SPACE, TIME AND STUFF
When we open our eyes we see nothing but space. There are lots of other things we see in that space, like family, friends, the dog, door knobs, buses, bushes, fields, hills, and whatever; but primarily we see just space. So that must be the basic reality of the world in which we find ourselves. Space. I mean, is there anything else out there?
And time? Well, I guess that’s just how we perceive the change and movement that goes on in space. If there was no change, no movement and difference between things, how could you measure time?
And can change go backwards? Can you go back in time as some scientists and fiction writers like to think? That doesn’t seem to make much sense, which I suppose explains why we don’t find bizarrely dressed, weird-looking beings turning up in the kitchen, looking lost, and saying they’ve just come from the future, and can they have some breakfast. And how far into the future? A million years? A thousand million? Still human? And what does a being from the future have for breakfast?
Or could you go back in time by a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks … and meet your (slightly younger) self? And change previously made decisions with the benefit of foresight? Could you organize a party in the past, attended only by versions of yourself? Something to do just before you die? An uncomfortable thought, perhaps. Could you constantly escape death by going back in time? It may be possible in the realms of mathematics and fantasy to create such scenarios, but the concept is too impossible and bizarre to contemplate.
So there it is, space. Our reality. Ever-changing space.
And if you wanted to be one of those clever guys who try to figure out the way the world in which you find yourself is put together, I reckon that examining space itself would be the best place to start. And the more powerful the microscope, the better. You need to look at the tiny detail. But first of all, let’s clear away the clutter. Let’s look at some empty space, a vacuum. Figure out how the vacuum of space is put together, and eureka, you’ve got a handle on how the entire material universe is put together; because its primary reality is space.
And there are plenty of guys out there trying to do just that. Problem is, a microscope doesn’t work at that level of detail. You need really high energy gear to look at nothing. And that should give us a clue, for a start. Nothing is not nothing if you need that kind of equipment just to look at it, or to take it apart.
The fact is, empty space is not empty. It’s packed with energy. That’s what the really clever guys have been saying for some time now. And as for the details, there are a few who have developed the maths to show that what everyone calls subatomic particles are actually little pumps or vortices, pumping or spinning energy out of the vacuum of space to make all the forms we see. Like the family, friends, the dog, door knobs, buses, and everything else.
And that’s a good thing, because these guys are also in the process of figuring out how to make the energy of space do useful things in our familiar world. Like take us to work, fly us off on holiday, provide light, do the cooking, keep us warm, keep us cool, and all that sort of stuff. And – so it would seem – with no pollution either, which is definitely a good idea.
Now there’s a general consensus of opinion among scientists that it should be possible to describe all the ‘laws’ of nature in a single theory, one grand unified theory, modestly dubbed a theory of everything. It entails combining the theories of gravitation and electromagnetism (and somehow that includes everything else). You’ve probably read about it in Time magazine or somewhere, but never really understood what they were talking about. The idea in itself is intriguing, for it indicates an acknowledgment that all of nature functions as a single whole. That there’s an underlying unity in nature.
And it’s interesting that at least one team among those working on the extraction of energy from space started by first formulating a single unified theory. For it turns out that all known physical ‘laws’ can be derived from their mathematical descriptions of the energy of space. Their theory of the way space is put together – let’s call it ‘space-energy theory’ – accurately predicts all the known ‘laws’ of nature. And that includes the ‘laws’ of gravity and electromagnetism, together with the whole of quantum physics.
Due for publication sometime soon, their theoretical work has yet to be published, so I guess it has to be treated as speculative. But it is looking pretty good. In fact, their version of space-energy theory (there are other less complete versions) is the foundation for an entirely new take on physics, and may well provide a viable alternative to string theory, presently regarded as the only real contender as a grand unified theory.
There’s a fundamental difference between the two. String theory is quintessentially conceptual. It’s like philosophy using the language of mathematics. Moreover, to make the mathematics work, it requires the introduction of counterintuitive notions such as additional dimensions of space, an infinity of parallel universes, and a whole lot more. This conceptual complexity has arisen because the reality of the energy of space is being ignored. Like much of modern theoretical physics, string theory understands the energy of space more as an intellectual or mathematical concept than as something that actually exists. As something – so to speak – that you could put in a jam jar.
Once it is accepted that the energy of space is real, then the formulation of a single unified theory is greatly simplified. In fact, it could hardly be simpler. The foundation of the single theory is actually space itself, the energy of space. It’s exactly as we see it when we open our eyes. The entire physical universe arises from and exists in space. One expanse of space. All the theory needs to do is to fill in the detail.
Of course, a theory that takes the energy structure and dynamics of space itself as the primary reality of the physical universe is still conceptual. That’s what theories are. But its advantage over string theory is that it relates comfortably and intuitively to the everyday three-dimensional world in which we find ourselves. To what we perceive with our senses. And that is why, while string theory seems to be untestable in the laboratory, space-energy theory is already being applied to the possible extraction of useful energy from space.
The difference between the two theories bears some resemblance to the difference between Western and Eastern philosophy. Western philosophy (in its modern form) deals with semantics, logic, and pure reason. It is largely a conceptual and intellectual exercise. Eastern philosophy, on the other hand, is (at its best) essentially practical, dealing with the individual exploration of consciousness, approached through the practice of meditation. The former theorizes and conceptualizes; the latter tries to understand reality through experience.
The complex mathematics and speculative concepts of string theory thus reflect trends in the Western mindset. While space-energy theory, which regards the energy processes of space as something that actually exists and can even be manipulated technologically, is more in keeping with the Eastern mindset, where a clear distinction is maintained between the description and the thing described.
“What’s an orange?” asks the Zen master of the eager young disciple, and the disciple sets out upon a long conceptual discourse on the nature of oranges. “No!” exclaims the master, taking an orange in his hand and squashing it firmly upon the head of his surprised disciple, “That’s an orange!”
So space-energy theory is a fundamentally different approach. And it’s interesting to speculate what effect its insights into the internal structure and dynamics of space, as the origin of all subatomic particles and forces, will have on current scientific perceptions. It will probably herald as great a shift in basic scientific understanding as the discovery that atoms have an internal structure. Something that was a major breakthrough at the time, more than a century ago. The discovery was hotly contended, too, for the atom had previously been deemed indestructible, and many physicists of the day genuinely thought that there was little more in physics to be discovered.
Presuming that the theory can be successfully translated into technology, a practical understanding of space-energy processes has the potential to revolutionize all aspects of science. Everything – from energy generation, to information technology, to medicine, to neuroscience and the understanding of brain function – will be seen in a new light. Maybe the brain will come to be understood as something like a space-energy computer – until the next major shift in scientific perception takes place, perhaps as an integrated understanding of the energies of mind and space.
Who knows? And who knows how far science can go before it reaches the limits not only of intellectual understanding, but of the physical universe itself? Or maybe there are many conceptual frameworks by which the energy dynamics of the physical universe can be described. And with the passage of time, we will move on from one to another.
But whatever the concepts and theories, the question that remains unanswered is: where does all this vibrating, dancing energy of space come from? And the answer given by the sages is: from the Word – the Axis of Being, the Ontological Dimension, the Tree of Life, the cosmic Music. It’s all the intelligent and conscious energy of the One Being, dancing into created form.
We are aware that everything around us is constantly changing. But physicists have taken things far deeper and have shown in the laboratory that at the most fundamental level of physical existence, the material universe is just a dance of particles, a dance of energy, an incredibly wonderful magic show.
The sage or mystic, looking within himself, simply observes where all that energy is coming from – continuously, moment by moment. New, not just every morning, but every fraction of a second. At that deep level of matter, and with the advantage of an expanded consciousness, you can watch the divine Word in action, the One Being in the act of creation.
All the things around us – the chair we are sitting on, the floor beneath our feet, everything in the space around us – is seething with the incessant activity of the divine creative process. And, so the sages say, that energy is consciousness and intelligence. Sometimes, when the day is clear and bright, and our hearts are filled with joy, we get a sense of the divine magic that surrounds us. But even more than that, so they say, the creative process can be experienced within our own being as a cosmic music far surpassing in its beauty anything created by human agency.
