Doctor of cognition and neuroscience, Gerald Epling, discussed his work on phenomenal bio-communication which measures and records the energy responses to plants in various conditions as well as responses of one life form to another. "We don't know why it happens," Epling marveled, "but we do have evidence that it happens on a quantum level." He explained that, according to biophysiological research, plants have been shown to respond to a person's thoughts as well as positive and negative actions towards it. While Epling theorized that plants possess "some kind of an emotional system," whether or not they can feel pain remains a mystery.

Over the course of the evening, Epling also detailed his research into memory and the human brain. He noted that, since human sight is actually a delayed response, "what you're really working with, in your brain, is a memory rather than real time." Epling credited attentiveness, an exciting experience while being in a good mood, and the ability to understand an event and put it in proper context as key components to creating a strong memory. He also blamed nutritional deficits and distraction for why some people seem to lack the ability to remember well. Although this may sound detrimental, he observed that people with strong memory skills tend to have difficult friendships, since they remember "every problem and every slight."

Regarding the elimination of bad memories, he acknowledged that there are a handful of methods currently being used by therapists, but was skeptical that "you ever fully erase it." One process, he said, involves having a patient "review the memory and then change the memory as it's happening." That said, Epling expressed dissatisfaction with that specific treatment because it eschews the reality of the experience. Therefore, he suggested an alternative method where the patient and therapist jointly observe the memory from a psychological distance. By adopting this detached perspective, he mused, "eventually, the memory will lose its power over you."

Kepler Troubles

In the first hour, space historian Robert Zimmerman talked about recent troubles facing the Kepler telescope as well as other space news. Despite NASA's suggestions that the telescope's mission could be salvaged, Zimmerman lamented that it is "really unlikely they'll be able to save this." Despite Kepler's primary mission potentially ending, Zimmerman pointed out that it has identified roughly 2,700 potential Earth-like planets, but the sheer volume of such candidates has resulted in only 132 being confirmed by other telescopes. Therefore, he declared that "there is potentially, in the archives of Kepler, a gigantic mother lode of discovery" which could be revealed over the next decade as the data is studied.

News segment guests: Dr. Leonard Coldwell & Peter Davenport

Tennessee Crop Circle

While the mysterious crop circle phenomenon is commonly associated with England, a handful of cases occur in the United States each year. This crop circle, discovered in northeastern Tennessee on May 13th, appears to be the first American case of 2013 and is said to resemble a pair of half moons that connect via a line embossed into the field. Eerily, signs of a human presence, such as footprints or vehicle marks, were nowhere to be found near the creation. More on the story atOpenMinds.tv.

In the first half, internationally recognized expert in the fields of communication and relationships, John Gray PhD., discussed innate differences between men and women as related to workplace problems. A survey of 100,000 men and women in the workplace found a number of "blind spots," in which the sexes were unaware of how each other saw things differently. For example, because women often wait to be invited to offer their opinion, while men toss their ideas out, a man assumes that the woman has nothing to say, he reported. But "the truth is, she has a lot to say, and it will always bring in another point of view because women quite often do see the world in a different way," he continued.

If we can expand the awareness of what goes on inside men and women in the workplace, situations can improve, Gray suggested. Women often misinterpret things that men say to them, and feel as if it's a personal slight or something intentionally against them, which increases their stress level, he remarked. Women's stress levels run twice as high as men in the workplace, and 400% higher than men when they get home, which has led to decreased levels of happiness in women over the years, he cited. Gray also talked about how depression and stress affect men and women differently-- men feel a lack of motivation, while women feel a lack of happiness. Instead of taking antidepressants, he suggested the use of natural supplements such as lithium orotate.

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In the latter half, founder of the Palmistry Institute, Vernon Mahabal, predicted trends for the United States based on the repeated patterns he sees in the thousands of palms he reads, as well as through his understanding of Indian astrological cycles. We entered into the Dasa (Mars) period in 2008, a bellicose seven-year cycle filled with unsettling crises, in which people are reliant on their the wits and intuition, he detailed. In early 2015, we'll go into the Rahu period, he said, an 18 year cycle that will bring in many changes. He foresees Americans slowly moving into a more agrarian situation, in a community-based economy. "I see mass migrations of people," but instead of people moving to where their job is, they'll move to where they feel comfortable.

In the Rahu cycle (2015-2033), Americans will become more grounded, and feel more responsibility to their provinces or communities than to their states. In fact, in about 5 years, en masse, "people will practically ignore the government," and because of this disinterest government will mostly fall apart in about 10 years, Mahabal predicted. As the spirit of the community becomes stronger, competitiveness and aggressiveness will be funneled into shared projects, he suggested. In about 10 years, 1/4 of the population will have something directly do with farming, but in contrast to the agrarian society of 100 years ago, there'll be technology mixed in to produce high yields of nutritive and high quality foods, he outlined.

News guests: Jeffrey Smith, Katherine Albrecht, Lauren Weinstein

Ancient Pyramid Bulldozed

An ancient Mayan pyramid in the Central American country of Belize has been bulldozed to make road fill. Local archaeologist John Morris told 7News Belize that he was appalled by this "incredible display of ignorance." The pyramid had stood for 2,300 years and at one time was at the center of a settlement of about 40,000 people. More at CNN.