THE MUSIC OF THE HEART: A PERSONAL JOURNEY

This is a story of a personal journey and the blessings and miracles that took place along the way. Look back over your own life and recall those often-forgotten events and heartful gifts that have lead you to become who you are. The story is also about our limits as human beings: the limits to awareness, and the limits to what we can accomplish. What has emerged is a scientific basis for expanding our concepts of what we can know and what we can accomplish. One fascinating concept is that the living matrix, the fabric of our bodies, is composed of a material that enables us to sense and analyze and respond to the world around us in extraordinary ways. An idea emerged that seemed so extraordinary at first that there was little hope that it could be validated. But Albert Einstein supported the idea of looking at ridiculous ideas because of his repeated experience that concepts that do not at first seem absurd do not really stand a chance. Patience acquired from a loving father sustained an interest in the remarkable concept that our sensory receptors actually split incoming information into two pathways. One is the well-known neurological system. The other is the “integrated microcircuit” composed of the semiconductor molecules forming the fabric of the body, the living matrix. Studies of a phenomenon known as blindsight seem to confirm that we are capable of taking in information and processing it even when the neurological pathways are not operating. It is suggested that we consider the living matrix system as the physical seat of the unconscious, and the source of intuition and insight

Al-Fārābī Metaphysics, and the Construction of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted if it Leads to Happiness?

When questioning whether political deception can be ethically warranted, two competing intuitions jump to the fore. First, political deception is a fact of human life, used in the realpolitik of governance. Second, the ethical warrant of truth asserts itself as inexorably and indefatigably preferable to falsehood. Unfortunately, a cursory examination of the history of philosophy reveals a paucity of models to marry these basic intuitions. Some thinkers (e.g., Augustine, Aquinas, Grotius, Kant, Mill, and Rawls) privilege the truth by neglecting the realpolitik, i.e., the truth is inviolate. Others (e.g., Machiavelli, Bentham, and the often infamous caché of 20th century dictators) focus upon the realpolitik to the exclusion of the primacy of the truth. A third group of critical thinkers (e.g., Arendt and Bok) examine the topic but offer no positive, systematic treatment of deception. Lacking are theories which simultaneously recognize that political untruth is often necessary, but that untruth is only justified when a) truth is politically impossible, b) the necessity of untruth is demonstrable, and c) the truth can be replaced with a minimally injurious untruth. Plato offers one such account in the Republic, arguing that deceit must be applied medicinally to the city. However, his account is problematic in detail. One of Plato’s inheritors, the 10th century thinker al-Fārābī, advanced Plato’s theoretical account, arguing that political governance requires restrained political deception. This deception, the expression of philosophical truths through the symbols of religion, meets the criteria mentioned above, being necessary, demonstrably necessary, and minimally injurious. But while al-Fārābī provides a valuable model for what justified political deception could look like, the lengths to which he must go in order to create a viable model for political deception reveals the untenability of the notion of justified political deception writ large. One must orchestrate an entire cosmos around the notion, notably a cosmos that does not match our own. One must adopt very specific conceptions of human nature, association, and happiness, as well as a particular metaphysics and epistemology. For, while al-Fārābī shows that political deception can be justifiable, he also reveals its unjustifiability outside an idealized setting

An Anatomical, Biochemical, Biophysical and Quantum Basis for the Unconscious Mind

This article suggests that it may now be possible to develop some theoretical and experimental bases for organic substructures involved in psychological phenomena including the unconscious. Our inquiry arose from mutual interest in the mechanisms involved in peak athletic and artistic performances and in deep therapeutic encounters. We are referring to a state of consciousness is often described by performers as “the zone.” This is a state in which individuals or groups function at an extraordinary level of perception and coordination; or a state in which therapists develop a deep connection with their clients’ repressed feelings or traumatic memories. Here we suggest possible mechanisms for Freud’s “conversion disorders” based on the concept that there are two or more interconnected systems that can sense and respond to the environment and that can also convert repressed emotions into chronic muscle tension or other somatic issues. One connection between sensation and action is the well-established neurophysiological mechanism and another involves semiconduction through the living matrix. This is one type of “hardware” system that functions more or less in parallel to the nervous system and possibly in concert with the “wetware” or biochemical systems described by Dennis Bray (2009). It is proposed that one aspect of the unconscious —its capacity to absorb and process vast amounts of sensory information—involves rapid signal processing through a combination of ultra-fast biological processes that are present in all cells and tissues, including but not limited to neurons. Semi-conduction, wetware, electromagneticphotonic communications and quantum coherence are examples of such processes

A framework for the implementation of total quality management in the South African Air Force

The quest for excellence in institutions is nothing new. Most of the twentieth century saw management sciences grappling with the question how to improve the productivity and general health of institutions through sound management principles and practice. In recent research, proponents of Total Quality Management have identified it as an essential strategy of successful institutions in a highly competitive and rapidly changing business environment. The overall aim of this study is the development of a framework for the implementation of Total Quality Management in the South African Air Force. As a first prerequisite, a theoretical and conceptual analysis is undertaken of Total Quality Management as it is discussed in a vast volume of published literature. In the process, Total Quality Management philosophy and principles are described within the context of organisational theory, mainly based on so-called quality guru prescriptions. The variety of definitions of Total Quality Management is studied to find an appropriate definition for this study. The primary and supportive Total Quality Management dimensions are identified in the available literature, and integrated into a framework, which is called the "Total Quality Management telescopic framework" for the purposes of the study. This framework is formulated for use in the development of an appropriate methodology to implement Total Quality Management in South African Air Force Bases. As a basis for the understanding of the empirical part of the thesis, the context and nature of the SA Air Force are also discussed, followed by the self-assessment methods already in use in the institution. The Total Quality Management telescopic framework is meant to provide a mechanism for the adoption of a systematic and ordered approach to the implementation of Total Quality Management in SA Air Force Bases. To achieve this objective, a structured questionnaire survey is undertaken to establish the nature and extent of Total Quality Management as an internal organisational arrangement for personnel in SA Air Force Bases. The framework developed from the study of the available literature is used as a basis for the survey research, which attempts to determine the main hypothesis of the study: "The attitude of personnel of the South African Air Force Bases towards the primary and supporting dimensions of the framework for the implementation of Total Quality Management is positive." With the aid of computerised reliability analysis (Alpha Cronbach) for the test, the above hypothesis is proven to be true on a statistical basis. The attitude of personnel at SA Air Force Bases towards the nature and scope of Total Quality Management is that it enables them to perform their daily tasks better, and that they accept the Total Quality Management effort positively, in spite of specific deficiencies, which the study has brought to light. With these deficiencies as a guide, recommendations are made for their elimination. The research undertaken during the course of writing the thesis has led to the deduction that the greater the extent to which Total Quality Management principles is applied, the greater the improvement in work performance among personnel.Public Administration and ManagementDADMIN (PUBLIC ADMIN

Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome misdiagnosed as chronic exertional compartment syndrome in a young male athlete: Role of dynamic ultrasound

Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome (PAES) is an uncommon cause of exercise-induced pain in the lower extremity of young athletes. However, it might explain the symptoms of those athletes who do not respond to treatment for the more common overuse syndromes. We present a case of a young professional male athlete who was diagnosed with bilateral chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS), for which he was operated on twice. His symptoms persisted for 5 years before PAES was diagnosed withdynamic ultrasound, and after bilateral surgical release a few months apart, he was completely symptom-free except for some discomfort in the fasciotomy scars