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!
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