PART 1

INTRODUCTION

"Love is not just an emotion. It is your very existence."

–Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

It was a hot and humid summer day in Chicago, unusually hot for the windy city known for its especially bitter cold winters. It felt like a sweltering heat; the kind where you could just melt right into the asphalt. The smells of hot dogs, burgers and sausages on grills everywhere permeated the thick, hot air creating what feels like an unquenchable thirst. Only a slight breeze blew over the cars in the parking lots and crowds of people who kept gathering regardless of the summer heat. There were families playing ball in the parking lot, groups of people tailgating, and crowds trying to get into the stadium to see tonight's big game. Many were diehard fans that were there for every game, every season. Some were there for their first time, to experience the magic as never seen before. But no one knew what would ensue on this magical night.

On this day, the gathering fans were at Wrigley Field listening to the crowd roar while enjoying freshly grilled hot dogs and cold beer, waiting for that special moment to begin. Play ball! Later in the night, the moment heated up with a tie game. It was a real nail-biter. Then, deep in the ninth inning with the bases loaded, the crowd lulled to a quiet hush as the pitcher wound up. After so many hits, game after game, this was the moment everyone had all been waiting for with the star hitter at the plate.

With the bases loaded, everyone in the crowd on the home team's side wants to see our star batter hit a home run, of course. The pitcher goes through his ritual. He holds the ball in his glove and peers out of the corner of his eyes to scan where everybody is in the infield and outfield. He winds up and gets ready to deliver his pitch. He wants to send that ball right down the middle, a fastball too fast for the batter to even see. But the batter knew exactly what was coming.

Suddenly, the crack of the ball being struck is heard by everyone as clear as day, as if it were right next to each and every person in the stands. The crowd reacts as if in slow motion, watching the baseball fly upwards in the sky. Everyone gets up out of their seats, forgetting about the nachos in their lap with only the ball on their mind, still going upwards. The crowd roars louder as the ball keeps sailing until it goes right out of the park! This is the moment we have been waiting for.

Any baseball hit within the park can become a single, double, triple, home run, or just a fly ball. It took a pitch just right and a perfect swing. The ball went flying toward the outfield with enough momentum to become a grand slam, and all of the players came running home. Victory is sealed as the crowd goes absolutely crazy with fans jumping from their seats, losing their food and drinks that were instantly forgotten in the sight of the ball that was still flying upward in the sky. On this magical night, that ball had so much momentum behind it that it never stopped and just flew right out of the stadium, into the parking lot where many tailgating fans had been waiting. This was truly a special moment and a very rare occasion, but the dedicated fans who waited outside the stadium knew that it would happen eventually, and if they waited long enough and came to every game, it could happen again. This baseball was no ordinary baseball, but a grand slam that was hit hard enough to clear the stands to sail free of the confines of the park. And so many special fans were there to observe this grand slam, which became a monumental victory for the home team!

After being knocked out of the park, this grand slam became a legend that no one would forget. For years to come, athletes, announcers, and fans alike would remember this very moment and talk about it as if it were the defining moment of their lives. Writers would compare every other victory in the game to this one because it was that special. Even the ball, which at one time was just like any other ordinary baseball, becomes much more valuable. Can you imagine finding such a rare gem at an online auction after passing from fan to fan, gaining value? Can you imagine how much it is worth now? This ball is not just an ordinary baseball.

On an astronomical level, this is similar to the great feat leading to the moment that sparked the creation, forming our own universe. And we are the fans at the ball park who observed it for the first time. As our lives go on, we are the ones who discuss how great this was and how it created what our lives have become today. Many books have been written about what happened after this moment, called the Big Bang. But we remember what happened inside the stadium, when it was a Grand Slam!

According to the Big Bang theory a single particle the size of a tiny point that consisted of all of the universe's energies expanded because, according to known laws of physics, it could not be stable existing as the single particle. The resulting rapid inflation began a series of reactions and infinite expansion as energies, forces, subatomic particles, and what we know today as our universe was formed. Now think back to Wrigley Field with the bases loaded, when that perfect hit cracked through the night became a grand slam and flew right out of the stadium. This resulted in a dazzling display of fireworks and lights at the stadium with the crowds on their feet cheering as loud as they could with all of the excitement of the moment in every single individual. A single baseball became much more than any other baseball that night. It became a legend.

What this does is set the precedence for an object to be the same object in one setting and become something much bigger in another. We wouldn't have seen the same celebration in the stadium if the baseball didn't become a grand slam and win the game. When it was caught outside the stadium, it was instantly more valuable than any other baseball! On the scale of the entire universe, the big bang particle might not have become a big bang unless it became something much bigger. But what made it into the Big Bang from that particle? How did it become so big? Did it get hit "out of the stadium" too? Have we just witnessed a life-changing moment that changes the way we understand the universe? As we will show in this book, the answer to all of these is a resounding yes!

What this suggests is that this "particle of everything" that became the Big Bang may actually have come from another source outside of our universe, like the ball hit from the park. This is a logical course of action because, if our laws of physics are correct, this Big Bang particle could not have existed in the first place due to its instability. In contrast, if the particle came from within a larger stadium and was able...