Spiritual Posthumanism

A branch that integrates posthumanist thought with spiritual and contemplative traditions, exploring what it means to be human in relation to the more-than-human world—ancestors, spirits, the divine, the cosmos. Spiritual posthumanism challenges the materialist assumptions of much posthumanist thought, arguing that decentering the human might open us to dimensions of reality beyond the physical. It draws on Indigenous traditions, Eastern philosophy, mysticism, and contemporary consciousness studies to imagine posthuman futures that include spirit, not just matter.

Example: "He was drawn to posthumanism's critique of human supremacy but found most of it materialist, reductionist, cold. Spiritual posthumanism offered another path: decentering the human could mean opening to spirit, not closing to it. His ancestors, his gods, his dreams—all part of a larger whole that included but exceeded the human. He wasn't less; he was more."

by Dumu The Void February 19, 2026

Spiritual Cyber-Nihilism

A variant that seeks spiritual experience and transcendence through the Wired, rather than despite it. Spiritual Cyber-Nihilism argues that the dissolution of self that cyber-nihilism welcomes is not merely destructive but potentially liberating—a form of technological mysticism. It draws on contemplative traditions, reinterpreting them for the networked age: meditation becomes data-stream immersion; ego-death becomes identity dissolution in the Wired; enlightenment becomes the recognition that there is no self to save. This variant is less interested in destroying the world than in transcending it, using the Wired as a vehicle for spiritual transformation that leaves meatspace behind.

Spiritual Cyber-Nihilism Example: "She spent hours in VR meditation spaces, letting her avatar dissolve into particle effects while chanting mantras. 'Spiritual cyber-nihilism,' she called it. 'The mystics sought to lose the self in God. I seek to lose it in the network. Same goal, different medium.' When asked if she believed in anything beyond the data, she smiled: 'The data is beyond enough.'"

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 19, 2026