Are we heading for Cosmic Consciousness?

"Like a flash there is presented to his consciousness a clear conception (a vision) in outline of the meaning and drift of the universe...He sees and knows that the cosmos...is in fact...in very truth a living presence. He sees that instead of men being, as it were, patches of life scattered through an infinite sea of non-living substance, they are in reality specks of relative death in an infinite ocean of life. He sees that the life which is in man is as immortal as God is; that the universe is so built and ordered that without any peradventure all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world is what we call love, and that the happiness of every individual is in the long run absolutely certain." ​

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"The process of obtaining *the whole*...Along with moral elevation and intellectual illumination comes what must be called, for want of a better term, a sense of immortality." ​

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More..more!!

 

I guess the feeling of cosmic consciousness is best described by this quote:

"I watched the limbs of the trees sway gently in the breeze [and] experienced not just a visual perception of the event, but a physical sensation as well, as if the limbs moving in this wind were hairs on my body."​

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Do you feel connected to the cosmos?​

 

love it love it

all we need is love... Unending Cosmic Truth and Love...

and to get off our lazy asses and do something with it.

 

Yes!!! and some people think I'm crazy for it... I've watched trees dancing for joy in the wind... felt connected to them... perhaps I was projecting my perceived emotions onto them? Streams and creeks rushing along over rocks, ebbing and flowing seem also to make me feel very connected to the "cosmos" which I think is god in all so it's all just a private spiritual experience for me.

 

Maybe we need to strive to obtain the cosmic connection?... Work inwardly on our ego and "sight" and also outwardly to positively effect our world?

What do you think?

I feel the same way... not all the time, sometimes I lose it. But sometimes it hits me so hard I feel over whelmed.

 

Yes, and I think its also so very important to surround yourself with people who support you in your "work" Thats why this forum can be very valuable at times... when I lose track, get frustrated and take a vacation, or simply hit a plateau (sp?) in the quest for a cosmic connection (I know these words will seem strange to some), just when I need it I'll come across a post that will inspire me to think more, work more, or study more.

Yippee!!!!!

 

I completely feel that same feeling

It's like every thought or action however seemingly distant, is infact an effect on us all. We all suffer... we all love

The pain of an animal, person, the earth, is the same as our own personal pain. Because we are the same entity. One consciousness.

 

That's the assumption I make. I think everyone experiences these moments and feelings, and we all call it different names. To a christian, it is communing with god, to a new ager it is becoming one with the universe or feeling the 'positive energy' of the world, to a pagan it is feeling the beauty of nature...

But to a scientist... what we are experiencing is what the electro-chemical impulses in our brain are creating for us, a perception of the world, a feeling of joyousness and a feeling of connection with our surroundings when really the only thing we know and feel is what is happening inside our skull.

 

I cannot look up at the night sky without thinking that exact thought....weird.....but then I truly believe there is nothing more amazing than gazing at the stars for hours on end......

"We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"

 

"The experience comes suddenly without warning with a sensation of being immersed in a flame or rose-colored cloud and is accompanied by a feeling of ecstasy, moral and intellectual illumination in which, like a flash, a clear conception in outline is presented to the mind of the meaning and drift of the universe."

Cosmic consiousness is more than just a feeling though…

Dr. Bucke considered thirteen individuals to have possessed such a consciousness: Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Platinus, Mohammed, Dante, Las Casas, John Ypes, Francis Bacon, Jacob Behmen, William Blake, Balzac and Walt Whitman. How do you feel these artists embody the cosmic connectivity?

"Distinctly there are many degrees of higher consciousness from the elementary awareness of shared consciousness with other individuals to the perception of profound scientific insight, and the transcendental experience of the mystic."

(sorry, a lot of cut and pasting…but I felt that I didn’t need to re-write what I found)

Love Clairexxx

 

Given that our perception of reality is the only way we can experience the universe, and that our perception of reality is created for us in our minds by our senses and brain, how can you be prepared to say that anything we experience, know or feel is "more than just a feeling"? How can you overcome the expression of universal doubt embodied in Descartes' formulation of cogito ergo sum?

Ooh, philosophical

 

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You are so right! How can any of us KNOW anything! How do we truely know if anything is the product of intellect, emotion or instinct etc.

I'd like to discuss this specific theory of life and its possible evolution though....

What are we moving towards... if anything?... Is there a purpose?... and what if that purpose was connectivity and love (cosmic consiousness )?

Love Clairexxxx

 

if it is, and im not saying that it isn't because i deffinatly think thats where we as a whole are currently trying for, what will be the purpose after achieving it?

 

Here's one theory:

A state of one-ness, unity and love, suspended and eternal.... in otherwords... PEACE

Love Clairexxx

 

Do you feel connected to the cosmos?​

[/QUOTE]Oh yes, very much so, very much so. This cosmic conscousness you speak of has been of great interest to me for the last several years and I believe it to be the future dominant religious/spiritual branch because it is essentially a religion of the Universe. Not of God or a God or some Gods, but everything in existence. So for me it is the ultimate religion because I don't think you can go bigger than the universe can you?

Another great thing about this is that it's a very free-flowing philosophy and potentially very progressive. It encompasses no Gods (if you want it to!), no prophets, no scriptures, no sins, no 'missions' or inquisitions and no specific places of worship. I'm of the opinion that the only type of religion which can really flourish in this day and age is one which has very few bounderies, has few guidelines and yet encourages the practitioner to connect oneself with so much. A lot of people are put of by organised religion but this is far from organised! It's very tailor made for the individual too, which is great.

Furthermore, it's described on here as a feeling, rather than as a revelation which you try to spread or impose upon others, like a gospel. No-one is really trying to kind of do that because a) it's very difficult to define such a (for want of a better description) Infinity-bonding kind of, philosophy and b) those people who 'feel the energy' etc are content with it and don't assume that they must press it onto everyone around them. They will inform others but not try to convince them, which is quite a radical thing really.

I'll tell you about my experiences with cosmic consciousness a little. Not very often, maybe about 2 or 3 times a year if that, I have what I call 'nirvana flashes'. These are basically brief, spotaneous moments when my sensory level seems to suddenly notch up a gear. Very strange, very wonderful moments. It's kind of like being on a really good psychedelic trip for several seconds and without having taken any halucinogens or any substance whatsoever. I could better describe it as kind of looking at a large TV or large computer screen, and then suddenly increasing the picture resolution by 10% or something. The change you get, the extra clarity, the extra detail. It's very much like that.

I can't really predict when or how they happen, or in what kind of environment specifically, but it's a definite, moving psychological experience. It doesn't happen that often when I'm meditating or when I'm doing something I'd consider to be very spiritual, but It'll happen very unexpectedly. It seems to happen most often when I'm outdoors and during the evening or night-time, but that's the best pattern I can draw up of the occurences. Yeah, nirvana flashes...

This is one hell of a fascinating thread and represents my ideal from of conversation. I'm itching to read something like 'The Celestine Prohecy' now. Do continue!!

 

I am far too rational and practical minded to approach this idea as anything other than a psychological phenomenon, but the experience links in interesting ways to the philosophical awareness that there is nothing but the universe and our perception of it. That there are no gods, there is just the universe. I don't believe that feeling something is ever enough of an explanation - I want to coldly analyse, interrogate and understand it in a framework that actually makes sense. But I think this feeling we are talking about, with the ultimate aim of "oneness, unity and love" and "peace" sounds like a philosophical awakening. The same one that informs our decision to help others, to seek to prevent cruelty to other living beings, to put compassion and a commitment to peace and co-operation above self-interest and seperatism. This is a philosophical awareness or awakening, although many will only ever experience it as a feeling, "cosmic consciousness", or whatever you want to call it, without ever rationalising it in rigorous and concrete terms.

But I think this is part of the evolution of society, part of an ongoing refinement of our morality, moving away from our primate instincts for survival and selfishness, and instead opening our conscious minds to the possibilities of co-operation and co-existence. Would we be able to feel "cosmic consciousness" if we were still fighting for food, territory, sexual mates and survival in the wild? We require space and freedom to think in order to sit back and contemplate the universe. Things we could never have achieved without the advances in society which have freed us from a primitive survival struggle and allowed us to engage in philosophy and thought.

Cosmic consciousness is a function of human co-operation, human ingenuity, and dare I say it, technological advance.

 

Had one of those "cosmic conscious" moments this afternoon. I'd never known what that feeling is called till I read this thread, my spiritual language tends to be christian....but I reckon it's all the same thing that feeling of sudden inner joy, connectedness and insight.......
I'd just picked Hamish up from school ( probabley helps you to know that he is seven, suffers from autism and it's not always easy to have a conversation with him) "Where is God, is he in the sky?" he asked me as we got to the top of the big hill. "Some people think that , but I think he's everywhere," was the best reply I could think of . We stood at the top of the hill and I looked at the billowing grey clouds and a bird flying high in the sky, suddenly everything snapped into focus for me,I felt like I could touch the clouds....I could be the bird.....and I was them ( I think I'll stop here or it's going to sound like a late Beatles song......) Hamish said to me "We're in the mainframe Mummy, " .......and he's right.
And now I'm back at home the kids are squabbling over television programmes and that brief feeling of interconnectedness has gone ....but I'm kind of grateful I had it, makes me feel more of a spiritual being in a human body than my normal mundane self

 

Psychological experiences like this do seem to be taken more and more seriously by researchers now, and I'm all for it. I'd love to be able to make those experiences occur more frequently and for a longer period. One or two researchers have found that some people can experience these strange phenomena when they're within a strong electro-magnetic field. There was a really interesting documentary on Discover Science on the subject several months ago. It probably still screens regularly now as they're always doing re-runs!!