An Out of Body Experience (or OBE) is a big feeling of not being where your body is. It hardly ever happens and does not last very long. It feels like you can see and hear and move to different places or even fly, but all the time your body is sleeping in bed. It feels very strange.
OBEs happen most when you are waking up or going to sleep. They can happen if you nearly die too. That kind of OBE is a Near Death Experience, or NDE. Some people get OBEs during too much marathon running or mountain climbing.
OBEs often work the same way. When they do, they are "classical" OBEs.
Some people say they have "phasing" OBEs too. They just stop noticing the world, remember the easy feeling and start seeing. There is no sleep paralysis so they can sometimes talk about it at the same time.
Most people can see two kinds of place when they have an OBE. Robert Monroe called them Locale I and Locale II, but some people call them the etheric plane and the astral plane.
Locale 1 places look like ordinary places in the world. You might see your bedroom or sleeping body in Locale I. Locale II places are more like dream worlds or heavens.
Some people think OBEs are just dreams, but other people say OBEs don't feel like that. Some people think that when you have an OBE, you're like a ghost and the things you see are real. People who think that sometimes call them 'astral projections'. Some scientists like Sam Parnia are doing tests with hidden pictures in hospitals, to see if ill people really can see them when they have NDEs.
American Arts Commemorative Series medallions
American Arts Gold Medallions were made by the U.S. Mint but are not coins.
Implication and inference
Implication and inference are two related words which are opposites.
To imply is to suggest something is true without actually saying it. Examples:
To infer is to see the implication in the sentence. When you realize the meaning of the second sentence, and protest "I have never beaten her", you have made an inference.
Here are the rules:
An implication is always verbal, but inferring is not always verbal. A non-verbal response might show the indirect message (implication) had been accurately interpreted (inferred) by the receiver. Example: "I hate you"! may contain unspoken implications, according to circumstance and tone of voice. Between two lovers it might mean:
Nonverbal communication
Nonverbal communication (NVC) uses signals without words. Language is not the only way to communicate, there are other means. Much nonverbal communication is unconscious: it happens without people thinking about it.
NVC may use gestures and touch, body language or posture, facial expression and eye contact. NVC may be communicated through objects such as clothing and hairstyles. Dance is also a type of nonverbal communication.
Speech has nonverbal elements known as paralanguage. These include voice quality, emotion and speaking style, rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons, such as :).
Nonverbal communication has three main aspects: the situation where it takes place, the communicators, and their behavior during the interaction.
Verbal means 'the use of words'. Thus, vocal sounds that are not words, such as a grunt, or singing a wordless note, are nonverbal. Sign languages and writing are understood as verbal communication, as both make use of words – although like speech, paralinguistic elements do occur alongside nonverbal messages. Nonverbal communication can occur through any sensory channel – sight, sound, smell, touch or taste. NVC is important because:
"When we speak (or listen), our attention is focused on words rather than body language. But our judgement includes both. An audience is simultaneously processing both verbal and nonverbal cues. Body movements are not usually positive or negative in and of themselves; rather, the situation and the message will determine the appraisal".
Spoken language is often used for communicating information about external events, but non-verbal codes are more used in interpersonal relationships. According to Argyle, there are five primary functions of nonverbal bodily behavior in human communication:
Paralanguage is the study of nonverbal cues of the voice. Various acoustic properties of speech such as tone, pitch and accent, collectively known as prosody, can all give off nonverbal cues. Paralanguage may change the meaning of words.
The linguist George L. Trager developed a classification of voice set, voice qualities, and vocalization.
Clothes, and fashion generally, send messages. We judge others by what we see, at least when we first meet them. Fashion is a reflection of the time and place. The styles show as much about history and the time period as any history book. Clothes often show what people think, and how they live. Fashion is a nonverbal statement. It reflects our time, our beliefs and sometimes our religion.
Body language means how your body is held: the "stance". It tends to show your attitude (state of mind) to what is going on round you. Others pick up the signs in a flash.
Eye contact can indicate interest, attention, and involvement. Gaze includes looking while talking, looking while listening, amount of gaze, and frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil dilation, and blink rate.
Showing strong emotions is powerful communication which is immediately understood. Many of the signals are the same in all cultures, as Darwin showed. Examples of strong emotions shown visually are:
These are listed in order of clarity. No-one mistakes anger or fear, but more subtle emotions may sometimes be missed by the onlooker.
Touch, including handshake and hug, is classic nonverbal communication. It is perhaps the most intimate (closest) thing one person can do to another. What it means depends on the context. Here is a short-list of what we may do when we touch another person:
Most of the arts are forms of non-verbal communication:
Animals other than humans do not have our kind of language, but many make use of non-verbal communication. With many, scent plays a greater role in their communication. Also, social animals can get to understand the meaning of tone of voice, and even understand key words. Say "walkies!" to the family dog... With animals which are social and intelligent, humans can have a genuine relationship. In general, that means animals which are mammals. Communication of the non-verbal kind is strongly developed in mammals, and mammals are mostly social animals.
Many animals recognise each other's alarm signals (cross-species communication). Indeed animal communication of one kind or another is almost universal amongst vertebrates.
Triangular number
A triangular number is a number that is the sum of all of the natural numbers up to a certain number. When formed using regularly spaced dots, they tend to form a shape of equilateral triangle, hence the name.
For example, 10 is a triangular number because .
The first 25 triangular numbers are: 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, 66, 78, 91, 105, 120, 136, 153, 171, 190, 210, 231, 253, 276, 300, 325, 351, and so on.
A triangular number is calculated by the equation:
formula_1 .
Skeptical Inquirer
The Skeptical Inquirer is an American science magazine. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) publishes this magazine every other month. This magazine's subtitle is now "The magazine for science and reason". Articles in the magazine are about science and pseudoscience (fake or phony science).
"The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." The "Skeptical Inquirer" is not a formal scientific journal.