Realms of gold and other jewels

http://www.outbackonline.net/choc%20box/choc_imaginarylands.htm

Today I sampled a chocolate at the Soul Foods chocolate box(http://www.dailywriting.net/choc%20box/chochbox.htm) and found this  creativity prompt: Make yourself a passport and prepare to go to an imaginary land, to journey into a realm of gold.

The passport that I made consisted of a question which I asked my computer search engine. “What was before the big bang?” I typed.

I received a number of answers.  The one that intrigued me the most is the idea that the big bang emerged from a singularity.  This singularity was the last remaining traces of a previous universe.  This previous universe had gone through a period of expansion after the big bang which created it.  After eons of time the energy released at during this big bang dissipated and the universe that preceded ours became to implode back in upon itself.  Eventually all that remained was a singularity.  This singularity exploded in a big bang which released the energy from which our universe is created.  In time the energy that causes our universe to expand will cease and our universe will implode.  Eventually it too will become a singularity that will explode in a big ban.  A new universe will then come into being.

This cyclic procession of universes reminds me a story from Hindu cosmology.  When the God Brahma breathes out all life comes into being.  When Brahma breathes in all life ceases to be until the God breathes out again.  All existence is Brahma breathing in and out, in and out in vast cycles of time and no time.  When it comes to cosmology it seems science and religion are sometimes in accord.

All this thinking about universes reminded me of a time some years back when I visited an observatory high in the clear mountain air of outback New South Wales, Australia.  There I saw an  exhibition of images from the Hubble Space Telescope. One showed a golden cloud of gases that had been sighted at the centre of universe – vast, glorious cloud of golden light  pulsating with energy.  A true realm of gold – a realm both real and imaginary for the mind stretch necessary to accommodate the knowledge that such a golden mass can be seen at the centre of the universe requires a leap of imagination.

Around the same time I also visited a small observatory set up for tourists.  There telescopes had been set up on a large outdoor platform.  Peering into the telescopes I saw an orb of piercing white light that was star Sirius.  It shone like a street light on a pitch dark night.   Through another telescope I looked at the twin stars of Alpha Centauri. They glowed warm and golden and reminded me of car headlights appearing out of nowhere on a country road in the black depths of night.  Yet another telescope pointed to a constellation the scientists had named The Jewel Box.  Gazing into this telescope I saw a cluster of stars in every colour of the rainbow glittering in the darkness of deepest space.

Driving back to my hotel after witnessing these miracles of scientific exploration my understanding of life felt larger than it had before my visit.

Realms of gold - digital image - Dec. '09