*"Intelligence is the ability to identify isolated but related facts and to form them into theories that explain the universe." That's a quotation from a magazine article I read when I was 16 years old. That would have been in 1948 or thereabouts and the magazine was Seventeen, for young girls. After reading that article which was about the characteristics of intelligence, (erect posture, bright lively eyes, curiosity, eager to learn, etc) I remember that I was influenced enough to want to appear to be intelligent.
1. The quotation re-occurred into my thought afterwards often enough to make me curious about it and of course I always remembered where I'd read it.
2. I made my first moebius band when I was about 9 years old after reading a simple definition in a dictionary. "To make a moebius band take a strip of paper at least an inch wide and of any length and twist one end a half turn, glue the ends together." I looked at the result and a thought occurred to me: "Cut it around the center lengthwise." and I did that. The result was a surprise but while I looked at that the thought repeated: "Cut it around the center lengthwise." I repeated cutting the band and the result was really a surprise: two slender bands that were joined in a knot that didn't look like it could be undone except by cutting one of the bands. I remember wondering to myself what the use of such a thing could be.
This page is an attempt to tell about how an impulse of mine went to work 'identifying isolated but related facts' and without my own intents or purposes guiding it, drew the 'moebius twist reflection' to my attention. That happened over a span of years since I'd made that moebius band in about 1941.
What is the 'moebius twist reflection'? It's about handedness. It's a relationship that is most obvious in the right and left hand. They can be placed together palm to palm but they cannot be matched by laying one hand on top of the other, they cannot be superimposed. The face cards in a deck of cards are another example of the 'twisted' image: the bottom faces in the opposite direction. I'd not thought about that relationship until I read it in a book.
One day I had an impulse to create a card where the top and bottom faced the same direction and went to the newly opened Kinko's copy shop thinking it would be easy to do. The impulse was the result of something I'd read recently about how the images on a deck of cards form a complete philosophical system. The book was A New Model of The Universe by P. D. Ouspensky. I took my favorite deck of cards and examined the face cards for the first time, noticing that the top and bottom images face the opposite direction but there were other differences I'd never noticed. At some point after that I found myself gripped with an impulse to make a face card with both faces in the same direction.
Part of the impulse came from having noticed the seemingly trivial detail that the letters p,q,b,d are the same form turned into different orientations moving through the quadrants of the Cartesian graph. Another layer in my thinking was linked to the logo Boeing was using then to get ready for their 75th anniversary: 1916/1991. It was a very nice image that was everywhere for months before the event itself. We were given a nice lapel pen with 1919/1991 engraved on it and I was fascinated enough with it to have mine made into earrings. I had thought about how it's possible to flip a 'p' over and its a 'q'; 'b' can be lifted up and flipped over and it's a 'd' and of course, vice versa. But for some reason I was puzzled that the number 6 could not become number 9 by turning it over to an adjacent quadrant, it had to be turned over 2 times to become a 9. I spent some time on that.
I am not a genius so when an impulse gripped me to think about 'silly facts' and do 'silly things' giving in to the impulse was not something I resisted doing. Its probably what the 'irrational' is, doing something without a reason, having no clear goal in mind.
So that's some background for the impulse that gripped me to make a card where the image at top and bottom face the same direction. I had another particular image in mind by then, it was a cartoon that had caught my attention in addition to the face card I chose. It was the king from my favorite deck of cards with an image of King Tut on the back. I went to the newly opened Kinko's Copy shop armed with the Gary Larson cartoon and the face card. A little background to the cartoon is that this happened in 1991 and the cartoon was dated Wednesday, October 16, 1991. What caught my attention was that the caption was a kind of coincidence that I'd begun to think about, double contexts for the same words. The cartoon shows a line of cows moving towards a door, and one cow is trying to get into line ahead of another cow. "Hey you! End of the line." is the caption and above the door is a sign: ANDERSONS' MEATS. Obviously the words "Hey You! End of the line." had a literal context as well as the colloquial, 'Hey you, wait your turn' context.
I spent some time making copies without getting the results I wanted until the store clerk noticed and asked what I was trying to do. She instantly realized what I didn't know. She told me that I would have to make a transparency of either the top or bottom then use the back side for the opposite end, then I could tape the two images and copy that. Copy machines that could make transparencies had just become available but I'd not thought in depth about the strange project my impulse was building. I had no information then of the idea that was being drawn out by my fascination with the form 9,6 ; p,q,d,b and the Cartesian graph; a logo at work; and a cartoon that put a human perspective on a line of cows marching towards their 'end'. The final impulse was triggered by the presence of that logo, the cartoon with it's date and caption but more from having read the book that drew my attention to details in a deck of cards that I'd never noticed myself.
When I had the impulse to create that card, I had not a clue as to why I wanted such an image. There wasn't a conscious reason for putting so much effort into an endeavor at a time when it was not easy to do, but just when it could be done. It was not easy to create posters and placards as I'd found out when I had to rub letters onto a paper to advertise our club's square dances, then find a way to get copies made. Kinkos was open 24/7.
I've included a copy of a drawing from a book I found later. It's a drawing of the lattice theory of confinement of quarks. I was surprised very much when I saw it in an article in Particles and Forces, a Scientific American book. By that point in Time, the concept of the 'moebius twist' had evolved in my thinking but I'd had other experiences that 'drew together' the results of the impulses I was giving in to. I had become aware these 'irrational impulses' were drawing my attention too ....the impulse itself.
The concept built itself from many odd impulses but also there was something visible in my every day life that triggered the impulse.
Also on this page I want to write a few words about the 'importance of third person observations'.
And a few words about the moebius band itself as a concept that is a cosmological constant concept and it's relationship to square dancing; the I Ching; chess; psychiatric ideas; and to quantum physics.
And a few words about Carl G. Jung's Psychology of the Transference.
And include a drawing in his book that duplicates the form of this 'moebius' twist as it applies to intimate relationships in transference..
Page 38 • CLAUDIO REBBI SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN PARTICLES AND FORCES
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Figure 3.1 lattice of points helps physicists understand the field of force that gives rise to the permanent confinement of quarks. Quarks lie only at the vertexes of the lattice. The state of a particle is represented by a purple arrow, which must point in one of two directions a{ each vertex in the front lattice plane. To compare the orientations of two purple arrows one of them must be moved next to the other. A set of rules, represented by the bands that join neighboring vertexes, must be defined to specify the changes made in the orientation of the arrows during transport. The set of rules is a gauge field; it enables an
Arrow to be transported upward or to the right of a vertex, around a square array of four vertexes called a plaquette and back to its starting point. (Transported arrows are green, yellow, blue or pink.) Any set of bands that returns the transported arrow to its original orientation represents the lowest energy state of the gauge field. A set of bands that resembles a Moebius strip, however, cannot be untwisted: a transported arrow returns to its starting vertex with the opposite orientation. The red arrows represent the lines of force to which the gauge field gives rise.
FORMATIONS AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE SQUARE DANCE SET ARE 'MOEBIUS TWIST MIRRORING''.
There are 8 people in a square dance set. These 8 people are divided into binary units: 2 people = 1 unit. There are 4 binary units in a square dance set.
The four couples are divided into two binary units, 4 people = 1 binary unit. They are named couple 1 and 3 who are the heads or the 'odd couples' who are the side couples 2 and 4, the even numbers. The odds 1 and 3 are interacting with the even numbers 2 and 4.
There are several basic formations in the square dance set but every formation has the 'moebius twist mirroring' attribute. This is a fact because although each couple works as a binary unit in the set at one level, the two individuals in the unit move independently during the the dance. . Every individual is a member of a binary unit on two levels, because the 4 couples are divided into opposites, the 'odd numbers 1 and 3' working against the 'even numbers 2 and 4.
The 8 individuals have relationships with others during the dance that change with every step, but the mirroring doesn't change. If you can locate your counterpart, the opposite of your position in the set, then you can verify your own location. Its a double bind of course, your counterpart may not be in the correct location. It is this ever changing relationship that makes it difficult to learn levels beyond mainstream but even that is not easy either.
The basis of the dance is that the 'odds' and the evens interact through the dance but they never mix permanently but that seems to be true of quantum level interactions also.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF NOT JUDGING THE OTHER. The 'other' may not really be what you are looking at, you may be seeing your self 'mirrored' because in certain psychologically sensed situations, you may be looking at your self, through a kind of 'lens' created from within that creates a projection. I've experienced being the mirror of someone else's inner content rather than my own. What emerges as the 'other' can really be the other in non-psychologically sensed situations but the 'moebius twist mirroring' can be generating a situation where the individual can see a bit of information about him/her self that's formed through the 'mirrored' content. It may be useful, as Theodore Reik wrote, there is some inner content that is available directly, only when reflected in an other. This was an idea that meant nothing to me until I had experienced being the mirror, rather than my own self, for a long span of time.
In a different vein, I have reason to believe it is important to guard one's 'third person' appraisals because: "We tend to become that which we observe." I remember when I observed another person and observed something about that person, that he should do. In fact several characteristics of that person came to my attention at different times. My thought was about how he could achieve a goal he was aiming for, if he did certain things he wasn't doing. He seemed to me (and others who talked behind his back about the problem) to be 'short sheeting' himself by certain habits he had.
William Blake wrote in his Tree of Life allegory that the 'eternals who guard those who sleep, helplessly become that which they observed." The kind of observations I made were thoughts, not statements made aloud, they were in a real way, 'judgments' as well as evaluations. Observation is an ambiguous word. It's doubleness is not obvious until you think about it, but it is used to speak about what is seen as well as what is spoken. I noticed belatedly, over a period of a few years that what I had 'judged' this person should do, I had begun to do myself. I found out later this happened to a few other people who did not feel they could openly address what they observed about this particular persons 'self defeating habits'.
The psychological conception of 'projection' as it is commonly interpreted involves self observation but it's usually turned around backwards in that phase, it does not seem one is observing one's own self, but an other.
I've read William Blake and the Tree of Life by Laura de Witt James and that's were I read the quotation about how the 'eternals who guard those who sleep are changed by what they observe'. But I've experienced a rather unexpected connection between what I think about as the 'other', the third person, he, her, it, they, them. Certain thoughts that I remember thinking about one man in particular in a specific situation had an effect on me, such that I really began to do myself, what I had thought this other person ought to do. I don't know for certain what caused me to focus on that person, and 'see' his self defeating habits before I knew what it felt like to be in a 'double bind', but whatever the source of my interest, I began to experience the 'double bind' as well as what it's like to be living in a blind spot in life itself, that would be the real relationship of the male to the female, and to history itself, all of it.
It was a simple situation, this person thought he had a terrible voice which was a serious handicap in his chosen field: he was a square dance caller. I remember thinking to myself one evening: "He could be a good singer. He should work on his voice." There were other similar 'third person observations' that I remember thinking (????) to myself about this particular person and eventually I began to do all of them myself. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." may have been said in reference to this very powerful mechanism, in certain relationships.
This strange condition is presented, or to be more accurate represented in a story form that almost every young reader reads, the myth of Narcissus, then the Roman version which adds a female counterpart that repeats the last words that she hears Narcissus say to his reflection. Which he does not recognize is himself, reflected in water. It's a psychological condition that is virtually impossible to describe to anyone that has not experienced the effects of it, as well as the thing itself. It's a mental mechanism that causes content to be 'projected' outwards into the physical world, that's the 'story' in the well known myth in which Narcissus falls in love with his own image. He cannot recognize it is his own reflection he is talking to and loving so much. While he relates to his own image, the unfortunate female, Echo repeats back the last works she hears him say to his reflection. There's been a point when the 'insight' of Narcissus has turned around and is now 'outsight'. Something that I believe creates real 'second sight' such as the trivial example of the caption in Gary Larson's cartoon depicted. All of his cartoons have that attribute, jokes actually are the result of 'second sight', in my opinion.
But a different kind of use of the moebius concept as a kind of 'switch' was at work when the kind of impulsive actions I found myself driven to do at Kinko's. It took years of that kind of impulsive activity to make me aware of the likelihood that a switch can create a 'me' or 'not me' reflection, and when it seems to be 'not me', it can become me eventually. Self affirmations were not so common in 1991 as they are now. My self talk about my self is not 'I' or 'me', as a result of becoming aware that whatever I observe about someone else may be accepted by my own mind and then gradually I 'become that which I observed'. It may be that what we 'hate' in others is not always present in our own self, but somehow observing it in an other, may produce it, so when I address myself, its with 'she', her, pronouns.'She wants', 'she likes, 'she is', 'she can'., 'she would like.'
The term projection is usually defined superficially so I will define it more in depth, from experiences that made it obvious it's a term that must be used with great care. The 'thing observed' and the 'thing described' are both projections in that either one is being defined and named and both are an expression of a belief. "The thing is what I believe it is..."
The moebius twist can create a band that has only one surface but every point on the band is accessible. Supposedly it was discovered by Augustus Moebius one day when he put his belt on with a half turn and then he examined the result. I'm sure this has happened to billions of other individuals who gave no thought to the result of a strip of leather with a twist in it. I suspect an irrational impulse caused Mr. Moebius to 'wonder' and inquire.
In 1940 I read this definition of a moebius band: "To make a moebius band take an evenly cut strip of paper and twist one end a half turn. Join the ends with paste. The result is a moebius band. "
I looked at the result, wondering what the use of such a thing could be. I was 9 years old then. I read this definition of a moebius band when I was 9 years old but that moment was stored away for use when I was much older and in a situation where the information I'd learned from an impulse produced thought could be 'used'. That points towards foresight, the past knew what was going to happen in the future.
I discovered the hidden secret of the moebius band as a result of the impulse that I experienced as an instruction, which I obeyed without hesitation. The same impulse repeated itself, and again there was no hesitation in my response to it.
This is THE impulse, it's embedded within an entire world of inner mechanisms that generate as well as restrict thought and a response to it.
That was my second incident in which an impulse that generated a thought caused me to obey instantly, and discover on my own something that I later learned about by reading or being taught or told by someone else what I'd learned privately. I became aware that a full twist, a 360 degree twist produces quite a different result when it's sliced around it's center.
There's more to come about the moebius band and it's form. I believe the 'twist point itself', can be an individual on this planet, being guided along a continuum that has many 'tracks', that is 'phases, states of mind, modes of perception, in the processes named by C. G. Jung as individuation and more in depth, where a kind of literalness as well as symbolism requires to be understood, it was named by Emanuel Swedenborg as 'regeneration'. And P. D. Ouspensky whose book the Psychology of Man's Possible Evolutions describes the 'psychological method' so vaguely but it does mention that new 'sense'.
I thought of it as the 7th sense, but the way I think of it now is that the body, the physical world, mind/brain and personal experiences are all united into one sense, only one.
But as a moving point, the twist point itself, can be a human on Earth living a continuum shaped like a form of the moebius band. It seems to me this moving point of observation, definition and activity is linked to another dimension, and it's this dimension that is sending out the signal of Time.
This is an opinion I've come to understand from experience that really, literally described its self, among other of it's attributes. It created a conversation built from huge batches of information that must have been energized in some way although it probably was born when I was born, in my body. The body as a source of information and an object that can be watched with the same detachment that is used to watch others as well as objects was something new to me.