Eastern Cosmology 9 103
the static positive principle of Shiva's consciousness and light as that
of the dynamic, negative principle of Shakti's power. Shakti's function
is to provide the structural raw material of the universe in the form of
"light," or what scientists call radiation, with an average frequency for
visible light calculated at some five hundred trillion oscillations per
second! To the occultist, these are merely wavelengths in the medium
of the mind, with mind in turn an outgrowth of consciousness.
Shiva's function as consciousness is to give niateri?? Cbrm to Shakti's
light by bottling it up in atoms and molecules so as to control and co-
ordinate the building and maintenance of form; this is seen as being ac-
complished by Shiva through the agency of "sound7'-not the sound
we hear on earth, but a cosmic form of vibration that produces a field
of influence undetectable with physical apparati. This sound, or Nada
in Sanskrit, is described as vibration in the medium ofAkasha, or space.
It is not mere empty space but "mental" space containing within itself
an infinite amount of potential energy, which can find expression in
any and all the kinds of vibrations needed in a manifest system.This in-
finite potential for producing vibrations of different frequencies in any
intensity or amount is attributed to the fact that hidden within
Akasha is ubiquitous consciousness, and consciousness, which is "self-
determined, integrated, and free," can produce of itself an infinite
amount of energy through the medium of mind, a notion intolerable
to physicists, who maintain that energy can neither be destroyed nor
created.
A peculiar fact pointed out by physicists is that when matter is pro-
duced from the materiahation of energy, equal amounts of matter and
antimatter are formed simultaneously. Conversely, when matter meets an-
timatter both are extinguished in an explosion that produces light. And
the extent of the energy released can be gauged by the fact that the in-
teraction of one proton with one antiproton produces a staggering 1.8
bdhon electron-volts of energy.
All the forces such as gravitation, magnetism, and so forth, are also
seen by occultists as derived from sound, and though predominantly
static they also have a dynamic character that gives rise to waves.And
since waves cannot exist without a medium of some lund, they must, say
occultists, exist in the mind.According to this doctrine, motion exists in