I can relate to this - I was driving between Scotch Corner and Penrith on my way home from Catterick. During one of the dual carriageway sections, I was overtaking a truck when another truck was joining.
This was strange as it was like I seen all this happen as if I had an eye where my left ear is. Then where the paved bit disappeared into the metal central reservation on my right, I accelerate, steered into that narrow gap thereby avoiding getting flattened, and punched out just ahead of the truck who clearly hadn’t noticed me when he moved to my lane to let the other truck merge.
I’ll never forget that, it was weird, as if something took over my hands and feet to get me out of that situation, as I certainly took no deliberate, conscious action.
Very well done there, and you put it really well - better than me! This bit:
"I’ll never forget that, it was weird, as if something took over my hands and feet to get me out of that situation, as I certainly took no deliberate, conscious action."
That's exactly how it was for me with my motorcycle incident. Once out of it, it was almost like a dream.
In fact, years back when I was probably 17 or so, on a motorcycle, I was on a country lane and somehow managed to end up on the verge and literally went over the ditch and back, absolutely horrifying, and I should have come off... but no, got back on the road as if nothing had happened. Again, no deliberate action, somehow my subconscious got me out of a bad fix.
It’s a subject I have long being fascinated with, the simulation theory that is.
There are highly respected academic physicists who postulate that reality is like the frequency dial on a radio. Given that the atoms that make up everything in the physical universe are 99.9% empty space, and even great minds like Einstein said that reality is but an illusion (albeit a very persistent one), I am minded to agree with them.
I had yet another fascinating experience not long after this. I was serving in Iraq when I happened to find myself in my family home. My cousin who was staying with my parents for the commute to her university, was busily preening herself in the big mirror in the front hallway. Despite my efforts, I could not get her attention.
My mother was working at a pc in the office off this hallway - again, I could not get her attention, she could neither hear nor see me.
I slipped into the living room at the back of the home, and the two family Labradors went absolutely bananas! They could certainly see me. It was at this point I thought to myself, oh brilliant. Somethings done me in then. I’m dead!
Then there was this brilliant flash of white light, and I woke up back in Iraq. I don’t know exactly what to make of it - if it was merely a dream, it’s the most vivid one I’ve ever had in my 40 plus years. If not, perhaps in another universe or dimension of reality, one of the insurgents mortar rounds landed right on top of me, and the consciousness I’m using to type these words slipped from that dimension into this one. Yet in that dimension of course, I am dead, yet here, I’m alive…
A few months prior to this, I was on a live fire exercise in Canada. I was alone on watch one night, and a deep melancholy took over me. I tried to end it there and then. I made my rifle ready, pointed the barrel at myself and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, so I jacked in a new round while my nerve held. Same result.
The next day I told my quartermaster I thought my rifle was broken. When he asked why I thought this was, I realised I couldn’t actually tell him why! But later that day on the ranges, it worked absolutely as it was intended to, without a single stoppage. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that rifle.
So yes. I am very open minded and aware that there is highly likely something playing out beyond the ken of men. Whatever our individual beliefs are, there is certainly something tangible, some wonder beyond the veil of this reality, this physical world as we know it. Perhaps with the physical limitations of the human brain, we aren’t meant to understand it while we’re here? After all, it’s not much of a test if you have all the answers in front of you, I suppose.
Do you fancy having a chat on a podcast? All this would be really good. Here on Substack you can do Live and it's video, and gets saved to Drafts too, so can publish it for those that missed the Live. All this is right up my street! Haha - probably because I've always loved science fiction... and saying that Clif High calls his podcasts and videos "Sci-Fi World" as we are actually in it now, far more so than before.
Hi, are you still wanting to talk on a podcast? Or did my telling you that I’m a writer put a dampener on that?
I make my own mind up on things and take people as I find them, but people have all sorts of preconceptions about the occult and that sorta thing. So, if that’s your concern you needn’t worry, I just like engaging chat and throwing around ideas. Sadly, conversations of any substance are few and far between these days. Never been one for idle small talk.
Anyways, for me based on what I’ve seen of you so far, I think there’s scope for some interesting chat. Simulation theory and all the related topics that go with that? It’s something that fascinates me no end but alas, it’s also something that most folks never much think about, let alone talk about.
Well, like I said I enjoyed the conversation, but if it was just a slow Monday for yourself then fair do’s, all the best and adios.
Yes, that would be pretty interesting thanks. I’ve never been on a podcast before. I get the impression these things are not scripted, but with a discussion before hand on general topics and subjects so that there’s good flow to the conversation?
A real live Schrodinger's Cat there! Very interesting stories. We get into ideas about the "multiverse", parallel dimensions. That can fit with Simulation, but doesn't have to obviously. The melancholy gets my attention. Say there is another you, parallel universe, and they were basically done for, and you felt that despair, and pointed your rifle at yourself... and pulled the trigger - twice. You were utterly overcome by the feeling, which was basically alien to you - somebody else almost?
Schrödinger’s cat is one of my favourite philosophical parables!
Although here I don’t think it’s another me that caused this melancholy. I won’t go into too much detail as that would be unseemly. My father is a Londoner, as are many of my forefathers before him. His naval career meant I was born and raised in Scotland. All was fine while living around the military establishment, but then he bought a home in an old Scottish mining town that had just been decimated by Thatcher in the 80’s by the mining closures.
Needless to say, English folks were not held in high esteem. My father was absent most of the time due to his service. My mother is a narcissist (diagnosed) so, essentially I went through my formative years in fight or flight. Which is why I am a writer, books and the screen were my sole escape, my solace, and English came as naturally to me as breathing. I’ve good reason to believe I will soon be making a living as a writer so, perhaps some good will come of it all in the end?
Anyway (that word will be on my epitaph someday), I had to undergo serious surgery while in basic training which led to my being back squadded. My new instructor from that point hated me with a passion for being a back squad, and ironically given my childhood, for being a “jock.” Ultimately, this led to my army life becoming a reflection of my earlier life. My mother made me go to church as a child so, being ever curious about death as it seemed a far better prospect than living, I’d dealt with suicidal ideation since I was around ten.
So, while alone on that dark night on the prairie in Alberta, I had this strong notion that the life I had known thus far would be the only life I’d ever know, and saw myself living a long life of misery, and dying as a miserable old man alone. So, ending it then just seemed like a logical, reasonable thing to do. It made sense to me.
Alas, this is part of the burning question, why the hell am I still alive? There have been numerous incidents that could have killed me throughout my life, yet here I still am. Until just a few years ago, all I wanted was out. Maybe, as some spiritual people would say, I had some bad karmic debt from a prior existence to pay off? But that’s a different conversation.
I now know why I want to stick around. Bringing stories and characters to life on the written page, gives my life a strong sense of purpose and meaning like nothing else, indeed, it is the driving purpose of my life now. When I’m in full creative flow and connecting with the stories I bring to life, I feel like I truly exist. It makes me feel alive in every sense of the word, and not just simply existing. Perhaps that is somewhat connected to the simulation theory? Are the characters and worlds that I create in my mind, unfolding in some other dimension or realm of existence? I can tell you that usually my ideas hit my mind all at once, fully formed, as if just plucked from the ether and transmitted directly into my mind. Often I’m asked where my ideas come from.
Thank you - I am somewhat of a writer, even if it doesn’t quite pay the bills just yet!
It was a very strange experience. I was just a young soldier still in basic training at the time, on my way home for weekend leave. When I say it was like I saw what was happening with the two trucks as if I had an eye where my left ear should be, it was like I was seeing through the truck I was passing by and able to see the oncoming truck. It was a hazy kind of grey as well, and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
Perhaps in a previous go around in this life, that was where and how I’d checked out before?
What you say there at the end, and the experience itself, it gets me thinking of Simulation Theory, which I talk about now and then. It was Nick Bostrom, professor at Oxford, who postulated the idea of: "Are we living in a digital universe?"... Science Fiction got into that long years ago, but he brought the idea to the mainstream.
So the slow motion, the eye seemingly where your left ear should be... almost like glitches in the matrix that worked to your advantage. And the hazy grey color, like pixelation of some kind. I find myself defaulting to Simulation Theory a lot! The big question being, how can we shape and control the video game of life?
I can relate to this - I was driving between Scotch Corner and Penrith on my way home from Catterick. During one of the dual carriageway sections, I was overtaking a truck when another truck was joining.
This was strange as it was like I seen all this happen as if I had an eye where my left ear is. Then where the paved bit disappeared into the metal central reservation on my right, I accelerate, steered into that narrow gap thereby avoiding getting flattened, and punched out just ahead of the truck who clearly hadn’t noticed me when he moved to my lane to let the other truck merge.
I’ll never forget that, it was weird, as if something took over my hands and feet to get me out of that situation, as I certainly took no deliberate, conscious action.
Very well done there, and you put it really well - better than me! This bit:
"I’ll never forget that, it was weird, as if something took over my hands and feet to get me out of that situation, as I certainly took no deliberate, conscious action."
That's exactly how it was for me with my motorcycle incident. Once out of it, it was almost like a dream.
In fact, years back when I was probably 17 or so, on a motorcycle, I was on a country lane and somehow managed to end up on the verge and literally went over the ditch and back, absolutely horrifying, and I should have come off... but no, got back on the road as if nothing had happened. Again, no deliberate action, somehow my subconscious got me out of a bad fix.
It’s a subject I have long being fascinated with, the simulation theory that is.
There are highly respected academic physicists who postulate that reality is like the frequency dial on a radio. Given that the atoms that make up everything in the physical universe are 99.9% empty space, and even great minds like Einstein said that reality is but an illusion (albeit a very persistent one), I am minded to agree with them.
I had yet another fascinating experience not long after this. I was serving in Iraq when I happened to find myself in my family home. My cousin who was staying with my parents for the commute to her university, was busily preening herself in the big mirror in the front hallway. Despite my efforts, I could not get her attention.
My mother was working at a pc in the office off this hallway - again, I could not get her attention, she could neither hear nor see me.
I slipped into the living room at the back of the home, and the two family Labradors went absolutely bananas! They could certainly see me. It was at this point I thought to myself, oh brilliant. Somethings done me in then. I’m dead!
Then there was this brilliant flash of white light, and I woke up back in Iraq. I don’t know exactly what to make of it - if it was merely a dream, it’s the most vivid one I’ve ever had in my 40 plus years. If not, perhaps in another universe or dimension of reality, one of the insurgents mortar rounds landed right on top of me, and the consciousness I’m using to type these words slipped from that dimension into this one. Yet in that dimension of course, I am dead, yet here, I’m alive…
A few months prior to this, I was on a live fire exercise in Canada. I was alone on watch one night, and a deep melancholy took over me. I tried to end it there and then. I made my rifle ready, pointed the barrel at myself and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, so I jacked in a new round while my nerve held. Same result.
The next day I told my quartermaster I thought my rifle was broken. When he asked why I thought this was, I realised I couldn’t actually tell him why! But later that day on the ranges, it worked absolutely as it was intended to, without a single stoppage. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that rifle.
So yes. I am very open minded and aware that there is highly likely something playing out beyond the ken of men. Whatever our individual beliefs are, there is certainly something tangible, some wonder beyond the veil of this reality, this physical world as we know it. Perhaps with the physical limitations of the human brain, we aren’t meant to understand it while we’re here? After all, it’s not much of a test if you have all the answers in front of you, I suppose.
Do you fancy having a chat on a podcast? All this would be really good. Here on Substack you can do Live and it's video, and gets saved to Drafts too, so can publish it for those that missed the Live. All this is right up my street! Haha - probably because I've always loved science fiction... and saying that Clif High calls his podcasts and videos "Sci-Fi World" as we are actually in it now, far more so than before.
Hi, are you still wanting to talk on a podcast? Or did my telling you that I’m a writer put a dampener on that?
I make my own mind up on things and take people as I find them, but people have all sorts of preconceptions about the occult and that sorta thing. So, if that’s your concern you needn’t worry, I just like engaging chat and throwing around ideas. Sadly, conversations of any substance are few and far between these days. Never been one for idle small talk.
Anyways, for me based on what I’ve seen of you so far, I think there’s scope for some interesting chat. Simulation theory and all the related topics that go with that? It’s something that fascinates me no end but alas, it’s also something that most folks never much think about, let alone talk about.
Well, like I said I enjoyed the conversation, but if it was just a slow Monday for yourself then fair do’s, all the best and adios.
Yes, that would be pretty interesting thanks. I’ve never been on a podcast before. I get the impression these things are not scripted, but with a discussion before hand on general topics and subjects so that there’s good flow to the conversation?
A real live Schrodinger's Cat there! Very interesting stories. We get into ideas about the "multiverse", parallel dimensions. That can fit with Simulation, but doesn't have to obviously. The melancholy gets my attention. Say there is another you, parallel universe, and they were basically done for, and you felt that despair, and pointed your rifle at yourself... and pulled the trigger - twice. You were utterly overcome by the feeling, which was basically alien to you - somebody else almost?
Schrödinger’s cat is one of my favourite philosophical parables!
Although here I don’t think it’s another me that caused this melancholy. I won’t go into too much detail as that would be unseemly. My father is a Londoner, as are many of my forefathers before him. His naval career meant I was born and raised in Scotland. All was fine while living around the military establishment, but then he bought a home in an old Scottish mining town that had just been decimated by Thatcher in the 80’s by the mining closures.
Needless to say, English folks were not held in high esteem. My father was absent most of the time due to his service. My mother is a narcissist (diagnosed) so, essentially I went through my formative years in fight or flight. Which is why I am a writer, books and the screen were my sole escape, my solace, and English came as naturally to me as breathing. I’ve good reason to believe I will soon be making a living as a writer so, perhaps some good will come of it all in the end?
Anyway (that word will be on my epitaph someday), I had to undergo serious surgery while in basic training which led to my being back squadded. My new instructor from that point hated me with a passion for being a back squad, and ironically given my childhood, for being a “jock.” Ultimately, this led to my army life becoming a reflection of my earlier life. My mother made me go to church as a child so, being ever curious about death as it seemed a far better prospect than living, I’d dealt with suicidal ideation since I was around ten.
So, while alone on that dark night on the prairie in Alberta, I had this strong notion that the life I had known thus far would be the only life I’d ever know, and saw myself living a long life of misery, and dying as a miserable old man alone. So, ending it then just seemed like a logical, reasonable thing to do. It made sense to me.
Alas, this is part of the burning question, why the hell am I still alive? There have been numerous incidents that could have killed me throughout my life, yet here I still am. Until just a few years ago, all I wanted was out. Maybe, as some spiritual people would say, I had some bad karmic debt from a prior existence to pay off? But that’s a different conversation.
I now know why I want to stick around. Bringing stories and characters to life on the written page, gives my life a strong sense of purpose and meaning like nothing else, indeed, it is the driving purpose of my life now. When I’m in full creative flow and connecting with the stories I bring to life, I feel like I truly exist. It makes me feel alive in every sense of the word, and not just simply existing. Perhaps that is somewhat connected to the simulation theory? Are the characters and worlds that I create in my mind, unfolding in some other dimension or realm of existence? I can tell you that usually my ideas hit my mind all at once, fully formed, as if just plucked from the ether and transmitted directly into my mind. Often I’m asked where my ideas come from.
The honest answer? I have absolutely no idea!
Thank you - I am somewhat of a writer, even if it doesn’t quite pay the bills just yet!
It was a very strange experience. I was just a young soldier still in basic training at the time, on my way home for weekend leave. When I say it was like I saw what was happening with the two trucks as if I had an eye where my left ear should be, it was like I was seeing through the truck I was passing by and able to see the oncoming truck. It was a hazy kind of grey as well, and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
Perhaps in a previous go around in this life, that was where and how I’d checked out before?
What you say there at the end, and the experience itself, it gets me thinking of Simulation Theory, which I talk about now and then. It was Nick Bostrom, professor at Oxford, who postulated the idea of: "Are we living in a digital universe?"... Science Fiction got into that long years ago, but he brought the idea to the mainstream.
So the slow motion, the eye seemingly where your left ear should be... almost like glitches in the matrix that worked to your advantage. And the hazy grey color, like pixelation of some kind. I find myself defaulting to Simulation Theory a lot! The big question being, how can we shape and control the video game of life?