DISPELLING A FUTURISTIC MYTH

The Universe is assuredly very vast

But there's no reason for us to attempt exploring it all.

Exploring the Solar System

To which our planet belongs is no mean task,

And should suffice to satisfy the curiosity

Of space-oriented adventurers for some time to come!

Eventually man may extend his curiosity

To other solar systems in the Galaxy;

Though there is no guarantee of the fact,

And I rather doubt that such an extension

Would serve him much good.

It is more probable that the nearest solar systems

Won't differ too greatly from our own than

The converse and, that being the case, there can be

Scant justification for man's exploring them,

Since they won't have all that much to teach him.

The idea that he will come into contact

With creatures from outer space is also suspect,

Especially when such creatures are envisaged

As being superior to him

In intelligence and evolutionary sophistication.

For a life form superior to man,

And particularly to the transcendental men

Of the ultimate human civilization, could only be

At the Superman's stage of evolution - assuming

It wasn't a Superbeing - and to be at such a stage

Is to have the human brain artificially supported

And sustained in communal contexts

For purposes of spiritual expansion.

No life form superior to man

Would therefore be inclined to explore space,

After the fashion of transitional or transcendental men,

And risk contact, for better or worse,

With space-exploring humans.

Beyond man, the pattern of evolution

Would seem to lead, via the post-Human Millennium,

To the transcendental Beyond, which is space considered

As the setting for separate globes

Of transcendent spirit to converge and expand,

Tending, all the while, towards definitive unity

In the omega point ... of the ultimate spiritual globe.

The transcendental Beyond is synonymous with Heaven;

Though beneath this there is also

The earthly Beyond ... of the post-Human Millennium,

Here we are, men tending towards

The transcendental civilization,

And ahead of us we glimpse the post-Human Millennium,

Which, as its name suggests, is beyond

The human stages of evolution.

But the transcendental Beyond ... of Heaven

Is beyond even the post-Human Millennium,

And thus isn't set on earth but in space,

So that evolution will attain to a culmination

With the establishment of the Omega Absolute

In the same setting as the Alpha Absolute(s) ...

Of the stars are now in

And have always been in - namely space.

So what began in space will also end there,

Though on the most antithetical terms conceivable.

We, however, exist on the planet Earth

And therefore can look in two ways:

Either 'back' to the stars or 'forward' towards

The future attainment of spirit to the transcendental Beyond.

We are already a bit transcendent on the Earth;

For the stars are akin to the roots of evolution

And accordingly set in space on the most basic terms.

Christian theology wasn't mistaken to posit Hell as 'below';

For, indeed, in looking at the sun

And other nearby stars we are effectively

Looking back and down, as it were,

To the diabolic roots of evolution,

Even if our heads happen to be inclined-up

At an acute angle in the process.

Sensual indulgence of one form or another

Was punishable, at death, by banishment from Heaven,

And artists valiantly strove to depict

The Damned being pitchforked down towards Hell,

Where fire was the cardinal element.

Theology exaggerated, but it did so with reason,

Since the man who is more sensual than spiritual

Stems from the Diabolic Alpha

To a greater extent than he aspires

Towards the Divine Omega, and,

When his respective predilections have been added-up

And weighed in the theological balance

At the conclusion of his earthly life,

May well be more qualified for damnation than salvation.

In the Christian schema most people

Of early-Christian times were

Foregone candidates for damnation; since

The ratio of sensuality to spirituality can only be greater

The lower the stage of human evolution.

Damnation scenes rightly preponderate

Over salvation ones in medieval iconography.

Saints were then, as now, the exception to the rule.

But we of a post-Christian age

Should be struggling more towards Heaven

Than sliding or falling back towards Hell.

We may look at the stars,

But few of us would desire to embrace them!

We prefer them where they are

And to distance ourselves from them.

Our aspirations tend towards the transcendental Beyond,

Even if unconsciously and without fanaticism.

Evolution continues whether or not we know why.

It happens all around us and we are caught-up in it.

Even when we don't directly participate

In a particular aspect of evolutionary progress,

We read or hear about it or see a recording of it

And are influenced by it.

Spacemen are a part of our mental universe,

Just as we are a part of the physical one.

For the Universe isn't just stars and planets

With space in-between, but also (at higher levels),

Plants, animals, and humans,

And so evolves from a physical to a spiritual level

Via intermediate life forms.

Eventually the Universe will culminate

In pure spirit, or one vast globe of transcendence,

But it cannot get to that ultimate stage

Without the interim life forms struggling up

Towards the goal of evolution in supreme being.

Transcendental men of the coming world civilization

Will continue the struggle

From where Christian men left off,

And then be superseded by Supermen,

Who in turn will be superseded by Superbeings,

Before spiritual globes emerge from the Earth.

Only on the higher human levels,

The transitional and transcendental ones,

Is there any possibility of contact being established

With aliens from other solar systems;

For no superman would desire to waste time

Exploring farther afield in space

When there was spirit to cultivate in his psyche on Earth.

As evolution progresses, so life becomes

Increasingly interiorized, rendering

External adventure of progressively less importance,

Until, with the Supermen, it ceases to play any role at all.

The space-research programmes

Of both the Americans and the Russians

Of contemporary transitional civilization

May well constitute a kind of

Human peak of space exploration,

Since men of the future transcendental civilization

Will generally be more interiorized than contemporary men,

And correspondingly less inclined

To indulge in external adventure.

Doubtless, some space research will continue;

But there is no reason for us to suppose

That it will bring transcendental man

Into contact with aliens from outer space

Or extend very far beyond this solar system.

There shouldn't be any space wars

Between humans and aliens, at any rate,

Because the most advanced stage of human life

Should be categorically above war,

And would not have put an end to war

Between human beings simply in order

To start it up with aliens

On a much wider and possibly more horrific scale.

As men progress to higher levels of civilization,

So they become more spiritual, and hence passive,

Not given to historical levels of violence.

We needn't expect transcendental men

To go looking for trouble with their alien counterparts

In the farthest reaches of the Galaxy.

Such men may initially have cause

To rage space conflict between themselves

(Or, more specifically, between advocates of

Transcendentalism and upholders of materialism), but

With the advent of the post-Human Millennium on earth

All possibility of such wars should cease.

For the Supermen will be beings of peace in the truest sense -

Dedicated to the contemplation

Of internal visionary experience, and hence

The expansion of the superconscious mind.

Space, fortunately, would be beneath them!