Pho...,
I stand by each of my earlier comments.
I presented my ideas to you as reasonable possibilities. You dismissed those possibilities out of hand as creative fantasies without any substantive reasoning on your part
Why is the concept of a spirit a reasonable possibility?
"Reasonable" asserts being in accordance with reason and logic. Such a position necessarily must draw upon facts for support. The spirit concept currently lacks any evidential support which suggests your claim to reasonableness does not appear to be valid.
"Possibility" asserts that something is within the realm of being possible. We currently have no way to discern whether a spirit is possible, goes to the issue of evidence again. Your claim to being possible also appears invalid.
"Fantasy" asserts something from human imagination that is far removed from normal reality.
While my statements may appear summarily dismissive without substantive reasoning, they are in fact very carefully considered. The observation that religious claims lie firmly in the realm of fantasy is a carefully considered, precise, and an accurate description. Specifically the entire absence of evidence for the claims, and their nature being without precedent, leaves them only within the scope of creative human imagination - i.e. fantasies.
These conclusions do not rule out the speculation that any given fantasy, while currently absent of factual support, might some day be discovered as a truth.
.. to wit, you do not what death is, you only 'know' what presents itself to you from one angle.
The cessation of biological functions necessary to maintain a living organism. That is the only angle and from trillions of past examples, the results have been 100% final. But that is not the issue is it? We are considering if there is some element of a living person that is dualistic - an immaterial component that necessarily separates itself from the physical body at death. And from that -
...my intent was strictly limited to entertaining the possibility of enhanced awareness per se.
Enhanced implies an improved set of abilities or perhaps additional ones. I have stated that memory, thinking, and the ability to experience emotions, all end at death since these are dependent on a functioning brain - this is a factual observation. If we consider speculative fantasies of an immaterial realm and spirits, then what enhancements would we consider?
Like a computer hard drive, when it is destroyed (died) then all its contents (memory) are lost permanently, unless of course those contents are backed up. For a spirit to have access to its physical life memories it would need some form of backup, or log of life events. It's a fantasy, and we have no way to tell if it is possible or not, but equally we have no reason to believe that this could be true.
The ability for a spirit to think is a different matter. This requires an active processing component, e.g. a physical brain, and is not solved by some type of data backup. Without some type of evidential description of the capabilities of a spirit there doesn't seem to be a way to describe how a spirit might think. Similarly with emotions.
So I see fundamental issues with showing how a spirit might have even basic abilities, before we even consider any type of enhanced abilities. But these are your suggestions, so what could you offer as explanation of how these things might be possible?
"That there might be more to the universe that we might one day be able to experience through perhaps further stages of human evolution, is perhaps possible and probable." You don't have any reason to believe this anymore than your take on what death appears to your (limited) senses to be.
Futurists point out the exponential rate of computer technology and the inevitable development of AI and beyond, leading to intelligence greater than humans. At that point or just before, we as a race will have some decisions to make. One suggestion is that we will be able to map our brain activities and place them in a non-biological substrate and benefit from all the enhancements made possible by new technologies. We then proceed with heightened super intelligence and enhanced physical and sensory abilities. Or perhaps we are able to gradually replace/enhance our biological brain functions and activities with technology such that again we end up with significantly enhanced non-biological abilities. Is any of this possible? Many scientists suggest and can justify why this is likely and inevitable. But for now it is science/fiction and fantasy, although with considerable more likelihood of becoming a reality than the fantasies that we one day might discover a spirit world, which has no demonstrable path to a positive eventuality.
Indeed it is I who am arguing from what is known (as little as that might be) while you are arguing from what is unknown and supporting that with speculations/assuming facts not in evidence. Take care.
While I will sometimes stretch observations to their limits and project beyond where I should hesitate, perhaps to be deliberately provocative, I do always start from what is known. Your suggestions re gods and spirits are consistently and always based on the unknown and entirely within the realm of fantasies and asserted as truth. However, it is not constructive to have a childish back and forth banter of "yes you did, no I didn't", so I would suggest you end this by making appropriate evidence based statements showing how any features of gods, spirits, etc, - enter the state of being KNOWN. Otherwise please recognize that your perspective and suggestions are entirely speculative fantasies.