I want to share with you something I’ve read about a certain device. It serves as an excellent analogy to how we may understand the cosmos, time, history and even religion. I read about this device in the quantum physicist David Bohm‘s essay, “The Enfolding-Unfolding Universe” (1980). Although Bohm was applying it to an understanding of the universe, I have found it helpful in helping me to understand incarnation as well. It has been instrumental in my z-theory, and I actually think reading this provoked me to dream about the waterfalls. Here’s the experiment with the device:

“This device consists of two concentric glass cylinders, with a highly viscous fluid such as glycerine between them, which is arranged in such a way that the outer cylinder can be turned very slowly, so that there is negligible diffusion of the viscous fluid. A droplet of insoluble ink is placed in the fluid, and the outer cylinder is then turned, with the result that the droplet is drawn out into a fine thread-like form that eventually becomes invisible. When the cylinder is turned in the opposite direction the thread-form draws back and suddenly becomes visible as a droplet, essentially the same as the one that was there originally (see the diagram).”

All things come from the Source (the ink prior to emanation), and to the Source all things shall return (the ink droplet returning to its original structure). I suggest that this device provides an illustration of that idea. We are presently living in the time of spreading, where the Source is diffused throughout all existence. My understanding of the incarnation is that the Source is totally invested in the cosmos, condescending to be completely enfolded in it. It is all one, connected and united.