One thing I enjoy doing whenever I come across a wild idea or explanation is to operate from the assumption that it is completely and utterly true. From this perspective, I start to work in theories to see how they stand up against a certain model of belief.
Take the block universe theory for instance. Block universe is an idea that the past and future exists simultaneously and that the “present” does not exist, as we are travelling from the past to the future, in constant motion.
Block universe theorists have suggested that “time” does not exist in the way that we think it does. Within the BU framework, time is thought of as a dimension that is concrete and as real as space and physical matter. Our present understanding of time is to think of it as a measure of change. We’ve identified a consistent/looping pattern (the orbit of the earth around the sun), and developed a mechanism (clocks/calendars) that are then synchronized to the beginning and end of this cycle. That’s what we call “time” in which we can measure with precision using units we call “seconds” and “days”.
We’ve gotten pretty good at measuring time once we started using atomic clocks. We can now track over 9 billion oscillations within an atom per second, giving a ridiculously accurate assessment of what we consider to be the “measure of change”.
Block universe theory, however, is saying that time is both relativistic and deterministic. Meaning that the future and the past exists at the same time (deterministic), and our sense of “time” has to do with perceiving our movement from the past into the future (relativistic). Doesn’t sound all that revolutionary of an idea? It is, actually.
If we can accept that the past and the future already exist, then this theory allows for a number of possibilities to open up.
- Time travel is possible.
- Not only would time travel be possible, but it would solve the grandfather paradox because the future has already happened regardless of what took place in the past.
- Future events can be predicted because they already exist.
- Nothing we do can change the future. No matter what, the future is and always will be of the same result. Hence, there is no “free will” in the way that we think it exists. Only the illusion of it.
These are sobering possibilities to wonder about. As someone who is interested in explaining how some psychics can predict the future, the block universe theory allows for the possibility of them doing so. How? By removing themselves from their vantage point (the present) to see ahead into the future before returning back to the present with new information acquired. What is the mechanism for doing so? Who the heck knows. But it does involve a type of time travel when you think about it. No flux capacitor required.
One other way of making sense of this complex theory is to imagine reading a book. If we read from beginning to end, that is analogous to how we are living right now. Going through each day would be like reading a page until we reach the conclusion. With the block universe idea, it suggests that the story within this book (our reality) has already been written. No matter what we do, we cannot alter what has already occurred. Every variable, every action and movement has been accounted for before they happened.
In the case of psychics “predicting” the future, they have skipped ahead further into the book than we have, before returning again, to the “present” that we are all currently experiencing.
You may be wondering that if predicting the future is possible, wouldn’t knowledge of the future affect the future itself? Wouldn’t there be changes if we managed to develop time travel and assassinate our grandfather so that we don’t exist in the future? Wouldn’t a sports almanac change things?
Block universe theorists say that this is all accounted for. If we travel back into time and murder our grandfathers before we are born, the future doesn’t change. Such an action has already taken place. It would be impossible for you to not to exist should you succeed in this attempt on your grandfather’s life, because otherwise how could you go back in time to do it? That’s the reconciliation of a favorite paradox of time-travel theorists. The block universe hypothesis fits as perfectly as the glove on OJ’s hand.
Another observation that arises when considering block universes, is that if time travel is possible — and that we’ve traveled through time at some point in our future — we should already have witnessed the effects of it. In theory, we would have seen intervention by a time traveler. But have we? What would a time-traveler from the future look like?
This then fits in nicely in reconciling anomalies such as the “ancient astronaut” hypothesis which claims that our civilization has been tinkered with (and given prostate exams) by extraterrestrial beings. Why does this fit? Because it also makes sense that these beings may be evolved humans from the future coming to visit us during periods of our history. Consider the Rendlesham incident in which a landed UFO was approached by military officials and found to have hieroglyphic messages inscribed upon the craft which suggested that these were humans visiting from the future.
For further weirdness, one of the witnesses at Rendlesham has successfully won a lawsuit and received compensation for his injuries.
Another reconciliation of the block universe would be the elimination of the butterfly effect, in which a small action or change can affect the entire world. In this theory, you can squish all the butterflies you want and the future will remain unchanged.
Now that we’ve explored block universe, we can look to apply this theory against another anomaly. Codes in the Bible that purport to deliver warnings and communications to the future. Which is what got me to thinking about the block universe in the first place.
In the Chamberlain Key (now titled,“The God Code”), author Timothy P. Smith claims he discovered a message from the past to himself which is encoded within Genesis 30. Using a form of decryption, he was able to find his Hebrew name (Timotheus) as well as his birth date and other information.
From the author’s own words:
Now, it’s always fascinated me that both my father and myself had seven children, six sons and a daughter, so it should be no surprise that when I studied the Bible, this verse would make me pause, because Leah also had six sons and a daughter. As I examined the original Hebrew text in the Leningrad Codex, I went straight for Genesis chapter 30, 20 through 25, to see if I might find anything hidden there. I found it immediately. There in Genesis chapter 30, 20 through 25, I found the Hebrew letters of my own name encrypted in the text at a perfect equidistant skip of 16. The odds of it being there by chance are astronomical, many billions to one. This was absolutely unbelievable.
He mentions other findings, such as the revealing of Christ and his crucifixion hidden within the Old Testament long before the debut of Jesus. This could be considered a coincidence if it wasn’t for the fact that the odds of such a statement being found using a cryptographic equation is in the trillions.
Although, to be fair, hidden messages have been found in other works as well.
Here is a video of Timothy speaking about the book, which is what prompted me to apply block universe theory, because how the heck else can messages from the past be able to foretell the future? How can the future be theoretically predicted? Again, I’m operating under the assumption that these claims are fact and there must be evidence out there to support it.
Block universe fits the bill.
Assuming these messages were intentionally inserted, that is.
It is easy for skepticism to enter the picture with prognosticators such as Nostradamus, Jeanne Dixon and Edgar Cayce having had some of their predictions turn out to be untrue. The saying, “a broken clock is right twice a day” comes to mind, as well as, “you can’t bullshit a bullshitter”. There are several other authors who claim to have found codes in the Bible using their own set of algorithms. The rise of the Nazi regime, warnings of an impending nuclear catastrophe and 9/11 are some of the ciphers that have been found.
Although we can’t believe everything we read is true, we can still open our minds up to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, time is not what we think it is. That we have intentionally been left messages from the past to our future selves. Why? Because it would cause us to re-examine our ideas about time, and to consider strongly that a God-like omniscient being might actually exist and knows what you will be having for breakfast a week from now.
I am a strong believer that science and spirituality can and must co-exist. Like hemispheres of the brain — we need logic and reason just as much as imagination and intuition. Where spirituality is the ongoing search for Truth and the realization of our relationship to the cosmos — science is the process by which we confirm and verify that we are on the correct path. It is the vehicle that gets us to the destination we want to arrive at. A destination described and given meaning by religion.
Para. Para. Paradise.
Oh oh ohhh ohhh oh ohh
