Travelers

After a 3 year hiatus, I will channel George Costanza when he famously says, "I'm back baby"

Whenever George, defined by constant failure, experiences a temporary, minor win, such as successfully executing a lie, he announces it to the world with these words. I relate to this character. "I've never been to a meeting where I wanted the other guy to show up" said George once. That would've been an accurate thing for me to say throughout my working career.

We all love George because he doesn't hide his limitations (In fact, he seems to somehow admire them), and we can all laugh along because there are parts of George in all of us.

(Actually, I don't know if I'm back, but I will be online for another year)

TV Shows and movies can be fantastic mediums for communicating concepts. For example, a Canadian TV show that I love is The Travelers. It is a show about people from the future coming back to the 21st century to save the world. They have the ability to transport a person's consciousness into a host body living in the 21st (They only do this to unsuspecting hosts who would normally otherwise die)

One thing this it does, as do other sci-fi shows, it clearly demonstrates to us, whether we've contemplated it or not, what we believe to be true regarding our own consciousness. This is a big deal because it's important to clearly understand what we are investigating. The simple concepts in this show exposes our beliefs about consciousness of which 99.99% agree.

Travelers clearly shows that we identify ourselves as consciousness. Literally, it is equated as "I" = consciousness. I am that. Whatever that is. "Consciousness, whatever that is?" was a line from Travelers. Erik McCormack's character (Mack) was wise enough to ask the question, and wise enough to know that he isn't sure.

Whatever it is, we obviously believe that it is limited because it can be transferred from host to host. Whatever it is, it needs a host. If Mack's host dies, he dies with it. Obviously, Mack and all of the characters in the show believe that their consciousness is located somewhere in the body.

Mack is correct that I = consciousness. It is the assumption that it is limited and located is the belief that needs to be investigated until we are satisfied.

The body and the time changes, but the "I" survives 100% the same. No change in the "I". When the traveler wakes up in the 21st century, they are still the same person inside a different body.

Although the time travelers obviously identify themselves with their consciousness, they still can sometimes experience feelings of shame associated with their host bodies as we all do

In summary, I love this show!! And it also has the power to communicate what we believe about the nature of consciousness. But is it true? Each of us need to reach this answer with certainty. Liberation from suffering. and lasting peace are byproducts of certainty. We can't manufacture peace from practices such as 'staying present' or any other technique. Understanding is everything (the name of the book I imagine writing someday)

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