All that we perceive through our senses aided by every kind of instrument so far invented, transpires within one small band of the recorded frequencies or wavelengths that we may represent by an open-ended line extending without any bounds whatever. Upon such a line, all the information published to date by scientists would occupy a one-quarter inch spectrum. Radioastronomy reports audio recordings from positions not showing visible objects. Therefore, we should not assume that space per se is empty in those areas from which we have not yet received audiovisual evidence of activities, because our capacity to observe them is limited.
It is quite possible that interpenetrating our world there are other worlds functioning within such varying ranges of vibration that the inhabitants of one would not be aware of the others. Perhaps at times when cyclic sunspots, perturbations in earth's magnetic field, and other solar and planetary phenomena coincide, doorways appear between one 'world' and another. This could provide momentary possibilities of intercommunication on our material level. In any event, forces at present hidden from us because they operate on other frequencies than ours, may pour through from another level of existence.
It would help us to regard space itself as being more than a mere container of substance, for it is consciousness considered as the infinite reservoir of spirit and matter -- the two poles of life, one relatively evolved as compared with the other. All organic systems polarize in this way into and make up the vast multitudes of wholes. In the long run, we discover, everything is organic, from the smallest subatomic particles to the largest cosmic aggregates that we have perceived, such as superclusters of galaxies.
Ancient myths clothe these thoughts in the beautiful imagery of the manifestations of nature familiar to us on our earth. The great Bird of Divinity lays the Golden Egg that is the universe seen entire -- whether it is a galactic universe, a solar, or the small cosmos of the atom with its electrical charges we envisage as minute planets whirling with what seems to us an unimaginable speed around their dynamic nucleus.
Let us reflect upon the germ within the Golden Egg, visualizing a point in our universe commencing to glow with energies materializing there. What would be happening in such a case would be an outflow from within the heart of space, beyond the range of our present awareness, into our own field of perception. Through this point as it grows into an ever-larger center pours a radiating light consisting of multitudes of monadic lives. As this stream expands, its internally generated magnetism attracts attenuated matter in its neighborhood.
The particles in the incandescence impact into elements producing heat and motion and, as they do so, the internal pressures of the gathering cloud of rarefied substance cause the mass to turn slowly, spirally. The momentum within increases and at last there is enough concentrated motion to propel the new cosmic entity upon a cometary journey. It is now a more palpable vortex of incoming monadic consciousnesses that have been drawn into the materializing experiences that will bring out their potential.
The impetus of the thrust forward ultimately bends the trajectory traveled into an orbit around some particular cosmic organism, such as a sun, for which the new embodiment 'feels' magnetic affinity. It thereupon enters into a relationship with the other members of its new spatial family or system.
Three astronomers of the Struve Astrophysical Observatory in Estonia conclude from their own observations that "there are tremendous amounts of invisible mass within galaxies." (Astronomy, December 1974, p. 60.) The implication must be that there are ranges of qualities and substances beyond our immediate sense awareness, Some of these unexpressed aspects of spatial life might be awaiting only the dawn of their day of manifestation into our realm of matter. But others could extend outside our field of experience altogether, filling infinity. Or as certain Oriental philosophers have expressed it: the fullness of the seeming void; together with its corollary, the emptiness of matter, because its seeming solidity is an illusion caused by the speed at which its particles vibrate.
The conclusion of the Struve astronomers' report leads to their espousal of the theory of an oscillating universe -- expanding and contracting, or exploding and imploding, endlessly. The ancient Sanskrit writings refer to this rhythmic pulsation as the inbreathing and outbreathing of Brahma, the creative essence of any cosmos, small or large.
But a contrary theory called an "unbound universe" recently suggests that "the density of the universe is no more than a tenth of the value required for closure." By closure is meant a limit to the expansion which, when reached, triggers the reverse process -- the inward condensation or compression of substance into what is ultimately a 'black hole,' a body so compacted that nothing caught within its magneto-gravitational pull can escape its hold. In brief, this concept, also based on many years of research, proposes that the universe does not expand and contract, but rather is the fortuitous result of a primal explosion with the outrush of substance continuing forever, the material 'dying' eventually as the energy within it dissipates.
However, this concept depends also on the theory of "redshift," that an object moving through space appears to tend to the red end of the spectrum the farther it travels from the observer. But Professor Halton C. Arp and a few others have adduced evidence to cast this theory into doubt as an explanation of all the phenomena it has been hitherto made to fit. This evidence refers to "discordant" cases such as quasars apparently linked to galaxies by filaments, yet each showing a different redshift.
It is significant that many radioastronomers support Professor Arp because of the results of their own observations in the audio field, whereas a number of optical astronomers formerly excited by his hypothesis have returned to the more orthodox "big bang" theory represented by the "unbound universe" paper.
As fascinating as these concepts may be, they only consider the phenomena within the range of spectrum on our own audiovisual plane. The Estonian report, however, refers to levels beyond this small segment of the infinite cosmos. In other words, if the universe intrinsically is infinite, an unbound universe, then what is observable on our level is but a fraction of all there is, because infinity means limitlessness in quality, degree of substance, space and time. There may very well then be uncountable numbers of golden radiances in the boundless spaces of Space, within, without, up and down, all around us, in the atoms and the starclusters. Each starts its new journeys into manifestation as a noumenal creation of the cosmic life-force-intelligence.
As the great universe or macrocosm exhibits fundamental designs in structure and operation of energies, it is evident that the natural laws governing the largest fields of activity that we have observed also operate down the scale of being to the very smallest. Such differences as have been noticed are due to individuality -- to details that do not run counter to the overall patterns but adorn them as variations of a basic theme.
Thus the numerous galaxies and solar systems have their families of lesser entities, among the myriads of which we must include man. He has been aptly named a microcosm, a miniature cosmos, consisting of many kinds of smaller beings. Looking from him to the larger sphere, whatever qualities he possesses must also belong there, otherwise he, too, would be deficient in what we assume it lacks -- for example, such aspects as divinity, spirituality, mind, imagination, creative gifts.
All of the mighty concourse of lives have climbed up the scale of growth from atoms to stars in past periods of manifestation, immersing themselves over and over again in the "dark fumes" of material existence, rising each time to a higher level of expression of their hidden potential. For all creatures are demonstrably composed of "star-stuff," and there does not appear to be any break in the continuity from the infinitesimally small to the great. Surely the driving force in evolution achieves development of forms not out of each other, for the forms are but the vessels or instruments of the consciousness-centers using them to learn the lessons of self-expression. The refinement of the vehicles arises from the centers' own corresponding emanations. Unself-conscious god-sparks at the beginning of their long journey, at the completion of the phases reached they will be relatively conscious of the spirituality at their heart.
In the meantime, experience has to be gained through denser vehicles that the inner being requires to adjust to the local conditions of its habitat. Consequently, during the course of materialization, egoic envelopes grow more self-centered; but in the cycles of time, matter etherealizes and the clouds of restrictive egoism must be dispersed before the golden germ in the very core of it all can radiate its light unveiled.
This concept of the descent of the soul into the material aspects of life and the return to its primal state or condition appears in all the myths of antiquity. It has its cosmic application, as well as the human, and long ages are required for the unfolding of faculty from within any given entity. For each is a multiplicity of qualities with limitless potential, and pinnacles cannot be magically scaled in a minute, or overnight, but only after much effort.
The fundamental question involves the nature of the universe. Our own religious philosophers still worry at the bone of 'being' -- how could or can the 'One' (divinity) become the 'many' (manifested beings), for it is indeed difficult to arrive at this relationship using only the tools of verbal logic. However, such speculations did not originate in our Western civilization. Not only may they be traced back through the Greek philosophers to Parmenides and his school, and beyond them to the Pythagoreans with their Monad and the Orphics with their penetrating system of cosmogony and anthropogony based on emanations from the divine source of life. The Hindu Upanishads and other writings tell us that the 'One' interpenetrates the 'many,' providing their common origin, their sustaining energy and hence common heritage and all that this implies: a universal brotherhood.
As the throngs of beings stream out from the original center of any manifestation of a planetary or solar universe-to-be, reaching as far out as they can go, they sing the song of evolution, expressing from the core whatever there might be within to express. As they involve or implode back to that center on their return journey, they concentrate together in their spirituality and then must ultimately burst through that central doorway into . . . what? The vastness of the spatial consciousness that is within, around, beyond, like the film 2001's space-ride to Jupiter, through its 'aura' or magnetic field and 'out' or 'into' the realm of galaxies undreamed of by our material senses, because they interpenetrate the ALL. Not just one or two of us traveling this journey, but all of us together.
(From Sunrise magazine, February 1975; copyright © 1975 Theosophical University Press)