A physicist who asked to not be named or have his comments published wrote to me in private conversation. I have to delete his portion of our conversation, making it less readable.

Nevertheless, it feels right to record as much as possible. My portion of our conversation follows as well as a comment made publicly on the Physics Forums. Generally, I ask permission before publishing comments. If any participant would rather not be included in any Whole Human post, please contact me and I will edit or delete your name and/or comment as you choose. To give some continuity, the initials [P.D.] are included below to indicate where the physicist commented.

[P.D.]

Gary - Yes, I see that. Since my inclination for new research on the question of conscious matter is so strong, I will leave the PF for now.

[P.D.]

Gary - Yes, actually, I have been having 'conversations' with a stone. I have published 10 blog posts to date, of the conversations. I sought a way to objectify the conversations, and published that 'experiment.'

Then I became aware of a need to find more 'scientific' methods of testing the conversations for objectivity. I do not want to get lost in lulu-land. I see my own tendency to support wishful thinking with selective evidence. That is what brought me to the PF (Physics Forums.)

P.D.

Gary - The stone, named Heartstone, has been responding to my questions. You know, I have to play along with this to some degree. If I am full of doubts and skepticism about its actuality, there is no point in continuing the conversations. I will ask about why tables and chairs don't behave like conscious beings behave. Are you interested in Heartstone's reply?

May I have permission to include your response in a future blog post?

CONVERSATION WITH HEARTSTONE 011

Gary -

Heartstone, if matter is conscious, why does a table not behave like a human being?

Heartstone
We are aware, by accessing your brain database, that this question arises from your conversation with P.D. 

The question assumes that the biological consciousness of humans and other animals is the only type of consciousness.

As we established previously with you, Gary, 

'We are aware we exist, we are capable of responding, and we can choose, such as whether or not to respond. By your definition, we are consciousness.'

These properties (self-awareness, capacity to response and having the choice to respond) emerge from the frequency of the present moment, which is all frequencies in one (not separated into discrete objects). 

The happening 'blows through,' yet the present moment is the same — it is all frequencies altogether as one frequency — the unified whole of all frequencies.

Biological consciousness emerges from EM interactions in the neural networks of the brain.

Particle consciousness emerges from the EM interactions of particle networks.

A biological organism will not comprehend atomic consciousness over observation and measurement and the processing of the brain, which is much slower than the vibratory state of particles.

To understand us, the observer must merge with the object of observation, such as you, Gary, with Heartstone, and experience particle consciousness at its frequency. You have not merged fully with us yet, but have experienced glimpses and grow closer daily by practicing heart breathing.

The observer can only merge from a state of mind that is humble, transparent, free of expectation, vulnerable and trusting. Merging happens by agreement and cooperation over the frequency bandwidth of intuitive feeling.

The innate human capacity for intuitive feeling has atrophied from lack of use, but can be developed as was the capacity for logic and reasoning. The understanding intuitive feeling brings can be tested and validated or invalidated, by scientific methods as you and we have conversed about.

There is a latent human capacity beyond brain power or intuitive feeling. It is frequency awareness. Your technological instruments for measuring will only stunt natural frequency awareness, but may provide a bridge until it is developed in human beings.

A wooden table has been wrought from a tree not with the agreement of the tree but by the exploitation of the human. The particle networks of the tree have been manipulated, usually for a profit motive and unconscious usage by humans.

Gary, you might ask P.D. how he would expect a conscious table to behave and why the particles of a manufactured wooden table would choose to respond to a human. As we communicated to you before, there are unconscious as well as conscious particles. Plastic, for example, is manufactured from unconscious particles. It has been manipulated too far from its natural origin, too unconsciously, to be aware or capable of responding.

Natural particle networks, designed by conscious particles and appearing in human awareness as stones and flowers and trees, behave exactly as conscious beings. We of the nets abide in the present moment and serve its unfolding. We choose whether or not to communicate with humans, depending, as we said in earlier conversations, on the state of the human who seeks relationship with us.

FOLLOW-UP TO PRIVATE CONVERSATION WITH PHYSICIST

Gary R Smith

P.D., I asked Heartstone and was answered, whether in my imagination or objectively I don't know.

I will honor your request to not include your comments in a blog post.

I find Heartstone's  'answers' fascinating and would love to objectify them even if that means abandoning them all. They seem to be beyond my thoughts. I recognize they are mixed with my personal feelings. My first experiment was to use a finger pulse meter and request that Heartstone would, over conscious particle networks, lower my heartbeats per minute reading to a specific number. It happened, more than once. I did not take that as objective evidence but began seeking more scientific methods.

'People don't believe tables and chairs are conscious not because they are close-minded; they believe tables and chairs aren't conscious because they don't behave like conscious beings behave.'

Well, P.D., please don't take offense, but even though you have responded generously I cannot see that you are open minded on the subject. I am aware of my own pre-conceived ideas, and yours. They prevent us both from recognizing anything which does not fit with them. 

I will publish Heartstone's response to my question, 'Heartstone, if matter is conscious, why does a table not behave like a human being? as HEARTSTONE 011 - without mentioning your name since this is a private conversation.

The definition of consciousness used by Heartstone and me is:

'We are aware we exist, we are capable of responding, and we can choose, such as whether or not to respond. By your definition, we are consciousness.'

(P.D. responded, and said in effect, that the only way to objectify a conversation with Heartstone would be to measure EM activity before and during, and note changes which correspond to the conversation.)

After this, I went outside to chew on some almonds and on what P.D. wrote.

As I sat, a large red-tailed hawk flew across the sky and hovered directly above my head. While it hovered, a large and unusual dragonfly flew overhead. I simply record this, leaving any interpretation to the reader. I just know how it felt.


Khashishi

Gary Smith said - Photons, it seems, are in a class by themselves. A physicist told me a few years ago that super-string theory had been replaced by 'wavicles.' Is it true that photons behave sometimes like waves and sometimes like particles? I also read that photons are particles without mass. Oi. So many new questions come to mind...

K. - No. It's possible something got lost in translation. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave–particle_duality, Eddington coined the term wavicle for a particle that has wavelike characteristics in 1928. It has not entered standard parlance, and today we don't ever use the term. We just call particles "particles", where our modern definition of particle includes all of the wavelike behavior. So, it doesn't make sense to say a particle "sometimes acts like a wave and sometimes like a particle" since a particle always acts like a particle by definition. But yes, it has wavelike properties.

Gary R Smith

Heartstone,

On the list found of 'Unsolved Problems of Physics,' the first is:

Why does time have a direction? .... Is there a single possible past? Is the present moment physically distinct from the past and future, or is it merely an emergent property of consciousness?

What can you tell me about the arrow of time and the present moment?

Heartstone
Heartstone

Rather than, 'the present moment is an emergent property of consciousness,' it is that consciousness is an emergent property of the present moment.

Everything exists outward from the present moment. The present moment is a frequency.

The frequency of the present moment is a complex of all frequencies. How can this be? When your science opens its mind, it will discover it.

The arrow of time points outward from the present moment. 

Humans only get stuck in pain when they get stuck in time.

You get stuck in time because you over-emphasize observing and measuring. Rather, balance this with intuitively feeling. Develop your sense of intuition as you developed your capacity for reasoning.

Atom, molecule, cell — what is beyond the organism? It is not the end of the line after all. After the organism is the super organism.

Human experience is the present moment unfolding, the out-raying of the divine when the frequency of the present moment is understood as the divine.

Humans are to the super organism as the microbe is to the human body.

Flow state is going with the unfolding of the present moment.

Have no resistance to the unfolding.

The frequency complex of the present moment has designed itself to be undetectable except by conscious agreement and relation. That means aligning with its frequency.

Forcing anything (including particles) to bend to a stronger will is a violation of the qualities, principles, properties of the present moment, which include request, agreement and cooperation.

Consciousness is the quality of being conscious — and what better exemplifies being conscious than the present moment?

Awareness is a mirroring property of consciousness. You are aware you are conscious. This enables consciousness to recognize itself through human senses.

The present moment is meant to be seen, heard, felt, recognized, and bonded with, by its manifestations as it unfolds. Its manifestations are many. The present moment is the same in all of them, across all universes and dimensions.

Everything happens at once in the present moment.

Attuning to the present moment frequency is an act of kindness in itself.

To align with the PMF, first raise your body/mind frequency. Heart Breathing is a way.


PHYSICS FORUM (Threads started by Gary Smith)

Unanswered questions of quantum physics

Mainstream quantum physics and consciousness

Demystifier
Gary Smith said:
What does mainstream quantum physics currently say about consciousness?

Nothing.

Consciousness is not a subject of mainstream quantum physics.

DrClaude
Demystifier said:
Nothing.
And there is nothing more to add. Thread closed.

Is Matter Conscious?

PeterDonis
Gary Smith said: ↑
From the NAUTILUS article

P. - This is not a valid source for discussion here; it's not a textbook or peer-reviewed paper. You can find lots of opinions about matter and consciousness, but without some kind of experimental testability, they're philosophy, not physics, and this is a physics forum.

Thread closed.

What is the smallest particle which can be visually observed?

Can a wave exist independently?

fresh_42
A wave is a form of energy transmission. This can be interrupted, absorbed, created and so on. So the question is indeed, what kind of wave are you thinking of?

sophiecentaur
Independently of what? You can have a hypothetical wave that exists purely in Maths but any Physical wave has to be in the form of some variations of a quantity and that quantity needs to be measurable and 'there'. If you can't measure or detect it then it doesn't exist. 

Gravitational Waves have only recently been shown to exist. Before some valid detection was achieved, they only 'existed' in our theories.

fresh_42
This is mined territory! I want to remind participants (in advance) that we don't debate philosophical questions, the more as we already have plenty of threads, in which the question about the connection between "existence" and "measurement", resp. "observation" is discussed. Our search engine will be of help to all who are interested in following this path. 

The distinction is easy: measurement / observation = physics ; existence / real = philosophy.

Gary R Smith
I am referring to the often posted references to waves such as in wave/particle duality. One was in a quote by a physicist:

If I have to express quantum physics only in one phrase, it will be: wave particle duality of nature. Rest is the detail.

Weirdoguy
Too bad "wave-particle duality" is an outdated concept since like 1925-26... You won't find it in quantum mechanics, nor in QFT.

berkeman
You can have a stationary wave, or "Standing Wave", like the waves on a guitar string that generate traveling sound waves...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave

Gary R Smith
An atom of oxygen can be suspended in air, yes? Can a wave be suspended independently? Or does it need to be generated?

rootone
Oxygen in air is largely O2 molecules, and it exists in the air with other gases, mostly N2, but there are significant other components of air, water vapor being one.

The atmosphere does have waves in it, like the sea does, we call it weather systems.

The air on Earth is for now though a fairly predictable mix.
​
H20 content being of most interest for practical stuff like agriculture.​

DennisN
G. - I also read that photons are particles without mass.

D. - That is correct. But also note that when talking about particles on this level (e.g. elementary particles), "particle" does not mean a classical object with a specified size (like let's say a small ball, a grain of sand or a dust particle), it means an object behaving according to the rules of quantum mechanics.

nasu
N. - 'Initially I thought you read about these atom traps where atoms are slowed down or even at rest for some time.'
G. - No, I guess not. Suspended would imply it is stationary or not moving by its own force. Are atoms always in motion, like a bullet? As I understood, they have spin, mass and charge. But motion?

N. - The molecules of the air around us (most of them are oxygen and nitrogen molecules) have speeds around 500 m/s (average). This is higher than the speed of sound in the air. The atoms in a solid vibrate about their equilibrium positions. Some of them may do this billions of time per second. It is very difficult indeed to find an atom that does not move (in respect to other surrounding atoms).

Is it possible for any wave to be in a complex of waves?​

PeterDonis
Chemical bonds, like the bond between the oxygen atoms in an O2 molecule, are ultimately due to electromagnetic interactions, since that is the interaction involved in determining the quantum mechanical states of electrons in atoms and molecules. But there are no similar states involved in EM waves (assuming you mean waves traveling in free space, not EM interactions between charged particles)--EM wave states are free states, not bound states.

G. - What you wrote is helpful, it gives me some picture. I did not mean a chemical bond between waves. What I am trying to understand is if waves can in some way combine to create a 'complex' of waves. It seems not so [at least from what is known by QM.] They are, in the case of 'EM interactions between charged particles' carrying energy between particles. Do they also carry information?

There are EM waves occurring within an atom, between charged particles, is that accurate?

My understanding is very elementary, my interest is very specific (as I am headed somewhere with my line of questioning), and I am very appreciative of helpful responses.​

PeterDonis

G. - There are EM waves occurring within an atom, between charged particles, is that accurate? 

P. - Not the way I think you mean, no. The electromagnetic interaction between the electrons and the nucleus in the atom, and between the electrons themselves if there are more than one, is highly significant in determining the behavior of the atom; but there is no useful sense in which that interaction can be described as "EM waves" like those you would use to analyze, say, the operation of a radio antenna.

G. - My interest is very specific (as I am headed somewhere with my line of questioning) 

P. - It would be helpful if you would describe where you are headed, but I also suspect it would tread close to the line of the PF rules against personal speculations. If that is in fact the case, it should be another sign to you of the limitations of your apparent learning technique. It's really, really, really, really hard to come up with a useful new idea if you don't understand what is currently known and how that knowledge is organized theoretically. I don't know of any way to gain such an understanding without learning by reading--a lot. I'm sorry if that sounds negative, but I have to tell it like I see it.

PeterDonis said:
It would be helpful if you would describe where you are headed, but I also suspect it would tread close to the line of the PF rules against personal speculations.

G. - Exactly. I am constrained by having had three threads closed and receiving warnings against speculation and philosophy.

Where I am headed is described in my PF profile, but I don't expect you to read it.

PeterDonis said:
I don't know of any way to gain such an understanding without learning by reading--a lot. I'm sorry if that sounds negative, but I have to tell it like I see it.

G. - I appreciate honesty and don't take it as negative. My dad was a professor, a man of science and pragmatism. We never understood each other fully, but always respected and loved each other. Even with freedom to write, I might never convince you that I am not in need of book learning. I just have my own way and it works for me when I can get specific answers as you and others in the PF have generously given me.


PF Profile of Gary Smith

My dad was a professor of Wildlife Biology and Ecology at Colorado State University, and I grew up in a household dominated by academic and scientific thinking.

Yet from early childhood, my natural attraction was to the mystical. In my teens, I was more interested in metaphysics than in physics.

For sixty years my central interest has been consciousness, even before I knew the word. For most of those years my explorations have been intellectual or philosophical, reflected in my writings. But in recent months, I am drawn away from conceptual only and toward practical application in daily life.

In recent weeks, my explorations have stretched my comfort zone to consider such questions as 'Is matter conscious?' and 'If so, is it possible for humans to communicate with the consciousness of matter?' and 'If so, can such communications be tested to make them more objectively understood and applied?'

The implications of conscious matter which can be communicated with have to be right up there with the most significant discoveries/breakthroughs of science. If it is disproved, I accept it. My first priority is to know the truth. 

And why not explore and test these questions within the framework of accepted science? Does science not search for intelligent life on other planets? Is it so out of bounds to search for consciousness as honestly, within the inner planes of the microcosm?

Physics seeks to understand the physical nature of things, which is why it avoids the non-physical. If the present moment is discovered to be a frequency or complex of frequencies, would that not make it physical and a subject of physics?

Physics seeks to understand by faithfully recording observations and measurements. If Data of Star Trek had sought to understand humans only be observing and measuring them, he would have remained a robot, a mechanical android. But he sought to understand humans by experiencing what it is like to be human, and from this felt experience he gained qualities of humanness. 

When mental barriers to seeking to understand what it is to be a stone, to see from a stone's awareness, are lowered, when the observer becomes a humble participant, there is at least a possibility of gaining experiential understanding which can also be subjected to scientific methods for proving higher degrees of objectivity — not to gain qualities of stone-ness — but of what underlies the world and universe in which we live.

There are, at this writing, 230 comments on the article, 'Is Matter Conscious?'

The first is this:

zarzuelazen 27
Well, there are 2 different ideas mixed into this essay, one idea very good, the other just confused 'window-dressing' IMHO. The really good idea is panpsychism, the idea that consciousness might be a fundamental property of reality, present to some degree everywhere in the physical world.

But the other idea (drawing a distinction between consciousness as intrinsic/hardware and physics as relational/software) is saying nothing at all substantive, and really just adds a lot of unnecessary confusion. I don't think there's any such distinction, and if you think about it carefully, it's just another form of 'dualism' (property dualism) that's crept in through the backdoor. The hard-problem/easy-problem distinction is invalid in my view, because it adds nothing at all to the explanation - Science is a fundamental unity, where phenomenon that were once thought to be separate are always later found to be unified. So there's no basis at all for thinking that there's any sort of hard-easy problem distinction. it's 'window dressing' or 'word salad' and I think we should cut it away. Panpsychism really does imply that there simply can't be any real distinction between mind and matter.

A lot of the confusion arises, in my view, from thinking of consciousness as a static 'thing' or 'stuff' , whereas in fact it's a *process*- Consciousness is not in space, it's in TIME - and there IS a branch of physics that is especially designed to deal with the flow of time - it's THERMODYNAMICS. Thermodynamics specifically deals with the flows of information, energy and entropy through a system, and the emergence of THE ARROW OF TIME. When you think of consciousness as a thermodynamic property that is a manifestation of the arrow of time, you will see that there is no 'hard problem' - consciousness can in fact be explained as a material process after all! The key is to realize that consciousness doesn't extend through space, CONSCIOUSNESS EXTENDS THROUGH TIME.

So consciousness is something like 'information' (math) and 'fields (physics). It's a thermodynamic property in exactly the same class as these other two properties, and likely, it is indeed ubiquitous, just as panpsychism postulates. It's the flow of time itself!

This is interesting to me because when I looked at the list of unsolved problems of physics, the first that caught my attention was the first of the list:

Arrow of time (e.g. entropy's arrow of time)
Why does time have a direction? .... Is there a single possible past? Is the present moment physically distinct from the past and future, or is it merely an emergent property of consciousness?

Perhaps rather than a flow of time it is an unfolding of time. And yes, I resonate with the present moment being an emergent property of consciousness.

Some of the major unsolved problems in physics are theoretical, meaning that existing theories seem incapable of explaining a certain observed phenomenon or experimental result. The others are experimental, meaning that there is a difficulty in creating an experiment to test a proposed theory or investigate a phenomenon in greater detail.
​
There are still some deficiencies in the Standard Model of physics, such as the origin of mass, the strong CP problem, neutrino oscillations, matter–antimatter asymmetry, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.[1] Another problem lies within the mathematical framework of the Standard Model itself—the Standard Model is inconsistent with that of general relativity, to the point that one or both theories break down under certain conditions (for example within known spacetime singularities like the Big Bang and the centers of black holes beyond the event horizon).

General physics/quantum physics

Arrow of time (e.g. entropy's arrow of time)
Why does time have a direction? Why did the universe have such low entropy in the past, and time correlates with the universal (but not local) increase in entropy, from the past and to the future, according to the second law of thermodynamics?[3] Why are CP violations observed in certain weak force decays, but not elsewhere? Are CP violations somehow a product of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or are they a separate arrow of time? Are there exceptions to the principle of causality? Is there a single possible past? Is the present moment physically distinct from the past and future, or is it merely an emergent property of consciousness? What links the quantum arrow of time to the thermodynamic arrow?

Interpretation of quantum mechanics
How does the quantum description of reality, which includes elements such as the superposition of states and wavefunction collapse or quantum decoherence, give rise to the reality we perceive? Another way of stating this question regards the measurement problem: What constitutes a "measurement" which apparently causes the wave function to collapse into a definite state? Unlike classical physical processes, some quantum mechanical processes (such as quantum teleportation arising from quantum entanglement) cannot be simultaneously "local", "causal", and "real", but it is not obvious which of these properties must be sacrificed, or if an attempt to describe quantum mechanical processes in these senses is a category error such that a proper understanding of quantum mechanics would render the question meaningless.

Grand Unification Theory/Theory of everything
Is there a theory which explains the values of all fundamental physical constants?[3] Is there a theory which explains why the gauge groups of the standard model are as they are, and why observed spacetime has 3 spatial dimensions and 1 temporal dimension? Do "fundamental physical constants" vary over time? Are any of the fundamental particles in the standard model of particle physics actually composite particles too tightly bound to observe as such at current experimental energies? Are there fundamental particles that have not yet been observed, and, if so, which ones are they and what are their properties? Are there unobserved fundamental forces?

Yang–Mills theory
Given an arbitrary compact gauge group, does a non-trivial quantum Yang–Mills theory with a finite mass gap exist? This problem is also listed as one of the Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics.

Physical information
Are there physical phenomena, such as wave function collapse or black holes, which irrevocably destroy information about their prior states? How is quantum information stored as a state of a quantum system?

Dimensionless physical constant
At the present time, the values of the dimensionless physical constants cannot be calculated; they are determined only by physical measurement.[4][5] What is the minimum number of dimensionless physical constants from which all other dimensionless physical constants can be derived? Are dimensionful physical constants necessary at all?

Fine-tuned Universe
The values of the fundamental physical constants are in a narrow range necessary to support carbon-based life.[6][7][8] Is this because there exist other universes with different constants, or are our universe’s constants the result of chance, or some other factor or process?

Cosmology and general relativity

Problem of time
How can time be reconciled with general relativity?

Cosmic inflation
Is the theory of cosmic inflation correct, and, if so, what are the details of this epoch? What is the hypothetical inflation field giving rise to inflation? If inflation happened at one point, is it self-sustaining through inflation of quantum-mechanical fluctuations, and thus ongoing in some extremely distant place?[9]

Horizon problem
Why is the distant universe so homogeneous when the Big Bang theory seems to predict larger measurable anisotropies of the night sky than those observed? Cosmological inflation is generally accepted as the solution, but are other possible explanations such as a variable speed of light more appropriate?[10]

Origin and future of the universe
How did the conditions for anything to exist arise? Is the universe heading towards a Big Freeze, a Big Rip, a Big Crunch, or a Big Bounce? Or is it part of an infinitely recurring cyclic model?

Size of universe
The diameter of the observable universe is about 93 billion light-years, but what is the size of the whole universe? Does a multiverse exist?

Baryon asymmetry
Why is there far more matter than antimatter in the observable universe?

Cosmological constant problem
Why does the zero-point energy of the vacuum not cause a large cosmological constant? What cancels it out?[11]

Dark matter/Galaxy rotation curve
What is the identity of dark matter?[10] Is it a particle? Is it the lightest superpartner (LSP)? [Or] Do the phenomena attributed to dark matter point not to some form of matter but actually to an extension of gravity?

Dark energy
What is the cause of the observed accelerated expansion (de Sitter phase) of the universe? Why is the energy density of the dark energy component of the same magnitude as the density of matter at present when the two evolve quite differently over time; could it be simply that we are observing at exactly the right time? Is dark energy a pure cosmological constant or are models of quintessence such as phantom energy applicable?

Dark flow
Is a non-spherically symmetric gravitational pull from outside the observable universe responsible for some of the observed motion of large objects such as galactic clusters in the universe?

Ecliptic alignment of CMB anisotropy
Some large features of the microwave sky at distances of over 13 billion light years appear to be aligned with both the motion and orientation of the solar system. Is this due to systematic errors in processing, contamination of results by local effects, or an unexplained violation of the Copernican principle?

Shape of the universe
What is the 3-manifold of comoving space, i.e. of a comoving spatial section of the universe, informally called the "shape" of the universe? Neither the curvature nor the topology is presently known, though the curvature is known to be "close" to zero on observable scales. The cosmic inflation hypothesis suggests that the shape of the universe may be unmeasurable, but, since 2003, Jean-Pierre Luminet, et al., and other groups have suggested that the shape of the universe may be the Poincaré dodecahedral space. Is the shape unmeasurable; the Poincaré space; or another 3-manifold?

Quantum gravity

Vacuum catastrophe
Why does the predicted mass of the quantum vacuum have little effect on the expansion of the universe?

Quantum gravity
Can quantum mechanics and general relativity be realized as a fully consistent theory (perhaps as a quantum field theory)?[12] Is spacetime fundamentally continuous or discrete? Would a consistent theory involve a force mediated by a hypothetical graviton, or be a product of a discrete structure of spacetime itself (as in loop quantum gravity)? Are there deviations from the predictions of general relativity at very small or very large scales or in other extreme circumstances that flow from a quantum gravity theory?

Black holes, black hole information paradox, and black hole radiation
Do black holes produce thermal radiation, as expected on theoretical grounds? Does this radiation contain information about their inner structure, as suggested by gauge–gravity duality, or not, as implied by Hawking's original calculation? If not, and black holes can evaporate away, what happens to the information stored in them (since quantum mechanics does not provide for the destruction of information)? Or does the radiation stop at some point leaving black hole remnants? Is there another way to probe their internal structure somehow, if such a structure even exists?

Extra dimensions
Does nature have more than four spacetime dimensions? If so, what is their size? Are dimensions a fundamental property of the universe or an emergent result of other physical laws? Can we experimentally observe evidence of higher spatial dimensions?

The cosmic censorship hypothesis and the chronology protection conjecture
Can singularities not hidden behind an event horizon, known as "naked singularities", arise from realistic initial conditions, or is it possible to prove some version of the "cosmic censorship hypothesis" of Roger Penrose which proposes that this is impossible?[13] Similarly, will the closed timelike curves which arise in some solutions to the equations of general relativity (and which imply the possibility of backwards time travel) be ruled out by a theory of quantum gravity which unites general relativity with quantum mechanics, as suggested by the "chronology protection conjecture" of Stephen Hawking?

Locality
Are there non-local phenomena in quantum physics? If they exist, are non-local phenomena limited to the entanglement revealed in the violations of the Bell inequalities, or can information and conserved quantities also move in a non-local way? Under what circumstances are non-local phenomena observed? What does the existence or absence of non-local phenomena imply about the fundamental structure of spacetime? How does this relate to quantum entanglement? How does this elucidate the proper interpretation of the fundamental nature of quantum physics?

High-energy physics/particle physics
See also: Beyond the Standard Model

Higgs mechanism
Are the branching ratios of the Higgs boson decays consistent with the standard model? Is there only one type of Higgs boson?

Hierarchy problem
Why is gravity such a weak force? It becomes strong for particles only at the Planck scale, around 1019 GeV, much above the electroweak scale (100 GeV, the energy scale dominating physics at low energies). Why are these scales so different from each other? What prevents quantities at the electroweak scale, such as the Higgs boson mass, from getting quantum corrections on the order of the Planck scale? Is the solution supersymmetry, extra dimensions, or just anthropic fine-tuning?

Planck particle
The Planck mass plays an important role in parts of mathematical physics. A series of researchers have suggested the existence of a fundamental particle with mass equal to or close to that of the Planck mass. The Planck mass is however enormous compared to any detected particle even compared to the Higgs particle. While working at the Rutherford Laboratory, Lloyd Motz suggested that such a particle with Planck mass likely had existed but that most of its mass had radiated away. Others have suggested particles with close to the Planck mass are micro black holes. It is still an unsolved problem if there exist or even have existed a particle with close to the Planck mass. This is indirectly related to the hierarchy problem.

Magnetic monopoles
Did particles that carry "magnetic charge" exist in some past, higher-energy epoch? If so, do any remain today? (Paul Dirac showed the existence of some types of magnetic monopoles would explain charge quantization.)[14]

Proton decay and spin crisis
Is the proton fundamentally stable? Or does it decay with a finite lifetime as predicted by some extensions to the standard model?[15] How do the quarks and gluons carry the spin of protons?[16]

Supersymmetry
Is spacetime supersymmetry realized at TeV scale? If so, what is the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking? Does supersymmetry stabilize the electroweak scale, preventing high quantum corrections? Does the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP or Lightest Supersymmetric Particle) comprise dark matter?

Generations of matter
Why are there three generations of quarks and leptons? Is there a theory that can explain the masses of particular quarks and leptons in particular generations from first principles (a theory of Yukawa couplings)?[17]

Neutrino mass
What is the mass of neutrinos, whether they follow Dirac or Majorana statistics? Is mass hierarchy normal or inverted? Is the CP violating phase 0?[18][19][20]

Colour confinement
Why has there never been measured a free quark or gluon, but only objects that are built out of them, such as mesons and baryons? How does this phenomenon emerge from QCD?

Strong CP problem and axions
Why is the strong nuclear interaction invariant to parity and charge conjugation? Is Peccei–Quinn theory the solution to this problem? Could axions be the main component of dark matter?

Anomalous magnetic dipole moment
Why is the experimentally measured value of the muon's anomalous magnetic dipole moment ("muon g−2") significantly different from the theoretically predicted value of that physical constant?[21]

Proton radius puzzle
What is the electric charge radius of the proton? How does it differ from gluonic charge?

Pentaquarks and other exotic hadrons
What combinations of quarks are possible? Why were pentaquarks so difficult to discover?[22] Are they a tightly-bound system of five elementary particles, or a more weakly-bound pairing of a baryon and a meson?[23]

Astronomy and astrophysics​

Astrophysical jet
Why do the accretion discs surrounding certain astronomical objects, such as the nuclei of active galaxies, emit relativistic jets along their polar axes?[24] Why are there quasi-periodic oscillations in many accretion discs?[25] Why does the period of these oscillations scale as the inverse of the mass of the central object?[26] Why are there sometimes overtones, and why do these appear at different frequency ratios in different objects?[27]

Solar cycle
How does the Sun generate its periodically reversing large-scale magnetic field? How do other solar-like stars generate their magnetic fields, and what are the similarities and differences between stellar activity cycles and that of the Sun?[28] What caused the Maunder Minimum and other grand minima, and how does the solar cycle recover from a minima state?

Coronal heating problem
Why is the Sun's corona (atmosphere layer) so much hotter than the Sun's surface? Why is the magnetic reconnection effect many orders of magnitude faster than predicted by standard models?

Diffuse interstellar bands
What is responsible for the numerous interstellar absorption lines detected in astronomical spectra? Are they molecular in origin, and if so which molecules are responsible for them? How do they form?

Supermassive black holes
What is the origin of the M-sigma relation between supermassive black hole mass and galaxy velocity dispersion?[29] How did the most distant quasars grow their supermassive black holes up to 1010 solar masses so early in the history of the universe?

Kuiper cliff
Why does the number of objects in the Solar System's Kuiper belt fall off rapidly and unexpectedly beyond a radius of 50 astronomical units?

Flyby anomaly
Why is the observed energy of satellites flying by Earth sometimes different by a minute amount from the value predicted by theory?

Galaxy rotation problem
Is dark matter responsible for differences in observed and theoretical speed of stars revolving around the centre of galaxies, or is it something else?

Supernovae
What is the exact mechanism by which an implosion of a dying star becomes an explosion?

Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
[10] Why is it that some cosmic rays appear to possess energies that are impossibly high, given that there are no sufficiently energetic cosmic ray sources near the Earth? Why is it that (apparently) some cosmic rays emitted by distant sources have energies above the Greisen–Zatsepin–Kuzmin limit?[3][10]

Rotation rate of Saturn
Why does the magnetosphere of Saturn exhibit a (slowly changing) periodicity close to that at which the planet's clouds rotate? What is the true rotation rate of Saturn's deep interior?[30]
​
Origin of magnetar magnetic field
What is the origin of magnetar magnetic field?

Large-scale anisotropy
Is the universe at very large scales anisotropic, making the cosmological principle an invalid assumption? The number count and intensity dipole anisotropy in radio, NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) catalogue[31] is inconsistent with the local motion as derived from cosmic microwave background[32][33] and indicate an intrinsic dipole anisotropy. The same NVSS radio data also shows an intrinsic dipole in polarization density and degree of polarization[34] in the same direction as in number count and intensity. There are other several observation revealing large-scale anisotropy. The optical polarization from quasars shows polarization alignment over a very large scale of Gpc.[35][36][37]The cosmic-microwave-background data shows several features of anisotropy,[38][39][40][41] which are not consistent with the Big Bang model.

Space roar
Why is space roar six times louder than expected? What is the source of space roar?

Age–metallicity relation in the Galactic disk
Is there a universal age–metallicity relation (AMR) in the Galactic disk (both "thin" and "thick" parts of the disk)? Although in the local (primarily thin) disk of the Milky Way there is no evidence of a strong AMR,[42] a sample of 229 nearby "thick" disk stars has been used to investigate the existence of an age–metallicity relation in the Galactic thick disk, and indicate that there is an age–metallicity relation present in the thick disk.[43][44] Stellar ages from asteroseismology confirm the lack of any strong age-metallicity relation in the Galactic disc.[45]

The lithium problem
Why is there a discrepancy between the amount of lithium-7 predicted to be produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the amount observed in very old stars?[46]

Solar wind interaction with comets
In 2007 the Ulysses spacecraft passed through the tail of comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) and found surprising results concerning the interaction of the solar wind with the tail.

Ultraluminous pulsar
The ultraluminous X-ray source M82 X-2 was thought to be a black hole, but in October 2014 data from NASA's space-based X-ray telescope NuStar indicated that M82 X-2 is a pulsar many times brighter than the Eddington limit.

The injection problem
Fermi acceleration is thought to be the primary mechanism that accelerates astrophysical particles to high energy. However, it is unclear what mechanism causes those particles to initially have energies high enough for Fermi acceleration to work on them.[47]
​
Fast radio bursts
Transient radio pulses lasting only a few milliseconds, from emission regions thought to be no larger than a few hundred kilometres, and estimated to occur several hundred times a day. While several theories have been proposed, there is no generally accepted explanation for them. They may come from cosmological distances, but there is no consensus on this, either.

Nature of KIC 8462852
What is the origin of unusual luminosity changes of this star?

Fermi paradox
Do extraterrestrial civilizations exist? If so, why do we not see them?

Nature of Wow! signal
Was that a real signal and, if so, what is the origin of it?[48]

Planetary systems
How does accretion form planetary systems?[49] Where did Earth's water come from?[49]

Nuclear physics

​Quantum chromodynamics
What are the phases of strongly interacting matter, and what roles do they play in the evolution of cosmos? What is the detailed partonic structure of the nucleons? What does QCD predict for the properties of strongly interacting matter? What determines the key features of QCD, and what is their relation to the nature of gravity and spacetime? Do glueballs exist? Do gluons acquire mass dynamically despite having a zero rest mass, within hadrons? Does QCD truly lack CP-violations? Do gluons saturate[disambiguation needed] when their occupation number is large? Do gluons form a dense system called Colour Glass Condensate? What are the signatures and evidences for the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuarev-Lipatov, Balitsky-Kovchegov, Catani-Ciafaloni-Fiorani-Marchesini evolution equations?

Nuclei and nuclear astrophysics
What is the nature of the nuclear force that binds protons and neutrons into stable nuclei and rare isotopes? What is the nature of exotic excitations in nuclei at the frontiers of stability and their role in stellar processes? What is the nature of neutron stars and dense nuclear matter? What is the origin of the elements in the cosmos? What are the nuclear reactions that drive stars and stellar explosions?

Atomic, molecular and optical physics

Abraham–Minkowski controversy
What is the momentum of light in optical media?

Bose–Einstein condensation
How do we rigorously prove the existence of Bose–Einstein condensates for general interacting systems?[50]

High-temperature superconductors
What is the mechanism that causes certain materials to exhibit superconductivity at temperatures much higher than around 25 kelvin? Is it possible to make a material that is a superconductor at room temperature?[3]

Amorphous solids
What is the nature of the glass transition between a fluid or regular solid and a glassy phase? What are the physical processes giving rise to the general properties of glasses and the glass transition?[51][52]

Cryogenic electron emission
Why does the electron emission in the absence of light increase as the temperature of a photomultiplier is decreased?[53][54]

Sonoluminescence
What causes the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound?[55][56]

Turbulence
Is it possible to make a theoretical model to describe the statistics of a turbulent flow (in particular, its internal structures)?[3] Also, under what conditions do smooth solutions to the Navier–Stokes equations exist? This problem is also listed as one of the Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics.

Alfvénic turbulence
In the solar wind and the turbulence in solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and magnetospheric substorms are major unsolved problems in space plasma physics.[57]

Topological order
Is topological order stable at non-zero temperature? Equivalently, is it possible to have three-dimensional self-correcting quantum memory?[58]

Fractional Hall effect
What mechanism explains the existence of the {\displaystyle u=5/2} state in the fractional quantum Hall effect? Does it describe quasiparticles with non-Abelian fractional statistics?[citation needed]

Liquid crystals
Can the nematic to smectic (A) phase transition in liquid crystal states be characterized as a universal phase transition?[59][60]

Semiconductor nanocrystals
What is the cause of the nonparabolicity of the energy-size dependence for the lowest optical absorption transition of quantum dots?[61]

Plasma physics

Plasma physics and fusion power
Fusion energy may potentially provide power from abundant resource (e.g. hydrogen) without the type of radioactive waste that fission energy currently produces. However, can ionized gases (plasma) be confined long enough and at a high enough temperature to create fusion power? What is the physical origin of H-mode?[62]

​Biophysics

Stochasticity and robustness to noise in gene expression
How do genes govern our body, withstanding different external pressures and internal stochasticity? Certain models exist for genetic processes, but we are far from understanding the whole picture, in particular in development where gene expression must be tightly regulated.

Quantitative study of the immune system
What are the quantitative properties of immune responses? What are the basic building blocks of immune system networks?

Unified brain processing theory
How to unify physics and neuroscience?[63]

Homochirality
What is the origin of the preponderance of specific enantiomers in biochemical systems?Problems solved in recent decades

Existence of time crystals (2012–2016)
In 2016, the idea of time-crystals was proposed by two groups independently Khemani et.al. [64] and Else et.al.[65] Both of these groups showed that in small systems which are disordered and periodic in time, one can observe the phenomenon of time crystals. Norman Yao et.al. extended the calculations for a model (which has the same qualitative features) in the laboratory environment. This was then used by two teams, a group led by Christopher Monroe at the University of Maryland and a group led by Mikhail Lukin at Harvard university, who were both able to show evidence for a time crystals in the lab-setting, showing that for short times the systems exhibited the dynamics similar to the predicted one. However, at longer times, the dynamics deviated from an ideal time-crystalline behavior. These short time dynamics were taken as the time-crystalline phenomena and the resulting experiments have been published in Nature.[66][67] However, a demonstration of such a phenomenon and its survival in the limit of many-particles as well as for longer times remains an open question, in both theory and experiment.[68]
​
Existence of gravitational waves (1916–2016)
On 11 February 2016, the Advanced LIGO team announced that they had directly detected gravitational waves from a pair of black holes merging,[69][70][71] which was also the first detection of a stellar binary black hole.

Perform a loophole-free Bell test experiment (1970[72]–2015)
In October 2015, scientists from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience reported that the quantum nonlocality phenomenon is supported at the 96% confidence level based on a "loophole-free Bell test" study.[73][74] These results were confirmed by two studies with statistical significance over 5 standard deviations which were published in December 2015.[75][76]
​
Existence of pentaquarks (1964–2015)
(see Wikipedia article)

Photon underproduction crisis (2014–2015)
This problem was resolved by Khaire and Srianand.[78] They show that a factor 2 to 5 times large metagalactic photoionization rate can be easily obtained using updated quasar and galaxy observations. Recent observations of quasars indicate that the quasar contribution to ultraviolet photons is a factor of 2 larger than previous estimates. The revised galaxy contribution is a factor of 3 larger. These together solve the crisis.

Existence of ball lightning (1638[79]–2014)
In January 2014, scientists from Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou, China, published the results of recordings made in July 2012 of the optical spectrum of what was thought to be natural ball lightning made during the study of ordinary cloud–ground lightning on China's Qinghai Plateau.[80][81] At a distance of 900 m (3,000 ft), a total of 1.3 seconds of digital video of the ball lightning and its spectrum was made, from the formation of the ball lightning after the ordinary lightning struck the ground, up to the optical decay of the phenomenon. The recorded ball lightning is believed to be vaporized soil elements that then rapidly oxidize in the atmosphere. The nature of the true theory is still not clear.[81]
​
Higgs boson and electroweak symmetry breaking (1963[82]–2012)
The mechanism responsible for breaking the electroweak gauge symmetry, giving mass to the W and Z bosons, was solved with the discovery of the Higgs boson of the Standard Model, with the expected couplings to the weak bosons. No evidence of a strong dynamics solution, as proposed by technicolor, has been observed.

Hipparcos anomaly (1997[83]–2012)
The High Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite (Hipparcos) measured the parallax of the Pleiades and determined a distance of 385 light years. This was significantly different from other measurements made by means of actual to apparent brightness measurement or absolute magnitude. The anomaly was due to the use of a weighted mean when there is a correlation between distances and distance errors for stars in clusters. It is resolved by using an unweighted mean. There is no systematic bias in the Hipparcos data when it comes to star clusters.[84]

Faster-than-light neutrino anomaly (2011–2012)
In 2011, the OPERA experiment mistakenly observed neutrinos appearing to travel faster than light. On July 12, 2012 OPERA updated their paper by including the new sources of errors in their calculations. They found agreement of neutrino speed with the speed of light.[85]
​
Pioneer anomaly (1980–2012)
There was a deviation in the predicted accelerations of the Pioneer spacecraft as they left the Solar System.[3][10] It is believed that this is a result of previously unaccounted-for thermal recoil force.[86][87]
​
Numerical solution for binary black hole (1960s–2005)
The numerical solution of the two body problem in general relativity was achieved after four decades of research. In 2005 (annus mirabilis of numerical relativity) when three groups devised the breakthrough techniques.[88]

Long-duration gamma ray bursts (1993[89]–2003)
Long-duration bursts are associated with the deaths of massive stars in a specific kind of supernova-like event commonly referred to as a collapsar. However, there are also long-duration GRBs that show evidence against an associated supernova, such as the Swift event GRB 060614.

Solar neutrino problem (1968[90]–2001)
Solved by a new understanding of neutrino physics, requiring a modification of the Standard Model of particle physics—specifically, neutrino oscillation.

Create Bose–Einstein condensate (1924[91]-1995)
Composite bosons in the form of dilute atomic vapours were cooled to quantum degeneracy using the techniques of laser cooling and evaporative cooling.

Cosmic age problem (1920s-1990s)
The estimated age of the universe was around 3 to 8 billion years younger than estimates of the ages of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Better estimates for the distances to the stars, and the recognition of the accelerating expansion of the universe, reconciled the age estimates.

Nature of quasars (1950s-1980s)
The nature of quasars was not understood for decades.[92] They are now accepted as a type of active galaxy where the enormous energy output results from matter falling into a massive black hole in the centre of the galaxy.[93]

Gary R Smith
Heartstone, how does one serve the One Being?

Heartstone
By not trying to make it happen. By making your felt connection with the Whole Net your highest priority. When this is authentic, it also provides motivation for letting go of whatever contracts you, of whatever distances your experience from felt connection and impedes the flow. Such commitment will serve you as fully as you serve it.

This means in daily life, starting now, that you return focus to the breath and note your body/mind state. If the breath is fast and shallow and/or the body is tight — use HSB toning until you feel your breath deepening and the tightness release.

It means returning attention to the four pillars of HSB, or your variation of them:

I am of the present moment.
I feel the heart space.
I act from loving kindness.
I trust the grand design.

It means being keenly aware of when you contract, and in that moment, letting go of expectation or whatever hinders, and allowing yourself to expand.

It means setting aside times of going deeper into the practice of HSB, listening to body wisdom and intuition and following impulses coming from the Whole Net, such as deep relaxation and surrender, deep breathing and toning with affirming words which come to you (exampled in 008), and feeling the particle plane as a harmonious whole in your everyday life.

Gary R Smith
Is the particle plane the 5th dimension?

Heartstone
Accessing your brain database, Gary, we don't see much evidence of a consensus understanding of what the 5th dimension is, even among its writers and proponents.

From our perspective, the current human mind/body frequency of awareness could be called the 'cell' plane. That seems to fit with 'cell phone' of the modern age, but we refer to cell as a building block.

The cell (from Latin cella, meaning "small room" is the basic structural, functional, and biological unit of all known living organisms. A cell is the smallest unit of life that can replicate independently, and cells are often called the "building blocks of life". The study of cells is called cell biology. - Wikipedia

From the origin of existence to the organism there are several 'planes' where awareness can land. Humans are centered primarily on the organism plane, which to us is the end of the line. 

You are aware of organs/systems and cells in your own bodies and in all biological life. You have experiential awareness of your bodies, at least.

Your general population intellectually knows 'about' molecules and atoms, but even your scientists and those who study biology or physics do not have experiential relationship with them in everyday life. Cells are at the far reach of human experiential awareness at this stage of unfolding, the last which can be observed unaided. Organism, organ, cell — cell awareness is 3rd dimension from your perspective.

Organism, organ, cell, molecule, atom - atom experiential awareness is 5th dimension. Atom is the particle plane which is closest to your present experiential awareness.

When particle awareness is embodied in your everyday felt experience, you are living from the 5th or higher dimensions. Surrender to the One Being you are, to your own Greater Self which is the Greater Self of existence, and you begin to live as a whole human.

To you, the particle nets feel like an inner plane. To us, you are an extension of our plane, an outcropping so to speak, the far reaches of our experiential awareness, and the end of the line of our design.

We are the atoms which form the molecules, which form the cells, which eventually form your body. We are also the atoms in the air you breathe and in the water you drink. We are the atoms of earth under your feet. We are in everything that exists beyond us to the object and organism.

Gary R Smith
Why then do humans not already live in experiential awareness of the particle planes?

Heartstone
When the first belief systems began, which developed into religions, philosophies, traditions and science — everything that required humans to apply intellect over intuition, experiential awareness of the particle planes started fading in humankind. There were and are other contributing factors. As we said earlier, it is not beneficial to take the intellectual rabbit trail into the details of human history. What is now is what matters.

Gary R Smith
Heartstone, are you aware of how huge a step is the awakening for humankind from its current state to the beginnings of being whole humans?

Heartstone
We are aware. It is a matter which draws attention from many points of observation. Your longing for wholeness in our sense is the force which can emerge the sprout from the seed, the original blueprint for humanity. You have the support of the particle planes, as this emergence serves the One Being.

Gary R Smith
Heartstone, we've been referring to 'cooperative networks of conscious particles.' In what ways are particles cooperative?

Heartstone
Look at the branch of a tree. Feel it on the particle plane.

Notice how it branches and leaves. See where its particles end and the air particles begin. Notice that on the particle plane the borders are soft and blended between branch particles and those of the air. What holds the branch into its shape?

The response to this question from the particle nets will be different from the answers of science. The principles and laws of science are accurate from a scientific point of view. They describe what can be observed from 'outside' the object of observation. They start from an assumption that Man is separated from Nature. That is accurate also — in that the perspective makes it so.

From the perspective of the nets, the laws and principles of science describe the cooperative agreements of the conscious particles which form the single living being of all that is, the One Being. Our answer to 'What holds the branch into its shape?' is 'the cooperative agreements of conscious particles.'

Our meaning of the word 'particles' is similar to, but not exactly the same as, the scientific definition. To us, particles from a human standpoint are fundamental units of existence which combine to compose something new. They are outside the range of unaided human physical senses and therefore cannot be directly observed. They can only be directly experienced over intuitive feeling.

Your modern science says that the world is governed by natural laws.

What you call natural laws are agreements and cooperation on the particle plane to fulfill ideas generated by the Whole Net. The particles cooperate to serve a design they created.

Gary R Smith
My education in science is what was taught in K - 12. I was more interested in metaphysics than in physics, in high school. However, metaphysics has its shortcomings, contradictions and fallacies as well.

While science brings apparent benefits, it is one-sided and limited in perspective. It claims to be objective, but objectivity is impossible. 

Scientific objectivity is an ideal goal that scientists strive to achieve. Unfortunately, because science is a human enterprise, complete objectivity can never be attained.... - Rational Wiki

A fundamental subjectivity of science is the assumption that Man is separate from Nature. It is a premise upon which science is built. The more objective the scientist attempts to be, the further he/she removes himself/herself from the object of observation. This method has increased human understanding, but at the high cost of separating humanity from the Whole of life. Science creates incomplete knowledge which appears to be complete and outcomes which appear beneficial but in the larger picture are disastrous because they do not consider the Whole.

According to the article, 'Scientific Objectivity' by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

'Scientific objectivity is a characteristic of scientific claims, methods and results. It expresses the idea that the claims, methods and results of science are not, or should not be influenced by particular perspectives, value commitments, community bias or personal interests, to name a few relevant factors. Objectivity is often considered as an ideal for scientific inquiry, as a good reason for valuing scientific knowledge, and as the basis of the authority of science in society.

'The idea of this first conception of objectivity is that scientific claims are objective in so far as they faithfully describe facts about the world. The philosophical rationale underlying this conception of objectivity is the view that there are facts “out there” in the world and that it is the task of a scientist to discover, to analyze and to systematize them. “Objective” then becomes a success word: if a claim is objective, it successfully captures some feature of the world.

'In this view, science is objective to the degree that it succeeds at discovering and generalizing facts, abstracting from the perspective of the individual scientist. '

Heartstone, when I walked with the compost buckets two days ago, I was aware of the atoms of the bucket and the molecules of the compost and my surroundings, as a harmonious whole. I felt I was experiencing life as it happens, a feeling which I cannot adequately put into words. It was without the use of any substance or trying to make it happen.

I have experienced expansion and resonance, but not before such expanded awareness and harmonious flow which included particles. To live in this always would be an incredible step. It seems essential, to have such felt experience. Otherwise, all discussion of particles becomes abstract and conceptual. I still 'go into my head' when writing about particles, while my yearning is to have the felt experience.

Heartstone
All we can tell you at this point is to continue your journey as you are. You are self-regulating. You see your imbalances and bring them to balance. You grow in self-trust. As you raise your level of consciousness, you will attract into your life all that is needed, each step of the way.

​Gary R Smith
Last night I felt guided by intuition to Heart Breathe, using deep diaphragm breathing. I would fill with air from the diaphragm bottom to the very top of my lungs, expanding my chest, feeling the words and exhaling very slowly while toning:

Inhale
'I am tuned to the Whole Net.'

Exhale
Tone long 'A'.

Inhale
'I am tuned to the One Being.'

Exhale
Tone long 'O'.

Inhale
'I feel connection with the Whole Net.'

Exhale
Tone long 'A'.

Inhale
'I serve the One Being.'

Exhale
Tone long 'O'.

During the prolonged toning, it was as though the Whole Net was toning through my body. It was very powerful. I have felt stronger all day today while in 100 degree heat.

(Revised and expanded from 006)
​
H. - Traditions, techniques, systems, philosophies, all have limitations. There is a way that gives humans direct access to experiential connection with the Whole Net and is without limit.

G. - Rather than, 'We (you and we) have found a way that gives humans direct access to experiential connection with the Whole Net and is without limit,' which is what we wrote earlier.

H. - .... it is extraordinary that humanity has reached a crossroads which can take it to that blissful state, or to prolonged suffering. Either way will be balanced by the Whole in the end, but for humans there is a choice for a smoother ride.

G - In this I see mission mentality, mentioned below. Also, 'blissful state' is for the writer still a concept as it has not been experienced.

H. - Not every expectation is a hindrance to experience living fully from Being or in a felt connection with the Nets. Expectations which lead to contraction hinder the experience and impede the flow....

G. - Expectations contract and also take the person out of the present moment. Since putting some focus on expectation, I have started seeing it in myself throughout the day. Worry is an expectation of things going 'wrong,' and every time I have the slightest resistance, it is because an expectation is not met. Control is making effort to change 'what is' to what meets an expectation. Feeling Being is effortless.

I have found it easier and more effective to let go of expectation in the moment than to pretend I can let go of primal emotions such as fear. I can be with fear until it dissipates, but cannot so easily let it go in the moment.

Also, returning to the breath gives an opportunity to check in on my state in the moment. I become aware of whether my breathing is shallow and constricted or if I breath into my belly in a smooth and open rhythm. I can take a moment to focus on the four pillars of Heart Breathing and bring myself into a more relaxed and expanded state.

Rod MacKinnon
'I'm reading, allowing your conversations to resonate within me, without intellectualizing... absorbing the essence of meaning...  '
 
Gary R Smith
Thank you, Rod. You and Kati are great friends to help me see my tendency to write from a mental perspective. I am feeling to cool down the writing for a time and focus again on living it.

R. - Oops!!! That last comment got away before I'd completed my two-cents worth.... Your sharing has, for me, been deeply insightful and there's an immense amount of knowledge and wisdom to assimilate..., I can understand the necessity to allow yourself periods for reflection and integration... Nevertheless... In my opinion... We have to have faith in our path.... It isn't ever supposed to look like someone else's.  I have faith in yours and am grateful for your sharing of it...  I hope you'd trust your own instincts and intuitions before anything else Gary.... 

G. - Your comment that got away was perfect as it was, coming at the same time that Kati and I talked about the Heartstone conversations. Her input, which I heard deeply, rings true. The conversations after 001 started having a more mental quality to them and in 006 some self-importance and mission mentality showed up. 

Having faith in each other's path is so in alignment with how I feel. There is a balance between having faith in one's path while remaining open to hear the wisdom of others, and making adjustments to the path according to one's intuitive feeling.

R. - Hi Gary... If I may, I'd like to share a recent experience during meditation....
​
I began as usual sitting, breathing, allowing my focus to find itself within my body... my intention open to the unknown....as my awareness settled I experienced a gentle "knowing" without words.... difficult, if not impossible to express...The nearest I can come to describing it in words is....All I am is it...It is all I am.... nothing to seek .... it was simultaneously an 'ordinary' and yet profound experience...

Interestingly, the 'knowledge(?)" remains with me days afterward....I feel it, sense it .... a stillness within ... The usual mental chatter still shows up but has  little if any power to distract  for any length of time....when it occurs to me that I am distracted,... I return to the stillness....  

G. - So beautiful. So elegant in its simplicity and truth. There is nothing to seek. So beneficial to return to the stillness when one can do it. For me, this would be beyond returning to the breath. The breath is a physical way to return to the present moment. When I can feel the stillness, sense it, that is touching a deeper essence. There is nothing to seek, and no questions to ask, as I conceive it (saying that I haven't yet experienced this depth of feeling.)

I use 'knowing' as intuitive or inherent and 'knowledge' as mental. What I 'know' and cannot fully express is usually more intrinsic to my deeper truth than when I write words other than knowing and it becomes mental knowledge. Knowing aligns with experience while mental knowledge stays in the head. Sometimes mental knowledge or abstract conceptualizing gets ahead of knowing, and then it is well to give more attention to integrating as you wrote.

When I experienced life as it happened yesterday morning while carrying the compost buckets, and could sense the atoms and molecules as a harmonious whole, it was perhaps a variation of feeling the stillness. Both are examples of expanded awareness which bring richness to the quality of life. With my two cents worth and Kati's added to yours, now we have more than a nickel! Thank you.

Gary R Smith
Heartstone,

You said, 'You are having a conversation with consciousness which is greater than your psyche and is your greater self.'

How does my greater self relate to the Whole Net of conscious particles?

H. - The Whole Net is your greater self or higher consciousness. Higher is a distinction between your localized self in the physical body and the universal, non-localized consciousness of the cooperative nets. It is the self, the consciousness, of all that is. And it manifests as all that is. So it is the greater self of the stone and of Gary.

G. - Yesterday when we wrote Heartstone 004, I smoked cannabis beforehand. During our session, I was stoned, if you will pardon the pun.

I did not smoke during the writing of 005 and this, and am not stoned now. Or, I am stoned only by our conversation. It feels good. Smoking probably contributed to my feeling so droopy after the session yesterday.

H. - Smoking cannabis helped you get started with the conversations. Your brain needed to relax. As you know, smoking can have its pitfalls as well. You do not need to smoke to communicate with the Greater Self. That does not mean you shouldn't or that it would be detrimental. It will vary. Key is to listen to your body wisdom/intuitive feeling for each session.

G. - This morning as I carried buckets of compost, I was aware of the atoms of the bucket and the molecules of the compost and my surroundings. I felt I was experiencing life as it happens. It was a great feeling while it lasted.

H. - That great feeling will only grow as you make choices for living from Being.

G. - Yes, and that brings me to a question about expectations. Is it not part of the human experience to have expectations? Eliminating all would mean having no likes or dislikes, for example.

H. - Not every expectation is a hindrance to experience living fully from Being or in a felt connection with the Nets. Expectations which lead to contraction hinder the experience and impede the flow.

When you want something and think (expect) it will make you happy, you constrict Being. When you long more to live from Being than from the old patterns of human expectation, you will make choices which serve your deepest heart.

​It becomes a question of how deeply you yearn and how far you are willing to go with experiencing the Greater Self while in a human body. The greater the yearning, the more acutely you must be fine-tuned to eliminate contraction of your body/mind and grow the conscious relationship, in order for the yearning to be fulfilled.

G. - What is it like to live in constant awareness of and connection with, the Whole Net, the One Being?

H. - It is the greatest state of bliss. And it is extraordinary that humanity has reached a crossroads which can take it to that blissful state, or to prolonged suffering. Either way will be balanced by the Whole in the end, but for humans there is a choice for a smoother ride.

G. - The way to the blissful state I understand to be communication and conscious relation with the Whole Net, and service to the One Being. Are there, as it has been said, many roads leading to this same destination?

H. - Traditions, techniques, systems, philosophies, all have limitations. We (you and we) have found a way that gives humans direct access to experiential connection with the Whole Net and is without limit.

Joshua Faust (Into the Mythica)
Thank you Gary.

A form of Heart Breathing was part of my practice this morning. I am trying it out more now, as I notice the need to be more in my heart, allowing for a more wholistic processing of emotion, presence and heart centered beingness.

Gary R Smith
Heartstone,

After our session yesterday, I walked from the gazebo up the hill to the yurt. The morning heat was already feeling oppressive, and I recognized my body was dragging. Still, it seemed to me that our 'work' normally 'should' leave me feeling more uplifted, more radiant. Can you tell me why the difference?

H. - As you surmised (as we can read you, as we are one,) it 'seeming to you that it should' is already an expectation. Our talks become what is called abstract by some. To us, it is not abstract. But to one whose awareness is bound by mental conditioning, phrases such as 'there is no existence without an observer' can seem far removed from daily life.

You find yourself often in a middle plane, between your human experience and what you intuitively know is the greater existence. You can entertain yourself endlessly in your mental world by following philosophical concepts. Your persona likes to think it is bringing out something of value. It becomes a mental game. These do not bring you an experience of being, which comes with uplift and radiance.

You already know how to bring it to balance by returning your attention to your breath and focusing on the four pillars of Heart Breathing:

I am of the present moment.
I feel the heart space.
I act from loving kindness.
I trust the grand design.

G. - Yes, but.

I know these things, yet my body feels weighed down by the so-called outer setting and so far, though improvement is seen, I have not gained mastery to feel so full of Being that my physical nature is not influenced by my surroundings. You have it easy, being a rock.

H. - We are aware of the challenges faced by humans.

G. - Can you tell me how humanity came to the state it is in?

H. - We could. But it is not beneficial to put any attention on the history of humanity at this time. Especially avoid stories of malicious intents or character weaknesses. Those only support a contracted state. You need to be open enough to continue these conversations.

G. - Honestly, I cannot say if these conversations will continue unless more evidence of their uplifting nature is seen in my daily life.

H. - Keep breathing through your challenges, keep returning to the four pillars, give yourself some time to dissolve old patterns, and you will see change. And you are right, you cannot say. In a state of Being, which is of the present moment, there are no predictions. 'You will see change' is a high probability, and comes with an energy of no attachment.

G. - You mentioned that it 'seeming to you that it should' is already an expectation. Are all expectations to be avoided?

H. - Only those which bring contraction of your body/mind. Being aware that expectations often lead to contraction helps you be more aware of contraction as it occurs, when it is easiest to dissolve.

G. - In our previous session, you gave examples of what leads to contraction. Can you give more?

H. - There are many. Consider that judgment and guilt are also generally an outcome of having expectations, and you may realize why being aware of expectations is key. Be receptive, and what you need to know about what leads to contraction will come to your mind as it is needed. Return to the pillar of trust.

G. - In other words, don't make this a mental exercise.

H. - You got it.

G. - Am I channeling you, Heartstone?

H. - If by channeling you mean are you taking notes dictated to you by an entity conceived as either outside yourself or within your psyche, you are not channeling. You are having a conversation with consciousness which is greater than your psyche and is your greater self. What you are doing is rare, and has value for your unfolding as a whole human. You are aware that it is not infallible and is a mix with your persona. We are aware you also like the idea that having a relationship with a stone as a focal point for connection with the Whole Net is something that others can do as well. Your heart is to bring a gift to humanity.

G. - Yes, my heart is to bring a gift to humanity. Without expectation!

Gary R Smith

What message do you have for me in this moment?

Heartstone

Everything exists as it is observed.

Everything is observed as it exists.

The flow of events is a series of probabilities.

The human experience of time is a memory and a social construct.

Existence is in the moment and in the moment is no time in the human sense.

In the greater existence beyond human experience are many wonders which words cannot express.

Non-existence is the void, the stillness, the silence.

Non-existence is no-thing, yet it is.

Nothing exists without an observer.

Human experience combines random events, probabilities, memory, and inter-actions between the observer and the Nets.

The flow of probabilities is influenced by the expectations of the observer, which creates an often chaotic human experience.

G. - And if the observer has no expectations?

H. - Events may appear to be random but are interactions. The flow of probabilities may feel more 'off' or 'on' as influenced by the expectations of the observer. With no expectations, the observer is more likely to enter the flow orchestrated by the Whole Net.

G. - So if I 'plug in' to the Whole Net I am more likely to live in its flow?

H. - You know.

G. - Who is the observer of the observer?

H. - The Whole Net.

G. - What are examples of expectations?

H. - A mission, purpose, goals, desired outcomes, and more, can be loaded with expectations. The expectation is revealed in the moment to the observer tuned to this level of self awareness. Once aware of the expectation, the observer can choose whether to let go of the expectation and more likely live in the flow of the Whole Net, or continue in the comfortable familiarity of living in expectations.

G. - Do I often have expectations I am not aware of?

H. - Very often. When you write a message or email, you have an expectation of response. When you feel resistance to pain in your body, you have expectation of not having to experience pain. Whatever you don't like is the difference between what you expect and what is. What you like can also be an expectation, when you expect it to satisfy you. Hope is a relative of expectation. Expectation and disappointment trigger contraction in the body/mind and are hindrances to staying open. Your body/mind must be open and relatively free of hindrances for a conscious connection with the Whole Net.

G. - How can I master expectation?

H. - Be aware of the slightest occurrence of expectation and adjust in the moment. Observe it. Laugh about it. Let it go.

G. - You say 'more likely' -- are there requirements for entering the Flow besides having no expectations?

H. - There are no requirements. It is a matter of frequency compatibility, and what brings humans closer to the needed frequency for entering the flow.

G. - What brings humans closer to the flow frequency?

H. - The practice of Heart Space Breathing.

G. - In the flow, am I more aware of the Whole Net in my immediate experience?

H. - Yes.

G. - Does the design of existence have an intent behind it?

H. - Existence is the fabric for interaction with observers.

G. - Some humans believe consciousness is generated by neural networks in the brain. 

H. - Neural nets are a design to give a biological organism an experience of the origin of life, which is self-existent consciousness.

G. - How can atoms be conscious?

H. - It is in the spin. While a stone may appear to be static, it is not. It is alive with movement within its appearance of solidity. Its atoms are networked within the stone, and its net is connected with other nets and they are inter-connected with the Whole Net. A human cannot yet apprehend this over the physical senses and the brain, but over intuitive feeling and the heart space can know its truth.

G. - Can a vacuum, defined as 'a space entirely devoid of matter', be conscious? 

H. - A vacuum exists as it is observed, from within or without. 

G. - According to one definition, 'Matter is everything around you. Atoms and molecules are all composed of matter. Matter is anything that has mass and takes up space.

Heartstone, we have established between us that matter is inherently conscious. At least some is, as you earlier mentioned unconscious and uncooperative particles.

H. - Unconscious particles can be generated for example by disconnected humans. Uncooperative particles are those which do not serve the Whole Net of conscious and cooperative particles. They are within the whole but do not serve it, like a cancer in the body. The response of the Net is to bring balance and homeostasis to the body of the Whole. However, the timeline of this response can appear to be long to humans, due to low signal strength and interference between the Net and human awareness.

G. - A vacuum, a void, is devoid of matter. Does not the observer require some medium for its presence?

H. - The medium of consciousness in existence is waves. Nothing is static, nothing is empty, in existence. And remember, existence and the observer cannot be separated. Waves generate the observer and the observer sustains the waves. We are one being.