Relativity and Reality: A journey? in space? and time?

Relativity and Reality

Relativity like features from unlikely sources

(This was a project for a Stanford University course on Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity by Prof. Lagerstrom)

Introduction:

Now that we know that the concepts we were so far living with and considering absolute and thus equal for all – time, distance / length, simultaneity – are not actually so, the next question is what then is real and absolute?

Are our lives just a projection of something, so that each of us becomes entitled to our own frame of reference?

Here, an attempt is made to explore and discuss on this based on special relativity formulae and a couple of other unlikely sources.

Relativity and the NDE:

With the advancement in medical technology, there have been an increasing number of cases of near death experiences due to resuscitation of physically dead people – people whose heart and brain had stopped functioning for a few minutes. There is a fair amount of serious scientific research going on, on this phenomenon, for example, Sam Parnia MD’s “AWARE” study project, etc. Websites like http://www.iands.org and http://www.near-death.com and many others are full of thousands of accounts where resuscitated people recount their experiences of the period while they were physically dead. What is interesting is that almost all of these thousands of experiences are similar with respect to certain observations:

1. There is a very bright light, which is identified with God.

2. Many have come back saying that the concept of time is not what we think it is, it is not linear. They have said that the past, present and future all exist at the same “time”. Most have recounted travel back in time, and have even come back with intuitions about the future.

3. Space and distance are not a constraint, and people were accurately able to recount details of events and different places while they were not alive.

All this makes us wonder – does our consciousness, which may exist independent of our body – have some properties similar to light?

Indeed, from Einstein's formulae of time dilation and length contraction, we know that:

(delta t)moving = (1 / Y) (delta t) rest

(l)moving = (1 / Y) (l)rest, where Y is Gamma = 1 / (sqrt (1 - (v*v) / (c*c))).

At speeds of light, Y becomes infinity, thus rendering (delta t)moving and (l)moving as zero, while (delta t) rest and (l)rest become infinity – thus lending what can be called as omnipotence and omnipresence to the moving frame.

Thus, it can be said that time stops and the distance becomes zero for one frame while it is related to infinite time and infinite distance in the other frame, which is the universe familiar to us (when alive). The frame in which time and distance is zero has properties generally attributed to God and similar to ones observed by the people just described, where, without moving in distance and time they still are able to relate to all places and times.

Thoughts from a different place and time

Mandukya Upanishad is an ancient set of verses written in the Sanskrit language, and it indirectly explores some of the thoughts presented above. It speaks of an entity with four states, and the central idea of this text is that time and space, which seem absolutely real in the normal state become fuzzy when we dream and the dream world then seems real. There is also another dreamless state in which both above states do not exist. This state exists, but cannot be experienced in the usual conscious manner. The text goes on to say that all states are supported by

the fourth state which is beyond everything and yet contains and supports all that there is.

If we represent this state in terms of time by a single entity, then the following verse becomes interesting: “Bhutam bhavat bhavishya iti sarvam”, that is: “past, present, future – everything is this entity only”. Another verse tries to explore the features of this state: adrashtam (unseen), avyavahaaryam (not related to anything), agraahyam (incomprehensible), alakshanam (uninferable), achintyam (unthinkable), ekaatm pratyaya saaram (knowledge which can be felt deep inside (but cannot be understood or explained)), avyapdesham (undescribable), prapanchopashmam (negation of all phenomenon), shaantam (peaceful), etc.

It is very difficult to know what the original composers of the verses may have actually meant, but over a period of time a rich set of interpretations and analogies have developed. For example, avyavahaaram (not related to anything) is on many occasions explained with an analogy to space – space does not have any shape itself and is not related to anything, yet no relation between two things can exist except in space).

The stress on incomprehensibility of certain things is interesting, as with relativity, we are increasingly observing other phenomenon like quantum entanglement and other quantum mechanics results which seem quite counter-intuitive and incomprehensible and seem to have no relationship with our usual observations and physical laws. But these to do seem to exist as per specific experimental observations and mathematical proofs.

Before we end the discussion on this text which had bravely set out in search of the basic knowledge of all things thousands of years ago, it would be worthwhile to quickly see the first verse which is a humble prayer of surrender to the forces of nature and the related Gods. To quote a small portion: “swasti naa poosan” (please provide your blessings to us O Sun (or the one who lights up and nourishes (the whole world))).

Pl. note that the above is only a partial interpretation of the text, which goes on to explore the relationship between ourselves and the fourth state and suggests meditation as the key to better experience and understand things.

The greatness of Einstein

Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been in a constant endeavor to find answers to certain questions – who are we, where do we come from and go to, the nature of things around us, how was the universe created and what does it all mean, etc.

Einstein’s contribution was in providing a giant leap to mankind’s understanding of the nature and properties of the universe, thus providing a different level and means of understanding to thousands of years of thinking effort.

However, for me, the greatest quality of Einstein was the simplicity in thought and the humbleness in nature that he retained throughout his life, in spite of all the achievements.

“What I see in nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility” – Einstein.