1

Not So Simple  

1. When the UCC began the process of defining what the eternal spirit would comprise, it had hoped to fulfil the Angels’ wishes by eradicating everything associated with the Devil, effectively making the Soul the only contributor to the eventual Spirit. It soon became obvious it would not be that simple. 

2. The UCC then wondered if it could selectively identify positive experiences, to be stored separately within the Spiritual Portfolio. Unfortunately, that also proved more complicated than it had at first seemed. 

3. The boundaries that define whether an event or action was good or bad were extremely vague and imprecise, because the definition depended upon the classification of other associated memories. Clearly, what the UCC had hoped would be straightforward… wasn’t. There were no clear distinctions to be found; experiences were not strictly good or bad. To add to the confusion, the UCC also began to realise the Soul wasn’t entirely good, nor the Devil entirely bad. It just wasn’t that simple.

4. The Soul was undoubtedly more righteously inclined, but it was still vulnerable to the Ego, and without the Devil’s influence it was also unimaginative, unadventurous, and uninteresting. Although dependable, sensible and benevolent, the Soul lacked charisma, gusto, and curiosity. The Devil was daring, brave, emotional, and energetic; full of character and charm, but lacked any real sense of compassion or morality. 

5. Clearly, each one had good and  bad characteristics, making neither ideal as a solitary persona. So, the UCC was faced with little choice: The collective personality would have to be a union of the two, and in occasions of complex personalities, sometimes more than two. The job has been difficult, and still is. The UCC has not yet finished refining the personality in both Angels and Humans.

2

Data Storage

1. The UCC is also developing a cross-species system of memory storage that will provide compatibility between the Angels and Humans.

2. Surprisingly, the process is proving relatively simple. Their brains are different, but similar; both have followed the three-stage pattern of development, and both are supported by an electrochemical nervous system. 

3. In both species it will be possible to initially store new data in the synaptic neurons, and then filter, digitise, and encode it into the Spiritual Portfolio. 

4. Once digitised, the format of the data will be the same for both species, as it will be for any other subsequent species that evolve to a spiritual level. 

3

Punishment and Forgiveness

1. The Alliance has agreed that before any Spirit is permitted to enter the afterlife, it must face a Time of Judgement, where the UCC will review the collective personality and its Spiritual Portfolio and consider how best to prepare it for spiritual existence.

2. The UCC will have options. It can choose to do nothing and simply release the Spirit into the afterlife as it is. It can choose to make alterations to the content of the Spiritual Portfolio in the form of reward or punishment, or it can present the Spirit with options of its own. 

3. In cases where the mortal existence of the collective personality has been unfortunate or unexceptional, the options might be: To accept the Spiritual Portfolio for what it is and continue into the afterlife. It may be to choose reincarnation, allowing a second opportunity at life. Or, in extreme cases, the Spirit may choose Total Death, in which case the Spiritual Portfolio will be entirely erased, as if it had never existed. 

4. Reincarnation may sound like a tempting choice; but if their life was difficult, they must consider that the essence of their Spirit will be the same. So, although they might improve, they may also fail more spectacularly than they did the first time. 

5. The UCC and the Angels have discussed the various options at great length, and agreements have been made, such as: If a Spirit has allowed itself to become enslaved by the Devil, and condoned, or even conducted, terrible acts of negligence, cruelty, or harm, without feeling repentant or seeking atonement, the UCC can refuse to offer any options. It can refuse to remove any negative experience or emotions from the Spiritual Portfolio; even go as far as removing any trace of pleasantness from its memories, making its entire Spiritual existence miserable. The UCC can also enforce total death. 

6. Adversely, if they have been bad, but have truly repented and have sought atonement, the UCC can help the Spirit find a degree of philosophical contentment and comfort in its remorse.

7. There are other circumstances, countless circumstances, that the UCC has considered. Good people can suffer terrible misfortune; people can change from good to bad, or bad to good. It doesn’t matter, the UCC has the power to put all things right within the quantum realm. 

8. The process will be complicated and immensely time consuming, but time is one thing the UCC has in abundance, as do the Souls in suspension, awaiting judgement. It intends to relish the responsibility. The whole concept will bring a sense of purpose to a universe that has previously seemed quite pointless. 

4

Unchanged   

1. There is one thing however, that the UCC cannot, and will not change: The collective personality.

2. The collective personality is everything the Spirit will become; a digitised amalgamation of the personas that is absolutely fixed and unchanging. The reason is one of logical precaution: Evolving personalities within the afterlife would introduce a random element that could be disruptive. Additionally, the fixed nature of the collective personality and Spiritual Portfolio sets a goal for life, a responsible objective.

3. There is another reason, too. The collective personality is far too complex to change. The algorithms that make it individual are intensely complicated; so delicately balanced that even the UCC cannot change them without causing irreparable damage. It has tried, in both organic and Spiritual formats, but every attempt has ended disastrously. Even the tiniest tweak causes a cascade of change. Instantly the collective personality becomes entirely unrecognisable. In the living, they become a different person. It changes their demeanour, their looks, their habits and preferences. Their entire behaviour changes, and the person they have been no longer exists. To both themselves and their acquaintances, they become a total stranger, trapped within someone else’s memories. In the afterlife they simply become… nothing.

5

Emotion Response

1. The capacity for emotional response was established during the early stages of Limbic development, and although they can be very complex, even conflicting emotions can be technically similar, it is only the way they are interpreted that differs. 

2. The autonomic system is triggered by at least eight sensory inputs: Vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste, are accompanied by a direct input from the conscious mind, a telepathic input from the Pineal, and a constant subconscious monitor of the body’s stress alert status. 

3. Whenever the senses are stimulated, a process is put into action. If the event is sudden and unexpected, the autonomic system will immediately initiate a sympathetic defensive response, including chemically raising the body’s state of alert in readiness to defend itself or flee.  

4. The same data is then analysed by the conscious mind, where the Devil takes a slightly more considered but usually irrational response, while the Soul conducts further analysis and responds accordingly. Eventually, the combination of stimulus and reaction is acknowledged and recorded as an emotion.  

5. For instance, if the event is initially perceived as a threat, the chemically induced state will be considered negative and stressful, and the emotion classed as fear. However, if further analysis proves that even though surprising, the event was in fact something positive, harmless, and enjoyable, the same chemical state will be registered as euphoria. The state of high alert is largely the same for both, only the interpretation differs, which under normal circumstances, will be followed by an appropriate physical reaction that disperses the chemicals and returns the body to a parasympathetic state. 

7. It is a learning process that begins at a very young age. For instance: if a young child is regularly shocked and frightened, later in life they will always perceive sudden sensory input as something to fear. 

8. Over time, the chemical responses to various mental and physical stimuli build up into a comprehensive catalogue of emotional responses that the personas interpret in their own way.  

6

Interpreting Emotion

1. How the collective personality interprets emotion is complicated. The Devil and Soul have very different objectives. The Soul associates itself with the Spirit. It has a long-term future to consider and will sacrifice gratification in favour of contentment. Its objective is achieving Karmic balance. It will avoid anything that threatens to disturb the calm parasympathetic state.

2. Adversely, the Devil doesn’t care about karmic balance, only its own immediate welfare. It craves the stimulation created by the sympathetic state and will readily sacrifice future benefits for immediate gratification. It has no preference in which emotion it feels, so long as it feels it with passion. Terror is just as good as euphoria, and hate is just as good as love. Unfortunately, because the Devil has no empathic qualities, and terror and hate are usually easier to achieve, that is the path it often takes. 

3. The Devil and the Soul are in conflict; their relationship is negatively correlating, as the presence of one increases, the presence of the other decreases. Neither of them is singularly ideal for preparing the Spiritual Portfolio because both are obsessed with their own agenda, and are uncompromising towards each other. It will always be a never-ending battle. 

7

Indistinct

1. The UCC has made further discoveries that confirm the differences between the Soul and Devil are not distinct. 

2. The Devil is more affected by emotion. It may spend most of its time being inconsiderate, callous, malicious, belligerent, narcissistic, and everything else that is bad, but it is also passionate, and quite surprisingly, that makes it capable of acting with kindness, compassion, and benevolence. 

3. The Devil will place itself in grave danger in an emotional fit of rage, but it will also face tremendous danger, even self-sacrifice, in the course of protecting, rescuing, or defending a third party; and for no other reason than intense love, irrational kindness, or impulsive compassion. 

4. In contrast, although the Soul is not malicious, it can be dispassionate and void of emotion. So, faced with the same situation, the Soul might feel compassionate and sympathetic towards someone in distress, but not necessarily compelled to take any risk in assisting them.

5. The Soul has benevolence, but in its logical pragmatism it can lack emotion. The Devil has emotion but lacks benevolence. Proving yet again the greatest benefits arise only when a balance is achieved between two opposing extremes. 

6. The influence of either the Soul or the Devil can be complementary or derogatory to the collective personality, depending on circumstances. That is why writing logical algorithms to filter experiences based on emotion, has been an impossible task. There is no way to conclusively identify positive from negative, or good from bad. Certain actions, thoughts, or emotions can be both good and bad; it depends entirely on circumstances. Emotions are highly complex; they can be very different. They are sometimes independent but often inextricably entwined. It is impossible to separate them. The conscious state of happiness is achieved through an intricate balance of many emotions that are in perpetual flux. 

7. It seems the Nature of Phi has managed to evolve a system that is flexible and self-regulating. Where complicated combinations of contrasting emotional responses still achieve and maintain a harmonised karmic state, both spiritually and chemically. In other words, the conscious mind can justify performing a wicked act if it is part of a process leading to karmic balance.

8. The UCC can see the logic; an action might contribute towards a positive outcome even if, on its own, it would be considered unacceptable, removing the action from the process would cause the process to fail. 

9. The result is a highly complex system that neither the Devil nor the Soul entirely controls. The Nature of Phi has taken the system created by the UCC and incorporated the newly installed instinct of Remorse. The result is a system that will favour a combination of both good and bad activities, behaviour, and attitudes, providing they lead to balanced karma and spiritual contentment, which in almost all cases can rather fortuitously, be interpreted as being highly moralistic. 

 10. Being spiritual is making Primary Instincts favour righteousness. 

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