Time Travel and Predetermination

[chocolate]

One more article which I found today in support of some aspects of what I was trying to bring about:

http://www.mindpowernews.com/WorldInsideYourBrain.htm

Just to clarify, I do not subscribe to any religion in particular, nor to any film in particular regardless of how close the words go by.

[dsldog]

>>>" Default Re: Time Travel and Predetermination

Hey DSLDOG ! WELCOME ON BOARD. Your post sounds great but I do not get clearly the concepts like " time-reversal symmetry...... If you can explain in more simple words I'll appreciate ! thanks YETTI "<<<

I've got a real old browser here, so forgive me. It's a reference to Maxwell's equations of electrodynamics I think. The entire quote is a lift from wikipedia. IMO, dont trust Wiki's math. They have a page on N-Spheres I have found to be wacked, but I digress . Maxwell's equations get used for space time formulation. There are two versions, macroscopic and microscopic. The microscopic ones, I _think_ it's the solutions for space time in the tensor calculus (dont be too freeked it's just a calculus of vectors) that are symetric in time in both forwards and _reverse_ directions.

Here is another quote from another source below. Just google Maxwell's equations and time travel to see lots more. Honestly, it's kind of pop physics. Long on talk but short on math.

>>>Not Feynman's work. I mean the stuff on the net. The Absorption Theory is landmark stuff. <<<

"Feynman's idea grew out of his earlier work at Princeton as a graduate student of John Wheeler. Together they had developed a theory of electromagnetic waves involving solutions of Maxwell's equations that travel both ways in time, the so called retarded and advanced waves. The advanced waves travelled backward in time, that is, they arrived at the detector before they left their source. Despite their presence as valid solutions to Maxwell's equations, advanced waves had been previously ignored by less bold thinkers [For an amusing anecdote concerning Feynman's first talk on the subject, given before Einstein, Pauli, and other physics greats, see Feynman 1986, pp. 77-80]. Feynman later extended the idea to quantum field theory, in which waves are particles and vice versa, associating antiparticles with the advanced waves [Feynman 1948. See also Stückelberg 1942]."

[dsldog]

Hmmm... well, I seem to be wrong, and it's only the first time today. The equations are the ones I learned in physics class!!
I've got Feynman's lectures. Let me see waz up (if it's in there). Now I am curious.

The solution on wikipedia, as usual dosnt want to be bothered with steps that can be followed by mere mortals.

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by dsldog (here)
@Alien, your comment regards where the splitting actually happens, as you said "what actually _is_ a quantum event" has been leveled against Many Worlds before, and I think it's valid. That, and of course if the worlds are disjoint it cant be falsified. But what if Everett is wrong what if you can move between them? The stuff of science fiction to be sure. But that's what makes the discussion fun.

I remember seeing a video that might have been a Project Camelot interview where a guy said that with the help of the greys one day he woke up to experience a parallel universe where he had a different wife. I just searched, but couldn't find the interview. I thought it was maybe Bob Dean, Whitney Strieber, or someone that looks similar to one of them. From the interview I remember getting the sense that it was his consciousness experiencing things from within the body of another version of himself. I have seen some science fiction where people crossed over into an alternate universe and met other versions of themselves (Stargate SG1, Sliders, Fringe, a Star Trek TNG episode, etc.)

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by Yetti (here)
Hey ! Alien Ramone , if you want very good info about this ,get the books of Dolores Cannon
"Convolute Universe " Series , there are many of first hand explanations of the phenomena , let me know!! chaoo Yetti

She has a lot of long videos. I'll watch some of those. I watched some shorter videos of her a while back, but can't remember them very well now.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PIa7nTmEDLA

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by T Smith (here)

Posted by Alien Ramone (here)

I'm not certain at all, but am sort of fishing for clarifications and ideas related to the subject. When people bring up this idea, often it's unclear if they are saying that all the possibilities actually exist in other universes or that the possibilities are there to be chosen. sometimes it seems like they are implying that it is both ways, which doesn't make sense to me.

The question to ponder -- to clarify your inquiry here -- is to consider, precisely, what does it mean to exist?

I would submit all the possibilities do exist, but as energy, and are only manifest as you choose. The energy (which some describe as "possibilities") may not be physically manifest in other universes, but that doesn't mean those other universes don't exist. It only means they don't necessarily exist as physical manifestations. They exist as energy until an observer(s) manifests them. This dynamic has been worked out mathematically and is described by the collapse the wave function.

This explanation may not satisfy your need not to have it both ways, but that is precisely what our reality field is; it is both energy and matter.

I like that way of thinking of it and the way it becomes a very expanded version of Shrodingers cat.

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by chocolate (here)
My father is an engineer, automatics and that sort of machinery, together with electricity from his technical school. He seems to have some more science knowledge about electricity and physics than me.
He told me some time ago that the first words of the teacher when starting the class on electricity has been -
"it exists, but we still don't know exactly what it is. We can measure it, describe it, but the exact explanation is not given."
I am talking about 30 years before today, I am sure right now there already are explanations of what electricity is. But just imagine how much we observe and know exists for a fact, but have to accept the idea that we still cannot explain it completely.
I am still struggling trying to explain to him what I think this worlds is, and he is in between doubt and uncertainty. His literal words were actually a bit said because of what his life had been so far, while I see only enormous amount of freedom and possibility in my own concept.

Yesterday I had the following words (synchronistically) on my Facebook news feed:
"When you know how to listen everybody is the guru." Ram Dass

Don't get me wrong, there is truth in science, but as I see it science is an attempt to explain things, just one of them, which can be done in many other ways, starting with the simple truth
"as below so above" (I know Bill is going to like this if he ever peeks in this part of the forum)
We seem to limit our window of observation too much into the world of either science, religion, mythology, and so on depending on the specifics of the observer.

Nikola Tesla in his late years has become more a man of the spiritual world than of the physical science.
Same with Carl Jung regarding the specifics of the mind and the complexity of its condition (-ing I could add).

I suspect they have all understood that not all explanations are straight forward.

Your description of your dad's reaction to some of the ideas you were explaining to him remind me of something I was thinking about yesterday while watching a video about Hugh Everett. I found it interesting that someone as smart as Einstein would have a hard time accepting the possibilities that many of the quantum physicists were putting forward and that Bohr would then have a hard time accepting the possibilities of the ideas that Hugh Everett was putting forward. I liked how Einstein would come up with experiments to expose quantum theory as being wrong, but when the experiments were done, they only reinforced what the quantum theorists were saying. I don't yet have a strong sense whether Everett was either on the wrong or right track, but the fact that his ideas can resolve some paradoxes and that scientists are now taking a serious look at his ideas shows to me that there is something there to consider.

Regarding Carl Jung, I have wondered, if he purposely kept his ideas vague regarding things related to spirituality and the paranormal, partly because any conclusions would be inconclusive and partly because he knew how conditioned many people are to think others are loony for taking those type of ideas seriously. For example Jung talked about the possibility of a collective consciousness, but I don't think he ever openly asserted that there was an astral plane as many do. I know I'm taking this a little off the point you were making, but that's just something that came to my mind.

[chocolate]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4dpRPTwsKJs

I think you'll like these!
Finally someone said that only one electron just doesn't exist! And I am no physicist!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Gc1mGdoHRg

+

http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=28556 Do Schizophrenics Live in Parallel Universes?

and

Think Like A Martian | Dr. Richard Feynman's Advice For Shaping Your Thoughts To View The World Anew
http://www.minds.com/blog/view/24052...the-world-anew
[good thing I share my treasures in emails and later can dig out the links again ]

[chocolate]

Alien Ramone, I think you are responsible in a way for a synchronistic chain of events on my FB page! Joking a bit.

My so crude theory I made up myself in the span of two months more or less while drawing, watching films and reading books mixed with going out from time to time to refuel and see the dentists. It so happened probably that I had accumulated a lot of facts, knowledge and synchronicites together with my personal oddity (I am a bit nuts / loony tunes in a way, being partially dyslexic and struggling to use words while I think). I wonder sometimes how other people see the world. Anyway.
I had several moments of revelation that were like a shocking experience after which I was overwhelmed by depression. I assume my own brain and consciousness were trying to put everything in the new perspective I selected for myself. It is not a standard view to the world, and we do have certain level of conditioning regardless how our lives have been free of the limitations of the outside world.

Later on, because of your thread and my desire to somehow try and express what I was thinking, I started to see all of 'my' ideas (which have never been mine only) everywhere else, found a lot of examples and visuals.

In a way we will struggle, I think, until we reach the moment of non resistance, when we just allow the stream of information called the collective consciousness, or as I call it my 'god like higher self' sending me ideas from above sitting among the stars in some pretty looking space ship, to reach us and transform what we think we know.

That is also why I don't need advanced physics. If you cannot explain what you need to explain to your father or to your children in a normal way with proper examples and symbols, than I have the feeling those ideas are still not ready to be expressed.
But if physics is what explains the world for you, than I will do my best to try and understand your point of view.

With all my heart I wish you to reach your moments of revelation,those more profound ones. And thank you for creating the thread.
I hope we'll meet on some other places of the forum as well.
And if you want to write down later on your own theory, once it is ready to a certain degree, I will be glad to read your long posts!

[chocolate]

A short story/allegory
***
You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Are you god?” You asked.
“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”
“My kids… my wife,” you said.
“What about them?”
“Will they be all right?”
“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”
“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”
“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”
“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”
“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”
You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.
“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”
“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”
“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”
“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”
“Where you come from?” You said.
“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”
“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“So what’s the point of it all?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”
“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.
I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”
“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?”
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”
“All you. Different incarnations of you.”
“Wait. I’m everyone!?”
“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”
“Or who will ever live, yes.”
“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”
“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.
“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.
“And you’re the millions he killed.”
“I’m Jesus?”
“And you’re everyone who followed him.”
You fell silent.
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
You thought for a long time.
“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”
“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”
“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”
“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”
“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”
“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way. "
***

This allegorical story I had found somewhere sometime ago.
I don't know who is the author.

[chocolate]

And a video which is closer to my language, but has English subs. It is about time travel and altered states of consciousness.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QXJ3FvUBX4E

[dsldog]

Okay, I am ready to take a crack at Wheeler Feynman Absorber. Let's leave
out the mathy parts for now. After all you are getting this from a guy who
took exactly one semester of applied differential equations and very nearly
got a 'D'. I'll go so far as to say I did get a 'D' and she (the prof) just
felt sorry for me. "I sort of squozed you into the curve" (her words).

Ernst Mach:
"You are standing in a field, looking at the stars. Your arms hang at your
sides. You spin and centrifugal force pulls your arms away as the stars
spin."

Newton likes it. Why dont you? Inertia is an inherent property of matter.
Simple. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the Universe.

Enter Einstein, everything is about to change...

"General relativity theory, for universes like ours, says that the origin
of inertial reaction forces in accelerated (relative to the "fixed stars")
local objects is the gravitational "field" created here chiefly by the
presence of the most distant matter in the universe. (This is "Mach's
principle", so named by Einstein.)" nicely said by

http://physics.fullerton.edu/~jimw/general/

As an undergrad (which was as far as I ever got) you dont get much general
relativity training.

From the gentelmen above again:

"* As shown by Dennis Sciama 45 years ago [Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society, 113, 34-42], the interaction that produces
inertial reaction forces has all the earmarks of a "radiative" interaction.
In particular, it is acceleration (not velocity) dependent, and its
distance dependence is inverse first power (instead of inverse second)
-- precisely like classical electromagnetic radiation."

Einstein is just kicking Newton's butt here.

If you study applied physics like I was forced to. You will eventually get to
Maxwell's theorems, which are all elegant. You will meet "del" which is all
about field density over space. What kind of density? Fluids, electrical
fields, you name it. You now know about as much as I can recall...

To summarize, Einstein says that reactive force is not just some "thing"
intrinsic to matter. Its a function of interaction between you swinging
your arms and everything else in the universe. It's your interaction with
earth's gravity that creates it. And it doesnt stop there. It extends to
the most distant matter in the Universe.

Very cool except for one teensy, tiny problem. Electromagnetic radiation
moves at the speed of light. If I push you the reaction happens instantly.
How come? I am now lost because I know nothing about gauge theory.

What Feynman said was when I push you it disturbs the gravitational field
and that propagates out into the future. Out in the far, far, distant future
my push interacts with everything and a canceling wave moves backwards
towards me from the future into the past. I dont remember this part in
physics class. I must have been absent that day. Turns out this is the best
explanation we have! Not unlike Everett's.

For myself, I really dont have a problem with anything that moves at
light speed or exists in a condensate where it's energy level is close
to ground state. Consider this:

time = (1 - (v^2/c^2))1/2 and same for distance. So, for dumb guys like
me anything whose velocity is light speed time and space dont exist
any more.

[chocolate]

Okay, dsldog. I think I am getting it.
I studied in technical school (4 years) architecture and building theory, one year building engineering after that and 6 years architecture to top it off. And I am no smarter now than I was while playing volleyball for several years in a sports school.

I remember mechanics, some parts of the high level mathematics, but I have to say the moment I had to assume a lot of things to be true without being able to see how they are true, I decided that will stick to my visuals for the most part of my life.

Your attempt to explain it is appreciated. I'll give it some more time and will watch all those videos with smart people explaining their theories.

Alien Ramone, did we ever got closer to answering your questions or did we (me) created more smoke than fire?

For me, I see my current life as something I have some control over, and it is not as predetermined on this level. I encounter events and people I have been destined to meet at one point or another (depending on the chain of choices I have made so far), but for the most part it is up to me.
I have come here with an overall script, a basic canvas, but whether I stick to it or change it partially or completely is a matter of choice(s). If you decide to argue that currently you have no choice because of something else or other I will not argue back. Whether we see it or we like it, choice is always an option.

To discuss time travel and predetermination I can only do from the point of view on the higher level, because from my current position being inside the box it makes no sense to discuss how to break the box, and that is what I try to do when I face a problem I consider hard to solve.
The moment I decide to look at the world from the perspective of "God" or from the perspective of the cause of my human existence, I see time travel not only possible, but as a requirement (in buddhism reincarnation is believed to happen not only straight forward, but also going 'back' in time to a different life than the one you have just lived in), and predetermination in the sense of realizing where you come from, why you are here and where you are going, is a part of the concept of the structure of the box in which I have to live here.

Sometimes when I am lost for words I use allegories.
Here's another, taken from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:

***
'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' asked Alice.
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where—' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'—so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

***

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by chocolate (here)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4dpRPTwsKJs

I think you'll like these!
Finally someone said that only one electron just doesn't exist! And I am no physicist!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Gc1mGdoHRg

+

http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=28556 Do Schizophrenics Live in Parallel Universes?

and

Think Like A Martian | Dr. Richard Feynman's Advice For Shaping Your Thoughts To View The World Anew
http://www.minds.com/blog/view/24052...the-world-anew
[good thing I share my treasures in emails and later can dig out the links again ]

In the first video, I like the quote at 1:01; "(If) Only conscious beings can be observers, then we're intimately hooked into the very existence of reality. Without us there would just be this expanding superposition of possibilities with nothing definite ever happening."

My take on Dolores Cannon is similar to my take on David Wilcock. I think they both rely so much on intuition that they come up with certain ideas based on a feeling without having conclusive evidence. Their ideas are still worth hearing and may have certain amounts of truth in them and aspects that are good to have in the back of the mind, since bits or pieces of the ideas may be helpful in understanding other things.

[chocolate]

Posted by Alien Ramone (here)
In the first video, I like the quote at 1:01; "(If) Only conscious beings can be observers, then we're intimately hooked into the very existence of reality. Without us there would just be this expanding superposition of possibilities with nothing definite ever happening."

My take on Dolores Cannon is similar to my take on David Wilcock. I think they both rely so much on intuition that they come up with certain ideas based on a feeling without having conclusive evidence. Their ideas are still worth hearing and may have certain amounts of truth in them and aspects that are good to have in the back of the mind, since bits or pieces of the ideas may be helpful in understanding other things.

My thoughts exactly!!!
I was whining in my mind yesterday that Dolores Cannon seems to be repeating things she doesn't fully understand. Or may be she does, just seems a bit flat at times, otherwise I agree with most of what she's saying (as with David W., too).

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by chocolate (here)
Alien Ramone, did we ever got closer to answering your questions or did we (me) created more smoke than fire?

Having read the discussion and viewed the videos on the subject, I'm somewhat refreshed on the basics of quantum mechanics because of it, and I picked up bits of pieces of information and ideas on ways of looking at things. Here are some specifics:

I understand a little better now why when some people talk about possible futures, they sometimes sort of imply that they do and don't exist at the same time. It's the same concept as Shrodinger's Cat. Just thinking about it now, if the multi-verse theory is generally correct, I tend to view all the future splits as existing, if there are any consciousnesses that perceive them in the multi-verse.

The discussion got me wondering what would be considered a quantum event that causes a split. I hadn't thought about that before.

The discussion got me thinking about the possibility that not all possible things that one could think up as happening are necessarily possible outcomes, since the outcomes would all be based on possible quantum events. Also I have started wondering if consciousness can in some ways be separate from quantum events.

The short story/allegory that you shared sort of gave another way of looking at the idea of an over all consciousness experiencing everything.

I learned the possibility of the idea of of everything being tied together because of entanglement.

Something I'm sort of surprised about considering that splitting and time branches are starting to be seriously considered by some scientists, is that there aren't the kind of thought experiments about time travel based on quantum mechanics the way that there were thought experiments about relativity related to time travel, such as the example of one twin taking a rocket trip and aging slower and the grandfather paradox created by Einsteins calculations showing that there could be travel to the past within the rules of relativity, if tremendous amounts of energy were applied.

To sum it up, I think the discussion has given me more of a direction to focus and an idea of what some of the questions are to pursue in trying to understand the way universe and existence works.

[chocolate]

For my understanding a quantum even that causes a split is any event that is created when a choice needs to be made. Depending on the quality or objective importance of the event, there are bigger splits and smaller splits. Depending on the overlapping of choices some splits that happen at the same time for the majority of people (observers) would create a major/main split, or time line. Here on Avalon we discuss this topic when we discuss the future of the planet based on who is ruling it and with what motives. (That is why we get so excited over the reptilians, or illuminati's and so on). But for simplicity I view it on a more personal level. For me a quantum event is the choice to go out to the market or to stay and draw.
I think that every time you face a choice you are about to create a quantum event.
There was a link on this thread to wikipedia that had this illustrated visually.

To be or not to be? That is the question.

found the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
not that i understood all the text, but I did like the pictures .

While searching for the link above I remembered something of importance:
You can think of this universe as a giant labyrinth. All roads are already made, but you choose which way to go. At one point tonight I just saw it form as a symbolical visual interpretation of what this is all about while thinking about choices and quantum events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth
The labyrinths have been a very important subject in the past.

[Alien Ramone]

Posted by chocolate (here)
For my understanding a quantum even that causes a split is any event that is created when a choice needs to be made. Depending on the quality or objective importance of the event, there are bigger splits and smaller splits. Depending on the overlapping of choices some splits that happen at the same time for the majority of people (observers) would create a major/main split, or time line. Here on Avalon we discuss this topic when we discuss the future of the planet based on who is ruling it and with what motives. (That is why we get so excited over the reptilians, or illuminati's and so on). But for simplicity I view it on a more personal level. For me a quantum event is the choice to go out to the market or to stay and draw.
I think that every time you face a choice you are about to create a quantum event.
There was a link on this thread to wikipedia that had this illustrated visually.

To be or not to be? That is the question.

found the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
not that i understood all the text, but I did like the pictures .

While searching for the link above I remembered something of importance:
You can think of this universe as a giant labyrinth. All roads are already made, but you choose which way to go. At one point tonight I just saw it form as a symbolical visual interpretation of what this is all about while thinking about choices and quantum events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth
The labyrinths have been a very important subject in the past.

I vaguely remember reading that the location of an electron can be anywhere, probability just suggests that it is more likely to be in certain locations. To me this would mean there is a universe for every possible location of an electron which is infinite and then every possible combination of locations of electrons. Also every single motion we make is a decision, so that would mean there is a universe for every single motion we could make and for every combination of motions that any sentient being could make.

Edit:
Just thinking about it some more, there is the idea that there is no definite location of an electron unless you observe it, but if there is a universe for every possible location, then I wonder if there is a definite location and direction in every one of those universes and a possible location that is limited by where the electron can be for every moment after that within the limits physics instead of the possibility of it being anywhere.

[Craig]

Chocolate, I read your post on the short story, it is the saddest thing I have read all year. The part about reincarnation, man that is a bummer and speed of the turn around, no rest or relaxation? But the part where you are all who have incarnated is rather mind blowing and yet almost makes sense to me, I shall stew over this for a while.

Having read most of these replies I am still stuck back with the timelines, if there are infinite possibilities would a timeline be an actual line? I would now think it would be a rapidly expanding sphere, like you see when you watch a planet explore on a scifi movie, but with everyone all having these possibilities it would be just a mass of never ending spheres erupting from infinite points on infinite spheres - i get fuzzy thinking about it like that,

but if all possibilities can exist at once is it more like a large hard drive that contains everything but only the bit currently being observed is the bit that has action? so in order to experience all requires infinite incarnations? if time is only present in this universe, time travel may not be possible but remembering via a past\future lifetime overlap with the current lifetime?

I am still spinning about the we are all one bit from the short story and thinking about the billions of people who have been killed over the aeons. We are no longer an individual entity with our own boundaries but God experiencing each individual sliver that is a life here on earth.

Far out man. We,I,God must be a masochist

[donk]

Hi Craig we think a lot alike, I struggle with this too and the idea of the sphere rather than a line reminds me of the other book I brought to "read" with me today, Ram Dass "Be Here Now" is quite amazing, most of it I find relevant to some of these ideas, I took one of the first that kinda captures it: