Chapter Twenty Five - Worrying Our Way Through Life

I was very tired. Another long day in my Michigan home office, which I refer to as "the bunker," due to its location in my basement. As I lay down to go to sleep, I thought how as the years add on, there are more things to worry about, not less. Somehow life getting easier as we get older doesn't happen. I thought it would, for some unknown reason. Why I believed that, I don't know.  Growing up, my extended family consisted of grandfather's who worked coal mines. Uncles who left school to do the same, then went off to war. They all came back. My dad survived Korea too. Five sons. No one lost to war. At least not dead, anyway. They came back, got married, raised a family and drank too much. Not all did, but enough did to leave a lasting impression. Their lives had worry on a scale that our present society is not used to.  In my Grandfathers' life times, there was WWI, The Great Depression, WWII, the rise of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, a polio epidemic, the the threat of their own sons going off to a war in Vietnam and nuclear annihilation.  Something we actually came perilously close to during with Cuban Missile Crisis,

I woke up to find myself sitting in a color filled world. It looked familiar. Then, I recognized it. It was the world from the movie "What Dreams May Come." I wondered if Robin Williams was around here some where.  It seemed like the place he would want to go to, after his exit. 

I saw a man walking towards me. Blurry at first, but then he came into focus. It was my friend, The Son of Man, Jesus, not Robin Williams.  I waved and he waved back. It was good to see him. He smiled warmly and gave me a big warm hug, and a kiss on the cheek.

"How are you doing, Ted?" he asked me.

"Well, to be honest. I have been stressing out a bit lately." I said.

"What about?" asked the King of Kings.

"Pretty much everything." I sighed. "I thought my life would be easier by now. I thought I would grow out of my habit of worrying."

"Ted, life is worry." Jesus told me. "Or as my friend Buddha said, it is dukkah, pain. Psychological pain. Try to remember that this world is temporal, and there are other worlds before and after this one that are different."

"Yeah, they could be worse!" I exclaimed, half jokingly.

"Some are, Tedushu. And to some people, this world is worse than the last. To others, it is better. The Universe and your immortal soul are intertwined with everything that has and will ever happen."

I explained to Jesus, that "I have spent the better part of my life pursuing the world beyond the worry of this one. Sometimes, I can see this ribbon in space time for the personal passion play it is. I can step out of it and observe the characters and the story, but most times my mind is stuck in it. We humans are stuck living in this world. Getting pulled into the same traps our ancient ancestors fell into. The stage set and costumes may change with time, but living a life doesn't. The true demons of this world don't lurk in old homes and abandoned asylums. They wear expensive suits and work in all major, and quite a few minor, institutions. They keep us in a constant state of stress and worry. Try to break free of it, and there is another crisis around the corner. As Roseanne Roseannadanna said, "It's always something."

"Hey, Ted, at least you know where evil lives. Most people don't see it. You do. Maybe that's your breakthrough this time around." Jesus knew something. (Which makes sense, him being Jesus.)

"This time around? I have been here, wherever here is, before?" I asked The Son.

"Of course! I'd have to check the records, but this is far from your first time." Jesus said this like I should know it. And I did know it.

"Have you read Nick Bostrom's paper on The Universe being a computer simulation?" Jesus asked.

I looked at Jesus and cocked and eye an eyebrow. 

"What am I asking?! Of course you have!" The Lord of Lords let out a hearty laugh and slapped me on the back "What did you thing about it?"

"To me, it makes a lot more sense than all of this being a random occurrence. That we got here by chance, that never made sense to me. Even when I was an atheist." (Jesus knew about my atheist period.) 

"Yeah, Nick is a smart man to have come up with that theory. Of course, there is always the risk that there is a nefarious reason for publishing such a paper. If people think this world is 'fake,' Lord knows what would happen." 

I let out a laugh. Jesus asked, "What?"

"You said, 'Lord knows.' You're the Lord for Christ's sake!" I was still chuckling.

Jesus came back with, "Ha! You just said, 'for Christ's sake.' You should have said, 'for your sake." 

Jesus and I both get confused at times.

Moving back to our conversation, I said to the I AM, "On the Universe being a simulation, why would that make it fake? The Universe has to exist somewhere. Inside a super computer is a good a place as I think of. It, in all likelihood, would resemble the 'real' universe. Whoever built the simulated Universe would base it on their world, I think. At least for the most part."

Do you think that Nick's thesis has merit?", The Lord askith me.

I considered his question, then responded. "Actually, I think the real possibility is that post-human "people" would not only run ancestor simulations as Professor Bostrom speculates, I believe they would be actual participants in the simulation. Think about it, virtual reality is the big thing in computer gaming. The goal of the game creators is for it to be as as realistic as possible. If post-humans have the technology and wealth to create simulations of universes. They could also develop the technology to download their consciousness into the game itself. Unlike the world portrayed in The Matrix, the participants know they are going into the game. They get to choose a character to experience The Universe through. Once they get here, their memories of the where the came from, and why they are here, are put into storage until this adventure is over. Considering  the millions of people and other creatures inhabit Earth right now, the possibilities for different adventures are endless. Unless post-humans evolve to the point where they don't get bored out of their minds, they would most certainly would want to 'play the game.' I mean, what else would there be to do? I get bored senseless now, and I am nowhere near a post-human."

"Unless we are already playing the game, Ted." Jesus said to me. "If what you are saying is true, then we most certainly are. Maybe all souls are post-human beings, that have returned to the past to work on their own spirituality. If you use today's patterns of human nature, at some point in the future all the gods will die once again. There will be a new dark age, and then humans will emerge from it. Since that has happened before, there is no reason  to think it won't happen again, and keep happening. Until the post-human souls reach individual perfection.

Jesus continued, "Take my own incarnation for example. How many Son's of God have there been that hang out with twelve friends? Horus, Attis, Dionysus, to name a few. That twelve friends thing comes up a lot. Maybe we play the game with our friends, taking on different roles each time. Sometimes you get to be the savior, sometimes you are Judas. Other times you are Pontious Pilot's dog!" Jesus let out a roar of a laugh.  "It would also explain how we meet people we know we know from somewhere, sometime else."

"Is that the Truth, Jesus?" I asked.

"Heck Ted, I don't know. I does seem odd that the same game is played out over and over again. We are sent here with a mere wisp of a memory, and a goal. I am not much different than you, or anyone else, in that regard. I knew I was sent here to show people how to live. I was a teacher, and like most people who try to show the way, I got nailed up for it. Like a lot of teaching jobs, the pay was shitty and the students didn't really want to learn."

Jesus and I both laughed at how things really never change, in this game called Human Life. 

That's the proof, I suppose, that all of this really is a game. A simulation we play through until the end.

Then I saw Robin.

Copyright Ted Sky 2015
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