#62 - what the bleep do i know

quick thought... just finished watching "what the bleep do we know?" it's kinda like a documentary movie about quantum physics. it explored a bunch of different theories and philosophies, and most of them were grossly over-generalized, over-dramaticized, or just very very unfounded views of science (with particular stabs at religion), but there were a few good points that i think can be taken away. in general, i like watching programs that explore non-fiction types of issues (especially non-traditional physics). usually, i like to start off believing the speakers, but somewhere in the second half of the program there's always some turning point when i realize, "okay, these guys actually don't have a clue what they're talking about" and then most of everything they've said until that point gets totally debunked.

anyway, of course quantum physics is a controversial and pretty much non-definable topic (at least in terms that most of us are familiar with), therefore, most of the arguments must be presented in analogies and like-terms, which of course doesn't do justice to the actual meat of the issues. but a couple of interesting bits of "research" that they mentioned that i thought were at least amusing:

1) japanese scientist named emoto did experiments investigating the effect that music and emotion have on the crystalline structures of water, basically he subjected containers of water (from distilled to spring to polluted) to music for a few hours or taped a word (like "love" or "thank you" or "you make me sick") to the bottle and then froze it, then took microscopic pictures of the ice crystals. supposedly, different types of music created different crystals and words live "love" and "thank you" created symmetrical forms while "you make me sick" resulted in distored crystals. not sure exactly how he theorized that the "thoughts" of the words written on the bottles changed the water (unless maybe he left the bottles out for lots of people to read and infuse their emotions on), but the end theory was that our thoughts can affect water (so-called the most "perceptive" of the elements) and since our bodies are like 80-90% water then our thoughts greatly affect ourselves.

2) along those lines was a study conducted in washington, dc in the summer of 2003. dc has the highest violent crime or murder rate or something in the nation and so they brought in 4000 people to meditate for days or weeks or something during the summertime and predicted that the power of their thoughts would decrease the frequency of violent crime in dc that summer by 25%... and apparently it did.

3) so where i'm going with this (because i am in no way ready to shout the praises and validity of these theories, i guess grad school did something useful to me after all)? even though i don't agree with a lot of the theories proposed in this movie, there was at least one interesting thought that might be useful to take away... using your thoughts to shape your reality. one central proposal in the movie is that we are so shaped by our past experiences and are so stuck in our routines (not just daily routines, but the routine that we have come to accept the physical world around us as the absolute reality instead of merely sensory inputs) that we do not allow ourselves to be privy to any of the OTHER "realities" that constantly surround us. they propose that all "matter" around us exists in all places at once (thus allowing for parallel dimensions and alternate universes) and it is only our narrow perception that CHOOSES to see the things around us as things existing in only one place at one time. an anecdotal example they gave was that when columbus came to america, the native americans literally could not see their ships because they had absolutely no reason in their lifetimes to be able to comprehend just objects. all they could see was ripples on the horizon, so their shaman sat out and watched the horizon for days until he became accustomed to the shape of the ships and he saw them. then when he told his people (since he was so respected and they all believed him), suddenly they could all see the ships too.

so what possible practical application could this have on me (because that's all i care about of course)? well, taking bits and pieces of these ideas, it might be a pretty excellent thing to once in a while take a step out of my reality, my consciousness and try to see things without all the precepts that may be engrained in my mind. of course, i'm not saying i'll suddenly see into parallel dimensions or anything so dramatic as that, but perhaps i might find myself in a new light. which is why i write so much in this blog. i love reading my own blog posts because i can view my life from a different point of view (plus, i don't have a great memory and i forget things that i just did). then i can be more objective about where my life has been and where i'd like to go next. just as when you're exericsing you've gotta switch things up every once in a while to give your muscles something new and different to do, you've gotta do that with your mind and your emotions too. it's all about keeping on living life. i read in the paper the other day that people who take vacations at least every year have a much greater life expectancy than those who travel only once every five years. and doesn't that make sense? from an evolutionary standpoint, the more you experience life and find new experiences in life the better you will be at living it right? that's the theory.