I agree with Zeke - the myriad texts from Eastern mysticism clearly and consistently point to a model of the universe as a single conscious entity, which is the origin of our own consciousness as well. So when the great mystics of history make declarations like "I am That," or "I am God," "All is bodhi mind," or even "All is love," they're all saying the same thing: they've suddenly awakened to the true origin of consciousness and therefore identify with the entire cosmos, observing itself through their eyes. I think that nearly everyone has the capability to realize that experience personally, but it rarely happens because the internal monologue acts like a sedative, keeping us asleep to the truth; thought is like a drug - and a very addictive one at that. Meditation is the method of breaking that addiction. Unlike most people, I don't see mediation as a specific technique to be practiced in any specific position or place - you can do it walking down the street. By relaxing internally and feeling very present wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you can awaken from the slumber of thought, and see the truth for yourself. I don't think there's anything supernatural or mystical about it actually; it's no more mystical than waking up in the morning. It's just far, far more rare, because it takes a sustained intent spanning weeks and months. Most of us have insufficient attention spans to conduct a prolonged experiment like that.
The evolutionary angle is interesting too, and you can sort of think of evolution as a kind of ascension. I mean, when you think about it, the capability to open a book and learn how to do something new, is pretty magical - not all that different than Neo downloading Jiu Jitsu so he can spar with Morpheus.
But the fun stuff is looking ahead. I think we haven't even begun to fully utilize the capacities of the human brain - reading and logical reasoning are just the beginning imo. Neuroplasticity means that we can intentionally sculpt the neurological processes of our brains, if we wish. A crude example is seen when people learn how to break stone blocks with their hands - they've actually created neural pathways in their brain so they can flex a number of different muscles simultaneously to deliver incredible power to a single spot at a specific instant. It's fascinating to wonder about all the other kinds of things we could do, if we put our mind to it. I don't rule out telepathy; there's too much compelling testimony that it happens sometimes, though I have no idea how it works.
And technologically we'll be able to perform all kinds of "miracles" if we continue to progress. I think that immortality is achievable, one way or the other, through biotech. We'll probably also learn how to manipulate our capacity for learning, and probably even our base intelligence level. And we've already seen so much in practical technologies - communicating around the world with a small device in our hands, and "seeing" the other side of the planet in essentially real time using video conferencing. Alexander the Great would've marveled at the things we can do today - they'd seem like divine powers. Eventually we'll learn to control the global ecosystem, and terraform exosolar worlds, and travel across the galaxy at FTL speeds, and one day we'll be able to explore even other galaxies, and eventually even travel beyond the cosmic horizon to explore galaxies that we can't even observe right now.
And it's only a matter of time and innovation before we can print any object we want, like they do in Star Trek. Physical teleportation is a tricky one, but I think that one day we'll figure it out. With the right technology, we'll probably be able to manifest any object we want with a simple device, by just thinking about it - though from our perspective it'll probably involve sorting through a string of menus to pick the thing we want to make, nearly instantaneously.
Science and technology hold the promise of realizing all kinds of god-like qualities, both biologically and externally. It'll all be made possible by a deepening understanding of physics, but that doesn't make it any less wondrous in application.
Eventually we'll reach the point where we'd appear to be god-like to a human living today. And that's why I think that people who assert that some extraterrestrial encounters are "too bizarre" to explain with the ETH are completely myopic. In a million years, or a billions years, if our line of evolutionary biology and technology continues, we'll be performing feats that vastly exceed our comprehension today.
That's what we're fighting for: a future where we have astounding mastery over physical nature and ourselves, where we can be or do nearly anything that we can imagine.
