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Thinking about things… I’m not sure if I can properly express my thought processes this evening, but I’ll try to string a little something together.
I watched What the &#$)* Do We Know Anyway? and ended up sitting through the credits trying to organize my thoughts on the subject. I don’t know if anyone who reads this journal has heard of it, but it’s an experimental sort of movie that mixes a regular movie plotline with footage from interviews with experts and persons knowledgeable in the field of quantum physics.
(An aside - When I was in elementary and middle school I was fascinated with science of all kinds. It was always my favorite class and I even went so far as to talk my parents into letting me join an explorers group. It was a small group of children who were interested in science and met every other week at Carbide (a chemical plant) to be lectured and taught by the gentleman (and women) who worked there. It was fun times even though I was painfully shy and afraid to ask a great deal of questions. By the time I had moved into high school, I became enamored with psychology and decided to major in that when I went to college. During my junior year of college I was second-guessing my chosen profession. I found myself skipping classes and avoiding my psych text books. All other fields looked much more appealing. I tried to picture myself actually reading Psychology Today or academic journals in the vein of psychology, but couldn’t put myself in those shoes. I had lost any passion I held for the field. While I still find psychology and human interaction extremely interesting, I can’t see myself practicing or even researching in that field. The head of the psych department had high aspirations for me and I feel as if I’ve let him down. He was convinced that I would move on and conduct many inspired ventures into psychological research and such; - that I would do him proud and be published, etc, etc. I’m practicing my crude and uneducated form of accounting at the moment. No psychology or research involved. Part of me wishes I had stuck with science. Chemistry, physics, whatever. Those two were always my favorites, although I did enjoy anatomy/physiology well enough and had a knack for it when I was a senior in high school.)
I’ll refrain from repeating the movie here because there was far too much information imparted during the two hours to type out at midnight. I will say that it is…thought-provoking. The general gist of it is the belief that we can evolve ourselves with the right frame of mind (read: open mind) into an ability to manipulate the world around us (and ourselves) by thought alone. Of course they gave the rudimentary introduction to atoms, molecules, matter, etc which was interesting in and of itself when mixed in with the actual plot of the movie. It was established that matter is not static - an object being able to exist in two places at the same time as well as the idea that no object is here and only here, that there are waves of possibility until a thought from an observer places that matter in one place. Taking this and running with it they presented the theory that a more evolved human with the capacity to better control their brain would be able to manipulate matter. Since I just saw Dark City last weekend, I suppose that’s as good an example as any. John Murdock was eventually able to “tune” or manipulate matter into the form that he desired.
Sure, we can’t do this now, but we’re so conditioned to believe that a chair is a chair is a chair that we don’t even wish to entertain the possibility that it could easily be morphed into something else by reorganizing atoms, by changing our perception of it. Dr. Masaru Emoto took frozen distilled water and viewed it under a dark field microscope, taking a picture of what it looked like without interference. Then he placed that water into several different jars and wrote different phrases/words on those jars, letting them sit overnight. The next day he looked at each jar and observed the difference. The phrases had a profound effect on the water. Of course the liquid looked no different to the naked eye, but when viewed by the microscope the change was drastic and very noticeable. The skeptic in me says that it could have been any variation of things that were left over in those jars that may have interacted with the distilled water. But the idea is such an interesting one - that thoughts alone could manipulate the smallest particles of the water and change their shape and form.
So, if thoughts can change water, then surely thoughts can change us. We’re mainly water - 80%, isn’t it? The movie delved into our ability to manipulate our body’s reactions. Not so easy to do, but if you overcome the hurtles, then perhaps it would be beneficial. We all hear the phrase “the power of positive thinking”. While part of me believe that positive thinking can make a difference, the more cynical (and dare I say, lazy?) part of me chocks it up as a bunch of baloney. But what if we can manipulate our days, our lives, by pushing our thoughts in a certain direction? What if we can wake up and lay in bed for a few minutes and impress our thoughts upon the day? Will the day to go a certain way? I suppose they’re saying: start small. We believe you have the ability to influence the world around you by thought alone, but let’s not jump into the deep end of the pool and start popping new buildings up by brain waves alone (ala Dark City). How about we start with influencing your emotions first?
And that opened a whole other can of worms. Another basic lesson about how the brain works, peptides (chemicals), synapses, receptors, cells, etc. Again, very interesting and done quite well. It held my attention much more than one of those science cartoons from the ‘80s. After the lesson in the inner workings of your body, they ventured into talk of the connections we create in our brain, the network that connects all of our thoughts and experiences together and how if we are repeatedly emotionally abused or emotionally abuse ourselves, that those synapses wire themselves accordingly. And that to break the cycle you have to effectively rewire your brain which I’m sure is no easy task. Another thought brought up was that some people (and perhaps all of us to certain degrees) become physically addicted to emotions (or rather the chemicals that produce those emotions). While some people may have an addiction to lust/sex and crave those chemicals that induce the feelings of such, others become just as addicted to depression, hopelessness, etc. The more you feel a certain emotion, the more desensitized your cells become to the chemical that induces that particular feeling. And just like a drug you need more in higher quantities and concentrations. The cells develop more receptors to that chemical/emotion you crave and when it divides the sister cell will have even more receptors for such. So, if you can take control of your body and influence your being by thought alone, then you can break that cycle. You can stop your dependency on whatever emotion you may be addicted to. Then again, that’s a big if. I’m not so sure that rewiring your brain and influencing every cell in your body by “the power of positive thinking” alone is going to cut it when it comes to extreme situations. However, a reasonably balanced person (such as myself, I hope) could use this kernel of an idea to attempt to nudge my life and mind into a better place. There will always be days that are better than others, but it would be nice to make the highs and lows a bit more even.
So, the idea is this. Before you get out of bed in the morning, you plan your day. Not just the things you want to get accomplished that day, but the overall feeling you wish to have and the smoothness of the events. Go into the day believing that it will proceed as you have thought and take all thinks that are thrown at you in that light. I suppose it’s similar to creating a sort of inner peace when faced with the little (and not-so-little) annoyances and upsets of daily life. I prefer to think of it as balance and centeredness.
The movie also plodded into spirituality and the concept of God in relation to people, the universe, etc. I’ll not go into that here and now because it would make this massive entry even longer and if you’re still with me then I certainly don’t want to loose you now. Suffice it to say that it was all very interesting if not enlightening. Many beliefs I had were reaffirmed by others and new avenues of thought were presented.
The movie closed with a brief word from one of the more animated and kooky ( I use the term only in affection) professors and I’ll quote him now.
“Ponder that for a while.”
I watched What the &#$)* Do We Know Anyway? and ended up sitting through the credits trying to organize my thoughts on the subject. I don’t know if anyone who reads this journal has heard of it, but it’s an experimental sort of movie that mixes a regular movie plotline with footage from interviews with experts and persons knowledgeable in the field of quantum physics.
(An aside - When I was in elementary and middle school I was fascinated with science of all kinds. It was always my favorite class and I even went so far as to talk my parents into letting me join an explorers group. It was a small group of children who were interested in science and met every other week at Carbide (a chemical plant) to be lectured and taught by the gentleman (and women) who worked there. It was fun times even though I was painfully shy and afraid to ask a great deal of questions. By the time I had moved into high school, I became enamored with psychology and decided to major in that when I went to college. During my junior year of college I was second-guessing my chosen profession. I found myself skipping classes and avoiding my psych text books. All other fields looked much more appealing. I tried to picture myself actually reading Psychology Today or academic journals in the vein of psychology, but couldn’t put myself in those shoes. I had lost any passion I held for the field. While I still find psychology and human interaction extremely interesting, I can’t see myself practicing or even researching in that field. The head of the psych department had high aspirations for me and I feel as if I’ve let him down. He was convinced that I would move on and conduct many inspired ventures into psychological research and such; - that I would do him proud and be published, etc, etc. I’m practicing my crude and uneducated form of accounting at the moment. No psychology or research involved. Part of me wishes I had stuck with science. Chemistry, physics, whatever. Those two were always my favorites, although I did enjoy anatomy/physiology well enough and had a knack for it when I was a senior in high school.)
I’ll refrain from repeating the movie here because there was far too much information imparted during the two hours to type out at midnight. I will say that it is…thought-provoking. The general gist of it is the belief that we can evolve ourselves with the right frame of mind (read: open mind) into an ability to manipulate the world around us (and ourselves) by thought alone. Of course they gave the rudimentary introduction to atoms, molecules, matter, etc which was interesting in and of itself when mixed in with the actual plot of the movie. It was established that matter is not static - an object being able to exist in two places at the same time as well as the idea that no object is here and only here, that there are waves of possibility until a thought from an observer places that matter in one place. Taking this and running with it they presented the theory that a more evolved human with the capacity to better control their brain would be able to manipulate matter. Since I just saw Dark City last weekend, I suppose that’s as good an example as any. John Murdock was eventually able to “tune” or manipulate matter into the form that he desired.
Sure, we can’t do this now, but we’re so conditioned to believe that a chair is a chair is a chair that we don’t even wish to entertain the possibility that it could easily be morphed into something else by reorganizing atoms, by changing our perception of it. Dr. Masaru Emoto took frozen distilled water and viewed it under a dark field microscope, taking a picture of what it looked like without interference. Then he placed that water into several different jars and wrote different phrases/words on those jars, letting them sit overnight. The next day he looked at each jar and observed the difference. The phrases had a profound effect on the water. Of course the liquid looked no different to the naked eye, but when viewed by the microscope the change was drastic and very noticeable. The skeptic in me says that it could have been any variation of things that were left over in those jars that may have interacted with the distilled water. But the idea is such an interesting one - that thoughts alone could manipulate the smallest particles of the water and change their shape and form.
So, if thoughts can change water, then surely thoughts can change us. We’re mainly water - 80%, isn’t it? The movie delved into our ability to manipulate our body’s reactions. Not so easy to do, but if you overcome the hurtles, then perhaps it would be beneficial. We all hear the phrase “the power of positive thinking”. While part of me believe that positive thinking can make a difference, the more cynical (and dare I say, lazy?) part of me chocks it up as a bunch of baloney. But what if we can manipulate our days, our lives, by pushing our thoughts in a certain direction? What if we can wake up and lay in bed for a few minutes and impress our thoughts upon the day? Will the day to go a certain way? I suppose they’re saying: start small. We believe you have the ability to influence the world around you by thought alone, but let’s not jump into the deep end of the pool and start popping new buildings up by brain waves alone (ala Dark City). How about we start with influencing your emotions first?
And that opened a whole other can of worms. Another basic lesson about how the brain works, peptides (chemicals), synapses, receptors, cells, etc. Again, very interesting and done quite well. It held my attention much more than one of those science cartoons from the ‘80s. After the lesson in the inner workings of your body, they ventured into talk of the connections we create in our brain, the network that connects all of our thoughts and experiences together and how if we are repeatedly emotionally abused or emotionally abuse ourselves, that those synapses wire themselves accordingly. And that to break the cycle you have to effectively rewire your brain which I’m sure is no easy task. Another thought brought up was that some people (and perhaps all of us to certain degrees) become physically addicted to emotions (or rather the chemicals that produce those emotions). While some people may have an addiction to lust/sex and crave those chemicals that induce the feelings of such, others become just as addicted to depression, hopelessness, etc. The more you feel a certain emotion, the more desensitized your cells become to the chemical that induces that particular feeling. And just like a drug you need more in higher quantities and concentrations. The cells develop more receptors to that chemical/emotion you crave and when it divides the sister cell will have even more receptors for such. So, if you can take control of your body and influence your being by thought alone, then you can break that cycle. You can stop your dependency on whatever emotion you may be addicted to. Then again, that’s a big if. I’m not so sure that rewiring your brain and influencing every cell in your body by “the power of positive thinking” alone is going to cut it when it comes to extreme situations. However, a reasonably balanced person (such as myself, I hope) could use this kernel of an idea to attempt to nudge my life and mind into a better place. There will always be days that are better than others, but it would be nice to make the highs and lows a bit more even.
So, the idea is this. Before you get out of bed in the morning, you plan your day. Not just the things you want to get accomplished that day, but the overall feeling you wish to have and the smoothness of the events. Go into the day believing that it will proceed as you have thought and take all thinks that are thrown at you in that light. I suppose it’s similar to creating a sort of inner peace when faced with the little (and not-so-little) annoyances and upsets of daily life. I prefer to think of it as balance and centeredness.
The movie also plodded into spirituality and the concept of God in relation to people, the universe, etc. I’ll not go into that here and now because it would make this massive entry even longer and if you’re still with me then I certainly don’t want to loose you now. Suffice it to say that it was all very interesting if not enlightening. Many beliefs I had were reaffirmed by others and new avenues of thought were presented.
The movie closed with a brief word from one of the more animated and kooky ( I use the term only in affection) professors and I’ll quote him now.
“Ponder that for a while.”
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From:
no subject
Have you read Altered States by Paddy Chayefsky? The power of mind over matter, sort of, also a lousy movie with a hunky John Hurt.
From:
no subject
Asimov actually envisioned future people (or a secluded set of future people) who'd developed their brains to the point of manipulating the world around them with thought alone....
"Who's Afraid of Schrodinger's Cat" is a book you might wanna check out -- it's a sort of dictionary of quantum mechanics and related topics, but it's *very* readable and very accessible. It talks about many of the things you mentioned from the movie, and actually makes sense of the "possibility of impossibilities" theory.
Richard Carlson (the dreaded "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" author) wrote a book called "You Can be Happy Again," saying very, very similar things about how thoughts are the origin of our feelings and experiences, and gives suggestions on how to manage your thinking (without it becoming run-of-the-mill positive-thinking claptrap).
Addictions to feelings, even unhappy ones: I've thought that for a long time. Not an original thought, I'm sure I heard it somewhere. But interesting nonetheless.
Wow...OK, I'll stop there. Sorry for the long reply; you just had a lot there to, um, ponder. :)
From:
no subject
If you really want to get back to chemistry or physics - do it! I am running from it quite sucessfully but that doesn't mean you should! Just because you have taken one direction doesn't mean you have to stick with it forever! I think that education is more flexible in the US than the UK, and I know that I could do almost any subject I wanted to degree level and beyond here. Qualifications aren't the only route into a scientific career either.
That soapbox is around again! You know you can do anything you want - you don't need me to tell you that!