The bridge between the sacred + the mundane. The ultimate example of our divorce from spirit to logic. A field riddled with controversy + denialism. Can science embrace the true power water holds?
Ever Abundant yet perilously essential.
Water percentage in the human body decreases with age
Reclaiming Science through the Wisdom of Water.
How science was colonized and how water can set it free Water is a complicated molecule. The structure itself seems relatively simple, just two hydrogens and an oxygen atom, but the mystery really lies in it’s interactions with the world around it. Science has issues with water. Water does not follow the rules, and the study of water remains to be riddled with controversy and debate. But water is life. Water is essential to life as we know it and has become so pervasively controlled that it has become mundane and accepted as common place. Ordinary. Water is no ordinary thing. And yes, now as resources dwindle the awareness has shifted to conservancy and scarcity, but we still fail to aknowledge the divine life giving nature of water. It true capacity and it’s truly sacred role in our existence. How can we work as a society to remember the sacred power of water and study and learn from it’s wisdom. Can it be done with science? Science, again, has issues with the word sacred. Sacred is not an SI[1] Unit of measurement. It cannot be divided by 12, measured with electronics, put into a simulation or taught in a text book. Or, can it? Science is a practice and a methodology that evolved from philosophy. Once upon a time the people who were revered as ‘scientists’, the great problem solvers and investigators of nature saw no divide between the sacred and the mundane of nature. They sought to study both, to perceive, experiment, analyse and quantify both. [Who were scientists that study nature and spirit?] But little by little these philosopher-scientists started to get caught up in the details and Science was born through the enlightenment and scientific revolution. And so reductionism was born Why is science colonized? Science has become a tool of control. It seeks out ‘uninhabited’ ‘undiscovered’ territory. Unleashes the tools of analysis which pry and rip the data from the ‘chaos’ of the still untamed realm of the unknown. Steralizing, extracting and ultimately putting it to use in a profitable and ‘productive’ way. To serve either our pockets or our self-satisfaction of conquring a portion of understanding. Science is also ruled by the privileged and so the rules and regulations of the dominant culture are pervasive and unavoidable in the community and in the rhetoric. Ego, fear, name calling, favoritism, elitism are rampant. I argue that as the Europeans were colonizing the nations across the globe, they were also colonizing the way we understand and learn and ultimate be part of nature. [1] SI Units are
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When dissatisfied with the current state of being
Change the physical circumstances.... or Change the spiritual perspective. Juggling realities. Experimenting with travelling through parallel realities, leaves me with a little vertigo and a craving for water and root veggies. So far, shifting through perspective space isn't as potent as shifting through physical space; often I suddenly find myself back in the state of origin. Those are the most statistically probable states to be in perhaps, stronger, easier to tune into. I feel though with greater practice and flexing of this muscle I can move into and stay in lower probability realities and therefore live in state of miraculous manifestations. source: http://imedea.uib-csic.es/~salvador/docencia/coms_optiques/addicional/ibm/ch03/03-06.html In a relaxed condition, only a specific set of energy states, states of being, are available. However, with continued pumping, or charging up with photons and energy at the proper frequency, the material/substrate will enter into a previously unavailable energy state (population inversion?) causing a cascading amplification and radiation effect. Edit: Population inversion is when the majority of entities are occupying higher energy states. Hmm. This is when the cascading lasing effect then occurs.
What about consciousness? Does it hold our reality together? Our experience? The tangible and the inextricable? Containing the immense...or is it vis versa....Reality contains and holds the immensity of our consciousness. This 4 dimensional reality is merely harnessing the unweildy power of the infinite. Dark matter interacts with gravity, but light and matter do not. Dark Energy is the force that produces more space between matter excerpt from Black Quantum Futurism: Theory & Practice How do we reclaim the darkness and the unknown as our ally?
Yesterday a great friend of mine and I were talking about some of the challenges of diversity and inclusion work. Specifically we got into how to facilitate engagement with well-meaning but under educated privileged groups and their marginalized peers. How can voices and perspectives be brought to the table in not an equal, but an equitable way. Often these containers are labeled 'Safe Spaces' but I take issue with that term, because sometimes we need to move outside of safety, outside of comfort to grow. Furthermore, safe spaces often have limited access points for marginalized folks and as a result they risk catering to the comfort or safety of privileged folks and not confronting the subtle and guilt-laden aspect of implicit bias. This is when she introduced to me the concept of BRAVE SPACES. WOW, I immediately felt the power of this phrase. Courage and bravery are topics that often come up in my mindfulness work as attributes that help guide us through difficulty and ultimately allow for us to transcend our oppressive habits or mental patterns. Brave Spaces has very much the same connotation. Spaces where we are encouraged to engage with the uncomfortable. This format allows for privileged groups to use the wrong terminology or voice prejudiced opinions, but are equipped with the tools or the courage to then be corrected and informed on why their perspective may be flawed or ill-informed. We should not be ashamed of our ignorance because that disempowers us to confront it openly. Simultaneously marginalized groups aren't burdened with the need to 'console' their peers and can voice their objections freely. I myself deal with this issue constantly. For years I struggled to even know how to define my identity in terms of race. Was I black, was I colored, was I mulatto? Is mulatto a racial slur? Is colored inappropriate? I've now found comfort in identifying as a person of color but was floundered in confusion for most of my adolescent life due to being too shy or too embarrassed to ask. By continuing to stay silent, I stayed ignorant. I stayed confused. Even now I see myself susceptible to this when interacting with LGBTQ or other communities I'm not familiar with. Am I using the right terminology? Was that statement assumptive or inappropriate? Now, with this simple phrase of brave space, I feel empowered to enter into these conversations better equipped to take on criticism or correction and effectively become a better peer, advocate and ally in any situation. Please feel free to comment and join the dialogue. I also found this document on the topic HERE
A lot of these ideas come from the practice of Permaculture: (From Wikipedia) Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, environmental design, construction and integrated water resources management that develops sustainable architecture, regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems. I love these workshops because they help me to build new vocabulary to help address limitations in the current scientific paradigm. So much of facilitating thought-provoking discussions is about introducing new language. It allows us to be more concise in our definitions and more dynamic in our solutions. Feeling lucky to have the resources of such an insightful community. This past weekend I attended and participated in the Front Range Bioneers Conference in Boulder, CO. My impression of the vision of Bioneers is to facilitate new paradigms of thinking by fusing knowledge and language from all philosophies and cutures. In doing so, we can move towards a world where our life practices are regenerative, balanced and fulfilling. A few talks really rocked my world. On Friday afternoon keynote talks from the National Conference were broadcast. Eve Ensler, a performer and activist, gave an amazing speech about the power of the feminine intelligence. Paul Stamets, mycologist, spoke about the profound role of fungi in our ecosystem and a potential link between bee immunity and fungi And most poignant for me was John Warner's talk on Green Chemistry. Everything this guy said was resonating with all my ideas about the scientific community. -The violence involved in industrial chemistry and semiconductor physics..."...there are no reactive collisions in nature" -The façade of objectivity " ...are we removing the bias? Or creating a construct to pretend that the bias isn't there" -The magic is in the entropy!! "...nature works with randomness" This past weekend I attended a workshop hosted by the Denver Permaculture Guild. The topic was Defining and Sharing Appropriate Technology. When I saw the event posted on facebook I thought it amazingly fortuitous. Once again, finding exactly the conversations I want to be having. The event was held at the Posner Center for International Development , a very swanky renovated warehouse, ripe with a collaborative office set up (lots of different companies sharing the space). We began our discussion with introductions and it seemed most people had an interest in agricultural sustainability and ecological conservation. As we started defining appropriate technology it naturally was described in this sort of context. Definitions involved: -Reducing/eliminating pollution -reuse and recycle of materials -building bottom up, starting from scratch with available materials -supportive of non-growth economy -cultivating other types of capital besides financial, ie Social Capital For me I define Appropriate Technology as tools that have been ethically evaluated for social benefit of the community. And, maybe 'social benefit' is loaded, but I think it comes down to just actually having the conversation. "What could be some of the positive and negative impacts on society? "What will the manufacturing of such a technology require?" "How does this change us as human beings" Because ultimately, every tool or technology is an extension of human evolution (IMO), and so should we be constantly evaluating what we want that to look like? We then brainstormed a few different scales to use in analysing 'appropriateness'. (added some of my own, isolative?....maybe should be isolating) I think th e key here is finding where the technology should lie on the scale based on factors such as quality of life and accessibilty of resources. Not that one side is better than the other or that one is even practically achievable. I found it to be a good thought-povoking tool that could be used in future scientific ethics conversations. Hope that more workshops like these will be happening in the future. Thanks Denver Permaculture! How often do we come away from from our apps, social media sites, computers, television, game platforms feeling truly satisfied? Usually its the opposite; we are drained, disgusted in ourselves for wasting another solid hour scrolling endlessly.
Can we create technology that is designed to make us feel good? What does it take to make such a tool? Vincent Horn, Founder of Buddhist Geeks, sat down with me to discuss some of these ideas. Buddhist Geeks is an organization which seeks to reconnect human awareness to the digital interface. Asking: How can these two realities merge to create a more happy and self-aware society? We start with What is Buddhisim for the spiritually cautious and work our way into what contemplative technologies will be presented at this years conference in Boulder, CO Stay tuned for a full feature of the conference coming later this month. Tuesday September 23rd:
Two weeks ago Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas tech came to town to speak at Chautauqua. As a scientist and a Christian, she advocates for illuminating the urgency and reality of climate change to conservative and religious audiences. We had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the interconnection of faith and science and why so much tension exists between these two communities. Katharine Hayhoe Website: http://katharinehayhoe.com/ Talk at Chautauqua: http://ucarconnect.ucar.edu/multimedia/videos/climate-change-head-and-heart |
AuthorKendra is the founder of 4Love+Science and works as a Science and Community Consultant Archives
June 2018
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