A chapter by Duane for the book, Thomas Berry: Dreamer of the Earth, Ervin Laszlo and Allan combs (eds.), Inner Traditions. This chapter explores the intersection of the horizontal dimension of Berry’s work (the evolution of the universe through time) and the vertical dimension (the emergence of the universe in time as a living, regenerative system). Particular emphasis is given to the vertical dimension in Berry’s work–the spontaneous emergence at every moment of the universe as a sacred, interdependent system.
Living In a Living Universe
ONE OF HUMANITY’S MOST FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS:
IS OUR UNIVERSE DEAED OR ALIVE AT THE FOUNDATIONS?
I’ve consulted AI systems to investigate global perspectives on this fundamental issue. Their analysis suggests that, when considering humanity overall, approximately twice as many people regard the universe as alive rather than dead. The AI-generated estimates indicate the following:
- roughly, 30% of the world views the universe as dead at the foundations
- roughly, 60% of the world views the universe as alive at its foundations.
In addition, the mechanistic worldview, dominant in industrial societies for 300-400 years, appears to be giving way to new synthesis that honors both scientific rigor and the intuition of a living, participatory universe. We are in a major transition in our view of reality as a species.
THE WISDOM OF ALIVENESS:
An explorer of humanity’s deepest wisdom, Joseph Campbell, was once asked, “Isn’t what people are searching for is meaning in Ife?” and he replied, “No, what people are searching for is the direct experience of being alive.” Why is this encounter with aliveness so vitally important? When our direct experience of being alive meets the profound aliveness of the living universe – when life meets life – it has a transformative impact on our understanding of where we are, who we are, and where we are going.
Here is a 3-minute video introducing the Living Universe
Here is a 4-minute video of The Living Universe book
(and includes my granddaughters and nephew).
How important and impactful could a shift from a dead to a living universe be for humanity’s vision of ourselves at our future? Here is a quote from the AI system, ChatGPT, describing the significance of bringing a living system’s perspective into our world.
“to see the to a cosmos as a unified, living system suffused with aliveness would be nothing short of revolutionary — touching every dimension of human thought, technology, governance, and culture . . . . . a living‑system paradigm is not merely an intellectual refinement — it is a catalyst for a wholesale reimagining of humanity’s role on Earth. It offers the ethical foundation, scientific methodology, socio‑political structures, and collective narratives we urgently need to navigate the deep uncertainty of our era.”
VIEW ONE: If we view the world around us as made from dead matter and empty space, then it is natural and logical to exploit that which is dead for the small portion which we regard as alive — ourselves.
VIEW TWO: If we view the universe as a living system of which we are an inseparable part, then it is natural to extend caring regard for all that exists.
With aliveness, we shift from exploitation to respectful regard and care Because we ae consuming the Earth far beyond its ability to regenerate its support for humanity, it is critical that we shift our collective mindset from exploitation to renewal. Deepening the respect and regard for the aliveness of the can transform how we live on the Earth.
The Living Universe
The Living Universe, written carefully over 30 years, challenges one of modern civilization’s core assumptions: the idea that the universe is a non-living mechanism filled mostly with dead matter and empty space, without any larger meaning and purpose beyond our material survival. Instead, this transformative work proposes that the universe is a unified, living system that is being continuously regenerated, with consciousness at every level of existence, and that our evolutionary purpose is to discover our nature as cosmic citizens who are learning to live within this profound aliveness. Drawing from discoveries in cosmology, living systems science, and the world’s wisdom traditions, the book describes how the profound shift in perspective now underway transforms our understanding of human purpose and potential. As humanity matures beyond our adolescent isolation and into conscious partnership with the living Earth and living universe, we are invited to reimagine ourselves not as separate beings struggling for survival in a dead cosmos, we become participants in an extraordinary cosmic story. This visionary perspective opens doorways to unprecedented cooperation and creativity—offering humanity a pathway from separation to integration, from exploitation to regeneration, and from cosmic orphans to cosmic citizens awakening to our role in the universe’s magnificent unfolding.
Click below to purchase the paperback from the publisher:
https://www.bkconnection.com/books/title/the-living-universe
PSI at SRI Personal Experience as a Subject in Three Years of Psychic Research at the think tank, SRI International,1973 – 1975
“Psi at SRI: Research Exploring the Ecology of Consciousness” documents a remarkable three-year period from 1973-1975 when the author was a subject in psychic experiments at the think tank, SRI International, in the US government first research exploring both receptive intuition (remote viewing) and expressive consciousness (psychokinesis) through rigorous laboratory protocols with real-time feedback. Rather than claiming exceptional abilities, the author argues these experiences demonstrate that our intuitive connection with the cosmos is an ordinary capacity available to everyone, and that consciousness not as confined to the brain but is present as a field property of the universe itself. The work challenges the mechanistic worldview of separation and instead sees us in a participatory dance with a unified, continuously regenerating cosmos where separation is an illusion. Through sustained exploration with precise instrumentation—from laser-monitored pendulums to magnetometers with liquid helium probes—the author discovered that consciousness can be focused and produce measurable effects that transcend conventional understanding of space-time boundaries. These experiments were conducted before the CIA classified the research program a secret project and Elgin dropped out. By documenting this research with rigorous scientific protocols, the work bridges ancient wisdom and modern science, suggesting that humanity stands at the threshold of recognizing our true nature as conscious participants in a living universe where thought, intention, and awareness are fundamental forces rather than mere byproducts of brain biochemistry.
AWAKENING EARTH: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness
1993
A free PDF copy of this book is available in the “Books” section of this website.
“Awakening Earth” presents a sweeping vision of the unfolding of humanity’s culture and consciousness from prehistoric times through the pivotal times of the present and then into the deep future, many centuries ahead. Published in 1993, this pioneering work examines how humanity has developed through distinct historical epochs, each characterized by its own perceptual paradigm, social structures, and relationship with the natural world. The book traces our species’ journey from awakening hunter-gatherers, and then through the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the still emerging communication revolution. Each of these coherent patterns rather than random changes. Drawing from diverse fields including psychology, cosmology, systems theory, and spiritual traditions, it explores how an emerging revolution could further transform our deepest sense of identity and evolutionary journey within the larger cosmic story. Written at a crucial time when humanity faces unprecedented planetary challenges, “Awakening Earth” offers both a diagnostic framework for understanding our current crisis and a hopeful vision of humanity’s potential to awaken to our role as conscious participants in the universe’s continuing evolution. This visionary work calls us to embrace our potential as a species capable of conscious evolution. By recognizing that we stand at a threshold moment where choices made now will reverberate for millennia, the book challenges us to rise to our evolutionary potential as conscious co-creators of a regenerative planetary civilization and to align with the deeper intelligence of life itself.
Appendix II, Meditative Origins of Dimensional Cosmology
Appendix II, “Meditative Origins of Dimensional Cosmology,” This appendix, written 15 years before “Awakening Earth” was published, offers a remarkable first-person account of the profound contemplative experiences that undergird the theoretical framework presented in the book. During an intensive half-year, solo meditation retreat in 1977-1978, the author received the gift of profound awakening into the multidimensional nature of reality, revealing how consciousness and cosmos interpenetrate to produce a coherent pattern of development as reality unfolds through seven, distinct dimensional stages, each with its own characteristic qualities of space, time, and awareness. Rather than abstract philosophical speculation, this appendix grounds the book’s evolutionary vision in lived contemplative experience, demonstrating how sustained meditative inquiry can yield systematic insights into the structure of reality itself. This personal account bridges ancient contemplative wisdom with contemporary cosmology, offering readers a window into how direct spiritual experience can inform and enrich our understanding of cultural evolution and humanity’s cosmic journey. This visionary testimony invites readers to understand that the wisdom needed for humanity’s next evolutionary leap may not come solely from external technologies or social innovations, but from the depths of contemplative exploration—where the boundaries between self and cosmos dissolve, revealing our participation in a multidimensional universe of extraordinary beauty and intelligence.
DEEP BIG HISTORY
History Viewed from A Living Systems Paradigm
Duane Elgin August, 2014
Presented at the conference of the International Big History Association
At this pivotal moment in human evolution, we stand at the threshold between two fundamentally different ways of understanding our cosmic story—one that views the universe as a mechanical system composed of dead matter that somehow produces life, and another that recognizes the universe itself is a vast living system in which we are conscious participants. This essay challenges the foundational assumptions of scientific materialism that currently dominate big history narratives, offering instead a living systems paradigm supported by discoveries in quantum physics showing the universe to be a unified whole, permeated by immense background energy, engaged in continuous creation, and exhibiting consciousness at every scale. Rather than seeing ourselves as isolated biological accidents in an indifferent cosmos, this perspective reveals humanity as the universe becoming aware of itself after nearly 14 billion years of evolution—transforming not just our understanding of history but our sense of identity, purpose, and ethical responsibility. The shift from a dead to a living universe paradigm offers a scientific and philosophical framework for navigating our planetary crisis and consciously evolving toward a sustainable, compassionate and maturing civilization. By recognizing consciousness as fundamental rather than incidental, and the universe as inherently alive rather than mechanistic, we discover that big history is not merely a chronicle of blind physical processes but the story of a learning universe exploring its own depths through the emergence of self-aware beings. This living systems perspective provides the conceptual foundation needed to unite scientific understanding with the meaning and connection required for humanity’s next evolutionary leap.
The Buddha’s Awakening and Interdependent Co-Arising
(With a commentary by Claude/Anthropic )
Duane Elgin
This essay explores one of humanity’s most transformative spiritual insights—exemplified by the Buddha’s description of his of awakening to the nature of reality in two-words: “interdependent co-arising.” Interdependent manning that reality is a completely unified and interconnected as a singular whole. Co-arising meaning tat reality is not static but is continuously emerging anew at every moment. Therefore, this phrase penetrates to the heart of reality and describes all that exists is a unified whole that is continuously emerging freshly at each moment. Far from being unique to Buddhism, the insight of a unified and continuously regenerating universe appears across all major spiritual traditions—from Christian mystics to Islamic Sufis, from Hindu sages to Indigenous wisdom keepers—revealing a universal truth that transcends all boundaries. Because this same understanding has been recognized by spiritual explorers in diverse wisdom traditions throughout history it is an experientially direct insight about the nature of reality, and serves as a bridge to all the world’s wisdom. At the heart of this cosmology lies the revolutionary perception: the universe is not a collection of solid, separate objects, but more deeply is a dynamic process of continuous creation where everything arises new and fresh at every moment as an interconnected whole. By recognizing that we inhabit a living, regenerative universe rather than a dead, mechanical one, we are called to recognize every aspect of reality as expressions of a single, continuously creative cosmos learning to know itself through infinite eyes, infinite perspectives, all arising together in the eternal dance of interdependent co-arising.
The Living Cosmos: A Theory of Continuous Creation
Revision Journal, 188:
This essay has its origins in my half-year of meditation in 1977-1978 (see the essay “Meditative Origins of Dimensional Cosmology,” found in the Appendix of my book “Awakening Earth”). Here I describe a view of our universe as a profoundly interconnected, self-organizing system that continuously regenerates itself moment by moment. This essay challenges the prevailing mechanistic view of a dead and static cosmos by presenting a view of reality emerging as an active, ongoing process of creation whereby the entire fabric of matter-energy and space-time is dynamically woven together as a single whole at every moment. At the heart of this description is a seven-dimensional cosmology in which three material dimensions provide concrete expression while three mirroring dimensions enable self-referencing observation and instantaneous connection across the cosmos, all emerging from and returning to a hyper-universe of unlimited dimensionality and creative potential. A core theme is that the precise consistency of manifestation of reality at the cosmic scale produces the precise constancy of the speed of light at the local scale. In other words, nothing can go faster than the speed with which it is emerging. Nothing can get ahead of itself becoming itself, so trying to exceed the speed of its own arising will produce relativistic effects such as length contraction and time dilation, which occur because objects literally run into themselves in the process of becoming themselves. By grounding theoretical physics in direct meditative experience, this work demonstrates that the deepest truths about reality may be accessible not only through mathematical equations and laboratory experiments but also through the disciplined and direct exploration of reality itself. With this approach, we discover that we are not separate observers studying a mechanical universe from the outside, but rather expressions of the cosmos engaged in a process of self-discovery, with each moment a fresh creation in the universe’s ongoing adventure of awakening to its own infinite nature.