Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby's Total Health Newsletter #69. Week ending Oct 31st, 2010
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• This week's Quote

1. Happiness is Coming!
2. More About Being Happy
3. Where Did We Come From? - 4
4. 3a. Bonus Item: The monkey with a death wish!
5. Save A Life
6. Centuries Old Town Burford
7. What's In A Word?

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This Week's Quote:

"This consciousness that is myself of selves, that is everything, and yet nothing at all-- what is it? And where did it come from? And why?"

-Julian Jaynes, 1976 (see item 3.)

1. Happiness Is Coming!

I'm close to the launch of my series "New Thought Horizons". You can watch a short video I did for the website. It's on YouTube, so I can embed it here:

I'm not ready to launch the whole series. It will be a couple more weeks (10 tracks). But I can offer you a taster from the set, a talk called "The Logic Of Love". I'll tell you why love is not the "soft option" or just romantic lust. It's the only logical game in town and there are many persuasive reasons.

In keeping with the proposed launch, you can either download it, for podcasting yourself. Or you can order the real CD in a sleeve (see illustration).

Here's where you get it:
audio track MP3 download (podcast) only: $9.95

-or-
the real CD, in a sleeve (as you see illustrated), including shipping, $15.95

For the moment the CD cannot be mailed overseas. Please choose the podcast version.

2. More About Being Happy

Physical factors play a much larger part in happiness than is generally supposed. I first "discovered" this (for myself, anyway) in the 1980s, working with food allergies (now called toxic foods). Some people were suicidal until the offending foods were identified and eliminated.

As a matter of fact, this was noticed centuries before by an eccentric English cleric, named Robert Burton, and published in his famous book called "The Anatomy of Melancholy" (1621). Burton himself was a depressive and had noticed that milk and milk products made him worse.

But deficiencies can do it as well. Vitamin deficiencies, especially the B group, can lead to severe depressive states.

Even vitamin C has a role. I read a study published just a few weeks ago, showing that supplementing vitamin C was great at improving the mood of hospital patients (who are all malnourished, of course, due to diabolically lousy hospital food). [Zhang, M., et al, "Vitamin C provision improves mood in acutely hospitalized patients,” Nutrition Aug. 4, 2010]

Also occurs to me that post-partum depression could be a nutritional illness. The woman has just been sucked dry of nutrients by the 9-month "parasite"! It would make sense, wouldn't it? Well, if it's once proven, remember you got it from Prof. first!

If you want to know more about the physical factors leading to depression (or even just not feeling GREAT all the time!) you can download a free copy of a comprehensive eBook I wrote a couple of years ago. Here's your link:

Depression eBook

3. Where Did We Come From? - 4

You probably thought I'd forgotten about this. Actually, I'm planning a whole website, starting with this theme. I'll let you know when it's ready for visitors. But I thought it was time for another look at consciousness.

My last piece turned out to be surprisingly controversial. I was accused of many strange things, including being a dupe for an anti-human conspiracy which is clearly running our planet. That's a bit of a joke. I don't think anyone who actually READS what I write could accuse me of anything except being outside the system!

Last time it was Julian Jaynes and his surprising view of when consciousness actually came about. He had very convincing arguments, backed by available evidence that it was only around 3,000 years ago, give or take: The Origins Of Consciousness In the Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind (bicameral just means two-chambers, ie. right and left halves). Great book!

The exact beginnings of consciousness, just from the biological viewpoint, remains entirely unsettled. Nobody knows for sure. I do not accept the views of ancient Jewish scribblers, who knew nothing of DNA, electro-magnetic thought fields, the optical cortex, qualia and brain scans, even if you want to call these outdated reports "The Bible" or some other title.

One major school thinks consciousness may have come about gradually, a bit at a time. Others think the exact opposite: that consciouness sprang up all at one, complete as we know it today.

Some say it needs a brain to be conscious. Others think not (me included!)

There is also the question of when. Julian Jaynes has convinced quite a few consciousness was late in coming. Others put it much earlier. In fact the so-called pan-psychologists believe that consciouness has been implicit from the beginning and is to be found, in some form or other, in rocks and streams, never mind slugs and bugs.

As I said in an earlier segment, modern scientists tend to equate consciouness with sentience; that is, if the orgamism can perceive and feel, it is "conscious". So is a sunflower conscious? It can perdceive the sun, feel its warmth and react to it.

I reserve consciousness to meaen self-aware. So plants may not be. But that they unquestionably "feel" has been demonstrated by Cleve Backster. Even sperm cells hundreds of miles away have been shown to "feel" what is happening to the parent organism and this has been recorded on electronic equipment.

Fascinating!

Here's a question I'll leave you with: where do you draw the line? Imagine a spectrum of entities, from a pebble, to human babies (not adults, it's too obvious). Include plants, bugs and more complex animals. Which do you think are truly conscious, that is aware of being aware? (remember the stumbling block of the zombie problem, Serendipity 60).

3a. . Bonus Item

Who'd be a tiger when you can have such fun as a gibbon!

While searching for the download document for item 2, I stumbled across a forgotten video (in the wrong folder, which is as good as lost). It's very funny and after only a few minutes searching on YouTube, I found it.

Enjoy!

5. Save A Life! (I mean it!)

Sooner or later (much later if your friends read my anti-aging book!) you may be called upon to give first aid to someone who has collapsed and is pulseless, ie. no heartbeat.

Subscribers of long standing will probably remember I called attention to the fact that we don’t do mouth to mouth any more (see Serendipity 13). Just go for external chest compression.

Well, the American Heart Association has slightly tweaked its recommends and suggests we don’t waste time establishing an airway and listening for breathing.

Begin chest compression immediately.

The old way was A-B-C -- for airway, breathing and compressions.

The new way is C-A-B -- for compressions, airway, and breathing.

The new guidelines may inspire more people to perform CPR. Mouth to mouth is pretty difficult to do if you're not trained. But just to do nothing is clearly not the right answer.

The good news that has emerged in recent years is that chest compressions (alone) save a lot of lives. Here’s just a quick tutorial:

1. Call 911 or ask someone else to do so.
2. Try to get the person to respond; if he doesn't, roll the person on his or her back.
3. Start chest compressions. Place the heel of your hand on the center of the victim's chest. Put your other hand on top of the first with your fingers interlaced.
4. Press down so you compress the chest at least 2 inches in adults and children and about 1.5 inches in infants. One hundred times a minute or even a little faster is optimal; that's about the same rhythm as the beat of the Bee Gee's song "Stayin' Alive."

Of course if you are properly trained in CPR, you can now open the airway with a head tilt and chin lift. Do what you know.

Pinch closed the nose of the victim. Take a normal breath, cover the victim's mouth with yours to create an airtight seal, and then give two, one-second breaths as you watch for the chest to rise.

Continue compressions and breaths -- 30 compressions, two breaths -- until help arrives.

[REFERENCE: 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care]

6. Burford

Most of you know I went to the UK to lecture in Oxford, which is why no Serendipity these last 2 weeks. I thought it would be nice to share pictures of a beautiful and VERY old town in Oxfordshire: Burford. Here are some photos I took...

The Bull Inn in which I stayed dates from 1715!	The Tolsey, a toll house, dates from around 1500
The bridge dates from 1322. Queen Elizabeth I was greeted by Simon Wisdom here in 1574	The beautiful old alms houses date from 1457, gifted by the steward to the Earl of Warwick
The former George Inn was Burford's leading inn in medieval times. Charles II and Nell Gwynne are said to have stayed here (a right royal dirty weekend!) The beautiful old medieval grammar school, founded in 1517 There are lots more beautiful buildings in this jewel of the Cotswolds. Make sure to visit if you are anywhere near. History is soaked into the honey-colored stones everywhere.

7. What's In A Word?

Psychopomp

No, not a show off lunatic! I stumbled across this word while researching shamanic healing (the first in this series I didn't already know!) .

Psychopomps (from the Greek word psychopompos, literally meaning the "guide of souls") are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage.

In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man or woman, or sometimes as a helpful animal. In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp.

So, that's all for this week!

Be well; find the sacred in all you do, otherwise don't do it!

Prof.

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