Our Journey

“You are about to embark on a journey, a journey into the depths of the Universe. What follows is an account of the most fundamental issues relating to human existence. As our journey progresses you will gain insights into the nature of reality, what it means to be human, the meaning of life and how to best live your life. You will come to see how the human species relates to the non-human life-forms that we share the planet with. You will come to appreciate why the human species is the most precious life-form that has ever, and will ever, exist in our Solar System. You will come to understand why the human species has inevitably dominated the planet and why it has rampantly utilised our fellow life-forms as resources. You will come to appreciate the unfolding journey of our Solar System, and of human culture, as inevitable war and exploitative domination gradually come to be replaced by universal peace and respect for all life-forms. You will come to see why the ‘environmental crisis’ and human-induced global warming / climate change are not bad events; rather, they are signs that life on Earth, and in our Solar System, is positively thriving. You will also come to appreciate the vastly differing stories that we, as a species, tell ourselves about our place on the Earth. Some of these stories are optimistic and positive in tone, whilst others are pessimistic and present a gloomy view of the human species.

One such gloomy story that is currently quite popular is the view that the human species is an unwelcome guest on the Earth, some kind of destroying parasite, and that the Earth would be far better off if the human species became extinct. In this story the human species is conceptualised as an entity that brings immense suffering to the non-human life-forms of the Earth for its own selfish benefit. As our journey progresses you will come to appreciate both why this story has been created and why it is totally misguided. You will eventually come to see that the human species is the most precious form of life in our Solar System, and that the purpose of the human species, the reason that it came into existence, is intimately connected to the phenomenon of global warming. You will come to see that rather than being the bringer of suffering to non-human Earthly life-forms for its own selfish benefit, the fundamental underlying truth is that the human species suffers vastly more than any of the other life-forms on the Earth, so that it can be the saviour of non-human Earthly life.

Let’s elucidate this a little. Our realisation will be that if the human species didn’t initiate any global warming of our atmospheric temperature then this would mean that we had failed in our cosmic mission; we would have failed to fulfil our purpose, and thus life in our Solar System would be forever doomed. This would be a tragic outcome. The phenomenon of human-induced global warming is not a bad event, some kind of tragedy, a terrible injustice to non-human life, as is commonly portrayed. In order to appreciate why this is so, one needs to be aware of the bigger picture within which the phenomenon is situated. In other words, one needs to appreciate the full swathe of the evolutionary unfolding of our Solar System, of our planet and of human culture. Another way of putting this is to say that one needs to come face-to-face with the universal pursuit of ecstasy. Our journey, a journey that has just begun, is a journey of understanding into the nature of the universal pursuit of ecstasy. For, all parts of the Universe are continuously engaged in the universal pursuit of ecstasy. If one solely sees the phenomenon of human-induced global warming, and our appropriate response to it, solely through an extremely narrow scientific lens, in total ignorance of the universal pursuit of ecstasy, then one will be hopelessly lost and deluded. It won’t be simply that one’s head will be buried in the sand; rather, one’s entire body will be submerged in the depths of the sandy beach.

Words are a tragic substitute for insight into the nature of the Universe, yet they are also a wonderful tool to provide understanding if they are appropriately used. Humans are rational, questioning creatures, so it is likely that you will have some doubts concerning the truth of that which follows. ‘Why should I believe this?’ you might think to yourself. Try, for now, to put these doubts, this questioning approach, aside. You might want to go further, you might want to try and forget everything that you have ever been taught/read/learnt and start afresh. The closer you are to such a state, the better you will be able to come to know the universal pursuit of ecstasy. This is because you are likely to encounter ideas which clash, sometimes violently, with your present understanding. When this clash occurs a natural desire to stand by your long-standing ingrained beliefs is likely to arise thereby resulting in you being blinded to the truth of that which follows. Our objective is to radically change the way that you see the world around you and this cannot be achieved in a few short paragraphs. We need to embark on a journey of progressive insight, a journey which involves gathering a multitude of pieces of understanding which will ultimately fuse together. As we reach our wonderful destination these diverse pieces will majestically come together to form a magnificent jigsaw, a wonderful vision of the unfolding Universe and an appreciation of the extremely important place of the human species within this unfoldment.

Our journey is long and winding, and bumpy in places, but if you see it through to its exquisite destination then it could be the trip of a lifetime. Let us start where we need to begin. We need to consider the Universe that appears to us when our sensory organs are engaged, and we need to appreciate that the Universe itself is very different to this appearance.”

Dr C Mystical Environmental Philosophy: How to Save Life on Earth Oct 2021 pp. 65-66