Dreamscape brings inspiration to all of us at some time or another, and indeed this post was a product of it. The importance of dreaming is widely ascribed and leads to various interpretations of what dreams may 'mean'. The bridge which dreams create between 'waking reality' and those accessed by the unconscious mind is of great fascination to us, and we know that other species of animal are also inclined to cross this bridge. We don't know where it takes us, nor can we be certain what a dream actually is. We do know that dreaming can have profound effects on our emotional state when we wake, and that premonition is also a feature of dreams - a fact exploited by those who claim to be able to interpret what various images signify in 'real life'.

The existence of other dimensions is proven now in scientific terms but little credence is given at present to the impact and the opportunity afforded by these alternate realms. Explaining other dimensions away by describing them as 'curled up' offers a neat solution to the fact that we can't perceive them in everyday life. But many people have seen ghosts and other apparitions which can only be explained by the multi-dimensional framework, and many more (including harsh sceptics) have experienced out-of-body experiences which again rely on the mind's ability to access realms we cannot normally see. Out-of-body experience has now been proved under laboratory conditions and this equates to an important step in our understanding of consciousness - how much flexibility we have to cross the dimensional states is just being opened to serious investigation.

Dreamscape may be part and parcel of our ability, inherent as it's proving to be, to traverse various dimensions. Many forms of illusion, delusion or hallucination can also be explained in this way, giving credence rather than ridicule to people who suffer from invasion of such things in conditions such as schizophrenia. Science fiction is no stranger to the alternate-dimension theory and it has been used in many ways many times to underpin good storylines. 

The mind is potentially far more powerful than most people concede. Not only can it travel remotely from the body, it can heal the body too. Equally, the mind can damage the body, manifesting unwanted physical symptoms. How we use our mind is of great significance in how we lead our lives, therefore cultivating our thoughts wisely and with good intent has to be the best route to a beneficial existence. Thinking well leads to wellness, thinking ill leads to illness. Not just in our singular selves, but across the span of our reality - our relationships, environments and networks are all affected by how we think. With more than three dimensions to choose from, our options are legion - in a later post I'll investigate more deeply the role of the Multiverse in our personal routes through cause and effect. (For now, the interpretation linked above is the most straightforward explanation I could find.) In the meantime, enjoy your dreams, and the many opportunities within your constantly shifting spacetime.

Thrilled no end by the arrival of Wormhole Riders joining the auspicious band of Quantumology followers, this is a personal thank-you to them for adding their weight to the importance of New Philosophies in New Physics!

A blog posted on the 'scientific' Quantumology site (dot Net) pays homage to the heavyweight physicists expressing an interest in what is being said here. Their presence is appreciated since I make no excuse for bludgeoning my way in where angels may fear to tread, oftimes upsetting the orthodox community in the process as I have done on a number of occasions at live conferences!

Wormhole Riders support the sci-fi industry with coverage of cutting-edge shows which cross the borders of physics to explore new worlds and civilisations where no-one has gone before. In my book, the alien places and their strange inhabitants do exist somewhere, out there in the infinite plethora of real possibilities we have come to call the Multiverse, accessed by imagination and brought to life on our screens. Once upon a time, science fiction relied on technology to re-invent its rulebooks, and we've seen a whole raft of real inventions based on scriptwriters' concepts. Now we have a new treasure trove of quantum knowledge on which to pin some radical storytelling. Stargate SG1 led the way in this field and others have been quick to take up the gauntlet thrown by the team and their galactic adversaries.

Thanks to everyone sharing links with me on this remarkable trail of endeavour and discovery - busily making new sense of a new world we may yet be very glad to be living upon! 

One of the things I've come to terms with in my fiftieth year on Earth is that my life's waveform is erratic, energetic and sometimes spontaneously combustive. 
I could make - and on occasion have made - attempts to settle my existence into something more ordered, but in trying to alter the nature of my world-line I'm fighting a losing battle. Best I can do is make the most of what I am and let the Universe do what it will with me.

There comes a point in all our lives when we start to seriously count blessings. One of the most countable blessings I've probably ever had is my long-standing relationship with Stargate. The series first hit the airwaves in the same year that I was launched onto the path of quantum discovery, blinded by a science I didn't understand and beset by a driving force which insisted that I learn it. For some reason, the Universe decided that I was going to have to follow the quantum trail, sending me to look up quarks on my computer and make copious notes on the biology of the Sun. Some years later it rewarded me by showing me what I'd been missing on TV. 

I stumbled across SG1 when Sam Carter was giving a lecture on the nature of cause and effect. My partner loved Sam Carter for reasons additional to (though not entirely excluding) her brain, and so armed with an unwieldy package of mutual incentive we harvested the entire set of DVDs as soon as it hit the market.

My blessings then reached the heights of stars as Corin Nemec (Jonas Quinn) became Quantumology's first follower on Twitter and I discovered that a couple of the galaxy's brightest System Lords are happy to tune into my wavelength now and then. Today, the longest-serving System Lord of all, none other than Apophis himself, deigned to include me in tweeting an article about quantum propulsion and warp-drive technology. (Years of insistent research are paying off, as I seem to have established some kind of reputation for knowing roughly what I'm talking about, and as ever, my rewards come out of nowhere - unfettered, unannounced and gloriously spontaneous in their colourful eruptions.)

The article which Peter WIlliams (who looks quite different when not wearing dubious quantities of gold) sent in my direction contains the following text (click on it for the full article);
"In the early epoch of the universe, there was a very short period known as inflation," said Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar. "We believe that during that inflationary period, space-time itself expanded at many times the speed of light, so there are tantalizing questions when you look at nature as a teacher."

Sometimes I can be a thorn in the side of the scientific establishment, poking merciless fun at SUSY (supersymmetry) and boldly declaring that Cosmological Constants, Constraints and Standard Models are little boxes which you really can't just keep stuffing things in forever. The articles landing on the timelines of Twitter these days show the Standard Model teetering precariously on the brink of collapse, SUSY getting her skirts very ruffled and all manner of constants and constraints being bludgeoned by the aftermath of Higgs and fallout from the LHC. So on reading the line above, which tells us that Once Upon a Time there was no such thing as a speed limit in the Universe, I thought, "Yes, Nature is the teacher. And sometimes," I mused quietly to myself, "humans can be very petulant pupils." When I come across a scientist mourning the loss of a familiar constraint, I think of Lego, which is where the pieces seem to have stuck in scientific evolution. "Come on now," says a school-mistressy voice in my head wistfully addressing the Particle Physics Party, "isn't it time we moved on to Play Doh?"

Bounded by an assumption that the speed of light is the absolute limit, we've made baby steps in understanding the Neutrino. From the many experiments conducted around the world it seems pretty obvious that the Neutrino bypasses standard models of physics and plays about in dimensions we can't see. Everyone knows these other dimensions are there, but they cause problems, so scientists curl them up and pretend they're too small to worry about. Infinity, too, is as much of a pain in the butt as David Hewlett, appearing absolutely everywhere and forcing theorists to 'renormalise' their equations to compensate. I'm a little frustrated, perhaps unfairly, that we're not taking as much notice as we should of the fact that science fiction is a product of Universal Intellect, and probably a good indication that our Universe has a sense of humour. Stories come into our heads because somewhere, in the infinite raft of possibilities shored up by the Uncertainty Principle and the Multiverse combined, they happen. Maybe not exactly as we picture them, but happen they do, and that has to be the reason why science fiction so regularly ends up being science fact. What goes around comes around, ring singularities notwithstanding.

An old friend called by today, one with whom a strong connection was forged many years ago in a shared fascination for what one might loosely term 'other dimensions'. Marella is a gifted player of the Light field whose work has spanned continents and led her to help whole cities, to witness the dark plagues of torment in Egypt and Africa where people live lives we can only remotely imagine, out there beyond the comforts of a politically-ravaged Britain which, despite the lunacy of its government, maintains a standard of decency by the skin of its teeth. She had returned to England on a mission and I was honoured that she should look me up.

Marella and I discussed the implications of Dark Matter hunting and the 'poking of dragons' which the current scientific scrambling for 'facts' represents. My belief, and hers by all accounts, is that the surge of exploration into Dark Materials is stirring up consequences which are given no thought, let alone credence, by the seekers and those who have a vested interest in the answers. For decades now, the hunt for the elusive neutrino has been spawning elaborate complexes to house the test equipment necessary for high-energy physics experiments to take place, complexes which keep getting bigger and more complex. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) may have brought us face to face with the Higgs boson but there is no telling what kind of discontent it may have stirred in the quantum fields.

There are many facilities around the world which raise the eyebrows of those that know about them, the most obvious example of which is HAARP - and even putting that word into a Blog is likely to have me tracked down by the agencies of 'intelligence'. So often when one puts forward a suggestion that governments may be interfering with our mentalities and our habits of life for their own nefarious purposes, the response is, "No, they're not that clever." I have heard this response so many times, from so many otherwise intelligent people, that I do wonder sometimes if that phrase in itself is not an example of subliminal control.

Human beings are not a stupid species. Chickens and sheep, on the other hand, may be counted as intellectually challenged. The former is connected with cowardice, the latter with a tendency to follow whatever may be leading at the time. Either could be construed as remotely counter-productive, if not dangerous, and traipsing blindly after leaders motivated by fear may well find us all plunging our toes into some very hot water indeed, along with several bucketfuls of farmyard poo.

The battle, if one can call such an invisible and esoteric game of counter- and sub-plot a 'battle', has been brewing a long time, and before long it will reach a head. For many years now I've been 'seeing it coming', and said with unequivocal certainty that the only thing we can possibly do to maintain a survivable equilibrium is to keep our heads while all around are losing theirs. So don't lose yours. Hold it high, think for yourself, avoid flock mentalities and easy assumptions. The game is played in deadly earnest, and we'll all do well to pick our sides early and stay loyal to common sense, wherever it may be found.  

If there were ever a more conducive element to deep discussion, red wine takes some beating. I shared a glass or two or more with my friend Angela tonight, which is causing a few porobelmes with hitting the right keys to type this Blog, but was nevertheless noteworthy in terms of the detail. When I came home I was treated to find that Dr Phil Metzger had posted a couple of Tweets back to me in relation to the realism of quantum mechanics, and had even sent me a document which he described as his "favourite interpretation of quantum physics". In order to write )with a little difficulty) something meaningful here, the only quote you find in this post will be from that article :  http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9807075.pdf  

Okay, here we go. The discussion with Angela tonight majored on the state of the world as it currently stands, and the likelihood of our lifetime seeing one of two possibilities. Either, we will see Fermi's Paradox come to pass. Or, we will see a tip in the balance of the equation whereby humanity stands up and takes responsibility for itself, shakes itself into shape and says, "Yes, this is truly ridiculous. If we go on like this there is no option but self-destruction. We are therefore going to do things differently from now on. And that requires some major changes in thinking."

Now, we raised our (third) glass to the balance in which we hang, for there is no way of telling which will come to pass. But it is time for a timely quote from Dr Metzger's post:

(i) If it were that A, then it would be that B. 

This is a paradox, for it states neither as a superposition but gives equal validity to both states. Statements about states are valid to the argument, for some of my conversation with Angela was given to discussing the evolution of language. My interpretation of this is that as we are clearly products of the universe, we are given language by the universe in order to understand meanings, and some of those meanings are only made clear from what is commonly known as 'word association', as Angela pointed out. So if we make a statement about a state, whether its a state of mind or the state of Alaska, chances are that we are on a valid track simply because we have aligned our language in a way that is likely to make sense.

Many examples of this language association exist. Love and evolve, for instance, have a connection which is largely overlooked for the spelling in the latter form is backwards. Present and present, however, have no such problem. The present is a present. If you open it and think, "shit, that's not good," then that's your problem. The present is all you get.

Quantum-realism versus the conformity of human thinking is a big, big hurdle to overcome. If we manage it, and jump the bar, we could yet resurrect Utopia and find ourselves back in a world worth living in. If we don't, then within our lifetime we will see the demise of life on our planet and there will be no turning back. I am not a fan of swearing in the public domain, but Domani, it is Sunday already. If we as a species fail to wake up, we are fxcked. Goodnight xx 

Making final adjustments to the Quantumology manuscript today brought back to mind this remarkable book by Amit Goswami. I'm now going to open the book at random, having fetched it out of the bookcase for the edit exercise, and quote here a line from one of the two pages which lie in front of me: (You'll just have to trust that I'm not going to search for anything juicy or relevant, for to do that would defeat the object of the exercise!)

Neils Bohr once said: "Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it." That shock yields to understanding as we begin to comprehend the play of the complementarity principle.

This is from page 73, the rest of the spread being dedicated to turning a W into an eagle as an illustration of electron behaviour, and a description of photon behaviour in light beams, both referencing the nature of wave-particle duality. Goswami is a physicist, and he cannot help but talk in terms physicists would use, but you won't find many equations in his book (I can't remember any at all but I'm not going through to check that now!) and that's one of the reasons I found it so readable. If you are a scientist, and you want to know how quantum mechanics can possibly be affiliated to consciousness, this book will explain why it would appear totally impossible that it doesn't. If you're not a scientist, you're here now, and that means you want to know how your thoughts and the quantum world co-habit spacetime, so you'll probably want to read this book, too.

"Success," said an advert on the Weebly site server when I logged on just now, "is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it." If you've read the Blog just posted at The Quantumologist site, you'll know that I'm not really liking what I've done on the Kickstarter video very much at all, but I do quantify the disaster by admitting that sitting in front of a camera with nobody else in the room and trying to talk sensibly with an air of intelligence is a bit beyond me. 

This picture is a magnified collection of sand grains from an article confirming every grain is unique; across all the deserts of the world no two are identical. This is very much in keeping with Quantumology's version of the Uncertainty Principle, busily at work on scales much larger than electrons. 

These beautiful fragments of oceanic dross are wildly varied in form, shape and colour, just as we are. If, as the uniqueness of the sand grain suggests, we are all one unique being in a vast collection of beings on a unique world, it's as well to take account of our unique lives being completely our own, unlike anybody else's, to be valued and crafted and turned into whatever we want to turn life into, because we are free to do that. Only there's no such thing as a free lunch, and everything we attain has a price attached somewhere, even if it seems to us that no payment was due. Free to look at this remarkable article it surely is, the price for our pleasure having been paid by the author who wrote it.
http://www.inspirationgreen.com/magnified-grains-of-sand.html