Notes To A future me? The future me? Some future me? Each variation of that sentence has different connotations; to each one can be attached different metaphysical interpretations. Definite or indefinite? I choose indefinite. Singular or plural? I choose singular. So from the outset, I am assuming the notion of an individual - not communal - spiritual journey from Zero to One.
Why? I base this notion on a lifetime of fleeting conscious experiences - qualia memories that allude to a past life; memories rooted outside my conventional biography. Conscious connections to another time, another place, that are consistent and familiar.
Let me start by picking apart the word 'me'. To whom I referring? A metaphysical experience that extends beyond the biological 'me' - that's the me, Michael Dembinski, son of Bohdan and Maria, born 1957. I am not looking for a future version of my ego - no; my ego shall extinguish along with my body. Rather, it's the eternal 'me'; the consciousness that experiences those qualia - subjective and personal - the memories of which form the continuity of who I really am.
For it is this that I consider to be the essence of the Eternal Soul. A consciousness that travels along time's arrow from past to future, passing through an infinite number of biological hosts along the way, always evolving in spiritual terms.
Yet how this process works, how it can be explained in human terms, is beyond my intellectual grasp. I strongly intuit, however, that this is my life's purpose - to get just a few steps nearer to an understanding of the reincarnative nature of consciousness in this lifetime. And I do feel that over the years that my focus, and my understanding, is being honed.
So my assumption is that as has happened before, following the bodily demise of Michael Dembinski, my consciousness shall endure; though in what form - and in what place, and what time, is not something I can predict.
Though can I will my future incarnation in any direction?
I would wish to be reborn neither into suffering, nor into privilege. Neither states are conducive to contemplation of the numinous. Suffering is a state from which one struggles to escape - doing so becomes an all-engaging activity; abstract ontological questions are crowded out. But a life of luxury also stifles philosophical enquiry. A middle way, devoid of discomfort and of luxury, is required.
A future incarnation must have purpose - seeking and unravelling further clues, answers to which will lead to further steps along the infinitely long path from Zero to One. But we cannot expect the answer to the deepest questions of cosmic existence in this lifetime nor in the next; for this will only come at the end of time.
As humans, biological entities, we are driven by biological imperatives - which at the core are reproduction and hierarchy. Basic mammalian biology lies behind the human drive to attain and display material status. But the chasing of material possessions beyond the comfort level - luxury for its own sake - is something we all need to be aware that we are doing. And such behaviours should be shunned for the good of the soul - as well as for the good of society and the environment.
An ascetic life, focused on the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge and wisdom, should be the purpose. Wisdom for wisdom's sake - not for the sake of material wealth, power, privilege or popularity.
Bumbling through a world of ever-increasing complexity, I am aware that an ever-higher level of intelligence is needed just to make sense of it all, not to be fooled by those who wish to dupe us for their own egotistical ends. We are evolving within evolutionary intellectual arms-race; no longer is sheer brute force enough. In the present, and even more so in the future, the cunning, the clever and the quick will overcome the physically powerful. Evolution increasingly favours the smart, not the strong.
What would I ask of a future bio-environment - a future human body - within which my consciousness could continue to evolve spiritually within an unfolding Universe tending towards its purpose?
I'd certainly be grateful for greater powers of focus - a longer, deeper, attention span, a brain that is less-easily distracted. A brain that can deal with mathematics beyond the basics, a brain that can understand and recall complex formulae. But then not just the number-crunching ability of IQ but a deep and accurate intuition. Is raw intellect as important as intuition? Are they separate?
As a species have so much more to learn about ourselves, our environment and the vastness of the Cosmos. It's not something we can get to intuit within a lifetime. And so, I believe, the future exists as a space for our eternal consciousness to inhabit, to return to, to evolve spiritually in.
More in this thread to come, over the years. I grow in understanding, as does science. Our model of the Universe unfolds along with it.
This time last year:
The End of Times
This time two years ago:
Going round in circles
This time three years ago:
Between wakefulness and sleep
In search of quintessential English countryside
This time ten years ago:
Behold and See - short story, Pt III
This time 13 years ago:
Another return to Penrhos
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