SN'T IT A BIT ODD that we humans are wondering lately whether
there could be intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? By
elsewhere, we usually implicitly mean elsewhere than in the human
race, which seems a shame right off the bat, since this attitude
ignores a possible intelligence in each tree, animal, rock, and planet,
for starters.
Next, we wonder how to communicate with this possibly existing
intelligence which we imagine as somewhere "out there"
in space. We listen with our mile-wide radio antennas, and
we send out cryptic symbols attached to our interplanetary spacecraft
bound for unknown reaches outside our solar system. We speculate
that since there are so many billions of stars out there, at least
one of them must have an earthlike planet on which there is a
humanlike life which may be further advanced than we are, and which has
been trying for centuries to get in touch with us even as we fiddle
with our radio apparatuses and antennas.
Most people of this mind-set fail to stumble upon one possibility
which seems so obvious once it is considered. That is: perhaps
these intelligences are about us all the time, have instant and
intimate access to our innermost thoughts, and are constantly communicating
with us--successfully!
"There is a certain inner
calling, inner love, and inner intelligence that drives this whole
great soft subtle machine, and it seems to permeate the cosmos from the
outer physical layer through our most subtle thoughts and intuitions."
|
|
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with building huge radio telescopes
to discover the physical realities of our universe. There are
plenty of things to study "out there." And perhaps one
day our scientists will receive a stray communication from some ham
operator in another galaxy who is just trying to send a CQ across
his own planet. Perhaps he will even be saying something intelligent
which can with great effort be translated. But what then? What
if he should give us some exceedingly wise axiom or theorem? Would we believe him?
Or would we say (if we didn't comprehend what he said) that he is only
of an inferior intelligence, but thanks for calling, over?
Would it be too revolutionary to suggest that each of us may be an
amalgam of intelligences? Of course, we each probably have our
own unique root intelligence, but what if that is being added to not
only by our daily bumblings, bawlings, and joys, but also by others
who have chosen as their intelligent work to aid us from behind
the scenes, right here and right now? They can't be seen, you
might say, so therefore one has no proof. How can one prove that
there is "other" intelligence in this universe, and
that it is right here?
By way of reply I might ask you how one can prove a sunrise, how one
can prove that a bird is singing, how one can prove that there
is such a thing as love or electricity. There is a certain inner
calling, inner love, and inner intelligence that drives this whole
great soft subtle machine, and it seems to permeate the cosmos from the
outer physical layer through our most subtle thoughts and intuitions.
It is not necessary to prove something that proves itself by
its manifesting in every moment. Love may have no wheels or cogs,
but it simply is. Intelligence does not need a high score on
the SAT exam to exist. It is.
We need not look far to find extraterrestrial intelligence--it is only
as far away as a kind act, a painful lesson, an intuitive
perception, or a kiss in the dark. None of the above are confined
to a mere physical lump spinning around a single white-hot sun. They
belong to, and offer hints of, the Ultimate Intelligence.