ANTITHETICAL EQUIVALENTS

Since evolutionary progress proceeds in the direction of superconscious freedom, and thus away from subconscious enslavement, it transpires that, at a certain more advanced stage of its progress, what I have termed antithetical equivalents will emerge. Evolution begins with the stars and ends with an ultimate Spiritual Globe, which we can term the Omega Absolute (or, after de Chardin, the Omega Point), but in between come what I believe to be the antithetical equivalents of the planets at stage two of evolutionary progress and the Spiritual Globes at stage nine; the plants and, in particular, trees at stage three and the Superbeings at stage eight; the animals and, in particular, apes at stage four and the Supermen at stage seven; pagan man at stage five and transcendental man at stage six; and of course the antithesis within the one life form of dualistic, or Christian, man at stages five/six.

To take a vivid antithetical equivalent from this list: a tree, as a completely subconscious life-form whose leaves are naturally supported by trunk and branches while being naturally sustained by sunlight, rain, etc., and a Superbeing as a completely superconscious life-form the numerous new brains of which will be artificially supported by plastic or metallic trunk/branch equivalents while being artificially sustained by a mechanical pump, oxygen containers, plastic tubing, hallucinogenic stimulants, etc.

But here I am contrasting, in imagination, what exists, as a tree, with what I believe will exist, as a Superbeing, in the second phase of the post-Human Millennium, and therefore at two evolutionary removes from even the most sophisticated men - those of the coming transcendental civilization. I am anticipating antithetical equivalents in advance of their actually being brought about by qualified human personnel when the time is ripe. Let us now settle, by contrast, for certain antithetical equivalents which already exist and which we take for granted as a logical aspect of modern life, rarely if ever ascribing any evolutionary significance to them beyond their utilitarian functions. The first pair of such paradoxical equivalents to which I should like to draw attention are natural fish and artificial 'fish', which we may define as a distinction between, say, whales (if we allow that large sea mammals are akin to fish) and submarines. The submarine functions underwater, like a fish, but is constructed of artificial materials and propelled in a mechanical manner, these days quite often by a nuclear-powered engine. This artificial type of 'fish', in which many men can live and work, is a much superior phenomenon to a natural fish, since it exists at approximately stage seven of the evolutionary ladder, whereas the whale approximates to stage four - that of fish and, indeed, mammals in general.

Let us take another category of antithetical equivalents, this time as applying to the distinction between natural birds and artificial 'birds', which is to say, between naturally-propelled birds and mechanically-propelled aircraft. Here, too, the artificial 'bird', be it warplane or passenger plane, is much superior to the natural bird and corresponds to stage seven of the evolutionary ladder, whereas even the king of birds, the eagle, can go no higher than stage four. As to helicopters, which function on a different mechanical principle from aircraft, they form, it seems to me, an antithetical equivalent to dragonflies, looking rather more like large artificial 'insects' than artificial 'birds'. Some aircraft also seem to resemble moths or butterflies more than birds, but the great majority correspond to bird shapes.

Another antithetical equivalent which readily springs to mind is the one between ducks and ships, the latter having long existed but never on such antithetical terms to the former as in the modern age, when natural materials such as wood and hemp were superseded by artificial materials like plastic and steel. A better example, however, is afforded by the contrast between horses and motorbikes, the horse having traditionally served man as a creature to ride about on, the motorbike, or artificial 'horse', of more recent date also serving man in a similar capacity, albeit on terms far superior to the horse. For the horse is natural, whereas the motorbike is mechanical and therefore a lot faster. The man who rides a horse and the man who rides a motorbike do not appertain to the same stage of evolution, even though both of them are men. The former attaches himself to a life form approximating to stage four of the evolutionary ladder, the latter to an artificial phenomenon which approximates to stage seven. The one faces down towards the beasts, the other aspires up towards the Supermen. And while we are discussing this particular antithetical equivalent, we may as well draw attention to the kindred distinction between, say, camels or elephants or bullocks and cars or buses or trucks. Just as certain species of larger, stronger animals served, in the past, to carry two or more people about on their backs, so these mechanical 'beasts of burden', the latter-day trucks and buses, perform a similar function in the present, and do so, as a rule, on far superior terms to the natural means of transportation!

There can be no denying the fact that the creation of antithetical equivalents to an earlier life form is consonant with evolutionary progress, as it struggles its way from stages 1-10 in pursuance of the goal of ultimate spiritual salvation. The age is fast approaching when man will create the antithetical equivalent to his own immediate predecessor, the ape, in the form of the millennial Superman, whose brain will be artificially supported and sustained in collectivized contexts. Each brain supported in this fashion will correspond to a Superman, just as each ape on a tree is a distinct ape, not part of a larger entity. Only with the removal of the old brain by qualified human personnel, during the next evolutionary leap forward, would the collectivized new brains resulting from such a surgical operation amount to a larger entity, which, embracing artificial supports and sustains as before, I have termed a Superbeing - the antithetical equivalent to a tree.

Having listed the most significant categories of antithetical equivalents currently in existence and intimated of those still to come, I would now like to draw attention to some of the more obvious or commonplace ones, such as derive from antitheses extending beneath the animal world to preceding stages of evolution - the distinction, for example, between natural light and artificial light, as between the sun and/or candles and neon and/or electric light. The distinction, for example, between natural heat, or an open fire, and artificial heat, or an electric fire. The distinction between natural flowers and artificial flowers, natural trees and artificial trees (especially as used at Christmas time to intimate of the post-Human Millennium), and so on. Strictly speaking, such distinctions do not constitute antithetical equivalents ... in the sense outlined above, but are extensions of the same thing on radically dissimilar terms. For instance, natural light and artificial light are both light, and therefore not antithetical to the degree or in the sense that a tree and a Superbeing would be. Rather, they are both relative antitheses, whereas the latter approximate, in their alpha/omega polarity, to absolute antitheses. Electric light is rather like an indoor sun, a sort of artificial source of pagan light.

Relative, too, is the comparatively recent invention of plastic inflatables, otherwise more colloquially known as 'sex dolls', whose shapely artificial bodies are designed to give the lonely, divorced, or hyperspiritual male some of the pleasure to be derived from a natural woman's body and maybe, in certain respects, as much. It is unlikely that, liberated women aside, all that many natural women would approve of this artificial alternative, which may strike them as unwarranted competition. But, like it or not, such an alternative now exists, and will doubtless continue to exist in the foreseeable future. Whether or not some men can derive more pleasure from a plastic inflatable than from a real-life, flesh-and-blood woman, it would be rather odd, in light of our earlier contentions, if such a life-like phenomenon had never been invented. After all, even relative antitheses have a part to play in evolutionary progress!