The age of the universe has been put at 13.7 billion years. The oldest stars in the Universe are about 13 billion years, and there has been a continuous birth of new stars since that time. Our own star is about 5 billion years old, and life on Earth began (at the earliest) about 4 billion years ago, i.e. it has taken life that long to go from one-celled floating creatures in the sea to end up with us--presently, at least, because I shouldn't think we are the end-point of evolution by any means. Anyway, we can assume that similar planets to our own have probably existed in the Universe since 13 billion years ago, and roughly the same rules apply to evolution if you are given a similar environment. Therefore we could expect that life would evolve at roughly the same pace, and there would be species that were sentient about 9 billion years before we even existed. The point of this is that these species may have long ago become transcendent, and left behind the need for physical bodies. If so, they could be the super-beings who have become subsequently the guides for Humanity and other, younger sentient species in the Universe.
The Transcendent Minds
- Thread starter Xylene
- Start date
Sure. Why not?
Well, transcendence of a species beyond the need for a physical body raises the main question of whether there is directionality for the force of evolution. It could be argued that evolutiom is a half-blind, vagrant wanderer that just happens to move in the direction of generality--i.e. the less specialised a species is, the greater chance it has of surviving sudden changes in the environment. Also, the more intelligent a species is, the less likely that changes of environment will have a bad effect. So it could be argued that evolution does have a direction that leads towards greater intelligence and skill at manipulating the environment. It could also be that once a species becomes sentient, they will begin directing their own evolution. I daresay the Human race has been doing this for millennia. Whether this will eventually lead to some form of transcendence for the Human species, or how this could be achieved, are still open questions to be answered by our descendents.
How do you make the jump from possible life on other planets (and them being similar to us) to transcendence being a natural step in evolution? I'm not going to fight you on the idea that intelligent life exists on other planets, because, well, if it happened here it could presumably have happened elsewhere. But the idea of transcendence is fantasy.
You can't separate consciousness from the brain. The brain causes consciousness. There might be some level beyond where we are currently, but there's no reason to assume that we're going to change the makeup of our brains. Considering that we're already the dominant species on the planet, there is no need for change. Perhaps a few adjustments may be made to our bodies, but otherwise...there's no reason to assume our brains will change.
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What about other Universes?
The hypnotic regression work of Dr. Michael Newton and others has demonstrated that the soul progresses in knowledge until it eventually surpasses the need to return to earth in a physical body. Thereafter the soul, having become transcendent, remains in the spirit world.
I assume you have hard evidence that 'soul' and 'spirit world' exist?
Well, that's the main problem--how do you find hard evidence for something when you have to rely on the word of mystics and psychics, whose writings are at the very least obtuse and often self-contradictory. Yet I think there is a world beyond our own, and I believe that the soul does exist. I've had some pretty unusual experiences in my life which, for want of a better explanation, can be put down to intervention from a world beyond our own.
Grantywanty
Registered Senior Member
Any species that has become transcendant is missing out. I like immanence. Up is not better than down. Physical is not opposed to spiritual. Objectivity is not better than subjectivity.