health

Spirit’s next move may begin with a chocolate chip cookie

By Joe Perez

The fruits of modernity such as highly effective experimentally-driven psychological research into habit formation must not be forgotten in the quest for a World Spirituality. A philosophy for the 21st century must have as a baseline the essential, empirically-based truths of modern science, including the human sciences.

Big Think:

In his new book, The Power of Habit, New York Times investigative reporterCharles Duhigg has drawn together the most cutting edge research on why habits exist and how they can be changed. In his interview with Big Think we asked him how he is able to apply the science to his own life.

As Duhigg demonstrates, there is a clear evolutionary logic behind our habits, as they save us time and mental energy. That’s a good thing. And yet, this also makes us more vulnerable to bad habits as well.

Read the whole thing.

Duhigg was eventually able to figure out his reward system and substitute something more healthful for the unhealthful treat, a daily chocolate chip cookie.

As I see it, that’s how World Spirituality’s “war on unconsciousness” is fought, battle by battle, one cubic centimeter of mindfulness at a time, cookie by cookie.

Photo Credit: geerlingguy

Social inequality is a cause of disease in itself, scientists say

By Joe Perez

Despite thousands of years of prophetic religious teachings telling us to lift up the poor and identify with the outcast, and hundreds of years of Western Enlightenment teaching about that all people are created equal, we live in a world of massive social inequality. When we aren’t completely ignoring the problem, scientists research the phenomenon to shed light. In “Why Low Social Status Causes Health Problems,” on Big Think, comes word from the study of macaque monkeys that inequality leads to disease:

[S]cientists have determined that your social rank substantially affects your health, with those on the lower end being most prone to health problems. Using a population of macaque monkeys, researchers at the University of Chicago observed that social position caused different sets of genes to fire.

The traces of inequality are even visible in biological markers, with blood able to predict social status with 80 percent accuracy. Sensisitve to any misunderstandings that their research is implying that biology equals destiny, the scientists add:

While that smells like destiny, scientists also found that outside forces, such as a promotion in the social hierarchy, were enough to change those chemical compositions.

The democratization of Enlightenment — or, in theological terms, the wide-scale realization that every human being is a personal face of essence, the image of God — is our great calling. There are no status tiers in enlightenment teaching, though there are important distinctions help guide us to ever deeper realizations for ever wider spans of people.

Let’s not put off realizing our Unique Self another minute. Lives depend upon advancing awareness of our personal divinity.

Photo Credit: Yodels