Gratitude is a positive emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions. The systematic study of gratitude within psychology only began around the year 2000, possibly because psychology has traditionally been focused more on understanding distress rather than understanding positive emotions. 

It is an emotion that occurs after people receive help, depending on how they interpret the situation. Specifically, gratitude is experienced if people perceive the help they receive as valuable to them, costly to their benefactor, and given by the benefactor with benevolent intentions rather than ulterior motives. When faced with identical situations where they have been given help, different people view the situation very differently in terms of value, cost, and benevolent intentions, and this explains why people feel differing levels of gratitude after they have been helped. 

Gratitude may also serve to reinforce future prosocial behaviors in benefactors. For example, one experiment found that customers of a jewelry store who were called and thanked showed a subsequent 70% increase in purchases. In comparison, customers who were thanked and told about a sale showed only a 30% increase in purchases, and customers who were not called at all did not show an increase. In another study, regular patrons of a restaurant gave bigger tips when servers wrote “Thank you” on their checks.

A large body of recent work has suggested that people who are more grateful have higher levels of well being. Grateful people are happier, less depressed, less stressed, and more satisfied with their lives and social relationships. Grateful people also have higher levels of control of their environments, personal growth, purpose in life, and self acceptance. Grateful people have more positive ways of coping with the difficulties they experience in life, being more likely to seek support from other people, reinterpret and grow from the experience, and spend more time planning how to deal with the problem.

While many emotions and personality traits are important to well being, there is evidence that gratitude may be uniquely important. First, a longitudinal study showed that people who were more grateful coped better with a life transition. Specifically, people who were more grateful before the transition were less stressed, less depressed, and more satisfied with their relationships three months later. Second, two recent studies have suggested that gratitude may have an unique relationship with well being, and can explain aspects of well being that other personality traits cannot. 

Given that gratitude appears to be a strong determinant of people’s well-being, several psychological interventions have been developed to increase gratitude. One study had participants test a number of different gratitude exercises, such as thinking about a living person for whom they were grateful, writing about someone for whom they were grateful, and writing a letter to deliver to someone for whom they were grateful. Participants in the control condition were asked to describe their living room. Participants who engaged in a gratitude exercise showed increases in their experiences of positive emotion immediately after the exercise, and this effect was strongest for participants who were asked to think about a person for whom they were grateful.

The Kessler Syndrome is a scenario, proposed by NASA consultant Donald J. Kessler, in which the volume of space debris in Low Earth orbit is so high that objects in orbit are frequently struck by debris, creating even more debris and a greater risk of further impacts. The implication of this scenario is that the escalating amount of debris in orbit could eventually render space exploration, and even the use of satellites, unfeasible for many generations.

Every satellite, space probe and manned mission has the potential to create space debris. As the number of satellites in orbit grow and old satellites become obsolete, the risk of a cascading Kessler Syndrome becomes greater.

Fortunately, at the most commonly used Low Earth Orbits residual air drag helps keep the zones clear. Altitudes under around 300 miles will be swept clear in a matter of months. Collisions that occur under this altitude are also less of an issue, since the resulting orbits of the fragments inherently have perigee below this altitude.

At altitudes above this level lifetimes are much greater, but drag gradually brings debris down to lower altitudes where it finally re-enters. At very high altitudes this can take millennia.

The Kessler Syndrome is especially insidious because of the “domino effect” and “feedback runaway”. Any impact between two objects of sizable mass spalls off shrapnel debris from the force of collision. Each piece of shrapnel now has the potential to cause further damage, creating even more space debris. With a large enough collision (such as one between a space station and a defunct satellite), the amount of cascading debris could be enough to render Low Earth Orbit essentially impassable.

The Kessler Syndrome presents a unique problem to human space travel. Space debris is very difficult to deal with directly, as the small size and high velocities of most debris would make retrieval and disposal impractically difficult. Given thousands of years, most debris in Low Earth Orbit would eventually succumb to air resistance in the rarefied atmosphere and plunge to the Earth. If magnetically susceptible, the debris could fall in a few decades due to the drag of the Earth’s magnetic field.

To minimize the chances of damage to other vehicles, designers of a new vehicle or satellite are frequently required to demonstrate that it can be safely disposed of at the end of its life, for example by use of a controlled atmospheric reentry system or a boost into a graveyard orbit.

An octopus is a mollusk within the class cephalopod that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. There are over 300 recognized octopus species

It has eight flexible arms, which trail behind it as it swims. Most octopuses have no internal or external skeleton, allowing them to squeeze through tight places. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms. Octopuses have three hearts. Two pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body. For defense against predators, they hide, flee quickly, expel ink, or use color changing camouflage. Octopuses are bilaterally symmetrical, like other cephalopods, with two eyes and four pairs of arms. They are not radially symmetrical, like sea stars.

Octopuses are highly intelligent, probably more intelligent than any other order of invertebrates. Maze and problem solving experiments have shown that they do have both short and long term memory. Their short 6 month lifespans limit the amount they can ultimately learn. They learn almost no behaviors from their parents, with whom young octopuses have very little contact.

In laboratory experiments, octopuses can be readily trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns. They have been reported to practice observational learning, although the validity of these findings is widely contested on a number of grounds. Octopuses have also been observed in what some have described as play, repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them. They often break out of their aquariums and sometimes into others in search of food. They have boarded fishing boats and opened holds to eat crabs.

Most octopuses can eject a thick blackish ink in a large cloud to aid in escaping from predators. The ink cloud is thought to dull smell, which is particularly useful for evading predators that are dependent on smell for hunting, such as sharks. Ink clouds of some species might serve as pseudomorphs, or decoys that the predator attacks instead.

An octopus’ camouflage is aided by certain specialized skin cells which can change the apparent color, opacity, and reflectiveness of the epidermis. This color changing ability can also be used to communicate with or warn other octopuses. Octopuses can use muscles in the skin to change the texture of their mantle in order to achieve a greater camouflage. In some species the mantle can take on the spiky appearance of seaweed, or the bumpy texture of a rock. A few species, such as the Mimic Octopus, have a fourth defense mechanism and can combine their highly flexible bodies with their color changing ability to accurately mimic other, more dangerous animals such as lionfish, sea snakes, and eels.

Though octopuses can be difficult to keep in captivity, some people keep them as pets. Octopuses often escape even from supposedly secure tanks due to their problem solving skills, mobility and lack of rigid structure. Octopuses are also quite strong for their size. Octopuses kept as pets have been known to open the covers of their aquariums and survive for a time in the air in order to get to a nearby feeder tank and gorge themselves on the fish there. They have also been known to catch and kill some species of sharks.

The Hawaiian creation myth relates that the present cosmos is only the last of a series, having arisen in stages from the wreck of the previous universe. In this account, the octopus is the lone survivor of the previous, alien universe. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped the sea and its animals and octopuses were often depicted in their art. A stone carving found in the archaeological recovery from Bronze Age Minoan Crete at Knossos has a depiction of an octopus.

Meta-Medicine claims to be an advanced method of diagnosis, incorporating mind-body diagnostics and therapy based on a biopsychosocial model of integrative medicine. It also claims to provide a scientific holistic explanation of health issues as a basis for therapy and healing.

Based on the body-mind-spirit-social connection and integrative medicine, Meta-Medicine uses 10 core principles to redefine our understanding of disease, healing and health process. It works by using the body’s biological survival programming and claims to scientifically map physical symptoms, via the brain, to their primal conflict.

Meta-Medicine Health Coaches claim to assist their clients to uncover the root cause of the stressful events that may cause their health issues and create awareness of the biological, psychological and social meaning of their symptoms as an important step towards a complete healing.

Meta-Medicine has it’s roots in the works of Dr. Geerd Ryke Hamer and other innovative health experts like Candace Pert, Bruce Lipton, Carl Simonton and Deepak Chopra.

Dr. Geerd Ryke Hamer formulated his Germanic New Medicine in 1978. He was the first to describe the two phases of disease, the importance of biological conflict shocks, the organ-brain-conflict relationship and embryonic layer connection to symptoms. Dr. Hamer has been very controversial for his extreme views and remarks against conventional medicine.

In her book Molecules of Emotion, psychoneuroimmunologist Candice Pert discusses the revolution since the 60s in mind-body thinking. She throws out the old idea of our brains communicating with our bodies via hard-wired neurons that talk to each other through chemical neurotransmitters. Instead, her research showed that these neurotransmitters are discovered throughout the body, showing that the mind and the body has a two-way conversation using chemicals created by our thoughts, hence the phrase ‘molecules of emotions’.

Deepak Chopra MD, author of several books looking at mind-body interactions including Quantum Healing points out that over the past few decades neurotransmitters for various emotions and feelings have been uncovered, changing pain, hunger and disease from something that was considered ‘all in your head’ to a complicated interaction between body and mind.

Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton continues this thinking, offering a mechanism for how thoughts change our bodies to create and cure disease. He points out that DNA is not the brain of the cell. Lipton believes that our thoughts and emotions turn our genes on and off, and likens our mind and body to TV sets, with the environment as the TV signal. This kind of thinking is readily accepted by Meta-Medicine consultants.

The Meta-Medicine Association, a nonprofit organization registered in California, has been established as the worldwide licensing and accreditation body of Meta-Medicine Health Coaches and Trainers. The organization is intent on establishing a wide network of health professionals including doctors, naturopaths and other licensed therapists training in Meta-Medicine.

The Heal Breast Cancer Foundation is the research department of the Meta-Medicine Association and is focusing on researching the healing mechanism of breast cancer based on a biopsychosocial model of integrative medicine. Research projects include the Breast Health Prevention Initiative, Brain Relay Diagnostics and Traumatic Life Events as causative factors of disease.

The 10 main principles of Meta-Medicine are:

1. Mind, body and spirit are not separate, but a unity interacting with our environment in a synchronous way.

2. Awareness is a key element in every healing process. Disease is a spiritual journey of signals pointing us towards learning lessons.

3. Traumatic life events are the starting point of physical and psychological changes. Every organ is connected to a specific emotional conflict content (like coronary = territory conflict, skin-epidermis = loss-of-contact, separation, stomach mucos = indigestion, conflict)

4. The brain acts like a computer and using brain imaging techniques like a CT scan we can distinguish between ‘brain relays’. Each brain relay correlates with specific organs and conflict contents

5. Disease is a process with two phases and 9 key points which every disease can go through. One phase of disease is the ‘stress’ phase, another the ‘regeneration’ phase. Often what we consider two unrelated symptoms actually are part of the same organ/disease process. 

6. Disease is a higly intelligent process. Every symptom has a unique biological and psychological meaning which allows a patient to learn their life lessons.

7. Depending on the evolutionary development of organs each organ reacts with specific symptoms in the stress and regeneration phase enabling doctors and health professionals to properly diagnose and understand symptoms and their meaning.

8. Microbes, bacteria, viruses or fungi are biological helpers in a disease process, not the cause.

9. All healing is self healing. Every patient is unique and requires an individual integrative therapy and healing plan which should include biopsychosocial components and focus on prevention, creating awareness in a patients life.

10. Patients are encouraged to be responsible and knowledgeable decision makers. Taking responsibility for our own health is the first step towards creating a health lifestyle.

Segmented sleep, divided sleep, and interrupted sleep are modern Western terms for a sleep pattern found in medieval and early modern Europe and many non industrial societies today, where the night’s sleep is divided by one or more periods of wakefulness. This is particularly common in the winter.

The human circadian rhythm controls a sleep cycle of wakefulness during the day and sleep at night. Superimposed on this basic rhythm is a secondary one of light sleep in the early afternoon, such as a siesta, and quiet wakefulness in the early morning.

The two periods of night sleep were called first sleep and second sleep in medieval England. In French, the common term was premier sommeil or premier somme. There is no common word in English for the period of wakefulness between, apart from paraphrases such as first waking or when one wakes from his first sleep and the generic watch.

The period of wakefulness was highly valued in medieval Europe as a time of quiet and relaxation. Peasant couples were often too tired after a long day’s work to do much more than eat and go to sleep, but they would wake later on to talk and socialize. People would also use this time to pray and reflect, and to interpret dreams, which were more vivid at that hour than upon waking in the morning, and even to visit one another. This was also a favorite time for authors and poets to write uninterrupted.

There is evidence from sleep research that this period of nighttime wakefulness, combined with a midday nap, results in greater alertness than a single sleep wake cycle. The brain exhibits high levels of the pituitary hormone prolactin during the period of nighttime wakefulness, which may contribute to the feeling of peace that many people associate with it. It is in many ways similar to the hypnogogic state that occurs just before falling asleep.

The modern assumption that consolidated sleep with no awakenings is the normal and correct way for human adults to sleep, leads many to approach their doctors with complaints of insomnia or other sleep disorders. Their concerns might best be addressed by assurance that their sleep conforms to historically natural sleep patterns.

Water puppetry is a tradition that dates back as far as the 11th century when it originated in the villages of the Red River Delta area of northern Vietnam. Today’s Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique variation on the ancient Asian puppet tradition.

The puppets are made out of wood and then lacquered. The shows are performed in a waist deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers, who are normally hidden behind a screen, to control them. Thus the puppets appear to be moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this form of puppet play.

The art remains highly developed today in this country. In ancient Vietnam, the rural Vietnamese believed that spirits controlled all aspect of their lives, from the kitchen to the rice paddies. The Vietnamese devised water puppetry as a way to satisfy these spirits, and as a form of entertainment using what natural medium they could find in their environment. In ancient times, the ponds and flooded rice paddies after harvest were the stage for these impromptu shows.

Modern water puppetry is performed in a pool of water 4 meters square with the water surface being the stage. Performance today occurs on one of three venues: on traditional ponds in villages where a staging area has been set up, on portable tanks built for traveling performers, or in a specialized building where a pool stage has been constructed.

Up to 8 puppeteers stand behind a split-bamboo screen, decorated to resemble a temple facade, and control the puppets using long bamboo rods and string mechanism hidden beneath the water surface. The puppets are carved out of wood and often weigh up to 15 kg.

A traditional Vietnamese orchestra provides background music accompaniment. The instrumentation includes vocals, drums, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, gongs, and bamboo flutes. The bamboo flute’s clear, simple notes may accompany royalty while the drums and cymbals may loudly announce a fire breathing dragon’s entrance.

The puppets enter from either side of the stage, or emerge from the murky depths of the water. Spotlights and colorful flags adorn the stage and create a festive atmosphere.

Nensha, better known to English speakers as thoughtography or projected thermography, is the ability to psychically “burn” images from one’s mind onto surfaces, or even into the minds of others. There are three well known individuals involved in thoughtography or the research of it.

Tomokichi Fukurai, an assistant professor of psychology at Tokyo University and a firm believer in the supernatural, took a woman named Ikuko Nagao under his wing. Unlike his previous failed experimentation with clairvoyant Chizuko Mifune earlier that year, Fukurai was determined to prove his claims as true and decided to work with Nagao’s skill, a talent he labeled nensha, or spirit photography. Unfortunately, Nagao’s efforts were labelled as fraudulent. However, Fukurai was undeterred, and worked with other nensha practitioners but found little success.

In 1913, Fukurai took on a subject that would advance his claims further, a woman named Sadako Takahashi. Takahashi, who claimed to have developed both clairvoyance and nensha through breathing and mental exercises, met Fukurai and soon was able to breathe life into his sagging studies. She was able to convince enough skeptics and later that year Fukurai published a book called Toshi to Nensha, later translated and published throughout the world as Clairvoyance and Thoughtography. Fukurai would later work with another nensha practitioner, Koichi Mita, who was said to create a thoughtograph of the dark side of the moon.

In the end, however, Fukurai’s theories never gained widespread popularity, and in 1919, he resigned his post at the university to continue his research. Before his death in 1952, Fukurai founded the Fukurai Institute of Psychology, an organization that studies the paranormal and still survives to this day.

In the 1960s, Chicago resident Ted Serios became notorious for the production of nensha on Polaroid film supposedly using only his psychic powers. His abilities were endorsed by Jule Eisenbud, a Denver based psychiatrist who wrote a book lauding Serios’ talents called The World of Ted Serios: “Thoughtographic” Studies of an Extraordinary Mind. Serios’ images, which often appeared surrounded by dark areas on the film, were often of typical postcard scenes. Serios was eventually only able to produce his photographs while holding a device to his forehead, which has been described as a small section of tubing fitted with a piece of photo squeegee.

As Eisenbud’s book readily admits, many of Serios’ thoughtographs were produced while Serios was drunk or drinking alcohol. According to Eisenbud, “Ted Serios exhibits a behavior pathology with many character disorders. He does not abide by the laws and customs of our society. He ignores social amenities and has been arrested many times. His psychopathic and sociopathic personality manifests itself in many other ways. He does not exhibit self control and will blubber, wail and bang his head on the floor when things are not going his way.”

In 1995, famed psychic Uri Geller began to perform nensha by using a 35mm camera upon which the lens cap would be left on. He would then take pictures of his forehead and have the pictures developed, to which Geller claimed that the images had come directly from his mind. Stage magician and skeptic James Randi immediately criticized the event, claiming fraud on Geller’s part. Randi states that Geller is using already exposed film in the camera, a charge Geller has consistently denied.

Professional photographer Nile Root was present at the March 1966 session where Serios claimed to have created thoughtographs and states that the small, handheld device Serios used was in many ways a miniaturized daguerreotype maker, creating the pictures in this manner. Furthermore, Root charges that Serios’ wild manner and actions may have been a distraction to insert the object into the device which would then expose the film. Root has since then given extensive details on how he believes the thoughtographs were created, as well as digital versions of the same.

A form constant is one of several geometric patterns which are recurringly observed during hallucinations and altered states of consciousness. They are also encountered during Lucid Dreaming before the actual dream.

In 1926, Heinrich Klüver systematically studied the effects of psychedelics on the subjective experiences of its users. In addition to producing hallucinations characterized by bright, highly saturated colors and vivid imagery, Klüver noticed that mescaline produced recurring geometric patterns in different users. He called these patterns form constants and categorized four types: lattices, cobwebs, tunnels, and spirals.

Many of these shapes have an intriguing similarity to much of the imagery in Ernst Haeckel’s Artforms in Nature, which includes over 100 detailed illustrations of microscopic animals and sea creatures.

Klüver’s form constants have appeared in other naturally occurring hallucinations, suggesting a similar physiological process underlying hallucinations with different triggers. Klüver’s form constants also appear in near death experiences and hallucinations of those with synesthesia. Other triggers include psychological stress, sensory deprivation, electrical stimulation, crystal gazing and migraine headaches. These shapes may appear on their own or with eyes shut in the form of phosphenes, especially when exerting pressure against the closed eyelid.

Author Michael Moorcock once observed in print that the shapes he had seen during his migraine headaches resembled exactly the form of fractals. The diversity of conditions that provoke such patterns suggests that form constants reflect some fundamental property of visual perception.

The practice of the ancient art of divination may suggest a deliberate practice of cultivating form constant imagery and using intuition or imagination to derive some meaning from transient visual phenomena.

Psychedelic art, inspired at least in part by psychedelic substances, frequently includes repetitive abstract forms and patterns similar to those created by paper marbling, and, in later years, fractals. The op art genre of visual art created art using bold imagery very like that of form constants.