Healing Tao USA Medical and Spiritual Qigong (Chi Kung) Logo
Healing Tao USA
  • 501 c3 non-profit 

  • All purchases tax deductible
  • Home
    • Primordial Tai Chi for Enlightened Love
    • Our Mission
  • Workshops
    • Current Teaching Schedule
    • Become a Certified Instructor
  • Products
    • Guide to Best Buy Packages
      • Qigong (Chi Kung) Fundamentals 1 & 2
      • Qigong (Chi Kung) Fundamentals 3 & 4
      • Fusion of the Five Elements 1, 2, & 3: Emotional & Psychic Alchemy
      • Inner Sexual Alchemy
    • Best Buy Packages Download
    • Video Downloads
    • Audio Downloads
    • DVDs
    • Audio CD Home Study Courses
    • eBooks & Print Books
    • Super Qi Foods & Elixirs
    • Sexual Qigong & Jade Eggs
    • Medical Qigong
    • Chinese Astrology
    • Other Cool Tao Products
      • Tao T-Shirts
      • Joyce Gayheart
        CD’s and Elixirs
      • Qi Weightlifting Equipment
  • Summer Retreats
  • Articles / Blog
    • Loving Tao of Now
      (Michael’s blog)
    • 9 Stages of Alchemy
    • Tao Articles
    • Newsletter Archive
  • FAQ / Forum
    • FAQ
    • Forum Online Discussion
    • Loving Tao of Now
      (Michael’s blog)
  • Winn Bio
    • Short Bio
    • Michael Winn: The Long Story
    • Tao logo: Musical Cosmology
  • China Trip
    • China Dream Trip
    • Photos: Past China Trips
  • Contact
    • Office Manager – Buy Products
    • Summer Retreats – Register
    • Find Instructor Near You
    • Links
  • Cart

New science method to measure consciousness (article)

Home › Forum Online Discussion › Philosophy › New science method to measure consciousness (article)

  • This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 12 years, 2 months ago by Michael Winn.
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • August 15, 2013 at 8:32 pm #41079

    Michael Winn

    note: this method may have valid medical uses. But it also reveals how very crude the western scientific definition of “consciousness” is, i.e. the gold standard for them is external sensory experience. That there might be whole realms of internal experience, or soul experience that is not sensory, is ignored.

    Of course, I only because aware of these inner realms through meditation, mostly neidan gong/ internal alchemy. But even modern pre-natal csses are showing that immediately after the moment of conception, there seems to be a cellular memory that can be recalled after the infant is born, but before sensory apparatus is developed. I believe that “cellular memory” is a form of soul perception. – michael

    New tool peeks into brain to measure consciousness
    August 14, 2013 2:43 PM EST

    WASHINGTON (AP) — When people have a brain injury so severe that they can’t squeeze a loved one’s hand or otherwise respond, there are few good ways to tell if they have any lingering awareness or are in a vegetative state. Now researchers have created a tool to peek inside the brain and measure varying levels of consciousness.

    The work reported Wednesday is highly experimental, not ready for bedside use yet — and if it pans out, a big question is how to use it without raising false hope. No one knows what level of consciousness at a certain point after injury really predicts recovery.

    But it offers the hope that one day doctors might track consciousness nearly as easily as they check blood pressure.

    “Consciousness can grow and shrink,” said Dr. Marcello Massimini, a neurophysiologist at Italy’s University of Milan who led the research to quantify just how much that is happening under different circumstances.

    It seems obvious — consciousness fades during deep sleep, and doctors can slip us under with anesthesia. Yet scientists don’t have a good way to measure consciousness, especially when the very ill appear to be unconscious. It’s important to try to distinguish if patients are at least minimally conscious, and not in a vegetative state, because the sooner there’s some sign of awareness, the better the chance of recovery.

    Today, doctors check if those patients can do things like blink or move a limb on command, or react to touch or pain. If not, scans of the brain’s electrical activity may offer clues. Scientists even have put seemingly unconscious patients inside MRI scanners and told them to imagine throwing a ball. How the brain reacts can indicate if they’re aware and just can’t show it, what’s called locked-in syndrome. But all these tests have drawbacks.

    The new work, reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine, aims for an easier, more objective measure. It’s based on the theory that consciousness depends on the complexity of activity in the brain, how well different regions connect and process information. For example, when you’re deeply asleep, the neighbor’s car alarm may not wake you but your brain still processes that you heard it. When you’re wide awake, it also processes how annoying the alarm is and how often it goes off.

    Massimini’s team combined two well-known medical devices. First, a coil delivers a powerful pulse of magnetism that travels through the skull to stimulate the brain, essentially knocking on it to say “wake up.” Then an EEG, which measures brain waves through electrodes attached to the scalp, records the patterns of activity as neurons fire in response.

    The final trick: The researchers created a formula to compare the complexity of those resulting brain patterns by “zipping” them, like digital files are compressed so they can be emailed. They called the resulting numerical measurement the PCI, or pertubational complexity index.

    The team compared tests from 32 healthy people who were awake, asleep, dreaming or anesthetized, and 20 people with a variety of serious brain injuries. The two patients with locked-in syndrome clearly were aware, scoring nearly as high as awake and healthy people, they reported. The patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative state had scores as low as people rendered unconscious by the most powerful anesthesia. The minimally conscious were somewhere in-between.

    The strategy could miss consciousness, so it wouldn’t give doctors enough information for end-of-life decisions, researchers caution.

    But it’s a pioneering study that offers highly promising leads, said Dr. Nicholas Schiff, a professor of neurology and neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who wasn’t part of the project.

    If it’s ultimately proven to work, the bigger impact could be in helping doctors study whether patients improve when given different treatments, added Dr. Lori Shutter, a brain intensive care specialist at the University of Pittsburgh, who also wasn’t involved with Wednesday’s work.

    But she cautioned that just finding a glimmer of consciousness could mislead families hoping for a miracle long after the possibility for improvement is over.

    “This may provide a lot of insight,” Shutter said. “The downside is once you prove there’s any consciousness, how will a family react?”

  • Author
    Posts

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Signup for FREE eBook – $20 value

Inner Smile free eBook with Signup to Newsletter

Way of the Inner Smile
130 page eBook

+ Qi Flows Naturally news

+ Loving the Tao of Now blog

Enter Email Only - Privacy Protected

Forum Login

Log In
Register Lost Password

Qigong Benefits – Michael Winn

Michael Winn Qi Products:

Best Buy Packages
  1. Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2
  2. Qigong Fundamentals 3 & 4
  3. Fusion of Five Elements 1, 2, 3
  4. Sexual Energy Cultivation
  5. Primordial Tai Chi / Primordial Qigong
  6. Inner Sexual Alchemy Kan & Li
  7. Sun-Moon Alchemy Kan & Li
  8. Inner Smile Gift
Individual Products
  1. Qigong Fundamentals 1
  2. Qigong Fundamentals 2
  3. Qigong Fundamentals 3
  4. Qigong Fundamentals 4
  5. Fusion of Five Elements 1
  6. Fusion of Five Elements 2 & 3
  7. Sexual Energy Cultivation
  8. Tao Dream Practice
  9. Primordial Tai Chi / Primordial Qigong
  10. Deep Healing Qigong
  11. Internal Alchemy (Kan & Li Series)

100% RISK FREE 1-Year Guarantee

Michael Winn, President, Healing Tao USA Michael Winn, President, Healing Tao USA

Michael Winn, Pres.
Healing Tao USA

Use Michael Winn's Qi Gong products for one whole year — I guarantee you'll be 100% delighted and satisfied with the great Qi results. Return my product in good condition for immediate refund.

Guarantee Details

Your Natural Path is Our Mission

OUR PROMISE: Every Michael Winn Qi gong & meditation product will empower you to be more relaxed, smiling, joyful, and flowing in harmony with the Life Force.

yin-yang

Each Qigong video, book, or audio course will assist your authentic Self to fulfill worldly needs and relations; feel the profound sexual pleasure of being a radiant, healthy body; express your unique virtues; complete your soul destiny; realize peace – experience eternal life flowing in this human body Now.

© 2025 Healing Tao USA · design by dragonbutterfly design · built by mojomonger