I already feel good so I don't think I'm looking for any help there. But thanks for the offer. =]

Mark,

I guess that depends on what your definition of infinity is. I don't know what you mean by
"if you believe in the existence of infinity" because I don't know what your definition of infinity is.

When you say "infinity", I think of a useful mathematical concept. One that allows the posing of such questions as "Sum the following series 1,1/2,1/4,1/8, .... infinity".

I don't see what there is to believe or not to believe in. Maybe you mean something different than I by "infinity"?

It's my belief that everything is infinite, and everlasting.
Each person has a unique energy "soul" that has always been, and always will be.

I believe that when you dream, you are in the same place that you are before you are born, and after you die.

I believe that our "souls" exist on another "realm" of consciousness, and travel at the speed of thought.

I believe in balance, and the absence of a true middle.
The more you focus on a center point... the more you realize that it is not so much a center, as it is an exponentially higher density flux between a 1 or a 0... good or bad... positive or negative... black or white... etc...

I believe that all of our "souls/energies" are linked by our subconscious in sort of a "network" of energy. I think that this would explain "deja vu" to some degree.

I also believe that this "other" realm where we are all linked by our subscious minds is what most people call "God".

Anyhow, that's a few of my beliefs.

I said I don't believe in destiny - I didn't say much about "free will" - only that modern physics is NOT deterministic. The physics of 100 years ago was very deterministic but if you want to believe that, you have to ignore the past 100 years of physics. Based on present knowledge, there is not much basis for believing the old deterministic no-random events model of the Universe.

Subatomic events DO have effects in the macroscopic world. The decay of uranium for example. In quantum mechanics, there is an effect called quantum tunneling. A particle behind a barrier has a very small probability of appearing outside of the barrier. The barrier can be the nucleus of an atom. So a particle inside a nucleus has a probability of appearing on the outside of the nucleus. When this happens, we say that radioactivity is occuring. Radiation does have many macro-world effects. Read the newspapers. Some people really worry about it. ;-)

What quantum effects might alter a decision-making process of a human being, we don't know. We don't know much about how a human makes a decision as far as the physical process. It is probably at least a fair bet though that there is some randomness involved in decision-making.

Voodoo: Everything is infinite? Is the Earth infinite? What do you mean?

Voodoo: Where do the new souls come from? Is there a soul repository somewhere? Any idea how many souls there are in the soul repository? Why does it have to be unique? Can't we share? Where is it exactly? What is it made of? What does it do?

Voodoo: Based on last nights dreams, before I was born I was Superman and used my X-Ray vision to look into teen (18+) girls' bedrooms. When I die, I get to back! :-)


Voodoo Is that faster than the speed of light?

Why exponential? Could you write the equation for that? I have no idea what you mean. An exponentially higher density flux of what? What is flowing between a 1 and a 0 and why is the density exponential?

This is the same as I believe - all the things you have described above form the basis for what is commonly known as "Hinduism"

- and actually .. it's also pretty close to Buddhists beliefs too

Voodoo:

quote:
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It's my belief that everything is infinite, and everlasting.
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Q: Everything is infinite? Is the Earth infinite? What do you mean?

A: Everything meaning each of our "energies/souls". The Earth is finite. At some point in the future it will no longer exist as a planet.

Voodoo:
quote:
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Each person has a unique energy "soul" that has always been, and always will be.
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Q: Where do the new souls come from? Is there a soul repository somewhere? Any idea how many souls there are in the soul repository? Why does it have to be unique? Can't we share? Where is it exactly? What is it made of? What does it do?

A: I don't believe that there are such things as "new" souls. I believe that there are such things as "foreign or alien" souls that come from distant places in "God", that may be new to the "human" form, but, they are not new in "God".

I believe that there is an "uncountable" number of souls in existance. The term "unique" means that there is nothing else "exactly" like it. To have 2 energies that were "exactly" alike, would mean that they occupy the same place at the same time. Which is "physically" impossible.

"It" is the collective subconscious minds of all unique energies. "It" is commonly referred to as "God". But, I don't believe it is a higher "being" as such, more of a higher realm.

Sharing of an energy? What do you mean by that?

"It" is made of the collective energies of all beings in the universe.

Voodoo:
quote:
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I believe that when you dream, you are in the same place that you are before you are born, and after you die.
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Based on last nights dreams, before I was born I was Superman and used my X-Ray vision to look into teen (18+) girls' bedrooms. When I die, I get to back! :-)

A: Very nice! :) Yes, in my belief, you could go back there. But, to be a little more specific about my original statement... This "Place" or "God" if you will.... Is merely a "realm", it's not one specific idea, place or thing. It just exists.


Voodoo
quote:
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I believe that our "souls" exist on another "realm" of consciousness, and travel at the speed of thought.
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Q: Is that faster than the speed of light?
A: Yes (In most cases)

Yes, someone has told me this in the past. I've never studied any religion, these are just concepts/ideas/thoughts that I've come to on my own, through life expierence. :)

Voodoo,

I've never understood this souls thing. Please tell me more.

Voodoo I like the way you articulate your beliefs. They are very closely aligned withy my Buddhist and Native beliefs.

I agree everything is interconnected:

"Just a a drop of water causes ripples in a pond,
so a thought dropped into the pol of consciousness can cause ever-expanding ripples in the universal human mind."
- Jean Richards

"If you would like to know the effect choices have had on one's life, look at yourself - what you see is the choices you have made." Shad Helmsetter

"We cannot live only for ourselves.
A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, as they come back to us as effects." - Herman Melville

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." - John Muir

These complex interconnections are also demonstrated by the scientific concept of entrainment, which explains how similar forms have a collective consciousness, and can act as a single entity.

For instance when people paricipate in choirs and music bands, many of their vital body functions perform at similar rates. This includes their breathing patterns, their heart rates, and even their brain wave patterns.

This connectedness can be sensed by individuals in the group. If you have ever sung in a choir, or played an instrument in a band, you may be familiar with this feeling.

In other examples of entrainment, large flocks of birds, flying in unison, will flick and change direction as one. Women in prisons and college dormitories will often find that their menstrual cycles fall into alignment. Giant schools of fish will swim as one, flicking and turning as if they are a single entity.

Everything is intricately connected to everything else. It is a s though all life on Earth is part of a magical spider's web. When you touch one part, it can set off vibrations in many other parts, thereby causing a ripple effect.

We are all part of the same puzzle. The same piece and a diiferent piece.

We are all expressing the same oneness differently or that is how we perceive it, that it is differnt, it is the same.

"Am I the bulb or the light." - Joseph Campbell
We are both

Not sure how I can pose it any differently. What is infinity by definition? There is NOTHING not included in infinity. I understand you've looked at it as just a mathematical concept but all that math is a representation of things in our reality. If there is a need for a math function known as infinity, there must then therefore exist an infinity or there would be any need to use it in an equation. Someone says "two" and you can see two apples or two cars, etc... Someone says "infinity" and it's just as valid a representation even if you can't put it into a concept you can easily see or have had experience of.

So again I say, IF infinity exists, then by it's very definition, there is NOTHING it is not. And a whole sreies of logical steps about the nature of our reality can be made from there.

Either you read all the same things and got the same messages out of it that I have or we're just divisions of the same oversoul. =] lol.

Infinity requires some sort of reference. It's not anything by itself. For example, there are an infinite number of whole numbers. This does not say anything about number of grains of sand or anything else though. Whether there are an infinite number of whole numbers does not at ALL mean that there is nothing that is not part of the set of whole numbers.

I think you must mean something very different than I do by infinity but I have no idea what.

There is a concept in mathematics called an "infinitesimal" - the idea is that there is a quantity that is infinitely small. It's very useful in calculus. Should we assume something very deep about the Universe since I "believe in infinitesimals"?

Colin, I know you posted these questions to Voodoo, but I'd like to insert my opinion:

Everything is infinite...

I believe the answer there is that here and there... you and me... this and that... are all part of the illusion that there is anything but infinity. For reasons previously posted about (i.e. the weird saliva analogy), an infinite All That Is might create this illusion of relativistic preception in order to know itself experientially.


--
"Where do the new souls come from? Is there a soul repository somewhere? Any idea how many souls there are in the soul repository? Why does it have to be unique? Can't we share? Where is it exactly? What is it made of? What does it do?"

In my view the relativistic existence experienced apart from the All That Is (infinity) is matter of levels of focus. In other words there is the consciousness of infinity which is aware of all the parts as a whole... then the divisions it created each "level" being more focused on finite reality than the last. So a "soul" would be something we are a "level down" from in focus much like a cell in your body is something you are aware of but it is not likely aware of you. You are a gestalt of cells and energy... Souls are a gestalt of existences and so on...

--
"Based on last nights dreams, before I was born I was Superman and used my X-Ray vision to look into teen (18+) girls' bedrooms. When I die, I get to back! :-) "


Cute. =] One of those "hokey" things I took a stab at was the idea that our consciousness expands in our sleep and we become aware of the soul level of energy and are in touch with the "next level up." In doing this little experiment I began to ask for answers to things while I was "away" and I was finding I often got them. Usually they come back down through some pretty strange images. I would imagine this is because, much like the depth and number of things we as humans are aware of would be far beyond the mental vocabulary of a cell, so would the understandings of our souls be so far beyond our human mind focus, that we have to convert the knowledge into symbols that we can make sense of (hopefully).


--
I believe that our "souls" exist on another "realm" of consciousness, and travel at the speed of thought.
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Is that faster than the speed of light?


Non-locailty. I'm sure you've read of the succesful experiments with it. I've got a friend working on non-local computing up in Denver. It's most cool. =]

I think you feel guilt regarding your belief system for some reason.

Colin, it seems you use the word infinity to just mean a number of particualr things that is so high, you can't count it. You are still supposing there is a beginning and an end to it. That is not infinite.

in·fin·i·ty Pronunciation Key (n-fn-t)
n. pl. in·fin·i·ties
The quality or condition of being infinite.
Unbounded space, time, or quantity.
An indefinitely large number or amount.


That's the best dictionary example I could get. As I've said a few times here, my definition and understanding of the concept is to say that infinity has no beginning or end. There is nothing that is not included in inifinity. Of course feel free to disagree with me... but that's my understanding of the definition so I'm not understanding where the difficulty is is seeinghow I derive my beliefs from that. I think what the difference is here is that you have not tried to define infinity beyond it's mathematical boundries. Not that you are wrong... perhaps I have made a stretch that is incorrect... but I don't feel I have at this point in my evolution. =]

You believe that space-time is unbounded?

Colin, no guilt. I'm just very used to intellectual people staying in the jury of their mind rather than being willing to suspend disblief in an attempt to understand something through experience. Sometimes the answers in this life cannot be had in the mind. I can tell you all you want about the color red but if you haven't seen it, you won't get it. I can tell you all I want about why infinity and our connection to that, but until you have an experience with it, it's just so many words.

Prove to a blind man that red exists...

Prove to a mentalist that infinity exists...

Yet this is the argument of every faith system and leads to many distortions. So we arrive at an impasse in which the only answer is each person has to find their own experiences that lead to their own truth.

Which leads me to my final point before I finally leave this oh so fun thread...

Mark,

I still don't know what you are saying. Are you defining infinity as "everything that exists" or "everything that can exist" or something else?

That's good. I read the same thing almost word for word in books on ESP, the Occult, etc. when I was a child. Why are you leaving the thread? It won't be the same without you. Please stay.

I pose this to everyone:

Whether you believe that all this is predetermined or we are experiencing free will, is there anything that need be done but find joy and inner peace?

If it's all preordained then you might as well enjoy the ride since you're stuck on it.

If it's all something you get to choose from than why the heck not pick the happiest most joyous events?

All the theology and philosophy is great but it doesn't mean bupkiss if you are miserable.

Whatever you believe this is all about, I wish you the most joy. =]

Now I better go get some work done or I will have the very unjoyous experience of pissed off clients. =]

ps - Colin, I really encourage you to check out the Seth Speaks book. It addresses in detail many of the things you have posed.

If it's all preordained, why do anything? Sit on your ass all day and read a book because that is what was going to happen anyway.

Seth Speaks. I promise to read it, if you promise not to abandon this thread for good. Maybe just take a break and get some work done. Come back later.

A quick thanks to Mark. I became aware of Seth when I read "The Nature of Personal Reality" several years ago. I inadvertantly skipped "Seth Speaks" at the time, and your posts here have encouraged me to get a copy ASAP. :)

Okay - had to stop back before lunch! lol

I meant I was leaving for the day to get work done. =] I gotta work on my communication skills!

I like this! :)
One thing I wanted to expand on is this "It is as though all life on Earth is part of a magical spider's web."

I believe that this "web" is not only on Earth, but, it is also connected throughout our entire plane of existence in our universe, as well as every other plane/realm/dimension. It is the silver strand that ties us all together to infinity.

Our Universe began with a "Big Bang". It will end in a "Big Crunch", and a new universe will be born from a new "Big Bang".

Our entire existence as humans throughout time, is merely the blink of an eye on a universal time scale.

Each of our unique energies have always been here, and will always be here. Our energies are unique, and are like gears in an infinite clock tower. I believe that for this clock to continue to function, we are all necessary components. If you remove 1 gear from a clock, it will cease to function.

Sorry, my posts on this topic are kind of long. I just have alot to say about it. :)

LOL... I really haven't read much about this. My beliefs are just a collection of thoughts, like pieces of a puzzle, that I've collected my entire life. At some point these pieces started to connect, and I started to see a larger picture, about what is going on, and how it makes sense to me.

I saw a program the other night in which they proposed the idea that the matter sucked into a black hole actually comes out in another spot somewhere else, thus creating the matter necessary to create new universes. I believe they credited Stephen Hawking with at least part of this hypothesis. Got me thinking a lot about the possibilities of infinity and a possible explanation for 'what came before the big bang'. Following this discussion has made me go back and revisit that whole train of thought... I like it :)

Well now Voodoo, if we're part of the same oversoul then only one of us had to do the reading to get the message to the whole unit. =] LOL. I see you're a designer too. Strange coincidence.... I don't think so! Muuhawhawwww!

So where, pray tell, may I ask did the oversoul decide to send you to live in this reality?

And on the serious note: Speaking about events before and after the big bang presupposes time as a linear event. I think those of us who have begun to look at this reality as part of a relativistic illusion springing from the All That Is should keep in mind that the idea of before and after are part of the illusion. I mention this because to search for answers about the truth behind illusion I think it's probably wisest not to frame the questions within the context of the illusion. =]

And on a business note... Vodoo I tried to check out your site but got only a plain white blank window from within the interface. =[

Holy shit I leave for a week and this thread is still fucking alive!?

Anyway last night I discovered if you eliminate anticipation from your life -- time will cease to function.

You can't say that and go away! You've had an experience of no time? Do tell...