MICHAEL WALSH SPECIAL FEATURE There is much that governments and their agencies do that we shall never be privy to as it is ‘not in the public interest.’ Such secrecy and taboos include the dark arts of government policy when re-arranging the world to their liking. Governments and their string-pullers in the lobbying industries can do without whistleblowers like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden – and many others pulling back the curtains of deceit.

Some, like Assange, are imprisoned as a warning to others who may be inspired by him and Snowden: Assange is banged up in an isolation cell in Britain’s toughest High-Security prison – for what? Exposing crimes by what is a regime. Edward Snowden was fast on his feet and fled to Russia before the political Mafia could get their hands on him.

Still, the less well-known whistle-blowers fight on – as we do. We are doing what Solidarity in Poland did before the fall of their regime. It is doubtful if any totalitarian regime could survive the internet. Its emergence rocked government and their agencies; not all of them are necessarily security-based. Governments’ worst fears were realized when controlled mainstream media morphed into the internet. The distribution of news was no longer in the hands of a few media moguls hand in glove with the establishment.

Julian Assange “This generation is burning the mass media to the ground. We are reclaiming our rights to world history.”  This most celebrated whistle-blower Wikileaks has inspired dozens of similar portals.

Most of us shudder at discovering what really goes on in our name. Secret service agencies operate under clandestine cloaks and now it is they who shudder at the thought of being outed by social media and the internet.  The loudest protests come from those who say, ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ when challenged on their covert public surveillance.

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Will thought transference be the next means of communicating clandestinely? As long ago as the 1950s the Soviets were experimenting with thought transference. No doubt their American counterparts were doing the same. We already know that matter cannot be destroyed, nor can sound waves. With advanced equipment is it possible that the voices of Oliver Cromwell, Beethoven or Christopher Columbus could be heard again by capturing the sound waves of their voices in the rooms they used?

Medical science is playing catch-up. It is interesting that a section of it; leading members included, are less skeptical than they once were about the possibilities of our souls outliving death. Advances in these sciences are reaching some intriguing conclusions.

The possibility of our having a consciousness that survives mortality is finding a receptive scientific audience. This would mean that on physical death we each abandon our clapped-out bodies much as we kiss goodbye to an old car. When the time comes, cuckoo-like we take on a replacement mortal coil; a younger version of course. The concept of reincarnation bridges most religious faiths and secular cultures.

Here is an intriguing thought. Your friend hands you the latest innovation; it is a state-of-the-art iPod; a mobile phone. “Go ahead,” you’re invited. “Call your father; see how he is doing and tell him I send my regards.”

You look at your friend; you are incredulous. He knows as well as you do that your father passed on back in 1974. Your disbelief is unsurprising but at the same time, not a day passes without advances in science and communication that leave you scratching your head.

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You timidly take the device from your friend’s hand and following his instructions wait for your call to be answered. You instinctively know that this is some kind of sick joke but you’re going along with it anyway. The call tone stops and an unmistakable voice answers: “Hello, it’s (your father’s name): who is that?” Most intriguing of all, what are you going to say in response?

Don’t smile indulgently; it could happen and much stranger things do so. Don’t be too quick to mock. Books have been written on those who once scoffed at unworldly predictions like radio, television, Smartphones and such. If we can’t explain to a primitive tribesman how a live video or email is internationally transferred as quickly as conversational table talk, what other discoveries await us.

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