Ether: the unseen, its effects, and the language of explanation

ether; the phenomenon of light

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Editorial introduction

Nobody has seen ether, yet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá points to it as a reality proven by its effects: heat, light and electricity are its waves, and to deny whatever the senses cannot reach would be to deny gravity and the human spirit as well. The word carries several tasks. It names an inference from effects to causes; it belongs to accounts of light as vibration and of the atom’s movement through the kingdoms of life; and it lends itself to analogy, as when the spirit of faith is likened to the medium that carries light, present everywhere but luminous only where it undulates. Its history must be kept in mind. Aristotle’s celestial aether answered a question about motion ^[1], and Einstein in 1920 explicitly set his use of the term apart from the mechanical medium of older physics ^[2]; neither simply matches every use found here. The inquiry continues toward light and darkness, toward the celestial spheres and planets, and toward the pairs in creation, the active force and its recipient from whose interaction the world came into being.

Selected passages

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If we were to deny all that is not accessible to the senses, then we would be forced to deny realities which undoubtedly exist. For example, the ether is not sensible, although its reality can be proven. The power of gravity is not sensible, although its existence is likewise undeniable. Whence do we affirm their existence? From their signs. For instance, this light consists in the vibrations of the ether, and from these vibrations we infer its existence.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 48, The Difference between Man and Animal, 1904-Oct ca. -- AB00057)

For instance, the nature of ether is unknown, but that it existeth is certain by the effects it produceth, heat, light and electricity being the waves thereof. By these waves the existence of ether is thus proven.
… Similarly in the world of being there exist forces unseen of the eye, such as the force of ether previously mentioned, that cannot be sensed, that cannot be seen. However, from the effects it produceth, that is from its waves and vibrations, light, heat, electricity appear and are made evident. In like manner is the power of growth, of feeling, of understanding, of thought, of memory, of imagination and of discernment; all these inner faculties are unseen of the eye and cannot be sensed, yet all are evident by the effects they produce.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Lawh-i-Dr Forel (Tablet to Dr Forel), 1921-Sep-21, to Auguste Forel -- AB00020)

Even the ether, the forces of which are said in natural philosophy to be heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, is an intelligible and not a sensible reality. Likewise, nature itself is an intelligible and not a sensible reality; the human spirit is an intelligible and not a sensible reality.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 16, Intelligible Realities and their Expression through Sensible Forms, 1904 ca. -- AB00259)

The external light is created by waves in the ether It is an accident that emanates from light-giving bodies and it enables objects to become visible and apparent to the sight. However, in and of itself this material source of light is not capable of sensing the presence of objects nor can it give us any information about them.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1903-Aug-18, to Aqa Mirza Ataullah Tabib Sirajul-Hukama -- AB07435)

When we observe the world of created phenomena, we discover that each atom of the atoms of substance is moving through the various degrees and kingdoms of organic life. For instance, consider the ethereal element which is penetrating and traveling through all the contingent realities. When there is vibration or movement in the ethereal element, the eye is affected by that vibration and beholds what is known as light.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Theosophical Lodge on 1912-May-30 -- ABU0041)

O thou shining ray! Verily, the ray, being transmitted from the etheric sphere, rends the space and reaches the surface of the earth and dispels the gloomy darkness.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1915 or <, to Walter L Babbitt -- AB10689)

The light of the sun has only one function and that is to make things manifest. This light is not important. It is only the result of ethereal vibrations.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken at Baltimore Hotel in Paris, 1913-May-22 -- ABU2757)

The light is divided into two kinds, material and spiritual. The material light is a vanishing matter and is known by etheric vibrations.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1915 or <, to Mabel Gilbert Babbitt -- AB10179)

Consider that light consists in the vibrations of the ether, whereby the nerves of the eye are stimulated and vision is produced. Now, though the vibrations of the ether exist both in the lamp and in the sun, yet what a difference there is between the light of the sun and that of the stars or of the lamp!

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 37, The Connection between God and His Manifestations, 1904 ca. -- AB00105)

The spirit of faith is like the ether regarded as the vehicle of light. Etheric matter is found everywhere; but only where it is in undulation does light appear. The appearance of light is not caused by motions to and fro of the ether- by its goings or its comings -but by undulations in the ether every-where present. Thus at night we have etheric matter, but without undulations, and therefore darkness prevails; but by the power of the sun it is caused to undulate, and light appears.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Myron Phelps and Madame Canavarro in Dec. 1902 -- ABU0647)

Every being lower in the scale of creation is incapable of comprehending the stages transcending its own. The mineral is incapable of understanding the nature of the plant kingdom. The plant cannot comprehend the reality of the animal kingdom, and the animal cannot penetrate the reality of the world of man. By the same reasoning, when we consider the human kingdom, we realize that man is incapable of perceiving the world of the soul, which an immaterial reality. He has no knowledge thereof save through rational evidences.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Theosophical Society on 1912-May-26 -- ABU0205)

When the ethereal force undulates, light appears in the world. Though its essence remains veiled, yet its waves are known.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá -- AB03468)

The power of attraction has as its function attractive, or magnetic, qualities. We cannot separate attraction from that power. The power of repulsion has as its function repelling -- sending off. You cannot separate the effect from the cause. If these premises be true -- and they are self-evident -- then it would be impossible for a composite being, for the elements which have gone into the makeup of a composite organism, ever to be decomposed because the inherent nature of each element would be to hold fast together.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Public address given at Parsons home on 1912-Nov-10 -- ABU0102)

And as to thunder and lightning: lightning signifieth the coming together of two mighty forces, the negative and the positive---that is, the attractive force and the repelling force. When these two powers are joined, the lightning doth flash, cleaving the air and leaving a void in space.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1896 ca., to Mirza Abbas -- AB00199)

Know then that, as hath been clearly handed down in the accounts of old, these great orbits and circuits fall within subtle, fluid, clear, liquid, undulating and vibrating bodies, and that the heavens are a restrained wave because a void is impossible and inconceivable.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Lawh-i-Aflakiyyih (Tablet of the Celestial Spheres), 1876-08 ca. -- AB00023)

"The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient." That is to say: The substance and primary matter of contingent beings is the ethereal power, which is invisible and known only through its effects, such as electricity, heat, and light--these are vibrations of that power, and this is established and proven in natural philosophy and is known as the ethereal matter. This ethereal matter is itself both the active force and its recipient; in other words, it is the sign of the Primal Will in the phenomenal world.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Commentary on passages from the Tablet of Wisdom, 1910-Apr-14, to Ali Akbar Quchani -- AB00373)

Further quotations · supplied wording and references

The animal cannot understand the roundness of the earth, nor its motion in space, nor the central position of the sun, nor can it imagine such a thing as the all-pervading ether.

AL.023

Catalogue reference: ABU0445 · passage alignment is approximate; supplied wording retained.

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Comparative reading

1 · Aristotle, On the Heavens, I.2–3 (J. L. Stocks translation)
Aristotle reasons from circular celestial motion to a body distinct from earth, water, air, and fire, identifying the heavenly region with aether. His argument locates the term within a particular natural philosophy. Compare the roles of motion, inference, and imperceptibility here and in the compilation; the shared word does not establish that the accounts refer to the same explanatory model.
2 · Albert Einstein, Ether and Relativity (1920)
Einstein reviews changing conceptions of ether and uses the term for physical qualities of space in general relativity, distinguishing this from a mechanical light-bearing medium with a state of motion. Read especially the concluding paragraphs. This historical comparison helps identify changes in meaning; it is not evidence that every statement about ether in the compilation anticipates or agrees with Einstein’s account.

For thought and discussion

Questions to carry forward

Which passages make an inference from effects, which describe a physical process, and which use an analogy—and how does the kind of claim change what would count as understanding it?
How can a reader take the history of a scientific term seriously while still examining the philosophical question a passage uses it to raise?
What does comparison with Aristotle and Einstein reveal about the different meanings that one word can carry, and where would identifying those meanings too quickly mislead us?
What can images of light and unseen influence clarify about spiritual life, and where do these images leave questions that require another kind of inquiry?

Ether: the unseen, its effects, and the language of explanation

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