The Living Universe Read Online Free PDF

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    Because we are giants, living in the mid-range of the cosmic scale of existence, we should not be surprised that we overlook much that happens on the smaller, more refined scale of the universe. As giants, it is easy for us to fail to notice the intense activity at the ultra-microscopic scale of the universe.

The Nearly Invisible Universe
    Scientists long assumed that
visible
forms of matter and energy make up the universe. Recently, they were stunned to discover that an overwhelming preponderance of the universe is invisible. It is a scientific fact that we don’t know what 96 percent of the universe really is. Scientists currently describe two major kinds of invisible energies in the universe. One is a contractive force called
dark matter
and the other is an expansive force called
dark energy
. They are called “dark” because they cannot be seen and measured by any direct means. Dark matter is thought to comprise roughly 23 percent of the universe. 6 The invisible mass of dark matter provides the gravitational field needed to keep whirling galaxies from flying apart as they spin. Dark energy is thought to comprise roughly 73 percent of the universe. This invisible visible energy permeates the universe and is causing it to inflate or expand from within at an increasing rate. 7 The remaining 4 percent comprises the entire visible universe of planets and stars.
    The Composition of the Universe

    If nearly all the universe is invisible, undetectable, and currently unknown, then we must expand our everyday understanding of the word “universe” accordingly. It is important to remember that, throughout this book, the word universe refers to much more than the familiar ingredients of matter and energy, because they constitute only a small fraction of a much larger reality.
    If 96 percent of the known universe is invisible, then how much of ourselves is invisible and not detectable by material technologies? How far do we extend into the deep ecology of the invisible universe? Because we are an integral part of the universe, a large part ofourselves may well be connected with and operating in these invisible realms. The roots of our being reach deep.

Just Getting Underway
    For centuries people looked at the world around us and assumed that it was a place of only three dimensions. Roughly a hundred years ago Einstein identified the fourth dimension—time—and the fabric of the universe came alive as a dynamic field. No longer is there such a thing as space, there is only
space-time
. A century later, cosmologists are further expanding the fabric of reality with string theories of eleven dimensions and more. 8 Indeed, many cosmolo-gists now assume that the universe may have a countless number of additional dimensions. This is a stunning insight because each progressively larger dimension seems to offer dramatically new levels of freedom for life to express itself.
    Although we may seldom think about dimensions, they are basic to the way reality works. Dimensions are far more than dry mathematical concepts—they are the invisible organizing substructures within which we exist. The miracle that anything exists at all depends upon dimensions to provide the organizing framework within which things can manifest in a coherent manner. Despite the pervasive dynamism of the universe, it holds together and presents itself as the stable, predictable world we see around us. Dimensions provide an invisible framework that keeps everything in its proper place and time (space-time), and bring coherence to the dynamism of the universe.
    We can infer the presence of additional dimensions in the expansion of the universe. The popular image of the Big Bang is that of an explosion hurling matter out in all directions. This is misleading because it evokes the image of a pre-existing empty spaceinto which matter is expanding. A more accurate image is that our universe is growing from the inside out, everywhere at once,