Monday, January 25, 2010
Life Energy Philosophy
http://www.lifeenergyphilosophy.org/
Life Energy Philosophy is about personally measuring our own real-time life energy, so as to privately determine whether or not the immediate Thoughts in our own mind, are based on actual truth.
Life Energy Philosophy is about personally measuring our own real-time life energy, so as to privately determine whether or not the immediate Thoughts in our own mind, are based on actual truth.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Discovering Qigong
Qigong (or ch'i kung) is an internal Chinese meditative practice which often uses slow graceful movements and controlled breathing techniques to promote the circulation of qi within the human body, and enhance a practitioner's overall health. There are also many forms of Qigong that are done with little or no movement at all, in standing, sitting and supine positions; likewise, not all forms of Qigong use breath control techniques. Although not a martial art, qigong is often confused with the Chinese martial art of tai chi. This misunderstanding can be attributed to the fact that most Chinese martial arts practitioners will usually also practice some form of qigong and to the uninitiated, these arts may seem to be alike. There are more than 10,000 styles of qigong and 200 million people practicing these methods. There are three main reasons why people do qigong: 1) To gain strength, improve health or reverse a disease 2) To gain skill working with qi, so as to become a healer 3) To become more connected with the "Tao, God, True Source, Great Spirit", for a more meaningful connection with nature and the universe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong
Monistic Idealism
Monistic Idealism (or just Idealism) is a metaphysical theory which states that consciousness, not matter is the ground of all being. It is a monistic theory because it holds that there is only one type of thing in the universe, and a form of idealism because it holds that one thing to be consciousness. In India this concept is central to Vedanta philosophy.
Monistic idealism rejects any notion of consciousness being an "accident" or the mere side product of material interactions. Instead, consciousness comes before matter; it is the fundamental wellspring from which reality is created. In the words of physicist Amit Goswami, who wrote a book The Self-Aware Universe (1993) on this concept:
Monistic idealism rejects any notion of consciousness being an "accident" or the mere side product of material interactions. Instead, consciousness comes before matter; it is the fundamental wellspring from which reality is created. In the words of physicist Amit Goswami, who wrote a book The Self-Aware Universe (1993) on this concept:
"The current worldview has it that everything is made of matter, and everything can be reduced to the elementary particles of matter, the basic constituents — building blocks — of matter. And cause arises from the interactions of these basic building blocks or elementary particles; elementary particles make atoms, atoms make molecules, molecules make cells, and cells make brain. But all the way, the ultimate cause is always the interactions between the elementary particles. This is the belief — all cause moves from the elementary particles. This is what we call "upward causation." So in this view, what human beings — you and I think of as our free will does not really exist. It is only an epiphenomenon or secondary phenomenon, secondary to the causal power of matter. And any causal power that we seem to be able to exert on matter is just an illusion. This is the current paradigm.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monistic_idealism
Now, the opposite view is that everything starts with consciousness. That is, consciousness is the ground of all being. In this view, consciousness imposes "downward causation." In other words, our free will is real. When we act in the world we really are acting with causal power. This view does not deny that matter also has causal potency — it does not deny that there is causal power from elementary particles upward, so there is upward causation — but in addition it insists that there is also downward causation. It shows up in our creativity and acts of free will, or when we make moral decisions. In those occasions we are actually witnessing downward causation by consciousness."
What is Tantra (The Yoga Journal)
Since the body exists in the material world, the classical yoga viewpoint is that it is inferior to the transcendental Self or spirit. Tantra, on the other hand, views the body as a manifestation of spirit. By making the body pure and strong through asana, and by uniting the universe of opposites within your body, it can become a vehicle for ending suffering and attaining liberation. "As soon as you like your body, it's pretty much Tantric," Anusara founder John Friend says. "You see the beauty and the Divine in it."
Unfortunately, Tantra's loving embrace of the body and the existence of "left-handed" schools that use ritual sexual practices have led many to equate Tantra with sex. The fact is that Tantra's attitude toward sex falls in line with its main philosophy: that every aspect of life is a gateway to the Universal—if done in a healthy way with the right intention.
The Truth About Tantra
http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/463
Unfortunately, Tantra's loving embrace of the body and the existence of "left-handed" schools that use ritual sexual practices have led many to equate Tantra with sex. The fact is that Tantra's attitude toward sex falls in line with its main philosophy: that every aspect of life is a gateway to the Universal—if done in a healthy way with the right intention.
The Truth About Tantra
http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/463
Interesting Undead Thinkers
Physicist William Tiller, Ph.D
http://www.tiller.org/
Physicist Amit Goswami, Ph. D
http://www.amitgoswami.org/
Physicist John Hagelin, Ph. D
http://www.hagelin.org/
Physicist Fred Alan Wolf, Ph. D
http://www.fredalanwolf.com/
Anesthesiologist and Psychologist Stuart Hameroff MD
http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/
Psyciatrist and Physicist Jeffrey Satinover, M.D.
http://www.satinover.com/
Doctoral of Chiropractic Joseph Dispenza, D.C.
http://www.drjoedispenza.com/
Molecular Biologist Candice Pert
http://www.candacepert.com/
Professor of Systematic Theology Miceal Ledwith, Ph.D.
http://www.hamburgeruniverse.com/
Scientific Journalist Lynne McTaggart
http://www.livingthefield.com/
Kabbalist Rav. Michael Laitman
http://www.laitman.com/
Living Enlightened Master, Acharya Shree Yogeesh
http://www.yogeeshashram.org/
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, or Sadhguru, self-realized yogi and profound mystic
http://www.sadhguru.org/
http://www.tiller.org/
Physicist Amit Goswami, Ph. D
http://www.amitgoswami.org/
Physicist John Hagelin, Ph. D
http://www.hagelin.org/
Physicist Fred Alan Wolf, Ph. D
http://www.fredalanwolf.com/
Anesthesiologist and Psychologist Stuart Hameroff MD
http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/
Psyciatrist and Physicist Jeffrey Satinover, M.D.
http://www.satinover.com/
Doctoral of Chiropractic Joseph Dispenza, D.C.
http://www.drjoedispenza.com/
Molecular Biologist Candice Pert
http://www.candacepert.com/
Professor of Systematic Theology Miceal Ledwith, Ph.D.
http://www.hamburgeruniverse.com/
Scientific Journalist Lynne McTaggart
http://www.livingthefield.com/
Kabbalist Rav. Michael Laitman
http://www.laitman.com/
Living Enlightened Master, Acharya Shree Yogeesh
http://www.yogeeshashram.org/
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, or Sadhguru, self-realized yogi and profound mystic
http://www.sadhguru.org/
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Downward Causation
When the direction of casual influence extends from "higher" levels of reality (say, above the level of physics) down to "lower" levels of reality, it is called downward causation. The ontological structure of the world may be seen as consisting of more than one domain, with each domain consisting of different entities, and with different properties defined over the respective domains. Thus Cartesian dualism envisaged a bifurcated world of two metaphysically independent domains, one containing mental substances defined by "thought" or "consciousness," and the other containing physical "stuff" defined by "extension." In contemporary emergentism the world is pictured in terms of a multilayered structure, with microphysical entities at the bottom and with higher-level entities (such as molecules, cells, organisms, and social groups) being mereologically composed of these lower-level entities, yet characterized by a set of properties distinctive of the relevant higher level. In a way, so-called nonreductive physicalism, which more or less became the received view in the philosophy of mind of the last quarter of the twentieth century, may be seen as nothing but a modern application of classical emergentism within the philosophy of mind. Although it holds that, ontologically speaking, all there is are physical entities and mereological aggregates thereof, it argues that psychological properties are irreducibly distinct from the underlying physical and biological properties.
Regarding such stratified ontologies, two questions naturally arise. First, there is the question of whether higher-level processes may causally interact amongst each other. Secondly, there is the closely related question of whether higher-level processes may also exert "downward" causal influence on events occurring at lower-levels of reality. Indeed, this so-called downward (or top-down) causation may hold special interest from a theological perspective, since the very possibility of divine action may plausibly be seen as dependent on the possibility of downward causation. It has been argued that the first question inherits whatever problems may attach to the second, which is the more crucial of the two. Thus Jaegwon Kim has claimed that same-level causation can occur only if cross-level causation can occur. Accordingly, downward causation is essential to most of the stratified ontologies under consideration.
The concept of downward causation allegedly runs into serious difficulties. Specifically, there are problematic implications of the idea implied in downward causation; for example, that higher-level processes, once having emerged from lower-level physical processes, biological processes, and so on, would somehow take on a causal life of their own down to the point of actually interfering in the underlying chain of physical causes and events. If, say, emergent mental properties are irreducibly distinct from physical properties (as maintained in emergentism and non-reductive physicalism alike), and if instances of these mental properties may be independent higher-level causes and effects of lower-level physical (e.g., bodily) events, then some physical events cannot be fully explained in terms of physical antecedents and laws alone. This result, however, would violate two highly respected and important philosophical principles: the principle of the causal closure of the physical domain and the closely related principle of the completeness of physics. That is to say, assuming causal interaction between higher-level processes on the one hand and processes at the basic level of physics on the other (as presupposed in all of the above philosophies with stratified ontologies), there can no longer be a complete physical theory of physical phenomena.
An alternative account of the relation between various ontological levels may be possible, allowing one to avoid the above dilemma. Levels of reality are not just related by the mereological relation of being part of. That would render organisms mere aggregates of cells, and cells mere aggregates of molecules. In addition they are related by higher-level principles organizing lower-level events into systemic patterns of interaction. As a result, certain context-dependent causal pathways of physical activities will be selectively activated, rather than others. In view of this alternative relationship of socalled multiple supervenience, causal processes may come to be seen as highly patterned systemic processes discernible only at higher levels of reality.
Reflecting upon this relationship of multiple supervenience may thus make clear that higher-level patterns of organization are themselves genuine causal factors actually operative in channeling and orchestrating the lower-level flux of microphysical events to yield stable recurrent patterns of macrocausation that are self-sustaining or self-reproducing as a result of the systemic organization of their parts. In other words, given multiple supervenience, downward causation will occur in consonance with the principles of physics, rather than in violation of them. To believe in downward causation, therefore, need not be tantamount to a belief in brutely emergent fundamental laws proprietary to a certain level of intricately organized systems of physical events and processes, such as organisms or minds, with concomitant causal interference at lower levels of organization in violation of the laws of microphysics. Hence, downward causation may be assigned a stable place in the picture of how the world is organized without upsetting the conception of the various domains of physics as constituting a closed and complete system of physical events at the physical level of description.
Bibliography
Kim, Jaegwon. "'Downward Causation' in Emergentism and Non-reductive Physicalism." In Emergence or Reduction? Essays on the Prospects of Nonreductive Physicalism, ed. Ansgar Beckermann, Hans Flohr, and Jaegwon Kim. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1992
Kim, Jaegwon. "The Non-reductivist's Troubles with Mental Causation." In Mental Causation, ed. John Heil and Alfred Mele. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993
Meyering, Theo C. "Mind Matters: Physicalism and the Autonomy of the Person." In Neuroscience and the Person, ed. Robert John Russell, Nancey Murphy, Theo Meyering, and Michael A. Arbib. Berkeley, Calif.: Vatican Observatory and Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, 1999
Meyering, Theo C. "Physicalism and Downward Causation in Psychology and the Special Sciences." Inquiry 43 (2000): 181–202.
THEO C. MEYERING
Regarding such stratified ontologies, two questions naturally arise. First, there is the question of whether higher-level processes may causally interact amongst each other. Secondly, there is the closely related question of whether higher-level processes may also exert "downward" causal influence on events occurring at lower-levels of reality. Indeed, this so-called downward (or top-down) causation may hold special interest from a theological perspective, since the very possibility of divine action may plausibly be seen as dependent on the possibility of downward causation. It has been argued that the first question inherits whatever problems may attach to the second, which is the more crucial of the two. Thus Jaegwon Kim has claimed that same-level causation can occur only if cross-level causation can occur. Accordingly, downward causation is essential to most of the stratified ontologies under consideration.
The concept of downward causation allegedly runs into serious difficulties. Specifically, there are problematic implications of the idea implied in downward causation; for example, that higher-level processes, once having emerged from lower-level physical processes, biological processes, and so on, would somehow take on a causal life of their own down to the point of actually interfering in the underlying chain of physical causes and events. If, say, emergent mental properties are irreducibly distinct from physical properties (as maintained in emergentism and non-reductive physicalism alike), and if instances of these mental properties may be independent higher-level causes and effects of lower-level physical (e.g., bodily) events, then some physical events cannot be fully explained in terms of physical antecedents and laws alone. This result, however, would violate two highly respected and important philosophical principles: the principle of the causal closure of the physical domain and the closely related principle of the completeness of physics. That is to say, assuming causal interaction between higher-level processes on the one hand and processes at the basic level of physics on the other (as presupposed in all of the above philosophies with stratified ontologies), there can no longer be a complete physical theory of physical phenomena.
An alternative account of the relation between various ontological levels may be possible, allowing one to avoid the above dilemma. Levels of reality are not just related by the mereological relation of being part of. That would render organisms mere aggregates of cells, and cells mere aggregates of molecules. In addition they are related by higher-level principles organizing lower-level events into systemic patterns of interaction. As a result, certain context-dependent causal pathways of physical activities will be selectively activated, rather than others. In view of this alternative relationship of socalled multiple supervenience, causal processes may come to be seen as highly patterned systemic processes discernible only at higher levels of reality.
Reflecting upon this relationship of multiple supervenience may thus make clear that higher-level patterns of organization are themselves genuine causal factors actually operative in channeling and orchestrating the lower-level flux of microphysical events to yield stable recurrent patterns of macrocausation that are self-sustaining or self-reproducing as a result of the systemic organization of their parts. In other words, given multiple supervenience, downward causation will occur in consonance with the principles of physics, rather than in violation of them. To believe in downward causation, therefore, need not be tantamount to a belief in brutely emergent fundamental laws proprietary to a certain level of intricately organized systems of physical events and processes, such as organisms or minds, with concomitant causal interference at lower levels of organization in violation of the laws of microphysics. Hence, downward causation may be assigned a stable place in the picture of how the world is organized without upsetting the conception of the various domains of physics as constituting a closed and complete system of physical events at the physical level of description.
Bibliography
Kim, Jaegwon. "'Downward Causation' in Emergentism and Non-reductive Physicalism." In Emergence or Reduction? Essays on the Prospects of Nonreductive Physicalism, ed. Ansgar Beckermann, Hans Flohr, and Jaegwon Kim. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1992
Kim, Jaegwon. "The Non-reductivist's Troubles with Mental Causation." In Mental Causation, ed. John Heil and Alfred Mele. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993
Meyering, Theo C. "Mind Matters: Physicalism and the Autonomy of the Person." In Neuroscience and the Person, ed. Robert John Russell, Nancey Murphy, Theo Meyering, and Michael A. Arbib. Berkeley, Calif.: Vatican Observatory and Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, 1999
Meyering, Theo C. "Physicalism and Downward Causation in Psychology and the Special Sciences." Inquiry 43 (2000): 181–202.
THEO C. MEYERING
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
"The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe" by Lynne McTaggart
Book I just purchased on the exploration of the Unified Field. She is focusing on a scientific approach to understanding healing and prayer - among other things.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Correlation between pattern of colors in wave frequencies and Chakras
Wavelength and frequency of light energy directly correlates with what many believe to be the main energy points of the body, also known as Chakras.
Color ~ Wavelength ~ Frequency
Violet ~ 450–400 nm ~ 670–750 THz
Blue ~ 490–450 nm ~ 610–670 THz
Blue ~ 490–450 nm ~ 610–670 THz
Green ~ 560–490 nm ~ 540–610 THz
Yellow ~ 590–560 nm ~ 510–540 THz
Orange ~ 635–590 nm ~ 480–510 THz
Yellow ~ 590–560 nm ~ 510–540 THz
Orange ~ 635–590 nm ~ 480–510 THz
Red ~ 700–635 nm ~ 430–480 THz
The purple wave has the highest frequency and shortest wavelength. The opposite is true for the red wavelengths. The relationship between the wavelength and frequency speaks to the energy of the light.
An introduction to human biophoton emission.
An introduction to human biophoton emission. April 2005
Utrecht University, The Netherlands. roeland_van_wijk@meluna.nl
BACKGROUND: Biophoton emission is the spontaneous emission of ultraweak light emanating from all living systems, including man. The emission is linked to the endogenous production of excited states within the living system. The detection and characterisation of human biophoton emission has led to suggestions that it has potential future applications in medicine. OBJECTIVES: An overview is presented of studies on ultraweak photon emission (UPE, biophotons) from the human whole body. METHODS: Electronic searches of Medline, PsychLit, PubMed and references lists of relevant review articles and books were used to establish the literature database. Articles were then analysed for their main experimental setup and results. RESULTS: The, mostly, single case studies have resulted in a collection of observations. The collection presents information on the following fields of research: (1) influence of biological rhythms, age, and gender on emission, (2) the intensity of emission and its left-right symmetry in health and disease, (3) emission from the perspective of Traditional Chinese and Korean Medicine, (4) emission in different consciousness studies, (5) procedures for analysis of the photon signal from hands, (6) detection of peroxidative processes in the skin. Of each article the main findings are presented in a qualitative manner, quantitative data are presented where useful, and the technological or methodological limitations are discussed. CONCLUSION: Photon emission recording techniques have reached a stage that allows resolution of the signal in time and space. The published material is presented and includes aspects like spatial resolution of intensity, its relation to health and disease, the aspect of colour, and methods for analysis of the photon signal. The limited number of studies only allows first conclusions about the implications and significance of biophotons in relation to health and disease, or to mental states, or acupuncture. However, with the present data we consider that further research in the field is justified.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15947465
Utrecht University, The Netherlands. roeland_van_wijk@meluna.nl
BACKGROUND: Biophoton emission is the spontaneous emission of ultraweak light emanating from all living systems, including man. The emission is linked to the endogenous production of excited states within the living system. The detection and characterisation of human biophoton emission has led to suggestions that it has potential future applications in medicine. OBJECTIVES: An overview is presented of studies on ultraweak photon emission (UPE, biophotons) from the human whole body. METHODS: Electronic searches of Medline, PsychLit, PubMed and references lists of relevant review articles and books were used to establish the literature database. Articles were then analysed for their main experimental setup and results. RESULTS: The, mostly, single case studies have resulted in a collection of observations. The collection presents information on the following fields of research: (1) influence of biological rhythms, age, and gender on emission, (2) the intensity of emission and its left-right symmetry in health and disease, (3) emission from the perspective of Traditional Chinese and Korean Medicine, (4) emission in different consciousness studies, (5) procedures for analysis of the photon signal from hands, (6) detection of peroxidative processes in the skin. Of each article the main findings are presented in a qualitative manner, quantitative data are presented where useful, and the technological or methodological limitations are discussed. CONCLUSION: Photon emission recording techniques have reached a stage that allows resolution of the signal in time and space. The published material is presented and includes aspects like spatial resolution of intensity, its relation to health and disease, the aspect of colour, and methods for analysis of the photon signal. The limited number of studies only allows first conclusions about the implications and significance of biophotons in relation to health and disease, or to mental states, or acupuncture. However, with the present data we consider that further research in the field is justified.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15947465
Friday, January 15, 2010
Book: The Selfaware Universe by Amit Goswami
I am very much enjoying this read.. The Selfaware Universe by Amit Goswami
"Consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all existence, declares University of Oregon physicist Goswami, echoing the mystic sages of his native India. He holds that the universe is self-aware, and that consciousness creates the physical world. Calling this theory “monistic idealism,” he claims it is not only “the basis of all religions worldwide” but also the correct philosophy for modern science. Once people give up the assumption that there is an objective reality independent of consciousness, the paradoxes of quantum physics are explainable, contends Goswami, writing with his wife and Reed ( Building the Future from Our Past ). He also applies his hypothesis to the so-called mind-body schism, which he attempts to heal. Sketching a model of the self, this demanding but rewarding treatise uses analogies from the “new physics” to throw light on choice, free will, creativity, the unconscious and paths to spiritual growth. Illustrated."
"Consciousness, not matter, is the ground of all existence, declares University of Oregon physicist Goswami, echoing the mystic sages of his native India. He holds that the universe is self-aware, and that consciousness creates the physical world. Calling this theory “monistic idealism,” he claims it is not only “the basis of all religions worldwide” but also the correct philosophy for modern science. Once people give up the assumption that there is an objective reality independent of consciousness, the paradoxes of quantum physics are explainable, contends Goswami, writing with his wife and Reed ( Building the Future from Our Past ). He also applies his hypothesis to the so-called mind-body schism, which he attempts to heal. Sketching a model of the self, this demanding but rewarding treatise uses analogies from the “new physics” to throw light on choice, free will, creativity, the unconscious and paths to spiritual growth. Illustrated."
The Aramaic Blog: Michael Beckwith Gets "Crazy Thought" In His Head
The Aramaic Blog: Michael Beckwith Gets "Crazy Thought" In His Head
"For three thousand years, "satan" (in Aramaic "sāṭānā") has meant "adversary"* stemming from a root that means "to be hostile."* "
-- Steve Caruso
"For three thousand years, "satan" (in Aramaic "sāṭānā") has meant "adversary"* stemming from a root that means "to be hostile."* "
-- Steve Caruso
Quantum Physics
As if I could write anything about it! After over a year of leisurely study ... I can still hardly discuss it. But I am prepared to say this. Quantum physics is the stuff of true spirituality. I can only suggest you start here...
http://www.whatthebleep.com/rabbithole/
http://www.whatthebleep.com/rabbithole/
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