Supporting the "bionic" person - well is that what we are doing with stimulating people's brains and enabling them to move and come out of coma. For sure I would agree with the technology that enables those kinds of actions. I think I cringe at the thought of what science might want to try to do with it - like super charging an athlete in some way for competitive reasons or some other ways that just bring fame and fortune to inventors and manufacturers. It feels a bit like we are messing with nature too much to develop a bionic person. However, I totally support the engineering of blood vessels, bladders, body parts like that can restore a person to health.
Controlling artificial limbs by thought alone - incredible. I imagine that some people would be more responsive to this process, but can't even think how this could really happen. Or can I? Could it be very focused intent that signals brain cells to respond to a command? Different people have skills that they have learned to develop or have just been born with. For example, Michael who did our photography, he has learned to read auras with some skill after a number of years. So I can think that many things are possible, it is just having someone teach the way. I would be all for this technology helping people who are paralyzed be able to have more fulfilling lives, but it doesn't sit with me for the gaming industry, because it feels too close to playing war.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
week 11 energy medicine and energy fields
Acupuncture as an effective energy medicine
It is quite extraordinary to me that despite the longevity of this modality, it has been slowly gaining acceptance in the western world. The first western person to receive acupuncture on a tour of China with Nixon in the 1970 had an acute case of appendices and required surgery. He was amazed when he was offered acupuncture to help in his recovery what an incredible experience it was. Slowly, slowly over the next 30 years or so as our western minds tried to grapple with these concepts - horses were used as guinea pigs and dang they got better. We do have much evidence now that tell us that the needles, chi gong, tai qi, herbs, massage all move the energy. We can put in needles and the fact that people go into the parasympathetic nervous system tells them they have been somewhere else. My first teacher was 56 when she learned about acuppressure. Edith Davis had polio as a child and had physical limitations. While doing some tai qi, she had some difficulty and the instructor pushed some points to relieve her pain. That started her journey in Chinese Medicine and she started a school in Minneapolis at the age of 69. Edith gave an acupuncture treatment at the age of 87 2hours before she had a heart attack and died a few days later in April. She knew of the effectiveness of acupuncture and so do all of us who have experienced the qi. Blessing to Edith.
The Kirlian photography is very fascinating to me. Michael told me a few things about my picture - one was that I was not saying somethings I needed to say. Was it just a coincidence or what that that night was a big release for me saying some things that needed to be said. Blew me away for sure. It is hard to understand what all the different colors mean, but Michaels' experience has led him on a path that some of us find quite interesting and appreciate the wisdom that other's are able to impart. Take what you like and leave the rest as the saying goes.
Human Intent as it affects health
Intention is to me like attitude - its a small thing that can have a huge impact on things. What a person holds as their intention seems to order the output and imput for what follows. For example, I have the intention of getting licensed to practice acupuncture in California. So then I checked out schools - once I learned I just couldn't take the boards, and started the process of interviewing and putting my other life on hold to pursue the intention of school. It is like the map quest of life - you come up with intentions and the universe gives you the map to follow. So if the intent is around positive experiences - the whole experience has a different nature than if it is not. My friend Marcie had inflammatory breast cancer a few years ago. She is a chiropractor, had to give up her practice and needed radiation, surgery and chemotherapy in order to deal with the cancer. Her intent when she went into all of these experiences was to be healed by them and saw the experiences in the most positive of lights. Her diagnosis was grim - very few survive this diagnosis. She is back at work and I believe doing some of her best work after a complete recovery.
It is quite extraordinary to me that despite the longevity of this modality, it has been slowly gaining acceptance in the western world. The first western person to receive acupuncture on a tour of China with Nixon in the 1970 had an acute case of appendices and required surgery. He was amazed when he was offered acupuncture to help in his recovery what an incredible experience it was. Slowly, slowly over the next 30 years or so as our western minds tried to grapple with these concepts - horses were used as guinea pigs and dang they got better. We do have much evidence now that tell us that the needles, chi gong, tai qi, herbs, massage all move the energy. We can put in needles and the fact that people go into the parasympathetic nervous system tells them they have been somewhere else. My first teacher was 56 when she learned about acuppressure. Edith Davis had polio as a child and had physical limitations. While doing some tai qi, she had some difficulty and the instructor pushed some points to relieve her pain. That started her journey in Chinese Medicine and she started a school in Minneapolis at the age of 69. Edith gave an acupuncture treatment at the age of 87 2hours before she had a heart attack and died a few days later in April. She knew of the effectiveness of acupuncture and so do all of us who have experienced the qi. Blessing to Edith.
The Kirlian photography is very fascinating to me. Michael told me a few things about my picture - one was that I was not saying somethings I needed to say. Was it just a coincidence or what that that night was a big release for me saying some things that needed to be said. Blew me away for sure. It is hard to understand what all the different colors mean, but Michaels' experience has led him on a path that some of us find quite interesting and appreciate the wisdom that other's are able to impart. Take what you like and leave the rest as the saying goes.
Human Intent as it affects health
Intention is to me like attitude - its a small thing that can have a huge impact on things. What a person holds as their intention seems to order the output and imput for what follows. For example, I have the intention of getting licensed to practice acupuncture in California. So then I checked out schools - once I learned I just couldn't take the boards, and started the process of interviewing and putting my other life on hold to pursue the intention of school. It is like the map quest of life - you come up with intentions and the universe gives you the map to follow. So if the intent is around positive experiences - the whole experience has a different nature than if it is not. My friend Marcie had inflammatory breast cancer a few years ago. She is a chiropractor, had to give up her practice and needed radiation, surgery and chemotherapy in order to deal with the cancer. Her intent when she went into all of these experiences was to be healed by them and saw the experiences in the most positive of lights. Her diagnosis was grim - very few survive this diagnosis. She is back at work and I believe doing some of her best work after a complete recovery.
week 10 chemistry of life
Life and Living Systems
I know I'm a "living system" because I have feeling, pains, needs, thoughts, wants and the list goes on. Mostly when I go slower, it brings me in touch with the breath and all my surrounding become more vibrant and alive. I can watch a little lizard gobble up an earwig, see the deer and her fawn come on their nightly stroll through my yard, and watch the first star appear on the horizon and all of these experiences tell me I am alive. Other signs are my need to drink water, eat regularly, exercise, sleep, shower, call my mom, check in on my kids, etc. These tell me I am connected to my needs and those of my loved ones.
Biophysics and Oriental Medicine
Well now this is an interesting correlation of how we can explore the deeper levels of healing to the qi level, the blood level, or the organ systems for example on where the imbalances lie. Or is it something to do with a blockage of a pathogenic factors that is the underlying problem. Digging down to the biological level of the system is part of what we do by feeling the pulse, looking at the person and assessing the main symptoms to be involved with some ongoing knowledge to enhance their lives. We want each system to be able to work harmoniously with the whole body so the end result is vitality. There are so many factors that can influence a system like their environment, their diet, their work, family connections, exercise program, meditative practices, belief systems and lifestyles. How intricately we all need to balance all of these factors to be able to do all we need to do in life. It's something.
I know I'm a "living system" because I have feeling, pains, needs, thoughts, wants and the list goes on. Mostly when I go slower, it brings me in touch with the breath and all my surrounding become more vibrant and alive. I can watch a little lizard gobble up an earwig, see the deer and her fawn come on their nightly stroll through my yard, and watch the first star appear on the horizon and all of these experiences tell me I am alive. Other signs are my need to drink water, eat regularly, exercise, sleep, shower, call my mom, check in on my kids, etc. These tell me I am connected to my needs and those of my loved ones.
Biophysics and Oriental Medicine
Well now this is an interesting correlation of how we can explore the deeper levels of healing to the qi level, the blood level, or the organ systems for example on where the imbalances lie. Or is it something to do with a blockage of a pathogenic factors that is the underlying problem. Digging down to the biological level of the system is part of what we do by feeling the pulse, looking at the person and assessing the main symptoms to be involved with some ongoing knowledge to enhance their lives. We want each system to be able to work harmoniously with the whole body so the end result is vitality. There are so many factors that can influence a system like their environment, their diet, their work, family connections, exercise program, meditative practices, belief systems and lifestyles. How intricately we all need to balance all of these factors to be able to do all we need to do in life. It's something.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
week 9 continued
Continuing some thoughts on the synthesizing of east and west
Thinking about the rich history the east has with alchemy, both internal and external alchemy, I am amazed how the eastern people tried to connect the universe, nature and knowledge. History says that a whole heck of a lot of them went down trying, but they in fact wrestled with this enormous body of information. I seems like the west went by rules of the church and didn't cross those lines very easily. I can't help but think of what happened in our country to women who used herbs to help heal people, they met a terrible ending by being burned for using folk medicine. This is a stark contrast to the eastern excitement at discovering every substance that was available to them and what it did. Our western history of medicine alone is quite the path of exclusion - where once the AMA was established, nothing else was excepted for alternative medicine for hundreds of years.
Thinking about the rich history the east has with alchemy, both internal and external alchemy, I am amazed how the eastern people tried to connect the universe, nature and knowledge. History says that a whole heck of a lot of them went down trying, but they in fact wrestled with this enormous body of information. I seems like the west went by rules of the church and didn't cross those lines very easily. I can't help but think of what happened in our country to women who used herbs to help heal people, they met a terrible ending by being burned for using folk medicine. This is a stark contrast to the eastern excitement at discovering every substance that was available to them and what it did. Our western history of medicine alone is quite the path of exclusion - where once the AMA was established, nothing else was excepted for alternative medicine for hundreds of years.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Week 9
My e-prime day:
Okay, I see critters around my house
I saw a puggy, furry something disappear from the outside into the house
I do hear noises at night
Upon investigation, we discovered many pathways that lead to the house
We further found at least 6 holes where they could potentially enter the house
We found a bunch of mouse droppings at the sight of the holes
I am off to the store to get a bunch of nummy mouse bait.
Stay tuned
Synthesizing east and western thoughts and world views:
An article that we read for this week talked about how our language varies greatly from eastern to western. The pictures that are part of the language in the east keep the language cleaner and more closer to their original meaning. In the western languages we have a more fragmental effect of isolating generation from each other through meanings that change with time. Pictures don't change meanings. So this piece of info on maybe more grounded knowledge of the east keeps them anchored more to nature than say a language that has such variations over time.
Okay, I see critters around my house
I saw a puggy, furry something disappear from the outside into the house
I do hear noises at night
Upon investigation, we discovered many pathways that lead to the house
We further found at least 6 holes where they could potentially enter the house
We found a bunch of mouse droppings at the sight of the holes
I am off to the store to get a bunch of nummy mouse bait.
Stay tuned
Synthesizing east and western thoughts and world views:
An article that we read for this week talked about how our language varies greatly from eastern to western. The pictures that are part of the language in the east keep the language cleaner and more closer to their original meaning. In the western languages we have a more fragmental effect of isolating generation from each other through meanings that change with time. Pictures don't change meanings. So this piece of info on maybe more grounded knowledge of the east keeps them anchored more to nature than say a language that has such variations over time.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
week 8 classical physics
Newton's three laws and me
How I understand these laws is thinking about a mountain. It just stays there without moving until the snow stars flying. As the snow accumulates to such a depth that it starts an avalache of snow cascading down the mountain only stopping when it has dispersed all the excess - so there is no more friction left (first law). Second law again the avalache's acceleration is proportional to the weight of the snow and also by the depth of it's mass. Whatever is in the path of the avalache is hit by the force of its pressure and the pressure of an object in its way exerts it's force. Picturing a volcano works about the same way.
Our energy efficient culture
Our native culture certainly understood the value of consequences that affected 7 generations past them and would ponder those consequences before making changes. We haven't as a culture embraced that value, but as the pinch of energy costs and consequences hit us in the face, we are beginning to welcome more efficient sources for fuel, housing, transportation, etc. It seems that we just starting running with a completely different mentality for centuries, but are not waking up to the benefits that are available by being more energy efficient.
Descartes influence
Well for sure his theories helped spawn the industrial revolution and all that came as a consequence of that, but that seems to be our process. We think the world is flat - go with that theory until we are proven wrong. I'm sure all the technology to come out of the industrial revolution has been profoundly useful, but it came with such a solid belief system that kept people in concrete walls of scientific technology that it didn't leave room for other belief systems that challenged the prevailing one. Ah similar to George and his belief systems. Lots of damage happens around that rigid of a system that we are just beginning to get a sense of the lost connections.
How I understand these laws is thinking about a mountain. It just stays there without moving until the snow stars flying. As the snow accumulates to such a depth that it starts an avalache of snow cascading down the mountain only stopping when it has dispersed all the excess - so there is no more friction left (first law). Second law again the avalache's acceleration is proportional to the weight of the snow and also by the depth of it's mass. Whatever is in the path of the avalache is hit by the force of its pressure and the pressure of an object in its way exerts it's force. Picturing a volcano works about the same way.
Our energy efficient culture
Our native culture certainly understood the value of consequences that affected 7 generations past them and would ponder those consequences before making changes. We haven't as a culture embraced that value, but as the pinch of energy costs and consequences hit us in the face, we are beginning to welcome more efficient sources for fuel, housing, transportation, etc. It seems that we just starting running with a completely different mentality for centuries, but are not waking up to the benefits that are available by being more energy efficient.
Descartes influence
Well for sure his theories helped spawn the industrial revolution and all that came as a consequence of that, but that seems to be our process. We think the world is flat - go with that theory until we are proven wrong. I'm sure all the technology to come out of the industrial revolution has been profoundly useful, but it came with such a solid belief system that kept people in concrete walls of scientific technology that it didn't leave room for other belief systems that challenged the prevailing one. Ah similar to George and his belief systems. Lots of damage happens around that rigid of a system that we are just beginning to get a sense of the lost connections.
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