Illusions and Reality: Recent Comments

Comment on Change Is On The Air

Carrie - PI — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:06:09 GMT

Every idea should be looked at on its merits, but I have a standard that informs me whether ideas are right or wrong. I can't think right now of an ideologically liberal idea that is objectively right. Liberalism today is just full of one bad idea after another.

Do you have any specifics you'd like to discuss?

Comment on Science Falsely So-Called

enter name here — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:44:58 GMT

Wow, you had to go through all of that? Sounds like it was difficult.

Yes, what I meant by “group does nothing” was “group receives no treatment.” That should clarify that point. And the groups would be matched on all other variables like personality, weight, activity level, gender, race, and so forth.

I’ve been told by a doctor that blood pressure is exactly the way some physiological effects of treatments are measured. She said that the numbers are collected over time and compiled into an average. Each average is measured against each subject and then against each group. She told me about some scientific studies done by Wacholtz and Pargament titled “Is spirituality a critical ingredient of meditation? Comparing the effects of spiritual meditation, secular meditation, and relaxation on spiritual, psychological, cardiac, and pain outcomes” and another one by Barnes, et al called “Impact of Meditation on Resting and Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Youth” and another one by Jain et al “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation Versus Relaxation Training: Effects on Distress, Positive States of Mind, Rumination, and Distraction” that all found decreased anxiety, blood pressure, anxiety, heart rate, distress, distraction, and other positive benefits from meditation. They can be found in the peer reviewed magazines Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Vol 28(4), Aug 2005, 369-384, Psychosomatic Medicine. Vol 66(6), Nov-Dec 2004, 909-914, and Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Vol 33(1), Feb 2007, 11-21. My doctor also told me that there is such a thing as non-spiritual form of meditation and gave me her copy of Grossman et al’s article “Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis” found in the magazine Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Vol 57(1), Jul 2004, 35-43.This scientific study looked at non spiritual and non esoteric forms of meditation in a meta analysis (whatever that is) of 60 other studies. Anyhow, they concluded that these kinds of meditations had positive changes in people’s health.

Yeah, it is all so confusing. I think I’m just going to pray instead. I think Time magazine’s cover story this week is about the positive health benefits of prayer. Thanks for all the help.

Comment on Change Is On The Air

me — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:41:13 GMT

" I happen to believe that I'm right to believe that liberal ideas are bad ideas. "

So you just reject them out of hand without looking at the idea itself to see if it has merit. Hmmmm...

Then why, pray tell, should I not do the same thing to your ideas?

Comment on Science Falsely So-Called

Carrie - PI — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:10:56 GMT

I'm not a medical scientist, but I think there wold have to be better criteria for such a study than:

Group does nothing.
Group does breathing exercises and "non-spiritual" meditation.

For instance, do the two groups have the same diet? Are they all pessimists or optimists? Are they serious or comical in their personality? Do they have families that pray for their condition or not?

When you get into these psychological/spiritual areas, I don't see how you can lock the effects down scientifically. I've been told by a doctor that if he took your blood pressure five times a day he would likely get five different results. Some people's blood pressure goes up just by walking into a doctor's office, so that in itself is not a good barometer of a particular treatment's effectiveness.

Let me tell you a story. I've had operations in hospitals in my time. After many of them, I was given a machine similar to this one:

I was to perform 10 to 20 repetitions, making sure all the little balls came to the top of the chamber. Needless to say, right after the operation I couldn't get all of them up there, but eventually I did. There was a medical benefit to these exercises, of course, but I can't remember meditating about anything during them other than, "Do I have to do this?" or "Can I quit now?" But I had a family who prayed for me, and I also knew I had a relationship with the Lord, so the combination of deep breathing exercises and reliance upon the Lord certainly were beneficial.

If you keep your mind stayed on Jesus, I don't care what you're doing otherwise. We're supposed to have Him constantly in our thoughts anyway. You can meditate on the Lord while you're sitting in your car or reclining on your floor doing your deep breathing exercises. Nevertheless, please be aware of the false spirituality that is pushed along with Eastern mystical practices -- yoga, transcendental meditation, tai chi, rose quartz or whatever else -- and stay as far away from that as you can. I don't want you to be confused about true spirituality by messing around with the counterfeit.

That's all. I appreciate your comments.

Comment on Science Falsely So-Called

enter name here — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:23:49 GMT

Thanks, Carrie. I see what you're saying. Though, isn't it actually easy to quantify the positive health benefits of meditation by conducting a scientific study by measuring observable phenomena? For example, two groups of men with diagnosable hypertension enter the study, 100 men in each group. One group does nothing, the other does 10 weeks of non-spiritual/breathing-exercises-only meditation two times a week for 20 minutes a day. Can't we quantify the results at the end of the study by measuring blood pressure of the men and comparing the results against the other group that did nothing? Doesn't this satisfy the quantification of results in a non-subjective way?

I think the same can be done with yoga and all of these can be administered without the Eastern spirituality component.

You're not suggesting that sitting by myself in a quiet room and counting my breaths from 1 to 10 is false spirituality, are you? I mean, especially if I'm thinking and being mindful of the love and compassion of Jesus all the while? Therapeutic meditation doesn't try and push any Hinduism or any other kind of spirituality on patients. It simply tried to teach people how to breathe better and get more oxygen into their blood system. Many people who suffer stress, hypertension, or insomnia suffer from breathing disorders. Therapeutic and non-spiritual meditation helps correct these kinds of breathing difficulties.

Thanks again. Interesting subject you write about.

Comment on Science Falsely So-Called

Carrie - PI — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 04:12:18 GMT

Meditation can produce some psychological and even physical benefits, but it's incredibly subjective. You can meditate about anything or nothing, but there's no scientific way to quantify the effects.

Likewise with yoga exercises. Breathing and assuming the different positions may help the body to heal from one thing or another. Again, it's hard to quantify such things scientifically.

The real danger with yoga (and meditation as it is linked with yoga) is that it is a false spirituality. The practice of yoga involves meditation on "the Absolute," but there's no definition as to what that is. It could be God, but it could be nature, or any of the idols used in the Hinduism from which yoga came.

Eastern medicine is concerned with an internal energy that the Chinese call "Qi" (pronounced "chee", sometimes spelled "Chi"). We Americans might describe this as bio-electric energy, but you can't look at it under a microscope. You can't detect it with any scientific instruments; you can't isolate it. I call that junk science by definition.

All this stuff, from therapeutic touch to the Q-Ray bracelet to the "product" that I began with -- all of it is connected with false spirituality, besides being plain nonsense.

Comment on Change Is On The Air

Carrie - PI — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:55:48 GMT

It doesn't force hospitals to perform abortions, but the Freedom of Choice Act would eliminate conscience clauses that allow faith-based organizations to object to performing abortions and other procedures that conflict with the values of that organization. Out of the nearly 4,900 community hospitals in the United States, the legislation could result in the closure of the 624 Catholic hospitals that would close their doors rather than perform abortions at their facilities.

Such an action would reduce health care for many people out of pressure to do a morally evil thing. If someone is determined to kill their child they can find someone to do that. Just don't eliminate the right of people and organizations to have a conscience about this issue.

Comment on Science Falsely So-Called

enter name here — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:07:54 GMT

You're right that the advertised item is a bunch of nonsense. But, hasn't science validated some of the benefits of Eastern practices on health, like the physical and mental health benefits of meditation? Or yoga?

Comment on Change Is On The Air

enter name here — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 02:03:47 GMT

Carrie, I see what you're saying. Why don't hospitals who don't want to perform abortions simply not offer it as a service? Seems like that would be a choice decision to make. The bill you write about here doesn't force hospitals to perform abortions. Does it?

Comment on Change Is On The Air

Carrie - PI — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:48:15 GMT

The Freedom of Choice Act has a hypocritical name in the first place. It overthrows all state and federal regulations on abortion such as parental notification, waiting periods, informed consent, and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The bill will make abortions easier to get by nullifying many important laws already on the books. It should be called the Pro-Abortion "Kill All You Want" Act.

Carrie