Have you ever gazed into a clear atmosphere nighttime star filled sky? It’s quite a humbling experience. Not unlike the self awareness that life breathes into us. You may have to study the naked-eye depth of the heavens for just a bit to gain its full effect. So many stars. So far away. Unreachable by today’s human physical standards except by gazing in awe at the splendor.
We feel small and large at the same time. Small because of the open, seemingly infinite, vastness of outer space and large because we know that we are collectively a part of it. We are a “pale blue dot” from far away… until you get so far away that the dot is overcome by distance. Even then, you’re nowhere near the edge. If there is an edge. (See Beyond for grins)
From what I gather about traveling thru outer space at unimaginable speed… if the rate of travel is great enough, you can traverse time in a controlled manner such that the universe unfolds before you do.
We can only see so far out into the heavens. From Earth, we have limited sight distance due to the theoretical finite age of the universe and the finite speed that light travels over that time period. We only physically see as far as light and technology allows.
We can theoretically and speculatively make assumptions on the size of the universe, but it’s currently one of the infinite “God only knows” truths us mere earthbound mortals face. The universe has an “estimated observable” diameter of about 93 billion light years, but we simply don’t know exactly how large the universe is. We think the universe is that old, thusly we wouldn’t see anything before the Big Bang, theoretically.
We currently see only as far as 46.5 billion light years ago, ergo 93 billion light years is just a size estimate.
Infinity is way beyond human comprehension… (i.e.) How high is up? I’ve heard it is twice as far as halfway up. I also believe that if you’re traveling faster than the speed of light… well… uh… never mind… I expect you’d better concentrate on what’s UP in front of you!
Also, it’s interesting that the “now” of the visible physical universe is a conundrum encumbered by relative distance. As we look farther out into space, we’re looking farther back in time. The light we see of a star is old. The further away the star is, the older the light is that we see. The light we receive (“see”) on Earth “now” from the Sun is over eight minutes old. The next closest star light we receive is over four years old from Alpha Centauri. The most distant stars we can see at 46.5 billion light years ago give us an indication of the early universe.
In other words, we can’t see “now” beyond our earthbound vantage point.
Somewhere between time Zones, Daylight savings time, Greenwich Mean time, Military time, Astronomical time, Atomic time, Earth rotation time, Ephemeris time, Sidereal time, Solar time, Julian time, Father time, and the meantime is an illustration of the fact that no time is exactly like any other time.
Except that it is “now” everywhere at the same time.
If you’ve never gazed out into outer space, then you’ve probably never wondered what and who is out there. And you may never have felt the incredible fullness of the cosmos. Feeling the open fullness of the cosmos is the opposite of introversion. It’s a spiritual melting pot!
You might even begin to believe in the vast open oneness of an amazing, peaceful, and intelligent collective destiny.
Portal/Conjuncture page 43
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