OUT OF CHAOS

Out of Chaos

In the beginning, it was Chaos; scientists, religious scholars and “thinking” people, all agree to that. It’s what happened next, a few milliseconds thereafter that make everyone ponder. Religious scholars would tell you that Divine Intervention “put order out of chaos”; scientists are still looking, they have solid ideas but looking for proof. Seventy years ago, Einstein predicted how his theory of relativity could be demonstrated in space. Today, astronomers are using the Hubble telescope to confirm Einstein's prediction and shed light on how the world was formed. Proof of what may have happened comes from a group of astronomers examining Einstein’s Rings; what are these?

Well, according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, he predicted that when two galaxies are in different positions say one nearer to us relative to the other galaxy being further away, much like beads on a string, its gravitational field will bend the light path of the farther one and therefore create a ring around the first one. This is called “gravitational lensing.” It is nature's equivalent to having a giant magnifying glass in space that bends and amplifies the light of more distant objects. Light from a distant galaxy can be deflected by an intervening galaxy to create an arc or multiple separate images. When both galaxies are exactly lined up, the light forms a bulls-eye pattern -- the Einstein ring -- around the foreground galaxy. Now astronomers can precisely measure the mass of the closer galaxy by studying these rings! Beautiful, right? Well, how does all this relate to the original question? The key word is "dark matter." This is an invisible form of matter that cannot be seen, but its existence can be inferred by measuring its gravitational influence. Dark matter makes up most of the matter in the universe; and galaxies can be formed from either collision or through merging of smaller galaxies. One can then put forward the proposition that, in the beginning, it was not Chaos but dark matter that existed. Then, the skeptic would say, what is the difference? Oh! There is a big difference, I say. For one, Order does exist and you do not need Divine Intervention to create one. In addition, if one looks at the nature of dark matter, invisible but measurable, one can simulate its existence in the laboratory. That is what scientists are looking for, among other things, under the earth in the big Hadron particle collider in Switzerland, the CERN project. Guess what; when looking at colliding particles at extremely high speed, very close to the speed of light, they discover wonderful things, such as new particles that form briefly and then disappear, but leaving a trace behind or leaving a gravitational pull! Now, let me take you in “another dimension” but first allow me to say the following.

For me, it also started when I was a child looking up in the sky and wondering how all this was created. It is still a real mystery to me how the eyes are awakened and then relate to this material world. If Eisenberg is correct, there exists this “principle of uncertainty”, you cannot fix the position of an electron, spinning around its own nucleus, since there are infinite possibilities on its whereabouts. The moment you try to freeze its trajectory, that devil is somewhere else!  Reality is based on electrons spinning around their nucleus, what we call matter. So how can we be sure about reality? Are all we see, feel and touch real or illusions, like Einstein’s rings? Are we living in a world of conventions? We agree that we exist and, therefore, we do exist? If light has dual existence, being both matter and electromagnetic wave, why we cannot have dual existence? Can we be both real and ethereal? A proof for this can be in our dreams sometimes they are so damn real! You can swear that you have felt being in that place in your dream, you have smelled that scent in the environment and certainly your body has reacted the same way it would have reacted in the “real” world; and yet it is a dream.

          Convention, my fellow thinkers, is the basic principle of our existence. We have agreed between us that the trees are green because they absorb all other wave frequencies of the light hitting upon them and they emanate only the frequency belonging to the green spectrum as measured by instruments that we have built to test the validity of our hypotheses. But, do we all “see” the same “green” as defined exactly by the instruments-the independent observer? If you ask me and another person to describe this color, would we agree on its hue, intensity or appearance? And yet we agree that it is green. Throughout the ages, several philosophers have put forward the proposition that we really do not exist, neither any of the elements we call the universe, the planets, earth or its critters. That is, we have made an agreement between us, so as not to go crazy, that the things we see around us and the things we do not see but “know” they are there do exist.  Very much the same way that we have agreed that the exchange rate for the dollar against the euro today is such but it can change based on some conventional rules the big shots in Wall Street have invented, irrespective of whether they are real or imaginary. They always say that Markets react to psychology, but that is based on emotion and cannot be objectively gauged. Yet, many of us play that game, no questions asked.

          Conventions also guide human behavior. We agree that killing each other is bad, and indeed it is as we have only one chance to play in this game; we have even invented the Ten Commandments to guide us through this. And yet, vanity prevails. We are so vain, always looking for ways to be unique, whether this is manifested by an expensive lifestyle or the pursuit of higher education or even the place we most desire to live or inhabit, that we forget those conventions, we bypass them. Tell me, is there a person on this earth that although he or she strongly defends some ideals, whether these concern religious, political or scientific, still acts differently according to the occasion, thinks that it is OK for once to bypass the premises each ideal holds so as he or she can have that one  gratifying experience? And then this behavior so quickly becomes habitual doesn’t it?

All I am saying is that we all are the product of chance collisions, like those particles in the supercollider only “living” for relatively somewhat longer periods, and what we will eventually leave behind is dark matter. The matter and energy in the Universe is thus preserved.

But people, I also put forward the proposition, irrespective of whether we exist or not, whether everything around us is real or an illusion that we fall in love with each other and act accordingly. Not simply love each other, like the prophet Jesus promulgated, but truly fall in love with each other. Would you do any harm to your lover? Wouldn’t you sacrifice some part of yourself in order to give it to your lover and wouldn’t you succumb to his or her wishes in order to cherish your moments together?

What the heck, what do you have to lose?

Zoras.

November, 2010

"Einstein Telescope": Search for Dark Matter and the Future of the Universe

THE PELASGIAN CREATION MYTH

(Quoted Verbatim from the book of Robert Graves-The Greek Myths (Penguin)

In the beginning, Eurynome, the Goddess of All Things, rose naked from Chaos, but found nothing substantial for her feet to rest upon, and therefore divided the sea from the sky, dancing lonely upon its waves. She danced towards the south, and the wind set in motion behind her seemed something new and apart with which to begin a work of creation. Wheeling about, she caught hold of this north wind, rubbed it between her hands, and behold! the great serpent Ophion. Eurynome danced to warm herself, wildly and more wildly, until Ophion, grown lustful, coiled about those divine limbs and was moved to couple with her. Now, the North Wind, who is also called Boreas, fertilizes; which is why mares often turn their hind-quarters to the wind and breed foals without the aid of a stallion.(1) Eurynome was likewise got with child.


Next, she assumed the form of a dove, brooding on the waves and, in due process of time, laid the Universal Egg. At her bidding, Ophion coiled seven times about this egg, until it hatched and split in two. Out tumbled all things that exist, her children: sun, moon, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and rivers, its trees, herbs and living creatures.


Eurynome and Ophion made their home upon Mount Olympus, where he vexed her by claiming to be the author of the Universe. Forthwith she bruised his head with her heel, kicked out his teeth, and banished him to the dark caves of below the earth.(2)


Next, the goddess created the seven planetary powers, setting a Titaness and a Titan over each. Theia and Hyperion for the Sun; Phoebe and Atlas for the Moon; Dione and Crius for the planet Mars; Metis and Coeus for the planet Mercury; Themis and Eurymedon for the planet Jupiter; Tethys and Oceanus for Venus; Rhea and Cronus for the planet Saturn.(3) But the first man was Pelasgus, ancestor of the Pelasgians; he sprang from the soils of Arcadia, followed by certain others, whom he taught to make huts and feed upon acorns, and sew pig-skin tunics such as poor folk still wear in Euboea and Phokis.(4)

References:
1. Pliny: Natural History iv.35 and viii. 67; Homer: Iliad xx, 223.

2. Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica i. 496-505; Tzetzes: On Lycophron 1191

3. Homer: Iliad v. 898; Apollonius Rhodius: ii. 1232; Apollodorus: i. 1. 3.; Hesiod: Theogony 113; Stephanus of Byzantium sub Adana; Aristophanes: Birds 692 ff.; Clement of Rome: Homilies vi. 4. 72; Proclus on Plato’s Timaeus ii. P 307

4. Pausanias: viii. 1. 2.


My Notes and Perspectives


The Pelasgian Myth of Creation is the most archaic of all, precedes the Olympian one and, the most recent, the Christian Myth of Creation. Both the Pelasgian and the Olympian Myths are based on matriarchal archetypes; women were revered and were considered divine. I find this story most romantic of all stories on Creation, devoid of any malicious caprices and ill-intents. When Men discovered that coition is associated with child-bearing, the magic was gone. They became Kings, displacing Mother-Goddess. Wars ensued, human sacrificial rituals became the norm and the cycle of violence never ended since.


Eurynome, which means “wide wandering”, captures the primal element of wind as a means of fertilization and the snake, a phallic symbol in psychoanalytic terms, is not to be feared but it is treacherous. In fact, Zeus many a times takes the form of a snake and he was considered a benevolent protector of domiciles since the snake eats rats and mice.


In Neolithic times only seven planets were known and they each marked a day of the week in a lunar calendar. The Moon was appreciated more than the Sun since the three phases of the Moon (New, Full and Old) were associated with Maiden (spring), Nymph (summer) and Crone (winter).


The book of Robert Graves is a masterpiece, a “must read” for all those who would like to know about the continuity of Myths throughout the Ages and the similarities (and differences) between all ancient tribes that gave rise to such diverse cultures and peoples.


ZORAS

Paradise Lost- A short tale.

Paradise Lost

There he was, in a strange place, something like a lost paradise. A dim light was bashfully creeping through the evergreen dome, strong enough to reflect against the wind-shivering leaves of the perennial trees while a chorus of penetrating sunlight beams were forming a thin veil within which myriads of living beings and non-living debris mingled in an exotic dance-like swirl. He was standing there not knowing if he was dreaming and, thus, just observing or if he was really there. He felt that he only needed to think about it and he would miraculously be sitting on the tree branch next to that bird vested with a rainbow of colors and singing about the universal harmony; or next to that serpent that was trying to get across the red-brown pathway unnoticed, next to the water drop forming at the edge of a brightly green leaf and whose surface was forming a distorted image of this tiny universe.


He was there, in the middle of this intense play of matter with light when suddenly he heard the wind whispering to his ears: “Who are you and what are you doing here, did you happen to lose your way or is it that you seek truths?”


He felt flabbergasted, num and, for a moment, he stood immobile. He thought “…but there is nobody around to address my words to”. Collecting all his courage, he finally spoke: “It’s me who witnesses this miracle of life that would like to know why things are and how I would end up.”


Following these words, silence fell abruptly. He closed his eyes momentarily and when he realized what he just said, fear subjugated his soul. Everything seemed to have vanished and in their place the twilight split the horizon in two halves. Abruptly, the voice he has heard before, albeit this time more authoritative and stern, echoed in the air: “It seems that if one asks the questions then certainly he must also know the answers.”


He woke up way ahead of his alarm bell and that was his first win against this devilish machine, with an expression of query still painting his face. Nonetheless, he felt euphoric, ready to face any misery in his day ahead of him. He took his morning shower, letting the water slowly dropping, as if he has now gained a new environmental consciousness, had his morning coffee accompanied by his usual two cigarettes and fed his black cat, his only companion over the last three years. He started wearing his usual daily armor, now ready to face everyone archenemy, routine. As he was going out of his apartment complex, a pale-white construction indistinguishable from any other building around him, he unexpectedly became aware of the street silence and tidiness around him and somehow he felt uneasy. "Hmm! He said, new Mayor, new habits?" He then started pacing fast along the narrow, dark alley, as he has done every day for so long now, on his way to catch the early morning bus which stood idle, alarms blinking, waiting patiently for its regular morning customers to fill the void and fulfill its purpose in life.


The sound of squeaking tires interrupted the eerie silence, as if a horse has gone wild, the smell of burning rubber instantly has spread through the air and followed by a mute sound. He then saw a white, almost transparent light spreading in front of him and slowly erasing everything else around him. Instead, a thought has now occupied his mind that made absolute sense to him: “It does not make any sense asking all these whys when life has its own grand designs for each and every one of us.” And then, darkness covered all.

ZORAS, 2010

Eros and Love

Eros and Love: A didactic story


On a sizzling hot summer day, Eros, the flamboyant partner of Love, is resting his youthful body under the thick, body-hair-raising shadow of a fig tree, contemplating life. Suddenly, he turns to his lover who enjoys the blissful moment with him, and asks: “My Love, you who give meaning to my life, who make me surrender to your wishes like my body surrenders to sleep, who govern my every move and unconditionally offer your light to me like the sun offers his light to the moon, why did you choose me as your partner-in-life, as your benevolent half when it is true you can find hospice in any person’s heart as easily as the water finds its way down a river slope?”

On her angelic face a Giaconda-like smile is formed and after a minute moment of silence she replies: “Oh! Foolish you…my one and only match, look at this mirror and tell me what do you see?”

Eros, surprised as he was by her answer nevertheless does what she asks of him. The shining reflection of his face is now in front of him and, dazzled by his image, he speaks anxiously: “I see my shining face and wonder if this glow is mine or yours, I see the thunder in my eyes and wonder how long can this last, I see my lips, red as your cheeks and thirsty for your kisses and fear the day you may deny to kiss me anymore”.

Now, her body slightly shivers, her face takes the serenity of the faithful when they pray and she speaks with a whispering but firm tone: “The lightning in the clouds forms rain for thirsty earth, the rushing water shapes the rocks in the river banks, the wind pollinates seemingly estranged and distanced flowers and fire destroys life so life can spring anew. You are my lightning, my water, my wind and fire. Without you I would be as lonely as a star, as empty as the space, as vain as your image in this mirror. Look again, my lover, and tell me if you see any of me in this reflection! And if you do, that is why I chose you.”

ZORAS

Dedicated to my daughter… a breath of fresh air in mid-summer heat.