BIONICS AND OUR BIOPHYSICAL FUTURE

how would you rate "the control of artificial limbs by thought alone"?

as with all technological developments there is both the potential for constructive use as well as destructive. in my opinion we, as a society, have not exactly acted responsibly with our existing technology. i can point to many examples of "technological advancements" which have harmed more than helped: GMO food, fluoride in drinking water, DDT, and hysterectomies, not even mentioning bombs and weapons. i am certainly in favor of advancement, but in the service of humanity, not multi-national corporations. if technology surpasses wisdom we then may very well perish at the hands of our own creations. too often man becomes clever and not wise.

thought controlled artificial limbs would be a great idea to help some people, but i can also dream up a military scenario where the army experiments with the production of "robo-cop-soldier". and it wasn't even a good movie.

would you support the development of a "bionic" person?

well, picking up where i left off..........please see above statement.

thanks for a very interesting physics class. i enjoyed it.

chris

ENERGY MEDICINE AND ENERGY FIELDS

acupuncture as effective energy medicine:

this question for me is obvious: everything is energy: matter, material, thoughts emotions, etc. therefore acupuncture is "energy medicine', so is allopathic medicine for that matter. but acupuncture has an additional component because it works with subtle energy to effect change on the material plane. the idea of yin and yang is in itself the basis of acupuncture, and of course these forces are energy. the interesting part for me is that acupuncture works from the top down -- attempting to balance the subtle energies. allopathic medicine much of the time tries to effect change on the material level only -- thus it will meet with limited success in certain cases.

what conclusions can you draw from kirlian photography:

not sure exactly what conclusions i can draw definitively. but it is nice to see photographic proof of energy. indeed this is the only way some people will believe in anything slightly outside mainstream thinking. all objects have an energetic quality. kirlian photography captures an image of it. but in light of einstein most scientists do not need this photographic proof. again it might aid the uninitiated to have a picture to aid in greater understanding. until our understanding grows we will not comprehend the full implications of kirlian photography.

human intent as it affects health:

intent may be one of the greatest determinants of human health. on the other hand it may be virtually ineffective. i believe that our spiritual development and maturity are commensurate to our spiritual abilities. intent is spiritual. intent exists in the non-material realm of thought -- all thoughts are like prayers. if we have clear thoughts (intent) and give energy (emotions) to our thoughts, it can help manifest them faster. but it is quite appropriate that not all intent will be materialized -- woe to humanity if it did. at our currant development it is quite natural to have disjointed, destructive, and ambivalent thoughts that we may not be able to control. if we focus on positive, life affirming thoughts this will have a profoundly positive affect on our health.

BIOPHYSICS

i know i'm a "living system" because:

living systems are, in my opinion, a system of consciousness. and i have a degree of consciousness or i would not be writing this, or anything else. consciousness allows all things to be: people, animals, stones, plants, etc. from this point of view all things are living, meaning there is a degree of consciousness in everything. a rock would cease to be a rock without this degree of consciousness.

biophysics and me:

this is an interesting topic for me. all physical entities are governed by physical laws. biological systems are also governed by these same laws, but in a greater degree of complexity. and further, man as a whole is an extension of cosmic/metaphysical laws which include biophysics. i believe in the great descending chain of laws. as above, so below. metaphysical laws are not contradictory to physical or biophysical laws -- these are a natural fulfilment of metaphysical laws. some people point to so called "miracles" as evidence that physical laws are not fundamental, but this is unsatisfying to me. "miracles" are the result of a fulfilment of metaphysical laws with a visible or immediate effect on the physical plane -- Jesus said he came to fulfill the law.

SYNTHESIS

my e-prime day

in memory i believe the sun was shinning upon my bedroom curtain as i awoke. partaking of my breakfast musli registered a taste i would regard as pleasant that i so discerned the emotion of satisfaction upon eating it. my wife appeared happy and relaxed as she came out of the bedroom. attending to business for what i believe was an hour and thirty minutes, i think i perceived a bit of boredom with a discernible temptation for my mind to wonder. i think. i believe a red volkswagen passed me while i retrieved the mail and my skin registered sensations that i interpreted as cold. i proceeded to engage in what i believe is yoga stretching and noticed that in my opinion the body tends to relax after such an endeavor. after eating a lunch of lamb and vegetable soup it appeared as if i was full. i watched what i think is a movie on the television. feeling a condition of tiredness i took what i regard as a short nap. i woke up at what looked like dusk to my eyes and felt it would be a good idea to have a glass of wine. i chose a spanish rioja, but i usually choose bordeaux, because in my current state of preference, french wine tastes superior. from my point of view drinking alcohol in sufficient quantity produces all the effects inebriation (attributed to oscar wilde).

can i synthesize east and west?

i hope i can. this is one of the main reasons i am learning the art of acupuncture. synthesis is the new paradigm. purely western (or eastern) thinking is limited. a new model of the universe will be evolved from bridging the two. the two polarities (east and west) desperately need each other. it is a yin yang relationship and the real beauty is in synthesizing them. the world is already moving in this direction. can anyone deny that a global village is emerging?

CLASSICAL PHYSICS

newton's three laws and me:

by now these laws seem painfully obvious without the advent of quantum physics. they have been a gift and a curse to western development. we have many great things from the development of this rational culture, but to imagine that all things can be explained by newtonian/cartesian thinking will not serve us in the end.

our "energy (in)efficient" culture:

at this point our culture can be seen as anything but efficient. almost everyone owns a car - and drives to work - alone - in an SUV - fifty miles each way - i could go on of course. if anyone thinks this is a basis for rational living i would direct them to the movies "the end of suburbia". and "the corporation". half of the worlds resources are now controlled by less than 50 companies. this unfortunate occurrence has been sold to people all over the world as "globalism" - a good thing for all. one by product of this phenomenon is non local food being shipped all over the country so that a single multi-national company can supply 80% of the total food supply to consumers. not very efficient. further examples of inefficiency are obvious and too numerous to mention here.

descsrtes has a lot to answer for.

i would agree. his famous quote "i think therefore i am" is a fatal flaw in perception. it is mind masquerading as consciousness. he is associating who he is with what he thinks - this is the mind "tricking" the observer. who we are is never our thoughts. people usually imagine they are the last thought or emotion (condensed thought) they have felt or observed. ask a happy person who he is and he will probably say, "I am a happy guy", or someone sad at the moment will say he is a sad person. neither is correct. after all we have many different feelings and thoughts throughout our lives. think of the absurdity if we associated our identity with other feelings - hot and cold for example. one would not say "i am a hot person" just because he felt the sensation of heat at the moment. but our minds have become astute at tricking us into assuming an identity from certain emotions and thoughts we have.

COOL EXPERIMENTS

fun with flatware

the spoon experiment involved using it as a mirror from both the front and back. not very interesting and certainly produced a bit of a headache from trying to stare constantly into it. looking at it from the front i appear upside down and right side up from the opposite side. nothing exactly soul stirring.

now the fork experiment was a quite another matter -- very interesting. if one pings the tines of a fork they will sound - nothing miraculous yet. but if one touches the other end of the fork to an object it becomes a resonator and makes it noticeably louder. the experiment suggests using the table but you can go through the whole house using anything you see - glass wear, wine bottles, vases. i had good success with cabinets as they are hollow and produce more sound. who knew? this gives a whole new perspective on appropriate dinner manners.

the knife experiment left me flat, no pun. it involves using it as a mirror reflecting things like letters. made everything look distorted, but i was not quite in awe. go back to fun with the fork.

symbolic

CHAOS THEORY

"ordered chaos" does this sound familiar? or jumbo shrimp.

as a matter of fact it sounds like the west trying to impose order on something random. the western scientific mind has had trouble with this for centuries. by not acknowledging "chaos" one looses a potential for opportunity and growth. the west has a history of of emphasising one side of the yin yang duality thus rendering an incomplete and distorted view of reality. to the west growth is what is important, whether it be production, stock price, sports, etc. some economists are so entrenched that they refer to a fall as "negative growth."

fractals as patterns of complex systems:

complex to the point of infinity. it is not easy in this material world to contemplate the infinite, but fractals are a start. a snapshot of infinity. circles also come close, but all material attempts are ultimately in vain. the reason pi can not be solved into a whole number is because God refuses to be pinned down to just one thing. the allegory of the tower of babel elucidates the problems inherent in trying to find God in purely material forms - by building a tower to reach heaven. in the end all the workmen misunderstood each other and spoke a different language - still seems applicable in current exoteric religion.

consciousness out of chaos:

this is very similar to the alchemical view of "order out of chaos". all phenomena can be divided into order out of chaos: if one wants to organize (order) his house he usually moves things around, cleans under furniture, stirs up dust, and etc (chaos) to create a better order when finished. consciousness is an energy that allows all things to be - rocks, trees, fish, people, etc. it also allows conscious attention within our psyche. by no means is it "mind". mind is an aspect of consciousness, but consciousness is not an aspect of mind. consciousness is divine - the philosophers stone of the alchemists. it will transmute all that it encounters. try putting attention (consciousness) into a minor pain in the body , (headache, etc) for 5-10 minutes. if one can accept and observe the pain without judgement it begins to decrease and then disappears. consciousness comes out of chaos because it existed before chaos, it is an aspect of the All.

VIBRATIONS

are all vibrations "good"?

i'm glad the good is in quotes lest i spend hours trying to define it. in light of this, vibrations are neutral. vibrations are the defining element of all things. since the building blocks that make up my house. my computer, and myself are all made up of the same particles it is the vibration that defines our differences. a desk would cease to be a desk if it vibrated at a different rate. thus certain vibrations construct material and others destroy it. if one would like to imagine that destruction of matter is bad then some vibrations could be considered bad also.

resonance in my world:

this is an interesting idea for me. i have lately been observing what i term resonance on the emotional level. it appears that various emotions vibrate at different rates. i find that these vibrations have the characteristics of resonance. for example, if someone with an angry streak is in close proximity to someone who is angry at the moment the latent anger in the former resonates to it and the potential for it to become manifest becomes greater. this can easily be observed in witnessing an argument develop between two people. have you ever tried to argue with a person who is simply calm and happy? it wont last very long. the two emotions are not resonating. we see this resonance all the time -- laughter is contagious, smiles are traded on the street, etc.

connections i can make between energy and qi:

qi is energy. even in it's most subtle form it is at least "energy potential". it has a wave of yin and yang, it vibrates, it moves, etc. all the characteristics of qi can be explained in terms of the western idea of energy.

SYMMETRY AND SACRED GEOMETRY

my symmetrical world:

at first glance symmetry seems to be an impossibility. indeed it is from a purely aristotelian standpoint. someone in group discussion last night brought up karma in relation to balance and symmetry. i agree that karma is the way the universe balances energy to produce symmetry. life may look horribly unfair and imbalanced if looked at without prior knowledge of all past incarnations -- although admittedly not many have this information. but if i simply choose to look (empirically) at my current life circumstances, having no insight into possibly thousands of years of prior incarnations, it is akin to seeing maybe 20 seconds of an epic 3 hour movie and than believing i understand the plot, theme, character development, and all intricacies of that movie.

just what does this "cp violation" really mean?

i believe "cp violation" means that some particles may react "irrationally". especially as explained by measurements in the material dimension. again i do not think that this necessarily implies asymmetry -- but maybe a symmetry on a grander scale. like the karma example above there may be a bigger picture -- phenomena in another dimension may effect this dimension, but may not be accurately mensurable in this dimension. a neutral kaon may be the result of symmetrical balance within a bigger totality than just the dimension of matter and time.

are there connections between sacred geometry and physics?

i would say absolutely. sacred geometry is sacred because of it's universality. i believe ratios and proportions in the physical world are governed by symmetrical propensities -- snow flakes, crystals, organic life.

ENERGY MATTER AND THE FOUR FORCES

how has e=mc2 affected me:

well my life pretty much goes along all the while without much thought of it. however if there is one single equation in history to affect mankind, this is it. it changed the face of physics forever. it ushered in the nuclear age. it set the stage for other lines in physics to open. people of the twentieth century and beyond will be affected in ways they can hardly even imagine and this includes me as being a product of this culture.

how would you compare the four forces:

they seem to fit nicely together except for gravity. maybe because the other three are intimately linked to the charge of particles. the temptation to provide a unified theory for these energies is a bit like shooting rubber bands at the moon. again our yogi or esoteric practitioners can help us with this. we live in the plain of polarity. everything has it's opposite, all truths are half truths. but as we learn from meditation, which i believe transfers our consciousness to the next plain up, opposites become reconciled, the sexes begin to merge, and we experience a more unified expression of energy. i believe this is the only way to truly unify everything. energy is "one thing" but on this plain it will never be measurable as "one thing".

what is the function of gravity:

i believe that all attractive energy functions as a product of love. when you want to be with someone it is gravity (love). When you love to eat your ice cream it is gravity. traveling to paris because you love the streets along st germain is gravity.

SYNCHRONICITY

what evidence can you find for synchronicity:

a friend of mine and i had not seen each other for quite a long time. one evening thoughts of her started to persistently occupy my consciousness. the next day i received a call from her and was surprised to find that she had been also thinking of me the night before. not incredible, but a synchronicity none the less.

based on what you know, how would you explain connectivity:

i believe that connectivity implies the alchemical idea of ether -- an invisible screen so to speak that envelopes all creation, connects all creation, and is at one with everything. this would somewhat explain how two electrons are related and appear to effect each other even at great distances -- because all things are connected by the ether. and it is in fact the ether "causing" both electrons to vibrate. for instance to use a metaphor: imagine a seesaw (ether) as one side moves down, is it not also true that the other side will move up instantaneously? this ratio of movement happens faster than the speed of light -- as a matter of fact, it is instant.

this phenomenon is neither miraculous nor unbelievable. why? because we can see that a seesaw is one thing (connectivity). if we could somehow see or sense the ether we would realize that all material is of the same essence and is in fact one thing. effecting any part it instantly effects the whole.

symbolic

PINK SYNCHRONICITY

since we are going to be talking about synchronicity i will share a strange bit of it. most of you probably know this but for those that don't try the pink floyd wizard of oz test. this involves playing "dark side of the moon" during "the wizard of oz". all sorts of synchronicities "happen". even the most hardened sceptic will shudder when dorothy puts her head up to the tin man's chest to hear his heart and the music is playing a heart beat. all the info on this can be found at: http://www.everwonder.com/david/wizardofoz/

symbolic

UNCERTAINTY

well, i am relatively certain that in my current mood uncertainty is just fine with me. however i pose that in another mood it would be completely unacceptable. with this in mind we can certainly say that uncertainty is constant. but then again there are concepts that should remain patently certain all of the time. for instance simple math should remain constant. will 2+2 ever equal 5?. I am sure (or not quite sure) that some theoretical physicist could explain that 2+2 does in fact equal 5 and also that lee harvey oswald had to have done it based on the earth's rotation. but things are certain enough for planes to fly (usually), flowers to grow each season, and water to boil at a certain temperature. but these are not absolute in the ultimate. at some point all laws may cease to exist.

CAUSALITY

it is interesting to observe a cause and then the effect. but maybe more interesting to to see the effect before the cause. this seems a paradox but my belief is that there are different laws at a subatomic level than at our everyday level (newtonian level). the yogi, not the scientist may better help us with this paradox. the yogi has attuned his consciousness to other states of awareness -- states where time does not exist at all. and without time it would then be completely feasible for a cause and an effect to exist simultaneously. and at some point an observer may direct his attention to an effect before he notices the cause.

WEIRD

well me being somewhat of an authority on this subject i can certainly comment. everything is weird if viewed from a rigid perspective. when i was a young lad i thought raw fish was as about as weird as it could get -- my perspective was limited. i did not realize that food i ate everyday could be strangely bizarre to someone unaccustomed to it. eggs? unhatched chicken embryos? it even seems weird to me! weird = unfamiliarity. so the universe is not so weird.

quiz for week one

ANSWERS TO THIS WEEK'S QUIZ.

1. what attracts me to chinese medicine?
for me, this is a two-fold answer. as a child, i suffered from allergies and asthma. the prescribed treatment was to receive allergy injections and use antibiotics for chest infections. despite the good doctor's intentions, i did not get any better.

at the age of 13, i decided to stop all medications and injections against the doctor's wishes. remarkably, my condition improved. by the time i was 15, i was allergy and asthma free. however, at age 25 i again started having allergic reactions. this time i resolved to treat myself with herbs.

after a year of evening primrose oil and various other herbs, i again was allergy free. from then on, i viewed western medicine with a skeptical eye. especially when they used words like incurable, maintenance drugs, etc. this began my interest in alternative modes of healing which includes chinese medicine.

my esoteric studies in hermeticism, gnosticism & kaballah have harmonized my thinking to eastern concepts.

2. what do i honestly think of physics, really?
well, as of a few days ago i thought that the vast majority of physics had been boiled down and baked in an inedible cake for the feasting of academics with stomach trouble. but alas i am now thoroughly looking forward to our class as the information is interesting and relevant. thank you, mr. spears. it will be a pleasure to contemplate the universe with subjects such as sacred geometry, quantum physics, and chaos theory.

3. now that i think about it, have i ever experienced time "slowing down"?
yes, but i'm not sure if it is slowing down or speeding up. meditation certainly changes the experience of time. i know that time is intimately connected with breath -- the breath of life, or the breath of the universe. it is a yin yang experience and those energies are trans formative and dynamic.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MEANING OF TIME.

it was interesting to contemplate and contrast the differing views on the subject matter. there were certainly diverse experiences, but with a certain continuity -- that all the students had in some way gone beyond the purely dogmatic. for this i am thankful. one thing i have realized is that time is certainly a subjective experience that goes beyond mere perception. who's to say that time is not actually a dynamic experience in a very concrete way. it may be true that people age at different rates physically as correlated to the way they experience time.