The great obstacle to mysticism
transforming humanity
is the same which prevented
the creation of a divine humanity.
Man has to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow;
in other words,
humanity is an animal species,
and, as such,
subject to the law which governs the animal world
and condemns the living to batten upon the living.

Since he has to contend for his food
both with nature and with his own kind,
he necessarily expends his energies procuring it;
his intelligence is designed
for the very object of supplying him with weapons and tools,
with a view to that struggle
and that toil.

–excerpt The Two Sources Of Morality And Religion
by Henri Bergson p. 235

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Is this a cause for celebration or a cause for panic?  What is it going to be: a party or a stampede for the front of the line and the devil take the hindmost?  The people that raised me, to whom I owe so much were loathe to consider they were kin to the cows in the field and the chickens picking bugs in the farm yard.  They put great store in believing they were created in the image of God.  I and they wanted to believe that humans were potentially demi-gods, miniature gods, achievable through Jesus and a re-creation by the holy spirit.  Those outside of this circle of light were simply, —  lost.

On the far side of life’s apogee now, I have spent years among the other tribe of humanity, those with the good fortune of education, especially of the usefulness of the technical tools of society, and a understanding of how markets, how societies institutions work.  These good people, believe they are secular gods of a sort.  By their ability to accumulate wealth, to achieve a widening circle of influence, to believe the myths of materialism, and to purchase their totems as seen on TV — they hope to be eternally young, to deny their mortal kinship with every other animal who has walked the earth.

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Is it not reasonable to recognize that our individual lives are finite, you and I are going to die, ergo the depth and breadth of experience may be elevated for all, if we chose to help, to assist one another?