Sally Ember, Ed.D.

What exists beyond the edge of the Cosmos?

May 4, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

True story: When I was about 10 years old and forced to attend Jewish religious education classes weekly (“Sunday School”), I got kicked out of class by repeatedly asking the teacher, then the Rabbi: “If God created everything, who created God?” and refusing to stop asking until they answered, which they could not.
I’m sure I wasn’t “nice” about it, which is probably how they justified kicking me out. But, really: what IS the answer to that question for theologians and theists? I’m a multiverse adherent, myself, from way back.
But, what could these Goddists possibly respond?

The Responsive Universe

I have always been a backyard astronomer. Even as a small child, my love for the stars and the cosmic unknown have been a lifelong interest. I possess a couple of telescopes including a 10” diameter Dobsonian telescope. It looks like a large cannon and it might even embarrass my wife a little when I drag the 65lb beast out in the back yard on a clear night. I even blog about the various deep sky objects I find – though I have not been very active lately.

Deep Sky Image – Courtesy of NASA

A couple of years ago a seemingly uninteresting but historic image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope offering a glimpse of what scientists are calling the oldest object so far discovered in the Universe – a young galaxy. Well, let me rephrase that; it was a young galaxy. A pixellated blip on a black background…

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Support an Author Month: Love a Blogger! ~ #saam14

Yes, Please: LOVE your favorite bloggers. Here are the ways: share their posts. Follow/subscribe to their blogs. Visit and leave interesting comments. Engage with others’ comments. Buy their books/products and/or recommend them to others. Tweet their blog URLs and latest posts with your comment. Re-post their content on re-posting sites (Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.). Reblog their posts with your comments. Invite them to guest-post on your site or offer to guest-blog on theirs (if they invite such and you are compatible/capable/available). Write reviews, rank, rate, vote up their books on Goodreads, Listopia, Amazon’s Listmania. Put their books on your “Wish Lists” or “To Buy” lists on book selling sites. Buy their books in indie bookstores. Tell your indie bookstores how glad you are they’re still viable and carrying YOUR favorite authors’ books. Come up with your own ways to SUPPORT AUTHORS this month!

Un-Wiring Your Brain

Would someone please read this and see how it relates to my blog post today about the effects of concussion on meditators?

365 Days of Buddha

Imaginary Pictures Buddha.

If you’re as fascinated as I am by the science-behind-mindfulness, check out this article from Scientific American called Neuroscientists and the Dalai Lama Swap Insights on Meditation.

THE PASSING OF A FRIEND – THE LAST STORY…

BIRTH AND DEATH AND IN BETWEEN

Important, always timely info and advice. Please share! We ALL die.

Ten days… From his diagnosis to his death… Ten days.

It gives one pause.

Many people have asked. Did he see this coming? Was he prescient? If not, then why did he spend months last fall, while he was presumably healthy, preparing to die – educating himself about death and dying like it was another doctoral thesis? He examined the subject thoroughly from every possible perspective. He contemplated it from a deeply spiritual view in his Buddhist tradition. He became knowledgeable in a practical sense about getting all his affairs in order. He even left signs around his house. “If you find me dead, call these people. Everything is in my briefcase.” He learned about end of life care and hospice services. He went on a road trip, healing old relationships and taking care of unfinished business. “We never know when impermanence will strike,” he used to stay. “You breathe out…

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15 Points about the #Effects of #Concussions on #Meditators’ #Brains

What are the #effects of #concussions on #meditators’ #brains? Many doctors and patients now agree that #meditation helps relieve pain and stress. Therefore, meditation is recommended post-concussion for many with injured brains.

However, I haven’t found anything for my problem: my concussion makes it impossible or difficult/painful for me to meditate. What happens to those who are already long-time meditators (such as I am; 42 years), post-concussion?

It’s fewer than four weeks since my injuries. I still have a lot of trouble and need to take much more time than usual to think clearly enough and to write well enough (neither up to former standards) to put this post together. Forgive its clumsiness, please.

Let me explain, first: the type of meditation I currently do is advanced. This means that the meditation techniques take years to learn. Practice is not just for twenty minutes a day or relegated to a physical posture or on a meditation cushion. This type of meditation involves components of many other types as well as more aspects which are unique to it. It is a Tibetan Buddhist practice called dzogchen (“Great Perfection”) that is supposed to occur all day and into the night (excellent practitioners do it 24/7). It takes years to cultivate this ongoing meditation as a habit.

Therefore, whatever brain parts most meditators are activating, meditators doing dzogchen meditation are utilizing those parts plus a few more, and all the time, once we’re “getting it.”

Post-concussion, the worst after-effect, for me, was being unable to meditate. This is comparable to being unable to eat sufficient food or breathe enough air. We can survive, but we are not well, you see?

What about having had a concussion is preventing me from meditating? Why do certain parts of my brain hurt when I try to meditate?

Finding nothing to answer my questions all in one place, I did some of my own research to help me understand and share what has been happening to me since my injury on April 6.

Here is what I found to be true, complete with PET scans, MRIs of brains and other visuals.

1. Scientists are learning more annually about the ways that meditators’ brains are different than non-meditators:

image from http://www.exploratorium.edu

Conclusions from above: meditation activates parts of our brain that ordinary brain activities do not.

2. Insight or Vipassana (Vipashana) meditators’ brains have been studied most. Here are some pictures to show how much that type of meditation changes the brains of Insight meditators:

image from http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu

3. How else does meditation change one’s brain?

image from expanded–consciousness.blogspot.com

Meditators’ brains have thicker cortical areas and other parts are also strengthened unusually by meditation. Our brain waves are different even when we are not meditating. Really.

After feeling pain in three particular areas of my brain that hurt (even though my son and others claim we can’t feel pain in our brains… pooh) and the increased pressure in these areas every time I meditated, which made me stop, I went on a research treasure hunt to answer these questions.

4. What parts of the brain are used in meditation and what types of meditation use what parts most?

image from http://www.8limbsholistichealth.com

For me, the thalamus and frontal areas were most impacted and affected, so far, since the front of my face/forehead hit the wall, and since those areas are involved in my type of meditation. However, I could imagine that other injuries/affected areas could impact your meditation differently.

5. What about different kinds of meditation and where in the brain they occur?

image from http://www.fredtravis.com

Definitely the thalamus and all frontal areas are affected, for me. I guess I don’t feel the impact in the pariental lobe because mine wasn’t so injured. Again, your experiences could vary a lot.

6. What are the effects on various parts of the brain from a concussion? From my recent and current personal experience, I can answer that. These photos also back up my own understanding completely.

I felt pain and pressure immediately after the concussion when I automatically started to meditate which forced me to stop. Repeatedly. Over time, that pain became most apparent in three locations.

“Recent studies have shown heightened activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, frontal cortex, and prefrontal cortex, specifically in the dorsal medial prefrontal area during Vipassana meditation. Similarly, the cingulate cortex and frontal cortex areas were shown to have increased activity during Zen meditation”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_activity_and_meditation

Thanks to Wikipedia, I began to understand what was happening to me and why.

7. Meditators use these parts of our brain when we meditate:

image from uonews.uoregon.edu

When I found this picture, it made me cry. These are the parts that hurt when I try to meditate, all lit up and obvious. I can just point and you can understand.

8. When we look at three brains: one uninjured, one with a concussion, and one with a severe TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), we notice obvious differences, particularly in these areas mentioned, above:

image from http://www.vitamindwiki.com

To orient you: top of photos = forehead/frontal areas of brain. Look at the differences in these three scans in that area, particularly. Startling, huh?

9. How does a concussed brain show up on an MRI?

image from http://www.ninds.nih.gov

I could be wrong, here, but I think these scans are oriented in opposite ways from those in #8. Top = back/neck, or the occipital lobe area. Look, therefore, at the bottoms of these scans to see how the frontal areas are affected.

Remember, though: most concussion injuries and symptoms do not show up on MRIs, CAT scans or X-rays, even when taken on the same day as the injury, much less those taken weeks or months later. Functional MRIs and PET scans are slightly better, but many effects are just not all that easy to visualize with the technology currently available.

10. What other signs of impact (concussion) on a brain can we see?

image from http://www.webdicine.com

For best understanding, contrast the picture in upper left with the one in the lower right. That’s my brain. Yuck.

11. Remembering what parts of the brain we use for meditating, look at these before-and-after scans of a concussed brain:

image from http://www.policymic.com

This time, the orientation is like this: forehead/frontal area is on the left of each scan; neck is on the right. Notice the frontal areas’ changes from scan to scan. Heartwrenching, to me.

12. Pay particular attention to the “frontal bruise” on this concussed brain (similar to what I experienced on April 6 when I hit the wall with my nose/face and broke my nose/got concussed):

image from kerlanjobeblog.com

Don’t you just have to say “ouch!” after seeing this frontal bruising? Empathy is easier when you can see it all in front of you.

13. Here is that PET scan, again, of a meditating brain. Notice what parts are “activated” (by colors):

image from uonews.uoregon.edu

Now you begin to see more clearly how concussions impact meditation?

14. Our brains should look and function this way when we meditate:

image from blog.bufferapp.com

I sorely miss the feelings of “after,” calmness and joy which I normally would experience all day long. Awful losses, here. Luckily, purports to be temporary.

15. In conclusion, this quote incorporates the research I found and speaks to my particular injuries to explain why I can’t meditate and the effects of that on me: “The two important areas of the brain that feature prominently in meditation research are the frontal lobes, located in the area of the forehead, above the eyebrows and the limbic system which is deep inside the centre of the brain. Generally speaking, these two areas function and interact to influence our behavior, emotions, thinking, and what we’re going to do with our life. In other words together they have a profound influence on our personality, who we are and how we feel. The other parts of the brain [featured in meditation research] are the parietal lobes, at the top of the head, which primarily deals with the physical body, the occipital lobes at the back of the head that deal mostly with vision and the temporal lobes, above the ears, which deal with auditory information.”
http://www.beyondthemind.com/extras/meditation-the-brain/frontal-lobes-the-limbic-system-meditation-mental-silence/

Best part of all this? IMPERMANENCE. This, too, shall pass. Injuries tend to resolve. Healing does occur.

Best wishes to all who are in recovery phases from TBIs and concussions. May all beings benefit.

Mosquito Week, casting “Star Wars: Episode VII,” a dolphin’s first word, and the linguistic use of “totally”

April 30, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

I wish I had extra awake hours just to catch up on TED talks!

10 Things Creative People Know

April 30, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

Support the #arts in #education and at #home!

Inspired Journeys

A recent UCLA study found that when young people engage in the arts at an early age, they outperform their peers in every category, from academics to life skills. Cross-cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien tells us that in many traditional cultures, when an ill person goes to the healer, he or she is asked four questions: When did you stop singing? When did you stop dancing? When did you stop telling your story? When did you stop sitting in silence? She calls these the healing salves. Numerous studies show that activities like drawing and creative writing—even knitting—raise serotonin levels and decrease anxiety.

This quote is taken directly from Peggy Taylor and Charlie Murphy’s article on the things that creative people know.

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When Your Father Dies

For all those who have lost their fathers recently or who still feel the loss.

Red's Wrap

When your father dies, you will be at a loss for words.

If it’s a surprise, you will burst into tears. You will cover your face with your hands and cry like you were six-years old, like the time you got lost on the way home from school and all the houses looked different and you couldn’t find your way. That’s how you’ll cry.

If you knew it was coming, that your dad was going to die because he was so ill, you will lay your head down on your folded arms and weep. You will be tired and part of you will be grateful because nothing is worse than seeing the man who laughed and lifted you up and twirled you around confined to a hospital bed, silent and hurting.

You will wonder who you are now that your father is dead. If your mother is also dead, it…

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The Story Behind Leo

OK: friends and family, weigh in on THIS Leo! Leave comments, please!

Jessica Davidson

Each sign of the zodiac represents an archetype. These are elemental structures in the psyche which give shape to our lives and inspire meaning through myth. Astrology is a multidimensional, multivalent system of storytelling. The myths behind your horoscope form a complex web of meaning which underpins the narrative of your life. The gods are alive and living through you…

Leo Myths

Leo is all about creativity and self-creation. They are intuitive, childlike, idealistic, and fiercely loyal. Leo is almost more of a noble Knight than Aries, but instead of all the fighting, it’s more about the poncing about and showing off, as they do tend to think the world revolves around them. Leos are truly original and charismatic, although often not as confident as they seem.

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8 Great Literary, Book Nerd, and Storytelling Podcasts

Worth exploring!

Andrea Reads America

I am a huge fan of the podcast medium. I listen while I clean, while I walk, while I cook, while I dress after my shower. I do not subscribe to print periodicals that run book reviews, I am not a librarian, and I no longer work in a book store, but I am a reader who is interested in what’s going on in the book world, in reading culture, and who loves a well-told story. With limited time to consume print media, but with ample time to listen, I have become an avid fan of podcasts, and my hungry mind devours the bookish and storytelling podcasts below. These shows provide the literary fix I need as a word nerd. I plan special walks or add extra chores to my list when any of these drop new episodes. I hope you enjoy them, too.

The New…

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5 Things Wrong with #Sex Scenes in #Romance Novels and How to Improve Them

5 Things Wrong with #Sex Scenes in #Romance Novels and How to Improve Them

1. Men, even the first time having sex with a long-awaited or extremely attractive partner, can last more than fifteen seconds (three thrusts) before orgasm, even when impassioned, unless they are under age 20 or suffer from PME (Pre-Mature Ejaculation), in which case, that man is not a good candidate for being the romantic lead.

Dear Jayne Ann Krentz/Castle/Amanda Quick or any of the 4 other pseudonyms you use: I’m sorry the men/man you have sex with can’t last more than fifteen seconds after being undressed, touched, licked or inside a woman. The rest of us have had better lovers. I pity you.

image from healthystateofthinking.blogspot.com

2. Oral sex in the 2010’s is not shocking, novel, strange, shameful, disgusting or horrifying. Really. No recipient or provider should be having these reactions unless the participants are ages 15 and under, in which case, please do not depict them having sex. That is not “romantic”: that is sexual exploitation of minors.

Dear YA Authors: take note. Teens having sex (and oral sex DOES count, despite President Bill Clinton’s assertions to the contrary) with older lovers (having more than a five-year age difference when over 14; more than a two-year difference when under 14) are victims of statutory rape in most US states.

3. Having protagonists/female leads who are “virgins” or incredibly inexperienced with sex in the 2010s, yet who are stunningly beautiful, capable and independent who are older than twenty is absurd. This characterization of inexperience as what makes a woman desirable caters to archaic/paternalistic fantasies.

Dear Historical Fiction Romance Authors: You may be exempt from the atavistim, but you are nonetheless feeding into these fantasies. Please stop. It’s okay to depict these girls/women as appropriately inexperienced, but to make that lack of knowledge the center of their attractiveness means that after one encounter, they automatically become less attractive. Awful.

4. Thanks for including clitoral stimulation in heterosexual sex scenes. Thanks for depicting male romantic leads who not only know the clitoris exists, but can find it, know how to please a woman, and want to do this. It only took about 100 years of romance writing to get men to be this aware. Okay.

Dear Modern Romance Writers; Now that we’ve established that clitoral stimulation is important and necessary for females’ sexual satisfaction, not every sexual encounter has to depict women’s having both oral and digital stimulation to the point of orgasm, always having multiple orgasms and the woman having the first orgasms before the man’s, every time. Repetition and routine kill sex. When a reader becomes bored reading the sex scenes, you have failed.

image from http://www.buzzfeed.com

5. Bondage, rape, domination and other masochistic sexual relationships are NOT psychologically healthy sexual expressions even if consenting adults decide to act these out. Also, these “relationships” do not accurately depict what occurs in most women’s lives and your characterizations set women back about three centuries.

Dear Shades of Whatever Authors: We know your books sell well. We know they’re not especially well-thought-out or well-written, are easy to write and are quick to get published. Since you insist on writing and publishers insist on publishing these types of drivel as “romance,” could you at least occasionally depict a strong, intelligent, capable woman who refuses to engage sexually with such mentally ill men? PLEASE?

image from feministing.com

Three ways to write better sex scenes:

1. Have sex scenes in which a variety of activities occur with enthusiastic, willing participants of legal ages and with male participants who can last longer than fifteen seconds when erect.

2. Depict at least some of your female leads as strong, capable, experienced and independent prior to having sex as well as during and after meeting their romantic lead.

excelle.monster.com

3. Include some sexual encounters in which female’s multiple or simultaneous partners’ orgasmms do not occur and participants are happy with each other, anyway.

Thanks, Romance Authors who already write sex scenes like this. Many of you do.

5 Things Wrong with #Sex Scenes in #Romance Novels and How to Improve Them

5 Things Wrong with #Sex Scenes in #Romance Novels and How to Improve Them

image from healthystateofthinking.blogspot.com

image from http://www.buzzfeed.com

image from feministing.com

Three ways to write better sex scenes:

1. Have sex scenes in which a variety of activities occur with enthusiastic, willing participants of legal ages and with male participants who can last longer than fifteen seconds when erect.

2. Depict at least some of your female leads as strong, capable, experienced and independent prior to having sex as well as during and after meeting their romantic lead.

excelle.monster.com

3. Include some sexual encounters in which female’s multiple or simultaneous partners’ orgasmms do not occur and participants are happy with each other, anyway.

Thanks, Romance Authors who already write sex scenes like this. Many of you do.

Unique mineral discovered In Australia

April 27, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

Australia has all the cool, unique stuff! More, now!

This and That

Vibrant colour! Article link below the video.

To read the article go to
http://www.sott.net/article/278053-Unique-mineral-discovered-In-Australia
Also there is more information in ‘Show more’ under the YT video.

Savvy Writers & e-Books online

Support An Author Month ~ #saam14

April 27, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

Support an author month = May? Fantastic! There is a “DONATE” button on my website (and many others’, sometimes called “Tip Jars”), so please feel free to express your support with cash! Comments, Follows, LIKES and purchases of /downloads of and reviews, ratings, rankings, votes on lists for our books also very welcomed! Thanks to ALL #authors and #readers!

Part 2, Grants for Writers

April 27, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

More opps for writers, with MONEY or free stays for writing time. Thanks, Savvy Writers!

Would you like a free work-vacation stay, maybe in Paris, France or in Bellagio, Italy? Sometimes even paid… as a Writer-in-Residency? Book mark these tips and links and check periodically the deadlines for grants, fellowships or writers residencies. Besides accommodation, writers often receive a stipend and travel expenses paid. A great way for writers to get out of their routine, find time to write, solitude and possibilities to advance their career. See also Part 1 of Grants for Writers.

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Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio, Italy, Residencies
Four-week residencies between March 10 and July 31, 2015. Open to composers, novelists, playwrights, poets, video/filmmakers and visual artists from around the globe, with the goal of bringing together people of diverse expertise and cultures in a thought-provoking creative environment. Spouses/life partners may accompany the resident, or may apply for a concurrent residency. The Center also offers collaborative residencies for two to four persons…

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The 10 Social Media Commandments for Authors

April 26, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

http://annerallen.blogspot.gr/2014/04/the-10-commandments-of-social-media.html is the original posting. Support Anne. She blogs great info! Especially read: “How Not to Spam”: http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2013/10/social-media-secrets-for-authors-part.html

Nicholas C. Rossis

Photo found on telegraph.co.uk

Anne R. Allen published a great list with The 10 Commandments of Social Media Etiquette for Writers on her blog. Here’s a brief summary: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.

Not enough? Alright then, here are ten tips for online behavior for people planning a writing career:

1) Thou shalt not spam.

What is spam? Here’s the short version: if you’d ignore it in your own inbox, FB page, or Twitter stream, it’s probably spam.

2) Thou shalt support other authors.

Your fellow authors are not “rivals”. The number one thing a beginner should be doing on social media is getting to know other authors in your genre and subgenre and making friends.

One of the hottest sales tools in the business right now is the multi-author bargain boxed set with several titles by different authors. These boxed sets are getting on to…

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#Opportunities in May and June for #Writers from #Aerogramme

April 25, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

In case you missed this posting, check out these #publication opportunities, #grants, #conferences and #festivals, #competitions and #prizes/#awards and more for #writers. Occurring/deadlines are in May, June, ongoing/rolling and beyond.

Compiled by Aerogramme Writers’ Studio. Thanks!

My favorite: Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading
publishes one story a week and reopens for submissions on 1 May. Previously unpublished fiction ranging in length from 2,000 to 10,000 words will be considered and each contributor is paid US$300.
https://electricliterature.submittable.com/submit

http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2014/04/24/opportunities-for-writers-may-june-2014/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AerogrammeWritersStudio+%28Aerogramme+Writers%27+Studio%29

Have the Homeless Become Invisible?

April 25, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

This is chilling. We have generated an impossible economy to sustain. The people without jobs and homes are just the “canaries in the mines” whose “asphyxiations” we ignore at all of our perils.

Kindness Blog

In this social experiment, unsuspecting people walked by relatives pretending to be homeless. Would they notice their family members? Or have the homeless become invisible? Watch how each person reacts after the big reveal in the video below.

Savvy Writers & e-Books online

Ancient Tribes Come Together at Amitabha Stupa | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

April 24, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

An amazing community “reunion.”

Upcoming Grants for Writers

April 24, 2014 by Sally Ember, EdD

Want cash while you’re writing? Check out these opps!

Are you living in the USA, Canada or United Kingdom? The following grants, fellowships or writers residencies are mostly offered on a yearly basis, sometimes even twice a year. Bookmark their links and check periodically their deadlines. Besides accommodation, writers often receive a stipend and travel expenses paid. A great way for writers to get out of their routine, find solitude and time to write in order to advance their career.

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Iowa Artist Fellowship
The Artist Fellowship provides support to individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity in the arts and the capacity for continued contributions to the excellence and innovation of the arts in the State. The Artist Fellowship Program seeks to elevate the arts in Iowa by advancing the artistic careers of Iowa artists through funding and professional development. The Iowa Arts Council awards each fellow $5,000 to support the development of their artistic career.
Deadline May 1…

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Why Physicists Are Saying Consciousness Is A State Of Matter, Like a Solid, A Liquid Or A Gas — The Physics arXiv Blog — Medium

What do we do with this latest from our physicists: mind /consciousness as a fourth state of matter?

Links/Similarities between Tibetan and Native American groups.

I have also found striking linguistic and phenotype similarities between the the Navajo and Tibetan peoples, particularly in the syntax of both languages, influencing the tonal and syntactical ways many of the ones I have spoken with speak English as a non-native language and in their facial features. Can’t be coincidences.

Vegan Enlightenment

The Search For Enlightenment

What do you think of this? I’m ambivalent.

Vegan Enlightenment My friend and fellow vegan Juliet defines the vegan practice thus: Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

Enlightenment is a state in which we are aware of the ultimate truth and meaning of everything. As a Buddhist, I strive for enlightenment and also try to avoid, as far as possible, bringing harm or suffering to any other living creature.

When we are aware that each moment of each day, each gesture and step we take, is truly mystical and full of wonder, we will live our lives with greater thought and care. We will also have greater respect and appreciation for the lives of others.

The two overlap in many ways, and although you don’t have to be Buddhist to be vegan, or vegan…

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And The Tantrums Will Follow by Nonnie Jules