ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY FLASH CARDS EXPLANATION OF THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE NEW BRAIN SCIENCE #1. As you learn how to understand your brain and behavior better, you will be using the new brain words to expand your self-awareness. In the process you will be creating new definitions of your "sense of self" and your "sense of purpose." The new brain vocabulary can give you more control over both your conscious awareness of yourself and your unconscious memories. This new brain knowledge can motivate you to begin the mind-altering process of "self-creation," and empower you to increase your "self-esteem," and also simultaneously assert your "self-actualization" potential --- your power to engage other individuals both socially and politically to join in the fight for self-liberation. But to claim this amazing power of "reasoned motivation," you must be able to name it! That is where the Alphabetical Brain Vocabulary™ can help you help yourself. This means that with all the new synaptic connections and new neural pathways (which contain the new brain vocabulary words), your consciousness of reality can change remarkably and brighten your life. This is because scientific thinking strategies have provided the most accurate understanding of how the main parts of human brains interact and how the cybernetic "feedback functions" of human brains create meaning out of human experiences and relationships. Finally, after hundreds of years of systematic scientific investigation, the new brain findings explain for everybody how something can be created out of nothing by properly using the human imagination (brainpower) to create meaningful values that can satisfy you and also resonate with those you love. #2. If you train your brain to live in the real material world of your senses, as did the ancient Epicurean thinkers of classic Greece, and as was first expressed most clearly during the early Roman Empire by the Latin philosopher Lucretius, and later by many European Renaissance thinkers of the 1700s and by many Enlightenment thinkers of the 1800s-1900s, you will be free to choose a healthier and happier lifestyle and better relationships with other people and also with Nature. You can be positive all the time, as you create your "sense of purpose" for your life. By being positive, you are more likely to take enthusiastic constructive steps to solve your problems as you seek to know your place in the Universe --- even if you are faced with life-threatening difficulties. This is because being positive in the face of challenges is an evolutionary trait, which explains why being optimistic can give you better odds of solving your problems your own way, either by yourself or by collaborating with others. When you understand how the main parts of your brain interact to make it possible for you to experience your own unique human consciousness as well as to motivate yourself to create your own unique "perspective" or attitude about the meaning of life, you will truly feel free and be liberated to experience the full spectrum of happy human emotions and see significant results due to your conscientious efforts. You will really be able to avoid much of the uncomfortable confusion of the culturally-induced "cognitive dissonance," which is the tendancy toward negative thinking that is also known as "brain fog." #3. You may need to purposely forget opinions that you previously believed, especially traditional "faith-values," which you may have learned as a child. Remembering and forgetting are both "choices." You will have more willpower or "free will" when you become enlightened since you will be thinking for yourself instead of being overly influenced by others. The relevant new brain science ideas are based on measurable facts which you can remember forever. They are not going to change like fanciful wishes can . On the other hand, forgetting old irrelevant traditional metaphorical beliefs based simply on historical religious or political traditions may become one of the most important achievements of your life. This is because you will be able to create priceless new meanings in your life and get spectacular results in the realm of positive growth and solid loving relationships based on trust --- if your memory is not filled with erroneous illusory beliefs about the nature of reality. #4. The basic learning process known as "spaced-repetition" (or memorization through timed repetition) can take just a few minutes in order for you to learn about each new factual idea that is displayed on each brain flash card. Or, it may take you several study sessions to learn about the latest brain information that is presented in the current 81 flash cards available online for test purposes. After you understand the meanings of all 100 Brain Flash Cards, you will be able to appreciate the enormous complexity of your amazing brain in its entirety at a practical, useful level. There will always be more to learn about your brain since new knowledge is being created by scientific experiments every day. However, the trend during the past few exciting years of brain research is the accumulation of proofs which demonstrate clearly and irrevocably that the earlier scientific hypotheses that were tested on mice and monkeys (and other animals) produced results that are also true of humans. You will soon learn that a human brain can do everything better than the brains of other animals, including deceiving itself! #5. When you study the new brain facts and ideas in "spaced-intervals" of time (over the period of several hours or several days), you can greatly improve your ability to memorize the essential life-changing new brain knowledge. When you study objective facts or ideas, such as how your brain works, the "Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve" predicts that the ease and speed at which you will remember the facts and ideas will increase each time you expose yourself to them, especially if your study is spread out over time. It will take some practice or "rehearsal time" in order to memorize the new meanings of the new brain vocabulary in your life. However, it is important for you to remember that "practice makes perfect" if you practice correctly. Otherwise, your results won't be perfect! The length of time it will take you to understand what the words mean will depend upon how familiar you are already with the names of each of the major parts of your brain including the definitions and the explanations of how each of your brain's main "feedback functions" work. It could take several sessions (on several days) to consolidate the new brain knowledge into your existing complex memory system. This is because all your memories are splattered all over your brain and fixed in your brain tissue --- since they helped you survive this long! You must "unfix" them by considering their truth and relevance to the quality of your life now (from the perspective of the new brain vocabulary and insights), at this moment in time! However, your "memories" will change as you continue to strengthen the neural pathways, which contain the new brain words, by the "spaced-repetition" method of memorization. Brain science has proven that facts and ideas can be moved from your short-term memory resources to your long-term memory resources by simply repeatedly exposing your mind to a single factual brain idea in rapid succession --- without any distractions! That is why the Brain Flash Cards work so well. They force you to pay attention to the most important brain-related words that need to be memorized and remembered forever. #6. After you explore the brain flash cards, you can begin thinking about your complex "big brain" from the simple practical perspective of this website with the current 81 Brain Flash Cards, which will eventually become 100 flash cards with free printable "lists" for learning that you will be able to use to test your progress. Learning the vital factual brain ideas will enable you to make good decisions about the amount of time that you want to spend studying and integrating the new information into your consciousness of your "SELF." #7. Why does the repetition of this specific sequence of brain flash cards help you remember better? Because of Hebb's Law that states: "Neurons that fire together wire together!" If you remember the practical factual brain ideas, along with the first letter (or letters) that they are associated with on the flash cards, your new memories of brain parts and functions can be strengthened quicker than by any other known method. The many high-profile "brainpower" books and internet programs are useful but generally distract you from the essentials and the critical thinking skills that can change your life for the better! Since you already have significant neural pathways devoted to the English alphabet in your memory system, it will be easy for your brain to expand its neural pathways and increase your memory power when you "associate" the definitions of the parts of your brain and their functions with the 26 universally known letters in the English alphabet! If you combine the "spaced-repetition" and the "alphabet-association" methods of remembering, you can create millions of new neurites at the ends of your billions of neurons. And your trillions of connecting synapses will be relaying ideas up and down your body (brain and nervous system) and saving them in the neural circuits of the neuron networks of your brain and spinal cord. #8. Clumps of neurons, called "modules," which are typically found in the same places in all human brains, are activated by the electrical input signals from your "six senses," which include your sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, and proprioceptive sense. Also their are sensory and motor neurons attached to your muscles, your inner organs, and also your memory resources, which allow your brain to react to both your inner and outer environments by sending electrical output and input signals back and forth from your brain to the muscles in your body. In addition, your memory's neuron networks "remember" how your body reacted in order to avoid danger or to feel the sensations of pain or pleasure in the future. You must understand this fundamental process of human "perception" as a foundation for all of the new brain information that you decide to learn about. This fundamental framework of perception makes possible your self-awareness and freedom to choose your own values and behavior! #9. Once you have learned the new brain vocabulary in this unique objective context of testable principles, you will be able to create a new source of transformative power in your life. You will be able to experience the power to change negative life experiences into positive goals and values for the future. How does this creative process work? When the new brain vocabulary is memorized (not just skimmed over), you can modify your old memories and create new more effective conscious and unconscious meanings in your life because your imagination will have more "brain-ideas-data" saved in your memory resources of neuron networks and synapses. Thus, you will have more new brain vocabulary words etched into your brain tissues with which to define and understand the structure of reality and your self. Using your brain wisdom is about achieving more freedom to take more challenging risks in order to experience greater rewards. #10. The new brain vocabulary provides "mental maps," which can give you more control over your self-actualization goals because of your greater comprehension of how your brain works. This brain wisdom is like elaborate road maps since it provides more specific details about how your choices can predictably change negative life experiences into positive goals and worthy values based upon knowledge of how your neurons and hormones work. It can empower you to improvise your responses to counterproductive negative cultural influences that endanger your brain's natural balance or "homeostasis" and its coordinated smooth control over your body. In this active psychological context, using your brain wisdom is about embracing your vulnerabilities and life's inherent uncertainties and dangers as well as exploiting your growth opportunities, instead of ignoring them or trying to escape from them. #11. Furthermore, if you want to make changes in your life, now is a good time to use your brain's neuroplasticity to "rewire" your neural "pathways" and "networks" or repair damaged brain tissue. Your brain's synaptic plasticity is its ability to change itself because your brain has evolved to adapt to changes in the world over millions of years in order to survive! (Note: Severe brain damage such as traumatic brain injury ("TBI") or addictions may require expert mentors or doctors or therapists to provide interventions to assist you.) Synaptic plasticity involves coordinating the functioning of the major parts of your brain by making healthy lifestyle choices that support your optimum brainpower. It includes balancing your nutrition, exercise and sleep needs to keep both your neuron brain cells and your glial brain cells strong and operating well. Until the past few years, the vital purposes of your glial cells were not completely known. But now scientists have discovered that they are essential to protect the successful functioning of your neurons, which cause your consciousness and ultimately your self-awareness. #12. In the beginning of your quest to apply the new factual brain ideas in your life, it is essential for you to realize how much control you really have over your memories because of your brain's synaptic plasticity. You can learn to creatively change or revise your memories based on any new factual ideas about your "self" or the structure of reality! The five skill-sets can help you progress quickly (see the middle section of this website's homepage). For example, the "Mindmap Skill-Set" enables you to record and document the new brain ideas by overcoming the inherent constraints in many grammatical language traps. It explains how to visualize the key relationships among the brain facts and ideas by sketching connections among them using ovals and lines on paper. You can even use colors to create vivid pictures to remember the relationships between the brain facts and ideas more easily. #13. You can clarify what you want to achieve in the future and learn new study skills including how to read to remember better. As you read, you can take notes or make mindmaps to document the key relationships among the important new brain ideas. This process of reading and noting the main ideas that you are reading about can help you chunk together the brain facts and ideas into your long-term memory resources. #14. Creating your own mindmaps to show what brain parts and functions are directly associated with each other is a powerful way to grasp the meaning of them. This methodical way to focus your thinking about the new brain knowledge can help you distinguish factual information that you can trust from metaphorical information that you can doubt and be skeptical about. When you begin to place more value on the new brain words (and all your memories that are related to these new words that represent reality), then you will be able to experience new ways of being free to think for yourself. You will also be freer to choose more challenging and more meaningful activities during the rest of your life. #15. After you have learned the new brain-centered vocabulary, you will be able to reevaluate your ideas and reorganize your life. You can now ask yourself: What difference would it have made in my early life if I had known how my brain worked then when my brain was far more adaptable? And you can ask yourself: What difference will it make now that you know that you can create a positive strategy for change based purely on your own brainpower? #16. Your trust can be based on the past century, especially the past fifty years of brain research and the past five years of popularly written descriptions of the history of brain research and results. Recent brain discoveries have been made by thousands of courageous brain scientists and engineers. They have used functional magnetic resonance imaging ("fMRI") research to "see" inside living human brains! These dedicated professionals have spent their lives learning what you can learn in just a few minutes. #17. You can use the fantastic synaptic plasticity of your brain to think of better ways of responding to your environment, including learning how your brain actually works. You will be in the dark about your true potential to function in the real world until you learn the proper words for naming the parts of your brain and describing how they work. Why is this so? Because you will not have the full knowledge needed to make the best decisions about how to achieve your goals in the modern world. The fundamental assumption is that it is better to use the true facts about how your brain works than traditional metaphors, which relate mostly to the assumptions of the ancient world. Since the world around you is always changing, and you must adapt to be relevant, learning the accurate ways that your brain functions to keep you alive can become a lifelong adventure of providing you with maximum pleasure and security during the tumultuous changes happening in the modern world. #18. Your new Alphabetical Brain Vocabulary ideas can be used to re-think or re-imagine your unique goals and your plans for achieving them. It can also help motivate you to re-invent your adaptable "SELF." Instead of ignorantly ("mindlessly") reacting to the challenges in your life, you can develop a positive proactive attitude toward your own brainpower potential. Your new brain vocabulary can become an intellectual "tool" for you to use to re-focus your attention and transform your "dreams" into achievable goals. You can experience the enlightenment of self-creation as you discover more accurate perceptions of your social network and the physical geographic environment of Nature and your unique relationship to it. #19. The new memories that you create with your new brain ideas, can give you a new respect for yourself and also increase your self-esteem. This is because your language is an essential part of your basic consciousness and self-awareness. The more words that your memory contains, the greater the diversity of ideas that you can understand and enjoy. A large personal vocabulary can help you overcome the inevitable biological and cultural limitations that everybody encounters. If you use the infinite ability of your "mind" (your brain's conscious awareness of itself) to create meaningful and purposeful achievements in your life, you will be limited only by biological constraints, which you can learn to recognize and minimize, or cultural limits caused by your memories and the social stratifications in the structure of our complex multi-cultural society and global economy. To optimize your memory resources even more, you can write down the definitions of the major parts of your brain and their main functions. #20. There is a crucial dynamic evolutionary push-pull competition continuously happening among your brain's three main functional areas: cerebrum, limbic system, and brainstem/cerebellum. The conflicts among them explain extremes in human behavior according to MacLean's Triune Brain Model of brain evolution. The earliest part of the human brain to evolve was the reptilian brain (brainstem/cerebellum). #21. The next part to evolve was the mammalian (limbic system) which represents the evolutionary history of mammals. The mammalian system, which is now usually called your "emotional brain," was essential for the distinctive "family way" of living that evolved in early mammals. Learning social skills and especially empathy was essential to control the "fight-or-flight" responses of the brainstem and cerebellum as they reacted to either emotionally pleasurable or painful sensations during the process of surviving under difficult conditions. #22. The newest part of the human brain to evolve was the neocortex (cerebrum). The neocortex evolved into the largest part of your brain, which is the most significant part for making you human! It is usually called your "intellectual brain" since it is the "executive" control center for all of your conscious experiences. It can control the competition among the three major parts of your brain, which forcefully impacts your consciousness at all times, for better or worse. #23. In addition, there is a fundamental division between your brain's two sides: your brain has a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere which are both further divided into four distinct physical sections called lobes. The eight major physical brain structures contain distinct neuron clusters that are both unique and interactive. #24. Your functionally interactive brain structure can cause major stresses in your conscious life as well as wondrous improvements and significant achievements. But when you experience chronic distress, your two nervous systems --- your central nervous system ("CNS") and your autonomic nervous system ("ANS") --- combat each other. Obviously, this competition is not good for your health or longevity! #25. The remedy for any cognitive dissonance in your life is for you to learn how to control chronic anxiety, anger, fears, or attention deficit disorders. You can learn how your brain's crucial feedback loops (such as your CNS and ANS) work. There are many other feedback loops, which are explained in the flash cards and at other links on this website, essential for your survival and well being. #26. To add to the complexity, your ANS is divided into two parts. During nonstressful situations, your parasympathetic nervous system dominates and controls your body. And, during stressful situations, your sympathetic nervous system dominates and controls your body. The ultimate secret for relaxing and staying calm during distressful situations is to know how to optimize the functioning of your parasympathetic nervous system. You can do this by becoming mindfully aware of how your brain works and choosing to master self-talk skills and habits (self-meditation). #27. Often your ordinary addictions or obsessive-compulsive urges can be controlled with moderate exercise and/or mindfullness relaxation techniques. However, you may need professional counseling or therapy if you suffer from one of the borderline personality disorders, clinical depressions, or have a physical brain disorder, or some other extreme mental or emotional problems that are disrupting your life. #28. Excessive stress can be very bad for your brain, since it can destroy normally balanced brain functions. Self-talk skills can help you achieve a healthy homeostasis (balance or equilibrium) in your life. Since your health is your greatest wealth, you need to discover good brain-friendly ways to stay healthy. #29. Since time is your most important personal resource, and your use of time is your best predictor of lifetime success, you must learn to control it! Science-based brain ideas can provide you with the best perspective for understanding how your consciousness and memory resources can be optimized. It is estimated that about 10,000 hours of devoted study and correct practice are required to develop a professional career skill. Fortunately, only a few hours of concentration are required to learn how your incredible brain can be used to guarantee a future with more success and happiness in whatever endeavor you choose. #30. The new brain vocabulary is not remembered as isolated letters or words, but as positive declarative statements about the grammatical relationships among the words and phrases (named brain parts and ideas) which describe your brain's functional interactivity! For example, the key verb "is" can mean a particular idea is really true or it can express a false comparison to something in reality simply by its grammatical structure. This is called "misplaced concreteness" in developmental education and psychology. Your brain does not know the difference between a valid fact (truth) and a fanciful fallacy (metaphor) unless you have learned to trust the scientific method of observation and perspective-taking! #31. It is like the situation when young children are taught to believe that there really is a Santa Clause since well meaning adults have taught them that untruth. They think that Santa is "real" or a concrete part of reality. This linguistic fact is called reification. It occurs whenever something that is unreal (Santa) is described as being real (a real living human being) based upon symbolic or metaphorical cultural and ethnic traditions or literary allusions. That kind of a faulty comparison is the linguistic basis for many illusions and delusions which can damage both children and adults alike throughout their lifetimes. #32. Science creates new knowledge by using the method of hypothesis and experiment (scientific method). The logical systems of deduction and induction permit the discovery of objective evidence for explaining processes of Nature, including the causes of human behavior. Brain science is establishing new knowledge about the major influence that language has on our vital critical thinking processes. Many scientists now realize that language (along with tool-making) was one of the most important evolutionary inventions of the human brain. Language gave humans the power to live in larger groups which eventually made us civilized enough to live in big cities. In antiquity, cities provided more security against the random acts of Nature than living in smaller groups. #33. Scientific words describe objective facts that can be repeatedly replicated or verified. Factual words have stood the rigorous tests of experimental analysis. In contrast, spiritual words represent whatever guesses or wishes a person chooses to believe in based on faith alone. Spiritual words are simply abstract ideas made by human imaginations to explain away the unknown void of the future or the oblivion of death. When ambiguous or vague spiritual abstractions (metaphors) are mixed together in our different memory resources (with no factual basis for them), they become a waste of precious time to contemplate. #34. Instead, of being a pitiful ignoramus about your brain, you can devote yourself to using sensible practical knowledge to filter your experiences and to inform your personal ethics and social values. The literary process of exaggerating comparisons or creating imaginary symbols for conveying moral principles or expressing sentiments was okay in the past before scientific ideas became so publicly accessible. But now spiritual metaphors should be understood for what they are, merely literary or poetic allusions! #35. Throughout history, most people routinely lived with false ideas about reality simply because they did not have knowledge about its true structure. Today, you can increase your brain knowledge by taking advantage of the wonderful educational opportunities on this website and other Internet resources as well as books, journals, and magazines. Reading essays or articles (in the form of written language with its context and syntax) uses different mental resources (parts of your brain) than viewing television pictures or watching streams of online information and graphics. Also, it takes more cognitive energy (which is not an intuitive insight) to decipher or decode the meaning of pictures than it does to read the words in printed sentences and paragraphs. #36. Now you can re-evaluate the true historical context of each of the main ideas that you may have accepted as enduring truths or values because of your early family, schooling, church, club, or favorite sport team. Sadly, history is littered with millions of wasted human lives because ignorance or ambivalence ("learned helplessness") caused people to develop self-destructive habits that led to their premature deaths and wasted their time and energy. Too bad their brains (lives) were not used to create better social and economic institutions for the greater good of future generations. #37. In addition, we now know that human brains are "hard wired" for optimism because having a positive attitude in the face of danger (or difficult living conditions) is a survival advantage. This fact simply means that optimism may be partly biological or genetic instead of completely learned. This fact is based on the idea that being optimistic was the best feeling for our early ancestors (hominids) to have when confronted with a savage wild animal when they had only stones or simple tools with which to defend themselves. Being optimistic about their chances to survive threatening situations energized their brains and bodies when they needed to be totally focused on surviving. Those people who did survive were able to reproduce, which means their genes were passed on to future generations. You are the lucky beneficiary of their successes. Having an optimistic attitude today, in spite of the chaotic politics and economics and climate change, can help you survive in these socially turbulent times. #38. Now you can use your brain in the same way our early hominid surviving ancestors did. You can imagine the most positive ways to solve the urgent global social problems that we all face in the 21st century. One of the major arguments of this website is that it is time for everybody to wake up and start living in the real modern world (modernity) instead of the ancient world (antiquity). #39. If you choose to take advantage of the countless social sharing activities on the Internet, you can improve your own intelligence and self-awareness easily with the help of this comprehensive and systematic way of thinking about your brainpower. In addition, you can correct any mistakes you may have learned about the structure of reality including any incorrect opinions about the source of your self-awareness as a creative person. The source is your amazing brain! #40. By doing this type of thought experiment, you can take back control of your brain (and your body and all your relationships) from misinformation such as cultural myths and unscientific fallacies, such as religious and ethnic stereotypes. If you seize this opportunity to master the new scientific factual brain ideas, you will be enjoying your democratic birthright without any more costly delays. If you choose to believe in the new brain wisdom, you can practice happiness skills every day and reinvent your "SELF" whenever necessary. #41. You can even unlearn bad habits that were based upon ignorance, such as dangerous addictive or obsessive-compulsive behavior. Also you can learn good habits based upon brain wisdom. This deliberate cognitive process involves the constructive use of your own brainpower to improve your health and increase your lifespan. There are no excuses anymore for remaining brutishly ignorant about the real world you inhabit. #42. Why should you care? Because the future of human life on Earth hangs in the balance. A critical mass of people need to act to conserve and preserve the life-sustaining forces of Nature before it is too late to save our planet's ecological renewal processes. With the current staggering social problems of overpopulation, hunger, climate change, and increased poverty (in the USA), there is no more time to waste. Everybody can contribute to the survival of our species, especially, if they are educated enough to think critically and vote intelligently. #43. What better results can you expect out of life? When you are conscious of your infinitely adaptable sensational self, you can learn to achieve self-actualization in spite of any opposition that you might have from your family or your friends. If you choose to assert yourself, you can teach them how they too can use the new brain flash cards to understand how their memories, thoughts, and feelings all interact to produce their consciousness, self-awareness, and basic intelligence. #44. As you teach them, you will be reinforcing your own brainpower skills. As you enrich yourself by stimulating your mirror neurons (using your new brain vocabulary) and by creating new relationships (more intimate bonds with them), you will be creating the most predictable win-win situation known. It is what happens when responsible adults create good sexual relationships or when loving parents teach their children how they can become competent adults. #45. Now you can rapidly learn how to love your amazing brain as you transform your "SELF" in order to achieve permanent self-empowerment and the capacity to love others fully. Also you can learn to thrive as a happy person and to flourish as a dignified member of the global human family in the 21st century. With enhanced brainpower (via an enriched brain vocabulary) you will be able to seek the best in yourself and the best in others with more predictable results. #46. As you learn the Alphabetical Brain Vocabulary you will be living the dream of the famous great Enlightenment thinkers of Europe and Great Britain and also the American patriots of the 18th century such as Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, and the Adams. Our incredibly brave forefathers realized how important scientific concepts were when they created the USA and maintained it as the world's first modern democratic government. #47. Their trust was based on the historic lessons they learned from the ancient Greeks and Romans together with the scientific experimentation and literary developments of the Renaissance (1600s =17th century) and Enlightenment (1700s = 18th century and 1800s = 19th century). Even some of our indigenous North American Indian tribes inspired patriots like Benjamin Franklin during the Constitutional Convention (late 1700s =18th century) to develop institutional checks and balances modeled after aspects of the tribal governments of Native Americans. #48. The Enlightenment, which was based upon the humanistic creative advances during the Renaissance, was the big "SHIFT" between the ancient world (antiquity) and the modern world (modernity). The modern cultural mindset began with the science-based discovery of "infinity" (the use of mathematics to describe the structure of reality) that is supplanting the archaic religion-based idea of "eternity"! Scientists discovered the molecular nature of life at the microscopic scale when they used their powers of observation to imagine that matter was made up of tiny atoms that had parts which could move or "swerve." Now the smallest particles of matter are known as electrons and sub-atomic particles. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the true causes of life were being discovered and measured by many kinds of scientists: mathematicians, geologists, biologists, botanists, physicists, and medical researchers. #49. The Enlightenment was based on the rock solid discoveries of mathematics and physics and the daring speculations of the great scientists (natural philosophers) who loved wisdom (based on rational and experimental knowledge) enough to study it and communicate about it from Europe and Great Britain to North America. They knew the supreme importance of using the scientific approach to critical thinking in order to learn new knowledge to replace ignorance and folklore. They had a passion for knowing the true causes of Nature (including human beings) and the Universe. #50. Also they knew the profound idea that happiness depends on sensory knowledge in the Greek Epicurean context of secular humanism. This includes the rational acceptance of human mortality, instead of the irrational beliefs of religious superstitions and state sponsored dogmatic religions. You now have the power of the U. S. Constitution and its many Amendments. The Amendments prove that our Constitution is a living document or contract that was designed to be changeable as wisdom grew in the brains of our citizens. #51. The original ten Amendments to the Constitution (the Bill of Rights) were created in the 18th century. Eventually, more Amendments were added during the 19th and 20th centuries as wisdom grew about how we could live together peacefully, as we progressed from pioneers to frontier farmers and ranchers to civilized citizens living in big cities. Our Constitution had to be amended many times in order give more millions of people their legal rights and to protect their human dignity. The Constitution and Amendments protect our civil rights to read, to think for ourselves, and to express ourselves publicly without fear of censorship as well as protecting our property rights as citizens. #52. Finally, you need to remember that the heroic leaders who created the USA were mostly Deists and not puritanical evangelical Christians. The Declaration of Independence refers once to "Nature's God;" but not to a personal god who has the supposed power to overcome the death of individual human beings. Since you were not born with original sin, you do not need to make any ritualistic animal sacrifices to save your life. You just need to think about being a responsible well-educated citizen who respects and uses brainpower to think independently! #53. Any dangerous religious ideas, which may have been drilled into your memory when you were younger and more vulnerable to such misinformation, manipulation and abuse, may need to be overcome if they limit your ability to know the true structure of reality. Even if you were the victim of traumatic emotional experiences in the past (as a child, or youth, or adult), your own brainpower may be all that you need to overcome any self-imposed limitations from your past. You can become the victor with a little help from your amazing brain and this website. #54. Because of your amazing brain and the dynamic learnable mindfullness skills, you can really have infinite ways of thinking and behaving in the future. You can define your own boundless and unlimited "fabric of reality" by understanding the vast "fabric of the Cosmos." You can declare your own right to exist without ancient metaphorical crutches to motivate your altruism! Now you can use your own personalized Alphabetical Brain Vocabulary to control your own feelings, instead of being an "emotional slave" to your unexamined unconscious impulses or the traditions of others. This new "brain wisdom" (and the skills you can derive from it) can give you powerful intellectual language tools for successfully prolonging your life in the future and for enjoying extra bonus years of bliss. #55. You don't have to stay confused and waste your time living with false ideas in your brain no matter how you learned them or from whom. You do not have to rely on someone else's judgments or traditional dogma any more. You can start to live your life more fully now based on factual ideas. You can learn to think for yourself and also collaborate more effectively when you make decisions. Finally, you can amplify your positive impact in the world by leading others to the new brain wisdom! Please send feedback email to: flyingeagle@earthlink.net Return instantly to: INDEX FOR COMPUTER USERS