Every now and again, I find it useful to review logical principles that are central to rational discourse, yet often misunderstood or just botched in the heat of the moment. Here are two all-time favorites … 1. Correlation & Causation Just because two events are correlated doesn’t mean that there is a causal relationship that exists between the two. As pictured above, a hot sunny day may …
Science & Spirit
Ways of Knowing
In a previous post—Mercury Rising—we considered various measuring devices—used by scientists to record information about large, medium-sized and very small phenomena. One device briefly considered was the human body-mind itself. Now, let’s continue our exploration by taking a closer look at the human body-mind as a measuring apparatus. In particular, let’s address the question: what counts as …
Mercury Rising
In a previous post—Star Light, Star Bright—I posed the question: What is meant by “observation” in various physics paradigms, and how does this relate (if at all) to Awareness as the final, ultimate perceiver/observer? And, as we saw, what is meant by “an observer” differs quite dramatically, between Newtonian, special relativity, and quantum mechanical paradigms. And this is quite …
Star Light, Star Bright …
Most of you will be familiar with the nursery rhyme: Star light, star bright, First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight. My current wish is a clearer understanding of what is meant by "observation" in various physics paradigms, and how this relates (if at all) to Awareness as the final, ultimate perceiver/observer. Starry Night I'll be returning …
Practice Notes: Detective Work, Part Two
To continue our exploration of the anesthesia experience, let’s now consider the recording and projecting capacities of the human brain—which all evidence reveals to be a super-sophisticated electrochemical device which plays a central role in the creation of our sensory and cognitive experience. Much of how the human organism thinks, perceives and interacts with the surrounding environment has …
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Practice Notes: Detective Work
You may be familiar with detective shows—e.g., Poirot, Inspector Morse, NCIS, Sherlock—whose plot periodically features a bad-guy who deletes a segment of security-camera footage, in order to commit a crime, unobserved. Heist Say, for instance, the bad-guy is planning a heist of a jewelry store. There are a variety of ways that security-camera footage might be eliminated: 1. Most crudely, the …