Glimpses into life and history

Nicos Rolandis looks at the journey, the universe, the beginning and the end

It was summer of 1952. I was 17, a graduate of the Pancyprian Gymnasium. My father, Andreas Rolandis, was 50. He worked in the government and devoted all his free time to the study of metaphysics, a philosophy which dates back to Aristotle. Metaphysics goes into the depth of life but also subjects beyond our perception. It is well known that our five senses, which are guided and controlled by the brain, function within certain limits. There are sounds which our ears cannot hear without a radio or a telephone. There are images which we cannot see without a television set. And there are many happenings beyond the reach of our senses.

What about life and death? What is life and what is death? How does life begin? In a haphazard manner or is it a predetermined process? How does a baby acquire life in a woman’s womb? And wherefrom does life, which is injected into the newly born baby, originate?

Does the biological death of the body and the brain constitute the final curtain or is there a soul which survives? And if there is a surviving soul, where does it end up and in which form? Where are the dead? And if they are somewhere what do they do? Since the days when human beings (homo sapiens) appeared on Earth, a million years back, 110 billion people have lived and passed away. Where are they and what do they do, if they exist? And what is the objective of their existence? Where is the final destination? Where is the beginning and where is the end of existence? And what is the scope of the journey from the beginning to the end of life? And probably beyond death as well?

My father and I were profoundly occupied with the above dilemmas in those days. We studied many books on the subject, most of which are now part of my library. Books of philosophers, thinkers, mathematicians, biologists, astrophysicists, spiritualists. We also studied the work of astronomers and astrophysicists, like Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, Albert Einstein, Nicolaus Copernicus and others.

It was at that time my father decided to publish the Physic News newspaper. It started on September 6, 1952. The newspaper was supported by friends and people who believed in his work. I was the editor for one year. Thereafter I went to study law in London, taking with me the great unanswered questions with which we had been engaged.

In page 35 of my recent book Glimpses into Life and History, I state that I had a mandate from my father that in my life “I should not become the servant of anybody or anything, other than the truth”. I followed this mandate devoutly.

So, I set forth hereunder my memories and my conclusions, all well substantiated and based on scientific data.

Planet Earth is inhabited by 7.6 billion people. Almost 60 million people die every year, namely 165,000 every day. The human species and its ancestors have existed on planet Earth for perhaps one million years. However planet Earth has existed for approximately 4.6 billion years. So, before the humans appeared, the Earth existed for 4,599,000,000 years. In other words, a period that is 4,500 times our presence on Earth, about which we know nothing. Were there any civilizations in those years, which are now extinct? Or was Earth orbiting the Sun for 4,599,000,000 years without any human presence and then they suddenly cropped up? How did this happen? Is the Evolution theory of Charles Darwin correct?

It has been calculated that a total of 110 billion people have been born, lived and died on Earth. Over the same period and especially during the past 1,000 years there have been remarkable achievements (by human standards): we created art, music, education, philosophy, science, athletics, medicine, farming, economy, money, wealth, poverty, technology, happiness, distress, crime and many other feats. We built up the concept of family, the state, democracy, the army and the police, dictatorships, justice. We created empires, kings, presidents, rulers, politicians, philosophers, thinkers, people of the arts, intellectuals, social systems, slums and huge cities. We instigated revolutions, cruel wars, holocausts, struggles for freedom, suppression of the weak by the mighty and we spread a little bit of love and lots of hatred in the world.

The above are the many characteristics of life on this planet, which constitutes a huge admirable world with land expanses, oceans, deserts, forests, cities and smaller communities.

However how large is our Earth compared to Creation and the Universe?

Planet Earth is part of our Solar System, which consists of the Sun and eight planets orbiting it: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The Earth is 1,300,000 times smaller than the Sun (1,300,000 planet Earths can fit into the Sun). The mass of the Earth is also about 330,000,000 times smaller than our Solar System, so, the Earth is almost nothing compared to our Solar System.

However, the most shocking and terrifying facts follow:

Our Solar System is one out of 250 billion Solar Systems, each with a sun and planets which are there in our own Galaxy (Milky Way). And our Galaxy is one out of approximately two trillion galaxies (according to the largest space telescope Hubble) which are there in the observable Universe! So, our Solar System is an absolute Nothing in the Universe. Our Earth is a Nothing in our Solar System and a Big Zero in the Universe.

In brief:

• The Earth’s mass is 330 million times smaller than our Solar System!
• Our Solar System is one out of 250 billion Solar Systems which are there in our Galaxy (Milky Way)!
• Our Galaxy is one out of two trillion Galaxies which are out there in the observable Universe!!!

To grasp the meaning of what a trillion is, if somebody started counting 1,2,3 etc, one number per second, it would take 32,000 years to reach the number one trillion. If somebody starts counting today he will reach one trillion in the year 34,020 AD!!

In a speech a few years back, I said that if the Universe were a huge and wide beach, expanding from Cyprus to New York, our Solar System would be equal to a tiny speck of sand on this beach. And our Earth would be 330 million times smaller than the speck of sand! It is exactly on this Earth that we have built and will build our own empires!

The above figures, which are based on science, neutralise and bend our reason and our thoughts. And there is more: Light, which in one second rotates seven times around the Earth, travels for billions of years at this inconceivable speed and has not as yet covered the width of the Universe!

In light of all the above, it is more than obvious that our Earth, a Nothing in the Universe, cannot monopolise Life. Life must exist also on the trillions of stars and planets. So the question takes another dimension: where do ‘Human’ entities that die on the trillions of planets go when they cease to exist? Where is the ‘Neighbourhood of Angels?’

Based on the books I have studied, logic leads to the following conclusions: (in casual order)

1. The First Theory is that death kills and exterminates everything: They are all gone; body, brain and soul, if soul exists. This is a position adopted by many doctors and other scientists worldwide. Billions of ‘human’ beings perish in the Universe every day. Do they have to go somewhere? And if so, where? To a parallel universe? To do what? As biologist Julian Huxley points out: “The idea of individual survival in a certain space must be ruled out. Our personalities are so based on body that it is really impossible to think of survival without a body of sorts”. Apart from the above Huxley wonders: “If humans survive, why should other living creatures not survive, animals, birds, insects etc”. Of course, in such a case we would be lost in an infinite vacuum.
2. The Second Theory is the one adopted by religions and especially the ones which are most widely practised, Christianity and Islam, which between them account for 55 per cent of the total. I shall not delve into the subject, because we are all well conversant with the human survival and the Day of the Last Judgment, especially in the case of the Christian Religion.
3. The Third Theory is reincarnation. This means that upon death, the soul survives and enters the body of a human being to be born. This position is adopted by eastern and Indian religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism which, between them, account for 20 per cent of all religions. Pythagoras and Socrates, philosophers of ancient Greece, referred to reincarnation too. Reincarnation means a continuous cycle of life, which is repeated until a spiritual upgrading and a freedom of the soul are achieved. Of course, there are many unanswered questions: What happens after the soul is free and what is the scope of the continuous cycles of life?
4. A Fourth Theory is that the soul survives not in an individual form. After death, the human being becomes part of a reservoir, of a multi-collective entity, which functions on the basis of the conscience of all those of which it consists. Thus, the infinite number of individual personalities is limited, because the dead become part of the reservoir. However one wonders how could a multi-collective entity function if it consists of diverse individuals, such as Kennedy, Alexander the Great, Hitler, Mother Teresa, Napoleon, Al Capone and others, even if some of them will go through the Purgatory of Souls before they join the collective body (like the Purgatory in Dante’s Divine Comedy). The collective entity is merged later with other similar bodies, on its way to the supreme level of existence and immortality.
5. The Fifth and last Theory is spiritualism, which my father considered as the most likely. He had quite a number of experiences in his personal life which he described in his books and in the Psychic News. There is also the testimony of well-known British publisher William Thomas Stead, who was drowned together with more than 1,500 people, including the elite of world society when the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. Stead “came back” and described to his daughter what had happened from the very moment he passed away and was received by his late father, until he was transferred to the Blue Land, the subsequent level of existence. In accordance with his narration, life at this second level is characterised by spiritual uplifting and a widespread euphoria. Most of the characteristics of life on Earth are not there, no money, no material pleasures, no need for food, no transport means, no ‘time’ the way we perceive it. The target is to be uplifted to the third level and then gradually to the seventh level, where perfection is accomplished. From the second level there is the possibility to communicate with Earth, under certain circumstances. The Purgatory of Souls exists in this theory as well. The book with the narration of Stead I translated in those years for the Psychic News. However, there are unanswered questions under this theory as well. Furthermore, I have to confess that my father, who died in 1970, gave me credible evidence of his existence, although he had promised that he would do so if it were possible. There was only this: One night in the year 1972 I was at The Dorchester”in London. I was alone in my room and I felt strongly my father’s presence around me. Then I slept. At 2am I woke up because the cupboard was semi-open and the light inside it was on. When I fell asleep, I am sure, the room was dark. That was all, no more evidence of his existence.

I would also like to refer to what British novelist Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) wrote: “I had dinner recently with one of the greatest brain surgeons worldwide. He has had a vast experience, quite without sentimentality or religious fanaticism. After many years of work on the brain he reached the conclusion that the brain was nothing more than a telephone switchboard, obeying orders from some further force or power, which science cannot identify”. Apparently, the soul.

So, what is the conclusion? What marks the beginning of the Universe and of Life itself? Is it the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago? Who triggered it? Is it the Creator of Everything? God? Somebody or Something else? And for what? So that the Universe would come into being, which continuously expands, with its galaxies running away from each other in space and at the same time merging or colliding with each other? How endless is space and time? What is the ultimate objective of the Creator? Is it Perfection? Is it Love? But he could have both without the Universe. And how does the Creator rule his Universe with the endless galaxies and stars?

There are no answers. So, I sit back, calm and I let tranquillity drip into my body. The endless time slips through my fingers, under the sky and the trillions of stars. I have already reached the age of 85. A lot of time has elapsed by earthly standards: spent on business, government, politics, a happy family life. By the clock of the universe just a split of a second. I am now close to the Journey, the Universe, the Beginning, the End. I am ready for it. I ponder over all the above, I try to unveil and touch the secrets of life, which are far away from my reach.

At the same time, it crosses my mind that my body (like matter generally) consists – according to science – of the dizzying number of seven billion billion atoms, just in one human body. The are probably more atoms in one human body than stars in the sky. The atom is the smallest particle of matter and within it is a nucleus surrounded by electrons, which rotate around the nucleus in this infinitesimal micro-microcosm. Exactly like the planets orbit the Sun. And all this in a human body! Why?

It appears this is what God decided in His absolute divine wisdom. The way He created, in his divine wisdom, the Universe as well!