To Eternity and Back (eBook)

Discovering and Decoding the Map of the Multiverse

Roy Varghese (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
244 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-0458-9 (ISBN)

Infos

To Eternity and Back is life-transforming. It shows us the ultimate fabric of reality by connecting the dots linking cosmic and human history to the infinite and the eternal. It reveals the purpose of life and makes sense of our everyday experience.

R.A. Varghese is the author and/or editor of various books on the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. His Cosmos, Bios, Theos, included contributions from 24 Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Time magazine called Cosmos 'the year's most intriguing book about God.' Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends, a subsequent work, won a Templeton Book Prize for 'Outstanding Books in Science and Natural Theology.' His The Wonder of the World was endorsed by leading thinkers include two Nobelists and was the subject of an Associated Press story. He co-authored There is a God-How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind with Antony Flew (a book translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Russian, and Arabic). His The Missing Link (2013), includes contributions from three Nobel Prize winners and scientists from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale. Varghese was a panelist at the science and religion forum in the Parliament of World Religions held in Chicago in 1993 and an invitee and participant in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations in August 2000. Varghese has been interviewed on numerous radio and TV shows. He has also been profiled in different print publications.

---

To Eternity and Back is life-transforming. It shows us the ultimate fabric of reality by connecting the dots linking cosmic and human history to the infinite and the eternal. It reveals the purpose of life and makes sense of our everyday experience. We begin at the end. Death. In its light, our priorities have to be aligned with our true destiny. To discover that destiny, we explore all of existence: the different kinds of realities the physical, the psycho-physical, and the non-physical; and the different kinds of destinies the plenitude of perfection and the void without end. Our voyage takes us first to Mission Control Eternity, the God Algorithm and the Ultimate Theory of Everything. Eternity is not endless time. It is the possession of the fullness of life in one act without beginning or end. Time history is an interacting web of causes and effects, agents and acts, events and processes. This "e;web"e; is known and willed from all eternity. But who possesses "e;the fullness of life in one act?"e; The greatest thinkers of the golden age of human thought had a unanimous answer to this question: things exist only because there exists One that cannot not-exist, that exists without beginning or end or any conceivable limitation. The primordial religions Judaism in Israel, Zoroastrianism in Persia, Hinduism in India captured this truth with a description of the One that may be called the God Algorithm: "e;I AM."e;The "e;proof"e; for this Self-Existent Source is indisputable once all the relevant data points are recognized. The molecules in our neurons change thousands of times during our lifetimes but our identity (the "e;I"e;) remains the same. So, what is it that stays the same? It is clearly not something physical because the physical for instance, the neurons is in a constant state of molecular flux. Where did this non-physical dimension come from? Not from the physical because physics has no room for the creation of the non-physical from the physical. Its source has to be non-physical and, in fact, the source has to have always existed because it could not pop out of nowhere and nothing. But if it always existed, then it exists without any limitation. It is limitation-free which is what we mean by the word "e;infinite."e; It is, thus, both eternal and infinite. This "e;it"e; is what we call God. But what do we know about the Self-Existent? Our starting points are right before us: the nature of God as infinite perfection hence infinite love; our experience of ourselves; our discovery of the nature of the world; and, ultimately, the witness of the world religions. Taken together, these lead us to the ultimate Theory of Everything: the startling truth that within the one Godhead there are Three Infinite Persons. Hence, across diverse cultures and untold ages, humanity has recognized God as tri-personal: Being, Knowing, Loving. From the nature of the Infinite, we turn to the finite. The cosmos is a network of networks. A procession of social media platforms and users. This is the picture painted by modern science. Science also shows it to be a Metaverse of Mind. We ascend from the MindCloud (quantum fields and the laws and constants of nature) to Mind-bots, Mind-pods, Mind-lings, Mind-lets, Mind-forms and Minds (Homo sapiens). The mindishness of the cosmos was recognized by the mystics of modern science, the pioneers of relativity and quantum physics, and the great mathematicians. The appearance of the world of mass-energy (the cosmos) is followed by that of the world of autonomous, self-replicating, goal-seeking agency (microbes, plants); then by the world of consciousness (animals); and, finally, the world of the language-using self (humans). The only framework that makes sense of the emergence of these worlds is an Infinite-Eternal Reality operative at every level of the world from quarks and galaxies to genomes and agents to consciousness and mind.

Textauszug

1
BEGINNING AT THE END

Let’s say today’s the last day of your life. 24 hours and you’re history. Dead. So, what’s your “end”-game?

If you didn’t know you had an expiration date, this is the guide for you. A ‘how-to” manual.

A “how-to” for the end of the world––YOUR world. For tomorrow you’re going to lose all the things that “everyone” thinks important: dwelling, family, job, possessions. Everything and everybody. Gone for good. Gone!

It doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or a bum, a celebrity or a nobody, an introvert or a people person. There’s no escaping the end of your story.

Oh, if this is “getting to you,” if you’re thinking of hanging up or switching channels––don’t! None of this is hypothetical.

You’re going to die no matter what. For sure. The “tomorrow” could be 60 seconds or 60 years from now. You can’t know. Which means you need to be always “ready.”

So let’s head to the boarding gate.

Oh, and by the way, my name is Melchizedek. You can call me Mel.

Flight Announcements

Welcome aboard the flight to “the other side.”

We haven’t taken off yet. Time for the safety instructions.

So here’s a checklist of items that are entirely irrelevant “going forward”:

• date of birth
• country of citizenship
• constitutional rights
• human and all other “rights”
• separation of church and state
• legal problems and issues
• frequent flyer miles
• bank account balances
• mortgage or rent payments
• stock market holdings and investment portfolios
• employment status
• health and life insurance policies
• health condition
• education level
• personal and professional accomplishments
• expertise in science or economics or computer programming or any other domain
• academic reputation
• entertainment or music industry or sports world achievements
• influencer status
• wokeness
• gun rights
• sexual orientation
• gender identity
• reproductive rights
• climate change
• fame and fortune
• business building prowess
• super AI

OK, now perhaps you’re mad, beside yourself.

At least I’m not a loser, you say. I tried my best. Even if I didn’t think about the “end,” I still lived life to the fullest. So what if it’s all temporary? Better to do something with the hand you’re dealt than to sit around moaning and groaning about the end. I have no regrets and no one’s going to “shame” me for not sinking into depression and despair.

Well, excuse me!

Sorry partner! Nothing personal here. This is not about the way you lived your life–at least not yet!

It’s about facing reality at every level. And we’ve only just begun.

Let’s look at it from another angle. Like it or not, you’ve been brainwashed, snowed, taken to the cleaners. You’re living in an illusion.

And it’s easy to demonstrate the deception.

People joke that you can’t take “it” with you. Except it’s no joke. It’s a hard fact that when “you” die, your earthly possessions remain earth-bound. Equally, it’s a hard fact that you will die. Finally, in a ten plus billion-year-old universe, all of recorded human history, a few thousand years, is a nano-second. Here for an instant, gone tomorrow, forgotten forever.

Like it never was.

But does anyone speak of this? Do you think of it? No. Not ever.

You hear the news, go to school, get a job, all the while never being told about the oblivion right ahead.

There are no cover stories, blaring headlines, breaking news bulletins, viral social media posts, power-packed podcasts, about the one thing that matters most: the imminent and all but immediate end of everything.

You’re going full speed ahead–to nowhere!

Doesn’t anyone know? Anyone care? Total separation, total aloneness, total end. Inexorable. Inescapable. In your face.

This is Reality 101.

Been There, Never Done That

OK, enough about you.

It’s time to check out the Seven Stages of Grief table–shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, acceptance.

Take shock, denial, anger.

Shock – The abyss of annihilation is headed your way. Unthinkable yet undeniable.

Denial – Let’s not think about it. Eat, drink and be merry. Merry?

Anger – Who brought up this topic? Focus on the here and now. Abstractions are for losers.

Well, here’s the bad news. No matter how much you deny it or how angry you are, you can’t escape “death’s dateless night.” Check the obituary section. Even as you read this sentence, over one hundred people have left us. And you’re on the same hit list.

Everything you’ve achieved and become is destined for decimation. It will be as if you’ve never been. The here and now is here now but gone forever tomorrow. No, “you” don’t actually live on in your legacy or your family. You as an individual will not make it once your time has come.

So, snap out of it! And let’s get down to business.

Let’s skip past the bargaining, depression and testing. Assuming you finally accept it, how can you deal with your impending departure? This death threat.

The Other Side

Which brings us to a question you might now take seriously: what happens when you die?

This is where we talk about a map of the multiverse. Because, let’s face it, we live in a multiverse.

Not the kind of multiverse the scientists talk about–various physical worlds with radically different physical laws. That’s so yesterday when you die–because death means physical realms are no longer the point.

No, the multiverse is about the kinds of dimensions that make up reality—the physical, the non-physical, the physical integrated with the non-physical, the spatial, the non-spatial, the biologically living, the non-living, the time-bound of the physical kind, the time-bound of the non-physical kind and a lot more.

I know, I know. You say, there’s no proof of dimensions other than those we encounter on Planet Earth. And nothing happens “after” death. It’s Poof! And we vanish. Never to be seen again.

Boy, I wish you were right! But, nope, there are no final exits, no “end of the matter.”

Sorry to say, there’s a final reckoning.

A “phase transition” of a final kind.

How do I know?

You’ll see.

But, first, fasten your seatbelts folks.

Flight Plan

We are heading to the Multiverse.

To prepare, put away your preconceptions and stow away your attachments to the wishful.

Focus on the map before you. It’s where we are going.

Now look again.

Both maps represent the same realities–the only difference lies in the names for the final port of call. You’re free to call the last stop what you will. What matters is what the names represent.

Plenitude–Heaven–is a state of everlasting ecstasy that comes from our union with the Source of all that we need and desire.

Void–Hell–is a state of ceaseless suffering that results from our rejection of this very same Source.

But how and why?

Our whole life is a string of choices, free acts. We are our choices. What we become through our choices is our destiny.

The destiny to which we are called is Heaven. It is our eternal communion with That which we need and desire above all.

The eternal freely chosen self-deprivation and loss of all that we need and desire is Hell.

The state of our being at the moment of death is its state forever.

Heaven or Hell is what we become.

Flight Path

The Multiverse comprises different realms of reality as apparent in its map.

The first realm is made up of different kinds of substances with specific powers. These range from the world of pure matter (quantum fields) to various embodied forms of life, consciousness and rational thought (microbial, botanical, mammalian, et al.) to the world of pure spirit (angelic).

The second realm encompasses the agents who “operate” the substances. These range from unicellular microbes to plants to animals to human beings to angels.

Then there is the realm of purpose, beauty, the virtues, right and wrong, good and evil.

Finally, we have the worlds that will never end: Plenitude on the one side, Heaven; and Void on the other, Hell.

Our journey through the Multiverse begins with the Mission Control Center.

Here we find the Source of all that exists, we discover that Its Life has no beginning or end and, finally, that It is Tri-personal, Three Centers in One infinite Mind and Will.

Next, we explore the Metaverse of Mind, the cosmos in which we live with its five domains of mind....

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 16.7.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-0458-9 / 9798317804589