{"id":246,"date":"2012-06-27T11:50:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T15:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/insweetcompany\/?p=246"},"modified":"2012-06-27T11:50:47","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T15:50:47","slug":"hardwired-for-compassion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/06\/hardwired-for-compassion.html","title":{"rendered":"Hardwired for Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"

… we grow in our understanding of God as we come to understand our own stories more fully.<\/em> — Rabbi Laura Geller, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE<\/p>\n

Recently a small group of kindred spirits gathered together at our house to celebrate the successful conclusion of a project we had worked on for many long hours. Candles muted the dining room in soft light. The food was beyond beyond. We told stories. We laughed a lot. It was a beautiful evening, an evening to remember.<\/p>\n

A few days later, still carrying our closeness in my heart, I happened to watch a documentary that set out to prove that\u2014despite our affinity for acquisition and competition\u2014human beings are actually hardwired for cooperation. According to scientists, philosophers, and poets interviewed in the film, compassion and collaboration may well be embedded in our DNA.<\/p>\n

The film looked at this idea from several perspectives: Scientists working with mirror neurons described how the same area in our brain lights up whether we perform an action or watch another perform that same action; that is, our brains have an \u201cempathetic\u201d and an imitative response to the actions of others. Scientists studying the body\u2019s chemical response to compassion and cooperation reported a measureable increase in the surge of feel good chemicals (endorphins) released into our blood stream when we are happy or inspired. And that feeling of being \u201call choked up\u201d or the prideful swelling in our chest that occurs when we witness the heroic or caring acts of others, is the vegas nerve\u2019s natural biological response to altruism.<\/p>\n

Beyond our physiological responses to compassion and cooperation, the film also explores the effects of our thoughts and actions on others\u2014the idea that we live in a participatory universe. A discussion about quantum entanglement\u2014what Einstein first called \u201cspooky action at a distance\u201d\u2014demonstrated how electrons and molecules previously connected with each other \u201ccooperate\u201d\u2014that they spin in the same direction, at the same rate, at the same time long after they have separated from each other, even when they are separated by great distance. Another scientist spoke about experiments with 65 random number generators installed around the world, computers that continually spit out an arbitrary sequence of numbers or symbols. When events like 9\/11 or the earthquake in Japan occurred, when the mind of the world \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0became aware of\u2014perhaps, concerned about\u2014an epoch-making event, the generators no longer behaved randomly; they produced a sequential pattern.<\/p>\n

All these studies are, of course, open to interpretation. Yet, two things impressed me about the reporting: That all of this action within and without us takes place unconsciously, without our knowing; and that several days after our little dinner party, when I was still feeling the happy effects of our entanglement, I (randomly?) came across a resource that scientifically affirmed the lasting goodness I carried in my heart. Imagine what would happen if we actively, consciously participated in this process! It gives a whole new meaning to being \u201cin sweet company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the film at www.Iamthedoc.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… we grow in our understanding of God as we come to understand our own stories more fully. — Rabbi Laura Geller, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE Recently a small group of kindred spirits gathered together at our house to celebrate the successful conclusion of a project we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[110,111,112,113],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collective-wisdom","category-interconnectedness","tag-compassion","tag-cooperation-vs-competition","tag-mirror-nuerons","tag-rabbi-laura-geller-rons"],"yoast_head":"\nHardwired for Compassion - In Sweet Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/06\/hardwired-for-compassion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hardwired for Compassion - In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"… we grow in our understanding of God as we come to understand our own stories more fully. — Rabbi Laura Geller, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE Recently a small group of kindred spirits gathered together at our house to celebrate the successful conclusion of a project we…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/06\/hardwired-for-compassion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In Sweet Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-27T15:50:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Wolff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hardwired for Compassion - In Sweet Company","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/2012\/06\/hardwired-for-compassion.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hardwired for Compassion - 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She speaks and writes about things women care about: how to make our lives and our work be about what we value most; how to navigate challenge and change; how to live with integrity and grace, to look at error in ourselves and others in a forgiving way and view life as an invitation to transform ourselves into instruments for the Greater Good. \"I laughed, I cried, I was silent, I cheered. Most of all, I loved.\" Spoken by a woman at In Sweet Company Retreat, these words express what women experience when Margaret engages them in dynamic, soul-searching conversations about their lives. Margaret holds degrees in art therapy, psychosynthesis, and leadership and human behavior. Her work takes her to universities, to conferences and retreat settings, to living rooms and board rooms -- wherever women gather. Her articles, essays, and stories are featured in numerous magazines; her women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spirituality retreats are held throughout the U.S. Margaret\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last book, In \"Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life\" (Jossey Bass), is a collection of intimate conversations she had with 14 famous women of various ages, faiths, and backgrounds about how their spirituality nourishes them and serves as a steady compass for their decision-making. Olympia Dukakis, Riane Eisler, Zainab Salbi, Margaret Wheatley, Sri Daya Mata, Lauren Artress, and other women artists, activists, religious leaders, and visionary thinkers shared their lives with her. You can too!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/author\/mwolff"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/insweetcompany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}