Notes On Cheating Death
© Copyright 1999 by John L. Waters.
All Rights Reserved
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February 28, 1999
1. When we first studied numbers and arithmetic, we looked at pictures showing a
number of apples, and a number of oranges and a number of circles or squares. We first
learned to add and subtract a number of apples from a larger number of apples. Later we
learned to cut a single apple into fractions of an apple. By third and fourth grade we were
done with apples and oranges. We were just working with cyphers. Later, we ate lunch.
2. A few students go on in mathematics and study the theory of numbers, points, lines,
areas, and spaces of higher dimensions. The use of this study might not be clear. But
mathematical studies produce formulas, and the laws of chemistry and physics are
expressed by certain mathematical formulas. Without these formulas, a computer or
calculator can’t do the calculations needed to finish the plan for an engine, or a spaceship,
or a skyscraper, or a petroleum distillery. Our civilization depends upon mathematics
100%.
3. As children we learned the alphabet, and the whole numbers. We were taught to think
in a linear sequence A,B,C,D,E, and so on to Z, and 1,2,3,4,5, as high as you want to
count. We formed a line at the cafeteria and at the jump rope. The idea of “next” person,
“next” letter and “next” number was ingrained in our thinking. But on the number line,
that is, on the “continuum”, there is no “next” point or number.
4. To understand this, so that you don’t just accept my word for it “on faith”, you can
study number theory and “analysis” as the mathematicians call it. This isn’t an easy
subject, because it’s very precise, very detailed, and some results are counter-intuitive.
And this knowledge seems to have a very limited use.
5. There is no next number after the number one, because if for example you choose the
number one and one tenth, that is 1.1 as the next number, then there is 1.09 which is
closer to the number one than the number 1.1 is. If you give me any number, say the
number 1+x, where x is a very very tiny number, I can just give you the even smaller
number 1+x/2 which is closer to or “more next” to the number one than the number you
gave me. So you can’t give me any number that is actually “next” to the number one.
This argument can be applied to any number point on the number line.
6. If we give up the idea of “next”, we are in a realm distinct from ordinary letters and
words in a sequence. A numeral is just a kind of word. In our mind liberated from
sequential thinking we’ve given up Aristotle’s logical antecedent and consequent. We’re
functioning at the preverbal level or our speech is garbled. Other people can’t follow our
reasoning. So to get along with cultured adults, we don’t give up the idea of “next”. And
some of the conclusions of “higher mathematics” don’t seem real to us.
7. The situation here is complicated by the fact that to “prove” an idea, the
mathematicians use logical-verbal reasoning. And so logical reasoning conspires against
itself to give us the result that there is no “next” number, and that in the realm of the
continuum, the rules of antecedent and consequent don’t apply. There is no before and
after. There is no higher and lower. There is no ordering of discrete units. There is no
first and last. Human imagination alone imposes the linear order, and the set boundaries.
8. Please keep in mind that we’re talking only in terms of the continuum, which is a purely
mathematical construct defined in terms of numbers and number points. This is a realm
beyond the ability of a physical apparatus to measure and sense. Scientists use
mathematical formulas, but a scientist doesn’t forsake his logical, ordered thinking, except
when he is excited, perplexed, and confused, and he has to be more creative to solve a
difficult problem.
9. In any line of reasoning, along the steps of logical thinking there can be extenuating
circumstances which produce an unexpected result and baffle the scientist. These
“anomalies” are often disregarded because they don’t fit the theory. But a more creative
scientist may arrive at a new theory which explains the anomalies. The new theory isn’t
arrived at by logic alone. And scientists can’t predict what the “next” theory will be.
10. Explaining the “higher”, “creative” mind is explaining the “genius”. Past “geniuses”
were called “gods” or “messengers from God” because no one had a better theory of
“inspiration”. The result was and is, that “the continuum” studied by theoretical
mathematicians isn’t a widely studied subject. It’s not really all that difficult a subject, not
if it “explains the divine”. That kind of “inspired” and “healing” consciousness has never
been clearly explained before.
11. When you were little, you didn’t think about what’s “next”. You weren’t conscious
of antecedent and consequent. You were happy and carefree. Growing up you learned to
use letters, words, and numerals in sequences which are meaningful to cultured people.
And to feel more free you got drunk or you did something else wild, foolish, and risky.
You lived a bipolar existence, with a wide swing to the verbal, linear, numerical, sensible
and logical, followed by a wild swing to the other extreme, which was a battle or a wild
ride or some other spree into the realm of experimental eating, gambling, sex, or drugs.
12. The optimal functioning, which is actually at a steadier and higher energy, involves a
more steady, more monotonous diet and better waste removal from the brain. But no one
showed you this way because no one understood it well enough to both (1) argue cogently
and (2) actually show you by example.
13. It’s also true that familiar adults impress children, and so children want to grow up
and think, feel, and act like familiar adults. And since adults do so many exciting things,
and try to feel good by smoking and drinking and taking various concoctions, children
take all these practices for granted and want to do these things as they grow older. And
human brains develop rapidly, so by age ten a child already knows what is “right” and
“proper”. Certainly very few ten year olds have studied the “higher math” and become
familiar with many “geniuses”! Besides, this subject is not yet common knowledge.
14. Very few grownups, even today, know how to eat what’s best and do what’s best so
that they can balance and integrate their minds, brains, and bodies as well as is humanly
possible. But for some adults, chronic ill health makes the more integrated and more
balanced way necessary for further personal survival. Because dying isn’t an easy, safe, or
pleasant way to live.
15. And even if the thrifty, healthy man is boring to persons who are used to the fast and
the trendy life, for him it is better to be alive than dead.
(contributor: John L. Waters)
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