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A Universe of Unlimited Possibilities
Physicist’s have found that there is a ‘field’ of energy, which we can’t see unless we observe, that doesn’t even exist if we aren’t viewing it, and can be an inexhaustible source of energy always available to us. This field surrounds us, is in us, and is ever changing. In essence, we are left with unlimited possibilities.
In The Field: The Quest For The Secret Force Of The Universe, Lynne McTaggart reports on the work of researchers and scientists to explain the phenomena regarding this field of energy. In the chapter entitled Light In The Darkness, she tells the astonishing story of astronaut Edgar (Ed) Mitchell of the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. Mitchell had been studying human consciousness before his trip to the moon and while returning to earth had a life changing experience that changed his worldview about the universe, matter and our relationship with both as human beings.
McTaggart documents his account in the following: “It was then, while staring out of the window, that Ed experienced the strangest feeling he would ever have: a sense of connectedness as if all the planets and all the people of all time were attached by some invisible web. He could hardly breathe from the majesty of the moment. Although he continued to turn knobs and press buttons, he felt distanced from his body, as though someone else were doing the navigating.” (McTaggart 6)
Although Ed was some 250,000 miles away from earth, he experienced the field first hand. McTaggart continues “There seemed to be an enormous force field here, connecting all people, their intentions and thoughts, and every animate and inanimate form of matter for all time. Anything he did or thought would influence the rest of the cosmos, and every occurrence in the cosmos would have a similar effect on him. Time was just an artificial construct. Everything he’d been taught about the universe and the separateness of people and things felt wrong. There were no accidents or individual intentions. The natural intelligence that had gone on for billions of years, that had forged the very molecules of his being, was also responsible for his own present journey. This wasn’t something he was simply comprehending in his mind, but an overwhelming visceral feeling, as though he were physically extending out of the window to the very furthest reaches of the cosmos.” (McTaggart 6-7)
It wasn’t a “face of God” type of experience for Ed, but an overwhelming feeling of meaning, as Eastern Mystics call “ecstasy of unity.” Afterward, his intuition assured him that “Human minds were connected to each other, just as they were connected to everything else in the world and every other world. “ (McTaggart 9)
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
On his journey to the moon, Ed held a secret from his fellow astronauts. He had been working with several doctors at home and planned to experiment with ESP/Telepathy while far from earth in hopes of proving that it could be achieved at greater distances. His experiment involved writing down different symbols on a pieces of paper and then focusing on them. Once he returned to earth, he would collaborate with his colleagues. He found his experiments had indeed worked, “suggesting that some form of communication defying all logic had taken place.” (McTaggart 9)
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Matter is Connected
After he returned to earth, he seemed unsatisfied with his current belief systems mainly in biology. He’d been taught the classical Newtonian and Cartesian views of matter being separate from other matter. In biology, matter was to be broken up and treated in parts instead of as a whole. (McTaggart 9-10)
He’d learned during his quantum physics studies at MIT that matter could not be divided into parts and could not be fully described. In fact, matter at subatomic levels was vibrating, unmeasurable and unexplainable energy containers. Particles could sometimes be particles or be a wave, or sometimes both. These quantum particles could be in different places at the same time. Nothing certain. No precise locations. No specific circumstances. Nothing defined. “Cause and effect relationships no longer held at the subatomic level.” Matter sometimes wasn’t even matter when looked upon. At the most fundamental level, the universe became unpredictable, lacking certainty, resulting in a state of unlimited possibilities. (McTaggart 10)
A Field of Influence
Since 1982, scientists have been aware of what’s called ‘nonlocality’ which is “the ability of a quantum entity such as an individual electron to influence another quantum particle instantaneously over any distance despite there being no exchange of force or energy.” This theory rocked the scientific world. (McTaggart 11)
The universe, in classical physics, continued working whether the observer or experimenter was present or not. In quantum physics, however, the consciousness of the observer affects the entity being watched. Therefore the observer and observed are interconnected. The observer is the creator of the object observed. Meaning that “Nothing in the universe existed as an actual ‘thing’ independently of our perception of it. Every minute of every day we were creating our world.” (McTaggart 12)
Ed went on to introduce researchers of like minds, fund research, and use his experience as an astronaut to convince others to come forward with their work. He communicated with many independent, open-minded scientists who were making discoveries and their research confirmed what he believed to be true that each individual has “a field of influence on the world and vice versa.” Their findings backed up with actual experimentation and mathematical equations, changed existing scientific theory and produced a different theory of consciousness, evolution, and dynamics of living things supporting a unified worldview. (McTaggart 14)
-McTaggart, Lynne. The Field, The Quest For The Secret Force Of The Universe. New York: Harper Perennial, 2002