A Native, A Wristwatch, and The Scientific Method

There's this retired magician who used to go by the name The Amazing Randi and since hanging up his wand, he's gone on to larger fame as the face of rational skepticism concerning all claims of paranormal reality – be they claims of ESP or claims of unexplainable circumstantial phenomena – by dangling a $1 Million reward for anyone that can replicate ESP or the ability to generate paranormal phenomenon within the laboratory setting of his choosing. So far, no one has relieved the man of his $1 Million prize, and it never fails that some Internet forum defender of common sense will show up with that one fact as proof that there is much less to Heaven and Earth than is dreamt of in anyone's philosophy, especially if that philosophy includes what cannot be replicated in a wind tunnel, a glass beaker, a supercollider, or an equation mathematically balanced out on a blackboard with chalk. It's to these sober-thinking reality police that I want to dedicate this moment of my own time, as I share a wonderful apocryphal tale that I ran across years ago

 

As anyone with a cursory knowledge of science and the Scientific Method knows, getting to "settled science" is a long process that begins with hypothesis, which progresses to theory, and if all indications warrant it, on to settled science. And this is how it's been since the 1600's (give or take somewhat). As to how a hypothesis progresses to theory, it's a fairly strict process that involves the notion's ability to be observed and tested in a manner that allows the results of that testing to also be observed. Fairly straightforward enough. Well, until you get into fields of science where direct observation is practically impossible; meaning that in a practical sense, the hypothesis cannot be directly observed and therefore any and all testing results cannot be directly observed. 

Back when the Scientific Method was devised, what could not be directly observed was relegated to metaphysics, and not even considered approachable as a scientific inquiry. That changed as telescopes and microscopes began to extend our vision beyond our normal sensory capacity, and what was observable became more and more separated from what we could actually see or hear or touch, taste or smell. As this became the case, inductive reasoning emerged as the standard strategy concerning how the progression from hypothesis to theory would develop, and as the years passed, theories emerged and some persisted as others were replaced by better theories, and science moved on.

In the 21^st century, especially in cosmology and quantum physics, the capacity to directly perceive and test most of the systems under theoretical examination has become absolutely nonexistent, so scaled representations, math equations, and computer simulations serve as induction stand-ins with testable predictions that are offered in spite of the obvious dielectric that exists between the models being used and the actual systems under examination. As recent hysteria concerning one of our most dependable theoretical platforms – The Standard Model – suggests, it could be argued that this way of establishing theoretical viability has been shown to have its limitations, even if this is not a universally held view. 

Concerning my own appreciation of the role – in general – that experimentation plays in the theoretical determination of Reality (be it physics, cosmology or whatever it is that the Amazing Randi has decided to place in his own gun sights) the following apocryphal tale has always been valuable as an analogy. I've tried to run down the original source for this story, but it's been too many years since I discovered it, and all attempts to Google it using phrases and such have only revealed my own uses of it at various times over the years. In fact, I'm not even convinced that I've remained true to this tale's original moral. I do know, however, that it makes my point concerning the preeminence of experimental predictability as it pertains to scientific validity.

An island native stumbles upon what is for him an odd item. It is a digital wristwatch. The watch – its band having broken – fell off the wrist of a research team member, and remains as the only indication that a modern era human being was on this specific island at some point in the recent past. No other indication persist, and this includes any memories of such a person having been witnessed by any island native inhabitant.

In fact, this island hasn't changed in culture or outer-world awareness at all for many centuries. This lone digital watch, lying in the open on this one path on a remote side of this island, is the very first failure of modern researchers to remain completely unobserved by the stone-age inhabitants of this remote island. Other than the broken watch band, this piece is in perfect working condition, and is properly set to the time zone of this island as it relates to these months of spring and summer.

We'll name this artifact's discoverer XXZXX, and suggest that while he is an intelligent and curious man, he is no more or less than a man of his time and of his culture. XXZXX is certainly not a holy man or a community authority. That said, he's more interested in larger thoughts than the average member of his community, and very sober and analytical in his personal approach to whatever it is that might present itself as a novel indication. As a result, he keeps the discovery of this unusual item to himself, and in his spare time, he devotes himself to studying it.

What he learns immediately is that he's never felt such a smooth surface before, and he has nothing whatsoever to compare its round, flatness to. Perhaps a skipping stone, but even so, this item’s shape and texture is much too precise and as far as XXZXX is concerned, it has the feel of intelligent craftwork. This is obviously not a naturally shaped object. It clearly belonged to someone or something that visited the island. But who?

When XXZXX gets the object to a secluded place for deeper analysis, he realizes that on one of the smooth, flat surfaces, there's a lot of activity happening, and it's happening all by itself. He can't reach the activity with his fingers, but he can watch it happen. To his own mind, it seems alive, even if he can't relate the bizarre shape-shifting behavior to anything he's ever witnessed before.

After some study, he begins to realize that the activity is not at all random; that it is based on a repeating set of patterns. He sees this as a true breakthrough, and commits himself to unlocking the mystery of what this artifact is, and what it means to the larger whole that he understands Reality to be. After all, it exists, as does everything else that shares the world with it. This means that whatever this thing is, it has a role that it serves relative to the rest of Reality. It fits in somewhere, and since it does, he knows that if he can find where it fits in, he'll also discover something equally important about the true nature of what is real. XXZXX is rapidly becoming a scientist.

Over weeks, XXZXX becomes deeply focused on translating the relentless activity that continues just beneath the smooth, hard surface of the artifact he's discovered. What at first seemed chaotic and spastic in its tight, jerky reconfigurations, has become much more organized and evenly measured to XXZXX's observational perspective. The design reconfigurations, while initially appearing to be complete and novel, have, over time, revealed themselves to be progressive and highly predictable. In fact, XXZXX has begun to recognize a series of design patterns that repeat and follow other design patterns. His sketches have begun to form a distinctive body of research concerning the behavior of this artifact, even if he has yet to formulate a larger purpose behind this behavior.

Being a human being, XXZXX hasn't neglected his own need to make larger sense of what his research has revealed to him. His pattern determinations, his careful documentation of each angular design that fills the mysteriously isolated field of activity, his painstaking attention to each empirical indication aside; XXZXX is not immune to the larger speculations concerning this item's true role within the world that he's known to exist as real and dependably so.

One day, XXZXX is, yet again, comparing his notes with the endless design reconfigurations of his artifact, and it suddenly strikes him that each defined pattern is repeated within a larger defined pattern, with each repetition of the lesser pattern triggering a small acknowledgement within the design of the larger pattern. This indicates that there are multiple layers, a structure of patterns, being represented by design configurations. This artifact's cycles are much larger than he suspected. He's definitely breaking new ground in his research of this thing's behavior.

He names the smaller pattern cycles OOAAOO and the larger pattern cycles AAOOAA, and begins charting anew. Over the next few weeks, he's determined that over the course of a full day, the artifact winds through two full AAOOAA cycles. One during the day and one during the night. This is something that he sees as being extremely important, since each AAOOAA cycle can now be tied directly to the span of a day. XXZXX now knows that his artifact's role in Reality has something to do with the occurrence and reoccurrence of each day. It's here, where XXZXX realizes that he might be in over his head, and he brings his artifact and his research to the wisest men in his community; the council of elders.

XXZXX's presentation of the artifact and his months of research stuns the council. These men have centuries of traditional wisdom between them and at their disposal. With their much larger command of what's become reliable interpretations of common and not-so-common empirical evidence, these men are much more capable of determining what XXZXX has discovered. The otherworldly nature of this auto-animate device clearly suggests that it was constructed by beings that are much more powerful and important than any they’ve ever encountered.

When XXZXX experimentally demonstrates the artifact's tracking of the sun's movements via design reconfiguration, they inductively determine that this device is not simply tracking the movement of the sun, but that the beings who created this device used it to control the movements of the sun. They also know that its existence must be kept secret from the community at large, and especially from all enemies of the community.

They ask XXZXX if he's shown anyone else what he's discovered, and when they're assured that he's kept his find completely to himself all along, they have him immediately executed. The watch is then taken to a location, deep within a series of caves, where it is buried and each member of the team that completed this mission is also executed.

To their own interpretation of XXZXX's research, the verdict is obvious. This device controls the cycles of days, seasons, ages, and who knows what else. It's too much power to be allowed to exist among fallible human beings, and for the sake of the entire world, it must be hidden away forever.

Like I said, the original story of the digital watch and the islander belongs to someone else, and is much less dramatic than this, but the moral of the story is the same; the scientific method can take you only so far, and experimental validation (or the failure of experimentation to validate) certainly won't prove to be any more valuable than your own research will allow it to be. XXZXX certainly was able to predict the alignment of design patterns with the sun's movements, but these predictions did nothing to accurately determine the functionality or the larger role of the digital watch. For that, XXZXX would have needed to learn an entirely new perspective concerning time, the Earth as a physical system within the larger solar system, the existence of other cultures with written language and numeral representations, the concept of time measurement, and a laundry list of other necessary data interpretation aids that I'm in no mood to include here.

Yes, XXZXX was able to predict, and yes, the theory that the elders arrived at, as a result of XXZXX's predictions, did offer what they viewed to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the predicted results, but let's face it, that watch was just a digital watch that had fallen from the wrist of a research team member that had come and gone from that island, unseen by the inhabitants, regardless of what the research and the successful predictions insisted. The fact that these people existed within a Reality that was much larger than they could've ever imagined, was the one factor that would have completely and accurately translated all the other factors they'd dutifully and carefully lined up as being as completely obscure and impenetrable as they would always remain in spite of all scientific examination on their part. And yet, how can anyone ever know what they can't even imagine to be unknown.

Does this mean that all experimental predictions/results should be viewed dismissively? Of course not. It does mean, however, that prediction results (including the inability to devise experiments that can actually obtain prediction results) should be considered as part of a larger context that includes system coherence, the cohesion of functionality within each larger system that contains and therefore is affected by the system under examination, and the nature of the system preparations that are required for a prediction's results to be successful. The more profound the impact of any of these contextual considerations, the less likely it is that experimentation will be substantive as a theoretical proofing determinant.

This is especially true when working to determine the actual nature of Reality as a macro-system. Reality is much larger and much more difficult to slip under a microscope than the most expansive regions of our own universe. Anyone that suggests otherwise is an idiot who needs to sit outside on a clear night and see how many stars he or she can count. Behind each star are countless stars that they'll never see, and even with the best optical telescope, there will be stars that exist behind the furthest observable star, and this is true regardless of what they insist. In fact, even when a radio telescope is employed (making the actual observational connection as much a matter of faith in technology as any paranormal claim is a matter of faith in one's own capacity to accurately interpret a true perception) it's universally acknowledged that an immeasurable expanse – filled with stars, stars and more stars – stretches out behind that very last observable star.

Yesterday's irresponsible metaphysics is today's settled science (viruses and bacteria, for instance), while yesterday's settled science is today's irresponsible hokum (the Aether and the Geocentric Universe, for instance). It'd be good to always keep this fact in your mind as you embrace and dismiss whatever it is that you embrace and dismiss; your opinions concerning natural versus supernatural, life, death and the existence of an afterlife notwithstanding. 

Us and Them: Differing Human Perspectives

Okay, so we've established that the human being is not the Homo Sapiens hominid that stares back at it in the mirror each morning before it's had its coffee. The human being is the "mind" that emerges from the brain of the Homo Sapiens hominid (as well as from any other sentient/sapient brain equipped creature that exists on our planet or any other planet where such beast roam naturally) as that brain deals with the task of corporeal survival. 

We've also established that the human "mind" emerges unscathed as a nonmaterial entity as soon as the brain that brought it into existence dies, and continues to exist as a self-aware, intelligent being with a defined personality that it crafted (with the help of that brain) over the course of that brain's existence. What I want to do now is get a little deeper into the differences between the emerging human being (the one whose authoring brain is still alive) and the emerged human being (the one whose authoring brain has died), and why it is that communication between the two is so inherently fleeting and empirically inconclusive.

There's no way that you'll ever fully appreciate just how difficult After Death Communication  (ADC) is unless and until you've become aware of just how differently the "living" and the "dead" perceive Reality. And I'm not talking about our use of eyes, ears and tactile sensory systems versus whatever it is that they use to sense what they sense. I'm talking about the difference in perception of when Now occurs between one versus the other, and how difficult it must be to compensate for that profound difference in perception. Especially when the corporeal "living" person (a full 50% of the exchange effort) has no idea that such a difference exists.

Now Versus Now

The truth is that you, and every other human being that is alive on this planet, have never and will never experience the instant of Now at the instant that it is actually happening. We (corporeal humans) are always anywhere from a half second to a full seven seconds behind the curve, as what's real and actual is occurring inside of us and all around us. In fact, it's been discovered that we actually experience conscious awareness as immediate memory.

What's really important to note here is that the post-corporeal (dead) human being perceives and experiences its own subjective projection of reality in real-time. This means that not only is the "dead" individual projecting its own reality (which we've already covered in a previous post), but even if he (or she) does find a way to perceive what's actual, each perceived instant of Now is completely out of sync with the perceived Now of the "living" individual. The metaphysicists insist that this misalignment is due to the spirit world having a "higher vibration", but since vibration is a kinetic energy release and we've already debunked the notion of "spiritual energy",

it's more accurate to blame this misalignment on the fact that the "dead" don't have to wait around for the circuitry of a material brain to process any and all internal and external stimuli before being handed it as conscious experience. And that's just the most intractable of the many barriers between these two communities of humanity. To be honest, it's amazing that any communication is ever achieved, given the technical issues involved.

Before I take us any further into this out-of-sync perception versus Reality versus immediate memory of translated perception versus projected reality dilemma swamp, there are some terms that I want you to become familiar with. Yes, I made these terms up myself, but the truth is that they really help me explain exactly what's causing all the trouble here.

• Point of Perspective (POP). This refers to the precise and relentless focus of attention that the intelligent, sentient, sapient, self-aware human mind has devoted itself to. The mind doesn't really have any say in its POP, although as a self-determining dynamic agent, it can (and does) periodically and momentarily challenge what has naturally evolved as the most practical and expedient target of the POP. Still, exceptions don't prove the rule, and the vast majority of brain/mind survival systems feature the mind’s POP in a consistent position while that system is in operation.
• Corporeal Conscious Awareness (CCA) refers to the impact on the human experience of self that results from the emerging mind's devotion to the POP that best ensures corporeal survival and the ongoing development of the overall personality of the emerging human being (see PDT below).
• Post-Corporeal Conscious Awareness (P-CCA) refers to the impact on the human experience of self that results from the redirection of the mind's POP from its devotion to the management of corporeal survival and personality development (see CCA above and PDT below) to its ultimate job (perception translation management activity) as the point of conscious connection of the freed discarnate human being upon the death of the corporeal brain.
• Personality Development Trajectory (PDT) This is the effort that the emerging human mind is focused on (besides the obvious survival decisions that it deals with as the "decider" concerning major choices) while the Homo Sapiens brain is still alive and keeping it real in the Material Realm (see CCA and POP above). When this job is done, the inimitable personality of the human being will be fully developed and relatively perfected. 

The Corporeal Perspective

You already know what Corporeal Conscious Awareness (CCA) feels like. You've been dealing with it for as long as you've existed. It consists of a blend of visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and taste sensations that are concurrently being evaluated and reacted to by an ongoing stream of conscious thought, and perhaps even internal dialogue from time to time. You feel, you sense, you consider, you remember, you imagine, you react, you touch, you smell, you taste, you enjoy, you suffer, you reflect and you wonder about the significant of the whole of what constitutes physical existence. And, hopefully, you learn a thing or two as a result.

As we've recently discovered, you do all of this between .5 seconds and 7 seconds after your brain and body have already moved on to the next item to be addressed (along with the rest of Reality, I might add). And yes, that fact about what being consciously aware actually means for you should take a bit to wrap your head around, even if it can be proven to be true and explained as the best possible solution to the larger problem of effective and efficient corporeal survival. It really doesn't seem possible that our entire experience of self is actually a memory, and not an immediate manifestation, and yet the evidence is all around us.

The National Geographic Channel's Brain Games TV show offers plenty of evidence that the Point of Perspective that creates our CCA is designed to keep us alive, as opposed to putting us at the spear tip of ongoing change within the Material Realm. Any street magician can prove to you that your capacity to detect skilled initiation is more than just limited by your individual capacity to be aware of what's going on around you. That external-internal stimuli data wash has to be properly vetted and attributed before it can be useable, and the fact is that until that's done, you're deaf, blind, and otherwise experientially isolated from the rest of Reality; for your own good, I might add.

During the human being’s corporeal gestation the mind’s POP is resolutely fixed on the PDT's perception vetting/processing and loading activity (into the brain's memory cloud) to ensure that the brain's needs for logical consistency are met as effectively and efficiently as possible. From there, it's the brain's part to fit itself in with what's being presented as Reality. When the brain is operating properly, it all works out rather nicely.

In cases where the brain's short term memory region is damaged or destroyed, the mind itself has no capacity to develop beyond flashes of momentary sensations. When mental illness creates data routing havoc, there's no possible way for the emerging human mind to avoid the impact on its ongoing development. When trauma causes the emerging mind to reach into the PDT process and dramatically alter the consistency of what's become an established attributing protocol, the net effect can range from simple cognitive dissonance to post-traumatic stress disorder. Extreme disturbances can inflict any of a wide variety of negative results on the developing whole that is the gestating human being.

The experiential effect of having the CCA's POP located where the brain's memory cloud receives vetted and processed data loading (as opposed to placing it anywhere else) is that the mind's experience of physical existence is completely immersed within the Material Realm, even though it doesn't actually exist as part of the Material Realm. And this is obviously the best way for the mind's PDT effort to be most effective at providing the brain with the best and most suitable data sets for its use in configuring responses to the ongoing business of material survival; even if this means that there’s a half-second delay that’s included as part of the package.

Of course, the delay is never perceived since the mind’s CCA is synced properly with all other sensory stimuli that is being streamed, and to be honest, the few seconds of lag time only affect the brain/mind survival system in moments of extreme and immediate physical threat. Moments that the body generally doesn't survive anyway. That said, intense reaction training can mitigate the downside of that natural lag, but it can only mitigate it. It can't eliminate it. In the overall balance, the processing of experience benefits the brain a lot more than it would be benefited by a CCA that was instantaneously experienced.

So, now that we have examined the corporeal version of consciousness, let's move on to the post-corporeal version of consciousness. In one sense it's pretty similar, but in many other ways, it could not be more different. After all, a significant shift in point of perspective can literally change one’s view of Reality.

The Eternal Mind
 

So, what does it feel like to be free of the corporeal data stream? I don't know. I've never been dead or even near-dead. Is there Time in the "spiritual" realm? Yes, there is. Within the whole of Reality, which contains both the material and the "spiritual" realms, the quantum progression of change "sets a common clock" for everything. Why this affects the "spiritual" realm will be covered in a future post, but for the time being, just be aware of the "quotes" I'm using whenever I refer to anything as "spiritual".

The post-corporeal Earth-originating human mind is free of the mechanical issues plaguing the Homo Sapiens brain, and the immediate impact is probably astounding. From all responsible suggestions, the experience of Post-Corporeal Conscious Awareness is vastly superior to anything that the brain is capable of providing the mind as it trudges through its CCA Point of Perspective from day to day. Liberating, exhilarating, transcendent; just a few of the words that have been offered, with many attempts to succinctly describe the difference between CCA and P-CCA bowing in deference to what is well beyond language to express in full. And why not? After all, if what is being perceived and translated is informational representations of what does, in fact, exist, then being able to eliminate the sensory and translation hardware altogether would seem to be a move that can only improve the process immeasurably.

So, good for them (and for all of us eventually), but the elimination of all that hardware does profoundly shift the perceived instant of Now (since all that hardware requires time to process all that information before it can be experienced as having been perceived within a defined instant of Now) and it's to this point that I want to return. When the "living" attempt to contact the "dead", the lag time isn't really all that much of an issue, since each attempt persists as a permanent information set that the "dead" can simply perceive at their leisure (it's permanent after all).  Returning that contact (from the "dead" to the "living") isn't at all the same sort of enterprise, since the CCA is the result of a POP that is only capable of perceiving its own slightly altered instant of Now (anywhere from .5 to 7 sec, and shifting all the time due to any number of circumstantial factors) before that Now is immediately replaced by the next slightly altered instant of Now, as it slips forever into a past that can never be experienced again by that mind's CCA.

And if that sounds like connecting with the "living" is a finesse move from hell, then that's probably because it is. Like I said, I am amazed that any connection has ever been made from that side of the divide to this side. The sheer logistics involved in hitting that instant of Now with anything at all seems like an impossible task, especially since that instant is constantly shifting for each mind's CCA (relative to that instant's actual relationship with what is Now for everything else that exists as real and in lock-step with Reality's quantum unit rate of change).

So, I hope that this quick overview helps you to better appreciate just how insanely difficult it actually is for "them" to reach out to "us", and for how it will be for us, once we are "them" to reach back and connect with our own loved ones who are still grinding away, one delayed instant of Now to the next, after we've finally caught up with the rest of Reality.

Life and then Death

This blog is about life and death and the plausible nature of After-Death Communication. Naturally, the nature of life-to-death transition is a topic that can and should be explored. Especially since this transition is central to the topic of communication between those who've made that transition and those who have yet to make it.

A friend of mine once asked me to describe what life and death are all about, and to be really blunt about it. I told him that I'd think about it and see if I could figure out a way to detail it in a way that wasn't technical. After a few days, I came up with the following vignette. In this little scene, my friend is the protagonist and I'm the guide. Of course, I took a small liberty here and created my own character as someone who's not from our own planet, and who's been in the afterlife for quite some time.

My point was to help my friend understand just how complex the human being is and how varied the experience of death and afterlife can be in spite of how uniform and grindingly mundane the truth, concerning the actual process of life and the transition from life to death, is. After reading the following, he never asked me for any further information. I am not sure whether that was a good sign or a bad sign.

The scene is one of quiet anticipation. Row after row after row of similarly clad figures seated motionlessly with eyes fixed forward in rapt devotion to a point that sits maybe a foot or so directly in front of each expressionless face. The room, or open field, or lack of any setting whatsoever is supplied by you, as are the colors, shapes, sizes and whatever else it takes to fill in the details as you wander through what seems to stretch on forever before you. Wherever this is, it's a central location. Whatever it is, it's central to what it ultimately means to be human.

Suddenly you notice a slight stir nearby. One of the frozen forms is wobbling just the smallest bit, and while it's subtle, in contrast with a lack of any motion whatsoever, this wobble stands out. After a brief pause, the figure wobbles yet again, only this time its wobble persists. Something's definitely happening here.

As the figure's movements build in variety and intensity, its eyes seem to lose their focus. That point of dedicated pursuit is now on the move, careening wildly at times with no discernible pattern, only to then fix intelligently once again. And yet, not at all connecting with any of what your own eyes have been engaged in since finding yourself in this odd waiting room.

Suddenly, it begins to speak.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

You look around. It's not talking to you, and yet in your own perception of what exists before you, you're the only one it could be talking to. With countless hypnotized drones, lined out in rows that seem to go on forever, you're the only person available to respond.

". . . but, I thought . . ."

As expression seeps into its face, you can finally connect with it as human. Just as human as you are. It's as if it's becoming human right before your very eyes.

". . . but . . ."

It's talking with someone. Someone that only it . . . only he . . . can see.

"I honestly had no idea. I guess I just figured that . . ."

A troubled look replaces the deadened stare that the rest of those present share amongst themselves. This drone is definitely coming alive. A voice appears just behind you and to your left.

"We should give him some privacy. This may prove to be difficult."

It's the area monitor who let you in for a look around. He's got the same troubled look on his face.

"What's going on here? I thought that . . ."

"What . . . that transition is a joyful reunion? Loved ones and all that gathered around? It can be. Doesn't have to be, but it can be."

"He seemed to be pretty upset."

You're not in that waiting room anymore. You're not much of anywhere anymore. The sudden evaporation of setting takes your breath away. Now, you're the one becoming upset.

"Look around you. Around you, inside you, anywhere at all. Do your best to perceive what you can and tell me what you've got that's real and tangible."

Try as you might, there's nothing. Not even a there to place that nothing within. It's gone. You're gone. That voice returns to provide you with the lone point of reference after what could've been an instant . . . or forever . . . for all you'd be able to discern.

"This is what's objective and real. Just you and whatever you're capable of perceiving. I temporarily blunted your capacity for perception translation to demonstrate how vulnerable you really are to what you can be convinced of as being real. This isn't like back on Earth. For better or worse, you're the one in charge of what exists here. At least as it all affects you."

You're suddenly back with your guide. The room - or whatever it was – is gone, but at least you're somewhere. You're something again. There's you and everything that isn't you, and that's definitely an improvement.

"But, that guy . . .  All those others. What was that . . . ?"

"You were once with them. We all were at one point."

"I don't remember ever . . ."

"Of course not. Didn't I just show you what it's like to be objectively real here?"

The endless, formless void of subjectivity – trapped within a strict objective reality – twitches back into your realm of perception and you blanch.

"Your capacity for conscious self awareness is a blessing, but it can be a curse. What's real is real, but the human mind exists within its own version of reality once its authoring brain has been discarded. That reality can only be what the mind allows it to be; what it's already translated as acceptable reality. Your mind could never perceive itself coming into being. It was fully engaged in its own physical gestation. So why would you have any memory of being part of what you just witnessed?"

"That was it? That was what life is all about?"

"You asked to know . . . to see what life is all about, so I showed you."

"It was a room of hypnotized people."

"Well, that's how you translated it. That's what made sense to you. I have never seen a room, but I'm not from where you're from. I guess that on Earth, the humans have rooms."

"What did you see?"

"It's not important. I've been here too long to have any perceptions that you'd be able to relate to. Besides, that's not the point. The point is that life is a gestational phase of human development. You physically exist as a result of what happened while you were being created by that brain that had its own span of physical existence on that planet of yours. I told you that I'd be honest with you about the meaning of life, and that's what I'm doing. No poetry. No philosophy. Just the bottom line and as plain as I can make it."

"And that's it?"

"That's it."

"So why did that guy seem so upset? What was going wrong there?"

"Nothing was going wrong. Nothing goes wrong. A person just wakes up from the focus on what's happening to the brain as soon as that brain dies. He . . . well, he died . . .  I guess you would have to say that he died. You watched him die. From this point of perspective it's a different kind of event. Nowhere near as dramatic. A person just wakes up."

"So who was he talking to?"

"Oh, I don't know. Each of them wakes up to someone different. I can't see what they see. No one can see what anyone else here sees. There aren't any objective reality anchors here. We all see what we are capable of seeing. What we've learned to be capable of seeing. Life is where we learn about what's real. That's the difference between here and the material realm. The material realm is objectively real. The eternal realm isn't. I mean, it is, but not for us. It's complicated."

"So, was he talking to himself?"

"No . . . someone was there."

"I didn't see anyone."

"You weren't being approached. He was."

Suddenly you can imagine the existence of hordes of beings. All kinds of versions of human, nonhuman, anti-human; just beasts of every description, and all of them moving in slowly on you. You scream as it all dissolves around you. Your guide is smiling as you whip around.

"Like I said, it's complicated."

"Is that what was approaching him?"

The thought of it sends a rush through you. No one should ever have to deal with confronting such a nightmare.

"It depends."

"It depends? Depends on what?"

"Depends on what he was expecting."

"But he didn't seem to know what was happening. He definitely didn't know who he was talking to."

Your guide frowns. His eyes focused just beyond where the two of you stand.

"That's too bad. I hate when that happens."

"When what happens?"

"Most wake up with a basic idea of what to expect. That basic expectation presents them with an initial perception orientation, and others that share that orientation are immediately perceptible to them. The connections are pretty natural, and off they go to their community and their afterlife. Some don't have any expectation at all. They never expected to survive death. They can end up pretty vulnerable to whomever it is that notices that they just woke up.

"It can go well, or it can go pretty badly. Depends on who or what it is that's presented to orient them. Of course, it also depends on what possible expectations existed within the culture they grew up in. It's all about what's intellectually available to be leveraged by whoever is there to take advantage of that initial connection."

"So, there's no way to know who he was talking with?"

"How could there be? If you couldn't see who it was, how could anyone else?

"But, isn't there someone making sure that this sort of thing doesn't happen to people?"

"This is reality. There's no one in charge of what's real. What did they teach you people on Earth about the afterlife anyway?"

Now it's your turn to stare off into nowhere, as the many competing theologies and philosophies of Earth's humankind collect and dissolve as the bewildering cacophony they presented throughout your own life. You realize that you have no real answer.

"It's . . . uh . . . it's complicated,"

You picture what can only be seen as a literal feeding frenzy of raw opportunity; millions of materialists and rigid reductionists each being individually presented with the impossible fact that they survived death.

"What would you see if you never expected to exist at all?"

Your guide pauses a moment.

"I would imagine that it would be supplied to you by whomever gets to you first. Let's hope it's something good."