Week 13, Artifical Limbs

I think it's pretty amazing that the cells in our brain that control movement never atrophy and that is it possible to re-use them. I also think it's an amazing feat of medical science to give people an ability to use parts of their bodies that they can't use. However, all this new technology scares me deep down in my core...I feel like it could get out of hand really fast.

Week 13, Bionic Person

I don't know if I would fully support the creation of a bionic person...I guess it would depend on what the reasons for doing it were. If someone who can't walk is presented with the possibility to walk, then that seems to me to be a good reason, as long as the procedure and treatment of the person was humane. But then I also fear that some people might want to become bionic just be bigger and stronger, and then it would be like a new brand of crazy steroids...and in this case I wouldn't be a supporter.

Week Eleven, Intention and Health

I think intention is one of the most powerful tools that we have not only for health, but for life in general. However, I also think action must come with intention. If I hold and intention but then do not act it out in my life, then it personally seems like a stagnation: I put energy out there in the form of an intention but I didn't act it out. Many times, the outcome of an intention is an event or situation in which the universe puts in place what we asked for, but we have to be participating in the moment and act within that place.

Week Eleven, Kirlian Photography

I didn't know much about Kirlian photography until we read about it in class. Although I think it is fascinating and a great tool for many people, it is kind of sad that we need to "prove" that things like auras are true through photographs. I guess I have always been OK with knowing that my aura is there and that I can feel it without having to know exactly what it looks like at a precise moment. But it is a good tool for people who need or want that kind of expereince.

Week Eleven, Energy Medicine

I think acupuncture is effective not only as energy medicine but also as a medical system. In fact, I think acupuncture is really effective because of its holism, unlike other forms of treatment that seek to only heel one part of the problem. Pure energy medicine, even though very powerful and under-valued in our society, can still have huge gaps in it. To be truly effective, healing has to be energetic, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, etc.

Week 10, Biophysics and Oriental Medicine

It seems like biophysics is trying to understand a particular part of life through a very exact angle. They seem interested in the cellular and sub-cellular level and how different interaction there help shape life in the macrocosm. Honestly, I find it very hard to compare biophysics with oriental medicine because in oriental medicine we don't just study one small aspect of a body or a system. It doesn't seem as though we are preoccupied with trying to answer what a living system is, either...

Week 10, I'm a Living System

Well, now I don't even know whether I am a living system or how I would go about figuring it out...I feel like I am a living system for several reasons, I guess. The first one is that I am responsive to the environment around me. I change as the stuff around me changes. The second is that I feel like I am constantly changing and becoming something new, but I guess computers do that, too...Lastly, I have emotions, feelings, thoughts, and I can feel blood and life pumping through my veins...

Week 9, Synthesizing East and West

I feel like that is what we are trying to do at school. Hopefully, we can find new, creative ways to integrate Oriental Medicine and Western Medicine and use the best of both systems to better be able to serve people's health needs. In a larger context, I feel that what is beginning to happen right now in the world is an intensification of synthesis between many cultures and societies through out the world. This is a truly fascinating experiment that is very new. Although different societies have been connected through out human history, it has only been until very recently that technologies have allowed us to travel and interact with so many different cultural contexts within one lifetime. It's beautiful, but we also have to be extra careful and perceptive so that certain people do not get taken advantage of.

Week 9, E-Prime

At what I believe to be the present moment, it seems to be morning. It also appears to be raining because there is water coming in the form of droplets out of the sky and landing on the vegetation classified as grass under the present system of biology. I ate a morning meal of what I presume in my current state of education and ignorance tasted like yogurt and granola, then followed by a relatively hot (to my body temperature) beverage called tea.

Week 8, Reductionsism

I find it kind of difficult to fully blame the reductionists about their strange way of looking at the world. In their time, everyone saw the universe and the world a certain way and that was considered true and beautiful. Although for us it seems like a ridiculous almost unthinkable way of looking at the universe, for them it was what they saw through their cultural lenses. We are also to blame for that now, too. Maybe three hundred years from now (if humans are still around), people will look back at our present scientists and the culture and society that believed them and laugh.  

Week 8, Energy Efficient Culture

The idea of energy efficiency is based on the first law of thermodynamics: the total energy content of the universe shall remain constant; never being created or destroyed; but only transformed from one form to another. Efficiency, then, refers to how much of the actual energy employed into making or doing something leads to the final result as compared to how much of the energy is wasted and/or lost in the process of making or doing that something. I'm not sure how efficient the manufacturing of all the stuff we consume is, but is seems like the way society has come to be in itself is not efficient at all. For example, people are forced to worked from 9-5 in a lot of places. However, they are not being efficient for most of their time on the job. They are literally wasting time. It would seem to be more efficient to let people work the amount of time they really need to finish something and then let them rest. 

Week 8, Newton's Law

I think of Newton's Laws as ways of describing what we now consider pretty straight-forward truths. Even though not all parts of his laws are obvious, they are pretty easy to understand and explain to someone who has never heard them before because we see most of Newton's Laws in action everyday. For me, the most interesting part of this week's class was to see how much physics and philosophy have changed through out time, both being affected and affecting the society and culture around them. 

Week 7, Consciousness

The short section on chaos and consciousness in the packet made me think about how much our consciousness is connected with the consciousness of other humans, other beings, and all the other forms of consciousness out there. Maybe consciousness is in autopoiesis, constantly re-emerging and re-creating itself throughout the universe. If "every point in the space-time grid is consciousness", then consciousness seems to be one of the basic things in the universe, existing in tandem with everything else. Thus, it would seem possible to expand consciousness if we where able to connect with all the consciousness around us. 

Week 7, Fractals

Fractals seem to be a very nice way to understand complex systems. Patterns within the larger system create and affect the pattern of the larger system itself. Small changes to the smaller patterns would then have huge impacts upon the complex whole. This concept connects back to feedback loops and autopoiesis for me because they all seem to want to explain how complex systems are so complex. I think they are complex beyond our understanding, but these interesting ideas really do make me appreciate the complexity of the world and universe we live in. 

Week 7, Ordered Chaos

The term ordered chaos is fascinating for me because it points very much to the human experience: on one end, we understand that there must be a wholeness somewhere so much bigger than us that we can't understand it; at the other end, we are so consumed by our existence we think we can figure these mysteries out. If we look at the patterns of the universe and the planet from the more whole-istic point of view, we seem to intuitively know that, in it's own way, the universe is carrying on, doing its thing without much particular attention to us and our need to understand. It carries its own order with it. From a human-istic point of view, the random patterns are pure chaos because they make no sense in out relatively small and limited minds. 

Week 6, Energy and Qi

I think energy and Qi are different words for the same thing. They might seem different, but I feel that that is a cause of a language and cultural barrier. I feel like everything is energy or Qi in different states, some more solid and some more subtle. Even physicists seem to agree with that! They say that matter is one of the possible aspects of energy. It seems like the knowledge and vision of modern day physics has not yet trickled down into society at large, but eventually it will and maybe people will begin to be more open to discuss energy as part of who they are.  

Week 6, Resonance in my World

Resonance happens all the time (at least I feel like it does). Whenever I feel particularity drawn to something, someplace, or someone it is because I am picking up on its resonance and it resonates with my resonance. Like I mentioned before in my Bad Vibes post, that feeling of "bad vibes" is a lack of resonance or some conflicting resonance. I also feel like resonance happens when you look at someone and know what they are thinking because both persons are picking up on the same wave. 

Will I shatter to pieces if some opera singer hits the note that I am resonating on? Maybe, but that's a pretty cool way to go out. 

Week 6, Bad Vibes?

Are all vibrations good? Hmmm...that's a good question. We have all had the experience of being somewhere or meeting someone that have us bad or weird vibes. Often times, I take those feelings pretty seriously and try and figure out why I am receiving them and see if there is something I should do (like leave or stop interacting with someone). After this week's lecture, I think that those feelings are not necessarily due to someone's or something's bad vibes, but more a reflection of a lack of resonance or a conflicting resonance. What might be bad to me makes someone else feel great, so I guess nothing had inherently bad vibes but they arise in context and interaction.  

Week 5, Links

The first link was really cool. It made me think if waves and their motion can be considered part sacred geometry...

Week 5. Sacred Geometry and Phyisics

There does seem to be a connection between sacred geometry and physics. If sacred geometry is real and the same patterns repeat themselves through out the universe and our natural world, maybe physics could help us understand why things keep arranging themselves in such patterns. In fact, sacred geometry is a form of symmetry. Maybe physicists would explain sacred geometry as another symmetry. 

Week 5, CP violation

CP violation is an exception to the rule of time in physics. The neutral kaon decays into different particles when time is going backwards rather than forwards. It does puzzle me once I start thinking about it. If particles inside of the atoms that make us up can do that, how does that affect us on the macrocosmic level? Can these particles travel back in time within us and within other objects? Cp violation points to how our notion to time is relatively limited because we can only experience it in certain ways. 

Week 5, My (a)symmetrical world

Symmetry seems to be one of those terms that we have made up in order to find some form of stability in our world, and I have never looked at my life through the lens of symmetry. Often times I do find patterns and symmetries in my life, especially when I am more in touch with the natural world. But I also find a lot of randomness and asymmetries. In terms of my life, I feel that there are parts that I can't explain and find reason to (maybe the asymmetries?) and other parts I totally understand (maybe the symmetries?) 

Week 4, Comments on Links

I have heard about sacred geometry before and while I was never fully "convinced" that there are a set up patterns that make up the universe and the natural world of our planet I have always been intrigued by patterns and shapes that come up time and time again. In the sacred geometry website, Rawles talks about the "geometrical archetypes" from which phenomena emerge. My immediate reaction to that is a dislike at the word archetype. I really have never thought of archetypes as valid because they seem to me to be a form of generalization and reductionistic thinking. I feel like if someone really wanted, he/she could fit anything into a system of archetypes that would not necessarily be true. So while I do agree there are patterns in the universe and in the natural world, I don't think they are archetypes and I feel like they are much more complex than we will ever know. But I'm interested in knowing what everyone else thinks...

Week 4, Gravity

The function of gravity seems to change according to what is being discussed. For humans, gravity is the most palpable of the forces and the one that keeps our world together. Gravity is very important to us because it sets up the boundaries around the space in which we function. We need gravity to keep our bodies healthy as well. In terms of the bigger picture, it seems as though gravity keeps the macroscopic expression of the universe together. Without gravity, the universe would not have been able to organize itself the way it did. I don’t know what the exact function of gravity is, but without it reality would be completely different.  

Week 4, Four Forces

I find it really hard to compare the four forces. Maybe that has to do with not being in class for the interesting discussion I am sure you all had. I find it really hard to relate to the weak force and the strong force because I cannot feel them holding my atoms together. And the only mental image I have of the atomic forces is the atom bomb and how powerful it is. Gravity is a part of our everyday life: it grounds, contains, and gives us boundaries. The electromagnetic force is also more commonly felt, although I find it difficult to think of it as a “force” like gravity. 

Week 4, E=MC2

E=MC2 seems to me to be the mathematical formula to the fact that everything is energy and everything has energy. I guess I don't tend to think in mathematical equations, but this equation actually seems to make a lot of sense to me...That somehow matter and energy are the same (=) just that energy is moving at the speed of light (C) sounds pretty amazing to me, and it also feels like it is true. Personally, matter is like condensed energy...When I touch my hair or arm I can feel that is is alive, that is possesses energy. But it's contained energy in a specific place, definitely not moving at the speed of light. Maybe Einstein is rolling over in his grave at my interpretation of his equation, but then again maybe he isn't. 

Week 3, Impressions on Links

I really enjoyed looking at the crackpot theory of everything and nothing. The part I enjoyed the most was the discussion of nothingness and everythingness. I guess it had never struck me how nothingness, which personally feels like such a crucial aspect of creation and existence, really is not talked about in Judeo-Christian religions. And even if it is, how little importance it is given or how scared we are taught to be of it, as if it were almost a sin to think about it. I also enjoyed the discussion on how everything doesn't exist by itself, but rather everything comes into existence because of its relationship with everything around it. This almost touches on synchronicity. If we all exist because we are in relation to other things and people, then synchronicity seems like an obvious outcome. 

Week 3, Connectivity

My personal definition/description of connection stems from my belief in something far greater than anything in existence that gives rise to all of manifest reality. I believe that before the big bang, everything that we know of was compressed into a single point of infinite density that was uniform in quality. That is, a single point of the most incredible amount of potential that was not yet fully expressed. At the moment of the big bang, that infinite point expanded and diversified into what we define as the universe. Everything emerged from that single point. Thus, while everything that exists is unique and different, that foundational energy or matter from which everything expanded and from which everything material is congealed connects us all. And that connection can do really amazing things and prevails at every level. At least that is what I think…it makes it easier to sleep at night, but somehow also seems very true.

Week 3, Evidence for synchronicity

I find evidence for synchronicity everyday; I just don’t chose to give it that name. I think synchronicity is one of the basic ways in which the universe, our solar system, the planet, and each unique individual have come to be. I don’t think synchronicity is a weird, off-chance coincidence. Instead, synchronicity has been going on since humans even existed and decided to catalogue it as synchronicity. In fact, cultures all over the world and in the past talked about synchronicity in their own way, either fearing, respecting, or finding the Divine in it. It is only until now that the western scientific community is beginning to accept synchronicity. So my everyday evidence is the fact that I exist, that I am who I am. No one will ever know how many things and events, whether they are synchronicity or something else, had to happen for all of us to be alive now, in this precise planet and universe.

Week 2, Impressions of Links

Synchronicity seems like a new word for and old phenomena. Although we might be unconscious of our deep connection with everything around us, we are still affecting everything and causing things to happen. We might refer to the expression in our lives of this deep connection as coincidences, chance, luck, or syncronicity. Metaphysics and different branches of spirituality have been talking about this for centuries. 

What really boggles my mind is to think of all that stuff that is happening right now between everything that exists that we will never be aware of. Right now, the spin of an electron within my body might have affected the spin of an electron within your body and we might never know of it. Or we might "randomly" bump into each other at the supermarket. It's intense to think that connections like these are happening every second.

I think it is a good thing that such words are becoming part of the scientific jargon because it introduces concepts that were thought of as metaphysical and more spiritual rather than concrete and real. By allowing new language to enter into the scientific discussion, science as a whole begins to become more holisitic and intergrative. 

Week 2, Is the Universe weird?

I don’t think the Universe is weird. I think the Universe just is the way it is and it is kind of useless to ponder whether or not it is weird. We might think it is weird, but that tells us more about us than about the Universe. The Universe is chock full of stuff and phenomena that might seem to make no sense to us, but then again I think that that tells us more about ourselves and our place in the Universe

Week 2, Comments on Causality

Causality seems to me to be like karma. It’s like one of those basic laws of the universe that states because of x then comes y, and x and y can be both very logical and linear but also very illogical and circular. But it is also not the only law or phenomena that exists. There are other things going on that link everything that exists on the most basic of atomic levels, like entanglement and synchronicity, that cause things to happen without any perceivable reason. In the West, we look around and see the causal relationships among things with quite some ease. However, when something does not follow cause-and-effect we either deny its existence or classify it as an exception in an unwillingness to accept the other mysterious ways that are constantly shaping the universe. Yes, causality is real (as is karma) but there are other forces playing with us that do not fit into our rational minds.

Week 2, Reflections on Uncertainty

Uncertainty does not seem to me to be such a difficult concept to accept. The need of Western science to always know exactly where things are and exactly what they are has always struck me as kind of strange and reductionist. The need to classify leaves no room for mystery, which has always been a huge and wonderful part of the universe. It actually makes me excited to think that scientists have accepted concepts such as uncertainty (I guess they really didn’t have a choice) because it shows that, little by little, they might be opening up to not knowing. Also, the scientific method, which classifies scientists as objective observers, has seen a revolution. No longer completely separated and disconnected, scientists finally had to realize that whatever they do, want, and look for affects the outcome of their so-called controlled experiment. It seems that for very long humans considered ourselves separate from our world and now, in more ways than one, we are being forced to see the interconnectedness of everything. 

Week 1 Impressions of Links

I especially appreciated the first two links because they were simple to understand for those of us who are not mathematically inclined and who have never really studied physics at a deep level. Although physics fascinates me and I make the effort to try and read books about it, often times I find myself giving up half way into a book because i feel like i can't possibly understand what is going on. It's refreshing to see that there are sites up there that are accessible and people can turn to to understand the crazy world of physics. I think simulations and visualizations are especially impacting ways of helping people understand what is going on around and within ourselves. 

Week 1 Reflection on Class

The physics class this week was the most approachable and non-intimidating science class I have taken. While in class I thought that in reality everyone has a a little piece of a physicist in them because we all live in this universe and we all perceive it in our own way, and that could be considered everyone's personal physics. 

About the concept of time, I really enjoyed the discussion and debate part because it was a very practical way of thinking about time. Often I feel like time is talked about in either a completely mathematical way or in a "time is always the same and it is unchangeable" way, and that completely misses the way that time really functions in our life. And looking at different notions of time in the west and east also helped show that we have a choice in deciding how to view time and how to use our time.  

Week 1 Quiz Answers

1. I have always felt attracted to different types of healing modalities, but Oriental Medicine seems to be one of the most complete medical systems with many years of existence and experience. I guess why I decided to focus in on and study Oriental Medicine is because it has worked for me and my loved ones more than any other healing system. Since I was a child, I was exposed to many different ways of healing and also allopathic medicine. I am excited to be studying Oriental Medicine in such an integrative way. 

2. I love physics and find it very spiritual. I never pursued it because the math killed me...I always wanted to be able to understand the language of math, but that never happened. I think the sciences have a very deep impact on the way different societies through out time have viewed the world, the universe, and the role of humans. Often times I hear people comment on how it is not important to know anything about physics or any of the other sciences, but I think we are all affected by what the current theories say wether we are aware of it or not. I also think it is everyone's right to be able to know the basics about physics, but often times that does not happen because people think they are not capable of understanding. 

3. Now that I think about it, I experience time slowing down and speeding up everyday. Often times I am unaware of it, but other times I can notice it and it fascinates me. I am sure that all of us have these experiences, but they are such an everyday occurrence that we don't even take the time to think about it.