Beginning and end - The philosophy

What we all call the beginning, is often the end!

Life has many ways of brining learning to those in the quest! It simply depends upon one's frame of mind and receptiveness to accept it! With each passing moment, curiosity is addressed with plentiful instances of  the purpose and therefore to remain shut off from happenstances takes a great deal of effort no matter however foolish that may seem to be!

This one time, I was blessed to have someone shape my perspective of what it is that we want and how it is that we set to achieve it. And the underlying theme of simplicity was not lost in the process, one bit! Every once a while, we are faced with a circumstance that tests our character to the very end and the winner often is the one who has emerged learned in the process and systematically internalizes the needful.

So then, when I came face to face with the beginning, a wise visitor lost no time in taking me to the end and making me question my mind as to what really it was that I wanted. Having produced a clear affirmation, I was asked to work backwards into the process of how that something would have to be constructed. The exercise made me summarily list a number of aspects that I viewed as being absolutely necessary to achieve the end and also elucidate the means of achieving each one of them. When the conversation was complete, I was left overwhelmed at the simplicity of thought that had been behind this guiding principle!

Truly, now I am convinced that it is the end that defines the beginning while also justifying the means to achieve that envisaged state. Come to think of it, birth and death are really one and the same, in terms of the purpose for which we are all created, because despite the beginning it is always the end that is in the quest, don't you think?

Eight below

It'd have been much easier for me to talk about Paul Walker and his furry buddies in the 2006 American adventure film, if you go by the title of this post, that is!

But that is hardly the case when it comes to talking about one's life and the varied influences that govern it's every pace, however insignificant it may appear to be. And this is about one such influence that has plagued me for what I could easily term as a millennium! Curiously, it is not a force, nor a person or for that matter neither a factor that can be easily noticed. It is merely a number!

The number 8 has played roles in my life, almost always, in ways and means I cannot really describe in words, and it still puzzles me of how seemingly random incidents, occurrences or references could bear the ominous influence of this now hairy-tentacled, omnipresent monster that I have come to view with a great deal of emotion that could largely border on a sense of being overwhelmed!

For starters, I was born on an 8th! All of the places I took in school, inclusive of my roll numbers, positions, patterns, scoring and a whole lot more bore the hallmarks of 8. I would automatically be assigned an 8 number whereever I presented myself! As if all of that wasn't already enough, my secondary school leaving examination identity had 8 written all over it! And just when I thought I had this eerie demonic influence outside of my life for good, I came to grapple with the fact that it was only the prelude that played so far and the beginning was really yet to begin! Thereafter, every number associated with me had extensive elements of 8 white-washed all over, ranging from employee IDs, access codes, plastic currency cards and seating patterns, just to name a minimal few!

Years later, now, upon looking back, I find 8 ruled instances in my life, larger in number than the stars in the sky and the grains of all of Earth's sandy shores put together! Just what determines this unsettling coincidence is still a matter of sheer intrigue!

But theres so much more to life, I understand! And live well I will, even if means to be under the shadows and spheres of the 8.

The big question

Stephen Hawking's thoughts in his latest book The Grand Design about God not necessarily being the initiator of creation evokes mixed reactions in me. That part of me, which believes in rationality urges my mind to rest on the belief that creation was just an event among other things in what is a continuous process, but the other side of mine that anchors upon faith refuses to come to terms with a belief that the existence of my person, and the many other prominent facts such as the perfect Earth-Sun distance, the just-about-right solar mass and most astonishingly, the optimum time of day and night among other things, are not merely as a result of coincidence or accident!

I'd like to believe that while the process of creation has been strongly aided by scientific mechanism, it has been also stalwartly processed and furthered by a force that remains to be reckoned! More importantly, I'd like to believe that I, like all of us human beings, co-creations here on Earth and within the many realms outside of our own planet are indeed part of an elaborately grand design, and could not have come to being from nothingness or chaos merely because some laws of physics govern the manner in which the universe and it's contents come to be!

Inception

To dream is to be able to see reality, a setting that exists within the walls of the mind and therefore real in being experienced, seen and lived and yet unreal in the waking state purely because any attempt of it's recreation is most certainly futile. Ever wondered why it is so really difficult to recollect a dream long after it's been played in the mind? Now, that is only the beginning of things, in a way that we know of it, or perhaps not!

It is nearly always impossible to remember the start of a dream, in the element in which it begins to occur. One can at best find oneself deep in the process of the event even as it unfolds in a seemingly random and untraceable state of succession! There may be intermittent parallels to reality in the sense of how the memory contributes it's feed as a direct bearing of having seen and experienced matter in the real world. Such parallels, although appearing to be limitless are confined to a certain pattern, only to the extent of being able to be replicated in the same sense of how reality has contorted the innards of the mind, never free to envision a path anew or afresh! To that extent parallels are only a minute part of the entire configuration and not the pattern itself.

But parallels are not the only things that make up the matter that constitute the process of apparitions that are generated by the subconscious mind. There is the imaginative state that exceeds perhaps even the best of creativity, in giving birth to realms of possibilities that appear so real that one is utterly perplexed at the detail with which they occur, often casting the mind into a spasmodically fearful state. And what one does not understand and comprehend, one can and will only fear!

Then, there are stages that convolute in an endless quagmire, occurring and recurring as if generated by the electrical activity within the brain, combined with an imaginative process that can at most times be colourful yet appear in a sepia like tone! One often struggles to lock away those menacingly replicating states, but finds oneself at the mercy of the subconscious for not being able to do just that. Then the battle to create situations arises, where one would create a prison to carefully shut away those repetitions and assign a characteristic attribute to them all, in a serious effort to calm the conscious state against the tedious and taunting proceedings of the subconscious!

The worst kind of a dream is perhaps one in which the entity sees itself in a surrounding which appears to be undergoing a terrible state of degeneration, such as structures falling apart and streets splitting wide open, where despite every effort, the overwhelming succession of events provide no opportunity to gain control over the situation, to be able to attempt to reverse it! One feels as if transcending not just places and time but also realms outside of the Earth, far away and deep inside space! Escape, or liberation as some may prefer to call it, comes from well within, through what are mental projections generated at speeds faster than light in order to create a situation, binding upon which the entity will then further. These projections could by far create an unending network of places and people which seem real right down to the experience of emotion or the familiarity of the place, despite not ever having been there before! Laws of physics do not matter or hold importance of this realm, and can best be used to deduce the state which one is in!

There cannot possibly be any explanation for the realities that exist and happen in such remarkable detail within our minds. They could be as a result of the past, present or maybe even the future, and we have no means of knowing that ever! Momentarily gaining control during the whole process, the conscious stage attempts to offer comfort or courage as the case maybe, and then again allows it's counterpart to chart another course that although appearing remarkably familiar, may well be one that cannot ever be connected to, despite the need to decipher and understood, as if perhaps bearing the very elixir of life!

Sunlight, and another form of reality appears, and for that matter, every dream is only half remembered!

Footnotes:

As you may have guessed, this post was created immediately after I watched Christopher Nolan's epic Inception. Dreams and their occurrences have fascinated me more than I can ever explain and hence I found this movie remarkably well made despite the radical storyline it was based upon. The scene related to the beach landing of the protagonist and an accompanying character, where massive edifices at the waterfront appear to be crumbling down, was eerily familiar to me, having seen the exact setting in a dream a very long time ago, yet so well etched in my mind!

Defining a paradox

Life is so full of paradoxes! Efforts do not always lead to desired results. Ends hardly justify the means. Right doesn't always mean being right and wrongs, are like what they say, almost always subjective! Even time and nature hold paradoxes. Things may seem ordained in a certain manner but they are rife with contradictions. Questions relating to life, poverty, results, mannerisms and so on do not have definitive answers and yet linger in us at all times, not very unlike the passage of water in a brook, unfamiliar of where it would end up over the course of time, or merely keep flowing on!

What really are these paradoxes and their purpose, I wonder! Are they stumbling blocks purported to arise and exist in order to contribute to our evolution which happens over a period of time? Do they actually serve as a measure of understanding oneself? Maybe they are randomly occurring variables coming to being as a result of a certain course of action? But having said that, one wonders why there is a compulsion to embark upon a certain path that leads to an action that results in a paradox!

I'm not sure if I'd be able to chart a path forward! I'm often riddled with possibilities and yet really unsure of how to walk! There is a reassuring voice inside, but I'm not too sure if it is bias that is being vocal in an effort to nudge me forward! Unbeknown to me, there probably is a story unfolding in time, or so I'd like to believe, one that will bring about some sense of clarity!

Not a day passes without the thought of what it is that I'm really waiting for! And the more I think, there are only questions, hideous and painful ones, all too far from the answers!

To the dark side of the Moon

Is there something such as dark energy, dark force or the like? I'm not talking in terms of physical cosmology or astronomy which relates to the energy that fills itself across space and is responsible for the rapid and continual expansion of the universe.

I'm talking of negative forces at work that can be destructive. I mean, every positive supposedly has a counterpart in the opposite? Can it be explained? I'm curious to know!

What exactly is a negative? It is believed to be more potent than just being an opposite of a positive force, one that is primarily intent upon creating a harmful circumstance in order to achieve a certain objective. But there is another side to this assumption, which seems to be a more prudent approach and certainly one that is comforting. What if there really is no positive or negative energy? Maybe all energy is neutral after all, until the point of our personalization of it, in the manner that we do!

I'd like to quote something very interesting I read off the internet; Look at determination as a common character trait. It is an intent that, if carried to one extreme can make someone so stubborn that they will never risk change. On the other hand, it can make people so determined to succeed that they will risk everything just to say they did it. The original energy, therefore, has no positive or negative connotation. It gets that based solely on how each of us use it. Sounds convincing?

Now, you'll forgive me for having titled this post after what is perhaps one of the most acclaimed musical creations in history! No dark forces at work here, I assure!

The White Mountain

The White Mountain (HD) from Constantin Philippou on Vimeo.

From where I am standing Dushanbe isn’t too far! And, Dushanbe is the edge of the world!

An expanse of wilderness sweeps me and I know it cannot be covered by even the speed of thought, much less that of light! The wind is cold and brutal but there is a sense of longing to remain where I am, and merely watch the wonder that unfolds ahead of me in a dimension that my mind, with it's umpteen limitations, cannot possibly comprehend! Time is certainly not a factor! The inside reassures me that there is nothing to hurry up for, so I’m calm and composed, free from the otherwise haranguing pursuit that doggedly plays ball with my mind!

Rich orange hues soon give way to shades of gray! Darkness falls and there are a million shining lights dotting the wide sky. They look like brilliant pearls saying something in unison that I strain to understand. Flashes of light erupt in many spots, all at once and almost always, often seeming to be patterns yet so random and incalculable! I cannot seem to focus my gaze on just one setting, though wanting to do just that! It is breathtakingly marvelous yet overwhelming!

A thousand voices call out to me from the sky and yet I know I cannot go, though I so much want to, or rather - need to!

Footnotes:

The White Mountain is a time-lapse video shot by Charles Leung and the marvelous background score was composed by musician Constantin Philippou.

It is to be noted that this post is purely an abstract and bears no connection whatsoever to the geo-politically significant city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan.

Man on the Moon

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

-- Neil Armstrong, on July 20, 1969, on the Lunar surface as part of the Apollo 11 moonlanding mission.

Exactly 48 years ago, on May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy made his speech before the joint session of the US Congress, supporting the need for America to put a Man on the moon. The speech came days after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space. Thus began the Apollo Program, which put among others, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on the Lunar surface. Ironically, Kennedy himself couldn't witness the historic manned moonlanding mission, having lost his life to an assassin's bullets in 1963.

The Apollo program was not without its failures, in particular the not-widely-known deaths of three astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, in the Apollo 1 launchpad fire. What a lot of us do know, thanks to the Tom Hanks starrer, is the failure of Apollo 13, while its crew was safely returned to Earth.

This post pays homage to the three astronauts who lost their lives as part of the Apollo 1 mission while also celebrating the moonlanding mission which will soon be 40 years of age, thanks to the vision of one man amidst disbelief and apprehension from many close quarters.

Footnotes:

List of Apollo missions

Image Courtesy - NASA

Image Description - Taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, showing the Earth seemingly rising above the lunar surface. This phenomenon is only visible from someone in orbit around the Moon. Because of the Moon's synchronous rotation about the Earth (i.e., the same side of the Moon always facing the Earth), no Earthrise can be observed by a stationary observer on the surface of the Moon.

Are we really alone?

Neither its origins, nor its future are known! It is 13.73 billion years old and its observable confines are estimated to be at least 93 billion light years in diameter! The universe is a very large place and is constantly undergoing change.

I have not once believed that, in such a vastly unimaginable expanse, us earthlings could be alone, let alone assume superiority and importance by a mere belief that we are the only life forms existing!

Footnotes:

Image Courtesy - Wikipedia

Image Description - Hand-colored version of the Flammarion woodcut, depicting the Aristotelian conception of the Universe that preceded the models of Copernicus and Thomas Digges.

From Krypton with love!

As a kid, I've always loved this simply superb character whom I regarded to be the King of celluloid. I must confess, that there was indeed a time not very long ago, when I refused to believe that Superman was nothing more than a product etched out of a creative mind portrayed purely for thrill and entertainment.

My fascination for this Krypton Character who landed up in Smallville began at a time when satellite television had not gained a fast pace in our lives. Had someone mentioned the name of Christopher Reeve then, I would have almost certainly dismissed it as being someone from the forgotten pages of overloaded history. It did not matter then, if I knew the name of that macho guy who flew around in blue and red overalls.

I still recall the sometimes (mostly) ugly squabbles I had in front of the Television yearning to be part of the privileged 30 minute airtime which belonged to Superman. Probably my ideology to uphold the truth in my own manner and right could well be credited to this screen icon, who I would learn years later, existed merely in print and film.

When the news of Reeve's freak accident in an equestrian competition came in 1995, I was not sure how I wanted to react. But from then on, I would rarely miss an article that featured Christopher Reeve. His marathon effort to champion the cause of the physically disabled has certainly been one of true merit and unsurpassed dedication. Today we relate to the names of Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, HealthExtras, The Creative Coalition and The National Organization on Disability because of this luminous personality.

It is indeed tough to come to terms with the fact that a man who made action portrayal a mission of his life had to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Even difficult is to comprehend how this man who suffered so much could move the world for a cause, a very good cause that is.

Not long after his disability, he was asked to be part of the honorary jury of the Academy Awards where he moved an entire audience to tears and I couldn't help shed a tear or two even though the context of his words remain unclear to me this very day.

On October 9, 2004 after attending a game of hockey participated by his Son, he slipped into coma. The end came on October 10th when he succumbed to cardiac arrest.

While America and the rest of the world would remember him as an actor par excellence, and a social reformer at best, I'd like to see him as someone who possessed in him a superhuman quality of human excellence.

Christopher Reeve is indeed an exemplary model of how one person can make a difference. He is a legend not merely for his remarkable portrayal of a Kryptonic character who never existed, but because he did what could never be done at a time when merely a thought of doing it was impossible. As he too leaves this planet, I find myself in the crowd, as one who cannot help but think of this remarkable childhood inspiration that was so much a part of my life.

I'm gonna miss him a great deal. The world is terribly short of superb people.

Little wonder they called him Superman!!!

Footnotes:

Originally written on October 12, 2004 on Oblivion Redefined

All those Superman fans out there, do visit Caped Wonder for a stellar collection of Superman imagery.

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation

Nothing else matters

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

- Nothing else matters, Black, Metallica, 1991

Not a day passes without me looking at the night sky and wondering if we are really alone in this vast universe. My answer comes almost instantly and I stop to contemplate, the focus of thought being my purpose! Neither of these are easy questions to answer since there are no set ideologies upon which they are based and, worse still, they lack any proof to substantiate. I can affirm with a great deal of conviction that these questions dog our minds more than ever. The absolute truths of birth and death having long known and understood by mankind for centuries now, what remains is the causa-proxima of our existence which can better best be explained as the raison d'être (reason for being).

A few days ago, I read that the universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide, courtesy a 'measurement' done sometime in the year 2004. I wonder if we can ever imagine what it means to cross a light year let alone a 156 billion! Perhaps, that answers the big why of not being able to find life in places apart from the Earth! Simply put we are just another tiny system that has been created and placed where it is along with many many other such systems that may (certainly) exist across this colossal space.

While money, creature comforts, security, relationships and a ton of other things may take priority in our minds, metaphysically, they do not matter to the cosmic system since their importance stands nullified once the boundaries of Earth are surpassed. Why then, is it that we attach so much importance to ourselves and our never-ending list of belongings?
How important are we really as opposed to how important the system is to us?

Without wanting to drag you into a web of cosmic philosophy and metaphysics, I would urge you to mull over your thoughts as to what the purpose of us human beings is and rationalize our existence in this world to the best extent possible. It isn't a marathon task as many of us would see it to be. If you'd ask my opinion, I'd be emphatic to state that an individual purpose leads to a collective purpose to aid the system to be a better place, and us better elements. Now, how much that purpose is achieved is a matter of question, not because we cannot, but because we do not will to pursue it or perhaps attach due importance to it! And do remember, what we do or do not is only limited to the boundaries of our planet, perhaps a little more, but not very significantly outwards! We are mere human beings and look what a tapestry we make, reasons apart!

About two years ago, I posted an interesting set of pictures, here on my blog under the name Celestial Wonders. I keep visiting that post often, since it gives me a very clear idea of how small (or big, to some) we really are! I recommend you take a peek and feel the overwhelming sensation for a few moments.

Footnotes:

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the suns gone to hell
And the moons riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it’s written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We’re fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

- Brothers in Arms, (Brothers in Arms), Dire Straits, 1985

Manly, Momentous and Machinelike – The NeXT STEP

What happens when the forces converge? When Man’s best (read: trusted) friend becomes none, but only the machine?

For instance, the computer that became personal again, or the telephone that carried voices across the oceans, or the tele(vision) that carried images into the mind and broadened the horizons of imagination (read: possibilities + facts + sureties + theories + logic + practices = outcomes – unnecessary emotions?!)

Surprises that leave no room for more nasty surprises! A state that brings about a level of zero-surprises and arms one to be relaxed and unguarded without having to place the burden of trust into wrong hands.

Nope, I ain’t calling for self-improvement of the machine at a state more than what it has already been improvised at (read: Project Singularity – for those of us who understand the perilous yet qualitative possibility of self-improving machines).

Maybe emotions such as trust, love, faith, belief and unconditionality can be mechanically manufactured and allowed to prevail in free and fair terms (read: utmost good faith a.k.a uberrimae fidae)

Imagine a possibility to promote quality, functions of day to day life without any effort whatsoever! Imagine a world without conflict, one without regret, one without fear, one without impressions of doubt and failed logic, one without any threat to human life!

Maybe this thought in itself is extremely dangerous and contradictory to the basic ingrains of human existence, but do we ever (always) forget that humanity itself is a sense of hard-wired programming embossed into life by the passage of time in a manner known to us as evolution?

It is beyond doubt that the universe is expanding by the min(y)ute minute (read: min(y)utely – for the sake of pronunciation)

While the concept of auto-correct is a wonderful thought, the possibility of turning back time should not be encouraged for this could as we all (very well) know spell a magnitude of untold disaster!

Somewhere along the line, we (?) have lost the ability to be ourselves and accord the (supposed) change to the patterns of weather, surroundings, conditions, possibilities, fears, greed, wants, needs and so on, but I tell you (just as another dumb and dumber fool), to stop for a moment and think with that little blobby concoction that some of us call ‘upstairs’ and be reasonable in our thoughts and actions and therefore ‘produce’ uncorrupted (read: pure to some degree) and qualitative outputs.

Welcome to the binary (hexadecimal?) functions of the machine which I once called Ongoing Stage ParaGRAY --*--

0100100010001000001001110000100001000010000100010101010010100

Does this make any sense at all? I guess the machines will answer, but please, let Zion not be destroyed any more than it already has been!

As we do not know it!

Welcome to the surreal world of Metaphysics, something that defines matter in its best form and yet does not concur with our definitions of what things really are!
Everything that we have defined in form, substance, matter or words is only as per what we know, as opposed to what it really is or can be!
Our definitions of form or matter are limited to what we know and what we do not and do not at all pertain to qualify in the universal realm.
For instance, the word God was coined by human beings as a thrusting force to rid our fears and also to instill a sense of fear in us. However, how are we to decide the relevance of God on a universal platform? What we call God may not certainly exist or perhaps will not at all be God in the universal parlance of matter of existence.
In truth, everything we have named or made is more or less relevant not more than our our realm of living. Our terminology, lifestyles, beliefs, fears, languages, possessions and so on right down to ourselves cannot be translated to universal parlance.
I must thank Vikas, my brother, for bringing about a sense of understanding in me to comprehend this simplest of truth that I overlooked (read: refused to believe) all my life, until now!
The so called (assumed) Human superiority is more so a fallacy than fact.........taking into consideration the following factual instances -
We have come to exist on this Earth since only a relatively smaller time period versus the many other (million plus) organisms that have dwelled here for ages even before we were ushered in
We believe our might is most superior of all living organisms and that our might can see us through to be one of the most advance creations ever
We believe that our conveniences are paramount irrespective of whether it encroaches upon another organism's free will to live
We re-assure ourselves that without our being, the earth, with all its sub-systems will fail to thrive

& then we refuse to contemplate the fact that all our beliefs are merely fallacies that we have designed as an objective to suit our own conveniences!
Take for instance, cockroaches, who have thrived on this earth for millions of years. They came long before us and will continue to live long after we have gone! I'm not sure who among the two of us therefore are more superior beings! The ability to think and comprehend merely do not acknowledge us to be the most superior of all 'known' creations, and then one cannot also rule out the possibility of the unknown!

Our limited knowledge does not permit us to fathom more than a level that is skin deep, our concepts of understand are limited to ourselves and do not actually have a universal relevance.
Our languages cannot be understood across the universe and our understandings of our own very selves are limited in a very huge proporation which will take millions of years, perhaps, to shape into a more universally acceptable format!

Vikas elucidated a theory that shook the living daylights off my system. Here is what it is...............
We know that carbon is one of the most important components that helps in sustenanceand creation of life forms. Our body is itself hugely carbon dominated!
In effect, carbon forms an important component for all life forms irrespective of size, shape, species, regional presence and so on....................and for all life forms to exist!
Now coming to the body of the theory: Dinosaurs were about the first known giant life forms that existed and subsequently perished, they decomposed over time to form large quantities of deposited carbon which you and I harvest today to use in our daily life! We, it seems are a mere instrument to harvest carbon to help sustain and prolong life! Why will not one day, the human race itself perish to be decomposed to form carbon to be harvested by another species of life much much more sophisticated and intelligent than ourselves?
We, have spent a very long time on earth and every species, as we well know, has a definite period of life on earth after which erdication is inevitable by way of extinction due to a number of causes.
Some catastrophic happenings that have so far only been portrayed in the movies, have already begun to take shape in truth! To assume that such events will not happen atleast during our lifetime, would be a gross inability to comprehend the truth (A rather limited scope of our thinking)
It is in our very best interests to understand that, we can indeed mitigate the damage that has already begun to affect a large part of the Earth.
We may not be able to finally avert a detined fact, however, we certainly can defer its happening by ensure that we do not do what we have been doing!

In truth, what we do not have is control over external factors! However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that we do have good control over our actions which can indeed contribute to the happening or not happening of certain events that can be detrimental to our very existence.

Defining what we know, for our convenience and understanding is not the real truth.........what is true to us would not actually be true universally............in defining and categorizing what we know, in our realm, is not wrong, provided we understand that we are a mere speck in the whole pond, and not the pond itself!
We might be in many ways superior to many creatures around us............but that will remain our assumption in terms of what superiority is and might not always be the true meaning of superiority at all!

As human beings, we have taken shape for a purpose............a purpose that may or may not be understandable to us............let us not take the dangerous step of assuming things with the false sense of security that technological advancements may provide us!

Epilogue -

I wrote a few lines in my previous post suggesting technology could indeed provide us the much needed superiority (that we think we need). I have never been so very wrong..............so very absolutely wrong in assuming that merely technology alone could catapult a tiny creation called human being into a realm that we possibly would never even imagine let alone understand.
I however, accredit this foolish thought of mine to the limited human ability to comprehend beyond its existence and understand that it alone is not what makes life happen!

Reality Unknown - is the reality that we know real?

"When some are lost, can't find their way,
a number of them stray, to where you have come today."

The universe and its contents - both known and unknown have long fascinated the human mind and have been a subject of constant exploration and research at a scale never imagined or sometime publically acknowledged.
Knowledge and ignorance thereafter have always maintained a long and unbridged gap, something that will never be balanced for want of critical imbalance in an attempt to gain a defining edge over the other entity.
The question of whether we are alone in the universe has remained unanswered for a very long time now. Although mountains of evidence establishing 'the unidentifiable third kind' has surfaced from time to time, government acknowledgements confirming the same have never been made and authorities across the globe have commonly and collectively denied such reports and often rubbished as wishful thinking.
Amidst the wildly staunch opposition between either camps, a certain supposedly true (read possibly true) concept has gained emergence and strong belief with the passage of time.
Strange as ever as it may sound, this concept came to be known as The Theory of Alternate Reality. Synonymously known as The other dimension, Alternate Realm, Parallel Universe and so on, the concept theorized (with good supposition) the existence of (many) alternate worlds.
All these supposeldy exist in a condition and environment with no relationship whatsoever to the world that we have come to know and be a part of.

Are we really alone?

Illustrated by myth and historical legends of being a hiding place for the dark forces, the concept of alternate reality is not one of recent times. It seems, atleast, such a belief existed since the wake of intelligent civilization itself, intelligent because our relatively small intelligence could only fathom an unknown realm and remain extremely limited to understanding its nomenclature perhaps forcefully influenced by an unknown external mechanism.
Therefore, could the possibility of being 'one of the many' be as old or perchance older than our own existence. Much much much older?

The concept of alternate reality has spawned many an interesting additional theory, one of the most popular of them being Time Travel.
Originally written and conceptualized by yesteryear Sci-Fi author H. G. Wells in the book "The Time Machine", humanity was introduced to the four-dimension model of classical physics and interpretation of time as a spatial dimension in which human beings could travel given the right equipment.
And then we heard of something called Hyperspace. The concept of hyperspace illustrates the existence of a parallel universe that could be a medium of travel faster than light. Hyperspace is known to contain entry and exit points that could transport matter from one dimension to the other. Quite interestingly, it is believed that the time taken to travel from one point to the other within hyperspace is shorter than it would be in normal (known) circumstances.
Hyperspace, it seems, can exist within the Earth too. Higher spatial dimensions on water and in the air are believed to facilitate ships and aircrafts to travel faster and easier while also covering vast distances within a short period of time!

However, the most common usage and illustration of the concept of alternate reality happens in science fiction. Countless numbers of movies, documentaries, books and of late, games have been made with Alternate Reality as the central theme.

As scientists and authors began to explore the underworld, another popular concept emerged.
The concept of Multiverse. A multiverse or meta-universe is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes including our own that in a group form part of all physical reality.
Multiverses have found substantial illustration in physics, fiction and philosophy.
The term 'multiverse' was coined and popularized by the science fiction author Michael Moorcock.

In the year 2003, the Scientific American Article - Parallel Universes, May issue presented an observation that stunned me as I read it:

Level 1: (Open Multiverse), A generic prediction of cosmic inflation is an infinite ergodic universe, which, being infinite must contain Hubble volumes realizing all initial cconditions - including and indentical copy of You about 10^10^29 meters away!

The question of whether we are alone in the universe stands outdated which brings us to possibly one the strangest suppositions ever;

Is the reality that we know and dwell in, real? Or is it another realm that connects with a realm of alternate reality?

Celestial Wonders

Heres li'l list of tid-bits to tinkle the mind.........

Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. It is more than a 1000 light years away.
And what is a light year ? The distance travelled by light in one year.
Which is 9.4607 × 10 12 km or 63,240 AU or 0.3066 parsecs.
The distance that a particle of light (photon) will travel in a year - about 10 trillion kilometers
(6 trillion miles).
The nearest star to our sun is four light years away, and our galaxy is about 100,000 light years across.
Despite its odd name, a light year is a measure of distance, not time.
It actually designates the distance that light can travel in one year, which equals 9,460,000,000,000 km.
A ray of light travels 186,000 miles per second!
And here is the most interesting fact;
Time taken by Sunlight to reach the Earth = 8 minutes