Septemper 15, 2011: "Bottom-Up or Top-Down: How Did WE Get Here?"

 
   Our thinker, Gary S. presented the first half of this article today. This writing is an original demonstration of very deep thinking. Gary has read several books which are mentioned in the article and very concisely has formulated some questions and then theories about our cosmology, our universe, our origins, and through these thought provoking ideas, asks us to question some ideas that most people accept without question. He contrasts a "Bottom-Up" theory of everything which basically says that everything comes from nothing  -- eg. Big Bang theory versus a "Top-Down" theory which says that something dictates a theory of everything -- something determines what we are and what our universe is. What is that determinism? Gary begins us thinking that this is a world of information and maybe "information" is the determining factor.

     The books he has read and used to formulate his ideas are: "The Ego Tunnel" by Thomas Metzinger; "Brain Trust" by Patricia Churchland; "Information and the Nature of Reality" by Paul Davies and Niels Henrik Gregerson; "the Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance Epi-Genetics" by Richard C. Francis; and "Mindful Universe" by Henry P. Stapp.

     If you missed today, you have another chance. Gary is presenting the second half of this article at a later date.

     Read on below to access Gary's entire article.

September 8, 2011: Sky presented Poetry of Rumi and the Wisdom of Mark Twain.

     We were again treated to the poems of Rumi in their lighthearted airy fullness versus various statements and wisdoms that a darker more cynical but nevertheless provocative Mark Twain provides to our culture. I would recommend anyone to pursue these two authors further. Sky presents these words with perfect timing and stimulates us to consider our culture through these two contrasting author's vision.

September 1, 2011: Bake Off

      A usual our Bake Off triggered some interesting discussions about our personal resolutions. Among these was a discussion of weight loss and ways to follow a more healthy lifestyle.

Sharleen forwarded this Sonjay Gupta MD journalistic report on heart attacks and their prevention. They do personify some of the things we discussed at our meeting.

http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/podcasts/gupta/site/2011/08/29/sgmd.last.heart.attack.cnn.html 

September 25, 2011: Rumi and Hafiz, presented by Karen and Sky.

     This session was a surprise and a treat. Our regular member, Sky and his guest Karen Kolberg, took turns to regale us with the Sufi poetry of Rumi (Sky with props) and the Hafiz poetry recited and acted out by Karen Kolberg. Sky is a comic with Rumi one-liners. He uses various hard props such as his bucket of "Industrial Strength Philosophy" or "Philosopher in a Drum"  to add to the humor and the depth of his presentation. Karen herself suffered a serious intracerebral bleed and lost all of her memorized Hafez poems except one. But she has relearned them all. She carries her "verse purse" with her which contains all the titles of Hafez poems in it. She asks someone in her audience to draw one out and she recites it with heart and vigor. The combination of these two presenters and the words of these two poets creates a performance at once deep and yet light and airy, like heaven.

Read on for information about who these two poets were and also view some photos of Rumi's Mausoleum in Konya, Turkey.