Miracles – Harmonia Philosophica

Phantom science…

A world-famous psychological experiment used to help explain the brain’s understanding of the body, as well as scores of clinical disorders, has been dismissed as not fit-for-purpose in a new academic paper from the University of Sussex.

The Rubber Hand Illusion, where synchronous brush strokes on a participant’s concealed hand and a visible fake hand can give the impression of illusory sensations of touch and of ownership of the fake hand, has been cited in thousands of articles. Yet, in a new research paper Dr Peter Lush, demonstrates that the control conditions typically used in the experiment do not do they job they need to do. (1)

Suggestion effect.

Hypnosis.

We are hypnotized by reality.

And we fail to see.

That what we admire as real.

Is an illusion.

Sleepy people.

Believing in science.

Science which has a way to putting people to sleep.

And as Wittgenstein said, we need to wake up again.

To admire the wanders…

And realize that we are not the ones hypnotized.

But we are the ones who hypnotized the world!

The moon will rise now. And you will see clearer. That the most obscure question you ever had was so simple.

Is it night?

Or is it day?

Fairy tales…

But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
~ C.S. Lewis

When we are kids we love fairy tales.

But now we have grown up.

And we consider fairy tales… fairy tales.

Now we believe in science. Now we believe in what we can see. Now we believe in us and in what we can measure and analyze. Now only things that can be proved matter.

And yet, the world we live in is not so void of miracles as we might think.

A cosmos where everything is without us knowing why. A world where you change every minute and yet you are still you. A universe where particles can be in two places at once, where cause might come after the effect. A cosmos where time does not exist even though we believe it does.

A cosmos full of life without any reason. A cosmos where we seek knowledge without knowing why. A world where we believe we can understand why without even knowing why we are alive.

We tend to ignore miracles.

Only because we believe we will one day explain them.

But what if we never will? What if the explanation of these miracles is me? You? Everyone who make this world be? What if we are the ones who keep this world alive? What if miracles are more common than you think?

We used to read fairy tales as kids.

And guess what.

These fairy tales are the things we keep on seeking still. Dragons, mermaids, the tooth fairy. We used to live in a world of magic. And this magic is the only thing that keeps us alive.

Beyond the Excel spreadsheets, the meetings, the customers and the things we believe make up our life, dragons, mermaids and fairies keep whispering to us. The one secret we choose to ignore. Because it is terrifying.

You once were a kid…

But you were too afraid.

And you believed the worst fairy tale of them all.

That you grew up.

(That the child has died…)

But worry not.

One day you will cry.

And it will be right then,

that the child will come back.

(And smile…)

Whispering a terrible thing you knew.

Listen dad.

Since I was born.

Within thing void world.

I always smiled.

But…

I was never a child!

Playing itself…

Photo by **Spiros Kakos** from **Pexels**

Scientists have created a nano-electronic circuit which vibrates without any external force. Just as a guitar string vibrates when plucked, the wire — 100,000 times thinner than a guitar string — vibrates when forced into motion by an oscillating voltage. The surprise came when they repeated the experiment without the forcing voltage. Under the right conditions, the wire oscillated of its own accord. The nano-guitar string was playing itself.

Lead researcher Dr Edward Laird of Lancaster University said: “It took us a while to work out what was causing the vibrations, but we eventually understood. In such a tiny device, it is important that an electrical current consists of individual electrons. The electrons hop one by one onto the wire, each giving it a small push. Usually these pushes are random, but we realised that when you control the parameters just right, they will synchronise and generate an oscillation.” (1)

“Under the right conditions”…

Hmmm…

I wonder if anything can ever happen under the WRONG ones…

Delusional we are. Believing in the non-existence.

This is the basis of our “knowledge”.

That something may NOT happen. That something is NOT possible.

And under the right conditions, we discover it can happen.

And under the right conditions, we discover it is possible…

Search your soul.

Nothing is impossible.

Except your innate ability to consider things impossible…

Denoting that nothing is!

Regenerate.

Photo by **Mathias P.R. Reding** from **Pexels**

New study reveals regeneration of amputated body parts is not always an ancient trait and scientists might need to rethink the way they compare animals with regenerative abilities. An international group of researchers including biologists from the University of Maryland found that at least four species of marine ribbon worms independently recently evolved the ability to regrow a head after amputation. This new study, which was published in the March 6, 2019 issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B, turns that assumption on its head. In a survey of 35 species of marine ribbon worms, the researchers found that the ability to regenerate an entire head, including a brain, evolved relatively recently in four different species. “This means that when we compare animal groups we cannot assume that similarities in their ability to regenerate are old and reflect shared ancestry,” said Alexandra Bely, associate professor of biology at UMD and one of the study’s authors. “We need to be more careful when comparing regeneration findings across different groups of animals.” “The ancestor of this group of worms is inferred to have been unable to regenerate a head, but four separate groups subsequently evolved the ability to do so,” Bely said. “One of these origins is inferred to have occurred just 10 to 15 million years ago.” (1)

Regeneration.

We believe it is the culmination of miracles

But even worms can do it.

Humans on the other hand do not seek completion.

But imperfection.

For only a broken tree, can ever reach the ground.

Seek your strength in your weakness.

Find the meaning of life in its absurdness.

Pull off your eyes. (Democritus)

Seek death. (Socrates)

Ignore this life. (Christ)

And you will gain a place in another.

Where worms cannot grow heads.

Where worms die.

Where humans live without living…

This is not fantasy.

But what worms teach us every day.

This is the miracle you never understood.

The miracle you will never comprehend.

Because you seek miracles.

And the greatest miracle that exists…

Is that there are none…

Καλή Ανάσταση! (On the irrationality of the modern belief in death)

Happy Easter! (“Καλή Ανάσταση” in Greek literally means ‘Happy Resurrection’)

And let not the irrationality of the miracle of resurrection hinder you from believing.

The most important things in life we anyway do not understand.

Our self.

Being.

The cosmos itself.

And yet we are defined by them. And we live by them.

Yes, the resurrection is irrational.

And that is why it is true. (refer to “Resurrection – Illogical, thus True.“)

Because knowing is not about understanding, as Shestov said.

You think you need to believe in order to accept the resurrection.

But it is the other way around…

You already believe so many things and that is why you accept death.

Think again.

Time. Existence. Matter. Identity. Me. You. The notion of change itself.

Who told you these exist?

Do not ask whether Christ was risen.

But instead.

Could you ever die?

PS. Refer to the “What does it take to believe in Death” series of articles at the Blogger Harmonia Philosophica portal for more extensive coverage of the ideas that support our belief in Death. I was much younger when I wrote it and did not wrote so eloquently as now (at least not as much as I believe I do anyway), but my ideas were far more clear and raw. Thus, I still like them. Hope you like them too.