Go somewhere way out in space, out to some far interstellar reaches, halfway between two galaxies say, where there is nothing—nothing at all (“nothing” actually means no more than about one atom per cubic yard). Call it really empty space because, by definition, there is no such thing as “nothing.” And way out there, in all that emptiness, in the most desolate reaches of our universe, you will find all these teeny-tiny snippets of energy popping into existence and popping right back out again, just everywhere, constantly, every zillionth of every second. Mega-gazillions of them, absolutely everywhere in all that mis-named “nothingness.”

“Zero-point energy,” they call it. And rather like very wee sparklers, the snippets just keep coming and going and coming again—in every cubic millimeter of every cubic inch of every cubic yard of “empty” interstellar space. Some scientists say some of them do it backwards, popping into existence after they popped out of existence. You read that right, how’s that for a brain teaser? If you read enough physics you will find many highly reputable scientific authors saying this sort of crazy-sounding thing, agreeing with each other mostly, even though to the average more normal mind it makes no sense. It makes no sense to them either, but they believe anyway, so there it is and they do say it. Or, more to the point, they report what their incomprehensible mathematics claims. I just cannot trust conclusions based on math alone.

If there is any truth in it—and they all seem convinced there is—the question naturally presents:  WHERE do all these kazillions of microscopic energy sparkles of “zero-point energy” constantly come from and go back to? Do you suppose maybe it is the same place the big bang came from? Scientists don’t know. Their equations don’t tell them. And they won’t speculate—or if some do they won’t risk their reputation by telling anybody (I suspect they do, because who among them is not human?). So it’s a mystery. If I were to speculate where science fears to tread, I might wonder right out loud if zero-point energy disappears and reappears by transiting, back and forth, across that well-testified veil separating this universe from the spirit realm so many near-death experiencers all say—with great certitude—they know is real because they’ve been there. How might you design an experiment to test for this possibility? Think about that.