The Galaxy

At a distance of many light years you are a spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. Spinning majestically like a slow Catherine wheel, you are one among hundreds of thousands of galaxies rushing outwards from some mysterious primal explosion. There are several types of galaxy - globular, elliptical, spiral (this is your type), and barred spiral. It can take millions of years for light from these other galaxies to reach you, and millions of years for your light to reach them. Communication between galaxies takes this long.

If you could place a mirror on one of those receding galaxies, in several million years you would receive an image of yourself. And you are a wonderful sight to behold! Obviously you cannot look in such a mirror. It is by observing how other galaxies behave that you come to discover your own galactic nature. For just as on the human level you cannot see your own face and need others to help you know yourself, so also on the galactic level.

Looking up on a clear night you see some of the stars making up your immense body. To look beyond and see other galaxies you have to use what are in effect your galactic sense organs - the powerful telescopes that reach out 4.4 light years to the next star, Alpha Centauri, and beyond - as far as 500 billion light years into the distance. Guiding your attention inwards from that distant region, notice the parts of your own galactic body you can see (the stars of the Milky Way), the parts of your planetary layer that are visible (perhaps hills in the distance), the layer of life (animals, plants etc), humanity (other people), this person (your headless body), and�then what? No-one can look at this central spot but you. Is there anything here but room for all you see? Galaxies as well as humans are, for themselves, headless, and room for their peers. If you want to know who you are at centre, don't ask another galaxy, ask yourself! You are the authority on you.