AtDTDA [38] p. 1084/1085: Bending Light, Creating Invisibility

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Mark Kohut Points to :

         Underlying the work is the idea that bending visible light 
         around an object will hide it.

         Xiang Zhang, the leader of the researchers, said: “In the 
         case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need 
         to curve light waves completely around the object like a river 
         flowing around a rock.” An observer looking at the cloaked 
         object would then see light from behind it – making it seem 
         to disappear.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4494440.ece

          . . . .when people on the ground see it in the sky, they 
          are struck with selective hysterical blindness and end 
          up not seeing it at all.
          Against the Day, p. 1084
          
>From "PYNCHON'S INVISIBILITY" by Theresa Duncan

          Pynchon's disappearance then, is nearly as great 
          an act of generosity as the wonder-books he himself 
          writes. Like the Hebrew moment of Tsim Tsum where 
          God first withdrew from the universe in order to make 
          room for his creation the universe, Pynchon's withdrawal 
          means that we get that much more mental real estate. 
          You know that feeling?
          
          You wait and wait for a book like this, buy it, and when 
          you get around to opening it, you just start expanding...
          
          There's not even any photos of Pynchon except that silly 
          sailor one. Invisibility. Perhaps it's a vain celebrity peccadillo, 
          but to me it works as an act of psychoanalytic silence, where 
          what I really pay for is to have the great man with his mighty 
          mind listen, not talk.

          And in that silence (still so vividly shaped by compassion 
          and humor and intelligence) we suddenly have a limitless 
          place to put the best of ourselves. . . .

Posted by TEV at 12:01 AM in Guest Bloggers, Pynchon Week

http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2006/11/pynchons_invisi.html

          . . . .Its corridors will begin to teem with children of all ages 
          and sizes who run up and down the different docks 
          whooping and hollering. The more serious are learning to 
          fly the ship, others, never cut out for the Sky, are only marking 
          time between visits to the surface, understanding that their 
          destinies will be down in the finite world.
          Against the Day, p. 1084

>From "The Book of Thoth", Aleister Crowley, p. 73

          The card represents the most spiritual form of Isis the Eternal 
          Virgin; the Artemis of the Greeks. She is clothed only in the 
          luminous veil of light. It is important for high initiation to regard 
          Light not as the perfect manifestation of the Eternal Spirit, but 
          rather as the veil which hides that Spirit. It does so all the more 
          effectively because of its incomparably dazzling brilliance. Thus 
          she is light and the soul of light. Upon her knees is the bow of 
          Artemis, which is also a musical instrument, for she is huntress, 
          and hunts by enchantment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiNmgeiK3VA

          Inconvenience herself is constantly having her engineering 
          updated. As a result of advances in relativity theory, light is 
          incorporated as a source of motive power—though not exactly 
          fuel—and as a carrying medium—though not exactly a 
          vehicle—occupying, rather, a relation to the skyship much like 
          that of the ocean to a surfer on a surfboard—a design 
          principle borrowed from the AEther units that carry the girls to 
          and fro on missions whose details they do not always share 
          fully with "High Command."
          Against the Day, p. 1084

>From "On Reincarnation" by Takashi Tsuji:

          Karma

          Karma is a Sanskrit word from the root "Kri" to do or to make 
          and simply means "action." It operates in the universe as the 
          continuous chain reaction of cause and effect. It is not only 
          confined to causation in the physical sense but also it has 
          moral implications. "A good cause, a good effect; a bad 
          cause a bad effect" is a common saying. In this sense karma 
          is a moral law.

          Now human beings are constantly giving off physical and 
          spiritual forces in all directions. In physics we learn that no 
          energy is ever lost; only that it changes form. This is the 
          common law of conservation of energy. Similarly, spiritual 
          and mental action is never lost. It is transformed. Thus 
          Karma is the law of the conservation of moral energy.

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/reincarnation.html

          . . . .docking, each time precariously, at a series of remote 
          stations high in unmeasured outer space, which together 
          form a road to a destination—both ship and dockage hurtling 
          at speeds that no one wishes to imagine, invisible sources of 
          gravity rolling through like storms, making it possible to fall for 
          distances only astronomers are comfortable with—yet, each 
          time, the Inconvenience is brought to safety, in the bright, 
          flowerlike heart of a perfect hyper-hyperboloid that only Miles 
          can see in its entirety
          Against the Day, p. 1084/1085

From: "Fractal of the Day" by Jim Muth -- September 30, 1999 

          . . . .A fourth possible answer is a bit more complex.   It assumes 
          that four-dimensional spacetime is in fact curved into a 
          hypersphere or hyper-hyperboloid, with the time line actually 
          being a closed curve or a hyperbola.   If this is the case, looking 
          back in time to find the origin of the universe is as meaningless as 
          going south on the surface of the earth with the intention of 
          continuing in that direction until the edge of the planet is reached.   
          In the curved spacetime scenario, if one were to travel far enough 
          into the past, that person would ultimately reach the past temporal 
          pole of the universe, where all time directions lead to the future. 

http://home.att.net/~Fractals_1/FotD_99-09-30.html

>From an anonymous article on Mantras and Buddhism:  

          Above all else, the lotus is a symbol of awakening. The 
          unfolding of its petals symbolizes the unfolding of 
          consciousness as it moves towards enlightenment. 
          The lotus has its roots in mud and murk but emerges 
          as a beautiful flower. It is therefore also a symbol of 
          hope because despite all our imperfections, the 
          poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance that lie within 
          us, we have the capacity for transformation and 
          transcendence. In the words of the Buddha, 'within 
          this very body, six feet in length, with its sense-impressions, 
          thoughts and ideas, I declare to you, are the world, the 
          origin of the world, and the ceasing of the world, and 
          likewise the Way that leads to the ceasing thereof'.

http://www.heartwood2000.com/OmManiPadmeHum1.html