You were on your way home when you died.

 

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

 

And that’s when you met me.

 

“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

 

“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

 

“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”

 

“Yup,” I said.

 

“I… I died?”

 

“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.

 

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

 

“More or less,” I said.

 

“Are you god?” You asked.

 

“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”

 

“My kids… my wife,” you said.

 

“What about them?”

 

“Will they be all right?”

 

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

 

 

You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

 

“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. You wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

 

“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

 

“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

 

“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”

 

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”

 

You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”

 

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

 

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

 

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

 

 

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.

 

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

 

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

 

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

 

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

 

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”

 

“Where you come from?” You said.

 

“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

 

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

 

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

 

“So what’s the point of it all?”

 

 

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

 

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.

 

I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”

 

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

 

“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

 

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

 

“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”

 

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”

 

“All you. Different incarnations of you.”

 

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

 

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

 

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

 

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

 

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

 

“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.

 

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

 

“And you’re the millions he killed.”

 

“I’m Jesus?”

 

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

 

You fell silent.

 

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”

 

You thought for a long time.

 

“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

 

“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

 

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

 

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

 

“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”

 

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”

 

And I sent you on your way.

 

A friend of mine told me to read this, it's supposed to be a 'Mind [bleep]' and I found it pretty interesting, What are your thoughts/feelings?

Trippy.

i liked :D However, not sure what the point is, arrow boi. Though is interesting.

i liked :D However, not sure what the point is, arrow boi. Though is interesting.

 

A friend of mine told me to read it, so I did. It's supposed to be a 'Mind [bleep]' I guess. It was really interesting though, if you allow your mind to think about things in that way.

Oh I meant, not sure if you wrote it and posted for us to critique, or discuss the meaning etc.

Oh I meant, not sure if you wrote it and posted for us to critique, or discuss the meaning etc.

 

I'll make that clear. It's really to discuss the meaning as well as post your thoughts/feelings. I'll quote it too, I guess. For clarification purposes.

:mellow:

 

I don't know what I'm supposed to say.

Consider my mind officially and utterally, [bleep]ed. HARD.

 

But I loved it. cool story bro :D

I read it all and found it overly sugarly [realword?] sugary ? An extended version of one those $2 greeting cards you buy at some [cabbage] store when you cant be bothered to do anything else.

 

Secondly the analogy was [cabbage], and made no sense. I unno' seems like something you would pickup in the mail, advertising for a free one week trial of Zen Buddhism.

My head hurts <_<

Freaky *_* but nice.

I think the story was too confined to what us humans are used to. A father, trying to educate a child, an insightful child to the father's words, a growing fetus, a probably future-to-be father, etc, etc.

 

All of these, are things we just almost instinctively think about, and all the "author" did, was to take that story we're so used to, and apply it to a more "divine" reality. Ofcourse, there's the added sense of relation to the story as a reader. Inevitably, if this story was true, the reader would be the hero of the story, and the reader would also be everyone else. That's where this "Mind [bleep]" factor is coming from.

Wants to say 'Cool story, bro' but be more serious than that.

I think the writer had been reading the Hitchhiker's Guide prior to the writing.

Wants to say 'Cool story, bro' but be more serious than that.

Exactly, this is nothing more than a piece of fiction. We could go on and on with "what if" stories.

I think the writer had been reading the Hitchhiker's Guide prior to the writing.

That was my first thought, as well. I kind of like it, though.

I think the story was too confined to what us humans are used to. A father, trying to educate a child, an insightful child to the father's words, a growing fetus, a probably future-to-be father, etc, etc.

 

All of these, are things we just almost instinctively think about, and all the "author" did, was to take that story we're so used to, and apply it to a more "divine" reality. Ofcourse, there's the added sense of relation to the story as a reader. Inevitably, if this story was true, the reader would be the hero of the story, and the reader would also be everyone else. That's where this "Mind [bleep]" factor is coming from.

 

 

I agree with Romy. :ohnoes:

You should have posted it in the afternoon, then maybe OT wouldn't be so cranky. It was pretty cool even if it was cheesy.

It was an interesting read, but it didn't [bleep] my mind in any way at all.

You're all me!!!! AHHHHHH *goes crazy*

 

Pretty interesting read. I've thought of this once or twice in my life, as at certain points of my life when pondering things, I have found it illogical how everyone is in their own "consciousness" so to speak, assuming there is no soul. But that's probably just me thinking crazy like I do a lot.

I think the story was too confined to what us humans are used to. A father, trying to educate a child, an insightful child to the father's words, a growing fetus, a probably future-to-be father, etc, etc.

 

All of these, are things we just almost instinctively think about, and all the "author" did, was to take that story we're so used to, and apply it to a more "divine" reality. Ofcourse, there's the added sense of relation to the story as a reader. Inevitably, if this story was true, the reader would be the hero of the story, and the reader would also be everyone else. That's where this "Mind [bleep]" factor is coming from.

 

I think the story put a personal element in the cosmic consciousness concept. Like the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment and quantum physics.

If everyone is me, then running around naked shouldn't be a problem, right? :shades:

 

Oh, and does that mean dating is actually vanity?

If everyone one the planet was the same "soul, god, dude" as that guy then wouldn't God have to talk to each and everyone one of them after they die? That sounds like a pretty inefficient way to raise a kid.

It was nice, but people shouldn't over-analyze it. As far as philosophy goes, it's junk. However, the concept is interesting and the original message is good, if a bit cliche. What was the intention of the author? If this is some sort of religious message, I don't like it, but if he/she is just making a metaphor it isn't so bad.

It was nice, but people shouldn't over-analyze it. As far as philosophy goes, it's junk. However, the concept is interesting and the original message is good, if a bit cliche. What was the intention of the author? If this is some sort of religious message, I don't like it, but if he/she is just making a metaphor it isn't so bad.

 

I'm unsure of the original usage, so I really don't know if it has any religious meaning at all. Could be both, could be neither, could be one or the other.