What would people who believe in darwins theories say about natural altered states of consciousness??

Question

do they believe it possible to achieve these natural states and highs and how would they explain what is happening when people become so deep in meditation that they experience enlightened states? Is the next step in the evolution of humanity one of spiritual growth?

Answer 1

I will add only a few random thoughts in an attempt to complement your musings.

I really don't believe that our minds have an upper limit, or a maximum potential.

Through evolution and ever increasing complexity built into that process, we will continue to grow toward more and more complex and all encompassing social and cultural structures.

Eventually, I think that it is possible for us to reach a point where we embrace all sentient beings as our fellow travelers and equal players in life's eternal game.

We are all here by chance, but we are, indeed, advancing toward higher states of consciousness as a consequence of the innate evolutionary process which has always been and will always be.

Answer 2

It would be nice to imagine a world where people are more spiritually enlghtened. However, if we follow the Darwinian theroy correctly we would find that greed, arrogance and self-centeredness is far more powerful than enlightenment (at least it is currently). Therefore, those who are more enlightened will be crushed by those who are greedy etc.

To to answer your question I would think that we will see an ever increasing and expanding degree of ruthlesness in the world and not an increase in spiritual growth. This appears to be happening in many societies. Even a huge disaster such as nuclear war would increase personal self-centeredness. Those who survive will kill anyone who is weaker. Sad really. This is a great question btw.