Do we really need hard evidence that human beings have souls? In other news, Debbie Downer is still not the life of the party.

Happy Fun-with-Evidence Friday. This week's edition of Westword, Denver's so-called alternative newspaper, ran an ad saying New Book Offers Concrete Proof of the Soul (though amazon lists a May 2007 publishing date). Let's assume for the sake of argument that we do want/need concrete evidence that people have souls. Here's how the author, Manya Long, explains this research: "This philosophical book proves through concrete evidence that the soul actually and absolutely exists. Included in this new work is a picture of a person's soul, taken by means of an aura camera. I have studied and arranged the data that composes this book for over twenty years. This book not only provides proof that the soul does in fact exist, but it also renders the scientific and mathematical substantiation to back up my claim.... What my hypothesis says is your 'soul' or conciousness [sic] can be seen through the electromagnetic fields created by your body." OK, if we could actually get this type of evidence, what would be the purpose? To assess different souls and recommend ways to improve them?

Update: Just as I posted the following writeup of the "happiness" study, the radio program Science Friday came on, interviewing one of the researchers. Arrrgh! James Fowler said that people in the center of the network are happier than people on the fringes (duh). Evidently those people are more likely to catch "waves" of happiness, so we're supposed to connect with more happy people, and help our friends become happy.

Misery loves company, but company does not reciprocate. There's lots of social-network analysis happening these days, though some is pretty light. Social scientists continue creating colored graphs showing people's interconnectedness, but much of this evidence fails to help us manage our organizations, or our lives, any better. A recent example comes to us from researchers Nicholas A. Christakis & James H. Fowler. Quoting from their blog post about it, "We found that social networks have clusters of happy and unhappy people within them that reach out to three degrees of separation. A person's happiness is related to the happiness of their friends, their friends' friends, and their friends' friends' friends — that is, to people well beyond their social horizon. We found that happy people tend to be located in the center of their social networks and to be located in large clusters of other happy people. And we found that each additional happy friend increases a person's probability of being happy by about 9%." (Yes. They actually said that.) And they finished with this gem: "It thus seems to be the case, online as well as offline, that when you smile, the world smiles with you." We need a guy from Harvard Medical School to tell us this?

I do believe that the people we surround ourselves with have a big influence on our attitudes and achievements. I just don't know if this research tells us more than we all knew already. And there's always the problem of defining "happiness" --- it's a lot like "knowledge". We all want it, and know it when we see it, but can't really manage it.

These conclusions are based only on survey data: "On three separate occasions between 1984 and 2003, the participants filled out a questionnaire designed by the Center for Epidemiological Studies to assess depression and emotional health. To measure happiness, Christakis relied on people's answers to four questions in the survey, including: 'How often during the past week would you say: I enjoyed life? I felt hopeful about the future?'" Yet this managed to get wide coverage in the mainstream U.S. media, who are grasping for happiness-related news these days (see Wall Street Journal blog, New York Times, and National Public Radio).

Although I don't see this social survey analysis as very useful, it certainly address an important topic: Lots of people wish they were happier. (One tip: Evidently happy people watch less TV, based on research reported recently in the New York Times' What Happy People Don't Do.) There's even an article on WikiHow called How to be happy. As if.

Comments

[Tim Lumber]

Yes we do have souls! About 10 years ago, I was hooked on Pain pills and booze. I had the flu, and drank over 12 full cups of Vodka. I had flu medicine in me, mixed with heavy alchohol and pain pills.

I knew I had drank to much with the pills and medicine. I had overdosed. I knew I would die. I drove home, with all my energy. I asked my dad to get me to the hospital because I would die! He laughed, not knowing I was a pain pill popper.

I threw up over 20 times. But instead of getting better, I got worst everytime I threw up, I knew I was done. My brain started acting up, I was mumbling to myself. As I layed on my back asleep. All of a sudden, my body jerked out of my sleep. I have like 25 tat2s on my arms. As I awoked I could see crystal clear(I have bad eyes and wear contacts) something was forcing my body to sit up. I looked ta my arms and there was NO tat2s either. My body felt weird kind of like when your foot falls asleep, only thing my whole body felt that way.

In my kitchen door I was facing there was this moving circle, it looked fuzzy like a TV with no reception. I was afraid and tried to push back, as if to get my soul back into my body, when I then was back in my body, I sat up and threw up. Appaerently I had choked on my throwup. I was dead, and came back! Afterlife is scary, but YES its real, I witnessed it first hand!

[Tim Lumber]

Take my advice, I experienced this first hand. I do believe from my experience though, that afterlife is VERY scary. Its NOT bread and roses! Plus during my out of body, I couldnt breath. I was yelling for my father, but I knew he couldnt hear me. You all dont have to believe me. BUT I promise YOU ALL, you will find out first hand I AM...AM...AM..telling the truth!