{"id":2788,"date":"2011-06-30T08:30:53","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T12:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2011-06-30T08:30:53","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T12:30:53","slug":"the-lightning-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/06\/the-lightning-paths.html","title":{"rendered":"The Lightning Paths"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/div>\n

Before lightning strikes
\nfeeders unseen to the ordinary I
\ntravel possible paths through the air
\nto find the right way to bolt to earth.
\nBefore the secret green cells in the leaf
\ndrink from its suncatchers, light walks
\nall paths through the protein scaffold.<\/p>\n

Scientists say that any road taken
\ncollapses all possible paths.
\nIn the leaf, in the air, in a human span
\nno road, perhaps, is entirely untaken.<\/p>\n

If our lives are gardens of forking paths
\nwhat happens when we take one branch
\nwith the definite body? Do possible selves
\ntravel on along all the possible paths?
\nCan we meet each other?
\nCan the branching paths rejoin?<\/p>\n

In default mode I departed a mental map
\nand followed a road I thought I had left
\ntowards an old place. When I saw my error
\nI thought at least I was on familiar ground
\non my ghost trail. I bulled across many lanes
\nto make an utterly wrong turn and did not see
\nI was speeding the wrong way on the Royal Road
\nuntil I met a familiar, a bull on a steakhouse sign.
\nIt’s not so easy to get back on a road you left.<\/p>\n

To get my head around this
\nI’ll go on a quantum walk tonight.
\nLike light in the leaf, like lightning’s feeders,
\nwe try all paths in our dreams.
\nWhen we are witness to ourselves
\nwe can change the default mode
\nand weave the many roads into the right one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note: <\/strong>Suncatchers and Quantum Beating<\/em><\/p>\n

Research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that the marvelous speed and efficiency with which green plants transfer solar energy from surface receptors to molecular centers that convert it into chemical energy is the result of a process of “quantum beating”. In the presence of light, oscillations are triggered in the plant that explore all possible paths between receptor and converter simultaneously and\u00a0reversibly<\/em> (meaning they can retreat without penalty from a wrong path). These many wavelike probes collapse into a single movement, observible only through electronic spectroscopy that can measure events in femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second). A report on the Berkeley Lab findings was published by Graham Fleming et al in the April 12, 2007 issue of\u00a0Nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before lightning strikes feeders unseen to the ordinary I travel possible paths through the air to find the right way to bolt to earth. Before the secret green cells in the leaf drink from its suncatchers, light walks all paths through the protein scaffold. Scientists say that any road taken collapses all possible paths. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}