Wave energy and relativistic mass
RSI explains relativistic mass as the growing energy a moving knot must carry, which becomes unbounded as its speed approaches that of the waves it is made of.
A moving knot does not bulge sideways. Its width is unchanged, as relativity requires and as experiments with light paths set across the motion confirm. What changes is the energy the moving knot carries.
In RSI, a knot's mass is its confined wave energy divided by c². A pattern built of waves that travel at c can be made to move faster only by packing more energy into it. Its energy grows as mc² divided by √(1 − v²/c²), and it becomes unbounded as the speed approaches c, because a pattern made of waves can never outrun the speed at which the medium carries them.
This is relativistic mass, the growing resistance of a fast object to further acceleration, and the reason no amount of energy can bring matter to the speed of light.
From the paper: Chapter V, Wave Energy and Relativistic Mass. Read the full section
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