Yet more on reincarnation and quantum theory

Part 3 of Dr. Robert Lanza’s theory about Biocentrism follows. The previous parts are ‘Part 1 – Beyond Time and Space’; and ‘Part 2 – Multiple worlds.’ My posts are titled ‘Reincarnation supported by quantum theory’; and ‘More on reincarnation and quantum theory.’

3. SOUL

So, there is abundance of places or other universes where our soul could migrate after death, according to the theory of neo-biocentrism. But does the soul exist? Is there any scientific theory of consciousness that could accommodate such a claim? According to Dr. Stuart Hameroff, a near-death experience happens when the quantum information that inhabits the nervous system leaves the body and dissipates into the universe. Contrary to materialistic accounts of consciousness, Dr. Hameroff offers an alternative explanation of consciousness that can perhaps appeal to both the rational scientific mind and personal intuitions.

Consciousness resides, according to Stuart and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose, in the microtubules of the brain cells, which are the primary sites of quantum processing. Upon death, this information is released from your body, meaning that your consciousness goes with it. They have argued that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in these microtubules, a theory which they dubbed orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR)

Consciousness, or at least proto-consciousness is theorized by them to be a fundamental property of the universe, present even at the first moment of the universe during the Big Bang. “In one such scheme proto-conscious experience is a basic property of physical reality accessible to a quantum process associated with brain activity.”

Our souls are in fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe – and may have existed since the beginning of time. Our brains are just receivers and amplifiers for the proto-consciousness that is intrinsic to the fabric of space-time. So is there really a part of your consciousness that is non-material and will live on after the death of your physical body?

Dr Hameroff told the Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole documentary: “Let’s say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state. The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large”. Robert Lanza would add here that not only does it exist in the universe, it exists perhaps in another universe. If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says “I had a near death experience”

He adds: “If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul.”

This account of quantum consciousness explains things like near-death experiences, astral projection, out of body experiences, and even reincarnation without needing to appeal to religious ideology. The energy of your consciousness potentially gets recycled back into a different body at some point, and in the mean time it exists outside of the physical body on some other level of reality, and possibly in another universe.

Sources used:  Learning Mind, Wikipedia, Daily Mail, News.com, Why Don’t You Try This

 

(Comment: Much food for thought.)

 

 

 

 

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Reincarnation supported by quantum theory?

I do not understand quantum theory; I do not need to. But I do understand reincarnation. Some of my past lives, as reported to me by 2 clairvoyants; plus competent published research on past-life memories of many young children all over the world; and intimations of my immediate past-life butting against the bottom of my sampan carrying me into what I hope is a placid lake of spirituality, have led me to believe in the reincarnation process.

A paper sent to me this week strangely asserts that quantum theory enables a belief that human life may not end at Earthly death! I include Part 1 of this paper below.

A book titled “Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the Nature of the Universe” has stirred up the Internet, because it contained a notion that life does not end when the body dies, and it can last forever.

The author of this publication, scientist Dr. Robert Lanza who was voted the 3rd most important scientist alive by the NY Times, has no doubts that this is possible.

1. BEYOND TIME AND SPACE

Lanza is an expert in regenerative medicine and scientific director of Advanced Cell Technology Company. Before he has been known for his extensive research which dealt with stem cells, he was also famous for several successful experiments on cloning endangered animal species.

But not so long ago, the scientist became involved with physics, quantum mechanics and astrophysics. This explosive mixture has given birth to the new theory of biocentrism, which the professor has been preaching ever since. Biocentrism teaches that life and consciousness are fundamental to the universe. It is consciousness that creates the material universe, not the other way around.

Lanza points to the structure of the universe itself, and that the laws, forces, and constants of the universe appear to be fine-tuned for life, implying intelligence existed prior to matter. He also claims that space and time are not objects or things, but rather tools of our animal understanding. Lanza says that we carry space and time around with us “like turtles with shells.” meaning that when the shell comes off (space and time), we still exist.

The theory implies that death of consciousness simply does not exist. It only exists as a thought because people identify themselves with their body. They believe that the body is going to perish, sooner or later, thinking their consciousness will disappear too. If the body generates consciousness, then consciousness dies when the body dies. But if the body receives consciousness in the same way that a cable box receives satellite signals, then of course consciousness does not end at the death of the physical vehicle. In fact, consciousness exists outside of constraints of time and space. It is able to be anywhere: in the human body and outside of it. In other words, it is non-local in the same sense that quantum objects are non-local.

Lanza also believes that multiple universes can exist simultaneously. In one universe, the body can be dead. And in another it continues to exist, absorbing consciousness which migrated into this universe. This means that a dead person while traveling through the same tunnel ends up not in hell or in heaven, but in a similar world he or she once inhabited, but this time alive. And so on, infinitely. It’s almost like a cosmic Russian doll afterlife effect.

(Comment: Does this not sound like metaphysical Hinduism? Refer Parts 2 and 3 for the rest of this summary.)

 

 

Continuity with pre-history

Progress in science (the god of the pathway to learning in the Western world in recent times) is generally triggered by the speculative thinkers in each of the academic disciplines. These are the lamp-lighters for those who want to know about our Universe (even a multi-verse Cosmos) and why it is all so; as well as our place in it , and what we seem to be (apart from stardust).

Since the capacity to speculate freely is unlimited, by time, space and even theology (in both religion and the prevailing explanatory paradigms of the various disciplines of knowledge-seeking), a range of possible doorways to knowledge can be theorised; these may lead to pathways of probable relevance.

However, is there a man-made constraint about accepting continuity through historical time? I instance the continuity of learning; and thereby to the apparent continuity of civilisational features through time – through now extinct civilisations.

In the light of the precise geometry of construction and the accuracy of the geodesic placements of the pyramids of the ancient Egyptians, it would be fatuous to believe that late-arrival Greeks discovered geometry. Earth’s positions against the constellations of the zodiac at a particular period of time, and the alignment of our planets in that period as evidenced, or linked in ancient mythology, may assist in dating the construction of the Pyramids and the Sphinx more accurately; as well as certain events mentioned in the Veda’s of Hinduism.

The history of mankind seems to go far beyond 3,000 BC, long before the cultural ancestors of Europeans (Greece) and their religious ancestors (the Israelites) could make any kind of impact.

Our current civilisation seems to date from about 13,000 BC, after the abatement of the Universal Deluge, with its almost total destruction of everything on Earth. That Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha should arrive in oar-less boats in Central and South America suggests the survival of pockets of an earlier (pre-Flood) civilisation of high achievements.

Let us not try to sound clever by muttering ‘Where’s the evidence?’ Modern day speculative cosmologists like Einstein do not seem to have been challenged about their lack of evidence.

So-called Caucasians in Central Asia in an early historical period; skeletons of tall (up to an estimated 12 feet) humans in North America; ‘African’ heads in Central America; ‘black’ people in China; clearly brown people in Taiwan (now in Polynesia); constructions such as Nan Madol and other massive stone buildings in various parts of the globe, components of which cannot be moved by modern equipment; mind-over-body, and other psychic phenomena, exhibited in diverse parts of the globe; ‘thumbnail’ and other psychic or spiritual healers; artefacts displaying high technology having been dug up from great depths; and so on! There is so much we cannot explain.

Are we then in a position to deny the probability of the existence of advanced civilisations on Earth in so-called pre-history? Nature, in conjunction with huge space-objects and powerful electromagnetic flows of cosmic rays and particles is able to bury or drown whole human civilisations now and then. Large segments of the continents, such as Fennoscandia, are now under water.

Just as reincarnation can enable the continuity of souls through time, via a succession of Earthly lives, so the memories contained in mythology and some artefacts of humanity may indicate the continuity of human civilisations over vast swathes of time.

The question of credibility

I asked in a recent post whether the scenario I painted of Earth having been tilted (to about 45%) about 13,000 years ago is credible (ie. plausible). This tilt seemingly caused the great Universal Deluge, attested by so many cultures throughout the globe. This Flood destroyed most of Earth and its population, with a new civilisation commencing about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.

There is no denying the Flood, or when it happened. Did a tilt of Earth cause it, and the sudden end of the so-called ice age? Ice ages do not end suddenly.

Further, did Earth’s Golden Age, reported by ever so many cultures, end then? How explain this Golden Age? Did not this Age enjoy equable temperatures throughout the year? How could that happen today? Then, why did Siberia and Antarctica suddenly become frozen?

Is the scenario I postulated by calling upon sundry scientific researchers credible? What responses did I expect?

The science-oriented sceptic would ask: Where is the evidence? Yet, in the realm of science, how many speculative unproven hypotheses masquerade as facts? I instance the Big Bang Theory of cosmology; Darwin’s Theory of Evolution; and Punctuated Equilibrium (seeking to explain the appearance of fully-formed new or modified species). There is a more plausible alternative explanation available for each of these.

Another category of sceptic includes: those who claim (without proof) that our current civilisation is the most advanced ever (let us then ignore the great monoliths which we cannot explain or replicate); and those who claim to be the Chosen People or the Nation of Exceptionalism (how nice!).

The third category denying plausibility, much less probability, includes those who respond immediately thus: “I don’t believe it”; when the question is simply “Is this scenario plausible?” I am not sure if any of us is competent to go beyond plausibility. Then there are those who want to argue about the scenario, based on what they consider to be ‘first principles.’ But do look at how far religious, or even scientific, dogma has taken us in understanding human origins, our place in the Cosmos, and the origin and nature of the Cosmos.

If we want to know, we need to open our minds. Consider how many Ages (Suns) have been destroyed (according to the Mayans). From another framework, are we on the way to the Sixth Extinction (while murmuring ‘That could not have happened’)?

When Earth was rolled over

Was Earth rolled over relatively recently?  Was it tilted to about 45% about 13,000 years ago?  My reasons for suggesting that it was are as follows:

• During my boyhood (a very long time go) I was told that Siberia had been a warm and luscious tropical region; and that, at the onset and prevalence of frigid conditions, the people there had migrated to Central Asia, creating a great civilisation there
• Antarctica has been described (without credible challenge) as having once been in the tropic/temperate zone
• Evidence has been found of stone buildings in the Arctic, now covered by ice (which is fast melting)
• There was a massive world-wide flood, the Universal Flood (about 13,000 years ago), referred to in so many folk beliefs all across the globe; and this had buried an incredible mix of humans, animals, and flora – and silt – in caves all the way north
• A very large ‘chunk’ of solid space material is believed to have been blown out into space through a supernova explosion; and that this material had entered and travelled through our solar system
• This gigantic space material had caused perturbations in this system, dislodging satellites, destroying a planet, reversing the spin of one of our planets, etc., etc
• The gravitational pull of this space material (named Vela by two researcher/authors) could have pulled Earth, through gravity, to rotate in the direction of the transit of Vela (to the sun)
• The lands in the east would have been moved closer to the north pole, and the lands in the west would have been moved to the south pole
• Such a strong gravitational pull would have emptied the seas, causing the moving waters to rise very high indeed, and to flow in the direction of the assumed Vela
• When Vela had moved to its ultimate absorption by the sun, Earth would have naturally remained in its new position
• Earth’s planets, believed to have been aligned East/West before the arrival of this space material, would now be aligned North/South (as they are today), with Siberia and Antarctica now in frigid conditions
• Released from Vela’s gravity, the waters of Earth would have flowed back gradually, filling all the spaces available
• The sudden onset of extreme cold in Siberia, which spot-froze all the animals, and the re-location of Antarctica, can thus be explained.

Cultures everywhere refer to a Universal Flood. It is not for us to know better; or to ask for ‘scientific’ evidence for possible causes and outcomes. We have yet to come up with adequate explanations which suit our theories of how things should have been.

Neither plate tectonics nor crustal slippage (the moving orange-peel effect) offer an explanation of the known disruptions mentioned above. Cosmic catastrophes of a horrifying magnitude seem to be taboo.

Avoiding any attribution to cosmic catastrophes as contributing to such developments as the sudden arrival of fully-formed new or modified species on Earth; of the onset of artistic creativity in known historic ‘cave-men’; of the sudden flowering of conceptual capacities of Early Man; of the whitening of human skin in a band (from East to West) in the northern hemisphere; in the ‘sky falling’ and ‘the stars being scrambled’; the sun not moving for many days (ask the Chinese and the Meso-americans); and so on, is not likely to lead us to understand the long-term history of mankind.

Having Earth tilt would have effectively destroyed the then civilisation. The survivors (Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha, for example), possibly reflecting a high culture prevailing in the pre-Flood era, could have guided mankind as best as possible, calling upon the knowledge, skills, tools and technology which survived the Deluge. Refer Meso-american and Peruvian beliefs.

That there had been a Golden Age prior to the Deluge all over the globe is credible, were it accepted that the continents had previously been lying east to west. Most, if not all, human-occupied terrain would then have been in the temperate and tropical zones!

That Earth was rolled over and tilted recently seems credible. Do we need an Edgar C. Cayce to tell us what happened?

RAJA – YouTube No. 5

THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE

The ancient bicultural author Raja Arasa Ratnam offers us the following thoughts.

Applying Occam’s Razor (or principle) that the simplest explanation is best, I begin by accepting that there has to be a Cosmic Creator. Our souls say so. The complexity, intricacy and beauty of the Cosmos say so.

I envisage (again applying the above principle) that the Creator (that is, God) created the Cosmos: and that it includes a mechanism which is itself capable of evolving, whilst facilitating evolution as a process. This would be accessible to other products of that same Creation. To evolve is to progress to something better.

It is a meaningless question, of course, to ask about the origin of God, although the Mundaka Upanished says that out of infinite Godhead came forth Brahma, the Creator, from whom sprung the Cosmos.

If the whole of the Cosmos is capable of change, as its component parts are subject to change, there surely must be scope for random events or chance impacts, as well as mishaps during processes (for example, genetic mutation). Perhaps there might be scope for influence: by the human mind (eg. mind-over-body pain control); by one’s spirit guides (eg. one’s subconscious mind directing an action for no rational reason); or even by an aspect of God (how would this be manifested – through one’s heart?) to intervene in events or processes.

Indeed, the Isha Upanished even allows for a personal deity (a manifestation of God), which I see as an acceptable projection from the universal Creator. As well, the mind is said to be only an instrument of consciousness; and the heart is said to be where the soul resides in its temporal home. Then, is God the Ocean of Consciousness of which we are all part, and to which we will ultimately return?

I do like the idea of being a transient projected entity from an Ocean of Consciousness. Life on Earth would then have some significance. Is there some mechanism which creates, sustains, and periodically destroys all that has been projected from, and by, that Ocean ? Hindu cosmology implies the cyclical path of all things and events of significance (including each of the many possible universes and all their component parts and manifestations) within an infinite Cosmos.

The metaphysical adherents of a faith would naturally seek an understanding of a reality transcending the guides for living of the great teachers of mankind: Moses, Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammed, Mahavira, and others.

There are, however, those who need to know about the meaning of existence, to seek to understand Reality. The experience and understanding they seek is, however, said to be beyond words, and to be Realised only through deep meditation.

In any event, each of us knows deep in our psyche that we are an integral cog in that web of a mutually-dependent creation.

E.S.P. research in an ethereal Cosmos

It was in my youth that I came across the research by Duke University’s Dr. JB Rhine on extra-sensory perception. Used as I was to Asian amateur seers (some very accurate) during my formative years in multi-ethnic British Malaya, I was yet surprised by people in the apparently pragmatic materialistic West investigating psychic phenomena. Wasn’t Asia the happy hunting ground for demonstrators and believers in ethereal matters?

Rhine’s work must have been officially accepted because his university became better known through his allegedly controversial studies and conclusions. Even early in the 21^st century, there are clever people who just know that what is now known as parapsychology cannot be true; human psychology can, however, explain that stance of non-belief.

How important, how useful, are the findings of research into the paranormal – even when conducted under the strictures of the scientific method – against the totality of single-event, non-repeatable experiences of a multitude of people everywhere? I instance ‘thumbnail healers,’ clairvoyants who induce the materialisation of spirits to guide the living, those who demonstrate levitation, and so on.

Apart from multi-disciplinary researchers like Paul LaViolette, do Western researchers have the explanatory paradigm which could incorporate facets of ‘the teachings of contemporary mystics, the scriptures of Eastern religions, or the allegorical symbologies of ancient creation myths’ (LaViolette)?

In his ‘Genesis of the Cosmos,’ LaViolette quotes ‘Hindu Saint Lahiri Mahasaya’ as follows, in relation to ‘an immense gem-studded, golden palace that his guru Babaji has materialised for him.’ “In tune with the infinite all-accomplishing Will, Babaji is able to command the elemental atoms to combine and manifest themselves in any form … Babaji created this beautiful mansion out of his mind and is holding its atoms together by the power of his Will …”

Are claims such as this not worth investigating? Indeed, have there been open-minded professional investigators into levitation, thumbnail healing, clairvoyance? Yet, it appears that precognition, psychokinesis, and telepathy have been studied for a long period. Are the prevailing explanatory paradigms in science the professional barrier to recognition, acceptance, and further research?

It must be the KaliYuga which is responsible. If so, mental and moral regeneration cannot occur for a long time yet; the next Yuga is a long way off. However, could the Maya ’end of time’ allow some re-booting of the collective conscience in the interim?

Could stones carry memories of the past?

In the third phase of my retirement reading, I investigated parapsychology, e.s.p., psychic phenomena; generally, the paranormal. The first phase was to review what the major religions had to say about the Cosmos and the place of mankind in it; I had been dabbling (dipping) into religion, initially as an offshoot of my studies in psychology, since age 24.

During the second phase, I had been pleasantly surprised to find that the leading speculative cosmologists of recent times had used phraseology clearly comparable to the language of Hinduism.  Could they have been influenced by the wisdom or commentaries of the ancient Hindus? There is a confluence of perceptions, explanations in their intent.

The third phase took me past the New Age theorists. They seemed to have borrowed from Hinduism to propagandise a Western view that, instead of autonomous processes, we humans decide our future – with the participation and direction of guides in the Afterlife. Descriptions of what happens in the Afterlife and what it looks like had been published. Was N.Krishnamurthy correct when he said “Those who tell cannot know,” in relation to that cosmic knowledge which is beyond words? And beyond any memory of the Afterlife?

Apart from some in-depth reading about the most recent conclusions about the paranormal, I met recommended clairvoyants, both professional and casual, users of crystals to drive spirits who had attached themselves to auras of the living, faith healers, and a Tarot reader whose sudden unrelated visions were persuasive. Then there was the biologist who wrote about his paranormal experiences while observing some simpler lifestyles in the Pacific.

Somewhere in the wealth of my reading, there was a story about a person picking an attractive stone by the track on some hillside in a remote place. I have forgotten the details; but they are not relevant. The finder thought the stone interesting, and passed it to her companion.

Here is where the incredible occurs. Looking at the stone, this person had a vision. The stone was part of a building, which was part of a settlement, and which had disappeared. She could see all this in her mind’s eye. Did the stone contain memories of its past?

I have found no other writings or stories suggesting that stones or other natural substances retain memories of their surroundings. That is not to say that it cannot happen. The human ‘third eye’ has also been credited with an ability to ‘see’ things, events, etc. beyond the normal. But surely there has to be something to perceive.

My thought is that some of us, when in the presence of an object from a past life, are enabled to glimpse some part of that life in which that object had a connection; and that this enablement is provided by the individual’s soul. That is, what we are able to perceive is a soul memory. Is this plausible?

This makes sense to me through my experiences. I kept seeing, during my efforts to perceive any past life through auto-hypnosis, a certain scene. Always that scene. Allied to that is a persistent etheric intimation throughout my life of a recent past life fitting that scene. To cap it all, my casual clairvoyant recently said (out of the blue) that she could see me as I had once been. It all fitted together!

As said by Sgt. Schulz in ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ (a TV film my children and I enjoyed together), “I know nothing, I see nothing, … … … “

 

 

 

 

 

Where resides the Creator within me?

I believe, tentatively, that my soul arose originally from the Ocean of Consciousness. (Was I not born conscious?) I say ‘tentatively’ because all my beliefs are tentative; I am in no position to know about such matters. Being tentative does not equate to being uncertain. It is not like holding on to the horns of a vibrant bull as it carries me onward, while wondering whether I am really holding on to its tail.

I have read that my soul resides in a walnut-sized space within my heart. This seems credible in the light of reliable reports about some heart-transplanted persons. The reports were of significant changes in their personality, including likes and dislikes, tastes, interests; and, surprisingly, the subtle impact of some vague foreign memories!

Where then is the Creator claimed to be within me to be found? Good question. It is, after all, a big shift in perspective, from believing a God of substance to be up there, or out there, to contemplating an ethereal God within me – and everybody else (while out there too).

It would seem that our Creator, an essence, occupies all space, and all things created. That is, my Creator should be found within me ephemerally infusing my existence. Is it the Creator then which provides me and my fellow-humans with the energy to live?

In the light of the pettiness, greed, and evil manifested by humans at all levels of responsibility, it is very difficult to accept that we are co-created, and that we all share a Creator. Yet, such a belief offers hope for the future of mankind.

This ethereal essence, perhaps a flux of vital energy, or Consciousness – totally pervasive in all existence (and non-existence?) – may be waiting for us to become mature; that is, to grow up.

In the meanwhile, as I await to hear the soft beat of the wings sent to take me to my next abode (for rest and refreshment), is it for the Creator within me to say ‘Time to go’? The essential me, my soul, will then vacate that little space within my heart, leaving the shell of my body to be returned to star-dust through cremation.

Selected theories about the aether

A website by Mountain Man Graphics lists quite a number of summaries of theories about the cosmic aether.

Xenocrates On the life of Plato

“Thus he then classified living creatures into genera and species, and divided them in every way until he came to their elements, which he called the five shapes and bodies – aether, fire, water, earth and air.”

Article 0 – Historical Background of the Aether

This document commences by examining the record of the ancient Greek philosophers, and in particular Pythagoras. The work of Pythagoras (570-490BC) is still to be seen at the axiomatic level of the derivation of most modern theories of matter, space and time – inclusive of Quantum Theory and the Theory of Relativity. It is evident that Pythagoras also believed in “the fifth element” – which he called the aether or the aither. This article examines the emergence of thought in the ancient western civilisation concerning the aether, and then that of the ancient eastern civilisation which used the term “Akasha”

 

 Article 4 – The Painted Pony and other publications … Glird

” It is our thesis that a continuum of substance fills all space in the known cosmos; that it is an amorphous fluid; that it is everywhere and always the conducting medium for energies; that this material is subject to changes of volume hence is intrinsically compressible; that pressure changes alter the degree of compression of this material; that under the influence of such pressure-density patterning, self persisting units of material occur; and that such units, always contiguous either to each other or to material in unorganized free form, are the things out of which ponderable matter is made.” – Glird

 

Article 7 – Michaelson-Morley Misinterpretation

“Now that Einstein has convinced us that the speed of light is a constant, the basic concept of the experiment seems naive at best. But at the time, it was enough to disprove the existence of the aether. Later, the photoelectric effect showed that light had properties similar to a particle, and if it could move around as a particle, it certainly didn’t need a medium. The question is, did the baby go out with the bath water. Although the experiment had a significant impact historically, its impact was in a negative result. It tells us nothing about a medium, and according to our current understanding, it had no chance of providing any information ….. If Light is a Wave, What is Waving?“.

 

(Comment:  How does one prove that something is not?)

 

Article 27 – Metaphysics, Metamath … Ray DeBiase

The observational writings of Ray DeBiase cover a wide subject area and are a pleasure to read. It was difficult to ascertain therefore a suitable introductory quotation to his work

 

Imaging your standing on a balcony overlooking the ocean. You can see individual waves on the surface and you can note their position at any point in time. You can tell they have momentum by the way they crash against the shore. Now it occurs to you that while an individual wave moves towards shore, it follows a relatively straight line and remains in tack as if it had an existence of its own. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to describe it as a particle, you could call it a surfiton. It would behave the same way an electron does when it goes through a double slit, so it should be possible to develop a set of mathematical laws to describe its behavior. The main problem with this model is that as you move closer and closer to the surfiton, it will be hard to tell where its borders are, and if you look closely enough, eventually you’ll just be soaking your head.

 

(Comment: A dose of realism?)