Book review: Stumbling on Happiness
Daniel Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness is not about happiness so much as it is about why our pursuit of happiness so often has disappointing results...
Author: Mary
Speaking in tongues
Twenty-five years ago, back when I still went to church, I fell in with a group of Catholic charismatics. I hadn’t even known there was such a thing; I wa...
Neurons in birds linked to social behavior
A study of vasotocin-producing neurons in birds reveals that birds that live in groups have more of that kind of neuron, and the neurons are more active, compar...
Sharing meat
When I was first thinking about setting up the Thinking Meat Project web site, I was talking with my older son about some of the ideas behind the phrase “...
Book review: For the Time Being
My younger son recently discovered Annie Dillard’s books and recommended several of them to me, including For the Time Being. Before I had a chance to rea...
Book review: Authentic Happiness
Martin Seligman is the founder of the Positive Psychology movement, a shift in attention to the psychology of functional rather than dysfunctional states of min...
Gratitude
A few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend about gratitude; when I’m in a beautiful place, or looking at the starry sky, or feeling particularly appreci...
Mysticism in the brain
Two Canadian scientists have used fMRI to examine the brains of nuns who were recalling mystical experiences. Prior research seemed to indicate that maybe the t...
About the Thinking Meat Project
Note: This originally appeared as an About page on the Thinking Meat Project after old content was pruned. I changed it to a post so it could be moved over in c...
Bogus brand recognition
I’ve been so wrapped up in buying and moving into a house that I have not had a whole lot of spare time on my hands lately. Thinking Meat is busy thinking...