Where do we go from here?

On Apr. 25, 2010 Margery wrote a comment to the post of Mar. 25, 2010 entitled "Will the real world please stand up"

"I have often thought there are more than five senses. One simple one is sense of time. For example I can plan to nap for 15 minutes, and will wake after exactly 15 minutes with no clock within sight, and pleasant dreams that do not involve counting. We understand time is easily denoted by past, present, and future but I believe there is more than that basic concept. Perhaps some quantum universes exist in a variation of time, rather than space, and perhaps time is what absorbs the energy from our dead bodies. ??"

Some people do have a sense of time duration and probably do not need an alarm clock  or rooster to signal an event.   And there are many indications of extra-sensory perception.  But time itself along with the three dimensions of space make up the basic reality of our present conscious existence.  The physicists recognize an infinite number of dimemsions of which our fourth dimension along with the elevnth and the twenty sixth appear to be the ones of particular interest to them.   The others appear to be rolled up into very small dimensions that make it hard to visualize.  The relative sizes of these dimensions make it difficult to see how matter itself can make the journey and therefore the body must stay behind in this dimension.  Of course the soul or consciousness or whatever  being of the nature of energy can travel literally to whatever destination and thereby make the trip to other dimensions, other worlds ... other universes.

These are just my thoughts and do not represent the conclusions of any other.  I list them here for the opportunity to generate discussion from others on where they think that the process of death leads to.....  Let us hear from you.

Some more connectedness

As it happens so many times, while writing on connectedness in last weeks' post, my attention came to an old books-on-tape edition of "Stranger in a strange land" by Robert Heinlein.  In this book the hero is a young lad who was conceived during a space travel between earth and mars.  The crew were selected couples so the opportunity for something like that was very large.  The space ship lost contact and was never heard from again.  Years later another mission was launched to mars and it found a young man, an earthling, who was raised by the martians.

The young man, Michael Valentine Smith, was brought back to earth and literally fought over by the politicians, scientists and the like.  Meanwhile he is brought under the protection of a small group of people who help him assimilate into the earth culture.  At the same time the influence of the martian culture began to rub off Smith onto the earthlings who formed that protective group.

This allowed Heinlein to present terms such as 'grok' or grokking', water-sharing, and a totally 'new' concept of love perhaps in a universal sense.

To grok was to know with a perfect understanding of all aspects of the concept or object in question.. with people it was a mutually merging rapport.  The water sharing was a ritual which symbolized the bond between humans.  And since martians did not recognize the difference between sexes it was a universal sharing that made all being 'water brothers' both men and women.  Love is the unconditional love that is talked about between some animals and humans and only rarely between humans themselves.   This is an emotional bond so complete that it transcends all the petty needs of personal ego. 

I could go on and write a complete book repoort but then that might spoil it for those who are interested and ready to think about those terms.  There are flashes of science fiction about the story but the underlying philosophy is appealing to those who can see beyond the everyday greed and jockeying for position in our culture today.  And it is this connectedness that is perhaps the salvation of our human race as we careen toward the future.




 

Connectedness

What is this thing called Connectedness?  Is it a sympathy that strikes a cord when we see others in difficulty?  Not really.  Perhaps because to walk a mile in another person's shoes is not to experience the bad times, the sad times but to experience the happy times, the exalting times as well.

Look at the little people.  Look at the children.  They seem to sense the moods and emotions of other children and adults as well.  When they are in nurseries or other groups, perhaps even when only two or more are together, they not only sense but respond to the moods and emotions of those around them.  This is not sympathy but perhaps is better described as empathy.  It is as if one gives off vibrations of a frequency that the other  can resonate to.  And the response is instantaneous and complete.

A great teacher once said, "only as ye be as children can you enter the kingdom of Heaven".  Are the children showing us what we have lost in our sophistication as adults?  Do we have to re-capture the empathy, the connectedness in order to travel to other dimensions?  Can we find a way such as time travel or is energy the key as in some Star Trek transporter?

Spirituality - the synthesis of Science and Religion

We live in a Religious world. A world depending on ritual and things taken on faith or hearsay. Regardless of Monotheism or Paganism there is always a hierarchy of entities or a "we-they" approach to everything. Things and events are pre-determined in some universal script or plot.

We live in a Scientific world where things are determined with great precision. A world where everything is related to everything else. A world where technology has given us the privilege of practically instantaneous communication. And a curiousity to poke our nose into anything that we have a mind to. But are we truly "our brother's keeper"?

That comes in the synthesis of Science and Religion. That comes with Spirituality. Spirituality is Religion without the need for blind faith and public ritual. Spirituality is Science without the need for predictability or a cause for every effect. Is it necessary to bring everything into the laboratory to accept it's existence? Perhaps as the world grows more spiritually and we become more conscious of the connectedness of all things then the synthesis will become complete and we can benefit from all three parts of the trichotomy.

What is this connectedness that is a result of our acceptance of Spirituality? This I shall describe in next week's post as I tell you the story of little people helping little people.

Are near-death experiences a glimpse of parallel worlds?

There have been many stories of 'near death experiences' where the individual has an out-of-body sensation. A white light appears at the end of a tunnel and perhaps the entity meets with relatives who have passed over before. But for some reason, the entity was not ready for that existence and was returned to this world.. this conscious existence.

The process of death when looked at from this perspective is very reminiscent of the description that some give for travel between parallel universes. Could it be that conscious existence needs the oxygen and other nutrients to retain it's grip on this world and when it is deprived of those nutrients it then passes through some as yet unknown portal into a parallel universe to continue it's existence on what some call another plane? Curious that this is being written on the day before Good Friday when Jesus was crucified and rose again on the third day and then again disappeared for good. Is this an example of travel between parallel worlds? Is this a near death experience followed by a permanent passing to another existence? Or is this an example of where Science and Religion are synthesized into Spirituality?