Is The Universe A Friendly Place?
/“I think the most important question facing humanity is, ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’ This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves.
For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that which is unfriendly and I believe that we are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may either completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process.
If we decide that the universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially ‘playing dice with the universe’, then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.
But if we decide that the universe is a friendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding that universe. Because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives.”
“Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work”
In my early 20's. I created a set of 5 core beliefs based on experiences and insights of the time. One of those beliefs was that the universe loves uniqueness and, therefore, loves you because you are unique. I concluded that there is a unique love flowing to each person. The experience described here came later, in my late 40's.
For other blog entries about my 5 core beliefs, click on the core belief tag at the bottom of this email.
This quote from Albert Einstein illuminates a simple, but fundamental, attitudinal difference toward life. Although I have weaker moments when I sometimes feel the universe is “out to get me,” I know, on a deep level, that the universe is not only a friendly place, the universe is joyously happy. This insight came to me quite dramatically in the early days of this millennia while training with Alberto Villloldo and the Four Winds society.
Photo, Prose, and Recital © Nick LeForce
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A group of students were learning a process called “Illumination,” which involved holographic breathing guided by a shaman apprentice with the intent of supporting an emotional clearing. Others were processing pain and moaning loudly. I had a very different experience. I was taken by the feeling of being a satellite dish tuned into the cosmos. I felt an overwhelming sense of incredible universal joy, so intense I can only describe it as orgasmic happiness. Meanwhile, all the others around me were moaning and it all came together in a climactic moment. While others moaned, I laughed hysterically, rolling on the floor.
It was an unforgettable moment and it stamped itself in my heart as the true nature of the universe; cosmic creation bursting forth in orgasmic joy. I believe a core truth was revealed to me. Since then, I have carried this sense that the universe is profoundly happy and that this joy remains vital despite the violence of the world and of humans toward each other, and regardless of the suffering and sadness I witness.
Happiness does not necessitate friendliness, but is more likely to be friendly. Einstein argues that this attitude determines how we understand and use the technological power we have acquired. His argument is about how we relate to ourselves and our world. My sense is that the universe, like each of us, is not limited to any of the three choices listed by Einstein. It is more alive and fluid, joyful in its expansion and loving in its expression.
What do you think is the fundamental state of the universe? Is it a friendly place?
Please share your thoughts and comments below:
