Discovering Infinite Worlds – Out There and Within Us 

Hi Friends,

Donna here and welcome to Your Bounce Back Life! Today we’re talking about the infinite worlds out there in the universe and inside our own universe.

In my suspense novel for adults, A Human Element, we’re faced with the question: Is there life out there? And if there is, will it be hostile or welcoming? 

The late theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking said he was nearly certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe. He also said that humans should avoid contact with alien life forms and “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.” 

Definitely not.

And H.G. Wells wrote this in his classic book from 1898 War of the Worlds, “Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.” 

Are there worlds out there drawing their plans against us? 

My fascination with life “out there” really began 30 years ago when I read Whitley Strieber’s The Forbidden Zone, a horror novel with monsters unleashed from underground. It was not unlike the Martians unleashed on Earth in War of the Worlds, and that details a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. 

Strieber’s monster-mash up horrified me, invoked real nightmares, and led me to research this Strieber who claims to have been abducted by aliens back in 1985 at his cabin in Upstate New York. He would later write about his abduction and how he was experimented on by “The Visitors”-- as he calls them -- in a non-fiction book, Communion, and he would start a website on alien encounters called Unknown Country. 

Strieber’s account, bizarre and frightening, will lead you to wonder about your own reality–and whether you believe he was experimented on by aliens or not. 

It made me remember that as a child with an overactive imagination, whenever I discovered the occasional lump on my skin, I wondered for just a second, if I had been abducted in the middle of the night, implanted with a tracking device, and returned to my bed unaware. And if I had been … would I want to even know? 

I do believe there are intelligent worlds out there, perhaps some would be hostile and perhaps some would not. This is the undercurrent of my first published novel, A Human Element. 

And in research for A Human Element I learned that in 1961, the US radio astronomer Frank Drake developed an equation to help estimate the number of planets hosting intelligent life in the galaxy. He estimated 10,000. Wow, right? 10,000.

But that’s not the final word. In 2001 more rigorous calculations connected to the 1960s “Drake equation” suggests that our galaxy may contain hundreds of thousands of life-bearing planets. 

Just imagine. I can.

And as these numbers became bigger and bigger, I reflected on smaller worlds we can’t see. The many worlds we each have inside us, unexplored like those alien worlds out there. The worlds waiting to be discovered inside us of other lives to be lived, skills to hone, paths to forge, art to create, relationships to build, and stories to write. Other worlds inside us we may never come to experience. 

This century, NASA discovered three worlds potentially like Earth. This discovery they said was “a progressive step on the road to detecting the first truly Earth-like planet orbiting a star like our Sun.” At hundreds of light years away we can’t truly know what kind of life is on these planets. But just imagine if there were beings there once—or now, or even in the future. 

The movie Contact, based on a novel written by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, raises the debate, too, about whether life is out there. I saw Sagan speak back in 1995 while in college at The State University of New York at Albany. The title of his lecture was, "Is There Intelligent Life on Planet Earth?” In this lecture he pondered what theoretical planet observers might think while orbiting and watching the Earth.

Sagan’s goal was to educate the world on the infinite wonders and discoveries to be found in space. I love these words of his: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” 

Sagan also said this about the Cosmos that, “Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” 

Think about that. We are made of star stuff. How wondrous. And I think it’s also a way for us to discover ourselves. 

Sagan’s star-stuff statement sums up the fact that the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms in our bodies, were created in stars going back over 4.5 billion years ago. And because humans and animals (as well as much of the matter on Earth) contain these elements, we really ARE made of star stuff.

Sagan sadly died in 1996 from cancer at 62 years old, but I think he attained his goal, and forever leaves his imprint on not only how we look at the stars but how we should dream about what’s amongst them. And in looking outward it offers us the chance to open ourselves up inwardly to find the worlds within.

At one point in Sagan’s book Contact, the character Dr. Arroway says, “The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So, if it’s just us…seems like an awful waste of space. Right?”

I believe that too. 

And we should dream about what’s beyond our world, as Sagan inspired us to do. But it’s pretty big inside each of us too with possibilities bigger than you have likely ever dreamed of before. 

Those infinite wonders and discoveries Sagan talked about are just waiting to be found in our own darkness. Of dreams and unexplored realities. Of writing. Or teaching. Or sailing. Or running a marathon. Or creating a new technology to help humankind. Or learning a second language. Of discovering new worlds in outer space. And of discovering what’s inside our own inner space. 

Because … Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. 

I’d hate to wake up one day as my life has gone by to say “Is this all I have inside? If so, seems like an awful waste of space.” 

In the meantime, I’ll keep wondering if there are other worlds out there reaching out to us, maybe not so far away after all. And I’ll keep wondering about the new worlds to explore inside my own space. New worlds I never thought existed before. To reach a higher plane of existence.

Do you believe in other worlds? What do you imagine they are like? Is there something incredible hidden inside you still waiting to be discovered?

I believe there is.

I must hope there are more worlds inside me, too. And I must keep exploring my inner and outer world. For the cosmos is inside us and we are all made of star stuff.

How magical and amazing. 

How full of infinite possibilities we are.

Resources:

A Human Element paranormal suspense novel 

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking

Author Whitley Strieber’s non-fiction account of his alien abduction Communion
and website on alien encounters Unknown Country

NASA discovery of three worlds potentially like Earth

Astronomer Carl Sagan