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"New truths go through three stages. First they are ridiculed, second they are violently opposed, and then, finally, they are accepted as self-evident." --Arthur Schopenhauer A VERY BRIEF BIOGRAHICAL RESEARCH NOTE
Dr. Joseph began his scholarly studies as a boy and first began conducting scientific research when he was still a teenager in high school and later was given laboratory space, equipment, funding, and animals, to conduct his own studies by the powers-that-be, even though he had not yet earned an advanced degree. Joseph graduated in the top 3% of his class, and with a GPA of 3.83.
Dr. Joseph obtained his Ph.D. from UHS/The Chicago Medical School, and completed his training at the VAMC/Yale University Medical School Seizure Unit, Department of Neurology, Neuropsychology Section. Joseph completed the Ph.D. program, including his Ph.D. dissertation in two years, and by graduation had more scientific publications than most of the faculty.
Dr. Joseph's first scientific monograph, The Neuropsychology of Development, was published in 1982 and generated world wide attention, and was translated and published by foreign scientific journals and reprinted by numerous universities and medical schools including Harvard.
Dr. Joseph pioneered research on early environmental influences on the brain and behavior, and demonstrated conclusively, the profound effects of the environment and/or hormonal influences on learning, memory, intelligence, perception, arousal, attention, sex differences, and the developing brain. Indeed, until Dr. Joseph proved otherwise, the vast majority of scientists dismissed the role of early experience as a factor in intellectual development and learning and memory, claiming instead, for example, that subjects reared under deprived conditions make more errors on problem solving tasks because they are "more exploratory."
Dr. Joseph demonstrated that rather than "more exploratory" deprived animals were "less exploratory" and more impulsive and had significant difficulty inhibiting irrelevant and self-destructive behavior. Dr. Joseph demonstrated that not only did these animals have significant learning deficits, but once a task was learned, they immediately began forgetting, such that learning as well as short term and long term memory were profoundly effected by deprived rearing conditons. Until Dr. Joseph demonstated otherwise, scientists, as well as the media, and professional women describing themselves as "radical feminists" argued that there were no sex differences in thinking and behavior, and that what some claimed to be sex differences were "sexist stereotypes." Dr. Joseph demonstrated that the same exact sex differences can be found in other species, that these sex differences are due to the presence or absence of hormones such as testostereone during the critical period of brain differentiation, and that when females and males are reared in an enriched or deprived environment, that males continued to outperform females on spatial measures of cognition, such as maze learning.
Hence, by the close of the 1970s, and before he had obtained an advanced degree, Joseph had demonstrated conclusively that enriched rearing conditions significantly improve learning, memory, and intellectual functioning; and that sex differences in learning, are maintained regardless of rearing experiences and are neurologically and hormonally based (Joseph, 1979, Joseph & Gallagher, 1980; Joseph et al., 1978). Moreover, Dr. Joseph was among the first to demonstrate neural plasticity in the primate brain, and was the first to demonstrate that atrophied primate brain cells could be functionally regenerated and could regain lost perceptual and functional capabilities (Joseph & Casagrande, 1978, 1980; Casagrande & Joseph, 1978, 1980); and in the 1990s discovered that mammalian brain cells continue to be generated during adulthood and have the capacity to divide (Joseph, 1998abc).
Dr. Joseph is one of the founders of the field of human developmental neuropsychology, and in 1982, he published a neurological and developmental theory of cognition, emotion, memory, and language that has been experimentally verified and widely adopted. In his 1982 monograph, featured on the cover of the Journal of Clinical Psychology, he presented a comprehensive new theory on the neurological organization and development of language, and introduced the concept of "limbic language," and throughout the 1980s provided experimental support for his convergence-gap filling language axis theory of speech, and which has now been repeatedy experimentally verified and which numerous scientists now champion as their own.
 In his 1982 monograph, Dr. Joseph also detailed the role of neural networks in human emotion, memory, and cognition. He was the first to detail the role of the limbic system, including the amygdala, in human language, personality, and the development of emotional disturbances (e.g., Joseph, 1982, 1990, 1992). Moreover, in his 1982, 1986, and 1988 monographs, Dr. Joseph detailed the neurological foundations for "confabulation" and self-deception. He was the first to detail how false memories may be generated to fill in gaps in memory. In the 1980s, Dr. Joseph also published a number of studies on "split-brain" functioning in adults and children, demonstrating, experimentally, the presence of two independent mental realms, localized side by side in the right and left hemisphere. In his studies on split-brain adults, Joseph provided compelling evidence that the right and left hemisphere can independently maintain a separate stream of consciousness, and each may have its own unique likes and dislikes in matters of food, friends, TV-shows, and even clothing. In his published studies on split-brain (dual mental) functioning in children, Dr. Joseph demonstrated that young children in some respects function as if the right and left hemisphere are partially disconnected (a function, in part, of corpus callosum immaturity) and that information and memories maintained within the right hemisphere cannot always be completely transferred to the language dominant half of the brain which thus remains "unconscious" of these impulses and knowledge sources. Dr. Joseph has published monographs and chapters detailing the functional neuroanatomy of the mind and brain, including the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes, the brainstem, basal ganglia, cerebellum, and limbic system, as well as chapters and monographs on stroke, neoplasm, cranial and cerebral trauma, and human brain evolution and development. Dr. Joseph has also conducted extensive studies in neuropsychiatry, and in addition to his two best selling textbooks on the subject, he served on the California Superior Courts Panel of Forensic Experts. Dr. Joseph was court appointed to over 500 criminal cases and repeatedly testified in major the court trials. Based on research he initially conducted before he obtained an advanced degree, Dr. Joseph obtained findings which were not comptabible with Darwin's theory of random variations. In fact, Joseph never accepted Darwin's theory of evolution or the theory of the "big bang" or organic soup. In the 1970s he proposed instead that the environment acts on gene selection to activate silent, non-activated genetically incoded traits. He also argued that life must have arrived contained in interplanetary debris.
In 1997, Dr. Joseph introduced a new astrobiological theory as to the origin and metamorphosis of life on this planet, and in 2000 he published his revolutionary, ground breaking book, "Astrobiology, the Origin of Life, and the Death of Darwinism" --a text which sent shock waves through the scientific establishment. In this text, Joseph challenged prevailing scientific dogma, including the theory of the "big bang," Darwin's theory of evolution, and the mystical notion of the organic soup:
"The likelihood of life emerging from an organic soup is the equivalent of discovering a computer on Jupiter and then claiming it was randomly assembled in the methane sea."
"If life were to suddenly appear on a desert island, we would assume it washed to shore, or fell from the sky. The Earth, too, is an island, swirling in an ocean of space, and cosmic debris has been washing ashore since the creation... Cosmic collisions are commonplace, not only between planets and meteors, but entire galaxies... and life has been repeatedly tossed into the abyss... only to land on other planets. The genetic seeds of life swarm throughout the cosmos, and some of these "genetic seeds" fell to earth, encased in the cosmic debris which pounded the planet for the first 700 million years after the creation. And, these genetic seeds, the DNA of these myriad life forms, these cosmic wonderers, contained the genetic instructions for the metamorphosis of all life, including woman and man."
Indeed, just as DNA contains the genetic instructions for the creation of an
embryo, neonate, child, and adult, and just as modern day microbes contain
"human genes" which have contributed to the evolution of the human
genome, these "seeds," these living creatures, contained the
DNA-instructions for the metamorphosis of all life, including woman and
man.
DNA acts to purposefully modify the environment, which acts on gene
selection, so as to fulfill specific genetic goals: the dispersal and activation of
silent DNA and the replication of life forms that long ago lived on other
planets.
Portions of his theory as to the origin of life on Earth was presented almost verbatim by ABC news and ABC Nightline in a 10 minute segment which aired 1997. In addition, portions of his work on the neurological foundations of spiritual experience were noted and quoted in Time Magazine's 1997 special issue on spirituality. In addition a major monograph on the evolution of language, non-verbal thinking, and sexuality was published in the January 2000 issue of the Archives of Sexual Behavior, another monograph on fetal brain and cognitive development recently appeared in Developmental Review, and his monograph on the evolution and neurology of religious experience was published in the Journal of Religion & Science, Zygon, in March of 2001.
In 2002, and in addition to his ongoing reasearch and scholarly activities, Joseph began working on his first feature-documentary film, "Hitler's Diaries, Starring Adolf Hitler: The Rise & Fall of Adolf Hitler," the first edition of which was released in mid September, 2003. CBS/KPIX "Hitler's Diaries" has been shown on Educational, Cable, and PBS television stations. Dr. Joseph, and Haiyan Wu, an award winning director, producer, and reporter, from China Central TV, have just completed a 77 minute documentary feature film, "Rape of Nanking - Nightmare in Nanking." Previews of this film have been shown to standing-room-only crowds, and over 50 articles have been written about this film in the Chinese and Chinese-American media. -"The whole world should see this movie!" Editor, Sina.com Dr. Joseph has also been an invited guest or has been interviewed by local stations, such as FOX-KTVU, NBC-KNTV, ABC-KGO, CBS-KPIX, MSNBC, KTSF, China-CrossTalkand Court TV--Dr. Joseph served from 1988 to 1999 on the California Superior Court's Panel of Forensic Experts and was Court appointed to 500 criminal cases. Dr. Joseph (and his staff) also performed complex psychological evaluations for the California and United States Depts. of Disability, who referred over 1,500 patients to his clinic: the NeuroBehavioral Center, Brain Research Laboratory.
More recently Dr. Joseph has published a ground-breaking work on the effects of emotional stress on the brain, memory, and childhood amnesia, which has just appeared in the journal, Consciousness and Emotion. Dr. Joseph reports that whereas, on average, most adults cannot recall childhood memories formed before age 3.5, that most adults with a history of severe and repetitive childhood abuse cannot recall childhood memories formed (on average) before age 6. He also determined that the amygdala, hippocampus, and right hemisphere are significantly effected by severe and repetitive childhood emotional trauma. Currently Dr. Joseph is again conducting research in the field of astrobiology, evolution, and the origins of Earthly Life, and has created a highly acclaimed documentary series detailing his theories which were first published in 1997. In the summer of 2009, he hopes to publish his magnum opus: Life on Earth Came From Other Planets.
Dr. Joseph is single and is not married. "On rare occasions, I have been asked about my sexual orientation. What's my orientation to sex? I am in favor of it." Although he has certainly had his wild times, Joseph lives the life of a scholar and scientist who sometimes runs with the wolves. He is an artist, musician, has written screenplays, and has authored short stories and books under other names, co-wrote a highly successful off-Broadway play, and has When he is not working, Dr. Joseph spends a considerable amount of time walking in the mountains, in the woods, and near the sea...thinking. Always thinking.
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