Tag: Reality

ᵀᴴᴱ MIND ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ MULTIVERSE

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

Who were you yesterday? Are you the same person today? Who will you be in 1 year’s time? Are you your physical body, comprised of approximately 60 elements? 65% Oxygen, 18% Carbon, 10% Hydrogen, 3% Nitrogen, with a remaining 4% of an assortment of about 56 remaining elements? Are you the chemical and electrical synapses of your brains? Are you the culmination of choices you’ve made? The summation of experience and memory? Are you your virtues? Are you your vices? Are you your likes and dislikes, tastes, sense of humor, the attitude you hold toward the world you inhabit? A great many people, throughout the ages, scattered all over this world have struggled to answer the seemingly simple question, ‘who am I?’

Before getting into topics the likes of religion, spirituality, dissociative disorders/multiple personality disorders, the theoretical Noösphere, the ‘collective consciousness’, our measurable, tangible reality appears to suggest that ‘self’, is singular. Singular in the sense that it is the individual product of the living entity, specifically the individual’s physical brain and the activity therein. Singular and finite, but essentially limited to the physical brain and body (without the use of specific apparatus). In this version of interpretation of self, you are the form and proceeding thoughts and effects of a being (even if conjoined with another) throughout the course of your mortal existence. The moment such an existence ends, with the declaration of death, aside from your physical ‘remains’, existing memory/implications left behind, who you are/were, ceases to be.

So why is it then, that virtually every religion on the planet suggests otherwise? The ‘Afterlife’, The Underworld, Heaven & Hell, The Dreamtime, Reincarnation, ‘Spirits of the Ancestors’, the Immortal Soul? These notions that something ‘goes on’, some part of all beings, transcending mortality arises time and time again, across almost all cultures. The belief in Ghosts, Spirits of the deceased lingering beyond death. The concept of Angels and Demons, beings thought to exist outside or veiled beneath the reality we see before us. Near Death Experiences where individuals report observations that correlate with one another. Much rarer and even more peculiar, NDEs where an individual is pronounced dead, where no brain activity is present, yet upon returning to life, claim to have experienced certain events. (Such as the case of Pam Reynolds Lowery, “In 1991, at the age of 35, she stated that she had a near-death experience (NDE) during a brain operation performed by Robert F. Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Reynolds was under close medical monitoring during the entire operation. During part of the operation she had no brain-wave activity and no blood flowing in her brain, which rendered her clinically dead. She claimed to have made several observations during the procedure which later medical personnel reported to be accurate.” —Pam Reynolds Case, Wikipedia, Explained in greater detail in a book titled, Light and Death: One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences, by Michael B. Sabom, 2011.)

Someone might suggest, that the reason this idea, regarding existence beyond death, beyond this reality keeps finding common ground is because the alternative terrifies us, as a species. We simply can’t bear the notion that our brief time in this world is all there is and the nothingness from whence we (seemingly) came is all that awaits us, in eternity after we inevitably draw our last breath. So we tell ourselves stories, stories that give a far grander view of things to come than funeral pyres and holes in the ground. But preconceived notions aside, religion and spirituality aside, the question that needs to be considered is, could consciousness exist outside of the brain?

“In [Dr. Peter] Fenwick’s view, the brain does not create or produce consciousness; rather, it filters it. As odd as this idea might seem at first, there are some analogies that bring the concept into sharper focus. For example, the eye filters and interprets only a very small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum and the ear registers only a narrow range of sonic frequencies. Similarly, according to Fenwick, the brain filters and perceives only a tiny part of the cosmos’ intrinsic ‘consciousness.’”

—Clifford N. Lazarus, Psychologytoday.com, 26th of June, 2019

Fenwick and Lazarus referring to a ‘consciousness’ worded as being intrinsic with the cosmos, a primary attribute of reality itself, as apparent as gravity or light. This resource of ‘consciousness’ being some form of intangible self/collective existing without any basis of physical, tangible, measurable presence, but accounting for what many might refer to as the elusive aspect of humanity, some religions call, the “immortal soul”. The part that transcends all else. The brain ‘filtering’ consciousness, like the filtering of frequency required to tune in to a specific signal. The question then, is ‘where’ or even ‘when’ does this source/signal of consciousness come from? Where does it exist? Assuming it exists in any conventional sense that we can imagine.

Is it possible that consciousness (or something similar), just as it’s insinuated in so many religions (in the form of a soul or spirit), exists beyond the realm of this reality, yet is here all the same? A spiritual, intangible connection to something beyond the observable universe. Something that can be hijacked, the influence of Demons, Angels, Spirits. Something that is (by processes elaborated later) connected to avenues that provide a means of perceiving future events, premonitions, déjà vu, soul mates, fate/destiny. Is this ‘link’ the very means by which God peers into the truest, purest, rawest nature of all living things? If consciousness does/could transcend this reality/dimension, what would be its relationship with the theoretical Multiverse/Omniverse?

“With the proposition of ∞ dimensions, comes an ∞ supply of variables. The basic principals of physics required to keep the some hundred trillion atoms that make up the individual cells in our bodies from destabilization may simply not exist. By the very nature of ∞, there has to be dimensions where that is the case. But by the same principal, dimensions depicting a religious afterlife, planes described in ancient myth and legend, too have a place in the theoretical Omniverse.

In the concept of “shadow dimensions” and “mirror dimensions”, it has been suggested that fragments of a dimension, like ours for instance, can/could be taking place simultaneously in multiple dimensions or shadow/mirror dimensions. For example, the concept of a dimension consisting purely of consciousness, a virtual archive of every sentient being to have ever existed in a specific dimension. Essentially a separate realm, possibly devoid of time, containing what some would call the “immortal soul”. Theoretically, the co-existence of these two (or more) dimensions, could be part of bridging a possible dimensional shift after what we consider to be death.”

—ᴛʜᴇ GREAT BEYOND …ᴀɴᴅ ʙᴇʏᴏɴᴅ

When applying the Infinite Monkey Theorem, the prospect of infinite versions of realities to the Multiverse theory:

“There are some, who believe that the Infinite Monkey Theorem is not purely limited to a hypothetical textual outcome. Throughout recent history in science-fiction literature the concept of infinite realities has been explored. The very instant the term ‘infinite’ is applied, then too, endless possibilities must also apply. Just as the endless variables have been addressed in reference to the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Which suggests there are infinite, slight variations of all things even remotely conceivable (or inconceivable! to quote Vizzini from the Princess Bride) throughout various realities or dimensions.

What this could mean, is that there is a reality exactly like this one, only 1 second behind our version of “time”. Then there is another reality, which is 1 second behind that second reality. This could go on infinitely, creating a relative constant of every moment of your (and my) existence, which actually lasts for an infinite amount of time collectively. Meaning, among other things, every second of every one of our existences is perpetually being lived in an incessant and infinite loop throughout the dimensions. That is one version of an infinite possible variations of realities.”

—ᴛʜᴇ INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM

A, B, C, D, E all representing independent realities in a theoretical multiverse. Each of the 5 realities are identical in every single way, but one. The one variable setting these 5 versions of reality apart, is that the entropic changing of state of each universe, the passing of time, is at a slightly different juncture/stage. A, B, C, D, E representing the same point in time, merely if there was an outside omniscient being observing all 5 realities, E is ahead of D, and so on, with A unfolding the same moment last. If you subscribe to both the Multiverse theory, and apply true ‘infinity’ to such a concept, by the logic behind the Infinite Monkey Theorem there is no reason it should be impossible or even improbable that there is an infinity of realities nigh indistinguishable from this one, in some/infinite cases, why wouldn’t ‘time/progression’ alone be the only variable of change?

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: ‘This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence’ … Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: ‘You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.’”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882

The concept of the Eternal Return or Eternal Recurrence unsettled Friedrich Nietzsche (as he expressed in Beyond Good and Evil, 1886). In many works surrounding the idea, the notion suggests the events of this universe unfolding, returning and unfolding again, waves of time, merely going in and out like a tide. The concept is explained in greater detail here, TIME TRAVEL ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ 2ɴᴅ ʟᴀᴡ ᴏғ THERMODYNAMICS. But what if throughout the countless realities of the multiverse every fraction of a second of your own life was playing out right now, simultaneously? In the same second your eyes drift over these words, your infant self is exiting your mother’s womb. In the same moment you contemplate that reality, in another, and countless others you die, or a mourner visits your grave site 10 years after you were buried there.

Even those infinite variables, infinite moments that seem so vast to the individual are only a microscopic, minuscule, tiny aspect of a far greater complex system of possibilities. Do these variations, these segments of our identical selves, in perpetual existences, each require an independent soul? Or do the brains that harbor our consciousness interpret it from a plane, a singular dimension? Sometimes revealing glimpses of things perceived to us as future events, yet occurring simultaneously elsewhere. Déjà vu, dreams of future happenings, ‘memories of things yet to pass’, knowing where or what something without any reason to possess such knowledge. (This train of thought could also be applied to the Mandela effect phenomenon where large groups of people claim to remember historical events differently to others. Often argued as distorted or collective erroneous memory, but many believe the phenomenon to be an indication of possible alternate realities/universes, or the merging of such.)

“I remember a vivid dream I had when I was about eight or nine years old, that I’ve managed to remember for all these years. I was wandering through a hospital, I felt drawn to a location, almost like I wasn’t in control of where I was going. Eventually I was standing at the end of a bed where an old man lie. He seemed to be the only person who noticed my presence. He looked at me with a stunned expression, for a moment, until nurses began gathering around him, placing an oxygen mask over his face. I tried to wake up, and I did, but not before seeing the old man die.

Naturally, at the time I was upset, I thought it was some sort of omen about one of my grandfathers. It wasn’t until years later when I was speaking about it with my great grandmother, she suggested that perhaps the old man was me. That I was somehow consoling my future self during my own death. It was an interesting thought, from a woman who after passing away herself, has since visited many of my family members in their dreams.”

—ᴛʜᴇ DREAMING ᴅᴏᴏʀ

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 4

ᵀᴴᴱᴿᴱ IS ɴᴏ YESTERDAY

(Animated by thebluesquare)

The time it takes for our planet to make a full orbit of our solar system’s sun, is (close to) 365 days, equating to one earth ‘year’. Our existence in terms of age/time begins at 0 (leaving the womb), after 1 year, to 2, 3, etc. Ending for most Homo sapiens on this planet at year 79 (average human life expectancy), with death. When moving through space and/or time, we often use consecutive junctures to indicate where we might be, where we’ve been and ultimately, where we are headed. If there are four points in space/time identified as A, B, C and D, and you found yourself at point C, you could establish that you have passed A and B, and if you continue on your trajectory, you’ll eventually get to D(eath).

For the sake of simplifying this thought exercise, we could imagine a highly advanced synthetic mind, a mind that after being activated for a time, has its memory entirely wiped. Every time it is activated, synthetic memories of past experiences that never occurred, can be freely recalled. The artificial intelligence believes events that never happened, signify its past. It believes it is on a trajectory, paved by the past that never was, awaiting a future that will never be. A foundation of self, a perceivable ‘existence’, built upon the illusion of a compiled ‘overall’ experience.

But why would point A, B, C and so on, have to be days, hours or even minutes?

Could a “mind” exist and essentially end in the fraction of a second without ever comprehending its existence was entirely synthetic and false? A glimpse of a moment, a virtual past, a presumed fictitious future. What if what were perceived to be the ‘physical world’, the anchor to a being’s reality, came from the very same synthetic source as the synthetic mind, perceiving it?

If memory and understanding of self was false, would it be inconceivable to suggest that thought and even the illusion of ‘free will’, could be false also. All the while, an individual believes that their existence is legitimate, they have a past, they believe in a future, never once assuming the entirety of their being and reality, was purely a work of fiction.

Perhaps in the event of malfunction, when a memory is accidentally recalled before the scenario was intended to unfold, a sentient mind might explain the occurrence as a similar phenomenon to what we call ‘déjà vu’.

Someone might say, “why would anyone go to all that trouble? To create an entirely artificial universe, purely to deceive an equally artificial mind? There’s no point.”

Firstly, its also a lot of trouble for an artificial being, existing in a simulation to push an artificial bolder, up an artificial hill. Achieving nothing at the end of the ordeal, that never truly happened anyway. To entertain such a prospect, suggesting, that you yourself are the artificial being, then you have no bearing on what truly dictates “trouble” or effort to someone/something with the means to create a (false) universe. As previously mentioned, while one planetary orbit of our sun signifies a year for us, a being capable of creating a simulation of such, may require a time some several thousand times greater than that to urinate. (Assuming time as we understand it, has to exist at all, outside of this reality.)

“There’s no point.”

If you had the means to construct a reality and harbor sentient beings that knew that reality as the be all and end all, would you do it? For what purpose? And if those artificial beings, in your artificial reality had the means, would they replicate the experiment? Over and over and over again? Does there need to be a point, a purpose for something, for it to occur? Human beings like to tell ourselves our species exists because of “love”, but would it be more honest to say, we (or a great many of us) exist, like many other things, as a product of something as trivial as boredom.

Despite all love, grief, fear, hope and meaning, what if, the moment is a lie. Tomorrow never comes, and ultimately, there is no yesterday?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 2

ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS & ᴛʜᴇ ARGONAUT

Orbs of mass, shaped by the will of the universe adorn what we might call the beyond. Estimations suggest the number of planets in our universe exceed 1024. These many orbs (oblate spheroids) formed by the gravitational rotations of time, the laws of nature. The rules imposed upon the behavior of matter and energy, seemingly conjured during some intrinsic union with time and space, essentially during the juncture at which reality as we perceive it, began. Assuming things like our ‘common reality’ can/could truly have a beginning.

It’s when we try to imagine something, anything or even nothing, before what we consider ‘the beginning’, that things start to become convoluted. Something that has been profoundly influential to me (regarding this topic), is something my childhood self stumbled upon. A coping method I came up with during difficult times. Initially, I would practice allowing myself to imagine an alternative to this reality. I would start by imagining the solar system, only the third (planetary) orb from the sun was gone. (Effectively psychologically eliminating all possible conceivable fears/problems, because all concerning trivial affairs not only no longer existed, but had no conceivable connection to the history of said theoretical universe).

Steadily, I let my minuscule understanding of the universe dissolve, and my imagination made its way to something close to what physicists might describe as ‘heat death’ or the fate of the universe. Only there was no mass, no time, no space. At around eight years old, what was once a coping method had become a pastime. A literal passing of time, because I’d discovered a way to mentally check out of reality. Now the challenge was no longer ‘allowing’ myself to imagine this, but attempting to force my mind to believe this was a reality, somewhere, somehow. I could zone out for an hour or so with ease, utterly oblivious to the passing of time.

Only there was something wrong, even in that conjured void, there was ‘something’, that doesn’t belong in nothingness. There was contemplation, a veiled recollection of self, an anchor and a lifeline back to reality. Strangely, even at about 10 years old, with no knowledge at the time of neuroplasticity, I began to understand the thought exercise and pastime was becoming detrimental. So I abandoned oblivion and essentially lost the means to even put myself in that state of mind. The overall experience, and the concept of an individual truly allowing themselves to believe something radically unconventional about the nature of their own reality (or its replacement with another), would later be the inspiration for a book I wrote called, The Book of Madness. (An exercise, that too, proved detrimental.)

When entertaining the concept put forward by René Descartes, “Cogito, ergo sum.” ‘I think, therefore I am’, we realize how alone we truly are in our interpretation of this reality. Descartes further explained this sentiment with, “we cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt.” To doubt suggests the existence of some ‘thinking entity’, even if literally everything else is false. But is the fractured mind that harbors multiple personalities capable of truly believing that suggestion is even more substantial than doubt, because the ‘personality’ (or artificial intelligence) doubting their existence, in some rare instances, might actually be right. Existence, by proxy.

Our world is an enigma. You may not think so now, or even any year soon. But for some of us, a time will come when we look over our life, our existence and wonder, “why did I come to be?” Why did our common genetic ancestry forge its way from the Australopithecus afarensis (bipedal ape) to its current state? Immersed in cycles, all creatures behaviors bound to the repetitions, rotations of this world, of our sun. Even with the noticeable changes in the human world, advancement in technology, we continue, time after time, to repeat the same mistakes of history.

It is entirely possible that what we might call ‘meaning’ applied to this reality, is entirely a human superimposition. It is equally possible, that that is not the case at all. Someone once told me the greatest paradox in life, is that the more you come to learn and understand, the more you realize there is, that you don’t know or understand. But what value does a secret hold, once it’s spoken aloud? How much intrigue does a riddle inspire after it’s been solved? As a species, the bulk of us have chosen to spend out our lives here, the blip that it is, pretending as though it all makes perfect sense. Eat, sleep, defecate, procreate, pay your taxes, rinse and repeat. But then there are those, compelled to ask “why?”

If I had to give the briefest explanation to what this blog, ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS is about, I would say, “a collection of questions (from various aspects) pertaining to the validity and common understanding of our reality.”

On the 27th of July, 2019, I remember hearing someone say something to the effect of, “silence is for the dead, while you’re alive, you might as well speak”. At that juncture in time, the sentiment resonated with me, enough to inspire me to go ahead with plans of pushing myself to attempt to write more publicly. So I decided to go about working towards some sort of writing hub, a blog, I didn’t particularly care what it was. For a title, ᴬᴺ ODD ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ and ᵀᴴᴱ PLANET EARTH ARCHIVES were on the cards, momentarily, but I eventually landed upon ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS.

ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS; orbs, rings, rotation, discs, the globe, the earth, the world. Something all encompassing, but singular. Our world, ᵀᴴᴱ ORBIS, is an enigma. Is it by chance alone that the 3rd planet from a sun in the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy is teeming with life? Or has there been machinations underway regarding the purpose of our world, long before our species ever existed? God(s), Extraterrestrials, Ultraterrestrials (inter-dimensional beings), or is it all purely the result of (seemingly) chance random events?

Whatever the answer actually is, all variations are equally incredible, but in my opinion, the strangest concept of all, is that we live in a universe, that by ‘chance’ alone, everything we’ve ever imagined can just, come to be. The mere passage of time and natural processes can achieve what we attribute to supreme sentient beings? That concept isn’t taking away from the majesty and reverence that religions and mythology have offered toward our reality, it’s saying the contrary, life is preordained.

As I mentioned earlier, the laws that govern our universe for whatever reason, by whatever means, were in effect the moment time and space ignited. Meaning, if what happened in our universe occurred an infinite number of times, perhaps in other universes of the theoretical super universe that contains our own. Or even universes that exist in theoretical dimensions separate from our own. How many times would it be theoretically possible for a planet IDENTICAL to Earth to form? Entirely by chance, the nature of physics (which may vary) how many times could have I written this very same text?

Is there some grand unifying theory?

Your guess is as good as mine.

I remember explaining to someone, the premise of a unified theory (specifically) regarding paranormal phenomenon (or the interpretations of such, made by an individual), and was asked, “what does something like déjà vu have in common with a poltergeist sighting?” I replied, “what is déjà vu, if not the ghost of a memory? A phantom recollection, that causes one to do a double take within their mind’s eye, just as one might investigate a room after they witness the appearance of a specter or apparition.”

I suppose the link with all things paranormal, high strangeness, synchronicity, events that by all rights, from what we know of ‘reality’ should not occur (or statistically less frequently), is that they make us question what we know, or think we know about this world.

The catch is, eventually, if you truly desire to know the truth, the anchor and the lifeline back to who you were before, will have to be abandoned. Once you make that choice, nothing will ever be the same again.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES

(Animation by Dave Strick)

Rather than asking someone, “do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life?” You might instead ask, “is it possible, or even likely, that life beyond this planet does not exist at all?” Is it possible to truly possess an ardent rejection of the concept of extraterrestrial life? Well, of course it is, belief is quite often unimpeded by reality (whichever variation happens to be accurate). Interestingly, unlike Ghosts, Demons, Goblins, conceptual beings which have the potential (regardless of the legitimacy of their existence) to exist only as a byproduct of human imagination, extraterrestrial life has one attribute, that cannot be denied: the existence of our species.

The fact that we can ask “is anything else out there?” indicates that all the conditions CAN be met in this universe, for something else to be asking the same question. The universe (seemingly) has the potential to spawn/harbor life (theoretical abiogenesis), otherwise the question would/could not be asked in the first place. (Someone might say “religion could disprove that statement”, but if we’re here by the will of God(s), then by the same notion, that will ‘could’ have created life elsewhere also?)

So then, if extraterrestrial life exists, why hasn’t it been discovered? It must either be in its primordial stages of development, or very, very far away? Then of course, there is another possibility, rarely considered to the extent that it deserves. What if extraterrestrials, are so very advanced, so incredibly adept, that they interact with us almost constantly, walking among us, entirely undetected?

ᵀᴴᴱ DECOY, dictionary.com

  • a bird or mammal, or an imitation of one, used by hunters to attract other birds or mammals. “a decoy duck”.
  • a person or thing used to mislead or lure someone into a trap. “we need a decoy to distract their attention”

verb (used with object)

  • to lure by or as if by a decoy: They decoyed the ducks to an area right in front of the blind.

The genetic similarity between a human and most avian species is around 60%, yet our species possesses the ability to deceive all of them. Simulate their calls to further lure them to a position or manipulate their behavior. In fact a great many animal species which share even closer genetic similarities with us, can be deceived with an array of decoys. We use robotic decoys to infiltrate highly social mammal groups, to study and monitor their behavior. Often (during closer inspections) the decoys fail, but as a species we have the ability to completely deceive another species, into thinking an object/machine is an acceptable member of that species’ social group.

Many of the animal species on this planet lack the ability to perceive the cues that would suggest illegitimacy, it’s a prospect (almost) entirely inconceivable to the animal world. Even after rejecting a decoy, its highly unlikely an animal would understand the nature of why the foreign imposter existed in the first place. When it comes to perception and self-awareness, the bulk of animal species on our planet don’t have much of an understanding of self. This is further investigated in research surrounding the mirror test.

(The Mirror test, a method used to determine an animal’s ability (or lack there of) to visually identify itself. Researchers place a mirror in front of various animal species and observe their behavior. Despite the arguments surrounding how substantial the results of the mirror test are, very few species on this planet actually pass the test.)

ᴡʜᴏ ᴀʀᴇ ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES?

A wolf in sheep’s clothing is no new concept. Even in bygone ages suspicions of demonic beings, otherworldly entities wearing the skin of men as a guise was always a prospect (of a paranoid mind). If you think its a stretch of the imagination to envisage a member of our species presuming another is ‘something else’ in disguise, you should familiarize yourself with the various witch trials that proceeded throughout Europe and the American colonies.

Even today, with various AI systems, we attempt to decoy one another. False emails, automated calls. Eventually our species may be able to create the perfect decoy, undetectable from an organic life-form. Could we achieve that feat within the next 100 years? Would our species be scrupulous with that kind of technology, or use it for unprecedented levels of exploitation and manipulation of one another?

If, however, highly advanced technology existed ‘today’, these beings, these hollow ones, could be existing among us, right now. The question would be, if you gave the concept any credence, what are ‘they’ working to achieve? What are they doing right now, this very moment? Are they monitoring us, testing us, planning our demise?

I’ve spoken to many of the belief that if such a theoretical situation were to take place (or if it is taking place) they would not do it if they weren’t gaining something from our species. I’ve heard adamant opinions, in regards to this topic, that the decoy is the tool of the hunter, that ultimately any being that shrouds their very existence in secrecy, does so because their purpose is purely nefarious.

But I couldn’t honestly agree with that sentiment. I’m (currently) incapable of abandoning the notion that with true advancement, with ultimate theoretical evolutionary development (ᵀᴴᴱ NOÖSPHERE), a being would display a certain level of benevolence. Ask any naturalist, or someone whose worked on a documentary filming the natural world, it takes a great deal of restraint to observe from afar as the lions close in on the baby gazelle, and do nothing. To possess the power to intervene, but the understanding to know you can’t.

Maybe a being from a time, and a place so far removed from here and now, living the human experience is all ᵀᴴᴱ HOLLOW ONES are interested in? An entirely unremarkable person wanders through a crowded city, but her eyes transmit what she beholds to a group of beings in another dimension. She bumps into you, and says “excuse me” and smiles, you part ways, never giving it a second thought.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᴛʜᴇ WORLD ᴛʜᴀᴛ NEVER WAS

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

–Albert Einstein

That which is in accordance with fact or reality, must be truth, or so they say. But what happens when the “truth” of our reality in its entirety, comes under scrutiny? When even the variations of interpretation are no longer merely arbitrary (or misinterpreted, deluded) on an individual level alone, but if the same event was recorded by multiple devices. Each capturing a very different variation of the same event, each a seemingly different reality than the last. What would happen if logic, causality were no longer universally interpreted? The same message could be played, but individuals hear entirely different words spoken. A coloured shape could be displayed, but observers witness 1 of 5 different colour variations. What if these interpretational anomalies were going on all over the world, increasing in number exponentially as time progresses?

Eerily, many of these “what if’s” are all part of the reality we currently exist(?) within. Even purely among our own species, we are all interpreting this reality very differently to one another. Our brains are making sense of things (often on a minuscule level) different to one another, but these variations add up, often culminating into very different interpretations. Concepts like this, mass erroneous memory, have given rise to popular theories like the “Mandela effect”. It was named so because a large vocal group of people, believed to possess the memory that Nelson Mandela died in prison during the 1980s. When in actuality(?), he died on December 5th, 2013. Believers in the Mandela effect are so adamant the memory of his death in the 80s is genuine, that multiple theories have arisen to explain the alleged phenomenon. The most popular being a merge of two very similar dimensions/realities. Another somewhat popular theory, being that Mandela’s alleged death in the 80s was somehow a glitch or error in the representation of this reality. An event that was altered, possibly one of many, but was brought to light due to the popularity of the globally shared erroneous memory. As the Mandela effect has become well known across the global masses, more and more shared erroneous memories have been discovered. Large groups of people learning that their similar common shared memory of very specific past events, are false.

These occurrences, deviations in memory, some false, some accurate, don’t necessarily prove anything. It even makes sense (to me) that if a misinterpretation was made by one person, chances are they wouldn’t be alone. Perhaps a very popular news headline was shared around the world that was mistakenly interpreted by many English speaking people to indicate the death of Nelson Mandela in the 1980s. That misinformation, like the exchange of accurate information was spread and nested in the memories of people all around the world, waiting to be re-assessed, in the year 2013 when the prior false information would be confronted with new conflicting data.

After the Mandela effect, similar concepts have grown in popularity over the years since. A rise in sharing photographs capturing seemingly anomalous coincidences. For instance, several people in a line who look eerily similar. Footage of the alleged naturally occurring loops of activity in humans, traffic, animals. Many will outright claim these photographs, videos, topics of conversation are merely staged to amuse people. That is most likely how they come about, falsely produced to generate attention. But the point is, the popularity and the intrigue behind the doubt, the questioning of the legitimacy of this reality, is growing. The idea that the nature of our reality is somehow synthetic, disingenuous is spreading like a plague. It’s difficult to predict how such a train of thought could implicate the human race, but generally a growing belief that all things are the product of deception could not bode well for the stability of this reality. Legitimate or otherwise.

But on a singular, individual, personal level, what would it take for YOU to question the legitimacy of YOUR reality? To witness the seemingly impossible, the unthinkable? What if you lived the exact same day twice, accurately predicting each moment as they come and go? What if I were to randomly type numbers, that were identical to those appearing on your credit card? 5253 6053 4980 8658. The odds are so incredibly stacked against those numbers being your numbers, that if they were… you might think something very unusual was going on. Then again, perhaps deep down you know that you could quite easily rationalize a great many unusual things. After all, strange things happen all the time, that doesn’t necessarily suggest that reality in its entirety is somehow false. The unique thing about discussing the concept of the validity of reality, is that we have no other point of reference for comparison. To detect an imitation product, we use our knowledge of the genuine original and identify the differences. So why then if this reality is all any human has ever known does the concept of a ‘false reality’ continue to arise throughout history?

Heavily popularized during the age of enlightenment, philosophers have long pondered the nature of this reality. Cogito ergo sum (quote by René Descartes), I think therefore I am, the only thing we can be sure of, is the existence of our conscious mind on an individual level. Aside from that, nothing else is certain. Throughout religious beliefs, mythos and cosmogenic/creation stories from cultures around the world, many toy with our world being disconnected from a reality of some specific group of supreme beings or deity. Even one of the oldest human beliefs passed verbally among groups of Australian Aboriginals, speak of a ‘Dreamtime’. Something seemingly independent from time and space, considered as both the furthest distant past, but also the furthest conceivable future in which existence as we know it was formed.

“Life is but a dream, within a dream.”

—William Shakespeare

The word ‘dream’ is one of the most frequently used words by Shakespeare throughout all of his works. Shakespeare often mused with the notion of dreams and reality, “To die,—to sleep;—To sleep: perchance to dream:—ay, there’s the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil” (Hamlet, Act III).

The belief that the “truth” will be revealed in death, is by no means unique. In fact almost every religion, across every culture insinuates toward (possibly the greatest) element of death being the final lifting of some all encompassing metaphorical veil. The curtain that sheathes the truth, the meaning of all things, conceivable and/or otherwise.

Maybe our instinctual drive, our lust for there to be “more than meets the eye”, is merely the result of our longing for meaning, for purpose. Seek and you shall find, but where there are no answers, no light to properly illuminate the darkness, our minds make forms from shadows. We create a story, behind the story.

Contrarily however, maybe there’s a reason those of antiquity, possibly even the earliest of mankind, just as many of us today hold an unusual thought at the back of our minds. A thought that niggles, scratches in the furthest depths of human contemplation. A voice that for whatever reason, for as long as our species has been capable of thought, instinctually whispers, “there is more beyond this.”

Perhaps, you’re reading this, in a reality where only you have ever existed and your own doubts, or a clue from the very system that deceives you are taking shape in the form of this verbose blog post. How could I ever prove otherwise to you? Perhaps you’ve spent your entire life, living in a world that simply never was.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ULTRATERRESTRIALS ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ INTERDIMENSIONAL HYPOTHESIS

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

Our observable universe consists of three comprehensible spatial dimensions, height, width and depth. We, like all perceivable matter and known forms of life exist within the realms of these three spatial dimensions. But despite the fact that we cannot perceive or even imagine additional dimensions, that is not an indication that they do not or can not exist. According to some Bosonic string theorists there could be as many as 26 dimensions, with 1 dimension being regarded as time (or duration).

When referring to ultraterrestrials and the interdimensional hypothesis in regards to seemingly “unworldly” inexplicable phenomena, two separate primary stances can be put forward to the basis of their origins/or relationship to our reality.

The first stance, is that our perceivable, seemingly independent reality is one of possibly infinite realities. Generally, this concept of multiple/infinite versions of independent realities, is known as the Multiverse theory. These realities, dimensions, parallel universes, are to our current technological (or spiritual) means, cut off and for the most part, inaccessible to us. But alike the unproven theoretical existence of the multiverse, there is also the unproven theoretical existence of beings capable of traversing these infinite dimensions as they please. Either by their own extremely advanced technological prowess, evolution or design.

The second stance, is that within the theoretical 26 (+) dimensions of our conceivable (and inconceivable) reality, there is a great deal going on that we are currently incapable of perceiving at all. The first dimension, is the x-axis, length. The second is the y-axis, height. The third is the z-axis, depth. The fourth dimension is then generally considered to be time. The dimensions beyond the fourth dimension drift further from our tangible understanding of spatial relation to concepts beyond our physical, measurable universe. Our five basic senses, touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste (along with our other senses, equilibrium, and so on) are all designed to operate within the first four dimensions. Theoretically, if a being could exist in even the fifth and/or sixth dimensions, it would interact with time completely differently to the way we do. Some theorists suggesting that the fifth and sixth dimensions ascend time as a linear construct, but rather a constant of past, present and future. What does this mean, if a being somehow existed or learned to traverse these higher dimensions? Theoretically, they could go anywhere, in all of space and time.

But who or what are these beings?

Advanced/divine/ethereal beings or extremely advanced machines (searching/scanning the entirety of time and space). They could have been appearing in countless forms all around our world, since the dawn of time or beyond. In the guise of UFO, ghostly apparitions, ball lightning or perhaps more commonly, something similar to a microsecond flicker of light completely unnoticed in a room full of people. They could ignore and defy the laws of physics, witnessed during brief encounters before vanishing, more often than not, without leaving a trace.

As illustrated in a topic I covered some time ago, regarding the Infinite Monkey theorem, when you start dealing with the concept of infinite, you are faced with an infinite supply of outcomes. Theoretically, every imaginable outcome you or I could ever conceive, is but a definite, minute fraction of the infinite possibilities, given an infinite amount of time (keeping in mind, some theoretical beings can manipulate and transcend time, all past, present and future). So by the very nature of the proposed theory of ultraterrestrials and interdimensional travelers, to suggest there is ‘one’ singular reason, ‘one’ type of “visitor” to our world would be theoretically impossible.

In many ways, the notion of ultraterrestrials, interdimensional travelers in lieu of a more traditional concept of extraterrestrials to many can seem like an even greater stretch of the imagination. Because it makes the question of “are we alone in the universe?” somewhat more difficult to answer. Because you’re no longer simply asking “where” did that UFO come from, in relation to our universe, but “where” in relation to our reality. Then to make it even more complicated, you now have to ask “when” it came from. Because theoretically, if you yourself witnessed an ultraterrestrial/interdimensional craft shooting across the night sky. You could unknowingly be looking at something that is on the same flight path, spiraling through junctures of time that moments later, passes over earth’s sky 11, 700 years ago. While one of your far distant relatives looks up in awe of the very same craft, seconds (relative to the craft) after you saw it in the present.

Perhaps, ultraterrestrials, interdimensional beings are responsible for life on this planet. To beings that transcend space and time, cultivating a planet for 4.543 billion years would be a relatively simple task. But what if there was a being that transcended the 10th dimension? Or even the 26 dimensions discussed in Bosonic string theory? The seventh dimension uses our understanding of infinity as a reference point that could be linked to separate versions of infinite, still defined by our universes origin of entropy, generally regarded to be the big bang. To perceive the tenth dimension, means to have access to all variations of all infinities and all variations of every timeline, connected to every infinite version of reality. In other words, absolute omniscience. A being capable of perceiving the 10th dimension, would essentially be considered a god.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 1

ᴛʜᴇ INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM

Imagine leaving a monkey alone in a room with nothing but a typewriter. In most instances, you might observe it inspect the contraption, then toss it carelessly against the wall (many humans might do the same under similar circumstances). Maybe in 10 recreations of this event, the typewriter is destroyed every single time. But with every recreation of this scenario and the unpredictable nature of monkeys, whether it’s the 10th time or 110th recreation, a monkey will eventually hit the keys of the typewriter as the device is intended to be used.

“849ty342hgrf8djssssdddddddfx”

— Hypothetical Monkey, 2019.

The desired outcome may not be immediate, you may not witness it in your lifetime, but the belief that it will never occur, is mathematically impossible. The means to achieve the outcome are possible, its only a matter of time, a matter of rolling the dice, over and over and over and over again, possibly times ∞.

That is not the Infinite Monkey Theorem, put forward by Émile Borel in 1913. The Infinite Monkey Theorem suggests a hypothetical situation where you have found a monkey (or even an ∞ amount of monkeys also, to speed up the variations), that is not only eternally interested in randomly striking the keys of a typewriter, but also an immortal. The monkey alike the experiment are completely unscathed by time and space. Our universe may/will not be as old as this experiment may/will go on.

This monkey does not sleep and does not eat. Eternally striking the keys of a typewriter for an infinite amount of time. Minute by minute, hour by hour, as the days turn into years and the years into centuries. Thousands of years fly by only to be followed by millions, then billions of years. But the monkey keeps typing, as it always had and may always do so.

So what is the monkey capable of randomly coming up with?

According to Émile Borel’s theory, as the variable outcomes stack up exponentially with the possibilities that infinity provides, eventually a monkey would write an entire page of comprehensible English. By the same logic, eventually a monkey would also type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, possibly the greatest human writer to ever exist.

In one computer simulation of this experiment carried out in 2004 by Dan Oliver of Scottsdale, Arizona, he discovered that after 42, 162, 500, 000 billion, billion years, one of the hypothetical monkeys typed:

“VALENTINE. Cease toIdor:eFLP0FRjWK78aXzVOwm)-‘;8.t”

Nineteen consecutive keystrokes that appear in Shakespeare’s ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’.

Another simulation was conducted by the website ‘The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator’, in 2003. Where after 2, 737, 850 million, billion, billion, billion years a simulated monkey typed:

“RUMOUR. Open your ears; 9r”5j5&?OWTY Z0d”

Identically matching twenty-four characters from ‘Henry IV, Part 2’.

It’s difficult for most of us to even contemplate the existence of a number like 2, 737, 850 million, billion, billion, billion. But as mind-numbing as it is to try (for me at least) that number doesn’t even scratch the tip of the iceberg with ∞. Even that reference is flawed, because the iceberg has a limitation to its size. Infinity has no limitations, it’s always beyond reach. By its very nature, it can have no end. It goes on eternally.

There are some, who believe that the Infinite Monkey Theorem is not purely limited to a hypothetical textual outcome. Throughout recent history in science-fiction literature the concept of infinite realities has been explored. The very instant the term ‘infinite’ is applied, then too, endless possibilities must also apply. Just as the endless variables have been addressed in reference to the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Which suggests there are infinite, slight variations of all things even remotely conceivable (or inconceivable! to quote Vizzini from the Princess Bride) throughout various realities or dimensions.

What this could mean, is that there is a reality exactly like this one, only 1 second behind our version of “time”. Then there is another reality, which is 1 second behind that second reality. This could go on infinitely, creating a relative constant of every moment of your (and my) existence, which actually lasts for an infinite amount of time collectively. Meaning, among other things, every second of every one of our existences is perpetually being lived in an incessant and infinite loop throughout the dimensions. That is one version of an infinite possible variations of realities.

Is there any link between the outcomes, the variations of events? Who knows. By the theory alone, no, there is not. Merely independent outcomes from purely random lines that have some significance to us, as humans. But mathematically, there is no sentimentality to any of this. There is no significant meaning or reason, it is merely the summation of all outcomes. Some of which just happen to mean something to us. But there are also an infinite amount of outcomes that mean absolutely nothing to us.

Whose to say definitely what (or who) controls the vicissitudes of fate? Or more puzzling still, why anything exists in the first place?

Que será, será,
Whatever will be, will be.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 5

ᴼᵁᴿ SOMNIUM VITAE

A letter to, ███████
In response to your inquiry of ‘The Living Dream’.

Firstly, the question put forward is simply, “have you ever been deceived?” A question, undoubtedly, that could only be answered honestly with, “yes”. At some stage in each of our lives we would have been led to believe something that is unequivocally false. In the modern world we are exposed to all kinds of deception. Exaggerated results in advertisements to better sell mediocre products, countless fraudulent attempts imitating authorities and businesses phishing for our personal details. While this is unscrupulous and disingenuous behavior, it is not the purest form of deception.

The purest form of deception, is a deception whereby the victim never learns the true nature of the information he/she has been given. After all, what is the English definition of truth? The most widely used definition of truth reads as follows: ‘A fact or belief that is accepted as true.’ But what truly determines if something is accepted as truth?

Propagation. To spread. An ancient means of directing the accepted beliefs of a group. Because ultimately, it is the beliefs of a group that matter. An individual can be corrupted, deluded, or wrong. But who could contend with the will of the masses? The individual is meaningless, the majority rules.

Our world is rife with many forms of deception each seeking to achieve many different ends. The aforementioned forms of deception (such as credit fraud), by their very nature, make perfect sense. They want to acquire something from you, your money. To do this, they will distort the world around you, like all great liars do, to give you reason to comply.

How do they distort your world? The instant someone provides you with a piece of information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, they are contributing to your interpretation of the world around you. Whether you believe or doubt, your grip on what you think you know to be true is now under siege. Eerily, in some circumstances, when what we believe to be true is questioned, the once stone foundation can appear to crumble.

“It’s easier to deceive someone than to convince them that they have been deceived.”

— Mark Twain (attributed, though there is no proof he ever said this).

So what does this all have to do with the Living Dream Theory?

Firstly, a suggestion (that may seem entirely counter-productive): forget what you know, or rather take for granted as true. For there is no religion higher than truth. Yes, truth has no equal in this world, but as foolish as it sounds, you will need to part ways with this tether if you seek to understand the nature of our Somnium Vitae. Fragment your mind, if you are capable of doing so and imagine you weren’t so certain of anything. All of time and space in its entirety, including the mortal instrument you are conducting now and even the surroundings where you currently find yourself.

Who you are, is a collection of memories. Where you are, is a collection of memories. Every detail you perceive is being perceived by a mind that exists on the basis of a lifetime of cerebral cultivation, of memory. Rather than focusing your doubt on a large scale, perhaps a smaller exercise.

Would you, for a moment, entertain the idea that this text does not exist? That the words you are subsequently whispering in your mind after interpreting each grouping of symbols are not actually in front of you at all. Why then, or more suitably, ‘how’, you might ask, would a sentence that does not exist, be capable of questioning the validity of its own existence?

In the assessment of what could be true and what could be false of this exercise we notice two things. The text itself along with any general interpretation, could be either true or false, in that it exists or it does not. The message however, casting doubt on its tangible existence, is undoubtedly true. Because something has to exist, to question its existence (cogito ergo sum).

The source of where this doubt comes from, can also be only proven as a definite, if it is in fact your own contemplated doubt. Any other variable source of external stimuli has no (definite) basis in indisputable truth, unless you actually doubt the nature of your reality.

As utterly ridiculous as it may seem and as detrimental as it may be to what you consider your existence: your ability to doubt your existence is more intrinsic to your reality (or state of consciousness) than what physically presents itself to your senses.

Therein lies the foundation for our Somnium Vitae (όνειρο ζωή), The Living Dream.

If I were to ask you if you were awake or asleep right now, you would no doubt reply, with some certainty, that you are awake. You know what it feels like to be awake, you have some understanding of what it feels like to dream. But the average person (who lives approximately 75 years) will slumber for a total of 9,125 days or about 25 years. To the general consensus, that 25 years is an abyss. A quarter of a century spent in oblivion. Sure, a dream can seem like it lasts for an eternity, but in truth, most dreams last a few seconds, very few individuals are capable of dreams reaching beyond 30 minutes. So what goes on during these decades of emptiness, blind spots in our memories?

Well, first let’s consider what happens if one goes without sleep. Science still doesn’t know definitively why and what goes on when we sleep, but we know what happens when we fail to do so. Interestingly, severe sleep deprivation is known to cause an individual to experience hallucinations and is said to possibly lead to a state of mind that resembles acute psychosis. Essentially, we’re all capable of losing touch with our reality if our brains are not regularly maintained. This is far from definitive evidence, or even an insinuation that our reality is false. But it shows how very vulnerable our species is of losing grip of our senses.

The concept of the Living Dream suggests that some/all of what we consider sentient life contained in this dimension is somehow independent from the physical representation. The “physical” world can impede your perception, like damaging the lens of a remote camera that continues sending a signal of what it sees. But ultimately, the all consuming reality of this dimension is more like a crossroads of consciousness. How it is orchestrated, or why? There are no clear answers.

Many would refute the notion entirely, almost insulted to be presented with such a theory. But infuriatingly for some, the concept of the Living Dream (at this stage in our understanding) cannot be disproved (just as it cannot be proven either).

Are there signs? Clues? Indications that suggest this world is an illusion? You could waste an entire lifetime pondering the nature of reality. Many have.

Unfortunately though, the more you narrow your eyes, the further out of focus it becomes. You might give anything to see beyond the veil. You’re also no doubt well aware that most of us, when we face something we can’t truly identify, our brain will create an explanation for us. Most of us learn to master this skill. So for many, this is where the tale ends. Conceding to the veil, often learning to love the very illusion that imprisons us all.

Besides, who would want to wake up from the Living Dream?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0