What In the Universe Are We Doing Here?

Introduction I wrote this book for people like me who like to contemplate humanity’s perennial “Big Questions”: Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where, if anywhere, are we going? We may never solve these basic and ultimate inquiries, but I believe that if we keep questioning, we will move closer to the answers. There is another important goal in this quest that is even loftier than solving the mysteries beyond any doubt: to become aware of the amazing potential we hold within ourselves as we participate in the conversation. Over the course of these pages, we will explore: 1. Cosmology: the study of the structure and origin of the universe 2. Our purpose as human beings on Earth 3. What heaven might be like 4. The ways in which a multidimensional being might perceive and act simultaneously in our world and in the multiverse 5. The undiscovered marvels that may flourish just beyond our eyes and our conscious mind We will also look at the central messages of several world religions and how those messages inform this quest. We’ll examine, from an interfaith perspective, how the wisdom that men and women have received and cherished down through the ages helps us navigate life. If you are looking for the statement of a single fixed and final truth, I’m afraid this is not the book for you. My intention and hope are to expand the understanding of a variety of intriguing possibilities, while remembering that what lies at the end of our search may be unknowable by human consciousness. We shouldn’t worry that our story’s secret may finally reside beyond the farthest horizon of our conscious perceptions and abilities to reason. It’s all right not to expect and demand perfect understanding, or feel the need to create reassuring descriptions and definitions of the seemingly ineffable, in order to placate our internal discomfort at remaining in doubt or only partial comprehension. Remaining calm in the face of our inability to decipher the deepest enigmas keeps our minds and hearts open to new hypotheses and the continued development of human capacities that allow us to enter wider and richer areas of knowledge. Insisting on the discovery of a fixed, unchanging answer to all questions separates us from the very thing we seek. Seeking absolute certainty leads to a dead end, not a path to the complex and apparently inexplicable. Our concepts of reality will expand as our consciousness and technological abilities continue to evolve. Testing things we can’t see or sense and examining ideas and intuitions about what might possibly be true allow us to modify or jettison our theories. Sometimes, an analysis of the unthinkable produces spectacular results. I invite you to be my companion, beginning from the beginning, as I retrace the different byways I took and what happened to me along my life journey that helped me form my best guesses about the nature of all that is and our purpose. I hope that by joining me step by step, you can see the experiences I encountered and the assumptions that I drew from them as you compare your deductions with my own. You’ll be able to generate your own thoughts and determine your own hierarchy of possible conclusions concerning the issues I considered and the hypotheses I later drew. The person I am today and the beliefs I now hold have dramatically evolved since the days of my youth. Our consciousness changes as we grow older and continue to learn more about life and our deeper selves. I have witnessed too many unexpected and remarkable phenomena to allow my present views to be limited by my previous experiences, considerations, and conclusions. Just as our individual consciousness evolves over time, so does the consciousness of all mankind develop and expand through the centuries as human knowledge increases and human societies evolve. We are not the same as our distant ancestors—thus we do not read or consider religious texts that describe God and mankind’s appointed purpose on Earth in the same way they did. The religious ideas handed down to us through the ages were structured by the civilizations in which they first appeared, with concepts of God and humanity mirroring the earthly monarchies of the time that had absolute power over their subjects. The first religious teachings reflected and ratified the domination of the ruler, who was often considered God’s representative on Earth. Though inequality and injustice certainly still exist in the contemporary world, most of us no longer live in societies dominated by kings and nobility, in which people endure a life of servitude. Today, when inspired women and men write their descriptions of profound encounters with the Divine, the picture of God, Creation, and our purpose in the world is much different. I believe that contemporary visionaries experience God and the universe as a democratic, organic, and continually unfolding process in which every conscious being has an important part to play in the ongoing evolution of the cosmos. In other words, we all get to vote. As our view of God, ourselves, and even reality changes and expands, we are no longer satisfied to accept on pure faith an earlier authoritarian and patriarchal culture’s vision of who we are, how we got here, and what our earthly roles should be. It is my present belief, based on a range of experiences as well as considerable study, that our understanding of all things will deepen and develop through two main avenues: increased scientific exploration and knowledge, and a better understanding of the Universal Consciousness inside each of us—the spirit that binds humanity and the universe in a mysterious, all-embracing unity. Whatever we should discover about ourselves and the cosmos, I’m convinced that scientific advancements and inner psychological and spiritual work will bring us closer to contextualizing and answering the great eternal questions. I am reminded of the Caribbean Indians’ first encounter with Christopher Columbus, when more than five hundred years ago his three ships appeared off their shores. From historical accounts we learn that the Indians saw the disruptions in the water made by the strange ships as they moved and later anchored on the sea, but the islanders were completely unable to observe the sailing vessels. Yet the Indians knew well how the ocean moves, and they realized that something they could not see was disrupting its natural wave patterns. The Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria and the explorers onboard surely existed, and the Spaniards would soon make their very real presence known. But for now, the visitors and their large sailing ships from another world remained beyond the Indians’ previous experience of reality and therefore beyond their present powers of sight.