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An interesting idea, that the entire universe shares but a single electron:
The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity moving backwards and forwards in time.
Now, I'm clearly not the guy to check the math, and - while it sounds absurd, that is generally how progress is made. Consider that if the universe is in any way to be traversed or made accessible to us it'll be a result of this sort of thinking.
One possible outcome of imagining this sort of universe is that - light having to travel the same sort of convoluted paths the electron is taking - might enable us to "exceed" the speed of light by simply ignoring the plainly laid out meandres and paths in favor of "shortcuts".
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe
Now, on to do some research into positrons and how the One-Electron Universe might explain why most of the stars appear redshifted. In any path from the center most paths with be receding. I'm with Eddington on that, the Big-Bang just doesn't cut it...
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Previously: Cellular Memory 3 February 2009
Now, some 15 years later there have been an abundance of studies that do indeed suggest that memory and personality might continue and have influence on people that have had organ transplants, the memories & personalities of the deceased (donors) to the living (recipients).
Now, "memory" here is a tricky thing, and as it rather defines our existence I should clarify a few things. Memory surviving death is no new thing. This is the purpose of books, - to keep alive the memory of the author, of sculpture, art, architecture, which preserve if not the artist then the memory of their point of view, their genius. Our collective memory as a species has evolved, from the earliest oral traditions to reading, writing, film, audio, and now finally digital.
So then perhaps it's not memory, by it's nature non-local and outside ourselves, but our identity.
Our identities are largely shaped by the memories we have (and how we choose to remember them). Changes in physical self are a form of permanent memories, scars, most people remembering when/where/how they lost a limb, and their attendant feelings, or a certain relationship that altered their viewpoint on the world, or a catastrophic misfortune (or fortunate windfall) that completely and utterly remade their universe.
Consider the Bible (Western) as a form of collective memory - when it was (at one point) the one thing that Western Civilization had in common - everyone had at least some exposure to it, and many had considerable. Nevermind that it may well be largely (literally at least) lies & fiction, it formed in some ways a cornerstone of "our" memory. Even to react adversely to it is merely a matter of personal taste, there was no denying it's existence, merely it's relevance or veracity.
Now consider memories - starting with the simpler organisms and moving forward. A sea-sponge pressed through a sieve will over time reassemble itself. What memory(ies) does it have of it's prior existence? A planarian can be divided up to 279 times, and each piece will regrow itself and preserve a "memory" - for example, a trained response towards light. Is this now memory? Or is it identity and evolution? Consider that a woman diminishes her risk of miscarriage by indulging in performing oral sex. The habituation to the sperm/fluids of the male make her body less likely to reject the fetus. (Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30980918/). A vaccine is the introduction of a "memory" into the body in preparation for a fight, much as Neo downloaded fight programs in "The Matrix".
Or of Epigenetic Triggers, which if activated before reproduction in Humans as well as other species pass the changes on to the offspring - memory, triggered, becomes a portion of identity in future generations.
Now on to the increasing evidence that organs (heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, etc) retain some portion of memory that survives upon transplant. I'm thinking of a bad Hollywood Movie wherein a heart transplant recipient unwittingly falls in love with the (naturally) deceased donor's wife.
But why not? We are all the sum of our parts?
Think here of the hand in The Addams Family, scurrying about on it's own nefarious business. Or the monster of Frankenstein, assembled from whatever was at hand, and therefor tearing itself apart with it's own separate ambitions.
There is so much research now being done on this, and - for a bit, a while, it seemed a romantic fiction, we took for granted the physical & chemical nature of the brain and thought it superseded all else, and there would no doubt be neurologists that would still argue this view, but it's time perhaps to take a broader look. Brain injury might impede the expression of personality and intelligence, but the brain might not be entirely the locus. Identity, personality, tastes even, are more probably bound up in the entirety of our physical existence than solely within our cranium.
And even that is coming under scrutiny...
Anyways, curious thoughts in curious directions.
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Another "universality" - culturally at least - in death, is that of the "Deathbed Confession".
If you read any of the Reddit threads (Specifically #7) you might have noticed that many of those in their dying moments were revisited by unpleasant scenes in their past - one poster's father drowned kittens in a sack, then upon his deathbed reported his seeing his bed covered in kittens, another kindly old man reenacted a violent scene, then upon his death was found to have been a Nazi, with gold bars and teeth...and many other such tales.
Not all were of angelic visitations.
But surprisingly there were a lot of confessions - to hospice workers, priests, pastors, you have it - of crimes committed in life, generally violent, specifically rapes & murders. Most of these confessions were unsolicited - women, men confessing to having murdered their spouses, children, random murders, serial killer confessions. Confessions of soldiers at war, forgiven by the country that sent them but never themselves. As if at the last they realized that they didn't want to carry this with them to the grave, as if this final confession was enough to give some atonement.
And in some cases surely their deathbed visitations in all likelihood prompted the confessions.
Now, in those cases of those bound by marriage a great number of these murders probably went undetected. It's a simple thing to arrange an "accident" or "poison" ones spouse - and the law generally doesn't look too much into it.
In those cases where the crimes were known - missing people, and the dying attempted to expatiate upon the circumstances of the crime, disposal of the remains, etc - you wonder, how many of these are still open on the books - priests, pastors, clergy being bound to take confession and never speak of them - yet - once dead, who is hurt?
Only the living.
I mean, this knowledge could - not heal, but perhaps close a lot of wounds, and if you don't think this a common theme I'd suggest you read through the threads. I took a few hours and read through thousands. It happens a lot more often than you think.
And notice how the Catholic Church has formalized the process - Confession, Anointing of the Sick (formerly extreme unction) and final reception of holy Communion (Viaticum) - a process far older than the Church itself, the confession meant to lighten the soul, the communion to provide sustenance for the journey. In Judaism it's Vidui, in Islam Tawbah, certain Buddhist sects have Vajrasattva, all these are equivalents for Confession, and serve to put the dying at rest. But - judging from a great many of the confessions on the thread, it seems to be a deeper need, religion has merely formalized it.
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Now this is a goldmine of inspiration and so I'll lead with a couple of short articles to introduce you to the concept.
#1 - Deathbed Visitations - The NY Times
#2 - Reader Submitted Stories on Deathbed Visitations - NY Times
Now this is a common thing, as many Nurses, Doctors and Hospice Workers will attest - and is considered a sure-fire signal that somebody is close or ready to dying. And there are an abundance of threads on reddit dealing with this same topic:
#3 - https://www.reddit.com/r/hospice/comments/1828jii/on_deathbed_visions/
#4 - https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/uxrpod/do_the_dying_always_see_ghosts_of_loved_ones/
#5 - https://www.reddit.com/r/NDE/comments/17ksnpf/deathbed_visions_evidence_for_their_reality/
#6 - https://www.reddit.com/r/DeathBedVisions/
#7 - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/sqhcco/nurses_of_reddit_what_where_the_most_haunting/
***
Now this is absolutely fascinating, the universality of the stories, cross-cultural, and the fact that visitors overwhelming are people near and dear to the dying and have predeceased them. Then there are the people dying who simply announce they're preparing for a trip. Stories of people being visited by pets, angels, what have you - and while many might write these off as "hallucinations" due to oxygen deprivation, or the brain breaking down, or the effects of dementia, Alzheimer's, it simply doesn't add up. Too many of the dying had no knowledge that they were predeceased by Aunt Marge, or so-and-so, and it argues against the terminal lucidity many patients experience before death, and - frankly, it's a cheap and easy "explanation" that in reality explains nothing, merely comforts those who prefer to remain "Scientific", while throwing their so-called science in their face.
Now what I find most interesting in this (well, 'most' is a bit strong, it's all pretty fascinating) is that many cultures have built up traditions - a series of steps that must be gone through in death (as in life, think of Catholicism & the 7 Sacraments), traditions codified in the Bardo Thodol, or The Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Thinking logically, which in no ways is going to maneuver this minefield, one has to marvel at those experiences reported by those who've come back from the dead. First - the descriptions, of people, imaginary (Jesus on the Golfcart welcoming them to the 19th hole) and real (Aunt Marge, Parents, Children, etc). That they can report on this, as more real than real, while - technically, "scientifically" everything they experience on the "other side" - presuming that there is one - should be in point of fact be very much different that what they experienced on this side. Vision - eyes closed - none. Hearing - dead, taste, dead, and so on down the line. All experience in this world is in some ways bound up with our physical being.
And - obvious to everyone - why do the people so often appear to the dying as they knew them in life?
From this I'd conclude that a good many of these experiences, or all of them, are simply the 'dead' - or some agent of the dead, a psychopomp, if you will, coming to help someone transition or grow into their next sphere of existence. Perhaps this then is the meaning of life, to attenuate our senses to the various physical realms, then evolving into the next one. In any event, something to consider.
Now this is just a beginning in the fascinating field of post-mortem psychology and spirituality, and one in which we're all going to sooner or later come to our own conclusions, but - well, it doesn't hurt to ponder the possibilities.
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I haven't abandoned my interest in chemistry, just finding different ways of expressing it. And as over the winter I'd developed an interest in crystal growing, what with the lab-grown diamonds and other gems (most of which one way or another we've found means to synthesize, I merely want the high pressure environment and a few tens of thousands of dollars equipment. Actually, sapphires and rubies can be done with reasonably basic chemistry, it's the other gems that need the high pressure chemistry).
Anyways, looking at solvents, the problem with using water as a solvent (called the universal solvent, because it dissolves more substances than anything) is that crystals produced this way also tend to dissolve in water. It's ease and universality are also it's downfall.
Then there's Alkahest, a theoretical universal solvent first conceived by Paracelsus, which you can read about here:
Link: Wiki on Alkahest
That's a gold mine of a link that can take you any number of directions.
***
Of course, smarter than me, you've already figured it out. There can be no such thing as a universal solvent, it would by it's nature dissolve the containers that were used in it's manufacture, the beakers and test tubes, stir sticks, the floor, and it would keep on dissolving until it's essence were used up...
***
But in fact there is a Universal Solvent, one so obvious nobody, not even Paracelsus conceived it.
Time. And it never runs out and devours all things...