Think about this for a second

#21

But this isn't quite Karma...It's just related incidents...The example I used was a negative one, but it could easily have been a positive...

For instance a persona that made $1,000,000 selling the idea of email would have made $1,000,000 doing something else just as well...

This is more along the line of you having a set destination and regardless of the route you take, you will get to that same place no matter what...Like even if he didn't get hit with gamma radiation, Bruce Banner would have become the Hulk one way or the other...If not the Hulk, the the Hulk's damage...

You are thinking about buying a motorcycle, but decide against it because you feel its dangerous, and instead get a 5 star car safety rated car...Only 2 weeks later you have a wreck and sustain major injuries...Had you been on the motorcycle, everyone would have said that was the cause...But since you're in the car its different...Either way, the outcome is the same no matter what...

If it can happen, it will happen...True or false..?

#22

I would agree that some things are going to happen no matter what. I think your destined to meet certain people and to get certain lessons in life. I don't think it holds true for EVERY thing or EVERY person. But there is a reason we are doing what we are right now, either we are learning/meeting what/who we are supposed to; or we missed the lesson and now we are having to go through something else to finally get to that final point.

(Can somebody come rock me to sleep.....I'm drained)

#23

Well logically speaking, it's obviously undecidable, since we can never see the outcome. In the motorcycle / car, maybe you would have avoided the accident if you had done the motorcycle.

What your talking about here is Fate. Are you Fated to meet some people, some thing. Assuming that question is uninteresting if there is no free will (everything is predetermined), then the question is "are there events we can not avoid". I'm assuming, again, that we are not talking about things that we have no control over, like cancer or a hurricane.

So my answer is a qualified no. I've found that events that have the smack of inevitability seem to come with premonitions or warnings. (This is gonna sound weird but...) if one throws one's mind forward in the time stream, such events can be sensed and avoided. But it takes awareness and tremendous will, something many people don't seem to possess. In that case, yes these things can be very difficult to avoid. BTW, since most things are rarely unmixed good or bad, it be very difficult to determine if one *should* attempt to avoid these events. What I get is more a sense of how "interesting" things might be. Having experienced a few, I tend to avoid the more interesting things if I can. But I'm really a major coward. I'm sure I would be a better person if I didn't (if I was still in one piece, that is).

#24

That doesn't sound weird to me, Adtz...Sounds like my school of thought...

"if one throws one's mind forward in the time stream, such events can be sensed and avoided"

I tend to agree with that...I call it using the force cause my kid has me on a real star wars kick these days, but its essentially the same thing...I have zoned out, knew I was going to fuck up and so something, and rather than prevent it, I watched it happen...Totally weird...

I call it 'moving at the speed of accidents'...

And I think premonition has a big part to do with that...We talk here often about things like time, and how I am only now able to start wrapping my mind around the fact that time isn't a straight line...It's kinda what brought me to this topic...

#25

I can agree with this thing. Time is very slippery. I spent too much time in high school dealing with relativity and I think I melted my brain a bit. Once I got linked up with religion (came to it as an adult), I realized that this premonition / make the universe react to me feeling is the one associated with prayer. Nearly wrecked myself when I realized what it was and started messing with it.

#26

Many paths can lead to the same ending

Obstacles can be on all those paths or none

Just like a road map - do I take US40 or I-70 West from Indy to Terre Haute,IN to visit family

OR on another day do I take US40 or I-70 E to vist family in Dayton, OH

in either scenario I make it to the same ending

#27

I like your summary GMS. However, can I go to a different place than the one intended? I think so, but only with an effort of Will. My real question is "Should I"? Are predestined events there for a reason or is exertion of Free Will to avoid such a situation a reasonable thing to do?

#28

K- sure you can go to a diff plae than the one intended (either by free will or an unseen obstacle)

Using my example again

Either US 40 or I-70 - I get a phone call halway the a girl calls about dinner (do I turn back or keep going, will she recind the offer for a later time if I say NO?)

I wanted to be a Music Engineer or Music teacher- the core program is the same (I made some bad choices and became neither at first) spent time in the Miltary then thru a mutual friend got a gig as an assistant and now have a Degree in Music Engineering and Computer Science the end of the path was the same (or have I really missed the question now?)

Personally I dont beleive in preordained/ predestined events -- we map from point A- B and too manyvariables (be them made (or not made) by us or others) shapes or influences that end point -- some stick with the A-B rigidly - others get there by zi- zagging, others 'say screw it' and end up somewhere else.

#29

We are born (point A), we zig zag on the road, we die (point /cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="B)" border="0" alt="cool.gif" />. haha ok sorry going back to my corner now.

#30

Nope, GMS, you didn't miss the point. I think you expressed the idea eloquently. If you don't believe in "fated" events then the question of whether they can be avoided is moot. I sometimes have, in some of my personalities, a sense that something is going to happen. I think, I can, by dint of fear and cowardice, avoid said event. Uber, I think doesn't, though I hesitate to speak for one who is the favored of God.

G00b, nice summary of the degenerate case, which one should never forget.