The Face of Loneliness

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I don’t have time for a very rich social life. Having written some 30 books since my retirement, plus countless articles, short stories, blogs and poems (in two languages), my social interaction is limited to occasional dinners for six, both in and out of my house. In spite of that, perhaps thanks to my wife, I’ve never felt lonely. Perhaps loneliness is a luxury I simply do not have time for. 

And this brings me to the famous, infamous for some, Facebook.

There, I count friends in their hundreds, soon to be thousands. And believe me, some have proven to be real friends: helpful, obliging, giving, cheering, showering me with encouragements in my writing aspirations.

And then there are the others. The lonely ones. They too are friends. They too have the need to share their interests, even as I do. The only problem is that I really have little interest in cooking/baking cakes, finding new ways to become obese in quickest way possible. While I love animals, some own me even now, I find only about a thousand expressions a cat can have which I feel the need to share with others—the next 10,001 are, well, repetitions on the same theme.

And then there are those who keep forgetting what they look like, and feel the need to tell the world that they uploaded yet another image of themselves, to make sure that we, too, don’t forget their faces. Well, they are Facebook friends. Take away their faces and what have you got left?

Cakes, cats, dogs and… is there something else?

Yes. There is. There are others.

There are those who share with me their latest achievements. The books they read, or wrote, the articles of interest, deep political/religious observations, and a thousand and one items of interest, which often brighten my day.

Finally, there are the jewels among my FB friends. They display on my home page a piece of art, or a miracle of nature, and when I click on it I am invited to their secret gardens, they call them albums, wherein they share with me miracles of human or nature’s achievements.

Unfortunately those are the few. The many will continue sharing their faces, cats, dogs and the latest fattening ingredients of their daily diet.

Good luck to all of you. Happy Hanukah and, although it’s still a bit early, Happy Xmas, Feliz Navidad, Joyous Kwanzaa, and Merry whatever it is that you’re celebrating. And I also wish you Happy Facebooking in 2013!

My webpage is http://stanlaw.ca.

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Big and little Bangs

 

The other day I read on the BBC Internet News that the scientists couldn’t understand why such a gargantuan black hole could exist in the middle of such a small galaxy. At first I thought the learned astrophysicist must have been joking.

Also on the Internet, “Sky and Telescope”, labeling itself, “THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ASTRONOMY” reports:

A record-breaking black hole lurking at the center of a compact galaxy weighs about 17 billion Suns, a new study finds. Now astronomers are wondering: how did such a small galaxy come to harbor a leviathan?

Are they really? Wondering?

Isn’t it obvious to a ten year-old? Sorry, no offence to the ten-year olds.

And then I remembered the sentiments about the scientists I expressed in my book DELUSIONS—Pragmatic Realism. Garbage in, garbage out. Apparently this applied not only to electronic computers by to the electric impulses gallivanting in scientists’ heads. Just how do the scientists imagine the Big Bang happen. From a Baby Bang in the middle of a great void?

For a black hole to “weigh” about 17 billion Suns, it must have grown from an equally gargantuan mega-galaxy over billions (and billions?) of years. Perhaps longer than our present, visible Universe exists. Perhaps the origin of our World wasn’t such a big bang after all. Perhaps there are many bigger hiccups still to come. Think about it. Seventeen billion suns? And… there may well be many bigger ones.

I wonder what will our astronomers say to that.

PS. While shivering at the thought of a 17 billion Sun type black hole, let us not forget that the, so called, matter is 99.99999999999% empty space. (Read my book, I didn’t make it up). Under those circumstances, the gargantuan black hole might not be so gargantuan after all.

I just love our scientists, don’t you?

The only thing that is billions of times bigger than our Sun is the dollars they spend on their research facilities. On the other hand, isn’t money also imaginary? Perhaps it, too, it is just a delusion?

My webpage is http://stanlaw.ca.

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Nature will not be denied

If we could twist nature around our little finger and make it behave, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in. We can get down on both knees and beg God, or the Big Juju up there in the sky, to stop warming up the weather, to regulate the climate a little better, to cut down on those storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes and, well, unless you have greater powers than the greatest saints and saviours had in the past, it won’t do any of us much good.

I am talking, of course, about the Laws of Nature. Newton tried hard to define some of them, but some 2000 years ago we had been given a hint about a few others; and… “Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law…”

Some of us might think that this is some kind of mysterious, quasi “religious” warning concerning our spiritual wellbeing, but let us not kid ourselves. The Bible is a very practical book. It deals with the laws of nature, which had been created over billions of years of evolution to give us the best environment in which to grow, yes, spiritually.

In which we could develop the infinite potential of our consciousness. That’s what ‘spiritually’ means. Our consciousness.

If we try to destroy those laws, or the environment they control, we shall pay. In fact, listen to the World News. We are paying already. In September 2005, a paper published in Science magazine reported that in the in past 30 years, the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes had increased worldwide by 80%. Then there are other climatic cataclysms.

Look at New York. Is that close enough?

So unless we want our Earth, let alone heaven, i.e. the dualistic reality to live in, to “pass away”, we’d better learn a thing or two about the Law. I am not, nor do I have the slightest intention to become a preacher and tell you what to do. Each one of us must learn for him/her-self. We might be messing things up en mass, but we shall all die individually. In birth and death, we are always alone. Before and after, it is up to us.

This is not a threat. This is a promise.

If you’d rather escape into the realm of science-fiction, then you are welcome to try my Enigma of the Second Coming. It presents a very different alternative. 

My webpage is http://stanlaw.ca.

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The Aquarius Trilogy

Somebody once told me, actually a number of people did, that my novel WALL—Love, Sex, and Immortality is “begging for a sequel”. Well, as the saying goes, you (some of you) asked for it. The sequel has swollen into a Trilogy, and I am stuck with having to write it.

But, let us be quite clear. If I write it you’d better read it. And enjoy it. That last proviso is an absolute must! Without being propped up by this hope I’d never dream of embarking on such a long, two-volume task.

The Aquarian Trilogy will consist of the WALL—Love, Sex, and Immortality, which you already know; it will be followed by PLUTO EFFECT, and then end up with the 7TH RACE. And when I get through with these, nothing will induce me to write another word on the subject. As for the meaning of the titles, we must let Dr. Simon Jones, PhD, the visiting professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University, and hence visiting a dozen other universities, to explain.

Very briefly, the Pluto Effect alludes to the biblical admonition that one “cannot pour new wine into old skins”, without destroying both, the quality of wine and possible the skins themselves. In our day and age, when we no longer use skins, we must find a way to make room for new wine, or systems, without destroying the vessels, which can or could support the new ones. In symbolic terms, we are the vessels. Wine is the new knowledge, new abilities, new traits evolution bestows on us. It is, what might be called, the natural order of things.

As for writing the Trilogy, frankly, I had no choice. The upheavals, which are at present sweeping the world, are mounting, threatening to upset all present systems, possibly resulting in a completely new political and economical structure of the world order. The present systems, powers, organizations will have a hard time to fit into the new scheme of things.

And let us make no mistake about this.

The forthcoming New Order will be as different from the world we live in today, as the atomic bomb and supersonic flights were from the days when the Christ walked this Earth. We had two thousand years to learn the lessons he imparted to us, and now, in the Age of Aquarius, we shall bear the consequences of our learning.

I think most of us already suspect that. My job is to show how such a cataclysmic change as is already in the making can take place without destroying all humanity. And trust me, it is going to be cataclysmic. And yet, humanity will survive, if only…

I’d better leave that for later.

Don’t hold your breath. It will take me a while to write parts 2 and 3. But when the books come, you’d better be ready for a surprise of a lifetime. And a shock it will be. That’s a promise. 

My webpage is http://stanlaw.ca.

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For or Against Evolution

The question is what is it that we want to evolve. Is it our bodies, our minds? Or our technology, which will all too soon make our bodies obsolete?

There are prophets of impending doom, Ray Kurzweil (The Singularity Is Near) foremost among them. Only he didn’t recognize it as doom. His arguments sounds almost as a blessing, hailing the time when computers surpass the human acumen.

Do we care? Should we?

The scientists will probably have me shot, but, well, I don’t care that much. It is true that the vast majority of us will be replaced by computers. After all, they are smarter, faster, and don’t go on strike. They don’t even get sick, or fat and ugly. I am more concerned how quickly I can replace the dead cells in my brain. How quickly I can make new connections, synapses, between those new neurons and the old ones. Yes, we can do it from childhood all the way to old age.

It takes a little effort.

And then, I got a helping hand from an unexpected quarter. A professor of neurology from Harvard made a statement, which I also made at the age of 14. I asked my uncle, also a professor at a university, if mind was the product of the brain, or was it the other way round.

“Don’t be childish,” he replied. “The brain is what makes us tick. It generates thought.” He said it in a slightly more scientific way. And now, a fully accredited professor from Harvard made a statement, which restored my faith in my youthful ramblings.

“I’m not my brain,” the doc said on PBS, “I’m the user of my brain. I use my mind to control my brain.”

I waited many years to have my thesis confirmed by a man with a PhD after his name. So I am not the raving maniac some of my friend consider me to be. My mind, the intangible, invisible mind, controls the tactile, visible, material, group of cells which other scientists recognize as the centre of our awareness. I, on the other hand, treat my brain as a computer conveniently located inside my head.  

I felt vindicated.

Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD, the said professor of neurology at Harvard, said so. In public. 

Henceforth, I hope that at least some of us, just a few, will continue to work hard to replace our brain cells until one day, another Mozart, or Beethoven, or Chopin or Moussorgsky, or Leonardo will be born, and we, the few, will be overwhelmed with joy.

And computers, so much smarter than we are, will have no idea what all the fuss is about.

If you’re a student of reality, you might enjoy my thoughts on it in DELUSIONS—Pragmatic Realism. 

My webpage is http://stanlaw.ca.

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When Two become One

Some of us are lucky. We never suffered from millions of expensive toys having been thrown at as, when children, probably to keep us quiet. Being free from the plethora of waste, we had been forced to create our own playthings; forced to use our imagination, our brains, just to amuse ourselves. We invented our own toys, even our realities, which sated our need to exercise our neurons, to quench our inner hunger; to fill our life with vitality, with joy upon which we could grow and mature into adulthood.

Yes, we were the lucky ones.

And if we were luckier still, then our real self, the entity which has chosen to express itself through our physical, mental and emotional constructs, stretched out a helping hand and drew us outward and upward to give us a foretaste of immortality.

Such was The Princess.

Her name was Sandra. It is her story as much as Alec’s that my novel recounts. Being a fable it must start with words, “Once upon a time”, but, contrary to the assurances of most fabulists, it really does go on forever after.

Beautiful as only a princess can be, she is commanding, virtually all knowing, kind, loving… Real princesses are like that. And if they are truly on our side, then, one day, if we are luckier still, they merge their being with ours, for ever — for ever-after, if you like. That’s what fables are for. They make the seemingly impossible — possible, the unattainable — within reach. Alec found his Princess. If you read my book, perhaps you will also find yours. Pay attention, and Alec will show you how.

The Princess [Alexander Trilogy Book One].

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this month, it is free. That’s December 4th, 5th, and 6th. Don’t miss it. Kate Jones wrote that, “The cosmic merging of Alec and Sandra is exceptional writing, even for you...”. She meant me. Would you believe it?!

Enjoy!

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The Question of Self-Realization

When asked who we are, we usually reply by naming the job we do, perhaps our marital status, our nationality. 

The fact is, that most of us walk through our lives with little idea of who we really are, let alone knowing what we are supposed to be, or better still, what role we are supposed to play. Most women seem to think that they fulfill their mission in life by bearing, then, hopefully, raising children. Men, on their part, take on the job of a provider, of one who enables his family to keep “body and soul” together.

We seem to forget that every animal on earth does exactly the same. Shouldn’t we aspire to something more? More than just being sustainers of the human species? Something more than what every mammal, every bird, every reptile does in the course of their stay on Earth? Aren’t we more than that?

Many men in the past tried to persuade us that we are more. We listened, smiled, nodded, and continued walking in the path of Awagawan, the “coming and going”, in seemingly endless circles, without ever taking advantage of the great Masters’ teaching.

Until one day, a lightening strikes, and we realize that we are not what we seem to be. We realize that the bodies which we protect with such care are no more than physical enclosures for an incredible individualized unites of consciousness, which for countless years resided within us, desperately trying to make itself known to our physical awareness.

When that happens we become aware of our true nature. We also discover that when we begin doing what the consciousness within asks of us, we reach a level of happiness completely heretofore unknown to us. We also learn, gradually, what are our unique talents, what we are suppose to be doing, how best we can serve the world, serve humanity, to benefit the most for ourselves.

This fact alone gives us a sense of euphoria.

This is the arrival at the gates of self-realization.

At this moment we become aware of our immortality. At long last, we come truly alive.

Some of this is explained by Thomas in my Key to Immortality. The rest is up to us. 

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