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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sci,net.misc
Subject: Re: Mind/Brain:  S. Maclaine's speculations on gluons
Message-ID: <815@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Jul-84 11:04:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.815
Posted: Tue Jul  3 11:04:52 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Jul-84 04:29:15 EDT
References: <569@ihuxj.UUCP>, <93@mouton.UUCP> <8155@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 36

[from the Shirley Maclaine book]
> Some of our scientists suspect this energy is there but they can't measure it
> because it is not molecular.  They say there's an energy that fills
> interatomic space, but they don't know what it is.  Even they call it the
> cohesive element of the atom, which they term 'gluon'.  They know it is not
> matter, but rather units of energy.  ...it is this subatomic energy that makes
> up the Source.  Therefore the Source, that form of energy, is not molecular. 
> Now I'm going to tell you the hard part to understand, but the part that is
> the most important.  This energy is the energy that makes up the soul.  Our
> bodies are made out of atoms; our souls are made of this Source energy.

[from the author of the original article]
> This is interesting because it is a synthesis of religious and
> scientific ideas which reconciles the conflict without contradicting
> either.

[from David Canzi, watmath!dmcanzi, in response to above]
> The passage above is interesting, not because it synthesizes science and
> religion, but rather as a case study of how almost anything poorly
> understood by most people can be used to "explain" almost anything else
> as poorly understood.  Hence: the soul is made of gluons.
> I wouldn't be surprised in the future to see telepathy and psychokinesis
> "explained" by quark emissions, and tales of UFO's travelling faster than
> light using gluonic drives!

It's a new variant on the scientific method.  First, pick a phenomenon that
you would like to believe does exist.  Then take a particle or phenomenon
uncovered but not fully understood by scientists.  Then simply merge the two.
Hence, ESP is caused by elementary particles communicating to each other
through instantaneous communication across some othe dimension than the three
we know.  See?  Try and "disprove" that!!!  (Of course, you haven't yet
proven the existence of ESP.  Perhaps the gluons are influenced by our free
will.  Perhaps they ARE our free will.  Whoops!! I'm doing it again.)
-- 
Now I've lost my train of thought. I'll have to catch the bus of thought.
			Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr