Verma Zapanta's ACCHS Blog

Bionics & Military Weaponry I totally support the development of a bionic person, especially if it will enhance a their quality of life. Mobility is a privilege many of us take for granted and to be presented with an opportunity to (re)gain use to a part of your body is a blessing and is especially true for veterans returning from war.  Advancements in bionics have progressed over the last few decades, for instance making it possible for individuals to control a prosthetic limb through a microchip and even use electrodes on the skin to send muscle signals for movement. Check out this 2007 publication on Wired for an article on the world's most advanced bionic arm.   However like many scientific developments over the course of history, the use of bionics for military use has become a reality.  Ekso Bionics  a robotic exoskeleton company has developed "a wearable uniform, which provides superhuman capabilities with superior mobility and protectio...

Acupuncture as Effective Energy Healing I found my way to acupuncture by way of a friend who saw me struggling with burn-out. I knew nothing about acupuncture, except for the use of needles and went into my first session with no expectations. Upon the first needle insertion, I immediately felt a surge of energy unlock (probably on Lv-3).  I was curious, anxious, and relieved all at the same time.  I didn't understand what was happening to my body, but kept going to session because I was feeling energized.  Over the course of several months, my acupuncturist would also access points that (re)activated my spirit. In addition to the restoration of my physical body, I also felt an energetic purging of some sort.  I am grateful to TCM for giving me the tools and language to understand the energetic body and how it important it is to maintain, just like the physical.  As a future practitioner, I don't think it'll be necessary for me to explain or justify why the ...

Life & Living Systems Before answering the question if I am a living system, I would need to identify my own set of criteria that determines whether I am alive or not.  😓 Chemically and biologically, I am a living system because of the molecules, organisms and cells that allow me to physically function. I am also a living system because I am part of a larger ecological system that is needed to function, however will continue to flourish even when this physical body reaches its end.  But what if there is a separation between the mind (consciousness) and the physical body. Am I still considered a living system then? Organizations and corporations have characteristics of living systems, yet don't have a physical body.  I also think about the other aspects of the human body, i.e. the energetic body.  How does the subtle body fit into our views on a living system? 

My E-Prime Day I arrived class a little late this day, so was a bit confused with the E-Prime exercise we were doing in class. 😑 After searching Dr. Google, I found this definition: "The term E-Prime (short for English Prime) refers to a dialect that completely removes the verb 'to be' in all its forms from the English language."   I haven't been able to practice the E-Prime exercises from our packet, but I guess they could offer alternative ways to push our thinking and language development. According to a blog site called Litemind, we commonly use the verb to be  quite often and it hinders our critical thinking skills.  They compiled this list of how E-Prime can make you a better thinker:  1. It exposes opinions disguised as facts 2. It promotes higher accuracy and exposes hidden assumption 3. It reveals the (fallible) observer 4. It avoids premature judging and labeling 5. It brings the role players back 6. It makes language more colorf...

Sacred Geometry & Physics Based on the very little I know, both quantum physics and sacred geometry are based on the idea of symmetry.  I think quantum physics provides us with the scientific tools to understanding the universe and nature, while sacred geometry reinforces our spiritual and innate interpretation of life.  It seems as our understanding of physics evolves, we continue to find stronger connections to sacred geometry. In a 2013 article published by Quanta magazine, physicists discovered a jewel-like geometric object called an "amplituhedron."  The object "simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality." Essentially, it can provide physicists with a quantum theory of gravity. There is also a hypothesized complex symmetrical structure called E8, which some scientists believe contains the key to many quantum mysteries like black holes and their ability to creat...

Newton's Three Laws & Me First Law: Inertia An example of inertia in my everyday life is the physical effort and FORCE to get out of bed in the morning. 😫 The law of inertia states that an object (me) remains at rest of continues in uniform motion unless it is compelled to change by the action of an external force (my anxiety kicking in that I'll be late to work or school). Second Law: Force and Acceleration The relationship between the change in the speed of a moving object (acceleration) and the force acting upon it. This would be my dog Maia, pulling and taking ME for a walk, while I struggle to pull her 14 pound body back by her leash.   Third Law: Action and Reaction For each force that exists, one of equal magnitude and opposite direction acts against it: action and reaction. I assume this would be me briskly walking from my car to class.  Every hurried step forward is met with backward, frictional force from the ground! 

Loafing Around Without Feeling Guilty I need some sort of rubric to measure my effectiveness in loafing.  I thought it would be an easy feat considering I fell quite ill during our time off. I caught a cold over the weekend which progressively worsened and triggered my asthma. I haven't had an asthma attack since elementary school and didn't realize how terribly my body was feeling. It felt like I was breathing through a straw for two days and I experienced terrible hot flashes and migraines. With the help of a nebulizer, lots of soup and two weeks of rest, I was able to slowly regain my normal breathing rate. You would think through this experience that loafing would be easier, but I found myself still feeling guilty for resting while sick. I stubbornly ran errands, studied and found the rest time quite maddening at one point. (I couldn't leave the house for several days). Since going into the line of healing work, I'm actively trying to transform my relationship ...

Ordered Chaos Ordered chaos...sounds a lot like my life. Lol! 😓 Our human existence is based on making choices and systematizing the outcomes of decisions we make.  Cause and effect. I wonder if life is really as random as we believe it to be. I feel the more work I do in making sense of who I am and what my purpose is in this life, the more in tune I am with understanding (and accepting) why I experience the things I do.  I  first learned about the term fractal through Adrienne Maree Brown's book "Emergent Strategy."  It was a popular text a few years ago amongst colleagues who are educators and organizers committed to making radical social change against oppressive systems.  Brown's quote really encompasses my developing understanding of fractals and ordered chaos: “In a fractal conception, I am a cell-sized unit of the human organism, and I have to use my life to leverage a shift in the system by how I am, as much as with the things I do. This means ac...

"Good" Vibrations, Energy & Qi All vibrations aren't good because it depends on the intention.  I think of vibrational energy beyond objects that produce sounds like singing bowls and see the human body as a tool which also exerts powerful vibrations. Outside of school, I practice energy healing and body work, so am constantly interacting with bodily vibrations. Sometimes it is nourishing and healthy, most times its icky and negative vibrations that I pick up from patients because of their intention to move/release those energies in their healing session. As budding acupuncture practitioners and folks that receive the medicine, we play with qi and energy all the time.  Perhaps that is why our work as graduate students is amplified because of the spiritual and energetic ties of the medicine to the scholarly work. While receiving an acupuncture healing session, I literally feel the qi being unlocked in different parts of my body.  My recovery process post session tak...

CP violation CP or "charge parity" is the theoretical symmetry of matter and anti-matter; charge conjugation and parity .  "C is the symmetry between positive and negative charge, while P is the symmetry of spatial coordinates." CP is violated if there is a difference between the ways nature treats matter and antimatter. An article in Symmetry Magazine discusses an example of CP violation in relation to the Big Bang: "The Big Bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, with subsequent annihilation leaving neither behind. And yet, the observable universe has about 10 billion galaxies that consist entirely of matter (protons, neutrons and electrons) with no antimatter (antiprotons, antineutrons and positrons).  Very soon after the Big Bang, some forces must have caused the CP violation that skewed the equality in the number of matter and antimatter particles and left behind excess matter" My take away from this example i...

Application of E=MC2 to Life An article published in 2016 on Interesting Engineering summarized a clear understanding of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and what they see as a "mathematical solution to an esoteric problem." 😄  Basically, there is no such thing as an "absolute" frame of reference because everything is in relation to something else.  I guess that would be applicable to the construction of our identity and understanding of the world.  There is a point of reference/root/starting point to everything that shapes who we are.  As much as we'd like to think we are individuals with unique identities, even that idea is informed by another person/culture/ideology/etc.   Four Forces & Gravity The four "forces" are the fundamental laws of nature and at the core of everything in the universe. This article from Forbes magazine clarified some of my questions about the four forces from our class discussion: 1) strong nuclear force ...

Synchronicity & Connectivity "Dr. Carl Jung 's observations were based on the rejection of a coincidental, one-dimensional life, and instead, the recognition that we engage in the world in a very complex way through our psyches, our energies, our emotions, and our actions and experiences." (Kopecky, Gaia Magazine, 2015) I feel there has to be a level of mindfulness/awareness in how one interacts with people, situations, emotions and the world in order to experience what Jung coins as synchronicity.   As I've become intentional about reconnecting to my physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, the more synchronicity has resonance with me. I continue to be less and less surprised when friends I think about suddenly contact me or events I foresee to happen eventually unfold.  What I've been grappling with lately within the concept of synchronicity is how we tap into memories stored in our bodies. For instance, this week I found myself cooking more than...

Introduction Greeting ACCHS Western Sciences Community,     My name is Verma Zapanta and I am a first year student at ACCHS. Although I've been attending the course since the beginning of the trimester, I just enrolled in the class and am slowly catching up with the workload in all the Western Science courses that Larry is teaching. =) I worked in education for ten years prior to attending ACCHS as a history teacher, college professor and in youth leadership development.  I transitioned out of teaching because the work became unsustainable and had a significant impact on my wellbeing. I found myself drawn to mental health work and holistic medicine because it supported my own healing.  Acupuncture was the introduction to other modalities of healing and re-connected me to the medicines that exist in my ancestral land of the Philippines.  My goal as a practitioner is to not only practice Chinese medicine, but to continue conversations on wellness within spac...