Dr. Philippe Goldin, a psychologist who heads the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience Group at Stanford University, runs a National Institutes of Health-funded lab that studies adults with social anxiety disorder, and offers training in mindfulness meditation.

We caught up with Dr. Goldin, who spent six years in India and Nepal studying various languages and Buddhist philosophy.

Soul's Code: What's the appeal of Buddhism for you?

GOLDIN: Androgyny. The goal— the ultimate goal — of mental development is to become completely inclusive of all qualities, and I thought that was incredible . . . That was a model of being that I had not been introduced to before — the way you could develop wisdom and compassion and skillfulness, that it's not abstract, and that there are actual steps towards being able to train your mind. And that other people had done it, and you could do it too if you're willing to make the effort.

Soul's Code: Is that your personal spiritual practice?

GOLDIN: I lead meditation groups. I also try to practice every day — a little bit, formal and informal. What I call meaningful pauses, to redirect my attention to notice what's happening in my mind, my body; observing habits and trying to let go.

Soul's Code: Does your work confirm studies that have shown how monks have apparently boosted the capacity of their brains through thousands of hours of meditation?

GOLDIN: The people who are the superstars? Yeah, we do expect them to be different in some of the tests and measurements. But I'm more interested in how you can take the regular person and teach them skills to work with themselves. To me, that's how you get at the masses.

I'm working with the regular Joe, with Joe the plumber. I'm really interested in the regular person, people who are suffering from depression, anxiety, stress and how you can teach them skills that they can learn to implement so that they can have their own direct experience working with their mind, introspection.

Soul's Code: Is there heightened interest in your field now, given the stressful economic times?

GOLDIN: Now — and in fact, always. Our current culture is set up to induce fear. Most of the signals we have are about, 'It's not okay to be the way I am.' That causes tension, anxiety and stress — be it economic, the fashion models in magazines, or how we're supposed to be parents, or how we're supposed to be children.

Our culture is really not very healthy, and the demands placed on people at work — inter-personally — is huge right now. There is tremendous stress and a real lack of training in how to be okay with oneself.

Soul's Code: Is that the type of training you are doing at Google?

GOLDIN: Last spring I was contacted by them about doing a research study, and I just started more and more projects with them. Google is doing some fantastic work on developing programs to train employees in emotional balance and emotional intelligence. Everyone there is super intelligent, so pure IQ is not the issue.

They're actually addressing how (to help employees) be able to be skillful with their own emotions, for their own benefit and for the benefit of others. Lots of companies recognize that if a person feels anxiety about coming to work, or has incredibly low self-esteem, or suffers from anxiety or depression, that that's completely counterproductive.

Soul's Code: Can people control how happy they feel?

GOLDIN: You could consider happiness a trait, but I think it's a trainable skill. And that skill rides on psychological flexibility. And part of that is being able to be emotionally aware, and to be able to work with or regulate and modulate you're emotions . . . To me, psychological flexibility is the basis for being happy and well.

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In recent years Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens have been grouped under the banner "the new atheists", a contemporary atheistic stab at debunking God's existence and religious faith.  The new atheists certainly have theistic opponents, yet another, even smaller, group has entered the fray; call them the new non-theist anti-atheists. Terry Eagleton's new book Faith, Reason and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate takes a decidedly non-theological stance in critiquing the new atheists, who, Eagleton argues, have little to no background in theology and each fails to understand the political nature of religion (due to their own fundamentalist atheism). A marxist critiquing atheists writing about religion is ironic in the extreme.

How God changes your brain

The word "liturgy" literally means "work of the people"; how about work for the brain? Andrew Newberg's new book, "How God Changes Your Brain", argues that actions often deemed "religious" have beneficial mental effects. Theological speculation, meditative prayer, and performing elaborite rites can boost brain power according to Newberg, making spiritual practice an educational experience. In an age where rote memorization of prayers, thinking theologically at an early age, and greater involvement in liturgical rites are not popular in the US, Newberg's findings may changes the minds of religious educators and parents.

Tweeting God

Alon Nir, an Israeli university student from Tel Aviv, has made tweeting God a possibility.  Prayers can be sent to Nir, printed on paper, and devoutly placed in crevices in the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Nir keeps the prayers confidential and removes the obstacle of distance for those unable to travel to Jerusalem and deliver the prayers in person. Though Nir is not asked to pray on behalf of those tweeting, he does play an intercessory role in bring the prayers to God in Judaism's holiest site.

GUEST COLUMN: SANDY ANDREW — Have you ever found yourself in a casual situation when, suddenly, your consciousness flashes back to a memory that seems impossible to be valid?  After all, you have not experienced this situation yet, so how on earth could you have a memory of it?

This unique sensation is one our culture has labeled déjà vu.  But what is it exactly?

Is it a memory, a premonition, or just a confused state of mind?

In my case, I experienced déjà vu significantly for the first time when I was eleven years old as my mother told me she was not going to be living with my dad any more — they were divorcing. In an instant, I knew that I had witnessed this exact same scene before. But how could that have been possible? I never had an event in my young life that remotely resembled this in terms of a similar memory.

Like my discussion with my mother, most common experiences of déjà vu will happen while you're, for example, chatting away to a friend in a restaurant, speaking about a serious topic, which results in you have a startling sensation of recognition. You think, “I've heard this before . . . but I couldn't have.” You try to focus on the memory and it melts away. How this recollection can be possible is the question many people ask, and I hope to explain.

Can science alone explain the phenomena of déjà vu?

A French researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) was the first to use the term “déjà vu” in his book, L'Avenir des sciences physiques (The Future of Psychic Sciences).

In recent years, déjà vu has been subject to psychological and neurophysiological research. One explanation of déjà vu is that it is not an act of premonition or clairvoyance, but rather an anomaly of physical memory from the human brain.

Recently published material from scientific research implies that the brain produces memories from the hippocampus region. A small section of this is called the dentate gyrus and is responsible for "episodic" memories which stores information that allows us to tell similar places and situations apart.

The dentate gyrus records a situation’s audio, visual, smell, sense of time, and other characteristics for the body’s future reference. When there is low performance from the dentate gyrus, the supposed memory problem of déjà vu occurs as the brain has difficulty in telling the difference between two extremely similar situations. In other words, the brain is not storing the lifetime memories well enough.

Apparently, as people age, déjà-vu-like confusion happens more often. It is also a frequent occurrence in people suffering from brain diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Let's explore an alternative view

For many, déjà vu appears to go deeper into our psyche than brain oriented memories do. When you experience déjà vu you certainly can feel an emotional and unquantifiable sensation that is fundamentally different to remembering a lost memory, or sorting out information in your brain of who, where, what, and when an event transpired. Déjà vu just feels profoundly different than anything else we regularly encounter.

But, how can our human brains lose or distort memories of a foreign land, person, building, or tangible item that we have never seen before? And then, how can this distortion create an experience of a five to ten second déjà vu sensation where we experience very clear and concise memory flashbacks to our present surroundings?

The human brain holds memories and information, but only from this lifetime on planet Earth. Remember you reside in a dimension created of billions of other galaxies with trillions and trillions of star systems. And don't forget your spirit (consisting of mind and soul) that most historical religious figures, from Jesus to the Buddha, have discussed.  I don't believe that your spirit is devoid of all knowledge and memory, otherwise there would be no point to the eternal life if you retained nothing.

The relationship between spirit and déjà vu

My theory is that déjà vu comes from the spirit. It is a result of premonitions prior and during life on planet Earth. Your brain, which operates like the memory and processor for the human body, latches on to these pre-witnessed events and attempts to process them.

You can focus on a normal or forgotten memory when you recollect it. However, when you try to focus on a déjà vu sensation you can’t. Simply put it is because it is not of this earth . . .  and neither, fundamentally, are you. Déjà vu comes from the spirit, not from the human brain, thus the memory functions of the brain do not apply.

The recent scientific research and other historical studies into the déjà vu phenomenon have my utmost respect. I firmly believe that as humanity on Earth moves forward into the 21st century we have to fully embrace science and all of its incredible findings — good or bad. However, in regards to déjà vu, I do not feel that science has the definitive answer to explaining this phenomena.

So, it's up to you to brainstorm, debate, and discuss déjà vu until you come up with the answer that makes sense for you. And Soul's Code is the perfect forum to do just that!

Radio show host and author of the Universal Learning Series, Sandy was born in the Scottish town of Paisley. Sandy's previous article for Soul's Code is Gut feelings guide us to our Soul's Code.