We are gathered together to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Founding the International Society of Life Information Science (ISLIS). The progress for the ISLIS and the promotion of "Human Potential Science" is reviewed since the Society's foundation in 1995. ISLIS has sought and continues to seek the realization of the paradigm shift from material-oriented science and technology to a new paradigm including the consciousness, spirit and mind through research based on empirical and positive scientific methodologies, and consequently, to promote the development of health, social welfare, and education as well as social and personal peace of mind, and to contribute to the making of a peaceful world, at one with nature. Since the foundation of ISLIS, 39 Life Information Science Symposia have been held and issues of the Journal of International Society of Life Information Science (Journal of ISLIS), totaling more than 6,000 pages of research papers and reports, have been published regularly twice a year. ISLIS held the "Human Potential Science International Forum" in Chiba, Japan in 2002, the "International Conference on Mind Body Science" in Seoul, Korea in 2004 and the "7th Psi Meeting" in August 2011 co-sponsored by ISLIS and the Facludades Integradas 'Espirita' (Curitiba, Brazil). ISLIS published the book Human Potential Science in 2004. Existence of many anomalous phenomena has been proved scientifically. However, principles of all the world's anomalous phenomena have not been clarified yet. More scientific studies about them are needed. The 39th Symposium is being held on March 14-15, 2015 at Omori Hospital, Toho University, Japan, and the 40th Symposium is being held on August 28-31, 2015 in a camp format at Hase, Ina-city, Nagano, Japan, which is famous as a Ki-Village. These two Symposia are commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Founding of ISLIS. ISLIS has a worldwide presence with 11 International Information Centers and about 235 members in 15 countries.

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Since 2006, the present authors and other collaborators have been studying bio-PK using pieces of fruits of Cucumis sativus 'white spine type' cucumber as a bio-sensor. In their most recent experiments, the task of non-contact healing (bio-PK) was to increase the gas amount generated from pieces of cucumber. In one experiment series, the authors noticed that a standard design consisting of experimental tasks and a pair of pre- and post-control tasks was not necessarily effective in the bio-PK study. Specifically, if the authors ran dummy trials (without healers) just before and after 30-min healing trials in the same day, the dummy trials showed anomalous effects with a J value of about 0.1 although it should be zero essentially. In the present study, the authors discussed this phenomenon using data of new and previous experimental series, and as a true blank test, made comparisons with the data of dummy trials which were done on other days than the days of healing and dummy trials. There were 15 participant healers (4 males, 11 females; age range of 23-72y, with an average age of 44.3y) and they were energy medicine type healers recruited through a list of known participants, SNS and the internet. The average J value of the dummy trials (just before and after healing trials) was obtained as J=0.115±0.033 (95% confidence interval, n=83). The average J value of the blank test was 0.002±0.061 (95% confidence interval, n =22). There was a significant difference between them (p=.002, two tails, Welch test). Through these results, the authors concluded that dummy trials cannot be considered as blank tests if the dummy trials are done 1-2 hours before or after healing trials in experiments. Anomalous effects seen in the dummy trials were speculated to be a kind of distance effects caused by the healers directing their attention towards the experiments.

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There has been a gradual increase in recent years in the number of progress reports on the use of integrated medicine for cancer treatment over long periods of time. This paper reports on the further progress of 5 cases that I had reported in 2004 at the ISLIS meeting held in South Korea. Also included are new case reports of a 73-year-old male patient with prostate cancer, a 79-year-old male with liver cancer, a 76-year-old female with metastatic pancreatic cancer after resection of gastric cancer and a 55-year-old female with Stage IV A thyroid cancer all of whom received alternative therapy for at least 5 years. Additionally the case is described for a 58-year-old female with Stage IIA breast cancer whose anti-p53 antibody level, an indicator of apoptosis, showed a significant decrease in less than 5 years of alternative therapy. Although 4 of these 10 patients have died, their cases are reported here so that others can learn from the course of their disease progression. Finally, the current practices adopted in Nishimoto Clinic are reported; these have been applied in an integrated medicine approach to cancer treatment for more than 10 years.

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We investigated the ability of nonalcoholic beer, a luxury item, in stress reduction using two psychophysiological indices: skin conductance level and heart rate. Ten undergraduate students participated in this study. After the exposure to stress by performing the Uchida-Kraepelin Performance Test for 7 min and a mental calculation for 3 min, the participants consumed two kinds of nonalcoholic beer, Kirin FREE and Asahi DRY ZERO, or water as a control for 1 min. Then, they were asked to relax by sitting still in a chair with closed eyes for 10 min. Based on the Russell and Lanius model of affective quality, both nonalcoholic beers exhibited high stress-reducing activity; however, water as a control did not exhibit the same. In addition, Kirin FREE beer showed higher stress-reducing activity than Asahi DRY ZERO beer. According to the questionnaire on the taste, the participants liked beer but did not like nonalcoholic beer. These results indicate that nonalcoholic beer has stress-reducing activity unrelated to the taste. The exact mechanism of the stress-reducing activity of nonalcoholic beer is unclear; however, a possible explanation is that the hop (Humulus lupulus) contained in both nonalcoholic beers is known to be a sort of herb and to have stress-reducing activity.

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Living bodies show a peculiar reaction to a stimulus for body maintenance. In this study, a sound stimulus (music), a light stimulus (periodic flashing light), and a smell stimulus (perfume) were selected as stimuli to be given, and the wrist radial pulse waveform was measured with an acceleration pulse wave measuring instrument. The time variations of the pulse waveform were examined by wavelet analysis. Because individuality has a large influence, changes are not uniform for individual subjects. However, it was possible to consider the characteristics of the changes brought by stimulation.

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When we seek for the origin of the consciousness in things other than the activity of the brain, with physical basis, multi-dimensional universe picture helps us from being bothered with serious non-trivial problems. Simple application of the picture to the problem, however, conflicts with another problem, a kind of hierarchy problem. Parasite fermion is the material particle that exists in the extra dimension, that is, outside of our 4-dimensional universe. Differences in the property of it from the material particle that exists in our universe, termed host fermion, together with the mechanism that causes the difference between them is reviewed. The mechanism enables the material particle to be invisible, although it exists in the neighborhood of us. Then, what happens if we pay our attention to the application of this novel existence scheme of material to the mind-body problem? The parasite fermion model is shown to have the possibility to overcome the problems needed to be clarified to identify the origin of the mind outside the brain.

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How have different types of individuals and organizations conducted disaster relief and support activities that make people happy following the March 11, 2011 disasters? This paper utilizes a mixed methods survey of 1,659 respondents involved in community support activities to uncover the types of activities that make people happy. Themes were extracted using BigML from semi-open interviews with local residents, volunteers, and concerned individuals in the disaster regions. The results highlight the types of community support projects that generate positive experiences.

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Creativity and the ability to take decisive actions are thought to be practical traits which are useful for bringing up the level of happiness. This study sheds light on the important factors and major inadequacies which affect creativity and the ability to take decisive actions. This study also uncovers the correlation between creativity and the ability to take decisive actions, and the correlation to the level of happiness.

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Sociometric methods are employed to uncover the important factors and inadequacies which affect attaining health and longevity in Japan, the country with the world's highest longevity record. It is found that hobby and love are important for health, and inquisitiveness and communications are important for longevity.

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Difficulty of morning awakening (DMA), which shows the sleep offset problem, is not classified as one of the category of sleep disorders despite sleep onset insomnia is classified as the major category. However, DMA shows several characteristic symptoms and provides lots of psychosocial difficulties so that we propose that DMA should be studied in detail. We treated twelve DMA patients by self-awakening hypnotherapy. As a result, seven patients can awake in a desirable time. In our another study, 7 out of 14 DMA patients with ADHD recovered by atomoxetine medication. We hypothesize that morning awakening behavior is affected by maintenance of attention, which may be regulated by several dopamine agonistic medication.

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After a person dies, it has been said from ancient times that the soul separates from the physical body and goes to the world of spirits. Some souls cannot go, however. These souls are spirits of the dead and they are often attracted to sympathetic people or psychically sensitive people in whom the spirits cause problems, such as sleep disturbances, nightmares, and uneasy feelings. Such behaviors may be called psychic attacks by the spirits of the dead. Clearing the spirits of the dead is necessary to save these souls. Praying to a higher spirit is one method of clearing. The author has tried clearing by Qi energy and had a result that the higher spirit was bound to the spirits of the dead by Qi energy and this energy cleared the spirits of the dead. The author will show cases to clear the spirits simply by using Qi energy.

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The author defined reincarnation-like phenomena as having continuousness in memory, personality traits, habits, etc. between a certain person and another certain deceased person, and discussed the super-psi hypothesis and survival hypothesis from the aspects of predictability and the limit of the algorithm. The super-psi hypothesis is considered as having suitable predictability. However, if higher factors such as intuition ability, not only data such as memories, are transferred to a new person from a deceased person, it is considered that some mechanisms are needed (including the survival hypothesis) which keep systems of personality traits, etc.

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The 19th and early 20th century studies of reliable mediums have accumulated apparently compelling pieces of evidence for the survival of human consciousness after bodily death. This interpretation (the Survival Hypothesis), however, has been challenged by an alternative interpretation of the phenomena: The mediums collected the relevant information of the deceased telepathically from living people knowing the deceased, or clairvoyantly from available records or documents pertaining to the person (the Super-Psi Hypothesis). This presentation reviews representative arguments for both hypotheses and shows that cases of children with past-life memories (CORTs) and the new line of mediumship research have provided strong pieces of evidence for the Survival Hypothesis.

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In his commentary on The Tales of Ise, Shinkei obscured the existence of the philosophy of Godai in the scene of the death of Nijo no Kisaki in section 39. Shinkei, on the other hand, pointed out its existence and the tradition leads to the commentary by Sougi. However, the commentary by Keichu, which is often called a new commentary, a different interpretation is given by negating the concepts of "joken" and "danken." In this presentation, focusing on Keichu's discussion in his commentary, I would like to consider the possibility or impossibility of the survival of the soul.

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Studies of psychoneuroimmunology have revealed some relationships between depression and physical status. Managing depressive symptoms can be beneficial for a person’s general well-being. [Methods] In this presentation, results obtained from an epidemiological study on depressive symptoms and social supports (as a buffer against depression) among community-dwelling older adults are presented. Approximately 26,000 male and female residents over 65 years old were cross-sectionally analyzed regarding depressive symptoms (evaluated by the Geriatric Depression Scale) and social supports (four dimensions) utilizing data of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study. [Results] The analysis revealed that depressive symptoms of married, widowed less than one year, and widowed over one year groups showed the tendencies to have symptoms as: fewer symptoms for men than women, no differences, and more for men than women, respectively, after adjusting for age and diseases. However, the differences between men and women among the married group disappeared after controlling for socio-economic status (educational histories and income). On the other hand, social supports from partners showed the tendency to have supports was greater for men than women, while the tendency to have other kinds of social supports was generally less for men than women. In addition, providing supports appeared to be more beneficial than receiving them. [Conclusion] Exact evaluation of social supports, which have buffering effects on depression, can be an important clue to establish strategies for social and individual intervention.

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For many years the author has done studies which measured many EEGs under various states, such as hypnosis, meditation, qigong, taichi-quan, and healings, and she has considered the association of mind and body through those data. Qigong is one kind of method to regulate the mind by an adjustment of the body first. On the other hand, meditation methods generally may be considered to have the direction of adjustment from the mind to the body. Healing methods have two directions. Healings like bodyworks are methods to adjust from the body, while, healings using such as music or aroma therapies usually make adjustments from the mind. However experts of qigong or taichi-quan move extremely naturally hardly using any muscles, i.e. they perform with their mind condition only. As well for meditation methods, the posture is undoubtedly important. In the end, separation of the mind and body is difficult to consider. Furthermore, it must be really important to feel the sense of unity even in the meditation state or in the qigong state. During qigong and meditation, the EEG α waves, which appear ordinarily on the occipital area with the eyes closed, can be additionally observed on the frontal area. And at that time repetitive waveforms, the repetition of the α dominant periods and the β dominant periods are often observed. Such waveforms might reveal the sense of unity, that is, the subtly balanced condition between conscious and unconscious. That state must be a very important point and the author will discuss it in detail in the presentation.

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In modern medicine, not only conventional psychosomatic diseases but other somatic disorders are regarded to have some psychosomatic correlation. However, simply including the idea of psychosomatic medicine into guidelines and manuals for Western medicine might not cure all cases. Medical persons need to combine complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with conventional medicine, and give a tailor-made treatment for each patient. They also need a technique to approach the existence of human beings form the holistic viewpoint. In order to put this into practice, we propose using healing modalities such as ThetaHealing®. Here, we would like to show our interpretation of EEG (electroencephalography) data of 20 clients obtained during ThetaHealing® sessions which deal with subconsciousness and subtle energy changes of the patients. The subconscious and energy changes are affected by personal belief and personal emotions during the healing sessions. We will show the common changes observed in all subjects. By observing physiological phenomena which are caused by ThetaHealing®, we can see part of the effects of healing on human beings. From the data shown in this study, we will explore possible future applications and contributions to medicine in the era of the mind-body correlation.

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In recent years, increasing number of studies on such %quot;anomalous%quot; phenomena as near-death experiences, cases of children with past-life and other related memories, mediumship, in which mediums apparently communicate with purported deceased people, and so on, have been suggesting that the mainstream scientific view of human nature, which downplays the spiritual aspects and regards consciousness as an epiphenomenon of the brain activities, is fundamentally wrong. These studies also pose a serious question to the materialistic point of view, according to which life is merely a matter of chance or coincidence and therefore without meaning. This mini-symposium outlines the emerging view of human nature, with special reference to cases of children with "life-between-life" memories, synchronicities surrounding birth, and other spiritual phenomena.

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Through daily clinical practice, I often feel that disorder is not necessarily something to be cured, but to be interpreted as a message of mind and body (that is the inner nature), and I realize the deep meaning of disease as a metaphor. In future medicine, it will become important for a doctor to interpret the meaning of disease together with a patient in addition to exploring treatments of the disease. To find that disease and death have not only a negative meaning, but a positive one leads to deeper understanding of them. In this mini-symposium, I will talk about how disease comes to appear as a metaphor within the relationship among nature, body, mind, and the brain. On top of that, I would like to discuss what future medicine will be like.

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In recent years, spiritual research involving birth of new life using the narrations of children typified by “memory in the womb” has been advancing. Meanwhile, as for the synchronicity that are involved in death, the suggestion of the involvement of the soul is widely known as notification phenomenon, or having a vision. The author had faced many synchronicity which were beyond human understanding and we couldn’t think of anything but the will of God while she was present at the scenes of childbirth acting as midwife. For example, there were many phenomena relating birthday, birth time, birth weight and the timing of birth. These phenomena manifest as events implicating the relationships between those involved in childbirth and those who have passed away. These phenomena suggest the involvement of the spirits of the dead as well as the synchronicity involved in death. Those who have experienced in these phenomena should accept the dignity of, and find meaning in, a life that will continue to exist for eternity. This research introduces actual experiences of synchronicity and the narratives of those who experienced them first hand.

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Recently, the number of children who talk about memories before birth seems to be increasing. Many of the stories told by children around the year 2000 talk about babies were coming to their mother from the clouds or the sky (life-between-life state). However, recently, many of their stories say that they came from space. According to these stories, the purpose of why they were born seems to have changed. It was to help other people around 2000, but now it is to save the earth. Indeed, the reason for the existence of mankind has been changing. Based on these changes, I attempt to predict our future.

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When we think of life, it would be like “building a castle on the sand” if we develop our argument without clarifying the view of Cosmos as the root of our thought. It is valuable to clarify Cosmos - the root of everything - by deciphering the Heart Sutra, which was preached two thousand years ago for today’s times. A new paradigm for future science can only be successfully built if we pile up arguments on such a solid and substantial view of the world. The Heart Sutra explains the relation between Cosmos and human beings. Humans are identical to Cosmos, and realizing this truth leads us to realizing how to live our life. There is nothing but EMPTINESS as the root of Cosmos, and EMPTINESS is life and super-substance. The vital activity is to express the Principle of Cosmos in this phenomenal world. In addition, even phenomenal environments are also life created by EMPTINESS by embodying EMPTINESS. Therefore, human beings are meaningful only in living, integrated with Cosmos. The theory of permanent peace of mankind is also shown in this preposition. The view of the world presented in the Heart Sutra is a fitting message to us living in modern times.

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Although it has been well established that oxytocin (OXT) in the blood during lactation accelerates milk ejection in a pregnant woman, a recent study has indicated that OXT secreted in the brain of both male and female, plays an important role in the hyporesponsiveness to stress. There are many human and animal experiments, demonstrating that increased brain OXT exerts inhibitory effects on the hypothalamo-pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA axis) through a suppression of CRF neurons in the hypothalamus. Factors facilitating OXT secretion in the brain are lactation, social touch with aesthetic relaxation, attachment between parents and children, romantic love, and social grooming behaviors including drinking with friends after work and talk with intimate persons while drinking teas. On the other hand, serotonergic neurons (5-HT neurons) in the dorsal raphe nuclei express oxytocin (OXT) receptors, indicating that OXT secreted in the brain may also produces anxiolytic effect by activating 5-HT neurons.

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The ability development method SRS (Super-Reading system) is a system of mental and physical ability development that the author proposed in 1987. It consists of 3 levels having 180 steps. The first level consists of "Super-reading" and users follow 30 steps in training themselves to do speed-reading. The second level consists of "Subconsciousness reconstruction" and users follow 50 steps to rebuild their subconsciousness domain. The third level consists of "Superconsciousness realization" and users follow 100 steps to perform practical training aimed at sending their days at a higher level of consciousness. The SRS consists of eight sub-methods called the speed-reading, image, memory, meditation, speed-writing, mind and body, health, and education sub-methods. At the first level, mind and body are activated generally by training to accelerate intellectual function. The mean reading speed becomes more than 10 times the speed before the training. At the second level, the contents of a wider, deeper and higher range are learned sequentially, and special training is carried out. At the third level, the content about more than 200 domains is learned and practiced. In the lecture, an outline of these sub-methods in the SRS will be given that includes their constitution, characteristics, and originality of the training. In addition, some history and results of the instruction will be given. Some results of training have been reported at 16 past ISLIS symposia.

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The stumbling block in human science, or, more specifically, the science of the mind and brain, is that the subjects that are directly observed are not "human beings", but "myself and others". Also, in the so-called "problem of qualia" too-"How are the qualia produced in the human brain?" I must set the problem differently according to the case of my own "brain and qualia" and that of another's "brain and qualia". First this paper describes a thought experiment about the brain-qualia relationship that is carried out within the strictly first-person perspective. As a result, I found that no causal relationship was observed between my brain and my qualia, and I realized that my brain is a part of my qualia but not vice versa. Next, I propose the problem of "other minds" as a really hard problem. My solution is in the idea of "possible worlds". Qualia of a certain other person (e.g. Mr. X) are my own qualia in the possible world where I was born as Mr. X. Lastly, the relationship between the actual world and possible worlds is discussed.

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The late Dr. Masaru Emoto developed a new method called Water Crystal Photography in 1994, which could be used to visualize the information contained in water. In 1999, he combined many experimental data during the past 5 years and published "Messages from Water", a collection of water crystal photographs. Then, this book was translated into different languages and spread into many countries. Main points of "Messages from Water" are that the structure of water can be changed by the influence of human emotions and thoughts and that water may have a capacity to memorize information. However, in conventional science, the possibility of memory of water has not been acknowledged, and as a result, there have been a criticism that "Messages from Water" is unscientific. However, during the past 6 to 7 years, some of the top scientists of the world have been giving evidence which suggests, or completely proves, that water has a memory. Dr. Gerald Pollack is suggesting that it is possible that the structure of water can be changed by the effects of human emotions based on his own findings on "The 4th Phase of Water". Dr. Luc Montagnier has proved without doubt that water can memorize the information of the genetic material DNA using genetic engineering procedures. In this presentation, after briefly explaining about the points of "Messages from Water", I will introduce the researches by Drs. Pollack and Montagnier in simple terms and then discuss about the relationship between them.

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