Our century, the 20th, completed the two thousandth year after Christ's appearance. Many students of mysticism and the occult believe that the last years of this century will complete another world cycle in the development of man. Nostradamus was one among many, who prophesied a global catastrophe in the year 1999.
Certainly, the growth in scientific knowledge over the last 100 years and the ever increasing pace at which new discoveries are being made, gives one the impression that mankind is trying to catch up on lost time. Physics in particular has undergone some revolutionary changes. Newtonian concepts and ideas though still valid in general terms have been superimposed by what is today popularly known as the New Physics. We are now literally looking into the heart of matter, which despite its solidity is nevertheless recognised as energy that has developed substance on the 'wings of speed'. In fact, so closely are velocity and mass interlinked that in many experiments it is impossible to distinguish one from the other.
Faced with this dilemma even our scientists have begun to philosophize. New theories and concepts that appear bizarre when first encountered by the non-scientist are constantly being brandished in scientific circles, every one of them being supported by algebraic equations. Machines which are four miles long have been constructed to study the behaviours of these tiny subatomic pellets of energy. And it has been found that they are the product of a mysterious void, appearing from and disappearing into nowhere. Further, all subatomic particles appear to be born with a death wish. No sooner are they created, they disintegrate into other more stable particles, as if they were born with the desire to sacrifice themselves for the continued propagation of our material reality.