science

In Between the Lines – The Paranormal

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Paranormal – Beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation – American Heritage Dictionary.

Humanity seems to be fascinated with the paranormal. It is the juice of many Hollywood movies. We cannot get enough of it. Whether we approach the topic with curiosity, fear, passion, or skepticism, we are drawn to the unknown because we seek to make sense of it. The paranormal is another theme present in my novels, and a topic that I love to research.

We are complex beings who live in a material world and make sense of it through our brain and senses, but seem to entertain a spiritual side or at least try to make sense of spirit, whether we are religious or not. It has been since the beginning of our species. Whether we choose to blur or highlight the line between spirituality and science, the issue is more our curiosity to find out more, to study it, to learn. It is our curiosity to learn that makes us human, whether we set out to prove or disprove the paranormal or make sense of our physical/material world.

History is full of examples, some gruesome, of our species trying to make sense of our surroundings – cave paintings, rituals, altars, religious persecution, witch huntings, signs on the sky … All of if represents to some degree our interpretation of an event, paranormal or not, in our search/attempt for an explanation or for power.

To a person in medieval times, a hologram would have represented the paranormal or the work of spirits or the devil; to us, and in the context of today’s culture and technology, it is merely an image produced and meant for entertainment or artistic expression. Our mind and culture has evolved to create and make sense of it. We have an explanation for it. If today, we were to present a holographic image to a remote culture that is removed from technology, the people might interpret it as paranormal or of spiritual origin because they cannot explain it through their present technology, knowledge, and experience. Something to ponder. Is the paranormal the absence of knowledge?

 

 

 

 

Why Am I Here?

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I am sure that at one point or another we ask this question to ourselves.  It is the big question, at the brink of figuring out existentialism, our own, our desires, our goals, but no – it is more than that, the big Why.  But maybe that is not the only approach, or even the right approach; maybe, it is better to know that WE ARE HERE.  Yes, we are here and what you do with your time here is up to you and no one else. Do you really need a why to realize it? Or, do you dare to realize that YOU ARE HERE, and that in itself is one of the greatest discoveries and mysteries.  Dare to dream, but dare to accept that the infinite lives in you and you are here, in the infinite, while you try to figure out why.  Once you accept this, the why will be secondary to the greatness that you heart will experience, to the deep communion with all it is, and all it is inside you, and all is everything.

I came across this awesome NASA Timeless Earth video posted by youtuber boatright.  Watch it, and pay attention at how you feel when you are watching, and enjoy it because yes, you are a part of all that – of everything. All I can say is that I am glad that I AM HERE.

I Think, Therefore I Am – Not!

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English: Picture of the super starbrust galaxy...

English: Picture of the super starbrust galaxy. The green and red splotch in this image is the most active star-making galaxy in the very distant universe. Nicknamed “Baby Boom,” the galaxy is churning out an average of up to 4,000 stars per year, more than 100 times the number produced in our own Milky Way galaxy. It was spotted 12.3 billion light-years away by a suite of telescopes, including NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The French Philosopher Renee Descartes gave us a lot to think about when he said, “I think, therefore I am.”  I used to ponder a lot on this phrase, and although it seems to explain a lot of our behavior, somehow, it always felt incomplete to me.  Why?  Well, lets take this example, and this happens to me a lot.  My husband jokes, “Oh, she’s thinking about it, soon I’ll see it.”  And this is true for me, when I start thinking a lot about something, I end up doing it, and the ball starts rolling, unless I stop myself somehow, usually for a good reason.  But I think that Descartes phrase applies to emotion as well, if I think that I am upset, unhappy … I end up feeling that way.  However, this is where the phrase feels incomplete to me – in the “doing” part.  For the thinking to pass the threshold into reality, an action is required.

Creativity is in our nature, implanted in our right side of the brain; too bad that we have not developed it fully.  For me to think of something and make it real, the act of creation, of doing, must follow.  Rene Descartes phrase tells us of the great capacity of imagination and wonder that we have; our whole existence is based on ideas that came to reality, inventions that came to be, and gave birth to other technologies, but for all that to happen, one of us had to have an idea, imagine it, designed it, dream of it – Think of it.  The threads of reality vibrate when we think about this miracle – all you see around you, was an idea in someones’ mind at one point in time.  The computer in front of you, the cup of coffee next to you, the pen, the paper, the little knickknacks sitting on your desk… That reality came to be only, and only, after someone imagine it, and later it was created.

The magnificence of that realization, is so deep and beautiful that it only tells us that nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible – it just hasn’t been imagined yet, created.  Science, technologies, ideas, dreams, hopes … all of it swirls in a dance of creation, and in the end, it comes to be – it materializes and joins what we call “reality.”  Think about this, how profound … it spells no limits!  Reality comes after thought, after creativity, after creation – not before.  Many times, technologies have to be in place first, and this is where its beauty and amazement starts – we depend on each other to imagine, so we can create.  And we create because it is our nature, as we are part of creation itself, one source to it all.  Reality exists when one idea meets another and another and another … We are creators of reality and that is how we come to be – I THINK, IMAGINE, I CREATE, THEREFORE I AM!

Beam Me Up, Scotty

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English: Compact fluorescent light bulb

English: Compact fluorescent light bulb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yesterday, I was reminiscing about my childhood and how simple life was in those days.  When you got a cut, all you needed was a band-aid, a bit of iodine and mercury, and you were back running and playing in the green pastures.  Then, I started thinking about mercury and all the controversy surrounding this element.  To give you a bit of an introduction to the element, I will cut and paste some information from Wikipedia:

  • Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is commonly known as quicksilver and its scientific name is hydrargyrum ( < Greek “hydr-” water and “argyros” silver).

Mercury has been used by ancient cultures in medicinal and religious applications, as well as in alchemy.  Mercury is used in many instruments and devices and in scientific research applications.  It was used or still is used in dentistry as amalgam for dental restoration.  It is used in electrical, electronic, and manufacturing applications and according to Wikipedia,

“It is used in lighting: electricity passed through mercury vapor in a fluorescent lamp produces short-wave ultraviolet light which then causes the phosphor in the tube to fluoresce, making visible light” “Mercury is a heavy, silvery-white metal.  As compared to other metals,  it is a poor conductor of heat, but a fair conductor of electricity.“

Mercury does not react with most acids.  It is an extremely rare element in the earth’s crust and it does not blend geochemically with elements found there.  According to Wikipedia,

“is a part of popular secondary reference electrode (called the calomel electrode) in electrochemistry as an alternative to the standard hydrogen electrode. The calomel electrode is used to work out the electrode potential of half cells.[50] Last, but not least, the triple point of mercury, −38.8344 °C, is a fixed point used as a temperature standard for the International Temperature Scale.” 

In everyday applications it is used in cosmetics, fluorescent lamps, mercury vapor lamps, neon signs and of course, in human vaccines.  There is controversy about effects in children, autism, and although it has been a bit reduced, it is still found in significant amounts in the influenza vaccine, which pretty much everyone gets yearly.  And of course, we all know of high content of mercury found in fish, especially in tuna – the poor man’s food (most of the population).

“The European Union directive calling for compact fluorescent bulbs to be made mandatory by 2012 has encouraged China to re-open deadly cinnabar mines to obtain the mercury required for CFL bulb manufacture” (Wikipedia).

Mercury is also used for ion engines in electric propulsion, and “Owing to its acoustic properties, mercury was used as the propagation medium in delay line memory devices used in early digital computers of the mid-20th century.”  In addition, “liquid mercury was used as a coolant for some nuclear reactors.” (Wikipedia)

So, it looks like in its various applications and compounds, through history, Mercury is a wonderful and toxic element and by now (if you are still reading),  you may be asking where am I going with all this.  Well, I can tell you this – by now, with all the mercury in my body, from amalgam, bandaids, fish, vaccines … and the rest, I must be a walking vase of mercury (and so do many of you, especially children).  In a planet that is looking for alternative ways of energy, is concerned about the electromagnetic field, and temperature/climate warming, where part of the population believes in an “ascension”  in different religions (no disrespect meant here), we might as well be the solution to all those problems, that is, as walking breathing living vases full of mercury.   We will conduct electricity, cool the planet, help maintain the electromagnetic field in case there is a problem with the earth’s crust or core, and of course, facilitate the ascension as a propagation medium, owing to its acoustic properties.  Best of all, is that since mercury is a poor conductor of heat, we will not overheat.  All that is left to say is,

“BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY.”   

Triangulation of Self by Knowledge

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Triangulation

A method of determining the relative positions of points in space by measuring the distances, and sometimes angles, between those points and other reference points whose positions are known. Triangulation often involves the use of trigonometry. It is commonly used in the navigation of aircraft and boats, and is the method used in the Global Positioning System , in which the reference points are satellites.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Mind, Body and Spirit form the human triangle, and when in balance, we feel whole.  Caring for the mind, body, and spirit is what makes us live balanced lives, and when one of these areas is not in harmony, we start feeling the effects, emotionally, psychologically, and physically.  However, to care for our triangle, to balance ourselves, we must welcome knowledge and use it.  Information opens the mind, helps in caring for our physical body, and let our spirit soar, develop, grow.  We need information, imput, to process with our senses, the world in which we live; after all, we live in a physical body, in a physical world.  If we believe in a spiritual connection or world, a spiritual sense, then it is only because we are able to obtain imput through our senses, and internalize that information, while processing it.  When we are inspired, are having an epiphany, or when we feel a sense of spirituality and well-being, some kind of information processing is always present.  Whether it is an act of faith, or reasoning, feeling or believing, information has been processed.  The more you know, the more you open your senses – faith and knowledge go hand in hand; whether your faith rests in a Divinity, the Universe, or Science, information (imput) is present.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  (NIV)  – John 1:1

Of Faith and Seamonkeys

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Have you ever doubt your existence?  I have to admit that since I noticed the change in lunar and solar activity (see previous post with pictures), I visited YouTube looking for videos of people who have experienced the same.  A few of them were jokes and alien propaganda … but others seemed legitimate, and were only of people filming what they thought was wrong with the moon or sun from their perspective or points of reference (a building, a window …)  This made me think a bit about my existence and what I think of it.

Here is how I see it.  I need a purpose to exist, the mere organic existence just doesn’t do it for me; I mean, I do believe in a Creator of all (although not in the traditional religious sense) and I have searched for my purpose for the longest.  It keeps me going through thick and thin.  In addition, I like the concept of faith – whether it is faith in a God or Creator, Spirit, Soul, Science, Beauty, the Human Spirit, or the Universe or universal and natural order of things.  The point is that I see purpose and faith in one of those above mentioned things closely related to our existence on the planet and the universe, whether you are an Atheist, Agnostic, a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist … you put your faith and purpose in something, even if you worship the Devil, you put your belief in something, and it gives you purpose to keep going in one direction.

Many of these videos talked about observations, theories, government conspiracy, a holographic moon, a fake moon, FEMA renting acres of land to store tons of coffins and aerial/terrestrial pictures and video of those … and other interesting stuff (as long as it was presented organized and in a serious way).  The topic of seamonkeys popped in my mind.  What if we were somebody’s seamonkeys?  What if we were an experiment, an organic test …?  What if our existence was a mere organic existence or one compared to a Truman Show existence?  What if there was no real purpose?

I did not like were my brain was headed – no purpose?  Then I asked myself how would I feel about this, if one day, I was told that there is nothing more than a tiny test terrarium called Earth and that it was all an interesting experiment, that evolution was just started to see how far it  would all go, and that we created everything else, given a few cues here and there.   I pondered this and I got my answer.  Here is my answer to that possibility.

First, realizing that the concepts of faith, purpose, science or creator, spirituality, or universal order  had been eliminated, I would be a very Pissed Human.  I would be mad at everything around me, then would have considered most of my existence futile and useless.  I would have no goals left, and I would crash for a while – my world, just as Truman’s world, would crash.  After that, one amazing thing started to happen once the fireworks and anger subsided – I looked around me and saw all the beauty inside the terrarium/tank, all the friends and loved ones, and all the other seamonkeys around it.  I saw the beauty that these creatures created out of nothing, out of a lie, and realized that all along, the faith and purpose, the creator, the science and the universe, was not outside the terrarium, but on the inside of every seamonkey on that terrarium called Earth.  After that, the rest didn’t matter at all, there was no anger, and there were only possibilities, tons of possibilities, many of them outside the terrarium, others on the inside, and many others, tons of them, in a world with no limits, no constraints, and no boundaries.

And that is, my friends,  the answer to my question.