UNIVERSAL CONSIOUSNESS
The Bridges Between Science And Spirituality.
The essays in this book are the notes from the e – learning courses which organized by the
international educational, research and cultural community Think Lab from 20 March and
20 April 2016 on ‘’Introduction to Philosophy of contemporary cosmology: Transformation
of thought and evolution of consciousness’’. The courses are held online, the contributions
were from London, Berlin, Dublin, New York, Chicago and Athens. The presentation of the
courses and the coordination of the program was the thinker Alexis Karpouzos. We would
like to thank you for the great response about the courses.
Published by Think.Lab, Athens, Greece 2016
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The central teaching of mysticism is that Everything is One, whereas from the side of
rationalism the universe is Multiple. The essence of the mystical tradition is not a particular
philosophical system, but the simple realization that the soul of any individual/existence is
identified with the Absolute. A special feature of the mysticism is the elimination of
discriminations, i.e. the One and the Multiple are identical.On the other hand, in rationalism
the One and the Multiple differ substantially. Mysticism aims at the Emptiness of Zero,
whereas rationalism aims at the identification with the Infinite of Everything. Based on the
ontology resulting from modern physics the One is also the Multiple and the Multiplicity is
also a Module, also the Void and the Everything are complementary aspects of a single and
indivisible reality. This means that mysticism and rationalism are the two sides of a Cosmic
Thought, which isexpressed through consciousness. We could say that this consciousness is
the rhythm that coordinates any opposite.
Alexis Karpouzos
ANCIENT WISDOM AND MODERN SCIENCE
If physics leads us today to a world view which is essentially holistic, it returns, in a way, to
its beginning, 2,500 years ago. It is interesting to follow the evolution of Western science
along its spiral path, starting from the mystical philosophies of the early Greeks, rising and
unfolding in an impressive development of intellectual thought that increasingly turned
away from its mystical origins to develop a world view which is in sharp contrast to that of
the Far East In its most recent stages, Western science is finally overcoming this view and
coming back to those of the early Greek and the Eastern philosophies. This time, however, it
is not only based on intuition, but also on experiments of great precision and sophistication,
and on a rigorous and consistent mathematical formalism. The parallels to modem physics
appear not only in the Vedas of Hinduism, in the I Ching , or in the Buddhist sutras, but also in the fragments of Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plotinus, African-American philosophy, the
eastern negative theology, in the Sufism of lbn Arabi, in the holistic spirit of Giordano Bruno
and Meister Eckhart, in monadology of Leibniz, in the Absolute Idea of Hegel and Shelling,
e.t.
All ancient spiritual traditions suggest that the world is a unity and the multiplicity is only
apparent. Modern science claims that the visible world of matter and the multiplicity is only
apparent, the reality is unseen and invisible. Since different roads the mysticism and the
rationalism lead to the same view, the view of the open totality of the world. The mystical
insight of spirituality and the rational mind of science leading to the open thought, the
wisdom of life. The spiritual experience of oneness conduces to the same insight as
reasoning through science. Both convey the insight of fundamental interconnection between
ourselves, other people, other forms of life, the biosphere and, ultimately, the universe.
Science and spirituality, far from being mutually exclusive and conflicting elements, are
complementary partners in the search for the path that can enable humanity to recover its
oneness with the world. Science demonstrates the urgent and objective need for it; and
spirituality testifies to its inherent value and supreme desirability. We can reason to our
oneness in the world, and we can experience our oneness with the world. The time has
come to do both, for they are complementary and mutually reinforcing.
Presents a revolutionary new paradigm of Cosmic Thought that bridges the divide between
science and spirituality. Discloses the ramifications of non-localized consciousness and how
the physical world and spiritual experience are two aspects of the same Cosmos. What
scientists are now finding at the outermost frontiers of every field is overturning all the basic
premises concerning the nature of matter and reality.
The universe is not a world of separate things and events but is a cosmos that is connected,
coherent, and bears a profound resemblance to the visions held in the earliest spiritual
traditions in which the physical world and spiritual experience were both aspects of the
same reality and man and the universe were one. The findings that justify this new vision of
the underlying logic of the universe come from almost all of the empirical sciences: physics,
cosmology, the life sciences, and consciousness research. They explain how interactions lead
to interconnections that produce instantaneous and multifaceted coherence–what happens
to one part also happens to the other parts, and hence to the system as a whole. The sense
of sacred oneness experienced by our ancestors that was displaced by the unyielding
material presumptions of modern science can be restored, and humanity can once again feel
at home in the universe.
HISTORICAL RECURSIOΝ: THE AWAKENING OF THE HOLISTIC SPIRIT WEST
The roots of physics, as of all Western science, are to be found in the first period of Greek
philosophy in the sixth century BC, in a culture where science, philosophy and religion were
not separated. The sages of the Milesian school in Ionia were not concerned with such
distinctions. Their aim was to discover the essential nature, or real constitution, of things
which they called 'physis'. The term 'physics' is derived from this Greek word and meant
therefore, originally, the endeavour of seeing the essential nature of all things. This, of
course, is also the central aim of all mystics, and the philosophy of the Milesian school did
indeed have a strong mystical flavour. The Milesians were called 'hylozoists', or 'those who
think matter is alive', by the later Greeks, because they saw no distinction between animate
and inanimate, spirit end matter. In fact, they did not even have a word for matter,since
they saw all forms of existence as manifestations of the 'physis', endowed with life and
spirituality.
Thus Thales declared all things to be full of gods and Anaximander saw the universe as a kind
of organism which was supported by 'pneuma', the cosmic breath, in the same way as the
human body is supported by air. Pythagora’s cosmotheory s
upported that spirit is the
matter of the world and it is subject to a mental set that expresses the Universal Divinity.
The “Universal Mind” (or the global consciousness as it is differently called nowadays),
namely the totality of all the actions and thoughts, is what creates reality around us in the
same way quantum physics teaches us that the observer chooses his reality among an ocean
of probabilities the moment of the observation, i. e. at the act of thought.
The monistic view of the Milesians was very close to that of ancient Indian and Chinese
philosophy, and the parallels to Eastern thought are even stronger in the philosophy of
Heraclitus of Ephesus. Heraclitus believed in a world of perpetual change, of eternal
'Becoming'. For him, all static Being was based on deception and his universal principle was
fire, a symbol for the continuous flow and change of all things.
Heraclitus taught that all changes in the world arise from the dynamic and cyclic interplay of
opposites and he saw any pair of opposites as a unity. This unity, which contains and
transcends all opposing forces, he called the Logos .
THE AWAKENING OF THE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT EASTERN
In the same period of Greek philosophy in the sixth century BC, in a Eastern culture where
philosophical thinking and religion were not separated. Although the various schools of
Eastern thought differ in many details, they all emphasize the basic unity of the universe
which is the central feature of their teachings. The highest aim for their followers-whether
they are Hindus, Buddhists or Taoists-is to become aware of the unity and mutual
interrelation of all things, to transcend the notion of an isolated individual self and to
identify themselves with the ultimate reality. The emergence of this awareness-known as
'enlightenment'-is not only an intellectual act but is an experience which involves the whole
person and is religious in its ultimate nature. For this reason, most Eastern philosophies are
essentially religious philosophies. In the Eastern view, then, the division of nature into
separate objects is not fundamental and any such objects have a fluid and ever-changing
character.
The Eastern world view is therefore intrinsically dynamic and contains time and change as
essential features. The cosmos is seen as one inseparable reality-for ever in motion, alive,
organic; spiritual and material at the same time. Since motion and change are essential
properties of things, the forces causing the motion are not outside the objects, as in the
classical Greek view, but are an intrinsic property of matter. Correspondingly, the Eastern
image of the Divine is not that of a ruler who directs the world from above, but of a principle
that controls everything from within. Μore specifically:
The Chinese Tao is the symbol that characterizes the dialectic unity of opposites. The Tao is
the rhythm which connects the opposites. The Hindu tradition of the Upanishads faces the
personal ego as an illusion (Maya). Maya separates the personal Ego from the transcendent
Being (Brahman). When the illusion of the personal Ego is spoiled, then the compound with
the Transcendent Being is achieved. The Transcendent Being is located deep inside the
human’s soul (Αtman). The human’s soul (Αtman) and the Transcendent Being (Brahman)
are the Same, boundlessly and timelessly. You are this one (tat tvam asi) “The one who lives
inside all beings, but is something else compared to them. He, who is being ignored by the
beings, but his body is all the beings. He, who controls all the beings from inside.
He is your Soul, the internal Auditor, the Immortal”. The Vedas teach that we are more than
physical bodies operating according to the laws of physics and chemistry. We, the eternal
conscious self ( Atma ), are inherently connected to the greater whole ( ParamAtma ), and
this eternal inherent connection is totally transcendental to matter. All living entities (
Atmas), having free will, are able to ignore this connection or recognize it. The Vedas teach
us how to do both.
When we act as scientists and look for facts and accept them and then go on to use and act
according to our new realizations we can make great progress. Similarly, as living entities, we
must scientifically study the great work of the evidential books of the Vedas in order to help
us realize the facts of this universe and beyond, and our natural position in it.
A Buddhist text gives us a vision of the time: “Buddha taught the past, the future, the natural
world and each one of us is nothing but names, forms of thought, public words, simply
superficial realities.” A Buddhist sutra says: “the form is the vacuum, the vacuum is the
form”. For the Japanese Buddhist zen there is no other space, there is no other time. This
moment is everything. In this moment the whole being is being summarized. In this moment
everything is available, into this moment eternity penetrates the existence and existence
penetrates eternity.
EARLY SIGNS OF SEPARATION IN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
Anaxagoras is the first thinker in the history of world that separated matter from spirit, the
souled from the soulless and supported that the cosmic “Mind” includes all the laws that
express the activity of God. For Anaxagoras the word Cosmos means “order in the cosmic
system”. The spirit of God is the creator of the order. The above applies to the entire
Universe. The “deamon” of Socrates is the voice of God that works inside us, it is an echo of
the voice that governs the Universe and defines the operation of everything in the world.
This way, Socrates unites in a mutual substance the man, the Universe and the God!
Socrates cogitates the sky, detects the stars, envisions the entire world and within him there
is the profound conviction that through the “cosmic creation” and the “human fate”, a
superior Intellect, which is an imprint of our own Intellect, dominates.
The split of this unity began with the Eleatic school, which assumed a Divine Principle
standing above all gods and men. This principle was first identified with the unity of the
universe, but was later seen as an intelligent and personal God who stands above the world
and directs it. Thus began a trend of thought which led, ultimately, to the separation of spirit
and matter. and to a dualism which became characteristic of Western philosophy.
A drastic step in this direction was taken by Parmenides of Elea who was in strong
opposition to Heraclitus. He called his basic principle the Being and held that it was unique
and invariable.
He considered change to be impossible and regarded the changes we seem to perceive in
the world as mere illusions of the senses. The concept of an indestructible substance as the
subject of varying properties grew out of this philosophy and became one of the
fundamental concepts of Western thought.
SYSTEMATIZATION OF SEPARATION
In the fifth century BC, the Greek philosophers tried to overcome the sharp contrast
between the views of Parmenides and Heraclitus. In order to reconcile the idea of
unchangeable Being (Of Parmenides) with that of eternal Becoming (of Heraclitus), they assumed that the Being is manifest in certain invariable substances, the mixture and
separation of which gives rise to the changes in the world. This led to the conce
pt of the'
atom, the smallest indivisible unit of matter, which found its clearest expression in the
philosophy of Leucippus and Democritus. The Greek atomists drew a clear line between
spirit and matter, picturing matter as being made of several ' basic building blocks '. These were purely passive and intrinsically dead particles moving in the void. The cause of their
motion was not explained, 'but was often associated with external forces which were
assumed to be of spiritual origin and fundamentally different from matter. In subsequent
centuries, this image became an essential element of Western thought, of the dualism
between mind and matter, between body and soul.
The classical philosophical thought and the theory of knowledge of Western culture - from
Plato and Aristotle (philosophy of Being), continuing with Descartes and the first
epistemology (philosophy of Noesis – ‘’I am thinking, therefore I exist’’), and ending the
linguistic turn of Wittgenstein of the Vienna Circle and other positivists language (analytic(al)
philosophy – linguistic analysis) - was founded on the separation Is and Not Is, Plenum and
Vacuum, Cosmos and Thought, One and Multiple, Anything and Everything, namely on the
separation Subject - Object. Of these ontological divisions were created epistemological
separations as idealism - materialism and anthropological separation as Soul-Body e.t
Philosophy, epistemology and theory of knowledge, consider that knowledge is acquired
when a subject, as an external-uninvolved observer, represents in the mind of the subject,
the '' Nature ''. But the ‘’Nature’’ It is a metaphysical abstraction of the wholeness of the
world, is a logical construct and has named "Nature".
COMPLETE OF SEPARATION
In the late fifteenth century, the study of nature was approached, for the first time, in a truly
scientific spirit and experiments were undertaken to test speculative ideas. As this
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