Your Health, Holograms and an Earthworm in a Plastic Jar

A friend and I were talking about the holographic universe yesterday. I said to her that the earthworm was an example of holography. The earthworm demonstrates the holographic principle of the "whole in every part." When you cut an earthworm into pieces each piece becomes a whole earthworm.

Just in case you need to refresh your concept of a hologram, here’s a quote from Michael Talbot's book The Holographic Universe:

"In the movie Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's adventure begins when a beam of light shoots out of the robot Artoo Detoo and projects a miniature three-dimensional image of Princess Leia. Luke watches spellbound as the ghostly sculpture of light begs for someone named Obi-wan Kenobi to come to her assistance. The image is a hologram, a three-dimensional picture made with the aid of a laser, and the technological magic required to make such images is remarkable. But what is even more astounding is that some scientists are beginning to believe the universe itself is a kind of giant hologram, a splendidly detailed illusion no more or less real than the image of Princess Leia that starts Luke on his quest.

Put another way, there is evidence to suggest that our world and everything in it -- from snowflakes to maple trees to falling stars and spinning electrons -- are also only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so beyond our own it is literally beyond both space and time."

When I came back home yesterday, I learned that my fiancée and her eight-year son visited a friend who had a big yard with a stream. The boy found an earthworm which he brought home. They showed me the earthworm in a plastic jar. At first, I was unhappy that he brought the earthworm home because the earthworm was taken from its habitat and it's probably going to die. I hadn't reflected on my day. Also, I was thinking of my good friend who was going through appendicitis that night.

This morning, as I reflected on yesterday's event, I saw the synchronistic link between my observation during the day and the live earthworm at home.

When I was using the earthworm as an example of holography, I was a bit uncomfortable. I didn't know what scientists would say about it. I haven't read anything linking holography to earthworms.

Then I did a search on the Internet. After reading the Norwegian medical doctor Vilhelm Schjelderup's article "ECIWO Biology Institute of Shandong University: The Living Organism as a Biocybernetic Unity," everything made sense to me. ECIWO means Embryo Containing Information in the Whole Organism and is a new branch of biology founded by Professor Yinqing Zhang of Shandong.

The article describes the biological implications of the holographic universe and its application to acupuncture and other complementary alternative medicines.

I feel comfortable now about the analogy and I am grateful to my step-son for bringing home the earthworm to open my mind to the biological and medical applications of holography.

Read the article here: http://www.eciwo.sdu.edu.cn/h01.html

The Double Awakening

Sunrise here wakes the Pacific Northwest --and me. The sky is blue and clear. The heralding songs of the early birds are silent now and the night's darkness is gone.

Awake, I'm awake.

As I bask in the coolness of the morning breeze, I know it's afternoon in London, sunset in Addis Ababa, midnight in Sidney and dawn of another day in Vladivostok. While others are awake, some are sleeping. It all depends on where you are.

This interplay of light and darkness, wakefulness and sleep, brings to mind Old Father Raven, the extraordinary bird whose life animates all that is. As the Alaskan myth goes, Old Father Raven hid in darkness and one day woke up all by himself. He discovered who he was. He awoke into self-awareness.

But waking from the sleep of darkness does not always happen spontaneously. In the “Hymn of the Pearl,” we read that a King sent his young prince to Egypt to bring home a pearl that a wild serpent guarded. The Egyptians attacked him, took his possessions and drugged him to sleep. Through his psychic powers, the King knew from far away what was happening to his son. The King's wise men wrote a letter that they delivered to the prince in his dream. He read it. He woke up. He overcame the serpent and brought the Pearl back home. The King honored him.

As I wake up with sunrise this morning, it occurred to me that there’s another way to wake up. I desire to wake up spontaneously like Old Father Raven. Or maybe like the prince, there’s a letter being sent me by the King’s wise men in the events of my life. I desire to wake up from my long sleep, ready to bring home the Pearl at such a time of great awakening like this.

Joys and sorrows of living

We spent the first part of our day going over the goals we set for our family at the beginning of the New Year. Again, we're filled with gratitude for what we've accomplished but struck by so many things we've left undone.

Above all, I’m full of awe about the unexpected events happening in our lives and the lives of those around us: Friends have moved out of state. Some have quit their jobs and others have gone into new professions. A couple has become pregnant just before the husband's vasectomy. Some are recovering from surgeries. I've made new friends through unbelievable synchronicities.

In the later part of the day, I heard about a friend who is going through a lot of trouble away from home. It felt as though she was being swept over by waves and was drowning in the middle of a tempestuous sea. Because the problem she was going through was complex, there was nothing I could do but say a prayer with friends for her.

My eyes opened once more to the pain and suffering in the world. The millions of hungry children, the fate of countless homeless men and women, the neglected elders and terminally ill dying away from the gaze of the world, the many people dying of curable disease and the millions killed in unnecessary wars.

The sun is setting now this beautiful Pacific Northwest day and my heart is torn between the joys and sorrows of life around me.