Telepathy

psychic phenomena by which communication occurs between minds, or mind-to-mind communication. Such communication includes thoughts, ideas, feelings, sensations and mental images. Telepathic descriptions are universally found in writings and oral lore. In tribal societies such as the Aborigines of Australia telepathy is accepted as a human faculty, while in more advanced societies it is thought a special ability belonging to mystics and psychics. Although not scientifically proven, telepathy is being increasingly studied in psychical research.


History:

"Telepathy" is derived from the Greek terms tele ("distant") and pathe ("occurrence" or "feeling"). The term was coined in 1882 by the French psychical researcher Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Myers thought his term descrbed the phenomenon better than previous used terms such as the French "communication de pensees," "thought-transference," and "thought-reading."

Research interest in telepathy had its beginning in Mesmerism. The magnetists discovered that telepathy was among the so-called "higher-phenomena" observed in magnetized subjects, who read the thoughts of the magnetists and carried out the unspoken instructions.

Soon other psychologists and psychiatrists were observing the same phenomena in their patients. Sigmund Freud noticed it so often that he son had to address it. He termed it a regressive, primitive faculty that was lost in the course of evolution, but which still had the ability to manifest itself under certain conditions. Psychiatrist Carl G. Jung thought it more important. He considered it a function of synchronicity (1). Psychologist and philosopher William James was very enthusiastic toward telepathy and encouraged more research be put into it.

When the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) was founded in 1885, after the SPR in 1884, telepathy became the first psychic phenomenon to be studied scientifically. The first testing was simple. A sender in one room would try to transmit a two-digit number, a taste, or a visual image to a receiver in another room. The French physiologist Charles Richet introduced mathematical chance to the tests, and also discovered that telepathy occurred independent of hypnotism.

Interest in telepathy increased following World War I as thousands of bereaved turned toward Spiritualism attempting to communicate with their dead loved ones. The telepathic parlor game called "willing" became popular. Mass telepathic experiments were undertaken in the United States and Britain.

Experimental findings:

Most often telepathy occurs spontaneously in incidents of crisis where a relative or friend has been injured or killed in an accident. An individual is aware of the danger to the other person from a distance. Such information seems to come in different forms as in thought fragments, like something is wrong; in dreams, visions, hallucinations, mental images, in clairaudience, or in words that pop into the mind. Often such information causes the person, the receiver, to change is course of action, such as changing his travel plans or daily schedule, or to just call or contact the other person. Some incidents involve apparent telepathy between humans and animals.


Telepathy seems to be related to the individual's emotional state. This is true of both the sender and receiver. Most women were receivers, as case findings showed, and one possible explanation is that women are more in touch with their emotions and rely on intuition more than men. Geriatric telepathy is fairly common, this may be due, it is speculated, to the impairment of the senses with age.

Telepathy can be induced in the dream state. It appears to be related to some biological factors: blood volume changes during telepathic sending, and electroencephalogram monitoring show that the brain waves of the recipient change to match those of the sender.

Dissociative drugs adversely affect telepathy, but caffeine has a positive effect on it.

During his 1930 ESP experiments J. B. Rhine also made some discoveries concerning telepathy: It was often difficult to determine whether information was communicated through telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognitive clairvoyance. He concluded that telepathy and clairvoyance were the same psychic function manifested in different ways. Also, telepathy is not affected by distance or obstacles between the sender and receiver.

A telepathic experiment conducted during the Apollo 14 mission in 1971 proved distance is not a barrier. The experiment was not authorized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), nor was it announced until the mission was completed. Astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell conducted the experiment with four recipients on Earth, 150,000 miles below. Mitchell concentrated on sequences of twenty-five random numbers. He completed 200 sequences. Guessing 40 correctly was the mean chance. Two of the recipients guessed 51 correctly. This far exceeded Mitchell's expectations, but still was only moderately significant.

Theories:

Although over the centuries various theories have been advanced to describe the functioning of telepathy, none seem to be adequate. Telepathy, like othe psychic phenomena, transcends time and space. The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus put forth the wave and corpuscle theories to explain telepathy. In the 19th century, the British chemist and physicist William Crookes, thought telepathy rode on radio- like brain waves. Later in the 20th century the Soviet scientist L. L. Vasilies proposed the electromagnetic theory. The American psychologist Lawrence LeShan proposed that each person has his or her personal reality, and the psychics and mystics share separate ones from other people which allow them to access information not available to others.

In conclusion telepathy, like the other forms of psychic phenomena is elusive and difficult to test systematically. Enough evidence is available to reasonably substantiate the phenomenon does exist. But, quantifying it seems to be another matter. The phenomenon is closely connect to the emotional states on both the sender and receiver which creates difficulty in replicating experimental results. Attitudinal factors also influence the phenomenon. The best that researchers can hope for is to have supportive and receptive subjects in experiments that produce similar results. A.G.H.

Marco Aurelio Denegri - ¡Como la Puta Madre!

El Fetichismo

Según el manual de diagnóstico de los trastornos mentales (DSM-IV) el fetichismo se encuentra dentro de la categoría de parafílias, ubicada a su vez dentro de la categorización mayor de “Trastornos sexuales y de la identidad sexual”.




El Fetichismo se define como fantasías sexuales recurrentes y altamente excitantes, impulsos sexuales o comportamientos ligados al uso de objetos no animados (por ejemplo ropa interior femenina) durante un período no inferior a los seis meses. El manual indica que estas fantasías e impulsos sexuales provocan un malestar clínicamente significativo o un deterioro social, laboral o de otras áreas de la actividad del individuo. Diferencia también al fetichismo del fetichismo travestista (cuando se trata de que el individuo masculino se viste con ropas femeninas). También menciona como fetiches a los aparatos diseñados con el propósito de estimular los genitales como un vibrador).


La definición del DSM-IV lleva implícita la concepción clásica, pero otras lecturas permiten pensar que esa definición resulta bastante acotada. Es posible ver conductas fetichistas menos marcadas, o personas autodefinidas como fetichistas que no sufren de un malestar significativo al respecto. En los hechos casi todos los varones presentan alguna connotación fetichista, y desde una lectura un poco más extremada puede llegar a ubicarse como fetiche cualquier objeto o recorte de un objeto.



Una lectura psicoanalítica

Es preciso diferenciar al fetichismo pensado desde las parafilias, perversiones, etc. de la lectura donde el fetichismo cobra una significación estructural subjetiva.


Por un lado si determinados objetos inanimados o recortes corporales son fetichizados, constituye una conducta generalizada en casi todas las personas (fundamentalmente en los varones). Se trata entonces de un rasgo perverso en la neurosis, en otras palabras un comportamiento cotidiano y "normal".


Por otro lado un posicionamiento estructural, donde el fetichismo se constituye como el paradigma de la estructura perversa. Freud consideró que ante la percepción de la "falta" en el Otro, el sujeto reniega de ella constituyendo un objeto sustitutivo (el fetiche). El fetichista aparece en la serie lógica de la perversión estructural, donde psíquicamente queda constancia de la percepción, pero se reniega de ella (renegación mítica y a la vez estructural). En este sentido el fetichista no es un psicótico porque mantiene una dimensión simbólica del acontecimiento mítico. De esta manera si algo puede faltar entonces existe una lógica de presencia-ausencia. Frente a una carencia, un velo la disimula, y es precisamente ese velo el objeto que se sobrestima. Tampoco es una neurosis porque el fetiche no tiene valor de metáfora como lo tendría un síntoma neurótico sino un valor metonímico. Esta lógica de relación entre el fetiche y el falo, es independiente de cualquier analogía en el campo visual. Es obvio que físicamente a nadie le tiene porque faltar nada, solo se remite a la faltante estructural simbólica, así el fetiche aparece relacionado como sustitución en una significación simbólica. Estas consideraciones resultan difíciles de captar para quién no este familiarizado con el discurso psicoanalítico. Ocurre que se inscribe en las consideraciones que realiza el psicoanálisis (fundamentalmente la escuela francesa) relacionado al posicionamiento subjetivo frente a la falta estructural, en relación a las posibles significaciones de una ausencia, o en otras palabras del posicionamiento fálico de un sujeto.

Marginalidad

El término empezó a usarse principalmente con referencia a características ecológicas urbanas que degradan las condiciones ambientales e inciden en la calidad de vida de los sectores de población segregados.

Esta población se halla radicada en áreas no incorporadas al sistema de servicios urbanos, en viviendas improvisadas y sobre terrenos ocupados ilegalmente. En consecuencia en dichos sectores el agua potable sólo se consigue en forma precaria o transitoria; debido a la carencia de redes cloacales el drenaje de aguas servidas se realiza en las calles o en las acequias y no se hace una disposición adecuada de la basura, ya sea por falta de recolección o porque los desperdicios se convierten en un recurso económico para los pobladores.

El término marginalidad se usa también en relación a las condiciones de trabajo y al nivel de vida de este sector de la población. Se percibió entonces su incapacidad para satisfacer las necesidades humanas básicas.

Simultáneamente se advirtió que tal estado de marginalidad alcanzaba otros aspectos esenciales, tales como la participación política, la sindical, la participación formal e informal y en general la ausencia o exclusión de la toma de decisiones ya sea al nivel de comunidad local, de la situación en el trabajo, o en el orden de instituciones y estructuras más amplias.

Hay autores que afirman que la población marginal, en realidad, no se encuentra al margen de la sociedad moderna capitalista, sino que esta población es producto de esa sociedad y sus actividades se articulan perfectamente con los sectores más modernos de la economía.

Marco Aurelio Denegri - Marginalidad

Marco Aurelio Denegri - La televisión basura es como PBC

Marco Aurelio Denegri - La Televisión Basura

Existentialism – A Definition

Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature.


In simpler terms, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that people are searching to find out who and what they are throughout life as they make choices based on their experiences, beliefs, and outlook. And personal choices become unique without the necessity of an objective form of truth. An existentialist believes that a person should be forced to choose and be responsible without the help of laws, ethnic rules, or traditions.


Existentialism – What It Is and Isn’t
Existentialism takes into consideration the underlying concepts:

Human free will
Human nature is chosen through life choices
A person is best when struggling against their individual nature, fighting for life
Decisions are not without stress and consequences
There are things that are not rational
Personal responsibility and discipline is crucial
Society is unnatural and its traditional religious and secular rules are arbitrary
Worldly desire is futile


Existentialism is broadly defined in a variety of concepts and there can be no one answer as to what it is, yet it does not support any of the following:
wealth, pleasure, or honor make the good life
social values and structure control the individual
accept what is and that is enough in life
science can and will make everything better
people are basically good but ruined by society or external forces
“I want my way, now!” or “It is not my fault!” mentality
There is a wide variety of philosophical, religious, and political ideologies that make up existentialism so there is no universal agreement in an arbitrary set of ideals and beliefs. Politics vary, but each seeks the most individual freedom for people within a society.



Existentialism – Impact on Society
Existentialistic ideas came out of a time in society when there was a deep sense of despair following the Great Depression and World War II. There was a spirit of optimism in society that was destroyed by World War I and its mid-century calamities. This despair has been articulated by existentialist philosophers well into the 1970s and continues on to this day as a popular way of thinking and reasoning (with the freedom to choose one’s preferred moral belief system and lifestyle).

An existentialist could either be a religious moralist, agnostic relativist, or an amoral atheist. Kierkegaard, a religious philosopher, Nietzsche, an anti-Christian, Sartre, an atheist, and Camus an atheist, are credited for their works and writings about existentialism. Sartre is noted for binging the most international attention to existentialism in the 20th century.

Each basically agrees that human life is in no way complete and fully satisfying because of suffering and losses that occur when considering the lack of perfection, power, and control one has over their life. Even though they do agree that life is not optimally satisfying, it nonetheless has meaning. Existentialism is the search and journey for true self and true personal meaning in life.

Most importantly, it is the arbitrary act that existentialism finds most objectionable-that is, when someone or society tries to impose or demand that their beliefs, values, or rules be faithfully accepted and obeyed. Existentialists believe this destroys individualism and makes a person become whatever the people in power desire thus they are dehumanized and reduced to being an object. Existentialism then stresses that a persons judgment is the determining factor for what is to be believed rather than by arbitrary religious or secular world values.