The Basics of Transpersonal Extropy

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The following blog is a revised and condensed version of the ebook, “What Is Transpersonal Extropy?” You can download a copy of the expanded document here, no email address required.

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What is Transpersonal Extropy?

Transpersonal Extropy (TE) is the idea that as we individually and collectively transcend the psychological mechanism of the unconscious ego our lives become more expanded, ordered, meaningful, and even guided toward a higher state of being. By way of expanded consciousness, humanity not only finds the ability to avert our destruction but adapt to more harmonious and sustainable ways of living and even to release the limiting tendencies of the ego in order to ascend higher.

“Transpersonal”  means “beyond self” or beyond “ego” and so refers to the “awakened” experience of ego transcendence. While the study of the transpersonal nature is typically confined to the fields of transpersonal psychology and spiritual self-help circles, TE expands this concept further to include humanity as a collective.

“Extropy” refers to the ability of a system to become more ordered, more full of energy, and more purposeful. The term arises as an antonym to the concept of entropy, a scientific principle that refers to the tendency of certain systems over time to become less ordered and less energetic, ultimately resulting in the death of the system itself. The end result is chaos.

Whereas entropy implies a downward spiraling tendency, extropy suggests an upward, ever-ascending one. Things get better rather than worse. Life expands and we are freer to express and ultimately to evolve. 

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The entropic qualities of ego

Because of various traits of the ego, its effect is generally entropic, moving us  into lower states of functionality. Compounded across the entire race, we find ourselves in this current state of relative decline.

The ego has three primary characteristics by which it devolves humanity:

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#1: The ego’s nature is one of un-consciousness

The nature of ego is primarily unconscious. We are fundamentally “unaware” of the effects of our actions; we do things without really knowing why or caring what the results are—as long as our short-term desires are met. Our habitual patterns of thought and behavior lead us blindly as though we are operating from some sort of psychological programming, only able to execute commands and never to recode the instructions.

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#2: The ego holds a fundamental belief in separation

Because the ego exists in opposition to the greater consciousness which is our true nature, it is born of a belief in separation and therefore produces results in accordance with that belief. The ego compels us to see ourselves as separate from all other humans, from nature, and from a greater cosmic order. 

This perspective drives a particular worldview with specific consequences:

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A) Separation-belief inspires personal agendas of protection and promotion

Such a mentality holds that in life there is “me” and then there is everyone else. The natural tendency for such a worldview is that each person must look out for themselves, sometimes even at the expense of consideration for others. 

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B) Separation-belief suppresses progress by way of opposing energies

By way of a belief in separation, egos take on isolated, individual positions and as such, there is no cumulative, forward progress or even perspective. Some efforts point or aim in one direction and others a different way. At the end of it all, what is left amounts to a cancellation of any meaningful advance except for a smattering of the most dominant ideals. 

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C) Separation-belief tends to create conflict

Should we be able to experience life as a unified human race we would expect no conflict to be present. But the ego builds on our differences and argues for them, even at the cost of life itself if deemed warranted. History has proven this tendency time and again.

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D) Separation-belief reduces our capacity for empathy

When our concern is for our own promotion we don’t desire so much to be bogged down by the alternate perspectives—and burdens—of others. In our mutual separation, it is difficult for us to maintain the level of empathy we need to raise the collective experience of humanity.

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E) Separation-belief creates a lack of internal peace

Our isolated experience is similar to one of being lost. A sense of panic ensues along with an overwhelming feeling of vulnerability. In our lostness, our experience is one of fear and doubt, a sense that we are not capable of surviving life easily on our own. 

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#3: The ego’s isolation imparts limitation

Having separated out of the formless, eternal, infinite qualities of universal consciousness, the ego has thus taken on a quality of form-full-ness, and limitations as would be expected within our realm of time and space. All form, even that which we might imagine were galactic in size, is bound ultimately by its dimensions. Yes, we have consciousness but it is in limited quantity and disconnected from the power of the universal whole.

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Ego-Consciousness and the Future of Humanity

The following are some of the most prominent possibilities of how ego can ensure our destruction or at least make our life experience miserable:

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#1: Our ecological devastation

By our actions, we are destroying our own lifeline and the only home we currently have. Prior to the dominantly egoic human presence, no other species fell into such disharmony with the natural environment. Nature has worked in absolute harmony for perhaps millions of years and only with the advent of modern man did that trend reverse. 

What follows are a few ways in which the unconscious ego is driving this destruction of the environment: 

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A) Rampant consumerism

Because of the ego’s basis in separation, there is a deep need in humanity to fill the gaps of ourselves and find some manner of inner wholeness. One of the primary ways we do this is to appease our inner distress through the means of materialism. Our desire for more initiates an endless process that includes extraction, processing, manufacturing, shipping, and disposing, each step of which has its own unique impact on the earth, particularly in terms of resource extraction, energy consumption, pollution, required use of chemicals in processing or production, and, of course, disposal. 

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B) Throw-away mentality

Partly an extension of this consumerist cycle is a much more problematic issue of how we consider product life. Many of these products are low-quality and made of low-cost materials (most of which are chemical in nature) and which have low and terminal life cycles. In other words, products are so cheap and so poorly made they are used and discarded without another thought. Can we see humanity thriving 100 or 200 years into the future if we maintain this practice? It is only by the short-sighted and self-seeking nature of separation-consciousness that we are experiencing such unsustainable practices.

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C) Deforestation

The practice of massive deforestation practices in our planet’s rain forests is also a result of our short-sighted tendencies, thinking foremost of our initial needs and not the long-term sustainability that expanded consciousness endows. If we don’t get a handle on how we treat our forests—and quickly—our environment will no longer be able to support us. 

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D) Fossil fuel consumption & introduction of climate change

Our ego-inspired individuality almost demands that we idolize personal vehicles. The greed of ego drives the supply chain as well as huge corporations must keep drilling, processing, and supplying crude and refined oils for consumption. We are living out of conditioned habits. Should our blind obsession with fossil fuel use continue and the presence of greenhouse gases increase, we will eventually reach a threshold that, once crossed, may not be recoverable.

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E) Urban sprawl and massive transportation infrastructure

Spawning from this vehicular Independence along with our egoic need to own individual property, our earth has been haplessly covered in asphalt and concrete. Again, we have lost sight with our connection to the earth. The ego demands dominance over nature and seeks to benefit itself even at the environment’s expense. We continue to destroy nature for our own egoic ends.

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#2: Devastation from warfare

If anything can clearly demonstrate the insanity of the human race and showcase our collective low level of consciousness, this one fact should suffice. That nuclear weapons of any kind are found on our planet actively commissioned or not is concerning, to say the least. In fact, there is hardly anything that demonstrates less consciousness than to say that humanity or the planet is less worthy of existence than our national proclivities for dominance. The madness is so great that whichever country will launch first will most certainly ensure their own destruction. 

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#3: Rampant terrorism, or the rise of factions or rogue nations

In these times of powerful technology, including weapons, transportation, and communication, such groups find great ability to support their egoicly-based missions and manifestos which always put the desires of one group (unrepresentative of the whole) ahead of those of all others and do so without regard for the wellbeing of anyone not in support of their ideals. As ego is maintained in society, their desire for self-promotion may only strengthen, their ability to carry out their visions becoming easier and more destructive.

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#4: Continued global poverty, hunger, and unsanitary conditions. 

Here the ego can be seen at play again as the inadequate availability of resources can be attributed to a misallocation of our global attention. Instead of providing greater aid to all people everywhere, individual nations tend to focus on their own prolific wealth (especially promoting their sense of power through military might).

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The extropy of consciousness

Consciousness is antithetical to the ego so by understanding the fundamental aspects of one, we gain intrinsic insights into the other. Each of what follows is an opposing answer to those given previously for the entropic nature of ego:

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#1: In consciousness, we have awareness and adaptability 

Where the ego will lead our species into lower states of functionality because we see no consequences and no alternate path, consciousness brings a greater awareness of our courses of action and the consequences implicit in those. Instead of continuing in the same thoughtless patterns which lead us away from our higher potential, by way of consciousness we can consider our options and the consequences for each.

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#2: Consciousness imparts a sense of connection

Greater consciousness allows us to begin to recognize that we are all essentially one; with each other, with nature, and with a greater cosmic unity. This gives us a far greater capacity for empathy. It is difficult to ignore the suffering of your neighbor when you recognize that you are fundamentally one and the same. We also begin to regain our primal connection with nature and to seek its best interest.

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#3: Consciousness lessens our experience of limitation

To enter into the expanded consciousness that transcends the ego is to gain power over the effects of ego-limitation. Where ego is form-full, consciousness is formless; where ego is finite, consciousness is infinite; where ego is time-bound, consciousness is eternal. In our expanded consciousness, humanity will begin to know collectively the power transcended individuals have known for millennia.

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Expectations of expanded consciousness

Because of the grounding of consciousness in connection, several resulting experiences can occur. The following are a few of the primary ways among potentially many:

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#1: Peace

One of the main results of a sense of connection with all things is peace. Peace arises when things are whole or “perfect.” There is nothing to fear when all is complete. On the other hand, if we are separated from a greater sense of connection in the cosmos, insecurity can arise. In the experience of division, we find an inner conflict or turmoil as we struggle to maintain composure in our isolated state.

Connection restores that peace. Imagine the turnaround in the collective inner state of humanity and what that could do to raise our quality of life if only we could realize that state of oneness. We could rise above the fear, worry, doubt, and anxiety and get about the business of living presently with great joy as well as embrace the future in our attitude of optimism. Peace brings the freedom to be our best.

As well, in unison, we shed our individual viewpoints and share in a mutual perspective of a greater underlying connection, one that guarantees we need not pick up armaments against each other again.

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#2: Clarity

Connection also results in greater clarity; this is opposed to the sense of confusion that results from chaos. In our greater cosmic connection, we are granted an opportunity for understanding that normally eludes us in our divided state. Our local experience of consciousness becomes expanded in its restoration to the greater, universal field where all understanding resides. We become “plugged in” to a greater knowing that floods us as long as we vacate ourselves of all the concerns of the “I.” 

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#3: Meaning

One of our primary concerns in this modern age is one of our state of inner despair and struggle to find meaning. Meaning is always fostered by context. We can’t look at an individual letter on a page and discern much of what it means or, in other words, why it is there. But connect the letter with other letters or groups of letters in an orderly way and we can begin to discover meaning in the text. 

In our isolated states, we are not that unlike the lonely letter on a page. We feel in some way that we don’t belong or that the point of it all is unclear. Not only does this dampen the quality of life for us as individuals, it detracts from our forward push toward any collective progress. Our incentive for optimism and investment toward our future potential is short-circuited in our experience of separation. 

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Summary

Humanity is currently in the midst of chaos, staring blankly at our oceans of plastic and polluted skies and waterways, ever-aware of impending global conflict, and at a loss for personal meaning. Much of our species is still waking up to these hard facts and it seems while others recognize the problems, they seem to not have the understanding of the causes.

It is the nature of our level of consciousness to reflect itself upon our reality. Both are intricately linked, representing an interaction between the two, ourselves and our environment. If our degree of consciousness is limited, unaware, and self-serving then we can only expect results in life in accordance with those qualities. 

But if we can collectively shift into an expanded consciousness beyond the limiting, separation-belief of the ego, then we can begin to expect entirely different results as a species. Rather than remaining under a paradigm of self and all that entails it can move into a paradigm of connection with all the benefits that entails. The very act of moving from the one state of consciousness to the other begins to open our possibilities.

This is the nature of extropy. It comes from within and supplies energy, order, and intention for ever-expanding, harmonious growth. This is how humanity evolves. For far too long, ego has capped our potential as a species. It is meant to limit us, after all, as its purpose is control. But under too much restraint, it is the tendency of things to die. 

Humanity is coming into a greater age, a new and unbounded experience guided by consciousness itself. It is time to shed the limiting aspects of our separation-consciousness and begin to grow as a species just as a child must eventually become an adult. Those rules and curfews which were once needed are now no more. What remains is freedom to express and expand and evolve as humans. This is the experience of Transpersonal Extropy.

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NEXT STEPS

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