Search Engines
by Jon Jonsson
Copyright 2013 Jon Jonsson
All rights reserved
Second Edition
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0532-2
The general contact site for downloading this book, blogging, or contacting the author is: TheBookSearchEngines.wordpress.com
All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the author to reproduce any part of this book, except for quotations in critical reviews or articles.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. "Bible text from the New Century Version® is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson Publishers, Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000."
Cover artwork designed in collaboration with Oliver Rathonyi-Reusz, www.inviewimages.com
Photographs taken by Lilja Sigurdardottir and Carrie Lophusinsky.
Assistance with grammar from Carrie Lophusinsky and Janet Cosshall.
Proofreading by Blake Jason Boulerice.
This book is dedicated to the seeking hearts among us.
CHAPTER – 1. THE STARTING LINE
COME FOR A RIDE
This will not be a regular ride traveling through a typical landscape. We will venture into a fascinating territory that is hardly ever explored. On this trip, we are going on a hunt for a theme to our overall lifespan, and we will come to see whether that red thread leads us to a more assured afterlife. So dress up for an exploration that will take us to the end of the world and back.
We all live with the open-ended questions of who we are and why we are. We will travel together and look at some fascinating ideas that tackle these issues. I like to say "travel" because any kind of seeking is never static; it is always forward-moving.
Male or female, we all began this life as a sperm frantically seeking that life-giving egg. We are built from the ground up as search engines, and that drive constantly influences our journey through life. Our seeking drive is ultimately looking for the solution to the "death problem." The sperm successfully found the initial deposit, but we are now left to continue that hunt for life.
Later, the bright spotlight will be cast upon your own creation story to expose the strong pattern within it. We will study that pattern to see how it could repeat itself in your future story. Understanding the process that gave you this life will show you what it might take to give you an afterlife.
The very subject of the afterlife is a spiritual topic, and it is therefore way out of sight. For most people, a spiritual search is like walking through a foggy, mystical maze. We will approach this topic by sticking to the natural patterns established in this life. The aim is to explore freely and to leave you with very useful concepts to work with.
This book is a braided chronicle of three interweaving stories that examine the relentless searching that has taken place in human history. Searching has played a central role in my own family tribe, and it also echoes loudly in your own life pattern. The stories will then conclude with the Egg Man tale.
LANDING ON THE STAGE
I find it curious how complex and ready-made we are, yet how little we know about who made us this way. We avoid talking about it, but life happens to us much more than we would like to admit. You probably select your career very sensibly. You carefully choose your mate, your house, your car, your clothes, and your best friends. But with life itself, you just land here. That is it. You do not choose what kind of parents you have, or what kind of body you inhabit, or what sex you are. You are not given any options of what country or what century you are born in. These factors drastically shape your experience. It all gives the strong feeling that you are here on a grand trip that has been designed by someone else. And if that is the case, is there a purpose or a theme to this journey through life?
YOUR ROLE TO PLAY
In other words, you have landed here in the epicenter of the action and with no explanation whatsoever. It is like waking up in a theatre play where the acting is in full swing with lights, music, and drama. You know nothing about the many characters or the long storyline ahead of time. You are simply on the stage as soon as you can babble your first baby words. You are thrown into playing your part totally unrehearsed. Day after day, year after year, through playing your part you gradually discover who you are in this play. And with some time, you get to know your co-players pretty well. After a decade or two, you start gathering some oversight over this complex drama. With age, you even become more self-confident. But frankly speaking, it is not easy to comprehend the general storyline while the action is in full swing. When enough time has passed by, you even start questioning the purpose of this huge production. What is the whole point of this most captivating story?
THE EXIT LEADS TO WHERE?
As your confidence grows, you gradually reach the pinnacle of your life. Only there do you realize that your body is now showing its age. You come to know that your act will only last for a limited block of time. Some of the older actors are starting to disappear off the stage. One by one they exit. They simply die. Again, there is no good explanation of where they go. You will get different speculations about what happened to them. It all depends on whom you talk to at that moment. That leaves you with some lingering questions.
JUST DON'T TALK ABOUT IT
So instead of a nice exit with a fully known outcome, death stands as a stubborn question mark. It leaves most people devastated and dumbfounded. Death has abruptly taken our friends and relatives, but it provides no solid answers about their present existence. This becomes something we are not comfortable talking about. The "death problem" is the issue we then try to ignore, simply because it mystifies us. We are then left with the only option of getting some answers about the afterlife from various spiritual sources.
THE LARGE GROUP SEARCH
The human spiritual quest is not as deeply personal as we make it out to be. Searching is a large group effort. You are born into a storyline of strong ideas that prevail in your area at the time of your upbringing. For example, if you are born in Russia in 1949, then you are part of the experiment of Atheistic Communism. Or if you are born in Burma in 1970, then you are born into the Buddhist philosophy of seeing the world. Or if you are born in Saudi Arabia today, then you become part of that mindset and view the whole world accordingly. We are groups of seekers using the surrounding material that life provides in our immediate circle. Most of this surrounding spiritual material is old and colored by the local culture from which it came. Spiritual books use their native languages and local philosophies. For example, the concept of the afterlife is called by countless names around the globe. Some groups call it Heaven, others Paradise, and others Valhalla, Nirvana, Eternity, Afterlife, or even Shangri-La. I will try to simplify spiritual terminology by mainly calling it the "next life."
WHY IS OUR FUTURE NOT OBVIOUS?
In this age of information and exploration in every field, we should have figured out our human destiny. Humans have ingeniously solved the most pressing problems. We know the invisible causes of many diseases. We can fly to the Moon and back. If we set our minds to it, we can quickly