11/17/14

Dear Reader-

This week I am changing the format of my letter and writing it to you, my reader. While it is important to have life affirming conversations with ourselves, and I will continue to do so in future letters, I’ve wondered if in writing to myself, I’m not leaving you, the reader, outside of the conversation.

Last week I began identifying parts of the belief system from which I operate. As per typical Elaina, I jumped right into the middle of things without addressing the core belief that drives the formation of my manifesto. I felt it important to back up and identify this thought process as it is a bit unusual. The overriding principles that guide my life are God…and Quantum Mechanics. I know, they seem diverse, opposite ends of the spectrum type ideas, but really, the more I learn, the more I believe God, the basis for everything, is energy, and Quantum Mechanics studies this energy.

Growing up Catholic, I remember sitting in the pews of St. Alphonsus Parish and listening to the priests talk about this omnipresent, omniscient, omnipowerful God. I would spend most of mass imagining God sitting there with me in Prospect Heights while simultaneously sitting with another child in China, or Poland, and being able to listen to us both. It brought me immense comfort to know he was with me and and yet still able to be with someone else who might need Him as well. At mass and in my catechism classes, God was presented as an entity I only had to think about and He would be there with me. After mass and throughout my week I would call upon Him and feel this energy course through me. It soothed me. Sometimes it reminded me something was out of balance and I needed to make amends, but He filled me. I only needed to call His name and I would be filled with this sense of peace and comfort.

Fast forward thirty-some years and the more I learn about Quantum Theory, the more I find the God I was introduced to as a child. In Quantum Theory, particles have this sense of NOT wanting to be tied down to one location or travel just one path. It’s as if the particles that make up the universe are in more than one place at the same time. This is the God of my youth. The omnipresent God who could be in more than one place at a time. We are all made of energy and as such, we are all made from God. God is not some entity to be looked for outside of our bodies. He is within us, connecting us, and when we call upon Him in our time of need, sometimes he shows up in the form of a friend. When we praise Him, we are sending positive energy back into the universe.

I was also taught that through God all things are possible. Well, according to Quantum Mechanics, the electron, the smallest charged particle, is a jumble of possibilities. One is not allowed to ask where the electron is right now, but one is allowed to ask if I look for it here, what is the likelihood it will be here? And in Quantum Mechanics, as soon as you look, it “forces’ the particle to choose its location. So, if I look for God here, in my life, guess where I’ll find him?  In my life. He will be the wealth of positivity I feel when I call his name. He will be the surge of strength I feel when I call asking to lean on him. God, like Quantum Theory, helps us understand the possibilities of everything.

In Quantum Mechanics, there is also this idea of entanglement. When two particles are close enough together that their properties impact each other, they are “entangled”;  the actions of one affects the actions of the other. This is like my idea of no coincidences that I wrote about last week. You can read that HERE. Even after my interactions with a person are done and they are no longer a part of my life, their impact is forever with me and has altered my course in some way. It might be as simple as the woman who educated me about GMO while standing in the grocery store or as complex as an intimate relationship. The energy those people shared with me altered my course.

How do I equate God to Quantum Mechanics and energy? I view God as the Supreme source of Energy. I believe He created the universe. I believe He created his son, Jesus Christ, to remind us of positive energy. Jesus came to spread positive energy and ultimately, to remove negative energy. God designed Jesus’ life to demonstrate and teach us how to be conductors of all things positive. Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. All of these can be thought of in terms of energy. More importantly, Jesus taught us how to call God’s name when we need positive energy to help us overcome the negative. He taught us how to rely on the ultimate power supply and he taught us to use it in ways to serve others (entanglement). “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” (Matt. 7:12) is His reminder we are all connected through this energy.

I even believe the 10 Commandments are ideas of energy and entanglement. “Thou shalt not have false Gods before Me.” Energy is either positive, negative, or neutral. Anything but God, positive energy, keeps us stuck or moving backward. “Thou shalt not kill.” If you disrupt the flow of energy in the universe, it will have an impact on you and everyone else that person, the source of energy, has entangled with, thus altering the flow. When I look at each commandment as a rule about energy and either the flow or the interruption of this energy, God, as energy, makes sense.

This is the core of my belief system. Everything is energy. Quantum Theory has proven this and as far as I’m concerned, God is the ultimate source of this energy. How we use it, positively, negatively, or neutrally, forms the path we walk on. As I move forward in identifying the rest of my manifesto, this idea is at my core and I strive to honor it and act in tandem with my beliefs. God is energy and it is my duty to be a conductor of that energy. As I walk my path, seeking fulfillment, this is at my core.

To paraphrase George Lucas, “May the Quantum Force of God be with you.”

Elaina