Consciousness and Gravity

 

 

 

Perhaps the most mysterious of all aspects of natural philosophy is the force of gravity which continues to defy a full scientific understanding of what it is and how it functions. Yet, of the four known fundamental forces -- strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic and gravity --  it is the one with which we are most familiar. 

Strong and weak nuclear forces are present only deep inside atoms and have virtually no day-to-day effect on us. Electromagnetic forces are what make things like electric motors function. The force gravity is with us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is what causes the apple to "fall" from the tree to the ground and the cup of coffee to "fall" from your hand to the floor. It is what makes lifting a heavy rock of the ground difficult or even impossible.

We are consciously aware of gravity because of the force sensors that give us sense of touch. The sensory information they send to the brain informs us of the force of gravity acting on something we are holding in our hand or on our body as we raise our body from sitting in a chair. When our brain is in a wakeful state we can be consciously aware of these forces in our mind even though they are commonly shunted aside by our brain as useless information and never even acknowledged in the mind.

But once again, our consciousness fools us. When in free fall (say, as when you might jump from an aircraft and before your parachute opens), you have no consciousness of the force of gravity. If you were to jump from a tall building you would feel no force whatsoever acting on you. If you were standing on a bathroom scale as you fell, the scale would register no weight -- no gravitational force -- acting on it. So where did the gravitation force go?

The answer is a surprising and confounding one. From your physical point in space -- your inertial platform --  the gravitational force is pushing the TOWARDS you and not pulling you DOWNWARD towards the earth. You are not moving at all but remain motionless as the earth rushes up toward you.

This seems so counter intuitive because you have been taught (incorrectly) from an early age that the apples falls FROM the tree TO the earth. But the mathematics of the science of modern physics shows us that earth pushed the apple towards the earth and exerts a gravitation force ON Newton which he consciously senses as his weight. (For those of a scientific bent, the earth and Newton are in the same inertial plan but the earth and the falling apple are not.)

Consciousness, you understand, gives us a false reflection of the reality of existence when we apply false knowledge to an action or event. And the worst of all this false knowledge is "common sense" because it becomes so ingrained in our memory.