week thirteen

the development of a bionic person?:

when i was three or so i got two lovely white mice. "girls." so i named them after two of my favorite people - me(!) and jamie sommers, the bionic woman. jenny and jamie turned out to be jenny and james, with a whole litter of baby mice. fortunately(?), that had no detrimental effect whatsoever on my devoted love for the bionic woman.

that fascination aside, i'm not so sure i support the development of a bionic person. what is that? an entire bionic person sounds like a robot. i do support the development of bionic replacements for people who have lost limbs or other body parts, like the bionic eye. what a wonderful use of science. i'm intrigued also by the use of bionic exoskeletons to be ideally used in specific tasks, like any other tool or machine and then removed. has some strange potential for misuse, but then i guess so does a chainsaw, staple gun or bulldozer...

anyway the whole bionics thing and the 70's tv shows, and sci-fi in general remind me of a line from my 5 year old friend andrew's favorite song: "anything your mind can see, you can manifest physically, without the thought there's no reality. the clock, the chair, the stereo, the fridge and the tv were once just someone else's thoughts. are you with me, are you with me..." imagine what we could be imagining!

rate "the control of artificial limbs by thought alone":

sounds very similar and in continuation with the bionics idea. i've heard more recently about using a person's own paralyzed limb with rewired brain controls. thought control of a person's own limb or limbs seems ideal, but where there's an amputation or other complications, it would be great to be able to use artificial limbs that way too. amazing that these kinds of developments are going on in some parts of the world and yet in others, people, often children, with legs blown off by land mines, are dragging themselves through the streets on pieces of cardboard. what a crazy, unbalanced world we live in. may we be moving toward wholeness and dynamic health for all.

week twelve

acupuncture as effective energy medicine:

acupuncture is effective medicine. it's effective physical medicine. it's effective emotional medicine. it's effective mental, spiritual and of course, energy medicine. it functions as a balancing catalyst in whatever system or layer of the being it encounters which is available for healing. maybe by saying energy medicine we're referring to the unknown and esoteric aspects of how acupuncture functions. the magic and mysterious for which our western word is energy. maybe we're referring to electromagnetics and trying to reduce acupuncture to that particular known form of energy. however it goes, acupuncture is definitely different in many aspects from allopathic western medicine and plays with something much more related to energy than most things we talk about in the mainstream west.

conclusions drawn from kirlian photography:

being unable to see auras myself, i appreciate the visual representation of them. and i really appreciate the way missing parts will still be represented (for a period of time?) in kirlian photography. this reminds me of the way in which missing or removed organs still retain their functions in chinese medical terms. i also like the way they found bioenergies brightest at acupuncture points on the body. seems like some nice overlap in these ancient and modern technologies.

human intent as it affects health:

each morning before i get out of bed i give thanks for this amazing healthy body through which i live my highest joy here on this earth. feels good. and i also feel it helps my (sym)b(i)ody to remember it's function in life. beautiful radiant health in every aspect. yes, i feel this helps.

i feel intent is HUGE in life and can be also named as attitude, goal, objective, direction. is happiness part of the intention? is health part of the intention? are our words, actions, and thoughts reflecting our intention? do we expand the definition of health to include mind body emotion and spirit? do we intend to be healthy and to heal? do we intend to be fully alive while we're in human bodies on this planet? yes. sometimes we do. and as i mentioned in class, i hold a strong intention that those who are coming to me for assistance with their healing, are people who are ready and willing to heal. those who themselves hold a very strong intention. for this reason, i often find people drawn to me in moments of great transformation and i feel so blessed to be present to witness their work and dedication on their own behalf. i deeply believe that each individual's intention to be whole brings us all closer to wholeness, closer to dynamic balance.

week eleven

i know i'm a living system because: 

i don't actually know, but i feel myself a part of a vast and intricately interwoven living system. one which i interact with and which interacts with me. as it seems that every part represents the whole, i would assume that i, myself, am also a living system. another vast and intricately interwoven cooperative creation. and as i feel the trees and the mountain leaning in to smile with me, so much gratitude rises within me for this amazing being which we are.

biophysics and oriental medicine:

this is a little tough, because i'm still having a hard time figuring out exactly what biophysics is, except for various parts of a variety of disciplines. is there an overriding theme? wikipedia says biophysics investigates biological systems. chinese medicine is obviously also involved in investigating and interacting with biological systems.  and chinese medicine is also a synthesis of various disciplines - nutrition, qi gong, tui na, acupuncture, herbal medicine, personal and lifestyle counseling. in chinese medicine the tiniest acupuncture point can both represent, and when activated, transform, the entire being. maybe this is something biophysics in interested in also, with their investigations into dna and cell functions. chinese medicine gets the whole picture, the overriding oneness. and it also likes to break things down into parts - the yin and the yang, and the five elements forming all that is, the many different kinds of qi and substances. in this way there may be a similarity with biophysics, or where biophysics may be going. with such a nebulous definition, maybe biophysics is still defining itself and open to potential influences from chinese medicine and other holistic models of our world. 

week ten

my e-prime day: 

in this moment my fingers tap keys on this plastic, electrified thing called a computer. little black symbols appear in the white space on the vertical screen in front of me. sometimes littler red dots appear under the symbols showing me that either my typing or my spelling needs to change if i want these symbols to appear logical and understandable to other humans who might look at them in an attempt to receive communication.

while i type, my friend keeps sending me listings for houses he might want to rent on this same computer. i look at them and feel the both the excitement and ridiculousness of searching for something. the constant external seeking.  feeling a personal opinion, that we humans often choose to seek rather than actually fully live, truly find. 

thinking about some native languages. how what we call nouns don't exist. every "thing" has verbal expression not as a being, but as a doing. what we would express as nouns get described through what we would call verbs in some native languages. so the word or words for each "thing" carry the lifeforce of the "thing" and embody it's expression more fully, as a more holistic representation of the "thing" our language would influence us to objectify. seems like it could make e prime a little less necessary.

synthesizing east and west:

i don't exactly get the question here. but, really, i'm feeling that east and west are already synthesized. the oneness exists and it's just our awkward, western human minds which have chosen to look at things from very limited viewpoints. now we're experiencing the playful joy of reuniting them in our own consciousness.

week nine

newton's three laws and me:

looking through this week's packet, the repeated use of the word "laws" is starting to give me the creeps. thinking about how laws are used to both define and limit our experience of life. i definitely appreciate the understanding that knobbier, fatter tires are going to make my bike a good deal harder to ride than my slick, smooth city tires, the force of friction impeding freedom of motion. but! i think people got a little carried away with their joy at the limitations defined by newton and his followers. i guess it felt comforting to them. but for some of us, the proliferation of their mechanistic way of thinking has left us feeling like aliens in what some part of us remembers as the formerly comfy human world.

our "energy efficient" culture: 

are we referring here to all the wasted heat and the first law of thermodynamics? our technology, though developing rapidly is still pretty limited here on earth when it comes to beauty and flow and intrinsic understanding and expression of the interconnectedness of all that is. we have so much to learn from the other beings with whom we share this earth about living efficiently. there was a great interview recently by caroline casey on kpfa of a woman who's all about nature-based design. check it out here:

https://www.coyotenetworknews.com/productcart/pc/radioshow.htm

scroll down to the oct. 16th show on biomimicry. click on listen.

descartes has a lot to answer for!: 

humans are separate from nature? this painful prescription has lead to much abuse and destruction of the vibrant living natural world of which we are actually an intimate part. i certainly respect anyone who explores the nature of our (many?) reality(s). but it's just so unfortunate that a mindset like this was allowed and encouraged to dominate the holistic understandings of all of our root cultures.

ps - "cool experiment #1" update:

from my 100% subjective viewpoint, i would say my actions in the experiment (see last week's blog) had little or no positive effect on the overall atmosphere of the class last week, which was very tired and low energy. (post-midterm blues, and "classical physics", maybe not the best combo to begin with...) anyway, the experiment did have a very nice effect on me. spending time envisioning, sending love, and connecting with the divine light in each person before class helped me feel good and happy to go to class, and gave me greater insights into the unique beauty of each person. fun! and energizing.  

week eight

"ordered chaos" sound familiar?:

ordered chaos sounds like life itself. the balance between expansion and contraction, the yin and the yang.  a beautiful, unpredictable, non-linear dance between opposites. making this life the great adventure that it is.

fractals as patterns of complex systems:

fractals represent the ways in which a variety of different inputs, some as small as a thought or feeling, can have great impact on the ever evolving outcome of everything. yes, everything. (we're talking about "systems", but is there anything that doesn't interact with some system?) kinda hard to believe it at first, but the concept is starting to infiltrate mainstream society. and this idea has great potential for refining human existence here on earth. raising consciousness. increasing awareness of the deeply interconnected and dynamic nature of all that is.

consciousness out of chaos?:

"every point in the space-time grid is conscious and the human brain is a neural structure permeated by these units. or...'consciousness is an active force that we can exercise in the universe and not simply a passive perception of that same universe.'" and this is coming from physicists now, not new age gurus in comfortable, pastel-colored clothing. anyway, i hope the physicists get to wear comfortable clothing too. just maybe not pastel...

chaos theory really addresses the wholeness of our existence. the oneness which we are. and given this vantage point, its easy to see how greater consciousness is not only something we are a part of, but something we interact with, which interacts with us. 

sooo, for a "cool experiment", i'm sending love and light to each member of this class right now, and envisioning a highly connected, lively, activating and enjoyable class this evening. (even though i'm super tired!) we'll see how it goes. if you happen to read this, you can join in the experiment too! 

"cool experiment" (#2):

i tried some of the low materials experiments. fun little stuff. i liked the scotch tape static charge one, where the two tapes did funny things to avoid each other, but were each very attracted to the ends of my other fingers. my monitor must not give off much charge, because it didn't affect them.

  

week seven

are all vibrations good?:

hmmm? is this like asking - is the world good? or evil? if everything is vibrating, then yes, fundamentally, all vibrations must be good. are the effects of all vibrations good? that one, i'd say - not necessarily. depends on the circumstances and the intention. one example is ultrasound technology. this is a potentially lifesaving and life-altering technology which is basically just waves, vibrations, projected into the body. usually between 2-4 megahertz, they're actually classified as radiation, not sound, which comes between 20 hz and 20 kilohertz. these waves are recorded as they bounce back and the resulting images tell us a lot about what's going on inside the body without opening anybody up. pretty handy.

one questionable use for this technology is on babies in the womb. in certain circumstances, ultrasound may be helpful, like when there's bleeding in early pregnancy, when the baby's not growing, suspected multiple fetuses, etc.   even these situations are questionable, but when there is a legitimate medical reason for ultrasound in utero, many believe the risks outweigh the benefits. there's more debate, however, about the effects of routine ultrasound, especially repeated routine ultrasound, on the growing fetus. when ultrasound waves get into human tissue, they can heat up little pockets of gases to "several thousand degrees celsius, creating toxic products, some of which may be harmful." studies have shown numerous negative effects of ultrasounds, which many people consider safe. these include miscarriage, intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight,  poorer condition at birth, dyslexia, delayed speech development, etc.    autism experts are now also tentatively linking this procedure to autism. so anyway, my feeling is most babies having a whole bunch of unnecessary ultrasounds are probably not coming out of the womb humming beach boys' songs - "good, good, good, good vibrations..."

resonance in my world:

resonance is a wonderful instant feedback mechanism. one way we can evaluate the safety of our world. feeling alive in the woods. feeling tense in the city. when my natural frequency is matched by my environment, human or otherwise, i feel at home, energized, activated, peaceful, good. when my natural resonance is a mismatch with my environment, i feel an automatic armoring or contraction of my being, slightly or greatly uncomfortable. an instinctual reaction, intended to prevent me from being destroyed or made impotent by hanging out too long in places and situations which don't compliment or support my existence here on earth. i also find it's possible to override these natural protective mechanisms, and most of us do it all the time in order to get along in the world, even at our own great, unacknowledged peril. (when was the last time you resonated with a plastic cup? or a gas pump? or hospital room?)

connections between energy and qi:

energy and qi both make up all that is. everything not only contains these, but actually is one of these, from either western scientific or eastern philosophical viewpoints. each of these is real as we know them, human explanations of phenomena that we encounter in our daily lives. each of us chooses to be more or less tuned in to the presence of both energy and qi, but they exist, regardless of our awareness of them. 

both energy and qi seem to be something everyone wants more of. "i need energy!"  in chinese medicine we spend a lot of time strengthening, tonifying, building qi. fortunately, although the world is currently at war over energy,   qi, though sometimes devitalized, remains free for the absorbing.