Universe

[тωιѕтє∂]

You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup,” I said.

“I… I died?”

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less,” I said.

“Are you god?” You asked.

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be all right?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You said.

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

You thought for a long time.

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

And I sent you on your way.

-----------------------------------------------

Not quite sure if I believe it, but definitely makes you think.
What do y'all think?

[brainiac3397]

Fun story. I don't believe it, but it's an interesting read.

[Desu]

(06-10-2013 03:24 PM)brainiac3397 Wrote:  Fun story. I don't believe it, but it's an interesting read.

It's not meant to be taken literally. I highly doubt the author him/herself believes this 100% literally happens.

I think the purpose of the story is an attempt to explain resolve the problem of solipsism. It does this by giving us a different perspective on the issue, namely, that although the universe is one collective consciousness, one process, it subjectively experiences itself and learns about itself through the perspective of individuals.

[brainiac3397]

Well. I don't mean I don't believe the story(I obviously don't since it's obviously not literal). I meant I don't really believe what the author was trying to make a point of.

[Subb]

If I actually believed this, it would screw up my philosophy big time. Basically, I think that you can do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't negatively affect other people without reason. If I though everyone was me in a different life... Well, things would get ugly.

[brainiac3397]

One thing I believe is that time is quite linear in our universe. I don't find it possible that one could exist in the same universe at an earlier time. That time has already passed in our universe, and there's no going back.(Yes, it's God. But then if the person is reincarnated as a peasant girl in 540AD in our universe, it will have already happened and it'll be more like pressing the replay button than a separate existence). So if one could exist in that time, they've already existed because that time has already passed.

[Subb]

(06-11-2013 01:00 PM)brainiac3397 Wrote:  One thing I believe is that time is quite linear in our universe. I don't find it possible that one could exist in the same universe at an earlier time. That time has already passed in our universe, and there's no going back.(Yes, it's God. But then if the person is reincarnated as a peasant girl in 540AD in our universe, it will have already happened and it'll be more like pressing the replay button than a separate existence). So if one could exist in that time, they've already existed because that time has already passed.

Many people think that time is like a record or a DVD. You watch/listen to it frame by frame, beat by beat, but all the information is there at all times. So the peasant girl and the man exist in the exact same moment, but we expirence it as though they were centuries apart. Of course, that would get rid of choice. Anyway, that's a model where reincarnation of this kind is perfectly possible.

[brainiac3397]

All the information does exist along the continuum, but when some space is taken up at a specific point of time, it will have been already occupied and thus can't be occupied by anything else. That "slot" will not be open, because at t time, there will be have been something at that x,y,z coordinate.

Sure, what we experience may not be real-time due to the bending of time(which means real-time is most likely "faster" because the time we perceive is "slower") but that time will have already passed in our universe. The only way this would be possible would be either "break" the line of time into a parallel universe though beginning at that specific time(which means the future is no longer certain as it's a new future), or totally eradicate everything at the point of time and space and beyond to make room, but that would create a paradox.

If reincarnation was real, it'd either have to follow along with time, or it'd have to split off the time at that specific point to create a new continuum(thus another universe, which delves into multiverse theories).

[Subb]

Ah, multiverse theroy. It can lead to an interesting explanation of time.

Another model is that every choice has a set path, which leads to another choice. With every choice, we enter a different universe, where that outcome is possible. With this model, paradoxes are not possible, because the two conflicting outcomes exist in two different universes. So all universes and time exist all at once, like the previous example, but it allows for choice.

One thing to clear up is that in both models, time is an illusion. If we were like a God, it would be apparent to us that everything was happening at once. It is just that we live it out in a linear fashion, a lie. I hope that makes sense.

[brainiac3397]

Simply because all happens at once wouldn't really make it an illusion. It would simply suggest that on God's level, time is not a factor, which means on that extra-dimensional plane, one could see the past/present/future happening all at the same moment. Basically, the bigger picture since it would be outside the influence of time and space.

For us however, we're stuck adhering to the laws of physics/nature. And since almost everything in our universe is a physical object that will occupy a space at a given time, we're probably going to continue following time in a linear fashion.

But I do agree with everything existing at once. It also helps explain the idea that one has free will but God already knows what you'll do, because it'd be apparent everything happens at once.

[Subb]

Very good point. I think we are in agreement. Very interesting discussion.

[brainiac3397]

Philosophy to the maximum huh?