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United Spectrum

Trafford Publishing

Contents

List of Illustrations.........................................................................viiiINTRODUCTION..................................................................................1PART 1 OBSERVING AS AN INDIVIDUAL............................................................7Belief and Faith..............................................................................10Doubt.........................................................................................27The Brain, the Senses, and Perception—A Misused Multi-Too...............................l31Purpose, Free Will, and Questions.............................................................70PART 2 THE FALL OF MAN AND CRITICAL MASS.....................................................89Oil and Population............................................................................92Economy Run Amok..............................................................................100The Beaten Path of War........................................................................109Environment—This Bluegreen Stone Spins So Moss Can Grow.................................116Cycles of Earth in the Cosmic Neighborhood....................................................127The Solar Heartbeat...........................................................................134Quietus—The End of an Age...............................................................142PART 3 MIDDLE WORLD—THE LOST SPLENDOR OF NORMAL........................................161The Tree of Life..............................................................................165Science and Religion—Lifting the Veil Between Observation and Faith.....................167Emergence and Self-Organization...............................................................182PART 4 SHAPE, SCALE, AND INTENSITY—THE LANGUAGES OF BEAUTY.............................201Fractal (Rough) Geometry......................................................................203Symmetry—A World of Mirrors.............................................................206Euclidean (Smooth) Geometry...................................................................211Zero = Infinity...............................................................................216Simple Is to Complex as Order Is to Disorder..................................................225The Spectrum of Wave Form and Function—A Unified Polarization...........................227PART 5 THE ELEGANCE BEHIND THE BEAUTY........................................................233Electromagnetism—Let There Be Light!....................................................233Stars—The Self-Organization of Gas and Dust.............................................241Gravity.......................................................................................244Black Holes—The Eye Is the Storm........................................................245The Singularity of Time and Place.............................................................249The Quantum Realm Is Our Own..................................................................258Dark Energy and Dark Matter...................................................................267The Theory of Everything—A Door Between Two Pillars.....................................272PART 6 A LAND BEYOND COMPARE.................................................................279The Teacher's Dilemma—A Willing Student Is the Teacher..................................279The Reflection of Life as Death...............................................................284The Chicken and the Egg.......................................................................289Duality.......................................................................................299The Singularity—The Observer Is the Observed............................................307Serenade of the Whole.........................................................................313CULMINATION OF SORTS..........................................................................321REFERENCES....................................................................................329INDEX.........................................................................................333

Chapter One

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

(John Donne, Meditation XVII in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, 1624)

Conflict and illusion exist only when one's perceptions of reality are limited to their self. The metamorphosis of conflict into love is only possible with a simple and total understanding of how and why we create these illusions. We must also recognize all forms of conflict as serious and illusory if understanding is to be realized. Why focus on all these negative aspects of human behavior and all the depressing issues facing nature? Because the understanding of what our illusions are reveals the limited awareness that creates them. The solution is in totally exposing and understanding the illusions, which effectively reveals them as a problem and eliminates them. I wish to point out our innocent and misled perceptions so that we can see clearly and without any undue suffering, like a fly showing its fellow swarm a way around an invisible and nevertheless painful window after we've been banging into it for far too long.

All facts and theories aside, people will believe what they desire to believe. People steadfastly hold onto their traditions and beliefs because they feel these are a part of them, and many people can't seem to change or let go of their long-held belief systems. With all due respect, we are a pig-headed bunch. We cling to our beliefs because we think they make us who we are. People die for their beliefs. Both sides of a "religious" war murder and die for their beliefs and the "glory" of their gods. Belief in science or religion is all a matter of faith, which is how new information is filtered by our credibility meter and personal experience. Over the centuries, religions have adjusted their parables and doctrines according to the changing authors, translations and values that change alongside our modern lifestyles, governments, cultures and societies. In science, the "laws" that are developed are in fact only high degrees of confidence or faith, until they are reevaluated and refined in the face of new evidence. Science has seen its laws and models change many times, and it is fair to say they will change again in the future. For example, Newton and Einstein gave us insight, centuries apart, into the nature of gravity and light, yet we still don't fully understand them. Still, both Newton and Einstein deserve praise for their impressive insights into the unified nature of reality.

Concerning the issues at hand, if people don't suspend their lopsided and burdensome beliefs, and experience a personal revolution of insight, then we will continue on our course of collective suicide and global destruction. We have been painting ourselves into a corner for some time now and it's time to look up. People who believe that an apocalypse is inevitable can affect the future and cause a self-fulfilling prophecy with...