The Very Final Edge of the Infinite Universe

I had finally done it.  There I was.  “There.”  What other word is there for it?  Looking behind me, far off, at as great a distance as one could possibly see, was the universe.  It was faint, barely a glimmer.  I dared not go even an inch further away from it, for I knew that if I lost sight of it, I could never again find it.  One inch further, and I would be in that place in which there is no direction.  I would have stepped into the infinite void, and I would never know which way to turn, to get back, because without a reference point, there is no direction in which to turn.

The void.  It stretches to infinity.  There is nothing out there, literally nothing, nothing at all.  One could travel into it, and keep travelling forever.  There is no end to it.  Nor does it curve back inward upon itself.  If it did, then a straight line would lead one back to his starting point.  In a flat universe, that is impossible.  If one tried to get back, the tiniest degree of deflection would lead one hopelessly astray.

There is nothing out there.  Think about that.  In all the vast expanse of the cosmos, there is only one patch of physical substance, the one we call the universe.  The universe is unimaginably large.  It is trillions upon trillions of light years across, and indeed, far larger than that, unimaginably larger—but it does have an end, a perimeter, an edge.

I was there.  I was at the very final edge of the infinite universe.  After that, there is nothing except empty space.  Nothing.  Nothing.  Nothing.

It goes on forever, to infinity.

How do we know?  Is it possible that after an unimaginably long time we might come across another physical patch of universe?  No.  It has been ruled out.  It cannot be.  There is nothing out there.

How can we know if there is not a wall of some sort?  How can we know if space itself just stops, making it impossible to go further?  There is no wall, no end of space.  We know.  It has been proved.  Space goes on forever.  There is nothing out there.

What of heaven?  Is heaven out there?  No.  Heaven is not in the universe, nor anywhere in space.  It is outside of space and time.  Space and time can disappear, but heaven cannot.

I was at the very final edge of the infinite universe.  I looked.  There, before me, was the endless void.

I had been warned.  Stay far away from there, very far away.  You will go mad.  To look outward upon nothing is something which no human can endure.

Now that I am here, I can understand why they said that.  There is something about it, something for which the mind is unprepared, incapable of dealing with.  Have I gone mad?  Was I mad even to come here?

But here I am, and beyond where I am, there is nothing, absolutely nothing.  To go any further is to go on forever, never turning back, ever.  Am I mad enough to do that, to take that one further step?

I think not.  The very thought itself is madness, and more than madness, it is utterly terrifying.  To actually do it would require incalculable madness.  Actually doing it would drive one further into madness, a madness of such proportion that one would have no conception of anything.

No, I did not step into the vast, endless expanse of nothing.  I have returned to the physical universe which is my abode.  I have returned into familiarity, into sanity, where I shall live out my days.

But have I?  Have I truly returned?  I wonder, for although I am back, something tells me that my return was not complete.  How could it be?  For I have seen it.  I have stood at the edge of the abyss, and there is nothing out there.

Just knowing that is unnerving.  Attempting to ignore it is impossible. 

There is nothing out there.

-

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