Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe

by Brian Thomas Swimme

Overview

A Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize Winner

From the host and cocreator of PBS’s Journey of the Universe, a fresh look at how the rich collision between science and spirituality has influenced contemporary consciousness

The understanding that the universe has been expanding since its fiery beginning 14 billion years ago and has developed into stars, galaxies, life, and human consciousness is one of the most significant in human history. It is taught throughout the world and has become our common creation story for nearly every culture. In terms of the universe’s development, we humans are not only economic, religious, or political beings. At the most fundamental level, we are cosmological beings.

Cosmogenesis is one of the greatest discoveries in human history, and it continues to have a profound impact on humanity. And yet most science books do not explore the effects it has had on our individual minds. In Cosmogenesis, Brian Thomas Swimme narrates the same cosmological events that we agree are fact but offers a feature unlike all other writings on this topic. He tells the story of the universe while simultaneously telling the story of the storyteller. Swimme describes how the impact of this new story deconstructed his mind then reassembled it, offering us a glimpse into how cosmogenesis has transformed our understanding of both the universe and the evolution of human consciousness itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640093980
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	286,272
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

BRIAN THOMAS SWIMME is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. He is the cocreator and host of Emmy award–winning PBS documentary Journey of the Universe and coauthor of the companion book of the same title. He works with the Human Energy Project to produce the popular YouTube series The Story of the Noosphere. His other published works include The Universe Is a Green Dragon, The Universe Story written with Thomas Berry, and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos.

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Birth of the Universe

Prologue: Finding Our Bearings in the River of Time 3

1 To Understand the Origin of All 7

2 Mathematical Cosmology at the Tacoma Yacht Club 11

3 Primal Light in a Basketball Gymnasium 15

4 Music of the Spheres at the Grotto Cafe 19

5 A Galloping Beast in the Thompson Hall of Science 23

6 Point Defiance in the Central Basin 28

7 Sanctuary for the Chaotic Transition 32

8 Three Worlds on Whidbey Island 35

9 The West Coast Highway 40

10 Sr. Isabelle Mary and Dwarf Stars 43

11 Ralph Waldo Emerson's Cry 46

12 Siskiyou Mountains 51

13 The Shakespeare of Mathematical Cosmology 55

14 Barnacles at the Boathouse Grill 60

15 The Initial Singularity of Space-Time in the Boeing Amphitheater 63

16 Primordial Fire in the Lips 68

17 When Newton's Equations Fused with Gravity 71

18 The Sun in British Columbia 77

19 Freeman Dyson's Intelligent Cosmos Just South of the Border 84

20 Mount Olympus in the Marysville Denny's 89

21 Narrows of the Salish Sea 92

22 King Tut in Seattle 98

23 The Snow of North Tacoma 103

24 Dirac's Quantum Field Theory in Knapp's Bar 108

25 Snowflakes in the Stoplight at Proctor Avenue 114

26 Galaxies Singing in Different Octaves at Hood Canal 117

27 Isaac Newton inside the University of Puget Sound 124

28 Seattle Space Needle 128

29 The Olympic Peninsula 132

30 Rocky Point, West Tacoma 135

31 The Long View Down 15th Street 139

32 The Observatory of Puget Sound 142

33 A Multimillionaire in the Basement of 1508 North Cedar 145

34 The Piano at the Winthrop Hotel 153

35 Epiphany at St. Patrick's 156

36 "The New Cosmic Story" 160

37 Goodbye to Dolores 164

38 Stars in the Salish Sea 168

Part 2 Stars and Galaxies

39 The Professional Fool 175

40 Matthew Fox in Chicago 182

41 Hildegard of Bingen 185

42 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin vs. Alfred North Whitehead 190

43 Thomas Berry's Bleak Vision in the Yellow House 196

44 The Pilgrimage to Bell Labs 199

45 The Great Red Oak in New York City 203

46 Terror in a Vast Universe 209

47 The Supreme Poet of the Medieval Cosmos 213

48 The Universe Takes Flight as a Red-Tailed Hawk 216

49 Plagues of Symbolic Consciousness 220

50 The Magnanimity of Sunshine 225

51 The First Basic Law of the Universe 229

52 A Cosmological Form of Intention 235

53 Gottfried Leibniz at the Riverdale Center 239

54 Window to a New Axial Age 243

55 Fraser River Awakening 248

56 Bewitched by Theory at the Broadway Diner 252

57 The Nuclear Force in the Santa Cruz Mountains 258

58 St. Augustine's Rome in Flames 270

59 Cathedral of St. John the Divine 275

60 The Reinvention of Sexual Attraction 279

61 The Spirituality of the Supernova 283

62 Theories of Death at the Hudson River Palisades 288

63 Cosmological Love 293

64 The Solar System Floats Light as a Feather 296

65 The Universe Is a Green Dragon 300

66 The First Hexagram of the I Ching 304

Epilogue: Our Common Human Destiny 309

Editorial Reviews

2022-09-10
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.

Kirkus Reviews

A Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize Winner
One of Next Big Idea Club's Top Science Books of the Year

"The most personal of Swimme’s half-dozen books, a thought-provoking, humble memoir about a period when he stepped off the academic treadmill and forged a transformative intellectual friendship." —Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle

"Seldom, if ever, within the scientific tradition, has the excitement of the universe been expressed in such memorable phrasing." —Thomas Berry, Creation Magazine

"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." —Kirkus Reviews

"An immediate antidote to shrunken consciousness, Cosmogenesis will enlarge your conception of what a human is for. Swimme’s riveting autocosmology offers a direct, repeatable experience of intimacy with the universe." ––Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution and Amor & Psycho

"In this book, without warning, a star-inspired mathematician summons us, squabbling bipeds of an over-heating planet, to see ourselves as the evolving universe itself. The grandeur of that calling would seem ludicrously beyond our capacity were it not for the trust our guide elicits. Perhaps what moves us most is the wild generosity he helps us to see at work in the cosmos, and evident in the self-offering of the [super]nova that birthed our own solar system." ––Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self

"What a wonderfully engaging book Brian Swimme has given us! So spacious and expansive, even cosmic, yet down-to-earth and deeply human. The lightness of touch, the exquisite care for detail, the honesty, the self-deprecating humor: every scene is described with such Salinger-like vividness it’s as if it is taking place now before one’s eyes. At one level, Cosmogenesis is a model of how to communicate epoch-shaping scientific and philosophical discoveries while narrating the unfolding drama of one’s own life story. But at a deeper level, it is the gradual revelation of how the life of the individual and the life of the cosmos are fundamentally intertwined within a single journey of self-revelation." ––Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche

"In Swimme’s sweeping and beautiful memoir of a life in search of truth, the reader is witness to a remarkable feat of intellectual alchemy. As our protagonist reaches ever deeper for the genesis of the universe, as revealed in the mathematics of his native tongue, he uncovers a subtle, stunning truth. The universe 'out there' is intricately and intrinsically tied up with the universe 'in here.' Swimme’s storytelling skill shines brightly in this unique, intellectual journey, complementing the extraordinary words of, and the author’s engaging encounters with, many of the great minds of the last century. Cosmogenesis is a monument to mystic chords of nature’s memory whose notes join both consciousness and cosmos in the story of creation. May we all be lifted by the soaring, resonant voice of this cosmic bard and learn to sing in harmony with his hymn to the universe." ––Carter Phipps, author of Evolutionaries and Conscious Leadership

"This is a brave, paradigm shifting and page turning book; vulnerable and intimate, vast and lyrical. By sharing the challenges and breakthroughs of his own personal story in the style of an ‘auto-cosmology’, Brian Swimme impactfully reveals epic twists and turns of the Universe Story. Powerful storytelling throughout evokes a new and much needed cosmology which meaningfully brings together subjective lived experience and recent scientific discovery." ––Jane Riddiford, author of Learning to Lead Together: An ecological and community approach, co-founder of Global Generation.

"Cosmogenesis has the gripping intensity of a mystery thriller and the Socratic seriousness of a truth quest. In the pages of this book, the staggering epic of a fourteen-billion-year evolution is told via a steadily accelerating drumbeat of revelations. Both remarkably accessible and irresistibly seductive, this transformative work augurs spiritual rebirth at a planetary scale.” ––Louis G. Herman, author of Future Primal

"Cosmogenesis is the most clearly and convincingly told story of the origin of the universe I have ever read. But that’s not all that makes this an essential read. If humanity is to escape the stranglehold of the lonely, king-of-the-mountain materialism that licenses planetary destruction, it will be when we tell a new story about who we are and how we come to be in the universe expanding around and within us. Cosmogenesis is a powerful telling of that story." ––Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Great Tide Rising

"A love story beautifully told about the storyteller and his vocation, his wife, his mentor Thomas Berry, the universe and us. Wonderful snapshot moments enliven the soul and imagination and tell the valuable and vulnerable story of the price paid for coming to one's vocation. At the same time, the storyteller heralds a new direction for humanity, freshly empowered by our role as cosmic beings in a sacred process of cosmogenesis, where our vocations too become love stories born of our sacred origins." ––Matthew Fox, author of Original Blessing, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, and The Tao of Thomas Aquinas

"Cosmogenesis is not only an engaging memoir of a visionary cosmologist, but an autobiographical coming of age story of the cosmos itself." ––Sean Kelly, Ph.D., author of Becoming Gaia: On the Threshold of Planetary Initiation and Coming Home: The Birth & Transformation of the Planetary Era

"In Cosmogenesis Swimme’s remarkable reflections on his personal journey bring us face to face with universe-as-teacher. Their dialogue is an exquisite weave of poetics, spirituality, and science. My recommendation to the reader is to let the narrative’s flow carry you along as Brian describes his poignant journey. Then, return to your marked notations seeing them as your personal entry as the cosmos speaks through you." ––John Grim, Yale University, co-author of Ecology and Religion

"Cosmogenesis is one of the most remarkable stories of our time—not simply a page turner, but a life changer. We follow Swimme’s journey of studying science as an academic field to embracing cosmology as a lived experience. In reading this you will be transformed as you enter into new ways of becoming alive in the universe." ––Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University, author of The Philosophy of Qi

"Modern science began with the myth of the machine. In only a few centuries, this worldview has completely transformed the world, empowering our species to become a geological force on par with asteroids and ice ages. If Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry are right, science, through the insights derived from its own methods, has now entirely outgrown the mechanistic image of the cosmos. The universe, it turns out, is a green dragon—a creative process rather than a finished product. Swimme's autobiocosmological narrative is, in one sense, the exemplar of an ancient genre counting Augustine's Confessions and Dante's Divine Comedy among its antecedents. But in another sense, Cosmogenesis changes everything: in place of a separate creator God who designs and judges creation from afar, there is pervasive creative attraction luring the universe beyond every settled order; and in place of a static hierarchy of planetary spheres, there is a nested sequence of evolutionary phases. The human is not the end of this stupendous process, but a crucial turning point. Conscious self-reflective creatures now hold the fate of Earth in their hands. Swimme's book serves as a call to adventure to all those ready and willing to meet this moment by becoming cosmological beings." ––Matthew D. Segall, Ph.D, author of Physics of the World-Soul (2021)

“In Cosmogenesis, Brian Swimme, one of the preeminent Western thinkers on cosmology and science, explores the history of the universe, connecting the dots in mythology, philosophy, and science. In a sweeping arc from the origin of the universe to the challenges of the present day, he portrays us for what we really are: cosmological beings and a tribe of storytellers. He shows that storytelling itself is a cosmic event, a moment of cosmic self-awareness. This is a book in the tradition of grand narrative, and a must-read for the curious, searching for our place in the universe and our mission for the cosmic future.” ––Wolfgang Leidhold, Professor of Political Theory & History of Ideas, University of Cologne, Germany

"As a theoretical physicist interested in the wider cultural and spiritual implications of modern science, I have long been a fan of the work of Brian Thomas Swimme, who has a particularly inspiring take on the standard scientific paradigm—that the universe is not just something to be theoretically understood but something we can have an experiential relationship with. In his most recent book, Cosmogenesis, he intermingles his description of the development of his ideas with his own very personal history. Poignant, epic, and fascinating, it is quite simply a joy to read." ––Professor Jonathan Halliwell, Department of Physics, Imperial College London

From the Publisher