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If a stationary observer is holding a ruler and is observing another person moving at constant speed with regard to him, holding the same type of ruler, he will notice that the other person’s ruler appear to have shrunk, and the faster the other person goes, the greater the shrinkage becomes. The degree of contraction can be calculated by a Lorentz transformation:

Equation A.

Lm = Lr.√(1-(v2/c2))

Where Lr is the length of a ruler at rest and Lm is its “moving” length when travelling at velocity v. The speed of light – the “natural speed” of the cosmos, the speed by which everything else is defined, is designated as c.

Using Equation A, when an observer called Jill is travelling at 0.866 of the speed of light, then the ruler she is holding appears to Jack, a stationary observer, to be only half its normal length i.e. a 30 cm ruler would appear to be only 15 cm long, although still showing 30 divisions.

If Jill could travel at the speed of light then the length of her ruler would appear, to Jack, to shrink to zero. (That’s what you get if v = c in Equation A: Lm = Lr.√(1-(v2/c2)) = Lr.√(1-(c2/c2)) = Lr.√0 = 0) That’s one way of explaining why no human will ever attain light speed: you would literally vanish, not just theoretically but actually. At the speed of light itself, it can be said that relativity vanishes and is replaced by the absolute. In the domain of the absolute, nothing can have any physical dimensions! We have crossed the mystical barrier from r > 0 to r = 0.

At light speed, all distances are zero, whether measured by a hypothetical observer “travelling” at that speed, or any observer in any other frame of reference. Of course, at light speed, the idea of travelling anywhere ceases to be meaningful. You are simultaneously everywhere.

Above light speed, the ruler would have an “imaginary” length since v is greater than c, hence √(1-(v2/c2)) becomes the square root of a negative number, and the square root of a negative number belongs to the domain of so-called imaginary numbers, the astounding significance of which we shall highlight shortly.
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The Time Equation:

Equation B.

Tm = Tr/(√(1-(v2/c2)))

When an observer called Jill is travelling at 0.866 the speed of light, then the clock she is holding appears, to Jack, a stationary observer, to count time at only half its normal rate i.e. the passage of one second for him, takes two seconds for Jill. Her time is flowing more slowly than his; Jill’s time is expanding, dilating, taking longer to flow. Since Jill’s clock counts time twice as slowly then one year of her time is equal to two years of Jack’s time.

If Jill could travel at the speed of light then her clock would appear, to Jack, to have completely stopped; her time would be passing infinitely slowly. (That’s what you get if v = c in Equation B: Tm = Tr /(√(1-(v2/c2))) = Tr /(√(1-(c2/c2))) = Tr /0 = ∞. Jill’s clock shows no movement. No time passes. That’s one way of explaining why no human can ever attain light speed: you would literally leave time, not just theoretically but actually. In the domain of the absolute, nothing can experience the passing of time as we understand it, since clocks do not tick! We have crossed the mystical barrier from r > 0 to r = 0.

At light speed, all clocks take an infinite time to tick, whether measured by a hypothetical observer travelling at that speed, or any observer in any other frame of reference. Above light speed, the clock would start counting imaginary time since v is greater than c, hence √(1-(v2/c2)) becomes the square root of a negative number.

(Note that whereas the term √(1-(v2/c2)) was used as a multiplier in Equation A, it was a divisor in Equation B. This shows that the length contraction and time dilation effects work in the opposite directions, in a directly proportionate manner: as length contracts, time proportionately dilates. It is this perpetual balance between space and time that ensures that no matter what speed an observer is travelling at, he will always obtain the same measurement for the speed of light: time and space continually adjust themselves to ensure that result.)
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The Mass Equation:

Equation C.

Mm = Mr/(√(1-(v2/c2)))

Travelling at 0.866 of the speed of light, Jill’s mass would double. At light speed, her mass would be infinite! This is the usual reason given for explaining why no human can ever attain light speed. It would require all the energy in the cosmos: Mm = Mr/(√(1-(v2/c2))) = Mr/(√(1-(c2/c2))) = Mr/0 = ∞ (Above light speed, Jill’s mass would be “imaginary” – the most effective diet in the cosmos, perhaps.)

Once again, we see zero and infinity representing the limiting cases of scientific equations. However, unlike in the case of black holes, scientists do not assert that the laws of physics mysteriously fall apart at this “infinity/zero” point where the speed of light reigns. They are quite happy to admit that gluons, gravitons and photons can sensibly exist at this point. In other words, scientists, for reasons known only to themselves, accept dimensionless existence in this context, yet in the very similar context of black holes they say that there’s something wrong with the equations rather than simply acknowledging that mass (a property of dimensionality) can be converted into masslessness (a property of dimensionlessness).

The logic of black holes would seem to imply that dimensional particles with mass are subjected to such enormous compression in the black hole singularity that they are converted into dimensionless particles without mass i.e. a black hole singularity is “made” of massless, dimensionless particles such as photons, gluons and gravitons. Not a single scientist to our knowledge has ever proposed such an obvious thing, and many of the most renowned of black hole scientists confess that they have no idea what a black hole is made of i.e. what becomes of all the massive particles that have been crushed together, what new form they take. Instead they continue to talk about there being something wrong with black hole theory since it gives birth to infinities. But it’s precisely when infinity appears in an equation that we are being shown that the gap between r > 0 and r = 0 can be bridged.

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One of the radical consequences of Einstein’s relativity theory, is that the earth can once more be defined as the centre of the universe, if that’s what we choose. Any frame of reference is as valid as any other. We choose to say that the sun is at the centre of our solar system because it yields a much simpler way of understanding and tracking planetary motion, not because the sun actually is the centre of the solar system in any absolute sense. We could make any planet the centre if we wanted. We could make the moon or an asteroid the centre, but these would result in far greater complexity.

Returning to the extraordinary enigma posed by Einstein’s special theory of relativity, if photons, in their own terms, are stationary and outside space and time then how come, in our terms, they are anything but? We perceive them as travelling at 300,000 km per second i.e. they are travelling very rapidly through space. How can both views be right? This is the central paradox of relativity. There is no single perspective from which to view the universe. The view you have of the cosmos is completely different depending on whether or not you have mass and what speed you are travelling at. Time and space aren’t fixed, aren’t absolute, but are dependent on mass and speed. Massless particles don’t experience space and time from their perspective, particles with mass do. Similarly, particles travelling at light speed don’t experience space and time from their perspective; particles travelling at any other speed do.

The particular speed that particles travel at relative to light speed determines how they experience space and time. There is no absolute space and time. Relative to a stationary observer on planet earth, a person moving at close to light speed will seem to live in a world in which time passes much more slowly and a ruler will measure much shorter distances than on earth. Yet, amazingly, the person moving at near light speed can claim that it is the person on earth who has the short ruler, and may also believe that it is the person on earth who has the slow clock (though this turns out to be false: the moving person will have aged less than the stationary person). Such is the mystery of relativity. (If you are interested in delving further into some of the incredible time puzzles of relativity, Google “The Twin Paradox”.)

John Gribbin, in Schrödinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality, provides a summation of the main points we have raised: “So what happens when we push this time-dilation business to the limit? Getting back to the original question that Einstein asked about light, how does the Universe ‘look’ to a beam of light (or a photon, if you prefer), or to a person riding on a light beam? And how does time flow for a photon?

“To answer the second question first – it doesn’t. The Lorentz transformations tell us that time stands still for an object moving at the speed of light. From the point of view of the photon, of course, it is everything else that is rushing past at the speed of light. And under such extreme conditions, the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction reduces the distances between all objects to zero. You can either say that time does not exist for an electromagnetic wave, so that it is everywhere along its path (everywhere in the Universe) at once; or you can say that distance does not exist for an electromagnetic wave, so that it‘touches’ everything in the Universe at once.

“This is an enormously important idea, which I have never seen given due attention. From the point of view of a photon, it takes no time at all to cross the 150 million km from the Sun to the Earth (or to cross the entire Universe), for the simple reason that this space interval does not exist for the photon. Physicists seem to ignore this remarkable state of affairs, because they know that no material object can ever be accelerated to the speed of light, so no human (or mechanical) observer is ever going to experience this strange phenomenon. Perhaps they are simply so stunned by what the equations say that they have not fully thought out the implications. As I hope to persuade you, though, this curious behaviour of space and time from the point of view of photons may help to resolve all the outstanding mysteries of quantum physics.”

Even Gribbin hasn’t gone far enough in highlighting the infinitely strange world of the photon. In its frame of reference, not only does the photon not experience the passing of time or the traversing of any distances, it has no mass, no size, no dimensions. All photons are exactly the same in these respects. How can one photon be distinguished from another? None can be individuated in time because no time passes, and none can be straightforwardly individuated spatially because there are no distances between them to be measured.

Moreover, is it valid for Gribbin to say, “From the point of view of the photon, of course, it is everything else that is rushing past at the speed of light”? Gribbin is treating a photon as if it is an ordinary observer located in space and time, but it isn’t. It’s not in time at all, and all distances experienced by it are zero, so how can anything be “rushing past” it? Rushing from where to where, and in what time? If, as Gribbin says, “…you can say that distance does not exist for an electromagnetic wave, so that it ‘touches’ everything in the Universe at once,” there is nothing left that can rush past it. Given that Gribbin is an excellent writer and scientist, this example shows how easy it is to get confused by relativity. But, to his immense credit, Gribbin has realized the critical importance of viewing existence from the point of view of photons. Therein lies the key to mind and religion.

Returning to the central point, doesn’t this bizarre world of photons sound exactly like the dimensionless r = 0 domain, outside space and time? In fact, there’s only one difference. Despite being so hard to define in terms of any concrete existence, photons do possess real energy in the physical world.

What is the conclusion? When dimensionless, purely mental energy is converted into dimensional energy, it appears initially as massless, sizeless, unindividuated “particles” such as photons. The link between thought and light (electromagnetic radiation) is a close one, and the differences are exceptionally subtle.

One of the keys to establishing the reality of the r = 0 dimensionless domain to skeptical scientists is to show how it can realistically give rise to dimensional existence. We have now done so. Light is the bridge between the dimensionless and the dimensional. Light is a hybrid of the dimensionless and the dimensional, with one foot in each domain. Light, although part of dimensional reality, also exists in a twilight zone of dimensionlessness where one photon cannot be readily distinguished from another. Light might be said to be “physical thought”. Photons may be like brain cells in a cosmic brain, blazing with illumination. Enlightenment is therefore almost a literal rather than merely metaphorical expression.

In a black hole singularity, time doesn’t pass and there is no distance between any particles within the singularity. Light can’t escape from the singularity. Imagine that all of the countless black holes in the universe sucked in all of the matter around them and then came together in one vast, cosmic black hole. This Super Singularity would contain everything in the universe. It would be the reverse of the original Big Bang Singularity from which everything emerged in the first place. It would be timeless, spaceless, dimensionless. It would be the r = 0 Genesis Singularity, the most remarkable entity in existence – God in himself, as Absolute Idea.

We are used to thinking of black holes as being created by processes of collapse, leading to extraordinary concentrations of mass in little or no volume. However, there is another way to form a black hole that scientists never mention. In the hypothetical case in which a particle with mass were accelerated to light speed, time would stop, distance would vanish and it would acquire infinite mass (and hence be infinitely dense since it occupies zero volume). Are those not exactly the same characteristics as those of black holes? So, our existence is in some sense bounded by black holes. If enormous entities with mass collapse catastrophically, black holes are the outcome. If any mass is accelerated to the hypothetical maximum of light speed, black holes are the outcome (since an infinite mass would be concentrated in zero volume). Mass and black holes go together. Black holes are concerned with what happens when mass has been compressed so much that its “dimensional integrity” has become unsustainable and it’s starting to enter the dimensionless domain.

Our universe is a bizarre hybrid of the infinite and finite, the dimensionless and the dimensional, r > 0 and r = 0. If mass is the essence of r > 0, thought is the essence of r = 0, and light is the bridge between the two domains. In the centre of black holes, light cannot escape and mass is no longer recognizable in dimensional terms. Physicists are unable to say what a black hole singularity is made of. Light, mass, dimensionality and dimensionlessness, infinity and finitude all come together in black holes, the dimensional portals to the dimensionless domain.

But there’s something else to think about. Light can’t escape from a black hole, but nor can it escape from its own domain. If (from its perspective) it exists in a domain of zero dimensions, to where can it escape? It has nowhere to go. When we say that light can’t escape from a black hole, we’re talking about light relative to our perception of it, but, relative to itself, light is unaffected by a black hole since light is outside space and time. It is everywhere at once.
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