March 5, 2010

Be Kind to your Car

You really should be nice to your car.

I watched the film, “I Robot,” tonight (again). I love that film. It’s more violent than I like, or I wish I liked, but it is a wonderfully done sci fi film, and there are, in my opinion, so few of them so well done. In this film there is a robot that, against all expectation and probability, has emotions – and it dreams. It has personality. It is aware. More aware, in fact, that many of the humans around it. Hmmm, maybe it isn’t science fiction! Anyway, it is suggested in the film that the robot has all the elements that might give rise to a soul. Sonny — that was the robot’s name — apparently was conscious and it – he? – had a soul. And that got me to thinking: What is consciousness — what is the soul?

One thing that bothers me in most sci fi films is that they look at least vaguely humanoid. Really, what are the chances of that? And, even in the ones that have the wildest looking creatures, when contacted by humans from earth, they speak – go ahead, guess – English! Please. I mean, really. In well done films, people from Germany speak German, those from Italy speak Italian, and those from Washington, DC speak gibberish. Why would a space alien speak English? Some get it right, i.e. Star Wars, where, for instance, Jabba the Hut speaks an unrecognizable language and looks nothing like a human. He could be from any distant planet, or perhaps, Washington, DC.

So, to introduce a really wild and crazy idea, here are a few questions grounded in metaphysical truth (or my understanding of metaphysical truth), but first some qualifying statements: The soul, according to Unity teachings, is the sum total of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness. As stated in the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, “Consciousness is our knowing that we know; that phase of knowing by which we take cognizance of our existence and of our relation to what we call environment.” Now, the questions are: When you die are you conscious? Unity, and most spiritual opinion, would say, “yes.” The next question would be: Is your consciousness dependent upon your body? If you subscribe to the thinking put forth by those that believe in an afterlife, you would have to say, “no.” To sum it up, you don’t have to have a body to be conscious.

This leads us to another question: If you do not need a body to be conscious, could consciousness then be placed within some other form of life that perceives in one or more of an almost infinite number of ways? In the bible, a burning bush speaks with the voice of God. In Unity, we teach that there is “only one presence, and one power, God, the good, omnipotent. So, if there is only one presence, and, if everything is God, then everything must have that Divine Presence within it. Therefore, if consciousness can be placed anywhere, and God is everywhere, then everything must be, in some form, in some way, conscious. Sonny has a soul.

What I’m going to tell you now is anecdotal. I have completed no double-blind studies. Still, it has been my experience that my cars perform nearly flawlessly. Parts wear out occasionally, just like my own do, but they rarely let me down. I never have flats. Never. My cars almost never just quit. I can only think of one time in my entire life that a car of mine quit. A part in the distributor overheated. What an odd thing: There was too much heat in the part that distributed needed energy. At that time in my life, a part of me, my subconscious, the part that distributes energy for creation of life experiences was very much overheated. My cars perform flawlessly, except when they mirror what is going on in my life. How’s that for a sci fi premise? Could my cars have some sort of consciousness? Could they have something like a soul? I know, I sound like I left my mental garage on empty. But, if consciousness doesn’t need a body, then perhaps it could inhabit any body, or anything... Perhaps, if God is everywhere present, God, as consciousness, could be in our cars...

You know, you better be nice to your car. And your toaster, too.