Mind Before Matter

I just received an email about a conference being held in San Francisco, related to the book, Mind Before Matter: Visions of a New Science of Consciousness. The book’s authors include John Mack, Amit Goswami, and Dean Radin, all authors of books we have on our study list.

The theme is a basic one to what lies ahead. I was thinking the other day that the Course in Miracles may be viewed as founded on that core reality that consciousness precedes matter. The way I sometimes say it is that you could blow up the world into nothing—no more brains!—and consciousness would still exist. There is this trend in thought to reject the philosophy of materialism and replace it with one that makes consciousness the ultimate reality, one label Goswami gave for it was “monistic idealism.”

Another trend that is related is the increase in interest in “non-dual awareness.” It seems as it was first introduced to the West via Douglas Harding’s book, On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious. His is a startling “look” at non-dual awareness. It can be a shock, that “you” are really consciousness, and all is “one,” and the state quickly disappears, but you always remember it, and looking back, it is kind of obvious, but yet hard, for me at least, to let go into it for long periods of time. Interesting that over in the What is Enlightenment website, Andrew Cohen claims that he’s been with his students where they’ve enjoyed a shared sense of this experience lasting for hours. I can recall years ago being with a group where we were doing “Dream Theater” and we experienced it for a few moments. In any event, more people must have been having this experience as there are now many books out on the subject, including one on how psychotherapy for such individuals needs to be different—The Sacred Mirror is the title of that book, and Diane Evans, of our consciousness group, has prepared a summary of it, which I hope to get edited soon and posted on our webazine.

But meanwhile, while the philosophers are discussing the data from the work of Mack, Radin, and a bunch of others, while the Course in Miracles, the Hicks’ work, and other groups teach that philosophy, and provide guidance into how to move it from being a philosophy only and into a direct experience, and while another group of folks have been exploring non-dual awareness, at the same time there seem to be things afoot that are pushing us off our material base where we have to jump off the cliff into consciousness itself, like a bird discovering that it can fly. And this is where prophecy, earth changes, and consciousness evolution come together. There are events in progress that are creating chaos in our world and which are stimulating an evolutionary transition or “jump.” We can sense that one aspect of this shift has to do with the theme, to borrow a phrase, “Mind before Matter.” Interconnectedness is another, oneness, beyond boundaries—these are some other themes that express ways of looking at what’s happening.

Someone on our list emailed me and asked if I thought the trend might be toward a hive consciousness. I would say yes, and given time to elaborate, I would point to my work with the Sundance Experiment and the work relating to “extra-terrestial intelligence, of which one of my favorites is Jacques Vallee’s The Invisible College. Does anyone have a copy of that book? I’m sure there are other books exploring that theme.

Terrence McKenna predicted some time ago that the trend seemed to be that folks were living more and more in their imagination, until we shifted into a totally virtual reality. Even literally, as a recent news report indicated that a study had shown that less and less human hours are being spent in outdoor recreation, and more and more time with indoor electronic devices. There was less demand upon public parks but more demand for electronic gaming emporiums…. “going virtual.”

More later...