The theory of strings, sometimes referred to as the theory of everything,i is considered by many physicists to be the most promising explanation to date for the nature of ultimate reality. It suggests the possibility that there is a connection, as well as a separation, between the realms of the material and consciousness. Both conditions can exist at the same time.

According to physicist David Gross:
There is about as complete unification as one could desire. Within this theory one is not saying that there are a few kinds of objects, and that everything else is built out of them. In some sense, we are saying that in string theory there is one object…. In the same way that if you take a violin string, and you pluck it, it has many kinds of vibrations. So, one violin string can give rise to many sounds. All of the tones of a vibrating string are different modes of one object…. That is true unification of everything, in that all the particles in the theory, and all the interactions, the particles that govern interactions, are all vibrations of the same string.ii

    In other words, a string is not a building block, as we have previously imagined particles to be. Apparently the universe is not made by adding a bunch of strings together in different combinations to create all the different things we observe, such as giraffes and people, buildings and stars. In Gross’s view, there is only one string.iii

    If physical reality is not ultimately made out of matter, but rather vibrates out of something called a string, then it is possible that material reality and consciousness, rather than being dualistically separate, are instead intimately connected, affecting each other in mutual feedback loops. They not only have points at which they interact but are a single undivided system.

Excerpted from our new book Sensual Love Secrets for Couples: The Four Freedoms of Body, Mind, Heart and Soul, by Al Link and Pala Copeland, Llewellyn, 2007

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