Category: Blague

Did you ever stop and wonder why you have two nostrils instead of one? Science has long been aware of a nasal “dominance” that alternates back and forth between the right and the left nostrils. An increase, for example, of blood circulation to the right nostril causes a tumescence, or swelling, of internal structures in… Continue reading It’s Open and Close, Right Under Your Nose

Process thought talks about “the presence of the past” and scientist Rupert Sheldrake has written a book with that title. In William Faulkner’s novel, Requiem for a Nun, Gavin Stevens says: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In light of this, imagine my wonder at a word that, out of the blue, fluttered… Continue reading Jetzterday

One day in the summer of 1965 I was having coffee with three friends at the Three Cities of Spain restaurant on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. The conversation turned to art, and then to the artist Georgia O’Keeffe who, we knew, lived up near Abiquiu on Ghost Ranch. One of us, I don’t remember… Continue reading My Visit with Georgia O’Keeffe

In David Griffin’s book, God Exists but Gawd Does Not, the seventh chapter is called “Mathematics.” It’s the longest chapter in the book, and over its 40 pages Griffin presents his case that the reality and efficacy of mathematics provide a strong argument for the existence of God. He begins by defending Platonic realism that… Continue reading Can Mathematics Prove the Existence of God?

When I was in high school, I memorized a very VERBOSE definition of the “bunt” in baseball. I used to get requests to recite it and it always got good laughs. My good friend Sam Walters especially liked it. A few years back, Dr. Sam and his wife Sue visited us in Marina del Rey… Continue reading The Bunt Brings Laughtears

During my last term in the three-year course of study and training required to become a licensed Practitioner1, I created a spiritual practice that I call Morning Silence. This practice enables anyone to open an “access channel” that leads down to the still waters of creativity within. It’s very simple to do: When I first… Continue reading The Still Waters of Morning Silence

Many physicists have been both enchanted and perplexed by the number 137, one of the fundamental constants in physics. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman was no exception, for he once said: “It’s one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man.” So what is this… Continue reading A Magical Mysterious Number: 137

Consider for a moment the beautifully patterned integrity of a single snowflake: one of the sparkling icy stars that falls in profusion from the sky during any snowstorm . . . consider this tiny constellation of ice . . . this crystal masterpiece in miniature, this natural mandala, this hexagonal prism of light . .… Continue reading Such Stuff as Snowflakes Are Made On

The emphasis that science has placed on our close “family” connection with the higher apes, a connection that becomes apparent when you visit the primate section of any zoo, can obscure the closer connection we have with insects on a developmental level or in terms of the evolution of consciousness. I first became aware of… Continue reading The Human-Insect Connection

If Heraclitus is the early champion of change, the partisan of permanence is another early Greek philosopher, Parmenides, who asserted that there is no change, period. His position contra change can be stated as follows: Being is and Being is One; change and plurality are both illusions. If anything becomes, it either comes to be… Continue reading Champion of Change, Partisan of Permanence