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Posts Tagged ‘Empathy’

Our genomes … our stories

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on January 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

We all have a story.  You know, the narrative of you … your life, its twists and turns … the person you are inside, the person you want(ed) to be … the special, unique person that you are.  Your story is something you naturally think about … a lot.  Is this who I am? … [...]

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Are there genes for my favorite part of me?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Here’s an excerpt from William Vollmann’s book Poor People … of an exchange between two men … one, a passerby, and the other, homeless “young, bearded, well-clad, his his bluejean legs sewn into pockets around his stumps“. He expressed through his noninsistence my right not to give him anything, and the little that I did [...]

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A yogi's guide to what women want

Posted in breathing, Mindfulness, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Image via Wikipedia Please forgive the absurd title here … its just a play on words from a flabby, middle-aged science geek who is as alluring to “the ladies” as an old leather boot. Like a lot of males (with active fantasy lives I suppose), my interest was piqued by the recent headline, “What Do [...]

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Love is space and time measured by the heart

Posted in breathing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Have you ever lost track of time in yoga class?  On a good day, I’ll get so into the practice that my awareness of “how much time still to go?” comes at the very end.  Other days, I might feel time dragging as if the class is taking forever (best not to glance at a [...]

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Yoga spirit, southern style

Posted in artist, tagged , , , , on September 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Are they practicing breath control?  No.  Are they practicing postures?  No.  Are they desperately seeking meaning and a connection with divinity?  Yes.  Are they pulled in one direction by the wants of the body, and in another direction by the wants of the spirit?  Yes.  Do they cope day to day with grim realities of [...]

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Suffering begets empathy and the spiritual journey

Posted in Bhagavad-Gita, tagged , , , , on July 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Pointer to a neat lecture on humans’ natural predisposition toward empathy which seems to be rooted deeply in our species’ need for social belonging as well as “grounded in the acknowledgment of death” (related post here).   The virtue of compassion is obviously deeply rooted in Bhagavad Gita and certainly a mental and [...]

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Social scientist unites biology with Buddism

Posted in evolution, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Just a few excerpts from a lecture by the renown social psychologist Paul Ekman who is known for his work on the biology of human emotion.  Here he relates conceptual bridges between the writings of Charles Darwin and HH The Dalai Lama.  Ekman notes that both Darwin and HH The Dalai Lama [...]

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Look deeply into my eyes and let me see your genes

Posted in OTR, OXTR, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »

*** PODCAST accompanies this post *** Nowadays, it seems that genomics is spreading beyond the rarefied realm of science and academia into the general, consumer-based popular culture.  Quelle surprise!?  Yes, the era of the personal genome is close at hand, even as present technology  provides – directly to the general consumer public – a  genome-wide [...]

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Interview with Dr. Garet Lahvis on genetic and animal models of empathy and social behavior

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by juanpol via Flickr It was a great pleasure to speak with Professor Garet Lahvis from the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at the Oregon Health and Science University, and learn more about how the biology of empathy and social behaviors in general can be approached with animal models that are suitable for genetic studies.  [...]

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Which coisogenic mouse is more like Stuart Little?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on November 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image via Wikipedia ** podcast interview accompanies this post ** Lab mice have it pretty good I suppose.  Chow, water and mating ad libitum, fresh bedding, no predators.  Back in grad school, I usually handled my little mouse subjects gently so as not to frighten them and always followed the guidelines for humane treatment.  At [...]

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