|
Home
Doors
Essays2007
Essays2008
Essays2009
Essays2010
Wisdom
Gallery
Links
Bios
Contact
|
..:: Enlightenment
IX / Physics ::..
By
Alan Schneider
Much has been said in the
Enlightenment Series regarding the Psyche, which has been referred to as
the total mind, comprised of the lower and higher minds
interacting with each other to achieve consciousness. This current
essay will investigate certain additional linkages acting within the
total mind that are often (and easily) overlooked, particularly from the
spiritual perspective.
Beginning with awareness of
the physical body, we seem to be involved in an omnipresent condition
characterized by the Newtonian model of physics, described by his famous
three laws of motion: 1) Inertia – objects tend to remain at
rest, or in a consistent state of movement, until acted upon by outside
forces, 2) Acceleration – objects tend to change their velocity in the
same direction and with proportional intensity to outside forces, and 3)
Reaction – objects will tend to generate an equal and opposite reaction
to outside forces when encountered. As an involved portion of the
Newtonian “condition”, our physical senses necessarily are dependent
upon it, as apparently also is the body they detect. And the social
“difference engine” of the ego has evolved just far enough to make the
necessary comparisons to sustain the resultant impression of a purely
physical existence, as does human perception mediated by the first three
Chakras. What, then, is the spiritual aspect of this material
universe described so succinctly in mechanical terms by Newton?
That there is some form of
physicality bounding conscious experience cannot be doubted by any
reasonable person, but what is really “there” in our physical perception
after the effects of acculturation and socialization have been
subtracted from the equation of consciousness? One possible answer to
this question is simply that there is a quality of density
present, one that seems to be correlated with the level of energy and
corresponding rate of environmental vibration in the human observer’s
vicinity. Here on Earth, most vibrations are present within a fairly
moderate range of activity, where on, say, Mercury, they are notably
more intense, and, again say, on Saturn, notably much less
intense. It is the moderate level of vibration on Earth that makes all
life possible here, including human life and the subsequent human
sensory observation of local physical events. So, we can say in
general terms that the factor of density, or mass, is a primary
determining feature of Newtonian physics in the directly observable
universe, i.e. as observable through the largely unaided physical
senses.
There is also another
Newtonian quality more or less consistently observable through the
senses – turbulence – the ceaseless movement at various
different rates, intensities, and frequencies of the density just
noted. Presumably, this turbulence is the result of the initial
gigaturbulence of the event which we suppose created this universe –
the “Big Bang” of astrophysics, but, whatever its origin, it again is
unquestionably present, as is density, and the two are evidently in
constant interplay with each other everywhere. This is the simplest
description of existence of which I am aware – “chunks” of density,
commonly referred to as “matter”, suspended in a “soup” of turbulence,
commonly referred to as “energy”, with the whole dependent on levels of
vibration as the common factor present.
If we next examine this
presumed base phenomenon of vibration, we immediately realize that it is
often not directly observable, but inferential in nature –
relatively rarely do we experience something in the physical world
literally “vibrating” at a rate we can detect in the senses. Yet,
enough scientific observations of physical processes and events tend to
support the contention that some form of oscillation, i.e.
reciprocal movement between two polar extremes, certainly appears to be
universally present on Earth (and in the universe) and this is
vibration in its essence. The vibration may be of a relatively
long period of repetition, as in the pulsation of the total universe as
it expands following the primordial explosion of its birth until the
energy of that event dissipates, and gravitational influences begin to
draw the total mass of the universe back into a singularity – to emerge
again in yet another explosion. The case of the transition of the
seasons throughout the year is another example of a longer period
oscillation. The vibration can also be relatively short, as in the
ringing of an alarm clock, or the oscillation of a quartz watch crystal,
or that of a quark, the smallest sub-subatomic particle verified by
science today, but, whether long or short, it definitely seems to be
there, albeit beyond unaided sensory experience in most cases.
The rapid advance of science
over the past two hundred years has resulted in the advent of a
burgeoning technology as its most evident byproduct, particularly the
technology of increasingly sensitive, sophisticated detection methods
and instrumentation that, when accompanied by computerized mathematical
calculations, have forced us to drastically modify our assessment of the
evidence of the physical senses. We now can say that we “know”,
beyond any reasonable doubt, that what we directly see and hear accounts
for only a tiny portion of what is acting on our condition as sentient
beings, the balance being detectable only through the use of tooling and
equipment of various kinds – technology. In the early part of
the last century, the rethinking of physics by one man, Einstein, led to
the revisioning of many of Newton’s apparently self-evident “laws” with
the release of the theories of General and Special Relativity, both
eventually to be verified by the development of sufficiently sensitive
detector technology. Possibly the most important feature of this new
physics was the incorporation of the role of the observer –
specifically, the observer’s movement relative to the observation
made – into the observation itself, something largely overlooked by
Newton. Einstein “observed” that, since everything in the universe is
in motion relative to everything else, any observation was subject to
distortion if not referenced to some kind of absolute baseline, but,
what was that baseline? He postulated that the only truly
consistent value in the entire universe was the speed of light in a
vacuum, and made this the foundation of his system. The now
famous equation E=mc2 is a reference to this new standard, and an
indication of the augmented level of mathematical verification that
contributed to, among other things, the development of the atom bomb,
ushering in the nuclear age, and changing the world forever. Indeed, no
one today seriously doubts the existence of atomic reality, or the
particle research that has continued to thrust it forward.
The psychological
ramifications of Relativity are staggering. In the space of a few
decades, we have completely shifted away from the comfortable cradle of
Newtonian physics, with its verification of humanity at the
center of the observational universe, to Einstein’s model with light
at the center. Not only are we no longer the most significant,
reliable feature of observation, but our observations themselves are
known to be so questionable as to be largely untrustworthy without
technical evidence in their support. Relativity represents the last
gasp of the human egocentrism that placed us in the center of the
universe, solar system, and even evolving history. We were displaced
by radiant energy rushing through a fundamentally empty condition, and
no one today can hope to argue convincingly against this. How very
humbling to the little socialized ego within us has this been!
Yet, we are left with the
apparent reality of our physical senses, body, and ego – the
three instruments of the lower mind – as the basic tools that we must
use to construct experience, and this is not going to change anytime
soon. So, we can say that there is a profound psychological
dissonance present today between what we experience as real and
what we know to be real – between Newtonian physics and
Relativity physics. Experientially, I reside at the center of my
perception for the term of incarnation, whatever “I” might be and
whatever “my perception” might be, but cognitively, I “understand” that
my experience is referenced to my motion through space, and cannot be
anymore than conditionally reliable. Thus, human beings today live in
a world that is fundamentally conflicted and insecure by its very
nature, and it is no wonder that security has become such a paramount
issue everywhere. If I cannot even trust myself to know the truth,
whom can I trust to know it? And, in fact, as individuals and
the collective human entity, we are all untrustworthy – the
bitter lesson of the human condition learned in the wake of Relativity
physics...
If we are thus not to be
trusted – and our impressions of things are not to be trusted – then
what is trustworthy? Fortunately, Einstein left us some solace
in this matter through his contention that the speed of light remained a
constant condition amid life’s turbulence – that value is
consistent and trustworthy. And light itself exhibits a number of
comforting conditions – first, it demonstrates vibration as it
propagates through a given transparent or translucent medium, and the
differing energy levels of visible light vibrate at different rates,
accounting for color. Second, light is everywhere apparent to the
senses – five of the twelve cranial nerves mediate sight and
sight-related activity. Third, because light is omnipresent in the
universe, it can be subjected to both sensory and mechanical
experimentation with replicable results – one of the prime
caveats of the scientific method of inquiry. Light also possesses a
consistently positive psychological valence, and is almost never
experienced or referred to in a negative context. And the quality of
light in a vacuum does not deteriorate over time – the objects at
unimaginably extreme distances from Earth photographed by the Hubble
Space Telescope are registered with crystal clarity, undiluted by their
optical trek through, in some cases, tens of thousands of light
years distance. This phenomenon is clearly worth further attention.
The delicacy of native
visible light renders it susceptible to an interesting phenomenon – when
it is closely observed (as in the case of many mechanical experiments),
it acts like a particle – a photon – but when it is more casually
observed, it acts like the wave previously mentioned. A certain class
of valid, replicable experiments has suggested that the photon may be
merely a convenient thought construct, and it is the wave that really
“exists” as the fundamental nature of light. Now, the photon is
presumed to exist largely in relation to another particle – the
electron. When radiant energy particles strike a detector, what is
measured is the action of the electrons released by the
collision, since these are charged particles capable of generating a
response for amplification further on an electronic circuit. There are
even extremely sensitive electrometer sensors that are presumed to
respond to individual electrons in their circuit. The logical
supposition is that a particle of light colliding with the detector
releases a particle of electricity, along with a residual “ray” of
extremely high frequency radiation (e.g. a gamma ray), that dissipates
almost instantaneously. Quantum science, however, now tells us that
even the charged electron is a field phenomenon, existing only in
a “cloud” of energetic probabilities regarding its location, and
knowable primarily by its observable chemical and electrical action.
Thus, what we have in reality is a tiny cloud of light releasing a tiny
cloud of electricity in a chemical detector environment, and no one can
say with certainty how extensive, or even where (in other than
relatively general terms), either cloud is. In fact, electrical
current itself can be thought of and described as an electrical wave,
much like the light wave, and I prefer this representation as being more
closely aligned with actual human sensory experience.
It would appear that we are
on more stable scientific and philosophical ground per se in considering
things as energy fields rather than as energized particles, with the
understanding that a “particle” is essentially a very minute energy
field vibrating in the universe somewhere at some electrically
measurable rate. This rate can be very minute, measurable using
modern equipment in the terahertz (trillions of cycles per second)
region, but still exists as a meaningful oscillation. This
understanding of the electrical nature of virtually all optical
detectors is very helpful in resolving the apparent conflict in the
wave/particle nature of light – what is ultimately being measured is no
more reliable than the equipment used, and the minute size of the
electron “field” exists at the borderline of even the best detection
equipment today. It is this field that establishes the
limitations of current optical scientific observation today.
This having been noted, the
little energy-wave-ball(s)-field(s) of visible light seem to be
propagated in more extensive field expressions by radiation sources
(such as the Sun, or a welding torch, or a nuclear detonation, or a
light bulb) that release variable amounts of radiation. It is
interesting that the radiation so released is always consistent within
the Radiant Energy Spectrum, regardless of what particular type of
radiation originates from a given source – radiation is radiation, and
light is light.
The universe presumably
originated in its current cycle in an enormously high energy plasma
reaction released very shortly after the Big Bang (Big Compression?)
initiated – on the order of phemto-seconds (quadrillionths of a
second). This plasma was essentially a uniform radiant energy field
that eventually differentiated into the current forms that we know of –
galaxies, suns, planets, interstellar gas and nebulae, etc. – after
“cooling” down to a mere tens of millions of degrees centigrade in
temperature (!) – indeed, the indirect electrical observations of modern
scientific equipment have produced much data for human consideration.
Something in the nature of the original plasma reaction must account for
the consistency of the Radiant Energy Spectrum, still observable now,
billions of years later, but what? Why should anything remain
consistent in a universe otherwise characterized by ceaseless change,
chaos, and turbulence?
If the chaos of the current
universe is considered intelligently, one eventually realizes that it is
demonstrated by the material – the matter – present, not the
energy acting on that material, and certainly not the radiant energy.
In some current theories of universal evolution, the original plasma is
presumed to have cooled down sufficiently in certain regions of the
vacuum of space to demonstrate the dense form already referred to here,
appearing to the senses as “solid” matter, although still, in reality, a
vibration of relatively low frequency and amplitudes of energy. This
matter is subject to the third consistent observable phenomenon in the
universe – gravity. The Radiant Energy Spectrum is a portion of
the general Electromagnetic class of forces, and along with Gravity and
the Strong and Weak Nuclear Forces, constitutes the fundamental set of
four known forces at work in the universe. If we discount the Nuclear
Forces for the moment as being predicated on certain questionable tenets
of outmoded atomic theory, we are left with essentially two
determining forces. Electromagnetism, like gravity, comes into
distinct expression at the level of matter – only material forms have
the electromagnetic structure characterized by charged particles and
fields. This then leaves us with two modified forces – gravity
and radiation. For some reason, when things cool off enough,
they tend to stick to each other, and when they remain heated enough,
they tend to fly apart – I give you the universe...
It is the interaction of the
matter that seems to obey the laws of Newtonian physics, while the
radiation seems to obey the “tendencies” of Relativity physics.
Paradoxically, the Newtonian interactions are ultimately chaotic, where
the Relativity interactions, while often initially appearing to be
chaotic, are ultimately orderly. Apparently, there is a transitional
vibration in the system (i.e. the universe) that allows the orderly to
become chaotic, as light loses enough energy to become form, in most
cases through collision with material. Other forms of radiation may
lose energy through other means – radioactive decay, thermal
dissipation, and physical absorption, but light is modified by impact
with material, in many cases producing reflected color as the result.
What, then, is the nature of collision in the universe, since
this is where the theorized transition seems to occur?
Returning to the example of
the radiation detector already noted, we have the simplest case of a
scientific apparatus that is designed to use such a collision to
operate. A “wave” of radiant energy enters the detector, impinges its
surface, and the result is the release of a proportional “wave” of
electrical energy. At the level of the atomic lattice of the detector,
we have a special material that is known to react to the collision with
the radiant energy wave by releasing electrical energy – the material
absorbs the radiation and converts it into charged electrical impulses,
releasing excess radiation not “useable” in the electrochemical
reaction, and the electrical energy is channeled into minute circuit
elements that are then “wired” into downstream circuits connected to
amplifiers. Enough radiation striking a detector will increase the
energy level present at the detection point to “knock” an electron
“field” out of its orbital establishing a current flow, however minute.
Once the threshold is reached, the electron quantum “field” is
released, and detection eventually occurs in the form of a display
transition, readable by an observer. I wish to suggest that what is
essentially occurring here is the transfer of energy vibration from the
radiation wave into the atomic lattice of the detector until the energy
vibration of that lattice increases enough to destabilize it and require
the release of the electron “quantum field” energy vibration to
reestablish energy equilibrium in the lattice.
I further wish to suggest
that the point of energy absorption in the lattice is not in the
electron orbital, but the atomic nucleus at the quark levels there or
even beyond in some as yet unobserved level of interaction. Somehow
the vibrational wave associated with the radiation is translated into a
vibrational wave in the lattice. I am additionally going to suggest
that vibration is the foundational phenomenon in the universe,
and that the energy of one form of vibration is directly
transferred into another, or deleted from another, in simple
proportionate interaction at the energy wave level, all of this being
traceable back to the original plasma of the Big Bang billions of years
ago when the universe was absolutely consistent in that sole vibrational
form. Everything knowable is composed of “light” vibrating at various
levels of energy in the balance of gravitation and radiation present in
the universe today.
According to Relativity
physics, the event associated with the Big Bang is still present in the
spacetime event matrix (although utterly beyond the threshold of human
sensory perception) in an extra-physical, extra-temporal region of
manifestation. The contention regarding the existence of such higher
dimensions beyond human perception introduces Cosmic String Theory
into our discussion here, an as-yet-scientifically-unverified theory of
multiple extra dimensions of existence in which the first three
observable spatial dimensions are only the beginning of a series of
eight additional ones present in the forth dimension of time.
Presumably, what we indirectly experience in the perception of the
passage of time is the complex interaction of these additional
dimensions, as the cosmic strings vibrate in spacetime, creating what we
conceive of as reality, down to and beyond the subatomic realm of
quarks, the dense forms of observable matter, and the electromagnetic
spectrum of radiation and energy.
In such terms, human consciousness is obviously a primitive prototype of
the Universal Consciousness in its vast and mysterious grandeur,
although certainly one that potentially has all of the requisite
perceptions present in embryonic form. If Einstein was correct in his
presumptions suggested in the Unified Field Theory, then we are all
parts of an infinite continuum of expression that leave ongoing
impressions in the cosmic substance that completely transcend the
woefully inadequate electronic impressions of neurological memory, and
these impressions form the elements of the Consciousness of a unified
super-sensate field at the level of the Eleventh Cosmic String, or even
beyond that boundary of expression. I Can think of no better
term for this Unified Field than the Jungian Psyche, with its generator
as the Jungian Self. Einstein once said that he wanted to know God’s
thoughts – all the others were details. It has become increasing
clear to me that God’s primary “thought” is the vibration of Light in
the physical universe and the simultaneous vibration of Love in the
spiritual universe. All the rest are details...
- With Love, Alan -
(Copyright 2010, by Alan Schneider)
Return to Top
|