We are now pondering what dream and body experiences are connected with Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This theory explains how things move through the universe in connection with the energy and curvature in any given area of our universe. It may sound “far out”, but then, dreams and body experiences (not the medical descriptions of these experiences) go beyond conventional concepts of time and space and may be more closely connected with relativity’s 4 dimensional spacetime.
2010 update–
In “Universe in a Nutshell” Stephen Hawking wrote (Fig 1.11):
“Einstein [realized] that the equivalence [between gravity and acceleration] would work if spacetime were curved and not flat, as had been assumed hitherto.”
In “SpaceTime and Geometry” p.2 Sean Carroll wrote:
“Gravity is not actually a ‘force,’ … A charged particle in an electric field feels an acceleration … in contrast a particle in a gravitational field moves along a [geodesic] path that is the closest thing there is to a straight [world] line [in 4D space-time]. Such particles do not feel acceleration; they are freely-falling. … think of a ball flying through the air as being more truly ‘unaccelerated’ than one sitting on a table; the one sitting at a table is being deflected away from the geodesic it would like to be on (which is why we feel a force on our feet as we stand on Earth.)”
Arny’s Jan 1, 2010 question: What is the psychological significance of “falling freely”, in contrast to “standing on the earth.” Is “free fall” this what we experience by following the “dreaming body” ?
(thanks to theoretical physicist Jack Sarfatti for pointing to the above quoted material)
We have been researching the meaning of connecting to the environment. Can we really feel the “rhythm of the earth”, and get in touch with it? As we were pondering this question, we came across the following video of how parrots dance…like us.
Perhaps the idea of dancing together with the earth is not just an inner experience .
In her new article, ”Union and Creative Emptiness: Set Theory as a Tool for Exploring our Inner Worlds,” Anne Willmann explains and uses mathematical concepts from set theory to elucidate the big U and many other aspects of processwork. Thank you Anne for this paper!
Thanks to Susan Kocen for finding the following quote, from an interview with Professor John Wheeler from 2003 on The Science Show, Radio National Australia….
“Q: Many great scientists throughout their life have a vision. Do you have a vision?
John Wheeler: Well, to me it’s the picture that the whole of this existence of ours will some day have its single, central principle spring to life, that will be so natural we’ll say to ourselves: How could it have been otherwise and how could we have been so stupid all these years not to have seen it?”
Wheeler was the teacher of well known physicists such as Richard Feynman, Hugh Everett and our friend, Edwin Taylor. Wheeler died recently.
We ask you as Wheeler did; what if any is that “central principle” of existence?
Normally, if you give your tea cup a push, you expect that cup to move on the table top.
Locality
After all, if you push something at a given spot or locality, it will react. This is the principle of locality. However in the quantum world things move in connection with other things at a distance…even when there was no obvious push! In other words, your tea cup might move if a friend of yours in another city merely thinks of drinking tea with you! That sounds like magic, that is, it violates the principle of locality.
Nonlocality
In quantum systems, physicists call such action-at-a-distance, “nonlocality,” that is, something can affect something else without any sort of noticeable push. It seems as if there is no space, no locality, as if something about nonlocality connects things…or that these things are all part of some inherent oneness. We don’t want to go into the details of the physics here. (The reader interested in a popular explanation can see http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=was-einstein-wrong-about-relativity&print=true )
At this point people divide up into at least 2 schools. One school says, “Ok that is quantum physics but people are not quantum objects.” The other school says, “People have always known about this kind of magic.”
Arny goes into this debate in his new book, ProcessMind (coming soon) and we explore these questions in our seminars. But we want to put these ideas out again to the general public so that together, all of us can ponder, who are we as human beings? How for example can we know that one of two particles is happy and excited, while at the same time neither of them is definitely excited.
Find that hard to understand? Try thinking nonlocally . Or begin to think psychologically.
—————-Thanks to Magdalena Skoczewska and Alexandra Vassiliou for pointing out the above mentioned Scientific American article to us.
How quantum-like stuff coming from the same source remains mysteriously connected –as if space barely existed –can help us understand more about people and community. In addition, quantum entanglement will enable us to develop new practices for inner and outer work this next year. We loved finding some simple, popular explanations of quantum entanglement on the web. Listen and watch Dr. Quantum as he gives us one such (very popular!) explanation. Enjoy the video!
Perhaps all animals have a compass, that is a “sixth” sense about how to be “in tune” with the earth.
Recent studies of aerial photographs taken of animals on the earth indicate that cows, elk, deer and possibly all animals sense the earth’s magnetic field, and know how to align themselves with the north/south direction. According to professor John Phillips, a sensory biologist from Virginia Tech University, in the US, this magnetic ability might be “virtually ubiquitous in the animal kingdom”. That is, this ability is everywhere. He adds “We need to think about some really fundamental things that this sensory ability provides in animals.” (Se below for the full BBC article.)
For us, this sixth sense is important information. Arny’s most recent book, “Earth Based Psychology” centers on people’s ability to associate feelings and dream experiences with directions, and use them to interpret dreams, and find their “way” through inner life and outer relationship situations. E.B.P. was derived from a combination of Richard Feynman’s theories about how particles move, and Australian Aboriginal and shamanistic Native American abilities to know when and where to move, at a given moment.
In brief, dreaming means among other things, following the earth’s magnetic field.
Because we have been studying the physics of “entanglement”, we were happy to read the recent attempts of physicists to explain this remarkable and “counter-intuitive” quantum phenomenon. Simply stated, entanglement occurs when two particles that were once close together and part of the same quantum system, remain instantaneously connected even though they may become vastly separated at opposite ends of the universe. Is there a possible signal connecting them? Einstein called their “entangled” connection, “spooky action at a distance.” We know that Einstein was often quoted wondering about the nature of what he called, “The Mind of God.” (Seebelow.) Is this “Mind” behind those “spooky” entanglements? Or are there (as yet) unknown signals, traveling many times faster than the speed of light? Download the full article below.
In this photo, Albert Einstein wants to know What are the thoughts behind the structure and patterns of our universe? In Einstein’s mind, knowing those patterns, would be knowing “The Mind Of God”.
We too wonder about “the Mind of God”. But perhaps the very question about the nature of the universe is itself a “koan”? That is, such questions may be something that are not really meant to be answered! Perhaps that question about the nature of the universe is a puzzle that is meant to throw us into an altered state of openness.
We think that state of openness itself is an answer to Einstein. The fundamental pattern of our universe must be the capacity to wonder, and reflect. Everything gets interested and starts wondering or at least “sniffing” something else.
In any case, after seeing so many different kinds of ongoing conflicts, and moments of the most incredible resolutions this year, we too sense there is a kind of self-reflecting “mind in our universe” that appears frequently even in the worst mess. For one reason or another, perhaps many people, even those in conflict are directly or indirectly unified at least in wishing to know: “What is God’s Mind?”
(This picture comes from an Einstein Poster in my office… and appears on Physlink.com)
Brain Makes Decision Ten Seconds Before We Know It!
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that we know what we will do, many seconds before we actually realize our decisions. See http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080415_brain.htm This research supports the idea that our “process minds” have valuable early awareness we need more access to. Through such access, we can know things at the essence level, before our everyday primary process is aware of what happens! This could help us to avoid accidents.
Your Brain’s Left and Right Hemispheres (or) Your Consensus Reality and Dreamland Minds
Thanks to Tamara Scarlett-Lyon, we saw the video below, a moving presentation by neuro-anatomist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. In her 18 minute video you will hear the scientist talk about a massive stroke she had in her left brain hemisphere. She tells about the amazing experiences she had as a result of this stroke, and how she understood her left hemisphere in terms of what we have been calling consensus reality. Listen to what she says about her right hemisphere, it sounds like what we have been calling, dreamland’s nonlocality and essence levels.
If you are in the mood of thinking about where we live and have 6 minutes time (we know, that is a lot!!), check out this (NASA supported short) You-tube video. Click:
Ministry of Maat
We are thankful to and following with great interest, the creative work of our friend and colleague, Ione and her focus on women’s mysteries. We feel very lucky to be “honorary ministers” of Maat. See for more:
We are interested in Prof. Robert P Crease of Brookhaven National laboratory in the US. His article, “Gravitation”, can be found on the physicsworld.com website, where he describes the influence of gravitation on our social systems. He says “Newton’s famous equation describing the gravitational force between two objects altered more than our ideas of the solar system.”
As Robert P Crease explains, it also influenced our conception of human nature. For ease, we have attached the rest of his article here.
Why did the Moon appear to be so large in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of June? (See the Nasa photo taken by Shay Stevens, “The Moonrise Over Seattle”. -Credit and Copyright, Shay Stevensshay@shay.ws) .
In 1913 Mario Ponzo gave one explanation to why the moon seems so large when it is near the cityscape or horizon. This explanation is called the “Ponzo Illusion” or the “Moon Illusion.” He suggested that our minds increase or decrease the actual size of objects, depending upon their background. If they are bright and round up and up in the air in the midst of a black or blue sky, they seem smaller than when they appear near the earth’s surface or horizon. There are various newer explanations of this illusion as well.
Our explanation for the moon illusion is a bit different than Ponzo’s. When the Moon or anything else from the sky appears at the horizon (i.e. the edge of the earth) it will seem larger to many people, even larger than Ponzo’s optical illusion would predict, because we need the moon to be larger, closer and more accessible. Amazing things are never close enough!
In any case, next time you see the moon, don’t pass by it by. Stop, watch it flirt with you, and ask yourself, “how large is that moon, and how close is it to your heart”? We hope that everyone interested in psychology, to be amazed at the world and universe we live in.
The Cosmological Constant and Psychology
Einstein’s cosmological constant has undergone many re-evaluations since he proposed it. This constant determines whether the universe gets bigger or smaller. It is a kind of intrinsic energy density of the vacuum. This “constant” is very fine tuned, and measured to be of the order of 10-29g/cm3. To date, no one can find the reason for it being so small. And no one has yet explained why if it were changed just one part in many trillions of parts, life itself would not exist. This kind of accuracy seems very unlikely, very improbable.
Therefore some scientists believe there was some sort of intelligence, a life creating force generally referred to as the “anthropic principle”. That means, the universe is fine tuned so that life can come into being.
Our question; how does this “anthropic principle” appear in psychology? Or does it? What is consciousness and life? Why have many people always believed there was some sort of intelligence “out there in the universe”?
Earthbased Psychology, Geophysics and Politics
There is always a lot of blaming or “fingerpointing” around difficult world events. For example, the US news is still asking who is responsible for the broken levees and flooding of the city of New Orleans in Louisiana, USA (NOLA) after Katrina hit that city in September of 2005. The levees protecting NOLA broke during the storm. Various groups have said the US Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for inadequate construction. But the Army says the local and federal government is responsible. Some have said racism was the reason the levees were left in an inadequate condition.
In any and all cases, today the people of NOLA are all faced with the interaction between the forces of local and federal government systems, social systems, the climate, the geophysics of the earth, New Orleans culture, mythology and dreaming.
To understand this situation, each of us ought to ask ourselves; “If you know it might be dangerous to live in your room, but can’t find the time or money to make it safer, who is to blame? Culture, classism, racism, ageism, engineering, and/or fate?”
Today, there is reconstruction going on at various rates and at all levels in NOLA. But we hope everyone will think about, and learn to deal with devastating community problems such as Katrina, before they occur again. We need (and are working on) methods that deal with each issue individually, and at the same time, with the entire city “field”.
Thanks to Dr. Alexandra Vassiliou for making us aware of these enjoyable extra dimensional theories in animation form. They would be good background for Arny’s Quantum Mind.
Thanks to Dr. Gary Reiss for pointing us to the astrophysicist Bernard Haisch’s book, the “God Theory”, and Haisch’s interview with Tikkun Magazine about that book.
We are thankful to Prof Haisch for trying to connect mainstream scientific thinking with the “God” hypothesis; namely that there is some “intelligence” and “purpose” behind the creation of the present universe –which at present is believed to be about 13 billion years old. Haisch suggests that God is an intelligence that wants “to know itself” and “pre-existed” this universe.
In the “The Quantum Mind,” Arny suggests that a way of understanding the self-reflecting nature of the universe (suggested originally by John Wheeler in the 1950’s) is to examine a central mathematical characteristic of the universe, namely the quantum wave function. Quantum theory produces highly accurate empirical answers about physical “reality”. No scientist today knows where this self-reflecting mathematical property comes from. In “Quantum Mind”, Arny suggests there is no “reason” for this self-reflecting property; he simply accepts it as a basic property of the universe we live in.
What is the purpose or reason the universe wishes to self-reflect? Why do those equations of quantum theory work so well? We don’t know. As therapists however, we respect a given individual’s or community’s belief system about “why the universe may self-reflect.” If a given belief system enriches the lives of the people concerned, it is a valuable belief.
As far as we are concerned however, we know from observing thousands of people the world over, that the self-reflection “property” of the equations of quantum theory (and the nature of the universe) leads to useful psychologies, group and organizational methods. Focusing on the awareness process, that is, noticing experiences, and becoming aware of awareness allows one to follow one’s own deepest nature. This focus almost always leads to a richer life experience. Individuals, partners and groups that self reflect, experience more interest in diversity, in one another, and in life.
We don’t understand where the self-reflecting properties of the universe come from, but because they work so well with kids, adults and people near death, we believe in them. (See, for example, the actions and last words of Dr. Sara Halprin.)
Synaesthesia
We are studying synaesthesia because it plays a crucial role in practice—especially working in states of consciousness where experience is difficult to clearly verbalize. We find this area most challenging! Some definitions follow for the synaesthesia in physiology and psychology.
Synesthesia, or syn·aes·the·sia in physiology refers tosensations felt elsewhere in body: the feeling of sensation in one part of the body when another part is stimulated. For example, you are touched in the foot, but feel it in the stomach. Or you are touched in the air near your body, and feel that in a part of the body.
Synesthesia in psychology is the stimulation of one sense alongside another: the evocation of one kind of sense impression when another sense is stimulated, e.g. the sensation of color when a sound is heard, or the sense of geometrical form, when certain tastes appear. These experiences lie at the root of the dreamingbody concept, the dreamland level to body experience where dream images overlap with body sensations. This is like the quantum or “essence” level of psychology, where sensed, yet nonverbal experiences may be equated with the Tao that proverbially, according to the “Tao Te Ching,” “cannot be said”.
Apparently synaesthesia comes from the late 19th century. < modern Latin < syn- (< Greek sun “together”) + stem of Greek aisthesis “sensation,” after anesthesia.
Shifting from figures, forms, insights and cognitive thinking, to the subtle nature of force fields, will bring psychology closer to the earth, body and natural sciences. Our question is; how do we bring science closer to human experience, and what is now called psychology, closer to the nature of the physical universe?
Physics, Shamanism and Taoism
To answer our questions about life, we are pondering the connections between Shamanism, Physics and Taoism:
We are thinking about these three quotes (Thanks to Brian Kahn and Dr. Jai Tomlin for pointing these out to us.)
I. “Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns. So each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire Tapestry.” Richard Feynman
II. Spinning with your ally will change your idea of the world. That idea is everything. And when that changes, the world itself changes.” Don Juan Matus.
III. The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself. It gives life to others as it transforms.” Lao Tse
We are pondering the connection between the experiences and feelings people seem to have always had about the living quality of the earth, (e.g. “dreamtime” nature), and the behavior and symptoms of our physical bodies. What’s the connection? How exactly did we get disconnected from the earth?
“Presponding,” Not Re-Sponding. New Views on Perception.
We are pondering Dick Bierman’s work on perception. This experimental physicist at the University of Amsterdam did experiments that show we apparently know things 1 to 2 seconds before we see them. This convincing work seems to support timeless or time-reversible aspects of observation. In other words, we seem to know events before the physical event signal is actually received by our retinas. Seattle physicist John Cramer’s quantum theory explanation of observation (see Arny’s Quantum Mind for more on that) is that there are forward and backward movements in time. He speaks of a “quantum exchange” between observer and observed before observations take place. It seems to us as if Bierman’s work may lend us experimental validation for Cramer’s ideas. In other words, the roots of observation are time-free exchanges. He calls our ability to know things before we receive physical signals, “presponding” instead of responding.
Where Do You Live in the Universe?
While astronomers are deciding how to define the meaning of the word “planet”, we are studying how to define who we are. What is the difference between our everyday selves, and our occasional sense of ourselves as timeless beings?
Each of us lives on earth. (Or at least most do ). But at the same time, perhaps a part of us does not. If you simply let your intuition work for a moment, ask yourself, where do you sense you would fit in this sketch of The New Solar System?”
If your intuition allowed you to guess where you are located you in this sketch, go another step. Ask yourself what is the significance –if any– of your location? What does that significance –if any—imply for your everyday psychology here on earth?
Once again, we are exploring Aboriginal shamanistic traditions, and the teachings of Castaneda’s Don Juan. In particular, we wonder just what is needed for individuals and groups to “shape shift” and change “assemblage points”. That is, what is needed to move from the time and space identification of everyday reality to the “Nagual”, that is to temporarily move into the “rheo-mode.” Rheo means “stream” or “flow”. We therefore speak of a “rheo-mode” to mean the flow of the dreaming process. We are very thankful to Emetchi for the 150 feet long wonderful mural she painted on the driveway wall outside the Process Work Institute of Portland. She let us use two of the many pictures of that mural. When we saw what we call her “Bear Dance”, we immediately thought of what it is like to dance at the edge, and of the shaman’s sense of earth power at that point. The second picture, “At the Edge Before the Rheo-mode” we see the larger perspective of what happens at the edge. When we dance at the brink, the known world is behind and the rainbow serpent path lies in front, leading the shaman-artist into the unknown.
Click each for a larger image Images by Emetchi of Portland
We are pondering the interconnections between the teachings of Carlos Castaneda’s shaman-teacher, don Juan Matus, and the teachings of near death experiences (NDEs). We are thinking about the NDE experienced by C.G. Jung and reported on in Chapter 11 of his “Memories Dreams and Reflections”. There he speaks of an NDE that occurred during a heart attack where he saw his life in a “snap shot”, part of a timeless “flow”, free of the “imprisonment” of life, space and time.
Who are We and What Moves Us About?
While we were pondering the origins of the universe and the meaning of gravity, we came across this picture from the NASA web site “Windows to the Universe”. This makes us ask what do we experience as pulling and moving us about? What is gravity? Why is it here? It’s obviously something like magnetism which pulls on iron, but also very different than magnetism. For you can be any kind of matter and you will be influenced by gravity! As therapists we must ask ourselves what is it that moves us one way one day, and then moves us in another way on the next day? Is it magnetism, is it gravity, dreaming…or what do you call it?”
For example, do these cubes coming out or going into the picture? These so called “Necker Cubes” may be an optical illusion for your mind. In your awareness, the two-dimensional drawing of cubes may flicker between protruding from and intruding into the page. Why is this? What is happening with our awareness? What does this have to do with quantum waves? Arny’s new book will discuss this problem in detail and connect it with physics.
We are thinking about the relationship between the physicist’s idea of time, and the psychologists understanding of the flow of events. How do dreams and how do quantum events connect. The Moebius Strip describes many aspects of the psychological dimensions of everyday time and dreamland time, and may be a connecting factor in the future of endophysics.
Particle Physics and Mythic Journeys. Quite accidentally, our recent research into the nature of light and matter following the approach of Richard Feynman’s QED (quantum electrodynamics, best described in his book, The Strange Theory of Light, and Matter) has uncovered new, elemental links connecting the nature of our psychology with the properties of the universe. We have long been looking for fundamental and easily understood connections between the theory of matter, Taoism and process-oriented psychology. It seems as if we are now at the edge of this research.
By using Feynman’s concept of “direction” in complex space, (a method which is part of the standard model” in elementary particle physics), it has been possible to elucidate what we mean by “process,” “path” and “mythic journey” to create simple practices and theories revealing mystical depths and everyday resolutions. The quantum mind is connected with the concepts of directions, tracks and body feeling.
Awareness and the Collapse of the Wave Function. Physics ponders one of its central mysteries; how does the imaginary world of the wave function “collapse” or get reduced into a concrete reality. Psychology offers one possible answer. We marginalize our various dream-like experiences, valuing one over others at a given moment, to create “reality”. This marginalization is due to our everyday identity as well as the world situation around us at any given moment. Our question: why does physics so often tend to deal with observation as if it had nothing to do with people?
A. New ideas about how matter and mind connect: — viewpoints of the physicalist, psychologist, philosopher ….
B. Interpretations of quantum physics, and the wave equation. Heisenberg’s Tendencies, The Many Worlds of Everett. Reflections according to Cramer. Pilot Waves in the mind of Bohm. “Flirts” in attention: (Arny’s view).
C. The meanings of numbers and complex numbers?
D. The significance of Feynman’s path/worldline vector approach in physics (see Edwin F. Taylor, MIT physics department www.eftaylor.com for more on this). What effect and meaning will this approach have for psychology?
E. What is the meaning of the principle of least action in terms of psychological experience?
F. What are vectors? A vector is like an arrow. In some myths, Trickster’s arrow is a light beam, or lightening. In the mind of the mathematician, vectors …like velocity… are anything that has a direction and a speed. In psychology, we use the idea of vectors as dreamlike (or meaningful) directions you are headed in, even though you may not always be conscious of being on a “vector”. Since our 02 spring seminars connecting Taoism, process work and quantum physics, we have been using vectors in all our work because they help with seemingly impossible problems (and also connect dreams and dream fragments to parallel worlds in physics).
G. What is the significance of Feynman’s “quantum clock” or Taylor’s “propagator” (which turns and twists particles giving them their direction in mathematical spaces)?
H. Why is there so much emotional turmoil around developing new ideas among scientists whose goal is to be objective? What is the connection between these emotions, what happens inside us, and our world theories about the world “out there?”
I. We are pondering what happens to our experience of time when sleeping.
We are interested in Richard Leviton’s research on the relationship between the earth’s physical energies, spiritual associations and their connection to astronomy and astrology. See http://www.blueroomconsortium.com/ for more.
One summer day in August of 2004, Amy was playing with colored acetate plastics. Suddenly she discovered or “saw” what she called “a king emerging”.
Later, Arny walked by the picture and said, “Oh! Look at the goddess and lion in there!”
Here are some questions we are researching:
What do you see when you look at the king? Do you see the Goddess and the Lion “in” the King?
If you can see different parts of the King, can you also imagine seeing a human being with her different parts — such as that Lion, Goddess and King?
Why do we often see only the person, and less frequently all the art within her?
Who are we human beings? Who chooses which things get created, then “added” (superposed) within us to create who we are?
Do you have any problems related to identifying yourself as a person only instead of an individual full of diverse parallel worlds? This is one of the many places where quantum physics (and its parallel worlds) is a type of psychology– and where psychology is a kind of physics and art.
This site has been redesigned, developed, and maintained by Gwyn Fallbrooke and Amy Mindell Originally designed and developed in March 2006 by Moving Lines
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Download “Animal Directional Sensitivity”
Einstein’s Question 
In 1913 Mario Ponzo gave one explanation to why the moon seems so large when it is near the cityscape or horizon. This explanation is called the “Ponzo Illusion” or the “Moon Illusion.” He suggested that our minds increase or decrease the actual size of objects, depending upon their background. If they are bright and round up and up in the air in the midst of a black or blue sky, they seem smaller than when they appear near the earth’s surface or horizon. There are various newer explanations of this illusion as well.
We are pondering the interconnections between the teachings of Carlos Castaneda’s shaman-teacher, don Juan Matus, and the teachings of near death experiences (NDEs). We are thinking about the NDE experienced by C.G. Jung and reported on in Chapter 11 of his “Memories Dreams and Reflections”. There he speaks of an NDE that occurred during a heart attack where he saw his life in a “snap shot”, part of a timeless “flow”, free of the “imprisonment” of life, space and time.
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One summer day in August of 2004, Amy was playing with colored acetate plastics. Suddenly she discovered or “saw” what she called “a king emerging”.