It is measured not against some distant, abstract spiritual standard, but rather in our capacity to learn from life and discover who we are. The new group would not be whole. The new entity would have us as an element that was not complete, fulfilled. It would be an unstable combination. It would not be able to reach its own potential or find its own fulfillment.
Spiritual development requires that the more complex spiritual realities grow from wholeness.
When that is realized, there is a persistence of the spirit as well as an enhancement of the spirit. We are part of that great spiritual development. It did not begin with us, it will not end with us. What we are and are becoming will not be lost in the process. All that we learn and remember will add to the spiritual wisdom of the more complex realities yet to come.