String Along with Me

The Science Channel program I was watching described a supernova—when a star suddenly increases in brightness due to an immense explosion that shoots most of the star’s matter into space. The scientists echoed the words of Carl Sagan who told us we are all made of star stuff, because our bodies are entirely composed of the elements that shot out of a star. A corpse decomposes into those elements over enough time.

I thought about the quantum physicists who theorize that at the quantum level all matter vibrates as strings of energy. And then I remembered spiritual teachings that contend our bodies are not who we are; we are pure energy—a form to which we return when our time in our bodies is done. Some call it our soul.

For the moment, then, let’s accept we are not what we think of as matter but pure energy. (You don’t have to believe it; this is a mind exercise.) The miracles we read about in religious texts don’t sound so incredible any longer. But imagine this:  you are a wondrous string (or many strings?) of energy—full of awareness because we are. And, you encounter another string of energy. Love or a mysterious connection that can broach any separation (physicists call the concept “spooky action at a distance”) seems to be the power that can tie the two of you together from anywhere.

What if you really are energy? How does your perception of others change?

Suddenly prejudices seem absurd. After all, if we’re all energy, what’s to hate? If your human explanations for how we came to be bodies outwardly—your religious or scientific explanations—conflict, who cares? They were really only ideas, after all. If your shell/bodies come in different colors, genders, and sizes, so what? If you’re energy, birth and death become signposts in the road, simple indications of progress that doesn’t even stretch in a straight line. You aren’t stuck on the Earth.

What if the Divine Source some call God is energy, as well—a Force so immense we cannot conceive of it? And this Force is aware of people being mean or even killing one another over prejudices or resources or power? What wasted opportunity. It’s up to the people to realize they’re not making sense. If they worked together, they could achieve a better understanding of the true nature of life much more quickly. When they help one another, they suddenly feel a surge of caring, of love, of the energy beneath the action. But they may not realize that surge is the point.

Anita Moorjani tells us that what you do isn’t as important as the energy behind why you did it. Good deeds done to garner favor or popularity aren’t especially good. The energy of your intention is the important part. Your energy cannot process lies any more than a sun can pretend to be a block of ice. When you try to deceive yourself, you throw your energy off—like a car careening down a hill with a broken axle. You may fall ill—emotionally or physically or both.

But, of course, I’m sitting here typing on a computer—matter thumping on matter. This was a mind experiment, after all, wasn’t it?