I've been reading The Yoga of Time Travel, by Fred Alan Wolf. Quantum time travel, parallel universes, and possibility waves. Fascinating stuff. Many of the paradoxes associated with traditional time travel models are resolved using the parallel universe model. For instance, if you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather, how then could you ever be born to travel back in time to kill your grandfather? In the parallel universe where you killed your grandfather, you wouldn't. That would not change, however, the universe from which you came. It would create a new chain of events in that universe.

I wonder, if I could traverse to a parallel universe 30 years ago and visit a certain 14-year-old high school freshman in a small town in Ohio, what kind of difference could I make in that kid's life. Would he even listen to me, when I told him to take his studies more seriously, learn to meditate, leave town immediately after high school? I think he would, if I told him how he really felt about the girl who sat in front of him in study hall, or how playing the piano made him feel. If I could tell him how Michelle Bennett crushed his 4th- grade heart, and how, at that time, he so much wanted to be like Daniel Boone, I believe he would be open-minded enough to believe that what I told him had some merit. I like to think so, anyway.

What about me as I am now? If I traveled backwards 30 years how would I support myself while mentoring this lad? One way would be to invest in land, here in Middle Tennessee. Some of the land on which the mall now stands sold for just a few hundred dollars an acre in the early 80’s, and nowadays is worth more than half a million per acre!

Somewhere around the early to mid-80’s, I might seek out a little-known computer geek named Bill Gates and offer to invest in his ventures. I would be sure to own stocks of Yahoo!, Sprint, and Verizon. Rising star Madonna would get a good chunk of my investment attention, as would Bon Jovi, Garth Brooks, and Motley Crue.

Would I even like this kid? I think since I know his mind, I probably would, given that I understand where he comes from. I would be older than his father. But would he like me, or view me with distrust? Our looks would be quite similar. He was being raised in a fundamentalist household, and might view me as a demon. Only Satan and witches can predict the future. It might take some time before he trusts me. Then again, if I stick around, it might drive him deeper into religion, trying to rid himself of the demon. He might even tell his parents to have me arrested. I know for a fact they would despise me. A long-haired fortune teller hanging out with their son. Imagine, a restraining order against a time traveler.