Friday 31 August 2007

The Mind Head Eye - on The Pursuit Happiness.



Hey, hey kids do you like to rock n roll? This week, at the generous behest of the Kiumetastic Sandra, we will be filling our cerebellum bellies with the science of happiness. What makes us smile? What makes us content? Is laughter a Class A pharmaceautical and if so, where canI score a hit?

In this podcast, CBC Radio show, Quirks & Quarks talks with a group of psychologists and neuroscientists at the forefront of happy science;
Dr. Daniel Nettle, a reader in Psychology at the University of Newcastle, the author of, Happiness, the Science Behind your Smile.
Dr. Daniel Gilbert is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and author of, Stumbling on Happiness.
Dr. Angela Clow is in the Psychology Department at the University of Westminster in London and studies the physiology of emotion, including happiness.
Dr. Richard Davidson is the Vilas and William James Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and studies the neurology of happiness.

Some nifty websites.

Dr. Nettle's book, Happiness, the Science Behind your Smile
Dr. Gilbert's book, Stumbling on Happiness
Dr. Gilbert's website
Dr. Clow's website
Dr. Davidson's website

Devilish Dr Dan Gilbert gives a memorable TED lecture on Happiness. (I particularly like this one because it makes my wife smile when she's sad)







The alumni of Harvard are not only smart, they're funny and good looking, (and I might add, frightfully skilled in the bedroom dept.) Here is a new class at the Veritas of the Ivy League, that teaches the six tips of happiness by someone who sounds pretty darn happy. Check it out here

A link to an article on the technology of happiness here.

More from Dr Dan Gilbert here

A real audio lecture on happiness. The science of happiness is attempting to pin down what really lifts the spirit -- to measure it, and to teach it. Happier people live longer. They get fewer colds. They have better relationships and do more for others. here

Another Harvard lecture on the goal of attaining happiness (mp3) here

A good reason to keep angry people out of your life is here. (Anger and tresentment are very contagious emotion, but, as Columbia discovered, so is peacefullness, you just have to feel it very deeply).

Another podcast on the psychology of happiness is here
Here is the lecture Bob Thurman gave at TED, ( I defy you not to feel happy when he breaks into a little laugh)



Here is the world databse of happiness here

And here's a discussion with Steven Pinker for no other reason than because he makes me happy (even when he talks with Robert Wright) and I hope it makes you happy too. Cheer up Headsters, it's good to be human and great to be here and now. Have a lovely weekend.


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