~~~
When I regained consciousness, I realized I was looking down a precipice filled with jagged rock. I could see smoke rising from a spot far down below. I recognized my SUV which was in flames and burning furiously. Then one by one I saw the bodies of Dan, Chris, Aini and Sara. Their bodies were scattered at different heights on the hilly terrain. I thought it was due to the disintegration of the SUV while rolling down. All the bodies were stained with blood. None of them were moving and seemed dead. Looking further I saw my body with a bad head injury. It was the closest to where I was. I wondered why I missed seeing it earlier. Seeing my dead body had mixed reactions in me. All reactions raced through me and I couldn’t grab one. It was confusion first but it raised the question, who am I? I realized I was floating up in the air. I wasn’t in my usual clothes. I had an attire of a silvery grey color, covering me entirely from the neck downwards. “What the hell is this? Who put this dress on me? What am I doing here?” countless questions swamped my mind.
Since I was up floating in the air, at least 300 ft from the ground, I could see what was happening down below. Though I was alone, I could feel something around me. I realized I was in a transparent space capsule. I thought it was a blimp at first; but then I realized the shape wasn’t anything like that of a blimp. The exact shape of it cannot be explained as it had no shape. It was changing its shape like a huge soap bubble that flexed inwards and outwards. The surface seemed to be 100% transparent and it was completely hollow with only me in it.
Surprisingly, the moment I thought of sitting, a part of the bottom surface of this “Flexi-bubble” supported my sitting posture. The formation of the seat happened quickly. I wondered whether it was humbly responding to my thoughts. Though a seat wasn’t necessary as I was levitating on zero gravity like an astronaut in space, I preferred the seated position. I kept looking down to see what else I could see.
I could clearly see my dead body down below. Half of my skull and part of the brain was missing. A sudden brain wave made me realize who I was. I must be the soul or the spirit separated from my body. I couldn’t believe why I’m experiencing this new form of life as I was an ardent nonbeliever of life after death in any form. I have been a follower of science all my life and my beliefs were reinforced by well proven scientific facts and logic. I always thought life after death, existence of souls and similar paranormal ideas were utter nonsense and imagination of the human psyche influenced by religions and primitive superstitious ideas. In fact I was a firm believer of end of life when the brain ends.
“Shattering all that I thought was right, here I’m, out of my body, thinking and seeing things in a new realm. This is real. This seems to be true evidence of the existence of consciousness or soul out of a physical body. This is shocking to me but I need to get through this adventure to see what is ahead.”
I raised my hands to touch my head in a bid to examine more of the “new me”. I realized I still had my hands. But I couldn’t see them as my hands were concealed under the dress I was wearing. I couldn’t see any of my body parts as all were covered under the huge dress I had. It was like a robe with no arms. I couldn’t see my legs either. But I could move. This description of me could make you imagine a ghost in a cartoon movie. If you imagined so, really you are not far out. My appearance was something like that, but I didn’t have a mirror to confirm it. I didn’t have any scary thoughts, though I should have had some. By feeling my head with my hands I knew I had my face with my nose, mouth and ears. I definitely had my eyes as I could see all those things down below. I didn’t think my head was flesh and blood any more. It may sound strange but I couldn’t guess what it was made of.
Very different to my usual panic behavior in less grave situations, my mental composure was a state of tranquility. I wasn’t upset or worried about what really happened or what I saw, due to the serene, relaxed mood I was in. Surprisingly, I realized that I could remember almost everything in my life. That meant I had not lost my memory. Despite the calmness I was overwhelmed with countless unanswered questions. I was trying to understand the situation I was in.
Suddenly, the light intensity of the flexi-bubble changed. I saw a glow to my right. When I turned my head in that direction, I saw something popping into the flexi-bubble. Oh my God! It was Lily. I was pretty sure Lily wasn’t there a moment ago. Lily was in a similar dress like mine. Doggy dress! She started yelping at me hysterically. Probably because of my ghostly dress. As soon as I said “Lily”, Lily calmed down and came towards me. Calling Lily was the first word I spoke after the terrible accident. So I knew I could talk. I saw Lily's wagging tail under her dress. I touched her head and petted her until she became calm and collected. When I touched her head I realized the texture of her head was different. It may be because my hand was covered with the fabric. Frankly, I wasn’t sure why. The feeling was surely different. Now I am pretty sure Lily too had died and it was her soul. Lily was looking down curiously and barked intermittently. She probably couldn’t understand why everything far below looked so tiny. I too directed my eyes down below to see what was going on.
I realized that there were four police cars with flashing lights at the point where we got pushed out of the road. The policemen were busy. A few people were out of their cars and were leaning against the side guards staring down below. I don’t think they could see much from there as it was a straight drop. The traffic was building up. The trailer with the load of cars was right across the road preventing any traffic movement either way. The crooked trailer front was almost at the edge of the cliff. I saw the long black colored tier marks along the road. That explained part of the story. The deer that caused the accident eventually had managed to cross the road and was among the other deer. I felt happy when I realized she was heavily pregnant and probably carrying more than one. The front of the trailer was badly damaged and the driver was safe. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t see any of these things previously.
The light intensity of the flexi-bubble changed again with a white glow to my left side. It was Chris who popped right in this time. He was in a similar dress like mine. I said “Chris!” Lily barked at him at the same time. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes as he was groggy. He kept on looking at me. I felt like a stranger and was scared for a moment. It maybe because of my dress and Lily’s dress, I thought. He looked around the capsule with a shocked look on his face. I guessed he was looking for Aini.
He said, “Tony” as Lily and I were moving towards him.
“Hi!” I said. “Thank God! He can talk,”
He started looking at the scene right below us that I had watched for the last 12 minutes. His head stopped moving as he saw our bodies. His eyes were focused at Aini's body for a few seconds, then Sara’s and at his own body which were all lying far apart from one other. He obviously saw my body as it was the closest to us. He looked at it and looked at me a few times. I was pretty sure he realized what had happened to us. Like me, he was in a state of shock but was gradually recovering from it. I didn’t see a noticeable emotional reaction on his face when he saw the bodies of his wife and daughter.
“Tony, can you understand what’s going on?” Chris asked me.
“I have been here over ten minutes Chris; I think we are dead and our souls survived,” I said.
“Mmm!” was Chris’s reply. I wasn’t sure what he meant by “Mmm”.
“I was puzzled on seeing our bodies down there, and floating up here in this robe like thing,” I said expecting Chris to say something. But Chris was silent.
We noticed two helicopters were coming towards us. They were Red Cross, rescue helicopters. The flexi-bubble wasn’t affected by the helicopters. One chopper hovering above the scene started lowering a trooper down on a cable. The trooper on the cable approached my body first. After he landed on the ground, he let the cable go. He examined my body and started communicating with the others with his walkie-talkie. I couldn’t hear anything
he said as the chopper was very loud. However, I clearly saw the severity of my head injury when he turned my body over. I think a good part of my brain was missing. I saw the cable going down again. I thought it was to lift my body. I was wrong. After he hooked himself, he was partially lifted for a couple of minutes and was lowered down to the place where Dan was. I saw the trooper using the walkie-talkie again. This time the helicopter lowered the orange rescue cage. Dan’s body was loaded into the rescue cage, strapped firmly and lifted into the helicopter. He did a clever job of handling it alone.
The trooper on the ground was able to climb down about 15 feet and walked about another 60 feet to reach Sara’s body. As the trouper touched the body I saw a slight movement in her tiny hand. Like earlier the rescue cage was lowered and the body was lifted into the helicopter. Soon after, I saw the helicopter dashing out. Obviously to the nearest hospital, I thought.
After seeing my body with half of my head, I was a hundred percent certain that I was dead. Now I’m positive about why I was in the flexi-bubble. That means what I am experiencing is not anything like a near death experience (NDE) that I’ve read about, but my own soul. If my logic is right Chris and Lily must be well and truly dead as well. It must be the reason why Chris, Lily and I are in the flexi-bubble but not the others. With a load of things going through my mind that was my firm conclusion.
The second helicopter that was hovering at a fair distance away moved into the area. Both of us were still silent and were looking intently at the rescue mission right below us. The fire on the SUV was no more but there was still thick black smoke being emitted that at times blocked our view.
Another glow in the flexi-bubble and Aini appeared this time. She had the same attire like us. Chris was surprised. Just like Chris, she had a confused look on her face. Chris hugged Aini. They were silent for a long time. However, after a while they started murmuring to each other. Chris was probably explaining his view about all this to Aini. I presumed Chris would have mentioned that Sara had been taken to the hospital by the helicopter.
For about 15 minutes she wasn’t looking around. I wasn’t sure whether she saw us or not. Finally she looked at me. From her look I realized that she had come out of the baffled state.
“Aini,” I said softly.
“Tony,” she replied with a faint voice. That was followed by a very long period of silence.
I broke the silence by saying, “It seems like Sara and Dan survived.”
“Tony, can you understand what we are doing here?” coming a few feet towards me, Chris asked the same question he asked me a few minutes ago.
“I did a little bit of thinking on this, Chris. As I said earlier, I think our souls survived leaving our bodies down there. Lily joined me 5 minutes after I came here first. Based on timing, you probably survived 10 more minutes after me. And Aini’s body had the last breath a few minutes ago.”
“Any idea what we are wearing and what this enclosure is?” Chris asked me.
“No! Not much on both. It looks like this is our uniform including Lily’s. About the enclosure, I like to call it the flexi-bubble as it flexes all the time. Before any of you were here, when I thought of sitting down the bottom of this flexed to form a nice seat. Seems like, it can understand my thoughts.”
A moment after I saw a seat forming for Chris and then for Aini. They were amazed.
“Chris, Aini did you think of sitting?” I asked Chris and Aini. They said “Yes”. That confirmed the flexi-bubble reacts to our thoughts, like a faithful servant serving a master.
“What is the purpose of the flexi-bubble? Why are we together? How long are we going to be here? What will happen to us next? Is this the way that everyone ends up after death?” These were the mind boggling questions I had.
“Hey, Tony is there any chance of reaching the hospital to see what is going on with Sara? Dan must be in the same hospital I believe,” Chris said. As he said that, I felt us moving. The flexi-bubble was moving us at a moderate speed. We didn’t feel any type of jerks or centrifugal forces as the flexi-bubble moved up and down or turned corners. Probably due to the zero gravity environment that we were in. Within seconds we reached the hospital.
We had no difficulty in passing through doors or walls. They just faded away as the flexi-bubble approached them like in the movie ‘Terminator’. We saw the emergency rooms where Sara and Dan were. There were many surgeons and support staff in their green coats, surrounding Sara and Dan. The doctors and nurses were busy and serious. There were so many beeping sounds and lights emanating from all the instruments monitoring Sara and Dan. I had no clue what many of the electronic equipment were, as I had not been to a hospital in a long time.
We were watching what was happening in both emergency rooms. After sometime, we realized the doctors around Dan’s room were withdrawing from him one by one. Though I didn’t know much about the medical instruments, the weak beeping sounds and flattened electronic display signals indicated Dan wasn’t going to make it.
Almost immediately, there was a new glow around us. That was Dan's entry to the flexi-bubble. Similar to Chris and Aini when they came in, Dan was in a traumatized state. Lily was over excited after identifying Dan. Dan saw Lily, but he wasn’t excited. I didn’t waste any time in reaching Dan. I kept talking to him and told him the full story; really the little I knew. Being a Buddhist and believer in after life, I thought he will accept his position pretty quickly. But he couldn’t figure out why we were in a flexi-bubble in funny looking attire. Chris and Aini spoke to Dan briefly but they were more anxious to follow what was happening in Sara’s emergency room.
A while later Dan saw the hospital staff carting his body to the mortuary. He brought it to my attention. They placed his body next to a few more bodies that were partially covered.
“Did you see that?” Dan asked me by looking at me. I saw the excitement on his face.
“What?”
“The body next to me is yours; and the two on the opposite side behind the glass panel are Chris’s and Aini’s,” Dan said.
Dan was right. Chris and Aini heard our dialogue. They saw their bodies as well. All our bodies had tags on the wrists. Beside the bodies there were plastic bags for each of us. I knew that those were for the personal belongings, as I had been to a mortuary before. I wondered whether the bag beside me had my iPhone which I loved more than my wallet.
I knew that it would take some time for me to understand and adjust to the present world. iPhones or any other material things would not be the things for me hereafter. The only material things I was aware of were the uniform and the flexi-bubble. I wasn’t even sure whether these two were material things, from the little exposure I had so far. This world seemed to be complex rather than simple.
Sara was carted out from the emergency room after the surgery. The rolling flatbed was surrounded by drip bottles and other medical instruments that were hooked to her body. We could only see her closed eyes, as the rest of her body was covered with bandages. Her body was still and didn’t look well to me.
Sadly, Sara popped into the flexi-bubble after 20 minutes, breaking the monotony in the flexi-bubble. Chris and Aini probably expected it after observing the reactions of the nurses who were with her. Chris and Aini took care of her when she popped in. It wasn’t easy for them. Dan silenced Lily’s barking. Sara had more questions than all of us. I wondered whether she even knew the meaning of death. Chris’s and Aini’s explanation to Sara happened very privately.
The flexi-bubble moved about 100 feet above the hospital roof and became still. We kept our silence for a long time, just as if we were at a funeral. We moved around but most of the time we just looked outside. We didn’t have topics to talk about though there were millions of questions in our minds. Sara started playing with Lily. Obviously she would have wondered why Lily and all of us were in similar dresses in a balloon. Our eyes diverted to see how they were enjoying each other. I enjoyed watching them play.
/> Chris came towards me and said, “Now, as all of us are here shouldn’t we move to a different place?”
“How?”
“Just like how we came here from the place of accident,” Chris said.
“We can try. Where do you want to go?” I asked Chris.
“We should move to our home town as that’s where all of us are from,” Chris suggested.
“That’s a good idea,” Dan said, though he didn’t experience the move before. All of us agreed.
All of us started concentrating on moving to hometown and expected the flexi-bubble to move.
Last time when we thought about the hospital, the flexi-bubble moved us immediately. It seemed that this time it wasn’t budging, although all of us had the same thought.
“It is not moving. Maybe the distance is too much,” Chris said.
“Let’s try again,” Like an expert flexi-bubble operator, I commanded everybody to envision us moving to our hometown. We did, but it didn’t budge. We gave up our idea after attempting several times. I even requested Sara to think on those lines. I wondered why it wasn’t responding to our thoughts any more. We didn't have a proper answer. Chris as the smartest guy in the bunch couldn’t help either.
Still hovering above the hospital we realized it was relatively dark. The lights on the ground and the half-moon up on the eastern sky provided enough light for us to see each other. Even after midnight we didn't feel sleepy or hungry. We realized all those things like sleep, food and the basic necessities of life would not be applicable to us anymore. With every passing second, we were getting accustomed to the world of souls that we had no prior knowledge of. The only new thing we knew was we were surely restricted to the flexi-bubble that could flex and move. We were silent as a losing team after a tightly fought game.
I couldn’t understand why all of us ended up in the flexi-bubble. Why didn’t each of us get individual flexi-bubbles? Was it because we were together before the accident? Are our souls mysteriously connected together? What will happen to us beyond being trapped in this enclosure? Will we have to be in this until the day of redemption that many holy books talk about? Is it only I who have all these un-answered questions? I lost the tranquility I had before. My mind was running riot.
I wasn’t sure whether the other three were chanting silent prayers according to their beliefs, seeking to reach heaven or other happy places. As I didn’t have a religion, there seemed to be a big chance of my ending up alone in the flexi-bubble. Or perhaps with Lily as I have heard animals don’t go to heaven. Will I end in hell? If I go to hell, I would be able to understand what type of place that would be. I haven’t read anything about the near death experience people reaching hell. Strangely many people have almost reached heaven and then returned to earth. In those stories many have seen tunnels, angels and extended arms reaching out to them from nowhere. Of course if I saw an arm I would be the first to grab it. I supposed it would be fair for me to do that as I came here first.
In the midst of the dead silence, I missed my iPhone very badly. It could have helped to kill my boredom. The iPhone reminded me of the call I received yesterday when I was in the shower. I couldn’t keep silent anymore, so I started a conversation.
I told everybody about the call on the "Prepaid discount offer for funeral services."
"Tony, you don’t believe and you laugh at these things all the time saying it’s BS. But, don't you think that it has something to do with the accident? You can’t say it is purely coincidental," Dan said in a mellow tone different to his usual argumentative one.
"No, I am trying to understand what that 'something' you are talking about is," I said.
"You saw a bird flying into Chris's house and I said it was a sign of death, didn't I?" Dan said. I knew he was lining up with his usual stuff for me, but supported with actual facts this time.
"I didn’t want to say that earlier. In fact the bird hit the fan and died on the spot," Like a fool I tried to be truthful.
"Is that true?" Aini broke her silence aiming her eyes at Chris. Chris nodded his head and said, "Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Aini’s voice indicated she wasn’t happy about Chris dodging it earlier.
“If we talk about the bird too much it might end up here with us," Chris joked. It was good to have some humor in a grief filled environment; I thought.
"Do you now believe in afterlife?" Dan posed a question to me.
"Yes. There is consciousness after death in a flexi-bubble. That is all I know right now," I said and I continued. "Every day, over 150,000 people die on Earth. In another 80 years, nearly everyone who's on Earth today will be gone. Death can happen at any time, to anybody. It happened to us today. We have argued over ‘afterlife' many times in the past. Now we know there is something after death. But we still know only a little. We never knew we’d end up in a flexi-bubble. Did any of your religions say anything about a flexi-bubble? Technically there should be 150,000 flexi-bubbles around us today. But we cannot see any of those including the bird’s one if they get flexi-bubbles too. So, do not jump to conclusions or impose all of your ideas on me or force me to believe what you believe, yet. We have time to resolve this afterlife issue once and for all."
"We might discover something completely unexpected in time to come. We have to wait and see," Chris said. Aini agreed.
"Excuse me Aini; what does your religion say about death and after life?" Dan asked.
"It is not an easy question to answer Dan, as I’m not a scholar on the subject. I will tell you what I know," Aini said.
“That would be nice," Dan said as we hadn’t pondered on this subject before.
"We are already in after life,” I made a remark with my loose mouth; that wasn’t necessary. "Sorry Aini, go ahead.”
"We believe in Heaven and Hell. Guys who do good things will go to heaven and who do bad things will go to hell," Aini started explaining.
"Any distinct difference on this in Chris's and your religion," I asked.
"I do not like to speak for Chris I will tell you the few things I know. Again I must say there are different versions of what I’m about to say, OK! So keep that in mind. According to the Quran one day the world will be destroyed. On that day our God will raise all the people from death. There are many variations to the definition of this last day I’m talking about. The judgment will be decided by our God."
"So, it looks like we will have to wait till such time. Holy cow!" I jumped in before she finished.
"Is there anywhere in your holy book it talks about the soul ending up in a flexi-bubble?" Dan asked.
“Dan, is there anything about it in Buddhism?” Aini asked.
“Aini, sorry for interrupting you; please continue,” Dan apologized.
"I may be wrong, but what I have heard is, until that day comes, the dead person's soul will remain in the grave. Some say the dead will begin to feel the taste of their destiny to come in the grave. Obviously, those bound for hell will suffer, while those bound for heaven will be in peace until that time," Aini paused to give us a chance to ask questions.
"That means we will go back to our graves from here,” I said.
“Seems like it,” Aini said.
“Of course I hope my sister will cremate me; that's what I wanted. I’ve told her about it many times when we discussed death as children. Hope she remembers," I said.
"Hey, Aini, assume my sister buries me; what will happen when I am resurrected as I lost half the skull and brain?" I asked.
"Don’t worry; I’ve heard that all bodies will be re-created. So, you will have the whole skull and a full brain," Aini replied.
"Does it really matter to you Tony as you didn’t have anything up there in any case," Chris joked. Again, I thought it was good of Chris to make fun to compensate for the gloomy situation.
"Chris, apologetically I have to ask you to shut up!” I thought I stopped further attacks. Sara heard that and said, "Uncle Tony, you are s
aying bad things." I apologized to her.
“Hey! Aini, how can that be possible?" I asked.
"For a person who created heaven and earth it must be a pretty simple task, Tony. So, don’t worry. Slow down, you will be OK," Aini explained.
"The Christian story is pretty similar. What matters is the deeds you have done in your life, Tony. Can you think of any good deeds you have done?" Chris threw another friendly verbal punch at me.
"I have a bad group of friends and all of them finally helped me to end up in a flexi-bubble. Thank you, guys!” I said.
“Hey, do you think I'll end up in hell, as I don't have a religion?" I asked Chris.
"I don’t think they will accept you even in hell," Dan interrupted. All laughed.
"Aini, what do you know about Hell?" I asked.
"If you go to hell your body and soul will suffer eternally, as opposed to eternal pleasures in Heaven," Aini explained.
"What is the destiny for people who believe in other religions?" Dan asked.
Chris answered by saying, "All non-Muslims will go to hell, according to Aini's religion."
“So, Chris and Dan are going to be my buddies in hell,” I said.
“I am going to sneak in to Aini's heaven as I can have 72 virgins,” Chris said.
“You will not be tolerated there Chris,” Aini joked.
“Seriously any religious views or understanding on the flexi-bubble we are in?” I asked. “Any of you.”
I saw Chris wanting to say something.
“There are always debates over the finer points on the doctrines of any religion. In regards to what happens to souls, Christianity has four views. These aren’t straightforward references from the bible but I think these ideas have evolved over centuries. Before I tell you guys about these four streams, I must say, all these ideas seem to have come from Greek philosophy. We Protestant Christians view the soul as an inhabitant of the body. So the two, soul and body, are considered separate entities. Contrary to this view, the Jewish religion is inclined to the view that body and soul are indivisible," Chris said. He paused for a moment as he suddenly had an insight. "Wow! I have proof now to show Jews are wrong,” Chris enjoyed saying.
“What are the four ideas Chris?” Dan was quick to get Chris’s attention back on the topic.
“Idea number one is that the believer’s souls go immediately into God’s presence. That means out of this lot, only I'll go to heaven since I'm the only believer of Jesus Christ. You lot go to hell. You guys will be there in hell until judgment day comes. The idea of going to heaven immediately without having to wait, is based on Jesus’ words on the cross promising the thief crucified alongside him that ‘today you will be with me in paradise’. That means there is no time lapse to go to heaven after death,” Chris said.
“Why didn’t Jesus say to him ‘today you will go to hell’, as he was a thief?” Dan interrupted.
All of a sudden we heard Sara’s voice. “What are you talking about?” Chris managed to divert her attention back to Lily.
“So according to the first idea one can go to heaven immediately after death. What’s the second idea?” I asked.
“The second idea is from a Catholic belief. According to this belief the soul goes to a flexi-bubble,” Chris laughed. “Seriously it says the soul will go to an intermediate place and wait for judgment day. At this transient place the souls go through a purification process to make them ready to enter heaven. Catholics also state that sinners can confess their sins to Catholic priests and those sins can be forgiven. It doesn't matter how grave the sins might be; if the sinner truly repents, he or she will be forgiven,” Chris explained.
“Does this means that all good and bad guys must go through the timely intermediate purification process?” I asked.
“It's not that clear because Catholics also believe the possibility of people going straight to heaven or hell,” Chris explained further.
“That is really interesting but confusing. However, as you said earlier the time in the flexi-bubble could be considered as the purification stage; the stopover before going to heaven; right?” I said. Chris said “Yes.”
“What is the third idea?” Dan asked.
“The third idea is that the souls go through some type of dormant state like hibernation, until the Second Coming of Christ. The souls will wake up from that state just in time for judgment day. However, some scripture urges people to demonstrate godly lives ‘in the presence of a great cloud of witnesses’, thus implying there are witnesses in heaven. That means these witnesses are the people already in heaven. How did they reach heaven without waiting for judgment day as given in the scripture poses a question? So, it’s a little complicated to explain the anomaly but that’s the third," Chris said.
“Is the soul immortal?” Dan asked.
“Yes. The concept of heaven and hell in traditional Christianity heavily depends on the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Do you like to hear the fourth idea before it skips out of my head?" Chris said.
“Yes,”
"The fourth idea is the souls of believers go to heaven and the souls of non-believers like you guys cease to exist. ‘Annihilationism’ is the term used to describe the cessation of existence. So, if this is true you three shouldn’t have existed anymore. But I'm talking to you, the non-believers, now. So, this idea is questionable and definitely not true,” Chris joked and we laughed.
“This fourth idea is not a popular one because it contradicts biblical references to judgment day that specifically state Jesus will judge ‘both the living and the dead’. If the souls of only believers survive death, and if all believers go to heaven then judgment is logically unnecessary, right?” Chris said.
“Logically yes,” I said.
“All these four ideas underpin the event of unification of soul and body at resurrection,” Chris said. “Some scriptures say that even the nonbelievers will be resurrected and then be judged. So fortunately you guys still have a very small chance.”
“Where was Jesus Christ the three days before he arose from death?” asked Aini.
“Mm! Sorry, I don’t have a clear-cut answer for that question. There's not much recorded data on the time between his death and resurrection,” Chris answered.
“Come to think of it, his soul would have been in a flexi-bubble like ours! Who knows?” Dan said.
“What's your answer to the question I asked Aini before? At resurrection what will be my position as my body doesn’t have half my brain and if it was cremated?” It was too late when I realized what a fool I was by asking that question.
“Don't worry Tony; any brain that you get at resurrection would be more intelligent than what you had.” This time it was Aini who launched the attack, laughingly. I intensely regretted my folly in providing ammunition for the attack.
“Aini’s answer is perfect I think; I cannot agree more,” Dan topped it up with his 2 cents worth.
“Did you look closely at your skull to see whether you had anything in it? All this time I thought it was pretty hollow,” Chris my beloved friend didn’t stop. “Dummy!”
“Ha, ha! Is that it? Anything else, on my brain?” I had to fight for my pride, and wanted to get back on the subject.
“Hey! Chris, to me it seems like our status here does not fit any of those four ideas. According to the 1st idea, you shouldn't be here but in heaven by now. The closest is the 2nd idea of having an intermediate stage as believed by Catholics. But they also believe direct transfers to Heaven,” I said.
“I may vanish at any moment to heaven. Who knows? You better hold onto me if you want me,” Chris was still in the jovial mood he got from his last jab at me. I enjoyed the fun mood.
“We didn't discuss Lily. What will happen to her? Where will she go?” I asked.
“It's again a complex question. Some say that animals will not be allowed in heaven because they don’t have souls. Some say there are animals in heaven,” Chris said.
“I
n Buddhism animals are part of the cycles of births and deaths,” Dan said.
“Oh! Good. It is your turn now Dan! Give your explanation or your boss’s explanations, about all these things?” Aini requested Dan to explain his take on the subject.
“Until I came here I thought it was pretty simple to explain afterlife, but it looks like I'm in deep trouble,” Dan said.
“How can any of us be in deeper trouble than this, Dan? Go on!” Aini said.
“First of all we Buddhists don't believe in a soul. Contrary to all the other religions this is the unique concept in Buddhist teachings,” Dan paused as he saw Chris wanting to say something.
“Oh! I think I can understand. It looks like you're in deep trouble in explaining our presence here with that unique concept,” Chris said as he could understand Dan’s dilemma.
“Buddhism is a counter revolutionary philosophy to Hinduism. Hindu’s believe in a body and a soul. The Buddha approached the subject of the soul in a different manner. I might take a long time to get into the core teaching on this, as it is a bit complicated to explain all that. So, I'll try to summarize,” Dan said.
“Dan, we have all the time in the world. So, take your time. I am dying to listen to you even after death,” Aini said
“Sorry Dan, I cannot offer you any beer today as I know you need at least half dozen cans for you to warm up for a subject like this, right!” Chris said.
“Beer! Didn’t you know I became a teetotaler a few hours ago,” Dan said.
“You are a good boy! Go back to the no-soul talk,” Aini said.
“I'm thinking of how to narrate the stuff. OK, let me try. I need to tell you that there is a shallow side and deep philosophical insight in Buddhist teachings. These two factions were necessary as the Buddha had to preach to people of various intellectual capacities in the diverse social structure at his time. On the shallow side of things, as per my interpretation, Buddhists believe in Karma, rebirth, heavens, hells, gods, ghosts, sprits, devils, etc. These ideas already existed at that time from Hinduism. I suppose you've heard about Karma. Karma is an automatic reward or punishment you receive from the good and bad deeds done in present life and previous lives. The deeds can be physical, verbal or mental actions. The rewards and punishments are really the happy and sorrowful experiences in life. The life journey is not restricted to this life. The past lives are often equated to the links in a chain; with an addition of a new link at every rebirth. The seeds of all good and bad deeds you had collected in the past are in your life system and those seeds affect your rewards and punishments. You have no control or choice over when or what to have. There is no controller who brings these up for you. The past lives you spent may have been as human beings, animals, gods or other life forms like ghosts. Most of these ideas are identical to the ideas in Hinduism and have come from Hinduism. Buddhists are very keen to use the word rebirth instead of reincarnation to show that there is a difference,” Dan said. “What do you think so far?”
“Good! What's the difference between reincarnation and rebirth?” Chris asked.
“This is where I have to switch to the deep philosophical aspects of the teaching,” Dan said.
“OK Dan, keep going. Sorry for the interruption,” Chris said.
“That’s OK, keep asking questions. My only request is, make sure you ask the questions that I'm able to answer. No smart questions allowed please. If my answer is wrong do not argue,” Dan said.
“We’ll try!” was the one vocal familiar reply he got from us.
“The Buddha said the idea of self is an illusion. This is defined as “Anatta” or “No-Self”. Buddhist scripture is written in Pali Language and Anatta is a Pali word. Buddha vehemently denied the concept of the soul which was found in Hinduism. Buddhists do not believe in a migration of a soul to another life which is reincarnation. In Buddhism the impetus to your next life is the last thought of your present life or the thought you have at the time of death. It is the thought process that continues, not any form of soul. If there is nothing called soul then what carries the Karmic seeds to the next life, poses a question. I don’t have an answer to that, rather than saying all the seeds are not packaged into a soul. However, I will explain to you the ‘No-self’ or ‘Anatta’ concept further.”
“Go ahead Dan,” Aini said.
“To explain the concept of ‘No-self’ the Buddha had an approach like this. He said that there are two categories of truths. One was called the ‘Conventional truth’ and the other the ‘Ultimate truth’,” Dan said.
“What does that mean?” Chris asked.
“I'll give you some examples. We think our earth is flat but it is round. We know an atom is over 99% hollow, because the electrons that circle the nucleus of the atom are at vast distances compared to the size of the nucleus of the atom. We are made of atoms. Hence we must be over 99% hollow. But we don’t define our body that way. Same type of logic applies for light. We see light as light but not as seven colors though it is made of seven colors. So we can look at things as conventional truth and also as ultimate truth,” Dan looked around.
“True. So how does your logic correlate to the soul or self?” Aini asked.
“According to Buddha the self exists as a conventional entity, but in reality if you apply the ultimate truth principle there is no such thing called self or soul,” Dan said.
“Are you trying to correlate your 99% hollow atom theory to self?” Chris asked.
“No, no. It has nothing to do with that. Buddha said the people believed self as a conglomeration of what was termed as ‘Five aggregates’ in his time. The five aggregates consist of form and mind. The first aggregate, the form, is the body. The other four are the mind elements that were identified as feeling, perception, mental formation and consciousness. The Buddha explained that the postulation of self this way was absolutely incorrect as none of those five entities either considered individually or in any combinations or all together, doesn’t constitute a self,” said Dan.
"Interesting but complex; I need to think a bit on that," Chris said
“Let me go a little further on this. In Hinduism the self is characterized as body and soul, just similar to the idea in your religions. In Hinduism the self is explained around the slogans 'You identify your body but you are not your body, your soul is the witness of your body; you identify your thoughts but you are not your thoughts, your soul is the witness of your thoughts. The Buddha took a step further on this notion and said there is no 'witness' either, to be defined as self,” Dan kept on going as if he was a Buddhist guru.
“Hey, Dan if there’s nothing called self, who is behind a human being,” Chris asked.
“I will tell you what Buddha said. Citing the ultimate truth concept I just explained to you, the Buddha's answer was, because there is no self or soul, the word 'who' does not bear any validity or meaning in the question. Because your question has an error with a word ‘who’ in it, a valid answer cannot be construed,” Dan said.
“Dan, keep all the complicated answers aside. Tell me who you are in the flexi-bubble if it is not your soul,” Aini asked.
“Aini, actually I don't have a conclusive answer to your question. How do you know for sure whether we are souls? Did you know all souls get a dress like this and have discussions on the topic of souls in a flexi-bubble?” Dan questioned.
“I don’t know, but that's my best guess at the moment because of my religious back ground and what I’m experiencing right now without flesh and blood. What’s your best guess?” Aini questioned.
“According to Buddhism, we go from one life to another. Some Buddhists believe that there can be an intermediate stage between the two lives. In fact, there are rites the Buddhists follow during and after a funeral, believing some kind of existence of a sprit world immediately after death. So, I have a few guesses at the moment. May be I am in an intermediate stage waiting to be conceived in a woman’s or an animal’s womb. My second guess is, perhaps all of us are alre
ady born in a ghostly realm due to the sins we have done in the past. The third guess is, maybe I’m wrong and souls exist dressed in uniforms. I think it’s best for me to say I don’t know rather than trying to come up with a bogus answer,” Dan said.
I was more confused than ever.
“Dan, do you think you have the seeds of all good and bad things you’ve done along your life journey so far? Do you feel that you have them in some form?” Chris asked.
“Chris, that’s what I’ve been conditioned to believe. Your question of feel for seeds has no meaning. Anyway the answer is no. Buddhists attribute many good and bad things that happen in life to past deeds or Karma, like the Hindus. Can I prove this theory? No! But one can’t disprove it either, just like the concept of God’s will or attributing those to destinies governed by one’s horoscope,” Dan answered.
“Dan, do you believe in heaven?” Aini asked.
“According to Buddhist scripture there are over 84,000 heavenly worlds and four hells in our universe. When a person is born in a heavenly world that person becomes a god as well. The life expectancies of the gods are very long but yet finite like ours. So after that extensive life period they could be born as a god again or end up as a human or animal or any other form, depending purely on the person’s karma seeds. These ideas have come from Hindu beliefs and I am very skeptical about those personally. Some of these ideas served a purpose for a wide fraction of the people at the time of Buddha who already had these ideas. The human psyche adores that type of beliefs even now as it seems logical and provable. Buddhists don't believe in a creator God, but various rituals for various gods are common practices,” Dan said.
“Dan, you said that Buddhists believe in the chain of life. And also you said one’s last thought has some influence on that person’s next birth. What’s the explanation you have for the development of the first link of the chain? Or how did you come to existence for the very first time in your life journey?” I asked.
“Tony, you agreed not to ask unanswerable questions. You broke the rule my friend! Let me think. The first answer is I don't know. The second answer can be given as “desire”, according to Buddhist scripture. You might question whose desire is it? I don't have an answer as that person has logically not existed before. Some Buddhists have two ways of answering this question. The first way is to say life journey is not a chain but a circle. Chicken and egg situation, you know. The other way is to say, looking for an answer to that question is not the purpose of Buddhism. There is a simile to support this logic; like if you are hit by a poisoned arrow should you find out who fired the arrow before you take it out. I admit both these are BS answers. No rationality involved, other than buttering the belief. However on several occasions the Buddha implied an answer like this; according to the ultimate truth principle I told you, there is no body called Dan or Tony, so your question is wrong. As a result of having a question with an error in it, a proper answer cannot be construed,” Dan said.
“That’s a clever one, though seems very complicated to grasp properly,” Aini said.
“I don’t think Tony can understand any of that with his half brain, Dan. So you need to go a little easy with him,” Chris said.
“I’ve had enough from all of you. Just relax you guys! Thanks Dan. I need to think about it with my half brain but at least I know my brain is still better than Chris’s,” I said.
"Dan, you said something about the last thought leading to the next life. So, what was your last thought or did you have any desire when the SUV rolled down?" I asked.
“I can still remember the trailer coming towards us and the big bang! After that I can clearly remember I had something like a near death experience, the stories I have read about. I didn’t want to say anything earlier thinking you guys would make fun of me,” Dan said.
“That’s interesting. Come on Dan we’re still friends!” Aini said.
“Aini, you may not believe this. It’s weird and amazing. And come to think of it, it’s funny too. Anyway, as we don’t have any clue as to how long we’re going to be together, I will tell you,” Dan said. It sounded like he had a long story to tell.
“This is what I can remember. I was dropping down from space at very high speed as if I was attempting to break the free fall speed record, like the guy Felix Baumgartner who jumped from space. Actually I thought I broke the record! Unfortunately, my parachute didn’t open like his. I was screaming when I gathered high speed. I finally hit a big rock. Shockingly, I bounced back like in a bungee jump; but I came back to the ground safely. There were people at the bottom of the rock to receive me, as if they’ve been waiting for me for some time. I didn’t know any of them. Though my back hit the rock very hard nothing really happened. I was talking to the people about what went wrong. They said it was good to go to the hospital for a checkup. I was taken to the hospital in a helicopter. I was rushed to the emergency room. Within seconds there were so many doctors and nurses around me. Then they thought I was dead as I could hear all the conversations going on around me. I wasn’t dead but it was scary because I thought they were going to cut me open, or bury me alive. Then I saw one guy pretending to be a doctor bringing a huge injection cylinder with a big needle. After I saw that I started flying up again like a rocket with the butt on fire. I was screaming at the top of my voice for help on the way up. Next thing I realized I was in this flexi-bubble and Tony talking to me in his funny dress.” Everybody started laughing when Dan said that, though Dan still had a weird look on his face.
“I also have read reported near death experience stories. However, that doesn’t sound like a near death experience story, but somewhat close. It seems like ‘getting scared of injection’ story,” Chris said jokingly.
“I have read those stories too and done some further reading to understand the scientific explanation. Near-death experiences are often thought of as mystical phenomena, but research is now revealing scientific explanations for virtually all those common features people see and experience at near death situations. Things like voyages toward a bright light in a tunnel can be induced in anybody in the lab and why it is happening can be biologically explained. One of the methods of doing this is by increasing the CO2 concentration in the blood. People who have inhaled excess carbon dioxide or intentionally done that with meditative practices or have been at high altitudes are known to have had sensations similar to near-death experiences. That is how the researchers got to know this particular fact first,” I said.
“I don’t know whether I should believe you or not. I believe in near death experience,” said Dan.
“That’s OK. This is what I have read and there are many other convincing pathological explanations for near death experience,” I said.
"Basically, a few hours ago you saw me in the hospital, and all of you could see your bodies. Now, imagine we get a chance to go back to our bodies to tell our story to others. Do you think people will believe us?” Dan asked.
“I don’t think so,” Chris said.
“Dan, you have a very valid point there,” I said and I thought it was a good point to ponder.
“We have to wait and see what’s going to happen to us,” Chris said.
“What do you think will happen to us,” I asked.
“I believe we’ll end up in heaven. Don’t ask me when or why? But I’m pretty sure of this,” Aini said those words with a lot of confidence.
“Assume we end up in Heaven due to some luck. What would be our state of mind when we end up there?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” Chris asked
“Take Sara for example. When she goes there, will she have a mind of a child or adult?” I asked with a low voice as I didn’t want Sara to hear her name.
“I’m trying to be very open here. I had some difficulties in bringing clarity to this issue in the past,” Chris continued. “Logically, all of us come into this world with a sinful nature, according to my religion. So this includes babies. The only salvation in Chri
stianity is through knowing Jesus Christ. Babies and kids are not mature to understand Jesus Christ. Also, mentally challenged kids and people, will never have the capability to understand Jesus Christ. So, on that logic will they end up in hell? Some denominations of Christians think by baptizing babies the kids can go to Heaven, if they die early. Then what happens to the babies who are miscarried or die during childbirth? Are they condemned to hell? The bible doesn’t explicitly state what happens to them. However, babies and children are recognized as innocent in the bible. Hence we can assume children will go through the grace and righteous judgment of God,” Chris said.
“Is Sara Christian or Muslim?” Dan asked. Sara looked at Dan but Aini diverted her attention back to playing with Lily.
“We didn’t teach her a specific religion. We taught her the good and the bad, and wanted her to select a religion of her choice once she could understand the world,” Aini whispered.
“What will be her fate according to Islam considering our status here?” I asked.
“Islam doesn’t have the concept of original sin. We believe that all human beings are born pure. Babies and children therefore go to heaven automatically, regardless of their parents beliefs. So, she will go to heaven,” Aini said.
“That is interesting, and a very reasonable assumption,” Dan said.
“Dan, what’s the Buddhist’s view on children’s deaths?” Aini asked.
“A death of a child is considered a result of a bad deed done in the past. As such the child's life will undergo a different rebirth into another realm, as human, animal or other being. That's all I can say,” said Dan.
“Guys, I didn’t get an answer to the question I asked before. When Sara goes to heaven will she have a mind of a child or adult?” I asked quietly.
“Obviously she will have a mind of a child,” Chris said.
“Will she one day become an adult in heaven?” I asked.
“Yes,” Chris gave a short answer.
“What kind of an adult?”
“High IQ, good mental composition,” Chris said. But I thought he made it up.
“Without having any education in her life, will she just know everything?” I questioned.
“Why do you want to have all the math, science and history there Tony; it’s a pleasure place,” Chris said.
“I’ve seen both idiotic and intellectual people laughing and having fun and pleasure. Don’t you think there’s a difference between the pleasures each category of people have? Something like idiotic pleasure and intellectual pleasure? Will all who go to heaven be like a bunch of children having fun without anything upstairs? Don’t you think the pleasure is relative?” I asked.
“Good question, difficult to answer,” Chris said.
“Do you see any relativity?” I asked.
“Yes. I understand what you mean; pleasure is relative,” Chris said.
“What happens to your age in heaven? What will happen to your intellectual capacity in heaven? Will you have an old body if you die old or will you get young bodies? Will all the people in heaven get some sort of uniforms? Have you got to change clothes? Have you got to eat and breathe? I’ve also heard about rivers of honey and delicious fruits. I hope the toilets are good and toilet paper is smooth?” I’m glad I stopped the flow of loose words spilling from my mouth without control.
“Yes, yes and yes. You will get whatever you want Tony,” Chris said.
“To be frank I wouldn’t be comfortable meeting with my father, mother and grandparents all having young faces. Especially my father and grandfather with so many virgins around them, if it’s Aini's heaven,” I said.
“Tony, are you jealous? Anyway why should you worry when you have no chance of going there?” Chris had a verbal punch at me again. I didn’t get a chance to respond, as Aini was about to say something.
"You may not have heard this, but the Quran sets the age of responsibility at 40; that's the age of full maturity. So all of us may come under the category of children and definitely end up in heaven," Aini said.
"Is that right? Fantastic! I didn't know that?" Chris said. "Hey, Tony you still have a chance."
“Chris that may be the reason why Jesus Christ went to heaven, he was only 33 when he died,” I said this casually and wondered whether I had been insensitive to Chris. I shouldn't have said that. Chris laughed but didn’t say anything.
“Aini, what good will you have when you find all the male folks are hanging around the virgins,” Dan asked.
“I’ve heard there are various verses in the Quran regarding the rewards for women. Some are interpreted negatively. But I go with the positive interpretation that all men and women will be rewarded based on their deeds,” Aini said.
All of a sudden there was a glow on the flexi-bubble. I immediately thought of a possible addition to the flexi-bubble. I looked around to see what was going on. It was the first few rays of the rising sun coming from the eastern horizon. We didn’t even feel the last 6 hours go by. None of us including Sara and Lily felt sleepy, hungry or tired. “Those were obvious needs of physical bodies that were not required for the life form we were in,” I thought.
“Good morning!” I said to the others who were gazing at the beautiful view of the rising sun that displaced our conversation.
“Good morning!”
“Uncle Tony, the sun is very, very big and red,” Sara said. Nothing came out of my mouth as I had mixed feelings about Sara. I touched her head. The feeling I got was quite different to the feeling I usually get. Throughout the night she was playing with Lily. Lily’s behavior was quite different too. However, Lily and Sara kept each other fully occupied. That was a big plus.
We could hear birds singing. The singing seemed to turn into competitions with many more birds joining. Being a naturalist it was a peak moment of my life. I wondered why I didn’t enjoy the songs so much in my real life. With the sun coming up we saw the bedroom and kitchen lights in houses lighting up. People and traffic kept filling the roads little by little. A few hours passed and the streets became busy.
I noticed that, Aini had got excited as she identified her parent’s car entering the hospital car park. Four people got down from the car. Aini identified them as her uncle, aunt and her parents. We couldn’t see them after they entered through the hospital’s main door. It would have been around 7 am.
“According to my religion the burial has to happen as soon as possible, within 24 hours or so. I’m pretty sure my parents are trying to do that,” Aini said.
“Do you think your parents will bury your body in this town or take it back to our home town?” I asked.
“My parents like to stick to Muslim traditions. So, they’ll try to bury it in this town to meet the time constraint. We’ll find out pretty soon,” Aini said.
Aini also recognized more of her relatives coming to the hospital. Chris’s parents came to the hospital too. I thought I might see my sister, if she had got the news and decided to drive through the night. In Dan’s case only his mother was living and he wondered who would come to sort things out. He didn’t expect his mother to come since she had health issues.
Though we occasionally looked at each other, we were back to our dead silent mode again. Everyone was looking outside, expecting to see more people they knew coming to the hospital. We didn’t know what was going on inside the hospital.
After a few hours, we saw a long, black funeral hearse leaving the mortuary. We were sure it was carrying Aini’s body as all the vehicles Aini identified as her relatives’ started following the hearse. We watched all the cars until the last vehicle drove past our location. The flexi-bubble was not moving. Aini and Chris were particularly disappointed about the flexi-bubble not following the hearse. About 15 minutes later I saw my sister and brother-in-law coming to the hospital. I didn’t see their car but I saw them walking towards the main entrance of the hospital building. Dan was worried as he didn’t see anyone he knew come to the hospital. Dan was the only child
in his family, like Aini.
Suddenly, the flexi-bubble started moving. It went up first and then started moving eastward. It was moving away from our home town.
“Any idea, as to where it’s going?” Chris asked, interrupting a very long silence.
“No. We’ll know pretty soon,” I said.
Within seconds we could see a gathering at a faraway place in the direction the flexi-bubble was heading. We saw about twenty people at that beautiful green landscape. The patchy brown spots we saw through the few trees, indicated it was a burial place.
The flexi-bubble stopped a few feet away from the gathering. It was the burial set up for Aini. The gathering included Aini’s parents, Chris’s parents, close friends and relatives. Her body was at the center covered with a white cloth. Upon closer observation we realized Sara’s body was next to hers. There was a freshly dug grave close to the coffin. The grave was larger than usual. After recognizing her grandparents, Sara was busy asking questions from both Aini and Chris. Aini was continuously answering Sara’s questions and was speaking softly to Chris. Sara probably knew there was no way of getting into the arms of her grandparents; the first thing she usually does at every opportunity. I thought her grandparents would have agreed on Sara’s burial with Aini. Lily had to be controlled as she started barking after recognizing Aini's parents.
According to what Aini explained about the destinies of souls a while ago, I wondered whether Aini and Sara would disappear from the flexi-bubble at any moment to get back to their bodies when the burial took place. That would be sad. A few minutes later a person addressed the gathering. I assumed he was the prayer leader as he started chanting prayers. He stood before the bodies, facing away from the assembly of mourners. After a few minutes the few women who were there moved back separating out from the crowd. Aini and Sara’s coffins were moved to the grave by the men who were there. Both bodies were carefully laid down in the grave.
According to Muslim custom, I knew that the right side of her face would be turned towards Mecca. A person got into the grave and did something to the bodies. That must be it. The grave was filled with soil one shovel load at a time. I didn’t see any flowers laid on the grave after it was filled.
Contrary to what Aini told us that the soul would go back to its body at burial, Aini and Sara were still with us. I thought that was definitely a big consolation to Chris and to all of us, as we needed the company. We were not sure what would happen to them or us at any moment. Every second was a tense moment.
The mourners started to disperse one by one after expressing their final condolences to Aini’s and Chris’s parents. They were the last to leave the burial grounds. We were looking at their cars departing until we lost sight of them.
We hugged Aini for a moment to show our affection.
“Aini, are you OK?” Dan asked. Aini said, “Yes.”
“After all, you are still here. Your soul and Sara’s didn’t end up in the grave contrary to what you explained to us before. Is that good or bad?” Dan asked.
“I am happy to be here as a family. That must be the intention of God,” Aini said.
“It’s good to hear you are happy,” Dan said.
It would have been around noon, I thought. We were still there long after all the cars had left. There was no sign of the flexi-bubble moving to a different location. We knew we couldn’t control it. A few times Chris asked his general question “What’s going to happen next?” But nobody could answer. The situation was gloomy. The only bright thing among us was the bright scorching sun right above us. I wondered why we were not getting burnt or feeling the warmth of the sun.
“Hey! We have been fully exposed to the sun for more than 5 hours, but we didn’t feel warm or don’t seems to be getting sun burns. Any reason, you can think of?” I asked an open question.
“Tony, we’re dead and don’t have any physical sensors anymore,” Dan said.
“It is really due to that, but there can be another reason,” Chris’s tone was such I knew he had a technical answer.
“What’s the other reason?” Dan asked immediately.
“Have you ever thought about why the glass is transparent?” Chris asked. He saw our clueless looking faces and described his question further. “Glass is solid and made of silica. The silica atoms are closely packed to make glass. But we see glass as transparent material. Are the atoms transparent?”
“I haven’t really thought about glass as compacted atoms before. You said that question has some relevance to why we don’t feel the warmth, right? It’s puzzling,” Aini responded.
“Is it because the glass is considered as a highly viscous liquid?” Dan asked.
“No. That’s not the answer,” Chris said.
“Come on! Chris, what is the answer?” I begged.
“I can explain, but you won’t be able to understand with your half brain Tony,” Chris and the others had their mild fun at my expense before he started explaining. “What we call light is actually a part of the whole spectrum of energies called the electromagnetic spectrum which covers radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and even radioactive rays. When an energy beam hits a material either it gets reflected or absorbed. Or both these can happen at the same time at varying proportions. If the energy gets absorbed, then the material changes in some way and usually gets heated. If the energy gets reflected then nothing happens to the material and the surface looks white and shiny. But in the case of glass the energy just passes through the atoms and comes out from the other side. It is a material quality associated with the molecular structure. The energy level of the light is not sufficient to make the material of glass anyway. That is why pure glass is transparent. This is not the case however with the ultra violet rays hitting glass. Glass absorbs UV rays. This is why it’s hard to get a tan via light passing through a window.”
“What has that theory got to do with us not getting warm in the flexi-bubble?” Aini asked.
“I was thinking the energy passing through a material depends on the material structure. We don’t know what the flexi-bubble is made of. So there can be something in the flexi-bubble material that prevents us from getting warm,” Chris explained.
“It’s complicated Chris,” I said.
“I knew you will not be able to understand. Take it easy Tony,” Chris said. I thought I must be more careful in selecting my words with Chris next time.
“Brilliant stuff, Chris, it is a pity that you’ll not be serving the general public anymore,” Dan said.
“Thanks Dan,”
We were back into the silent mode.
~~~