Is the universe a fractal? ~ by Amanda Gefter (repost)

WRITTEN ACROSS THE SKY is a secret, a hidden blueprint detailing the original design of the universe itself. The spread of matter throughout space follows a pattern laid out at the beginning of time and scaled up to incredible proportions by nearly 14 billion years of cosmic expansion. Today that pattern is gradually being decoded by analysing maps of the distribution of the stars, and what has been uncovered could shake modern cosmology to its foundations.

Luciano Pietronero: "It's fractals, fractals all the way!"

Cosmology is founded on the assumption that when you look at the universe at the vastest scales, matter is spread more or less evenly throughout space. Cosmologists call this a "smooth" structure. But a small band of researchers, led by statistical physicist Luciano Pietronero (pictured right) of the University of Rome and the Institute of Complex Systems, Italy, argues that this assumption is at odds with what we can see. Instead they claim that the galaxies form a structure that isn't smooth at all: some parts of it have lots of matter, others don't, but the matter always falls into the same patterns, in large and small versions, at whatever scale you look. In other words, the universe is fractal.

It is a controversial view, and one that sparked an intense debate over a decade ago. Since then, astronomers have surveyed ever-greater numbers of galaxies, taking larger and larger samples of the universe. Now the biggest galaxy survey ever and a brand new map of the universe's dark matter are adding fuel to the fire. At stake is far more than the way galaxies cluster. A fractal universe could undermine cosmology's most basic assumptions. "All of the observations we make depend to a greater or lesser extent on the idea that the universe is homogeneous," says David Hogg of New York University, who leads a team of physicists that disputes Pietronero's view.

This idea that matter is spread more or less evenly throughout the universe is embodied in Einstein's cosmological principle. Einstein formulated it after publishing his general theory of relativity, which describes how the distribution of mass bends space-time and creates gravity. It allows cosmologists to use the equations of general relativity to describe the geometry of the whole universe. As a result it has led to a picture of a universe expanding uniformly from the big bang and in which cosmological measurements have defined meanings.


Fractals allow Pietronero to paint a very different sort of picture - one in which the irregular distribution of matter that we see around us never evens out into a smooth structure, but repeats itself at ever grander scales. Fractals are familiar enough: we see them in the branching of trees, the curves of coastlines, lungs, turbulence and clouds.

No matter what scale you look at them, fractal patterns look the same. Think of broccoli: a tiny branch looks much the same as the whole vegetable. Zoom in or zoom out, the structure looks the same - exquisitely detailed, never smooth. Fractals can be beautiful to look at, but when it comes to galaxies it may be a subversive kind of beauty.


Certainly the universe does not look smooth. Some regions contain clusters of matter; others are virtually empty. Hundreds of billions of stars group together to form galaxies, and galaxies congregate in clusters. Clusters assemble into colossal structures called superclusters that can stretch out for 100 million light years and look uncannily like fractal patterns.

Even superclusters string together in long filaments and sheets that stretch like ghostly cobwebs across an otherwise empty sky. The Sloan Great Wall, for example, which was discovered in 2003, spans more than a billion light years. These filaments and sheets seem to encircle huge voids of empty space. The voids range from 100 to 400 million light years in diameter, making the whole assemblage appear as an immense, glowing lattice punctuated by wells of darkness.


No one disputes that the universe is far from smooth on relatively small scales - by which cosmologists mean thousands of light years. But Hogg's team is convinced that if you zoom further out, smoothness reigns.

"When you're looking at the size scales of galaxies, groups of galaxies, clusters, superclusters and filaments, it looks like a fractal," says Hogg (pictured right). "But once you get larger than all of that, then it starts to look homogeneous." What has convinced him is his team's analysis of the latest data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the largest 3D map of the galactic universe so far. His team insists that the map is proof of smoothness. The fractal camp, however, are sceptical. In fact, they say the Sloan observations confirm what they've been claiming all along.

It might appear to be deadlock, but at least with the Sloan survey the two sides can agree what they're disagreeing about. For years Pietronero and his team argued that the statistical methods mainstream cosmologists were using to establish homogeneity were flawed because they start off by assuming that matter is evenly spread. The team was mostly ignored until 2004, when Hogg and astrophysicist Daniel Eisenstein of the University of Arizona in Tucson spent a summer in Paris with Pietronero's colleagues, cosmologists Francesco Sylos Labini of the Enrico Fermi Centre and the Institute for Complex Systems, Rome, and Michael Joyce of the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris.


"We argued every day about fractals," Hogg says. "Those battles raged over lunch and coffee and finally convinced us by the end of our visit that we should be doing the analysis as they say." When they returned to the US, Hogg and Eisenstein applied the fractal team's methods to a sample of 55,000 luminous red galaxies mapped by Sloan. They found that the galaxies do form a fractal pattern, but as they looked at bigger and bigger scales, the pattern appeared to disintegrate and smooth out at just over 200 million light years - a scale far larger than most cosmologists had expected.


But Pietronero and Sylos Labini are not convinced. Instead, they believe that if astronomers could continue to zoom out and look at even larger scales, they would find more clustering. They suspect that the apparent smoothness at 200 million light years is not real, but rather an illusion created by statistical effects due to the limited range of the Sloan survey. Hogg's team, though, insist that their evidence of homogeneity is statistically significant. "I think the result really is secure," says Hogg. "I would stake my scientific reputation on that."


Even if the result is real, mainstream cosmologists still have a huge problem on their hands. The fact that the fractal patterning extends to far bigger scales than anyone had expected means that there must be far bigger structures than anyone expected - structures that are even bigger than superclusters. The fractal team argues that the standard model cannot explain the existence of these galactic giants. "If you look at the galaxy data, you can see enormous objects hundreds of millions of light years across, stuff that's really huge," says Pietronero. "This is a huge problem. You're going to have to change the story very radically."

The usual story runs something like this. In the tiny fluctuations of the nascent universe, matter began to collect in denser regions, setting off a chain reaction of gravitational collapse that has given us the large-scale structure we see today. Gravity has worked from the bottom up, building galaxies first, then collecting galaxies into clusters, then clusters into superclusters and so forth. But while the matter has been clumping together, the universe has been expanding, and thus a battle has ensued: gravity versus expansion.


According to Pietronero, there simply hasn't been enough time since the universe came into being 14 billion years ago for gravity to sculpt structures larger than about 30 million light years across: expansion would have prevented anything larger from forming. "The existence of structures much larger than this implies a crisis of the present view of structure formation," he says. This present view is the "cold dark matter model", in which the glowing masses of stars and galaxies are only the tip of the cosmic iceberg. Luminous matter makes up roughly 15 per cent of all the matter in the universe - the other 85 per cent is mysterious dark matter.

Hogg's team says that the new observations do not undermine the standard view as Pietronero claims. Instead, they maintain that the cold dark matter model explains the Sloan data quite accurately. For that to be true, however, Hogg's team have to put a number called a bias parameter into their equations. It reflects the difference between the distribution of matter in computer simulations of the cold dark matter model and the observed distribution of luminous matter.


Collisions between particles of ordinary matter help it clump together, but dark matter is thought not to behave in the same way. That suggests it could be spread out in space more evenly than ordinary matter, so cosmologists assume that the distribution of the matter we can see - galaxies, say - is not a true reflection of the distribution of all the matter that is out there. They believe the structure of the universe is really much "smoother" than it appears to be, because dark matter dominates. In the case of the Sloan survey, the bias is 2: the visible galaxies are clumped twice as densely as the predicted total distribution of matter in the universe.


Sylos Labini, however, sees the bias as a fudge that allows cosmologists to discount the observed clustering of galaxies and to assume that the gigantic clusters of superclusters are only half the problem they appear to be. "The bias is a way to hide the size of structures behind some ad hoc parameter," he says. Mainstream cosmologists, however, feel the bias is justified, assuming that galaxies cluster in regions of space that are replete with excess dark matter. According to the standard model, dark matter is everywhere, but galaxies only shine in the rare regions where dark matter is densest. Dark matter also lingers in the voids where no light shines but here it is thinly spread out. In other words, while the luminous galaxies look very clustered, the underlying blanket of dark matter is far smoother, supporting the claim of homogeneity.


"If the cold dark matter model is correct, then there should be dark matter in the voids," Hogg says. The million-dollar question is: what is the real distribution of dark matter? Is dark matter smooth or fractal? Is it clustered like the galaxies, or does it spread out, unseen, into the great voids? If the voids are full of dark matter, then the apparent fractal distribution of luminous matter becomes rather insignificant. But if the voids are truly empty, the fractal claim requires a closer look.

Astronomers are now providing our first glimpse into the voids and our first look at the pattern of invisible matter. Richard Massey of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and others in the Cosmic Evolution Survey project have just created the first 3D map of dark matter in the universe (New Scientist, 13 January, p 5). They were able to find the dark matter by observing its gravitational effect on any light streaming past it. Combining data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Subaru telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile, they mapped the distribution of dark matter at scales ranging from 23 million to 200 million light years across.


Massey's team found that the dark matter distribution is nearly identical to the luminous matter distribution. "The first thing that strikes me is the voids," Massey says. "Vast expanses of space are completely empty. The dark matter makes up a criss-crossing network of strings and sheets around these voids. And all the luminous matter lies within the densest regions of dark matter." Although this distribution of dark matter seems to favour the idea that the universe is fractal, Hogg isn't convinced. "It is interesting," he says, "but measurements of dark matter are much less precise than measurements of galaxy distributions."


"The result is very new," Massey agrees. "It demonstrates a very exciting new way of looking directly at dark matter and will be vital in future work, but hasn't yet been subject to all the analysis that has been applied to galaxy surveys." When asked if the dark matter exhibits an explicitly fractal structure, Massey replies, "We don't know yet."

"The universe is not a fractal," Hogg insists, "and if it were a fractal it would create many more problems that we currently have." A universe patterned by fractals would throw all of cosmology out the window. Einstein's cosmic equations would be tossed first, with the big bang and the expansion of the universe following closely behind. Hogg's team feel that until there's a theory to explain why the galaxy clustering is fractal, there's no point in taking it seriously.


"My view is that there's no reason to even contemplate a fractal structure for the universe until there is a physical fractal model," says Hogg. "Until there's an inhomogeneous fractal model to test, it's like tilting at windmills."

Pietronero is equally insistent. "This is fact," he says. "It's not a theory." He says he is interested only in what he sees in the data and argues that the galaxies are fractal regardless of whether someone can explain why. As it turns out, there is one model that may be able to explain a fractal universe. The work of a little-known French astrophysicist named Laurent Nottale, the theory is called "scale relativity" (see "Fractured space-time" below).


According to Nottale, the distribution of matter in the universe is fractal because space-time itself is fractal. It is a theory on the fringe, but if the universe does turn out to be fractal, more people might sit up and take notice. A resolution to the fractal debate will only come with more data. Sloan is currently charting more galaxies and will release a new map in the middle of 2008. According to Sylos Labini, this will cover over 650 million light years and should tell us if the apparent transition to homogeneity extends beyond 200 million light years. For now, the pattern of the world, imprinted at the origin of the universe, remains a secret glimpsed only in the knowing shimmer of the stars.

FRACTURED SPACE-TIME

French astrophysicist Laurent Nottale has developed a theory that takes fractals to a whole new level. A researcher at the Meudon Observatory in Paris, Nottale set out to extend Einstein's principle of relativity - in which the laws of physics remain the same regardless of the motion of an observer - to a theory in which the laws of physics would remain the same regardless of the scale at which the universe is being observed. He found that the underlying space-time of such a theory would have to be fractal.

In Nottale's theory, called scale relativity, the underlying fractality of space-time is most noticeable in the quantum world. Quantum behaviour, he claims, can be understood geometrically - particles move along fractal trajectories. On large scales, his model could explain a fractal pattern of the galaxies. The most profound question in physics today is how to unify the really small with the really big - and when it comes to matters of scale, fractals may turn out to be a key ingredient.

Amanda Gefter
© New Scientist
9 March 2007

[First published on this blog 1 October 2007. Reposted 20 August 2011 & 16 August 2024]

David Icke on the Archons ~ 1:40 interview with Jo Conrad (repost)

Published on 19 June 2012

Jo Conrad interviews David Icke about the manipulation of humankind, reptilian influence and the awakening of human consciousness....

[Brought to my attention by Julia Reuter. First posted 2 August 2014. Reposted 26 July 2019]

Welcome to the endgame in the 5000-year war between "Good" and "Evil" (reprise)

[Found this titillating editorial at Rebel News. I don't know who wrote it. Some spellings and dates are disputable but the overall gist is elucidating...]

Zecharia Sitchin (exopaleontologist extraordinaire who died last month) first popularized in the mid-1970s Sumerian myths describing the pivotal role of Nibiru (Planet X) in the creation of the Adamic race.

One of the biggest puzzles of mankind is how human beings came into existence. The differences between animals and humans are too fundamental to be sufficiently explained by evolution theory. The genesis story of the bible makes even less sense. If an all powerful and all knowing god had created us, why did he do such a less than perfect job? A far more sensible explanation is that modern humans are the result of alien genetic engineering. It would explain both our ape-like instincts and our unique mental abilities.

We know that our ancestors have been around for over 100,000 years. According to the alien genetic engineering theory, every 5000 years our planet is visited by aliens from Planet X, the tenth planet in our solar system. In Assyrian records those aliens are known as Anunnaki.

The reason for the long periods in between visits is that it takes that long for Planet X to come close enough to Earth for the Anunnaki to make the trip. On their second last visit, around 8,000 B.C., the Anunnaki implanted a sufficient amount of their genes into humans to enable us to make the switch from primitive group hunting to agriculture in the area of the 'Fertile Crescent', encompassing today's Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Palestine, besides the south-eastern fringe of Turkey and the western fringe of Iran.


5,000 years later, on the following Anunnaki visit, further genetic manipulations resulted in the rise of more advanced state-like civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River and in China. Some humans were supposedly given extra rations of Anunnaki genes to empower them to control their fellow humans on behalf of their alien masters. This is said to be the beginning of the ancient bloodlines of our ruling elite.

The aliens didn't conduct those experiments out of the goodness of their hearts, but in an effort to make us more useful. They needed us as workers, soldiers and slaves. What they were after is fairly obvious: gold. All ancient cultures had only one purpose, the production of gold and other precious metals for our visitors from space. The Anunnaki didn't want to do the hard work of digging the gold out of the dirt themselves, so they created us and other humanoids like hobbles and Neanderthal men to do it for them.

The gods of ancient religions are easily explained as descriptions of those alien visitors, as are strikingly similar descriptions of dragons from different parts of the world. Most likely, Anunnaki resemble reptiles, but have the ability of taking on other appearances.

During their last visit a revolt broke out amongst the Anunnaki, making them split into two warring camps. That conflict is reflected in the biblical story of Satan's revolt against God. The trigger for the revolt was an attempt of the leader of the Anunnaki visitors to crack down on rampant fraternization between Anunnakis and humans, which was bound to create a hybrid race that one day could become a threat to the total control and exploitation by the Anunnaki.


The camp of the rebels was able to win a significant followership amongst human leaders. The latter were more than happy to produce off-spring with Anunnaki superpowers. What is more, the 'evil'' camp was more appealing to them because siding with 'Satan' was far more rewarding than the hypocritical demands of frugality and unconditional obedience demanded by 'God.' After all, why does the 'good shepherd' take such good care of his sheep? Because he wants their wool and meat.

The Anunnakis left, but the human leaders of the two opposing camps have kept warring each other for the past 5000 years, Romans vs. Phoenicians, Hohenstaufens vs. Guelphs, Guelphs vs. Ghibellines, Medicis vs. Huguenots, Fascism[1] vs. Communism and Freemasonry.

By the looks of it the Satanist camp is close to winning the 5000-year-war between "God" and "Satan." It would be oversimplifying though to describe this as a conflict between morally good and evil. From an ordinary 'sheep's' point of view, it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. If the 'good' side is only after your wool and meat, you might as well have some fun in the 'evil' camp.

The solution to this dilemma is obviously not as simple as joining either side. My point is that in this 'Alien vs. Predator' conflict, it doesn't matter which of the two reptile camps wins, mankind always loses. The big challenge for us - regardless of the amount of Anunnaki genes we carry in us - is to find a third option, in which we treat each other the way we would like to be treated if we were in the other person's shoes.

P.S. The next visit of our alien creators is scheduled for 2012-2014.

Footnotes: [1] I'm referring to Italian and Spanish fascism, not the mock fascism of Talmud inspired National Socialism.
FURTHER READING:

A Concise Adamic History

The Lethal Legacy of Warlordism

[First posted 15 November 2010. Reposted 13 December 2013 & 15 August 2015]

Unity Consciousness & Bi-Polar Politics (reposted)

Some of us feel drawn to the noble notion of Unity Consciousness - which I define as a transcendent perspective wherein one is increasingly aware of a greater, more inclusive context of our existence. Indeed, Unity Consciousness implies a pluralistic view of reality that reconciles, redeems and integrates apparent conflicts and contradictions.

Fashionable phrases like "unconditional love," "non-judgment," "loving allowance" and "oneness" get bandied about in New Age circles, making some of us feel unworthy every time we experience a bad hair day and find ourselves using foul language on people or situations that irk us and impinge on our sense of justice.

Meanwhile, within the 3D Matrix, atavistic and recalcitrant egos descended from fallen angel bloodlines with pronounced criminal tendencies continue to call the shots in economics and politics by setting themselves up as the misruling elite. It's all very well to acknowledge that these destructive and diabolical elements are ultimately an aspect of our greater self - but does this mean we remain passive in the face of their virulent abuse of power and tyrannical exploitation of the semi-conscious masses?

Fortunately I've learned how to dance between the third and fifth dimensions, occasionally venturing beyond to catch a glimpse of existence beyond the semantic universe. This frees me from being overly attached to outcomes on the 3rd dimension and allows me to build energetic links between these realities. In the third, we are conditioned to think in terms of either/or, win or lose - but in the fifth we begin to intuit the beauty of both/and situations and the possibility of win-win scenarios.

The 3rd dimension creates a great divide between hero and villain, white hat and black hat. Looking at events from the 5th dimension, we easily perceive the transitional effect of various behaviors. For instance, what appears to be a vile and vicious act on the 3rd dimension reveals itself as a catalytic incident with positive precessional effects (90-degree spin-offs that trigger evolutionary transformations).

Expressed in simple terms, no matter how evil one's intentions may be, the outcome of one's misdeeds invariably results in some unexpected good - the silver lining that offsets even the darkest cloud.

What good came out of Mahathir's megalomaniacal 22-year misrule? Firstly, he politicized and activated a few million previously apathetic citizens like myself with his excesses. Secondly, he equated the Internet with accelerated progress and installed the very mechanism that would soon reveal Umno/BN to be a monster of Dr M's own miscreation.

And, thirdly, his ruthless, vindictive and violent retaliation against his erstwhile deputy Anwar Ibrahim's rebellion effectively planted the seeds of a two-party parliamentary system that would germinate ten years later as the 8 March 2008 political tsunami.

Similarly, Najib Razak's inevitable rise to power in accordance with the Umno Agenda would fulfil the "RAHMAN prophecy" and mark the end of Umno misrule. And since Umno has always equated itself with Malay vested interests, the warlords can only spin the end of their era as an unbearable loss of political power to the pendatang or "immigrant races."

Ali Tinju & Jamal Yunos stirring up racial shit 
at the Red Shirt rally on 16 September 2015 

The more xenophobic fear the bigots whip up among the ignorant and illiterate, the stronger the desire for radical transformation will grow in the hearts and minds of the intelligent, the young and free-spirited. Indeed, the crude and imbecilic rantings of political troglodytes like Ali Tinju and Jamal Yunos only serve to enhance the appeal of enlightened cosmopolitanism and universal, rather than local, values.

It took an Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich to liberate the German people forever from narrow-minded racism and cultural insularity. I'm counting on Ali Tinju and his ilk to force the more intelligent and honest Malays from under their monolingual, monocultural coconut shells... and into the light of a far greater vision of unity that totally transcends race and religion.

Perhaps we will emerge as a nation of truth-speaking justice-lovers from our collective nightmare of being saddled for more than a decade with moral anomalies like Abdul Gani Patail as Attorney-General and Musa Hassan as Inspector-General of Police. [Shortly after this was first posted in August 2010, Musa Hassan stepped down as IGP and was replaced by another dubious character who would swiftly prove to be even denser and darker. In July 2015 Abdul Gani Patail was unceremoniously sacked for daring to draw up a charge sheet against the crime minister Najib Razak, and replaced with an even less credible Attorney General named Apandi Ali].

Bear in mind, nevertheless, that all those who have tacitly or overtly endorsed this obscene state of affairs - from the despatch rider to the Yang Di Pertuan Agong himself - bear equal responsibility for allowing the nation to be dragged into the depths of depravity.

In 1998, at the height of Dr M's vicious campaign to destroy Anwar Ibrahim (his No. 1 political threat), Gani Patail (then a senior prosecutor with the AG's Chambers) was exposed by veteran lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon as a blackmailer who attempted to force a false statement from Nallakaruppan (an erstwhile Anwar ally arrested and charged with possession of live ammunition) who was offered a token sentence in lieu of death by hanging if he agreed to testify to having procured the services of prostitutes on Anwar's behalf.

Now that is indeed a very serious offence punishable by at least 10 years' jail - particularly so when the blackmailer is doing so in his formal capacity as a senior officer in the Attorney-General's department. That is a clear-cut case of betrayal of the public interest and gross abuse of power. And yet, Gani Patail was never indicted for this dastardly act. Instead, he was promoted to Attorney-General after Mohtar Abdullah suffered a stroke. This was undoubtedly on Dr Mahathir's recommendation, with the Agong's silent acquiescence.

Can we simply shrug and say, "Let bygones be bygones"? Most certainly not when self-serving, morally compromised flunkeys like Gani Patail, Musa Hassan, Apandi Ali, and Khalid Abu Bakar are put in charge of law enforcement in this country.

We might as well appoint a cold-blooded murderer as prime minister!

No amount of Unity Consciousness can ameliorate the absurdity and utter insanity of such a situation. We have to surgically remove the bullets from our gunshot wounds before we can begin to speak about healing from acute trauma.



[First published 7 August 2010, then reposted 9 June 2012, 9 January 2013, November 2014, 31 March 2016, 9 April 2020 & 8 April 2024]

Illustrated Puns with a Timely Sense of Purpose (reprise)

Now you know why police are called mata-mata (eyes) in Malay.

First there was Nothing. Then it exploded. Oh yeah?

Is there a link between the colonial impulse & colon cancer?

Some are a bit slow on the uptake.

Is Selangor state a feudalism, I wonder? Think I'll PAS on this one!

Some say this hat rack once belonged to Samuel Beckett.

Remember, there are always greater forces at work.

Don't the police have better things to do?

He even survived being grilled by a military tribunal.

An apt metaphor for our current state of political apathy.

Thanks to Olivia de Haulleville who forwarded the puns.  

I just chose the images & provided the captions.

[First posted 25 August 2014, 11 December 2019 & 3 December 2021]

a concise but accurate & comprehensive account of the universe (reprise)

PART ONE

“The Universe?”

“The Universe.”

With the resounding vigor of an apoplectic horse, the portly priest blew his nose and tossed the soggy ball of tissue paper towards a handwoven rattan wastebasket. He missed, though this escaped his notice and, wiping the tip of his nose with the back of a pudgy hand, he said:

“You will please excuse my cold. Even we physicians of the soul are not exempt from viruses, ha ha!” The laugh came from his throat and his face was still red from the effort. “Ah… what was the question again?”

“I asked what your conception was of the Universe, Father.”

“Yes, yes… but, my son, I have no conception. I am merely God’s instrument. I serve no purpose but that which He has determined for me. If you ask me for a conception of the Universe, I can only tell you that which I have learned from reading God’s Word.”

“And what is that?”

The priest carefully pressed the tips of his fat fingers together: “The Universe is God’s masterpiece in harmony. Everything that exists is purposed by its Creator. It is the sum-total of His infinite wisdom.”

“That’s most lucid, Father.”

“Good. And may I add, my son, since God is perfect, the Universe is perfect, too.”

“Perfect? But, Father, I don’t quite see how.”

“Ah, but you are young, my son, and only a mortal. For the day you can understand God’s mysterious ways you will be more exalted than the angels.”

“Do you mean to say, Father, even flies and bacteria that cause disease have a purpose; that even an asteroid traveling endlessly in the void of deep space has a purpose?”

“You have an eager young mind, my son. That is good. But as I told you, God is omniscient! Nothing He creates is without purpose; only you might not see that purpose in this earthbound plane of existence.”

“Then even death has a purpose, Father?”

“Death, and the process that follows it, is the initial step towards the ultimate understanding of God’s Perfect Plan.”

“Are you saying there can be no purpose in life but only in death?”

“No, my son, no, no… One can always try to lead a good, Godfearing life in order that death may be accepted as an occasion for rejoicing rather than mourning. Life, my son, is part of the terrible test God our Father has set for us, and the only way you can show your love and devotion is to do well in that… at… at… atchoo!” A deafening sneeze drowned his last words.

The priest dried his bloodshot eyes on the sleeve of his satin surplice, sniffing noisily. “I am sorry, my son, um, where was I?”

“Oh, it’s quite all right, Father. I want to thank you for answering my questions. I was very impressed.”

"Of course, my son. I enjoyed chatting with you. By the way, I don’t recall seeing your face in my church. Are you by chance a Presbyterian, perhaps?”

“No, I’m a student.”

“Good, good, very good.” He sighed and stopped a sneeze by inhaling violently. “Well, my son, go with God.”

PART TWO

“The Universe, dear boy, can exist only when all the cosmic forces are in equilibrium.”

“I’m afraid I don’t quite comprehend, sir.”

“Ah, I see.” The wizened metaphysician curled his silver goatee around a thin, graceful finger. “Ah, I see, I see.”

There was an uneasy silence as the student waited for the great scholar to continue. The metaphysician was preoccupied with trying to tie a knot in his goatee.

“Er… what I mean is, sir, well, I don’t exactly see what you mean.”

“Let me put it this way, my dear boy.” A sudden spark appeared in the old scholar’s eyes. “The entire Universe functions on a very fundamental basis of balance. In everything you can detect the same pattern, from the ultra-microscopic to the super-telescopic.”

“Pattern?”

“Yes. Definitely. Existence is possible as a consequence of the equilibrium produced by conflicting forces: Life and Death, Light and Dark, Black and White, Abundance and Scarcity, Good and Evil, Truth and Falsehood, Happiness and Misery, Male and Female, Mountain and Valley, High and Low, Large and Small, Hot and Cold, Yin and Yang… can you perceive the pattern?”

“Well, yes… vaguely.”

“Can’t you see? It is the constant conflict of all those Forces that results in the balance essential to the very existence of the Universe. The ultimate aim of every single existence is to attain that perfect state of equilibrium – inertia! Yes, inertia! The very basis of being is a ceaseless struggle to attain inertia. Continuity, perpetuity, coiling and uncoiling. The completion of the circle. Inertia.”

The metaphysician broke off in a spasm of dry, convulsive coughs. When the attack was over he took a long sip from the glass of sherry on his desk, muttering an excuse that it was good for his cough. Clearing his throat, he continued:

“Can you not grasp the inexorable pattern that governs the Cosmos? Does it not overwhelm you to merely think about it?” He broke off, coughing again.

“Forgive me, dear boy, I am at a loss for words. I cannot help choking with fulfilment each time I see the vast intricacies of the Universe fall so effortlessly into one immense, awesome, sublime pattern…”

“This is certainly most fascinating, sir. But what exactly do you mean by inertia? Isn’t it a continual state of being?”

“You may call it that if you wish. You see, an object that is immobile wishes to remain so; one that is in motion is reluctant to change its course or to stop. Similarly, a person who is alive desires to remain so, but once death puts an end to his life, he has entered a new state of being – or non-being – and will desire to remain dead. And since death is, to all intents and purposes, continual, death is inertia.”

“You said that everything in the Universe strives for inertia. Do you mean that everything desires death?”

The metaphysician uncurled his goatee and allowed it to spring back to its original position. He scratched his chin, and a thin smile crept across his ascetic face. He coughed goodnaturedly.

“That, my dear boy, is a good question… however, I’m afraid I don’t feel at all my usual self and shall have to interrupt this absorbing dialogue, much to my regret, and get some badly needed rest.”

PART THREE

“When we speak of the Universe, we are of course referring to the lifeforms that occupy it, no?”

“Lifeforms?”

“The Universe is nothing without Life. So don’t you agree that in considering the Universe as a Whole…”

“As a hole? I don’t really follow you there, doctor.”

“Jcchk, I mean to say… instead of considering the Universe as an abstract concept, we might be better off discussing LIFE, per se, ja?”

“But how about the billions of lifeless stars and other celestial bodies that comprise the Universe? Don’t they matter?”

“Definitely. You are assuming, no doubt, that there is no life outside of the planet Earth. In the study of biology that could be a most misleading assumption. We must think of life in other forms besides those familiar to us, you see.”

“Yes, I see what you’re getting at.”

“So you understand what I mean when I say we should think of the Universe in terms of the lifeforms that inhabit it, am I correct? Okay, good. Now, everyone knows that survival is the greatest aim of all living things, no? Nothing exists if Life does not exist. Therefore, Life is the most important urge in the Universe. You will further observe that in order to preserve Life by perpetuating their species, all living things undergo reproduction of some sort; and then, to ensure the survival of their offspring, these living things die, so that there will be no lack of space and the cyclical regeneration of nutritive matter can occur. It is a neverending process which has gone on, and will go on and on infinitely. Life… then death… and life again as a result of death. Astounding, no?”

“Astounding, yes!”

Clucking affectionately, the biologist focused his microscope on a glass slide where an amoeba was wobbling along determinedly, trapped within a drop of fluid. “Ah, my little Mabel – she is a veritable miracle of unicellulation, ja?”

The student bent over the microscope to take a look.

“And yet,” the biologist went on, “she is the unique epitome of Life itself! She need never fear age nor senility, for she merely splits in two, then four, then eight. She knows no death… unless, of course, the water bubble she is swimming in evaporates without warning.”

He reached for a glass of drinking salts which had ceased effervescing; a powdery white precipitate lined its bottom. “I have the acid in my system,” he remarked. Then he licked his lips, made a face, and carried on:

“Alas! With multicellulation, complexity, and what we call evolutionary sophistication, death has entered the picture. No complex lifeform can expect to live indefinitely; and, the fact is, its struggle for survival benefits not itself but its offspring. And the same goes for its offspring: they fight to exist for the sake of their offspring, and so on. Sad but true, Life cannot be without Death. This is the Universal Paradox.”

The biologist seemed pleased with this statement, and gulped down the rest of his drinking salts without a grimace.

“I’m sorry, doctor, but I don’t believe I understood that last bit. What you said about life being an offshoot of death. Is that what you mean?”

“Life springs from death. Death springs from life. Ach, but who cares, after all, ja? We limit our consideration to Life only. That is a much brighter prospect, no?”

“Yes, I agree, but I’m still puzzled by what you said about there being no life without death…”

“Or no death without life, put it anyway you like. It is the same, I think.”

“Let us talk about your conception of death, then, doctor.”

“Ach, ach, no, no, no! Remember, biology is the study of living things. If you wish to know about death, consult a mortician, ha ha ha!”

PART FOUR

The Professor’s face was crimson. He wasn’t angry. He had high blood pressure, and everyone kept saying he ought to take a rest. But he was an obstinate old coot. “My work is more important,” he insisted. He was fond of defining and measuring the importance of things.

“Oh, good morning, Professor.”

“Yes, yes, good morning, if you say so. It’s much too humid for pleasantries.”

“Er, Professor, I’ve done the research. Here’s the paper I’ve written.”

“Ahhh. Your thesis. Let’s have a look… Hmmmmm, a little on the short side, I’m afraid." He shook the paper in the student's face and continued: “Short indeed! A long way from what one might classify as verbose, hmmm. Extraordinarily compact, in fact. Hmmmmm, let’s see…”

The student self-consciously lit a cigarette and tried not to notice the strange expression on the Professor’s face as he read the essay. But he couldn’t help observing that the old man’s face had reddened even more. He half expected the Professor to explode with something like: “This puerile jest fails to amuse me!”

However, the Professor was quite restrained, knowing how important it was to keep calm. His white, brittle hair stood out in stark contrast with his flushed face.

“Aha! Aha! What’s this? Quote: There is no Universe without Life. Life is a glass of wine and death the dregs that await at the bottom. The Universe is the wine, the dregs, the glass, the drinker, and the Thirsty Soul that oscillates between ecstasy and despondency, replenishing her vessel in perpetuity. Unquote…”

The Professor’s wry smile was almost humorous. “Which reminds me, “ he said, looking up from the essay and reaching for a bottle of port from the tray beside him. “May I offer you a tipple?”

The student politely declined, clearing his throat somewhat neurasthenically. He had a maniacal urge to leap out the window and get away from the Professor and his stuffy office.

“Life is a glass of wine, eh?” said the Professor, lifting the glass of port to his lips with a raised pinkie. He let out a weary sigh. “Rather interesting, I must admit. Even poetic, but I’m afraid rather inconclusive and vague, to say the least. Hmmmmm…”

The Professor turned the glass round in his heavily veined hand, absently studying the ruby liquid. “You have omitted a very important thing no essay should ever be without. You have not specified the essence of your concepts relative to your allegorical argument, and this seriously weakens your thesis.”

The Professor sighed again, as though in pain, and said, more softly now: “Body… and substance… that is what’s lacking. Rather inconclusive, I’m afraid.”

Then he gulped down the port, which ostensibly cheered him, for he looked up at the student and smiled his usual sanguine smile.


Text & Illustrations © Antares, 1967 & 2015

Joseph F. Martino, Jr in 1968

Joseph F. Martino, Jr (who studied Literature at Cornell under the tutelage of Vladimir Nabokov) taught creative writing at West Essex High School, New Jersey, in the 1960s. 

As a 17-year-old exchange student I happened to enrol in Joe's class in the fall of 1967 and this was my first attempt at a short story. It now comes across as a naïve and pretentious foray into the nebulous domains of epistemology and ontology, but since Joe very generously gave me an 'A' for it, I'll be brazen and publish it here for archival interest - and as a tribute to a truly dedicated mentor I shall never forget.

[First posted 23 August 2015, reposted 4 July 2017, 18 November 2019 & 29 November 2021]

A Farewell Message from MJ...

What about sunrise?
What about rain?
What about all the things,
That you said we were to gain?
What about killing fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the things,
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice,
All the blood we've shed before?
Did you ever stop to notice,
The crying Earth the weeping shores?

Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........

What have we done to the world?
Look what we've done.
What about all the peace,
That you pledge your only son?
What about flowering fields?
Is there a time?
What about all the dreams,
That you said was yours and mine?

Did you ever stop to notice,
All the children dead from war?
Did you ever stop to notice,
This crying Earth these weeping shores?

Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........

I used to dream.
I used to glance beyond the stars.
Now I don't know where we are.
Although I know we've drifted far.

Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........
Aah............... Oo...........

Hey-yea!
What about yesterday?
What about the seas?
The heavens are falling down.
I can't even breathe!
What about apathy?
I can feel its wounds.
What about nature's worth?
It's our planet's womb!

What about animals?
We've turned kingdoms to dust,
What about elephants?
Have we lost their trust?
What about crying whales?
Ravaging the seas.
What about forest trails?
Burnt despite our pleas!

What about the holy land?
Torn apart by creed.
What about the common man?
Can't we set him free?
What about children dying?
Can't you hear them cry?
Where did we go wrong?
Someone tell me why!

What about baby boy?
What about the days?
What about all their joy?
What about the man?
What about the crying man?
What about Abraham?
What about death again?
Do we give a damn?!



Michael Joseph Jackson (29 August 1958 – 25 June 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums are among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as Beat It, Billie Jean and Thriller — credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool — helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as Black or White and Scream made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced many hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.

One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records — including one for "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time" — 13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career — more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era — and the sales of over 750 million albums worldwide. Cited as one of the world's most famous men, Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. [Source: Wikipedia]

SPECIAL BONUS TRIBUTE FEATURE...


MJ may have died laughing at this vid!

[First posted 26 June 2009] Reposted 5 August 2014]

Does the mysterious 432 hold the key to universal attunement and harmony? (reprise)

There's a whole lot I still haven't understood after viewing the above videos - but I'm definitely convinced that the 432Hz frequency used by Hermetic philosophers like Pythagoras and Tibetan musicians carries a vital resonance that links up with cosmic cycles, small and great.

For a start the number 432 features prominently in Hindu cosmogony as well as in Nordic legends. A yuga (age) supposedly lasts 432,000 years; while a kalpa (aeon) is 4.32 billion years, approximately the age of planet Earth as calculated by radio-astronomers. The Icelandic Edda declares that in the Halls of Odin there are 540 doors through each of which 800 warriors will pass on the day of the Final Battle: 540 X 800 = 432,000, of course.

Consider the way time is measured: 60 seconds in an hour and 12 hours in a day. Guess how many seconds constitute a 12-hour day? 60 X 60 X 12 = 43,200.

Obviously, the 432Hz frequency is a key fractal of cosmic cycles - and when you consider that the "sacred number" 108, multiplied by four, equals 432... the mind begins to boggle at what else a dedicated mathematical sleuth will discover.

Serious researchers into cymatics (the science of soundwave phenomena) like Leonard G. Horowitz believe that the standard concert tuning of A=440Hz was introduced by the Rockefeller Foundation, following years of secret experiments on the psycho-emotional use of music for mind-control. Apparently, at 440Hz music can produce a subsurface tension affecting the human nervous system, making us susceptible to hysteria, hostility and herd mentality. Although Horowitz advocated A=444Hz as standard tuning instead of 432Hz, it's fascinating to delve a little into what obsessed him. (Click on the link above to read his excellent thesis titled "Musical Cult Control.")

As music plays a very important part in my life, I'm inclined to take these findings to heart. This blog is a follow-up on something I posted in mid-September, also relating to the importance of recent rediscoveries in the arcane field of cymatics.

[First posted 22 November 2011. Reposted 27 November 2020

SPOTLIGHT ON ZAHIM ALBAKRI (repost)

A young Zahim (r) plays the Angel of Death

Malaysia’s top-ranking actor-director shifts into high gear

By Antares

Appropriately enough I first met Zahim Albakri on stage - in a 1988 production of Maureen Ten’s For The Time Being. I played a dying doctor and Zahim was cast as an angel assigned to assist in the doctor’s transition. Zahim had recently returned from drama studies in the U.K. and this was his introduction to Malaysian theater. With the benefit of hindsight it appears that Zahim’s rôle as an angel of transition was indeed a prophetic one.

In the decades since his return to the homeland, Zahim Albakri has been a key factor in helping shift local theater from the amateur end of the spectrum to the professional. He didn’t accomplish this feat alone, of course. Look at his peer group - Jit Murad, Jo Kukathas, Huzir Sulaiman, Allan Perera, Indi Nadarajah, Afdlin Shauki, Harith Iskandar, Patrick Teoh, Nell Ng, Gavin Yap – all theater luminaries in their own right. They are undoubtedly the fresh wave of talent that has swept up the theater-loving legacy of the older aficionados and carried it to entirely new heights.

  

Co-founder of Instant Cafe Theatre

In 1989 Zahim got together with a few buddies and founded the notorious Instant Café Theatre, which carved a prominent niche for itself in political satire. He subsequently created Dramalab as a vehicle to explore and develop original works, and to promote the further growth of a Malaysian theater idiom.

Stage actors began receiving modest wages only around 1990, so almost everyone aspiring to a full-time career in local theater had to moonlight in TV dramas and the occasional feature film. Zahim Albakri has appeared in countless Malay TV dramas, many of which are best forgotten, but he did score a Best Actor award in 1999 for his performance in something called Odisi. The Boh Cameronian Arts Awards - inaugurated in 2002 and now affectionately known as the Cammies - was a timely boost to the performing arts in Malaysia in that excellent work was at last getting the public recognition it deserved.

Making waves in theater

Zahim bagged the Cammy for Best Director (Spilt Gravy on Rice) the very first year. In 2004 he was voted Best Solo Performer for The Smell of Language, and a year later he shared the Best Director Cammy with Singapore’s Alvin Tan for Separation 40 (a Dramalab/Necessary Stage co-production). His huge directorial success with Puteri Gunung Ledang – The Musical has established Zahim Albakri as a veritable icon in Malaysian theater. When I met him over lunch towards the end of August 2006, Zahim was in the midst of reprising his rôle as director of Jit Murad’s maiden play, Gold Rain and Hailstones, first staged in August 1998 to tremendous acclaim, and which begins an 11-day run on September 7th, this time on the big stage at the newly inaugurated KL Performing Arts Center.

Zahim’s mother Valerie is a vivacious Englishwoman with a distinct flair for the arts. Her ambition was to be a professional dancer, but her parents persuaded her to get a bank job instead. Valerie became a speech and drama teacher in Malaysia when she married Zahim’s dad - an eminent architect best known for the National Library and the landmark Putra World Trade Center. In February 2006, Zahim’s father had a heart attack while playing golf, and died. Zahim has two siblings: elder brother Zarul (a musician and film producer) and younger sister Zehan (who followed her father’s footsteps and took up architecture).

Zahim Albakri: conferred Datukships in 2009 & 2015

The warmth and affection with which Zahim speaks of his parents is tangible. He did toy for a while with the idea of becoming an architect like his dad, but instead opted to express his artistic impulses in the more kinetic field of theater where he subsequently earned his Master’s degree in Theater Directing. 

He rarely intellectualizes about directing, preferring to approach his work intuitively, allowing for serendipity and creative inputs from his cast and crew. Zahim’s lifelong interest in architectural forms and physical structures grounds him firmly in the visual aspects of dramaturgy, while his early exposure to the magic of theater gives him a solid grasp of the alchemy that happens when the right actors get together to dramatize a story.

Born January 12th in 1963, Zahim Albakri is a firmly established, mature actor and director in the fullness of his prime, poised on the brink of even greater accomplishments.

[First published in The Hilt, September 2006. Posted 27 July 2017]