¶ How Energy Acts Over Distance
¶ Starting Point
An antenna transmits through change.
A varying electrical voltage is generated within it.
This causes charges to move.
An electric field is created.
A magnetic field is created.
These fields build up, change, and propagate as electromagnetic waves.
Information can be imposed on this movement.
In technology, this is called modulation.
This allows speech, images, measurement data, or signals to be transmitted over great distances.
Radio waves, light, and thermal radiation belong to the same physical family: electromagnetic waves.
They differ by their frequency.
In free space, they travel at the speed of light.
¶ Directional Antennas and Focused Signals
Space probes and satellites typically transmit their signals using directional antennas.
The energy is focused on a specific area.
This bundling makes communication over great distances possible.
Voyager 1 transmits with approximately 23 watts.
This corresponds to the power of a small light bulb.
The probe is now more than 24 billion kilometers away.
The signal now takes almost a full day to reach Earth.
Only an extremely faint trace arrives on Earth:
0.000000000000000001 watts
This is less than one attowatt.
And yet, this trace can be read.
It carries structure.
It carries information.
Reception is made possible through alignment, sensitivity, and amplification.
Even at this faint level, meaning is preserved.
¶ Illustration: 23 Watts Transmit Power and Distance
Imagine Voyager is right in front of you.
It points its antenna at you, takes a picture, and sends this image back to you.
You are only 1 meter in front of the antenna.
The signal is still strong.
Now Voyager takes off.
It rises to bird height.
Then to airplane altitude.
Then it leaves the atmosphere.
Then it reaches the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and finally the outer edge of the solar system.
And each time, it continues to transmit.
The same image.
The same information.
Only the distance grows greater.
The table shows how much of a transmit power of 23 watts still arrives on an area of 1 square meter.
As an illustration:
Imagine the entire 23 watts were as large as the Earth.
Then the last column shows how small the arriving portion has become at the respective distance.
This representation uses a simple basic calculation of propagation in space. Real space probes like Voyager additionally use directional antennas that focus the signal.
The columns mean:
-
Location / Distance: The example location where Voyager sends a signal to you on Earth.
-
Distance between antenna and receiver: The distance between the transmitting antenna and the reception point.
-
Power at receiver (1 m²): The power arriving on a reception area of 1 meter by 1 meter.
-
Image (23 watts = Earth): A size image. If 23 watts were as large as the Earth, this column shows how large the arriving portion would still be.
| Location / Distance | Distance between antenna and receiver | Power at receiver (1 m²) | Image (23 watts = Earth) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 meter in front of the antenna | 1 m | 1.83 watts | large part of the Earth |
| Bird height | 100 m | 0.000183 watts | large mountain |
| Airplane altitude | 10 km | 0.0000000183 watts | house |
| Upper atmosphere | 100 km | 0.000000000183 watts | human |
| Moon | 384,000 km | 0.0000000000000000124 watts | grain of sand |
| Mars, close position | 100 million km | 0.000000000000000000000183 watts | bacterium |
| Sun | 150 million km | 0.000000000000000000000081 watts | very small bacterium |
| Jupiter | 800 million km | 0.00000000000000000000000286 watts | molecule |
| Voyager, current distance | 24 billion km | 0.00000000000000000000000000318 watts | atom or smaller |
The table makes it visible:
As distance increases, the arriving power becomes extremely faint.
The source transmits with 23 watts, yet only a tiny fraction arrives at the reception point.
Nevertheless, even a very small power can still carry structure, be evaluated, and contain information.
¶ Humans as Living Field Beings
The human body is also a field phenomenon.
Currents flow within it.
Cells build up voltages.
Nerves conduct electrical impulses.
The heart generates rhythmic electrical activity.
The brain operates in fine electrical and biochemical patterns.
These processes can be measured:
- as heart activity
- as brain activity
- as electrical voltage
- as magnetic fields
- as rhythmic changes in the body
Every thought, every emotion, and every memory is connected to such processes.
The body thinks through movement.
It feels through currents.
It remembers through patterns.
It lives through change.
¶ The Power of a Thought
A single thought can currently only be described approximately in terms of power.
The brain works continuously.
It consumes about 20 watts.
A thought is a subtle change within an ongoing living process.
As a rough illustration, one could say:
| Level | Power |
|---|---|
| Entire brain | approx. 20 watts |
| Conscious thought process as image | approx. 0.001 to 1 watt |
| Very fine neuronal subprocesses | significantly below that |
| Voyager signal on Earth | less than 0.000000000000000001 watts |
This table serves as an orientation.
It is not an exact measurement of a single thought.
It shows an order of magnitude:
A thought can be energetically subtle and simultaneously carry great meaning.
A thought can change one's own body.
A thought can trigger a word.
A word can touch a person.
A touched person carries something further.
This is how an effect is created.
¶ Plants, Animals, Humans, and Fields
Plants also live in energy processes.
They absorb light.
They convert light into living substance.
They respond to heat, water, touch, gravity, chemical signals, and electrical stimuli.
Animals also live in such exchange processes.
Humans too.
All living things are in relationship with fields:
- Light
- Heat
- Water
- Earth
- Air
- Electrical stimuli
- Chemical signals
- Touch
- Attention
- Memory
Life is a continuous exchange.
A building up.
A breaking down.
A receiving.
A responding.
A passing on.
¶ Information Fields of the Living
When a person thinks, feels, speaks, or acts, an effect is created.
First in their own body.
Then in the space between people.
Then in relationships.
Then in decisions.
Then in paths that continue differently.
A thought can be understood as an internal field event.
It changes voltages.
It changes chemical processes.
It changes attention.
It changes posture.
A thought can become action.
Action can become memory.
Memory can create direction.
In this way, an internal process becomes part of the world.
¶ Energy Conservation and Continuing Effect
In physics, it holds true:
Energy does not simply disappear.
It changes its form.
It becomes heat.
It becomes movement.
It becomes radiation.
It becomes voltage.
It becomes chemical bonding.
It becomes life.
A person continuously releases energy:
- through heat
- through movement
- through breath
- through voice
- through touch
- through gaze
- through thought processes
- through decisions
- through what they trigger in others
When a person dies, a physical form ends.
The effect of this person remains in the world.
It remains in memories.
It remains in actions.
It remains in paths that were created through them.
It remains in people who have been changed by them.
¶ The Transition to Spirituality
Natural science measures with instruments.
It recognizes what can be captured by its methods.
The finer a process is, the more challenging the measurement becomes.
The history of antennas shows:
An extremely faint power can carry information.
The history of the body shows:
From the finest electrical and biochemical processes arise thoughts, emotions, and memories.
The spiritual question begins where meaning becomes greater than the measurable.
It asks:
What remains of a thought?
What remains of a love?
What remains of a person?
What remains of an effect that once entered the world?
The physical world points to a deep truth:
Everything is in transformation.
Everything is in relationship.
Everything continues to have an effect.
¶ The Wonder of Earth, Humans, and Thought
The Earth is a living space of fields.
Light falls on plants.
Plants transform light into nourishment.
Animals live through this transformation.
Humans think, feel, and act from this absorbed energy.
A thought is therefore not an isolated event.
It is part of a great stream:
Sun.
Plant.
Nourishment.
Body.
Nervous system.
Consciousness.
Action.
Memory.
Passing on.
In this way, cosmic energy becomes inner experience.
In this way, light becomes thought.
In this way, thought becomes world shaping.
¶ Key Insight
Humans are beings through which energy gains meaning.
They receive.
They transform.
They transmit.
They remember.
They connect.
Every thought, every emotion, and every action enters the world.
As a trace.
As a frequency.
As an effect.
As part of a larger field.
Perhaps this is precisely where the wonder lies:
The finest processes carry the deepest meaning.
One level up: Basic Understanding of Energy and Transformation