A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"
"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.
"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.
"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I' ll have some ice water brought right up."
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.
As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. "Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.
"There should be a bowl by the pump."
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. "What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.
"This is Heaven," he answered.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell."
"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"
"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."
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The end of all our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time......T.S. Eliot
The following users say "It is so good to hear it!":
The mind is limitless. It's when we view our brains as a closed physical system that the limits are created. The consciousness that creates it however has the ability to do anything, and as such, so do you. Sounds soooo simple. And it is.
Many people withdraw into encasing reality into a box because of the vast endless potential that exists, but God put no limits on your mind, because your mind is God. Step outside your brain, it's not really a brain, and you're not really a human.
The only valid case is caselessnses.
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It's never been between her and I, or him and I, its always been between my pineal gland and reality
There once was a scientist who was obsessed with immortality. Ever since he heard of the Fountain of Youth as a boy he knew that his life quest would be to extend human life for as long as possible—forever if he could.
So dedicated was he to this goal that he devoted his every waking moment to the study of medicine, genetics, astronautics and all manner of science. Eventually as he drew close to his ultimate goal he was granted a research position on a space station orbiting Earth where zero gravity made new experiments possible.
The scientist had been orbiting the Earth for some time when his experiments hit a snag. He tried everything he could to make them work, but they could go no further until the space station was resupplied from Earth.
When he learned that resupply would not happen for weeks, the scientist conducted thought experiments instead. But delay after delay held up the resupply. The space station had plenty of food and water so he was in no danger, but his experiments had reached a frustrating dead end.
Finally in desperation the scientist resorted to new and untried tactic. He prayed for help. “Please help me to finish my work so I can invent a way to live forever,” he prayed.
Much to his surprise his prayer was answered and an angel appeared to him on the space station.
“I have heard your prayer,” said the angel, “and I’ll grant you what you seek.”
The scientist just stared. He didn’t know what to say.
“If you want to live forever, all you need to do is climb into your spacesuit. I’ll permanently seal you in and you’ll be immortal,” explained the angel.
“All this time I’ve been working on experiments and you’re telling me that all I need to do is wear my spacesuit?” said the scientist.
“That’s correct,” replied the angel. “But once I seal you in. You’ll be locked into it forever. There will be no going back, no taking it off.”
“I can’t ever take it off?”
“Not even when you return to Earth. It’s the price of immortality,” said the angel.
“How will I eat or drink or go to the bathroom?”
“You won’t need to. You’ll be immortal.”
“I had not considered that,” said the scientist. “It’s not what I thought.”
“I’ll let you think about it,” said the angel. “Give me your answer when I return tomorrow.”
With that the angel disappeared.
Once the shock of talking to the angel wore off, the scientist began to ponder the angel’s offer. Here was the answer to his prayers. Here was what he had been seeking all these years. No more sickness, or pain, or fear of death. Here was the answer to humanity’s quest for immortality.
Yet it wasn’t what he expected. How was he supposed to function trapped inside the space suit? The scientist pondered his choice for hours as the blue and white sphere of the Earth rotated amidst a sea of stars outside his window.
As promised, the angel returned the next day.
“Have you made your choice?” asked the angel.
“It’s a more difficult choice than I thought,” said the scientist. “It’s what I’ve sought all my life. In fact, in a way it’s better because if I wear the suit I can wander around in outer space too. But the suit is bulky and awkward, and if I put it on I’d be cut off from so much. No more eating or drinking. No more smelling things. No more touching people. I’d be cut off from so much in life. Life would be right in front of me but I’d be limited in how I could interact with it. It would be a remarkable loss of immediacy and intimacy. That’s a higher price than I thought it would be.”
“That’s right,” replied the angel.
“Somehow I thought it would be different,” said the scientist. “I thought I’d be inventing a pill that people could swallow.”
“Actually, it is a pill,” replied the angel, magically producing one in his hand.
The scientist was shocked. “Then why did you tell me I’d be wearing the space suit?”
“Because I wanted you to recognize the truth of what your physical body actually is. You needed to make an informed choice,” said the angel.
“When you are born you put on a space suit called the physical body,” said the angel. “It lets you operate in three-dimensional space and time. Your body makes possible a wide variety of experiences you could otherwise not have. Yet in your physical form you are also cut off from much your greater spiritual nature.
“Death is a way for you to take off your body suit when you no longer need it. Death allows you to return to your true form and to interact with All-That-Is on a more intimate level,” said the angel. “The immortality that you seek would make that impossible.”
“I’d never thought of it that way,” said the scientist.
“Many people fear death,” said the angel. “Few work as hard as you to keep it at bay. Your quest for immortality has been important to you, but now it is time for you let go and release your fear of death and remember that you are already immortal.
“Life is not the opposite of death” the angel continued. “It’s a transition between states in a much larger scheme than you’ve previously imagined. Enjoy life in every moment. Prolong your rendezvous with death if you wish. But don’t fear dropping your three dimensional space suit and returning home when you are done.”
The angel placed the pill in the scientist’s hand “It’s yours if you’d like to swallow it,” said the angel. “I just wanted you to make an informed choice.”
The scientist stared at the pill. It represented the fulfillment of his quest. But was it the boon to humanity he had supposed? Now he was not so sure.
“Is that the body suit you want to wear in immortality?” asked the angel.
The scientist looked up at the angel and back down at the pill. Then he was silent for some time. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “Forever is a very long time.”
The angel smiled. “Immortality is a lot longer than that.”
__________________
The end of all our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time......T.S. Eliot
The following users say "It is so good to hear it!":
this is a serious thread peeps in peeps out what happend to cowtipper... he was straight, everyone made fun of him and he ruined his rep by starting some noise bringing the hoss down... so yeah
The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine about life. We were talking about the nature of time, and how it feels the older you get the faster time seems to fly by, relatively speaking.
I brought up how I have a difficult time accurately gauging everyone's ages, everybody tends to appear younger to me the older they become.(For example, I can guess children's ages more accurately then people over 20.) I brought up a conversation I had with a police captain about this after trying to describe some suspects who attacked a young man who seeked refuge in my yard. The captain told me he understood what I meant about the age thing, because he tended to be the same way. I told my brother that this always kind of puzzled me.
He told me it was related to the relativity of time, and this was a common observation for quite a few people. So I asked him if someone lived for thousands of years if the sun would start to stand still after swinging around the world like a amusement park ride, and everyone would stay baby faced forever!Lol
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The end of all our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time......T.S. Eliot
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"If Slavoj Žižek and Richard Dawkins had a baby, and Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Manson had a baby, and those two babies met up and had a baby, and their baby went to prison, that would be Rust." -- Snoopy
I would also like to know how it was moved, but that article is really just awful. Scroll around it a bit, it's riddled with spelling and gramatical errors, informal speech--actually, it seems like someone is trying to have a conversation--and other issues of quality. Normally Wikipedia does it for me, but I cannot see this link being a credible resource in any way. It's literally the second worst article I've ever seen, the first being when I was twelve and edited the page for Jesus to include nothing but curse words and blasphemy.
I would also like to know how it was moved, but that article is really just awful. Scroll around it a bit, it's riddled with spelling and gramatical errors, informal speech--actually, it seems like someone is trying to have a conversation--and other issues of quality. Normally Wikipedia does it for me, but I cannot see this link being a credible resource in any way. It's literally the second worst article I've ever seen, the first being when I was twelve and edited the page for Jesus to include nothing but curse words and blasphemy.
OH it was a talk article! I didn't realize that, my bad. I actually thought two or more editors were conversing with one another in the official article
I like Joe Rogan a lot actually, he's good at communicating his ideas and always has some interesting views to share.
I would also like to know how it was moved, but that article is really just awful. Scroll around it a bit, it's riddled with spelling and gramatical errors, informal speech--actually, it seems like someone is trying to have a conversation--and other issues of quality. Normally Wikipedia does it for me, but I cannot see this link being a credible resource in any way. It's literally the second worst article I've ever seen, the first being when I was twelve and edited the page for Jesus to include nothing but curse words and blasphemy.
/vyvanse
However the video does take my noggin for a spin.
You do realize that was a Talk:X article, right? The point of those pages are to discuss the actual article; it is informal speech, and it is a conversation.
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"If Slavoj Žižek and Richard Dawkins had a baby, and Friedrich Nietzsche and Charles Manson had a baby, and those two babies met up and had a baby, and their baby went to prison, that would be Rust." -- Snoopy
I know this thread has its own sort of vibe, so I wanted to know how you guys who post in here often would feel about merging it with General nonsense. This would mean some changes. Posts would be moved to here, troll posts and other useless ones that could interrupt the flow we've got going. But I really think it would be a wise idea to have just one thread stickied for off-topic posting, one that could be open for all parts of this forum. Plus every time I see how many stickies we have I want to gag, I can't be alone there
I like this thread the way it is. Let the regular contributors to the general nonsense shine on in the trashcan. Doing that would water down this thread and not in a good way. This thread makes me think.
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The end of all our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time......T.S. Eliot
I think this thread and the "trash" thread were created with different purposes in mind, so personally I think they should stay separate. But if you want to cut down on stickies, do whatever you think would be best.
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All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.
&T
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