In a dream a week or so ago I rode on a cart with an old man along the edge of a frozen field. He suggested I think about why my impressions from him are not time-reversed. The implication seemed to be that if I understand the answer to this I'll understand something more about how fate works.

I've read that the 'astral plane' is like a two sided mirror that reflects both the physical plane and a higher 'spiritual' plane. I'm not sure that thought actually makes sense, though its probably the immediate source of my impression from the old man. If there is a 'master' or wise spirit somewhere that actually understands this sort of thing, my sense is that it doesn't bother to create new impressions if it doesn't have to, but uses what is already available. Or maybe a better way of saying that is it doesn't generally create new impressions that are distinct from all other impressions. Somehow it coordinates all of them, as if they're all different aspects of the same thing, even though from our perspective they appear to be in different places and some of them appear to occur before others.

Not knowing where else to start with the question in the dream, I ask myself why a word appears reversed in a mirror but not upside down. (This question appeared in an xkcd comic a while back.) It takes me ten or fifteen minutes to figure this out, which I find funny. Other people might find this funny too if they try it.

To avoid spoiling it for anyone, rather than giving it away I think I'll just stop here. If anyone is interested we can discuss it later. I do think the answer is at least somewhat applicable to the 'astral plane' topic.