stevo247

As a layman, I have a few questions about the Michelson-Morley experiment that proved the nonexistence of an ether. In the experiment, what was the nature of the supposed ether? Was it assumed to be stationary or in motion? Was it considered to be a substance or an energy?

I work as a counselor with many schizophrenic clients. Contrary to what one might think, visual hallucinations are very rare. Auditory hallucinations are common however. The nature of the “voices” seem to be either derogatory to the sufferer, for example “you’re stupid, you’re a good for nothing”, or they provide a very funny social commentary. The “voices” can also make commands like “touch that womans breast, c’mon do it!”. The word schizophrenia, literally means “split mind”. It doesn’t mean split personality or multiple personality. The split has more to do with self perception. There’s a split in the sense of what constitutes oneself. Personally, I’ve never seen an hallucination. I did however, in my foolish youth, do 4 1/2 hits of a drug called “orange barrel” and for a short time I was lost in a kaleidoscope. But I heroically found my way, discovering that I was in fact, only in the 7-11 convenience store. Do you have any idea how many colors there are in a 7-11? I had to get out of there. Too intense. So we went to a quiet bar, calmed down a little, and returned to casually reading peoples minds. I remember my sister telling me about a long road trip she took one time, and she was extremely sleep deprived. She told me that on the side of the highway she saw (hallucinated) a giant Paul Bunyon character swinging an axe onto the highway. She said she remembered having to slow the car down and then speed up so that her car would avoid the next strike of the axe. We later discovered that there really is a giant Paul Bunyon statue on the side of the road. He doesn’t take swings at passing cars however. I think that hallucinations are often times “misperceptions”. For example, a bag blows across the road and “it looked like a dog”. In terms of psychoanalysis, you may be referring to the symbolism within dreams rather than hallucinations. I think the idea is that dreams are driven by the unconscious and there may be clues to the unconscious within the symbolism of dreams. I don’t know much about it though. I imagine that a dream about a pack of wild dogs attacking your genitals might be indicative of a castration anxiety.

I don’t know if the earth fits the criteria of being “alive” or not. Your idea reminds me of the gaia hypothesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis In terms of planetary and solar system “growth”, I’ve always wondered what the long body of the solar system looks like. For example, Jupitor the planet, is starting to look like a mini-sun, with it’s moons starting to look like planets. Was the sun once a planet and the earth once a moon for that planet? Will our moon eventually develop an atmosphere, begin to rotate and start behaving like a planet to it’s sun, the earth. Do the moons throughout the solar system represent "new growth"? Instead of singing in the shower, these are the notions that go through my head.

Thanks for your response. That was helpful. Is the speed of transmission of an action potential the same regardless of what nerve is transmitting it? Also, a unicellular organism such as an amoeba, appears to have a sensitivity to external stimulations. They react to touch, pressure, temperature, light, and chemical irritations. But they don't have an organized nervous system. Is there any research on how that is accomplished?

Are impulses and sensations created by nerves or only transmitted by them?

Originally Posted by stevo247 Emotion: 1579, "a (physical) moving, stirring, agitation," from M.Fr. emotion, from O.Fr. emouvoir "stir up," from L. emovere "move out, remove, agitate," from ex- "out" + movere "to move" (see move). Sense of "strong feeling" is first recorded 1660; extended to "any feeling" 1808.[/url] I think that the idea of protoplasm movement being expressive of an emotion, is recognized in most body oriented psychotherapies such as Fritz Perls’ Gestalt Therapy, Alexander Lowens’ Bioenergetics etc. Most of these body oriented psychotherapies owe a great deal of credit to Wilhelm Reich, though much of his work has been diluted, omitted or misconstrued. Reich had been part of Sigmund Freuds inner circle. Reich was particularly attracted to Freuds hypothesis of the existence of a biological sexual energy in the body which he called libido. Reich directed his own work towards an experimental verification of the libido theory. Reichs’ book “Character Analysis” in the 1930’s was presented within the framework of Freudian psychoanalysis. It charted the development of depth psychology into the biophysical realm, revealing the functional relationship between character attitude and chronic muscular tension. The concept of “character armor” relates to the “ego” becoming rigid when it is continually subjected to conflicts between need and a fear inducing outer world. The corresponding physical expression is one of “holding back” (muscular armor). Pulled back shoulders, suppressed breathing, stiff chin, thrust out chest, retracted immobile pelvis, etc. etc. Therapy involved the dissolution of the armoring and restoring the motility of the body plasma. “The vegetative nervous system is a uniform plexus, running through all the organs of the body, right down to the smallest parts. It is a uniform network of plasma. From the middle position of vegetative equalibrium, it is able to move in the direction toward the world (i.e. to stretch), or to retreat into itself (i.e. to contract). It can also swing from one direction to the other or remain fixed in either of the extreme states. Muscular armor implies a biopathic state of equalibrium whose function it is to avoid the anxiety of contraction as well as the pleasure of expansion and orgastic convulsion”. The antithesis between these two basic functions (toward the world, and away from the world) was further represented in the antithetical innervation of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. “The parasympathetic is essentially the system of peripheral excitatation and central relaxation, of sexual expansion, of the direction ‘toward the world’. The sympathetic is essentially the system of peripheral relaxation and central excitation, of anxious contraction, or in psychological terms, the direction ‘away from the world, into the self’. Expansion and contraction are the basic functions which govern the total innervation of the organism.” Unicellular organisms like ameoba also demonstrate the functional unity of expansion and contraction. In an anxiety state, body fluids (blood and other liquids) flow away from the periphery towards the heart and diaphram region. In a state of sexual excitation, the opposite takes place. There is increased turgor of the peripheral tissues; the skin and mucous membranes become engorged with blood; and secretions of the salivary and genital glands increase. Reichs’ book “The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety” was the logical continuation of “Character Analysis”. “Experimental investigations of skin potentials during pleasure and anxiety confimed the assumption that there are two opposite directions of bioenergy flow during excitation:: toward the periphery and toward the center.” “The positive results of these experiments prove the correctness of the assumption that the leap from mechanical tumescence to electrical charge is a specifically sexual-biological process. The functional identity and antithesis of the bodily processes and the pleasure-unpleasure sensation is proved. The quantity of surface potential and the intensity of the erogenous or vegetative sensations are functionally identical.” “Anxiety as a psychic affect is not an ‘expression’ or a ‘consequence’ or even an ‘accompanying phenomenon’ of the sympathetic retreat into oneself; it is the direct inner perception of the process and is functionally identical to it. Likewise, sexual pleasure in the broadest and narrowest sense, namely, any sensation ranging from the simplest state of relaxed well-being to the sensual tension of excitation, is the inner perception of the parasympathetic function of expansion, which goes together with the increase in surface tension in the mechanical and electrophysiological sense. It is the inner perception of melting, merging with the world, emerging completely from oneself, and it is functionally identical to it.” I do not consider myself an expert on Reichs’ work. Copies of his original writings can be obtained here: http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org/bookstore_recommend.html

Emotion: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=emotion

The word “emotion” itself, indicates movement. The most basic inner perception of movement or emotion, is either towards the center (anxiety or pain) or towards the periphery (pleasure). A contractive movement towards the center in anxiety or pain, corresponds with the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. An expansive movement towards the periphery (pleasure) corresponds with the stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system. So what is moving when someone goes “Boo!” and you retreat to the center lickety-split? Or when you are gently caressed by your lover? What’s moving? Plasma? Bioelectricity? Feels like a current. The philosopher Benedict de Spinoza stated that “beyond these three (pleasure, pain and desire) I recognize no other primary emotion; I will show as I proceed, that all other emotions arise from these three.” He defined desire as “appetite with consciousness thereof.” He defined appetite as “nothing else but man’s essence, from the nature of which necessarily follow all those results which tend to its’ preservation: and which man has thus been determined to perform.”

I’m not sure what to make of all this, but it is interesting. Any comments or impressions? http://mainstreamuniverse.blogspot.com/2008/03/cymatics-bringing-matter-to-life-with.html

It looks like water is needed in order to stimulate metabolism: http://www.biologyreference.com/Re-Se/Seed-Germination-and-Dormancy.html

That situation is very similar to this one:

Here's an interesting take on the origin of the dragon myth: http://home.swbell.net/a1star1/

A guy meets a hooker in a bar. She says, "This is your lucky night. I've got a special game for you. I'll do absolutely anything you want for $300, as long as you can say it in three words." The guy replies, "Hey, why not?" He pulls his wallet out of his pocket, and one at a time lays three hundred-dollar bills on the bar, and says, slowly: "Paint...my...house."

So the wave aspect of light, and the particle aspect of light, is due to the superimposition of two different waves?

When you say that "particles are really just very tightly focused wave-packets", is that due to the nature of the form of the wave? What kind of wave would form a "wave-packet"?

I see what your saying and I appreciate your input. It helps me to clarify my own question to myself. What is the role of "information" (that slippery something) in the determination of the thing itself? For example, a snowflake. All snowflakes have a hexagonal basic shape determined by the molecular structure of ice. So there is a fundamental form or structure. Due to the temperature and the humidity and the way the flake tumbles through the air etc.; the particular form of the individual snowflake is crystallized. So in the production and formation of a single snowflake, is the concept of information involved? I was thinking that perhaps the molecular structure was some kind of blueprint that manifested structure as it interacted with the environment. Since the idea of information appears to be significantly involved in the development and activity of biological processes (DNA, neurons, etc.), I thought that maybe I could take a look at crystallization for clues about the nature of information processing.

This analogy from that link was very helpful: O.K. So now I'm wondering about the orbit of the earth around the sun. The sun, from what I remember, is moving towards something ?north? So if the sun is moving, then the orbital path of the earth is not a closed circle. Using a very complex modeling system (my fist and my finger), it looks like the orbital path of the earth is more like a spiral. Is that what it is?

I'm trying to get an accurate representation of the moon's orbit around the earth. It seems as though it is commonly characterized as going "round and round" the earth. I was under the impression that the moon kind of swerves in and out of the orbital path of the earth. I guess my question is, what is the path of the moons orbit around the sun? Is it a series of "loopty loops" or is it a wavy line?

How common is planetary “wobbling”. The earth has the chandler wobble: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_wobble http://hpiers.obspm.fr/ As well as various other types of wobbles: http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0622.html So, how common is wobbling? Is everything wiggling and wobbling out there?

I think I’m trying to get a handle on what "information” is. I tried dissecting the word and found that “inform, comes (via French) from the Latin verb informare, to give form to.” I started thinking about crystals and what would be considered the “information” involved in the structure. I thought that maybe the molecular structure would be considered the source of the crystals “information system” and that crystal growth would be some sort of transfer of information. Then I started thinking about snowflakes, and the diversity of form that is built on a rather simple molecular structure. Today I learned that information is physical. Apparently, there is no such thing as disembodied information. Information is relational, in that it has to do with the relationship of the parts of a system to each other. Information is also fungible. I think that means that information can be transformed. This whole idea of “information” and the transfer of information is very new to me. I’m trying to develop some kind of understanding of the nature of information. I just thought that crystals were a good place to start.

Does the molecular structure of a mineral express a "form" of information? If so, is crystallization a transfer of that information?

The comment about granite got me wondering about the “cell structure” of minerals. Apparently, the unit cell is the basic building block of a crystal: “To fully describe the internal structure of a crystal, two pieces of info are needed. First, one must characterize the geometry of the unit cell and therefore the lattice. Second, one must identify the content of the unit cell, i.e. the type and position of the atoms or ions. The atomic arrangement in the unit cell is called the crystal structure. The macroscopic crystal is then obtained by a periodic repetition of the unit cell through translation.” http://books.google.com/books?id=0GAvKQJ2JuwC&pg=RA1-PA624&lpg=RA1-PA624&dq=mineral+%22crystal+structure%22+%22unit+cell%22&source=web&ots=PvbQyuiJg8&sig=M9BkeYzYNW8UDfZScvg6YQtAaS8&hl=en#PPA34,M1 I find it interesting that biological membranes are also considered “liquid crystals”. “Lyotropic liquid-crystalline phases are abundant in living systems, the study of which is referred to as polymorphism. Accordingly, lyotropic liquid crystals attract particular attention in the field of biomimetic chemistry. In particular, biological membranes and cell membranes are a form of liquid crystal.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal#Biological_liquid_crystals That makes me wonder about the influence of water and swelling.

Would the possession of a membrane, and the ability to sense and respond to external stimuli, be considered one of the fundamental criteria for a living organism?

This is definitely not an abortion related question. Not necessarily, but thanks for the memory! I am interested in what the scientific community uses as their criteria for determining what constitutes a living thing. For example, I'm pretty sure that a rock would be classified as "non-living", but a unicellular organism would be considered "living". Why? What makes something "living"?

What is the criteria that is used to determine whether something is alive or not?