Higher states of consciousness in which the human mind can transcend the boundaries of logic and reason are envisioned as natural to the experience and potential growth of every human being. So far they have been mostly monitored by electrophysiological methods. In this study we were particularly interested in discovering the molecular transcriptional basis of higher states of consciousness. In addition to phenomenological reports of meditators who participated in this study the generated higher states of consciousness were also EEG recorded. (...) We assessed the whole genome gene expression analysis of long-term meditators in four separate trials and detected significant differential gene expression in association with higher states of consciousness. The number of differently expressed genes as well as high proportion of genes themselves differed between meditators. Despite this, gene ontology enrichment analysis found significant biological and molecular processes shared among meditators’ higher state of consciousness. (shrink)

National Institutes of Health’s policies for Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) instruction for individual career development awards (K-awards) stress appropriateness to the career stage and tailoring to the individual’s needs. Early-career faculty have unique needs for RCR instruction. While our institution requires RCR education for ALL graduate students and postdoctoral trainees, we found that many K-awardees 1) are early-career faculty not eligible to participate in postdoc programs, and 2) many had received formal RCR instruction at only basic or intermediate levels. (...) We identified 45 K-award recipients with active grants, 26 of whom needed RCR instruction. We developed a program specifically designed for early-career faculty researchers. Through the first three iterations of the course, we had a total of 24 participants, ranging from senior postdoctoral and clinical fellows to instructor-level and assistant professors. This paper describes our experience and challenges in developing and conducting this course. (shrink)

This volume contains fourteen essays in which different aspects of gerard Bucher's "thanatopoietic hypothesis" are examined.