What made a difference to me... | ADHD Information

Cliff Notes version, please? I'd like a little more info from you before committing to taking those links.

I feel like a new person. I know that some of you might remember me, it's been a while since I've checked in. I'm now centered, I can handle things easily, I have no anxiety (I was diagnosed ADD with Anxiety) and I'm NOT on any meds, I'm now off the Prozac and I feel wonderful with no side effects or withdrawals getting off the med.

I will share what's made such a turning point in my life. I'll keep it brief because I know that not everyone will be accepting of it, but if you want more information, just PM me.

I've incorporated 3 things into my life that has made all the difference in the world: Quantum Touch, NEW, and Energy Medicine. Here's some sites if you would like to check them out:

http://www.quantumtouch.com/

http://www.astraldynamics.com/tutorials/?BoardID=18

http://www.innersource.net/energy_medicine/energy_medicine_m ain.htm

I know that some people might think it all hokey and a joke, but it's no joke. Just reading the book Quantum Touch changed my life and started me on a wonderful journey. I wish the best for all of you.

Autumn

Glen, you know I'm right there with you in my beliefs, but I'm open to ideas involving energy; Like sachetm said, its the primary component of matter. I have a few ideas, nothing too developed, about energy, and how we are all walking bundles of it. It may sound crockery but I think we're connected to those we are the closest to, whether we know it or not. Heck, we're probably all connected by it but we're only able to notice it with people close to us. Let me tell you a story -- 2 1/2 years ago, on May 18, 2003, the day before my mom's birthday, I found out I was pregnant with my son. I was numb and scared. That night, I couldn't get to sleep. The funny thing is, being pregnant was not what was on my mind. I couldn't even think of that. I laid there with pretty much a blank slate . . with the exception of a feeling that I was sleeping awake, I don't know why. It never even occured to me to think about why I wasn't going to sleep (and for an ADD'er, I'm a good sleeper - I fall right asleep), I just was out of it. At about 11:30 that night, I kind of jolted out of my 'reverie', or whatever, looked at the clock and saw what time it was, and thought I should get to sleep as the next day was Monday and I had to get to the ship I was stationed on. I fell right asleep. The next morning, just as I was walking out the door to go to work, the phone rang. It was my Dad -- at the time, they had disowned me for marrying my husband, and I hadn't spoken to them in 3 months -- they didn't have my phone number, he was calling everyone with my husbands last name in Norfolk, and he had a feeling that this number was the one. . . Called it all night, nothing, (we were sleeping, didnt hear it) and finally gave up for a few hours, to call again right as I was walking out of the door. He told me that my little brother was killed in a car accident the night before, and that I needed to come home. I drove to work in a daze, got on the ship, remember telling someone I work with that I needed to go home, I'm sitting in the SSES with my knees curled under me and the ships doctor is talkign to me . . I tell someone I'm pregnant and I need to go home . . . Confusion. I was on a flight home by 3pm, and arrived in New Orleans at about 10pm, all in a daze. I didn't come out of it until, on the ride to my familys house, my older brother informed me that my brother had been pronounced dead in the ambulance at 10:30pm . . which was 11:30 pm, my time. At that moment, the night before came back to me, the lying there in a dreamless sleep-wake, and then promptly falling asleep. I'm no scientist but I believe that I subconsciously knew that my brother was dying, and that I was with him . . In energy, spirit, whatever have you. When he died, I let go. I'm as dead-as-a-doornail atheist as you are, but this is one thing, for myself, I can't deny. And the only thing I can think to explain it is that we are all energy connected, and when we die, we don't die alone, even if it in a cold ambulance on a back country road. Where does the energy go from there? Who knows? HeidiMarie38640.2965625[QUOTE=GlenW]

ROFLMAO!!! Sorry - but my BS meter went off the redline within 2 seconds of speed reading the cover pages!!

Astral projection? Spiritual powers?? Wow - it reminds me of this cult called Eckankar that tried to drag me in. They told me that I could remove my worries and my bad habits by saying the mantra "HU" over and over until I see an orange glow. Groovy man!

Sorry - but I believe in the reality of life. I don't believe in God, ghosties, psychic powers (after 9/11 and nobody claimed to have known it with proof - hell what do you expect?) and the like. No super powers to heal me - just what science knows and nothing else. It's not perfect - but I'm not about to pay someone to check on my chakra or cleanse my aura. Just not in me to take the stretch.

I know - you all are ticked because I pooh pooh something not in the ordinary. I'm not "allowing new ideas in". I have tried - but since age 6 I've known that there is reality and then fantasy. I can separate them easily - and some people just can't seem to. I'd love to believe in the unseen - but there's more proof against than ever for. It would be nice though - I'd love to have pyrokinesis and set people's butts on fire when I'm ticked. Oh well.

That's all I have to say - if something makes life more tolerable - go with it! But I can't believe in it too - not until you show me scientific proof of it's validity. You do - and I'll be on down to the local healer for an adjustment!

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Ah, Glen, your left brain is showing!

There's actually considerable research going on related to what I'll lump into the category of right brain functioning. In fact, there's an alternative medicine institute within NIH doing research in many of these areas for those who only give credence to left brain thought.

I took a course last quarter in alternative medicine and figure that there are correlates if one looks for them. For example, there are a number of valid scientific studies that have shown the efficacy of distant prayer, however none can explain why it has worked. My hypothesis is that it has to do with manipulation of energy (the primary component of matter, after all). Just because we can't measure it doesn't mean anything more than we just can't yet measure it. Perhaps. If my hypothesis is correct.

There is PLENTY of research that proves the neuroplasticity of the brain. That being the case, why couldn't someone change their synapse patterns to effect certain physical results? Neuroscience literature is replete with examples.

My point to you is that it is possible to bridge the gap between the apparently different realities of right and left brain thought and perception. At least if there's the motivation to do so.

ROFLMAO!!! Sorry - but my BS meter went off the redline within 2 seconds of speed reading the cover pages!!

Yes, more info please. Couldn't find anything about ADHD there. . . Hey Glen (long time no speak :) ), you believe though, that belief in an alternative medicine could possibly physically heal a person, right? That belief is a bio-chem event that could have real consequences on the body? Because belief is part of the body? So maybe autumn is actually being healed, by the rules of your book...though her treatment would never work for you, because you don't believe in it.

The thing is though, if you want to get drunk, and someone gave you apple juice with a warning from the surgeon general on it, you'd sure need a whole lot of faith to work yourself up to a hangover.

And if a person who says that alcohol has no effect on him, that he had no faith in alcohol, was tied down and force fed a few bottles of hard liquor, and then said he was gonna drive you home, while vommitting all over the place, would you wanna get in his car?

It seems best to trust medicines that no matter how hard a person doesn't believe in them, they'll work, for example, I'm not sure pennicillin cares how much you believe in it...It works on babies. And if faith in something is therapeutic, then if you put your faith in something that's been tested (to the best of your knowledge), you'll be super cured! because of that belief factor, combined with the particular effect of the medicine.

GarbagePailKid38641.9733333333

Cliff notes version - if you balance the energy, you balance out your system. Everything is smoothed out and runs more effeciently.

I started reading Quantum Touch just out of interest and it mentioned nothing about ADD/ADHD. But looking back over the last few weeks - at the same time that I started reading the book and following the very simple exercises (about on par with Brain Gym) my symptoms had just gone away.

This is not at all what I expected but I'm eternally grateful to have found it.

I simply started the Quantum Touch exercises as a way to relax myself a little bit. But I got a whole lot more.

Autumn

Where did you get the book?

I'm glad you found some discipline for yourself, but that quantum touch thingy...

Straightening scoliosis in an hour? That's outright quackery. That's National Enquirer material. The photo they show is totally fake looking, who's spine looks like that? It looks like a scar down his back, as if he had surgery....

floofthegoof38639.3931481481

Autumnstar,

I am really happy you are doing well. I went to the QuantumTouch link and I'm with Glen on this. This is Quackery. That person with scoliosis was severe and if, in fact, it was realigned with touch then the newspapers would be headlining the news. If they are so confident in the process, why aren't they setting up with the media to demostrate this technique for all to see. Well, I think it may be because they want you to buy the book.

With that said, I cannot dismiss the power of the brain. We all know that many stroke patients may learn to use the other side to accomplish what the damaged part of their brain did. I believe the brain is a powerful tool that we just barely take advantage of so I can be open to new ways to utilize our brain.

Of course not, Glen, because no two individuals are identical and certainly not even to themselves because of change over time.

In his book, "Health and Healing," Andrew Weil makes an interesting point (after exploring bunches of alternative practices and systems) that when any of these produce "miraculous" cures (and there are too many of them in the literature to ignore--especially from the placebo effect) the ONLY thing they have in common is the belief the believer has in them. That tends to indicate there's some power in the mind that give it dominion over the physical--in some set of circumstances--whatever those happen to be.

From what you're saying, it sounds like left-brain science is YOUR belief system. But just another belief system it is. New Agers could poo poo it just as easily as you poo poo theirs. Seems like so much "my daddy's better than your daddy" to me. Both exist. Personally, I'm more interested in understanding the nature of that relationship.

Maybe some psychic DID predict 9/11 and you 've just not heard about it. None of us know everything. Can't see that's any kind of proof--especially when its so dependent on reporting/publicity. Maybe the person/people who did see it have been afraid others wouldn't believe them, think them crazy, the government would try to silence them, who knows?.

You're holding 9/11 up as some kind of de facto test, but maybe in the total scheme of the cosmos rather than your own criteria, it's no special test at all. Just a few random thoughts, that's all.

yup. low concentration. I see what you mean.

Good points - I'll think on that one.

But 9/11 is a GREAT litmus test on psychics!! There are supposedly enough people able to augur the future that they can run thousands of 1-900 lines around the globe. There are tons of predictions in papers (mostly rags but even the big ones run them sometimes). The run schools on how to become psychic or open up the "channels". They predict floods, hurricanes (oh, yeah anyone see a prediction about either before they hit??) and the like.

Not ONE was running over to CNN to tell us about what was to be the biggest terrorist action in history. Not one! Believe me - if they did (and was ignored) you would hear about it a lot.

There are dozens that hit the talk shows, even friggin larry king on CNN. Not one has come out and said "yes, I saw it and made sure that it was documented ahead of time". Not one highly public psychic made the claim. Why wouldn't you take the credit as being the most successful psychic ever to live on the planet? Even if not for the money (as all psychics are want to) - what about all the wonderful things you could do in helping people see that we are all psychic and we can open ourselves up to that brave new world?

I just think that if these people who claim to see all and know all can't see something so out in the open - something that should have made ripples in the ether up the yin-yang - if they can't see that - why think they can see a thing?

Whatever open mindedness I had shut it's doors for good after 9/11. There's no psychics - no "other world". Call me "left-brained" - whatever. The corpus collosum makes me both brained so I disagree there but we all believe what makes us comfortable in the scary world. I honestly wish someone had told us before the big events. Belief would have been comforting. But it isn't there.

First, HeidiMarie, I'm terribly sorry about your brother. Having lost a family member within the last few years, know how incredibly painful it is. My Father was in a coma prior to his death but there's no doubt in my mind that he was waiting for me to get to the nursing home to be with him before passing. I just "got" that and could FEEL him moving away. Impossible to explain in any kind of rational way (as most of those kinds of experiences are--at least through left-brain kinds of words). Energy is the closest "thing" I can think to describe the "source" of the experience. Does that make any sense?

I don't know exactly what the research I have in mind will look like much less when I'll be able to get to it since it's a tertiary interest. Ahead of it is my dissertation research on storytelling and brain function and after that, psycho-neuro-immunology. The common thread in all these, however, is neurophysiology and the relationship between right and left brain (the simplistic way of describing it) functions. Lordy, but there is a LOT to know--99% of which I don't yet!

I'm not an Atheist (or Agnostic). Unitarian probably comes closest. I'm certainly not a member of any mainstream religion. There's far too much "design" in the universe that seems "intelligent" to ignore for me, but I also think most religion is based on myth with some wisdom mixed in for good measure (although it's far too ignored in practice for my tastes).

You might enjoy the article I referred Fallen to. It's from the field of Semiotics (one I only recently discovered) about the attribution of "meaning." The objectivists believe there's an objective reality (which their own religion, of course, describes), a constructivist position that says that meaning is created through the interaction of people; and a subjectivist view that holds that individuals invent their own meaning and that's the only place it resides is inside the one experiecing it. (Quantum physics tends to support the subjectivist position--at least as I understand it.) Interesting ideas! (Here's the URL: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/texts.html)

My hypothesis is that given the redundancy one observes in nature, it makes sense that there's a correspondence between the physical world and the (currently understood) non-physical world but that correspondence isn't obvious. I "get" (via intuition) that there are multiple planes of "reality" but that they also all "communicate" with each other through some vehicle. (I suspect a thorough understanding of the brain holds some good clues.)

We experience those intersections--such as your experience of your brother's passing--but are left in the dark about a rational (left-brain plane) explanation. But the brain isn't so limited, so time and research should help--in time--reveal more about how it all works.

I just find this stuff fascinating and hope my own brain is capable of revealing some of what is currently unknown.

[QUOTE=sachetm]

[lots of good stuff here]

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Yup. Glen, if you remove all the crazy new agey labels there's a great deal involved that makes a lot of sense. Relaxation, self-hypnosis, manipulating your own brain state, body awareness - just because the dogmatic part is bullsh*t doesnt make the practice itself worthless or bogus (which sounds a little like religion to me ;) )

My excuse right now is that I dont have time but when I meditated every day I found it provided a great deal of benefit with regards to my ADD. I had less incidences of 'brain tunneling' and generally felt much calmer and less anxious about life.

"energy" systems within the body are documented well enough that to disregard them would be extremely myopic.

I'm not a great believer in the new age stuff, and that's after spending a decade researching it (including a 2 year period of travelling two continents, working alongside some of it's practitioners). While theres a great deal of bunk out there there's also a great amount of people that are tapping into something, and using their own vocabularies to explain it.

You may want to look into Zen and the Brain - Google it and Newsweek or Time, as there was a laymans article about it about 5 years ago that is still available. The jist is: when you wire up buddhists, christian monks and nuns, sufis or any other devout religious person, and monitor their brains during religious devotions there is an area of the brain that becomes activated, once activated it gives the self a sense of oneness, a removal of three dimensional space, and a connectedness with everything - basically it totally bypasses the ego. This phenomenon is identical in ALL the test subjects, regardless of the target of their faith.

As a scientist it simply explains religious experience and the observable fact that our brains are wired to have them. As a philosopher it begs the question: Do our brains generate the experience because we need to have belief in something external, or do our brains have a built in 'telephone' to the gods? And as someone who enjoys hacking wetware: how often can I reach that state myself?

Anyone who would like some religious-state induction exercises, feel free to PM me :)

I'll be the first one to admit that the brain has incredible self-healing tools that we are discovering. A lot of pain-relief and immune triggering tools are being found.

Where I have trouble is when people try and connect the brain to some "invisible force" that can heal others or undo large damages to the body. That's impossible - we just don't have the tools for that. There's no invisible force connecting us - that's an illusion our brain makes for us.

Meditation can bring us peace and center us in our own little universe. I could never meditate for the same reason I couldn't be hypnotised - my concentration level is WAY too low. Too bad - it looks very peaceful. I took martial arts as a teen and wanted to join in on the meditation and it was a useless effort as I would sit still and just be screaming inside. Not too relaxing.

The feeling of connecting to "God" or the universe is what scientists are looking into right now - there is a section of the brain they call the "God" center... it's what gets activated when people die. It seems to be a survival tool that comes on when we lose brain function - it keeps us from going into shock. They can activate it by flooding it with magnetic fields and can see it kick in. No psychic power there - just a tool left over by our genetic past.

The fact is that until one person can go up to a scientifically valid trial and move a mote of dust with their mind - make one verifiable signal move invisibly from person to person or validate one prediction without trickery - I don't buy any of it. I gave up when all the "psychics" stayed quiet before, during and after september 11th - not even one could prove they warned us about it - or could do anything about it. If you can't help with something so big - how can I believe they can predict how a person is going to turn out?

I would love to believe in an unseen world - but there's way too much proof its all a profit driven shell game. Too bad too.

Glen,

I had a long reasoned response containing plenty of scientific information. Then I realized that you'll spin it all into some lame strawman for you to knock down. Your faith in the concrete seems as close minded to me as having a Christian try to argue using sciptural quotes. I quit being certain of anything a long time ago.

Still, I tend to envy those who're able to maintain that faith in the concrete, for it's simplicity.

Autumnstar,

My mother and step-father are very involved in Quantum Touch and I have to say that it is an amazing thing. Don't listen to criticism... if it works, go with it! I think there is so much we don't understand about this world and how we are all so interconnected. Don't let anyone tell you that it doesn't work because it takes an open mind and soul to welcome any help, even if our brain can't explain it using scientific method. :)

[QUOTE=Fallen]Glen,

I had a long reasoned response containing plenty of scientific information. Then I realized that you'll spin it all into some lame strawman for you to knock down. Your faith in the concrete seems as close minded to me as having a Christian try to argue using sciptural quotes. I quit being certain of anything a long time ago.

Still, I tend to envy those who're able to maintain that faith in the concrete, for it's simplicity.
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Believe me when I say that I'd LOVE to believe in some unseen world of energy passing about undetected and tappable by one and all. The problem is that noone can make these wonderful things manifest in a way that's predictable and recordable. The scientific method helps to filter the real from the fake by making it where you have to be able to make these things happen not once in uncontrolled circumstances - but over and over while being documented.

If some healing can heal a persons' spine - then get them to do it in a lab. Have x-rays taken of "before" - then perform whatever they do while being observed - then take "after" x-rays. If it works - it would be in every medical journal and be the miracle everyone knows about.

It's like meds - for a med to be confirmed to be valid and useful they do the usual tests - bring in a group of people - all who need the meds. Give the med in a "double blind" way - where noone knows which is which until it's over. Observe how everyone is doing - then when it's over reveal how many actually got the meds and whether or not it was successful. Really easy to perform and the results are typically repeatable by any scientist.

So I'm sure that this quantum touch has had external labs check out its' findings and has had it performed by an outside group of peers to make sure that it's valid. Can we see these tests? What percentage of people were helped during the double-blind trials? I'd love to see!

The film itself was funded by the Ramtha group - which is basically a cult. Check it out - it's kinda funny once you start digging. I do know that some of the science in the movie is questionable at best. A cursory Google search will get you a list of resources including the scientists featured in the movie saying that they were quoted out of context.

The UK in particular has been dealing with the homeopathy craze. A recent study is considered 'the final nail' as there was no compelling evidence that homeopathy actually worked. The water memory article, which I can't find right now (hrmm) was a debunker who discovered that the water itself did exhibit some memory of the element it had been exposed to, and that it defied rational explanation. The anomaly was something she was going to continue researching. I thought it was research done by Susan Blackmore, but I can't find any articles referencing her in recent months, so Im a little lost as to whom it might be. I've been out of the UK for 10 years so I'm a little behind on the main players in that field now. Blackmore I remember simply for meme theory and her work on altered states and out of body experiences back in the 1990s.

Kid, you might be interested in Andrew Weil's book, too--especially the section on the "placebo effect." Or just Google that term and see what turns up. There are some fascinating studies of what has happened as a result of a placebo effect.

In clinical trials of medicines or treatments, there is virtually always a percent of people for whom it doesn't work--penicillan or otherwise. For those individuals, why? What is it about them? Doctors--especially oncologists (closest to that at the moment), talk about percentages because that's all they have to go on. Just because some drug provides an 80% chance to live a normal life doesn't mean a given individual won't fall into the 20%. But it's the best they've got (assuming they're up on the literature--one has to hope)--at least for a first line of treatment.

I've only ever heard of one study with a 100% result and that could have been because of the sample selected and likely was. Samples are just that, no matter how carefully selected. I mean, people do win the lottery, despite the odds against any given individual. Samples work on odds, too.

Statistical significance is essentially majority rule and odds, not absolute, irrefutable proof. As AD(H)Ders, we're in an even better position to understand what it's like to be part of a minority for whom majority "rules" don't apply--at least without some type of intervention.

sachetm38642.238587963GPG, there was an experiment performed in the UK at least a decade ago where two groups were studied.

One group was given ordinary alcoholic drinks. The other was not told, but was given non-alcoholic substitutes. Both exhibited intoxicated behavior.

For anyone to argue that 'the unseen' is complete bunk puts you at odds with the medical establishment who take it all very seriously:

http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/show/NCT00179634

Which will give you a list of current and past medical trials occuring that are focused on mental state and visualization techniques and their effectiveness. The study that's directly linked is from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston - one of the leading medical facilities in the world, and on the cutting edge of modern research (and about 3 miles down the road from where Im sat). Check out the reference links, as they go back a few decades and are all scientific enough that even Glen might be able to concentrate on them.

Considering the efficacy of the average prescribed drug is less than 50% (less 1 in 2 people will derive the full benefit of the drug) I'd hardly say that medical science has all the answers either. Leeches were once the mainstay of medical science. Of course, we scoff now at how crazy that sounds - using leeches for medicine?? Except that they've discoverd that leeches are actually the most effective tool in certain cases involving inefficient blood supply in the body.

Maggots? same thing. Keep them clean and they are the most efficient tool for removing dead tissue before it festers and causes blood infections in the injured.

On the slightly flaky front: As recent as two months ago a famed sceptic and anti-homeopathy scientist in the UK performed a series of experiments to check 'water memory', much to her surprise she discovered that the claim of homoepaths is born out - water cells retained the molecular memory of the chemical it was supposed to remember. This was one hell of a shock to her, and the rest of the scientific community. While it doesnt immediately prove that homeopathy WORKS, it does prove, conclusively, that 'there is something to it'.

I realize it's tough, but simply because you (or I) are ignorant of something does not negate its existence or its utility.

Note: I am not arguing for psychic powers, quantum touch or any other 'alternative therapy'. I am arguing against close-mindedness, arguing from a position of ignorance, and the distortion of reality simply to knock it down.

Oh, oh, Fallen, did you per chance watch the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?" that contained info on Emoto's work on water? Facinating! (But then that whole film was, IMHO.) We also read another study (not a woman but a man out of UCLA, I think, named Lu or Lee or something like that. I have the references as it was one whole unit for my alt med course). If you're interested, I can look it up.

I've seen nothing that proves or even conclusively indicates that homeoptic medicines either 1) are effective at statistical significance or 2) when they are how and why. And our assignment was to find info to support or refute this guy Lu/Lee/whatever's work, so a whole bunch of people searched and there wasn't much. However, I've a bit of interesting work that goes a long way in explaining the potential effectiveness of "recussion" (dilution and shaking of a solution). Do you have a reference for the woman you're talking about? My instructor for that course would love to see it, I'm sure!

It seems we have a lot of common interests!