The Big Picture

We can see all the threshold events as manifestations of the forces of attraction and repulsion. Particles attract and repel in certain ways to form atoms. Particular atoms attract to one another to form molecules and so on and so forth. Chemical bonding in general has to do with particular elements attracting and repelling one another. In this way all such events are vitally connected to the one energy that is the primal force of nature.

All is a manifestation of the attraction/repulsion dynamic of the one energy. And it is to that one energy that all seeks to return. Energized quantum particles display a marked tendency to recombine into the whole energy from whence they appeared - like the virtual particles that percolate out of the vacuum energy and just as soon recombine back into it. However, the quantum particles of our universe, called real particles, lack the wherewithal to perform that neat little trick.

Each virtual particle is able to recombine with its antiparticle. But if they were somehow prevented from doing so real particles would be produced. This is perhaps how the big bang occurred. Pairs of virtual particles were torn apart by the forces of A/R so that the particles and antiparticles went their separate ways to form distinct universes. By virtue of a particle’s ability to simultaneously be in all places the newly formed real particles filled up the expanding universe they found themselves in. John Wheeler once suggested to Richard Feynman that all electrons are exactly the same because they’re all the same electron.

In the formation of an atom we can see the tendency to recombine along with the inability to do so. The forces of attraction and repulsion that wrestle around with quarks perform a Sisyphean like agon of continually coming together and pushing apart. Out of this agon, however, the A/R forces and the quarks combine to create a unity in the form of a proton or a neutron. Electrons are attracted to protons, as they would be to their antiparticle positron, but lack the energy to take that attraction to its logical conclusion of merging back into the one energy. And so atoms are formed.

Hydrogen atoms with the assistance of the attractive force of gravity formed galaxies. The black hole at the center of a galaxy is a massive attempt by gravity to return to the prior state of oneness. A greater majority of the hydrogen atoms in proto galaxies, however, got caught up in less massive gravitational fields and produced the fusion reactors known as stars which created all the atoms with multiple nucleons. And, in seeking to recombine, these heavier atoms formed the molecules that created solar systems and life forms.

From the forces of A/R we can derive all the characteristics of the universe that stand in opposition to one another. In terms of the one energy they can be seen as absolutes and our universe exists by virtue of a dialogue between them.

These characteristics are:

• unity — diversity
• uniformity — disparity
• stability — instability
• order — chaos
• contraction — expansion
• permanence — change
• attraction — repulsion

The characteristics that make up each column are interchangeable with one another. Unity, uniformity, stability, order, contraction, permanence and attraction are all intimately related, as are their opposites. The one common denominator in all of these pairings is attraction/repulsion because they qualify as ultimate forces; all of the other dualities can be seen to be an effect of the cooperative contention of the attract/repel dynamic.

At one extreme we have super giant stars with enormous centers of gravity striving to hold them together while the ongoing force of their nuclear furnace violently pushes outward producing an overwhelming force of repulsion that seems bent on tearing the body of the stars apart as quickly as possible. This objective is achieved soon enough in a massive explosion as the star’s constituent parts go their own separate ways into outer space. This nearly absolute repulsive force can also be characterized as approaching absolute diversity, disparity, instability, chaos, expansion and change.

Something approaching absolute uniformity can be seen in our universe as a neutron star, or a black hole, where the force of attraction, gravity, acts as a cosmic vacuum cleaner sucking everything around it into its super monolithic density and stripping everything down to elemental particles. This nearly absolute uniformity brought about by a nearly absolute attraction can also be considered as absolute unity, order, stability, contraction and constancy.

In opposition to the extreme black hole gravity devouring galaxies from the inside we have the repulsive dark energy pushing them apart and threatening to eventually tear them up. Could the dark matter found around the periphery of galactic formations be a build up of dark energy denied access into the galaxies by the gravity holding them together.

A/R is what is responsible for the controlled expansion of spacetime and what started the universe in motion prior to the “explosion” of light and heat that ushered the visible universe into being. The visible universe is an anomaly in the universe as a whole. It accounts for only a fraction of the contents of the entire universe. Light is, and must always be, contained within the universe. Light is a product of this universe and cannot exist except within it. The expansion of the universe proceeds at speeds faster than that of light and it keeps on expanding at an ever-increasing acceleration. If the universe had begun with an explosion of light then its boundaries would be that of light itself and it would have been impossible for anything else to accrue more energy than that which the initial expansion predominantly consisted of. Before the lightshow of this universe took place there existed a vast ocean of energy roiling with innate forces of attraction and repulsion.

In subsequent posts we will see how all this relates to the human condition.