Times of Social Unrest Appear to Boost Our Brain’s Neuroplasticity

Times of Social Unrest Appear to Boost Our Brain’s Neuroplasticity

New research suggests that times of global unrest present a unique opportunity for neurological growth and profound behavior change, but only when leveraged correctly.

Kayla Osterhoff is a neuropsychophysiologist who studies the interaction of the mind and brain, which she calls the ‘human operating system.’

“One of the greatest mysteries in modern neuroscience is actually how the brain produces the mind. The reason why we have not been able to come up with the answer for this is because that’s not how it works. These two are actually separate systems that interact together to produce what I call the ‘human operating system,’ which is responsible for our version of reality as humans,” Osterhoff said.

Osterhoff has recently been researching the hypothesis that times of social unrest provide a valuable opportunity to neurologically upgrade this human operating system.

“Right now, we have this very unique opportunity to upgrade our ‘human operating system’ globally,” Osterhoff said. “And that is because as a society around the entire world we are experiencing this social unrest and this has caused a couple of significant cognitive and neurological shifts that have provided an opportunity for us to grow and evolve as a society.”

Osterhoff points to several fascinating factors that contribute to this phenomenon.

“So, studies are showing that acute states of stress, like shock, trauma, or something surprising like what we’re currently experiencing in our world, caused this cognitive psychological shift that actually makes our subconscious mind more suggestible, meaning that our subconscious mind is brought forward so to speak, and it’s more malleable, it’s more programmable,” Osterhoff said. 

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      “If you look back at clinical hypnosis research and Ericksonian research — he was kind of the father of clinical hypnosis — he found in his research that shock and surprise are actually a form of hypnotic induction that can be utilized to reprogram the subconscious mind or increase subconscious suggestibility,” she said. 

      Another contributing factor Osterhoff has uncovered has to do with the phenomenon of neuroplasticity.

      “So, neuroplasticity refers to the way that our neurons, our brain cells, fire, and wire together. So, neuroplasticity increases our ability to change and reshape these neural pathways,” Osterhoff said. “The second opportunity that we have right now is a global increase in neuroplasticity. Now, in these times of unrest, our lives have been upended, our patterns have shifted, and we’re experiencing things for the first time. So, because of this our globe is experiencing heightened neuroplasticity and heightened subconscious suggestibility.”

      What are the implications of these findings?

      “Now, the opportunity here is that we can leverage these two abilities to change, grow, evolve, shift, and learn to our benefit or if we remain unaware of this, we can be shifted in a way that is detrimental to us as well,” Osterhoff said. 

      “For instance, if you want to quit smoking, or you want to change some kind of behavior, you have a greater ability to do that right now than ever before. On the opposite side of things, if you spend this time in fear or in worry, you risk hardwiring those behaviors into your physiology. Because this is happening on a mass scale, our world has a greater capacity to evolve, shift, and grow than it ever has before. So we need to leverage this, we need to take advantage so that we can make the positive changes that we want to see in the world happen.”

      Group Intention Experiments Shown to Have Measurable Healing Effect

      In the field of research being done on intention and manifesting, Lynne Mctaggart is legendary. Her latest revolutionary experiments show the power of group intention to heal.

      Mctaggart is a journalist and bestselling author, world-renowned for her groundbreaking work on consciousness and the power of intention. She is also the architect of “The Intention Experiment,” a global laboratory involving thousands of participants testing the power of group thoughts to heal the world. 

      Her research has repeatedly shown the profound effect thoughts have on reality.

      “We’re all a batch of vibrating packets of energy so there’s nothing solid or stable about us (and) there’s nothing solid or stable about the world,” McTaggart said. 

      “In between different objects is a giant quantum energy field, we’re all in the field, and our subatomic particles make up the field. So, because we are energy, energy is changing at every moment at the subatomic level, nothing is an actual anything yet, it’s every possible state all at once. What they’ve found is what turns that potential of something into something real is an observer. So, our consciousness, our ability to observe, our ability to intend also makes us a creator.”

      McTaggart’s intention experiments, running since 2007, are some of the first controlled explorations of the power of mass intention. In these experiments, she invites an audience to send a specific thought to affect a target, after which a team of scientists calculates the results to measure possible change.

      “I’ve run 40 intention experiments — everything from trying to make plants grow faster, seeds grow faster, to purifying water, to lowering violence in war-torn areas or violent areas, to even healing someone with PTSD,” McTaggart said. “Of those 40, 35 have shown measurable, positive, mostly significant effects as measured by teams of scientists at different prestigious universities. So, we’ve got lots of evidence that thoughts are things that affect other things.” 

      Of particular significance to McTaggart are her peace experiments, which include the two she has now done on the 10th and 20th anniversaries of 9/11.

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