July 12 2012: Post 548 (2012 Day 194) - Fast Day
July 12, 2012
Daily Comment
Solid equals permanence.
Therefore, we know neither actually exists. That nothing is permanent is a given, right? Also, we know that at quantum levels, a solid has more space than subatomic particle matter; or, if you look at it from a wave standpoint, there is nothing solid about it.
The impermanence of all things is a fearsome prospect, because it means that things we depend on will change, and may ultimately be unreliable. This leads to feelings of insecurity (see: Fear). I guess at the far end of the spectrum, a person can become unhinged, feeling that the illusion of physical existence will manifest itself painfully (ref: Neil deGrasse Tyson, a physicist afraid to get out of bed lest his atomic structure merge with the atomic structure of the floor, and he falls through. See also: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai).
Which gets back to my notion that thoughts and things have a similar relationship to mass and energy - which is that one becomes the other, back and forth. This is the dance of reality: All we know of the 'real' is what we perceive, and our perception is a matter of thought, not reality.
If this sounds like Otter's post-marijuana rant from Animal House, I apologize. But he was right.
I don't think so, at least not until you get beyond the physical, mortal plane of existence. Our self-awareness might be based on an illusion, but I think it is a necessary mechanism for perpetuating our idea of physical existence. All those of us who are not 'enlightened', who haven't reached the level of existence that transcends physical illusions, are over-populating this world, and we have to interact with each other, and work out our shared experience of 'reality'.
Theoretical illusions of permanence and solidity aside, move out from under the falling piano..
(Today's post brought to you by the Dept. of Silliness, CNY division.).
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Food and Diet Section
Today's Weight: 200.6 lbs
Yesterday's Weight: 204.8 lbs
Day Net Loss/Gain: - 4.2 lbs
 |
| Year 2012 daily weight from December 31, 2011. |
Diet Comment:
That's a pretty big loss for a 'normal' day's eating. Good. Weird spike this week.
Food Log
Breakfast
Skipped.
Lunch
Skipped.
Snack (break fast)
Pepperoni, celery, home-made mayonnaise. chia gel.
Dinner
Snack
Baby carrots and home-made mayonnaise.
Liquid Intake
Coffee: 22 oz, Water: 118+ ozSkipped.
Lunch
Skipped.
Snack (break fast)
Pepperoni, celery, home-made mayonnaise. chia gel.
Dinner
 |
| Dal Fry (lentil curry) with spinach and eggs. Not shown: Salad with Spring Mix greens , red cabbage and balsamic vinaigrette. |
Baby carrots and home-made mayonnaise.
Liquid Intake
Please leave a comment if you visit my blog. Thank you!
posted by Reverend Ken at
8:07 AM
3 Comments:
Even though we know it is an illusion, we have to operate as though our perception is real- otherwise, we would never get out of bed. It is very hard to "know" both that things are an illusion and to act as though they are real in my experience. Instead, we build up habits based on that felt reality. My bad habits keep me back. Love you Oh- I am having that stress echo today. Still feeling kind of sick but doing it anyway because I have been dreading it and want it over. love you both
Ken, I have great difficulty communicating my thoughts by typing into the computer, mainly because I am an inaccurate and extremely slow typist (due to lack of practice, and visual impairment). My mind is too fast for my fingers and I am always leaping ahead of the concepts I am typing. It is a real struggle to convey my thoughts in a sensible way. That being said, I am sending you two fragmentary responses to subjects raised by You or Joan. The first was inspired when Joan and I disagreed about whether Autism was an illness to be treated with the aim of cure, or an individual difference calling for adaptation. What I wrote was meant to be the foundation for my argument on the side of difference/adaptation which I abandoned in frustration and mental exhaustion. The second was inspired by your blog entry on solidity, permanence, and illusion. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I hope mine don’t sound like the ravings of a madman. I’m hoping they make some sense to you. I’m also hoping that you enjoy them.
FIRST - While we allow for the possibility that there are multiple realities, we can only live in and know one. One reality that we each experience individually, subjectively. Each of us experience this one, complete reality from our individual position in the time space continuum. Since two bodies can’t occupy the same space at the same time, these two bodies have different subjective realities in relation to the one, complete and shared. The evolution and growth of the individual human follows the blueprint resulting from the combination of individual genetic material developed within and according to the laws of our subjective reality.
This DNA blueprint determines whether or not cells will replicate, how they will interact, what form and function they will assume. It determines the structures and capabilities of our vital and sensory organs to respond to the environmental challenges of living in this subjective reality. It determines how our brains develop, how we are wired. How the brain regulates our metabolism, the sensitivities of the nervous and sensory areas of our brains, the mapping of the network that synthesizes and integrates the disparate information coursing through the neuronal pathway and connections. It determines what we can and how we can perceive and respond. Mind and body develop as one thing, a complete system of subjective life.
SECOND - If solidity is an illusion, then what am I, that I must spend my life ducking falling pianos. If an illusory piano crushes an illusory body, what has happened? Impermanence of all things means that all that I identify as Andy Kellerman are also impermanent. Impermanence = change = transformation. When one thing in the universe changes, every thing in the universe changes correspondingly ( the butterfly effect).
There is no such thing as empty space (void). Space is filled with energy fields generated from the particles traveling through space, in which the constituent waves collide or intermingle and reshape each other. Energy is recognized as having 2 aspects - wave and particle (see the recently observed Higgs - Boson Particle which imbues said particles with mass). I think that our reality is a continuum of vibrating energy on which the quality of materiality approaches one pole and the quality of immateriality approaching the other pole. More mass means slower vibrations means greater materiality means less potential for change which means a stronger illusion of permanence. The limitations of our perceptions allow us to only know
a partial picture as our tools of physical perception operate within a finite range of frequencies and wavelengths, yet we are aware of reality that exists beyond the reach of those perceptions (ex.: infrared light, gravity, ultra high frequency sound, electricity, etc.). Our conscious being, through our awareness, extends along this continuum from some intermediate position in both directions, though not infinitely.
So, I guess Neil deGrass Tyson can rest easy and get out of bed knowing that solidity is correspondingly real within his reality. M y advise to him is - Don’t worry, just get the fuck out from under that falling piano.
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