I found the following piece of text posted on some random website and while it's not the most in-depth, well written thing (I think this was written in a different language and then translated into English, I even made some minor edits to improve readability) on the idea that everything is energy, I thought it encapsulated the idea quite well. So have a read and then I'll post some basic information on string theory in order to see what string theory can shed on the subject.
Everything is energy
The scientific world is beginning to discuss what meta-physical and spirituality teaches have known for centuries that our physical universe is not really composed of any "matter at all". Its basic component is a kind of force or essence that we call energy.
These things appear to be solid, liquid or gas and to be separate from one another on the level at which our physical senses normally perceive them. On finer levels, however, atomic and subatomic levels seemingly solid (or liquid/gaseous) matter is seen as smaller and smaller particles within particles which eventually turn out to be just pure energy.
Physically we are all just energy and everything within and around us is made up of energy . We are all part of a great energetic field. Things that we perceive to be solid and separate are in reality just various forms of our essential energy. We are all one, even in a literal, physical sense.
The energy is vibrating at different rates and thus has different qualities from finer to denser. Everything then is matter, or energy, just at different levels of refinement. Thought is an extremely fine, or light, form of energy and therefore works very quickly and is easy to change and manipulate. Matter is a relatively dense, compact energy and is slower to move and change. Of course within matter there exist great variations of refinement as well. Living flesh is relatively fine, changes quickly and is easily affected by outside forces. A rock is much more dense and is therefore slower to change and more difficult to affect. Yet even rock is eventually changed and affected by external sources of energy such as fire, light, air or water. In fact, all forms of energy are interrelated and can affect one another.
As you are reading this, pause for a moment and look around yourself. Everything around you is just energy in its manifested forms of solid, liquid or gas. You, yourself, are nothing but energy, organized into a body and with some special energy which controls that body, or energy body. Feel it. Close your eyes and imagine the pool of energy in and around you. Merge yourself in this field of energy. You can create and change your life, your energy, at any time.
Ok, so hopefully that was at least mildly interesting. What this leaves out, at least to me, is what exactly am "I." What is the "I" that controls this energy body, or spirit body. Obviously beyond the energy there must exist some sort of will. So then we bring in the concept of "intelligence" with God being the most intelligent "I" and us, his children, being lesser "I"s (I don't think I'm punctuating that correctly, but you get the idea). So, from what I understand, we have matter, or energy, which is all made up of the same "stuff" and it "vibrates" at different levels, thus creating distinctions between various forms of energy and even dimensions, or worlds such as the physical, tangible world which consists of energy vibrating at a very slow, low rate and higher dimensions, or spirit worlds, vibrating at higher rates, or speeds. We know that through Christ we will be resurrected, which is what we will celebrate tomorrow at Easter. The resurrection will reunite our spirits with our bodies, never again to be separated like they will be at our deaths. Does this mean our bodies will be just as tangible as they are now? I think the answer to that question is YES.
When the Lord returned to visit his apostles, he showed them the prints of the nails and the mark on his side and he bid them to present him with food, honeycomb and broiled fish, and he did eat. I think He did that for a very specific reason: to show of the tangibility of his body. At the same time, however, I have considered that where the Lord is now, in "Heaven," his body must consist of a different sort of substance. In other words, it is physical, it is real, BUT it is not like our bodies here in that it is perfect. Perhaps it is a body of more refined energy, or matter. Furthermore, the mind of God is obviously not like ours. Our minds, at least while we are awake, are directly tied to our physical bodies. I cannot lecture my students about a story and effectively be somewhere else simultaneously perceiving what is going on there. The Lord, however, somehow manages to be corporeal and present yet where He is and, at the same time, His essence, His light, His presence can be elsewhere.
I don't know how this idea makes other people feel, but it makes me excited and it makes me love God all the more for it makes me think about how much more wonderful and glorious our lives will be on the other side of the veil and it makes me feel awe for the goodness and glory of God. I honestly get a sense of vertigo, or dizziness, sometimes when I think about these things, almost as if I am losing touch with what more often than not feels so real here and, instead, am beginning to comprehend, or see, what really is or can be.
Ok, it's getting late, but let me throw in some information on string theory because the idea of matter/energy "vibrating" or oscillating at different frequencies often throws people for a loop. This is a common idea in many mystical traditions (new age idelogies, which are really not new at all but rehashes of the most ancient of ideas, also like to discuss all matter as vibrating) but is not very well known to most Christians. Now, with the advent of string theory-which, by the way, seeks to unify the various theories relating to physics in our universe-scientists are beginning to talk about vibrating matter/energy and various dimensions. Interesting eh?
A Theory of Everything?Some physicists believe string theorymay unify the forces of natureby Brian Greene
The Elegant Universe homepage
Note: For a definition of unfamiliar terms, see our glossary.
The fundamental particles of the universe that physicists have identified—electrons, neutrinos, quarks, and so on—are the "letters" of all matter. Just like their linguistic counterparts, they appear to have no further internal substructure. String theory proclaims otherwise. According to string theory, if we could examine these particles with even greater precision—a precision many orders of magnitude beyond our present technological capacity—we would find that each is not pointlike but instead consists of a tiny, one-dimensional loop. Like an infinitely thin rubber band, each particle contains a vibrating, oscillating, dancing filament that physicists have named a string.
In the figure at right [above], we illustrate this essential idea of string theory by starting with an ordinary piece of matter, an apple, and repeatedly magnifying its structure to reveal its ingredients on ever smaller scales. String theory adds the new microscopic layer of a vibrating loop to the previously known progression from atoms through protons, neutrons, electrons, and quarks.
Although it is by no means obvious, this simple replacement of point-particle material constituents with strings resolves the incompatibility between quantum mechanics and general relativity (which, as currently formulated, cannot both be right). String theory thereby unravels the central Gordian knot of contemporary theoretical physics. This is a tremendous achievement, but it is only part of the reason string theory has generated such excitement.
Field of dreams
In Einstein's day, the strong and weak forces had not yet been discovered, but he found the existence of even two distinct forces—gravity and electromagnetism—deeply troubling. Einstein did not accept that nature is founded on such an extravagant design. This launched his 30-year voyage in search of the so-called unified field theory that he hoped would show that these two forces are really manifestations of one grand underlying principle. This quixotic quest isolated Einstein from the mainstream of physics, which, understandably, was far more excited about delving into the newly emerging framework of quantum mechanics. He wrote to a friend in the early 1940s, "I have become a lonely old chap who is mainly known because he doesn't wear socks and who is exhibited as a curiosity on special occasions."
Einstein was simply ahead of his time. More than half a century later, his dream of a unified theory has become the Holy Grail of modern physics. And a sizeable part of the physics and mathematics community is becoming increasingly convinced that string theory may provide the answer. From one principle—that everything at its most microscopic level consists of combinations of vibrating strands—string theory provides a single explanatory framework capable of encompassing all forces and all matter.
String theory proclaims, for instance, that the observed particle properties—that is, the different masses and other properties of both the fundamental particles and the force particles associated with the four forces of nature (the strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity)—are a reflection of the various ways in which a string can vibrate. Just as the strings on a violin or on a piano have resonant frequencies at which they prefer to vibrate—patterns that our ears sense as various musical notes and their higher harmonics—the same holds true for the loops of string theory. But rather than producing musical notes, each of the preferred mass and force charges are determined by the string's oscillatory pattern. The electron is a string vibrating one way, the up-quark is a string vibrating another way, and so on.
Far from being a collection of chaotic experimental facts, particle properties in string theory are the manifestation of one and the same physical feature: the resonant patterns of vibration—the music, so to speak—of fundamental loops of string. The same idea applies to the forces of nature as well. Force particles are also associated with particular patterns of string vibration and hence everything, all matter and all forces, is unified under the same rubric of microscopic string oscillations—the "notes" that strings can play.
A theory to end theories
For the first time in the history of physics we therefore have a framework with the capacity to explain every fundamental feature upon which the universe is constructed. For this reason string theory is sometimes described as possibly being the "theory of everything" (T.O.E.) or the "ultimate" or "final" theory. These grandiose descriptive terms are meant to signify the deepest possible theory of physics—a theory that underlies all others, one that does not require or even allow for a deeper explanatory base.
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I bought this book, "The Elegant Universe" and have been reading it. Immediately after what you've just read above, the author goes into the fact that this theory scares some people; they see this theory as depressing or repugnant because it reduces the whole world, the whol universe, down into little vibrating strings and thus our feelings, ideas, etc. are just random filaments of energy bouncing off one another. I was shocked at first when I read that and then, of course, I realized that although this theory makes great sense to me in spiritual terms, it shouldn't surprise me that although such a grand, unifying theory only makes the existence of God and other dimensions more understandable to me, to those who don't yet believe in God, such theories only scare them and add more doubt and darkness into their minds.
In my world view it's enough to look into the eyes of a baby or meditate on a scene of nature to know that God lives and loves us, but to others, even the most convincing passages of scripure or beautiful physical theories don't bring them to a knowledge. The knowledge and love of God is always there, but it comes down to OUR OWN WILL. This is why some will end up in "hell." It is my conviction that hell truly exists BUT is the creation of each man (or woman) who goes there. So many are already there while so many of us are creating heaven in our own minds and homes.
I know this post was a little "all over the place," but I pray it sparks some introspection on your part and, perhaps, you've learned something new about the ways in which others, including myself, are looking at the universe and trying to make sense of it. Of course what matters the most remains personal righteousness, understand the nature of God, the exercise of the "basic virtues" of faith and repentance, but once we've entered in the path, we must push ourselves and we must not remain complacent, sitting around watching TV, gossiping about others, etc. These things make me sick and bored. I fall into the traps just as easy as many others, but I am constantly pulling myself out and making myself think, read, ponder, meditate, and WORK at living what I believe and talking about it with who ever will listen, so thanks for listening!
*BY THE WAY, the primary way I see this post relating to the previous one about information being a "thing" that makes up the universe is that if everything is energy and will, or intelligence, then perhaps another way of saying "intelligence" is information and we, as beings, are eternal pieces of information/intelligence.
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