My personal beliefs on just about everything. ^_^
I've written this thing to explain what I pretty much believe in at this point of my life. It's pretty freaking long, but it covers about everything. ^^;
Ack, didn't realize it was THAT long. O_O I decided to put it in an lj-cut tag just so I won't have to run seven miles back in order to find last entry...
StellarWind Elsydeon’s Guide to the Planet Earth
Or at least a guide to what he thinks about the bloody rock. 2003 Edition.
I. Genesis
In the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded.
Or rather a condensed object which once held all particles the universe had at time. A disarrayed globe of sub-atomic material, perhaps, which at some point found the formation which allowed it to began its rapid outward expansion. Thus began a long cosmic age of the void being filled with various articles of gaseous, liquid, solid and superheated gaseous material which, for the sake of the argument, we’ll call “The Universe”. In theory, an infinite space - objects floating aimlessly in it drifting away from each other by the power of the very same blast that initiated it all.
In one of the many massive clusters of stars (for the sake of this article, let’s call them “galaxies”) drifting in the aforementioned universe, there is a small-medium sized yellow star. Orbiting this star is a small planet, blue-green from space. Approximately seventy-five percent of its surface is covered with water, a compound crucial to the survival of the life forms that wander - and have wandered - upon its surface.
Upon this planet was once a delicate equilibrium between various life-forms. The strong survived. The weak were slain by the strong and fed the next generation, thus becoming unable to pass their ‘weaker’ genes to the next generation. However, all beings held the firm will to survive, to continue their own existence. To continue their species’ existence. Through the years, determination led to adaptation. Adaptation led to evolution. New and improved beings survived whilst the older versions were taken down by the cycles of nature. The process continued, creating a vast multitude of living creatures, many of which unknown to this very day. Cycles interlocked in nearly-perfect balance.
Whilst this equilibrium still partially exists, it has been changed without recognition by the coming of one event.
II. The Apes of Wrath
Several millions of years ago, a species of social, pre-simian omnivores has split, and different parts of it took different evolutionary paths until eventually, many variants were formed, different in only 10-2 percent of their genetic molecule (labeled ‘Deoxyribonucleic Acid’ or DNA by today’s scientists) from each other. One such species was what would be known in the future as the forefather of mankind. Losing much of its fur and other simian features, this species relied more and more on its brain and its learning skill, slowly developing the artificial means to compensate for their lack of natural weaponry, fur, and their lesser physical strength than most of the beings that competed with them for food. And with each generation their quest for knowledge grew.
When nature puts before one the immediate needs of survival, little progress is made in other areas of thought. However, as humanity continued its progress until it was at a relatively safe point, it began to wonder about things that, at first glance, did not concern their immediate survival. This has led to what is now known as the God Theory.
III. The God Theory
Like all other species, humanity has an internal ‘survival drive’ and thus a primal fear of anything stronger than they are. But as humanity slowly became more and more advanced, it slowly climbed to the top of the food chain, ending up with no ‘natural enemies’ they couldn’t overcome with their artificial defenses. And so, they began to turn their minds to expansion (and theoretically to evolution of some other thought areas). Slowly, people were exposed to more and more things they did not know about the world. The unknown inspires fear and sometimes awe. In order to move on, humanity needed, in a way, an excuse. Their quest for knowledge declared that they must get to them bottom of these strange, new phenomena. The primal fear of anything stronger slowly created a new concept in man’s mind: Godhood.
The average Deities, or spirits, or in some cases both (for there were many and there still are) possess several common elements:
1. Immortality (in human phrases alone) - your average deity or spirit is, at least by human terms, mostly intangible (even if it sometimes recieves its own physical avatars in some way or another). There is a common misconception declaring that if you can destroy a thing, you control it - and so, as the deities could not be 'destroyed', they were therefore above all possible control of humanity.
2. Association with an otherwise unexplainable encounter with a force of nature, or an attempt to answer various questions of the abstract field, such as “What are we doing here anyway?” or “Where did all the other creatures come from?” or “Why did I just get hit by a bolt of lightning and am now dead?”, or simply “… Why me?!”
3. Working in ways too mysterious for a human to understand, as if yet again to prove their 'superiority' - Although most deities seem to display unique characteristics which are WAY too human to not take notice of. In my opinion, there has to be a superior being, or race, or whatever to humanity out there in the universe (given the fact that in an infinite universe, the options are indeed limitless) - But If they know they're superior, I doubt they have the need to *prove* their superiority to humanity. Only someone who is inconfident of his own superiority feels the constant urge to prove its superiority to the world - which is what most human-made deities do judging by certain holy texts. Perfect reflection of many humans out there.
4. Being a fine basis for grouping around.
And indeed, deities springing up out of no where became quite common. They’ve given people common causes to believe in, and given some people, who could supposedly talk to the gods, or the spirits, or any other such mystic beings - quick access to power over these groups. These people determined more ways to stay in power, trying to give their newly-acquired societies (much in the manner of other descendents of the pre-primate being which has never been found - modern day monkeys and apes - Humans tend to be social creatures grouping around a common cause - family, clan, et cetera) a moral fiber, and eventually a code of conduct and “rules” to keep the small society from breaking up into chaos (some of these were actually good ideas). Sacrifices were offered to these deities in order to ‘keep them happy’ with their target civilization (and it also kept some way of organizing the society), and in a few religions, a divine system of reward and punishment was installed to keep the society working in one piece and according to its laws. This was indeed a crucial element in the development of civilization, and with all my disbelief in the existance of gods, the mere concept of them had a crucial part in shaping the human race.
However, some of these religions have done the worst imaginable thing to humanity. They claimed that their deities made humanity in their image to rule the planet Earth as they see fit.
These religions and their creation myths have raised humanity’s ego to where it didn’t belong. They viewed themselves the top dogs of the world and so, having the right to rule it as they see fit, and to hell with the consequences. They idolized themselves in a way, declaring themselves almost superior beings (of course, there was always something more powerful than them - something which held their primal fear and ‘religion’ based group intact - their deity or deities, which in comparison to them is far greater - again with the basic human insecurity) for they were made in the image of their god - thus idolizing, in fact, their own form.
And so, Gods were created in Humanity’s Image.
As civilization developed, gods came and went as civilizations came and went. For different opinions regarding the forming of the universe and what makes things tick quickly inspire arguments in which each side is determined to prove that they are right. It was not only a matter of personal belief, but a matter of the high religious groups’ prestige - their philosophy was being blatantly challenged, which spurred confrontations that could even come up to the scale of ‘holy wars’ (Which have been defined before as two nations killing each other in order to determine who has the better imaginary friend). With the coming of more things to flock around - Leaders with a charismatic personality, nationalities (a modern version of the animal territorialism?), conquest led to conquest, and great empires were forged on the backs of bad ideas upon bad ideas. In time, some of these ideas became so firmly rooted, that they raised the ego of certain groups to such a point that they and their co-believers “know” that they are right, everyone else are misinformed fools and are 'wrong'.
This “knowledge” is akin to the “certain knowledge” many years ago that the earth was flat and stood in the center of the universe. When entire civilizations rise on that one concept, many are bound to suffer for believing differently. Whilst it can be (and in fact has been) proved that the earth is round and not in the center of the universe, one cannot prove the existence - or the nonexistence - of a supreme being which created the universe and set humanity on the throne of Earth with the instruments humanity has today. On these matters of the abstract there is no fact, only belief. While there is nothing wrong with belief in itself, people should learn to respect other people’s beliefs, or at least trying to see where they’re coming from and their inner logic, instead of immediately declaring something to be ‘wrong’.
IV. Imprinted Knowledge?
And yet, in spite of belief arguments, there are some things that are common between different civilizations.
Various middle-eastern civilizations possess the myth of a great flood which destroyed all in its way and of a certain human figure (such as Noah and Gilgamesh) who survived it, and whose purpose in the great tale was related to said flood. It is said that every myth, has acore of truth. Recent research shows that the a certain region of the Mediterranean was flooded violently due to something ‘cracking’ underwater, allowing the Mediterranean Sea’s water to flood a large stretch of land. The survivors of this event might have told the story, and through years upon years, the flood was given mythical proportions until it became the story of the great flood.
Other things are even stranger.
For example, stands the myth of Ouroboros, the serpent coiled around the world, biting its own tail. It seems to be a classic myth of many nations on the planet earth: The Norse Jormugand, or Midgard Serpent. The Sanskrit Vritra. Dragons biting their own tails in Medieval European glyphs. The Egyptians had their own version, and apparently so did the Greek (And so by definition, the Romans, who integrated many bits of Greek culture into their own.)
Nations which were not connected to each other for aeons managed to think up the same concept!
Ouroboros may have been here for much longer before the great cultural split. It is unknown what might have inspired this myth, but it has been passed on from generation to generation, and even after the dawn of religion, numerous wars, and various other bits of generally destructive nonsense that generally messed humanity up - the mythical, coiled form of Ouroboros lives in the minds of humanity to this very day.
I doubt the inspiration to Ouroboros has truly been a gigantic, slumbering serpent, but it must have been something. A vision? An artifact? A structure? A message from beyond?
Some concepts, like the Ouroboros myth, as well as certain mythical beasts like Dragons (who appeared in different forms in both the eastern and western world) and Phoenix (Which were agreed to be fire birds with regenerative qualities by both sides of the world) may have somehow been imprinted in the human mind in times so ancient that their origin has been altogether lost. There are many common myths and concepts like that on the planet earth.
One such concept is the eternity of the soul.
V. Souls in the Infinite
“Life” is consisted of two things that interlock with each other to create a self aware organism.
One part is the biological process, or rather the network of biological processes that power up the body. The synthesis of complex molecules from simpler molecules (EG photosynthesis in plants or decoding of DNA responsible to the synthesis of proteins in from amino acids), the neural impulses which are necessary to keep the system working and monitored, and generally, most of the automated reactions needed to keep the body ‘physically’ alive. This part includes some of the mental processes, such as instincts and reflexes, and memory - thus, it has an integral part in learning things crucial to survival and remembering them.
The other part is what has been dubbed by many as the “soul” or “spirit”. It is, in general, the pilot of the machine that is the body. The spark of sentience. This part controls the non-reflex movements of the body, and possesses limited control over certain areas of the brain that are considered triggered by ‘will’. Whilst it isn’t clear what defines this spark of sentience, it is clear that this spark alone is useless. And the body alone, though benefiting from this spark, is rather useless as well. It is only when these two combine, it can be said that we have a living organism.
It’s an obligatory symbiosis, in a way. The ‘spark’ is what interacts with the world it is in using the tools it possesses (E.G. the body it occupies), providing it with new information to process. The two work as one and based on past experience, the spark’s ‘view’ of things can be entirely changed. This fusion wishes to keep itself intact - the body wishes to live on and the spirit wants the body to live on in order to accommodate it and give it some degree of solidity. Hence the need - the urge - for survival.
However, This biological part is, as we all know, finite. With the increase in the “quality of life” for humans, their lifespan increases as well, but there is nothing that can be done regarding the fact that eventually, the biological process ends. And when the body cannot maintain itself in functioning, the things ‘burned’ into the body’s core storage - the brain, are lost and cannot be recovered from it.
Now, it is such a bizarre improbability that life could be formed out of simple biological processes alone that people began to wonder what happens to the spark of sentience once its host body dies.
Once again, there were many different views. Some state that when the body dies, the ‘soul’ simply ceases to be (which is something that’s usually said about animals, because humanity is so vain as to think that its souls are the only ones worth sparing). Others state that the souls are ‘judged’ by the things they did during their life (“Afterlife” theory). Others state that souls are reborn into other bodies (“Past Lives” theory).
My personal theory is an odd twist on the past lives theory.
There are many, many life forms on the planet earth and possibly in the universe. Each one is consisted of this combination of soul and body, both working in tight cooperation with each other. The combination is the living organism as a whole, and so even if one spark powers up a dog and when that dog dies it jumps to, say, a dolphin, it is clear that the dog and the dolphin are two *entirely* different organisms, limited by their body’s capacity and the brain, and thus the depth of their thinking processes. While the body is limited by the laws of physics on its planet, the spark of sentience is not. However, as pointed out, the spark and body must work in complete cooperation to be one living organism. The spark is forced to bend itself to the laws of physics its body works by in order to provide the body with the ‘will’ it needs.
When a spark and a body connect, the spark is also changed in a way, not just the body. The spark itself changes itself a bit to fit its form. It also carries over some rather faint memories of things that had an extremely deep impact on the former body ‘host’ as it finds a new one. This new host can be any living organism anywhere in the universe (perhaps, when these sparks do not occupy bodies, they exist in a wholly different dimension, or plane of existence. Perhaps what we view as the spark of sentience is only a personification of the ‘true’ spark which exists, on its own, somewhere completely different. But that’s getting needlessly Orson Scott Card), assuming it is yet ‘uncontrolled’, EG in early embryo stage, providing the time needed for the spark and body to ‘adjust’ to each other so their job would be done properly.
However, these slight modifications in the spark may carry off to the new body, forming an incorrect body template (for the sake of example we’ll use a human host: the existence of a body template other than the basic human one may bring to the feeling of ‘phantom limbs’ that shouldn’t have existed in humans - wings, tails, perhaps gills) or small, faint memory traces of a former life (sometimes revealing themselves through dreams, or by thoughts, or just by things that seem to feel ‘natural’). This would explain the existence of otherkin - for the uninitiated, people who believe that whilst their bodies are human, their souls are not human in origin. Some of them even have clear memories of what they ‘were’, or of events that influenced their past selves.
An example for that would be A’non’rat. It seems that in quite a large group of dragon otherkin, this word inspires fear and uneasiness, and seems to be connected to a dark force/gateway of some sort. Curiously enough, it seems that although thoughts of that sort are usually banished as being the creations of an overactive imagination by ordinary humans (who are usually rather close-minded, unfortunately), it seems that faint memories of things that never happened to the particular organism are rather common. And though I personally don’t have clear memories of events that impacted what I may or may have not have been in the past, there are some things that feel ‘natural’ to me.
It’s also quite possible that these ‘residual memories’, for lack of better term, may be the source for some “inventions” on the planet earth. That the ‘original’ idea may have been sparked by a faint residual memory of something similar in a past organism’s personal universe.
VI. An Interlude about Multiverses and Time Travel.
The Multiverse theory states that there is an infinite number of infinite universes which continues increasing depending on ‘what if’ events, thus rendering ‘alternate universes’ possible.
An expanding infinity of infinities may be the most mind boggling thing ever made, as it possibly suggests that a spark/body combination can exist in multiple points in the Multiverse.
But as Multiverse expansion is based on events, it may explain the popular concept of “time travel”. Let’s consider it a hypothetic possibility for a while:
If the Multiverse is based on events, or decisions, then by ‘time travel’, we do not really travel back through time, but back through events - and so, back through universes into the point where we want to go. If we ‘change history’, we in fact enter (or create) a different timeline of universes, and so, by traveling forward through time, we see things have ‘changed’, although we aren’t in our own universe of origin anymore. Thus, we do not change ‘history’, but rather our relative location in the Multiverse.
Therefore, if the Multiverse theory is correct, then as Douglas Adams once put it - History is an illusion formed by the passage of time, and time is an illusion formed by the passage of history.
VII. Earth Circa 2003
Looking back into the dark years we see that some of the human-centric religions (which claim that god has made humanity in his image, or something to this effect) became the basis to certain important world powers throughout the years. A strong religious institution led to corrupt clergy (As the old adage goes “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”).
Though it may be too harsh to declare humanity, as a species, to be a stupid, panicky animal which has a tendency to follow its leaders, as corrupt as they may get, it is a fact that large groups of it do. It must be something they developed in order to prevent themselves from tearing each other to pieces. Many atrocities and crimes committed in the name of religion (Namely the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, prosecutions of people of different religion and the actions of several terror organizations nowadays.) were a result of a corrupt religious institute and people who believed in the representatives of a religion more than the religion itself, or people who just mindlessly followed along for fear of prosecution. It could happen.
Another damage of such religions is its raising of the human ego - which allowed them to use their philosophy of being a chosen race in order to stomp anything which stands in their way, only realizing they were compromising their planet and the ecosystem that spawned them in the first place a bit too late. The planet Earth’s condition currently is mostly humanity’s fault, and humanity knows it is. And though some groups strive to repair what damage has been done, humanity’s increasing expansion rate demands more and more area to be adapted to human settlement (and into here fits in the subject of economy - and some people who have everything to gain and nothing to lose from excess development, or so they think), thus leading the world into its current downward spiral.
Something has to give in, and humanity, after being raised for years upon years on bad ideas which inflated their ego as a race, is pretty much too proud to settle down and try to fit into the eco-system again.
And so was the earth doomed by its own children.
VIII. In Defense of Humanity
Though I’ve been using ‘Humanity’ and 'Humans' commonly during the course of this document, I am aware that it was not the doing of all humans but of certain groups or individuals. I had no intention to generalize against the entire species, and thus comes this ending paragraph.
Humans are still living beings, and life, being the bizarre combination it is, is thus truly precious. It is not fair to judge an entire species by the actions of a few individuals. Granted, that these ‘few’ individuals are many, and there are many other average people who follow them just because they find it to be ‘normal’, or are too busy with their own lives to bother about what is going on around them.
But much in the manner of everything in the universe, the balance strives to repair itself.
There are always those people who think differently than the norm in spite of people around them telling them to ‘get real’. After all, what defines ‘reality’ is really a set of laws of physics, and everything else we learn from guesswork based on what we sense, think and believe. If humanity has any hope, it is in these people who realize that. For after all, though a drop of water in the sea may seem small and meaningless, It could create a ripple. And this ripple can expand and expand until it forms a great wave.
In the beginning, there was nothing.
Only the balance knows what shall become of the end.
Ack, didn't realize it was THAT long. O_O I decided to put it in an lj-cut tag just so I won't have to run seven miles back in order to find last entry...
StellarWind Elsydeon’s Guide to the Planet Earth
Or at least a guide to what he thinks about the bloody rock. 2003 Edition.
I. Genesis
In the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded.
Or rather a condensed object which once held all particles the universe had at time. A disarrayed globe of sub-atomic material, perhaps, which at some point found the formation which allowed it to began its rapid outward expansion. Thus began a long cosmic age of the void being filled with various articles of gaseous, liquid, solid and superheated gaseous material which, for the sake of the argument, we’ll call “The Universe”. In theory, an infinite space - objects floating aimlessly in it drifting away from each other by the power of the very same blast that initiated it all.
In one of the many massive clusters of stars (for the sake of this article, let’s call them “galaxies”) drifting in the aforementioned universe, there is a small-medium sized yellow star. Orbiting this star is a small planet, blue-green from space. Approximately seventy-five percent of its surface is covered with water, a compound crucial to the survival of the life forms that wander - and have wandered - upon its surface.
Upon this planet was once a delicate equilibrium between various life-forms. The strong survived. The weak were slain by the strong and fed the next generation, thus becoming unable to pass their ‘weaker’ genes to the next generation. However, all beings held the firm will to survive, to continue their own existence. To continue their species’ existence. Through the years, determination led to adaptation. Adaptation led to evolution. New and improved beings survived whilst the older versions were taken down by the cycles of nature. The process continued, creating a vast multitude of living creatures, many of which unknown to this very day. Cycles interlocked in nearly-perfect balance.
Whilst this equilibrium still partially exists, it has been changed without recognition by the coming of one event.
II. The Apes of Wrath
Several millions of years ago, a species of social, pre-simian omnivores has split, and different parts of it took different evolutionary paths until eventually, many variants were formed, different in only 10-2 percent of their genetic molecule (labeled ‘Deoxyribonucleic Acid’ or DNA by today’s scientists) from each other. One such species was what would be known in the future as the forefather of mankind. Losing much of its fur and other simian features, this species relied more and more on its brain and its learning skill, slowly developing the artificial means to compensate for their lack of natural weaponry, fur, and their lesser physical strength than most of the beings that competed with them for food. And with each generation their quest for knowledge grew.
When nature puts before one the immediate needs of survival, little progress is made in other areas of thought. However, as humanity continued its progress until it was at a relatively safe point, it began to wonder about things that, at first glance, did not concern their immediate survival. This has led to what is now known as the God Theory.
III. The God Theory
Like all other species, humanity has an internal ‘survival drive’ and thus a primal fear of anything stronger than they are. But as humanity slowly became more and more advanced, it slowly climbed to the top of the food chain, ending up with no ‘natural enemies’ they couldn’t overcome with their artificial defenses. And so, they began to turn their minds to expansion (and theoretically to evolution of some other thought areas). Slowly, people were exposed to more and more things they did not know about the world. The unknown inspires fear and sometimes awe. In order to move on, humanity needed, in a way, an excuse. Their quest for knowledge declared that they must get to them bottom of these strange, new phenomena. The primal fear of anything stronger slowly created a new concept in man’s mind: Godhood.
The average Deities, or spirits, or in some cases both (for there were many and there still are) possess several common elements:
1. Immortality (in human phrases alone) - your average deity or spirit is, at least by human terms, mostly intangible (even if it sometimes recieves its own physical avatars in some way or another). There is a common misconception declaring that if you can destroy a thing, you control it - and so, as the deities could not be 'destroyed', they were therefore above all possible control of humanity.
2. Association with an otherwise unexplainable encounter with a force of nature, or an attempt to answer various questions of the abstract field, such as “What are we doing here anyway?” or “Where did all the other creatures come from?” or “Why did I just get hit by a bolt of lightning and am now dead?”, or simply “… Why me?!”
3. Working in ways too mysterious for a human to understand, as if yet again to prove their 'superiority' - Although most deities seem to display unique characteristics which are WAY too human to not take notice of. In my opinion, there has to be a superior being, or race, or whatever to humanity out there in the universe (given the fact that in an infinite universe, the options are indeed limitless) - But If they know they're superior, I doubt they have the need to *prove* their superiority to humanity. Only someone who is inconfident of his own superiority feels the constant urge to prove its superiority to the world - which is what most human-made deities do judging by certain holy texts. Perfect reflection of many humans out there.
4. Being a fine basis for grouping around.
And indeed, deities springing up out of no where became quite common. They’ve given people common causes to believe in, and given some people, who could supposedly talk to the gods, or the spirits, or any other such mystic beings - quick access to power over these groups. These people determined more ways to stay in power, trying to give their newly-acquired societies (much in the manner of other descendents of the pre-primate being which has never been found - modern day monkeys and apes - Humans tend to be social creatures grouping around a common cause - family, clan, et cetera) a moral fiber, and eventually a code of conduct and “rules” to keep the small society from breaking up into chaos (some of these were actually good ideas). Sacrifices were offered to these deities in order to ‘keep them happy’ with their target civilization (and it also kept some way of organizing the society), and in a few religions, a divine system of reward and punishment was installed to keep the society working in one piece and according to its laws. This was indeed a crucial element in the development of civilization, and with all my disbelief in the existance of gods, the mere concept of them had a crucial part in shaping the human race.
However, some of these religions have done the worst imaginable thing to humanity. They claimed that their deities made humanity in their image to rule the planet Earth as they see fit.
These religions and their creation myths have raised humanity’s ego to where it didn’t belong. They viewed themselves the top dogs of the world and so, having the right to rule it as they see fit, and to hell with the consequences. They idolized themselves in a way, declaring themselves almost superior beings (of course, there was always something more powerful than them - something which held their primal fear and ‘religion’ based group intact - their deity or deities, which in comparison to them is far greater - again with the basic human insecurity) for they were made in the image of their god - thus idolizing, in fact, their own form.
And so, Gods were created in Humanity’s Image.
As civilization developed, gods came and went as civilizations came and went. For different opinions regarding the forming of the universe and what makes things tick quickly inspire arguments in which each side is determined to prove that they are right. It was not only a matter of personal belief, but a matter of the high religious groups’ prestige - their philosophy was being blatantly challenged, which spurred confrontations that could even come up to the scale of ‘holy wars’ (Which have been defined before as two nations killing each other in order to determine who has the better imaginary friend). With the coming of more things to flock around - Leaders with a charismatic personality, nationalities (a modern version of the animal territorialism?), conquest led to conquest, and great empires were forged on the backs of bad ideas upon bad ideas. In time, some of these ideas became so firmly rooted, that they raised the ego of certain groups to such a point that they and their co-believers “know” that they are right, everyone else are misinformed fools and are 'wrong'.
This “knowledge” is akin to the “certain knowledge” many years ago that the earth was flat and stood in the center of the universe. When entire civilizations rise on that one concept, many are bound to suffer for believing differently. Whilst it can be (and in fact has been) proved that the earth is round and not in the center of the universe, one cannot prove the existence - or the nonexistence - of a supreme being which created the universe and set humanity on the throne of Earth with the instruments humanity has today. On these matters of the abstract there is no fact, only belief. While there is nothing wrong with belief in itself, people should learn to respect other people’s beliefs, or at least trying to see where they’re coming from and their inner logic, instead of immediately declaring something to be ‘wrong’.
IV. Imprinted Knowledge?
And yet, in spite of belief arguments, there are some things that are common between different civilizations.
Various middle-eastern civilizations possess the myth of a great flood which destroyed all in its way and of a certain human figure (such as Noah and Gilgamesh) who survived it, and whose purpose in the great tale was related to said flood. It is said that every myth, has acore of truth. Recent research shows that the a certain region of the Mediterranean was flooded violently due to something ‘cracking’ underwater, allowing the Mediterranean Sea’s water to flood a large stretch of land. The survivors of this event might have told the story, and through years upon years, the flood was given mythical proportions until it became the story of the great flood.
Other things are even stranger.
For example, stands the myth of Ouroboros, the serpent coiled around the world, biting its own tail. It seems to be a classic myth of many nations on the planet earth: The Norse Jormugand, or Midgard Serpent. The Sanskrit Vritra. Dragons biting their own tails in Medieval European glyphs. The Egyptians had their own version, and apparently so did the Greek (And so by definition, the Romans, who integrated many bits of Greek culture into their own.)
Nations which were not connected to each other for aeons managed to think up the same concept!
Ouroboros may have been here for much longer before the great cultural split. It is unknown what might have inspired this myth, but it has been passed on from generation to generation, and even after the dawn of religion, numerous wars, and various other bits of generally destructive nonsense that generally messed humanity up - the mythical, coiled form of Ouroboros lives in the minds of humanity to this very day.
I doubt the inspiration to Ouroboros has truly been a gigantic, slumbering serpent, but it must have been something. A vision? An artifact? A structure? A message from beyond?
Some concepts, like the Ouroboros myth, as well as certain mythical beasts like Dragons (who appeared in different forms in both the eastern and western world) and Phoenix (Which were agreed to be fire birds with regenerative qualities by both sides of the world) may have somehow been imprinted in the human mind in times so ancient that their origin has been altogether lost. There are many common myths and concepts like that on the planet earth.
One such concept is the eternity of the soul.
V. Souls in the Infinite
“Life” is consisted of two things that interlock with each other to create a self aware organism.
One part is the biological process, or rather the network of biological processes that power up the body. The synthesis of complex molecules from simpler molecules (EG photosynthesis in plants or decoding of DNA responsible to the synthesis of proteins in from amino acids), the neural impulses which are necessary to keep the system working and monitored, and generally, most of the automated reactions needed to keep the body ‘physically’ alive. This part includes some of the mental processes, such as instincts and reflexes, and memory - thus, it has an integral part in learning things crucial to survival and remembering them.
The other part is what has been dubbed by many as the “soul” or “spirit”. It is, in general, the pilot of the machine that is the body. The spark of sentience. This part controls the non-reflex movements of the body, and possesses limited control over certain areas of the brain that are considered triggered by ‘will’. Whilst it isn’t clear what defines this spark of sentience, it is clear that this spark alone is useless. And the body alone, though benefiting from this spark, is rather useless as well. It is only when these two combine, it can be said that we have a living organism.
It’s an obligatory symbiosis, in a way. The ‘spark’ is what interacts with the world it is in using the tools it possesses (E.G. the body it occupies), providing it with new information to process. The two work as one and based on past experience, the spark’s ‘view’ of things can be entirely changed. This fusion wishes to keep itself intact - the body wishes to live on and the spirit wants the body to live on in order to accommodate it and give it some degree of solidity. Hence the need - the urge - for survival.
However, This biological part is, as we all know, finite. With the increase in the “quality of life” for humans, their lifespan increases as well, but there is nothing that can be done regarding the fact that eventually, the biological process ends. And when the body cannot maintain itself in functioning, the things ‘burned’ into the body’s core storage - the brain, are lost and cannot be recovered from it.
Now, it is such a bizarre improbability that life could be formed out of simple biological processes alone that people began to wonder what happens to the spark of sentience once its host body dies.
Once again, there were many different views. Some state that when the body dies, the ‘soul’ simply ceases to be (which is something that’s usually said about animals, because humanity is so vain as to think that its souls are the only ones worth sparing). Others state that the souls are ‘judged’ by the things they did during their life (“Afterlife” theory). Others state that souls are reborn into other bodies (“Past Lives” theory).
My personal theory is an odd twist on the past lives theory.
There are many, many life forms on the planet earth and possibly in the universe. Each one is consisted of this combination of soul and body, both working in tight cooperation with each other. The combination is the living organism as a whole, and so even if one spark powers up a dog and when that dog dies it jumps to, say, a dolphin, it is clear that the dog and the dolphin are two *entirely* different organisms, limited by their body’s capacity and the brain, and thus the depth of their thinking processes. While the body is limited by the laws of physics on its planet, the spark of sentience is not. However, as pointed out, the spark and body must work in complete cooperation to be one living organism. The spark is forced to bend itself to the laws of physics its body works by in order to provide the body with the ‘will’ it needs.
When a spark and a body connect, the spark is also changed in a way, not just the body. The spark itself changes itself a bit to fit its form. It also carries over some rather faint memories of things that had an extremely deep impact on the former body ‘host’ as it finds a new one. This new host can be any living organism anywhere in the universe (perhaps, when these sparks do not occupy bodies, they exist in a wholly different dimension, or plane of existence. Perhaps what we view as the spark of sentience is only a personification of the ‘true’ spark which exists, on its own, somewhere completely different. But that’s getting needlessly Orson Scott Card), assuming it is yet ‘uncontrolled’, EG in early embryo stage, providing the time needed for the spark and body to ‘adjust’ to each other so their job would be done properly.
However, these slight modifications in the spark may carry off to the new body, forming an incorrect body template (for the sake of example we’ll use a human host: the existence of a body template other than the basic human one may bring to the feeling of ‘phantom limbs’ that shouldn’t have existed in humans - wings, tails, perhaps gills) or small, faint memory traces of a former life (sometimes revealing themselves through dreams, or by thoughts, or just by things that seem to feel ‘natural’). This would explain the existence of otherkin - for the uninitiated, people who believe that whilst their bodies are human, their souls are not human in origin. Some of them even have clear memories of what they ‘were’, or of events that influenced their past selves.
An example for that would be A’non’rat. It seems that in quite a large group of dragon otherkin, this word inspires fear and uneasiness, and seems to be connected to a dark force/gateway of some sort. Curiously enough, it seems that although thoughts of that sort are usually banished as being the creations of an overactive imagination by ordinary humans (who are usually rather close-minded, unfortunately), it seems that faint memories of things that never happened to the particular organism are rather common. And though I personally don’t have clear memories of events that impacted what I may or may have not have been in the past, there are some things that feel ‘natural’ to me.
It’s also quite possible that these ‘residual memories’, for lack of better term, may be the source for some “inventions” on the planet earth. That the ‘original’ idea may have been sparked by a faint residual memory of something similar in a past organism’s personal universe.
VI. An Interlude about Multiverses and Time Travel.
The Multiverse theory states that there is an infinite number of infinite universes which continues increasing depending on ‘what if’ events, thus rendering ‘alternate universes’ possible.
An expanding infinity of infinities may be the most mind boggling thing ever made, as it possibly suggests that a spark/body combination can exist in multiple points in the Multiverse.
But as Multiverse expansion is based on events, it may explain the popular concept of “time travel”. Let’s consider it a hypothetic possibility for a while:
If the Multiverse is based on events, or decisions, then by ‘time travel’, we do not really travel back through time, but back through events - and so, back through universes into the point where we want to go. If we ‘change history’, we in fact enter (or create) a different timeline of universes, and so, by traveling forward through time, we see things have ‘changed’, although we aren’t in our own universe of origin anymore. Thus, we do not change ‘history’, but rather our relative location in the Multiverse.
Therefore, if the Multiverse theory is correct, then as Douglas Adams once put it - History is an illusion formed by the passage of time, and time is an illusion formed by the passage of history.
VII. Earth Circa 2003
Looking back into the dark years we see that some of the human-centric religions (which claim that god has made humanity in his image, or something to this effect) became the basis to certain important world powers throughout the years. A strong religious institution led to corrupt clergy (As the old adage goes “Absolute power corrupts absolutely”).
Though it may be too harsh to declare humanity, as a species, to be a stupid, panicky animal which has a tendency to follow its leaders, as corrupt as they may get, it is a fact that large groups of it do. It must be something they developed in order to prevent themselves from tearing each other to pieces. Many atrocities and crimes committed in the name of religion (Namely the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, prosecutions of people of different religion and the actions of several terror organizations nowadays.) were a result of a corrupt religious institute and people who believed in the representatives of a religion more than the religion itself, or people who just mindlessly followed along for fear of prosecution. It could happen.
Another damage of such religions is its raising of the human ego - which allowed them to use their philosophy of being a chosen race in order to stomp anything which stands in their way, only realizing they were compromising their planet and the ecosystem that spawned them in the first place a bit too late. The planet Earth’s condition currently is mostly humanity’s fault, and humanity knows it is. And though some groups strive to repair what damage has been done, humanity’s increasing expansion rate demands more and more area to be adapted to human settlement (and into here fits in the subject of economy - and some people who have everything to gain and nothing to lose from excess development, or so they think), thus leading the world into its current downward spiral.
Something has to give in, and humanity, after being raised for years upon years on bad ideas which inflated their ego as a race, is pretty much too proud to settle down and try to fit into the eco-system again.
And so was the earth doomed by its own children.
VIII. In Defense of Humanity
Though I’ve been using ‘Humanity’ and 'Humans' commonly during the course of this document, I am aware that it was not the doing of all humans but of certain groups or individuals. I had no intention to generalize against the entire species, and thus comes this ending paragraph.
Humans are still living beings, and life, being the bizarre combination it is, is thus truly precious. It is not fair to judge an entire species by the actions of a few individuals. Granted, that these ‘few’ individuals are many, and there are many other average people who follow them just because they find it to be ‘normal’, or are too busy with their own lives to bother about what is going on around them.
But much in the manner of everything in the universe, the balance strives to repair itself.
There are always those people who think differently than the norm in spite of people around them telling them to ‘get real’. After all, what defines ‘reality’ is really a set of laws of physics, and everything else we learn from guesswork based on what we sense, think and believe. If humanity has any hope, it is in these people who realize that. For after all, though a drop of water in the sea may seem small and meaningless, It could create a ripple. And this ripple can expand and expand until it forms a great wave.
In the beginning, there was nothing.
Only the balance knows what shall become of the end.