Chapter One: Ground Zero
The first 6 paragraphs need reworking
The number 42 is significant in Douglas Adam’s book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It is the answer to 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?
In Adam’s book, planet Earth is to be removed from space to make way for an iinterstellar superhighway.
In this book, I’ll show you how we can move heaven and earth to pave the way for our spiritual, emotional, and physical growth. Rest assured, no planets will be harmed in the process!
This book isn’t written from a galactic hitchhiker’s viewpoint but rather from an electrician’s and then a universal traveler’s perspective—welcome to my guide to exploring our universe!
The Paradoxical Power of Zero
I often find myself contemplating the big questions of life and the mysteries lurking in the farthest corners of our Milky Way galaxy and beyond. While I’m neither in touch with superintelligent aliens nor any galactic hitchhikers, my journey is more philosophical, intellectual, and spiritual. Once an electrician, I’ve since used my own “deep thought” and an insight-powered personal supercomputer to uncover a different kind of answer.
The answer to the greatest 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.
- 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.
How can we possibly be saved by zero? The very idea feels counterintuitive, a negation of value and substance. Yet, this simple symbol holds a rich tapestry of meaning that stretches across mathematics, philosophy, and spirituality. 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.
To understand zero’s power, let’s begin with a few definitions. The numeral 0 represents the absence of quantity, but it is also the origin point from which all other quantities are measured. It is the genesis of order on a graduated scale. Philosophically, zero embodies the concept of nothingness, or śūnya in Sanskrit, from which its name evolved. But it is not a sterile void. It is the fertile emptiness of pure potential, the blank slate upon which creation unfolds. The transition from zero to one mirrors the mystifying leap from non-being to being, a central inquiry of ancient and modern thought.
This duality—the finite and the infinite, the ego and the cosmos—invites a profound contemplation of our place within existence. The “stuff” inside the circle of zero is the same material as everything outside, symbolizing our intrinsic connection to the universe despite our perceived separateness. Zero challenges us to confront our ego’s limitations and acknowledge our inseparable bond with the infinite. In the heart of nothingness lies the potential for everything.
An Electrician’s Guide To Our Universe
Since 1987, I’ve dedicated my life to exploring reality as shaped by history and modern political, social, and religious systems, while seeking meaningful ways to rise above their flaws and missteps toward greater understanding and expression. I’m deeply interested in all connections, with a current focus on human relationships. I’m also captivated by our true foundation: Mother Earth and the universe that she is embedded within, and the timeless wisdom that the cosmos offers.
I’m an expert in electrical connections, with six years of study in electrical, electronic, and computer engineering, followed by a career as an electronic technician, electrician, and computer engineer from 1980 until my retirement in 2016. Over the years, I’ve discovered that electrical theory offers profound metaphors for human consciousness, relationships and spirituality, and the potential for human expression and empowerment.
Few people turn to electricians for profound truths, though they certainly appreciate our skills in remodeling, repairing, upgrading old systems, or installing new ones. However, this work has given me a unique foundation for understanding the measurement of reality and even consciousness itself. It has opened the doors to humanity’s hidden knowledge—a wisdom that is seldom tapped into or applied by others.
Consciousness and the Art of Measurement
- What does it mean to truly measure reality and peer into the intricacies of consciousness?
- Are the tools we use for both endeavors qualified to search for the truth of ourselves, our relationship with the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Universe that contains and sustains it?
These questions have long fascinated me. Through my experiences, I have come to view the act of measurement as more than a scientific or procedural practice—it is a deeply human endeavor intertwined with our understanding of existence. Unlocking this understanding of the fundamental attribute of consciousness offers insight into the workings of reality. It reveals knowledge that, while often hidden, is accessible to those seeking it.
Before exploring the universe, it’s logical to first understand the observer. By recognizing our role as observers, we can adjust our perspective and view the infinite universe more authentically, rather than seeing it as a mere reflection of ourselves. Clarity is impossible when peering through a fog. This fog might consist of cultural and familial conditioning, unresolved traumas, or the inevitable adaptations to conventional or common knowledge.
In a university physics class, I encountered the mutual influence between human consciousness and the art of measurement, where I was exposed to quantum theory and the observer effect. This was my first exposure to the perplexing truth that observing a process influences it on a fundamental level. A corollary truth was that the act of measurement also changes what is being measured, which, at first glance, is counterintuitive.
The second time I was exposed to the relationship between the inner workings of the mind and objective processes was in a process control theory class in 1992, when I was an apprentice electrician. The course introduced me to feedback and feedforward control systems designed to maintain order, achieve goals, and correct disruptions. I was struck by their resemblance to the inner workings of the human mind. Our thoughts and actions follow similar principles, constantly adjusting to maintain balance, predict outcomes, achieve ambitions, readjust direction as needed, and respond to life’s uncertainties.
When I shared this observation with the instructor, he was receptive and praised the insight. He explained that while many of us rely on the practical applications of concepts like electrical theory in our daily lives, only a few take the time to explore its more esoteric principles. This conversation left a lasting impression on me. It reinforced an important truth: the profound knowledge of reality’s systems is often hidden in plain sight, not because it is purposefully obscured, but because most of us do not pause to look beneath the surface.
The key takeaway is clear—there’s no secret handshake needed to access this knowledge. The doors are open to anyone ready to observe, reflect, and seek understanding. However, as that teacher humorously pointed out, you’ll need an electrical license in Oregon to legally profit from its application in electrical construction.
Electricity, like language or even our connection with Mother Earth, is a foundational phenomenon. It requires no belief, only an understanding of its potential to either empower us or bring us harm if we remain ignorant of its supporting laws.
The fundamental unit of electricity is the electron, a negatively charged particle which, when moving in a coordinated fashion, will do a multitude of 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, relative to a neutral or positively charged source.
Electricity is the flow of electrons driven by a difference in potential energy and a voltage source. This energy flows from the source through the “line side” of a load, passes through the load, and returns to the source via a common connection called the ground. This completed circuit allows energy from the voltage source to travel through and return, creating a continuous loop. As with any electrical circuit, there is always conductor resistance that impedes the flow, so the load never receives 100 percent of the source energy.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, so in this simplest of electrical circuits, whatever energy is delivered by the source must be utilized by both the load and the resistance of the conductors that carry that energy throughout the closed loop. Ohm’s Law states that the sum of all voltages in any closed circuit must be zero. By Law, it is verified that the energy given by the source is utilized by the load and the conductors. To complete this simple circuit understanding, it is by convention that 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 degradations of performance.
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, our previous knowledge, our emotions, our insight, or even our intuition upon any object of our awareness. And guess who, or what, becomes the source for voltage in this analogy? And what may become the conductor resistance?
There is a conceptual voltage, a difference in potential, created by the action of the knower (you or I) attempting to understand the known (that which we are witnessing or perceiving). We assign a symbol, a string of characters, or a word to the phenomenon observed. This character stream is impressed upon our new “known,” which is equivalent to a load in our simplified circuit of human consciousness. This perceptual creation makes us, the knower, the electrical equivalent of the previously mentioned voltage source present in all active circuits. Like in a standard electrical circuit, there is also a reference ground that must be fundamentally connected to the voltage source—which is established or ignored by us.
The new object of perception becomes part of a perceptual circuit and reflects the difference in potential energy between the knower and the known. In this analogy, the circuit is balanced when the energy of the understanding of the knower becomes equivalent to the energy it takes overcoming the conductor resistance and the energy of the known. The higher the potential energy of the knower, the higher the energy that will be imparted upon the newly known. In other words, the knower and the known become one, minus the resistance, though nearly mirror images of each other in potential difference. Remember Ohm’s Law? The sum of voltages in any closed circuit must be zero, as energy cannot be created or destroyed. Even in our human circuit of naming and understanding, a form of Ohm’s Law is working.
Yet, two questions remain:
- What is the equivalent in consciousness to ground potential? and
- What is the equivalent in consciousness of the circuit or conductor resistance?
The answers to these two questions are going to require the reader to attain more knowledge, or there will be too much resistance to successfully transfer my knowledge to you (ooh, big hint to question number two there!).
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- 0. Two babies lopking at each other and smiling
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- 1.one parent and a 2 year old Teaching the alphabet
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Navigating the Infinity Within Zero: A Reflection on Ego, Universe, and Existence
Words are how we categorize or name each new connecting link between our sense of self and our environment. The word we create out of our letters and symbols and use to represent the new known becomes the equivalent in consciousness of electricity, completing a circuit to connect our knowing self to the new known. This is an actual exchange of energy. Each verbal creation is a new iteration of our conscious self; it adds to our sense of self, to our potential energy as a source, and to the vast accumulation of knowledge we already possess. Our accumulation of knowledge, literally and figuratively, increases our actual energy potential as human energy sources.
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.
This is all well and good, but how can we understand this better at a human, spiritual level? Take, for instance, the practice of meditation. In some varieties of the meditative experience, the practitioner is given a mantra, or word to focus upon, during a session. The word could be any word or expression, with the intention being to concentrate on it, eventually to the exclusion of most, if not all, other thoughts. If the practitioner can develop and maintain a clear enough focus, all that remains is the knower (the practitioner’s awareness) and the known (the mantra). This is a completed circuit of consciousness, and the knower, in a realized state of being, becomes ONE with the energy behind the word represented by the mantra itself. The practitioner, literally, sees the reflection of themself in the mirror of the realization of the word itself.
In July of 1987, while performing this exact style of meditation, I had an amazing, life-changing, transformative sequence of insights. My mantra was “Master Teacher of the Light,” which I recited over and over again. I had been using this mantra for several days with little success, yet I was persistent. After about five minutes of reciting the mantra, without warning, I was lifted out of my normal bodily awareness and started having an “out of body experience.” I perceived that my life was like driving an automobile, with my mind as the operator of the steering wheel. I had a choice to make: continue letting my conditioned mind—the sum total of my past experience—dictate the direction of my life or let go of the controls and experience a new realm of understanding and being. The choice had been made long ago. Almost magically, I let go of the controls and was lifted out of my bodily awareness. I no longer had any awareness of my body or my past, just my present state of being, which was a total mystery to me, yet had an irresistible, magnetic attraction to my awareness.
I was carried by the river of the unknown, through an infinite vibrating array of interconnected living structures, which I came to understand was the actual matrix of consciousness itself. As if in a half spiral downward, my awareness was carried through this matrix, and I then “materialized” within a chamber without boundaries, where there was no light or darkness, just Peace and Joy. There was an inexplicable SILENCE and a VIBRANCY that felt so familiar, yet I had never been here before, in my regular or meditative life. My time here might have been a fraction of a second or ten minutes in length; I will never know, for here there was no sense of space or time, only SILENCE and an inexplicable sense of the presence of a vast ENERGY.
Here is where things go from interesting and unusual to transformative and transcendent. As I “sat” in this silence, I could see clearly the entirety of consciousness itself—its truth and magic, and its nonsense, and all variations between these two apparent poles. I saw how each word that I created and incorporated into my personal knowledge was ONE with me.
Are you ready for this next truth? I saw that every concept of “YOU” that I have ever created is only an extension of me. YOU cannot ever be real in any lasting, spiritual sense. You may be there, but I had been seeing you only as a conceptual being, instead of the infinite being that you are. There is only ONE, no matter how tightly I cling to the MANY. Each so-called “known” in this new understanding is another iteration of my sense of self, so the perceptual me as both the “knower” and the “knowns” are forever ONE.
The ultimate truth is when I, as an ego, am at ZERO potential relative to Mother Earth, and the Universe, I can see the whole of existence.
This is the one moment and the one spot in the universe where zero becomes one.
The Paradox of Salvation Through Nothingness
The symbol for zero invites us on this 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.
At first glance, the notion of zero equating to one feels intrinsically paradoxical—a challenge to the laws of mathematics, logic, and reality itself. Yet, if we step outside literal interpretations and examine this through a lens of consciousness, philosophy, and spirituality, the equation becomes symbolic, profound, and perhaps even liberating. Could it be that zero, a concept of apparent emptiness, holds the key to an entirely different kind of completeness? Can it whisper the way to salvation if we learn to align our inner selves?
To unravel this paradox, one must first confront the dominion that time exerts over modern consciousness. Our thoughts, tethered endlessly to the past or fears of the future, distort and scatter our sense of presence. These time-based thoughts act as chains, subtly convincing us that what truly defines us lies somewhere we can no longer reach or somewhere we haven’t yet arrived—never here, never now.
This fragmented state creates a perpetual yearning—an ache for identity sourced in achievements, possessions, or relationships. We are stuck in the endless arithmetic of “one more” to feel whole. If I have one more promotion, one more possession, one more validation, I’ll be complete. Yet such arithmetic is futile. Each one we add requires yet another, keeping us running on an unending treadmill toward illusions of fulfillment.
What if we could disrupt this arithmetic entirely? What if, instead of endlessly chasing ones, we could achieve stillness—zero?
To be saved by zero is to fine-tune consciousness and strip away the tangled web of identity built upon time. It is to step beyond the boundaries of “what I was,” “what I might become,” and even “what I have.” When all layers are peeled back—when we detach from the illusory metrics that underpin self-worth—we arrive at pure presence. The eternal and unchanging essence of being. Through zero, we find a unity that collapses all separation, dissolving the line between “you” and “me,” self and other, subject and object. It is in this great equalizer—the stripping away of the layers of ego, past, and future—that zero paradoxically becomes one. From apparent absence grows the acute awareness of oneness with all beings, unbound by time or circumstance.
Salvation, then, is not a destination but a remembrance. A return to the still point where zero and one converge. By finding zero, we uncover the singular essence of being, an undivided wholeness that erases every false division.
It sounds like a monumental task, does it not? Hah! You are a traveler through our universe, and this capacity, and an infinity more, are destined to be yours, if you can find the Oneness within your unique Zero.
Man Is the Measure of All Things
As the Greek philosopher Protagoras stated over 2,000 years ago, “man is the measure of all things.” Malala Yousafzai, the great young Pakistani education and human rights activist, has stated that she once asked God for one or two more inches in height, but God laughed and made her as tall as the sky so that she could no longer measure herself. Yet, continue to measure ourselves, and each other, we must do—at our benefit and risk—until we find true freedom, and our spirits have finally joined with the energy behind Malala’s poetic and profound statement of being.
Words are measurement tools for the human mind. We often live a second-hand life, using the measurements—the words and concepts—provided to us by our family, culture, and history. These factors provide a vast base of knowledge that acts as a bridge, or a bonding jumper, to those possibilities we have not yet creatively accessed on our own. Yet are they formed of the substance of reality, of unreality, or an unsustainable synthesis of both?
We must ask some difficult questions:
- How do we weigh and measure our existence, and against which standard?
- What, within ourselves, enables us to establish a valid reference point for our measurements, so that there is consistency, not only within ourselves but across the human population we attempt to communicate with?
- How will you see yourself tomorrow if you find that infinity is the true measure of your being?
The human race has become the measure of all things through its use of the energy of words and language, and the tools of creative thought, intelligence, and technology. Naming is the way our consciousness weighs and measures new forms of life, ideas, and experiences in an attempt to insert the unknown and the mysterious into a present context for understanding. Naming tends to attach a dynamic process to a fixed point in time and space with a past frame of reference, and we all share in the confidence that the words we use have successfully represented that which we are trying to define.
By its very act, measurement represents an attempt to impose boundaries upon the boundless. To measure is to collapse the infinite into the finite—to reduce the shimmering complexity of experience into useful, comprehensible units. It is a necessary artifice, but an artifice nonetheless. Measurement is not truth; it is merely an approximation, a scaffold upon which we attempt to hoist the elusive threads of reality.
In Greek times, sin was an archery term which meant that the archer missed the bullseye. The “sin” was the distance between the bullseye and where the arrow landed. Naming is like an archer aiming his arrow at a moving target. Though the archer may have perfect aim, the target, like time itself, is always moving. He always just misses the mark, with his sin being the distance from the truth that his arrow has pierced. An aspect of “sin” in this explanation is our awareness becoming entrained with the movement of our thought to time itself. We will always “sin” while our thoughts remain hypnotized by the spell of time.
Yet we human archers never give up. In our vanity, we adjust the target in our minds to indicate that we have succeeded in hitting it. If we can find consensus with others and share in a collective misunderstanding, we have created more collective consciousness, or a “common knowledge.” Just because it is common knowledge does NOT make it accurate knowledge, however. We must keep this in mind and keep our minds open to new understandings, lest we institutionalize our assessments into permanent memories that are resistant to change. Remember, our memories are often like gods to us, always trying to convince us of their righteousness while incessantly pulling us back into a conceptual, and often illusory, past frame of view.
Our Ground of Being: Mother Earth
If observation informs reality, then what is the state of the observer’s consciousness? This question transports us to a spiritual inquiry—into the nature of foundational consciousness itself. Can we measure that which measures? Imagine consciousness as a mirror. Consider this potentially transformative thought: all that we see are projections of our intentions to see upon as yet undiscovered or undefined parts of ourselves.
We worship the measurable, often at the cost of the immeasurable. Business leaders demand “metrics” of success, reducing human fulfillment to KPIs and quarterly reports. Individuals chase measurements of self-worth—bank balances, Instagram likes, productivity reports—as though life can be summed up by tidy graphs. But these tools do not measure the soul. They cannot capture the ineffable—the texture of a quiet sunset, the depth of a healed wound, or the simple joy of being alive.
When I was a kid, my next-door neighbor and I built an underground fort together. We’d tell our parents we were “camping out” in the yard, then sneakily hot-wire a cord from the garage to a portable light with exposed connections to light up our growing cave. Once, I accidentally brushed against the 115-volt hot lead to the lamp and became part of the ground circuit. I screamed, shook violently, and luckily managed to break free, saving my life. Another time, as an apprentice electrician, I opened a junction box and noticed sparking under a big blue wire nut holding multiple conductors together. Without thinking, I tightened it, only to find the insulation had broken down from arcing. I became the ground for a 277-volt lighting circuit but managed to pull my hand away in time. Many others haven’t been so lucky. The helplessness of being an unintentional ground has stuck with me ever since these two near-electrocution experiences. Becoming the ground in an unprotected environment can be fatal, so it is of utmost importance that our connections are sound, and that a healthy ground has been established..
Electricians are required to learn the philosophy of grounding and bonding to prevent safety issues from arising. Grounding and bonding techniques are utilized for the design and proper functioning of any electrical system. “Ground” in the power distribution grid is literally the ground that’s all around you when you are walking outside. It is the dirt, rocks, and groundwater. Mother Earth is the direct source for all successful grounding. Grounding is a process of connecting electrical systems to a common reference point, which is the potential of the ground that Mother Earth provides.
Bonding is a process for connecting all conductive materials together that do not have a direct connection to Mother Earth, and then connecting that link to Ground. Thus, bonding supplies the necessary conductor paths to make sure that those circuits have a consistent reference potential grid tied to Mother Earth’s ground potential.
By internationally accepted electrical standards, ground potential is set to ZERO volts, and all derived or existing voltages are referenced to that ground. The safety and operational integrity of any system is preserved, protected, and
SAVED BY ZERO,
or a common ground reference potential. What is the relationship between Mother Earth as an electrical ground and Mother Earth as a spiritual ground?
Our modern world has encouraged us to become increasingly disconnected from nature. Civilization, with its need for farming and cities, has overrun vast tracks of the natural world, eliminating much of our spiritual and physical support. We eat, sleep, and live indoors, drive automobiles supported by insulating rubber tires, wear shoes that create a barrier to the Earth, and are subject to constant distraction from religious and political authorities and hyper-stimulation through smartphones and media obsession. This 21st-century lifestyle contributes to a lack of connection with nature, which is the manifestation of our True Ground.
Without being connected to the Earth, we become ungrounded. Figuratively, if not literally, we are constantly taking on frequencies that aren’t supportive of our minds and bodies—frequencies that conflict with our natural resonance. Without grounding, it becomes difficult for us to discharge these chaotic energies we’ve taken on.
Without a common reference point, our words and concepts will be out of phase with others, minimizing harmonization. Communication failures resulting from conflicting frames of reference create stress and anxiety. Over time, it takes its toll on our mental and physical health. Without a connection with the Earth, we don’t share in a healing common knowledge, negating any sense of supportive calm that happens naturally when we are earthed.
The best spiritual reference point is also Mother Earth. If the materials of Mother Earth are remembered to be the source for all life, then whatever true potential we have is sourced through that sacred connection. A great way to stay spiritually grounded is to remember our true source—to remember that we are of Mother Earth and may consciously carry that spiritual energy into all of our relationships. As the Mother loves us, so we must bring that motherly love to ALL of our relationships.
We need a real awakening, enlightenment, to change our way of thinking and seeing things. To breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it, realize you are the Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the Earth.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
The Universe as a Self-Organizing System
We are all alive today due to the self-organizing principles of life itself. In manufacturing and industrial processes, in our planet Earth and its journey through the solar system, and even in the human mind, we bear witness to the wonders and mysteries of self-organizing systems in action.
Like all systems, electrical and human, I am always seeking to understand each installation or human being fully and then bring improvement to all faulty or underperforming supporting systems. If a system was created from a defective foundational understanding, I will even be part of the creation of a new system that will more effectively carry our intentions and do more meaningful work for us.
The nature of self-organizing systems is that once the quiescent point (also known as the Q-point, set point, or balance point) has been altered, the system naturally seeks a return to its native state, or “normalcy.” For our human experience, this may be both a blessing and a curse. Typically, if we stretch a rubber band and release it, it returns to its original state. But if we stretch it too hard and too often, the rubber band loses its elasticity and will never again return to its original form. A human being who has been stretched beyond their capacity through excessive stress, anxiety, or addiction will NOT be returning to their “normal” state, once it is recognized that the “normal” state was, in fact, an unhealthy, abnormal state of being in the first place.
For our planet Earth, this self-organizing principle may mean ridding itself of any or all offensive life forms that threaten its existence. The time intervals for finding a new or returning to an old “set point” are far different for an individual human life than for the life of planet Earth. The Earth may take thousands or millions of years to return to its optimal state, whereas we evanescent ones must act immediately, lest we not live long enough to witness any real healing.
A life out of balance means that not enough knowledge has been applied to guarantee harmonious system operation. And it is of ultimate importance to realize that, in the end, the human race is not the determiner of what homeostasis is for the world. That has been established through billions of years of its evolution. It is also of greatest importance to realize that no man or woman is an island. Our perception of harmony and balance is inextricably intertwined with the rest of humanity. No matter how healed, balanced, or empowered we believe we are becoming, we are eternally linked with the rest of humanity and the universe in our attempts to create order out of the collective chaos known as human knowledge.
The respected mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offered to the world his Noosphere concept, which parallels this understanding. He theorized that humanity is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity. Yet, how might this truth reflect through the present collective ignorance created by the human experience? Our collective desire to go to war, to kill each other, to commit suicide, may well be the Earth, acting through human consciousness, to bring healing to itself through the removal of damaged parts of itself—at least enough to bring balance back. Our own Armageddon may well be written right into the operating system of Earth-consciousness as it brings stability back to itself through all of its agents, be it earth, air, fire, or water.
Without harmony and peace, no homeostasis around a healthy operating point is possible.
“The miracle is not to walk on water… The miracle is to walk on this earth. You breathe in, you become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are alive and are walking upon this beautiful planet. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
Insight and discernment are required tools to find the precious oysters bearing the real Pearls of Wisdom. The hubris of many of our spiritual experts shows either their lack of success in making a consistent connection with our ground of being, or Truth, and/or our lack of understanding of what that connection might actually look like.
Mother Earth is ground the world around. This is a universal teaching for electricians worldwide.
Our bodies have over 50 trillion biologically and electrically interconnected cells that are totally derived from our ground of being, Mother Earth. We are not only created from materials endemic to this planet, we are a minute version of Her. When we return to our source and connect with nature, our energetic frequency begins to change and may oscillate with the same frequency of life force as the Earth and the rest of its life forms.
“We need a real awakening, enlightenment, to change our way of thinking and seeing things. To breathe in and be aware of your body and look deeply into it, realize you are the Earth and your consciousness is also the consciousness of the Earth.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
Imagine that there are 7.5 billion mountain peaks on our planet, each representing one human life. And imagine that each peak looks at the other peaks and does not see that each is connected to the same Earth. Now imagine that each peak wants to try to establish a connection with the other peaks. The biggest bridge-building project in history must be undertaken to connect them all. Imagine that these bridges are the energy of words, sentences, and concepts. These bridges are our “bonding jumpers” to each other, so hopefully, we bond through mutual love and compassion, not hatred and fear. These bridges are our collective consciousness, the matrix that verbally connects all of humanity.
Yet what about the connection to the Earth? If the peak feels separate from its ground of support, what might bring the connection back? Can each peak find its unique ground? Can one postulate that the ground of our being calls out to the peaks to remember their true ground? And will the Earth send messages to the peaks, to remind them of their origin? Would one call those words that bring awareness back to our true connection with the Earth “the word of God”? These “inspired words” would be our “grounding connections.”
Lookinglass Lake, Mt. Adams, August 1992
What might a personal experience of a Universal Ground look and feel like? Keep in mind that mystics, saints, and electricians each have their own unique representation of their experience of our ground of being. My experience in 1992 at Lookinglass Lake is one possibility for the direct experience of “Ground.”
I awoke one morning during the summer of 1992 and finished preparing to leave on a weekend hiking trip with my partner, Sharon, up to the Mt. Adams Wilderness Area. My senses were somehow heightened. Food tasted better, the air carried more scents, and my entire body felt alive with vitality.
Our drive took longer than expected, and we arrived too late to reach the developed campground, so we parked for the night in a snow park area. We sat outside our tent, and I began to experience that “extrasensory perception” yet again, but much more profoundly. It was as if I had sensory receptors in the dirt, the sky, and the trees. It was as if I had grown roots. I not only could see the ground, the trees, and the sky; I could FEEL the ground, and it was as if I extended all the way through everywhere I could see. It was the experience, in a new form, of “all that I can see is myself.” It was like I was “hearing,” “seeing,” and “feeling” for all of nature that surrounded us. It was a profound mystical, transcendental event.
We finally lay down for the evening, and though I was still profoundly experiencing this event, I was able to fall asleep. Shortly afterward, I awoke to a great light enveloping our tent. I arose to go outside. In the sky appeared a Great Light, and the entire surrounding area was bathed in a light that totally eliminated all shadows, even though it was near midnight. I awoke Sharon, who rose to witness it. To this day, I have no clue if the light was associated with my “heightened mystic awareness” or if it was just a coincidence that a UFO would awaken us to bathe us in its radiance. After we returned home, my mother reported that the week before, a mysterious light in the Mt. Adams wilderness area was also reported in the Oregonian newspaper, so who knows what was happening there?
There is only One Creator. There is no reason that we cannot be attuned with ALL OF ITS CREATIONS, including all willing members of the human, animal, plant, geological, and, uh, “alien” races. When we touch our Self with deep awareness, we touch everything. Mother Earth is fully conscious in a way we do not yet fully understand, yet we can all eventually resonate with Her. I have touched our Mother Earth with the deepest of awareness. I love and treasure our Mother Earth.
How about you?
Looking back at my life’s history, I remain grounded to Mother Earth, while immersed in the light of the Universe’s Mystery. And so, the question remains for you to ponder: in this grand interplay of science and consciousness within our Milky Way galaxy, what reality will you choose to observe, measure, and create? What can truly be measured, and what is left in the unmeasurable shadow of our tools and methods?
There, in that boundless awareness, you may glimpse a truth that no data point can capture. And isn’t that the greatest measurement of all?
