Duplicate post.

Not sure why this is posting duplicats.

It can be explained as a variation in gravity strength also so not real matter. Do you have a preference?

Gravity - how does it work in the models of the universe you have posited? What is keeping the earth from crashing into the sun? Momentum? That is difficult for me to believe - there must be an outward/opposite force? What keeps the planets in their orbits? Do we see evidence of planets in other solar system crashing into their suns? Will the milky way eventually be gobbled up by the black hole at its center while the universe itself seems to be expanding. What is pulling the universe apart - if indeed it is "expanding?" I have seen gravity explained as the mass of say, a planet, making a depression in the "fabric of space" - so that objects are pulled towards it like a marble on a piece of loose cloth rolls towards the center. I am intrigued by "the stuff making interactions possible." And "curvature?" If I could take a chunk of space - devoid of invisible gases - from somewhere in the universe and examine it - it seems all I might find is perhaps some photons - since light travels throughout space - or radiation - what else can exist in a vacuum? Are there tiny quantum particles (strings) permeating empty space?

No, I don't mean "dark matter" as a "thing" but the way it is being explained. Obviously there is something there - I like "the stuff making interactions possible.." So, the "substrate" of matter so to speak?

Hello Magritte - thank you for your comment. Yes, I have an interest in cosmology but don't really keep up with the current pervasive views and theories so I probably dated myself with my statement - I'm sure cosmologists have moved past it but I still hear it referred to by many. Even when I first heard the BB theory when i was quite young and had no knowledge of science it simply did not ring true to me. When I was gifted Bentovs book (as discussed in this thread) his explanation (although now dated) - and further elucidated by Raymond - makes much more sense. I also have "theological" views - as I mentioned I believe in a higher intelligence - but that is for a different discussion and don't want to to mix it with the scientific here.

And now -along those lines - the "dark matter" speculations seem specious to me. I refer to "space" in my comment - what is space and how did it originate? I suppose that will be the next great breakthrough if we can answer the question. In a very simplistic and perhaps whimsical (?) way I said "Space is the canvas or screen upon which the universe is painted or projected."
It is fascinating now that the super-telescopes are able to see so much more and actually map the structure/position of the galaxies within our visible universe. How far will they have to see to "figure it out?" What will be the final limit/boundary - if any - of our universe? Meditating on the sheer vastness of the universe is mind-blowing!

I am awaiting your book Raymond! Meantime I will check out Mageuijo. My original post turned into a quite unexpected and fascinating exchange (on your part.) ;-)
Cheers!

Raymond - that is fascinating stuff! Thank you for taking the time to post. When I was in 6th grade, after being introduced to Einstein's ToR, I wrote a "science fiction" story about a man who leaves earth in a spaceship that attains a speed faster than light and he returns to earth as a baby. Obviousy I'm no Kurt Vonnegut but the teacher did give me a "A." :-) At university I took a basic Quantum Physics course but the teacher was Chinese and his English was not very good which made the subject even more difficult - nevertheless a peak into the weirdness of particle physics. When Stalking the Wild Pendulum was gifted to me I became entralled with Bentov's explanation of the universe which rings so much more true to me than the big bang theory. Your posts ahve been very thought provoking for me.

I have recently been investigating the premise that the speed of light may not be constant throughout the universe - I know this has been posited for some years now but I only just read of it - imagine how our knowledge of the universe is going to change - perhaps exponentially in the coming years! Alas, according to Michio Kaku we are only a type 0 civilization.....

What current books might you recommend to learn more about your post?

Only in so far as our perception. I did not mean to imply that hunans created the universe. Only that I believe there is a higher conciousness to all of creation and I am not necessarily speaking of a "god" or omnipotent being - but a higher "intelligence" so to speak. If we delve into what we call human self-awareness there is something more than just our five senses. Some say that "mind is universal" - what is that mind we all seem to share and does it pervade the entire universe? Human existence is surely a puzzle - are we just biological entities or something more? Why do we question who and what we are? Perhaps I am silly to believe in the meta-physical but there is a sense of something more than this body my conciousness inhabits.
" Through methodic doubt, Descartes determined that almost everything could be doubted. Although unlikely, it’s at least possible that we are in a cosmic dream or being deceived by a powerful demon, and so we cannot know with absolute certainty that the world around us actually exists. This is where the cogito argument enters, to save the day. After doubting everything in the external world, Descartes turns to attempting to doubt his internal word, that of his own mind. Descartes found that although he could doubt many things about himself, one thing that he could not doubt, is that he exists."

I didn't mean to imply I believe that time stops but more asking in general what is time? Can time go forward and backwards? I have - in my own very limited knowledge of physics - believed that time is simply the expansion of the universe.

Considering the "big bang" theory (which I do not subscribe to) - did time exist before the singularity expanded and did the space that it expanded into exist - or is that space created as the universe expands? If we believe that the universe is expanding then our reference point for time would be measured from the point of its "creation" until its current state of expansion, or at any referential points during that expansion, and therefore can only go forward (expansion). When we see the light from a distant star we are viewing the image of something from the past - from back in time - if we could get a close-up view of that image we would be viewing history of events that occured then - but that has already passed - all we are seeing is an image. Could I now interject myself into that image and change some event, i.e. time travel? All I can do is see the image - I am not able to participate in it.

The earth orbits the sun, which orbits the center of the galaxy which is expanding into space always moving in one direction - each finite moment of that movement is an image in time so to speak. If we could travel faster than the light from that image we could view some event from the past - but so far as we know that is impossible - and even if we could how could we insert ourselves into it? So, for me, time travel is theoretically impossible but perhaps I don't fully understand the concept of worm-holes or "bending the fabric of time-space" - way beyond my comprehension.

Further - if the theory of expansion/contraction of the universe is considered - during the contraction would time then go "backwards?" This is why, in my very uneducated view, the idea of "recirculating" universe as you have mentioned - although over my head - makes much more sense. The current explanations being posited about "dark matter" - to me - are not viable. We know that the universe has much more space than matter - even within the minute atomic particles the space between them is realtively much greater than the size of the particles. So as of now "space" is something beyond human comprehension To diverge to a simpleton's view - Space is the canvas on which the universe is painted - everything is a concoction of time, space and energy. The time/space continuum - space could exist without time but can time exist without space?

I apologize for my rather simplistic notions. I would enjoy your recommendations for further study/reading and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

Well, what about it? Does time stop as the pendulum changes direction? :-) I ordered the books to re-read them but I do recall that his theory of the "torus-like" universe seems as viable as any other? The "Higher Conciousness" book was a bit far-out for me - but I am of the belief that the universe DOES have conciiousness.

His daughter wrote a bio about him - but it is OOP.

Hello - I have found the author I was looking for: Itzhak Bentov. He was actually an Israeli scientist and not a cosmologist or astrophysicist - as I thought. An inventor of medical equipment and he has a very interesting backgroud, accomplishments and endeavors. Wikipedia has his bio information. The two books I was looking for are "A Cosmic Book" and "A Brief Tour of Higher Conciousness" and another that I had forgot about "Stalking the Wild Pendulum." All three are fascinating (at least for me) although some may find them more philosophical/spiritual and theoretical than actual "science." I highly recommend them. Thank you Raymond.

Hello- I looked at Novikov and I don't think it is the author I am looking for. I will check out the other two - that sounds very much like what I read. Thanks kindly for your reply. I'll let you know.