CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. MY STRUGGLE AND MY PATHWAY TO ENLIGHTENMENT.
When I was four years old, my father took me to the barbers for the first time. He said “This is your Uncle Timmy. He’s going to cut your hair.” (“Uncle” Timmy was not actually my uncle. My father referred to everyone as being my “uncle” – the local butcher, the local greengrocer etc. They were all “Uncle”.) I looked up at “Uncle” Timmy, and he looked down at me. He said “Hello Sonny. And what do you want to be when you grow up?” I looked up at “Uncle” Timmy and replied “I want to be a philosopher.” I was four years old!
From an early age, even as a child, I had a notion that I was “supposed” to make some “cosmic” discovery and convey this discovery to the species Homo Sapiens. Gradually it became clear to me that this “cosmic discovery” involved the movements of the planets. This notion progressed to the point where I became convinced that some sort of “synchronization” of planetary movements was involved.
As an adult, I “shelved” this notion in order to prosecute “business”. Nevertheless, it was always in the back of my mind, as a deferred project. When opportunity presented itself, I would look in astronomy books to try and find the various time periods pertaining to the planets; but most astronomy books provided incomplete or inaccurate astronomical numerical data.
The question is:- How is it possible for a “notion” of the synchronisation of planetary movements to enter the mind of a child, and to “guide” that child’s actions towards an unremitting search for astronomical numerical data? I have a sense that I was born with a “destiny”, and that I would be “guided” in my search towards “fulfilment” of that “destiny”.
Researchers often refer to a phenomenon known as “The Library Angel”. If you are looking for a specific piece of data in a large library, you can search fruitlessly for hours; and when you have given up hope, you open a randomly chosen volume at a randomly chosen page, and, to your absolute amazement, there is the item you have been searching for, staring you in the face! Most researchers are familiar with The Library Angel.
By a series of truly incredible strokes of good fortune, and with the assistance of a whole host of “Library Angels”, I have been “guided” to gather together the necessary data to write this present book. Here is just one example of “The Library Angel” at work:- I had already started writing this present book. I had already collected together various examples of the number EIGHT in The Cosmos. I went out for my usual brisk walk (to maintain cardiovascular fitness), and found myself passing a bookshop. I always tend to browse the bookstall outside a bookshop, so I stopped to browse. I noticed a copy of the book Why Beauty is Truth. A History of Symmetry, by Professor Ian Stewart (Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at The University of Warwick). I leafed through it, and then put it down. I walked away from the bookshop. Then “something” stopped me. I retraced my steps. “Something” was “telling” me to take a closer look at this book, and that it might hold material important for my project. When I got back to the bookshop, another browser was leafing through this book. I was thinking – “Please – please don’t take this book!” The browser put the book down, and I grabbed it off the stall. I looked in the index for “Octets”, “Octave” etc. I came across OCTONIONS. I have incorporated “octonions” into this present book as a further manifestation of the number EIGHT in the structure of The Cosmos. The point that I am making is that I have been “guided” in my search for the relevant data and material for this present book by a “host” (or “flock”) of “Library Angels”. The point that I am making is that I was born with a “destiny”. This “destiny” is to impart this cosmic revelation to the species Homo Sapiens. I do not have a choice in the matter. There is only one single road for me to take. There are no forks in the road or crossroads. There are no turning points on this road. The UK Ex-Prime-Minister Margaret Thatcher was asked what is the most important quality for success. She replied “persistence”. (Not that I agree with her politics. I don’t!) The fact is that I have been “persistent” in gathering the material for this present book over the last thirty years; but I did not have a choice in the matter. If you are born with a “destiny”, then you HAVE to work unceasingly towards the “fulfilment” of that “destiny”. You don’t have a choice. I am happy with that; but sometimes I regret all the TV programs I have been missing!