Stars

I watched a video the other day. In it two men were sitting in front of a TV screen talking about astronomy. On the screen was a still picture with what looked like hundreds of stars. The astronomer told the other man that this was in his opinion the single greatest photograph ever taken. The astronomer informed him that only one of the light sources is actually a star, the rest are all galaxies!

A picture with what appears to be hundreds of stars is really a picture with one star and hundreds of galaxies. Crazy! The picture taken was only a small tiny tiny tiny part of the night sky, and it contained only one star. That makes it even craizer.  Go to the Hubble website and see it for yourself or watch this video to hear the astronomer talk about the photograph if you wish. It really is crazy. http://www.wimp.com/spaceattempt/

We do not know how many stars are in our own galaxy because there are so many. And now we know that there are hundreds of millions of galaxies! How many stars is that? No one will ever know.  A mere one thousand years has not passed yet since a human figured out that the earth isn’t the center of the universe. Ahhh the ego. There are so many stars it is not imaginable. But wait it gets better. The light that traveled to earth, the light that Hubble captured in order to create that photograph is older than the earth itself. Those galaxies are so far away that the time required for the light to reach earth is older than the earth itself. Hubble is capturing images of the Universe that actually happened billions of years ago. There are galaxies colliding, stars being born, there is so much diversity it seems just like human experience; limitless. Deep space photographs are stills of the ancient past.  Energy travels forever.

Think about it. Your mind evolved in this universe. Just like all matter was born of stars, so too are we born of stars.  We didn't just poof into existence out of nowhere. It took billions of years of evolving to get to this point. Matter itself evolved to the point of creating life.  Life evolved to the plethora of creatures that cover the earth.  All the atoms that comprise all the physical matter we call reality is star dust. Look at nature and see how it is all tied together and realize you are a part of that nature. The way we live right now in these so called modern societies is so far removed from how we are meant to live it is scary and seemingly hopeless to change. There is some good news though since our minds emit energy just like the stars. All thoughts produce energy. This creates an energy field about us because we are in constant thought. This energy changes lives.  This energy can do amazing things.  Some mystics and scientists often call it consciousness or the collective consciousness.

Most people probably balk at this because of how they were raised. Good thing for the truth though, that it cares not how people are raised. We evolved in this universe of unending energy for millions of years and regardless of our thoughts about it, reality is occurring. We are capable of things so amazing most people raised traditionally in these modern cultures do not even know they exist within us. They simply do not know it because of how we are raised. This is a major failing in our society; we have a failure to compile truth into our collective way of living.

Our minds are a lot like stars. Our minds have gravity, a magnetic field; they emit energy and also receive energy. The unconscious mind is endlessly keeping track of everything that is going on. It is endlessly sending and receiving energy; endlessly burning away. That means we are constantly immersed in the energy of others, we are constantly in physical contact with all other people and other things. Your skin does not have to be touching something for you to be in contact with it. Our thought, every last single thought, is energy. Thoughts send energy out into the universe. You can't see it, hear it, feel it; most can barely sense it. You can know it is happening without even being able to explain it. From this fact alone, one can make a solid argument of why it is morally wrong to hold incorrect beliefs. Those incorrect beliefs actually do have an effect on others; they do cause harm.

The totality of this realization is one of the harder things to deal with when becoming more aware; one cannot explain in words what is happening and this creates a sensation of loneliness because of our social wiring. To be a human being is too long for connectedness with others, but how can you feel connected if you cannot express yourself in words because it is so complex? There is so much we do not know about stars, yet they are there impacting our lives just like our social lives are affecting us at all times. These things cannot be separated.  The sun is the source of life just as our socialness is the source of life. Every single thing on this planet evolved to the sun just like everything human evolved to socialness.

But how do you know it is happening, how do you know that your mind is doing this? Spiritual teachings are full of references and ways to do it. They have tons of hints and clues.  The language of the spiritual teachers is probably the best way to explain it because of how religion has forced itself on our human consciousness. This religious force has caused us to all have a similar language regarding things deemed spiritual.  Spirituality is not something that can truly be taught, but really it is only physics. Humans have historically attributed what they do not understand to a god. This gives them a sense of control over what they do not understand. Maybe too, they have always felt it was a god because of the sense of connectedness it gives one, this feeling that something is in control, but really it is you and I that are in control. This fact scares most people so badly that they simply must believe in a god because they are too afraid of reality. They are so scared to realize they are god that they create a false one to be in control for them. It is never wise to ignore the unconscious. Doing so will cause it to forever project into your perception until you finally realize the truth or die. We are our own worst enemies.

The words of the spiritual teachers are prayer, synchronicity, and grace. Because of the cultural significance of these words they seem to work best because of the feelings they evoke, which is critical for such things to be successful to the fullest capacity. These words best help people understand the phenomenon which is occurring. It has nothing to do with a god. Prayer is practically useless if your heart is not in it. This is not saying one should not always be thinking clearly, but if I pray for someone I love versus someone I do not, the one I love will feel much more benefit. Anyways, in physics talk I prefer the word Connectedness. We are all connected because we are animals that evolved that way. It’s not magic. It’s not spiritual. It is just energy being exchanged between living organisms. The simplest example would be two magnets. The energy that pushes and attracts them is light. We just can’t see it with our human eyes. I think here again, most people will balk. Most will project all of their own spiritual meanings and ideals into these words. Accepting reality forces one to accept responsibility for every single thought one has. It is a burden to be sure.

But consider, when one prays, what they are actually doing is focusing their thoughts, narrowing them down to something specific. And because prayer has deep meaning for most people, the energy is much more directed, so that it can be “aimed” so to speak, at other people. Because their brains are similar and everyone has evolved for millions of years to send and receive energies, they “receive” the prayer in energy form. This is a very weird way to say what actually happens, using "aimed" and "received", but these words convey the point directly. Because we are so social, this energy, the energy of others, has a great impact on our own lives and vice versa. If you really think about it, it is extremely significant when other people are thinking about you, especially if you are not even around. You cannot tell me that the moods of other people do not affect you. If you don't believe it, change the people you are in close proximity with, make it a drastic change and you will find yourself changing very quickly. For instance, take on a night life at the local clubs, or join a dedicated sports team, or start playing MMORPG’s.

There are social behaviors programmed into us due to such a long evolutionary process. The real issue is that it is just like the photograph with the single star; our socialness is as immense as the universe itself, which means our minds simply cannot grasp it all. We cannot consciously grasp all that is going on in reality in the part of our mind that thinks. At this moment, so much is going on one's "thinking" cannot even begin to think of it all at once.  The issue is that it is all happening at once regardless if one thinks of it or not. Reality is happening all at once and it doesn’t care about us mere humans. There is only one way to overcome this issue of reality overload. The only way to do it is to stop thinking and just be. Most of us do this quite naturally all the time. It is our thoughts that get us into trouble.

When one stops thinking and suspends judgment, suddenly it becomes possible for many things which completely contradict themselves to be the truth simultaneously. For instance, right now in this moment, I live like it is the most important moment of my life. It is the only one I have. To truly live I must live like every moment is my last. I must make the best of this moment, each and every moment. This exact moment is the only moment in which I have any power at all. The past is gone, the future is completely unknown. In comparison to the universe I am so completely insignificant that nothing I do matters at all. Can you see how both of these things are true at once?  You are the creator of your universe and at the same time you are completely powerless to it.  In comparison to the universe, we are smaller than the things that make up atoms, yet in our individual lives we are the single most significant thing in existence.  There are countless examples of duality, really it is endless because truth is fluid.  For the brain to understand truth, much more than acquiring a thought via reading needs to occur. 

Synchronicity is really just the collective unconscious at work. When all the things seem to fall into place, when people and things are there when you need them most, have we not all had these experiences? Those seeming coincidences in life that make it seem like something is looking out for you, that make it seem like luck is on your side. This is synchronicity; meaningful coincidence. Take a close look at a good friend for example.  Because of the bonds our minds create through the process of becoming friends; we are forever connected with certain people. Can you tell me these kind of meaningful coincidences do not happen more often with the people we are closest too?  Most of us have these people in our lives. Light travels so quickly that the distances here on Earth are nearly irrelevant. Thousands of miles are traversed nearly instantly at those speeds. So it doesn't matter how near or far away a person is, if you are connected to them, it is nearly permanent.  Remember though our connectedness is almost completely unconscious. One’s conscious mind is not going around constantly simultaneously checking in on all its friends and everyone else in ones social network making sure they are all okay. It is much more subtle than that.

The brain did not evolve for our connectedness to be conscious. This stuff developed before our brains evolved the front cortex.  My personal hope is that humans collectively will begin to realize this and begin to re-evolve our old ways into our higher brains. Or maybe it is better to say that they will realize their front cortex is the evolutionary extension of the ancient social brain.  It's entire purpose is for being social.  Looking at it from this way, you can see that synchronicity is how we looked out for one another before we could physically speak, before we could communicate. Synchronicity is the unconscious mind in sync with its physical surroundings.  This is why you can see it in animals, they have it too.

See even reading all of this in this short essay, is way too much for my conscious mind to process all at once. The unconscious mind though is nearly limitless, which is why I can know it all at once.  Just do some research on the crazy things human beings can do with their brains and realize that it is simply practice to the degree of excellence that has allowed them to perform their great feats. The degree to which one is aware of this phenomenon of social consciousness though varies, due to many different factors. And the degree to which one has control of it varies as well according to the same factors. There are a lot of different things that can influence one's awareness of it and one's ability to make use of it. Becoming aware of synchronicity is like anything else; all things with practice. In regards to synchronicity though, one must constantly remember how vast it is and that each person is their own galaxy so to speak.

Learning to ride a bike is a good example because of the danger involved. Anyone who has ever learned to ride a bike knows that eventually you crash. It is inevitable. Even Lance Armstrong, after winning multiple Tour de France races wrecks his bike.  The man can also sustain 30+ mph on it for extended periods of time with his feet churning 110 times per minute nonstop. So too with prayer, one often wrecks and does it quite poorly at first. One must be very careful what they pray for, because it will come to be.  But with dedication and determination, like anything else, one can gain some mastery of these skills. It is one’s ability to get back up that determines success. Becoming adept at these abilities gives one the sensation of grace. When one is so connected that everything falls into place at all times, everything is exactly as it should be; this is grace. It can be very hard to manage at first. It can also be argued that this is the case at all times, for everyone alive, that everything in their moment is exactly how it should be. But is it grace if one is not aware of it? If I don’t know how to read I can still look at the pages and attempt to decipher something from it, but how much more do I gain if I can actually read it?

Like being fat for a long time and then acquiring abdominal muscles through hard work and effort. One feels alive and ecstatic, but those muscles where there all along. They are not new, they are not magical. Prayer and synchronicity are not magical either, but are locked away in your unconscious mind. They have been there all along just waiting to be worked out.