Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A deeply spiritual and disturbing cosmology

I was lying half awake (or is it half asleep...I can't recall if I'm and optimist or not), when I started thinking about the origin of the universe. This is the prime reason why I should not be half anything.

The standard understanding of the origin is the Big Bang theory. Everything that was anything was compressed into this tiny little dot and then, for some reason (I posited a reason in a story I wrote when I was about 13, but we'll leave that to history) the little dot went kabloo-ey and stuff went all over the place. And I mean ALL over the place. According to that theory (and doppler radar aimed into space) the universe (save Brooklyn) is expanding.

I recall hearing another theory a few years ago. I can no more remember the source than I can remember exactly how many years ago, but I did hear it somewhere. The theory said that the universe expands until it reaches a final point, then it begins to contract. Eventually (and I don't know if it will be morning or afternoon) it all comes back into that same little dot of all-ness and then it kabooms back out and the whole process begins anew. This universal de ja vu is known (at least in my memory) as the "bang bang bang theory." So what does this have to do with my falling asleep?

I try to help myself sleep by doing some deep breathing exercises. They are very useful for evenings when I have forgotten to do my deep drinking exercises. I slow my breathing down and try to calm myself. But breathing happens in and out, even when I don't try. It just seems that I, as the local quasi-intelligence, can exercise control over the repeating and seemingly involuntary process. And that reminds me of the universe. That repeating "in and out" of breathing is like the repeated in and out of the universe and the divine power is the one with the thought of slowing down or speeding up the process. We are all in some set of cosmic lungs.

I'm guessing that at that point I kind of fell asleep because that's as far as I got and the next thing I remember, I was strangling the alarm clock.

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