The Living Universe (25 page)

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Authors: Duane Elgin

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To visualize the dynamic of continuous creation, imagine that the universe is a unified hologram that is being projected into existence at each moment with all relativistic differences fully coordinated out of a context of five dimensions or more. Also imagine that a spacecraft inside this giant hologram is being beamed into existence along with everything else as a continuous flow of manifestation. Then imagine that the spacecraft begins to move ahead at an increasing speed so that it approaches the speed with which the hologram-universe is being projected into existence. Since the craft is a projection as well, it cannot move outside of the hologram of which it is an integral part because if it tries to do so it will increasingly run into itself becoming itself, producing the seemingly impossible conditions at the extremes of relativity theory (becoming shorter in the direction of motion, increasing mass, and relativistic time slowing down). To reiterate, I assume that the constancy of the speed of light at the local scale is a result of a larger process occurring at the cosmic scale—the precise consistency of manifestation of our entire cosmos as a single, standing wave embracing both the fabric of space-time and matter-energy.

This theory of a regenerating cosmos suggests why the mass of an object increases as it accelerates toward light speed. As the object approaches light speed, it will have to draw ever greater increments of energy from the larger ecological system as it attempts to move ahead of the ecological processes that dynamically create it. Increasing energy is required to approach light speed because, in reality, the object is trying to overcome itself in the process of becoming itself—a self-limiting process that requires drawing ever greater increments of energy from the larger cosmological system. As
the object draws down ever-greater increments of energy to maintain its dynamic structure, mass must also increase, given the convertibility of matter and energy.

With regard to slowing relativistic time, as an object approaches light speed it runs into itself in the process of its own becoming and compresses what otherwise would have been realized actuality back into the domain of unrealized potential. The process seems analogous to walking against the direction of motion on a moving conveyer belt, or walking up an escalator as it moves down. By walking against the direction of movement, dynamic stasis is approached. Similarly, as an object approaches light speed, it increasingly runs into its dynamically generated structure, thereby compressing itself relative to the rest of the freely manifesting cosmos—one measured result being a slowing of relativistic time. If the object were to reach light speed, then it would be running into itself as fast as it manifests, and this would effectively cancel out its process of becoming relative to the rest of the four-dimensional flow—thereby effectively stopping relativistic time.

Ernst Mach attributed inertia (resistance to motion) to an object's interaction with the totality of matter throughout the universe. However, Mach's theory presents a major difficulty: An unknown force must act instantaneously among all material objects throughout the cosmos and yet, within the confines of a four-dimensional cosmology, it is impossible for forces to act instantaneously. The continuous creation model provides a source for instantaneous connection—it assumes each object is a dynamically generated resonance pattern that is always connected with the entire cosmos at each instant. Inertia results when an “object” presses against the “cosmos”—a giant, unified resonance pattern. If an object moves outside the natural flow of the surrounding cosmos, it will push against the flow of the cosmos becoming itself, and this will be experienced as resistance to motion, or inertia. Inertia is a measure of the energy required to change the motion of an object relative to the natural momentum of the entire fabric of the dynamically manifesting cosmos. To accomplish a path change anywhere requires an instantaneous and compensating change everywhere.

As to coordinating the interweaving of an entire universe, it is helpful to consider Planck's constant, which may be a conversion factor for continuous creation. No matter what energy level a photon of light may have, it must be packaged (as a quanta) in such a way that its combined energy and wavelength are exactly equal to the universal constant
h
, or Planck's
constant. A shorter wavelength is accompanied by higher frequencies and higher energies, and vice versa. Assuming four-dimensional reality is generated at light speed, Planck's constant could represent the conversion factor for keeping all differences in motion, mass, and energy in precise orchestration with one another—thereby preserving the unbroken fabric of four-dimensional reality. Differences in the frequency, wavelength, and energy of light (as it coalesces from the fifth-plus dimensions and into the fourth), could be used to produce the diverse material world we inhabit. Planck's constant seems to be the conversion factor for precisely governing the flow of light as it enters into four-dimensional reality and visible manifestation.

This cosmology may also be useful in resolving the dilemma of the arrow of time. Stated differently, a key conceptual problem with faster-than-light signaling is that it can generate time paradoxes. If a signal is able to reach into the past or future, then time order and causality are impossible to establish, and the result is immense confusion. Continuous creation cosmology resolves this dilemma by postulating that, while events can have a space-like separation in four dimensions, they have fully instantaneous connection in the fifth and higher dimensions. Because the entire four-dimensional cosmos is created whole at each instant, the flow of manifestation includes all lags and differentials in relativistic time. Due to full simultaneity, there is no time-forward or time-reversed signaling in the higher dimensions. There can be no “stand back” signaling because all times are complete at each instant.

Because the continuous creation hypothesis offers a wide range of insights, it seems to be a valuable addition to theories regarding the nature and evolution of the universe.

13.
Guy Murchie,
Music of the Spheres
, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1961, p. 451.

14.
Max Born,
The Restless Universe
, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1936, p. 277.

15.
Albert Einstein, “The Concept of Space,”
Nature
, 125, 1930, pp. 897-98.

16.
Walter Moore,
Schrodinger: Life and Thought
, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

17.
Bohm, op. cit., p. 11.

18.
Norbert Wiener,
The Human Use of Human Beings
, New York: Avon Books, 1954, p. 130.

19.
Brian Swimme,
The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos
, New York: Orbis Books 1996, p. 100.

20.
The designation of modern humans as
Homo sapiens sapiens
is widespread; see, for example: Joseph Campbell,
Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol. I: The Way of the Animal Powers,
Part 1
: Mythologies of the Primitive Hunters and Gatherers
, New York: Harper & Row, Perennial Library, 1988, p. 22. Richard Leakey,
The Making of Mankind
, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1981, p. 18. Mary Maxwell,
Human Evolution: A Philosophical Anthropology
, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984, p. 294. John Pfeiffer,
The Creative Explosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion
, New York, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982, p. 13. Clive Ponting,
A Green History of the World
, New York: Penguin Books, 1993, p. 28. In the popular press, see:
Newsweek
magazine, Nov. 10, 1986, p. 62, and Oct. 16, 1989, p. 71.

21.
Freeman Dyson,
Infinite in All Directions
, New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 297.

22.
Max Planck,
The Observer
, January 25, 1931.

23.
Philip Cohen, “Can Protein Spring into Life?” in
New Scientist
, April 26, 1997, p. 18.

24.
Mark Buchanan, “A Billion Brains Are Better Than One,” in
New Scientist
November 20, 2004.

25.
Mitchel Resnick, “Changing the Centralized Mind,”
Technology Review
, July 1994.

26.
Greg Huang, “Tiny organisms remember the way,” in
New Scientist
, March 17, 2007, p. 16.

27.
Patrick Johnsson, “New Research Opens a Window on the Minds of Plants,”
Christian Science Monitor
, March 3, 2005. “We now know there's an ability of self-recognition in plants, which is highly unusual and quite extraordinary that it's actually there,” says Dr. Trewavas. “But why has no one come to grips with it? Because the prevailing view of a plant, even among plant biologists, is that it's a simple organism that grows reproducibly in a flower pot.” Another study shows that plants appear to have the ability to communicate through the atmosphere. There is “tangible proof that plant-to-plant communication occurs on the ecosystem level,” says the author of a study that discovered plants in a forest respond to stresses by producing significant amounts of a chemical form of aspirin. This results in the release of volatile organic compounds into the air that may help to activate an ecosystem-wide immune response to the stresses. See: “Plants in forest emit aspirin chemical to deal with stress: Discovery may help agriculture,”
Science Daily
, September 25, 2008.

28.
Donald Griffin, and Gayle Speck, “New Evidence of Animal Consciousness,” in
Animal Cognition
, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 2004. Published by Springer. Also see, for example, Helen Phillips, “Known Unknowns,”
New Scientist
, December 16, 2006.

29.
See, for example, “Pigeons Show Superior Self-recognition Abilities to Three Year Old Humans,” in
Science Daily
(
www.sciencedaily.com
), June 14, 2008. Also: “Six ‘uniquely'human traits now found in animals,” Kate Douglas,
New Scientist
, May 22, 2008.

30.
Dean Radin, op. cit., p. 109. Also see: Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, “A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances,” published in the proceedings of the
I.E.E.E
. (vol. 64, no. 3), March 1976.

31.
Radin, ibid., p. 144.

32.
Russell Targ, Phyllis Cole, and Harold Puthoff,
Development of Techniques to Enhance Man/Machine Communication
, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, California, prepared for NASA, contract 953653 Under NAS7-100, June 1974. Also see: Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, op. cit., “A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances.”

33.
For example, Targ and Puthoff, “A Perceptual Channel,” op. cit.

34.
Harold Puthoff, “CIA-Initiated Remote Viewing At Stanford Research Institute,” Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, Texas, 1996. See:
http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com/Pages/CIA-InitiatedRV.html.
.

35.
Puthoff and Targ, op. cit., 338^0. Also see: R. Targ and H. Puthoff,
Mind-Reach: Scientists Look at Psychic Ability
, Delacorte Press/Eleaonor Friede, 1977.

36.
Dean Radin,
Entangled Minds
, op. cit.

37.
See, for example, professor Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University, who has developed a model of the expanding universe that accounts for the birth of the universe “by quantum tunneling from nothing.” “Birth of Inflationary Universes,” in
Physical Review D
, 27:12 (1983), p. 2851. Other essays by Vilenkin: “Quantum Cosmology and the Initial State of the Universe,” in
Physical Review D
, 37 (1988), pp. 888-97, and “Approaches to Quantum Cosmology,” in
Physical Review D
, 50 (1994), pp. 2581-94. Also see: the work of philosopher Quentin Smith, who writes in his essay “The Uncaused Beginning of the Universe” that: “. . . the most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing and for nothing.” William Lane Craig and Quentin Smith,
Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

38.
John Gribbin,
In the Beginning: The Birth of the Living Universe
, New York: Little, Brown, 1993, pp. 244-45. Also see: David Shiga, “Could black holes be portals to other universes?”
New Scientist
, April 27, 2007.

39.
Ibid., p. 245.

40.
Gregg Easterbrook, “What Came Before Creation?” in
U.S. News and World Report
, July 20, 1998, p. 48.

41.
See, for example: Alex Vilenkin,
Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes
, New York: Hill & Wang, 2006. Ervin Laszlo,
Science and the Akashic Field
, Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2004. Primack and Abrams, op. cit.

42.
Primack and Abrams, op. cit., p. 190.

Chapter 3

1.
English translation provided by Jewish Publication Society, taken from
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/
.

2.
See, for example:
The Complete Biblical Library, The Old Testament, Hebrew-English Dictionary
, World Library Press, 1996.

3.
Psalms 19:1,
New International Version
, International Bible Society, 1984.

4.
For another point of view based upon the timeless nature of God's existence, see Psalm 19:2, “Text, Translation, and Notes,” online at
http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2007/08/psalm-191-text-.html
.

5.
Psalms 139:7—10,
New International Version
, op. cit., 1984.

6.
New International Version
, ibid.

7.
Matthew Fox,
Meditations with Meister Eckhart
, Santa Fe, New Mexico: Bear and Co., 1983, p. 24.

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