# Are you the universe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243 "2019-06-29T00:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/41 "2019-06-29T18:09:36Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > I see this line tossed around a lot and to me there just doesn’t seem to be evidence that we are nothing but a body. Yet does the law of conservation of matter factor into this? The conservation of matter is physics, and your question is meta-physics. Your inability to see that these are separate is part of why you keep torturing yourself with nonsense worries. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/42 "2019-06-29T18:56:18Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > I am a fluke of the universe. > > You have no right to be here. How will the turtle carrying the elephants swim through the void without its fluke? ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/43 "2019-06-29T19:04:07Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > You are part of the universe, so when you ask if I’m the universe you are asking if you are the universe. > > My mass is a part of this galaxy and the mass of this galaxy interacts with other galaxies. There may even be quantum phenomenon in space that emit two photons that can be detected in different galaxies, but the results can only be confirmed at the speed of light so it wouldn’t be known about in the lifetime of our race. > The thing is, this thread was created and there were already many replies to it before I was ever aware of it. That’s good because not knowing everything makes things interesting. Perhaps what you are getting at is things would be better if it was all under one central control. That would be kind of boring and do away with free will. Besides, if say you wanted to orchestrate a few billion people it would take the brain power of a few billion people to process all the things they are doing. All those brains in one head would be an inconvenient solution. Instead, the universe put all those brains where their needed and I’m sure they are doing the best they can. > > So, whether we are all part of a fully connected whole or not it may not matter much. We each have awareness of a limited part of the universe around us and our influence on it isn’t all that strong on a cosmic scale. But that doesn’t mean what we do isn’t important. We can be either a positive or negative influence on the universe around us and that is especially important to the bits of the universe that are other people. As usual the best thing to do is keep an open mind, be kind and act honourably. It might make it one of the better parts of the universe. That’s the privilege the living bits of the universe have over the inanimate bits. And you don’t even need quantum detectatron to do it. Except that nothing we do matters, that’s pretty much the first rule of existence. And this is more about you being the universe which even by physics laws isn’t true. You are just a piece of a great whole, made up of smaller pieces ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/44 "2019-06-29T19:04:47Z")
I am a fish of the sky! A cloud of the sea! Blue is to fish, As sky is to me. -Steve Martin ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/45 "2019-06-29T19:07:33Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > You are just a piece of a great whole, made up of smaller pieces Just like everything else. **Machin Shin** , Solopsism and navel gazing never get one too far. IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/46 "2019-06-29T19:10:51Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Just like everything else. > > **Machin Shin** , Solopsism and navel gazing never get one too far. IMHO. To be honest neither did anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/47 "2019-06-29T19:17:47Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > To be honest neither did anything else. From whom did you hear “I am the universe”? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/48 "2019-06-29T19:33:59Z")
I can’t be the Universe. As evidence, my watch lacks both an æon hand and a millennium hand. Actually, it lacks a minute hand, too, but I used to have one with one of those. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/49 "2019-06-29T19:53:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > From whom did you hear “I am the universe”? Any number of spiritualities/ meditation centers. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/50 "2019-06-29T20:26:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > my watch lacks both an æon hand and a millennium hand. What about shrimp? ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/51 "2019-06-29T20:29:23Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Any number of spiritualities/ meditation centers. In other words, “they.” I win! And my prize is the awareness of my own personal universe, the one I carry inside me and that is made manifest outside me. I am become They, the destroyer of equanimity. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/52 "2019-06-29T21:06:16Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Any number of spiritualities/ meditation centers. Any in particular? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/53 "2019-06-29T22:17:10Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > OR to show what the center I got it from said: > > Level 1: Throwing away remembered thoughts > Level 2: Throwing away images of myself, images of human relationships, and myself > Level 3: Throwing away the body of my self > Level 4: Throwing away the body of my self and the universe > Level 5: Throwing away the body of my self and the universe > Level 6: My self disappears and Become the universe > Level 7: Throwing away the picture world and myself living in that world It should show you how little attention anybody here pays to your words from the fact that nobody has commented that Level 4 and Level 5 are identical. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/54 "2019-06-29T23:05:13Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > What about shrimp? Buggerit. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2019, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/55 "2019-06-29T23:08:07Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > Any number of spiritualities/ meditation centers. Buddhist, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/56 "2019-06-30T01:54:06Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Buggerit. What duck? ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/57 "2019-06-30T14:17:31Z")
Buddhist and Hindu meditative practices both teach that superconscious states can be reached in extremely deep meditation. In such states dualities (matter/energy, sentient/insentient and any number of others, including time) disappear leaving the meditator experiencing himself as a timeless infinity. Maybe that’s what you heard. But such a sublimation of perception only arises in super-deep states of meditation. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/58 "2019-06-30T14:27:08Z")
Take heart in the bedeepening gloom That your dog is finally getting enough cheese. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/59 "2019-06-30T17:20:06Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > Buddhist and Hindu meditative practices both teach that superconscious states can be reached in extremely deep meditation. In such states dualities (matter/energy, sentient/insentient and any number of others, including time) disappear leaving the meditator experiencing himself as a timeless infinity. Maybe that’s what you heard. But such a sublimation of perception only arises in super-deep states of meditation. Or if you drop acid. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243/60 "2019-06-30T19:08:13Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I am a fluke of the universe. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > You have no right to be here. And whether you can hear it or not, the Universe is laughing behind your back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-the-universe/836243.md?page=4)