Published in Ibicasa Magazine on 15/10/2024

Spend any time around people who are into the new thought movement and you will hear the phrase “everything is energy”. To understand what this means and how it affects our lives let’s first have a look at the science behind this concept. Traditional physics was created by Isaac Newton and others starting in the late 1600’s. These scientific pioneers did a remarkable job of describing how the world works according to fixed laws which explain everything from falling apples to the movements of galaxies in space. The fundamental building blocks in this mechanistic universe were called atoms and they were perceived to be dense balls of matter. As measuring devices became more sophisticated it became clear that atoms were not solid objects, but were in fact tiny solar systems with electrons orbiting a central nucleus. This is the model that most of us learned in school, but when you look really closely at an atom you find that this little solar system is in fact almost completely EMPTY SPACE.  [Energy-2.jpg] That’s right, the atoms which make up everything in our universe have virtually no mass; they are 99.999999% empty space. Think about that for a moment. It is probably the single most mind-blowing fact that you will ever learn. To give you some idea of the scope of this, if one atom were the size of a giant football stadium then the nucleus, representing the mass, would be the size of an apple! The electrons that “orbit” this tiny nucleus would be the equivalent of dust motes floating in the sky. All the rest would be empty space. If this is true (and it is!) then why do things in the material world look and feel so real? If a wall is made up of empty space with virtually no physical mass then why can’t I put my hand straight through it? The reason is that the “empty” space inside of every atom is actually filled with ENERGY. This subatomic energy is always vibrating which causes a powerful effect - something like small tornadoes. That is why things feel solid and you cannot put your hand through a wall, because the energy vibrations of the atoms in your hand are resisted by the energy vibrations of the atoms in the wall.   [Energy-3.jpg]  Okay, that (kind of) explains why things in the material world seem solid, but why do they look like they do? If the atoms in a flower have no material mass then why does it look so beautiful? That is because the ENERGY in the atoms has INFORMATION encoded within its vibrations. Think of it this way: When you watch a video on your phone it comes to you through invisible waves of energy. Those waves carry digital information, and your phone is able to interpret that information and show it to you as a video. This is similar to what happens when you look at a flower, but on a much deeper level. You are really looking at the empty (invisible) space of the flower’s atoms. But your brain is like the phone, though infinitely more complex. It can interpret the information that is inside the atoms of the flower and “show” it to you in physical form. The flower is made up of “empty” space, but the information encoded in its vibrations is interpreted by your brain as the beauty that you see.    [Energy-5.jpg] What science is telling us is that at the quantum level everything is energy, and that it is our perception – our consciousness – which converts that energy into physical reality. This means that we have the power to transform our lives by using our consciousness to “change the energy”. Our ability to do this comes through our thoughts and feelings which create vibrations that affect how we experience reality. An excellent example of this is the Mind-Body Connection, which shows how our perceptions create amazing physical responses in our bodies. All of our thoughts and emotions send messages directly to the DNA in our cells instructing it to change our body chemistry. Positive feelings and beliefs send messages that help to create health and well-being, while negative ones do the opposite. These discoveries on the leading edge of science are bringing us to a fuller understanding of why and how the vibrations of what we think and feel are so important. Each moment presents us with the opportunity to shape our own reality, and when we choose to fill our consciousness with positivity our lives become a beautiful reflection of our highest potential.