"The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe" - Einstein Would Have Loved It!
By Duane Shinn
In the popular movie “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”,
author C.S. Lewis created the imaginary land of Narnia, where 4
children encounter time travel and discover the forces of both good
and evil, and take a much greater part in that battle than they had
ever dreamed possible.
Set during World War 2, four siblings Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund
are moved to the county because of the bombing in London, and begin to
explore the big house that is their temporary new home. In a back room
of the house is a large wardrobe filled with many coats. The youngest
sister, Lucy, runs into the wardrobe to hide from the other kids, and
in so doing discovers that the back of the wardrobe is the door to
another world named Narnia. In that world she encounters a faun named
Tumnus who lulls her to sleep with an enchanting tune on his flute.
When she returns hours later through the wardrobe to her brothers and
sister, she finds that no time at all has elapsed. Apparently time in
Narnia is non-correlated with time in England. (A notion, by the way,
consistent with Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.) Her
siblings quite naturally chide her when she tells them of her
adventure, but she remains convinced her experience was real. One by
one the others also enter, but find that this new world of Narnia is
no longer a happy place but is locked in the grip of perpetual winter
by the magic of an evil queen.
In due time the children, known in Narnia as “sons of Adam and
daughters of Eve” learn that Aslan, the lion king of this world of
Narnia, is coming back and can help them against the witch. But when
they learn that one of their own, Edmund, was deceived by the witch
and now is actually in her service, they need even more help. Aslan is
as good as he is powerful, and with him all things are possible. He
eventually gives his life in exchange for their release from the magic
of the White Witch, then comes back to life due to “deeper magic
from before the dawn of time.” (Wormholes into another dimension?)
After much battling the forces of evil with Aslan’s help and finally
defeating the White Witch, the 4 children eventually rule the kingdom
of Narnia as Kings and Queens for what seemed like a thousand years
before being whisked back to England only to find themselves children
again playing in the old house.
Hmmmm. Sounds kind of familiar…like something that has been going
on in our world for the past few thousand years.
Well, be that as it may, and setting aside for a moment the obvious
parallels to Christianity, it occurred to me that Einstein would have
been first in line to see the movie.
How so?
For one thing, Einstein, known for his massive knowledge, said
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is
limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces
the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and
understand."
In the land of Narnia time was completely non-correlated to time in
England, which is consistent with Einstein’ theory of time dilation.
And wormholes that tunnel into distant regions of space and time and
black holes and string theory and spacetime curvature… “The Lion,
the Witch & the Wardrobe” has it all and more.
Move over, Albert, I’m coming with you!
Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and music
educational materials such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids,
chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses
for adults. His weekly DVD home-study course for adults who want to
learn to play the piano "Crash
Course In Exciting Piano Playing For Busy Adults!" is being
used widely around the world. He holds advanced degrees from Southern
Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern
Oregon. He is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail
newsletter titled "Amazing
Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord
Progressions" with over 70,000 current subscribers. He also
is the father of 4 now-grown kids, all of whom grew up hearing their
Dad read "The Chronicles of Narnia" to them.
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