User:Paine Ellsworth/Mystery

This "think" page is devoted to great mysteries I have encountered in this world. Feel free to think along with me!

These are in no particular order; they are written as they recur to me.

Homestead, Florida's Coral Castle

Check out this quite probably related YouTube video. And here's a YouTube search. Seems that lots of people think they've solved this mystery. But there are still anomalies that stand out.

I remember reading about Ed's legendary move from Florida City ten miles north to Homestead. He hired a flatbed truck and driver, and he made the driver go around the corner while he himself loaded the heavy blocks onto the flatbed. When the driver returned a few minutes later, the blocks were loaded and ready to go. How did ol' Ed do all this? This is another great mystery wrapped in an enigma!

Churches of Lalibela

In Ethiopia, where I spent time with the U.S. Peace Corps, there are ~~twelve (oops)~~ eleven churches, Christian churches, that were carved out of solid rock. I heard a different legend about this. King Lalibela had his men begin work on these churches and asked the angels to work on them, also. His men worked in the daytime, and the angels worked during the night. The men would wake up each day and be astounded by the amount of work done overnight by the angels. The legend is that it took only one week, seven days, to construct all of the churches! Well, at least that is what you hear while you're actually there in Ethiopia.

Why were these churches built this way? and why eleven? I have suspected for some time now that there were actually twelve of these churches constructed all at about the same time. One church that houses the Ark of the Covenant, which was taken there by members of the Knights Templar, has been filled in to protect the religious relic. The church and the ark will be found soon, rediscovered for all to ponder. So the churches were built this way in order to very effectively hide the Ark of the Covenant and other precious relics from the unworthy eyes of those who would not appreciate their true worth.

Destiny

Why are we here? Is our presence here governed by determinism or by free will? Why can't we rid ourselves of stuff like murder, thievery, human trafficking and the like (evil stuff)? Evil is with us because it is a necessity. People measure good by its contrast to evil. It's ironic to think that without evil, there would be no good, either. So why can't we get rid of the both of them, good and evil? Is there more to it than just yin and yang?

For more than fifty years I have believed and accepted the following instruction... "There's no such thing as black and white; gray is truth and the truth is gray." That's okay, because for almost as long and to give you a bit of context, I have also accepted that, "When a person learns to read with understanding, they automatically become a Republican," and I am a registered Democrat from a long, long line of Democrats. So I'm liberal at heart, but conservative at brain. Again with the "polar opposites"? The important thing to always keep in mind is that there is no such thing as black and white; gray is truth and the truth is gray.

So, is our fate made for us? or do we make our own way. That "truth is gray" thing is not something that I came up with on my own. It was taught to me by my hypnosis/meditation instructor while I was in Viet Nam in 1971. Mike had several students, and he laid that one on us one evening while we were in group. I was pretty much a redneck when I started Mike's training, and that slowly changed as I worked to remake myself. The answer to the question of fate, then, is somewhere in the middle of the two extremes of fate being made for us and making our own way. Where in that middle depends upon each of us, upon each of our inner beings based on nature and nurture.

I don't expect anyone who reads this to blindly accept it as all true, because it may well be way off the mark, but frankly, I think it's right on the mark. And I'm almost never wrong! Remember... there's no such thing as black and white; gray is truth and the truth is gray. Mystery, mystery, shrouded in history – have a cup of coffee or something and let's wait on the next big adventure!

Man: It won't be long now. Woman: It never was.

Quantum outtakes

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then we've saved 3,000 words with these three images. With this physics mystery comes many interesting questions. Let's keep it simple and begin with how at first they used photons even though the first image to the right shows electrons being shot toward the screen through the double slits. Whatever the particles that are "shot" toward the slits, they produce the image on the screen as shown in the second image on the right. That's called an "interference pattern", and it means that the so-called particle is behaving just like a wave instead of like a particle. No big mystery here – the electron or photon is actually a wave rather than a particle.

What's puzzling is when a sensing device is placed near one of the slits to see if a certain individual particle goes through one slit or the other, then the particle produces the pattern on the screen as shown in the third image on the right. The particle begins to act like a particle instead of like a wave. And ever since this was discovered in the last century, scientists have been asking "Why?". That's the big mystery. Why do particles behave like waves until they are closely observed, at which time they act like particles. Take the sensing device away, and they act like waves again (they produce the interference pattern seen in the second image).

We need some outtakes here.

The simplest conclusion here is that we can change a wave into a particle just by observing it. The seemingly mere act of observing the subject can radically change the subject's behavior!

This conclusion becomes obvious when we think of how the great scientist, Jane Goodall, began her studies of chimpanzees by observing them from afar and ended up becoming close to her subjects and changing their behavior. It's one of several reasons why animals in zoos act differently than animals in their natural habitats. Just the mere act of observing a subject can radically change the subject's behavior. Someone once said about the difference between "reputation" and "character", "How we behave around others is our reputation; how we behave when we're alone is our character."

Isn't it interesting that this mysterious discovery is the only thing that is common between our larger world of classical physics and the tiny world of quantum physics? Observation changes the behavior of the subject that is being observed.

Paradoxum

This sentence is false.: So if that sentence is true, then it must be false; however, if it is false, then it must be true. This is a form of the "liar paradox".

Of all the weird stuff in this Universe, I think contradictions – paradoxes – are great mysteries. I first came across this particular paradox in a less streamlined form:

The sentence below is true.
The sentence above is false.

As good as the first sentence of this section is, I think the double sentence better illustrates the profound mystery of this paradox. A real head-scratcher! Can't stay long, jus' gotta move on.

Change

When you think that anything has remained the same, look more closely, and think again.