Book #9: An Electrician’s Guide to Our Galaxy – Living Life On The Widest Frequency
Chapter One–Ground Zero
The number 42 is significant in the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.
The number 42 answers the ultimate question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a 7.5 million-year period.
Can we, the human race, be saved by the number 42?
Though I often ponder the BIG questions of life, and what lies within the furthest reaches of our Milky Way galaxy, and even beyond, I am not in contact with superintelligent aliens, nor am I a galactic hitchhiker, so my journey must be of a philosophical, intellectual, and spiritual nature. I once was an electrician, however, and my insight powered personal supercomputer, through some “deep thought” of my own, found another answer.
The answer to the grearest questions of life is ZERO!
How can we possibly be saved by ZERO?
Let me explain by starting with a few definitions of the word zero.
- The symbol or numeral 0 represents the complete absence of any quantity or magnitude.
- The point, marked 0, from which positive or negative quantities are reckoned on a graduated scale, as on a thermometer.
Who is the father of zero?
- Aryabhatta—Zero’s origin in India came from a well-known astronomer and mathematician of his time, Aryabhatta. The well-known scientist used zero as a placeholder number. In the 5th century, Aryabhatta introduced zero in the decimal number system and, hence, introduced it in mathematics.
What was the original term for zero?
- Sifr evolved to mean zero when it was used to translate śūnya (Sanskrit: शून्य) from India. The first known English use of zero was in 1598. The Italian mathematician Fibonacci ( c. 1170 – c. 1250), who grew up in North Africa and is credited with introducing the decimal system to Europe, used the term zephyrum.
What does 0 signify, symbolize, or mean spiritually?
- The number 0 is seen in many number sequences but has incredible power when seen in numbers 00, 000, and 0000.
- Before any number, there is zero. As a result, in numerology, zero is often associated with potential and possibilities and all that comes before the changes.
- Number zero relates to eternity, oneness, potential, infinity, wholeness, cycles, and flow, listening to your intuition, and beginning a spiritual journey.
- The number zero represents the absolute reference voltage for ground for all electrical circuits on planet Earth.
Navigating the Infinity Within Zero: A Reflection on Ego, Universe, and Existence
The simple symbol for zero, 0, often taken for granted, holds within it a rich tapestry of meaning that stretches across mathematics, philosophy, spirituality, and culture. Its circular form, a line that meets without beginning or end, encloses a space that both is and isn’t, simultaneously representing the bounded individual and the boundless universe. This duality, the finite and the infinite, the ego and the cosmos, invites a profound contemplation on our place within the vastness of existence.
At first glance, the symbol for zero appears as merely an empty circle. Yet, this emptiness encapsulates a fundamental human dilemma: the sense of being an isolated ego cut off from the rest of the universe. However, the “stuff” inside zero is the same material as everything outside, symbolizing our intrinsic connection to the cosmos despite our perceived separateness. This duality of being at once separate and unified with the infinite challenges our understanding of self and other, inviting us to reconsider what it means to be an individual within the grand tapestry of the universe.
Philosophically, zero embodies the challenging concept of nothingness or emptiness. It tempts us to ponder the nature of existence and non-existence, framed by the boundaries of human cognition. The transition from nothing to something – from zero to one – mirrors the mystifying leap from non-being to being, a central inquiry of ancient and modern thought. In this light, Zero is not merely the absence of quantity but a placeholder for the profound mystery of creation and the void that precedes it.
Mathematically, the invention of zero revolutionized arithmetic, introducing the concept of a placeholder that enabled the decimal positional notation system and the arithmetic operations as we know them today. The complex calculations underpinning modern science, economics, and technology are possible with zero. Zero’s introduction to mathematics was as much a leap in human understanding as a practical tool, enabling us to quantify the world increasingly sophisticatedly.
Culturally, the acceptance of zero has traveled a remarkable path. Initially met with suspicion and rejected by some societies for its representation of the void, zero gradually became recognized as a symbol of potential, innovation, and the beginning of the new. Its acceptance marked a shift in civilization’s viewpoint, from seeing emptiness as lacking to appreciating the space of possibility it represented. Today, zero is celebrated for its utility in computation and its philosophical and cultural significance, embodying the paradoxical nature of human progress.
The symbol for zero invites us on a reflective journey. It challenges us to confront our ego’s limitations and acknowledge our inseparable connection to the infinite universe. By meditating on the meaning encapsulated within this simple symbol, we can appreciate the profound truth it signifies: in the heart of nothingness lies the potential for everything. Zero, therefore, is not just a number but a symbol of human exploration, creativity, and our unending quest to understand the universe and our place within it.
Why I Become An Electrician
The start of this epic galactic saga began at my personal zero point, or conception, which happened somewhere around Valentine’s Day, 1955. I did not start talking until after I was four years old, probably because I did not have anything interesting to say. Scarcity of words was never a problem for me after that, but finding a good listener at home was often an issue. Fast forward to December of 1964, when I was nine years old. My family lived near the Willamette River, which had a great flood near the Christmas holiday. We lived about I30 feet up a gentle slope from the river bank. Our house was located at an elevation which corresponded to near the highest reaches of the flooding waters, with the raging, destructive river coming within one inch of flooding the living room floor. The furnace and water heater, located in the garage at two feet below the living room floor level, were to become in need of replacement because of the water damage, but little else was irreparably damaged, save the family’s sense of safety and security..
My father became concerned about the potential for future flooding and decided it was time to move the family to higher ground. He located some property on a high bluff across the river from our home and secured Jim Stobaugh, the builder of our existing home in West Linn, under contract to build the next house. We inspected the new home several times while it was under construction. One time we visited, the roof and exterior walls were present, but the interior sheet rock had not been started. The builder was there and told Dad that the sheetrock would be installed after the electrician had completed most of his tasks. It just so happened that the electrician was working in the basement, and Jim asked me if I would like to go downstairs and watch him work.
I remember walking down the stairs and seeing him pull electrical cable through the wooden studs to the junction boxes he had already roughed in. I was fascinated by the work. It almost seemed like magic that a house could be wired so that we could control lights and power from just toggle switches and outlets. I asked the electrician several questions, and he was very pleasant and answered me in a friendly manner. I was very impressed with the electrician and immediately respected him and his work. The thought of bringing power and light to families appealed to me. I began to wonder if becoming an electrician might be a good thing to do when I became an adult, but there were a lot of other things I was interested in, too, like becoming a jet pilot, an astronaut, and an explorer of the farthest regions of the known universe, like the heroes of some of the science fiction books that I read at that time.
We moved into our new neighborhood, and I met and befriended many boys my age over a short time period. One of the boys was my neighbor Craig Salter, a brilliant young man who, by age eleven years, seemed to possess a creative and mechanical skills package far above my own. He struggled a bit in school because the subject matter was dull and his IQ was far higher than the average student, which was not a good combination for him. We spent a lot of time together designing, building out of mylar and balsam wood, and launching rocket ships thousands of feet into the air, building plastic models of ships and aircraft of all types, climbing trees, and building tree forts.
For our largest ever civil engineering project, we progressed to digging a secret underground bunker on an outlier section of his family’s large piece of property. We needed lights in our bunker, so we secured a coil of electrical cable called Romex and dug a trench from our fort to an outside receptacle of the garage to his house. Craig wired a plug on the line side, and I connected a small light on the load side. Voila, we had lights when Craig took the plug from its hidden, buried place and plugged it in to the outside receptacle.
One summer evening, very late, when we were supposedly sleeping outside in an outbuilding his father had constructed, we entered our secret bunker to continue digging further back into the hillside to make more room. There was only enough room for us to lie down, as the ceiling was only about three feet tall, yet the chamber progressed to be about eight feet across after about a month of excavation. We only excavated at night, knowing his father would immediately shut us down for safety reasons if he became aware of our bunker-building operation.
We had just one light, which functioned well for our purposes, but the electrician on the job, who was me, failed to adequately insulate the hot lead on the fixture. I discovered the mistake when my bare elbow made contact with that energized connection, and my body became the new ground or replacement light fixture, if you will. My eyes lit up in shock and terror, and I convulsed uncontrollably for an unknown period of time until I shook free of the connection. Had the electricity passed through my heart, it probably would have killed me. In this case, I was not “saved by ZERO” or ground potential, but only by good fortune. However, I learned a powerful lesson about safe wiring practices and respecting Earth and its ground potential.
I took two classes at our local Owen Sabin Occupational Skills Center during my junior year and senior year in high school, one of which was Electrical Construction Wiring. Albert Critzer was a local Union 48 electrician turned instructor for my class at the Skills Center, teaching electrical theory and construction wiring. He was an intelligent man who also had a great love and enthusiasm for the industry. His energy was absolutely infectious, and it rubbed off on me. I knew that, somehow, someday, I must also become an electrician.
I was already committed to going to college and getting a degree in electrical engineering because I had excelled scholastically, had high proficiency in math and science, and hoped to showcase that educational excellence to entice the Air Force into allowing me to become a pilot. I was then going to parlay the fighter jet pilot status into a chance to train to become an astronaut.
I took a long and circuitous route through college and university electrical, electronic, and computer engineering classes. I also briefly was in the Air Force ROTC, where I could not find what I was looking for. The Air Force no longer needed pilots, as they already had an excess trained from the Vietnam War; thus, they wanted me to be a ground-based electrical engineer for them. I said
NO THANK YOU,
eschewing a full-ride scholarship with them to find my own unique path to reach the heavenly realms. After a few years of bouncing around doing less than happy, fulfilling things for local major and minor companies, I applied to and was accepted into a local electrical union’s apprenticeship program in 1988. I have never regretted the decision.
I became an electrician as a career choice. I became a spiritual seeker as a life choice. I found a Truth, a Truth that changed my life. We find what we look for. By insight into that which is looking, We find something much more interesting and unlimited.
Since 1987, my life has been devoted to understanding reality, as promoted and supported by our history and present-day political, social, and religious institutions, and finding sane pathways away from any collective insanity and malfeasance towards a higher ground of understanding, experience, and expression. I am intensely interested in all connections, yet I now focus on those that are primarily human in nature. I am also fascinated with our true ground of being; the Universe, Mother Earth, Nature, and their timeless teachings.
I am an expert in electrical theory and practice, having been an electrical, electronic, and computer engineering student for six years in the 1970s and 1980s, and both an electronic technician and an electrician from 1980, and a computer engineer from 2006 until I retired from all fields in 2016. I have found much in my field of expertise in electrical theory that is both a metaphor for our human experience in consciousness and for many aspects of spirituality and its potential for human expression and empowerment.
Very few people look to electricians for the Truth, though the public sure loves for us to remodel, repair, and upgrade the old, or install new electrical systems. Yet this background has sufficiently provided me a foundational consciousness for understanding the art of measurement of reality and consciousness. I have been given access to the doors to mankind’s hidden knowledge, which isn’t commonly accessed by the rest of humanity.
Electricity as a Foundational Phenomenon
In a process control theory class in 1992, I observed and was impressed by how these feedback and feedforward dependent control systems resembled the functions and internal workings of our human minds, especially with activities like maintaining order and balance or goal setting and achieving. I spoke to the teacher about my observation. He was impressed with my insight and stated that though we all work with practical electrical theory, only some gain a nodding familiarity with its esoteric principles and teachings.
No secret handshake is required for admission into advanced electrical teachings or the application of esoteric theories to practical uses in our lives, but in Oregon, you are required to be licensed before undertaking any paid employment in the electrical field!
Electricity, much like the air we breathe, is omnipresent yet invisible, a force so integral to the tapestry of our modern daily lives that its presence is almost taken for granted. Yet, in its quiet omnipresence, electricity mirrors foundational phenomena like words, and languages formed from those words, or our innate bond with Mother Earth. It is crucial to recognize that electricity demands not our belief but an understanding and respect for its power to both empower humanity and inflict harm when misunderstood and mishandled.
Just as language has shaped human civilization by enabling communication and the sharing of knowledge across generations, and the connection with nature has grounded us to the planet that sustains us, electricity has been a catalyst for monumental leaps in our development. From the first light bulb that illuminated a dark room to the complex web of global connectivity, electricity has sculpted a new reality, redefining what is possible. The analogy extends beyond mere utility; electricity, like language, must be understood for best utilization. One must grasp the grammar of circuits and the vocabulary of volts and watts. Remember, this is The Electrician’s Guide To Our Galaxy, and not the Plumber’s, Carpenter’s, or Goatherder’s Guide, so we need to learn some of the language for effective communication about electricity.
The Intriguing Parallel Between Electrical Circuits and Human Conversation
At first glance, the comparison between the complexities of human conversation and the technicalities of an electrical circuit might seem far-fetched. However, upon closer inspection, this analogy not only holds water but also unveils some profound insights into the nature of effective communication. It’s a metaphor that does more than just describe; it enlightens, making the abstract intricacies of our daily interactions a little more tangible and, dare I say, more manageable.
In a basic electrical circuit, the flow from the voltage source through conductors, across the load, and back to the ground is quite similar to the progression of a conversation. The first speaker, or the initiator of dialogue, acts as the voltage source, energizing the conversation with their thoughts or questions. The air, or any medium that carries sound (or in our modern world, digital signals), serves as the conductor, allowing the speaker’s message to travel to the listener. This message, much like an electrical current, is the invisible yet palpable energy that connects two points – or in this case, two people.
Just as a break in a circuit prevents the flow of electrons, a conversation without both a sender and a receiver falls short of its purpose. This circuit needs to be complete for effective communication to occur, highlighting the importance of engagement and attentiveness in conversations. Both parties must be connected and receptive for the ‘current’ of conversation to flow smoothly.
Resistance in an electrical circuit can decrease the efficiency of current flow, much like misunderstandings or distractions can impede the transmission of information in a conversation. Recognizing and addressing these ‘resistances’ promptly can restore clarity and purpose to the interaction, ensuring that the message is received as intended.
Perhaps the most critical parallel is the concept of grounding. In electrical terms, the ground provides a reference point for the current, a return path to the source that completes the circuit. In conversation, grounding can be seen as the common understanding or shared knowledge between the participants. Without this grounding, conversations can feel disjointed or unproductive, as if speaking into the void without a return path. Establishing common ground ensures that both participants are oriented and connected, providing a stable basis for meaningful exchange.
Understanding these parallels can significantly impact our approach to communication. It prompts us to consider, “Is my circuit complete? Is there resistance I need to be aware of? Are we properly grounded?” Reflecting on our conversations through the lens of an electrical circuit not only offers a novel perspective but also encourages us to be more mindful communicators. Just as engineers strive to optimize circuits for maximum efficiency and clarity, so too can we hone our conversational skills, seeking to enhance understanding, connection, and collaboration in every interaction.
In essence, recognizing the metaphorical equivalence between a simple electrical circuit and human conversation can illuminate the dynamics of our daily communications. It frames our interactions in a new light, encouraging us to cultivate conversations that are as effective and energetically charged as a well-designed circuit. By applying principles from the realm of physics to our personal and professional exchanges, we can aspire to achieve not just communication, but true connection.
Fundamental Components To Electrical and Communication Circuits
The fundamental unit of electricity is the electron, a negatively charged particle, which, when moving in a coordinated movement called current, will do many forms of work for us. An electron being negatively charged does not imply a value assessment; it is only a convention adopted to describe its voltage or difference in potential energy relative to a neutral or positively charged source.
There are five primary components to any simple complete electrical circuit.
- Voltage Source (derived power from battery, generator, solar cell array, etc.)
- Load and non-load resistance (conductor resistance losses)
- Conductors and connections
- Ampere/Current flow
- Ground or zero voltage reference potential
A voltage source provides for a difference in potential energy. The presence of a source for voltage enables current flow to reach a load, such as a light or motor, where work can be done. Current flow is those electrons in a guided concentrated movement generated by the voltage source, directed through the “line side” of the load (470 ohm resistor+LED in diagram), through the load, and into the return path, in this case a conductor but often ground, and back into the source through a completed circuit connection. This is the normal action of a circuit when the energy released from one terminal (-) of the voltage source (9 Volt battery in diagram) passes through a circuit and all loads back to the other terminal (+) of the source. This is because the positive terminal has a higher potential, while the negative terminal has a lower potential. Electrons are negatively charged, so they are attracted to the positive end of the battery and repelled by the negative end.
Simple circuit using 9V voltage source, 470ohm resistor+led light for load, and interconnecting conductors to complete circuit loop.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, so in these simplest of electrical circuits, whatever energy is delivered by the source has to be utilized by both the loads and the conductors that carry that energy throughout the closed loop. Ohm’s Law states that the sum of all voltages in any closed loop circuit must be zero, so by Law, it is verified that, in these simple circuits, the energy given by the source is completely utilized by the load and conductor resistance.. To complete this simple circuit understanding, it is by convention that when a ground connection is present, the ground is always connected to the negative terminal on a voltage source and to the load side of the resistor. If there is a difference in potential between the two “grounds,” there will be circuit unpredictability and unexpected performance degradations, so a wire is invariably used to tie or bond them together to keep those points at the same potential energy, or voltage level.
Similarly, our symbols and letters are analogous to electrons in an electric circuit. They are fundamental units of consciousness and require an intelligent application of our perceptual capacity working in concert with our senses, previous knowledge, emotions, insight, or even intuition upon any object of our awareness. And, guess who or what becomes the source for voltage in this analogy? There is a conceptual voltage, or difference in potential, created by the action of the knower (you, or I, or both) attempting to understand the known (that which we are witnessing, knowing, or perceiving) by assigning a symbol, a string of characters, a word, a sentence, or even a book to the phenomenon observed. This is how we build up our potential energy, or any voltage difference between us as the speaker and all others as the listener.
There are five primary components to any successful completed information exchange between two people.
- Speaker/writer #1, who develops higher potential energy and derives power from knowledge base, present moment awareness, insight, creativity, life wisdom, etc., metaphorically equivalent to electrical circuit voltage source
- Listener/reader etc, with any of their willingness to listen and learn and any resistance to what is stated, which is metaphorically equivalent to any load in an electric circuit.
- Air, microphone and speakers, as metaphorical equivalent of electrical circuit conductors
- Spoken word, sentences, book, etc., metaphorically equivalent to electrical circuit current flow
- The very ground of all being, as represented by our mythology, religion, science and quantum theory, metaphysics, Mother Earth and Nature, which becomes metaphorically equivalent to ground in any electrical circuit.
In order for the speaker mentioned above to build more potential energy (they are now a voltage source, after all!), the “knower” part of the speaker/writer has to learn a lot of useful knowledge. Words and concepts are created and/or entertainer in the speaker/writer consciousness, which becomes the energy bridge, or neural link, between the knower and the knowns,
What does that mean?
Hold out your coffee cup in front of you for a moment. Now pretend that you, the knower, dont know what the coffee cup is, the soon to be known. Engage the object with “the beginner’s mind”, the mind that does not know. (I know, this is hard to do, we know our coffee cup so well!). To start, your senses tell you that this object is real. And, it has something attached to its side resembling an ear without a center. It also has an empty reservoir carved out of the body of it, so it can be used to hold liquids or solids. It appears to made out of a ceramic material, which you already know is a great insulating material, which means that we could put hot liquids into it and not burn our fingers while holding onto it.
What shall we name the mysterious object? Since it appears like a cup that we have previously used for other liquid consumption, and it has a handle that facilitates the drinking of hot liquids, what hot liquids could we drink with it? Hmmm, if coffee is your favorite hot drink, you might call it a coffee cup! Every time you see this object in the future, you wil know it as a coffee cup. So the knower, you, and the known, the coffee cup, are forever linked in consciousness by the energy bridge, or expression “coffee cup”. You will continue to expand your consciousness by the ever increasing amount of interconnecting neural links between the original name, coffee cup, and all future experiences with that object, which we call associative memory. You are building potential energy around that expression, the expression now becoming a new energy bridge, or neural link. These evolving connections can morph into a complex energy matrix, storing vast amounts of potential energy.
It is now clear as black coffee, right?
What are you waiting for, grab that coffee cup, and build up some more potential energy!
Life is a much more dynamic experience when we can be both a source and a load, or a giver and a receiver. After all, who wants to be just the listening and often resistive load all of the time, when we can also be a source?
We are going to have to have a lengthy discussion about the spoken word, sentences, books, etc. in regards to #4, and what is the ground of being for #5, as primary components for communication, in the next chapter.
Keep that coffee pot percolating, as we may need some extra support !
