Hey Jim, Welcome to ya.
Yes I am aware of what you talk about here. Indeed the concept of a creative force that is prevalant throughout the creation and yet apart from it is one of the central tenants of the Sikh faith and one that I readily subscribe to myself. On 18 June, 21:16, retiredjim34 <[email protected]> wrote: > For some time, being retired, I have been thinking about such > ultimate questions as: why are we here, what is life all about, what > happens when we die, and do we continue to exist after we die. Drawing > on a lifetime of reading and experience, I think I’ve arrived at some > unusual answers. > To begin building a foundation for those answers, I first wondered > about just who I am; what is it that is me? I don’t believe I’m the > reflection I see in the mirror. No. If I lost an arm or leg, I still > believe I would be 100% me. It seems that the real me, then, is the > consciousness that is within my body. Hmmm. How might I check this? > How about my memory. During part of my working career I was involved > with data storage and encoding, the object being to pack as much > information into as little storage as possible. If you think about all > the things you remember – scenes, happenings, conversations, other > sounds, smells, numbers, taught information, etc. – and the capacity > of the human brain, it is clear that the human brain can remember at > most only a day or two of recent events. So where are the things I > remember stored? > I happen to have had a couple of out-of-body experiences. I recall > being conscious of looking at my body lying on a bed, and of being > able to look around the room and out the window. Each time the > experience scared me, and I quickly returned to my body. But while out- > of-body I now realize that I could recall everything I could think of > while in my body; the me that was in my body was still the me that was > out of my body. > Many books describe out-of-body experiences. The best, I think, is > Thirty Years Among the Dead by Dr. Carl Wickland. In it, he discusses > numerous examples of patients who had died yet whose spirit was still > “here,” entwined with another body. In each case, the spirit of the > now dead person had what seems to be a perfectly normal memory of > their life, and exhibited the personality quirks they had while alive. > So it seems that the human memory resides elsewhere that in the human > body. > Fine, but still why am I here? Indeed, why is anybody or anything > here? Consider what “here” is. We know that this world, and everything > else in the universe, is matter disbursed in an almost infinite amount > of space. But then we also know that E=mc². In words, this "here" can > be reduced to the simple statement that all is energy, even matter. So > “here” is a vast pool of energy, a pool that includes each of us as > well as everything else in this physical universe. Yet it seems that > our memory does not reside in this physical universe, given that it is > not the me in the mirror but is present in out-of-body experiences. > Could it be that there is a consciousness, what might be called an > infinite consciousness, that contains each of our memories as well as > everything else that has ever happened anywhere in the universe at any > time, and maybe even a lot more than that? I don’t know of anything to > disprove this possibility, so let’s assume for now that it might be > correct. > So why am I here? Well, all that is in the universe might be here > simply because it pleases the infinite consciousness that this is so. > It is simply an exercise of an attribute of that consciousness. Fine. > But why am I here? Assume that the infinite consciousness wishes to > experience this physical universe. Of course this could be done by > endowing each thing in the universe with its own consciousness. That > consciousness would know that it was part of a much greater whole. But > it would also know that it was discrete in and of itself. Yet we don’t > know that – each of us believes that we are complete and separate from > all others; we have the freedom to be whatever we choose and do > whatever we want. It’s as if there is a veil or curtain between our > discrete consciousness and the infinite consciousness, this veil > concealing our connection to the whole. (Unless we ponder such things > as where our memories are stored.) Put differently, the only way the > infinite consciousness can experience this universe from within the > universe is to use such a veil to conceal from the individual’s > consciousness his connection to the whole. Could that be why we are > here? I think so. > So what happens at death? Drawing on this view of consciousness, both > individual and infinite, it would seem that all that happens at death > is that the physical body ceases to function. The individual > consciousness continues. And that is just what books like Dr. > Wickland’s report. If you want to know what happens beyond death, the > Seth books by Jane Roberts gives one view, or answer, a view that > seems to build on that expressed by Dr. Wickland. > I would welcome reading your reaction to all this. Does it make sense > to you? Is this a rational and sufficient explanation of the ultimate > questions, or of why we are here? Or not? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
