I'm posting this, uh, post on a somewhat recent religion, or more of a mindset, really, that has started to gain groun since around the mid 90's. That is the idea of the Spiritual Cyborg. A self fulfillment religion based on bettering oneself through gnostic meditative techniques, mantras and all that stuff. The basic idea is to free oneself from the automaton state that many people spend most of their time in, the reactive self that has been programmed by genes and society, so as to regain one's free will. These ideas are heavily gnostic in origin, but with a modern sort of twist. An ongoing evolution of gnostic ideals seen through many stages of Western history.

Anyways, what I want to know, is how popular the idea of the the spiritual cyborg is and whether or not it's a popular term (I've only really seen it in a few places)

It's fun to track how meme's are started, you know? I believe this one was first coined by Erik Davis, although he could have picked it up from somewhere and just been the first to publish it.

The automaton state can be described as being asleep, and was, I think, first used by Guirdjieff (sp?), who once said something "How can you expect fairness and decency on a planet full of leeping people?" Mor recently, E. J. Gold, son of Herbert Gold of S-F fame, wrote extensively on awakening the biological machine.

He contends that the human biological machine is mostly asleep--that is, in the grip of shared communal illusions, habits, preconceived notions etc.

I have done some work with the exercises he prescribes, and it is interesting to observe how many people are indeed, walking around, seemingly conscious, but really asleep. Not in the literal delta state, of course, but certainly not aware in any deep or metaphysical sense.

The "cyborg" thing is, I thnk, an unfortunate and misleading appellation. To me, and I suspect most people, a cyborg is an entity which started out as fully human but which became more (or less) than human via the introduction of mechanical parts--Robo Cop, for instance.

I've also read some guirdjieff as well as some works done by others trying to explain his ideas. The term spiritual cyborg, I have recently found, comes from the extropians, a group believeing that man is on the cusp of being immortal. They're all about improving themselves spiritually as well as augmenting themselves physically. Freezing themselves for later ressesucation, as well. I think they coined the term believing that humanity has nothing to do with the body, and that to augment and improve one's self is to become more human.

They seem like ok guys, I guess. But I hear that they're real elitists. They also believe that the earth is a cradel that we will soon leave, so they really don't give a damn about keeping it habitable.