“Parallel universe theory…” (brought to you by pain and pocket) Pain and I were talking a few nights ago, when we stumbled upon a truth.. (isn’t that how all great “discoveries” happen? By accident?) it’s one of those things that will require an open mind to accept it and to fully understand it.. and I’m sure there are some that will think of this as a bunch of airy hogwash.. but that’s okay too.. because I know the truth when I feel it.. and the truth is as follows: The conversation started w/us talking about icq.. and how our dialogue histories are like digital diaries of all our thoughts, concerns, actions, and interactions w/one another.. it’s actually “life taking place in the written word,” typos and all.. in real time. (I’m just going to paraphrase pain and my conversation here.. so.. some of the ideas are fr/him, and some fr/me.. but it doesn’t really matter.. because we were tapping into the same thing anyway.) When friends are on icq.. good friends, not just acquaintances, most of the time it’s pure.. like just the soul speaking, be it true feelings, or complete lunacy. Some of my purest and deepest friendships are actually online. We bare all, w/out any of the normal social distractions we fall victim to in the physical world. There are no prejudices here such as looks, money, the way people dress, the way they wear their hair, what clothes they wear, what kind of car they drive, how much money they have, how nice their home is, what they do for a living.. and on, and on, and on.. the list of prejudices we exercise in the physical world on a daily basis is endless really.. although it’s largely unintentional.. we can’t help it. But none of these exist online.. in icq. Here, we shake free of our bodies and our physical world.. and we let our souls speak. We’ve each told close digital friends things that we would never tell our friends in the real world, things that in the physical world, our defense mechanisms would prevent us from being that open w/one another.. but here it’s pure… It’s weird, like “ghost in the machine”… only it’s like a collective unconscious thing that is growing and has a life of its own. We have given birth, via the internet, to a whole new collective unconscious. There is a collective unconscious out there.. somewhere, everywhere, in the universe.. that drifts through and touches us all.. we all tap fr/it now and then.. we all contribute to it.. and it connects each and every one of us.. it’s the magic of life.. but here.. on the internet.. in icq.. we’ve created a whole new, condensed collective unconscious.. and this is what gives us the freedom to be ourselves here.. this is what gives us this feeling of security, that allows us to bond so deeply and so quickly w/our friends online. It’s an infant, I can feel that, but it is very, very powerful. And we have created it.. us.. man. It’s our creation, but it exists on its own, it lives, it breathes, it grows.. If there was ever a real world example of Carl Jung’s collective unconscious theory, this is it! And, although I’m sharing this in a public forum.. both pain and I agree that we have something special in our clan.. no one else has the “magic” that we do… I am not alone in saying that you guys are more than just my friends.. you guys are my digital family. I love you guys beyond ut.. beyond any structuralized game or sport.. we are a family.. and what makes us special is realizing this, and being able to value it for what it’s worth.. we’ve been given a gift. And the beauty of it all.. is that we still get our real lives, all the beauty, joys, pleasures and heartaches of the real world. We have created a parallel universe here.. that is very real. It is every bit as real as the universe in the outside world.. only, it’s pure.. w/out the physical. A parallel universe, we’re living two lives at once.. we are able to jump fr/one universe to the next at our whim. pocket: “but is that cheating? It sounds like we’ve messed something up, or we’re getting away w/something we’re not supposed to.. we’ve surpassed the “original” plan.” Pain: “no, it’s not cheating, time is different here as well.. it’s like we are in hyper time, or some other weird definition of time.. most of us have only known each other a little over a year, but we are so close. I think the “original plan” is constantly evolving and the original plan changed a long time ago..” pocket: “yeah, it did.. but I think we really surprised ‘em w/this one.” Pain: “to be honest, if everyone could experience this wonderful parallel universe, this place where you could speak your mind, and it doesn’t matter what color you are, what you look like, your disabilities.. nothing matters but your mind and your soul.. truly a universe w/out prejudices.. imagine how things could change.” pocket: “yeah, it would be like heaven.. maybe we’re practicing for perfection.. emotional perfection.” Hehe.. well.. there ya go.. that’s pain and I when we get our “groove” on.. we discovered the existence of the condensed collective online unconscious, and the creation of our own parallel universe. Any thoughts?