Introducing the Dream Director: A New Character for a New Century

The Future Project is dedicated to tackling a global crisis that impacts nearly every human being: the failure of our antiquated education system to unlock the infinite possibility within all students. Although emerging science proves that when passion is ignited and dreams unlocked within people, everything changes, we aren’t yet as a society enabling our young people to learn how to live the lives, and build the world, they imagine. As a result, we not only face unconscionable drop-out and truancy rates, the widespread despair and apathy plaguing school cultures, and unstoppable school-to-prison pipelines, but also the prospect of missing the greatest opportunity of our time: preparing the next generation to revolutionize society when it is time to pass them the torch of history. (more…)

Sleep: A mystery at the crossroads of neuroscience (Part 1)

By Deepak Chopra, M.D., FACP, P. Murali Doraiswamy, MBBS, FRCP, Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina

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Sleep crops up in unexpected places medically, as in the recent finding that for people suffering from bouts of depression, irregular sleep is often the first sign of an attack, and conversely, getting a good night’s sleep can help prevent the onset of depression. But the importance of sleep has become more global in recent years, involving it in obesity, for example, where bad sleep throws off the hormonal balance that tells the body when it’s hungry. (more…)

The Best New Year’s Resolution: Be Good To Your Genes

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D.

Image: hiddenlighthouse

The New Year occasions all kinds of resolutions (which only 8% of people keep, according to Forbes magazine), but almost no one, I imagine, resolves to improve the function of their genes. The fact that this is even possible sounds mystifying, since the specific genes you’re born with remain the same throughout your lifetime (except in certain cells as we age, e.g. in tumors). But now geneticists increasingly appreciate that the output of our genes varies considerably, not just from year to year but from minute to minute. The genetic read-out of two identical twins is quite similar at birth, but looks very different by age seventy. This understanding, still in its infancy, belongs to a growing field known as epigenetics. In the coming years research projects are set to reveal just how deeply a person can affect the activity of their individual genome – the findings so far are very promising. (more…)