User:Paine Ellsworth/Mystery

This "think" page is devoted to great mysteries I have encountered in this world. Feel free to think along with me!

These are in no particular order; they are written as they recur to me.

Homestead, Florida's Coral Castle
Check out this quite probably related YouTube video. And here's a YouTube search. Seems that lots of people think they've solved this mystery. But there are still anomalies that stand out.

I remember reading about Ed's legendary move from Florida City ten miles north to Homestead. He hired a flatbed truck and driver, and he made the driver go around the corner while he himself loaded the heavy blocks onto the flatbed. When the driver returned a few minutes later, the blocks were loaded and ready to go. How did ol' Ed do all this? This is another great mystery wrapped in an enigma!

Churches of Lalibela
In Ethiopia, where I spent time with the U.S. Peace Corps, there are twelve (oops) eleven churches, Christian churches, that were carved out of solid rock. I heard a different legend about these awesome churches. King Lalibela had his men begin work on these churches and asked the angels to work on them, also. His men worked in the daytime, and the angels worked during the night. The men would wake up each day and be astounded by the amount of work done overnight by the angels. The legend is that it took only one week, seven days, to construct all of the churches! Well, at least that is what you hear while you're actually there in Ethiopia.

Why were these churches built this way? and why eleven? I have suspected for some time now that there were actually twelve of these churches constructed all at about the same time. One church that houses the Ark of the Covenant, which was taken there by members of the Knights Templar, has been filled in to protect the Ark and other religious relics. The church and the Ark will be found soon, rediscovered for all to ponder. So the churches were built this way in order to very effectively hide the Ark of the Covenant and other precious relics from the unworthy eyes of those who would not appreciate their true worth.

Destiny


Why are we here? Is our presence here governed by determinism or by free will? Why can't we rid ourselves of stuff like murder, thievery, human trafficking and the like (evil stuff)? Evil is with us because it is a necessity. People measure good by its contrast to evil. It's ironic to think that without evil, there would be no good, either. So why can't we get rid of the both of them, good and evil? Is there more to it than just yin and yang?

For more than fifty years I have believed and accepted the following instruction... "There's no such thing as black and white; gray is truth and the truth is gray." That's okay, because for almost as long and to give you a bit of context, I have also accepted that, "When a person learns to read with understanding, they automatically become a Republican," and I am a registered Democrat from a long, long line of Democrats. So I'm liberal at heart, but conservative at mind. Again with the "polar opposites"? The important thing to always keep in mind (and in your heart) is that there is no such thing as black and white; gray is truth and the truth is gray.

So, is our fate made for us? or do we make our own way. That "truth is gray" thing is not something I came up with on my own. It was taught to me by my hypnosis/meditation instructor while I was in Viet Nam in 1971. Mike had several students, and he laid that little gem on us one evening while we were in group. I was pretty much a redneck when I started Mike's training, and that slowly changed as I worked to remake myself. The answer to the question of fate, then, is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes of our lives being made for us and making our own destinies. Where in that middle depends upon each of us, upon each of our inner beings based upon nature and nurture.

I don't expect anyone who reads this to blindly accept it as all true, because it may well be way off the mark, but frankly, I think it's right on the mark. And I'm never wrong! Remember... there's no such thing as black and white; gray is truth and the truth is gray. Mystery, mystery, shrouded in history – have a cup of coffee or something and let's wait on the next big adventure!

Man: It won't be long now. Woman: It never was.

Quantum outtakes
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then we've saved 3,000 words with these three images. With this physics mystery comes many interesting questions. Let's keep it simple and begin with how at first they used photons even though the first image to the right shows electrons being shot toward the screen through the double slits. Whatever the particles that are "shot" toward the slits, they produce the image on the screen as shown in the second image on the right. That's called an "interference pattern", and it means that the so-called particle is behaving just like a wave instead of like a particle. No big mystery here – the electron or photon is actually a wave rather than a particle.

What's puzzling is when a sensing device is placed near one of the slits to see if a certain individual particle goes through one slit or the other, then the particles produce the pattern on the screen as shown in the third image on the right. The particles begin to act like particles instead of like waves. And ever since this was discovered in the last century, scientists have been asking "Why?" That's the big mystery. Why do particles behave like waves until they are closely observed, at which time they act like particles? Take the sensing device away, and they act like waves again (that is, they produce the interference pattern seen in the second image on the right).

We need some quantum outtakes here.

The simplest conclusion is that we can change waves into particles just by observing them. The seemingly mere act of observing a subject can radically change the subject's behavior!

This conclusion becomes obvious when we think of how the great scientist, Jane Goodall, began her study of chimpanzees by observing them from afar and ended up becoming so close to her subjects and changing their behavior. It's one of several reasons why animals in zoos act differently than animals in their natural habitats. Just the mere act of observing a subject can radically change the subject's behavior. Someone once said about the difference between "reputation" and "character", "How we behave around others is our reputation; how we behave when we're alone is our character."

Isn't it interesting that this mysterious discovery is the only thing that is common between our larger world of classical physics and the tiny world of quantum physics? Observation changes the behavior of the subject that is being observed. Behaving like a particle is a particle's reputation; behaving like a wave is a particle's character!

Paradoxum

 * This sentence is false.
 * So if that sentence is true, then it must be false; however, if it is false, then it must be true. This is a form of the "liar paradox".

Of all the weird stuff in this Universe, I think contradictions – paradoxes – are great mysteries. I first came across this particular paradox in a less streamlined form: As good as the first sentence of this section is, I think the double sentence better illustrates the profound mystery of this paradox. A real head-scratcher! Can't stay long, jus' gotta move on.
 * The sentence below is true.
 * The sentence above is false.

Asimov's paradox
I've searched for this one, a paradox of entropy similar to Zeno's paradoxes, and since I haven't been able to find it, I'll call this Asimov's paradox. Asimov wrote a story, "The Last Question", in which the question of entropy, defined as the gradual dissipation of energy in the Universe, arose and was explained, well, sort of. As well, this one came to mind from remembering Russell's teapot and its impact on atheism vs. theism. "If the energy of the Universe dissipates halfway to zero, then it will have to dissipate halfway to zero again... and again and again in a series of infinitesimals, and it will never, ever reach zero."

Since the actual realities of Zeno's paradoxes paradoxically show that infinity paradoxes are simply mental math tricks, it doesn't leave us much hope for the Universe, now does it. I need more coffee.

Changes
When you think that anything has remained the same, look more closely, and think again.

It seems to be one of the greatest mysteries that there is actually an order to chaos. Chaos theory has unveiled just such an order to every chaotic, changing system that has been studied. It's a mystery that a butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine.

I am truly mystified by the order that has been discovered in apparently chaotic systems. The only thing in this entire universe that does not change is the fact that everything changes, and there seems to be an organization to those changes no matter how unruly they appear to be. This is more awesome than most people are prepared to accept. It is the basis of the I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes. It's strange how well that book works to predict the future. Peruse it in good health!

Don't-knowist
With this I reveal something I've never told anyone. I'm not an atheist nor a theist, nor even agnostic; I am a don't-knowist, I am truly very much don't-knowic. I simply do not know anything at all about whether or not a higher being of any kind exists. I believe in higher beings, but there is no proof, no hard evidence. I believe in them because, as I've said before, I refuse to accept that humanity comprises the highest form of life in this Universe. So in truth, I'm just a little ol' don't-knowist. What comes next after my body dies is one great and grand mystery to me.

The Taboo Four
Back in '71 when I was a US Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, East Africa, we were instructed to never, ever, become involved in any discussion with Ethiopians about any of the four "Taboo" subjects: race, religion, politics, sex. And even now, these discussions can still be highly contentious and even volatile. While I've seen this many times and know all this to be true, I've never been able to understand why people cannot discuss these subjects without getting all bent out of shape. This is yet another mystery I may never solve.

Dark E & M
It seems so obvious to me that what science calls "dark energy" is the energy of spacetime itself. And dark matter? Well, general relativity states that gravitational fields have energy, and special relativity concludes that energy is equivalent to mass. So a gravitational field induces a further gravitational field. And dark matter is just dark energy that is very far away and inducing what we sense as the gravitational force of the dark matter (dark energy condensed by great distance). The mystery for me is... why hasn't science caught up with these facts?

Gravity
And now it comes down to this (no pun intended).

Gravity is caused by God (Isaac Newton) – no, gravity is caused by the influence of matter upon spacetime, matter curves space and that results in the "effect" (not the "force") of gravity (Albert Einstein) – no, gravity has its cause rooted in quantum mechanics (quantum gravity).

The actual cause of gravity is the energy of spacetime (dark energy), which continuously flows toward and into the much more condensed forms of energy known as matter. The greater the mass, the more spacetime flows into it and the stronger the gravitational field of the mass. That is what keeps our feet on the ground and our behinds in our seats.

Thank you for reading!

< * more to come * >