physics blog

energy medicine and energy fields

2006-12-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

Acupuncture as effective energy medicine

Would any of us be here now if we did not believe in acupuncture as effective energy medicine? Acupuncture is perhaps the original "energy" medicine. With each treatment I receive I am continually amazed at acupuncture's strength and power in assisting one's own healing process. Acupuncture has the power to tonify, sedate, strengthen, purge, clear, renew, and refresh, amongst many additional processes.

Kirlian photography
Kirlian photography is just another example to me of our energy fields. We all radiate subtle energy fields whether or not we are aware of them. Kirlian developed a way to photograph one's aura, a method which may seem simply to "prove" the concept exists and can be captured. However, when one develops his or her psychic abilities or plays with energy and their own personal spatial field, one can see how they affect other beings simply through control of their own energy. Photos of these subtle bodies aren't necessary. It's similar to resonance and vibrations. We carry with us what we are creating ourselves and can match the vibration of others' or affect others with our actions.

Human intent as it affects health
I believe human intention has an extremely powerful effect on health. As our Qi Gong teacher reminds us, there are three focuses in Qi Gong, intention, breath, and posture. I've worked a lot with intention in my Qi Gong practice as well as in my life and seen the results. When we focus the mind and the will, we achieve the desired result. Human intention from the practitioner's perspective is also, I believe, crucial to the patient's own healing process. If we agree to another person's care, we trust they are working in their best ethic to care for us. If they are fully present and intentional with their actions, with each needle insertion, as the case may be for the acupuncturists, they can have dramatic affects on the patient's health. If they are not aware and conscious and intentional in the needling process, the treatment may not be nearly as effective as it's working with energy and energy responds to intelligence.
The intent can work in reversal too, as we can think ourselves sick. As Eckhart Tolle supports, "The power of now."

comments for week 12

2006-12-06T12:47:00.000-08:00

My computer is not letting me post a comment directly on the posting, so here goes! I just read Joy of the Day's posting for "I know I'm a living system because..." and I want to thank you for bringing up the emotional component! I completely neglected that aspect in my posting. Perhaps it is emotions that allow us to distinguish between living beings and living "objects" such as lettuce. Now, do all living beings have spirit too?

week 12!

2006-12-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a "living system" because...

I just last week had a discussion with a dear friend of mine over this exact topic of what criteria classify a being as living. The discussion ensued after I mentioned my ambiguous dietary ethics in that I do not eat animal flesh except for occasional fish. I was sharing how I prefer not to eat something that was killed (ahimsa: non-violence) just for my consumption purposes , and that somehow I made an exception with fish. I still haven't figured this one out yet myself and taken the transition fully away from my occasional wild seafood. My friend raised the question: “How do you know lettuce doesn't scream when it's harvested from the fields?...” and thus our talk continued over what is alive, anyway? I choose not to eat most meat based on the principle of ahimsa...however where do we draw the distinction over what's living and not living? What classifies something as a living system? Everything on the planet has a relationship with the sun at some point during its time here on Earth. Does that classify it as living? We all exchange Qi and atoms, so does that classify? I'm not so sure how I know when a being is living. I'm looking at the article in our assignment on it and I agree, “how do we know when the list is complete?” I consider myself to be a living system because I respire, perspire, transpire(!), take in energy from food and the sun, and defecate. Not all beings do this, for example that head of lettuce, and I still consider them to be living systems.

Biophysics and me

Biophysics seems to belong to all “categories” of science! Bio: life, physics: the science that deals with matter, energy, motion, and force. Biophysics: the science that deals with all of the above. Biophysics and me? Biophysics seems to be exploring all realms of life and even recognizing the relationship of life and “God,” and acknowledging the vast unknowns and uncertainties of the universe. (I appreciated the article on the “hunt for God particle...”) Biophysics also seems to have the most room for growth and interpretation within its “science,” whereas others are more exact and linear. The Eastern philosophy favoring Western minds such as those of many TCM students can, I think, relate to teachings of biophysics.

Can I synthesize East and West?

2006-11-22T12:10:00.000-08:00

After this course I wish I could say yes, I can synthesize East and West. The best I could do is say that we are an interconnected world and Eastern philosophies permeate the West and Western permeate the East. I think both are contributing to one another and building upon the other. I also want to acknowledge that notions of West and East is not an entire world view inclusion. East and West here is referring to Eastern philosophy of China and West to classical Western physicists. As one of the readings noted, "When physicists and Eastern mystics attempt to put their understanding into words they sound amazingly similar." Both Western and Eastern cultures have histories of human understanding. The largest difference, in my opinion, is time. In the West, I think we have largely discounted the Indigenous people's knowledge, leaving them out of the picture entirely and do not consider that when comparing "west" versus "east." Having said that, we are then looking at a culture that's hundreds of years old versus thousands. The philosophical understandings here in the West are beginning to resemble those of the East and many are inspired by the East. Eastern thought has had more time for knowledge accumulation. "For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory...[we must turn] to those kinds of epistemiological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted, when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence." Niehls Bohr, 1958.

E-Prime

2006-11-22T11:29:00.000-08:00

Grass is green compared to Grass registers as green to most human eyes.
In English Prime the user seems to take more responsibility for his or her words by acknowledging the differences amongst everyone and claiming what he or she perceives instead of declaring a blanket statement. E-Prime seems more conducive to non-violent communication than standard English as it allows space for clear, equal conversation and not blaming another for what they say. E-Prime does perhaps initially take more effort for the user than Standard English as it is not the commonly taught way of speaking. For example, I could have just now said E-Prime takes more effort than Standard English, period. That sentence appears to me to allow little room for conversation between two people instead of a debate that could lead to a sense of one person is right and the other is wrong.
I am reminded of elementary school grammar classes where children complete lessons in identifying "facts" versus "opinions" statements. A sentence like the grass is green would appear, and that would be declared as fact. The grass is green. The sky is blue. Many of us were probably taught to identify such statements as facts. I wonder how our culture would differ today if education included acknowledging our own personal observations instead of making assumptions such as the grass is green, when really, I may see the grass as green and my friend sees it as yellow.
In writing this posting I am reminded of the article on differences in English versus Chinese; how English speakers are conditioned to obey more rules when we speak than the Chinese, and, by extension, we are conditioned to obey many rules, to be subordinate to an abstract system. The author mentioned how the Western mind is not as free to express itself as the Chinese one: the abstract language system takes up human space, diminishes, and restricts the expressive spirit of the speaker. (English speakers being bound by formal obligations of he, she, it, present, past, future, etc., and Chinese speakers free of such changes). The English Prime, by including the space-time-personal relationship, seems to be creating fragments out of what some may see as absolutes as well as even more rules to obey in the language. While I see the benefits of E-Prime, do we want more rules with language? Are we conditioning ourselves to obey more rules that diminish our freedom of expression with words? Or perhaps are we, with E-Prime, moving more towards a community consciousness that includes the differences in opinion from person to person and allows for greater freedom of expression? Or, perhaps, are we increasingly fragmenting our language and writing-system and minimizing our chances of accumulating knowledge even further, whereas the Chinese meaning-based writing system maximizes the accumulation of knowledge from generation to generation?

Cogito ergo sum

2006-11-13T16:19:00.000-08:00

Descarte. Famous for, amongst many things, the title of this blog, cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. Thought exists. Consciousness exists. As we explored in last week's readings, consciousness and chaos share a relationship. I am glad that western science has moved beyond Cartesian "reductionism" (all phenomena would eventually be expalined by reducing them to the sum of their particles) with developments in the 20th and early 21st century in quantum mechanics and chaos theory. To say, for example, that most of the universe is dead, is, in my opinion, a dangerously egocentric and anthropocentric standpoint on life, as well as an example of Cartesian thought of the illusion that a separate individual self exists. I like what was noted in our readings in response to this, in the "new science's thinking" that "we are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves."
The Cartesian-Newtonian universe strongly differs from Eastern philosophy. Even when we look at the simple basic eastern though of Qi we see that there is not such thing as a separate self! We are constantly surrounded by and influenced by the currents of life-the river of every-flowing water.

Newton's three laws and me

2006-11-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

First law: Objects at rest remain at rest...ah, thanks for the permission, Newton! Shall we rest now?
...And objects in motion remain in motion in a straight line at constant velocity. A force must be applied to change the state of motion of an object. I do have times where I just cannot stop for it I do, my resting self will, you guessed it, remain at rest. The force applied to change the momentum of life may be as simple as Gravity pulling me down to sit. Other times it's gravity tugging on my eyelids to close or (bringing us to the 3rd law), another object whose force collides with me.

Second Law: The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass. F = ma I ride my bike to school. The force of my own movement, coming originally from the food and air I take in to build my qi, is equal to the mass of the collective unit-me, the bike, my schoolbag, times our acceleration. In other words, I accelerate down the street on my bike because of the inverse relationship of my Force and my mass.

Third Law: If two objects interact, say in a collision, the force exerted by object 1 on object 2 is matched by a force of exertion by object 2 on object 1 of the same size, but in opposite direction. m1v1 = m2v2
I am in motion on the dance floor. Another dancer intentionally collides with me, generating an improv dance between the two of us. This dancer wants to play hard and so do I. We begin leaning in to one another and pushing against the other. Our motion cancels each other out and we end up in one spot, as we are generating equal forces upon the other.

Our "energy efficient" culture

2006-11-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

First lawy of thermodynamics: Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. It merely changes shape. One could then say we are "energy efficient" because we are not generating or losing any energy. Reality, though, is that the by-product of most reactions is heat given off to the atmosphere. This plus the carbon, nitrogen, particulate matter, and volatile organic chemicals we generate by burning coal and oil leave us with the well known greenhouse effect. To say we are energy efficient is, in my opinion, accurate in only a very narrow scope of the equation.

Chaos Theory

2006-11-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

Ordered Chaos

Sounds very familiar. Our lives are created from ordered chaos. Entropy gives rise to order gives rise to entropy...and within it we co-exist. As one of the articles from our readings noted: “There are two forces in the universe that govern the creation and dissolution of order and disorder...autopoiesis and entropy...Both forces enhance relationality and stave off the static.”

I see these two forces all the time within my own life. I attempt to maintain some structure and discipline with my daily schedule to stave off too much entropy and distraction. Sometimes it all falls away and the entropy sinks in and I just have to breathe and be with what arises. As I accept the entropy the easier it is for the order and attempted structure to return.

Fractals as patterns of complex systems

Fractals are irregular fragments. Fractal patterns are patterns of ordered chaos. Human activity arises from the fractal patterns. We are all connected-our activity all arises from the fractal patterns of existence. We can reflect this very vividly to one another simply in our existence from conception to birth to life to death. Chaos giving rise to order-cells put together in human form-and decaying back to chaos and immaterial substances with death.

Consciousness out of chaos

One author of our readings for the week posed one of the “fundamental questions in the study of the mind: the question of how our conscious mind integrates information distributed amongst billions of spatially separated neurons to generate the unity of conscious experience.” “The essential notion is that the whole cloth of consciousness is woven of a tightly knit patchwork of subprocesses, each made possible and supported on all sides by the totality of the cloth itself, while at the same time contributing its part to the creation of the totality.” Consciousness out of chaos reminds me of the creation of a mandala-temporary order of particles to be appreciated and meditated upon for a short while and then destroyed again; non-attachment, impermanence. We temporarily grasp information and make sense of it and then poof it's gone or stored in our cells somewhere, creating chaos again.

Energy and Qi. Vibrations.

2006-11-07T19:09:00.000-08:00

Hey all. Blogger wasn't working for me last time. Sorry for the delay in posting these!!

Energy and Qi...

This is the subject of my midterm paper. I will try not to overlap too much with my paper in this blog.

In my opinion, Qi and energy have many correlations and in some instances, but not all, can be synonymous with one another. To some physicists, Qi may be termed energy since Qi expresses the continuum of matter and energy as it is now understood in particle physics. Qi, as I understand it, is the basis of all phenomena of the universe and provides continuity between coarse, material forms and tenuous, rarefied, non-material energies. This concept of Qi does not exactly fit in to the Western duality of materialism and idealism. Qi is more complex than just calling it energy. Given that Qi is the basis of all phenomena of the universe, I'd say that what western physicists call energy can always also be called Qi. However, Qi cannot always also be called energy. To me Qi is more complex than simply calling it energy. It could be translated as life force, vital energy, vital force, material force, matter, ether, matter-energy, prana, ki, ji. I don't see energy as having the same implicit meanings. Qi manifests simultaneously on the psycho-spiritual level and the emotional level. It is in a constant state of flux and varying degrees of aggregation. When Qi is dispersed, it gives rise to more subtle forms of matter such as spirit, vapor, and steam. When Qi condenses, energy transforms and accumulates into physical shape. In the law of conservation, energy can be converted from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. In modern physics, all forms of energy exhibit mass and all mass is a form of energy. In the law of conservation energy and qi are synonymous with one another, the eastern concept or Qi fits the law. However, Qi does not necessarily have mass. (How can we determine the mass of Spirit?) Qi is more complex than simply calling it energy.

Vibrations

I don't know that we can call vibrations good or bad so much as simply a phenomena that exists and contributes to life on the planet. As we saw in this week's readings, vibrations contribute to earthquakes which can cause tsunamis or just freeways to collapse (the Dec. 26^th earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Indonesia, and the Nimitz freeway), matching vibrations can cause a poorly designed bridge to collapse (the Tacoma Narrows example), and vibrations of singing bowls and music can be used for sound healing to calm the nervous system, break up mental energies, and ground and balance energies. Judging these phenomena as good or bad is not for me to say. Yes, people do die in some of these instances, and that is as much a part of life as the earthquake that contributed to the death.

resonance

2006-10-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

“Resonance occurs when two interconnected objects share the same vibrational frequency. When one of the objects is vibrating, it forces the second object into vibrational motion. The result is a large vibration, and if a sound wave within the audible range of human hearing is produced, a loud sound is heard.” http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/sound/U11L4b.html

Resonance in my world often occurs in human form, where something someone says or does “resonates” with an experience or belief I have or have shared in my past. Like the tuning forks that begin vibrating at the same vibration as their equivalent tuning fork when that vibrating fork is held still, I have matched the vibration of certain experiences or conversations in my life that resonate with something within me. Stimulating conversation is a simple example of this phenomena. One person shares, their words resonate with the other, and conversation flows naturally back and forth as each person dives deeper in to what the conversation is bringing up for them. The quality of resonance is that the vibration, once again like the tuning forks, that one person is holding is sending the other into vibrational motion as well.

A personal example is that I receive an email from someone I do not know very well. Her words and way of sharing her story of what is going on for her at the moment remind me of a lot of what I have experienced and had not put in to words in the way she did so well in the letter. Her vibration sends me in to an equivalent vibrating motion that moves me to share my own experience and inquire more in to her thoughts. The dialog flows back and forth with enthusiasm and gusto as we continue resonating with one another in high vibrational motion. We gain deeper understanding of our own selves through the stimulation the dialog brings as we continue resonating with one another.

Like the opera singer who first taps the wineglass to find its natural frequency of vibration then sings the same note back to shatter it, we are tapping in to one another's natural frequency and sending similar responses back, not with the intent of shattering the other so much as enlivening the other.

My (a)symmetrical world

2006-10-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

I am finding more and more that, although there is asymmetry on one level in the Universe, of more matter than anti-matter (from CP Parity), we really live in a symmetrical world. Yin/yang theory can always be applied to the Universe at all levels ad infinitum. Yin and yang are a perfect example of symmetry-rotate a certain situation around and look at it from another perspective, and you can still find within it two relations.

physics and sacred geometry

2006-10-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry friends, my computer has shutdown three times on me as I type my blog. I will try again!

Yes, there is a connection between sacred geometry and physics. Sacred geometry predates physics. As we know, mandalas have been used for years in meditation to achieve higher states of consciousness. The I Ching and Ba Gua, mathematical divination systems, were created between 1st and 2nd millenia B.C. The symmetries in these designs correspond to several conservation laws of physics. In the 19th and 20th C., science began uncovering the correspondences between sacred geometry and science. The wisdom of physics has been here all along with us for millenia in sacred geometry. The attempt at phrasing it in modern day mathematical language just recently began. I personally am fascinated by it all-that Fibonacci developed the Golden Ratio and we can find this proportion in all of nature and can use it to build elaborate spirals found in nature. That fractals correspond with amazing organic shapes of infinite complexity that correspond to natural processes including how embryos develop. That the I-Ching's 64 hexes correspond to the 64-codon structure of human DNA. The world is so inextricably linked together!

CP Parity

2006-10-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

I guess the CP Parity really means that there is still uncertainty in the universe. Measuring the CP violation isn't easy-as one of the readings noted, CP-violation is a bit like waving to yourself a thousand times in the mirror, and just once catching your reflection waving back with the other hand. Why does the universe exist out of matter and not out of antimatter after the big bang? In CPT theory, where each of C, P, and T are symmetries of particle interactions, C, charge conjugation, represents replacing a particle by its antimatter counterpart. P, parity, corresponds to looking in a mirror which reverses all three coordinates; imagine a mirror in which your image is not only back-to-front, but also left-right swapped and upside-down. Finally, T is time reversal. Physicists once believed that any one of these symmetries applied to any particle interaction would not change the outcome; they said that the symmetries were conserved. But then experiments showed that in weak interactions, both P and C are broken. A little later, it turned out that the combination of C and P was also not conserved. It is this CP-violation that Sacharov said is necessary for a matter-antimatter imbalance to arise. http://lhcb-public.web.cern.ch/lhcb-public/html/symmetry.htm

The matter-antimatter imbalance is necessary as otherwise a mixed matter Universe would not last as long as the matter and anti-matter destroy each other. In sum, the imbalance is necessary and not easy to measure-another measure of uncertaintly.

theory of relativity, e=mcsquared

2006-10-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

I agree with David's response to this question, that there are two ways of looking at how the theory of relativity affects us. How does the problem of the knowledge of it affect me, and how does knowing the equation affect everyday life. With discovery of Einstein's theory we have seen nuclear technology grow to incredible proportions, putting thousands of people at risk of death with just one reaction. It has changed the way we view the very substance of our being. The equation, that matter is equivalent to energy, explains at once why the stars shine, why time travel is possible and how a single bomb can kill 130,000 people. That mass is converted to energy has affected all of us. I grapple with the philosophical debates on the equation and its implications for nuclear technology.

Week 4. How would you compare the four "forces?"

2006-10-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

FUNDAMENTAL FORCES

There are four fundamental forces within all atoms, that dictate interactions between individual particles, and the large-scale behavior of all matter throughout the Universe. They are the strong and weak nuclear forces the electromagnetic force and gravitation. http://www.geocities.com/angolano/Astronomy/FundamentalForces.html

How would I compare them? If I agree with the readings, I'd say that "it is strongly believed that three of them are manifestations of a single, more fundamental, interaction." The more fundamental interaction being some fundamental symmetries of nature. Gravity I'd have to leave out of the comparison since gravity attracts objects together, whereas the other forces generate a field which affects the behavior of distant objects. That leaves us with two very strong forces of large relative magnitude, both strong nuclear and electromagnetic forces, and then weak nuclear force, of considerably smaller relative magnitude.

"The weak nuclear force causes the radioactive decay of certain particular atomic nuclei. When confined within a stable (non-radioactive) atomic nucleus, a neutron is a stable, long-lived particle. Once removed from an atomic nucleus, a free neutron will undergo beta decay, typically in about twenty minutes. The reverse process of beta decay occurs in the collapsing cores of supernovae, where protons and neutrons are fused together to create the vast numbers of neutrons that populate the end product of the collapse - a neutron star.

The electromagnetic force determines the ways in which electrically charged particles interact with each other and also with magnetic fields. This force can be attractive or repulsive. Like charges (two positive or two negative charges) repel each other; unlike charges attract. The electromagnetic force controls the behavior of charged particles and plasmas (a plasma is a mixture of equal numbers of positive ions and negative electrons) as, for example, in solar prominences, coronal loops, flares, and other kinds of solar activity. The electromagnetic force also governs the emission and absorption of light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation.

The strong nuclear force binds together the protons and neutrons that comprise an atomic nucleus and prevents the mutual repulsion between positively charged protons from causing them to fly apart. The strong nuclear force interaction is the underlying source of the vast quantities of energy that are liberated by the nuclear reactions that power the stars." http://www.geocities.com/angolano/Astronomy/FundamentalForces.html

In my own words? I see that the latter three forces interact with tiny particles and create various reactions that contribute to the solar system we appreciate each night. We can mimic (and we have mimicked) these forces in the laboratory, giving us various nuclear reactions and Hydrogen fusion reactions.

Week 4. What is the function of gravity?

2006-10-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Gravity holds us here on earth! Gravity naturally attracts, giving us more strength with movement. Gravity also contributes to our aging process, over time pulling our skin and viscera downward along with it. Gravity gives us the tides, the changing of the seasons, day and night. Gravity allows creation and habitation to occur. Without gravity, how would we jump up and down with excitement, climb a mountain because it's there, pour a glass of water for ourselves, or lie down in bed? We wouldn't even have day/night distinction to mark time for us! We'd be a floating mass of people in space. Would we still be inclined to build homes and communities for ourselves?

"Gravitation is a force of attraction that acts between each and every particle in the Universe. It is always attractive, never repulsive. It pulls matter together, causes you to have a weight, apples to fall from trees, keeps the Moon in its orbit around the Earth, the planets confined in their orbits around the Sun, and binds together galaxies in clusters." http://www.geocities.com/angolano/Astronomy/FundamentalForces.html

Whew, thanks gravity!

week 3 synchronicity

2006-10-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Synchronicity:
John Wheeler wrote, "The old word observer simply has to be crossed off the books, and we must put in the new word participator...we've come to realize that the universe is a participatory universe." Thank you Mr Wheeler! Synchronistic events happen to us because we are participating in the universe. We are not inert masses of energy just observing phenomena affect us. We ourselves are affecting everything too. This even brings us back to the light particle observation phenomenon.
A friend thinks of me, and decides to call. I know if before picking up the phone. His thought wave of "call her" hit me faster than he could dial my number. This happens all of the time; as if our thought waves are meeting and relating before our physical bodies pick up on it, showing us what's to happen soon. We are all connected on all the planes-this physical one, the causal one, the astral one. Perhaps it's that some of us are more connected than others that we can see, feel, and realize these synchronistic events. We are open to them happening in our lives. As Professor David Bohm noted in a lecture, "All matter, including ourselve, is determined by "information." "Information" is what determines space and time." We could view the thoughts as information within the universe. Like the scarab beetle/golden scarab dream event, the sphinx experiment, and even the EPR paradox though experiment, the synchronistic events of our lives confirm to me our deep interrelated connection in the universe.

Connectivity:
"Bell's theorem implies that the apparently separate parts of the universe could be intimately connected at a deep and fundamental level. Bohm asserts that the most fundamental level is an unbroken wholeness which is, in his words, "that-which-is."" At the most fundamental level, we are all whole beings. Starting with the whole, we see that we have a whole universe made up of whole beings. As we see in our world today, we are not always working "together," however, we are indeed affecting everything around us. Was it Darwin who hypothesized the butterfly effect? The universe taken as a whole is happening altogether, all at once, full of life, breath, and being. In this dualistic world we whole beings may not be consciously "working together" but we are all part of the unbroken wholeness that is the universe. I would not explain connectivity by breaking things down in to their parts and showing how they work together, but rather do as Bohm suggests and start with the whole. The basis of Chinese Medicine, the yin/yang theory, taking the whole and showing its parts together in relationship, shows us connectivity. As does the Five Elements. The Greenhouse effect even shows us connectivity. We are constantly working in relationship to everything around us, affecting everything.

week 2 quantum mechanics

2006-09-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

Uncertainty:
I am grateful for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle flipping upsidedown the western world's understanding of Physics. "The Mystery of mysteries is the Door of all essence." -Tao Teh Ching. We are left with uncertainty. Did light become particles as a result of being observed, or were they always in partciles? We do not know. We do not need to know. The mystery is the Essence of life. Schrodinger's Cat explanation must have baffled the scientists!

Causality:
Are we interfering with particles by measuring them? Would they show up as particles to us if we were not observing? Are we causing them to be at effect by observing them?
Do we need to know?
No.
There could be cause and effect, there could be correlation.
It's uncertain.
And I do not want to know.

Is the Universe weird?
I had to seek out the second definition of Weird...

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1) - Cite This Source weird [weerd] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation adjective, -er, -est, noun
–adjective

1.	involving or suggesting the supernatural; unearthly or uncanny: a weird sound; weird lights.

2.	fantastic; bizarre: a weird getup.

3.	Archaic. concerned with or controlling fate or destiny.

–noun Chiefly Scot.

4.	fate; destiny.

5.	fate (def. 6).

—Synonyms 1. unnatural, preternatural. weird, eerie, unearthly, uncanny refer to that which is mysterious and apparently outside natural law. Weird refers to that which is suggestive of the fateful intervention of supernatural influences in human affairs: the weird adventures of a group lost in the jungle. Eerie refers to that which, by suggesting the ghostly, makes one's flesh creep: an eerie moaning from a deserted house. Unearthly refers to that which seems by its nature to belong to another world: an unearthly light that preceded the storm. Uncanny refers to that which is mysterious because of its apparent defiance of the laws established by experience: an uncanny ability to recall numbers.

—Antonyms 1. natural.

So, is the Universe bizarre, unearthly? And, is the Universe concerned with fate or destiny?
I do think the Universe is weird.
There are numerous ways of relating with the "Universe," such as: at cause, where life is seen as cause and effect; or, in co-creation, where one makes choices in life, as an embodied spirit. I have chosen the second, to be in co-creation of my life here. And I do see supernatural influences in human affairs, although I have not phrased it in that way before. As someone else mentioned, it manifests as the Flow of life. Spirits in alignment with the cosmos.

week 1 assignments

2006-09-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

Week 1 Assignments

Quiz Answers:
What attracts me to Chinese Medicine?
I am attracted to the gifts that Chinese Medicine offers of working with one's own energy, or Qi, to assist the healing process. I also appreciate the whole-patient oriented approach of TCM vs. Western techniques of treating the disease and not the person. Chinese Medicine has been cultivated for thousands of years—it's a time-tested tradition that works. Various TCM treatments (acupressure, acupuncture and herbs) have assisted my own healing so effectively that I want to continue offering this gift to the community.

What do I honestly think of Physics, really?
Honestly, I don't think about physics very much in my life. I know that physicists are interested in finding out how the world works. I am grateful for their curiosity and tenacity in experimenting and learning new languages (math) to explain various phenomena in the universe. Other than a high school physics class, I have not ventured in to the world of physics to view the world from that vantage point. I'm interested in understanding theories and philosophies of the world through physics.

Time "slowing down."
What is time? We have an objective time piece, a clock, to keep ticking the hours by for the sake of civil order. Yet individually our subjective experience of time differs from person to person, all the "time." Surely I have experienced time "slowing down," like when I watched a toddler fall from my hands and tumble down some stairs. Why is it that we can recall a 30 second long interval with such detail that it takes us longer to recap it than it did for the event to occur? Could we partially explain these instances where it seems to us as though time "slowed down" by seeing that we removed ourselves from the present moment and by jumping to the past or future instead of standing there in the present? As in, the toddler fell, and instead of me witnessing the experience, breathing, being, and accepting it happen, my mind jumps to entire scenarios that could result by her falling-broken limbs, blood, fear, psychological trauma and lack of trust now in holding a grown up's hand for protection, for example, all in a matter of seconds. So much happened in my mind in such a short flash, it's as if time "slowed down." I can recall several other instances in my life where I experienced time "slowing down," and not because I let my mind wander away from the present truth. A fellow student reminded me of my own experience in Asia when I fasted for two weeks, mostly in silence, spending my days in meditation, prayer, and walking. Objectively, time did not "slow down." I experienced the moments or days passing with such great awareness and presence that, upon emerging from the retreat, I felt as though years had passed by, not weeks. It was almost as if I transcended our time dimension here on earth and was living in some fourth demension, then descended from it "after some time," back to this reality where we live by days and weeks.

The Meaning of Time
I still ask, What is Time? Does understanding where the universe comes from give us additional information that will enhance our current experience of the present moment? If all we have is the present moment, do we need to understand the "Big Bang" or other various scientific hypotheses about the origins of the universe? As I think about all of this, I notice how much we in the West have separated science from ourselves, from us, the embodied spirits that we are, inextricably linked to this web of life that we create. Perhaps I am more interested in looking at the universe through a metaphysical branch of philosophy than just physical, where beliefs are not empirically verifiable. As Babaji reminds me, "the universe always works in perfect ways to serve my higher good." I cannot explain this through Physics and a physicist's explanation of the universe. The more I align myself with and open up to cosmic intelligence the more clearly I can see myself. What is this cosmic intelligence? Looking at readings from this past week, I also cannot explain it in terms of stars in the galaxy, black holes, and cosmological arrows, so much as an energy that exists in the universe that is bigger and vibrating higher than us that influences our existence here on earth. I don't believe in coincidences or "accidents." There is something bigger beyond what some of us just dismiss as "woops, an accident," or "what a coincidence!" My thoughts here are running in to the following class discussion on "synchronisities," so I will save some more for that class.
I am interested in seeing what information physical (as in based in physics) philosophy can contribute to me. There's a piece in black holes that I'm trying to figure out. Adding another second to atomic clocks to they stay in alignment with the Earth's rotation, however, baffles me. As does demoting Pluto from "planet" status. I guess it's all for the sake of scientific order, classification, and consistency.

Comments on Other Blogs:
I appreciate what another student said about M-time versus P-time: is that like interrupting flow? I can recall the natural ease I experienced with staying in the "Flow" during my time in Asia that was generally accepted amongst the people I encountered. Perhaps we were all just so open and accepting of each other's "flow" that they would merge and diverge in their own smooth way. I find the same here within my own communities. However, I do recognize that as a culture we do seem to structure our lives so as to not allow for the natural flow to unfold itself to us, especially with the creation of schedules!
Another student mentioned that "by coincidence, I was able to find a part time position as an administrative assistance in an acupuncture office." Was it coincidence? Or all part of the bigger picture of the choices made in life to end up where we are right now?

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2006-09-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

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