E is for Energy

“I want to know all God’s thoughts; all the rest are just details.” ~ Albert Einstein

When it comes to unilaterally naming the greatest mind that ever was, most people think of Einstein.  Personally, I’ve always been a Tesla man, myself.  But I have to at least give Einstein credit for one thing above all else.  Perhaps his single greatest contribution to modern thinking.  It’s something that everyone knows, but few actually understand.  In fact, a child can be taught it easily, yet in principle, even adults have trouble comprehending it.  It holds a vital clue as to the true nature of the universe and to the answers to many of the great mysteries of life.

I’m talking, of course, about his famous equation: E=mc^2.

Nearly everyone has heard of this equation, but most just glaze over it without knowing what it means, let alone what its implications are.

For those of you who can’t read math, the “E” stands for “energy,” the “m” stands for “mass,” and the “c^2” is the speed of light in a vacuum (a certain number) times itself.  Energy is nothing more than a wave, like a sine wave.  Every wave has an amplitude (height / strength), a wavelength (length between two similar points, such as adjacent peaks), and a frequency (how many times the wave peaks within a second).  Mass is simply the amount of matter (stuff) in a given area.  The more matter there is, the more mass a thing has.

What Einstein’s famous formula is basically saying is that the more mass there is, the more energy there is.  Moreover, it says that matter is energy and energy is matter.  The two are interchangeable.  The “c^2” part is simply a rate of exchange, like when you trade currencies in a foreign country.  If you have a certain amount of mass, that indicates a certain amount of energy.  If you have a certain amount of energy, that indicates a certain amount of mass.

Everything that exists, is made of energy.  It has its own frequency, wavelength, and amplitude.  Everything.

“Everything the light touches is our kingdom.” ~ Mufasa, The Lion King

In science, there are four forces: electromagnetic, weak nuclear, strong nuclear, and gravitational.  You’re probably familiar with electromagnetic waves, which are waves of electricity and magnetism.  What we think of as visible light is only a small portion of the waves that make up what’s known as the electromagnetic spectrum.

However, all forms of electromagnetic waves are considered to be light since they all move at the speed of light.  Only their frequency is what sets them apart.  So light is just electromagnetic waves and electricity is transfer of electrons (the negative charge in an atom), which are made up of quarks (tiny particles).  These same quarks also comprise the other parts of atoms: protons and neutrons, and are themselves made up of energy, which interact with light.  In this way, scientists were able to figure out the laws of interaction between electromagnetic waves and the two nuclear forces.

That leaves only gravity, but new theories are beginning to suggest that it, too, is related to electromagnetism.

“The light in me honors the light in you.” ~ Hindu Blessing

A particle of light is known as a photon.  Photons are said to have no mass at all (or at least the most minute amount of mass possible to still exist).  They are the most fundamental particle there is, so it’s reasonable to assume that all other particles are simply the result of condensing a certain number of photons into them.

Perhaps someday in the future, scientists will confirm beyond the shadow of a doubt that there’s a constant gradient between photons and quarks and that the property of mass is just more photons accumulating, which lowers the speed of the object to some point below the speed of light until you get to the scale of very large, slow-moving objects like us.

Religious and spiritual teachers have believed for thousands of years that everything is made of light and that this is what binds us together as human beings.  Egyptian, Greek, and many other religions worship the Sun as God or a symbol of God.  Words like “illuminated” and “enlightened” also derive from such beliefs.

We know that light is a form of energy and everything in the universe is made of this energy, so even our modern science seems to be in agreement with these ancient mystics.

When you begin to understand the way that waves interact with one another, you begin to understand more about the nature of reality.  Such phrases as “energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transferred” take on more practical and philosophical implications.  For instance, what happens when we die?  Our energy is simply transferred somewhere else and in some other form (possibly to reincarnate in another dimension).

You’ve probably heard about social osmosis – the idea that who you hang out with affects who you become.  That’s only possible with a transfer of energy.  Perhaps you’ve even heard of things like chi, clairvoyance, or psychic healing, which are also just transfers of energy.  Even your ordinary five senses that you take for granted everyday are the sensation of a transfer of energy.

Consciousness is also energy, which means that matter is also consciousness and consciousness is matter.  From this principle, we derive such ideas as “thoughts create things” and “what you think about, you bring about.”

Energy is everything and everything is energy, all of it interacting and mixing together like the water of a giant ocean.  One is all, all is one.  Where does the water drop end and the ocean begin?  Once you begin to realize this, the world ceases to be a cold and uncaring place and becomes alive with new meaning and endless possibilities.