Lucid dreaming is the practice of being aware that you are dreaming. People want to lucid dream in order to gain greater control over the dream space. There is also some evidence that lucid dreaming can have various mental health benefits. Lucid dreaming was not scientifically investigated until 1978; however, the first documentation of lucid…
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‘Nothing’ is a tricky concept to think about and it is as much a philosophical problem as it is a scientific problem. The question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” has been tackled by different philosophers in different ways. Parmenides, the ancient Greek philosopher, stated that “nothing comes from nothing” which means for something…
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It has come to light that one of the biggest enthusiasts of LSD since it was first synthesised in 1938, was not only the hippie counterculture but also the CIA. The first section of the book Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD (1985) details how the CIA carried out covert operations with this drug.…
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Conflict minerals are minerals which are mined in areas of armed conflict, most notably the Democratic Republic of Congo. The control of the mines which contain these very valuable minerals is the source of a great deal of conflict. The conflict exists between the Congolese National Army and rebel groups, such as the Democratic Forces…
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Benny Shanon is currently a professor of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, having received his PhD in experimental psychology from Stanford University. In 2002 he wrote Antipodes of the Mind, in which he details the effects of ayahuasca and recounts his several hundred trips with the hallucinogenic brew. Shanon is perhaps most well known…
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