Witch or not, I'm a self-professed "science guy" who works with energy but not deity (the general definition of the word, not "The Deity"). As I've said in previous posts, I don't rule out the possibility of deity, it's just not currently a part of my view of How Things Work. Part of that comes from that "science guy" attitude toward the universe, since science really doesn't look at deity, magic, energy work, etc. in a favorable way.
That may be (slooooowly) changing.
Although it borders on an op-ed piece, the linked article shows that Science may finally be opening up a teeny-tiny, eensy-weensy bit to the idea that maybe, just maybe, there might be Something More to the Universe. (Yeah, I have fun with uppercase letters... Sorry! LOL) I stumbled across this article in the sidebar of something totally unrelated, and I think I actually said, "Whoa!" out loud when I bumped into the comment that "...even an electron might have a tiny piece of consciousness."
Take a gander... wut'chu all think?
https://www.livescience.com/what-is-consciousness-mystery.html
I have always had a strong theory that is hard to explain to others. This appears to be another step in the direction of understanding. I don't have much science background but I have been able to make a few connections somewhat related to (the brief bit of info) what I read there. I'd be interested in throwing some thoughts your way if you're up for some open conversation.
Well, you've piqued my curiosity... LOL I'd just like to have the convo here to share with others... and to not open the broom closet door any wider than necessary. <:-\ That OK?
Yes, that's very fair request. I'll have to gather my thoughts a bit more so I can try to explain it so ya'll can see what I'm saying. It'll probably all be a bit rambly and back and forth so, sorry about that.
I've always been stuck on the whole positive and negative and neutral thing. It's a pattern that pops up everywhere, just like how vibrations are everything. We have positive emotions as well as negative and also neutral. And this +, -, and null are also seen in science with our atoms. I don't remember much of what I learned in high school but I feel like atoms are attracted to each other just as we are attracted to things and people.
We don't always understand why we feel attracted to a certain place or thing, but there is definitely a sort of force pulling us toward it. Who's to say that an atom lives a life similar to ours? I've always heard the idea of how the forest is a network of life and it makes sense to me that when one tree dies or is cut down, the rest of the trees will "feel it" in a way that we never could. What happens to the atoms of the tree after it has completely rotted and become part of the mulch and ground? Where did that energy go? I get that the atoms themselves have - in a way - fused into the earth at this point, but that tree had positive and negative and neutral energy (or forces) that it fed into the ground and when it isnno longer producing life, that energy needs to go elsewhere; and I would assume that most of it would go into the rest of the trees, either through the water it takes from the ground or the air and sunlight it takes into it's leaves.
And I would imagine the same when we die. (Not getting into anything "afterlife" related here). The energy we used has to go somewhere to be recycled into the universe. - Tangent - I've always enjoyed telling my friends that since I have an unfamiliar attraction to Egypt could mean that some of the atoms (or energy from those atoms) that, say Cleopatra, was made up of are part of the structure of which I am comprised. I would joke that I'm part Cleopatra and perhaps part Shakespeare (and of course I'd through in a few more people I was clinging to at the time).
I think, this latest tangent has brought me to the question of "Who's to say that gust of wind that inspired the Pocohontis movie was carrying some of the atoms that the real Pocohontis was comprised of? And that the new friend you made holds some of the energy that your great great gandfather held onto while he lived?"
Whose to say that an atom can't have an imprint from it's previous purpose (life)?
I think I'll pause here and let that sink in a bit before I spend another hour on another tangent.
I'm interested in thoughts
Interesting... and definitely not too rambly. :-) You're right about the charges in atoms (part of my "science guy" version of magic), but it's not so much the entire atom that's charged -- although that can happen -- it's the particles of which atoms are made: electrons, which are negatively charged & orbiting the nucleus; protons, which are positively charged and normally located only in the nucleus of *every* atom; and neutrons, which are (you guessed it!) neutral in charge, and also normally located only in the nucleus. (Please forgive me if you're actually a physicist and I'm preaching to the choir.) The only atom that lacks neutrons in its nucleus is Hydrogen, which is #1 on the Periodic Table -- it has one lonely electron orbiting a nucleus comprised of one lonely proton.
Where it starts to get weird (and downright cool, with lots of room for energy exchanges, shapes, forms, and such) is the even smaller subatomic particles that protons and neutrons are made of: the Quarks. (Electrons are themselves elementary particles, with no smaller parts.) These wee beasties are what make my head hurt when I try to learn more, but if I remember correctly they're divided into "flavors" and are called "up," "down," "strange," "charm," "top," and "bottom" -- and they're held together by yet another, unrelated type of particle called "gluons" ...and did I mention that every quark named here also has an equivalent anti-quark? Then there's yet another entire zoo of other subatomic particles that get weirder the more we learn about them (once we even figure out that they exist)... For example, the recently found Higgs Boson (aka the "God Particle") can be in more than one place simultaneously, and can both exist and not exist simultaneously... and yet there it is... (my brain hurts) SOOOO many possibilities for the transfer, holding, shaping, sharing, and manipulation of energies!!! (And yes, I did indeed have to stop and look up all the quark names. Again.)
Do any of these subatomic particles have something we could call memory? I don't know, but while the likelihood is probably quite low, what I've read so far indicates it is still non-zero (it's just too complex a question for humans to have an answer for at this stage of development). At some level, there has to be *something* that works like "memory" because -- to hyper-simplify the real world -- no matter how weird the behavior of some of these particles is, and no matter how many times they combine with other particles to create larger particles that themselves then combine to form even larger particles or atoms, when they're on their own they return to the same behaviors they had. Some folks say "it's the nature of the beast" but in my mind the beast has to "remember" what it is or it ends up being something else. (I know some folks will say I'm playing hob with the base definition of the words "memory" and "remember" but they're the simplest way to describe what's happening.)
In the original "Cosmos" series, Carl Sagan used to say "we are all made of starstuff," the result of all(?) matter in the universe coming from the hearts of stars, either being transmuted into progressively heavier elements or broken down into the component subatomic particles depending upon where in the star one looked, and then being spread around by supernovas, gravity, and other forces. In other words, everything that is, was once something else, and eventually will be something else yet again -- all at the atomic & subatomic level. (I'm not entirely sure if I've just wandered off on a tangent, but this ties in nicely with the idea that there is no way to absolutely state that gust of wind you spoke of didn't indeed include at least an atom or two from the original Pocahontas, or at least one of her relatives!)
Does this mean that a quark that was once part of a proton in the core of an atom that was part of a molecule of a chemical that was part of a larger compound that comprised part of a tree will "remember" it was once a tree? I have to say, "Probably not..." but there's always that tiny voice in the back of my mind saying, "...but the next time those particles bind together that way they'll all make a tree again!" and I end up reaching for the aspirin bottle... ;-)
Wow, and *you* were worried about being "rambly"... Sorry!
PS - Speaking of "the forest as a network," something generally acknowledged as one of the largest single living organisms on the planet is the "Pando" forest in Utah. Although it's currently in trouble and may actually be dying, it's a forest of Quaking Aspen trees that covers over 40 acres and is actually a single organism; all the trees aboveground are clones of each other, and they all share a single massive root system that weighs millions of pounds - so yeah, the entire forest is actually ONE tree!
I'll have to look more into Hydrogen, that's an interesting thing. But yes! I definitely feel like we hit some parts that fall right into each other. And I'm at a loss for the science stuff, it doesn't settle well in my brain, but it's cool that Carl Sagan supports my theory (in a way). Haha
I kind of agree that the idea of an atom (or even part of an atom) actually remembering that it was once part of a tree, but do animals remember that north is up? Does an individual bird who was separated from it's flock when it was younger remember that it had a family once? I (could be wrong entirely) feel like memory is not always there, but there is an imprint that will always be there. Perhaps you forgot that you had a family, then one day you ran into them and all the feelings are still there, even though you forgot those people even existed. I imagine it might be similar with animals. And it would seem just as likely to me that the electricity within a particle would not particularly remember that it has been here before, but it might get some electrical de-ja-vu that it's been here before.
For instance, I get de-ja-vu all the time, only after I hit my 20s, it reversed on me. So now anytime I get that de-ja-vu feeling, it's not "oh this has happened before," it's now "this situation is going to happen again in my future." I might speculate that it's not so much a memory of ones past, but that chemical feeling of "I've done this before, this feels right." Almost like an instinct.
Also, back onto my brief mention of vibrations, have you heard of the studies they've been doing with Binaural Beats? I've been checking it out (with one of the apps) and it's a neat concept that I can't understand. Maybe you'll find something there to further confuse you ^.^ The idea that literally everything is and responds to vibrations is still blowing my mind.
So, electrons (which are negatively charged) have no room inside them for anything else. Protons (which are positive) and neutrons (which are neutral) make up the nucleus of an atom and are made up of quarks which are held together by gluons.
And then there's the energy that people work with (Witches, and Chi, and the Force) where we try to let go of the negative energy (which correlates with the negative electrons orbiting the nucleus (positive and neutral energies) to create a neutral space (filled with neutrons) which we can then use to fill with positive energy (protons).
So, science guy, (I don't know if you even know or if there is a pattern) is there a general rule to the structure of atoms (or elements) when we take away their electrons? Maybe what happens when you replace the netrons with more protons. I recently ran across some source that was talking about how we try to take in the positive and let out the negative, but where's the balance there? If there's so much structure and such a fine line between the different elements why do we not seek to balance out chi, (or energy, force) instead of constantly overloading ourselves with positive? Stimulation is nice, but too much isn't a good thing. (Oh and also, (I don't remember where it came from) but they also said that negative energy is better for us and positive energy is bad - if my memory worked at all, it'd be more helpful, but it was something that got me into the stimulation idea, so...)
AND if you're up for a challenge, I employ you to check out a show called The Pyramid Code. I found it on Netflix but I'm sure it's around still. I highly suggest quite a few grains of salt and keeping a Very open mind. A lot of it hit key things with me and a lot of it made me laugh, but it set me on a whole new path of thinking. Also, they have an interesting concept with the pyramids that resonated with me deeply. (I think there's also a few videos on YouTube that are a few hours long. I had put it on in the background while I was working on other projects)
Guess I'll have to visit Utah sometime then. That's a pretty cool thing.
I have a couple of ideas, but am in the middle of digging out from a "Gotta do it NOW" avalanche IRL... Will reply soon! :-)
Oh, almost forgot -- have tried different recordings with binaural beats but if they don't give me a minor headache, they don't do anything at all.... but I have tinnitus in both ears so it probably gets in the way. :-(
@Brian NobleHeartedLion Ah yeah the tinnitus will make it not work for you. Mostly just give you headaches >.<
I recently found a book called "A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe" by Mark P. Silverman. I've started reading it (not 20 pages in yet) and I find myself very interested and I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for other books that I can probably gather from my library. Since you're already into science and such, I figure you'd have at least a few good ideas.
@WoodWalkerD I've certainly thought about using them with meditation (however I'm avoiding a few things right now so I've been avoiding meditation); I've never thought to use them with other things though. I usually use it to help me sleep. Thanks, that's a good idea
@WoodWalkerD It's kinda hard to say because I started using the binaural beats while I was also experiencing a major change (or two) and some other events at the same time. So while I did have a few more dreams than usual, it's almost to be expected with all the outside forces. I don't normally dream but maybe once every couple years. I would say that it didn't really bring any difference. It mostly helps me quiet my anxiety at night (and I've tried it a few times to just help me clear my thoughts during the day). It's a good distraction.
It's honestly (from my opinion) probably like doing drugs - the first experience will be the most intense. I had some experience with astral play when I was younger and I remember the first time being amazing beyond belief and then the rest of the sessions weren't quite as mystical and magical but I still accomplished the same outcome.
I LOVE this. This is why I like Quantum Physics so much. I was reading part of the discussion on here and I love how when does the internal compass of birds and animals defeat primal instincts and just resonates with past vibrational frequencies. As well as trees living in a forest together. I love how with the new studies that have been done they see how trees communicate with each other via their root system, and can even send healing nutrients to wounded trees.