While some people think they are perpetually cool, calm, and collected, they're not. At least, not all the time.

Across the board, human beings are a roller coaster of emotions, feelings, and moods. According to 25 years of data, these emotions spread like wildfire person to person. Often, they influence a group or organization's collective mood in positive or negative ways.

This social phenomenon, called "emotional contagion," permeates all human interactions, influencing not only how people feel, but how they think and behave. Emotional contagion is constant and pervasive, yet most of the time we have no idea it's going on.

Sigal Barsade, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, has studied emotional contagion for more than 25 years.

Neurological benefit to daydreaming at work?

As humans, emotional contagion is one of our "primary delivery systems for emotion," Barsade tells Inverse. "Emotional contagion is the act of person A feeling the emotions that person B is showing, to some extent."

This week, Inverse explores how to understand emotional contagion, prevent your bad moods from negatively impacting others, and leverage the concept to become a more positive force in the world.

"By understanding this phenomenon, that is a form of inoculation against emotional contagion," Barsade says. "It's the first step."

I’m Ali Pattillo and this is Strategy, a series packed with actionable tips to help you make the most out of your life, career, and finances.

Catching feelings — Years before Barsade completed her organizational psychology training, a common office scenario spurred her to investigate how emotions spread.

She was working in an open-office layout close to a particularly negative coworker — the sort who seemed to dampen the entire team's mood whenever she was around.

The negative atmosphere didn't arise from this coworker’s yelling, or even what she said, Barsade recalls. Rather, it was her subtle facial expressions, verbal delivery, and general energy. More: 

(Moon) Apple’s Vision Pro headset combines virtual reality, augmented reality and real reality for the price of $3,500. It's apple's first major new product in a decade and it has changed society forever. Here's why. The economy and business of VR is changing and needs to be talked about.

Investigative reporter Cheryll Jones

Investigative reporter Cheryll Jones interviewed doctoral researcher Karen Konkoly on new scientific studies that open the doorway to two-way communication between lucid dreamers (people who realize they're in a dream) and a waking person.

Sleep researchers at Paller Lab at Northwestern University watch brain signals of sleeping participants in the lab in hopes of refining communications so that complex conversations may one day be possible.

I know I'm dreaming, and life is dreaming.

Recent experiments were conducted with subjects in REM sleep, who were asked simple questions. In successful cases, subjects moved their eyes in a certain direction for the number of times that corresponded to the answer they wished to give. During the REM state, all but the eye and a few facial muscles are paralyzed.

Konkoly tells the reporter that their experiments corresponded with work being done at several other labs around the world. Paller Lab incorporates a "target memory activation" technique to induce lucid dreaming. Subjects listen to a 20-minute recording in which a specific sound becomes associated with the idea of becoming lucid. The sound is then played while subjects are asleep.

The researchers have been able to induce lucidity. This technology is available as an Android app used in combination with a Fitbit device. (An iPhone version will be released later). AUDIO

Aaron Abke (@aaronabke); Manuel Loigeret; P.at Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

How I learned to ASTRAL PROJECT in ONE day

I (Aaron Abke) do not monetize my channel or receive any funds from YouTube for the content I create. If you have found this content beneficial and would like to support it financially, you can visit Patreon (patreon.com/aaronabke) to pledge whatever small monthly amount you wish. Any pledge is much appreciated.

Ananda helps users meditate, focus, and relax with progressive binaural tones and high quality peaceful sounds. Enhance your brainwaves. Choose from one of Ananda Premium’s numerous binaural programs to focus, relax, meditate, or get the most out of a nap. Each program comes with binaural beats designed to help you reach a specific mood or state of mind.

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Crystal Quintero (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The mind is different when it finally relaxes.

There are the samadhis, highly coherent states of clarified consciousness. It is a factor of the Noble Eightfold Path outlined by the Buddha and misleadingly translated as "right concentration."

The path has three sections (Sila, Samadhi, Prajna): Virtue, Meditation, and Wisdom. Concentration or absorption falls into the Meditation Section.

The question for us is how best to arrive at these coherent states of mind, states of consciousness between waking and sleeping, an in-between state or bardo, when the body is completely relaxed. One good way we developed is "American Meditation Technique," that is, in a warm bath, but it's too easy to drift off. "Dream Meditation" is different and has four steps.

 

Now the meditator becomes increasingly aware of the inner-world by following verbal instructions. This undistracted state of consciousness can be focused to give one access to deep meditation via intense concentration or absorption as one withdraws from the external world of the bodily senses to the internal world of the mind and consciousness.

1. Relax, letting go of all tension and worries.
2. Listen, drifting off to a state just before sleep.
3. Follow, while in a lucid dream state, as the instructions guide the malleable mind to focus, bringing about heightened awareness and lucidity.
4. Emerge, learning to retain that serenity and lucidity.

Buddhism is about waking up.

Meditators are not fully gone because hearing still connects us to the instructions that guide us in, much in the way the Bardo Thodol ("Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State") guides a hearer out of rebirth on this painful plane when in a transitional state.

Now we have an opportunity to access and develop profound samadhi. It's a balancing act, much like sitting is, because an exhausted body will plunge into sleep until refreshed, and a anxious body will slowly learn to let go.
 

D.M.I. - Disclosure - UCLA - Pasa - Punx

Practice serene "Dream Meditation" this Thursday and/or Saturday, June 28th and 30th, at Dharma Meditation Initiative's FREE Dream Meditation Workshop and 1-Day Relaxing Summer Retreat in L.A.

Let's explore the secrets of lucid dreaming. We'll expand our consciousness beyond this waking state to access deeper understanding and higher realities.

This 45 minute SABC TV documentary was filmed at the Tara Rokpa Centre in South Africa over an August 2012 retreat. It features lucid dreaming teacher Charlie Morley, who invites all to retreats like this one.

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Prof. Noam Chomsky, Michel Gondry (DN!)

(IFC Films VOD) Michel Gondry, the innovative director of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "The Science of Sleep," brings us a unique animated doc on the life of the controversial anti-war activist, linguist, MIT professor, philosopher, and political firebrand Noam Chomsky. Complex, lively conversations come alive with brilliant illustrations by Gondry as the film reveals the life and work of the father of modern linguistics while also exploring his theories on human language. The result is not only a dazzling, vital portrait of one of the foremost thinkers of modern times, but also a beautifully animated work of art.

"Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?"

(Is The Man Who Tall Is Happy Official Movie 2013)

Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh interview French filmmaker Michel Gondry, the director of the film, "Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?"

The film is an animated representation of Gondry's conversations with the legendary Noam Chomsky -- a political dissident, linguist, author, and MIT professor. The innovative documentary introduces viewers to Chomsky's theories and ideas through a series of conversations brought to life by Gondry's vibrant hand-drawn animations.

As Chomsky speaks, Gondry's rapidly moving pencil illustrates his words. The two discuss everything from Chomsky's pioneering work in human language acquisition in childhood to his views on education, religion, and astrology.

Gondry's past films include the Academy Award-winning "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (featuring superstar Buddhist comedian Jim Carrey and glorious Kate Winslet), the musical documentary "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," and "The Science of Sleep." He has also directed dozens of music videos by artists including Björk, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, and The Rolling Stones.

Dave Chappelle's "Block Party"!

(Goofy Nation TV) Dave Chappelle's Block Party (full)

(WarnerVOD) "The Science of Sleep" is a playful romantic fantasy set inside the topsy-turvy brain of Stephane Miroux (Gael Garcia Bernal), an eccentric young man whose dreams constantly invade his WAKING LIFE and the intriguing, creative artist Stephanie he meets.

Lucid dreaming: "Waking Life" (film)

 

What does it mean, "lucid dreaming"?

Lucid dreaming is the practice or ability to be aware of dreaming in a dream. There is astral projection, and there is mastering "reality." If life is an illusion, a "dream" (maya), then being lucid means becoming aware of how much we are controlling or contributing to what's going on.

Why Buddhist Indonesia?

Ciara is going this summer, and we would like to go. But whereas she can go on a plane, we may have to find other means. For one, we can study history. "Indonesia" was once a Buddhist land, "Indo" being an apparent reference to Sakka, King of the Devas (a.k.a. Indra), the famous Buddhist raja-deva or "archangel" (Michael in Christianity, Maghavā of Macala in a past life when he performed the karma that resulted in being reborn as a "Sakka," which is a cosmic station occupied by various individuals), an "extraterrestrial" who looks after this planet from the celestial World of the Thirty-Three and the nearby Realm of the Four Great Regents or Sky-Kings.

When was this part of Asia, thousands of islands spread over such a vast distance, Buddhist and Hindu?

Eventually Islam conquered and overran the island chain, approximately 400 years ago. But Bali is still partly Buddhist. DhammaCakraTra says Theravada Buddhism is indigenous. History books say it was once all Mahayana Buddhist and animist. Whatever the form of Islam, it is still very much influenced by its Dharmic past, as if it were an extension of the Khmer Empire, Cambodia, or Asoka's Indian Empire, which probably included modern Afghanistan, the land of the Buddha's birth and early life.

 

Why Indonesia today?

It may have been that Elizabeth Gilbert reintroduced us to this great land. Or it may be that it is miraculous that the largest Buddhist temple is here -- bigger than Angkor Wat, Cambodia, though maybe not as big as unexcavated Mes Aynak, Afghanistan -- at Borobudur. But dreaming now often gets romantic, as author Gilbert found out. Why do we travel thousands of miles to find a wise person living in a saintly hermitage only to ask her or him, "What do I do about my relationship?" We get out into the world, travel far, and that's still the main thing we think about? Apparently.

Do you think about that, too?

Yes. I mean, for all the other things I think about, this Cardigans song washes over me from time to time over someone I love or think I love.

Which song?

"Nasty Sunny Beam," which is infantile and über sweet:

i can't get out of bed/ can't get my dreams out/ of my sleepy head/ i open up my eyes/ and wonder where you are/ but soon i realize/ that you're not real/and i am/ in between a day and dream/ life and death, a lazy stream/ in between a day and dream/ hello, goodbye,/ you nasty sunny beam/ i try to seal my mind/ and get back to where you were/ oh, you were that perfect kind/ you drove me crazy/ somewhere/ in between a day and dream/ life and death, a lazy stream/ in between a day and dream/ hello, goodbye,/ you nasty sunny beam/ i'm floating down again/ and my world is a syrup waterfall/ i can't remember when/ or where/ or why!/ in between a day and dream/ life and death, a lazy stream/ in between a day and dream/ hello, goodbye,/ you nasty sunny beam!

 

Lucid Dreaming Experience

Interviewer Robert Waggoner with Chad Adams (dreaminglucid.com/lde/lde3_1.pdf)

First Meditation in a Lucid Dream (1997)
I stand on the beach, and small waves lap on the sand. It is dark out, and everything is tinged in a deep purple except the sand, which is a brilliant glowing blue. The sky overhead is luminescent with a vast [number] of stars and what looks like the Milky Way Galaxy.

 

I become lucid [aware that this is in fact a dream] and immediately want to try a new experience of practicing meditation while lucid in a dream. I sit down on the sand, cross my legs, and close my eyes. Strange that immediately upon closing my eyes I become extremely aware of my mind as bi-local, or being in two places at one time. I sense myself lying on my bed and here, meditating on a beautiful beach at night in a lucid dream. I push that thought away and begin clearing my mind of all thought. Time passes.

 

I feel a presence. I open my eyes and stand. Someone or something is standing above me. (I cannot recall what it looked like.) It doesn't speak; instead, it motions me to follow. We walk down a path winding through the sand dunes and enter a cave. The interior is lit with an orange light, which has no source. To our right a ramp leads up towards an archway, above which is a sculpture of an eye etched from the rock wall of the cave itself.

The eye is very reminiscent of the one on the back of a dollar bill. I know I am to go through the archway and go under what I later realized was a symbol of my third eye. I walk the stone ramp, underneath the eye. Suddenly, I lose my footing and I'm sliding down a slippery "tunnel slide" that has the texture and appearance of loose skin. It startles me, but doesn't yet scare me.

 

When I come to a stop, I find myself in a tiny room the size of a small shower. On all six sides [up, down, and all around] I am surrounded by the texture and feel of skin flowing like a thick curtain. Again, there is a subtle light illuminating the tiny area, but I haven't thought of its source for I am beginning to panic. Everywhere I place my hand, my foot, everywhere I push, it gives slightly, like elastic. I am really scared now as there is no way out. The panic overrides the knowledge that I am in a dream, and I feel as if I am to suffocate and die in this place. It seems unending.

The realization of the utter uselessness of panic hits me. There is nothing to be gained in the fear. It has gotten me nowhere. And when the fear of enclosure dissipates, I am released. I slow down and slump to the floor.
 

At first I feel resignation then a bit of guilt for giving up, but it is quickly replaced by a feeling of complete peace. A feeling like a close friend is there and will always be there. The walls, the ceiling, the floor...fall away. I am infused by a blissful euphoria, floating in no-time. There is nothing around. Fear seems to be a historic past. I remember asking myself how I could possibly be afraid of anything that is so...so wise, so teaching, so... More

VICE/HBO; Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (ATS), Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Gabor Mate

NICOTINE: Tobaccoland

The dangers of smoking are no secret in the U.S., but in Indonesia, the tobacco industry goes virtually unregulated. The result? Over two-thirds of all males are smokers and tobacco (nicotine with sugar used in curing the leaves, a preservative that makes it much more addictive than in its natural form) addicts. It is commonplace for children as young as six to take up the habit and buy cigarettes legally. Tobacco is a $100 billion industry here, with TV and print ads everywhere. Investigating this phenomenon in Malang, VICE visits a clinic that promises cures to a plethora of modern ailments using tobacco and smoking -- with an intrepid correspondent getting the full "smoke-therapy" treatment.

IBOGA: Underground Heroin Clinic

Heroin is one of the most easy-to-become addicted to substances on Earth. While it cannot be said to be addictive itself, according to Dr. Gabor Mate, many susceptible individuals certainly do become addicts, utterly dependent on it even as it brings about their ruin. ["Addiction" is the interaction of susceptibility from childhood trauma and introduction of the substance to the nervous system, usually for self-soothing rituals]. Some people will do anything to kick the habit.

Enter Ibogaine -- a drug made out of the African iboga root (T. iboga), whose intense, entheogenic and hallucinogenic properties make it a Type-A felony drug (Schedule 1, regarded as having no medicinal or redeeming qualities by the Big Pharma-influenced medical industry as part of the "military-industrial pharmaceutical complex" that pushes artificial, for-profit chemicals and allopathic "treatments" rather than any actual cures).

But many swear iboga is the most effective way to kick heroin and other substance addictions like alcohol -- especially when combined with shamanic rituals that involves a human guide who enters into trance, interacts with the spirit world, does face painting, chanting, and engages in other traditional practices. VICE follows the journey of one heroin addict who travels to Mexico, where Ibogaine is legal, to finally quit drugs.

.

Lucid dreams, in which people are aware of and can control their dreams, are rare.

 

But now scientists have found they can induce this [magical] state of mind in people by zapping their brains with a specific frequency of electricity.

 

"I never thought this would work," said study researcher Dr. John Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard University. "But it looks like it does."

 

 

The results showed that when the inexperienced dreamers were zapped with a current of 40 Hertz, 77 percent of the time these participants reported having what were described as lucid dreams.

"They were really excited," said study researcher Ursula Voss, of J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, who designed the experiments. "The dream reports were short, but long enough for them to report, 'Wow, all of the sudden I knew this was a dream, while I was dreaming.'

 

Dream waves

A lucid dream can be thought of as an overlap between two states of consciousness -- the one that exists in normal dreaming, and the one during wakefulness, which involves higher levels of awareness and control.

 

"If I'm aware, if I'm self-reflective, if I'm thinking about myself, about my past and future, that's normally a waking function," Voss said.

In lucid dreaming, we transfer elements of waking consciousness into the dream, she said.

 

Such overlap is also reflected in the brain waves that researchers can detect using electroencephalography, or EEG... More

 

"Waking Life"

(Waking Life) Dreaming on purpose and with a conscious objective (by Richard Linklater)

• 7 Mind-Bending Facts About Dreams
• PHOTOS: The horror of prison-guard rapists
• Himalayas: The story of "the Roof of the World" 
• Police are dying in Los Angeles, LAPD confused 
• Paying a lot for specialty drugs? Big Pharma :)
• How young is too young to be suspended from school?
• Science: Life got better after "Black Death" (well, it couldn't have gotten much worse. Hooray for Nixon's Nat'l "Security" Advisor Henry Kissinger and other Nixon-era Globalists who want to decimate the human population!)
• Sun's glint wakes up world's deepest lake (Baikal)
• BOOM! Underwater explorer implodes six miles down 
• Will American Empire collapse like all others before it?
• Nagas in the News: "Pinocchio-Rex," cousin of T. Rex
• Exhibitionist Justin Bieber spotted topless, and almost bare back in L.A.'s Griffith Park!

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Douglas Main, "The case of the voluntary out-of-body experience," Popular Science, March 6, 2014 (popsci.com)

The "Out of Body Experience" (OOBE) may be as natural for children as sleep and NDE for us.

 

March 2014: Science of Sleep

After a class on out-of-body experiences [like lucid dreaming], a psychology graduate student at the University of Ottawa came forward to researchers to say that she could have these voluntarily, usually before sleep. "She appeared surprised that not everyone could experience this," wrote the scientists in a study describing the case, published in February in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

OOBE? I thought you said NDE.

Pretty crazy, right? One would think that if you could leave your own body and float above it, you'd be a little more... vocal about it. But since it was a common experience for her -- one she "began performing as a child when bored with 'sleep time' at preschool... moving above her body" instead of napping -- it may have appeared unremarkable. This is way more interesting than what I did, which was indeed napping.

Free book to leave body

The most exciting thing about this case, to me, is "the possibility that this phenomenon may have a significant incidence but [is] unreported because people do not think this is exceptional," as the authors wrote. "Alternatively," they continued, "the ability might be present in infancy but is lost without regular practice.

This would be reminiscent of the discovery and eventual study of synesthesia [confounding colors with sounds] that some researchers now hypothesized is more prevalent in young people or can be developed."

Those are fascinating suggestions -- both that these out-of-body experiences may be more common than previously thought, or could be learned during a critical window early in life.

 

But back to the case study. The 24-year-old "continued to perform this experience as she grew up assuming, as mentioned, that 'everyone could do it.'" This is how she described her out-of-body experiences: More