musings { Life, the Universe, Everything, Redux

We are, will be and have been.

Matter is a state of energy. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.

So in essence we have been since the beginning of time, and we will be until the end. We may not have existed as this collection of matter and organic systems, gifted with some spark of self awareness (just another pattern of energy?), for very long, but a part of us is immortal.

These are the things I think of on the bus after having vivid dreams caused by a deep sleep that only a half-bottle of wine and some bourbon can create.

On the ride home my mind, still processing after images of the previous nights dream, one very vivid, but set in the past, where those who I know are dead were counseling me on the nature of things. The specifics are lost, but the images remain. What was strange was everyone in my dream were people very dear to me and who are no longer. As I was sifting this on the bus my mind wandered to death. Not in an emo/goth 'life is pain and darkness' way but more of a philosopher's thoughts on the subject. What happens when we die? Were we before we were born? Is this it? Why are we granted a brief existence upon which to collect experiences, only to be terminated.

Many religions claim to have answers for this, some say we will be reincarnated. Others that we will transcend. Some depending upon the content of our life will go to other places (heaven/hell). They could be merely more theological descriptions of the conservation of matter and energy. Or they could merely be constructs created to try and give some meaning to something. I don't subscribe to the concept that a Heaven or a Hell exist, but I can see how some can find comfort in believing there is an afterlife, otherwise the concept that there is an end to this life could be a bit overwhelming.

I don't know what exists postmortem. As our organic systems stops functioning, what we know as consciousness ceases. But it is not the end of us. Not if looked from the perspective of physics and chemistry. Much like the pieces of physical matter that makes up what we are came from the furnaces of stars, what we become after death is a return to that state. Matter is a waveform of energy. When we die, our consciousness as we know it ends, but because we are matter and energy, it is not destroyed, it is transformed. In a sense, we return back to what we were before we were coalesced into a meat bag of organic systems. Our spark, our waveform of chaotic energy merges, transforms, back into the harmony of the celestial choir that is maintaining the wave pattern of existence.

That said however, I'd like to continue collecting experiences and retain the ability to contemplate this subject in my current frame of reference and condensed state.