Paging through Encyclopaedia Galactica

One of my favorite episodes of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series

-->is “Encyclopaedia Galactica,” where he explains the Drake equation. -->This unwieldy formula, more theory than math, estimates the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.    

 

In the episode, Carl explains how scientists in the 1960-70s came up with numbers for each of the variables. He starts with the estimate that there are 4 billion stars in the Milky Way, and ends with an estimate that there may be as few as 10 other civilizations in existence with the means of interstellar communication akin to our radio telescopes.

He admits this is a conservative estimate—there may be hundreds or even thousands of civilizations out there—but there just as easily may be none at all. The existence of life in this galaxy is very rare, and the probability of us running into anyone else very, very small. We could very likely be all alone. 

The Ramifications of Being Alone in the Universe 

Which started me thinking. If life is as rare as that, then each one of us is truly an extraordinary being. If the 7 billion people on the planet Earth are the only intelligent beings in over 120,000 light years, that makes us all pretty special. Each one of our thoughts is a rare and wonderful thing, no matter what its contents. Each of our notions may have no precedent in this or any other universe. Each of our creative efforts is herculean—simply for the fact that we as intelligent life forms are so unbelievably rare. 

Take a minute to let that sink in. We are each one in a billion, surrounded by an unfathomable amount of empty space, exploding stars, dead rocks, and cold, inanimate moon dust. For all that nothing, there is only one of you. You are a very special being.

Conclusion

So don’t belittle your own thoughts—it may be the first and last time an intelligent being entertains it. Don’t discount what you think is a cool or an interesting idea just because it came from you. Emerson said, “To believe in your own thought, to believe that what is true for you is true for all men—that is genius.” Even more so in light of the fact that you may be the only being to bring conscious awareness to it in countless uninhabited worlds. 

 

 

Death of the Ego, Birth of a New Consciousness

 

In December 2012 or thereabouts, a remarkable shift in consciousness will take place. It has been called the Mayan Superdate, the Second Coming of Christ, the Return of Quetzalcoatl, and the Blooming of Human Consciousness. But all these things are metaphorical. In truth, it is a vague time in which humans can finally realize how limitless we truly are. On or about this date, you will celebrate a death of a aspect of yourself that has been living and working inside your being for far too long. On or about this date, you will finally lose that retraining and altogether unfortunate by-product of your infinite soul manifesting in an earthly vessel.

I’m talking about the ego.

This fictitious identity does nothing more than instill a false sense of individuality, when the truth is you and I are one. The ego imbues us with illusions of limitation and beliefs we think are real… but they are not. The ego gives you fear, it gives you doubt, it gives you a false feeling of vulnerability, a false need to protect and defend yourself from others—when the truth is you are an eternal, luminescent being: deathless, limitless, undying, and undefeatable.

The ego is nothing more than an unfortunate side effect of your soul’s manifestation in your body. It has plagued all of us for eons—but now the time has come for you to realize your true nature. You are infinite consciousness, bigger than the ego, better than the ego, more expansive and beautiful than the ego could ever let you be.

The ego is concerned with money, and security, and fame, and recognition. But what need does an unlimited being have for such things? Fear drives you to chase after these false idols. Fear makes you think that such things will bring you happiness and satisfaction, when the truth is, they never have, and never will.

The moment of your re-birth coincides with the day you choose to let go of your rational fear patterns and go into the divine dance of inner direction.

When you let go of those rational fears, and the pitfalls of rational thinking, and realize that inside you lies all the answers, all the direction you need, a compass that without fail will point you to where you should go, then you will finally be free.

Fearlessly follow your heart and you will never be lead astray.

Your Life: A Choice

It’s difficult putting yourself out there. Your heart is probably the most difficult thing you’ll ever wear.

No one said it would be easy, being human, exposing your vulnerabilities, your every weakness to the world. In fact, it’s easier to be a critic. Stay detached, make fun of everybody else for the choices they’ve made. Mock everybody. Be a nihilist.

But I don’t like people who don’t believe in anything. I don’t trust someone who makes their life around mocking others, claiming chaos is the natural state of the world, that life has no meaning, owing allegiance to no one and nothing... That’s too easy. Being asleep at the wheel is probably the easiest thing you can do in this life. Take the easy road, take a pay check, hide from the world.

Scientists have confirmed that 83.94% of the population is legally brain dead.

They are pushed by the winds of fate from one place to another, chasing after things and toys and experiences that grant pleasure. They chase pleasure like a dog chasing a bounding tennis ball. They chase pleasure because they equate it with happiness, and when the pleasure goes, they turn to their televisions, and their fast food, and their government issued checks. They go back to sleep.

This is not happening far away—it’s all around you.

So we are faced with a choice: either you live with your heart on your sleeve, pushing toward something that fulfills deeply, even if it also means experiencing less than pleasurable conditions; or we remain asleep at the wheel, pushing papers from one side of a desk to the other, sending endless emails, updating statuses that no one cares about… no one, that is, except the other drones who are in the same condition. Hiding. Until that one day comes—if we’re lucky—when we stop and realize how empty our lives really are. We turn around and see all the things we missed out on, because we took the easy route. We criticized. We hid. We didn't dare look at our vulnerabilities, and see them for what they truly were--our strangest and most potent powers. Our unique characteristics. Our true joys.

But by then, it will be far too late to do anything about it. We’ll continue to hide, doing it for the money, because that's what we've always done. And then we will die inside, and regret being such morons, with a thousand unfulfilled dreams.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

We have been told for ages that atoms are primarily made up of empty space, with the only actually solid component being the nucleus. Technological advances have allowed us to get deeper into the actual nucleus of an atom—to penetrate it and see what it’s made of. What scientists have found is astonishing. They have concluded that even the nucleus itself is primarily made of empty space.

We also know that physicists running tests on light beams have uncovered that they sometimes behave like waves, and other times behave like particles—an interesting phenomenon called the wave/particle duality. They suspect the reason for this is that the observer’s expectations are actually affecting the outcome.

Quantum physicists are now theorizing that atoms are not so much things as they are tendencies; that reality doesn’t actually snap into place until we bring our attention to it. It’s the very act of consciousness that makes things real.

Which brings us to the old question, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?

According to quantum physics—no. If no one is there to hear or see it, the tree--and the entire forest for that matter—doesn’t even exist.