What's the Matter with Energy? On which side of the equation (E=mc2) am "I"?
What’s the Matter with Energy?
On which side of the equation (E=mc2) am “I” ?
As is my wont, when I’m trying to understand what I’m reading, I often take up my pen and write to see if I can say it straight for myself. In his books, Mind Into Matter, and Matter Into Feeling, the author, Fred Wolf, a physicist, suggests a model based on physics that can explain spiritual reality. His model may be so odd as to be of small interest to some, but I find it intriguing and helpful, so I thought I’d pass it on.
Take to mind Einstein’s equation, E=mc2, where “e” (energy) and “m” (matter) are interchangeable--”c” meaning velocity. Don’t think of velocity as speed, but rather as a movement either of spreading out or as bunching up. Energy is spread out and matter is bunched up. Nothing is lost or gained in stepping across the centerline of the equation--(the conservation of energy principle).
So just as we say matter is frozen or confined energy, Wolf defines ego as the contraction or reduction of the soul or spirit. As energy is spirit, matter is ego. They are interchangeable. Spirit or soul is spread out, relaxed, a flowing wave pattern. Ego is bunched up, tense, diminished, observable and identifiable by name. As the mystics say it, the duality is illusion. As the physicists say it, looking at Doug’s body from the outside it is matter-energy confined to a boundary (skin membrane). From the inside looking out, my make-up is a jiggling dance of energy seemingly unbounded against the backdrop of a universe of energy waves. The proof of this is that at death, my confinement is released and the illusion of duality is dispersed.
Meanwhile I struggle to understand the equated relationship. My ego says “I” am on the inside with the “m” boundaries of my body; my soul says I am on the “e” side. My ego argues the loudest because it is all tensed up. Without confinement its identity becomes transparent, see-through, so it fights to grasp itself, to tighten hold on its fate. It gets down and dirty to create its illusion of free will. It grasps in order to dominate and live. To it, life is all on one side of the equation. Survival depends on not slipping over into the spirit realm which it sees as its own demise.
As physicists put it, you can not “see” (observe) motion and location simultaneously. As one clarifies, the other gets fuzzy, and vice versa (Heisenberg’s principle of uncertainty). In spiritual matters our observers, our egos, can’t see motion (soul matters) and location (physical matters) simultaneously either. So on the pre-Einstein notion that as the photon (energy of light entering the material world) is a particle, so also, ego operates on the basis that, known by sight as Doug’s body, I am material. If I don’t take care of myself, I’ll die. So I spend my time from birth on, finding myself, grasping myself, building and protecting my fortune and fighting off signs of physical deterioration, hoping to live long and happily. Not quite convincing myself, I live with tension, suffering and fear.
You know what I’m talking about. Don’t we all. If I look around me, I see everyone following the pattern (Wolf’s model). Some few among us see the endgame and move to embrace the other side of the equation, and seek to throw light (the photon of spiritual enlightenment) on the mess the supremely-striving egos (the typical political leaders) are making of our world.
My next statement is a bold attempt to apply both science and spirituality to practical politics. As I read Wolf’s book, which is anything but political, I couldn’t help but think of politics in America in the last few years as we face the terrorist issue. I think we can judge our politicians’ wisdom by using Wolf’s model of spirituality. He is a scientist and not a theologian, but I can easily see how the basic notions of the major religions are a good fit with his model. Maybe his insights can help us decide whether to vote neoconservative or progressive. For example, is the Bush doctrine and its implications, or the Baker-Hamilton Study Report and its recommendations the most truly spiritual. I’ll side with those who acknowledge the flow and interchange in the matter-energy equation (diplomacy) rather than with those who confine themselves to the side of (military) self-protection and fear. I want a politics that is energized by spiritual principles and guided by an understanding of the human psyche.
Doug Good
On which side of the equation (E=mc2) am “I” ?
As is my wont, when I’m trying to understand what I’m reading, I often take up my pen and write to see if I can say it straight for myself. In his books, Mind Into Matter, and Matter Into Feeling, the author, Fred Wolf, a physicist, suggests a model based on physics that can explain spiritual reality. His model may be so odd as to be of small interest to some, but I find it intriguing and helpful, so I thought I’d pass it on.
Take to mind Einstein’s equation, E=mc2, where “e” (energy) and “m” (matter) are interchangeable--”c” meaning velocity. Don’t think of velocity as speed, but rather as a movement either of spreading out or as bunching up. Energy is spread out and matter is bunched up. Nothing is lost or gained in stepping across the centerline of the equation--(the conservation of energy principle).
So just as we say matter is frozen or confined energy, Wolf defines ego as the contraction or reduction of the soul or spirit. As energy is spirit, matter is ego. They are interchangeable. Spirit or soul is spread out, relaxed, a flowing wave pattern. Ego is bunched up, tense, diminished, observable and identifiable by name. As the mystics say it, the duality is illusion. As the physicists say it, looking at Doug’s body from the outside it is matter-energy confined to a boundary (skin membrane). From the inside looking out, my make-up is a jiggling dance of energy seemingly unbounded against the backdrop of a universe of energy waves. The proof of this is that at death, my confinement is released and the illusion of duality is dispersed.
Meanwhile I struggle to understand the equated relationship. My ego says “I” am on the inside with the “m” boundaries of my body; my soul says I am on the “e” side. My ego argues the loudest because it is all tensed up. Without confinement its identity becomes transparent, see-through, so it fights to grasp itself, to tighten hold on its fate. It gets down and dirty to create its illusion of free will. It grasps in order to dominate and live. To it, life is all on one side of the equation. Survival depends on not slipping over into the spirit realm which it sees as its own demise.
As physicists put it, you can not “see” (observe) motion and location simultaneously. As one clarifies, the other gets fuzzy, and vice versa (Heisenberg’s principle of uncertainty). In spiritual matters our observers, our egos, can’t see motion (soul matters) and location (physical matters) simultaneously either. So on the pre-Einstein notion that as the photon (energy of light entering the material world) is a particle, so also, ego operates on the basis that, known by sight as Doug’s body, I am material. If I don’t take care of myself, I’ll die. So I spend my time from birth on, finding myself, grasping myself, building and protecting my fortune and fighting off signs of physical deterioration, hoping to live long and happily. Not quite convincing myself, I live with tension, suffering and fear.
You know what I’m talking about. Don’t we all. If I look around me, I see everyone following the pattern (Wolf’s model). Some few among us see the endgame and move to embrace the other side of the equation, and seek to throw light (the photon of spiritual enlightenment) on the mess the supremely-striving egos (the typical political leaders) are making of our world.
My next statement is a bold attempt to apply both science and spirituality to practical politics. As I read Wolf’s book, which is anything but political, I couldn’t help but think of politics in America in the last few years as we face the terrorist issue. I think we can judge our politicians’ wisdom by using Wolf’s model of spirituality. He is a scientist and not a theologian, but I can easily see how the basic notions of the major religions are a good fit with his model. Maybe his insights can help us decide whether to vote neoconservative or progressive. For example, is the Bush doctrine and its implications, or the Baker-Hamilton Study Report and its recommendations the most truly spiritual. I’ll side with those who acknowledge the flow and interchange in the matter-energy equation (diplomacy) rather than with those who confine themselves to the side of (military) self-protection and fear. I want a politics that is energized by spiritual principles and guided by an understanding of the human psyche.
Doug Good
Labels: Dualism, Ego, Energy, God, Matter, Soul, Spiritual politics
posted by Doug at
9:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home