Studies
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind is the title of a 1901 book by Richard Maurice Bucke. In it, Bucke developed a theory involving three stages in the development of consciousness: the simple consciousness of animals; the self-consciousness of the mass of humanity (encompassing reason, imagination, etc.); and cosmic consciousness — an emerging faculty and the next stage of human development.
Alexander Zelitchenko in his "Svet Zhizni" (Light of Life, History of Humankind in Psychosphere of Earth) continues this line, joined the directions of thought of Oswald Spengler, Lev Vygotsky, Lev Gumilev, Carl Jung tracing the transformations of human consciousness in course of history.
According to P. D. Ouspensky, as man evolves into higher states of consciousness, e. g. cosmic consciousness, he needs the tools of a higher form of logic, Ouspensky calls Tertium organum given to the title of his 1912 book.
Bucke’s conclusion one hundred years ago was that these individuals were gifted in the direction of cosmic consciousness but then developed this awareness through self-discipline. It now seems that the gift at birth is not as necessary as the self-discipline and the art of loving. Many of today’s psychologist and theologians make specific reference to Bucke’s work. The list includes Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, Robert de Ropp, Abraham Maslow, and Kenneth Wilbur, to name only a few. The numbers of people who make use of the concept of cosmic consciousness introduced by Bucke in 1901 is even lengthier. This list includes Albert Einstein, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Alan Watts.
Read more about this topic: Cosmic Consciousness
Famous quotes containing the word studies:
“Recent studies that have investigated maternal satisfaction have found this to be a better prediction of mother-child interaction than work status alone. More important for the overall quality of interaction with their children than simply whether the mother works or not, these studies suggest, is how satisfied the mother is with her role as worker or homemaker. Satisfied women are consistently more warm, involved, playful, stimulating and effective with their children than unsatisfied women.”
—Alison Clarke-Stewart (20th century)
“What happiness did poor Mother’s studies bring her? It is the melancholy tendency of such studies to separate people from their friends and neighbors and fellow creatures in whom alone lies one’s happiness.”
—Mary Potter Playne (c. 1850–?)
“His life itself passes deeper in nature than the studies of the naturalist penetrate; himself a subject for the naturalist. The latter raises the moss and bark gently with his knife in search of insects; the former lays open logs to their core with his axe, and moss and bark fly far and wide. He gets his living by barking trees. Such a man has some right to fish, and I love to see nature carried out in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)