Phrenology is the interpretation of the skull structure, and helps establish a person’s character and mental aptitude. The chief belief maintained since the 18th century is that there are organs on the brain’s surface that help detect such traits.

Physiognomy is what interests us today. It is the study of the features of the face to determine what kind of person one is. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was used rather freely to see if people harbored criminal tendencies.

These days, scientists categorize these as pseudosciences and don’t put much stock in them. They are treated on the same level as astrology: unproven but harmless. Still, many people believe face reading to be a reliable method of judging people. What’s important is analyzing the face in its entirety and not making hasty judgments until all the facts are in.

Let’s explore the basics of face reading and how it can help you be a better judge of character.

Face shape
Long and thin: A person with this kind of face is generally capable of endurance and resolve. If, in addition, the person has regular, attractive features, they will not leave things half done.
Round: A round shape signifies hopefulness and vitality. Radiant, they can turn a stuffy room into a barrel of laughter.
Broad: Not only are these people tolerant and compassionate, they’re usually broad-minded.
Square: These are individualistic people who are strong-minded in achieving their dreams; they are people of action and swiftness.

Forehead
Smooth: Someone who has no lines on his forehead is a cerebral person; they’re always thinking and making quick decisions.
Wrinkled: If there are horizontal lines across the forehead, this indicates that the person is easily excited and enthused.

Eyes
Novels, songs, and poems have been written about the eyes and how they are the windows to the soul. The eyes never lie; they always translate how we feel deep down inside.

Stressed: If you notice some white between the iris and the lower eyelid of both eyes, the person is stressed and worried.
Fierce: If the white part is showing above the iris, this means that on top of stress, the person is likely to respond violently.
Detached: If white is showing all around the iris, run. This signifies that the person is mentally unstable and that they may go postal at any minute. Think Toni from Paradise Hotel .
Lines: Should you notice small lines on the outside of the eyes, you are in the presence of someone who smiles a lot and is, generally speaking, happy.

Eyebrows
The fun aspect of eyebrows is that they can be a fantastic indicator as to how a person thinks.

Straight: Level, horizontal eyebrows signify an idea person. Talking facts and suggestions with them will get you far.
Curved: If the eyebrows of the person are arched, they enjoy anecdotes.
Thin: These are people with low self-confidence, especially if the eyebrows are high and round. Reassure them and let them know you’re not judging them. Even though you are.
Unbroken: If you see someone with the proverbial unibrow, you are faced with a person who is constantly thinking, and you might benefit by encouraging them to share their ideas.

Eyelids
Small: When the distance between the top of the eyelid and the eyelashes is narrow, this indicates that the person is independent and may even voluntarily keep their distance from others.
Large: On the other hand, a large eyelid is a sign that the person is victim of dependency.

Nose
Small: It is believed that people with a small snout are inherently weak. Often unreliable, they’re not steadfast in their decisions.
Large: A large nose is a sign of initiative and determination, a strong character who leaves his mark.
Blunt: The nose may be large but if the tip is blunt, it suggests that the person is not formal with their surroundings. Pragmatic, they believe in themselves and approach others boldly.
Aquiline: Such a nose is characterized by being small and straight, sharp like a blade. People so adorned are generally self-centered, indecisive and sensitive.

Ears
Small: Small ears are usually a sign of insecurity, but these people know what they want and are hard workers.
Pointed: Just like their spokesperson Mr. Spock, people with pointed ears are inflexible and have difficulty being laid-back.
Hairy: Not only is a person with lots of hair on their ears funny to look at, but they are also meticulous. The problem is that they often squander loads of energy on unimportant items.

Chin and jaw
Square jaw: People with square jaws are indomitable and have the ability to turn their dreams into reality.
Protruding chin: If the person’s chin noticeably sticks out, they are self-important. They believe they hold the almighty truth and no one else is ever right.

Cheeks
Well-developed: Cheeks shaped this way are a sign of vigor, energy, self-assurance, and people who have such cheeks are willing to accept other people’s mistakes.
Dimples: In addition to being attractive, dimples symbolize a person’s congeniality.

Lips
Full: On top of enhancing good looks, full lips characterize generosity and a desire to talk about oneself.
Thin: If the lips aren’t particularly bulbous, it is a sign of an innate introverted personality.
Thin top and full bottom: In the event that the person has a thin upper lip and a more generous lower lip, it’s an indication that the person is very persuasive.

The subconscious mind “covers” about 88% of your mind; the other 12% is covered by the conscious mind. The subconscious part is responsible for storing your memory, habits, personality, self-image and beliefs. It also controls your bodily functions.

Scientists have also identified four states of awareness that our brain goes through. The brain wave states can be measured by a sophisticated piece of medical equipment known as an electroencephalograph machine (E.E.G.). This machine measures the electrical activity taking place within the brain, and enables scientists to ascertain what level of awareness a subject has achieved.

Medical science has proven that we must all spend a certain amount of time in the Alpha State each day to function properly.

The alpha brain wave activity state is the state we are in during relaxation and quiet moments. During the alpha state, the brain wave activity slows down, the mind relaxes, the body unwinds, and we slip into a state of relaxation. It is here where our thoughts slow down until they become so light they begin to float. It is here that we are able to restore, re-energize and empower ourselves and harness the power of the subconscious mind to help create long-lasting change. Alpha state is the gateway, the entry point that leads into the subconscious.

In the Alpha state, any suggestions given to us would pass straight into the subconscious mind.

Through relaxation we enter a new state, a state of creativity, essential for your success. You can induce new thoughts and new beliefs to your subconscious. The subconscious mind never sleeps; it works 24/7, and receives any thought, regardless of its nature. It files, classifies and records every bit of information that comes from any of your 5 senses. It’s a very efficient tool. It cannot determine right from wrong and it does not judge. Clinical researchers have found that it even doesn’t know the difference between reality and something visualized in your mind’s eyes. So the more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get.

There are different types of beats or tones. We know some of them: binaural beats, isochronic tones and monaural tones.

Binaural beats or tones are used in several “mind conditioning” programs.

These programs are designed to train your brain go into a deep relaxation state to re-program your subconscious mind to reach some incredible results: better health, confidence, wealth and prosperity.

A lot of people have testified that they were more motivated, they could think faster ‘on their feet’ and they could outsmart their competition in business.

However, new studies and improved discoveries show that isochronic and monaural tones are far more effective for brain wave entrainment than the binaural beats and other stimulation types because it is mainly the size of the difference between the peaks and valleys in the waveform that determines how strong the brain’s reaction to the stimulus will be.

This difference is very significant in isochronic and monaural tones and barely apparent in binaural beats.

Therefore, results from mind-conditioning programs using isochronic and monaural beats outperform any other system for mind-programming.

Here are some of the results you can expect from mind-programming systems using isochronic and monaural beats to tap the subconscious which is the source of ‘’higher intelligence’’: sharpen your intuition, perceive things that you can’t really explain, boost your creativity, attract wealth, naturally reduce stress, anxiety, tension and worry, find peace and calm, increase your self confidence and personal power, strengthen your relationships, positively influence everyone around you, attract true love, sleep less and still wake up each morning full of energy, overcome addictive behavior, strengthen your immune system and feel well.

The last few months have been hectic as I’ve set up a new business – as a single parent, this isn’t always a breeze. Apart from creating my own brand of training courses and seminars, we’ve built a lovely website containing many articles on holistic wellbeing. Even though this is the work that I’m passionate about and love to do, not everything runs smoothly all the time. Retaining the ‘creative flow’ is a must.

I’m sure many of you will know the feeling of ‘life getting in the way’ – too many errands to run, bills to pay and complicated homework riddles to solve – and the list goes on… So, how DO you retain the creative flow?

The answer is simple really – through mind control!

The idea of mind control might seem opposed to having boundless creative energy, but it isn’t at all.

Being creative means letting go – ‘going with the flow’ as that well worn saying goes. It’s about allowing the delicate breeze of inspiration, imagination and ideas to tickle your fingers into a dance of many letters as the words flow onto paper (or into your PC files). And in order to let go enough for this subtle, elusive energy to come out to play, you first need mind control.

The mind control path to creativity means being able to leave behind the noise of incessant mental chatter, the harrowing images of ever growing un-ironed washing piles and whatever else might be occupying your thoughts and undermining your creativity.

Take time out in the midst of the madness. Let go of the pressure of the to-do-list and the need for household perfection – and the guilt that may result from that – and take time for silence, for nature and for simply being with your Self. Once you learn to control your mind, you achieve the inner silence that allows something ‘sublime’ to happen.

Try my top three tips to quieten the mind and increase creativity:

#1 Find five minutes for yourself as early in the day as possible. Lock yourself away. Make it your time. If necessary buy some noise cancelling headphones! Sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and relax. Imagine you are breathing in creative energy with each breath, and exhaling pure light.

#2 Walk. Become super-sensitive to what’s around you – bird song, traffic noise, laughter. Don’t analyse or judge, just look, listen and use the rest of your senses.

#3 Play this creativity game. Pick up the nearest book. Go to page 12. Count to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth words. I just did this and the words were “order to achieve”. Pick, one two or three of these words, and use them to write about tomorrow. Don’t analyse, just write.

“Tomorrow I’m going to order a pizza at blah blha shop. It would be good to see the look on the face of my Mother-in-law. Maybe she’ll even crack a smile for once. You never know what you can achieve until you try.”

And then, enjoy going with that creative flow! Have fun

We all need dreams and goals to get us through the days and years. If they are big and take years to achieve or rather 5 mins is insignificant, they are all important!

Can you truly be satisfied living someone elses dream?

NO, If you can be satisfied then it isn’t someone elses dream but rather your own!

What is your potenial?
More than you’ll ever know

Will you ever fulfill it?

If your not worried about going to far then yes you will! “The only people who realise their potenial are those who risk going all the way”

Can anyone do anything?

Yes, the people who don’t just have nobody to tell them they can or give them the push they needed or they would rather write it off as impossible rather than putting themself out on a limb!

Or were they never able or had the potenial themselves to begin with?

Potenial has no limits!

Is wanting success selfish?

I think if you keep things in perspective and don’t let the success take over your life and most of all don’t think your better than anyone!!!! You just have different talents and dreams.

Are we all selfish?

I do believe we are all selfish , in that everything we do or say positive for someone else is a way of feeling good about ourselves….. What? Well when do we feel the best about ourselves? How about after giving someone a present or donating money to a charity…. so by saying that is being selfish a bad thing? At times, not at all!

How to find true happiness?

I believe balance is number 1 and I believe in our lives we will find our greatest happiness using the gifts that god gave us and making the most of them.

Are their rules in being in LOVE?

just being true to yourself always

How do other people do this? By studying your body language.The term body language refers to the messages you send out with your body gestures and facial expressions.

Some body language experts claim that only about 7% of our messages to other people are communicated through the words we speak. The rest of our messages are conveyed through our body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions.

During your entire life you have been sending messages to others through your posture, gestures, and facial expressions.

When you were an infant, before you learned to speak, people were peering into your little baby face, looking at your gestures, and listening to your little cries and gurgles, trying to decipher what kind of mood you were in, and what you were trying to say.

And you have been reacting to the body language, voice tone, and facial expressions of the people around you all your life, even though you may not have been consciously aware of it.

What sorts of messages are you conveying to others with your body language? Does your body language encourage other people to approach you? Or do you subconsciously warn them to stay away?

Take a moment to think about how you usually stand or sit when you are with other people. What are you doing with your hands? Where are you looking with your eyes?

Does your face express interest in the people you are with, or does your face stay a tense, stony mask?

When you are sitting or standing, do you usually cross your arms across your chest? If this is your typical way of standing or sitting, how do you think other people interpret this posture? Did you realize that most people will subconsciously interpret your arms crossed in front of your chest as a signal that you don’t want anyone to approach you? Only the bravest souls are likely to come forward when you adopt this posture.

If you stand awkwardly, with your chest slumped forward, your shoulders drooping, and your eyes avoiding everyone else, people are likely to decide you are very depressed or completely lacking in confidence. They may fear that trying to talk with you will be an awkward experience.

When you stand awkwardly, you do not project any sign that you are confident in yourself, or that you have any interest in the people around you. Instead you look like you are trying to disappear.

No matter how desperately you want someone to come over and befriend you, if your body language projects awkwardness or disinterest in others, it’s not very likely that many people will try to start a conversation with you.

If some body language signals can frighten people away, are there signals that will encourage people to come forward and approach you? Yes, you can look much more approachable to others if you adopt body language that is open and non-threatening.

Whether you are sitting or standing, aim for a posture that is upright and alert, yet relaxed. If you notice that your chest or shoulders are slumping, straighten up.

Become aware of the way you are breathing. Does your breath move in and out smoothly? Or does it move with jerky little stops and starts?

If you notice that you are holding your breath, or breathing in a shallow, jerky manner, this is a sign of anxiety. When you breathe shallowly, you have to breathe more often, which can increase your appearance of nervousness. Consciously tell all the muscles of your body to relax. Use your abdomen to help you breathe smoothly and deeply. Let the bottom part of your lungs fill up with air as well as the top.

What are you doing with your hands? If you get nervous in social situations, you may feel that no matter what you do with your hands, it’s the wrong thing. Many people who cross their arms in front of their chest are probably doing so at least in part because they don’t know where else to put their hands.

You should never cross your arms in front of your chest unless you really don’t want anybody to approach you. That is the message this gesture sends out.

If you want to look open and approachable, keep your arms at your sides, or put one hand in your pocket. If you want to hold something in one hand, keep your hand at the side of your body, and not in front of you. Holding your arm in front of your body can be seen as a signal that you want to defend yourself against other people.

Stay aware of and focused on your surroundings and the people around you. If you find yourself tuning out your surroundings, you will start to focus too much on your negative inner sensations and thoughts. This can quickly increase your anxiety to a very uncomfortable level.

What sort of facial expression should you have if you want people to approach you?

In most cases, a gentle, pleasant smile should do the trick. Too much of a smile that never softens can look forced and nervous. A pleasant smile with a twinkle in your eyes will convey to other people the impression that chatting with you will be a pleasant experience.

Warning: Sometimes Ignorance is bliss; after gaining this knowledge, you may be hurt when it is obvious that someone is lying to you.

(more…)

People surveyed about their own happiness and that of others with varying incomes tended to overstate the impact of income on well-being, according to a new study. Although income is widely assumed to be a good measure of well-being, the researchers found that its role is less significant than predicted and that people with higher incomes do not necessarily spend more time in more enjoyable ways.

Two Princeton professors, economist Alan B. Krueger and psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, collaborated with colleagues from three other universities on the study, being published in the June 30 issue of Science. The new findings build on their efforts to develop alternative methods of gauging the well-being of individuals and of society. The new measures are based on people’s ratings of their actual experiences, instead of a judgment of their lives as a whole.

“The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory,” the researchers wrote. “People with above-average income are relatively satisfied with their lives but are barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience, tend to be more tense, and do not spend more time in particularly enjoyable activities.”

The Princeton researchers collaborated with psychologists David Schkade of the University of California-San Diego, Norbert Schwarz of the University of Michigan and Arthur Stone of the State University of New York-Stony Brook.

The researchers have developed a tool to measure people’s quality of daily life known as the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), which creates an “enjoyment scale” by requiring people to record the previous day’s activities in a short diary form and describe their feelings about the experiences. Their 2004 study using this method, which surveyed 909 employed women in Texas, provided evidence that higher income played a relatively small role in people’s daily happiness.

For the new study, the researchers examined data from the 2004 survey to illustrate misperceptions that more money buys more happiness. Their experiment extended previous studies in which people have exhibited a “focusing illusion” when asked about certain factors contributing to their happiness — attributing a greater importance to that factor once it has been brought to mind. For example, when people were asked to describe their general happiness and then asked how many dates they had in the past month, their answers showed little correlation. But when the order of the questions was reversed for another group, the link between their love lives and general happiness became much greater.

To test whether this illusion applied to income, Krueger, Kahneman and their colleagues studied the responses given by the women in the 2004 DRM survey. After they were asked to report the percentage of time they spent in a bad mood the previous day, they were asked to predict how much time people with certain income levels spend in a bad mood.

Survey respondents expected women who earned less than $20,000 a year to spend 32 percent more of their time in a bad mood than they expected people who earned more than $100,000 a year to spend in a bad mood. In actuality, respondents who earned less than $20,000 a year reported spending only 12 percent more of their time in a bad mood than those who earned more than $100,000. So the effect of income on mood was vastly exaggerated.

To provide further evidence on the role that income plays in people’s lives, the researchers conducted an additional DRM survey of 810 women in Ohio in May 2005. In this survey, respondents reported their experiences from moment to moment as well as their annual household income and overall life satisfaction. The new survey found that income was more weakly correlated with individuals’ happiness from moment to moment than it was with their overall life satisfaction.

“If people have high income, they think they should be satisfied and reflect that in their answers,” Krueger said. “Income, however, matters very little for moment-to-moment experience.”

Finally, the researchers examined data from a nationwide Bureau of Labor Statistics survey on how people with varying household income levels spend their time. These data show that people with higher incomes devote relatively more of their time to work, shopping, childcare and other “obligatory” activities. Women surveyed by the researchers in Ohio associated those activities with “higher tension and stress.” People with higher incomes spend less time on “passive leisure” activities such as socializing or watching television, which the respondents viewed as more enjoyable.

According to the government statistics, men making more than $100,000 per year spend 19.9 percent of their time on passive leisure, compared to 34.7 percent for men making less than $20,000. Women making more than $100,000 spend 19.6 percent of their time on passive leisure, compared with 33.5 percent of those making less than $20,000.

“Despite the weak relationship between income and global life satisfaction or experienced happiness, many people are highly motivated to increase their income,” the study said. “In some cases, this focusing illusion may lead to a misallocation of time, from accepting lengthy commutes (which are among the worst moments of the day) to sacrificing time spent socializing (which are among the best moments of the day).”

The researchers noted that the two DRM surveys focused on women because the method was in developmental stages and they wanted to study a homogeneous group. They are in the process of collecting data on men as well as women for a national sample to use in further studies.

###

The recent study was supported by Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs as well as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the National Institute on Aging.

Contact: Chad Boutin
Princeton University

Coating the back of each eye are photoreceptors that catch light and convert it to nerve impulses to send to the brain. This surface, the retina, isn’t evenly spread with receptorsthey’re densest at the center and sparse in peripheral vision. There’s also a patch that is completely devoid of receptors; light that falls here isn’t converted into nerve signals at all, leaving a blind spot in your field of viewor actually two blind spots, one for each eye.In Action

First, here’s how to notice your blind spot (later we’ll draw a map to see how big it is). Close your left eye and look straight at the cross in Figure 2-6. Now hold the book flat about 10 inches from your face and slowly move it towards you. At about 6 inches, the black circle on the right of the cross will disappear, and where it was will just appear grey, the same color as the page around it.

Figure 2-6. A typical blind spot pattern

You may need to move the book back and forth a little. Try to notice when the black circle reappears as you increase the distance, then move the book closer again to hide the circle totally. It’s important you keep your right eye fixed on the cross, as the blind spot is at a fixed position from the center of vision and you need to keep it still to find it.

Now that you’ve found your blind spot, use Jeffrey Oristaglio and Paul Grobstein’s Java applet at the web site Serendip (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/blindspot; Java) to plot its size.

The applet shows a cross and circle, so, as before, close your left eye, fix your gaze on the cross, and move your head so that the circle disappears in your blind spot. Then click the Start button (at the bottom of the applet) and move your cursor around within the blind spot. While it’s in there, you won’t be able to see it, but when you can (only just), click, and a dot will appear. Do this a few times, moving the cursor in different directions starting from the circle each time.

Again, be careful not to move your head, and keep focused on the cross. You’ll end up with a pattern like Figure 2-7. The area inside the ring of dots is your blind spot.

Figure 2-7. Matt’s blind spot mapped

Here’s a fun way of playing with your blind spot. In a room of people, close one eye and focus on your index finger. Pick a victim and adjust where your finger is until your blind spot makes his head disappear and the background takes its place. Not very profitable, but fun, and not as obvious as making as if to crush his head between your thumb and index finger.

How It Works

The blind spot for each eye corresponds to a patch on the retina that is empty of photoreceptors. With no photoreceptors, there’s nothing to detect light and turn it into information for use by the visual system, hence the blind spot.

Each receptor cell is connected to the brain via a series of cells that aggregate the signal before reporting it to the brain by an information-carrying fiber called an axon. Bizarrely, the part of the photoreceptor responsible for detecting light is behind the fibers for carrying the information into the brain. That’s rightthe light-sensitive part is on the side furthest from the light. Not only does this seem like bad design, but also it means that there has to be a gap in surface of the retina where the fibers gather together to exit the eyeball and run to the brainand that exit point is the blind spot.

At first sight, there doesn’t appear to be any particular reason for this structure other than accident. It doesn’t have to be this way. If the light-detecting parts of the cells were toward the light, you wouldn’t need a blind spot; the fibers could exit the eye without interrupting a continuous surface of photoreceptors on the retina.

Can we be sure that this is a bug and not a feature? One bit of evidence is that in the octopus eye it was done differently. The eye evolved independently in octopuses, and when it did, the retinal cells have the photoreceptors in front of the nerve fibers, not behind, and hence no blind spot.

Conversely, there are benefits to the arrangement of the human retina: it allows a good blood supply close to the retina to both nourish the photoreceptors and help metabolize debris that accumulates there. Both orientations of the retina have their advantages.

We don’t normally notice these two great big holes in our field of vision. Not only do our eyes move around so that there’s no one bit of visual space we’re ignoring, but the blind spots from the two eyes don’t overlap, so we can use information from one eye to fill in the missing information from the other.

However, even in situations in which the other eye isn’t providing useful information and when your blind spot is staying in the same place, the brain has evolved mechanisms to fill in the hole.¹ This filling in is why, in the demostration above, you see a continuous grey background rather than a black hole.

1: You are competing in a race on a straight racetrack, and overtake the runner lying in second place. In which position are you now?

Answer: If you answered that you’re now coming first then you’re completely wrong. You overtook the second runner and took their place, therefore you’re coming second.

Next question…

2: If you overtake the last runner, what position are you now in?

Answer: If you answered second-last, once again you’re completely wrong. Think about it…How can you overtake the person coming last? If you’re behind them then they can’t be last. The answer is impossible!!

Anyway, here’s another to try, don’t take any notes or use a calculator, and remember your replies must be instantaneous. Take heart!!

3:
Take 1000. Add 40.
Add another 1000.
Add 30. 1000 again.
Plus 20. Plus 1000.
And plus 10.

What is the total?

Answer: 5000??? Wrong again!!!! The correct answer is 4100. Try again with a good calculator. Today is clearly not your day!! Although you should manage to get the last question right…

4: Marie’s father has five daughters:

1. Chacha
2. Cheche
3. Chichi
4. Chocho
5. ????

Question: What is the fifth daughter’s name? Think quickly. You’ll find the answer below…

Answer: Chuchu??? WRONG! It’s obviously Marie! Read the question properly!

Sarcasm aside, if you’ve answered NONE of these questions correctly, then you’re probably in good company! Tricky questions (answered FAST) are like mental illusions — fooling the brain.

1) metal or metal-tipped spear used in contests of distance throwing

2) inscription on a tomb

3) incombustible, chemical-resistant, material used for fireproofing

4) navigational instrument used for measuring the angular elevation of the sun or a star above the horizon

5) tough, elastic tissue forming part of the skeleton

6) heavy, broad-bladed knife or hatchet used especially by butchers

7) essential living matter of all plant and animal cells

crystalline sugar occurring naturally in fruits, honey, etc.