Why Our Brain is Translating Logical Objects Into Mythological Creatures and Eerie Shadows
With California State University’s Prof. of psychology, Matthew J. Sharps
Have you ever seen a dark shadow or silhouette at night while you cannot make out an attribute or features…just darkness. You might think it is your own shadow cast on the wall by a misplaced light. But as you stand still, the shadow…suddenly…moves.
Throughout the history many cultures and nations have documented their experiences regarding this phenomenon what has become know in modern parapsychology as…the shadow people.
Many theories ´have been written ever since about what these shadowy figures are. Are they ghosts? Spirits, demons, angles? Or are they something entirely else?
Psychologists studying religion have long suspected that a belief in the paranormal can be a kind of shield from the even harsher truths of the world. The idea is that when something unexpected happens – a death, natural disaster, or job loss – the brain scrambles around for answers, looking for a meaning in this chaos.
Cognitive psychology has some explanations for this behavior as well. It turns out that understanding the “messages” of unseen agents is directly related to how we comprehend the minds of other human beings. Have we all became hard-core solipsists?
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel… and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet” and this week I am welcoming back California State University’s Professor of psychology, Matthew Sharps… and discuss with him the influences of modern and traditional religion have on the paranormal and why our brain is translating logical objects into mythological creatures and eerie shadows.
Pareidolia; Does it Teach us the Difference Between Life and Death With Affection?
By Maria Anna van Driel, www.medium.com
As a child, I thought that the dolls, teddy bears, and stuffed animals that I played with were living creatures. This was a question I came across while participating in a recent (still open to participate) research which examines relationships between imaginary childhood friends and ghost-related experiences. A research conducted by Dr. Neil Dagnall and Dr. Kenneth Drinkwater (researchers in the Department of Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan, MMU).
A few days prior I had read the article, “Understanding the Child Eyewitness II: Child eyewitnesses often see things very differently than adults do—but why?” by Matthew J. Sharps PHD., Professor of Experimental Psychology, California State University, Fresno, specializing in forensic cognitive science.
Reading the above question asked in the survey made me think about why it is that we think of a teddy bear or Barbie doll being ‘alive’ and, can we consider a question as such covering more the area of (clinical) Psychology instated of Parapsychology? Because, so the article of Prof. Sharps explains, each young child is viewing the world from its own ‘Ego’.
Even though both research fields address this behavior we see mostly with young children, I let my thoughts run over why it is that they do not make a clear distinction in what is ‘alive’ and what is ‘dead’.
Digging into both the psychology of Jung and Freud, I came to a personal conclusion that it is due to the fact a young child’s ‘Id’ is still in an early stage of development or, perhaps has not even reached that stage yet. The brain of a child, say the age of 3, has yet not fully understood the difference between artificial and biological objects.
Also, it seems that the ‘Super Ego’ of a young child has yet not found an attachment/ connection to the Ego and Id meaning, a young child has yet not the ability to view itself from the position of others with awareness. This shows a behavior, viewed from a psychological point of view, of a young child experiencing everything that has the characteristic features of both its own and similar species, as a living thing possessing a soul.
So, from the perspective of a young child (Ego), everything is alive as soon as it has a ‘face’. This is why young children are crying dramatically and are inconsolable when you place their teddy bear, what has also arms, legs, ears and a little tail, in the washing machine…you are not washing it, you are drowning it!
The though crossed my mind if we can pour this, seemingly, primordial behavior in viewing the world from a, to a young child logical, blurry position, is the brain learning to recognize the thin line between life and death through a clear face-recognizing, in the jar of Pareidolia. Perhaps we can!
Even though the most common explanation of experiencing an effect in Pareidolia is that this form of the brain perceiving and processing information, is meant for recognizing ‘prey’ or ‘predator’ – what is safe and what is danger – there might be another reason why many of us experiencing these moments Pareidolia. Even long after we have passed the age of 5.
Let’s imagine a small triangle shaped pillow of any color. It has no recognizable features that it is of the human or animal race. It has no face and no limbs meaning, it is just a pillow. And when seeing this piece of stuffed cloth spinning uncontrollable in a washing machine…no harm is done. Now, what would happen when we draw a face on it? Indeed! Many people will feel a particular affection towards it and might even give it a name – this pillow instantly comes alive.
Think about the movie “Cast Away”. It was only in the moment that Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) recognized a face in his own bloody hand print on the volley-ball, that Wilson came alive. Before that, Wilson was just a volley-ball. Later in the movie we can also see how Chuck Noland is showing a strong affection towards the volleyball Wilson. He even tried to save Wilson from drowning when he went overboard and drifted away into the open sea. Chuck was devastated seeing his friend ‘dying’.
So, if we review the question, As a child, I thought that the dolls, teddy bears, and stuffed animals that I played with were living creatures from the thought that ‘face-recognition’, or Pareidolia, it is most likely the brain learning how to make a clear distinguish between something being alive or dead. I think that we should not ignore this ability of the brain. This paranormal phenomena, aka Pareidolia, is an important evolutionary process in one’s life as it is teaching us how to treat both ourselves and others in our adult life.
It seems that our species is in a deep need for any form of Pareidolia what, in this line of thought, is teaching us what affection is. Also, if our brain would not possess this primordial ‘super ability’, life would look pretty robotic and we might not even be able to bury our deceased loved ones due to the lack of the emotion of affection.
[Top]The Physical and Biological Sciences Which Could Explain the Origin and Nature of Life in the Universe
An interview with SETI’s Senior Director of Education and STEM Programs, Dr. Simon Steel
Ever wondered what life on other planets would look like from a scientific perspective? Well, if you lived on a planet with twice the gravity of Earth, you would come crashing down twice as hard if you fell. So, some creatures would perhaps be stronger, stockier and with legs close to the ground.
And what if there really were Martians? Well, Mars is a planet with low gravity so, think of creatures with thin, spindly legs. And if life evolved on a dense soupy planet then you could perhaps see creatures as big as whales or elephants flying not through air but, through a liquid atmosphere.
The humans species is not at the top of the evolutionary ladder. We are not the end point or the goal of evolution. Odd as it might sound to some but we where accidents. We eat and breath through our mouths and that means we can choke on food. That’s a terrible design! Maybe aliens evolved differently and don’t need to breathe through a mouth but, like worms do, through their skin. Anything is possible as long as it makes sense for the environment.
But how do we contact ‘them’ in this huge, vast universe and…what if we really do find complex life out there? Would it change our place in the universe because it is telling us that we are not alone?
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel… and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet” and this week we are going to make an adventurous journey through the universe with SETI‘s Senior Director of Education and STEM Programs, Dr. Simon Steel. So, fasten your seatbelts, put on your space helmets, get rid of those outdated alien stereotypes and let’s explore our cosmic freezer like galactic detectives.
[Top]Ghosts; Do They Hide in the Light?
By Maria Anna van Driel
A ghostly apparition walking through the wall, an odd shaped craft hovering in the sky or strong ripples on the surface of a lake indicating that there might be a sea monster swimming by… even though many people have seen and reported these rare but remarkable events, they do not have an explanation for what they have witnessed.
Are those, in the dark hiding, eerie shadows, truly disembodied humans who are lost or, is this an effect of Sleep Paralysis.
Is walking through a forest at night only scary because we are breathing in these, released by the trees, small amounts of methane gas while the pineal gland in your brain is detecting the ultra– and infra sound-waves are bouncing off on the trees after it has released by your own body? Or is there something malevolent hiding behind the shrubs, waiting for you to become its prey?!
Hum, that is indeed a fascinating question. So, let’s imagine that we are standing in a forest with trees all around us. Odd as it might sound but these trees have the ability of releasing a kind of resonance what can ‘communicate’ with your personal frequencies which can turn into that infamous fear frequency sending shivers down your spine.
Did you know that trees have the capability of releasing CH4, aka methane gas? A gas some say is one of the sources of today’s global warming.
Not only do trees poop Methane, they also contain liquid crystal in which a piezo-electrical effect can be observed when encountering an ambience of bright light or a heat (electrical) source. Both of these source is what you are carrying when walking a dark forest…your flash light and your body what is now electrical charged by means of the mind is entering a fight-or-flight state.
The small amounts of the odorless methane gas released by the trees around you might be just enough for you to see creepy plasma clouds forming containing photo-generated electrons which are brought together by a piezoelectric effect, dancing on the surface of natural piezoelectric (semi)conductors.
In neuroscience (or neurobiology) it is well known that the pineal gland becomes active, or is waking up so to speak, once its host is in a dark environment meaning, you being active during those hours of the day in where UV-light is not present in large amounts. Walking this darkness means that you can’t rely on your eyesight anymore what converts your body into a biological radar devise emitting sound-waves in order not to bump into anything or, to survive any dangerous situations heading your direction with high speed.
These ultra- and infra sound-waves your body is emitting, are bouncing off on the objects in your surrounding and, sometimes, have a behavior of returning back to you as a relativistic microwave and creating this chilling feeling of static electricity
You, now acting as a human radar devise, breathing small amounts of odorless methane gas as well as sensing the vibrations of the trees and returning microwaves, which are communicating with your brain, have resulted in a blood-curdling form of vivid hallucinations while it is being combined with a personal fear frequency based on creepy stories you once have read or watched via You Tube or Netflix.
Suddenly you are right in the middle of a spine-chilling situation what seems to be written by Alfred Hitchcock himself! This effect in sensing ‘things’ which seem to have no clear and visible source is based on inaudible to the ear sound-waves and chemical reactions and is one of the two ingredients of nature creating ghostly apparitions in a dark forest.
A second ingredient to create this blood-curdling effect falls in the range of an unnatural source. By means of an ambiance of LED light the liquid crystals inside the trees are triggered and create an effect of being elastic. Aka the expansion and shrinking of crystals what is giving them the ability to record and play vague but hearable sound effects and even create visible images.
Like a laser directed to a LP made of wood, LED-light can function similar to a laser, faint but not impossible.
Imagine walking through this dark forest while carrying a torch with LED-light … you will instantly understand which kind of effects this bright light source can create without your awareness. Being focused on, for instance, a paranormal investigation and not on the, seemingly, logical reactions when certain elements are being brought together, a creepy surrounding containing real ghostly effects has being created unintentional which can scare the hell out of you when it is combined with your personal fears.
I am wondering, what will be the effect seen, or sensed, when we are we adding an extra element to this natural event…a stressed cellular memory?
[Top]Sasquatch; Legend Meets Science
An interview with Idaho State University’s Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology, D. Jeffery Meldrum
Every part of the world has its legends.
The Lakota believed in a powerful, burly figure they called “Chiye-Tanka”, or “Big Elder Brother”. The Eskimos called it “bushman”. The Colville Indians call him “Sasquatch” and the Hoopas of northern California call him “Omar”.
In 1604, French navigator Samuel de Champlain ominously described a frightful monster, what bears the name “Gougou”. In 1811, explorer David Thompson was hiking through the Rockies when he stumbled upon some seriously massive footprints, while an 1884 edition of a British Columbia newspaper called ‘The Daily Colonist’ reported the capture of a young, gorilla-like primate called “Jacko.” In 1924, a group of miners in Washington claimed to have been besieged all night long by a troop of hairy ape-man in a chasm now known as “Ape Canyon“.
Is it a bear? Could it possibly be some kind of giant ape? Could it even be some kind of ancient hominid, a member of the human family like Neanderthals that were thought to be extinct or…could it be a hoax.
Bigfoot, Yeti, sasquatch… It strikes fear and the imagination. Is it real or myth and why hasn’t anyone captured a Bigfoot. With all the leading technology scientists have today, why haven’t they found definitive evidence?
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel… and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet” and this week I am speaking with Idaho State University‘s Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology, Jeff Meldrum about the science behind Bigfoot. Is there compelling evidence of Bigfoot being real.
[Top]A New Dutch Reiki Practice “Mystic Ways”
By guest writer Veronique Lamers
Sitting outside in the sun with my laptop in front of me, I would like to write a couple of words concerning my Reiki Practice, which I hope to open very soon, and briefly tell you where my journey in Healing began. How it came about that I embraced it at already a young age.
Spiritual Healing runs in our family. My father used to put his hands on those areas where we felt physical pain. I remember me falling on my knee and my father was holding his hand over my knee and I felt the pain subsiding. This event had left a deep impression with me. Later in time I realized that I could do this myself as well but, at that point in my life, I didn’t know how to deal (work) with it in a correct and controlled manner.
As far as I can remember I always had a particular energy radiating from my hands what had a warm and tingling feeling. I even managed to make electric devices run wild or even create a malfunction. An ability what is not really useful if you go to a casino with your loved one and you set off the alarm of a slot machine.
Anyway, the true reason I started to study Reiki-Ushi. was because of my husband. He has OPS, painter’s disease. This is a disease what is accompanied by a lot of headaches and physical limitations. Each time I put my hand on his head he start to feel calm and his pain reduced dramatically.
I dove into the ancient knowledge of Reiki – Usui and started participating in those courses.
The last initiation, the 3rd degree, Masters, was given by a good friend what I experienced as very intense and special. During my Reiki courses I also created the business page “Mystic Ways” on Face Book.
At I first started with remote healings and healings which I carried out at the homes of my clients on a folding couch that I was carrying with me all the time. This way I was able to treat clients on a regularly base with a lot of love. This radiating love I always have send the client after a remote healing treatment as well.
Reiki is something what is woven in my heart and I really want to continue this. So, I have taken this exciting step to furnish a small but professional space in my home so that, once this terrifying virus, aka Covid, is reduced in its presence, I can receive people who will benefit from my spiritual healings.
Reiki is a long term learning process and I would love to gain the diploma of “magnetization” as well as more types of Reiki initiations. This way I can be even more present for those people who need it and at the same time continue to relieve my husband from those moments in where he experiences physical pains.
I hope to have given you a little insight into why I love doing this so much!
Lots of love, Veronique
Walking the Thin Line of Reality
By Maria anna van Driel, (a fictional short story)
The evening has fallen and the darkness of the night is grabbing hold of the evening more and more. This unnatural white light spread by a lamp post standing across the road is creating a distorted image in the cold rainwater that is gathering in small puddles on the ashes.
Barefooted she walks along the road, her head bend slightly to keep the rain pelting her face. Her jeans, white T-shirt and denim jacket are soaked from the rain what, like a transparent curtain, is surrounding her. In a haze she sees a car rushing past carrying optical signals. Disorientated, cold and exhausted she wraps her arms a little tighter around her chest. Her long dark hair hanging over her shoulders like frayed rope. The night is grim and, with every step she takes, the rain becomes colder and the wind stronger. How she would love to lie down, fall asleep, and forget all the misery of the past hour.
Her body seems to work on autopilot and has taken over her mind, and with every beat of her heart, a new rush of survival-drift runs through her veins.
Another car approaches her, slows down and drives at walking pace with her. The window opens, ‘What happened?’, the driver asks. ‘Can I help you with anything?’ She stops walking but does not look at the man behind the wheel. ‘Could I perhaps offer you a ride?’ he asks. With her head still slightly bend and her arms tightly wrapped around her chest, she passes in front of the car and silently gets in. The gray fabric upholstery of the passenger seat eagerly absorbs the rainwater from her drenched clothing. Within a few seconds the chair has turned dark gray in color. ‘What is your name?’ he asks but is not receiving any answer.
Her hair, weighed down by the rain, falls forward covering her face. He presses the button of the interior lighting and sees that her T-shirt contains watered-down traces of blood. ‘Are you hurt?’ he asks concerned. He carefully removes the hair from her face, ‘My name is Alex, will you tell me yours’, he asks in a friendly tone. Alex can see several small and shallow cuts on her face from which blood is dripping. ‘Who did this? What happened to you ?’ But his passenger does not move and remains silent. The only movement he can trace is the shaking of her body as she fights an incipient hypothermia. Alex grabs his coat from the backseat and drapes it around her shoulders. ‘The hospital is nearby’, he says and turns the car heating on the highest setting.
After twenty minutes they drive into the hospital parking lot. Alex, who has already called the hospital on the way, drives without any hesitation to the entrance of the emergency room. Two nurses rush towards them pushing forwards a stretcher. Alex gets out of his car and says hurriedly to the nurses, ‘She has hypothermia and several small cuts on her face. Prepare an examining room for her and call the police so they can find out her identity.’
One of the nurses guides the still unknown woman through the spotless white hallway to one of the treatment rooms. Shortly after Alex walks in. He has exchanged his sweater for a three-quarter-length white coat, a pager and a stethoscope. Dr. A. Green she reads on his nameplate. Alex rolls a chair over to the hospital bed and sits in front of his patient. ‘Let me introduce myself properly, I am Dr. Green. I see they have given you clean and dry clothes. Will you tell me what your name is?’ She lifts her head and looks at him with a frightened look. ‘Melanie’, she whispers, pressing her arms firmly against her chest.
‘Is the blood on your t-shirt coming from your chest?’ Melanie slowly shakes her head as a sign that she doesn’t feel any pain. ‘Will you tell me your last name, so I can contact your family.’ Melanie lowers her head.
A male nurse sticks his head through the doorway, ‘I have been in contact with the police and they are on their way.’ ‘Thank you.’ Alex says while reaching for a clean gauze from a drawer behind him. ‘I am going to clean your face so I can see if any of these cuts have to be stitched.’ Melanie agrees with a gentle nod in silence, as if she is afraid to make a noise.
Alex supports Melanie’s chin with his hand and begins wiping away the blood from around the cuts. Then the pager in his coat goes off. He looks at the number that has appeared in the small display… ‘I will be right back, I have to make a call to my brother. He is the sheriff at the station.’ Melanie looks startled, grabs Alex by the arm and start shaking her head violently.’ ‘Don’t be afraid, Alex says, you are safe here.’ With a slight hesitation she lets go of his arm and bends her head again as if she is giving up.
Alex walks back to where he left Melanie 15 minutes earlier. Suddenly a strange feeling of dread creeps over him. He looks into a now dark treatment room. Then a bright flash of light with a loud bang almost immediately after as if someone fired a firearm. “Melanie!” he shouts and runs into the treatment room where the sound of the fluorescent tubes, flickering on and off, can be heard. On the empty hospital bed, like a silent witness, a shining yellow police badge is laying, reading the name ‘Green’.
One hour earlier…
Bleeding profusely, she sits in a narrow dead end alley, in the pouring rain of New York.
‘Is this how it is all going to end?’ she thinks and frowns indignantly. She leans against the iron garbage container that rests against the outside wall of the pizzeria. Her hair is soaked and hanging over her shoulders like frayed black rope. Her T-shirts and denim jacket are slowly absorbing the blood pouring out of the wound in her chest.
Dazed, she watches the raindrops fall down from the black iron fire escape and burst onto a pair of garbage bags. In the distance she hears two cars come to a stop in quick succession with their tires skidding in front of the only entrance to the alley. The bright light from the headlamps creates a grim and cold image in the alley. She hears the car doors slam and the voices of the men looking for her.
She tries to pull her legs towards her but her jeans has absorbed too much rainwater. Exhausted from the chase, she let her head rest on her shoulder. Her legs fall back into the shallow pool of rainwater she sit in and hears the water splashing when her legs hit the cold wet ground, but she doesn’t mind anymore.
Breathing becomes more difficult. The pain in her chest intensifies with every breath of oxygen she takes. She tries to suppress the pain by crossing her arms around her chest.
The red and blue light from the optical signal on the roofs of the police cars reverberate like a glare against the wet walls. Two police officers are carefully walking into the narrow alley with their weapons drawn. One of the detectives has her in sight and with his firearm drawn, he walks towards her. “She is over here!” He shouts to his colleagues who are now running in his direction.
In a haze she hears the splashing sound of the rainwater caused by their shoes while approaching her. Instinctively she reaches for the small firearm lying next to her in a shallow pool of water. A stabbing pain shoots through her chest as she tries to raise her arm. She looks glassily at the young police officer standing in front of her. Slowly the image starts to fade and her eyes get heavier. ‘Officer down, officer down!, he shouts, ‘call an ambulance, she got hit!’
[Top]‘I have only been attacked by human spirits acting out as demons’, Dutch Demonologist says.
“Something here is inducing a tremendous fear into you. You are living in a place that is giving you nightmares. Then you wake up and whatever gave you this nightmare… is in bed with you!
It then takes you to where it’s from so that you can witness all the pain, suffering from all the people being killed in its cave. Within this horrifying moment you can do only one thing, trying to convince yourself you are experiencing a most vivid nightmare.“
Follow Ellen Poestkoke via Facebook
What I just said listens to an eerie plot for a new horror movie but believe it or not, it is really happening and you are at the center of it. Or should I say…your peripheral vision is.
For decades, researchers have wondered how little light the human eye could actually detect and it turns out that one photon – the smallest unit of light — is enough to send a signal to the brain. The fact that a rod, or cone, can be stimulated by a single photon and pass a ‘message’ on to the brain does not mean that it will be…even if that photon happens to be in the visible frequency range and is travelling directly into the eye and onto the retina.
During these moments it seems to be a natural behavior for our brain to decide in filling-in the missing information in order for us to recognize and understand the shapes we see during the darkest moments of the night.
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel… and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet”… and this week I am speaking with Dutch demonologist and dimensional researcher, Ellen Poestkoke…about which dark, unknown, demonic forces are tapping on our shoulders in the dead of night.
[Top]Living with High Sensitivity in a Harsh and Demanding World
With Dutch Holistic therapist and dimensional researcher, Mary Willemsen
‘Flabbergasted’… that is how many high sensitive people react when watching people squeezing themselves into the most craziest positions while, for instance, pressing their fingers tightly to their Temple area. Being at a young age, you might think that these people are trying to reduce a headache or maybe their hand-eye coordination is not communicating that well in that moment. Not to mention the eerie look in their eyes what seems to come straight from the series “The Addams family”. Odd as it might sound but these people want you to read their minds because you are a highly sensitive person.
Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP, is a term coined by psychologist Elaine Aron. According to Aron’s theory, HSPs are a subset of the population who are high in a personality trait known as ‘sensory-processing sensitivity’, or SPS. Those with high levels of SPS display increased emotional sensitivity, stronger reactivity to both external and internal stimuli—pain, hunger, light, and noise—and have a complex inner life.
Indeed, being a highly sensitive person can come with many challenges. But to label ones sensitivity as a disorder….?
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel… and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet”… and this week I am speaking with Mary Willemsen who is a holistic therapist and dimensional researcher from the Netherlands … about what it means to be a high sensitive person and…how to survive today’s harsh world. Do you truly have to grow steel elbows?
[Top]Stress, Dissociation and Depression; Do They Trigger the Brain to Create Vivid Paranormal Phenomenon?
California State University’s Prof of psychology, Matthew J. Sharps weighs in
‘What is real and what is not?’ A ghostly apparition gliding the grounds of a cemetery, the, during a traditional ritual, summoned deities or the car in the garage? Odd as it may sound on the latter, the truth is, we have no clue what this mathematical Matrix around us, truly contains.
As far as it is known, our brain has yet not learned how to place a concept into the frame of classical reality….how to convert the geometric design(s) of nature herself, into an understandable language.
So, like water is choosing the easiest way to descent, the brain seems automatically grabbing to what it is that is the most logical translation of what it ‘thinks’ it is perceiving and, in a most creative manner, it starts filling in the blanks of whatever it might be that is dwelling in a dark forest or crossing the skies with a speed that breaks all laws of physics.
What is the purpose for us to fill in these blanks with Mother nature’s monsters, UFO’s or a conspiracy theory? Is it a neuron-psychological defense mechanism? Where lies the origin of this stimulus what is triggering the brain in believing its own creations and…what would happen if people would perceive classical reality for what it is by nature?
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel… and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet” and this week I am speaking with Matthew Sharps who is a Professor of psychology at the California State University, Fresno… about how modern and traditional religion, and the rituals within, are merged with the paranormal believes.
“Processing Under Pressure” – 2nd Edition 2nd Edition via amazon
