Sept 23

Synchronicity
Synchronicity only happens when people subscribe meaning to their lives, but of course most people do. Synchronicity assumes there is a subtle connection between people that sooner or later draws them together, even when they don't consciously plan to do so. There are so many anecdotal stories about synchronicity. There are many in my life as well. When I think of its evidence I think about vibration and resonance. I think about attraction, and how an ear, human or otherwise can only hear certain frequencies. I think about language and how creatures create a bond that only members of their group can understand. I think about how we emit energy that must travel infinitely into space. I think about electrons that respond to their pair no matter how great the distance. I think about mind as a universal phenomenon, and knowledge as an inherent part of reality that's not confined or owned by the heads that temporarily contain it. Sinchronicity is a just a label created by a mind that is often looking for a particular outcome. What ever it is it may be happening much more then we think.

Connectivity
Connectivity is the basis for synchronicity. Without it we couldn't experience what ever we think it is. Connectivity can be explained in thousand of ways. It just depends on how you wish to define it. There are those that are more concrete and easier to explain and then there are those that are subtle that are difficult to explain. It's clear to me that this physical world is a vast web, an organism even, that has many parts, many systems that support a greater whole. In eastern medicine, this is explained through the concepts of the macro and microcosm. This evidence is everywhere. Outside there is sun and inside there  is heat. Outside there are rivers and streams and inside there are arteries and veins. If you magnify a little piece of ground it turns into a vast mountain chain. There is no end to how one of us or one part influences another. This is all connectivity.

Quantum Mechanics
Uncertainty
Quantum mechanics tells us that the physical world is more uncertain than previously believed (by scientists), but this uncertainty is up until now mostly confined to laboratories and to the minds that run them. From any given vantage point the world is more or less certain depending on who you are and your particular experience with reality, which includes the culture you were brought up in. The rising and the setting of the sun, the placement of a non volcanic mountain from one day to the next, the cardinal directions, and gravity are all things that we can rely upon, after all the chief characteristic of the earth element is stability. But as the tai ji symbol teaches us, there is always yin within yang and yang within yin. Even a mountain changes, the earth shakes, the sun will eventually not rise, and the possibility exists (even from a western science perspective) that a person can walk straight through a wall to the other side. What is deemed certain or uncertain may be accurate or may not be. Uncertainty after all only arises through not knowing. Perhaps there is someone on earth who knew when and where I would meet my wife. What does that say about uncertainty?

Causality
Causality is quite similar to uncertainty. Just as many things seem relatively certain many things also seem to be easily connected to a particular cause. If someone falls and hits their head against a wall then the bump that arises was probably not due to something that they ate. If I then ask why they fell in the first place then that quickly becomes complicated, as I must consider why they were not paying attention, why they were at that particular place at that particular time and on and on and on. Causality quickly becomes messy. There are thousands, if not millions of influences on us at any given time, who is to say how they conspire and who has the strongest tug?

Is the world Wierd?
There are two types of wierd. Wierd cool and wierd not cool.

Reflections on the first class

I thought it was good practice to look at the concept of time from two opposing perspectives. One perspective that concerns itself with measurement and an another that acknowledges the subjective nature of time. Both perspectives offer something useful about the world. At first glance, the "western" notion of time seems to not have much dimension to it. From this perspective, time is constant except at speeds that are not practical to reach. The "eastern" notion of time is more dynamic in that it looks into how we relate to time, which may be better understood as change or movement, and it concerns itself with how that relationship effects our experience in the world. From this view "time," or change is something that has many dimensions, which offers the possibility for transformation for the individual.

Time

Time is a great conundrum. On one hand it is steady on another it is not. When I was in elementary school and high school I new all to well how steady time was. That famous clock that hung in every room was consistently steady - that is when I watched it. When I was not watching the clock it would either seem to travel slow or fast depending on the particular day. It seemed that the more bored I was the slower it would move.
The other example of the inconsistency of time is around my birthday. When I was young my birthday's seemed to be so far apart. When one came it seemed that the last one was eons ago. Now that I am older a year goes by quite fast and each new year seems to go faster. Both of these are examples of how our subjective experience effects the flow of time. One year for a five year old is one fifth of their life, and one year of a 33 year old is one thirty third. My life experience and the activity that I am engaged in alters my relationship to time.

What do I, honestly think of physics, really?

I understand that physics is an inherent part of life. Being in the medical field, and having a great passion for all the learning that it involves leads me naturally to the point of saying that I love physics. I am not sure how I could separate my study of medicine from a study of physics. The concepts of time, of velocity, of direction, of cause and effect are all woven into the study of medicine. It is in fact the study of medicine itself. If there is any issue I have with physics it is that its study would somehow be unnaturally separated from its influence on day to day life, or divorced from its ability to shed light on life in its broadest sense. Physics is all around us and while I acknowledge the greatness in the many specializations of physics I am much more interested in its broader concepts and learning what people from all cultures and view points have gained about the world.

What attracts me to chinese medicine?

I am attracted to Chinese medicine simply because I am interested in health and gaining greater understanding the world that I live in. This interest coupled with my study of tai ji and hatha yoga, along with my interest in my connection with the natural world has taken me in the direction first of ayurveda and now into Chinese medicine. In my view, medicine should be preventative, natural, have no side effects, and should have at its core an understanding of the connection of mind and body as well as knowledge of those connections between individuals and the greater world and energies that surround them. Chinese medicine has this understanding and that's why I have come to study it.