because some do feel the pain of others.

For most of us the expression 'feeling someone else's pain' is simply a way of saying we sympathise with their sadness or discomfort.
But there are some who don't just have an emotional reaction to another's agony - they feel genuine physical pain as well, researchers have found.
The finding could explain why some people are more sympathetic to other people's misery.


Psychologist Dr Stuart Derbyshire made the discovery after inviting 123 university students to watch video clips and photographs of patients and sports stars in pain.
The videos included a footballer breaking his leg, a tennis player turning over his left ankle and a patient getting an injection in the hand. All the students said that, for at least one of the images or videos, they had an 'emotional reaction' - such as feeling sad, disgusted or fearful.

But a third also claimed to feel real pain in the same part of the body as the person they were watching. Some experienced tingling or aching, others felt a heavy or stabbing pain. For some the pain was fleeting - others complained that it lasted for several seconds.
A gruesome picture of an athlete running on a racetrack with a broken leg generated the most physical pain in the students, researchers reported in the medical journal Pain.

The scientists then asked ten of these 'hypersensitive' students to repeat the experiment while their brains were being scanned with fMRI - the functional magnetic resonance imaging used in hospitals.
The results were compared with the scans from ten students who said they felt nothing while looking at the upsetting images.
Scientists found that while viewing the painful pictures, both groups showed activity in the parts of the brain that deal with emotions. However, those who said they felt physical pain showed greater activity in the parts of the brain that handle pain - suggesting that their sensations were genuine.
'Our study provides convincing evidence that a significant minority of normal subjects can share not just the emotional component of an observed injury, but also the sensory component,' said Dr Derbyshire, of the University of Birmingham.
'We think this confirms that at least some people have an actual physical reaction when observing others being injured or expressing pain.'
He noted that those who reported feeling pain also tended to say that they avoided horror movies and disturbing images on the news 'so as to avoid being in pain'.
The finding could explain ' functional pain experience', where patients complain of aches and pains, despite having no obvious disease, he said.
Scientists are puzzled why some are able to feel others' pain - and some cannot.
It has been suggested that the ability evolved millions of years ago and that the ability to feel another's physical pain encouraged our prehistoric ancestors work more closely with each other.
Almost 8million Britons live with chronic pain, especially women, while a third of patients say doctors are unable to 'inadequately control' of their pain.
Back pain costs the economy at least five million working days each year, and is the cause of half a million claimants receiving long-term incapacity benefits.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

because i hated those posts.

now i like visiting my blog again. <3

because i view it differently.

jsh: of course the fear of the lord comes in when u see around us the power of nature. usually when i look at nature. i cant imagine that it all came about outta nothing so perfectly.

i beg to differ on the point that it "all came outta nothing so perfectly"
perfectly? hardly.

I am sure no theist would disagree that "god" was there in the beginning of time, that it was 'god' who created everything and so on and so forth.
now for that idea to be in sync with the natural history of our planet, you could in fact say that god did not in fact create humans as the first living things. and that in fact if Adam and eve DID exist, they would have to be bacteria, a microorganism. the first living things on the planet.

now would you call that the perfect most intelligent design? evidently not because here we are today. through natural selection, through evolution was this "perfection" achieved.

so i would not be in awe of god, for if it is so easy to dismiss millions of years of evolution and natural history just to automatically assume that god created humans halfway through.and that life will continue to evolve and change as time progresses.

change.. is the constant. so "perfection"? hardly.

atheism: unyielding despair
before u read this, please view the video

now this, is MY very own opinion. i am NOT speaking on behalf of all other atheist so do NOT generalize that all atheist feel the same way as i do.

i do not hold atheism as my religion. heck, the reason i am atheist is because i do not believe in religion as a whole. (contradictory or whatever, you get my drift)

i do not believe in a god, a divine being, an almighty, the creator, etc, etc. yes, i believe that this is the only life we will have, that when we die, we just die. there is nothing to greet me and nothing that awaits me. and this, according to theist, is a depressing thought and that i should probably be a sorry, miserable, suicidal person. (and will probably never write a good song)

but i tell you what. even though i know that i am a small and (probably) insignificant being compared in our vast and cold universe, these thoughts, this unyielding despair is not and will not be the foundation for my life.

i build my life on the foundation of the pursuit of happiness.
atheism does not define me and is in fact a fraction of what my life means to me.

cheers,

chuen

PSjust something i had to get of my chest. not written to perfection, but it get my point across i hope.

PPS the more i listen to that preacher in that video, the more i think he's just a load of hot air. all he is doing is repeatedly stressing on the point that there is noone to save atheist, noone to greet us, etc etc. louder. and louder.. again and again.

because the CBOX doesn't allow more than a certain amount of characters

right i'll get straight to it.


jsh: hmm. u do believe that we have a natural moral compass within us right? and that we all agree that we are to do somethings and not do somethings.
jsh: my questions is do you think that we exist on our own. OR that we are under a moral law that Somebody wants us to behave a certain way.

actually, josh, if u read my 'response post 1' thoroughly, u could most accurately come to a conclusion on where i stand on this subject. that yes, i DO believe that we as human beings exist on our own and that we are capable of choosing whether to do, think and say certain things but are also capable of choosing not to.
that yes, i do believe that we are under a moral law and that 'somebody' wants us to behave that way. but i do not believe that that 'somebody' registers as some divine power or being. i believe that this 'somebody' is actually, everybody. every single human being.
this is due to the fact that i know and believe that people operate on empathy.
that i choose not to hit someone not because i feel that god would dislike and shun my actions, probably deny me my passage to heaven and damn me to hell but because i know that what hurts me, would hurt someone too.


wh: do you really believe that all of us are born with a moral compass? Hint : Cannibalism, bullying,etc


i really do believe we are all born with a sense of empathy and i know things like cannibalism and bullying blows my arguments right out of the water but read this:

Things are different in the case of the cool and deliberate serial killer, who knows the criminality of his deeds yet continues to commit them. For neuroscientists, the iciness of the acts calls to mind the case of Phineas Gage, the Vermont railway worker who in 1848 was injured when an explosion caused a tamping iron to be driven through his prefrontal cortex. Improbably, he survived, but he exhibited stark behavioral changes—becoming detached and irreverent, though never criminal. Ever since, scientists have looked for the roots of serial murder in the brain's physical state.
extracted from "what makes us moral" TIME magazine

jsh: plus i think that no one in the world has ever obeyed their own moral law.

too open ended and undefined. unwilling to comment.

wh: abt individuals?If so,i beg to differ. Case being Jesus, Buddha,certain monks and priests of many religions. Can you say they did not obey their own moral law? if i'm on the wrong track, do explain
wh: just in case you're going to use my last sentence as a +1 to religion, this is not restricted to religious ppl. enlightenment does not have to come from religion.

wh, are u implying that enlightenment is achieved by obeying the moral law?



jsh: ok just ask yourself whether your conscience was groomed or was it already IN you. if you say the former, ive got nothing else to say. lol

i think u have the definition of former confused? because it sounds like u are dismissing the fact that one's conscience was groomed. does this mean that your conscience tells u the same thing now as it did when u were 4 or 5?
or do you mean that everyone has a conscience no matter how young and that one's conscience is not born spontaneously?






and joshua, i think i know where you're going with your arguements

correct me if I'm wrong but you feel that the "moral law" has such a broad spectrum and that if the moral law was defined by oneself, a difference in the constituents of one's moral law between two people might result in a probable disastrous result.
therefore u feel that the one way to achieve social harmony is by implementing ONE and only ONE moral law. GOD'S law.

theoretically speaking, yes. i would agree that one common moral law would be just the thing we need. but bear in mind, the factors that surround social harmony and human well being are plentiful. that is why i say theoretically.

however i do not believe that this common law should be gods law, simply because the god law operates on fear of the afterlife and divine punishment.
although this is exactly what the world needs, and i am willing to admit it..
i still believe that one day education will replace religion.



cheers,
chuen.

PS chicks name is Susan Coffey

because ZOMFG.

thanks to Lionel.

CLICK IT to get the full HD pic.

i know guys. i experienced a shortage of breath too when i saw her.

because add maths cant do as much damage as Miley Cyrus

and today i put myself through 3mins and 58 secs of pure hell. in the form of this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD22Mk_cfJE

miley cyrus - 7 things.

you know sometimes when u witness something like a horrible accident and u want to pull your head away but u cant?

so lemme explain how horrible it was, in the form of pictures.

curiosity

what the fuck..?

hey that rocker chick is HOT.

oh fuck me.

because my IQ beat a monkey's by single digits

this is what happened to me.

lionel sent a link

link to a Youtube video entitled "Truckers Flair"

.

..

...

....

"Truckers Flair was flagged as "inappropriate" by the Youtube community

so i was presented with two options

either

fuck off or sign up

so i signed up since sejarah paper is over.

signed up

.

. .

. . .

. . . .

“FLAIRS - TRUCKERS DELIGHT”
This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community.
Sorry, you must be 18 or over to view this video or group.

i are fucktard. i really are.

excuse me while i go entertain myself by attempting to teach a rock to speak