Harley Street practice hails Derby firm as business expands - The Business Desk

The owner of a hypnotherapy practice in London’s Harley Street says the business is growing at a faster rate, thanks to Oberoi Business Hub in Derby.

Malminder Gill said call answering and administrative services provided by the hub – launched by Derby entrepreneur Kavita Oberoi OBE – have enabled her to focus on expanding the practice’s client base.

Ms Gill, who offers a range of hypnotherapy treatments, had used another call answering company but decided to switch to Oberoi Business Hub, based in Pride Park, as she said it offered a more comprehensive personalised package.

She said: “I switched because my last call answering provider just took messages and answered basic questions. That was fine at the time, but as my business was growing, I needed a little bit more support.

“Kavita’s team not only answer the call, they answer some of the more detailed questions that clients have, manage the whole booking process and cancellations and all sorts of other administrative tasks as and when I need them. It’s just like having a personal assistant but it’s a fraction of the cost of employing a full-time receptionist.

“I’m really pleased with the service they’ve provided so far. In that past, I feel I may have missed out on potential customers or annoyed them because I was in session and couldn’t call them back quickly.

“There’s definitely been an uplift in customer numbers since Kavita’s team began working with me.”

Kavita Oberoi launched Oberoi Business Hub, in St Christopher’s Way, four years ago to provide space and back office support for start-up and growing businesses.

The entrepreneur said: “I started off mentoring Malminder and, as part of the sessions, we looked at all the tasks she was undertaking herself.

“Answering the phone was one of the areas that we reviewed. When a client books in for a hypnotherapy session with Malminder, there’s a number of things that need to happen. The appointment needs to go into the practice diary management system, which then issues a text and confirmation email. It then needs to go into her own personal diary. And also there’s a third diary for room bookings at the clinic.

“Malminder was doing so much of this work herself, I said to her ‘I can’t believe you’re doing all this administration work – it must be taking you so much time and taking you away from focusing on growing the business’.

“So in July we started providing a much needed service for Malminder. We screen any marketing and sales calls, provide call answering six days a week. If someone wants to talk to Malminder, we are able to check first that she’s available and not with a patient. If she’s free, we transfer those calls live. It’s as if we are based in with her in Harley Street”

“We also do all her virtual PA work – so we book and cancel her appointments and update her patient records. There’s an online booking system as well that we now manage when alerts come through.

“It’s a classic example of ‘you don’t know until you know’. Before we came on board, Malminder had always seen what she was doing as the norm.

“It’s so rewarding to know it’s made a huge difference to her – it’s freed up a lot of her time so she can focus on other key aspects of the business and her writing, as she is in the middle of writing her second book. Malminder’s clinic is another great example of the vision of had for the hub when I started it. Our clients’ success is our success.”

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Medical Marijuana for Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety & Mental Illness: Can It Help?

The usefulness of medical marijuana for the treatment of mental illness and disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia is an open question today. There have been only a few really good studies on this issue, and their findings are decidedly mixed.

So let’s dive into the question and see if medical marijuana can help the symptoms of mental illness, or is it more likely to cause harm?

The reason this is a very complex issue is because, unlike medical marijuana for chronic, debilitating pain, there’s a lot of additional factors that must be taken into account when studying mental illness and a psychoactive substance like marijuana. We’re just going to examine marijuana for the use of depression, anxiety, and bipolar symptoms in this article, because those are the populations that have had the greatest number of research studies done.

Marijuana for Depression & Anxiety

Here’s what one recent study found when combing the recent research literature to better understand it:

Results from studies that have focused on recreational users and/or young adults are quite variable; some show a negative association between marijuana use and anxiety/depression (e.g., Denson & Earleywine, 2006; Sethi et al., 1986; Stewart, Karp, Pihl, & Peterson, 1997), others a positive association (e.g., Bonn-Miller, Zvolensky, Leen-Feldner, Feldner, & Yartz, 2005; Hayatbakhsh et al., 2007; Scholes-Balog, Hemphill, Patton, & Toumbourou, 2013), and still others no association (e.g., Green & Ritter, 2000; Musty & Kaback, 1995). Such a diverse pattern of results suggests that other factors may also interact with marijuana use to affect anxiety and depression. (Grunberg et al., 2015).

That’s a fair amount of research — but none of it really conclusive, and much of it contradictory.

That is characteristic of this area of research — complicated, with results often at odds with other research.

These researchers examined 375 University of Colorado students over a 3-year period to track their marijuana use, as well as depression and anxiety symptoms. They also understood that the complexity of human behavior requires a more nuanced approached to an analysis of marijuana use. “The temperament dimension of harm avoidance (HA) is particularly relevant for understanding anxiety and depression as it is characterized by heightened apprehension, shyness, pessimism, and inhibition of behaviors. Given these biases, it is not surprising that HA is positively associated with both anxiety and depression.” So the researchers ensured they also measured temperament.¹

It is also important to consider that the simple relations we observed between marijuana use and depression symptoms differed from those obtained in the more complex models. That is, when only marijuana use was considered, results suggest a positive association between marijuana use and depression. […] [Ed. – This means that greater marijuana use was correlated with greater depressive symptoms.]

However, in the regression models that prospectively predict anxiety/depression and also include [multiple personality factors and temperament] interactions, and baseline anxiety or depression, marijuana use was not an independent predictor of depression symptoms. Moreover, in the models involving [novelty seeking], marijuana use negatively predicted depression symptoms (and anxiety).

These differing patterns of results first demonstrate the importance of measuring the effects of marijuana within the context of other factors known to affect anxiety and depression, as well as prior symptoms of anxiety and depression. The results might also indicate a complex causal relation between marijuana use and depression in which initial symptoms of depression facilitate marijuana use, which subsequently decreases depression (Grunberg et al., 2015).

As you can see, if you simply measure marijuana use and depressive or anxiety symptoms, you might walk away from your study believing that the two share some sort of causal relationship. But as Grunberg et al. found, when you dive deeper into patient histories and personality factors — especially temperament — that relationship goes away. And, in fact, marijuana use might actually help improve depressive symptoms.

What Happens When You Don’t Take the Complexity of These Disorders into Account?

One such study that didn’t look into personality factors or temperament was conducted more recently by Bahorik et al. (2017). As they note, “Marijuana is frequently used by those with depression, yet whether its use contributes to significant barriers to recovery in this population has been understudied.” That’s very true.

So the researchers examined the marijuana use and depression and anxiety symptoms of 307 psychiatry outpatients with depression; assessed at baseline, 3-, and 6-months on symptom (PHQ-9 and GAD-7), functioning (SF-12) and past-month marijuana use for a substance use intervention trial.

What they found was that a considerable number of patients used marijuana within 30-days of baseline — just slightly over 40%. What else did they find? “Depression symptoms contributed to increased marijuana use over the follow-up, and those aged 50+ increased their marijuana use compared to the youngest age group. Marijuana use worsened depression and anxiety symptoms; marijuana use led to poorer mental health functioning.” In addition, they found — surprisingly — that medical marijuana was associated with poorer physical health functioning.²

The researchers concluded that, “marijuana use is common and associated with poor recovery among psychiatry outpatients with depression. Assessing for marijuana use and considering its use in light of its impact on depression recovery may help improve outcomes (Bahorik et al., 2017).”

What about Marijuana for Bipolar Disorder?

Another study looked at the benefits and drawbacks of marijuana for bipolar disorder, because it is the most widely used illicit substance by people with this disorder. Does it help (or hurt) not only symptoms associated with bipolar I disorder, but also cognitive functioning?

The study consisted of 74 adults: 12 with bipolar disorder who smoke marijuana (MJBP), 18 bipolar patients who do not smoke (BP), 23 marijuana smokers without other Axis 1 pathology (MJ), and 21 healthy controls (HC), all of whom completed a neuropsychological battery. Participants also rated their mood 3 times daily, as well as after each instance of marijuana use over a 4 week period.

The researchers found that although the three groups each exhibited some degree of cognitive impairment relative to healthy controls, no significant differences between the two bipolar disorder-diagnosed groups were apparent, providing no evidence of an additive negative impact of bipolar disorder and marijuana use on one’s thinking abilities.

Additionally, the mood ratings indicated alleviation of mood symptoms in the MJBP group after marijuana use; MJBP participants experienced a substantial decrease in a composite measure of mood symptoms. As the researchers note, “Findings suggest that for some bipolar patients, marijuana may result in partial alleviation of clinical symptoms. Moreover, this improvement is not at the expense of additional cognitive impairment” (Sagar et al., 2016).

This research actually helps support previous research conducted by Gruber et al. in 2012. In their study of 43 adults, they found “Significant mood improvement was observed in the MJBP group on a range of clinical scales after smoking MJ […] Notably, total mood disturbance, a composite of the Profile of Mood States, was significantly reduced in the MJBP group” (Gruber et al., 2012).

They concluded:

Further, while the MJBP group reported generally worse mood ratings than the bipolar group prior to smoking marijuana, they demonstrated improvement on several scales post-marijuana use as compared to bipolar, non-marijuana participants. These data provide empirical support for anecdotal reports that marijuana acts to alleviate mood-related symptoms in at least a subset of bipolar patients and underscore the importance of examining marijuana use in this population. (Gruber et al., 2012).

So Does Marijuana Help with Depression, Anxiety, & Bipolar Disorder?

The data is decidedly mixed, and it’s not at all clear whether marijuana would help someone with a mental health condition or not. I suspect that, in the end, it would come down to an individual’s unique reaction, similar to how each individual reacts differently to different psychiatric medications. Well-done research studies seem to indicate that marijuana would help certain people, while it may not help others. But how to determine which group you fall into remains an exercise for future research.

It may be a few more years before we have a more concrete understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of medical marijuana for mental disorders. Until then, you could try it if you feel comfortable doing so, but as always, you should consult your medical or mental health professional before trying any treatment.

 

References

Bahorik, Amber L.; Leibowitz, Amy; Sterling, Stacy A.; Travis, Adam; Weisner, Constance; Satre, Derek D. (2017). Patterns of marijuana use among psychiatry patients with depression and its impact on recovery. Journal of Affective Disorders, 213, 168-171.

Grunberg, Victoria A.; Cordova, Kismet A.; Bidwell, L. Cinnamon; Ito, Tiffany A. (2015). Can marijuana make it better? Prospective effects of marijuana and temperament on risk for anxiety and depression. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 29, Special Section: Marijuana Legalization: Emerging Research on Use, Health, and Treatment. 590-602.

Gruber, Staci A.; Sagar, Kelly A.; Dahlgren, Mary K.; Olson, David P.; Centorrino, Franca; Lukas, Scott E. (2012). Marijuana impacts mood in bipolar disorder: A pilot study. Mental Health and Substance Use, 5, 228-239.

Sagar, Kelly A.; Dahlgren, M. Kathryn; Racine, Megan T.; Dreman, Meredith W.; Olson, David P.; Gruber, Staci A. (2016). Joint effects: A pilot investigation of the impact of bipolar disorder and marijuana use on cognitive function and mood. PLoS ONE, 11.

Wilson, Natascha; Cadet, Jean Lud. (2009). Comorbid mood, psychosis, and marijuana abuse disorders: A theoretical review. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 28, 309-319.

Footnotes:

1. Notice, too, that the researchers are looking at recreational marijuana use and not medically-prescribed marijuana use. That’s because whether you get your marijuana from a prescription pad or from a local, informal source, marijuana is largely the same. It is equally as powerful and going to have very similar effects when taken regularly. And because marijuana isn’t recognized by most practitioners as a legitimate treatment for depression symptoms, it’s hard to do research on it.
2. It could be that those in poorer physical health need medical marijuana to help alleviate a chronic pain or other health condition.

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When a Past Life Comes Back to Haunt You – Regression V. 1 - Comics Beat

Celebrated horror writer Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, The Damned), artist Danny Luckert (Haunted), and colorist Marie Enger (Pistolwhip, 2 Sisters) will release REGRESSION, VOL. 1: WAY DOWN DEEP this November from Image Comics. This trade paperback will collect issues #1-5 of the mind-bending horror series.

Plagued by ghastly waking nightmares, Adrian reluctantly agrees to past-life regression hypnotherapy. As his consciousness is cast back through time, Adrian witnesses a scene of horrific debauchery and diabolism. Waking, he is more unsettled than before, and with good reason—something has followed him back. Adrian descends into a world of occult conspiracy, mystery, reincarnation, and insanity from which there is no escape.

“My father was a professional hypnotist,” said Bunn. “While his on-stage performances centered around humor, he conducted past life regressions for select groups. I witnessed several of these regressions, and each one was surreal and eerie in its own way. Subjects described different times and places in vivid detail. They spoke with unusual accents. They spoke languages they had never (to our knowledge) studied. The most bizarre occurrences were the regressions which resulted in a completely silent subject.

“To me, it seemed that either they were a genuine ‘new soul,’ or whatever they saw in their past was too horrific to so much as utter,” continued Bunn. “This story is designed to conjure that same sense of unease and horror.”

REGRESSION, VOL. 1: WAY DOWN DEEP (Diamond code: MAR178446, ISBN: 978-1-5343-0337-9) hits comic book stores Wednesday, November 15th. The final order cutoff deadline for comics retailers is Monday, October 9th.

Select praise for REGRESSION:

“Bunn, Luckert and Enger have created a real page-turner: frightening, engrossing, and clever. A must-read for horror fans.” —Steve Niles (30 Days of Night)

“REGRESSION is creepy, disgusting, and awesome. Just like Cullen.” —Jeff Lemire (ROYAL CITY, A.D.: AFTER DEATH, DESCENDER)

“This may well be the best new horror series out there.” —Nerdist

“REGRESSION will get under your skin. It will shake you to your core. This is a damn scary comic.” —Horror Talk

“The team on this book is perfect, and this is consistently one of the best horror comics on the rack.” —Comicosity

“REGRESSION is certainly for older, more seasoned horror fans who appreciate the ‘body horror’ of Cronenberg’s films and comics such as Alan Moore’s Providence which challenge, horrify, disgust, and entice the reader all at once. Because of this combination, it is one of the best horror comics to debut in years.” —Horror News Network

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To Read Someone's Mind, Look into Their Eyes

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Cumin: Six health benefits

Cumin is a spice that comes from the Cuminum cyminum plant. It is native to Asia, Africa, and Europe, but it is widely used in cooking throughout the world. It is the second most popular spice after black pepper.

Cumin is usually purchased in the form of whole dried seeds or as ground powder. It is a typical ingredient in many spice blends, such as curry powder. Cumin is a staple spice in many cuisines, especially Mexican, Indian, African, and Asian.

Aside from cooking, cumin has also been used medicinally in many parts of the world for some years.

In some Southeast Asian countries, it is used to help with digestion, coughs, pain, and liver health. In Iran, people use cumin to treat seizures, while people in Tunisia use it to help fight infections and lower blood pressure.

Interest in cumin has been growing as newer research supports some of its acclaimed health benefits. Read on to learn more about the potential health benefits and risks associated with cumin, as well as how to add cumin to your diet.

Six possible health benefits

1. Weight loss

Recent studies indicate cumin may be effective in lowering cholesterol and in weight loss.

Cumin may be helpful for people trying to lose weight. A study involving overweight adults compared the effects of cumin with a weight-loss medication and a placebo on weight.

After 8 weeks, the researchers found that the cumin and weight-loss medication groups both lost significant amounts of weight. People in the cumin group also experienced a decrease in their insulin levels.

Another study found that overweight and obese women who consumed 3 grams (g) of cumin powder in yogurt daily for 3 months had significant decreases in body weight, waist size, and body fat.

2. Cholesterol

The previously mentioned study in overweight and obese women also found that consuming 3 g of cumin powder per day resulted in lower total cholesterol, LDL or "bad" cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.

The women who consumed the cumin powder also had higher HDL or "good" cholesterol levels.

3. Diabetes

A study in adults with type 2 diabetes looked at the effects of cumin essential oil on blood sugar. Study participants received either 100 milligrams (mg) of cumin oil per day, 50 mg of cumin oil per day, or a placebo.

After 8 weeks, both cumin-oil groups had significantly lower blood sugar, insulin, and hemoglobin A1c levels.

The cumin-oil groups also saw improvements in the signs of insulin resistance and inflammation. Other studies in humans have shown mixed results with cumin and blood sugar levels.

4. Irritable bowel syndrome

A small pilot study looked at the effect of consuming cumin essential-oil drops on symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

After 4 weeks, study participants noted improvements in many symptoms, such as stomach pain and bloating.

At the end of the study, those with IBS who had mainly experienced constipation as a symptom had more frequent bowel movements. Those who had mainly experienced diarrhea as a symptom had fewer bowel movements.

5. Stress

Cumin may play a role in helping the body handle stress. A study in rats looked at the effect of cumin extract on signs of stress.

When the animals received cumin extract before a stressful activity, their bodies had significantly less of a stress response than when they did not receive the treatment.

Cumin may help fight the effects of stress by working as an antioxidant. The same researchers found that cumin was a more effective antioxidant than vitamin C in the rats they studied.

6. Memory loss

The same study in rats also looked at the impact of cumin extract on memory. The study found that the animals that had received cumin extract had better and faster recall.

Nutrition facts

According to the United States Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database, 1 teaspoon of whole cumin seeds contains:

• 8 kilocalories
• 0.37 g of protein
• 0.47 g of fat
• 0.93 g of carbohydrate

The same amount of cumin seeds also provides 20 mg of calcium, 1.39 mg of iron, and 8 mg of magnesium.

Additionally, cumin contains antioxidants, which may be responsible for some of its associated health benefits.

Possible risks and side effects

Further research is required before cumin can be recommended as a supplement.

Consuming foods that are cooked with cumin is likely safe for most people. Some people may have an allergy to cumin, in which case they should avoid it.

More research is needed before supplemental doses of cumin are recommended. In one study, some people experienced nausea, dizziness, and stomach pain after consuming cumin extract.

As with all supplements, people should tell their healthcare provider what they are taking. Many supplements may impact how certain prescription medications work. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) do not monitor supplements for quality or purity. Do your research on different brands.

Research in rats found that products from cumin seeds interacted with a medication and increased blood levels of an antibiotic used to treat TB.

People with diabetes, especially those who take medication for diabetes, should use cumin with caution since it may change their blood sugar levels.

Ways to incorporate cumin into your diet

Cumin is a common ingredient in many savory ethnic dishes. It adds a warm flavor and works especially well in soups, stews, and curries.

This spice can also be used to season vegetables or meats before roasting.

See below for links to tasty recipes that contain cumin:

Outlook

Cumin may have the potential for use in addressing a variety of health conditions.

Research has shown that cumin may boost the immune system and help fight certain types of bacterial and fungal infections. Animal studies have also suggested cumin may help prevent some types of cancer.

More research is needed, especially in humans, but cumin seems to have promise in the medical world. The best supplement form and dose is currently unknown.

For now, cumin is likely best enjoyed in food instead of as a supplement.

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The Psychology of Taking a Knee

What does it mean to kneel? What emotions and beliefs does this action communicate? Does your culture or group membership affect how you see gestures like kneeling?

Those are some of the scientific questions raised when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided last year to kneel, instead of stand, for “The Star-Spangled Banner” before a preseason game. Teammate Eric Reid joined him. Their cause? Police violence against unarmed black people.

His knee unleashed a movement—and triggered a chain of events that culminated last week in the president of the United States calling a player who kneels a “son of a bitch.” Over the following days, dozens of NFL players—including entire teams—“took the knee” before their games. In response, crowds booed.

To some, Kaepernick and the players who kneel with him are “unpatriotic,” “ungrateful,” “disrespectful,” “degenerate,” to quote just a few of the descriptions hurled their way. To others, Kaepernick’s act—for which he may have paid dearly, as he is now unsigned—makes him a hero.

What’s going on?

At first glance, research into emotion and nonverbal communication suggests that there is nothing threatening about kneeling. Instead, kneeling is almost always deployed as a sign of deference and respect. We once kneeled before kings and queens and altars; we kneel to ask someone to marry, or at least men did in the old days. We kneel to get down to a child's level; we kneel to beg.

While we can’t know for sure, kneeling probably derives from a core principle in mammalian nonverbal behavior: make the body smaller and look up to show respect, esteem, and deference. This is seen, for example, in dogs and chimps, who reduce their height to show submissiveness. Kneeling can also be a posture of mourning and sadness. It makes the one who kneels more vulnerable. In some situations, kneeling can be seen as a request for protection—which is completely appropriate in Kaepernick’s case, given the motive of his protest.

As sports protests go, taking the knee might not seem nearly as subversive or dangerous as thrusting a black-power fist into the air, as Tommie Smith and John Carlos did during their medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Researchers David Matsumoto and Jess Tracy show that even blind athletes from over 20 countries thrust their arms in the air in triumph after winning, which reveals the deep-seated urge to signal power with that body-expanding gesture. You can also find power in the fist. In the Darwinian sense, the fist is the antithesis of the affiliative, open hand, but when we combine a raised arm with a fist it becomes something more communicative—a rallying cry. It’s a gesture that seeks to bring one group together while warning another away.

None of that should be too surprising. But there is an important point of similarity in the raised black-power fist—which makes bodies bigger—and the bended knee, which makes us smaller. Both Carlos and Smith bowed their heads in Mexico City, in a sign of respect and humility that accompanies their social signal of strength and triumph. That mix of messages makes the black-power salute one of the most famous, complex, effective nonverbal protests in our lifetimes—one that we can see echoed on today’s football field.

Which returns us to the kneel. Kneeling is a sign of reverence, submissiveness, deference—and sometimes mourning and vulnerability. But with a single, graceful act, Kaepernick invested it with a double meaning. He didn’t turn his back as the anthem was played, which would have been a true sign of disrespect. Nor did he rely on the now-conventionalized black-power fist.

Rather, he transformed a collective ritual—the playing of the national anthem—into something somber, a reminder of how far we still have to go to realize the high ideal of equal protection under the law that the flag represents. The athletes who followed him are showing reverence for the song and the flag, but they are simultaneously deviating from cultural norms at the moment their knees hit the grass. 

By transforming this ritual, the players woke us up. Our amygdalae activate as soon as our brains spot deviations from routine, social norms, and in-group tendencies. We want to know what’s happening and why. We need to know if the deviation poses a threat to us or our group. This may start to explain why so many Americans reacted with such fear and rage to a few athletes kneeling on the field in the midst of a national ritual.

But there’s a lot more to it than that.

“Group membership affects interpretation of body language because groups develop norms and expectations around behavior, language, and life,” says our UC Berkeley colleague Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, an expert on intergroup communication. “Breaking these norms is used intentionally to signal disagreement with the norms, as well as to signal that one is not conforming. It sparks strong emotion and backlash precisely because of its symbolic meaning— a threat to the status quo.”

It matters that most of the athletes are black and much of the audience is white, that the ancestors of one group were brought here as slaves and the ancestors of the other were their owners. That’s why, when Pittsburgh Steelers stayed in the locker room as the anthem played, one Pennsylvania fire chief called their coach a “no good n*****” on Facebook, amplifying the racial themes of the debate. That’s why Michigan’s police director called them “degenerates.”

When you mix power differences with intergroup dynamics, more factors come into play. Our lab has found that high-power people (say, the president or members of the numerical majority) are more likely to misinterpret nonverbal behavior. The experience of having power makes us less accurate in reading suffering on the faces of strangers and emotions in static photos of facial expressions. Powerful people are less able to take the perspective of others; they’re quicker to confuse friendliness with flirtatiousness. This is the empathy deficit of people in power, one found in many kinds of studies.

Thus, we should not be surprised that some white people misread the meaning of “taking the knee” and fail to see the respect, concern, and even vulnerability inherent in kneeling. But why would they take the misperception further, to actually see it as an act of aggression against America?

There is some evidence from Princeton’s Susan Fiske and Penn State’s Theresa Vescio that high-power people, in not attending carefully to others, are more likely to stereotype others, and more likely to miss individual nuances in behavior. This means that some white-majority football fans may be falling victim to the stereotype of African Americans—particularly large, well-muscled, pro football players—as violent and aggressive. In fact, as we've discussed, kneeling is actually the opposite of an aggressive signal.

What’s the way forward from here? One of us (Dacher Keltner) has co-authored a paper with colleague Daniel Cordaro that examines the expression of 20 emotions across five cultures. We found that that while most outward emotional expressions are shared or partially shared, a quarter are not. It’s in that non-shared space that intercultural conflict flares up—but that conflict can sometimes lead to cross-pollination, as people come to comprehend each other and synchronize their gestures.

Will Americans one day look back on Kaepernick’s symbolic act as a moment when we started to understand each other just a little bit better? When many kinds of people were galvanized to work concretely on the problems of police brutality and racial bias in the criminal justice system, instead of discounting the concerns of African Americans?

Perhaps. Such a time seems very distant from where we are right now, as our society’s leaders foster racial antagonism and people cannot seem to recognize the emotion and belief behind even the gentlest of gestures. Changes happens, but it doesn’t happen all by itself. Sometimes, you need to kneel to conquer.

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To Read Someone's Mind, Look into Their Eyes

It is often easier to access someone else’s heart than their mind. We can nearly effortlessly pick up on our partner’s mood or sense that a friend dismisses our plans, without them even speaking a word. But how do we know what is going on in their heads? How do we get this special access to the most private of domains—the human mind?

A growing body of research reveals that looking at their eyes may be a neglected and powerful way to do so. The phrases “the eyes are the window to the soul” and “I can see it in your eyes” certainly sound poetic. Many singers, songwriters and writers have capitalized on it. But it turns out that the eyes really might be the windows to the soul. And here’s the great thing about eyes: even if people don’t want you to know how they feel, they can’t change how their eyes behave. So how does this work?

The first thing to look for is changes in pupil size. A famous study published in 1960 suggests that how wide or narrow pupils are reflects how information is processed, and how relevant it is. In their experiment, the two experimental psychologists Hess and Polt of the University of Chicago asked male and female participants to look at semi-nude pictures of both sexes. Female participants’ pupil sizes increased in response to viewing men, and male participants’ pupils increased in response to viewing women.

In subsequent studies, Hess and Polt find that homosexual participants looking at semi-nude pictures of men (but not women) also had larger pupils. This should come to no surprise: after all, pupils can also reflect how aroused we are. But women’s pupils also responded to pictures of mothers holding babies. Hence, changes in pupil size don’t only reflect how aroused we are, but also how relevant and interesting what we see is.

This idea was extended in a 1966 study led by Daniel Kahneman, now a Nobel-prize winning psychologist at Princeton University. He asked participants to remember several three to seven digit numbers, which participants had to report back after two seconds. As participants had to remember longer strings of digits, their pupil size increased, suggesting that pupil size is related to information processing more generally. The first step to know what someone is thinking is to look deeply into their eyes.

In addition to crude information processing, our eyes also convey much more sensitive signals which other people can pick up on. Consider a recent study led by David Lee of the University of Colorado at Boulder who showed participants images of other people’s eyes, and asked them to determine what emotions that person was expressing. It turns out that participants were highly accurate in determining emotions, such as fear and anger, just from looking at images of other people’s eyes.

The eyes can also reveal much more complex phenomena: they can convey whether we are lying or telling the truth. In a 2009 study conducted by Andrea Webb and her colleagues at the University of Utah, one group of participants was asked to steal $20 from a secretary’s purse, whereas a control group did not steal anything. Irrespective of whether participants had stolen the $20, the experimenters asked all participants to deny the theft. Later, by analyzing pupil dilation in response to denying the theft, the researchers were able to tell—better than chance—whether a participant was a thief. Participants who lied about the theft had pupils that were one millimeter larger compared to the pupils of innocent participants.

Our eyes can also serve as a good detector for what people like. To accomplish this, it is necessary to look at pupil size in combination with where someone is looking. Think back to a recent restaurant visit where you had to decide what to eat. These decisions can be simple, for example, if you know straight away what you want. But at other times, such decisions can denote difficult trade-offs, for example when choosing between what you should eat (a salad) and what you want to eat (a burger). Here’s the interesting thing: when the decision is difficult, your eyes are likely to switch back and forth between the different options you are considering, and our last gaze tends to be at the option we end up choosing. And so, by observing where someone is looking, we can infer which options they consider.

One way to study this type of difficult trade-offs is offering monetary bets to participants, such as a 20% chance to win $100 versus a 50% chance to win $40. In a study lead by James Cavanagh of Brown University, participants were asked several questions involving such difficult tradeoffs between payoffs and probabilities. Participants were paid according to their decisions—you can imagine that they thought really hard about which options to choose! The researchers found that the harder the decision—that is, the more difficult the trade-off was between the different choices—the more participants’ pupils were dilated. Our pupils get bigger as choices get harder.

The eyes can also tell us if we experience something unpleasant. In a 1999 study, Chapman and colleagues at the University of Washington administered a painful stimulation to the fingers of 20 participants. Participants rated this pain on a scale from “tolerable” to “intolerable.” The more intolerable the stimulation was rated, the larger participant’s pupils were. Although experiencing pain is very different from looking at semi-nude pictures, it elicits a similar pupil response. Taken together, this suggests that pupil size reflects the strength of feelings, rather than whether those feelings are positive or negative. Therefore, to deduce whether someone is feeling good or bad, we need to consider the context of the situation in addition to their eyes.

Does this mean that we can read everything from the eyes, and that the eyes are the only signal we should attend to? When making a high-stakes decision—such as whether someone was guilty of a crime—we should not rely on pupil dilation alone to make our judgment. It is without a doubt that our “mind-reading capabilities” depend on the context. Generally, you might be better at reading your beloved ones’ eyes compared to a strangers’ because you can tell their regular facial expressions from a surprised one. Converging evidence is the key to help us make better assessments of others’ feelings. But because people can’t change how their pupils react, the eyes are an essential and often under-used source of information that can help us create better bonds with those around us.

It might not be possible to read a person’s exact thoughts from just looking at their eyes. This is great—because from the perspective of the observed, the privacy of thoughts is maintained. But eyes tell us much more than we sometimes assume—and our eyes, unlike our mouths, cannot lie.It is often easier to access someone else’s heart than their mind. We can nearly effortlessly pick up on our partner’s mood or sense that a friend dismisses our plans, without them even speaking a word. But how do we know what is going on in their heads? How do we get this special access to the most private of domains—the human mind?

A growing body of research reveals that looking at their eyes may be a neglected and powerful way to do so. The phrases “the eyes are the window to the soul” and “I can see it in your eyes” certainly sound poetic. Many singers, songwriters and writers have capitalized on it. But it turns out that the eyes really might be the windows to the soul. And here’s the great thing about eyes: even if people don’t want you to know how they feel, they can’t change how their eyes behave. So how does this work?

The first thing to look for is changes in pupil size. A famous study published in 1960 suggests that how wide or narrow pupils are reflects how information is processed, and how relevant it is. In their experiment, the two experimental psychologists Hess and Polt of the University of Chicago asked male and female participants to look at semi-nude pictures of both sexes. Female participants’ pupil sizes increased in response to viewing men, and male participants’ pupils increased in response to viewing women.

In subsequent studies, Hess and Polt find that homosexual participants looking at semi-nude pictures of men (but not women) also had larger pupils. This should come to no surprise: after all, pupils can also reflect how aroused we are. But women’s pupils also responded to pictures of mothers holding babies. Hence, changes in pupil size don’t only reflect how aroused we are, but also how relevant and interesting what we see is.

This idea was extended in a 1966 study led by Daniel Kahneman, now a Nobel-prize winning psychologist at Princeton University. He asked participants to remember several three to seven digit numbers, which participants had to report back after two seconds. As participants had to remember longer strings of digits, their pupil size increased, suggesting that pupil size is related to information processing more generally. The first step to know what someone is thinking is to look deeply into their eyes.

In addition to crude information processing, our eyes also convey much more sensitive signals which other people can pick up on. Consider a recent study led by David Lee of the University of Colorado at Boulder who showed participants images of other people’s eyes, and asked them to determine what emotions that person was expressing. It turns out that participants were highly accurate in determining emotions, such as fear and anger, just from looking at images of other people’s eyes.

The eyes can also reveal much more complex phenomena: they can convey whether we are lying or telling the truth. In a 2009 study conducted by Andrea Webb and her colleagues at the University of Utah, one group of participants was asked to steal $20 from a secretary’s purse, whereas a control group did not steal anything. Irrespective of whether participants had stolen the $20, the experimenters asked all participants to deny the theft. Later, by analyzing pupil dilation in response to denying the theft, the researchers were able to tell—better than chance—whether a participant was a thief. Participants who lied about the theft had pupils that were one millimeter larger compared to the pupils of innocent participants.

Our eyes can also serve as a good detector for what people like. To accomplish this, it is necessary to look at pupil size in combination with where someone is looking. Think back to a recent restaurant visit where you had to decide what to eat. These decisions can be simple, for example, if you know straight away what you want. But at other times, such decisions can denote difficult trade-offs, for example when choosing between what you should eat (a salad) and what you want to eat (a burger). Here’s the interesting thing: when the decision is difficult, your eyes are likely to switch back and forth between the different options you are considering, and our last gaze tends to be at the option we end up choosing. And so, by observing where someone is looking, we can infer which options they consider.

One way to study this type of difficult trade-offs is offering monetary bets to participants, such as a 20% chance to win $100 versus a 50% chance to win $40. In a study lead by James Cavanagh of Brown University, participants were asked several questions involving such difficult tradeoffs between payoffs and probabilities. Participants were paid according to their decisions—you can imagine that they thought really hard about which options to choose! The researchers found that the harder the decision—that is, the more difficult the trade-off was between the different choices—the more participants’ pupils were dilated. Our pupils get bigger as choices get harder.

The eyes can also tell us if we experience something unpleasant. In a 1999 study, Chapman and colleagues at the University of Washington administered a painful stimulation to the fingers of 20 participants. Participants rated this pain on a scale from “tolerable” to “intolerable.” The more intolerable the stimulation was rated, the larger participant’s pupils were. Although experiencing pain is very different from looking at semi-nude pictures, it elicits a similar pupil response. Taken together, this suggests that pupil size reflects the strength of feelings, rather than whether those feelings are positive or negative. Therefore, to deduce whether someone is feeling good or bad, we need to consider the context of the situation in addition to their eyes.

Does this mean that we can read everything from the eyes, and that the eyes are the only signal we should attend to? When making a high-stakes decision—such as whether someone was guilty of a crime—we should not rely on pupil dilation alone to make our judgment. It is without a doubt that our “mind-reading capabilities” depend on the context. Generally, you might be better at reading your beloved ones’ eyes compared to a strangers’ because you can tell their regular facial expressions from a surprised one. Converging evidence is the key to help us make better assessments of others’ feelings. But because people can’t change how their pupils react, the eyes are an essential and often under-used source of information that can help us create better bonds with those around us.

It might not be possible to read a person’s exact thoughts from just looking at their eyes. This is great—because from the perspective of the observed, the privacy of thoughts is maintained. But eyes tell us much more than we sometimes assume—and our eyes, unlike our mouths, cannot lie.

All Hypnosis Feeds

via Scientific American: Mind & Brain http://ift.tt/n8vNiX