Category: Advanced Technology, Modern Science and the unexplained

PTSD: It might Not be the Cause for People to Harm Themselves Psychologically or Physically

By Maria Anna van Driel

Even though one of the most revealing discoveries researchers in Complex PTSD have found is that emotional neglect can be as damaging as domestic violence, our advanced society should equip itself with the necessary knowledge in distinguishing PTSD and CPTSD in order to anticipate to the, still unknown to modern psychology, behaviours the invisible injuries create.

A frequently asked question, “What is the cause of people harming themselves?”  From a personal but psychological point of view, I think that PTSD is not causing people to commit suicide but them hiding the emotions and scares caused by the mental abused aka CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). 

From a clinical point of view: PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition officially recognized in 1980 to describe exposure to one or two relatively brief but devastating events. Complex PTSD, recognized in 1994, describes an exposure to something equally devastating but contains a myriad psychic blows occurring for a very long time which simply do not seem to stop. On the latter, this can be emotional neglect, humiliation, (cyber) bullying, physical violence, criticism, among others, what can cause a disrupted attachment with someone.

But when we pour it more in a personal bowl it suddenly becomes more chaotic and sometimes even surrealistic because ones thoughts and emotions do not always seem to communicating with each other in a coherent manner. Not that someone is unable to glue an emotion to a memory, on the contrary. Sometimes it simply feels more like as if ones emotions and thoughts do not correlate with the images from the past. It might even feel as if someone is watching a movie while experiencing the synthetic emotions described by the reviews. This can be highly confusing but can be simply explained as, your brain experiencing a form of ‘cognitive distancing’.

But why does your brain do this?

Read the full article on Medium.

Or, download this article as an interactive PDF via Independent Academia

I’m an astronomer and I think aliens may be out there – but UFO sightings aren’t persuasive

Many people who say they have seen UFOs are either dog walkers or smokers. Aaron Foster/THeImage Bank/Getty Images

Chris Impey, University of Arizona

If intelligent aliens visit the Earth, it would be one of the most profound events in human history.

Surveys show that nearly half of Americans believe that aliens have visited the Earth, either in the ancient past or recently. That percentage has been increasing. Belief in alien visitation is greater than belief that Bigfoot is a real creature, but less than belief that places can be haunted by spirits.

Scientists dismiss these beliefs as not representing real physical phenomena. They don’t deny the existence of intelligent aliens. But they set a high bar for proof that we’ve been visited by creatures from another star system. As Carl Sagan said, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

I’m a professor of astronomy who has written extensively on the search for life in the universe. I also teach a free online class on astrobiology. Full disclosure: I have not personally seen a UFO.

Unidentified flying objects

UFO means unidentified flying object. Nothing more, nothing less.

There’s a long history of UFO sightings. Air Force studies of UFOs have been going on since the 1940s. In the United States, “ground zero” for UFOs occurred in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico. The fact that the Roswell incident was soon explained as the crash landing of a military high-altitude balloon didn’t stem a tide of new sightings. The majority of UFOs appear to people in the United States. It’s curious that Asia and Africa have so few sightings despite their large populations, and even more surprising that the sightings stop at the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Most UFOs have mundane explanations. Over half can be attributed to meteors, fireballs and the planet Venus. Such bright objects are familiar to astronomers but are often not recognized by members of the public. Reports of visits from UFOs inexplicably peaked about six years ago.

Many people who say they have seen UFOs are either dog walkers or smokers. Why? Because they’re outside the most. Sightings concentrate in evening hours, particularly on Fridays, when many people are relaxing with one or more drinks.

A few people, like former NASA employee James Oberg, have the fortitude to track down and find conventional explanations for decades of UFO sightings. Most astronomers find the hypothesis of alien visits implausible, so they concentrate their energy on the exciting scientific search for life beyond the Earth. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lAopNJMbFEI?wmode=transparent&start=0 Most UFO sightings have been in the United States.

Are we alone?

While UFOs continue to swirl in the popular culture, scientists are trying to answer the big question that is raised by UFOs: Are we alone?

Astronomers have discovered over 4,000 exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars, a number that doubles every two years. Some of these exoplanets are considered habitable, since they are close to the Earth’s mass and at the right distance from their stars to have water on their surfaces. The nearest of these habitable planets are less than 20 light years away, in our cosmic “back yard.” Extrapolating from these results leads to a projection of 300 million habitable worlds in our galaxy. Each of these Earth-like planets is a potential biological experiment, and there have been billions of years since they formed for life to develop and for intelligence and technology to emerge.

Astronomers are very confident there is life beyond the Earth. As astronomer and ace exoplanet-hunter Geoff Marcy, puts it, “The universe is apparently bulging at the seams with the ingredients of biology.” There are many steps in the progression from Earths with suitable conditions for life to intelligent aliens hopping from star to star. Astronomers use the Drake Equation to estimate the number of technological alien civilizations in our galaxy. There are many uncertainties in the Drake Equation, but interpreting it in the light of recent exoplanet discoveries makes it very unlikely that we are the only, or the first, advanced civilization.

This confidence has fueled an active search for intelligent life, which has been unsuccessful so far. So researchers have recast the question “Are we alone?” to “Where are they?”

The absence of evidence for intelligent aliens is called the Fermi Paradox. Even if intelligent aliens do exist, there are a number of reasons why we might not have found them and they might not have found us. Scientists do not discount the idea of aliens. But they aren’t convinced by the evidence to date because it is unreliable, or because there are so many other more mundane explanations.

Modern myth and religion

UFOs are part of the landscape of conspiracy theories, including accounts of abduction by aliens and crop circles created by aliens. I remain skeptical that intelligent beings with vastly superior technology would travel trillion of miles just to press down our wheat.

It’s useful to consider UFOs as a cultural phenomenon. Diana Pasulka, a professor at the University of North Carolina, notes that myths and religions are both means for dealing with unimaginable experiences. To my mind, UFOs have become a kind of new American religion.

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So no, I don’t think belief in UFOs is crazy, because some flying objects are unidentified, and the existence of intelligent aliens is scientifically plausible.

But a study of young adults did find that UFO belief is associated with schizotypal personality, a tendency toward social anxiety, paranoid ideas and transient psychosis. If you believe in UFOs, you might look at what other unconventional beliefs you have.

I’m not signing on to the UFO “religion,” so call me an agnostic. I recall the aphorism popularized by Carl Sagan, “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”

Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Brave Young Women Who are Changing the World With Ones and Zeros

There is a problem in the world and that is… the bravery deficit and it leads to an unequal representation of women and men in STEM and STE(A)M fields.

Listen to the interview of Mrs. Schindler-Kota via You Tube (see below) or, click the ‘PLAY-button’ in ‘THE NEXT TRUTH…ONLINE RADIO’ on the right and listen to her Podcast via the TNT website.

I believe this battle of this ‘stereo-typing’ is a solvable problem but solving this thorny issue requires the efforts of many mentors (including parents) of empowering more young women to get involved in STEM subjects…not only because a balanced number of male and female scientists is providing scientific problems and questions to be viewed from several different angles also because that is one of the fastest areas in which young woman can gain economic independence.

I am of the opinion that it is time for us mentors to take that step forward into the world and voice our thoughts and experiences for young people to realize that this narrow vision of boys being better in any scientific field then girls, is no fact at all.  

I am your host Maria Anna van Driel and you are listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet”.  This week I am speaking with the Marketing Content Manager of CoderZ, an innovative online learning environment where kids learn how to program real and virtual robots using a 3D robotics simulation, Ashlynn Schindler-Kota, who is a driven leader with experience in education administration, grants management and an Expert in STEM Education.

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Young People Science Sept/Oct 2021

The Next Truth is experiencing a, via MagCloud, minor upload problem therefore, feel free to download your free copy of “Young People Science” via acedemia.edu

There is a problem in the world and that is… the bravery deficit and it leads to an unequal representation of women and men in STEM and STE(A)M fields.

This battle of this ‘stereo-typing’ is a solvable problem but solving this thorny issue requires the efforts of many mentors (including parents) of empowering more young women to get involved in STEM subjects…not only because a balanced number of male and female scientists is providing scientific problems and questions to be viewed from several different angles also because that is one of the fastest areas in which young woman can gain economic independence.

I am of the opinion that it is time for us mentors to take that step forward into the world and voice our thoughts and experiences for young people to realize that this narrow vision of boys being better in any scientific field then girls, is no fact at all.  

Download your free copy of “The Next Truth” via acedemia.edu

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Panspermia; Can it Explain the Origin of Life on Earth? — are ‘we’ the aliens we are looking for?

By Maria Anna van Driel


How life originated on Earth is a question that we have pondered over for decades already.

Intriguing Theories and questions like could we be Martians, is a flippant way of asking, are planets isolated islands or can they transfer life? In other words, could life have been transferred from, for instance, Mars to Earth in meteorites? If so, how did these alien bacteria altered life on Earth?

Click here to read the full article via the website of Medium. Photo credit: The Next Truth

By asking questions as such, a variety in scientific theories has pilled-up over time as well as it has reached the realm of many science fiction movies. Nowadays we know that life can survive in space, travel through the Mesosphere (housing meteors and rock fragments) and eventually can enter the Troposphere where it is free to both merge with any biological life form and hitchhiking on any non-biological object that is present on Earth.

But, even though we are trying to solve this mind dazzling puzzle with, among others, modern devices, this question if life can be transferred from one planet to another in such a simple, natural manner, is just an extension of old questions whereby one plausible answer hovers on the border of being science-fiction; the ‘Panspermia Theory’.

Panspermia…does this theory speak of blood thirsty aliens from deep space looking like giant cockroaches trying to merge with the human species? Are they sending killer viruses from a neighbor galaxy in order to establish an invasion of slimy worms slithering the Earth’s surface searching for the most perfect host, which might be YOU?

Okay, relax, it does not, but you catch my drift … right? Life on Earth being supported by life-forms (e.g. bacteria) having an extraterrestrial origin, may not be such a farfetched idea after all. But, before you get all excited and dust off your time machine, break out your favorite third-sided dimensional reality and start collecting moon rocks to find out if it is containing life, let me explain this theory.

Click here to read the full article via the website of Medium

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We Are Made of Coded Qu-whatum Stuff?!

By Maria Anna van Driel

Have you ever had this experience? You are having a chat with someone and they are telling you something about a topic they are very interested in or, they know a huge amount about, and it seems that you are following along with ease.  Then, out of the blue, you realize you kind of lost the thread of what they are saying. You are just standing there, lost in time, realizing that you have absolutely no clue what they are talking about.

Click here to read the full article via Medium.com

I’m a science journalist, editor, magazine owner and radio host who is working, since 2014, with scientists and citizen scientists who are covering a myriad scientific areas. And so, I have been on both sides of this kind of interaction. I have both been the one explaining very complicated material to people and, I have been on the receiving end of lots of very intense scientific discussions.

And, every now and then, this kind of breakdown in communication happens. During these moments, I have noticed something interesting, which is that, when a people stopped understanding, they feel slightly guilty about not following the stuff that is fired at them.  But, if you think about it, this is completely silly. It is the wrong way around because at that point in time, there is literally nothing you can do to understand it better.  

No, it is not that people, who are on the receiving end of the conversation, are not able to look over the edge of a sandbox because they lack the educational background knowledge, it is because they are constantly tripping over the complex and technical terms  that are so liberally strewn about during explaining scientific research.

Sure, I have experience many moments in where I had to interrupt a scientist because I could not follow him/her anymore. But I found that the only way to…um, well, ‘survive’ the complexity given was having the courage to politely stop the person who was explaining, say, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you are saying,” and then go back and start off from where I had lost the thread.

And, yes, it does take a bit of courage to do this because you are, sort of, admitting that you don’t know the subject matter.

But this all perfectly fine, in fact, my fears were completely unwarranted. Generally, people respect you if you care about knowing the right information and willing to understanding the topic properly.  So, I am of the opinion that we should never feel bad about not knowing something and, we should never feel bad about asking questions. And, one of these questions is, “What is quantum physics?”

So, let’s briefly explore this amazing scientific field what is, among others, researching those wacky particles which are bouncy and wobbly at the same time.

Click here to read the full article via Medium.com

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The Next Truth Newsletter, August 2021

First of all, please, feel free to download the interactive TNT-Newsletter of August 2021 from www.independent.academia.edu or, from my LinkedIn profile and share the PDF with family, friends, colleagues and students.

Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to express my relativistic charged enthusiasm again concerning a second STE(A)M article of mine being accepted and published on the website of Coderz… “Should we take a second look at how we teach today?”(Part I of III) www.coderZ.com

I know, I know…after reading it you might experience an uncomfortable, perhaps eerie,  moment for some stepping out this stuffy and cramped tunnel and becoming more transparent but, showing young people how your creative – out-of-the-box – thinking has lead you in solving the problems you encountered during your research, is of most importance. Why? Because, and perhaps you might remember this from your own study time, most young people are immensely overwhelmed by the scope of their future they desperately want with no concept of where to begin. In this they need you, your expertise, experiences and enthusiasm as a role model!

For my other blog articles in where I discuss how, among others, science is not limiting itself to grids, formulas and PowerPoint presentations, please visit: Medium.com

Science is Boring, Creativity is Stupid!…uh-whaaauh? (Part II of II)
“Science” isn’t a stable or single idea”

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Extraterrestrials; Are They Just Figments of a Creepy Legend or is There Another Explanation?

An interview with long time MUFON board member, Tom Whitmore.

Listen to the interview of Mr. T. Whitmore via You Tube (see below) or, click the ‘PLAY-button’ in ‘THE NEXT TRUTH…ONLINE RADIO’ on the right and listen to his Podcast via the TNT website.

Extraterrestrials… are they just figments of a creepy legend that speaks of human-shaped life forms having ill intentions toward us? Or is there another explanation?

UFO’s and those who are operating them have been reported by witnesses throughout time as small but terrifying grey’s, having huge black eyes and standing alongside a person’s bed at night while communicating through an odd form of telepathy.

What is the truth behind the UFO mystery? How advanced is their technology compared to ours? Where do they come from and… why do aliens abduct us?

I am your host Maria Anna van Driel and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet” This week I am exploring the wide and mysterious world of unexplained aerial phenomena together with Long time MUFON board member Tom Whitmore.

Tom has been fascinated by military and intelligence agencies’ interactions with the UFO public. He has undertaken a research study of the history of the MJ12 affair, and … intends to eventually publish his findings.

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Should We Take a Second Look at How We Teach These Days? (part I of III)

Click here to read the full article published on the website of CoderZ

In my article “The Very First Letter of STEM is Science I wrote, ‘Nowadays, young people have free access to a high speed electronically world we have become to know as ‘The Internet’. Wikipedia in this is a frequently visited site for students to upgrade their already possessing knowledge.’

In that same article, I asked the question of how reliable the written knowledge we can find on the internet, truly is. In this, I was aiming my thoughts on how far we are allowed of applying a form of creativity and critical thinking to this avalanche of information. Are we allowed to take this information, discuss it, break the taboo and convert it all into a new evolution in science?

l learned a sad fact and it is bothering me immensely!

As the owner and founder of the scientific magazine “The Next Truth” and an investigative science journalist, I got the opportunity to work in the midst of the smartest and most dedicated people I have ever met in my life but, that was not the only thing I saw. Although these people have brilliant minds, I saw that some of these people are stuck in their own narrow-minded thinking and processes as well. This shows a result in a large number of our scientists and aspiring students writing down their best ideas and novel theories in their spare time and then hide it away in the most remote drawers they can find in their office because it is said to be too “farfetched”, labeled as “Pseudo-science” or “hypothetical nonsense”.

Why? Because the narrow thinking majority is so used to the framework of accepted science or, the looks of the diversity with robotic devices and the advanced and complicated task they can perform these days, they have forgotten that these incredible, sometimes ‘life-like devices have, like with everything in life, an origin.

Click here to read the full article published on the website of CoderZ

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Why Can’t We Connect With Ghost Consistently?

By guest writer Kevin Spindloe, www.paranormalresearchyork.co.uk

Looking at the historical tales of spirits, ghosts, poltergeist, and other dimensional beings which have been reported so consistently, why is it that we are unable to truly connect with them? There are so many reports of these instances, and they are supported, quite enthusiastically,  by those who witnessed the phenomena. But, whenever those with an interest in such matters, be it scientific or otherwise, try to connect, the phenomena rarely repeats itself.

Kevin is an experienced Medium working in paranormal teams. He has been involved with spirit for most of his life with a strong interest in the paranormal.

Visiting a location like East Drive in Pontefract, UK, armed with the knowledge and stories of previous investigations and the belief that all that goes on in this empty semi-detached house is paranormal, is a dangerous precedent to a serious paranormal investigator. One noise, one creaky floorboard, settling can spark for a series of over-reactions and reinstate the belief that this really is a paranormal hot spot.

How to approach this search into the inter-dimensional realms?

During a recent conversation with Maria Anna van Driel the discussion took a twist, and the question was asked, “how does spirit communicate with us?” A simple enough question, if all spirits are equal in existence and we all speak the same language. But what if they are not? What if we do not speak their language? Than what?

It is egotistical or naïve of us to assume that spirits talk to us as we talk amongst ourselves? My conversation with Maria turned to birds, very strange, but bear with me.

To some people birds are just birds, like as ghost are just ghosts. However, in another area of my life I am a Tour Guide for people who enjoy bird-watching across Europe, so, I may say that I possess the needed knowledge within the study of Ornithology.

Birds belong to Orders, Families, Genus and then Species and Carrion Crow which can communicate with other crows, but they are not able to communicate with a songbird. Birds communicate with families, but not to a different genus or species. There is generally no overlap. Yes, birds will react to behaviours or alarms from other bird families, but it is not genuine communication.

Let’s flip this back and ask the question again, how does spirit communicate with us? Are we actually assuming that they can hear us? Can they understand us? Do they ‘know’ what investigators mean when they say, “speak into this black box” or “approach the green light, so we know you are here”.

Yes, there is the argument that spirits can read your mind regardless the language you grew up with. But this hasn’t been proven yet as definitive, and therefore is considered to be another assumption on the part of some investigators.

What if they can only communicate one way, like the crow?

As dimensional researchers we visit haunted locations while using the same equipment time and time again. We use the same processes and align ourselves to our chosen theory. And when the results are poor, we blame the spirits for not being active and try to explain that it is an issue with the other dimensions and not us or our methodology.

Being an investigator for Paranormal Research York, UK, I use a range of traditional tools such as pendulums, spirit boards as well as modern day meters, recorders and photo and film cameras. During my quest for answers I, myself, have found that a spirit may connect with leaving behind an electronic message, aka EVP, on a recorder but will not repeat the message, or words, on any other device. Why is that?  Is it possible that they prefer communication tools that match their vibrations and cannot or, will not communicate any other way?

As Maria has mentioned in some of her articles about Euclidean Space, ‘there is an argument for spirits or inter-dimensional beings to communicate using math. Poltergeist stacking chairs or the sudden appearance of sophisticated crop circles.’ Personally, I have never tried to communicate in math, but maybe it is time to do so.

Maybe the key is to try several communication devices and select the one that works at that time and, on that particular location. And, instead of asking “are you a man?” or “did you die here?”, we could ask questions aiming in the direction of, “why does this communication device work for you?” and “can you use more than one device to communicate?”

Another idea for establishing a clear communication could touch the train of thought of us using mathematical equations or diagrams. Although, I believe my attempt on the latter would be equivalent to a cave drawing from a prehistoric hunter capturing his proud moment, simplistic but hopefully it would carry a message.

Asking spirits, or inter-dimensional beings, to give a consistent message on more than one tool or device could show that the investigator is broadening the search for better communication. Even though there is no guarantee if an action as such would be allowed by the inter-dimensional police, but if it were, it would make investigations much more interesting.

Maybe then we can start to unravel the ‘communication issue’ and focus our attention on one spirit to gain a greater understanding of how they can or, even better, how they prefer to communicate with us. Moreover, by figuring out how a communication as such is working, depending on how much they will reveal, we might see the opportunity to dig deeper into their ‘world’ and understand much more. A clear communication as such could provide us, during our events, to connect with a particular spirit in that specific place and achieve some amazing results.

During our public events this might be difficult to approach until we gather some credible evidence that isn’t a waste of valuable event time. Regardless, we must remember that our guests have paid to be part of a ‘traditional’ investigation and not a controlled experiment. So, this would be a slow but, hopefully, a progressive side of our events.

And maybe, just maybe, I will be able to speak to the crows.

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