The Zero Point of Life

What pressure, depth, altitude and the cycle of life remind us

We are in the waters of my country’s magnificent blue homeland. The sea — with its salts, amino acids, coolness, pressure and temperature differences — almost restarts the heart, the brain and the circulatory system… leaving behind a sense of peace that resembles the safe cocoon of the womb.

At life’s zero point — at sea level — we swim under one atmosphere of pressure. When you look toward the shore, you see structures from thousands of years ago: once owned, later abandoned to nature, collapsed yet magnificent. The place where Lycia began… a tableau where history has sunk into the sea.

When you descend ten meters underwater, you reach two atmospheres of pressure — twice the conditions you live in. Pressure increases, the body adapts, oxygen begins to dissolve differently. When you rise to high altitudes — one or two thousand meters — this time the pressure decreases. You might explain the rosy-cheeked look of mountain dwellers as excess oxygen, but the truth is oxygen deficiency. When pressure drops, less air fills the lungs, and the body increases the number of erythrocytes — the trucks that carry oxygen — to keep you alive.

Then you go back down again. To one atmosphere. But now, an excess of erythrocytes may cause an embolism that can block the lungs, the heart or the brain. This is how nature works: with rhythm, balance and harmony.

When humans challenge this rhythm — by going to depths or altitudes different from their natural geography — the body struggles. The same applies to the mind. When you push beyond your ordinary emotional ranges, you fall out of sync with nature’s balance and encounter unexpected consequences.

This is why one must live with attention to the sacredness, perfection, aesthetics and harmony of creation. Life becomes more beautiful when we move in tune with nature’s rhythm.