Thomas Alva Edison

October 21, 2013

The Lightning Storm

Nikola Tesla relajandose en su laboratoria (Colorado Springs, 1899)I witnessed one of the most beautiful happenings in all my life on this planet:  a thunderstorm. Oh, how utterly standard and mundane you may think. But, this is not true (in my opinion) for the first time I comprehended more of the immensity that is a thunderstorm (really I ought to say lightning storm, for that was the star of “performance”). Having spent some time researching and studying electricity (and, again, here lightning be the star of the show) as well as neuroscience (more electricity) so with the history, movement, evolution, and tomes of electricity coursing through my fevered and excited brain (fevered and excited at what new things I am learning and thinking and comprehending), this lightning storm was completely different than all others I had witnessed before it. I thought of the reports I’d read of Nikola Tesla supine upon his couch in his laboratory beneath the great windows contemplating lightning, perhaps giving birth to new thoughts, ideas, inventions, and inspirations.

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (ca.1816)I thought of the report of Benjamin Franklin and his famous (albeit usually incorrectly described or outright fabricated) kite and key experiment. It’s funny that this is what is most associated with Franklin and yet it is but a minor event among his feats. One must never trust the schools to impart any kind of information or knowledge. It is greatly misgiving and deceiving.

Mostly, I contemplated the power of efficient use of lightning. What can be accomplished with its unleashed power (nowadays such a natural occurrence as electricity is leashed and has been since the days of Thomas Alva Edison. What insanity is this? What absurdity I this? To leash the abundance of electricity?! Prior to the innovations of Edison, electricity was studied because its powers were so mysterious and so curious. But it was Edison who thought of how to leash it in order to profit from it. It was Edison, so I’ve read reported, that came up with the idea of charging people by the kilowatt hour. Up until then, electricity was merely turned on or off, like the valve of a water hose). I can see how all those great minds were as enamored with electricity. How all those fevered minds were excited into experimentation.

Double StrikeSuch beauty, this lightning. It’s the action, the interaction of cloud, ground (earth), particles, atoms, molecules, direction and current, all combining into this reaction called Lightning. How interesting its origins. Light-ning. Yes, light. It is brighter than any other I’ve seen on Earth, and enough to spoil the sun before my eyes. And I thought of the brain, and the “lightning” that is said to occur there. I love the possibilities of this planet, I truly love what it is capable of including growing humans). What disturbs me are the utterly unnatural (as blatantly arrogant supernatural) regulations performed by humans.

*Image Credits (all work used through permission of CC license or public domain)–
“Nikola Tesla relajandose en su laboratoria (Colorado Springs, 1899)” by Recuerdos de Pandora
“Double Strike” by Michael Bolognesi
“Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky (ca. 1816” by Benjamin West

Related articles
October 16, 2012

Nikola Tesla Was Onto Something Here

THE FRONTIER OF GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

“To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without.” ~Nikola Tesla, A Machine To End War

One of the most beautiful happenings to witness in this chaos-span called Life on this planet: a lightning storm. Oh, how utterly standard and mundane you may think, Reader. Ah, but perhaps you should think, as within that seemingly fleeting flash of energy-blast of heat many times brighter than our favorite star, the Sun, comes Fruition. Comprehend, mayhaps for the first time, as I did, the immensity that is a lightning storm ( and really oughtn’t we to say lightning storm, for is that not the true star of the “performance” of a thunderstorm).

Having spent some years researching and studying electricity (and, again, here lightning be the star of the show) as well as neuroscience (more electricity) so with the history, movement, evolution, and tomes of electricity coursing through my fevered and excited brain (fevered and excited at what new things I am learning and thinking and comprehending and awareness and consciousness), allow me to take you upon a Wonderland journey. Shall we begin?

First, imagine the reports of Nikola Tesla supine upon his couch in his laboratory beneath those great windows contemplating lightning, perhaps giving birth to new thoughts, ideas, inventions, and inspirations. Imagine Nikola Tesla engulfed in white plasma, yet unharmed, like some kind of mysterious, divinity-zapped Shaman. Contemplate this kind of power. An intense and great power that cycles (it has moods!) and can be harnessed. Contemplate, in a lightning storm, the power of efficient use of lightning (and here is where we can give a grateful nod to dear Mr. Tesla). What can be accomplished with its unleashed power, electricity (nowadays such a natural occurrence as electricity is leashed and has been since the days of Thomas Alva Edison. What absurdity, this? To leash the abundance of electricity?! Prior to the innovations of Edison, electricity was studied because its powers were so mysterious and so curious. But it was Edison who thought of how to leash it in order to profit from it. It was Edison, so I’ve read reported, that came up with the idea of charging people by the kilowatt hour. Up until then, electricity was merely turned on or off, like the valve of a water hose)? Can you see how all those great minds were as enamored with electricity?

Such beauty, this lightning. It’s the action: the interaction of cloud, ground (earth), particles, atoms, molecules, direction and current, all combining into this reaction called Lightning. How interesting its origins. Light-ning. Yes, light, progenitor of so many living organisms upon this planet. It is brighter than any other light seen on Earth, and enough to spoil the sun before the eyes. Now, as we meander further, think of the brain and the “lightning” that is said to occur there. Think of the unleashed power occurring there with every moment. Imagine, now, the “magick” from whence ideas come . . . awareness . . . Consciousness. Imagine lightning in the moment of conception, the first moment that seems not actually the first, but a continuation of the “first” moment the universe was conceived. Can you not see, dear reader, the similarity between these events? That we are as lightning as we are as consciousness as we are as universe.

Don’t you love the possibilities of this universe, this planet? Don’t you truly love what it is capable of, including growing humans?

“Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors.” ~Nikola Tesla, A Machine to End War

*Image, “Plasma Earth III”, by Nicholas Raymond

Related articles