My Journey with Einstein

Astrophysics mixed with philosophy, these were the two lenses through which I ended up interpreting Einstein’s theories. A few months ago, I stumbled upon Einstein's theory of relativity. I read a blog online about how Einstein’s theories are deeply connected with philosophy and spiritualism that got me hooked. After spending a lot of time trying to understand the theory, watching videos, reading blogs, reaching out to people who I thought were experts, I thought I could at least to an extent understand the broad concept of the theory. 

Now this piece really isn't about astronomy or Einstein, I'm not even going to try to explain the theory here as I feel like I don't understand the nuances of the theory. Just the broad concept was enough for me, and that's what I'll live with for now. I have to give a lot of credit here to Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s documentary on Netflix called ‘Cosmos – A spacetime odyssey’. That series left me in pure wonder, gave me perspective on what really matters. And also made me realize that I might not ever know the answers to life’s deepest questions, but the most I can do is imagine and explore. It really helped uplift my imagination and wonder about the world, and that is something I am forever grateful to Neil DeGrasse Tyson for. I encourage you to watch it too.

So coming back to Einstein, even though I can’t explain the whole theory very simply yet, what I do want to talk about briefly is the idea of ‘space-time’ that Einstein touches on. I always thought of time and space as two different concepts. However, when space and time is blended together as one, it really allows us to grasp the universe and imagine it as one whole infinite piece. This is a path breaking way to think about the universe and its infinite cycle of constant change through time and space. For a more scientific explanation, read here.

Through all this, I had never thought of myself as a person who would be interested in 'physics' or 'astronomy', but turns out I indeed was. At some level, I felt like I had uncovered a different part of me and the stereotypes I had built around my idea of ‘self’ in some sense broke through new learning. Clearly, this was a new me. I was turning into a person who was not just interested in physics and astronomy but was also trying to blend science with philosophy. As I started to wonder why I was so drawn to those theories I realized a couple of reasons why I enjoyed reading about it -

1)  Einstein's theory was a path of self-discovery for me –

If I traveled faster than the speed of light, I would somehow travel back in time. This sounds so mystic right? But what it really gave me was a sense of grounding and self discovery. After this theory, I was going to live my life with the notion that the past could be repaired and changed as I always had a future. Not every door was a door that I couldn't walk out of. When I think about time now, I don't think about it in a linear fashion but as a fabric made of infinite intertwined threads of space and time. When I make a mistake, I just have to learn from it, improve and there will come a time when I can improve and get better. I have to keep that incessant optimism within me no matter what, because there's always going to be a future and a past and a present. This theory challenged me to break my core instincts in some ways and think about the world differently than what my eyes were telling me. Time did not run only in the forward direction, but also has the possibility of going backwards, our brains are just not capable of seeing that, I could also potentially jump places in time. Anything is possible. Now what's the emotional/practical use of this theory you ask? (Apart from the brilliant technology the theory aided) It's massive. Every time I'm stressed out with something (work, home, relationships), the best way to get myself out of that stress is thinking about these things. It’s difficult though, but this theory reminds me that it’s important to keep that crazy optimism within me. Anything is possible. Literally anything. The theory has diversified my perspective to an extent that I had never imagined.

2)  Trust your (optimistic) crazy imagination than your eyes –

Now imagine, the beautiful beaches of California, the Himalayan mountain ranges, Antartica, the African jungle, rain forests in South America. Switch gears to the polluted traffic in Mumbai. Now think of the clean air in New Hampshire. Think about the wars in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan. Think about Juhu beach. How complex is our world? Imagine the terror that the person who has just survived a missile attack in Syria. Now zoom out of all of these micro places and imagine you're looking at the earth which is made of all these elements. You don't see the complexity any more. All you see is a bright blue earth. Your mindset will most likely soften. We will empathize with each other if we started to view the world as a bright blue planet that we are all a part of. As you were reading through this, did your mind take you through to all these places? Our mind is SO much more powerful than our physical self. It is important to remind ourselves that our imagination is one of the most powerful tools we have. So I've started using it for the better, so I always to try to zoom out of the current frame of reference. Use it. 

I will keep imagining and keep pushing my boundaries. I challenge you to do it too. Just by simply doing that, we are making the world a better place. Every positive thought that comes from a wide perspective, enriches the world in ways that we won't realize. So I'm going to train my mind to be as consistently positive as I can. To be honest though, I'm failing too, it's hard to keep the optimism alive always, but want to continue striving for the ideal.

Now tell me what is the ideal that you are striving for? :)