Sensory Deprivation: 7月 2012

2012年7月31日星期二

How to Build a Serenity Room, And Regain a Bit of Your Sanity

Screaming rock or rap music, jackhammers, car horns, ringing cell phones, crying babies--there's no ignoring the pervasive noise in our chaotic culture, the modern equivalent of medieval torture, only worse, because there's no escaping it! It would be different if it was like a train whistle in the night that we've long since became inured to. But modern noises are assaultive in their sudden, jarring burst upon our senses. When you hear tires screech, a co-worker yell across the room, or your teen's bedroom walls vibrating from the decibels emanating from inside, don't you long to fly away to a warm, quiet, lush, soothing tropical island? And car alarms! They don't work anyway; there should be a law banning them. They're enough to make us call the realtor and pack that night! Is there no hiding place from the din? No refuge from the chaotic thrum and pulse of daily life? The world's noise level is ratcheting up along with the temperature. Call it Global Deafening. Help!

Actually, there is help. It's called a serenity room, and these rooms are becoming very popular, especially now that the number of empty nesters is on the rise, and boomers have the house more or less to ourselves, at least until the 'boomerrangers' arrive. Here's the idea:

Find a spare room--empty bedroom, walk-in closet, furnace room or bathroom if need be, and turn it into your serenity room. Darken the walls. Furnish the place with very little--a stand for candles, a small stereo, floor pillows. Heavy shades will enhance the mood. Install a lock on the door. Better yet, make the room off limits to anyone under the age of thirty, or shorter than three feet. Make that four feet. And no pets, either. One suggestion, unless cost is a factor, is an actual contracted remodeling. Look in the Yellow Pages or Online under quiet rooms, in-home theater construction or meditation rooms and peruse all the offerings. There are elaborate window shades, a product called QuietRock that is, drywall fabricated specifically for sound deadening applications. There are indirect, or mood lighting resources, even lighting that enhances the amount and kind of light if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder, in addition to noise pollution. . The same affect in reducing outside noise may be achieved by hanging blankets on the walls, and that may be a novel solution for couples. The wall hangings can be an art project, or a garage sale/antique store/self-spoiling expedition.

How to use your serenity room? Take an hour per week, or day, or whatever time you decide, and go there. Light the candles. Draw the shades. Put on acappella chant, Tim Janis, Enya, or Secret Garden on the stereo. Stretch out together on the pillows, and just listen to each other breathe. Relax. Enjoy. If this isn't part of everyone's mental health regimen yet it soon will be, as people discover the value of this priceless 'sensory deprivation'. The biggest obstacle you'll find in the beginning is allowing yourself the luxury of ignoring all the 'have to's', 'should be's' and general restlessness that causes you to need the room in the first place. But it's noise that's the primary concern.

Noise isn't just a problem for our psychological well being, either. Your serenity room may double as a physical health room, as well. Research shows a strong link between excessive noise and heart disease. According to research by the World Health Organization, thousands of people around the world are dying prematurely from heart disease triggered by long-term exposure to excessive noise. For instance, it's estimated that heart disease caused 101,000 deaths in the UK in 2006, and the study suggests that 3,030 of these are caused by chronic noise exposure, including daytime traffic. It could well be in the interest of your health to make a serenity room.

Here's another reason to make a serenity room. Noise induced hearing loss. This is a permanent hearing impairment resulting from prolonged exposure to high levels of noise. Almost 15% Americans have a hearing loss that affects their ability to understand normal speech*. And excessive noise exposure is the most common cause of hearing loss. Twenty-five percent of the work force in the United States is regularly exposed to potentially damaging noise.

Once you have your serenity room, you'll need to establish rituals for its use. This shouldn't be another 'should' in your life, but a soothing habit, kind of like settling into the easy chair after work with your slippers, the newspaper, and a glass of Gewurtztraminer. In other words, another ritual that reinforces the way you escape from the demands of your day, only a bit different, and a bit novel. Be the first in your neighborhood.

Here are a few suggested rituals to get you started in your serenity room:

Your favorite new age or classical music--Tim Janis, Enya, Secret Garden. Incense and/or candles. (Please don't burn the house down, fire trucks are really noisy!) Set aside a certain time every day, or as needed. No need to actively meditate, although you may find it unavoidable after a short time, and that's okay. One small detail that you may wish to incorporate is a copy of Desiderata©***, the Max Ehrmann poem popular in the '60s that says, in part, "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence." If there was ever a time this little poem is needed it's now. Taking turns reading it may be a good way to start your session every time.

Speaking of taking turns, and using the serenity room as a couple, this is a primary reason for making one. Too many couples relinquish their relationship to the various noises of their lives: jobs; kids; 'shoulds'; appointments and necessities with other couples. One of the tenets of the caffection model is a new focus on couples, and ways to celebrate the primary relationship.

Do the serenity room ritual more than three times in a row, and you'll make it part of your sanity routine forever, guaranteed.

Finally, there's too much outside noise--of all kinds--including all the above, plus one very important kind of interference, the sound of your spouse's voice, and how it gets drowned out in the din. This is not good. Especially for men who have a higher incidence of hearing loss than women, the serenity room can greatly assist your relationship. The serenity room can easily become the place you retreat to when things are too hectic to be true, the kids are driving you nuts, the bills are screaming to be paid, and you've neglected the one person whose voice calms you more than any other. And the best part of all is that, once you have the serenity room created, the resulting peace and comfort you'll derive is free! Your serenity room will quickly become your shared, private, (silent) hiding place. Shhhh!

*NIDCD National Institute on Deafness & other Communications Disorders

**(Suter and von Gierke,1987)

***Desiderata©1927 max ehrmann

By: Byron Edgington Expert Author & Marriage Enrichment Resource Article Date:3/26/09

About the Author(s): Byron & Mariah Edgington are the creators of Caffection, LLC dba Caffection, a marriage enrichment website. Caffection.com offers happy couples a portal for daily quotes, weekly affirmations, a monthly e-newsletter, exclusive gift items, seasonal and remembrance items, several interactive pages and a discussion board for marriage equality issues.
Article URL http://www.caffection.com/articles.html

Contact byron@caffection.com

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Studies Into Telepathy, Remote Viewing and Other Psychic Phenomena

There is something about psychic phenomena which fascinates people. Perhaps it is the idea that we need nothing more than our minds to manifest extraordinary abilities, or the idea that we will move to another phase of evolution where we no longer have to rely on physical strength or skill. Even many technologies will cease to be necessary.

Because of this fascination, there are many people devoted to studying and understanding how psychic phenomena manifest themselves within people that demonstrate such abilities and measuring how strong a psychic force is being created. To do this, numerous tests and instruments have been developed by people interested in studying psychic phenomena.

The study of psychic powers itself is known as parapsychology and covers many different areas of psychic powers. The most commonly looked for are telepathy, the ability to communicate information from one mind to another without using any of the traditional senses, and precognition, knowing the future before it has come to pass. Many parapsychologists believe they have made excellent headway in both of these studies, obtaining results which they maintain are proof of humans displaying psychic abilities, but they face constant scepticism from the wider scientific community.

Nevertheless, parapsychology continues to be a field which people invest in and perform experiments in. They ensure that they follow strict procedures so that there is no way the results can be falsified, such as putting both participants into an environment of sensory deprivation where they are unable to hear or see anything that the other participants, or indeed anybody in the area, is doing.

Another psychic ability that is routinely tested is that of remote viewing, attempting to use psychic powers to view something that can not be viewed with normal sight, either because it is too far away or because it is hidden by something else. Experiments in remote viewing can involve a participant saying what is hidden in a box in front of them, what is drawn on a board behind them, or even what cards are picked by somebody in a different building.

Clearly, there is a lot to look in to, and perhaps parapsychology will generate some answers about what causes psychic phenomena in the future.

This article was written by Thom Sanders on behalf of Psychic Light, a company which has many psychics available to give you a psychic reading right now!

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2012年7月30日星期一

Trendy Child Abuse - Taking Your Kid to a Shrink

When I lived in Philadelphia, I was the only psychologist that a busy pediatrician would ever use to send his little patients. The reason was that my results were dramatic and consistent. The doctor knew that when he referred a child to me, the child would get well.

To this day, if he is still alive, he does not know that I never saw a single one of his patients. They played in the waiting room while I treated the parents. The youngest ones busied themselves with toys, and the teens absorbed themselves in the TV.

The reason I maintain this policy today is simply this: There is no such thing as a disturbed child who does not come from a troubled marriage, an upset parent, or both. Children react to what they are put through at home.

With the very few exceptions in genetics or other biology, children do not suffer from mental illness. They think, feel, and behave as dictated by the conditions they live in or to which they have been exposed.

My premise is not supported by the mental-health profession at large because tradition holds mental illness as some sort of mental state that arises within individuals but without a reason. So psychologists and psychiatrists make some observations, ask a few questions, and then affix a diagnostic label. The psychiatrist begins to prescribe medicine, no matter how long the list of side effects.

Many cannot see that what has always been considered mental illness is a reaction, not a set of symptoms magically emerging from a vacuum. Even attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the garbage-can diagnosis of school counselors, is a direct result of sensory deprivation in very early childhood. Even the most severe cases can be managed without medication.

ADHD has already been discussed in a previous article, and it is also described in my book. But usually it is a misdiagnosis.

Today, mental-health practitioners are being swarmed by cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Contrary to the foregoing, this painful state is being experienced by children all over the world. But again, even this real pathology is a reaction to craziness in any number of forms.

For example, children are reacting to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse in record numbers. Others are struggling with the trauma of actual war as more and more battles emerge all over the world. As a rule, doctoral programs in psychology concentrate very little on training their students to recognize trauma, let alone how to treat it.

In the United States, the main cause of PTSD is, beyond question, child abuse. The fact is that little kids are being dehumanized by their own parents, by the very people who are supposed to love them.

Some of these parents, potential murderers that they are, actually want their kids to be dead.

One of the main disguises for parents abusing their children is to label the child as being crazy. They take the child to a doctor who, the parents are sure, will not catch on to the reality. In fact, the doctor will reinforce what the child has heard from his parents, that there is something wrong with him. So the victim himself will grow up with the lie that there is something wrong inside his head.

This entire scenario is intensified and fueled by the fact that the little patient will indeed exhibit symptoms. Abuse, being the strongest communication possible, will always produce symptoms. What is not generally understood is that the symptoms are reactions to craziness.

There is not now, nor will there ever be, a normal way to react to craziness. Those who can understand such a statement will readily see that very, very, often, taking your child to a shrink is another form of child abuse, another expression of our debased society.

Father Heyward B. Ewart, Ph.D. is President of St. James the Elder Theological Seminary. Information about the doctoral curriculum in Christian clinical counseling and other programs, plus more information on Fr. Ewart, can be found at the seminary's website, http://stjamestheelderseminary.org
Father Ewart is author of the book "AM I BAD? Recovering from Abuse", published by Loving Healing Press. (lovinghealing.com) His site has links to two podcasts whereby he can be heard on separate topics changing weekly.

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Alcatraz - An Island's History

Alcatraz, the small island in San Francisco Bay, received its name in 1775 from the Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala. He christened the land La Isla de los Alcatraces, which translates to Island of the Pelicans. He had no interest, as it was uninhabited, barren ground with minimal vegetation and treacherous, icy currents.

Having little to offer, Alcatraz was left on its own for another 72 years. In 1847, the U.S. Army claimed the island for use as a military fortification. Within a year, U.S. Army engineers were hard at work constructing both a military fortress and the Pacific Coast's first operating lighthouse.

Once completed, the fortress of Alcatraz became a symbol of military strength. Its features included long-range iron cannons and four 36,000 pound, 15-inch Rodman guns, which were capable of sinking hostile ships as much as three miles away. While the image of Alcatraz lived up to its reputation, the only round ever shot came from one 400-pound cannon. This was aimed at an unidentified ship, which it missed. Within 20 years, the rapid modernization of weaponry rendered Army defenses on Alcatraz obsolete. Soon the Army began rethinking uses for their island.

The natural isolation made Alcatraz the ideal location for an Army penitentiary. In 1861, the island began its 102-year history of housing prisoners, first as an Army penitentiary, then as a Federal prison.

Alcatraz was the Army's debut as a prison for long-term sentences. Civil War prisoners were the first to arrive. The population remained small until 1898, when the Spanish-American war brought the prisoner count from 26 to more than 450. In 1906, a catastrophic earthquake in San Francisco forced the city to evacuate hundreds of prisoners to Alcatraz. The large influx of prisoners forced building expansion. By 1912, a large, three-story cell house had been constructed on the island's central crest. The structure had almost reached full capacity by the late 1920s.

Rising operation costs led the military to close Alcatraz in 1934. Ownership of the island was handed over to the Department of Justice.

During the late 1920s and into the 1930s, the Great Depression brought an excessive crime surge. The combination of Prohibition, massive unemployment, and desperate need fostered a new era of gangsters and organized crime. This new breed of criminals had taken over large cities. Ordinary prisons were not doing a good job of keeping them behind bars. The federal government needed an "escape proof" prison, where they could lock away the worst of these bad guys. On Alcatraz, the government found exactly that.

In April 1934, contractors began work to turn the military prison into a maximum-security Federal prison. This new and improved Alcatraz was designed to hold no more than 300 prisoners. Only those convicted of federal crimes were sent to Alcatraz. These crimes included bank robbery, kidnapping, income tax evasion, draft dodging, and murders related to these crimes. The Federal prison on Alcatraz was designed strictly as a holding pen with no rehabilitative intents.

Few prisoners were sent directly to Alcatraz when sentenced at court. Inmates found their way to the island through behavior problems and escape attempts. Getting transferred out of Alcatraz was even more difficult. Parole was not an option. Inmates first had to earn their way to a different prison through good behavior.

James A. Johnston, the first of four wardens at Alcatraz, made the rules. He insisted on one guard for every three prisoners. The average ratio in other prisons at that time was one guard for every 10-13 prisoners. The inmates had no commissary. No newspapers were allowed; their reading material was censored and extremely limited. They had no television and radio was banned until the mid 1950s. Inmates received no counseling and were not offered any classes or groups to join. Recreation was severely limited. Boredom was an ongoing and extreme problem for both the inmates and the prison guards.

Prisoners were allowed one visit per month, which first had to be approved by the warden. These visits lasted approximately 1 1/2 hours and were conducted through glass with the use of a telephone.

The most controversial of Johnston's rules was the "Silent System". Conversation of any sort between prisoners was forbidden. The prisoners were deprived of even the most basic human contact. Several inmates were reported to have gone insane due to this policy. Over the years, the silent system became too difficult to enforce. Four long years later, the policy was abandoned and never reinstated.

Alcatraz Federal Prison consisted of 336 cells in three cellblocks. The main corridor - dubbed Broadway - held 168 cells and stood three tiers high. Broadway offered little privacy for the inmates, as this area received the most foot traffic. However, cellblock D was by far the worst area in the prison.

Called the special treatment unit, this area was also referred to as isolation, segregation, and solitary. Five of the cells on the bottom tier earned the nickname "The Hole". Each cell contained a sink, a toilet, and a low-wattage light bulb strung from the ceiling. The solid steel door had a small insert that opened in order to push the prisoner's food through. Inmates were provided with thin mattresses for sleeping but those were removed during the day. No form of entertainment was provided or allowed. The prisoner was cut off from all human contact, suffering extreme boredom and isolation.

The strip cell was reserved for particularly difficult inmates. This was a dark, steel-encased cell with no bed, sink, or toilet. The door was solid steel that remained closed at all times. Prisoners were stripped naked and placed inside with no blankets or light. The "toilet" was a hole in the floor. A thin mattress was provided for sleeping hours, then taken away. This cell was a cold, foul, black void that was feared by even the most hardened criminals.

Time in "the hole" was not supposed to exceed 19 days and time in the strip cell was limited to two days. This standard, however, was not always adhered to. Reports were made of prisoners driven insane by the extreme sensory deprivation of the hole and the strip cell.

In its 29 years as a Federal prison, Alcatraz held 1,576 prisoners. During that time, 14 escape attempts were made by a total of 36 inmates. Of those, 21 were returned alive, two were returned and executed, seven were killed by gunfire, and one drowned and his body washed ashore.

Five prisoners, from two separate escape attempts, managed to get off the island. Ralph Roe and Theodore Cole disappeared in 1937 and Frank Morris and Clarence and John Anglin disappeared in 1962. Despite nationwide manhunts, none of these men were ever found and no bodies were recovered. Much controversy exists to this day as to whether any or all of these men made it out of the water alive.

Alcatraz's structure began to deteriorate. By the 1950s, the salt air had corroded the metal and concrete. Around 1961, the power plant began to fail, causing electrical blackouts. Plumbing pipes were cracked and major structural repair was required. During 1960-1961, the Bureau of Prisons spent $300,000 on renovations. An estimated $4 million more was needed.

Repairs were not the only factor in the high maintenance costs of Alcatraz. Because of its isolation, supplies, including water, had to be trucked in. This meant that even everyday expenses were much higher. The cost per prisoner was almost three times higher at Alcatraz that at other U.S. prisons.

By the time of the last escape attempt in 1962, the decision to close Alcatraz had already been made. Construction had begun on the U.S. Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, the replacement for Alcatraz. On March 21, 1963, the last 27 prisoners were transferred from the island prison. Alcatraz officially closed in June of 1963.

Aside from a caretaker and his wife, Alcatraz remained a desolate place while various parties lobbied the government with development ideas. Nothing came of these ideas. Then, in 1969, a large group of American Indians landed on Alcatraz. A relatively unknown treaty with the U.S. government in the 19th century allowed Native Americans to claim abandoned Federal property. Using this treaty, the group claimed Alcatraz as "Indian Land".

The Indians had an elaborate plan for transforming Alcatraz, which included an educational Native American cultural center. Public support quickly grew, with high-profile advocates from show business as well as the Hell's Angels. This was both a blessing and a curse. The volume of visitors to the little island quickly grew overwhelming. Sadly, Alcatraz soon became a haven for the homeless and derelict population.

Before long, the Indians faced the same problems that stymied the prison administration; the total absence of natural resources and the enormous expenses. A series of difficulties culminated in a fire on June 1, 1970 that burned down what had been the Warden's home, the lighthouse keeper's residence, and the officers' club. The Indian community fell apart. Approximately one year later, on June 11, 1971, Federal Marshals removed the remaining occupants from Alcatraz.

In 1972, Congress created the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which included Alcatraz. The island opened to the public in the fall of 1973. Today Alcatraz is one of the most popular National Historic Parks, with more than one million visitors landing there each year.

Darcia Helle is a published author of mystery/suspense fiction. An avid reader and writer, Darcia immerses herself in all things crime.

Go to http://www.QuietFuryBooks.com to learn more about Darcia and to read her free monthly nonfiction newsletter Guilty As Charged.

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2012年7月29日星期日

Arthritis Cure - How to Beat the Pain Part 2

Apart from weight loss, regular exercise, and maintaining a good posture, there are many other things you can do to rid yourself of arthritis pain. They are as follows.

1 Use Ice to Prevent Pain

When joints are overworked or overused, ice is sometimes recommended to prevent pain. Cold packs are often used in this case, by wrapping ice cubes in a plastic bag, then wrapping the ice bag in a clean cloth. Apply the cold pack for fifteen to twenty minutes, and then remove it for ten minutes before reapplying it. You can also use commercial gel-filled cold packs for more convenience. Be sure to always wrap the frozen packs in cloth as direct application to the skin may cause you to suffer the equivalent of frostbite.

2 Take aspirin or ibuprofen to relieve pain and inflammation.

3 Use heat to reduce Pain

Hot water bottles, heating blankets, and hot baths have been helpful in the management of arthritic pain. Apply heat to soothe dull throbbing pain and stiffness. Be very careful when using heat to reduce pain- no more than ten to fifteen minutes at a time. Take at least one hour break before reapplying.

4 Use specially designed Floatation tanks

These are also known as isolation or sensory deprivation tanks. The pain relief is produced by stress reduction. The body is relaxing, as well as the muscles, and this seems to stimulate the release of endomorphins, the body's natural pain killers. The water in the tank is heated to 93.5 degrees F, the same temperature as the skin, and the surrounding air is warm and tranquil, leading to deep relaxation.

5 Heat and Eucalyptus Ointment

Simply rub the eucalyptus ointment on the affected joint and wrap it with warm, moist towel. You can also soak your hands or feet in warm water containing eucalyptus

6 Water Exercise (Watercise)

This is an excellent way of reducing arthritic pain significantly- you become more flexible in water than in air.

7 Massage the joints

Work the muscles that are attached to the tendons leading to your painful joints. To do this, either use the heel of your hand, your thumb, or your elbow to press down on the muscles and hold it for several seconds, then release.

8 Boost Your Vitamin C Intake

Several studies have shown that strong doses of vitamin C can bring about the regression of arthritis. Recommended doses are between 500 and 3000 mg per day.

9 Stop Drug Addiction.

Many arthritis sufferers have become addicted to sleeping pills, narcotic painkillers and tranquilizers. For most of them, these drugs are needed in ever-increasing amounts and this makes the drugs more ineffective in the management of pain. It is recommended that other forms of pain management, such as the use of non-narcotic pain relievers like aspirin or ibuprofen, should be used.

For full details of this amazing information about arthritis cure, visit http://curearthritispain.blogspot.com/, and [http://www.healthforall365.com]

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What Is White Noise

Are you familiar with the term "white noise"? If not, then you should be. White noise is now very important in the fields of medicine and architecture. In today's frenzied world, white noise can be used to create tranquility even in city settings. It is very important in relieving medical conditions and improving lifestyles. It can help provide tinnitus relief, promote relaxation, induce sleep, mask sounds, and even add privacy.

White noise is a blend of all frequencies of sound playing simultaneously. It is not really a "noise," but a sound similar to a gentle hiss, to the sound of wind rustling through trees, or to the sound of a waterfall, among other pleasant things. In most cases, people who live in loud metropolitan settings use it to block out harmful noise. Because white noise features all frequencies in the correct amount, it creates a soothing sound to the human ear.

There are countless ways of taking pleasure in white noise. You can buy a pre-recorded cassette tape or a CD featuring white noise, or buy white noise generators, which are now gaining wide recognition in the market. All of these can dramatically generate a static-like swish that restrains unnecessary noises; they produce relaxing sounds similar to the flow of a stream. This sound is very ideal if you want to unwind.

White noise is also applicable in the field of architecture acoustics. In fact, some sirens for emergency motor vehicles use white noise because of its capacity to curtail unwanted background noise, especially the traffic noise in the city. It is also helpful in the field of electronic music, where it is used to produce other kinds of sounds in various frequencies.

White noise is also used to either calm or disorient people before they undergo cross-examination or investigation. In some cases, white noise is used as part of sensory deprivation procedures.

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2012年7月28日星期六

Randomness Versus Predetermination

Science is inherently a series of experiments within closed systems. A known starting points, then a prediction on what will happen based on a set of starting parameters. Once the prediction can be reproduced this is gauged as fact.

The universe itself is a system, which in essence had starting parameters, which as a common consensus is deemed to be 'The Big Bang'.

Predicting how a series of 50 coin flips will turn out (either heads or tails or edge) is nigh on impossible. Each flip takes into account many parameters (the force of the flip, height from the floor, air pressure, side winds, floor material etc). The coin doesn't have free will, but it is 'controlled' by the parameters at any one time. The starting parameters dictate how it will fall.

As you go through life, each decision you make, every action you take is predetermined by previous parameters, which each could be seen as 'starting' parameters for the specific time in place you are.

If you are at a turning, you can go either left or right. You think about it, you rely on experience, your memories to dictate which way you will go. Is left to a meeting which you are late for? Is right to the toilet? Do you know that going left is dangerous?

These questions go through your mind based on what you know and what you need to know about the 'choice' you have.

You wouldn't turn left if you knew you would die. You wouldn't turn right if the meeting room was to the left and you were late for a meeting there. Unless another factor overrides that. Maybe you need the toilet more than going to the meeting.

Therefore I propose that there is no such thing as free will. Everything is determined by what has happened previously. Even if you were in sensory deprivation (with no idea of what is to the left or right) and had to make a choice, you would base it on previous experience.

Free will is an illusion which is dictated by previous experience. Free will is only an assumption. Personal perception of history dictates your movements and choices.

Written By: Richard Hawkins

[http://monoecho.com] (Personal Blog) [http://monoecho.com]

A guy with an avid interest in unusual phenomena.

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Book Review - The Husband

Mitch Rafferty receives a call one day that his wife is being held hostage for two million dollars. A middle class landscaper, Mitch thinks the call must be a joke - until a nearby dog walker is murdered as proof of the kidnappers intent. Suddenly, Mitch is plunged into a desperate search for his wife and a struggle against the ties that bind.

The novel follows Mitch through a range of emotions and actions. He knows he has no way of obtaining that kind of money, and so figures the kidnappers want him to knock of a bank, or engage in some kind of similarly criminal activity. At the same time, they have managed to set the stage so that he will take the rap for any number of things - including the murder of his wife. Mitch tries to be both proactive and obedient, and winds up in a huge mess.

Mitch and his wife, Holly, are both wonderfully developed. As we follow Mitch in search of the money and fight with Holly for her survival, we become quite close to the pair of them. Holly has a tough exterior that reminds us of other Koontz women. She is both strong and proactive, not willing to engage in the 'victim' mentality as she seeks to free herself and worries about her husband. Mitch is customarily quick on his feet as he dodges the cops and tries to find both the reason for the blackmail and the money.

However, I have to say that the 'bad guy' just doesn't live up to Koontz's normal portrayal. The kidnappers are very lightly touched upon, with only the craziest receiving the most attention. Oddly enough, we never enter his mind and, in fact, never even see his face; he always wears a ski mask. Koontz has previously taken us through some very colorful criminals, people so evil they make us shudder. This time around, we only view the bad guy from the outside. It was nice not to enter such a diseased mind, but I was surprised to find that I missed it.

The secondary bad guy, who caused the whole heist to take place, was a bit more intriguing. With him, we got more of that great background information Koontz is so good with. His break with reality was easily foreshadowed, although still quite surprising, and I was impressed with how smoothly Koontz carried it off.

Another problem I had as a frequent Koontz reader was expectation. How many times has Koontz employed a sensory deprivation chamber to result in something bizarre? Of course, when such a chamber entered the novel, I braced myself for some otherworldly experience. With that sort of expectation hanging over my head, I guess I was a little disappointed in the normalness of the conclusion. That said, this should only be a problem for frequent readers (and maybe not even them), and in no way impacts the overall writing of the novel.

Koontz creates some realistic characters with great motivation. I love the way he set up the kidnapping, and his development of Mitch, his parents, and his brother was masterful. He draws us into the book and keeps us actively engaged. Another great novel from the master.

Nola Redd is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Poetry Contests. You can read more of her book reviews in her Biblio-file

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2012年7月27日星期五

How To Enhance Your Child's Intellectual Development

As a new parent, understanding the importance of intellectual development in your infant can help you provide the best care for your child. If you are convinced that your baby is only capable of mundane biological processes like eating, crawling, pooping and babbling, you may be surprised by the transformational work that is going on inside your baby's brain and the impact your involvement can have on the formation of his brain.

Studies have revealed that babies come equipped with an amazing array of cognitive abilities to learn and to communicate - from their first ability to make eye contact with you to their first steps toward learning to speak and walk.

Although our brain cell formation is mostly completed at the time of birth, much of our brain's wiring is formulated during infancy and pre-school years. These first years of life will then lay the foundation for our future experiences. While it is true that some kids with good genes may experience spurts in rates of mental development, with early nurturing, even those who possess the short end of the gene pool can be geniuses.

Here are four things you can do you to boost your child's mental development:

1. Feed your child's brain

The quality of nutrition and fat consumption during infancy plays an essential role on your child's brain growth. Never underestimate the power and health benefits of breastfeeding. Breast milk provides almost all vital nutrients, which include polyunsaturated fatty acids such as DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), AA (arachidonic acid) and optimal amounts of lactose and Vitamin C necessary for brain growth.

Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended between 6 months and a year, depending upon your baby. While we can't promise that breast milk will turn your child into the next Einstein, documented evidence have indicated that breast-fed babies do end up more intelligent than their formula-fed counterparts.

2. Stimulate your child's brain power

Reading and talking to your child is a great way to stimulate his language growth - which in turn help to develop good language and communication skills in early age. Chanting poems, reading and re-reading his favorite books (especially those with rhyming texts) and imitating your baby when he makes noises or little cooing sounds will feed his imagination and foster creativity and positive interaction.

Physical stimulation like holding and cuddling your child reassures him of your love and affection and creates a healthy environment for his brain to absorb more information and learn more easily. Make it a habit to massage your baby once a day. Massaging can ease your baby's tense muscles, release his happy hormones and help him to sleep better. Positive interaction involving touch has shown to maximize a baby's growth hormone release, thus helping him to grow and develop faster.

3. Use music education

Playing or listening to music is relaxing, entertaining and enjoyable. But do you know that music can also make your child smarter? Developing your child's musical ability may improve his capacity to think, learn, reason and solve problems.

Babies recognize and are able to distinguish specific melodies at a very young age. One way to support your child's musical growth is to begin singing lullabies and nursery rhymes to your baby both before and after birth. Music therapy has shown to improve a baby's mood, increase his focus and alleviate anxiety and tension.

Complex classical Mozart or Beethoven tunes help to cultivate your child's natural abilities and develop the areas of his brain that are required for creative thinking and spatial reasoning. Allowing your child to play with musical toys will also help to stimulate his motor, sensory and auditory skills during later stages of development.

4. Employ proper use of television

Recent research has characterized television viewing as a multi-leveled sensory deprivation that may be stunting the growth of a child's brain. Children who are passively viewing have less opportunity to develop their senses than those who are actively playing.

When exposed to television, a child can become unresponsive and oblivious to his surroundings. Once the TV set is switches off, he can change from a contented, playful child to an irritable, screaming baby. The truth is that television viewing can be addictive. Do not let this valuable time that should be dedicated for the building of your child's foundation for healthy growth and development lost in the world of television.

As a parent, you can minimize the negative and maximize the positive effects of television by holding off introducing it to your baby for the first two years of his life. Choose only developmentally appropriate and nonviolent programs (which include educational videos) and allow your little ones to watch them for no more than 2 hours a day on alternate days. Try to skip the commercials and make it a point to watch along with him so you can monitor his responses to what he is seeing on television.

Jacqueline Ng is an aspiring freelance writer with an avid interest in literature and art.

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Businesses Should Ask What You Want For Christmas

You know that feeling you get when you receive a present from someone you love that you're not crazy about? You want to try to show enthusiasm and appreciation, but inside you struggle because the gift just doesn't appeal to you.

I was reading some articles at lunch today about how companies have been struggling to connect with their core audience. They cited figures, focus groups, branding methodology, design UI testing, demographics, psychographics and on and on. While each of these approaches has their place, many decision-makers are paralyzed from the 'too many moving parts problem. How can even the best experts make a decision with all of this information in a blender? Which do you prioritize? What data takes precedent? Which is gaining or losing relevance?

The more I read, the more it became clear to me that they're probably not doing enough simple interaction with the apple of their business eye.

It reminded me of a Christmas present of years ago.

"What do you want for Christmas?"

When Christmas season arrives you'll inevitably begin to ask your kids or nieces and nephews what they'd like for a present. Sometimes they'll even do you a favor and innocently (or not so innocently) drop hints about the latest cool toy or shoes. If Jimmy wants a certain something, it's going to have specifics. It's a good idea to really listen to him describe the color, cool factor and why he'll be over the moon if he could just have a pair of Heelys.

One Christmas as a kid, when my mother asked I said "the only toy in the world I want is a Transformer." Christmas Day came and I tore into my present only to discover that my parents had accidentally bought me a Go-Bot. I was bummed - and didn't do a good job of hiding it!

Go-Bots were not Transformers. They simply weren't as cool. This 'coolness' is the reason why the Transformer brand is still going strong with blockbuster films and merchandising. My parents hadn't remembered the brand name, they just had 'toy-that-transforms-from-car-to-robot' in their minds.

Luckily they had the receipt so we were able to exchange the gift for a Transformer. This is not the case with your business. Often you don't get a second chance for brand impression or sale.

When it comes to marketing, a simple discussion with pen and paper will suffice. Write down the wants and needs, put a survey on your website. Remove the guess work and make sure to remember the specifics. It's what separates you from a competitor. Focus groups are great, but they have to practically be done in a sensory deprivation tank with electrodes and lasers pointed at someones head to get the proper results.

When in doubt think Christmas.

Tim Andren is a small business marketing expert and author.

Tim is President of Impact Business Tools, a marketing publishing company that creates powerful marketing tools for the small business owner.

[http://timandren.com/]

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Alright - You've Learned From It - Now Move On!

My first teacher/reminder on the spiritual path seemed strange to me. She would often say things like, "The engine in my car seized up. I don't have the money to buy a new car or fix this one - isn't that wonderful?!" What? I used to think either she was ahead of her time or just plain crazy. I would look at her in wonder while I tried to figure out how anyone could be so happy in spite of all the challenges that came her way. Was she for real or was she a fake? I had to admit she did seem to flow with the river, something I definitely could not do at the time, and she always got through her challenges brilliantly.

In the first several months I knew her, Barbara patiently listened to me almost every day as I cried and questioned and cried some more before reluctantly taking another step forward. When I think of her today, I visualize a lady who was always smiling and laughing her hearty, hoarse laugh (she chain-smoked). I remember how she pushed me to uncover more and more of myself, a task that in the early days seemed onerous and exhausting. She had me doing practices that seemed crazy at the time like staring at myself in the mirror, dancing in meditation and hugging trees. I was dying of embarrassment on that last one! Yet as weird as it all was, her love of life attracted me and I pressed on. After all, she was the one helping me turn my life around and I was finally getting a little reprieve from the pain I had been experiencing for years. It wasn't so much of a reprieve as much as I was now developing some alternatives for how I dealt with the challenges of life.

It has taken some years but I tend to view my challenges now like Barbara did. I often hear myself saying, "This will come out fine. It always does." I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done in my life. Maybe you can say the same thing, too, but we have to remember that was the past - even what we did yesterday. From one day to the next, in order to have a full experience of life, we're going to make so-called mistakes and missteps. The key is to leave them immediately in the past and transform the behavior. That's how we have the triumphs and victories that make life so sweet.

A couple years ago I was tormenting myself over the part I played in an event the previous year. My mind just wouldn't let it go and it was having an effect on my health and happiness. I was becoming worried about my worry and knew that if I didn't get a handle on it, that energy could manifest in my body as a sickness or worse. Not knowing how in the world to transform this, I prayed, "Dear God, help me transform this into Light. I myself don't know how." I waited knowing that the answer would come that night or perhaps weeks later. And it did. I got the opportunity to share my heart with my friends and I mean, my heart. I didn't point fingers at anyone. I just shared my feelings and the pain I felt. I didn't realize until the next day that the burden I had made myself carry for so long had been lifted. I then received a message in a mystical way which said that I had played my role perfectly, that it was a learning for everyone involved and that it all happened precisely as it was 'written.'

The point I'm making is that everything is a learning to be embraced and loved. Events that cause us to feel sad, bad or angry carry within them the golden seed of transformation. We can choose in every moment how we desire to live this life, in misery or in joy. In misery, we tend to carry a great deal of density on our humanistic shoulders, but that burden can easily be lightened by asking God I AM to help us transform our challenges into Light.

I once attended a seminar of spiritual discipline that required us to remain perfectly silent. Not even a whisper could be uttered for any reason. By practicing sensory deprivation involving silence and wearing earplugs, we would be able to go deeper into our meditation. My then husband was a great source of preoccupation for me. In the opening moments of group silence, he began noisily unwrapping the cellophane around his earplugs. I finally leaned over and whispered to him that it wasn't yet time to use the earplugs and then I suddenly realized I myself had crossed the boundary of silence. I couldn't even get through the first five minutes, so great was the distraction of my husband. As I sat and fretted about being the only one in the group who had so little self-discipline to refrain from speaking, I received a flash vision of the Divine Mother and then heard her booming voice resound within my body and being: "Alright. You've learned from it. Now move on!" This beautiful voice was so commanding it jerked me right out of my self-absorption. Her simple, thunderous message (yes, mothers can have voices of thunder, too) taught me an enormous lesson and left a powerful imprint on my psyche. Whenever I fall into the trap of worrying about past misdeeds, I can still hear the Divine Mother's voice saturating my being with that message. I pass it on to you so that you may remember it at an appropriate time, cast light on a behavior that is begging for transformation, and move on!

Purusha K. Radha is publisher of Velocity Magazine, an Independent Press Celebrating 11 Years as Central Florida's Premier Holistic, Green, Conscious Living Magazine. With a unique blend of education and inspiration, Velocity captures the people, subjects and ideas that are defining the conscious living culture of Central Florida. From life-enhancing food and alternative healthcare to raising peaceful children and green living to tools for designing an ideal life,Velocity is what Central Florida is talking about now.

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2012年7月26日星期四

Are You Psychic? Find Out With Parapsychology

Parapsychology is the study of supernatural events including esp, consciousness after death, and the ability to see through objects. The science can help you answer the question - am I psychic? It can help you whether or not you are clairvoyant and whether or not you have psychic ability.

Parapsychology is often referred to as a pseudo science, even though it is studied by the military. Experiments conducted by parapsychologists have included the use of random number generators to test for evidence of being able to predict the future. The random generator configures the numbers and the psychics must guess what the next number is going to be.

Parapsychology is also tested using sensory-deprivation experiments. These are called Mansfield experiments. These are used to test for extrasensory perception and research trials. The reason that these are considered to be so useful is that they are conducted under contract to the United States government to investigate the possibility of remote viewing.

In remote viewing experiments, the psychic ability of a person is tested around their ability to see far into the future. Remote viewing experiments test the ability to gather information on a remote target consisting of an object, place, or person that is hidden from the physical perception of the viewer and typically separated from the viewer at some distance. In one type of remote viewing experiment, a pool of several hundred photographs is created. One of these is randomly selected by a third party to be the target. It is then set-aside in a remote location. The remote viewer attempts to sketch or otherwise describe that remote target photo.

Ganzield is a technique used to test individuals for telepathy. The technique was developed to quickly quiet mental "noise" by providing a visual and auditory environment. Isolating the visual sense is usually achieved by creating a soft red glow provided by half ping-pong balls attached to the recipient's eyes.

Parapsychologists study all different kinds of different paranormal phenomena, including:

Telepathy - the transfer of information through the mind using only the power of thought

Precognition - the ability to foretell the future

Clairvoyance - the ability to obtain information about events or places at remote locations

Psycho kinesis - the ability of the mind to influence energy, matter, or time

Reincarnation - the rebirth of the soul after death to live another life

Hauntings - This type of phenomena is often attributed to ghosts and the otherworldly activity is often associated with a person's abode or belongings.

Parapscyhologists also help develop tests to measure the success of these psychic experiments. There are a lot of critics of parapsychologists. Many of them believe that sloppy research methods and flaws in methodology prevent the findings from being accurate.

So what constitutes a psychic in the end? Most parapsychologists define it in the end, as the ability is the person that does better than chance when it comes to determining the outcome of something like the throw of dice.

Looking for a free psychic reading with powerful, expert psychics? Visit SpiritNow.com today, the online home of America's Top Psychic, Sylvia Browne, for a free psychic phone reading and the best spirituality content on the Internet.

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Topics to Add When Creating an Alternate and Modern Medicine Web Directory

Alternate medicine finds its own place in the hearts and minds worldwide and has a separate following to back its existence. There are many subcategories that could be added to the modern and alternate medicine website directories. Although the list below is not exhaustive it is a good start. After looking at multiple directories in the web that just places everything into one big category "health related websites". I thought it's time to present some categories in this vibrant segment of the web; there are lot's of websites in this category which need a separate home in the directories. Even in the High PR and traffic rich directories finding the right websites gets tough by browsing the whole category. For your reference a single line definition obtained from wikipedia is placed under each category.

o Acupuncture - a therapeutic technique intended to promote health and well-being, which involves the insertion of needles into "acupuncture points" on the body by trained practitioners.

o Alexander technique - a study of freeing response that is taught by studying one's own mannerisms of posture.

o Apitherapy - is the medical use of honeybee products. This can include the use of honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom, but most commonly refers to use of bee venom, called bee venom therapy (BVT).

o Applied Kinesiology - a form of diagnostic kinesiology that is used as a primary feedback mechanism to examine how a person's body is functioning.

o Aromatherapy - is the use of essential oils, fragrance oils, absolutes, carrier oils, and other fragrances from plants to affect someone's mood or health.

o Ayurveda - a more than 2,000 year old comprehensive system of medicine based on a holistic approach rooted in Vedic culture.

o Biofeedback - is the process of measuring and quantifying an aspect of a subject's physiology, analyzing the data, and then feeding back the information to the subject in a form that allows the subject to enact physiological change.

o Chiropractic - is a health discipline that seeks to prevent and treat health problems by using spinal adjustments in order to correct misalignments, or subluxations.

o Color therapy - use color and light to balance energy wherever our bodies are lacking, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental.

The other well known subcategories include the following:

Gemstone Therapy, Herbs, Holistic Health, Homeopathy, Huna, Hypnotherapy, Iridology, Macrobiotics, Magnetic therapy, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Mind-Body Medicine, Music Therapy, Natural Hygiene, Naturopathy, Orthomolecular Medicine, Polarity Therapy, Pranic Healing, Reflexology, Rolfing, Sensory Deprivation, Somatic Education, Therapeutic Humor, Trepanation, Yoga.

If you like to employ a good page rank directory for finding further categories here is one that contain links for Acupuncture, Alexander technique, Breathwork and many of the categories mentioned in this article ? networlddirectory.com. Some of the definitions in this article were obtained from wikipedia.org. Author does freelancing through the no fee free freelance website freelancefree.com.

Author recommends MRCPCH related online courses and study material given by 123doc.com.

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2012年7月25日星期三

Mentally Created Neuroplasticity

In prior articles my focus has been on how neuroplasticity follows sensory-deprivation or changes in how the senses are used. Findings derived from his work with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients led Jeffry Schwartz, MD, (2002) a University of California - Los Angeles Medical School neuropsychiatrist to the realization that the signals capable of creating neural reorganization can also come from the mind. His analysis of the causes and treatment for OCD focuses on a small handful of neural substrates. These include the right orbitofrontal cortex (R-OFC), the striatum [i.e. the region of dopamine receptors to include the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)], the limbic system's amygdala, and the caudate nucleus. Together he calls them the "OCD circuit."

His conclusions concerning the triggering and treatment of an OCD reaction starts with the function of the R-OFC. As the substrate most involved with anticipation, this totally mental - rather than sensory - perception event causes the executive - or thought-switching - function of the ACC to begin searching for answers (or patterns). This signal is correlated with simultaneous input from the amygdala, which is the limbic system's emotional center. Normally, the caudate nucleus would generate a dopanergic signal that the crisis is over. However, if this "switch" is not functioning, the ACC continues working harder, using more cerebral energy, and creating an imbalance - thereby withdrawing energy and function from nearby substrates - to include the right prefrontal cortex that is vital to the maintenance of inhibitions. Considering Hebbian Learning, the repeated firing of this circuit strengthens the related neural pathways and weakens others. This further exacerbates the problem.

Apparently such pathologies then become "learned responses." Therefore, Schwartz feels that they can be unlearned. His treatment for OCD includes teaching sufferers to trigger a dissociative awareness when an event onsets. Also he works with them to develop an alternate response. This newly learned pattern is then further strengthened with practice. Note that the neurological changes sought by Schwartz originate with the deliberate instigation of mental inputs. This begs the question as to whether deliberate mental inputs (i.e. suggestion and imagination provided by hypnotherapy) can serve as effective interventions in stress or anxiety-related mental pathologies.

Tim Brunson, PhD

The International Hypnosis Research Institute is a member supported project involving integrative health care specialists from around the world. We provide information and educational resources to clinicians. Dr. Brunson is the author of over 150 self-help and clinical CD's and MP3's.

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The Power Of Partner Touch In Relationships

Have you ever held your partner's hand and felt a tingling sensation through every cell in your body? Ever yearned for a hug from your partner, more than anything else in the world? Is it an essential part of relationships?

Humans thrive on touch. Research has shown that for humans and animals, a lack of physical contact can lead to emotional disturbances, reduced sexual interest and even a weakened immune system. Studies have shown that infants deprived of skin contact lose weight and can become ill. Online dating site Partner4Real found that touch was as important in some relationships as sex, conversation & commitment.

"Touch is as important as breathing," explains researcher Tiffany Field. Without it, children do not grow and develop.

"Sensory deprivation makes people depressed and immune-compromised, and gives them emotional pain and physical damage," she says.

We all crave our partner's touch but it can be difficult for some men to admit they need it. From a young age, many boys are discouraged to go running to their mother for comfort when things get tough. When they grow into men and start relationships, they can then associate hugs with weakness, and may show a lack of affection to their partners. Humans not only thrive on touch, but relationships do too. Some women in relationships complain that their partner only initiates physical contact as a precursor to sex. And yet many women crave physical intimacy so much that they sometimes agree to have sex simply to fulfil this desire for warmth and closeness.

But there is a lot to be said for touch for touch's sake. Listen up men: Try lightly brushing your partner's arm or gently squeezing her hand as you walk past her. And if you fancy something a little more intimate, author Valerie Ann Worwood suggests that a 10 to 15 minute massage from your partner a few times a week can work wonders in relationships. If you are looking for anew partner or starting anew relationship, think about how important this aspect of any relationship might be and how you communicate this, whether verbally, through your online dating profile or just by letting actions speak louder than words.

Juliet Johnson is a dating authority from Partner4Real - an online dating website for singles who want to get real about dating. Partner4Real uses social networking tools that enable users to constantly upload hundreds of on-the-spot photos and videos via their mobile phones and email wherever they are, free of charge. Get Real about your man!

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I am writing this article to pass on some of the wonderful experiences I have had through the profession of medical transcription. This wonderful part of my life started like this. I have been a medical transcriptionist for 20 years, but I did not know about this profession until after I had tried nursing, waitressing and insurance sales. After wandering through these other occupations unfulfilled, I was primed and ready for a career I felt I was suited for. But what could I possibly be suited for? I was equipped with a degree in nursing, but what do you do with a nursing degree when you don't like nursing? Starvation was a very real consequence when I sold insurance, so I knew I was not a sales person. I could always wait tables, but how much longer would my feet hold out? During this time when I was soul searching and trying to figure out what to do, I took a job as a medical secretary which involved scheduling surgery, making appointments, filing and a very small amount of transcribing office notes. In the job interview, I told the office manager I had a good bit of medical terminology knowledge and some, "experience," in a hospital. I deliberately did not tell her I had an RN degree and wanted this job as a secretary instead as this would probably have led to her looking at me wide eyed and then saying,"I'm sorry, you're over qualified." This job perked along just adequately, but it was here I realized I found transcription to be fun. I looked forward to it and was disappointed every day when the tape ran out after only an hour. I was one step closer to finding the profession of my dreams.

My first full-time transcription job (heaven!) was in a hospital in the city where I live. For the first time, I knew the career area in my life had gelled. All my education and experiences (good and bad, recent and distant) had come together and culminated in my becoming a medical transcriptionist. Any other kind of transcription simply is not the same as the medical field. Legal transcription, for example, I found to be extraordinarily boring. It is both the medical field and the transcription field put together that produces this unique profession.

When I have trained new transcriptionists who were really new with no experience in the field, I could decide within 15 minutes if they were going to stay at the job or leave flabbergasted and astounded that we actually do this. They never get comfortable sitting at the keyboard and actually look as if they are about to get up at any time. The keyboard is an awkward contraption that's impossible to operate with only 10 fingers. Word Perfect is Word Insanity to them. Their headphones are an awkward instrument of sensory deprivation. After they have entered the correct directory, pulled up the proper form and named it, they always look at you wanting to know how much money they have made so far. When they look up a word, they aimlessly wander around the book, hoping the correct term will jump up and say hello. I give these poor souls one day at the most, but there was one pitiful girl who lasted less than one day, unfortunately because of something I said.

Three-quarters of the way through the day, I stupidly asked her if she had remembered to save before leaving the document. She replied she had left the computer turned on. Long story short, she never even came back to get her glasses. There was one new recruit who actually exclaimed, "Why do you do this?" to which I responded, "I enjoy it and the money's good." This has always gotten me a look from them that meant they thought I was insane. A physician told me once, " I don't see why you don't go stark raving mad, sitting here all day and typing." I replied, "who says we don't?" I've always felt you had to be a little quirky to honestly want to do this job. After all, you sit and type and sit and type and sit and type, and then you sit and type some more. It's not unusual to continue to hear doctor's voices dictating in your head after you've gone home from work, although I've learned to be careful how I say that, especially to someone who's not a transcriptionist. Another occasion where someone looked at me like they thought I was insane (who says I'm not?).

Having been in this profession for so long, I have also become able to spot the, "real," transcriptionists, so they are called by the veterans. You judge for yourself. The, "real," transcriptionists actually enjoy sitting and typing, plugged into headphones for hours on end. Production is their passion, and they pound away tediously, completely content, pausing only to look up words or do the ever necessary proofreading.

Then, (eyes rolling) there are the people who like to call themselves transcriptionists and end up irritating the life out of the rest of us who really are. They come to work chattering, they work chattering and they leave chattering. When your concentration is broken , it takes a few minutes to get back to that point. These guys rattle on and on about every doctor, every patient, every irrelevant detail they can think of to talk out loud about. This usually results in the serious transcriptionists staring steadily at the chatterbox and typing all the while (which is a real transcriptionist's talent akin to patting your head and scratching your stomach) until the offender notices they are being stared down by a clerical lynch mob and finally hush. Then, they give the rest of us that, "you're insane," look with a hint of, "I'm offended, I thought I was entertaining you guys."

A so-called transcriptionist who asks the same question three times in one week is usually dubbed an, "Alzheimer's patient." These people have a defective short-term memory and cannot remember what they were told or what they looked up for longer than a couple days. A good transcriptionist has a memory that never fails. The Alzheimer's patients are also the people who ask about a word out loud instead of looking it up. They get in as much trouble as the chatterboxes.

There are also the comedians who have to announce to everyone in the room something humorous (or is it humerus?) they heard in dictation. This produces a polite, very small smile from the rest of us while never missing a keystroke (or the lynch mob might gather), silently hoping the, "typist," would either hush or go home. To be labeled a typist is the strongest putdown that can be bestowed. You see, a typist is someone who mechanically manipulates the keys on a keyboard, and nothing more. Your average monkey could accomplish this. They usually hunt and peck which produces a large silent grin (never missing a keystroke) from the rest of us that they never know about. A transcriptionist (harrumph!) is a professional with an extensive knowledge of medical terminology, editing, spelling, punctuation, English, word processing, pharmacology, lab and pathology, and sometimes foreign accent interpretation who melds all these abilities together seamlessly at 100 words per minute. We also have the necessary ability to communicate with each other with our eyes and expressions. As mentioned before, the professional transcriptionist is capable of transcribing and socializing silently at the same time.

Another valuable source of experience is the mental hospital. Let me explain! The patients there are usually required to have a general physical exam before they start having psychotherapy with their psychiatrists. In my mental hospital experience (as an employee, not a patient, mind you), I found the social histories fascinating. They read like good books and are very interesting.

I've always thought it would be risky for me or any transcriptionist to undergo general anesthesia because I just might spout someone's private information. Incidentally, knowing a celebrity's medical diagnoses is unnerving, not exciting, especially if it's something like a sexually transmitted disease or a mental problem. Public figures and movie stars see doctors also; they are not immune needing medical treatment. Needless to say, that's all the details I'll put in this particular paragraph, citing confidentiality! You can't be a transcriptionist and play Rona Barrett or a reporter for the National Enquirer.

When I worked in medical records in a mental hospital, I found that mental illness can strike anyone at any time. In this job, the psychiatrists (shrinks) visit their patients every day and dictate daily progress notes. Now, you have a serial TV show-type situation where every day there are new developments. When we heard that old familiar whir and click of the machine activating, we waited anxiously like housewives waiting for their favorite soap opera to come on. The machine would stop and the lucky one of us to grab the dictation first would tell us the news (only within the transcription room, mind you!) Some patients sank deeper and deeper into insanity, and others made a wonderful recovery. Just a bit of trivia; shrinks have the most entertaining sense of humor of all doctors I have ever known.

Back to maintaining confidentiality, this includes not repeating to anyone the statements or innuendoes made on the dictation whether knowingly or accidentally by the dictator. A word of advice: don't dictate in bed. If someone remembers something they need to dictate after climbing into bed, then they should get up before dictating and be doubly sure the recording has ended lest they document whatever else takes place in their bed and who it takes place with! Sorry, no more details with this one, except to mention that dictating right after you eat can provide the transcriptionist with some entertainment, accidental or not. Everyone should remember, most recorders pick up all sound that occurs in the room, and some dictators foolishly think they are, "alone," in the room even when the recorder is running. We don't type in "eructation," or "flatus;" we just laugh and report it to everyone in the room. For the aspiring transcriptionist, look up eructation and flatus, and get a good laugh. Due to events described in this paragraph, there are doctors I can't look in the eye any more and they don't know why.

So many good experiences, so little space. I'll sign off now with no chief complaints, only a review of systems within wonderful limits and a bright prognosis. See you in a follow-up visit!

You can contact Carol Roberts through by email at: meditrans@aol.com

Carol has been a medical transcriptionist for over 20 years and has been certified by the American Association for Medical Transcription. She owns and operates Carol Roberts Transcription in Pembroke Georgia and is a staff consultant for Meditrans Help, the medical transcription help site, [http://www.meditranshelp.com]

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Sensory Deprivation

2012年7月31日星期二

How to Build a Serenity Room, And Regain a Bit of Your Sanity

Studies Into Telepathy, Remote Viewing and Other Psychic Phenomena

2012年7月30日星期一

Trendy Child Abuse - Taking Your Kid to a Shrink

Alcatraz - An Island's History

2012年7月29日星期日

Arthritis Cure - How to Beat the Pain Part 2

What Is White Noise

2012年7月28日星期六

Randomness Versus Predetermination

Book Review - The Husband

2012年7月27日星期五

How To Enhance Your Child's Intellectual Development

Businesses Should Ask What You Want For Christmas

Alright - You've Learned From It - Now Move On!

2012年7月26日星期四

Are You Psychic? Find Out With Parapsychology

Topics to Add When Creating an Alternate and Modern Medicine Web Directory

2012年7月25日星期三

Mentally Created Neuroplasticity

The Power Of Partner Touch In Relationships

2012年7月24日星期二

Guided Meditation Using Binaural Beats

Relaxation to Manage Anxiety

2012年7月23日星期一

Massage Reduces Agitation in Patients Suffering From Dementia

10 Home Remedies For Arthritis Pain Relief

2012年7月22日星期日

What You Should Know About Urine Therapy

Assistive Technology Devices and Disability Employment

My Review of Systems as a Medical Transcriptionist

2012年7月31日 星期二

2012年7月30日 星期一

2012年7月29日 星期日

2012年7月28日 星期六

2012年7月27日 星期五

2012年7月26日 星期四

2012年7月25日 星期三

2012年7月24日 星期二

2012年7月23日 星期一

2012年7月22日 星期日

2012年7月31日星期二

2012年7月30日星期一

2012年7月29日星期日

2012年7月28日星期六

2012年7月27日星期五

2012年7月26日星期四

2012年7月25日星期三

2012年7月24日星期二

2012年7月23日星期一

2012年7月22日星期日