The frontal lobe (in red), is the ‘executive’. It’s the part that decides on actions. The area where planning, speculating, and inventing takes place. It’s where intent is. And it’s its oversize in reference to the rest of the brain that is unique only to us humans.

It is the frontal lobe’s key role in driving our actions, that earned it the unbelievably violent treatment used in sever mental illnesses in the 40s and 50s, named lobotomy. And as this blog is mostly peace and love, I’ll leave it to the horror genre lovers to read further…

But what does Quantum Physics have to do with all that? Is what asked myself yesterday when I was watching Dr. Joe Dispenza‘s (of “What The Bleep Do We Know” movie) “Mastering the Art of Observation“.

In this thought provoking monologue/DVD, he builds a case that bridges the gap between Quantum Physics and Spontaneous Remissions. And one of the key building blocks in the case is our power, as ‘observers’, to pro-actively observe a different outcome – of the state of our physical bodies included.

In his research, he found that people who experienced spontaneous remissions of illnesses had something very interesting in common. They all said, in one way or another, “I’m going to observe a different outcome. and I’m going to hold on to this observation, independent of the in feedback from my body, environment and time.” He explains further: “And it’s the frontal lobe, the crown of human achievements, that allows us to do that. The frontal lobe gives us permission to make a thought more real than anything else. To hold on to a concept, an idea, a vision  or a dream, independent of circumstances that exist in the world, in our body, in reference to time. And those are the traits that we secretly admire in all great people”.

And he closes the loop:

“The whole idea of separation between mind and matter, the separation between the objective and the subjective may actually begin to merge when we apply these principles together. Maybe quantum physics gives us permission to say that my observations matter. Maybe the frontal lobe, the crowning achievement of human being allows us to modify our behaviour in one lifetime, and to grow new circuits and now connections as a new place of being. And this this merging that takes place between mind and matter says this: My thoughts matters. And because it matters, it should have a direct effect on the closest thing that exists to me, which is my physical body. And if we can begin to merge these ideas, we’ve come a complete circle back to understanding that there is no separation. Mind gives life to matter.”

And he ends with:

“To learn, to remember, and to experience is out gift as human beings. By this process, we are forever changing. To stop learning is to stop changing. When we can demonstrate that we can learn the universe will never leaves us behind. Our change is our own evolution.”

Scientifically, this bridge may still be more of a quantum leap, so to speak… But intuitively, and experientially,  this idea totally makes sense to me. And science after all, is limited to the realm of what’s measurable in tools we have today.

“Even though my environment is different than my thinking, my thinking is more important.” - Dr. Dispenza

There are some fascinating experiments by Dr. William A. Tiller that explore the limits of traditional ‘time-space’ science:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s like there were two me. One that was experiencing everything and another me who’s the observer of the whole scene. I notice that the beige Asian carpet I have, and my african art collection are also hovering close to the ceiling in the two corners of the room.

I make my way out of the bedroom to the window in the living room, pull myself out and I’m flying! But not in Tel Aviv anymore, in the country side. And I navigate my way between tree branches and as the trees get thicker, I can suddenly fly into the tree tops and go through it. And it is BY FAR the most euphoric feeling I ever had. Ever! Nothing comes remotely close. Not even flying a fighter jet (you can Google that) or pole dancing on a mirror topped bar (you had to be at my wedding for that).

The next thing, I find myself back in my room and it blows my mind that I just fucking flew into trees. I pick up the phone right from where I left it when I went to bed, and I call Noam my (now) husband to tell him. Instead of hearing his voice I get his picture on the phone screen. I try again and the damn thing doesn’t make the call – it just keeps showing different images of Noam. I get so frustrated trying to dial again and again and I can feel as the blood rushes to my head and then, snap! I wake up! on my stomach, in my old apt in Tel Aviv.

They say that in lucid dreaming, when something happens that is too unrealistic, too against any common sense, the conflict makes you snap out of the dream and wake up. So, flying is totally reasonable, but that the iphone doesn’t work, nah’ that just can’t be!!!

That was my first flying lucid dream, about 6 months ago. I am now working on making calls in my dreams…

What are your dreams like?

Click here to view the embedded video.

So far, so good.

Around 4pm I make my way back home to the marina in Herzeliya. I’m in zomet hakfar hayarok, on the phone, the light already turned green, when an Indian guy comes running to me, middle of the junction, with suitcases and malle’ paklaoot and puts a sign to my window that says “can you take me to better place?”. I open the window of my rental to ask if he means the visitors center and people behind me already beep cause I’m blocking traffic so I let him in the passenger seat with all his stuff and my car now looks like an Indian bus from the movies.

[Thought: my description of the bus reminds me of the awful campaign to re-brand Israel running in the local media these days - the one with the camels.]

On the way to drop him off in glilot gas station (where he can grab a taxi – traffic was crazy and I was heading the other way…) he tells me this whole story of how he’s been studying the company for more than a year, that it’s his dream, that he’s an MBA student from Bangalore or something, and yada yada…

Inbal gave me this info postcard of the center so I give the place a call to say there’s an Indian guy with suitcases on the way and I give the postcard to him. End of story.

Then it hits me! Isn’t that the weirdest shit ever??? Think of it, in any other context, an Indian guy, running to your car with suitcases, asking you to take him to a better place, would sound totally whack and most people wouldn’t let him in. Most people probably didn’t. Let’s assume, with the PR they’ve been getting lately, and the vicinity, that more people now know what Better Place is. But the visitors center only opened a week ago. Yesterday, I too had no idea where the place was and it was totally out of my focus. But today, of all days, when I’m open to ‘Better Place experiences’ – with the visit and all, this guy who just landed from  India ‘falls’ on my car, like the coke bottle from ‘kulam naflu al harosh’, so that I can take him to Better Place and give the center a call to ‘soften’ his pop visit.

Coincidence? As I said here before, I DON’T THINK SO!

The visit by the way, was very impressive. You should go there even if it’s just for the lesson in marketing. It’s like nothing we know here in Israel. The ride was, well, just like any other vehicle only very silent and smooth. And it’s overall a very cool car. When we pulled back in I said, “WOW, this is the future!” and Raanan, an obviously highly trained “switcher” (which is the Better Place word for the guy that takes you on the test drive) replied: “No, it’s the present”.

Am I switched? Yes.

And as for my Indian friend, well… we exchanged cards, and I hope he does well. Actually, I have no doubt he will.

And following are some pics I took of the visit today, and Shai Agassi’s talk about Better Place at TED2009 – because like any marketer, I can’t pass on an opportunity to embed a TEDTalk in context…

The full and most updated information about the event can always be found in the TEDxTelAviv official website. You can also follow TEDxTelAviv updates via RSS or Twitter (if you tweet, please use #TEDxTelAviv).

Finalists will get to pitch at the national pitching Competition and stand to win a prize of $20,000.

This honest and truly funny talk by Guy Kawasaki about Art of The Start will help you prepare your pitch while you learn how many people it takes to change a light bulb at Microsoft and Apple.

Note that the contest is open to both individuals and teams, and at least one member must be listed IDC student or grad.

Moshe Safdie‘s a triple citizen of Canada, Israel and the United States, three places where the bulk of his buildings can be found: in Canada, the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Vancouver public library. For Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, he designed the Children’s Memorial and the Memorial to the Deportees; he’s also built airport terminals in Tel Aviv. In the US, he designed the elegant and understated Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Masachusetts, and under construction now is the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas, set to open in 2010.

I couldn’t stop watching it.

You can get the full DVD in Blue Ray Quality from Amazon.