Can a pill trigger human evolution?

There has been a constant search of human beings to find an alchemical drug that can be popped in to get a glimpse of enlightenment, or boost the spiritual evolution.

Recently Stephen Hawking made some comments in an interview with Anderson Cooper about a brain booster that would become the biggest event in human history. Mr Hawking credits his ability to function and remain focused on such a high level to a certain set of “smart drugs” that enhance cognitive brain function and neural connectivity, while strengthening the prefrontal cortex and boosting memory.

Had evolution been so easy meditators would not have persevered long and hard to transform their baser instincts into the refined feelings, or changing the lower into the higher. With pills and artificial means there may be a temporary moment of brilliance but it cannot last long. This kind of sudden evolution puts pressure on the system. The brain may well be a muscle as Mr Hawking contends, but the spiritual evolution is much beyond the brain or the physical body. There is a huge sphere of the unconscious mind which has to be traversed, cleansed and made friends with.

Osho has been putting great efforts in helping man evolve consciously and vertically. He calls it revolution. Because evolution is slow and collective, revolution is fast and individual. And it is only a human prerogative. Osho says, “(Revolution) means a conscious, individual effort towards evolution. It is bringing individual responsibility to a peak. Only you are responsible for your own evolution. Ordinarily, man tries to escape from his responsibility for his own evolution, from the responsibility of freedom of choice. To me, further evolution is possible only with individual responsibility. This responsibility is a great blessing in disguise. With this individual responsibility comes the struggle that ultimately leads to choiceless awareness. The old pattern of unconscious evolution has ended for us. You can fall back into it, but you cannot remain in it. Your being will revolt. Man has become conscious; he has to remain conscious. There is no other way. Conscious effort is necessary. The achievement is not as significant as the effort itself. Effort gives it its meaning, struggle gives it its significance. You must struggle for enlightenment. Through struggle, you create the capacity to see, feel and hold on to the bliss that comes.”

I feel it is a tremendous honour and dignity that existence has given us that we can rise up to our ultimate possibility by our own efforts. Good to remember the call of the Upanishads: “Uttishtha. Jagrata. Prapya varan nibodhata.” Get up! Wake up! And realise the ideals you have to achieve. The writer is editor Osho Times International. She facilitates meditation workshops based on Osho insights around the country and abroad.