Thursday, January 30, 2025

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING, ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE


If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” I love this oft-cited but not-quite accurate quotation of Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland! I love it because I believe that none of us really know where we are going, and none of us really know where we came from.

On the grandest of scales, we are continuously questioning the origin and fate of our universe, where we are from and where we are going. This has been a continuous search, both scientifically and philosophically.  

Factoid: For such answers, there are several theories, of which I shall enhance by shamelessly promoting my latest book, of which the adverts by happenchance perfectly fit my talking points!

WILL MY BOOK SALES EXPLODE INTO OTHER GALAXIES?

Regarding the origin of the universe, the mainly accepted theory by most in the science community, is the Big Bang Theory. This theory purports that 13.8 billion years ago the universe was simply one hot and dense point that exploded, creating space, time, matter, energy, and everything else we know today.

The end of our universe is explained in a couple of scientific theories. The Big Rip Theory suggests, that as our universe is ever expanding, as the galaxies become farther and farther apart, eventually the gravitational forces that bind everything (galaxies, stars, planet, atoms) will succumb to the overpowering influence of dark energy, disappearing forever into time.

The Big Freeze Theory, similar to the Big Rip Theory, too, suggests that as our universe is ever expanding, as the galaxies and stars and planets and atoms drift apart, everything growing colder and becoming more barren, eventually disappearing into on cold and dark void.

Both these theories predict rather bleak endings, and the notion that no matter what space/s we humans are inhabiting, there will be no escape some billion years hence. Hmmm. Maybe humans are not the center of the universe, but enough of this.

Let us move onto our human consciousnesses.

The One Consciousness Theory suggests that our human reality is a projection of our consciousness, and that our 3D world and everything in it, including ourselves, is but a reflection or emanation of our minds.

Theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, had the theory that every human being is a part of the whole universe, but our part being limited in time and space. Being rather narcissistic, we humans tend to experience ourselves as being separated from all this, suffering a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, proposed that our human brains are essentially computers, and that our consciousnesses are quite like a computer program.

Philosopher David Chalmers has a theory of consciousness that everything is the result of basic properties and laws, and therefore everything is compatible with existing theories of physical science. If this is true, then there is nothing transcendent about consciousness – it is just another natural phenomenon. Neuroscientist, Anil Seth, has a theory of consciousness that all our perceptions are controlled hallucinations, which are generated by our predictive brains – channeling Plato? One of my favorite psychologists, Carl Jung, believed in a collective unconscious, where all the structures of the unconscious mind were shared amongst all of humanity.

Of course, as the scientific search to understand the origin of the universe without continues, so does the search continue to find ourselves within, to find our fate, and along the way, find meaning in our individual lives. In so doing, a reckoning of our human consciousness, too, has a myriad of theories.

One piece of Quantum Theory insists that humans can be immortal because our consciousness never dies. Instead, whenever we die in one universe, our consciousness gets transferred to a parallel universe, one where we are still alive! This is just another Theory of Immortality, dictating that our consciousness is transcendent, and accordingly then, we lead a never-ending existence, regardless of whether our body withers or dies.

So, our consciousness is transcendent? Hmmm. Entire religions are betting their offertory on it, having been constructed around religious theories of the afterlife.

WILL I STILL BE PROMOTING MY BOOK IN THE AFTERLIFE?


Christianity and Islam and Buddhism all promise special places to go after death. In Christianity after death believers go to heaven where they reside with God as their neighbor, and where they are reunited with their earthly bodies, and their earthly loved ones (at least with those who made it heaven). In Islam after death, the soul goes to the unseen realm of Barzakh until the Day of Judgement. In Buddhism, death is an opportunity for liberation, where the consciousness leaves the dead body, but continues and is reborn into another body.

Yes. Our religions do promise us eternity. All cockamamy stories? Maybe. Maybe not.

Whatever the case, I am especially interested in that of Buddhism, where the idea of reincarnation seems quite in harmony to my offerings of PAST LIFE REGRESSION to clients in my HYPNOTHERAPY private practice.

Reincarnation is to be reborn into a new body or vessel, still containing some essence of the previous life experiences and identity. Past Life Regression, a coddewonple so to speak, is more or less traveling in a purposeful manner to a rather vague destination. During a session of a Past Life Regression, my clients believe that their consciousness travels back to a past life, essentially accessing and experiencing memories from their present incarnation, that very incarnation which is in hypnotic trance in my office. In all cases, my clients, in their hypnotic trances, believe that their consciousness is actively engaged during these Past Life Regression sessions, rather than simply observing a detached memory thereof. Compared to that past lifetime in which they lived and died, their session time in my office is very fugacious.

ALL OF THIS, I find fascinating!

Yes. We don’t know where we’re going and we don’t know where we’re from, but one thing is for certain:

“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING, 

YOU MIGHT WIND UP SOMEPLACE ELSE!”

(Yogi Berra).

WHERE I AM DESTINED TO BE -- BLACK BEACH!



Sunday, January 5, 2025

2025: ANOTHER YEAR OF REGRET AND RESOLVE

 


It is time for my 2025 resolutions, resulting mainly from my regrets for 2024. Yes. Regrets, I’ve had a few but then again, too few to mention. Yes. Regrets, referring to Ol’ Blue Eyes, I’ve had a few, of which I will mention later.

As I am typing this, I am looking out my window in the surfin’ village of Sayulita, Mexico. Just a five-minute walk from my Airbnb, and I will be on a beach amongst at least 100 surfers. SURFIN’ USA (THE BEACHBOYS)


and
SURFSIDE 6 (TROY DONAHUE)


are ever on my mind when I’m down on Sayulita beach.

Staying here for a few days during Christmastime, I have snorkeled the force majeure of the big waves at Banderas Bay – not recommended!


And I have even managed a game of chess with a living-statue chess master!


What I did not do and regret not doing is sketching some pencil portraits along the Puerto Vallarta Malecon.


Hmmm. And I am not sure why I did not! After all, I have done portraits in Ireland.


I have done portraits in The Netherlands.


I have done portraits in Morocco.




And I have done pooch portraits too!



Yes. I REGRET not drawing portraits in Mexico. So, for 2025, be it near a Mexican malecon or a British Columbia boardwalk, I RESOLVE to do pencil portraits in a bigger way than in 2024 and all the years before.


Knowing full well that I can become the person I resolve to be, when I fly back to Sayulita, between palavers of my portrait busking, I also RESOLVE to learn how to surf! And this shall be my New Year quiddity, sketchin’ and surfin’!  


(YES. IT BECKONS.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!