Anyone who disbelieves in real-life time travel may want to spend some time watching "Glitch in the Matrix" videos content creators make by gathering testimonies of inexplicable real-life experiences.
Let's time travel! - To when? - To next weekend!
An anonymous time traveler operating under the alias Darryl Dean (from 2033) claims to hold a detailed chronology of upcoming events on Earth. The mysterious man shared his shocking predictions on the internet in a bid to validate the remarkable assertion that time travel is real.
In his declaration, the time traveler prophesized alien (ET) contact and global peace. He said: "I saw that there was a lot of skepticism regarding my story, and I want to say that it is not my goal to convince everyone that I am telling the truth. I simply want to speak to those of you who will listen."
Mr. Dean insists he comes from the Year 2033 and initially intended to stay in the current era only briefly. Speaking with the paranormal investigators from the YouTube platform ApexTV, purported time traveler Dean argued his predictions will prove accurate over time.
He said: "I saw a bunch of questions asking if there are going to be any wars in the future. I can tell you that there will be no major wars, and when the aliens come in 2028, they will usher in a state of peace and prosperity. People will realize they are not so different, and the entire world will unite," reports the Daily Star.
Humanity's descendants will also embrace a single universal religion, which Mr. Dean asserted will have replaced all existing faiths by 2033. He refused to share any details about the religion, fearing it might cause a temporal paradox.
The self-proclaimed time traveler then claimed that time travel technology becomes public knowledge in 2028, along with revelations about extraterrestrial life forms beyond our planet.
What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? Uh, it doesn't really matter because, paradoxically, once we have it, we will always have had it, going anywhere in time.
Some ancient accounts feature characters who appear to leap forward in time. In Buddhism's Pāli canon, the Payasi Sutta ("Payasi Discourse") describes how the disciple Ven. Kumara Kassapa explains to a skeptic that time flows differently on different planes of existence, particularly the long-lasting heavenly realms [4].
Christian time jumping with Rip VW
Drink and idle hands make for sleepiness.
American and European Christians (with a capitalist work ethic to teach) persistently recount the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American man with a habit of avoiding work. Rip lives in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains years before the American Revolution.
One day, he goes squirrel hunting in the mountains with his dog, Wolf, to escape his wife's irritation.
You're off your rocker, old coot! - No, I'm not!
When evening comes, he hears a voice calling his name and finds a man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothing, carrying a keg of alcohol. Rip helps the man carry his burden to a cleft in the rocks from which thunderous noises are emanating; the source proves to be a group of bearded men wearing similar outfits playing ninepins.
In Hinduism's Vishnu Purana we find the story of Raivata Kakudmi (son of Revata), who visits the God Brahma in a certain heaven then returns to Earth to find that many ages have elapsed [2, 3].King Kakudmi is a king often featured in Hindu literature. He is described as the king of Kushasthali, the son of Revata [1] and the father of Revati, the consort of the deity Balarama. His account is given within texts such as the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha, the Devi Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavata Purana.
The Japanese legend of "Urashima Tarō," first recorded in the Manyoshu, tells of a fisherman who visits an undersea palace for three days, only to return and find that centuries have passed and his world is gone [5].
This should be compared to Middle Length Discourse 50 (MN 50), where Ven. Maha Moggallana describes mermaids ("sea nymphs") dancing in dazzling undersea palaces, which he can see through his highly developed psychic powers but which has not made sense to scholars and readers ever since his comments were written and included in the Pali canon: "In the middle of the ocean/There are mansions aeon-lasting, Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming/With a clear translucent luster,/Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance/In complex, intricate rhythms."
Jewish time travel?
In one Jewish tradition, the Prophet Mo (Moses) is transported by one of his tribal Gods to the study hall of Rabbi Akiva, where he is confused by the future evolution of Jewish law.
Another Talmudic story features Honi HaMe'agel, a 1st-century BCE miracle worker who sees a man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. Honi falls asleep and awakens 70 years later to find the tree fully grown and its fruit being harvested by the man's grandson [6, 7].
In Islam, the Quran (Koran) tells of the Seven Sleepers, a group of monotheistic (more likely henotheistic) young men who sought refuge in a cave to escape persecution. As they slept, their preferred God preserved them for centuries. When they awake, they discover that the world around them has changed. This narrative, found in the Quranic Surah Al-Kahf, describes divine protection and time suspension [8, 9, 10]. More
Not asking who these men are or how they know his name, Rip joins them in drinking from the keg he has helped carry and soon becomes so drunk that he falls asleep. He awakens on a sunny morning, back at the spot where he first saw the keg-carrier, and finds that many drastic changes have occurred:
His beard is now a foot long and grey,
his hunting musket is badly deteriorated,
his dog Wolf is nowhere to be found.
Returning to his village, he discovers it to be larger than he remembers and filled with people in unfamiliar clothing, none of whom recognize him. When asked how he voted in the election that has just been held, he declares himself a loyal subject of King George III, unaware that the American Revolutionary War has taken place in his absence.
Why is this fiction so popular in the US?
He learns that many of his old friends either were killed in that war or have left the village and is disturbed to find a young man who shares his name, mannerisms, and younger appearance.
A young woman states that her father is Rip Van Winkle, who has been missing for 20 years, then an old woman recognizes him as Rip. The young woman and the young Rip are his children, and the former has named her infant son after him as well.
Rip discovers that his wife has been dead for some time but is not saddened by the news. He learns through a village elder that the men he met in the mountains are said to be ghosts of the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Halve Maen.
His daughter takes him into her home, and he soon resumes his usual idleness (unconcerned by the major political changes during his slumber) and begins telling his story to every stranger who visits the village. The tale is solemnly taken to heart (despite some assuming him to be off his rocker) by the settlers, particularly by the old Dutch inhabitants who say that, whenever thunder is heard, the men in the mountains must be playing ninepins. More
Touch me now. It doesn't matter. I've got breast armor. I'm failed pop idol Catty Purry Brand.
.
I wish, I wish I were Daisy from Great Gatsby
It seemed to begin when I was a kid in middle school. I couldn't wait to get to the ninth grade so I could be all grown up like the seniors. They had mustaches, cars, and girls fawning all over them. But a strange thing happened, and I saw and noticed it in slow motion. Neither I nor my classmates were ever getting any older. We were the same people being promoted through the grades. The older kids left school never to be seen again, so there was no direct comparison. But in my I remember thinking that by the 9th grade, there was no real noticeable change. Sure, there was progression. We didn't freeze in time. What I mean is, we didn't become them. The 7th graders did NOT grow up to look like the 9th graders of our youth. What was going on? It might all be perspective, but everyone began to notice.
There must be a "self"! Or else who's writing -- and who's reading? - There is a self, an atta or atman. Touch your chest; there's the self. It does no good to think, "Is there a 'self' or is there not a 'self'?" What is useful is to ask,What is the nature of that "self" that for sure is existing right here right now?
It is (as impossible as it will ever actually be to believe but actually possible to see) utterly impersonal. This is why Buddhism is not a faith.
CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS "NOT SELF" BUSINESS? IT SEEMS LIKE A JOKE. - Yes. It is possible to explain with an analogy. Let's say I say, "There's no such thing as a 'car.'" Then pointing you'll say, "You're crazy. It's right there! They're everywhere. Cased closed!"
But I'll say, "I didn't say there isn't anything that looks like a 'car.' The illusion exists, and it's quite useful to designate assemblages of things and cling to them as real entities, but the fact is -- in an ultimate sense -- there is no such thing as a car. You might ask, "What is there then?"
To that I will point to all the parts that, when put together, give the illusion of a new thing coming into existence. It sure seems to come into existence. It can do things the parts couldn't, and conventionally speaking, it is new to existence. But it never really makes it. It is unreal, an illusion.
"What's the proof?" you say.
I say, "Let's take it apart and find it." We proceed to disassemble the whole assemblage, and when we come to the last two pieces and separate them, do you think a 'car' will fall out?
No, it was never like that!
Exactly! And what was it like? Let's say a car is composed of 5,000 pieces but really only needs five (5): wheels, frame, motor, steering wheel, and brake. Is there a 'car' in there, or do these exist independently?
They exist independently. We don't need those particular pieces. Any set of wheels, frame, motor, steering device, and brake will do.
Do you see? The 'car' does not come into being and, of course, never goes out of being, in an ultimate sense. An illusion arises, and an illusion goes away, and this "illusion" is a convenient descriptor of that assemblage.
I don't get it.
Let's make it easier. Fire does not exist.
That's easier?
Yeah, because now you can point and say, "You're crazy. That's it right there. There's fire everywhere. Case closed!"
I will then counter by pointing out that what we call "fire," what we regard as real and existing and being "fire," is actually an illusion that arises utterly dependent on five factors.
What five? It is just one thing, a fundamental element!
Not at all. The five (and there can be more, but let's keep it to five fundamental ingredients which, when present, reliably give the persistent illusion of fire): fuel, heat, oxygen, wick, and the mysterious process-of-combustion. (We can go on and on analyzing "fire" into parts, but the one thing that is sure is that it is all parts, not a compact thing in itself).
How do we know that?
We know that because when present, Bam! The illusion arises. When any is missing, the illusion goes away. Put the five together (in a functionally coordinated way) and there it is, "fire." Take any way, and where has it gone? Where does fire go when it goes out?
Up? No, I don't know, into oblivion?
Does it wait in oblivion to come back? Because, let's say we remove oxygen, it will go right out. Add the oxygen back, and it will roar back. Where was it in the meantime?
It was not anywhere. It does not actually "go" out. It becomes unmanifested.
It becomes nonexistent, except it doesn't really come into and go out of existence either. It just seems to. Why? Because it is conditionally originated, that is, dependently originated. When this is, that comes to be. When that is not, it does not come to be.
Oh, I kinda get it. I don't believe it! I think people, and fire, and cars are real. Real REAL.
Can you begin to see, however, how and why someone might say they're unreal?
Not really. That's crazy.
It's crazy to our conventional way of worrying and needing to cling to illusions. But let's say we wanted to be free of illusions, then wouldn't it be great to disillusion ourselves?
Disillusion?
Awaken, enlighten, clearly see what's really there?
Well, yeah, sure if we could be sure that that really is the Truth.
We can. The Buddha saw it, pointed to it, and invited us to come and see, to clearly see the Truth, not to believe him or anyone else. We with our own purified and intensified eyes, heart, mind could come and see. Where is the car before the parts-of-a-car are assembled?
It isn't anywhere.
Where will it go when disassembled again?
It won't "go" anywhere.
Now you're getting it! It doesn't come or go because it was never really what it seemed to be. Illusion arises, that's for sure, and the illusion of the loss of it, that, too, is sure. But it isn't reality.
Why would anybody talk like this?
One (such as the Awakened One, the historical Buddha) would talk like this because we are clinging to pain (suffering, distress, disappointment) and the unreal. He wanted to move us to reality, and that means waking up to what's REALLY there and what's been there all along.
What's that?
Self and not-self.
Aha! So there is a self?
Yes, conventionally speaking. But ultimately speaking, no. There is no self.
You're crazy. It's right there. I'm pointing at it. Case closed.
And what are you pointing at?
At you, Dummy! I can also point to myself, Smarty.
Good, good. I say you're pointing at a body.
Well, sure, but within that body there's a soul, and that's the self!
Good, very good. The body is an illusion; you can see that much. Now let me disassemble the soul/self you're sure is in there. What are the components of "self"?
There are no components! It's a highly mysterious fusiform whale carcass thingy with feelings.
Ha ha ha. There is a body; that's one thing, but it is no thing. It is components. We can disassemble, reassemble, add, subtract, but still it's just a functional assemblage of parts. The "self" is partly that and partly four other things.
Things? What things?
Invisible things -- feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and a mysterious process we call consciousness. Whatever else we want to add to "self," it is at least these fundamental five things, these Five Aggregates clung to as "self."
Oh. I think I'm starting to see. You're not crazy, but you're speaking dangerously. Aren't you afraid you're going to vanish in a puff of unsmoke for talking like this?
What would vanish, the illusion? I'd be glad to get rid of it. It has cause incalculable misery (dukkha) and disappointment, chasing after things for it, never being able to satisfy or fulfill it. Ah, to be free!
Free of "self"?
No, free of the persistent illusion of "self" traveling and rearising life after life in this samsara, this Wheel of Rebirth, of Life and Death, of endless suffering (unsatisfactoriness)!
Yeah, I guess that would be good, but what about taking rebirth in a permanent heaven and having a good time all the time till the end of time?
Nice alternative, but it doesn't exist. The longest most enduring heavens all come to an end eventually. It may take a great aeon (maha-kalpa), but beings (dynamic becomings) fall away to continue on according to their just desserts which we call karma. And because of greed, hatred, and delusion (lust, aversion, and ignorance), our many unskillful deeds in pursuit of things will yield many painful results for a long, long time. It would be far better to awaken to the Truth.
Well, I won't argue with that. But who can say what the "Truth" is?
The Awakened One, the Buddha, and those enlightened ones who have awakened by practicing the Teaching (the Dharma) of the Awakened One(s).
Faith (saddha, confidence, truth, conviction) is useful but not nearly as important as a shamanistic attitude to actually come see the Buddha's Teaching, investigate it, and confirm it. It won't liberate us because it's true; it will liberate us because we PRACTICED whether or not we "believed" (had faith) in advance. Better to doubt and question AND practice than to completely "believe" and not practice.
Modern Buddhists try to explain this away by various analogies, many of which amount to Hinduism with different gods and bodhisattvas. It's actually very easy to grasp intellectually and not be confused, almost impossible to accept, as if by accepting we would instantly disappear in a puff of unsmoke (as in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). We will not. The habitual tendency or "conceit" (māna) to conceive, think, and speak in terms of I-and-other is very strong and not easily wiped away, but actually wiping it away is key to awakening from illusion and clinging and suffering. It is the missing key to enlightenment.
Even Mahayana, which often speaks like a school of Hinduism, could understand this if it only paid attention to its most prized and popular discourse, the Heart Sutra. It's not about love, feelings, and emotions; it's about getting to the heart of wisdom through the perfection of wisdom.
What is there if not a self/soul? - There are Five Aggregates clung to as self. - Who clings?! - The aggregates, steeped in ignorance, cling and have aversion/fear. Released from the illusion (disillusioned), there is freedom and realization that the ultimate Truth was always true. - How does [the illusion of] self arise? - It comes about through Dependent Origination.
Talking about "Emptiness" (Śūnyatā) and "Suchness" (Tathātā) obscures the fact that what the Five Aggregates clung to as self are devoid of is an abiding, enduring HEART, core, essence. Conditioned things do not last even one moment because in the sub-moments there is arising, turning, and falling away. This is true at a submicroscopic level of atoms (kalapas) and mind-moments (cittas), mind and body, name and form.
And this is great news because to really see it, even for a moment, transforms the heart/mind, releases us from illusion, as we are able to effortlessly let go of clinging and be free through the perfection of wisdom, the direct experience of the Truth.
This does not happen by accident. It happens by higher training.
Erin Brockovich, WQ: ABJ racked up another million views.
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Rumer Willis doesn't mind if you see her breastfeeding her baby, Lou. And her sister Scout doesn't mind if you see her breasts/nipples even when she's not. Rumer's trying to get our attention about the dangers of common TOXIC toilet paper. [Switch to a bidet ASAP.]
Until switching there's a softer, stronger, smarter choice. PlantPaper is one company's response to an industry and a [poor] hygienic practice in dire need of an update. [That's where the bidet saves the day, using pure water.]
When this company first began developing PlantPaper in 2016, it knew it wouldn’t be enough just to make a cleaner toilet paper; it had to be a better toilet paper—a toilet paper the creators of the company themselves would want to use—a trade-up, not a trade-off, a toilet paper without compromise.
[What to make it with since you don't seem to be getting off yer arse 'n gettin the message that a bidet is the way to go? Mmm, why not use material better than toxic wood pulp?]
Hey, what if we were to use bamboo?
Ah, I feel so much cleaner now.
The more bamboo is harvested, the faster it grows. A bamboo grove may be able to produce as much as 10 times more usable fiber for paper than a tree forest of equivalent size.
Bamboo stores up to 40% of its carbon underground, carbon that remains intact even when it’s harvested. [There's a better choice.] plantpaper.us
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In one Jewish tradition, the Prophet Mo (Moses) is transported by one of his tribal Gods to the study hall of Rabbi Akiva, where he is confused by the future evolution of Jewish law.
