The Force That BindsThroughout human history there has existed the spiritual concept that humankind and the Universe are interconnected by an omnipresent, all-pervasive sea of energy that permeates all things, and is manifest in all phenomena. This force has been known by many names such as ch'i or qi (Taoism), prana (Yoga), mana (Oceanic), and more. Many kinds of alternative therapies or energy medicines are based upon a belief that health is determined by the flow of this energy and that this energy can be controlled to affect our environment. Yet this force has been relegated to the realms of the metaphysical, at least until now. “Use the Force, Luke!”
~Star Wars – Episode IV
We Start With NothingIn the classical sense, a vacuum is a portion of space that contains no matter and no heat radiation. The removal of the matter is an obvious step. To remove the heat energy, the region of space is cooled to the point of absolute zero. Absolute zero refers to the temperature of zero Kelvin (or -273 degrees Celsius), where the movement of the atoms due to their thermal vibration ceases. The temperature of an object depends on how fast the atoms and molecules which make up the object can vibrate. As an object is cooled, the shaking of its atoms and molecules slow down. For example, as water cools, the slowing vibrations of the molecules allow the water to freeze into ice. In all matter, a point is eventually reached at which all oscillations are the slowest they can possibly be. The temperature which corresponds to this point is called absolute zero, where theoretically, all vibrations stop. Aristotle and his followers believed no region of space could be totally empty. However, this notion that "nature abhors a vacuum" was rejected in the scientific revolution of the 17th century.  Magdeburg Hemispheres The first scientific indications that a vacuum wasn’t empty space first emerged around 1911, during research conducted by Max Planck, one of the originators of the science of quantum physics. Planck discovered that one of his equations for the energy of a heated body had a term in it that did not depend on temperature. This meant that even at absolute zero the body would have some residual energy. Other researchers, including Einstein, found similar terms popping up in their own investigations. This seemed bizarre, for where could this energy come from? So physicists began to look for experimental evidence for the existence of this "energy from nowhere". In 1925, the American chemist Robert Mulliken found it, in the spectrum of boron monoxide. Analyzing the frequency of its spectral lines, he discovered a slight shift, the energy for which had seemingly come from "nowhere". Two years later, in 1927, Werner Heisenberg brought new scientific focus to this mysterious energy with his Uncertainty Principle. Simply put, the Uncertainty Principle states that one cannot know, with total accuracy, the values for certain pairs of observable variables, including the position and momentum, of a single particle at the same time. If the position of the particle is known exactly, then its momentum (or movement) must be completely unknown, and vice-versa. If we assume that at absolute zero that a particle stops moving, then according to the Uncertainty Principle, we cannot know its position. That's why at absolute zero, a particle must still be moving around, even if slightly, for if it were completely still, we would know its exact position and its momentum (zero) at the same time, violating the Uncertainty Principle. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle also applies to the properties of energy and time. This implies that the energy of empty space can not be constant over time. For if we know exactly the amount of energy in the system, then we cannot know the time over which that energy is present. This means that the energy is fluctuating, and according to Einstein’s famous rule, E=mc2, these energy fluctuations are due to the conversion of the energy into mass. In other words, particles are constantly ‘flitting’ in and out of existence. In fact, the duration of these particles is directly related to their mass. The particles, which arise as matter-antimatter twins, can interact, but must, in accordance with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, disappear within an interval set by Planck's constant, h=6.626*10-34 Js (Joule seconds). The Lamb ShiftIn 1947, Willis Lamb and Robert Retherford carried out an experiment that identified tiny shifts in the energy emitted by electrons. This discovery is what has become known as the Lamb Shift. Lamb showed that there is a tiny change in the energy of an electron orbiting the nucleus of an atom, caused by the interaction of the electron with other particles that appear and quickly disappear in Quantum Fluctuations. These transient particles interact with the electron, smearing its orbit and altering the energy it possesses. (More on the electron configuration can be found here.) This helps to explain one of the major puzzles in classical physics. In the classical definition of an atom, its components are often modeled after a miniature solar system with electrons acting like miniature planets orbiting a sun-like nucleus. Yet these atoms should not exist. The circling electrons should slowly radiate away their energy (like real planets) and spiral into the nucleus. The reason why this does not occur is due to this interaction of the electrons with the Quantum Fluctuations, constantly exchanging energy to ensure that the electron maintains its orbit. As the electron loses bits of its energy, it re-absorbs energy from the surrounding field of energy. (For more on matter, see The Nature of Matter.) Casimir EffectOne of the most dramatic examples of Quantum Fluctuations is found in the Casimir Effect. In 1948, Hendrick Casimir made a prediction about the forces that would act on two electrically conducting, parallel plates mounted a small distance apart in a vacuum. Casimir calculated that if the two metal plates were brought sufficiently close together, they would attract each other very slightly. The reason is that the narrow distance between the plates allows only small, high-frequency electromagnetic Quantum Fluctuations (or modes) to squeeze in between. The plates block out most of the other, bigger modes. This results in a greater pressure on the outer surfaces of the plates than on the inner surfaces, and thus pushes the plates together. We can see a simplified diagram of this below. 
In 1997, while at the University of Washington, Steve Lamoreaux conducted the most precise measurement of the Casimir effect. Lamoreaux found that a force was generated equivalent to the weight of a blood cell. He found that his experimental measurements agreed with Casimir’s predictions to an accuracy of 5%. Enter the Zero Point FieldAnd so Aristotle was correct, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” It is in this ‘vacuum’, at a temperature of absolute zero, that we find the Zero-Point Field (ZPF), where particles ‘flit’ in and out of existence in uniform randomness. It is this background field of energy within the ‘vacuum’ that serves as the reference, or zero point, for all processes. We see the results of the ZPF throughout our everyday lives. The fluorescent lighting that we use relies on the random energy fluctuations of the vacuum state. When atoms of mercury vapor are excited by the electrical discharge in the tube, their spontaneous emission of photons is triggered by the Quantum Fluctuations ‘knocking’ them out of their unstable energy state. The ZPF is also responsible for certain background noise in radios and microwave receivers. Lorentz InvarianceWhat are the characteristics of the ZPF? Since the ZPF exists in a vacuum, it must conform to accepted basic ideas about the nature of that vacuum. This means that it cannot have any special features or ‘landmarks’ in space or time, but that it should look the same at all positions and in all directions. Hence the ZPF must be uniform and isotropic (the same in all directions). Furthermore, as required by the theory of General Relativity, the ZPF must look the same to any two observers no matter what their velocity is with respect to each other, provided the velocity is constant. These requirements are expressed by saying the ZPF must be Invariant with respect to Lorentz Transformation. (The Lorentz transformation, named for the Dutch physicist H. A. Lorentz, is a conversion from one constant-velocity frame of reference to another, taking into account that the speed of light is the same in all frames of reference.) The requirement of Lorentz Invariance is a difficult requirement. If we look at light energy, we know that if we are speeding towards it, we experience what is called a ‘blue-shift’, that is, the color of the light changes and appears more towards the blue end of the spectrum than when viewed from a standstill. If we are speeding away from the light, then we experience a ‘red-shift’ where the color of the light changes and appears more towards the red end of the spectrum, than when viewed from a standstill. Thus the light is not Lorentz Invariant. The faster an observer moves, the more of a shift that occurs. The ZPF must also possess no landmarks in order to be Lorentz Invariant. If we look at an example involving two buses traveling side-by-side, an observer on one of the buses may be momentarily unsure whether his own bus or the one next to them is moving relative to the earth, but the ambiguity can be resolved simply by looking at some landmark known to be fixed. Lorentz invariance implies that there are no such landmarks in the vacuum and that no experiment could ever reveal an observer's velocity with respect to the background of the ZPF. To meet this condition, the spectrum of the radiation must have quite specific properties. It turns out that the ZPF spectrum can have only one possible shape if the radiation is to be Lorentz-invariant. The intensity of the radiation at any frequency must be proportional to the cube of that frequency. A spectrum defined by such a cubic curve is the same for all constant-velocity observers, no matter what their velocity; moreover, it is the only spectrum that has this property. Since the intensity of the energy must be equal to the cube of it frequency, it implies that by doubling the frequency, the energy increases by a factor of eight. Because of this, the amount of energy making up the ZPF is enormous. It is the isotropic nature of the ZPF that is primarily responsible for the reason why we cannot feel it around us. If we look at a person standing in perfectly still air, that person can’t feel the air, even though the air molecules are constantly bombarding them, but if you stand in the wind, the air is quite evident. The same is true of the ZPF, because it uniformly surrounds and permeates us, we can’t detect its presence. However, if we accelerate through it, we begin to notice its effects. InertiaThe property of inertia is common to all matter. Simply put, inertia is the property that makes heavy things hard to get moving, but once moving, hard to stop. Inertia is so familiar that its attributes seem beyond question, but they have perplexed scientists like Einstein and Richard Feynman. If an object is at rest, or moving at constant velocity, its inertia stays hidden. But try to accelerate it and inertia suddenly rears its head, fighting against the change in velocity. In modern day, one can experience the effects of inertia while flying in an airplane. When the airplane takes off, accelerating rapidly, you feel a force pressing you into the seat. But once at cruising speed, you feel no different than you did while sitting on the ground, despite the fact that you are traveling at several hundred miles per hour. It is not until you land (provided there isn’t any turbulence) that you again feel the inertial force as the plane decelerates. But what causes this inertia force? Einstein believed that it was somehow induced in objects whenever they accelerate relative to the rest of the Universe, though quite how this interaction worked he never made clear. It is now believed that that inertia is generated by acceleration through the ZPF. In 1994, Bernhard Haisch (Lockheed Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto) and Hal Puthoff (Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, Texas) came up with a new version of Newton's second law tying inertia to the properties of the ZPF. It implies that fluctuations in the vacuum give rise to a magnetic field through which all objects move. If the object accelerates, its constituent particles feel the grip of this magnetic field, whose resistance manifests itself as inertia. The larger the object, the more particles it contains and the stronger the reluctance to undergo acceleration. Newton believed that inertia was an innate property of matter, but it is no longer necessary to assume a physical quantity known as mass in order to explain a resistance to acceleration. What is seen as inertia is nothing more than an effect caused by electromagnetic force acting on a charge. In effect, charge and its interaction with the ZPF creates what we experience as mass. GravitySir Isaac Newton showed how inertia and gravity are interrelated. If the ZPF gives rise to the phenomenon of inertia, is it somehow responsible for the effect of gravity? In 1968, the well known Russian physicist Andrei D. Sakharov suggested that gravity might be an induced effect brought about by changes in the ZPF of the vacuum, due to the presence of matter. In the late 1980’s, Dr. H. E. Puthoff demonstrated that if a charged particle is subjected to ZPF interactions, it fluctuates, simultaneously causing charged particles everywhere in the Universe to also fluctuate. These fluctuations, which were first discovered by Erwin Schrödinger (who called this ‘jitter’ motion Zitterbewegung), resulted in electromagnetic fields, which have an attractive force between them. This force is much weaker than the electromagnetic attractive or repulsive forces between electric charges and can be thought of as a kind of long-range Casimir force. Also, it is always an attractive force, which suggests it is simply gravity. The major benefit of the ZPF model is that it provides a basis for understanding various characteristics of the gravitational interaction which are otherwise unexplained. These include the relative weakness of the gravitational force under ordinary circumstances; the existence of positive but not negative mass; and the fact that gravity cannot be shielded (a consequence of the fact that quantum ZPF "noise" in general cannot be shielded). Since the gravitational force is caused by these fluctuations, physics no longer needs the concept of a gravitational mass as the source of gravitation. Instead, the source of gravitation is based on electric charge in motion. Thus, with the ZPF explaining both inertia and gravity, mass becomes less of a property of matter and more of a side-effect. Mass may, in fact, be an illusion. The Big BangSo where did the Universe come from? In 1973, Dr. Edward Tryon of Hunter College of the City University of New York proposed that our Universe may have originated as a fluctuation of the vacuum on a large scale, as "simply one of those things which happen from time to time." One of the key features of Einstein's General Relativity Theory is that gravity must possess both positive and negative forms. If the vacuum has a permanent (positive) energy density, it must be balanced by a negative pressure (a tension). According to Einstein, this must give rise to a repulsive gravitational effect. This feature of the vacuum lies at the heart of perhaps the most important new concept in cosmology of the past decade: cosmic inflation. Developed principally by Alan Guth (MIT) and Andrei Linde (now at Stanford), the idea of cosmic inflation arises from the assumption that the very early Universe was packed with unstable ZPF energy whose "anti-gravitational" effect expanded the Universe by a factor of perhaps 1050 in just 10-32 seconds. This idea was later refined and updated within the context of inflationary cosmology by Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University, who proposed that the Universe is created by quantum tunneling from literally nothing into the something we call our Universe. ConsciousnessAs one explores the aspects of Quantum Duality, it is shown that the act of conscious observation affects the nature of matter. It is by mere thought that the nature of particles can be altered. But how is this influence transferred to the observed objects? Communication of information in the quantum world occurs instantaneously, across time and space seemingly faster than the speed of light, as demonstrated in Quantum Entanglement. The ZPF demonstrates that there is a sea of energy that exists to allow such communication. This sea of violent and seemingly chaotic creation and annihilation of particles is the soup in which all existence is suspended. As Puthoff pointed out, the ZPF extends throughout the Universe, and the effects on one atom (like the Zitterbewegung or ‘jittering’) are transferred to all other atoms in the Universe. The basic stable states of matter are not merely inert, static structures, but rather depend on the presence of the underlying, sustaining Zero-Point energy which is continually being absorbed and re-emitted on a dynamic-balanced basis. Pull the plug on the zero-point energy and all atomic structure would collapse. On the universal scale a grand hand-in-glove dynamic equilibrium exists between the ever-agitated motion of matter on the quantum level, and the surrounding zero-point energy field. One consequence of this is that we are literally, physically, "in touch" with the rest of the Universe as we share with remote parts of the Universe fluctuating zero-point-energy fields of cosmic dimensions. It is inevitable that if all particles in the Universe are connected, then it follows that this includes the biological aspects of consciousness. Many religious and philosophical traditions have advocated a connectedness of human consciousnesses. It now appears that science is finally providing the details of the physical dynamics of such connectedness, and all are part of the current research being conducted by scientists across the globe. And so within this ZPF exists the mind, which science has shown is a structured collection of energy. Its actions influence the world around us as demonstrated in Quantum Mechanics. It is surrounded by, and permeated by, an energy field, the Zero-Point Field, in which all particles are connected. To exist, the mind must be able to impose order on the chaotic nature of the ZPF. And, as shown, by changing part of the ZFP, we can affect the entire Universe. What are the limits of thought? And if the conscious mind exists in balance with the ZPF, stretching across the cosmos, can it ever cease to exist without upsetting the natural balance? Who is to say whether by manipulating the ZPF, we might not actually be using The Force? Further Reading:Quantum Fluctuations of Empty Space: A New Rosetta Stone in Physics?
A Free eBook download.
~ by Dr. H. E. Puthoff The Field
~ by Lynne McTaggart Tapping the Zero-Point Energy
~ by Moray B. King The Quantum Theory of Light
~ by Rodney Loudon The Quantum Dice
~ by L. I. Ponomarev The Philosophy of Vacuum
~ by Simon Saunders, Harvey R. Brown The Quantum Vacuum : An Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics
~ by Peter W. Milonni
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
