If you are at all interested in altered states of consciousness, transpersonal psychology, parapsychology or spirituality, you will find a great many useful and interesting papers written by Professor Charles Tart.

I was smitten by his work when I read his classic book Altered States of Consciousness in 1969, and he reamins one of the most respected figures in these fields

I have followed his work closely ever since, and his library of free articles is a treasure trove containing papers written between 1963 and 2006.

Charlie is currently a Core Faculty Member at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, a Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, California, as well as Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Davis campus of the University of California.

I would like to thank him and many publishers for making all this material freely available.

There is an important study in this month’s issue of the Annals of Family Medicine It concerns something that most health care professional in the United States have been worried about for some time: it is direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines. I rarely watch much television, but out of interest I had one channel on for an hour this morning and saw six advertisements for medicines. It is not widely known that this practice is illegal in most of the rest of the world, with the exception of New Zealand.

The research suggests that this direct-to-consumer television advertising of prescription drugs may be influencing Americans to believe that they are sicker than they really are. This may in turn lead to taking more medication than they actually need.

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and was led by Dominick Frosch from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The researchers evaluated the educational value of 38 direct-to-consumer television advertisements for prescription drugs and analyzed how they tried to influence viewers. The drugs in question were for treating illnesses ranging insomnia and depression to high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Their findings suggest that the advertisements had virtually no educational value. Furthermore they failed to describe who is most at risk for which illnesses, what their symptoms might be, and whether non-medicinal alternatives such as lifestyle changes might also be viable options.

According to the figures cited, Americans watch up to 16 hours of television advertising about prescription drugs per week. The scientists watched the advertisements shown during the evening news and prime time periods. They used a coding system that takes into account a number of attributes of each ad. The attributes included the factual claims made about the illness the drug is aimed at, the method used to attract the consumer, and also what is revealed about the behavior and lifestyle of the people in the advertisement.

Although they found that over 80% of the advertisements did make some factual claims and put forward rational arguments for use of the drugs, only 25-26 per cent of them described symptoms and causes of illnesses, the associated risk factors and how common or rare they are.

The scientists also found some common strategies: many of the advertisements portrayed the drugs in terms of people losing control over their lives (58%) and then regaining it (85%) once they took the medication. 78% of the ads also portrayed the medication as engendering social approval, while 58% of them implied that the drug was a medical breakthrough.

The findings also show that nearly all advertisements (95%) used emotional appeal to influence viewers and none of them showed lifestyle and behavior change as viable alternatives, except for 19% of them that showed this as an adjunct to taking the drug. 18% of the advertisements suggested that changes to lifestyle would not be enough to deal with the illness.

The conclusion of the study is that despite the claims that television advertisements play an educational role, they contain limited information about causes and symptoms of their target illnesses, their prevalence and risk factors. They also show people that have “lost control over their social, emotional or physical lives without the medication; and they minimize the value of health promotion through lifestyle changes. The ads have limited educational value and may oversell the benefits of drugs in ways that might conflict with promoting population health.”

Dr Frosch said that “We’re seeing a dramatization of
health problems that many people used to manage without prescription
drugs,” and that the “ads send the message that you need drugs to
manage these problems and that without medication your life will be
less enjoyable, more painful and maybe even out of control.” He said
that the US should consider banning direct to consumer television
advertising of prescription drugs too. Something that was echoed in the
accompanying editorials.

I have spent a great deal of time weighing the pros and cons of direct-to-patient advertising with health care professionals and people in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, the United States and Australia and New Zealand. Despite all of our work to empower people, I remain unconvinced that they are ultimately in peoples’ best interests.

Today is Freethinker’s Day, ostensibly because January 29th is the birthday of Thomas Paine.

Born in Thetford in Norfolk in 1737, he emigrated from England to Philadelphia in 1774 after he met Benjamin Franklin in London, who advised him to seek his fortune in the Americas, and gave him letters of introduction. It was two years later that he published Common Sense, a popular pamphlet that argued for complete American independence from Britain and was an important influence on the American Revolution. This, probably more than any other single publication, paved the way for the Declaration of Independence.

Later that same year in his pamphlet The American Crisis he wrote his famous line, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

After the revolution was won, Paine returned to England in 1787, and in 1791 he published The Rights of Man, which opposed the idea of monarchy and defended the French Revolution. The book immediately created a sensation, with at least eight editions being published in 1791, and the work was quickly reprinted in the United States where it was widely distributed by the Jeffersonian societies.

The Rights of Man began as a defense of the French Revolution but it evolved into an analysis of the basic reasons for discontent in European society and suggested that republicanism was a remedy for the evils of arbitrary government, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and war.

He was always a free thinker, and I’ve recently re-read the Rights of Man and been impressed by his writing, even if I don’t agree with all of his conclusions.

Free thinking is what lead to the creation of Integrated Medicine and the discovery that some of the Laws of Life have been evolving and changing over the last few centuries. These discoveries were all the fruits of thinking - and living - “outside the box.”

Here are a few of Thomas Paine’s quotable quotes:
“A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men.”

“A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. It has not an ideal but a real existence, and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none. A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution. The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of a people constituting a government. It is the body of elements to which you refer, and quote article by article, and contains the principles on which the government shall be established–the form in which it shall be organized–the powers it shall have–the mode of elections–the duration of Congress–and, in fine, everything that relates to the complete organization of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound. A constitution is to a government, therefore, what the laws made by that government are to a court of judicature. The court of judicature does not make laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made; and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution.”

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”

“A republic properly understood is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will.”

“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”

“Accustom a people to believe that priests, or any other class of men who can forgive sins, and you will have sins in abundance.”

“Action and care will in time wear down the strongest frame, but guilt and melancholy are poisons of quick dispatch.”

“All the religions known in the world are founded, so far as they relate to man or the unity of man, as being all of one degree. Whether in heaven or in hell, or in whatever state man may be supposed to exist hereafter, the good and the bad are the only distinctions.”

“Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man”

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

“Civilization, or that which is so called, has operated two ways to make one part of society more affluent and the other part more wretched than would have been the lot of either in a natural state.”

“Compassion, the fairest associate of the heart.”

“He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.”

“He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”

“I believe that a man may write himself out of reputation when nobody else can do it.”

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and row brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”

“It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes.”

“It is necessary to the happiness of a man that he be mentally faithful to himself.”

“Man must go back to nature for information.”

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”

“Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their suffering and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.”

“My country is the world, and my religion to do good.”

“My mind is my own church.”

“Mystery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that obscures truth, and represents it in distortion.”

“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.”

“Tears may soothe the wounds they cannot heal.”

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

“The nearer any disease approaches to a crisis, the nearer it is to a cure. Danger and deliverance make their advances together; and it is only in the last push that one or the other takes the lead.”

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”

“The sublime and ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step below the sublime makes the ridiculous and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.”

“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”

“There is a natural firmness in some minds, which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude.”

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”

“Though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.”

“Time makes more converts than reason.”

“’Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”

“We feel something like respect for consistency even in error. We lament the virtue that is debauched into a vice; but the vice that affects a virtue becomes the more detestable.”

“We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.”

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

“What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

“When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.”

“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.”

I have had a number of kind comments about my brief piece concerning the revolution in open access to information.

Few people have yet realized the impact that it will have on our lives.

I am most honored to have just received this note from Peter Suber:

Hi Richard: PLoS is part of a larger movement for open access to
peer-reviewed research literature, and a lot has happened since PLoS
was launched in 2001. For details, see my Timeline [ http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/timeline.htm ], and for daily updates see my blog, Open Access News [ http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html ].

I have had a good look at Peter’s material, and I have also subscribed to his blog, so it will now appear on the left-hand side of this blog under “What I’m reading,” so you can access his writings without having to dart all over the place.

The entire open access movement encompasses a great deal more than just scientific and medical research, and is all precisely aligned with my aim of achieving greater personal empowerment, so that you can take control of your life, your health, your future and the legacy that you leave behind.

Several correspondents have agreed with my point, that the next imperative is to teach people how to use this information.

I spend a lot of time scanning, reading and analyzing scientific and medical journals that might have anything in them that are relevant to our themes of Health, Integrated Medicine, Meaning and Purpose.

And as I discussed recently, those that are helpful and accessible may find their way onto the “Journals” resource panel on the left-hand side of this blog. I don’t want any of us to get overwhelmed with information, so I check several issues before any of them make the final cut.

Many readers have been kind enough to make suggestion, all of which I have checked on your behalf. So I have just added a journal - Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research - that I have only discovered in the last month or so, though I’ve now had a look at all the past issues.

There was a particular article that caught my attention. The paper suggests that chiropractic care may offer significant benefits to children suffering from learning disabilities and dyslexia.

The research was a literature review by the Swiss chiropractor Yannick Pauli, who is President of the Swiss Chiropractic Pediatric Association and who specializes in the care of children suffering from learning and behavioral disorders.

Learning disorders and dyslexia affect anywheere between three and ten percent of school-aged children in the United Sates. The numbers vary depending on the exact criteria that we use. And it is certainly true that individuals with these disorders often suffer from low self-esteem, low levels of motivation, loss of interest in school, academic difficulties and often have problems in social functioning.

Dr. Pauli suggest that any positive effects on learning disabilities and dyslexia may have something to do with improving function in the cerebellum. Most books will tell you that the cerebellum is simply involved in motor corodination, posture and balance. But that has long been known to be a limited view: amongst mammlas, humans have the largest cerebellum relative to the rest of the brain, and it is involved in coordinating not just motor functions, but also sensation, language, emotion and social functions.

According to Pauli, “The only source of constant stimulation to the brain comes from the spine and the postural muscles constantly adjusting to the force of gravity…. If the daily physical stresses of life cause misalignments in the spine — called vertebral subluxations by chiropractors — the brain is not adequately stimulated. This can cause problems throughout the body.”

This work is preliminary and skeptcs will imediately ask why it was not done by independent scholars? The answer is that they will rarely touch a topic like this unless someone has done some preliminary work to show that it might be worth their attention. This is exactly what happened a number of years ago when several friends of mine - all eminent researchers - decided to examine chiropractic manipulation in low back pain. The research was only done because some British chiropractor had already produced some pilot data. Then the full resources of a major research team swung into action.

I also have some personal observations that lead me to think that the results of this small Swiss study will have traction. Tough not everyone gets better, I have seen several children with neurodevelopmental problems and traumatic brain injuries helped greatly by chiropractic and Ayurvedic forms of manipulation. One of the most striking was a young South Indian girl whose family lived in Germany. She had a form of cerebral palsy, and at the age of 5 was in a bad way. I saw her after a dozen manipulative treatments in London, and the change was stunning.

That is why research is so important. Not just to see if a thing works, but to try and work out in whom it might work. And then to see if we can make the treatment yet better.