I think we have very similar brain functions, Clem. Glad to read you take in the position that something does not necessarily needs a beginning, such as energy.

The way I see it is a bit like the prior energized state capable of starting a story, finishing the story, and then starting a new story, etcetera. Like watching 500 movies and then realizing it does not matter which movie was watched first because each movie has its own beginning and ending.

Except for the last movie. The projector blew up and that one movie is shattered in millions of pieces, each declaring its own mini-story based on that larger story.

So, even when we can reconstruct the entire movie, it is still just that one movie and it will not explain which of all 500 movies got watched first. I accept energy as a given because I know that the data to figure it all out will not become available.

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The past and the future are solid, so they cannot be changed except in that one moment where they touch.

I do have a fun story for you about time. I was working at a hotel, evening shift, sleeping over, and then helping with breakfast a little bit. I dreamt that I was done with the breakfast shift and jaywalked to my bus stop. Around the corner a car sped into my direction, the driver mad at me for jaywalking, and I mad at the driver for driving so fast. Then I woke up.

I did my breakfast shift and I was already jaywalking to the bus stop when I remembered my dream. I almost ignored it, but then decided to walk back to the sidewalk and walk to the proper crosswalk.

Then, indeed, the same car and the same driver as I had seen in my dream sped around the corner. I could see the driver real well, and it was almost as if he was surprised that I wasn't jaywalking (but that's my little interpretation here).

This told me a number of things. The future was already organized, but I had the freedom to change my mind in the moment the future touched the past.

I do have free will, but only about the little things in my life, like jaywalking; it was my choice to do or not do that.

Everything else was present, just like it had been in my dream. The street was there, I was there, the car and driver were there. The only thing that changed was my making up my mind in a different way. The funny part is that it was the dream that made me change my mind. I was curious and did not want reality to play out exactly as I had dreamt it because that would not give me enough information about what had happened. Of course, I did not know if the car would come around the corner, but it did.

The way I see it is that the future is like a movie, and when I was asleep I was able to get a preview of the movie. Had I been awake, then and there, I'd probably not have seen the movie at all, too busy with everyday life. But I was asleep, so the movie projector of my mind was available for the preview.

This experience means a great deal for me, because it tells me that our own decisions in life do matter. Investing in solar panels, for instance, or riding a bike, that does change the planet for the better, while investing in big oil companies because the profit is so wonderful to receive, that will not benefit the planet as it exists today.

Thanks, Clem. Fun conversation : - )