TED Community » Edward Arroyo

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• A reply on Conversation: Since oxytocin can influence trust, is it possible to use it for manipulation? Can "the moral molecule" be used for immoral purposes?

  Nov 16 2011: Hello Loretta,
  
  I am moved by your reply. Debby was a kind and loving soul. I will miss her until we meet again.
  
  I don't know if this is appropriate, but she helped me do this video piece for a 'floatation tank center' I
  am working on and it turns out to be a tribute to Debby (for me). Besides teaching tai chi, she was an artist, musician, lyricist, and voice-over artist. I asked her to 'breathe for me' and record it so I could put it at the second half of this video - a video that asks, "When was the last time you did Nothing?" She also says a line for me at the end of the 'visual' portion of my video.
  
  The haunting thing about this video is that I kinda finished it by rendering it for the last time, but it ran 1minute longer than originaly meant. I had 1 minute of black.
  
  I said to myself, 'This actually is good. For, while floating, you are in a dark space' ...and float in a water solution that is 10 inches deep, with 800 lbs. of epsom salt, and kept at skin temperature. I actually liked that idea of darkness, for that is the empirical experience (the video that precedes this is just 'one person's imagined experience while in the tank). So, I hurried to quickly bring together an extension of this 'altered experience' by simply adding a mashed up confluence of music. However, I wanted the music to have a certain amount of dissonance, so I came up with this ending that I finished at 3 AM, the morning she went out to take her life. I didn't find out about Debby until the next morning.
  
  I would like to share it with you if you are willing.
  
  If so, the link is: http://web.me.com/ooom2/eggco
  
  USER NAME: eggco1
  
  PASSWORD: xxeggco1xx
  
  If you choose watch, please set aside 5 minutes of quiet time. The sound is very important and the volume is rather low, so you are encouraged to turn up the volume.
  
  I would love to hear your comments.
  
  Peace and Harmony,
  
  Ed Arroyo

• A comment on Conversation: Since oxytocin can influence trust, is it possible to use it for manipulation? Can "the moral molecule" be used for immoral purposes?

  Nov 9 2011: One of my dearest friends, Debby Winsberg, committed suicide a few days ago, only two weeks after a failed attempt at that. I had been with her for over two years as struggled to deal with having had an affair with a married man.
  
  Apart from the fact that she had been suffering from loneliness and abandonment, she was beautiful inside and out, cheerful, and brought many friends together. We lost touch for twenty years before I got a call from her, telling me how
  troubled she was about her situation. She was best friends with her lover's wife and they were all part of a tightly knit group.
  
  I guess the reason for my sharing this is that during the time with her therapists, pharmaceutical recipes, psychiatrists,
  and being by her side for countless hours, she shared with me her experience with this man who, despite telling her he could not leave his wife, continued to woo her with all the fantasies one could imagine about how much he loved her and wanted to... build her a kingdom, run away, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam, over and over again.
  
  The important point to all this is that in researching the various drugs she was prescribed (lexipro, selecsa, ativan, etc.) for letting her know their purpose and side-effects, I came across oxytocin and its relation to bonding, trust, and
  sex. Well, this is how his whispering in her ear sealed the deal.
  
  When she decided to end the affair, she began exhibiting symptoms that escalated to the point of severe addiction withdrawal. This was before she began taking any drugs. She was an ultra health-conscious person, never drank, smoked, or indulged in any recreational drugs. So, after starting psychotropic drugs, she became confused and afraid of what chemical or hormonal-balancing agents she needed. I explained to her how her lover had seduced her with words and physical (manipulation), using sex to produce the hormonal release of (among others) oxytocin for convincing her of his 'true' intention. He was a thief.

• A comment on Talk: Elizabeth Murchison: Fighting a contagious cancer

  Sep 28 2011: Dr. Bruce Lipton, an accomplished biologist (see: The Biology of Belief, The Wisdom of Your Cells), points out that while the scientific community was immersed in the quest for the holy grail in the Genome Project, they failed to notice while stripping away protein to get to the DNA that they were discarding a critical component for understanding the secret of Life. For forty years the discarded protein never figured into the consideration of how life lives. Dr. Lipton puts forth in his books a powerful argument for culture, or the environment, as being a critical player in the process of life. And, that it's our 'perception' (as a neurological
  descendent of 'action/reaction,' 'stimulus/response,''instinct/intuition.') that determines our ability to live, and survive: that this awareness determines the degree to which we are able to respond appropriately to the ever-changing, ever-evolving environment. For the inability to have clear perception determine the degree to which we cause dis-ease. And if this dis-ease is not addressed, it will lead to extinction.
  
  So, part of the moral to this story is back to our world, our environment,... our garden. Not just Earth, but the plants and animals - and, yes, fellow humans - and how we treat and respect it all.
  
  Consequently, when we abuse each of these things, it causes stress - in all systems. And our ability to respond is diminished - and so is our resilience (our ability to come back). Our immunity suffers and we become susceptible to other stronger biology to invade and conquer its host.
  
  Sounds like a virus to me... Oh, yeah, and how about cancer?

• A reply on Talk: Elizabeth Murchison: Fighting a contagious cancer

  Sep 28 2011: I must say, Muratcan, I agree. We behave like a virus. Will the single focus being to
  persist in Time, to only survive, we stop at nothing to do so. We have forgotten or lost
  our wisdom for the want of domination and control. We have abandoned most of the wonderful gifts we have 'earned' to teach us gratefulness and benevolence for the chance to become God. We stand on the shoulders of everything thing else that has preceded us. And what have we become? A mindless, heartless, virus. Sad.