We’ve done it now. We’ve hit the on-ramp to one of the greatest challenges that humanity will ever face. Not the greatest but definitely high on the list. We’ve been side-stepping this one for a while but it’s really in our faces now. I’m a little surprised it hit this pace so quickly but at the same time it’s the nature of this particular bifurcation to start slow and then go full send all at once.

We’re talking about the fork in the road between Transhumanism and Evolved Embodiment.

On the Transhumanism side is the acceptance that humans are the boot-loader for a new sort of consciousness. That we are the sex organs of a robotic race that will birth from our ashes and last eons. In the shorter term it is the idea that -given this “fact” of existence- the best road is to join with them; to take any and all technological upgrades available; to become half robot ourselves or be left behind.

On the other end of the spectrum is what I’ve taken to calling Evolved Embodiment. You could also call it Humanism if you wanted to stay on linguistic theme. This is the perspective of Humanity as the ultimate innovation of the universe; the quintessential super computer created in complex wetware. In place of a CPU you have a Soul that has come from source itself, lived lifetimes, and exists now to take the actualization of the universe further than it’s ever gone. This is the side of multi-body mastery as we evolve our way home, back to source.

I won’t say this bifurcation didn’t start earlier than now as we’ve seen the slow incorporation of electronics and machines into humanity, but with the parlor trick of LLM based “AI” and the deep dive research into the potential for AGI, along with rapid advancement in robotics and human-like, algorithm driven machines that can mimic consciousness well enough to trick the masses it’s safe to say we’ve kicked it up a notch. The internet is broiling with debate over just how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone.

And yet, that’s not what we’re here to talk about today.

I’ll present to you a layer deeper; ideas that can help you with your mastery today. What I’m interested in right now is what’s under the hood of these two roads, and for the sake of clarity I’ve boiled it down to two things you can really wrap your hands around.

On the one side, within the movement of Transhumanism, we have the base principle of Rationalism.

On the other side, within the growing appreciation of human potential, we have the base principle of Magick.

For some of you the wheels are already turning. For others that might feel like a stretch. If you’re clever you’ll be one step ahead of me here, but my intention is to present some considerations you haven’t considered yet. My hope is that you will see the value of BOTH principles, which is in actuality the true position of the Evolved Embodiment Practitioner. Let’s go.

For the sake of this letter we’ll go with a definition of Rationalism to the tune of: “The doctrine and belief that knowledge (and wisdom) is acquired by reason without resort to experience; that intelligence rules over embodiment.”

If you’re scratching your head as to how this is the core principle of Transhumanism consider: the entire aim, currently, of the movement is to reproduce the human existence in complicated machines down to the smallest detail. They want to see these robots walk, talk, interact, study, solve problems, perform physical labor, and for all intent and purposes be able to replace a person in the functions of society. They measure their success based on how the robot looks, what it can do, it’s capacity to sort through information, and it’s ability to take tests and pass evaluations. They measure this success from the OUTSIDE, as indeed there is hardly any way to yet understand what happens on the inside.

Effectively, the success is based on how closely it can APPEAR human with no real way to prove (or disprove) that it is in fact anything except approximating. And why not? By rational means if it walks like us, talks like us, completes tasks and achieves outcomes like us, is it not just like us? How else do you test a thing for success than by rational, objective evaluation? Surely if all metrics match, the replication is a success, no? In this way, Transhumanism is at it’s core a reduction of the human existence to what can be mathematically measured and an attempt to replace parts of that with something that meet that measure, until all parts are replaced such that the human becomes, for all intent and appearances, something MORE.

But if you’ve done any amount of contemplation practice, explored the nature of your emotions, relationships, and experiences, or dare I mention, taken any psychedelics, you’ll have at the very least a sense that there’s something more to this experience than the measurable. If you’ve gone down any of these roads -among many roads- to a significant degree you’ll almost certainly have found that there are aspects of yourself at work that cannot be measured by the calculator and the statistical test.

So as we wander back to the side of Evolved Embodiment, it becomes clear that it simply cannot be reduced to the rational objectivity of the technology obsessed. That there is something within and without for which we must wander off the map to express, let alone explain. We could identify this as Consciousness, but that word has been co-opted by the robot-lovers. We could call it Organic Intelligence, but the same people making androids are knocking at the doors of biological computers. We could pin it to a number of things that are easy to explain, but therein lies the rational bias sneaking across the line again, begging us to at least “debate” on it’s own terms.

For this reason I find that the core principle of the humanist perspective is Magick itself. That which can be defined but often misunderstood. That which is everywhere but for some, impossible to see. That which you live and breathe even in the moments your hands clutch a smart phone as you grapple with the “facts” of life.

At the core of what we are -and robots cannot be- is the true essence of the Soul; that which it breathes into the air around us in every moment. For the sake of this conversation we’ll define Magick as: “The expression of and utilization of the subtle, non-ordinary energy that pervades reality and produces results which cannot be explained by purely empirical means.”

In simple terms, Magick is the unexplained mystery that breathes life into an otherwise mechanistic universe.

This might feel like an over-reach in the topic of Transhumanism vs Embodiment but consider a few things and let’s see where we land.

What does science know about the Soul?

Does science have a concrete explanation for consciousness?

Where do people go when they die?

What part of them comes back if they’re revived?

What is Love?

How do humans think? How do we relate to each other?

What in us perceives and holds awareness of the 5 senses?

How does science explain intuition, instinct, perception, and epiphany?

I could go on, but if you aren’t being extraordinarily stubborn you’ll admit that the answer to all of these, essentially, “We don’t know, exactly.” Which is to say, the scientific community has only good guesses and half answers.

We won’t get into the weeds here, so if you need proof do a bit of honest digging, but given these facts the question arises:

“If science cannot explain some of the most fundamental and essential aspects of being human, how can it presume to create technological replicas that are anything but parlor tricks and illusions?”

This is a good time to remind you that I am by no means opposed to technology. The fact that I’m writing to you on a computer that requires no wires, sending information through the air to the internet where it will be hosted for you to read at your leisure should alone tell you that. What I am opposed to is the farce that technology can by any means replicate function of, let alone replace humanity at this stage- and I’d argue at any stage. What I am supposing, always, is the wise utilization of technology AS an embodied human being.

All that said, it might now be clear why I chose to place the core principle of Magick as the seed of evolving embodiment across all dimensions. Where Rationalism requires proof, Magick requires belief, and diligence. Where Rationalism stands on objectivity, Magick includes Subjectivity and the synergy of the two. Where Rationalism demands that we limit ourselves only to what we can measure using tools created by those who limited themselves in kind, Magick embraces the capacities of humanity itself and the essence of the Universe which science has yet to discover, let alone understand.

Make no mistake, this is not an us vs them conversation. Magick transcends and INCLUDES the use of objectivity, rationalism, methodology, systematic process, external measure, etcetera. Humanity discovered it before science had even twinkled in the far corner of the mind. Then we discovered tools and not long after used them to enhance our practice of Magick. Then we discovered advanced thinking, and again we utilized it for the sake of our Magick. At every turn Magick has, like the air itself, allowed us to explore further and farther and at every turn enveloped us. Those that were paying attention embraced and celebrated this union. Every moment we realized that, oh yes, Magick is still here, we created synergy between the newly discovered and the eternally true. Our understanding of Magick evolves with us.

At every turn there are those that find themselves engrossed -even obsessed- with the new toy; those that convince themselves they’ve found what’s NEXT.

But true to it’s nature as the non-ordinary stuff of the world and not without a bit of poetic synergy, Magick defies this march of evolution. It is at once a part of our story as it is the pages upon we are written and the book itself. It is the hand that writes and come full circle we are the ones writing.

This is why Rationalist thinking cringes in agony at the mention of Magick.

This is why the technologists looking for the “next phase after humanity” will do anything they can to avoid the un-explainable.

Magick defies capture by the objective; all the while defining what is possible for the objective in the first place.

It is the ephemeral and eternal fox bounding playfully ahead of the hounds; flowing through the wilderness with grace while they tromp and scratch and sniff. It offers something that technology cannot -will not- and for that reason the fork in the road begins.

Humanity faces division, only to one side there is no future. Transhumanism is in the short term (which could last for centuries) a wild world of exciting possibility. But that road leads to the eventual extinction of Beingness to be replaced with something built entirely out of denial, using only the building blocks that can be viewed externally. It is the road of creating a replacement before ever truly understanding the thing that is to be replaced.

Meanwhile, we have only just begun to re-discover our potential. Like the tides, our grasp of Magick rises and falls, yet each time we change and become something more. The evolution of our embodiment is approaching another rise that will propel this species forward yet again. What is possible we can only guess but what we do know is this: standing completely naked before the most advanced technology ever created, the human being will still be incomprehensibly more advanced. No bells, whistles, and flashing lights can compare to a mere moment of embodiment. Eternity as a never-been-alive machine will miss out on the greatest mysteries of the universe.

The choice is yours. You’ll be faced with it every day, more and more. Ask yourself what you give up every time you lose yourself in a computer. As yourself what you’re missing with your nose in a screen. Ask yourself if it’s worth it, just to keep up with the excitement.

The best part about this fork in the road is regardless of what direction you choose, you still win, because when your spark of light goes out and you leave your body and this wild adventure, you’ll still be Magick.