Dalai Lama: Things are not as they appear

What?! Only I, John Oliver of Last Week Tonight, have understood you, Dalai Lama?

Why things are not as they appear, explained by the 14th Dalai Lama

• What is the true nature of existence or reality?

(Bhikkhu Bodhi) American Theravada scholar-monk gives Buddhist perspective of reality

(The Royal Institution) The neuroscience of consciousness with Anil Seth

Why the world is the way it is: POWER

Macho soldiers engage in rampant homosexuality to bond, and the US military encourages it?

(Prof Jiang Uncut) The anti-love system destroying modern society | Prof. Jiang Xueqin

• Jewish false flag operation: Lavon Affair for nukes

Zionist Fox News Jewish Republican Mark Levin dubbed Trump "our first Jewish president."

(Prof Jiang Uncut) The complete non-antisemitic story of Jews | Prof. Jiang Xueqin

(Discover Connection) I lived 72 hours with Hasidic Jews in New York: not what I expected

Israeli 'child sacrifice' continues today to maintain unity through atrocities?

• Protests in Israel/Gaza War – Human Rights & Public Liberties
• What are the Hasidic Jews of New York all about?
• Pro-Palestinian protestors march through London for 18th time as they chant 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free' - as pro-Israeli counter-demo calls for release of Hamas hostages after four were freed by IDF | Daily Mail Online

Humans did NOT build Great Tartaria

Were the "Tartarians" giants compared to us?

(Tartarian Atlas) Why humans couldn't have built these Tartarian cathedrals

• Greater Tartaria, Tartary?
• On January 6, 1858, The Raftsman Journal published an intriguing article called Antiquities in America, discussing many of the ruins and structures [found] around this continent that have not been discussed by official history... Source: onenewspage.com

There are real "giants" living in Dubai, Middle East?

Poverty is used to control us: FREE money!

(Prof Jiang Uncut) Why [the powers that be] created poverty to control us | Prof. Jiang Xueqin

Free money! Just take it

The Heavy Money Experiment

• What is "fiat" money? Money from nothing: fiat money
• Money is NOT scarce. There's an infinite amount in banks
• What is the theory of centralized banking?
• Central bank digital currencies by country

Science 'films' HAPPINESS in brain

Better living through (natural) chemistry

There's a chemical in dark chocolate (real Theobroma cacao) related to happiness and good sensations. It's also present in mary-jah-wanna, which probably explains why consumers get so clingy and attached to using the herbal substance. This naturally occurring chemical is called anandamide. Ananda, of course, is the name of the Buddha's closest friend and monastic attendant (likely his son with Mriga from before the birth of Rahula with his wife Yasodhara (aka Bimba Devi, according to some Buddhist schools). In Sanskrit and Pali anand means "bliss, joy, rapture." The suffix amide is added: In the usual nomenclature, one adds the term "amide" to the stem of the parent acid's name. For instance, the amide derived from acetic acid is named acetamide (CH3CONH2).

• The Bliss Molecule: Why the Anandamine in Chocolate Makes Us Feel So Good

Now, one might be wondering, “What on earth is anandamide, and why should I care?” Well, pull up a chair and grab a square of dark chocolate, because we’re about to embark on a flavor-filled journey into the world of neuroscience and cocoa chemistry. Anandamide, derived from the Sanskrit word ananda, meaning “bliss or joy,” is a naturally occurring compound in our brains. It’s part of the endocannabinoid system, a complex network that helps regulate various bodily functions, including mood, appetite, and pain sensation. In essence, anandamide is the brain’s very own mood-enhancing, stress-busting superhero. But how does this marvelous molecule work its magic? When anandamide binds to specific receptors in our brains, it triggers a cascade of feel-good effects. More

Buddha's Brain: Neuroscience of Happiness

Happiness is literally an inside job, according to scientific materialism, which believes that we are nothing more than material constructs and that the miracle of consciousness is but an epiphenomenon following on the interaction of material objects like cells, chemicals, molecules, and ever smaller atom, electrons, and quarks.

Organized religion errs on the side of spiritualism, believing us to be a "soul," "spirit," or "magical subtlety." These three things are real, but they are not the self any more than consciousness is.

There is nama rupa, "name" (the instructions) and "form" (the carrying out of those instructions in the material sphere). But self (atta) is not that. How else could it be? If it not one, it has to be the other, unless it is both? It is both both and neither.

What we regard as "self" (soul, ego) is mind-and-body, but though mental and physical processes exist and are active, they do not amount to a concrete "self."

The "self" that exists is dependent, temporary, ephemeral subject to Three Characteristics of All Conditioned Things: they are impermanent, incapable of satiating/fulfilling, and are impersonal.

This last characteristic is the one that is impossible to believe, but it is the key to awakening/enlightenment in the Buddha's teaching.

We can see that all things are impermanent, in flux, constantly changing, undependable. We can see that we have never been fulfilled for long; we experience great pleasure but remain hungry, in many cases becoming more hungry for newer and better pleasures.

IF THERE IS NO SELF, WHAT IS THERE THEN? The Buddha answered this question in terms of Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppāda). And it is on account of not seeing this, not grasping, not penetrating this that we have wandered so long in this painful samsara.

Will we fall under the spell of scient-ism, run to religion for shelter, or begin to see what the Buddha was getting at when he encouraged us to strive for calm and liberating-insight?

"Science can prove what it says." Can it? It redefines "happiness" as an endorphin then shows a peptide "walking," and viola, nonmaterialistic Buddhism is wrong? That's how it might seem, but it is not the case. We must look more deeply. Science fails us. And coming and seeing and investigating what the Buddha taught liberates us. Try it.

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

Preface by Jack Kornfield

(Paperback) Authors Dr. Rick Hanson Ph.D. and Dr. Richard Mendius, MD (with preface by Jack Kornfield and foreword by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, MD) have 4.7 out of 5 stars (with 2,019 reviews).

Change your brain, change your life with this essential classic from New York Times bestselling author Dr. Rick Hanson—now celebrating 15 years in print with more than 500,000 copies sold.

Great teachers like the historical Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, and Gandhi were all born with brains built essentially like everyone else’s—and then they changed their brains in ways that changed the world.

Neuroscience now reveals how the flow of thoughts actually sculpts the brain. More and more, we are learning that it’s possible to strengthen positive brain states.

By combining breakthroughs in science with insights from thousands of years of mindfulness practice, we too can shape our own “Buddha’s Brain” for greater happiness, love, and wisdom. 

Buddha’s Brain draws on evidence-based neuroscience to show readers how to stimulate their brains for

• more fulfilling relationships,
• a deeper spiritual life, and
• a greater sense of inner confidence and self-worth.

Using guided meditations and mindfulness exercises, learn how to activate the brain states of calm, joy, and compassion instead of worry, sorrow, and anger.

Most importantly, anyone who implements these practices will foster positive psychological growth that will literally change the way life is lived day-to-day.

This book provides an essential intersection of psychology, neurology, and contemplative practice. It’s filled with practical tools and skills useful every day to tap into the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater well-being. More

Why did Buddhism vanish from India?

Who's next Pope? Trump or Peter the Roman?

No girls allowed! Promise, Peter, my Rock? - I promise, Savior, no girls allowed (wiki).

Who will be the next pope? Some of the top possible candidates

This is why everyone's googling "Peter the Roman" (Cowboy Good Ol' Boy Buddy Brown)

Hey, can I be the next pope? - Get real, Don. -
C'mon, Jorgie, who cares? Can I be Antipope?

(CBS News) April 26, 2025: Who will be the next pope? Here's a look at some of the top possible papal candidates as the cardinals prepare for the papal conclave (Latin for "with key," i.e., "behind locked doors"), which will take place in early May, likely after Cinco de Mayo. They promise to start on May 7, 2025.

• Is Archbishop of Hungary Péter Erdő the Roman?

Who is "Peter the Roman"?

Archbishop Peter (Erdo) the Roman?

Hungary is a landlocked Central European country not far from Italy (ancient Rome). Spanning much of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west.

Hungary lies within the drainage basin of the Danube River and is dominated by great lowland plains. It has a population of 9.6 million, consisting mostly of ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority.

I'm not the Devil. I'm Pope

Hungarian is the official language; it is among the few in Europe that lies outside the Indo-European family of languages [13].

Budapest is the country's capital and its largest city, the dominant cultural and economic center [14, 15]. Prior to the foundation of the Hungarian state, various peoples settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, including the Romans, Celts, Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars, and Slavs.

Hungarian statehood is traced to the Principality of Hungary, which was established in the late 9th century by Álmos and his son Árpád through the conquest of the Carpathian Basin [16, 17].

King Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000 and forcibly converted his realm into a Christian kingdom.

Map of Hungary, next to Italy = Rome

The medieval Kingdom of Hungary was a European power, reaching its height in the Late Middle Ages [18]. More Could anyone from modern Hungary be reasonably referred to as a "Roman"? If so and such a person bore the name "Peter," that would make that man "Peter the Roman" for predictive purposes, making Saint Malachy close enough in his ancient prediction.

(Starkey Farmstead) 1,000 year prophecy explained: Peter the Roman

COMMENTARY

Buddy knows this Rat' is Pope Benedict, right?

The funniest thing about the upcoming papal conclave is the FACT that anyone can be installed as pope. One only has to have been confirmed as a Catholic after First Communion, which doesn't actually mean one has to be a Catholic, just in official records. One could be confirmed now, before beginning. One could be the most popular kind of Catholic: Lapsed. Unlapse or say you're back. Oh, yeah, though -- most Catholics don't qualify. Boys only. It's an Old Boys' Club. It's the original corporation, all top-down hierarchy and a strict Patriarchy. Even though it can be anyone, the cardinals always pick a fellow cardinal. Go figure.

• Prophecy of the Popes: Petrus Romanus (aka a dark skinned "Peter the Roman"?) Says who? Says Irish Catholic Saint Malachy: Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus (the "Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs")

Fake white supremacy masks for Western church

Never mind the Virgin Mary. Like the name of a ship, most of which are by convention named after females, she's just for show. Anyway, it has already been decided, and this conclave business is all for show. Heard about the smoke? The color of it will tell if it's black or white. Isn't that a lovely imperial Roman custom? Who knew the Holy (See) Roman Empire (religious arm), as part of the Ring of Power and the Empire of the City, still ruled the world alongside Washington DC (military arm) and London's high-street (financial arm)?

Why do they say Francis was fake? (rense.com)

CBS News 24/7 is the self-aggrandizing anchored streaming news service from CBS News and Stations that is available free to everyone with access to the internet and is the destination for breaking news, live events, original reporting and storytelling, and programs from CBS News and Stations' top anchors and correspondents working locally, nationally, and around the plane of the earth. It is available on more than 30 platforms across mobile, desktop, and connected TVs for free, as well as CBSNews.com and Paramount+ and live in 91 countries.

• CBS News, April 26, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Four Beatles remain: reunion time?

What in the world do you mean four? Half are gone, and there were only ever five. The Fifth Beatle (Brian Epstein or any of the others) didn't even play, just managed.

He can manage again, if he's around. There's the real Paul McCarthy living a peaceful life in England:

The REAL Paul McCartney with Beatles tourists in England

There's pretty boy Pete Best still cashing checks for a little sessions work, replacement Ringo Starkey doing everything he can to prove he was a Beatle after all, like this great song:

And there's Fake Paul, touring and making speeches like always:

The son of Yoko "Chuck Berry Fan" Ono and John Lennon, Julian, the inspiration for the song "Hey Jude." That's more than enough to reform and go out on tour, maybe even make a few mega mass selling singles with the help of AI, psychics (in touch with George and John in the beyond), and old found tapes that can be developed into something:

• Seth Auberon, Sheldon S., Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

Math Goddess: 'Man Who Knew Infinity'

Tridevi: Sarasvati, Lakshmi (aka Namagiri Thayar), and Parvati (Divine Feminine)

.

The Man Who Knew Infinity (Free w/ads PG-13)

(YouTube Movies & TV) Based on a true story, Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel star in this inspirational film about an obscure Indian mathematician whose groundbreaking theories changed mathematics forever.

The Goddess told me these secrets.

• If the genius author (the modern rishi Srinivasa Ramanujan) is to be taken at his word, it is not his genius but that of his Hindu Goddess Namagiri Thayar who imparted pure math knowledge and insights. She is said to be an avatar or incarnation of Lakshmi Narayana, though the titular goddess of knowledge and learning in the Hindu pantheon is said to be the great Saraswati (who together with Parvati and Lakshmi form a trinity known as Tridevi).

Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar[a] (Dec. 22, 1887–April 26, 1920) was an Indian mathematician often regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He had almost no formal training in pure mathematics. Yet, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable. Ramanujan initially developed his own mathematical research in isolation. According to Hans Eysenck, "he tried to interest the leading professional mathematicians in his work, but failed for the most part. What he had to show them was too novel, too unfamiliar, and additionally presented in unusual ways; they could not be bothered." More

• The Man Who Knew Infinity is a 2015 British biographical dramatic film about the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, based on the 1991 book of the same name by Robert Kanigel. The film stars Dev Patel as the real-life mathematician who, after growing up poor in Madras, India, earns admittance to England's Cambridge University during World War I, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G. H. Hardy, portrayed by Jeremy Irons.
• [The Westernized] history of mathematics
• Why when I search best mathematicians, it's always Europeans and maybe one or two Indians or Persians? Ethnocentrism?
• Indian mathematics
• Jantar Mantar, New Delhi
• Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world

A new theory of everything emerges

Fraulein Sabine, authors did not account for my quote on Buddhism so could not see big picture

A new theory of everything just dropped

(Wisecrack) The philosophy of Everything Everywhere All At Once, a kind of "theory of everything"

(Sabine Hossenfelder) Sept. 9, 2024: Queen Sabine got a bunch of requests to comment on a new attempt at a theory of everything (unified field theory) that supposedly combines quantum physics with general relativity.

She had a look, a laugh, and this quick comment: It's basically a first reaction since she didn't get very far into the paper, as viewers will see. She is sorry if she appears unkind, but this kind of junk science really p*ss*s her off. It's junk, worse than junk, not peer reviewed by assigned reviewers, not even copyedited (corrected for simple errors), just "cr*p,"

🤓 See the paper here, nerds: sciencedirect.com/science...

Sabine, you don't believe in freewill? So they had to write it and you pan it?

Check out Mean Sabine's new quiz app, Dummkopfs ➜ quizwithit.com. 💌 Support her on DonorBox ➜ donorbox.org/swtg 📝 Transcripts and written news on Substack ➜ sciencewtg.substack.com 👉 Transcript with links to references on Patreon ➜ sabine 📩 Free weekly science newsletter ➜ sabinehossenfelder.com/newsle... 👂 Audio only podcast ➜ open.spotify.com/show/0MkNfXl... 🔗 Join this channel to get access to perks ➜ @sabinehossenfelder 🖼️ On instagram ➜ sciencewtg

✪ Members first on September 9, 2024 #science #sciencenews #physics. Learn maths and science on Brilliant! Use this link and get the first 30 days free, plus get 20% off an annual premium subscription ➜ brilliant.org/sabine.

Before Big Bang: science has new theory

.

What happened before the Big Bang?

It's not really space. But enjoy this artist's rendering as if it were (Shutterstock/Live Science)

.

(Live Science) The Big Bang is commonly thought of as the start of it all: About 13.8 billion years ago, the observable universe went boom and expanded [popped] into being. [It did not expand into something, as there was nothing to expand into prior to that.]

But what were things like before the Big Bang? Short answer: We don't know. Long answer: It could have been a lot of things, each mind-bending in its own way.

• Meanwhile, in Religion News: Oklahoma school officials revolt over MAGA superintendent's new Bible mandate (Everyone in public school must read, believe, and revere this Book and no other!!!)

The Buddha (Gandhara)

[What was the universe/multiverse like before the before? Only the Buddha knows, and some high-plane devas, and the people he told, and the rishis or "seers" of the Vedas and other knowledge books, given what they saw and were told by extraterrestrial visitors to the Indus Valley Civilization, Emperor Ashoka's Bharat/India. Science does not really want to know for knowing's sake but to argue and posit and prove with the evidence it finds convincing, never mind the actual Truth. Because what if the answer is too weird, like this all being a samsaric simulation, a trap, an endless cycle of karma and becoming in a loop, like Neitzche's nightmare scenario?]

• Related: How massive is the Milky Way?
• Dark day for freedom: Librarians outraged at Utah's statewide ban of 13 beloved books
• One of the universe's biggest paradoxes could be even weirder than we thought, James Webb telescope study reveals
• Anyone looking for answers in Buddhism's Agganna Sutta, "A Buddhist Genesis" or "On Beginnings," will not find it there, as that discourse deals with how human life began on Earth (except in the view of one Buddhist scholar-monk who cheers for a scientific explanation implicit in the symbols of an allegory in his book Dhamma Aboard Evolution).

In the beginning

The first thing to understand is what the Big Bang actually was. "The Big Bang is a moment in time, not a point in space," said Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech.edu) and author of The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself (Dutton, 2016).

• [It is dumb for science to say there was a Big Bang and then define it as they do. It is like saying, "Religion and spirituality are stupid because they believe in miracles. We don't. So just give us this one miracle at the beginning, unexplained and inexplicable, and we promise not to resort to any more miracles after that. We'll explain everything else and define what is an isn't reality with reason and constructs hammered out by mere reasoning and then constantly update that picture with new ideas, theories, and assumptions, never getting anywhere but having fun and making lots of money along the way, unlike those stupid religionists and magicians talking their nonsense and mysticism.]
• Stern opposition faced in Deep Red States pushing Christianity in public schools
• Space photo of the week: Milky Way's galactic twin captured by dark energy camera

[There's a new beginning! It's called the Big Bounce, which isn't exactly new

The gods did it.

The Big Bang may not have been the beginning of the universe, according to a theory of cosmology that suggests the universe can “bounce” between phases of contraction and expansion. If that theory is true, then it could have profound implications about the nature of the cosmos, including two of its most mysterious components -- black holes and dark matter.

With this in mind, a recent study suggests that dark matter could be composed of black holes formed during a transition from the universe's last contraction to the current expansion phase, which occurred before the Big Bang.

You can be happy. Here's how. Grab some paper

If this hypothesis holds, the gravitational waves generated during the black hole formation process might be detectable by future gravitational wave observatories, providing a way to confirm this dark matter generation scenario. (Ergo, we just figured out a way to make a lot more money, funding new kinds of super-expensive observatories. And while we're at it, we need a bigger electron collider.)

Observations of stellar movements in galaxies and the cosmic microwave background — an afterglow of the Big Bang — indicate that about 80% of all matter in the universe is dark matter, a substance that doesn't reflect, absorb, or emit light (even though it's all around us, not just off in deep space where we can't see it because it's so far away).

Oh, Buddha, give me some insight it all.

Despite its abundance, scientists have not yet identified what dark matter is made of. In the new study, researchers explored a scenario where dark matter consists of primordial black holes formed from density fluctuations that occurred during the universe's last contraction phase, not long before the period of expansion that we observe now.

They published their findings in June in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. More:

• UPDATE: New theory! Throw the old science books in the trash: The universe had a SECRET LIFE before the Big Bang, new study hints]

[Back to the old theory]

Demiurge: Check it out, Chugs. Quiick, give me your lighter. I'm going to create something.

(Family Guy) God (Demiurge) created the universe

Thus, it's possible that the universe at the Big Bang was teeny-tiny or infinitely large, Carroll said, because there’s no way to look back in time at the stuff we can’t even see today.

• [Dumb. All we do is look back. And there are ways of looking back, not to mention the beings who were there when it happened because the universe, this universe, is far older. And we live in a multiverse. And it is possible to know things by direct perception, but that requires purification of mind and development of the dibba cakkhu or "divine eye," the human capacity to exhibit marvelous powers of perception, even us, even now.]

All we really know is that it [It? What? The pre-universe, something was preexisting?] was very, very dense and that it very quickly got less dense.

• Hey, Everybody, sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now. Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to an inbox. By submitting your information, you agree to be legally bound to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16+.

As a corollary, there really isn't anything outside the universe, because the universe is, by definition, everything.

• [Unless we mean the multiverse, but they're separate, except for trans-dimensional travelers who have found a way to break through to other dimensions and universes, but they haven't told us how to do it, I mean they've told us, but they haven't gotten it published in a peer-reviewed journal of our liking and raked over the coals by friends of ours in the elite circles of The Academy who are gatekeepers to keep Truth and the riff-raff out, so until then there is just no way to be outside the All which is the Everything and the only Reality that we know of and can ever know.]

Question. Answer. I've got it!

So at the Big Bang, everything was denser and hotter than it is now, but there was no more an "outside" of it than there is today. As tempting as it is to take a godlike view and imagine you could stand in a void and look at the scrunched-up baby universe right before the Big Bang, that would be impossible, Carroll said.

The universe didn't expand into space; space [you know, that stuff that is nothing but holds everything, defined as the delimiting distance between things, yeah, that stuff] itself expanded.

"No matter where you are in the universe, if you trace yourself back 14 billion years, you come to this point where it was extremely hot, dense, and rapidly expanding," he said.

No one knows exactly what was happening in the universe until 1 second after the Big Bang, when the universe cooled off enough for protons and neutrons to collide and stick together.

Many scientists [that we approve of and never mind the others] do think that the universe went through a process of exponential expansion called inflation during that first second. This would have smoothed out the fabric of space-time and could explain why matter is so evenly distributed in the universe today.

Before the bang

Secret life before the BIG bang

It's possible that before the Big Bang, the universe was an infinite stretch of an ultrahot, dense material, persisting in a steady state until, for some reason, the Big Bang occurred.

This extra-dense universe [the previous universe before the current universe] may have been governed by quantum mechanics, the physics of the extremely small scale, Carroll said.

The Big Bang, then, would have represented the moment that classical physics took over as the major driver of the universe's evolution. [What is Quantum Mechanics?]

Try hedonism. I liked it.

For [horndog atheist] Stephen Hawking, this moment was all that mattered: Before the Big Bang, he said, events are unmeasurable, and thus undefined. Hawking called this the no-boundary proposal: Time and space, he said, are finite, but they don’t have any boundaries or starting or ending points, the same way that the planet Earth is finite but has no edge.

"Since events before the Big Bang have no observational consequences, one may as well cut them out of the theory and say that time began at the Big Bang," he said in an interview on the National Geographic show "StarTalk" in 2018.

Or perhaps there was something else before the Big Bang that's worth pondering. One idea is that the Big Bang isn't the beginning of time, but rather that it was a moment of symmetry.

In this idea, prior to the Big Bang, there was another universe, identical to this one but with entropy increasing toward the past instead of toward the future. Increasing entropy, or increasing disorder in a system, is essentially the arrow of time, Carroll said, so in this mirror universe, time would run opposite to time in the modern universe and our universe would be in the past.

• [Strangely, the mathematical functions and Einstein's equations do not have an arrow and therefore time can run in either direction without violating math rules or fundamental quantum mechanics, what with retro-causation even being shown to possibly exist.]

E Questions, Buddha Answers

Proponents of this theory also suggest that other properties of the universe would be flip-flopped in this mirror universe.

For example, physicist David Sloan wrote in the University of Oxford Science Blog, asymmetries in molecules and ions (called chiralities) would be in opposite orientations to what they are in our universe.

A related theory holds that the Big Bang wasn't the beginning of everything, but rather a moment in time when the universe switched from a period of contraction to a period of expansion.

• [Ah, this would be in line with Buddhist and Vedic cosmology and the views of the other Dharmic religions, which speak of periods of expansion and contraction within a great aeon or maha yuga, a staggering period of time humans had no business imagining if it were not for space beings filling their minds with explanations of what goes on out there in boundless reaches of space known as the akasha deva loka or "world of light beings in the sky."]

This "Big Bounce" notion suggests that there could be infinite Big Bangs as the universe expands, contracts, and expands again.

• [Ah, now we're getting somewhere, and the Indian books of the subcontinent have been reaching Western scientists by various means after all. This is exactly what the East posits, not a finite first point or cause, but only cycling that neither has a need for a beginning nor any end in sight. There is. And when is it? Now, the eternal now.]

The problem with these ideas, Carroll said, is that there's no explanation [that I know of] for why or how an expanding universe would contract and return to a low-entropy state. [But, of course, I haven't read the ancient texts, have I?]

Let's send this one up and see if it flies.

Carroll and his colleague Jennifer Chen have their own pre-Big Bang vision.

In 2004, the physicists suggested that perhaps the universe as we know it is the offspring of a parent universe from which a bit of space-time has ripped off.

It's like a radioactive nucleus decaying, Carroll said: When a nucleus decays, it spits out an alpha or beta particle. The parent universe could do the same thing, except instead of particles, it spits out baby universes, perhaps infinitely.

"It's just a quantum fluctuation that lets it happen," Carroll said. These baby universes are "literally parallel universes," Carroll said, and don't interact with or influence one another.

If that all sounds rather trippy [then you have been smoking 5-MeO-DMT or regular DMT or], it is — because scientists don't yet have a way to peer back to even the instant of the Big Bang, much less what came before it.

There's room to explore, though, Carroll said. The detection of gravitational waves from powerful galactic collisions in 2015 opens the possibility that these waves could be used to solve fundamental mysteries about the universes' expansion in that first crucial second.

Theoretical physicists also have work to do, Carroll said, like making more-precise predictions about how quantum forces like quantum gravity might work.

"We don't even know what we're looking for," Carroll said, "until we have a theory."

• When you purchase through links on Live Science's site, they may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how that works.
• Does the Earth rotate? Why does the Earth rotate?
• How did the Milky Way get its white name?
• Black holes are awesome [fearsome, but they should live away from the Milky Way in their own neighborhoods] and why are their names usually so boring?
• 33 pictures straight out of the 1950s (Ebaum's World)
• Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience, April 17, 2019: Chugs and the Editors, Wisdom Quarterly (fluffed, interpreted, and debunked for readers)