Einstein’s World
   Twentieth century physics has discovered that the universe is capable of presenting a vastly different appearance depending upon the way we view it. Newton’s model of reality makes sense to us because it accurately explains the world we normally perceive around us every day; but Newton’s laws, it now turns out, are valid only for large aggregates of atoms and for objects which move at velocities far below the speed of light. When we descend to the more basic realm of atomic and subatomic particles, however, these laws no longer work and must be replaced by more appropriate ones such as those of quantum mechanics. And, when we begin to contemplate things which move at speeds approaching that of light, the universe then seems to run according to the rules laid down in Einstein’s model of relativity.
   The universe as seen by contemporary physicists is not a world which we would recognize as our own at all, for it is not a realm that is normally accessible to our limited mind and physical senses. This world cannot be broken down into basic building blocks of solid, indestructible substance; here, each material particle walks a razor’s edge between existence and nonexistence; we cannot say that such a particle is present at any particular point in space at a particular time, nor can we say it is absent. In the world of modern physics, it is just as accurate to say that matter is made of vibration as it is to say it is made of particles. In this world, space and time do not remain constant throughout the cosmos, for modern science has found that matter exerts a strong influence upon both; it “bends” the space around it and slows down time nearby it. There are no straight lines in the modern world of physics, because the universe itself is curved by the matter it contains. In fact, space is structured differently in different parts of the universe, and time flows at different rates throughout the cosmos. Space and time, it seems, are not even separate entities in this new world-view; instead, they are sort of laminated together to form a four-dimensional reality in which material particles can move forward and backward through time just as easily as they can move left and right through space. In a 4-D reality, time can he viewed in any direction just as space can; therefore, there is no before or after in such a world; events are not caused by anything—they just are.
   The size of an object cannot be measured accurately in this reality, either, because no matter how ‘solid” it is, its length changes when it begins to move; the faster it moves, the more its length contracts. Events also cannot be timed accurately, because time is not a fixed measure of duration any longer; a clock in motion runs slower than when it is standing still, and the faster ii moves, the slower the time it keeps. If, for example, we were to put one twin brother in a rocket ship and send him on a very speedy trip through outer space, he would return younger than his earthbound brother.
   One of the most intriguing discoveries of modern physics has concerned the essential property of matter known as mass. An elementary particle is not considered material unless it has mass; the more mass a thing possesses, the more matter it contains. For centuries the mass of an object was believed to be connected with some solid, basic substance; then along came Albert Einstein, who destroyed such notions with a simple but world-shattering equation: E=mc2. This famous mathematical statement showed that mass was in fact nothing but an extremely compacted form of energy; it indicated that even an object with a tiny amount of mass—say a feather—contained a vast amount of locked-up power, called rest energy.
   Nuclear fission has been one method devised by science to unleash some of this rest energy from material particles, and even though this method is not a very efficient one, we all know what effect it had during World War II on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As yet, no method has been found to release all the energy contained in an object’s mass, but if and when this is accomplished, the world’s energy problems will be solved forever. For example, if all the rest energy could be liberated from a single quart or liter of gasoline, it would run a 200-horsepower automobile 24 hours a day for 10,000 years!
   Einstein’s theory revealed that mass and energy are so closely related that either one can he converted into the other; in short, material particles can he transformed into pure energy and, even more spectacularly, such particles can actually be created if enough energy is available. This accounts for the puzzling occurrence we observed earlier when we witnessed a pair of material particles collide and become transformed into four completely different particles the same size as the originals. Since each particle is essentially nothing but a bundle of energy, when one collides with another the involved energy may simply become rearranged into a different pattern, in effect causing the annihilation of the original particles and the creation of new particles of different types. If one or both of the original particles were traveling fast enough, the kinetic energy of their motion could be converted into new mass at the collision point, causing additional particles to come into being. In this way, every elementary particle can be transformed into other particles, so it is impossible to designate any of these as the fundamental elements of matter.
   The fact that the mass of any material entity is nothing but a specific quantity of energy indicates that we can no longer look at the world around us as a collection of static objects, for matter is not composed of solid substance; it is in fact made up of dancing patterns of energy. Every material object, be it our own body, a tree, or a mountain, is essentially just a temporary phase in a dynamic process involving a certain amount of energy. At an earlier point in this process, some pure energy slowed down to a speed below that of light, at which point it congealed into mass; and at some point in the future, should the equilibrium of this stable form of energy be disturbed in any way, it can shed its temporary property called mass and become pure energy once more. The manifestation we know as “matter” is simply one of the attendant effects of this energy’s transformation into mass; thus, an object is really more of an event than it is a thing of substance. The moment its mass disappears, an energy pattern no longer projects a material appearance.
   Material particles may look and feel solid, but they are not; in fact, modern science no longer views subatomic entities as objects at all; now they are looked upon as dynamic patterns or processes.
   Movement is not just one of their properties, it is their essential nature. The atom is now seen as a system of commingling waves, a pattern of interacting energy vibrations.
   Matter, then, is made of energy, and energy is something dynamic, something associated with activity and not with some sort of solid “stuff.” Thus, the existence of matter cannot be separated from its activity, which is the very essence of its being. The world which we perceive around us may seem to be a vast empty space containing independent, solid objects, but in reality that space contains nothing but vibrating fields of energy.
In the light of our conflicting daily experience, such a reality is difficult to comprehend; yet, the findings of modem science do not stop here. Physicists have also made a revolutionary discovery about the way these fields of energy interact with one another.
   In Newton’s world, material objects affect each other by exerting various types of force which have the mysterious ability to reach out across empty space to attract or repel solid things. Such forces hold atomic nuclei together, give the atom its stability, and even keep our solar system and galaxy from either flying apart or collapsing.
   As we began to discover during our exploration of the atom, however, forces do not in fact work the way Newton described them. The protons and neutrons of an atomic nucleus, for example, are not held together by some ephemeral power, but through the exchange of still other types of particles, called mesons. Similarly, electrons are held in their orbits through the exchange of photon particles, and it is now believed that even the force of gravity does its work through the agency of still another type of particle which science has dubbed the graviton. Since photons and gravitons are considered to be mass less particles, this means that their range is virtually unlimited; once they are ejected from a source, they will travel to the very ends of the universe—or until they are absorbed by other particles.
   All particles, then, interact through forces which are nothing but an exchange of other particles; thus, force and matter are simply different aspects of the very same phenomenon. At this point, our picture of the universe becomes completely devoid of any isolated entities even isolated energy fields—because if all material objects are made of particles which are patterns of energy, and if the forces which act between such objects are also made of particles which are patterns of energy, then the whole of Creation must be but a single, enormously intricate web of interconnected vibrational patterns.
   The world we live in is like a brilliant and intricate tapestry depicting a myriad of diverse images which are so realistic and eye-catching that they completely obscure the fact that they are all woven of the same silk, and that this silk also binds them all together into a single, resplendent whole. This universal tapestry is engaged in ceaseless motion, like an energy kaleidoscope; and yet, despite the fact that transformation is its primary characteristic and that these changes involve an infinite variety of patterns, these patterns can all be quite neatly categorized into just a few distinct types of manifestations, thus disclosing an undeniable presence of universal order.
At this point in our investigation, the material universe of modern science has dwindled in essence to just two primary ingredients—a vast vacuum of space and the vibrant energy patterns that fill this vacuum. Exactly how, we may now wonder, does one relate to the other? What is this powerful, singing void that we discover at the heart of every subatomic particle in Creation, and how does it differ from the void outside each particle? What is the nature of the energy which forms each particle? How does this energy suddenly make a particle appear out of nowhere, and what happens to it when the particle vanishes? For answers to such questions, we must now turn our attention to the vessel which contains the universal contents—the vacuum of space itself.

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