It's hard to really explain how metaphysics work. Everyone has their own associations with different words and it's hard to really quantify anything beyond physical reality because of the multiple meanings any single word can have. But, here I am, trying anyways.

In a relatively recent post, I mentioned that the soul was a projection of your "true self" in a sense, or what you wish to be. Since then, I have done some reading and contemplating. One of the things we often hear is "don't sell your soul", or stories of Faustian characters who sell theirs. I thought a lot about this, andI came to realize something. Before I get to it, let me introduce something related.

Infinity is beyond human comprehension, but it exists. When you break down something material to smaller "parts", you see atoms, molecules, etc., until you've gone to the smallest thing you can see. What's smaller than that? Nothing? No. There is something smaller, and that infinite possibility that we can't quite reach is a part of the universe, and we're all made from it, as is our coffee tables and leather jackets and plaster walls. Just as this universe we hold dear could be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, the smallest thing could be beyond our sight (as of now). But it's still there.

So let's take this concept to time. What's beyond what we remember? The past, the future. What is now? The present. This moment. We can't even remember the past as well as we'd like half of the time, and the future's always so blurry, no matter what our plans. But it exists. It's heading straight for us, like a train on a predetermined track. Actually, stop. Pause. Rewind.

Time is like a football shape, with infinite threads that interweave, and meet at some points. It had a beginning (or maybe not), and it will have an end (perhaps). What was beyond the beginning? Nothing? No. Infinity. All roads led from it, but perhaps it wasn't even the beginning. Perhaps it was connected with another football-shaped stream of possibilities that all had one distinct end to them. We travel down each stream, or string or whatever, of our own choice; our free will. We choose how we want to live our life, and that choice affects which of the streams of time we travel down. Does this possibility leave room for past lives? Perhaps. Perhaps we leapfrog through time, with death as a doorway.

But this is when I realized the true meaning of the soul. If the spirit is the projection of our spiritual self (and yes, I am making a distinct difference between the two), then the soul is the free will, the ability to choose how we live, and what stream of time we travel down.

Our time. It is short and fragile compared to how much longer we estimate the Earth has been spinning around the Sun, and how much longer it will continue to do so. And yet, for it's infinitismily insignifigance to the size of the universe, it is the most infinitely important thing to hold onto. It is the only thing we can control: what we do with the time that is given to us. Despite the fact that I have begun to spout cliches and quotations from famous literature, this is a universal truth. Perhaps the one I've been searching for. Perhaps not. I still have the choice to post this or not.

Have you gotten anything out of these ramblings of a drunkard at the wee hours of the morning? Has this new look on the universe expanded your awareness, or has it proven once and for all that the author of these ramblings has finally completely lost his senses? I leave such judgements up to you. I'm not even sure why I'm posting this, other than I'm choosing to. Another weighty truth to push off ye olde chest, along with the selfishness I've exhibited, the malice and the just plain wrong. Here you are.

Time is a relative factor. Depending upon our "beings" (thoughts, emotions, beliefs, etc...), it moves with us.

Ask a 5 and 3/4 yr old child how long 3 months is. To him/her, it's a LONG time away.

Ask a woman who's just given birth prematurely, and her baby is fighting for it's life in the NICU. 3 months can be an eternity.

Ask a man just diagnosed with end-stage cancer, and given a few months to live. 3 months is not long enough...

(And all I been drinkin' is coffee, dude!)

I like your concept of time, Matt. Really, I do.

BTW, "true self" does not care for what you wish. It just is. It's native to you or me and is always there, covered by behavioral traits, thoughts and emotions. It is not concerned about a better image that a person would like to create of himself, and this is often uncomfortable. It never lies or sooths and can be downright painful to deal with.

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Originally posted by CoffeeOwl:
BTW, "true self" does not care for what you wish. It just is. It's native to you or me and is always there, covered by behavioral traits, thoughts and emotions. It is not concerned about a better image that a person would like to create of himself, and this is often uncomfortable. It never lies or sooths and can be downright painful to deal with.

Yelena, I still have yet to understand my "true self," if it exists at all. I see my vices, interests, job, social security number, etc. as parts of a whole, but they simply cover the core. When I look at the heart of the matter, I don't know what I'm looking at, IF I'm looking at anything. Sometimes this is rather depressing, feeling like a vacuous consumer of the planet. Other times, I'm just "meh" about the whole thing. But right now, I'm contemplative, and I'm still not sure what I'm looking at. Perhaps I'm using the wrong lense, or am just a margin of an angle off of looking at it from the right direction. Perhaps not. I'll still keep looking, and try to find the words to describe it, if I ever figure it out.

thaz a lot to take in at once....

"IF I'm looking at anything. Sometimes this is rather depressing, feeling like a vacuous consumer of the planet."

.. do i eva get that..

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Originally posted by Drake:
Yelena, I still have yet to understand my "true self," if it exists at all.

It does. When you hear a little voice in your head telling you that you've done something stupid - it's your true self speaking. When you have a gut feeling about someone you've met for the first time in your life - it's your true self again, unconcerned about people's manners and presentation. The same self will let you know when you meet someone really special, even if the person sends out wrong outer signs. That is, if you listen, of course.

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I see my vices, interests, job, social security number, etc. as parts of a whole, but they simply cover the core.

Precisely. They are merely outer wraps and tags that allow others to identify you. But they don't help you to do the same.

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When I look at the heart of the matter, I don't know what I'm looking at, IF I'm looking at anything.

Mmm, I suppose the idea of looking at nothing would not make you very happy? You seem to expect to see something definable there.

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Sometimes this is rather depressing, feeling like a vacuous consumer of the planet. Other times, I'm just "meh" about the whole thing. But right now, I'm contemplative, and I'm still not sure what I'm looking at. Perhaps I'm using the wrong lens, or am just a margin of an angle off of looking at it from the right direction. Perhaps not. I'll still keep looking, and try to find the words to describe it, if I ever figure it out.

You are looking at something that can manifest itself but can't be seen. Can't be put adequately into words either. It eludes any tags you try to put on it, including words. It does not exist as an isolated entity, separated from the rest of the world. Yet it is always there, it's you on the deepest level, a unique part of the whole. For a change, try to side-glance at it. You may get a better feel of it that way than with peering hard.

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Originally posted by CoffeeOwl:
You are looking at something that can manifest itself but can't be seen. Can't be put adequately into words either. It eludes any tags you try to put on it, including words. It does not exist as an isolated entity, separated from the rest of the world. Yet it is always there, it's you on the deepest level, a unique part of the whole.

While I know this to be true at a very fundamental level, some childish, logical side of me goes, "I REFUSE TO BELIEVE SUCH! I SHALL DEFINE THE IMPOSSIBLE, AND SUCH SHALL BE MY LEGACY!" Okay, so it's a side of me that likes to hallucinate. It's also the same side of me that's convinced that I'm going to win the Powerball in the near future.

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Originally posted by CoffeeOwl:
For a change, try to side-glance at it. You may get a better feel of it that way than with peering hard.

But my periphial vision is so bad. I hyper-focus on one thing (sometimes two, depending on the thing/s) at a time, until I am sated for the time being and can move safely on to the next obsession. OOOOH! Shiny...

You actually managed to touch upon something that moves me deeply from time to time in your opening post drake.

The fact that when you get down to it, we're made from the same basic stuff (according to our most recent understanding the smallest particle known to man is a quark, but who knows what the LHC will find!)
I'm not a spiritual person, but to me, the realization that all the materials you see around you (including the stuff we're made of) was forged in the burning core of a dying star is an awe-inspiring one.
(If anyone wants to know more about how that works feel free to ask me)

Ok, so how does it work, Shadow?

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Originally posted by CoffeeOwl:
Ok, so how does it work, Shadow?

According to current understandings of the Big bang model the early universe did not contain any heavier elements such carbon and iron and other such wonderful things.
The early universe was primarily filled with Hydrogen and helium and a little oxygen and so on. Light elements.

As the universe cooled down due to expansion, gravity managed to overcome the thermal energy of these particles and they started to cluster together.
As this matter clusters together due to gravity it's gravitational pull becomes stronger and it can attract more matter. That's accretion. And it's how bodies form in space. Stars are so massive that the pressure in their cores becomes immense. The pressure becomes so high in fact that individual atoms begin to fuse together.

This is called nuclear fusion (do not confuse with nuclear fission) where two atoms fuse together to form one, this creates a lot of energy and makes the star burn. Heavier elements are made by fusing lighter elements together. The most common product of this fusion is helium (which is not a "heavy" element I know.) But other elements are also created.
As a star nears the end of it's life, the balance between it's own inward gravity and it's outward gas pressure becomes unstable and the star begins ejecting materials from it's core as it tries to burn helium instead of hydrogen. More heavy elements are created.
A lot of stars go out with a bang, a nova or supernova. During these gigantic explosions (Which actually have been observed) more heavy elements are created and ejected outwards.

Eventually the dust settles, a large cloud of dust and gas is all that's left. The great thing about the universe though is that it recycles. This same material can again coalesce under the influence of gravity into a new, albeit smaller, star which does not consume all the materials in the 'cloud.' The rest of the materials can lump together with the help of gravity to form planets and asteroids, comets etc.

Hence why Carl Sagan said, "We're all made of star stuff, we are a way for the universe to know itself"

I do not know if people reincarnate, but I know stars can

Aside from my total inability to understand how a universe (not in an astronomical sense) can be a part of something else and hence have a beginning and end, it's all sounds good and well. Thanks.

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Originally posted by ShadowDragon:
Hence why Carl Sagan said, "We're all made of star stuff, we are a way for the universe to know itself"

That's very beautifully said.

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I do not know if people reincarnate, but I know stars can

They are being reborn Reincarnation assumes that there is some entity that keeps coming back in different forms and with different qualities. But a new star isn't the same one that've died, isn't it?

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Originally posted by CoffeeOwl:
Aside from my total inability to understand how a universe (not in an astronomical sense) can be a part of something else and hence have a beginning and end, it's all sounds good and well. Thanks.

Which sort of brings me back to infinity. The universe as we know it, the galaxies that spin around space in their various ways, could all be part of something much, much larger than that, something we can't even understand completely, much less see or feel. Kind of like how there must be something smaller than the quarks spinning around them. They're just too small to be seen or measured (as of now). One's brain hurts thinking about it, but at least smoke isn't pouring out of my ears yet.

Matt, are there different words for universe in astronomical and metaphysical senses in English? In Russian, what astronomers use to define a universe is вселенная, but when it comes to metaphysics (everything that ever existed, still exists and will exist in the future) the proper word is мироздание. Takes a lot of confusion out of a convo.

And... there are plenty of things that you don't understand completely on an average level; say, most professional intricacies unless you happen to be in the same field. Does it bother you too?

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They are being reborn Smiler Reincarnation assumes that there is some entity that keeps coming back in different forms and with different qualities. But a new star isn't the same one that've died, isn't it?

Same star? No, but stars like our sun are made from the same stuff left behind by previous stars. I think our sun is a second or maybe even third generation star.
Like I said, we're all made of stardust


And drake, keep your eyes on the LHC, it's not going to kill us all. But they're looking for some mysterious sounding stuff, like dark energy.

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Originally posted by ShadowDragon:
Same star? No, but stars like our sun are made from the same stuff left behind by previous stars. I think our sun is a second or maybe even third generation star.

Precisely That's rebirth - a flicker of light passed between death and birth. But the one who is born isn't the same one who'd died. He/she/it is something else.

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Like I said, we're all made of stardust

I love that