Imagination Training for Students of Physics

Maybe every first year physics student should spend the entire year reading and discussing science fiction novels with classmates and professors, along with the chronicles of so-called perpetual motion machine inventors, and the mystical experiments of those who relied on Sacred Geometry to improve agriculture, health, and well-being (one example might be the Ansazi in Chaco Canyon). I was a physics student (at Purdue, then IU) for a couple of years, and having been absorbed with SciFi for years prior to that, and believing that with the Tesla coil I built there might be a way for me to teleport myself to another planet or dimension, I found a wild imagination to be invigorating and motivating. On second thought, it was my fecund imagination that ultimately caused me to seek fulfillment outside the field of physics, in Philosophy, and then to leave all that behind for adventures in self-discovery still under way! I’m not sure whether it strengthens or weakens my point, but that’s all another story.

Students of physics might approach a first year of intensive studies in the imaginary and the “extra-scientific” from the point of view that “We’re going to debunk all that stuff.” Or, they might approach it with an open mind and let the imagination enjoy itself. In either event, having a good imagination and being able to accept what initially seems preposterous is essential to real advancement in any endeavor, especially in the fields of science.

Every great advancement in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.
- John Dewey

Imagination is the queen of truth, and possibility is one of the regions of truth. She is positively akin to infinity.- Charles Baudelaire

I have never looked for dream in reality or reality in dream. I have allowed my imagination free play, and I have not been led astray by it. – Gustave Moreau

We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experienced is a narrowing of the imagination. – David Lynch

We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination. – Daniel J. Boorstin

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge… - Robert Fulghum

We say God and the imagination are one… -Wallace Stevens

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. – Albert Einstein

Love Means Harmony

One of the challenges to modern industrial civilization has been how to determine (in the absence of so-called “conclusive” scientific evidence) whether a particular product or behavior of human beings is in fact detrimental to health and well-being. Often, there is no truly conclusive scientific evidence, especially with regard to the subtle. Results are subject to interpretation, interpretation subject to predisposition. Furthermore, the methods of rational argument can serve many masters. Principles of reason depend upon axioms, or accepted facts. The facts that determine the course of reason depend upon one’s point of view.

The answer is so simple that it escapes notice. But that doesn’t mean the answer is accepted or recognized as an answer, and there are many reasons for this.

The simple answer is, that if the product or behavior is not born of love, it is harmful.

So, how do we quantify this a little so that our stubborn, naturally self-serving mind can accept it, or even recognize it as having a reality apart from the appearance of pure, impractical ideology? I’ll use a personal experience as a starting point.

Today, while driving in to work, I was stopped at a traffic light and noticed the turn-signal of a local bus. The signal device was the type of LED array that’s frequently in use today on commercial vehicles as a turn-signal or break-light indicator. The quality of the blinking was, to my eye, distracting and somewhat unsettling. It would be analogous, I realized, to a person hitting me between the eyes at a regular frequency with a stick — not hard blows, of course, but noticeable enough to cause distraction and eventually create a sense of tension as the body begins to beg relief from a “mindless” sensory input. I say “mindless” because there was no principle to the blinking light, except as perceived within a very, very narrow context. It was blinking without regard to its environment, not aware at all. There was no effort to integrate this signal light with the human observer, except merely to proclaim its singular purpose, “This (vehicle) is turning right!”

In short, the turn signal was disturbing to my senses. Am I some kinda weeny or what? I don’t think so. It was not as if this was a major problem, at all. I could easily have simply ignored it, just as one normally does in one’s daily goings about in this busy world. Given the cacophony of the city streets, this was a subtle observation that could easily escape notice. But, is ignoring a subtle but disruptive sensory event enough to alchemize it’s effects into something innocuous, to say nothing of actually converting the experience into something comforting? This is actually a deep question, too deep for the scope of this article. So, suffice to say, that I think we find, just by the fact of how relaxing it is to visit the forest when one lives in the city, that in general individuals are distressed physically and mentally by sensory input that is not complimentary to the organic functioning of one’s body and beneficial to the mind’s capacity to appreciate order and purpose.

There’s a quote from a speech attributed to Chief Sealth (aka Chief Seattle), that was actually penned by a screenwriter in the sixties. Although it takes considerable license with the original speech (and here’s the most authentic version I could find of that: http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/smith.htm), it does express the point I wish to make here rather well.

“The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man… There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect’s wings…

The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? …

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with the pinion pine.”

What I’d like to stress with this quote is that because we have become so accustomed to our “noisy lifestyle” we are less aware, perhaps, of how disturbing is the violent nature of energy flow associated with our “ways.” If you were to chart the energy patterns of our modern civilization and compare them to that of nature, it would look like a square compared to a circle. Or, perhaps a saw-tooth sine-wave, compared to the normal circular wave.

A dichotomy that, I think, helps illuminate the essential point here is that of violence versus salutary conduct. Violent behavior involves sudden, high-impact actions, without a flowing, sinusoidal motion*. Salutary actions, those which encourage natural processes, are much more evenly flowing, and tend to “add to” the sinusoidal movements of natural systems. In fact, they add to the wave, they do not subtract from it as would the harmful type of action described.

In other words, our modern idea of life, our present choices with regard to applications of science (i.e. the current technology), our social norms and customs, are in many cases not additive in nature, not supportive of natural energy flows, but rather compete and contradict them. In short, they are not loving, they are destructive.

Obviously, I’m not talking about everything we do. I’m no crank. This is about the subtler aspects of what we do, our use of words, our ways of treating each other, and very importantly the way one treats one’s own self. It’s about how we build our buildings, how we cut our streets, how we transport these bodies from place to place, how we walk, how we eat. It’s about not THAT we do these things, but HOW we do them. Do we do them with love and respect, with appreciation and gratitude towards life and the inexplicable majesty of the living world? Or, do we act without regard for the ways life’s gift is given to us?

This question has become fundamental to the present time. There is no way to proceed more harmoniously without close introspection on the part of the individual, and without open discourse in the public forum, as to whether we honor the nature of life through love or continue to pursue self-serving ideologies through aggressive denial — as if somehow we can chop out a section of the world within which our own ideal of an isolated palace of self-indulgence can be created.

There is no separation, at all. And the unity the mind can perceive, is a unity of its own making. True unity, true harmony, is beyond mental conception. Only love teaches us about that. And that’s beyond the capacity of words to elucidate. Nevertheless, I’ve found in the amazing words of Rumi, Hafiz, Jesus, and many great sages, some hints for myself as to the reality of love. Perhaps in such works there is expressed an actual promise, or at least a blueprint and a chart leading to a greater life for each, and consequently, for all, in time. If nothing else, it is, I believe, an excellent place to start toward love as the foundation of one’s action and perception. Ultimately, that is the only thing that could produce a world in which we find ourselves less in a position of exposure to products of industry and human endeavor that cause so much harm.

          
*It’s pertinent to this point that the sinusoidal motion is actually a “give-and-take” kind of movement. It’s exactly like the exercise “push-hands” used in Tai Chi to exemplify the ideal quality of the circular give and take of energy that must occur in a properly practiced Tai Chi exercise. You and your partner touch hands and the only rule is that you must never release that contact, whether you’re pushing, or being pushed. The result is a natural, smooth (non-disruptive) energy flow. Try it! You’ll be amazed by the experience.

Why Do We Like to Mow the Lawn?

I was mowing the grass yesterday. I asked myself, why do we men enjoy mowing so much? The answer came: because it is a mindless and asocial activity involving the exercise of power, which I found quite humorous. Alas, this power fixation can be a real conundrum for the world. But, fortunately, for the most part, when it is wrapped up in mowing, it is harmless.

While I was out there in the cool, spring afternoon, I relished the aroma of cut grass. I found a patch of strawberry blossoms and left them alone. Maybe they’ll produce strawberries later?

Is Technology for Profit the Best Use of Science?

That is the question.  Comments?