The Physics of Power Activism

Every day you are surrounded by a power that is greater than the power of millions of atomic bombs. What did you do with yours today?

Even with all the stuff in your closet, the stuff in your car, and the stuff in your house or apartment, mostly what you have around you is empty space. In
every cubic centimeter of empty space, and that’s really small, there is more energy than the energy of all the matter in the known universe. That’s more vibes than all the stuff in every closet, every woman’s purse, every trunk of every car, all the stuff under everybody’s bed everywhere, and oh, yeah, all the planetary systems, black holes, the sun, and darks stars, all that stuff, too.

According to David Bohm, who ought to know because he was a quantum physicist and was really famous for understanding the stuff that stuff is made of, this energy that is mostly what is, responds to us. Like a wave looks like a wave sometimes and then sometimes like a particle, depending on who is looking for it or at it. This energy, the stuff that everything is made out of, reveals or unfolds aspects of itself to us according to how we interact with it and according to how we expect it to behave. It could be anything, anywhere, anytime. What aspect of the whole life system, “ensemble”, as Bohm calls it, reveals itself to us depends on what we expect it to be. And, according to Bohm and other hotshot quantum physics genius type guys, these teeny bits called quantum are aware of and responding to each other also. Okay, this is at the subquantum level. Smaller measurements than even centimeters. But doesn’t it make sense that if you put all that little stuff together to make big stuff like water molecules or grains of sand or bigger stuff like pears or buffaloes, that the same rules apply? That all stuff has life and intelligence. That everything is aware of and responding to everything else in an infinite variety of ways both manifest, like water drops falling onto the buffalo and giving it a bath and nonmanifest, like the feeling you get sometimes when you walk into a room and want to leave immediately for no apparent reason. Something in you is responding to something not quite tangible but experienced nonetheless.

 

Philosophers and metaphysical types have been saying this kind of thing forever. They say there’s an intelligent energy (sometimes it’s called God or Spirit) that life is made out of and it responds to people’s thoughts, feelings, and desires. They say that all life arises out of this one intelligent source and is

connected, each a living aspect of the whole, each expressing the characteristics of the source energy. What if they are all right about this, the physicists and the metaphysicists? What this seems to imply to me is the whole manifest Universe is one gigantic interactive multimedia show and we’re all running the program. What if what seems to be on the outside, what we call “the world”, not only is a result of what’s on the inside but there is no outside or inside? What if it’s all the same thing, one system and we really are determining what it looks like by how we interact with all that energy that’s surrounding all our stuff, what Dr. Bohm calls quantum potential. That means that every day, even on our most cluttered, stuff-filled days, we are surrounded by more pure available energy than there is in millions of atomic bombs. And it’s responsive to us.
Pretty much puts an end to that helpless victim thing once and for all. Once you wrap your mind around these ideas, you can’t very well pretend what’s going on in the world has nothing to do with you, or that you have nothing to do with what’s going on in the world. The good news is, because, individually and collectively, we are the world, we can, individually and collectively, be and do something about it. Our choices matter, our thoughts matter. Our thoughts are matter.

For social activists this is especially good news. Not only does what we do have an effect, but how we do it has an impact also. Have you noticed the change in the streets? There is more talk about being for peace, rather than against war, and for solutions to issues that effect all people, rather than against problems. There’s a growing recognition of how all the people and all the stuff are connected and that it’s more effective to be for something rather than against something. Coalitions are being formed that weren’t possible before because people are recognizing the power of coming together around points of agreement. People are understanding their relatedness, to each other, to all life and to that stuff in between the stuff that life is made out of. For anyone interested in social change, for those who want a world where children really are cared for, a world where everyone is safe, a world where there is truly respect for the planet that sustains us, where people who do the work receive the rewards, this shift to being active and passionate for rather than struggling against, is a shift into true power activism. Because that super atomic power that’s in the spaces between all our stuff responds to us, follows our attention and matches expectations we put forth, when we put forth a consistent thought/action pattern of peace, compassion, respect and fairness, that is what we participate in creating. When we get a grip on ourselves, deliberately focus our attention on what we want to see and use our power to create with the expectation of success, we get results. Remember, the quantum “ensemble” (stuff that makes stuff) reveals aspects of itself to us according to where we place our attention and what we expect of it.

Every day you wake up surrounded by the power that can make or destroy worlds. It follows your attention and responds to your expectations. What will you do with that power today? Every day, every moment, you get to choose how to be in relationship with the great interactive multimedia show of life. Will you keep cranking on your tv, keeping your attention on what is wrong, get yourself whipped up or beaten down with it all and expect more fear and conflict and disaster? Or will you say hello to that subquantum stuff and demand that it reveal itself as peace, as compassion, as fairness and respect for raindrops and pears and buffalos and all of this other great stuff that’s already been created? Next time you reach for something in your closet or look under your bed, remember what all that space between the Nordic track and clothes you will organize someday and dust bunnies really is. Pure potential. Power. How will you use it right now?

Samantha White
San Rafael, CA
April, 2003