The Search For Balance

So last night, I was stupid, and watched a freaky movie -- alone, in the dark. Most people I know had said that the movie sucked, so I didn't think it would get to me... oops. White Noise, a flick aobut EVP, would not, I admit, have been scary except for the fact that I do happen to believe in EVP. If I didn't believe in it, there is no way that I would have been the least bit affected by the film.

EVP, or Electronic Voice Phenomena, is basically the practice of recording the voices of the dead. If you want more info about it, go to The American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena's website . The concept is a little complicated for me to fully explain here. Suffice it to say that EVP is considered by many to be proof that ghosts exist, and is used as a way to communicate with them. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a bunch of BS, but really... its not. At least, I don't think so.

Yeah, logical me, believes in ghosts -- after a fashion anyway.

Thing is, I have my own personal belief system, and ghosts (spirits, whatever) happen to fit into it quite well. See, I don't believe in a personified god. God, to me, is just a word that people have used to describe a concept that is beyond human understanding. God is not a he, or a she, but a state of being, a level of understanding... but most of all, to me, god is balance. You know the ying yang symbol yes? Thats how I envision god. The ultimate perfection of balance between good and evil, between light and dark, between negative and positive, between male and female...

If you look at the world, it is constantly struggling for balance. Population struggles to maintain a balance with resources. Day and night struggle against each other to maintain balance. And if you look closer, you can see the struggle for balance in each and every event on the face of the planet. For every action that has a good outcome, that same action has a bad outcome as well. Take, for example, the simple act of picking up litter, and putting it in the trash. This is a good thing, yes, because it keeps the streets clean... but... its also a bad thing, because now that piece of trash is going to end up in a landfill, adding to the unending volume of waste we have to figure out something to do with. If that piece of trash had been left in the street, perhaps nature would have taken care of it... but you really can't say for sure can you.

Another example -- tsunamis. Yeah, these are a horrible disaster for humans. Hundreds of thousands die, property is lost, damaged, or destroyed... but... (and I hate to take such a cold calculating stance here) it decreases the ever growing overcrowded population, and it recycles land and resources, bringing about new opportunities for life to flourish. Volcanic erruptions are the same way. Yes, people die, yes property is destroyed. But the land that is left behind is more fertile, fresh, new, ready to support life...

You see, everything has two sides, and those two sides are in constant struggle to maintain balance.

How does all that have anything to do with ghosts? Alright... So I don't believe in heaven or hell, per se'. I do believe theres an afterlife of some sort, but I'm smart enough to admit that I have no clue what it is. My theory is that, people, just like nature, are in constant struggle to maintain a personal balance. Those people who fail, who's "souls" (no other word for it, sorry) fall out of balance, they stay here, searching for that balance even after death... Maybe finding that balance (and balance is a poor word really, but its the only one I can really identify with... or maybe wholeness... but balance is better somehow) is as simple as making sure that a loved one knows they are loved... Maybe its more complicated, maybe the soul is so unbalanced that it refuses to accept that its not alive anymore, that it feels it needs to keep hold of its territory (a house, a car, an area of land)... or maybe its thrown out of balance by something that the living do... like say, building tract homes on native american burial grounds. I don't know... obviously... because I've never been dead, nor have I been a ghost... so... this is all just speculation. But its what seems the most plausable to me. I mean, I've known too many people who've had run ins with "ghosts" to just say "nah, they don't exist". So this is my explanation... and why I do believe in EVP.

And yes... as always... I am still searching for my own balance. If I don't find it, I'll leave all y'all a voicemail from the grave saying so *wink wink*