We Cannot Truly Die

Originally published at CounterPunch

The extraordinary statement “we cannot truly die” is found on page 133 of Joseph Selbie’s book, The Physics of God (New Page Books, 2021). Indeed, it’s a book for people who want to understand and believe that there is more to life’s course than earthly corporeal existence.

Based upon reams of fascinating scientific and metaphysical research, Selbie connects the dots in a masterful blend of science and religion taken to the edge of multi-universes and beyond to the heart of the astral plane.

Our existence is much more than a boring standardized physical life on Earth. Selbie offers an uplifting view of so much more with considerable science-based evidence as well as personal experiences by people of intellectual stature. Life on our planet is but one small leg of a much bigger journey, a phenomenal journey unlike anything ever experienced or ever dreamed, in as much as, we truly cannot die.

The portals to this miraculous nirvana means that we not only exist in the three-dimensional universe that we all know so well but also simultaneously exist in a two-dimensional energy-verse. Saints, sages, and near-death experiences all claim that we each have our own personal holographic energy template.

Selbie’s book is an uplifting trip in the face of the current extinction event no. 6, which is humming along at a rapid clip. More realistically, it’s faster than any of the prior five paleoclimate-recorded extinction events. As such, a lot of people express concern about the acceleration of the 6^th mass extinction because of its staggering numbers of loss of wild vertebrates and marine life, numbers on the order of 70% and up to 98% depending upon the species, respectively. Curiously enough, those are already extinction level numbers, but humans have dodged the bullet, so far.

(The Permian-Triassic, aka: The Great Dying, extinction 252 million years ago witnessed 95% of marine life and 70-75% of terrestrial life annihilated.)

One comforting aspect of The Physics of God is even if the 6^th mass extinction event really took hold in earnest, not all would be lost, not at all, according to Selbie’s thesis: We truly cannot die.

Then, what happens?

A condensed version of life’s true course is explained: “Our three-dimensional physical body allows us to exist in the three-dimensional physical world of space, time, and matter… when we die, our space, time, and matter suit ceases to function, and we are no longer able to operate in space, time, and matter. When we die, our awareness shifts to our nonlocal, two-dimensional energy body in the energy-verse.” (Pg. 133-34)

Nonlocal phenomena are omnipresent, everywhere at once, meaning “there is no necessity for them to go anywhere; they are already there. They are infinite in time as well, present at all moments, past present and future, meaning they are eternal.” (pg. 129)

The energy-verse is dazzling, gloriously exquisite, a spellbinding array of glistening lights as far as the eye can see, on and on forever, timeless, filaments-of-light-humans in two dimensional light energy, an uplifting experience of serenity and calm: ”Physicists are not alone in describing a much larger nonmaterial cosmos beyond the physical universe. Saints, sages, and near-death experiencers have also described heavenly worlds of pure energy, luminous nonphysical realms that permeate our physical universe.” (pg. 61)

“Over the span of the 20^th and now the 21^st centuries, branches of physics have produced an astonishingly vast and predominately nonmaterial view of the cosmos, a cosmos of which our enormous physical universe is only a tiny part. Current theories in physics, quantum theory, and especially string theory relegate our physical universe… as essentially organized energy held in stable patterns- a small, self-continued, three-dimensional energy ‘bubble’ in a virtually infinite two-dimensional ocean of energy – what I like to call the energy-verse.” (pg. 61)

It’s this energy-verse that we are, and have always been, so much a part of. Over the centuries, energy-verse has been discovered by saints and sages viewed through transcendent experience.

Moreover, physicists have been forced to accept that the measureable matter and energy in our universe cannot fully explain why the universe behaves as it does. There is something more at work. Quantum physicists have posited that the universe must have a significant, ever-present but undetectable background energy. Of all the branches of physics that posit the energy-verse, the one that deals with it most centrally is string theory.

Michio Kaku, string theorist: “I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence. To me it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created, shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.” (pg. 129)

“Get over it, and accept the inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial – mental and spiritual,” Sir James Jeans, physicist.

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness,” Max Planck, Nobel Prize winner in physics.

Thousands of near-death experiencers confirm something remarkable after floating free of their bodies; they all describe irresistibly drawn towards the distinctive allure of spectacular light, motioning them in.

According to Selbie: “I have read hundreds of books, containing stirring accounts of near-death experiences as well as inspiring descriptions of transcendent realms given by monks, yogis, Sufis, adepts, roshis, saints, sages, and mystics from all religions and eras. The more one reads the more one finds compelling consistency… They have perceived beautiful luminous realms and angelic beings and have experienced nearly indescribable and overwhelming feelings of well-being and oneness.” (pg. 37)

Typically, near-death experiencers tell the identical story: (1) “Then, suddenly, I was in light.” (2) “Everybody there was made of light. And I was made of light.” (3) “I try to explain it by saying there are flashes of light and brilliant colors or every spectrum everywhere.”

As the foundation of the scientific method is empirical repeatable results, it is indeed fascinating that, according to the Selbie: “There are clear similarities between the experiences described by those having near-death experiences and the descriptions of transcendent experiences given by enlightened saints and sages. Those who achieve perfect stillness and inner absorption – whether achieved by intention (meditation or devotion) or by accident (near-death experience) – have the same empirical results.” (pg. 36)

Additionally, human thoughts can be powerful, especially over our physical bodies, as found in numerous physiological changes that have been witnessed with multiple-personality sufferers that move from one personality to another, e.g., scars and moles can appear or disappear almost instantaneously and visual acuity can increase or decrease and even eye color has been seen to change reinforcing the view that our deeper-than-conscious thoughts shape and inform our personal, nonlocal, holographic, energy template, which in turn shapes our physical body. (pg. 172)

There is considerable evidence that “thought” is a nonlocal, interpenetrating phenomenon- undetectable and bound neither by space nor time but present everywhere. Thought then is part of the energy-verse and powerful beyond a normal description or understanding, e.g., objects have been seen to move via thought processes.

“We are beginning to see the entire universe as a holographically interlinked network of energy and information, organically whole and self-referential at all scales of its existence. We, and all things in the universe, are non-locally connected with each other and with all other things in ways that are unfettered by the hitherto known limitations of space and time.” (Ervin Laszlo – philosopher of science and advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness, pgs. 81-82).

Albert Einstein famously said (did he say anything not famously?): “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.” (pg.128).

“We must liberate man from the cosmos created by the genius of physicists and astronomers, that cosmos in which, since the renaissance, he has been imprisoned. We now know that we extend outside the physical continuum. In time, as well as in space, the individual stretches out beyond the frontiers of his body. He also belongs to another world.” (Dr. Alexis Carrel, French surgeon & biologist, 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology, pg. 102)

The Physics of God unifies the fields of science and religion and brings to surface deep thoughts about the existence of life and afterlife, whether life is really an endless journey led by an energy force reflected as light with Earth simply one station along the energy-verse pathway towards blissfulness throughout infinity. It’s something that should be looked forward to with great anticipation, and above all else, not feared.