Evolutionary Stages

STUART: I like this idea of yours that evolution proceeds in a kind of zigzagging fashion with oscillations between the romantic and the classic, as emphasizing a distinction between the Becoming and the Become. It begins, you say, with a romantic Becoming in the First Cause?

KEVIN: Which can be equated with the central star of the Galaxy, as of any galaxy.

STUART: And then proceeds to a kind of classical Become in the planets?

KEVIN: No, more precisely in the smaller stars, such as the sun, from some of which there eventually emerged the planets as a kind of romantic Becoming.

STUART: Ah, the minor stars! Yes, of course! They precede the planets, which go through various changes until ...

KEVIN: Nature emerges on earth as the first planetary classical Become, with particular reference to the trees - the oldest and most noble specimens of nature.

STUART: There then follows, however, a romantic Becoming in the animals...?

KEVIN: Including insects, reptiles, fish, birds, mammals, et cetera, which are all life forms, irrespective of their size or habitat, capable of movement and conscious decision, and therefore stand between the plants and man in the evolution of life. Of all the animals, we must single out apes, or a certain species of ape, the way I singled out trees, as integral to a line of evolutionary ascent leading, in due course, to man.

STUART: So from the classical Become of a tree to the romantic Becoming of an ape swinging in its branches, we move on, at length, to the classical Become of a man descended from that ape?

KEVIN: Yes, in a manner of speaking! The man you are alluding to arose at a rather later phase of evolution than the caveman of prehistoric times, being of pagan civilization and, in particular, a certain phase of it ... such as we nowadays tend to equate with Graeco-Roman classicism. This man signifies a classical Become on a predominantly sensual level.

STUART: Whereas the tree presumably signifies such a Become on an almost exclusively sensual or, at any rate, sensuous level.

KEVIN: Yes, since somewhat closer to an absolute than is man. With the next, or dualistic, phase of evolution, however, we enter the realm of a romantic Becoming, particularly with regard to Catholic Christianity, and from there, with the inception of Transcendentalism in a post-dualistic civilization, we shall progress to the highest human Become, a classical Become of predominantly spiritual constitution, and therefore quite the reverse of the pagan Become.

STUART: I have now counted from 1-8, beginning with the First Cause and ending with transcendental man.

KEVIN: Then let us continue on up the ladder of evolution to the ninth rung, so to speak, which will be the romantic Becoming of the Supermen in the first phase of the post-Human Millennium. The Supermen will require artificially-induced upward self-transcending visionary experience and signify a stage on the road, as it were, to the next classical Become - the highest earthly Become ... of the Superbeings who, as new-brain collectivizations, will stand at the opposite evolutionary remove from trees (rather than to apes on trees) and thus signify classicism on a near-absolute spiritual level.

STUART: Which level will in turn be superseded, I take it, by a fresh romantic Becoming in...?

KEVIN: The convergence and expansion of Spiritual Globes in the heavenly Beyond, which would constitute the ultimate romantic Becoming prior to the ultimate classical Become of ... attainment by such separate transcendences to unity in the Omega Absolute at the climax of spiritual evolution. And that, believe it or not, would be stage twelve - the complete antithesis to the lowest romantic Becoming ... of the First Cause, at stage one.

STUART: How amazing! One could argue that evolution comes full-circle with its return to an absolute.

KEVIN: Except for the fact that the Omega Absolute will be as different from the alpha absolutism of stars, both major and minor, as it is possible to conceive. What began under the negative principle of proton-proton reactions should culminate under the converse principle of electron-electron attractions - the ultimate positivity!

STUART: Thus evolution proceeds from the subatomic to the supra-atomic via the atomic.

KEVIN: Precisely! Atoms are at the base of matter, but before matter arises one has the alpha absolutism of the gaseous stars, and after electrons have escaped from matter one will have the omega absolutism of transcendent spirit. The most absolute soul, whether in its romantic or classic phase, is beneath electron emergence. Transcendent spirit, whether in its romantic or classic phase, will be above proton constraint. The former is absolutely evil, the latter absolutely good.

STUART: So when do atoms first emerge in evolution?

KEVIN: With the formation of matter in the romantic Becoming of the planets, particularly on planets, like the earth, which were rich in mineral formations. As matter ascends it becomes less dense; but the lower manifestation of matter in rock/crystal formations is especially dense, thereby testifying to a considerable preponderance of protons and/or neutrons over electrons in an atomic cohesion which defies the emergence of consciousness. However, consciousness as we understand it doesn't arise with the plants either, but only with the animals, and then on a comparatively rudimentary level.

STUART: This suggests that the ratio of protons and/or neutrons to electrons in the overall constitution of the animal brain is still heavily biased on the side of the former, and consequently impedes the development of consciousness.

KEVIN: Particularly with regard to spiritual consciousness, which requires for its expansion a preponderance of electrons over protons and/or neutrons such as one only finds in man, and then after millennia of evolutionary struggle. Animal consciousness is predominantly sensual because of the preponderance of protons and neutrons in the atomic constitution of its brain. But the atomic structure is such that a degree of spiritual consciousness becomes possible, because the electrons are more numerous than in the matter of, say, a tree, and not so densely smothered by protons and neutrons.

STUART: So even a tree, to the extent that it is atomic rather than subatomic, must possess mind in some degree?

KEVIN: It possesses a subconscious, or sensual, mind derived from a preponderating proton constitution. But although the rudiments of a conscious mind are present in the electron ingredient, so to speak, of the tree's atomic structure, there is no consciousness as such, because the electrons are too greatly outnumbered and tightly smothered by both the protons and neutrons to emerge as a distinct consciousness. A tree can feel, but it can't think!

STUART: Thus feeling is the quality of proton-dominated matter.

KEVIN: Yes, feeling corresponds to the wavicle aspect of matter, proton and/or neutron and electron cohesions to its particle aspect. The wavicle aspect is the soul of matter, the particle aspect its body, whether as regards protons and neutrons or electrons.

STUART: You mean, an electron, no less than a proton, is a tiny material entity?

KEVIN: Considered literally, yes! But, unlike a proton, an electron will have consciousness as its quality, so that the electron wavicle will be spiritual rather than sensual or intellectual, and therefore akin to the spirit of matter. Thus a distinction arises, with the wavicle aspect, between the soul and the spirit of matter, which is paralleled, in the particle aspect, by a distinction between protons and electrons. Obviously, the ratio of soul to spirit, or vice versa, will vary according to the kind of matter under consideration.

STUART: You mean, a piece of wood will possess a different wavicle integrity from the neo-cortex of a highly intelligent man.

KEVIN: Absolutely! The wood will be proton biased and therefore its wavicle quality will be soul, whereas the neo-cortex will be electron biased and possess, in its wavicle aspect, a spiritual quality.

STUART: Then surely there must be a similar distinction between the two main physiological components of the human cortex, viz. the old brain and the new brain, which would suggest a different atomic structuring at the base of each - the one being of a proton bias and the other, by contrast, of an electron bias?

KEVIN: Oh, indeed! And that is precisely why the wavicle aspect of each brain is so different, the subconscious being soul and the superconscious ... spirit, the former betokening feelings and the latter ... awareness, with intelligence coming in-between. Were each brain identically structured in the ratio of protons to electrons, then their wavicle aspects would be identical, as either soul or spirit. But the neo-cortex, or new brain, is in the process of evolving in the direction of greater electron freedom, its atomic integrity being rearranged, through spiritual striving, in such a way as to create an imbalance favouring the electron component, an imbalance which, taken to its logical extreme, should result in the disintegration of any remaining atomic structure and the attainment of electrons to transcendence, in complete freedom from proton and/or neutron constraint.

STUART: An eventuality which could only happen, presumably, in the latter phase of the post-Human Millennium, when life, in the guise of Superbeings, was directly programmed for the heavenly Beyond.

KEVIN: Yes, for by then the old brain would have been surgically removed by the millennial technicians and only the new brain would remain, its wavicle aspect being spirit, and the raison d'être of each Superbeing, or new-brain collectivization, being the expansion of that spirit towards transcendence in an endeavour to bring evolution to a supra-atomic plane of ... electron-electron attractions in the heavenly Beyond. Each Superbeing would be expanding spirit through a hypermeditation made possible by the interaction of the various new brains in any given collectivization and the complete absence of subconscious constraint, thereby changing the new brain's atomic structure in the direction of greater degrees of spiritual freedom ... until, with transcendence, the ultimate degree of spiritual freedom was attained to, a degree entailing, in all probability, the collapse of the physiological base - the new brains disintegrating into flame as the electrons broke free of the remaining proton and neutron constraints, and thus shattered what atomic integrity there had been.

STUART: Why do you suggest the possibility of flame?

KEVIN: Because once electrons had departed for the heavenly Beyond, the disintegration of what had formerly been an atomic integrity would result in protons reacting against one another in a subatomic context akin to that of the sun, and the sun, as we both know, is a great ball of raging flame. Thus would the world gradually destroy itself in the wake of departed spirit - flame spreading from each collapsed new-brain collectivization to whatever lay in its path until, eventually, everything was consumed.

STUART: You said electrons would break free, but would they actually soar heavenwards or would particle husks be left behind, as their wavicle aspect attained to transcendence?

KEVIN: Yes, I said electrons and I meant electrons! I can't imagine spirit existing without its particle base in the electron. Does the sun's flame exist without its particle base in the proton? No, of course not! And neither need we expect wavicles to exist without electrons on which to dance. They have to emerge from somewhere, after all.

STUART: But would that make for transcendence?

KEVIN: Oh yes, because these wavicles would not be attached to matter, as in an atomic integrity, but to pure electrons, which would be as far above matter as pure protons, in the subatomic absolutism of the stars, are beneath it. Maybe even more so, insofar as electrons are the pro-spiritual elements in an atomic structure, whereas protons remain aligned with the emotional realm, and neutrons with the intellectual one. But when pure spirit arises from the Superbeings, it will create a nuclear reaction releasing proton energy in every direction, and this in turn will give rise, I am quite convinced, to a holocaust, albeit one destined, in due course, to burn itself into nothingness as the proton fires subside. Thus will the protons destroy themselves as the electrons wing their way heavenwards, as it were, in various-sized spiritual globes.

STUART: The smallest size presumably arising from any given Superbeing, and the largest ...?

KEVIN: Eventually being the Omega Absolute itself. Though while Spiritual Globes were converging towards one another and expanding into larger wholes in a kind of romantic Becoming, they would pass through evolutionary stages corresponding to the successive star changes ... from the galactic central star to the individual planets via the minor stars of each galaxy. However, these supra-atomic stages would be the converse of the subatomic ones, so that, beginning in Spiritual Globes as antitheses to the 'material' globes of the planets, supra-atomic evolution would progress from a 'planetary' to a 'galactic' level, and on, eventually, to a 'universal' level, as the individual Spiritual Globes became larger and fewer in number, following successive convergences and expansions.

STUART: Your genius overwhelms me and obliges me to request a clarification, on the basis of this more comprehensive perspective, of the respective evolutionary stages ... from the first to the last.

KEVIN: Very well! Let us begin with whatever number of governing stars there are in the Universe, one to each galaxy, which correspond to X number of first causes. Let us then proceed to an XX number of minor stars, millions to each galaxy, and consider them as stage two. Then let us proceed to an XXX number of planets, possibly billions to each galaxy, which in turn give rise, on certain planets, to an XXXX number of plants, including trees, at stage four. Next let us proceed to an XXXXX number of animals on these life-sustaining planets, and bring ourselves to stage six with the advent of XXXXXX numbers of pagan men. The ensuing Christian, or equivalent anthropomorphic, stage is really a combination of two stages, since dualistic in constitution, and leads, via XXXXXXX numbers of atomic men, to stage seven with XXXXXX numbers of transcendental men. Then follows stage eight, with XXXXX numbers of Supermen, which are human brains artificially supported and sustained in collectivized contexts. After this first and lower phase of the post-Human Millennium, however, we proceed to its second and higher phase in new-brain intensified collectivizations ... with XXXX numbers of Superbeings at stage nine. This in turn leads to transcendence with XXX numbers of Spiritual Globes, these small transcendences continuously merging into one another until, at stage eleven, they become more the size of stars than planets and may justifiably be regarded in terms of XX numbers of Galactic Globes. It now only remains for these larger transcendences to converge towards one another, from whatever part of the Universe, into one ultimate globe ... for evolution to be complete in the Omega Absolute at stage twelve, the final X.

STUART: Thus what began in the many First Causes will culminate in the one Last Effect?

KEVIN: Precisely! Evolution proceeding from the subatomic to the supra-atomic via intermediate degrees of atomic compromise.

STUART: And in a kind of zigzagging fashion of romantic/classic alternations?

KEVIN: Yes, though that particularly applies to the intermediate, or earthly, stages of evolution, where a Becoming/Become alternation derives from and appertains to the variously-constituted atomic integrities which prevail there. With the subatomic stages, however, evolution broadly reflects the proton absolutism of stars and planets in terms of a continuous romantic Becoming, whereas with the supra-atomic stages of evolution there will really be a continuous classical Become, in accordance with the electron absolutism of spiritual globes en route, as it were, to the Omega Absolute. Viewed from the human standpoint, this convergence and expansion of Spiritual Globes will suggest a romantic Becoming. But Absolute Mind, the essence of transcendent spirit, would be unaware of any such Becoming because entirely wrapped-up, so to speak, in self-absorption ... as sole witness to its divine Being. Conversely, although the stars may suggest to us, as we view them from millions of miles distance, a classical Become, they are continuously engulfed by the negative Becoming of their proton-proton reactions, and are thus consumed in apparent activity. Transcendent spirit, by contrast, would be completely immersed in essential passivity, the quality of electron-electron attractions. There could be no greater distinction than that!

STUART: So now I understand, for the first time, how evolution proceeds and where it is tending. Man has now reached the point where he can split the atom of crude matter, severing electrons from their proton and/or neutron constraints. But he has a long way to go before he can split the atomic structure of the new brain apart!

KEVIN: That's true. Though there is no reason for us to be pessimistic as to its eventual achievement. The Superbeings of the higher phase of the post-Human Millennium will most certainly progress towards transcendence, and when they attain to it ... the result will be salvation for the liberated electrons but damnation for the abandoned protons, which will then react against one another in diabolic fashion. Just as well that, by then, all human technicians would have departed the scene, to leave the prospect of witnessing the ultimate nuclear holocaust to their artificial colleagues - the robots and computers, whose material constitutions will be impervious to conscious pain!