From The Spirits

Conciousness

now that Malek had been adopted by Bown and Sarah, he began to grow from his mother's arms and father's embrace. He found himself conscious of a world that seemed beautiful at sunrise and the beautiful glory of the sky during sunset. He wondered at such a young age how this all came into being and who could have thought of making such pleasant artistic additions to this earth. He began to question creation. He even went to the extent of thinking that the universe is alive and is able to respond to itself...

Malek: Dad, do you think mountains can hear us?

dad: No, I don't think so, young man.

Malek: what about the whole Earth? Do you think it can hear us?

Dad: do you think it can?

Malek: I believe it is alive Dad. Think about it when your skin is dry, you put water on it and apply cream to make it smooth, and you do that all by yourself as a person. The earth does that too. When the earth is dry it smoothes itself by splashing rain on itself, and when it has too much splash of water on it self it goes into a season of drought with no rain.

dad: How is it that I never thought of that? How did you even think of that?

Malek: our Kindergarden teacher taught us about the 4 seasons of the earth, summer, autumn, winter and spring; and it doesn't rain in winter here in Namibia... Maybe that's the time the planet takes to dry itself up a little because it got lots of rain from those three seasons.

Dad: that's on another level of thinking for you to think of that. You are too smart for a 5-year-old, brilliant

Malek: thank you Daddy, now can you tell me all about Nelson Mandela..

Dad: Alright, let me go close the garage first.

and that sparked a new thought in Brown about what his son said. He never thought of life that way. He's son partly convinced him that the universe might be aware of itself. So he began a new journey of trying to discover life. If humans can be aware of themselves and their surroundings, what about the earth is it aware of itself? He sat down day and night trying to discover how the universe can be conscious. months went by and he realized that the earth regenerates cutting down trees from the trees remaining roots and gives it life again. when the environment gets to hot and life on earth can not bear the heat, it begins to rain and cool of the environment and send refreshing breezes on the surface of itself and sighs in relief. Brown also discovered that the earth tilts itself well just like anything with awareness does. When you sit in the sun for a long time and one side of your body receives too much sun-burning, you will consciously turn the other side of your body that has been in the shade towards the sun and give a chance to the other side to cool off well. Well, guess that this is exactly what the earth does and that is why we have summer and winter, the tilting of the earth's hemispheres towards the sun. So, it's more like if the earth has received a lot of sunlight from the front, it would say, "yeah let me turn and warm my backside as well, yeah it's nice and warm.."

Is the universe conscious? well Brown might have the answer.

Brown: Honey?

Sarah: Yes, it is all okay. You don't really look so well these days?

Brown: what if the universe is aware of itself?

Sarah: what do you mean Brown? I left science class years ago. I don't know how to answer that.

Brown: Malek asked me some months ago if the universe is conscious and that took rest from me, Sarah.

Sarah: And what if it is? Is that why you don't eat these days?

Brown: Do you know what this means, Sarah? If the universe is conscious, what else could we be missing out? There is something deeper

Sarah: explain..

Brown: look, awareness means consciousness. If something is conscious, it is aware of its surroundings and is able to respond to itself, just like if you get cold you become aware of the cold and turn on the heater or run close to it. The earth knows space is cold, so it moved closer to the sun than the other planets has just any human could have possibly moved closer to a heater.

Sarah: okay.. but that is not enough to justify the fact that the earth is conscious

Brown: I know Sarah, but look when you are cold you put on a blanket or warm clothing..

Sarah: and the earth? Does it have a blanket?

Brown: Yes, the sky Sarah, the earth wraps itself in the sky and the earth has never taken that blanket off because space is as cold as 3 Antarctica put together:

Sarah: wow I'm amazed... but I mean all that kept you awake all these days.

Brown: not really love. What bothers me is that everything that is aware of itself or has consciousness dies or it comes to the end of itself.

Sarah: what do you mean?

Brown: if the universe is conscious, then it has to come to an end?

Sarah: you mean the end of the world?

Brown: Exactly.

Sarah: please don't scare me. I have many fabrics i need to attend to tommorow, many needs sewing.

Brown: Even a perfect dress will one day become old and burned. That is the end of it.

Sarah: So you think Sunday school is right?

Brown: I think the maker of the universe is right.

That night left Sarah to question her existence. She felt like she lived life outside reality. What can you imagine turning a 4-year-old turning home into a new beginning of perception. But a deeper question did Sarah have: if the earth is aware of itself, what is the purpose of its awareness? Why does it even have life? Is it to host life? Or to live for itself. Malek had a little question about his size. If the universe is conscious, does it mean it is conscious of both good and evil too? Is that why the earth gets angry and responds by lightning and hurricanes? What about the earthquakes, and people that die as a result? Well, Brown had a question within himself too. If the universe is conscious, what is the reason for its consciousness? I mean, what is the reason for its existence? If the earth has a purpose for its existence, then what about us?

[on a cold Sunday morning when Sarah and Malek had driven to the store.]

Brown turned on the TV...

TV: you know what Jones. It suprises me that there are lots of things we don't know about creation. Let's take an example of the earth. The bible records that the earth has a mouth. Yes, in the book of Numbers 16:32 it says "And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods... so Jones the holy book says the earth has a mouth. Can you fathom that, Jones? So in other words... [Brown switched off the TV]

Brown: I knew it!