Positive Thoughts and Quiet Compassionate Minds Change the World

          If you look at Andrew Adamatzky's book on crowd emotion you will see we have a group mind and our emotions influence the general feeling of the group.  This is a scientifically measured work.  He does some interesting work with traffic and slime molds you can see on youtube.  Andrew I. Adamatzky is a Russian and English computer scientist, a professor in the department of computer science at the University of the West of England in Bristol, where he works in the International Center of Unconventional Computing.  
          Our primitive group consciousness has mastered how to use fear to move people to action through anger.  Perhaps that is why we humans have war.  I am thinking the next evolutionary step is to step up our consciousness and learn how to use love to move people to action through happiness and a general sense of wellbeing.  This work would be two fold.  How do we gather groups to pray and meditate in love and compassion?  How do we learn to act in happiness and joy for the good of the group?  Can you think of a time when you did this?  Can you think of a time when you saw it done?
          One example that comes to mind was a two-month national demonstration project conducted in Washington, D.C...  This project showed how a group of Meditators trained practitioners of meditation reduced crime and social stress and improved the effectiveness of government.
Between June 7 and July 30, 1993 a group of TM-Sidhas  increased in number from 800 to a maximum of 4,000 over the trial.  The crime rate went down 23%.  This would only happen if there were a major snow storm the police reported.
          This proves that we can make a difference by sending positive vibration.  If you can't think of a time when you saw a private prayer or group prayer or meditation create a positive flow, please take time now to focus on a peaceful mind and a sense of goodwill for the world.  It may heal a broken heart somewhere in the world. Light a candle.  Write a poem. Sing a song for peace.

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Holiday Happiness Emotions and Emotatudes

Dr. Kich is an imaginary doctor that helps children deal with their feelings in concrete ways.  If he were interviewed for this blog today he would say “Happy Heartfelt Holidays can be created when our emotions are kept in balance.”  How do we keep our feelings in balance you may ask?  Dr. Kich has a special mathematical formula! Dr. Kich’s formula says that a little fear with our joy and happiness can make us even more happy.  It can add to the excitement of the fun.  If our fear is overwhelming and overtakes our happiness we can end up absolutely miserable and quite sad.  So if we prepare ourselves well for holiday gatherings with friends and family we can have a great time. We all have worries and issues with our past holidays.  Dr. Kich gives us permission to take care of ourselves and be prepared for fun.

First you must allow yourself to unconditionally love something naturally. Then warm fuzzies will springs forth to make joy when we are self-aware at holiday time. Giving ourselves a chance to be giving and healthy and rested will bring down the fear levels and create a greater chance of a joyous time. Family get-togethers will be an absolutely joyous time if we love ourselves and choose our situations wisely. Keeping ourselves healthy and happy before any gathering will be a gift for everyone. 

Dr. Kich’s advice helps us deal with difficult dynamics. He has introduced Emotatudes, a theoretical paradigm, a vision of abstract chemical species interacting with each other by certain rules similar to quasi-chemical reactions. Several reaction schemes involving warm fuzzies, blues, heebie jeebies, bejeebers, warm tinglies, kanipshuns,  and flummoxes are analyzed in detail, in his children’s book. He works with  the spatiotemporal dynamics of the affective quasi-chemical mixtures in his books.  He studied in cellular-automaton models. A case of the blues is provided as an example of possible practical applications of theoretical findings on behavior of affective mixtures that he examined in many case studies during the holidays.

He knows there is bright side our inner emotional work, so we can enjoy more and suffer less. He advises us to give love to ourselves and embrace our healing work.  His instructions help us “sit with” the core feelings and past experiences. To do this we need to find a quiet place.  Light a candle.  Breathe in five times.  Let our mind rest and let go of all thoughts for just five minutes and focus on our breathing.  Try giving to a charity and be in a place of proper thinking, patience, humility, and compassion.  Set aside time for haircuts, hot baths, saunas, mending and sorting old clothes so your holiday wardrobe is set out with care. Make time for the ones you truly love and write them a note telling them how much you care.  

Follow his directions to go to the non-chalant club when something annoys or hurts you. Try to sit with what has happened, just note it, feel what gets stirred in you, and try to stay outwardly neutral. Get the Facts simmer down. Express your needs non-violently. Make a bridge from a bad feelings to good ones. Acknowledge others whether you agree with them or not.  Get quiet, trace your happy moments in life to past positive experiences to find the support you need. Keeping the balance of joy and sadness is important.  Sad moments are part of the human experience honoring joy and sadness is healthy.  Dr. Kich allows us all to acknowledge both.

Group Emotions and Leadership

An ‘Emotional Intelligence Quotient’ rates how aware we are of ourselves, how we manage ourselves, and how we sort out our social relationships.  A leader with a high Emotional Intelligence Quotient is more powerful than one who has little social acumen.

When we act as a group we often let go of our own notions of how to depend on our own social intelligence.  The pre-frontal cortex, the primal part of our brains are more likely to take over when we are in a crowd or group.  When we act as a group emotions like fear, anxiety, happiness, or sadness are acted upon. The most noticed emotional cues set the tone from the group.  Therefore, leaders have a profound effect on any given group.

Emotions effect thinking skills by aligning focus of the group.  A positive emotional climate sets up a beneficial social dynamic.  If a leader can put forth positive emotional cues, they can make even more positive social change.

Ask yourself how you feel and how these feelings came to be. Use this information to move in a positive direction. If you are in touch with your feelings and have a chance to be in a leadership position, ask how others feel and how these feelings came to be.  Use this information to move the group in a positive direction.  Move forward with the goal of doing what needs to be done to feel the way you want to feel. Move forward with the goal in mind of what needs to be done to have the group feeling the way that would be positive for the group.

A Formula for Keeping an Emotional Equilibrium

            Our tense society looks at emotional outbursts as a symptom of disease.  Psychiatrists and drug companies try to dampen emotions, quiet them, and ignore them.  Chemicals are distributed like candy with average patient doctor visit time lasting fifteen minutes. Feelings are spoken of as adjectives that are a reaction to a stimulus.  They are treated as a problem. 

            Now that we are able to analyze emotions and their chemical compounds in laboratories, we are learning that they are entities in and of themselves that affect our bodies, our health, and our society. The book, Dynamics of Crowd-Minds: Patterns of Irrationality in Emotions, Beliefs And Actions by Andrew Adamatzky even studies emotions as molecules and their effect on crowds.         

         For all humans chemicals are manufactured in our bodies that are the building blocks of emotions. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that makes us feel warm, loved happy and secure. A neurotransmitter is a chemical substance that transmits nerve impulses across a synapse to a postsynaptic element such as another nerve, muscle or gland. Serotonin is also a neurotransmitter, just like dopamine. Its purpose is to regulate mood, thinking, and impulse control. Serotonin makes us feel calm and relaxed.

            When there is a lack of serotonin, there can be depression, anxiety, irritability. Epinephrine is produced in our bodies and is part of the fight or flight response. It increases blood flow and can make us feel panicked or nervous. Nerve cell bodies manufacture dopamine. Ocytocin and Prolactin are chemicals we produce from hugging and comfort.  They help us socially bond and feel secure.

            Looking at these emotions as scientifically related to chemicals gives us a new lease on our emotional lives. The neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp wants to look at how we can help humanity learn how to maintain a positive equilibrium with their emotions and has done this by looking past the traditional ways we examine feelings.  From his work I postulate, that we all just need to play more when we get depressed.  So, the next time you feel sad, tickle a friend, see a happy movie, or go on a fun ride.

            Perhaps our own play and laughter will stimulate the brain positively through just as it does in rats.  So, the next time you get too serious, or want to get out of a funk try doing something playful, and perhaps check out Jaak’s Ted talk where he tickles rats. The science of emotions: Jaak Panksepp at TEDxRainier shows us how Doctor Panksepp is breaking ground with play and laughter to keep our emotional equilibrium.