Developing The Self From Ground Up

Gone are the days when parents and seniors in the house needed creative stories that would satiate inquisitive kids questioning where the newly-arrived infant at home has come from. "The stork has brought them, child." Nowadays, thanks to the all-permissive internet, kids are maturing earlier than the previous generations. Look at the news about kids aged just 11 - of both genders - becoming mom and dad!

My blog turned 3 a few weeks ago. On its birthday, I reflected on how our values and mores have changed on different aspects of celebrating birthdays, here: "The Symbolism Of The Stork". Let me know how much of it you agree with!

The past few years have seen the community of solar physicists a divided house. They have been issuing forecasts and warnings about the solar activity in the coming period, that are diametrically opposite in meaning. Some predict an upsurge in sunspots and therefore possible solar storms and solar flares that will wreck havoc on Earth. And the others predict a relatively quieter period, indeed a cooling down of Earth because of reduced solar activity. So which is the truth?

This article here takes a stand that the remaining years of the century might see a cooling down: "The Case Of The Mellowing Sun". And this stand is taken based on a research paper that the article quotes.

So what are the consequences of the reduced solar activity? The article ponders three - two of them are phenomenological and one is metaphysical. The article says that this coming period may be a very good opportunity to raise our conscious energies by entraining the brain to the frequencies of the earth-ionosphere circuit. How? Read on and find out for yourself.

Why do people fail to keep their resolutions? Why it is that New Year Resolutions, made in all earnest under the heady ambience of the night stars as the calendar turns over a fresh look, fall flat in the first few weeks of the first month itself? Why do we fail to deliver promises that we make to ourselves, time and time again? The root cause is our soritic thinking.

Philosophers use the analogy of the heap of sand to make their point about the sorites paradox. They put a heap of sand before you, then reach out to pick one grain of sand from this heap, and ask - "If I remove this tiny little grain from this heap, the heap will still remain a heap, will it not?", and they then toss away the grain. They pick up another grain from this heap, ask this same question, toss the grain away, and this continues for a while, till the stage comes when the heap vanishes, and there are no more grains left to be picked and tossed away. Somewhere along the way, you see, the heap ceased to remain a heap. The point they make is our attitude: "What does it matter?" And then stretching the logic, they tell us that if throw away our days, like the grains of sand, all the time saying - "What does it matter?", till the time comes when there are no more days left to be thrown.

This very subtle point is highlighted by the article here - "A Chain Made Of Akritic Links And Soritic Metal". Akrasia, or Acrasia, stands for our acting against our better judgment.

Yoga is an ancient therapy practised in the South-Asian subcontinent since ages. While some people only focus on the Asanas - the set of poses and postures -, this is just one of the eight aspects of this therapy.

The popularity of this CAM has soared, following positive reports in the media about its impact on alleviating a host of medical conditions, including depression. Countries such as the US appear to be wholeheartedly embracing Yoga as a lifestyle, with people including twisting, bending and arching, Yoga-style, in their daily exercise regimen.

Here is an article that puts this CAM in the larger perspective: "Make Bending, Twisting, Arching - A Daily Ritual".

You may have seen it happen in the lives of people around you. Or perhaps you may have experienced it yourself. The rebooting of life. A moment comes, when you look back and see one picture, and you see yourself in the present and you see a different picture altogether. The future moment? -- is totally unknown.

I remember seeing the photograph of a man mourning before the pyres of his wife and children. The family died in a communal carnage that swept the city while he was away on a company tour. Two days ago, when he left his house, his wife and children bade him goodbye. Now, in the present moment, his house doesn't exist as it got flattened in a bomb blast. His family doesn't exist, as it got submerged beneath the collapsing walls and the roof. The present moment's picture is totally different from the picture of yesterday. And tomorrow is blank and bleak and unknown.

Here is another example. The pink-slip that people get after spending their entire lifetime working in a company. Because the company has been purchased by somebody who wants to sell of its assets and earn good profits. Or the company is now closing because of wrong management decisions or simply because the economy is not good. Returning home from work is manageable. But what do you do when the next morning dawns? Do you get dressed and get ready? And go where?

I have seen people crumble and cave in, in such life-rebooting situations. The caving in can happen myriadly - from insanity to substance-abuse. It is precisely during such situations that we have to summon whatever resilience and fortitude we have within ourselves, rise above and beyond the present quagmire, and look and plan ahead. For, life demands that we move on.

Here is an article that dwells on the rebooting curve-ball that gets thrown our way every now and then. It is titled - "Where Do You Start - When You Have To Start All Over". Using real-life examples of people from diverse backgrounds, the article makes a case for building fortitude when the going is good. So that when crunch-time comes, we are prepared.

People spend their lives doing things that come their way by accident. Either some senior or peer influences their thinking to take up some vocation or career which is not really what they are naturally fit to do, or they accept the first job that comes their way after a long spell of unemployment. And then people wonder why they are not happy with their lives, and whether the planet Earth is a jail that has to be got out from as quickly as possible.

Dorothea Lange was a professional photographer. She chose photography as a profession at a time when girls were expected to take up more feminine-centric vocations, such as sewing and healthcare. Dorothea not only excelled at it, but she also earned name and fame. Her famous "Immigrant Mother" photo - of a desolate, down and out mother, a victim of urbanisation and the Great Depression - got splashed in the media around the world. It was incidental that the profession fetched her good amount of money. The money came to her automatically, because she was doing something that really, really vibed with her.

August Rush is a fictional character, the name of the lead protagonist of a movie of the same name. August was born out of wedlock, and no sooner was he born, than he was moved to an orphanage by his grandfather (mother's side), who didn't want the child to ruin the mother's life and career. August therefore had no one to guide him, save his own innate attraction to the world of music. August discovered that he could do wonders with music. He also had a gut feeling that he could find his parents through music. And so one day he runs away from the orphanage to come to the big city. Fate takes him to the Juilliard School where the rough edges of his raw diamond of talent gets smoothened. And August finds himself on the stage of the New York Philharmonic Open Air Concert, where he gets to conduct his own-composed piece. In the process, he finds his parents in the audience. August had discovered his inner calling much earlier in life.

Using these two lives, one from the real world and one from the world of fiction, this article here exhorts us to discover our inner calling: "Discover Your Inner Calling". It is only when we understand what and who we are, and it is only when we set out to manifest our true destiny, that we can find true happiness.

Mozart was one lucky fellow. Even before he could begin going to the bathroom unescorted, he had begun composing music. He somehow carried the mission statement along with him on some paper when he emerged from the womb. So was Gauss, the mathematical genius, who knew what he was supposed to be doing with his life even before he could be taught how to take care of his running nose. Not everybody is as lucky.

As for the rest of us, we lurch from one point to another in our lives, trying to discover the mission that we had been sent to this great Planet Earth for. The formative years of the life are spent in getting trained to the new conventions of the society we are embedded in. Tie the shoelace like this, wear this smile like that. Be polite, don't howl, and don't blow your nose so loudly. In youth, we succumb to the demands of those hormones running wild in the blood and do things that we are either proud of or ashamed of in old age. We get a good education, or do not. We get married, or remain unmarried. We procreate, or remain childless.

Somewhere in the middle-age, we are hit by the crisis of identity. We realize that there is something very serious that has eluded us ---- and that is the mission of our life. In the course of living, we realize that there must have been some aim, some goal that we were asked to fulfill before being sent here, but which we have somehow forgotten in the excitement and confusion.

It is these and other tid-bits of thoughts that make up the article here - "Why Are We Here". An introspective piece, that gently reminds us to seek meaning in life. And that it is never too late to conduct this meaning-seeking.

The inscription is nowhere to be found. But historical records say that the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece had inscribed on it the following aphorism: "Gnothi Seauton", which is greek for "Know Thyself", or "Know Yourself". The inscription must have been meant to exhort the then residents of Delphi to look inward and understand oneself.

The oracle who saw the future for the rebels in the movie "The Matrix" too had a Latin equivalent of the Greek aphorism hung above her kitchen door. It said - "Temet Nosce", which stands for "thine own self thou must know". It is a pity that we do not have a similar inscription in our usual places of dwelling. For, while we spend our time poring over the daily newspapers and magazines and company reports and research journals, absorbing all the knowledge available in the external world, we continue to remain ignorant about the Self. Knowledge of the Self is the most important nugget of knowledge of all.

Several pieces of fiction and mythology allude to this property of the most important nugget. Take the movie "The Matrix" for example. Neo, the computer programmer, had to be put through a lot of travails before he could really understand who he is. Or God Hanuman, an important God in the Hindu pantheon. Hanuman had to be told of the powers lying latent in him before he could leap into the sky and cross the huge seas to reach the golden kingdom of Lanka, where a demon king lived. Or ask Dorothy, who so desperately wanted to return home in Kansas, from the fantasyland where she found herself cooped in with a lot of strange beings. All along, Dorothy wore a pair of ruby slippers, and never once she knew of the hidden powers in those slippers, which she had to just tap thrice and visualize her home for her to be transported there. We are talking about the movie - "The Wizard Of Oz" here.

These examples have been taken from the article - "Those Ruby Slippers Will Take You Home, Dorothy", published on the blog - "Quest for Nirvana". Knowing oneself is unfortunately not part of any course taught in any university anywhere in the world. Which is a pity. For all knowledge should actually begin from this basic foundation.

It is true that no two human beings are the same. Personalities differ, and the difference is a combination of reasons that are got to do with genotype as well as phenotype. How we approach our relationships, especially the most important, one-to-one yin-yang relationships, too depends on the make-up of our personality.

Contrast, for instance, the approach taken by Britney Spears when she heard of her husband's infidelity with the approach taken by Hillary Clinton when she found herself in a similar ignominy. While Britney did not lose any time in declaring that the relationship was over - she simply zipped out her mobile and texted her intention to Federline -, Clinton took a deep breath, stepped back and let the storm blow over.

While the episodes of Britney vs. Federline and Hillary vs. Bill are years and decades old, taking an even broader perspective, marital infidelity down the ages has been treated in much the same way: either you walk out, or you reconcile. But how things have panned out for the two protagonists make an interesting study in the backdrop of their respective personalities.

This, and other interesting aspects of Mrs. H. Clinton's life are discussed in an article here: "The Road To Denver Is Lonely".

There is a body of research literature out there that has tried to figure out exactly what stuff dreams are made of. The conclusion that they have been able to reach with utmost confidence is that, during sleep, it is when the eyes appear to move beneath the closed eyelids is when we actually dream. They have given it the term - Rapid Eye Movement sleep, or REM sleep. Beyond this, the literature tells us about the surge of this or that chemical that occurs in the neuronal circuits before the onset of dreams (REM sessions), during the progress of dreams, and after the dreams ebb away and the eyes come back to rest. And there is speculation that the dreams are a mechanism for the brain's cells to consolidate the experiences one has had during waking hours. This just about sums it all that we have succeeded, in our few thousand years of existence as human beings, about what dreams are, which we indulge in every twelve hours or so throughout our lives.

Turn to romantic literature, and you enter a different world altogether. Princes and Princesses, Kings and Queens, Pixies and Demons, all come into our dreams to play some drama on the surreal stage --- with the objective of telling us something? Some of these dreams hark back to some events that have taken place in the past, and the creative mind twists the plot in these events and turns their characters inside out to present to different versions, all for our entertainment.

Some of us are traumatized by dreams. We get up in the middle of the night, clutching at the bedsheet, body shivering and / or sweating profusely. But do we have to react so? After all, these dreams are playing out in the box of our skull themselves, aren't they? Then why do we need to be afraid of them?

This article written by me ponders on what dreams are, why they come up so recurrently, and what perhaps needs to be done to put the dreams to rest. Here it is: "Dreams Are Our Friends - Cherish This Friendship".

Read on, enjoy, and reflect.

Spring time is a cue from nature to the plants to burst open their pollen sacs and release those tiny grains in the air, for the birds and the bees to carry to the dainty pistils, waiting in eager anticipation. The eruption of color in the flowers is Nature shrugging off its lethargy and stupor of the long, cold hibernation of winters.

Spring time is also the cue for us human beings to get out our long-handled brooms and other paraphernalia with which to clean the household. The spring in the air permeates into us the enthusiasm for a cleanup of our surroundings.

While working on washing away the grime and dusting away the detritus from the tangible planes of our four-dimensional life, spring time could also be an opportune time to clean away all that has gone bad and / or is no longer working or useful to us in the subtle planes of our existence. What are these cobwebs that are hidden-from-the-eyes and therefore hard to detect?

Read about it in the article here: "Use Spring Time To Clear The Deadwood And Detox".

One of the strongest tests of maturity and self-development is being presented with a situation where there are inherent conflicts. You find yourself torn into two, and there is a dilemma in resolving the situation. Well, this is being generically described, because these inner conflicts can present themselves in almost any sphere of living that you can think of: be it in the matter of relationships, or in the domain of politics and affiliations, or in the humdrum of the workplace.

Quite usually, you are asked to select between two choices or options: one of them is - again usually - dictated by the norms of society, and the other is what your heart or your mind craves. It is not possible to be dogmatic and say that one must be a traditionalist or that one should don the garb of an iconoclast, for every situation merits its own analysis, and every situation has to be understood and reconciled by the individual themselves. The key point is to not let this inner conflict linger for long: the sooner you arrive at a decision and implement it, the better it is for you. The implementation may be in the form of some physical action that you have to take. Or it may be in the form of a shift in your thinking and attitude. But the chapter has to be, must be, closed - and the soonest.

One article that I have written on this subject is here: Resolving Inner Conflicts. It uses the theme of the relationship between the yin and the yang to describe how a person is not able to enjoy the moment of the NOW because of precisely the turmoil they are facing in their marital life.

Read on, enjoy, and reflect.

After attracting-the-best-talent to the employee pool, attrition and burnouts are the two major concerns of any HR person in any organization. It is a common sight: yesterday's top-notch performer sits there sullenly, all energy evaporated, satisfying themselves with trotting out the same dull ideas year-after-year. Enthusiasm has given way to cynicism, brightness has been replaced by dullness and boredom; and life is now lived from paycheck to paycheck - with the days between just a blur of trying to keep up with routine work as best as one can.

And why does this happen? The causes are not very complicated to discern: they are a combination of not giving enough attention to life's other priorities and not getting the right encouragement, applause and mentoring from the right people in those crucial moments when one needs them the most.

I have composed an article that discusses one good technique to handle burnout: MBSR, short for "Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction". This technique has been found to make people self-aware of what has been lacking in their lives, and makes them report to work not because they have to, but because they want to. Here is the article title: "Rekindle The Passion In Your Job".

Statistics about diabetes is alarming. The WHO estimates that more than 300 million people in the world will be diabetic patients by the year 2025. CDC, the watchdog institute for the US, has come out with chilling data that says that about 57 million people have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, which means that they are on the verge of contracting this disease.

Diabetes is called a silent killer. People are just not aware that they are either already diabetic, or are prone to the condition, until it is too late. There is no cure to the condition, of course. All that you can hope for, given the current status of research, is to delay the degeneration of your body through a combination of pharmacological and complementary therapies.

A metaphysical view can be taken of how this medical condition teaches us great many things when it actually manifests itself. We realize that we have wrought upon ourself this disease with our own hands; and if there was any family DNA involved, that involvement has only hastened the onset.

This metaphysical view forces us to examine what thoughts and values need to be changed in our mind, in order to halt and if possible reverse, the diabetic manifestations that have occured in the body. These thoughts and values may be ingrained since childhood, or we may have acquired them through our experiences and through the process of daily living. With introspection and self-reflection, we can firmly replace the wrong values that are going against the grain of Nature,

This article here presents this metaphysical view very beautifully: "Diabetes - Silent Killer? Or Awakener?".

Its a phenomenon that has been quietly revolutionizing the society these past couple of decades. While marriages continue to be held in high regard, there is now an overcautious approach towards investing too much emotional energy - call it cathexis if you will - into the relationship right from the word go. The intention is to steel oneself from the pain of any breakup were it to happen. The new generation is now looking at "starter marriages" as a dress rehearsal before the "real thing".

Academic and popular spotlight got thrown on this quiet revolution by the book by Pamela Paul, "The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony", who in 2002 created waves in the background of the then celebrity breakups.

Is this a passing phase? Or the new Zeitgeist? In an article on my blog, I have sought to contrast the latest trend with values and mores of an earlier era. Here is the article: What If - The Fisherman Does Not Discover The Ring?

Tinnitus, to the uninitiated, might be the name of some nocturnal, cricket-like insect that chirps. But to sufferers of the disease, Tinnitus means long hours of the waking day having to hear a sharp, cricket-like noise that rages in the head. Strangely, this noise can be heard only by the sufferer and not by the others! The noise can take any form - from cricket-like chirp to buzzing, from whistling to humming, from roaring to hissing --- in fact, think of any irritating sound, and it is there in tinnitus.

There are times when the noise is not heard, lasting for a few hours, or at most one whole day - and these moments are pure, silent bliss! For the rest, life is one long suffering ...

There is a big list of causes behind this condition. And once you get it, there is as of this moment no definite cure for it in modern science.

However, cognitive behavioral therapies, CBTs in short, have been found to be of help in ameliorating the noise. Research pockets across Europe and the US are conducting independent studies and investigations on the efficacy of these CBTs to bring silence back to the sufferer. In January 2008, BBC Radio 4 aired a 30-minute documentary on a set of these research pockets. The documentary was prepared by Kate Cook, herself a tinnitus sufferer.

In case you are suffering from this condition or know somebody who does, here is an article that describes one of the interviews conducted by Ms. Cook (the article also has an audio clip of the interview): "A Woman's Journey To Get Her Silence Back". The focus of this interview was Meditation as a CBT for tinnitus.

Yogi Berra's book - "When You Come To A Fork In The Road, TAKE IT!" has a tongue-in-cheek take on life's situations when we find ourselves split neatly into two. One part, ruled by the head, presents very convincing and compelling argument in favor of one particular route to be taken. The other part, ruled by the heart, advocates a different route with equally forceful reasoning. So which alternative route should be taken? How one wishes there were a universally-applicable formula that could be applied to these situations and the solution obtained in a jiffy!

It is in such times that one comes to appreciate the value of one's gut instincts. The instinct that tells us that this, and not that, route needs be taken. The instinct, call it "soul" if you will, that is above the head and the heart, that guides you towards your destiny. A reflective piece that mulls upon this conundrum is worth reading: "At The Crossroads - So Which Route Do You Take?"

Though science and religion have always shared an uneasy relationship, there are signs that the former is now beginning to take a more magnanimous view of the latter. Some evidence of this has emerged through recent research that has focused on the impact of such dominantly religious activities as praying.

It has been found that consistent praying as a matter of habit increases the psycho-physiological wellbeing of the devout. The focusing of the thoughts towards an emotion of surrender to an entity that is above all of us, the dwelling on the faith that there is Somebody out there who / which is looking at us, looking after us, knows what we are going through, and also knows what is good for us; somehow triggers something in the brain at the neuronal level. The "striatal reward system" in the brain gets activated. If you would like to know, this system resides in the caudiate nucleus of the striatum.

There is a strange aspect about this caudiate nucleus. When you pray, this particular area begins buzzing. And when you think of indulging in some addictive behavior, this same particular area begins buzzing! Scientists amusedly speculate whether it is a seat shared by both God and Devil?

This and other interesting observations are made in this article - "When All Else Fails --- Pray!". May be you might want to bookmark it in order to return to it again and again.

Here is a simple quiz. What is the common trait between Echo (the Greek mythological nymph) and Dante Alighieri (the Italian poet)? Answer: They were involved in an unrequited love relationship.

These individuals had some or the other obstacle in their way that prevented them from expressing their feelings of love towards the object of their desire. And the result was that the objects of their desire never got to know that there was somebody who loved them.



Such a relationship automatically burns into one's personality the trait of stoicism and the acceptance of suffering as something natural. While in the case of Echo, these traits led her to wither away into death, in the case of Dante, these very same traits inspired him to pen such works as "Divina Commedia".



Here is an interesting piece that provides food for thought on the acceptance of suffering in love - "This Valentine's Day". Modern Zeitgeist encourages self-assertion in all matters, including expressing one's feelings - whatever they may be -, and yet, we find amongst us individuals with underconfidence and low self-esteem who do not find the strength to blurt out the simple yet powerful words that can make all the difference in their life.

There are approximately 33.2 million individuals (as at end of 2007) who suffer from the debilitating medical condition of AIDS. Once the HIV virus enters the body, there is no stopping it, yet.

While an entire army of scientists are busy fighting the virus in their labs, other complementary and alternative medicinal approaches too are being tried. And some of them are holding out promise that may not be labeled miraculous, but are generating hope where up until now none existed.

An interesting research was conducted on 48 HIV-infected adults where the efficacy of a particular CAM technique was studied. The findings of this research has been reported in the February 2009 issue of "Brain, Behavior and Immunity", a peer-reviewed journal. It has been reported that the subjects who underwent this technique were found to have stabilized their CD4+ T lymphocyte count, in comparison to the control gruop where the count continued to deteriorate.

Here is an article that describes the research as well as the technique that appears to hold promise: "HIV-Infected? Try This".

When things are hunky-dory, the sun rises regularly in the East and sets in the west; the job is steady and the income is steady; relationships are loving and nurturing; we all feel oh so fine. But come some turbulence in any of the planes of our existence, and boy! How our sense of ease goes for a six!

Which is quite fine. To feel momentarily out of balance is perfectly okay, that is the law of nature. When you have balanced yourself on the surfboard and learnt to negotiate the small waves, then the sudden arrival of a huge wave can and does leave you slightly balanced. That is no big deal.

The big deal is how fast you can cope with the huge wave, how soon can you regain your balance, how quickly you recapture your equipoise, and surf on. This is called resilience. Whether it is organizations or individuals, the underlying principles are the same.

Some reflective thoughts on this aspect of our living have been frozen in words in this article here: Keep Those Trampoline Springs In Good Condition.

Though Subliminal Messaging as a concept had been formally documented in academic literature since the 1860s, it took the combination of a post- (Korean)-War mindset and the cunning of a market researcher (James Vicary) to bring the topic to public attention. Unfortunately, its linking with advertisement and "hidden persuasion", though sensational, also mired subliminal messaging in controversy. The following article traces the interesting history of subliminal messaging, and how it is being used for self-development:

http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/10/subliminal-messaging-cds-historical.html

As children, we innocently put our hundred percent trust in the elders and the society around us. Unfortunately, we do not then have the intellectual capability to consciously and alertly discern the quality of thoughts that we receive from our surroundings.

The implication is that muck and junk and negative thoughts embed themselves in our subconscious, and grow as we grow up. Our choices in life, and indeed our destiny, is shaped by the tone our subconscious acquires over time.

The article here explores we can nullify the negative impact of self-defeating thoughts by using New Age products.

Click, read on, and think over - http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/10/from-jaded-conscious-to-placid.html

Another take on the concept of two components of the mind is this piece:
http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/10/give-your-subconscious-chance.html

The market is flooded with self-improvement CDs. Audio Subliminal Messaging CDs are a special niche in this flood. How do they work? What exactly is the mechanism that propels the pits and bumps of the polycarbonate CD to swim through the stereo headset and drop into our subconscious? This article explains how:

http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-subliminal-messaging-cds-work.html

People really like to exploit commercially anything that comes to the market, don't they? Scientists discovered freon, and people began pumping it into refrigerators, before somebody pointed to the huge hole in the skies ... Like shooting in your foot, eh? :-)

Same is with Gamma Entrainment CDs. Dr. Richard Davidson and his team conducted an experiment on Tibetan monks (in association with the Dalai Lama), and discovered that huge gamma waves were generated in the brain of the monks when they meditated. Before Dr. D could utter the next words of caution ... the market was flooded with Gamma entrainment CDs. Like shooting in your foot, eh? :-)

Here's the full story. Read, chuckle, and be warned:

http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/10/gamma-entrainment-cds-lets-not-follow.html

Ever thought of synchronizing your brain's waves with that of Mother Nature?

Here's one possible way of doing it. Scientists have discovered specific frequency bands in which the earth's atmosphere reverberates. These frequencies are the atmosphere's natural, or resonant frequencies, and are a result of a gigantic electric circuit created between the Earth's surface and the Ionosphere. By entraining your brain's waves to this particular frequency band, the possibility of one's consciousness expanding beyond the body's limits increases manifold.

To read the full story, click on the following link -

http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/11/brain-entrainment-and-schumann.html

A pathbreaking research experiment was conducted by the Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, on how one's gender and sexual preference impacted one's observation of "invisible" (read "subliminal") visual cues that were erotic in nature.

A group of 40 people - 20 males, 10 hetero, 10 gay, and 20 females, 10 hetero, 10 lesbian - participated in this experiment. Almost uncannily, they were able to identify invisible pictures that appealed to them.

This research threw up two important points:

- it was yet another thumping evidence that subliminal messaging is a scientifically-observed phenomenon, and not pseudoscience dwaddle that people (still) believe it to be.
- The test _could_ be used, either in the same format or suitably amended format, to determine a person's _true_ sexual proclivity, as opposed to their stated position.

This very interesting research work is elucidated here -

http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/11/sex-and-subliminality.html

A Sublim Filter is just like your Phishing or Spam Filter. Only, it is still in theory. Ummm ... truth be told, it is still in theory in only two places - one: this tiny module in this lil lens, and two: the latest post on my blog!

So, in order to know whether a new "Anti-Sublim" industry is taking birth, or its just one person's imagination running wild, rush your mouse to this URL -

http://success-nirvana.blogspot.com/2006/11/wanted-sublim-filter-like-phishing.html

Whether it is whacky imagination? Or a portend of things to come? You decide.