May 14 2009

Are You Suffering From 15 Strangest Conditions of the Human Mind

Strange conditions of Human Mind

The human mind is a tremendous thing – there are so many facts revealed about it, and so many things which still remain an enigma for us. Science is struggling to explain such strange developments, but still unable to describe their actual origins. Although majority of us are already familiar of a few mental conditions on this list, several others are very strange, unfamiliar and beyond the boundary of logical domain. Checkout if you have any of the following strangest mental conditions. Here is a collection of top 15 strangest conditions of the Human Mind.

1- Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia is a mental condition in which a person is ineffective to distinguish faces of people or objects that they should know. People going through this disorder are typically capable of using their other senses to recognize people – for instance a person’s perfume, the shape or style of their hair, the sound of their voice, or even their gait. A famous case of this phenomena was mentioned in the 1998 book (and later Opera by Michael Nyman) called “The man who mistook his wife for a hat”.

2- Fregoli Delusion

Fregoli Delusion

Fregoli delusion is an uncommon mental condition in which a person holds the impression that different people are, in fact, the same person in an assortment of disguises. It is frequently related to paranoia and the impression that the person in disguise is attempting to persecute them. The delusion is named after the famous Italian actor Leopoldo Fregoli who was renowned for his skill to make quick changes of appearance during his stage act. It was first accounted in 1927 in the case study of a 27-year-old woman who thought she was being persecuted by two actors whom she often went to see at the theatre. She reported that these people “pursued her closely, taking the form of people she knows or meets”.

3- Capgras Delusion

Capgras Delusion

Capgras delusion is a mental condition in which a person believes that a close friend or family member has been replaced by an identical looking faker. This could be associated with the old belief that babies were slipped and replaced by changelings in medieval folklore, and the modern idea of aliens seizing the bodies of people on earth to live amongst us for reasons unknown. This delusion is frequent among those who are schizophrenic; however it can also occur in other disorders.

4- Nihilistic delusion

Nihilistic delusion

Nihilistic delusion is a condition whose theme centers on the nonexistence of self or parts of self, others, or the world. A person with this type of delusion may have the false hallucination that the world is ending.

5- Erotomania

Erotomania

Erotomania is a mental condition in which a person starts to think that another person, usually someone of higher status, is in love with him or her. It is, however, rare for people with this type of delusion to try to contact the other person (through phone calls, letters, emails, gifts, and sometimes stalking).

6- L’esprit de l’Escalier

L’esprit de l’Escalier

L’esprit de l’escalier (French= stairway wit) is the sensation of thinking of an ingenious counter when its too late. The phrase can be used to portray a comeback to an insult, or any witty, quick remark that comes to mind too late to be helpful—when one is on the “staircase” leaving behind. The German word “treppenwitz” stands for the same condition. In English, the phrasal idiom describes this condition as “being wise after the event”. This condition frequently comes with a feeling of regret at having not thought of the riposte when it was most required or appropriate.

7- Grandiose delusion

Grandiose delusion

In this type of delusion, a person overdraws his / her sense of self-importance and believes that he or she has special powers, talents, or outstanding skills. At times, the subject would believe that he/ she is a celebrity (for example, a rock star or Jesus Christ). Normally a person with this delusion is convinced he/ she has achieved some great accomplishment for which they have not received enough credit or recognition.

8- Presque Vu (Almost Seen)

Presque Vu

Presque vu is almost similar to the “tip of the tongue” feeling – it is the strong sensation that you are about to go through an epiphany – though the epiphany rarely happens. The condition of presque vu can be very disorienting, perturbing and distracting.

9- Jamais Vu (Never Seen)

Jamais Vu

Jamais vu stands for a familiar situation which is not recognized. It is often regarded the opposite of déjà vu and it comprises a sense of eeriness. The observer does not distinguish the situation despite knowing logically that they have been there before. It is usually described as when a person shortly doesn’t recognize a person, word, or place that they actually know. Chris Moulin, a researcher at Leeds University, inquired 92 volunteers to write up “door” 30 times in 60 seconds. He accounted that 68%of his guinea pigs showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as starting to doubt that “door” was a real word. This makes clear that jamais vu might be an indication to brain fatigue.

10- Déjà Senti (Already Felt)

Déjà Senti

Déjà senti is the mental process of having “already felt” something. This is totally a mental phenomenon and rarely remains in your memory subsequently. A person diagnosed with Déjà Senti has accounted that “What is occupying the attention is what has occupied it before, and indeed has been familiar, but has been forgotten for a time, and now is recovered with a slight sense of satisfaction as if it had been sought for. The recollection is always started by another person’s voice, or by my own verbalized thought, or by what I am reading and mentally verbalize; and I think that during the abnormal state I generally verbalize some such phrase of simple recognition as ‘Oh yes—I see’, ‘Of course—I remember’, etc., but a minute or two later I can recollect neither the words nor the verbalized thought which gave rise to the recollection. I only find strongly that they resemble what I have felt before under similar abnormal conditions.”

You may consider it as the sensation of having just mouthed, but acknowledging that you, actually, didn’t utter a single word.

11- Déjà Visité (Already Visited)

Déjà Visité

Déjà visité is a rare mental phenomenon and it exemplifies a preternatural knowledge of a new place. For instance, you may have a go at it your way around a totally new town or a place you may have never been before, and knowing that it is not possible for you to have this knowledge. Déjà visité is related to spacial and geographical relationships, while déjà vécu is related to temporal happenings. Nathaniel Hawthorne reported about an experience of this condition in his book “Our Old Home” in which he visited a ruined castle and had eerily known everything about its layout. Later on, he was able to trace the experience to a poem he had read many years early by Alexander Pope in which the castle was precisely described.

12- Déjà Entendu (Already heard)

Deja Entendu

Déjà Entendu is a sensation in which sounds or voices have been heard in the past.

13- Déjà Vécu (Already lived through or experienced)

Déjà Vécu

Déjà vécu is what most individuals are actually going through when they think they are experiencing deja vu. Déjà vu is the feeling of having seen something before, whereas déjà vécu is the sensation of having seen an event before, but in great detail – such as recognizing smells and sounds. This is also typically accompanied by a very strong feeling of recognizing what’s gonna come next. In my own experience, I have not only recognized what was going to come next, but have been able to tell those around me what’s gonna come next – and I was 100% correct. Well, this is a very strange and unaccountable feeling…

14- Déjà Voulu (Already Wanted)

Déjà Voulu

Déjà Voulu is a sensation of disturbance of memory in which an individual believes that his or her present desires are incisively the same as desires held some time earlier.

15- Déjà Vu (Already Seen)

Déjà Vu

Déjà vu is the experience of being sure that you have experienced or seen a new situation before – you experience as though the event has already occurred or is repeating itself. This condition is typically accompanied by a strong sense of familiarity and a sense of strangeness, eeriness, or bizarreness. The “previous” feeling is generally assigned to a dream, but from time to time there is a very sure sense that it has really happened in the past.


May 12 2009

50 Celebrities who have / had Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimers-disease

Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive degeneration of the brain, with symptoms of memory loss, disorientation and other intellectual impairment, which claims about 23,000 American lives a year, making it the eighth leading cause of death among the elderly in the United States of America.

Early onset Alzheimer’s can develop in people as young as forty, but most victims of this affliction develop it after the age of sixty-five. This form of dementia is particularly insidious, as it robs those with it of their mental faculties and memories.

Celebrities have become quite the “royal line” in our country. When a celebrity has a particular disease or health problem, we tend to discover all we can. Here is a list of 49 (plus 1) famous people/ celebrities that succumbed to Alzheimer’s Disease.

1- Joe Adcock
Joe Adcock
American first baseman and right-handed batter in Major League Baseball, known for his years with the famous Milwaukee Braves teams of the 1950s.

2- Mabel Albertson
Mabel Albertson
An American actress, best know for her role in the television sitcom “Bewitched”.

3- Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
An American film actor, best know for his role in the Oscar winning movie “The Best Years of Our Lives”.

4- Sir Rudolph Bing
Sir Rudolph Bing
An Austrian-born opera impresario and a General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

5- James Brooks
James Brooks
An American muralist and abstract painter who won the Logan Medal of the Arts.

6- Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
An American film actor, best known for his role in classic films such as “Once Upon a Time in the West”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Great Escape”.

7- Abe Burrows
Abe Burrows
An American author, humorist and director for radio and the stage.

8- Carroll Campbell
Carroll Campbell
A U.S. Republican Party politician, best known as a Governor of South Carolina.

9- Joyce Chen
Joyce Chen
A Chinese chef, restaurateur, and entrepreneur.

10- Perry Como
Perry Como
An American singer and television personality who was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

11- Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
An American pianist and film score composer.

12- Willem De Kooning
Willem De Kooning
A Dutch abstract expressionist artist.

13- James Doohan
James Doohan
A Canadian character and voice actor, best known for his role in the Star Trek series.

14- Thomas Dorsey
Thomas Dorsey
A gospel music legend.

15- Tom Fears
Tom Fears
A Mexican-American footballer.

16- Louis Feraud
Louis Feraud
A French fashion designer and artist.

17- Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis
An American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist, best know for her role as a panelist on the television game show “What’s My Line?”

18- Mike Frankovich
Mike Frankovich
An American film producer (right).

19- John Douglas French
John Douglas French
A famous physician for whom “John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation” is named after.

20- Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
U.S. Republican Party politician, best known as a five-term United States Senator from Arizona.

21- Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
An American film actress, professional dancer and a sex symbol, best known for her role in the classic movie “Gilda”.

22- Raul Silva Henriquez
Raul Silva Henriquez
A Chilean Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Human Right advocate.

23- Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
An Oscar awarded American actor of film, theater and television, best know for his heroic roles in “The Ten Commandments”, “El Cid” and “Ben-Hur”.

24- Mervyn Leroy
Mervyn Leroy
An Academy Award-winning American film director, producer and actor.

25- Jack Lord
Jack Lord
An American television, film, and Broadway actor, best known for his role in the American television program “Hawaii Five-O”.

26- Ross MacDonald
Ross MacDonald
Kenneth Millar; a crime fiction writer famous for his widely read series of hardboiled novels set in southern California and featuring private detective “Lew Archer”.

27- Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith
A two-time Academy Award-nominated American actor, best known for portraying Rocky Balboa’s trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky films and The Penguin in the television series Batman.

28- Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch
An Irish-born English author and philosopher, best known for her work regarding ethical and sexual themes.

29- Edmond O’Brien
Edmond O’Brien
An American film actor best known for his role in D.O.A.

30- Arthur O’Connell
Arthur O’Connell
An American stage and film actor who appeared in 1941 film Citizen Kane.

31- Marv Owen
Marv Owen
An American third Baseball player.

32- Molly Picon
Molly Picon
An American actress and lyricist.

33- Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Legendary Austrian-born Jewish film director.

34- Bill Quackenbush
Bill Quackenbush
A Canadian ice hockey star.

35- Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
The 40th President of the United States of America.

36- Harry Ritz
Harry Ritz
An American comedian of the famous “Ritz Brothers”.

37- Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Robinson
Legendary American Boxer.

38- Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
An American painter and illustrator, best known for his work for “The Saturday Evening Post”.

39- Daniel Simon Scott
Daniel Simon Scott
An American Artist.

40- Irving Shulman
Irving Shulman
An American author and screenwriter.

41- Betty Schwartz
Betty Schwartz
The First woman who won an Olympic gold medal in track events.

42- Kay Swift
Kay Swift
An American composer of popular and classical music, probably the first woman to compose a complete musical score.

43- Alfred Van Vogt
Alfred Van Vogt
A Canadian-born science fiction author widely known as the most prolific and complex writers in his genre.

44- E.B. White
E.B. White
Legendary American writer.

45- Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
A Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970.

46- Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Classical French composer and pianist.

47- Ferenc Puskas
Ferenc Puskas
Legendary Hungarian footballer.

48- Adolfo Suárez
Adolfo Suárez
Spain’s first democratically elected prime minister after the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

49- Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett
An English novelist, best known for his critically acclaimed comical work in the fantasy genre.

50- Auguste Deter
Auguste Deter
Well – she is not a celebrity- but the first person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. RIP.


May 11 2009

8 Anorexian Celebs You May Never Have Seen Before!

One of the more uncommon health disorders to be lately discovered has been Anorexia Nervosa, a psychological disorder characterized by loss of appetite with secondary malnutrition and hormonal changes.

The condition, which is fundamentally categorized as an eating disorder, has been evidenced to show signs of emergence during the early teen years. Moreover, the disorder has also indicated signs of being highly prevalent within girls, with only rare cases of men suffering from it being evidenced. In this article, we will show you fun pictures of 8 celebrities who appear to be affected with Anorexia Nervosa.

1- Angelina Jolie

Skinny Angelina Jolie

2- Lindsay Lohan

Skinny Lindsay Lohan

3- Jessica Simpson

Skinny Jessica Simpson

4- Jennifer Aniston

Skinny Jennifer Aniston

5- Christina Aguilera

Skinny Christina Aguilera

6- Keira Knightley

Skinny Keira Knightley

7- Lindsay Lohan With Nicole Richie

Skinny Lindsay Lohan With Nicole Richie

8- Elisha Cuthbert

Skinny Elisha Cuthbert

Image courtesy of the Freaking News


May 8 2009

Top 15 Most Astonishing Coincidences of All Time

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Each step in life is colorful and interesting. Life is exciting; and full of coincidences. Some very minor, but at times – very amazing. Here is a list of 15 of the most astonishing and incredible coincidences.

1. Historical Coincidence

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The lives of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two of America’s founders. Jefferson designed the Declaration of Independence, showing drafts of it to Adams, who (with Benjamin Franklin) helped to edit and hone it. The Continental Congress sanctioned the document on July 4, 1776. Amazingly, both Jefferson and Adams died on the same day, July 4, 1826 – exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

2. Hotel Discovery

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In 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to attend the enthronement of Elizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he discovered some items that, by their identification, owned by a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin – a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters – was a good friend of Kupcinet’s. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie – with Kupcinet’s name on it.

3. Taxi

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In 1975, while riding a moped in Bermuda, a man was accidentally struck and killed by a taxi. One year later, this man’s brother was killed in the very same way. In fact, he was riding the very same moped. And to stretch the odds even further, the very same taxi driven by the same driver – and even carrying the very same passenger struck him!

4. Golden Scarab

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From The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche: “A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the windowpane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to the golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata) which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since, and that the dream of the patient has remained unique in my experience.” – Carl Jung

5. Revenge Killing

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In 1883, Henry Ziegland broke off a relationship with his girlfriend who, out of distress, committed suicide. The girl’s enraged brother hunted down Ziegland and shot him. Believing he had killed Ziegland, the brother then took his own life. In fact, however, Ziegland had not been killed. The bullet had only grazed his face, lodging into a tree. It was a narrow escape. Years later, Ziegland decided to cut down the same tree, which still had the bullet in it. The huge tree seemed so formidable that he decided to blow it up with dynamite. The explosion propelled the bullet into Ziegland’s head, killing him.

6. Twins

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The twin brothers, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, were separated at birth, adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys James. Both James grew up not knowing of the other, yet both sought law-enforcement training both had abilities in mechanical drawing and carpentry, and each had married women named Linda. Both had sons, one of who was named James Alan and the other named James Allan. The twin brothers also divorced their wives and married other women – both named Betty. And they both owned dogs which they named Toy.

7. Book Find

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In 1973, actor Anthony Hopkins agreed to appear in “The Girl From Petrovka”, based on a novel by George Feifer. Unable to find a copy of the book anywhere in London, Hopkins was surprised to discover one lying on a bench in a train station. It turned out to be George Feifer’s own annotated (personal) copy, which Feifer had lent to a friend, and which had been stolen from his friend’s car.

8. Photographic Coincidence

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A German mother who photographed her infant son in 1914 left the film to be developed at a store in Strasbourg. In those days some film plates were sold individually. World War I broke out and unable to return to Strasbourg, the woman gave up the picture for lost. Two years later she bought a film plate in Frankfurt, over 100 miles away, to take a picture of her newborn daughter. When developed the film turned out to be a double exposure, with the picture of her daughter superimposed on the earlier picture of her son. Through some incredible twist of fate, her original film, never developed, had been mislabeled as unused, and had eventually been resold to her.

9. Mystery Monk

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In 19th century Austria, a near-famous painter named Joseph Aigner attempted suicide on several occasions. During his first attempt to hang himself at the age of 18, a mysterious Capuchin monk interrupted Aigner. And again at age 22, the very same monk kept him from hanging himself. Eight years later, he was sentenced to the gallows for his political activities. But again, his life was saved by the interference of the same monk. At age 68, Joseph Aigner finally succeeded in suicide, using a pistol to shoot himself. Not surprisingly, the very same Capuchin monk – a man whose name Aigner never even knew, conducted his funeral ceremony.

10. Falling Baby

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In 1930s Detroit, a man named Joseph Figlock was to become a remarkable figure in a young (and, apparently, incredibly careless) mother’s life. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother’s baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby’s fall was broken and Figlock and the baby were unharmed. A year later, the selfsame baby fell from the selfsame window, again falling onto Mr. Figlock as he was passing beneath. Once again, both of them survived the event.

11. Royal Coincidence

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In Monza, Italy, King Umberto I, visited a small restaurant for dinner with his adjutant, General Emilio Ponzia- Vaglia. When the owner took King Umberto’s order, the King discovered that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men started talking about the outstanding resemblance between each other and found many more similarities.

a) Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844).
b) Both men had been born in the same town.
c) Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita.
d) The restaurateur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy.
e) On the 29th July 1900, King Umberto learnt that the restaurateur had died that day in a mysterious shooting accident, and as he expressed grief, an anarchist in the crowd then shot him dead.

12. Poe Coincidence

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In the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Egdar Allan Poe, published a book called ‘The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’. It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they determined to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Some years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Soon enough the three senior members of the crew killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was also “Richard Parker”.

13. Twin Deaths

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In 2002, Seventy-year-old twin brothers expired within hours of one another after separate accidents on the same road in northern Finland. The first of the twins died when he was hit by a lorry while riding his bike in Raahe, 600 kilometers north of the capital, Helsinki. He died just 1.5km from the spot where his brother was killed. “This is simply a historic coincidence. Although the road is a busy one, accidents don’t occur every day,” police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala told Reuters. “It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs had a say in this,” she said.

14. Poker Luck

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In 1858, Robert Fallon was brutally killed, an act of vengeance by those with whom he was playing poker. Fallon, they claimed, had won the $600 pot through jockeying. With Fallon’s seat empty and none of the other players eager to take the now unlucky $600, they got a new player to take Fallon’s place and hazarded him with the dead man’s $600. By the time the police made it to inspect the killing, the new player had quadrupled the $600 into $2,200 in winnings. The police called for the original $600 to pass on to Fallon’s next of kin – only to find out that the new player turned out to be Fallon’s son, who had not seen his father in seven years!

15. Childhood Book

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While American novelist Anne Parrish was surfing local bookstores in Paris in the 1920s, she discovered a book that was one of her childhood favorites – Jack Frost and Other Stories. She took the old book and showed it to her husband, telling him of the book she tenderly remembered as a child. Her husband picked up the book, opened it, and on the flyleaf found the dedication: “Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs.” It was actually Anne’s very own book!