Back in the 1980s in deepest Ontario, Dr. Michael Persinger hit on the idea of using a helmet with wire coils to stimulate the temporal lobes of the brain with particular patterns of low-level electromagnetic waves. Numerous people who wore the contraption reported feeling a presence, and sometimes the Divine Presence. The press got word, and the legend of the “God Helmet” was born. Problem is, other researchers have had trouble replicating the results.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why Deadlines – Even Unnecessary Ones – Make People Get Things Done
It’s not – or not just – because some people [fidgets nervously] are lazy procrastinators: there’s a more benign, and basic, explanation.
The One TV Show That Really Gets The Aftereffects Of Sexual Assault Right
The ‘shock-and-arouse’ approach of Game of Thrones, the ripped-from-the-headlines feel and consciousness-raising of Law & Order: SVU, the superhero wish-fulfillment of Jessica Jones – “real-life survivors might struggle to find their experiences reflected accurately [in those series] … So it’s ironic that perhaps the best drama to explore the trauma of sexual assault is a show that, unlike SVU or Game of Thrones, very few people watch: SundanceTV’s Rectify.”
Meet Eight Different Versions Of The Possessed Puppet In ‘Hand To God’
“Actors who have done the part report it to be one of the hardest (if not zaniest) challenges of their career. Here’s a look at several of them, plus insight from puppet designers on what inspired their own Tyrones. Simple answer: It wasn’t all Elmo.”
The ‘Greatest Literary Prize You’ve Never Heard Of’? The ‘American Nobel’? Possibly
“Over its 45 year history, 32 of the winners, jurors, and finalists have gone on to win the Nobel Prize” – among them Gabriel García Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Tomas Tranströmer, Czesław Miłosz, Doris Lessing, and Svetlana Alexievich. Editor and literary publisher Chad Post pays a visit to Norman, Oklahoma to check out the Neustadt Prize and this year’s winner, Dubravka Ugrešić.
Ballet’s New Reigning Power Couple Get A Rare Chance To Perform Together – In Contemporary Dance, No Less
Roslyn Sulcas talks to Natalia Osipova and Sergei Polunin about the program of new and recent work Osipova put together this summer and is bringing to the States.
The Great Fiddling Tradition That Time Forgot (Until Recently)
Masses of dispossessed Scots Highlanders settled on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia in the early 19th century, and they brought their fiddles and bagpipes, their Gaelic songs and step dances with them and kept them alive. Now that telecommunications and transportation have reduced Cape Breton’s isolation, the rest of us are discovering the music – often through the island’s famous fiddlers like Ashley MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster. (includes video and sound clips)
£10,000 Prize For Fiction That ‘Breaks The Mould’ Goes To One-Sentence Novel
“A novel written in a single sentence” – Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones – “has won the 2016 Goldsmiths prize, becoming the third Irish winner in the four-year history of an award set up to reward fiction that ‘breaks the mould or opens up new possibilities for the novel form’.”
An Oakland Arts Space Bounces Back After A Shooting
“Naming Gallery in Oakland, California, is a multi-purpose arts space where people congregate on Saturday nights. … In August 2016, a fatal shooting occurred outside the gallery where hundreds of people were celebrating. ‘If we let this destroy us as people, we won’t be able to gather, we won’t be able to share art with each other,’ says Imari, a musician who is part of the Naming Gallery community. ‘To stay open is the only thing I can do right now.'” (video)
Water-Soaked Frescoes And Old Masters In The Mud: Remembering The Florence Flood, Fifty Years On
“Asking a veteran conservator or museum professional where they were when the Arno River burst its banks 50 years ago this month, submerging the historic centre of Florence under 18 billion gallons of filthy water, is akin to asking someone what they were doing when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.”