Thaddeus Golas calls these essays an “updated version” of The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment (Bantam), Golas’ classic spiritual primer published in 1971.
He acknowledges that “I am asking a lot of the modern reader who is accustomed to predictable, inflated paragraphs and familiar concepts.” True, this isn’t easy reading, but consider, in Golas’ own words, the implications:
“What I’m saying is that the laws of ‘material’ function and ‘spiritual’ function are exactly the same. And if spiritual action is based on hard knowledge then it isn’t just a matter of opinion that no entity can govern the free will of another. And since the universe is nothing but equal entities, then out the window go all the delusions of magical controls and manipulations, and fantasies of evading natural law. . . .”
Sphinx magazine in Basel, Germany published “Pocket Physics” last June. This is the first American publication of these essays and Golas assures us that “if it proves out mathematically, THE SUN will be famous.”
— Ed.
Pocket Physics
What is proposed here is a new model of the universe which can easily be verified by computer, perhaps in just a few hours. Indeed, as will be seen, it has much in common with the way computers themselves are working. However, since I know little about computers, physics, or mathematics, I am making no claim for the argument beyond the few ground rules at the start. If they are correct, and show themselves useful in describing physical events, then computers themselves will provide far more convincing extrapolations and statements than I could in these few pages.
There is only one kind of entity.
There are only two states of being: expanded and contracted.
There is only one function: changing from one state to the other.
There is only one relational effect: expanded entities propel contracted entities. That is, expanded entities are permeative to one another; contracted entities are impermeative to all entities. All interactions are governed by this rule.
The only other variable is the length of time each entity remains in a given state: expanded or contracted. The time-spans of expansion and contraction are the determinant of all appearances.
Changes of state occur at the velocity 2c. (Rationale later.) This is the only limit to changes in any time-period.
A vibration or wave is a pair of changes of state.
Each entity is autonomous in choice of state and duration in it. Therefore all vibrations are autonomous.
But no entity can contradict the relational effect of propulsion.
An entity must be either expanded or contracted, and cannot be in both states simultaneously or in either partially. “On” is absolute; “off” is absolute.
Reality is the set of functional relations at any given time: there can be only one reality at a time. Given the choice of state by each entity, only one reality is possible in any given instant. Many futures are possible, but only one of them can happen; which it will be cannot be predicted, though we can make statistical projections. Also, we can be secure in predicting what can never happen. Just as there is only one possible present, there was only one possible past, given the choice of state by each entity. The functional events of the past can therefore be precisely analyzed.
In common language:
SPACE is any expanded entity or group of entities. Generally, the appearance of space will be maintained by any entity expanded more than .75 of the time. The propulsive effect of space on mass is not additive: one space entity has the same effect as a billion. Therefore no “force” is needed: it is the relational effect that rules.
ENERGY is any entity or group of entities maintaining an expanded state one-half the time. Energy is a time-function: it cannot be perceived as energy except over a span of time, however brief.
This appearance too can vary with more or less expanded time: up to .75 and down to .25 (as above, these percentages are arbitrary).
The half-time rule for absolute energy applies regardless of frequency of alternation or amplitude. (Indeed, amplitude is an appearance showing time-periods in either state, expanded or contracted.) Of course the “total energy” of a system is always conserved, for all the entities are equal to begin with, and “energy” is one appearance of their functions.
MASS is any entity or group of entities maintaining a contracted state more than .75 of the time. Absolute mass is contracted 100% of the time. It is important to note that the contracted state is autonomous: it does not require any “force” for space or energy to propel mass, nor can the propulsive effect oblige a mass entity to remain contracted. A mass entity is free to expand at any instant, at the velocity 2c. A mass entity is free to be energy, but it does not “hold” energy in any vast “potential.” As soon as a mass entity expands, pressure on it ceases.
At any given instant of time, there are only three possible relations of entities:
Space to space (Permeation) Space to mass (Propulsion) Mass to mass (Collection; collision)
Energy and all other appearances occur as a consequence of the duration of time each entity chooses to continue in either state, which of course includes any conceivable pattern of alternating states.
Any expanded entity propels any contracted entities for the time they are contracted, however briefly. A mass entity alone will not move, since it is presumably surrounded by space equally on all sides; but as soon as there are two or more mass entities in the universe, they will be moved towards each other: there is less propulsive effect, less space, in the direction of other mass. It is this propulsive effect which we know as “the force of gravity.” (Matter, of course, does not “warp” space; matter has no pull.) If an entity persists long enough in a contracted state, it will eventually be pushed together with other mass entities; and the larger the gathering of mass, the less counteractive space propulsion there is, and therefore the greater the pressure and the larger the number of collisions of mass entities. Since most mass entities are not contracted 100% of the time, it will be probable, under conditions of extreme pressures, that mass entities will gather in small groupings (i.e., atoms) so that the temporary expansions of one or the other of the members of the group will keep other entities at a distance and avoid collisions. The electron is a free agent, so to speak: it is contracted less of the time than the nuclear entities and has more expansion time; it has “less mass.”
Since the time of the principle of indeterminacy, it should have been realized that the current practice of searching for “fundamental” particles is in vain. The more energy is concentrated against mass-level entities, the smaller will become the groupings of entities “discovered.” The method being used to search for particles is forming the particles discovered.
Contraction, by the way, has no effect on other entities, though because of its lack of propulsion it gives the appearance that other entities are drawn to it or vice versa. A mass entity is always propelled to a point of equivalent pressure.
Since physics presently leaves permeation and propulsion out of account, it is assumed that mass must express enormous “force” to expand to an energy time-pattern of behavior. In fact, it requires no force at all. No matter how great the percentage of time that an entity is contracted, during the time that it does expand it propels or “repels” others which are at that time contracted. Thus, an entity expanded only .15 of the time will during that time propel or repel an energy entity which is in its .50 contraction state.
When we speak of being “more” or “less” conscious, what we mean is being conscious more or less of the time. Each state is absolute.
As noted, space propulsion is not additive: if there were only one space entity in the universe, it would propel all the energy and mass entities during the time of their contraction. Space does not need to be additive, since it is the relational effect that rules, not the number of entities in that state.
Mass entities, however, may be said to be “additive.” As contracted entities are forced together, they add up! As more and more entities gather, there is less and less space towards the center of the mass-gathering, and therefore the pressure is stronger in that direction according to traditional formulas for gravity. This process is actually an acceleration towards the region of less space (less counter-propulsion), as supported by the equivalence of the formulas for acceleration and gravity.
In the vicinity of large masses, energy has one-half the “gravity” of absolute mass. That is, energy is propelled by space toward the mass one-half the time — during the time the energy is contracted.
Analysis will show what the mechanics of energy motion are; at this point I am making the simplistic assumption that because energy is expanded half the time, and moves at the velocity “c”, then the expansive velocity of space entities must be 2c. It could be said that energy is always a pairing of one-half space-time and one-half mass-time.
If there is no time-span, there is no energy. At each given instant of time, there is only space and mass. Time is the experience of changes from one state to the other. If these changes of state do occur at the velocity 2c, then the maximum number of changes of state per second would be 2c/r where r = the radius of the entity. The number of vibrations possible (expansion-contraction pairs) would be half that figure.
The universe is a field of space (any number of space entities) which maintains a constant and uniform pressure on any contracted entities for the time they are contracted.
From the pressure of space, which we can measure by its effect on resistive entities (i.e., gravity), we can calculate the intensity of the antithetical state of contraction.
When we have the patterns of relations on the large scale, we can apply that same pattern to any local context, for it will be the same. For example, the pattern of space-energy-mass can be seen in gas-liquid-solid and vaporized-fluid-frozen.
If this approach proves out mathematically, we will have the answer to many riddles, such as action-at-a-distance, and the wave-particle duality.
The circular motions of entities arise as a feature of a contracted entity or group of entities being almost equally pressured on all sides. Irregularity of contour, arising for any of a number of reasons, would provide an “arm” by which space pressure would cause the mass to spin.
In sum, it should be feasible to program for a computer the variations in time-length in expanded or contracted states. After all, every entity in the universe is either On or Off, never both at the same time!
The Metaphysics Of Pocket Physics
Recently several writers have related physics to oriental philosophy, in effect proposing that particle physics is as strange and unexplainable as mysticism. Such speculations have nothing in common with the model proposed in “Pocket Physics.” On the contrary, the metaphysics based on this new model can be as precise as physics itself, since it rests on the same laws, as this summary will suggest:
Let us assume that an expanded entity is conscious, and that a contracted entity is unconscious, and see where reason takes us.
Following the ground rules in “Pocket Physics,” we see that each entity must be either conscious or unconscious in any given instant. Therefore it is clear that when we speak of being “more” or “less” conscious, what we mean is being conscious more or less of the time. Each state is absolute.
An energy entity, for instance, is vibrating and changing states many millions of times a second, and it is conscious therefore in millions of brief bits. It experiences these bits as continuous consciousness, just as we see a film as continuous, but it is actually being conscious only fifty percent of the time, and it is aware of only half the available information in the local reality.
Similarly, a material entity may subjectively experience its consciousness as continuous, even though it is expanded perhaps only five percent of the time, with a poverty of information.
But the conscious state itself is always total: the consciousness known by a material entity is exactly the same as that of a space entity. Consciousness itself is not the variable — the variable is the time-lengths of consciousness, and the time-proportions of expanded and contracted states in any time period.
We human beings may have little direct information — imagine being in a crowded room in which the lights flash on and off only once every two seconds — but our consciousness is just as “expanded” as it will ever be during the time we are conscious. We may have little information about what other entities are doing, and have a distorted perspective of it, with false assumptions about cause and effect, but such consciousness as we do have is always total.
The functional goal, therefore, cannot be to “expand consciousness,” but must be to prolong the state of consciousness, the expanded state, regardless of what we are conscious of.
The expanded state and consciousness are one and the same. This means that an entity cannot be conscious of the function of changing states, nor of the unconscious state of contraction. An entity can be aware of the intention to act in a certain way, and will to act in that way, but no entity can be conscious of a function while it is happening.
We thus face the peculiar fact that functioning is the essential variable that positions us in a reality, but the functioning itself is inaccessible to consciousness. However, though we can have no subjective sense or knowledge of how we are functioning, we do always have objective evidence. We can know what we are doing by the nature of the local reality in which we find ourselves, because like-functioning entities always move into proximity with each other. The local reality we are aware of is a mirror of our basic functional state.
For if we follow the logic of the law of relational effect, that expanded entities propel contracted entities (and therefore that conscious entities propel unconscious entities), we see that all entities eventually must move into proximity with others maintaining the same time-proportions of state. Even though there may be much traffic of those changing functional patterns, the probability is that enough like-functioning entities will continue in a time-proportion long enough to gather together.
Once any entities are in proximity, there is a further variation of relations based on the pattern of alternating states. We can see this most clearly in the case of two absolute-energy entities, each one expanded half the time, but each always expanded whenever the other is contracted. Each always sees the other as being unconscious, yet the two cannot move away from each other because their time-proportions of state are the same. It is probably this phenomenon that we refer to when we say that “opposites attract.”
Reality is always an instantaneous universal election. Local realities develop according to the functional choices of individual entities, within the law of relational effect. No entity can control the functions of others, and therefore no entity can control a reality or predict its future. During the time that an entity is contracted, space will propel it and determine its position and momentum, but this propulsion does not force any entity to remain contracted nor limit its freedom to change functions.
Each entity is responsible for its own position in relation to other beings. Each governs only its own functions.
An optimistic implication of these principles is that when we do prolong our consciousness, we must inevitably move away from matter and energy. The will to stay expanded is the only requirement, since the law of relational effect cannot be contradicted. The reader may test this by occasionally repeating the phrase, “I am expanded all the time,” and doing so for several weeks or months.
In order to become continuously conscious, it is not necessary for an entity to go through a stage of being energy first, even though energy has more consciousness-time than matter. An entity that has been contracted and unconscious for a billion years can instantly change to an expanded state and maintain it continuously. Such an entity might awaken in the middle of a very strange planet, but nothing can prevent it from moving back to a space reality.
In another essay, “Understanding Pain,” [THE SUN, Issue 82], I formulated a rule of agreement:
— Functional agreement in proximity is pleasure.
— Functional difference in proximity is pain.
The law of relational effect thus insures that all entities move to relations of functional agreement and pleasure.
However, as noted in an earlier paragraph, energy entities can also differ to the greatest degree in patterns of alternation. Absolute energy is thus the maximum possible pain: the maximum possible experience of functional difference in proximity. Hence we may observe the tendency of energy entities to synchronize vibrations with others whenever possible. Conflicting vibrations are stressful and painful. The faster an entity vibrates and the closer it comes to being absolute energy, the more likely it is to experience pain.
For this reason it is vain to speak of a spiritual purpose in manipulating or releasing “good” energies and so forth — energy is the wrong direction to go in, it is the region of possible persistent pain and suffering. Rather than condemn materialism, we should to be accurate speak of “energyism,” for it is energy that offers the temptation to “rule the world,” to push matter this way and that.
The human body itself is a large-scale statistical probability, a local reality involving the functional decisions of billions of entities. No single entity governs the body. Its condition can be influenced only in broad, general ways.
Energy’s bookkeeping is always exact: whatever benefit it provides, it always collects an equal price of deficit, as we are discovering in our energy-obsessed human world. If we wish to play energy’s games, we should consider the price in pain and disorder.
Since functional agreement in proximity is pleasure, we can feel pleasure wherever we are in the universe by agreeing with the local functions. In an energy reality, however, there is no room for any sustained subjective state, since energy entities must immediately adjust to the prevailing pattern to avoid pain.
The maximum consciousness and the easiest functional agreement occurs among entities that are expanded all the time — space entities. When we are space, we have the maximum freedom of position and momentum, and complete freedom of what to think about or be aware of.
Why are we here as human beings? Briefly, because we are functioning in a largely contracted time-proportion of state. The human body itself is a large-scale statistical probability, a local reality involving the functional decisions of billions of entities. No single entity governs the body. Its condition can be influenced in only in broad, general ways.
The same system of reality-formation occurs in the human social context. Each person functions as he or she chooses, and the set of resulting relations at any given time forms a social reality. Those people who are conscious more of the time will propel the less conscious, but the latter are free to function differently at any time.
Energetic people agitate the mass, but because the mass is prolonged in its unconscious states, it can outlast the influence of energetic pressures. It is relevant to note that an unconscious, contracted entity moves most readily in one direction — toward even denser masses. Energetic, “benevolent” social efforts will generally create only denser structures. The unconscious entity cannot be forced to become more conscious: each entity is autonomous.
If we wish to help humanity, we must first revise our assumptions about others with the understanding that ALL functional agreements are pleasurable. Having done that, the best any of us can do is communicate — whatever the form in which we do so — the information that the contracted entity is free to expand, and that the energy entity is free to cease being energy if it so desires. Merely making others more energetic, or organizing the submissively stupid, is not a solution to the human condition.
The temptation for human beings to be manipulative is strong because the propulsive effect of space and energy is experienced as being stronger in our proximity to the mass of the Earth. (See the comments on gravity in “Pocket Physics.”) As we prolong our consciousness, we may encounter the seduction of others apparently offering themselves to be pushed about. It is well to keep in mind that when we stay expanded, no one of us becomes the sole source of propulsion — we merely join the uniform field of space pressure. The power to propel is not the power to control. Space entities do not specify the forms and behavior of energy and mass. Voluntary functional agreement with others has more pleasure than coerced agreement, whether the coercion is that of propelling force or attractive disorder or obstinate contraction. All entities are equal and have equal freedom of functional choice.
The local reality in which we find ourselves is determined by the time-proportions of consciousness we have chosen and are now maintaining. Whatever we see happening is in accord with the law of relational effect. Though there are lawful alternatives to what happens, everything that does happen is lawful. The local reality shows us what our own functions are.
After all complexities have been analyzed, we come to simple choices, whatever the reality we find ourselves in: we can stay and participate, or we can leave.
If we stay, then the rule of agreement is the guide: find the most rewarding functional agreement. Be agreeable.
If we wish to leave, we must change our own functions first, and then the appropriate change of reality will occur automatically. Given our starting point in the human context, the easiest way to leave is to maintain the intention to expand and stay expanded — “I am expanded all the time.”
I hope that this short essay succeeds in showing that anyone can develop clear information from these principles by plain reasoning. Not a single physical event nor emotional state need be unaccounted for. It has been my experience that this system is self-correcting: one cannot pursue an erroneous line of thought too far without colliding with reality. I look forward to the information that will develop when many more of us contribute our expertise. After all, for me to sit here thinking these thoughts all alone is just not real!
© Copyright 1982 by Thaddeus Golas
