The Highway

A Metaphysical Exploration Of Life

Silvanus S-gar Prince

Outline
Introduction The Individual Minds, Bodies & Souls The Path Choices & Constraints Autrui & Lanes On Ramps, Off Ramps & Paths Not Taken Rest Stops Towers Communication Inorganics, Vegetables & Animals Rationals, Spirits & The bermensche The End Of The Road?

The Highway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Individual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Minds, Bodies & Souls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Choices And Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Autrui & Lanes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 On Ramps, Off Ramps & Paths Not Taken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

The Highway
Introduction Following the path as it leads toward The darkness in the north Weary strangers' faces show their sympathy They've seen that hope before And if you want to stay for a little bit Rest your aching limbs for a little bit Before you the night is beckoning And you know you can't delay You hear the night birds calling you But you can't catch the words they say Close your aching eyes, be on your way Mist is swirling, creatures crawling Hear the roar get louder in your ears You know the folly was your own But the force behind can't conquer all your fears And if you want to stay for a little bit Rest your aching limbs for a little bit Before you the night is beckoning And you know you can't delay You hear the night birds calling you But you can't catch the words they say Close your aging eyes, be on your way Throw your thoughts back many years To the time when there was life with every morning Perhaps a day will come when the light will be as clear as on that morning And if you want to stay for a little bit Rest your aching limbs for a little bit Before you the night is beckoning And you know you can't delay You hear the night birds calling you But you can't catch the words they say Close your ancient eyes, be on your way The Narrow Way, Part III Pink Floyd

Many years ago I tried to formulate my thoughts on Existence into the framework of a metaphor which could help others understand my peculiar world view & the odd philosophy I pouse. What I came up with, at the time, seemed simple & very illustrative. However the more I think about it & the more I expand on the metaphor as my own personal philosophy & understanding of human existence grows - the more complex my simple metaphor becomes. As such, the metaphor itself has expanded & I know feel the need to explain it in writing (as vocalizing this metaphor has become somewhat tedious) in order to perhaps clarify my thoughts - not only for others, but also for myself. As some of you might know, I am an Individualist. I Believe that each & every Creature within Creation is a separate & free entity with the ability to Choose their own Fate. I also think that we are all here for some Purpose - Individually & Collectively. Each Individual goes through life making Choices which help them progress closer to fulfilling this Purpose, staying stagnant or possibly even regressing backwards away from this Purpose. This ongoing progression, stagnation or regression is what I term an Individuals Life Path. We all have a single Path to follow - one which is our very own - which will ultimately lead us to fulfilling our Individual Purpose. When you think about all the billions of Individuals - tho there are probably more that have existed, do exist & will exist within Creation, you begin to see that there are also billions & billions of Lifes Paths all starting somewhere & leading to an ultimate Collective Purpose. It is this collection of Lifes Paths that I call The Highway - because ultimately all our Paths lead to the same goal: fulfilling the Purpose of Creation. Yet there necessarily are billions & billions of different ways to get there because there are billions & billions of Creatures who all have Individual Life Paths to follow. Years ago when I first began to talk about The Highway, I described it as the biggest freeway you could conceive of. On this freeway were billions & billions of lanes with billions & billions of Individuals traveling along at different speeds. Sometimes, travelers travel forwards. Sometimes they travel backwards. And other times still they are stopped & seem to be stuck, unable to move. Along the way there are rest stops accessed by onramps & off-ramps where these innumerable travelers could pull over & refresh themselves from time to time as was needed. These rest stops were meeting places where travelers could exchange ideas with other travelers & maybe get directions or information on the road ahead. Also on this highway one could look around & see other travelers in their own lanes & if one wanted to, one could converse with them. Perhaps one might speak of what one had experienced on the road thus-far. Perhaps one could ask questions about the road ahead (if these other travelers where farther along). It is by talking with other travelers that one is able to help them move forward at a higher speed, get unstuck or even turn around & resume going in the proper direction. Indeed, also through these conversations, these same benefits are also available to us. As you can plainly see, this rudimentary Highway metaphor is rather simplistic - tho

interesting. Since first explaining myself in this way, I have learned a great deal about myself, life & how things seem to work. I have since been forced to add to this simple metaphor to encompass more of my own thoughts, address some issues that arise from this metaphorical framework & help me explain some vagueness & inconsistency inherent within the metaphor itself (& indeed - within my Metaphysic as a whole). What then follows are the complications I alluded to above. I hope these additional thoughts help make The Highway a more practical & a more universal metaphor that may perhaps aid others in their own understanding of my odd world view. I also hope that I am able to address some of the problems this metaphor raises. And perhaps, these thoughts & this metaphor might instill some new thoughts in others to help them in their own journey along their own Individual Path. (May 21, 2010) The Individual For me, the most fascinating thing about existence is that there are countless Beings who have existed, who do exist & who will one day exist. This simple thought allows us all to contemplate one very interesting thing - that there is limitless Possibility waiting to be Actualized. Now what do I mean when I talk about Possibility & Actuality? Simply put, anything that an Individual does experience or think at a given moment of time/space is Actual. Anything that an Individual might experience or might think at any given moment of time/space is a Possibility. The movement from Possibility to Actuality is what moves everything in existence from one place to another. It is this Actualization that we all use as Individuals to Progress or Regress along our Lifes Path. When we make the Possible Actual we are moving ourselves & existence as a whole. But what is the mechanism we use to Actualize Possibility? How do we go from a hope, a dream or an idea & make it real? Through Choice. Individual Choice is the most powerful ability that Individuals possess. (May 22, 2010) It is the enactment of our Authority in order to transform the Possible into the Actual. But I will go into greater detail regarding Choice in a future chapter. What concerns us right now is the Individual. What are we talking about when we speak of Individuals? What is an Individual & how do you separate one Individual from another? Simply put, an Individual is a singular Being that exists within the framework of Existence. Most often, the Individual is the Subject of Enquiry in Philosophical meditations - tho, Groups of Individuals may also be Subjects of Enquiry. But even in the instance of Group Enquiries, the fundamental unit that Philosophers are interested in are Individual Beings. By scrutinizing the Individual, the Philosopher searches for things that are Particular to that Individual as well as things that may be Universal to all Individuals. The Philosopher also searches for varying degrees of Particularity as may be applied to Groups of Individuals. A very old Logical Syllogism demonstrates this concept nicely: All Men are

Mortal. Socrates is a Man. Therefor, Socrates is Mortal. When we look at the first premise of this Syllogism we get a Universal statement that all Beings who belong to the Group Men are Mortal. The second premise is a particular statement in that we are told that Socrates belongs to the Group Man. The synthesis is then obvious to all in that we bring together the attribute of the Group (i.e. that all Men are Mortal) & then apply this attribute to the Individual (i.e. Socrates). It is also Possible to induce Group attributes from Individuals. For example, one could say that Jim is 6'0" tall; that Charles is 6'2" tall; that Wayne is 6'1" tall; that Pat is 6'6" tall; & that Mike is 6'4" tall. All five of these men are members of the Tigers hockey team. We can then induce the following from this information: that members of the Tigers hockey team are all over six feet tall. We have therefor demonstrated that the Individual is usually at the heart of the Philosophical Enquiry. But how do we separate one Individual from another - especially when we are looking at Groups? What is it, then, that makes the Individual unique from her peers? Some of the obvious signs of Individuality are physical. When you have two Individuals next to one another it is often easy to separate them on account of their physical characteristics. For example, Humans have a variety of physical attributes that differ from Individual to Individual. Height, Weight, Hair Colour, Eye Colour, Gender & Body Shape are some of the primary characteristics that we use to distinguish one Human from another. But on a more technical level, finger prints & DNA are able to give us definitive separations between Individuals. Another area of Individuality is found within an Individuals psyche. Ones emotions, experiences (memories), academic learning & general mental condition helps differentiate one Individual from another. Obviously this means of separation is far easier to measure in Humans then it is in other Creatures, but the same principal applies to all Beings - even those that are unable to express themselves to us. At the very least, amongst Animals it is Possible to measure these sorts of Mental Characteristics to some degree. For example, Domesticated Cats are generally playful, curious and somewhat egotistical. Whereas Domesticated Dogs are loyal, protective, playful and often very social. Even amongst Individual Animals of the same species it is Possible to note differences in Personality & other Mental Characteristics. However, ultimately every Individual is different on a Spiritual level. The ancient Greek Philosophers & many after them often spoke of the composition of Creatures. That Creatures within Creation are comprised of Material (a Body), an Intelligence (the Mind) & a Form (the Soul). I will expand upon this idea in the next chapter, but for now let us look at the final piece of this existential equation, namely the Soul. If indeed every Creature has a Soul, then it follows that every Individual Soul is different as ones Soul is ones Form. What I mean by this is that our Soul is the True Image of what we are & that when it merges with Matter (a Body) it then exerts this Image upon that Body. Everything that we are, that we have been & that one day we might Possibly become is present within our Soul. As such, each and every Soul is fundamentally different from all the others as

each & every Creature is fundamentally different from all the others. Therefor, it is Possible to determine Individual separation from an Individuals Spirit. So why is this idea of Individuality so important? Why is there this need to demonstrate that every Creature is indeed separate & unique? The answer is quite simple, for if one is not able to demonstrate the basic unit one must measure within a formula, one is then unable to demonstrate the Validity of the formula itself. Let me explain this in another way, if one is attempting to describe an Apple to someone yet the only characteristics one has Knowledge of are those general characteristics of Fruit, the person one is attempting to describe an Apple to will Believe that all Fruits are Apples - when this is clearly not the case. The importance of demonstrating the most Particular unit Possible is necessary because of this. If we are to speak of Socrates then we must understand what makes Socrates different from other Men. Minds, Bodies & Souls In the previous chapter regarding Individuals, I touched briefly upon the idea of the composition of Creatures. It is my intention to develop this idea further within this current chapter in order to demonstrate how this idea of Mind, Body & Soul effects the processes in which the Individual attempts to progress along their Existential Path. Throughout the millennia in which Mankind has contemplated himself & his existence, the concept of the composition of Creatures has been raised in many forms. Some have spoken on the unity of an Individual Creature - meaning that there is no specific separation between our Minds, Bodies & Spirits. Others have dismissed the very idea of the Spirit & insist that we exist solely as Minds within Bodies. However, I am one who agrees with those who propose that we are indeed made up of Mind, Body & Soul. For me, all three are existentially obvious & necessary on this plane. I dont Believe there are many who dismiss the existence of the Body for it is our Physical manifestation which is so much a part of us that it is hard to contemplate not having a Body (tho, many have pursued that very notion for various reasons). Besides disproving the probability of Descartes Evil Demon scenario, there is little value in discussing the Possibility that we do not have Bodies while on this Plane of Existence. As such, I will move onward to the two areas which are far more controversial. (May 25, 2010) The Mind, for me, is the repository of both our Intelligence & our Mortal Memory. Intelligence itself is not a complex notion for many to understand. It simply is our capacity to reason & react to perceptual (experiential) & academic (intellectual) data. By reacting, I also count our emotional response as this capacity does have its own influence within our reasoning & may effect how our Intelligence interacts with the information it is given. On the other hand, the term Mortal Memory is something I have devised & does require some explanation. What I mean by Mortal Memory is our capacity to store experiential & intellectual memories. I deem this capacity Mortal because our Memory, which is part

of our Intelligence, is sometimes fallible. It is often demonstrated by Psychologists & Epistemologists that the accuracy of our Memory seems to get worse as time passes from the moment which is being remembered. Our Memories seem to decline over time in some areas, yet in other areas they remain clear & exact. Science & Epistemology have not yet been able to discover an exact reason for this or how this process of memorial deterioration may be consistently slowed or reversed. I contend that our Minds are a separate capacity from our Bodies in that our Intelligence functions differently then our Bodies. Yes it is thought that our Intelligence rests within our brains - which are a physical part of our Bodies - & that our brains interact with our Body thru electric pulses. But deep down the workings of the Mind are inherently different then the workings of the Body. The two act in conjunction, but they are separate mechanisms. The act of Rational thought or Emotional response does not necessarily depend on Physical stimuli. The very memory of an experience (not the experience itself) or a purely abstract intellectual thought may be contemplated or reacted to with ones Intelligence. But do I Believe our Intelligence might be separated physically from our Body & still function? No. Body & Mind function only together - apart they cease to function at all. And by function I mean being able to move along our Individual Existential Pathway. What does remain after the Body & Mind cease to function has been termed Soul by various cultures. It is this capacity that holds the blueprints - so to speak - for everything we are & everything we do. The ancient Greeks spoke of Form which gives direction & meaning to Material. Without a Form, a statue is just stone. But once a stone is given a Form by a sculptor, that stone then becomes a statue. The same is the case with Creatures. Without our Souls - our Forms - our Bodies are just Matter which then slowly deteriorates back into the earth - as evidenced by the way dead Bodies decay. It is the Soul that gives us our Life, our Form & our Meaning. Our Souls, I Believe, interact with our Bodies thru the medium of our Intelligence. But this communication is imperfect as it is very difficult to translate Spiritual thoughts & experiences into Physical thoughts & experiences. Our Minds do the best that they can - but we are always lacking in being whole, it would seem. It is this idea of a Soul that is so controversial yet so fascinating. (May 26, 2010) Many have tried to explain the very nature of our Souls in order to help us understand the innate Spirituality in all of us. From Prophets & Theologians to Philosophers & Biologists, everyone seems to have some opinion on our Soul. My own opinion is this: that our Soul is what gives us life, gives us purpose & gives us the ability to experience the entire span of Creation even beyond the limits of our Minds & Bodies. I Believe the Soul is immortal as many ancient Greeks & Christians do. My Justification for this is that I have Memories of past lives, some of which I have begun to find Physical Evidence for to support my Memories. There are many Spiritual & Cultural Traditions where the Immortality of the Soul

is one of the primary thoughts. My own cultural background does indeed have this Immortality philosophy at its heart. But beyond the Justification & the Tradition, what does having an Immortal Soul provide us with? Well, for the first part, we have a nonPhysical reservoir of experiences that we are able to tap into. We also have a nonIntellectual Memory which gives us insight into our True Selves & Creation that surrounds us. And ultimately, it allows us to carry these experiences & memories into all our Lives. Yes, indeed, I Believe in reincarnation - simply because I have Memories & Experiences of my own Past Lives that I am beginning to find external evidence for. And it is my Belief that all Creatures live multiple lives - in multiple forms. It is this ability to keep coming back to the Physical & experiencing & learning more that is the foundation of my Highway metaphor. (May 28, 2010) In fact, the Druids - the traditional philosophers & priests from my own cultural background - have a teaching regarding the necessity for reincarnation. It comes from the Welsh Triads and says: Three things that make re-birth necessary for man: His failure to obtain wisdom His failure to attain independence His clinging to the lower self Let us take a moment and look deeper at what this Triad is saying and how it relates to the Highway. What the Druids are saying, essentially, is that to overcome the endless cycle of death & re-birth, a human needs to obtain wisdom, independence & a desire to progress to a higher self. But what is meant by all of this? According to the Welsh Triads, wisdom has three virtues: Three Virtues Of Wisdom: To be aware of all things To endure all things To be removed from all things And the Welsh Triads also speak of three things that should be avoided by the Wise: Three things avoided by the Wise: Expecting the impossible Grieving over the irretrievable Fearing the inevitable

So, just like many other philosophical and theological systems, we have a simple recipe for wisdom which is often hard to attain - tho not impossible to attain. I often try to keep this recipe in mind in my day to day living. I am by no means saying that I am Wise by any stretch of the imagination - I am simply aspiring to Wisdom. At some moments, I am just as much the fool as any one else. Independence, tho easier to define, seems even harder to achieve. For me, Independence is what one would call complete Social Freedom - where one is Free to Choose any path without our Chosen Social Values & Responsibilities effecting our decisions. I will get into defining these terms in a later chapter - but essentially what I am saying is that Humans are Social Creatures & we make the majority of our decisions based on Social Values & Responsibilities that are defined by what ever Social group we belong to. My ideal Independence is achieved when the Individual makes Choices based on his or her own set of Values & Needs - and not those of his or her Social Group. Again, I will go into further detail regarding this idea in a later chapter. In my mind, however, the final requirement is the hardest to possibly achieve. And perhaps it is also the hardest to define. What is meant by lower self? How do we rise ourselves above this level in order to keep moving forward & end the cycle of death & rebirth? And once achieved, how do we maintain this state of being? These are very difficult questions and I intend on addressing them in the chapters that follow. (June 8, 2010) The Path Every journey follows some course, some way of getting from one place to another. The mechanism that allows Individuals to move from one point to another is called an Individuals Path - for every Individual is in movement, choosing to progress or to regress. Yet even when an Individual is stagnant, the Individual still finds themselves on a Path. It is this primary idea that forms the basis for my Highway Metaphor. As I explained earlier in the introduction, there are countless Individuals traveling along countless Paths. It is this collection of Paths which form the Highway. But before we get into the details of exactly how all these Individuals interact whilst traveling along their Individual Paths on this Highway - let us first explore the characteristics of a Path. For without understanding the parts that make up the whole, it is hard to understand the whole itself. On the simplest level, a Path is simply the course to be taken between two points. However, as life is far from simple & Humanity (as a Particular example) is a very complex creature - it is then obvious that this simple description will not suffice as the foundation of this Metaphor. For indeed, ultimately an Individual does move between two points when she is existing, namely the beginning of her existence & the end of her existence. But along the way she will be forced to make Choices at other points between ones ultimate beginning & ones ultimate destination. As such, an Individuals Path will traverse a series

of points, one for every Choice she will be forced to make whilst the Individual is existing. Given the number of Choices we are faced with, it is immediately apparent how many points one may find along an Individuals Path. For every Choice made, there will always be at least one road not taken which leads to a fate that will not actualize for that Individual. But there is always the possibility that after a regression, an Individual may find themselves facing a past Choice again and that they might Choose a different direction. As such, an Individuals Path does not always follow a linear direction. It may move forwards for some distance, only to move backwards for a little while and then veer off into a new direction all together. I Believe you are beginning to see how this once simple metaphor grew very complex very quickly. Up until this point we have only discussed an Individual Path. Now imagine how this complex idea of a Path built from all the points in which an Individual is faced with a Choice gets added to the idea of the Highway - an all encompassing metaphor of every Individual Path that has existed, does exist & will exist. Now, I ask you to imagine, countless Individual Paths which travel in a multitude of different directions - forward & backward; down one possible Choice or another; turning back on themselves & Choosing a direction once passed by. Now imagine that multiple Individuals may find themselves at these same Points Of Choice at the same time, facing similar Choices which might have different outcomes dependant upon where their Path is supposed to be leading them. And perhaps these different Individuals do not come to these same Points Of Choice at the same time. It is possible to conceive of different Individuals in similar situations (facing a certain Particular Choice) at different times - not only in their own Individual Path, but also in the entire span of Time. Essentially what The Highway boils down to, as a metaphor, is this: countless Points Of Choice intersected by countless Individual Paths traveling in different directions, different speeds and different times. The complexity of this Metaphor as it now stands is almost mind boggling It seems to be a great thought experiment, but how is this metaphor still helpful to those of us who are interested in finding out who we Truly are, why we are here doing what we do & where is this all heading? Well, for me at least, it has given us a framework that explicitly shows us how important and powerful our Choices Truly are and allows us to begin to understand our place in existence. (July 26, 2010) Choices And Constraints Jean Paul Sartre once pointed out that the only constraint an Individual must adhere to is her own Choices. That every moment of every day we are constantly making Choices. Choosing to wake up; Choosing to go about our daily routine; Choosing to talk to certain

people and not others; Choosing to go certain places and not others; &c We are completely Free to Choose anything and everything we could desire at every moment of our existence. But there is only one thing we can not Choose - not to Choose. Now, some might think this sounds odd or absurd, but if we stop for a moment and think about this we will see that this is not only the case - but necessary and obvious. Let us say that John is standing at the cross roads of two paths in a park. One path leads to the east and down into a valley whereas the other path leads west and up into some hills. John is faced with five Choices in this situation. He can take the road to the east and into the valley. He can take the road to the west and into the hills. He can return the way he has come. He can forge his own path. Or he could not Choose any of these possibilities and stand there not moving. Now look at this situation and see what has happened. John is faced with four possible paths to follow (east, west, back the way he came or his own path) and a final possibility of not Choosing any of these options. But if he goes with no Choosing a path - he has still made a Choice! He Chooses to stay where he is not moving. The act of not Choosing an option still is a Choice in and of itself. Alright, so what is so remarkable about this? After all, at some point John is going to have to go somewhere. He simply cant stand in one place not Choosing for the rest of his life. Well, that is the funny thing about Choices. Even when we dont make a Choice say that our abstention is simply to avoid something unpleasant we do not want to face we still have to Choose other things as well. In Johns case, hes going to have to Choose how he is going to feed himself & stay warm if he is now refusing to walk anywhere. Even when we dont Choose we still have to continue Choosing. Sartre said Our only constraint is our Freedom and this is exactly what he was getting at. But why is this seemingly obvious mechanism so important? What makes us want to sit down and contemplate how this effects Individuals moving along their Lifes Paths? When Individuals begin to look at every moment of their existence and every Choice they make as existentially important, the tendency to passively follow along as life leads us becomes harder to accept. It forces the Individual to take stock and pay attention to what is happening to her and where she Truly should be going in life. Now, indeed, this entire concept of Absolute Freedom Of Choice is rather idealistic. After all there are many constraints placed upon our Choices and action which we must adhere to in every day practical matters. Some of the most obvious ones are the Laws of Physics as well as Social Norms and Morals. We simply cannot Choose that we are able to fly and then go jump off a cliff and expect to not plummet to our death. Conversely, we cannot Choose to assault some other person and not expect to be charged under the law of the land. The idea expressed by Sartre helps us see the importance of Individual Choice in the larger scheme of our existence. But as a practical system to describe the world it falls short because of the external constraints we must abide by. Now in response, Sartre says that Individuals Choose to be constrained by external factors. This is valid to some extent with

Social Norms and Morals. We can Choose to disregard them at any time and simply suffer the consequences. But he fails to explain away how we are physically constrained at the very least by the Laws of Physics. Liebniz was one to say that we have a freedom of will and that we reflect every possibility within creation. He also said that we can only be influenced by the force of our own will and by the force of God. We can translate will to mean Choice in Sartrian Terms. Now when Liebniz spoke of God, the creator, he was quick to point out that God worked within the framework of the Laws of Nature. His argument to support this was that God, as the Perfect Being, Chooses the most Perfect way to do things. And because God is Perfect, the divine is necessarily omniscient. This omniscience allows the Creator to Know exactly what outcome would develop from each Choice/Action the divine performs and as such the most Perfect Choice is always made. Because the Laws of Nature were set by Gods Will and that the Creator deems them to be the most Perfect way for the Physical Plane to operate, all beings (including God) must conform to their statutes. So when Liebniz says Individuals may only be influenced by the force of their own will and by the force of God - he is saying that (in Sartrian terms) we Individuals are constrained by our own Choices and by the Laws of Physics. Therefor, we simply cannot Choose to have Gravity and other Physical forces not effect us. We are constrained by their Forces as long as our Bodies are active within the confines of the Physical Plane. But how does this understanding of Choices and Constraints help us in our everyday lives? After all, the entire point of this Highway Metaphor is to be of practical use to Individuals. To answer this, we must first look at how the Individual fits into the entire framework of existence. We must dig deeper into the metaphor of the Highway by exploring the concept of Lanes. (March 11, 2011) Autrui & Lanes It is now evident that to further explore the idea we are developing, we must now call upon external forces and Beings and observe how the Individual relates and reacts to these. We have already touched upon the idea of the Creator - the Perfect and Necessary Being and how its Laws of Nature constrain the Individual. But we are going to move away from Perfection for a while and concentrate on other externals that may or may not have an effect on the Individual traveling along her Path. In this regard, we can speak of other Individuals of various types and classes. But for the moment - to keep things simple and somewhat focused - we will concentrate on other Human Individuals and how the Individual might fit into the wider Society of Humanity within the Highway Framework. To distinguish between the prime query of our investigation (the Individual) and the other Human Individuals who share Time and Space with her, we are forced to introduce some terminology. We will continue to refer to the subject of our investigation as the Individual whilst referring to all other Individuals as Autrui. The term Autrui is

borrowed from Sartre and is a French word meaning quite simply: others. In this way, I hope that there will be no confusion in the following discussion between the Individual in question and other Individuals that she will meet & interact with. Earlier in this metaphorical description, we spoke of the basic idea of the Highway an assembly of multiple Life Paths moving from the moment of Creation to the ultimate fulfillment of the Existential Purpose of the Universe. We use the image of a Highway to visualize every Life Path as a separate Lane moving between these two points. As previously discussed, this simplistic model quickly becomes more complex when we begin to think about how Individuals actually move & live their lives. We find that there are multiple points along every single Path and that these points may be arrived at and departed from in different way, dependant upon the Individual in question. It becomes quickly evident that the linear depiction of a multi-lane Highway is no longer a satisfactory metaphor for what we are attempting to describe. Again, we begin to see how this entire metaphor has become a complex metaphysic in itself. But before we address how we will resolve the issue of these seemingly non-linear Paths, let us first look at the concept of Lanes and how they seem to work within the metaphorical framework. By keeping with the simple multi-lane Highway metaphor for the time being, we will begin to see how the whole idea can become coherent and maybe even a practical tool to use by Individuals. As has previously been explained, each Individual has a Life Path and when we view all of the Life Paths of every Individual together in their entirety, we visualize them as many Lanes on a massive multi-lane Highway. The Highway itself flows ultimately between two points - namely: the moment of Creation (where the Highway begins) to the moment where the Purpose of Creation is fulfilled (where the Highway ends). In simplistic terms, we can visualize all the Lanes on the Highway running in a linear fashion between these two points - in essence spanning the entire length of Creation. On each of these Lanes we picture Individuals moving at different speeds trying to get from their conception to their ultimate end. But not every Individual is moving the same way. Some are moving forward towards the ultimate end; others are moving backwards away from their ultimate end; and finally others are not moving at all having stagnated or stalled in some fashion or another. Also as previously discussed, it is the Choices each Individual makes which is the motor of these movements (or stagnation). When an Individual Chooses to act in a way that will help them reach their Existential Purpose, that Individual will move forward along her Path. This forward movement I call Progression. When an Individual Chooses to act in a way that will hinder them, she will move away from her Existential Purpose. This backwards movement I call Regression. Finally, when an Individual Chooses something that stalls their progress altogether, I call this Stagnation. Individuals, however, are not closed systems unable to communicate or perceive beyond themselves. Humans, as a general rule, are Social Creatures and we revel (if not crave) social interaction and peer-acceptance. We share ideas and experiences in the hopes

of learning from each other. Some of us write out our thoughts and observations. Others freely teach what they have learned to other Individuals. And in this day and age of mass communication, the old constraint of geography has been erased and we are able to have meaningful and not so meaningful discussions with just about anyone around the world. But how does this fit into the metaphor? Picture rush hour traffic in a big city. Perhaps there is some gridlock built up on a certain street and traffic is not moving at all. People in vehicles further away from the course of the gridlock will want to know what is causing the hold up. And so, word is slowly passed along, from vehicle to vehicle and soon the information is disseminated to everyone. Now this, of course, is an extreme example in relation to our Highway metaphor. Perhaps a more usual way to describe communication on the Highway would be a controlled intersection where Individual drivers might talk out their car windows to other drivers. Picture even having a radio station playing which is giving weather and traffic reports. Perhaps even the drivers have access to maps and other travel information sources which help them decide the best route to follow or places to see. Essentially the process we are describing within our metaphor is communication between Individuals. The medium is not important here - what is important is that communication happens between Individuals and groups of Individuals. The Individual shares her experiences and Knowledge with Autrui and in return Autrui exchanges their own experiences and Knowledge. When this exchange is productive and beneficial to all concerned, everyone is able to Progress. But this is the ideal. Often, communication is one sided or not Progressive at all. Sometimes we are lead off on wild goose chases or we Stagnate due to confusion or fear fed to us by Autrui. But when communication is effected properly, every Individual involved is able to rise up and move forward. In this way we can picture good communication helping Individuals move forward (as we have already discussed). We can also picture it helping Individuals who have Stagnated to start moving Progressively again. And we can also picture it helping Regressing Individuals turn around and start heading in the right direction. Bad communication, obviously, can have the opposite effects. So it is conceivable, within the metaphor framework, to say that even though Individuals travel along separate Life Paths, the fact that all these Paths are organized together as Lanes on the Highway, we are able to communicate and hopefully learn from one another in order to help every Creature Progress as far as Possible along their Individual Path. (March 11, 2011) On Ramps, Off Ramps & Paths Not Taken