Time, Relativity and temporal consciousness

Time, Relativity and temporal consciousness 

Until Einstein's reinterpretation of the physical concepts associated with time and space, time was considered to be the same everywhere in the universe, with all observers measuring the same time interval for any event. Non-relativistic classical mechanics is based on this Newtonian idea of time.

However, Philosophers did question that: "Time is not a reality , but a concept (noêma) or a measure (metron)" , like Antiphon the Sophist of 5th century BC  in  his chief work On Truth.   Parmenides went further, maintaining that time, motion, and change were illusions, leading to the paradoxes of his follower Zeno.  Time as an illusion is also a common theme in Buddhist thought.

A science that ignores consciousness, or artificially relegates the conscious mind to that of a secondary—and hence, unimportant—phenomenon, is actually an incomplete science. All our scientific data relies on the conscious mind as a necessary component. Both relativity and quantum physics tell us that we cannot blindly assume that the conscious mind—that experiences what constitutes our scientific data—has no effect on the nature of the data itself. So a discipline that willfully chooses to ignore the conscious mind as a vital component of our reality, must be viewed, at best, as an artificially restricted discipline, or, at worst, as a distortion of the truth.

Humans are not the only conscious beings; other animals, specifically mammals and birds, are indeed conscious, too. We still do not  how consciousness emerges from the physical activity of the brain and we do not know whether consciousness can emerge from non-biological systems, such as computers.

Bill

Two contrasting viewpoints on time divide prominent philosophers. One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe—a dimension independent of events, in which events occur in sequence. Isaac Newtonsubscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time^.  The opposing view is that time does not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view, in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz^[17] and Immanuel Kant,^[18][19] holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

Spacetime

Time has historically been closely related with space, the two together merging into spacetime in Einstein's special relativity and general relativity. According to these theories, the concept of time depends on the spatial reference frame of the observer, and the human perception as well as the measurement by instruments such as clocks are different for observers in relative motion. For example, if a spaceship carrying a clock flies through space at (very nearly) the speed of light, its crew does not notice a change in the speed of time on board their vessel because everything traveling at the same speed slows down at the same rate (including the clock, the crew's thought processes, and the functions of their bodies). However, to a stationary observer watching the spaceship fly by, the spaceship appears flattened in the direction it is traveling. 

Stephen Hawking  has stated that time actually began with the Big Bang, and that questions about what happened before the Big Bang are meaningless. 

Scientists have come to some agreement on descriptions of events that happened 10⁻³⁵ seconds after the Big Bang, but generally agree that descriptions about what happened before one Planck time (5 × 10⁻⁴⁴ seconds) after the Big Bang are likely to remain pure speculation.

Time - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time

WHY RELATIVITY EXISTS

 It turns out that relativity exists because our science is actually a science of what we experience, and not a science of a universe “out there” that is independent of us as observers.

Einstein’s second Postulate states that the speed of light is constant relative to all frames of reference.  If we observe a flash of light while standing on Earth, we will find it travelling from us at 300,000 km per second. 

The velocity of the observer makes no difference whatsoever. The speed of light is constant relative to all frames of reference. This then is Einstein’s second postulate. It sounds positively crazy!

Nonetheless, this second postulate of relativity has passed the test of time. It has survived a whole century of close scientific scrutiny, and has become a fundamental cornerstone of all modern physics. How do we explain this phenomenon?

Actually, Einstein never gave an explanation for his second postulate. That, in fact, is why it is called a postulate. 

Distortions in Time and Space 

How is it possible for the speed of light to remain constant to all frames of reference? 

There is one possible solution to this conundrum. Perhaps time and space actually distort when we travel, and they distort in just such a way that all observers still measure the speed of light as the same. Strange as it may sound, this was exactly the solution Einstein implemented in his theory of relativity, and incredibly, it worked!

Relativity essentially deals with time and space, so the crucial question here is this: Are time and space inherent properties of the universe (independent of man) or are they only entities that reflect our human experience?

According to the theory of relativity, time and space vary according to the frame of reference of the observer. These entities, therefore, vary depending on the observer’s experience. 

This strongly suggests that what we define as time and space are, in fact, not inherent properties of the universe. They are simply our time and space, i.e., what is experienced by us. Thus, time and space, as defined by our science, are actually only properties pertaining to how our senses interpret the universe.  

The speed of light happens to be constant to all human observers simply because the speed of light (which is the speed of electromagnetic transmission) plays an intrinsic role in how our body and our perceptual apparatus function. 

Startling as it may sound, human physiology has everything to do with relativity. The theory of relativity would not even exist if not for the way our human body functions!

The question is simply this: Are our scientific theories actual theories of phenomena that are independent of man, or are they merely theories of how man experiences the universe? In other words, is our science a study of the universe that is independent of us, i.e., one that would be equally valid even if we were not around? Or—as we are now asking—are our scientific theories actually only theories of how our mind and senses perceive and interpret the universe?

There is, naturally, an inherent problem with answering this question. We simply cannot compare observed data with unobserved data. No observation means no data; so we do not have any “unobserved data” to compare with. 

The very foundation of all modern physics—both relativity and quantum theory—point to the fact that our scientific data are actually observer dependent. Without the observer, much of quantum physics and relativity would not even make sense.

Why the Speed of Light is Constant

The speed of light is the speed of electromagnetic transmission. It is constant because of a limitation in our perceptual ability. We are simply unable to experience the speed of light varying because both our perceptual apparatus and our brain function via electromagnetic transmission. In other words, we cannot experience the speed of light to be anything other than constant because the very rate at which we ourselves function depends on the speed of light!

We are essentially trapped inside the system, like the characters inside a video movie. If someone slows down the video, all the characters inside the video—as well as everything else there—slows down equally. The characters’ movements, and even their rate of thinking, slow down exactly in line with everything else. How then would these characters inside the video notice any difference in the speed of the video itself? They would, in fact, not notice any change at all, simply because they cannot escape the system to view it from the outside.

Why Relativity Exists - Kenneth Chan

http://kenneth-chan.com/physics/why-relativity-exists/

The constancy of the speed of light is due to a limitation in man’s perceptual ability.

We have arbitrarily defined time as the rate of electromagnetic transmission in our perceived space. (Light is a form of electromagnetic transmission.) There is, therefore, actually a limitation in our ability to measure the speed of electromagnetic transmission itself, including the speed of light.

The theory of nonhuman consciousness

Cleve Backster (1924 – 2013)

In the early morning hours of Feb. 2, 1966. Backster had been up all night in his office on West 46th Street and had just poured himself a cup of coffee when he noticed a houseplant, a Dracaena fragrans his secretary bought to brighten the office. 

Backster wanted to induce a similar anxiety in the plant, so he decided to set one of its leaves on fire. But before he could even get a match, the polygraph registered an intense reaction on the part of the Dracaena. To Backster, the implication was as indisputable as it was unbelievable. Not only had the plant demonstrated fear — it had also read his mind.

He publicized his findings, the so-called Backster effect became a pop-culture hit. 

Not only had the plant demonstrated fear — it had also read his mind.

Scientists, however, were less convinced. No one could reproduce Backster’s results — a problem Backster explained away with a variety of post-hoc qualifiers. (A lettuce leaf didn’t respond to harmful stimuli? It probably shut down to protect itself.) 

 Backster went on experimenting until the end, expanding his theory of nonhuman consciousness to encompass chicken eggs and even sperm, forever finding more proof of what he called the “fundamental attunement between living things.” He never married, preferring the company of his Siamese cats, and he never again performed experiments that burned plants. He once said. “I have a truly wonderful ally: Mother Nature.”

The very foundation of all modern physics—both relativity and quantum theory—point to the fact that our scientific data are actually observer dependent. Without the observer, much of quantum physics and relativity would not even make sense (see “A Direct Experiential Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics”). This strongly suggests that our scientific theories are actually theories of how we experience the universe, as opposed to being theories of a universe that is independent of us as observers.

The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness

On this day of July 7, 2012, a prominent international group of cognitive neuroscientists gathered at The University of Cambridge to reassess the neurobiological substrates of conscious experience and related behaviors in human and non-human animals. While comparative research on this topic is naturally hampered by the inability of non-human animals, and often humans, to clearly and readily communicate about their internal states, the following observations can be stated: "Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”

巴克斯特的《原始感應》，生物的訊息傳遞

巴克斯特的《原始感應》，生物的訊息傳遞

自古以來中國人即相信「萬物有靈」、「天人合一」。巴克斯特 的研究 得出一个十分鲜明的结论——所有的生物都和它周围的环境有紧密的联系。現在微觀粒子之間存在著一種相互關聯的「量子糾纏」關係被證實，成為近幾十年來科學最重要的發現之一，並對哲學界、科學界和宗教界產生深遠影響，也對西方科學的主流世界觀產生重大衝擊。

巴克斯特和他的《原始感應》

巴克斯特，全名克里夫·巴克斯特(Cleve Backster1924 – 2013 ),他曾经是美国中情局资历十分深厚的测谎专家，1966年2月，在无意中发现“巴克斯特效应”时，巴克斯特已经在人类心理测谎领域有将近18年的专业研究。但由他名字命名的“巴克斯特效应”却饱受争议。

巴克斯特於1966年2月2日所记录的13分55秒图表，看到植物能读出他的想法！巴克斯特发现，一旦你开始种花养草，它们似乎会追踪你的想法和感觉。

大自然在进行一场永恒的"对话"

巴克斯特还把乳酸菌、鸡蛋、甚至活的人体细胞也连在测谎仪上，也得到了惊人的结果。结果具有一致性，即所有的生物都和它周围的环境有紧密的联系。当任何压力、痛苦或死亡发生时，在周围的所有生命形式都会立即产生令人震惊的反应，好像它们都能够感受到那份痛苦。

更令人印象深刻的是：一个连在测谎仪上的鸡蛋，每当它邻近的鸡蛋被一个一个地丢进热水中，它便表现得很"惊恐"。这些鸡蛋被放在镀铅的盒子里，这种盒子可以屏蔽电磁场。这意味着这个现象和无线电波、微波或其他频率的电磁波的传播没有关系。

我最喜欢的一个巴克斯特实验案例是美国航空航天局（NASA）宇航员布莱恩·奥列里博士(Brian O'Leary)参与的一次实验。奥列里博士曾受聘于康奈尔大学、加州理工学院、加州大学以及普林斯顿大学。有一天，奥列里博士把自己的细胞独自留在实验室，最终的实验结果使他们得到了强有力的证据。 奥列里博士离开实验室去往圣迭戈机场，飞到了三百英里外的亚利桑那州凤凰城，并与巴克斯特互相校准时间，与此同时，奥列里博士的细胞则在实验室里被监控着。

巴克斯特确实还告诉我，如果对食物"祈祷"，向它们发送积极的、爱的意识，它们似乎愿意接受食物链法则，为你的生存而"牺牲"，并且不会在记录图上出现"恐惧的"强烈反应。在许多文化传统中都会鼓励人们去感谢食物。现在通过巴克斯特的研究，我们可以看到饭前祷告这个看似不重要的行为，已经被赋予了科学的观点。

巴克斯特效应 | 生死书

http://www.fosss.org/article/BaKeSiTe/Index.html

Consciousness, Dualism, And Are We Alone in the Universe?

Dear All

Humans continue to explore the understanding of the Universe with more sophisticated explanations than Physical Science. In Philosophy of mind , Dualism  is the central schools of thought on the mind–body problem,   property dualists maintain that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be reduced to the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance. And that we can  awake into higher levels of consciousness, and  have a deeper sense of Life.

It is said that Modern consciousness researchconducted in the last five decades has cast doubt hat Consciousness is inseparable to the body and it is possible that the brain mediates consciousness, but does not actually generate it. 

At this stage, Opinions are divided as to where in biological evolutionconsciousness emerged and about whether or not consciousness has any survival value.  Critics of the SAP ( the strong anthropic principle) claim that it is neither testable nor falsifiable, and thus is not a scientific statement but rather a philosophical one. 

And  the 11-page typed draft by Winston Churchill has now be promoted to ask  "Are We Alone in the Universe ? " That We Are NOT Alone in the Universe,  and there are intelligent observers in the Universe.  These visitors use the technologies of consciousness, they use toroids, they use co-rotating magnetic disks for their propulsion systems, that seems to be a common denominator of the UFO 

phenomenon” (source) – Dr. Brian O’Leary, Former NASA Astronaut and Princeton Physics Professor

Bill

The Evidence For Non-Local Consciousness: Beyond the Brain

The topic of personal identity and the nature of the “self” has been investigated by philosophers, theologians, mystics, scientists, and psychologists throughout human history and centers on one of life’s biggest questions: Who Am I? one can obtain authentic self-knowledge and conduct effective self-research.

There are new insights regarding the nature of non-local consciousness and its relationship to matter. According to Western neuroscience, consciousness is an epiphenomenon of matter, a by-product of the complex neurophysiological processes in the brain and thus an intrinsic and inseparable part of the body. Modern consciousness research conducted in the last five decades has made this hypothesis highly questionable.

Very few people, including most scientists, realize that we have absolutely no proof that consciousness is actually produced in the brain and by the brain. There is no doubt that there exists vast clinical and experimental evidence showing significant interconnections and correlations between the anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the brain, on the one hand, and states of consciousness, on the other. However, it represents a major logical jump to infer from the available data that these correlations represent a proof that the brain is actually the source of consciousness. It is now considered  that the data largely points to the fact that consciousness is non-local. Such a deduction would be tantamount to the conclusion that the TV program is generated in the TV set, because there is a close correlation between functioning or malfunctioning of its components and the quality of the sound and picture.

It should be obvious from this example that the close connection between cerebral activity and consciousness does not exclude the possibility that the brain mediates consciousness, but does not actually generate it. 

The research of holotropic states has amassed ample evidence for this alternative—that consciousness is non local to the body.

Lack of Evidence for Brain-Based Theories

There exist no scientific theories explaining how consciousness is generated by material processes, nor does anybody have even a remote idea how something like that could possibly happen. The gap between consciousness and matter is so formidable that it is impossible to imagine how it could be bridged. In spite of the lack of convincing evidence that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of the brain or matter, this basic metaphysical assumption remains one of the leading myths of Western materialistic science. While there exists no scientific proof for the fact that the brain generates consciousness, there are numerous observations indicating that consciousness can under certain circumstances function independently of the brain and of the world of matter. This philosophy is referred to as non-local consciousness.

The Evidence For Non-Local Consciousness: Beyond the Brain

http://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/non-local-consciousness-and-the-brain/

Stan Grof, M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist with more than fifty years experience researching the healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. His groundbreaking theories influenced the integration of Western science with his brilliant mapping of the transpersonal dimension. Find him at stanislavgrof.com.

You Presume You AreThe Body

Your problems and your questions only arise because you forget Consciousness. 

You presume you are the body—but, in reality, you are only witnessing the body. 

You are aware of the body as something in Consciousness. 

You do not experience the body itself as a "thing" in and of itself. 

You are conscious of the body.

Therefore, Consciousness Itself is first—not the body.

There are multiple reasons why the extraterrestrial question continues to gain popularity. People are starting to ask questions about the world around them, utilizing critical thinking and investigative skills. After thoroughly looking into this topic, it seems inevitable that you will arrive at these conclusions: We are not alone, and we are being visited.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/06/20/5-reasons-why-everybody-knows-we-are-not-alone-in-the-universe/

 Winston Churchill revealed that he was open to the possibility of life on other planets.

In 1939, the year World War Two broke out, Churchill penned a popular science article in which he mused about the likelihood of extra-terrestrial life.

The 11-page typed draft, probably intended for a newspaper, was updated in the 1950s but never published.  In the 1980s, the essay was passed to a US museum, where it sat until its rediscovery last year,  2016.

As Einstein said: "What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world." 

Copernican Principle  states that humans (the Earth, or the Solar system) are not privileged observers of the universe.  The anthropic principle is a philosophical consideration that observations of the Universemust be compatible with the conscious and sapient lifethat observes it. 

 The strong anthropic principle (SAP) as explained by John D. Barrow and Frank Tipler states that  the universe is in some sense compelled to eventually have conscious and sapient life emerge within it. Some critics of the SAP argue in favor of a weak anthropic principle (WAP) similar to the one defined by Brandon Carter, which states that the universe's ostensible fine tuning is the result of selection bias: i.e., only in a universe capable of eventually supporting life will there be living beings capable of observing and reflecting upon fine tuning. Further Carter disagreed with using the Copernican principle to justify the Perfect Cosmological Principle, which states that all large regions and times in the universe must be statistically identical. The latter principle underlay the steady-state theory, which had recently been falsified by the 1965 discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. This discovery was unequivocal evidence that the universe has changed radically over time (for example, via the Big Bang).  

Michael Frayn describes a form of the Strong Anthropic Principle in his 2006 book The Human Touch, which explores what he characterises as "the central oddity of the Universe":  It's this simple paradox. The Universe is very old and very large. Humankind, by comparison, is only a tiny disturbance in one small corner of it - and a very recent one. Yet the Universe is only very large and very old because we are here to say it is... And yet, of course, we all know perfectly well that it is what it is whether we are here or not.  Barrow and Tipler propose the final anthropic principle (FAP): "Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the universe, and, once it comes into existence, it will never die out."   In his review of Barrow and Tipler, Martin Gardner ridiculed the FAP by quoting the last two sentences of their book as defining a Completely Ridiculous Anthropic Principle (CRAP):

"At the instant the Omega Point is reached, life will have gained control of all matter and forces not only in a single universe, but in all universes whose existence is logically possible; life will have spread into all spatial regions in all universes which could logically exist, and will have stored an infinite amount of information, including all bits of knowledge which it is logically possible to know. And this is the end.^"

The anthropic idea that fundamental parameters are selected from a multitude of different possibilities (each actual in some universe or other) contrasts with the traditional hope of physicists for a theory of everythinghaving no free parameters. 

In 2002, proponents of the leading candidate for a "theory of everything", string theory, proclaimed "the end of the anthropic principle"^[33] since there would be no free parameters to select. Ironically, string theory now seems to offer no hope of predictingfundamental parameters, and now some who advocate it invoke the anthropic principle as well.

Anthropic principle - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

consciousness

For many decades, consciousness as a research topic was avoided by the majority of mainstream scientists, because of a general feeling that a phenomenon defined in subjective terms could not properly be studied using objective experimental methods.  Starting in the 1980s, an expanding community of neuroscientists and psychologists have associated themselves with a field called Consciousness Studies, giving rise to a stream of experimental work  along with regular conferences.

To most philosophers, the word "consciousness" connotes the relationship between the mind and the world. To writers on spiritual or religious topics, it frequently connotes the relationship between the mind and God, or the relationship between the mind and deeper truths that are thought to be more fundamental than the physical world. Krishna consciousness, for example, is a term used to mean an intimate linkage between the mind of a worshipper and the god Krishna.  Ken Wilber's book The Spectrum of Consciousness, a comparison of western and eastern ways of thinking about the mind. Wilber described consciousness as a spectrum with ordinary awareness at one end, and more profound types of awareness at higher levels.

Opinions are divided as to where in biological evolutionconsciousness emerged and about whether or not consciousness has any survival value.  Donald Griffin suggests in his book Animal Minds a gradual evolution of consciousness.  William James  in his essay Are We Automata? by stated an evolutionary argument for mind-brain interaction implying that if the preservation and development of consciousness in the biological evolution is a result of natural selection, it is plausible that consciousness has not only been influenced by neural processes, but has had a survival value itself; and it could only have had this if it had been efficacious

Descartes proposed that consciousness resides within an immaterial domain he called res cogitans (the realm of thought), in contrast to the domain of material things, which he called res extensa (the realm of extension). Since the dawn of Newtonian science with its vision of simple mechanical principles governing the entire universe, some philosophers have been tempted by the idea that consciousness could be explained in purely physical terms.  The most influential modern physical theories of consciousness are based on psychology and neuroscience. Theories proposed by neuroscientists  and by philosophers such as  seek to explain consciousness in terms of neural events occurring within the brain. At the same time, computer scientists working in the field of artificial intelligencehave pursued the goal of creating digital computer programs that can simulate or embody consciousness.

A few theoretical physicists have argued that classical physics is intrinsically incapable of explaining the holistic aspects of consciousness, but that quantum theory may provide the missing ingredients. Several theorists have therefore proposed quantum mind(QM) theories of consciousness. Some of these QM theories offer descriptions of phenomenal consciousness, as well as QM interpretations of access consciousness. None of the quantum mechanical theories has been confirmed by experiment. 

Problem of other minds

If consciousness is subjective and not visible from the outside, why do the vast majority of people believe that other people are conscious, but rocks and trees are not? This is called the problem of other minds. It is particularly acute for people who believe in the possibility of philosophical zombies, that is, people who think it is possible in principle to have an entity that is physically indistinguishable from a human being and behaves like a human being in every way but nevertheless lacks consciousness. 

Animal consciousness

The topic of animal consciousness is beset by a number of difficulties. It poses the problem of other minds in an especially severe form, because non-human animals, lacking the ability to express human language, cannot tell us about their experiences. Some people have a strong intuition that some animals, such as cats and dogs, are conscious, while others, such as insects, are not; but the sources of this intuition are not obvious, and are often based on personal interactions with pets and other animals they have observed

Philosophers who consider subjective experience the essence of consciousness also generally believe, as a correlate, that the existence and nature of animal consciousness can never rigorously be known.  Several psychologists and ethologists have argued for the existence of animal consciousness by describing a range of behaviors that appear to show animals holding beliefs about things they cannot directly perceive. 

States of consciousness

There are a variety of circumstances that can change the relationship between the mind and the world in less drastic ways, producing what are known as altered states of consciousness. 

Phenomenology

Phenomenology is a method of inquiry that attempts to examine the structure of consciousness in its own right, putting aside problems regarding the relationship of consciousness to the physical world.  Edmund Husserl  original concept gave rise to two distinct lines of inquiry, in philosophy and psychology.  In psychology, phenomenology largely has meant attempting to investigate consciousness using the method of introspection, which means looking into one's own mind and reporting what one observes. 

In neuroscience, a great deal of effort has gone into investigating how the perceived world of conscious awareness is constructed inside the brain. The process is generally thought to involve two primary mechanisms: (1) hierarchical processing of sensory inputs, and (2) memory. Signals arising from sensory organs are transmitted to the brain and then processed in a series of stages, which extract multiple types of information from the raw input. In the visual system, for example, sensory signals from the eyes are transmitted to the thalamusand then to the primary visual cortex; inside the cerebral cortex they are sent to areas that extract features such as three-dimensional structure, shape, color, and motion.  Gerald Edelmanexpressed this point vividly by titling one of his books about consciousness The Remembered Present. 

Consciousness - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness

Dualism (philosophy of mind)

One argument against Dualism is with regard to causal interaction. If consciousness (the mind) can exist independently of physical reality (the brain), one must explain how physical memories are created concerning consciousness. Dualism must therefore explain how consciousness affects physical reality. One of the main objections to dualistic interactionism is lack of explanation of how the material and immaterial are able to interact. Varieties of dualism according to which an immaterial mind causally affects the material body and vice versa have come under strenuous attack from different quarters, especially in the 20th century. Critics of dualism have often asked how something totally immaterial can affect something totally material—this is the basic problem of causal interaction.

Many physicistsand consciousness researchers have argued that any action of a nonphysical mind on the brain would entail the violation of physical laws, such as the conservation of energy.

Best Regards

Bill

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About Muslim today

As of 2015, Islam has 1.7 billion adherents, making up over 23.4% of the world population.

I am unfamiliar with the Muslim practices, although I agree that fasting would be helpful to the body. Now I start a desk study and try to learn some of the reality of Muslims.

About terrorism and ISIS which was sadly created by the Iraq and other  wars, I think millions of ordinary Muslim people would be in a completely different place and context and have zero connection with terrorism, like Christians countered the Lord’s Resistance Army , or extremists like Dylann Roof, Anders Breivik, and Timothy McVeigh in US, or the Port Arthur massacre of 1996 in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded in Australia. How can  a few hundred radicals represent 1.7 billion Muslims ?

It seems that in Islam, like Christians, there are many different messages and muslims take them to mean different things. Religious arguments are said to be common with each party quoting his or her own sura with commentary by different imams supporting one side or another.

How should we humans communicate with each other today ?

Bill

Muslims which are united in their belief in God and the Prophet Muhammad. It is said that they have widely differing views about many other aspects of their faith, including how important religion is to their lives, who counts as a Muslim and what practices are acceptable, according to a worldwide survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been at odds for almost the entirety of Islam's history,  the sectarian divide in the Muslim world is almost as old as the religion of Islam itself. The split occurred after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the early 7th century. Abu Bakr ,a companion of Muhammad , His followers are now known as Sunni Muslims. The prophet’s son-in-law and cousin, Ali, should take on that leadership role while supporters of Ali are known as Shiite Muslims. It is said that the Shia were a movement - literally "Shiat Ali" or the "Party of Ali". They claimed that Ali was the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad as leader (imam) of the Muslim community following his death in 632.

Sunnis argue that the prophet chose Abu Bakr to lead prayers, however, Shiites claim that Muhammad, after his last pilgrimage stood before his companions and named Ali as the “spiritual guide and master of all believers,” , the BBC reports.

The great majority of the world's more than 1.5 billion Muslims are Sunnis - estimates suggest the figure is somewhere between 85% and 90%. In the Middle East, Sunnis make up 90% or more of the populations of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

 Most Shiite Muslims (between 68 percent to 80 percent, as of 2009) live in just four countries: Iran, India, Iraq and Pakistan. Shiite Muslims make up about 90 percent of the population of Iran. About one-fifth of the world’s Muslims live in a country where Islam is not the major religion.
Shia Muslims are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and, according to some estimates, Yemen. There are also large Shia communities in Afghanistan, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
BBC reported that in countries which have been governed by Sunnis, Shia tend to make up the poorest sections of society. They often see themselves as victims of discrimination and oppression. Sunni extremists frequently denounce Shia as heretics who should be killed.
Shiite Muslims often group those into three daily prayers and are also identifiable by the small tablet of clay (often from Karbala, the site of Hussein's death) used during prayer, which they rest their forehead on during prostration.
There are three main branches of Shia Islam today - the Zaidis, Ismailis and Ithna Asharis (Twelvers or Imamis).

In Syria, Iranian troops, Hezbollah fighters and Iranian-backed Shia militiamen have been helping the Shia-led government battle the Sunni-dominated opposition. Sunni jihadist groups, including Islamic State (IS), have meanwhile been targeting Shia and their places of worship in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.


Sunnis and Shia: Islam's ancient schism - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-16047709

Throughout history Muslim cultures have been diverse ethically, linguistically and regionally. Other Muslim cultures have also emerged in countries throughout the world where Muslims constitute the minority segments of the population.

Indonesia declared independence in 1945, it became the second largest Muslim-majority nation in the world; following the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, it emerged as the most populous Muslim country in the world. Today about 88% of Indonesia's 235 million people is Muslim. Indonesia is constitutionally a secular state (but the government officially recognises only six formal religions), with Islam being the dominant religion in the country.  Eventually, "Indonesia adopted a civil code instead of an Islamic one". In the New Order years (Suharto's presidency), there was an intensification of religious belief amongst Muslims. Under the Suharto regime, all Islamic parties were forced to unite under one government-supervised Islamic party, the Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (Party for Unity and Development or PPP).[7] With Suharto's resignation in 1998, "the structure that repressed religion and society collapsed".
Muslim Indonesians in urban areas are uncomfortable to see women wearing burqa/niqab. When Soekarno, Hatta, and other founding fathers of Indonesia were trying to decide the future of the country in mid-1940s, realized that there were native Christians and Hindus in Indonesia too, and they did not want an Indonesia to be a country where non-Muslims are perceived as second-class citizens. It seems that  Muslim Indonesians are also among the most tolerant Muslims in terms of accepting religious pluralism, with many not identify with, nor sympathize with the Sharia law.
Just on March 24, 2017, Indonesian police fired tear gas to disperse hard-line Muslims protesting against the construction of a Catholic church in a satellite city of the capital Jakarta.
Several hundred protesters from a group called Forum for Bekasi Muslim Friendship demonstrated in front of the Santa Clara church in Kaliabang.

Islam and violence
Mainstream Islamic law stipulates detailed regulations for the use of violence, including the use of violence within the family or household, the use of corporal or capital punishment, as well as how, when and against whom to wage war.

Globalization
Muslims across the 39 countries and territories surveyed differ significantly in their levels of religious commitment, openness to multiple interpretations of their faith, and acceptance of various sects and movements.
Outside of the Middle East and North Africa, the distinction between Sunni and Shia appears to be of lesser consequence. In many of the countries surveyed in Central Asia, for instance, most Muslims do not identify with either branch of Islam, saying instead that they are “just a Muslim.” A similar pattern prevails in Southern and Eastern Europe, where pluralities or majorities in all countries identify as “just a Muslim.” In some of these countries, decades of communist rule may have made sectarian distinctions unfamiliar. But identification as “just a Muslim” is also prevalent in many countries without a communist legacy. For example, in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, 26% of Muslims describe themselves as Sunnis, compared with 56% who say they are “just a Muslim” and 13% who do not give a definite response.
The World’s Muslims: Unity and Diversity | Pew Research Center
http://www.pewforum.org/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-executive-summary/

Muslims and ISIS
A few hundred radicals can't represent 1.6 billion Muslims.
Some especially in western context , said the Muslims dissociate themselves from ISIS. They therefore argue that many of the practices of ISIS are completely un-Islamic, even anti-Islamic and cannot be justified by the legal traditions that have been developed over many centuries.
A  Muslim leader  in Cambridge said  ‘They’re just a bunch of Marxists.’ And  Ben Macintyre wrote  ‘ISIS owes more to the Kremlin than the Koran,’ and argued that ‘Stalin is the godfather of Islamic State.’
 However, It would be more accurate to say that ISIS has a lot to do with Islam, but is an extreme expression of one particular kind of Islamism. The rank and file of ISIS fighters from all over the world have joined the movement for a whole variety of motives—related to idealism and the search for identity, meaning and adventure—and probably have minimal understanding of Islam. But the leadership says so clearly that it is trying to imitate some of the practices of the first generation of Muslims during and immediately after the life of the Prophet. And in interpreting the Qur’an, they use the principle of abrogation, which enables them to say that later verses calling Muslims to wage war on unbelievers abrogate, or cancel out, earlier verses which call for patient endurance of opposition, as in a document by Abu Bakr Naji that comes out of ISIS called ‘The Management of Savagery’.  I think only other Muslims may explain why they believe ISIS is completely wrong in its interpretation and application of Islamic sources.

At the other extreme there are many Christians—who believe that ISIS is much nearer to the spirit and practice of early Islam than moderate Muslims of today. They point to particular verses in the Qur’an (e.g. about beheading, crucifixion and slavery) and passages in Hadith literature, the biographies of Muhammad and legal texts to show the connections between the brutalities of ISIS and early Islamic texts.
 Tim Winter of Cambridge said that Islamist interpretations generally ignore the consensus in the Islamic legal tradition which developed over many centuries and insist on going directly back to the Qur’an and the example of the Prophet. Winter believes that the legal traditions of the four main theological schools (the madhhabs) are like a telescope that enables us to see the stars clearly which has been ignored by the Islamists.

ISIS: Un-Islamic or True Islam? | Zwemer
http://www.zwemercenter.com/isis-un-islamic-or-true-islam/#

The evidence also appears to debunk repeated claims by former PM Tony Blair that IS began in the Syrian civil war and not Iraq, positioning the brutal group’s rise clearly within Iraq’s borders.
The Chilcot findings were backed up by serving Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond. He told The Foreign Affairs Committee “many of the problems we see in Iraq today stem from that disastrous decision to dismantle the Iraqi army and embark on a program of de-Baathification.”
The documents show that by 2006 –  UK intelligence chiefs were increasingly concerned about the rise of Sunni jihadist resistance to the Western-backed regime of Shia President Nouri Al-Maliki.
A March 2007 JIC report" AQ-I will try to expand its sectarian campaign wherever it can, declared the establishment of the notional ‘Islamic State of Iraq’ (including Kirkuk).”

Chilcot: Intelligence reports confirm Iraq war created ISIS
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.rt.com/document/577e0f88c3618845228b457d/amp


There, they are one part of a horrendously complicated regional conflict involving multiple countries, ethnicities, and religious affiliations.
You do know there are major conflicts within Islam, right? Iran is a major Shia power, which makes it just as much an enemy and target for ISIL, who are Sunni extremists, as you and me. More so, in fact, because Iran is a major player in the fight. We may not trust their motives and their influence in Iraq, and they may only be doing just enough to let ISIL remain a credible threat because it helps legitimize Bashar’s actions in Syria, but you asked what Muslims are doing to counter ISIL. Well, Iran is Muslim, and they’re fighting ISIL.

To say isis are muslim is just like saying that he lords resistance army is christian or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun was jewish.

To liken christianity to islam, you could read this :
" 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. -mark 13:7,8 "
and conclude that christianity.

But  you could read this and come to the opposite conclusion-
" 3Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; 4for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments - corinthians 10:3,4"

islam is the same way, there are many different messages and muslims take them to mean different things. among religious muslims, religious arguments are common with each party quoting his or her own sura with commentary by different imams supporting one side or another.

 https://www.quora.com/Is-ISIS-Muslim

介绍八段錦

介绍八段錦

不觉間，年近六旬八了。
半年前发现有腰、颈椎退化，L4-L5初步移位。宝芝兄介绍做八段錦。

八段錦是一種優秀的中國傳統保健氣功，網上很多介绍。它動作較簡單易行，功效顯著。 通過練習可以達到拉伸經筋、調理內臟、運動血脈的作用，進而達到延年益壽的效果。

当然是需要認真学习，多做（平均每天活動筋骨一小時以上）才有效的。每個動作做三組練習。 我和太太选用了癌症基金會 的视频來练习，
八段錦入門 - 完整練習 (12分鐘) - YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bewk1ML6WIE


練八段錦對脊椎，腰椎都很有幫助。八段錦的上、下、左、右、前、後與水平面練習原則，利用等張與等長運動的肌肉訓練，進行脊椎保健，強化與伸展肌肉，椎間韌帶與軟組織能對稱復位，減緩脊椎的歪斜帶來的疼痛與不適。


我覺得任何功夫都有好处，都有門派及变化。练习最好有師傅，但最重要是多学多做。還是实踐最重要。練功當然有基本要求，中正圓，提肛收尾膂，沉肩坐馬等等。

八段錦之站式：
a. 預備式之一自然站直，全身放鬆。
b. 預備式之二 :左腳開步，兩腳分開與肩同寬，微微屈膝，雙掌抱於腹前（好像自己正抱著一個大汽球於腹前），含胸拔背，呼吸自然（可想像自己正吸納天地林木之正氣），口齒輕閉，臉露微笑，心神寧靜，意守丹田（收納天地正氣於小腹丹田處).                                                
1. 雙手托天理三焦lZ自然站立，全身放鬆，兩腳仍是兩腿微屈，與肩同寬。
*兩手插掌，掌心向上，雙手姆指接連，兩腿緩緩伸直，雙掌從腹前至胸前如「托天」狀慢慢向上托起（吸氣），兩掌在臉前一翻，繼續上托，肘關節完全伸直，全身伸直，直至托到不能再高時，便閉氣停頓，維持此舒展動作數秒——做到「力從腳跟起，貫到泥丸宮」（泥丸宮即頂門，嬰兒頭骨未合處）。
*要注意托天期間臉部不應上仰，而是應眼望前方，口齒輕閉，舌抵上顎。[2]
*然後回復自然呼吸，雙手與身體重心緩緩下降，手臂自然向兩邊鬆垂下來，兩腿回復微屈狀，全身放鬆。
*此為八段錦第一式，此式共做八次，完成後稍歇一會，再做下一式。

2. 左右開弓似射鵰.                             含胸拔背，馬步站立做到「三平」。「三平」，即小腿與地面垂直，大腿與小腿連成直角，身背又與大腿垂直，做到「三平」很難，年老與體虛的人，可根據自己的身體條件，適當站立即可，不可強求。
    * 站好後，左手虎口張開，食指上指，其它四指如握弓背狀，右手如拉弓弦，從胸前用暗勁左右拉開。左手向左一直伸展，同時目視左前方，如欲射大雕狀。左手完全伸展後，左右手依舊用暗勁一個伸，一個拉，左手向左再頂八次，然後自然鬆開、收回，同時全身放鬆，鬆一口氣。稍歇一會兒後，再換向右方做一遍，也頂八次。如此左右各做八遍。
    * 注意向左右用暗勁頂時，伸直的手臂不能彎曲或來回收縮，始終用的是暗勁，從外表上看不出來。

3。調理脾胃雙臂舉
    * 全身放鬆，自然站立，兩腳分開與肩同寬。兩手手指自然分開，相向，從腹前開始，右手掌心向上，向上慢慢托舉；左手掌心向下，向下慢慢按壓。右手托到頭一側時，掌心自然向外翻轉，逐漸上舉如「托天」狀，手臂一直伸到不能再伸時，左手也下壓，中指尖自然指向前方，壓到不能再壓時，腰帶動上半身向左轉，轉到不能再轉時，兩手用暗勁一個向上舉，一個向下壓，同時兩眼用力瞧右腳跟。這樣舉、壓、瞧，一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八，連續做八次後，兩手鬆回，上半身也轉正，同時全身鬆一口氣。稍歇一會兒，再換過左手舉，右手壓。如此反覆左右側各做八遍。
    * 傳統上這兩段分開來做。我多年的實踐，證明這兩段合起來做，效果更好。做這兩段動作時，兩腿始終是站直的，不能稍打彎曲。腰也不能來回扭動，而是始終朝一個方向轉。
4五勞七傷向後瞧
    * 自然站立，雙腳與肩同寬，雙手自然下垂，寧神調息，氣沉丹田。先做左手向上。兩手一前­一後提起，左手掌心向上至胸前；右手往後，手背貼向背脊凹位(命門穴)，由兩手提起時­開始要一直吸氣，左手至胸前反轉再向上，盡量伸直掌心向天，指尖向右，腰身同時向右轉­，不要用腰胯遷就，盡量用頭向後180度望，吸氣至滿，呼氣還原原位，循環做八次，再­轉右手上舉身向右左轉，再做八次完成。
    * 功用：可以消除疲勞，健腦安神，防治肩頸酸痛。
5搖頭擺尾去心火
    * 全身放鬆站立，兩腳分開，比肩略寬。以腰帶動上半身，如太極拳之「摟膝拗步」向右轉，同時右手向右劃，左手向右前方推，右腳、左腳以腳跟為圓心，自然外擺、內扣，兩腿自然曲成弓步。左手推到不能再推時，右手自然向下壓在體一側。接着左手再用暗勁向前推八次。再用太極拳之「摟膝拗步」法，左手從體前向左側劃，右手向左前方推，以腰帶動上半身亦向左側轉來，注意此時頭即上半身應儘量轉向左側，左腳、右腳自然外擺、內扣，這才是真正的「搖頭擺尾」。右手推到不能再推時，用暗勁向前再推八次。如此左右反覆，各做八次。
    * 有的傳授教人做這一節時，搖搖頭，擺擺屁股就完了，這不能達到真正「去心火」的目的。收功後，全身鬆一口氣，休息片刻，再進行下一個動作。
6兩手攀足固腎腰
    * 全身自然站立，放鬆；兩腳分開與肩同寬。兩手用暗勁向後、向上、向前、向下連續慢慢劃弧，指尖伸向足前；
    * 手臂向下劃弧時，上半身帶同腰也一齊下劃。手伸到不能再伸時，依勢用暗勁向足前下壓八次，然後全身鬆開，恢復原站位，同時鬆一口氣，稍休息一會兒，再做下一遍動作。共做八遍。
    * 這一段運動中，兩腿始終是直的，不能打彎；兩臂也不能彎曲。有的人身子缺乏運動，比較僵硬，開始「攀」不到足，但鍛煉久了循序漸進，也可漸漸「攀」到足。
    * 有的人身子軟活，手能很容易地「攀」到足，此時可用兩手壓足前的地面，或手臂稍曲，以兩肘「攀足」，使兩腿與腰部有繃緊的感覺，即可達到鍛煉的效果。
    * 這一段還有兩個要領必須掌握，即「兩手攀足」時，頭頸必須完全放鬆，腦袋如垂瓜一般，兩手臂也要完全放鬆。下壓「攀足」時，不能上下屈伸，而是用暗勁依次向下壓。
    * 有人認為，這樣依法運動，不但能「固腎腰」，還能有效預防「腦猝中」，即腦血栓一類的疾病，因為這一套運動可使腦血管保持通暢，對健身強體大有益處。
    * 但老年人做這套運動時，儘可能慢一點，以身體感覺舒暢為度，慢慢達到要求的標準。也可在起床前，兩手指肚（不可用指甲）緊貼頭皮，從前到後梳頭50次，使血液通暢，再下床做這套運動，則更覺適宜了。
7攢拳怒目增氣力
    * 馬步站立，含胸拔背，上身、大、小腿做到「三平」；兩手如卷餅式握拳，並以內勁緊貼腰間，拳心向上；兩目怒視前方；用暗勁將右拳慢慢衝出，拳心自然翻轉向下。
    * 衝到不能再沖時，手臂已直，依勢用暗勁再向前沖八次。然後全身鬆開站立，自然鬆一口氣。稍休息一會兒後，換為左手沖拳。如此左右各做八遍。
    * 如卷餅式握拳，也是暗勁，這樣拳才能攢得緊。不但「攢拳」要「怒目」，「兩手托天」、「左右開弓」、「單手舉」、「往後瞧」以及後面要解說的「搖頭擺尾」、「起踮」等，也要「怒目」。「怒目」，能提起全身精神，使一身精、氣、神貫足，也鍛煉了眼睛視力。戲劇大師如梅蘭芳他們的眼神，也都是經過了鍛煉的。「怒目」二字，不可忽視。
8背後七顛百病消
    * 全身放鬆站立，兩腳自然分開，與肩同寬。身體緩緩上引，腳跟自然離地，引到不能再引時，用兩腳尖支撐全身站立，直到不能支持時，腳跟緩緩着地，隨即鬆一口氣，如此共做八遍。
    * 此段過去作「背後七顛百病消」，用腳跟提起頓地，連做七次。這個方法不好，腳跟頓地容易使腦部受到震盪。我將「七顛」改為「起踮」，並改了運動的方式，如此才有益於健康。[原
https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-hant/八段锦

參加了苗圃的''行路上廣州''

各位：

經思颖兄推介，我倆剛參加了苗圃每年一度的初三至初七的''行路上廣州''活动，31/1 to 3/2,  我每天步行 约25, 13, 22，12 km. 我倆从廣東開平南樓開步, 經赤崁鎮，新會玉湖，中山，顺德大牌樓 ，西滘文化公園，顺峰山五行橋，至南海禪城。
它还有很多其他活动，如挑戰十二小時，助學長征，茶馬古道助學，大家可以一起参加。
我们的年纪大了，更需要活动筋骨。我大概比較幸運，在悉尼有一班朋友們經常带领運動。汝川兄經常组织行山及騎單車，继沛兄推动楊家太極亦十多年了。宝芝兄又推介八段錦。苗圃又是运动，又是行善；苗圃是一个十分嚴謹，和認真的团队。

據悉：苗圃行動於 1992 年在香港註冊成立，是以促進中國教育為宗旨，透過一系列實際行動，籌募所得的善款百分百用於助學用途，每年均舉辦「挑戰12小時」、「行路上廣州」、「助學長征」、「茶馬古道助學行」、「童樂行」及「單車助學行」等大型籌款活動，積極推廣助學訊息。自成立至今，苗圃在內地已援建1,300所學校和師生宿舍，資助逾29.9萬人次的中小學生及1,292名大學生，培訓超過2.97萬名教師，營運1所女子高中及2所兒童福利院，資助孤兒學校1所及籌備新設兒童福利院1所，總資助金額逾4億7仟萬人民幣。http://www.sowers.org.hk/about.php

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活動消息 - 苗圃茶馬古道助學行2017
http://teahorse.sowers.org.hk/2017/