Date Published: June 24, 2025
Publisher: BlackBox
Takeoff
Let’s
say today’s the last day of your life. 24 hours and you’re history. Dead. So,
what’s your “end”-game?
If
you didn’t know you had an expiration date, this is the guide for you. A
‘how-to” manual.
A
“how-to” for the end of the world––YOUR world. For tomorrow you’re going to
lose all the things that “everyone” thinks important: dwelling, family, job,
possessions. Everything and everybody. Gone for good. Gone!
It
doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or a bum, a celebrity or a nobody, an
introvert or a people person. There’s no escaping the end of your story.
Oh,
if this is “getting to you,” if you’re thinking of hanging up or switching
channels––don’t! None of this is
hypothetical.
You’re
going to die no matter what. For sure. The “tomorrow” could be 10 seconds or 109
seconds from now. You can’t know. Which means you need to be always
“ready.”
So
let’s head to the boarding gate.
Oh,
and by the way, my name is Melchizedek. You can call me Mel.
Flight
Announcements
Welcome
aboard the flight to “the other side.”
We
haven’t taken off yet. Time for the safety instructions.
So
here’s a checklist of items that are entirely irrelevant “going forward”:
● date of birth
● country of citizenship
● constitutional rights
● human and all other “rights”
● separation of church and state
● legal problems and issues
● frequent flyer miles
● bank account balances
● mortgage or rent payments
● stock market holdings and investment portfolios
● employment status
● health and life insurance policies
health condition
● education level
● personal and professional accomplishments
● expertise in science or economics or computer programming or
any other domain
● academic reputation
● entertainment or music industry or sports world achievements
● influencer status
● wokeness
● gun rights
● sexual orientation
● gender identity
● reproductive rights
● climate change
● becoming a billionaire
● business building prowess
● super AI
OK,
now perhaps you’re mad, beside yourself.
At least I’m not a loser, you say. I tried my
best. Even if I didn’t think about the “end,” I still lived life to the
fullest. So what if it’s all temporary? Better to do something with the hand
you’re dealt than to sit around moaning and groaning about the end. I have no
regrets and no one’s going to “shame” me for not sinking into depression and
despair.
Well,
excuse me!
Sorry
partner! Nothing personal here. This is not about the way you lived your
life–at least not yet!
It’s
about facing reality at every level. And we’ve only just begun.
Let’s
look at it from another angle. Like it or not, you’ve been brainwashed, snowed,
taken to the cleaners. You’re living in an illusion.
And
it’s easy to demonstrate the deception.
People
joke that you can’t take “it” with you. Except it’s no joke. It’s a hard fact
that when “you” die, your earthly possessions remain earth-bound. Equally, it’s
a hard fact that you will die. Finally, in a ten plus billion-year-old
universe, all of recorded human history, a few thousand years, is a
nano-second. Here for an instant, gone tomorrow, forgotten forever.
Like
it never was.
But
does anyone speak of this? Do you think of it? No. Not ever.
You
hear the news, go to school, get a job, all the while never being told about
the oblivion right ahead.
There
are no cover stories, blaring headlines, breaking news bulletins, viral social
media posts, power-packed podcasts, about the one thing that matters most: the
imminent and all but immediate end of everything.
You’re
going full speed ahead–to nowhere!
Doesn’t
anyone know? Anyone care? Total separation, total aloneness, total end.
Inexorable. Inescapable. In your face.
This
is Reality 101.
Been
There, Never Done That
OK,
enough about you.
It’s
time to check out the Seven Stages of Grief table–shock, denial, anger,
bargaining, depression, testing, acceptance.
Take
shock, denial, anger.
Shock
– The abyss of annihilation is headed your way. Unthinkable yet undeniable.
Denial
– Let’s not think about it. Eat, drink and be merry. Merry?
Anger
– Who brought up this topic? Focus on the here and now. Abstractions are for
losers.
Well,
here’s the bad news. No matter how much you deny it or how angry you are, you
can’t escape “death’s dateless night.” Check the obituary section. Even as you
read this sentence, over one hundred people have left us. And you’re on the
same hit list.
Everything
you’ve achieved and become is destined for decimation. It will be as if you’ve
never been. The here and now is here now but gone forever tomorrow. No, “you”
don’t actually live on in your legacy or your family. You as an individual will
not make it once your time has come.
So,
snap out of it! And let’s get down to business.
Let’s
skip past the bargaining, depression and testing. Assuming you finally accept
it, how can you deal with your impending departure? This death threat.
The
Other Side
Which
brings us to a question you might now take seriously: what happens when you
die?
This
is where we talk about a map of the multiverse. Because, let’s face it, we live
in a multiverse.
Not
the kind of multiverse the scientists talk about–various physical worlds with
radically different physical laws. That’s so yesterday when you die–because
death means physical realms are no longer the point.
No,
the multiverse is about the kinds of dimensions that make up reality––the
physical, the non-physical, the physical integrated with the non-physical, the
spatial, the non-spatial, the biologically living, the non-living, the
time-bound of the physical kind, the time-bound of the non-physical kind and a
lot more.
I
know, I know. You say, there’s no proof of dimensions other than those we
encounter on Planet Earth. And nothing happens “after” death. It’s Poof! And we
vanish. Never to be seen again.
Boy,
I wish you were right! But, nope, there are no final exits, no “end of the
matter.”
Sorry
to say, there’s a final reckoning.
A
“phase transition” of a final kind.
How
do I know?
You’ll
see.
But,
first, fasten your seatbelts folks.
About the Author
R.A. Varghese is the author and/or editor of various books on the interface of science, philosophy, and religion. His Cosmos, Bios, Theos, included contributions from 24 Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Time magazine called Cosmos "the year's most intriguing book about God." Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends, a subsequent work, won a Templeton Book Prize for "Outstanding Books in Science and Natural Theology." His The Wonder of the World was endorsed by leading thinkers include two Nobelists and was the subject of an Associated Press story. He co-authored There is a God―How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind with Antony Flew (a book translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Russian, and Arabic). His The Missing Link (2013), includes contributions from three Nobel Prize winners and scientists from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale. Varghese was a panelist at the science and religion forum in the Parliament of World Religions held in Chicago in 1993 and an invitee and participant in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations in August 2000. Varghese has been interviewed on numerous radio and TV shows. He has also been profiled in different print publications.
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