Humankind Advancing, Vol.9, No.4 October 1998

THEME: Dialogue with a Friend: Duane Elgin

Editorial: As we grope our way toward the future, hope for increased enlightenment is our greatest ally. But we must never abandon caution. The danger exists that projections, especially grand and breathtaking ones, are converted into rigid and detailed plans, which cannot be changed if obstacles bar our way.

The well known futurist Robert Theobald admonishes us to keep our main goal (a more just and compassionate world) solidly in mind, while being prepared for instant course changes. Like canoe navigators, "we cannot predict our course through the rapids. Held by the current, we must respond, almost instinctively, as we see rocks appearing ahead."

In reaction to Dr. Crews information on The Millennial Foundation (Humankind Advancing, July 1998, p. 15), which argues for the possibility of space-colonies, I received a paper by Ernest B. Cohen, entitled "Space is no Way Out," which defends the view that the distances, difficulties, and costs are vastly underestimated, and that sending a significant number of individuals even only to Mars would be impossible -- not to speak of sending them still farther away. The paper ends:

"If space or space technology is not the answer to humanity's problems, the solution must be found on this planet. Good answers must be compatible with the finite resources found on Space Ship Earth. Good answers must also provide spiritual challenges and opportunities for human creativity. Hopefully human intelligence can come up with action programs which are better than just letting the world drift from crisis to crisis. The real challenge is to harness human intelligence to guide the evolution of a society which fully satisfies the needs of MAN in this world, which our technology is so rapidly changing." (See ref. on p.24)

DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND: DUANE ELGIN    

On AWAKENING EARTH 

Dear Duane, 

This will not be just a review, but a letter to you, guided by one aim: the search for mutual understanding in spite of different background knowledge and convictions -- and one principle: honesty. 

For me, your work is a testimony of the marvels the human brain and mind are capable of, and a grand guiding scheme for our participation in further evolution; it is not, however, a proof that a Sacred Geometry provides psychical guidance, or that the universe is pervaded by Cosmic Consciousness.

Your book, made more valuable by your handwritten inscription, will always be one of my most cherished possessions. Reading the first 100 pages, I felt in heaven. None of our conflicting background experiences intruded. As the history of our civilization gave way to conjectures, however, I felt like being on an airplane flight in turbulent weather -- in part lifted up by your grand and splendid vistas, in part tormented by fear that contact with reality seemed to have been lost. You know that our views on consciousness are not identical, and you asked me early this year to write you more about mine. I did not reply. Innumerable exchanges of this kind during the last decades had convinced me of their futility. Now, however, I will try once more. 

I have great respect for the amount of your knowledge and, most of all, for your fairness and lack of bias. Your work is not dominated by the all too common accusation of logic and reason -- and those guided by it -- as being responsible for all evils on earth. Instead, you have a clear insight into the natural progression of thinking patterns as a reflection of situations in different eras. For instance, in spite of your high regard for, and immersion in, Eastern religion, you are neither blind to, nor accusative of, its shortcomings. You are understanding, and yet striving toward a higher level. 

"Eastern spiritual traditions," you say, "(for example Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen) have arisen and matured within an agrarian context and have naturally assumed an unchanging material and social existence for the majority of people. Therefore they tend to be socially passive and place their emphasis on supporting a relatively few individuals in getting off the wheel of material existence through enlightenment. In contrast, dimensional cosmology assumes that development of the material and social aspects of life is integral to the unfolding of consciousness. It is a socially engaged cosmology that emphasises the co-evolution of culture and consciousness in a mutually supportive spiral." (P.325) 

All in all you describe 8 stages of development, (1) contracted consciousness and the archaic era, (2) surface consciousness and the era of awakening hunter-gatherers, (3) depth consciousness and the era of agrarian-based civilizations, (4) Dynamic consciousness and the scientific-industrial era, (5) reflective consciousness and the era of communication and reconciliation, (6) oceanic consciousness and the bonding and building era, (7) flow consciousness and the surpassing era, (8) integral awareness and the initial maturity of planetary civilization. At present, you say, we are in era 4, with large sectors of our population progressing onto era 5. 

Each of these eras will be entered with a feeling of liberation from previous shackles, similar to that experienced at the beginning of the enlightenment, when the burning of witches was replaced by rational inquiry into cause-effect relationships, and it will end with a realization that it led to new and dangerous shackles, such as the possibility of nuclear, biological, or chemical warfare, and the loss of meaning from our lives. 

Era 5, the Communications and Reconciliation Era, which we are presently entering, will lead to mutual understanding and a sense of human community, which will be deepened in the following Bonding and Building Era, in which compassion with one another and a deep sense of bonding with nature will become prevalent. The next one, the Surpassing Era, knows no more worries about the planet's sustainability (which has been assured) and channels all its energy into creativity. The danger of this creativity growing out of control and tearing us apart signals the need to enter the final stage: Initial Maturity as a Planetary Civilization -- the achievement of enough wisdom to balance our energy with compassion and align our initiative and inventiveness toward positive ends. From here on, endless possibilities, perhaps on a galactic scale, become new and exciting challenges. 

You conclude that "the theory of dimensional evolution assumes that the universe is a living system held together through the cohering influence of a sacred geometry that pervades the cosmos and provides the organizing framework for the orderly manifestation of our "material" universe, as well as the organizing context through which life evolves....By understanding the dimensional structure within which we are immersed, we can understand more clearly the direction and pattern of personal and social evolution." (P.306) 

At the end you explain that "despite its scope [the theory of dimensional evolution] is not a comprehensive view of evolution. For example, this theory does not address biological transformations achieved through natural selection or directed mutation." (P.310) 

Our different outlooks originate from the background knowledge you leave out. -- I see the different stages you describe as simultaneously present -- in different persons -- already now. Whether 6 they will be attained by all of humanity is not a matter of time, but of insight. Will ways be found for a few rare individuals, dispersed in different nations and in different specialized fields, to affect the majority of our world's population now being persuaded to sacrifice themselves to the God of Money? Or will persons with exceptional qualities themselves be sacrificed? -- It depends on whether passion can be tempered by reason, while the achievement of a more humane civilization remains an ever more clearly defined goal. -- I believe that the slow and cumbersome progress of knowledge by constant inquiry and error correction is mandatory for a safe way into the future. Revelations, unsubjected to scrutiny and elevated to eternal truths, may become lethal. -- Before I defend my point of view, I will reprint, in your own words, the story of how you arrived at your insights and how you wrestled with your questions -- a story that will deeply move even those who do not share your convictions, and that will lead to sincere respect for your work and your efforts. 

APPENDIX II: MEDITATIVE ORIGINS OF DIMENSIONAL COSMOLOGY
 by Duane Elgin
 (Reprinted with permission of the author) 

This cosmology has its origins in both extensive research and intensive meditation. I began research on this book in earnest in 1973 when I worked with Joseph Campbell and other scholars to describe the deep, archetypical levels of social evolution, both past and future.1 This year-long project was a catalyst for twenty years of personal and professional exploration spanning a wide range of disciplines: anthropology, history, psychology, comparative religion, systems theory, philosophy, physics, economics, future studies, sociology, and more. My consuming interest was to understand the nature and direction of human evolution, both personal and planetary. 

Despite years of research, no matter where I turned, I found only partial answers. I could find no satisfying vision of human evolution that embraced both the material and the spiritual aspects of existence. Although these years of scholarly inquiry provided a great deal of specific information to flesh out the view of evolution described here, the sacred geometry that constitutes the skeleton or organizing framework was a gift from the universe that emerged in May 1978 as the culmination of six months of self-directed meditation. Because this co-evolutionary view of reality, identity, and society was born from an intensive meditative experience, and because I believe we all have access to comparable experiences, I've decided to share the origins of the organizing pattern at the heart of this book. 

In late 1977 I had reached a crisis in my life and I decided to take a half-year retreat from the work I had been doing (primary strategic planning, futures research, and policy studies for government agencies) and devote myself wholeheartedly to self-directed study and meditation. My goal was to come to a deeper understanding of age-old questions: What are we doing here? What are our highest potentials? Where is evolution headed? 

Intensive meditation over the previous ten years had given me glimpses of insight into these questions. This meditation practice was based primarily on Buddhist approaches but included study of a number of other spiritual traditions -- in particular, contemplative Christianity, Zen, Hinduism, and Taoism. In addition, for several years I had been a subject in a range of parapsychology experiments at a major think tank (SRI International) and had the opportunity to learn firsthand about the nature of our energetic connections with the universe. Finally, I accepted the Pythagorean premise that the aesthetic structure of the universe becomes self-evident when we come into authentic union with it. As I entered this self-directed retreat, I was confident that, if I approached the cosmos with the purity of intent and a one-pointed desire "to know," the universe would meet me halfway with insights commensurate with my intention -- and intensity -- to know. 

Throughout the winter and spring of 1978 I spent weeks at a time alone in my home. Approximately half of this time was invested in formal meditation and quiet contemplation. The remainder of the time was spent reading dozens of books on subjects ranging from the world's spiritual traditions, physics, history, anthropology, psychology, and systems theory. Over a period of months I put up notes, charts, lists, diagrams, poetry and pictures on the walls of my kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Gradually, my entire home was transformed into a single quest and question. 

By late spring, the coherent picture of reality, identity, and social evolution I was seeking had not emerged. Instead of finding clarity, I was more confused than ever. I felt overwhelmed with the mountain of ultimately disconnected information and ideas that had accumulated over the years. Missing was the wisdom and insight that could bring all the disorganized knowledge into an organic and living whole. Day by day and week by week I searched for resolution. Increasingly I felt that I was wasting precious time in a fruitless, idealistic pursuit.  

With my allotted time running out, I finally made a decision based on roughly equal measures of unshakable confidence and utter desperation. I resolved to go to the end of this path by holding in consciousness the felt experience of all the questions now burning in my mind, body, and soul regarding the nature of reality, life, and evolution. I decided to hold fast to the experience of these questions until genuine insight and unifying awareness emerged, no matter what. 

Physically rested and psychologically settled, on the morning of the first day of May, I proceeded with irrevocable determination and concentration. Moment by moment by moment I nurtured the felt experience of knowing (and intending to know) until it became a continuous thread of resonant experience that filled every aspect of my consciousness. With immense difficulty -- second by second, minute by minute, and hour by hour -- the pressure and sensation of this conscious intention "to know" was nurtured and focused. 

Toward the end of the first day my experience was analogous to being inside a lighted hollow ball with fragments of mirrors covering the entire inner surface. Everywhere I looked there was a mirror of consciousness to reflect back every aspect of my life and existence. Mundane and profane, loving and indifferent, caring and cruel, intellectual and emotional -- everything was equally suitable for reflection in the mirror of consciousness. Only with utmost determination and unconditional self-acceptance could "I" stay in my self-experience and avoid endless distractions of judgment and imagination. Gradually the pressure of conscious intention began to penetrate through layer after layer of my mentally constructed being. That night I slept lightly and arose early to continue with meditation. 

With single-minded concentration I moved ever deeper into this raw process of self-inquiry. As I stripped away uncountable layers of self-pretense and returned, again and again, to the core intention, a humbled being gradually emerged. By the evening of the second day all was constantly dissolving -- even the mirror of consciousness that reflected my experience was dissolving and reconstructing itself second by second. All that existed was an ocean of living process in constant change. Nowhere was there anything that I could hold on to, or rely upon, or build upon. There was no fixed meaning, no fixed self, and no fixed reality to be found anywhere. Again and again and again I was forced to abandon everything I had formerly known and simply trust the purity of my intention to carry "me" through the constantly disassembling reality. The unbroken silence of these seconds, minutes, hours, and days now penetrated ever deeper, asking me to yield ever more until it felt as if nothing more could be surrendered. The second night seemed as if it could be the last of my life. 

By the third day the thread of intention had grown into a living field of awareness with a distinct and palpable presence and texture. With growing ease I moved within a flow of self-referencing knowing that had acquired a life and momentum of its own. Eternities of time passed as morning turned into early afternoon. Then, in a sudden and unexpected rush, the seeking of the past six months and the concentration of the past three days finally burned a hole through the "ego-I." In an instant of grace the years of accumulated questions and yearnings opened into a joyful, sacred, and crystalline space of Knowing. Within a single exhilarating moment everything became transparently self-evident -- through the entire range of my experience, all was in its proper place and "made sense." This knowing was direct, transconceptional, self-evident, and unmistakably clear. Accompanying this inner experience was a subtle radiance that bathed all that I could see with a soft light -- the furniture, plants, and walls were all infused with a golden luster and glow. 

For the next several hours I stood virtually rooted in one place, physically stunned and mentally shocked to the deepest core of my being. Everywhere I looked, I saw an infusing radiance of immense intelligence, creativity, and love. I saw, and directly experienced, that everything, including "empty space," is visibly alive. Space was not simply the absence of form but the formless expression of infinite possibility. I also saw that the entire fabric of material reality is arising in a flow of continuous creation, that a reflective capacity is present throughout the universe, that an organizing geometry of elegant symmetry and simplicity infuses the universe, and that our cosmos exists within an ocean of boundless compassion. From mid-afternoon until early evening, with utter simplicity and breathtaking directness, every question about human evolution that I have ever imagined was effortlessly answered. Again and again I was overwhelmed by the miracle of "ordinary reality" -- by the immensity and depth of Life in which we are immersed, by the aesthetic and functional structure of existence, by the infinitely deep and compassionate Knowing that permeates the cosmos, and by the visible presence of Life-energy in the flow of continuous creation. This experience left me feeling unshakably confident in the deep integrity of creation, profoundly grateful, inexhaustibly happy -- and finally home. 

In the days following this experience transparent insights coalesced into symbolic patterns representing the major stages of human evolution, both personal and civilizational. These symbolic patterns became living seeds of insight with a life of their own that coalesced into specific concepts and ideas. Although I realized these concepts could never convey more than a faint echo of the original experience, during the next few weeks I wrote several hundred pages, describing the theory of "dimensional evolution" that lies at the heart of this book. 

In the years following this experience I have done extensive research to find the flesh of meaningful language to place on these transparent dimensional bones. Although this book is a blend of intuitive insights and many years of wide-ranging research, my primary objective has been to communicate the essence of the originating experience as faithfully as possible. Because Knowing is uniquely personal, this book is no more than an aligning system or guiding pattern for inquiry that may point others toward the truth of their own experience. In that spirit I share this book -- and the description of its origins -- in the hope that it will serve the path of discovery for others. (See the References)

Duane Elgin, author of Voluntary Simplicity and a former senior social scientist at the California think tank SRI International. He lives in Marin, California. 

END THOUGHTS

 It seems like a sacrilege to express even a single critical comment about a work based on such immense efforts and feats of willpower, and yet, responsibility for our future demands it. 

As an ideal for humanity to pursue, your description of successive stages toward greater maturity and wisdom is exhilarating; as a revelation of the truth -- the way evolution will proceed -- it is dangerous. Most unsettling is your vision of destruction as a prerequisite for a saner civilization. You speak of "the crisis needed to awaken the capacity for self-reflective consciousness" and the coming stage as the "most painful and difficult humanity will ever face." Although you admit that the resulting chaos may be permanent, what comes through in your book is that "massive famine, civil unrest, and ecological devastation" are essential to "motivate humanity...to live together cooperatively on the planet. (P.120) 

Such passages invite deliberate and indiscriminate destruction in the hope to reach our goal faster. They will annihilate rare individuals with unique gifts of insight and "the most painful and difficult stage humanity will ever face" may become its last one. Humanity is the wisdom of outstanding persons and their influence. Without them, humanity will vanish. Think of the ideals Marx, Lenin, and Stalin perceived as undeniable historical conjectures, of the billions slaughtered to achieve paradise -- among them those with the most promising qualifications -- and of the Mafia-mentality now dominant in much of the country. A far safer procedure than emphasis on destruction is emphasis on the recognition and safeguarding of persons with exceptional wisdom and insight, as Jonas Salk recommended.* You will vehemently object that your advocacy of compassion at the heart of your message cannot possibly lead to cruelties and mass murders. But compassion is good only in combination with reason, which demands the assessment of its consequences. Will "boundless compassion" not give free way to the most irresponsible elements? Do not corruption and injustices against the weak and defenceless flourish among the religions of the East? 

You describe the extent of your studies, which go far beyond my own, and the power of your will to concentrate on your questions, which I could never reach. But would the study of neuroscience (my field) have been among them, your revelations would have been fundamentally different. (There is no way that a single person can have an overview of all knowledge on earth, and we desperately need to cultivate trust and goodwill to combine different kinds of knowledge for maximum enlightenment of humanity.) 

You would not have perceived the "biological brain-encapsulated view of consciousness characteristic of the fourth stage as excessively limiting" (p.246); you would be awed by the capacity of billions over billions of energy interactions, both within the brain and with signals from the outer world, to create the marvels we experience as reality. You would know that the world would be silent without our sense-organ's conversion of energy waves into sound and music, dark without their conversion of other waves into light and beauty, and bare of meaning and purpose without the energy interplay in our brains, which constitutes our souls and our psyches. You would know in detail - having read many hundred research papers on the subject -- how much the brain's structure and function affect thought and sensation, including the sensation of infinite Cosmic Love. Your experience of "unconditional love" as a "subtle and refined resonance of the Meta-universe" would still be present, and you may still describe "boundless compassion" as the "essence of the underlying generative ground" (p.298) or the Meta-universe as "an infinitely deep domain of vast intelligence, creativity and energy from which our universe emerged," but you would speak metaphorically and know that you are talking about a reflection of your innermost self. 

Such knowledge is not limiting. It does not drain the universe of its beauty and meaning: we and our souls are part of the universe. Instead, it increases the value of individuals and the uniqueness of their perceptions. It does make wars and mass murders more, not less, criminal -- and it does not diminish, but increase, the value of our life support system. 

You would not feel the need to fortify your message with Michael Murphy's belief that "a wide range of capacities might continue to develop after bodily death," and for reporting that "among the `metanormal' perceptual abilities he describes that do not appear to depend upon our physical existence and therefore could continue to function in postmortem realms are: nonphysical tactile impressions and hearing; direct awareness of luminous beings; the telepathic exchange of emotions, thoughts, and intentions; the telepathic transmission of spiritual illumination; and communal ecstasies." (P.302) You would know that such passages, rather than assisting your goal, will abolish its support by the most rational, powerful, and influential thinkers on earth. 

The crucial problem, however, is that your background knowledge does not include the concept of emergence, a phenomenon at the very basis of evolution, which explains why and how completely new emergent properties and qualities arise from undirected energy interaction in the universe. In fact, the universe, from the smallest particles to galaxies, and especially in the biological realm, is replete with examples of emergence. Would you be familiar with that concept, you could never have said that "because life can only proceed from life, the Life-force that animates us has existed since the beginning of all beginnings," (P.300) -- unless, of course, you equate "Life-force" with energy. But in that case, your world view would not differ from that of traditional science, as it obviously does. 

On p.291, you say: "If we think we live in a material universe that was set adrift billions of years ago and is governed by impersonal forces and accident, and that we have no higher purpose than physical survival, then it seems logical to see the accumulation of material wealth and power as the primary measures of meaning and success," which implies that the life-force is more than undirected energy activity. Most importantly, the statement is a misrepresentation of scientific thinking. Conceiving the wonders of nature -- including our most cherished values -- as having arisen from interaction of energy forces alone, unguided at the outset, but continually becoming more directed as new emergents impact upon one another, and realizing how many billions of failed experiments preceded these wonders, does not lead to a life without higher purpose. On the contrary. It leads to a feeling of obligation to care for the beauty of our world and the best in us, that far exceeds the command of some governing principle which is sure to provide something better if we fail. -- With the loss of that security, the meaning of our lives is not erased; it is deepened. 

With warm and sincere regards,                 

Erika                                                 . 

P.S.: After the preceding was written, I received your answer to my question about the meaning of "psychic functioning" (p.246). You described years of "psychic/intuitive" work with two physicists, Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ, involving thorough experiments in "remote viewing," "psychokinesis," and "clairvoyance," during which thousands of trials convinced you that consciousness has "the literal capacity...to connect in meaningful ways, both expressive and receptive, with the universe beyond the physical body." -- Although I fully trust you, I cannot share your conviction, unless I know every detail of these experiments or your views become part of mainstream science. In my realm of thinking and experience, they have no logical foundation. -- But then, neither had Einstein's theories when they were first pronounced. 

Whatever will be decided, please let us agree on one major point: the sensible solution of our problems on earth does not depend upon the acceptance of either your or my background conviction or worldview. I agree 100% with your insistence on the need for a simplified, more ecologically responsible, and more meaningful life -- but I differ regarding the foundations upon which your views are based and am much concerned about your emphasis on the need for destruction. 

DUANE ELGIN RESPONDS: DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND: ERIKA ERDMANN    

Dear Erika,

Thank you for the opportunity to engage in such a unique dialogue.  I appreciate our many areas of agreement that provide a foundation for this sincere exploration of differences.  In turn, our differences reflect, I think, several misunderstandings as well as a genuine contrast in how we view consciousness and the larger universe.

First, I want to say emphatically that I do not think that the destruction of the biosphere is "a prerequisite for a saner civilization."  This is a major misunderstanding and I'm glad I could clear this up as this was certainly not what I intended to communicate.  Nearly all my work over the years -- such as my book Voluntary Simplicity and a decade of citizen organizing around our uses of television -- has been to minimize the destruction that is already well underway.

Perhaps where we disagree is with regard to how we humans learn.  You say that whether humanity will reach its maturity "is not a matter of time, but of insight."  While I agree that insights often occur at an instant, it is also true that reaching those insights usually takes considerable time and experience.  Just as there is a historical progression in the life-insights of a single human being who grows from infant to toddler to teenager to young adult, so too do I think there is an historical progression in the life-insights of our species as we make our way from awakening hunter-gatherers to our initial maturity as a species-civilization.  It seems unrealistic to think that the human family will suddenly wake up and, without external pressures, decide to live together sustainably on the planet.  As I write in Awakening Earth: "A painful reality seems to lie at the heart of the evolutionary process:  We seem to grow only through the push of dire necessity....Massive famine, civil unrest, and ecological devastation may be necessary to motivate humanity to genuinely unite in a shared effort to live together cooperatively on the planet. ....Despite all our good intentions, without this coming era of collective distress and adversity, the human family is unlikely to awaken to its global identity and evolutionary responsibility." (pp.119-120)  Let me give two examples of what I mean at the human scale:  It would be wonderful if the alcoholic were to see the road ahead and, before losing the job and family to addiction, to simply stop drinking.  It would be magnificent if the abusive parent were to see the consequences of their actions and choose to act compassionately.  Still, the reality is that suffering the painful consequences of our actions is often required to awaken and motivate new behavior.  Recognizing this fact does not mean that I encourage or condone alcoholism and abusive parenting.  What is required is awareness, not more suffering.  I see no need, and have no desire, to amplify the destruction already underway around the Earth.  There is plenty of suffering in the world to motivate change -- what is needed is the wakefulness to see it and respond. 

 A second misunderstanding concerns whether I'm presenting a "prediction" of humanity's future.  I state in several places that this is not a prediction: "No one can predict which pathway we will choose during the second half of our journey of civilizational awakening.  If humanity remains divided against itself and pitted against nature, our  future is bleak.  Whether we realize our potentials for integration into a synergistic planetary civilization is a matter of our own choosing."  (Awakening Earth, p.118)  Elsewhere I write:  "This is not a deterministic view of evolution. ...given human freedom and frailty, I do not expect evolution to conform to the neat boxes and boundaries that are described in this matrix [summary].  The path we actually take through these various stages will surely be filled with many surprises, accidents, and twists of fortune that make it uniquely human and characteristically unpredictable."  (pp.220-221)  While this is not a prediction, it is an effort to describe a purposeful, evolutionary pathway that leads to our initial maturity as a self-reflective and self-organizing species-civilization.

Having explored two areas of misunderstanding, let me turn to where I feel there may be genuine disagreement -- specifically in how we view the nature of consciousness.  If I understand you correctly, you view consciousness as the "energy interplay in our brains, which constitutes our souls and our psyches."  On the other hand, I view consciousness as an energy interplay as well, but one that extends throughout the physical body and then beyond into the universe as one seamless field.

I agree that if consciousness or the "knowing faculty" is synonymous with the subtle bio-electrical activity of the gray matter in the brain, then it is illogical to think that it can connect with anything beyond the body.  How could brain waves move through lifeless, empty space to connect in a meaningful way with the world beyond?  When viewed this way, the idea that consciousness can extend in meaningful ways beyond the body seems impossible, if not ridiculous.  During this century, however, the Western scientific view of the nature of the universe has changed dramatically.  As the pioneering physicist Neils Bohr stated, "anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."  One of the most stunning insights from modern science has been the discovery of "nonlocality," which shows that objects that seem to be separate are really connected in fundamental ways that transcend the limitations of ordinary space and time.¹ Still another astounding discovery is that immense levels of energy flow through the universe and continuously regenerate it.  As physicist Brian Swimme explains, "the universe emerges out of an all-nourishing abyss not only 15 billion years ago but in every moment."² Everything in the cosmos is a flowing movement that co-arises along with everything else, moment-by-moment, in a process of continuous regeneration.  "Psychic potentials" seem, in my estimation, quite ordinary in a universe pervaded by properties such as nonlocality and continuous regeneration.

So, let me briefly present the evidence for psychic functioning.  I've mentioned to you my personal experience in the laboratory at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) that persuaded me as to the reality (and limitations) of this capacity.  Much more convincing than my experience, however, is the exhaustive meta-analysis of parapsychological research that was recently completed by Dean Radin, director of the Consciousness Research Laboratory at the University of Nevada and described in his book The Conscious Universe.  He analyzed more than 800 studies done by 60 investigators over nearly three decades.  Based on this research, he concludes that consciousness includes both "receiving" and "sending" potentials:      

Receiving -- He found evidence of receiving potentials from experiments concerned with perception at a distance, which is sometimes called "remote viewing."  This is the ability to obtain meaningful information about a remote person or location by non-physical means.  Radin found that this ability has "been repeatedly observed by dozens of investigators using different methods....  So, the evidence demonstrates that psi perception operates between minds and through space."³

Sending -- Radin found evidence of the sending potentials of  consciousness from experiments dealing with mind-matter interactions.  These experiments tested the ability of an individual to influence physical systems through their conscious intention.  He concludes that "after sixty years of experiments...researchers have produced persuasive, consistent, replicated evidence that mental intention is associated with the behavior of physical systems."⁴

Scientific evidence has been mounting for decades and is now so overwhelming that the burden of proof has shifted to those who would seek to dismiss the existence of psychic functioning (or whatever we may call this connection with the cosmos via consciousness).  It is time to reconsider the brain-based view of consciousness as it no longer explains important scientific evidence and it unduly limits our thinking about the scope and depth of our connection with the universe.  Therefore, where you suggest that the knowing I experienced was "metaphorical and a reflection of my innermost self," I would say that my innermost self connects directly with the entire universe through nonlocality; that the knowing I experienced was literal; and that anything I might say about that knowing is one step removed from the experience itself and is therefore metaphorical.

One person who has studied extraordinary human experiences is Michael Murphy.  Yet, you say that by quoting Murphy (which, by the way, is a footnote in my book) I diminish support among more "rational thinkers."  In my view, Murphy's book -- The Future of the Body -- represents the very kind of intellectual rigor that you are asking for:  It is carefully researched, nearly 800 pages long, has more than 1,000 references, and contains a bibliography of 85 pages.  This is a massive scholarly inquiry into extraordinary human potentials that, until recently, have largely been ignored by mainstream science.     

As interesting as psychic functioning may be, in my mind the much more important issue is what it says about the nature of the universe.  To me it says that the universe itself is a living organism -- a sentient  responsive whole.  The entire universe is connected with itself through the tissue of consciousness in non-local ways that transcend relativistic differences.  In turn, if the universe is seen as a living organism, it not only transforms the description of the world in which we live, but also the way in which we regard our human journey.  In a sentence, we move from a secular journey in a fragmented and lifeless cosmos without apparent meaning or purpose, and into a sacred journey through a unified and living universe whose purpose it is to support the emergence of self-organizing beings and communities at every scale.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate that I do not assume my experience is valid for everyone else.  As I said in the concluding paragraph that you quote: "Because Knowing is uniquely personal, this book is no more than an aligning system or guiding pattern for inquiry that may point others toward the truth of their own experience." (p.333)  We live in a democratic universe where every being is challenged to discover the truth of their own experience.  I celebrate this democracy of souls.  Thank you, Erika, for this opportunity to journey a ways with you down a path of mutual discovery. 

With warmest regards and best wishes,                

Duane Elgin                                                                       

P.S. After our extended dialogue, I realize some folks may want to buy a copy of Awakening Earth.  Because it is out of print, I wanted to mention that I have copies available for purchase at a discount price of $15.00, including shipping.  Orders can be sent to me at: P.O. Box 2449, San Anselmo, CA 94960, U.S.A.

--------------------------------------------

¹ Lee Smolin, The Life of the Cosmos. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p.252-253.

² Brian Swimme, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. (New York: Orbis Books, 1996), p.100.

 ³ Dean Radin, The Conscious Universe. (San Francisco: Harper Edge, 1997), p.109.  Also see: Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ, "A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer Over Kilometer Distances," published in the proceedings of the I.E.E.E., (vol.64, no.3), March, 1976.

⁴ Radin, Ibid., p.144.

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Last Word (By Erika E.):  Please permit me to correct an imprecise statement (on p.13). "The energy interplay in our brains" does not itself "constitute our souls and our psyches," but gives rise to the thoughts and emotions which constitute our souls.  Moreover, the universe is not barren and empty unless it is filled with consciousness.  It is filled with energy waves, particles and shortlived flickers of all sorts, and all of these constantly interact with brain activity.  In that sense, we are connected with the universe.  Yet our thoughts and emotions -- our consciousness as I understand the word -- depend upon the immensely complex and precise interplay of energy activity within our brains.   

Eva M. Phillips, 5201 Brillon Avenue, Montreal, Q.C. H4A 1H6, Canada

In numerous subtle and unsubtle ways overpopulation tends to desensitize humanity and demean the individual person as increasingly expendable. Our sense of the specialness of human life, its meaning, singular worth, dignity, and wonder undergoes an insidious, unobtrusive but inexorable erosion to which our inherent human nature is partially vulnerable. The process is so slow and the habituation capacity of the human brain so great that the adverse trends, spread over decades or even generations, tend to be taken for granted.

R.W. Sperry
Neuroscientist

Overpopulation and pollution are knowledge-induced problems. The question is what to do about them. If the development of very advanced and powerful knowledge is at the root of these problems, it does not mean that the way out of this situation is through a reduction of the level of knowledge. If we destroy nature and thereby threaten the future of humanity, it is not because we know too much, but because we do not know enough. [Author's emphasis.]

Jerzy A. Wojciechowski
Professor of Philosophy