The Science Of Soulmates
Explaining the Space Between Each of Us
Almost a year ago, one of my friends began talking about those rare instances when you meet someone and you just click. Maybe it’s that moment at a party when you lock eyes with someone you haven’t spoken to before, but you know you’ll spend the rest of the night talking about Lord of the Rings and the socio-economic status of Europe in a corner. You might get talking to someone over a video call; your friend threw their phone to a colleague they’re hanging out with and you’re stuck making conversation for a few minutes, but there’s a connection there — it’s something you’ve never felt before. It’s electric. We’ve tried to comprehend it in literature, movies, music, and art throughout the ages. Often it’s seen as sparks flying, butterflies in your stomach, a sense of indescribable elation, and something magnetic in the air.
What started as an innocent comment on how wonderful a phenomenon this interaction is, led me down a rabbit hole. Armed with my very limited knowledge of the universe, and everything I could remember from high school Chemistry, Physics, Religion, and a degree in Interior Architecture, I set out to explain what I had termed as the Science of Soulmates. I’m not afraid to admit that my theory may make any self-respecting scientist tear out their hair in disdain, but the theory itself has given me some great comfort, especially in the last year when it’s felt like we’re all that much further apart. My hope is that sharing this theory with you will help to lessen the space between us and alleviate some of the loneliness lockdown has brought in its wake.
As I embarked on this journey, primarily consisting of late-night tea-fuelled research, I could recall my high school chem teacher explaining that everything we perceive as solid, and tangible, exists as a result of an incomprehensibly large quantity of atoms. Somewhere between ten quadrillion vigintillion and one-hundred thousand quadrillion vigintillion atoms bounce around our perceivable universe. Personally, I don’t know how many zeroes are used to write those numbers down. When I sought out their numerical form, I was presented with figures like 10 to the power of 78, and 10 to the power of 82. I do alright mathematically speaking, but these numbers are far beyond the scope of what I’m used to working with.
These atoms, however, hold our existence together by vibrating. These vibrations are caused by electrons moving between atom clouds to make up the elements that make up everything else. We don’t notice these vibrations occurring when they do — our tables and chairs appear solid, water remains liquid, and gasses can help evacuate a room with ease and a little bit of embarrassment. But the fact remains that although we perceive these states of being, solids and liquids both still consist primarily of empty space around each atom within them. It is often suggested that as a result of this, everything we perceive is approximately 99% empty space. We know this isn’t entirely true, there’s a lot going on in those empty spaces; but the fact remains that whatever is happening is causing the vibrations that make up the rest of the world.
The vibrations referred to here, give everything in the world a frequency, from the trees and plants to our own bodies. We resonate at a frequency of 7.5 Hz (Hertz), with different parts of the body vibrating slightly differently. The earth itself has a frequency of approximately 8 Hz. Many faiths teach the belief that bringing the self closer to the frequency that the earth resonates at, can help cultivate better harmony, though that is a whole different story with a different message. However, if we take the principle that if we are closer in frequency to the earth we will live happier lives, and apply it to ourselves and others; surely we are happier around those who resonate at closer frequencies to our own. This brings a new meaning to the phrase that you can meet someone who’s on the same wavelength as you.
Moving past frequencies, and wavelengths, we have energy. Many Cards Against Humanity fans will recall a white card with “The Inevitable Heat Death Of The Universe” written on it. For some people, this is believed to be how the universe will cease to be. We came in with a bang, we may go out with one yet.
This is thought to be our eventuality because of energy. Energy is a unique part of our universe, as it cannot be lost. It can only be transformed or transferred from one form or object to another. We might boil a kettle to make a cup of tea, the energy used heats the metal coil in the kettle, which in turn heats the water. You may think the thermal energy created in heating the water would be lost when the water cools, but it is in fact transferred to the mug holding the water, warming that. Or transferred to us, when we hold the warm mug. The energy is never lost, and in its creation, it moves from being an electrical current (electrical energy) to heat (thermal energy).
We could equate this energy to something similar to that of a soul — although that might infer that kettles have souls they can transfer to tea. A theory I’m not entirely against, given how fond I’ve grown of the beverage since we began lockdown.
There was one doctor, Doctor Duncan MacDougall, who carried out a series of experiments in the hopes that he could articulate the weight of a soul. He weighed bodies before and after their deaths. His notes were meticulous in detailing exact times of death, weight, weight fluctuations before death, how long a patient had been on bed rest, etc. The figure Doctor MacDougall eventually came up with was 21 grams. As physical mass is taken into account, the only part of our bodies we cannot weigh specifically is the energy driving it. Through this, we could say that the energy found in us, is our soul. Sadly there was no loss of weight noted when this experiment was repeated with dogs. Doctor MacDougall considered this a success, his firm belief being that dogs don’t have souls. I would have to disagree.
We have the glue that holds us together, atoms, frequencies, and energy, so what makes up the rest of us? This is where we need to go back a bit further. I’m not a scientist sadly, much though I may have dreamed of being one as a child, but I am aware of the concept that we came to be through the big bang. One day there was space, and the next it exploded! As a result of this explosion, we all came to exist. Through the transference of energy and newly found matter, we evolved from the smallest one-cell organism to where we are today. We are in essence, recycled particles that came to exist when we first exploded. The body itself contains many of the same elements made in stars and are found in supernovas.
This has led me to the conclusion that when we meet someone, and we feel those sparks fly, maybe it’s because they possess an energy that we recognize from another time. Maybe they come from the same kind of star we once did before we exploded. When we enter a building and it feels strange, or uncomfortable, we usually say something bad must have happened there. That something may have changed the feeling or energy of the building permanently. My theory poses the idea that people are no different, and some of us are changed in such a way that we exist on different frequencies after certain events. It is possible to recognize someone by the lines on their faces, but what if our souls have an inbuilt recognition for an energy they once spent time with or a resonance that brought them some peace. It would bring some quantifiable truth to the idea behind soulmates.
The thought stuck with me for some time. I wrote it and re-wrote it. I tried to explain it to my parents, and siblings, and some friends. Most of the time I received a response on the lines of “I kind of get it?”
It wasn’t until one day, I was talking to someone I’d never met before, and we spoke about art and music, and in a chance, I explained my rather roughly thrown together theory… And he understood! It didn’t matter if scientifically it wasn’t completely sound, or that really I’d explained the whole mess of a theory in one breath. He understood. And for the first time in a very long time, the world felt a little bit less large, and the space between us felt a little bit less.
Through my writing and rewriting, and finding inspiration, I finally found myself writing poetry. It began with no dedication in particular, but I firmly believe it means more to me now than it ever could have before. Though once I was a cynic, I’m starting to think we probably don’t need science to explain soulmates, and that you can find those on the same frequency as you in the most unlikely of places. If you’ll forgive my lack of scientific standing, below is the final piece of writing this journey has led me to.
Dust
In particle and quantum physics, we are taught
That everything which is or once was,
Belongs to the stars
Cause and effect — we are an explosion of stardust,
A cacophony of forgotten sounds.
- Interrupted vibrations
Never knowing where we start and where we end
Yet we exist wholly independent
And broken
There can be no existence without a movement of energy between us
Us and the earth
Us and each other
No form
No function
All we are, all we ever could be
Is dust
Scattered millions of miles apart
and across the seas
How then, might you think to gravitate -
Towards me.
If only there was a way
To trick the vibrational frequencies that govern time and space as we know it
To place us somewhere else
Somewhere closer than these miles away
Closer than this small town in the middle of nowhere…
Or somewhere I’ve never been across the sea
Yet we are just dust
Spewed from the cosmos into bags of chemicals
Searching for purpose
Searching for the rest of our pieces
In particle and quantum physics we are taught -
That everything which is or once was
Belongs to the stars
I know where your star lands
My dust will also settle.
