"The Cultural Influence of Physics"

Physics Final
Kate Maxey
04/10/07

The influence Physics has had on Culture is intertwined with the vast number of components that go into creating any culture. The discipline of Physics has given us the knowledge and vocabulary to discuss our own existence. As we internalize the concepts and theories of Physics and regurgitate them in the form of thought, expression, or invention, we in turn create our own world, or culture.

Some of the products of this synthesis can be seen on very surface levels. People make everyday decisions based on which physics ideas or representations have made their way into media, advertising and entertainment. This is ironic considering that most Americans probably don’t consider themselves to be contemplators of Physics. While in fact, we see more and more “cool” physics images of fractals and sacred geometry popping up as graphic designs and logos for the marketing world of clothing, cars, music, and home décor.

Besides “retail therapy” we also see the influence of physics in how people choose which kind of body therapy is best for them. As the healthcare system continues to integrate “alternative” practices into its medical repertoire, physics validates much of this energetic work that people have been performing for centuries. Electromagnetic and vibrational healing are examples of this. A slightly different impression, moving not from our natural roots, but from our modern efficiency-driven desires, has brought us such medical inventions as bionic limbs and implant chips that interact with the human body, blending the line between what is alive and what is robotic.

It seems to me that one of the highest priorities in the life of anyone with a career, family, or both is how to make time work to your advantage, especially when tasks seem to multiply in relation to time becoming more compressed. Some people choose to live in a state of “crunch,” while others search for ways like meditation and qi gong to practice creating the sense of time slowing down. Many physicists (or yogis) would advocate that even time is relative. They would challenge us to look beyond the numbers attached to our wrists and consider one’s relationship with time to be a mental, rather than physical, state of being.

As we approach our daily tasks, whether work or personal, we can easily deduce that the faster we go the more we can accomplish. I think that our culture’s obsession with speed and limitless travel parameters, be it with racecars, rockets or communication devises, largely stems from our desire to have control over space and time. Physics has cracked open an amazing world of wireless connections and infinite networking capabilities. There’s nowhere to go from here but up and out… time and space are on our sides….

Or are they? Sometimes things don’t happen the way we expect them to. In a second, life can go from a seemingly ordered state to an out-of-whack mess. Or, it could happen the other way around: everything could seem jumbled and un-fixable and then “out of nowhere” something completely unexpected happens that jars it all into place. This is the Chaos Theory. Physics has kindly given us an out so that we can honestly say, “I have no idea why that happened now.”

The beauty of chaos and moments of synchronicity within it have been like energy-packed morsels for many artists and writers to live off of. Physics is an inexhaustible source for representations of reality, forces of nature, our connection to the stars, or Time’s imprint on our lives, just to name a few. Who’s to say how many interpretations there are for one of life’s experiences? Whether it be a light show or a fine art piece, one person’s creativity can somehow inspire the very human reaction of “awe” in the viewer and ignite inside of her/him some deep feeling of recognition, even if it’s just “life is weird.”

The influence of Physics in our culture extends deep into our psyche, formulating our sense of Self. With its depiction of the Big Bang Theory, Physics gives each of us a lot to ponder about our own creation and what we are doing with the life ahead of us. If the particles that birthed the universe are the same kind that we are made up of now, it seems impossible for anyone to deny that we are connected to each other and this solar system by forces beyond our control.

Physics forms our consciousness. It influences how we transform information into reality. We can choose to see beyond the neural synapses of our brain to how our thoughts extend beyond the walls of our cranium out into a space that we all share. Physics brings a sense of connection to our culture that makes it possible for even an intention to affect another being.

The control of artificial limbs by thought alone:

These inventions sound amazing. It is incredible to me that humans can create instruments that eventually intertwine themselves with our physiology and, in part, become a part of us. For a person who has lost a limb or was born without one, I can only imagine how this would revolutionize their life. I see no issue with these inventions being available to such people. But, as we discussed in class, it is always scary to think about good things getting into the hands of bad people.

Would I support it?

Most definitely, yes. I'd love to say that restrictions should be placed on the procedures so that they will, one day, not be taken to an extreme, but I don't really believe that such regulations would apply to the US military and that's who scares me most. Oh, well... we can't live in fear, so as not to help better the lives of fellow humans. On an individual level, this advancement would bring happiness to many peoples' lives and i think that that is more important than no doing it because of some crazy war-programmed cyborg that might be produced down the line.

*Intention*

Intention is the first step in healing. In modern hospitals, sometimes people are healed (so that a problem doesn't return and a new one doesn't show up to take its place), but often this is more like being "fixed." the part that was broken or causing other problems is taken out, replaced, or repaired. not so often, is a holistic view taken at healing the whole body-- in fact, that is not the intention. when a doctor "fixes" someone, they've done just what they set out to do. I don't think that most Western Doctors consider the part that the intention of the patient or of the doctor her/himself plays in the perseverance of a disease.
The intention of Chinese Medicine is a bit different. It operates on the philosophy that a patient's body is made up of Yin and Yang forces/substances which can become out of balance. The intention, including thought, desire, and focus, and by both the patient and the acupuncturist are vital to strength of the healing session.
I don't think that most Western doctors (and perhaps not most acupuncturists) practice to quiet their minds and become centered in their own bodies before they touch their patients and reach their energy out in a way that conjures the same response in the patient. This kind of intention is the recognition energetic continuum between all living things and holds limitless possibilities.

Kirlian Photography

It makes sense to me. not to say that i totally "get" the process, but it doesn't come as any surprise to me at this point that people have energy centers in their bodies which waver depending on heat, emotion, mental state, or illness. It sounds beautiful that since Kirlian's innovation people can capture this light show on film. Part of enjoying life is getting to experience things from different approaches or views. While the concept of such biological energy centers or outpourings may sound new to a lot of people, i'm sure that indigenous and spiritual people of all backgrounds have been in touch with this reality since the beginning of time. Now, as it seems, some are hooking this practice up to computers and bringing it into the "Trauma Medicine" genres, so we will begin to witness "Energy talk" happening in unexpected places!

Is Acupunctue Energy Medicine?

When I attempt to define Acupuncture to anyone asking me, i certainly mention the words: Energy and Medicine, but i don't think that i've used this coined phrase as a way of delineating it from it's Western counterpart, "Trauma Medicine." Clearly "Energy Medicine" is not exclusive to Acupuncture, as it is any treatment that "deals with the electromagnetic fields generated by the living body." Once, many years ago, I believe that Acupuncture and Chinese herbology were used in trauma situations, as well, becuase what else was there to use?! Now, because of efficiency, availability, and success Western Medicine is the first choice in an emergency situation. I think as the years continue we will see that while these centers of focus will probably not change for "Energy" and "Trauma" Medicines, they will begin to broaden and incorporate each other.

I am...

...Biophysics and Biophysics is me. Wiki says: Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies the theories and methods of physics, to questions of biology. Physics deals with the elementary constituents of the universe, such as matter, energy, space, and time, and their interactions. Biology is the study of life. It is concerned with such topics as the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the natural environment.
I like this these endless combinations. Biophysics takes things that are often examined seperately and looks at the interaction between them. I think it's important (and interesting!) for me, as a student of Chinese medicine to take a similar approach of looking at things from different directions-- to learn to see that what's happening on a micorscopic level is a reflection of the universal Nature of things (whether TCM or scientific).

I am...

... a Living System for the following reasons: i walk around in and see a 3-Demensional Space, my nights and days are divided into hours depending on where the sun is in the sky, this giant flaming star also gives me the Energy to synthesize nutrients and grow, I live on the Earth which rotates around the sun and spins on a axis controled by the Moon, I therefore share the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere which protect me from violent demolition by particles and/or radiation from space, it is necessary for me to ingest water regularly or I will die, and Carbon is at the core of my skeleton and most of the food that i eat.

EAST & WEST: A SYNTHESIS, sort-of

As we've discovered, East and West points of view can seem worlds a part: like Christianity and Buddism, a chesseburger and a california roll, a visit to your primary care physician and your favorite acupunturist, or an hour of seated meditation and a Sunday at a Pentacostal church service. All of these coupled things are very different from each other, it's true, but just as an Eastern minded person would say: within every Yin there is a bit of Yang, and in every Yang a bit of Yin," a Western physicist operates under the Law that for every particle there must be some form of an anti-particle. Both Christianity and Buddism teach to respect your body as a temple of God (Universe) and to treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated. A cheeseburger, while hot and greasy, and a california roll, cold and delicate, both provide sustinence and are complimented by something of their opostie Nature: a milkshake (cold) for the burger, and ginger (warming) for the sushi. Your family doc may listen to your physical ailments and send you over to a psychiatrist to prescribe something for your anxiety which is unrelated to your irritable bowel syndrome, while your acupuncturist will inquire about your emotional state as well as your physical before determining the pattern that is tied up in both. But, they both make their diagnosis by first looking at your symptoms with the intention of removing them through treatment. Both a seated meditation and a Sunday church service are participated in to conjure a sense of the Spirit that surrounds us and the connection we have to it.
Basically, I think now more than ever before there is a synthesis of the East and the West (catch-terms for all of the various Nature-based and Technology-based points of view), as travel and communication ALL over the place is more accesible than ever. As we are finding in our studies of Chinese Medicine, it is absolutely impossible to keep our minds and our practices seperate from Western thinking and descriptions of the "Western body," because they are one in the same. You can't have a full-specturm point of view if you are ignoring what's right in front of you. Difference and oppoistion always exist and it's in these spaces that things can become clearer. Ok, maybe easier said than done.

My E-Prime Day:

I thought i heard a loud beeping noise in my ears as i awakened this morning. i felt for the machine that seems to make that god-awful noise and pressed some button that appeared to make it stop. i thought about what day followed the previous one and deduced that today called for a quick gathering of my things, brushing of teeth, chugging of tea and chomping on toast (covered in my favorite combination of substances that i identified as butter, cinnamon and sugar). i then took my two-wheeled cycle-vehicle that i refer to as my "bike," out the door that we think of as the "front" of our house and pedaled in the direction my memory and intuition (or some combination of forces inside me that seems to guide me from one destination to the next) took me. what do you know? i ended up in front of just the building i thought i was supposed to enter at around the time the numbers 930 showed up on my cell phone. apparently, my agenda was insync wtih almost everyone else in my class because i heard a collection of "hellos" from my fellow students that looked quite familiar. once again, i made it to the right place at the right time. phew. i sat in a chair that looked available and waited for our teacher to begin speaking. seeing that we collectively agreed to fulfill the requirement of taking our final next week, we listened attentively and asked questions to clarify anything that we still felt confused about. after the clock came to the big hand on the 30 and the little hand on the 12, i left and cycled away. now, i just arrived at a place i refer to as a café (i exchanged some green bills for a bubbly beverage and sat down-- nobody seemed to mind). I'm planning on chilling here until the clock reminds me it's time to get up and go. how would i ever know when to go anywhere without those handy revolving numbers? i guess i'd figure something out.

Descartes has a lot to answer for!

Uh, yea! Did this man truly think that he was intelligent enought to break down ALL of Nature (the forces that created us and gave us thought) into accurate mathematical calculations? Or consider the human psyche to be as measurable as a machine?
He made a huge impression on society and culture which latched on to his rational and rigid way of looking at the world. Thank goddess other minds came in much later and exploded these notions that kept people's minds as seperate entities, walking around in their very seperate bodies, or machines rather. It seems that he left out some important concepts like: Congnition, as in the mind constantly re-creating itself and the world around it, and Connectiveness, in that we are not all seperate, unaffected entities, but in fact just our thoughts can affect the person next to us, or maybe even across the globe. How can you measure that?

Our Non-Energy efficient culture:

I don't consider our culture to be energy efficient. For centuries we have been disregarding what biproducts our consumer and physical appetites may produce. Some of us are trying to become more efficient. Certainly, industry is very concerned with making there products more efficient, "more miles per gallon" "more washes per ounce" "more hours per battery." This is good because it usually means that a product lasts longer and doesn't go into a landfill as fast, but industry's and consumers' interest in efficiency usually doesn't go beyond concern for money and time/effort. As we know, there is a much larger bag of concerns out there, and while we may consider ourselves an efficiency driven culture (with phones that take pictures and can send them in an email while you are driving your car) I don' think that it is a very multi-faceted perspective.
Go ask Starbucks.

How have Newton's Laws affected me?

Well certainly I can see these laws in application when i look at objects, things without will. As a human, or any
conscious being (and we know this includes a lot) we can say that these laws do not play out the same on us.
We are certainly affected by them, say i'm a football player standing still on the field and another player comes running straight on into me, i'm going to fly at least a few feet. His/her force has changed my state of motion/stillness (Law 1), and because they ran into me super hard, i'm going to go super far (Law 2). Also, the force even my standing body may emit, let's say if i see the hit coming and i resist, will make an impact on the collider, causing the forward acceleration of their body to be lessened (Law 3).
But we are human and not just objects and we don't stay put until another force moves us and we certainly don't move in a straight line at a constant velocity. I don't think that Newton was meaning for these Laws to apply to willfull individuals because we are of course affected by many other forces besides movement (like mood, hunger and curiousity).

Conciousness out of Chaos?

... Or Chaos out of Conciousness?

Both. If the neurons of the human mind, for example, followed the same patterns all of the time then conciousness would arguably not exist because there would be no variation to account for innovation, spontaneity, or those "ah, HAH! I've got it" moments. It's chaotic behavior in the brain (meaning neuronal computation that is not always the same or predictable) that makes us human and not robots. We also have choice, and choice can be just the variable that can create a bit of chaos.

Fractals, "little worlds"

In my understanding, fractals contain within themselves the variable which will cause them to proliferate in a certain pattern. the first change that occurs from its "normal" progression is a stamp for what will continue to occur down the line. Fractals can be broken down into parts with each part being a copy of the whole. They are present in real natural complex systems, like clouds, mountains, and turbulence. Their perimeter keeps getting infinitely larger. What if our solar system was one part of a fractal equation that repeats itself down the line and is re-represented over and over and over and over and over....?

"Ordered Chaos"-- does this sound familiar?

Yes, it does. I think most people consider the world to be pretty chaotic (often unexplainable, unexpected) and that whatever systems, institutions, or laws that we come up with are simply trying to put some order in the chaos. This outlook seems to apply to physics' studies, as well. As they form theories about chaos (how the world works, ie. what creates life) they use mathematics to try and get closer to an answer that still eludes scientists: why do random, unexpected events occur? what is the pattern that we are not seeing? for many people's sanity, it seems, we must at least attempt to make some order out of chaos-- because chaos is unquestionable. Also, the "chaos" in the universe seems to be the Way homeostasis is kept, so what seems random is actually a natural movement towards balance.

Ener-Qi

Energy and Qi are very inclusive words that are definitely related, if not arguably the same thing. When i think of Qi i think of life force related to a living organism. It can be excess or deficient depending on the being's health or state of being (ie. malnurished, dormant, sleeping, laughing, scared, etc.) Yes, i do, too, think that Qi exists in lightning, sunshine, water, and more natural creations, but i wouldn't say that all electricity running in cables is Qi or that it takes Qi to run the car battery. Now oil, for petrol, does come from the ground, so maybe it gets sticky there. I think i would consider Qi to be exclusive to being emitted by something that is or once was alive. Energy, on the otherhand includes Qi, but can be applied to artificial conductions, as well. hmmmm......

Just one of my favorite pieces of writing to share....

Sooner or later a person begins to notice that everything that happens to her is perfect, relates directly to who she is, had to happen, was meant to happen, plays its little role in fulfilling her destiny.
When she encounters difficulty, it no longer occrs to her to complain—she has leaned to expect nothing, has leaned that loss and frustration are a part of life, and come at their proper time—instead she asks herself, why is this happening? . . . by which she means, what can I learn from this, how will it strengthen me, make me more aware? She let herself be strengthened, lets herself grow, just as she lets herself relax and enjoy (and grow) when life is gentle to her.
Strengthened by this simple notion, simple awareness, that life is perfect, that all things come at the proper moment and that she is always the perfect person for the situation she finds herself in, a person begins to feel more and more in tune with her inner nature, begins to find it easier and easier to do what she knows is right. All chance events appear to her to be Intended; all intentional actions she clearly perceives as part of the workings of Chance. Anxiety seldom troubles her; she knows her death will come at its proper moment; she knows her actions are right and therefore whatever comes to pass as a result of them will be what it meant to happen. When she does feel anxiety, she realizes it is because of that thing that she’s been meaning to do but hasn’t done, some unfulfilled relationship she’s aware of. But…. She perceives the anxiety as a message that she’ll have to stop hesitating if she wants to stay high…

Resonance causes an object to move back and forth or up and down.

I've always heard (don't know if it's true) that it's possible for a group of soldiers to cause a foot bridge to break by walking in cadance over it. I'm not sure about this one, but i do think that resonance can cause many kinds of creation and destruction in our every day lives. I'd like to think and understand more about resonace-- it produces amazing things. I've now read that it exists when i tune into a radio station, push a baby on a swing and other practical activities of the day. You might hear me say that I "resonate" with a certain idea or person, meaning i feel "intune" with them. This is similar to the right frequencies causing the right vibration, or resonance. Resonance is very fascinating... i definitely want to keep learning about this.

Suggestion: watch these Youtube videos (listed on Wiki) under "Resonance": super cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cswMKTBdAp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkox6niJ1Wc

"Good, good, good... good vibrations..."

Vibration themselves aren't good or bad, they just are. What they might cause, however, can differ greatly depending on who or what is on the receiving end. Vibrations make up all kinds of Energy whether it's the atoms in our cells that fuel our muscles to petal our bicycle, or the energy miraculously found in the wall outlet when we turn on a light, or.... the list goes on and on. Of course, I like to think of the healing and enjoyable aspects of vibration, like vibrational massage or the vibration I feel in my body when the base of some of my favorite hip-hop or reggae music is playing on large speakers (hopefully when I'm wearing earplugs, so the vibration doesn't rock my eardrums too hard!) But, vibrations can be equally as scary as they are pleasurable when they cause destructive earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. Vibrations are happening all of the time, they are life, and as we know life is most definitely filled with the good and the bad.

Yes, but of course. Sacred Geometry is about patterns and spacial relationships like spirals and "the Golden Mean" that repeat themselves infintely in nature. These can be measured even on the most minute constituents of Nature, like DNA. This is related to physics because vibrations and the transformation of Energy depend on the structure, distance and space they have to travel in or around. Spacial geometry accounts for the matter that gives physical properties the structure to play out and Energy to resonate.

CP Violation

So, C stands for Charge and P for parity. According to Wikipedia, our favorite cyber-knowledge source, "CP violation is a violation of the postulated CP symmetry of the laws of physics. It plays an important role in theories of cosmology that attempt to explain the dominance of matter over antimatter in the present Universe." Basically, and i do mean basically, CP violation is when, instead of every particle having and equal and opposite antiparticle--or mirror image (which would inturn cancel each other out, and where would that leave us?), a rare and rebellious thing happens with something called a B Meson which decays and breaks the pattern of symmetry and leaves room for the existance (not the cancellation) of some particles.

A Symmetrical world?

I wouldn't say that our world is always symmetrical, but is rather constantly re-creating itself to be more and more balanced... harmonious. We see in the drawing of Yin and Yang that the two sides are both equal and different, either way they hold a bit of each other's difference as their own and create a balance in this way.
Many things in nature that are asymmetrical have a purpose behind their asymmetry such as disguise in nature, an ability to catch prey, or to make room for something else (like humans' left lungs being smaller to make room for their heart). Even assymetrial style (paintings, haircuts, architecture) can often be as pleasing or more so to the eye, because it often discreetly balances it out with some other object or flare, bringing elements more into the picture. I like this. Symmetrical balance is nice and certainly does occur naturally in our world, but i'd say we encounter assymmetry most often: a little bit of this sided with a dash of that in just the right spot and it all works out. I think asymmetry accounts for a lot of give and take and therefore structural balance and complimentary existences.

extra cred: BaBar review

This website was a great one-stop-shop to many of the questions one could have about this amazing particle and anti-particle making machine down at Stanford. The News Release put sent out in May 1999 was a easily-read overview of what they are setting out to do, all of the global help that has gone into it, and the MILLIONS of dollars it has cost. What can I say? WOW! I really feel like such a non-scientist. I am intimidated and wide-eyed at the idea of this machine. I really don't understand it all, but I think it's awesome that other people do! I can see that this is monumental for many scientists: one described the observation of a "new massive particle" as "a very beautiful result."
This was the most helpful summary for me:
"It is thought likely that in the first moments after the big bang there were equal amounts of matter and antimatter produced. If they had stayed equal, then the Universe today would be very uninteresting because all the matter and antimatter would have disappeared by the process: matter + matching antimatter = radiation

...so no galaxies, no stars, no planets, and no people would be around today!"

Gravity: is it running right through us?

According to an "Earth Science" website:
Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses, any two bodies, any two particles. Gravity is not just the attraction between objects and the Earth. It is the attraction that exists between all objects. Gravity keeps the Earth in its orbit around the sun. Gravity keeps the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and inhabitants from drifting into space. Gravity pulls the rain to the rivers, and ultimately to the sea. Gravity guides the development and growth of plants and affects the way our bones and muscles develop and function. Gravity controls the fluid in our inner ear, giving us a sense of direction and the ability to balance. The specific mechanisms used by plant and animal cells, tissues, and organs to sense gravity is not fully understood. And the role of gravity in biological functions is only partially understood.

*** could we think of gravity as the "string" that holds us in balance between heaven and earth-- what connects us to both-- that the force and function of gravity has just as much to do with our energetic connection to what's above as what's below?

"Luke, use the FORCES."

After doing some searche on "the fundamental forces," i'm a little perplexed why many lists do not include the word "nuclear" with the strong and weak force. is this implied/assumed? why?

It was helpful to see that each of the four forces act on different kinds of particles:
Gravity (the weakest): acts on all particles
Electromagnetic: acts on electrically charged particles
Weak force: acts on quarks, leptons (includes electrons)
Strong: acts on quarks, gluons, baryons, and mesons --- how on earth have they distinguished between these?! it's amazing.

I came across a description of the "Uncertainty Principle" which i liked. I tried quite hard to figure out its relation to the Forces, but can't grasp it. It has something to do with their ranges (the strong and weak forces having the shortest and the Electomag and gravitational having Infinite ranges). But i don't understand what "range" refers to.
see: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/forces/funfor.html

"The Uncertainty Principle" says:
"The position and momentum of a particle cannot be simultaneously measured with arbitrarily high precision. There is a minimum for the product of the uncertainties of these two measurements. There is likewise a minimum for the product of the uncertainties of the energy and time. This is not a statement about the inaccuracy of measurement instruments, nor a reflection on the quality of experimental methods; it arises from the wave properties inherent in the quantum mechanical description of nature. Even with perfect instruments and technique, the uncertainty is inherent in the nature of things."

Hmmm... How has e=mc2 affected me?

Well, a guess at a very early age, whenever that was that i first heard of this equation... 5th, 6th, 7th grade (surely much before i could come close to even understanding what each of the letters represented), it put an idea in my head of ENERGY. As a kid i'm sure that we hear "oh you have a lot of energy today" or "the sun gives the plants energy to grow." This equation that was known by most of us at an early age as the "catch-all" knowledge of a famous and very smart man with crazy hair named Einstein, put energy on the map for us as something that is very important, has something to do with life, can be measured, and can be represented in what looks like a simple equation, with just three letters and a little 2.
now, i know a little bit more about what's behind it.... but, it still give me much to ponder....

Connectivity

One way that i choose to look at connectivity is from a western astrological perspective. as a symbol, i visualize the astrological wheel which has twelve zodiac signs around it. as most of us know, even if we aren't into astrology, each of these signs represents a certain archetype of human behavior. none of them is better or worse than the other, but just like the spokes on a wheel, all necessary for the others to have purpose and work as they should and for the world to continue to change. within this cirlce of signs are an infinite number of relationships between different planets that have been charted as being in the sky, as such, the moment that you were born. i like to think of human being as being actual imprints of the relationship of the stars and planets, balls of energy just like us, at a certain moment in time. our lives are dynamic creations as we take what we were given and manifest our own unique life from it.

astrology seems too simple or unbelievable for some, because they don't want to be boxed into certain categories. i could go on a long rant about this, but simply put: i think everyone should use whatever mechanism makes sense to them to feel and see the connectivity that exists between us all. nothing is set in stone and nothing is only one way. we are infinitely-faceted creatures, and whatever way you look at us, you're going to see something different. astrology reminds me of my connection to the heavens, to the elements (earth, water, fire, air), and to fellow human beings-- no matter how different from me they may seem, i see that we are all a part of the same wheel. I think of connectivity (and astrology) as layers and layers of webs connecting us to the smallest microoranism and to the farthest astral shift occuring millions of light years away. we are all one.

*Synchronicity*

.... is what i yearn for in my days. i love that feeling when the unexpected seems so perfect and the connection you make between them seems so re-affirming. along the lines of paulo coehlo's Alchemist, i think i often consider moments of synchronicity to be good omens. like if something stands out as beautifully coincidental, it's really telling me that i'm exactly where i should be, i'm on the right path. even if something doesn't seem to have a huge impact on my life, but makes me stop and laugh and think "wow, that was crazy," i like to take it as a little gift from the universe that i'm being reminded that we are all connected and i'm exactly where i should be.

on my first visit to barcelona, i was walking down the crowded calle ferran of el barrio gotico with my mom and exchanged a quick double take with a girl. we both stopped and turned around and then realized that we had been next door neighbors in college. her name is Lark. just moments after that co-incidental sighting (we could have been anywhere else in the city, but were right there at the same time), my mom and i turned the corner and walked down La Rambla only to look up an see a Hotel Lark stand out to us on our right. weird, no? didn't really mean much, but it made me happy and i knew that barcelona was a place that was right for me to be (i ended up moving there the following year and having even more eerie moments like this).

in fact when i lived there i was a nanny for a little girl named ruby. (how i got the job was totally serindipitious, but that's another story). anyways, when i moved back to the bay in 2005, i searched for abother babysitting gig, and the first one i got was for a special little baby named ruby! Ruby 1 and Ruby 2! i must be doing something right!

i think a mother's intuition can serve as a good example of being open to synchronictic moments... my mom used to tell me the story of when i was a little girl, just old enough to sleep in my own bed, she woke up a couple of times in the night to run into my room and catch me in a fall, midway from my bed to the ground. what caused her to jump out of bed at just the right second when i was sound asleep?

i feel like i've experienced a lot of synchronictic moments in my life often involving meeting a new and very special person by being at the right place at just the right time. one time, in 2001, i was at a dance club in san francisco where i knew absolutely no one, except my friend that i came with, and was complaining to her about how uninteresting everyone looked. then, i spotted this sparkly girl who i knew i had to talk to. she had the same reaction and within minutes we were talking each other's heads off. her name is Jeannine and it turned out that she was from philly and had just moved to sf a few weeks before. eventually it got out that i had gone to uc santa cruz and that she had visited santa cruz the year prior and stayed at this girl elizabeth's house who was friends with the boy, nevada, whom jeannine was dating and planning on moving to sf to be with. elizabeth was actually one of my best friends from santa cruz and was living in the apartment below me in san francisco, and nevada was the boy i had a crush on, soon to be my boyfriend for a year. he and jeannine had had a falling out (i had never heard about her) and she decided to move out to sf anyways. these crazy connections between us gave us all the more reason to listen to our intuition and be friends. it was one of the most magical nights i've ever experienced, and to this day, while some of the friendships we had in common have come and gone, we remain one of the most important people in each other's lives. aaah, i love that story!

i think that if you recognize the omens that present themselves to you, more synchronicity will follow. it's being open to it that makes it exist, right? it's fun if you let synchronicity into your life... besides being entertaining, it often gives you little answers where you are least expecting them.

Is the Universe Weird?

Uh..... yea! When you never know what could happen next... things do feel a little funny. Actually, i'm laughing about it all the time. Like when you see someone walking down the street who is TOTALLY proceeding to the beat of their own drum, maybe they have bright pink spraypainted sneakers on and a tree on top of their hat with a water pistol in their hand, or something. I mean how weird is that? You've got to laugh and, if you're like me, be thankful that you've just seen such a crazy sight that brings unusual delight to your day. Weirdness is what jolts us out of our minds: so full of assumptions and ideas of what is normal. Who's to say that YOU or I aren't the weird ones? I'm sure we are. What's funny me about things that seem weird, is that they probably totally make sense to the person or animal that is doing them. There is often a reason for peculiarity.... like why do some dogs walk follow their tail round and round in a series of cirlces before they plop down on the ground? I don't know, but i'm sure they do.

Causality

It was interesting doing some wikipedia searches on causality and reading about how the thinking and reasoning about causality by scientists and theorists have continued to change over the years. ... that the older assumptions that A causes, and must precede, B (or in otherwords that B exists because of the existance of A) and that both "must be in spacial contact or connected by a chain of immediate things in contact." These historical assumptions could be renamed "Probable laws of causality," because it looks like once you throw Chance in there, "Laws of Causality" go out the window. Something totally unexpected could cause B, just as A had before. Or B could be produced just milliseconds before A was assumed to cause it. As Bohr concluded in his debate with Einstein, there is always going to be a place for uncertainty in quantum mechanics. I think this would go for human (and all animal behavior for that matter). There is always going to be a place for "we just don't know what exactly is going to happen or what exactly caused this to happen."

Uncertainty: it keeps us on our toes!

Just like the Taoist belief that "the only thing that is constant is change," the only thing that is certain is uncertainty. I LOVE this about the universe. In fact, if it wasn't for this nature of things, we wouldn't be here now. It's those moments of chaotic veering from the norm that often brings along the most amazing creations. Even if we know for ceratin that a healthy sperm will fertilize a healthy egg if they come in contact, we can't know for certain that the zygote will survive to full term and eventually be a crying baby. and even if we knew all of the chromosomes that went into creating that baby, there is no way that we could be certain just what s/he would turn out like-- how all of those elements of physical and behavioral (and perhaps even karmic) characteristics would combine to form this perfectly unique creation.
i LOVE that even in our most certain moments, there always exists an "ounce" of uncertainty, and when we feel completely uncertain, with no answer in sight, there's always a little part of us, that "knows"-- whether we know how, or are willing, to access this information is yet another variable.
Moments of beauty come from not knowing exactly what to expect and being pleasanlty astounded by the turnout. Of course, being uncertain all of the time can feel very vulnerable. Sometimes, uncertainty can be followed by tragedy or unwanted change-- when things seem to be going one way and then an out-of-the-blue situation changes everything. This is life and without this ever-fluxing, ever-diverging nature of creation our senses would be left untantilized, our stories uninteresting and our ideas nothing more than what people were expecting to hear.

THE MEANING OF TIME: WEEK 1

Quiz questions:
1) What attracts me to Chinese Medicine? ..... it's all inclusiveness. i can't imagine ever getting bored with my studies of Chinese medicine because its discussion can include an infinite number of life-giving areas to ponder: the human body, the mind, Nature, culinary arts, qi gong/tai qi, literature, poetry, theology, history, herbology, astrology, the Elements, I Ching, Acupuncture, and how we relate to the world and to ourselves.

2) What do I honestly think of Physics, really? ..... i think of movement and energy, force and inertia, gravity and impact. i am no longer familiar with any mathematical equations related to the law and order of physical properties. i see how these are interesting mechanisms for some, but i don't think that i am searching to have the universe explained to me in this way. i am, however, very interested in exploring the ambiguity of reality and time and the forces of nature that are at work in our solar system and on earth.

3)Now that I think about it, have I ever experienced time "slowing down"? .....yes, most certainly. sometimes to my delight and sometimes to my despair. recently, on a 12 day trip to guatemala my senses were so entertained by the new sights and experiences that i felt like i was there for a month. each moment was so rich and full, as we took our time to do everything. as i rush about in my daily life time doesn't seem to flow in this same generous way.

My reflections on "The Meaning of Time":
whew. this is a big one. i relate time to the minutes on the clock and also to periods in my life, as in "we had a good time" or "that time in my life was very special because..." or "this time i'm going to do things differently." either way, something that seems to be very measured or exact-- either a moment in time is over, happening, or hasn't happened yet-- feels very ethereal and hard to grasp. the meaning of time is what you make of it,really. of course, other people do try to impose their meanings of time onto our days as we schedule appointments or accrue late payments. for me, i think that i am trying to take this concept of time into my own hands and obey a greater law that determines my happiness on a daily basis. this is the LAW OF FLOW. flow, just like time, is most certainly relative, and must be considered at the bend around every second. you don't always have to cognitively make room for flow in your life, but the habit of doing so leaves space for it to happen on its own. flow is like opening up all of those unimaginable spaces between each second and aligning yourself to move into the next without resistance. this doesn't mean to just "let it all go," but to follow the path of least resistance according to our Spirit's sense of peace. sometimes this means following our own beat and measuring truth by our own standards and sometimes this means incorporating others' notions of time into our flow in order to cause less resistance in our day. we all know how much better we feel when our credit card bills are paid on time or when we haven't missed half of the movie or interrupted an important class discussion because we decided to show up when felt like it. flow turns time into a sensory experience because it is the slightest intuition, feeling of dis-ease, or clarity of thought that makes us (often unconsciously) choose our next movement; if we are aligned with the path that the universe is constantly unfurling for us, time will feel neither fast nor slow, invasive nor lost. the #1 rule of flow is to follow the path that will bring you the most abundance; this may mean knowledge, silence, material necessity or many things depending on what is perfect for you in that moment. i, myself, have many thoughts and reminders about the importance of flow in my day, but have by no means "tapped in" to this spirit-filled way of being. i feel stress, or my resistance to flow, most of the time. i jumble the nostalgia of the past and anxiousness about the future with the present constantly. time feels like it puts up a lot of borders that i'm always negotiating my way around. flow is what i'm here this lifetime to find.... i'll keep trying....