99.99% of You Doesn’t Matter
Rock Your Reality: Part II
The Rock Your Reality series offers simple facts to snap you out of your stupor, shake up your reality and ignite your curiosity.
Part Two: 99.99% of You Doesn’t Matter
Atoms were invented about 2500 years ago. Well, at least the theory of atoms came into being then, when Greek philosopher, Democritus wondered out loud what would happen if you broke matter in half, and in half again, and in half again. What was the smallest particle you would create before it could not be broken again? Democritus coined this theoretical object the “atom”.
More than 2000 years later, in the early 19th century, scientists actually began to enact Democritus’ thought experiment. Spurred on by the idea of a predictable, machine-like universe, these eager men split elements to find molecules; broke molecules to discover atoms and, in 1911, probed inside an atom to discover what it is made of. And what did they find?
Mostly nothing.
When measured, an atom is 99.99% space. To put that in context, if an atom was the size of a domed football stadium, the electrons (about the size of a grain of rice) and would be spinning around the height of the roof. The nucleus — holding 99% of the atom’s mass — would be the size of a marble in the center of the playing field. All the space in between? Well, that’s full of wave functions, and potentiality, and quantum weirdness.
But what it is not full of, is matter.
For all intents and purposes, atoms are the smallest building block of the (macro) universe. Everything you know to have mass, including your own body, is created by atoms. But all of these atoms are, in fact, mostly not there at all.
So, if everything we regard as solid or liquid is just empty space, why do we still experience resistance when we touch something? Why can’t we rearrange our electrons and walk through walls? Why does it hurt like hell when we bang our head on an open kitchen cupboard?
There are theories as to why we experience “mostly nothing” as solidity: magnetic forces, or electron fields (whereby the electrons are everywhere simultaneously, until they are measured). It is also likely that the atomic ‘space in between’ is part of the 95.4% of the universe we can’t yet fathom.
But what is undeniable is that everything is not what it seems. How you experience the universe is not necessarily how it is actually structured.
You matter, but 99.99% of you is not. Crazy, huh?
Kim Forrester is an award-winning author, educator and intuitive consultant with over 15 years’ experience as a professional intuitive and spiritual teacher. She combines cutting edge science with traditional spirituality to offer the latest understandings of psi, consciousness and holistic well being.
