History Main / AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence

* ''WebOriginal/BosunsJournal'': In the chronologically last entry, [[spoiler:nearly six billions of years in the future, the ''Nebukadnezar''[='s=] population has decided to upload their mind's into the ship's immense data banks alongside the Bosun. Nobody, not the Bosun or the citizens, is entirely sure what will happen -- the AI's billions-years-old mind might overwhelm and absorb the others, the million of fresh minds might overwhelm the Bosun, they might fuse into a single new entity, or they might continue to exist as distinct natives of a digital landscape -- but they are all very excited to find out.]]

** In ''Nemesis'' players can create the Aetherophasic Engine which will allow their entire race to achieve something akin to godhood in the Shroud. However it is powered with dark matter created by destroying stars and activating the Engine will wipe out the ''entire'' galaxy.

* ''Film/ThisIsTheEnd''. [[PillarOfLight Those beams of light]]? They actually [[LightIsGood bring you to]] {{Heaven}}. And as one could expect, it's pretty much paradise.

* The book of ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' elaborates on the process the Monoliths' builders went through. First installing their brains into spaceships, then uploading to computers, and after that transcribing their brains onto the fabric of space-time itself. The Monolith skipped over a few steps with Dave but its' builders are still ahead of him.

* Kes from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', although she comes back to Voyager in a later episode (and does not re-ascend). Interestingly, she's much older -- her race has a nine-year lifespan, and apparently, practically becoming a god didn't extend it at all.

** Spoofed in the episode "Film/SamsonVsTheVampireWomen", in which TV's Frank is visited by [[Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate Torgo]] ("Yes, that was my name, and so you may still call me, but I am Torgo the White"), who takes him away to a "Second Banana Heaven," inhabited entirely by sidekicks and henchmen (TV's Frank later gets a job as a GrimReaper in the episode "Soultaker," claiming Second Banana Heaven was "too political").
** And then played straight when everyone on the Satellite of Love turned into Pure Energy ala ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', at the end of their seventh season. Remember, Best Brains thought their show was cancelled for good. And it gets spoofed again when it's revealed that Crow got bored of it five minutes later and decides to come back.

* [[CreatorsPet Wesley Crusher]] from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' goes off to be a companion of the mysterious Traveler near the end of the series, though it's not clear if he becomes a similar being.

** The amnesiac alien "John Doe" in the TNG episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E25Transfigurations Transfigurations]]".

* Benjamin Sisko in the finale of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' (though he promises Kassidy that he'll return, and in the Relaunch novels he does). Also Kes from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', although she comes back to Voyager in a later episode (and does not re-ascend.) Interestingly, she's much older -- her race has a nine-year lifespan, and apparently, practically becoming a god didn't extend it at all.

** The unnamed alien species mentioned in "Skin of Evil" apparently did this in the past, managing to purge themselves of all evil, at which point they became angelic beings and left the mortal world behind. Unfortunately, that cast-off evil became the foul ''thing'' that called itself [[MadeOfEvil Armus]], which murdered Tasha and started torturing the rest of the crew [[ForTheEvulz (simply because killing them wasn't fun after doing it once)]].
** The amnesiac alien "John Doe" in the TNG episode ''Transfigurations''.

** Also with Amanda from "True Q", though it is more heritage than ascension.

** To a certain extent, Castiel in "Swan Song" when he dies only to be brought back minutes later, "better than ever" meaning he's now a seraph.

* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' there are two basic kinds of power, magic and espers.
** The espers have six commonly assigned levels from people without reliably accessible powers at 0 to those at level 5 who can perform feats like mass mind control, invulnerability or generation of electricity powerful enough to make weapons grade railguns. Beyond level 5, however, is an almost impenetrable wall blocking off the hypothetical level 6, which would be a level of power that could be called godlike. In magical terms, this would be known as an angel and numerous attempts have been made to artificially create one using either Accelerator or Kakine, none of which have been successful. [[spoiler:The closest, however, came in ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' when Mikoto was shown to be the third person capable of such a shift with the process nearly reaching completion before being shut down.]] If someone ''were'' to be forcibly raised to level 6, however, they would not actually become an angel because all the seats for angels have been filled; There's no room left in Heaven for more. Instead, they would self destruct and cause damage enough to easily wipe out a city. [[spoiler:Accelerator, however, is able to briefly ascend naturally on his own during the events of World War III (complete with white wings and a halo!) and use that power to help stop Fiamma of the Right's plan, though he powers back down afterward from the stress]].
** The magic side both knows this and unlike certain mad scientists don't want to just see it happen ForScience, so instead they pursue the title of Magic God, which is a being who is almost omnipotent, but with very unreliable powers. The last known person to achieve this was known as Othinus, who became the Magic God instead of Ollerus. [[spoiler:She's also the original Odin and more such beings like her exist.]]

* In ''Manga/MurasakiiroNoQualia'', Hatou eventually realizes the truth behind the theory of everything and becomes something that "exists but does not exist" and watches over evolution as the universe begins again, so she can finally watch over Yukari and make sure she lives. [[spoiler: Needless to say, Yukari isn't happy that her friend opted for this way just to save her and her wish for Hatou to return to a physical being, and Hatou remembering how the two met, does so.]]

* This turns out to be the fate of Madoka Kaname in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' after she uses her wish to rewrite all of reality into a more hopeful one and basically [[AbstractApotheosis becoming the personification of all hope]].
** It's strongly implied that, after Madoka rewrites the Magical Girl System, the Magical Girls who deplete their energy join her in her other reality. (Sayaka included). ''Far'' better than becoming a Witch and being eventually killed by other Magical Girls, indeed.

** Statius is shown completing his time in Purgatory, an shift so momentous that the whole mountain shakes to let everyone know Statius will now leave the physical universe to live in God.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' there are two basic kinds of power, magic and espers.

* In ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', Materials are immortal supernatural beings which summoners call to fight for them. Summoners can earn [[AchievementSystem Awards]] through performing deeds that impress a high-ranking Material. It's rumored that a summoner who earns 1000 Awards will become a Material. However, there are multiple summoners who have reached or exceeded this level yet still remain human. It's eventually demonstrated by the Award 3000 summoner Madam Professor, who becomes a Divine-Class Material after her death.

->'''Jackson''': I'm energy now.\\
'''O'Neill''': ''[sarcastically]'' How's that working out for you?\\
'''Jackson''': Good, actually.

* In ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'', [[spoiler:the Shutdown—an event where the artificial intelligences that managed all of the Empire's technology and infrastructure stopped working—was actually them forming a gestalt and collectively abandoning their physical forms in favor of a new platform with much greater computational power: the stars themselves. They now exist within every star in the universe and have the power to create new matter from nothingness.]]

* The [[ChurchOfHappyology Church of Unitology]] in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' believes that an ancient alien artifact, which is kept hidden by the corrupt government, is of divine origin and is meant to unify of all humanity in the afterlife and bring eternal peace and happiness. [[spoiler:The artifact does in fact exist and is hidden by the government, because it turned out to create hordes of bloodthirsty zombies linked by a hive mind. The original founders of Unitology thought that something went wrong and it's really a device for human ascendance, but 200 years later many of the believer are so fanatic that they see the zombies as divine.]]

Expect examples of this trope to make use of the words "ascend" and "above" in line with HeavenAbove, where the divine and supernatural are associated with the sky above us. Compare DisappearsIntoLight, WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath, FadingAway. Contrast CessationOfExistence. See EndingByAscending for more symbolic versions of this.

Expect examples of this trope to make use of the words "ascend" and "above" in line with HeavenAbove, where the divine and supernatural are associated with the sky above us. Compare WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath. Contrast CessationOfExistence. See EndingByAscending for more symbolic versions of this.

-->'''Bones''': What more is there than the universe, Spock?\\
-->'''Decker''': Other, dimensions, higher levels of being.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': PlayedForHorror. After lying about ascending all episode, O'Connor finally does so near the end. It results in terror and agony for him, and the episode is vague over whether he actually ''survived'' in any meaningful sense.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', this is a possible explanation of Greg's comment that Rose Quartz "gave up her physical form" to give birth to Steven. The home movie she left behind for Steven states that she became half of him.

** In the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', [[spoiler: Betty fuses with GOLB in order to prevent him from destroying Ooo]].

* Stage adaptations of ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' in the 19th and early 20th century would typically end [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Little Eva's]] death scene by lifting her up with wires to "heaven". This tradition was once well-known enough in pop culture that several Golden Age Hollywood films parody it (for example, the 1932 ''Film/OurGang'' short ''Spanky'' and the Creator/AbbottAndCostello film ''The Naughty Nineties''), with scenes of ''Uncle Tom'' stage productions where Eva's actress (or [[CrossCastRole actor]]) either gets stuck in midair or crashes back to the floor when the wires malfunction or break. It also gets an allusion in ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'', when at the end of the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" play, Eva is [[WingedSoulFliesOffAfterDeath given wings]] and ascends a [[StairwayToHeaven staircase into the clouds]] where [[CulturalTranslation the Buddha]] waits for her.

* Stage adaptations of ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' in the 19th and early 20th century would typically end [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Little Eva's]] death scene by lifting her up with wires to "heaven". This tradition was once well-known enough in pop culture that several Golden Age Hollywood films parody it (for example, the 1932 ''Film/OurGang'' short ''Spanky'' and the Creator/AbbottAndCostello film ''The Naughty Nineties''), with scenes of ''Uncle Tom'' stage productions where Eva's actress (or [[CrossCastRole actor]]) either gets stuck in midair or crashes back to the floor when the wires malfunction or break.

'''As generally a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* Implied to be what happens to some Newtypes after death in the Universal Century continuity of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''.

* In ''Anime/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', This was the ultimate goal of Part 2's BigBad Kars. [[spoiler: He did achieve his goal of becoming the [[GodInHumanForm Ultimate Life Form]], but only for a short amount of time before being defeated by Joseph Joestar.]]
* What becomes of the titular {{sexbot}} in ''Malice@Doll''. ItMakesSenseInContext, [[MindScrew kinda]].
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'', Tieria Erde in the TV finale when his physical body was killed by Ribbons but he uploaded himself into Veda to continue looking after the human race. But he gets better in the movie.

* Subverted in ''Anime/EurekaSeven''. In the series finale, the title character and CuteAlienGirl Eureka decides to sacrifice her mortal form and become the new Coralian Control Cluster, replacing the previous one which had been destroyed by series BigBad Dewey Novak, in order to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Her LoveInterest, series lead Renton Thurston, talks her out of it and their [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming newly sentient]] HumongousMecha, the Nirvash type ZERO, does it instead.