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brian swimme cosmology universe evolution spiritua
November 2009 
Cosmological Powers
Posted on Apr 28th, 2009
by 
buddhacious
buddhacious
Cosmological Powers (part 1-2)
Cosmological Powers (part 2-2)
This is a test run for a presentation I'm giving next week in a course taught by mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme. What are the cosmological powers?
http://www.ecopsychology.org/journal/ezine/swimme.html
Text of presentation:
Slide 1:
All of the powers will undoubtedly show their faces at once point or another during the course of this presentation, but these three lured my imagination most. Seamlessness, Centration, and Interrelatedness. I’ve subtitled it From None, to One, to Many. Hopefully the meaning of this phrase will become clear as we go along…
Slide 2:
In the beginning was an infinitely fertile womb, an all-nourishing abyss, a nothingness so full of potential that it was unable to contain itself.
A full emptiness may not make much rational sense.
Nonetheless, there was a virgin birth, and from none, came one: from the void emerged the cosmos.
Slide 3:
But then, amidst this young cosmos, occurs another miracle: the emergence of particles, individual centers of autopoietic agency always already in communion with each and every other. The One that came from None becomes Many.
Slide 4:
What you see here is a simulation of a cloud of atoms about a light year across. We’re going to watch them seek one another out over the course of 260,000 years. Astrophysicists call this ancient love of matter for itself “gravity. “ Perhaps this is the original meaning of “falling” in love…
Now, out of this atomic love-making, something brand new begins to emerge: stars. But this stellar nursery is no playground. This is a deadly dance constantly hovering at the edge of chaos and creativity.
Individual stars actually begin to compete with one another for matter. Some are ejected before they have enough fuel to ignite, becoming brown dwarfs. Others are destroyed by colossal impacts or swallowed by massive plasma vortexes. But the creative process is relentless: countless shining beings are formed from the fecundity of atomic interrelatedness and are flung into the privacy of a space all their own.
Slide 5:
But these freshly spun stars won’t be lonely long. Out of the halo of gas and rock still surrounding their core, planets emerge to receive the radiant gift offered by their solar parent.
So, to recap: from the empty fullness of the quantum vacuum came the cosmos, within which emerged the first atomic beings whose love for one another made the stars: from None (seamlessness), to One (centration), to Many (interrelatedness).
This mysterious trinity is still active upon the earth between we earthlings. Each of us represents a recapitulation of the original emergence of the universe from the creative womb. We come into the world as individuals, and yet we are always already related to one another. How are we—how am I—both one and many?
In chapter 3 of the Universe Story, Brian Swimme discusses what’s called the Pauli Exclusion Principle. This principle simply states that no two particles can occupy the same state. This principle can be said to assure the irreducible reality of the individual, not only at the quantum level, but also at our human level.
But there is a further principle applying to such individuals: the second law of thermodynamics. This law reflects the need that individuals have, whether atoms or human beings, to remain open to a continual flow of energy. Any being that fails to exchange energy with its environment will very quickly decay and dissolve. For human beings, this “energy exchange” includes our inter-subjective presence among one another and the rest of the earth community, a topic we will return to later. So, we are both separate and united, both individual and interdependent.
To understand this paradox, we have to delve deeper into the bizarre beginnings of our universe. The explosion we witnessed at the start of this presentation is an inadequate facsimile of the big bang, because there was not yet an outside perspective from which to view this most creative of moments. Both space and time themselves emerged from the quantum vacuum. Strangely, then, there really is no outside to our universe; nor is there a beginning in time, at least not one that isn’t still occurring now.
Slide 6:
Loren Eiseley has written that the human is the loneliest being on earth. Our special mode of self-conscious experience (itself an astonishing achievement of cosmic creativity) has become, in the industrial era, a force leading to increasing isolation from the universe that birthed us. We’ve gained untold amounts of technological knowledge about our universe as a result of this self-consciousness, yet somehow each new advance in power and control takes us further away from feeling at home.
Slide 7:
In an attempt to reconcile this alienation—to heal this wound—let us revisit our experience of the beings we call stars. Our own Sun provides us with a model for how the intense centration manifest in human self-consciousness might overcome itself. Perhaps we can learn vicariously.
Slide 8:
The intensity of centration displayed in the self-actualization of the Sun is mirrored by the centration generating our special type of subjective reflectivity. The matter making up the Sun loves itself so deeply that it cannot help but transcend itself, overflowing in radiance, showering light and warmth upon our planet, giving it life. If a being as massive as the Sun is capable of such a miracle, there’s no doubt that you and I are, as well.
Slide 9:
If you recall my description of the cosmic creation moment, of the empty fullness that could not contain itself, you will see the striking parallel with the Sun. Every being in the cosmos is a recapitulation of the emergence of the cosmos itself.
That means present within each and every one of us is the same mysterious seamlessness from which the whole of existence continues to emerge.
It is here that the paradox of our communal autonomy—our autonomy in communion—gains its mystery: The deeper into our own center we go, the closer we come to approaching the whole.
Or as 17th century philosopher/mathematician Blaise Pascal put it: “The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approaches it. We may enlarge our conceptions beyond all imaginable space; we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things. [The universe] is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.”
In other words, looking outward at the vastness of the visible universe may understandably leave us feeling quite alone. But when we recognize that it’s center is everywhere—that in each of our hearts hides the mystery that gave birth to this unfathomable, uncontainable universe—then we feel not only at home, but recognize our natural inclination to love without bounds. There is no limit to what each of us can radiate, or to the depths of our interrelatedness. The universe may not have an outside, but it has countless insides: You are inside of me, just as I am inside of you. We cannot escape each other.
Slide 10:
And yet the mechanized minds of modern human beings somehow remain isolated, not just from one another, but from the rest of the community of life on this planet. How exactly our species-wide autism arose is a matter of academic curiosity; what seems relevant to our current planetary crisis is how to best approach a cure. I spoke earlier of the need all beings have for energy exchange. To remain individually alive, we must give to and receive from those around us. We modern people are great at receiving—at consuming—but we are still learning how to give.
Slide 11:
It seems to me that our only recourse is to remember our relation to the (w)hole: that is, to the cosmos and its origin—to the none and her child, the one. What I am trying to do here is give a theological symbol cosmological significance.
Slide 12:
To give another perspective on what I am trying to convey here, I quote integral philosopher Jean Gebser: “Love presupposes not only the Thou, but also and above all, the I. Only where there is a true, selfless I can the Thou come forward. Without I there is no Thou; without the We which originates within us, there is no Love." [Recall in this context how, through intense centration and individualization, the Sun overflows with light and warmth and becomes the most generous being in the solar system.]
Slide 13:
Now, this is certainly a religious, or at least a spiritual prescription. Our modern industrial sensibilities may make us suspicious of such loftiness, but nonetheless, I am suggesting that only a renewed sense of the holy will allow us to feel at home in the whole.
The holy is that which secretly binds us all together, even while we outwardly appear separate. Our many-ness is overcome by our endless capacity to radiate love like the Sun radiates warmth, which we needn’t worry about running out of since it is supplied by the ever-present infinite potential of our cosmic source.
Slide 14:
I close with a poem by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who sings this all better than I could say it:
“How surely gravity’s law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the smallest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
Each thing—each stone, blossom, child—is held in place. Only we, in our arrogance, push out beyond what we each belong to for some empty freedom.
If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves in knots of our own making and struggle, lonely and confused.
So, like children, we begin again to learn from the things, because they are in God’s heart; they have never left him.
This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to do that before he can fly.”
(transl. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)
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An excellent, inspiring presentation, Matt! Nicely done.
We seem to be on an interesting parallel track: tomorrow night, I will also be giving a presentation on Brian Swimme's work. And last week, while I was reading and pondering David Michael Levin's The Opening of Vision, I came across your previous blog (Unearthing the Earth), and found you beautifully reflecting on a number of similar themes.
All the best to you, Matt. Your voice is, and I believe increasingly will be, a gift to others.
Balder
P.S. If you take a look at my most recent blog, you'll see I've taken my first baby steps onto Youtube.
Balder,
Glad you enjoyed it! Taking a course with Brian is a wonderful experience, if you ever get a chance! He's a perfect blend of science and spiritual exuberance. Good luck with your presentation…
Yes! Though I didn't include him in my bibliography, I have been reading Levin's work. I particularly loved his essay “Logos and Psyche: Aermeneutics of Breathing.”
I'll take a look to see what you've got going on the tube now…
best,
Matt