LIFE, DEATH, AND IMMORTALITY

The only absolutes that we can be entirely certain of in life are birth and death. These two events are the only ones whose occurance we can count on as being sealed and unquestionable. They represent physical boundaries of beginning and end for human consciousness. But humanity has pondered the question of life beyond death, and immortality probably since before written language and civilization. Countless philosophies and religious beliefs have been made to try to explain and provide some sense of purpose to existence and life and a connection to an eternity beyond those previously mentioned boundaries.

The older I get, the more rapid it seems time passes. When I was a child days seemed like large gulfs of time, and months were almost an eternity, now a day passes with almost little thought put into its passing or any sense of longevity. It's as if my cognitive perception of time has somehow sped up. I do not know what exact process of my brain causes this to happen, but it's possible it has something to do with my brain's accumulation of memory and information that continues to speed up time, the more accustomed and practaced it gets, the more rapid it's perception of time is. When I was a child so much of what I saw was new to me, now it is something I have become accustomed to. I know that time is in fact an illusion created by my brain and the movement of objects in space-time based upon various forces of the universe. As well if there was no light, I would never know time, or at least the human way we perceive time. If I didnt know time, would I know there was such a thing as death?

The human body has a biological clock that ticks from the moment you are born. Human beings grow from infants, to children, to adolescents, to adults, then as cellular duplication drops off and the quality of duplicated DNA deteriorates or physical tissues or organs fail the body ages and finally is unable to sustain life functions and the human organism dies. This cycle so far has been entirely ubiquitous for everyone not taking into account the influence of external/internal stress such as disease, poor eating habits, drug use, prolonged exposure to carcinogens or unplanned intervention like a random accident, death by famine, war, homicide, etc.

Many of the physical attributes of your entire life are written at the very moment of conception, within your genetic profile, that kind of huge phone book of chemical data combinations that makes each person unique, however carry traits similar to the parents or previous direct ancestors. At that very single moment in time, it becomes written that you will have brown hair, myopia, or male pattern baldness and up until recently there really wasn't much anyone could do about it. Its even believed that your IQ and intellegence is written at the time of birth. As more and more of the secrets of genes and their combinations are unlocked it is becoming increasingly apparent that almost all aspects of what makes you you are written in your genes. It is very likely in the future people will no longer be conceived naturally rather "recombined and repaired" from the parent's fertilized zygote, or constructed completely from various sources or stem cells. See My Article: Pursuit of Perfection for more on Genetic Engineering.

Separating from the religious view of spirituality, and looking at the issue in realistic terms, is immortality within our grasp?

I can only see that it would be a cruel joke of the universe that your consciousness is just limited to the short time in which your body breathes air air molecules and is aware of the occurances on planet Earth. It doesnt seem to make sense considering the renewable and transformative nature of things in the universe, and the many aspects of space, time, and reality that we are only recently becoming aware of through science.

Literally speaking, you are truly immortal, that is, everything that forms your body, including your brain that allows you to think is material that has existed since the beginning of the universe. The same atoms that are combined to form the chains of DNA, protiens, and amino acids in your cells are the same atoms that previously came from material surrounding the Earth (essentially all the food your parents and you ate during life), and before that, the same material that formed the solar system, and before that, the material that formed the galaxy, all the way back to the beginning of the universe. Likewise, this same material will remain after death and recombine into something else in the future.

In an entirely scientific sense, here on Earth (or at least where humans habitate in the distant future), there will come the day when thoughts themselves will exist eternally from the organism or duplicated without error, stored in a kind of library the same way data is stored on a computer's hard drive, as well the physiology of the human body will be augmented to a point where degeneration or genetic decay is nearly impossible. This is the ultimate goal of human biological science, however will there come an intersection point where such immortality will essentially merge with intangible consciousness? Wouldn't such vast streatches of life afford the individual the opportunity to gain virtually limitless amounts of information, as well wouldn't such individuals actually be part of a collective consciousness having the shared knowledge and thought processes of every member of such an advanced society?

Thoughts like data are transferrable, and an example of this is right in front of you now. The fact that these things have come from my brain and are now entering your brain is a testimonial to this fact. Some thoughts exist as words or images and last long after the death of their originator, they have a longevity of their own, however some thoughts that previously meant one thing to one person or a group of people long ago have long since been misunderstood or misinterpreted by people of today because the way the originator viewed the world or their life therein, from thousands of years ago is vastly different from the way a modern person may view the world and their own life. Even ordinary things that have a very comparmentalized and defined meaning to us today could have been represented completely differently a long time ago, and again could be understood in a far greater capacity in the future. Some thoughts and forms of imagery are so powerful or identical to things today that they last and their interpretation is almost always the same. Emotions like love and hatred are like this, as well as events like birth, eating, sex, sickness, war, and death.

Some lasting thoughts are not written, rather transferred through repeated action, or tradition. The thoughts of society today are built upon the thoughts of what came before, and the thoughts of tomorrow will evolve from the thoughts of today. The changing collective mind of human society is changing and moving every moment of every day. However this doesn't negate the fact that individual thought is without its influence ranging from a localized to grand scale. One single individual's voice can move or alter the entire shape of this collective mind of human society and chart a new course for new minds to explore. One voice can be powerful enough to influence the minds of thousands, millions, and even billions of individuals. Religion has proven this concept as well as various men who entered roles of great power, influence, or control. Everyone's thoughts live beyond their source, in the memories of those who accepted your thoughts, some may degrade with the passing of those who knew you or coincided with your place in this reality, while others will remain, being passed from person to person because of their merit or lasting appeal.

If thoughts themselves are a form of energy, or a kind of super-complex living biochemical-electrical mathematical representation of some kind of higher dimensional consciousness existing within our universe, then truly your consciousness is part of some greater whole, and it is a temporary yet unending manifestation of that greater whole, and when you are alive here on Earth, you are actually dreaming in a sense. It's entirely possible that a version of you that's far greater than the individual you think you are is actually viewing the universe through your eyes and trying to understand itself in all space and time by experiencing existence as many forms at several levels of awareness.

This may give reincarnation a degree of merit, rather your greater self manifests itself and learns about the universe at different places and locations in dimension, space, and time. Recent discoveries in mathematical physics indicate the existance of far greater depth to reality than what we see with our eyes, or can detect with our current scientific instruments, in fact the universe is just a mere shadow of something far more complex and greater. This String or M-Theory has become the key to unlock many doors and perhaps explain more of what still remains mysterious or paranormal including spirituality, afterlife, and immortality.

I often feel as though I am tied to my ancestors, that the ancient eyes that gazed upon this world were my eyes as well. There are times when I have this ambient feeling that I am connected to people in the future and in the past, that all these lives are in fact a part of me, however I do not have the memories of those lives rather the awareness of their connection to me.

In many ways I believe that humanity will come full circle in it's understanding of immortality and greater existence. What ancient people knew in their simplicity will become accepted by the society of tomorrow in its complexity. This life you live now is a phase for you to do what you will, a place where you will discover yourself, perhaps your purpose, or just enjoy the time you have while you have it. The best suggestion I can make to anyone is to make the best of the time you have been given here, seek to understand as much as you can about the world around you, don't fall into the easy comfort of spoon-fed information and close-mindedness, always remain aware of what is going on, and attempt to share something of yourself that will last beyond your lifetime. Doing this will grant you not only fulfillment but give you the purpose you seek.

"You are but the containers of an eye that seeks to look upon itself. You are dreamers awakening from the slumber of your own existence. I am the hand of the eternal, you are it's eyes." - Video Gamer X ~ Excerpt from my novel Khakain: The Coming of the Chosen One 1994

"Let that which is your name be representative of an emancipation from the confines of what other desire you to become or conform to." - Video Gamer X, Year of the Awakening ~ 1991

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