Mind Control - All-nighters can bring on euphoria, risky behavior

A sleepless night can make us cranky and moody. But a lesser known side effect of sleep deprivation is short-term euphoria, which can potentially lead to poor judgment and addictive behavior, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley.

Researchers at UC Berkeley and Harvard Medical School studied the brains of healthy young adults and found that their pleasure circuitry got a big boost after a missed night's sleep. But that same neural pathway that stimulates feelings of euphoria, reward and motivation after a sleepless night may also lead to risky behavior, their study suggests.

"When functioning correctly, the brain finds the sweet spot on the mood spectrum. But the sleep-deprived brain will swing to both extremes, neither of which is optimal for making wise decisions," said Matthew Walker, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study.
The findings, published today (March 22) in the Journal of Neuroscience, underscore the need for people in high-stakes professions and circumstances not to shortchange themselves on sleep, Walker said.

"We need to ensure that people making high-stakes decisions, from medical professionals to airline pilots to new parents, get enough sleep," Walker said. "Based on this evidence, I'd be concerned by an emergency room doctor who's been up for 20 hours straight making rational decisions about my health."

The body alternates between two main phases of sleep during the night: Rapid Eye Movement (REM), when body and brain activity promote dreams, and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM), when the muscles and brain rest. Previous brain studies indicate that these sleep patterns are disrupted in people with mood disorders.

Puzzled as to why so many people with clinical depression feel more positive after a sleepless night — at least temporarily — the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the brains of 27 young adults, half of whom got a good night's rest and the other half of whom pulled an all-nighter.

Participants viewed numerous images, including pleasant scenes (for example, bunnies or ice cream sundaes), and were asked to rate the pictures as either neutral or positive. Across the board, those who had skipped a night's sleep gave more positive ratings for all the images while the well-rested participants gave more moderate scores.

Moreover, brain scans of the participants who pulled all-nighters showed heightened activity in the mesolimbic pathway, a brain circuit driven by dopamine, a neurotransmitter that regulates positive feelings, motivation, sex drive, addiction, cravings and decision making.

While a bias toward the positive, potentially linked to a short-term boost in dopamine levels, may seem advantageous, it can be detrimental if people are making impulsive decisions because they're feeling overly optimistic, the study suggests.

The findings build upon previous research by Walker and his team that shows sleep deprivation shuts down the brain's key planning and decision-making regions — namely the prefrontal cortex — while activating more primal neural functions such as the fight-or-flight reflex in the amygdala region of the brain.

The latest study shows a similar disconnect between the prefrontal cortex and the misolimbic pathway after a night of no sleep: "After a good night's sleep, the frontal lobe regions are strongly connected to the dopamine reward regions, but that's not the case after a night of no sleep," Walker said.

As for a therapy for people who are clinically depressed, sleep deprivation is not a viable solution, according to Walker: "The elastic band of sleep deprivation can only be stretched so far before it breaks," he said.
Provided by University of California, Berkeley

"All-nighters can bring on euphoria, risky behavior." March 23rd, 2011. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-all-nighters-euphoria-risky-behavior.html

Subliminal Messages: How America Uses Mind Control

http://www.trutv.com

By Derek Rodriguez

A Century of Subliminal Messaging

BTK Killer  Wichita, Kansas, December 1977. The serial killer known as the BTK Killer has struck again. Targeting almost exclusively women, the deranged murderer stalks his innocent prey, surprises them in their own homes and then enacts his gruesome namesake: Bind, Torture and Kill.

By late 1977, the BTK Killer had dispatched his seventh victim and police were growing desperate. With no leads or prime suspects, they had no clue how to end this reign of murderous terror.

In February 1978, inspiration hit. Police instructed local news station KAKE to air a special report on the murders. Hidden between frames and too quick for the human eye to register was a subliminal message exhorting the BTK Killer to give himself up. The words "Now call the chief" and a visual of a woman's eyeglasses upside-down were included, a detail that only the real BTK Killer would recognize.

Although Dennis Rader, the Wichita resident, Lutheran Deacon and, as he would later reveal, the BTK killer, did not turn himself in after that subliminal message ran, it may have had some effect. The prolific killer—seven victims in less than three years—went on an eight-year hiatus and struck only three more times before his capture in 2005. Could the police's subliminal plea have worked, reaching deep enough into the killer's disturbed psyche to tame his murderous urges—at least temporarily?

A Dream Within A Dream

Subliminal messaging has been around, in one form or another, for more than a century. Categorized as any sensory stimuli that is below a person's threshold for conscious perception, subliminal messaging was first proposed by E.W. Scripture, a Yale professor of psychology, in 1898. It took only a few short years for psychologist Harry Levi Hollingworth to observe that the technique could be an invaluable tool for selling products. & During World War II, the U.S. government used subliminal stimuli to help train soldiers to recognize enemy aircraft, but it was not until after the war that the concept of subliminal messaging truly took off.

The concept of subliminal messaging is easy enough to grasp. A notion, phrase or image is flashed in front of a subject too quickly for the conscious mind to identify and categorize, but long enough to take root in the subconscious mind. Suddenly there is an idea in the subject's brain that he doesn't realize was not the result of an organic process, but was purposely introduced by an outside agent. Slide in the word "evil" between longer images of a politician, and the subject may suddenly find himself distrusting that politician. As in the movie Inception, a person may think an action is his own idea and impulse; but in reality, it is the work of an outside force operating in the shadows of the subject's own subconscious.

Big Brother, Big Profits

The first modern instance of subliminal messaging came in the middle of the Eisenhower years. In 1957, market researcher James Vicary staked out a drive-in theater in Fort Lee, New Jersey, showing the movie Picnic. Vicary inserted brief advertisements for Coca-Cola and popcorn in the reels of the film. After showing the ads "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat popcorn"–for just 1/3000th of a second each—Vicary claimed that sales for the snacks skyrocketed by 57.8% and 18.1% respectively.

The reaction to this chilling new permutation of advertising was immediate: Women’s temperance unions decried its possible use to lure children to buy beer; The Saturday Review declared in an editorial: "There is only one kind of regulation or ruling that could possibly make sense in this case, and that would be to take this invention and everything connected with it and attach it to the center of the next nuclear explosive scheduled for testing."

Other ad agencies sought to downplay the innovation and claimed that they were unable to duplicate Vicary’s results in similar tests, but the public, already alarmed by the possibility of their free will being manipulated, demanded action. Subliminal advertising was banned by law in the United Kingdom and Australia in 1958 and the National Association of Broadcasters in the U.S. followed suit, disallowing any such messaging. Yet despite this ban, there have been many instances of subliminal ads making it on the air.

Enter Big Brother

The C.I.A. was intrigued enough by the possibilities of subliminal messaging to commission a report—not declassified until the mid 1990s. In it, the agency concluded that subliminal messaging was effectual and that proof “has been demonstrated, [that] certain individuals can at certain times and under certain circumstances be influenced to act abnormally without awareness of the influence or at least without antagonism.” However, the report warned that the messaging was unreliable and required extremely specific, controlled situations. It may be difficult to perfect, but the CIA—experts in the inducement business—were convinced that it was a viable persuasive tool.

And subliminal messaging need not be a visual-only affair. In 1979, Time reported on the more than 50 department stores that had installed "little black boxes" to help deter theft in their stores. These inconspicuous devices repeated words and phrases rapidly and at very low volume—phrases like "I am honest… I will not steal" that could be repeated up to 9,000 times an hour while the shopper is completely unaware of the subconscious indoctrination taking place. Time reported that "one undisclosed East Coast chain is said to have cut the number of thefts by 37%, for a savings of $600,000, during a nine-month trial." The inventor of the black box, Hal C. Becker, even prophesied a world where his device is ubiquitous, declaring that he "see[s] no reason why there won't be audio conditioning the same way we now have air conditioning."

Cash Money
  
While they have yet to become as commonplace as climate control, subliminal stimuli play a large role in our consumerist culture, despite laws to the contrary. The most infamous and insidious example may be the early 1970s ads for "Hūsker Dū?," a children’s board game. Single frames that read "Get It" were inserted into the product’s commercial and the ensuing outrage spurred the FCC ban on subliminal ads. More recently, during an airing of the cooking competition "Iron Chef America" on the Food Network, a frame featuring the McDonald’s logo and its slogan "I’m Lovin' It" aired for 1/30th of a second. The Food Network claimed it was merely a technical error.

And these sinister clandestine messages are not confined to the airwaves. In 2007, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp, the state administration that oversees Canadian casinos, forcibly removed almost 100 video slot machines from gaming floors across the city. The games were discovered by a news investigation to flash a "jackpot" signal for a fraction of a second during game play. Authorities were concerned that the brief visual, though too fast to be discerned by the human eye, would be sufficient to induce gamblers to keep feeding money into the machine beyond what their reason might dictate.

And of course, subtle subliminal come-ons can be found in a plethora of print ads and pictures: the curve of a woman’s breast, the hint of a lady’s sexual nethers and, of course, the ubiquitous and barely disguised word "sex." Even mundane watch ads almost always have the clock hands at 10 and 2, some say to insinuate legs spread open. The pleasure subtly suggested by these hidden erotic treasures will be associated in your unconscious mind with the product being advertised. Drink this beverage and you will get some sex.

After Vicary's experiment, scores of other psychologists, behaviorists and ad men by the bushel tried to repeat it themselves, with little or no success. Even Vicary himself would later be forced to declare that his original results had been blown out of proportion. Nowadays, some are convinced that effective subliminal messaging is a hoax as big as Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast. The debunking site, Snopes.com, lists the Vicary experiment as a fraud and declares with certainty that "subliminal advertising doesn’t work."

But if this were true, if subliminal messaging were completely useless and had no effect, then why has the practice persisted for more than a century? And why would an authority of behavioral control as powerful as a Central Intelligence Agency commission say otherwise? Clearly subliminal messaging is a very real, powerful method of persuasion, capable of nudging you toward a behavior or desire you did not consciously select. To guard against subliminal messages requires constant vigilance; it may originate from any number of sources—including billboards, television, radio, stores and magazines.

And worst of all, you won’t even see it coming.

Mind Control - When People Call Hypnosis "Bull"

When will people learn to THINK before they send me an email? What they don't realize is that once the information is in my email box it is *MY* email.

Here is my most recent email and below it is may response. The comment he made is regarding the hypnosis training that I teach with Jeffrey Stephen at http://www.TheHypnosisSeminar.com

Enjoy!

Name: Mike Farnsworth Email: masb_masb@xxxxxx.com Phone: 970-xxx-xxxx Message: There's bull and than there is BULL. Yours is BULL. 800 bucks for BULL, you got the rich idiots on the ropes taking their easy money. Tell you what - if I ever meet you face to face, you'll have to hypnotise me to keep me from kicking your ass! And I can not be hypnotised.

 


Mike,

Thank you for your comment.

Of course you cannot be hypnotized. Only people who can follow instructions can be hypnotized.

Now that we've settled that you don't have to contact me again.

Wonderful!

Have a great day.

Dantalion Jones

Mind Control - Meditation Helps Learning

This graph shows the increased math achievement in meditating students. Credit: Maharishi University of Management

The Transcendental Meditation technique may be an effective approach to improve math and English academic achievement in low-performing students, according to a new study published in the journal Education.

The study was conducted at a California public middle school with 189 students who were below proficiency level in English and math. Change in academic achievement was evaluated using the California Standards Tests (CST).

"The results of the study provide support to a recent trend in education focusing on student mind/body development for academic achievement," said Dr. Ronald Zigler, study co-author and associate professor at Penn State, Abington. "We need more programs of this kind implemented into our nation's public schools, with further evaluation efforts."

Students who practiced the Transcendental Meditation program showed significant increases in math and English scale scores and performance level scores over a one-year period. Forty-one percent of the meditating students showed a gain of at least one performance level in math compared to 15.0% of the non-meditating controls.

 

This graph shows the increased English achievement in meditating students. Credit: Maharishi University of Management

Among the students with the lowest levels of academic performance, "below basic" and "far below basic," the meditating students showed a significant improvement in overall academic achievement compared to controls, which showed a slight gain.

"This initial research, showing the benefits of the Quiet Time/Transcendental Meditation program on academic achievement, holds promise for public education" said Sanford Nidich, EdD, lead author and professor of education at Maharishi University of Management. "The findings suggest that there is an easy-to-implement, value-added educational program which can help low-performing minority students begin to close the achievement gap," said Dr. Nidich.

The middle school level is of particular concern to educators because of low academic performance nationally. Sixty-six percent of eighth-grade students are below proficiency level in math and 68% are below proficiency level in reading, based on 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress data.

Faculty surveyed as part of the project reported the Quiet Time/Transcendental Meditation program to be a valuable addition to the school. They reported the students to be calmer, happier, and less hyperactive, with an increased ability to focus on schoolwork. In terms of the school environment, faculty reported less student fights, less abusive language, and an overall more relaxed and calm atmosphere since implementation of the program.

Provided by Maharishi University of Management
"New research shows Transcendental Meditation improves standardized academic achievement." March 21st, 2011. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-transcendental-meditation-standardized-academic.html

Mind Control - Stanford psychologists design 60-minute exercise that raises GPA

Along with the excitement and anticipation that come with heading off to college, freshmen often find questions of belonging lurking in the background: Am I going to make friends? Are people going to respect me? Will I fit in?

Those concerns are trickier for black students and others who are often stereotyped or outnumbered on college campuses. They have good reason to wonder whether they will belong – worries that can result in lower grades and a sense of alienation.

But when black freshmen participated in an hour-long exercise designed by Stanford psychologists to show that everyone – no matter what their race or ethnicity – has a tough time adjusting to college right away, their grades went up and the minority achievement gap shrank by 52 percent. And years later, those students said they were happier and healthier than some of their black peers who didn't take part in the exercise.

"We all experience small slights and criticisms in coming to a new school" said Greg Walton, an assistant professor of psychology whose findings are slated for publication in the March 18 edition of Science.

"Being a member of a minority group can make those events have a larger meaning," Walton said. "When your group is in the minority, being rejected by a classmate or having a teacher say something negative to you could seem like proof that you don't belong, and maybe evidence that your group doesn't belong either. That feeling could lead you to work less hard and ultimately do less well."

Walton's paper, co-authored by psychology and education Professor Geoffrey Cohen, reports that the grade point averages of black students who participated in the exercise went up by almost a third of a grade between their sophomore and senior years.

And 22 percent of those students landed in the top 25 percent of their graduating class, while only about 5 percent of black students who didn't participate in the exercise did that well. At the same time, half of the black test subjects who didn't take part in the exercise were in the bottom 25 percent of their class. Only 33 percent of black students who went through the exercise did that poorly.

Walton and Cohen split about 90 second-semester freshmen at a top American university into "treatment" and "control" groups. About half of the students in each group were black; the others were white.

All the test subjects – who were unaware of the full purpose of the exercise – were told the researchers were trying to understand students' college experiences.

Those in the treatment group read surveys and essays written by upperclassmen of different races and ethnicities describing the difficulties they had fitting in during their first year at school. The subjects in the control group read about experiences unrelated to a sense of belonging.

The upperclassmen had reported feeling intimidated by professors, being snubbed by new friends and ignored in their quest for help early in their college careers. But they all emphasized that, with time, their confidence grew, they made good friends and they developed strong relationships with professors.

"Everybody feels they are different freshman year from everybody else, when really in at least some ways we are all pretty similar," one older student – a black woman – was quoted as saying. "Since I realized that, my experience . . . has been almost 100 percent positive."

The test subjects in the treatment group were then asked to write essays about why they thought the older college students' experiences changed. The researchers asked them to illustrate their essays with stories of their own lives, and then rewrite their essays into speeches that would be videotaped and could be shown to future students. The point was to have the test subjects internalize and personalize the idea that adjustments are tough for everyone.

"We didn't want them to think of difficulties as unique to them or specific to their racial group," Walton said of the black test subjects. "We wanted them to realize that some of those bad things that happen are just part of the transition that everyone goes through when they go off to college."

The researchers tracked their test subjects during their sophomore, junior and senior years. While they found the social-belonging exercise had virtually no impact on white students, it had a significant impact on black students.

Along with improved GPAs by their senior year, the black students who were in the treatment group reported a greater sense of belonging compared to their peers in the control group. They also said they were happier and were less likely to spontaneously think about negative racial stereotypes. And they seemed healthier: 28 percent said they visited a doctor recently, as compared to 60 percent in the control group.

Despite the impressive outcomes, Walton and Cohen say the social-belonging exercise isn't a quick fix to closing the academic race gap – a problem fed by a host of issues tied to diversity, socioeconomics and public policy. But their research shows how addressing feelings of belonging can improve student performance. And similar exercises may succeed in addressing concerns about belonging among other groups, like first-generation college students, immigrants and new employees.

"This intervention alone is not the answer, but we know more about what types of things help," Cohen said. "The intervention is like turning on a light switch. It seems miraculous when the lights go on, but it all hinges on the infrastructure that's already in place."

Mind Control - Is it Religion or is it Business?

What follows is an excerpt from the blog http://leavingscientology.wordpress.com.

Keep in mind it's making a point about $cientology but this little excerpt is wonderfully thought provoking. 

Enjoy.
 And leave your comments below.


"One of the most interesting comments was made not on the blog but in a private phone conversation with a friend. He pointed out that Scientology has to decide which model it is going to operate on, as a gnostic religion or as a business.

The word gnostic refers to inner spiritual knowledge. It’s a different kind of knowledge than, for instance, “I know there’s a Pizza Hut down on 82nd Street.” A Scientologist who exteriorizes, or, for that matter, a native American shaman who “sends his spirit over the plains,” or an Indian guru who “leaves his body and visits the spirit world” are all forms of inner spiritual knowledge, or gnosis. You can’t prove it happened, you can’t prove it didn’t happen. You can believe them, you can disbelieve them, you can say they are crazy, deluded, inspired or whatever.

I mentioned in my first post some of my own somewhat supernatural experiences. I couldn’t prove those things happened. But then I am not really trying to convince anyone of anything, so it really does not matter to me if people believe it or not – it is of no consequence to me. It’s simply something I experienced.

Now if you move into the world of business, that’s different. If the shaman says “pay me for this special training course or session and I will teach you how you can send your spirit soaring over the plains.” That’s a different thing entirely. In that case, caveat emptor applies. The prospective customer, before they plunk down their hard-earned cash, would be well within their rights to say “prove it.” “Fly over the prairie and tell me what’s there and I’ll go verify it, and if it’s accurate, or even close, I’ll take your course.”

So when I hear the individual gnostic spiritual experiences of individual Scientologists (or anyone else for that matter), I say “good for you.” (Or “far out, man” as we used to say in the ‘60s.)

When I read these things in Church literature or magazines or books or lectures, I say, “Where’s the beef.” Because they are selling something. They are selling a series of levels, with an “ability gained” at each level. Well then, whether or not they can actually observably produce these abilities becomes very, very pertinent."

Mind Matrix: Covert Electronic Harassment Mind Control Program

Mind Matrix: Covert Electronic Harassment Mind Control Program

From: Abelard
Price: $29.95

Product Description
ARE YOU THE VICTIM OF ELECTRONIC WARFARE?
As one researcher put it, Electromagnetic weapons operate at the speed of light, they can kill, torture and enslave, but the public is largely unaware that they exist, because these weapons operate by stealth and leave no physical evidence.

Do you feel as if Big Brother is watching you? Is that voice in your head getting louder and louder? Is your TV talking back to you? Are you seeing things, that are not supposed to be there, but are? And what about that satellite that passes by your window at least twice a day?

If you have serious concerns about such issues, you may be part of the New World Order s Mind Matrix Maintenance Program that is responsible for keeping tabs on thousands of individuals and which can remotely monitor and alter your brain waves to make you part of a global enslavement movement. A Former Intelligence Officer put it quite simply: They don t have to come inside your house. The eavesdropper can simply use a gbs tracking device to perform electronic harassment and view everything about your life while you are in your car, shopping, or eating at a restaurant. . . They have full view of the inside of your home or business office online and it doesn t matter if the lights are off or what room you are in. It is all in full view for your enemies and their allies, complete with your telephone conversations!

A massive book of large 8.5x11 pages MIND MATRIX: COVERT ELECTRONIC HARASSMENT MIND CONTROL PROGRAM is without a doubt the most complete work on the subject of electronic mind control techniques, mind games, case studies of individuals stricken by a super secret intelligence bent on destroying individual lives, as well as a detailed list of 100 U.S. Patents involving psychotronic devices that can impinge on your personal freedom.

TECHNOTRONICS HALLUCINATIONS, ILLUSIONS AND PROJECT MIND BEAM Though his account is spectacular, Steve Lee is not alone in his claims that someone is watching him day and night and provoking what seems to be paranormal phenomenon in and around his home in the Black Forest of Colorado. We started seeing lights, he told investigative journalist Sean Casteel, laser light-looking beams. Then shortly after that, we started hearing voices in the house that should be there. During this time period, I was taking photos of the kids around the house I take a lot of pictures and things started showing up in them.
Over a period of time, Lee s life began to shatter. Someone or something was trying to harass him to the point where he was concerned about his family s safety. I was getting at least 20 to 30 death threats a day from voices inside this house. They tell me all the time, We re fixing to kill you. or We re going to poison you or, We re going to kill your kids or, You re fixing to find out who we are. This isn t what you think it is.

Scott Coralles, editor of the Journal of Hispanic UFOlogy, details the use of holographic projections in the midst of cattle mutilation and UFO waves, as a political tool to make the unreal seem very real! Here is the secret agenda of mind control implemented by Big Brother, the CIA and other secret societies and groups that keep their distance but use this technology for their ultimate advantage of controlling the human race.

Mind Conrtol - US spy operation that manipulates social media

http://www.guardian.co.uk

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".
Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.
Centcom said it was not targeting any US-based web sites, in English or any other language, and specifically said it was not targeting Facebook or Twitter.

Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated messages, blogposts, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.

Centcom's contract requires for each controller the provision of one "virtual private server" located in the United States and others appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world.

It also calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".

The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then, OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".
This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is already in operation or discuss any related contracts.

Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.

In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".

According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.

Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."

OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice".

However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.

• This article was amended on 18 March 2011 to remove references to Facebook and Twitter and add a comment from Centcom, received after publication, that it is not targeting those sites.

Mind Control, Reptilians, 9-11, Conspiracy... OH MY!

Okay, if you're going to listen to this take a DEEP breath and try to be objective. It will be REALLY hard if you are accustom to thinking only rationally. It may be hard to restrain your gag reflex.

This is an interview between two Reptilian/9-11/Illuminati Conspiracy Theorists who are digging deep into the so called "truth" about how our lives are not in our control.

I'll give it this much, it's interesting to listen to even if it's complete fiction.

Leave your comments at the bottom of the page.

Although it is quite common for a brief, unique experience to become part of our long-term memory, the underlying brain mechanisms associated with this type of learning are not well understood. Now, a new brain-imaging study looks at the neural activity associated with a specific type of rapid learning, insight. The research, published by Cell Press in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals specific brain activity that occurs during an "A-ha!" moment that may help encode the new information in long-term memory.

"In daily life, information that results from moments of insight is, almost by definition, incorporated in long-term memory: once we have realized a new way to solve a problem, or to perform a task better and faster, we are not likely to forget that insight easily," explains senior study author, Dr. Nava Rubin, from the Center for Neural Science at New York University. "We were interested in determining the neural basis of this long-lasting nature of insight."

Dr. Rubin, along with collaborators Rachel Ludmer and Dr. Yadin Dudai, designed a model system for studying memory formation associated with perceptual insight. Perceptual insight is where the sudden realization of a solution to a visual puzzle is triggered by an external cue. Study participants viewed a real-world image that had been degraded almost beyond recognition. After a few moments the original image was revealed, transforming the previously meaningless arrangement of ink blots to a coherent scene (the "A-ha!"). Memory was tested a week later when participants were shown the degraded image again and asked to recall detailed perceptual information about the original image. Brain imaging allowed the researchers to capture the neural activity associated with the original moment of insight and relate it to the subsequent fate of the image in memory.

During moments of insight, there was significant activity in the amygdala, a brain structure best known for its role in emotional learning. The researchers discovered that higher activity in the amygdala during the moment of insight predicted more successful performance in the memory task a week later, even though the images in and of themselves were not emotional at all. "We propose that the amygdala plays an important role in signaling to different cortical regions that an internal event of significant neural reorganization has occurred," concludes Dr. Rubin. "Our findings extend the known roles of the amygdala in memory to include promoting of long-term memory of the sudden reorganization of internal representations."

[Mind Control] Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

Mind Control Email - "you'll probably lose your liver!"

I get lot's of people who believe that they are under mind control when instead they are suffering from delusional paranoia, and, of course, they have to email me.  Their emails are typically long, poorly punctuated ramblings that attempt to offer "proof" that they are significant enough that world governments or famous celebrities would want to control their thoughts.

This is another example of the types of emails I receive on a weekly basis.

Post your comment below.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am glad to be able to write these email to you, I've been kicked out by Australian secret polices because those guys are harassing me using noises and annoying my sleep, I am afraid if I stay any longer I will die or get seriously sick in Australia, those guys are threatening me saying "you'll probably lose your liver!" using voice to skull technology they can transfer sounds and images direct to my brain without other people knowing about it, my family and relatives are collaborating with them and my church think I am crazy/hallucinating , but in here in Indonesia, the Indonesian secret/internal police are also doing noise campaign to me, I've lost peace of mind due to their harassment sir, I believe I am a victim of CIA run MKULTRA or more specifically harassment using voice to skull technology, these videos from youtube explains the harassment I received accurately:

Targeted Individuals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mg2RZH0oNU&feature=related

Psychotronic Mind-Control - Synthetic Telepathy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaW3cPG4F6M&feature=related

COINTELPRO - the truth of gang stalking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-ug3i-LbM&feature=related

Remote Body Manipulation via Neurological Weapons (1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hUcJ_i7GY&feature=related

Mind Control Using V2K Part 1 - Manipulation Strategy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfAhXQhDfR0&feature=related

Targeted Individuals (TI's) (#31)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si1bHa45u18&feature=related

I have tried to ask for help from the churches, by writing email, but instead of getting help, those people are harassing me even more, I've wrote email several times to the White House several times about these matters, but I never got an email reply or explanations from, them what I learn is the MKULTRA project have to run underground because of senate hearing, I would like the Congress and the senate hear my case/difficulties as well, because I've been working for these voices for so long since 2006 by thinking of creating strategy/policy to deal with insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing forward democracy in middle east, advancing American security, counter terrorism and economic interest, I regard US as a role model and my 2nd country after Indonesia, I would like to go to US to study data mining/analytics, I have been really busy advising these people so I kinda neglect my study, they are trying to bribe and intimidate me from going to US, by using gangs to follow me around and annoy me using their motor noises, people in the banks, workplace denying me of my rights as customer/worker by preventing services, bullying, insulting, making work harder even stealing my money/wages using their psychics, and using important people in TV to speak to me and accusing me of corrupting govs money, American spies, and throwing racist remarks to me.

I've lost peace of mind because of their action, I request that senate and US congress run an inquiry or gives me a call or write an email to me to reply for my case, because what these people did to me is unfair like orchestrating 2008 Global Financial crisis and damaging the financial conditions of the company I invest money in the form of shares, I believe these activity is illegal, maybe the US intelligence services is trying to help me up, but in Australia and Indonesia, I got harassment by people here,

thank you for your help and God Bless!

I live in DELETED DELETED.

Please if you can dear sir or madam in Senate/Congress gives me a call or write email to me immediately, Indonesian security or NSA might have jammed my phone, email so I hope other forms of communications existed, thank you!, I am planning to visit US consulate/embassy in Jakarta, to notify them about these, thanks I would like to meet or contact you or other victims as well, together we can gain strength and made our voices known to the public, and expose about these things into the media, do you know someone whom you trust and I can contact who can help me up finding legal help, is there any legal help not being infiltrated or independent media who can help us the victims of these cruel experiments?,

thank you and God
Bless!

Mind Control - 10 Common Misconceptions about PTSD

Commonly associated with soldiers who’ve experienced unthinkable tragedies while at war, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can disrupt the lives of various people from various backgrounds. According to America’s Heroes at Work, a site from the U.S. Department of Labor, it afflicts 24 million people nationwide, eight percent of the population. PTSD can be acquired after enduring any kind of traumatic event, including war, physical abuse, a natural disaster or bad accident, and can result in symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, angry outbursts and depression. Because it’s a mental health disorder, PTSD isn’t fully understood by people with little experience dealing with it. The following common misconceptions have been disproven by mental healthprofessionals and those who live with the disorder.

1. PTSD sufferers are mentally weak: Like other mental illnesses, PTSD is considered by the uninformed to be characteristic of mental weakness. In reality, the effects of the disorder can be traced to specific traumatic events that are incomprehensible to people who haven’t experienced them. The period of recovery isn’t comparable to what people endure after stressful events such as divorce or losing a job, and how they psychologically handle the trauma varies from person to person. PTSD is recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association (APA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
2. Everyone has some sort of PTSD: Again, PTSD is caused by a specific traumatic event not typically experienced by the average person. PTSD sufferers undergo changes in their brains resulting in symptoms worse than just depression. People who develop PTSD were inherently more susceptible to the disorder than others, often exhibiting prior signs of mental illness. After a traumatic event, the possible onset of PTSD can be exacerbated by receiving little or no help or coping with it inappropriately.
3. PTSD sufferers aren’t victims: Without question, PTSD sufferers are victims. They’ve encountered events that, in most cases, were beyond their control and very few people experience during their lifetimes. They lack the psychological capabilities to recover from such traumas and thus need help in order to cope. PTSD is not something that should be taken lightly. It’s not something that can be ignored and forgotten. Individuals with the disorder need professional help to endure the symptoms that inhibit them from functioning normally day to day.
4. PTSD symptoms manifest immediately after a traumatic event: In many cases, it takes a month or two before symptoms are noticeable, and they can be brought forth by stress and old memories. According to the NIH, a psychiatrist or psychologist evaluates a patient and determines whether or not they have the disorder depending on if they’ve shown at least one re-experiencing symptom, at least three avoidance symptoms and at least two hyperarousal symptoms (see link for more comprehensive explanations), all of which need to occur during at least a month in a PTSD diagnosis.
5. PTSD sufferers are always unstable and violent: Symptoms of PTSD vary depending on the person with the disorder. Angry outbursts and violence don’t always occur, even if the illness was brought forth by events involving violent crime and torture. Ultimately, how a person reacts to a traumatic event is dependent on their individual attributes and sensibilities. For example, additional symptoms may include memory disturbances and the inability to connect and reconnect with others. The severity of each symptom increases and decreases and almost never remains constant.
6. PTSD is limited to a specific age group: Children are vulnerable to PTSD too despite their apparent resilience to mental stress. In fact, a recent study undertaken by University of Miami psychologist Dr. Annette La Greca showed that children exhibit signs of PTSD two years after a natural disaster. Twenty-one months after the event, 29 percent reported moderate to severe PTSD symptoms. During a family’s recovery from a catastrophic hurricane, for example, a child may struggle with adjusting to a new environment, where they may be without their friends and some of their family, making the recovery even more difficult.
7. Only one treatment is needed: The simplicity or complexity of treatment is wholly dependent on the person with PTSD. If symptoms are severe, then it’s reasonable to assume several methods may be used to control the illness. Psychotherapy and medication may be combined in order to produce a desired result for a patient. Doctors typically prescribe antidepressants such as sertraline (Zoloft) or paroxetine (Paxil), both of which are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat PTSD. Each combats feelings of sadness, hopelessness, anger and worry. Patients may also use benzodiazepines to relax and sleep and antipsychotics to combat other mental disorders.
8. Therapy doesn’t work: Therapy does work. It educates the PTSD sufferer about the trauma and its psychological effects, and enables a mental health professional to find ways to neutralize the symptoms to the best of their abilities. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is often used, including exposure therapy, cognitive restructuring and stress inoculation training. Exposure therapy enables the patient to face and control their fear. Cognitive restructuring helps the patient realistically evaluate bad memories and deal with them in a healthy manner. Stress inoculation training teaches the patient to reduce anxiety and thus the PTSD symptoms.
9. PTSD sufferers are unable to function in the real world: By taking the aforementioned measures and remaining committed to treating the problem, PTSD sufferers can fulfill their duties as employees. As previously mentioned, medication and therapy can help them make it through the day. If symptoms persist and noticeably affect their productivity, they should notify their employer of the problem if they aren’t already aware. Remember, people with mental health problems are afforded the same rights as everyone else.
10. Recovery is impossible: Dealing with PTSD may seem like an unwinnable battle, but with the proper commitment, it can be defeated. Note that recovery is a subjective term depending on the patient. While symptoms of PTSD can be eradicated, some may define recovery as simply functioning effectively with the disorder. There are numerous PTSD support groups in existence with members willing to share their success stories. It’s a great way to build hope when the illness is adamantly against it.

Mind Control - A Review of My "HypnoProgramming"

I've provided a web site with eight no-cost hypnosis sessions for anyone to use. The web site is http://www.HypnoProgramming.com

The hypnosis sessions are all general and positive and based on what I'm helping teaching at The Mind Control Hypnosis Seminar.

It's nice when people respond back and tell me how these hypnosis sessions help.  Here is a recent email I received:

Hi DJ

I just started with the first hypnosis session 

about 3 days ago and since doing them I have 

noticed I am much more relaxed and even 

when something does upset me, I am able 

to isolate that feeling, acknowledge what 

is upsetting me, and put it aside and get 

back to feeling good again.

I just started the second session today.

Thank you.

Douglas

You're invited to try it yourself and tell me your response.

Dantalion Jones

Yes, These MP3s are FREE! 

If you're on facebook ....

I've created a facebook event for the upcoming hypnosis training. 

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106137029469254

Mind Control - How To Stop People From Gossiping

Is the gossip queen at work, who tells you about everyone’s misfortunes and fallacies, starting to become someone you have to put effort in to avoid? Is your roommate, family member or friend starting to drive you nuts with their gossip? If you are not someone who goes around talking about people for the enjoyment of spreading rumours, lies, or personal information then you may not like to be surrounded by people who like to gossip. Here are some ways to stop them from gossiping around you.

Attack Their Ego

This is the most effective tactic that you can use against a gossip lover. They probably think that when they gossip it makes them appear 'socially cool' or knowledgeable or friendly or some other quality that they are going for. Your job is to figure out what they are trying to be known for and make it look like not using gossip will achieve that!

For instance, if Joe likes to gossip about people because he thinks that people like him when he gossips, then you need to make him feel that people don’t like people who gossip but instead like people who keep their secrets to themselves. You can do this by letting him hear you talk about how much you like and respect the fact that Susan doesn’t share your secrets with everyone. Joe will want you to like him to and want to prove that he doesn’t share secrets either! He will most likely stop gossiping around you and instead let you know what a good secret keeper he is.

Make Them Believe That Gossip is Bad

You don’t gossip because you don’t like it right? Well if you can make them feel as though gossip is bad then they will not want to gossip either. Even the heaviest gossip queen or king has a belief system, and that belief system changes throughout their lifetime. It may just be time for their belief about gossiping to change!

You can do this by getting them to admit that gossiping is not a nice thing to do. Get them to agree with you when you talk about how much gossiping hurts other people or how most people don’t like people who gossip. Once they agree with you they will not want to appear to be the one who hurts other people or the un-liked person. Instead they will start to question their beliefs about gossiping and their ego will most likely form of new set of beliefs that will stop their gossiping all together. Beliefs normally take a few weeks to take root so rest assured if they truly start to believe that gossip is bad then their struggle with this belief will end soon.

Let Them Know It’s Wrong and Hurtful

Many of us listen to gossip and shake our heads while the person spouts off their news for the day, but how many of us take the time to say “Listen, I don’t want to hear this stuff. It’s not fair to the people you are talking about, half the time it’s wrong, and it’s not a trait about you that I respect.”, and then continue on with our day without listening to the actual gossip? Not often enough.

Sometimes the best way to let someone know how you feel is directly. Chances are they will be embarrassed or upset about what you have just confronted them with, and that’s a good thing. They need to know that it’s not a positive thing that they are doing and that most people don’t appreciate it. It can only help them improve themselves and the way they treat other people.

One great way to avoid awkwardness between you two after confronting them is to follow the confrontation about their gossip with their positive traits. For instance once you tell them how unattractive gossip is you can tell them how much you enjoy their humour when they are not gossiping. If you balance the criticism with positive words then they may not feel as bad knowing that you view them as a decent person when they are not gossiping. It will make them want to be more decent around you!

Mind Control - The Transcendental Future

The Following info is an excerpt from a post from the web site http://leavingscientology.wordpress.com .

They talk about it in the terms of Scientology but I want to take it in my own direction.

Here is the excerpt:

This is inspired from the book: The Time Paradox by Phillip Zimbardo and John Boyd.  It’s an in-depth examination of how our attitudes towards time – past, present and future – affect how we live our lives. It is a worthwhile read.

In it is a chapter on something called the transcendental future. Simply put, it has to do with people’s beliefs about what will happen to them and the world after they die. For instance, Christians believe they will go to Heaven if they are good, devout, and pious. So this affects how they live their lives.  Transcendent futures are usually unprovable, often improbable. But they are believed, and that is what matters. And no one reports back as to whether it’s really true or not.

Belief in a transcendental future can have both good and evil results.  Certainly, the Christian belief in an afterlife has inspired great works of art and architecture, great acts of charity and compassion and courage.

But a transcendental future can also be used to manipulate people.  “If you contribute money to the Church, you’ll go to heaven,” and so forth.

The most notorious example is suicide bombers. Most people think that they are either crazy or ignorant. No, they have been convinced that if they detonate themselves, before the first drop of their martyr blood hits the ground, they will be seated at the right hand of Allah. And they will have secured a place there for their entire family. Powerful imagery. Powerful motivation.

People’s Temple, Heaven’s Gate, Solar Temple, Kamikaze pilots, Christian martyrs – people can literally be convinced to off themselves for a transcendental future.

But short of suicide, people can be convinced to endure hardship, crushing poverty and degradation, oppression, exorbitant tithing, enormous self-sacrifice, all for the sake of their transcendent future.

This is an awesome two-edged sword for influence and persuasion.

One edge you can use like most religions use it; to persuade other, but the other edge....

This is where it gets interesting. The other edge of this sword is that it can be used to motivate and persuade yourself and you don't even have to believe in life after death. All you have to do is believe that your efforts and actions have an impact on the future, A future YOU want to create.

This goes back to my posting on choosing the constants of your life. (http://blog.mindcontrol101.com/mind-control-the-secrets-of-happiness-according-to-me/ )

There also exists some evidence that those people who set outlandish and idealistic goals for themselves that are way way out in their future tend to be happier.

The lesson? Think about what you want, how you want to live and create a transcendental future based on that.

You've got nothing to lose. 

Mind Control - Meditation

Whether you call it Nirvana, the Tao, the Self, or the Kingdom of Heaven Within, it is existent; please enter.

If you are searching for the whole kit and caboodle - a package of belief, lifestyle and doctrine - every religion from Christianity to Buddhism has a meditation component. It may not be your inclination to change your lifestyle and belief technique, so do your research ahead of engaging in something that might be far too consuming for you. The internet has inumberable information (and misinformation) as does your neighborhood library and bookstore..

One of the reasons the TM practice continues, for example, to be widely practiced is that if doesn't fit into whichever of the categories discussed - it is neither contemplation nor concentration, and for that reason easily adapted by persons of varied natures, ages, personalities and intellectual capacity. Because it involves neither religion nor philosophy nor change in lifestyle, it appeals to those who wish a secular self-help approach to self-development. Although no meditation program offers a quick fix, some are more probable to deliver tangible benefits more quickly.

Contemplative practices, such as visualization, prayer, mindfulness and any system that involves letting the mind wander or involves being attentive to the wandering mind, all keep the mind actively engaged in thought. This is counter-productive to transcending theory.

According to some scholars, techniques that involve concentration can drain the mind and not produce the transcendent state that one desires. Though the transcendent state finds the mind highly concentrated, it is not the technique of concentration that is the means to that end. Methods that involve focus or concentration keep the mind bound and active in unique perception, disallowing unboundedness.

So what is it all regarding? According to the more profound texts about meditation, its purpose is to fuse the conscious mind with the universal cosmic basis of life. This is the pure form of Yoga, which in sanskrit, means union. The experience of transcending relative phases of perception to experience silent, absolute, non-changing existence is open to all, according to the texts and teachers. The value of this supreme realization of the silent Infinite is found in the finite routines of daily life. Self realization becomes self-actualization--greater energy, intelligence, creativity, compassion, tolerance and bliss-when we open our eyes after meditation. The results are worth the trip down the path-it is just a matter of which is the most effective path.

Once Transcendental Meditation courses became widespread , the media began reporting about it. After celebrities, like the Beatles, Donovan, and later Merv Griffin and Clint Eastwood, talked visibly about their benefits from the TM technique, other schools of meditation sprang up like wildflowers. Everytime you turned around a would-be guru was touting his or her path, none of them significantly scientifically researched, but offering a myriad of results nonetheless. Eventually the phone book was filled with choices, publications on yoga and on meditation filled the shelves in bookstores, and your next door neighbor's eighteen year old hung out a shingle and taught you to focus on your breath.

Reasons for knowledge to meditate vary widely: relief from stress seems to rank high on the list, but better health ranks as a very close second reason. During the much-sentimentalized 1960s, meditation became famous largely due to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the popularity of his Transcendental Meditation (TM) program. Maharishi was shrewd enough to take his authentic, ancient practice and have modern science verify its benefits. Thus began the induction of meditation and the quest for enlightenment in the modern, scientifically oriented west, although both had long been intrinsic to culture in the east.

According to some surveys, 10% or more of all US citizens now run through some type of meditation. People of all age groups, including ten year old kids in their schools, are closing their eyes and searching inward for self-development.

This is learning to meditate.

Mind Control - What To Do If Your Hypnosis Doesn't Work?

Here is your hypnosis tip....

Here is something that newbie hypnotists really fear.

So let's suppose you are doing an eye lock induction on your subject and you tell them "Imagine just pretend your eyes are sealed tightly closed... so tightly sealed that even if you tried they wouldn't open... no matter what... they stay closed... Only when you know that true test them ...."

What do you do if they open their eyes?

A newbie hypnotist might get all flustered, think they did something wrong and maybe give up.

Don't!

Here's what you say:

"Oh good! I see what you were doing wrong. You weren't following my instructions. I didn't tell you
to open your eye ... we all know you can do that, right? I said to pretend they are sealed shut so
tightly they would not open. Every child knows how to pretend and that's all you need to do. Okay,
let's do it again."

The beauty of this response is that it puts the responsibility of success onto the subject not the
hypnosis.

That's the reason I NEVER give a hypnotic suggestion. I only give instructions. It's up to the subject,
not the hypnotist to follow them.


================== PROMO BREAK ===================

WANT TO COME TO A LIVE TRAINING?

http://TheHypnosisSeminar.com

If you are ready to 'BE THE HYPNOTIST' and be fully prepared to go out and zap people wherever you are, there is nothing that can compare to a live training.

For those people who are challenged by the cost to attend (even with the 50% discount) you can contact me and make some special arrangements.

To get the special pricing, please conact me directly via the "Contact" button on the web site.
http://TheHypnosisSeminar.com

============ REGULARLY SCHEDULED TIP =============


Once the subject recognizes that their success is dependent on following your instructions they begin
to take your words much more seriously. That translates into them going to just the mental state where you  can make the changes they need.

To the hypnotist it means giving good, easy to understand instructions.

This is also a great way to deal with the people who say "I can't be hypnotized". You can say "Oh really? If you can follow my instructions you can be hypnotized.

So remember, it's up to you, the hypnotist to give good instructions but it's up to the subject to follow them.

Until next time...

Dantalion Jones

p.s. There are still seats available at the next Hypnosis Workshop. For further information and to get in before the remaining seats are filled, please go to:
http://TheHypnosisSeminar.com

p.p.s You can get info on the Hypnosis Workshop Videos here:
http://mindcontrol101.com/go/videocourse/

Mind Control - Death vs Humanity .... you know who will win.

Death can be terrifying. Recognizing that death is inescapable and unpredictable makes us incredibly vulnerable, and can invoke feelings of anxiety, hatred and fear. But new research by George Mason University psychology professor Todd Kashdan shows that being a mindful person not only makes you generally more tolerant and less defensive, but it can also actually neutralize fears of dying and death.

"Mindfulness is being open, receptive, and attentive to whatever is unfolding in the present moment," says Kashdan. In his latest research, Kashdan and his colleagues wanted to find out if mindful people had different attitudes about death and dying.

"Generally, when reminded of our mortality, we are extremely defensive. Like little kids who nearly suffocate under blanket protection to fend off the monster in the closet, the first thing we try to do is purge any death-related thoughts or feelings from our mind," says Kashdan.

"On the fringes of this conscious awareness, we try another attempt to ward off death anxiety. We violently defend beliefs and practices that provide a sense of stability and meaning in our lives."

Kashdan says this practice often has an ugly side—intolerance and abuse. "When people are reminded that death is impending, their racist tendencies increase," he says. In a series of experiments conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia, for example, white people asked to read about a crime committed by another person give harsher penalties for black compared with white defendants after being reminded of their mortality.

Kasdan wondered what might prevent these defensive, intolerant reactions from occurring. In a recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, he and his colleagues looked at what might happen when mindfulness and the terror of death collide.

"A grudge match between humanity and death," says Kashdan.

If mindful people are more willing to explore whatever happens in the present, even if it uncomfortable, will they show less defensiveness when their sense of self is threatened by a confrontation with their own mortality?

Based on the results of 7 different experiments, the answer appears to be yes. When reminded about their death and asked to write about what will happen when their bodies decompose (in grisly detail), less mindful people showed an intense dislike for foreigners that mention what's wrong with the United States (pro-U.S. bias), greater prejudice against black managers who discriminated against a white employee in a promotion decision (pro-white bias), and harsher penalties for social transgressions such as prostitution, marital infidelities, and drug use by physicians that led to surgical mishaps.

Across these various situations, on the contrast, mindful people showed a lack of defensiveness toward people that didn't share their worldview. Mindful people were diplomatic and tolerant regardless of whether they were prompted to think about their slow, systematic decline toward obliteration.

"What we found was that when asked to deeply contemplate their death, mindful people spent more time writing (as opposed to avoiding) and used more death-related words when reflecting on the experience. This suggests that a greater openness to processing the threat of death allows compassion and fairness to reign. In this laboratory staged battle, mindfulness alters the power that death holds over us," Kashdan says.