Number.. and Opposites

"You amuse me, you who seem worried that I impose impractical studies upon you. It does not only reside iwht mediocre minds, but all men have difficulty in persuading themselves that it is thru these studies, as if with instruments, that one purifies the eye of the soul, and that one causes a new fire to burn in this organ,since it is by it alone that we contemplate the truth."

-Plato from his Republic

We learn from modern physics that from gravity to electromagnetism, light, heat and even in what we think of as solid matter itself, that the entire perceptible universe is composed of vibrations, wich we understand as 'waves'.. wave phenomena.. wave mechanics. Waves can only be defined and understood by us through Number, wich we calculate by dynamic configurations composed of amplitude, interval and frequency.. showing us the pure temporal patterns in the wave. Thus our whole universe is reducible to Number. Every living body phyiscally vibrates, all elemental or inanimate matter vibrates molecularly or atomically, and every vibrating body emits a sound. The study of sound as the ancients intuited, provides a key to the understanding of the Universe. (This is why physics fascintes me!!! And why Ancient Philosphy amazes me!!!!)

The Ancients gave considerable attention to the study of Musical Harmony in relation with the study of Mathematics and Geometry. The origin of this tradition is generally associated with Pythagoras (560-490 BC) and his school. A guitarists sounds a string. He next depresses this string with his finger exactly at it's midpoint. He sounds the half-string. The frequency of vibrations produced is double that given by the whole string, and the tone is raised by one octave. The string length has been divided by two and the number of vibrations per second has been x's by two: 1/2 has created it's mirror opposite, 2/1. Thus in this moment an abstract, mathematical event is precisely linked with a physical sensory perception; our direct, intuitional response to this phenomenon of sound (the octave) coincides with it's concrete, measured definition. (An example of the Universality of Number. It is a constant that can be described and understood universally thru number.)

Hense we experience in this auditory perception a simultaneous interwovenness of interior with exterior, and we can generalize this response to invoke the possibility of a merger of intuitional and material realms, the realms of art and science, of time and space. (This is were creativity and/or spirituality may be understood better). There may be another such moment in the created world, but the Pythagoreans did not know of it, nor do we. This is the essential spirit of the perception of Harmony, and for the Pythagoreans it was the only true supernatural moment: a tangible experience of the simultaniety of opposites.

Pythagoreans Geometry becomes the transition where heard vibrations becomes seen form; and they explored the relationships of it with musical harmony. With our optic intelligence, in order to form a thought we make an image in our mind. Hearing, on the other hand, uses the mind in an immediate unimaged response whose action is expansive, evoking a response from the emotive centres. It is also involved when the reason perceives invariant relationships. The right hemisphere of the brain recognizes patterns in space or wholes of any kind it is 'creative' eh? It can percieve opposites in simultaneity and grasp functions which to the analytic faculty appear irrational. It is the perfect complement of the 'left hemisphere' wich is visual, analytical and rational. Right apprehends esoteric, functional aspects of number, Left apprehends exoteric, enumerative aspects of Number.

Greeks called this innate intellectual quality (the ability to differenciate and actually comprehend or create the rational and irrational this way) "Pure Reason" in India it was "heart-mind". The ancient Egyptians called it "Intelligence of the Heart" I call it Spirit. For spirit IS Intelliegence. My next post will talk some more about Necessary Opposites... otherwise this would be a HUGE post eh?

Geometric Universal Order

I have a fascination with quantum mechanics. I have a fascination with spirit. I have a fascination with ancient philosphy, and these are the things I read about and study. It AMAZES me how they fit together 'geometrically', each pointing to each other constantly... I had always thought they were 'different' interests. I'm coming to understand that it is not 'chance' that these are the 'random' topics that occupy my mind.

In QUANTUM MECHANICS, we learn/realize that the fundamental nature of the material world is knowable only through it's underlying patterns of wave forms, deep within the particals... as we study how they spin and join together... building like a fractal our material world.

Our perceptive world (PHILOSOPHICALLY) even artistically actually...seems to be best understood as systems of pattern or geometric structures of form and proportion. Therefore, when many ancient cultures chose to examine reality through the metaphors of geometry (Socrates Allegory of the Cave for one example not to mention Platos 'solids' , Archmimedean Symmetries, Euclid....)and music (proportional laws of sound frequency) they were very close (or further ahead) to the position of our most comtemporary science NOW.

"Matters latticed waves are spaced at intervals corresponding to the frets on a harp or guitar with analogous sequences of overtones arising from each fundamental. The science of musical harmony is in these terms practically identical with the science of symmetry in crystals." ---Professor Amstutz of the Mineralogical Institute , University of Heidelberg.

In BIOLOGY, the fundamental role of geometry and proportion become even more evident when we consider that moment by moment, year by year and so on every atom of every molecule of both living and inorganic substance is being changed and replaced. Biologically we can look to our ideas of genetic coding as the vehicle of replication and continuity (fractal/crystal like... eh?) however this coding does not lie in the particular atoms (or carbon hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen) of wich the gene substnace DNA is composed; these are all also subject to continual change and replacement. Thus the carrier of continuity is not only the molecular compositions of the DNA, but also it's helix form. This form is repsonsible for the replicating power of the DNA. The helix, which is a special type from the group of regular spirals, results from sets of fixed geometric proportions....

The fascinating observation is this: The architecture of bodily existence is determined by an invisible immaterial world of pure form and geometry. Invisible? Isn't that how we view God... ? I don't see him as invisible. His pure energy is one of order.. an obvious to our viewing pleasure... a UNIVERSAL order. Consider, if you will, the Aether... the SPIRIT of God.