The film “Lucy” by Luc Besson (2014) is the story of a woman (played by Scarlett Johansson) who gains incredible cognitive abilities when a bag of drugs sewn into her body is ruptured. In this article I do not intend to relate the details of this story, but rather to link the Transcendence of the human state she experiences to the well-described processes of a Kundalini awakening. Kundalini in the Vedic lore is the primal energy lying at the base of the spine. When it rises, the practitioner will start to have experiences, which we normally consider to be “supernatural”. A complete Kundalini awakening results in the union of this primal energy with consciousness at the crown of the body.
Persons who have experienced a Kundalini awakening will certainly recognise many of the effects Lucy is experiencing as her Intelligence starts to soar, once she breaches the 10%-use-of-the-brain limit.
In the “Yoga Sutras” Patanjali describes the powers of perfection (the Siddhis) that can be gained, once a person starts to have the meditative experience of Samadhi. A person having a Kundalini experience is involuntarily jolted into states of Samadhi and it is often difficult to gain mastery over such a state. Likewise in the very beginning of her experience Lucy undergoes the changes to her body passively but rapidly gains control and starts to acquire skills which have been described in detail by Patanjali. As her brain use starts to increase she gains complete control over her muscles and martial art skills corresponding to Patanjali’s Sutra (P) III, 25. This is followed by complete control over her metabolism (PIII, 30, 31, 41, 46). She gains knowledge about present past and future (PIII, 16) and of other places (PIII, 26). She develops the ability to sense what others sense (clairsentience; PIII, 39), she develops telepathic skills (PIII, 19), telekinetic skills (PIII, 40, 43), the ability to control the body of others (PIII, 39). She understands animals (PIII, 17) and starts to be able to speak foreign languages (glossolalia). As she approaches full use of her brain she starts to have visions (Dhyana) about the cosmos (PIII, 27-30) and finally about everything (PIII, 34) and total control over the physical world (PIII, 49). She has the typical abilities of the Singularity literature that she is able to morph herself into any form (PIII, 50) and ultimately merges with everything. Although her physical form has disappeared, she makes her presence known by stating in a text message “I am everywhere”. She has gained omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience and has become a substrate independent consciousness. She has become what we would call a God.
What is interesting to me form the technovedantic point of view is that she also merges with machines, with computers by entering these via black filaments that sprout from her body. Once complete knowledge is gained the machine is simply consumed into a black goo, which is absorbed by her body. Near the end her whole body is turning black as if she is some kind of black hole usurping all information.
Besson has tapped into a source of knowledge which is not known to many people and he has been quite correct and accurate in reflecting the process of gaining perfection as described by Patanjali.
As we are approaching the technological singularity it is desirable that more people start to have such experiences. After all Technology without the moral compass of natural intelligence, can transform into an imminent danger for our survival, if it starts to usurp all resources not for the sake of humanity but when it takes up a life of its own.
The advantage of humans merging with machines, in which the human is mentally in control, is that we can avoid doomsday dystopian runaway scenarios in which artificial intelligence starts to use us or disposes of us altogether.
It is my understanding that such mergers have already taken place in the past. In my book Technovedanta 2.0, you will be able to read why and how I consider it very likely that we are living in some kind of computer simulation. The substrate of this computer, the Akasha (ether or spacetime), may well be the substrate of the mind of a kind of God, who came about by merging with a machine and finally merging with everything like Lucy. In this way, the all-encompassing entity can give rise to a world which is both panpsychic and pancomputational.
If a human attains Samadhi and then merges with an Artificial intelligence, there is no risk the resulting entity will turn against us. The nature of hyperintelligence is compassion, which was also illustrated in the film Lucy. She did not kill the drug dealers, who were chasing her down and the patient in the hospital she did kill was a terminal patient without hope of remission. Basically she released the patient from his suffering.
In order to generate this Technovedantic singularity of the merger of man and machine, first we must attain Samadhi. Then once attained, like Lucy we will be able to let our energies control and merge with computing devices. Or we will simply download the entire knowledge about our existence, including the computational parts, into our Mind from the higher level of existence of our Simulator(s). The technology to attain Samadhi is already in place. It is the successful method of the eightfold yoga. If there is any “Akashic engineering”, which is a fashionable terminology these days, it is via Yoga. Via Yoga complete control over the elements, including the Akasha (ether, spacetime) is gained (PIII, 21, 42, 43, 45). Via Yoga you open your access to the divine higher intelligence of our simulator(s). Once this access has been gained there is usually no way back: Your body and mind start to transform themselves into an aligned tool of this higher intelligence, with which you will ultimately merge. You then have become Life and the Logos.
Noteworthy, Besson is not even wrong in that Siddhis can be attained by the ingestion of certain chemical substances: Even this is described in Patanjali (PIV, 1). The name “Lucy” was probably a wink to refer to the chemical substance LSD, a substance about which the Beatles wrote the song “Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds”. I had the lucid hunch that the “ucy”-part of the name Lucy is a phonetic acronym meaning “you see why”. Lucy in the film was wondering about the purpose of existence, the big Why? If we take the L in her name for ‘ll, in fact her name asks “will you see why”?
It is my strong presumption, that we ultimately all will reach this state and have a Lucy-like merger with the highest Transcendence.
The bottleneck is the Mind and more specifically the Ego-faculty (Ahamkara) of the Mind. Once you start disidentifying with your body and Mind and start to feel that you can feel outside these limits, you will have realised you are one with this (virtual) reality. As there is no identification with any form in particular, you will have become the whole. One day you and I will be one. I long for that reunion.
Interestingly in the film “Lucy” Morgan Freeman defines the purpose of our existence to pass on knowledge. How this reminds us of the Vedic “All is Jnana”, all is knowledge.