#25 How did Jesus walk on water? Part 6: Bubbles of reality

A couple quotes from the Buddha frame this question:

When a man considers the world as a bubble of froth, and as the illusion of an appearance, then the king of death has no power over him.

[and]

Material shape is like a ball of foam, feelings unto a bubble blown, perceptions like a mirage are, the constructions like a plantain tree, consciousness like an illusion: so said the Kinsman of the Sun.

And here’s a quote from an article in Scientific American written by physicists Raphael Buosso and Joseph Polchinski entitled “The String Theory Landscape” (September, 2004): 

The whole universe is therefore a foam of expanding bubbles within bubbles, each with its own laws of physics. Extremely few of the bubbles are suitable for the formation of complex structures such as galaxies and life. Our entire visible universe [more than 20 billion light years in diameter] is a relatively small region within one of these bubbles.

Buosso and Polchinski call their bubble-enclosed universes “bubbles of reality.” Fans of American mystic Edgar Cayce may recognize a similar term from his work: “spheres of consciousness.”

The frame and the picture

A Course in Miracles talks about frames that determine the contents of their pictures. This was written about thirty years before the Scientific American article quoted above and about 20 years before physicist Leonard Susskind and Gerard ‘t Hoooft coined the term holographic bound.

Here’s the opening of a Wikipedia article on the holographic principle, as it’s called:

The holographic principle is a physical property of theories proposed by Gerard ‘t Hooft and Leonard Susskind…The principle states that the description of a volume of space should be thought of as encoded on a boundary to the region…

In a larger and more speculative sense, the theory suggests that the entire universe can be seen as a two-dimensional information structure “painted” on the cosmological horizon, so that the three dimensions we observe are only an effective description at low energies

What that means is that we might live inside a four-dimensional bubble (three spatial dimensions and one dimension of time). But all the three-dimensional objects we see—trees, stars, water, our bodies—are really two-dimensional information “painted” on the surface of this distant boundary.

Let’s bring this confusing idea down to earth. Ever seen a souvenir snow globe with a mini city inside of it? 

The holographic theory says it is possible than our physical universe would be constructed in a similar fashion. The glass of the globe would be akin to the holographic bound. Our 3D reality, existing at a distance from that bound, would be like the mini city inside the glass globe.

But instead of the freestanding city just being there in the globe, the holographic theory suggests that the 3D objects we see all around us—stars, trees, water, bodies, rocks, mini cities inside snow globes—everything would actually be information residing on the “glass of the globe” (this holographic bound thing) and projected inside of spacetime. See Fig. 25.1.

So, does this fit with our assertion that energy is nothing but projected thought (see question #24). I don’t think a physicist would say so; they would simply say there is some evidence we live inside a projected physical reality that is holographic in nature. And that they haven’t discovered the actual holographic boundary that may contain the 2D information about our 3D physical universe.

And they won’t find that boundary, I will argue here, because it’s being generated by what Gary Renard calls the transtemporal mind—i.e. your split mind—residing outside of, but adjacent to, spacetime. (We’ll explore this idea at length in our next question). That transtemporal mind is the part of your mind “split off” from Heaven and residing “between” Heaven and spacetime in your mentally projected fantasy. This mind is what physicist Heinz Pagels explored as the Demiurge, and what physicists half-mockingly call the Ghost in the Machine. It is the creator of spacetime, and no, it’s not God; it’s a mind fragment from your mind. ( I highly encourage your to read Gary Renard’s The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality in this regard.)

So, a master realizes his body is not this standalone thing created on earth and residing on earth. But is instead some kind of projected object arising from a distance. If the Buddha is right and all of space is coming out of our mind, then these holographic bodies are indeed being projected out of our minds, what I collectively call the transtemporal mind (see Fig. 25_2 below).

Zero point energy is a good candidate for animating this projected universe of ours

Students of A Course in Miracles are all over the ideas of projected realities and bodies and such—all animated by a split mind. And they would say the energy animating all this projection is simply projected thought—an idea we explored in Question #24.

For a parallel scientific idea to explore, you may wish to consider Harold “Hal” Puthoff’s (and other’s) research into zero point energy. We mentioned this earlier as the energy that is present even in empty space, and is also known as vacuum energy or quantum fluctuation energy. You can think of it as energy existing inside of, or immediately behind, the fabric of spacetime itself—metaphorically like a massive reservoir of water under a lawn. 

This energy, physicists speculate, could be a massive pool—a giant, “under-space” reservoir of energy, although it’s unclear exactly how much there is. This zero point energy is believed to “animate” the incessant motion of sub-atomic particles in spacetime. Electrons, for example, are continuously whirling around atoms like busy bees circling a flower. But physicists don’t know exactly where those electrons get their energy from.

I like to think of zero point energy as like hidden power under the floor of those bumper-car rides at the  fair. You know those cars—with the long rods on the back that run up to an electrified grid on the ceiling? Now mentally take that grid and imagine it’s hidden right under the floor of that ride, powering all the cars as they move around and bump into each other. (Probably not too safe; especially if you stepped out of the car, but it’s a metaphor, so what the heck).

Zero point energy is not electricity, it’s energy, but one theory is that it animates all those particles that zoom around and make up objects in spacetime, just like the under-floor electric grid animating the motion of those bumper cars.

The problem scientists are working on, is how does this hidden zero point energy pool “know” how much energy the particles inside of spacetime need to run? Those particles are continuously changing states. Taking on energy, giving off energy. Up again, down again. And if they weren’t continuously energized just right, they would be like the moon running out of energy, losing orbit power, and crashing into the earth.

All matter would fall apart if these whirling electrons weren’t continuously energized exactly, precisely right.

We know how the electric grid running those bumper cars “knows” how much energy the cars need to run—because an engineer designed both the cars and the grid. The cars suck exactly as much energy as they need to move—not a bit more or a bit less. 

Hal Puthoff’s research suggests that this zero point energy has a similar symbiotic relationship to the particles it energizes in spacetime; the energy supplied and the energy used appear to arise together as one in a symbiotic relationship. If we didn’t know an engineer had designed the electric grid and the bumper cars, we would also observe they have some kind of symbiotic relationship; the car asks for exactly as much energy as it needs and lo and behold, the electric grid provides exactly that much.

That’s because a common intelligence—or multiple people with the same knowledge of electricity—designed both.

Could zero point energy be projected thought?

Is their evidence this zero point energy is conscious, projected thought? Well, no. But there is evidence it is a projected form of energy.

Zero point energy appears to manifest as a “stimulated emission” from the fabric of spacetime—which means it is projected energy similar to a laser beam. What better way to animate the hologram of spacetime than energy that functions like a laser—the preferred light source (called coherent light) used to animate film holograms.

If you were to buy one of those expensive, 2D film holograms to project a 3D holographic image into your living room, for example, the best type of light to project through that film and make a sharp, 3D image is a laser. Lasers are known as coherent stimulated emission sources, like zero point energy.

So we have more and more evidence that suggests indeed we may be living inside a projected holographic reality of some kind—a fantasy island we call spacetime—mentally projected over the infinite ocean of God’s love that is our true reality. I’ve argued all along that mental projection is the source of this fantasy. More and more evidence from how our universe is constructed seems to bear this out.

(For more on our holographic reality, see Ken Wilber’s The Holographic Paradigm and Michael Talbot’s The Holographic Universe).

As we explored in Question #24, it is Gary Renard’s assertion (and I agree) that energy is projected thought. My guess is that scientists will never discover the source of zero point energy until they come to accept it is projected thought coming from their own mind—the transtemporal mind. And they’ll never find those holgoraphic bounds in spacetime, because they are also coming out of the transtemporal mind.

If you’re confused about all this stuff, don’t sweat it. In our next question we’ll get into many more examples to help you really get these ideas under your belt.