What if human evolution isn’t finished?
Over a century ago, Richard Maurice Bucke believed the human mind was on the verge of something extraordinary… a higher form of awareness he called Cosmic Consciousness.
This isn’t about science fiction or mysticism, but about the natural unfolding of human understanding… the moment when consciousness awakens to itself.
In this narration, we explore Bucke’s vision of humanity’s next step: a world where the sense of separation fades, and the universe is known as one living presence.
A timeless reflection on what it means to awaken.
From Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind
by Richard Maurice Bucke, M.D., published in 1901.
The words you’ve heard are drawn almost entirely from the original text,
with only gentle abridgment for rhythm and voice.
This message from over a century ago is still awakening in us today.
Themes:
The Dawn of a New Faculty
The Evolution of Awareness
The Illumined Mind
The Future of Humanity
Music:
Fluidscape Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Thanks Kevin!
source
Do you think humanity is beginning to awaken to this?
After you watch this listen to "Age of Aquarius" by the 5th Dimension.
These higher truths exactly fall in line with my spiritual beliefs, but I've experienced so much emotional pain and abuse in my life, and now I'm 77 alone and vulnerable. I have cliniical depression and anxiety disorder and I sometimes wish this sorrow , fear, isolation and seige mentality incarnation would just end. I'd even welcome cancer, I hate to admit. Attempted suicide a number of times since my late teens. Except for a miraculous Divine intervention last time, I would have died, had to crawl on my hands and knees till I got outside the carbon dioxide filled bathroom I was in. It was taking too long. Put a plastic bag over my head, but ripped it off when I started to suffocate. Took a whole bunch of pills and woke up 3 days later. Then I sought help and emerged from that very dark place.. I no longer consider suicide an option to get rid of the pain, but a lot of the time I still want to die.
I never want to do anything like that again, but I still have so much emotional pain on a regular basis.I know all these truths you mention here. I meditate and pray regularly. Watch spiritual
videos on you tube and buy lots of books on saints lives, mystics, etc.. I just wish all this illumination would change my painful circumstances. I don't understand why I know all these truths, have a regular spiritual practice (unless I'm too depressed, fearful or hurt to do it) – but my life circumstances don't change. Any sincere advice would be greatly appreciated. Bless you.
The new religion..
It's becoming clear that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman's Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with only primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
What I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990's and 2000's. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I've encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there's lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
My advice to people who want to create a conscious machine is to seriously ground themselves in the extended TNGS and the Darwin automata first, and proceed from there, by applying to Jeff Krichmar's lab at UC Irvine, possibly. Dr. Edelman's roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461, and here is a video of Jeff Krichmar talking about some of the Darwin automata, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Uh9phc1Ow
The people are severely Dim
Very very good. More logical than any religious ideas.
It’s scary how accurately you described my shroom trip
This Consciousness almost overpowered me with too much Knowledge too fast after reading Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies. The poet himself had had a religious experience before writing the Sonnets, which poured through him in a manner of days. I only wish the commentary had not been stuck on the male pronoun, him, mankind, himself. I'm a woman. Maurice Bucke also seems to have been enlightened through Whitman's poetry. Poetry is a powerful vehicle.