SCIENCE FAILS WHAT WE TRULY KNOW

"What do we know about the universe?" asked astronomer Bob Berman to a crowded room at IdeaFestival 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. "Why aren't the answers satisfying? Where do they go wrong?"

There's a lot of hard and fast data, he says, but it doesn't always give us the right answers. "It's important to know when science is working," said Berman, "and when it's not."

Berman offered four reasons that our scientific approach to understanding the universe doesn't work, and what we can do about it, according to a Yahoo article:

1. Limited data--Most of the universe is dark energy and the rest is dark matter--and we don't know what that is, said Berman. "We only know what's in our vicinity."

2. Limits to our dualistic logic system--There are two ways we get information, Berman said. Directly and indirectly. In science, the indirect method can work sometimes. But not for everything. "Unless you experience love," Berman said, "you won't know what it is. If you're blind, you won't know the color blue. You need experience. And when it comes to the universe, we run out of symbols." The universe is growing larger, he said, "but what does that mean? We can't picture infinity."

3. Space/time framework--"Space actually is not real," said Berman. "We all have an image of space and time, a framework, but when we look, that space and time may have a questionable reality." Of time, Berman said it's also not real. It's merely "an ordering system that we animals created. And it changes."

4. Consciousness--"Consciousness is the greatest unsolved problem in all of science," said Berman. "In every experiment, we're seeing, thinking, concluding--and it happens in our consciousness. Experiments go differently if we measure them and how we measure them. Where we measure makes a difference. It depends on us as observers." And while we "continue to study the brain and how it works, this doesn't answer the question of human experience," said Berman.

Berman believes that science is not approaching the universe from the right angle. We continue to study the Big Bang, he said, but it "doesn't compute with us. In our everyday lives we don't see puppies and lawn furniture popping out of nothingness. A universe out of nothingness? How could that be? How could we possibly know what things were like before the universe was the size of a grapenut?" And even if we pin down the Big Bang, we still can't comprehend the infiniteness of the universe, he said. "We are representatives of the universe. We have the universe inside of us."

"We are representatives of the universe. We have the universe inside of us. We're working on the assumption that studying the parts will give us the whole," Berman said. "That may not be true."

So what's the answer? "If our thought process doesn't work with the macro-universe," Berman said, "the answers don't make sense. It means we're asking the wrong questions."

In terms of what we can ever know about the universe, "we're not really making progress," Berman said. "We're not knowing more and more."

The secret, he said, might lie in recognizing that the thing we are looking for is obvious rather than hidden; present rather than absent.

A HERO'S JOURNEY

The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development.  It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.

Its stages are:

1.        THE ORDINARY WORLD.  The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.

2.        THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.  

 

3.        REFUSAL OF THE CALL.  The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly.  Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

4.        MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.  The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.

5.        CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.  At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.  

6.        TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.  The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World.

7.        APPROACH.  The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world.

8.        THE ORDEAL.  Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life. 

9.        THE REWARD.  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death.  There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.

10.      THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.

11.     THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.

12.       RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.  The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

LOVE AS MENTAL ILLNESS

Love has been called "maddening" before, but now a researcher thinks there is a chemical basis for why people fall in love.

Dr. Helen Fisher is an anthropologist. She has been studying the chemical basis that is underlying or causing love between individuals. 

She has discovered that love is not about matters of the heart, but actually about brain chemistry; a chemistry that's so intense, so strong, so focused on bringing people together for the sake of prolonging the species, that it's actually a madness to be in love.

Love is, for the sake of argument, a form of mental illness and probably the only one that society accepts without a stigma attached to it. 

You are judged for being mad, as in the insane form of madness, but you are not judged for being "madly" in love even when close friends question your sanity.

According to Fisher, romantic love has been found in 170 societies.  Each love and how these societies express it are different in their own way, but it's still a love of a romantic nature, and one that starts with infatuation and ends with attachment.

Throughout the entire process there are neurological chemicals hard at work. In the beginning, the serotonin levels act in such a way that resembles OCD  and when it comes to the actual "falling in love" stage of a relationship, it is similar to being high on cocaine.

Brain scans of people in love have found that it is the dopamine branching out from the center of the brain, creating feelings of euphoria, walking on air, floating on cloud nine, and all the rest of it. 

It is also not really a choice; we are at the mercy of the chemicals in our brain.

You can fight it, of course, as one might with any mental illness, but unlike things like depression or anxiety, you can't take a pill to "cure" it, or even make it an easier situation in which to be.

Maybe that is why many people act irrationally, with anger, when a love relationship breaks down.

Why do people sign up for the insanity that love is? 

Because the depression, anxieties and low self esteem from loneliness seems to be a greater burden on people's minds that the possible uplifting, happy feelings associated with the risk and rewards of being in love with another person.

If love is all about chemicals, how can one realize it and resist the effect?

Because it is a species trick to keep the species on track for procreation. Just like some wild animals go into involuntary heat or rut for the attention of mates, human beings are coded in a similar fashion.  However, our brains are more complex and advanced to the point where we can go beyond instinct or natural selection to "convince" ourselves that our love is something more - - - deeper than emotional connection; finding a soulmate. The latter may be just an layer of cultural impressions over the instinctive chemical reaction of human attraction and love.

LONELINESS ANSWER

One of the major themes in LOST was loneliness. Many of the major characters were traditional loners. Why people are lonely has lead to many research and literary articles. As a society and community, we believe that human beings need social interaction in order to live well-rounded lives.

There are times that some people need their "alone" time. Introverts actually need this lonely time in order to re-energize themselves for future tasks that make them uncomfortable, including work and social settings.

We may sometimes try to convince ourselves that we'd be better off if we remained alone, but why do people decide to stay lonely? New York Magazine published an article examines that question and discovers a surprising explanation.  

There are  health issues that arise from being lonely. In fact, "loneliness increases a person's risk of mortality by 26 percent, an effect comparable to the health risks posed by obesity, according to a study published this spring." Loneliness can also lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.

With these risks, why would one choose to be lonely? As NY Mag notes, "One long-held theory has been that people become socially isolated because of their poor social skills and, presumably, as they spend more time alone, the few skills they do have start to erode from lack of use." 

However, with the help of recent studies, this is a big misconception. It's not that lonely people lack social skills or can't understand them; rather, when expected to use them they "choke." 

Professor Megan L. Knowles of Franklin and Marshall College conducted an experiment in order to find out why this happens. In her research,  Knowles led four experiments that demonstrated "lonely people's tendency to choke when under social pressure." 

In one experiment, Knowles and her team tested the social skills of 86 undergraduates, showing them 24 faces on a computer screen and asking them to name the basic human emotion each face was displaying: anger, fear, happiness,  or sadness.
 

When put to the test, lonely participants did much better than their non-lonely counterparts. However, this was only the case when the lonely participants were told they were taking a general knowledge test.
 

Why would lonely people be better at reading emotions than non-lonely people? It's believed that "lonely people may be paying closer attention to emotional cues precisely because of their ache to belong somewhere and form interpersonal connections, which results in technically superior social skills," according to the study.
 

So, lonely people actually don't want to be lonely — it's their desire to belong that causes them to seem like they lack social skills. They know how to be social, but they're too concerned about choosing the correct social cues to make a good impression.
 

Who would want to feel this pressure all the time? This is exactly why some people prefer to keep to themselves. Perhaps, it is just easier not to confront and control your own inner turmoil.

It may come down to confidence in themselves. Many people fear that they will say or do the wrong thing, upset other people or look foolish to strangers. Or, they may believe that people will not like them for who they are. But all people have those same fears and anxieties. It is becoming self-aware of your issues, then overcoming them through experience and growing a close group of friends that you respect, trust and who will mutually support each other. 

DREAM ALARMS

An article at psychologium.com indicates that certain types of dreams can mean a person has a serious mental condition.

 Vivid Dreams Can Mean You Are Highly Stressed.

If you have some very vivid and crazy dreams, then it could be a sign that you are suffering from stress and clearly this is an issue that needs to be addressed. It has also been ascertained that driven people who work in a constantly stressful environment have been shown to be more likely to suffer from these kinds of dreams on a regular basis. It is believed that it is linked to the brain finding it difficult to process the information that it has picked up during the day, so it is playing catch up during the night leading to more restless nights.

Vivid Dreams Can Be A Sign Of Bipolar Disorder

It is accepted that people with bipolar disorder can suffer from very vivid dreams and even though some argue that it can be linked to medication, this is not always the case. Instead, it is linked to the way in which people with vivid dreams suffer from disrupted sleep patterns and various sleep disorders and it is known that there is a connection between this and bipolar.
However, it is important to point out that just because you have these kinds of dreams does not mean that you have this serious mental illness, but it is at least possible. The only question that is unknown is whether the dreams can occur at the start of bipolar disorder or if it is a symptom that appears later on and is almost a by-product of the illness.

More Dreams Than Usual Can Point To Depression

It has been known since the 1970’s that there is a link to an increase in the number of dreams that a person can have with depression. Studies have shown that people with depression can have three or four times the number of dreams than a normal person and once again it is linked to the type of sleep that the person tends to have when they are depressed. It alters the REM sleep that the person gets when they are depressed and this, in turn, alters the types of dreams as well as the ability to recall them. An individual that is depressed can also find it easier to recall the dreams and they will also often feel tired in the morning as a direct result of the extra brain activity during the night.

Nightmare Disorder

Nightmare disorder is when an individual has repeated nightmares over a certain period of time and this is something that is actually recognized by psychiatrists and psychologists alike. This particular disorder has been linked to a range of mental health issues including PTSD, generalized anxiety, sleep disorders, and stress, so identifying the root cause is not always easy. It is important that an individual knows the difference between this and night terrors so that a doctor or psychiatrist can get to the actual problem.

Nightmares and Borderline Personality Disorder

As well as PTSD, it is known that nightmares may be an indicator of borderline personality disorder. As with other examples given above, it is often linked to the way in which sleep patterns are altered due to the disorder itself. Research has shown that people with borderline personality disorder often suffer from more dream anxiety than other people. It is this anxiety that can lead to the development of nightmares and the same study has shown that this anxiety can be attributed to trauma that the individual had earlier in their childhood and indeed this is one key factor in the development of this particular disorder.

Nightmares and PTSD

People that suffer from post traumatic stress disorder report a higher number of nightmares than the average person. There are studies that show that people with this particular disorder may have higher adrenaline levels, so in turn the adrenaline results in nightmares and dreams that contain a lot more energy. It has also been medically proven that certain medication that lowers blood pressure and the production of adrenaline in PTSD sufferers also leads to a reduction in the nightmares hence the certainty of the link between the two. In the case of PTSD, it is common for the individual to actually relive the events that has led to the development of PTSD, so being aware of the nature of the dream is extremely important in helping with the diagnosis.

Anxiety And Dreams

People that suffer from anxiety will often have strong dreams containing a lot of detail and they can also be quite prolonged rather than short bursts of dream activity. It is believed that it is linked to the activity of the mind during the day as it is known that, when anxious, the energy levels in the brain are significantly higher. The brain also tends to absorb more information which needs to then be processed and this is what can then lead to the activity in the dream. If the anxiety is not tackled, then this can become a recurring theme and the difficulty here is that it does tend to play a role in changing sleep patterns and other examples also state that sleep patterns do indeed play a major part in not only the ability to remember a dream, but also our mental health.

The author states that dreams are capable of being one indicator to understand the state of an individuals mental health. It does not a clear link to mental health issues,  but individuals who suffer from repeated nightmares or vivid dreams probably should discuss them with their doctor.

For the LOST dream theorists, this article is another basis to conclude that the entire series, with its vivid detail, was all a nightmare/dream of a single character.

PATHWAYS TO MEMORY

One drink often leads to two—and sometimes a whole lot more. Contrary to popular belief, this is not due to faulty willpower or lowered inhibitions, but rather a population of neurons in the vast neural substrate of your brain. That's what scientists at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine say they have discovered. They say alcohol changes the physical structure of certain neurons, creating a greater sensitivity to alcohol and a craving for more. 

This finding, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, could have major implications for the future treatment of alcoholism.

Using an animal model, researchers were able to distinguish between two types of dopamine receptors in the neurons, known as D1 and D2.  Both types of neurons play a role in behavior and motivation. D1 is the “go” receptor, and D2 is the “halt” receptor. While it has been known for a long time that dopamine is involved in addiction, this study allowed researchers to see that D1 neurons become “excited” after periodic consumption of large amounts of alcohol, causing the brain to crave another drink to maintain that level of neural excitement. “If you drink alcohol, your brain will be changed in a way that makes you want to drink more,” says Dr. Jun Wang, lead researcher on the study.

Neurons are built like trees, with multiple "branches,” and on those branches are “spines”—the method by which neurons connect with one another. Dr. Wang tells mental floss, “After alcohol consumption we found that neurons have grown more branches, and more spines.” This means drinking large quantities of alcohol literally increases your brain’s tolerance of, and desire for, more alcohol. 

What’s especially interesting is how alcohol changes or “matures” the shape of the neural spines from a type known as “long-thin” to “mushroom” shaped, the latter of which store long-term memory. While it may seem counter-intuitive that drinking more alcohol improves your memory, Dr. Wang says that it promotes a strengthened context-based memory. “It may not change your memory so that you will remember something better than other people; these memories will be associated with alcohol drinking specifically," he says. "If someone drinks alcohol in a bar, for example, he may remember that bar’s specific location better than someone else.” And the brain will also remember the amount of alcohol consumed and desire more of it.

In fact, when given a choice, the alcohol-consuming animals who had grown increased mushroom-shaped spines in their D1 neurons showed a greater preference for larger quantities of alcohol. 
Bolstered by this information, the researchers then instilled an alcohol agonist—a drug that combines with the alcohol in the neuron’s receptors to reduce the excitability, and thus the craving. Rather than using an injection into the blood stream that would be delivered more diffusely all over the body, they injected the agonist directly into the brains of the animals to target the D1 neurons as specifically as possible. “We did observe a reduction in alcohol consumption,” says Dr. Wang. “It suggests that in the future we can target the D1 neurons and suppress alcohol consumption.”

This recent study shows how complex the human bio-organic systems are in relation to our perceived knowledge of them. The idea that neuron chains linked to alcohol consumption create branches of neuron chains to create a "memory" to reinforce the desire for more alcohol is one of those common sense face palms that science throws at us.

I once knew a medical doctor who 35 years ago claimed that the high incidents of childhood misbehavior could be linked to over-consumption of sugars by kids. His conclusion was based on his observation that people are actually addicted to things that they are allergic to . . . a chain of negative consequences from desired consumption. It was hard to get the logic around why a human body would crave things that are harmful to it. But this new alcohol study sheds some light on that organic paradox.

If experience creates pathways to memories, good or bad, and the deeper or emotional those experiences are then we can conclude that those memories will remain stronger and longer. So something dangerous, harmful or unusual could lead to strong memories - - - and then a corresponding desire to repeat the dangerous, harmful or unusual behavior in order to get a "positive" brain matrix. This is why even addicts who realize they are killing themselves continue to abuse themselves because there is a strong, organic "positive" memory associated with their excessive behavior.

OBSERVATION

An observation by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. 

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. 

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. 

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete. 

Remember to spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. 

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. 

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember, life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by those moments that take our breath away.