Beyond the Post Planetary Age

In the epilogue to Physical Spirituality I noted that humanity is in the process of crossing a divide between a planetary scale, where architectivity dominates, to a cosmic scale that is entirely devoid of architectivity. I pointed to space exploration and the globalization of communication, commerce and culture as evidence of this.

As a result we are approaching the spatial limit of architectivity, beyond which the architective features of newness, complexity and creativity become irrelevant. I see humanity to be on the cusp of a "post planetary age", not only because we are reaching beyond our planet but because we are extending beyond the limit of architective possibility.

I noted that a successful negotiation of the cosmic consciousness afforded us by psychedelic drugs requires an abandonment of architectivity, and that these experiences give us a taste of what our connective future might look like.

Now consider some consequences for human consciousness of engaging such a highly connective outlook:

The primary feature of a purely connective consciousness, apart from its ignorance of architective serial meaning, would be its capacity to integrate with the cosmic connective system and constellate with the cosmic holism. In the context of a psychedelic experience I spoke about these experiences as attaining cosmic integration and cosmic selfhood.

Such integration and selfhood may of course be achieved by many, which by their very nature means that the experience is shared, not necessarily as a matter of identical perception, but as a mutual appreciation of an experience being shared - much like a dance.

How far might we take this idea of sharing these cosmic experiences? Might we not extend it to a sharing with conscious organisms on other planets, those who are also able to overcome the domination of their architective environments so as to achieve a cosmic outlook? Might we not extend it to drifting visages of the cosmic holism constellating coincidentally - impromptu parties of passing connective minds? Might such drifting visages not have been sourced in people who are no longer with us, spirits of our ancestors, as it were? The possibilities are, to say the least, mind-boggling.

What I am suggesting is the prospect of a cosmic community, perhaps many communities, in which we can participate by virtue of an acquired cosmic capacity. Not of course overcoming the limitations of space and time but participating in communities where differences in these are irrelevant.

In this sense, human (connective) spirituality would not only be a personal integration with the greater cosmos, but a joining into a dynamic community of minds, unbridled in its scope and diversity (apart from it being only connective).