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The WMail Newsletter Essays
Volume II - Issue #11: June 2001

"A Third Theory of Relativity (Part 1)"

{The following and Part 2 – see August issue/essay – are each excerpts from
Chapter 35 of my book "Working Minds: A Philosophy of Empowerment"}

        Science has recently gotten more certain that Newtonian physics does not provide an entirely accurate view of the Universe. Newtonian physics does indeed work very well in the strictly physical world – engineering, mechanics, energy, electronic communications – but does not coincide with the rules that operate inside the subatomic or interstellar realms of quantum physics. In quantum physics, scientists take atoms apart, experimentally and theoretically, and eventually the measurements describe a universe where light is a wave AND a particle, depending on the experiment, which defies Newtonian law.
        And recent advances in satellite data-gathering have reconfirmed the sticky parts of Einstein's Special and General Theories of Relativity, even a couple of ideas that he gave up on due to the then-impossibility of empirical proof. (Remember that Einstein's first paper on the Special Theory of Relativity was published back in 1905, and the General Theory of Relativity in 1916.)

A MODEST QUANTUM PROPOSAL
        Well, I have developed a personal notion that I call the Third Theory of Relativity. This Third Theory posits that:
         a) the reason that the speed of light in Einstein's Relativity formulae is a constant is that that speed is our frequency of existence in the Universe: We are defined by the speed of light which we are able to perceive;
        and b) the Universe is made up of a band of frequencies, like the radio or wireless telephone spectrum: We live at (are locked into) a 'station' whose frequency is 186,000 miles per second [the official, local speed of light] and cannot observe the other frequencies, just as you cannot get broadcast television on an A.M. radio or vice versa: the other frequencies are designed out of the hardware.

        This notion, the Third Theory of Relativity, connects to several other as-yet-unproven possibilities:
        1) Carlos Castañeda describes the access provided by Yaqui sorcery to various numbers of parallel worlds. The number of worlds in this 'Separate Reality' [his term] is specified in his books variously as six or seven or ten or eleven. One of these parallel worlds that he experienced is depicted as desert-like, and given as a realm easily accessed by 'mystics', suggesting that this particular separate world is the very desert where the historical mystic Jesus of Nazareth spent 40 days being tempted by 'Satan'. The other described parallel worlds are NOT places that you or I would want to visit.
        2) There is an increasingly-dominant department of quantum physics called 'string theory', which holds that sub-sub-sub-elements of atoms are strings of force. And guess what? The monster equations that prove string theory are equally valid when solved for six or seven or ten or eleven dimensions. Put those concepts together and you have the multiple dimensions of string theory being accessible by means of the non-technical traditions of Yaqui sorcerers!
        3) Recent data from observations of supernovae has verified the mysterious 'repulsive force' that occupies empty space, a function of Einstein's cosmological constant. That such a force, and what is termed 'dark matter' are occupying 'empty space' sounds paradoxical, but physicists keep finding more data confirming the matter.

        The next step in the Third Theory of Relativity is to suggest that the long-missing theoretical mass of empty space is invisible to Mankind's instruments because this mass is comprised of the other dimensions. These non-standard dimensions – besides our standard four: Length, Width, Breadth, and Space-Time – are those which exist inside worlds that operate on different frequencies of the speed of light than this local frequency-world, and these parallel worlds are made up of the non-normal (to us) other dimensions described in both string theory and Yaqui tradition.
        Somehow the psychedelic-soaked practices of Yaqui sorcery provide access to alteration of human perception such that visits to the other [non-normal] frequency-worlds are both possible and consistent over time. (Were these visits pure fantasy or hallucination, they would not be consistent among so many objective observers.)

QUANTUM CREATIVITY
        What does all this have to do with the 'Working Mind' philosophy? Well, the above dissertation of concepts are illustrative rather than instructional. The whole idea of my Third Theory of Relativity may be pure claptrap: I am NOT going to win fortune or acclaim for having produced the above. (But if offered the Nobel Prize, I will accept.)

        The Third Theory of Relativity is an example of letting my mind stroll thru all sorts of highways and byways, on whatever subject I choose or allow. There is this extraordinary Freedom available when I seek advice, not from the False Mind 'voice-in-my-head', but from the Silence surrounding the Working Mind. So the advice that I seek and receive does not push me into negative-karmic activities designed for Survival, and besides, Thinking about my Third Theory of Relativity is FUN!

        The Thinking of the Working Mind is never the basis for righteousness. The standard False Mind reaction to any such nebulous conclusion – or of Received Information that enters one's perception – is to be righteous about 'My Idea' or about 'The Truth' and to act like a Creationist or Flat Earther and become an activist in behalf of My Idea. Note how the majority of those who believe in crop circles and UFO's and Atlantis act so very strange and unbending in the face of Reason: Reason is a threat to righteousness.

        This exercise in considering the Third Theory of Relativity is good practice at Thinking. A small satisfaction accompanies the synthesis of ideas, even if the Thinker knows them to be wild notions. From exercising and developing this ability will come synthesis of useful and not necessarily radical new ideas – in business, in technology, in relationships, in artistic achievement. If you have the Freedom to Think creatively, then you will cross frontiers, you will follow paths that go nowhere, you will have to double back sometimes, you will get your feet wet, you will stumble. But the end of such a journey will be a new sum, the synthesis of your creative adventure, not a copy of everybody else's Culture-Structure-led forced march to mediocrity and oblivion.

        Perhaps all that my Third Theory of Relativity amounts to is a possible fiction, just a made-up tale that passes the time entertainingly in the telling. I do not need to pound people over the head and convince them of the 'rightness' of My Idea, in order to prove to the world my worth or brilliance. I have a Working Mind, which is a quality, a talent, an attribute of great value – to myself, to the 'common weal', to Mankind. It is the ability to generate possibilities that is important.

W O N D E R
        And partly, also, the fiction of the Third Theory of Relativity is a means to introduce the Distinction 'Wonder'. Can you get how incredibly wondrous and unknowable the Universe is? Albert Einstein said, "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." Think about it. This blindly careening machine we call the Universe has the grace to allow rainbows and sunsets and the fantasies of Mankind, like unicorns and time travel. And the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, carved out of the living rock. And the vine-covered beauty of Angkor Wat.
        Fireworks above the high school athletic field on a warm Fourth of July night – and the smell of the gunpowder floating in the air. Sea-grass moving with the waves in a tidal pool under a metallic sky. The grasp of a baby's hand around your finger. The aroma of garlic or wisteria, or the dusty smell kicked up by the first few drops of rain after a long dry spell. And a vast Universe made up of teeny-tiny string-thingies.

        The Third Theory of Relativity could be true. The Universe is that complex and that wondrous. It does not matter if the Third Theory of Relativity is ever proven – either way: true or false. If one has the ability to create Reality rather than to fight or avoid it (which the Culture-Structure teaches), then each new idea need NOT be hoarded. One idea out of a dozen or a hundred might be worth serious pursuit, but the real benefit of opening oneself to creative Thinking is in the Freedom to run about in the rich fields of Objective Reality like a newborn calf or deer or foal, gamboling [mentally] as one's intentional personal expression, a gambol of discovery.

         Richard Bach presents the idea that Mankind's true design is the same as the sea otter, one of the Planet's most playful creatures. Are not children of every race and nationality naturally playful until the Culture-Structure stuffs them full of dis-empowerment? Let's cut out all this False-Mind-driven, Culture-Structure-based animosity and despair and dis-empowerment, and learn to experience the deep joy and Wonder of this crazy, absurd world circling around a star-sun hurtling thru the near-emptiness of Space-Time. The freely-creative product of the Working Mind can be freely shared, whether commercially or academically, or over a cup of tea or schnapps. When your Working Mind is strong enough, when it reaches maturity, you will not need permission to contribute, whether by hard effort or by gamboling example.

        Freedom exists in the exercise of it.

The second part of this essay is Essay #13

2007 version "A Third Theory of Relativity"

[copyright 2001 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]


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