Dr. Martin Seligman is selling happiness to corporations saying its "Not how to get rich, but how to stay prosperous in all aspects of life: work, home and body. We need to look at a gross wellbeing indicator, not Gross Domestic Product so we can get ahead without illness, depression, anxiety and fear stopping us in this new, positive paradigm." CEO Gordon Cairns says "The Body is the new frontier, business with a spiritual edge. "I don't use the word spiritual. It is about transformation. To get the most out of your business and people, you have to work on yourself first. Buddhism has given me a profound sense of meaning and purpose." Human resources executives have also validated this positive psychology by saying that after recently putting selected staff members through a Work-Life Balance program sick days dropped by 25 per cent and staff turnover was down dramatically, saving the company in excess of AUS$250,000 annually. For more go to: The Australian
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February 2008
February 29, 2008
February 15, 2008
The Orgasmatron
Sleeper (1973) by Woody Allen
The experimental implant, now trademarked by Meloy as the Orgasmatron after the orgasm-inducing cylinder in Woody Allen's 1973 movie "Sleeper" rests on the skin just above the belt line. Two electrodes snake into the space between the vertebrae and the spinal cord. A video-game-like remote control allows women (or their partners) to turn electrical pulses on and off and fiddle with timing and intensity.
Healing Landscapes
St. Michael Hospital by James Burnett
Therapeutic Landscapes Resource Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information about restorative landscapes, healing gardens, wellness gardens, and other research-based healthcare design. Their website features a wealth of reference materials, garden locations, and links regarding landscapes for healing.
Blue Brain Project
"What we're doing is reverse-engineering the brain," says Henry Mackram , codirector of the Brain Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland and leader of the Blue Brain Project , which began in 2005. By mimicking the behavior of the brain down to the individual neuron, the researchers aim to create a modeling tool that can be used by neuroscientists to run experiments, test hypotheses, and analyze the effects of drugs more efficiently than they could using real brain tissue. The model of part of the brain was completed last year, says Markram. But now, after extensive testing comparing its behavior with results from biological experiments, he is satisfied that the simulation is accurate enough that the researchers can proceed with the rest of the brain."
The Healing Brain
Photography by Mark Miller
Joining the reaction against Cartesian separation of mind and body and belief in "magic bullets," Robert Ornstein believes that the brain's primary function is not to think but to maintain and restore health to the body. The brain also activates the body's own immune system and alleviates pain using hypnosis or morphine-like analgesics. Medical intervention, they claim, is less vital to disease prevention than are nutrition, hygiene, environment, behavior and social stability. The brain alone is aware of and stimulated by all these factors, and using a combination of regulators like the hypothalamus and chemical and electrical impulses, it coordinates the body's inner functions and relates them to the external world.
