Universally Emerging Conciousness

So – from a photon, to an element, to a hot molten mass of stone.  How did this eventually morph into life, or into a small child?  How did non-conscious and seemingly non-animate atomic particles become the three pound universe of our brains?  How is it that 26 elements combined to create a human being – a self-conscious and self-aware animate being?

In his book, From Science to God, Peter Russell proposes that there is some degree of consciousness in everything, and that perhaps “Rather than creating consciousness, nervous systems may be amplifiers of consciousness, increasing the richness and quality of experience.”

In this theory, Man may be hundreds or even millions of times more “aware” or "conscious" than other animals, and likewise, animals may be millions of times more aware than insects which, in turn, may be millions times more aware than plants, and so on -  from plants, to viruses, to crystals, until we reach the smallest known particles.  A universe in which consciousness abides [my nod of the head to George R. Stewart - The Earth Abides] throughout - timelessly, seamlessly, omnipresent. 

This view of evolutionary consciousness maintains a perspective of “wholeness” and “inter-relatedness” of the universe.  One in which, it is not matter that creates consciousness, but one in which consciousness expands and emerges through the evolution of matter. 

One note is simply a sound; a melody comes about from the emergence of several notes; and the beauty of a concert from the ever-emergent and guided simple notes being expressed over time. 

A universal concert.

Nigel Calder puts it very nicely:

The aim isn’t to degrade mind to matter, but to upgrade the properties of matter to account for mind, and to tell how from the dust and water of the earth, natural forces conjured a mental system capable of asking why it exists.

Russell's concept ties in well with a perspective taken by Michael Dowd, author of Thank God For Evolution, who writes that

"...reality as a whole is divinely creative in a nested emergent sense. 
Subatomic particles reside within atoms, which comprise molecules, cells, organisms, and societies -- like nesting dolls of expanding size and complexity."

And that regardless of one's theological bent, "God from this perspective, can be understood as a legitimate proper name for the largest nesting doll...."

By combining Dowd's "nested emergence" and Russell's "evolutionary consciousness" one is left with a sublime sense of our own role in this universally conscious soup. 

Poetically stated, the minuscule consciousness of a photon is layered upon layer, combining and appending -- an accretion of consciousness.  

Emerging and blossoming.  

A flowering universe. 

We are elegant, yet so is everything else.

____________________________________

 Respectfully Submitted, Bro. Tavit Smith

Nice quip: 

We have all heard some fundamentalist-minded person say something like, "don't tell me I'm related to monkeys."  

But the fact of the matter is that now that we have discovered DNA and its code, we know that we are not only related to monkeys, we are related to zucchini.  So let's get over it." -- Marlin Lavanhar