We know that energy flows from ‘positive’ to negative regions, and so when lightening strikes the earth this must happen when the electrical field within a thundercloud becomes positive with respect to the field below.

Thunderclouds rise to great heights in the atmosphere, and it is easy to imagine an electrical energy field building up within a thundercloud which then violates the allowable density restrictions imposed by the requirement that this zone of the spatial gradient contain no more energy than the allowable E-Maximum.

That thunderstorms build up excess energy, relative to the space they occupy, is demonstrated by the fact that just before lightening strikes occur, thunderstorms release bursts of x-rays and gamma rays, which are indications of an excess of energy in that space.

Normally the atmosphere would be considered an insulator. The thundercloud and the earth below resemble a capacitor. In a capacitor a voltage differential builds up between two separated plates, with a positive build up of energy on one plate which is attracted to a negative hole in the energy field on the second plate, however it cannot reach the negative plate because of a gap in the circuit. In some capacitors, the only barrier between the two plates is air. A capacitor will break down when a certain voltage differential is reached and the capacitor can then be destroyed by arcing, which is very similar to lightening.

The problem in the thundercloud is more than simple ‘voltage breakdown’, since the thundercloud is also in an energy state which is not allowed and so a force similar to expulsion occurs. The sign that such an expulsion of excess energy for that spatial state is about to occur is the energetic emission of x-rays and gamma rays which precedes the sudden burst of lightening. There is a type of lightening that goes up into the stratosphere, and we can assume that for a very energetic burst the allowable direction is downward, towards the earth, and an allowable energy state. Measurements with balloon lofted instruments have shown a linear increase in the build up the electric field inside thunderclouds between lightening strikes. When the breakdown occurs, and the excess energy is expelled the lightening creates a conducting channel just a few centimeters in diameter through which a powerful current flows. Given the tight binding that exists between energy and what we think of as three dimensional space, it seems plausible to conclude that this channel is much like a temporary rip or tear in space, as a zone of extremely high energy space is created that cuts through the normal spatial gradient and carries excess energy downwards to a higher energy state within the gradient field.


The following is a little off topic, but I find myself wondering if the behavior inside that thundercloud isn’t something like what happens within an atom just before an atom emits a burst of electromagnetic radiation. Atoms create three dimensional space and thus must also be bound by the laws that govern the relationship between energy and the spatial gradient, and so perhaps an atom also releases excess energy when an atom is an energy state which is not allowed, by ripping a small channel or hole in space. It could be that the reason why atoms only emit radiant energy at certain fixed frequencies is that atoms only rip holes in space in certain fixed manner.