Pain and Progress
Llewelyn Muriel Austria-del Rosario
July 09, 2006
I’m so thankful we live in the 21st century. If you were slightly different during centuries past, there’s a great possibility that you’ll be ostracized, excommunicated, stoned to death or burnt at the stake.
At least in this era, if you say something so out of whack, you’ll just be dubbed crazy or called a heretic. Of course, if you don’t trust yourself enough, you’ll wind up going to the psychiatrist or seeking validation from your priest, pastor, imam or babaylan. If you choose medicine, you’ll be in for a psychedelic joy ride you’ll never forget unless it kills you! If you choose religion, you’ll wind up getting crazier. So eventually, you’ll still be seeking psychiatric help. This cycle of pain will continue until you decide to get off the treadmill of piety and propriety.
From that moment on, you are on your way to progress: Beyond what is proper, you will begin to do what is good. Beyond form, you will look at substance. Beyond reputation, you will strive to develop character. Beyond accolades you will seek real accomplishment. Beyond asserting independence, you will appreciate your interdependence, with the threads that form the tapestry of this world. Then you will see the Great Beyond. And your soul will blossom.
You will open your eyes to the reality that beyond matter, there is energy. You will see that the world is changing. Gone are the days of modernism where most worldviews are validated through empiricism and rationalism. Even reality, consciousness and life will be redefined for you.
Welcome to the post-modern era, a time when prior "fundamental truths" of reality, consciousness and life are challenged. If you can tap electrodes into your skin to simulate sensory stimuli, is your experience real or virtual? If a virtual reality program simulates the neural activities of your brain, is it conscious or simply interactive? If an interactive hologram has mind, shape and will, is it alive? If we live in a three-dimensional world governed by length, width and height, what is the fourth dimension?
I have a strong hunch the world wide web may be the fourth dimension. We are moving to a place no longer governed by matter as we define it (anything which occupies space and has weight.) This three-dimensional world is fast becoming four dimensional with the vast and interesting world of virtual reality and cyberspace.
If I am correct, then the fifth dimension that we will be transcending will be time. We will soon move to a world no longer governed by time. I know I sound like a complete lunatic. But allow me to explain Einstein’s theory of relativity as I understand it.
I must warn you, I’m no scientist…just a poor unfortunate soul with nothing better to do these days, except twiddle my thumbs and think while convalescing. I’ve been almost completely bed-ridden for the past four months after being drugged by a psychiatrist and shunned by Christians as heretical—simply because I choose to think for myself. Ah, Sharon Stone is right, a vagina and a thought is a dangerous combination! But I digress.
Back to Einstein’s E=mc2. If you stand outside on a clear night and fix your gaze upon a star, this heavenly body (not mine, the one in the sky) looks like a tiny speck of blinking light. In reality what you are seeing are photon remnants of the energy they expended quite a long time ago, because it takes a while for the light to reach us. From the vantage point of the star, the energy expenditure happened in the past. Yet from our vantage point as earthlings, the star is shining at this present moment. The fact that we already understand this concept means we are evolving and moving to a higher plane of consciousness.
If we have transcended the fourth dimension and are moving towards the fifth, are there other dimensions? Are we alone in the vast cosmos? Like my ex used to say—"If that were so, that’s an awful waste of space!" If we are using only 10% of our brain capacity, what can we do if we unleashed the rest of our brain power?
I really don’t have any definitive answers to the questions I’ve asked thus far. I just want to challenge you to think for yourself. Kailangan ko lang ng ka-duet as I sing "I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell. Right now you can’t tell. So stay awhile and then you’ll see, a different side of me."
At least in this era, if you say something so out of whack, you’ll just be dubbed crazy or called a heretic. Of course, if you don’t trust yourself enough, you’ll wind up going to the psychiatrist or seeking validation from your priest, pastor, imam or babaylan. If you choose medicine, you’ll be in for a psychedelic joy ride you’ll never forget unless it kills you! If you choose religion, you’ll wind up getting crazier. So eventually, you’ll still be seeking psychiatric help. This cycle of pain will continue until you decide to get off the treadmill of piety and propriety.
From that moment on, you are on your way to progress: Beyond what is proper, you will begin to do what is good. Beyond form, you will look at substance. Beyond reputation, you will strive to develop character. Beyond accolades you will seek real accomplishment. Beyond asserting independence, you will appreciate your interdependence, with the threads that form the tapestry of this world. Then you will see the Great Beyond. And your soul will blossom.
You will open your eyes to the reality that beyond matter, there is energy. You will see that the world is changing. Gone are the days of modernism where most worldviews are validated through empiricism and rationalism. Even reality, consciousness and life will be redefined for you.
Welcome to the post-modern era, a time when prior "fundamental truths" of reality, consciousness and life are challenged. If you can tap electrodes into your skin to simulate sensory stimuli, is your experience real or virtual? If a virtual reality program simulates the neural activities of your brain, is it conscious or simply interactive? If an interactive hologram has mind, shape and will, is it alive? If we live in a three-dimensional world governed by length, width and height, what is the fourth dimension?
I have a strong hunch the world wide web may be the fourth dimension. We are moving to a place no longer governed by matter as we define it (anything which occupies space and has weight.) This three-dimensional world is fast becoming four dimensional with the vast and interesting world of virtual reality and cyberspace.
If I am correct, then the fifth dimension that we will be transcending will be time. We will soon move to a world no longer governed by time. I know I sound like a complete lunatic. But allow me to explain Einstein’s theory of relativity as I understand it.
I must warn you, I’m no scientist…just a poor unfortunate soul with nothing better to do these days, except twiddle my thumbs and think while convalescing. I’ve been almost completely bed-ridden for the past four months after being drugged by a psychiatrist and shunned by Christians as heretical—simply because I choose to think for myself. Ah, Sharon Stone is right, a vagina and a thought is a dangerous combination! But I digress.
Back to Einstein’s E=mc2. If you stand outside on a clear night and fix your gaze upon a star, this heavenly body (not mine, the one in the sky) looks like a tiny speck of blinking light. In reality what you are seeing are photon remnants of the energy they expended quite a long time ago, because it takes a while for the light to reach us. From the vantage point of the star, the energy expenditure happened in the past. Yet from our vantage point as earthlings, the star is shining at this present moment. The fact that we already understand this concept means we are evolving and moving to a higher plane of consciousness.
If we have transcended the fourth dimension and are moving towards the fifth, are there other dimensions? Are we alone in the vast cosmos? Like my ex used to say—"If that were so, that’s an awful waste of space!" If we are using only 10% of our brain capacity, what can we do if we unleashed the rest of our brain power?
I really don’t have any definitive answers to the questions I’ve asked thus far. I just want to challenge you to think for yourself. Kailangan ko lang ng ka-duet as I sing "I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell. Right now you can’t tell. So stay awhile and then you’ll see, a different side of me."
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