mind news stories on Newser

Embrace Your Inner Zombie

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 21 May 2012 01:20:00 CDT

Maybe so many of us love zombie movies because we are, at heart, zombies. That's a view considered by philosopher Alva Noë, who on NPR notes that we seem to be partial to the idea that we aren't really the authors of what we do but function pretty much automatically,...

Do We Actually Exist?

Mark Russell — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:49:14 CDT

The fact that we exist is inarguable, right? After all, if the world were just a dream, we'd need to be dreaming to experience it, writes Julian Baggini for the Independent . Maybe not. Throughout the ages, people have claimed that the self actually doesn't exist—and such claims are gathering...

The Power of Negative Thinking

Matt Cantor — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:50:01 CDT

Deliberate positive thinking—from Norman Vincent Peale to Stuart Smalley—has long been touted as a way to overcome feelings of worthlessness and self-doubt. But a new study suggests that repeating positive mantras may often backfire, making people with low self-esteem feel even worse about themselves. For many, it may...

Toyota Rolls Out Mind-Controlled Wheelchair

Rob Quinn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:57:42 CDT

Toyota has unveiled research on a mind-controlled wheelchair that can read its user's thoughts much faster and more accurately than any previous efforts, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The chair's interface reads brainwave activity and responds to imagined hand and foot movements within 125 milliseconds with up to 95% accuracy,...

Think Hard: Telekinetic Toys On Their Way

Matt Cantor — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:24:20 CDT

Two companies are set to release toys this fall that kids can operate using only their minds—and that’s just the beginning of a telekinetic revolution, experts say. To use one toy, intrigued individuals wear a headset and concentrate on anything. The toy senses the brain’s electrical activity and uses...

Darwin Skeptics Separate Mind From Gray Matter

Wesley Oliver — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:24:00 CST

To undermine Darwinian theories about the emergence of life, skeptics have a new weapon in mind: the brain, NPR reports. They’re challenging the notion that a cluster of cells could produce such high-level mental processes as consciousness and free will. “It doesn’t hang together,” says one neurosurgeon, who argues that...

Jacko Needed $350K 'Mind Guru'

Evann Gastaldo — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:19:00 CST

The sheikh who is suing Michael Jackson says he spent nearly $350,000 on a brain guru for the star, the New York Daily News reports. Mind-mapping and motivational guru Tony Buzan spent one week with the King of Pop in an effort to unlock his creativity, thus allowing him...

Lack of Control Breeds Superstition

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:35:24 CDT

Superstitions and conspiracy theories all boil down to control issues, a new study says. When subjects in a University of Texas test were made to feel out of control, they saw more patterns that did not exist—whether images in a fuzzy picture or links between unconnected actions. Which is...

Mind-Reading Edges Closer to Reality

Rob Quinn — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:30:47 CST

Mind-reading has taken a step toward possibility with a new computer that can decode brain activity to determine what a person is looking at with up to 90% accuracy, the Independent reports. With improvements, the technology could be able to reconstruct any image a person could conjure up—and someday,...