Sun Blaze
(C) Copyright 9-11-08 by 45 Mike
The Captain asked us to write some remembrance that we could leave behind.
We will soon be leaving the solar system. We may even venture to another galaxy.
I have been dead for about seven or eight thousand years. Most of us agree that I died when I was about nine or ten years old. When I was alive, I had no real knowledge of what my tribe held for religious beliefs. I know that there was some intimation of elder spirits. Apparently then there was some thought of afterlife. As I said though, I had no exposure to that part of tribal knowledge.
My name was, is Garoo. Since my death however I have had much exposure to what beliefs various people held, hold concerning afterlife, or lack of. Fairly recently within the past thousand years I have heard much about spirits that “go into the light”.
I have actually witnessed many deaths, and watched as spirits are released from the life they knew, and to be honest most of them simply stare about in confusion and fear and dissipate. Like a fog in sunlight. Some however seem to have a hold of some purpose, enough so that they see the sunlight, or moonlight and whoosh, off they go, “towards the light”.
I have spoken with spirits that took off and discovered themselves on the moon. Most of them told a similar tale, they looked around in bafflement, then they were aware that the big blue thing in the sky was the earth and they came back. I have been there myself, and watched as some spirits appeared, looked around and saw the sun, and decided that they needed to go to “that” light instead. Whoosh, off they go.
When I first died I recall looking up at the sun, and realizing I could see it quite clearly, with no discomfort at all, and I almost decided to go there to see what it was. I am so very glad that I did NOT. Knowing what I know now, and having been there recently, I know with certainty that I would have dissipated myself if I had gone then, at the first moments after my death.
Let me explain, first by telling you about my journey to the sun. Before I do that however should tell you, that as a spirit person, I am not bounded by physical limitations, and I can travel at the speed of light, in fact I always travel at the speed of light. In terms of distances here on earth, that means near instantaneous travel.
Light travels from the sun to the earth in about 7 minutes. That is fast. Something else you should know about what I can do. I do not have to see where I am going. For instance if I am in Seattle, I cannot see Paris, but I know where it is, and I can go there in a moment or two, merely by deciding I want to be in Paris. I have to actually imagine my destination to do this, and my image must be fairly accurate.
I generally imagine an aerial view, and I arrive above my target location, from there, it is easy to go where I wish because then I can see my target. When I find myself at a place that I think I’d like to return to, I almost always go up a few thousand feet so that I have an aerial view that I can imagine when I want to return.
I wanted to explain that so that you could see that I cannot just go anywhere I wish, unless I have been there before, or I can actually see it. The reason I wanted you to know that, ultimately leads up to why we are leaving in a space ship, and not just taking off for the nearest star with no provision.
That brings me back to what I wanted to tell about in the first place, which is my journey to the sun, and the frightening, frustrating and learning experience it came to be.
I had decided that I should go there, to see if there was a God, or heaven. Maybe I would see my family, my tribe there, and I could be rejoined with my people. Maybe I was merely bored, which is actually closer to the truth anyways.
One day, I looked up and decided to go. I knew that the earth orbits the sun. I knew the speed of light, however I had no idea that I was limited by that speed.
Once I decided to go, I could see nothing, I was blind, and for about seven minutes I was aware that I was going somewhere, but no idea where except that I could still imagine the sun, and knew I had decided to go there. I had a sense of self, but no sensory input. That in itself was somewhat alien. I had spent some many lifetimes as various creatures, and I had several times slipped into another human consciousness, (though they resented it generally and fought me usually), I even spent some of my existence as a tree once, from seed to death, again experiencing death. Perhaps I am the only spirit that has died twice.
In any case eventually, I arrived at the sun. The sun is a bright place and at first it was fairly interesting. I did meet some other spirits, from earth. I found most of them indulging in self delusion, being assisted in their pursuit by some rather gregarious and devious spirits that were seemingly of a presence of mind to take advantage of some of the less, shall we say, mentally involved that arrived.
I saw many temples and churches, where folks gathered, and were told that they had finally arrived on the path to heaven. “Give yourself to God, and you will find your peace”
I saw those spirits dissipate, sad. I met others who were not the sort to be taken by the sun charlatans, nor were they interested in leading others to the arms of God. They were intelligent and thinking. Most of these folks were not interested in going anywhere or doing anything more than contemplating their situation. Tired and content to relax in their own heaven.
I spent a fair amount of time there, I really did explore and found some amazing sights and met some interesting folks. In time though it became painfully obvious that to stay would be to stagnate, and stagnation leads to dissipation, the final death. That is my belief, when the spirit dies, it is over.
When I came to decide that I should return to earth, it was then that things went sour. I looked up and was surprised that I could NOT see the earth. I could not see stars, I could see NOTHING out there, it was just darkness. If I had thought about it before I decided to travel to the sun, I would have decided not to go. From the vicinity of the sun, it is impossible to discern anything outside the light of the sun.
I was stranded. I was frightened. For the first time that I could recall in my existence, I was frozen by fright. I would wander here and eventually I would finally die. In a panic I imagined a place I knew on earth, and went there.
Again, there was a time of no senses, then finally I arrived. In space, with no earth in sight. At first I was no longer frightened, I was absolutely terrified, now I really was stranded, lost. Then I noticed that I could see the sun, and I calmed down, at least I could return there, if nothing else. I came very close to whooshing off to try and find the earth. Then I considered that it may be possible to make a mistake and move myself so far that I could no longer even see the sun. Then I would truly be lost, with no hope whatsoever of returning.
I have no idea how long I was left in that state. In time I did manage to think about what I knew about the orbital mechanics of the solar system and decided to try something I had never tried before. I would try to move in a direction, for a specific time. That turned into another nightmare of sorts, as I succeeded, I thought, but had no way to gauge accuracy or range.
I recalled that Venus was closer to the sun, and that I may be able to move to a position closer to the sun, but not too close, and I might be able to spot Venus. After a wearingly long time, I did finally see a disk. I went there, and once I arrived, realized I had far overshot my target nearness to the sun. I had found Mercury.
Once I had a place, in space, that I could keep in sight, I began experimenting with traveling by time interval. I would go for a few seconds, then look at the size of the disk of mercury How much did it grow, or shrink? This was excruciatingly frustrating.
I had no instruments, all I had were my subjective perceptions to rely on.
Eventually I discerned the direction that Mercury was orbiting the sun, and I could fairly accurately keep up with it by moving by intervals. Then I moved myself above the orbital plane and began moving up and away from the sun. I managed to find Venus by chance more than skill I think. However once I knew that I had found Venus, I was rather more hopeful that I could find the earth.
Again, I moved up and away from the orbital plane and by keeping Venus in sight and estimating the size of the sun as seen from earth, I was able to geusstimate that I was about close enough to earth orbit that when it came around I should be able to see it.
I realized that I was perhaps subconsciously following the orbit of Venus. I had no idea if the earth was trailing Venus, or if Venus was trailing the earth in orbit. I could think about each possibility and decided I would be better off if I moved myself in the opposite direction that the planets were moving. All I had to do was maintain my relative position above the orbital plane and distance from the sun, and I should be able to eventually see the earth.
Now I had no idea how long I had been on the sun, nor did I have any idea how long I had been wandering around playing tag with Mercury or Venus. It seemed like centuries. I was reasonably sure that it was not nearly that long, but it seemed like a long time to me.
Then I saw it, a glowing spot that was getting brighter, and then it was a disk, then I was back. I like Paris, so that’s where I arrived.
I was happy to see the tower still there. I had not been gone for centuries it seemed. Then I checked a calendar, I had been gone about seven months.
I did some research and after some study I have found that I can go to the sun, and return in about 15 minutes. About seven minutes to get there, and about seven minutes to return, and about a minute spent there, and when I get back, the earth has moved, but not so far that I cannot see it clearly.
I could perhaps stay on the sun for about a day, and still return to where the earth was, and yet be able to see it and thus not get lost. I have no way to measure time on the sun, and I have been back a few times I do not stay long.
I can take a time piece to the moon, or into space, and just by having a time measure makes navigation so much easier. There is no way I could take a clock of any sort to the sun.
That is my tale, and the reason we need a ship for our journey. We want to have some navigational control. We need computers and clocks, we need a place that we can rest and relax without being lost.
We have a crew, we have a Captain. We have a ship, and we have a destination. Space exploration is for dead people!
We are on our way!