The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered Over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything

by K.C. Cole

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Orlando, FL: Harcourt 2001.   $14.00 274 pp.   9 pp References

This highly unusual book presents an utterly engaging and easily comprehended discussion of many of the latest developments in modern physics.

K. C. Cole explains how the apparent emptiness of space between stars and galaxies – which she calls “Nothing,” must contain something that completes the equations of modern physics. Nothing also exerts a powerful force. The universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. There is no way to explain this expansion without resorting to a “hidden factor” that produces the acceleration, and Nothing fits perfectly in this gap. (I prefer to capitalize Nothing but Cole leaves it in lower case, which often produces startling and humorous statements.)

I hope to convince the reader that nothing matters. Most of modern physics and mathematics would be unthinkable without it. The human mind we use to perceive and explore those worlds relies on notions of “nothing” in very tangible ways – creating something out of nothing as handily as it does the reverse. (p. xi)

Space isn’t empty; what we think of as empty space is permeated by powerful influences. Indeed, matter itself is only the energetic geometry of forces in empty space. (p. 69)

It may seem strange to IJHC readers to include a book on advanced physics in this journal on healing and caring. The points of clearest intersection of healing with physics are in the inter-convertibility of matter and energies and in the evidence that the observer creates that which is observed.

While most readers untrained in science would expect to not understand much in a book that explores advanced theories of physics, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to this book. Cole has a gift for explaining complex theories in simple terms and images. For instance, here is an example of her exploration of the relationships between matter and energy fields.

Matter condenses out of field like water droplets condense out of water vapor in a steamy bathroom. Particles of matter are concentrations of field that travel through the field like ripples in a rope or a wave in water. The essential “stuff” –that is to say, the rope or the water—does not travel from place to place. Only the kink travels. Just as rumors can spread through a crowd of stationary people, concentrations can spread through stationary fields. Particles are more like rumors than people.

  “Seemingly solid matter is nothing more than a manifestation of fields that do not ‘occupy’ space at all,” exults [Robert] March (emphasis his). The field is not so much something in space, as of space.

  This view of matter explains, among other things, why every electron in the universe is exactly the same as every other electron, every top quark the same as every other top quark. A particle doesn’t really exist in its own right. It is only a particular manifestation of a field. And globally speaking, the field is everywhere the same. (p. 73)

Cole gives brief acknowledgement to the overlaps of transpersonal awarenesses and modern physics – as in Buddhist awareness of emptiness.

Cole presents her discussion in little bytes, punctuated with quotes from physicists that counterpoint Nothing in particular.

My only criticism of this gem: While a substantial list of references is provided, many quotes and points of discussion are presented without references.

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