) Islamist militarism expanded rapidly during the next decades throughout the Middle East; and E) The entire region has been torn by wars and political instability; this has impacted relationships between countries far from the Middle East, including the US, China, Russia, much of Africa and Europe.

We can only imagine how different the situation might be in Iran, the Middle East, the US, and so much of the world if the perceived reality had been different – something like:

Perceived Reality: The US government supports Mossadegh’s policies and announces that it will only purchase oil from companies that pay a fair share of their income to the people of the countries where they extract oil.

The US overthrow of Mossadegh resulted in a series of tragic events that might be considered as “unintended consequences.” In my experience, such consequences occur because the people making the decisions do not fully understand the power of the Perception Bridge.

I’ve found in my role as advisor to corporations, governments, executives and as a lecturer at MBA and other programs that taking a good, hard look at the impact of perceived reality on objective reality is one of the most efficient processes individuals, businesses, and other institutions can employ in order to achieve their true objectives. I’m struck by how much the perceived realities in business have been altered since I was in school during the late 1960s.

I was taught that a good CEO earns a decent return for his investors and also makes sure that his company is a good citizen, that it serves a public interest. We were instructed to take care of our employees, giving them health insurance and retirement pensions, to treat our suppliers and customers with deep respect, and to honor the idea that good business is a win-win for all stakeholders. In many cases, CEOs made sure that their companies not only paid their fair share of taxes but also contributed money to local schools, recreational facilities and other such services.

All that changed in 1976 when Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics and stated, among other things, that the only responsibility of business is to maximize profits, regardless of the social and environmental costs. This was a perceived reality that became the defining goal for businesses. It convinced corporate executives that they had the right – some would say the mandate – to do whatever they thought it would take to maximize profits, including buying public officials through campaign financing, destroying the environment, and devastating the very resources upon which their businesses ultimately depend.

That perceived reality has resulted in a failed global economic system, one that is on the path to consuming itself into extinction – what some economists refer to as Predatory Capitalism.

It is time that we turn this around. How about:

Objective Realty 1: The glaciers are melting, the oceans rising, less than 5% of the world’s population lives in the US and we consume about 30% of the resources while half the world’s population lives in poverty, and the resource base that feeds the economy is in rapid decline.

Perceived Reality: A) When Milton Friedman espoused profit maximization in 1976, financial capital was seen as scarce while nature was considered abundant; the planet’s ability to absorb pollution and provide natural resources was considered practically unlimited; that has since changed; B) We can build an economy that rewards businesses that clean up pollution, regenerate devastated environments, and develop new technologies for energy, transportation, communications, trade, and just about everything else – that recycle instead of ravaging the planet; and C) The responsibility of business is to serve a public interest while earning decent rates of returns for investors who develop an economy as defined in B) above.

Objective Reality 2: An economic system that is headed for disaster is converted into one that is itself a renewable resource.

The success stories of humans – as individuals and as communities – revolve around the relationships of perceived reality to objective reality. At this critical time in history, it is essential that we commit to consciously building Perception Bridges that will take us into a world that future generations will want to inherit. By understanding that simple changes in perception bring about monumental changes in objective reality, we also realize that creating a better world is not just possible; it can be inspiring and fun.

About the Author

John Perkins is the author of The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2016).

Sources:

[1] Jeff Nilsson, “Why Did Henry Ford Double His Minimum Wage?” January 3, 2014, The Saturday Evening Post, http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/01/03/history/post-perspective/ford-doubles-minimum-wage.html

from:    http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/08/29/objective-reality-vs-perceived-reality/

Bringing Together Right & Left Brain

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Integrating the Left and Right Brain

Those of us alive on the planet during this unique time in human history have truly chosen an exciting time to exist.  We live during a time where many ancient prophecies are upon us and where the rate of the expansion and acceleration of consciousness is increasing exponentially; a time of apocalypse if you will.  The word apocalypse finds it’s origin in the Greek language meaning to uncover, reveal, or disclose.  Apocalypse is the perfect description for the current shift happening.

Previously hidden knowledge, spiritual concepts, and energy technologies are being revealed throughout the collective consciousness.  Generally speaking what are considered ‘new age’ ideas to some, are more accurately ancient knowledge, sciences, and understandings.  Our ancestors, wherever they may find origin, seemed to have a more intimate and activated relationship with the world and the universe than most of us are accustomed to today.  Finally the time has come for us to re-connect with this knowledge.  Traditional systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and many schools of herbalism are becoming widely practiced again.  Meditation, astral travel, lucid dreaming, and higher dimensions are becoming common terms in many circles and we are re-discovering and developing new technologies for transportation, power, and permaculture.  Yet, this precious cosmic knowledge presents our modern logical minds with a dilemma at times.

Throughout our lives our educational system, the tone of our culture, our politics, and the role of modern sciences and technology in our world can lead to a greatly developed logical and analytical mind while at times systematically de-activating our intuitive mind.  At the moment of planetary shift, we are still the product of colonization, the dark ages, and the long-term suppression of knowledge.  It seems we are in a place of choosing between the logical experience and the intuitive one; to choose either thinking or feeling, but not both.  In this way, we are at risk of going from one state of imbalance to another.  Therefore, as seekers of expanded consciousness, it is especially important in our left-brained culture to honor a balancing of both aspects of our dualistic brains.  We must understand that we need not accept every piece of information that comes our way if it doesn’t register with us both intuitively and logically.

Luckily, in roughly the past 30-40 years we have seen a gradual increase in scientific research and logical analysis of concepts that have previously fallen into the category of imaginary or unexplainable phenomena.  A primary cause for this lapse in understanding could be that the scientific field is actually in some ways not caught up to the level of knowledge being disseminated.  For instance, certain energies we speak of such as those of the various layers of the auric field may be or may have been too fine to be sensed by the instruments currently available for research.  Take also for example the major reigning theories in the field of physics.  For a long time Newtonian physics held that we lived in a material world of solid physical objects.  We now understand that everything we perceive is an expression of vibration in a virtual hologram.  The beauty of scientific thought in it’s regularity and insistence on process is also it’s weakness in progression.  A quantum leap in understanding in one field such as physics, may reveal a lapse within the perspectives of other fields which could take a very significant amount of time to catch up.  To also consider the role of corporate and governmental investment in the suppression of certain technologies being available would be another article entirely.

When we consider the revolutionizing of the scientific process, visionaries in the scientific fields such as Einstein and Tesla come to mind.  Upon examination, both were individuals who applied passion, excitement, and intuition to their airtight scientific processes and thereby originated concepts and technologies that completely changed, and are still changing the world.  We can take a lesson from this in our personal life.

Thinking again to our upbringing and education we will see that for many of us, if we spoke of other dimensional phenomena or responded to our intuitions as children, we were quickly taught by adults in our lives that this was silly.  Our experiences were dismissed or ignored.  This follows through in our education to a far greater degree.  The focus of institutional education is on information recall, retention, conformity, etc.  Many students are still lucky enough to receive small amounts of training in art, music, and creative fields, yet we are also often told that we can expect no future in these things, and are more encouraged in fields of science, business, technology, or mathematics.  While there is nothing wrong with these fields in and of themselves, the philosophy behind our training as youth is heavily imbalanced toward the value of information over free-thinking and conformity over expression.  Because of this conditioning, there is extra work to be done and many parts of our minds and abilities are yet to be fully explored and integrated.

Take for example the western scientific view of herbalism as compared to a traditional system of herbalism.  From a purely logical viewpoint, the value of any one plant as a medicinal substance would be analyzed in a very methodical way.  Trials would be done, constituents of the plant would be chemically analyzed, and conclusions would be reached as to the efficacy, safety, or suggested use of that plant or it’s constituents.  In an intuitive system of herbalism, a plant may be connected with as opposed to analyzed.  It will be understood and considered according not only to how it acts physically as a medicine, but also according to it’s energetic qualities.

In many herbal medicine systems plants are described as having ‘cooling’ or ‘heating’ properties or they may be described as ‘dampening’ or ‘drying’.  These terms are describing the essence or the feeling of that plant.  In traditional plant medicine of indigenous peoples throughout the world, the spirit inherent in a plant is communicated with as an autonomous expression of consciousness, a being.  In cases like these, patient and practitioner alike generally have a strong belief in the potency of the plant based on systematic experience and based on intuition.  This type of medicine can have astonishing results.  Is this merely the placebo effect?  Is the placebo effect not merely further proof that the feelings and intuition guide the outcomes of our perceived reality?  We can see where the line between the logical mind the intuitive mind becomes blurred.  In this blurry zone is a very powerful place of meeting and integration.  Certainly we will find that this distinction becomes more and more difficult to make as we continue on our path of conscious evolution.

Our brilliance and expansion does not happen with the exclusive expression of a part of ourselves accompanied by the complete denial of another.  The miracles of expansion, discovery, and expression are born when we learn to honor and integrate both dualistic expressions of the self in this dualistic dimensionality.  Integrating the “I think” self and the “I feel” self makes way for the “I know” self.  And from the space of knowingness all expansion, brilliance, and creation comes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Laura Weber is a staff writer for The Mind Unleashed, a visual artist, and energetic healer living in New York City, New York. Somewhat of a modern renaissance woman, her art and healing work focuses in vibration, plant medicine, water alchemy, and awakening the creator consciousness in all people. To read other work by Laura visit www.cocreatingself.blogspot.com.

from:    http://themindunleashed.org/2014/02/integrating-left-right-brain.html

Phobias, Fears, & Spiders, Oh My!

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If You’re Afraid of Spiders, They Seem Bigger: Phobia’s Effect On Perception of Feared Object Allows Fear to Persist

ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2012) — The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests.

The more afraid a person is of a spider, the bigger that individual perceives the spider to be, new research suggests. (Credit: © M.R. Swadzba / Fotolia)

In the context of a fear of spiders, this warped perception doesn’t necessarily interfere with daily living. But for individuals who are afraid of needles, for example, the conviction that needles are larger than they really are could lead people who fear injections to avoid getting the health care they need.

A better understanding of how a phobia affects the perception of feared objects can help clinicians design more effective treatments for people who seek to overcome their fears, according to the researchers.

In this study, participants who feared spiders were asked to undergo five encounters with live spiders — tarantulas, in fact — and then provide size estimates of the spiders after those encounters ended. The more afraid the participants said they were of the spiders, the larger they estimated the spiders had been.

“If one is afraid of spiders, and by virtue of being afraid of spiders one tends to perceive spiders as bigger than they really are, that may feed the fear, foster that fear, and make it difficult to overcome,” said Michael Vasey, professor of psychology at Ohio State University and lead author of the study.

“When it comes to phobias, it’s all about avoidance as a primary means of keeping oneself safe. As long as you avoid, you can’t discover that you’re wrong. And you’re stuck. So to the extent that perceiving spiders as bigger than they really are fosters fear and avoidance, it then potentially is part of this cycle that feeds the phobia that leads to its persistence.

“We’re trying to understand why phobias persist so we can better target treatments to change those reasons they persist.”

The study is published in a recent issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders.

The researchers recruited 57 people who self-identified as having a spider phobia. Each participant then interacted at specific time points over a period of eight weeks with five different varieties of tarantulas varying in size from about 1 to 6 inches long.

The spiders were contained in an uncovered glass tank. Participants began their encounters 12 feet from the tank and were asked to approach the spider. Once they were standing next to the tank, they were asked to guide the spider around the tank by touching it with an 8-inch probe, and later with a shorter probe.

Throughout these encounters, researchers asked participants to report how afraid they were feeling on a scale of 0-100 according to an index of subjective units of distress. After the encounters, participants completed additional self-report measures of their specific fear of spiders, any panic symptoms they experienced during the encounters with the spiders, and thoughts about fear reduction and future spider encounters.

Finally, the research participants estimated the size of the spiders — while no longer being able to see them — by drawing a single line on an index card indicating the length of the spider from the tips of its front legs to the tips of its back legs.

An analysis of the results showed that higher average peak ratings of distress during the spider encounters were associated with estimates that the spiders were larger than they really were. Similar positive associations were seen between over-estimates of spider size and participants’ higher average peak levels of anxiety, higher average numbers of panic symptoms and overall spider fear. These findings have been supported in later studies with broader samples of people with varying levels of fear of spiders.

“It would appear from that result that fear is driving or altering the perception of the feared object, in this case a spider,” said Vasey, also the director of research for the psychology department’s Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic. “We already knew fear and anxiety alter thoughts about the feared thing. For example, the feared outcome is interpreted as being more likely than it really is. But this study shows that even perception is altered by fear. In this case, the feared spider is seen as being bigger. And that may serve as a maintaining factor for the fear.”

The approach tasks with the spiders are a classic example of exposure therapy, a common treatment for people with phobias. Though this therapy is known to be effective, scientists still do not fully understand why it works. And for some, the effects don’t last — but it is difficult to predict who will have a relapse of fear, Vasey said.

He and colleagues are studying these biased perceptions as well as attitudes with hopes that the new knowledge will enhance treatment for people with various phobias. The work suggests that fear not only alters one’s perception of the feared thing, but also can influence a person’s automatic attitude toward an object. Those who have developed an automatic negative attitude toward a feared object might have a harder time overcoming their fear.

Though individuals with arachnophobia are unlikely to seek treatment, the use of spiders in this research was a convenient way to study the complex effects of fear on visual perception and how those effects might cause fear to persist, Vasey noted.

“Ultimately, we are interested in identifying predictors of relapse so we can better measure when a person is done with treatment,” he said.

This work is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Co-authors include Michael Vilensky, Jacqueline Heath, Casaundra Harbaugh, Adam Buffington and Vasey’s principal collaborator, Russell Fazio, all of Ohio State’s Department of Psychology.

from:    http://www.chromographicsinstitute.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

Quantum Measurement Without Distortion

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Quantum Physics First: Physicists Measure Without Distorting

ScienceDaily (June 2, 2011) — Quantum mechanics is famous for saying that a tree falling in a forest when there’s no one there doesn’t make a sound. Quantum mechanics also says that if anyone is listening, it interferes with and changes the tree. And so the famous paradox: how can we know reality if we cannot measure it without distorting it?

An international team of researchers, led by University of Toronto physicist Aephraim Steinberg of the Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control, has found a way to do just that by applying a modern measurement technique to the historic two-slit interferometer experiment in which a beam of light shone through two slits results in an interference pattern on a screen behind.

In a new experiment, researchers have succeeded for the first time in experimentally reconstructing full trajectories which provide a description of how light particles move through the two slits and form an interference pattern. (Credit: iStockphoto/Karl Dolenc)

That famous experiment, and the 1927 Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein debates, seemed to establish that you could not watch a particle go through one of two slits without destroying the interference effect: you had to choose which phenomenon to look for.

“Quantum measurement has been the philosophical elephant in the room of quantum mechanics for the past century,” says Steinberg, who is lead author of Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer, to be published in Science on June 2. “However, in the past 10 to 15 years, technology has reached the point where detailed experiments on individual quantum systems really can be done, with potential applications such as quantum cryptography and computation”

to read more go to:   http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110602143159.htm