Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.

I subscribe to the Schwartz Report which is produced daily by Stephen A. Schwartz and he never fails to post articles that are of interest. In the November 26, 2007 report, he includes an article from the telegraph.co.uk called, Mankind ‘shortening the universe’s life.’

In the article they talk about how cosmologists are applying quantum physics – the theory of what happens at the subatomic level – to the universe in an attempt to better under it. Quantum theory suggests that we, simply by observing an event, can affect the outcome of that event; in this case the universe, which has brought up a troubling thought for researchers.

New Scientist reports a worrying new variant as the cosmologists claim that astronomers may have accidentally nudged the universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, a mysterious anti gravity force which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.

The damaging allegations are made by Profs Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, who suggest that by making this observation [of dark matter] in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end. “Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life-expectancy of the universe,” Prof Krauss tells New Scientist.

Although I’m convinced that our choices, thoughts and actions have an effect on everything and everyone around us – and on the universe – I am not convinced that the life span of physical-matter reality is determined by time, but by a destination or goal. In other words, when we (we being the entirety of existence) have gleaned as much as we can from this experiment, it will end and another different experiment will begin. Time has nothing to do with it.

For many this is the stuff headaches are made of. Take heart though, I have it on good authority that regardless of whether they are right or not, we all survive no worse for the wear. As Seth told one of Jane Robert’s ESP classes, “you are as dead now as you will ever be.”

Here in the US, today is Thanksgiving and I would like to thank all those wonderful people out there that visit my blog and make it such a wonderful experience. We all have so much to be thankful for.

My friend, Frank DeMarco, has a short, but wonderful post on Thanks-giving that I think you will like.

They’re not here, they’re not coming
Not in a million years
’til we put away our hatred
’til we lay aside our fears
You may see the heavens flashing
You may hear the cosmos humming
But I promis you, my sister
They’re not here, they’re not coming

To this garden we were given
And always took for granted
It’s like my daddy told me, ‘you just bloom where you are planted.’
Now you long to be delivered
From this world of pain and strife
That’s a sorry substitution for a spiritual life

From They’re not here, they’re not coming by Don Henley/Stan Lynch

My friend Frank DeMarco in his post titled Fear includes an article by Mark Kimmel which talks about fears, and also about why if aliens (extraterrestrial) are real – and I know they are – they have not officially contacted us. Anytime I hear this discussion I start hearing Don Henley’s They’re not here, they’re not coming in my head, and in particular the part I quoted above, and it underscores probably the main reason they have not made themselves publicly and conspicuously known. As Mark Kimmel says, “fear is at the core of the human condition on this planet,” and fear is fed to us daily in the media, by our religions, our parents, our politicians, our employers, and the list goes on. There is always another bogeyman lurking just around the next corner. Until we can correct our path and become a species based on love instead of fear the door to communion with the rest of the universe will remain closed. When you strip away all the various divisions and subdivision, categories and subcategories, you come down to two emotions or two conditions: Love and fear.

Tina Su in How to Fight Your Fears shares her journey to overcome her personal fear of not being a good photographer, and also gives some great suggestion on how we can start dealing with our own fears.

In And then, there’s Lucifer, terraflora talks about her dealings with her dark side. We all have one. It’s there no matter if we choose to deny it or not, and denial is never going to bring light to what is in those shadows, only taking a deep breath and stepping through that door into our own shadowy world is going to allow us to understand what is over there and bring in the light. Most organized religions tell us to shun the dark side, because that is where the evil is as if it is some outside entity waiting to consume us. That dark side, and all the demons in it are us, not some evil outside thing, it’s us. No one is going to deal with those dark things and bring them to the light for us, we have to do it ourselves. Don’t be afraid of your dark side, your shadows, whatever you wish to call it. Like it or not it’s part of us and it’s time we all began to take a peek at the things we keep over there. If we don’t, who will?

Continue reading