A NEW PARADIGM OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT - THE ELECTRIC UNIVERSE Article 17 : Implications of the electrical explanation of mass and gravity - Part 2 by Bishop Nicholas Sykes In their book The Electric Universe by Wallace Thornhill and David Talbott (pub by Mikamar Publishing), the authors state: "The electric universe is a hypothesis, a new way of interpreting scientific data in the light of new knowledge about plasma and electricity. In this interpretation, gravity plays a secondary role behind the far more powerful electric force ... In the electric universe the gravitational systems of planets and moons, stars and galaxies have their origin in [the] proven ability of electricity to generate structure and rotation in plasma. Gravity can take over only as the electromagnetic forces approach equilibrium." As has been pointed out in a previous article (Article 9), the world of academia is stuck with the gravitational paradigm of science and cosmology for two principal reasons. The first is that in the great Newtonian science leap forward in the 17th century, the electric force was virtually unknown, and the second is that human knowledge generally progresses by an extended inference from our immediate experience. In that immediate experience, the ground is the safest place to be because at ground level the force of gravity, weak though it is in comparison with the electric force, is normally dominant. As Thornhill and Talbott have suggested, in "our" world, the electromagnetic forces approach equilibrium, and so, almost universally, the Earth pulls us towards itself with gravitational force only. From that circumstance, so fortunate for our lives, we have erroneously inferred that the whole cosmos runs itself gravitationally, and we have been prepared even to sacrifice our own common sense and scientific instincts upon the altar of rejecting at all costs the obvious conclusion from many observations that far more lively, dangerous and strong forces of electricity (with its attendant magnetism) are at work in the cosmos, away from those isolated regions, in one of which we exist, where electrical equilibrium has been approached. Actually, we really don't want to know that the cosmos as a whole (and even, to a lesser extent, the solar system) is very dangerous - and so, for as long as we are able to, we close our minds to the evidence that it is so. Nevertheless, even in our world, electrical equilibrium is not quite attained, and on occasion, our safe gravitational cocoon is disturbed and even cracked open by the power of the raging cosmic seas and floods of electrical plasma upon which we are founded and with which we are connected. Psalm 24 indeed refers to the Earth, and not just Cayman, when it declares: "For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods." Lightning In the Electric Universe paradigm, lightning is understood to be caused by the build-up of electrical potential differences between the Earth and its atmosphere and the "space" - thinly but ubiquitously filled with electrified plasma - around it. Ordinarily there are both dark current discharges and some glow discharges taking place, but when there are insufficient of these to keep the potential differences stable, an arc discharge - lightning - begins to be established, until the potentials causing it are sufficiently equalised. The standard paradigm regards lightning as caused by a terrestrial effect of cloud movements that build up electrostatic charge, whereas the electric paradigm sees it in terms of a local discharge of energies that originate in the cosmos, and a current electricity phenomenon rather than an electrostatic one. Lightning worldwide causes more human deaths than tornadoes or hurricanes, a fact that should signal that we need to think not only of the electrical potentials but also of the available power behind such a destructive strike. Aurorae, Comets and Solar Storms The Electric Universe paradigm declares the great physicist and experimenter Kristian Birkeland correct in his assessment of the fundamental nature of the aurora borealis and the aurora australis as due to currents of electric particles (plasma) moving in and out of the geosphere along the direction of Earth's magnetic field, and connecting us electrically with the Sun. This is now verified experimentally, although standard theorists still choose to give an explanation of the aurorae in terms of magnetic reconnection effects, an unfortunate concept that introduces the fictional reification of lines of magnetic force into scientific discourse. Birkeland's concept, which has been discussed in Articles 3 and 4, verifies the EU scenario of Earth being electrically connected with its environment, including in particular the Sun. This in turn opens our minds to the inevitability of solar events, such as coronal mass ejections, affecting the behaviour of the geosphere and the lives of its inhabitants. As I write, the headline of an article in another local newspaper reads "Solar Storm May Disrupt Power." It has already been found on more than one occasion that solar flares of high intensity have been associated with small variations of the length of the day - a variation that was in time "corrected" and stabilised to nearly the original day-length. This suggests that the mass of the earth, understood in the new paradigm in terms of the electrical deformation of its particles, is affected by the electrical environment of the earth, an environment that will influence the charge distributed over its surface, and which may also greatly affect the weather pattern. The new research opening up on the electrical connection between the Sun and the comets coming within its electrical influence, as illustrated by the otherwise inexplicable circumstances of their flaring and at times destruction far away from the Sun, should open up to us the concept of a very real, though in terms of our immediate comfort not at all necessarily welcome, electrical interaction between the Sun and all its satellites, including ourselves, and of a powerful electrical history that undergirds the current form and partial equilibrium of the solar system. Tornadoes and Hurricanes People experiencing the terrifying threat and presence of tornadoes have spoken sometimes of their seeing electric effects. See http://collegetimes.us/on-the-electromagnetic-basis-of-tornadoes/ The rotation of tornadoes and hurricanes is supportive of the view that these phenomena are electrically driven, and the satellite pattern of hurricanes is strongly reminiscent of scientific depictions of galaxies. In an Electric Universe, the observed pattern of galaxies is inevitably caused by the electric force that drives them, and such forces and phenomena are scalable by many orders of magnitude, so that it becomes almost impossible to suppose that it is not the electric force driving the rotation of terrestrial hurricanes, often observed with electric effects as well. For more information on the new paradigm, see www.holoscience.com and www.thunderbolts.info Previous articles may be seen at www.churchofenglandcayman.com and through the "thunderblog" link in www.thunderbolts.info