Cosmogenesis : an unveiling of the expanding universe

Cosmogenesis An unveiling of the expanding universe

Brian Swimme

Book - 2022

"The discovery that the universe has been expanding from its fiery beginning fourteen billion years ago and has developed into stars, galaxies, life, and human consciousness is one of the most significant of human history. It is taught throughout the world and has become our common creation story for every culture with modern educational processes. It holds the promise of a new human unity. In terms of this story of the universe's development, we humans are not primarily French or Chinese, Democrat or Republican. We are primarily cosmological beings. Though An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe narrates the same cosmological events as thousands of other books, it has one unique feature. It tells the story of the universe while si...multaneously telling the story of the storyteller. If indeed cosmogenesis is one of the greatest discoveries of human history, it will necessarily have an immense impact on humanity, at least as profound as the Copernican revolution. And yet, to my knowledge, none of the science books published in English explores the effects cosmogenesis has on human consciousness. An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe tells the story of how my mind was deconstructed by the impact of this new story and then reassembled. In shorthand: I began with the mind of a cartesian scientist and ended with a mind aligned with the creativity of the universe"--

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Subjects
Swimme, Brian.
Astronomers > United States > Biography.
Cosmology.
Astronomers.
SCIENCE / Physics.
United States.
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Biographies
Autobiographies
Published
Berkeley, California : Counterpoint 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Brian Swimme (author)
Edition
First hardcover edition
Physical Description
315 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781640093980
  • Part 1. The Birth of the Universe
  • Prologue: Finding Our Bearings in the River of Time
  • 1. To Understand the Origin of All
  • 2. Mathematical Cosmology at the Tacoma Yacht Club
  • 3. Primal Light in a Basketball Gymnasium
  • 4. Music of the Spheres at the Grotto Cafe
  • 5. A Galloping Beast in the Thompson Hall of Science
  • 6. Point Defiance in the Central Basin
  • 7. Sanctuary for the Chaotic Transition
  • 8. Three Worlds on Whidbey Island
  • 9. The West Coast Highway
  • 10. Sr. Isabelle Mary and Dwarf Stars
  • 11. Ralph Waldo Emerson's Cry
  • 12. Siskiyou Mountains
  • 13. The Shakespeare of Mathematical Cosmology
  • 14. Barnacles at the Boathouse Grill
  • 15. The Initial Singularity of Space-Time in the Boeing Amphitheater
  • 16. Primordial Fire in the Lips
  • 17. When Newton's Equations Fused with Gravity
  • 18. The Sun in British Columbia
  • 19. Freeman Dyson's Intelligent Cosmos Just South of the Border
  • 20. Mount Olympus in the Marysville Denny's
  • 21. Narrows of the Salish Sea
  • 22. King Tut in Seattle
  • 23. The Snow of North Tacoma
  • 24. Dirac's Quantum Field Theory in Knapp's Bar
  • 25. Snowflakes in the Stoplight at Proctor Avenue
  • 26. Galaxies Singing in Different Octaves at Hood Canal
  • 27. Isaac Newton inside the University of Puget Sound
  • 28. Seattle Space Needle
  • 29. The Olympic Peninsula
  • 30. Rocky Point, West Tacoma
  • 31. The Long View Down 15th Street
  • 32. The Observatory of Puget Sound
  • 33. A Multimillionaire in the Basement of 1508 North Cedar
  • 34. The Piano at the Winthrop Hotel
  • 35. Epiphany at St. Patrick's
  • 36. "The New Cosmic Story"
  • 37. Goodbye to Dolores
  • 38. Stars in the Salish Sea
  • Part 2. Stars and Galaxies
  • 39. The Professional Fool
  • 40. Matthew Fox in Chicago
  • 41. Hildegard of Bingen
  • 42. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin vs. Alfred North Whitehead
  • 43. Thomas Berry's Bleak Vision in the Yellow House
  • 44. The Pilgrimage to Bell Labs
  • 45. The Great Red Oak in New York City
  • 46. Terror in a Vast Universe
  • 47. The Supreme Poet of the Medieval Cosmos
  • 48. The Universe Takes Flight as a Red-Tailed Hawk
  • 49. Plagues of Symbolic Consciousness
  • 50. The Magnanimity of Sunshine
  • 51. The First Basic Law of the Universe
  • 52. A Cosmological Form of Intention
  • 53. Gottfried Leibniz at the Riverdale Center
  • 54. Window to a New Axial Age
  • 55. Fraser River Awakening
  • 56. Bewitched by Theory at the Broadway Diner
  • 57. The Nuclear Force in the Santa Cruz Mountains
  • 58. St. Augustine's Rome in Flames
  • 59. Cathedral of St. John the Divine
  • 60. The Reinvention of Sexual Attraction
  • 61. The Spirituality of the Supernova
  • 62. Theories of Death at the Hudson River Palisades
  • 63. Cosmological Love
  • 64. The Solar System Floats Light as a Feather
  • 65. The Universe Is a Green Dragon
  • 66. The First Hexagram of the I Ching
  • Epilogue: Our Common Human Destiny
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An evolutionary cosmologist analyzes the profound entanglements between the history of the universe and our understanding of that history. Blending autobiography and science writing, Swimme, a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies and co-creator and host of the PBS series Journey of the Universe, explores the concept of cosmogenesis, which describes the origin and evolution of the universe from primordial soup to human intelligence. The author's breakthrough came when he realized that "I was evolving, that I was as much a development of the universe as were stars and galaxies. If I wanted to tell the story of the expanding universe and how it developed through time, I needed to include the story of my long struggle out of the structures of existence I had been born into." Taking this idea further, he ponders a statement famously uttered by Freeman Dyson, repeated in conversation with the author: "The universe--in some sense--must have known we were coming….The universe knew." Swimme likens this idea to a human embryo "knowing" how to create a human nervous system endowed with an intelligence capable of performing incredible feats. In writing that is clear and free from complex jargon, the author argues that this integrated cosmological self is an overlooked aspect in scientific communities and that a "radically new vision of the universe" is needed to account for the fact that "we ourselves are constructions of the universe's process." While the concepts he explores are fascinating, his reliance on the minute details of his life--what he calls "time-developmental experiences"--at times bogs down the trajectory of his argument even as he invites readers to participate in a mutual "transformation" as part of the "living universe." Yet the overall message of the power of storytelling leaves readers with a new appreciation for how we view the universe's history and ourselves within it. An invigorating perspective on how science and spirituality inform the history of human experience. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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