The Silent Pulse

“The electron-scanning microscope, with the ability to magnify several times, takes us down into a realm that has the look of the sea about it…As the magnification increases, the flesh begins to dissolve.  Muscle fiber takes on a crystalline aspect. We can see that it is made of log spiral molecules in an orderly array.  And all of these molecules are swaying like wheat in the wind, connected with each other and held in place by invisible waves that pulse many trillions of times a second.

And what are the molecules made of? As we move closer, we can see atoms, the tiny shadowy balls dancing around their fixed locations in the melees, sometimes changing positions with their partners in perfect rhythms. And now we focus on one of the atoms: a cloud of elections lightly veils its interior.  We come close, increasing the magnification.  The shell dissolves and we look on the inside to find….Nothing.

Somewhere within that emptiness we know is a nucleus.  We scan the space there it is:  a tiny dot. At last, we have discovered something hard and solid, a reference point.  But no!  As we move closer to the nucleus it too begins to dissolve. It too is nothing more than an oscillating field, waves of rhythm.  Inside the nucleus are other organized fields “protons, neutrons, even smaller particles. Each of these, upon our approach, also dissolves into pure rhythm.

Of what is the world made?

It is made of emptiness and rhythm.  At the ultimate heart of the body, of the world, of the universe, there is no substance.  There is only the dance.

The Silent Pulse

George Leonard