Observations placeholder
Eddington, Sir Arthur - The Expanding Universe - Time and relativity
Identifier
014150
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
- Thus the physical hardware is ‘bumpy’ in varying degrees from huge mountains secretions, to smaller hills to tiny bumps. Much like a normal landscape
- On the skin of coalesced energy, only two things exist - matter and electromagnetic radiation in its generic sense – that is everything from X rays to UV, visible light, etc
- The nature of perception is such that at any moment the structure will appear to be expanding apparently due to laws of repulsion, but in some cases there will be other bodies getting close together as one perception catches up with another [like horses in a race] – attraction. It will then appear that there are laws in place governing attraction and repulsion
- Mass creates bumps - EM radiation must somehow navigate the bumps to go from one mass to another. It will always go the shortest route. But this route is not in reality a straight line. It can be wavy or twisted or curved, more like a path or wriggly snake that anything else. We are familiar with such shortest distance paths on earth. They are known as geodesics and the great circle route taken by ships and planes and used in navigation is but one example of a geodesic. Flatten out the hardware and it may appear that the EM radiation traverses a totally erratic route. In reality it is travelling the shortest route and its speed is constant
- Measurements of things like distance, weight, time, length and so on all make reasonable amount of sense when you are situated on one of the bodies mentioned [whatever size they are] and all measurements are made relative to that body. But if you go from body to body, measurements in reality have no real meaning as all bodies are moving relative to one another and are in constant motion
- Thus all measurement can only be made at the level of the sub-assembly you are dealing with. All measurements are relative, pick a subassembly and your measurements will make sense, but go outside the subassembly and they won’t.
- This has extremely important implications scientifically. We are used to the idea that in this physical plane we deduce the laws of the universe by observation, pattern matching and instrumentation. We use our senses and aids to our senses to make observations which are then carefully pieced together to deduce rules and laws. But what this tells us is that what we observe can be hopelessly distorted – light can be bent, images can be distorted, space can be warped – we cannot deduce the laws of the universe by observing the physical universe. The only laws we may be able to deduce are local ones applicable to this planet
- The only satisfactory source of the laws of nature and the universe lie outside the physical universe, in the spiritual realm, they exists free from it, unaffected by it.
A description of the experience
Sir Arthur Eddington
Imagine a spacecraft which moves away from the earth at a speed of 156,000 miles a second. If you were able to observe the people in the spacecraft you would infer that they were unusually slow in their movement and other events in the vehicle would be similarly retarded. Everything which took place there would seem to us to take twice as long as usual. I say infer deliberately, you would see a still more extravagant slowing down of time, but that is easily explained, because the spacecraft is rapidly increasing its distance from you. The more moderate retardation referred to remains after you have allowed for the time of transmission of light. But here reciprocity comes in, because from the point of view of the space travellers you are moving away from them at 156,000 miles a second, and when they have made all allowances, they find that it is you who are sluggish