The Fundamental Work of Light in the Universe

 

Dan R. Hankins, M.A.

© 2005

 

 

         You can make the universe very complex or you can break it down to simply this: the universe is made up of tardyon particles that travel slower than the speed of light, and photons (light) that travel the speed of light.  Thus far, nothing has been found that travels faster than the speed of light.  Though it can never be at rest, light has zero rest mass.  Things that have zero rest mass do not occupy space.  All tardyons, from protons to electrons, have rest mass.  In 1905 when the Theory of Special Relativity was published, a new way of understanding the universe was suggested.  Clear laws regarding mass in motion, time and space were laid down, but these laws applied only to mass particles.  An entirely different law was established for photons which have no mass, or weight and therefore do not take up space.  Photons are light.  Light travels at 186,000 miles per second (299,792,458 kilometers per second - fast enough to circle the earth seven times in one second).   This has been termed by some physicist as “the cosmic speed limit.”  Even at this speed, it takes light 100,000 years to cross our Milky Way galaxy.  The distant galaxy M87 in the Virgo cluster is 50 million light years away.  It is 18 billion light years to the furthest object we can see at present.  Practically speaking, light travels at the same speed all of the time.  It is the one universal constant against which everything else can be measured.  Light can turn into matter and back again into light with ease.  Quarks do so frequently in nature at the subatomic level of physics.

 

         Light vibrates.  Each orderly vibration arises from a point of rest and goes up and then down returning to its resting position.  Each up and down cycle is called a sine wave.  The speed (number of times per second) with which these sine waves occur is called the light’s frequency.  Light comes in many frequencies and we divide these frequencies into the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.  If we do not allow ourselves to think of all these bands as forms of light, we inevitably begin to think of all the forms (except visible light) in terms of tardyon laws of quantum physics.  This is clearly wrong.  Remember our simple explanation: tardyons and photons.  Tardyons are mass with weight and photons are light without weight.  If we say we have a parallel universe consisting of matter and light, people will accuse us of Star Trek Science, but in reality it is easier to keep things straight in our heads if we look at things exactly that way.  We must never let ourselves think of light in the same way we think of matter.  They are completely different in their behavior and their relationship to time and space, as well as the laws that define their behavior.

 

         NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center published an article on their website (http://www.imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov )  in which they say, “Radio waves, visible light, X-rays, and all the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are fundamentally the same thing.”   This must never be forgotten: light is fundamentally the same thing as radio waves, or x-rays, or ultra-violet light, or electricity.    On the other hand, matter is matter; light behaves as light; matter behaves as matter.  While these two interact frequently, they maintain the integrity of the laws of physics that govern their behavior and define them.  Remember, light does not have weight and therefore cannot occupy space.  Further, it doesn’t matter how the light manifests itself from radio waves to visible light to gamma rays.  It’s all light… every time… in every instance.

 

         Time does not exist at light speed.  The faster an object approaches light speed, the slower time passes.  This phenomenon is referred to as time dilation.  It is not possible for any matter with weight to achieve light speed, but if it could, the instant it reached light speed all time would stop and the object would exist perpetually to infinity as long as it maintained light speed.  Since light does not have rest mass or weight, it travels effortlessly at the speed of light and therefore exists to infinity.

 

         The electromagnetic spectrum is the way physicists describe the different manifestations of light.  We are just beginning to learn about light.  Albert Einstein published his Theory of Relativity just a mere 100 years ago.  In galactic time, we’ve barely had time to take a peek at the universe.  Our grandchildren will live in a time when brave quantum physicists and astrophysicists will have dramatically revised the way we see and understand the universe.

 

         In the electromagnetic spectrum thus far we have identified the different manifestations as long wave radio, medium wave radio, short wave radio, vhf radio, uhf radio, microwave, radar, infrared light, visible light (in all its colors), ultraviolet light, x-rays, and gamma rays.  They are divided and identified by their frequencies from long wave radio waves starting at 3,000 cycles per second (VLF) to gamma rays above 30 millions cycles per second (EHF).   There are undoubtedly many more spectrums of light energy that we will discover in the future. 

 

            We know that different creatures experience sound vibrations in different ways.  For instance, dogs hear sound frequencies that are higher than any human can hear.  Elephants, on the other hand, can hear frequencies lower than any human can hear.  Sea creatures like dolphins and whales often communicate over many miles by emitting high frequency sounds.  It is also logical that different creatures experience the frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum differently.  People who are referred to as psychics may very well be normal people who are able to experience a wider band of the electromagnetic spectrum than the rest of us. 

 

         Light is the fundamental substance of the universe.  It animates the entire universe with energy.  The famous Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell declared that electrical energy is just another form of light traveling at light speed.  Electrical energy is what provides your body with animation.  You move, and think, and feel, and smell and even your emotions are the product of a complex electrical system firing across nerves throughout your body.  Your heart beats because an electrical impulse tells it to.  Your lungs expand to breathe in air because an electrical impulse tells them to.  You have trillions of cells in your body made up of trillions and trillions of atoms.  Some of those atoms were once in the bodies of dinosaurs.  Your brain has about 100 billion neuron cells.  Neuron cells are different from all other cells because they have dendrites to bring information in through electrochemical impulse, and axons to send the information elsewhere.  You could say they are like little batteries that you charge up with information and then discharge to other destinations as needed. Neurons are the oldest cells in your body, and are used to transmit this electrical light energy.  Most of your cells regularly die and replenish with new cells created from stem cells, but you keep most neuron cells for your entire life.  If a neuron cell dies, it does not regenerate from stem cells.  These neuron cells contain chemicals that sit there waiting to be energized by electricity to be broadcast as electrochemical signals throughout the body to perform thousands of specialized tasks.    This incredibly complex electrical firing system regulates and controls your entire body – both your physical and your emotional response to the world around you. 

 

Earlier, we broke the universe down to its simplest terms, tardyons and photons; now let’s do the same for the physical body.  It can be broken down to matter and light.  Matter makes up the physical body which must obey all the laws of quantum physics regarding particles with resting weight mass.  The light part of the body (the electrical system) is the part that provides animation and it has zero rest mass and therefore, it must obey all the laws of physics governing photons.

 

Remove the unified electrical field (the sum total of the light stored as electricity) out of your body and instantly, your body temperature will begin to fall. You will quickly assume room temperature just like every other inanimate object in the room that does not have a light field to animate it.  We know that the light field that animates your body is a unified field because that light field works in harmony, rather than chaos, in collecting, assimilating, and discharging light photons to perform the tasks necessary to function and survive in your surroundings.  We know what happens to the body when it loses its light energy at death.  It follows the rules of quantum physics and disintegrates in time to the simple atoms (mostly hydrogen) from which it originated.  But what happens to your light field that has been animating your body?

 

Whenever any type of light energy contains a unified field of information, it retains this unified field of information continually to infinity.  The information that rides on the photon light energy remains intact.  We can look into the night sky and see light from stars that died and went dark millions of years ago.  That light contains a “fossil” record of that star providing detailed information about that star from its size, distance, speed, rotation, and even its chemical makeup.  Whatever bundle of information that left on that starlight billions of years ago, is retained perpetually and still contains that same bundle of information.  This is important to remember.

 

Carl Sagan edited the proceedings of the first international meeting on communication with extraterrestrial intelligence held in Armenia in 1971.  In 1974, a message was sent in binary code toward the M13 star cluster which is 21,000 light years away with the intent of trying to contact extra-terrestrial life in that star group.   Furthermore, the Center for SETI Research (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been looking for extraterrestrial life since 1984.  The predominant method they use is to set up large receiving dishes in remote places and aim them at the sky, waiting for intelligible radio waves that might originate on other planets.  Why would we send binary code on radio waves and search for radio waves from extraterrestrial life?  Because we know that radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum (light) and thus they have the characteristics of light.  The will remain cohesive and retain their bundle of information forever.  They are traveling at light speed and thus are not hampered by time constraints.  If some distant planet sent out some form of communication millions of years ago, we know we could pick it up today at SETI, because a unified light field always retains its integrity to infinity.

 

The physical body, however, is not light but matter, and at the instant of death it begins to obey the laws of nature that demand it decompose into atoms that will become part of other matter.  But what happens to that unified light field in your body at death; that unique bundle of light energy that you call your personality; containing all your knowledge, all your emotions, and all the electrical light energy that animated your body with millions of electrical charges every minute of your existence while you were alive?  It, too, must obey all the known laws of quantum physics regarding light.  It must remain unified.    This energy field is the sum total of your consciousness and it must obey the laws of physics that dictate the behavior of light.  It must retain the integrity of the individual light field, holding all the information that it left with, continue at the speed of light unaffected by the constraints of time, and continue to carry that packet of unique information perpetually to infinity.  This conclusion is neither religion nor superstition; it is simply science.

 

You are a unique person, with a body of unique knowledge and experience.  That uniqueness is captured in light, and is released in light at death.  It will remain your individual bundle of light energy to infinity.

 

© 2005, Dan R. Hankins   No part of this material may be reproduced without express permission of the author. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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