(NOTE: I apologize for the re-post. I’m still learning Substack and had my settings wrong! ugh)

I’ve walked on this planet several decades and have never witnessed the level of emotional discord we now see. Between climate change, financial stress, geopolitical strife, and an unstable political climate in the U.S., many of us are as perplexed as we are stressed-out.

Emotional skills have always been foundational to effective living, but it has never seemed so important. Ironically, there’s no curriculum available to acquire them. You probably know plenty about math and language, but when were you ever taught what emotions are for, or how to use their wisdom? Did you have reliable, positive emotional modeling from your parents? Were emotional concepts taught sequentially?

If you’re like me, probably not. It’s not that my parents weren’t loving, but simply that they couldn’t teach what they didn’t know. They were no different than me in one important regard—they had no one to teach them, either.

Most of us have the same void in our life experience. So we suffer.

We try to avoid “negative emotions.”
We accept our default ways of being, healthy or not.
We are so distracted by our environment we can’t notice our own internal wisdom.
We often ignore our body’s signals that are screaming to be heard.

Most of us have a gap between the emotional skills we have and those we need.

This article fills a bit of that gap. It contains:

• a short section explaining the Four Domains of emotional intelligence (EQ)

• a simple technique for stress reduction and its relationship to the Domains

• precise language that guarantees a receptive heart and mind so you can teach the technique

Teach a Kid and You’ve Learned Twice

This article is written so you can teach an important emotional skill—self-management—to someone you love. Especially a kid! Use this post to:

• learn the technique

• learn the right time to teach it

• learn the exact approach that virtually guarantees learning cooperation

• change someone’s life

Let’s jump in!

The Four Domains

In their book Emotional Intelligence 2.0, authors Travis Bradbury and Jean Greaves describe the four skills of EQ¹:

Here are short descriptors:

• Self-Awareness is the learned ability to know how one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact, especially moment-by-moment.

• Self-Management is the ongoing action one takes in response to the information supplied by Self-Awareness.

• Once “out of your own way,” awareness of others (Social Awareness) becomes much easier…

• …making Relationship Management (being of genuine benefit to others) so much easier.

The Calming Box

The Calming Box is a breathing technique organized around the model of a rectangle:

It’s a simple technique. Inhale for a few seconds, then exhale for about twice as long, and repeat.

This works for more than one reason. Firstly, paying attention to the breath prevents focus on whatever is stressing you. Since we can’t focus on more than one cognitive task at time, the Calming Box distracts you from your in-the-moment stressor. It’s easier to calm down if you’re not ruminating about your challenge.

Secondly, when breathing slows, heart rate lowers and heart rate variability (HRV) increases. Both these are associated with emotional regulation.²

Thirdly, controlled breathing shuts down the sympathetic nervous system (“fight-or-flight”) and allows the parasympathetic system (“rest-and-digest”) to begin taking over. As this occurs, the prefrontal cortex (which stress can effectively shut down), comes back online so you can think more clearly.

How to Teach It

1. Wait for a teaching moment…
   It’s natural for children (or adults) to talk about their worries and concerns with someone close to them. When someone shares such topics with you, listen attentively. Watch for signals of upset such as increased respiration, increased physical movement, or their voice rising in pitch or volume (or both), etc. When you notice any of these signals, wait for a natural break in conversation, then
   

2. Use these words…
   
   ”It’s hard to hear that you’ve experienced this—that would likely upset me as well. I’ve had this kind of thing happen to me and it used to tie me in knots on the inside. But you reminded me about an exercise I learned that really shut my stress down. Would it be OK if I share it with you?” (No one will say ‘no’ to that!)

3. Ask them to note how upset they are…
   
   ”I can tell this upsets you! Right now, as you think about it, how much does it upset you?”
   
   With adult or mature children, perhaps give them a 0-to-10 scale, with 10 meaning very upsetting and 0 meaning not at all upsetting. Just ask them to guess. With young children, ask them to use their hands to illustrate their upset when they think of the stressor.
   
   Help them remember the level of their emotional discord—you’ll use that later in the conversation.
   

4. Teach the Calming Box…
   The technique involves controlled breathing. They have to pay attention to the breath to perform the technique—this provides the distraction mentioned above. The particular length of the inhale/exhale isn’t that important. What’s important is that they exhale more slowly than they inhale, but feel free to adjust the breathing rhythm as necessary.

   For younger children, teach the Box by drawing an imaginary rectangle with your finger in mid-air and have them draw it as they breathe. This reinforces the lesson using the kinesthetic channel, as well as the auditory and visual channels.
   
   Perform three or four ‘boxes’ before the next step. As you do, notice their physiology (slower breathing, less physical movement, voice more normal, etc.).
   

5. Take a break and reassess. Say…
   
   ”OK, now pause for a moment…how do you feel now?”
   
   Have them now indicate (through numbers or hands) how they now feel when they think of their stressor. Very likely, the number will have dropped considerably. If not, perform 3-4 more ‘boxes.’

You’ll find people receptive to this technique, especially when you prove to them in real time it works.

People tend to use tools they’ve been taught, especially

• when they’ve already practiced it

• when they recognize an opportunity to use it, and especially…

• when they realize it benefits them.

You can also use the experience to open a wider conversation with a child on the importance of emotional skills. Try asking:

“Have you ever noticed someone get upset and doing something they later regretted?”
”Can you recall that happening to you?”
”Do you think the Calming Box would have helped?”

Wrapup

By asking your child to reflect on their own experience, you’re teaching Self-Awareness.

Through teaching the Box and then asking them to re-evaluate, you’re teaching Self-Management.

The conversation and process grows your own emotional skillset as well.

Stress reduction is the open door to emotional growth. The conversation suggested above not only delivers a useful new emotional tool, it also helps build lasting interpersonal bonds. Your child or friend knows you care for them enough to proactively try to diminish their hurt, making them more likely to engage with you in the future.

Everybody wins!

Thank you for supporting this channel with your paid membership! It makes my work possible. :-)

Want to know more? Consider reading my ebook Cascade: the untold story of how our brains sabotage us and what to do about it. Order it here.

In my previous article, we examined the notion of exile—if you haven’t read it, please do so before continuing here. It will make this article much more meaningful. :-)

I used the word exile to describe an unexpected, forced disconnection from something—it could be a job, relationship, community, religious organization, or a role.

Separateness is the very definition of exile, and importantly, exile is also associated with punishment. The uneasiness can cause you to doubt yourself, second-guess your choices, and even freeze in place. It’s hurtful and disorienting.

I believe there’s hope and help for those of us in this unfamiliar country. This is not just my wishful thinking, it’s an idea backed by psychology research.

And Viktor Frankl.

Weird Science

When most of us feel uncomfortable emotions, we’ll do anything to avoid feeling it—maybe just ignore it. Maybe have a drink. Or a smoke. Or go shopping. Engage in risky behaviors. Gamble. Anything to distract.

Avoiding uncomfortable emotions is counterintuitive to what scientific research indicates is most beneficial.

In 2007, researchers Neharika Chalwa and Brian Ostifin published a paper in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, reviewing 28 previous papers on the topic of Experiential Avoidance (EA). They found that EA—the tendency to ignore, suppress, or attempt to control painful emotions—is a significant contributor to psychopathology. Avoiding ‘negative emotions,’ they found, was closely associated with substance abuse and severity of PTSD symptoms.

Three years later, Martine Fleddurus and his team published a second, corroborating study. In the authors’ own words—

The corollary? Willingness to experience uncomfortable emotions is one indicator of mental health.

That’s a tough pill to swallow, isn’t it? How can we be willing to sit inside discomfort while in exile? Why should we?

Viktor Frankl discovered the answers in a very personal way.

The Man

Victor Frankl was a psychiatrist and writer who lived in the mid-20^th century. Frankl developed a practice he called logotherapy, a therapeutic approach designed to help people find meaning in adversity. His aim was to help others grow resilience and navigate hard times by staying true to their values and choosing their attitude toward suffering.

His life was his laboratory.

Frankl, an Austrian Jew, was arrested in 1942 by Hitler’s Third Reich. He, his wife, and parents were deported to concentration camps—he spent over two and half years in these camps, during which time most of his family would be killed. During this prison hell, Frankl noticed those prisoners who found some sense of meaning to their suffering tended toward greater psychological resilience. He returned to Vienna after the war to continue his work, and wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, one of the most influential books of the 20th century. He spent the balance of his life teaching and lecturing worldwide.

The theme of Frankl’s book surrounded that of choice. Even when personal freedoms, comforts, and even dignity are stripped away from us, Frankl said, we always retain capacity to choose our attitudes toward our current circumstances. He believed meaning is among our deepest psychological needs. Deeper than comfort, deeper than pleasure. Even in life’s darkest moments, we can find meaningful insight that can carry us through to brighter days.

Here’s one way to uncover meaning behind some common ‘negative’ emotions.

The Technique

My last post contained a suggested four-step cycle for navigating exile—below is Step #2:

After some reflection, I thought Gosh, that ‘seeking emotional information’ bit sounds vague. Too arcane, too mysterious.

Here’s some more specific guidance. Let’s examine how to obtain emotional information by using Thought Themes.

Share HeartSmart

Thought Themes

Extracting information from emotions is a fundamental skill in Emotional Competence (EC). Using emotional information allows to you to blend that data with cognition (thoughts), resulting in a more balanced approach to everyday living, better-informed choices, and healthier outcomes.

Your emotions are there to inform you, to contribute useful information as you navigate life’s up and downs. This is true about all emotions—joy, sadness, guilt, excitement, pensiveness….any emotion you can identify.

To glean your emotions’ wisdom, you have to do three things:

1. notice it

2. identify the emotion accurately

3. link the emotion with a Thought Theme

Let’s focus today on Step 3.

In my book, Cascade, I describe how Events trigger Thoughts, which are linked to the Emotions that drive our Behaviors. Here’s a visual:

Within the fog of exile, clarity can be elusive, but we can distill personal truth from the Thought behind an Emotion we’re feeling. Working backward within the cascade throws light on the ground we’re standing on.

Let’s look at some common feelings/emotions and Thought Themes that can trigger them.

This table is provided to illustrate concepts and is not intended to be exhaustive. Also, know these associations are not static—for example, you may feel like withdrawing for reasons other than sadness.

Lastly, what we think of as ‘positive’ emotions have their own Thought Themes as well. What would be the associated feeling or behavioral tendency for the emotion of exuberance? Or compassion? Pride? Just for fun, grab a pencil and paper sometime and construct your own table for those! Could any of those have downsides? Hmmmm….

So, let’s be clear. Even if I realize ‘I’ve lost something valuable to me’, it doesn’t bring that thing back. It doesn’t reverse time. You might think that doesn’t solve the problem, so why should I bother doing this?

Because identifying a Thought Theme brings reality up close. You’re unable to sweep unpleasant feelings/emotions (and the thoughts that triggered them) under the proverbial rug. Because ignoring your distressful emotions and the thoughts behind them is a direct path to dysfunction (review the Weird Science section above as needed).

Using Thought Themes is a great way to clear the fog. And once it clears, the path forward is more likely to appear after doing this work.

You’ll be less likely to stay in unhelpful behavioral states, more likely to see ways forward.

Less likely to overthink, more likely to see alternatives.

Less likely to freeze, more likely to take goal-directed action.

Less likely to panic, more likely to respond rather than react.

You are more than you think you are. Here’s the same thought spoken differently…by Victor Frankl himself.

You are the airplane.

Frankl addressing the Toronto Youth Corp, 1972

My wife and I arrived at home last night after a 12-hour drive across four states. I was tired, muscles complaining that I’d given them little chance to move, so intent I was to arrive before dark. Man, I’m not gonna struggle sleeping tonight, I thought.

My mind had other plans. Sleep eluded me with thoughts of exile.

Some readers of HeartSmart have also read my book, in which I describe an unexpected, transformational, rather miraculous spiritual event that occurred in 2024. Since this initial metaphysical encounter, more followed, dotting my life with wonder. Never having this quality of experience in the past, it has opened my heart and mind to things I thought previously impossible. I now regard faith and science as two expressions of the same thing. I believe there is a Cosmic Consciousness permeating the entire universe that is intelligent and creative, bends toward benevolence, and whose power can be summoned. The scientific evidence for it is jaw-dropping and validates the teachings of ancient practice across the globe.

I’ve shared this with a few friends, including one of my closest, an adherent to a particularly conservative Christian faith community. I simply wanted him to celebrate my spiritual transformation with me, that’s all. Instead, on two occasions, he challenged my thoughts and warned me to avoid ‘dark spiritual forces’ that may be slyly lurking to deceive me. It’s painful to recognize his distrust, to hear what sounded like condescension.

And for the first time in decades, he didn’t bother to call on my birthday. He did send a late-night text message. No contact since.

This feels like rejection. This feels like exile from a deep, lifelong relationship.

Exile = Growth

It’s human nature to be wary, and even reject, those different from us—I think it‘s hardwired into who-we-are and difficult to extinguish. I imagine it served an evolutionary purpose, part of our brain’s attempt to keep us safe.

Human history is full of exiles. Galileo was placed in physical exile by the Catholic Church for spreading his heresy of Copernicus’ view of the solar system, in opposition to Church teaching. He lived the last years of his life under house arrest. Jesus Christ was similarly made a pariah by his fellow rabbis and Jewish leaders who were threatened by his liberal, revolutionary ideas about God.

Human history is also replete with examples of how souls in exile changed the world. Note how Galileo’s truth about our heliocentric solar system was eventually accepted, despite the Church’s vehement opposition. And Jesus’ ideas exploded across continents, despite attempted vigorous suppression, continuing to transform lives to this day.

Considerable scientific evidence indicates there is a Cosmic Consciousness permeating the entire universe that is intelligent and creative, bends toward benevolence, and whose power can be summoned.

Maybe you feel in exile from a world gone mad. From relatives who won’t accept you, despite your attempts to explain yourself. From a belief system inherited from childhood you can’t quite align with. From a work world that doesn’t care about you, despite your conscientious efforts. From people who can’t appreciate your neurodivergence, that are more judgemental than curious.

In his epic science fiction novel Dune, author Frank Herbert tells a messiah story of Paul Atreides, a teenager forced to move with his parents to a barren, dry planet called Arrakis. Life there is brutal and unforgiving, as water is in very short supply. Additional stress came to young Paul in the form of social isolation—many in his community distrusted him, as his father was the governor of the planet. He was alienated by social position, expectation, and his own self-doubt. However, he becomes acquainted with the Fremen, a mysterious people of the desert who do not easily trust outsiders. When they eventually partner with him, Paul acquires unimaginable power, capable of transforming the very weather of Arrakis.

This occurs because Paul stays true to himself while in exile.

It’s only a story I provided for context, but the thought posted at the top of this article resonates within me nowadays.

I’ve now come to believe in a God that I was once not sure was there. I’ve my own personal, scientific evidence for it.

I also believe God allows exile to train the faithful. And I don’t mean ‘faithful’ to a belief system—faithful to lovingkindness toward others.

Suggested Steps

Exile feels uncomfortable—if you’re in a similar spot, maybe you feel some of the emotions I noted above. What to do? Here are some suggestions:

1. Give yourself grace. Accept who you are, and realize that others’ choices are not your responsibility. Only yours.

2. Be curious rather than self-judgemental. Seek the information within your emotions, rather than avoiding those uncomfortable feelings (whatever they are). Consider what your natural intuition is telling you.

3. Use calming techniques such as meditation, walks in nature, ‘tapping,’ or exercise to shut down the stress response. Any of those (and especially, any combination of them) will lower your stress response in the short-term and allow you more clarity. Consistent pursuit of those will likely calm your nervous system over time so you’re less likely to be triggered by anything at all.

4. Be patient with yourself. People in exile are in a state of growth—human history is full of such stories. Growth and clarity take time.

5. Repeat steps 1-4.

Once on the other side of exile, you likely won’t change the world’s weather like our story hero. However, you will transform the world inside you.

Emotional strength and resilience are on the other side of your exile. Perhaps beautifully, Substack is packed with sincere seekers in the same emotional country.

Let’s all join hands. :-)

-john

I bought a Nissan SUV four years ago. Black, with premium wheels and shiny with extra trim, it caught my attention immediately. I haven’t seen many of these, I thought. I liked the idea of driving a uniquely stylized vehicle—and it’s a Nissan. If I take care of it, I can drive it to at least 200K. I drove it home less than two hours after first viewing it, proud to own such a dashing SUV.

Within a week, I’d seen three exactly like it.

That’s a window into neuroplasticity, the idea that your brain changes in response to what you ‘feed’ it—including life experiences, your current environment, your mood—even the thoughts you think.

Prior to the purchase, I’d probably seen dozens of identical vehicles, taking no particular notice of them. Afterwards, I couldn’t stop noticing, because it took less than two hours to accidentally hack my RAS.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a collection of neurons at the base of the brain stem that function as your relevance radar. The RAS works ‘round-the-clock, even when you’re asleep. It silently, subconsciously scans all incoming input for critical information and is especially sensitive to input indicating danger. It decides what’s important and what your attention can ‘let go.’

Good thing. According to research, we are bombarded with over 11 million bits of sensory input per second; about 10 million of those are for visual information alone.

Our conscious minds can only handle about 50 of those bits per second—that’s about 0.0005% of the total sensory deluge we experience each moment. Without the RAS, we’d be overwhelmed instantly, likely unable to even function. The RAS has a very important job!

The good news? Research reveals you can ‘nudge’ your RAS using varied techniques:

• Intentionally-prioritized thoughts also become prioritized within the RAS. The earlier SUV purchase is one example of this type—before the purchase, I couldn’t have cared less about black Nissan SUVs—afterward, I subconsciously and constantly scanned for the body shape and color while driving. Why? Because I told my RAS that Nissans like mine were important, so it sought out and fed that prioritized information to me.

• Mindfulness meditation improves cognitive filtering, sustained attention, and emotional regulation—all core functions of the RAS.

Some Specific, Practical Applications

You can use intentional prioritizing and meditation to:

• increase your attention span—

  • Meditation is not a supernatural experience, but a natural physiological/affective state that is known to increase focus over time.

• change how you respond to disappointment or frustration or sadness or—

  • Try this to intentionally prioritize awareness of those feelings. When you feel frustrated, internally say to yourself I feel frustrated right now, but I know that’s an emotion that will pass. It doesn’t remove the stimulus that inspired the frustration, but you’ll be less likely to react to it, leaving more room for constructive problem-solving. And notice the difference between the above statement and I’m frustrated. No—frustration isn’t who you are, it’s just what you’re feeling. See the difference?

    Do this repeatedly and watch your tendency to feel frustration (or disappointment, or sadness, etc.) decrease over time. You’re replacing reactivity with mindfulness.

• solve a problem at work—

  • Intentionally prioritize the problem by reviewing pertinent data, immersing yourself in relevant case studies, visualizing successful outcomes, and carrying a notepad for ideas.

    By ‘deep-diving’ into the problem in a multi-focused way, you’re flooding your RAS with the message this is really important to me. Don’t be surprised when a solution appears!

“The practical implication is real: what you consciously prioritize actually does change what your brain notices.” -AJ Keller via Neurosity

Learn more in AJ Keller’s fascinating article on Neurosity.

Thank you for reading!

This is but one example of how applied science can improve our life outcomes by growing Emotional Competence (EC). EC is the fundamental success skill and the most direct path to personal/professional growth.

Marianne Harrington thought of her former student, Anthony, while standing in a grocery store. As a special education teacher, she worked with students with Non-Verbal Autism (NVA), which requires unusual communication methods like picture boards or communication screens. Anthony was one such student who was now on a new campus, and Marianne stopped to buy cookies, his favorite snack, to provide some welcome familiarity to Anthony’s new environment. She left the store with goldfish-shaped crackers, chocolate chip cookies, and butter cookies.

The next day’s classroom visit went well, but when Marianne realized she’d left the snacks in her car, she apologized to Anthony by writing the word ‘Sorry!’ on a sheet of typing paper. They’d been communicating using words and pictures, so she sketched a butter cookie she’d bought for him, thinking I’ll give him these today and leave the rest for later. When Anthony viewed it, he quickly drew a circle with dots inside, indicating he wanted her to instead fetch the chocolate chip cookies.

Marianne hadn’t even told Anthony she’d bought snacks at all.

It was many years later when she described how it happened.

“It was because I was thinking about him in the grocery store the night before,” Marianne said in an interview. “Basically, I sent out a signal when I was thinking about him in the grocery store, about what he might like.”

This is from one episode of The Telepathy Tapes, a podcast documenting the psychic abilities of some children with NVA. Some of those include:

• students that knew the color of a Lego block placed on their heads without having seen it

• a student who knew his teacher’s husband had accidentally locked his keys in his car in Atlantic City

• kids that can conduct mental conversations with other NVAs despite being hundreds of miles apart

• kids that can read their parents’ minds almost anytime they wish

This is not an unknown phenomena within the field, but not well-known to the public. Teachers tend to keep quiet about such matters—many administrators would think them unbalanced or crazy.

Marianne is now retired, but works with some former students as a volunteer. She says that many of her students have access to so much information that asking them to share what they “see” is like trying to sip from a gushing fire hydrant.

My previous post cited studies demonstrating that plants are aware of their surroundings, even reacting in shocked horror when they witness the death of other living things. The Telepathy Tapes examines another mystifying form of communication, and one that has been documented and reported in many scientific journals.

In any communication, three things are required:

1. a sender

2. a receiver

3. a communication medium

What is the communication medium for the plants? For the kids with NVA? Could it be the same medium? Can anyone access this medium? What is its source?

This channel, HeartSmart, is a feed of articles and notes on 1) emotional skills and how to grow them, and 2) scientific research related to the nexus of quantum physics research, psychology/neuroscience research, human emotions, and faith.

Cleve Backster was both a workaholic and a perfectionist. It’s no wonder that he was considered the world’s top expert on using polygraph machines for what is commonly referred to as “lie detection.” Law enforcement agencies across the US depended on the Backster School of Lie Detection, housed in a nondescript building in San Diego, for training in this important aspect of their work. Pulling all-nighters was not unusual for him; he was not only in demand as an instructor, but also as a consultant and speaker. In addition to managing the logistics of running his business, he often spent additional time poring over research and data from his reports. He was driven.

Backster greeted a rising California sun after one such all-night work binge on the morning of February 2, 1966. At one point, rising from his chair to give his office plants some water, it occurred to him that an electrode placed on a leaf might reveal information about a plant as well. After all, plants contain water just as the human body, an excellent conductor of electricity, the basis of polygraph technique.

He attached an electrode to a philodendron leaf and powered the machine to which it was attached. The scratchy-sounding pen began moving about in recognition of the plant’s input, then slowed its movement as it returned to a baseline level of activity. Backster had seen that many times; a human subject also causes an initial ‘blip’ when first connected, followed by a period of relative calm, allowing the examiner to determine that subject’s normal skin conductivity level.

How does one threaten a plant? He began by tearing a leaf on the plant, which drew hardly any response. Hmmm. Not one to give up easily, Backster considered different ideas, but finally thought of fire. I’ll get some matches and burn the leaf.

The polygraph’s mechanical arm began jumping wildly. Backster had only thought of burning the leaf; he hadn’t even had time to start moving toward the desk containing the matches.

The plant read his mind and responded emotionally.

Astounded at this outcome, Backster pushed further. If the plant is somehow aware of my intention, what else is it aware of? Moving to another plant, he held a match under one of its leaves, singing its delicate underside. The plant connected to the polygraph screamed in response, scattering ink across the scrolling page.

Backster would spend many more nights in his lab, meticulously studying this phenomenon. Although not trained as a scientist, he conducted his research with the same fidelity to scientific method as would any other respectable science investigator. If plants can ‘read’ information at a distance, he thought, my own thoughts could alter the results. He designed equipment that would conduct research in his absence, removing any possibility of his presence skewing the research results. He created another experiment in which a timer-controlled arm dumped a small cup of live brine shrimp into boiling water. He attached a random-number generator (RNG) to the timer controlling the arm so he wouldn’t even know at what point the dump occurred. He walked the nearby neighborhood while the RNG, timer, and other equipment did their work. Upon returning, he viewed another printout heavy with black ink. The philodendron was horrified at the sudden, violent death of about 50 shrimp.

Backster would later comment in an interview, “Now I look around and everything has a different meaning. It means that even on the lower levels of life, there’s a profound consciousness, or, an awareness that binds all things together.”

Although ridiculed by many at the time, Backster continued his nighttime experiments, demonstrating a similar effect in paramecium, mold, and blood cultures. Similar effects were obtained by other researchers over the years. Backster’s entire donated body of research is now housed at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, and his early research into what scientists refer to as The Field now receives some much-due respect.

Every communication requires 1) a sender; 2) a receiver, and 3) a communication medium (think how air and water media conduct sound).

Like most research, Backster’s raises more questions than answers;

1. What is the communication medium?

2. How widespread is this phenomenon?

3. Does physical distance affect the phenomenon?

4. Could the communication be two-way?

You can meet Cleve Backster via a YouTube clip from a documentary on his work:

What are your thoughts? The comments are open!

Share

Although it’s been several months since my last article, I’ve had many new subscribers and followers. For those of you previously subscribed…thank you for hanging on to your subscription.

I simply burned out. I overestimated the emotional energy required to maintain a daily Substack feed. My body and mind needed to recover.

Here’s a gift for you all. It’s the last chapter of my book on emotional skills, Cascade: the Untold Story of How Our Brains Sabotage us and What To Do About It. Those of you that know me may be interested in doing the book, because it’s not a book to be read, per se. Cascade is available as an e-book at Amazon, Apple Books, and about 14 other sellers.

For new subscribers/followers, it will give you context for the HeartSmart channel.

Enjoy!

About Miracles & Other Astonishments

Speaking of fingers….let’s talk about your brain for a few days!

How was that for a segue?

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On Friday’s post, I had:

• Thursday’s title, because I forgot to replace it (I was able to edit it, fortunately)

• One sentence typed twice <insert eyeroll here>

• at least one misspelled word

Like many here, I do my best editing after clicking “POST.”

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I want to begin this morning with a heartfelt thank you to all my subscribers and readers.

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