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To begin with: I do not pretend to know the ultimate truth. I'm 92 years old, so had ample time to ponder about what life is about. When I started at an early age to think about the meaning of life I accepted wholeheartedly unproven truths about the conditions we are subject to. My mother was a Theosophist which had it that in the universe the laws of karma and reïncarnation ruled our lives, This explained the apparent injustice of people being born with bad or good characters, parents and conditions. It also threw light on our interior being and origin
Growing older I started to issue from facts ascertained by science. But also: are there redeeming elements for those who have been born under miserable conditions. The life of animals seems so cruel to us. We are besieged by illnesses, adverse conditions and bad fate. Nature does not appear to have any compassion or salvation.
In my lifetime some hard facts have become common knowledge. Religions do not seem to provide a credible explanation and their history is untrustworthy. The earth was not created some six thousand years ago by a supposedly loving and almighty God, but in practice he behaves more like a harsh potentate who demand being worshipped if one wishes not to end up in hell after death. Actually much of the contents of the holy books of religions have been proven to be untrue by archeological and historical research. As a result explanations given by religions have lost most of their value.
What became accepted is that the universe commenced with a big bang billions of years ago, developing into the cosmos we are part of now. We have also ascertained that coïncidence played a major role in our earth becoming an livable planet and that evolution brought forth life and finally homo sapiens.
Clever minds have given us insight as to how nature and the brain works.
These are major important discoveries that were not known to the old prophets and philosophers, but without which one misses required information to understand life around us.
So how do I look at these things ? First of all I do realise that we are still missing important clues to comprehend the complexity of life on earth. Based on what we do know I propose tentatively the following view:
To begin with: the first riddle is the very beginning of reality. Where did it all start with? Is there a void without time and space in which everything came into being? Can in nothingness come anything into being? Even a God? If we pose that there was a 'God' in the beginning, where did he/she/it come from?
I'm bypassing that question, for it may not be for us with our primitive brain to dare attempt to give an answer. Yet, we seem to be part of a gigantic process that stretches out even beyond our universe. Are we part of life of a mindstaggering huge organism, like the cells in our bodies are part of life in our being. For them our 'I' is their 'god'.
The next step is the birth of our universe. One might compare it to the birth of a child. The big bang, being the moment of fertilisation, followed by growth to a body - the physical appearance of the universe.
In a foetus selfconsciousness develops slowly. In a similar manner a cosmic consciousness might develop along with the physical outer shell. When we look at living organisms we take it that they have a diffused self-consciousness which makes them defend themselves and procreate. Evolution develops by natural selection and adaptation to different circumstances.
However, I wonder whether the development of all wonderful organisms can be explained just by natural coïncidence and need of adaptation only - even in the course of millions of years. The second law of thermodynamics has it that in a closed systems conditions always deteriorate. How then can a fairly constant improvement from lower to higher species be explained ?
One of the astonishing ways 'nature' uses for evolution is that of metamorphosis. It changes one living organism to a completely different one in order to adapt to other (environmental) conditions. So we see a caterpillar change into a butterfly. The caterpillar feeds on leaves. At a certain moment it starts to spin a cocoon and disappears in it. After some time a beautiful caterpillar appears, feeding on honey and by sucking it up pollinates flowers by chance. Similarly in amphibians, a tadpole may change into a frog, breathing underwater through internal gills and their skin. Then later most of them develop into land animals with lungs for breathing air. Specialists have found that both forms keep the same DNA structure.
If one transposes this function to our species one might speculate that man may be a metamorphosed ape. What makes man human and different from apes is not only the size of the brain but also the development of human features like creativity, language, humour, humanity and impersonal love. This infers that there is still an ape deep in us: our instincts. These have made the ape survive. We are in the intermediary stage. The chimpanzee in us rules still to a great extent our behaviour in sex, violence, jealousy, herd instinct, egoism, racism and the whole collection of human vices that makes human life on earth miserable at times.
The chimpanzee, in us has now the use of an outgrown perfected brain that enhances the scope of his/her activities. Instincts like egoïsm, temper, backwardness hinder the development of the true homo sapiens. Yet we should be thankful that we have those primate instincts for they have enhanced and raised us to the human beings stage. The true homo sapiens still has to come out of its ego shell. If it does, the result will be a new man governed by spiritual values as compassion, altruïsm, love, intuïtion, humanity. Qualities that we already value highly. Moreover other faculties may evolve in us that are not recognized by science nowadays: telepathy, clairvoyance, psychic powers such as healing. These extraordinary properties have been reported all through history, although science does not recognise them.
The collective subconscious field may be a sphere in which all living organisms take part. The entanglement of brain and consciousness may be compared to atomic particles behaving either as matter or energy.
In religious terms brain and deep consciousness have access to a centre: the soul. It exists outside the space-time dimension. We have the ability to tune into the 'soul' . The soul in turn can tune into other spheres. It is embedded as a kernel in the collective unconsciousness. .
The concept of inner feeling might be seen as the mind atuning to its deeper dimension through the soul. The soul may tune in to various states of being of other persons, or other (deeper) spheres. Telepathy might be explained as two souls harmonizing in the collective unconsciousness
The other day Prof. Brian Cox, in a lecture on BBC television, gave an overview of the development of life on our planet. He concluded: 'So all life is chemistry'! And that is supposed to be the guideline for presentday youth ! No wonder there is a great search for values now that those of the church have lost credence. In olden times there was the fear of punishment in hell for one's deeds. Nowadays noone believes in eternal retribution anymore and consequently can do whatever one likes. One only has to take care not to get caught. After all, according to our professor: life is only chemistry !.
No wonder youth is perplexed by the undeserved unfair chances he/she has been born under. One's DNA, parents, society, country, fate. All determine the happiness one may ever get. The unfairness of life demands answers better than pointing at a God who does not seem to be that almighty that he could create a perfect world and mankind.In spite of all this, to the new generation I should prefer to present a grand vision and say: Realize that you are a wonder in the universe ! So far astronomers have not discovered any proof that there are intelligent beings like us in the known universe (although it is most likely that there are, think of UFO's). We are the only speciesas far as science knows, that can observe the cosmos and, may be, one day assert influence on it. Mankind is on a great journey of unparalelled dimensions and significance. Possibly part of an immense gigantic process that not only encompasses our universe, but even beyond it. Feel part of it, if you can. Mankind united is on a pathway of endeavour. Trust your innate potentialities, the healing powers and faculties that lay dormant in yourselves. The more you open yourselves, the more you will receive.
In general I should say: we are on the brink of new discoveries. Will scientists succeed in creating life in their laboratories? Will it ever dawn upon them that we might learn more from the study of anomalous phenomena than spending billions of dollars on space exploration? One step forward has been made: UFO's are not denied anymore. Under the name Unidentified Aerial Phenomena they were recognized to exist by the US Air Force ! If they have mastered time and space, why not we, one day ?
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Foreign translations:
- Ukrainian translation of 'My vision'
On the web since 2 February 2019, updated 12 May 2023
© Michael Rogge 2023