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Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter
Number 37 - 5 December 2006
Copyright 2006 Meru Foundation
Edited by Levanah Tenen



FROM THE EDITOR
Yes -- this is the third eTORUS we've sent out in the past week. <smile> We have several essays and other material that we want to release, and decided to send out a series of short, frequent newsletters rather than waiting to produce a long one. I hope you enjoy these short "tastes" of Meru Research.

If you did *not* receive last week's two eTORUSes -- #35 and #36 -- please let me know. If enough people regularly do not receive our emails, I'll try sending them via a different ISP. Both of these eTORUSes are posted at http://www.meru.org/journalindex.html.

I also want to remind readers about our new Meru book, THE ALPHABET IN GENESIS, which we are issuing in multiple-broadside format. We are offering the complete set of six greyscale volumes plus one volume of posters in full color, for $99.95 plus shipping. Details on this and additional "specials" are posted at http://www.meetingtent.com/AlphaInGenesis-Broadsides.2.html, and Stan's "Author's Preface" is available in our last eTORUS, at http://www.meru.org/Newsletters/number36.html .

These are our first formally-bound books, and we want to promote them as widely as possible. If you want to help us promote "The Alphabet in Genesis" (via e-lists, blogs, interviews, or other means we haven't thought of), please contact us -- we want to talk with you. You can email me at meru@meru.org, or call us at 1-781-784-3462 (Boston area). --Levanah Tenen

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NOTES ON THE UNIQUE QUALITIES OF GESTURE LETTERS

©2006 Stan Tenen

Below is the concluding paragraph from "Mirrors in the Mind", by Giacomo Rizzolatti, Leonardo Fogassi and Vittorio Gallese, published in Scientific American, Nov. 2006, p. 61 [emphasis added]:

  "Only a decade has passed since we published our first discoveries about mirror neurons, and many questions remain to be answered, including the mirror system’s possible role in language -- one of humanity’s most sophisticated cognitive skills. The human mirror neuron system does include Broca’s area, a fundamental language-related cortical center. And if, as some linguists believe, human communication first began with facial and hand gestures, then mirror neurons would have played an important role in language evolution. In fact, the mirror mechanism solves two fundamental communication problems: parity and direct comprehension. Parity requires that meaning within the message is the same for the sender as for the recipient. Direct comprehension means that no previous agreement between individuals -- on arbitrary symbols, for instance -- is needed for them to understand each other. The accord is inherent in the neural organization of both people. Internal mirrors may thus be what allow John and Mary to connect wordlessly and permit human beings in general to communicate on multiple levels."

Only an alphabet based on hand-gestures and pointing directions:

-- Comes with natural universal functional and feeling meaning, based on the universal gestures needed for everyday actions: “. . . no previous agreement between individuals. . .is needed. . ."

-- Merges form and function seamless, allowing for "direct comprehension”.

-- Produces letters that can be seen in the mind’s eye, and thus can be used to recall individual feeling-steps in mental exercises. These exercises can lead to real emotional experience and personal growth.

-- Needs no arbitrary grid, coordinate system, or reference. Hands are viewed by the wearer from the perspective of their mind’s eye. Gestures are intrinsic to living in the world e.g., pouring a cup of water.

-- Is culture-independent, technology-independent, and inclusive from simple to sophisticated, in all cultures. Everyone gestures and points to the same basic life-things, life-functions, and life-actions. (Meets parity and direct comprehension requirements.)

-- Can be both horizontally and vertically universal:
      Horizontally across the 3-D earth plane:
           Humans, gorillas, elephants, cetacea; E.T. (if any)
                  All self-aware creatures
                  All creatures aware of their mortality
      Vertically:
                  Above: in meditation, mental exercises
                  Here: across the earth plane, universal language; yoga
                  Below: in abstract math, and for the space in which physics takes place, and for information theory.

-- Can be designed to define the entire choice-space of an individual over their life cycle.

-- Can be useful in 3- and 4-dimensions (and in Hilbert space) for both physics and meditation.

-- Can be based on the hand’s unique position at the intersection of the physical (world) and the informational (mind) simultaneously. This reconciles Unity and Wholeness and can reconcile inside and outside; mind and world; consciousness and physics; and microbiology and cosmology, as willful choices in our minds and hands.

-- Gestures mediate between physical 3-space and conscious 4-space. There are more "Platonic” symmetries in 3- and 4-D than in higher dimensions, consistent with:
      Quantum Mechanics                (discrete logical structure)
      General Relativity          (continuous self-referring process)
      Human neurophysiology and learning (see reference above)
      Traditional claims                                   (Yehuda HaLevi)

This is the idea that changed the world: I speak for myself by what I do.

--Stan Tenen
  November 2006
  Sharon, MA

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