The Myth of the Human

One of the most important mythic images we have, perhaps the central one, is the myth of the Human.  The Human represents simultaneously an essence and an ideal.  The human is the universal basis of our shared existence, what we all have in common.  It is the foundation of the idea of human rights and human dignity.  But it is also a project or goal.  Humanity is in some way what we have lost, and are trying to get back, or perhaps what we have never been before, but are trying to attain.  For some people, that goal is projected upon history as the return of the Kingdom (in and through the person of the messiah), or the creation of a truly just society where all people live in peace and unity.  For some, the image is represented in religious figures like the saint, sage, Daoist Immortal, the historical Jesus, or the Buddha.  For others it is given a technological frame: the post-human or transhuman.  But in all cases, the core of the doctrine is the image: the archetype of the human. 

            Whatever institutional or political aims this image may serve, it has a core psycho-spiritual dynamic.  It is really the glue that holds all aspects of the psyche (including the ego) together: the Self with a capital S.  Perhaps the most important work that each person must accomplish is to make explicit for themselves what their image of the Human involves, and what they must do to move toward realizing that image in their lives.   

            You can do this for yourself.  You can sit down and begin to imagine what the Ideal Person would be like.  How would they behave, or dress?  What kind of things would they say?  What would it feel like to be with them?  Do you imagine this person as kind of celebrity?  Smiling and glad-handing everyone who comes near them?  Are they very attractive and tall?  Or are they humble, kind and gentle?  Do they speak with a booming and assertive voice, or are they encouraging and uplifting?  Are they intimidating in their intelligence or ferocity?  Or gentle, peaceful, and understated? Are they masculine, or feminine, or both?  Now imagine what it be like not only to encounter this person, but to actually be someone like this.  What would it feel like?  Would it be exciting and invigorating, or peaceful and easy? 

            Most importantly, what are practices and principles by which you could become, or at least become more like, this imaginary person?  Are there things that you could actually try and learn that would transform you, carry your soul along in this direction?  Would you have to go on retreats or join a commune?  Start going to the gym? Become a vegetarian and quit drinking?  Learn meditation or yoga?  Or perhaps the better question is not how to become that person, but how to express or manifest in everyday life the qualities of that person.  Remember, on some level, we are all Human already.  It is our essence, or at least, our potential. 

            There are two important point to bear in mind here.  The first is that all these images are mythic.  That is, they are true in abstraction from whatever historical or material guise they appear in.  It is a mistake to think that we will be able to embody or become the Human through historical or technological means.  Even the moral, psychological or psychospiritual expression of the Human (as discussed above) is mythic.  What this means is, second, we simply don’t know what it would be like to be fully Human. 

So many people believe that they could be become in their lifetime a kind of Nietzschean Superman.  But this is deep misreading of the concept: the term really refers to what comes after us, by analogy (only an analogy!) with the relation between modern homo sapiens and their evolutionary ancestors.  When new-age people talk about the spiritual evolution of man, this is a kind of category error (when they take it seriously) or at best an over-burdened metaphor. 

Our deepest moral obligation is not to become the Human, but to create a place for that new being to arrive.