Week 12

Rating "the control of artificial limbs by thought alone"

This is incredible. I found myself wanting to know more about this subject. I think it is a great idea and can be utilized by so many individual that have become limited in their movements. The process makes me shiver a bit. The thought of attaching electrodes to the surface of the brain is creepy to say the least, but when it helps your loved one have a better quality of life, creepy is easily dealt with.
It is truly amazing what we are capable of doing. Not only the technology that has been developed to make such things possible, but as well the capabilities our minds have to interact with such developments.

Bionic Person

It is difficult for me to support stuff like this. My question is, Why? Why do we need a bionic person? It seems to me that we keep testing our limits in ways that can come back to bite us incredibly hard. Creating a bionic person in an interesting idea. I can see why someone would want to attempt this feat. However, for what purpose? Is it simply to say that we can, or are we going to give it as much of a mind as possible? Will we have these bionic beings serving us at the local fast food chain one day, or will they become developed and intelligent enough to take on larger duties. It reminds me too much of a Sci-Fi thriller where one of these things is created and then it takes over the world with all of its clones. I know that sounds rediculous but with the capabilities we have these days, I don't see it as impossible.

Physics Week 11

Acupuncture as energy medicine:
Acupuncture is energy medicine, it creates open pathways to enable our energy to flow freely through our bodies. The practice is one that has systematized the flow of energy, seeking to standardize patterns that can then be used for treatment. the needles are really just props to facilitate energy flow.

Kielian photography:
I'm really not sure what to make of kirlian photography.
Obviously I saw the photo of my aura and my classmates, and each seemed to directly relate to their psycho-emotional state. I just don't fully understand how it could possibly work. Somthing for me to look into further. Since my third eye and crown chakras were a bit low, I am interested in doing some serious spiritual work, and returning in a few months to see if there is a visible difference.

Human Intent and Health

I believe that human intent does affect health. Clearly, our moods affect our health. Moods are really largely about intent. Dark moods create negative intentions. I think the mood-health link may just be an illustration of how intent affects our health. Beyond that, it may be that we can actively make use of intention to create better health. I think that this is obviously true as intention brings with it a presence of mind which then fosters health. I also feel that intention directly creates manifestations of good or poor health. I think that if you feel you are susceptible to an illness, you will be. You are, subconsciously, intending to make yourself vulnerable. Then, you are. I feel that many people have deep and unacknowledged sources of intention that often play a more major role in health than our conscious thoughts. For example, self-loathing that has been learned from a problematic childhood can make people sick without them ever having a specific conscious thought about illness or vulnerability.

Physics Week 10

I know I am a living system because...

I breath, bleed, feel, think, move and walk, talk, reason, defecate, urinate, eat, drink, sleep and wake-up, hear and respond. One of the simplest reasons I know I am a living system is when I accidentally cut myself, watching the process;from initial bleeding, to the slowing of the blood, to a scab, then to a spot of fresh skin! Wow! Or observing any other injury heal itself is just another affirmation of my living existence.

Biophysics and Oriental Medicine:
Any health science is based on biophysics. The root 'bio' means life, so of course anything to do with health, especially Oriental Medicine will have a direct corrleation. Biophysics integrates things which are quantitative, things that are measurable. For those people with a strong scientific background or belief system, they need proof before they will believe/trust in something. Chinese medicine has been able to use western scientific technology to prove the effectivness of acupuncture. We have been able to see that energy is life, energy is information. Light energy, sound energy, water, food and all things connected with the natural world.

Physics Week 9

~ Can I Synthesize East and West

I think that synthesizing east and west is an ongoing process. And actually it's a fascinating and enriching process. It becomes clear that concepts of uncertainty and indeterminacy are ones that seem to underly the universe, at least as far as the most cutting edge physicists and cosmologists are concerned. So, I don't think it'a matter of sythesizing the two, but rather coming to terms with the fact that we have no "final answers". The beauty of the Eastern viewpoint is that this is a completely satisfactory state of affairs. It adds to the wonder and the beauty of our existence.



~ My E-Prime Day

During the apparent sunrise of this seemingly Monday, I began with day with what tasted like tea and fruit. According to my so-called boss I seem to have been at work for eight and a half hours, in which time I must have interacted with perhaps dozens of horses. My evening felt relaxing and I did not seem to complete any reading or homework.
* This was much harder than I expected; I feel like the only words I can work with are : seem, felt and appeared. Because I am struggling with this, I will only try harder to work this into my daily life.

Physics Week 7

~“Ordered chaos” – does this sound familiar?
It doesn't sound familiar but it cerainly IS familiar.We experience this in our lives whether we choose to see it or not. In fact, the process of moving towards death, while terribly frightening, is very ordered in the greater scheme of things. As people with other interests, things become chaotic in the face of those interests. However, in the larger picture, these things aren't chaotic at all.

~Fractals as patterns of complex systems:

Shapes and patterns as themes....yes. If I didn't believe in such things then I would have to discount the 5 elements which I do believe entirely. I believe in the systems of weather and give and take, at least on this planet. I think that given enough time, things occur again and again, the same way winter will continue to come about every year or the sun to come up every morning.Of course, if you wanted to bring it to our level, you could argue that history always repeats itself. I think that as human beings we have the ability to change such things but left unchecked then it will not. That part is completely voluntary.

~Consciousness out of chaos?
Consciousness emerges from the outer edges of chaos, while order spawns chaos. Organization tends to have more longevity because it's a natural model of creation. By contrast, nature is unsanctioned, cooperative, and wildly creative. Its construction is distributed among a network of many lifeforms. As a result, these lifeforms can be tested in different situations and improved upon—they can adapt and are in constant flux. When a plant or animal adapts to new surroundings, new species or variations on old ones are born. Biodiversity itself yields new species. How? I don't know. Complexity and chaos bring new life. It's a mystery.



~ I did the straw flute experiment. It sounded kind really loud and annoying because I had to blow pretty forcefully to make it work. I could not play this flute quietly. And my newfound passion for straw flute playing was made short-lived, although it might be fun to put together a band!

Physics Week 8

~Newton’s Three Laws and me:
1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an outside force. I can't really think of an example of this as it relates to me. Things stop moving because of friction or obstruction. Maybe it reminds me of Damp diseases in the body, and how they get stuck so easily and trapped in different parts of us. Dampness is sticky and provides too much friction so that blood, qi, and jing do not flow smoothly around the meridians, organs, skin, and muscles.2. Force equals mass times acceleration.Alternately, momentum is mass times velocity. If a small child and I jump off a bridge, I would have more momentum than the child because even though we'd have the same velocity, I would have more mass.3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.If I push on a wall with my finger with a force of 5 Newtons, the wall will push back on my finger with 5 Newtons, if the two things are in equilibrium.
~Our “Energy Efficient” Culture
When I Googled energy efficiency, 22,800,000 results came up. That's a good sign. LAst year, the Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Karsner announced plans for transatlantic cooperation between DOE and Mack Trucks to develop environmentally friendly commercial vehicle technologies.The employees of Walmart now wear buttons on their aprons that say, "I use a squiggly lightbulb" and "Ask me about Energy Efficiency." That's pretty awesome. Even energy companies are sending letters to customers how to save energy--effectively telling consumers how to not pay them as much money. Let's see what else. . . Al Gore did his Inconvenient Truth lecture on Oprah. That's the most mainstream outreach there is. Included in his talk was energy efficiency.Of course, we are still raping the Earth, colonizing people, making wars, and creating a giant mess of things, but perhaps another force is arising, or polarizing, because of the extreme condition of the humans and Earth. I believe things are looking up and people are getting with the program, but I do not know if it will be enough to make a difference in time to reduce the radical Earth changes that are coming.

~Descartes has a lot to answer for:
I don't know that I necessarily like the idea of trying to explain everything in nature with math. I don't really get why it's necessary to explain something in nature through math, I think that some things don't need to be explained, they can just be appreciated and that's enough. Maybe I just have a bias against math, it's never been my favorite subject, I just don't see how certain things in nature could possible be described by numbers and equations.

Physics Assignment 5

~ Are all vibrations "good"?
All vibrations are not simply good or bad though. Vibrations simply are. If the vibration is an earthquake that harms lots of people, from my limited perspective in time and space, I would probably call that a bad vibration of the earth's crust. Vibrations such as the ones cellos produce seem unequivocally beautiful and good to me.(I played it for 8 years) Stringed instruments are among the most beautiful vibrations, along with another persons' vibe. We tend to read one another's moods and auras from time to time, and we do it rather naturally. Since we are all pulsing energy/qi fields, it seems quite reasonable that we note others' vibrations. And each person can put off a variety of 'vibes' with a wide range of emotions; good vibes/bad vibes.
This week's discussion has piqued my interest in vibrational healing. If vibrations are strong enough to fell a bridge, they must be strong enough to destroy pathogens and blocks in the body.

Resonance In My World

Resonance in my world has a more emotional quality to it, as when I resonate with another person or with an idea. At such times, I wonder if there might not be some kind of increase in the oscillation of our auras, so that they tend to converbe together with kind of a thrill comparable to heightened amplitude in physics. I love moments of resonance that occur between me and other people or even animals. Working at the racetrack and being around horses all day makes me realize that there really are just certain animals who automatically just click with you. For me, resonance is more about rich and significant feelings of being on "the same wave length."

Energy and Qi

I think Qi is energy. We can’t precisely measure it, but we know it exists. We can feel it. For example, we can feel it when our Qi is flowing smoothly and when it is not. Sometimes our Qi is deficient. We can feel that too. Qi is our lifeforce; It is energy.
Qi is all around us. It is the energy that we sense in all of nature. We can certainly feel the affect that a cold rainy day has on our bodies. Weather has a certain Qi or vibe to it, depending on if it’s windy, cold, hot, dry etc. Some call Qi "the vital life force", which it is, however that phrase implies that it only pertains to living things. Although I do agree that Qi is "the vital life force", and would certainly describe it that way to others, I make it a point to include the non living objects on this planet as well. I simply describe them as having the "vital force" within their makings. In the end that is what we are all part of, "the vital force" or "Qi" or "Energy". It is all the same just different methods of explaining it.