Survival: The Ultimate Mission. Robert M.D. Skaf

exist at all, for the only way we can differentiate between a total nothingness and existence is by the way the thing that does exist renews itself. With regard to the matter, this renewal takes place in the form of transmutation. In our case the renewal happens to ensue after what is conventionally known as death. In any event, and regardless of our beliefs and convictions, and regardless of whether what I have said makes any logical sense, life and death will always remain a mystery to us. Just think of death as a completely different world that’s part of the Continuous Creation. It’s a world we are incapable of fathoming. Just as we cannot figure out what kind of world or worlds lie beyond our universe. According to science, the universe we are part of, stretches beyond our imagination and possibly contains trillions of stars and planets which spawn a myriad of forces and phenomena. Still, as humongous as it may be, some scientists tell us it does not stretch to infinity. In this case one would be tempted to wonder what lies beyond it. Whatever it is, it cannot be void and nothingness. For our universe to be contained in an empty hole is a possibility that defies logic and the law of physics. Yes, chaos may reign supreme in our universe, but think of it this way: a world of cosmos without forces, without chaos would be akin to a void, for this reason it would be impossible to imagine our universe to be hanging amidst nothing. A simple observation has convinced me of the existence of other universes: all galaxies are shaped like huge disks - in relative terms that is. Yes, occasionally they may slam into each other, but in general, they are always floating in this huge space we call the universe. Had this universe being of finite size or had there not been an infinite number of universes surrounding it, no galaxies would be able to form, for they would all clump together or disappear in this infinite void zone. It is obvious that there is a gravitational force pulling in the opposite direction and preventing them from collapsing, while on the other hand, the gravity of our own universe keeps them from disintegrating into another zone or universe. This balancing act can be observed by looking at the galaxies of our universe. One may speculate, that on a larger scale, this is how universes behave as well, the only difference is that we have a clear idea how galaxies are shaped, yet, we have no clue how a complete universe may look like. This knowledge will elude us until one day we successfully acquire the technology which would enable us to observe other universes. Actually, helped by data gathered by the telescope Hubble, some scientists believe that the dark energy is probably responsible for causing the universe to expand or the border galaxies to pull away from it, while the dark matter tries to bring galaxies closer to each other or hold them together.

      Amazingly, not only do we have billions of galaxies, but except the odd anomaly, they all look like flat disks as well. This is the conclusion to be drawn here: this sort of formation can only exist in an infinite universe, for only an infinite universe would have an infinite gravitational center which would allow so many galaxies to be flat and maintain such a huge distance from all others. Although, no one knows for sure what lies beyond our known universe, there must be something out there, a different world we are unable to decipher. Nevertheless, it is part of the Continuous Creation that has always existed and which is not a subject to time. Time only makes sense to us at this stage of our existence- it means nothing for the matter that knows no life or death, nor does it mean anything to us in our perpetual existence. Scientists have been telling us that our universe was created by a big explosion they call the big bang. But even if we were to agree with them, the big bang itself does not explain to us where and how the matter that forms this universe had come from or how many times such a similar phenomenon has taken place before or might take place in the future. The big bang theory is not absolute science, it is fluid and murky. To my thinking if the universe has exploded once, nothing can stop it from imploding and once it implodes nothing can stop it from exploding again and this can go on to infinity, without us knowing about it - much less keeping track of it. We may never figure out how the Continuous Creation may look, but we can definitely be sure it exists everywhere and beyond everywhere. This should not come as a surprise to us. This situation already exists here on earth. For instance what is the highest or the lowest number? Just because no one knows does not mean that such numbers do not exist. Another puzzle: how do we measure knowledge and imagination? The same thing can be repeated here as well, just because no one can provide an answer is no reason to assume that it is impossible to one day define the boundaries of dreams and creativity.

      Death, what it represents and what goes beyond it, is another world which is locked to us. We will never be able to understand what goes beyond our universe until we get there. Similarly, we may only know about the mystery of life and death after we complete the cycle. Yet even then, there is no guarantee that the mystery will be revealed. After all, life itself is full of mysteries and surprises. In this case why worry about something we have no control over? Let’s focus on living. At least in that respect, the more we discover about ourselves, the more understandable, fascinated, and respectful of life we would become. The first thing to realize is that we should not be embarrassed about our selfishness and desire to live and enjoy life. This is something which was said earlier and the same can be said about our desire for a longer life and our obsession with immortality. This is what every species longs for and strives to accomplish. In a way, as long as we survive as a race we can consider ourselves to be immortal. We may die as individuals but our genes and our spirit can live forever through others. To appreciate this concept, one must think of the human race as an ecosystem that depends on all members to survive. Although this perpetuity is more distinct with lower single cell life form such as bacteria where they simply reproduce by copying themselves through splitting or other means, in our case our genes and our thoughts are carried through new generations. This is why it makes sense to be living in a peaceful and pleasant world since we are the ones who will be alive through the upcoming generations. In a way we are all copies of the first human being who had started it all. Even when we are childless, all human genes have the same source, besides, our spirit never dies, particularly if we were able to touch the lives of many others whose children will ensure the survival of the species. Yes, life on this planet can be an eternity of some sort. Yet even if this was not to be the case, some billions of years from now, who is to say that eternity can exist without some type of origin - be it on this planet or somewhere else. And in this case it does not do us any good to worry about an afterlife that is not going to be there if we can’t preserve its origin. The afterlife itself implies the need for a life before for such a new form of life to materialize. No matter how one cuts it, we have a lot to gain from taking good care of each other and helping each individual lead a happy, fulfilling and peaceful life on this planet or any place else we may exist. For in the least, our advantage as humans over all other species lies in the way our thoughts can stay alive when imparted to others - in many cases this may be more important than genes, especially if one believes in a universe of thoughts and knowledge that coexists along our material world. Perhaps thoughts are immortal and in their own way do exist in their own unique world which we are yet to discover. The convergence of ideas and concepts where several researchers, inventors and thinkers arrive to the same conclusions is indicative of an intellectual invisible universe connected to us. Furthermore, who is to stay that recorded data of all types, visual or otherwise, are not able to spawn other creations of their own? The curious thing is that, regardless of how different this world is from all others, they all share one common thing, they all must change, recreate and reinvent themselves in one form or another. This is the only way to prove their existence. There are so many different types of particles that make our universe, yet scientists can only account for 1% to 4 % of all that does exist, the identity of the remaining 99% remains a mystery - for the time being at least. Having so many particles and substances floating around is a proof that the matter is not dormant; to the contrary it is always active trying to recreate and reinvent itself. Even the invisible universe is no different. In fact one may argue that our own thoughts and voices are energy which can be transferable. The transformation from matter to energy and vice versa is something that scientists have proved long time ago. Whether our thoughts and voices get to be recorded or stay afloat hovering around the physical universe is the real mystery. In so far, engineers have been able to record voices, images, light, and photon and perhaps one day they may be able to register thoughts as well, in which case, and one may be compelled to look at the invisible universe from a different perspective. There is no doubt that the intellectual universe exists. Every one of us leads a physical existence and an intellectual one. Indeed, duality is part of our daily life. Perhaps, artists and scientists are better connected to the intellectual universe than others, but