The Golden Rain

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. It is our job to teach kids how to hear what the universe is telling us." Marc finished the sentence and looked up as Evi jumped up and ran to the loo. It was not uncommon to experience space sickness on the space station satellite. Nonetheless, it made transitioning a challenge. Other eras had adapted to critical shifts and so would they."

Evi and Mark had been assigned to design a mentorship program to guide students along their education pathway. They were in charge of protocol for the space station satellite pods. It was the preliminary stage before explorer missions were assigned. As mentors, Evi and Mark needed to establish coping strategies so students would feel safe enough to be creative, yet motivated enough by fear, to learn how to contribute to the long-term success of the project.

Evi returned and he said, “Glad to see you back. How are you?"

Her response was factual. "I feel rotten. Good thing we are teaching a skill set that is transferable.”

Mark nodded. “Okay. The first week will be the hardest. Students need time to get over space sickness. Lectures won’t work. We’ve got to get the students on the same page. The students will be experiencing the uncertainty principle first-hand.

"They need to rely on expected natural patterns to predict how to flow with tangential momentum. This depends on identifying the potential chain of actions and reactions. I propose that for our first module, we use our six hours a day to highlight how music runs through literature, history, art, mathematics and science. We can use music to gently teach them how to access and train neural pathways so they can see a greater picture and glimpse beyond the observer effect.”

Applying the laws of Quantum physics was no longer the domain of theoreticians. Recent discoveries had changed the world. There was a new avenue of hope that appeared at the eleventh hour.The future of humanity depended on changing the understanding of the nature of binary polarities.

Evi agreed. “Music is a perfect way to introduce Biofeedback training. We can measure how different Solfeggio frequencies and binaural beats to observe health benefits can influence brain waves. Combined with breathing exercises students will be able to measure how internal physiological reactions change in response to cues external environments. When they feel better, we can let them determine how to optimize access to brain waves appropriate to different activities. This is a prime example of how the quantum world is not based on competition or comparisons, but in dealing with changing relationships."

Mark added, "Plus, this experience should reinforce confidence that as humans, they hold the potential to sense and improvise their mindset, and flow with the environment. Music can tame the savage beast. Students can make their own personal first contact with alien life forms that are already resident endosymbiotes found in their guts. They can learn how they can control and be controlled by the mind and learn to establish the connection between the gut, heart, brain axis.

Evi suggested “ Let’s hold back on data collection. I agree that we need to ensure that the head, heart and gut are communicating with each other and the environment. First let's make sure we can help students calibrate with biofeedback sensors."

“Exactly” replied Mark. “Eventually, it will be interesting to show how the arrangement of notes and amplitude, pitch and rhythm affects the beast within. We can use electron microscopes to measure how the number and biochemical assays to determine the activity of mitochondria by observing Oxygen uptake and energy release. I think students will appreciate how frequencies that resonate with the Earth's natural Schumann resonance of 8Hz and the fractal resonant solfeggio tones use dissonance to find adaptive optimal functioning.”

“Details noted” said Evi. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We are starting school just before the June solstice. I think we should focus on light as our theme. The J-shaped orbit of the ISS gives us an advantage. The students can see the world at night, 16 times each crew day. We can plot how stars synchronize with other constellations and planets and observe changes in the amount of sunlight on the Earth."

Mark added, "It will be great for students to appreciate how solar and lunar calendars are the basis of the Julian and Gregorian calendars and for us to make the transition to the Star Date Calendars. We can spend a bit of time showing how it is adapted from the Mayan calendar. We'll have to introduce why we will be using the cesium clock to measure time and introduce the temporal relativity issues we might face.”

Evi said, “Agreed. But for this module, let's have the students observe the Sun standing still at the Arctic Circle and the Antarctic. The younger ones can do daily measurement of when the sun rises and sets and see what hemisphere is furthest from the equator and calculate the longest day and shortest day and that sort of thing. "

Mark piped up, "My turn to say slow down. All ages love hearing various myths of the June solstice. While the students are feeling rough, let's introduce the importance of the June Solstice. Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere called the light of summer Litha or Alba Hefin. It was when spirits and fairies could contact humans and humans exceed normal limitations of the worlds. In China, the June solstice and Midsummer’s Day is associated with the feminine yin energy and marks the New Year when the annual cycles of crops begin. In Africa, this is the Winter solstice, when crops die.

"It will be easy to see, track and incorporate the myths of many stars. Osiris known as Orion the hunter or Osiris in Egyptian myth, and Sirius –the sun behind the sun , is called Sothis or Isis. She is referred to as the hound Wepwawet, a wolf deity of summer solstice that is the carrier of winds and opener of ways. She guides the deceased to the underworld and assists during childbirth. Wepwawet stands at the prow of the boat of Asar, also known as the solar boat, that sailed as Nile rose along with the Sun god Ra who was the creator of life. Venus has historically been called the star of the ship of Bennu Asar, another name of the phoenix and is the mystical tamarisk tree, the tree of knowledge in Eden, also called the hom tree upon which the phoenix sits.”

Evi smiled, “We can eventually do a long term analysis of the eight-year cycle of the changing faces and orbits of Venus using data from Asar, an acronym for ‘advanced synthetic aperture radar’, a simple archiving format that can be used to package the source code into a zip file format using Asar, an ‘arc segment attitude reference’.

Mark returned the smile and continued. “I feel it is important to connect students to the source of myths that run through the arts and explain natural science and mathematics. It was nature, specifically the sun, that was connected to food and water."

Evi agreed, “We can start with Chinese folklore written by the scribe Cangjie, the official historian of the Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, known as ‘He who controls waters.’ The Emperor discovered writing and passed on the culture, knowledge and technology from the Near East into eastern Europe during the Neolithic era around 6000 BC. The Yellow Emperor formed music through bamboo pipes tuned to the dragon of nature. This was one of the first of the golden ages that coincided with the golden age of the Old Kingdom of Egypt.”

Mark lit up saying, “In Greek myth Aeolus used wind chimes to set up patterns of vibrations using finite external stimuli that can create the infinite internal versions of eerie and ethereal harmonious music. There was also the magical bamboo pipe of Korean folklore, Manpasikjeok, was acquired from a sea dragon that could calm ten thousand waves. It relieved wounds and traumas caused by the storms of life. We could use the arias of Mozart, especially those with the Golden Magic flute given to Tamino, explaining that Mozart wanted to continue to pass on the search for enlightenment and wisdom through logical reason and virtue.”

Evi looked at him, always appreciative at how well they added to each other’s knowledge base. “I remember when I went to Chartres at midsummer, June 24th. I was shown a clear hole formed in the stain glass where light passed onto a nail on the grave of St. John the Baptist who was born Midsummer. Many a mythical hero were born at the winter solstice. Their two stories weave the essence of the ‘Holy spirit’ or ‘Kundalini energy that passes on a knowledge of natural phenomenon and an enlightened consciousness through time.

“St. John the Baptist was said to be born of the Essene sect of the Nazarenes who learned middle eastern Mandean principles related to the Sanskrit Jnana, or knowledge of the divine origins of science and cosmological superstructures. Jnana is said to reawaken an intuitive knowledge in the heart based on a Sevenfold Peace and Communion in the Tree of Life. The ageless wisdom dating back to before the cataclysm that ended the Pleistocene period was used by Lord Shiva in the dance of the cosmos and the mysteries were passed on to individuals who were initiated into intellectual thought, knowledge of natural science, cosmological structure, and alchemy. The Essenes called it Gnosis.

“The Baptist had a student, St. John the Evangelist who gained the wisdom of how to bless and survive drinking poison. Some scholars think the poison was soma, a magico-medical plant spoken of in one of the earliest religious texts of the Rig-Veda. It was derived from plants such as Amanita that were used in vision quests by shaman and holy men. St. John was said to have used it to revive two dead men.

Evi continued, “At the solstice there is a reversal of the sun to its former state. Many traditions hold healing and renewal ceremonies based on altering neurological pathways. Many collect dew that forms under the moon during the solstice. It is called the ‘Breath of God’. Sometimes it is mixed with St. John’s Wort, (which is caused by a fungi), or artemisia, mint, sage, verbena, current, periwinkle, mandrake, rosemary, garlic, carline thistle and lavender that hold active ingredients used for healing. Many cultures altered chemical neurotransmitters at the solstice. Chinese enjoyed Osmanthus and Rice Wine. Concoctions made of fermented century plants and chocolate were used in Mayan, Aztec, Mesoamerican cultures for celebratory traditions during this time.

Mark started laughing, “ So what do you want them to drink?"

Evi pondered. “I was considering using some non-caffeinated nootropic adaptogens that might aid in sleep that will be needed for recovery. We should be able to boost microfauna without side effects."

Mark added, "Well, the Greeks and Romans enjoyed the wines of Dionysius to celebrate the goddess Demeter also known as Ceres at the solstice. When they are feeling okay they could start drinking in the data from NASA from CERES. It stands for Clouds and Earth’s radiant energy systems and is used to observe the Earth’s radiation budget. We'll be using them to monitor the environment of the satellite."

Evi nodded. “ I think we can really use more of the John the Baptist story to help the students start to hear the scream in the vacuum."

“Do tell” said Marc.

Evi obliged. “John was said to have lived in the desert and be ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ He was one of the Cephalophores, a decapitated saint who continued to speak after death. He was associated with magic, witches and divination and his message referred to ‘a season to rejoice in light’.

Mark added, "I see where you are going. People independently arrived at the concept of heavenly gods and saints to understand their world and the universe. Light was associated with food and water.”

“That’s where I am going,” acknowledged Evi. “The Greeks built a Temple to Jupiter the planet. The temple held the prophetic books of wisdom written by the Cumean sybil prophetess Almathea, who was said to be doomed to live for generations with only her voice singing of the fates of humanity. The Christian Golden legend, written in 1275, speaks about heralds from the sky that appear as the sun moves out of the constellation Pisces. Prophetic angels often appeared, sometimes the stars were a source.”

Mark’s eyes flashed. “Are you challenging religious beliefs?"

Evi replied, "Not at all. I am just stating fact. I am not doubting that there is a spirit that is associated with knowledge of various astronomical, biological, physical and chemical sciences. Call it whatever you like. The spirit is passed on along with moral values through many avenues. Sometimes the spirit can be explained by natural phenomenon, and other times, it is beyond our comprehension.

"Sometimes, the spirit sets up a totem that can become a cultural taboo. During the Han dynasty, there was a story of a man who saw a serpent appear in his cup during a solar eclipse. He drank the contents and became sick because of his fear. Most people are unaware of how, during a solar eclipse, the tiny crescent sun will form a line of twinkling line segments and shadow bands depending on where they are viewed. When light goes through leaves of trees and on to the ground, it can form lines that look like ripples on the sand when an ocean recedes, or ripples on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. A single event can appear in many ways.

"We will be looking down at the ball of Earth, 12 000 km in diameter. When light goes straight down through the thin atmosphere, that is only 100 km thick, an observer on Earth may see us like a twinkling star. However, an observer nearby, who sees light travelling diagonally through the atmosphere won't see the twinkle because of refraction. The observations of two people side by side are uncorrelated. We want to have students understand the observer effect."

Mark nodded. He recalled a random fact. "Pasquale Cati, a pupil of Michelangelo, created a fresco. As it happened, Cati used golden lines to outline the important characters showing St. Lawrence standing beside St. Francis of Assisi. They had all adopted the knowledge base and the values of St. John the Baptist.

"St. Francis was originally called John. He had knowledge of the sun and moon and stars, plants and animals and wrote the 'Canticle of the Sun' that praises nature.His feast day is celebrated during the Leonid meteor shower. He established an order that followed the laws of obedience, chastity and poverty. These values were adopted by the order of the Poor Clares, known as the Poor Ladies that was started by St. Clare, the daughter of a roman noble of Assisi who was also drawn to having people share understanding and knowledge of the world. The Clares remain almost silent and remain enclosed in a convent, while Franciscans wander as a vagabond becoming gentlemen of the road.

"The Clares still honour the feast of St. Lawrence, calling the Perseids or the ‘Tears of St. Lawrence’ on August 10th. The meteors are thought to be a sign from heaven because they occur like the sparks that flew when St. Lawrence was grilled over hot coals for his courage to give money to the poor instead of rich Roman officials.”

Evi said, “Great story. Greeks named the Perseids after the legendary hero, Perseus, the son of Zeus the Sun, and Danae, she of the Golden Rain. I never thought that these were meteors, even though it is in front of our eyes.”

Mark replied, “The story is not over, Claire faced an attacking Saracen army sent by Frederick ll on a date that is suspiciously close to a solar eclipse. She aimed a silver monstrance or pys, a chalice with a sunburst, at the sun. It blinded and confused the army. The fresco of Cati and psy are held in a basilica in the town once named Formosa, but the name was changed to Panisperna, meaning bread and ham, the food regularly offered to the poor in accordance with the actions of St. Lawrence.

“As chance has it, the basilica of St. Lawrence and convent of the Clare’s is beside the physics institute attended by scientific geniuses including Ettore Majorana and Enrico Fermi and others who were called the ‘Via Panspermia boys.’ They were sheltered from bureaucrats and Mussolini as they examined symmetry as a mathematical tool in group theory.

"These individuals looked to the heavens to discover the mysterious origin of cosmic rays and to determine if a universal magnetic field acts as a giant accelerator that accounts for their fantastic energy. Majorana took physics beyond the standard model. Majorana hypothesized the neutrino now called the Majorana particle that is its own antiparticle. Neutrino flux can lead to a soliton, with long range energy transfer that is self-propagated and moves through nature.

"Students will love to hear about how Majorana mysteriously disappeared. Plus, using symmetry and group theory, the older students can examine the finite and infinite dimensions of Majorana stars. They can view the quantum states found in phase differences between coherent states of the Bloch sphere altered to an elliptic, that make up dark matter and examine the anapole moment when the toroid holds the weak interacting massive particles. With tellurium oxide bolorometers they can measure heat, light and electromagnetic in the outer atmosphere and the efficiency of the satellite pods as Faraday cages.”

Evi looked blankly at Mark whose enthusiasm about technical details was lost on her. She said “For now- back to music and golden eras. Music is the springboard- remember?

“ I want to refer to Guido of Arezzo. He established a memory aid called the ‘Guidonian hand’ that uses the magical golden ratio found in the hand to inform singers of the notes that follow the Golden way around the year 1000. Guido use the golden ratio in music, that was used noted much earlier by Horace in 8 BC. and used by Pythagoras in 6BC.

Using codes of mathematics he arranged the notes linearly and formalized the Solfeggio scale. Guido put successive ascending and descending notes on a graph, so tones matched the lines of a staff. Sol is the term given to the light of the sun and also is used to represent the ground. The Roman god, Sol Invicta, the invisible sun and Mithras, were associated with the Bull myth that appears in stories of resurrection and the solstice. Sol as a note, is said to release intuition based on being observant of nature’s wonders.

Mark interjected, “This is an amazingly nice link to the soliton.”

Evi continued, "Guido wrote a song to celebrate the feast day of St John the Baptist, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth celebrated at 14:00 h on June 24th at midsummer. A line from the song goes ‘Ut queant Iaxis resonare fibris solve polluti labia reatum'. It translates as ‘in order that the slaves might resonate the miracles of your creations with loosened vocal cords.’

“Music is a means to mathematically express the power of connections. It represents the seven-way path that is used to describe nature, growth, the arrangements of constellations, planets, the universe as well as atoms. The octave is divided exactly in half. creating an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth. The fourth has a dark side."

Evi chuckled at her own joke. “Pythagorean tuning was based on the golden ratio of 2:3, known as a perfect fifth. It can create music with consonance that reinforces the feeling of stability and pleasure or be diminished when the natural fifth is flattened, and it creates the paradoxical concept of movement and instability called the devil’s triabolus or the Devil’s interval. The diminished fifth holds an infinity of overtones and undertones that creates a mathematical melodic dissonance that embodies evil.

" When sounded together on an organ the notes howl like a wolf. The wolf is a musical term that describes notes so far out of consonance they can never be harmonious when laced in the circle of fifths. The lack of resolution sets up a fantastical dark and eery response and evokes the volatile creativity of the storm god of chaos.

“I propose that Wolf tones are part of the scream that is not heard in the vacuum. To keep the wolf at bay or tame the wolf, requires establishing a rest cord. During this pause, the distressed listener can find resolution that lets a melody appear to progress without dissonance. Here, natural notes become accidentals, and form what is called ‘musica ficta’, feigned music.

" Music fills space. The way notes are packaged creates intimate mysteries and feelings. Individuals often experience synesthesia, where brief intervals at notes, smaller than a semitone, can evoke emotions that can be associated with visual shapes and colours and tastes.

" In music, the enharmonic is the space, the voiceless stop, called a Pause or Pythagorean comma that is intended to take the listener into the gap between two seemingly equivalent notes like B# and C or E flat and D. The pause holds the gap, where senses can reform how to deal a paradox in what is considered reality."

Mark thought for a few minutes at how elegantly music connects to the concept of the soliton. He added, “We are a product of every hardship and triumph that we and our ancestors have experienced. I love that the same note can be interpreted differently within the context of the intervals from which they are viewed."

"In Physics, the gap is found in the void. It can be found in the dark lines between colours of a rainbow, or in the quantum foam where matter and antimatter are created and destroyed. Cosmic rays pass through the gap where particles interact. They do not make any noise unless the sonification technique is applied.

"Cosmic music, developed by physicists at CERN, is generated by an instrument that generates a note and flash of light whenever a particle in a cosmic ray passes through a detector pad. Cosmic rays accelerate whenever relativistic plasma is confined by a magnetic field. This can form a dark or bright soliton, that transmits a self-made temporal evolution of a wave in which dark and light phase shifts can occur. In the soliton, neutrino emissions are associated with accelerating high energy cosmic rays.

"Majorana discovered these neutrinos, that have since been found to have intense magnetic field transition moments, with an electric force that has superconducting qualities. The soliton follows quasi-linear elliptical orbits that resemble natural formations on the moon, or in cell division, magnetic pathways and Descartes vortices."

Evi smiled. “I love the way this is flowing. I am however, going to stick with music and the stars. Most cultures associated knowledge of the stars and the universe with music. Music was part of education until the 1600’s. Music evolved with myth, magic and mysticism.

"Virgil told the story of Orpheus, who could play and sing music so beautiful, that animals could be tamed or lulled to sleep. Musical vibrations could move rocks and trees and launch the Odyssey boat off its stays. Orpheus used music to convince Celeste, the goddess of heavenly bodies who guided souls to Hades chaotic domain, to bring his beloved wife back from the dead. It almost worked until he broke the only rule and looked backwards.”

“Ancient grimoires of music hold the basis of the principles of magical spells and incantations that were used to heal the body and release spiritual energy thus determining aspects of the immortal soul that will live or die.”

Mark added, “Johannes Kepler established 'the music of the celestial spheres.' Kepler was born with physical afflictions and lacking the necessary sensory abilities to become an astronomer, he studied theological, mathematical and astronomical questions. He had been born in a challenging home where his mother was considered a witch and died while in prison for being one. His son died of smallpox. He dealt with tragedies through his work. Kepler made his living as court astrologer.

"He recognized natural acoustic relationships that associated with the stars and planets. Using the principles of the solfeggio arrangement, Kepler established the four notes of a chord were formed at the time of Creation. The projected they hold a harmonic resonance at multiple scales. He believed that the synchronicity of the orbits of planets could affect the souls of listeners, raising them to joy or to feel grief.

"Mathematical evidence let him explore his belief in the divine archetype that designed all natural things with ratios derived by geometry. The resonant frequency of the Earth rang the notes Mi and Fa, in resonance with the Golden ratio.

"Kepler wrote what is considered the first science fiction novel called Somnium – the Dream - to explore his beliefs that God is mightier than nature and the Devil is real and more omnipresent than gravity. He shifted Copernicus’ idea that the sun was at the centre of the planets. He used knowledge to build the ship of Theseus. Principles that were maintained for a thousand years were slowly replaced until no original part remained. We identified planets were in dissonance unless they revolved around an off-centered elliptic around the sun.

" Rene Descartes was influenced by Kepler and considered vibrations could be understood scientifically. Soon after, Newton applied musical scales to define the colour of the spectrum using the principles of vibrations."

Evi commented, “One wheel moves and drives others as science looks inside the celestial machine. I like to believe that the human body is an Eidophone, an instrument like the glass harmonica invented by Benjamin Franklin. Habits, conditioning and the environment can help the body vibrate and be played as an instrument.”

Without missing a beat Mark added, “Pythagoras believed that the mathematics and harmony of music can be applied as medicine. It is our job to help the students hear the music of the universe, so they might hear the scream and know how to respond to it."

Evi nodded. "We are deaf and blind to so much that is a part of the everyday life. We’ve been given the chance to dream the dreams of angels and now are able to move like angels who do not have to surrender to gravity. Our role is to provide conditions so that the next generation can continue to pursue and chase good and beautiful dreams, knowing how easily they can become a nightmare."

Mark nodded in agreement. "I think we’ve made a good start.”

Over the next weeks, the lessons were polished. Students arrived and lessons were delivered. Students recovered from space sickness, learned about biofeedback and music and completed their investigations. The outcome revealed that students had adapted. Some had experienced a harmony, that held a balanced tension that included the dissonance. Simulations suggested that most were able to use the energy of the musical pause. Some were harnessing the dark and bright aspects of a soliton, accelerating along the elliptic at almost the speed of light.

Evi however, had experienced a continual sickness, especially in the morning. When she and Mark found out that they were the first to become pregnant on the satellite community, they heard the scream of fear and joy resonate through the vacuum.