Famous dissident physicist, Bill Gaede, has a unique theory as to the nature of light. He postulates that light consists of electromagnetic “ropes” where electric and magnetic “threads” intertwine to connect all atoms in the universe. This is akin to a concept I have entertained that the “aether,” if it exists, can be viewed as standing waves making similar connections. Such “waves” may consist of contiguous “aether particles,” each the size of the electron or smaller (neutrino?). At least on a cursory level, it appears that these two independent concepts may be consistent with light speed being constant with respect to its source, but variable with respect to an observer when the observer or the source (or both) are in motion. Of course, in the presence of an all-pervading aether whose perturbation constitutes light itself and limits its speed to c, this variation in light speed would not occur, but would be manifest instead as Doppler shifts.
