Time Travel for all....repost Jim Behrle | November 1st, 2011

So you’ve hooked electrodes and power couplings to an old-fashioned carousel in an abandoned amusement park on the outskirts of town. Or you’ve outfitted a Harley-Davidson with a flux capacitor—a classic. Or, my personal favorite, you’re using depleted uranium to turn the underused freight elevator in your building into a time-ship. As a soon-to-be time traveler, the last thing you want is somebody telling you “Do this!” and “Don’t do that!” You're about to become a pirate on the open waves of the ocean of time. Good for you! It's sure to be a wonderful adventure. One no doubt filled with romance, knowledge and treasure. But here, humbly, are a few things to keep in mind.
DO go forward in time first. No matter how stable you think your time machine is, your first jump should always be into the future. It’s a mistake to visit President Lincoln on your maiden voyage. The past is loud, smelly and dangerous. And without at least one pit stop in the future, the road backwards is a million times more difficult. Imagine getting one good jump out of your device and then getting stuck in, say, 1861. You’d have to live out the rest of your life in the dark past. They didn’t even have a sun until the 1840s. Great, if you are some kind of wild history nerd. But you have no resources. You probably don’t have the right kind of money. Clothes, forget it. Even Civil War reenactors are flushed out within seconds in the past. It’s best, no matter how flushed with megalomaniacal power the creation of a time machine has made you, that you go first into the future to get all the latest updates and then start thinking about venturing into the past. The Future is Your Friend. Think of it as a great big safe house for time travelers filled with strangers who may not be thrilled to help you, but probably will point you in the right direction. After all, time traveling is no big deal there. You remember how cool you felt when you suffered under the illusion that you were the only one you knew who had the new iPhone? In the future, iPhones aren’t very cool. And time machines are a commonplace of everyday life. Like a blender or a teleporter. They’ll know how to hook you up and get you ready for your journey back in time.
DO be wary of the past. In fact, it’s probably best to avoid Going Back In Time your first few trips out. As enticing an idea as it might be to track down the Buddha or watch Jesus die on the cross, let’s work up to those, okay? Aramaic isn’t exactly going to be falling off your tongue as a beginner. And you’ll find it’s the little things that will cause the misunderstandings that will get you nailed to a cross right next to your pal Jesus. They have plenty of trees to nail you to in the past; it’s no problem to add one more crazy-talking future freak to the crucifixion party.
There are some things in the past you simply cannot prepare yourself for. The smell. The weird diseases. Everyone’s voice seems really squeaky for some reason. And people are really short. Also, this is probably the most surprising thing, it’s practically a 24/7 grab-ass in the past. Man, woman, child. You will get used to it, but it's initially pretty strange.

DO leave a note. The key to time travel is to always let a friend know where you are. Chances are, you will be killed thousands of times in the past and have your time machine stolen a thousand more. It’s embarrassing, but it happens to us all. Your time machine itself will work against you here—it's tough to hide a red-and-white-striped carousel in The Real Jurassic Park. Do you want to be the time-travelling equivalent of James Franco having to chew his own arm off in order to escape the boulder in the canyon in that movie? No? Well, leave a note then. This holds true whether you’re setting off on a quest to alter the catastrophic course of history—or just taking a weekend off to hang out in the Nigerian countryside in 3 BC. Always leave a note. About where you are, what you did, what you think you changed and the changes you have to make in the future. Maybe even make appointments with your other time-traveling pals for Brunch in Paris in the '20s. If you don’t show up they’ll probably figure you’re dead or captured and will put it on their To Do List to track you down and help. Whenever they get around to it. Which brings us to…

DON'T be surprised that all your time-traveling friends are flakes. You’ll find that time travelers are world-class procrastinators. And why not, right? They’ve got all the time in the world and a million chances to get everything just right. It's not surprising that such people would develop a leisurely sense of pace. “Oh, you have been captured by a Mongol Army? OK, I will definitely get over there after a few weeks on the beaches of Atlantis.” That kind of thing. Time travelers, although they need you to watch their backs, do not need to help you right away.
DO get killed. DON’T Get Captured! Being killed in the past is better than being captured. You know how every episode of “Dr. Who” would be greatly sped up if the Doctor simply carried a gun and refused to be taken prisoner? Being taken hostage is a generally unpleasant experience. And the problem is that even if your time-traveling friends warn you over brunch that you should not go to Ancient Rome because on this trip you will be fed to lions, you won’t listen. Instead, you'll think, “Well, knowing that I will be more careful and make sure not to get taken prisoner.” Which will, through some overly-cautious sidesteps you make in response to this knowledge, probably lead right to your capture. And you could be captured for a while. And just because you later erase the past it doesn’t mean you will forget it, what with all the being chewed on by rats and beaten with medieval wifflebats.
Your time-traveling friends may eventually get around to helping you out of captivity, but, as discussed above, they’re most likely flakes. Who knows if they’ll even show up the same day you got captured, or if they’ll leave you in there to rot? “Oh, I thought you said August 1901! Not August 1701!” You certainly could rely on yourself to help yourself. By sending yourself back to one moment in the past 40 or 50 times you will have a pretty good posse of yourself there to handle most problems. Some time travelers are able to do this with regularity and effectiveness. How do you think this whole Occupy Wall Street thing started in the first place? But what tends to happen to time travelers over the years is that they grow more aloof—and less tied to their firmest of beliefs. When you time travel a lot, you start to see all sides of most arguments. You become a bit of a flake. And with all the time in the world, you rarely feel like doing the little things you promised yourself you would do. “I’ll get to that trap door eventually.” And then next thing you know, you’re 99 years old, on a beach getting busy with the King of France, and you have one of those Should Have Had a V-8 Head Smacking moments.
DON'T be too much of a perfectionist. Here’s something lots of time travelers do: get trapped in a situation, say at Ford's Theatre, and think, well, I’ll make myself come back here earlier in the day and make sure that I have a weapon taped under my seat. It might take you 30 or 40 tries to get things just right. But even then it’s questionable whether even having a weapon made things easier or harder in the first place. With all the power of time travel and infinite amounts of do-overs, time travelers tend to get a little bit paranoid about every little thing. They want everything to turn out just right, with no awkward moments or embarrassing scenarios. Remember: no one really knows you in the past. They’re not going to tweet all their friends if your toga falls off in front of Caesar or whatever. You don’t need to get everything exactly right. It’s just never going to happen. Even after a million tries you’re still not going to impress that lady or dude with the perfect line. They either like you or they don’t. There are lots of fish in the sea. (This is even more true when you consider that all the people in the past will now be within reach.)

DO feel free to be. Falling in love is OK. Don’t worry about knocking up people in the past or wonder if by impregnating someone you are changing the time-space continuum. It’s a mistake to think that you’re all that important to the flow of anything. Step on a butterfly in the past and maybe it gives the chance for another butterfly to land on a flower. Things tend to work out the same way, eventually. The Yankees won the World Series 40 times the first time through this current time narrative. Time travelers have all just compromised at 27 and left it at that. You know, whatever. I was originally shocked that time travelers had allowed many of the most heinous acts of human evil to go unchanged. I mean, imagine if Hitler had been stopped. Well, it has been imagined. Millions of times over. And it doesn’t mean that World War II and the Holocaust can't be averted. They just haven’t been yet. “Yet” is a very powerful concept to the time traveler, you’ll find. It has endless possibilities. Nothing is decided. And when they write the history books you’ll find even those are written in erasable ink.
DON’T worry about creating alternate universes or destroying the timeline. Really, don’t sweat it. No small thing you do—like, choosing the hashbrown casserole over grits at Ye Olde Historic Cracker Barrel—is going to set off a chain reaction that will unravel the present as we know it and threaten the very existence of everyone reading this article. That whole Gwyneth Paltrow misses a subway and opens up a wormhole which ruins her life thing is complete crap. Relax. You are here reading this. So, OK. If Einstein was wrong about the possibility of time travel in the first place (whether he was wrong or just flat-out lied about it for his own reasons, we may never know). He said that if you can’t travel faster than the speed of light then time travel is impossible. Well, roll over, Al. You apparently missed the whole neutrino thing. Alternative universes and broken timelines, well, let’s just say the science isn’t in. Yet. Get a hundred time travelers in a room together and you’ll have to listen to a lot of stories of how “in their experience” the past is this and not that. Getting time travelers to agree on anything is pretty pointless. They act even more entitled and righteous and professorial than elected officials.

DO take precautions. In an emergency it’s really most important to keep cool. It’s a good idea to keep an apartment in a neutral place during a peaceful time. You’ll find time travel to be exhausting, and you will need a place you know you can chillax. Time travel is also pretty addictive, so you'll need to find a way to allow yourself enough of a rest. Food in the past is mostly disgusting and will make you pretty sick at first. There is no good coffee practically anywhere. And, if you’re a drinker, you may be prone to drunk time-dialing. Always know where you are. Always leave yourself a note. Have you ever woken up someplace and not known how you got there? Multiply that by any place in time, any where in the world. Protect yourself at all times. You never know if someone you meet is Jack the Ripper, so just assume they are. You don’t have to live your life as a time traveler in secret. There are plenty of people in the past who get that time travelers exist and will be interested in your travels. And there are many others who will want to use all the information you have for their own benefit.
DO make money. If you’re low on money, the best way to get more is to gamble. Knowing how sports events, gladiator fights or dice will fall is a big benefit. Don’t forget to sometimes lose; you'll attract less attention that way. Think of it as the price of doing business in the past. You can also rob banks. And, if you want, give the money back down the road. They’ll never know. You can travel to Macy’s Herald Square location on Christmas and take, say, $50,000 cash from the safe. And bring it back down the road when you’re flush. Take out stock in some crappy company like Google and then sell it just before it goes belly-up. But, like, if you’re going back in time to commit armed robbery and you leave behind a giant trail of dead bodies, the more cleaning up you’re going to have to do. If you’re going back in time to be a mass-murderer, you’re wasting your precious adventure time. Time flies, literally, when you’re time traveling. And you’ll never get to do all the things you want to do if you are wasting it cleaning up after your poor decisions.
DON'T bring a friend. It’s tough to bring people with you, even ones you completely trust. Never mind that Dr. Who and Companions thing he has going. He is not the time traveler to model yourself after. I mean, celery pinned to your lapel? He attracts way too much attention. And he has seemingly infinite lives to play with as he infinitely renews himself in new hot young actor bodies. You, on the other hand, can die lots of times and be saved by your pals, but you will always have just the same one non-actor body. You will continue to get old and frail and fat while the Doctor will transform into another hot young actor. Why hasn’t Dr. Who turned into a woman? Because there would be no show; most women are too smart to get themselves into the stupid predicaments that the Doctor does. You may think it will be impressive to some friend of yours to bring them back in time to meet, I don’t know, Napoleon? But you’ll find that adding pals to your traveling party increases the danger of someone doing something stupid. Like getting drunk and taking off with your time machine. Time travel tends to be kind of a solo thing. Let your friends get their own time machines and have their own adventures. Which you can discuss over brunches in 1920's Paris.
DO be serene about what you can change and what you can't. Nothing that is done cannot be undone. And the world, the past and the future is waiting for you. It’s OK to feel nervous and a little overanxious. The past and even the future will ultimately be a little disappointing in some ways. And breathtaking in others. Try to enjoy yourself—but quietly, without drawing too much attention to yourself. Some people, like me, might put our poo in plastic, go to the zoo and chuck it at the monkeys. But that’s only if you really like trouble. And most people can do without trouble entirely. Time travelers are around us all the time, seeing their favorite movies in theaters and maybe just riding the Q train for kicks. If you get in trouble in the past, they might even lend you a hand. Most Americans want to meet Lincoln, for some reason. Possibly the hat. If you see him, say hello. You could warn him about the play, but who hasn’t. He’s as stubborn as any time traveler. And some people prefer to let history ride.
DON'T go looking for yourself. Also, be careful about visiting yourself in the past. You’ll find arguing with who you used to be to be an incredibly unpleasant experience. Trust me, you won’t want to listen to your time-traveling ass. You, Old You that is, may see Future You and think it's important to stay the course so you can become a time traveler (alter it and you might go into stamp collecting instead). You can’t talk yourself out of dating certain people for the most part: the Past You will resent the Future You for interfering. It might even make Past You want to date Person You Shouldn't Date even more. And let's face it: Some people are just attracted to terrible people. Just because you can travel through time doesn’t mean you can control it. Some things just have to happen. Some mistakes need to be made. When the team you’re not rooting for is about to score the winning touchdown, you don’t jump on the field and tackle them. That would just make things worse. Time Travelers don’t have a Hippocratic oath, and “harm” is pretty relative, but the old adage holds true for time travelers and is generally just a good policy to have: “Don’t fuck with what you don’t understand.” There’s a certain zen quality to letting things happen. And to figuring things out for yourself. Enjoy the time it takes you, and where time takes you!



Jim Behrle tweets at @behrle for your possible amusement.

Sun Worship ~ Wisdom from Doctor Pillai

Can you imagine yourself going through your life feeling completely self-confident, powerful and full of vitality? You have no doubts about your capacities and talents and in fact, you feel that you have an innate royalty about you that others easily recognize. You know that you deserve the very best in life and you know how to acquire that.
You also feel a desire to sacrifice yourself for the good of others and—not only does your sacrifice benefit your family and the people who touch your life, but also you witness your standing in society grow accordingly.
So, it’s a win/win.
Too good to be true? Remarkably, it is both true and easy for some people with a strong Sun in their astrological charts, as they already embody this consciousness. But anyone can learn how to better resonate with the Sun’s power, especially when this planet (or star) is transiting in a favorable area of the zodiac.
So here is the good news for all. The Sun will reenter his kingdom on August 17th—transiting in the sign of Leo from where he can bestow upon us his superpowers of confidence, royalty consciousness, generosity and magnificence.
This is a lucky break because for the last month the Sun has been in a Moon-dominated sign, Cancer, which did not highlight the Sun’s power. Imagine his starlight becoming dim and his fire being extinguished by the watery Cancer.
Additionally, the Sun watered down (or even steamed) our loving emotions. And because the Sun represents also the government and your digestive power, even those areas might have caused you some concern.
Though we may deny it, we like power—but as we grow spiritually, we realize that this leadership must be shared in two main ways:

• By empowering those who are powerless—namely the poor, children and underprivileged women.

• By sacrificing ourselves without feeling used or diminished.

 http://pillaicenterblogs.com/mighty-sun-can-make-rich-powerful/


Now, the Sun’s majesty in Leo can help us and also bring us financial wealth—as it happens every time this luminary transits in one of the four fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.
So below you will find some easy steps to resonate with this source of unbounded power and acquire prosperity.

• On the 17th and on Sundays or during the Sun’s ruled time of the day (if you are familiar with Vedic astrology) take a glass (crystal is better if you own one) and go outside (the balcony or garden is fine). Pour the water out three times and each time recite (mentally or aloud):

* OM SURYAYA NAMAHA

• On the August 17th and every Sunday (or during the Sun’s time) take a shower and offer light red or yellow flowers to an image of the Sun. Light a ghee lamp or candle and burn some incense.

Relax and sit comfortably. Ask the mighty Sun to help you become a leader in your chosen work field or to find a job that better highlights your leadership capacities.
You can also ask for better health and an increase in your natural vitality. Say that you want to absorb more energy from his rays and from the foods you eat. Thank him. Remember you are talking to the King, so be polite.

• On August 17th^, ask the Sun for the amount of money you want or need in your life. Promise that you will share this money with the underprivileged. (Make sure to keep your promise when your request is fulfilled.)

• On August 17th, ask the celestial archetype of wealth, lord Vishnu, to help you increase your bank account. Appeal to him with the vibrational sounds that can access his energy:

* OM NAMO NARAYANAYA
Thank lord Vishnu.
Wishing you increased power, higher purity and self-esteem and financial wealth.

VIBES

from Tools of Abundance (found on Pinterest)  http://www.toolsforabundance.com/blog/positive-thought-vibrations/#sthash.louytQOE.dpuf
mmmmm

   handful of years ago I was fascinated to learn that everything in the universe vibrates. Then I read “The Vibrational Universe: Harnessing the Power of Thought to Consciously Create Your Life” by Kenneth J. M. MacLean.

human energ
I must confess that, at first, the concept of consciously creating my life with positive thought vibrations seemed too far-fetched, but I also knew that things seemed to go better when I was in a happy mood. Based on this -and pressed by my scientific mind- I decided to explore this a bit further and learn more about how positive thought vibrations and my experiences were connected.

Here are the logical, scientific facts:

1. Much like a chord of a musical instrument, everything that vibrates must have a moving part as well as some space where the vibrational movement takes place.

2. Atoms are the basic block of everything. They are composed of a nucleus and electrons. The electrons spin and rotate around the nucleus. An atom is 99.99% empty space which allows for the movement of electrons, and as they move they create a certain vibration. If the atom is vibrational, then matter and energy must be vibrational as well.

Therefore, we can safely conclude that everything in the universe vibrates so the universe itself can be considered vibrational in nature. So far so good.

Let’s now go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole…

Emotions and thoughts are vibrational too because they are part of the whole that is the universe. After all, we, human beings, are also composed of atoms and as such, our bodies are mostly empty space too. (Now things are starting to make sense, uh?)

Thoughts activate emotions, and emotions activate thoughts. They affect each other by the power of vibrations. Positive thought vibrations produce positive emotions, and negative thought vibrations produce negative emotions. This is how we attract the outcomes we experience.

Now, I’m not saying that we should always be happy. That is NOT part of a comprehensive human experience. However, sometimes we get caught in a negative cycle a bit too long and then everything seems to be going south too, which fuels the thought and the emotion in a loop…

The good news is, choosing positive thoughts we can disrupt this loop intentionally, to then fuel our emotions ‘in a good way‘ which in turn create more positive thought vibrations, and so on and so forth. Moreover, when you choose your thoughts in this manner, you develop a higher EQ — not IQ but EQ, which stands for emotional intelligence quotient. From this perspective you get more control over what happens in your life because you are co-creating your reality according to your emotions & vibrations (like attracts like). If you want to explore this concept further, I recommend you read “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman.

So, what kind of emotions create positive thought vibrations? The short answer is: Good Feelings. In his book, Kenneth J.M. MacLean describes “The Scale of Emotion” from the vibrational viewpoint. I suggest you pick a copy and read it. In the meantime, here is a sample of emotions and positive thought vibrations:

-Joy & Happiness

-Love & Affection

-Excitement & Laughter

-Abundance (of anything that causes a positive response)

-Pride & Honor

-Compassion & Giving

-Self Confidence & Self Esteem

-Determination & Accomplishment

On the other hand, negative thought vibrations are generated from negative feelings and emotions, such as:

-Rage & Anger

-Loneliness & Isolation

-Lack & Limitation (of any of life’s needs and basic necessities)

-Sadness & Grief

-Confusion & Disbelief

-Stress & Anxiety

-Low Self Esteem & Lack of Self Confidence

-Hurt, Disappointment & Delusion

When you feel these emotions, matching thoughts are created accordingly. You can’t feel joyous unless your thoughts are positive. And you can’t feel sadness while having positive thoughts. You get the idea!

Now that you are aware of this and understand this concept, you know what to do. I know my whole paradigm shifted once I understood this! So, do you want to change your life? Choose your thoughts carefully, as when you think positively, your emotions are positively influenced, and that is precisely what you will attract into your life!

And how do you actually go about that? -you may ask (I know, I had the same question!) I promise we’ll explore this in more detail soon.

In the meantime… what do you recommend to get out of a funky mood? What would you do to raise your vibrations? Please share below… Thank YOU!
- See more at: http://www.toolsforabundance.com/blog/positive-thought-vibrations/#sthash.louytQOE.dpuf

 handful of years ago I was fascinated to learn that everything in the universe vibrates. Then I read “The Vibrational Universe: Harnessing the Power of Thought to Consciously Create Your Life” by Kenneth J. M. MacLean.
I must confess that, at first, the concept of consciously creating my life with positive thought vibrations seemed too far-fetched, but I also knew that things seemed to go better when I was in a happy mood. Based on this -and pressed by my scientific mind- I decided to explore this a bit further and learn more about how positive thought vibrations and my experiences were connected.
Here are the logical, scientific facts:
1. Much like a chord of a musical instrument, everything that vibrates must have a moving part as well as some space where the vibrational movement takes place.
2. Atoms are the basic block of everything. They are composed of a nucleus and electrons. The electrons spin and rotate around the nucleus. An atom is 99.99% empty space which allows for the movement of electrons, and as they move they create a certain vibration. If the atom is vibrational, then matter and energy must be vibrational as well.
Therefore, we can safely conclude that everything in the universe vibrates so the universe itself can be considered vibrational in nature. So far so good.
Let’s now go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole…
Emotions and thoughts are vibrational too because they are part of the whole that is the universe. After all, we, human beings, are also composed of atoms and as such, our bodies are mostly empty space too. (Now things are starting to make sense, uh?)
Thoughts activate emotions, and emotions activate thoughts. They affect each other by the power of vibrations. Positive thought vibrations produce positive emotions, and negative thought vibrations produce negative emotions. This is how we attract the outcomes we experience.
Now, I’m not saying that we should always be happy. That is NOT part of a comprehensive human experience. However, sometimes we get caught in a negative cycle a bit too long and then everything seems to be going south too, which fuels the thought and the emotion in a loop…
The good news is, choosing positive thoughts we can disrupt this loop intentionally, to then fuel our emotions ‘in a good way‘ which in turn create more positive thought vibrations, and so on and so forth. Moreover, when you choose your thoughts in this manner, you develop a higher EQ — not IQ but EQ, which stands for emotional intelligence quotient. From this perspective you get more control over what happens in your life because you are co-creating your reality according to your emotions & vibrations (like attracts like). If you want to explore this concept further, I recommend you read “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman.
So, what kind of emotions create positive thought vibrations? The short answer is: Good Feelings. In his book, Kenneth J.M. MacLean describes “The Scale of Emotion” from the vibrational viewpoint. I suggest you pick a copy and read it. In the meantime, here is a sample of emotions and positive thought vibrations:
-Joy & Happiness
-Love & Affection
-Excitement & Laughter
-Abundance (of anything that causes a positive response)
-Pride & Honor
-Compassion & Giving
-Self Confidence & Self Esteem
-Determination & Accomplishment 
On the other hand, negative thought vibrations are generated from negative feelings and emotions, such as:
-Rage & Anger
-Loneliness & Isolation
-Lack & Limitation (of any of life’s needs and basic necessities)
-Sadness & Grief
-Confusion & Disbelief
-Stress & Anxiety
-Low Self Esteem & Lack of Self Confidence
-Hurt, Disappointment & Delusion
When you feel these emotions, matching thoughts are created accordingly. You can’t feel joyous unless your thoughts are positive. And you can’t feel sadness while having positive thoughts. You get the idea!
Now that you are aware of this and understand this concept, you know what to do. I know my whole paradigm shifted once I understood this! So, do you want to change your life? Choose your thoughts carefully, as when you think positively, your emotions are positively influenced, and that is precisely what you will attract into your life!
And how do you actually go about that? -you may ask (I know, I had the same question!) I promise we’ll explore this in more detail soon.
In the meantime… what do you recommend to get out of a funky mood? What would you do to raise your vibrations? Please share below… Thank YOU!

- See more at: http://www.toolsforabundance.com/blog/positive-thought-vibrations/#sthash.louytQOE.dpuf

 handful of years ago I was fascinated to learn that everything in the universe vibrates. Then I read “The Vibrational Universe: Harnessing the Power of Thought to Consciously Create Your Life” by Kenneth J. M. MacLean.
I must confess that, at first, the concept of consciously creating my life with positive thought vibrations seemed too far-fetched, but I also knew that things seemed to go better when I was in a happy mood. Based on this -and pressed by my scientific mind- I decided to explore this a bit further and learn more about how positive thought vibrations and my experiences were connected.
Here are the logical, scientific facts:
1. Much like a chord of a musical instrument, everything that vibrates must have a moving part as well as some space where the vibrational movement takes place.
2. Atoms are the basic block of everything. They are composed of a nucleus and electrons. The electrons spin and rotate around the nucleus. An atom is 99.99% empty space which allows for the movement of electrons, and as they move they create a certain vibration. If the atom is vibrational, then matter and energy must be vibrational as well.
Therefore, we can safely conclude that everything in the universe vibrates so the universe itself can be considered vibrational in nature. So far so good.
Let’s now go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole…
Emotions and thoughts are vibrational too because they are part of the whole that is the universe. After all, we, human beings, are also composed of atoms and as such, our bodies are mostly empty space too. (Now things are starting to make sense, uh?)
Thoughts activate emotions, and emotions activate thoughts. They affect each other by the power of vibrations. Positive thought vibrations produce positive emotions, and negative thought vibrations produce negative emotions. This is how we attract the outcomes we experience.
Now, I’m not saying that we should always be happy. That is NOT part of a comprehensive human experience. However, sometimes we get caught in a negative cycle a bit too long and then everything seems to be going south too, which fuels the thought and the emotion in a loop…
The good news is, choosing positive thoughts we can disrupt this loop intentionally, to then fuel our emotions ‘in a good way‘ which in turn create more positive thought vibrations, and so on and so forth. Moreover, when you choose your thoughts in this manner, you develop a higher EQ — not IQ but EQ, which stands for emotional intelligence quotient. From this perspective you get more control over what happens in your life because you are co-creating your reality according to your emotions & vibrations (like attracts like). If you want to explore this concept further, I recommend you read “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman.
So, what kind of emotions create positive thought vibrations? The short answer is: Good Feelings. In his book, Kenneth J.M. MacLean describes “The Scale of Emotion” from the vibrational viewpoint. I suggest you pick a copy and read it. In the meantime, here is a sample of emotions and positive thought vibrations:
-Joy & Happiness
-Love & Affection
-Excitement & Laughter
-Abundance (of anything that causes a positive response)
-Pride & Honor
-Compassion & Giving
-Self Confidence & Self Esteem
-Determination & Accomplishment 
On the other hand, negative thought vibrations are generated from negative feelings and emotions, such as:
-Rage & Anger
-Loneliness & Isolation
-Lack & Limitation (of any of life’s needs and basic necessities)
-Sadness & Grief
-Confusion & Disbelief
-Stress & Anxiety
-Low Self Esteem & Lack of Self Confidence
-Hurt, Disappointment & Delusion
When you feel these emotions, matching thoughts are created accordingly. You can’t feel joyous unless your thoughts are positive. And you can’t feel sadness while having positive thoughts. You get the idea!
Now that you are aware of this and understand this concept, you know what to do. I know my whole paradigm shifted once I understood this! So, do you want to change your life? Choose your thoughts carefully, as when you think positively, your emotions are positively influenced, and that is precisely what you will attract into your life!
And how do you actually go about that? -you may ask (I know, I had the same question!) I promise we’ll explore this in more detail soon.
In the meantime… what do you recommend to get out of a funky mood? What would you do to raise your vibrations? Please share below… Thank YOU!

- See more at: http://www.toolsforabundance.com/blog/positive-thought-vibrations/#sthash.louytQOE.dpuf

 handful of years ago I was fascinated to learn that everything in the universe vibrates. Then I read “The Vibrational Universe: Harnessing the Power of Thought to Consciously Create Your Life” by Kenneth J. M. MacLean.
I must confess that, at first, the concept of consciously creating my life with positive thought vibrations seemed too far-fetched, but I also knew that things seemed to go better when I was in a happy mood. Based on this -and pressed by my scientific mind- I decided to explore this a bit further and learn more about how positive thought vibrations and my experiences were connected.
Here are the logical, scientific facts:
1. Much like a chord of a musical instrument, everything that vibrates must have a moving part as well as some space where the vibrational movement takes place.
2. Atoms are the basic block of everything. They are composed of a nucleus and electrons. The electrons spin and rotate around the nucleus. An atom is 99.99% empty space which allows for the movement of electrons, and as they move they create a certain vibration. If the atom is vibrational, then matter and energy must be vibrational as well.
Therefore, we can safely conclude that everything in the universe vibrates so the universe itself can be considered vibrational in nature. So far so good.
Let’s now go a bit deeper down the rabbit hole…
Emotions and thoughts are vibrational too because they are part of the whole that is the universe. After all, we, human beings, are also composed of atoms and as such, our bodies are mostly empty space too. (Now things are starting to make sense, uh?)
Thoughts activate emotions, and emotions activate thoughts. They affect each other by the power of vibrations. Positive thought vibrations produce positive emotions, and negative thought vibrations produce negative emotions. This is how we attract the outcomes we experience.
Now, I’m not saying that we should always be happy. That is NOT part of a comprehensive human experience. However, sometimes we get caught in a negative cycle a bit too long and then everything seems to be going south too, which fuels the thought and the emotion in a loop…
The good news is, choosing positive thoughts we can disrupt this loop intentionally, to then fuel our emotions ‘in a good way‘ which in turn create more positive thought vibrations, and so on and so forth. Moreover, when you choose your thoughts in this manner, you develop a higher EQ — not IQ but EQ, which stands for emotional intelligence quotient. From this perspective you get more control over what happens in your life because you are co-creating your reality according to your emotions & vibrations (like attracts like). If you want to explore this concept further, I recommend you read “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman.
So, what kind of emotions create positive thought vibrations? The short answer is: Good Feelings. In his book, Kenneth J.M. MacLean describes “The Scale of Emotion” from the vibrational viewpoint. I suggest you pick a copy and read it. In the meantime, here is a sample of emotions and positive thought vibrations:
-Joy & Happiness
-Love & Affection
-Excitement & Laughter
-Abundance (of anything that causes a positive response)
-Pride & Honor
-Compassion & Giving
-Self Confidence & Self Esteem
-Determination & Accomplishment 
On the other hand, negative thought vibrations are generated from negative feelings and emotions, such as:
-Rage & Anger
-Loneliness & Isolation
-Lack & Limitation (of any of life’s needs and basic necessities)
-Sadness & Grief
-Confusion & Disbelief
-Stress & Anxiety
-Low Self Esteem & Lack of Self Confidence
-Hurt, Disappointment & Delusion
When you feel these emotions, matching thoughts are created accordingly. You can’t feel joyous unless your thoughts are positive. And you can’t feel sadness while having positive thoughts. You get the idea!
Now that you are aware of this and understand this concept, you know what to do. I know my whole paradigm shifted once I understood this! So, do you want to change your life? Choose your thoughts carefully, as when you think positively, your emotions are positively influenced, and that is precisely what you will attract into your life!
And how do you actually go about that? -you may ask (I know, I had the same question!) I promise we’ll explore this in more detail soon.
In the meantime… what do you recommend to get out of a funky mood? What would you do to raise your vibrations? Please share below… Thank YOU!

- See more at: http://www.toolsforabundance.com/blog/positive-thought-vibrations/#sthash.louytQOE.dpuf

Meditation Medicine

Editor's note: CNN.com is showcasing the work of Mosaic, a new digital publication that explores the science of life. It's produced by the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation that supports research in biology, medicine and the medical humanities, with the goal of improving human and animal health. The content is produced solely by Mosaic, and we will be posting some of its most thought-provoking work.

(CNN) -- It's seven in the morning on the beach in Santa Monica, California. The low sun glints off the waves and the clouds are still golden from the dawn. The view stretches out over thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean. In the distance, white villas of wealthy Los Angeles residents dot the Hollywood hills. Here by the shore, curlews and sandpipers cluster on the damp sand. A few meters back from the water's edge, a handful of people sit cross-legged: members of a local Buddhist center about to begin an hour-long silent meditation.

Such spiritual practices may seem a world away from biomedical research, with its focus on molecular processes and repeatable results. Yet just up the coast, at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a team led by a Nobel Prize-winning biochemist is charging into territory where few mainstream scientists would dare to tread. Whereas Western biomedicine has traditionally shunned the study of personal experiences and emotions in relation to physical health, these scientists are placing state of mind at the center of their work. They are engaged in serious studies hinting that meditation might -- as Eastern traditions have long claimed -- slow aging and lengthen life.

Nobel Prize

Elizabeth Blackburn has always been fascinated by how life works. Born in 1948, she grew up by the sea in a remote town in Tasmania, Australia, collecting ants from her garden and jellyfish from the beach. When she began her scientific career, she moved on to dissecting living systems molecule by molecule. She was drawn to biochemistry, she says, because it offered a thorough and precise understanding "in the form of deep knowledge of the smallest possible subunit of a process."

Yoga practitioners at the 2011 Bali Spirit Festival.

Courtesy SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images.

Working with biologist Joe Gall at Yale in the 1970s, Blackburn sequenced the chromosome tips of a single-celled freshwater creature called Tetrahymena ("pond scum," as she describes it) and discovered a repeating DNA motif that acts as a protective cap. The caps, dubbed telomeres, were subsequently found on human chromosomes too. They shield the ends of our chromosomes each time our cells divide and the DNA is copied, but they wear down with each division. In the 1980s, working with graduate student Carol Greider at the University of California, Berkeley, Blackburn discovered an enzyme called telomerase that can protect and rebuild telomeres. Even so, our telomeres dwindle over time. And when they get too short, our cells start to malfunction and lose their ability to divide -- a phenomenon that is now recognized as a key process in aging. This work ultimately won Blackburn the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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I was interested in the idea that if we look deep within cells we might be able to measure the wear and tear of stress and daily life.
Elissa Epel, University of California, San Francisco

In 2000, she received a visit that changed the course of her research. The caller was Elissa Epel, a postdoc from UCSF's psychiatry department. Psychiatrists and biochemists don't usually have much to talk about, but Epel was interested in the damage done to the body by chronic stress, and she had a radical proposal.

Epel, now director of the Aging, Metabolism and Emotion Center at UCSF, has a long-standing interest in how the mind and body relate. She cites as influences both the holistic health guru Deepak Chopra and the pioneering biologist Hans Selye, who first described in the 1930s how rats subjected to long-term stress become chronically ill. "Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older," Selye said.

Back in 2000, Epel wanted to find that scar. "I was interested in the idea that if we look deep within cells we might be able to measure the wear and tear of stress and daily life," she says. After reading about Blackburn's work on aging, she wondered if telomeres might fit the bill.

With some trepidation at approaching such a senior scientist, the then postdoc asked Blackburn for help with a study of mothers going through one of the most stressful situations that she could think of -- caring for a chronically ill child. Epel's plan was to ask the women how stressed they felt, then look for a relationship between their state of mind and the state of their telomeres. Collaborators at the University of Utah would measure telomere length, while Blackburn's team would measure levels of telomerase.

Nobel Prize-winner Elizabeth Blackburn is spearheading research into the aging effects of stress.

Courtesy Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Blackburn's research until this point had involved elegant, precisely controlled experiments in the lab. Epel's work, on the other hand, was on real, complicated people living real, complicated lives. "It was another world as far as I was concerned," says Blackburn. At first, she was doubtful that it would be possible to see any meaningful connection between stress and telomeres. Genes were seen as by far the most important factor determining telomere length, and the idea that it would be possible to measure environmental influences, let alone psychological ones, was highly controversial. But as a mother herself, Blackburn was drawn to the idea of studying the plight of these stressed women. "I just thought, how interesting," she says. "You can't help but empathize."

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It took four years before they were finally ready to collect blood samples from 58 women. This was to be a small pilot study. To give the highest chance of a meaningful result, the women in the two groups -- stressed mothers and controls -- had to match as closely as possible, with similar ages, lifestyles and backgrounds. Epel recruited her subjects with meticulous care. Still, Blackburn says, she saw the trial as nothing more than a feasibility exercise. Right up until Epel called her and said, "You won't believe it."

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The results were crystal clear. The more stressed the mothers said they were, the shorter their telomeres and the lower their levels of telomerase.

The most frazzled women in the study had telomeres that translated into an extra decade or so of aging compared to those who were least stressed, while their telomerase levels were halved. "I was thrilled," says Blackburn. She and Epel had connected real lives and experiences to the molecular mechanics inside cells. It was the first indication that feeling stressed doesn't just damage our health -- it literally ages us.

Explosion of research

Unexpected discoveries naturally meet skepticism. Blackburn and Epel struggled initially to publish their boundary-crossing paper. "Science [one of the world's leading scientific journals] couldn't bounce it back fast enough!" chuckles Blackburn.

When the paper finally was published, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December 2004, it sparked widespread press coverage as well as praise.

Robert Sapolsky, a pioneering stress researcher at Stanford University and author of the bestselling "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers," described the collaboration as "a leap across a vast interdisciplinary canyon." Mike Irwin, director of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, Los Angeles, says it took a lot of courage for Epel to seek out Blackburn. "And a lot of courage for Liz [Blackburn] to say yes."

Buddhist monks practice walking meditation at the Thamkrabok monastery in Phraputthabat, Thailand.

Courtesy NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images.

Many telomere researchers were wary at first. They pointed out that the study was small, and questioned the accuracy of the telomere length test used. "This was a risky idea back then, and in some people's eyes unlikely," explains Epel. "Everyone is born with very different telomere lengths and to think that we can measure something psychological or behavioral, not genetic, and have that predict the length of our telomeres? This is really not where this field was 10 years ago."

Every stress leaves an indelible scar, and the organism pays for its survival after a stressful situation by becoming a little older.
Hans Selye, pioneering biologist

The paper triggered an explosion of research. Researchers have since linked perceived stress to shorter telomeres in healthy women as well as in Alzheimer's caregivers, victims of domestic abuse and early life trauma, and people with major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. "Ten years on, there's no question in my mind that the environment has some consequence on telomere length," says Mary Armanios, a clinician and geneticist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who studies telomere disorders.

There is also progress towards a mechanism. Lab studies show that the stress hormone cortisol reduces the activity of telomerase, while oxidative stress and inflammation -- the physiological fallout of psychological stress -- appear to erode telomeres directly.

This seems to have devastating consequences for our health. Age-related conditions from osteoarthritis, diabetes and obesity to heart disease, Alzheimer's and stroke have all been linked to short telomeres.

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The big question for researchers now is whether telomeres are simply a harmless marker of age-related damage (like grey hair, say) or themselves play a role in causing the health problems that plague us as we age. People with genetic mutations affecting the enzyme telomerase, who have much shorter telomeres than normal, suffer from accelerated-aging syndromes and their organs progressively fail. But Armanios questions whether the smaller reductions in telomere length caused by stress are relevant for health, especially as telomere lengths are so variable in the first place.

Blackburn, however, says she is increasingly convinced that the effects of stress do matter. Although the genetic mutations affecting the maintenance of telomeres have a smaller effect than the extreme syndromes Armanios studies, Blackburn points out that they do increase the risk of chronic disease later in life. And several studies have shown that our telomeres predict future health. One showed that elderly men whose telomeres shortened over two-and-a-half years were three times as likely to die from cardiovascular disease in the subsequent nine years as those whose telomeres stayed the same length or got longer.

Ten years on, there's no question in my mind that the environment has some consequence on telomere length,
Mary Armanios, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

In another study, looking at over 2,000 healthy Native Americans, those with the shortest telomeres were more than twice as likely to develop diabetes over the next five-and-a-half years, even taking into account conventional risk factors such as body mass index and fasting glucose.

Blackburn is now moving into even bigger studies, including a collaboration with healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente of Northern California that has involved measuring the telomeres of 100,000 people. The hope is that combining telomere length with data from the volunteers' genomes and electronic medical records will reveal additional links between telomere length and disease, as well as more genetic mutations that affect telomere length. The results aren't published yet, but Blackburn is excited about what the data already shows about longevity. She traces the curve with her finger: as the population ages, average telomere length goes down. This much we know; telomeres tend to shorten over time. But at age 75--80, the curve swings back up as people with shorter telomeres die off -- proof that those with longer telomeres really do live longer. "It's lovely," she says. "No one has ever seen that."

In the decade since Blackburn and Epel's original study, the idea that stress ages us by eroding our telomeres has also permeated popular culture. In addition to Blackburn's many scientific accolades, she was named one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" in 2007, and received a "Good Housekeeping" achievement award in 2011. A workaholic character played by Cameron Diaz even described the concept in the 2006 Hollywood film "The Holiday." "It resonates," says Blackburn.

But as evidence of the damage caused by dwindling telomeres piles up, she is embarking on a new question: how to protect them.

Mindfulness meditation

At first, the beach seems busy. Waves splash and splash and splash. Sanderlings wheel along the shoreline. Joggers and dog walkers amble across, while groups of pelicans hang out on the water before taking wing or floating out of sight. A surfer, silhouetted black against the sky, bobs about for 20 minutes or so, catching the odd ripple towards shore before he, too, is gone. The unchanging perspective gives a curious sense of detachment. You can imagine that the birds and joggers and surfers are like thoughts: they inhabit different forms and timescales but in the end, they all pass.

Girls meditating at a Buddhist monastic school in Myanmar.

Courtesy NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images.

There are hundreds of ways to meditate but this morning I'm trying a form of Buddhist mindfulness meditation called open monitoring, which involves paying attention to your experience in the present moment. Sit upright and still, and simply notice any thoughts that arise -- without judging or reacting to them -- before letting them go. For Buddhists this is a spiritual quest; by letting trivial thoughts and external influences fall away, they hope to get closer to the true nature of reality.

Blackburn too is interested in the nature of reality, but after a career spent focusing on the measurable and quantifiable, such navel-gazing initially held little personal appeal and certainly no professional interest. "Ten years ago, if you'd told me that I would be seriously thinking about meditation, I would have said one of us is loco," she told the New York Times in 2007. Yet that is where her work on telomeres has brought her. Since her initial study with Epel, the pair have become involved in collaborations with teams around the world -- as many as 50 or 60, Blackburn estimates, spinning in "wonderful directions." Many of these focus on ways to protect telomeres from the effects of stress; trials suggest that exercise, eating healthily and social support all help. But one of the most effective interventions, apparently capable of slowing the erosion of telomeres -- and perhaps even lengthening them again -- is meditation.

So far the studies are small, but they all tentatively point in the same direction. In one ambitious project, Blackburn and her colleagues sent participants to meditate at the Shambhala mountain retreat in northern Colorado. Those who completed a three-month course had 30% higher levels of telomerase than a similar group on a waiting list.

I do think that in general we've got a society with scattered attention, particularly when people are highly stressed and don't have the resources to just be present wherever they are.
Elissa Epel, University of California, San Francisco

A pilot study of dementia caregivers, carried out with UCLA's Irwin and published in 2013, found that volunteers who did an ancient chanting meditation called Kirtan Kriya, 12 minutes a day for eight weeks, had significantly higher telomerase activity than a control group who listened to relaxing music.

And a collaboration with UCSF physician and self-help guru Dean Ornish, also published in 2013, found that men with low-risk prostate cancer who undertook comprehensive lifestyle changes, including meditation, kept their telomerase activity higher than similar men in a control group and had slightly longer telomeres after five years.

In their latest study, Epel and Blackburn are following 180 mothers, half of whom have a child with autism. The trial involves measuring the women's stress levels and telomere length over two years, then testing the effects of a short course of mindfulness training, delivered with the help of a mobile app.

Theories differ as to how meditation might boost telomeres and telomerase, but most likely it reduces stress. The practice involves slow, regular breathing, which may relax us physically by calming the fight-or-flight response. It probably has a psychological stress-busting effect too. Being able to step back from negative or stressful thoughts may allow us to realize that these are not necessarily accurate reflections of reality but passing, ephemeral events. It also helps us to appreciate the present instead of continually worrying about the past or planning for the future.

"Being present in your activities and in your interactions is precious, and it's rare these days with all of the multitasking we do," says Epel. "I do think that in general we've got a society with scattered attention, particularly when people are highly stressed and don't have the resources to just be present wherever they are."

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Ruffling feathers

Inevitably, when a Nobel Prize-winner starts talking about meditation, it ruffles a few feathers. In general, Blackburn's methodological approach to the topic has earned a grudging admiration, even among those who have expressed concern about the health claims made for alternative medicine. "She goes about her business in a cautious and systematic fashion," says Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter, UK, who specializes in testing complementary therapies in rigorous controlled trials. Oncologist James Coyne of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, who is skeptical of this field in general and describes some of the research on positive psychology and health as "morally offensive" and "tooth fairy science," concedes that some of Blackburn's data is "promising."

Others aren't so impressed. Surgeon-oncologist David Gorski is a well-known critic of alternative medicine and pseudoscience who blogs under the name of Orac -- he's previously described Dean Ornish as "one of the four horsemen of the Woo-pocalypse." Gorski stops short of pronouncing meditation as off-limits for scientific inquiry, but expresses concern that the preliminary results of these studies are being oversold. How can you be sure you're investigating it rigorously? "It's really hard to do with these things," he says. "It is easy to be led astray. Nobel Prize-winners are not infallible." Blackburn's own biochemistry community also seems ambivalent about her interest in meditation. Three senior telomere researchers I contacted declined to discuss this aspect of her work, with one explaining that he didn't want to comment "on such a controversial issue."

"People are very uncomfortable with the concept of meditation," notes Blackburn. She attributes this to its unfamiliarity and its association with spiritual and religious practices. "We're always trying to say it as carefully as we can... always saying 'look, it's preliminary, it's a pilot.' But people won't even read those words. They'll see the newspaper headings and panic."

Meditation has become increasingly popular in the West since the 1960s.

Any connotation of religious or paranormal beliefs makes many scientists uneasy, says Chris French, a psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, who studies anomalous experiences including altered states of consciousness. "There are a lot of raised eyebrows, even though I've got the word skeptic virtually tattooed across my forehead," he says.

"It smacks of new-age woolly ideas for some people.

There's a kneejerk dismissive response of 'we all know it's nonsense, why are you wasting your time?'"

"When meditation first came to the West in the 1960s it was tied to the drug culture, the hippie culture," adds Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Harvard who studies how meditation changes the structure of the brain. "People think it's just a bunch of crystals or something, they roll their eyes." She describes her own decision to study meditation, made 15 years ago, as "brave or crazy," and says that she only plucked up the courage because at around the same time, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) created the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. "That gave me the confidence thmat I could do this and I would get funding."

The tide is now turning. Helped in part by that NIH money, researchers have developed secularized -- or non-religious -- practices such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and reported a range of health effects from lowering blood pressure and boosting immune responses to warding off depression. And the past few years have seen a spurt of neuroscience studies, like Lazar's, showing that even short courses of meditation can forge structural changes in the brain.

Now that the brain data and all this clinical data are coming out, that is starting to change. People are a lot more accepting [of meditation].

Sara Lazar, Harvard University

"Now that the brain data and all this clinical data are coming out, that is starting to change. People are a lot more accepting [of meditation]," says Lazar. "But there are still some people who will never believe that it has any benefit whatsoever."

Blackburn's view is that meditation is a fair topic to study, as long as robust methods are used. So when her research first pointed in this direction, she was undaunted by concerns about what such studies might do to her reputation. Instead, she tried it out for herself, on an intensive six-day retreat in Santa Barbara. "I loved it," she says. She still uses short bursts of meditation, which she says sharpen her mind and help her to avoid a busy, distracted mode. She even began one recent paper with a quote from the Buddha: "The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly."

That study, of 239 healthy women, found that those whose minds wandered less -- the main aim of mindfulness meditation -- had significantly longer telomeres than those whose thoughts ran amok.

"Although we report merely an association here, it is possible that greater presence of mind promotes a healthy biochemical milieu and, in turn, cell longevity," the researchers concluded. Contemplative traditions from Buddhism to Taoism believe that presence of mind promotes health and longevity; Blackburn and her colleagues now suggest that the ancient wisdom might be right.

"Medicine Buddha"

I meet with Blackburn in Paris. We're at an Art Nouveau-themed bistro just down the road from the Curie Institute, where she is on a short sabbatical, arranging seminars between groups of scientists who don't usually talk to one another. In a low, melodious voice that I strain to hear through the background clatter, the 65-year old tells me of her first major brush with Buddhist thinking.

In September 2006, she attended a conference held at the Menla Mountain Buddhist center, a remote retreat in New York's Catskill mountains, at which Western scientists met with Tibetan-trained scholars including the Dalai Lama to discuss longevity, regeneration and health. During the meeting, the spiritual leader honored Blackburn's scientific achievements by inducting her as a "Medicine Buddha."

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (here in Tokyo) inducted Blackburn as a "Medicine Buddha."

Couresty Keith Tsuji/Getty Images.

If Epel's psychiatry research had been another world, the scholars' Eastern philosophy seemed to Blackburn more alien still. Over dinner one evening, while explaining to the other delegates how errors in the gene for telomerase can cause health problems, she described genetic mutation as a random, chance event. That's dogma for Western scientists but not for those trained in the Tibetan worldview. "They said 'oh no, we don't regard this as chance,'" says Blackburn. For these holistic scholars, even the smallest events were infused with meaning. "I suddenly thought, whoa, this is a very different world from the one I'm on."

But instead of dismissing her Eastern counterparts, she was impressed, finding the Dalai Lama to have "a very good brain," for example. "They're scholarly in a very different way, but it is still good-quality thinking," she explains. "It wasn't 'God told me this,' it was more 'let's see what actually happens in the brain.' So there are certain elements of the approach that I am quite comfortable with as a scientist."

Blackburn isn't tempted to embrace the spiritual approach herself. "I'm rooted in the physical world," she says. But she combines that grounding with an open mind towards new ideas and connections, and she seems to love breaking out of established paradigms. For example, she and Epel have shown that the effects of stress on telomeres can be passed on to the next generation. If women experience stress while pregnant, their children have shorter telomeres, as newborns and as adults -- in direct contradiction of the standard view that traits can only be passed on via our genes.

In the future, information from telomeres may help doctors decide when to prescribe particular drugs. For example, telomerase activity predicts who will respond to treatment for major depression, while telomere length influences the effects of statins. In general, however, Blackburn is more interested in how telomeres might help people directly, by encouraging them to live in a way that reduces their disease risk. "This is not a familiar model for the medical world," she says.

It's now a consistent story that the aging machinery is shaped at the earliest stages of life.
Elizabeth Blackburn, University of California, San Francisco

Conventional medical tests give us our risk of particular conditions -- high cholesterol warns of impending heart disease, for example, while high blood sugar predicts diabetes. Telomere length, by contrast, gives an overall reading of how healthy we are: our biological age. And although we already know that we should exercise, eat well and reduce stress, many of us fall short of these goals. Blackburn believes that putting a concrete number on how we are doing could provide a powerful incentive to change our behaviour. In fact, she and Epel have just completed a study (as yet unpublished) showing that simply being told their telomere length caused volunteers to live more healthily over the next year than a similar group who weren't told.

Ultimately, however, the pair want entire countries and governments to start paying attention to telomeres. A growing body of work now shows that the stress from social adversity and inequality is a major force eroding these protective caps. People who didn't finish high school or are in an abusive relationship have shorter telomeres, for example, while studies have also shown links with low socioeconomic status, shift work, lousy neighborhoods and environmental pollution. Children are particularly at risk: being abused or experiencing adversity early in life leaves people with shorter telomeres for the rest of their lives. And through telomeres, the stress that women experience during pregnancy affects the health of the next generation too, causing hardship and economic costs for decades to come.

In 2012, Blackburn and Epel wrote a commentary in the journal Nature, listing some of these results and calling on politicians to prioritize "societal stress reduction."

 

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In particular, they argued, improving the education and health of women of child-bearing age could be "a highly effective way to prevent poor health filtering down through generations." Meditation retreats or yoga classes might help those who can afford the time and expense, they pointed out. "But we are talking about broad socioeconomic policies to buffer the chronic stressors faced by so many." Where many scientists refrain from discussing the political implications of their work, Blackburn says she wanted to speak out on behalf of women who lack support, and say "You'd better take their situations seriously."

While arguments for tackling social inequality are hardly new, Blackburn says that telomeres allow us to quantify for the first time the health impact of stress and inequality and therefore the resulting economic costs. We can also now pinpoint pregnancy and early childhood as "imprinting periods" when telomere length is particularly susceptible to stress. Together, she says, this evidence makes a stronger case than ever before for governments to act.

But it seems that most scientists and politicians still aren't ready to leap across the interdisciplinary canyon that Blackburn and Epel bridged a decade ago. The "Nature" article has engendered little response, according to a frustrated Epel. "It's a strong statement so I would have thought that people would have criticized it or supported it," she says. "Either way!"

"It's now a consistent story that the aging machinery is shaped at the earliest stages of life," she insists. "If we ignore that and we just keep trying to put band-aids on later, we're never going to get at prevention and we're only going to fail at cure." Simply responding to the physical symptoms of disease might make sense for treating an acute infection or fixing a broken leg, but to beat chronic age-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia, we will need to embrace the fuzzy, subjective domain of the mind.

Copyright 2014 The Wellcome Trust. Some rights reserved.