Never Say Die (Reincarnation 2.0) Or not!

There are clearly more theories about what happens after you die, than ones that explain what happens before you are born. Where do we come from? Here's my friend Calvin's great question, "What are we?!" Both these questions point us in the direction of metaphysical origins. The physical process is easy enough to understand (if you are unclear on this, think back to your sex ed. classes, if this is new material, than most likely; you are either the most advanced 1st grader on planet earth, or living at home with your aging parents - NDNM "no date-no mate.") This question of origin is usually met with some outlandish scene involving heaven, angel-singing-harp-carrying beings, losing a bet or contest-being sent back to earth...no really intelligent theories get put out there. (At least not in modern western civilization.) Plenty has been said about the pre-life origins of humans, many traditions incorporate the concept of reincarnation-life before life. I myself have spent considerable time toying with that notion of recycling. It occurred to me that there were other novel approaches to be found within the MWI framework of theories, which might better explain this mystery. Every single theory that I have heard, read or considered revolves around the concept that we are finite beings (at least our bodies, and ourselves as individual souls or lives) living a unique life that is lived out within a system thats surrounds us. Each individual has a finite body that is conceived, born, grows to maturity, ages and dies (Very few people would dispute that.) And yet, there is another possibility that has not (to my knowledge, and I have looked a bit) been proposed. Reincarnation suggests that we live again, in a new body, in a new life, with the same old soul - minus the conscious memory. There are millions of texts that do a much better job at explaining the whole process ("Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Teachings on Reincarnation by: Gini Alhadeff, Mark Magill, Nawang Gehlek. is just one of them.) I would like to introduce a new theory, M.L.T. (Many Lives Theory.) MLT would take into account both an infinite omniverse and the infinite, eternal spectrum of life. If we can call the omniverse infinite we can also call time infinite as it would be repeated out forever throughout an infinite set of time-lines (none of which would ever end.) So to recap, time is infinite, space is infinite, and you are infinite. You in fact, are a system all unto yourself. If MWI is to be read correctly, there are an infinite number of "you" living out an infinite number of lives, some nearly the same as you are living now, others quite different. These other "you's" (twins, if you like) needn't be living right now (as we in this universe would see it) from our perspective they might not live for another million years. Let us remember an earlier figure or set of figures, the two Joes. Joe (totally hypothetical here) born midnight July 7th 1978 to his parents Dan and Sue in Paris, Texas, could be born under the exact same set of conditions in an infinite number of parallel universes where that universe's time-line could be assigned a positive (time-plus) or negative (time-minus) value when compared to our own universes time-line. This omniversal view of time would of course mean that time was even more relative than Einstein had predicted! There could never be an omniversal clock. The one thing that would hold true is that Joe would be have to be conceived at the exact same time and under those same exact conditions in every single universe he was born into, otherwise he would most likely-not be Joe. DNA and other biological constraints might restrict those conditions further. The end result would still be an infinite number of Joes living out their many lives eternally. One might die as another was born. One might shift back and forth between universes and never suspect a thing. In fact, we can't actually prove that this does not happen naturally. We could be born here, our body die, and our self, soul, spirit or mind could easily be transported to another "ourself" where we would never know that death, instead we would dream that we had died, wake up and begin living our new one. The mind is an excellent filter, and what it can't filter out, it will paint over. I have noted before that our memory is a mutable thing, so much so, that it is difficult to tell what has happened even 10 years ago. Try to remember a detailed set of events that happened 30 years ago and you will surely notice that you are having to reconstruct from the fallen remains, the fragments of a once solid memory structure. So Joe would die here (at least to us) but he would be reborn or shift into a new life and body- that of his own- but not quite. He might notice that things weren't exactly the same as they once were. His mind might even struggle to pin it all down into something that made sense. Eventually his new life would fade into reality and the remnants of his old life would haunt him only in his dreams, but for a moment. He would never know that he got to do all the things he wanted to do in his life. He would never remember all the experiences he had. He would have no idea that he was strangely living, an eternal life. Joe would never die, he would always be Joe, but he would never know! (This strange new view also meshes well with the John Titor view and personal account of time travel. The jury is still way-out on that one!)

CERN - LHC update: Sept./Oct. 2009

CERN
"Geneva, 9 February 2009. CERN¹ management today confirmed the restart schedule for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resulting from the recommendations from last week’s Chamonix workshop. The new schedule foresees first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October. A short technical stop has also been foreseen over the Christmas period. The LHC will then run through to autumn next year, ensuring that the experiments have adequate data to carry out their first new physics analyses and have results to announce in 2010. The new schedule also permits the possible collisions of lead ions in 2010.

In Chamonix there was consensus among all the technical specialists that the new schedule is tight but realistic." (From CERN website press release) http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2009/PR02.09E.html

The Great Void

Somewhere between 6-10 light years from earth lies the largest hole we have ever found! Its a complete empty space, known as a cosmic void "The Great Void" as it is being referred to is about 1 billion ly (light years) from side to side. It is roughly 1,000 times larger than any known or predicted cosmic voids. The universe appears to be pock-marked by empty bubbles (like soap bubbles.) These gaps often occur regularly, helping us to define galaxies, clusters and walls, great filaments or strings of galaxy clusters. What make this one unique is that no one would have ever predicted its unbelievable size. "It's hard even for astronomers to picture how big these things are." [University of Minnesota Professor Lawrence Ruddick] Just to give you an idea how big that is: it would take a spaceship {traveling at the speed of light} a billion years to cross it. The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to measure a mere 100,000 ly in diameter. This would feel kinda like studying normal fleas and then suddenly finding one the size of Jupiter. The team from UM found the enormous void by using the National Radio Astronomical Observatory's VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) in 2007. (I know its old news, but its still exciting!) The void is located just off the edge of the Eridanus constellation, and contains no stars, heavenly bodies,visible matter or dark matter, its a real pit of absolute nothingness! What lurks within the void may be more mysterious than the cause of its existence. As we begin to explore further and further into the starry blackness of space I cannot shake the mental image of an infant crawling through a jungle. The stars are not a playground, but a jungle of unimaginable variety. It is filled to the brim with every kind of creature, every kind of thing unfathomable, and we must respect it or perish. The earth and all its kind are but a tide pool, spinning in its sacred eddies and whirls around a small pond, The Milky Way. That ocean, that jungle has no end, no shores, only wave after wave of stars and inky black holes between them. So go out into the night, look up at the stars, and be in awe, for it is the correct response to such an unbelievable existence.

Quantum Religion (The basic tenets of a QM Gospel)

What kinds of flavors might we find within a religious practice that embraced the concepts of MWI, MMT, and an ever expanding field of QM related philosophies? We might hear sermons concerning the vast spectrum beings within our realm of existence. Possibly a mission field of meditation or dream related outreach would be spawned by the universal drive to help others. We might explore a new practice of tolerance for the humanity within ourselves as finite manifestations of infinite systems. The over-arching message of many current religions is more or less friendly with this system of philosophy. Jesus of Nazareth showed a particular bend toward the quantum nature and all things zen. Buddha spoke of the eternal void, lacking nothing, yet perfectly empty. Lao Tzu embraced the Tao, an amazingly simple explanation for the quantum nature of the system of reality we reside in, and outlined a way for following its path. The eternal wisdom of Krishna and the Hindu concept of the Spanda Shakti reveal the very nature of the Creator of this realm to be infinite, their body encompassing all the matter of the cosmos. The teachings of Kabbalah (ancient Jewish mysticsm) lay clear the way for a view of the universe as a logical, natural system built upon quantum wave-state technology. Sufi mystic Rumi understood the nature of the heavens and the earth as a larger universal system, ever continuing to wonder at the beauty that overwhelmed him. We read in the Poets: Blake, Milton, Emerson, Twain, and so many others, a common thread of the timeless gospel of QM.

"What is and What should never be."

I would like to discuss the subject of variety of species, with the current framework of an MWI cosmology in mind. Consider either an infinite (in space and time) universe, or a sea of finite (large beyond all comprehension) universes. Both provide an adequate background for the discussion. We can imagine a multiverse where humans exist on an infinite number of planet Earths, as well as a infinite number of other extraterrestrial planets, asteroids, planetoids, space stations or spaceships where humans also exist (both within our own universe - separated by tremendous gaps of space and or time, or within other universes that are somewhat similar to our own - terrestrial or extraterrestrial in nature. But what of the worlds (universes) that are so different from our own that the very act of visiting them would prove fatal? How many worlds could exist with laws of physics so foreign, so odd and so chaotic that the creatures that dwelt within could never be seen, heard, smelled or touched? How many worlds would fall so far from our limited experience here, that we are forever incapable of grasping their very form. This foray into different realms and experiences should lead us to another more profound question: What actually exists? There are at least two answers to this question. (1.) Everything exists (somewhere, somehow and somewhen) the second answer is troubling. The second answer is that (2.) nothing actually exists. Both answers are simultaneously correct. The truth is that there is not just one truth, not just one way of seeing what exists or does not exist. The truth is like a many-sided puzzle-box, that changes shapes, qualities and properties as one revolves around it. Every side looks different, and every side is real. There is not one true nature or one true way to see or interact with it. Many people look at life from different sides, different perspectives, and truly feel as if they are viewing the correct side, seeing at last the true nature of reality. Think if you will about the reality, the lawfulness the solidity of even our most fanciful dreams. They appear to be infused with all the correct conceptual elements of life, no matter how warped or shattered, they seem to function as a whole. Most importantly, we usually accept this artificial reality scape as being, real enough for the time being. These dreams, these thoughts, this life, is real enough for the time being, and that is enough for me.

TIARA IN TB [New Motto]

"This-Is-As-Real-As-It-Needs-To-Be."