In the first half, brain researcher Neil Slade talked about his work investigating the amygdala, a part of the brain believed to cause increased creativity, intelligence, and paranormal ability. "The amygdala is a compass," Slade said, "it tells you which direction to go when you need to know it." He explained that the amygdala draws people toward positive experiences and repels them away from negative ones. According to Slade, the amygdala is connected to all of the other parts of the brain and uses past knowledge to serve a cues when new experiences present themselves. While the amygdala reacts to outside forces, Slade contended that it can also be stimulated by people to increase positive thinking and enhance creative functions.
Having spoken with a number of successful people in various fields, Slade has determined that there are many ways to stimulate the amygdala. He recalled a conversation with Steven Snyder, a piano tuner who has worked with the biggest recording studios in New York City. Snyder told Slade that he activates his amygdala by striking a tuning fork and placing it to the side of his head where that part of the brain is located. Ultimately, Slade said, consistent stimulation of the amygdala over time can result in a phenomenon called "popping the frontal lobe," something he experienced six years after he began his research. Slade described it as akin to a sense of enlightenment and marveled that "it's the best feeling that you've ever had."
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In the latter half, Ph.D. researcher at the University of Northampton, Cal Cooper, discussed his research into telephone calls from the dead, as well as ghosts and apparitions in ancient and modern Egypt. He detailed four types of phenomenal phone calls, with the first being a simple, short call from someone known to be deceased. There have also been reports of calls, either incoming or outgoing, with a deceased person where the conversation is much longer and the living person does not find out, until later, that the individual on the other line had already died. Cooper also highlighted a fourth type of anomalous call where a person thinks about calling someone, but doesn't, and then hears from their intended recipient who insists they had talked earlier in the day.
Regarding the ghosts of Egypt, Cooper theorized that spirits were used in ancient times as a means of deterring tomb robbers, since such structures had doors, either built inside or painted on the walls, that were specifically meant for ghosts. In the modern era, Cooper said, one infamous type of ghost in Egypt is known as an 'afrit.' This spirit, he said, is the ghost of someone who died a violent death and had their blood spill on the ground, thus making it sacred. When a person encounters an afrit, it resembles the deceased individual but grows in size as it approaches the observer. "It can get to the size of a house," he reported, "and they believe it can bend right over a person and squeeze them to death." While this may sound like a fanciful tale, Cooper said that he has spoken with Egyptians who had encountered an afrit and saw it grow to immense size, causing the witness to run away in terror.
New segment guest: Christian Wilde