.TrueHope Formation Psychology~Physics Science Civics Education About

The Physics of True hope
Enjoy true hope- the experience of sustaining potential

Welcome.

This site explores how we can enjoy true hope of physics by embracing the continuous, universal transformation and employing the sustaining power of transcendent words. It illustrates how we can be liberated from the misery of delusive hope and enjoy the bounty of true hope. In the process we develop a greater science in the communication of the nature of energy and caring for vital climate balances. The universal potential can be manifest in more sustaining ways.

We are our language.

A touch of a button and the Internet ceases to be.
A passing storm and printed paper is gone.
Mould may consume painted parchment.
The seas, soils and sands may bury carved stones
There is one medium that can survive for over 10,000 years and that is a good story founded in the reality of physics, the ways of the universe. Such a story can be stored in the human brain, embedded in our language and woven into the song and dance of the people so it sustains them for many hundreds of generations.

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

— Ludwig Wittgenstein

Every word is a story in itself speaking of and informing our place in the universe. So we are wise to give care to knowing what we are saying for, without compassion, we lose our way amidst the continuous, universal change. It is not easy because, like all the other countless, myriad forms of energy, we exist as fleeting, dynamic balances of complementary forces. This means existence involves paradox, which forms a great mystery to us. How can two separate, contradictory things simultaneously be the same thing?

As with energy, we are all vitally intimate with paradox and yet no one knows what it is. We experience it with every breath, with inhalation of exhalation, with day of night, with sound of silence…we experience paradox in every sentient moment. To quote Søren Kierkegaard

“…the ultimate paradox of thought: to want to discover something that thought itself cannot think.”

Here is our conundrum: our survival depends on our capacity to transcend paradox, to be able to make sustaining sense of the light of the dark, the dark of the light. How can we better transcend our human condition?

This is a story of all our lives in which we find our selves acting the role of the central character while writing the plot using words that constantly change their meaning and transform our worldviews.

In particular, this is a story involving two complementary, contradictory forces in our psyche who arise simultaneously in any moment of our self-awareness – an exclusive, divisive force (the ego or “I”) and its complement, an inclusive, connective force (compassion).
It’s a story of how our survival depends on our capacity to maintain a healthy balance of these two forces, an endeavour made fiendishly difficult by the insatiable acquisitiveness and the incredible, ingenious self-deceits of the ego.

Without compassion, the ego has the capacity to make even the most well-intentioned person to become their own worst enemy and ultimately self-destruct, generating much misery in the process. However with compassion, we are reminded in the great wisdom of the principles of physics and can be better enabled to transcend our human condition.

This story places great store on the Conservation of Energy Principle as a means of transcending our human condition. The principle is deemed trustworthy because it has never been faulted despite the most ingenious, intense scrutiny that men (human beings) are capable of. Its wisdom has sustained societies for many millennia and those who have denied its reality have soon perished.
It is almost certainly the nearest we have to a universal truth.

With compassion, this great principle can be used as a universal benchmark for evaluating the sustainability of our use of words and ensuring they better enable us to act in harmony with the ways of the universe.

In brief, the principle reminds us we exist amidst the continuous, universal transformation and, like all the other myriad forms of energy, we live the paradox of information: any form informs all even as it is informed by all.

And, whether we know it or not, we live the paradox that any use of a symbol simultaneously reflects and generates the state of being of the user.

This is why it is helpful to see The Conservation of Energy Principle as foundational to the map of our situation – see below. This profound principle enables us to transcend our mortal, moral human formation and generate better language and education systems so the universal potential can be manifest in more sustaining ways.

Caption

Information being physical, it is subject to the principles of physics and this reality of our language gives rise to the following principle:

A symbol used in acceptance of the continuous, universal change enhances the capacity of the user to reflect reality and enjoy harmony with existence.
The converse also holds: we reject the principles of physics at our peril. Our decision to use symbols in denial of continuous, universal transformation will tend to generate delusional hopes and misery.

It is possible this principle of sustainability may be more universal hold for the use of any symbol by any sentient being.
There is much evidence that it holds for the etymology of our English language, especially since this advent of the English Combustion Revolution that has generated an Anthropocene that now puts Mankind at grave peril.

Every word or phrase in the map is a sign post in our journey in search of sustaining meaning. Each has its own story to tell and this website will offer us pause for reflection on it so we can be all learn and be empowered by it.

The story of this website is as big and wonderful as the universe(s), as intimate, mysterious and bounteous as energy and as vital as our survival.

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Page under “Formation” topic

page title What is Form?

A Story of the word “Form”

“Form”?! Maybe you, like me, have never reflected on the word “form”? It seems such an ordinary, little word that is what it is: it is plain and very simple. So I assumed, its meaning being so obvious, that it would only take me a few minutes to write a short paragraph defining its meaning.
It is now three weeks into my journey of exploration into the meaning of this small word and I am often feeling overwhelmed and lost.

My search for the meaning of words typically involves traveling with a word to antiquity and seeing how its meaning changes with societal behaviour over millennia.
One milestone in that journey through the ages is The Little Ice Age in Europe from c1250.
A big milestone is the advent of the English Combustion Revolution – the radical change of culture that has generated an Anthropocene this past three centuries.

My constant companions and guides are the Online Etymology Dictionary and the Conservation of Energy Principle. The former provides known meanings of a word in any period while the latter provides a universal benchmark to evaluate the sustainability of a society and its language.

My journey falters c1200AD. Here began a period when churches and monasteries flourished, the Norman kings instituted large “Royal Forests”, climate change reduced food supplies and English began to replace Norman French as the dominant language, a process supercharged by the Black Death plague decimating the Latin-French speaking ruling class.

The meaning of “form” vanishes in the mists of time beyond 1200AD.
This is frustrating because my growing intuition is the humble word “form” plays a far more profound role in our lives than we know.
It occurs to me to check thewordfinder.com even though it is only a crude indicator. Still it reinforces my sense that “form” may have immense meaning, perhaps even the essential meaning of the universe(s).

Wordfinder discovers 746 words containing the word FORM. Amazing. By comparison it only discovers 93 words containing the word POWER, 123 words containing the word GOD and 51 words containing the word SHAPE. On a hunch and to my delight, it discovers 1680 words containing the word ACT and 212 words containing the word ACTION.

https://www.thewordfinder.com/wordlist/words-containing-word-form

Why is this enlightening? “Action” is the essence, the core story of the Conservation of Energy Principle. Energy is “action”. All the universal potential is “active”.
Also “act” and “action” are both transcendent words – each of them being both a noun and a verb.
This indicates “form” has the power to enable us to transcend paradox and our human condition if used wisely. Antiquity may have much to teach us.

A God of Sleep Lights the Way

The Online Etymology Dictionary states “form” is a word of unknown origin. However it then mentions, “One theory holds that it is from or cognate with Greek morphe “form, beauty, outward appearance” (see Morpheus).”

The word “morph” only became popular in my lifetime – about 1955 to be more exact – and it is now commonly used as a verb meaning “transform”. You may be familiar with the word “metamorphosis” from learning about the changing states of butterflies and frogs or talking with your doctor or reading Kafka’s novella “The Metamorphosis”.

Online Etymology advises the word arises “ from meta, here indicating “change” (see meta-) + morphē “shape, form,” a word of uncertain etymology.”
However it is able to trace the word “shape” to its PIE root *(s)kep- forming words meaning “to cut, scrape, hack”, which give rise to German schaffen “shape, create, produce”.
This makes good sense, as does the meaning of “meta” “in common with”, which arises from PIE *me- “in the middle”.
By contrast, Bill Gates’s use of the word “meta” to mean “higher, beyond” negates the above meanings and bespeaks a severe psychopathy that imperils Mankind. Certainly his ChatGPT does.

There seems little to lose. I follow the dictionary’s instruction to “see Morpheus”.

Wow! What to see! One click and a fantastic, vibrant world opens up to me. The word “Morpheus” evokes the great, vivid legends of the interactions of the Greek-Roman pantheon of gods with us human beings, us mortal men, us (PIE) “ earthlings or earthly beings”.

I discover “Metamorphoses” ( Ancient Greek: μεταμορφώσεις: “Transformations”).
This, the most famous poem of Ovid ( 43BC – ADc17), contains fifteen books of Greco-Roman legends in which all our deepest experiences are played out. Divinity. Grief. Deceit. Sleep. Death. Night. Dreams. Reality.
We can feel why and how the words “form”, “morph” and “shape” are all both nouns and verbs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphoses
ILLUSTRATION
caption
The Metamorphoses (Latin: Metamorphōsēs, from Ancient Greek: μεταμορφώσεις: “Transformations”) is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid.

Morpheus appears to Alcyone as her drowned husband>
Engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovids Metamorphoses book X1 650-749

Morpheus (‘Fashioner’, derived from the Ancient Greek: μορφή meaning ‘form, shape’)[1] is a god associated with sleep and dreams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheus
……
Morpheus, in Greco-Roman mythology, one of the sons of Hypnos (Somnus), the god of sleep. Morpheus sends human shapes (Greek morphai) of all kinds to the dreamer, while his brothers Phobetor (or Icelus) and Phantasus send the forms of animals and inanimate things, respectively.
Hypnos, Greco-Roman god of sleep. Hypnos was the son of Nyx (Night) and the twin brother of Thanatos (Death).

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Morpheus-Greek-mythology

https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/OneirosMorpheus.html
See an exemplar of Ovid’s poem in his legend of Morpheus

There is a character in the movie series The Matrix called Morpheus and the synopsis suggest its legend is a variation on the ancient Greco-Roman legends, playing on our contemporary struggles to divine delusion from reality, deceit from truth.

These ancient Greco-Roman legends express the tragicomedy of our human condition: our state of uncertainty and ingenious capacity for self-deceit; the constant fluctuation in the balances of the dynamic forces of the ego and compassion in our psyche; and our continuous attempts and frequent failure to enjoy the continuous universal transformation.

The Rivers of Sleep, Forgetfulness and Death

These legends are so evocative of the principles of physics, the ways of the universe. My childhood was a blessed one of countless, timeless hours playing in “The creek” – the Waiorongomai River flowing near our home. It was my privilege to be able to often play in its clear, clean stream all day long, experimenting with its balances and flows. I went to sleep at night with its continuous chuckling, chattering, murmuring and occasional roar in flood infusing my dreams.

In retrospect, the creek was my greatest teacher, its sensations grounding me in the truths of physics and imbuing me in the courage to question the ego-driven nonsense of our self-styled “physicists” and “science teachers” in my latter life. The river is me. It is alive in my breath, my blood, my dreams, my being and it sustains my compassion, my connection with all.

Seven decades on my being is a river alive with childhood memories intertwined with dreams in which the stones, trees, oceans, stars and even my language all form rivers in and of each other. The Greco-Roman stories of the rivers of sleep, forgetfulness (oblivion), memory, death, fire, hatred and continuous transformation resonate in me.
Every river is a paradoxical story flowing with meaning and these ancient legends speak of societies living in relative harmony with the ways of universe compared to our Anglosphere culture.

The psychopathy of our modern Anglo corporate culture means many of us now demean sleep, crave sleep and live sleep-deprived existences. This culture deems “Time is money” rather than time being a way of synchronizing our body’s rhythms with those of the stars. For instance, sleep is deemed “downtime” (inactive) while waking is deemed “uptime” (active). Perversely, even the word “woke” is now a term of abuse.

Ancient cultures and many contemporary indigenous cultures put high value on “dreamtime” and thus enjoy a more holistic experience of existence. The words “holy” and “health” both arise from the PIE word *kailo- “whole, uninjured, of good omen”. Many peoples value sleep as a sacred time for healing.

Many of us have forgotten and forsaken this precious state of being even though our modern technology – computers, body scanners and other monitoring devices – provide powerful reminders that our experience of sleep and nightly dreams, far from being a time of inactivity as many of us have been taught to believe, is a time of our greatest activity, our greatest creativity.

In other words, sleep is a time of our life in which our experiences of the day are collated, divined (learned from) and processed in fantastic, incomprehensible ways. It involves employing the ancient wisdom of our cells that has enabled them to sustain life for over 3 billion years through aeonic transformations of Earth so we and future generations can be sustained.

It is such a fantastic process that only in certain phases of sleep do our brains open to the rivers of sustaining information maintaining us amidst the universal transformation.
Deprived of those phases, we soon poison ourselves with accumulated neural waste and perish amidst delusions. We lose touch, lose sight, lose connection with the ways of the universe and our stories, lacking compassion, become ego-derived, deceptive and ultimately self-destructive.

(F)act is Fantasy.

‘Clearly “form” is a fantastic word.’ This was the first sentence I initially wrote when starting its story. Why I jotted it down is beyond me. Indeed it soon became obvious to me that this statement is not clear at all. So I decided it wise to remove the sentence until I knew the story of the word “”fantastic”. Only now is it apparent to me that this seeming diversionary story is actually a vital tributary to the river of “form.”

The story of “fantastic” tells us that the word’s origins reside in the Greek word phantastikos “able to imagine,” from phantazein “make visible” (middle voice phantazesthai “picture to oneself”), which in turn arose from the stem of phainein “to bring to light, make appear; come to light, be seen, appear; explain, expound, inform against; appear to be so”, which in turn arose from” from PIE root bha- (1) “to shine”, which is also the PIE root of many of our words associated with “to speak, tell, say.”
μόρφα

This story is fascinating because “bha” was once such a transcendent word, giving rise to a dizzying array of words associated with seeing and speaking. This array is dizzying because these words describe so many of our interactions in our search to discover a greater reality, to reveal the ways of the universe, to enjoy in harmony with all.

The question arises: why did “fantastic” lose so much of this ancient transcendent meaning through the Middle Ages and become associated with insanity, delusions and acting ridiculously? Was it because of climate change and associated war, famine and pandemic? Was it because of the arrogant use of new technology?

And now it is mainly used in a dismissive or derisory way as well.
Listen to our opinion makers – especially our most influential merchants, politicians and corporate media people. They commonly condemn ideas and proposals they do not like by saying these concepts are “unreal” “not believable” and “the stuff of fantasy”.

Similarly they now associate the wonderful, life-celebrating word “conspire” with malignancy and use it to condemn any ideas they deem inconvenient ideas as “conspiracies”. They even speak of “Cults, Conspiracies, and Fantasies of Knowledge” in the same breath. See exemplar at this Cambridge abstract

This psychopathic use of the English language is characteristic of the ego, indicating a lack of compassion. Without compassion, the ego can easily have us become alienated from reality, arrogant, self-hating and ultimately self-destructive as individuals, institutions and societies. As we have seen, our ancestors used language in more compassionate ways with, for instance, PIE root bha meaning both “to shine” and “to speak, tell, say.” All existence involves paradox and this use of “bha” transcends the paradox of information: all things exist amidst the universal transformation, simultaneously informing all and being informed by all.

So it is important to note that the word “fantastic” has been associated since 1938 with creations and feelings “wonderful, marvelous”. Some English dictionaries describe this as a “trivial” use of the word. However it could actually be very profound, reflecting a healthy balance of compassion exists in parts of our culture.

The word “marvelous” arises from the Latin words mirus “wonderful” and mirari “to wonder”. These arise from the PIE root *smei- “to laugh, smile” – as does the word “miracle”.
Old English noun “wundor”meant a “marvelous thing, miracle, object of astonishment,” while its verb “wundrian” meant to “be astonished,” also “admire; make wonderful, magnify,”

This use of the English language indicates that a significant balance of compassion prevailed with its connective qualities of inclusiveness, sharing, generosity and humility. In this state, we human formations are opened in every way to the universal transformation and are able to call forth and see the life force in other forms even as these forms shine on us. We see reality more truthfully and are sustained more fully.

END DRAFT What is form?

True Hope of Physics button background be muted colours of rainbow?

click on each section activates drop down panel of content??

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Formation
The Universal Transformation
All Information is physical
Paradox of information
We are ourLanguage

Psychology~Physics
Our experience of Paradox
Compassion~The Ego
Principles of Physics

Science
Meaning of “art”
Compassionate Science
The Art of Sustainability
Transcendent Language

Education
Wise English Guide
Compassionate Education Framework
Education Manifesto

Civics
What is an Economy?
We are our Technology
Language Care
Conserving Transcendent Words
Time

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