David A Weintraub, Vanderbilt University

How will humankind react after astronomers hand over rock-solid scientific evidence for the existence of life beyond the Earth? No more speculating. No more wondering. The moment scientists announce this discovery, everything will change. Not least of all, our philosophies and religions will need to incorporate the new information.

Searching for signs of life

Astronomers have now identified thousands of planets in orbit around other stars. At the current rate of discovery, millions more will be found this century.

Having already found the physical planets, astronomers are now searching for our biological neighbors. Over the next fifty years, they will begin the tantalizing, detailed study of millions of planets, looking for evidence of the presence of life on or below the surfaces or in the atmospheres of those planets.

And it’s very likely that astronomers will find it. Despite the fact that more than one-third of Americans surveyed believe that aliens have already visited Earth, the first evidence of life beyond our planet probably won’t be radio signals, little green men or flying saucers. Instead, a 21st century Galileo, using an enormous, 50-meter-diameter telescope, will collect light from the atmospheres of distant planets, looking for the signatures of biologically significant molecules. Continue reading →

Can you recall how you felt the last time you gave or received a compliment? If you think about it, receiving a compliment is kind of like receiving a gift. It is a bundle of positive energy being passed on to you in the form of appreciation. The right compliment can make someone’s day, cheer the person up and help them feel appreciated. In turn, it also makes you feel good too! That is part of the beauty of this gift. Giving and receiving is beneficial for both parties.

This little bundle of appreciation can actually have a pretty big impact, especially when it is sincere and when it comes straight from the heart. Listed below are 10 of what we consider to be some of the best compliments you can give or receive. If you manage to hear one or more of these, give yourself a pat on the back. It means you’ve probably influenced another person in a very positive way!

1. “You are always there for me”

Everyone needs a shoulder they can lean on every once in awhile. Being the person others can rely on can have a lot more impact on people than you think. Maybe another functions as that person for you. If that is the case, this is a beautiful compliment to pay them.

2. “You always manage to put a smile on my face”

In the darkest times, it is important to find some positivity. In some cases, that speck of light comes in the form of a person that is able to make you smile. When a smile is created, a gateway is opened to more happiness.

3. “You always see the glass half full”

Different situations can be viewed in different shades of light. When looking at a situation from a negative perspective it may cause people to stress and shut down to solutions. Having a person around that points out the bright side of things will make it easier to process the situation. This can also help to create new solutions to work with, being more open to new input. Optimism is always good! Continue reading →

 Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Sigmund Freud are three of the most revered geniuses in human history. They changed the artistic landscape, changed the way we see the universe and even changed the way we see ourselves. However, the one thing that they have in common is they all had terrible childhoods.

A bad start to life can be a grave setback for anyone. As a child, you are often a product of your environment, helpless to any physical and emotional abuse that you are subjected to. Da Vinci, Newton, and Freud are an example to anyone that faced a difficult beginning that it doesn’t have to define you. 

It is a challenge that I have faced myself. Growing up in a home with a frequently absent and near silent father as a result of PTSD after serving in the army and a manic depressive mother, neither myself or my two brothers had a particularly settled existence – although I was lucky to have two loving, albeit flawed parents. In comparison with many people, I had a harmonious childhood.

In spite of the more severe struggles that you may have faced during your upbringing, it is crucial to learn from your experiences and not let them negatively affect the rest of your life. It is a struggle that millions of people around the world contend with every day. However, there are ways to ensure that the painful experiences that you faced shape you into a better, more empathetic person.

1. Reframe your narrative

Looking back on a miserable or abusive childhood puts you in the position of a helpless victim. It can make you feel unloved and unwanted. This feeling drags you into a cycle of mental self-abuse. However, by placing yourself in your own memory, you can empower yourself.

Instead of feeling helpless, think back to the time when you were a child, then consider how you pushed yourself out of that situation to become the person you are today. The child in your memory ceases to be a victim and becomes a powerful symbol of just how far you’ve come. As Dr. Harold Bloomfield, psychiatrist and author, says ‘you can find value in past adversity, you can neutralize its harmful effects and foster healing.’

2. Reject shame and blame

Shame is a spiral that can be the most difficult of all to recover from. It affects you like no other emotion because it attacks who you are as a human being. Bloomfield describes it as the ‘cancer of the spirit’ as it gives you the feeling that you are undeserving of joy or love. Continue reading →

Did you know that the CIA killed President John F. Kennedy? He had demanded information about a UFO he had sighted and the CIA assassinated him to prevent the truth about aliens coming to light.

NASA has discovered a mysterious satellite they call the ‘Black Knight’ in orbit around Earth. Theorists believe it is a UFO from another civilized planet. Skeptics dismiss it as space junk.

Extraterrestrial enthusiasts argue heatedly with cynics. How could the ancient Egyptians have assembled pyramids that were architecturally advanced for their time if not for help from space? Even Albert Einstein said that time travel is possible if we can beat the speed of light.

The theorists view the unbelievers as narrow-minded and dull. In contrast, the skeptics think of them as delusional to trust outrageous claims with little scientific credibility.

Stereotypes vs Psychology

Theorists and skeptics are put to the test in a study done by Viren Swami University of Westminster and Malaysia University, along with psychologists Jacob Pietschnig, Stefan Stieger, and Martin Voracek.

They composed an Extraterrestrial Beliefs Scale (EBS). They included three sub-tests in the 37 items on the EBS to examine the subjects belief on the topic of UFO, the government involvement, and the importance of scientific research.

Continue reading →

When you reminisce about your life, looking through a photo album, or chatting with friends and family, you will probably go through a real mix of emotions, recollecting the good times and the bad. Some more poignant moments might stand out to you – perhaps there were times you reached a crossroads in your life and had to make a big choice?

 Each of us faces decisions like that throughout life, and none of us can know what is going to happen in the future so often we end up making, what we later look back on as, bad decisions. Now, a study from the University of Illinois has shown that it is in these very moments – when we feel regret – that we actually reveal some deep secrets about our psyches.

Neale J. Roese and Amy Summerville have come to an incredible discovery through an in-depth study of regret, concluding that our biggest remorse can reveal to us where our greatest potential lies.

Regret as Emotion

Roese and Summerville began by looking at the sensation of regret in general and trying to get an understanding of how those feeling it perceive it. Going into the study, they had expected that everyone would see regret as a negative emotion but were surprised to find that there was a mixture of both positive and negative associations attached to it. In fact, people generally perceived regret in a favorable light. Continue reading →

Pain is a process.  Pain is a response to something.  Pain happens when you resist something you perceive.  It happens in steps A-B-C.  But we are seldom conscious of the process of suffering, as a result, we cannot figure out how to intervene in the process.  It is possible to become conscious of the process of suffering.

We simply have to use the pain of suffering to alert us to the fact that a process of suffering is taking place within us.  We can then step back to observe what the pain came in response to.  When you feel emotional or physical pain, simply close your eyes and ask yourself “What did this pain come in response to?  How is this process of suffering happening within me?

For example, if I feel the pain of anxiety, I can close my eyes and observe the HOW process of this pain.  I may notice that the pain comes in direct response to images my mind generates of a potential future scenario that then creates the auditory thought “I cannot survive that happening”.  The body is reacting to the image my mind is creating, not the situation at hand.  If I were to address the situation at hand, I would not be able to resolve my suffering.

I would have to see that the process of my suffering involves the images my mind generates in response to the situation at hand and then to deal with the images directly to have a chance at ending the suffering process taking place within me.

If you were simply to ask someone, why are you suffering?  They would not be able to tell you the accurate answer because they would not have stepped back far enough to objectively see the process of their suffering.  It is only when we know the how of suffering that we can know the why of suffering.  Essentially,  once we know how our suffering is happening, we can ask why it is happening in the way that it is happening.

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“When we ask how, we begin to see things as a process.  When we ask how relative to our suffering, we begin to see our suffering as a process.  When we ask the why after the how, we get to see the purpose behind that process.  We then have the awareness necessary to intervene in that process so that the process itself does not control us.”