advanced string theory

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I think The Secret has the right idea, but blown way out of proportion. Think about the placebo effect. A lot of people think it just means tricking yourself into the illusion of wellness. In many cases it is; however, it can also initiate some pretty powerfull healing as effective or more as any medicine. I remember one fellow who completely cured himself of a deadly cancer (I wish I could remember which one, but it's been years) that by all rights should have killed him. He overcame it, according to him, by intense and prolonged meditation aimed at the intention of getting better.
Another, probably better example, is in my psychology class when we learned how when a pack animal suddenly topples the pack leader and aserts his dominance, his muscle mass increases at unprecedented rates upward of 50, which they attribute to the mental projection of dominance.
I'm sure many of us have seen some taichi masters, little guys, who can take the biggest punch from the biggest guy and not be moved. Or in other cases have 5 men try to move him and be completely unable to.
There was a really neat video on Ebaumsworld I saw where an old chinese guy, some sort of martial arts master, could stand on his index finger alone.

None of these things I attribute to mystical waves eminating from our thoughts, altering our reality by perception, but by controlling the brain and the nervous system to such a degree that the human body and mind shouldn't normally be capable of. After all, when you look at the eastern philosophy of "chi", it really seems like a primitive (and in some ways more advanced) understanding of the nervous system.

When you get right down to the nuts and bolts, the energetic potential that forms our brains, bodies, and all other mass, are all made of the same thing carrying out different tasks to create the whole. As my best friend, who's a 3rd year physics major described, all matter is essentially made up of light. But you have to keep in mind that when you think of light, you're thinking of your perception of light, and that perception is merely the effect of light. The actual forces that form light are the same forces that form all the atoms in all matter, and the same forces that create an electrical neuron firing in your brain, central, and peripheral nervous systems.

And thus I do hold to the belief that through deep contemplation, meditation, and understanding through rigerous practice, the mind can be developed to strip down the illusionary barriers that separate "us" from the "external" existence. When we do that, we can have a great deal of control over what happens in our bodies, in our minds, how we affect our external reality, and how we let it affect us.

[BoilerUp]

Umm, it's common sense. You can't just change the world with your thoughts. If you want to prove me wrong, cure cancer with your thoughts, or make a ham sandwich with your thoughts. Do anything with just your thoughts and I will be convinced.

This is debated, and I actually believe thought helps to some extent. One example of this is the research done by a Japanese scientist, Masaru Emoto. He presented a live experiment to a large group. What he did was take two jars full of identical water. One he hid off stage, and another he placed on stage. He told the audience to focus their prayers toward the water that was placed on stage. After some amount of time of prayers, both jars were taken to be crystallized. When they came out, the water with prayers sent to it had a much different physical shape to it than the one which didn't receive prayers.

Here is a link to the water experiment: KRYON - Hamburg water experiment

Other experiments include raising the PH of water by simply have meditations focused towards it. Now I will admit this effect is very minimal, but you can't rule it out as not existing.

[wayoftheleaf]

there was a test done where a large group of people in washington D.C. meditated for long periods of time on crime decreasing, and it decreased by 25%(or close to this number, i strongly believe it was in the 20 percentile range)

[couch-potato]

I highly recommend A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking for anyone who is remotely interested in this topic. Go get it. Read it. Now.













Now.

[wayoftheleaf]

How about a brief history of time? Isn't a briefer history just a condensed form of a brief history? That is what I thought, or are they two different books? i'll check out both just incase.

[Hardcore Newbie]

I don't think the story of the Bible is always changing. I mean, sure it leaves open the question of how God *exactly* created the universe... but that doesn't mean it changes. It just means it leaves that particular aspect of creation open for some discussion (hopefully friendly discussion... though some people get out of hand).

What I'm saying is, no one can look at the Christian Scriptures and see it saying God created the earth one day and then see it saying God didn't create the earth the next. I will agree that biblical texts are not scientific proof of anything. However, they are full of religious proof when practiced. If one starts practicing the teachings of Christ he will see the types of results the Word of God promises. And those teachings do not change. They have been practiced by Christians since Christ first uttered them.

I love good hearted discussion I don't like it when things get hostile, so good clean and kind natured discussion is always preferred by me

My father's side of my family is religious, I mean *very* religious, and they constantly want me to become a preacher for the word of god because they "see god" in me, for whatever reason. I am *constantly* having discussions with them about my beliefs, but that doesn't make it any less fun and informing to converse with other people about the same thing.

Ok, so after all of that.... I made a stament "the Bible is always changing", and what I meant by that was, the Bible obviously can't change, because it's allegedly the word of God, and the alleged word of God is infallible. But when something contradicts the word of God, the meaning instantly changes so that the words still hold ground.

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

This verse tells me that nothing is impossible if you are armed with even the smallest faith. I have none, so it's impossible for me to move mountains, but surely a few people on earth must have had enough faith to move a mountain.

Since we can't move mountains on prayer alone, there has to be an excuse as to why the mountains aren't constantly being moved by men of little faith. "You're asking too much", or "The request is too trivial" or something, when in fact the prayer should be regarded as a test in faith.

[couch-potato]

How about a brief history of time? Isn't a briefer history just a condensed form of a brief history? That is what I thought, or are they two different books? i'll check out both just incase.

The original (brief) is cluttered with equations and advanced relative calculus and whatnot. Either one is good, but I chose briefer since I fucking hate math but would still love to comprehend what Hawking is writing.

[wayoftheleaf]

I actually have to dispute one fact in What the bleep do we know anyway.

A man says that in the bible it is said that the entire kingdom of heaven could fit into a mustard seed.

This isn't true, what he is referring to(i believe) is the passage in which it is said *the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed* or something like that. but it is basically saying that something very small could grow to something large. you could take that a few ways, but i don't think it can be taken how he described it.

[wayoftheleaf]

Thanks couch-potato, i have been meaning to read them anyway.

[Hardcore Newbie]

I'm sure many of us have seen some taichi masters, little guys, who can take the biggest punch from the biggest guy and not be moved. Or in other cases have 5 men try to move him and be completely unable to.
There was a really neat video on Ebaumsworld I saw where an old chinese guy, some sort of martial arts master, could stand on his index finger alone.

This in particular doesn't come from the mind alone, this comes from the fact that these people dedicate their entire lives to performing these feats, and in all the tests I've ever seen, no one over punches the monks in the face or pokes them in the eye, because that's not what they have trained their entire lives to defend against.

Also on the flipside, I've also seen videos of "Dim Mak" masters who claim to disrupt the chi flow of other people at a distance, claim to be undefeated. YouTube - Kung Fu master gets owned
Watch him get punched in the face and get a "time out" because he'd never actually been hit before. People will make ridiculous claims at times.

But add another one to the list, the idea that four 10 year olds can lift a car off of a person who is in danger. People can do extraordinary things at times.