Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00833)

Leon:

Please correct my ignorance.

My understanding of the black hole is that supposedly
a star collapses until it becomes so dense that time
and space cease to exist in its vicinity. Some
speculations are that an entire galaxy may so
collapse. It is called a "black hole" because light
is sucked into it and cannot escape. Sort of like a
cosmic vacuum cleaner, sucking crap in and never
letting it out.

So dense is this collapsed star or galaxy that in
theory there exists a phenomenon external to it in
which time and space disappear. This region (I use
the word advisedly) is called the "Schwarzchild
radius." Here we start to get into some interesting
paradoxes.

It is matter "inside" which supports the phenomenon of
the Schwarzchild radius. In theory time slows down
and space contracts in the vicinity of matter. In the
case of the SR there is so much matter that time stops
and space disappears. Moreover, the ST is believed to
be outside the mass which produces it. Yet if time
and space disappear at the Schwarzchild radius, then
it would appear that the concept of "inside" has no
meaning.

SO WHERE IS IT?

Incidentally, I am aware Blavatsky is dead, so anyone
who cannot answer that question please don't cop out
by reminding everyone Blavatsky is dead. Einstein is
dead, too, and so are a lot of other people. Judy
Garland is dead. W.C. Fields is dead. That fact that
some people are dead should not put an end to thought
henceforth and forever.

My understanding is that if one were to get in a space
ship and head for a black hole, because of the
distortions in the space time continuum, you would
never actually get there. As you approached it, time
would slow down so that you spent eternity approaching
it asymptotically (if "eternity" has any meaning here)
but never actually arrive. So the SR could in one
sense be said to be the end of the universe.

I also understand that any amount of matter produce
such a phenomenon (a point at which gravity causes
time and space to disappear), so that there is an SR
in our own planet. The difference is that it is
within the planet (whereas it is exterior to the black
hole) and is extremely minute, given that the amount
of matter in a planet is so small compared to the
matter in a black hole, which may be an entire galaxy.

That said, if there is no time and space at the
Schwarzchild radius, then one could interpret that to
mean that the SR is not only the end of time and the
end of space but that it is also the beginning of time
and the beginning of space, not billions of years ago,
but presently, if that has any meaning in this
context.

Perhaps the solution to the paradox is to turn the
causal relationship around. Instead of there being
matter in the black hole and that is why the SR
exists, perhaps we should say that there is the SR
(origins unknown) and that is why the universe exists.
That seems to follow from the statement that there is
an SR buried in every lump of matter. If everything
disappears into the black hole but also originates
from one, then the cyclic speculations by Manu and
Kapila may not be so far fetched after all.

The question is therefore: is this understanding
correct or completely off or what? It has been some
time since I read about all of this, and may be
subject to the vagaries of memory. Corrections,
please, from our science buffs.

Regarding P.B. Randolph, there is a statement in
Waite's BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSY CROSS to the effect
that at least one of Randolph's students had his
health damaged due to some of the substances Randolph
was encouraging his disciples to experiment with.

That said, it occurs to me that Blavatsky was in good
health until she went to New York and that it was
subsequent to that time that she had so many health
problems. It was also subsequent to that time that
she became secretive about what her practice consisted
of. It is not impossible that her health problems
might have resulted from some of Randolph's potions,
and that, as a role model to Theosophists, she did not
wish to be seen as encouraging others to engage in
something she discovered the hard way to be dangerous.

Steve



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