The Physical Body as a Fractal or…a Pet!

How many times, those threading along the spiritual journey, have heard the axiom that we are primarily spiritual beings inhabiting a physical vessel? Even if at times sparks of the enlightening Truth may have been strong enough to have us walk around in spiritual bliss for some time - perhaps even for a few days - only to find ourselves becoming identified all over again with our ego-based fears, weaknesses, and all the other throes and afflictions that pull us back away from remembering our spiritual essence? Maybe this is one more of those flitting instances for me, but nonetheless it has stretched long enough for me to grab my iPad and write about it.

Soul essence - the life force within us entangling us to Source - slides into physical matter the way your hand slips into a glove. In the case of the soul, because of its ethereal nature, some of it also radiates outside of the physical body into what some call the aura field. But most of it is contained within the body. The body serves as a protective bubble to the soul, but so does the soul to the body. It is a symbiotic relationship where one feeds into the other, partnering and collaborating so that each can grow and evolve on their own together. Steiner (1994) outlines a similar model of the human being composed of a physical body, soul, and spirit, emphasizing the soul’s evolution through lifetimes. He discusses how spiritual reality permeates the physical and how conscious development aligns us with cosmic purpose. This configuration involving more than one element for the same identity seems to lie at the core of our struggle to maintain spiritual awareness amidst the ego. Michael Newton (1994) went ahead to postulate that along the course of Darwinian evolution, it is the soul that drove certain primates to evolve into the human form as we know it today. On a similar vein, Leadbeater’s (1990) classical theosophical text explores how subtle energy interacts with physical and emotional states and how the soul animates the physical body through these centers.

The picture is far more complex though, with entities from other dimensions interfering and contributing to the DNA structure, and not all of them upholding ‘well-meaning’ intentions. You see, the life-force that we affectionately call ‘spirit’ is a precious and exclusive type of energy that is very much in demand. If you thought that a ticket to the Maldives, owning a thriving multi-million business, or driving a luxurious yacht symbolized the epitome of wealth, you were being run for a ride (on a yacht or spaceship or whatever other vehicle of your liking). The proverbial spiritual wealth as the true wealth is legitimate in the grander scheme of things. But not many are able to understand what ‘spiritual wealth’ truly refers to. Relatedly, Gurdjieff (1977) directly critiques conventional notions of success and wealth, in line with the contrast that I proposed between material and spiritual value. A central text in modern esotericism, Gurdjieff’s teachings about human consciousness, the evolution of the soul, and how most people live in a kind of spiritual sleep emphasize the value of “real” knowledge and the rarity of spiritual awakening.

This is the right point for me to share something about artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic intelligence, and the difference between them and organic intelligence. But first let me go back just a few more trillions of googols of Earth years; a time where there is no time (what, in Shamanistic traditions, is known as the timeless space outside time) (Harner, 2009). Source is really darkness, and the light is the product of darkness. Light was not sufficient to understand what was happening - guess what, one needs to understand what one sees. And the mechanism of desiring to understand triggered a colossal production of additional complex structures that by economic terminology it would be akin to diseconomies of scale. It’s a beautiful mess where everything and everywhere is convoluted onto itself. All sorts of entities - what we call ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and everything in-between - intertwine in an endless cacophony of dances characterized by expansions and contractions; emerging and decaying on all imaginable proportions in a gazillion range of dimensions and probabilities.

If you sensed Gnostic themes in my cosmological reflections about light emerging from darkness then you are right. I cannot deny the influence of work such as that by Kherdian (1981). I highly recommend his book on the "divine spark" as additional philosophical backdrop for my references to chaos, complexity, and timelessness.

All of the creations subsequent to the formation of light particles can be viewed as artifacts of this need of understanding; or organic intelligence - or Sophia even - if this is what tickles your fancy. The human body, standing out with its sophisticated brain as an instrument of both wisdom and compassion, has proven what the marriage of matter with organic intelligence/ Sophia is capable of. This life-force is therefore significantly sought after, with various ‘architects’ of matter scheming ways of harnessing it, exploiting it, stealing it, or, at the very least, copying it or faking it. Some of these ‘architects’ have infiltrated our DNA, while others are puppetting us for their use. The most synthetic form of this intelligence stands for one of the routes into which part of humanity is heading towards - the virtual world of artificial intelligence (AI) - a dimension so far removed from Source, that it may well deserve to be called a sterile dimension. I’m still not sure if this synthetic dimension is linked to the other [catastrophic] route that humanity may swerve into - the one of ego-centredness; the antithesis of unity consciousness. Ego-centredness is actually a misnomer, because that part of the ego striving to depart from unity is so disconnected from everything, that it is also disconnected from itself, and leans towards self-destruction. This is the vein along which narcissism and narcissistic traits operate from.

These ideas somewhat resonate with Blavatsky’s (1977). Blavatsky maintains that consciousness preceded matter and that humanity’s physical and spiritual evolution has been shaped by higher intelligences. Blavatsky (1977) provides an authoritative theosophical view on humanity’s deeper metaphysical origins.

Ultimately, the physical body itself is a sort of mixture of both organic and synthetic intelligence, and this explains why its way of functioning - showing itself to ‘us’ ever more clearly thanks to advances in science - bewilders and strikes ‘us’ beyond measure. Because of the high degree of evolution that it underwent, in combination with the altercation by other entities and the recent addition of AI and bio-mechanical technology, it has blurry demarcations. It is therefore no surprise that humans are so confused about their nature. The ego pull is very strong, and over millions of years it has learnt how to envelope itself intimately with spirit - the most organic/ primordial life-force known up till now [to me] - in order to grow and evolve. I wonder whether this mix is like honey and water, and therefore providing an explanation to the origin of the mythological cosmic nectar. A sensual swirl of Yin and Yang energy, where Shiva lured Shakti into an irresistible dance borne out of a sense of their innate polarity that was drawn to the other not unlike the opposite ends of a magnet. And yes, magnetism and all the other scientific models are spiritual in origin. In the manner that ‘we’ are primarily spirit inhabiting the body, so is spirit the foundation of science.

By no means does the above represent a covenant engraved on slabs of stone. It is my personal gnosis at this specific point in time, and subject to further update and/or change. I invite you to seek for yourself the Truth that you need in order to better understand your spiritual self; your true nature. Looking at the body as a ‘pet’ that the soul was assigned to in a particular lifetime helps me better grasp this idea. The body that gives a person their identity is one more fractal among a gazillion others, extending outwards frantically, and equally desperately trying to find stability by knowing itself. I feel grateful to have been assigned Christine, however tumultuous our relationship has been so far. She has enabled me to place spirituality above my physicality, ironically helping me feel more grounded about my place in the universe.

Bibliography:

Blavatsky, H.P. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1977.

Gurdjieff, G.I. In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. New York: Harcourt, 1977.

Harner, Michael. Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another Reality. Berkeley: North

Atlantic Books, 2013.

Kherdian, David. The Divine Spark: A Gnostic Anthology. New York: Paulist Press, 1981.

Leadbeater, C.W. The Chakras. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1990.

Newton, Michael. Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.

Steiner, Rudolf. Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1994.