A Right Hippocampal Mystic Typology

כ״ד בטבת תשע"ב
Grael 27

In correlation with the information in this article [The Role of Religious and Mystic Experiences In Human Evolution: An Hypothesis. Todd Murphy, 2010] discussing the differences between right hippocampal and left amygdalar mystic types, where it is written,

A mystic whose experiences appear from an unusually responsive right hippocampus is expected to report experiences dominated by right hippocampal (RH) phenomena. The RH role in spatial reasoning and memory implicates it in experiences of 'infinity', the "infinite void", spaciousness, and the experience that the space occupied by the sense of self is limitless ("one with the universe"), or existing in 'one-pointedness' (phenomena suggestive of macropsia and micropsia). The RH role in non-verbal information implicates it in the experience of inner silence, or freedom from 'mind chatter'. Its cognitive functions implicate it in the experience of 'knowingness', and 'insight', in which understandings appear spontaneously. The right hippocampus' role in processing non-verbal information would give such mystics a propensity for experiences that are 'beyond words' or 'too subtle to be explained". It's role as the source for dream imagery suggests that its also involved in the experience of 'alternate realities', 'other dimensions', the 'astral plane', the 'dream time', as well as the fleeting images that appear in hypnogogia, and even artistic visual inspirations. Its role in creating and retrieving memories suggests it may be crucial in accessing inner images, including symbolic, spiritual, and artistic images. Its production of theta activity suggests it's crucial in trance and meditation.

makes it clear to me that my mystical experiences (example) tend to be of this type, suggesting that I am a mystic of the right hippocampal (RH) type (as opposed to of the left amygdalar mystic type). The connection of RH mystical experiences to the phenomenon of memory is also interesting to me given my ever continuous memory of preincarnate existence. In light of the additional evidence given by this research group that human beings have out of physical body experiences of consciousness which come together to the self experientially from the perspective of an energetic or subtle body (as explained in related videos here, here and here), it seems reasonable to suggest that the physical brain may also have a non-physical correlate through which an individual may 'come together' as a self-aware entity.

(Described in the linked videos) I often "see" the void and the moving neurological electromagnetic field called "the binding factor" (which is responsible for bringing together and maintaining the "sense" of self) when I am resting - I can "see" this moving field when I close my eyes. At rest with my eyes closed, seeing these phenomena (the void and the moving field) are almost even my "default" settings of perception. In addition, I also occasionally experience partial seizure-like electrical activity at various locations in my body which no one but I am aware of - these too most often occur when I am resting.

I'd like one of those Shiva neural stimulation helmets!

Psychic Skills & Miracles

כ״ג בטבת תשע"ב
Grael 26

The New Science of Darwinian Rebirth

כ״א בטבת תשע"ב
Grael 24

Knotty Control Of Light

ד' בשבט תש"ע
Imbolgen 5

In follow-up to the flurry of knotted witch's ladders I've created for WITCHCRAFTS by Liorah Lleucu within the past week or so and my Torah commentary for this past Shabbat (Mind Magic and the Art of Control), this interesting synchronous news article is reported today by Foxnews:

Twisted physics, scientists create knots of light
By Jeanna Bryner - LiveScience

Like your shoelaces or electrical cords, light can get twisted into knots. Now, scientists have used a computer-controlled hologram and theoretical physics to turn a light beam into pretzel-like shapes.

The twisted feat not only led to some pretty cool images, but the results have implications for future laser devices, the researchers say.

"In a light beam, the flow of light through space is similar to water flowing in a river," said lead researcher Mark Dennis of the University of Bristol in England. Even though the light from something like a laser pointer travels in a straight line, it can also flow in whirls and eddies, Dennis explained.

These swirls of light are called optical vortices. Along the vortices the intensity of light reaches zero, or no light.

"The light all around us is filled with these dark lines, even though we can't see them," Dennis said. "Our work actually twists dark filaments within the light beam into knots."

The researchers knew these optical vortices could be created with holograms, which direct the flow of light. By using so-called fibered knot theory, a branch of abstract mathematics inspired by everyday knots, Dennis and his colleagues created customized holograms and reflected a regular laser beam from them.

Each point on the hologram changes the point of the wave's cycle in that part of the light beam. They created a hologram that would change the phase of light so that it flowed around a dark knot.

Their results, detailed online Jan. 17 in the journal Nature Physics, are "firsts" for a couple of reasons. While so-called knot theorists have studied mathematical equations similar to dark knots, the new research created these knots with math functions that followed rules of propagating light. In addition, unlike other dark knots created that have been tangled up with other knots, Dennis and his colleagues produced isolated dark knots within the light beam, he said.

"For me, it shows how physicists can adapt existing pure mathematics, such as knot theory, and find it manifest in physical phenomena," Dennis said. "It also shows how finely we can control the flow and propagation of laser light using holograms. This degree of control is likely to find applications in future laser devices."

Read the entire article at the link above.

The seven knotty witch's ladders I've created recently, from Manifestation to Earth Light:

Earth Light Witch's Ladder - created 1/17
Earth Goddess Witch's Ladder - created 1/17
Sea Faery Witch's Ladder - created 1/16
Witching Hour Witch's Ladder - created 1/15
Dragon Faery Witch's Altar Ladder - created 1/9 - SOLD
Mysteries of the Flame Witch's Ladder - created 1/6 - SOLD
Manifestation Witch's Ladder - created 1/6

Living Magically, The Science Of Everyday Matters

ה' בכסלו תש"ע
Shamash 6

In follow-up to all of today's entries (Chomah, A Vision of The Temple in the Night, Working Magic and Communion), and in contemplation of the importance of blogging - about dreams and other everyday matters - I observe that Carl Sagan speaks to us about the science of living magically through an observation on the life of Eratosthenes:

One day while reading a papyrus book in the library, he came upon a curious account. Far to the south, he read, at the frontier outpost of Syene, something notable could be seen on the longest day of the year.

On June twenty-first, the shadows of a temple column or a vertical stick would grow shorter as noon approached. And, as the hours crept towards midday, the sun's rays would slither down the sides of a deep well which on other days would remain in shadow. And then, precisely at noon, columns [and sticks] would cast no shadows and the sun would shine directly down into the water of the well. At that moment, the sun was exactly overhead.

It was an observation that someone else might easily have ignored - on sticks, shadows, reflections in wells, the position of the sun - simple everyday matters - of what possible importance might they be? But Eratosthenes was a scientist, and his contemplation of these homely matters changed the world - in a way, made the world - because Eratosthenes had the presence of mind to experiment, to ask whether, back here near Alexandria, a stick cast a shadow near noon on June the twenty-first. And it turns out, sticks do.

Simple everyday matters - a scientist has the presence of mind to ask, "of what possible importance might they be?"

Live magically, and ask with the wonder of a scientist, of what possible importance might the everyday observations of your life be.

Working Magic

ה' בכסלו תש"ע
Shamash 6

I've been watching the series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage the past few weeks. Gathered together from various internet sources, I really like these Carl Sagan quotes:

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas … If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you … On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly all right; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. The worst aspect of the Velikovsky affair is not that many of his ideas were wrong or silly or in gross contradiction to the facts; rather, the worst aspect is that some scientists attempted to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system, and the history of our study of the solar system shows clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.

I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.

If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.

Every one of us is precious in the cosmic perspective. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.

Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species.

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Imagine how different our world would be if those discoveries had been explained and used for the benefit of everyone, if the humane perspective of Eratosthenes had been widely adopted and applied. But this was not to be. Alexandria was the greatest city the Western world had ever seen. People from all nations came here to live to trade to learn, on a given day these harbours were thronged with merchants and scholars and tourists, it's probably here that the word Cosmopolitan realised its true meaning of a citizen not just of a nation but of the Cosmos, to be a citizen of the Cosmos.

The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgement to have safely traveled from star to star.

248 Magical Dimensions

ו' בתמוז תשס״ט
Faunus 7

In follow-up to today's earlier entries, it is interesting that there are 248 dimensions or 'parts' (חלקים) which describe the mathematical group called the E8 Lie (pronounced Lee) group upon which the forces of physics may finally become unified.

Interestingly, none of today's entries were planned - they all flowed effortlessly from one another, catalyzed from The Best Part and a comment in response to that entry, into The Science of Scent, into The Five Elements Of Scent, into Eight Charge Dimensions Of Everything, into Co-Determinants Of The History Of The Universe into this entry, 248 Dimensions.

There are 248 positive (masculine) mitzvot in Torah. Whereas the first five of today's entries wandered around aspects of the Divine Feminine, the 248 dimensions of the E8 Lie group wander around aspects of the Divine Masculine. Thus, not only is there mathematical beauty in this new theory regarding the nature of the universe, but unity is also brought to the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine forces which bring nature into manifest being.

The two words in parshat Korach which initiated all of today's entries were את-חלבו. As well as functioning as a sign of the definite direct object 'the', at (את) is also the feminine Hebrew form of the pronoun 'you'. The word חלבו has a masculine Hebrew letter suffix which renders the word to mean 'his best part'. Taken together, the two Hebrew words of the joined one-word construct את-חלבו unify the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine forces of nature just as does the E8 Lie group theory. Moreover, the unification was elucidated in today's entries in exactly the same feminine to masculine order as the two magical Hebrew words, namely את-חלבו, abstracted from Korach for my Torah commentary entry.

It's magic!

Co-Determinants Of The History Of The Universe

ה' בתמוז תשס״ט
Faunus 6

Fundamental law and anomalous accidents co-determine the history of the universe ...

"The history of the universe is not just determined by fundamental law - it's the fundamental law and this unimaginably long series of accidents (outcomes of chance events) that are in addition ... the (unified) fundamental theory doesn't include those chance outcomes, they are in addition ... so, it's not a theory of everything. In fact, a huge amount of the information in the universe around us comes from those accidents and not just from the fundamental laws." - Murray Gell-Mann

Eight Charge Dimensions Of Everything

ה' בתמוז תשס״ט
Faunus 6

As the five primary elements which comprise the molecules we perceive as scent through the sense of smell are numerically related to the Divine Feminine by way of the 'feminine' number five (through the magical Hebrew letter hei and the sefirot Malchut and Binah), so too are the eight charge dimensions which are theorized to comprise everything related to the Divine Feminine by way of the 'feminine' number eight (through the magical Hebrew letter chet and the sefirot Binah and Hod.



Of related interest - Vodou Math

The Science Of Scent

ה' בְּתָּמוּז תשס״ט
Faunus 6

The Science Of Time

PART 1 - The Flow Of Time



PART 2
PART 3
PART 4

Dark Matter And Dark Energy

INTRODUCTION / TRAILER to Dark Matter & Dark Energy



PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5