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Robert Lanza, M.D.

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Do You Only Live Once? Experiments Suggest Life Not One-Time Deal

Posted: 03/24/10 10:11 AM ET

We think we die and rot into the ground, and thus must squeeze everything in before it's too late. If life -- yours, mine -- is a just a one-time deal, then we're as likely to be screwed as pampered. But experiments suggest this view of the world may be wrong.

The results of quantum physics confirm that observations can't be predicted absolutely. Instead, there's a range of possible observations each with a different probability. One mainstream explanation, the "many-worlds" interpretation, states that there are an infinite number of universes (the "multiverse"). Everything that can possibly happen occurs in some universe. The old mechanical -- "we're just a bunch of atoms" −- view of life loses its grip in these scenarios.

Biocentrism extends this idea, suggesting that life is a flowering and adventure that transcends our ordinary linear way of thinking. Although our individual bodies are destined to self-destruct, the "me'' feeling is just energy operating in the brain. But this energy doesn't go away at death. One of the surest principles of science is that energy never dies; it can neither be created nor destroyed. When we die, we do so not in the random billiard ball matrix but in the inescapable life matrix. Life has a non-linear dimensionality −- it's like a perennial flower that returns to bloom in the multiverse.

A series of landmark experiments show that measurements an observer makes can influence events that have already happened in the past. One experiment (Science 315, 966, 2007) confirmed that flipping a switch could retroactively change a result that had happened before the switch was flipped. Regardless of the choice you, the observer, make, it'll be you who will experience the outcomes −- the universes −- that will result.

The implications of this were clear with my sister "Bubbles." The earliest remembrance I have of my childhood was with her, in her play doctor's office. "You're a little unwell," she said, handing me a cup of sand. "It's medicine. Drink this and you'll feel better." This I did; and as I started to drink it, Bubbles cried out "No!" and gave a gasp as if she were swallowing it herself.

The affection that existed between Bubbles and me was a strong one, for being my older sister, she had always felt that it was her job to protect me. I can remember standing at the school bus stop with my little mittens and lunchbox, when one of the older neighborhood boys pushed me to the ground. I was still on the ground and hurt, when I saw Bubbles running up the street. "You touch my little brother ever again," she said, "and I'll punch your face in."

It's difficult to believe that I, and not she, went on to become the doctor. Although she was very bright, by 10th grade she'd dropped out of school and entered on a course of destruction with drugs. The ill done to her at home had little remission. She was beaten, ran away, and punished again. I recall her hiding under the porch, and the terror that hung about the place; I can see the tears running down her face. After moving out of the house I learned she was pregnant. When all the relatives refused to go to her wedding, I told her "It's okay!" and held her hand. The birth of "Little Bubbles" was a happy occasion, an oasis in this life in the desert. How happy she was, and when I sat down by her side, she asked me −- her little brother −- if I'd be the godfather to her child.

But all this was a short event, and stands like a wild flower along an asphalt road. Little by little her mind began to deteriorate. Although I'd seen a lot of medicine by then, it was a matter of some emotion to me to see her child taken away. The deep remembrance I have of her being utterly without hope, restrained and sedated with drugs. As I went away from the hospital that day, I mingled my memories of her with tears.

Bubbles was still a pretty woman, and was found in the park once, quite distressed, her hair hanging in her face and her clothes torn; of which she knew as little as us. A while later she was pregnant, and I can only understand that someone had taken advantage of her again. I remember her looking at me in embarrassment, holding the baby in her arms. He had a cute face, and I thought, didn't look like anyone we knew.

Soon after, my big sister −- a once proud woman −- lost even the remembrance of where she lived.

This tale of Bubbles is one that has a thousand variations, told by many families, of tragedy interspersed with joyous times. But plays of experience, even ones like that of my sister, are never random, nor the end of the story. Rather, they're interludes in a melody so vast and eternal that human ears can't appreciate the tonal range of the symphony.

"Whenever anything in nature seems to us ridiculous, absurd or evil," said Spinoza "it is because we have but a partial knowledge of things."

Life has a power that transcends any individual history or universe. The story of my sister is part of a more profound drama, one that I know holds more joyful fortunes as her life unfolds in the multiverse. As in the Science experiment, whether it's flipping a switch or making other choices, she will experience the many outcomes and resulting universes. I only hope -− if she becomes a doctor −- the medicine goes down a lot easier than it did in her play-office so long ago.

Robert Lanza, MD has published extensively in leading scientific journals, and has over two dozen books, including 'Biocentrism' (with astronomer Bob Berman), which lays out the full scientific argument for his theory of everything.

 
 
 

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We think we die and rot into the ground, and thus must squeeze everything in before it's too late. If life -- yours, mine -- is a just a one-time deal, then we're as likely to be screwed as pampered.
We think we die and rot into the ground, and thus must squeeze everything in before it's too late. If life -- yours, mine -- is a just a one-time deal, then we're as likely to be screwed as pampered.
 
 
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03:58 PM on 05/06/2010
It is better to experience, than to argue with the mind of others or self. Mysticism is a path to experience, rather than be smarter. No matter how smart a person is, In the Infinite Ocean of knowledge, there is always more to learn and know. For me its better to experience Other lives, beings, religious teachings, than silly mind organizations. Real shamanic journeying, www.ArtofGod.org. Receiving Darshan from real Masters. Much better to live in the place, as even traditional Christians say, the peace that surpasses (the mind's) understanding.
Blessings,as I choose to graduate beyond the mind's survival based programming. BLISS!
11:57 AM on 05/04/2010
If we accept that that which produces the universe is infinite and that the universe itself consists of a finite amount of whatever, then it makes sense that variations of the same universe would be produced ad infinitum. Roll a finite set of dice (let's say 10 of them) an infinite number of times and you'll have ten ones produced an infinite number of times.

While maybe providing comfort to those of us with comfortable lives, such a cosmology seems horribly cruel for those who live out their lives in the shadow of horror.

Dr. Lanza's suggestion is that within all these variations of the same universe, sometimes you're on the upside of fortune, and sometimes on the downside.

In other words, sometimes you're in heaven and sometimes you're in hell, independent of whether you are good or bad.

There are ways in which such a cosmology meshes nicely with Buddhist notions of the essential emptiness of this self with which you find yourself identified. But that's a subject for another essay...

Peter
06:51 PM on 05/02/2010
Go read the linked article about the experiment to split or recombined a photon. Fascinating.
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ChaCubed
Fabulously Liberal
12:04 PM on 04/28/2010
If I wake up dead I will be pleasantly surprised.
12:13 AM on 03/31/2010
I believe that energy is the basic essential of all life. Every living thing, including humans, are born with it. Using humans as the example, when we die the energy is released again and is re-absorbed into the whole from wence it came until it is again re-born into life. There is no beginning or end to it. It is a constant. I think this is the aura we see around the body. So, in that respect, energy (life) never dies. It is just re-distributed.
07:39 PM on 03/29/2010
I'm feelin' kinda dense: in skimming the "Bubbles" part of the story, I find that it doesn't help to make his point. But then, I wasn't reading for the details of Bubbles life... I was looking for it to hook back into the main premise.
03:33 PM on 03/29/2010
If this is true, I'd love to come back as someone who isn't balding.
04:37 AM on 03/29/2010
It isn't quite clear how the results of these quantum mechanic experiments points to the authors conclusion and the title of the article. Energy does weaken as it travels down a line so it can peter out . Without the brain to produce the electrical current how does that " me ", as the author calls it , survive ? Being an agnostic I wouldn't say it isn't possible , just questioning the authors rationale . Proof that reincarnation did indeed exist would be quite entertaining and most interesting to see how religious leaders would explained it away.
01:44 AM on 03/28/2010
As with all things human, death is about relationship. The moment you die, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you continue to live. Belief in Christ, or belief in any lesser god, is about relationship. Jesus knows those who are his and he knows those who are not his. Why not give it a try and be one of His? You've got nothing to lose but the fear of death.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Foucek
I don't speak TROLL
10:28 PM on 03/28/2010
There are many other deities and cultures in this world besides the ONE you believe in and are proselytizing about. Have a little respect.
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mofmars333
01:43 AM on 03/29/2010
I believe in Jesus & love who he was but many cultures & civilizations had their own Jesus, too, you know?

We old schooled Christians were told fairy tales with lies slipped in sideways.

It's time to reevaluate what we beLIEve so we can wake up from the big dream. Actually, it's been a living nightmare for many through time due to the passive nature result of extreme brainwashing & conditioning our people have been put, purposley, through.

Time we sheelpe take our heads out of the sand & become people.

We've been conditioned to be passive while evil men ruled (so called beast) as we waited for the so called "return" for generations while innocents suffered, sorrowed & died in perpetual war.

We even believed our God would promise land to chosen people & condoned murdering men, women, children & animals to get it.

I love God but if I believed s/he, Allah or whatever one wants to call theirs, was like that one, you who have been fooled, believe in, I'd want nothing to do with him.

The trickery of religion has served it's purpose & kept us divided & easier to control for generations but it's time to wake up & do what Jesus would do.

We all have the same purpose & that is, we we're supposed to be the caretakers of this planet & as a whole so far, we've failed miserably.
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mofmars333
01:54 AM on 03/29/2010
Part 2

Jesus was the son of God/good, as we all are the sons & daughters, who love one another. He even said we shall do greater things than he & that in itself proves he was no more special than any one of us.

Scripture was purposely tainted by man in translation. It was twisted, changed & added to, to keep us peasants in line.

It broke my heart to learn we were so fooled. It especially hurt me when I first found out my treasured Bible, like everything else touching this earth, has duality in that, it too, is made up of good & evil. I was so angry at the one who revealed the truth about the Bible to me & at first I didn't believe her.

But then I woke up.

Once you use your own mind & stop buying into a lot of the man made doctrine, by looking at the logical aspects, it all becomes clear.

Add prayer to that & you'll have a perfect recipe for a personal relationship with the almighty which can be like riding a positive electric wave of energy made up of love, joy, hope & all that's good.

We are Jesus & we're here now. It's time to get busy by taking care this planet & all life on it as we should have been doing all along.

Please read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach. It takes only about an hour. The life lessons in it
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bmermaid
innocent bystander
12:28 AM on 03/28/2010
I remember before I was born. I was an "angel" waiting, with other "angels". We had lived before and were waiting to be born again. This memory was not "acceptable" to my family, who were Christians, when I was little, so I didn't talk about it. But I still remember.
04:42 AM on 03/29/2010
I built the house I was born in
06:29 PM on 03/27/2010
living even once is an impossibility for most...

don't believe me??? Put,

With no one to protect them

into the youtube search engine...
I seriously send you $20.00 RIGHT NOW if you can get to the 5:40 mark without crying, (or vomiting).
08:58 AM on 03/27/2010
I get that energy can never be destroyed. But the energy that is organized into an individual consciousness - maybe it just dissipates back into the general pool of Energy? In the same way that the elements of our body dissolve back into the earth.
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www dot wtf
10:35 PM on 03/26/2010
As my mother lay dying years ago, I made my best attempt to extend to her my belief that she would live again, and would continue to do so, due to my belief in scientific reality that we are energy, and it is not the energy that dies, it is the vehicle in which we go through life that breaks down and ultimately decays.

Believing in the physical being alone is too one-dimensional, given all we have learned about matter and energy these past hundred years. None of us knows for sure - whether we will live again, or not - but, at the time one is dying, and we the passing is grievous....what's wrong extending hope that a new life, a new experience, a new opportunity awaits?

It is worth something to think positively - rather than enable the frightening, agonizing perception that death is finality....Lights out... One and done.

The concept of positive energy bringing about a more positive result in life situations throughout one's life is called the "power of positive thinking" -so, why not extend it to "death"? Why not enable someone, at the time of their transition, to pass with a more positive outlook?

Death is the last thing we do in this life. Dignity is always encouraged. Why not also extend hope?

If there are future lives - whether we actually have consciousness of having lived before - isn't it a bonus in each to believe in such existence?

Just a thought.
01:27 PM on 03/27/2010
That's why some people believe in heaven.
04:43 AM on 03/29/2010
Heaven and Hell are right here on earth
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Donnat
Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned
06:17 PM on 03/26/2010
I saw a Red Dwarf episode about this type of thing, called "Dimension Jump". It was hysterical.
06:04 PM on 03/26/2010
God doesnt send anyone to hell. Here is a good analogy if you are a basketball or football fan. this will show you why you think God sends people to hell. Have you ever watched a game where one player
blatantly hits another but by the time the ref turns around all he sees is the other player retaliating by hitting back. The ref then throws a flag at the player who was hit first and then hit back because all the ref saw was this second player hit the first guy so this is all he thinks happened? This is how we look at God and judgement..we think :"what an awful thing to send millions to Hell"-- when in fact it was Adam who sold us out to sin and death and God is the one who sent jesus to save us. By the time we turn around all we see is God's judgement and think he is the one sending us to hell when, in fact, it was our great forefather Adam.
We inhieret spiritual death from him thru birth so we must be born again. The virgin Mary was the door of his entrance to earth, outside a dead gene pool(so virgin, no intercourse), and then he died for our sins and became the door that we leave the family tree of Adam thru and into life..outside a dead gene pool.
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Larkinvos
06:21 PM on 03/26/2010
Spare me.
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Star2000dancer
Pay it forward, the movie..
06:24 PM on 03/26/2010
Jesus disappeared from 12 to 33. Who said he didn't have children?

When Constantine redid the bible to the St. James version, he killed the monks & burned their bibles. The monks began hiding their bibles. We're finding them now.

That's why we're now finding the gospel of Mary Magdalene & Phillipe so far, maybe more..

It was Mary he went to first when he rose. Remember, the others were jealous?

How can anyone make statements about things even the "experts" won't comment on?

He said "Mary got him or understood him the most", but it was men that wrote the bible. Women picked the Kings, Pharaohs, Chiefs, etc.

Why is it the Not only Jesus himself, but no woman has written one word in the bible we use?