Awe and Wonder

Epiphanies are devious things, they hide from daily sight.
They hunt for minds in subtle thought to snare, and set alight.

A daydream mind subdues in warmth of summer's hazy days
As lazy zephyrs stroke the grass where insects buzz and graze.

Alone, a boy in dreamy thought at peace in summer’s light
Where fleeting clouds across the blue caress his mind with quiet.

Epiphany, a target found, drawn with a power raw,
Leaps forth from where it lay in wait to charge that mind with awe.

A self awakes. Perceives the world. A quale struck with wonder.
The new born mind that stirs anew rejects the gods as blunder.

Nature shines. Religion fades. Intrigue. A quest uncovered
Drives the boy. “Explore the world”. “Pursue all truth”. “Discover”.

And so was born a science mind sown by that wondrous deed,
To seek, to find, explore for truth, wherever that may lead.

James Noel 2018

.oOo.

Definitions

Epiphany:  From ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια (epiphaneia, “manifestation, striking appearance”),

In the 14 century Christians gave it their own meaning relating to religious experience, however it does not have religious origins. Nor are we obliged to give their definition special significance.

Modern day definitions mirror the original from ancient Greek:
(1) "A usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something:  an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking:  an illuminating realisation or discovery, often resulting in a personal feeling of elation or wonder."

(2) "A sudden realisation. As if something not previously clear or known has been brought into the light of knowledge or comprehension. It is as though what could not be seen in a dark room has suddenly been shown to you by turning on a light.”

It is the ancient Greek and modern day meanings in which I use the term.

Quale: (Qualia - plural). An emergent quality that does not exist independently in the real world, but is dependent on the brain of a perceiver. e.g. The quale of “blue” is generated in our brains as the “colour” of the sky. A particular wavelength of light that feels blue to us, is not actually “blue” in and of itself. The sensation of colour is a quale, as is pain, sorrow, humour, love etc. Our consciousness is a quale – an emergent property of the complexity of the brain. Qualia are the most intriguing aspects of evolved sentience. Within the context of the quale of consciousness, these things are no less real to a sentient being than if they actually existed in nature.

This should be the most inspiring aspect of the natural world from which we arose from stardust. We didn’t arrive into the real world. We are the real world looking back on itself. As long as the universe exists, we (not humans but sentient awareness) will emerge somewhere in the universe in evolved organisms.