The concept of other universes has been proposed to explain why our universe seems to be fine-tuned for conscious life as we experience it. If there were a infinite number of different physical laws in as many universes, some of these would have laws that were suitable for stars, planets and life to exist.

The weak anthropic principle could then be applied to conclude that we would only consciously exist in those universes which were finely tuned for our conscious existence. Thus, while the probability might be extremely small that there is life in most of the universes, this scarcity of life-supporting universes does not imply intelligent design as the only explanation of our existence.

We must be prepared to take account of the fact that our location in time as well as space is necessarily privileged to the extent of being compatible with our existence as observers. The observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable but they take on values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites where carbon-based life can evolve.

In Jewish mysticism, the Chamber of Guf, also called the Otzar, is the Hall of Souls located in the Seventh Heaven. Every human soul is held to emanate from the Guf. The Talmud teaches that the Messiah will not come until the Guf is emptied of all its souls.

In keeping with other Jewish legends that envision souls as bird-like, the Guf is sometimes described as a columbarium, or birdhouse. Folklore says sparrows can see the soul’s descent and this explains their joyous chirping.

The mystic significance of the Guf is that each person is important and has a unique role which only each person, with their unique soul, can fulfill. Even a newborn baby brings the Messiah closer simply by being born.

The peculiar idiom of describing the treasury of souls may be connected to the mythic tradition of Adam Kadmon, the primordial man. Adam Kadmon was a supernal being, androgynous and equal in size with the universe. According to Kabbalah, every human soul is a fragment cycling out of the great world soul of Adam Kadmon. Hence, every human soul comes from the Chamber of Guf.

The unmoved mover is a philosophical concept described by Aristotle as the first cause that sets the universe into motion. In his book Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: itself contemplating.

Aristotle begins by describing substance, of which he says there are three types: the sensible, which is subdivided into the perishable (which belongs to physics) and the eternal (which belongs to “another science”). He notes that sensible substance is changeable and that there are several types of change, including quality and quantity, generation and destruction, increase and diminution, alteration, and motion.

Change occurs when one given state becomes something contrary to it: that is to say, what exists potentially comes to exist actually. Therefore, a thing can come to be out of that which is not, and also all things come to be out of that which is, but is potentially. That by which something is changed is the mover, that which is changed is the matter, and that into which it is changed is the form.

Spiral galaxies consist of a flat, rotating disk containing stars, gas and dust, and a central concentration of stars known as the bulge. These are surrounded by a much fainter halo of stars, many of which reside in globular clusters. Spiral galaxies make up approximately 60% of galaxies in the local Universe. They are mostly found in low-density regions and are rare in the centers of galaxy clusters.

Spiral galaxies are named for the spiral structures that extend from the center into the disk. The spiral arms are sites of ongoing star formation and are brighter than the surrounding disk because of the hot, massive stars that inhabit them. Spiral arms contain a great many young, blue stars, which make the arms so remarkable. Roughly half of all spirals are observed to have an additional component in the form of a bar-like structure, extending from the central bulge, at the ends of which the spiral arms begin.

Our own Milky Way has recently been confirmed to be a barred spiral, although the bar itself is difficult to observe from our position within the Galactic disk. The most convincing evidence for its existence comes from a recent survey, performed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, of stars in the Galactic center.

Bertil Lindblad proposed that the arms represent regions of enhanced density waves that rotate more slowly than the galaxy’s stars and gas. As gas enters a density wave, it gets squeezed and makes new stars, some of which are short-lived blue stars that light the arms.

This idea was developed into density wave theory by C. C. Lin and Frank Shu in 1964. They suggested that the spiral arms were manifestations of spiral density waves, attempting to explain the large-scale structure of spirals in terms of a small-amplitude wave propagating with fixed angular velocity, that revolves around the galaxy at a speed different from that of the galaxy’s gas and stars.

In physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle is the collective name for several ways of asserting that physical and chemical theories, especially astrophysics and cosmology, need to take into account that there is life on Earth, and that one form of that life, Homo sapiens, has attained sapience. The only kind of universe humans can occupy is one that is similar to the current one.

Originally proposed as a rule of reasoning, the term has since been extended to cover supposed “superlaws” that in various ways require the universe to support intelligent life, usually assumed to be carbon-based and occasionally asserted to be human beings. Anthropic reasoning assesses these constraints by analyzing the properties of hypothetical universes whose fundamental parameters or laws of physics differ from those of the real universe. Anthropic reasoning typically concludes that the stability of structures essential for life, from atomic nuclei to the whole universe, depends on delicate balances between different fundamental forces.

These balances are believed to occur only in a tiny fraction of possible universes, so that this universe appears fine-tuned for life. Anthropic reasoning attempts to explain and quantify this fine tuning. Within the scientific community the usual approach is to invoke selection effects and to hypothesize an ensemble of alternate universes, in which case that which can be observed is subject to an anthropic bias.

However, the term anthropic in “anthropic principle” has been argued to be a misnomer. While singling out our kind of carbon-based life, none of the coincidences require human life or demand that carbon-based life develop intelligence.

The anthropic principle has given rise to some confusion and controversy, partly because the phrase has been applied to several distinct ideas. All versions of the principle have been accused of undermining the search for a deeper physical understanding of the universe. Those who invoke the anthropic principle often invoke multiple universes or an intelligent designer, both controversial and criticised for being untestable and therefore outside the purview of accepted science.

Jainism is one of the oldest religions originating in India. Jains believe that every soul is divine and has the potential to achieve God consciousness. Any soul which has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called jina.

According to Jain beliefs, the universe was never created, nor will it ever cease to exist. It is eternal but not unchangeable, because it passes through an endless series of cycles. Each of these upward or downward cycles is divided into six world ages or yugas. The present world age is the fifth age of one of these cycles, which is in a downward movement. Each age is known as an aaro. There are no specific names assigned to each age. Instead they are referred to numerically. All these ages have fixed time durations of thousands of years.

In Jain thought, the shape of the inhabited universe has been described as that of the figure 8 or a man standing arms akimbo. The dimension from the top to bottom has been described as 14 rajjus. One rajju or is the distance covered by a deva flying for six months, or 216.5 light years. At the top and at the middle point the universe is 1 rajju wide but the width of the bulges varies from 5 to 8. Thus, the distance between the two ends of the middle world is approximately 5.2 billion light years.

Benoît B. Mandelbrot is a mathematician, best known as the father of fractal geometry. He was born in Warsaw, Poland. His family moved to France when he was a child, and he was educated in France. He is a dual French and American citizen. Mandelbrot now lives and works in the United States.

From 1951 onward, Mandelbrot worked on problems and published papers not only in mathematics but in applied fields such as information theory, economics, and fluid dynamics. He became convinced that two key themes, fat tails and self similar structure, ran through a multitude of problems encountered in those fields. Mandelbrot found that price changes in financial markets did not follow a Gaussian distribution, but rather stable distributions having theoretically infinite variance. He found, for example, that cotton prices followed a Levy stable distribution with parameter equal to 1.7 rather than 2 as in a Gaussian distribution.

He also put his ideas to work in cosmology. In 1974 he offered a new explanation of Olbers’ Paradox (the “dark night sky” riddle), which states that in an infinite universe, the night sky should blaze with the light of the stars that lie in all directions, even those far away. Mandelbrot postulated that if the stars in the universe were fractally distributed, it would not be necessary to rely on the Big Bang theory to explain the paradox. His model would not rule out a Big Bang, but would allow for a dark sky even if the Big Bang had not occurred.

Although Mandelbrot coined the term fractal, some of the mathematical objects he presented had been described by other mathematicians. Before Mandelbrot, they had been regarded as isolated curiosities with unnatural and non intuitive properties. Mandelbrot brought these objects together for the first time and turned them into essential tools to extend the scope of science to non smooth objects in the real world. He highlighted their common properties, such as self similarity and scale variance.

He also emphasized the use of fractals as realistic and useful models of many rough phenomena in the real world. Natural fractals include the shapes of mountains, coastlines and river basins; the structures of plants, blood vessels and lungs; the clustering of galaxies. Fractals are found in human pursuits, such as music, painting, architecture, and stock market prices. Mandelbrot believed that fractals, far from being unnatural, were in many ways more intuitive and natural than the artificially smooth objects of traditional Euclidean geometry.

Mandelbrot has been called a visionary. His informal and passionate style of writing and his emphasis on visual and geometric intuition made his publication The Fractal Geometry of Nature accessible to non specialists. The book sparked widespread popular interest in fractals and contributed to chaos theory and other fields of science and mathematics.

Prayer flags are colorful panels or rectangular cloths often found strung along mountain ridges and peaks high in the Himalayas to bless the surrounding countryside or for other purposes. Unknown in other branches of Buddhism, prayer flags are believed to have originated with Bön, which predated Buddhism in Tibet. Traditionally they are woodblock printed with texts and images.

The Indian Buddhist Sutras, discourses attributed to the Buddha, written on cloth in India, were traditionally distributed to other regions of the world. These sutras, written on banners, were the origin of prayer flags. Legend ascribes the origin of the prayer flag to the Shakyamuni Buddha, whose prayers were written on battle flags used by the devas against their adversaries, the asuras. The legend may have given the Indian bhikku a reason for carrying the heavenly banner as a way of signifying his commitment to ahimsa. This knowledge was carried into Tibet by 800 CE, and the actual flags were introduced no later than 1040 CE, where they were further modified.

Traditionally, prayer flags come in sets of five, one in each of five colors. The five colors represent the elements, and the Five Pure Lights and are arranged from left to right in a specific order. Different elements are associated with different colors for specific traditions, purposes and sadhana:

• Blue (symbolizing sky/space)
• White (symbolizing air/wind)
• Red (symbolizing fire)
• Green (symbolizing water)
• Yellow (symbolizing earth)

The center of a prayer flag traditionally features a powerful or strong horse bearing three flaming jewels on its back. The Ta is a symbol of speed and the transformation of bad fortune to good fortune. The three flaming jewels symbolize the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, the three cornerstones of Tibetan philosophical tradition.

Surrounding the Ta are various versions of approximately 20 traditional mantras, each dedicated to a particular deity. In Tibetan, deities are not so much gods as aspects of the divine which are manifest in each part of the whole universe, including individual humans. These writings include mantras from three of the great Buddhist Bodhisattvas. In addition to mantras, prayers for the long life and good fortune of the person who mounts the flags are often included.

Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to gods, a common misconception, rather the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all.

By hanging flags in high places the Wind Horse will carry the blessings depicted on the flags to all beings. As wind passes over the surface of the flags which are sensitive to the slightest movement of the wind, the air is purified and sanctified by the Mantras.

The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the universe as the images fade from exposure to the elements. Just as life moves on and is replaced by new life, Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life changes and an acknowledgment that all beings are part of a greater ongoing cycle.

Some believe that if the flags are hung on inauspicious astrological dates, they may bring negative results for as long as they are flying. The best times to put up new prayer flags are in the mornings on sunny, windy days.

Sets of five coloured flags should be put in the order: blue, white, red, green, yellow from left to right. The colours represent the Five Buddha Families and the five elements. The origin of Prayer flag colors may be traced to an ancient tradition of Tibet where shamans used primary colored plain flags in healing ceremonies. According to Traditional Tibetan medicine, health and harmony are produced through the balance of the five elements. Old prayer flags are replaced with new ones annually on the Tibetan New Year.

Because the symbols and mantras on prayer flags are sacred, they should be treated with respect. They should not be placed on the ground or used in clothing. Old prayer flags should be burned.

During the Cultural Revolution, prayer flags were discouraged but not entirely eliminated. Many traditional designs may have been lost. Currently, different styles of prayer flags can be seen all across the Tibetan region. Most of the traditional prayer flags today are made in Nepal and India by Tibetan refugees or by Nepali Buddhists. The flags are also manufactured in Bhutan for local use.