A fascinating subject! Matter contains vast amounts of bound-up energy, and as is proven in both ordinary combustion and nuclear fission...small amounts of matter can be converted back into pure energy, but most of the matter involved remains matter, it just changes form.

I supect that the origin of all matter as we know it was once pure energy (before time as we know it began) but that pure energy was condensed at some point into matter by being slowed down into a lower rate of vibration. Thus it became perceivable as matter, and that gave rise to the Universe and the many worlds and phenomena around us.

I suspect that even before that happened, it was all pure potential. Unmanifest. Then pure energy. Manifest. Then a mixture of matter and energy. Manifest. And that's what we have now.

That's a theory of mine. I have no way of proving it, needless to say. ;-)

I was fasinated by the fact that a Guinea Pig I owned could produce amazing amounts of urine...far more urine than the water he was drinking. "How does he do it?" I wondered. Then I realized that he was eating huge amounts of (dry) food...and that his digestive system was breaking down that food through a process of combustion. Eureka! The food was made up of hydrocarbons...hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. The digestive process which broke down the food produced the following byproducts:

1. energy - to keep the Guinea Pig alive and functioning.
2. water - most of which was excreted in the form of urine.
3. carbon compounds - excreted in the form of droppings.

So that's why the G.P. was producing so much more urine than the water he drank from his water bottle. A great deal of it was coming from the dry food he ate. Almost all the actual matter he was consuming was being excreted in a different form...but a small amount of it was being converted back into pure energy, and that was energizing an amazing little living creature. Marvelous how nature works!