CONCLUSIONS—Pragmatic Reality. Chapter 6. cont.

THE KINDERGARTEN

[The essay originally printed in DELUSIONS does not raise any questions, but rather provides Conclusions. I brought the excerpts from Beyond Religion 1, Essay #52 up to the latest knowledge available.]

“It begins when the rudimentary consciousness asserts its will to survive as an individual unit in the phenomenal reality.

An ameba, a virus, a bacterium.

 A mono-cellular entity becomes aware of the reality within and the immediate environment outside of itself. It defines its territory, its boundaries. The primitive consciousness learns the laws of survival by re-embodying itself within ever more complex physical forms. Each re-embodiment is designed to increase the scope of its operations. The Sanskrit scriptures place the number of transmigrations of each individual consciousness at 8,400,000. Hopefully, this number includes the second phase of our (human) evolution, though I doubt it. Suffice to say that the primary stage of our existence consists exclusively of assuring physical survival and wellbeing in the phenomenal reality (through which individualized Consciousness can experience the process of Becoming).

The learning process in this phase relies on repetitive conditioning. The method is that of trial and error. The repetitions serve to develop a subconscious storehouse of information, on which the primitive consciousness can draw to survive within its embodiment in ever-changing environments. Its responses to challenges are reactive, i.e. automatic or instinctive.

There is no evidence of free will or deductive reasoning; although the acquired experiences are carefully stored in the genetic code of the biological constructs and the entity proceeds to advance its evolution. At this stage, the individualized consciousness is subject to the indomitable laws of nature.

A mistake costs it its creation and its life.

Nature is a very cruel mistress.

The main problem in Kindergarten is that there is no discernible communication. What little there might be, by observation only, is immediately adapted to one’s own survival. Otherwise, it is ignored. This acute, purposeful self-centeredness seems to persist in some individualized unit of awareness for many eons. I know people who behave in this fashion even today, a few million years since its original embodiment.  

The hypothetical phenomenon of the hundredth monkey effect comes much later. In ‘School’.

Nevertheless, nature in her wisdom has equipped our rudimentary units of intelligence with genetic memory storage, well ahead of any computer. This code carries most if not all the instructions for survival, short of the unit coming across new, unprecedented hurdles.

In such circumstances, one of two things can happen.

Either it follows the input from its genetic code, or, by accident (though not by design), it tries something new. If the new works, it becomes incorporated into the revised, enhanced code, and is passed on to future generations in order to assist them in survival. I believe this is one way of looking at Darwin’s “survival of the fittest,” although “survival of the most resourceful” again, by accident, might be a better way to describe the Kindergarten.

Nevertheless, Kindergarten is the only the phase of our evolution wherein the process of natural selection reigns supreme. Millions of years of natural selection result in a veritable plethora of most diverse, complex and beautiful organisms imaginable—not the least of which is man. Alas, at the end of the School Year, man and natural selection must part company.

Thus, the learned biologists must resign themselves to deal only with primitive life forms. Unless they prefer to sit back, wait, and see what happens to their own bodies. It might prove to be a very, very long wait.

Energy cannot be destroyed, remember?

And, after all, we are all... energy.

The immortal aspect is, of course, the Energy of Consciousness, no matter in how primitive phenomenal body it finds its transient abode.

While the process of natural selection is, by definition, a process, i.e. it is not limited by time and thus it continues even today in more advanced forms, e.g. in humans. All too often it's built-in a rare but necessary tendency toward mutation turns against the organism it helped develop, by attacking the organism’s immune system. The extremely prevalent rheumatoid arthritis is a well-known example of this. I suppose one could say that if it doesn’t kill one, it makes one stronger. Regrettably, it takes a lot of joy out of life.

Amusing though it may seem, there are people, today, who appear to be motivated exclusively by the above method. They have not, as yet, taken charge of their own natural selection. They still have a 50/50 chance of survival. A little like tossing a coin. In fact, I met very few people who were willing to take full responsibility for their actions. There was always someone else to blame. Perhaps, at their stage of development, they were doing the right thing.

There is one other vital lesson that we are intended to learn in Kindergarten. The lesson deals with evolutionary absolutism. It is also very pragmatic. It states quite simply: kill or be killed. You must kill to eat, thus to survive: carnivore and herbivore alike. Let us never forget that it is the same life-force that enlivens both fauna and flora. Kill or be killed is not a suggestion, it is an absolute prerequisite of natural selection.

It is unfortunate that the majority of the human species still conforms to this primitive evolutionary demand. In fact, many of us don’t just kill to survive, we kill because we enjoy killing. We enjoy the hunt. It seems that natural selection has not succeeded in eliminating this trait, as yet, from the human species. Will it ever?

It will. Those (energies) which do not evolve will be recycled in the Black Holes.

(Soon to be published)