BioPhysics Final Paper: Consciousness, Keneh, Resonance, and Phenomenology

In Bali, the Balinese do not split feeling from thought but regard both as part of one process, "keneh," which is translated to "feeling-thought." While it is recognized that the feelings 'they' feel may be different from their thoughts - and there are concepts that differentiate the two - they are linked in the language.

What does this have to do with Resonance? Resonance is defined as "the reinforcement or prolongation of sound by reflection from a surface or by the synchronous vibration of a neighboring object." This "vibration" is also a sense of connection with someone or something else. Common sayings like, "I resonate with that" or "We resonate" relay this alternative meaning of the word.

Resonating is important to me and seen in "my world" within the practitioner-patient relationship I enact with in the practice of Chinese Medicine. It would be impossible to appreciate the patient's situation or problem without feeling. Like hearing someone and having that "hit you in the heart" with 'resonance.' I then might better understand what a person, in particular, my patient is saying. When there is resonance, there is communication and thus an effort at "feeling-thought," a willingness to engage in another's world and try to grasp meaning that may not reside in words, but are evoked in that experience. This is important to me as it evolves into understanding on another level.

Moving on...

Conscious experience is the "starting point" of phenomenology. Habitual patterns may take away from this... The root word of "phenomenology" is phenomena and that help explains this- that which is opposed to reality. So, our consciousness relates to phenomena but our actions and experiences don't.

From the definition above you may gather that, "consciousness" is not "resonance," according to the Balinese at least. If your consciousness does not taken into account your external experiences then those feelings towards someone or something are skewed by reality and therefore are no longer considered to be your consciousness. Do we consider thoughts and feelings the same thing- as the Balinese do? In my example above, my interpretation of this was the patient-practitioner example: if our thoughts and feelings are not mutually exclusive then what we are thinking are what we are feeling and thus can help create a greater resonance among two (or however many) "objects." But, what about the thoughts that are created in your head without any external influence? Is that just what consciousness is? Does consciousness have to be opposed to reality?

Can consciousness, feelings, and thoughts all be one thing and also each their own?

Continuing with the consciousness tangent, phenomenology is also defined as the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. "Neurophenomenology" assumes that conscious experience is grounded in neural activity in embodied action in appropriate surroundings, that which mixes pure phenomenology with logical and physical science in a way that was not wholly congenial to traditional phenomenologists.

Before this gets too convoluted with the various definitions of similar ideas, my conclusion- my interpretation. Habitual patterns, ie: brushing our teeth, putting on clothes don't take consciousness into consideration. But, other "normal patterns" of life may: life goals, meeting someone new, analyzing your decisions, thinking about that new person you might have met. Consciousness encompasses feelings and thoughts. Not all feelings and thoughts, but those that you are consciously thinking about. Phenomenology, a study of consciousness and experiences encircles conscious experience, semi-conscious, and even unconscious experiences- and maybe one's background and experiences. I see all of these concepts and definitions as a Venn Diagram- everything correlates, of course, but each can take its own path too. Alternate visions can still arise within all these concepts and everything is open to interpretation. As always ~

Physics: Classical Physics

Newton's Three Laws and Me:
Newton's three laws of motion may be stated as follows: Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it. Force equals mass times acceleration [ ]. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The Third Law of Motion states, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." This law describes what happens to a body when it exerts a force on another body.

In order to describe Newton's Laws and me, I might have to describe everything because the world is continually in motion around me thus this might get convoluted. So, basically I accept Newton's Three Laws and try to imagine that everything I do, there is a force against me/my action.

"Energy Efficient Culture"
Not really. We are quite the opposite. We are continually improving systems, technology, our world (inefficiently). Energy efficiency has a stronger place, politically, these days, but really can only be impactful (more efficient) if everyone (at least most) people made a conscious effort to live more energy efficiently. I admit I am not always "energy efficient," certainly- not nearly enough! And, I live in the Bay, where this concept is prominent. It's hard to imagine our society/world going back to simplicity. Some countries live this way, but it is not their choice to. It's unlikely our culture will lessen our "standards" even if people dedicated their lives to this (as some very well do); there will still be others (plenty of others) that don't. Simply (and matter of factly), some folks don't even believe there is a need for energy efficiency because climate change is not real. [Whole other subject...]

Descartes has a lot to answer for!
Descartes was the origin of the "Mind-Body Problem." He divided the mind (thoughts) from the body (material world). Also known as, "Mind-Body Dualism." The physical or material world according to Descartes is determined, more specifically, the machine that determines the world. And, rather, our thoughts are undetermined and could potentially change the material world if and when they, the thoughts, go through the pineal gland in the brain.
In this sense, information is immaterial, the "mind within the brain." And, the most absurd description to end on from Descartes.... when we die, our personal information perishes while our bodies remain. Our thoughts and information disappear because basically there is no real "substance" to them. It took a lot more philosophers to overcome this thought process as it was/is very popular.

Physics: E-Prime Day

E Prime (it means English Prime) is a way of speaking English without using the verb "to be" in any way ("be, is, am, are, was, were, been, and being"). Instead, an E Prime speaker or writer uses different verbs like "to become," "to remain," and "to equal" or they might choose to rearrange the sentence to show that the "thing" does not actually "act". For example, in E Prime, a writer would change the statement "Mistakes were made" to "Joe made mistakes." This change in wording reveals an actor (Joe) where the previous form concealed the actor. Users of E Prime would consider the changed sentence more accurate.

My day started with coffee and a croissant. I then proceeded to walk to school to go to my class this morning. I only had one class today, Case Management. We took a look at a case study, came up with the answers ourselves and then shared them with the rest of the class and the teacher. During the second half of class we reviewed red flags when coming across a patient with "chest pain." Chest pain encompasses many red flags and these are something to watch out for. After class, I got bubble tea with a friend. The flavor I chose, Jasmine Milk Tea, excites my taste buds!

That was more difficult than expected...

BioPhysics: Energy Medicine and Energy Fields

Acupuncture as effective energy medicine.
We, TCM students, learn about the "pathways and meridians" of the body. These pathways are supposed to be what creates the energy flow (in our language,"Qi") throughout the body and this flow is responsible for our overall health. Disruption of this flow may cause or contribute to a disease. Ie: Blood stagnation, Qi stagnation, deficiencies, excesses. Applying acupuncture to particular points helps to improve the flow of Qi, thus improve the energy within a body, thus could be, and to some, is, considered an "energy medicine."

Kirlian Photography?
Kirlian photography entails a fairly mythical explanation. The pictures produced from this type of photography is said to depict peoples' "auras." And then some say that one's aura can explain the state of that particular person whether that be their spiritual, emotional, and/or physical state. Others say that auras can be a diagnostic tool in order to understand someone's illness. I don't really know anything about Kirlian photography and/or auras nor do I really resonate with this. From the Five Element System within Chinese Medicine, there are colors associated to each element and these colors can be noticed on someone's complexion. After reading/studying a little about this, I can better conceptualize the correlation with someone's identified element (constitution or temporary) and the associated color. But, I do not feel comfortable utilizing the little bit of my knowledge about this on a patient or anyone. Circling back to Kirlian photography, I mostly contribute it to paranormal research and not as a diagnostic tool, personally.

Human intent as it affects health.
I believe human intent is important overall and circumstantially. I don't believe there is a direct correlation between human intent and the affect the intention was directed towards. But, I think when practicing a medicine (Chinese Medicine) that is fairly intimate and personal, having the right intention is felt in someway between the practitioner and patient. This may be why certain patients resonate with certain practitioners and vice versa. When we have an idea of what we want to do and we set an intention, maybe it helps the situation, and if it didn't at least we tried on a more subtle level to help the affect of the situation. I guess we might never know whether it does or doesn't.

BioPhysics: Life and Living Systems

I know I'm a living system because I am a multicellular organism in which cells are specialized to do different jobs, ie: connective, muscle, and nervous tissue. And these tissues make up organs, such as the heart or lung which carry out functions necessary to life and breath. Our hearts and lungs created our breath and without it, we die. It's amazing to think about that -- our hearts and lungs are continually pumping, non-stop, even when we are sleeping.

To speak more to human beings as a living system; our metabolisms. All of the biochemical reactions occurring in an organism make up the metabolism. Thus, along with our hearts and lungs, are GI systems are always working as well. Another aspect to human life being a living system is homeostasis. (An adventure in Chinese Medicine!) Our internal environment is always trying to create a balance in order to maintain or achieve proper cell function. We grow too! Our whole bodies are growing until about early twenties (more or less) and it is hypothesized that the cartilage continues to grow! (ie: noses and ears getting bigger as we age). Lastly, Reproduction, we can literally reproduce ourselves, that takes life!

BioPhysics and Traditional Chinese Medicine:
What happens exactly when a TCM practitioner puts a needle in someone's arm and their neck immediately feels better (maybe not completely)? We don't really know. And, unfortunately, there is no real answer to this- but, many hypothesized answers, of course. The meridians in our bodies have an intimate connection to our organs and other parts of our bodies. The points indicated on the meridians (or close enough to) each have a name, a meaning, an action. Why is this? There is some "biophysical connection" to these points otherwise these points wouldn't be points (and we wouldn't have to spend years learning them!). I can't explain why these points work, but I do know that they do. Our bodies react (biophysically) to these points and then some (maybe, chemical) reaction takes place. Future research is thus vital in order to explore the mechanisms of these Acupuncture points. Those who practice, show interest, are patients may not need the tangible research to validate its effectiveness, but perhaps the Western society would.

Image of a jackrabbit in the desert, showing the rabbit's very thin—almost see-through—heavily veined ears, which are used for heat dissipatio

BioPhysics: Bionic

The Creating of Bionics.

Bionic people in our world could potentially curve some of the terrible situations our society has basically surrendered to. For instance, I would think that a bionic person wouldn't be a psychopath, sociopath, and/or narcissist. Many powerful leaders make up those three things (and more!). I would also assume bionic people are smart. Therefore decisions could/would be based on information which encompasses patterns of history, people, and places - and thus, [quickly] come up an answer that would not entail repeating situations and events that have gone terrible wrong throughout history. On the other hand, bionic people could potentially create catastrophe too. (Space Odyssey... HAL!)

Bionic people for military purposes... If this entails "nuclear purposes," No. I don't think there should be any improvements in that sense. If there were bionic people that strategized situations that presidents and people of authority are bad at, then in that case maybe there is a purpose for them in these situations. (Ie: pretty much all of the presidents that declared war on countries with no purpose and ultimately became the reason for thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands deaths of civilians.)

Physics: Sacred Geometry and Fibonacci

Sacred Geometry and Physics
Sacred geometry assimilates geometric shapes and geometric proportions played into a logarithmic spiral that accommodates growth without change. These shapes are said to incorporate symbolic and sacred universal patters. It is hypothesized that sacred geometry can be found in all of nature in golden mean proportions; an example of this is a crystal structure. In ways, I link sacred geometry to physics because these sacred patterns are based on mathematics and form as Physics is. Sacrad geometry can be broken down by mathematics because its a constant form. Physics is based on mathematics and any theory/hypothesis has been based off of mathematics. In ways, mathematics is everywhere.

I don't think Fibonacci can prove the future so thus maybe "life" in a moment of time, but as shapes/object/extraterrestrial/humans, whatever, changes, it's hard to belive it all changes at the same time and thus sticks to an exact sequence. I see it as a picture in time and if you could stop everything and look at the world or really anything, one might the sequence in every possible shape around you. In some ways I think of a "signature of life" as a mold for what has been, is, and will become, and I don't find this sequence can predict the future in any each way, but maybe follows it? Not sure, again, I see this sequence as a capture of a moment in time.

Physics: Resonance in my World

In Bali, the Balinese do not split feeling from thought but regard both as part of one process, "keneh," which is translated to "feeling-thought." While it is recognized that the feelings 'they' feel may be different from their thoughts - and there are concepts that differentiate the two - they are linked in the language.

What does this have to do with Resonance? Resonance is defined as "the reinforcement or prolongation of sound by reflection from a surface or by the synchronous vibration of a neighboring object." This "vibration" is also a sense of connection with someone or something else. Common sayings like, "I resonate with that" or "We resonate" relay this alternative meaning of the word.

Resonating is important to me and seen in "my world" within the practitioner-patient relationship I enact with in the practice of Chinese Medicine. It would be impossible to appreciate the patient's situation or problem without feeling. Like hearing someone and having that "hit you in the heart" with 'resonance.' I then might better understand what a person, in particular, my patient is saying. When there is resonance, there is communication and thus an effort at "feeling-thought," a willingness to engage in another's world and try to grasp meaning that may not reside in words, but are evoked in that experience. This is important to me as it evolves into understanding on another level.

I love that "feeling-thought" of "keneh" in Balinese is one - a synced event because you feel with your thoughts and thus feel other's thoughts. Lovely.

Physics: Loafing Around Without Feeling Guilty

"Loafing" is defined as 'idling one's time away, typically by aimlessly wandering or loitering.' Rest - no productivity, no responsibility, no evaluation, no engagement. And, yes, MOST people feel guilty about this because in our society (I think most would agree), it is stigmatized. How can someone succeed, or just live up to "normal means" if they were to sit around and do nothing? Yet, in accordance to "health and medicine (not all)" this state is a necessity, a factory of livelihood and wellbeing. It is noted that the best ideas come when you are not thinking about them. And, the notion that this state of nothingness enhances creativity is actually quite popular, yet paradoxically is still stigmatized in our day to day lives.

I, myself, don't "loaf" intentionally - I would say the only time this occurrence takes place is when my body is overly exhausted yet cannot fall asleep yet. The only thing I am capable of is laying and doing nothing and usually this is a time when my body aches and I don't have the capacity to pick up a book or study (which is what I would usually do before falling asleep). This is also a consequence of lack of sleep (for usually more than one night). At this point, this may be not considered loafing at all because there is no conscious around giving meaningful time to myself, but merely just a consequence of over work and exhaustion.

This is not supposed to be a guilt trip (and hopefully doesn't come across this way), but a reflection on myself to note that I don't do this. And, the only correlation to this experience is what I have mentioned above. Now, if I was to just "loaf" which sounds so EASY (yet completely difficult to put into action), would these periods of exhaustion come to be? Probably not. So, if this paper did anything for me, it helped me realize just that. An essential part of life - missing a beat and not caring... at all. And, maybe, then an episode of utter exhaustion will be less relatable.

Physics: Chaos Theory

"Ordered Chaos" explains itself, bringing order to chaos. A basic example could be our bodies, which in some ways could be considered the orderly entity enacting with the disorder around us, the world.
In order to survive, we are guided by an unwritten law, order within chaos (some say "natural law"). This order is an example of preventing self-harm or for keeping an entire species from going extinct. So, whether it is "us" or the natural world, there is order and there is chaos and the integration in some ways allows order to prevail according to the concept of "ordered chaos" and the need to survive.

Consciousness is another example of chaos, but perhaps not "orderly chaos." Chaos theory is defined as "a branch of mathematics focusing on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions." "Chaos" states that within the apparent randomness of complex systems there are patterns, repetition, similarity,  and organization - all relying on programming at the initial point known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The definition exhibits that chaos is quantifiable as it applies to the world. Consciousness on the other hand, does not have to be quantified and perhaps can't be. Freud theorized that our conscious and emotions are all dependent on past experiences/emotions. This isn't always the case. We can have a conscious based on something that is happening in our lives at the very moment that it happens and the reaction can be mutually exclusive from past experiences. In some ways, consciousness is just chaos and patterns for certain take place, but these patterns can be broken by new experiences and thus interpretation can change, consciousness can change without any existence of order.

Physics: We are Asymmetry.

“A thing is symmetrical if there is something you can do to it so that after you have finished doing it, it looks the same as before.”

The above quote by mathematician, Hermann Weyl, defines symmetry. According to his statement, if the world and everything in it is symmetrical, then any change that happens (obviously there are too many examples here), but in broader terms, whether change takes place among people, terrains, oceans, then once that "change" has finished taking "place", the world would look exactly as it did before. And, this is indisputably impossible. 

Some more specific examples could be a hurricane, tornado, massive growth or death in population, the difference before and after the "event" would be extreme. 

On a much smaller (and personal) scale, humans may look symmetrical but that is also not the case. No two sides of the face are exactly alike and why would the majority of us be more dominant on one side rather than the other? 

The argument of symmetry represented in our world is not held up by much. Maybe computers and robots are the only thing that can replicate this... unfortunately.

Physics: E=mc2 affects me?

Energy is never lost or gained- just transferred.

That was one of the things my grandpa told me at a young age. He was a scientist, worked with fusion, mostly. And although he tried to explain a lot to me, that one (maybe the only one) quote stuck. This is basically defined within Einstein's most famous equation, E=mc2.

The saying- energy is never lost or gained, just transferred- runs very parallel to us. We, humans, are all made up of energy therefore we use the energy that makes up our bodies to function properly. Our "system" never sleeps and therefore energy is always conducted, literally, in order to stay alive. Which is fascinating in itself- we sleep, but we don't turn off. So really our systems are always running until it ceases thus ultimately, we die.

In Chinese Medicine, "Qi" can be defined as "energy," and the Qi within our systems can do all sorts of things that which can cause disease, etc. Some examples" Qi can stagnate, Qi can be deficient, Qi can be excess, Qi can sink, etc. What sounds contrary within Chinese Medicine to Einstein's energy principle, Qi being deficient or excess, is not exactly the case. In this circumstance, Qi is usually deficient somewhere and excess somewhere else and the issue shows up with signs of deficiency, excess, or both. Therefore, Qi is inevitably never lost or gained.

Then, take needles for example. Some practitioners (and texts) say that when needling, you are "moving the Qi around." So, literally, piercing into the "Qi layers" of the skin and allowing a more proper flow for the body in order to redeem itself, function more efficiently. Being a student for a few years now, you can start to understand that concept, and actually feel it.

In some ways, Chinese Medicine, may bring you the closest to that concept, feeling energy... I think.

Physics: Uncertainty Principle

The Uncertainty Principle speaks for itself in ways- it's uncertain. Scientists are uncertain about certain aspects of quantum physics. Reason being, we (huamns) influence a situation just by obsering particles. This "influence" inhibits quantum physicists from figuing out the velocity and speed of particles. Even photons, the smallest measurement of light, can move the particles around, directly affecting the particle's velocity and speed.

As they (scientists) say, energy never dies or is erased but rather transfers somewhere else when it's not where it originally was noticed (or unnoticed for that matter). Since observing something is an example of using energy (because if it wasn't, there wouldn't be any observing taking place?), the energy from us (humans) changes the particles that are being looked at as the energy of observing changes the measurements- of speed and velocity- of the object.

Scientist have experimented with "particle accelerators" which basically remove any physical human influence from the process of accelerating a particle's energy of motion, but the results even with this addition are still disrupted.

With this information, which sounds fairly simple even though is not understood, there is basically no other way to define what is happening except by succumbing to "uncertainty." I certainly don't have a reasoning as to why this is the case nor any round about. But, it is interesting to think that theoretically there is uncertainty defined in Science (even though there is much uncertainty when delving into other aspects of "Science"). Maybe we are just not supposed to know about the unseeable particles, energy that moves around us that which Scientists are so curious about. It's like the bridge between what is not seen at all- in terms of the light spectrum- and our ability to see through only a small portion of it- these particles are there, and studied, but have abilities we can only stay uncertain about.

Physics: The Meaning of Time

A farmer walks into a shop and asks the storeowner, "what's that on your wall." 
The storeowner replies back, "it's a clock." 
"Oh," says the farmer, "...and what is it for." 
"To tell time, it lets you know when to eat or when you are done with work."

The farmer heads back to his home, the farm, and proudly places an artichoke on the wall. He sits back down and after some time, walks up to the artichoke and begins to peel off one of its leaves, while saying to himself, "well, time to eat."

The above dialogue attempts to explain the concept of time among different cultures. In this story, there is a farmer and a city storeowner. These two people are a metaphor for two different cultures, for example, America and Mexico. Western Monochromic Time/M-Time is consistent with Americas/N. Europeans, while Eastern Polychronic Time/P-Time is consistent with Latin America/Middle East. It's amazing that time, the universal concept, can be interpreted so wildly different culture to culture.

In America, time is considered scarce, we are always anticipating running out of it. Our schedules and rigidity within them prove this. While time in other cultures isn't thought of as having the ability to 'run out of' at all, there is less rigidity around the concept of time and more involvement with the relationship of it.

In Mexico, generally speaking, there may be no "time is up" thought but rather "time to move on" after whatever is happening currently whether that be a conversation, work project, etc. is completed. Another example is conversation- as in many (perhaps most) other cultures it is not something that is hurried due to time constraints (that are mostly purposeless), but enjoyed and apart of the day, again-not deliberately placed into a non-justifiable timeframe.

Perhaps, more or less, Americans are more worried about getting as many things done as possible rather than enjoying one thing at a time. Maybe, our (Americans) time is skewed...

Physics: Synchronicity

Synchronicity and coincidence. What's the difference?

Synchronicity: the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection

Coincidence: a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection

The above definitions sound pretty much the same. "Remarkable concurrence" and "Simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related" are two different wordings of the same thing.

Further research indicates that Synchronicity applies to phenomena that which includes parapsychology: premonition, telepathy, dreams, astrology, etc. This term is also seen in Jungian psychotherapy- situations where the psychotherapists get information about their patients and vice versa, information that was not told to each other or found public yet just "known" via, presumably, telepathic, intuitive, or these sort of ways.

I found myself curious about the validity of "Synchronicity" being that there is a lot of controversy surrounding its truth. Some say its pseudoscience while others, like Carl Jung, claim it is the only way to explain an experience that which makes little sense to person in that situation. It can therefore be considered a "bridge with one foundation derived into the objectivity of hard science and the other into the subjectivity of personal values."

Stumbling upon other interesting studies, it was found that high levels of dopamine affect the propensity to find meaning, patterns, and significance where there is none, and that this propensity is relate to a tendency to believe in the paranormal. This got me wondering about the connection between those that practice meditation or any other "spiritual art," and if it is the high levels of dopamine derived from these practices that is driving the synchronicity experiences- it seems like these experiences are shared mostly among those that have these sort of lifestyles.

So... is it made of in someone's head due to "high levels of dopamine" or the ability to achieve a more or less higher level of consciousness when practicing strong self-aware and spiritual practices?

Physics: Short Bio

My name is Taylor ~

Third year student at ACCHS, looking forward to the end of December this year.

From Philadelphia area - came out to California Fall of 2016.

Dabbled in different careers: started in Design and Marketing in NYC. Shortly after that, I had a serious back injury that took me out of work and into surgery. It was around this time I discovered Chinese Medicine. Starting with the relief of pain (previous to surgery), I started to learn more about the benefits of this medicine through other lifetime issues I had yet to see in a new light. My fascination of Chinese Medicine only grew from there.

Stuck around in Philly for a while: bartending, serving, and catering for music venues. Met some cool folks back stage, I guess. Thought I might like to start a career in Acupuncture for various reasons and ended up enrolling in Tri-State College of Acupuncture, NYC, in 2016. Although I liked various aspects about this school, I still knew I wanted to come out to California and learn the traditional and classical methods of TCM that I couldn't really find where I was.

Made a trip out of it and drove across the country September 2016 and enrolled in ACCHS a couple of weeks later. Here I am still.