Similar to a battery, a magnet is also a storehouse of energy. Rather than storing energy in the form of electrical potential, the magnet stores energy in the form of magnetic potential. Just as the "+" and "-" terminals of a battery represent the polarity of the electric potential, the "north" and "south" poles of a magnet represent the same potential difference (dyad) that delivers the power of the magnetic field. However, the battery and magnet differ with regard to the "rules" which must be followed to deliver the power to an application that can make use of it. While the battery requires direct connection to the application via wires (to conduct the electric current), the magnet requires the application to be immersed in the magnetic field created by the magnet. But where the battery is at a disadvantage because it requires direct connection via wires, it also has the advantage of allowing considerable space between itself and its user application. For example, a battery under the hood of an automobile can power a light bulb to illuminate the rear license plate. The magnet, on the other hand, requires that its user application be in close proximity to feel the effects of its magnetic field.

The mechanical equivalent of the battery and the magnet is the spring. The spring is a good energy storage device to examine, for while the polarity of the battery and magnet are obvious, the polarity of the spring does not have a "+" and "-" or a "N" and "S" associated with it. So what is the polar dyad which stores the energy of the spring and provides power to its application? The answer is the mechanical force! The only reason that the spring seems different from the battery and the magnet is that we usually think of a force as a singular effect. However, we must recall that Newton explained to us that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." As the spring releases its stored energy, it exerts two equal forces, but in opposite directions. Similar to the battery and magnet, the spring has certain "rules" which must be followed if its stored energy is to be used efficiently. Like the battery, the spring must make direct contact with the body or bodies that are to absorb the stored energy. However, unlike the battery, the spring also requires an additional spatial relationship to make effective use of the mechanical force. An unconfined spring, such as the one shown in Figure (A) on the left, requires that the two bodies make contact with the spring along the line of its spring action. A spring configured as shown in Figure (B) would result in a terribly inefficient, and totally ineffective, use of the spring's capacity to store energy.

The three examples discussed above are intended to illustrate how polar dyads rule the storage and dispensation of energy in our universe. These physical examples, and the limitations of each device, also show us how we select specific dyads to store and dispense the energy required for specific applications. However, the point is not to give lessons in the applications of batteries, springs, and magnets to problems of engineering. The purpose of these examples is to illustrate that any universal dyad can be employed to store and manage the energy of creation. Certainly, there are many more examples of universal dyads that can be utilized as the "batteries" of various creative processes. How many can you think of? How many do you employ in your day-to-day life?

As always, we explain the obvious in that these are just a few examples whose purpose is only to illustrate our point. The point here is to validate the focus that our sciences place upon analysis and understanding of both MATTER and MOTION, and how they, in turn, reflect TIME. The more we understand the interactions of these opposing elements, the easier it becomes to strike a healthy balance between them. The more we strive to achieve an appropriate balance between MATTER and MOTION, the better they serve us during our lifetimes as we pursue our living acts of creation. The directed writings and experiential seminars offered by Tree-O-Life.Org provide more in-depth instruction on the topics of MATTER and MOTION, and how we can use them, in balance, to achieve our dreams.

Before we provide any examples, we need to resurrect the concept of Relativity that we briefly covered back on page One. Einstein showed the world that the concept of time is relative. As your velocity begins to approach the speed of light, Einstein showed us how the passage of time slows down from that which we measure here on earth. Therefore, when we discuss "controlling time", we are really talking about controlling the perception of the passage of time. Since all things and events are relative to our own POV, we must focus on our own perception of time, and not the standard measure of time that we have all agreed to for the sake of convenience. Now we are ready to examine an example of how we exercise control over time... one that many of us have likely experienced in our workaday worlds.

Recall a day on the job when you were especially busy. From the hour when you began work, to the hour when you quit and went home, you were "flat out" working and getting things done. Compare this to a day where you may have had very little work to perform. Which of these two days did you perceive to pass more quickly? Clearly, most people will attest to the fact that "time seems to fly when I am really busy." Similarly, people will often attest to how slowly time seems to pass when you have little to do at work. These perceptions form our reality, a reality that is based upon matter in motion. On those days where we are exceptionally busy, we note that the total amount of matter that we have moved (be it physical material, paperwork, or brain cells) is indeed quite high. Contrarily, on those days where we have a light workload, we do not move as much matter as on a busy day. We spend more of the workday in an idle state. Here we can clearly see that we do have a measure of control over our perception of the passage of time, simply by controlling the amount of matter and the amount of motion we put this matter through. When we keep ourselves busy, we perceive that time passes more quickly than "normal."

Another example that illustrates how the perceived passage of time depends on our POV relates to how we focus on events occurring around us. Sudden events that demand our intense focus, just to ensure our own safety and well being, are often reported to "cause time to slow down." Reports from people who have experienced earthquakes often reflect this perception...."It seemed like the earth was shaking for several minutes," when the reality of the earthquake time spans are often considerably shorter than that perceived by the person who experienced the event. Another example of this phenomenon comes from those who have lived through the rampage of a random gunman wreaking havoc in some public gathering. These people often report how "Everything seemed to slow down...it was like I was watching the whole thing occur in slow motion."

If we were to try and assign some sort of "cause" for this effect, it would not be unrealistic to target stress itself. This explanation also serves us well in explaining the "busy workday" example. Stress tends to increase our focus on the objects (matter) that are in motion around us. Sometimes we experience great deals of stress in our relationships with those of the opposite gender, whether they are romantic or otherwise. As with all things, it is a matter of understanding alternate POVs as well as understanding the dynamic energy inherent in the prevailing dyad.

Consider a society where both men and women tended to be biased towards NURTURING, with neither gender being biased towards PROVIDING. Such a society represents an unbalanced dyad, and would not be very likely to sustain its existence without some form of change. However, we must be careful to not view this as a "mandate" for one gender to do all the NURTURING and the other gender to do all the PROVIDING. It is merely an observation that a balance of these two attitudes in any family unit will tend to ensure the success of that family, simply because both the need for NURTURING and the need for PROVIDING are being met. It is similar to the concept of teamwork in any business. Not everyone can be a marketing or sales specialist who excels at talking to customers and selling the product. Someone has to "mind the store," as it were, to make sure there is a product, of sufficient quality, that the sales force can sell!

The lesson in this subsection is intended to help us focus on creating balance when we contemplate entering into a relationship with some "significant other." The sagely wisdom of "opposites attract" bears a great deal of truth, wherein "truth" is defined as "that which progresses you towards your stated goals." Honesty, openness, and unfettered communication between partners with respect to our individual strengths and weaknesses will serve us in how we select our "perfect match." Indeed, communication itself can be viewed as the energy field that envelops and connects the two poles in any dyad of human relations.

Where ORDER is aligned with linear, predictable phenomena, we see that CHAOS represents non-linear phenomena. Back on page One we discussed hurricanes and our human tendency to identify them by name. Hurricanes also provide good examples of how chaos and order can both manifest in a single natural phenomenon. A hurricane is an organized low-pressure disturbance, and it exhibits its orderliness in the fact that the entire storm revolves, in an orderly manner, around its eye. Likewise, it is simple to spot how chaos manifests in a hurricane, even if it is only through the identification of its destructive forces. But how does a hurricane exhibit non-linear aspects? While the destructive forces of a hurricane are chaotic, they are fairly linear. By this we mean that the destructive force of a hurricane will generally increase, in a linear manner, with the strength of the hurricane's low-pressure cell.

The non-linear (truly chaotic) aspects of a hurricane are evident in its birth, its death, and the path it traverses throughout its stormy life. We know that hurricanes develop from tropical wave phenomena, but whether these phenomena develop into full-fledged hurricanes is dependent upon several different atmospheric and oceanic factors. Moreover, meteorologists cannot identify a single parameter (such as air temperature, water temperature) which, when increased in a linear manner, will definitely give rise to an organized hurricane. The formation of a hurricane from a tropical wave appears to be "hit or miss," which is why meteorologists must continue to monitor these tropical depressions. The same can be said of the unpredictable path that a hurricane takes throughout its life. Finally, while we understand that ocean water is what fuels a hurricane to continue (which is why hurricanes will dissolve once they move over land), we do not completely understand what leads to some hurricanes "fizzling out" over the open ocean. The death of a hurricane in this manner is another example of the non-linear effects of chaos.

One of the most interesting aspects of chaotic phenomena is the tendency to bifurcate, or split into distinct groups of two. The scientists who worked to discover and define the significant aspects of Chaos term this "the period doubling route to Chaos." The connection between this period doubling and the creative aspects of the dyad, as described thus far, cannot be understated. The bifurcation of a single state, measure, or phenomenon into two equal and opposing components aligns perfectly with our concept of the polar dyad. The classic example used to demonstrate chaotic period doubling is the stability of any measure of population. For any measure of population, there exists a critical system parameter that the population depends upon for its survival. As this critical system parameter is varied, the population from one generation to the next will remain relatively steady and constant. However, there is a certain value of this critical parameter that will result in a bifurcation of the population measure from one generation to the next. The generation-to-generation population measure continually oscillates from a relatively high value (e.g. "overpopulation") to a relatively low value (e.g. "threat of extinction"). If we continue to vary the critical system parameter in the same direction that lead to the first bifurcation, we will eventually reach a bifurcation of the original bifurcation, which results in four different values of population. As we continue to increase the critical parameter, we continue to experience more and more bifurcations, until our ability to predict the population of the next generation from the population of the current generation is deemed impossible (due to chaos).

This concept of delta-differential from an agreed-upon standard is what gives rise to all of our various physical units of measure (microns, feet, miles, astronomical units, grams, kilograms, slugs, tons, microseconds, seconds, hours, months, epochs, etc.). Each of these units of measure represents a standard by which we measure the physical objects and events in our universe. But more importantly, they each represent a specific RESOLUTION of the physical measure in question. RESOLUTION is an important concept in helping us put Einstein's relative universe into a personal perspective. If we only had one resolution for measuring length, say the inch, can you imagine how large the numerical values would be if we had to express the distance from the earth to the sun in inches? That is one helluva lot of inches! So here we can see that the appropriate selection of resolution permits us to manage the vastness of our universe (both on a macro and a micro scale).

There are a great many lessons and correlations we can provide with respect to the concept of resolution. Indeed, Tree-O-Life.Org provides various directed writings and experiential lessons about the use of resolution in our creative lives. However, we must point out that all applications of resolution can be traced back to their roots in the archetypal Dyad. Without the Dyad, we would not be able to understand the delta-differential. And without the delta-differential we could not specify and identify resolutions that make the numerical measures of our universe manageable and more easily understood. Truly, the power of the Dyad empowers us to perceive and understand.

As with everything we teach here at Tree-O-Life.Org, there are always examples and alternate ways to envision the concepts we teach. The diagram above attempts to relate the three different types of dyad pairings to a few of the dyads from the list presented earlier on this page. What we need to understand is that there are no "universal laws" which prohibit the use or manifestation of either of the two unbalanced forms of the dyad. Indeed, if we are involved in a process wherein we seek to restore some form of balance, applying one of the two unbalanced dyads to the existing situation will be necessary to return the situation to one of balance. Clearly, selecting the "proper" unbalanced dyad is the key to restoring balance and avoiding a situation of even greater unbalance. This process of selection (or choice between opposing forces) is the focus of the third, neutralizing element which we discuss in the next section.