I Remember Flying

A link to this video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Soe2swgtsE

Last post was a song about contemplating death. One of the central ideas of Imagining the Tenth Dimension is that the system that represents our consciousness is independent from but interacting with the system that represents physical reality. Within that framework, what happens when we die? I believe that the "chain of attention" that represents a personality collapsing the indeterminate wave of possibilities that we look back upon as the line of time has a choice at (or near) death - it can continue to focus on the line of time (Ghosts of Flight 401, anyone?) or it can disperse into its component memes. Here's a few paragraphs from chapter seven ("The Paradoxes of Time Travel") of my book:

It should come as no surprise that the science fiction authors of more recent decades are the source of a cornucopia of delights when it comes to discussions of the nature of time and space. The gifted science fiction author Greg Bear wrote an excellent series of books (“Eon”, “Eternity”, and “Legacy”) in which a privileged class of scientists acquires the ability to navigate through the worldlines that represent the alternate futures and pasts of our universe. Mr. Bear is blessed with the ability to write science fiction that incorporates enough hard science to make his suppositions feel very real, and the “theory of the universe” which he implies within his writing–in not just these particular novels but a number of his others as well–tends to be completely compatible with the multi-dimensional nature of reality as we are describing it here. I owe him a debt of gratitude for the ways which his writing has expanded my own concepts of how space, time and consciousness work together.
Likewise, Stephen Baxter’s “Manifold” series of novels eloquently express the processes of repetition and exploration which are implied within these pages, and are useful in expanding one’s concept of what our universe’s different pasts and futures could contain. In particular, his descriptions of what the “end of the universe” could be like were influential in some of the ideas expressed in these pages.
It could be that there are other ways of navigating through higher dimensions that don’t require us to invent a time machine. What if vivid dreams were actually our minds navigating through other fifth-dimensional realities as we sleep? What if dreams that had illogical/unpredictable jumps in them were because of sixth-dimensional “folds” that jumped us from one fifth-dimensional line to another? What if dreams of flying were actual memories of parts of our system of memes and beliefs (or, if you prefer, our soul) remembering what is it like to be free of our physical bodies and navigate through multi-dimensional time and space, free and unfettered? We’ll explore ideas such as this more in chapter nine.

Personally, I have had vivid dreams of being able to "fly" (or perhaps "levitate" would be a better word for the experience) for as long as I can remember. I had another of those dreams just last night, as a matter of fact. Here are the lyrics to my song about this idea, which is one of the 26 songs associated with my book.

I REMEMBER FLYING
words and music (c) by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

I remember flying
Flying so high
I’d push off from the ground
And push into the sky
I would leave the surly bonds
Of gravity behind
I remember flying
From some other time

I remember floating
Ascending to the clouds
Achieving elevation
Then descending to the ground
I remember thinking
It was natural as can be
To be up there floating

I remember moving
In languid slow motion
Like some giant creature
Deep in the ocean
Flying, diving, swooping, soaring, climbing, looping, laughing...

I remember flying
From so long before
And I think that there will come a day
I’ll be flying once more
I remember flying
From more than my dreams
I wish I was flying
Right now

Enjoy the journey!

Rob