Eternity

[IndigoNative]

Well ive just been having some psycadelic experiences lately and been fathoming the vastness of eternity and I was just wondering about peoples points of view on eternity,

have you ever tried to fathom it and what happened when you did?

whats your description of eternity and how it plays a major role in our existance?

have you had any experiences where you were shown eternity?

is it even possible to fathom eternity in our limited mind state?

or just your personal point of view of it?

[indigo264nm]

I have had glimpses of eternity before, but in opposite ways. I have always been in altered states (sometimes just from pure meditation) and the only way I can describe the differences that I have experiences is that I have had overwhelming sensations of both existance being eternal - really had to describe I guess, and feeling myself and energy within me being eternal. Also I have experienced them both at the same time...

One particular experience of the latter which comes to mind is from when I was meditating on trying to find a single point in the universe which does not have size but does have position. As I fell deeper in, I felt this point in my torso, but deeper still and my torso did not exist. I felt the universe infinitely moving outwards from every single degree from this one point, and yet this point was within me. A revelation hit, but it was not from thought, it was more feeling I guess, and it made me realise that the universe revolves around me and my soul (try not to interpret this as egotistical) because the only way my soul can ever 'see' is from within myself. It was like the universe moved infinitely moving outwards without ever ending and engulfs every part of my being...yet also realising that the universe can only be experienced by me within a point that lies in my centre. I knew as long as there was existance (which is infinite and will go on for eternity) I would exist, and universe will exist to meas long as I exist (which is true for me) and I know I always will.

This is one of the things that is exceptionally hard to describe I guess, but that's the best I can do .

On a purely intellectual level a quote springs to mind of "...no vestige of a beginning - no prospect of an end" (James Hutton I think). It says it straight out, if we can no evidence of a beginning how can we say it will ever end???

[ramon]

My understanding of Eternity is not so much a abundance of time.

But as a measure of no time.

In that Eternal existance is not something that is in my future as a reward for a good life.

But eternity is when you are no longer aware of the boundary that sepparate yourself from the rest of the universe.

This happens only for the smallest instant, but a small instant in which there is no time is eternity to me.

Edited May 29, 2006 by Ramon

[Salviador]

if space is infinite then time is infinite the two are inextricably linked ie spacetime. If you get absolute zero, then time stops coz space stops. Since time is relative, eternity can happen in limited space. Therefore i agree with ramon.

For me eternity represents infinite, just as everything is contained within space, so to everthing is contained within time. Thus eternity is the same as space, just a different perspective. Ie you can have everything at once with time, but you can have everything all over the place with space.

Thus meditating on eternity is the same as meditating on the universe, just another circle to draw around it.

edit- In addition to this, and in answer to the intial question of if we can conceive it, i think that is getting mighty close to reaching the path of enlightenment As i have expressed before, i believe that when you meditate your neurons connect and fire and go about their business according to the laws of physics, after a while of meditation where not much else is happening in the brain, the neurons start to carve out pathways dictated by the laws of physics. The ahhah moment of understanding happens the physical wiring of your brain becomes translated into conscious experience

imho

Edited May 29, 2006 by Salviador

[nabraxas]

one thought that i had once was how funny it was that we were stuck in the middle.

i mean you can go macroscopic & everything just gets infinitely bigger; or you can go microscopic & everything gets infinitely smaller.

[IndigoNative]

thank you all for your replies it has been interesting to hear others views of eternity then compare them to my own, my own view of eternity is quite an overwhelming feeling almost engulfing, as if my awareness or very existance was expanding into a infinite space where like Ramon explains you realise there is no time or you are standing outside of it, and suddenly just like trying to fathom a paradox you suddenly realise you can neither have a beginning or a end (much like i abstractly imagine feels like a perfectly round sphere of your conciousness).It is a mind state i imagine has the potential to cuase insanity since I find i can only fathom it for a few seconds before I have to literaly shake it out of my mind from fear of its endless paradoxical truth,and yet some part of me knows it is there that we all wondered into this reality from,( well thats my abstract point of view looking at the weirdness and vastness of eternity and the fact that we know nothing outside this life).

This story may be real or not I am a pretty open minded and outside the box dreamer who knows more than language can explain and yet I get this strange fimiliar abstract feeling of us being these coloumns of energy endlessly floating in space making an array of beutiful colours and feelings not even fathomed in this world (that sorta feels like changa for me), and that one day we just decided to create this world for no particular reason(or better put this place is so abstract it cannot be explained by our understanding or reason), and we just for unknown reasons felt it neccasary to forget how we existed before we came here(mushrooms have told me that it is impossible to undertsand all things at once and that we can only systematicly fathom things so this is possibly why we had to forget that place to get here), but just the feeling of this place feels like we can fathom eternity there, and that to us there anything is possibly becuase we see the truth of our very existance.

All of this is a bit strange and definetly needs to be thought outside the box but thats just a little bit of my world thanks for listening to my rambling

[tomte]

Well I got the impression on my first real trip that at the moment we are in a period of incubation.

This from John Lilly: "As we experience each universe, our awareness of our­selves increases. Each universe is a teaching machine for our awareness."

"He who would accomplish anything, must learn to limit himself." (Goethe)

[devance]

My real feel of eternity was when I was looking at this universe and I was a limitless nothingness [potentiality] looking at it.

At that moment I saw that I was infinite nothingness and being such had no interest in having something be nothing.

On other words a infinte potentiality that looks at something like a universe as a interesting creation, but by a artist thats not nothingness[called God].

I think theres 12 universes that are going to be experienced in a linear fashion.

And not in a reincarnation way but as the first finishes the beings that are created [us] and interested in such can continue and apply their not easyly acquired life learnings.

Reincarnation or it worse cousin [ simple oblivion by darwinian theory and thats supposed be a soothing notion]is a run from the fact that there are emotional issues

that a continous eternal linear existance has to address and expect.

[devance]

I was reading some of the prior opinions and thought to add a comment.

The mental area is something to be trained as been mentioned.

Not really connected into a automatic spiritual state.

Also extradimensional physics is a tool just like a chimp using a strand of grass for fishing out termites.

A bad example.

Mathematica and physics are only the tools of life not the creator of life.

Actual cognizant life created mathematica and physics.

A different attitude.

[devance]

My understanding of Eternity is not so much a abundance of time.

But as a measure of no time.

In that Eternal existance is not something that is in my future as a reward for a good life.

But eternity is when you are no longer aware of the boundary that sepparate yourself from the rest of the universe.

This happens only for the smallest instant, but a small instant in which there is no time is eternity to me.

Excellant point.

The brain has two hemisheres which is supposedly a redundancy for survival and has some hemispheric specialization..

But a crack on the head will create a concussion where the inflamation [sinovial fluid]increases so much that blood flow is stopped to the brain so wheres the survival advantage.

Anyway the point is that having the two hemispheres is creating a quatum type physics. My theory anyway.

[devance]

Salviador

Actually I was agreeing with you.

The reply with a quote forum function for me brings up the prior postee.

[devance]

My understanding of Eternity is not so much a abundance of time.

But as a measure of no time.

In that Eternal existance is not something that is in my future as a reward for a good life.

But eternity is when you are no longer aware of the boundary that sepparate yourself from the rest of the universe.

This happens only for the smallest instant, but a small instant in which there is no time is eternity to me.

Still not working. perhaps the communists.

[devance]

http://www.livescience.com/technology/0606..._dimension.html

Using strong magnets and a pigment developed by ancient Chinese warriors, scientists turned a three-dimensional system into one with just two dimensions.

The transformation was accidental, but it provides physical evidence for several theories and might help scientists build faster computers.

\

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alot of buzz words

but a outlook

[woof woof woof]

Being connected or in other words, representing Eternity, means that you are in the HERE and NOW. It is the point of contact between you and the universe. Feeling it means, feeling alive in a good way. You should be feeling unconditional love and understanding! Meaning you are conscious being.

Time and space are the same things really. simply because it is all energy, emanating from once source. the thing is, that we try and understand it, with the measures that we learn here on earth.

just like 'matter' is only condensed (percipitated) energy.

the truth i think is that there is no time, there is no space,.... there is only EVERYTHING ( in it's greatest / broadest sense).

If your mind can find that feeling (Look into Krishna consciousness or some simmilar paractice like it) then the veil of illusion will lift. It takes allot of self control to achieve this state of mind / feeling. Psy-actives can help to achieve this state, but I do not recommend it to everyone.

ha ha ha - "there is no spoon!" Maybe one day when we are all achieved practitioners of "God consciousness" we can bend spoons as party tricks, for little kids b-days.

I really think that we can do so much more, if only we focussed more on gaining more control over ourselves. Gaining control over the self means that you will save energy that you can invest or channel into SpooN bending, or perhaps maybe we can use that energy, to better the world in any little way we can. :D

[woof woof woof]

hey! never again say that DOGs aren't deep trippers! Woof Woof woof!

[IndigoNative]

DAMN!!!! Woof Woof Woof I think you hit the nail right on the head there!

It all seems so clear now, I mean how can we possibly fathom eternity in our mindstate of beginning and end.

I suppose its like you basically said, to become everything you must first become nothingness.

What a revelation!

And now I come to think about it its like ive told myself about that truth before but had somehow looked so far into it I forgot it Its funny how many tangents we go onto and how much stuff we can forget or look past in our confused states of mind.

Thank you deeply for your post

Edited June 11, 2006 by Kurandero

[CaptAmazing]

Damn, i wish i could get past the astonishment of realising that other people do other people things every single day. I always find it amazing that people have lives outside of my consciousness.