Are we eternal? Is there an end?

[MarsZM]

I was wondering what you all think.

Are we eternal? Is there an end game? Eternity is a long time... but I like that it never ends is what most people say.

Tom Campbell talks about how there is no end game and even if you evolve to a point where you can't even go anymore there will always be something to do and somewhere to go. Because I assume that realities are being made everyday... There has to be countless reality systems out there with endless possibilities.

Do you think we will always be our own higher self for eternity? I hope I am saying that right...
It seems so cool because we get to keep all of our own individual experiences forever even though we are still all one.

do you think certain spirits or IUOCs as tom explains it stick together for lightyears? I have heard COUNTLESS stories of people saying certain being stick together pretty much forever. and I know that's a long time... with a lot of change... bodies, genders, personal growth, experiences, evolving, etc...

but I really like the sound of this concept. I know some people say they don't want eternity or a never ending thing... but knowing that we will never run out of things to do it sounds pretty cool to just keep gaining our own experiences. It makes experience that much more special to me. everytime I do something fun that really touches my heart i say "I can put that in my giant file of experience...!" haha

especially when it comes to relationships... if you find someone you really love I found that those beings have a gazillion lifetimes together in different roles. So many people talk about this.

What do you think? Does it ever end? Will we get bored? i am confused but (i think it was tom again) said higher self can even be split.... but at the very top is the individuated unit of consciousness that never blips out of existence and combines all the experiences from ALL that individual consciousnesses experience and that is always there for a being to go back and look at.

I can't word this right so lets use the word spirit.... will i always be my own individual spirit to keep track of all my experiences? I know we are all one but it makes it funner when we split up to do our own thing...

Anyway just thought I would ask what ya think!

[LightBeam]

You make perfect sense. Yes to all questions speaking from my own experience. My fascination with existence is indescribable. From what I've seen and the places I have been, there are truly no words.

[Volgerle]

Infinite Regress ... lets us humbly know that we don't know.

What is behind the behind -and what is then behind that behind that is behind.

And so on.

I don't know.

No human does.

Definition of human (one of many): "Not knowing a frickin' thing for life." 

Let's live gracefully with uncertainty.

[CEO929]

The question you ask has always fascinated me. If you really think about it though, it's quite a scary thing indeed. I mean, eternity is a very long time. It's sheer mass is enough to overwhelm anyone. On the other hand, if there is an end, for example death being the ultimate end all be all, then what would that mean for us? What would that be like? If death wasn't the end and our consciousness lives on in some form (as I'm sure a lot of people believe on this site) then can we die a second time? A true death, so to speak, if the soul also ceases. Would that truly be the end or would we just be reincarnated as something else in some random reality from the infinite sea of possibilities? Essentially we would just have to start over because all of our old experiences and memories would be lost for good. I hope we can at least get a break every now and again if nothing ever truly ends... Jeez... nothing wrong with a breather from time to time, am I right? 

[EscapeVelocity]

Great question Mars! Like Volgerle, I'm not sure human perspective can provide an even barely complete answer.
And, like CEO, this question has fascinated me since early childhood.

First, the concept of eternity is plainly beyond the scope of human understanding...I have difficulty envisioning much beyond a thousand, maybe ten thousand years...not to speak of a million or billion years. How much change would...or could a singular ego/personality endure? So maybe that's where the concept of a Higher Self makes sense, followed by a Soul and maybe an Oversoul or SoulGroup...maybe my present personality is just a small, momentary aspect of that greater whole...if so, then my ego feels a bit threatened again. How much of the present "me" survives and for how long?

Or is it like going to school? How many of you remember your age 5 or 7 or 10 or 16 or 22? Each of those ages was "all that we knew" at the time, the sum and total of all our experiences...and yet we moved beyond it and can now reflect back upon each of those specific time periods.
Maybe we will have a similar perspective a hundred thousand years from now...or maybe a wider, more expansive viewpoint. Maybe all our experiences become subsumed within a greater Self.

And then again, as we are discovering, the concept of Time itself becomes a more relativistic idea, the more experience we have in Non-Physical Reality. Time does not necessarily exist from a NP perspective. So maybe "eternity" is a misunderstood concept from the higher, Soul point of view...

Still another question that I have seen some evidence of is the Quantum Physics theory of M or Membrane Theory. This describes the idea that our Universe did, in fact, have a beginning...that two or more Membrane- bordered Universes can come into contact and spark the creation of a new Universe/Multiverse. Does that possibility imply not only the creation of our new Multiverse, but also us and possibly our Multiverse's Source/God?

If that is the case, then maybe Time, or at least the concept of a Beginning becomes more of a consideration...

I'm not sure I'm narrowing the question or only expanding it...lol.

[Lumaza]

First, the concept of eternity is plainly beyond the scope of human understanding...I have difficulty envisioning much beyond a thousand, maybe ten thousand years...not to speak of a million or billion years.

When you say it's beyond "the scope of human understanding", you were spot on EV. There is a very good chance that "time" itself is a "Human" concept. If that is the truth, until we can learn how to "control" time, we won't ever be able to understand it period.   

[EscapeVelocity]

Lumaza, I'm not sure we learn to "control" Time...I think that we just come to understand it. And, in the sense of control, yes maybe we learn somehow to work with it and utilize it to our advantage...and maybe advantage is the wrong word...but I have seen that in some of my experiences.

It definitely appears to be a serious constraint that we have agreed to for our current PR incarnation, here on Earth.

I still find it remarkable with my own Non-Physical experiences how the concept of Time sometimes utterly disappears...still haven't quite figured that out, but I still notice it, lol.

[Lumaza]

Lumaza, I'm not sure we learn to "control" Time...I think that we just come to understand it. And, in the sense of control, yes maybe we learn somehow to work with it and utilize it to our advantage...and maybe advantage is the wrong word...but I have seen that in some of my experiences.

I used the word "control" because my understanding of the Scientific community and their research is that for them to fully understand something, they must first be able to "duplicate" it themselves in a controlled environment. That shows a certain level of control. A great example of this is the "Hadron Collider".

I still find it remarkable with my own Non-Physical experiences how the concept of Time sometimes utterly disappears...still haven't quite figured that out, but I still notice it, lol.

I agree. I have seen that we live in multiple realities at the same "time"! That leads to more questions than it does answers though! 

[EscapeVelocity]

Some more aspects to the question-

Am I eternal or not? If I am, is that by my choice and do I have the option of eventually bringing my existence to an end? Either answer, yes or no, brings more questions.

I have a physical body that comprises billions of cells, each of which can be argued to have some level of awareness and independence. Along with that are numerous thousands of parasitic/symbiotic life forms that inhabit my digestive system, my lungs and the surface of my skin, not to mention the occasional bacterium/virus that invades me. If I decide to die and disintegrate into the earth what becomes of all them. It can be argued that for them I am their God/Source.

Is my relation to my own God/Source defined by the same circumstances?

It does seem that a person's physical/mental/spiritual evolution has some bearing on these issues: maybe the higher we evolve, the more options open before us. But just how far might that actually take us?