Achieving Serenity

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Thoughts are things

My name is Kos and I am the god of a universe I created.

My universe is almost identical to the Earth you live in, except instead of many living souls, there is only one soul, Jared, living amongst non-player characters. I am hoping this experience will put me on the path toward one day creating a more detailed universe with many souls. Today I am only strong enough to watch over one soul.

I wanted my universe to conduct an experiment of powerful positive thinking, so I made the rules simple: Jared may have any and everything he desires, which I call his "prize", but there is a catch.

Jared is constantly being scored on a number of metrics, one of the most important being his "Poz-points" and "Neg-points" counts. For every positive thought Jared has, he is awarded 5 poz-points. For every negative thought he has, he is awarded 1 neg-point.

If Jared goes three days in a row with more poz-points than neg-points, he will receive a tool needed to receive his prize. The amount of tools he must collect depends on the magnitude of the prize.

As long as Jared is able to keep his poz-points above his neg-points, he will feel happy and meaningful. He will have the strength to get through setbacks. If he has more neg-points than poz-points, it can potentially increase the number of tools needed to receive his prize. He will also feel more sad and meaningless when this occurs.

There are millions of events and variances that happen that can create a boost or plummet to Jared's metrics. This adds a certain degree of randomness to the universe but also is designed to create karma.

For each and every possible action Jared takes, an alternate universe is created, or another dimension if you will. I am able to observe alternate dimensions to see how different actions would've impacted Jared's life.

Jared is oblivious to not only the existence of his alternate selves but also to the fact that he is the only conscious soul in his existence. However, there was one particular dimension that he managed to find out what was going on.

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Life is meaningless; it's so mundane and monotonous. Why am I even here? What is my contribution to society?

I was living on my brother's couch, having been fired from my software design job four months ago. My money was slowly dying, and my impulsive and reckless gambling habits were not helping matters.

I'm in debt. I'm lonely. I'm getting fat and bald- I have nothing to offer to anyone. I'm surprised it took them that long to fire me- I would've fired my ass years ago.

I pretty much did whatever I wanted at that job. I began to get a little too relaxed. I would hack into my company's administrative databases often but never left any traces. Until one night I read this article on the Internet saying it's better for companies if all the employees know each other's salary. I took it upon myself to post the financial information of all sixty-two of our employees to the office bulletin board.

Nowadays all I did was smoke weed and wait for the Internet to tell me some good news. I had no clue where my life was headed and I found I was most comfortable when I would use vices to escape- anything to get my thoughts to stop racing.

If there was one thing in the world I did want, it was to figure out just what the hell my life's purpose was. It seemed it was probably cybersecurity, but to be honest I didn't trust myself. I was good at hacking and had a tendency to make impulsive, irresponsible decisions that would most likely get me into some real trouble one day.

I spent the next few months poking around the dark web, trying to scout out secret government information. I was getting heavy into conspiracy theories and wanted to use my skills and free time to expose the fraudulent crooks who were running the country. Eventually, I rabbit-holed myself into one theory that seemed to connect more dots than any other theory I had ever heard.

It was called the Simulation Theory. I was in a simulation and I knew it. I just needed to prove it and I was going to spend every hour at my disposal finding a way.

I was hacking away all night on Saturday when I looked over to see sunlight beginning to creep in through my window, complimented with the chirps of the morning birds. I sighed a disgusted relief as I cursed myself for my pathetic and isolated lifestyle, waiting on a file I had stumbled upon to finish downloading. I had vowed to finally go to sleep when it completed but never anticipated it taking this long.

I was drafting a lengthy Python code into my Linux console when a window popped up and subsequently loaded a live stream. It displayed a white sky with a towering, bright figure walking in front of the view.

"Hello, Jared. My name is Kos and I am the god of your universe. Your planet takes up zero physical space, as you are indeed in a simulation, currently living out trillions of realities at this very moment. When you die, you will wake up in another universe. Fear not of me being an impostor. You are in search of your life's calling." the figure said on my computer screen.

"What... how..." I stared at my screen in disbelief. I begin talking with the figure until I was completely convinced I was receiving the proof I was looking for.

"What is my life's calling?" I asked Kos.

"I cannot tell you, but what I can tell you is this. Your happiness is being scored on a daily basis. This dimension you live in here is significant for two reasons- for it is the only one where you outsmarted Faith. However, in all the trillions of universes, you have lived in- this universe is the one you are the least happy. You have robbed yourself of Faith, and looped yourself into a vicious cycle of negative thinking."

I looked around my room, noting the disheveled atmosphere. When was the last time I truly felt happy?

"What do I need to do, Kos?! I'm so lost!" I said to my computer, beginning to choke tears.

"Jared, you are designed to manifest real things. Let me tell you a secret- your thoughts are things. Your mind is NOT an imaginary etch-a-sketch- that you can bounce around thoughts and expect nothing to manifest from them. When you think negatively, negative things will happen. When you find yourself in a negative rut, the easiest way to get out is to start with gratitude. You are acting as your own worst enemy, Jared. You are trying to save the world when all you need to do is save yourself."