Earliest 'Zero' Was a Placeholder

The mathematical concept of zero ~ or at least a “placeholder” zero in the form of two brackets ~ may date back 5,000 years to ancient Sumaria, when its purpose was to enable people to tell 1 from 10 or 100.

But zero actually began functioning as a numerical value in fifth century India, according to Robert Kaplan in his 2000 book The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero. "It isn't until then, and not even fully then, that zero gets full citizenship in the republic of numbers," Kaplan tells Scientific American, adding that some cultures were slow to accept the idea of zero, which for many carried darkly magical connotations.

According to Scientific American, the second appearance of zero occurred independently in the New World, in Mayan culture, likely in the first few centuries A.D. "That, I suppose, is the most striking example of the zero being devised wholly from scratch," Kaplan says.

The number zero as we know it arrived in the West circa 1200, most famously delivered by Italian mathematician Fibonacci (aka Leonardo of Pisa), who brought it, along with the rest of the Arabic numerals, back from his travels to north Africa. But the history of zero, both as a concept and a number, stretches far deeper into history—so deep, in fact, that its provenance is difficult to nail down.

Click here for the complete Scientific American article.

Inset photo shows ancient Babylonian zero as two small wedges.

Calling Back Parts of Yourself

With paper and books piling up in my office, I reached again for Karen Kingston's Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui ~ an excellent book on the topic ~ and found this:

"In Bali, they have a special ceremony known as “The Calling.” It is understood that as people go through life, parts of themselves fracture and split off. If this happens too much or, in the case of a sudden, traumatic event, too quickly, this can weaken the spirit of these people to a life-threatening extent. After being hurt in a road accident, as an example, a vital part of the healing process is for those who are injured to return with a Balinese Hindu priest or priestess to the place where it happened, to ceremonially purify the spot and call the part of the spirit they left there back to themselves. (If they are too sick to go there in person, a relative or friend can go on their behalf).

"A similar calling-back process happens when you clear the clutter in your life. As you release the things you no longer love or use, you call back to yourself the parts of your spirit that have been attached to them, and attached to the emotional needs and memories associated with those objects. In so doing, you bring yourself powerfully into present time. Your energy, instead of being dispersed in a thousand different, unproductive directions, becomes more centered and focused. You feel more spiritually complete and more at peace with yourself. All of this comes from simply clearing clutter. Amazing, isn’t it?"

Number 56 ~ THE WANDERER

The Wanderer. Success through smallness.

Perseverance brings good fortune

To the wanderer.

When a man is a wanderer and stranger, he should not be gruff nor overbearing. He has no large circle of acquaintances, therefore he should not give himself airs. He must be cautious and reserved; in this way he protects himself from evil. If he is obliging toward others, he wins success.

A wanderer has no fixed abode; his home is the road. Therefore he must take care to remain upright and steadfast, so that he sojourns only in the proper places, associating only with good people. Then he has good fortune and can go his way unmolested.

Lucid Dreaming May Help Heal Psychosis

Researchers are finding more links between lucid dreaming and psychosis, lending hope to the idea that dreams may be able to help cure a sick mind. According to ScienceDaily, citing data from the European Science Foundation (ESF):

Lucid dreaming ~ when you are aware you are dreaming ~ is a hybrid state between sleeping and being awake. It creates distinct patterns of electrical activity in the brain that have similarities to the patterns made by psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia. Confirming links between lucid dreaming and psychotic conditions offers potential for new therapeutic routes based on how healthy dreaming differs from the unstable states associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

New data affirms the connection by showing that while dreaming lucidly the brain is in a dissociated state … Dissociation involves losing conscious control over mental processes, such as logical thinking or emotional reaction. In some psychiatric conditions this state is also known to occur while people are awake.

"In the field of psychiatry, the interest in patients' dreams has progressively fallen out of both clinical practice and research. But this new work seems to show that we may be able to make comparisons between lucid dreaming and some psychiatric conditions that involve an abnormal dissociation of consciousness while awake, such as psychosis, depersonalization and pseudoseizures." said Silvio Scarone, from the Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy.

Meanwhile, the previously discredited idea of treating some conditions with dream therapy has attracted interest from clinicians. An example is people suffering from nightmares can sometimes be treated by training them to dream lucidly so they can consciously wake up.

Click here for the complete ScienceDaily article.

Placebo Part 1: "Dummy" Drugs Getting Stronger

For years I’ve been interested in the so-called “placebo effect,” where some non-pharmaceutical element such as a sugar pill ~ when administered to an unknowing patient or test subject ~ actually outperforms the medicine against which it’s being tested.

Placebos are one of the most profound examples of mind-over-matter ever scientifically documented.

According to a recent, excellent Wired magazine article, placebos are somehow getting stronger. In clinical FDA testing, placebos are outperforming many new “medicines” developed by pharmaceutical giants and are even proving more effective than long-standing medications such as Prozac.

As you can imagine, this new development is playing havoc with the pharmaceutical industry. I'm wondering if this could be linked to the evolving human consciousness, though there's little chance that conventional science would support that hypothesis. According to Wired:

From 2001 to 2006, the percentage of new products cut from development after Phase II clinical trials, when drugs are first tested against placebo, rose by 20 percent. The failure rate in more extensive Phase III trials increased by 11 percent, mainly due to surprisingly poor showings against placebo. Despite historic levels of industry investment in R&D, the US Food and Drug Administration approved only 19 first-of-their-kind remedies in 2007—the fewest since 1983—and just 24 in 2008. Half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out of the pipeline due to their inability to beat sugar pills.

. . . It's not only trials of new drugs that are crossing the futility boundary. Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them.

. . . It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger. The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis. The stakes could hardly be higher. In today's economy, the fate of a long-established company can hang on the outcome of a handful of tests.

As a result of this, scientists are finally dedicating more study to the mind’s ability to heal our bodies.

Long overdue, in my humble opinion.

Click here for the complete Wired article.

Placebo Part 2: Roots in Symbolism, Shamanism

Fabrizio Benedetti is one of the world’s leading researchers of how placebos work in the human brain, and he traces their effects back to ancient shamanism.

A physician, he also is a professor of physiology at the University of Turin Medical School, a consultant for the Placebo Project at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and a member of the Mind-Brain-Behavior Initiative at Harvard University. He writes:

The placebo-nocebo effect represents an amazing example of how the mind-brain unit interacts with the body. Whereas placebos have to do with positive symbols that anticipate clinical benefit, nocebos are linked to negative symbols that induce expectations of clinical worsening. Positive symbols can range from empathic doctors and smiling nurses to trust-inducing complex medical machines and apparatuses. Likewise, there are a variety of negative symbols, ranging from shabby doctors to a pain-anticipating dentist’s drill.

From an evolutionary perspective, these symbols, and indeed their interpretations by the patients, have evolved from ancient shamanism to modern medicine, whereby the patient’s expectations and beliefs in the healing power of the doctor play a crucial role. By studying placebo and nocebo effects, today we are beginning to understand how medical symbols affect the patient’s brain or, in other words, how positive or negative psychosocial contexts can change the brain and body functioning of the patients.

According to the Wired article posted above, Benedetti, 53, first became interested in placebos in the mid-'90s, while researching pain. He was surprised that some of the test subjects in his placebo groups seemed to suffer less than those on active drugs. But scientific interest in this phenomenon, and the money to research it, were hard to come by.

"The placebo effect was considered little more than a nuisance," he recalls. "Drug companies, physicians, and clinicians were not interested in understanding its mechanisms. They were concerned only with figuring out whether their drugs worked better."

[Whether or not you think there's anything to astrology, you have to admit the world these days is awash in major change, consistent with the current celestial alignments. Just look at the overturn of the old order in Japan a few days ago and the tumult our own country is experiencing on a number of critical issues. Lynn Hayes of North Carolina has been a practicing astrologer for 25 years and is recognized for her insightful analyses. She writes the daily Astrological Musings blog for Beliefnet.com and compiles her monthly Skywatch readings for subscribers. From the new Skywatch, here’s part of her astrological overview for September.]

The big news for September is the third phase of a major planetary cycle that began on the US election day in November of 2008 and will have a total of five phases. Under this cycle the conventional way of doing things will battle against new ideas and change. . . . This planetary cycle is operating not only on a global level where it is affecting politics in nearly every country around the world, but also on a personal and psychological level.

In our personal lives, especially if these planets (Saturn and Uranus) are aspecting our own chart, this can feel very much like we're being pulled in two different directions. The natural reaction to an opposition is to allow ourselves to go to one extreme followed by the other, but this is not the most helpful approach. If we remember who we're dealing with here, we can face this planetary cycle in a conscious way that offers us the benefit of change (Uranus) while maintaining a sense of stability in our lives (Saturn). Saturn wants us to be responsible and disciplined and preserve order, and Uranus says forget the structures and start something new. Walking that tightrope is a challenge, but it can be done!

Later, she adds:

. . . We will have a bit of a break from the planetary intensity in October. We'll need it though, because the planetary energy will heat up again in November when Saturn moves into Libra and prepares to face off against Pluto. Now is the time to prepare our internal resources and achieve greater integration and balance between the Mind, the Physical, the Emotional and the Spirit within.

Earth's Mysterious Hum Comes from Pacific Coast

Satellite view of North America's Pacific Coast.

Earth is constantly humming, some parts louder than others. The mysterious low-frequency buzz was discovered in 1998, and scientists eventually determined it was caused not by earthquakes or atmospheric turbulence, but by ocean waves colliding with the seafloor.

Now, researchers have pinpointed the source of Earth’s “background noise,” and it looks like it’s coming primarily from the Pacific coast of North America. According to Wired magazine:

When two waves of opposite direction but similar frequency collide, they create a special kind of pressure wave that carries energy to the ocean bottom. As these waves pound against the sea floor, they generate a constant vibration with a frequency of about 10 millihertz, much too low for humans to hear but easily detectable with seismometers. By comparing the intensity of the hum with the height of waves around the world, scientists can track where the buzz is coming from.

Previous studies suggested that waves from both shallow continental shelves and the deep ocean contribute to the Earth’s hum, but new data indicates otherwise. Based on measurements from a seismic observatory called the USArray EarthScope, most of the hum appears to originate from the Pacific coast of North America, with a smaller contribution from the west coast of Europe.

Waves from the deep ocean don’t seem to make much hum at all, the researchers said.

Click here for the complete Wired article.

Science Fiction Approaching Scientific Fact

Michio Kaku agrees with Einstein that time is a river.

Breakthrough physicist Michio Kaku ~ a developer of string field theory, often called the “theory of everything” ~ believes some phenomena previously found only in science fiction is nearing science fact.

In his new book Physics of the Impossible, Dr. Kaku explores time travel, invisibility cloaks and teleportation, among other familiar tools of science fiction. His conclusion: "A lot of the predictions made by science fiction writers have been replaced by the march of science."

"Time travel is definitely on the table, and in principle it may be possible to build a time machine," Dr Kaku tells BBC World Service."So, if one day somebody knocks on your door and claims to be your great-great-great-grand-daughter, don't slam the door." According to the BBC article:

There is a logical problem though with time travel, one that offers rich pickings for films and books. It is known as the "grandfather paradox" and asks what would happen if a time traveller were to kill their grandfather and therefore prevent themselves from being born.

If the time traveller was not born, how would they travel back in time?

Dr Kaku has a solution.

While he agrees with Einstein that time is a river, he says we now realise that the river of time can have whirlpools and fork into two rivers. In one of these forks, in another parallel universe, a different history can exist, but the past can never be altered.

"You cannot alter your own past. You cannot go back in time and kill your own parents before you were born. Your timeline is intact."

According to Dr Kaku, most of what we see on the silver screen is possible - it is just a question of time.

Click here for the complete BBC article.

Living the Tao

While this video is a promotional piece for one of Wayne Dyer's recent books, it provides some good commentary on the purpose and nature of the classic Tao Te Ching, a small book of profound wisdom that has survived for 2,500 years. In less than six minutes, Dr. Dyer will likely whet your appetite for more of the Tao's teachings.

[Usually I pick these hexagrams at random, but I found a specific reference to this one yesterday in The Diviner's Handbook by Tom Graves, a world-class dowser who said he goes back to this hexagram when difficulties arise in his dowsing.]

Number 4 ~ YOUTHFUL FOLLY

Youthful Folly has success.
It is not I who seek the young fool;
The young fool seeks me.
At the first oracle I inform him.
If he asks two or three times, it is importunity.
If he importunes, I give him no information.
Perseverance furthers.

In the time of youth, folly is not an evil. One may succeed in spite of it, provided one finds an experienced teacher and has the right attitude toward him. This means, first of all, that the youth himself must be conscious of his lack of experience and must seek out the teacher. Without this modesty and this interest, there is no guarantee that he has the necessary receptivity, which should express itself in respectful acceptance of the teacher. This is the reason why the teacher must must wait to be sought out instead of offering himself. Only thus can the instruction take place at the right time and in the right way.

Religious ‘Right’ Is Wrong for Many

Religious protest outside this year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Updated studies on Americans’ affiliation with organized religion continue to show a dramatic departure from churches ~ much of it provoked by increased right-wing political stances from pulpit and pews alike~ though the traditional western concept of God remains high.

Based on data compiled by sociologists Michael Hout and Claude Fischer of the University of California, ScienceDaily reports:

According to the new data, 93 percent of Americans believe in God; a figure unchanged since 1988. The group that increased was the group Hout and Fischer call "unchurched believers," those people who believe in God but report no religion. "If you think of organized religion as having two parts—the organized part and the religious part—the church-leavers' quarrel is with the organized part," said Hout, lead author of the study.

As originally reported in 2002, Hout and Fischer assert that politics continue to play a role in the increase in those reporting no religion preference. The sociologists note a parallel between the rising rates of non-religious Americans and the number of mentions of the "religious right" in press coverage in the past nearly four decades.

Political liberals and moderates are much less likely to report a religion now than in 1988; almost all political conservatives identify with a church now as they did twenty years ago.

"Invoking religion to promote a conservative social agenda may energize conservative members, but it alienates political moderates and liberals," Hout said. "The result has been a significant decrease in the fraction of American adults identifying with an organized religion."

Americans expressed stronger anti-religious feelings in 2008 than in 1998, according to the new data. Two-thirds of adults believed "religion brings more conflict than peace" in 2008 compared with just one-third in 1998.

Click here for the complete ScienceDaily article.

Fixed Future or Free Will?

The Crystal Ball by John Williams Waterhouse, 1902.

My wife Christine and I were driving along I-205 near Portland yesterday afternoon and I was muttering about psychics’s visions of the future, saying it seems most want it both ways ~ they say they see the future and in the next breath say we can change it.

So which is it, I wondered, a fixed future or a changeable one? If it is subject to change, then how can it be perceived with any certainty?

Then, last night, my email inbox contained Dr. Joseph Mercola’s daily newsletter, with an interview he recently conducted with Dr. Larry Dossey about his latest book, The Power of Premonition: How Knowing the Future Can Shape Our Lives.

Larry Dossey is a former chief of staff at Medical City Dallas Hospital and has lectured in medical schools and hospitals throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is author of the best-selling Healing Words, and The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine.

Lo and behold, one of the questions Dr. Mercola asked Dr. Dossey was:

If I can see the future, doesn’t that mean it is already in place and is fixed? Don’t premonitions do away with free will and freedom of choice?

And here is Larry Dossey’s answer:

No. Just because you glimpse how the future is likely to unfold does not mean you can’t act to change it. When Amanda (from an earlier question) dreamed that the chandelier fell and crushed her sleeping infant, she removed the baby from the crib. The chandelier did fall, but the baby’s life was saved. She exercised her freedom of choice, and it made a life-and-death difference. There are thousands of similar examples.

Philosophers often argue against premonitions because they say premonitions destroy freedom of choice. But people who have premonitions usually don’t see it that way. Like Amanda, their personal experiences with premonitions say they do have a choice.

They can act, and they do, to change the future they’ve glimpsed.

I agree with the idea that the future is probable, not fixed. According to this view, the future is fluid and subject to change. So a premonition is not inevitable.

Probability varies, of course. This means that some futures may be easier to change than others. It was easier for Amanda to act on her premonition and remove her baby from danger than for an individual to prevent an earthquake she dreamed about. Some futures may be so probable they will happen; others, perhaps most, are malleable.

This line of reasoning is what many people believe has averted prophesied earth changes and similar apocalyptic visions of some soothsayers. The visions are experienced, then publicized, causing many people to pray they won't occur, and so they are averted.

If that's the case, it's good enough for me.

Click here for the complete interview.

Click here for The Power of Premonition on Amazon.com.

What Was Said to the Rose

The 13th century Persian poet Jalaluddin Rumi believed the spirit devolves from the Divine then experiences an evolutionary process that brings it back, ever nearer and nearer to the same Divine. He believed all matter obeys this law ~ this urge to reunite with the Divine ~ which Rumi calls Love.

Rumi (1207-1273) was an Islamic jurist, theologian and mystic. He remains widely read throughout the Middle East, and for several years now his translated works have gained huge popularity around the world.

Here is another Rumi poem ~ “What Was Said to the Rose” ~ read by one of Rumi’s leading western translators and interpreters, Coleman Barks. The poem reads in part:

. . . whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush

like a human face,

that is being said to me now. I blush.

Whatever put eloquence in language,

That’s happening here.

Click here for the text of the poem. You might also enjoy a reading of Rumi's "Love Dogs" ~ one of my favorites ~ by clicking here.

Number 13 ~ FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN

Fellowship with men in the open.

Success.

It furthers one to cross the great water.

The perseverance of the superior man furthers.

True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals of humanity. That is why it is said that fellowship with men in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water, can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed ~ a man with clear, convincing, and inspiring aims, and the strength to carry them out.

UN to Probe Sardinia as Site of Atlantis

Scholarly debate continues to heat up over the possibility that Sardinia could be the lost isle of Atlantis. Generally believed to have been located ~ if Atlantis really existed at all ~ somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, recent research by Italian journalist Sergio Frau has named Sardinia as the locale of the mythic realm.

Though Frau’s book ~ entitled The Pillars of Hercules ~ has sold well over 30,000 copies to date, a group of 250 Italian academics have drawn up a position paper dismissing Frau’s theory and claiming it damages Sardinian history by sensationalizing it.

Now, however, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is saying Frau’s idea bears further investigation. It has pulled together archeologists, academics, geologists and historians to determine the direction of future studies regarding Atlantis. According to the Malta Independent:

Traditional theories have placed Atlantis somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean because Plato said it was beyond the Pillars of Hercules which, according to another ancient writer, Erathosthenes, were at the Straits of Gibraltar. But Frau believes Erathosthenes, a librarian and geographer who lived in Alexandria in the third and second centuries BC, got it wrong and that the Pillars of Hercules were actually on Sicily. . . If the Pillars of Hercules really were in Sicily, Sardinia would be the obvious location for Atlantis.

A catastrophic event is thought to have struck Sardinia during the Bronze Age, around 1178-1175 BC . Although Plato dated Atlantis to 9,000 years before his time, many historians think he meant 900 years.

Click here for the complete Malta Independent article.

Confucian Revival Expands China's Influence

Ancient portrait of Confucius (551-479 B.C.)

For a decade, the ancient philosophy of Confucianism has been experiencing a revival in China. And as China continues to gain economic and political prominence in the world, the revival could greatly influence the world as a whole.

According to Wikipedia, Confucianism “focuses on human morality and wrong action. It is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia.” In doing so, it puts great emphasis on relationships, not only between individuals but between people and the prevailing social order.

A recent article in Britain’s Guardian discusses how Chinese academics are active in the revival, determining how Confucianism can be most influential in the modern world. An example is:

Philosophers and historians could help to refine the questions posed in political attitude surveys. For example, the "Confucian" attitude measured by political scientists that children should blindly obey their parents should be made more conditional if the aim is to measure attachment to Confucian values rooted in classic texts. Philosophers might also suggest questions for research inspired by less well-known Confucian values, such as the idea that listening to different types of music or believing in different views of human nature have different moral consequences during the course of one's life.

It seems such academic efforts could in fact open doors previously closed to China’s scholars and, in so doing, could raise China’s profile in the world’s intellectual circles.

What is clear, however, is that academics need the freedom to discuss and publish their ideas and adequate funding to carry out research in order to pursue these questions in fruitful ways. Under the right conditions, China could well develop into a leading centre of global learning, with academics researching questions and values hitherto neglected in the west.

Click here for the complete Guardian article.

Russian Navy Reveals UFO Ocean Activity

The Russian Navy’s recent declassification of records related to UFOs has revealed a number of incidents involving the sea, with the mysterious craft exhibiting incredible underwater technology, according to a recent article in the Svobodnaya Pressa.

“Fifty percent of UFO encounters are connected with oceans,” according to Vladimir Azhazha, a former Russian naval officer and renowned UFO researcher. “Fifteen (percent) more with lakes. So UFOs tend to stick to the water."

Many mysterious events occurred in the Bermuda Triangle, recalled retired submarine commander Rear Admiral Yury Beketov. He said ships' instruments malfunctioned for no apparent reason and often were subject to strong interference, possibly a form of deliberate disruption perpetrated by UFOs.

“On several occasions the instruments gave reading of material objects moving at incredible speed. Calculations showed speeds of about 230 knots, of 400 kph. Speeding so fast is a challenge even on the surface, Beketov said. "But water resistance is much higher. It was like the objects defied the laws of physics. There’s only one explanation: the creatures who built them far surpass us in development.”

The Russian documents noted that UFOs are especially drawn to sites where NATO fleets are active, including the Bahamas, Bermuda and Puerto Rico. UFOs also are frequently detected in the deepest portions of the Atlantic Ocean as well as of the Caribbean Sea, the reports stated.

Click here for the complete Russia Today article.

Widening Our Circle of Compassion

During his years at Princeton, Albert Einstein received letters from people everywhere, asking him philosophical questions and for solutions to their personal problems. They may not have understood his physics, but they knew he had revolutionized scientific thinking and they commonly regarded him as “the smartest man in the world.”

Here’s a response he wrote to a rabbi who had asked him how he could explain to his nineteen-year-old daughter the reason for the death of her sister, whom the rabbi described as “a sinless, beautiful, sixteen-year-old child.” Einstein wrote:

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest ~ a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security.

Einstein reminds us that our preoccupation with our own lives will ultimately deprive us of the interconnectedness we share with the rest of existence, if we let it. A wise man, indeed.

A Musical Interlude ~ The "J'attendrai Swing"

Take four minutes to simply relax and journey to a different time, different place ~ Paris, 1939 ~ to hear a couple of Europe’s most renowned jazz musicians play "J’attendrai Swing."

Though I’ve been fond of Django Reinhardt’s music for years, this rare video is the first time I've seen him play guitar with his distinctive two-finger style. Born a gypsy in 1910, he was badly burned at 18 when flames ravaged a caravan he shared with his young bride, Bella. Already an accomplished guitarist, he was forced to re-learn the instrument and develop new fingering patterns to compensate for a partially paralyzed hand. He went on to become one of the world's best-loved guitarists.

This video also features Stéphane Grappelli, the famous French violinist who ~ with Django ~ in 1934 formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France, the first and most famous all-string jazz band ever.

A Taxi Ride with Peter Russell

As frequent Quantum Spirit visitors know, I have great respect for visionary physicist Peter Russell, author of several spiritually and scientifically perceptive books. Here's a 2-minute nugget of wisdom from Peter that says volumes about the state of our minds in today's society.

Click here for more of Peter's videos and to visit his fascinating website.

Positive Emotions Expand Our Awareness

New research shows that when we experience positive emotions ~ love, joy, serenity, amusement, pride, as examples ~ our awareness expands.

“We literally see more, our peripheral vision is expanded,” says Barbara Frederickson, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina and author of the book Positivity, which is based on her research.

Negative emotions, conversely, can actually shrink our mental capacity and perceptions. According to U.S. News & World Report:

She also finds that people who increase their "daily diet" of positive emotions develop closer connections with others, their resilience and optimism strengthens, and they become less depressed and more satisfied with life, compared with people who do nothing to experience them more frequently.

On average, "we all need at least three positive emotions to lift us up for every negative emotion that drags us down," she says, a "positivity ratio" that arose from work she and a colleague published in 2005. People truly in the "flourishing zone" surpass that mark, although most of us clock in at 2 to 1 or even lower, she says.

"There are multiple ways to raise your ratio," she says, by increasing positive emotions, reducing negative emotions, or both.

There earning to meditate can boost positive emotions, as do a run in the woods, dancing, or reading a new cookbook, as examples.

Evidence suggests that there's a correlation between experiencing positive emotions in life and living longer, says Fredrickson, who encourages people to visit her free website and track their positivity ratio nightly for two weeks to see what their average is. Doing so might help you learn the sources of your positive emotions and the triggers for your negative ones.

"The truth emerging from the science is that feeling good is a wise investment in our future," she says.

Click here for the U.S. News & World Report article.

Click here to test your positivity/negativity ratio on Frederickson's website.

Scales Tipping Against Biblical "Great Flood"

'The Celebration' by Tom duBois.

Scientists continue to haggle over whether the Biblical account of the “Great Flood” is historical fact or simply myth. So far, evidence points to some sort of climactic catastrophe occurring several millennia ago, but its scope and magnitude are up for debate.

The Epoch Times yesterday ran a summary of the research's current status. Here are some of the main points:

Contemporary hypotheses suggesting that the rapid growth of the Black Sea was a consequence of an incredible rainfall of planetary proportions has never received great sale. Based on a large framework of scientific laws, predominantly geological, which have been established on the basis of empirical observation over the years, makes this a rather improbable scenario.

In the first place, skeptical geologists propose that for such a flood to have occurred, we would find a similar stratum throughout the world covered with pebbles, sludge, boulders, and other elements. It is curious that this layer cannot be found, even more so when the flood narrated by the Bible had taken place in a time as recent as 3000 B.C. 


Neither can be found the strata of fossils, with different animal and vegetable species occupying specific soil layers. According to flood logic, the animal remains of all species before the big flood (including the extinct dinosaurs) should be found today in only one stratum, without any distinction. But paleontology completely contradicts these suppositions.


Then there’s the fact that, as with the account of Jesus Christ, the nearly identitical story has been told in other cultures, in earlier times.

With respect to non-Biblical myths about a purifying flood, these can be found in the Hindu, Sumerian, Greek, Acadia, Chinese, Mapuche, Mayan, Aztec, and Pascuanese (Easter Island) cultures, among others. Several of these stories appear to possess surprisingly similar common factors.

Among the most repeated themes are those of celestial announcements ignored by the people, the great flood itself, the construction of an arc to preserve life from the flood, and the later restoration of life on the planet. 



Click here for the complete Epoch Times article.

[Several times on this blog I’ve quoted financial astrologer Ray Merriman, whose readings are familiar to a number of financial institutions and analysts, and who has an uncanny ability to evaluation and predict economic trends. That’s why I was pleased earlier this week to see the financial website Bankrate.com feature Ray (photo below) in an article by reporter Jay MacDonald. Here are some excerpts.]

Wouldn't you have liked a little advance warning about the great market meltdown of 2008?

Ray began writing about it in 1991.

In astro-lingo, it's called a Cardinal Climax. And it's a nasty bugger.

"A Cardinal Climax occurs when three of the four outermost planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and/or Pluto) enter different 'cardinal signs' and thus form what are known as T-squares to one another," Ray says.

"Cardinal signs are the signs that begin each season -- Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. Since these far-out planets move so slowly in their orbits around the sun, such a pattern is quite rare. It occurs every 80 to 90 years."

You've probably guessed by now that the last Cardinal Climax occurred in the 1929-to-1934 time frame. Hmmm, Grandpa did mention something about breadlines back then.

But before that, it occurred in 1841 to 1852 and 1759 to 1778.

"Each of these coincide with severe economic downturns and heightened social, even revolutionary, tendencies," Ray says.

If you're keeping an astro-scorecard, Pluto entered Capricorn in January 2008, Saturn will enter Libra in late October 2009 and Uranus will enter Aries in late May 2010. They will be making "hard aspects" to one another through 2015.

"I've been forecasting this period 2008 to 2015 as a daunting challenge for the economy since then, and of course, we now see that this astrological cycle and its correspondence with the same historical themes is once again occurring, right on time," says Ray.

Click here for the complete Bankrate.com article.

Click here for Ray Merriman’s website.

Human Body Light Linked to Metabolic Cycles

Light emitted by the human body is strongest around the head and face, as has been portrayed for millennia as a human halo.

Science may have taken another step toward validating human auras ~ something well known to psychics and seers the world over for millennia ~ due to recent research on faint light emitted by the body.

Earlier research has shown that the body emits visible light ~ 1,000 times less intense than levels to which our eyes are sensitive ~ but scientists in Japan recently employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras to learn more. They placed male volunteers in their 20s in front of the cameras in complete darkness for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

They were able to determine that the body emits a visible light at levels that rise and fall with the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. This suggests that light emission is linked to metabolic rhythms that fluctuate over the course of the day.

Researchers said the light emissions were strongest from the subjects’ heads, especially from their faces.

Since this faint light is linked with the body's metabolism, it suggests super-sensitive cameras might be capable of identifying medical conditions. "If you can see the glimmer from the body's surface, you could see the whole body condition," said researcher Masaki Kobayashi, a biomedical photonics specialist at the Tohoku Institute of Technology.

Click here for the LiveScience.com article.

Concentrating on "Lack"

I realize there is considerable skepticism ~ even mockery ~ regarding the so-called "law of attraction," as popularized by "The Secret" and similar books and DVDs. I openly admit that I think there's something to this "law," even if based only on my own life experiences and observations. I've known too many people who exist in a cloud of unhappiness and despair, for whom life only seems to continue its spiral downward. I've also known people who are positive and optimistic ~ often against all odds ~ whose lives appear to be charmed. We do, in fact, seem to get more of what we concentrate on, more of what we believe in.

But trying to enact the law of attraction for personal gain ~ be it to achieve happiness, peace, love, health or wealth ~ is more complex than simply wanting it to be so. It's too easy, while concentrating on obtaining something, to actually be focused on the lack of it.

This 9-minute video of Esther Hicks "translating" the group of energies collectively known as "Abraham," provides what I consider to be an excellent description of the finer points of how this "law" operates.

Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize that you are sick;
then you can move toward health.

The Master is her own physician.
She has healed herself of all knowing.
Thus she is truly whole.

A Question Answered

On July 14, 2009, I wrote:

Rethinking This Blog

Quantum Spirit is changing. I'm not certain exactly how, or what form these changes eventually will take. Ultimately I'd like this blog to be more inspirational and spiritually intriguing for my visitors ~ someplace that prompts you to contemplate, and makes you more appreciative of the complexity and beauty of life.

Please bear with me while I figure this out. In the meantime, my posts will be shorter, with some video placeholders and the like.

"I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think." ~ Rumi

My Decision ~ July 27, 2009

The same day I posted the note about "rethinking," I also posted a video of Coleman Barks reading the poem "Love Dogs" by the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. This was in addition to closing the "rethinking" post with the Rumi quote.

The Rumi video generated ~ for Quantum Spirit anyway ~ quite a few comments. Among them was one from a first-time visitor, a woman poet from Tehran, Iran, who goes by "Human Being" and who wrote of Quantum Spirit:

"and now i see i cannot leave here before becoming a follower... it's like when you are in a bookstore and you open a book by chance and read some lines and then you feel if you leave there without the book, there will be something missing in you life!"

It took a few more days, but I eventually realized Human Being ~ a native of Rumi's own land ~ had given me the answer I sought.

I will continue "Quantum Spirit" in much the same way as before. There will be an assortment of items that fascinate me: Spiritual messages, scientific discoveries, psychological studies, in-depth astrology, astronomy, and the occasional posts related to ancient wisdom from the I Ching, the Tao te Ching, and the Bible, even fables from Aesop. I now believe no large change is necessary, as long as I can capture the sense of awe with the world that surrounds us all.

So, Human Being, I thank you. I'm happy to keep the bookstore open.

Number 34 ~ The Power of the Great

Thunder in heaven above:
The image of The Power of the Great.
Thus the superior man does not tread upon paths
That do not accord with established order.

Thunder ~ electrical energy ~ mounts upward in the spring. The direction of this movement is in harmony with that of the movement of heaven. It is therefore a movement in accord with heaven, producing great power. However, true greatness depends on being in harmony with what is right. Therefore in times of great power, the superior man avoids doing anything that is not in harmony with the established order.

The Most Profound Question

For 20 years, Esther Hicks has been "translating" ~ she prefers that word to "channeling" ~ a group of non-physical energies collectively known as "Abraham." I've read a couple of the Esther and Jerry Hicks "Abraham" books and find them fascinating and good guides for living.

I particularly like this short video, where a smart-alecky fellow poses a seemingly stupid question to Abraham ~ almost in the form of a heckle ~ and the answer he receives is incredibly wise.

Please take the three minutes to watch this video to the end. It's worth it.

Materialism and Change

As longtime Quantum Spirit visitors probably know, I have great respect for visionary Peter Russell. He's an excellent physicist and spiritually-sound thinker. He's recently put together some short videos with themes from his "White Hole in Time" book and DVD. This 4-minute clip is thought-provoking on materialism, happiness and change.

Click here to see Peter's array of additional video clips.

Tonight's 'Secret Moon' Solar Eclipse Holds Power

Tonight's eclipse occurs at 10:35 p.m. EDT.

[Here's part of a post from Lynn Hayes's Astrological Musings blog ~ one of the best for those of us fascinated by the practice of in-depth astrology yet who are not actual astrologers. Her blog in recent days has focused on tonight's eclipse and its astrological implications.]

From the beginning of the use of astrology, somewhere over 2,000 years ago, eclipses have been used to time significant events. In a typical year there are two pairs of eclipses, but this year there are an astonishing six, indicating that this is a significant year for change.

The upcoming New Moon is not only an eclipse but also the second New Moon in Cancer, a phenomenon also known as the "Secret Moon." Because Cancer rules the Moon, it is particularly powerful in Cancer and because this is an eclipse of the Sun, the lunar influence is even more powerful.

The Moon presides over all issues of emotion, but also our emotional connections to each other and to our ancestral history. Cancer is known for its concern with family matters but that sense of family extends beyond the nuclear family, and even the extended family, to the entire tribe of which we are a part. Some of us have strong family ties; others of us create our own tribes that serve the family role.

Because of the intensity of the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune which is still tighly in alignment, many of us are more sensitive and more highly reactive than usual. Under the eclipse the influence of the solar conscious mind is diminished, and the emotional power of the Moon stands raw and undiluted. The Triple Conjunction is already stripping away the veneer that we have built to protect us from ourselves; the eclipse may accelerate the process of unmasking the vulnerability (Moon/Cancer) that reveals our true heart.

Click here for Lynn's complete blog post.

Mysterious Clouds Spotted Around Earth

Noctilucent clouds over Omaha on July 14.

Glowing clouds previously seen almost exclusively in Earth’s polar regions have appeared in the skies over the United States and Europe during the past several days.

Sky watchers in Omaha, Paris and Seattle plus several other locations have photographed what scientists call noctilucent ~ or ”night shining” ~ clouds. Formed by ice literally at the boundary where the earth’s atmosphere meets space 50 miles up, they shine because they remain lit by the sun even after the sun is below the horizon. According to Wired magazine:

The clouds might be beautiful, but they could portend global changes caused by global warming. Noctilucent clouds are a fundamentally new phenomenon in the temperate mid-latitude sky, and it’s not clear why they’ve migrated down from the poles. Or why, over the last 25 years, more of them are appearing in the polar regions, too, and shining more brightly.

“That’s a real concern and question,” said James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University and the principal investigator of an ongoing NASA satellite mission to study the clouds. “Why are they getting more numerous? Why are they getting brighter? Why are they appearing at lower latitudes?”

Nobody knows for sure, but most of the answers seem to point to human-caused global atmospheric change.

Click here for the complete Wired Science article.

Thinking About Change

Having recently come through a very difficult time physically, mentally and spiritually ~ emerging, I’m happy to say, stronger in all three areas than before ~ I’ve been thinking about “change.” We toss the word around, but seldom deeply explore the implications of this process affecting us every moment of our days and nights.

Something to ponder:

• I’ve had instances throughout my life where I would meet another person and have an instant aversion. In all of these instances, as far as I can recall, it was not a true dislike, but rather a sense of discomfort. I didn’t at first really want to be around these people. Several of them soon became friends. A few of them became good and true friends who have helped me on the journey.

• When I first saw this old Victorian house I’m now sitting in, I regarded it as “the vortex to Hell” and told several people so, including my wife, who loved the house. That was in 1999. As fate would have it, we bought this very house in 2005 and have been wonderfully happy with it ever since.

There have been many other cases such as these, where I felt an instant aversion to a person, place or thing. And later that same person, place or thing became a source of good in my life.

I now believe these contrasting judgements are related to change and the fact that, on some unconscious level, we know what our lives hold in store for us. When we first encounter these things, deep down we know they will influence and alter our fate. The Law of Intertia says we will resist such change. And we do, for a while.

Then ~ consistent with our destinies ~ we come to embrace these particular people, places and things, and our lives are better for it. We have changed.

"One Night a Man was Crying, 'Allah, Allah' . . ."

The 13th century Persian poet known as Rumi (1207-1273) was an Islamic jurist, theologian and mystic. He remains widely read throughout the Middle East and for several years now his translated works have had huge popularity in America. Following his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the Mawlawīyah Sufi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes.

Here, Coleman Barks ~ one of Rumi’s foremost translators and interpreters ~ performs Rumi’s poem “Love Dogs” to musical accompaniment at a Mythic Journeys conference.

Listen, enjoy.

A Well-Documented Reincarnation

Here's an astonishing story of reincarnation. In fact, some are calling it the most fully documented case of reincarnation on record. It's the account of 11-year-old James Leninger, who recalls in detail his previous life as a World War II pilot, his death near Iwo Jima, and even his former friends and relatives. You have to see this to appreciate the impact of the boy's story.

The same story is told in the 8-minute video below from ABC News, though I recommend the video above as a more complete account.



ABC, of course, trots out the typical cranky skeptic to poo-poo the boy's story, all in the network's attempts at "balance," but it only weakens their report and, in my opinion, doesn't begin to dent young James Leninger's astounding recollections.

Amish Suffer for Straying into Mainstream

Many Amish who sought work in factories are now among the jobless.

I haven’t posted much on our current Great Recession except a few predictions from leading astrologers. But an article this week in the Wall Street Journal grabbed my attention because it deals with the downturn’s impact on the Old Order Amish community in northern Indiana.

I suppose there are lessons to be learned from witnessing what's happening to the "plain people" drawn to the enticements of mainstream society.

The northern Indiana Amish are a community my wife and I have been well-acquainted with, going back nearly thirty years. Well before the Amish became so popularized in American culture, I spent time as a young newspaper reporter with several Amish families. The result was a series of articles that won a number of major newswriting awards in Michigan. Being with these people was an experience I’ll never forget.

According to the WSJ article, the Amish around Shipshewana, Indiana ~ where my wife and I enjoyed back-to-basics shopping and eating at Amish-operated restaurants ~ have in recent years drifted closer to conventional society. According to the WSJ:

Like Amish in other parts of the U.S., the Indiana community strayed from their traditional reliance on farming in recent decades as their numbers grew and land prices rose. Many opened family businesses, often in furniture and other wood crafts. By 2007, more than half of Amish men in these parts were working full time in manufacturing, and earning, on average, $30 an hour.

* * *

Some Amish bishops in Indiana weakened restrictions on the use of telephones. Fax machines became commonplace in Amish-owned businesses. Web sites marketing Amish furniture began to crop up. Although the sites were run by non-Amish third parties, they nevertheless intensified a feeling of competition.

* * *

Some Amish families had bought second homes on the west coast of Florida and expensive Dutch Harness Horses, with their distinctive, prancing gait. Others lined their carriages in dark velvet and illuminated them with battery-powered LED lighting.

Even the tradition of helping each other out began to unravel, Bishop Hochstetler says. Instead of asking neighbors for help, well-to-do Amish began hiring outsiders so they wouldn't have to reciprocate. "Factory work doesn't eliminate fellowship, but it does not encourage togetherness," the bishop says.

You know how this story unfolds. The Amish factory workers get laid off along with their “English” coworkers. Frightened Amish depositors withdraw their funds from their local bank and bring it to its knees. Some families continue to struggle as their men seek to find faraway construction jobs, and other families simply pack up and leave in hopes of finding greener pastures.

Click here for the full Wall Street Journal article.