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The word "life" and its historic meanings
have existed in recorded culture for at least fifteen hundred years. The actual
word "life" in English can be attributed to the word "lif" used in Old English
and Old Saxon meaning- life, body. |
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The word is linked to the emergence of a
religious and social philosophy of European Celtic mythology (around 550AD)
that believed human beings possessed a special "quality of life", that vanishes
at the point of death. This has often been described as the "essence of life",
or the "fifth essence" after fire, water, earth and wind. "Losing" this essence
has therefore been historically linked to human death for at least fifteen
hundred years. |
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Prior to this period (550AD), there does
not appear to be corresponding words in either Ancient Latin or Greek. This
supports the argument that the word lif was created in both a social and
religious (metaphysical) context. |
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It is no surprise then, that the word "lif " was quickly associated with
another philosophical belief that all humans possess a special spirit called
the "soul". |
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Philosophers (around 1350AD) speculated that this essence is derived from the
presence of the "soul", which at the point of human death leaves the body. The
belief of the soul leaving the body at death precedes the concept of the
essence of life by at least one thousand years (around 600BC for the first
writings on the concept of Soul). |
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Then around 1650, Renne Descartes published a historical work that for the
first time provided a scientific basis for proving that human beings are aware
and self aware. It was Descartes that wrote the now famous self aware proof of
existence "I think, therefore I am." |
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In the past three to four hundred years, the historical usage of the word
"life" has been extended to describe a wider quality which all plants and
animals on Earth possess before a the state of death. Interestingly, this
broadening of the definition of life has almost a direct correlation to the
advancement of science into atomic and biologic areas. Everytime science has
proven that more objects in the Universe share similar qualities to humans, the
philosophical defintion of life has appeared to widen around ten to twenty
years after the discovery. |
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In the last sixty years, a further
attribute to what is "life", has been assigned being the quality of awareness.
Therefore, almost all modern interpretations on the meaning of life includes as
part of the definition of life a state of "awareness". |
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The historical
development of the word "life" and the awakening of humanity |
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That humanity fifteen hundred years ago
recognized a special quality of being human and classified it as lif is the
beginning of an amazing journey that has as its destination-today. That
Descartes linked the unique quality of being human "life" as being definable
through awareness " I think etc." is equally important. |
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Since the emergence of the word "life" fifteen hundred
years ago, we have seen the growth of the word, to mean that all things in the
Universe possess this same special essence, which we can openly define as both
awareness and life meaning the same thing. |
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Indeed, everything you have read so far has shown that
in order for the Universe to exist, the existence of the UCA had to precede the
Universe's birth. We also saw that the only way to adequately describe the
foundation of the Universe is via awareness, projected into dimension (in other
words a "dream"). Furthermore, we have seen that the only way of making perfect
sense of each and every level of matter is to understand that each particle has
a unique perspective of the Universe and what its does and wants to do. |
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Therefore, the words life and awareness, life and
awareness of matter, life and the Universe are all wholly interchangeable. By
the modern "evolved" definition of life- everything in the Universe is very
much alive. Only levels of unique self awareness change. Awareness as a whole
never dies, only grows. |
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That we have reached this expanded definition of life
now, at the beginning of the 21st century is a profound philosophical event as
significant as any recent scientific discovery or cure for a disease. The
awesome importance of humanity culturally permitting the expanded definition of
life (that the Universe is alive) is not yet fully comprehended by 20th Century
thinking philosophers or religious leaders. See More... |
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Models > Key Life Questions