In the blog post ‘What Do I Think Death Is?’ which appeared
immediately before this one in April 2015[1],
I call dying The Great Upload.
Why?
This goes back to a
line by T. C. Lethbridge that I read more than thirty years ago, which
immediately rang a bell and I hope I will never forget. It was:
Man exists on many levels, of which the earth life appears to be the
lowest. On this level he gathers information to be used by his real self on the
levels above.[2]
This ‘rang a bell with’
me, and has stood since then as a perfect statement of what I myself believe,
for two reasons. It implies that (1) there is more to life than just physical life
and the physical body is not our only ‘setting,’ and (2) we are here for a
purpose that has something to do with consciousness (‘gathering information’).
By way of visualizing
this, just as a bit of imaginative make-believe, let’s say that every possible
content of consciousness, everything you could possibly be aware of, is like a ‘dot’
in one of those old-fashioned newspaper pictures that were made up of dots on a
white background. Or a dot in one of those join-the-dots puzzles that used to
be featured in newspapers.
By the things you are doing, experiencing,
thinking, and cognizing in this visible world, you are connecting some of the
dots. But in this world, you will never see the Big Picture because we as
individuals just don’t have, so to speak, software that could focus it. Maybe
the, or a, Larger Provider does have such software. Or is in the process of
developing it though our very efforts as we struggle with the parts of manifestation
that come within our view.
A few additional rules would seem to
apply:
1. A ‘dot’ exists only to the
extent that it is experienced by, or experience-able by, one or more persons.
2. When one or more persons
experience a dot, they thereby connect it with one or more preceding or
following dots.
3. When dots are connected, they
tend toward forming a picture. The more the dots, the bigger the picture.
4. Streams of dots which we have
connected are in the same medium or on the same continuum with, and can be
immediately linked into, streams of dots connected by others. This process goes
on all the time whether or not it is consciously intended.
5. Streams of dots which have been
connected by former people in former times, and which for any reason have a
particular affinity or applicability to our own, or which need our own context
to gain intelligibility, can become linked or assimilated into our own. This is
the explanation of the kind of experiences that are often taken to be evidence
of reincarnation.
6. The pictures which we are
building or substantiating by viewing our parts of them in our world, go to
make up a Big Picture. Or Pictures.
7. A Big Picture is not our ‘own’
in the sense of only existing ‘within’ ourselves. On the other hand, it is our
own in the sense that without our participation it would not exist.
So then, what we are doing in this world
is to ‘get’ bits of consciousness...maybe even in the old sense of ‘begetting’
them, causing them to come to life...and to relate some of the bits with other
bits. And, very importantly, to relate to other people who are similarly
engaged. While ‘connecting’ the dots, we are also connecting ourselves, maybe
even ‘assembling’ or ‘constituting’ what Lethbridge called our ‘real self.’
But why do I say dying,
and not living, is the Great Upload? Aren’t we engaged in connecting,
expanding, clarifying and sharing Pictures every moment of our lives?
Of course I think we
are. But there is an added dimension that only dying can bring into it. That is
the very fact that all of our experiences, our ‘dots,’ have been parts of a
specifically human life. If our earth life did not have an end as well as a
beginning, it would not be ‘rounded off’; it would not have a distinct form and
would not be cognizable as a coherent entity. It is only by virtue of the Larger
Frame that the Viewer comes into View.
--Lloyd Haft
April 2015
