Ego, consciousness and soul

Our ego - our sense of self - is the product of a process of biological evolutionary selection that goes back to the origins of life on earth. In biological terms, the stronger the ego, the more likely its owner's genes will propagate more forcefully. Yet on a planet of almost eight billion people, we are now beyond that point in the evolution of Homo sapiens where any individual's ego is of much benefit to us as a species.

The demands of the ego - to be flattered, feted, followed and feared - lead to many negative consequences for humanity and for our planet. The maladjusted ego, soaked in materialism (rejecting the spiritual) is harmful for the environment. Thoughtless addiction to ever-bigger cars, exotic holidays, luxury goods, and endless consumption to show off one's social standing, means burning through single-use resources as our planet inexorably heats up.

We do owe it to ourselves to live in comfort - we must work and save and spend to avoid living in discomfort - but we should never strive to live in luxury, and we should avoid those people that do; for usually they are toxic, bereft of spiritual traits.

Yet we are  (all of us? some of us?) not just biological entities, we are also conscious beings. [Do philosophical zombies exist? Somehow Trump makes me believe in them.] Our consciousness - our subjective experience of being alive - can be equated with the religious concept of the soul. Can this transcend physical death? I certainly believe so, based on my personal experience of anomalous qualia memories (which I call exomnesia or xenomnesia). This reincarnated consciousness is shorn of its attendant ego at bodily death, although past-life dreams may show episodes experienced by the previous ego, so as to highlight the progress upon this short stage of the spiritual journey from zero to one.

I wrote about my observation in childhood that there was a 'mądry Michaś' and a 'głupi Michaś'; the former an attribute of my consciousness, the latter an attribute of my ego. In adolescence, the conscious, wise, self was almost entirely pushed aside by the testosterone-fuelled ego. In adulthood, the former has returned to push away much of the latter.

If the material body can evolve, why not can the soul? Can one compare spiritual evolution with the bodily kind? A slow refinement, a coagulation of consciousness into ever greater units of understanding which grow along with our expanding universe.

I feel that humanity is at a tipping point, this crisis, along with similarly existential crises of the past century (1914-1920, 1939-1945) when little by little, lessons learnt pushed us back from a path to mutual destruction, and the awakening of a more spiritual approach to life in the developed world.

Five billion good people living in comfort (but not in luxury) in the mid-22nd century on a restored planet is not unimaginable, we may draw it forward with our actions today. For those that believe, as I do, that our consciousness, shorn of its ties to the body, will return, an increasingly uncomfortable climate is something that should be avoided if only for selfish reasons!

This time last year:
Samopoczucie, Joy and the Sublime Aesthetic

This time three years ago:
Autumn, with a railway theme

This time four years ago:
A few words about coincidence

This time seven years ago:
Hello, pork pie [my week-long pork-pie diet]

This time nine years ago:
The meaning of class - in England, in Poland

This time ten years ago: 
First frost 

This time 14 years ago:
First frost