“I found it frightening and fascinating to realize that energy and matter
are one and the same thing, that a body only seems to exist….”

— Spirit friend Swejen Salter, shortly after her 1987 death
caused by a science experiment gone awry.

This information gets kind of technical, but I think understanding energies that affect our lives gives us a better framework for living. I hope some of you find it useful.

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Potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical, longitudinal, transverse, sound, radiant, chemical, gravitational, nuclear, cosmic….

So many kinds of energy! To put them all into perspective for this article I had to juggle them until they fell into three neat piles:

• Earthly energies include sound waves and ocean waves (sometimes called physical or mechanical waves). They travel at various speeds, and they vibrate molecules (and other material things like water) from the outside, by pushing-pulling-pushing-pulling them into wave-like patterns that radiate energy.
• Universal energies (better known as electromagnetic energies) include radio waves, microwaves, light, and X-rays. They carry photons as they travel through the physical universe at the speed of light. They vibrate molecules from the inside, by passing through the atoms, energizing their electrons, and making the molecules vibrate… again, radiating energy. Photons have a “wave-particle duality,” meaning they can exist as either matter (particles) or energy (waves)… which suggests that they’re at the border of the spirit realms, where matter ceases to exist.
• Cosmic (or omniversal) energies are what I’ve been referring to lately as life-energies, which are the essence of the cosmos out of which everything manifests. They travel instantaneously through all dimensions and universes and vibrate other life-energies. They don’t seem to vibrate matter—at least not easily—since matter and its particles only exist (or seem to exist) in dense physical universes like ours, where life-energies apparently get deformed or deflected to a large degree… somehow.

Maybe it’s possible to understand and measure all of these energies in familiar ways—for example by their amplitude and by their wavelength and frequency, which offset each other. (As an energy’s wavelength gets bigger, its frequency gets smaller, and vice versa). That’s all explored below.

In any case, energy (and existence itself) seems to be all about waves and vibrations.*

*… or, mostly about waves and vibrations, since there are also some complications like potential energy, electrical current, magnetism, and gravity, which we’ll glimpse in the appendix after the article.

There’s probably only one huge exception to the general notion that it’s all about measurable waves, and that exception is what I like to call pure life-energy, which (I believe) has a wavelength of zero and a frequency of infinity. That pure, nonvibrating, immeasurable life-energy exists nowhere else in the cosmos except in the source. (Then again, it exists everywhere, since the source is at the center of everything… as we’ll see in a moment.)

Whew! If you’re able to digest that intro (and consider that it might even be true), great! It’s about as technical as we’re going to get. The rest of this article just supports and explains the above premise. More technical stuff is included in the appendix, for those interested. 

Reconciling All Those Energies

There’s a perfect, nonvibrating light—the essence of existence—that gives the entire cosmos vitality, purpose, creative potential, and win-win motivation. As this pulled-apart diagram suggests, the pure life-energy shines and radiates from the source at the center of everyone and everything.

Let’s try to figure out the nature of this pure life-energy (or divine consciousness or “source light”). It’s probably too complex to fully understand, so we’ll just do the best we can.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Energy (as we understand it here on Earth) might give us hints about the nature of life-energy. And vice versa:
2. Knowledge about life-energy might give us insights into the energies of our world.

That’s what we’ll try to unravel in this article: What life-energy really is, and how it’s related to more familiar energies like light and sound.

Life-Energy (_^aka Cosmic Energy)

First let’s consider what religious people, esoteric thinkers, and energy healers know about life-energy from practice and tradition.

According to them, there is a powerful, transformative life-energy everywhere that…

• Doesn’t just contain life; it is life, so everything is essentially “alive.” (Only in material universes like ours do things sometimes seem “lifeless.”)
• Exists in many devolved forms,*
• Goes by many names, including qi (or ki or chi), prana, bioenergy, aura, orgone, mana, kavod, spirits, pneuma, vis mediatrix naturae, AUM, and Holy Spirit.
• Is everywhere, all-knowing, and eternal, and is sometimes called “the Spirit of God.”
• Is centered in the heart and soul (or atman) of a physical body like ours and also enters through or resonates with the other six chakras.
• Is largely hidden from our awareness as our carnal mind becomes distracted by earthly dramas, which are maya, or illusory.
• Can be revealed once we understand and acknowledge its omnipresence (by believing in it).
• Can be activated by meditation, contemplative prayer, focused breathing, fasting, and other practices that bring peace and balance to the body and mind.
• Once activated, heals us physically and mentally and refines the body’s autonomic processes (within the biological constraints of the physical body, such as serious injuries and illnesses, aging, and death… and even then “miracles” can sometimes happen).
• Provides love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and other wholesome motivations.

[more about life-energy here (basic description) — here (healing qualities) — here (in-depth analysis) — here (Aum) — and here (Holy Spirit)]

*Powerful Life-Energy, Both Pure and Devolved

Life-energy creates and sustains the entire cosmos. Everything is made up, essentially, of life-energy.

Pure life-energy exists in the source. From there, it devolves… vibrating slower and slower (or getting denser and denser?) as it spreads out-beyond throughout the cosmos.

All of the life-energies are extremely powerful and at the same time extremely subtle by earthly standards. Some are powerful enough to create and sustain entire universes, but they’re all subtle enough to be imperceptible to our senses and sciences.

Pure life-energy. The most powerful life-energy of all is apparently the one recognized by the major religions down through the ages. It’s the pure, nonvibrating, living light that resides in the source of existence and goes by various names:

Aum, according to Hindus, is the essence of Brahman (the source) and the creative cosmic force at the center of everything.

Universal life force, according to Buddhists, exists throughout the cosmos as a powerful, creative energy that gives life, sustains it, and expands the consciousness of living things.

Light of Heaven and Earth, according to Muslims, 1) is the essence of Allah (the source), 2) is manifest throughout the cosmos, and 3) makes everything else manifest.

Spirit of YHWH, according to Jews, is the divine essence of Yaweh (the source) that creates and influences the cosmos perpetually. They also call it “Holy Spirit.”

Holy Spirit, according to Christians, is part of a trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The nature of those three things is a little different depending on whether we’re talking about mystical Christianity or popular Christianity.

• Mystical Christians view 1) God (the source) as the creative force of the cosmos, 2) Holy Spirit as the essence or “breath of God,” and 3) Jesus as an extraordinary soul who chose a lifetime on Earth to bring humanity closer to God. Jesus was more attuned to (or resonant with) that pure life-energy of the source than anyone else can typically achieve during a lifetime. That’s an uncluttered (maybe oversimplified) view of mystical Christianity.
• Popular Christians make the Trinity concept more human, viewing God and the Holy Spirit as two separate persons, the way Jesus was a person during his lifetime—hence the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As such, Jesus today “sits at the right hand of God” as together they watch over the Earth. That’s the popular view of Christians, a view that people in earlier times could more readily identify with, and that many still do today.

Every major religion has a popular side that people can identify with, but also a mystical core that fosters a close, conscious connection to that pure, nonvibrating life-energy.

Devolved life-energy. Between the omnipotent, omnipresent, and infinite source (with its nonvibrating life-energy) and Planet Earth (with its dense energies of relatively slow vibration… yes, that includes the speed of light) there are many vibrational forms of life-energy that give and sustain life throughout the cosmos.

These devolved life-energies travel instantaneously, since there is no time or space throughout most of the cosmos. They’re unimaginably powerful by earthly standards and no doubt exist in countless forms that we humans have only begun to explore. They go by names like chi, prana, shakti, orgone, and etheric energy, and they can make changes in our lives that sometimes seem miraculous.

Meditators, energy healers, and other practitioners recognize these life-energies as having very fine and subtle vibrations that are beyond the view of our senses and sciences but give our lives vitality and purpose. It’s not always easy to be open and receptive to life-energies because they’re largely blocked by the dramas and distractions here on Earth that captivate our five senses and our carnal mind.

Enhancing Life-Energy in Our Lives

Life-energy practitioners and religious mystics generally agree: The only sure way to access the rich life-energy that’s always present and always accessible is by turning our back on life’s dramas that are caught in time and space, opening our finer senses, and finding inner peace from a timeless place… especially when fostering conscious contact with pure life-energy.

We can find that inner calm in various ways, from meditating to simply sitting on the beach on a calm day as the gentle surf laps the shore.

Life-energies get blocked  when there are disturbances that stir up life’s dramas, for example when we’re caught up in a crisis with its fears and frustrations… or when a storm is approaching the beach and the waves get closer together (wavelength), get bigger and more powerful (amplitude), and start pounding the beach faster and faster (frequency)… and then those powerful ocean waves create crashing sound waves that scare or excite us… and take our focus away from the source and its life-energy.

An approaching storm is probably a poor time to meditate, but it might be a good opportunity to better understand the energies of our world, such as sound energy and light (electromagnetic) energy, since they’re all distinguished from each other largely by their wavelengths, amplitudes, and frequencies.

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That’s what we’ll look at next—the energies of our world that we’re all somewhat familiar with thanks to science… and how that scientific knowledge can give us a better understanding of the cosmos.*

*Scientific knowledge of energy gives us a chance to better understand life-energies throughout the cosmos by speculating about their wavelengths, frequencies, amplitudes, and other familiar qualities.

Then, at the end, we’ll look at how ancient and modern knowledge of life-energies might be able to teach science a thing or two 🙂 about the familiar energies of our world.

Familiar Energies of Our Earth and Universe

Just as the ocean surface consists of waves and vibrating water, we can think of sound as consisting of  waves and vibrating molecules.* Likewise, light and other universal (electromagnetic) energies on Earth consist of waves and photons. (The consensus is that photons don’t vibrate, though they do have a wavelength, and they can exist as either particles or waves… again suggesting that photons are at the cosmic crossroads where material and nonmaterial universes come together.)

*Interesting note: Sound waves travel faster underwater than through the air because molecules are packed together more tightly in water, so it’s easier to make them vibrate. In the air they’re more spread out… less dense. Molecules in space are so low-density and spread out that sound can’t travel at all.

There are lots of ways to measure and classify these somewhat familiar energies (as we’ll consider in the appendix), but as mentioned earlier they generally have three things in common: They each have an amplitude, a wavelength, and a frequency.

A “wavelength” is a single cycle of an energy stream like the one depicted in the diagram below (which represents all of the main electromagnetic energies in our world).

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Starting at the left of the diagram…

Radio waves can get really long, with wavelengths from 1m (40 inches) to more than 100km (67 miles).* Microwave wavelengths are shorter—1mm (.04in) to 1m (40in). Other wavelengths get smaller and smaller, all they way down to the size of an atomic nucleus (gamma rays). (see the complete diagram on wikipedia…)

*NASA says that radio waves can actually be as short as 1mm, same as microwaves. If that’s true, then the shortest radio waves and the shortest microwaves share the same wavelength and frequency… but I can’t figure out the difference between a radio wave and microwave that both have the same wavelength of, say, 2.5 cm (1 inch). If any readers can explain that difference, I’d be obliged. 🙂

Bear in mind: These electromagnetic (or universal) energies are measured by wavelengths, amplitudes, and frequencies, which together determine the amount of energy carried in the wave. The diagram only shows wavelengths. Amplitude just means the red waves in the diagram would be taller or shorter. Frequency means they vibrate faster or slower.

• Smaller wavelengths have more energy (as suggested by atomic explosions and nuclear reactors).
• Bigger amplitudes have more energy (brighter lights, for example).
• Bigger frequencies have more energy (as a wave’s frequency gets bigger, its wavelength gets smaller, and vice versa, so wavelength and frequency are often mentioned in the same breath).

Some of these universal energies (especially radio waves) can have the same wavelength as earthly energies like sound waves and ocean waves. They can superimpose each other without having much effect on each other largely because they vibrate molecules differently. Sound waves and ocean waves just push the molecules around. Radio waves penetrate the molecules and energize their electrons, which excites the molecules and boosts their vibration.

That also give us some hints about how radio waves can be carrier signals for sound… allowing a radio station to send out a radio signal that carries a love song, for example.

A few more interesting things like that are included in the appendix, but those are the main points about familiar energies (earthly energies and universal energies) that can give us a better understanding of not-so-familiar life-energies (cosmic energies) that fill the cosmos.

What Familar Energy Tells Us about Life-Energy

We humans observe and measure the energies of our world (sound, light, and so on) largely through a mental filter of time and space. For example:

• Amplitude is a space measurement—how “tall” a wave is.
• Wavelength is also a space measurement—how “long” a wave is.
• Frequency is a time measurement—how many waves happen in “a second.”

In order to apply measurements like these to life-energies, we’ll first have to figure out how to translate them into conditions that are beyond time and space. That’s because everything that happens throughout most of the cosmos happens instantaneously—“at the same time” and “in the same space”—in a way that’s hard for the carnal mind to grasp.

I’m pretty confident in stating that:

1. The cosmos flourishes with countless distinct beings who inhabit countless distinct worlds in many distinct universes… but
2. All of those entities and worlds and universes remain distinct in a way that’s unfamiliar to us. From our point of view, they’re not “far apart” from each other, and they’re not happening in “the past or present or future,” so I suspect they remain distinct by the nature of their energy and vibration.
3. The energy and vibration of a particular entity or world or universe might be measurable in terms that are comparable to amplitude, wavelength, and frequency here on Earth… but without the time and space elements. How does that work? It might involve the density of the life-energy, but “energy density” has a different meaning to scientists. It certainly involves the power inherent in the life-energies, as the life-energies get increasingly powerful the closer they are to the source (something akin to bigger amplitudes and frequencies, and smaller wavelengths). Beyond that?… I could only guess.
4. Solving mysteries like that might help us develop a scientific understanding of the multidimensional cosmos.

In short, distinct beings (and worlds and universes) throughout the cosmos remain distinct by the nature of their energy and vibration, which is probably measurable in ways similar to amplitude, wavelength, frequency, and other scientific concepts explored in the appendix.

What Life-Energy Tells Us About Familiar Energy

Life-energy, as the name suggests, carries life (and therefore some sort of consciousness or intelligence), suggesting that everything in the cosmos is “alive” and “intelligent” in some essential way, since everything consists of life-energy.

Everything is Alive

On Earth that includes not just breathing animals and plants, but all matter and energy in our world, including metals, rocks, and radio waves… even (believe it or not) metal rock on the radio. 🙂

I suspect that the life of “nonliving” material things like a rock, for example, is probably flourishing at the level of molecules or atoms or waves and particles. For sound, light, and other energies, life is probably flourishing within the waves, again, at the subatomic level where phtotons flourish. Everything is alive, even if it’s not as obvious here on Earth as it is in subtler worlds.

Earth and every physical thing on it is superimposed with spiritual copies or versions of itself in subtler universes leading toward the source, which is at the center of its being.

A rock’s spiritual copy that exists, say, at level 3 (where most people awaken in a paradise world after they die) doesn’t seem “lifeless” the way it does on Earth. Everything in those spiritual worlds is bristling with life and consciousness, since life-energy there isn’t blocked (or somehow made imperceptible) the way it is here on Earth with its dense energies and matter.

Many people who’ve died and gotten settled into that level 3 paradise have been able to send reports back to Earth, whether through channeling or by other means, such as ITC (instrumental transcommunication). They describe waking up in a win-win, live-and-let-live world (which was immediately familiar to them upon arrival) that flourishes with life without parasites, predators, or competitors… where everything is aware of and resonant with the consciousness of everyone and everything in its surroundings. They can eat food if they want to, and they can live in homes and drive cars and motorcycles if they want to, but nothing has to die to provide food or shelter or fuel. Everything has been created and is sustained by life-energies provided by finer beings. There’s no need to eat food or live in a house or drive earth-like conveyances at level 3, but people there can keep doing the things they enjoyed on Earth.

Everything in subtler worlds throughout the cosmos is noticeably alive and conscious because it’s imbued with life-energy, or cosmic energy. Only in rare worlds like Earth are life-energies deflected or devolved to the degree that they’re imperceptible to their inhabitants like us humans… and things sometimes seem “lifeless.”

Why Is Life-Energy Imperceptible to Us?

Earthly energies like sound are confined to Earth and don’t have much effect beyond the Earth. They don’t travel into space, and they aren’t “heard” in subtler worlds that are superimposed over our world.

Sound waves are produced, for example, by the vocal cords in someone’s throat. As they speak, their vocal cords vibrate molecules in the air in wave patterns that vibrate the eardrum in our ear, and those vibrations are converted to nerve impulses that our brain can interpret as meaningful information.

That’s a very complicated and dense way to communicate!

On a similar note, I suspect that our universal (or electromagnetic) energies like light are confined to our own physical universe. They aren’t perceived in subtler universes that are superimposed over ours. In those subtler universes I suspect it’s all about life-energy, which travels instantaneously and integrates life and consciousness more effectively than our energies do.

In subtler worlds, where life-energy is everywhere, everything is simply aware of the thoughts and attitudes of everything around them, as long as they’re resonant. That’s the nature of life-energy: It flourishes and resonates with consciousness and motivation.

There are no secrets or hidden agendas throughout most of the cosmos. Those things only happen on Earth… and mostly with us humans.

Note: That holds important implications for ITC experimenters. As we sit with our communication devices and our recording devices while trying to talk with our spirit friends, they don’t hear our words. They “hear” our thoughts, as long as they’re resonant—that is, as long as our general attitude and feelings are compatible with theirs. That’s why ITC works best when we’re happy, sincere, trusting, and at peace, and when we’ve developed our psychic sensitivity to some degree. It allows us to be resonant and receptive with the kinds of spirit friends who can help and support our work. They, then, face the massive challenge of converting their thoughts into words that we can understand… but that’s a subject best left for another article. (for example, here… and here…  and here… )

A lifetime on Earth has gotten us a little out of sync with our life-energies. Many plants and animals seem to be attuned to life-energy. They can sense our feelings and intentions… whether we’re calm and loving, or whether we’re angry and hostile. And they often respond accordingly. Our pets, for example, can detect our moods, and they might get excited when we’re on our way home from work.

Why are we humans out of sync with life-energy? Again, that’s a subject best left for another article, but it probably traces back to big mistakes made by human cultures long, long ago… what western religions call “the fall of man.”

In a nutshell, life-energy from the source always fills the cosmos with win-win motivations (love, awe, honesty, openness, trust, empathy…), but something our ancient ancestors did caused life on Earth to split into a duality—forming what I think of as a “spiritual shadow” around the planet. So that we now contend with love-hate, awe-fear, honesty-deception, trust-suspicion, empathy-selfishness, and so on. If we choose to immerse ourselves in the duality, without fostering conscious contact with the source and its oneness, living on Earth can be harsh and painful.

And that, hopefully, gives a taste, at least, of how an understanding of life-energies might be useful to science someday, once it’s ready to perceive the familiar energies of our familiar universe in relation to the rest of the cosmos.

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I’m sure this article just scratches the surface of the vast energies flourishing throughout the cosmos, but I hope it might at least point us in the right direction: in-beyond to subtle realms flourishing with life-energy.

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Appendix: Energies of our World

Here are additional facts and curiosities (and some speculations) about the familiar energies of our world, for those interested. They’re divided into 1) basic info that applies to both earthly and universal energies, 2) facts about earthly (mechanical) energies like sound waves, pressure waves, and ocean waves that happen in our world but have little effect on the rest of the physical universe, and 3) facts about universal (electromagnetic) energies like light and radio signals that have a big effect on the Earth and everything else throughout our physical universe… but probably have little effect on other universes that are superimposed over ours, in subtler dimensions.

These earthly and universal energies are usually about waves. As a rule, they either travel in waves or make waves… or both.

Then we have life-energies (cosmic energies) that affect and are affected by everything everywhere* … in all universes. Life-energies just get an occasional mention in this appendix to try to put the familiar energies in perspective with the bigger cosmic picture.

*or more accurately, I suspect… life-energies affect and are affected by nearly everything. Their interplay with Earth is a little nebulous. They certainly affect every “living” thing on Earth, since life everywhere is facilitated and sustained with life-energy. But the structures in our world that we consider to be “nonliving” (like rocks and buildings) seem to be a bit too illusory to get much attention from the source and its life-energies. The entire infrastructure of human civilization is like a hermit crab. The crab itself, with its thoughts, motivations and intentions, is like the “living” things in human society (people, pets, livestock, plants, trees….). Its borrowed shell is like the roads, buildings, and other “nonliving” parts of the infrastructure. The living crab is rich with life-energy and its multidimensional interplay. Its shell, on the other hand, is just a temporary abode for the crab, and its only intelligence or consciousness is probably at the molecular or subatomic level. The shell makes no conscious choices of its own, so the source doesn’t expend much life-energy on its place and purpose in the scheme of things… I suspect….

Qualities of Both Earthly and Universal Energy

Waves and Radiation

Ocean waves, sound waves and similar earthly energies travel at various speeds and are called waves. Universal or electromagnetic waves move at the speed of light are often called radiation. “Water waves transmit energy… by the periodic oscillation of matter (the water). In contrast, energy that is transmitted, or radiated… in the form of periodic oscillations of electric and magnetic fields is known as electromagnetic radiation.” (read more…)

Magnetism and Gravity

These are forces. They’re not energy, nor do they produce energy. Magnetism and gravity just provide a means for other things to produce or to be affected by energy. (read more… )

Classifications

There are two basic types of energy, each with various forms. (read more… ) (In the list below, earthly energies are italicized, while universal energies are not.

• Stored energy is “potential”.
• Energy in motion is “kinetic.”

Potential Energies:

• Chemical energy –  energy stored in the bonds between atoms that hold molecules together.
• Nuclear energy – energy stored in the nucleus of the atom that hold the nucleus together.
• Gravitational energy – energy an object has because of its position or height.
• Elastic energy – energy stored in an object by the application of force.

Kinetic Energies:

• Mechanical energy –  the movement of objects or substances from one place to another. (moving objects create pressure waves).
• Electrical energy – movement in one direction of weakly held electrons, like those found in atoms of metal. (Electrical currents don’t have waves but produce  magnetic waves or radiation).
• Thermal (heat) energy – internal energy of a substance due to the vibration of atoms and molecules making up the substance (heat causes atoms and molecules to vibrate by exciting their electrons).
• Radiant (light) energy – universal (electromagnetic) energy that travels in transverse waves.
• Sound energy – movement of mechanical (earthly) energy through substances like air or water in the form of longitudinal waves.

Transverse and Longitudinal Waves

As a coffee cup sits on a tray, notice the two different kinds of waves on the coffee surface when you either 1) blow on it, or 2) bump the tray. Wind makes the waves go up and down, or perpendicular to the coffee surface (transverse waves). A jolt makes them go back and forth, or parallel (longitudinal waves). Both kinds of waves carry and generate energy, and they both have frequency, wavelength, and amplitude… as well as speed. (read more…) Earthly energies and universal energies can both be either transverse or longitudinal waves.

Earthly Energies

These are the energies that push and pull stuff around here on Earth, whether it’s molecules (sound waves), liquids (ocean waves), or big, solid things like mountains and skyscrapers (shock waves caused by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions). These earthly energies (or mechanical waves) are typically caused by disturbances in our world, such as a pebble hitting water or the shifting of tectonic plates. Earth has lots of disturbances going on all the time, as we all know, and they generate lots of earthly energies.

An interesting point about earthly energies:

Wave Speed vs Wave Frequency

Wave frequency is the number of cycles occurring per second, wave speed is the distance traveled per second. Speed = wavelength x frequency. Changing the wavelength doesn’t change the speed, since wavelength and frequency balance each other out. As one goes up, the other goes down, so the speed stays the same. (read more…)

Universal Energies

These are the speed-of-light electromagnetic energies that fill our universe and pass through our world (except the ones, like gamma rays, that get blocked by the atmosphere).

Electric and Magnetic Fields are Radiation

Electric and magnetic fields are invisible areas of energy (also called radiation) that are produced, for example, by electricity, which is the movement of electrons, or current, through a wire. (read more… )

Magnetism, itself, is a force, not an energy, but it produces electromagnetic radiation (waves).

Amplitude vs Power… Volts, Current, Resistance…

When I learned about electricity in the early 1970s (as a Navy electronics technician), I entered a new, mind-boggling world of volts, currents, and resistance. It’s fascinating now to go online to see how engineers and physicists figure this stuff out the way my classmates and I did back then. Here’s a link to a group of physics students discussing and debating the relationship between power and amplitude.

Electrical Current

Electrical currents don’t have waves, but they make waves. Electromagnetic waves are made when atoms absorb energy. One way to make them absorb energy is to excite them with an electrical current. (Light and heat are other ways.) In the case of electricity, the atom’s absorbed energy causes electrons to change orbits that surround the nucleus of the atom. When the electron returns to its original orbit, an electromagnetic wave is produced. Depending on the type of atom and the amount of energy, the result can be heat, light, ultraviolet, or other electromagnetic waves.

UV, Sunburn, and Cancer

Ultraviolet radiation has enough energy to break chemical bonds by making electrons break away from atoms. The resulting vacancy turns the atoms into “ions,” affects the chemical properties of the atoms, and causes them to form or break chemical bonds that they otherwise would not. Sunburn is a good example. UV rays change the cytosine-thymine bonds in human DNA, which become mutated thymine-thymine bonds. If the body can’t fix the T-T mutations with increased blood flow (redness) and its own built-in healing agents (for example, if an intense sunburn produces an overwhelming mass of mutated DNA), then the DNA molecules will either die or generate more mutations, causing skin cancer.

Waves or Photons?

Radiation can be considered to be either 1) waves or 2) particles called photons. (read more… )

One last point:

Waves vs Vibrations… Are They Really the Same Thing?

Generally speaking, “anything that moves back and forth, to and fro, side to side, in and out, or up and down is vibrating. A vibration is a periodic wiggle in time. A periodic wiggle in both space and time is a wave. A wave extends from one place to another.” (read more…)

My bet is that waves and vibrations are the same thing throughout most of the cosmos. On Earth they just seem different because of our illusory sense of time and space.

Finally, a Fun Trip Among Molecules and Galaxies

Here’s a great view of the physical universe, from the very small to the very large. Just click to start and use the scroll-wheel on the mouse to zoom in and out. (Thanks, John Day, for the heads-up)

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The next article in this Light series is about how life-energy is all around us all the time, ready and able to lift us out of our suffering.