GROUND ZER0, New York, N.Y.--Feb 18, 2004 -- Astronomers and space scientists of all shapes and sizes are rattling about their newest find--dark energy.   It's negative energy.   And it's slowly ripping the galaxy apart.   

         Rough estimates are, doomsday, or the Big Rip, is slated for 55 billion years from now.   Considering the earth was formed 5 billion years ago, we've got about 90 percent of our time left.
          The NY Times flagged the story today.   In it, scientists from the great universities are reported as scratching their brows and quoting how Einstein said he "blundered" by missing the idea of anti-gravitational forces accelerating the universe out of existence.

         It seems, under dark energy theory, the universe is spinning faster and faster as negative energy shoves against positive at a factor scientists haven't yet discovered: however, they expect it is somewhere between minus 0.8 and minus 1.2.
          Skywatchers are scuttling around the globe, from the South Pole to Hawaii, and conducting dark energy surveys.   They are plotting dead stars, setting benchmarks to measure the shift and changes of the heavens over the next few billion years.
          They are, essentially, tracking cosmic cancer.   They are hunting celestial Terrorists who, over long eons of time, have one plan--to destroy everything and start afresh.
           At the other end of the secular search for answers to the beginning and end of the universe stand the religious zealots.
          Today's Christian Science Monitor describes the upsurge in America's hunger to return to Biblical fundamentalism.   Over 58 million copies of a series of novels based on the theme:  "Left Behind," are one example of a growing apocalyptic belief in the end of the universe.   
          Under this belief, Jesus comes and whisks away all the "true believers" and leaves everyone else to suffer in torture and pestilence for the next seven years, when, after the pain and anguish has been meted out, God takes all the leftovers with Him.

        Terrorism adds fuel to the fire, as does the bloodshed and conflict in Israel that plays directly to the prognostications in the Book of Revelations.   People seeking to find the end of the world do.   This is called by "time of rapture."   It is the time when the Beast of Terror rules without check.
           It may not be by accident that the NY Times is headlining one story on the scientific end of humanity, and the CS Monitor is headlining the spiritual demise of life as we know it.  

            Then, of course, there's Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion, reminding all who see it that suffering and pain awaits those who love and care for others.
           "Dark Energy" seems to be modern science's hiding place for the Beast of Terror.    It seems to suck the life out of the marrow of the universe.  It's negative gravity overwhelms the positive, especially if the minus 1 factor drops beyond 1.0 to 1.1 or 1.2 or 1.3.
           For years, I have proposed that Plus One Percent Thought is all that is necessary to overwhelm a Minus One Percent Thought.    On equal foots, a Minus One facing a Plus One, the Plus One will win out. 
            In other words, if your Courage is equal to your Fear, your Courage wins.    If your Conviction equals your Intimidation, your Conviction wins, and, if your Right Actions for future generations are equal to your Complacency, you also win.
            This new theory might suggest there is no hope, if the factor  the scientists are looking for turns out to be more than minus 1.0.    The "bad guy" would have the edge over the good guy.   Terrorism might just be more powerful than Vigilance in the end.
           It's a hard formula to buy.   It means all hope for human evolution will be met with a horrible end, and all dreams will be dashed, ripped, shredded.    The good news out of this bad is that the end won't occur for 55 billion years.   There's 30 generations in one millennium and more than 50 million millennia in 55 billion years.
           The point is, under this theory, life ends with a big rip.
            Dark Energy seems to fit perfectly into the Terrorist's formula.   Here's another way of reminding everyone that no matter what they do or attempt to do to improve their lot, to rise above the primal roots of their nature, in the final moments it will come down to torture, pain and suffering.        

           The fundamentalists preach the same horrible end, hoping Fear, Intimidation and Complacency will turn non-believers into "believers," who want to be on the first wave to Heaven.   And, Mel Gibson's film simply punctuates the bloody end of salvation by brutally showing the death of Jesus.
             All this "dark energy" is being treated as though it were new, previously undiscovered.    If science sits back and thinks about humanity and singular ability to cogitate, to think while millions upon millions of other living creatures with whom we share this earth are deprived of that magical ability, we are "dark energy."
            We are also "light energy"    We are the Plus and Minus of energy, pulling and shoving, pushing and pulling, to move (evolve) to some destination we only know exists inside the Question Mark.
            Our business in life is to ask and answer questions, to uncover and discover, "to explore new worlds...."    What is "dark energy?"
            How about the fecal material  of the Beast of Terror?   How about his footprints in the sky?    How about the gases he exhales?     

         Maybe "dark energy" is nothing more than little holes in the sky where the Beast of Terror hides the anti-gravity of Fear, Intimidation and Complacency.   Maybe he has, like a chipmunk, stored billions of little Terror acorns where no one will find them, as perhaps Saddam Hussein buried his WMD in some pile of sand where no one will ever find them in time to verify the decision to attack Iraq was more honorable than dishonorable.
            If one thinks of "dark energy" in true human terms, it is that negative space in human personality that reveals the cruelty, the brutality, the selfishness, the ignoble, nature of humanity.     It is "our dark side," that place where the "Beast of Terror" lurks waiting to shift our thoughts and tempt us into actions that rob rather than give to the world.     It is our negative gravity competing with our positive.
           As a Sentinel of Vigilance, I force myself to look up to the sky and see the stars and planets not as twinkling reminders to me that one day they will all be snuffed out as the world collapses, but as light posts shining on a road to warn the traveler of the potholes and dead ends.
            Dark energy doesn't mean the end to me, and, I'm sure, ultimately to the scientists.    There can be no question that "dark and light energy" co-exist in such a manner as to both create and destroy life, just as every human being can chose to be either a Gandhi or a Hitler, a child abuser or a great mentor and coach for children.

            Dark energy is one side of the coin.   It is the Beast of Terror's side.  Flip the coin over and you have Vigilance, and the Sentinel of Vigilance.  
            One keeps the other in check.
            I may not have all the answers, but I certainly know the question.  "Is it better to be the Sentinel of Vigilance or the Beast of Terror?"   "Is it better to live life without taking the Pledge of Vigilance or to take it and live by it daily?"    "If I don't counter Fear, will Fear eventually consume me?"   "If I don't fight off Intimidation, will I cower before the world eventually?"    "If I am Complacent and do nothing, how will that impact the future generations?"
             Dark energy isn't up in the sky.

            It exists in our minds, in that dark space among the five billion cells that comprise our ability to think.  
             We keep it in check by shining the Light of Vigilance onto it.
             We need just have Plus One Percent more than the "dark energy" to win the battle.
             Then the lights go on, not just for us, but for all.
          
           
    

Feb. 17--Suicide Or Sacrifice