Greetings “End/Interesting Times” Friends,
The world’s religions contain many colorful afterlife theories, usually reward-and-punishment (pleasure/pain) based.
Reward outcomes range from playing a harp on a cloud as part of God’s celestial orchestra, to partying like Dorian Gray in your own private brothel in the sky with six dozen medically-cleared consorts. If I had to spend eternity in either of those two scenarios, I’d opt for the latter. Granted, after a millennium, both might become equally mundane, or exciting, depending on the song and entertainment roster.
Obviously, both of those examples are reductive- yet from my viewpoint, legitimate. The angel with the harp on a cloud comes from popular culture, likely an iteration of Renaissance paintings depicting Heaven that took creative license with Bible verses. The other example passed through its own iterations and transmogrifications, molded by culture, sect, propaganda, and other factors. Regardless, both scenes originated from religious scripture and entered the collective consciousness, placing them in the global gallery of Heaven/Paradise imagery.
Punishment outcomes get pretty nasty. Pain in limited durations is bad enough, but an eternity of constant agony is off the charts. Hieronymus Bosch and Dante offered creative interpretations of Hell’s eternal suffering.
Most reincarnation theories play out through reward-and-punishment outcomes that determine who or what you come back as. While moving up the charts is optimal, the majority of reincarnation theories advocate breaking free from the “Wheel of Birth and Death.”
One must acknowledge the social control aspect of reward-punishment afterlife outcomes. Promoted by the priestly classes for the ultimate benefit of the ruling classes, afterlife stories helped maintain status-quo hierarchy. In a technological materialist society, those social controls become ineffective, and are replaced by biometric IDs, digital media brainwashing, etc.
Then there is the theory of total nothingness, aka non-existence theory. The deepest sleep without dreams. If the neural network that forms “you” requires a brain vitalized by chemical reactions and electric current, can you maintain “you” when the process shuts down?
So what happens after “body death” from the Tao perspective?
I don’t know. No one ever came back to tell the story. Or at least not in a way that was verifiable enough to convince everyone.
That said, I will provide a picture of an afterlife based on Tao theory by the end of this newsletter. First, some foundation.
Tao philosophy, too humble to proclaim a definitive version of afterlife heaven or hell, utilizes available data to formulate hypotheses. Tao recognizes that formulating such hypotheses is totally meaningless given the inexorable final outcome. It’s all meaningless and nothing- until someone gives it meaning. Then it’s something.
Given death’s inevitability, Tao advises that the best way to process it is through acceptance of the inevitable. Whatever mental model a person uses to remove fear from death, Tao finds acceptable.
Like John Lennon sang, “Whatever gets you through the night.”
Birth and death act as entry and exit- and perhaps exit and entry. Smooth transition is optional for both doors.
Since “death” is part of the natural order, followers of Tao accept their “death,” which drops the fear component. Losing or significantly reducing that fear reduces other fears. Fear is the greatest darkness- and most employed control mechanism.
That’s not to say followers of Tao casually give up their lives. A fundamental tenet of Tao is self-defense/ self-preservation.
Not all games are fun, but they still contain rules and objectives. Even in chaos. Survival is a big game with high stakes. Survival can be individual, family, tribe, nation, planetary, etc. Given a long enough timeline, everyone ends up at the same destination, so if possible, better to make life a fun game rather than a miserable game.
Longterm miserable games lead to chronic anxiety/depression, which spikes cortisol levels, creating illness. The owners want a mentally and physically ill population. That’s why they impose miserable games. Big Pharma solutions that mitigate miserable games create new problems. The people who run Big Pharma are not nice folks. That said, do what you have to do.
When a follower of Tao accepts their “death,” they accept everyone else’s. That’s not to say you don’t feel sadness from the loss of loved ones, but through the acceptance of death, you move on and incorporate your experience with them into the now. In a sense, they live on through you.
We all live on through the karmic principle of cause and effect, even after everyone forgets everyone. Those endless chain reactions represent one aspect of immortality or “the eternal” in the physical universe. Karmic principle only ends at nothingness, which is something.
Positive (pro-human) systems create “cause and effect” chain reactions that generate positive genealogical and sociological outcomes. Trauma creates trauma.
Trauma-based systems (e.g., predatory capitalism, neo-feudal technocracy) create multigenerational family and societal trauma environments that travel. Win-lose trauma-based high-technology systems lead to the "Kingdom of Hell on Earth” and human extinction.
Tao follows the natural order; thus, Tao afterlife conjecture utilizes observable “natural order” patterns.
Everything from planets to humans “dies” via the entropic pathway (molecular order to molecular breakdown/chaos). When the human system loses the “order” required to sustain functional life, the system ceases to operate, resulting in body death. This breakdown of order can follow a slower organic process or speed up via a catalyst, e.g., a bullet.
Physics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Tao breaks down human energy into a cognitive, physical, and spiritual triad- the “Tao Life Trinity.”
Death is the separation of the spiritual, physical, and cognitive. Entropic pathways shut down the systems that hold the “life trinity” together.
Freed from their connective bond, the three energies transform or return to the source.
Tao theory describes this as reabsorption back into Cosmic Intelligence.
Since Tao views the “you” as a cognitive-physiological-spirit triad, post-death reabsorption back into Cosmic Intelligence needs to account for all components of “you.”
1-Physical Reabsorption.
On the physical level, this reabsorption takes place through the discarded body returning back-to-basics via subatomic breakdown restructuring.
Whether a corpse is buried, burnt, or shot into outer space, the same subatomic breakdown restructuring occurs in regard to the final product. Only the environmental laws that govern “molecular entropy pathway” change, which slows the breakdown process or speeds it up, e.g., a corpse breaks down faster in a Louisiana swamp than in outer space.
After that, the physical body’s end-place is the end-place, i.e., subatomic molecules or whatever breaks down beyond that.
The free-floating subatomic molecules become clay for future bodies. Those bodies can take the form of any physical matter in the universe, ranging from planets to humans to rocks.
In symbolic and literal chi, subatomic molecules return to the 5 elements of earth, water, wind, fire, or air, which then form “animate” or “inanimate” bodies.
Some bodies exhibit high-animation, others low-animation.
Lower animation levels mean longer lifespans but shorter consciousness. Rocks last longer than people, but can’t paint pictures.
Biological life forms are highly animated.
Those rules hold up in our quadrant of the universe. Variations may occur in other quadrants or potential multiverses, e.g., silicon based lifeforms.
If physical reabsorption holds true, then when a life form discards its body, does the former body’s spiritual or cognitive components leave a memory imprint on subatomic molecules that guide future body reformation? It’s possible. If the subatomic molecules retain a molecular memory imprint, then this past data may direct how the subatomic molecules reformulate.
The molecules of a “dense” persona may be more inclined to reform into an actual rock, or perhaps rock molecules form new rocks or evolve to become part of a more animated future body.
2-Spiritual reabsorption.
Either “this” is intelligent or it isn’t. If you believe in Cosmic Intelligence, then the spiritual “you” maintains a connection with Cosmic Intelligence. I use the term “spiritual” because I lack an equivalent scientific lexicon descriptor.
Many people think that only the measurable or observed exists. Just because science can’t measure/observe spiritual energy, doesn’t mean it’s not there. In the 1300’s, no one knew about invisible electromagnetic waves, yet when the technological capability to measure/observe them came into existence, so did the waves.
If humanity passes through the Fermi Paradox filter, what energies, waves, and frequencies become measurable in 2800 AD?
Tao holds that the spirit has “purpose.” If so, what is the purpose? To serve Cosmic Intelligence, I would think.
What is a potential viable “service theory?”
Like a thumb drive, the spirit returns to Cosmic Intelligence and downloads its lifetime of accumulated data. The more refined the spirit, the better quality data. Hence, the importance of growth in this lifetime.
I don’t know what Cosmic Intelligence does with the data or the spirit. Perhaps it uses it to create new entities. Regardless, Tao proposes that the best bet is to serve Cosmic Intelligence. How? By finding your purpose, following your code, and running the appropriate programs.
3-Cognitive Reabsorption.
In life, the cognitive relies on the physical (brain, oxygen, glucose, axons, dendrites) and the spiritual (connection to Cosmic Intelligence). It’s possible some of the cognitive stays with the discarded physical as part of subatomic molecule memory and guidance rebuilding system. Part of the cognitive may stay with the spiritual in similar yet dissimilar fashion. In a physical medium, cognitive separation from the body would likely exist as an electrical or as yet undiscovered energy.
Does the cognitive, physical, and spiritual triad ever reunite into human form? I don’t know. That’s called reincarnation. Tao takes no position on that, but recognizes the possibility. Most followers of Tao prefer the idea of permanent reunion with Cosmic Intelligence in its highest and purest form, recognizing that this preference means nothing or everything.
I identify as a Jewish Hebrew Israelite who follows the Tao, and utilize allegories, symbols, codes, and archetypes from the KJV Bible.
When the biblical term "Resurrection" is run through the Tao interface it emerges in the endless phrase: “I’m already dead, because I am reborn, because I’m already dead, because I am reborn……
Tao is Now.
As an aside, most American Hebrew Israelites (Black, White, Mexican, Native Red, Christian, etc.) use the King James Version of the Bible. This is because during the Roman occupation of Britannia and more so in the Crusades, princesses from Judah’s House of David bloodline were brought to the British Isles, France (future Huguenots), and Holland to breed with certain members of the Isle & Continental royal families. King James was of that lineage, and so we use the Bible translation he commissioned. The lost-tribes may differ on the “who is who,” but the fundamental concept holds.
When Whore of Babylon America starts to shake and sway, Black Jesus, White Elijah and his army of prophets, Mexican Daniel, Native Red Zechariah, and the others, can explain it better.
Apologies for the brief Bible studies detour. Non-Hebrew readers, please don’t get hung up on the Hebrew tribal talk. Regardless of their tribal, national, or ethno background, followers of Tao seek peaceful communion with and treat all people of Earth with respect and courtesy, as we view every human as a manifestation of Cosmic Intelligence and an intentional or unintentional teacher. Any departure from that policy stems from self-defense, i.e., “don’t start none, won’t be none,” as they say.
That said, when conflict avoidance policy becomes null and void, followers of Tao tend to go hard. If circumstance permits.
I hope you enjoyed this spiritual-philosophical-theological afterlife theory excursion. I did. Perhaps I’m biased- ha ha ha.
Too theoretical for some? Want real-world action? Ok, I’ll give you a here-and-now “this is this.”
At this juncture in space-time, the dominant power program on Planet Earth is the Satanic Matrix. Proceed accordingly.
We’re hitting Peak Evil. What’d you expect?
Please feel free to email me your afterlife / non-afterlife thoughts. As previously stated, I offer theory. No rush to know for sure. Ha ha ha.
Cheers,
Richard