In the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, Ascension is a process by which sufficiently-evolved sentient beings may shed their physical bodies and live eternally as pure energy on a higher plane of existence full of knowledge and power.
It is a mental, spiritual or evolutionary enlightenment that can arise as the direct result of achieving a certain level of wisdom and self-knowledge. Ascension was also employed by the Ancients as a means to avoid a number of issues threatening their species with extinction.
The concept was first introduced in the SG-1 third-season episode "Maternal Instinct", but later became one of the central themes of the series, particular in the sister-show Atlantis. It is the core of both series' explorations into dualistic, moral, and spiritual issues, a recurring philosophical theme that makes Stargate unusual among mainstream pop science fiction from its era.
One of Stargate's main motifs is to explain real-world phenomena or religions in terms of (fictional) events that happened in the past. In the story, the alien race called "the Ancients" were the first to discover and study Ascension, and subsequently Ascend thousands of years ago[1].
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