I hope you are doing well and thanks for continuing your prolific and influential posts. I particularly resonated with this one.
I had a similar experience that I wanted to share. It was from a time that I had a job Interview for an internal position. I had a memory of someone asking me to write up 15 ways to propose to improve the agency through the potential new job role. I woke up the night before the interview and remembered to write the short paper. I then emailed it to the interviewers stating that was the information for the interview as asked.
Later on I was told that I was never asked to do this. However later on the new agency boss came up to me and told me that I was the first person to give them feedback on how to improve at the agency and was impressed. I ultimately did not get the position at the time but just recently reapplied and with that boss on the panel again, was awarded the position.
I have had a few of these types of experiences and to this day that memory did not feel like a dream. I’ve had times where like daydreams I see a future if I make a certain choice, almost like a warning.
All of this had increased my focus on the idea of time in physics (messages from the future? - not outlawed by physics itself) and please feel free to read my substack focused on my conceptualization of time here ->
Thanks so much Ben! I am reading your post now. I do agree that the nature of time is an anomaly we haven't incorporated. The issue is always- what is the practical implication? How should I change my behavior? That's my bar for any theoretical discussion. The Akashic conclusion
The Akashic conclusion may not be the right one- and for me it's insufficient as I will never be smart enough to falsify it. Hence it may not shift culture.
However Tom, the Akashic conclusion does dovetail nicely with the idea of information conservation in physics and even the idea of the proposed holographic principle where we have all the information (like a Pareto principle of having 80%info from 20%).
I feel that there must be something to also accounting for all of these ‘shared oddities of experience’. There clearly is meaning and benefit from some of these experiences and the more people share them, the more others may be comfortable in doing so.
So thank you again for leading this curiosity driven charge into this brave new world! Who knows what we will find together!
Thanks for also always taking the time to communicate with me and others and generally being so kind and caring!
This was a great read... must have been something going on in 2017 - at that time I was also working in financial markets and having similar awakening experiences 😎. It’s interesting the overlap between the constructs of that theory and ‘meaning in life’ which is also made up of coherence and direction (more commonly referred to as purpose) - you could argue cultivating meaning and purpose are how we bring ourselves into right relationship with the universe.
Ha thanks Fiona. Lots of weird things happened in 2017! And I realize the air date of the Jacob’s ladder was October 24th, the same date of the balloon flight article ;) I now think of meaning in life as a process of connection rather than something you find. In fact the search was pretty awful for all the obvious reasons. Glad this piece resonated with you.
“Wisdom is the ability to pursue what you love and ignore what you don’t. Wealth provides that freedom.”
Interesting take on wisdom. We are all pursuing wealth, wisdom, and meaning in life ... I like your idea on being able to pursue what really fills our cup.
Thanks Jordan- the trigger was contemplating the SUPERB Founders podcast on Ed Thorp. You realise his ability to live a life that Senra thought was the best he'd studies of over ~220, was his ability to drop it all and pursue a new path and identity that was calling to him.
Hey Tom!,
I hope you are doing well and thanks for continuing your prolific and influential posts. I particularly resonated with this one.
I had a similar experience that I wanted to share. It was from a time that I had a job Interview for an internal position. I had a memory of someone asking me to write up 15 ways to propose to improve the agency through the potential new job role. I woke up the night before the interview and remembered to write the short paper. I then emailed it to the interviewers stating that was the information for the interview as asked.
Later on I was told that I was never asked to do this. However later on the new agency boss came up to me and told me that I was the first person to give them feedback on how to improve at the agency and was impressed. I ultimately did not get the position at the time but just recently reapplied and with that boss on the panel again, was awarded the position.
I have had a few of these types of experiences and to this day that memory did not feel like a dream. I’ve had times where like daydreams I see a future if I make a certain choice, almost like a warning.
All of this had increased my focus on the idea of time in physics (messages from the future? - not outlawed by physics itself) and please feel free to read my substack focused on my conceptualization of time here ->
https://whiteholeconjectures.substack.com/p/the-white-hole-conjectures-3a5?sd=pf
I appreciate all of your kindness and curiosity! Hope you have an amazing day and thanks for all you do!
Thanks so much Ben! I am reading your post now. I do agree that the nature of time is an anomaly we haven't incorporated. The issue is always- what is the practical implication? How should I change my behavior? That's my bar for any theoretical discussion. The Akashic conclusion
whoops cut off.
The Akashic conclusion may not be the right one- and for me it's insufficient as I will never be smart enough to falsify it. Hence it may not shift culture.
However Tom, the Akashic conclusion does dovetail nicely with the idea of information conservation in physics and even the idea of the proposed holographic principle where we have all the information (like a Pareto principle of having 80%info from 20%).
I feel that there must be something to also accounting for all of these ‘shared oddities of experience’. There clearly is meaning and benefit from some of these experiences and the more people share them, the more others may be comfortable in doing so.
So thank you again for leading this curiosity driven charge into this brave new world! Who knows what we will find together!
Thanks for also always taking the time to communicate with me and others and generally being so kind and caring!
This was a great read... must have been something going on in 2017 - at that time I was also working in financial markets and having similar awakening experiences 😎. It’s interesting the overlap between the constructs of that theory and ‘meaning in life’ which is also made up of coherence and direction (more commonly referred to as purpose) - you could argue cultivating meaning and purpose are how we bring ourselves into right relationship with the universe.
Ha thanks Fiona. Lots of weird things happened in 2017! And I realize the air date of the Jacob’s ladder was October 24th, the same date of the balloon flight article ;) I now think of meaning in life as a process of connection rather than something you find. In fact the search was pretty awful for all the obvious reasons. Glad this piece resonated with you.
“Wisdom is the ability to pursue what you love and ignore what you don’t. Wealth provides that freedom.”
Interesting take on wisdom. We are all pursuing wealth, wisdom, and meaning in life ... I like your idea on being able to pursue what really fills our cup.
Thanks Jordan- the trigger was contemplating the SUPERB Founders podcast on Ed Thorp. You realise his ability to live a life that Senra thought was the best he'd studies of over ~220, was his ability to drop it all and pursue a new path and identity that was calling to him.
That's a human superpower to be able to focus entirely on one's own calling / identity regardless of what others think.
To EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS can take years, or not be done at all. Because you need to see yourself clearly first, and that is not a trivial undertaking.
I think another part of this worth mentioning is how much great art also appeared fully formed from the “night shift”.
Songbird (Christine McVie) and Yesterday (McCartney) are two that spring immediately to mind.
Both written in full upon waking in the night.