Weird beliefs about life/the universe you have?

[VintageDarling]

Does anyone else have any weird beliefs about life/the universe that they know are not true/scientifically valid yet can't shake?

I have this belief that time is not linear and that everything is happening "now". I believe 3 year old me was at nursery today, 11 year old me was at school today, 20 year old me was at university today, etc just in some kind of alternate universe. It's a belief I've had for as long as I can remember. I remember when I was around 10 I really believed that I wasn't going to get any older and that the current me would just cycle through this phase of my life/age again. Obviously I know it's not true but it's a belief I can't fully shake and it still clouds my perspective on life. For example, today I walked past my old primary school and admired the blossom trees outside and I wonder if my child self looked up at them and admired them "today", too.

I'm not sure I believe this, but it's an idea that I keep playing with since I stared reading about monistic philosophies, particularly naturalistic pantheism.

Basically, what if there was an additional force of the universe that goes into and comes out of living things and our lives and deaths affect this force in a way we cannot yet percieve or measure. Rather than remaining an individual after death, that part of the universal force that we've shaped through our lives returns and in that the energy of the universe changes. We're all mixed in with everything else while in the not-alive state and then a mix goes into another living thing and the cycle of the changing universe continues.

What if that could explain the missing parts in physics and other natural sciences? What if that energy could explain supernatural or divine phenomemon, not even possibly as a force with a will, but the experiences of those alive - all life - altered the flow of the universe so certain things happen? What if ghosts were parts of this collection pushing into a way we can percieve, past lives being one of dozens of living things within us that some can tap into? What if mass death events - human, animal, plant, fungi, mix of all of those - or even our every day pains and joys actual alter part of the fabric of the universe?

As I said, I'm not sure I believe it - I'm currently in the traditional agnostic camp that I don't think people as we are with our current level of technology can make claims about the divine & that there can be more harm than good in trying in any sort of definitive way, but this idea has fascinated me since it came to me some years back while getting into monistic theory. What if us as being one with everything in the universe meant we were in that sort of functional way?

There is something to that that really pulls me. I've considered writing something based on the concept with how would people react if we did end up developing a technology that percieved and measured this non-alive state and force of the universe, but I'm not really sure beyond thinking people would probably try to test out ways to alter it for percieved benefits.

Great thread...Aliens are us humans in the future time travelling. I think they(we) time travelled to ‘the beginning’ and invented ourselves from monkeys. Maybe we were the typical alien greys first and we ruined ourselves and the planets. If you’ve watched the movie ‘Lucy’ the theory will make more sense. I think bad things have happened on this planet and the time travellers have changed it to keep us alive. That feeling people get that something bad is about to happen could be in the timeline of when something did happen.

My other theory that contradicts that one slightly is that the Noah’s ark story is true, that we may have been from Mars or elsewhere and the ark was a space ship taking us to another planet to survive. There are claims of man made things being found on Mars. If we worked our way through the solar system were on our last chance with Earth.

I believe we’re born ‘knowing’ everything about the planet, ourselves, how everything exists, god etc. As we get older we forget or lose the gift of knowing who we really are. I base this on the fact as a 3/4 year old I was telling my parents about something that happened in ‘heaven’ and a war. I was very distressed that they didn’t believe my memory was real. I told them that the universe is brand new but we have our memories wiped as babies because it’s traumatic to remember. I tried for years after that to recall my other similar memories of ‘before’ but they eventually disappeared. It could have been daydreams of a bored child, but it wasn’t something I’d ever heard in my family (I didn’t go to nursery) it just popped into my head like a flashback almost daily.

Time doesn’t exist, we invented it to keep track of life in general. Every day repeats itself over and over, nothing changes apart from what we chose to do with it. The sun, oxygen, radiation, chemicals etc age our physical bodies and we interpret that as time ageing us. Everything exists simultaneously, our past, present and future are right now and it’s already happened even if we feel like we’re living it for the first time.

My friend once joked the moon is actually a hole in the sky that moves for different dimensions and it played on my mind for a while. (I’m not a moon landing conspiracist, just open to all suggestions because in reality none of us know 100% facts of anything, it’s mostly guesswork by scientists who are just human too)

I quite like the theory that we’re an alien experiment like big brother, where they are watching us with a glass of wine and wondering what Boris will do next

@VintageDarling have you seen the movie Arrival? It is kind of like your perception of time (and a very good movie)

@HurryUpBetelgeuse. Have you read any of Richard Bach's books? His belief is that we are spiritual beings who choose to re-incarnate in order to learn life lessons, whilst forgetting who we really are; and after we die we go back to our full selves.

I haven't, @sueelleker but I might have a look into that (my current belief system is heavily based on reading near death experiences)

@amylou8

I think what we perceive as reality is only a tiny sliver of it. Give a cat a book of algebra. The cat would see the book, perhaps find a use for it like sitting on it, but would have no comprehension that it was a book, that book contained information, and you could use that information for a purpose. We're the cats and the book of algebra is reality, we know something is there, we just don't have the ability to perceive it, let alone understand it.

This is brilliant!

@Surroundedbypenisesandglitter

Great thread...Aliens are us humans in the future time travelling. I think they(we) time travelled to ‘the beginning’ and invented ourselves from monkeys. Maybe we were the typical alien greys first and we ruined ourselves and the planets. If you’ve watched the movie ‘Lucy’ the theory will make more sense. I think bad things have happened on this planet and the time travellers have changed it to keep us alive. That feeling people get that something bad is about to happen could be in the timeline of when something did happen.

My other theory that contradicts that one slightly is that the Noah’s ark story is true, that we may have been from Mars or elsewhere and the ark was a space ship taking us to another planet to survive. There are claims of man made things being found on Mars. If we worked our way through the solar system were on our last chance with Earth.

I believe we’re born ‘knowing’ everything about the planet, ourselves, how everything exists, god etc. As we get older we forget or lose the gift of knowing who we really are. I base this on the fact as a 3/4 year old I was telling my parents about something that happened in ‘heaven’ and a war. I was very distressed that they didn’t believe my memory was real. I told them that the universe is brand new but we have our memories wiped as babies because it’s traumatic to remember. I tried for years after that to recall my other similar memories of ‘before’ but they eventually disappeared. It could have been daydreams of a bored child, but it wasn’t something I’d ever heard in my family (I didn’t go to nursery) it just popped into my head like a flashback almost daily.

Time doesn’t exist, we invented it to keep track of life in general. Every day repeats itself over and over, nothing changes apart from what we chose to do with it. The sun, oxygen, radiation, chemicals etc age our physical bodies and we interpret that as time ageing us. Everything exists simultaneously, our past, present and future are right now and it’s already happened even if we feel like we’re living it for the first time.

My friend once joked the moon is actually a hole in the sky that moves for different dimensions and it played on my mind for a while. (I’m not a moon landing conspiracist, just open to all suggestions because in reality none of us know 100% facts of anything, it’s mostly guesswork by scientists who are just human too)

I quite like the theory that we’re an alien experiment like big brother, where they are watching us with a glass of wine and wondering what Boris will do next

Oh dear. Sorry: I am open to anything plausible but this is just bonkers! Are you joking? I can't tell.

@FATEdestiny

I think there is something in the fact that the solar system and galaxy (and universe) are on a 2 dimensional single plane.

This does not make logical sence to me.

If we start from a Big Bang, basic physics (as we understand it) would say debris spins out in all 3 dimensional ways. ie, a sphere not a plate.

Why are celestial bodies plates not balls? In think the fact that they are not 3 dimensional must mean something. I don't know what tho.

The ones we perceive are in two dimensions. If anything it's just an indication that a perception of extra dimensions hasn't developed in humans.

We shouldn't forget we are just a type of monkey. Many animals have senses that we would have believed to be magical/ fictional before our science developed to the level that it is at now (e.g. snakes can sense infrared and know if an animal has tracked over sand hours earlier, many animals see many more colours than we do, have night vision, much better hearing, can navigate migrations based on magnetic fields we can't detect without scientific instruments, can communicate with sonar etc....)

We have developed the 5 limited sense we have because of evolution, those were what were best placed to help us survive. That does not mean that what we can perceive through those 5 senses is accurate, or the totality of reality. It would be madness to assume that when we know all of the above and much more that we have scientific instruments to measure already exists beyond our direct sensory perception. So yeah, there's a shitload we don't know, we are just starting out! We need to be more humble and learn. And definitely read that link about the fermi paradox that I posted!!

Im caught between two thoughts.

One is that all beliefs that we're interconnected, are not alone in the universe, etc is made up because humans are deeply social animals and the thought of being alone is too terrifying. We are just that though, alone. We die and become nothing. There is nothing else out there. We are alone and all those theories are a comfort blanket.

HOWEVER

I also think thats its an impossibility to be the only ones in the universe? Its huge. But do I believe that because im human and to be alone is to much to comprehend?

I also think thats its an impossibility to be the only ones in the universe? Its huge

I refer again back to this, which explains this much better than I could, at this time of day.

waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

That I’ve been here before. In another time.

[quote sueelleker]@HurryUpBetelgeuse. Have you read any of Richard Bach's books? His belief is that we are spiritual beings who choose to re-incarnate in order to learn life lessons, whilst forgetting who we really are; and after we die we go back to our full selves.[/quote]
I believe this too. Also, we reincarnate and have met others before in past lives. Thats why sometimes you feel an instant connection with a stranger.

I would love to read books about this kind of stuff in an accessible way! I've heard the time theories before but can't get my head around it in the slightest. It might be because I have ADHD which gives me issues processing time in the first place. I have a hard enough time working out how it works in a linear sense.

Love wait but why.

I need to read this all again - such an interesting thread!

Thanks so much for posting that article, what an interesting read!

Cannons, spheres, crosses in sky and an arrow? What was it. Another civilisation that destroyed itself?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1561_celestial_phenomenon_over_Nuremberg

That is fascinating, tartantexan, I wonder what on earth it was they saw?!

I believe that there is much more to the earth and life than what we know /can see. Much like dogs, for instance can smell and hear things we can't. I have just always had a belief that there are things that exist around us that we just aren't aware of.

Also, my 7 year old has told tales from being 2 that he's been here before. We were on a day out, not near home, and he pointed to a building and said I used to work there! He randomly talks of his other home and used to ask regularly if he could go 'home'. He knows things that he shouldn't know, quite factual specific things.
Will be interesting to see if it fades as he gets older.