The Power of Zero

From Menletter December 2004

By Tim Baehr

The invention of the number (and concept) of zero revolutionized mathematics. For the first time, it was possible to do (and write) base-ten calculations. Zero has some interesting properties, in addition to being able to hold the one's, ten's, and hundred's places in calculations. Any number raised to the power of zero is one. Any number divided by zero is undefined.

I became acquainted with the psychological power of zero in doing a meditation technique called holotropic breathing, or simply breathwork. In holotropic breathing, the participant engages in deep, rhythmic breathing while listening to a carefully chosen suite of very loud music. The participant often achieves a trance-like state, with vivid images. Sometimes the images are abstract. Sometimes the images are very real. They may consist of reliving certain life experiences, having conversations with long-dead ancestors, or having fantastic experiences such as being in the midst of a Civil War battle or dancing in a harem. As the music begins to slow down and become quieter and sweeter, there is often a powerful emotional release.

Somewhere during the breathwork I've experienced, I come to a point at which time and space have totally collapsed. I am at zero: there is no time, and there is no space. What is most powerful about this experience is that, at this zero point, there are no temporal or spatial constraints - whatever the "I" is that is experiencing this can go anywhere in time and space. In fact, the "I" has disappeared into the zero. Or it's as I have been divided by zero and have become undefinable.

We might think that, in ordinary geometrical space, three dimensions is about as real as we can get. Two dimensions constrain us to thinking about a plane; one dimension is simply a line. But when we hit zero dimensions, we're at a single, dimensionless point: all constraints fall away.

There are other ways to get to zero or close to it, some of them extremely unpleasant and not entirely of our own choosing. We lose a job, or a marriage, or a parent. We lose our health. We hit rock bottom in a pit of drugs or alcohol. We fall prey to the blackness of depression. We feel that we're at the point of annihilation; we're at zero, we are zero - so far down that everything looks like up. If we can survive the journey into nothingness, we often find ourselves at a new beginning. We have a sharper view of the infinite possibilities, a clearer view of what's really important to us and to the people around us. From the zero of near-annihilation, we rebuild our corner of the universe.

One of the spiritual goals of many people is to "destroy" the self, to become the non-self, to transcend the duality of right-wrong, good-evil. A person can spend a lifetime in learning philosophies and doing meditation and breathwork in search of the non-self, the zero.

Adversity may be a more efficient way. We don't need to seek out adversity or learn special techniques from a guru to induce it. Most of us get a full measure of adversity several times in our lives. Some even live entire lives of adversity. If we're very, very lucky, some of our brushes with annihilation will open - even if just the merest crack - the doors to infinite possibility.