The event served as a platform for discussing the pressing need to strengthen resilience and address trauma within the region.

By Sveta Listratov, TPS

In response to unprecedented trauma caused by the October 7 attacks and war with Hamas, more than 30 Israeli trauma organizations gathered in a rehabilitation village Adi Negev to grapple with how to coordinate their efforts.

“October 7th happened everywhere in the country, in very different ways,” Tali Levanon, CEO at Israel Trauma Coalition told The Press Service of Israel.

“Nothing compares to what happened that day. I haven’t seen a situation like this happening anywhere in the world.”

In a collaborative effort to bolster community resilience in the Western Negev region, the Jewish National Fund USA (JNF-USA), the Israel Coalition for Trauma, and the village and medical center for rehabilitation “Adi Negev-Nachlat Eran” convened a gathering to meet representatives from numerous organizations and communities in the area.

“It is our goal to help those residents who are ready to go back to their communities after the evacuation, to make it easier for them,” Tali Tzur, chief of staff of Jewish National Fund USA in Israel explained to TPS-IL.

“It was clear to everyone that resilience is the key element of making people feel safe while living in this area. You have to prepare them for the moment of a siren or a falling rocket not to get thrown back to the attack of October 7th and to fall apart.”

Attended by managers and representatives from regional councils and authorities in the Western Negev, along with partners such as the Western Negev Rehabilitation System of the Jewish Agency, Sapir College, and the National Civil Service Authority, the event served as a platform for discussing the pressing need to strengthen resilience and address trauma within the region.

In the discussions held within the working groups, key topics included the necessity for specialized training and support for caregivers, who may also require resilience-building treatments themselves.

Another aspect highlighted was the occurrence of trauma that manifests physically, often without the individual recognizing the underlying cause of their distress.

The most repeated concern voiced was the shortage of personnel in the professional domain, particularly within the Arabic-speaking sector.

“The shortage of manpower in this field is a well-known issue, and within the Arab sector, it’s particularly noticeable,” Atef Khatip from a resilience center for the Bedouin population in Beer-Sheva told TPS-IL.

“The awareness of the necessity for resilience within Bedouin society has long been acknowledged, but what’s lacking is the capacity to address it effectively, stuck with insufficient budgets and personnel.”

Central to the discussions were the various trauma treatments available to residents, with a focus on leveraging “Adi Negev,” a rehabilitation village adjacent to Ofakim, as a central service provider for the region.

“We are already helping those who are living touched with disability, so we have all the infrastructure in the village,” Elie Klein, director of development for the US and Canada for Adi Negev- Nachalat Eran explained to TPS-IL.

“And we realized that the need right now is to coordinate the resilience centers that already exist, to present them with the specific requests from the residents that need to be addressed, find the right solutions for them, and to move things forward appropriately.”

While the attention was directed towards the residents of the Negev, the ongoing challenges faced by residents of the northern border remained unresolved.

“We are trying to create responses that are tailor-made to the reality in the North of Israel as well, but the reality is still so vague and unstable and we still don’t know what we are going to face there,” Levanon said.

Around 250,000 Israelis from communities near the Gaza and Lebanese borders have been displaced from their homes since October 7, living in subsidized hotels or staying with relatives.

Residents of Gaza-border area communities are slowly returning to their homes.

Hezbollah leaders have suggested that they will continue to fire rockets to prevent thousands of residents of northern Israel from returning to their homes.

Israeli officials have been calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed and removed from Southern Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Around 30 of the remaining 133 hostages are believed dead.

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A mental health expert cautioned journalists to be very careful about interviewing Israeli captives released by Hamas.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The warning comes on the heels of a Tuesday press conference in which 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz shared her experience with reporters at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, where she is recuperating.

She was released along with 79 year-old Nurit Coope on Monday night. Both are residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz, and both have husbands still being held along with more than 200 other captives inside Gaza.

Returning hostages will be very cautious about saying anything that endangers other captives and will be dealing with psychological trauma that can lead to “black holes” of memory and even sympathy for their terrorist captors, Eiyar Segall told the Tazpit Press Service after watching a video of the press conference. This issue may come into play if Hamas decides to release further hostages.

Segall is a clinical social worker who spent 20 years as a mental health officer in the Israel Defense Forces. She stressed that she has never met Lifshitz and was only making general observations.

“What I saw in the interview, first of all is a person who is quite shocked,” Segall told TPS. “A person who is kidnapped is in a continual trauma. The trauma doesn’t just pass away after the first day. She was in a traumatic situation since the kidnapping and only now will she start to recover. It will take time and she’s going to suffer like everyone else and I’m sure with many, many symptoms.”

Many Israelis criticizing the interview on social media took issue with one particular statement when Lifshitz said, “Each person had a guard watching him or her. They took care of all the needs. They talked about all kinds of things, they were very friendly.”

Segall said that comment was probably the result of a psychological protective mechanism called “splitting.”

“A psychological split is when we divide the world between good and bad. The man who kidnapped her was very brutal and she never saw him again. And then she went into this room and she was there for more than two weeks and she saw a different group of captors again and again who treated her more nicely,” Segall said.

“We’re all human beings and we have to make meaning, so we tell ourselves that this was the bad part and now this is the better part,” she explained.

Another issue that Segall raised is called disassociation. “The brain disconnects from reality in especially terrifying circumstances, for example in cases of rape. People don’t recall what happened. We know from interviewing prisoners of war in Syria and Egypt after the Yom Kippur War that there are many disassociated events. It’s like black holes in their memory,” she said.

That’s in contrast with a survival mechanism known as the “Stockholm syndrome,” in which captives “start to understand and sympathize with problems, issues and the human part of their kidnappers,” Segall explained.

“There is a limit to how much you can be afraid. So you start off by saying, ‘He didn’t kill me yesterday and he’s not killing me today, so I can trust him. I can talk to him. I can try to convince him to give me this, or to help me do that and I’ll give him some smiles,’” Segall said.

“You put on the kidnapper all of your human abilities, and you make him human when you start to treat him like a human like yourself. You start to sympathize with him. You forget that that this man is abusing you and he might kill you and your friends and your family. You start giving reasons for his evil,” she added.

Being a psychological survival mechanism, Segall insists that no hostage should be judged or blamed for having Stockholm syndrome.

“It’s only natural. I want you to add that the way I know myself, if I was in the same situation, I’m quite sure I would go through this mechanism also,” she stressed.

In the hours leading up to the press conference, Lifshitz was being held captive in Gaza, freed, taken by helicopter to Tel Aviv, reunited with her family and debriefed by the Israel Security Agency, better known as the Shin Bet.

“I’m sure that she was exhausted during the press conference and she’s not experienced with being questioned by the Shin Bet. It’s all very new and very flowing. It would be very difficult for her to put things in order. Anyone would be confused in that situation,” Segall commented.

“I’m sure no one interviewed her without permission, but after being held captive for two and a half weeks, I doubt that she had the power to say no. The kidnappers took that away from her.”

Segall didn’t agree with drawing parallels between Lifshitz and Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas for more than five years. When Shalit was freed in 2011, he was interviewed looking dazed and confused by an Egyptian journalist before the Red Cross was able to give him a checkup.

Psychologically, “It’s a different issue. Shalit was there for more than five years and that’s long time,” Segall said. “At that point, Shalit was captive for a quarter of his life. He was younger so I’m sure it influenced his identity. This woman’s captivity, we are happy to say, was only two and a half weeks. That’s a long time to suffer, but brief compared to Shalit.”

Segall also stopped short of calling the press conference a media victory for Hamas.

“I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer. But the more we hear that they were nice to her, this gives Hamas some points. But I don’t want to blame Lifshitz for what she said. I don’t want to judge her whatsoever. I don’t expect anything from Hamas, but from the Israeli press, I would expect a little more patience. It was a mistake to have the press conference, but it’s not necessarily a victory for Hamas.”

While Israelis are hopeful more hostages will be released, Segall cautions journalists to give returning captives time before interviewing them.

“Give them three days,” she insisted.

“When you’re in full survival mode, your cognitive abilities are not with you in full. It takes the brain 48-72 hours to deal with the acute stress reaction to trauma, It takes about three days to set your mind again and start being with your cognitive abilities,” Segall explained. “It’s not fair to take an interview so immediately after being freed.”

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It’s worth exploring the many ways Jewish political, social, communal and even spiritual leaders tied to the financial benefits of Christian missionary support delude themselves and their followers.

By Donald Zev Uslan, Vision Magazine

We need to address the extent to which Israelis are empowering and ignoring the inroads being made by Christian missionaries within the State of Israel and their designs to convert Jews to a belief in Jesus.

What in our psychological and social makeup has led to this situation? What psychosocial dynamics have allowed free rein to groups whose goal is the spiritual demise of the Jewish people? Let us explore a variety of views from a psychological and psychosocial perspective. The following are some Jewish vulnerabilities.

The shtetl mentality

Almost a thousand years of living in small, concentrated areas (“shtetls”) in the exile under gentile rule has created in our historic DNA a mentality of seeking to please the majority society; be it by language, personal or social behavior.

In the Diaspora, we don’t offend. We often seek to please, we want and try to fit into the host country. The results can be seen in the patterns of assimilation and disaffection among our people. There is no anti-Semitism, no hatred or harm to Jews if we stay under the radar. Thus we became beholden to the majority by necessity. We became obligated to the majority culture.

This propensity very often colors our governance of Israel and even the mentality of our leaders. Because we are “grateful” for Western support, we temper our typical Israeli assertiveness (“cḥutzpah”) and critical thinking when it comes to diverging positions with our “allies.”

We don’t want to rock the boat. We unquestioningly accept financial and political support from zealous “Christian Evangelical friends” – oblivious to the price we pay by allying ourselves with some truly crazy people, some of whom are driven by dreams of creating a theological melding of Jew and Christian into “One New Man.”

Protestant missionary kindness

After a long history of being shunned, isolated, restricted, condemned, forcibly converted, expelled, physically imperiled, murdered and both idealistically venerated and yet cynically reviled by traditional European Christian denominations, Jews are now back in our homeland.

And we are fully engaged in utilizing our hard-won knowledge and skills, initiative, and creativity to defend ourselves from military attacks. Yet our energies and talents have yet to be directed towards effectively countering spiritual seduction and brazen assaults on our faith and identity.

European and North African Jewry had little exposure to a “gentler” Protestant evangelism such as seen in the United States, where Jews have been exposed to Protestant sharing, kindness and “unconditional love”- a Christianity which has replaced “Replacement Theology” with eschatological aspirations for a “Judeo-Christian” conglomeration under Jesus.

The dangers of the ‘nice’ missionary

Frankly, we have no defense against the “nice” and “kind” disposition of missionaries, which frequently masquerades as “respect.” The news is increasingly rife with incidents of anti-Semitism, acts of violence, efforts at financial sanctions, international and academic condemnation, and social and media demonization of Jews and Israel.

But those whose “non-violent” mission is to draw our souls away from our Torah and heritage are deemed to be our friends. Oddly enough, some perceive these evangelical overtures as being “philo-Semitic.” After all, they say wonderful things, they do nice stuff, they spend money on us, and lobby on our behalf. They love us. No group throughout our history has ever “loved” us for this long!

In Israel, missionary “nice” goes beyond financial, political, and moral support. Evangelical love permeates every facet of Israeli society, and quite often it’s free for the taking in the form of messianic concerts, tours, food, and interfaith religious, educational, and cultural events in a variety of languages.

And then there is missionary-sponsored emotional and financial support to the sick and suffering, Shabbat meals for lone soldiers, evangelical-sponsored Bible study in the Knesset, online lectures about the “fallacies” of Judaism and the “lies “our rabbis have told us, offers of alternative and simplified Jewish customs and traditions (Yeshua Jesus minus Christian symbolism, all wrapped in a tallit and given a Jewish name).

There is free legal advice on how “Messianics” can utilize loopholes in Israel’s Law of Return in order to obtain residency and citizenship. And with the backing and sponsorship of major evangelical organizations, missionaries are openly collaborating with Israeli governmental ministries and public service agencies on a variety of sensitive issues pertaining to the Jewish nature of the State of Israel. It’s all very nice.

A former missionary who became a Jew and now works as a Jewish educator told me:

“There is a new degree of sophistication employed today by the former standards of missionary approaches. Today’s missionaries are data-mining Jewish sources to substantiate their ‘proofs.’ The missionary message now to Jews is an appealing universal one. You can have the best of both worlds. You can marry a non-Jew, eat what you like, celebrate as you wish, be free of rabbinic influences for they are the agents of oppression. Keep in mind we are being presented with a made-over version of Christianity today, one that is repenting for the ills of the past and desiring to be the best of friends to Israel and the Jewish nation.”

The kind of psychological gymnastics and contortions that Israel goes through in order to not deal with the missionary threat is worthy of a very warped gold medal.

Psychological and psychosocial considerations

From a psychological and psychosocial standpoint, Christians who covertly or overtly missionize in Israel may be considered “fanatics.” The definition of a “fanatic” is one who has a rigid inability and/or unwillingness to question or reflect on their own motives and beliefs and actions without considering alternative possibilities.

It represents the psychological profile of “black and white” thinking about a single value. Here, a conviction that influencing, seducing, coercing or forcing others to believe in Jesus as the Messiah is “the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me in order to be saved” (John 14:6).

Missionaries are unable to consider any other interpretations of their own belief, certainly no acceptance of another’s beliefs.

The following statements represent typical responses to the issue of Christian missionaries in Israel and characterize many of the psychological and psychosocial issues presented below:

• “The Evangelicals are our best friends, don’t ask questions” (“don’t bite the hand that feeds you”).
• “When the Messiah comes, we’ll see what happens.”
• “Take the money – don’t convert.”
• “I’ll guard my soul; you guard yours.”
• “I’m secure in my faith. I am not going to convert.”
• “They owe us and I’m taking. They [the gentiles] can never repay us for the damage they’ve done.”
• “We have the same Bible, we pray to the same G-D, the only difference of opinion we have is over the Messiah.”
• “Without the support of Evangelical Christians, Israel would cease to exist.”
• “They [the evangelicals] are not just friends of Israel; they are Israel.”
• “They know how to give. We know how to take. It is strictly business.”

(Elisheva Horowitz)

So given all the above, what are some of the psychological and psychosocial reasons for Israelis to be oblivious to the potential threat of missionaries in our country? Let us examine a few:

The effects of exhaustion: Mental exhaustion and depletion lead to becoming emotionally drained and strained; there is no time or energy for such obscure things as “missionaries” who are largely unseen and if seen, considered friendly and harmless. Mental fatigue can trigger physical problems and include emotional symptoms such as worry and anxiety. Israelis have this in spades.

“We’re living 24/7 with existential threats to our existence and now I must worry about missionaries? Give me a break.”

Willful ignorance: People take part in willful ignorance because it is useful to them, and, at some level, they realize their beliefs are probably false, or they refuse to pay attention to information that is contrary to their beliefs. Most native Israelis have no knowledge of the history of missionary activity around the world nor of various evangelical missionary activities in Israel, nor do they seek it out. It is absent from the Israeli conversation and education curriculum. Most mainstream media do not support articles or coverage of this subject (primarily out of concern about upsetting evangelical readers, supporters, and advertisers, and pro-Israel political alliances).

Similarly, unlike Jews in the Diaspora, most Israelis have had little exposure to normative, non-missionizing Christians.

Self-deception: This happens when someone believes false things with absolute conviction; they use theories, personal needs, and prejudices to maintain their world view. Many people hold erroneous beliefs because others facilitate it.

Denial: This is a deliberate refusal to acknowledge that a fact exists, such as turning a blind eye to this discussion about missionizing in Israel. This allows one to avoid unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or events.

“How harmful can a few wack jobs be?”

“Meh. I just throw their stupid Jesus brochures away.”

Avoidance: This is the act of staying away from situations that cause difficult feelings and thoughts. “I don’t want to talk about it. It is not important. There are more important things to worry about.”

Self-interest: This is usually unconscious and automatic, a means of avoiding ethical or moral dilemmas and avoiding potential danger and harm. With accusatory anger:

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Evangelical Christians are our best friends!”

“You will damage support for Israel if you continue to criticize evangelical Christians!”

Arrogance: Characterized by overbearing attempts to coerce or force actions or opinions with little regard for another person’s beliefs or a group’s concerns. This includes threats or acts of legal remedies and lawsuits and the use of Israeli libel and slander laws to stifle publications.

“No one has tried to convert me.”

“If you’re secure in your identity, you shouldn’t have to worry about missionaries.”

“You are paranoid! You are seeing threats that don’t exist!”

Justification: A type of defensive intellectualization. Typically, the person makes an excuse for an action that one knows to be wrong or indefensible.

“I don’t see any signs of missionizing!”

“You’re making a mountain out of molehill.”

“Evangelical Christians are good people. They provide stuff that we don’t provide to our own people.”

“So, what if they end up converting a few Jews. They probably weren’t Jewish anyway according to halakha (Jewish law). That’s a small price to pay for their support.”

Controlling others: Some Israelis control the discourse about the intent and harm of missionaries. This is usually caused by their own internal conflict or anxiety about the subject. Thus, they demonstrate intimidation, blame, overbearingness, irrational anger, inducing of guilt, threats of lawsuit and other forms of aggressiveness meant to stop dialogue and cease debate and discourse.

“This is just an eschatological difference of opinion!”

“You are just anti-Christian! You are hateful!”

Religiosity or delusional beliefs: Many Jewish political, social, communal and religious leaders, tied to the financial benefits and the adulation of missionaries demonstrate a higher-than-normal degree of self-esteem and self-righteousness about evangelical support. In attempts to justify their position they have created a personal “prophetic-like” faith and belief with the historic and theological path they believe the world is taking now. This is a non-textbook form of delusion, a blend of quasi-Jewish and Christian eschatological beliefs, fueled by an evangelical “love” that attempts to frantically piece together current events and the arc of history culminating in some type of momentous “end days” revelation.

This is akin to the oft discussed “Jerusalem Syndrome” or, if you will, a “Missionary Syndrome” – a fervency beyond all reason. This urgency to direct and decode history is not to be confused with the principles of Jewish belief in redemption and of the coming of the Messiah, and of the grounded, healthy, and creative efforts associated with this hope.

Cowardice: This is a trait where excessive fear prevents someone from taking a risk or facing danger. These people lack the courage to support their convictions, to uphold what they know is morally right. Does this describe those leaders or rabbis who are aware of the missionizing of Jews and efforts to convert them to a belief in Jesus but fail to take courageous action to speak out and act?

“This is not a problem. It doesn’t exist.”

Grandiosity: This delusional belief leads some to see themselves as some form of modern end-days prophet. This is analogous to the Biblical Moses leading the children of Israel to Sinai; they are leading modern day Jews to the political Sinai. Grandiosity is typified by a belief of greater intelligence and talent than others, a failure to understand that their actions could inflict hurt.

Hypocrisy: This involves claiming to have beliefs or moral standards but not exhibiting them oneself. Hypocrisy allows people to avoid personal responsibility or to attain control over a situation without taking responsibility.

“Stop this counter-missionary activity! We need their financial and political support!”

Philo-Semitism: This is a disproportion focus on Jews, usually an elevated view of Jewish stereotypes and an overly simplified view of Jewish history and accomplishments.

An aspect of this is a failure to understand the cycles of history, where philo-Semitism (love of Jews) is followed by the hatred and persecution of Jews.

“At worst, given the right impetus, the coin of philosemitic antisemitism can easily be flipped, and all those formerly positive stereotypes can be weaponized against Jews,” notes journalist Yair Rosenberg.

The American Jewish Committee notes:

“Christian Evangelical Zionism can also be a problematic form of philosemitism. While Christian Zionists strongly support the Jewish state, a small number are pre-millennial dispensationalists, meaning they only support bringing Jews to Israel because they believe it will bring about the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus. This treats Jews as a means to an end and also a target for conversion. It can even set the stage for scapegoating the Jews when the Rapture doesn’t come as expected.”

As Professor Richard Landes notes: “For every major outbreak of Christian exterminations hatred in European history, if you look before it, you’re likely to find a period of philo-Judaism.”

Going forward

Of course, the State of Israel benefits from the political and financial support offered by pro-Israel Christians. Many community leaders, businesses, tour guides, religious leaders and social service organizations are reliant upon evangelical financing and involvement. Evangelical political support has been instrumental for Israel in many arenas. But we know there is a theological agenda behind this support. The necessity for alliances must never cause us to compromise our integrity, our land, our people or our beliefs.

Perhaps we are desperate to hang onto good friends after the seeming abandonment of Diaspora Jewry (or perhaps vice versa?). The unfortunate wavering support for Israel of the six million Jews in America who are now largely focused on charitable and social activities in the Diaspora pales in comparison to the resolute and enthusiastic financial, political support and power of 60 to 70 million Evangelical Christians.

How do we distinguish between the constructive support of pro-Israel Christians and that of missionaries who are actively laying the groundwork and influencing Jews towards a belief in Jesus? I and others have come under severe criticism from other Israelis for even suggesting that some of this support is tainted with ulterior motives.

A simple acknowledgement and acceptance of the complexity of Christian support might allow for reasoned discourse. Yes, there are tangible benefits in Israel to evangelical support, but there’s also an abundance of negative consequences. Let us acknowledge, for all our Jewish vaunted cognitive capacity for complex nuancing of ideas, values and ethics, that we are lacking the ability to hold in our collective discourse the dichotomies of “nice” and “not nice,” “kind” and “dangerous,” “giving” and “taking,” “pleasant” and “fanatical” in the same breath.

Missionizing does not come under the rubric of “the marketplace of ideas” when designed to target vulnerable people and populations seductively and deceptively in Israel.

Missionizing is a predatory act.

It is time for a “Declaration Against Missionizing in Israel” supported by Israeli and Diaspora leaders, as well as non-missionizing Christian groups. Such an effort should be fashioned into effective and enforceable legislation. The integrity of the land of Israel and its identity as a Jewish state requires it.

Donald Zev Uslan is medical and rehabilitation psychotherapist from the University of Washington, now in practice in Jerusalem. His specialty over a 45-year career has been working with individuals and groups with complex chronic illnesses, most of whom had been psychologically, physically, or sexually abused in childhood.

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Every patient’s worst nightmare: Private and incredibly personal patient case files belonging to a now-deceased psychologist were dumped in full on the streets of Ramat Gan, ILTV reports.

The post WATCH: Psych patients’ personal files found by the roadside in Tel Aviv suburb appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli neuroscientist Moran Cerf’s astounding dream insights can help us change thinking, improve performance and be entertained during sleep.

By Abigail Klein Leichman, ISRAEL21c

Back in 2010, a chef in New York had a recurring dream about a fantastic new recipe. But he never remembered all the details when he woke up. He contacted Israeli neuroscientist Moran Cerf and asked if it was possible to record his food dream.

At the time, Cerf wasn’t able to help. Today he probably could retrieve that dreamy recipe.

“For the first time, we can actually look inside your dreams and decode the content,” says the associate professor of business and neuroscience at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Chicago.

Cerf studies how thoughts get into the brain, how the brain encodes the incoming information, and how dreams and memories can be altered by “speaking to your brain behind your back.”

This is not science fiction.

The commercial applications of Cerf’s dream insights are already in development for anything from changing negative behaviors to enabling ultimate VR experiences.

“The coolest thing we can do is inject ideas into your dreams, using sleep as a commodity. We can look at what’s going on in your brain, interact with your mind at certain stages of sleep, and change things in your brain that will make this one-third of your life something we can use,” says Cerf.

“Of course, it can be used for good or bad. For good, [this capability] can change behaviors, make you consider different thoughts, be more creative. The bad is you can wake up wanting a Pepsi.”

Hollywood movies in your dreams

Most of the companies working with Cerf aim to create useful consumer goods that would, for example, improve your sleep quality or your test scores. The first such products may be on the market in the next two years, he estimates.

Thinking more futuristically, Cerf’s research has Hollywood dreaming up new kinds of entertainment.

“When you watch a VR movie wearing goggles, in the back of your mind you know it is not true. If you see a dinosaur you can do something about it. In dreams, dinosaurs feel as real as they get,” says Cerf. “Hollywood thinks about creating movies for you in your dreams so you can go to sleep and have an ultimate VR dream by Spielberg.”

Dating websites are intrigued by the possibility of offering couples a way to keep dreaming about a good date after they have both gone home and fallen asleep.

“There is a lot of business interest,” says Cerf. “Everyone wants to be the first to own the world of dreams.”

How Cerf knows what you’re dreaming

Cerf, 41, is one of a handful of scientists who have picked up the ball on dream research where Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung left it in the early 1900s.

He’s carrying that ball far beyond any boundaries those psychologists could have imagined.

“Everyone is fascinated with dreams. We think that they mean a lot. The Bible is full of dreams; cavemen did drawings of dreams. But we have had very few advances over the dream studies done by Freud and Jung,” Cerf tells ISRAEL21c.

“They did a good job mapping dreams and asking questions about dreams and trying to tie dreams to behaviors. But Freud didn’t know that the dream narrative you give when you wake up is colored by the language of being awake, and you might be totally wrong about what your dream was. You put interpretations on it.”

Over the past decade, neuroscientists gained the ability to look at your brain while you’re dreaming, extract content and see how the dream differs from the story you tell about it.

Cerf’s lab is one of only a handful in the world that study human brains from the inside. His subjects are patients undergoing brain surgery for medical reasons who agree to have electrodes implanted during the surgery.

Via these electrodes, scientists like Cerf can eavesdrop on individual cells during any passive or active activity including thinking, talking and sleeping.

“If you wake up and forget your dream, we can say, ‘This is what you dreamed last night; what does it mean to you?’ We can actually access this thing. We’re not stuck anymore,” says Cerf, who was on the 2016 Poets&Quants list of America’s best 40 business professors under 40.

Storyteller, serial inventor

Dreams are only one of the many neuroscience areas Cerf is illuminating.

Cerf studies the brain science of free will, decision-making, memory storage, and attention engagement.

Raised in Tel Aviv, he has a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s in philosophy from Tel Aviv University, and a doctorate in neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

A storytelling champion and a serial inventor, he has served as a consultant for TV shows including “Mr. Robot,” “Falling Water” and “Limitless.” He teaches an annual American Film Institute screenwriting class on science in films.

Cerf has advised companies including Red Bull, Hershey and Tinder. He travels the world as a visiting professor and lectures in front of TED, TEDx, PopTech, DLD and Talks at Google audiences. He’s written numerous articles and is a frequent radio and TV interviewee.

Moran Cerf’s 4 surprising facts about dreams

1. The story we tell about the dreams we remember may be totally made up by our brain when we wake up and not at all true.

2. People in the 1930s described their dreams in black and white. Only when movies started having colors did people start thinking that their dreams (which they thought of as “movies in their mind”) were in color.

3. We can now not only loosely parse the content of your dreams but also “shape” — to an extent — the content of your dreams.

4. We can change your behavior (make you like things, not like things, remove traumatic memories, etc.) while you sleep.

4 ways dream manipulation can change your mind

1. Erase trauma
2. Strengthen memories of things you learned during the day
3. Remove racial biases
4. Eliminate some cravings and desires (such as smoking)

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Want to appear professional at work? Don’t use emojis in emails, Israeli scientists say. 

A joint study conducted by researchers from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the University of Amsterdam has found that using emojis in work-related emails, although perceived as a friendly gesture by the sender, actually conveys incompetence to the recipient.

“Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence,” explained Dr. Ella Glikson, a post-doctorate fellow at BGU’s Department of Management in the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management.

“In formal business emails, a smiley is not a smile,” Glikson said.

The study, “The Dark Side of a Smiley,” was published July 31 in the Social Psychological and Personality Science journal.

The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research funded the study, which involved 549 participants from 29 countries. Experiments included evaluations of competence and warmth of an unknown email sender who utilized emojis in work-related messages.

“When the participants were asked to respond to emails on formal matters, their answers were more detailed and they included more content-related information when the email did not include a smiley,” said Glikson.

The identity and gender of the sender was anonymous in the study, but recipients were more likely to assume the sender was female if a “smiley” was used.

By: JNS.org

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