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View Full Version : HOlmium, Entanglement, and The Weirdest Link


lostmio
02-05-2008, 06:10 PM
I'm changing from the HO HO HO train to the HOlmium train.

In one of those odd moments of synchronicity, I yesterday rec'd 2 books I had ordered (Lynne Taggart's The Field (http://www.merrynjose.com/artman/publish/article_756.shtml) and The Intention Experiment (http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/the_experiments.htm)) last month..
Imagine my surprise when I opened the latter book and right off the bat found that the whole premise of the book rested upon experiments with holmium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmium), which as others have noted on this forum, has unusual magnetic properties and is designated by the symbol HO.

The first few pages of the first chapter presented a barrage of terms and concepts that have become staples on Lost message forums. Several chapters later, I'm still stunned by the implications of the holmium experiments in general, and even more so how those implications dovetail with the Lost mysteries.
I'm not ready to synthesize the experiments and books and present a theory, but I'm 99.9% convinced the HO refers to holmium, and not Santa Claus.

Thanks to a footnote in the 1st chapter, I found The Weirdest Link (http://www.biophysica.com/quantum.htm), an article from the March 2004 issue of New Scientist. It's a great read for a Lost fan.

Here are some of the quotes from that article, that tell why I think the HO easter eggs point to HOlmium:

Entanglement: Erwin Schrödinger called this phenomenon the defining trait of quantum theory. Einstein famously dubbed it spukhafte Fernwirkungen: "spooky action at a distance". It is not hard to understand why. Set things up correctly, and you can instantaneously affect the physical properties of a particle on the other side of the universe simply by prodding its entangled twin.

This is no longer just a curiosity of the quantum world, visible only in excruciatingly delicate experiments. Physicists now believe that entanglement between particles exists everywhere, all the time, and have recently found shocking evidence that it affects the wider, "macroscopic" world that we inhabit.Just how little we know about entanglement was made crystal clear last year by a collaboration led by Sayantani Ghosh at the University of Chicago (Nature, vol 425, p 48). The team analysed experiments done more than a decade ago with a sample of a magnetic salt containing holmium atoms, and compared them with theoretical predictions. What they found is extraordinary.

The holmium atoms within the salt behave like tiny magnets and respond to each others' magnetic fields by adjusting their relative orientation, just as a compass needle orients itself to align with the Earth's magnetic field. But the atoms change this settled orientation if they are placed in an external magnetic field. The degree to which they align with the field is known as the salt's "magnetic susceptibility".
As if our current understanding of entanglement between widely separated particles were not sketchy enough, Brukner, working with Vedral and two other Imperial College researchers, has uncovered a radical twist. They have shown that moments of time can become entangled tooedit: I've never been a fan of The Island as a Conscious Entity theory. After reading about the holmium experiments, though, I could accept the notion that the island's vegetation interacts with and responds to human consciousness.
The HO experiments correspond to the "Secret Life of Plants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Plants)" phenomena, and further, the idea that plants are sentient and have a "learning curve" as we interact with them...

skjpm
02-05-2008, 10:35 PM
Just for the record, about a year ago I posted about Lynn Taggart's book The Field as possibly being the source book for Lost. It's a great book. Also look at The Sense of Being Stared At. My theory is that the Island gives people access to The Field and the Akashic Records, which contain the flashbacks.

Lost_in_CA
02-06-2008, 08:12 PM
Thank you! This sounds like something I could wrap my mind around. I've been reading a bit on the study of synchronicity (meaningful coincidence), too. Lots of interesting parallels to LOST.

You said you ordered the book. Was this through Amazon or B&N, by chance? I have a B&N gift card that wants to be spent. ;)

Väinämoinen
02-07-2008, 11:02 AM
Holmium was discovered in 1878 by a team of Swiss chemists, just at the time when Magnus Hanso was captaining the Black Rock (It's final voyage was only three years later).

The name Holmium means "Island Element", and is usually assumed to have been named for Stockholm; but that theory doesn't explain the name Thulium, the other element discovered in the same mineral samples. Thule (sometimes Ultima Thule) is the name of a specific island, a mysterious distant one known from the time of the Greeks.

Thule, by the way, is supposed to be at the end of the world, to the North and West. Pliny the Elder, for example, speaks of Thule, "wherein it is day and night continually by turns for six months". I wouldn't give up on the HO HO HO train just yet.

- Väi

starlight1021
02-07-2008, 11:22 AM
Wow this is some amazing stuff.
Just for fun I think I'm gonna ask my chemistry professor about it!

GregEd
02-07-2008, 01:56 PM
Technically it's Ho but yeah whatever.

maverick9six
02-07-2008, 02:11 PM
Thanks LOSTMIO! My husband is a chemist at the Univeristy of Illinois- I am going to show this thread to hima nd ask him if he knows anything more about HOlmium.
This is a really exciting theory and it sounds highly likely to be tied into the mystery of the island.
Yay!!:groove:

lostmio
02-07-2008, 02:22 PM
Thank you! This sounds like something I could wrap my mind around. I've been reading a bit on the study of synchronicity (meaningful coincidence), too. Lots of interesting parallels to LOST.

You said you ordered the book. Was this through Amazon or B&N, by chance? I have a B&N gift card that wants to be spent. ;)

I got both books from Amazon, they're widely available.
The author's name, btw, is McTaggart, not Taggart as I said..

They're both nonfiction.

I've only read 19 pages of The Field, and this is what I've found so far:

The first chapter is about Ed Mitchell's Apollo voyage and his experience there which led to his lifelong interest in theoretical physics and the paranormal.

The second chapter is about a fried chicken chain magnate (a la Mr. Cluck) and his partnership with a physicist friend who graduated from U of Florida, which is in Tallahassee.. He gave the friend a gold watch as a gift; they called each other Snow Man and Glacier Genius, the watch was engraved with those nicknames.

sier
02-07-2008, 02:27 PM
This is very interesting. Part of me thinks this is too deep for them to explain on a prime time television show, but the other part of me hopes it really is something this in depth and complex.

My mom will hate it. But that's ok.

lostmio
02-07-2008, 02:37 PM
This is very interesting. Part of me thinks this is too deep for them to explain on a prime time television show, but the other part of me hopes it really is something this in depth and complex.

They won't ever explain it for the general viewing audience. Many of the easter eggs are for the hard-core fans, those who want to delve deeper.

The general audience will see a wonderful character-driven drama with mysterious science fiction and/or paranormal overtones. The show works beautifully at that level.

For example, I followed TLE and thought it was a major yawn. I wasn't at all interested in the VE, the numbers, the Black Rock history, etc. None of that added a whit to my enjoyment of the first 2 seasons. Those who are interested in these things ate it up with a spoon.
Find815 and the mobisodes held my interest slightly more, as imo they aligned more closely, in the present, with what's on screen.

Eventually - at, near, or after series end - Darlton will reveal what's behind most of the mysteries, either through podcasts and interviews, or some other multimedia like TLE, Find815, or the mobisodes.

Lost_in_CA
02-07-2008, 07:01 PM
I got both books from Amazon, they're widely available.
The author's name, btw, is McTaggart, not Taggart as I said..

They're both nonfiction.

I've only read 19 pages of The Field, and this is what I've found so far:

The first chapter is about Ed Mitchell's Apollo voyage and his experience there which led to his lifelong interest in theoretical physics and the paranormal.

The second chapter is about a fried chicken chain magnate (a la Mr. Cluck) and his partnership with a physicist friend who graduated from U of Florida, which is in Tallahassee.. He gave the friend a gold watch as a gift; they called each other Snow Man and Glacier Genius, the watch was engraved with those nicknames.

Thank you! I'll see if B&N can order them for me. Love that chicken chain tie-in. :thumbup1:

Speaking of synchronicity, I wonder if we'll get a character named Jung. ;)