I remember … It was summer of the year 1952. I was 17 years old, a graduate of the Pancyprian Gymnasium. My father, Andreas Rolandis, was 50. He worked in the Government and had devoted the whole of his free time to the study of metaphysics, a branch of philosophy which dates back to Aristotle. Metaphysics goes into the depth of life but it is also engaged in subjects beyond our perception. It is well known that our five senses, which are guided and controlled by the brain, function within certain limits. There are sounds which our ears cannot hear without a radio or a telephone. There are images which we cannot see without a television set. And there are many happenings which are beyond the reach of our senses.

And then what about life and death? What is life and what is death? How does life begin? In a haphazard manner or is it a predetermined process? How does a baby acquire life in a woman’s womb? And wherefrom does life, which is injected into the newly born baby, originate?

And what about death? Does the biological death of the body and the brain constitute the final curtain or is there a soul which survives? And if there is a surviving soul, where does it end up and in which form? Where are the dead? And if they are somewhere what do they do over the many centuries? Since the days when the human being (homo sapiens) appeared on Earth, a million years back, 110 billion people lived and passed away on this Earth. Where are they and in which activities are they engaged, if they do exist? And what is the objective of their existence? Which is the final destination? Where is the beginning and where is the end of existence? And what is the scope of the Journey from the beginning to the end of life? And probably beyond death as well?

My father and I were profoundly occupied with the above dilemmas in those days. We studied many books on the subject, most of which are now part of my library. Books of philosophers, thinkers, mathematicians, biologists, astrophysicists, spiritualists. We also studied the work of astronomers and astrophysicists, like Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, Albert Einstein, Nicolaus Copernicus and others.

It was at that time that my father decided to publish the Psychic News newspaper. He started it off on the 6^th September 1952. The newspaper was supported by friends and people who believed in his work. I was the editor for one year. Thereafter I went to study law in London, taking with me the great unanswered questions with which we had been engaged.

In page 35 of my recent book Glimpses into Life and History, I state that I had a mandate from my father that in my life “I should not become the servant of anybody or anything, other than the truth.” This mandate I followed devoutly in my life.

So, I set forth hereunder my memories and my conclusions, all of them well-substantiated and based on scientific data.

Planet Earth is inhabited nowadays by 7.6 billion people. Almost 60 million people die every year, namely 165,000 every day. The human species together with its ancestors have existed on planet Earth perhaps for one million years. However, planet Earth has existed in the Universe for approximately 4,600,000,000 (4.6 billion) years. So, before the humans appeared, the Earth was in the Universe for 4,599,000,000 years. In other words, there is a period 4,500 times longer than our presence on Earth, about which we know nothing. Were there any civilizations in those years, which are now extinct? Or was rock Earth orbiting the Sun for 4,599,000,000 years – without any human presence – and then suddenly the humans cropped up? And how did this happen? Is the ‘Evolution’ theory of Charles Darwin correct?

As I mention above it is calculated cumulatively of the human species that 110 billion people were born, lived and died on the Earth. During this period and especially during the past one thousand years there have been remarkable achievements (by our human standards): We created art, music, education, philosophy, science, athletics, medicine, farming, economy, money, wealth, poverty, technology, happiness, distress, crime and many other feats. We built up the family concept, the state, democracy, the army and the police, dictatorships, justice. We created empires, kings, presidents, rulers, politicians, philosophers, thinkers, people of the arts, intellectuals, social systems, slums, and huge cities. We instigated revolutions, cruel wars, holocausts, struggles for freedom, suppression of the weak by the mighty – and we spread a little bit of love and lots of hatred in the world.

The above are the many characteristics of life on this Planet, which constitutes a huge admirable world, with land expanses, oceans, deserts, forests, cities, and smaller communities.

However, how large is our own Earth compared to Creation and the Universe? 

Planet Earth is part of our Solar System, which consists of the Sun and eight planets orbiting the Sun. They are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The Earth is 1,300,000 (one million and three hundred thousand) times smaller than the Sun (1,300,000 planets Earth can fit into the Sun). The mass of the Earth is also about 330,000,000 (three hundred and thirty million) times smaller than our Solar System: So, the Earth is almost Nothing compared to our Solar System.

However, the most shocking and terrifying facts follow:

Our Solar System is one out of 250,000,000,000 (two hundred and fifty billion) solar systems (each one of them with a sun and planets) which are there in our own Galaxy (Milky Way). And our Galaxy is one out of approximately two trillion galaxies (according to the largest space telescope, the Hubble) which are there in the observable Universe! So, our Solar System is an absolute Nothing in the Universe. Our famous Earth is a Nothing in our Solar System and of course it is a Big Zero in the Universe.

Here I would indicate, parenthetically, the following, so that the reader may grasp the meaning of what a “trillion” is: If somebody starts counting 1,2,3 etc, one number per second, it will take him 32,000 years to reach the number one trillion. So, if somebody starts counting today (year 2020 AD) he will reach one trillion in the year 34,020 AD!

In a speech of mine a few years back, I said that if the Universe were a huge and wide beach, expanding from Cyprus to New York, our Solar System would be equal to a tiny speck of sand on this beach. And our Earth would be part of the speck, three hundred and thirty million times smaller than the speck of sand! It is exactly on this Earth that we have built and will build our own empires!

The above figures, which are based on science, neutralise and bend our reason and our thoughts. And there is more: Light, which in one second can orbit seven times around the Earth, travels for billions of years at this inconceivable speed and has not as yet covered the width of the Universe!

In light of all the above, it is more than obvious that our Earth, a Nothing in the Universe, cannot monopolise Life. Life must exist also on the trillions of stars and planets. So the question takes another dimension: ‘Human’ entities who pass away on the trillions of planets, where do they go when they cease to exist in the material Universe? Where is the ‘Neighbourhood of Angels?’

Based on the books I have studied, logic leads to the following conclusions (in casual order):

The First Theory is that death kills and exterminates everything: They are all gone, body, brain and soul, if soul exists. This is a position adopted by many doctors and other scientists worldwide. Billions of ‘human’ beings perish in the Universe every day. Do they have to go somewhere? And if they go, where do they go? To a parallel universe? To do what? As biologist Julian Huxley points out: “The idea of individual survival in a certain space must be ruled out. Our personalities are so based on body that it is really impossible to think of survival without a body of sorts.” Apart from the above Huxley wonders: “If the humans survive, why should other living creatures not survive, animals, birds, insects, etc.” Of course, in such a case we shall be lost in an infinite vacuum.

The Second Theory is the one adopted by religions and especially the ones which are most widely practised, Christianity and Islam, which between them account for 55% of the total. I shall not delve into the subject, because we are all well conversant with the human survival and the Day of the Last Judgment, especially in the case of the Christian Religion, to which we belong and for which we have a lot of respect.

The Third Theory is reincarnation. This means that upon death, the soul survives and enters the body of a human being to be born. This position is adopted by eastern and Indian religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism which, between them, account for 20% of all religions. Pythagoras and Socrates, philosophers of ancient Greece, referred to reincarnation too. Reincarnation means a continuous cycle of life, which is repeated until a spiritual upgrading and a freedom of the soul are achieved. Of course, there are many unanswered questions: What happens after the soul is free and what is the scope of the continuous cycles of life?

A Fourth Theory is that the soul survives not in an individual form. After death, the human being becomes part of a reservoir, of a multi-collective entity, which functions on the basis of the consciousness of all those of which it consists. Thus, the infinite number of individual personalities is limited, because the dead become part of the reservoir. However, one wonders how a multi-collective entity could function, if it consists of diverse individuals, such as Kennedy, Alexander the Great, Hitler, Mother Teresa, Napoleon, Al Capone, and others, even if some of them will go through the Purgatory of Souls before they join the collective body (like the Purgatory in Dante’s Divine Comedy). The collective entity is merged later with other similar bodies, on its way to the supreme level of existence and immortality.

The Fifth and last Theory is spiritualism, which my father considered as the most likely. He had quite a number of experiences in his personal life which he described in his books and in the Psychic News. There is also the testimony of the well-known British publisher William Thomas Stead, who was drowned together with more than 1500 people, including the elite of world society, when the Titanic sank on the 15^th of April 1912. Stead “came back” and described to his daughter what had happened from the very moment he passed away and was received by his late father, until he was transferred to the “Blue Land”, the subsequent level of existence. In accordance with his narration, life at this second level is characterised by spiritual uplifting and a widespread euphoria. Most of the characteristics of life on Earth are not there, no money, no material pleasures, no need for food, no transport means, no “time” the way we perceive it. The target is to be uplifted to the third level and then gradually to the seventh level, where perfection is accomplished. From the second level there is a possibility to communicate with Earth, under certain circumstances. The Purgatory of Souls exists in this Theory as well. The book with the narration of Stead I translated in those years for the Psychic News. However, there are unanswered questions under this Theory as well. Furthermore, I have to confess that my father, who died in 1970, never gave me credible evidence of his continued existence, although he had promised that he would do so, if it were possible. There was only this: One night in the year 1972 I was at the hotel The Dorchester in London. I was alone in my room and I felt strongly my father’s presence around me in the room. Then I slept. At 2 o’clock in the morning I woke up because the cupboard in the room was semi-open and the light inside the cupboard was on. When I slept, I am sure, the room was dark. That was all, no more evidence of his existence.

I would also like to refer to what British novelist Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) wrote: “I had dinner recently with one of the greatest brain surgeons worldwide. He has had a vast experience, quite without sentimentality or religious fanaticism. After many years of work on the brain he reached the conclusion that the brain was nothing more than a telephone switchboard, obeying orders from some further force or power, which science cannot identify.” Apparently, the soul.

So, what is the conclusion? What marks the beginning of the Universe and of Life itself? Is it the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago? Who triggered it off? Is it the Creator of Everything? God? Somebody or Something else? And for what? So that the Universe would come into being, which continuously expands, with its galaxies running away from each other in space and at the same time merging or colliding with each other? How endless is space and time? And when shall we have the Apocalypse of the secrets which surround us? Which is the ultimate objective of the Creator? Is it Perfection? Is it Love? But he could have both without the Universe. And how does the Creator rule his Universe with the endless galaxies and stars?

There are no answers. So, I sit back, calm, and I let tranquillity drip into my body. The endless time slips through my fingers, under the sky and the trillions of stars. I have already reached the age of 85. A lot of time has elapsed by earthly standards: Business, government, politics, a happy family life. By the clock of the universe just a split of a second. I am now close to the Journey, the Universe the Beginning, the End. I am ready for it. I ponder over all the above. I try to unveil and touch the secrets of life, which are far away from my reach.

At the same time, it crosses my mind that my body (like matter generally) consists – according to science – of the dizzying number of 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 plus 27 zeros) atoms, just in one human body (The correct description in mathematics is seven billion billion billion). The atoms are probably more than the stars in the sky, just in one human body. The atom is the smallest particle of matter and within it is the nucleus surrounded by electrons, which rotate around the nucleus in this infinitesimal micro-microcosm. Exactly like the planets orbit the Sun. And all this in a human body! Why, my God, why?

It appears that this is what God decided in His absolute divine wisdom. The way He created, in his divine wisdom, the Universe as well!