PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
April 24th to April 28th
MONDAY APRIL 24
End of the Easter Bunny?
I appear to be reaching the end of an era this Easter. My smallest daughter is becoming highly suspicious of the Easter Bunny. She has noticed chocolate eggs in the local shop and developed an alternate theory about how these reach our house. She is similarly dubious about the tooth fairy. Twice in recent months, the fairy has been tardy. Only after Daddy has been issued with several pointed reminders have the teeth under her pillow been exchanged for coins. The jury though, she tells me, is still out on Father Christmas. Once, her sister found a price tag on a toy in her stocking. But that may just be because Santa was running out of gifts - so he had to stop at Tesco on his way to our chimney.
TUESDAY APRIL 25
May's grand alignment
Next week, a grand cosmic convention takes place in the sign of Taurus. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all, briefly, be in this sign at once. If you think of the sky as a laboratory, you can imagine seven heavenly elements, all being mixed up together in one test tube. They won't "explode" dramatically at the beginning of May. Indeed, unless you are very sensitive to "cosmic vibrations" you may not notice much happening at all. Slowly though, over the following few weeks, those cosmic ingredients will start to bubble and fizz. They will also start getting shaken together in smaller groups. Jupiter, for example, will mix with Mercury and the Sun on May 8. It will trigger a reaction in Venus on May 17 and, on May 28, it will go through an "energy transfer process" with Saturn. As we move through the next few months, the impact of this astrological alchemy will begin to reveal itself.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 26
Feasible teleportation
Philosophers have been grappling, for centuries, with the notion of "Identity". Who (and what ARE we? Are we our bodies? Are we our minds? And can we separate the two things? Mystics have been investigating the same question for just as long. They believe that it is possible to enter an altered state in which the mind 'travels' independently of the body. They also believe that it is possible, under certain circumstances, to make a physical item vanish from one place - and then turn up in another. Scientists, up until now, have laughed at this idea. They argue that it is simply not possible for anything (or anyone) to be in two places at the same time. But now, they are having to soften their position. Working with 'entangled pairs of photons', physicists have recently proved beyond doubt that teleportation is a perfectly feasible proposition.
THURSDAY APRIL 27
Teleporting photons
Crack open a bottle of champagne. Teleportation is now a reality. Sadly though, it is only possible for tiny particles of light called photons. Scientists cannot yet fathom a way to shift anything bigger, heavier or more complicated. But they are working, as hard as they can, on ways to develop this mind boggling technique. In the process, they are having to ask a lot of difficult questions. If, for example, we eventually manage to transport a person's body from one place to another, molecule by molecule, in a matter of moments, will that person's mind go with it? If there is such a thing as a soul or a spirit (scientists are not sure about this) will THAT "teleport" successfully? One day, in order to answer this question, physicists may have to swallow their snobbery and start speaking to psychics. Then, we could start to see some real breakthroughs.
FRIDAY APRIL 28
Space travel sounded silly too
Last week, I wrote about time travel. This week, I have been talking about teleportation. It strikes me that we won't get the former before we crack the latter. I am of course, very aware that most people see both as equally far fetched and unlikely. But then if, 100 years ago, I had been predicting space travel, Satellite TV or mobile phone technology, I would have sounded just as silly. So I stick to my prediction that they both will be a reality within a few decades. You may think that this is an easy promise to make. After all, if I am wrong, I won't be here to apologise and you won't be here to chastise me! But then, if I AM right about time travel and teleportation... we may yet come to know the reality before the event!
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