From Dr. Susan Block, I’ll copy and paste the techniques she gives to women on how to achieve ejaculation orgasms.

Learning How to Squirt

Female Ejaculation is an everyday miracle. Just about every normal woman has the anatomy for it, but most don’t do it. Moreover, the practice is veiled in mystery. Some porn films show it, but they don’t explain what it is or how to do it. Sometimes they even use misleading tricks, like filling the woman’s vagina with water that she then squirts out for the camera. Some sex education videos and books explain female ejaculation in much the same way that this essay tries to do, but they don’t show it very well. Granted, it is difficult to explain. Thus, over the years, I have tried to create my own videos and literature that shows this process as clearly, and with us much fun and erotic delight, as possible.

I first heard the term “G-spot female ejaculation” from Deborah Sundahl back in 1992 at a Lifestyles Convention, having wandered into her seminar quite by accident. I had never heard of such a thing as women having “squirting” orgasms, at least not on purpose. Neither had anyone else in the seminar. It was something “new” and very exciting, but rather confusing and seemed way out of my personal realm-of-possibility, especially in a seminar like this, where we were sitting in rows of chairs as if we were in a biology class. I found Deborah to be quite charming and knowledgeable, and interviewed her on my show a couple of times, but didn’t get an intimate lesson in squirting from her until 12 years later! In the meantime, I would encounter a slightly different approach to the art and science of female ejaculation.

The Braun Method

Years past, and I didn’t give much thought to female ejaculation until I met one of the most prominent, prolific, “hands-on” modern crusaders for G-spot female ejaculation, Axel “The G-Man” Braun. Axel is the handsome, nimble-fingered son of renowned Italian sex pioneer and filmmaker Lasse Braun. The elder Braun, an old friend of mine, had written a booklet, The Nectar of Aphrodite, a sort of G-Spot Female Ejaculation Manifesto based upon his personal research into the phenomenon with 130 different women. Braun the Younger took his father’s work into the next generation of ejaculation.

Axel has long boasted that he can “make any woman squirt.” He almost lives up to his grandiose claim, having succeeded with 12 out of 15 of the women on whom he’s tried his method at the Dr. Susan Block Institute, most notably the vivacious and juicy Shayna Knight. As for the other three: One was deadset against squirting at all; she wanted to prove him wrong, and she did. Another was sick with a 102 degree fever (on another occasion, when she was well, she did squirt). The third admitted that she was too worried about what her jealous boyfriend would think to relax and let anything happen. The other 12, myself among them, all squirted with Axel, even though we’d never squirted before.

The “Braun Method” is all in the finger action. It begins with the woman lying back, legs spread open, her partner (let’s call him the “G-Man”) at her right side, if he is right-handed. After some sort of foreplay (kissing, oral sex, nipple play, rubbing the clitoris and labia, whatever gets her wet), the G-Man inserts two fingers into her vagina. Axel uses his middle and ring fingers for this, though you might prefer to use your middle and forefingers. Slowly, the G-Man moves his two fingers around inside of her, continuing the foreplay – rubbing her clit, playing with her nipples, lightly spanking her butt, etc. With probing fingers, he locates her G-Spot. He can feel it as a slightly raised, spongy, ridged bump on the “roof” of the vaginal cave. In most women, it is just behind the clitoris, and some experts consider it to be an extension of the clitoris. He then finds the center of this spot, pressing it gently but firmly. This pressure releases a warm flow of fluid, whereupon the G-Man begins vigorously “fingering” her, in and out of her vaginal opening, causing the rapid expulsion of fluid. That is, female ejaculation.

The first time Axel made me squirt was New Year’s 2000. Talk about toasting the New Millennium with my own Cristal Ejaculate! I’d just done a New Year’s show, plus received a particularly good whipping from Axel’s Daddy Lasse on Mario Saucedo’s Bondage Cross, and sat down and up a few times on Mario’s Dildo Chair. All that wild “foreplay” mixed with a few flutes of champagne got me loosened and lubricated for adventure. While Lasse was whipping me, Axel was whispering into my ear that he wanted to make me squirt.

I’d seen several women ejaculate – Deborah, Kiss, Annie Sprinkle and Carol Queen, to name a few – but I’d never been able to do it myself, not that I’d really tried. I was also one of those skeptics who wondered if it wasn’t just peeing while you’re coming. Not that there’s anything wrong with a nice golden shower, but well, that’s just peeing.

But Axel and Lasse both, each commandeering one of my ears, promised me it wasn’t just peeing. Moreover, Axel insisted he could make me squirt without my knowing how to do a thing. As soon as I agreed, Axel disappeared into the bathroom to wash up. Emerging with sleeves rolled up and hands raised, he looked like a surgeon about to operate, or a magician showing he had nothing up his sleeve.

Just to prove to myself that it wasn’t urine, I took a nice long whiz right before sitting down with Axel. As I was already highly aroused and very wet thanks to all that whipping and whispering, Axel didn’t have to do much in the way of foreplay. He slid his middle and ring fingers easily between my inner labia and into my vagina and immediately began probing around for my G-Spot. Once he located the raised spongy spot under the roof of my vaginal cave, he pressed it gently yet firmly. I felt a slight pinprick sensation, followed by a gushing feeling in my womb, at which point Axel began his dynamic forceful fingering technique. In and out, in and out. I felt like I was blacking out, but I could hear the oohing and ahhing of spectators around me. Actually, I felt kind of like a human washing machine (in a good way!) on rinse cycle. My eyes were closed, so I couldn’t see myself squirt, but when I was done, everyone assured me that I had, indeed, ejaculated. I also noticed that Axel’s arm and the towel I sat on, as well as the sofa under it, were soaked with my bountiful juices. Later, I looked at the video. Yes, indeed, there I was, squirting like a burst water pipe. These juices did not smell like pee. They smelled like pussy.

As for the orgasm itself, it was intense, a little bit painful, and exhilarating like a roller coaster ride, leaving me breathless, dizzy and more than a little worn out. A few minutes afterwards, I found myself feeling hornier than usual and wound up having a lot of wild wet sex that night. No more squirting, but some of my deepest, longest, juiciest orgasms ever.

From 2000-2004, I experienced G-spot female ejaculation about a half dozen more times, all with the G-Man, a frequent guest at my Speakeasy. Though I couldn’t yet squirt with my husband Max or other sexual partners, I noticed that my regular orgasms became stronger, longer and more frequent than ever, and I seemed to lubricate more easily and copiously than before.

Ivona’s Way – (Using well known vibrator Mr. Hitachi)

During this time, I met Ivona Diamond. When Ivona came to the Dr. Susan Block Institute, she had never squirted before. One night after the show, Axel asked her if she’d like to try it. Ivona’s boyfriend Larry went down on her as I played with her nipples. Then she let Axel’s fingers do the walking, using the Braun Method to make her ejaculate forcefully within about 10 minutes. Ivona is a very sensuous, adventurous woman. So no one was too surprised when she let loose and squirted up a small tropical storm. Still it was a baptismal sexual revelation. Soon Ivona became a Squirting Star. She squirted for me at my birthday party. She squirted at the first show on my broadcast bed at new building for Institute. Just as they christen a new ship with champagne, we uncorked our own personal Sex Bubbly to kick off a new era for the show in our beautiful new space. She squirted on her own birthday and for Halloween. She squirts regularly at home too.

Ivona still enjoys G-spot female ejaculation according to the Braun Method, which Larry mastered along with oral sex. But Ivona taught herself to squirt quite profusely with no fingering at all. With nothing but the firm pressure of her favorite plug-in vibrator, “Mr. Hitachi,” on her clitoris, labia and pushed-out G-Spot, Ivona can spray like a turbo-charged sprinkler system in a matter of seconds.

How does she do it? Goddess only knows, but she does it almost every time. Some women are squirting naturals; they do it without even trying. In fact, if they haven’t been educated about female ejaculation or if they have ignorant lovers, they may even be embarrassed about it, though, of course, they shouldn’t be. Ivona’s not exactly a natural. She didn’t start squirting until the G-Man pressed her button. But she does practice and, at this point, she can pretty much squirt on command. Here’s her essential routine: She lies down, head propped against pillows, legs bent and spread wide, buns raised up slightly off the bed. She lubricates her sizeable clitoris and abundant inner labia with her saliva (or Larry’s), then pulls those big wet butterfly lips open, placing Mr. Hitachi’s head right under her clitoris and over her spread labia. Then she presses Mr. Hitachi down, turning him on high speed, raising her butt, breathing deep, squeezing and releasing her kegel or pubococcygeous (PC) muscles and gently but firmly pushing out her G-spot so that it is stimulated by Mr. Hitachi. After a minute or two, or maybe at the most, three, her eyes squeeze shut and a high-pitched moan emerges from her throat. A second or two later, the geyser erupts. It lasts up to five seconds. The amount of ejaculate that she releases ranges from not much more than a sparkly spritz of pussy perfume to a dazzling, gushing tsunami of amrita. Her secret? Practice, she says. Also, she says it’s easier to for her to squirt a lot when she hasn’t done it for a couple of weeks. Just like guys.

The Sundahl Method

But here’s essentially what I did: First, I urinated downstairs before I went up on the roof. Then I found my private spot, spread out my towel and did about 30 minutes of slow sensuous yoga, breathing deeply, squeezing and releasing my PC muscles, concentrating on the pleasurable feelings in my body in general and my genitalia in particular. Next, I licked my fingers, and stuck my hands in my panties (I didn’t feel quite certain enough that I wouldn’t be seen to get completely naked. I rubbed my now juicy clitoris until I was very excited but not orgasming. Then, I stuck my index finger inside my vagina, crooking it into the “come hither” position, and rubbed and pressed my G-spot, feeling the ridges on the bump just an inch up from the entrance.

I took my time. I didn’t try to ejaculate, didn’t really expect to ejaculate. I just focused on the pleasurable feelings in my G-spot. I felt it growing, swelling, enlarging against my finger. As Deborah’s book suggested, I let it build and grow bigger and fuller. Every so often, I’d stop and breathe deep, and on the out-breath, I pushed as if I was going to pee, but I didn’t pee. I just pushed out my G-Spot, so it was practically outside my labia. Sometimes it felt as if my G-spot was ballooning out on its own.

Deborah cautions against pushing too hard and straining yourself. But I found that pushing out slowly and gently did lead me to squirt. That’s right, I had my very first self-propelled female ejaculation experience, with Deborah’s book in one hand as my other hand rubbed and pressed my G-spot. I first felt it on my finger, then I pulled out my finger along with a stream of hot flowing ejaculate that wound up soaking my panties, the towel and the book, and seemed to make the police helicopter circling above me screech to a halt in the sky. I sniffed my soaked panties and was pleased to find them smelling very faintly of flowers, certainly not of urine. I floated blissfully on my wet towel under the clouds for who knows how long. Then I ran downstairs to show Deborah who sniffed my panties and squealed with delight. “Congratulations, Suzy, you ejaculated!”

From Intimate Communion, I copy and pasted an answer the advice giver gave for a question posed

Dear R,

From GentleNibbles.Com (resource click on link), I copy and pasted their method/technique…

Female Ejaculation – A New Technique

Female Ejaculation otherwise known as Squirting is the spontaneous release of fluids from the urethra of a female during sexual intercourse.  Squirting really came into the public eye after the release of a very successful adult movie, The Grafenburg Spot in 1985.

In this movie, all of the “squirting” was staged for cinematic purposes, which led to the controversy over the reality of this phenomenon.  Since then it has slowly worked its way out of legend or urban myth to an accepted reality in the eyes of many women.

Mrs. Gentlenibbles and I fully believe in the reality of female ejaculation as Mrs. Gentlenibbles is a card carrying member of the club.  In a post entitled Its Raining Its Pouring, we wrote at the end of last year, we described how Mrs. “G” entered the world of squirting females.  We would like to use this post to describe the technique we successfully used in helping Mrs. “G” find her G-spot as well as achieve an ejaculatory orgasm.  We have now successfully used this technique with some of our friends and swinging partners who were having difficulty in achieving a squirting orgasm as well.

The typical technique most often referred to in articles addressing g-spot stimulation describe the following:

The woman is usually sitting or laying on her back with her legs spread and slightly elevated.  The person stimulating the G-spot sits in between the woman’s legs and uses two fingers slightly bent in a palms up position to gently stimulate the wall of the vagina directly above the vaginal opening.  The G-spot has a different texture than the rest of the vaginal wall that helps to identify it’s presence.

Once the G-spot is found it is usually recommended to keep the fingers still while moving your hand in and out with a gentle rocking motion to achieve the proper stimulation.  Some women like this movement slow and gentle, while some prefer a very rapid pace associated with this technique.  The person providing the stimulation should also consider clitoral contact as this usually increases the overall effect.  This website does a much better job of illustrating and describing this approach.

With Mrs. Gentlenibbles, as well as others we have met ,this approach has yet been able to work.  After a lot of trial and error (that was quite fun by the way), this was a technique that we found worked the best for Mrs. “G”.

Mrs. Gentlenibbles would lay flat on her abdomen with her legs spread at about a thirty or forty degree angle.  She would be completely relaxed, as we would often try this right after waking up on a Saturday morning.

I would lay down beside her with my face about level with her posterior, which is a pretty good view I must say.  Then with my hand closest to her, I would insert my thumb into her vagina facing down and wrap my hand around the front exterior wall of her vagina where I was actually gripping the front wall of her pubis.

This position will place your thumb almost directly over her G-spot, you can feel around for the texture change to be sure.  I would begin slowly stimulating her G-spot with just thumb movement until I could feel her start to moisten and begin reacting to the sexual excitement.

As her arousal increased, I would increase from just thumb movement to now slowly moving my hand back and forth.  As I do this, I am stimulating her G-spot with my thumb, her clitoris with the palm of my hand, and putting a little pressure on her lower abdomen/pubic wall with my fingers.  This slight pressure countering the pressure of the thumb we have found to be very important in finally achieving ejaculation.

After several minutes of this Mrs. Gentlenibbles will be very noticeably aroused with flushing skin, increased breathing patterns, and most importantly more moisture in her vaginal cavity.  When I notice her entering this phase of arousal, I know her body is just about ready to squirt.  At this point I will increase the tempo of my movements quite a bit, and gently increase the pressure on both her G-spot as well as pubic wall.

The other thing I do really seems to seal the deal.  I change my overall movement slightly at this point.  I push in deeper with my thumb and reach further up her vaginal wall and then almost use a “milking” motion as I pull my thumb outward.  Usually after just a few seconds of this Mrs. Gentlenibbles will achieve ejaculation.  Once she is in that heightened stage I can usually repeat this last step over and over causing her to squirt every time until one of us yells “uncle” due to exhaustion.

I should warn you, that you may want to have a towel in place before attempting this, as the amount of fluid can be much more than you would expect.

A couple of things to have in mind before attempting this.

1. Make sure the lucky volunteer has emptied her bladder.  The sensation of squirting feels much like releasing her urine, and she will feel much more comfortable giving in to that sensation if she knows her bladder is empty.
2. Guys cut your fingernails and consider smoothing them a bit, as you may be performing some rapid work near some very sensitive equipment.
3. Don’t do this on a woman just because you think she will like it.  If she is not expecting this your rapid assault will most likely just feel odd.
4. If the female is so inclined the person doing the stimulating can use their other hand to perform a little anal stimulation.  Many times this will greatly intensify the overall effect.
5. Important– Don’t be discouraged if this technique or any technique does not work right away.  It took Mrs. Gentlenibbles and I several months before she finally achieved ejaculation.  Just keep practicing  That is the fun part, remember.  Often the barrier is mental more than sexual and over time mental barriers usually find their way of resolving themselves.
6. Many believe that as woman age their G-spot plays a  much larger role in their overall sexual arousal making them more prone to squirting.  In our experience in the lifestyle we have found the ratio of woman who squirt over thirty versus those under thirty is pretty large!
7. Have fun!

We really hope this technique helps some of you out there who may have been trying this for awhile.  Please leave us a comment and let us know if this works for you, or if you have your own suggestions please share them with the rest of us!

Happy Squirting!

~Mr. and Mrs. Gentlenibbles

Warning: NSFW or for people under age 18. If you are easily offended by graphic language and nudity, please do not proceed any further. 

When I was learning more about women and relationships years ago, I started to learn about different forms of orgasms that a women can have and I was amazed that the biological process of coitus was so much more elaborate than anything I could have ever believed.

The first “sex trick” I wanted to talk about is the really recent discovery in the female body deep inside called the “A Spot” or “Deep Spot”.

From the Wikipedia article on the Anterior Fornix Erogenous Zone …

The anterior fornix erogenous zone (also known as the AFE zone, AFE, A-spot, epicenter, deep spot or second G-spot) is reportedly a female erogenous zone that when stimulated can lead to rapid vaginal lubrication and arousal, sometimes without any other form of stimulation, with continued stimulation resulting in an intense orgasm.

Early research – Discovery

The AFE zone concept is attributed to Malaysian sex scientist Dr. Chua Chee Ann. In his research with female subjects suffering from vaginal dryness, he found that stimulation of an area deep in the vagina on the anterior wall resulted in rapid lubrication and arousal. He did not make his discovery public until thirteen years after it was made.

A-spot stimulation technique

Dr. Chua Chee Ann has promoted his A-spot stimulation technique in books and at seminars as the most effective means of stimulating the AFE zone. The technique involves applying pressure to the area, making a scooping motion, and stimulating other parts of the vagina. He claims that if the technique is practiced for at least 10 minutes a day, it will make vaginal lubrication and orgasms regularly attainable, even without foreplay.

Deep spot technique

Self-proclaimed seduction expert David Shade claims to have discovered an erogenous zone in roughly same location as the AFE zone, which he refers to as the deep spot. Because of their closeness, it is likely that the AFE zone and the deep spot are one and the same. However, he sometimes describes the deep spot as being “the cavity of the cervix”, a term that is usually used to describe interior of the cervix, where semen is deposited for fertilization of a woman’s ovum. This does not appear to be what Shade is referring to, as he sometimes describes the cavity of the cervix as a Frisbee-like ring around the cervix.

For stimulating the deep spot, David Shade promotes the deep spot technique. The deep spot technique differs from the A-spot stimulation technique because it only involves stimulating one part of the vagina at once. Shade also distinguishes between the “front” of the deep spot, which is in approximately the same location as the AFE zone) and the “back” of the deep spot, which is on the posterior wall. This back of the deep spot may be the so-called cul-de-sac, thought by some to be the rectouterine pouch, or another erogenous zone altogether.

Location

Confusion

The AFE zone is reported to be located at or near the deepest point on the anterior wall of the vagina, above the cervix, where the anterior wall of the vagina starts to curve upward (the entrance to the anterior fornix, but some websites and news articles have described it as being on the posterior wall of the vagina, roughly opposite of the G-spot. Dr. Chua Chee Ann stated in an interview that this is completely wrong.[1] Some believe that this area may be a different erogenous zone altogether.

Connection to known female anatomy

Some believe that the AFE zone is the anterior fornix itself, but it is thought by some sex experts to be a degenerated female prostate (a theory that has been applied to the G-spot and the Skene’s gland) or the area where the vaginal nerves connect, which is thought to be near it. One other theory is that it is the vesicouterine pouch, due to its proximity to the supposed location of the AFE zone and the supposed erogenous qualities of the rectouterine pouch.

Mechanism

Lubrication

According to doctor Chua Chee Ann, the AFE zone redirects female ejaculatory fluid, which is expelled from the Skene’s gland during G-spot orgasms, and turns it into vaginal lubrication.[2] Because stimulating the AFE zone causes this mechanism and creates an erotic sensation simultaneously, full arousal occurs very quickly.

Orgasm

The orgasms that result from stimulation of the AFE zone are thought to be distinct from the orgasms that result from stimulation of the clitoris, but some women who have experienced them say that they are similar in sensation to orgasms achieved by G-spot stimulation, while others say that they are more “intense”.

From Zee News

Get her to an orgasm by stimulating her “deep” spot! 

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 02, 2011, 20:45

When I learned about this scientific concept of mirror neurons, I finally understood at a biological level how humans bond. As I have always wanted to believe, if one can understand the maechanics of a process, one can duplicate it or hack the process to make it better or give it the results one desires.

If you learn about the idea and use of mirror neurons, you will have a better chance of increasing your influence of others and lead others by examples. From the New York Times…

Cells That Read Minds

On a hot summer day 15 years ago in Parma, Italy, a monkey sat in a special laboratory chair waiting for researchers to return from lunch. Thin wires had been implanted in the region of its brain involved in planning and carrying out movements.

Cells That Read Minds

 Every time the monkey grasped and moved an object, some cells in that brain region would fire, and a monitor would register a sound: brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip.

A graduate student entered the lab with an ice cream cone in his hand. The monkey stared at him. Then, something amazing happened: when the student raised the cone to his lips, the monitor sounded – brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip – even though the monkey had not moved but had simply observed the student grasping the cone and moving it to his mouth.

The researchers, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neuroscientist at the University of Parma, had earlier noticed the same strange phenomenon with peanuts. The same brain cells fired when the monkey watched humans or other monkeys bring peanuts to their mouths as when the monkey itself brought a peanut to its mouth.

Later, the scientists found cells that fired when the monkey broke open a peanut or heard someone break a peanut. The same thing happened with bananas, raisins and all kinds of other objects.

“It took us several years to believe what we were seeing,” Dr. Rizzolatti said in a recent interview. The monkey brain contains a special class of cells, called mirror neurons, that fire when the animal sees or hears an action and when the animal carries out the same action on its own.

But if the findings, published in 1996, surprised most scientists, recent research has left them flabbergasted. Humans, it turns out, have mirror neurons that are far smarter, more flexible and more highly evolved than any of those found in monkeys, a fact that scientists say reflects the evolution of humans’ sophisticated social abilities.

The human brain has multiple mirror neuron systems that specialize in carrying out and understanding not just the actions of others but their intentions, the social meaning of their behavior and their emotions.

“We are exquisitely social creatures,” Dr. Rizzolatti said. “Our survival depends on understanding the actions, intentions and emotions of others.”

He continued, “Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation. By feeling, not by thinking.”

The discovery is shaking up numerous scientific disciplines, shifting the understanding of culture, empathy, philosophy, language, imitation, autism and psychotherapy.

Everyday experiences are also being viewed in a new light. Mirror neurons reveal how children learn, why people respond to certain types of sports, dance, music and art, why watching media violence may be harmful and why many men like pornography.

How can a single mirror neuron or system of mirror neurons be so incredibly smart?

Most nerve cells in the brain are comparatively pedestrian. Many specialize in detecting ordinary features of the outside world. Some fire when they encounter a horizontal line while others are dedicated to vertical lines. Others detect a single frequency of sound or a direction of movement.

Moving to higher levels of the brain, scientists find groups of neurons that detect far more complex features like faces, hands or expressive body language. Still other neurons help the body plan movements and assume complex postures.

Mirror neurons make these complex cells look like numbskulls. Found in several areas of the brain – including the premotor cortex, the posterior parietal lobe, the superior temporal sulcus and the insula – they fire in response to chains of actions linked to intentions.

Studies show that some mirror neurons fire when a person reaches for a glass or watches someone else reach for a glass; others fire when the person puts the glass down and still others fire when the person reaches for a toothbrush and so on. They respond when someone kicks a ball, sees a ball being kicked, hears a ball being kicked and says or hears the word “kick.”

“When you see me perform an action – such as picking up a baseball – you automatically simulate the action in your own brain,” said Dr. Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies mirror neurons. “Circuits in your brain, which we do not yet entirely understand, inhibit you from moving while you simulate,” he said. “But you understand my action because you have in your brain a template for that action based on your own movements.

“When you see me pull my arm back, as if to throw the ball, you also have in your brain a copy of what I am doing and it helps you understand my goal. Because of mirror neurons, you can read my intentions. You know what I am going to do next.”

He continued: “And if you see me choke up, in emotional distress from striking out at home plate, mirror neurons in your brain simulate my distress. You automatically have empathy for me. You know how I feel because you literally feel what I am feeling.”

Mirror neurons seem to analyzed scenes and to read minds. If you see someone reach toward a bookshelf and his hand is out of sight, you have little doubt that he is going to pick up a book because your mirror neurons tell you so.

In a study published in March 2005 in Public Library of Science, Dr. Iacoboni and his colleagues reported that mirror neurons could discern if another person who was picking up a cup of tea planned to drink from it or clear it from the table. “Mirror neurons provide a powerful biological foundation for the evolution of culture,” said Patricia Greenfield, a psychologist at the U.C.L.A. who studies human development.

Until now, scholars have treated culture as fundamentally separate from biology, she said. “But now we see that mirror neurons absorb culture directly, with each generation teaching the next by social sharing, imitation and observation.”

Other animals – monkeys, probably apes and possibly elephants, dolphins and dogs – have rudimentary mirror neurons, several mirror neuron experts said. But humans, with their huge working memory, carry out far more sophisticated imitations.

Language is based on mirror neurons, according to Michael Arbib, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California. One such system, found in the front of the brain, contains overlapping circuitry for spoken language and sign language.

In an article published in Trends in Neuroscience in March 1998, Dr. Arbib described how complex hand gestures and the complex tongue and lip movements used in making sentences use the same machinery. Autism, some researchers believe, may involve broken mirror neurons. A study published in the Jan. 6 issue of Nature Neuroscience by Mirella Dapretto, a neuroscientist at U.C.L.A., found that while many people with autism can identify an emotional expression, like sadness, on another person’s face, or imitate sad looks with their own faces, they do not feel the emotional significance of the imitated emotion. From observing other people, they do not know what it feels like to be sad, angry, disgusted or surprised.

Mirror neurons provide clues to how children learn: they kick in at birth. Dr. Andrew Meltzoff at the University of Washington has published studies showing that infants a few minutes old will stick out their tongues at adults doing the same thing. More than other primates, human children are hard-wired for imitation, he said, their mirror neurons involved in observing what others do and practicing doing the same things.

Still, there is one caveat, Dr. Iacoboni said. Mirror neurons work best in real life, when people are face to face. Virtual reality and videos are shadowy substitutes.

Nevertheless, a study in the January 2006 issue of Media Psychology found that when children watched violent television programs, mirror neurons, as well as several brain regions involved in aggression were activated, increasing the probability that the children would behave violently.

The ability to share the emotions of others appears to be intimately linked to the functioning of mirror neurons, said Dr. Christian Keysers, who studies the neural basis of empathy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and who has published several recent articles on the topic in Neuron.

When you see someone touched in a painful way, your own pain areas are activated, he said. When you see a spider crawl up someone’s leg, you feel a creepy sensation because your mirror neurons are firing.

People who rank high on a scale measuring empathy have particularly active mirror neurons systems, Dr. Keysers said.

Social emotions like guilt, shame, pride, embarrassment, disgust and lust are based on a uniquely human mirror neuron system found in a part of the brain called the insula, Dr. Keysers said. In a study not yet published, he found that when people watched a hand go forward to caress someone and then saw another hand push it away rudely, the insula registered the social pain of rejection. Humiliation appears to be mapped in the brain by the same mechanisms that encode real physical pain, he said.

Psychotherapists are understandably enthralled by the discovery of mirror neurons, said Dr. Daniel Siegel, the director of the Center for Human Development in Los Angeles and the author of “Parenting From the Inside Out,” because they provide a possible neurobiological basis for the psychological mechanisms known as transference and countertransference.

In transference, clients “transfer” feelings about important figures in their lives onto a therapist. Similarly, in countertransference, a therapist’s reactions to a client are shaped by the therapist’s own earlier relationships.

Therapists can use their own mirror system to understand a client’s problems and to generate empathy, he said. And they can help clients understand that many of their experiences stem from what other people have said or done to them in the past.

Art exploits mirror neurons, said Dr. Vittorio Gallese, a neuroscientist at Parma University. When you see the Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s hand of divinity grasping marble, you see the hand as if it were grasping flesh, he said. Experiments show that when you read a novel, you memorize positions of objects from the narrator’s point of view.

Professional athletes and coaches, who often use mental practice and imagery, have long exploited the brain’s mirror properties perhaps without knowing their biological basis, Dr. Iacoboni said. Observation directly improves muscle performance via mirror neurons.

Similarly, millions of fans who watch their favorite sports on television are hooked by mirror neuron activation. In someone who has never played a sport – say tennis – the mirror neurons involved in running, swaying and swinging the arms will be activated, Dr. Iacoboni said.

But in someone who plays tennis, the mirror systems will be highly activated when an overhead smash is observed. Watching a game, that person will be better able to predict what will happen next, he said.

In yet another realm, mirror neurons are powerfully activated by pornography, several scientists said. For example, when a man watches another man have sexual intercourse with a woman, the observer’s mirror neurons spring into action. The vicarious thrill of watching sex, it turns out, is not so vicarious after all.

From Science Daily …

Mirror, Mirror In The Brain: Mirror Neurons, Self-Understanding And Autism Research

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2007) — Recent findings are rapidly expanding researchers’ understanding of a new class of brain cells — mirror neurons — which are active both when people perform an action and when they watch it being performed.

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Some scientists speculate that a mirror system in people forms the basis for social behavior, for our ability to imitate, acquire language, and show empathy and understanding. It also may have played a role in the evolution of speech. Mirror neurons were so named because, by firing both when an animal acts and when it simply watches the same action, they were thought to “mirror” movement, as though the observer itself were acting.

Advances in the past few years have newly defined different types of mirror neurons in monkeys and shown how finely tuned these subsets of mirror neurons can be. New studies also have further characterized abnormal-as well as normal-mirror activity in the brains of children with the social communication disorder known as autism, suggesting new approaches to treatment.

“The tremendous excitement that has been generated in the field by the study of mirror neurons stems from the implications of the findings, which have led to numerous new hypotheses about behavior, human evolution, and neurodevelopmental disorders,” says Mahlon DeLong, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine.

Mirror neurons, a class of nerve cells in areas of the brain relaying signals for planning movement and carrying it out, were discovered 11 years ago, an offshoot of studies examining hand and mouth movements in monkeys. Mirror neuron research in the intervening years has expanded into a diverse array of fields. And the implications have been enormous, encompassing evolutionary development, theories of self and mind, and treatments for schizophrenia and stroke.

Findings being presented at Neuroscience 2007 include new research based on work in monkeys, showing that subsets of mirror neurons distinguish between observed actions carried out within hand’s reach and those beyond the animal’s personal space.

In his study, Peter Thier, PhD, at Tübingen University, first identified a group of mirror neurons by recording single nerve cell activity from electrodes when a monkey gripped different objects and when the monkey watched a person grasp the same objects, both nearby and farther away. About half of the nerve cells that were active when the monkey picked up the objects also sprung into action when it watched a person do so. Thier was assisted by research fellow Antonio Casile and PhD student Vittorio Caggiano, and worked closely with the lab of Giacomo Rizzolatti, MD, at the University of Parma.

They also noticed that some of these confirmed mirror neurons were active only when the monkey was watching activity within its personal space, defined as within reaching distance; others responded only to actions performed in a place outside the monkey’s grasp. Thier and colleagues recorded this preferential activity in 22 nerve cells, or together half of the mirror neurons. The other half of the mirror neurons showed activity that did not depend on how close the grasping action was to the monkey.

Although at this stage assigning a functional role is still speculation, Thier suggests this proximity-specific activity in mirror neurons may play an important role when we monitor what goes on around us, or serve as the basis for inferring the intentions of others and for cooperative behavior. “These neurons might encode actions of others that the observers might directly influence, or with which he or she can interact,” he says.

Other findings show that mirror neuron activity is instrumental for interpreting the facial expressions and actions of others but may not be sufficient for decoding their thoughts and intentions.

The studies examined changes in certain electroencephalograms (EEG) or brain wave patterns known as mu rhythms, which have a frequency of 8-13 hertz, or oscillations per second. Previous findings based on EEG recordings from the part of the brain that is directly involved in relaying signals for movement and sensing stimuli, known as the sensorimotor cortex, indicate that mu rhythms typically are suppressed by mirror activity in premotor areas of the brain. However, this does not happen in children with autism. As a result, the new work suggests, alternative strategies for reading faces and understanding others develop in the brains of these children.

Pursuing two parallel studies, Jaime Pineda, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego, aimed to contribute evidence supporting one of two theories about the ways we evaluate the actions and intentions of other people-either implicitly or through language-based theoretical concepts.

Using EEG recordings to examine patterns of brain wave activity, Pineda first worked with 23 adults, who were asked to look at photos showing just the eye region of people making various facial expressions. In three separate trials, the subjects were asked to identify either the emotion, race, or gender of the people in the photographs. In a subsequent task, subjects looked at three-panel cartoon strips and were asked to choose a fourth panel that completed the strip-either the conclusion of a series of physical actions or the result of a person interacting with an object. A sequence of a prisoner removing the window of his cell, then looking at his bed, for example, could be followed by a frame of the prisoner asleep, yawning, or using the bedsheet to make a rope. Answering correctly depended on interpreting the cartoon character’s intentions appropriately or understanding how physical objects interact.

Pineda repeated the studies with 28 children, 7 to 17 years old, half of whom had autism. The other half were typically developing children.

Recordings from the studies with adults showed a correlation between mu suppression, or mirror neuron activity, and accuracy for both tasks. In fact, the suppression of mu rhythms during the facial expression task also correlated with accuracy in the exercise with the cartoons, suggesting that reading people’s expressions and interpreting their intentions may draw from similar activity in the brain.

Recordings from the typically developing children showed similar patterns of suppression during the two tasks, indicating that mirror neuron activity is fully developed by age 7.

In contrast, recordings from the children with autism showed that mu rhythms were enhanced during both tasks. Enhancement is an indication that the mirror neuron system is disengaged. However, because the children still were able to perform the task, Pineda says, “we propose that children with autism develop alternative, non-mirror neuron-based coping strategies for understanding facial expressions and interpreting others’ mental states.” He suggests that “these compensatory strategies involve inhibition of residual mirror neuron functioning.”

These results could be applied to the development of treatments for autism. Pineda and his group have been using neurofeedback training to successfully renormalize functioning in this system. That is, they see mu suppression that is more characteristic of the typically developing brain following such training. “Our findings are consistent with the idea that mirror neurons are not absent in autism,” Pineda says, “but rather are abnormally responsive to stimuli and abnormally integrated into wider social-cognitive brain circuits.

“This idea implies that a retraining of mirror neurons to respond appropriately to stimuli and integrate normally into wider circuits may reduce the social symptoms of autism.”

Advances in recording brain activity also have made possible findings showing that mirror systems are active even when we are not observing an action with an eye to repeating it.

Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, PhD, at Cardiff University, found that the mirror system is activated when we watch specific actions, even when we are concentrating on a separate task.

The results are based on previous research showing that motor systems in the brain are activated when a person observes an action being performed and on interpretations suggesting that we understand and learn to imitate the actions of others through these brain mechanisms.

Working with 13 adults with an average age of 29, Muthukumaraswamy compared brain activity recorded via magnetoencephalography (MEG). This monitoring technique measures the weak magnetic fields emitted by nerve cells, and, recording from 275 locations, Muthukumaraswamy was able to monitor changes in activity every 600th of a second.

“Although MEG has been in existence for more than 20 years, recent advances in hardware, computing technology, and the algorithms used to analyze the data allow much more detailed analysis of brain function than was previously possible,” he says.

Brain activity was recorded as the subjects passively watched a sequence of finger movements, watched the movements knowing they would be asked to repeat them, added up the number of fingers moved as they watched, and performed the sequence of movements themselves.

Results from these recordings showed similar activity when the subjects performed the movement sequence and when they watched someone else do it. In addition, Muthukumaraswamy noted increased activity in areas of the brain regulating motor activity when subjects observed the movements knowing they would later do them, and when they added up the number of fingers used, compared with passive watching.

“These data suggest that activity of human mirror neuron systems is generally increased by attention relative to passive observation, even if that attention is not directed toward a specific motor activity,” says Muthukumaraswamy. “Our results suggest that the mirror system remains active regardless of any concurrent task and hence is probably an automatic system.

“A good scientific understanding of the properties of the mirror system in normal humans is important,” he adds, “because this may help to understand clinical disorders such as autism where the mirror system may not be functioning normally.”

Other findings based on EEG recordings provide the first evidence of normal mirror activity in children with autism: People familiar to children with autism may activate mirror areas of the brain in normal patterns when unfamiliar people do not.

Previous research has shown that mu rhythms are suppressed when a subject identifies with an active person being observed. Based on this work, Lindsay Oberman, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego, examined the role of two separate factors in the mirror system response of children with autism.

Six videos were shown to a group of 26 boys, 8 to 12 years old; half had autism. Three videos showed images representing varying degrees of social interaction: two bouncing balls (the baseline measurement), three people tossing a ball to themselves, and three people throwing the ball to each other and off the screen to the viewer. The other set of videos showed people with varying degrees of familiarity to the subjects: strangers opening and closing their hand, family members making the same hand movement, and the subjects themselves doing the same.

EEG recordings from 13 electrodes in a cap showed that mu activity was suppressed most when subjects watched videos of themselves, indicating the greatest mirror neuron activity. For both groups, the measurements showed a slightly lower level of suppression when subjects watched familiar people in the video and the least when watching strangers. This indicates that normal mirror neuron activity was evoked when children with autism watched family members, but not strangers.

“Thus, to say that the mirror neuron system is nonfunctional may only be partially correct,” says Oberman. “Perhaps individuals with autism have fewer mirror neurons and/or less functional mirror neurons that require a greater degree of activation than a typical child’s system in order to respond.”

The mirror neuron system may react to stimuli that the observer sees as “like me.” If this is the case, suggests Oberman, “perhaps typical individuals apply this identification to all people (both familiar and unfamiliar), resulting in activation of these areas in response to the observed stimuli, while individuals on the autism spectrum only consider familiar individuals (including themselves) as ‘like me,’ ” she says.

This evidence for normal mirror neuron activity in autistic children may indicate that mirror system dysfunction in these cases reflects an impairment in identifying with and assigning personal significance to unfamiliar people and things, Oberman suggests. Whether deficits in relating to unfamiliar people that are characteristic of autism are the cause or the result of a dysfunctional mirror neuron system is unclear.

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This was one of those techniques and methods that really will help you in your life. If you can read even 50% faster than the speed you are reading at now, you would be able to learn much more than before. An increase of 500% (and sometimes much more) in reading speed has been very well documented by educators.

The most well known system out there to increase your reading speed was created originally by Evelyn Wood. The program has been around for at least 60 years and it is very well established around the world. For any parent who wants to give their child a major advantage in reading, learning, and school, I feel that this skills is a critical one to have.

From resource 1

Evelyn Wood’s discovery began when she was working on her Masters Degree at the University of Utah shortly after WW11. She submitted an 80 page term paper to her professor Dr. C. Lowell Lees and then watched in amazement as he read and graded it in less than ten minutes. His untrained reading rate: 2500 words per minute, yet he could not explain how he did it. Mrs. Wood, a school teacher, began to wonder if she could do the same thing and if there were others with similar skills. A two year search turned up some 50 people from all walks of life, teenagers to an eighty year old. They could read from 1500 to 6000 words per minute, and understand and remember what they had read. Analysing them she found they read more than one word at a time, seeing words in meaningful patterns, and moved their eyes quickly, smoothly, and easily down the page. They adjusted their speed to the type of material they were reading and knew how to find the thoughts in a paragraph, and the central idea in an article or book. “The purpose of reading,” Mrs. Wood wrote, “is to get the information, feeling, and understanding the author is trying to convey. And, gauged by this purpose, these natural readers succeeded admirably.”

Painstakingly Mrs. Wood began to teach herself these principles, until she was able to read several thousand words per minute, and along the way had developed a system for teaching others. Tested and proven at the University of Utah, in 1959 the first Institute was opened in Washington DC and the process was started that has altered forever the the way people learn from written sources. Since then the course has expanded throughout the United States, to Australia in 1968, and around the world.

Me: A few months ago I bought this book HERE on speed reading off of Amazon and it really is very good.

There are a lot of these Evelyn Wood Programs going on these days. these are the types of claim they make, which is true. (source)

Double Your Reading Speed — Guaranteed!

You’ll learn how to determine your current reading rate, then increase it immediately. Your reading speed will double – guaranteed! Finish the newspaper in five or ten minutes. Rifle through magazines, reports, and trade publications in record time. Polish off entire books in one sitting. Plus, there’s an advanced comprehension and retention system that will help you understand more.

Program Highlights:

• Read even the most complex material at increased speeds — move from the average reader’s 250 words per minute to speeds exceeding 1,000 words per minute
• Remember ideas, concepts, information — retain what you’ve read for months instead of just days or hours
• Understand what you read with remarkable depth and clarity — without long, laborious notes, without slow reading and continuously going back to the material
• Absorb verbal information — meetings, presentations, conversations — and recall accurately what was said or discussed
• Manage the stacks of information you face every day without the usual frustration and fatigue — even financial and legal documents, periodicals, and more
• Help your children improve their grades and prepare for tests or college entrance exams (Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics is appropriate for anyone who reads at a 6th grade level or higher)
• Stay on top of your coursework as you pursue your own graduate degree!

This post has to do with a recently FDA approved over the counter drug called “Blowfish” which is supposed to be able to reduce the symptoms of a hangover after a big night of drinking alcohol. I remember seeing articles about Blowfish last year and I always thought that it was a smart little trick that one should have if they drink a lot.

The official site for Blowfish is HERE. You can ever try out the pill free for yourself. I wanted to post only 1 great article I found on the review and analysis of this hangover pill. There are many other articles but I chose the specific article because I felt it was  a little more informative and objective in analysis than the others.

From ABC NEWS  . For other reviews, go to Daily Mail UK and EMaxHealth

‘Blowfish’ for Hangovers: Cure or Red Herring?

By Katie Moisse
@katiemoisse

I decided not to leave this post empty because the techniques, ideas, and methods I would have given out would be too powerful and dangerous for most people to learn or have. The techniques have been used in the past in social engineering, to manipulate other people, and do evil actions.

Maybe one day I will come back and write (and/or copy and paste) this article about how these things are done but just not right now.