Sent in by G_D

I've always had a great interest in psychology, biopsychology and the mind and so it was with great interest when I saw the latest special issue from Time magazine: The Brain - A User's Guide

What's even better is that many of the articles are online (don't you just love the internet!). I'm sure many of the members and readers of this site will find the information, latest studies and frontiers in the study of the mind both enlightening and exciting.

One thing I've noticed and find quite exasperating on this site is the number of religious posters claiming amazing faith healings, miracles, and other superstitious garbage. Do they not realize how incredibly strong, flexible and resilient the mind is and yet how weak and susceptible it is at the same time? I guess it's often hard for people to see and understand that given they are technically "sitting in the driver's seat" .. but still, I think psychology and biopsychology should be requirements in school )

Some of the more interesting areas covered in the articles are about consciousness and reading the brain and what it is processing based on mri scans, studies in which repeated mental exercises of actual physical actions serve to reinforce and expand pathways in the brain, consciously rewiring the brain and how you think (cope with life) in order to treat mental disorders such as OCD (although I'm not quite sure how this is different from therapy which basically is changing how you think and cope), studies about the phantom limb phenomenon and how it relates to the flexibility of the brain, and the relationship between right brain-left brain noise and happiness.

Anyway, I find the mind incredibly fascinating and these days think it is the lack of understanding by the general populous about how the mind works, how and why it's evolved to react to the world the way it does, how it is wired and how incredibly flexible yet weak our minds are that leads to seeing "miracles", "ghosts" and "ufo's"

Happy reading!

http://www.time.com/time/2007/understanding_brain/

If anyone is interested in pursuing more information I recommend picking up textbooks on biopsychology, abnormal psych, etc